EXAM TIME!

    As a university student, and those who are or have been university students will know, that the dreaded time of the semester has come... FINAL EXAMS! I have read a couple of books in the last week, I uploaded a few reviews earlier in this week when I had the time, but for the next week, I don't have a life outside studying and school. SO, if you don't hear from me, don't freak out! Instead, why don't you spend your time reading some of my older entries if you are looking for a new book  and want to see a real life persons opinion on it first. OR, you can recommend books to me! Either by comment or by email: vanessaaere@gmail.com!

See you all in a week!

Vanessa your BookButterfly <3

The Royal Wizard by Alianne Donnelly

Title: The Royal Wizard

Author: Alianne Donnelly

Series: Dragonborn Book 1

Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy, Magic, Medieval

Source: Kindle

Pages: 307 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Available at:

Goodreads • Amazon(.com)

Blurb: (via Goodreads)

The kingdom of Wilderheim stands bastion between the world of humans and the Otherlands. It is ruled as much by people as it is by creatures Other and as such, it must always have a wizard at the right hand of its king. Nico has seen three generations of rulers sit the throne; he knows he will not see the fourth. Desperate to find a worthy apprentice, when Nia appears like a godsend in his path he wastes no time taking her under his wing as his last sworn duty to the young king Saeran.

But Nia and Saeran have many trials ahead of them. With destinies converging toward an inevitable battle for power, countless lives hang in the balance, including theirs. As love brings them together, so strife tears them apart and as the balance between justice and magic shifts, the royal wizard and her king get caught in a maelstrom of colliding forces. Nothing is ever as it seems with a trickster hiding in the shadows. When the gods begin to play, mortals tremble…

My Review:
Right from the beginning, this book had everything going for it in my eyes. It was a fantasy/romance novel, and it contained both medieval and magical aspects. The story was a bit cliché, but in the good way that I love, and, most importantly, the female lead was a BAD ASS! So you can understand right now why I am giving this book a good review.

Character development throughout the story was steady and committed. Nothing is worse than a novel with the main characters going against what they are made out to me. No, here we have a prince-turned-King, Saeran, who is determined to do right by his country and the first and strongest Royal Wizard, Nia, the Kingdom has ever seen who is equally dedicated to do her best to assist and advice her King to make their country grow and prosper. The fact that they love each other? Although heart-breaking, they both know their Kingdom comes first and the sacrifices they need to make. While there were instances of a weakened will on both ends, they stayed true to their determined characters throughout the entire novel.

The plot was mostly good. I found the prologue completely confusing and hard to get through, and I found that the story dragged on in certain areas, but overall wasn’t bad. My biggest complaint here was that I had no idea why the series is the “Dragonborn” series when there were no dragons until more than half way through the novel. No hints of dragons, no mention of dragons, the WORD dragon wasn’t even written until BAM, “by the way… we’re gunna throw some dragon action in now”. I was a little blind-sided. Actually, this was a frequent pattern when new information came up. While a little abrupt and confusing at first, the information did fit the story and furthered the plot, so I won’t complain about it too much.

Other than that, the only other complaint I have is that the whole romantic aspect came in really fast for me. I like my romances to be drawn out in a good book, make you completely crazy with all the pent up sexual frustration and energy until the love interests FINALLY get together and you realize that all that build up was worth the wait. Hell, I will settle for even a LITTLE build up… The Royal Wizard had no build up whatsoever. They meet and you know they will fall in love, they know they will fall in love, and everyone in between figures it out along the way. The only way Alianne Donnelly managed to redeem herself was to add a bit of ‘forbidden love’ to the mix… but even then, I was left unsatisfied.

Of course, don’t let that deter you. This was still a great story! Do you love all-powerful/ bad-ass magical heroines with a dash of sarcasm and sass? Do you love the idea of the times of Kings, and aristocracy, and a certain medieval appeal? Do you want to see magical battles, and dragons, and gods thrown into the mix? Like a little forbidden romance? This is the book for you. I definitely suggest to try it. For all its downfalls, it was still a great book and an enjoyable read. 3.5 stars

Willow by Amy Richie

Title: Willow

Author: Amy Richie

Series: Blood Vine #1

Genre: Young Adult, Werewolves, Fantasy, Romance

Source: Kindle

Pages: 276 pages

Rating: 1.5 stars

Available at:

Goodreads • Amazon(.com)

Blurb: (via Goodreads)

Willow has the worst luck. First she has to deal with her narcissistic foster mother, Bella; then of course there’s her horrid little sister Ivy; not to mention the pack of werewolves that belong to Bella. Now, they have to move and start a new school - again.

Just when Willow thinks things can’t get any worse, Blake shows up from a council she never knew existed to name her leader of a pack she never knew existed. How was she supposed to teach a bunch of teenagers how to be wolves when she herself hated everything about her life?

My Review:
I’ve said it before and I will say it again. There are SO few good werewolf books out there. I had read this book before reading Frost Burned and Hope(less), both of which were exceptions to this statement, however, I am sad to say that Willow by Amy Richie wasn’t. At best, it was decent.

           

Character development- This was definitely not the strong point of the novel. It is always hard when an author write a lot of key characters to develop them all properly… but here, not even the main character was developed properly. I don’t think any of them were really developed properly. Things kind of just came up when it was convenient at the time… and the relationships… I have no idea what the author was thinking. Romantically, the main character, Willow, goes through 3 guys in one or two chapters. Time wise, I think its like 48 hours in the story itself. It was confusing and ridiculous and unnecessary. The relationship between her and her sister, her and her pack, her and her friends, they were just all over he place. I don’t think the author really knew what was going on. I think she knew what she wanted plot wise, but was in too much of a rush to get to the next interesting part, and the characters and the relationships between them really paid for it.

Plot- saying that, I think it is important to say that what she laid down foundation wise for the plot was a really good idea. I like where she went with it and I liked how we discovered that certain characters weren’t who they seemed, and to such a degree that sometimes you did not see it coming. The plots outline was definitely the strongest point of the novel, but it fell short when it came to filling it up. Again, nonsense, confusing things were used. Mostly character-wise, but in a time management sense as well. The event in the book happened with a snap of your fingers and there wasn’t enough filler time that could have been used to develop the characters.

After pointing out all of this, I would like to say that everything that Amy Richie did with ‘Gage’ was outstanding. I loved his character, before and after we learned his real name. The end was a little sad (not tear jerking or anything, but in a very general sense) but all together, it wasn't a very good book. 1.5 stars.

Deadly Sting by Jennifer Estep

            WARNING: May contain spoilers of previous novels in the series!

Title: Deadly Sting

Author: Jennifer Estep

Series: Elemental Assassin #8

Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Magic, Assassin

Source: Kindle

Pages: 400

Rating: 4 stars

Available at:

Amazon(.ca) • Goodreads • Amazon(.com)

Blurb: (via Goodreads)

Most people shy away from blood, but for an assassin like me— Gin Blanco, aka the Spider—it’s just part of the job. Still, it would be nice to get a night off, especially when I’m attending the biggest gala event of the summer at Briartop, Ashland’s fanciest art museum. But it’s just not meant to be. For this exhibition of my late nemesis’s priceless possessions is not only the place to be seen, but the place to be robbed and taken hostage at gunpoint as well. No sooner did I get my champagne than a bunch of the unluckiest thieves ever burst into the museum and started looting the place.

Unlucky why? Because I brought along a couple of knives in addition to my killer dress. Add these to my Ice and Stone magic, and nothing makes me happier than showing the bad guys why red really is my color.

My Review:

Let me start off my saying that I love Jennifer Estep. I follow a couple of her series and I think she is a fantastic and creative writer. I enjoy absolutely everything she writes. 

Now saying that… this is the eighth book and plot-wise, my interest is waning. We all know how it goes. Gin is a Bad Ass (notice the capital B and A). She is all powerful, quite literally has some epic ninja skills, and after she beats the bad guy and nearly dies in the process, she has Jo-Jo heal her all up and she is fit as a fiddle. This book followed the pattern to the T. But us devoted Elemental Assassin readers aren’t so dedicated because of the plot anymore, are we? No, we want to know: What happens between Gin and Owen?!

Well, hate to break it to you, but the answer is a whole hell of a lot of more complicated. Looks like another book is in out future. Of course, I already knew that though because, as I said, I am a huge fan of Jennifer Estep (aka I stalk her website to learn about when new books are coming and read every description, sneak peak, and spoiler I can get my grubby hands on). I just can’t wait until the two finally get together. Gin deserves her happily-ever-after. Over the past 8 books, shes handed out more than her fair share, that’s for sure.

Anyways, back to the book. After Mab was defeated, each book has kind of been a filler to play out the love story until a new BIG BAD comes to play the field. After reading book 8, I think that this may just happen in book 9. Good timing too, we are in desperate need of some stability here, like a bad guy we can hate for a few books before Gin defeats them. But for all the books faults long-term wise, I will say this much: Jennifer knows how to write, and write well. Short-term wise, she’s kind of a God. Each book has plenty of action that is written so realistically and creatively, you find your heart pounding at every swipe of her blade. She knows how to build suspense and how to give you just enough information to satisfy your curiosity while leaving you wanting more until the truth all comes out. She DEFINITLEY knows the meaning of ‘subtle hints’.

Overall, it was a good book, but not a great one. However, I am still both a dedicated Jennifer Estep fan, as well as a Elemental Assassin fan. I DO REALLY want to know what happens between Owen and Gin after all :p I guess we’ll find out soon enough. 4 stars!

Walking Disaster by Jamie McGuire

Title: Walking Disaster

Author: Jamie McGuire

Series: Beautiful Disaster #1.5

Genre: 

Source: Kindle

Pages: 448

Rating: 5 stars

Available at:

Goodreads • Amazon(.com)

Blurb: (via Goodreads)

Finally, the highly anticipated follow-up to the New York Times bestseller Beautiful Disaster. Can you love someone too much?
Travis Maddox learned two things from his mother before she died: Love hard. Fight harder.

In Walking Disaster, the life of Travis is full of fast women, underground gambling, and violence. But just when he thinks he is invincible, Abby Abernathy brings him to his knees.

Every story has two sides. In Beautiful Disaster, Abby had her say. Now it’s time to see the story through Travis’s eyes.

My Review:

You can read my review of Beautiful Disaster HERE

Hey everyone! I know, I know, I haven't been blogging lately, and I apologize. My internet has been crazy lately and I am not back online. I tried blogging via iPad... it was not fun. So your patience is much appreciated!

   Anyways, we are here today to review the fantastic work of Jamie McGuire once again! If you all remember, Beautiful Disaster (the first book of this 'series') was the first book that I had reviewed on this blog! So I am extremely excited to start reviewing its sequel/ complimentary partner.

Where as Beautiful Disaster followed the story in Abby's point of view, we now get to see what was going on in Travis's throughout the tale of the first novel in it's sequel (which I think is more of a companion novel), Walking Disaster. This was a fantastic idea. Travis is such a complex and rough character and it was wonderful to see his and Abby's romance through his eyes.

As with my initial review of the first novel, I have absolutely nothing to complain about its sequel. This is a big deal for me guys, and an extremely rare event, so take note! A note to my readers, if you don't know, this is not my usual fantasy novel. This is a pure and simple boy/ girl romance... except, there is nothing SIMPLE about Abby or Travis, so naturally, we can understand why "Disaster" fits so perfectly in the title.

Once again, Jamie McGuire lets us in to the main characters world. We see why Travis is the way he is, and how his past (the relationship and advice from his now-deceased mother) has had such a huge impact on how and why he acts the way he does. We learn the meaning behind Abby's nickname, Pigeon, which was a beautiful and sentimental story all on its own. We get to really meet the Maddox family, each of the brothers and his father, and how important they are to the two lover's story. So much more is explained and spelt out for the reader and, after reading this companion novel, I understand Abby and Travis in a whole new, and much more rounded light.

Lastly, I have a question for all of those Jamie McGuire lovers out there: Ever wonder what happens after the HUGE cliff hanger at the end of Beautiful Disaster? Did you think that was the end? Well, as an EXTRA treat, you get to read the rest of their story. We FINALLY see what happens immediately after Abby calls America, her BBF, with her shocking news. Jamie dedicates a whole chapter AND the epilogue toward it. I have to admit, the epilogue was just the icing on the cake.

Walking Disaster was nothing less than perfection in my eyes. An easy 5 stars (I would rank it higher if I could) and a DEFINITE must read. Don't forget to check out the first book to the series, Beautiful Disaster, although you could probably read them out of order and be fine. It's the same story people, just told through different eyes ;)