Cloaked by Alex Flinn

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


If you loved Beastly you'll probably have no qualms with this one. Johnny is a shoe-repairer helping his mother with the struggling family business in Miami and when the beautiful princess Victoriana asks for his help in recovering her brother-turned-frog, he starts the adventure of his life.

This one had many different fairy tales blended into the story. At times it was too much and the story felt cluttered and just plain silly. This may not be a problem with readers not familiar with the older classics. Unfortunately, I couldn't get past the paper-thin characterizations and rambling plot.

I would recommend this one to those looking for something light and silly, even though to me it seemed like empty calories. I'm sure others will find its charm endearing.

Copy Source: Library

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Really disappointed, much ranting ahead, feel free to avert your eyes if you're a die-hard fan. I came into this one with such high hopes because there are almost 10,000 ratings on Goodreads and this book has managed to stay at 4-stars, plus someone liked the story enough to suggest making it into a movie. After I finished all I could think was really, are we reading the same story?
Thomas wakes up in a box with no memories of his past or why he's suddenly found himself in the middle of the Glade with other adolescent boys. Surrounding them is the ever changing Maze filled with creatures called Grievers that come out at night and have a terrible venom. They must return by nightfall because no one survives the night in the Maze. Each of the boys in this little community has their own job, and the job Thomas feels strongest about is a Runner. The Runners go into the dangerous Maze everyday to figure out an escape or some kind of pattern that will let them escape. Thomas feels he knows the answers, but the memories aren't there to help him solve the problems.
The most irritating thing for Thomas is not knowing the answers. As a reader I could identify with his feelings of isolation and frustration at his treatment. Yet after about halfway this song and dance became intensely irritating. Thomas spent what seemed like every other paragraph with these 'feelings' but took them nowhere. I wanted more action or some kind of something other than Thomas's recycled thoughts again and again. Plus the constant pep-talks from him were not inspiring, just awkward.
These boys have no adults keeping order and they've managed by following their immutable rules. I'm not expecting them to be mature, but they have the most annoying made-up cuss words, replacing shit with klunk and damn with shunk (or something like that, I can't recall). I thought it lent an air of silliness when the mood should have been desperate and serious. Just…terrible. The characters overall were also very one-dimensional in their predictability, especially Thomas and Chuck. Relationships like friendship were blah and I didn't believe a lot of their actions were realistic for their situation.
Then the actual meat of the story was the escape from the maze. It was very anti-climatic. This entire story felt like a mix of the TV show Lost with Lord of the Flies and not in a good way. Maybe this story is heading somewhere exciting, but I didn't get that this time around.

Copy Source: Paperback purchased

The City in the Lake by Rachel Neumeier

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I decided to read this one after seeing the enthusiastic review on The Book Smugglers. It's a quick read but I don't know if I'm as excited about this one. It is a more subtle and rich story which I can appreciate, but I didn't feel the character development was quite on par with the rest. It was playful and energetic storytelling at times, but slow and meandering at others and I never really found my stride as a reader. Recommended for fans of quiet, lyrical fantasy, but I can see others struggling to enjoy it.

I also have this author's Griffin Mage series on my TBR-pile. I'm looking forward to reading more this author has to offer.

Copy Source: Ebook purchased

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Synopsis from Goodreads: Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes the dead leave behind in the world . . . and the imprints that attach to their killers.
Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find dead birds her cat left for her. But now that a serial killer is terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, Violet realizes she might be the only person who can stop him. Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved by her hope that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer . . . and becoming his prey herself.


My thoughts:
Even though not wholly original, this book has some different themes than some YA out there. It was odd to have the teenage flutterings of Violet's crush on Jay juxtaposed with the raving thoughts of a serial killers, yet somehow it seemed to work. Violet's attempts to rein in her feelings for Jay were sweet, but I could see this causing potential eye-rolls for other readers. The build-up of the story is too slow at times and while I cared about Violet, I wanted to read more about her using her abilities rather than her boy-toy dramas, but it was never a dealbreaker and actually endearing in some parts. This story and Violet's abilities reminded me a lot of Harper Connelly in Charlaine Harris's series.
But then chapter by chapter little parts would start to bother me. For instance, Violet and Jay became entirely too sappy and trite or the villain would be too predictable, but at the same time totally unrealistic. So this also meant the ending was a letdown. Things began to snowball until I realized I didn't really want to read anymore. So while I thought the premise was interesting, the execution was lacking. I don't know if I'll be continuing with the series, but I can see why it could have its share of fans, even if I'm not one of them.

Copy Source: Ebook purchased

Warped by Maurissa Guibord

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Synopsis from Goodreads:
Tessa doesn't believe in magic. Or Fate. But there's something weird about the dusty unicorn tapestry she discovers in a box of old books. She finds the creature woven within it compelling and frightening. After the tapestry comes into her possession, Tessa experiences dreams of the past and scenes from a brutal hunt that she herself participated in. When she accidentally pulls a thread from the tapestry, Tessa releases a terrible centuries old secret. She also meets William de Chaucy, an irresistible 16th-century nobleman. His fate is as inextricably tied to the tapestry as Tessa's own. Together, they must correct the wrongs of the past. But then the Fates step in, making a tangled mess of Tessa's life. Now everyone she loves will be destroyed unless Tessa does their bidding and defeats a cruel and crafty ancient enemy.

My two-cents:
What started out as an interesting premise quickly deteriorated into something much more juvenile and unsophisticated than I was expecting. The villain suffered from too-muchness, everything was amplified until she should have been twirling her mustache. Tessa and Will were a bit too much on the silly side as well. If I'd been transported across 500 years you can bet that dancing or trying new cuisine would not be the priorities on my to-do list.

I just wasn't convinced with the characters, and when the promise of the beginning led to such a letdown I can say I was sorely disappointed.

Copy source: Library