Before Review & Heven Spotlight

Before
Heven & Hell Series, #0.5
by Cambria Hebert
Published November 18, 2011
First published by Otherworld Publications
(now published by Cambria)
Format Reviewed: eBook (purchased)

Synopsis:
What if your life was charmed and everything in it was perfect…
Before.

This is the story of my past. Of what things were like for me when everything was normal. Of what every teenager’s life is like. Clothes. Parties. Boys and summer vacation. What’s so wrong with that? I liked it. I was happy.

Until things changed. I changed.

I didn’t know that lies and secrets were about to take over my existence. I didn’t know there was someone out there, someone meant just for me. I didn’t know that I was about to go on a journey, a journey that would lead me to the girl I am today.
This is the beginning of the worst year of my life. Would I go back and change things? Erase everything that has happened to go back into these moments?

Not a chance.

This is a story of before.

Amazon     Barnes & Noble

My Thoughts:

Reading Before is like going to a really fancy French restaurant. You order an appetizer and it comes and it is super tiny. You think, "Is this really all there is?" But when you taste it, you realized that it is so rich that it was really all you needed. Before is a short story prequel to Masquerade, barely 40 pages total, but yet it grabbed me and made me want to read more. 

Heven is your All-American girl. Poised to become cheer captain; Heven is pretty, popular, has friends and a possible new boyfriend, and is happy. Sam however, lurks in the shadows...watching. He doesn't want to bring her any harm, but he has to see her again. But he isn't the only one watching Heven. The monster lays in wait; seething hate. Then one night after a late studying session at the library, Heven is alone and the monster makes its move. And then... a scream. 

Before is written beautifully from a shifting first person point of view. I like that we get to see into the head of not only Heven and Sam, but into the evil mind of the monster. The ending is a cliffhanger - it is only a prequel after all, but it gives readers a connection to the characters that are fully brought to life in Masquerade, which I purchased seconds after finishing Before.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Book Trailer:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Character Spotlight: 

Heven

Heven is a great character. I love that she continues to learn to love herself despite her scars - both physical and emotional. She stands for what she believes and protects those she loves even if it comes at a price. I fell in love with her strength and conviction, especially throughout the times she had to deal with her mother. What are your thoughts on Heven? Is she your favorite character?

Heven:

16 -year- old Heven is blond, blue eyed and used to be the most beautiful girl in school. Then one night everything changed. A night she can’t remember but bears the marks of something awful. Ever since the accident that turned her into a freak, all Heven does is try to make it through the day. But as secrets come out Heven learns there’s a lot more to her than she ever imagined.

Heven’s STATS:

Favorite drink: Coffee (Bubble tea is a close second)

Food she dislikes most: Chicken

Favorite color: Gold

Hobby: Riding her horse Jasper

Favorite place: her Gran’s house

Interesting facts about Heven:

I can’t tell you the most interesting things…. It will give it away!

Some quotes by Heven:

“I loved this boy. More than myself. More than life. More than anything. Tears leaked from beneath my lids because my feelings were so intense that they had nowhere else to go, there just wasn’t room in a single body for how I felt for him.” ~ Heven

"I wasn’t afraid of the dark but I was afraid that when day arrived and the sun came out it would shine light into all the shadows from the night before, revealing all that the darkness had hidden." ~ Heven

“… all the way back to last year when I was injured (I didn’t think of it as disfigured anymore because I wasn’t disfigured. There had been nothing wrong with the way I looked. The problem had been with the way I felt.)”  ~ Heven

Review: Rapture by Lauren Kate

Rapture
Fallen series, #4
by Lauren Kate
Published by: Delacorte Press June 12, 2012
Formats: Hardcover, eBook ~448 pages
Source: Public Library

Synopsis:
The sky is dark with wings....

Like sand through an hourglass, time is running out for Luce and Daniel. To stop Lucifer from erasing the past, they must find the place where the angels fell to earth.

Dark forces are after them, and Daniel doesn’t know if he can do this — live only to lose Luce again and again. Yet together they face an epic battle that will end with lifeless bodies...and angel dust. Great sacrifices are made. Hearts are destroyed.

And suddenly Luce knows what must happen. For she was meant to be with someone other than Daniel. The curse they’ve borne has always and only been about her — and the love she cast aside. The choice she makes now is the only one that truly matters.

In the fight for Luce, who will win?

Rapture is the astonishing conclusion to the FALLEN series. Heaven can’t wait any longer.

Cover: The cover of Rapture is beautiful yet foreboding. The image of the sky blackened by the amount of wings is ominous. Yet there is still light shining through bringing hope to the picture. Out of all the covers, it ranks second for me.

“…a million trembling shadows surrounding a great dark orb, their tendrils licking the surface of oblivion like sunspots.”

My Thoughts:
First let me begin by stating that this is the fourth and final book in the Fallen series so my review may contain spoilers from previous books.

I have been going over and over in my head for three days now as to how I feel about Rapture. I liked that there was finality to it, but it just lacked in so many ways. The story jumps in right where Passion left off. Luce is back from her journey with Bill aka Lucifer, and must find a way to stop him from erasing time. Between three groups of fallen angels, Luce, and a merry band of Outcasts, they are on a mission to find three artifacts that will lead them to the exact location of the Fall. Luce, of course, goes with Daniel and almost immediately finds the first artifact. After that though, things got a little bit more difficult.

Luce is finally able to see some of her past incarnations, but there is so much more she is to recover from her memory. Once I found out the big “secret” I wasn’t all that surprised. The more I thought about it, especially after learning more of the origins of the curse, I was like – duh, *face-palm*. Though we do get more information, there were just more questions created. But, the self-awareness the Luce gains was a journey that not all female protagonists take. Well done.

“The past is important for all the information and wisdom it holds. But you can get lost in it. You’ve got to learn to keep the knowledge of the past with you as you pursue the present.”

What I really liked was the background information that was finally revealed about all the different types of angels, fallen angels/demons, Outcasts, the Elders, the Scale, etc… There were some definite parallels to how people react to religion and God, especially the Scale and the Elders who think they know better than everyone else and make it their mission to be the judge and jury. I think they were scarier than the demons.

“If a fallen angel desires to reenter the jurisdiction of the grace of God, we must approach the Throne directly. There are no shortcuts.”

The ending was just disappointing. I wanted more, not just a mere possibility of more. But like I said, there is closure. I did not like that we lost so many characters along the way; some of my favorites at that. And my biggest problem of all was with the identity of the Throne. I am all for creative license, but when you have so much of a story coming from one dogma I think it should be uniform; not throw something in just to be different. But that is just my beef.

Overall, I loved the Fallen series, but I wished things had ended up differently. Lauren Kate created a story that spanned thousands of years and told of a love so powerful that not even death could destroy. Kate’s writing is haunting and beautiful and her insight into life, love and faith is nearly incomparable in the Speculative Fiction genre. I will continue to recommend the series because I do love the story and it is just one of those that just stick with you, that you continue to feel and think about long after reading.

“If I were yours and you were mine, I would want you to be exactly as you are. I would never eclipse you with my desires.”

Favorite Quote:  “There is no darkness as dark as a great light corrupted.”

★ ★ ★ ★
 My favorite speculative fiction series to date! I recommend to those who love romance, action, adventure, and a little hell along the way.

Where to Buy:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Indiebound

Stalk the Author:

Twitter

Website

Facebook

Goodreads                                                   Book Trailer

Dominion Blog Tour: Review

A big Thank You to Melody for choosing Breathe In BooKs to read and review Dominion and to YAReads for letting me participate in the Dominion Tour.

Dominion
(Guardian Angels, #1)
by Melody Manful
Published by Authorhouse
Format: eBook - Kindle August 25, 2012

Synopsis:

I Dare You.
Look Over Your Shoulders.
Do You See Them?
They are behind you...
They are always behind you.

Abigail Cells had a nightmare the day before she met Gideon, the new guy in school who has every girl drooling just to be near him. In her nightmare, she was murdered by a magical creature. As she gets to know Gideon, she begins to remember pieces of her nightmare, and was shocked when Gideon turned out to be the creature from her nightmare. Who is Gideon really, should Abby allow herself to fall completely for him, or is he the next disaster waiting to happen?

My Review:
I know, you are reading the synopsis and looking at the cover you are thinking "Not another angel book!" But let me tell you this isn't like everything that is out there, and I have read a lot of the speculative romance genre. There are two races of angels/demons called Grandinians and Grantinians. What is different is that they are not just angels, but guardian angels. Melody has created creatures that are invariably different, but have to work together - one trying to keep their charge alive, and the other hell bent on putting their charge in harm's way.

Abigail is a girl who lives inside her head. She is constantly trying to guess at what steps she should take and what exactly she desires. She does do a slight 'damsel in distress' act by putting herself into danger, but she is still a strong character. I understand her inner struggle and that she is a teenager and sees only what is in front of her, but she could have looked a little more at the bigger picture. Abigail isn't just a normal teenager either. She has abilities that are inexplicable, ones she shouldn't have. She hasn't really lived a normal life either with a mom who is a designer and a famous father, she is always being watched by somebody - she even has her own bodyguards.

Enter Abigail's guardians, Gideon and Tristan. Gideon is the bad boy; the guy you want to hate because he is the bad, exciting guy that makes life and love adventurous. Tristan is the good guy; the angel who does right always, and makes it look easy, as if no other choice exists. Tristan is the golden boy, the one who should be the love interest, and should be the easy choice. However, I tend to root for the bad guys, the demons, the fallen ones, even though I know I shouldn't, and Abigail does too. And Gideon makes it hard to guess if he is really who you think he is, or if there is more to the story.

The story has many twists and surprises that will keep you turning pages into the night trying to find out what is happening. The world that the author created was interesting and imaginative. The story was well-written and there weren't any dull points - a big plus! The ending was frustrating!! I would love a book to have an ending that is wrapped in a pretty bow, but this isn't the case. Questions are left unanswered and links between people are never quite connected, but I am hopeful that Melody will give her readers the answers in the sequel. Right, Melody, right?!

★ ★ ★ ★ ½
 I recommend this book to any lover of YA, paranormal and speculative romance.

FTC Advisory: I was given a copy of this book from the author for an honest review. No backroom deals or whispered promises were made. *I reviewed an unedited copy of Dominion.

Where to Buy:

Purchase on Kindle August 25th!

Stalk the Author:

Website

Goodreads

Facebook

Twitter

YouTube