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DauntlesslyDivergent

Jenn's Book Reviews

Hello lovelies! You can either call me Jenn or Jay, which ever you like. I'm a Canadian college student, currently studying Photography. I'm an avid book reader & writer, spending most of my free time either reading, writing or taking artistic photographs. Visit my other blog http://dauntlesslydivergent.wordpress.com/

Reading progress update: I've read 60 out of 208 pages.

Four: A Divergent Story Collection - Veronica Roth

Love reading from Four's point of view, especially since it helps us get to know him better, how he was before, during and after initiation from Abgnegation to Dauntless

Reading progress update: I've read 39 out of 352 pages.

The Good Girl - Mary Kubica

Enjoying this one so far. My only complaint is the chapters being done in before and after from different point of views, non which involve Mia, the girl who's the main character. Otherwise, it's good. Just wish it would pick up the pace.

Glad I received this one for review. Also love the cover but wish the girl looked older, since the book is about a young woman.

UPDATE: This coming week

Good afternoon!

 

So I wanted to let my precious followers know that there will be some reviews being posted, quite a few if I can help it! to make up for my absence. I've been having health problems lately, which have slowed down not only my reading but my use of my laptop. To make up for such a long absence, and the absence that will be coming soon, I'm taking reading & reviewing request! If there's any books you'd like for me to read & review PLEASE LET ME KNOW! Message me on twitter @dauntlessbooks

 

Also this coming friday, I'll be without internet for about a week, which means no reviews are going to be posted. I will be trying to write reviews, if I'm not to busy, so that the moment I get internet back I can mass upload them!

 

Thanks for sticking with me.

 

xoxo J

Reading Update

So I've officially put Under the Dome by Stephen King on hold. I'm finding it hard to read, unfortunately. I'm really disliking the writing style of this novel. Other than that, I'm almost done Altered by Gennifer Albin, which I'm excited but not happy about because I'll have to wait for the third book, which is going to be hell. Seriously, I'm so in love with this series I don't ever want to put it down! Been forcing myself to read this one slowly, so I can enjoy it so much more! Afterwards, I'm hoping to finish The Art of Getting Stared At by Laura Langston & The Good Girl by Mary Kubica, both review copies sent to me by publishers. Than by then I should have my hands on a copy of Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo, so I can finally move on with the trilogy!

 

Happy Reading!

 

xoxo J

Reading progress update: I've read 293 out of 390 pages.

Altered - Gennifer Albin

Oh my lordy! This book is amazing! Totally in love with the world & the characters; Dante, Ad, Jost, Eric, all of them! Jeeze Louise this book series is amazing. Don't know if I'll be able to wait for the 3rd book!

Reading progress update: I've read 104 out of 390 pages.

Altered - Gennifer Albin

oh my goodness! this series is soo freaking amazing. I'm hooked! Can't believe I waited around 5 months to get this one, especially after how much I absolutely loved the first book!

Reviews to come

Over the weekend I'll be posting some more reviews of the Sookie Stackhouse series. Not sure how many I'll post yet. I'll also be posting reviews for each Percy Jackson Book, the book to movie adaptation & a review for the series as a whole. So please keep an eye out for that!

 

Until then,

 

xoxo - J

Reading progress update: I've read 181 out of 381 pages.

The Last Olympian  - Rick Riordan

I can't believe how long this is taking me to read! It's really good but I just haven't been interested in reading Rick Riordan lately. But I am determined to finish this book, so I can wrap up the series & post a review!

REVIEW - Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris

First thing I must mention is that, if you’ve watched season 1 of True Blood on HBO before reading this, heads up it’s pretty much exactly the same. I had a really hard time actually making a dent in the book because of this. Once you get past this book and season 1, True Blood becomes an AU compared to the books (the further you get into the seasons of True Blood, the further away it strays from the story line in the books).

Dead Until Dark is the first installment in the long thirteen book series, none including the novellas, The Southern Vampire Mysteries, or more affectionately know as the Sookie Stackhouse Series. With the novellas, this series goes from thirteen to thirty three, with some novellas have multiple stories from multiple authors, and others surrounding only Sookie written by Charlaine Harris. The entire series is told from the point of view of the main character, Sookie Stackhouse.

Dead Until Dark introduces our lovely heroine, Sookie Stackhouse, whom you follow on all the crazy things that happen on the little town Bon Temps (french for Good Times) Louisiana. Sookie, a young adult, isn’t your average human. She’s telepathic, she can read minds of everyone but vampires. Strangely enough, after her first encounter with Bon Temps very own, Vampire Bill, Sookie learns that she doesn’t hear a sound coming from his mind, that it’s so silent, it’s like she’s finally become normal. Only one year prior, vampires had ‘come out of the coffin’, which was the term used for the undead admitting their existence to the public all around the world. Through Sookie’s journey of meeting vampires and coping with her telepathy, you’ll see her fall in love with one of the undead, have one to many near death experiences, while she struggles to clear her brother’s name, lose one of her closest family members, and try to keep herself alive while staying out of the path of the local serial killer, who’s after women involved with vampires. 

As I mentioned above, it took me quite a while to make a dent in this novel, mainly because of it’s similarities to the show. Before I had finally read this novel, I had picked it up & put it down multiple times, always more interested in watching the TV show, which I had on DVD, rather then reading the book, they where just too similar.
I’ll admit, it took my whole two weeks of christmas break to read this novel, but once I had finished, I realized just how much I did enjoy the story, in the end. I didn’t give it the highest of ratings, a 3 out of 5 stars, because of how long it took me to start enjoying the novel.
Had it not been for the fact that I had purchase the seven book box set, I most likely would have only continued on watching the show and not reading the books. Thankfully, I did have a physical copy of the next six books, and enjoyed every last bit of them.
To this date, I’ve read books one through eleven, and I can honestly say that this series is one of my all time favorites. Before this novel, I had never read an ‘adult fiction’ book, but I must say, even though I’m a YA lover all the way, I do now enjoy Adult Fiction just as much, thanks to this series.

Stay tuned for the next review in this series, book two Living Dead in Dallas.

xoxo – J

REVIEW - Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

First thing I must mention is that, if you’ve watched season 1 of True Blood on HBO before reading this, heads up it’s pretty much exactly the same. I had a really hard time actually making a dent in the book because of this. Once you get past this book and season 1, True Blood becomes an AU compared to the books (the further you get into the seasons of True Blood, the further away it strays from the story line in the books).

Dead Until Dark is the first installment in the long thirteen book series, none including the novellas, The Southern Vampire Mysteries, or more affectionately know as the Sookie Stackhouse Series. With the novellas, this series goes from thirteen to thirty three, with some novellas have multiple stories from multiple authors, and others surrounding only Sookie written by Charlaine Harris. The entire series is told from the point of view of the main character, Sookie Stackhouse.

Dead Until Dark introduces our lovely heroine, Sookie Stackhouse, whom you follow on all the crazy things that happen on the little town Bon Temps (french for Good Times) Louisiana. Sookie, a young adult, isn’t your average human. She’s telepathic, she can read minds of everyone but vampires. Strangely enough, after her first encounter with Bon Temps very own, Vampire Bill, Sookie learns that she doesn’t hear a sound coming from his mind, that it’s so silent, it’s like she’s finally become normal. Only one year prior, vampires had ‘come out of the coffin’, which was the term used for the undead admitting their existence to the public all around the world. Through Sookie’s journey of meeting vampires and coping with her telepathy, you’ll see her fall in love with one of the undead, have one to many near death experiences, while she struggles to clear her brother’s name, lose one of her closest family members, and try to keep herself alive while staying out of the path of the local serial killer, who’s after women involved with vampires. 

As I mentioned above, it took me quite a while to make a dent in this novel, mainly because of it’s similarities to the show. Before I had finally read this novel, I had picked it up & put it down multiple times, always more interested in watching the TV show, which I had on DVD, rather then reading the book, they where just too similar.
I’ll admit, it took my whole two weeks of christmas break to read this novel, but once I had finished, I realized just how much I did enjoy the story, in the end. I didn’t give it the highest of ratings, a 3 out of 5 stars, because of how long it took me to start enjoying the novel.
Had it not been for the fact that I had purchase the seven book box set, I most likely would have only continued on watching the show and not reading the books. Thankfully, I did have a physical copy of the next six books, and enjoyed every last bit of them.
To this date, I’ve read books one through eleven, and I can honestly say that this series is one of my all time favorites. Before this novel, I had never read an ‘adult fiction’ book, but I must say, even though I’m a YA lover all the way, I do now enjoy Adult Fiction just as much, thanks to this series.

Stay tuned for the next review in this series, book two Living Dead in Dallas.

xoxo – J

Blue Lily, Lily Blue book cover

Have you seen the cover for Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater? I stumble upon it the other day & couldn't help but think of how beautiful it was! Possibly my favorite cover out of the entire Raven Boys series. What do ya'll think? Yay or Nay for this book cover.

City of Glass

City of Glass  - Natalie Moore, Cassandra Clare Oh wow, is all I could say once I finished City of Glass. It was absolutely amazing, the best so far. I did however decide to listen to the Audiobook rather then reading, which I found to be less pleasurable and more time consuming, but this book was amazing enough to keep me interested and entertained. Not only do we learn more about Clary and her family, but about all the characters in the previous novels. We meet Luke's sister, whom Clary never knew of, learn more about the Lightwoods and their relationship with their adopted son Jace, and even of Valentine. We also meet plenty of new characters, shadowhunters and their families, and even a few who cause a big stir in the story, such as Sebastian. We also get to see more of the Shadowhunters history and how they live day to day in their home of Alicante in Idris. What kept me reading was the many twist and turns and the action packed story line. I just couldn't get enough! This was, in my opinion, an overall amazing read, one that I enjoyed immensely, making me fall in love with the story and its characters all over again. A definite 5/5 star rating.

Find Momo: Hide and Seek with an Adventurous Border Collie

Find Momo: Hide and Seek with an Adventurous Border Collie - Andrew  Knapp As a freelance photographer and current photography student, I really enjoyed Andrew Knapp's photographs. What drew me in, other than that aspect, was that it centers around a dog, a beautiful Border Collie named Momo. I, myself, am a huge dog lover, having at least one dog in my family since my earliest childhood memories. With the way Knapp describes Momo's personality, I can't help but think of my beautiful German Shepherd Moo, who's originally named Sasha. The two seem to have almost the same exact personality! Over all love this book just because of it's cuteness & photographs.

The Reptile Room

The Reptile Room  - Michael Kupperman, Lemony Snicket, Brett Helquist

Seeing as how everyone I know loves this series of children's books, I decided to give it a try. The first book, The Bad Beginning, was a quick, easy and fast paced read for me. I actually enjoyed it enough to dive straight into this one, the second book in the series. I honestly didn't finish this one. I tried and tried to get through the book but towards the end I just had enough and couldn't continue. From what I read of this book, which was approximately 1/2 to 1/3 of the book, I rated this 2/5 stars. I do enjoy the story line/plot of the series but certain aspects, such as the constant need to explain every single detail, bothered me to no end, resulting in my putting the book down, marking it as unfinished. I highly doubt I'll pick up this book/series again, it's simply to juvenile of writing for what I enjoy reading.

Working Stiff

Working Stiff  - Rachel Caine Bryn Davis, an army veteran living in California, knows that working for a funeral home isn’t all that glamorous, especially for a middle aged woman. But at least Fairview Mortuary offers stable employment. That is until she discovers that her bosses are using a drug to resurrect the clientele as part of an extortion racket. Now, Bryn must face death herself instead of just witnessing it. But with the help of double-agent Patrick McCallister, she has a chance to take down not only her bosses, who killed her, but also the pharmaceutical company Pharmadene, who created the drug and treats death as the ultimate corporate loyalty program. Bryn must take them down quickly or else become an undead slave, in other terms, a real working stiff.

Working Stiff is an adult fiction novel written by Rachel Caine, author of the best selling MorganVille Vampire series, and is the first in the Revivalist trilogy. What had drew me to read this novel, seeing as I enjoy more the Young Adult genre of fiction compared to adult fiction, was the plot twist involving the death of the main character, only to later become undead. The Part that sucked me in was the fact that this was no ordinary zombie novel, no apocalypse, no hunger for flesh or brains, etc. Bryn Davis, the star of this series, is a strong independent women, formerly an army soldier, who seeks steady employment at Fairview funeral home. The down side to the job? This is where she meets death. Luckily for her, a couple of Pharmadene employees are there to save the day and revive her with their special new drug, which causes the dead to become undead. Now being dependent on this new drug to keep her from rotting alive, literally, Bryn has to take on employement withe Pharmadene, to hunt and track down her old boss' supplier of the drug, which he'd been selling to make cash on the side. Not only does her employer plan to let her rot once the job is done, but to make matters worse, she's fallen in love with Patrick McCallister, a double agent who works for Pharmadene.
The slow start had made this novel a long read, but once the plot thickened, and the story and characters became more complex, I was completely hooked. The action and mystery involved kept me on the edge of my seat, wondering what would happen next. The growing relationship between Bryn and McCallister, and reading as it bloomed into one filled with passion, made this novel all the more exciting and interesting of a read.
Overall, I quite enjoyed this introduction to the trilogy. The only downfalls, in my opinion, was some minor flaws I found with the story line, the slow and agonizing start, and the fact that I'm not a fan of zombies. This influenced me to rate this novel a 3 1/2 out of 5 stars. With the amazing ending, I cannot wait to read what comes next for Bryn, in the sequel, Two Weeks' Notice.

Vampire Academy

Vampire Academy - Richelle Mead Rose Hathaway, a Dhampir, and Vasilisa “Lissa” Dragomir, a Vampire, are two teens who’ve runaway from they prestigious boarding school, St Vladimir’s Academy, a school strictly for Moroi (Vampires) and Dhampirs (half human, half vampire). The reason for running? They suspect they’re in danger at the Academy and need to hide at all costs. After missing part of their sophomore year and their junior year, the Guardians, who are Dhampirs, have finally found the two teens and bring them back to the Academy. There the two girls are scolded immensely for their disappearance but are accepted back. But not without consequence. Rose, who is far behind in her training, must now take on an extra workload if she wants to graduate by the end of the year. Welcome Dimitri Belikov, her new personal trainer & one of the Academy’s best Guardians. Will Rose be able to accomplish what needs to be done in order to graduate and become a Guardian herself? Or will she fail? Is Lissa really in danger as the two thought?
The first time I ever read Vampire Academy was when it was released in Canada for the first time, which was years ago. I hadn't read it since, until recently. I had been meaning to re-read this one for a while, so I could continue on with the series, seeing as it was now officially over, and there was a new spin-off series to accompany it. I remember precisely being very fond of the story Richelle Mead told, and enjoying every bit of it. But this was when I was much younger, barely even a teenager. Now that I'm a young adult, I want to see if I would enjoy this book just as much as I did back then. And I must be honest with you, I think I enjoyed it even more! First off I must applaud Richelle Mead on her amazing writing style and how she portrays her characters, making you feel like you yourself are playing the part of Rose. And secondly I'd like to just say how amazing of a story this is. I love the whole dimension of the world which this novel takes place in, I love the idea of Moroi; the 100% vampire's who are mostly royal, the Dhampirs; the 50% vampire 50% human off springs of either human & Moroi relations or Dhampirs & Moroi, and lastly the Strigoi; the 'undead' vampires or dhampirs. What I find most interesting are the Strigois and how to become one you must be either a vampire or dhampir, and you need to either completely drain another vampire or need another Strigoi to perform the act of changing you. This world is so complex and captivating, and lately with the genre of Vampires being so over hyped, it's been tough finding a good story line that doesn't involve a human & vampire falling in love. This one definitively takes the cake when it comes to being an original vampire novel, and out of the ordinary while being extraordinary vampire novel. 5/5 stars for Vampire Academy & for the lovely author Richelle Mead, and her captivating story.