Review: Dark Rising

Dark Rising by Monica McGurk
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Copy of book provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.


Dark Rising is the second book to Monica’s Archangel Prophecies Trilogy. I have to say my opinion about how angels are have been set in a certain way and may affect how I view this book’s angels. The book was a fairly fast read for a young adult romance it was alright. The way the Archangel Michael acted seemed to bother me, he was like a teenage boy trying to figure out if he loved someone or didn’t. Instead of an angel who had a duty to do and to try and figure it out.

The main character Hope is different and tied with emotions that make her very contradictory. She just wants this trip over searching for her ‘quest’ she loves Michael but wants him to suffer for him burning her skin. She doesn’t know how to deal with her feelings about Michael. It’s in between love, fear, and anger and they all come and go sometimes with a flip of a page. While her development seems a bit stunted by her obsession with her teenage love of the Archangel.

The plot brings you up to speed of what happened in the previous book, and takes you on the journey to Istanbul to France and back and forth. You meet Enoch and Raphael who doesn’t care for hope and Enoch treats her like a child he use to have. The story leads to the growth and fighting between angels and the dark ones and the humans.

While you see the pain that Hope’s family deals with as Hope has vanished and no one knows what happened. They think she’s been taken by a sex slave ring instead of on a mission from ‘God’. Her parents are divorced and both are suspects in her kidnapping at first then it seems she may have been taken by a sex traffic ring. It sends her parents into more worry about how to live and the father starts to reflect more on the bible relating it to his daughter. By the end of it the dark ones think they have won the battle when it seems to be a reflection of Christs death but with Michael taking Christs place and allowing those ‘Dark’ angels to be forgiven. With the world in chaos Hope makes it to authorities and is traumatized and gets home. Her mother saddened by her ex-husband’s loss has trouble getting back into a normal life.

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Review: Grave Mercy

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Only giving this 3 stars because I wasn't able to be dragged into it. This is the story about 17 year old Ismae. We see her father who has no love for her sell her to her future husband. Before he has time to bed with her she escapes and is taken to St. Mortain's convent. St. Mortain is the god of death and is taught in how to become an assassin. Her first job is done without much of a hitch and she doesn't fear it like she thought. All of the girls are considered the daughter of Mortain and each have a special gift. Ismae after her first kill is tossed into protecting the duchess of Brittany and in doing that has to live in the noble court one where she doesn't like being in. She also finds herself falling for the man she is suppose to be watching yet she has a distinct hate for all men due to her father and husband.

It was very hard to get through this book, the first couple of chapters were boring and some things left out. You were wondering if you had missed something or not when a character had things on or not. The Heroine wasn't all that great as certain things seemed to make sense and she didn't seem to catch on till later. I think the development of the main character wasn't as developed as it should of been or some things she should of known by her training for three years. It felt as if she wasn't ready to go out and do her job with how she acted. It does go into political and historical statues yet it wasn't as gripping as I had hoped it was. I'm all for historical aspects of things but this was not one of those times I enjoyed it.

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Trust by Jodi Baker

Copy of book provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Trust is the first book in the Between the Lions trilogy. This Paranormal with Egyptian and Greek mythology twist takes you into our current times. Where you meet Anna our heroine and how she lives her life always in the middle. The first few pages of the book make no sense when you start reading the book, it almost makes you question as to "Why" it is there. You don't find out till later where it all comes in at and to where it makes sense. Besides the first few pages the beginning of the book is slow, you watch Anna go through daily routine and what happens when it gets interrupted and how she copes with it. After about halfway does it start to pick up with the death of her step-dad and her mother's disappearance. Anna gets a voice in her head who is called "Inanna" which you can tell when she talks as it is in all caps. You get introduced the mythology that Anna's life has been wrapped around by her mother. Though Anna seems to toss everything out the window about being in the middle, even arguing with the voice in her head which gives her sound advice.

As you get to the end it leaves you with more questions than answers and a romance that starts to bloom? The romance is iffy as she didn't trust him then feels like she can and starts falling for him hard. I understand teenage love but it's all at once while her life is danger and she has lost the only guardian she had. I enjoy the twist with the Egyptian lore as it isn't used much in books. While your left with answers, Anna does grow a bit and uses her smarts to help her. What also bothers me is how her mother seemed to change like a child throwing a temper tantrum against the way she was raised and her own people.

The book was good and I can't wait till the next one comes out to hopefully get more answers than questions.

The Here and Now by Ann Brashares

First of all, this is a time travel story, it's not going to be like the sisterhood which many people anticipated. For those that like Scifi, or anything about the future, then you'll probably like this book. It's a well written book about what one set of future could of been like, and what could happen in one persons mind. While the first part of the book keeps your attention when you get to the ending it seems a bit drawn out which makes it a bit harder to get to the end. It's inbetween a love story and an action story.
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Our heroine is Prenna, who is from the future with her mom. There are 4 rules you must absolutely not break, and Prenna has a problem with those in power over the 'community'. We get to see the letters Prenna writes to her brother, giving us glimpses of how mystified she was when she got to our time; because the future she's from is rather bleak. They've already been through a plague,the earth has changed drastically than what we know.

We get to watch Prenna grow from a suspicious girl to knowing what she suspected and more. Then there's Ethan, who's kind, honest and patient with our time traveler who is socially awkward. The interaction between the two is like a first crush or love.