Eternity Review

Eternity (Fallen Angel #2)
Heather Terrell

Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: June 28, 2011
Genre: YA, Paranormal
Pages: Paperback, 304 pages
Source: Author
Rating: 4/5 (Avg 4/5)

The end . . . or a new beginning?

As Ellie comes to grips with her destiny as the Elect One, her relationship with Michael grows tense. When she meets a mys­terious boy named Rafe, things get even more complicated.

Yet the time has come for the Elect One to stand against the group of evil fallen angels who are bent on destroying the world. In order to face the immeasurable malevolence heading her way, Ellie tries to put her personal life aside. But she soon learns that whoever holds her heart also holds the key to mankind’s salvation—or destruction. As the end days approach, Ellie is faced with an epic decision. Who does her heart really belong to? And is her love strong enough to save the world?

I have to admit right off that I had not read the first book in the series, Fallen Angel, until I had to read this one. I just felt as though I needed to read it to give this book a fair shot.

This book was a little clearer to me on facts than the first was, even answering some of the lingering questions that I had from Fallen Angel. The mix of true mythology and mythology made for this book blended together well, never seeming scattered or unreal at all. In all honesty, this is probably one of the best series involving angels that I have read in a while.

The characters were all written great. Ellie was a great female lead both brave and powerful, yet definitely acted like a normal teenage girl at the same time. I think Michael is a good counterpart for Ellie, though sometimes he's a little flaky when he needs to be there for Ellie. Rafe caught my attention in this book, as well as Ruth. It's great to see a best friend in a book that acts like a best friend to the lead instead of getting all jealous or worked up over every single detail.

Sometimes while reading, I felt as though things were made out to be a little more... dramatic than necessary. And I honestly would have loved to see more of the action when it happened, it just always seemed a bit rushed. Overall though, this was a great read and a great follow-up to Fallen Angel - easy to follow and quick in pace. I'll definitely continue to follow this series as it progresses.

Insatiable Review

Insatiable
Meg Cabot

Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: June 22, 2011
Series: Insatiable (#1)
Genre: YA, Paranormal
Pages: Paperback, 320 pages
Source: Publisher
Rating: 3/5 (Avg 3.5/5)

Sick of hearing about vampires? So is Meena Harper.

But her bosses are making her write about them anyway, even though Meena doesn't believe in them.

Not that Meena isn't familiar with the supernatural. See, Meena Harper knows how you're going to die. (Not that you're going to believe her. No one ever does.)

But not even Meena's precognition can prepare her for what happens when she meets—then makes the mistake of falling in love with—Lucien Antonescu, a modern-day prince with a bit of a dark side. It's a dark side a lot of people, like an ancient society of vampire hunters, would prefer to see him dead for.

The problem is, Lucien's already dead. Maybe that's why he's the first guy Meena's ever met whom she could see herself having a future with. See, while Meena's always been able to see everyone else's future, she's never been able look into her own.

And while Lucien seems like everything Meena has ever dreamed of in a boyfriend, he might turn out to be more like a nightmare.

Now might be a good time for Meena to start learning to predict her own future. . . .

If she even has one.

I have heard pretty decent things about this book, so it's been on my TBR list for a while. I was ecstatic to have the opportunity to review it for one of the publications that I review for, which is usually my cheap excuse to bump some good titles up a bit. Having said that, I have to say that this book, even though it only registers at a mere 320 pages, took me longer to finish over any other book this year.

I don't want to be harsh, but I feel as though the length of the description in this novel gets tedious quickly and, unfortunately, continues to stay so throughout the entire story. I'm all for good story background and getting to know your characters better... but there has to be a limit and somewhere along the way, Insatiable found and surpassed that limit. I found myself putting this book down entirely too many times... as well as skipping over paragraphs because they just didn't feel important or necessary to me. At all.

Aside from this, I guess I definitely cannot say that there wasn't good character descriptions and the characters were very dimensional.. down to pretty much knowing every single solitary thought going through their mind at every single solitary moment. However, no matter how much description and inner monologue I had, I still felt as though I didn't know Meena at all when she made certain decisions. Her thought process was bi-polar and erratic at best. I enjoyed the two male leads, and I have to say that Meena's brother did a complete turn-about that absolutely annoyed the crap out of me. Minor characters were surprisingly enjoyable, though.

I think a lot of paranormal lovers will enjoy this book and I wish that I could have gotten into it more than I did to truly appreciate such a well-written novel. Unfortunately, it fell a little flat for me though not enough to completely turn me against the series. I'm planning on picking up its sequel, Overbite, to see what happens next with Meena and crew... and hope I like it a little more.

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