"Daughter of Smoke and Bone" by Laini Taylor

"Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.
In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.
And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.
Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.
When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?"-goodreads

This book was so many things. It was suspense, confusion, tension, beauty, strength, and weakness. There was romance and then there was hatred. There were memories and there was flipping in between their present and their past. There was a girl, Karou, our heroine of the story, and she had naturally blue hair. And that's cool too. The writing was beautiful and created superbly vivid imagery. At times, reading The Daughter of Smoke and Bone I was confused, because I couldn't decide what I thought of characters-- even Karou. By what I think, I meant whether I trusted them, and Karou is the main character! It was weird. It was deception! It was exciting. Akiva is awesome. All the characters were well developed even with their veils of mystery. The way time passed or flitted back and forth between the future and the present for the narrative, especially near the end, was difficult to get used to at first but then I ended up liking that too.

It was a peculiar book. With its many dimensions and complicated inner-workings it wasn't like anything I've read before. I have nothing to compare it to! It surprised me and it lived up to the hype. The writing kept me totally wrapped up in the story and engrossed in its complex world with its depth and clever wording-- Laini Taylor totally hit that out of the park! All that having been said; I look forward to the sequel!
Thank you to Little Brown for the opportunity to review this book!

"Repossessed" by A.M. Jenkins

"Shaun... did something happen today? Anything out of the ordinary?"
Well, Shaun died, but other than that...
"Nope," I told Shaun's mom. "It' s just been a normal, regular day."

Kiriel doesn't like the term "demon". It's far too negative. He prefers "Fallen Angel", which is the proper technical term, anyway.
Though he doesn't really enjoy his job, either.
Kiriel isn't an "important" demon... His job is simply to reflect misery back onto the souls in hell. That's all. Nothing more important.
The big guy hasn't even paid any attention to him. Only important fallen angels get attention from God.
And trouble makers.

When Kiriel discovers that hell doesn't blow up when he doesn't do his job, he decides to take a vacation. It's not like he's ever had one before... Who cares if it's technically against the rules? Maybe it'll get him some notice in the end.

So he steals a body. The boy who it used to belong to was barely using it anyway, so what does it matter that he takes over for a few days?

Through the body of Shaun, a typical slacker highschooler, Kiriel discovers what it's like to be a human. And he likes it.
But how long does he have before the body is "repossessed"?

Whatever the reason, they punish themselves. I merely oversee; I don't actually do anything about anything.
Mine is a useless occupation.

I really liked this book. It was a very interesting point of view, reading from the head of a demon. Surprisingly, although Kiriel decides to see what's so enjoyable about sinning, he seemed to be one of the more innocent characters in the book. He had a very interesting outlook on the life he leads in Shaun's body, and I actually ended up agreeing with his points.
So, I think the author did very well making him a relatable character.

Besides that, it was just a very interesting book. Some of the themes can be carried over and related to our own lives... Especially us teens. You know, the whole, "my place isn't important," "my job isn't important" "no one notices me", and all that crap.

I also liked how it made fun of teenagers, and our lives.

You have to be warned however, that there are quite a few mentions of sex in this book, and some swearing. So if those sorts of things concern you, I wouldn't read this book.

"Angelfire" by Courtney Allison Moulton

"When seventeen-year-old Ellie starts seeing reapers - monstrous creatures who devour humans and send their souls to Hell - she finds herself on the front lines of a supernatural war between archangels and the Fallen and faced with the possible destruction of her soul.
A mysterious boy named Will reveals she is the reincarnation of an ancient warrior, the only one capable of wielding swords of angelfire to fight the reapers, and he is an immortal sworn to protect her in battle. Now that Ellie's powers have been awakened, a powerful reaper called Bastian has come forward to challenge her. He has employed a fierce assassin to eliminate her - an assassin who has already killed her once.
While balancing her dwindling social life and reaper-hunting duties, she and Will discover Bastian is searching for a dormant creature believed to be a true soul reaper. Bastian plans to use this weapon to ignite the End of Days and to destroy Ellie's soul, ending her rebirth cycle forever. Now, she must face an army of Bastian's most frightening reapers, prevent the soul reaper from consuming her soul, and uncover the secrets of her past lives - including truths that may be too frightening to remember."-goodreads

Angelfire was action packed! There were crazy awesome fight scenes. But those aren't the only elements that made Angelfire such a great book. An interesting cast of characters and a rather unique plot contributed to the awesome as well. I liked Ellie and Will individually and then, awww. I also liked Ellie's mom, which is random, but it's actually kind of significant because so often in YA we find the mom that we hate or just feel indifferent about and there usually aren't likeable moms or dads (granted, the dad wasn't likable. At all. But I won't rant about that.). The characters were each quirky in their own ways, from Ellie naming her car Marshmallow to Will's thing for root beer floats. I appreciated how the monsters and the reality of their presence actually complicating Ellie's life and her social life. Sometimes, in the paranormal books, the character is fighting monsters at night and in the day everything is perfectly normal, no changes, which isn't realistic... The reincarnation aspect was interesting, and I'm curious to find out more about that and Ellie's memories in the sequel. The sequel, Wings of the Wicked, comes out in February 2012. (Which is almost forever from now *exaggeration* but I'm excited for it!)

"A Touch Mortal" by Leah Clifford

"Eden didn’t expect Az.
Not his saunter down the beach toward her. Not his unbelievable pick up line. Not the instant, undeniable connection. And not his wings.
Yeah.
So long happily-ever-after.
Now trapped between life and death, cursed to spread chaos with her every touch, Eden could be the key in the eternal struggle between heaven and hell. All because she gave her heart to one of the Fallen, an angel cast out of heaven.
She may lose everything she ever had. She may be betrayed by those she loves most. But Eden will not be a pawn in anyone else’s game. Her heart is her own.
And that’s only the beginning of the end."-goodreads

I've somehow read a lot of rather dark books in a row as of late, and A Touch Mortal is no exception (I'm now reading something rather fluffy, you need that once in a while). That being said, it was a good dark book. 

The plot moved just fast enough that I never felt like I was stuck anywhere or it was moving to slow; it was a rather quick read. The whole book has enough tension so that you always feel like something big is just around the corner (and half the time, there is) which keeps you going, 'one more page. one more chapter. 50 pages, and I'm going to bed, darnit.', and then you finish the book.


The whole plot and concept were complex. The idea of the fallen angels, the bound, and the ones without paths, siders. That was intriguing, I haven't read a lot of angel books, so that kept me interested as well. Eden and Az had a very interesting relationship, and I don't want to say they were cute together-- that just seems lame-- but they were. At the beginning I wasn't buying it (love at first sight? what? huh?) but then it just seemed right for them.


All of the characters were quite interesting, all of their problems, histories, and abilities. There were surprises, and most things weren't at all what you expected them to be. As has happened a few times for me lately, I never felt like I connected with the main character, Eden. It wasn't that I didn't like her, and it wasn't that she was underdeveloped... I don't know, it just didn't click. That didn't hinder me from enjoying the story though, so it's fine.


Anyway, overall, A Touch Mortal is a very dark, interesting, complex, and enjoyable read, so long as you like that kind of thing (which I do). It's very unique as well. I look forward to the next one, A Touch Morbid, when it comes out!

"Kindred" by Tammar Stein

"Miriam is an unassuming college freshman stuck on campus after her spring break plans fall through. She's not a religious girl--when pressed she admits reluctantly to believing in a higher power. Truth be told, she's about as comfortable speaking about her faith as she is about her love life, which is to say, not at all. And then the archangel Raphael pays Miriam a visit, and she finds herself on a desperate mission to save two of her contemporaries. To top it all off, her twin brother, Mo, has also had a visitation, but from the opposite end of the good-evil spectrum, which leaves Miriam to wonder--has she been blessed and her brother cursed or vice versa? And what is the real purpose behind her mission" (Actual Description)

This book sure was interesting. I did like it pretty well. I think it gets, hm... 3.75 stars? I think I'll just get over myself and round that to four stars!! It was good! I can definitely say I've never read a book with a story and plot quite like this one. Miriam's journey and life after her visit from Raphael is a complex, good one. Although, on that note, the book I think is really like Miriam's personal journey in life (after her visit from the angels), and struggle with her faith and relationships, not quite just about visits from the angels and her brother and such. That said, it's also a very religious book, which was interesting, I'd never really read a YA book with a lot of religious focus, so that was kind of new, I didn't mind though. Anyway, this is a good one. I would recommend this if you're into books with a theme of religion, angels, and also if you like a good book where the protagonist overcomes a personal struggle- which I do. Also, this book is probably more for the older end of YA, just because I don't think younger less mature readers would even really get what's going on...

To learn more about "Kindred" go to it's bit on the Random House website here, and Tammar Stein's website here.

Thank you very much Random House/Knopf for the review copy. Also, readers, receiving a review copy does not cause my to alter my review, I am unbiased, these are my real opinions people!