NetGalley Review: The Lost Boys by Lilian Carmine

Ebury Press
Published Oct. 24, 2013
512 Pages

*I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

17 year old Joe Gray has moved to a new town with her mother and is feeling lost; not because she misses her friends back home (she really didn’t have any) but because she has to start anew.

When helping a old lady bring flowers to her husband’s grave, she meets Tristan and love at first sight is an understatement.  However, Tristan has a secret that can either make or break their relationship.

Firstly, this cover is beautiful! However, the story was bad. Naming your daughter Joe is the most ridiculous thing ever. Her nickname being Joe is fine but not as her first and only name. I think the author was trying to be cute by making her the tomboy who knows martial arts and who is witty and takes crap from no one. But it just fell short. Joe is literally the most beloved character.

Everyone loves her expect for the most popular boy in school and the man after Tristan. The author over did it with this point. She made her the perfect girl. Her mother allows her to do what she wants (her mother is a bit of a bird brain), she is extremely happy to be a boarding school, and finally every guy around her is handsome and wants to protect her.  I was a bit sick of it.

Tristan is a brat. For a 17 year old who was dead for 60 years he is a brat that throws tantrums. That whole he is amazingly sexy flew out the window with that.

The writing was amateur and if the author was comparing the book to Twilight (which despite how horribly written it was I loved it), then I can see why she choose not to care.

As much as I wanted to love this book I couldn’t. Overall score: 2 Pickles

NetGalley Review: Rose and the Lost Princess by Holly Webb

Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
To Be Published April 1, 2014

*I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is the second book to the Rose Series. Rose has found out that she is a magician and that powerful one at that. In this book she is no longer a poor orphan but a servant girl as well as a magician’s apprentice to the King’s magician.

But when Rose begins to get comfortable in her position, the kingdom’s beloved Princess goes missing and it is said that a dark magician has done the deed. Now it is up to Rose to find the Princess before the world she just entered is no more.

This book is purely for children. It is not fast pace and there isn’t a lot of action but it can keep a child’s attention. What I liked about the book was the constant drawing in it did. Rose was a bit whinny for a girl who in the first book defeated a evil witch but you feel her excitement and her growth.

I also like how there aren’t a billion and one questions that need to be answered. The problems that are in this book for the most part stay within this book. The only on going issue is her parents and what happened to them. I like how the book stayed focus and I feel that is really important in a children’s book, especially a series.

The only downside beyond Rose and her whinny self is the book was boring. Because of the fact that there wasn’t much action happening in the majority of this book, I lost focus. I expected more action when a Princess is missing and expected even more because this is a book dealing about someone learning to use magic.

I also expected more fight out of Rose but she was too scare throughout most of the book and it was too unbecoming.

Overall the book gets: 4 Pickles

P.S. Don’t you just love that cover!

NetGalley Review: Ticker by Lisa Mantchev

Skyscape
Published Dec. 1, 2014
273 Pages

Penny Farthing is near death when surgeon Calvin Warwick is able to successfully swap out Penny’s bad heart with a brass ticker. But the moment when it is found that Warwick killed people in order to save Penny with an updated Ticker, Penny isn’t so happy that she was saved.

During Warwick’s last day of trial, the Farthing factory was bombed, their house was broken into and Penny and her brother Nic receive a ransom notice, demanding their parent’s secret information in order to have their parents back unharmed.  

With the help of Penny’s best friend Violet, a gentleman around the town (whatever that means) Sebastian and a young army general Marcus, Penny and Nic go on the search for their parents and the truth about Penny’s ticker.

The first pretty cover of the year!!!!!

This book was a dry read. The plot, the characters everything seemed un-lifelike which is crazy considering that the topic of life centralizes the entire book. Penny  lacked development and character. She did what she wanted and how she wanted.  She had little regard for her own life, which again is crazy!

The storyline didn’t really provide enough to keep me interested in the story. As much as I love when books start off in a really great scene, there is a way to do it right and the author did not provide enough of a griping point in order for me to understand why things were moving the way they were. Yes, do you get that information but the vagueness of what happened to her, her sister and the man who gave her a new heart last for way too long for me to enjoy the book.

Also the author added a very unnecessary element to a world of science; paranormal. It was thrown in there without any type of back-story or anything leading up to it to make me believe that the paranormal topic should be there.

What I did like about this story was the steampunk aspect of it. It was detailed and creative and there was a lot of though behind it.

Overall, the book was okay. Nothing spectacular.

2 Pickles