Mark This Book Monday: The Return by Jennifer L Armentrout!!

Hello there!

Happy Monday guys! This week I'm quite excited because I'm finally seeing my apartment for the first time! And to start the week right I'm having the first entry for this week's Mark This Book Monday!

This first book is counted towards two of my challenges, its the very first book counted towards my 2015 Mythology Reading Challenge (finally!!) and also counted towards my 2015 Releases category in the 105 Challenge!

The Return by Jennifer L. Armentrout

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Covenant series was my first forey into the JLA books and given that they deal with Greek mythology and have great humour, amazing chemistry and romance and plenty of action and political intrigue!

Alex was a great main character and I was a Team Aiden through and through, so when I heard that we were getting a spin-off with Seth as a main character, I was both very excited to go back to the Covenant world and a bit wary wondering about what Seth we'll get to see.

We meet Seth still on a bit of a self-hate spiral, focusing only on doing what the Gods tell him and seem to revel on the bloodbath. Then he gets a different mission from our favourite and most irritating god, Apollo. He needs to protect a human and bring them to safety. And that becomes the biggest challenge he could have ever imagined!

I wasn't Seth's biggest fan on Covenant but I really become to appreciate him now that we get to see his POV. How broken he is after all his actions and how he feels like he deserves whatever torture comes his way and he fights and kills to ignore the pain. And his journey is quite an unexpected one!

We meet Josie in college, where she is trying to keep up with her school work while dealing with the news of her mother's relapse into her mental health issues, and then she's thrown head first into a world she never knew about, fighting for her life and getting her head to wrap around the fact that she really isn't going nuts and her mum really was not crazy.

Seth is not the only character we meet again, because of course Apollo is back, and I must confess I have a big soft post for him! Every interaction between Seth and Apollo ends up being hilarious one way or another, and Apollo always manages to make me smile/snort/giggle. We also meet Deacon and Luke again, and I'm so happy that they're there for both Seth and Josie, even if they might have not been Seth's biggest fans at some point.

Josie is such a trooper! She understandably freaks about her new life and does a few stupid things here and there, but nothing difficult to understand while she's still wrapping her head around about her new situation, and I love how she wants to take some control back into her own hands, and she decides to train and learn how to fit.

The interactions between Seth and Josie have a fantastic back and forth and amazing banter and oh boy, the chemistry those two have... scorching!! JLA knows how to write romp scenes for sure because oh boy!! *fans self*

This was a fantastic first book for the new series, and I'm quite looking forward to see what will come next, and hoping we'll meet a few more old friends along the way. Very well deserved 4 stars for this one!



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The Return by Jennifer L Armentrout Release Day Launch!!

Hey there guys!!

This Monday was release day for The Return, the spin-off series for the Covenant series, by Jennifer L Armentrout!!

As soon as it downloaded to my Kindle, I just had to read it, and you guys need to read it! Even if you haven't read the Covenant series, that I highly recommend!, you need to give this one a try! Seth is quite a character, he's both swoony, cocky and a bit annoying (or quite a bit, depending on who you ask!)!

The Return by Jennifer L Armentrout

The Fates are cackling their bony asses off...

It's been a year since Seth made the deal with the gods that pledged his life to them. And so far, the jobs they've given him have been violent and bloody--which is kind of all right with him. But now Apollo has something else in mind for Seth. He's got to play protector while keeping his hands and fingers off, and for someone who really has a problem with restraint, this new assignment might be the most challenging yet.

Josie has no idea what this crazy hot guy's deal might be, but it's a good bet that his arrival means the new life she started after leaving home is about to be thrown into an Olympian-sized blender turned up to puree. Either Josie is going insane or a nightmare straight out of ancient myth is gunning for her.

But it might be the unlikely attraction simmering between her and the golden-eyed, secret-keeping Seth that may prove to be the most dangerous thing of all.

Because history has once again been flipped to repeat.

  

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Excerpt

 And just in case you guys need some help deciding if you want to get it, or if you ought to start it already and ignore the rest of the TBR pile as I did... I have an excerpt to share with you all!!


"Shaking my head, I pivoted around and walked down the long hall to my dorm room. As I reached the door, the shiver was at the base of my spine again, dancing its way up until it traveled across my shoulders. My heart turned over heavily and I closed my eyes.

Twice in one day.
Oh God.
I’d never felt this more than once in any span of several days.

Swallowing hard, I wrapped my fingers around the doorknob, battling the urge to turn and scan the hall, because I knew no one would be there.

Dragging in a deep breath, I opened the door and stepped inside the room. My brows flew up, and I forgot about the feeling as I closed the door behind me.

Erin was sprawled on the floor, palms pressed down on a mat, her spandex-covered behind jutting up toward the sky. She turned her head, peering at me from under her armpit.

Her armpit.

“How in the world do you get your neck to bend like that without killing yourself?” I asked.

“Skills, yo.”

Erin did yoga and meditation religiously, saying it helped merge her yin and yang together or something. She’d once told me she had a hell of a mean streak, and contorting herself into painful-looking positions helped keep “good vibrations” around her. Which was strange, because I’d never seen Erin lose her temper in the two years I’d known her.

Erin unfolded herself from some kind of downward dog or upward pony and grinned at me. “Check under the bed.”

Curious, I dropped my bag and stepped over her legs. Bending down, I lifted the bedspread and my eyes grew to the size of saucers when I spotted the bottle. I snatched it up and clutched it to my chest as I whipped toward her. “José!”

Her grin spread into a smile. “The best boyfriend ever.”"

About the Author:

# 1 NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY Bestselling author Jennifer lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia. All the rumors you’ve heard about her state aren’t true. When she’s not hard at work writing. she spends her time reading, working out, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, and hanging out with her husband and her Jack Russell Loki.

Her dreams of becoming an author started in algebra class, where she spent most of her time writing short stories….which explains her dismal grades in math. Jennifer writes young adult paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance. She is published with Spencer Hill Press, Entangled Teen and Brazen, Disney/Hyperion and Harlequin Teen. Her book Obsidian has been optioned for a major motion picture and her Covenant Series has been optioned for TV.

She also writes adult and New Adult romance under the name J. Lynn. She is published by Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.

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Giveaway

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Friday Reads: Sentinel by Jennifer L Armentrout!

Well, Friday Reads do return to their more usual schedule, with a few posts again, trying to catch up on reviews I have pending after my vacation time!

I'm starting with the final book in the Covenant series. The final book of a series always has mixed feeling and this was no exception.


Sentinel by Jennifer L. Armentrout

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Sentinel was one of my very awaited books of the year since it is the final book in the Covenant series.

Somehow I am in two minds with this book, because I cannot say I didn't enjoy it, cause I did, but it just left me less emotionally affected than I expected. Deity and Apollyon did manage to grab me and shake much more than this one did, so I guess I felt a lil let down.

Fair word of warning, I cannot review Sentinel in a spoiler free way, be it for the series as a whole or for the book in itself. From here on, spoilers may ensue.


After the emotional and action avalanche that Deity, Elixir and Apollyon were, I had extremely high expectations for Sentinel and probably a bit unrealistic ones. The thing is, nothing really bothered me while reading the book, I loved Alex as always, Aiden was well... swoon-worthy and their relationship was great, they had to deal with tough stuff and they managed to keep the drama to a minimum and set a decent example of communication, most of the time. They found themselves outnumbered but with some unexpected allies and others not-really-so-unexpected.

But once the book was over I felt a little... "meh" I guess? I just don't know how to describe it, and a few days have passed. It's not that I'm not happy with the ending, since Jennifer L Armentrout was kind enough with her readers and gave us a pretty happy ending, even if it seemed it wasn't so for a while. I got a bit of a "is this it?" kind of a feeling once I closed the book.

Since I can't really define what made me not give this book 5 stars, or why I got that feeling of unease upon finishing it, I'm gonna tell you what I liked.

Alex, our dear Alexandria Andros. I absolutely love her crazy headstrong, resilient, snarky and sarcastic self. She is a great main character, with all her flaws and all her great qualities. I love how great her interactions with her uncle are, and how they progressed with each book and how that relationship has changed and how Alex has managed to grow from "foot-in-mouth-talk-first-act-later" to "think-first-kick-later-for-the-most-part".
Her relationship with Seth is an extremely complicated one that clearly got worse when Seth lost track of himself but in the this book we see them both trying to patch up their friendship at least.
But of course my favourite relationship has to be with Aiden, they have a fantastic chemistry, they support each other and despite some drama here and there, they understand they make each other stronger and also learn to trust and respect each other and their choices. They have to be one of my favourite YA couples for sure!
And of course Aiden is quite probably the only one I could feel like I'd really want to claim as book boyfriend! He's strong, supportive, considerate and despite his protectiveness he learns to trust and let Alex make her own choices. I think he's an Alfa without excesive macho attitude and that's just well... swoony!

Sentinel as action, has romance, has humour, has hard choices and has a quite satisfying ending. I'm sad to leave this characters and to say goodbye to Alex and Aiden, but it was a good journey and this is still a series I'd recommend. So with all my confused feelings, I'm still giving this final installment 4 stars.




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Waiting On Wednesday #13!!

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly feature hosted at Breaking The Spine  that spotlights those can't-wait-to-get-my-hands-on-them books that we are eagerly awaiting!

The book I'm absolutely going crazy waiting for this week is Sentinel by Jennifer L Armentrout, the fifth and final book on the Covenant series!

Goodreads summary:

"It's a beautiful day for a war.

As the mortal world slowly slips into chaos of the godly kind, Alexandria Andros must overcome a stunning defeat that has left her shaken and in doubt of their ability to end this war once and for all.

And with all the obstacles between Alex and her happily-ever-after with the swoonworthy Aiden St. Delphi, they must now trust a deadly foe as they travel deep into the Underworld to release one of the most dangerous gods of all time.
In the stunning, action-packed climax to the bestselling Covenant series, Alex must face a terrible choice: the destruction of everything and everyone she holds dear… or the end of herself."

Why am I eagerly awaiting Sentinel? Are you kidding me? Aiden St Delphi? Alex vs Ares? That evil evil cliffhanger at the end of Apollyon? How can I not be bitting my nails in anticipation of the final book for this series? I can't wait to see how Alex and Aiden get through everything that will be thrown at them in this book!

What are you all (im)patiently awaiting this week?

Mark This Book Monday: Apollyon by Jennifer L Armentrout from the Covenant Series!

And back again!

This Mark This Book Monday post was due last Monday, but I was still so overwhelmed with the book & "ALL THE FEELS!" that I couldn't manage to grangle all of that into a somewhat coherent review. Today, I'm gonna atempt it, and bear with me if I still do ramble a bit, I tend to do just that!

Apollyon by Jennifer L Armentrout (Covenant #4)

Apollyon is the 4th book in the Covenant series by Jennifer L Armentrout, and after it, there's only one more book coming, Sentinel, due to be released in December. Apollyon was due to be released on April 9th, but I found out through Twitter that it was released two days early on Amazon (via Jennifer L Armentrout herself) so I went to my Kindle app and got it. I had worked night shift the previous day, so I spent the whole Saturday very happily reading the book!

The Covenant series is based on Greek mythology, which was the reason I decided to check the series in the first place. It follows the story of Alex, a Half-Blood descendant of the Greek gods. Half Bloods are the children of Pures and humans, and therefore considered inferior in the society of the Covenant. Not only fantasy, Greek gods, action, romance and witty sarcastic humour are present in these books, there's also a look at social issues along with tradition and stagnation.

Apollyon starts where Deity (book 3) and Elixir (novella 3.5) left us. Alex has come into her Apollyon powers and has connected with Seth, and not just connected, but she has lost herself to the connection, and Seth has taken over her. This makes the beginning of the book a painful one to read, since I love the headstrong, independent and witty, if a bit foot-in-mouth, Alex, but this possesed-by-Seth-Alex is frustrating, scary and slap-worthy, every time she said "My Seth" I wanted to slap her! Thankfully it is short-lived and once she manages to overcome it, set up her defenses and get her own mind back, we have our old Alex back, as witty and arse-kicking as ever, but a bit more mature than in previous books. She doesn't approach everything head first and leave a disaster behind like a bull in a china shop, but finally learns to think first, at least a little!

Aiden and Alex, their relationship keeps on growing, getting them through thick and thin, continuing to love each other with or without other's approval, respecting each other choices, and growing together... they have to be one of my favourite book couples ever! And of course, Aiden is very much one of the very few characters that I could call a book crush for me! Reading about their relationship just gives me that "all the happy feels!".

There's a lot of action on Apollyon, and a lot of gods involvement, and a lot of bad news all around... war has started in full, and all hell as broken loose! I guessed who the bad guy was, but not who he was posing as, that was quite a surprise, although I knew he really was up to no good!

The ending is a very unexpected one, and leaves you with a strange sense of peace, but also a big dread about what happens next... Being at war with the gods, and with Seth still being completely blind to anything that is not what he says... Things are going to get even tougher in Sentinel, I know, and December won't get here soon enough!