Author: mackenzie

Faefever

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FaefeverFaefever by Karen Marie Moning
Series: Fever #3
Published by Dell on July 28th 2009
Genres: urban fantasy
Pages: 389
Goodreads

When MacKayla Lane receives a torn page from her dead sister’s journal, she is stunned by Alina’s desperate words. And now MacKayla knows that her sister’s killer is close. But evil is closer. And suddenly the sidhe-seer is on the hunt: For answers. For revenge. And for an ancient book of dark magic so evil, it corrupts anyone who touches it.
Mac’s quest for the Sinsar Dubh takes her into the mean, shape-shifting streets of Dublin, with a suspicious cop on her tail. Forced into a dangerous triangle of alliance with V’lane, an insatiable Fae prince of lethally erotic tastes, and Jericho Barrons, a man of primal desires and untold secrets, Mac is soon locked in a battle for her body, mind, and soul.

I feel like this book is the line between pink Barbie Mac and black leather Mac. It definitely started to get darker in tone with Faefever, which is not a bad thing. I was getting annoyed by naive, pretending-stuff-isn’t-happening or not-listening-to-Barrons-even-though-he-knows-shit Mac.

The tension in this book was palatable. I’m still enjoying the plot, the writing, and the setting. Love me some good Ireland.

Barrons is still a conundrum for me. I STILL can’t picture him in my head, even after looking up character art. I don’t know what it is. Maybe that’s how he’s supposed to be. He has grown on me a bunch, though, and I do like him now. I wish he wasn’t such a stick-up-the-butt type of dude, but I know there’s reasons for that. Mostly because I accidentally spoiled it for myself. I’m only half mad about that.

Add to my annoyance list Dani. I don’t know why, but she isn’t doing it for me as a character. Which is not great since I spoiled myself and know she’s a bigger part in this series.

Also, I don’t know if I’ve just started to tune it out or I’ve gotten used to it, but the repetitiveness that I mentioned in my Bloodfever review is getting much better.

So better overall, mostly.

And hoh-boy, that ending. Immediately picked up Dreamfever.

 

Why I Haven’t Been Reading (1)

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I haven’t done one of these in forever! It feels like a good way to break up the Fever series reviews that are going to be coming up since I’ve been binging it for the past month now. Which I am not apologizing for, it’s been fun.

Any who, during the week I have a limited amount of time to do things after work. Over the past little bit, I’ve been trying to prioritize what I want to do with that time so I can accomplish the things that I actually want to. I was spending an obscene amount of time on good ol’ YouTube, which was accomplishing exactly 0% of my goals. Although my makeup game is strong now.

When it came down to my top two favourite things to do, reading and writing, I realized that writing was more important to me. Yes, I LOVE reading other people’s worlds and characters. But one day I want someone to say that they love my world and characters. And the only way for this to happen is for me to prioritize writing over everything else. Except sleep, sleep is always my first priority.

What this means is that during the week, I’ve been setting aside most of my nights for working on my novel. I’ve loved this routine, as it seems to have kicked my creativity into gear. I’m still on YouTube a bit, but that’s mostly for watching different authors talking about their writing style. It also means that reading has taken a bit of a back seat, which is okay for now. It hasn’t completely fallen off, which is good!

It’s been an interesting shift in priority, but I’m excited to see what becomes of it.

What have you been doing instead of reading?

Bloodfever

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BloodfeverBloodfever by Karen Marie Moning
Series: Fever #2
Published by Dell on August 26th 2008
Genres: urban fantasy
Pages: 368
Goodreads

MacKayla Lane's ordinary life underwent a complete makeover when she landed on Ireland's shores and was plunged into a world of deadly sorcery and ancient secrets.
In her fight to stay alive, Mac must find the Sinsar Dubh- a million-year-old book of the blackest magic imaginable, which holds the key to power over both the worlds of the Fae and of Man. Pursued by Fae assassins, surrounded by mysterious figures she knows she cannot trust, Mac finds herself torn between two deadly and irresistible men: V'lane, the insatiable Fae who can turn sensual arousal into an obsession for any woman, and the ever-inscrutable Jericho Barrons, a man as alluring as he is mysterious.
For centuries the shadowy realm of the Fae has coexisted with that of humans. Now the walls between the two are coming down, and Mac is the only thing that stands between them....

I’m on a Fever series binge right now. I read this one right after Darkfever. And I’ve already bought the third and the fourth, although I’m not in love with the series. I’m still not sure on the characters, but I kind of love the plot and writing. So maybe it’ll be worth it for me to continue reading?

A bit spoilery ahead.

My biggest issue remains to be Mac. She’s just so dense. And I don’t know if it’s because she’s supposed to be this small town, naive girl, but it’s starting to get on my nerves. Like, you just find out that ALLLL these Fae exist, but when you see what you think is the Grim Reaper, you ASSUME you’ve gone bonkers and it’s not real. WHY??? I get that it needs to happen in order for the plot to make sense, but I feel like this is not a realistic reaction to seeing the GR. If I found out vampires existed and saw a troll, I’d for sure be talking to someone about it (especially if you know someone that can also see things) just to make sure. This was the single most irritating part of the book. And since it was happened throughout the book, I wasn’t exactly a happy camper.

Okay, I think you’re good for spoilers.

Jericho has gotten a bit better for me, although I still can’t really picture him in my head. His attitude is somewhat annoying, but I think that’s the point of him. And when he starts to show his feelings, man I melt. I’m super curious to find out more about him.

I’m also super excited to learn more about some characters that were introduced that I think will play a bigger part going forward.

And, as I said, I’m still loving the plot. Even if there isn’t much going on, it’s still moving ahead, which is nice.

Oh, the other thing I had an issue with was repetitiveness. Reading these back to back, there’s a lot of info that is repeated book to book. Saying that, if I was reading the series normally, I think it would be super helpful. Especially when Mac encounters characters for the first time in that book, but not the first time in the series, and she gives you a little recap of who they are and how they play into the story. But for me, it’s like having to watch a “last time on the show” recap while binging a show on Netflix.

Have you read the Fever series? What’d you think?

January + February 2018 Wrap-Up

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Hey all!

Soooo, I’ve been playing around with my site a bit, and I stumbled across the ability to add wrap-ups easy peasy into posts. I thought this would be a fun way to close out each month! We’ll see how long it lasts.

And since I discovered this with three days left in February, you get a double hit of the wrap-ups in one post! Yay me not figuring things on out time.

January Reads

January wasn’t too bad of a month for me. I feel like I started 2018 off with a bang and really hit my reading grove. I started off strong, but then the books got just alright.

  1. [8 Jan] The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin ★★★★★
  2. [15 Jan] The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick ★★★★
  3. [22 Jan] Resilience: Navigating Life, Loss, and the Road to Success by Lisa Lisson ★★★
  4. [29 Jan] Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor ★★★

February Reads

I think the biggest win for February was finishing off the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series which has been on my shelf for yeeeaaars. I’ve kept them because they’re pretty, but now I can say I’ve also read them! Although they weren’t my favourite, I’m glad I finally made it through.

  1. [13 Feb] Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor ★★★½
  2. [20 Feb] Dreams of Gods & Monsters (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #3) by Laini Taylor ★★★½
  3. [27 Feb] Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning ★★★★
  4. [28 Feb] January + February 2018 Wrap-Up

Alright guys, that’s all for this one! What did you guys read in the month of February?

Darkfever

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Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning
Series: Fever, #1, #1
Published by Dell on August 28th 2007
Genres: urban fantasy
Pages: 349
Goodreads

"My name is MacKayla, Mac for short. I'm a sidhe-seer, one who sees the Fae, a fact I accepted only recently and very reluctantly.
My philosophy is pretty simple - any day nobody's trying to kill me is a good day in my book. I haven't had many good days lately. Not since the walls between Man and Fae came down. But then, there's not a sidhe-seer alive who's had a good day since then."
When MacKayla's sister was murdered, she left a single clue to her death, a cryptic message on Mac's cell phone. Journeying to Ireland in search of answers, Mac is soon faced with an even greater challenge: staying alive long enough to master a power she had no idea she possessed - a gift that allows her to see beyond the world of man, into the dangerous realm of the Fae.
As Mac delves deeper into the mystery of her sister's death, her every move is shadowed by the dark, mysterious Jericho...while at the same time, the ruthless V'lane - an alpha Fae who makes sex an addiction for human women - closes in on her. As the boundary between worlds begins to crumble, Mac's true mission becomes clear: to find the elusive Sinsar Dubh before someone else claims the all-powerful Dark Book - because whoever gets to it first holds nothing less than complete control both worlds in their hands.

This is my second time reading Darkfever and I’m intrigued but also annoyed.

I love the plot. Give me almost anything set in Ireland and I’m in. All of the history/geography seems to be really well researched, which adds SO much texture to the story. It’s one of those books where I felt like I was walking beside the main character the entire time, looking through her eyes.

The main issue I had was MacKayla herself. Her entire attitude is the self indulgent “I’m young but I know everything” attitude. Like, look. You flew to Ireland because your sister was MURDERED. You find out monsters exist. A man who knows WAY more about monsters than you do decides to save your ass. But do you listen to him? No. You think you can handle the world so you just continue almost getting killed. I know he’s an ass, but come on?! I spent most of the book wanting to punch Mac in the face, honestly.

The other issue I had was Jericho. Not with the character himself, per say. I just had a very hard time building a mental image of him. When my mind is trying to convert the story into a nice little movie, I don’t know quite how to picture him. I’m hoping this gets better for me as the books go.

As I said, the plot was great. I’ll definitely continue reading it just for that. Also because I already own the second.

Dreams of Gods and Monsters

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Dreams of Gods and MonstersDreams of Gods & Monsters (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #3) by Laini Taylor
on April 8th 2014
Genres: fantasy, young adult
Pages: 613
Goodreads

Two worlds are poised on the brink of a vicious war. By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera's rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her.
When the brutal angel emperor brings his army to the human world, Karou and Akiva are finally reunited - not in love, but in a tentative alliance against their common enemy. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people. And, perhaps, for themselves.
But with even bigger threats on the horizon, are Karou and Akiva strong enough to stand among the gods and monsters?

After reading the first two books in this trilogy without being super blown away, I was interested to see how Laini Taylor planned on ending it. I was also a little apprehensive. I was terribly afraid it would quickly turn into a “and everyone lived happily ever after” scenario.

I’m really glad (but also kind of sad) that it didn’t end out that way.

This book was dark. We’ve got smart Karou back, although she’s tired and so done with everything that’s going on. We’ve got her and Akiva on minimal speaking terms, but it’s enough. We’ve got the whole gang of awesome characters ready to fight a war that no one really wants to fight. Let’s gather everyone and kick some butt!

The stand out for me, character wise, in this book was Liraz. I loved her character development, even though it might not have always been straight forward. In the first book, I didn’t like her. By the end of Gods & Monsters, I had a profound understanding for why she is the way she is.

I felt so bad for Ziri throughout this book. Boy got the short end of the stick more often than not. His story line broke my heart the most, I think.

The one main thing I wasn’t a huge fan of was the back story to Akiva and his powers. Maybe it was because we didn’t start learning about it fully until this book (or was it the second?), but I just felt like it wasn’t as flushed out as it could have been. It was like we were told a legend about creation and expected to accept it without any questions. It just bothered me how that entire plot was handled.

I have mixed feelings about the ending, but I’m kind of happy it ended the way it did. I think it was a good compromise. I know that explains nothing, but if you read the books, let me know if you agree.

Really, I’m just happy I finally finished this trilogy. It’s been sitting on my shelf for far too long. And whether or not I like the stories, Laini Taylor has wonderful writing.

Days of Blood and Starlight

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Days of Blood and StarlightDays of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor
Series: Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #2, #2
on November 6th 2012
Genres: fantasy, young adult
Pages: 517
Goodreads

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.
This is not that world.
Art student and monster's apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.
In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.
While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.
But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?

As the middle book in a trilogy, Days of Blood and Starlight wasn’t half bad. The plot was a little slow, but that’s because it’s creating a slow build up to the third and final book.

My only real issue with this entire book was Karou.

Oh, uh, spoilers.

I understand that Karou has just basically lost everything and everyone that she loves. I get that. Betrayal is extra devastating. But she gets so…caught up?…in her grief that she stops being Karou. I don’t know if that’s me being uncompassionate, but come on. She’s a smart girl and she closes her eyes to some OBVIOUS shit. Mostly regarding the White Wolf. It aggravated me a lot that I just had to sit by and watch stupid Karou make stupid mistakes while her stupid heart was broken.

I felt intensely sorry for Akiva, even though he’s the one that messed up and got people into this mess. I just..ugh, I don’t know. I feel like he screws things up, tries to apologize, but no one gives a shit that he’s made a mistake. Look, just because the guy’s an angel doesn’t mean he doesn’t mess up.

Days of Blood and Starlight is where I really started to connect with the characters, which was fantastic. Karou I still had issues with, but Zuzana and Mik I absolutely LOVED. I would take Zuze as a best friend any day of the week. I can understand why Karou doesn’t let her in immediately to the Fantastic World of Beasts, but I feel bad that Zuze has to basically fight her to be let in.

Gaining more insight into Akiva and his siblings was fantastic. They become more human (ironic) than in Daughter, where I felt they were just out to kill everyone. Although, this book still has a lot of killing. But it makes you realize how senseless violence is, and how tiring it can be.

On the plus side, there was no insta-love, so that was an improvement for me. We get a darker, grittier, emotional feelz between the characters. Which is an improvement, but still not my favourite. I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again. A lot of relationships in books could be solved with some simple communication. It would save everyone so much heartache.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

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Daughter of Smoke and BoneDaughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
Series: Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #1, #1
on September 27th 2011
Genres: fantasy, young adult
Pages: 422
Goodreads

Around the world, black hand prints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.
In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.
And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherworldly war.
Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands", she speaks many languages - not all of them human - and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.
When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

A little backstory about this series before I start my review. I’ve owned the entire trilogy since Daughter of Smoke and Bone came out in 2011. That’s 7 years these guys sat on my shelf. I originally bought them 1) for the covers, 2) I love things set in Prague, and 3) the plot seemed really intriguing.

I read Daughter about a year after it came out. I was not a fan. I loved the setting, the characters were fun, the plot was okay, but it didn’t do anything for me. Which is shown by the fact that it took me 5-6 years to continue the series even though they sat on my shelf the entire time.

This could get a bit spoilery from here on out, FYI.

Although Karou was fun, I had issues with her personality. I can understand parts of it, she just comes across as whiny. This didn’t get any better in my opinion.

Akiva was cute but he didn’t really do anything for me. His personality seemed very empty.

The main issue I had was the insta-love. The backstory behind that slowly gets explained, but I just couldn’t get on board with it. It seemed very fake to me. I can’t even explain why.

I loved the atmosphere and the universe Laini Taylor created, though, and I think that is what drew me back to this series. In order to continue with them, I had to go back and read Daughter since I legit could not remember a single thing that happened in it. This time around I understood things a bit better, and although I still wasn’t 100% on board with the insta-love, I made it through all right. The rest of the story mattered more to me this time.

I definitely liked it better this time and I’m glad I did a reread. There’s a lot of things I glossed over the first time, which is likely me being an impatient reader. But Laini Taylor is a fantastic writer, which I appreciated more this read. I liked it enough to finish the series, so stay tuned for those reviews!

Resilience

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ResilienceResilience: Navigating Life, Loss, and the Road to Success by Lisa Lisson
Published by ECW Press on October 17th 2017
Genres: memoir
Pages: 240
Goodreads

Lisa Lisson’s life seemed perfect: she had married her high school sweetheart, applied her marketing degree to a position at FedEx Express Canada, and risen to become a vice president (and would ultimately become president) of the company. One night, after putting their four children to bed, her husband, Patrick, marvelled that their lives seemed perfectly happy.
Just a few hours later, everything changed.
One moment Lisa was sleeping beside Patrick, and the next, she was kneeling on the floor beside his unconscious body frantically administering CPR. Patrick had had a massive heart attack and was in a coma, and the doctors were blunt: there was no hope. But for the next two years, Lisa stood by his side and awaited a miracle, while continuing to balance life as a high-powered executive and mother of four.
Part leadership guide, part memoir of loss, and part personal empowerment primer on how to achieve your goals no matter what the universe throws at you, Resilience is an inspirational story about how to rise to the top in a man’s world, triumph over adversity, lead a fulfilling life, and live each day with purpose and gratitude.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Pinky swear!

First off, Lisa Lisson, I applaud you. You are a strong, fierce, independent woman and I am sorry you’ve had to go through the things you have, although I have a feeling you’re the type to tell me it’s alright because you learned from it. I’m applauding you anyway.

Lisa really knows how to pull heart strings. The book starts off with a punch to the gut and it just continues from there. I found myself immediately drawn into the story and the issues Lisa was facing. You could almost feel the panic and sheer distraught coming off the page. Although I felt bad because I knew these were actual events that had happened to someone, I was hooked and wanted to keep reading.

Alternating with these heartbreaking chapters were chapters about Lisa’s rise to the top of FedEx. They begin with her telling us why she chose to work at FedEx and then detailed her climb up the corporate ladder. These chapters were less exciting for me but they were short enough that it didn’t bother me too much. The most insightful part of these chapters were learning that even if you’re a bigwig, you still get anxious when you’re in the process of getting promoted to bigger wig. These chapters just lacked a little bit for me. Maybe I wish there’d been more solid advice here, but I don’t think that’s what this book was trying to achieve.

The biggest downside to Resilience for me was the repetitiveness. I found that, especially near the end, a lot of thoughts and explanations of her career were repeated. It didn’t take away from the story too much, but it happened enough that I started looking forward to the book being over. Besides that little hitch, I was a little sad when the book finished.

I won’t lie, it was also pretty cool to read a book that takes place in Ontario, since that doesn’t happen very much with what I read!

The one piece of advice that I will be taking away from this is creating a list of goals as a leader for your department, with input from your employees. It seems like such a simple concept but I’d never thought of it before!

The Man in The High Castle

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The Man in The High CastleThe Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
Published by Penguin on September 6th 2001
Genres: science fiction
Pages: 249
Goodreads

It's America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. The few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In San Francisco the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some 20 years earlier the United States lost a war, and is now occupied jointly by Nazi Germany and Japan.

I’m not even really sure how to sum up my feelings about this book.

I sort of understood what was going on, but at the same time I had no idea. Normally this would make me dislike a book, but I think that was the point of The Man in the High Castle.

I love that there was really no hero, no big lead up to some final climax (not really), and no big love story. You’re legit just reading a book about what could have happened if the Allies had lost, and Germany and Japan had split up the States like a little cake. Or are you.

The choppy sentences were a bit hard to deal with sometimes, but I understood that Dick was trying to get across just how much Japanese influence there would be in America if they’d won.

I liked the idea of a book within a book as well. It tied all of the characters together in a more solid way, and it made it almost seem like there was an awakening happening. Like you knew people were reading this book and realizing how different the world could have been if the Allies had won. Which was kind of funny to read as someone from the universe where the Allies won.

It was slightly scary to read, but made me very grateful for what I have today because of the sacrifices that others made before me. The ending also sort of made me distrust my own universe, but I don’t want to get into it. The ending was the most confusing part.

Have you read Philip K Dick? This was my first foray into his work and I will definitely be reading more.