Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Mini Review: Starcrossed (Starcrossed #1), Tanpopo Collection vol. 1, Blood Feud (Drake Chronicles #2)

Title: Starcrossed (Starcrossed #1)
Author: Josephine Angelini
Pages: 487
Publication: April 1, 2011
Publisher: HarperTeen
Summary taken from goodreads:
Set on the island of Nantucket, STARCROSSED tells the tale of Helen Hamilton, a young woman whose destiny is forever altered when she meets Lucas Delos and tries to kill him in front of her entire high school. Which is terribly inconvenient, not only because Lucas is the most beautiful boy on the island, but also because Helen is so achingly shy she suffers physical pain whenever she is given too much attention. 
Making matters worse, Helen is beginning to suspect she’s going crazy. Whenever she’s near Lucas or any member of his family she sees the ghostly apparitions of three women weeping bloody tears, and suffers the burden of an intense and irrational hate. She soon learns that she and Lucas are destined to play the leading roles in a Greek tragedy that the Three Fates insist on repeating over and over again throughout history. Like her namesake, Helen of Troy, she’s destined to start a war by falling in love. But even though Lucas and Helen can see their own star-crossed destiny, they’re still powerfully attracted to each other. Will they give up their personal happiness for the greater good, or risk it all to be together?
2.5 STARS - IT WAS OKAY

MY REVIEW:

Eh...what can I say? It was just another mythological love story. There were a few original parts to it, and Helen's father and her best friend Claire were pretty funny at times, but Helen was such a Mary Sue that I couldn't care for her half of the time. In addition, the writing irritated me many times since I felt like the author didn't need to add so many unnecessary lines explaining how a character was feeling or what their expression meant when it could be implicitly understood.




Title: Tanpopo Collection vol. 1
Author: Camilla d'Errico
Pages: 176
Publication: May 1, 2012
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Summary taken from goodreads:
Tanpopo is superhumanly intelligent and inhumanly emotionless; she is ruled by her mind and vast knowledge. Something inside of her suddenly breaks and her heart rises up to struggle against the ruling mind. Torn and confused, she now seeks her humanity, longing to feel what humans feel. Kuro, or "Poodle", senses her distress. He promises Tanpopo that she will experience the full range of human emotions, of which love and happiness are the coveted prizes. Alas, such a rich reward cannot come without its price: Kuro is The Devil in disguise and he is after Tanpopo’s Soul. Will her quest for love set her free…or will it shackle her for eternity? Each chapter of TANPOPO is inspired by a classic piece of literature. This premiere volume explores Goethe’s FAUST, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER, and the Chinese author P’u Sung-Ling’s STRANGE STORIES FROM A CHINESE STUDIO
2.5 STARS - I LIKED IT ENOUGH

MY REVIEW:

I really had no idea what to expect when I decided to read this book today. It didn't help that I never bothered reading the summary on the back; the art was the main selling point. Maybe if I had read the summary, I wouldn't have been as lost as I was in the beginning. However, either way, I knew that I was going to be confused since the book was a mix of in poetry, dialogue, and art.

I was not expecting abstract poetry and inverted sentences and Shakespearean dialogue, so it took a while to understand what was going on, and then it took some more time to find the plot and its themes. But it was worth it, and the beautiful art accurately depicted the writing and emotions, which helped.

Definitely give this book a try. It's unconventional for sure, but very intriguing.



Title: Blood Feud (Drake Chronicles #2)
Author: Alyxandra Harvey
Pages: 258
Publication: June 22, 2010
Publisher: Walker & Company
Summary taken from goodreads: 
The action and romance continue as the Drakes face a new vampire with a 200-year-old grudge. 
It’s been centuries since Isabeau St. Croix barely survived the French Revolution. Now she’s made her way back to the living and she must face the ultimate test by confronting the evil British lord who left her for dead the day she turned into a vampire. That’s if she can control her affection for Logan Drake, a vampire whose bite is as sweet as the revenge she seeks. 
The clans are gathering for Helena’s royal coronation as the next vampire queen, and new alliances are beginning to form now that the old rifts of Lady Natasha’s reign have started to heal. But with a new common enemy, Leander Montmarte—a vicious leader who hopes to force Solange to marry him and usurp the power of the throne for himself—the clans must stand together to preserve the peace he threatens to destroy. 
This second adventure in the Drake Chronicles—told from both Logan’s and Isabeau’s perspectives—has all the same butt-kicking action, heart-pounding romances and snarky humor that readers loved in Hearts at Stake, as well as exciting new revelations about the vampire dynasties to keep readers coming back for more.
2.5 STARS - I LIKED IT ENOUGH

MY REVIEW: 

Didn't like this book as much as I liked the first one in the series, probably because I liked Lucy and Solange better as the protagonists. And I wasn't really digging the whole insta-love thing, no matter what the bones said. You barely knew each other for a week; how can you already claim that you love each other? 

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