Scorched by Mari Mancusi

Scorched

 

Publisher : Sourcebooks Fire

Published : August 5, 2014



Page count : 342
Series : Scorched (Book 1)
First line : They came at noon, black shadows dancing across the sky, drowning out the sun.

Blurb

Save the Dragon. Destroy the World.
Trinity Foxx is used to her grandfather's crazy stories, so she doesn't believe the latest treasure he brought home to their failing West Texas museum is a real dragon's egg. Not until Connor Jacks, a dragon hunter from the future, tells Trinity that the world is about to be wiped out by a fiery dragon war—unless they find a way to stop it.
Save the Dragon. Save the World
But Connor's not the only one after the egg. His twin brother Caleb believes dragons have the power to save mankind and must be protected. Caleb has seen too many dragons destroyed in the war-scorched future—he'll do whatever it takes to save this one.
With a host of enemies hot on her heels, Trinity must decide who to believe. Connor the brave solider? Caleb the cocky rebel? Or the baby dragon that's starting to whisper to her...saying they are destined? The fate of the world may depend on her choice.

Trinity

Don't leave me here. . .

When Trinity first hears the voice, she thinks she's going crazy. It wouldn't be a big surprise- her grandfather firmly believes he just brought a genuine dragon egg to their dusty little West Texas town.

 

Conner

He's come from a future scorched by dragonfire. His mission: Find the girl. Destroy the egg. Save the world.

 

Caleb

He's everything his twin brother Conner hates: cocky , undisciplined, and obsessed with saving the dragons.

 

Trinity has no idea which brother to believe. All she has to go by is the voice in her head- a dragon who won't be tamed.

Review

Scorched by Mari Mancusi was a thrilling tail and major spin off of any story I had ever heard. It was thrilling you could feel Caleb's need to be accepted, Conner's need to avenge his father, and Trinity's bewilderment over the brothers.

Mari Mancusi draws you in with the possibility of the future. This book get you thinking. You could honestly believe that at some point in time dragon were real, and that thought would come from a single sentence.

I had my ups and downs with this book though. It starts amazingly and ends just as well, but there are some points where you can just skim. There to much talking and not enough action or the opposite. Your brain will be overloaded with all the action going on that you have to put the book down to keep your heart from beating out of your chest.

All in all I give this book three and a half stars

 



 

The Raven Boys

The Raven Boys

Publisher : Scholastic Press
Published : September 2012
Page count : 408
Series : The Raven Cycle
First line : It was freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrived.
 

Blurb

"There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark's Eve. Either you're his true love... or you killed him."

 

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue never sees them- until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks to her.

His name is Gansey, and he's a rich student at Aglionby the local private school.  Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

 But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can't entirely explain. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boy: Adam, the scholarship student who resents the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul whose emotions range from anger to despair, and Noah, the taciturn watcher who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She doesn't believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem. But as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven boys. she's not so sure anymore.

Review

The raven boys by Maggie Stiefvater is full of twist and turns that keep you on your toes. The Raven Boys remind me of why I love to read. The thrill of being drawn into the fantasy world where anything can happen. Maggie Stiefvater has created a world to relate to everyday people. The teenagers struggle with juggling there crazy lives and overbearing parents. Blue, the main character, struggles with a love life that shouldn't exist, and come on ladies everyone knows how that feels.


I cant think of a single part in all  408 pages Where there was a part that you could just put the book down and stop. When reading I would suggest just clearing your night and the next the morning cause your going to be really mad if someone was to drag you away from this amazing book. You'll fall in love with each and every character except for the antagonist of course. You'll cry along with the characters but don't worry you'll smile as well. SO to conclude this book I give it five stars.

*****

 

Dark Artifacts Snippets

Caution if you haven't read Mortal instrument series by Cassandra Clare then this may contain spoilers.

Synopsis for ‘The Dark Artifices’

Los Angeles. It’s been five years since the events of the Mortal Instruments when Nephilim stood poised on the brink of oblivion and Shadowhunter Emma Carstairs lost her parents. After the blood and violence she witnessed as a child, Emma has dedicated her life to to discovering exactly what it was that killed her parents and getting her revenge.
Raised in the Los Angeles Institute with the Blackthorn family, Emma is paired as a parabatai with her best friend, Julian Blackthorn. A series of murders in the city catch her attention — they seem to have the same characteristics as the deaths of her parents. Could the murderer be the same person? And her attention isn’t the only one caught: someone has been murdering Downworlders as well. The Fair Folk make a deal with the Institute: if the Blackthorns and Emma will investigate the killings, they’ll return Mark Blackthorn to his home. The catch: they have only two weeks to find the killers. Otherwise it’s open war between faeries and Nephilim.
The Shadowhunters of the Institute must race against time to catch the killers, even as they begin to suspect the involvement of those closest to them. At the same time, Emma is falling in love with the one person in the world she’s absolutely forbidden by Shadowhunter Law to love. Set against the glittering backdrop of present-day Los Angeles, Emma must learn to trust her head and her heart as she investigates a demonic plot that stretches from the warlock-run nightclubs of the Sunset Strip to the enchanted sea that pounds the beaches of Santa Monica.

Julian had stepped away from them and was on the phone again, speaking in a low voice. Mark splashed up out of the water and jammed his wet feet into his boots. Neither he nor Cristina was glamoured, and Emma noticed the stares of mundane passers-by as he came toward her — because he was tall, and beautiful, and because he had eyes that shone brighter than the lights of the ferris wheel. And because one of his eyes was blue, and the other one was gold.

And because there was something about him, something indefinably strange, a trace of the wildness of Faerie that never failed to make Emma think of untrammeled, wide-open spaces, of freedom and lawlessness. I am a lost boy, his eyes seemed to say.Find me.

Mark is called a halfblood

“Loved?” he said in a cold voice. “Do you no longer? Remember, half-blood, I know  that you can lie.”

Mark flicked his eyes up. He saw the storm in those eyes, but behind the storm he saw two boys as small as stars in a distant sky, locked together under a blanket.

Julian gets jealous

“I know things haven’t been exactly right between us since I got back from England,” he said. “And I don’t know if it’s because I’m a little jealous of Cristina, or a lot jealous of —“

Mark doesn’t want to stand out

Now he looked at her sideways. “You don’t think I look like a Shadowhunter any more?”
“Do you want to?” Cristina asked.
“I want to look like my family,” Mark said. “I cannot have the Blackthorn coloring, but I can look as much like Nephilim as possible. Besides, if I wish to be part of the investigation, I cannot stand out.”
Cristina held back from telling Mark that there was no world in which he didn’t stand out. “I can make you look like a Shadowhunter.”

Emma reminisces about Julian, their parabatai ritual

Emma swallowed. She was remembering Julian, two years ago, standing in the overlapping circles of fire where the parabatai ritual was performed. The look on his face as they each stepped into the central circle and the fire rose up around them, and he unbuttoned his shirt to let her touch the stele to his skin and carve the rune that would bind them together for their whole lives. She knew if she just reached out now, she could touch it, touch the rune cut into his shoulder, the rune she had put there …

Emma and Julian are ‘tethered’ to each other

“Yeah,” he said, eyelashes lowering as his gaze traced the movement of her fingers. “It hurt me being away from you. It feels like there’s a hook dug in under my ribs, and there’s something pulling at the other end. Like I’m tethered to you, no matter the distance.”

Emma and Julian argue

“Emma —“

“I’m calling.” Emma lunged for her phone.

“No!” Julian said, forcefully enough to stop her. “You know we can’t tell anyone. About Mark —“

“You’re not going to bleed to death in a car for Mark!”

“No,” he said, looking at her. His eyes were eerily green-blue, the only bright color in the dark interior of the car. “You’re going to fix me.”

The snippets and teaser all make me really want to read this books, but I loved Jace and clay so much and i'm not sure if i'm ready to move on from the amazing love and treacherous life. I know that Cassandra Clare wont disappoint and we will be getting glimpses of clary and Jace along with the lightwoods in The Dark Artifacts Series.

Eternal

Publisher : Candlewick
Published : (February 9, 2010)
Page count :320
Series : Tantalize
first line : I may be heaven-sent, but I am not perfect.


My review

Eternal by Cynthia Leitich Smith.
I had a lot of problems with this book. First off it wasn't all that action packed or exciting. Secondly I had to disagree with some of the thing s mentioned in the book thought that has to do with peoples person beliefs more than it does on the authors style of writing. I don't believe tat the book was edited really well considering I came upon a few sentences that didn't make sense no matter how many times you re-read it. I did enjoy the main theme of the book, but that about all I can say. I will continue reading the series just so I can figure out if Zachery and Miranda end up together, so lets hope that the series can redeem itself.













 

Birth Marked Review

ONE MARRED BY A SCAR WILL UNRAVEL THE PAST

 

Publisher : Square Fish; d edition

Published :  October 11, 2011

Page Count : 361

Series : Birth Marked (Book 1)

First Line : In the dim hovel, the mother clenched her body into one final, straining push, and the baby slithered out into Gaia's ready hands.

 

Blurb

 

In the future, in a world baked dry by the harsh sun, there are those who live inside the wall and those, like sixteen-year-old midwife, Gaia Stone, who live outside. Gaia has always believed it is her duty, with her mother, to hand over a small quota of babies to the Enclave. But when Gaia’s mother and father are arrested by the very people they so dutifully serve, Gaia is forced to question everything she has been taught to believe. Gaia’s choice is now simple: enter the world of the Enclave to rescue her parents, or die trying.

 

My review

 

Birth Marked by Caragh M. O'Brien was a thrilling mystery. O'Brien draws you into the story making it hard to put the book down for the most part. Along the way I did come upon a few pages where I just got bored of reading because all the character were doing is sitting around, but that was only for a few pages. Another thing that I was not okay with in this book is the cliffhanger at the end. I was so mad and sad that I wanted to yell at the author, but that was before I realized that Birth Marked is a trilogy not a single. My advise is before you read this book get the others so you don't have to wait to continue. That being said I loved the action and the mystery as Gaia unravels her fathers code, and I also enjoyed the slight and subtle love story that intertwines with the mystery.

I would give this book 3.5 stars for its mystery, action, and love.