Review: Darkness Falls by Jessica Sorensen

Darkness Falls by Jessica Sorensen 

Pages: 286
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: YA Dystopian Paranormal
#1 in Series

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When the disease spread through the world, people had no choice but to go into hiding. The Colony is hidden deep underground, far away from the vampires—humans that were transformed by the disease. The vampires are hideous, starving, and they will kill any human they come across.
Seventeen-year-old Kayla is a Bellator, a warrior that protects The Colony. In order to survive, there are three rules she must follow:
Rule #1—Never go out after dark.
Rule #2—Always carry a weapon.
Rule #3—No matter what, never EVER get bitten.
But what happens when the rules Kayla has always lived by can no longer apply?
The Highers run The Colony and accept nothing less than perfection. One slip up can mean death. Kayla has always worked hard to follow the rules and strive for perfection. But during a moment of weakness, she lets her imperfections show. Her punishment is worse than death. She is chosen for The Gathering and is thrown out into a world full of starving vampires.
No one has ever survived The Gathering, at least that’s what Kayla’s been told. But when she runs into a group who insist they were once part of The Gathering, Kayla discovers the Highers have been keeping secrets. Secrets that could lead to a cure.

Review

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I have to say, I really liked Darkness Falls. It's not my favorite book, but it was good. The only thing was, that I read it right after I had finished The Immortal Rules, and in some freaky coincidence, this is extremely similar to it! Darkness Falls was actually published a month before The Immortal Rules, though, so I know that the similarity wasn't intentional. I just think this was a case of two authors having like a psychic link and writing similar stories.

The opening of the book was very gripping. It just drops you righting on the craziness and danger of the world by showing us Kayla in a deadly situation with a vampire. I was definitely intrigued, although I feel like the writing was just average. I was really taken in by the story line, and the fact that the main character Kayla is this sort of superhuman, not quire vampire, but definitely not average.

I don't think I was so invested in the characters or story as a whole to continue it, but for this one book I did like it. The hints of romance didn't pull me in, although I must say I was really into the 'villain' of the story. I'm not going to read the sequel, it just didn't interest me enough to do that.

3 stars out of 5

Other Books by This Author

Review: Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

Author: Kiersten White
Pages: 335
Publisher: HarperTeen
Genre: YA Paranormal/ Urban Fantasy
Source: Purchased
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Weird as it is working for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, Evie’s always thought of herself as normal. Sure, her best friend is a mermaid, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she's falling for a shape-shifter, and she's the only person who can see through paranormals' glamours, but still. Normal.

Only now paranormals are dying, and Evie's dreams are filled with haunting voices and mysterious prophecies. She soon realizes that there may be a link between her abilities and the sudden rash of deaths. Not only that, but she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.

So much for normal.

If you're wanting a novel that is laugh-out-loud funny, but will make your heart race with anticipation and excitement, and with a quick-witted, kick-butt herione, look no further. You've found it in Paranormalcy.

The book first starts off with Evie on a 'bag and tag' vampire mission. From that first page, I could already tell that Paranormalcy would be quite an interesting ride. Wow, that's an understatement. Evie, our quirky and funny main girl who has a penchant for pink and sparkles, works for the IPCA. She is sent out to find paranormals and keep society safe from them since she's the only person in the world that can see through any glamour.narrated the story with a unique and relatable teenage voice. The entire novel is just full of really fun moments, but also some serious get-your-heart pounding scenes.

I personally felt the romance was a bit weak. When Lend, the love interest, was first introduced, I was really into him, and as his relationship with Evie progressed, I thought they were really cute together. He's definitely a crush-worthy type of guy. But the guy that I'm really interested in seeing more of is Reth, a faerie that works for the IPCA, and is Evie's kinda-sorta ex boyfriend. Even though we only saw him a few times, and he was always portrayed as somewhat of an antagonist, I think there's much more to him and I'd like to see it.

Totally a must-read for fans of paranormal and urban fantasy! I give it 5 out of 5 stars.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Book Type: Hardcover

**SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD**

Bree Tanner can barely remember life before she had uncannily powerful senses, superhuman reflexes and unstoppable physical strength. Life before she had a relentless thirst for blood... life before she became a vampire.

All Bree knows is that living with her fellow newborns has few certainties and even fewer rules: watch your back, don't draw attention to yourself and, above all, make it home by sunrise or die. What she doesn't know: her time as an immortal is quickly running out.

Then Bree finds an unexpected friend in Diego, a newborn just as curious as Bree about their mysterious creator, whom they know only as "her". As they come to realize that the newborns are pawns in a game larger than anything they could have imagined, Bree and Diego must choose sides and decide whom to trust. But when everything you know about vampires is based on a lie, how do you find the truth?

Stephenie Meyer strikes again, this time with a novella detailing the daily lives of the newborn vampires. It was an interesting idea, to see how the rogue vampires lived, but not so extremely interesting that it made up for the other problems with the book, and not executed correctly to make me like the book.

My first issue with this book was the characters. More specifically, Bree and Diego. It really bothered me how they only knew each other for a about two hours, and suddenly they were holding hands, and then they kissed, and then Bree felt something irrevocably change in her, suddenly knowing there was a bond between her and Diego, and they are meant to be together. There was no build up to their relationship that could possibly justify something like that. In the blink of an eye, they just were. I would have liked to see more of a romantic development before that happened. And anyway, Diego disappeared after the first 60 or 70 pages.

Also, why do authors feel the need to make their Hispanic characters say something in Spanish, even though no one else in the book speaks Spanish? Is it a political statement or something? As a Hispanic myself, I actually found it annoying for Diego to say “No estoy cemando, I’m not burning.” He just repeated the same thing twice in two different languages for no reason. Bree doesn’t speak Spanish, so what was the point? Maybe Stephenie thought it would emphasize the fact that he was Hispanic.

Plot-wise, the entire novel was completely superfluous, personally. I could have just read Eclipse and been done with it. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner didn’t tell me anything I needed to know beyond what I already did, and more importantly, didn’t keep me intrigued enough. I knew how it would end, but I was hoping for a better ride on the way down.

Overall, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I wanted to. It just didn’t work for me, and I’m actually very sorry for that. But on the bright side, it was for charity. The only redeeming quality from this book was one character whom I wished had a larger story arc, and that was Freaky Fred. He could have given the story the fire it needed, but alas. No dice.

Kiss of Death by Rachel Caine

Author: Rachel Caine

Book type: Paperback

Vampire musician Michael Glass has attracted the attention of a big- time producer who wants to cut a demo and play some gigs-which means Michael will have to enter the human world. For this, he's been assigned escorts that include both a dangerous immortal as well as Michael's all-too-human friends. And with that mix of personalities, this is going to be a road trip from hell…

It takes a very skilled author took keep a book series going over 8 books (soon to be 9, when Ghost Town is released on October 24, 2010) and still keep readers thoroughly satisfied and eager for more. Kiss of Death most definitely meets expectations and keeps those pages turning.

Seeing as this is the 8^th book, characterization is basically complete. None of the four main protagonists change much over the course of the story, as they had in previous books. Instead, we have side characters really blossoming and showing their true colors. Among them were Oliver, of whom we see a more compassionate and almost human side.

Almost.

But my favorite character that got more emphasis in this book was Eve’s brother, Jason. He has come to the forefront, and, just like in the previous books, I still couldn’t decide whether I liked him or not, or whether he could be trusted. But that’s half of the fun, isn’t it?

The one aspect that sets Kiss of Death apart from the other Morganville books is that this book doesn’t take place in Morganville. This is the FIRST time we have ever been taken outside the borders of Morganville, and it was refreshing. But, of course, we can’t leave the vampires behind for long…

The entire time I am reading any one of Caine’s books, I always have the feeling that within all this mayhem and chaos, Caine is setting us up, biding her time until the time comes for the final, massive HURRAH. Something big is going down in Morganville, and I for one can’t wait to find out.

My only complaint is that the ending seemed to wrap up to cleanly and quickly for what was going on. I would have liked a little more conflict.

I give this novel 4 out of 5 stars.