A Long Time Coming... and SWEETLY by Jackson Pearce.

Ok... So I've been away for a very long time. There's really no excuse for it, but for the past eight months or so I wasn't reading, hardly writing, and barely ever thinking about books period. My mind was elsewhere.

But I'm back... and I honestly didn't know whether I'd get back into reading and writing as passionately as I had in the past, but it was like waking up. One day I'm staring at a bookshelf with a growing number of unread books on it and the next moment I'm in the library, checking out four books at once. I realized that my passion never really went away... it just dimmed a little.

Time to stoke the embers again! Here's a long overdue review. Warning, it's rather short compared to my old ones and a stepping stone to start reading and reviewing once more.


Sweetly by Jackson Pearce

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


It's been forever since I've been able to read a book in a day. Lately I've been so busy that if a book didn't grab my attention within the first two chapters or so, I'd give up on it and set it aside for a while. SWEETLY was a very good, very interesting book. I love the author, Jackson Pearce. Her blog and youtube videos are hilarious and insightful and her past two books SISTERS RED and AS YOU WISH are just as cute and interesting. The idea of Hansel and Gretel being retold in such a modern way and the way that she ended up connecting this companion to SISTERS RED was done in a very smooth and elegant fashion.

However, I found that some things were a bit too predictable for me. The book was very good and it obviously kept me interested, but in the end, I felt like there was something missing. It was right there on the brink of being something quite amazing, but it never crossed that point for me.

Still worth the read, and still very well written though.



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Low Red Moon by Ivy Devlin

Low Red Moon by Ivy Devlin

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was a library book.



I'd already gathered that it was going to be average from the various reviews. But surprisingly, because I'd started with such low expectations, I actually thought it was a little better than what some other people had to say about it.



For one, I liked the intensity and the suspense that Devlin added in, It was nice to see that side of a werewolf YA. However, the romance section of the plot was a bit of an overkill considering that this book is only 244 pages. A little less smooching, perhaps, and a little more story-telling. That was one thing that bugged me. I thought Ben's and Avery's relationship could have been pretty endearing had it not been for Devlin's attempt at soul mate intensity. If I had to read another page about how beautiful Ben was and how there was just SOMETHING about him that Avery couldn't help but be drawn to, I might have put the book down.



As for the villain, I thought she did an okay job. I had a couple suspects, and when I found out who it was I wasn't that surprised. However, I would have been more satisfied if it had been Grandma. Just saying. Let's go Red Riding Hood on werewolf YA folks. Throw in a real twist.





One last thing that I couldn't make heads or tails of was Avery's voice. There were a lot of instances where she uses the '--' mid sentence and cuts herself off, only to pick up with a new sentence. I understand that people talk like this on more than one occasion, but sometimes it just felt like Devlin was trying too hard to make Avery a sympathetic character. I understood that Avery had been through a lot. And I loved that she is found in the first chapter, covered from hair to toenails in her parents' blood. Well, I loved the dramatic start off and the thrilling aspect of it. Not so much that she lost her parents. Thus, I understand why Avery is traumatized, but she didn't need to get a speech impediment while she's thinking, right? I don't know...



In the end though, I was satisfied. It's a short read and I love werewolves, I just sort of wish that it had been developed more before going to print. It could have been so much more.



A promising premise. If there's a sequel I hope it's a little longer. I might pick it up then.



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