Angela's September Wrap-Up

Amber to Ashes- Gail McHugh
Queen of Shadows- Sarah J. Maas
Darken the Stars- Amy A. Bartol
Thicker Than Blood- Madeline Sheehan
The Devil's Dreamcatcher- Donna Hoise
Saga Volume 5- Brian Vaughn
Everything Everything- Nicola Yoon
The Paper Swan- Leylah Attar
Until Friday Night- Abbi Glines
Dark Wild Night- Christina Lauren
Illuminae- Amie Kaufman
Sleepless- Cyn Balog
East of West Volume 1- Jonathan Hickman
East of West Volume 2- Jonathan Hickman
Suicide Squad Volume 1- Adam Glass
The White Rose- Amy Ewing 

September has come and gone and all I have to say is... THANK GOD!!!!! I was super busy life wise and it did take away a lot from my reading. I might have done alright number wise, but I definitely feel a slump coming.

I'm just going to jump right into things...
My top picks this month are:  
Queen of Shadows, Darken the Stars, and Dark Wild Night. Queen of Shadows... Just OMG. It was crazy... Crazy amazing!!! Being the 4th book in the series I feared it was going to be a bit of a filler book, but Maas didn't disappoint. Darken the Stars was another book I feared wouldn't live up to the hype I had built in my head, again was so happy when it surpassed my expectations. Then we have Dark Wild Nights which I think of everything I read this month would be my number one.Writing duo Christina Lauren have never let me down, and in DWN they blew my mind again. They gave me a smutty, funny, sweet read, with guy who doesn't suffer from "dick turn nice guy syndrome", who happens to own a comic book store as a lead! So yeah, basically everything you've ever wanted ina man they gave me in this book. Insanely good. LOVED LOVED LOVED it... I actually can safely say that about all three of these novels.  

My fails are:
Thicker Than Blood, The Devil's Dreamcatcher, and The White Rose. Thicker Than Blood was a case of mistaken identity. Thought it was going to be about a love triangle, but turned out to be about zombies. So yeah that happened. Then The Devil's Dreamcatcher was a book I was so excited about. I loved The Devil's Intern so freaking much! It even made my top five summer reads... For some reason though I just couldn't get into this one as much as I did the first. Lastly The White Rose. I really didn't love The first one (The Jewel) that much, but when Damaris from Good Choice Reading sent me an Arc of this I figured I'd give it a try... Mistake. This book was BORING!!! I ended up Dnf-ing it. When I think about it it might be what put me in such a funky mood...

I plan on knocking out some heavy reading the first weeks of October because Leah and I will be doing some events and traveling! Praying to the book Gods that my reading will be even better then. Doesn't hurt that I have a HUGE book hail coming in. So much for my book buying ban!

Well were off to see an early screening of The Martian so see yall soon!

Angela

Darken the Stars by Amy A. Bartol

As the war for Ethar continues, everyone see Kricket as a pawn. She isn't as weak as her enemies might think. Seeing into the future might benefit her, but it might also make it harder for her to make the choices necessary. Darken the Stars is the third book in the Kricket Series.

"Deep down, however, I fear that I've come to love a lie." 

Thanks Amy, for confusing the crap out of me... my heart doesn't know what direction it wants to go in. This book messed with my head for multiple different reasons.

When I finished Sea of Stars I was 100% team Trey. Now that I have finished Darken the Stars I'm so torn between Trey and Kyon... Actually I might not be?!? Ugh I truly don't know where to start! Trey, Kyon, Kricket... I'm a glass case of emotions! Much like I did with my Queen of Shadows review I'm going to do a lot more talking about characters than I am about plot.

I'm not going to lie to you or beat around the bush with this.... We get a lot less Trey in this book than I was ever expecting... and at first this had me super peeved. I was mad that all our free time wasn't again filled with stolen moments and forbidden romance. Needless to say I was a little bit huffy the first few chapters in.  That was until it dawned on me that if Amy gave me all the things I "wanted" then it was would be book two repeated and that what I really wanted was something different and new for this series. I got it too.

Trey was just Trey in this book. As much as I still wanted more of him I was again still thankful for what we got instead. He's still seems just as sexy and strong as ever... but he is still the same Trey. The man that thinks he has to stand in front of Kricket instead of besides her as equals. Darken the Stars is more about Kyon and Kricket's story. Yes, you heard right; WE GET A LOT OF KYON!!! Never thought I'd be excited to say that. I'll get to that in a minute though... Kricket is still the whip smart fire cracker that we got in the first two books, but in this one shes a little more vulnerable and dare I say more like-able. Don't get me wrong, I liked her in the previous books, but I liked getting so see the raw more emotional side of her. We get to see more into her thought process and how seeing into the future really effects her. I like her wits over fist persona and her strong will to fight for what she wants. Not what the world needs but for what she needs. Some might think that comment sounds rather selfish for a leading lady, but in my eyes it's refreshing. Then there's Kyon. Everyone from here to Mars knows I love the villains. I always swoon over the bad boy... and what's better than your average bad boy? The bad boy who knows he's bad and doesn't care to be anything else! He owns it. Kyon has the same thing going for him that Warner from The Shatter Me Trilogy has. At first ya boy is beyond creepy and clingy and you're biggest worry is when and where he is going to make a skin suit out of Kricket. As time goes on though you start to see why he is the way he is. That he might be the "villain" but that he gives something to Kricket that no one else has. I also want to mention how I loved how he wants to teach Kricket things. He want to confide in her, and also sees her as an equal. He was the biggest surprise in this book for me. He becomes charming, jokey, romantic, fierce, he's always man-handling someone, he doesn't wear a shirt often.... and holy hot half-breed I just want to lick his face... and that seafood dinner scene... Whoosh, sorry. Excuse me. Got caught I up in the moment.

"Courage is a value that you hold dear. You live for danger... I can't avoid danger. There's a difference... No. You slap danger in the face and wait for it to react."

Darken the Stars plot does take a slower pace than the two previous. The first two are all about action packed Wtf moments and chase scenes while this one is more about answering the unanswered questions we had from the others. It's about giving us more of a world history and character development. Also I don't know if I'm the only one whose going to think this, but whatever, I think the plot for DTS is a lot darker as well which I found to be a plus... I don't even want to get into how my number one biggest fears is present in this book. When that bomb gets dropped I almost threw up from being terrified. I'm not even going to mention what it is because I do feel like it's a little bit of a spoiler, but if you know me at all, then you'll already know what it is... because again it's number one on my list of biggest fears. Just shuttering thinking about it again. DTS is more a book that is set into place to set things up for the further installments in the series. The pace really doesn't pick up till closer to the end and takes several turns that I didn't except... And that ending! I just have no idea where this book is headed, what will come in the future, and this has me both stressed and very excited.

 Sigh. There's going to be no other way for me to get over this book hangover that Darken the Stars has given me than watch really low rated movies on Netflix and binge on Ben and Jerry's. Goodbye cruel world.

10/10 Stars
-Angela