Book Review: Endless Knight by Kresley Cole (Book #2 - Arcana Chronicles)

Kresley Cole does it again! Although Endless Knight is part of a YA series, it will not disappoint those how have learned to love her Immortals After Dark series or anyone who is just starting with her books. This is the second installment of her Arcana Series and should be read after Poison Princess (Book #1 of the Arcana Series) as it picks up directly after the last chapter of the book.

Personally, I found the pace a little slow, mainly because this is an on-going series where one event directly leads to the next, so there are no real endings to each of the books until the entire series ends. However, once you reach the end of the book, you will always wish for more. Kresley Cole leaves you in the worse type of cliffhanger (in a very good way) you can imagine. I, myself, almost screamed in frustration when I finished the last chapter in Endless Knight as I realized I will have to wait another year for the Book #3 in the series to find out what will happen to our sexy Cajun, Jack, as it is scheduled to publish in Fall 2014.

Summary:
The rain that the Fool has been warning Evie, the Empress, about had started to pour after her encounter with the Hermit and acquired his icon. Finally, she realized her powers and was no longer the helpless girl that she had been ever since the Flash, the apocalypse that killed most of the living and turn many into Bagmans - thoughtless zombies. Allying with the Fool, Huntress and Magician she finally remember the game, where there will be only one winner, one survivor.

Jack, her sexy Cajun, had seen her using her powers to control plants and her appearance turning into that of a red witch and was horrified at what he saw, but there were little time to adjust as they are immediately chased down by Bagmans, other arcana cards and cannibals. When they finally had the time to talk things over, Jack decided he was more upset with her keeping secrets from him.

Death had been taunting her in her head through the Fool since the beginning of the game. Now he appears before her and threatens her friends and allies. Her only choice was to go with him. His words are menacing, but he brings her back to his castle and let her roam free. He wouldn't let her near him, but when she was not looking, he couldn't take his eyes off of her. There were history between them, things he would never forget... things she forgot over and over and she must figure these things out before history repeats itself.

What I liked:
I know I haven't written a review for Poison Princess, but one of my biggest problem with that book was that I didn't like Evie, the female protagonist, in the first half of that book. I generally have no issues with main female characters who does not possess strong personalities (I actually prefer them a little mellow rather than having too strong a personality), but her attitude in the first half of the first book of the series was "princess" like... in a bad way. She was a bit snobby, imo, and had nothing to contribute while on the run after the apocalypse. But things have started to change in the second half of that book and by the beginning of Endless Knight, she was much more likable.

Something that I really like about Kresley Cole's books is that she has a way of writing about changes in characters that are logical and believable. Some authors attempt to write about a change in the way a character thinks and acts and end up making it awkward or the change was so sudden that it doesn't make sense. KC has the talent to write about these changes and make the transitions smooth and realistic, which enhances the story reading rather than ruining it. Evie was put into a leadership role in this book and was able to contribute some good ideas and save the day several times. She definitely held her own throughout the majority of this second installment rather than entirely depending on Jack like in the first installment.

Jack was as sexy as ever and there was almost nothing that I don't like about him... ok, maybe his only flaw is that he drinks a bit much. He is protective and, although he is a mortal and does not wield any magic, he more than holds his own. Even after he saw Evie with all her power (and she could easily kill him with one thought) he still wants to protect her and does his best to do so.

Death received the most character development in this installment of the series as it was his first real appearance half way through this book. In the Poison Princess, he appeared only in dreams through what the Fool wants Evie to see and what the Empress saw in her past life.

Overall, I love the character development in this book. How Evie seems to have a bit of a split personality, between herself and the red witch Empress, is interesting and certainly explains a lot about her past encounters with Death.

Character interactions were also wonderful. There is so much chemistry between Evie and Jack and Evie and Death. Both Jack and Death are absolutely adorable in very different ways... ummm... not the way you say "awww, cute!!" though.

Another thing I thought was very nicely executed by KC was how she handled Evie's feelings toward the later of the book. She genuinely loves Jack, despite she realize he had kept some very important secrets from her, but she was also wildly attracted to Death. I like how it was not a sudden change of heart thing for Evie and neither was she just latching on another guy as one had hurt her badly. I also like the fact that after the initial shock of knowing the secret Jack had kept from her, she could see reason, although she was not yet able to face him yet.

As much as I love reading love triangle themed stories, some just didn't feel right, especially when the girl ends up having feeling for both guys. So far, I have not yet felt that Evie was playing the guys, as I have felt in other similar story plots before. I certainly hopes KC keeps it up.

What I didn't like:
Like I mentioned before, I found the story to be a bit slow moving. It was the same problem with the first book. To be honest, if I would have picked up Poison Princess or Endless Knight without having read and loved KC's other works, I might have stopped within a couple of chapters. One can certainly argue that it is natural for these types of stories. It is meant for a series where things happen over several volumes, but I would have like the pace to be a little quicker.

There is also a decent portion of the story where they are running from the bagmans, cannibals and other psycho beings and I found those chapters to be a little lacking. Now, I'm not saying it is bad and I want to skip the pages, but they, unfortunately, were not page turners.

Although this is a continuing series and much of the story is to be revealed over several books, I felt like it didn't have a big theme and a big event. I mean, yes, many things happened, Death and his relationship with Evie was introduced and, temporarily solved, but the big climax didn't feel like something that was built since chapter 1 of the book. Rather, the book read like two separate sections. Section I - Jack, Section II - Death. It worked for Poison Princess, because it was Section I - Pre-Flash (apocalypse), Section II - Post-Flash, but it didn't work quite well for me in Endless Knight.

The cliffhanger was also something that was annoying. Now don't get me wrong, it's not bad! It's just that all of a sudden something new and pressing was introduced and then boom, TO BE CONTINUED! And you're like dafuq, as Jack would say. This is especially frustrating when she's only publishing one installment a year... Can somebody invent a time machine so I can skip to Fall 2014, day of publishing of the next installment?

Conclusion:
Although not as much of a page turner like her Immortals After Dark Series, the Arcana Chronicles by Kresley Cole are not to be missed. Both Jack and Death in Endless Knight are to die for! This series can certainly hold its own. KC weaved a world and a game that is believable and the reader is invited to learn and experience it along with Evie. I cannot wait for the next installment... I just hope that the next 12 months can pass by quickly enough...

Read my reviews for other novels by Kresley Cole

Movie Review: Twilight Saga - New Moon

I know I haven't posted in a long time, and this post isn't even a novel post. But I figured I should do a little update on the paranormal romance world.

So! After a long wait, I was finally able to see the New Moon Movie from the Twilight Saga today. I've already written a book review here so I'm just going to be commenting mainly on the movie. And to get to the bottom line without wasting people's time, the movie was slightly disappointing, but not so much as an absolute don't-watch-it-category movie, mainly because Taylor Lautner had his shirt off for a lot of the scenes.

So first of all, I was so glad that the movie wasn't as disappointing as the last one. I really think that having a higher budget and a different director worked in its favor. And Taylor Lautner was definitely smoking HOT when he took his shirt off.

You know, I admire Taylor Lautner, as he added 30 lbs (or whatever) of muscle on himself so that he could keep his role. And I believe it was a good choice. New Moon portrayed him well, and I bet that a lot of Edward-fans or non-Twilight readers will be joining Team Jacob after this.

But note that I will not be one of those, because my love were for the characters from the books and not the movies. But I do like Taylor a lot, and have no love for Robert Pattinson at all.

Anyway, off topic.

The reason I liked this movie more than the last one was because it was obvious that the director tried hard to stay true to the book for as much as possible. Unlike the first one, no super major scenes were cut, and nothing, at least to me, screamed WRONG like the kiss scene in the first movie. However, I think it stayed a little TOO true on some lines. You know how somethings sounds perfectly fine when it's written, but when spoken, it would just sound cheesy? There were quite a few moments of those in there. >_<

It was nice to see the CGs in this movie were very well done, and I absolutely adore Jacob's wolf form. I was quite worried about seeing some ugly wolves running around until I saw the trailer, but was still worried that they didn't portray the wolves correctly. Luckily they did. THANK GOD!!

Now what's wrong was the Vampires... Ok, I never considered them Vampires, really. I'm sorry to say, but I just kind of treated them as a different species that drinks blood when I read the book. Vampires are supposed to have FANGS!!! If you're a vampire and have no fangs, you're like... handicapped or something. You've got to have fangs to be vampires... But, off topic again.

I don't really blame this movie for how the vampires look. It was set in the first movie, and you can't really change it drastically. So I guess they were forced to "go-along-with-it." But still... >_<

My BIGGEST problem with this movie is Edward though. OMG, he was so hot and so great in the books, but he's just a lame ass ugly white... THING in this movie. I'm going to apologize in advance for people who likes Robert Pattison, but he's terrible!!! He can't act, and every time he speaks, he acts like he's a ventriloquist by not moving his lips at all. I could barely understand him on many occasions!!

Another thing is, and I think Jacob fans would definitely disagree with me, that I believe although Edward wasn't present most of the time in the novel New Moon, I still think that it is a story about Bella and Edward, not Bella and Jacob. It's about how much Bella really loves Edward and for him to realize that leaving her for "her own good" is just not an option. However, this movie did not capture the essence of it. So, it was quite disappointing in that way.

Don't get me wrong though, I still enjoyed the movie on some level, just not the way I was supposed to enjoy it. Oh... Did I mention that Taylor without a shirt on was HOT? Yah, he was HOT!!!!

Book Review - Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer (Twilight Saga)

Book three of the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer, Eclipse, is a paranormal romance novel with a good and interesting plot, but very annoying characters. For that, I can only give the novel a 3.5 Pink Hearts.

Summary:

With her boyfriend being a vampire, and best friend being a werewolf, Bella was torn between love and friendship. As much as she couldn't live without Edward, she couldn't give up her personal-sun, Jacob, even though the two hate each other so much that they want to tear each other apart. As Bella try to work everything out with this complicated relationship, Jacob just had to make things more complicated by insisting her feelings towards him was much more than friendship. And to make matters worse, a group of newborn vampires were roaming Seattle, just an hour or so away from their town of Forks, and an old enemy still lurks in the shadows threatening for revenge.

SPOILER ALERT!! SPOILER ALERT!!

What I liked:

I liked how the plot played out in this story, and their enemy's tactics. It was fresh, and helped to give much more insight about many secondary characters, especially Jasper. I really liked that because for the first two books, he was more like an unnecessary character, with no in depth description or characterization. But in Eclipse, he character finally developed, making him much less of an unnecessary background.

Although I fell in love with Edward in the first book, Twilight, I believe I fell in love with him all over again in Eclipse. It was just amazing how much he loved Bella, and how much he was willing to do for her.

What I didn't like:

I was never a big fan of Bella, mainly because she was just a shallow teenager, who, for no particular reasons, fell in love with a vampire. But she did not officially begin to annoy and piss me off until Eclipse. Throughout the whole story, she was inconsiderate and indecisive. Knowing how much Edward worried about her being with unstable young werewolves, she still chose to run off (multiple times) to see Jacob. Knowing how Edward would be jealous of her being together with another person who likes her more than a friend, she still constantly talk about Jacob in front of him. And then, when she finally realize Jacob's feeling towards her, she tells him no, but still continues to see him all the time. If these actions are not inconsiderate, I don't know what what they are.

In a way, I see Bella's action towards Jacob was due to her insecurity towards Edward, and would just like to hold on to somebody. But that, in my opinion, is seriously cruel. If it was in New Moon, when Edward was still nowhere to be found, I can understand, but he came back, and Bella chose to accept him again. Then why the hell was she leading Jacob on while still clinging onto Edward? Unfortunately, Bella's behavior in Eclipse made me loose a lot of respect for her.

Jacob, was another annoying character. As much as Bella did somewhat lead him on by keep going back to him, she did, after all, repeatedly said that she didn't see him that way, that she only loves Edward, and yet, he kept pressing her. I'm sorry, persistence is good only to a certain point, after that, it becomes annoyance. And that was exactly what Jacob was. And, granted, I never liked Jacob's character in New Moon, I just hated him even more in Eclipse. By 3/4 of the story, he annoyed me so much that every time he appears, I would either want to strangle him, or pray that he would die soon or something.

Conclusion:

With all that said, Eclipse was still a decent read if you have been following the series. However, for me, the only thing that held the book together was a decent plot, and a very yummy Edward. If those two elements were not present or if I'm rating this book solely on Bella and Jacob's character... argh, I don't even want to think about it. But then again, Stephenie Meyer did do a good job wrapping up some of the lines in this book, and will leave you wondering what would happen next.

All reviews for the Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

Book Review - Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (Twilight Saga)

Twilight by Stephenie Meyers is a popular Young Adult Paranormal Romance novel and the first installment of the the Twilight Saga. I've picked up a soft cover copy a couple of months ago in the supermarket due to it's attractive cover (movie cover in fact), and it certainly did not disappoint. The book is a very pleasant read for the ones young at heart and is well worth 4.5 Pink Hearts in my review.

Isabella Swan, who was very particular at being called Bella instead of Isabella, was a 17 years old high school student. After her mother remarried, she volunteered to move from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington to live with her father. The move was a drag to her, she disliked the town Forks, the weather was always gloomy, and she hated the attention that everyone gave her in school, since she was the "new girl" and police officer Chief Swan's only daughter. That is until she met gorgeous Edward Cullen, who acted as if he had bi-polar personalities and wouldn't stop telling her she should be scared of him.

Edward Cullen was a vampire of nearly a century old. He was gorgeous, lightening fast, extremely strong, can read other people's minds and even sparkles like diamonds under sunlight. Having practiced "vegetarianism" along with his family for a long time, his self-control towards human blood had only been second to his sire/father Carlisle, until Bella Swan came to his Biology class to sit by his side. To Edward, Bella was different. Not only was her blood much sweeter than anyone else's, her mind was also silent to him. She intrigued him, and he couldn't stay away from her, but he had to let her know that he was dangerous, far too dangerous for a human.

In Twilight, Stephenie Meyer did a very good job developing both her characters and the plot. Although the whole story was written in Bella's first person POV, it was easy to see how much Edward loved her, and how unselfish his character can be (although one can argue that if he was selfless, he would have just stayed away from Bella, but then we wouldn't have such a book to read, would we?), hence, making him so lovable that I fell in love with him instantly. The fact that he repeatedly warned Bella that she should be afraid of him, and to try to scare her off was also very cute of him.

The plot of Twilight, being a paranormal romance, was very believable, and the introduction of Stephenie Meyer's concept of vampires were also made very smoothly. There was no long awkward explanations, we just found out little bits here and there about them as Bella did. The plot also flowed very well without any unnecessary scenes, and the introduction of James, the antagonist vampire, was, although a little sudden, but not at all unexpected.

The secondary characters in the story was also fantastic, especially Edward's sister Alice Cullen. She was cute, funny and can also see the future. She was my second favorite character in this book, just after Edward. Her character was not only essential to the development of the plot, but also very entertaining to read.

What didn't like about Twilight was that, although, after Edward and Bella got together, everything was logical and lovey-dovey, I did not quite understand why Bella fell so deeply in love with Edward in the begining. Yes, he was drop dead gorgeous, he saved her life, and was everything a girl would want, but that did not lighten the fact that he was a vampire. And Bella, not only that she was not one bit bothered by that fact, she didn't seem surprised either. Now, I did not think that was normal; especially when she didn't seemed to believe in the supernatural before (or at least Stephanie Meyer did not mention that she believed in it). In my opinion, it would probably be better if it was written in a way that she fell for him, but not too hard in the beginning, then gradually began to love him so much that she would have done anything for him.

As for Edward, although his character was very well developed (as in actions did not clash with personality, and how he could melt your heart anytime), he acted like a teenager, or at least, a person under 30 most of the time. He certainly did not have the wisdom a 100 years old vampire should have. I guess one could argue that this is because once you become a vampire, things do not really change, and these "things" include personality and the way they think and act. But nevertheless, the impression it gave me was that Stephenie Meyer's characters were a bit on the shallow side. Yes, Bella being shallow I can understand, because she was only a 17 years old teenager, how can she not be? But the fact that Edward was a little shallow took away quite a few points for Twilight in my books.

Unlike some other reviewers, I had no problem with Bella being "helpless." I didn't believe it was true helplessness in her part. Keep in mind that she was only a fragile human, and she was up against all these strong unbreakable vampires, what else could she do? Put her with the other humans in the story and she would definitely be above average on the weak-strong scale. Plus, one of the things made her seem more "helpless" than she really was, was the fact that Edward had always been over protective. With a boyfriend like that, one is bound to look a little weaker than she really is. And I'm glad that Bella didn't argue about it, like some other female characters in other books, trying to act all tough when she wasn't. (I guess it doesn't take much to see that I really hate characters who act strong and I-can-take-care-of-myself, when the next second, she lies on the floor half dead and helpless because she thought too much of herself. It's better to embrace your weakness and let people help.)

In conclusion, the paranormal romance novel Twilight by Stephenie Meyer is a book I would definitely recommend to anyone. It would leave a smile on your face by the end of the book, if not throughout most of it. However, do keep in mind that this is a book for Young Adults with aims to satisfy girly fantasies, so the characters does have more shallow personalities, and the quality of writing is not necessarily the best (it did not bother me though). If you'd like to read a well written paranormal romance with truly strong female characters, read the Immortals After Dark series by Kresley Cole instead. But if you're more interested in a light hearted easy read, you should definitely try Twilight if you have not already done so.

In addition, if you liked the movie but have not read the book, I do suggest getting the book. Although I liked the movie too, but the it was low budgeted and have left out or altered many essential scenes. Reading the book would let you enjoy and appreciate the story much much more. And if you have read the book but have not watched the movie, its DVD will be out in March.

All Reviews for the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer