Seeing Light Review

Author: Michelle Warren
Title: Seeing Light (Seraphina Parrish Trilogy)
Published: 10/10/2013
Good Reads-
As the corruption of the Society intensifies and the questions surrounding her mother mount, Seraphina Parrish embarks on a journey to find Terease in the terrifying Wandering city of Nocturna. But the information she learns there only sends her team on a dangerous mission to fulfill an ancient prophecy. Delving deep into the disturbing secrets of their world, the revelations quickly unravel, revealing shocking truths about the Society and Sera’s life. In the end, power and courage clash in a mission for freedom that may shatter the Wandering world completely.

Review:

I’ve had my good and bad times with the Seraphina Parrish Trilogy, and to be honest I didn’t set my hopes too high for the last book. It was a lot what I expected it to be, and didn’t exactly capture my attention as much as the first. So if you feel rebellious today, click on read more even though we both know you’re not up to the third yet. And if you’ve made your way to getting up to reading Seeing Light then please humor my opinions.

Protecting Truth Review

Author: Michelle Warren
Title: Protecting Truth (Seraphina Parrish Trilogy)
Published: 09/19/2012
Good Reads-
Seraphina’s keeping a secret from her Wandering team: she’s perfecting her fighting skills. But telling Sam and Bishop the truth would only alert them to her plan: to go back in time, save her mom, and finish what she started. With the help of Turner, Bishop’s handsome twin, she progresses toward her goal but plummets deeper into dangerous territory where the lines of friendship and romance are blurred. One passionate kiss changes everything, leading Sera to unravel a shocking web of family secrets, heartbreaking ulterior motives, and sinister agendas. Love and lies collide in a haunting climax, where the truest souls may not survive.

Review:

No. No. No. Noooo. This book is all flavors of no. I hate sequels, it’s now a thing on my hate list, smushed between wet doorknobs and when people clap at the end of a movie. (I will never understand the clapping.) Protecting Truth you are as awful as your name sounds. Seriously, what kind of name is that? Now before I give y’all the low down on why I hate the Seraphina Parrish Trilogy sequel, I shall attempt to explain it. Although, I doubt it’ll make any sense being that Protecting Truth may have outnumbered the Starcrossed Trilogy of unnecessary plot twists. This is the sequel's review, don't read it unless you've read the first book unless you're a spoiler person. I know, everyone indulges in that guilty pleasure now and then. 

Wander Dust Review

Author: Michelle Warren
Title: Wander Dust (Seraphina Parrish Trilogy)
Published: 11/30/2011
Good Reads-
Ever since her sixteenth birthday, strange things keep happening to Seraphina Parrish.

The Lady in Black… burns Sera’s memories.

Unexplainable premonitions… catapult her to other cities.

The Grungy Gang… wants to kill her.

And a beautiful, mysterious boy… stalks her.

But when Sera moves to Chicago, and her aunt reveals their family connection to a centuries old, secret society, she is immediately thrust into an unbelievable fantasy world, leading her on a quest to unravel the mysteries that plague her. In the end, their meanings crash into an epic struggle of loyalty and betrayal, and she’ll be forced to choose between the boy who has stolen her heart and the thing she desires most.

Wander Dust is the breathtaking fantasy that will catapult you through a story of time, adventure, and love.

Review:

So, I tap danced around reading Wander Dust for quite some time now. The cover drew me in for sure, and the summary seemed interesting enough, but nothing ever gave me that push to pick it up. I was searching through my to-read list, and I decided that I should finally read the darn book already instead of staring at it, and letting my mind drift off. The fact that I learned for the first time the book would be about time travelers really gave me a shove that was needed. Now that I read Wander Dust I'm really really am glad that I did, it’s a great book, and here’s what happens.

Seraphina Parrish, is an only child, she lives with her dad in Miami Beach, and her life’s goal is to finally get him to notice her. She’s done the whole rebellious thing way too many times, and after being “grounded for life” a handful of times, her father decides to ship her off to her Aunt Mona. Sera moves in with Mona in her Chicago home, and begins to attend Washington Square Academy, the same school her mother and aunt attended. Anything that could put Sera somewhat closer to the mother she never knew is a joy in her book, so she isn't too phased on leaving Miami for the Arctic. 

Once Sera begins school she finds out that she isn’t going crazy after all. For one, the boy she mysteriously received a photo of months before, pops up on campus. She also discovers that the women she figured was sent to kill her, is in fact a faculty member, and the world isn’t closing in on her: she was simply wandering without knowing. Wandering is what they call time traveling, and turns out her new school just so happens to specialize in time travel. Sera gets paired up with a Seer, and Protector and begins to learn the ropes of time travel.

Now, as awesome as this story was, it had amazing characters, witty lines, awesome time traveling magic, heated scenes action and romantical (yes I just made up that word), but it kinda fell flat on the actual plot. I know Sera was ultimately trying to go back in time to find her mother, but I don’t feel like that’s what the story was really centered around. It could’ve also been more a ‘finding herself’ plot, but at the same time I don’t feel like the story was meant to be that way. Sera does grow a lot as a character, she makes mistakes, and is humble to admit defeat. She stops her reckless behavior in attempts for her father to notice her, and becomes a really great character. However, I don’t believe the story’s plot was thick enough for it to be recognized.

On the bright side, you hardly notice the lack of plot because the story is just so darn good! It’s a really fun read, and everyone should pick it up. Wander Dust scores a 4 for me! I can’t wait to dive into Sera’s next adventure!

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#64

#63

The Fault in Our Stars Review

Author: John Green
Title: The Fault in Our Stars
Published: 01/10/2012
Good Reads-
Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.


Review:
I finally jumped on the John Green bandwagon and picked up one of his books, which happened to be The Fault in Our Stars. I honestly had no idea what this book was about, all I knew was the reading her favorite book thing, and it’s supposed to be sad. Whatever I gathered from the random little things I’ve seen about it on the internet and what not. I usually don’t read too many reviews when the book is so popular like that, because unless it’s a blogger I follow or what not. Cause honestly, we all know it’s gonna be a bunch of 5 star reviews about how amazing and touching the book was. No one is gonna mention anything bad because it’s just their emotional reaction to write a paragraph long “review’’ on how this book has changed them. One of the things I hate in life but nothing to really do with The Fault in Our Stars besides the popularity of the story.

Now, I am not one for contemporary, but this year has like, been a year of it for me. I’ve read so much that it’s almost normal and I stopped expecting a magical being or what not to come out of nowhere and take the characters off to fairy land. The thing with The Fault in Our Stars is how much you expect from it, I’ve seen one John Green GIF and I knew he was a mad genius already, so I knew the story was gonna be super well written. I also saw the cancer thing and went “oh this is why the crying” but what I expected was a total sad cancer book, mixed in with the cliché love story. The sad dying girl gets her one long lost wish that she could find someone who truly loves her, and here comes this super-hot perfect guy and BOOM it’s magic. Happily ever after, and then she dies peacefully knowing she had as much as a life as her cancer allowed. Well this book is kinda like that, but then again it’s not.

The reasons why I like it so much is because it’s not a cancer book, but in a way it still is. I made the mistake of thinking the book is about Hazel Grace Lancaster, who’s the 16 year old narrating the story. She’s got some tumors in her lungs so they suck, her doctors bought her some time by putting her one a drug that prevents the growth of the tumors. Her current issues are lugging around her oxygen tank, and her parents constant push for her to get a life really, and you know the whole slowly dying. But then again, aren’t we all slowly dying? Some just slower than others. I was wrong, really really wrong, cause the story isn’t Hazel’s story, it’s Augustus’s story, his cancer book, so it is a cancer book, just with Hazel telling it so it isn’t.

Anyways, Hazel is telling Augustus’s story and it took me a bit to get the end, but here’s how the rest goes. Like I said Hazel is 16 living with cancer, her mom forces her to go to these Support Group meetings and one day she happens upon Mr. Augustus Waters, who’s clearly not unattractive and actually shows some real interest in her. One Natalie Portman reference leads to that magical cliché romance. Although I like this romance because it isn’t that typical cliché blah romance cause Augustus is pretty far from perfect, and his imperfections compliment Hazel’s in a way that’s just simply lovely. So in the end it ends because one of the other character dies, and it ends with their last words, so it’s a cancer book, it just isn’t Hazel's. Usually I’d be heartbroken and dying to find out about the other characters, but for some reason this ending made sense in a way that doesn’t make sense. It was extraordinary.

The Fault in Our Stars scores a 5 for me. Might be awhile before I have the courage to grab another Green book though.