“Shadow Souls” By L.J. Smith Review

Elena Gilbert’s love, the vampire Stefan Salvatore, has been captured and imprisoned by demonic spirits who are wreaking havoc in Fell’s Church. While her friends Bonnie and Meredith explore the evil that has taken over their town, Elena goes in search of Stefan. In order to find him, she entrusts her life to Stefan’s brother, Damon Salvatore, the handsome but deadly vampire who wants Elena, body and soul. Along with her childhood friend Matt, they set out for the slums of the Dark Dimension, where Stefan is being held captive. It is rumored to be a world where vampires and demons roam free, but humans must live enslaved to their supernatural masters. Elena will stop at nothing to free Stefan. Yet with each passing day the tension between Elena and Damon grows, and she is faced with a terrible decision: Which brother does she really want?

To be fully honest here I’ve had some expectations for this book which this book didn’t live up to.

The first 2/3 of this book were super boring and I was many times very near DNF-ing this book but I didn’t, which I happy that I didn’t because the last 1/3 of this book was worth it. To be fully honest I’ve heard of better fan-fictions better than the first 2 / 3 of this book.

The last 1/3 of this book was super interesting and enjoyable, and it really was a page turner. 

The first 2/3 of this book was really a waist of time because it could have been sliced down to few chapters. Because the majority of what happened in the first 2/3 of this book was just talk between Damon, Elena, Bonnie and Meredith. 

However reading this book after the first book in the “the vampire diaries: the return” trilogy I must say that this book wasn’t half bad as the first book in this trilogy was.

The characters here, improves and become better but also make better decisions than they did in the previous books. To be honest this book is the first book in the vampire dairies book series that didn’t make me want to hit my head against a wall because of the dumb decisions made my characters.

The writing style here was easily the best thing from this whole book. Because it felt more like seeing the plot happening before your eyes than reading a book. I personally love when this happen. 

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“The Return: Nightfall” By L.J. Smith Review

Now that a supernatural force has brought Elena back from the dead, all handsome, brooding Stefan wants is to keep her safe. But when he is lured away from Fell’s Church, sleek, powerful Damon seizes his chance to win Elena over, unaware of the danger they’re both in. A malevolent being has infiltrated the town and is growing stronger. Able to possess Damon at will, the creature is also drawn to Elena and the new power she has acquired. But it’s after more than Elena’s power: It thirsts for her death.

This book is the first book in the “The Vampire Diaries: The Return” series which is a continuation of the first 4 books in this series. 

This book take place a day or 2 after the events of book 4 in this series. It took me a more time to finish this book than the previous 4 books in this series. And in my opinion this book is so far the weakest book in The Vampire Diaries book series. 

The majority of this book happened to be boring, and only the last 40 pages were very interesting. But the 90% of this book feels like the author trying to fill up the space and have a long book. 

The beginning of this book was somehow cute but it could have been interesting but it turned out to be pretty boring with some cute moments here and there. And the middle part of this book was super boring and all I wanted is to skip it but of course I couldn’t. 

The characters here become more likeable and more enjoyable. And the characters also become more relatable. 

The plot here was very weird and I honestly needed to think about for couple of days before I’ve began writing this review. The plot here was super weird and very random which really surprised me because I wasn’t expecting it. But this in a way got me more interested to continue to read this series which I will do.

The writing style here was very easy as in the previous books. And it really made a good mix with the easy and strange plot. 

To be fully honest this book felt more like a fan fiction than a continuation of the first 4 books in this series.

This book didn’t end at a cliffhanger it rather felt like it was a happy ending to the series. But of course it isn’t since there are more books in this series. Which really made me disappoint because it really doesn’t give us a reason to continue to read the series.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“The Battle of the Labyrinth” By Rick Riordan Review

Percy Jackson isn’t expecting freshman orientation to be any fun. But when a mysterious mortal acquaintance appears at his potential new school, followed by demon cheerleaders, things quickly move from bad to worse. In this fourth installment of the blockbuster series, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near. Even the safe haven of Camp Half-Blood grows more vulnerable by the minute as Kronos’s army prepares to invade its once impenetrable borders. To stop the invasion, Percy and his demigod friends must set out on a quest through the Labyrinth – a sprawling underground world with stunning surprises at every turn.

I continue to not be the biggest fan of the characters I was in the first 3 books in this series. Because there something in them which doesn’t seem right to me. Of course the characters are very good in this series but I just me being very picky.

My main problem with the characters in this series is that there isn’t character development. They are exactly the same as they were in the beginning of book one.

This book repeats the same things as the previous 3 books have told us thousands of times which really annoyed me. Because I hate reading or hearing the same thing over and over again day in and day out.

When it comes to descriptions there could have been longer and more detailed in my opinion at least.

This book have the same problems as the previous books in this series. And the problem is that the action is very slow at the beginning and at the end. And the middle is just confusing because all action is put into 100 pages or less.

Of course we get introduced more new characters in this book but it feels like we get the new characters introduced just to forgot about them in the next chapters and for them to never come back again in this series.

In my opinion this series would done better if it was a trilogy rather than a 5 book series.

For me personally this book was boring with some very few moments went the action started to get interesting but almost imminently went down. 

The writing style here was okay. To be honest it was probably my favourite thing about this book. In a strange way it made me like this book much more. 

So far in this series I feel like there are the same things happening. And that there are the same mistakes made by the main characters which really made me want to bang my head against a tree. 

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“The Titan’s Curse” By Rick Riordan Review

It’s not everyday you find yourself in combat with a half-lion, half-human. But when you’re the son of a Greek god, it happens. And now my friend Annabeth is missing, a goddess is in chains and only five half-blood heroes can join the quest to defeat the doomsday monster. Oh, and guess what? The Oracle has predicted that not all of us will survive.

I’m still not aboard with this series even after being half way through this series. To be honest I am not the biggest fan of greek mythology so there are couple of things which annoys me or which I find confusing and boring.

I continue to not be the biggest fan of the characters I was in the first 2 books in this series. Because there something in them which doesn’t seem right to me. Of course the characters are very good in this series but I just me being very picky.

My main problem with the characters in this series is that there isn’t character development. They are exactly the same as they were in the beginning of book one.

This book had an small improvement in action from the previous 2 books. The action in this book is more interesting and enjoyable but there are still something missing in my opinion. 

So far in this series I feel like there are the same things happening. And that there are the same mistakes made by the main characters which really made me want to bang my head against a tree. 

Of course we get introduced more new characters in this book but it feels like we get the new characters introduced just to forgot about them in the next chapters and for them to never come back again in this series.

When it comes to descriptions there could have been longer and more detailed in my opinion at least.

The plot here was very slow at the beginning and at the end. And the middle part in this book was too fast for me to fully enjoy it. For me personally it was too fast and I couldn’t keep my mind around everything which was happening. The previous 2 books in this series have the same problem.

The writing style here was okay. To be honest it was probably my favourite thing about this book. In a strange way it made me like this book much more. 

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“The Sea of Monsters” By Rick Riordan Review

The heroic son of Poseidon makes an action-packed comeback in the second must-read installment of Rick Riordan’s amazing young readers series. Starring Percy Jackson, a “half blood” whose mother is human and whose father is the God of the Sea, Riordan’s series combines cliffhanger adventure and Greek mythology lessons that results in true page-turners that get better with each installment.

To be honest this second book in the series of Percy Jackson was weaker than the first book in this series. But it still enjoyed it in a way.

The plot here was a little bit all over the place and at times I had hard time to keep track of everything which was happening.

Monsters here were amazing, I really enjoyed reading about them. They made this book so much better for me.

There is a lot of action in this book which I’ve enjoyed a lot. There was something always happening.

In this book I came to enjoy the Percy’s narration of the events. Which it really surprised me.

I continue to not be the biggest fan of the characters in this series. Because there something in them which doesn’t seem right to me. Of course the characters are very good in this series but I just me being very picky.

The ending here was very slow which made me disappointed in a way. Because after reading all of the actions in this book the very slow ending really took the wind out of it for me.

When it comes to descriptions there could have been longer and more detailed in my opinion at least.

The writing style here was amazing. To be honest it was probably my favourite thing about this book. In a strange way it made me like this book much more. 

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“The Maidens” By Alex Michaelides Review

Edward Fosca is a murderer. Of this Mariana is certain. But Fosca is untouchable. A handsome and charismatic Greek Tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students alike—particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens. Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana’s niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge. 

To be fully honest this book don’t live up to the hype. 

The mystery part in this book was super engaging and interesting and I loved to follow the investigation which the main character was doing. But the final where the whole mystery is explained was really not what I’ve expected and it had really disappointed me. 

This book for me didn’t feel quite as a psychological thriller but more like a shitty ended thriller. But that just my opinion so take it for what you want. 

The plot here was the very good, but the ending was really disappointing and it had ruined the entire book for me. And it left us in a huge cliff-hanger which really made me pissed of even more.

The characters here were okay for the most part. There were some characters which were painted as bad characters were they shouldn’t be and there were some good characters which really didn’t deserve it.

The main character was somehow likeable but she really is bad at catching little hints which really made me scream in anger at times and made me want to bang my head against the wall when the big finally came around. 

The writing style here is somehow okay but it really felt very weak at times especially when you compare it with the plot. 

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“The Push” By Ashley Audrain Review

The Push is a tour de force you will read in a sitting, an utterly immersive novel that will challenge everything you think you know about motherhood, about what we owe our children, and what it feels like when women are not believed.

Ive heard a lot of good about this book, and after reading this book I needed to be honest and say that it didn’t live up to my expectations.

This book is a kind of psychological thriller, and defiantly is uncomfortable to read at times but in my opinion that’s what made this book fun to read. Because it’s disturbing at times.

There are a lot of books with the same premise that the daughter is a monster but the way the author presents the story to us makes it unique. Because we are stuck with thinking about if the daughter is truly a monster or if its the mother who doesn’t love her daughter and thinking of her as an insane psychopath.

The writing style was pretty easy in this book, but at the same time it made this book so much easier and faster to read. Which really went well with this book. 

The majority of this book was very interesting and mysterious but the last 10% of this book really went downhill and pretty much destroyed the book for me personally.

The characters here are more or less okay. They seem flat most of the time, but there are times when they feel like real human beings. The characters here get some good moments here and there throughout the book, but these moments were really rare.

The dad in this book is too love blind towards his daughter and completely denies that there might be something wrong with his daughter even thou many people tells him that something might be wrong with her. This fact really made me angry and frustrated because we get a lot of events involving the daughter which makes it clear that she isn’t a normal child with normal child behaviour.  

This book has a good premise but the way it ended just ruined the entire book. Because we spend the entire book thinking if the daughter is a psychopath or if it just the mother who is overdramatising everything her daughter does. And the ending just pretty much summarises the whole book that the daughter is a psychopath and the mother is a overdramatising queen.

Once you have around 80 pages left of this book, the ending becomes very predictable and really leaves you annoyed, frustrated and unsatisfied.

And the ending really felt like you read this book a million times before. Due to its shitty thriller ending and how it surprised the plot of this entire book in one line. Which really made me want to throw this book against a wall or burn it.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“From Dead to Worse” By Charlaine Harris Review

After the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina and the manmade explosion at the vampire summit, everyone human and otherwise is stressed, including Louisiana cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse, who is trying to cope with the fact that her boyfriend Quinn has gone missing. It’s clear that things are changing whether the weres and vamps of her corner of Louisiana like it or not. And Sookie, Friend to the Pack and blood-bonded to Eric Northman, leader of the local vampire community is caught up in the changes.

This book is very engaging to be fully honest here I didn’t expect that because of the 2 previous books in this series which were meh.

The plot here was slow at the beginning but it picked up a little bit at the end which really wasn’t enough for me because I wanted more action.

Even thou we get a little bit of the action we still get engaged in this book because there is a vampire war and a were war going on. Which I personally found very enjoyable and interesting. Because of the 2 wars going on in this book we get more information and details on both the vampires and the shapeshifters. And we get more info on the hierarchy on these both groups.

In a way we get 4 different storylines in this book because there is the vampire war going on, were war, sookie’s boyfriend going missing and sookie trying to survive everything. To be honest it was confusing to keep track of everything and what problem we are going through at each page.

The characters here are very likeable and the character development is amazing in this series. The characters are still are on the annoying side in this book but it doesn’t bother me anymore because over the 8 books I grown to like them. 

Even thou all these 8 books in this series so far take place in less than 1 year really don’t feel like it. It feels more like years went by because of the character development. Which really made me give this series a little bit of extra points.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“All Together Dead” By Charlaine Harris Review

Louisiana cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse has her hands full dealing with every sort of undead and paranormal creature imaginable. And after being betrayed by her longtime vampire love, Sookie must not only deal with a new man in her life—the shapeshifter Quinn—but also contend with the long-planned vampire summit. The summit is a tense situation. The vampire queen of Louisiana is in a precarious position, her power base weakened by hurricane damage to New Orleans. And there are some vamps who would like to finish what nature started. Soon, Sookie must decide what side she’ll stand with. And her choice may mean the difference between survival and all-out catastrophe.

This book was disappointing in a way. Because there were even more drama than in the previous book and even less action.

This book was for sure interesting and the mystery was intriguing. But the ending here was too fast and too abrupt for me personally.

The first 2 / 3 of this book was about the normal life to Sookie and how pissed off she is on Bill. And the last 1 / 3 was about an vampire hotel. The action in this book didn’t take more than 5 pages all together. 

However this book doesn’t disappoint with givings us more information and details on vampires, werwolves, fairies and in general the entire world of this series. 

The characters here are becoming more and more likeable. While reading the first book in this series I didn’t like Sookie but now I just love here. It might be because I used the time to read the series I just became used to her.

Every character gets more and more development with each book which makes men love them more and more. And because of this I grow to enjoy this series more and more. 

In this book we get way too little of Eric. But am glad that we get very little of Bill because for me he is the worst asshole there could be.

However the descriptions in the last part of this book were painful but also ridiculous during some moments.

The plot here goes up in a way for me because the plot starts to of in the fire section direction of a lot of deaths and violence in a way. I like it because I prefer vampires who wants to kill you and not kiss you.

Overall this book is very enjoyable, interesting and fun to read but at the same time it is very frustrating.

If I have to choice this book wasn’t my favourite book in this series. It might be one fact the second worst in this series so far for me personally.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“The Beetle Who Went on His Travels” By Hans Christian Andersen Review

On the day that the emperor’s horse received his golden horseshoes as a reward for his heroic deeds, the beetle who shared his stable was very jealous. The smith refused to make shoes for his little feet and the beetle’s anger went up a notch. So, furious, he left the stable and set off to discover the world alone.

I gotta be honest here and say that after reading all of the stories written by Hans Christian Andersen, this one wasn’t the best.

This story doesn’t have any moral, reading it as an adult isn’t as fun as it would be for a child.

All of the characters here was pretty flat, but it is acceptable because it is a short story which means we don’t have a lot of time to get to know the characters in it

The writing style here was okay. But I can’t say a lot about it because it is a short story so of course we don’t get a lot here.

I Give This Book 2 / 5