MINI REVIEWS : Demonglass, Silence, The Reckoning

MINI REVIEWS : Demonglass, Silence, The Reckoning

   3:49 PM       Elisa

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MINI INTRODUCTION:
From now on I'll add 'Mini Review' which contain short reviews of several books I've read long ago but still haven't made reviews of them. I have busy and procrastinator life so yeah I think this feature is necessary for this blog of mine =)

Demonglass

Author : Rachel Hawkins
Publisher :
U.S : Hyperion Book CH
Indonesia : UFUK Publishing (paperback)
Source : Bought Indonesia version
Pages : 449
Rating : 4 glasses

Review :
Like Hex Hall, I enjoyed this book very much. Sophie's voice is as crazily funny, entertaining and sarcastic as before, one factor that can make me falling for a story very easily. I love how the story is nicely developed here, with Sophie's journey and her encounter with new people, including her father (btw, I like him, what a cool father =p), with unexpected identity and facts, things getting darker and more complicated about who's the real good people and who's the real bad people. It's really shocking and gosh, what an ending! It makes me really want to get Spellbound right away! ><; One thing I like in this series is that the love story somehow doesn't really dominate the whole story, instead it focuses more about Sophie's adventure finding the truth about her identity and the other things. But I can't deny that I also want to know how Hawkins will do about love triangle between Sophie-Archer-Cal at the final book. Secretly I ship Sophie and Cal more because I feel I know about Cal more than Archer. Archer is still a blurry image even after I read two books. Well, just patiently wait until I get a chance purchasing Spellbound one day =p.

Silence

Author : Becca Fitzpatrick
Publisher :
U.S : Simon and Schuster
Indonesia : UFUK Publishing (paperback)
Source : Bought Indonesia version
Pages : 592
Rating : 3.5 glasses

Review :
Thankfully my curiosity won over my soul and I didn't drop this series earlier, because somehow for some reason I couldn't really get into the story, mostly getting confused here and there and I got a hard time with the previous book, Crescendo. That book was just really frustrating for me and made me disliking almost everything (read : Nora), even Patch. Well, I never really liked him though, somehow he's not really stand out among other book boyfriends out there and especially I just couldn't understand his strange behavior. But I was glad I was still willing to read this book.
Everything seems getting better, somehow Nora is like being 'renewed', she's like other person comparing to her in previous book, probably amnesia is good for her, lol. She's maturer and willing to take a risk and surprising responsibility that appears at the twisted end of the story. Wow, truthfully I've never seen it coming, quite surprised me!
And I was more surprised because this series has the forth book. Well, just hope this series would have satisfying ending.

The Reckoning (The Darkest Power #3)

Author : Kelley Armstrong
Publisher :
U.S : HarperCollins
Indonesia : UFUK Publishing
Source : Bought Indonesia version
Pages : 366 (Paperback)
Rating : 4 glasses

Review :
I've never expected I would enjoy this series very much! It's getting better and better on each volume and The Reckoning probably is the best sequel of all. What a pleasant ending! Though most of the story of all three books is about Chloe's and her friend's attempt to runaway from an evil organization (means lack of action, actually), it's still very exciting to read, especially when their power are revealed one by one (Chloe's is the scariest, with those zombies with any unbelievable form, seriously can't read this at night!). I loved to see how Chloe becomes maturer in here. She's no longer a spoiled whiny girl and finally she can accept her destiny and her power and also willing to control it. I also love to see the relationship development between Chloe and her friends, especially with Derek. Awww, they're just really sweet together! Their relationship grows naturally, because they want to protect each other. Just sweet! I always enjoyed every parts where both of them involved in and I was beyond satisfied with the ending =D. Such a wonderful series!

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REVIEW : Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

REVIEW : Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

   11:29 AM       Elisa

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Hex Hall

Author     : Rachel Hawkins
Publisher  : UFUK
Source     : Bought
Pages       : 420

Summary from Goodreads :

Three years ago, Sophie Mercer discovered that she was a witch. It's gotten her into a few scrapes. Her non-gifted mother has been as supportive as possible, consulting Sophie's estranged father--an elusive European warlock--only when necessary. But when Sophie attracts too much human attention for a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, it's her dad who decides her punishment: exile to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shapeshifters.
By the end of her first day among fellow freak-teens, Sophie has quite a scorecard: three powerful enemies who look like supermodels, a futile crush on a gorgeous warlock, a creepy tagalong ghost, and a new roommate who happens to be the most hated person and only vampire student on campus. Worse, Sophie soon learns that a mysterious predator has been attacking students, and her only friend is the number-one suspect.

As a series of blood-curdling mysteries starts to converge, Sophie prepares for the biggest threat of all: an ancient secret society determined to destroy all Prodigium, especially her.

I was really happy when publisher here announced they'd release Hex Hall right after I just read about it. The cover's exciting, the premise sounds sooo amazing about a pack of young supernatural creatures schooling in one place and that instantly gripped me, the sucker of paranormal stories. And gladly it didn't disappoint me =)

Hex Hall is a delightful, light and refreshing reading and also would make you laugh a bit out loud like I did, because too many sarcasm and witty lines in it. It was a fast pace read and there were some little scary and tense parts that made me flipping the pages faster, wanted to know what happen next. Very exciting reading!

The background situation reminded me a bit with Harry Potter but of course it's different and has its own enchantment, an old castle turn to school and boarding house for problematic witches, warlocks, werewolves,*faeries, and only 2 vampires; no single human and some of them even hate each other.
We read this story through Sophie Mercer's head, the main character in this story and she's one reason why you would enjoy this book. She's so honest to others and herself so her voices and lines are super hillarious and full of sarcasm. I found myself giggling and kept giggling and giggling because of it. She's really easy to be loved! And also what I like more about Sophie is despite her foolish acts and thoughts, she's not a fool. Well, maybe there's a part that annoyed me because she trusted someone suspicious very easily, but she paid it with her clever act. She's also down-to-earth enough to choose her killer-suspected 'pinky' vampire friend, Jenna, than 3 popular witches who want to recruit her.

Then, there's Archer, Sophie's love interest.
Hm... what can I say about him... he's pretty cute, kind, mysterious (well, we know his true identity at last), and still his feeling for Sophie was still unpredictable here, is it sincerely or not. Honestly I don't know him very well except he sometimes threw cute jokes and I still need to find out more about him. I pretty confuse myself that everyone already like him at first, but not me. Odd right? I even more curious about Callahan, who just makes short appearances, who mostly just acted but less talked. Interesting, and I think I'll read more about him at next book =)

Overall, the story quite amusing and very entertaining. But there was something bothered me at translation version, and I'll tell it in Bahasa.

Ini untuk masukan aja buat translatornya (yang mungkin ngga akan dibaca sih disini, secara blog indo yang pakai bahasa Inggris sangat ngga populer =p). Entah memang mungkin di versi aslinya juga seperti itu, saya mendapati cukup banyak pengulangan kalimat 'atau apalah'. Kalau kadang2 saja mungkin tidak masalah, cuma karena sering banget jadi rada2 gimana gt. Kalo misal memang di versi aslinya seperti ya mau gimana lagi emang. Just sayin' =)

Hex Hall is recommended if you need light paranormal story with witty and satire writing style which makes you laugh. I can't wait to read the next sequel, Demon Glass that will be released next month based on publisher's info.

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