The Weight Of Souls. Review.

The Weight of Souls
Author: Bryony Pearce

Publication Date: August 6th 2013
Source : Received a digital ARC via Angry Robot/Strange Chemistry and Netgalley. (In exchange for an honest review. Thank you!)

Sixteen year old Taylor Oh is cursed: if she is touched by the ghost of a murder victim then they pass a mark beneath her skin. She has three weeks to find their murderer and pass the mark to them – letting justice take place and sending them into the Darkness. And if she doesn’t make it in time? The Darkness will come for her…

She spends her life trying to avoid ghosts, make it through school where she’s bullied by popular Justin and his cronies, keep her one remaining friend, and persuade her father that this is real and that she’s not going crazy.

But then Justin is murdered and everything gets a whole lot worse. Justin doesn’t know who killed him, so there’s no obvious person for Taylor to go after. The clues she has lead her to the V Club, a vicious secret society at her school where no one is allowed to leave… and where Justin was dared to do the stunt which led to his death.

Can she find out who was responsible for his murder before the Darkness comes for her? Can she put aside her hatred for her former bully to truly help him?

And what happens if she starts to fall for him?


Review

Taylor Oh lives with a curse that plagues her bloodline, from her mother before her, which would follow through to her children, and theirs after, etc, etc, I think you get the point.

The curse, you ask? She's-the-kid-that-can-see-dead-people.

Yup, another one  in a long line of YA. The difference? This one was interesting in a different way. Yes, Taylor can see ghosts to help them move on, and yes, she doesn't like what she does, or that she has no choice. Once a murdered ghost touches her skin,  black mark brands her skin that once transferred calls a darkness that she can only guess is hell. The problem? If she doesn't find the murderer in an estimated few weeks and transfer the mark to the rightful murderer, the darkness will take her.

Then there's a father that doesn't believe her and thinks she has a disease and draws blood out of her like it's juice, and a friend that she regularly abandons, and is afraid she'll lose her if she pushes the boundaries, but Taylor won't tell her the truth.  Oh, then there's Pete, that once friend that ignores her and has joined the "Popular" gang that regularly verbally, and occasionally physically bully her. Let's just say, some phrases that come out of their mouths are pretty foul.  And racist.

Besides being pretty horrible human beings, the "popular" gang really are worse than they seem, something even more sinister and controlling than the darkness.

The main one who likes to make her life hell, Justin, the supposed "leader", who, let's be honest, isn't, falls to his death and marks Taylor.

Now,  the guy who regularly liked making fun of her race, and never stopped the others from bullying her, needs her help.

This is where I would be smug.

Like really smug.

Taylor takes it pretty well, unfortunately.

But, it's her job, and if she doesn't the darkness will come for her, so she has no choice to avenge his murder, only Justin doesn't know who his killer is, and he don't even believe he was murdered.

As the mark grows darker, the more she loses hope in finding his murderer plus she loses the one friend she did have there is only one choice.

If she can't beat them, join them.

Thoughts
I really liked the beginning, it hooked me in, and then the bullying started and I just wanted to slap them. It dragged a little and to be honest, I lost interest in it until it started picking up 3/4 and I was sucked in again.

It was interesting enough for me to keep reading, though I didn't get the romance element with Taylor and Justin, after everything he did to her, she can just forgive him? Really? That aside, I didn't feel the development that much to be connected to the characters.

I love Egyptian mythology and the enigma of Anubis, saying this, the diary entries didn't keep me entertained and felt a little information overload. Maybe my view was a little skewered since recently reading Spirit and Dust.

Anyway, the ending! Now that is keeping me in for the next one.

Rating: 3/5

 

Stacking the Shelves #1

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.

 

 

Review

Netgalley

 

 

 

 

Bought

 

 

What's in yours?

             



Gemini Rising Review

Gemini RisingAuthor: Eleanor Wood

Publication Date: June 7th, 2013
Source : Received a digital copy via Harlequin (UK) Limited, Carina , and Netgalley. (In exchange for an honest review. Thank you!)

 

 

How far would you go to fit in? Sorana Salem is ok with being not quite bottom of the pile at her exclusive private school. Until the mysterious Johansson twins arrive unexpectedly mid-term. Hypnotically beautiful and immensely cool, magnetic Elyse and mute Melanie aren’t like the school’s usual identikit mean girls. Soon Sorana’s sharing sleepovers and Saturday nights out with the twins. But their new world of Ouidja boards and older boys might not be as simple as it seems. And the dark secrets that they share could be about to take Sorana down a path that’s impossible to turn back from…

  

 Review:

-Warning- If you’re not highly strung and are susceptible to manipulation, welcome to this review.

Read this book.

There, I said it.

Though for the majority of it you might want to pull your hair out, it’s a slow burner, you’ll have a lot of questions that don’t necessarily get answered, and  I have to say at first I didn’t like it, but I didn’t hate it. It took me a while to get into it and by the time I did it was almost over. Though what an ending! I can honestly say, one I wasn’t really expecting either. There are some good twists, thoroughly twisted scenes, but it’s mysterious and raw, and Sorona was realistic and like so many others before her that do get sucked into the wrong crowd. I liked Sorona, though I may have wanted to shake her a few times to wake the heck up and smell the crazy, and to just be herself. I get she was easy to manipulate but seriously, she wasn’t all innocent as she tried to come across. She was a little mean to begin with and that just escalated when meeting Elyse, but it was there, and for someone to point out about the bitch “A” crowd, she was a bitch too. Okay, among a different scale, and at least she admitted she felt mean, she came across a little fake at times, especially with Nathalie, who is supposed to be her friend, and don’t even get me started on Shimmi.

Though I get it, it’s hard when you don’t have many friends or in the ‘it’ crowd, but please, being in my own school college that was sharing classes with another school, I knew nobody. That was fun. Admittedly, I dropped out after a month, but my small class was friendly, not everybody’s mean.

Anyway, enough about me.

Waiting On Wednesday, (#01)

 

"Waiting on" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases.

 

 

 

 

Antigoddess by Kendare Blake, Expected publication: September 10th 2013 by Tor Teen

 

 

 The Goddess War begins in Antigoddess, the first installment of the new series by acclaimed author of Anna Dressed in Blood, Kendare Blake.
Old Gods never die…

Or so Athena thought. But then the feathers started sprouting beneath her skin, invading her lungs like a strange cancer, and Hermes showed up with a fever eating away his flesh. So much for living a quiet eternity in perpetual health.

Desperately seeking the cause of their slow, miserable deaths, Athena and Hermes travel the world, gathering allies and discovering enemies both new and old. Their search leads them to Cassandra—an ordinary girl who was once an extraordinary prophetess, protected and loved by a god.

These days, Cassandra doesn’t involve herself in the business of gods—in fact, she doesn’t even know they exist. But she could be the key in a war that is only just beginning.

Because Hera, the queen of the gods, has aligned herself with other of the ancient Olympians, who are killing off rivals in an attempt to prolong their own lives. But these anti-gods have become corrupted in their desperation to survive, horrific caricatures of their former glory. Athena will need every advantage she can get, because immortals don’t just flicker out.

Every one of them dies in their own way. Some choke on feathers. Others become monsters. All of them rage against their last breath.

The Goddess War is about to begin.

 

Ignite Review; Not just a pretty cover.

 

Ignite
Author: Erica Crouch

Publication Date: June 11, 2013
Source : Proof copy Patchwork Press via Netgalley (In exchange for an honest review. Thank you!) 

 

 

 

  Penemuel (Pen) fell from grace over a millennium ago, yet there are still times she questions her decision to follow her twin brother, Azael, to Hell. Now that the archangel Michael has returned, threatening Lucifer’s vie for the throne, she begins questioning everything she has always believed. 

As Hell prepares for war - spreading a demonic virus and pilfering innocent souls to build an army - the lines separating the worlds blur. Fates erase and the future is left unwritten. Azael is determined that he and his sister will continue to serve as demons together, but for the first time in her life, Pen is not ruled by destiny. She has the freedom of choice. 

With choice comes sacrifice, and Pen must decide which side she’s willing to risk everything fighting for: the light, or the dark.

Review
 Fallen from Heaven, Penemuel and her twin brother Azael followed in Lucifer’s steps, and plead to do his word. At first, Pen and Az were amongst highest demons, having a part in the taking down of Archangel Michael and corrupted the balance of Heaven and Hell, ending the raging war between them, for now.  Failing in their plan to corrupt the first man, Adam, Pen and Az were mocked, and slowly slid down in ranks, having to claw their way back up the Level 3 demons they are now...

Ignite

Review will be posted tomorrow, for now, enjoy these quotes.

 “So you don’t remember breaking my jaw then?”

I widen my eyes in surprise. “I what?”

“Or cracking my ribs and shattering my kneecap?” His voice is flat.

-Page 49.

“I know you don’t remember me, but I clearly remember you,” I begin.

“And I remember that day.”

He watched me attentively.

I close my eyes, evoking the memory. “Lucifer killed you,” I say, my voice tight.

 “My brother.” He says quietly.

 

 Slowly, I open my eyes and look at him across the glowing jars. The bright blue of his eyes is now dark and reflective, reminding me of the warm pond below the cave. I nod my head again.

“Yes, your brother.”

         -Page 93