Sins & Needles

Sins & Needles by Karina Halle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

OHHHH. MYYYYYYY. GODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!

I thought before I started this book that there were a whole bunch in the series already out. I saw that all this author's books have really high ratings, and I kept hearing the words "THRILLER" and "romance" being thrown around in the reviews and I was like, YAY, I really want a good can't-put-it-down book to read right now.

OH MY GOD! I was wrong, apparently the prequel is out, but the second book is not out yet and I WILLL DIE RIGHT NOW if it is not coming out in the next few days. OMG OMG OMG. This author has another series out and apparently THAT one has a bunch of books out....I wasn't paying attention.

AHHHHHHHHH. Ok. Calm down and review.

let's start with this:



THIS IS CAMDEN.

I know I could just stop my review right here, and you probably are no longer even reading, and I'm betting you probably have already "one clicked" this book. Stop drooling on your computer.

But seriously, I guess this image was used as the inspiration for Camden.

This book is dark. Meaning con artists, and drug lords, and pouring acid on children. It's not graphically dark, but it's not light and fluffy; it's edge-of-your-seat thriller, and please-God-let-them-make-it-out-of-this-with-their-lives sooooooooooo good.

The whole romance part of it threw me off a little. It was somewhat graphic in that area (not Fifty Shades graphic, but more graphic than most books) and it was sometimes a little jarring...almost didn't feel like it went with the flow of the book, but still, easy to get over. It was just more like, woah! (and then you do a quick glance around to see if anyone can see your book)

So Ellie is a con artist. She's unfortunately conned some of the wrong people in her past though, and at the beginning of this book she finds herself on the run from one of those people and decides that this will be her last close call, and she will head home to her uncle and try to go "legit" now. When she gets into town, she immediately runs into Camden. **WAIT HOLD ON! I know you were about to scroll back up and look again, but let me finish.** She doesn't recognize him at first, and actually Camden doesn't really recognize her either in the beginning. When it hits the both of them we find out that they used to be best friends (and Ellie's only friend) in school. Camden was a goth kid that got made fun of and Ellie had a disability that made her the ridicule of her fellow students as well, and they really only had each other....until Ellie did something pretty unforgivable to ruin their friendship all those years ago.

Fast forward, they've just run into each other and Ellie finds out that he's actually really successful. Then she starts finding herself being unable to stop the con artist in her.

Things do not go according to plan, and there are really bad people that get caught up to both Ellie and Camden (who has a pretty bad past as it turns out too).

THRILLER THRILLER THRILLER people! What a ride, and what a freaking ending!

The only things that sort of bothered me were that I don't like books in which the characters go to vegas, even if it is for just a second, it's just a huge pet peeve of mine. Can't explain it really. And then the other thing was that there were a few lines from Camden that weren't believable to me. Just like maybe 2 lines, but they bugged a little.

I hope that there are like a thousand of these books and that they are all so good. I'm going to go die now since I have to wait. My actual rating for this book is more like a 4.7 STARS!

Update:

OMG! I have to wait till August 20th?!?!?!?!?



View all my reviews

Come Alive (EIT 7)

Come Alive by Karina Halle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

OH MY GOD! What will I do with my life while I wait for the next books to come out?! I feel depression setting in. Perry, Dex, I feel so lonely without you. Ugh. This is the thing about such an entertaining series, the characters become so very hard to let go of. I could read this series forever if Karina Halle would just agree to keep writing them forever and ever.

This book in the series was by far WAY more paranormal than any of the others in my opinion. If paranormal is your "thing," you'll LOVE IT! If paranormal is not really your favorite (like me), you'll LOVE IT ANYWAYS because by book 7, you would have to be dead inside to not be in love with Perry and Dex by now. Karina could have fucking aliens land in their front yard and become co-hosts of their show and I'd be like, "Yeah, ok, let's see where this is going for Perry and Dex..."

In other words, I can't even find it in me to roll my eyes at anything paranormal because I am just so into this whirlwind that is Perry Palomino and Declan Foray.

Sigh.

Perry and Dex.



I'm just so very glad that with all that Karina put us through in this book, that we weren't left wanting to tear our hair out at a horrific cliffhanger. I felt so very satisfied with where this book left off. That says a lot considering I spent the majority of this book yelling things like, "NO NO NO NO NO!" and, "OH MY GOD! Dex! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" and, "Please GOD no! You can't let this happen! You are going to ruin my life!"

Perry and Dex find out at the beginning of this story that Jimmy, their boss on Experiment in Terror, has made it mandatory for them to work with a third person, and of all the damn people in the world, Jimmy has ordered them to work with Maximus(!) or lose their jobs. So the three of them head down to NOLA for their next episode and get caught up in a voodoo mess. But the real roller coaster in this story is what takes place between Perry and Dex. Highs, lows, and an incredible ride.

This book was told through Dex's POV and it worked. In this case, it was better coming from Dex, but I am also very excited to hear the story from Perry again in the next book. And can I also just mention the BOMB that was dropped at the end of this book!!!!!! (view spoiler)[He bought a ring! WHAT?! (hide spoiler)]?! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh. How on earth is this all going to get even better?! I have NO CLUE, but I know Karina will do it somehow.

Ok, I'll stop fangirling for one second.

Actually I do want to say that in the first couple of books you would never know how......ummmm......graphic(?) the sexual nature will eventually become...... (awkward pause)...... I feel like I should warn potential readers that, um yeah, this book was like half book porn. You won't be reading 50 Shades or anything, but I was just thinking about how I would have never guessed this would be included in the story from the first few books that I read, which also had Perry pining a little, but the stories were less focused on that I guess.

But I do recommend these books. 100%, 2 thumbs up, mind numbingly awesome series!!!!!!!!!!! And as you can see from the review ratings on this book on goodreads, I'm not the only one being entertained to the max.

My reviews for book 1, book 2, book 2.5, book 3, book 4, book 5, book 5.5, book 5.7, book 6, and book 6.5 can be found on those links.

View all my reviews

The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

I can't wait till October for the next book! I CAN'T! Oh my god, I can't breathe after this cliff hanger!

Like book one, this book makes you question wether she's (Mara's) actually psychotic or if it could possibly be paranormal. You think that you have it figured out through most of this book, but you're wrong! It's like it's not even the point. Like it's not "A" and it's not "B"..........it's "C"! Confused by my rambling?! That's because this is such a crazy mess that it can't be put into coherent words. Towards the end it just gets nuts (in a good way), and I have no clue what is going ON anymore! Man, this is so good!

[PLEASE don't let Noah be dead!!!!! I don't think that he is, yet what would be gained by that lie?!]

I'll have to finish my review tomorrow after I've had the chance to calm down.

Update:

Nope. I've slept on it and I'm still devastated! I need to find a bootleg copy of the next book! Is this book an epic classic that everyone should read before they die? No. But it's fun and exciting and well written. I love the characters, I love the "is she crazy" plot, I wish every book I found was unique and new, but they aren't—this one felt unique and new to me.

I can't say more on the story because this is book two and I don't want to spoil book one. Read my review on book one here for more on this series.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

4.5 out of 5 stars!

This book was so unexpected! I think that's the best way to describe it. Unexpected!

I went into this book knowing nothing about it other than the mysterious summery I read — that really tells you nothing (but get's you a intrigued). So my fist thoughts were, "Wow, this book is really well written considering it's catalogued as a YA. Much better writing than most adult books I'ver read."

The story had a good flow and so much mystery.

In the beginning, our main character, Mara, has been in an accident with her friends and boyfriend and she's the only survivor. She then moves to start over. She starts a new school, makes a few friends, and meets Noah, all while dealing with PTSD. I won't give you more than that because I want you to wonder as much as I did.

I spent a good portion of this novel trying to figure out if her hallucinations were really psychosis, or if it was at all possible that these things could really be happening to her!!!! I loved that about this book! SO ORIGINAL! I can honestly say that I've never read a book before where I sat there trying to figure out if she was ACTUALLY crazy! What a cool mystery to solve. And while the love story part of this book does have some cliche moments, I didn't even mind it because the writing was good, and the rest of the plot was very unique. And, let's face it, Noah is steamy as HELL!!!

Even though I finished the first book, and now have more insight into what is actually going on, I still don't completely know what was real and what was imagined/hallucinated. I like it!

AND the end!!!! How am I supposed to go to sleep NOW!!!!???!

The ONLY reason this book didn't get 5 stars was because of the few cliche moments in the love story plot line, because other than that, we have a book that's beautifully written, a very original story, and a fantastic puzzle of what is real! I'm loving it!