Review: Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

448 pages * published 1/4/11 by HarperTeen

In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . . .

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.

Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place—and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.

As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make—between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?

Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart.

OH MY DAYS! This book was awesome and, needless to say, the writing was good. This is a pretty believable fiction. I mean, in Unearthly, each angel actually has his/her own purpose. That's the reason they're on earth, and with this book I was just dumbfounded. I mean, angels with a purpose? Duh! That just seems like really logical, reasonable and obvious(I mean, think about it.. angels are like messengers and whatnot so they obviously must have a purpose, right?), yet Unearthly's the only one with that premise(not about fallen angels). This book was a breath of fresh air. Surely angels have something better to do than get kicked out of heaven and be damned on earth and go to school(for Pete's sake! WTF?!!) and fall in effin' love, right? The answer is yes. Because in Unearthly, they have their mission. Okay, enough with me spazzing about that.

I liked all the characters. Except Christian.. yeah, I don't like him at all. I'm Team Tucker, obviously. They were so sweet(no joke, trust me) they might as well get married, y'know?! I haven't expected a love triangle(I don't like love triangles that much because it makes me feel pity for the guy not chosen), I was thinking Clara and Christian's gonna be together because that's usually what happens right? The main character falling in love with the person who wants to kill her(uh, Twilight.. Hush, Hush), or in this case with he person she's supposed to save(that's what I thought). Same old, same old so I was more than excited when Clara and Tucker got together and not her and Christian, though.. what was the ending all about?! I can't believe Clara has some(or maybe a tiny bit of) feelings for Christian. That's just not right, is it? That really irked me. Sorry, would've been 5 stars if not for that.

Rating: ★★★★

Review: The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

Okay, so, I chose The Body Finder for my first review blog post because it was the last book I read(currently I'm reading The Ghost and The Goth). :)

336 pages * published 3/6/10 by HarperCollins

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.

At first(literally; during the very first parts of the book) I totally kind of mistook The Body Finder for Beautiful Creatures(or at least, some part of it). Haha, no joke, I was like: When will this new guy who dreams of Violet enter the story already? Lol. And by new guy, I was thinking Ethan from BC(I haven't read the book yet, I just found out his name via Goodreads just a while ago) because in BC, the guy dreamed of the girl, right? So I was thinking there was a love triangle involved. And the part of me that always feels sad for the best friend who gets dumped for the new guy wondered who Violet will choose in the end. It was really silly and ridiculous. Anyway, that phase ended by me thinking: "Wait, this is like the fifth or sixth(because at the start of the story it's her third day at school, right?) day but no new student has appeared! Maybe I'm thinking the wrong guy, maybe there's just no new guy? Uhhh, wait, is there even a new guy? Maybe this guy I'm thinking of is from another book.." Haha. Oh my goodness. Note: I was reading it through my iPod, so don't judge me and tell me I should've read the blurb at the back of the book when I was having doubts.

Moving on!.... Good writing, but sometimes sentences aren't totally coherent. For instance, Grady. He was first mentioned when Violet talked to her at the end-of-summer party but he was only properly introduced the second time(when Violet, Jay and Grady were in the hallway moments before Grady asked Violet to go to Homecoming with him). I mean, isn't the part of introducing the character supposed to be done the first time he/she's mentioned?

Regarding the characters, I liked them. I didn't love them. They were cute and sweet as a couple but the sweetness kind of got overboard and turned mushy. I mean, it just irritated me, I don't know why(I really like sweet scenes and stuff and mushiness but....too much mushiness! aaah!) and caused me to roll my eyes and mutter "Oh, God". I am not lying and I really did that, and I know it's not the nicest thing to say, or rather, do. Look at it this way--when you keep eating the same candy for a long time you simply and eventually don't like it anymore and possibly even try to avoid that candy and move on to another one. It's the same thing with books. Sometimes. Depends, actually. But, you get the point.

The ending, surprisingly, was like hold-your-breath moment. But, really. It's convenient to have a police officer as an uncle, huh? Just one call and--zap!--he's there. It's just not as easy as that in real life, if it were to be. Though that would destroy the purpose of fiction, would it? Ha.


Rating: ★★★★

fictionlagged

So here's me, Phia, asking myself questions you probably have in your mind.

Question for myself: About the name:

Answer by myself: fiction lag is described by urbandictionary.com as

The temporary change in personality that occurs after being deeply involved with a movie, book, game, or some other work of fiction.

Yeeep. This usually happens to me. Actually, though, I want a legit term for that hangover feeling you get after you just read a book.

Q.f.m: What the heck is this all about?!:

A.b.m: Well calm down, this will be(because I haven't exactly posted any reviews yet didn't I?) book blog. Sort of. Sort of because of course there will be the reviews, but I'm pretty sure I won't do those interviews with authors kind of thing. And yeah there will be contests(as long as I have saved up enough money, that is. And, um, well, as soon as I know how the shipping- internationally-thingy works, that kind of stuf.. I mean, does FedEx do those? Uhhh, I don't have a clue. Yet. See? I'm totally clueless and I still need to well, have a clue with that.) Anyway, I made this for the sole purpose of having someplace else other than Goodreads to write a review about a book I recently finished.

Q.f.m: Why am I not satisfied with just writing reviews in Goodreads?:

A.b.m: Well because not all has a Goodreads account and really, I tend to not write reviews there unless I'm in the mood. Or unless I don't get lazy.

Q.f.m: So if I can't even write reviews on Goodreads for all the books I've read, then what are the chances I will here?:

A.b.m: I really love blogging. That's it. I mean, I've been blogging since, like, 2008 or probably even '07. And simply writing reviews on Goodreads feels.. blah. I feel no one reads it anyway, and at least with a blog, I can promote it, you know.... so, writing reviews on a blog--sht just got real. Heck yeah!