Apparently the market for breathless YA romances with sexy vampires isn't fully saturated yet, becausFinal review, first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Apparently the market for breathless YA romances with sexy vampires isn't fully saturated yet, because Crave, a new paranormal romance thriller by Tracy Wolff that cheerfully admits to being inspired by Twilight — check out the blatant knock-off cover — offers readers a slightly updated take on the genre.
When her parents are killed in an automobile accident, high-school-aged Grace reluctantly leaves San Diego and travels to the remote, icy interior of Alaska, where her uncle Finn is headmaster of an exclusive boarding school, Katmere Academy. Grace’s cousin Macy, who picks her up in Healy for a ninety-minute snowmobile ride to the luxurious, castle-like prep school, is anxious to help Grace fit in. The problem is, almost all of the other students at Katmere seem to be hostile to Grace — especially Jaxon Vega, the hot, dangerous-looking guy who is the first person Grace meets upon her arrival. Grace is (at least at first) determined not to let herself fall for Jaxon, although there’s something in his eyes that makes her think he’s as lost as she is. Their relationship runs hot and cold, but there's something or someone at Katmere Academy that seems to want Grace dead, and she may need all the friends she can find.
Crave promises to deliver an updated version of Twilight, but other than a stronger erotic element and the addition of plenty of F-bombs, it doesn’t really deliver on that pledge. Heroine-wise, Grace is a slight improvement over Bella, but not markedly so. She makes far too many impulsive, rash decisions. Crave’s Alaska setting isn’t drawn in any detail, other than that it's freezing cold there. Though it's set in an inaccessible prep boarding school, shades of Hogwarts, I don't recall any particular mention of any classes or teachers. The focus is on the social scene at Katmere, the romantic tension between Grace and Jaxon, and the mystery about who wants to kill Grace, and why.
Grace and the book take an inordinate amount of time to get clear about the paranormal nature of Katmere’s students, although the book's cover and blurb spill the secret up front. There's some interest for readers in finding out what type of powers each of the different cliques at Katmere have (hint: it’s not just vampires and werewolves). The romance stays in PG-13 territory, though the erotic bloodsucking scene was somewhat of an eyebrow-raiser. Crave’s mystery element adds some intrigue to the romance-driven plot, but readers should know that the book ends on a major cliff-hanger. Add to the above issues a first-person, present-tense narration, something that's difficult to pull off well even in much better novels.
Twilight was a guilty pleasure at the time I read it, sending me scrambling for the next book in the series. Crave wasn't nearly as much fun for me. Crave is a book I'd recommend only to readers who are still enthusiastic about paranormal romances and Twilight-type plots, and who are on board with adult language and steamier romance.
Initial post: Receives ARC of book. (Nice publicity package BTW!) Scratches head. “Is another Twilight knock-off really what we need?” Reads book: = Twilight with more smoldering gazes and making out, more F-bombs, colder weather, a slight upgrade to Bella (not as much as I hoped), and erotic bloodsucking. And bonus! told in first person present tense. Another bonus! Cliffhanger ending....more
Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Obsidian is one of a slew of young adult paranormal romanc1.5 stars. Full review, first posted on www.FantasyLiterature.com:
Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Obsidian is one of a slew of young adult paranormal romances that were published in the aftermath of the runaway success of Twilight. The plot, therefore, will sound familiar, though some of the details are different: a teenage girl, Katy Swartz, moves to a small town in West Virginia with her widowed mother to make a new start. Katy is a 4.0 GPA student and book review blogger who’s never caused her family trouble and considers herself a reserved and practical girl. Trying to meet new friends, she drops by the house next door and is confronted with a naked, well-muscled chest attached to an unbelievably handsome but annoyed boy her age, Daemon Black, with eyes “so green and brilliant they couldn’t be real” and “full, kissable lips.” He is also highly irritable (just because she knocked on his door?) and insulting, but why should rudeness and a condescending attitude block the course of true love if it’s a hot guy with piercing green eyes and kissable lips?
Daemon’s sister Dee (also gorgeous) befriends Katy, but there are some strange things about Katy’s neighbors besides their unbelievable hotness and their eerie green eyes: the locals don’t trust “them” for unspecified reasons; Daemon and Katy go swimming in a mountain lake and he disappears underwater for ten minutes, then tells her she was imagining things. There are instant storm clouds and blinding flashes of light when unexplainable events occur. Katy gets brutally attacked by someone trying to find “them” and then her wounds heal incredibly quickly when Daemon arrives on the scene. So what are Daemon and Dee, exactly? The truth finally comes out halfway through Obsidian ― and no, they’re not vampires ― but finally Katy understands a little bit more about the struggles Daemon and his people are dealing with, and the enemies that are pursuing them.
But this mystery is secondary to Daemon and Katy’s love/hate relationship. Daemon blows hot and cold, talking sexy to Katy one minute and behaving like a complete jerk the next minute. He insults her, flirts, smirks, chases her and then tells her to go away, and humiliates her in front of others. And it happens over, and over. He adamantly tries to undermine his sister’s friendship with Katy ― even his sister calls him “a dick,” but she excuses him because he’s just overprotective and “wasn’t always like that.” Somehow Daemon and Katy avoid kissing until near the end of the book, but then they have a heavy, pull-the-clothing-off make-out session.
In many ways Obsidian is comparable to Twilight; it has a similar plotline and many of the same weaknesses, with a main character who repeatedly makes foolish choices, an improbably hot love super-powered interest who is trying to push her away “for her own good,” and one-dimensional enemies who are evil personified. But I can’t even recommend this book even as brain candy because the main characters’ relationship is so messed up (yes, worse than Bella’s and Edward’s). Daemon is all alpha and protective and, yes, conflicted, but mostly he is rude and condescending toward Katy. Why are we training young girls to think that being treated like crap is a romantic thing?
Other problems include paper-thin world-building: we spend an inordinate amount of time with Katy navel-gazing, examining her conflicted feelings about Daemon, and very little time learning about Daemon’s people and their society. It’s very odd how they’ve almost seamlessly adopted human culture, and they have a completely implausible set-up with the U.S. Department of Defense, which is aware of this group and their ability to masquerade as humans, but just turns them loose on society with no apparent oversight, testing, etc.
The DOD thinks we’re harmless freaks. As long as we follow their rules, they give us money, our homes, and leave us alone.
Unbelievable.
I recommend Obsidian only for readers who adored Twilight and want more of the same, and don’t have issues with love interests acting like total jerks as long as they’re good-looking. The ending is slightly redemptive, but it’s also a cliffhanger ending, so it’s clear there will be more of Katy’s and Daemon’s conflicted relationship to come. But I won’t be reading about it.
Initial review: Did I pay actual money for this book? Please please tell me I got it as a Kindle freebie.
(ETA: Whew! It was a freebie. Thank goodness. I was seriously starting to worry about my lack of judgment.)
I consider this the equivalent of Twilight; it has basically the same general plotline (except, you know, (view spoiler)[aliens (hide spoiler)] instead of vampires) and the same weaknesses. So it starts with three stars, and then loses a star for being a retread and because the main characters' relationship is so messed up (yes, worse than Bella and Edward). Daemon is all alpha and protective and, yes, conflicted, but mostly? He acts like a douchebag. Why are we training young girls to think that being treated like crap is a romantic thing?
Other complaints (I'm on a roll now): Paper-thin world-building -- why do we spend all our time with Katy navel-gazing, examining her feelz for Daemon, and so little time learning about the (view spoiler)[aliens (hide spoiler)] and their society? It's very odd how they've almost seamlessly adopted human culture. And a totally unbelievable set-up with the Department of Defense (view spoiler)[knowing about all these aliens who can masquerade as humans, and just turning them loose on society with no apparent oversight, testing, etc. (hide spoiler)]. Even if the DOD issue is going to be dealt with in a later book, it would never in a million years have played out this way.
Recommended only for readers who love Twilight and want more of the same, and are okay with hot guys acting like total jerks. The ending redeems it slightly(view spoiler)[, when Katy tells Daemon what he's offering isn't good enough for her -- yes! -- but she still wants him bad. (hide spoiler)] And of course it will all be worked out in some later book in the series, but I won't be there to see it.
Now I need to go do my thing where I read something really literary and worthwhile to balance the cosmic scales. ...more
Seriously? The silliness quotient in this book is off the charts.
This is about a 16 year old Twi-hard girl who honestly and determinedly believes thatSeriously? The silliness quotient in this book is off the charts.
This is about a 16 year old Twi-hard girl who honestly and determinedly believes that the two hot guys she's met in Seattle are a vampire and a werewolf (a la Edward and Jacob). This is a girl who stamps her foot when she's angry and faints when she's overcome by emotion. I thought a couple of the earlier books in this series were cute YA books, but this one I wouldn't even recommend to my teenager. I'd hand this one to a pre-teen girl who loves the Twilight series and probably Justin Bieber, too....more
1.5 stars, DNF. On second thought, let's not read Fateful. 'Tis a silly book.
[image]
Abandoned at 45% after an encounter with cutesie little winged fa1.5 stars, DNF. On second thought, let's not read Fateful. 'Tis a silly book.
[image]
Abandoned at 45% after an encounter with cutesie little winged fairies, because the conversation with the fairies induced severe eye-rolling, and that was seriously the last straw. At that point I skipped to the end and read it just to satisfy my curiosity.
Set in London, this is a Twilight wannabe, except not as well written. That may be hard to believe for some, but trust me on this. Also, I really should have stopped right away when I realized this was a story about a girl in love with a vampire, with whom she shares some indescribable connection, AND the vampire sucks blood out of animals instead of people because he's such a good guy, AND he has superhuman strength and unimaginably good looks, AND daylight/garlic/crosses don't bother him, AND he and his friends have to protect her from other vampires who aren't such good guys . . .
If you love the Twilight series and want to read more like it, and you're not overly particular about spelling and grammar, or depth and subtlety in writing, you'll probably enjoy this. The vampire mythology has a few differences that are mildly interesting, but it wasn't enough to get me to read the whole book. I'm just glad I didn't pay anything for it.
Two stars for this freebie TwiLite clone. This is about as close to Twilight as you can get without actually having anyone's blood get sucked out of tTwo stars for this freebie TwiLite clone. This is about as close to Twilight as you can get without actually having anyone's blood get sucked out of their neck (except that it has far worse grammar and punctuation problems). I think it's time for a GoodReads Game®: how many parallels can we find between Significance and Twilight? (Mildly spoilerish so read at your own risk.)
1. Main character is a high school girl living with her divorced dad. 2. Insta-love, on steroids. 3. Oh no, her love interest is not quite human! 4. And he is compelled by his immense love for her to be a stalker and extremely possessive! 5. But it's okay, because she loves him too. 6. Especially when he creepily watches her sleep every night has to sleep chastely touching her all night long. 7. Aww! His family is so sweet, and even though they have superpowers they love human girl. 8. Cool! If she hangs out with him long enough she will be changed and get to have superpowers too! 9. Even cooler! The change process instantly makes her (more) beautiful! 10. But even before this magical change, isn't it weird how all these guys want her even though she doesn't think she's anything special? 11. Mind reading: it's equal opportunity now. 12. Oh no, not-quite-human guy has enemies who want to do terrible things to our heroine!
. . . and so on.
If you really loved Twilight, you'll probably like Significance. If not, don't even crack it open, even if it's free. No werewolf love triangle, though, so there's that. Though--sorry!--there is instant imprinting. Also, maybe a love triangle shows up later in this series. There's always hope! Unfortunately, I'll never know.
ETA: Downgrading my rating to take away the extra half star. I'm stingier now than I was when I originally wrote this review....more
So I read this about a year ago when I was going through a Kindle freebie marathon phase, not being terribly picky about what I read, and this ended uSo I read this about a year ago when I was going through a Kindle freebie marathon phase, not being terribly picky about what I read, and this ended up landing me with more than my fair share of YA paranormal romances--which was probably a major contributing factor toward me getting a library card again (after being too cheap to do so for several years, b/c $75/year when you don't live in the city boundaries) and swearing off PNR for a while.
Anyway: this book. I feel like I owe it more than the one-line review that I gave it last year. So here's the deal: If you're Team Jacob all the way, and wish all those pesky vampires would go away and let you enjoy some wolf-kissin', you could do worse than this book. Like, for example, Prince of Wolves. That's definitely worse. This book was self-pubbed so there are the typical issues with sketchy grammar and punctuation, and writing that tends to the gushy and superficial side of the spectrum. Still, if romance feelz are what you're going for, but you want to keep things clean and . . . um, wolfy . . . here you go. ...more
Nooooo ... don't do it! Don't download this book even if it's free, unless you're a paranormal romance fan who loves gushy romances and couldn't care Nooooo ... don't do it! Don't download this book even if it's free, unless you're a paranormal romance fan who loves gushy romances and couldn't care less about good writing. (Seriously, see my Q&A below.)
There's a decent teen paranormal romance novel trying to break through the fanfic writing here but, Houston, we have a problem. Luckily for all of you, I have the solution!
This is a simple quiz question for you denizens of GR. Here's a sample of a few lines from the very first page of Prince of Wolves. (Trust me, I have very carefully transcribed it, including the punctuation. Or lack thereof.) Please read it and answer the multiple choice question below:
Wow, I mean wow, is all Jacque could think. Jacque couldn't even imagine what his entire face must look like. He was tall, probably six foot one or so, his hair was jet black, it was longer on top and she could tell that he had bangs that fell across his face sweeping to the left partially covering that eye. He had broad shoulders and from what she could see of his profile, high cheek bones, a straight nose and full lips. She quickly realized her mouth had dropped open and she was all but drooling over the handsome human being who had emerged from the vehicle. She watched as he and his driver conversed, it all seemed very formal until the driver suddenly hugged the boy with obvious deep affection. He must be more than his driver Jacque thought.
Q: Upon reading this paragraph, what was your first reaction?
A: (a) OMG, that's SO romantic! I wish I could meet a guy like that! (b) The writing and grammar are atrocious! Who in the heck proofread this book? I hope the author didn't pay them ... (c) You bullies and haters need to just leave this book alone! Team Jacob Fane for the win! (d) HAHAHAHA! ... sorry, what was the question?
If your answer was (a) or (c), have a great time reading this book and all of its many sequels. You'll enjoy it, at least until you go to college.
If your answer was (b) or (d), do not pass GO and--seriously--do not download or read this book, even if it's free. The rest of the book is just like the paragraph above.
One star. It has a few interesting ideas and plot turns, but in the end it's a fail for me. The overly gushy writing, the typos, misspelled words, and awful grammar: it's overwhelming. A hot mess that will be enjoyed only by completely non-critical PNR lovers....more
Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽
>
Books:
all-aboard-the-twilight-train
(8)
Loading...
