Doodletopia: Manga by Christopher Hart REVIEW

My Thoughts:

I'm super awful at drawing, so I decided to try out this book and see if it would help me at all.

At first look, I decided it looked cute and fun, but had no idea if it would help.

In some ways, it has helped. I was able to draw something I didn't  throw out because it wasn't at all ugly. It wasn't perfect either though.

I have yet to try everything in this book, but  when I have the time, I will.

It has so far helped in a few small (yet big) ways, and one is that I am able to draw somewhat manga-like eyes. However, looking through this book I realized that the chapter on drawing chibi like characters would be little to no help at all since the author never taught how to draw them in this chapter.

My (Overall) Rating: 3 stars

(here's a pic of a drawing I drew using this book)

More Info

Author Bio

**I received this book from blogging for books for free for my honest review. thank you!**

The Dead by Charlie Higson REVIEW

Summary:

The disease only affects people sixteen or older. It starts with the symptoms of a cold. Then the skin begins to itch, and spots appear--spots that soon turn into pus-filled boils. But the worst part is the headache, the inner voices that tell you that you need to eat them . . .the young ones.

When the Disaster strikes, the world turns upside down for Ed, Jack, Bam, and the other students at Rowhurst school. The parents and older siblings they left back at home are dead--or worse.Once the teachers go on the attack, the kids know it's time to escape and make their way to the city. It's got to be better in London . . .or will it be worse?

My Thoughts:

I really enjoyed this book at lot. People are turning into zombie-like creatures and eating children to keep their disease at bay. Ed is the type of person who in the beginning refuses to fight because he cannot bear to kill someone he knew.
They leave for London on a bus with a bus driver who later reveals himself to be one of the zombie like creatures and tries to kill them. However, they escape to what seems to be a safe house where other children survivors live.
With his friends dying, Ed is finally able to fight the creatures. But even the museum, their safe house, can't be safe forever.

My Rating: 4 stars

Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton REVIEW

Summary:

Every night Ellie is haunted by terrifying dreams of monstrous creatures that are hunting her, killing her.

When Ellie meets Will, she feels on the verge of remembering something just beyond her grasp. His attention is intense and romantic, and Ellie feels like her soul has known him for centuries.On her seventeenth birthday, on a dark street at midnight, Will awakens Ellie's power, and she knows that she can fight the creatures that stalk her in the grim darkness. Only Will holds the key to Ellie's memories, whole lifetimes of them, and when she looks at him, she can no longer pretend anything was just a dream.

Ellie has power that no one can match, and her role is to hunt and kill the reapers that prey on human souls. But in order to survive the dangerous and ancient battle of the angels and the Fallen, she must also hunt for the secrets of her past lives and truths that may be too frightening to remember.

My Thoughts:

I really enjoyed this book, although the beginning was super boring, and I wasn't sure if I would like it at all.

Trying to not spoil anything about this book is so hard, but I'll do my best.

Ellie is really a being created to fight the reapers. When they "kill" her, it's kind of like regeneration, but she has to grow up again (like she'll start out as a baby). 

Later on *SPOILERS* she finds out she's not what she thinks she is, she's actually one of the most important angel ever.

And the reapers are trying to find the one thing that will make her dead forever.

My Rating: 3.5 stars

The Novice by Taran Matharu REVIEW

**Summoner series: Book One**

Summary:

He can summon demons. But can he win a war?

Fletcher is working as a blacksmith's apprentice when he discovers he has the rare ability to summon demons from another world.

Subsequently chased from his village for a crime he did not commit, Fletcher must travel with his demon, Ignatius, to an academy for adepts, where the gifted are taught the art of summoning.

Along with nobles and commoners, Fletcher endures grueling lessons that will prepare him to serve as a Battlemage in the Empire's war against the savage Orcs. But sinister forces infect new friendships, and rivalries are formed at this school. With no one but Ignatius by his side, Fletcher must decide where his loyalties lie. As he soon learns, the fate of the Empire is in his hands...

My Thoughts:

This has been on my to-read list for a while but I only got to it now.

The book sounded cool and interesting, and I guess the only reason I thought that is because I got into Black Butler...

It's a good fantasy novel, not the best I've read, but better than others.

Fletcher somehow made enemies with someone in his village by existing. His enemy tries to kill him one night, the same night he found out he could summon demons, and Ignatius attacked his attacker without Fletcher's consent, leaving him injured or dead? He runs away for this.

He makes friends at the academy but some become enemies because the nobles there don't like commoners, and they were hanging out with them.

At the end is a cliffhanger: people arrest him for attempted murder of the boy who tried to kill him in his village.

My Rating: 4.5 stars

Waterfall by Lauren Kate REVIEW

**Sequel to Teardrop**

Summary:

Tears are falling...
Eureka's tears have flooded the earth, and now Atlantis is rising, bringing with it its evil king, Atlas. Eureka is the only one who can stop him, but first she must learn how to fight. She travels across the ocean with Cat, her family, and the gorgeous and mysterious Ander. Ander promises to help her find Solon, an enigmatic lost Seedbearer who knows how to defeat Atlas.
Once on land, Eureka is taunted by gossip-witches, a group of displaced Atlantean sorceresses, and ambushed by locals struggling to survive amid the destruction her tears have wrought. And she feels no closer to facing Atlas when Solon lets slip that love is Ander's weakness, and that any affection he feels toward her makes him age faster.
Trying to make sense of the dark world her sorrow has created, Eureka receives startling insight from an enchanted pond. Her bewildering reflection reveals a soul-crushing secret: if she's strong enough, Eureka can defeat Atlas--unless her broken heart is just what he needs to fuel his rising kingdom...
In Waterfall, Eureka has the chance to save the world. But she'll have to give up everything--even love.

My Thoughts:

This book was really good for a sequel, and I found some of it better than the previous book.
There were a few things I wanted to know, though:
1. who are the gossip-witches, why do they exist, and why are they helping Eureka?
2. Is Atlas' possession of Brooks like how the monster in Siren's Fury possessed people?
3. Why did Solon isolate himself from everyone, other than to keep himself from loving again?
I wish these questions were answered in the book, but unfortunately, they aren't.
The end was kind of confusing. I mean, Eureka sacrificed herself to stop Atlas, but what happened to her and everyone else wasn't clear.

My Rating: 4.5 stars
(I hate the new covers though)

Redemption by Debra Driza REVIEW

MILA 2.0 Trilogy: Book Three

Summary:

Mila has been running for her life for so long. But there might be nowhere left for her to go. Especially now that she's an incredible danger to herself and anyone who dares get close to her.

That's why Mila has gone into hiding with friend and tech expert Lucas, someplace secluded where she'll never be found. She can't take the risk of hurting people worse than the way she hurt Hunter: the boy she'll always love, the boy who might never forgive her for what she's done.

But then Mila discovers that General Holland--her ultimate enemy--is an even bigger threat to humanity than she is. His quest to reclaim Mila is only part of a larger mysterious endgame that will put people's lives at stake. Mila must make a choice: either push aside her fears and fight hime with everything she's got...or turn her back on the world forever.

My Thoughts:

As expected, this book was well written and well paced and hard to put down.

The only thing I don't get is when she falls in love with Lucas, and doesn't really care about Hunter as much.But this book was super good.

Anyway the ending? I hated it. Why did Mila go and let herself die instead of choosing to live freely? I mean, what she thought would happen if she did would probably happen, but still. Why aren't there any happy endings to trilogies now?

My Rating: 4.5 stars

The Twice Lost by Sarah Porter REVIEW

Lost Voices Trilogy: Book Three

Summary:

Mermaids have been sinking ships and drowning humans for centuries, and now the government is determined to put an end to the mermaid problem--by slaughtering all of them. Luce, one mermaid with exceptionally threatening abilities, becomes their number one target, hunted as she flees down the coast toward San Francisco.

There she finds hundreds of mermaids living in exile under the docks of the bay. These are the Twice Lost: once human girls lost the first time when a trauma turned them into mermaids, and lost the second time when they broke mermaid law and were rejected by their tribes. Luce is stunned when they elect her as their leader. But she won't be their queen. She'll be their general. And they will become the Twice Lost Army--because this is war.

But how can the mermaids defend themselves when Luce is determined to stop her followers from killing humans? How can she convince humans to listen to them? And it's one thing for Luce to forgive humanity, but another to forgive Dorian, the boy who betrayed her--even when he fights to prove his love to her.

My Thoughts:

Despite how others feel about this book, I don't think its as good as the previous books. Yes, things in the second book weren't exactly perfect, but no book is perfect.

The story was written well, but what happened to Anais at the end wasn't clear. neither was what happened to Catarina.

this book was alright, but definitely not my favorite.

My Rating: 3 stars

Courageous by Dina L. Sleiman REVIEW

Summary:

Inspired by the vision of the young Lady Sapphira, Rosalind of Ipsworth joins a group of men woman, and children as a defender of the cross, seeking to free captives from prisons near Tripoli. She'll gladly give herself to the cause, as she's haunted by a tragic mistake and feels she no longer deserves such joys as marriage and family might bring.
Sir Randel Penigree was reared to serve in the church but has always dreamt of protecting the innocent as a Templar knight. Joining a crusade to escape humiliation at home, he finds himself drawn to Rosalind as they partner to train and protect a group of adolescents. When faced with political intrigue and an unknown enemy bent on their destruction, they are forced to reconsider their priorities and the very nature of the God they serve.

My Thoughts:

I wasn't told this was the third book in a series, but it seems that the previous books are about different people, as the book was only a little confusing.
The prologue was super interesting, however the storyline got boring until about halfway through the book, when the characters stop in a town for help.
The villain was kind of a predictable one, maybe too predictable. But what happened to her wasn't really explained at all. It just sort of implied that she was killed.
The backstories of Rosalind and Randel are intriguing yet sad, and that's what makes a backstory good.

My Rating: 3.5 stars
**I received this book from Bethany House Publishers for my honest review. Thank you!**

I Become Shadow by Joe Shine REVIEW

Summary:

When Ren Sharpe was 14, she was kidnapped by a shadowy organization called FATE and trained to be a human weapon.
Now, four years later, she receives her assignment: protect Gareth Young at all costs. Currently a student at Texas A & M, Gareth will someday change the world. FATE calls people like Gareth "FIPs"--future important people--and they're everywhere, each with a FATE-trained shadow.
But when disaster strikes, Ren will have to turn on her maker. Together with Junie, a fellow abductee and the one person she trusts, Ren takes Gareth on the run.
Because whatever else happens, failure is not an option.

My Thoughts:

This book was SO GOOD. It's been a long time since I've read a spy novel, and this one was so good that I want it to be made into a movie, even though the movie would change everything. I want to see the fight scenes:).
Ren is kinda like me. She's a bit of a nerd, although not too nerdy, she's quiet, and she doesn't have many friends.
Then she's kidnapped.
I really wish the author had made the training sequences Ren had to do a bit longer, because that is usually my favorite part of the story. Other than that, I have no complaints. Ren was a really strong character, but it seems that she either likes two guys? Or two guys like her? That part was confusing.
It would be nice if there was a part of the book where we would see how/when/why FATE was originally founded. Maybe it didn't used to be corrupted?

My Rating: 5 stars

Black Widow: Forever Red by Margaret Stohl REVIEW

Summary:

Natasha Romanoff is one of the world's most lethal assassins. Trained from a young age in the arts of death and deception, Natasha was given the title of Black Widow by Ivan Somodorov, her brutal teacher at the Red Room, Moscow's infamous academy for operatives.

Ava Orlova is just trying to fit in as an average Brooklyn teenager, but her life has been anything but average. The daughter of a missing Russian quantum physicist, Ava was once subjected to a series of ruthless military experiments--until she was rescued by Black Widow and placed under S.H.I.E.L.D. protection. Ava has always longed to reconnect with her mysterious savior, but Black Widow isn't really the big sister type.

Until now.

When children all over Eastern Europe begin to go missing, and rumors of smuggled Red Room tech light of the dark net, Natasha suspects her old teacher has returned--and that Ava Orlova might be the only one who can stop him. To defeat the madman who threatens their future, Natasha and Ava mus unravel their pasts. Only then will they discover the truth about the dark-eyed boy with an hourglass tattoo who haunts Ava's dreams . .

My Thoughts:

I've heard mixed reviews about this book, some say its awesome, some say its an ok book, and others say its terrible. But I would fit in with those who said its awesome.

You see the backstory of when Natasha saved Ava, and you see her life in the city. Ava apparently escaped her protection and fled to the city. 

Ivan goes after Ava and Natasha shows up to stop him. They find out that they're quantum linked and they share knowledge and memories of the past (which is why Ava dreams about Alexei, who turns out to be Natasha's brother). Also apparently Natasha and Alexei's memories were wiped by SHIELD so she doesn't trust them.

My Rating: 4.5 stars