Summary: 21st century girl. 18th century ghost. Heads will roll!
The city of light just got a little darker. . . . Colette Iselin is excited to go to Paris on a class trip. She'll get to soak up the beauty and culture, and maybe even learn something about her family's French roots. But a series of gruesome murders are taking place across the city, putting everyone on edge. And as she tours museums and palaces, Colette keeps seeing a strange vision: a pale woman in a ball gown and powdered wig, who looks suspiciously like Marie Antoinette. Colette knows her popular, status-obsessed friends won't believe her, so she seeks out the help of a charming French boy. Together, they uncover a shocking secret involving a dark, hidden history. When Colette realizes she herself may hold the key to the mystery, her own life is in danger. . . . My Opinion: This was such a fun book to read. For one, I very much enjoyed the characters. Colette was witty and somewhat nice, but still extremely flawed which is always interesting to read. For another, it's set in Paris, France. And I really love Paris, France. (I really love France in general.) I've been to Paris, so as the book went on I could physically see some of the monuments it talked about, such as the Eiffel Tower at night and the Arc de Triomphe. There was a lot of French history and language in the book (I was really proud to understand the majority of it!). It was so interesting. Katie Alender clearly did her research because I learned a whole bunch of stuff about French history and Marie Antoinette. While some of the information in the book was fictional (there is no such thing as the Order of the Key which was a huge part of the book), it was still so entertaining. I loved reading about the fashion, the food, the architecture. And I especially loved the chapters when the victims were murdered, because they were beheaded as Marie Antoinette was and it was funny. Characters: Colette Iselin--main character. She took four years of Spanish only to switch to French so she could go on her school's French trip. She has two friends, one who is super passive and the other who is more like a frenemy. Colette is extremely obsessed with her image, but as the book progresses, she changes. There is some definite character development, which I enjoyed. Also, Alender ties in Colette's inability to make good friends with Marie Antoinette's death, and that was pretty cool to read. (I really don't think there are any other characters worth talking about. Pilar, Colette's passive friend, is sweet, but I really don't feel like we get to know many other characters besides Colette.) Rating: 5 stars Summary: Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown's gates, you can never leave.
One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself. My Opinion: Step aside, Twilight, there's a new vampire book in town and, no offense, it is so much better. First of all, the book kept to the traditional sense of vampirism. You know, burns in the sun, holy water, stake through the heart, all that sort of stuff. It was fun to read. Second of all, the main character is hard-core. She knows what she wants (to not be a vampire) and she strives for it, even if that striving will cause her 70+ days of excruciating pain. Not to mention that she completely goes to battle with at least four different vampires/vampires-to-be. The book was fun, intense, a little gory in some places (maybe too gory for my tastes, but I powered through). It was nice to read a book that wasn't afraid of pushing the boundaries; in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this was a banned/challenged book. Holly Black does not hold back. Characters: Tana--as mentioned before, she is a survivor. First of all, she wakes up at a party to find all of her friends dead. Terrifying, right? Then, she finds her ex-boyfriend infected (going Cold, as it's called in the book) and an actual real life vampire, and she decides to save them. She's the kind of person I want to be; she's aware that there could be terrible consequences, but she does it anyway because she knows what is right. Honestly, Tana is the biggest reason to read the book. You don't find many characters like her: compassionate, intelligent, the will to live, the ability to rip out a vampire's throat. Fun times. Aidan--he's okay. He's a kind of a jerk, kind of a sweetheart. The ex-boyfriend who Tana is determined to keep from going Cold while he would just rather be a vampire. Frankly, I think I would have liked him more if he wasn't so selfish, but he was and I guess that made him more realistic and relatable, but seriously. Let the girl get out of Coldtown. Gavriel--vampire. I really liked him! He's a super old vampire from Russia, and he's out for revenge but he protects Tana for some strange reason, but it's cute and I just really like him. I'm a sucker for vampires, to be honest. Plus, he's kind of crazy, and reminds me of a lost little puppy. Rating: 4.5 stars (again, a little gory. Could have dealt with a little less gore, but then again, what do you expect in a vampire novel?) |
AuthorJust some reviews about some books I've recently read. Check 'em out! Archives
March 2017
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