July Book Haul & Unboxing

So this got a little too sentimental at one point and then it was just an overabundance of fangirling. Haha! Hope you enjoy! Don't forget to subscribe to my channel because a lot of exciting new things will be occurring on there!

Also, I'm incredibly behind on reviews and the summer is coming to an end. I'm trying my best to keep my blog updated, but my life is rather hectic. Sorry!

What books did you get this month? Have you read any of these? Let me know in the comments!

The Fiery Heart by Richelle Mead

The Fiery Heart by Richelle Mead

Fourth in the Bloodlines series

5 bajillion gazillion yes, it is a number


Sydney Sage is BACK! She’s an Alchemist stuck at a human school in California protecting Jill Dragomir, sister to Queen Vasilissa Dragomir. She’s finally getting ready to embrace her witch abilities and she even has admitted her growing feelings for Adrian Ivashkov. One thing is in the way. Her sister, Zoe, is now on her mission with her. Everything could go down with one misstep. Sweet, Adrian. Adrian has problems of his own. Like battling spirit and trying to protect Sydney and keep her safe. Finally, Richelle Mead gives us a dual POV of a fantastic pair that is completely opposite, but balances each other beautifully. I remember when I first picked up VA I loved the series to bits and when Sydney was introduced in Blood Promises, I liked her but didn’t think anything about her character growing into something more. When I picked up Bloodlines I devoured it in a day. Bloodlines was a fantastic ride for me and it brought back my love for VA. The Golden Lily was better than Bloodlines. It upped the score for this series and where it could. The Indigo Spell blew me away! I was completely excited for The Fiery Heart to be released. The Fiery Heart was released in November, but I didn’t pick it up until February and shame on me! I always get cold feet about the next book of this series. I leave it waiting to be read for a while and then dive right in. I wasn’t disappointed at all with The Fiery Heart. It was perfect. Just thinking about it actually makes me tear up a bit. I felt every emotion in this novel. Laughter at Adrian’s jokes and witty humor, anger at Zoe and also Sydney and Zoe’s father, love with Adrian and Sydney, anticipation, and worst of all despair. Oh, yes there was despair. I’m not going to lie to you. This book’s ending will rip your heart into shreds. That isn’t surprising because this is a Richelle Mead novel we’re talking about, but it hurt so badly.


The main female character is Sydney. Sydney has grown a lot from Bloodlines. If you remember my Bloodlines review (if not click on) then you’ll note that I gave Sydney a 7 on the Kick-Butt Heroine Scale. By The Indigo Spell she received a whopping 10. I REGRET NOTHING! I LOVE SYDNEY. She’s just as awesome as Rose. Sydney is such a fun character to read about and she’s one of my favorite YA heroines. She can kick you’re lame ass with a spell any day.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 10

The main male character is Adrian. ADRIANNNNNNNNNNNN!

Adrian finally got his POV. It was perfect and I love Adiran even more. In fact, I love Adrian so damn much. He was just absolutely perfect and I will fangirl as hard as I want to because he is like chocolate walking. One thing about him that bothered me though is that he flirts with people unintentionally. It drove me up the wall when the Moroi girl decided she wanted a piece of Adrian. NO! Sydrian forever! Back away insolent random girl.


Swoon Worthy Scale: Broken

The Villain- CURSE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Richelle Mead you make them obvious, but you also make them inflict intense amounts of pain on your readers.

Villain Scale: 9
I loved all these side characters even more. Jill was bearable and actually pretty cool. Eddie was adorable as always. Angeline and Trey need to be together because they are adorable together. Zoe can go jump in front of the car she so desperately wants to drive. Ms. T is awesome and I love her as Sydney’s mentor. She’s totally awesome. Oh, let’s not forget we get to see everyone from VA. There was Rose, Dimitri, Lissa, Christian, and Sonya. It was a big vampire reunion. I loved it!


Character Scale: 10

I’m sorry no I’m not for my fangirling review, but it’s the only way I can think to express my feelings for this masterpiece. Silver Shadows, I’m coming for you.



Cover Thoughts: I don’t really like these covers all that much, but these colors are pretty. The people though are a huge NO.

Black Beast by Nenia Campbell

Black Beast by Nenia Campbell

First in the Shadow Thane series

4.5 stars

Catherine Pierce is apart has a lot on her plate. She’s a shifter. When a witch and Council member of the Otherkind named, Finn, comes across a file that is incomplete of a shifter he decides to hunt her down and take matters into his own hands. Catherine has a lot of problems- her biggest one is that she never took a form after hitting puberty. She’s still shifting and now a witch is after her and dark magic hangs in the air around her. Slayers are hunting and things could spin out of control for the Otherkind. I have two quick notes to make before proceeding with my review:
1) Nenia is a friend of mine and this in no way affects my rating or review.
2) Dear Nenia, stop writing so well and making me read your books in one day. There's no sequel yet and this is torture.

Sincerely,

A Broken Reader


Seriously this book was awesome. I won this in a giveaway and I’m so happy I decided to pick this one up. Nenia knows how to write a good paranormal with touches of urban fantasy in her story. I fricken love the world created her. It’s full of prejudice, contempt, and paranormal awesomeness. This is a YA, but I would recommend it for 15 and up. It has more of an urban fantasy vibe with teenagers. I love this mixture. I don’t come across it very often and it’s fun when I discover gems like this.


The main female character is Catherine. Catherine was a pretty badass character. She works in a bookstore and is a shifter! I liked the whole Shifter aspect. My favorite thing about Catherine is the fact that she’s a Shifter who doesn’t have an exact form. I like even more what is brought up at the end as to why this may be. The one thing that bothered me about her is how she just had to do this prank. It was just kind of boring, to be honest. If that whole scene wasn’t in the book I probably would’ve given Black Beast a 5 star rating. Catherine’s high school high jinks are just boring and it’s the reason I struggled with this novel.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 9

The main male character is Finn. He’s a prick. I don’t like him, but at the same time I hate him so much I like him. I like characters like that. It’s really weird to say I hate a character so much it makes me like him because if I met Finn in person I would hate his guts. As a character, I like him and I enjoy what he brings into the world of the Otherkind.


Swoon Worthy Scale: 6 (cause y’know he’s kind of jerk)

The Villain- Well, I think there’s a huge villain hinted at continuously throughout this novel, but at the moment Finn is the bad guy. He can pretty scary so it fits him. I’m honestly curious to see if he continues to be a villain or if he becomes a hero.


Villain Scale: 8

The characters introduced in this novel show promise, but most of them were not touched on all too much. I’m anxious to see more of these characters.


Character Scale: 7

I love UF worlds and this for me felt very action packed. The first 65%ish was intense and had me captivated. I couldn’t put my Kindle down! Then something happened. I didn’t enjoy the last few chapters as much. Instead of the intense action packed story I was introduced to, Catherine became friends with a long lost friend and possible romance blooms. So does a really boring plan of high school stupidity. The story lost its flare a bit for me. I loved the action packed chase scene with Finn and Catherine. It was intense and something I would’ve enjoyed to have happened again. The last part of the epilogue though. It definitely caught my attention. I love where this story is going and I can’t wait to read the next book in the Shadow Thane series.


Cover Thoughts: This cover is absolutely gorgeous. I mean look at it. It fits how I pictured Catherine and it has a shifter feeling to it.

A Look on Plays: Oedipus and Midsummer Edition

Oedipus: The King by Sophocles

3.25 stars

This review will contain spoilers.

I’m not really sure how to go about explaining Oedipus because explaining gives away the whole story. If you don’t care about spoilers and want to hear an explanation of this play better than I could give I suggest this video. This video is where I first heard of Oedipus: The King and I was definitely intrigued. I was also excited to see that this was going to be a part of the SYNC summer audiobook program. I’m not a reader of plays. I’ve only read two, now three, in my life so far. I’ve only ever read plays during school because I had to. The story of Oedipus had me very curious and I thought maybe I would enjoy the audiobook more than actually reading the play. I did enjoy this audiobook! It has a huge cast of narrator. This gave off the feel of listening to a play. It was pretty enjoyable.


My favorite thing about Greek plays is that they enjoy making the characters life absolutely miserable. You think Shakespeare can be tragic. You haven’t read anything like Sophocles. He knows how to write a tragedy. There are all kinds of horrible things that happen to Oedipus. Don’t believe me? Well there’s incest, murder, plagues, and blindness.


Greeks also seem to love irony. There’s a part in the play when Oedipus tales a blind man:
"Eyes open now, you can't know how dark the nights in which you flounder in.”
His cruelness comes back to bite him and he himself eventually becomes blind.
Also Greeks have some weird fantasies. Oedipus’s wife says it’s okay to dream about having sex with your mother. I’m sorry, but what? Greeks are weird as hell.



Cover Thoughts: I like the symbolism I’m seeing in this cover. It’s nothing amazing and it’s kind of an ugly cover, but it isn’t bad. 

 

 

 

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

3 stars

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s most famous works. You probably have no clue with this story is about, but at one time or another you have seen a movie or TV show that involved a basic plotline within A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Basically this play is a play about love triangles. These triangles even turn into squares. Basically Demetrius and Lysander both want Hermia, but Hermia only wants Lysander. Hermia’s best friend, Helena, wants Demetrius, but he doesn’t want her. Then Lysander wants Helena while Hermia still wants Lysander and Demetrius still wants Hermia and loathes Helena. All the while fairies are in the forest. Puck causes mischief. Oberon tries to still a slave child from Titania, who also happens to be his wife, and ends up falling for a man with a donkey head. Ah… Shakespeare. This play is so much better than Romeo and Juliet. It’s funny lighthearted and entertaining. Once the climax hits, it does become boring though. I personally don’t feel like leaving a detailed review of this play because it’s fun and funny. Nothing really needs to be over examined and believe me, I’ve done enough of that in class. So here’s the best visualization of Bottom I've found yet.

Let's not forget that really awkward scene where they just so happened to show everyone's butts (but I'm not posting that).



Cover Thoughts: I like this cover much better than the one I had to read in class.

 

BookTube-A-Thon is Here!

BookTube-A-Thon started today and I've made some progress. Here's a video of my to be read list. I'm really excited to participate in this because it's my first BookTube-A-Thon. I'll only be posting the video from today on my blog, but if you are curious about my BookTube adventures (and I know somewhere deep down you are;)) then please subscribe to my channel! If you are participating let me know! I want to know your books to be read and if you are posting videos direct me to your channel. Yay BookTube-A-Thon!

Wonderland: Asylum by Raven Gregory and illustrated by Patrick Shand

Wonderland: Asylum by Raven Gregory and illustrated by Patrick Shand

1 star

I’m not really sure how to describe this fuckery. I don’t even know what I read. I decided to give this graphic novel a shot because I LOVE Alice in Wonderland. I also love asylums and stories with patients in asylums. Basically this book is a lot of random things thrown into a comic in hopes of being funny.



It was not funny and it was almost unbearable. I don’t read a lot of comics, but I used to be a huge manga fanatic so I do think I know good art from bad art as well as storylines surrounding the art. I’m just not sure this comic was any good. In fact, it was downright horrible. It gave me a headache as well as make me question what I was reading and if the authors were serious. I don’t think they are. I think they are trolls.



But then again I’m not sure. This was just really bad and it’s probably one of the worst books I’ve read this year. If there was good thing about this book then I would say JAMES FRANCO. Yes a James Franco look-a-like! Not a bad thing, but then again, just another oddity in the mix of this horrific comic.


Cover Thoughts: The art work in this book is very well done. If you just look at the art it can redeem the story, a little bit. Certain pages I would suggest not even looking at because it’s ridiculous. The art is pretty though and very well done.

Thank you, Netgalley and Zenescope Entertainment for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Blog Tour: Ruthless People by J.J. McAvoy

Ruthless People by J.J. McAvoy

First in the Ruthless People trilogy

4 stars

Liam Callahan and Melody Giovanni are from two very different families. Liam is Irish and Melody is Italian. This doesn’t seem like much of a difference but when it comes to the mafia and the rivalry between these two groups it’s a border. Liam thinks he’s in for getting a wife who shops and does charity, but he gets a woman who is known as the Boss. I wasn’t expecting to like this one. I thought I would loathe it with every fiber of my being. I actually enjoyed it though. I’m conflicted with it, though. I hate these characters. They are scum. They are disgusting and foul, but they are ruthless. Just like the title promises. They show no one mercy and at the first sign of you crossing them you can be sure to be set on fire (it did actually happen at one point).
"It is just business. Every last person we kill is for family. If we do not kill them, they kill us. It is the way of the world. It is self defense. It is survival.”
#ruthlessasfuck


The main female character is Melody. I HATE her. I can’t stand her. She’s callous and cold. Everybody always talks about wanting a badass heroine, but what happens when your heroine is such a badass that she is a ruthless murderer for it. She’s pretty scary, but towards the end she became a little broken when a turn of events occurred. It didn’t last long though. She also says the worst things that make me want to kill her.
"Does it make me a hypocrite if I still consider myself pro-life?"
She says this after shooting a pregnant woman!

It comes back to bit her in the ass though. Melody may be a bitch, but Karma is the BITCH.

Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 7 (she can kick butt, but she’s too scary for me)

The main male character is Liam. Liam is a dick. He slut shames everyone who isn’t Melody. Of course, Melody isn’t any better. Basically I don’t like him and even if he was charming I still wouldn’t like him. I think he’s just as bad as Melody if not worse.


Swoon Worthy Scale: 5

The Villain- I know that they face a villain in this story, but everyone seems to be the villain. No one is innocent.

Villain Scale: 9

I do like the characters well enough. The only characters I liked were Adriana, Olivia, and Caroline. Liam’s brother, Neal, and his cousin, Declan, didn’t seem all that good. I actually hate Declan because of his treatment towards Olivia. I do like Liam’s parents though. They seem to be the only actual sensible people in this novel.

Character Scale: 7.5

You know what I’m beginning to hate about New Adult sex scenes. They use the most awkward descriptions. The last book I read used the description of a kitty when talking about female parts. Can’t we just say vagina? It’s not a big deal. In this book, though Liam’s thoughts go a little extreme. Prepare to laugh your ass off.
"The moment my eyes saw the spring of honey begging for my tongue, I latched on, sucking and lapping up all the juices she had provided for me.”

This is just so awkward and it’s totally unnecessary. Also USE A CONDOM! You two were saying a baby wouldn’t be good and look what happened.


"The other half knew that we, as humans, sometimes learned the best lessons from pain.”
The book does have good points. I think of Ruthless People as something like Bates Motel. You hate Norman Bates because you know what he becomes, but you love him and can’t stop watching him. Ruthless People is very much like that. It’s good brain candy. Is it fluffy? If you consider skinning people alive fluffy then, yes. It is a good book though. It has a lot of problems, but it’s also very enjoyable. I suggest this if you enjoy novels about serial killers or even watching Mob Wives.


Cover Thoughts: I don’t like the words around the cover, but I do like the faces and the overall aspect of it. If it didn’t have words all over it, I would probably love it.

Thank you, Netgalley and The Writer’s Coffee Shop Publishing House for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Ketchup on Everything by Nathan Robinson

Ketchup on Everything by Nathan Robinson

4 stars

Elliot Tather is a broken man. His life is in shambles. His marriage is broken and his wife doesn’t even speak anymore. Tather travels the country in search of the thing that broke his family. He stops at a diner and doesn’t even think it will change his life. But something walks through the doors of the diner and it’s not human and it’s from Tather’s past. AHHH! I don’t read a lot of horror. It’s good to read a book meant to be horrifying every now and then. I really enjoy Robinson’s writing. His debut novel, Starers, really impressed and he’s proven himself to be imaginative as well as a strong writer. I was very happy that he contacted me about reading his novella because I enjoy his work. I breezed through Ketchup on Everything. One second at I was at the 15% mark and then I looked down and I was at 75% and I thought I might as well finish it. I love books like this. Ketchup on Everything provides real life horrors as well as horrifying creepy horrors. I honestly didn’t know what to expect going into this novel. I knew it would be scary, but I didn’t think about the plot overall. I was quite shocked by some elements in the story. This novel is broken into three parts. The first part is when Tather gets to the diner and then the door opens changing his life. The second part is a look on the thing that broke Tather and his family. The last part… well I just won’t talk about that.



The main male character is Tather. Tather is a man in his forties and he’s become a vagabond of sorts. I liked Tather especially learning his past and story. I didn’t like him towards the end as much, but he was still likable for me.


Swoon Worthy Scale Cool Old Guy Scale- 7.5

The Villain- It was a shocking turn of events that I really enjoyed. Thumbs up for this odd turn of events!

Villain Scale: 8

I can’t talk about the rest of the characters because it will give the story away. Guess you’ll just have to read this one for yourself.


Character Scale: 7.5

I’m really impressed with Ketchup on Everything. It wasn’t what I expected it to be. In this case, that’s a good thing! I highly recommend this for fans of horror, paranormal, or readers looking for a quick, but satisfying read.


Cover Thoughts: The cover is simple… I’m not really sure about it, but it does look like ketchup.;)

Thank you, Mr. Robinson for contacting me to review your book in exchange for an honest review.

Series Video Review: Clipped Wings by Helena Hunting

Hello lovelies! Today I'm posting my series video review for the Clipped Wings series. Why post a video review? I decided that one of my main focuses on my BookTube channel is to review series I've finished or don't plan on finishing. Clipped Wings series just so happens to be my most recent series finish and it seemed fitting to make a video about this series. If videoing reviewing isn't for you I have reviewed this series on here and you can't read the reviews by clicking the links, below.
Cupcakes and Ink
Clipped Wings
Between the Cracks
Inked Armor
Cracks in the Armor

If you are interested in my video here it is and please subscribe!

Also please check out my Bookhype and vote! I'll be starting it very soon!

Blog Tour: Moonfall by Vanessa Morton

       

Moonfall: Tales from the Levant by Vanessa Morton

3 stars

Rachav drinks wine from the Moon Temple’s forbidden wine. She doesn’t think anything of it, but it slowly destroys her family and brings everything crashing down. The King orders Rachav to serve at the temple, but she refuses the life. Her twin, Zaron, longs to serve the temple and she decides that they should swap places. Rachav ends up in a different position then what she planned and finds solace with Salma. Everything comes crashing down and the very city Rachav calls home could be destroyed. I’m very conflicted about Moonfall. It’s a strong novel. The writing is good, but there is one huge thing that bogs this novel down. It’s an infodump. There’s nothing but mentions of people, places, and religion. It’s too much! I like that this novel is different from most YA, but this novel isn’t too different from novels that think that the more information it shows the better it’ll be. I wanted a story like the one promised in the summary, but the actual story is nothing like that. AT ALL! Not even close. It’s not a bad thing that the summary is misleading, but the story is very different from what it is hinted at.


The main female character is Rachav. I kind of like Rachav. She shows good qualities, but she doesn’t seem like a person. Rachav seemed like a cutout of a person at times. There was a lot of showing of her actions and no thought as to why. It bothered me.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 5.5

The main male character is Salma. Salma has his own POV, which I wasn’t expecting at all. I do like Salma, but his POV was slumped with political talks and nothings in his daily life. The only interesting part of his POV was the war that took place.


Swoon Worthy Scale: 5

The Villain- I honestly don’t know who is supposed to be the problem in this story. It could be every single one of these characters. There was no exact problem.


Villain Scale: 5

I honestly didn’t like any of Rachav’s family. All of her family were distant and jerks. I did like her father and mother and little sister, but besides that everyone in this family was off. They didn’t seem like a close family or even a family. They felt like people who associated with each other because they had to.


Character Scale: 2

While the characters aren’t strong this novel offers good historical insight. It has wars and I’m sure all readers appreciate wars that have good meanings and just aren’t done for the hell of a fight. The historical aspects are strong and this novel is good for that. I highly recommend this to fans of historical and history novels. It will definitely prove satisfying for them.


Cover Thoughts: Rachav and Zaron are girls with darkish, red hair. Not only that but they live in Jordan, so I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t be blonde and that pale.

Thank you, Netgalley and WEbook Publishing for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Clipped Wings Series Wrap-Up (Books 1.5-2.5) by Helena Hunting

Hello! I've finished another series. I think this is the whole series, but I'm not sure. If the series continues there's a good chance I won't be continuing. If you missed my review of the first book in this series, Clipped Wings, you can find it here, as well as the prequel to the series here. I'll be posting a video review of the whole series on my BookTube so stay tuned for that. Now onto these reviews!



Between the Cracks by Helena Hunting

1.5 in the Clipped Wings series

2.75

Chris keeps his friends close and women farther away. He recently finds himself in a relationship with Sarah. Chris’s best friend is having relationship problems of his own. Chris decides to help Hayden out, but it doesn’t turn out to go so well. This is a pretty quick read. In comparison to the first novella of the Clipped Wings series it’s very weak, but it is also better than the first book in the series. I do like Sarah and Chris’s relationship, but at the same time I’m not a big fan of it. I’m conflicted with this book. I did like the whole Hayden going to rescue and save Tenley thing but it was quickly shot down. I honestly don’t have much to say about this one. It was just meh.

This is free on Amazon if anyone is interested in reading it.


Cover Thoughts: I do like the cover. It’s simple, but gorgeous.

 

Inked Armor by Helena Hunting

Second in the Clipped Armor series

3 stars

Tenley and Hayden have to repair the damage of Tenley leaving. Hayden is also experiencing horrible nightmares and he may remember something about his parents’ deaths that he hadn’t thought of before. I think that about covers this book. The summary is brief and so is the main plot of the book. In all honesty nothing really happens, but this book was better than its predecessor. The ending of Clipped Wings could be called a cliffhanger. It wasn’t a good cliffhanger, but it’s the kind of cliffhanger that would pique your interest. I don’t recommend reading this without reading the novella before. You can read it, but you’ll be very confused. Hunting likes to ensure her readers will read her novellas because she makes them essential to understanding the actual book that follows it in the series.


You know what one the things that really bothered me is that we went all through Clipped Wings with Tenley’s accident and creepy would-be-brother-in-law hanging over her shoulder. Then the whole situation with him was resolved in the first 4%. Then the whole thing is dragged out until the 14% where for some reason Trey thinks Tenley is his property/ his right. This was never even brought up before and is just completely left field.


Hunting’s favorite thing to write about is unnecessary drama. Drama here! Drama there! Drama everywhere! DRAMA! It gets tedious and annoying. Nobody cares about stupid drama. Don’t believe me about drama? Here’s some examples: there’s blackmail against a professor who is having an affair with a student, Hayden’s weird possessiveness that borders onto obsession, an asshole cop who conveniently always seems to be order to bag on Hayden and accuse him of abusing Tenley who also happens to be the cop who worked on Hayden’s parents’ murder case and was the reason some of the evidence turned out to be immiscible in court, and let’s not forget that the murderer was obvious from miles away.


The main female character is Tenley. I think Tenley was slightly more bearable in this one. I still don’t care enough for her, but she wasn’t nearly as unbearable as last time. Tenley also relies heavily on prescription meds. I would’ve liked for that to have been touched on, but it never was.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 3.5

The main male character is Hayden. Hayden is an idiot for most of this book. In fact, he was just as unbearable as Tenley, if not more. Hayden is obsessive of cleanliness, tidiness, and Tenley. He really needs a therapist. Thank God, he finally went to one.


Swoon Worthy Scale: 3

The Villain- WOW. I didn’t see that coming at all. Like OMG, I’m so shocked. (If you don’t see the sarcasm in this sentence then that’s all you.)

Villain Scale: 1

I do like the cast of characters that aren’t the main focal point. The workers of Inked Armor, Hayden’s aunt and uncle, and Sarah (hey, look my name) all are fun to read about and make the story very interesting.


Character Scale: 7

I have to address this at some point. Hayden refers to Tenley’s lady bits as her kitty. Look I know all guys refer to girls parts in rude ways or dumb ways, but this is overboard. That’s disgusting and it sounds weird when they have a kitty in the house called TK (The Kitty). Like what?

There are also inconsistencies with the sex scenes. One minute someone doesn’t have shoes on and the next they just so happen to be pressing them into someone’s back.

Inked Armor is better than Clipped Wings, but not very good. It doesn’t redeem this series. I have very mixed feelings about this series overall. Indifference is all I feel.


Cover Thoughts: At least something about this book is remarkable and worth mentioning. The other cover on GR looks exactly like Hayden though:
 
This is unreal how much the model looks like him.
Thank you, Netgalley and Gallery Books for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.




Cracks in the Armor by Helena Hunting

2.5 in the Clipped Wings series

2.5 stars

This one picks right up with Sarah and Chris again. They are a couple (if you haven’t kept up with this series) and Sarah is still working at the Dollhouse as a waitress. Chris hardly sees her anymore since the new management at the Dollhouse and Sarah’s hectic schedule. That’s basically it. Oh, and Tenley has a meltdown. >_> Tenley just can’t seem to get her emotions in check. I mean I get it you’re grieving, but she takes it too hard with the simplest things.


I know that may sound harsh, but I’m going to talk about something I haven’t really talked about online. The Friday morning before Thanksgiving and before I went to school, my mom sat down on my bed and told me my grandfather passed at a few minutes before midnight. I was distraught. I was a mess in tears and I still went to school. I kept living my life because my grandfather loved school. He went to college 12 times and had a degree in almost everything. Not only that, but I knew my grandfather wouldn’t want me to stay home and cry, he would me to live my life. So, I have. There are days when I’m consumed by grief, days where I’m angry, and days where I feel numb. But I don’t let these things control my life.


I can’t understand Tenley because she lets her grief consume her and that’s what makes me so angry. She had a mental breakdown over a fricken Xbox. My hatred for Tenley has really escalated with this book.


With that let’s focus on the main characters of this story, Chris and Sarah. I wish this was a little longer. Not a full book, but long enough to see that there story has full closure. I like them both. Chris is funny and Sarah is pretty cool. I wouldn’t mind reading another story about them, but I’m definitely not sure if I would read a book.


Cover Thoughts: I love that sleeve. It’s awesome. Love it.

Thank you, Netgalley and Gallery Books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.