Title: Vortex (Tempest #2)
Author: Julie Cross
Published: January, 2013 by St. Martin’s Griffin
Pages: 358
Rating:  
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Jackson Meyer has thrown himself into his role as an agent for Tempest, the shadowy division of the CIA that handles all time-travel-related threats. Despite his heartbreak at losing the love of his life, Jackson has proved himself to be an excellent agent. However, after an accidental run in with Holly—the girl he altered history to save—Jackson is once again reminded of what he’s lost. And when Eyewall, an opposing division of the CIA, emerges, Jackson and his fellow agents not only find themselves under attack, but Jackson begins to discover that the world around him has changed and someone knows about his erased relationship with Holly, putting both their lives at risk all over again.

Final Thoughts:
This is what books should be like. I never felt bored, I never wanted to put it down, the characters didn’t frustrate me. Please, people, write more books like this. Vortex may be markedly different from its predecessor, but it works. There’s less of a focus on the romance—it’s not gone, but it comes in second. So much happens in this novel that thinking back, it’s hard to imagine it all fit into just over 350 pages. You may find yourself missing some of the old characters, but with plenty of new ones thrown at you, you won’t have time to notice. Plus, if you’re anything like me, you will soon lose yourself in the intricately plotted mess that is time travel.

Title: Unspoken (The Lynburn Legacy #1)
Author: Sarah Rees Brennan
Published: September, 2012 by Simon & Schuster
Pages: 373
Rating:  
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Kami Glass is in love with someone she’s never met – a boy the rest of the world is convinced is imaginary. This has made her an outsider in the sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale, but she doesn’t complain. She runs the school newspaper and keeps to herself for the most part – until disturbing events begin to happen. There has been screaming in the woods and the dark, abandoned manor on the hill overlooking the town has lit up for the first time in 10 years.

The Lynburn family, who ruled the town a generation ago and who all left without warning, have returned. As Kami starts to investigate for the paper, she finds out that the town she has loved all her life is hiding a multitude of secrets- and a murderer- and the key to it all just might be the boy in her head. The boy who everyone thought was imaginary may be real…and he may be dangerous.

Final Thoughts:
As an obvious fan of The Demon’s Lexicon, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on anything new by Sarah Rees Brennan. I was kept sated by Team Human, a riot of vampiric indignation, but now that I’ve finished Unspoken, I’m probably going to have to drop the high average that I’ve been holding onto for the past few years. It was still a great book, but just not an, ‘OMG, where have you been,’ kind of book. Thankfully though, the sardonic wit is back, bringing with it a whole new group of teenagers, one lead by a particularly inquisitive (pronounced: ‘nosey’) girl, Kami, backed up by whichever of her friends she manages to wrangle into tagging along with her on her sometimes illegal escapades into finding out the truth.

Title: Storm (Elemental #1)
Author: Brigid Kemmerer
Published: April, 2012 by KTeen
Pages: 358
Rating:  
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Becca Chandler is suddenly getting all the guys all the ones she doesn’t want. Ever since her ex-boyfriend spread those lies about her. Then she saves Chris Merrick from a beating in the school parking lot. Chris is different. Way different: he can control water just like his brothers can control fire, wind, and earth. They’re powerful. Dangerous. Marked for death.

And now that she knows the truth, so is Becca.

Secrets are hard to keep when your life’s at stake. When Hunter, the mysterious new kid around school, turns up with a talent for being in the wrong place at the right time, Becca thinks she can trust him. But then Hunter goes head-to-head with Chris, and Becca wonders who’s hiding the most dangerous truth of all.

The storm is coming

Final Thoughts:
Finally finished this one! It took me a few weeks, but that was due more in part to a lack of reading time than a downfall on the book’s part. In fact, once I got focussed on Storm, I didn’t want to do anything else. It’s been hard finding a book that could do that in a while. While I didn’t give this one five stars, it was a solid read. A highlight for me was Becca—a main character that was actually likeable. Too often I groan at the idiotic things protagonists get up to, but thankfully, that didn’t happen this time.

Title: Hot Gimmick, Omnibus 1 (Hot Gimmick#1-3)
Author: Miki Aihara
Published: March, 2009 by VIZ Media
Pages: 552
Rating:  
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In company-owned rabbit-hutch apartments live tenants who can’t afford to live anywhere else, and the apartment complex in which high-school girl Hatsumi Narita lives is ruled over by the rumor mongering, self-righteous Mrs. Tachibana. Get on Tachibana’s bad side, and life becomes hell. When Hatsumi has to buy a pregnancy test because her popular sister Akane is late, Mrs. Tachibana’s son, Ryoki, who used to bully Hatsumi as a kid, promises not to tell the world about Hatsumi’s secret, only if she becomes his slave.

Suddenly Azusa, Hatsumi’s protector in their youth, reappears to save her again. He’s moving back into the neighborhood. Despite the budding romance between Hatsumi and Azusa, Ryoki has control over her through the secret that could ruin the lives of everyone in Hatsumi’s family, and he hasn’t forgotten who his slave is.

Final Thoughts:
While I do have a bit of a passion for anime, I haven’t read much manga. I plan on rectifying that though. After scurrying through over five hundred pages in the past day, I can definitely say that I’m addicted to Hot Gimmick. I don’t feel so bad about forking over $27 for this massive—at least in manga book sizes—3-in-1 omnibus edition. Full of angst, and by that, I mean, drenched in it, this was one book where you wanted to rip the douchey guy’s hair out and feed it to him. I really don’t know what was so great about this story—maybe the shock value. The characters were so over the top, completely unbelievable, but somehow, in a weird way, connectable…

Title: The Third Day, The Frost (Tomorrow #3)
Author: John Marsden
Published: 1995 by Pan Macmillan
Pages: 278
Rating:  
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And then there were five….

It has been six long months since Ellie and her friends returned home from a camping trip to find their families and friends imprisoned by an enemy that threatens to steal Australia’s freedom. Only they can stop this. Like seasoned soldiers, their methods have become extreme, even involving terrorism.

When she’s not gathering food and supplies or running like prey to survive, Ellie wonders at what they’ve become: Are they now ruthless terrorists? The more involved and vicious it gets, the higher the stakes are raised. Everyone is fighting for their lives.

Final Thoughts:
Taking an almost 2 year break between books two and three, I found myself surprised at how easily I got back into this series. Picking it up on a whim this week, I rushed through, finding the tense pacing made it almost impossible to catch a breather. Full of action, sabotage, subterfuge and angst—it was a much needed reading cleanser after some not-so-great books. Being my first time reading this Aussie teen war series from the 90s—well, I was forced into reading book one in high school, back when I wasn’t a reader—I’ve still got all of the twists to look forward to. It’s something I love about it. It really does read like a movie.

Title: The Hunt (The Hunt #1)
Author: Andrew Fukuda
Published: May, 2012 by Simon & Schuster
Thanks: Simon & Schuster, AU
Pages: 293
Rating:  
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Against all odds, 17-year-old Gene has survived in a world where humans have been eaten to near extinction by the general population. The only remaining humans, or hepers as they are known, are housed in domes on the savannah and studied at the nearby Heper Institute. Every decade there is a government sponsored hunt. When Gene is selected to be one of the combatants he must learn the art of the hunt but also elude his fellow competitors whose suspicions about his true nature are growing.

Final Thoughts:
I didn’t expect to love this—the sticker on the front said I would, but I was sceptical. With everyone jumping on the dystopian bandwagon, there’s so much out there, plots overlapping, making it all fairly unoriginal. Adding in vampires—or at least, vampire-esque people—I’d be remiss not to say that I wasn’t going into it with the biggest of expectations. But somehow, The Hunt snagged me—I could hardly put this one down! It was like Rachel Caine and Suzanne Collins had gotten together, leaving behind this little baby Fukuda in their wake. With such descriptive creativity, and a perpetual fear of dismemberment, he had me scratching my own wrists, but for completely different reasons.

Title: Before I Wake (Soul Screamers #6)
Author: Rachel Vincent
Published: June, 2012 by Harlequin Teen
Thanks: Harlequin Teen, AU
Pages: 339
Rating:  
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I died on a Thursday-killed by a monster intent on stealing my soul. The good news? He didn’t get it. The bad news? Turns out not even death will get you out of high school…

Covering up her own murder was one thing, but faking life is much harder than Kaylee Cavanaugh expected. After weeks spent “recovering,” she’s back in school, fighting to stay visible to the human world, struggling to fit in with her friends and planning time alone with her new reaper boyfriend. But to earn her keep in the human world, Kaylee must reclaim stolen souls, and when her first assignment brings her face-to-face with an old foe, she knows the game has changed. Her immortal status won’t keep her safe. And this time Kaylee isn’t just gambling with her own life….

Final Thoughts:
After the book that basically remade the series, I was wondering what to expect. While not packing as heavy a punch, Before I Wake still kept me enthralled with the day-to-day demon-infused lives of the characters I’ve come to enjoy. While almost all them are supernaturally charged in one way or another, it’s a wonder that when I think of these guys, I think of their personal struggles, the drama, and not the Netherworld crisis currently befalling them. Becoming less self-contained, the plots have grown across the six books, playing more on the human qualities, yet managing to do so in a way that doesn’t let the book fall into the dreaded ‘paranormal with no paranormal’ territory.