The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Expected publication: September 13th 2011 by Doubleday
387 pages
Source: ARC from Knopf Doubleday via NetGalley

Truth be told: this story could have been written in less than 100 pages. The plot was simplistic and anticlimatic. The conclusion just a bit too easily resolved for my taste. But I will read more from Ms. Morgenstern.

Because the entire book tasted like honey.

I'm serious; if you buy a copy of The Night Circus and lick the cover, it would be sweet. This book is beautiful writing at its finest, with amazing word choice and descriptions galore. it makes me pity my circus-less childhood. it makes me pity the world because Le Cirque des Rêves is only a figment of the author's imagination. It makes me pity myself, because the only way for me to experience Le Cirque is through the printed words across the page.

Reading this book was like dreaming.

Quite apt, since Le Cirque des Rêves does translate to the Circus of Dreams. However, if the entire novel was one long dream, it would be a very jarring and bumpy dream rather than a smooth one. For some odd reason, Ms. Morgenstern felt the need to jump from here to there to some other place and then back again in her narrative. It's like living some sort of weird parallel life at five different instances in time all at once. This contributes to the lack of tension in the novel, too. Whenever we get to the high point of a chapter, all of it suddenly disappears as we jump to another time or place with another set of characters.

Knowing what I do now about The Night Circus and its plot imperfections, I would still have read it. If only to walk through Les Cirque des Rêves through the characters. if only to visit the Ice Garden and the Anthologies of Memory and the Cloud Maze through another's eyes.

Rating: 3.5

between fairly intriguing and delightfully scrumptious

Dreamfever by Karen Marie Moning

Published August 25th 2009 by Delacorte Press
388 pages
Series: Fever #4
Source: Borrowed

It's a good thing I’d already downloaded Shadowfever before I started Dreamfever, since I’m pretty sure I would have chucked my precious Kindle across the room and then proceeded to repeatedly bang my head against a hard surface otherwise. I was totally expecting the “big revelation” since book 3, though. BOOYA.

Admission: I’m addicted to Barrons. If the guy doesn’t show up every once in a while, I use the “search” option to try to find the next page he appears in... That is the extent of my addiction.

I am a sucker for HEA, and I have to admit, Ms. Moning is going to have to do a lot of plot twisting to get Shadowfever to end like that. The reviews for book 5 I’ve glanced over all seem pretty optimistic, though. So. Here. I. Go...

Rating: 4.5

between delightfully scrumptious and incomprehensibly awesome

Faefever by Karen Marie Moning

Published September 16th 2008 by Delacorte Press
327 pages
Series: Fever #3
Source: Borrowed

Are you kidding me? What kind of ending is that?
/seeths silently in a corner/
This series just keeps getting more and more addicting, if that's even possible. Amazing characters and over-arching plot-line. Unputdownable in a stay-up-late-and-read-until-you-can-barely-keep-your-eyes-open sort of way. I'm very glad that the entire series had already finished publication before I started book 1. Waiting for the next book of anything is possibly the most agonizing feeling ever (I learned that the hard way through The Hunger Games trilogy). Going to have to read Dreamfever really soon.

Rating: 4

delightfully scrumptious

Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs

Published January 30th 2007 by Ace
292 pages
Series: Mercedes Thompson #2
Source: Borrowed

This is quite possible my favorite PNR series, although truthfully, that isn't saying much, since I haven't read that many... Blood Bound is action-packed from beginning to end, and the interactions between Mercy and Adam/Sam/Stefan are just too adorable. I think this series would make a great TV show, actually. Much more so than the Sookie series. Will read the rest of the Mercy series sometime in the near future!

Rating: 4

delightfully scrumptious

Blood Song by Cat Adams

Published June 2nd 2010 by Tor Books
364 pages
Series: Blood Singer #1
Source: Borrowed

Rating: 3 Stars

Even though I am fairly new to the adult PNR/urban-fantasy genre, I have read my fair share of vampire novels. Blood Song turned out to be an enjoyable read with a unique twist on traditional vampirism. The protagonist Celia is the usual kick-ass 20-/30-something heroine with multiple guys pursuing her as Celia herself remains clueless to the attention. In this reality, however, the entire world knows of the existence of preternatural beings. Some humans have even uncovered their own hidden powers.

The first half of the book was slightly hard to get through, and the plot felt almost random at times. There were some characters who felt kind of... unnecessary, I suppose. The ending is not overly cliffhanger-ish, but does connect to the second book, Siren Song, which I will read one of these days...

Rating: 3

fairly intriguing

Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse? by Max Brallier

Published February 8th 2011 by Gallery
288 pages
Source: Review Copy via Flamingnet Teen Book Reviews

You’re just one of the many 25-year-olds in Manhattan with a monotonous life and equally (if not more) monotonous job. Well, until the day zombies take over. Gruesome killing on every street corner; an unhealthy abundance of blood, gore, guts, and brains. Your survival depends on you -- solely you -- and the decisions you make with each turn during your race for victory. Die, become a zombie, or perhaps, stay alive until the very end -- it's all up to you.

Maybe I was deprived as a child, but I was never given any Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) books. Reading through Max Brallier’s Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse? turned out to be quite an experience. Peppered with interesting characters that slather raw meat juice on themselves to imitate zombies and others that are just alarmingly trigger-happy with a machine gun, this book was an intense read. That is, if you don’t mind dying and instantaneously resuscitating yourself a couple hundred times.

Of course, the burning question here is: can you survive the zombie apocalypse?

Rating: 3

fairly intriguing