Written on My Heart by Cole Gibsen

Official Blurb:


It's been six months since Ashlyn Daniels was kicked out of her home. Six months since she stood up to her abusive stepfather and got a busted rib—and seeing all her things set ablaze in a backyard bonfire—for her trouble. Never going back. She doesn't need trouble...especially if trouble is tattoo artist Lane Garrett, who's six-feet-plus of tattooed hotness and a complete ass.

Lane has spent the last decade fighting to support his family. To protect them. There's no room for romance, even with a fragile (yet amusingly feisty) stunner...even if she somehow manages to invade his world and his heart.

But while some secrets are as visible as ink on the skin, others must remain hidden at all costs...


You know when you finish a book and you just have to...sit and stare at a wall for, oh, i don't know, THE REST OF YOUR LIFE just to contemplate all the things you learned and the characters you met and...

My Review:

NOTE: I was given this book as an ARC by Entangled Publishing

Oh, my god.

I think I need to take a few deep breaths and start again.

Alright, here goes nothing...

This book should not have stood out to me. I don't mean that in a mean way, all I mean is that this book fits the regular formula, and should've been the same as every other book, but it wasn't. I can't tell you why it stood out; I can't identify whether it was the down-to-earth everything, the writing, the characters, or just that I was looking for a good book, but this book just got me. It totally got me, right where I am right now, and I just can't think of a better book to read, or a better person to be than the one that WoMH just made me.

Oh, my god.

I feel like every second sentence that I state when talking about this book will have to be those three words, because I am just starstruck. Gibsen has crafted a magical novel which, for some reason, had me almost in tears. It had me begging to wallow in the depth of this book. It had me kicking and screaming to hold onto the novel just a little longer when I saw I was at 96%

And, when I finally finished the book, it had me calmly closing my kindle app and clicking on Cole Gibsen's name on my goodreads page. But, when I saw the multitude of books there, it also had me exiting the page and writing this review because this book was too perfect to marr with any other forms of perfection. This book must be framed and placed where it is, where it should stay, up on a pedestal of human existence because

Oh, my god.

Those words are the ones I will always come back to.

Oh, my god.

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Through Fire & Sea by Nicole Luiken

Official Blurb:

Mirror mirror, hear my call…

In the Fire world, seventeen-year-old Leah is the illegitimate daughter of one of the realm's most powerful lords. She's hot-blooded—able to communicate with the tempestuous volcano gods that either bless a civilization or destroy it. But then Leah discovers she's a Caller, gifted with the unique—and dangerous—ability to “call” her Otherselves in mirror worlds. And her father will do anything to use her powers for his own purposes.


In the Water world, Holly nearly drowns when she sees—and interacts with—Leah, a mirror image of herself. She’s rescued by Ryan, a boy from school with a secret he’d die to protect. Little do they know, his Otherself is the son of a powerful volcano god at war in the Fire world…and he’s about to fall.

As Leah and Holly's lives intersect, the Fire and Water worlds descend into darkness. The only way to protect the mirror worlds is to break every rule they've ever known. If they don’t, the evil seeping through the mirrors will destroy everything—and everyone—they love…

My Review:

NOTE: I was given this book as an ARC by Entangled publishing

4.5 STARS

This was my first of Luiken's books, although on finishing I discovered that she has previously written other books which I'm sure I'll be exploring soon enough ;)

This book was AWESOME! It mixes high and low fantasy with two stories which could almost exist as totally separate from one another. I found myself entwined in both books so much that I didn't even care which main character I was reading about, I was just happy to be there! The plot, the complexity of the story, the interwoven tales and the writing was what really grasped me and enticed me, creating a great novel! Some parts of the plot fell short and a lot of the characters were missing depth and complexity, but the narrative spoke for itself in this manner.

The premise and overarching idea was very well thought out; complex from any side you looked at it! I commend Luiken tremendously for this whole idea - it's incredible! Brava!

Overall, this was a great book when I was in the thick of it! The stories kept me engaged and the language was sophisticated enough that I did't feel like I was reading a picture book but not too complex that I needed my dictionary by my side! After the post-novel haze faded, the book overall seemed less incredible, but either way it was a fun read!

Definitely worth a try, and probably worth a re-read if you're ever in the mood!

NICOLE LUIKEN

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Collide (Taking #3) by Melissa West

Collide (Taking #3) - by Melissa West

Title: Collide

Series: The Taking (#3)

Author: Melissa West

Release Date: February 9th 2015

Genre: YA, Paranormal, Romance, Sci-fi

Official Blurb:

Military legacy Ari Alexander has survived alien spies, WWIV, and a changing world order. But when the new leader of Earth uses Jackson—the only boy she's ever let herself care about—to get to her, Ari has no choice but to surrender. 

To free Jackson, she agrees to travel to the national bases to train others to fight. What she discovers is a land riddled with dying people. Ari has the power to heal by turning the fighters into aliens—half-breeds like her. If she succeeds, together, they have a chance at overthrowing the alien leader, Zeus. But if she fails, everyone she holds dear will be wiped away forever.

Once again, everything Ari’s come to believe is thrown into question. In a world of uncertainty, loyalties are tested, lies are uncovered, and no one can be trusted. If Ari and Jackson have any hope at survival and at preserving a life for the future, they must fight the final war with their eyes wide open.

My Review


NOTE: I was given this book as an ARC by Entangled publishing.

This book is the long awaited conclusion to the Taking series (note the word CONCLUSION, yes this is the FINAL book to those who weren't sure) and I was very eager to get my hands on a copy *grabby hands* In fact, as soon as the email came with the link I screamed so hard that people looked at me weirdly (not really, but there was definitely internal screaming)

This book was awesome! It was jam-packed with all the things that books one and two were filled with; assholery, friendship, love-ship, family-ship, war, action, fighting, bad-assery and everything else you could want in a book. I was also Hooked with a capital H (with much hookage; very hooked). I had to physically hide my kindle so that I would work instead of read, and even then it took me under twenty four hours to finish the book.

PACING: The pacing was great for most of the book - I got action but nothing whizzed by me too fast, and there weren't any times when I was flicking forward looking for action. EXCEPT (oh oh) - except for like the last three chapters. Everything came to a close too fast for me - we were in the thick of things and I was looking at the page count going "oh shit, oh shit, she's gonna end it on a cliffy - there's going to be another book! I CAN'T HANDLE ANy MORE OF THIS". And then I got to the end and I was like....what? I actually went back and reread those chapters and re-downloaded the book in case I missed some pages. Not because it didn't close everything off but because it was too fast, because it...wasn't enough. I don't know, the last chapters just left me feeling a little...empty

PLOT: The plot was incredible. Honestly, from some of the teasers I was expecting this book to take a bit of a different turn than it took, but it was still amazing. Again...looking back on it a few days after reading (because I had to have a few days of space before writing this) I feel like the plot was a bit thin, like there were some things that could've been explored a little more, that some characters and events lacked the depth that they could've possessed. As much as it might've killed me...this book almost could have been split in two, or had a little bit more oomph added to it in the form of a hundred more pages (I wouldn't have minded!)

WRITING: I cannot fault Melissa's writing. Although I had an ARC and there were a few word kefuffles (isn't that an incredible word!) and some minor grammar issues, I was hooked (as mentioned before) and drawn into the story, and all the credit for that goes to Melissa. The writing drew me in and had me on the edge of my seat.

OVERALL: Overall, I give this book a 4/5. The book is amazing and contributes to an amazing series, even if this last book could have been a little more. Congrats, Melissa, and I look forward to more books in the future!!

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