Waiting on Wednesday was started by Breaking the Spine and serves to showcase those pesky books that aren’t released yet, but that we’re eagerly awaiting! You can click the title to add to Goodreads. This week, my WoW is…

Title: Origin Of Darkness (Daeva #2)
Author: Daniel A. Kaine
Published: November, 2012

Mikhail and the gang believe the war between vampires and humans to be over. They hope that the two sides can begin to bridge the gap and work together once more. What they are about to realise, is that they’ve only just hit the tip of the iceberg.

As the characters try to move on from the war, they find themselves uncovering secrets and painful memories that reveal new motives and hidden agendas, and all while trying to stave off an evil that has been trapped for over three millenia.

How will the gang deal with the aftermath of the war? What new dangers lie in store for them as darkness threatens to consume their world once more? And how will they cope when a secret is outed that one member thought was buried for good?

I really enjoyed the first book in this vampiric dystopian series late last year, so it’s no wonder that I can’t wait to get my hands on its sequel. With a horribly awesome cliffhanger, it’s been a torturously long wait already. There are mumurs of that date moving forwards though–let’s hope so!

Title: City Of Lost Souls (Mortal Instruments #5)
Author: Cassandra Clare
Published: May, 2012 by Simon & Schuster
Pages: 534
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

The demon Lilith has been destroyed and Jace has been freed from her captivity. But when the Shadowhunters arrive to rescue him, they find only blood and broken glass. Not only is the boy Clary loves missing–but so is the boy she hates, Sebastian, the son of her father Valentine: a son determined to succeed where their father failed, and bring the Shadowhunters to their knees.

No magic the Clave can summon can locate either boy, but Jace cannot stay away—not from Clary. When they meet again Clary discovers the horror Lilith’s dying magic has wrought—Jace is no longer the boy she loved. He and Sebastian are now bound to each other, and Jace has become what he most feared: a true servant of Valentine’s evil. The Clave is determined to destroy Sebastian, but there is no way to harm one boy without destroying the other. Will the Shadowhunters hesitate to kill one of their own?

Final Thoughts:
This book just went on and on. Don’t get me wrong—it was definitely a solid four stars, but it did have me constantly checking if I was getting any closer to the end. I think a nice, thin book is in order to cleanse the palette after the ten plus hours I spent lying on the couch today, clutching my hardcover of City Of Lost Souls. I found improvements in this instalment over the previous incarnate, the second half of the series finally forming a distinctive plot with some actual tension. However, I found the overuse of alternating point of views detracted from my enjoyment. With over ten different perspectives, they seemed to be used more to create suspense by jarring us out of situations just as they were getting interesting, rather than to give extra insight into these other characters.

Stacking The Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

Titles link back to Goodreads
• Ashes by Isla J. Bick (library)
• Touch Of Frost by Jennifer Estep (library)
• Looking For Alaska by John Green (library)
• The Bonehill Curse by Jon Mayhew (thanks to Publisher)
• Shadow Bound by Rachel Vincent (purchased)
• Ascend by Amanda Hocking (purchased)
• Stefan’s Diaries: The Compelled by Kevin Williamson & Julie Plec (purchased)
• Dawn Of Darkness by Daniel A. Kaine (purchased)

I tried reading yesterday, but only got through about 80 pages of City Of Lost Souls before I got distracted and let procrastination take over the rest of my Saturday. I’m going to try and get back to it today, though. Just watching the PopAsia music video show at the moment, then time for reading. I’m really liking the cover for Shadow Bound, plus it’s a Rachel Vincent book, which is another big turn on–love her stuff. I’m hoping I can find time to read John Green’s book before it’s due back at the library, because I really loved The Fault In Our Stars. I haven’t read my copy of Torn yet, but I saw a heap of copies of Ascend on the end of a rack at the shops this week and grabbed myself one. I also got a tub of gummi bears as well, but that’s beside the point. Anyway, time to get back to my Sunday kpop. What did you get this week?

Here are my latest reviews if you want to check them out:
Lord, Gabrielle Conspiracy 365 #10-12, October to December

Link up to your mailbox and I’ll be sure to check it out!

Waiting on Wednesday was started by Breaking the Spine and serves to showcase those pesky books that aren’t released yet, but that we’re eagerly awaiting! You can click the title to add to Goodreads. This week, my WoW is…

Title: Death And The Girl Next Door (Darklight #1)
Author: Darynda Jones
Published: October, 2012 by St Martin’s Press

Ten years ago, Lorelei’s parents disappeared without a trace. Raised by her grandparents and leaning on the support of her best friends, Lorelei is finally beginning to accept the fact that her parents are never coming home. For Lorelei, life goes on.

High school is not quite as painful as she thinks it will be, and things are as normal as they can be. Until the day the school’s designated loner, Cameron Lusk, begins to stalk her, turning up where she least expects it, standing outside her house in the dark, night after night. Things get even more complicated when a new guy—terrifying, tough, sexy Jared Kovach—comes to school. Cameron and Jared instantly despise each other and Lorelei seems to be the reason for their animosity. What does Jared know about her parents? Why does Cameron tell Jared he can’t have Lorelei? And what will any of them do when Death comes knocking for real?

Okay, so it has a love triangle with two guys who wanna kill each other, a serving of stalkerish behaviour, and the angel of death…yeah, it sounds like it could be a mess, but I’m going to be reading. Sounds fun!

Title: December (Conspiracy 365 #12)
Author: Gabrielle Lord
Published: December, 2010 by Scholastic
Pages: 181
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

On New Year’s Eve, Callum Ormond is chased down the street by a crazed man with a deadly warning: They killed your father. They’ll kill you. You must survive the next 365 days! Cal has one month to go, but the secrets are mounting higher and time is not on his side. The answers lie hidden thousands of miles away, but with friends and family at his side, Cal’s determined to reveal the truth or die trying …

Final Thoughts:
I finally made it to the end of this twelve-book series. There’s still Revenge, the epilogue book, but as for the main plotline of the series, everything has been pretty much wrapped up. Being so short, I whipped my way through these last three instalments at the same time, hence the lack of a review for the previous two months. October had some cool spy tricks as they attempted a bank heist, and also gave us some more info on Winter’s story, but again, didn’t move the plot a whole lot for Callum. November was just as bad at progressing things—the only thing memorable in that book was the revelation behind Callum’s double—and again, that wasn’t much of a shocker. December made up for its predecessors’ shortcomings, packing the gang up and sending them off towards a twist-riddled, action-full finale.

Stacking The Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

Titles link back to Goodreads
• Whisper by Alyson Noel (thanks to Publisher)
• Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (thanks to Publisher)
• Tricked by Kevin Hearne (purchased)
• Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris (purchased)
• Endure by Carrie Jones (purchased)
• Storm by Brigid Kemmerer (purchased)
• Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins (purchased)
• Hush Hush: Graphic Novel by Becca Fitzpatrick (purchased)
• Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross (purchased)
• The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda (thanks to Publisher)
• City Of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare (purchased)

I took a detour from my reading after I got stuck of Red Glove for over four weeks, so I decided not to post any of my book goodies until I got back into reviewing. I’ve since finished that book, as well as Endure. Neither particularly excited me, but I’m hoping City Of Lost Souls will fix that slump for me. Those books usually suck me back in. I was one of those that actually enjoyed the Simon focus last time around. With my bookshelves still packed away in storage, I’ve just got boxes of books shoved under my bed and now piles growing around the room. These have only added to that. Not that that’s a bad thing, I love getting more books. I just wish I had room to display them again.

Here are my latest reviews if you want to check them out:
Black, Holly The Curse Workers #2, Red Glove
Jones, Carrie Need #4, Endure

Link up to your mailbox and I’ll be sure to check it out!

Title: Red Glove (Curse Workers #2)
Author: Holly Black
Published: April, 2011 by Margaret K. McElderry
Pages: 263
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

The cons get craftier and the stakes rise ever higher in the riveting sequel to White Cat. After rescuing his brothers from Zacharov’s retribution and finding out that Lila, the girl he has loved his whole life, will never, ever be his, Cassel is trying to reestablish some kind of normalcy in his life. That was never going to be easy for someone from a worker family that’s tied to one of the big crime families–and whose mother’s cons get more reckless by the day.

But Cassel is coming to terms with what it means to be a transformation worker, and he’s figuring out how to have friends.Except normal doesn’t last very long. Soon Cassel is being courted by both sides of the law and is forced to confront his past–a past he remembers only in scattered fragments, and one that could destroy his family and his future. Cassel will have to decide whose side he wants to be on, because neutrality is not an option. And then he will have to pull off his biggest con ever to survive….

Final Thoughts:
Over a month. I spent over a month picking up and putting this one back down. It just didn’t hook me the same way that White Cat did. While continuing directly on from the previous cliffhanger, a lot of the intrigue had deflated from the plot. I couldn’t find myself interested enough to really want to read this one. I enjoyed all of the characters, Cassel’s sneaky ways, and especially getting to learn more about the side characters—but in a way, that was also what brought things down for me. The mystery, the mob, and the paranormal aspects of the curse working became ancillary to the Lila/Cassel, Sam/Deneca drama.