Wednesday favorites: The Fall of Lisa Bellow

     Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Here is my honest review:

     When I started reading this book, I thought it was going to be something psychological in the way All the bright places was: you go inside the characters mind, you know something is totally wrong there, you see improvement, but in the end you get an ending you sure didn’t see coming. But I got a surprise when I understood from the first chapter that the book is going to be dark, in one way or another, is going to be mind challenging, because you will start to think about things, and is going to be a masterpiece in the end.

     I think it’s a mind challenging because it makes you think, it makes you think of the book as fiction, but it makes you think it can happen in real life. And then you get in the skin of the main character and you ask yourself: how would I react if I were to be in her situation? How would I react at an age of 28 and how would I react at an age of 14? Yes, I don’t really like that person, I could care less about her/him, but what if I would have been the one in her/his place? How would I want people to react to the whole situation? How would my mind feel about the tragic events? And so on. The story takes you from one point of view, with some basic ideas, and then each idea takes you to a new point of view, with other ideas. It’s like a whole complex math formula that you unfold at chapter one, and you must solve it and get a result before the end of the last page. That’s why, we get to see both the point of view of Meredith on the situation, but also her mom’s point of view. No one wants to be in a life or death situation, so when “life” chooses you, you are relieved and happy, but you are also marked with distress because “death” could have chosen you. It didn’t happened, but there was a possibility for it to happend. 

     So, did I like it? Yes, absolutely yes! I didn’t actually knew what to expect of the book, because All the bright places kept me focused with the love story, so I was in a way afraid I might give up on the book after the first two chapters, but that wasn’t the case. I really couldn’t put the book down, unless I needed to sleep or to work.

Wednesday favorites: The Mortal Instruments

    For the past a month and a half I read all the books from the Mortal Instruments series, and I have to say the journey was magical, full of emotions and heartbreaking from the beginning till the end. I bought the first 4 books over a year ago, but I never had the time and the heart to start reading the books, because I saw the movie and I knew I will be amazed by the books and that I wouldn't want to put the first book down without having the next one to read, without having the last book of the series.

     I can't talk about each book, because the story starts in book one and ends in book 6, so we have a continuous story line that can't be broken into 6 parts. You discover the magical world of shadowhunters and you begin to wish for it to be true: you want the runes of the shadowhunters, you want the magic of the warlocks, you want the power of the vampires and you want the beauty of the elves. In other words, you want everything.

     You can't help but notice the development of the main characters: Clary becoming from a normal person, a mundane, to a powerful shadowhunter, one that possesses special powers that will help her put order in the disturbed world of the shadowhunters, one that will remain in the history; Jace, becoming from a person that only knows how to fight, how to push everyone away, how to be prepared to die every time he goes in combat, to a person that knows how to love and how to live for the person he loves; Alec, becoming from a person who is afraid of expressing his feelings and who follows the rules of the Clave, to a person who wants to fight along everyone and who fights for the one he loves and for them to be together; Isabelle, becoming from the cold queen, that will step on your heart with her high heels, to the girls that finally finds love and is not afraid to reject it, but actually to embrace it; Simon, becoming from a simple mundane, with a normal life next to his best friend, to someone able to accept the changes in his life.

     Of course, there are other characters, important to the action, that need to be mentioned like Luke, Jocelyn, Sebastian, Maia, Jordan, Valentine, but the above 5 are the ones that matter the most. The action revolves around those 5, even if at times the books give you the impression it is either about Jace, Clary, Valentine or Sebastian. The main 5 makes the story happen, it makes it spin. 

     Yes, I am impressed by the books, and do I need to mention? Hi, I'm Alexandra, I'm 28 years old, and I freaking love the story of the Mortal Instruments series. Oh, and I need to say I am impressed by something else. I am Romanian, so it was a shocking moment for me when Jace and Sebastian we talking in Romanian. I had to read that part 3 times before my mind to fully process what I was reading. I mean, one, they are really talking in Romanian even in the original book in english, and two, it's a book where vampires exist, but they are not the ones talking in Romanian. This is a plus, a big plus from me, because Cassandra didn't use the ultimate stereotype everyone uses in a book with vampires: vampires come from Romania.

     So, if you want to be hooked up in a series for some time, please start reading the Mortal instruments. You won't regret it.

Wednesday favorites: Fear Me, Fear Me Not

     I received this book as an ARC from Elodie herself, so here is my review.

     I freaking love this book. I can't say it's one of the best books I read so far, but it's definitely different and special: you have romance and you have thriller, all in one book. It kept me on needles as I was reading more, as I was turning from one page to the other, as the action was moving to the next stage.

     And I have to admit, I'm putting this book in the category of books that I couldn't predict. I thought the killer was someone else, but then I got the surprise of my life when I got near the end of the book. I was so not expecting that, at all. I was like "What???!!!!", as more secrets were revealed, as more action was passing. And I am good at predicting, even when authors hide their little secrets in the titles of the chapters.

     I do like when writers use a lot of details when they describe their characters or when they want you to know more about them, which is not the case right now, but I guess that didn't fit with the theme of the book. So, it definitely isn't a normal romance book. And also, I loved that the characters had a history together, and it doesn't start with your typically boy/girl meets girl/boy for the first time and they just fall in love.  

Synopsis:

SCREAM meets FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS in this new young adult romantic suspense novel by Elodie Nowodazkij. 

Fear is power. They fear me. They don’t fear me enough. Every year a girl disappears in Gavert County, Texas. Their bodies are found days, sometimes months, later with an angel wing carved on their face. They call me “the Angel Killer” and I’m on the hunt again. But this time, it’s personal. 

Seventeen-year-old cheerleader Erin Hortz has been warned about the Angel Killer all her life. She never walks alone in the dark. She doesn’t talk to strangers. She doesn’t accept drinks at parties. All she wants is to finish her senior year with a win at the Miss Junior Queen of Hearts pageant, capture the perfect light over the lake with her new camera, and finally catch the attention of her best friend Nadia’s brother—former football star Dimitri Kuklev. Since his injury, they’ve been spending a lot of time together. And getting to know the real Dimitri—not the one she put on a pedestal in her diary is better than she could ever have imagined. And she’s falling hard. 

Nineteen-year-old Dimitri’s injury brought him from football superstar with universities from all around the country knocking at his door to not knowing what he wants to do with his life. Taking classes at the local community college is supposed to get him back on track, but all he wants is to be on the field again. The only person who seems to understand him is the one he swore to keep in the friend zone: Erin. His sister Nadia’s best friend and the reason why he can’t keep a girlfriend. Between their early morning jogs, their time spent at the lake laughing, and their late night conversations, he’s having a hard time remembering why it’s such a bad idea. 

But when Nadia doesn’t come home after a party, Dimitri and Erin know they must find her before it’s too late—even if that means risking their own lives and everything Erin’s ever known.

Because the main suspect is Erin’s father.