Review: Pretty Girl - 13

Book: Pretty Girl-13
By: Liz Coley
Published: March 19, 2013
Published By: Katherine Tegen Books

Description: Reminiscent of the Elizabeth Smart case, Pretty Girl-13 is a disturbing and powerful psychological mystery about a girl who must piece together the story of her kidnapping and captivity.

Angie Chapman was thirteen years old when she ventured into the woods alone on a Girl Scouts camping trip. Now she's returned home…only to find that it's three years later and she's sixteen-or at least that's what everyone tells her.

What happened to the past three years of her life?

Angie doesn't know.

But there are people who do — people who could tell Angie every detail of her forgotten time, if only they weren't locked inside her mind. With a tremendous amount of courage, Angie embarks on a journey to discover the fragments of her personality, otherwise known as her "alters." As she unearths more and more about her past, she discovers a terrifying secret and must decide: When you remember things you wish you could forget, do you destroy the parts of yourself that are responsible?

Liz Coley's alarming and fascinating psychological mystery is a disturbing - and ultimately empowering page-turner about accepting our whole selves, and the healing power of courage, hope, and love

My Thoughts: Holy freaking crap this book was good, but good in a really messed up way. I dont want to give up too many details so I'll just say a little

We follow Angie, a girl who has just turned up on her street after a camping trip, but only, she's 16, not 13 like she was when whe went camping, and she has no idea what happened in the last 3 years. Slowly we see the loss of time. The breaks in events as Angie tunes in an out of things and originally she has no idea what's going on. She's missing time with her family, losing sleep and feeling things she shouldn't. Soon she realizes due to some traumatic events, her mind has created multiple personalities to preserve her original self. That's it, that's all I'm saying about the plot...just know you should read it.

This book tore me apart, and then patched me up only to tear me apart again. There were so many feelings. so many things that happened that I almost felt like I needed a different personality just to deal with the book. It was great and amazing and filled with happy times, and bad times, and times in between. It was haunting, kind of like a ghost story but not quite. It was scary, not in a terrifying sort of way, but a how can she deal with all this sort of way and makes you think in depth of the power of the human brain.

I'll admit, this book didnt originally interest me. In fact, I only got it because it was on someone's list as the best book ever, and still, I let it sit in my library bag until it was almost due. But once I started the book, I couldnt get enough. This review doesnt even do it justice, but there's nothing else for me to say

Do yourself a favor and read this one, now. Its just that good! My review? 5 BIG stars!

Review: Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews

Book: Magic Burns (Kate Daniels #2)
By: Ilona Andrews
Published: April 2008
Publshed by: Penguin

Description: As a mercenary who cleans up after magic gone wrong, Kate Daniels has seen her share of occupational hazards. Normally, waves of paranormal energy ebb and flow across Atlanta like a tide. But once every seven years, a flare comes, a time when magic runs rampant. Now Kate’s going to have to deal with problems on a much bigger scale: a divine one.


When Kate sets out to retrieve a set of stolen maps for the Pack, Atlanta’s paramilitary clan of shapeshifters, she quickly realizes much more at stake. During a flare, Celtic god Morfran supersedes goddess Morrigan for witch coven worshippers of the Crow, and sea monsters from the Underworld enter via the Cauldron of Plenty. Kate starts looking for Pack maps and 13-year old Julia's witch mother, and ends up uniting shapeshifters and vampire zombie controllers to save the world.

My Thoughts: Once again Ilona Andrews crafts a book that leaves me wanting more, and feeling like a groupie because I love her books so much (and Curran)

Kate is a TOTAL badass. She's strong and has good morals and doesnt take crap from anyone. She always has some witty snappy remark and it's just so funny to watch. This is an entertaining series to say the least

A new character, Bran, was introduced for this book and I loved him. Ilona really knows how to introduce characters you just grow to love. I can't wait to read more in this series. 5 Stars

In terms of this series and my reviews, I think I'll post the next ones on mainly goodreads and give one big review here on the books I've read in the series once I'm somewhat caught up. I don't really like writing too many mini reviews, especially since its obvious that I love the series.

Review: The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

Book: The Girl of Fire and Thorns (Fire and Thorns #1)
By: Rae Carson
Published: September 20, 2011
Published By: Greenwillow

Description: Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness.


Elisa is the chosen one.

But she is also the younger of two princesses, the one who has never done anything remarkable. She can't see how she ever will.

Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king—a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who needs the chosen one, not a failure of a princess.

And he's not the only one who seeks her. Savage enemies seething with dark magic are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary thinks she could be his people's savior. And he looks at her in a way that no man has ever looked at her before. Soon it is not just her life, but her very heart that is at stake.

Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If she doesn’t die young.

Most of the chosen do.

My Thoughts: Wow!!! That's all I really have to say here.

Elisa is a princess. A seemingly overweight (fat) princess who eats away her troubles and will soon be married to a King. She has no real self confidence it seems but is very kind and of course, she's the chosen one; the one with the Gemstone in her belly.

She soon learns that her marriage must be a secret one, for there is a lot at stake in the King's country. Even more, there are a lot of people who want the bearer of the gemstone, dead or alive, so she must keep the gemstone a secret. Add to that the mistress that very publicly has the heart of her new husband (who of course no one knows is her husband), who secretly spies and shoots daggers at her and you have the recipe for disaster. After she is kidnapped when the mistresses lady in waiting learns that Elisa bears the stone we reach a real turning point in the book.

Elisa is taken across desert and mountain to "save" a tribe of people. Of course she has no idea how she's supposed to do all this and the real treat is seeing how much Elisa changes and grows from a weak, fat, no confidence, pushover princess to...well you'll have to read and find out. Lets just say I'm no longer annoyed by this main character in the end.

There are 2 guys, the Husband/King who's handsome but I hate him because he has a mistress who he allows to be around his wife (i hate cheaters). He allows her to touch him and kiss him when his wife isn't far away, although he 's not daft (I always wanted to use that word. I hope I used it the right way) enough to show too much attraction to her. He's also pretty weak, him being a king and all.  The other guy is one of the kidnappers. He's great and I love him!!He protects her and is an all around sweet guy (if you ignore the kidnapping part). I'll admit the fact that I didn't like how quickly Elisa was willing to trust a kidnapper and see his beauty, but I let that go in the whole scheme of the book.

There's some real self discovery going on in this book, and real perseverance. Of course there was some love (this is YA after all) although not really any love triangle and not really any insta-love, but a few qualities that you could force into believing they exist. I loved it because it seemed kind of real. More like "I think I like you, so maybe I should see if I really do despite the fact that I have this husband who I don't really love, but could possibly learn to love eventually."

This is a good book that lives up to the hype. I would definitely read the next one in the series. I give it 4.5 stars.