Review: Apollyon by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Title: Apollyon

Series: The Covenant Novels

Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout

Genre: Young Adult Paranormal

Source: Review Copy from the Publisher
Favorite Quotes: 

"And together, hand and hand, we stepped through the gates to the Underworld." 

(Alli's comment: If that ain't love I don't know what is baby! Le sigh.)

"There was that damn pause again and then he said, 'Everyone dies, but in the end it comes down to what you are willing to die for; Alexandria.'" 

(Alli's comment: I always like those personally challenging moments and interactions in books, shows, movies, etc.)

See more on Apollyon on Goodreads.

I know I sound like a broken record but L.O.V.E Jennifer L. Armentrout's writing. Her sexy, snarky stories are some of favorites. I read this a couple of weeks ago, made some notes but it's hard for me to review without giving to much. 

Basically this is what I want you to get from my review: I know that officially Apollyon literally just came out. But can I please have Sentinel (the 5th and final book in the Covenant Series) NOW!?! Only not really cause I am SOOOO not ready for it to end!! I have so much emotion invested in this series! 

Also, I realized one of the things I really like about JLA's writing style while reading Apollyon. She has this ability to write like she is just talking to me like a friend. Like I really feel like Alex could be one of my good friends as I'm reading the book. She just writes like how I'd want my conversations to go. How JLA manages to do this is just...AMAZING! (I'm fairly certain if I attempted to do the same it would be incredibly lame. Again, Jennifer is a writing godess so there's that.)

***From here down I tried to be a spoiler free as possible but...if you don't want to know anything about the book just stop reading because I had a hard time being spoiler free. If you haven't read Apollyon or the rest of the Covenant series, get to it ASAP!***

Truthfully, I wasn't too fond of the beginning. I'll just say the "My Seth" thing just about had me DONE with Alex right from the get-go. I don't care if she could help it or not, she was just pissing me off. But it got better and back to the love story and intense action I wanted to read!

After her breakthrough, Alex is pretty awesome, even though is the big, bad Apollyon she still has a big heart. She wants to save her people, humans and Seth (yuck, I'm so NOT a Seth fan). Plus Seth makes everything so difficult for Alex. She still believes in him and thinks he's worth trying to save. 

(I mean, I'm not heartless, I get he's had troubles but he just wears my nerves out. We all have crap to deal with in our lives, deal with it, move on, and use your power for good you big baby! Grrr. Okay, the Seth rant is over, for now.)

I love how Jennifer had one of her characters reading a book about hot aliens! Way to shout out to her other mega popular Lux series! (Which, incidentally, I also adore!) Even the character's in her books have good reading tastes! :)

I gave Apolloyn 5 out of 5 stars! My recommendation: READ IT!

See my review for other books in the Covenant series, Pure and Deity here on the blog.

ARC Review: Touch of Death

Title: Touch of Death

Author: Kelly Hashway

Genre: YA Paranormal

Source: ARC from publisher in exchange for honest review.

Fave Quote(s): "Emotions were what caused people to fly off the handle, not control themselves. But we weren't ordinary people. We were Ophi."

Info on Touch of Death from Goodreads:

Jodi Marshall isn’t sure how she went from normal teenager to walking disaster. One minute she’s in her junior year of high school, spending time with her amazing boyfriend and her best friend. The next she’s being stalked by some guy no one seems to know.

After the stranger, Alex, reveals himself, Jodi learns he’s not a normal teenager and neither is she. With a kiss that kills and a touch that brings the dead back to life, Jodi discovers she’s part of a branch of necromancers born under the 13th sign of the zodiac, Ophiuchus. A branch of necromancers that are descendents of Medusa. A branch of necromancers with poisoned blood writhing in their veins.
Jodi’s deadly to the living and even more deadly to the deceased. She has to leave her old, normal life behind before she hurts the people she loves. As if that isn’t difficult enough, Jodi discovers she’s the chosen one who has to save the rest of her kind from perishing at the hands of Hades. If she can’t figure out how to control her power, history will repeat itself, and her race will become extinct. 

My thoughts on Touch of Death:

I have been excited about reading Touch of Death for sometime now. When I first saw the cover months ago I just had a feeling this would be a book I'd enjoy. In this one instance I'm so glad I judged a book by it's cover. Touch of Death was pretty as well as awesome! 

It is safely a Young Adult Paranormal but Touch of Death is interesting because of the paranormal elements combined with good story telling are different from other books I've read lately. I think author, Kelly Hashway, hit a winning combination with Greek mythology, necromancers and zombies with just enough romantic tension to keep things warm if not all out hot!

***The next paragraph is borderline spoilery***

Speaking of hot, can we talk about Alex for a moment. That macaroni eating stalker really won me over by the end! Please stalk me and teach me a thing or two about being Ophi! Hot as, well, Hades and lets don't even go down that path!

I think fans of Jennifer L. Armentrout's Covenant series will appreciate and really enjoy Hashway's Touch of Death. It kind of has the same feel as the Covenant books without being a carbon copy. 

I give Touch of Death 4 out of 5 stars and I'm totally looking forward to the next book in the series, which I believe will be called Stalked by Death due out July 2013! (YAY!! Not long at all to wait!)

What A Great Bookish Day!

Yesterday morning a co-worker asked me about a book because I "always have great book recommendations." This kinda set my day for a great bookish day! I finished the book I was reading and the audio book I was listening to in my car, Onyx by Jennifer L. Armentrout and The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, respectively. Both of which were very good and look for reviews and what not coming soon to a blog near you (aka this one)! 

And once I got home I found my first Advanced Reading Copy in the mail!!! Which, by the way, when I had emailed the publisher about it I got a polite email back saying they didn't have anymore copies. I can't wait to read and review this book. (Its The Third Covenant Novel.) And I kinda feel like I'm really part of the book blog "club" now! 

Needless to say, I was super excited to see it! And now you can see it too!!!

Look at that! ARC of Deity

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

and some book swag!

THANKS Spencer Hill Press!!

You guys ROCK!