Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin

Title: Masque of the Red Death

Author: Bethany Griffin

Reviewed by: Cassie

Rating: 3 glass slippers

Summary (from BN.com)

Everything is in ruins.

A devastating plague has decimated the population, and those who are left live in fear of catching it as the city crumbles around them.

So what does Araby Worth have to live for?

Nights in the Debauchery Club, beautiful dresses, glittery makeup . . . and tantalizing ways to forget it all.

But in the depths of the club—in the depths of her own despair—Araby will find more than oblivion. She will find Will, the terribly handsome proprietor of the club, and Elliott, the wickedly smart aristocrat. Neither is what he seems. Both have secrets. Everyone does.

And Araby may find not just something to live for, but something to fight for—no matter what it costs her.

First off, the cover is a stunner. Really, it is. Second, the concept of it is AMAZING- what YA book have you read recently- no, ever- that has been a spin-off of the much-esteemed Edgar Allan Poe? It is very, very unique. Lastly, the summary had me at "club, beautiful dresses, glittery makeup, and tantalizing ways to forget it all." I thought that meant some nice interaction (wink, wink) between some nice lads. I was very interestingly proved wrong.

The girl-

Araby Worth, daughter of the scientist. The one who saved humanity. She's lives a rich life but deep down is very seriously troubled. And when I say troubled, I mean troubled. She is a deep character. She is really interesting to read about. But I don't agree with her beliefs. She went for years blaming herself, thinking guilty thoughts. She made a vow never to be happy or do things her twin brother wouldn't be able to experience. She's sleeping through life, with little sparks of light here and there. Honestly, I was sort of sick with her attitude. She was all like, Oh poor Finn, he'll never be able to do this... I really mus'nt. At first I was like, WOO! Chastitified girl in an awesome dress kicking bad-guy-butt here we come! And then I petted my cat and was let down. She did not kick bad-guy-butt. No. She injected herself with unidentified drugs for sweet oblivion. I just wanted to be like...

Ah, but that's at first. Then she goes on and tries to help humanity. Spoiler alert? She gets trapped in a lurrrrrve triangle while at it. She has a generous heart and is pretty brave. She just doesn't have the spark I like. BUT- she is interesting. Just not in the regular heroine way. She's a troubled, fake-smiles kind of girl who has to take a drug to stop herself from screaming her throat raw from nightmares. 

Nice little teaser?

He shuts the door behind us. Doors in this club are well oiled and make no sound when they close. So thick that you can't hear what happens behind them.

"What do you want?" he asks in an amused voice. [...]

"Oblivion." It is what I am always looking for.

"What's a pretty girl like you trying to forget?"

A pretty girl like me, with my clean fingernails and my unblemished bill of health.

He doesn't know anything about me.

The guys-

When I was originally sucked into the story, I thought I was getting just two guys. But no, I am technically getting 3. Maybe 3.5. I don't know. I say this because these two guys are extremely complicated. Elliott, April's brother, more so.

Elliott-

He has blonde hair that falls just past the top of his forehead and blue eyes. He looks noble and he is shorter than Will. He has scars on his back from whippings and he has seen a lot more than a regular rich boy should. A lot more. He has a dark past, and because of that, I had myself wondering if he was crazy. Legitimately crazy. He has carelessly romanced countless girls, and he was good at it. He plans with Araby under the guise that he is in love with her (for her the sake of onlookers), but somewhere along the way he might just be falling for her. He's exciting, naughty, smart, good, and slightly scary.

" "And I'm falling in love with you," he whispers. "But I would throw you in the water and watch crocodiles tear you to bits, if I thought that doing so would accomplish my goals. Do. Not. Trust. Anyone. Especially me." "

That scene there is an intense, edge-of-your-seat part. I was equally "wow that's kind of hot.." and "Elliott you are a psychopath." He is intriguing in every which way possible.

Will-

I have a thing for Wills. I am just putting that out there. So, when I read that this Will was mysterious and attractive and had a secret side to him none of the other girls saw (see, this is where the .5 is added to the number of guys) I had a crazy moment. Sort of like... this.

He has dark, tousled (TOUSLED! <3) hair that is almost shaggy in its length. He has dark eyes, probably dark blue *fans self* and he's pretty tall. And he has tattoos. I don't want to give up too much about him, though, so I will just say he made me sigh in a good way.

I love him! What he does in the end is inexcusable in Araby's POV. In mine, I think it was totally aww worthy and awesome. It shows he really cares about what's top priority to him.

Random teaser times! There were some great scenes I just have to share with you! You won't know who's who ;)

"His voice is soft. "Make yourself beautiful." He stops in the doorway. "More beautiful," he amends, and then he's gone." pg 255

"He presses up against me, hard, with his hands gripping tight to the basket on either side. It should be difficult for me to turn, but I do it effortlessly. He wraps his arms around me and somehow my hands are twined into his hair, and his lips are against mine. We're kissing like it's the only thing keeping us alive."  pg 268

The best friend-

April. I didn't really like her. She's reckless and rich and spoiled. She cares for Araby but... eh. No wittiness or sweetness. Just money and shallow things. She has some great planning skills, I guess?

The world-

Well, I have to say it is hauntingly beautiful. Was it during old times, like the 19th century? Or was it in a dystopian world? Or perhaps a mix of present and past.

The sky is usually gray and it rains a lot, it seemed like to me. The world is a shell of what it used to be and there are vandalisms every day. There are bombings and a lot of buildings are lit on fire. People who can afford it wear masks that protect them from the plague. That was interesting.

However - it was not easy to pick up on. After I finished this book (in one sitting) I sat there thinking about it... and came up really confused. While it is easy to read, once you try to focus on the details and plot, it all sort of... blurs. And you don't know what the heck just happened to your thoughts.

But this world is mind-blowing.

The adventure-

I dunno... I think too much happened in too little time. I mean... wow? There was a lot. BAM it just hits you! Lots of death, lots of secrecy, and lots of... stuff. Whew, left my mind whirling! But perhaps you have a sharper mind than I do, and you will be mind-blown by the adventure.

So I liked it, but I couldn't really like it. The two reasons it got less glass slippers?

 1. Araby's 'tude. She was far too glum and suicidal for my taste. 

  2. As I said before, the action was pretty confusing and hard to pick up on.

  3. ACTUALLY, there's three! The cliffhanger was a joke. I wanted to just stab someone. I seriously said out-loud, "THIS IS NOT AN ENDING! WHAT THE HELL" 

It just leaves you staring at the page blankly, wondering where the last 50 pages are supposed to be. It just ends when the action is getting reeeeal good. Don't you just hate that?

Don't forget to comment below and subscribe!

Cassie

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Title: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Author Michelle Hodkin

Rate: 5 glass slippers

Summary from Goodreads:

Mara Dyer doesn’t think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can’t remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.

There is.

She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love.

She’s wrong.

Yes, reader, the day has come that your beloved blogger, Rafia, has given a book a 5 out of 5 of her own accord. That is your cue to sprint to the near bookstore or library, find The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer and read the entire book in one sitting. Really…do it. Mara Dyer deserved this rate and now, behold…my top 5 reasons to why I gave Mara Dyer a perfect 5!

1.       The Girl. Mara Dyer. She’s interesting. Her friends (I use that word loosely) have all died in an accident and she doesn’t remember it. She’s witty and sarcastic, but under it all, Mara is a broken girl who is trying to stay strong. I guess, to some people, the whole broken girl ruse is overrated, BUT you must give Mara a chance. She’s trying to figure out what’s up with her life and trying to start over at a new school (I know how hard that is!). Mara isn’t cocky. She isn’t overly confident. She isn’t extremely gorgeous or smart. Mara kinda reminds me of my dear friend Cassie (minus the accident and crazy hallucinations). They are both sassy, artsy, and someone you would definitely love to be around. Mara has obstacles but I think she does a pretty good job of getting over them. I read a few reviews about Mara Dyer and most of them bashed her as a protagonist but I gotta say, she is definitely more than I expected. I promise you, she is one of those characters that makes a book memorable.

2.       The Guy. Noah Shaw. Ohmysweetgoodness. He is classified as what I like to call, hotter that the bottom of my laptop, and trust me, my laptop is constantly overheating! Ahh, I can’t do his looks justice, so here, I quote Mara and Noah’s first meeting:

“I whipped around at the sound of the warm, lilting British accent behind me.
         The person it belonged to sat on the picnic table under the tiki hut. His general state of disarray was almost enough to distract me from his face. The boy- if he could be called that, looking like he belonged in college not high school- wore Chucks with holes worn through, no laces. Slim charcoal pants and a white button down shirt covered his lean, spare frame. His tie was loose, his cuffs undone, and his blazer lay in a heap beside him as he lazily leaned back on the palms of his hands.
        His strong jaw and chin were slightly scruffy, as though he hadn't shaved in days, and his eyes looked gray in the shade. Strands of his dark chestnut hair stuck out every which way… He could be considered pale compared to everyone else I'd observed in Florida thus far, which is to say he wasn't orange.
        He was beautiful. And he was staring at me.” (Chapter 4)

 Noah is a ladies man. He is English. His room (YES, we get to see his bedroom!) is filled with books. No matter how much Mara pushes him away, he always finds a way to turn her around. Noah is the sweetest guy ever…sometimes I want to shake Mara for her decisions regarding Noah, but in the end, it just makes the romance even more amazing!

3.       The Dialogue. With Mara’s sass and Noah’s cockiness, it’s just so…PERFECT! Michelle Hodkin does such a good job with the dialogue, it was just so witty! I kinda want more Mara/Noah argument because they come up with the randomest things ever. I kinda don’t want to give away too much so, moving on…

4.       The Mystery. Mysterious accident. Everyone dies. One survivor who doesn’t remember anything. Hot guy randomly interested in survivor. Yes, there is a ton of mystery in this book. Michelle Hodkin does a fabulous job of setting up the book for the sequel. *squeal* YES THE SEQUEL!! I could not put this book down, that is how much I was dying to find out what was going to happen!

5.       The Sequel. The Evolution of Mara Dyer comes out this fall. Nuff said

So…go find this book and read it!! I promise you won’t regret it! And even if you don’t like it, you will probably keep reading because you are that in love with Noah. ;) Until next time!

Rafia 

A Beautiful Evil by Kelly Keaton

Title: A Beautiful Evil
Author: Kelly Keaton
Reviewed by: Cassie
Rating: 4.5 glass slippers


Summary (from BN.com)

Myth and mayhem inhabit a richly reimagined New Orleans in this sequel to Darkness Becomes Her.

After the epic graveyard battle at the end of Darkness Becomes Her, Ari and her friends know what they’re up against: Ari is facing the Medusa curse and is haunted by the image of what she will become. To make matters worse, the heinous goddess Athena has kidnapped young Violet and is threatening to destroy Ari.

Ari, along with the superhot Sebastian, is doing everything she can to learn more about Athena and to get Violet back. But the battle of good and evil is bigger than she realizes, and she’s about to be pulled into a world more horrific than she could ever imagine....

To begin with, if I could have, I would have given it four and 3/4 glass slippers! It truly is amazing, and if you've got any sense, you can see the cover is gorgeous. The title mysterious and... alluring. The novel really fits the book cover and the title is perfect. 

The heroine-

As seen in the first book, Darkness Becomes Her, Aristanae (Ari) is seriously kick-ass. She spent her last few years with foster parents who taught her how to take down a two-hundred pound man running with just her bare hands and how to wield a 9 mm pistol, among with many other weapons. As you can see, she is NOT one to cower when confronted, whimper when attacked, or just in general be weak. She is like the female embodiment of... strong.

Yet- she is strong yet with an even stronger heart. She cares. While a lot of the time, it won't show, she does care. She loves. She doesn't want to be what she is- doesn't want to be called "monster".

However, her personality is the main reason this book didn't get five glass slippers from me. While she 80% of the time is relate-able, I found a sizable-enough portion of the story me going... Huh? You're just going to take that and be... almost emotionless? Her stoic nature is admirable, but still unrelate-able. Her quick decision to just jump to action was also... questionable.

The guy-

Oh my. Sebastian. *dreamy eyes* Part witch (teehee, warlock) and part vampire makes for a yummilicious boy. He has bright gray eyes, pale skin, luscious (OH YEAH BABY, luscious!) black hair that usually falls into his eyes *faints*, and naturally red lips. Hm. That last part didn't do it for me. But hey, I can deal with red lips if I must... ;)

But. Don't worry- he is the package deal. In the first book, I had my questions. He seemed... 'unserious' and too easy-going by expressing interest in a stranger. But lo and behold- my qualms are rested! In the first book, he was really sweet. A bit... quick as I said before, but really a nice guy. And as I reasoned with myself in the first book, it seemed like Sebastian was the kind of guy Ari needed. Steady and sweet for her instability. Not my cup of tea, but in A Beautiful Evil, you see what torture brings out in him. His dark side. It was nice. Ooooh, you want a tease, now do you? Well I'm feeling nice today, so you got it! ;)

"In a blur he was up. A gasp lodged in my throat as he grabbed my upper arms and shoved me against the back wall of the cell. I slammed against the rock, the breath knocked out of me. He pinned me, completely covering my body with his."

pg 203,204

More? Sure.

"His thumb trailed over my cheek, hitting the tears. He lifted his head a fraction and kissed my tears away.

Then his wet lips settled on mine."

Yeah that was nice. I want a guy to kiss away my tears, I dunno about you guys... So he's sexy and sweet. Yup I dig that.

Yeah buddy, hear that? ^ ;) Move over bitches, Cassie's here to kidnap Sebastian.

Did I mention he's a drummer? (Am I the only one who finds that extremely attractive?) *drools* *_*

The best friend-

Ari has many friends, a lot of them not her age. HECK YEAH GIRL, HI-FIVE! SAME WITH ME! Ha, no but I can relate. Everyone has a feeling in him/herself that doesn't care enough to make friendly with peers. That cold, dark feeling that goes, Why should I be nice? So instead, Ari is nice to the kids-Dub, Crank, and Violet. Sebastian is sort of her best friend, and either way her friends are cool. They are.

The world-

Oh man, it's cool! She steps into a different realm a few times or so, and it's awesome. And I've always had a thing for New Orleans; it really intrigues me. Mrs. Keaton portrays it beautifully in the first book, and focuses on Olympus more so in this book. I liked this; while I had a nice culture funk with Darkness Becomes Her, I had some nice wowzas in A Beautiful Evil.

The adventure-

Oooooh- great, again. Some nice sword fights, shot gun action, and good ol' Athena-fashioned torture. Ah yes. If you do think it's a bit slow in the beginning, it picks up!

As I said before, really it's only Ari's personality that lowered the glass slippers number!

I highly recommend you read this series (I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT)!

Don't forget to follow and comment!

Until next time,

Cassie

Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs

Title: Sweet Venom

Author: Tera Lynn Childs

Rate: 3.5 glass slippers

Summary from Goodreads:

Grace just moved to San Francisco and is excited to start over at a new school. The change is full of fresh possibilities, but it’s also a tiny bit scary. It gets scarier when a minotaur walks in the door. And even more shocking when a girl who looks just like her shows up to fight the monster.

Gretchen is tired of monsters pulling her out into the wee hours, especially on a school night, but what can she do? Sending the minotaur back to his bleak home is just another notch on her combat belt. She never expected to run into this girl who could be her double, though.

Greer has her life pretty well put together, thank you very much. But that all tilts sideways when two girls who look eerily like her appear on her doorstep and claim they're triplets, supernatural descendants of some hideous creature from Greek myth, destined to spend their lives hunting monsters.

These three teenage descendants of Medusa, the once-beautiful gorgon maligned by myth, must reunite and embrace their fates in this unique paranormal world where monsters lurk in plain sight.

Ahhh, the joy of reading a paranormal mythology book. I've always had a soft spot for them and I definitely liked Sweet Venom. With its interesting title, I was expecting more but I really did like it. Or maybe it was just the fact that I was sitting on the beach and reading it that made is so much better... Either way, I love demigod (I think?) triplets that kick butt! In California! With hot guys! On the beach! Ok…I’m done…



The Heroines

Oh gosh, I have never read about triplets or even siblings that are more different! Grace, Gretchen, and Greer are all so different...lets just say I liked some of them, I hated some others...

Grace: 

Oh Grace, where do I begin? She is the typical nerdy/cute, passive girl that leads a normal life but just happens to be thrown into a world of monsters and takes it in stride. She has an overprotective older brother, a caring family, and a scholarship to an elite school and she still decided to fight for good monster hunting.

Can I hear someone say, cliché? No really, she’s not as horrible as Greer but I can rattle off at least five other characters that are like her. She kinda offsets Gretchen and Greer’s aggressive personalities but still…Sometimes she just seemed so nice and sweet, I kinda  wanted to shake her and tell her to get a backbone but I guess we can’t always get what we want. But then we come to Gretchen…

Gretchen:

Gretchen is what we teens like to call a bamf. She’s like that intense person my nerdy self would be scared of. But yet! She manages to slip under the radar during the day and kick monster ass during the night…That is cool. That demands respect. Gretchen tries to seem tough but it’s hard because of her terrible childhood. Oh dear god, then Nick (!!!) comes and tries breaking down her walls. I sometimes wish the entire book would be from her point of view because she’s just so awesome!!

Greer:

I hated her. Really did. She was snobby, annoying, and rude. She brushed off Gretchen and Grace but really I did not like her. At all. First off, what kind of name is Greer?? Come on…it rhymes with beer! Next, she’s so controlling! Greer goes on a date with her boyfriend and spends most of the time deciding if he deserves a kiss. On the cheek. Someone needs couples counseling… Greer is that type of person that if I knew in real like, I would hate her. 

Oh gosh, my favorite part....




The Guy(s)

Nick, Milo, and Kyle. Gretchen, Grace, and Greer. Bam.

Ahem, let me just say first off, I hated Kyle for being dick but him and Greer kinda deserve each other. They are both self-absorbed, snobby, and fake. Shudder, I was tempted to skip the parts about them! He was a wannabe surfer in San Francisco! That is biologically not possible…

Milo…oh sweet goodness, where do start?? Dark curly hair, mint green eyes, and a soccer player! Yes, I said it, ladies and gentlemen, we have a soccer player. He’s adorably sweet, nice, and just the perfect guy for Grace.

Ahh, and then we come to Nick. Oh Nick, the adorable new kid who refuses to give up his chase for Gretchen. He starts breaking down her walls and by the time the book was over, I was dying for more of their romance! He writes her long notes, tracks her number down, and even tries taking her on a picnic! *Dying*

The Adventure

Ms. Childs, I applaud you for making such a great book! She set up the setting, had a bunch of kick ass fight scenes and the descriptions were so vivid. That is how you write an adventure book. There wasn’t as much romance as you YA readers like, but personally I still liked it!

Now my dear reader, we must part until next time, when I shall review some Maggie Stiefvater. Hehe, be prepared. So go check out Sweet Venom and don’t forget to comment on what you think below! Thanks for enduring this longg review, and until next time!

xoRafia