Sisters Red - Jackson Pearce

I just now realized that i haven't been doing this for the books I've reviewed like I said I would.

On to the review!

Okay, so this was one of the better YA genre novels that i have read in a long time. I had seen this in the bookstore awhile back, and thought it looked really interesting (little red riding hood is one of my all time favorite fairy tales). the concept sounded a little strange though so i put it off for a almost a year. and then  Pearce came out with Sweetly which is a retelling of the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale, and i was curious to see how she pulled it off. But we're focusing on Sisters Red in this review.

When Rosie and Scarlett March are attacked by a vicious werewolf when they were children, it scars them for life. Scarlett's eye gets taken and Rosie feels as though she owes her sister her life. So to make up for this, the sisters hunt. Scarlett is consumed by hunting the werewolves (Fenris, as they're called in Pearce's world), and she expects Rosie to hunt with her too, which she does.
The thing about Rosie though, is that she doesn't want to hunt, and she's in love with her childhood friend Silas, who comes from a long line of woodcutters. and that's basically where the story takes off.

There's a lot about this story that I do like, and surprisingly, very little that I didn't. It frankly was hard to choose which sister I liked the best. One minute it was Rosie, the next it was Scarlett, and so on. But in the end I ended up loving both of them. I feel like it was the most interesting to be in Scarlett's mind, how she was so focused on the hunting of Fenris that she doesn't want love or what we would call 'normal.' Pearce did such a good job transitioning between the two that I actually lost track of who was talking once or twice, until the end of the chapter.

I really liked the story arc as well, how she made a pack of ruthless werewolves seemingly right at home in her novel, and how Rosie was able to free herself from their clutches. Rosie's side of the story did get somewhat annoying, getting to be like a lot of the YA romance novels that are out there, but Pearce knew when it was getting dangerously mushy and pack the punch back in at the right time.

This is one of the first stories in a long time that I have been able to thoroughly enjoy from start to finish. Ms. Pearce has done an exceptional job at retelling this classic fairytale into something haunting and gruesome, but very exciting. I could not put it down. This definitely gets 5/5 stars from me, and you need to pick it up right now!

Until next time!

The Girl of Fire and Thorns - Rae Carson

Let me first start by saying that this book was not at all what i imagined it to be. i haven't yet decided if it is a good thing or a bad thing, but it was definitely interesting. let me start by giving you a short synopsis of the book.

Lucero-Elisa is the princess of Orovalle who bears the Godstone in her navel.
God has chosen her for a specific purpose, but she does not know what it is.
She goes on an 'epic journey' to find out.

This book is definitely high fantasy. It reminds me of books like Eragon or The Lord of the Rings.
The world this book is set in is highly religious, a concept which would have been difficult for me to grasp otherwise. Since it was set in a completely different time/world it was very believable, the prayers, the worship services that Carson chose to focus on. She did a good job of balancing those from the more depressing, thought provoking parts of the novel.

Let's talk about Lucero-Elisa. She's a very real girl. The way she thinks and reacts to the situations she finds herself in are similar to mine (except for praying every hour of the day. bleh). She eats to much. The thing that i really liked about this book was that Carson describes how she changes with her surroundings, how her body physically changes. She puts a knife to her stomach in order to get the Godstone out of her navel and bleeds. Bleeds. I don't think I've ever read a book where the heroine actually bleeds due to her own actions.

The other characters where somewhat distant though, even her nurse, Ximena was hard to decipher throughout the book. I think the one other character i liked besides Elisa was Cosme´, because you could watch her grow as well.

The plot was war. There's not really any other way to describe it, besides the 'animagus' which made me think of Harry Potter. Sirius Black, anyone? They were not animal shape shifters, but they were sorcerers. They weren't given enough time on page for me to be able to grasp the concept of them.

The ending was very clear too. I don't know if it was enough for me to want to buy the second book, but i'll definitely be looking for it. Rae Carson said that she 'goes global with the Godstone,' in a certain interview. i guess Elisa isn't quite done with herself.

i'm going to give The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson a 4/5 stars.

November Fail, December TBR

So you may all know that last month I only got around to reviewing one book... I seriously have to keep at this. Okay. So here's the deal. I have a YouTube channel and I'm going to put book hauls/review/etc. on there as well as on here. I won't be starting those until January, at midnight on the 1st of the year. Yay! But last month was a complete fail. I'm so sorry november! But let's move onto my TBR list for December. Some of the book have not arrived yet, since I ordered them from the internet.

The Girl of Fire and Thorns - Rae Carson

Unearthly - Cynthia Hand

Shatter Me - Tahereh Mafi

Sisters Red - Jackson Pearce

Sweetly - Jackson Pearce

And that's it for December! I hope I'll have a video review for The Girl of Fire and Thorns by the end of the week.