Being connected to Daemon Black sucks…

Thanks to his alien mojo, Daemon’s determined to prove what he feels for me is more than a product of our bizarro connection. So I’ve sworn him off, even though he’s running more hot than cold these days. But we’ve got bigger problems.

Something worse than the Arum has come to town…

The Department of Defense are here. If they ever find out what Daemon can do and that we're linked, I’m a goner. So is he. And there's this new boy in school who’s got a secret of his own. He knows what’s happened to me and he can help, but to do so, I have to lie to Daemon and stay away from him. Like that's possible. Against all common sense, I'm falling for Daemon. Hard.

But then everything changes…

I’ve seen someone who shouldn’t be alive. And I have to tell Daemon, even though I know he’s never going to stop searching until he gets the truth. What happened to his brother? Who betrayed him? And what does the DOD want from them—from me?

No one is who they seem. And not everyone will survive the lies…

Nancy’s Review:

I loved Obsidian so much that I just HAD to get the second and third book in the series. I was really excited to read Onyx until I read what this book was about. I wasn’t drawn to the synopsis of Onyx at all, merely the fact that it is the sequel of Obsidian. Otherwise, I don’t think I would have read it.

The story continues on pretty much where Obsidian left off. I was able to quickly get back into the story, without struggling to remember who these people were and what had happened in the first book. While I was intrigued with what was happening and it seemed like there was a lot going on, I was getting bored. Halfway through the Onyx I even considered stopping and moving on to another book. Everything was happening much too slow. It felt like such a long book and I couldn’t wait to get to the end of it. I ended up losing interest and I just wanted to finish it. There wasn’t anything that I hated in this book, I was just bored with it.

The only thing that kept me reading was that I was enjoying some of the characters. Daemon was much more likable in this book, he was more caring and showed a different side. He was less abrasive than in the first book. Katy, however, was a bit of a disappointment. She turned into a YA cliche with her whining and swooning over Daemon, while still denying that they had something going on.

I found myself rolling my eyes on multiple occasions because of Katy’s insistence that Daemon didn’t actually like her. She spent most of the book telling both herself and Daemon that he didn’t like her. How obvious could it have been that he was into her? I didn’t get why she kept insisting. Katy had no concrete evidence that the only reason he liked her was because of their alien connection. Despite Daemon telling her that he really liked her many, many times, she continued to doubt him.

Not only was that annoying, but there’s a love triangle in this book. Why? Just… why? Blake, the new guys, shows up mid semester and obviously takes a huge interest in Katy. Obviously. I wasn’t expecting any different. I figured Blake was in the book for some specific reason that I would probably learn about halfway through the book. I was right. I guess it was fine that he liked Katy, but she liked him too! I think. She wasn’t that sure about anything. So it felt to me like she was cheating on Daemon, though they weren’t really together. This just didn’t sit well with me. Pick one or the other, not both!

Needless to say, the love triangle was a huge annoyance. I wanted Blake to leave the story and never come back. Unfortunately, we might see more of him in the third book. I really liked Onyx as a whole, mainly because of Daemon and Katy. They were funny and I liked reading about them together, though Katy was frustrating. The plot was well planned out and everything fit together quite nicely, but it was not interesting enough to make me want to continue reading. Honestly, I’m surprised I finished this.

I also wanted to add that I was disappointed by the cover. I don’t like it. The girl does not at all look how I pictured Katy to look. This woman looks like she’s in her mid 20s. The dude also looks a lot older than Daemon is. I’m just not convinced. I know this is completely irrelevant to the story, but based on the cover alone I would have not picked up this book. This serious could do with a cover change.

Mackie Doyle is not one of us. Though he lives in the small town of Gentry, he comes from a world of tunnels and black murky water, a world of living dead girls ruled by a little tattooed princess. He is a Replacement, left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. Now, because of fatal allergies to iron, blood, and consecrated ground, Mackie is fighting to survive in the human world.

Mackie would give anything to live among us, to practice on his bass or spend time with his crush, Tate. But when Tate's baby sister goes missing, Mackie is drawn irrevocably into the underworld of Gentry, known as Mayhem. He must face the dark creatures of the Slag Heaps and find his rightful place, in our world, or theirs.

Nancy’s Review:

One of the worst things about reading is trying to force yourself to love something that you’re clearly not loving. I struggled, you guys. I really did. I wanted to love The Replacements, to make it my new favorite book, and make everyone go out and buy it. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out exactly as I’d hoped. I didn’t love it and for the most part I was pretty disinterested in what was going on.

The Replacement sounded like a great idea and I hadn’t read many reviews about it, so I went ahead and got it from the library. I loved that the book was dark and eerie. I haven’t read many books like that and so I really enjoyed the “gothic” type of setting. It was different and very original. I also liked the spin on changelings. I’ve read only one or two other books about this topic and so I wasn’t sure where this was going to go, but the story seemed surprisingly realistic. I didn’t feel like it was over-the-top fantasy and the author was able to blend the magic of the changelings with real life, which I thought was a pretty nice combination.

The best thing about this book were the characters. Definitely. What I loved the most was the relationships that Mackie had. Mackie was a great character himself and I really enjoyed him, but his sister and his best friend stole the show. They were amazing! Their relationships with Mackie were so real. Emma, fully aware that he was not her “real” brother loved him unconditionally and did everything to keep him alive and well. Roswell, his best friend, supported him and stood by him when Mackie was struggling the most. It was very admirable. They stood out for me and reminded me of real-life people, because they cared so much for him.

Where The Replacement feel short for me was in the story itself. I loved the author’s writing style and I thought that she did a great job in making this world come alive, but it dragged. I needed more excitement to keep myself interested in the story and it felt much to slow at times. I kept waiting for something amazing to happen, but I just wasn’t sold on how the whole thing was wrapped up. It was a bit too convenient and too put together. While this book sounded interesting and the characters were very well done, the plot left much to be desired.

Fia was born with flawless instincts. Her first impulse, her gut feeling, is always exactly right. Her sister, Annie, is blind to the world around her—except when her mind is gripped by strange visions of the future.

Trapped in a school that uses girls with extraordinary powers as tools for corporate espionage, Annie and Fia are forced to choose over and over between using their abilities in twisted, unthinkable ways…or risking each other’s lives by refusing to obey.

In a stunning departure from her New York Times bestselling Paranormalcy trilogy, Kiersten White delivers a slick, edgy, heartstoppingly intense psychological thriller about two sisters determined to protect each other—no matter the cost.

Nancy’s Review:

Mind Games was one of those books that I didn’t care for to begin with. I wasn’t really sure what it was about and I wasn’t that excited to read it. I had bought the book already though, so I figured it was time to read it. I guess I was just not in the right set of mind to read this when I started it and so I’m not sure if my feelings towards the book were completely unrelated to how I felt about reading it.

There was just one thing that kept popping up and causing problems for me while I was reading Mind Games. Everything was pretty much underdeveloped. Nothing felt fully completed. The characters needed a bit more, more personality, more development. They didn’t stand out for me and were easily forgettable. They didn’t have anything special, anything that was unique to this book that made me care about them.

I wasn’t that fond of the main character, Sofia. Yes, I liked that she was “angry” (kind of), but her personality just wasn’t consistent. I didn’t understand her personality at all. I didn’t know what type of person she was and that bothered me. Her sister was another issue. I still don’t really understand what it was that the sister did, why she did whatever it was that Sofia was freaking out about, and again, what type of person she was! Was she nice, bad, evil, angry, happy? I don’t know.

The love interest confused me. I’m not even sure if there were two. The romance aspect of this story was definitely lacking. Sofia and James’ relationship was awkward and it seemed like he was just made up halfway through the book and just cut and pasted into random parts to add a romance. Like I said, it was awkward. The other dude, I don’t even know his name now. Oh, ADAM. He was pointless to me. I didn’t really get why he was in the story, he didn’t have as big of a part as first imagined he would have.

The plot was yet another confusing part of this book. It had so much potential. I loved the overall picture, if I looked at it from REALLY far away. However, while I was reading, everything just seemed like chunks and pieces “glued” together to make a book. So much more information was needed for me to connect with the world in this book and the “powers” that these girls had, which I still don’t really get.

I didn’t hate this book, but I couldn’t wait to be done with it. I was bored and I wanted to put Mind Games behind me and move on. Everything was half-done and felt uncompleted. I would love for this book to be revised and be made about 100 to 200 pages longer. Then, I think, I would actually enjoy it.