Showing posts with label bane chronicles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bane chronicles. Show all posts

Friday, December 20, 2013

Friday Reads: Mini Reviews: Fracture Me by Tahereh Mafi and The Last Stand of the New York Institute by Cassandra Clare!

Hello there! For this week's Friday Reads I'm gonna have another two mini reviews! Novellas are so much fun to read, and sometimes they can change your whole vision of a series!


Fracture Me (Shatter Me, #2.5)Fracture Me by Tahereh Mafi

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


As usual, Tahereh Mafi shows us how amazing her writing is. This novella is Adam's POV of the ending of Unravel Me and it's a complete change of style from the rest of the series, Adam's voice so different from Juliette's!

The power of different POV's and how they come across from other character's POV's is very well shown here. We met Adam in Shatter Me and he ended up being Juliette's ally & friend and way more than that. And I was Team Adam if I had to choose from that triangle (which curiously enough is one of those triangles that are relevant and not so annoying). But then came Destroy Me, and I started to warm up to Warner much to my surprise, and then Unravel Me with its many twists and revelations and I find myself a bit more on Team Warner. I was hoping to see if Fracture Me would do for Adam the same thing that Destroy Me did for Warner, and maybe it did, but for me the reaction was quite the opposite.

Adam annoyed from the first page itself with his treatment of James, his kid brother. Yes, there's a lot of tension and stress but you don't treat your only family like that! And even though he redeems himself a bit on that front, it's clear through the pages of this novella that he just doesn't understand Juliette and despite his hoping for a HEA, he's be beyond frustrated with Juliette and her issues. He clearly can't begin to understand what Juliette issues really are, and with his protectiveness there's no way he'd help Juliette control and develop her powers.

This novella has done a wonderful job at bringing us into Adam's head, it might not have been what I would have hoped for, but you can't say that Mafi didn't do a fantastic job of giving him his own voice.

Well deserved 4 stars for this novella, and now I can't wait for Ignite Me even more than before!



The Last Stand of the New York Institute (The Bane Chronicles, #9)The Last Stand of the New York Institute by Cassandra Clare

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I think the closer we get to the events of TMI the more I like these novellas, and this one I will have an even bigger amount of love because we get to spend some more time with Tessa, and I really love Tessa Gray!

We get to see the start of the Circle and Magnus facing some of Valentine's allies and Valentine himself. We also are introduced to the doubts in Lucian and how the seed of his doubt in Valentine's great purpose might have been planted. We meet quite a few Shadowhunters that we will hear about later on. And we also get to meet Clary and her mum, and not only that we discover the origin of the last name that Jocelyn and Clary are using when they live as mundanes.

Magnus has some really conflicting feeling about this new generation of Shadowhunters and even more for some of the families that he once knew, but despite everything he seems to be quite prone to niceness the older he gets and less likely to hold a grudge. I guess when you live centuries it might seem quite pointless.

A very short but entertaining read, quite enlightening adding some more perspective to the Circle and the Uprising. A 4 star read.



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Monday, December 2, 2013

Mark This Book Monday: Mini Reviews for Bitter Sweet Love and What to Buy The Shadowhunter Who Has Everything!

Hey guys! I'm starting the week with another edition of Mark This Book Monday's mini reviews for a pair of novellas.


What to Buy the Shadowhunter Who Has Everything (The Bane Chronicles, #8)What to Buy the Shadowhunter Who Has Everything by Cassandra Clare

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This installment in the Bane Chronicles has to be my favourite so far. Not only it is contemporary with TMI, but also gives us a glimpse of what's happening outside of Clary & Jace's perspective. Not only that, it also gets into the more personal side of Magnus, the one that show us his human part more than his flamboyant warlock side.

Magnus is hired to summon a demon on Alec's birthday, and while he waits for the client to return, he analizes his relationship with Alec, relives a few memories, makes a pair of calls for help and manages to find the perfect gift for Alec.

Getting to see their relationship from a first person POV made me care even more for these two's relationship, and I'm so hoping they'll survive the last TMI book! To use the proper phrase for this... I so ship these two!



Bitter Sweet Love (The Dark Elements, #0.5)Bitter Sweet Love by Jennifer L. Armentrout

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Bitter Sweet Love is our introduction to the new series by Jennifer L Armentrout about gargoyles, which made me quite excited since the books about gargoyles aren't really all that common!

This novella is our first introduction to the world of the Wardens, gargoyles that have a very patriarchal structure (that bothered me a bit) and their purpose is to fight demons to keep humanity safe.

All of that we find out through the story of Jasmine and Dez, two childhood inseparable friends that were going to be "mated" (get officially together according to Wardens' law) before Dez suddenly left and stayed away for 3 years. Then he returns and tries to win Jasmine back. We also get a peek at the main characters for White Hot Kiss, the first book proper on The Dark Elements series. I'm also hoping we'll get to see Jasmine and Dez again as the series progresses.

Bitter Sweet Love was a very much entertaining and sexy read, with the trademark swoons and humour I've come to expect from JLA, so I think this new series will be another I'll be following. A 3.5 to 4 stars read.



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