Syahira's Literary Obsession

 

 

Its no secret that I completely hate “The Eternity Cure” and really do think that was this year’s piece of crap ever written by a YA fantasy author I love (as if there wasn’t any katana-wielding japanese vampire in existence in fiction or Will Smith’s “I Am Legend”). Luckily Julie didn’t disappoint me with this sequel to The Lost Prince. I never knew how an author who could craft a rich complicated world-building with action and great visual description, believable romance and interesting characterizations to craft a sad case of dystopian vampire romance novel which only have several synonyms to describe a vampire tower and a paper thin Asian girl with no personality at all with an even boring stunted pointless dialogues. 

 

That is why I’m confused by stark differences between Iron Fey series and Blood of Eden series like someone magically change their good writing style overnight. Along with this book, I get to the part where it said “If you love Julie Kagawa’s writing you’ll love “The Forever Song” and there that excerpt to the next installment. Honey, I dont expect it to be exactly the same story but its by the same author who wrote up beloved Puck and Ash and Ethan with all their funny and serious moments that made me laugh and cry along with them and all I read was Terminator-like passive characterization and dark bad noirish setting with one liners and brick movements. When you read Julie Kagawa describing a frozen deeply enchanting forest, it is Narnia-level of magical where you can feel the cold to the bones just as ice shards flying in the air and piercing through a body and the cries of pain followed and you instinctively wince along with that. Then suddenly I was plonked into a story where there’s nothing but darkness with limited vocabulary describing the night as if Van Gogh didn’t paint “The Starry Night” or as if there wasn’t a bland futuristic cities with blank description of corpses littering on the ground stories I could count by hand. And there’s that countless attempts to dress up paper cut all-in-black vampiric Mr Anderson characters imitating “Blade” the vampire superhero. 

 

Ethan have his own deep prejudices against the fey and the story flow out as you read it through. That’s the point of having a new narrating first POV character. You get explore the world and learn new things as you go on and suffer through obstacles that seems impossible but your stupid character still do it anyway. That is good storytelling technique by the way. You even get the shared traits with Meghan and Ash in the earlier Iron Fey series when they fought against the impossible for their family and then for their love. That is also what drive Kierran in this book when he would do anything and even everything for the one he love and even if he’s too stupid to realize the consequences of his action. If everything goes easily for the characters, it wouldn’t make a good reading and a waste of my time.

 

The Iron Traitor is laced with people with multiple motivations with their own personalities and their own characterizations, their secrets and in fiction, that was a simulation of reality. You make fictional characters believable since you use them as a device to continue on to the end. Ethan have his own history with the fey, Kenzie with her own determination to live out her life fully even on borrowed time, we learn more about Annwyl as Ethan help her trying to save Kierran from crazy stunts to save her life and the part where Annwyl had to remember Kierran to stay alive and not fade out of existence. That is beautiful and poetic and even their interactions are memorable and quotable. Not to mention, there’s Grimalkin and Razor too! Seriously when was a sarcastic Cheshire cat and a cute Dalek-like gremlin doesn’t stick on you like a stubborn cat meme begging for your attention. 

 

I adore complicated world-buildings with complicated characterizations and complicated storylines. I could talk more and expand the story even more and it made any discussion intriguing and it made a series worthy as a series. I like it even more when the characters made a gigantic mistake and learn from it. That was what made reading enjoyable and unpredictable. Even as a stand-alone, Call of the Forgotten, it is fine to be read on its own as Ethan and Kenzie are both a ‘blank slate’ character like Rose Tyler or Amy Pond in Doctor Who. I didn’t even need a refresher and I haven’t reread Iron Fey series since 2011 and I get much out of the world-building easily. That is a sign of a good author. The Iron Traitor has managed to regain my faith in Julie Kagawa’s writings even after she completely destroyed it with her “Blood of Eden” series and I will wait in agony for the next book in this series and try to ignore the future call to review “The Forever Song” and its attempt to change my mind about it.

 

The ARC is provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book have been on the spotlight on Nathan Bransford’s blog which was used to show how pathological bullish is the reviewers of Goodreads can be on a book and the link was shared on the NaNoWriMo facebook and apparently I receive this reply when I said about there’s always two side of the story and that even there are authors stalking and calling reviewers with names.Since apparently I am “desperate and unable to express a real opinion on a book”, I am giving you a full review on this book which probably doesn’t deserve the attention its been having. I won’t be using an “scatological grade-schooler” phrases since I’m going to pick off the quotes out of the book which made it unnecessary for even me to say some scatological references. Before we could get even started, these is some of the screen-captures from the book that show how unreasonable it was to blame the reviewers for all the rude words in their reviews when the content of the book reflect it so eloquently.The author use “ho” more instead of fully worded “whore” in this book but from this you’ll get the gist. The book wasn't even an erotica. Its a young adult romance about mermaids. If you've seen the demographic of YA communities, it translate to a largely female audience. For anyone thinking this is your own average supernatural teenage romance, you’ll be heavily disappointed with the content in this book.September Girls is a male wet dream YA mermaid fantasy about Sam – a virginal 17 years old boy – who went for a vacation with his foul-mouthed brother, Jeff and mentally-testosterone-challenged father without his absentee mother who went for a mid-life crisis stunt in Womanland. Once they arrived at the small touristy beach town, he was bombarded by the attention of gorgeous blonde sexy Girls who held him in deep fascination.The girls had taken notice. Everywhere I went, they smiled at me. They stared. They swiveled their hips a little more when I walked near, pushed their boobs up a little higher. Their hair was always tossing, tossing, tossing; their eyes sparked and pulsed like flakes of mica at the bottom of a creek. It made me nervous. It’s not that I minded the attention. I was as flattered and turned on as any person would be to have insanely hot girls staring at him wherever he went.Among them was Kristle who rubbed herself all over him the moment she met him and go on having a relationship with his brother Jeff while continuously trying to have sex with Sam and DeeDee another mysterious girl who are not like the rest of the girls and sometimes she read books give award-winning commentary like:“I’ve never read the Bible,” I said. “I didn’t know anyone actually read it.” “Well I did,” she said. “Three times. It seems like it’s going to be a real drag, and some parts really suck, but it actually has some good sections. I like the parts about hos, even if they always come to a bad end. Eat a fucking apple, you’re a ho. Open a box, you’re a ho. Some guy looks at you: turn to stone, ho. See you later, ho. It’s always the same. The best one is Lilith—also a ho, but a different kind of ho. She went and got her own little thing going, and for that she gets to be an eternal demon queen, lucky her. No one likes a ho. Except when they do, which, obviously, is most of the time. Doesn’t make a difference; she always gets hers eventually.”Since this book is a first person POV around Sam, the book also consisted of various state of a feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack excitement between his outings with the sisters who are not exactly sisters, his constant state of boredom around his virginal status and the need to compensate it with drinking too many beer (yes, he’s 17) and the story eventually leads to the mysteriousness around Girls and the sea and their inability to swim.“Still, it’s kinda like incest, though, huh? Two brothers fucking two sisters? Look, I like you, bro, but let’s watch our step here.”At this point I am not going to do subtle with this. Continue on reading if you want the whole story on why this book are so marginalized by the Goodreads community. Think again when you try to accuse the necessity to think we’re bullying the author when basically we’re just reading the book and we’re giving honest opinions on it. As for the necessity to use crass and vulgar words, the book is crass and vulgar and let me show the way.Apparently, the Girls are cursed mermaids. The reasoning behind why they came out of the sea naked and start walking and preying on teenage boys were vague as to why their parents (Endlessness and Deepness) curse them to lead half lives between coming into the land and their eventual ‘death’ when they reach 21. Kristle was the oldest among the whole mermaid sisterhood which explain to her desperation to paw all over Sam and why DeeDee was quite apathetic about it when Sam told her all about it.“Kristle can be so ridiculous. But who knows what I’d do without her. Total ho, by the way—not that I’m judging; I actually like hos myself. Maybe I am one—I barely know what counts anymore. Being blond certainly never helped anyone’s case. Hey, want to do the quiz?” She fished a pencil from a hidden place in her tangled hair.Interestingly because they borrowed most things about who they are from shampoo and celebrity magazines, their naming system seem to revolve around brands and wacky porn names like Nalgene, Chantarelle, Tressemé, Activia, Jessamee, Blair, Serena, Visa and Taffany. In fact, there were absolutely no personality or mental capacity that made female readers identify themselves to the story. There were absolutely no realism in this book for girls to even like. The book cultivate the idea that mermaids are vacuous empty creatures that only resonates from whatever things they were expose to and these means reality television and various cosmetic products.DeeDee read a cover line aloud: “‘Ten Steps to the Old You! Rediscover the Gal You Used to Be!’” Then another: “‘Snack Happy: Slim Your Waist by Improving Your Attitude!’ Give me a fucking break. Who reads this? Besides me I mean. Just once I’d like to find a rental stocked with The Complete Works of Shakespeare. Almost anything would be better than this shit. Not that much better, but every little thing counts when you’re working on your EnglishExactly how on earth they get their girly items from? They’re in the middle of nowhere and they’re the mixture of “The Stepford Wives” melded with “Mean Girls”. If they osmosis themselves from the things they’re exposed to, why can’t they open up internet – the ungodly universe of information – and embrace more expect of being a girl than from trashy mags. Was this book a healthy representation of femininity? I hardly think it was.“You guys make this big deal about we. It’s always we we we. You act like you’re all the same, like you all want the same things. It’s like you think with the same mind or something. But you don’t. Sometimes you’re really not alike at all, other than all having basically the same hairstyle. Which I hate to tell you, but blond is not technically a personality trait.”I don’t think this book was constructed by slut-shaming but it does consist on mostly stick-figured female characterization. Its not even Mary Sue-like. In fact, every characters in this book is problematic and shallow. I don’t think its even satirical piece nor its metaphoric. The book is a cheesy and sleazy harem fantasy with no depth or anything worth redeeming.Even the mystery around the mermaids remain unresolved. The curse remain a curse, the mermaids still living in the beach town and goes out at sea and develop some scales and the cycle repeats around summer until they die for no reason at all. Even DeeDee apparently escapes because after Kristle’s apparent ‘death’ (which is still uncertain and confusing) that Sam finally let go of his virginal state because its too late for Kristle which he loved at the same time.As a whole but the book have its own moments uneven shock placements around the book which does nothing to the content of this book. September Girls is just a coming of age about a virgin guy’s sexy dreams and the environment he’s been living in which is saturated with sex and stereotypical misogynistic references. The book is simply a mismatch of ennui, masquerade as literary fiction with unnecessary exposition. As much as the ennui happening around the book, there were no exact resolution to any of the story in this book as the ending and the secondary narrative is still vague and confusing.If you think everything I say here is harassing, demeaning, dehumanizing and abusive to the author, please do note that nothing here was targeting on him except that every quotations coming from this review came from the author which are inflammatory in nature. Why does nobody even bother about how the book is harassing, demeaning, dehumanizing and abusive to the female readers as a whole? The book maintain its facade that you as a reader; you’re not perfect nor ever mysterious as the blonde perfectly-figure naked beautiful Girls in this book that doesn’t do much anything except gossiping, wearing skanky bikinis and lusting on the last boy virgin on the planet.“You do it with a virgin,” she said. “I mean, we do. I do. A virgin boy, obviously. Don’t hear much about them, do you?”I’m ending this by leaving you with the author’s own words explaining it clearly about what his book really was.The moral of the story here is that if you’re ever offered anything that seems like it might lead to sex, there is no turning back. You just have to take it as it comes or you will remain a virgin for life.

I've been worried about this book from the ratings and frankly my worries are unfounded since the story was fantastic. Scorched is a YA Urban Fantasy started with a boy who came from the future to prevent an apocalypse that centered around a girl. Sounded like Terminator right? Only with a smidgen of Reign of Fire. Trinity Foxx, an orphan girl who live with her dinosaur-loving grandfather, who was struggling with the finance of his museum which Trinity took over. Unfortunately, her grandfather managed to procure a rare item with what was left of the billing money Trinity had given from pawning her mother's ring. It turns out to be a million years old dragon egg which was destined to be with Trinity and was called Emberlyn or Emma. The boy from the future, Connor, pop up to prevent her from bonding with the dragon but failed and apparently the government got wind up with the news of the dragon egg and tried to confiscate it. In the original future timeline, the government stole the dragon from Trinity and began to cultivate clone hybrids in which went rogue and decimate most of the world population. It began when the future Trinity rescued Emma from the facility and began a dragon right group called Dracken. But when Connor came to the past, he use his psychic ability to show Trinity the consequences of her action in the future and convince her that Emma should never hatch. Of course, things doesn't always go as planned.Scorched is an easy read much like the Blood Coven series. Although there are some movie and gaming reference littered around the chapters, its not hard to get caught up with the plight of Trinity. The novel play around the idea of the fate of a future rest on the shoulder of one girl and it was portrayed fluently as the journey goes on. I do enjoy the earlier Terminator movies and the story is subtle enough that it doesn't completely rip off from the first movie. Instead of one Kyle Reese we have TWO Reeses with a deep blood feud in this book which was Connor the Dragon Hunter and the other Caleb the Dragon Rider/Warrior (?). There's also a Buffy and World of Warcraft reference which was expected coming from the author and as a gamer girl, I already like Trinity by proxy. *high five!* Although I am a bit disappointed with the lack of "come with me if you wanna live" quote but the museum scene would still do.There are also a balance of dragon action and some human nature which round out the story completely in preparation of the future series. But for a first novel, Scorched is quite a strong novel to start with and as a stand alone. The romance are less prominent although there are enough triangle attraction going on with the characters which doesn't convoluted to the story and probably will be expanded as time goes on. There were also the mechanics with the time travel paradox and the technologies which are vague around this book which I didn't expect it to be venture even further with future installments.I do like it that the complications and details surrounding dragons are explained and taken to consideration. For a dragon-themed novel, it doesn't held out on the dragon part like Seraphina and Game of Thrones or Eon or The Hobbit did. From the beginning to the end, Scorched is about dragons and it show off the dragons from the beginning to the end. I don't think I ever enjoyed a YA dragon novel like this one since I've been reading up on mostly dragon-themed adult books these days. Now I wished I haven't finish this book too early because Mari, I really want to see that second book release date and it better to come quick.

Its no secret that I completely hate "The Eternity Cure" and really do think that was this year's piece of crap ever written by a YA fantasy author I love (as if there wasn't any katana-wielding japanese vampire in existence in fiction or Will Smith's "I Am Legend"). Luckily Julie didn't disappoint me with this sequel to The Lost Prince. I never knew how an author who could craft a rich complicated world-building with action and great visual description, believable romance and interesting characterizations to craft a sad case of dystopian vampire romance novel which only have several synonyms to describe a vampire tower and a paper thin Asian girl with no personality at all with an even boring stunted pointless dialogues. That is why I'm confused by stark differences between Iron Fey series and Blood of Eden series like someone magically change their good writing style overnight. Along with this book, I get to the part where it said "If you love Julie Kagawa's writing you'll love "The Forever Song" and there that excerpt to the next installment. Honey, I dont expect it to be exactly the same story but its by the same author who wrote up beloved Puck and Ash and Ethan with all their funny and serious moments that made me laugh and cry along with them and all I read was Terminator-like passive characterization and dark bad noirish setting with one liners and brick movements. When you read Julie Kagawa describing a frozen deeply enchanting forest, it is Narnia-level of magical where you can feel the cold to the bones just as ice shards flying in the air and piercing through a body and the cries of pain followed and you instinctively wince along with that. Then suddenly I was plonked into a story where there's nothing but darkness with limited vocabulary describing the night as if Van Gogh didn't paint "The Starry Night" or as if there wasn't a bland futuristic cities with blank description of corpses littering on the ground stories I could count by hand. And there's that countless attempts to dress up paper cut all-in-black vampiric Mr Anderson characters imitating "Blade" the vampire superhero. Ethan have his own deep prejudices against the fey and the story flow out as you read it through. That's the point of having a new narrating first POV character. You get explore the world and learn new things as you go on and suffer through obstacles that seems impossible but your stupid character still do it anyway. That is good storytelling technique by the way. You even get the shared traits with Meghan and Ash in the earlier Iron Fey series when they fought against the impossible for their family and then for their love. That is also what drive Kierran in this book when he would do anything and even everything for the one he love and even if he's too stupid to realize the consequences of his action. If everything goes easily for the characters, it wouldn't make a good reading and a waste of my time.The Iron Traitor is laced with people with multiple motivations with their own personalities and their own characterizations, their secrets and in fiction, that was a simulation of reality. You make fictional characters believable since you use them as a device to continue on to the end. Ethan have his own history with the fey, Kenzie with her own determination to live out her life fully even on borrowed time, we learn more about Annwyl as Ethan help her trying to save Kierran from crazy stunts to save her life and the part where Annwyl had to remember Kierran to stay alive and not fade out of existence. That is beautiful and poetic and even their interactions are memorable and quotable. Not to mention, there's Grimalkin and Razor too! Seriously when was a sarcastic Cheshire cat and a cute Dalek-like gremlin doesn't stick on you like a stubborn cat meme begging for your attention. I adore complicated world-buildings with complicated characterizations and complicated storylines. I could talk more and expand the story even more and it made any discussion intriguing and it made a series worthy as a series. I like it even more when the characters made a gigantic mistake and learn from it. That was what made reading enjoyable and unpredictable. Even as a stand-alone, Call of the Forgotten, it is fine to be read on its own as Ethan and Kenzie are both a 'blank slate' character like Rose Tyler or Amy Pond in Doctor Who. I didn't even need a refresher and I haven't reread Iron Fey series since 2011 and I get much out of the world-building easily. That is a sign of a good author. The Iron Traitor has managed to regain my faith in Julie Kagawa's writings even after she completely destroyed it with her "Blood of Eden" series and I will wait in agony for the next book in this series and try to ignore the future call to review "The Forever Song" and its attempt to change my mind about it.The ARC is provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Luckily the book didn't suffer from the second book syndrome and despite my misgivings with Rubinrot and the problematic translations editor and lacking in beta readers, I really like Gwendolyn. The storytelling is still a disjointed mess between a romance and a historical fantasy but I do enjoy this book more than the previous one. Because of that, I just skip the problematic paragraphs with weird sentence structure that made my own occasional Malaysianized grammatical lapses more comprehensible than reading parts of this book. The problem with this kind story was there wasn't much a chance for the characters to develop overtime because of the differences in timeline in between the modern and the time lapses which made the romance happen in span of several weeks. Plus, because of the genetic defect they had, they either they use chronograph to time travel at specific fixed time or flung uncontrollably into time. So with each time travel, curiously they were all very eventful to fit in one book. Then again, I was hoping for a Doctor Who reference at this point too.Luckily for this novel, I was taken into the mystery of the twelve circle and the prophecies and the endless foreboding from the occasional psychic aunt and also the persistent "romance between Montrose and de Villiers always end badly" that always put out as a reminder which of course will be continued with the next book. But I did predicted something between Paul and Lucy and their exact relationship with Gwendolyn (Sorry, "Gwyneth" seemed to rhyme with an exaggerated sigh) and the novel does give out obvious clues around so I won't spoil myself until I get the next instalment. Unlike the previous book, the writing aren't as badly juvenile as the previous book and there's more interesting parts and scenes unlike the quite linear Rubinrot which the movie changed some parts and embellish it even more. Plus, a drunken teenage girl singing Cats was as entertaining as it sounds. I like that there's some relationship stuff happening between Gwen and Gideon which was put into a cliffhanger at the end. I still think the Lodge folks, the gargoyle and Gideon's brother probably have some tricks in their sleeves. The predictable parts remain predictable but some of the time travellers secrets are intriguing enough to sustain the interest in the final book.

I cheated with this book. I watch the movie but I can't understand much from the wacky American dubbing it had and it turns out the translation in this novel doesn't go far with the stunted weird lines, cliched phrasings and adverbs. Ruby Red is about a 16 years old girl named Gwendolyn (or Gwyneth as in this American English version) Shepherd who live with her mother's family in a mansion in England. Apparently her family was into secret society and everything seemed converge around her beautiful cousin Charlotte who had bouts of fainting episodes due to her being the chosen one with the time travelling gene. But then on the day her cousin's birthday, she started to have her own fainting symptoms but suddenly she was flung into the past and back again. Turns out she was the one with the time traveling gene and the last of the twelve time travelers from her family line. Her mother had falsified her birth date hoping to prevent the secret society from brainwashing her like Charlotte who was taught in fencing, art, literature and history for a decade with Gideon de Villiers, another older teenage time traveler. Now Gwendolyn was forced to pick up where Gideon left off with his mission to complete the circle of twelve on a time travelling machine called Chronograph. There were two Chronograph but the first one was stolen from the order by Gwendolyn's cousin, Lucy Montrose and Paul de Villiers who were both time travelers and want to keep the circle from being completed. Personally, I don't think I was the right age to read this book. I really like the cool time travelling CGIs in the movie but the book is too formulaic and obviously targeted to pre-teen girl audience. It does look like a miss match of several plot merging into one. The one with talking gargoyle who is a demon seem like a scene from Lauren Kate's Fallen series. It doesn't help that the author called the time travelers as gene carriers. From the promotion of wikipedia in both book and movie versions, I wonder if the author realize that ALL of the two male lines and female lines are gene carriers while the time travelers are actually with the genetic disease. If you want to use genetic key terms, at least don't mislead your readers with faulty genetics terms because chances are, in real life, they will be confused with their biology test.But I read the book mostly because the movie leave off a lot of things on cliffhanger and I really want to read the second book now but as a whole, its not really a bad story. Too generic and cliched but the movie is fun and cute. Even Gwendolyn is likable and a bit realistic to a degree. The part where the whole book being set in London is simply too far-fetched even for a German novel as with the idea of a secret society being sustained into the story by barely there worldbuilding.

I think I grew up a bit from the last time I read this. I am bothered by the all the rapes in this book. Sure forced seduction, forced situation and stuff and Deklyn also wasn't a psychopath who enjoy it but still, even if the book spin around the matter, it is what it is. But the writing made it hard for me to completely hate the book.==2011 review==Deklyn Yn Baase was the Black Baron of Drogh-gheay, a fearsome warrior baron, trapped in a loveless marriage and struggled in wars for his kingdom and forever searching for the girl he had lost. Maire Barnes, a widow who had lived peacefully alone in her cottage, was alarmed when enemy troops burst into her home carrying their fallen leader whom she recognized as the man who had seduced her in an alley and left her to be raped viciously by his friend. Maire was the woman he loved and lost. Forever damning his best friend Reese until his deathbed, Deklyn had carried the burden of the fateful night for years. Although Maire had forgiven Deklyn for his role in that night, but once his beloved Maire in his grasp, he couldn't let his bond-mate go. She was his Cochianglt, the woman who owns half of his soul, the rightful Baroness of Drogh-gheay. However, the current Baroness of Drogh-gheay was not willing to let loose of her hateful husband and his rich coffers. She was willing to do everything she can to separate Dek and Maire as long as it brings suffering to the baron himself.Darkly romantic, fierce politics and great storyline. It works as a stand alone in the series and definitely recommended for those who like a dash of political drama added in their readings without the hassle of knowing the entire series.

This is me since yesterday and a few moments ago. First of all, this is a very violent and most graphic book on sexual abuse ever written under the guise of PNR. If you're expecting a light reading (are you kidding me, look at the SIZE of this book), and can't stomach any kind of sexual violence to satisfy your need for romantic escapism. This book is 100% wrong for you. Second, Sherrilyn Kenyon was a victim of child abuse and she's been actively advocating against childhood violence (through her adult series and young adult series) and so far all of her book doesn't stray away from the theme in fact almost all of her male characters had suffered abuse of every kind and personally her writings are her way to cope with her own inner demons. If you expecting this book to fit with your "50 Shades-like romanticized abusive smut" reads, gosh, you're in for an enlightment.Styxx is simply [b:Acheron|2299110|Acheron (Dark-Hunter, #15)|Sherrilyn Kenyon|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1312230925s/2299110.jpg|3202442] 2.0 and it never stray far from that. For a better word, its like Acheron except a million time worst. If you never read through the Dark Hunter series, the book were written with you in mind. There are several parts from the previous novels to keep you updated with Styxx's life which sometimes I skipped (as I've read Acheron as a refresher a few weeks ago) and you'll still miss on a lot of things like the character dynamics and references which you'll get if you read through the series but Styxx is fine to be read as a standalone. The book was chronicalized within the timeline during the birth of Acheron and Styxx around 9548BC to their childhood and young adult years until their death at the age 21 and setting between [b:Night Embrace|84140|Night Embrace (Dark-Hunter, #3)|Sherrilyn Kenyon|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1171050611s/84140.jpg|81269] and [b:Acheron|2299110|Acheron (Dark-Hunter, #15)|Sherrilyn Kenyon|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1312230925s/2299110.jpg|3202442] and to the 2013-present time. If you've read Acheron, you'll be able to fill in most of the blanks Acheron had left. And because its a massive verse with added multiple mythology, it took a harder time to explain the entire story but its simple enough to explain.Back in Atlantean pantheon, the head god, Archon and most of the gods and goddess have been trying to kill his unborn son (which he refuse to acknowledge) because of a prophecy from the Fates (his bastard daughters) who cursed Apostolos as the destroyer of the Atlantean pantheon. His Apollymi, the Goddess of Life, Death and Wisdom, was unable to prevent this from happening and she hid her son in the womb of a Greek Queen who gave birth to Acheron and Styxx. At this time, Archon recruited Bet'anya, the Goddess of Wrath, Misery & the Hunt to find Apostolos.But at the moment when King Xerxes took notice of Acheron's silver eyes and he accused Queen Aara for sleeping with a god that he refused to consider his twins as his sons. With Acheron, he completely hate the child and refuse to acknowledge him as a son and he left Acheron at the age eight to his brother, Estes, in Atlantis where Acheron was being sexually abused, degraded and whored by his uncle. However, unbeknownst by anyone, his family treatments on Styxx was no more different than what they did on Acheron. Despite being a prince, he was forced to suffer under verbal and physical abuse by his mother, his sister and his father and add to that, Styxx have the ability to physically feel Acheron's abuses and like Acheron, he was also tortured by the voices from the Atlantean pantheon who was still searching for Apostolos among the mankind. Because of the voices and an accidental lapse, the king sent him to the Dionysion priests and Styxx undergo several weeks of painful "treatment" which left him scarred but called to the attention of Apollo who soon develop an unhealthy fascination on him. One day, Styxx tried to rescue Acheron in Atlantis but at his drugged state, Acheron called out to Estes and he captured Styxx and drugged him and uses this opportunity to sexually abuse Styxx as well. Once Styxx woke up, he was branded as a Tsoulus (whore) by his brother and during the months he's been incapacitated, Estes had used both of the twins and let others rape them mostly due to out of spite on Styxx. Because of Acheron's continuous drugged state, he never remember Styxx have ever tried to save it and because of him, Styxx began to steam in hatred on his beloved twin brother and especially his uncle. However, the nightmare didn't stop right there for Styxx as his uncle visits continue to haunt him. But his daily torments never end until he threw himself off a cliff and found himself stranded on a shore where he met a blind Egyptian girl who taught him how to love and beloved in return. And because of one stupid act of a god who killed his brother and unleash hell on the civilization when his death unleashed Apollymi and drag all of the civilization back to stone age and in return kill everyone he ever loved. Note the prevailing theme of physical and sexual violence in my paragraphs. I don't know how anyone would mistake this for an average paranormal romance at this point. I've seen negative reviewers pointing out the extremes in this novel but frankly your average greek mythology aren't that sanitized for G-rated audience either. There's a lot of incest and rape in your garden variety mythology and its just as ridiculous to have Victorian censorship values on ancient mythology anyway. And make no mistake, Styxx is not your garden-variety tortured alpha male. He grew up being hated by everyone just for being born as a prince, a brother and a son. Add to that, because of his bond with Acheron, he couldn't die normally and so he spend hundreds of century alone and mentally tortured by the gods which normally would drive anyone to insanity and psychopathy. He's been under all kind of abuse, degraded by everyone through the years and still he emerged like a phoenix rising from its ashes. If a book have the ability to wound you, Sherri's words does it all. Unlike [b:Acheron|2299110|Acheron (Dark-Hunter, #15)|Sherrilyn Kenyon|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1312230925s/2299110.jpg|3202442], the transition between the timelines was seamless and so was the romance element in this book. The story was layered in every possible of ways and its impossible to take this book simply because of the genre it sits. Its the story of a man being wronged by everyone and even the gods hate him for existing and his sanity persevered from his inner strength even if the world was undeniably cruel to him. In fact, you'd be a complete sadist or masochist if you enjoy the earlier part of the book. I think it did touch to Sherri's nerve with how recent romance literatures (New Adult and Young Adult) that seem to trivialized and romanticised abusive relationships.Interestingly, the story provide us with another version of the situations in 'Acheron' through the eyes of another and that not everything is what it seems. Even we see Ryssa's temperament toward Styxx was different that what Acheron had perceived her and as the result everyone action on Styxx was cruelly unjustified. But it also brought us to the dynamics between Styxx and Acheron and how their relationship developed throughout the years that tested their brotherly bond through love, betrayal, isolation and forgiveness. Without being a spoiler, as for the romance elements in this book, there were notably slightly unbalanced POV from Bethany. But the novel is still a Styxx-centered story and his undying love toward her is just as unpredictable and at times seriously have its own heartbreaking moments. But I'm definitely anticipating the future installments now that the stakes are definitely higher, pantheons broken apart and renewed.Considered that I've been disappointed with the latest from Chronicle of Nick, I never doubt that Sherri would disappoint me again with this long long awaited book which I've waiting for years to read. Styxx have been an elusive character throughout the years among the Dark Hunters series and as much as I hated and loved his character, this book really did him justice and for all the genuine tears falling like a river from my eyes, Styxx is possibly the best book on the series to date. Balanced character, terrific storytelling, unpredictable and heartbreaking on the predictable part where you know it will happen and you can't stop Styxx from hurting.

I don't think the book is a good representation of Africa but character-wise, I do find this book interesting. Don't get that wrong, I don't like the book and I don't think the book is flawless either. I was more than a bit more than just peeved at David Lurie and his naive impression on the world and his sexuality that he regressed as a mature character. But I do think its an interesting book that talk about rape application and essentially a coming-of-age book in the body of an adult with a childlike mind."We put our children in the hands of you people because we think we can trust you. If we can't trust the university, who can we trust? We never thought we were sending our daughter into a nest of vipers. No, Professor Lurie, you may be high and mighty and have all kinds of degrees, but if I was you I'd be very ashamed of myself, so help me God. If I've got hold of the wrong end of the stick, now is your chance to say, but I don't think so, I can see it from your face." Page 35 Disgrace is a first POV narration and it does carry its limitation. David Lurie is clearly an unreliable narrative but human in every sense. He's prideful, arrogant, narcissistic and a fool with many degrees. He's a smart man but still an idiot nonetheless. The book's narrative is observant and often contradicts his action in so many ways which made the process of reading engrossing. Along the while, I forgot that he's a middle age man character which the book continuously reminded about. But it was clear that he was ignorant about many things on woman. Its hard to read the book without imagining a special Chinese water torture with him in it. Yes, he did get a karmic intervention which it took him by surprise and it does have its own facepalm moments when he became so obsessed about his daughter's situation and her apparently independence and stubbornness about the matter that he's literally taken off guard. The book is political and at times pushing his views through his characters. But at times, you did get caught up into his storytelling without anticipating it. The book is moderately visual but very clinical about the subject of sex. From Lurie's sexual escapades with Soraya, Melanie and Bev Shaw to the gang rape of his daughter and to his horror the child resulting from that rape. But for what its worth, Coetzee is surprisingly feminist, sensitive and stark about woman's issue. He did show exactly how rape is used as a weapon to manipulate a woman into subjugation. How Lucy was being manipulated into seeing that she was admitting defeat if she reported her rape because to her, it meant she was admitting defeat against her attackers. But as a result, she accepted her fate and willingly let herself fall into Petrus's manipulation who himself had a hand on her attacks. 'Hatred . . . When it comes to men and sex, David, nothing surprises me any more. Maybe, for men, hating the woman makes sex more exciting. You are a man, you ought to know. When you have sex with someone strange - when you trap her, hold her down, get her under you, put all your weight on her - isn't it a bit like killing? Pushing the knife in; exiting afterwards, leaving the body behind covered in blood - doesn't it feel like murder, like getting away with murder?'For all its worth, the core in this novel is about humanity with its flaws and adapting to change and forms of power abuse and difficulties when one faces frustrated views contradicting to oneself. Its hardly an enjoyable novel. Geographically unenticing. Stupid Marty Sue character with hedonistic tendencies. But still thought-provoking nonetheless.'The question is, does he have it in him to be the woman?'

Rising Darkness is not Paranormal Romance. Once you set your mind like that, like Karen Marie Moning's Fever series and Neil Gaiman's UF books, this book started slow but chock-full of character-building and world-building around it and romances is hardly in the agenda. The story possibly consisted of 1/3 of what it should be. Its a multiple POV story that centered around on a woman having some problems with her mental issues only to realize that she's something even stranger and older than time itself. Its also the story of a troubled boy who became a dangerous man who spend several lifetimes seeking for the other half of his life and his mentor, an old woman with her own brand of secrets and also an enemy of time themselves.The book did start slow and it took only several days from the start to the end. But in between them, was a wealth of interesting things like nightmares, dreams, the past and somewhere in between. Characters simmering and age old mysteries unveiled (which normally would take several books just to happen) and all leads to a long forgotten memory between a star-crossed lovers and the consequence in the present. I do think this book as beautiful. The reviews were uneven but as a series, this is a good start. Its not anywhere similar to the Elder Races so I do get the disappointment with the lack of romance interaction early on in the book (there's a definite contrast between reading this book and the excerpt from the Elder Races' continuation at the book) but the story is decently paced enough with its own multiple mysteries that keep me on reading.

I'm trying to clear my Kindle freebies shelf and frankly I'm getting tired with these things. Why did I ever download these kind of stuff? I think I have a bipolar when I see the Amazon free ebook lists. This book is roll out like an average Harlequin romance. But the characters are boring to abrim. The male character apparently in need of a wife for a business proposition and then went to find his old friend to masquerade as his wife. The girl had a crush for him for years and apparently she never get over it even though he later did get married and have kids and went through a divorce. So the guy swept his old friend off her feet, instead of marrying her, she ask for an engagement instead and so they went around acting like affianced couple while both have hot eyes for each other. They had some moments, show off about their relationship and then the girl leave when the guy's son had an accident and there's some show of jealousy and then the guy realized that he's in love with her and there's some groveling. Basically, the story is a tad predictable and barely had any redeeming quality to make it noticeable among the average romance in the market. Plus, its quite sanitized too.

I've been reading this to sleep but end up staying up really late to finish this. It started like any average start with a guy suddenly surrounded by the supernatural and end up turning into one himself. But then there's a lot of twist in this book that I could hardly wrap my head around. Everyone isn't what they seems, there were some caveman phrases somewhere that should be laughable if death doesn't hang around the person who said them. Purgatory is a slightly different than the Bound series. Yes, both have the same vampire and werewolf coupling but its about a special group in law enforcement handling the paranormal cases rather than werewolf clans fighting for their territories. The romance is quite a secondary part of the book as the story focus more about Duncan's transformation and his family history and Holly's own secret and the lies people kept from her and the whole premise centered on trying to find the werewolf serial killers, double agents and the things trying to make things break all supernatural hell loose among the population.There's quite minimal sex scenes in this book to constitute as full-on supernatural smut and even without the explicitness, the book is a good well-written horror mystery thriller on its own. There's a lot of gore and deaths to keep the blood racing and more character development between the characters that made them interesting other than their attraction to each other and I think pre-existed attraction help with the book as it keep up with the novel's pacing. Its a solid Urban Fantasy novel even if it look like a bodice ripper.

Apparently there's this feline shapeshifter running away from two alpha werewolf and one of them end up leaving while another went to claim her and they had a slight rendezvous and then she ran away and weeks later she's having some sexy moment with herself and the werewolf came knocking and they have sexy time and she says no and then she says yes and then they romancing together and then they have to rescue to other werewolf because he's the brother and then they have sexy time again then before the girl become Alpha Queen, she had to fight some lady werewolf and then she had to win. Yes. That's what the whole ebook consist of. But at least its free.It could be a decent paranormal romance had the characters actually interact with each other and I wished the author tell me more about the characters or even the world instead of dishing everything out so suddenly. But hey, its erotica. Everything else other than sexy time is optional. But I can't quite say about the quality of the sexy time itself. Its more a 'wham-bang' kinda attraction and then suddenly they said they've been crushing for so long that everything 'made sense'... Free stuff. Logic is optional.

If you ever love Arya Stark, you gotta love Sevy. "Thief" began with a story of teenage Sevy live together with her friend Trena inside a stable in the city of Eloria. Its a hard life for children living in city where girls sell their bodies or living a criminal life. Then fate lead her to Jarro, a young man who lead one of the city's notorious criminal gang who save her and was kind to Sevy. She fall in love with him but he never seem to notice her and instead he was occupied by the beautiful elf, Irea. But things never went as it should be. Interestingly enough it took until the middle of the book that everything in the blurb happen and yes, its painful as it sound.Sevy is a very enjoyable character and somewhat mysterious. She's determined, crass, intuitive and also bad ass. In the unforgiving environment she's in, against all odds Sevy survive only to lost things she hold dear to her. The story is quite dark even when the first part held the vein of most YA Fantasy and reminded me of Tamora Pierce's Allana series. The worldbuilding was quite minimal for a fantasy but recognizable enough with its own cultures, religion, magic, politics and its magical creatures that held some realism. Sort of like Skyrim. In fact, Eloria have some similarities with Winterhold with Dark Elves at the bad part of the city and the Nords racism with the elves and of course, the crimes. Although there's some awkward phrases and weird use of words but most of it aren't distracting. There were some moments inside like prostitution, polygamy, incest and rape which added a dark vein in this book and does enhance the storylines by realism and its struggles but it can be offensive to casual immature readers. That does sound like Game of Thrones right? But GRR Martin uses these elements for shock and titillating the audience while women authors tend to be more subtle and at times thought-provoking while tackling the issue. I understand Sevy's frustration with Trena and there were moments with character selling their body made me cringe but at its core, it does not skimp at the reality of it and how woman are being treated. Overall, the story is very well-written, well-edited and enjoyable even if it's a self-pub.

I do like Sin and the mythology inside the book. I basically knew nothing about Sumerian mythology prior to reading this book and reading SK's book play a large part in my mythology education. Katra gave a more interesting side of the bitch-goddess Artemis but the relationship between the main characters seemed forced but its common with most of the books in this genre. Gosh, I need someone to kick my Ramadhan and Syawal blues and get me back to reviewing stuff.

Rereading this again in anticipation of Styxx. Still good as I remember. Good in a way that it made me emotionally invested in Acheron's story and more reason to love him. ====2011====The thinness of this paperback is deceiving... Its actually much thicker than twilight books combine :PThere's two parts in which details of the life of the leader of the Darkhunters, Acheron, in his human life thousands years ago and the present in which he met Tory the love of his life. Its one of the best from Sherrilyn Kenyon and also heart wrenching at the same time as Acheron's pastlife before he had his god power was so horridly detailed in this book. Its definitely a must read for the fans of Sherrilyn Kenyon.