Early Review: The Unquiet by Jeannine Garsee

The Unquiet
by Jeannine Garsee

Expected publication: July 17th 2012 by Bloomsbury

Sixteen-year-old Rinn Jacobs has secrets: One, she’s bipolar. Two, she killed her grandmother. 

After a suicide attempt, and now her parents' separation, Rinn and her mom move from California to the rural Ohio town where her mother grew up. Back on her medications and hoping to stay well, Rinn settles into her new home, undaunted by the fact that the previous owner hanged herself in Rinn's bedroom. At school, her classmates believe the school pool is haunted by Annaliese, a girl who drowned there. But when a reckless séance goes awry, and terrible things start happening to her new friends—yet not to her—Rinn is determined to find out why she can’t be "touched" by Annaliese...or if Annaliese even exists. 

With the help of Nate Brenner, the hunky “farmer boy” she’s rapidly falling for, Rinn devises a dangerous plan to uncover the truth. Soon reality and fantasy meld into one, till Rinn finds it nearly impossible to tell the difference. When a malevolent force threatens the lives of everyone she cares about--not to mention her own--she can't help wondering: who should she really be afraid of?

Annaliese? Or herself?

Genre: Young Adult, Supernatural

Publication Date: July 17th 2012

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Format: eARC, 388 pages 

Series: ?

Source: Netgalley

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My Review:

First line: Sometimes, when I dream, the deadliest moment in my life happens all over again.

Last line: I don't believe you. 

Favorite quote: As someone who's always drawn to the "bad boy" type, I can't explain my attraction to a certified band geek who'll probably major in animal husbandry and end up inseminating cows for a living.

Corinne Jacobs has been a good girl, taking all of her meds everyday, for 3 months and 13 days. Why she's being so careful and counting all the days like that? Because of what happened 3 months and 13 days ago. The time when she decided to stop with her bipolar meds and ended up killing her grandmother.

Now her stepfather hates her and her mother has dragged her from sunny California to chilling middle-of-nowhere Ohio, where she grew up. Rinn doesn't think that moving to this dinky little town will make anything better. But then she actually starts making friends. And the cute farmer boy next door is starting to look way too yummy. Oh, and she absolutely loves her new house and room up in the attic. Until she finds out that the previous owner killed herself up there, of course. Right after her granddaughter was found dead in the pool at Rinn's new school. Awwwwkward. 

And, as if that wasn't freaky enough, she finds out that very strange things have been happening to the people who cross the 'Tunnel' (the part of the gym with the pool where Annaliese's body was found). Weird things have always happened there before, but now another student is found dead by the pool and Rinn's new friends start to act very bizarre. Is it the ghost of Annaliese? Is she haunting the pool area? Is she haunting Corinne? If so, why?

This book had so much in it! So much mystery, so much drama, so much angst and romance!! It really had everything a good book should have. I especially liked knowing/seeing more about how bipolar people act, what they have to deal and fight with everyday, how they really feel about themselves and everyone else. The pressure. The fear. The regret. The desire to just let go. The strength needed not to. 

The Unquiet gives you very strange vibes throughout the book. You start to think that things are getting better, that Rinn herself is getting better and everything and everyone is going to be alright... then the creepiness starts and you have to control yourself not freak out over what's happening in a freaking book! LOL. Miss Garsee has such an engrossing, enrapturing and right-to-the-pont way of writing things that it sucks you right in and makes you feel comfortable... and that's when you should be careful. She makes you forget, repeatedly, that you're actually reading a ghost story, not an ordinary teenage tale. And it sneaks right up to you. Every. Single. Time. O.o

It's been a while since I've found a book's title that is as absolutely perfect or as fitting as this one is. Unquiet. That's exactly how you'll feel during the entire 'ride' that is Corinne's story. And afterwards. Yup. Even after you close the book and start to try to think of something else. It will stick with you. That unquiet feeling. That little chill behind your neck. And you'll love it.

P.S.: And Nate was so adorable!!! *-* It makes me want to move to Ohio, too. Like, right now.

* I received an eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Early Review: Lethal Rider (Lords of Deliverance #3) by Larissa Ione/Reading Romances May Challenge

I chose this book for the Reading Romances May Challenge

2) Read a book by a favorite author or from a favorite genre.

Lethal Rider (Lords of Deliverance #3) 
by Larissa Ione

May 22nd 2012 by Grand Central Publishing

Thanatos, the most deadly Horseman of the Apocalypse, has endured thousands of years of celibacy to prevent the end of days. But just one night with the wickedly sexy Aegis Guardian, Regan Cooper, shatters centuries of resolve. Yet their passion comes with a price. And Thanatos must face a truth more terrifying than an apocalypse-he's about to become a father.

Demon-slayer Regan Matthews never imagined herself the maternal type, but with the fate of the world hanging in the balance she had no choice but to seduce Thanatos and bear his child. Now, as the final battle draws closer and his rage at being betrayed is overshadowed by an undeniable passion for the mother of his child, Thanatos has a life-shattering realization: To save the world, he must sacrifice the only thing he's ever wanted-a family.

Genre: Young Adult, Steampunk

Publication Date: May 1st 2012
Publisher: Amulet Books

Format: eARC, 368 pages 

Series: ?

Source: Netgalley

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My Review:

First line: Regan Matthews was going to die

Last line: Too spoilery.

Favorite quote: From virgin to dad in zero to sixty.

Guardian Regan Matthews is pregnant and almost ready to deliver. Normally women in her situation would be thrilled, counting the minutes and preparing everything for the new arrival... but hers is a quite different situation. 

First of all, her baby was conceived in a very unorthodox way, one that made the father-to-be freak out and decide to kill her. So now she's in hiding and he's in an induced 'coma' of sorts, thanks to his siblings. A very strange situation, indeed. But it gets weirder. How? Well, the father is Thanatos, the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse. A.k.a Death, if his Seal breaks. 

And in Thanatos' mind, Regan, an OCD Aegis Guardian and psychometric empath with other gifts, has tried to purposefully break his Seal. After drugging him with an aphrodisiac and trapping him in his own body with one of her abilities. Practically 'raping' him to end the world. Even if he did enjoy it immensely and wants to do it again, he's still majorly pissed off and wanted to kill her. Until he found out she was pregnant with his baby, of course. He did get pissed off all over again when she told him they wouldn't be raising the baby.

Regan feels terrible for what happened that day. She really regrets it, but she was drugged as well, by one of Than's vampires, and didn't notice that Thanatos was 'restrained' by her powers at all. She also was not aware that there was a possibility os his Seal breaking and releasing the Apocalypse on Earth. As a matter of fact, she was made to believe quite the contrary. And now she's knocked up by a very, very mad Horseman. Very hot, too. Who wants her to make up for the eight months in which he was trapped by his siblings so as not to kill many people with his rage. And he wants her to make up for this time sexually. While they try to understand each other, his brother, whose Seal broke and is now known as Pestilence, is wreaking havoc all around the world. And he wants to kill his baby.

Oh, man. I've been waiting patiently to read this gem for months now!!! Thanatos is the perfect example of the wounded, flawed hero. And super hot and damaged. How can a girl not go crazy over that? 

It was kind weird to read about a man going on about how his virginity/his seed/his innocence were stolen, though. You usually expect a heroine to whine about that kind of thing. LOL. But it was completely understandable. He wasn't overly whiny about it, thankfully. Just indignant for a while. Then things became much more interesting.


Larissa Ione always manages to surprise me with the depth of her characters and the twists in all of her plots. When you finally think you're getting something... everything changes. LOL. It should be frustrating, but it's really refreshing. Thanatos has been my favorite character ever since the first book in the series, so I was in absolute heaven just reading more and more about him. He suffered so much... it felt good to see him finally find some happiness.


Also, her angels are very different from what we are used to expect from angels, so that, too, is quite fascinating to read about. No perfect little goody-shoes in these books. They are good, of course, but even they are not perfect... and even their goodness can go bad. LOL.


But I particularly want to see more of Harvester. She gives me very mixed feelings. Oh, and I'm dying to know what really went on in Reaper's past. And what awaits him in the future... The curiosity is burning me up!


Not to mention that I want to see more of Reseph/Pestilence. Like, right NOW. You are killing me, Mrs. Ione!!! In a good way, obviously. Sort of. LOL. That first chapter only served to make me squirm! December, come quick. :X


If you don't mind some spoilers, check out the synopsis for Rogue Rider. It sounds like it will be out-of-this-world good. :)


* I received an eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Early Review: Struck by Jennifer Bosworth

Struck (Struck #1)
by Jennifer Bosworth

Expected publication: May 8th 2012 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux BYR

Mia Price is a lightning addict. She’s survived countless strikes, but her craving to connect to the energy in storms endangers her life and the lives of those around her. 

Los Angeles, where lightning rarely strikes, is one of the few places Mia feels safe from her addiction. But when an earthquake devastates the city, her haven is transformed into a minefield of chaos and danger. The beaches become massive tent cities. Downtown is a crumbling wasteland, where a traveling party moves to a different empty building each night, the revelers drawn to the destruction by a force they cannot deny. Two warring cults rise to power, and both see Mia as the key to their opposing doomsday prophecies. They believe she has a connection to the freak electrical storm that caused the quake, and to the far more devastating storm that is yet to come. 

Mia wants to trust the enigmatic and alluring Jeremy when he promises to protect her, but she fears he isn’t who he claims to be. In the end, the passion and power that brought them together could be their downfall. When the final disaster strikes, Mia must risk unleashing the full horror of her strength to save the people she loves, or lose everything.

Genre: Young Adult, Supernatural

Publication Date: May 8th 2012

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux BYR

Format: eARC, 373 pages 

Series: yes

Source: Netgalley

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My Review 

Seventeen year-old Mia Price is addicted to lightning. She calls herself a 'lightning rod'. She loves the feeling of being hit, it makes her feel more alive than ever, the pain that is almost pleasure, and that can do anything to her (even kill her, of course, which, apparently, happens on accasion. LOL). But there are many aftereffects, such as chronic insomnia, veiny red scars all over her body (caused Lichtenberg figures) and a burning in her chest when she gets emotional. Oh, and she can fel when storms are coming and sometimes shoot electric shocks at people when she feels threatened.

She moved to Los Angeles after a lightining accident made her the town pariah. But lightning followed her to L.A. And it somehow caused earthquakes that destroyed many parts of the city and hundreds of people's lives. In this post-apocalyptic setting, there are serious food and water shortages, power, cell service and internet are always on and off and the most desperate people resort to rioting and looting. 

Others find religion with the Prophet, the man who claims to have been told by God when and where the earthquake would happen. But people who go to the Prophet are never the same when they return... Mia's mother, suffering from Acute Stress Disorder, spends her days medicated (with overcharged pills from the black market, since doctors and pharmacies were only available to more serious cases, such as severe injuries and earthquake fever, an immunity disorder caused by mold released from the ground) and watching the Prophet on TV.

But 'end of the world' situation or not, Mia and her brother, Parker, need to go back to school. Every student that goes through his classes receive rations at the end of the day. It's not about education, it's about survival. Mia feels like it's her responsability to keep the family together, but with her mom not being herself and pushing her children away, and Parker also starting to pull away, she feels like she's not doing her job right, and blames herself.

At school she's surrounded by the desperate, the sick and scared. And the Followers of the Prophet, whom Mia calls 'extremist evangelical whackos', are always looking for new 'sheep'. But apparently they aren't the only ones recruiting. The 'Seekers' are also on the look out. And they know she has 'The Spark' just by touching her, and they tell her they need her help to save the world. But this very attractive new guy at her class, Jeremy Parish, tells her not to trust either of them. Mia is very confused and annoyed. The only thing she knows for sure is that when he touches her, he shows her the future. And his touch gives her a nice tingle from neck to toes, the likes of which she never felt before.

Now she has to decide what to believe, even if nobody tells her what she wants to know... only that her actions can change the whole world. For better or for worse.

I loved 'Struck'!!! It was so different from the usual YA books out there! The main character is so, so strong and determined! It was very refreshing to see a heroine who doesn't let people step all over her or tell her what to do. She's independent, responsible, she fights back, doesn't just believe everything she hears and is just... intense. Her life is not just about boys or school or what clothes to wear. She has a family to take care of, and with her unfit mother, she has to be the grown-up. 

Oh, and with her addiction causing her body to be almost completely scarred, boys are the last thing on her mind. And the one guy that does appear, apparently falling for her and not caring about the scars and all that, has tried to kill her once. Unlike any other stupid YA heroine out there, she doesn't immediately forgive him and just falls in love, too. No! She stays guarded, she's careful and waits to see if he can ever be trusted. Like I said, it's a very refreshing change of airs. ;D Thank you very much, Jennifer Bosworth. You give me hope.
The ending was just perfect!! I can't wait for the next book!!

If you like your dystopian YAs with strong female characters, a very different and creative plot and lots of drama and action, this is your book. 


*I was very lucky to receive an advanced e-copy from the publisher through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.*