Teaser Tuesday #1: Onyx

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page•Share two teasers from that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Teaser From:
Onyx By: Jennifer Armentrout

"Daemon..."
"His smile was really starting to concern me. I told you, Kitten. I like a challenge."

Share the link to your TT in the comments below. Or, if you don't have blog, share your teaser in the comments.

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Touch of Frost By: Jennifer Estep

Two Stars: Not my taste

Goodreads Summary:

My name is Gwen Frost, and I go to Mythos Academy; a school of myths, magic and warrior whiz kids, where even the lowliest geek knows how to chop off somebody's head with a sword and Logan Quinn, the hottest Spartan guy in school, also happens to be the deadliest. But lately, things have been weird, even for Mythos. First, mean girl Jasmine Ashton was murdered in the Library of Antiquities. Then, someone stole the Bowl of Tears, a magical artifact that can be used to bring about the second Chaos War. You know, death, destruction and lots of other bad, bad things. Freaky stuff like this goes on all the time at Mythos, but I'm determined to find out who killed Jasmine and why; especially since I should have been the one who died...


This wasn't very good. I wanted to like it, but it just wouldn't happen. The characters and plot were so cliché. I've already read about literally  running into the "bad boy" to many times to count. There's too many "invisible" or "unliked" girls. And there's always the "hot, popular" girl.

So, the setting is a school where Greek demigod-ish teens go. The first thing that reminded me of was Hogwarts. Then, it turned out that it had all these other types of magic kids that were not relevant to the story to any way, like Ninjas. The three most important races were the Greeks, the Romans, and the Norse people. The rest was just clutter.

Gwen was sometimes just an idiot. She sometimes forgets that she has her magic gift. After that, there were all these things that feel "off" to her, but she missed the important clues. And, ofcourse, she doesn't think she's special, but she actually is.

The writing had a huge info-dump. It was like the author didn't know how to expand information over the entire book. Gwen barely figures anything out on her own. Even the villain told her what she should've found out.

I didn't like this book very much, but paranorama boarding school junkies should love it.

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Existence By: Abbi Glines

Three Stars: Mediocre

Goodreads Summary:

What happens when you're stalked by Death? You fall in love with him, of course.

Pagan Moore doesn't cheat Death, but instead, falls in love with him.

Seventeen year old Pagan Moore has seen souls her entire life. Once she realized the strangers she often saw walking through walls were not visible to anyone else, she started ignoring them. If she didn't let them know she could see them, then they left her alone. Until she stepped out of her car the first day of school and saw an incredibly sexy guy lounging on a picnic table, watching her with an amused smirk on his face. Problem is, she knows he's dead.

Not only does he not go away when she ignores him, but he does something none of the others have ever done. He speaks. Pagan is fascinated by the soul. What she doesn't realize is that her appointed time to die is drawing near and the wickedly beautiful soul she is falling in love with is not a soul at all.

He is Death and he's about to break all the rules.



Look at that face. Isn't it just so sexy? That was what made me pick up the book. I know, I know. You're going to tell me that I shouldn't judge a book by its cover. My answer to that? Hypocrite. Don't you tell me that you never looked a cover and thought, "Ooh! Pretty!" That's what was going through my head when I saw it. Picking the book up, I, naturally, went for the summary. Girl and Death. Seems awesome, doesn't it? Sadly, it wasn't. 

My first issue with this book was the names: Dank, Pagan, and Leif. Where have you ever heard these names in your entire life? The names should have keyed me off that it wasn't going to be great. So, I closed the book, and saw those eyes again. They just told me to keep reading, and that it was going to be better. If only it was.

I didn't like how Pagan used Leif, at all. It's sad. It's like how Bella used Jacob. Boys have feelings, you know! I also hated how, even though Leif was great, she just kept wanting Dank.

It was usually easy to guess what would happen next. There were two shockers, at most.

I liked the idea of the story, but it could have been so much better.

Pagan has her logical moments, and she actually thinks about her grades. She's nice. Except for toying with Leif, she listens to her conscience.

I really liked Gee. She added humor to the plot.

The first and part of the book was good.

Borrow this book. Then read it when you're craving a fast romance.

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Obsidian By: Jennifer Armentrout

Five Stars: Perfect

This won't let me change the font to the normal font. So annoying!

Goodreads Summary:

Starting over sucks.

When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I'd pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring.... until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.

And then he opened his mouth.

Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something...unexpected happens.

The hot alien living next door marks me.

You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon's touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I'm getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades.

If I don't kill him first, that is.
 

Jennifer Armentrout has just become one of my favorite authors. After reading Half-Blood, I immediately checked if she had written anything else.  Obsidian came up, and when I checked it, I wasn’t eager at all to read it. I hated aliens. So I put her works to the side and began reading other things. One hot summer day, I was bored and decided to give this a try. I’m so glad I did. From the first page, I was sucked in.

Katy doesn’t whine about unimportant things, but she isn’t too cocky either. I love the fact that she is a blogger, and actually knows what she is doing. It isn’t like some books where authors pretend to know facts and hope that nobody finds out that she knows nothing about the subject. 

Daemon is the love interest in this book. The first time I “saw” him, I thought I might not like him. I thought, “Oh God. She’s gonna let him walk all over her. Then, I’d have to hate her! ” Well, Katy surprised me. She has an inner fire that roared to life.

Sometimes, I found Daemon very infuriating. Why was he so annoying? Why couldn’t he be nice? I knew that he had a layer underneath the douchebag layer. Reading the extra point of views from him made me finally understand.

The plot was very well executed. Everything was very well placed. Jennifer Armentrout made the characters stay tangible. The writing seemed real, and it sounded like what a teenager would say.  I think the word someone from Goodreads used was authentic. This was a funny book, and it had me smiling and grinning most of the time.

Go out and by this book. Now.

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The Iron King By: Julie Kagawa

Four Stars: Good

Goodreads Summary:

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined.

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth - that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

 

Meghan actually uses her brain, unlike some other characters of the Young Adult category. She doesn’t automatically believe in the Fae and is skeptical, just like most people would be. She isn’t amazing at perfecting her power the second she needs to. For example, when Meghan needed to use glamour to get into a club, she cannot do it. Her powers develop in the book, like, for the musicians, a crescendo. Sadly, Prince Ash comes in with his perfect looks and turns her into an idiot.

Ash was one of those characters that don’t let anyone in. He sort of bored me. He’s very typical in a Young Adult novel: Hot, a good fighter, loyal, and closed off. Maybe I’ll enjoy him more in the next books.

Puck is the one I like the most. He’s funny and honest. He doesn’t gloss things over when he is talking to Meghan, and he treats her like she is an actual human being. Oh, yes, and he- wait for it- actually has flaws! This made me so happy. Most male characters are perfect and plan their moves way beforehand, unlike Puck, who is impulsive and rash.

In a fight scene between Puck and Ash, Puck was having fun, while Ash was brooding. Call me crazy, but I like humor.

The writing was very good and descriptive. I could see what she was talking about in my head. The setting was one of my favorite aspects. I actually knew what she was talking about, and it didn’t feel bogged down.

Puck, the writing, and Meghan-before-Ash saved this book from getting three stars. Thank them.

I would recommend this book to be read on the side. Buying it wouldn’t be so bad.

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Twilight By: Stephanie Meyer

One Star: Terrible

GoodReads Summary:

Isabella Swan's move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Isabella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Isabella, the person Edward holds most dear. The lovers find themselves balanced precariously on the point of a knife-between desire and danger. Deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight captures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires. This is a love story with bite.

One star. Now I feel guilty. I hate giving out one star review. I couldn’t help it. I was disgusted with this book.  Atrocious, as our narrator, Bella, would say. This leads us into our first problem: the purple prosing.

 Most of the words were way too complicated to be in a young adult book. For example, how many teenagers do you think use the words masochistic, unconditionally, or menace in an everyday conversation. Stephanie Meyer seemed to destroy her thesaurus with words she could use, but she kept using the same words in places she needed her thesaurus.

Bella made some of the most idiotic decisions one can make. She fell in love with the vampire, Edward, pretty much the second they met. He warned her, many times, that he was dangerous. Sure, the element of danger is compelling to some people. I’ll give you that. If only Bella hadn’t been oblivious to it. Also, she whines and blushes way too much. I think I might have liked her better if Meyer had given her a slight resemblance of a backbone. 

Why is it that Edward is so important that he’s the only thing that she thinks of? She doesn’t think of what she wants to do after college. Nor does she think of what she wants to be when she becomes an adult. Please, Bella. A guy isn’t important enough for him to take up your entire brain capacity. Well, maybe yours.

Edward. You just destroyed the idea that with age comes wisdom. If he really loved Bella (I don’t know how, though), he would stay away from her. He even told her that he should stay away from him. I thought, “Oh, okay. He might not actually be that bad.” Less than a chapter later, he came back.

Edward is creepy. He’s a stalker. Who else would watch other people sleep? He’s also bipolar. And controlling. What else? What about the fact that he sparkles? He sparkles. Glitters. Scintillates. Gleams. Glistens. Why, Stephanie, just why? Creative? Yes. With vampires? No, just no.

I might have thrown the book across the room if I heard one more “description” of Edward. All Bella talks about is that Edward is hot. She might have mentioned his hair color being bronze. That’s it.

Don’t even get me started on the secondary characters. Or the nonplot. Or the terrible "action scene". Or the- I’m going to stop now.

Whatever you do, don’t read this book.
 

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