Review: Ink by Amanda Sun

Title: Ink.
Series: Paper Gods, #1.
Author: Amanda Sun.
Publication Date: July 5th, 2013.
Publisher: Mira Ink.
Genres: Mythology, Young Adult.
Format: Paperback, 384 pages.
Source: Provided By Publisher.
My Rating:

A MAGIC MIGHTIER THAN ANY SWORD
A DESTINY THAT CAN’T BE DENIED

Katie Greene is lost in the wake of her mum's death. Sent to Japan, she meets gorgeous but aloof artist Tomohiro, whose tough attitude intrigues and scares her. Then things get really strange. When they're near each other, Tomohiro's drawings start to come to life…

Soon the wrong people begin to ask questions, and Katie and Tomohiro must risk everything to protect the truth.

 

Review

First off, I would like to start off by saying that I am in LOVE with this cover – it’s absolutely stunning. I love how they’ve only switched the ink drawings around for the UK and US covers, it’s really clever. The entire book is gorgeous from front to back, and inside it also has some beautiful illustrations throughout it. Secondly, Ink was absolutely incredible and so unique – I’ve never read anything like it before! Even though I’m finding it a little bit hard to figure out whether my obsession with Japan and its culture is clouding my judgement slightly with this book – I still love it and quite frankly, I really don’t mind if it is!

Katie Greene is our main protagonist and quite suddenly she finds herself uprooted from her life in America when her mother dies and is sent to live with her Aunt in Japan. Katie has to deal with the anger and grief from her mother’s death and deal with the sudden culture change. I think she’s an incredible character, because she deals with all these things so well! In Ink, we don’t learn much about Katie’s appearance apart from the fact that she has blonde hair and pale skin – I really like this, because I think it gives the individual reader the chance to create her character into pretty much anything they want too. Katie is just overall a funny, kind and fantastic character; I’d personally love to be her friend!

Katie is fascinated by Tomohiro, a boy in her school whose drawings seem to come alive when they’re together. I really loved Tomo, he was such an interesting character – stubborn, funny and would rather push someone he loves away to keep them safe than keep them by him and let them be hurt. I also loved Katie’s and Tomohiro’s relationship, it was lovely and grew steadily and slowly into something beautiful. I really liked the fact that they seemed to be really irritated by each other at first but grew to know each other - their relationship definitely wasn’t insta-love.

As I’m looking over Ink, searching for quotes and finalising my opinions for this review – I couldn’t help but notice how many times Katie used the expressions; ‘my heart stopped’, ‘my heart flipped over’ and ‘my heart was pounding’. As I didn’t seem to notice this whilst reading it, I don’t really think that it’s a flaw, but those phrases, or some other alternate phrase exactly like that were used a hell of a lot. To be perfectly honest I’m just surprised that Katie’s heart didn’t jump out of her chest and land on the table.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Ink, it was a fantastic book! Amanda Sun’s writing is incredible and completely flawless in my opinion. I loved the little extra glossary of Japanese words at the end of the book, I think it gave it that great touch and will help people to understand and translate a lot of the Japanese used frequently throughout the novel. Even though I’m learning Japanese myself, and a lot of the sentences and words used were quite basic, I still found quite a few I didn’t know! I can’t wait to read the sequel to this book - I’m sure it’s going to be just as fantastic - and I can’t wait to see what happens to the characters and where the storyline goes. Amanda Sun is definitely an author to keep an eye on and I’d highly recommend this book to anyone who loves mythological novels or books set in Japan.

Quotes

"They tell you you'll forget how it used to be," he said suddenly, and the sound of his voice startled me. "You'll get used to it, that it's better to move on. They don't realize you can't. You're not the same person anymore." - Page 81.

His fingers wound in my hair, the cloth wrapped around his wrist sliding along my collarbone as he moved. I reached for him, letting my hands trails along his jaw and around his neck, twisting the spikes of his hair flat between my fingers. His feathery bands tickled against my skin as his kisses brushed against my lips, my cheek, the corner of my jaw. He trailed down to my neck. He was fireworks and radiance, glare and tingling frostbite. - Page 192.

"My heart was glass - easy to see through, simple to break." - Page 217.

Review: The Stone Guardian by Theresa McClinton

Title: The Stone Guardian.
Series: Stone Legacy, #1.
Author: Theresa McClinton.
Publication Date: December 14th, 2012.
Publisher: Etopia Press.
Genres: Fantasy, Mythology, Young Adult.
Format: Kindle eBook.
Source: Provided By Author.
My Rating:

When myth becomes reality, reality becomes a nightmare.

Like any other teenager in America, Ashley just wants a normal life. But growing up in an orphanage for the insane is anything but normal. After endless therapy and increasing medication, her nightmares have only gotten worse. Probably because they’re not nightmares.

When Ashley’s mysteriously abducted, she finds a reality even less normal than the orphanage. And she discovers something else—she’s no ordinary orphan. Faced with enemies thought to only exist in fairy tales, Ashley discovers she possesses a powerful Maya bloodline. She’s the daughter of an ancient Maya Guardian, whose duty is to protect the Stone of Muuk’ich, an enchanted relic blessed by the gods. But first she must get it back from Sarian, a power-hungry demigod who slaughtered the last guardian—Ashley’s mother. Without the stone, all will be lost.

When she meets Arwan, a hot Belizean time bender, his delicious olive skin and dark eyes make her feel a little less alone. But his gentle whispers and reassuring touch might not be all they seem. How can she balance love and duty when it’s up to her to prevent the rising of the underworld? Especially when the guy she loves might be its crown prince...

 

Review

I was sent an e-Book copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review. I have to say I have mixed feelings about this book. It has such great potential and I believe that the author did a very good job.

Ashley was abandoned at an early age, and has grown up in an orphanage for mentally unstable teenagers. Ashley has awful panic attacks and dreams that are all too real. If Ashley is hurt in her dream, it happens to her in real life. The only person she can rely on is her best friend, Tara – who is her shoulder to cry on and as close to a sister as she’ll ever have. Countless doctors and psychiatrists having been telling Ashley that she’s ill and of need of help, and she’s grown to believe that they’re right. That she’s insane - except she isn’t. When Ashley and Tara are kidnapped one evening during a fire drill, she finds herself tucked away in a house in the hills of Belize and finds out that the man stalking her in her dreams is actually real.

She also learns that her captors are not captors at all, but her long lost family – her uncle and cousin. Ashley soon learns that she’s destined to be The Stone Guardian, a person whom guards an ancient and powerful Mayan stone that her diseased mother used to guard. However, the stone is not in the possession of the ‘good guys’ anymore, but was stolen seventeen years ago from her mother by her enemy, Sarian. Together with her new found family - Arwan; a totally hot time bender and Peter; a healer – Ashley sets out to claim the stone back and finally bond with it to become its primary protector.

I was hooked on this book from the very start, the premise was fantastic and I found it hard to put it down. However, even though I found this book a pleasure to read – it was not without its faults. There wasn’t a whole lot of world building and I found myself confused about what was happening some of the time. I also found that the plot moved a little too fast, jumping right from one event to another, with barely any breather in-between.

I really liked Ashley’s character and I thought she was very loyal; however she was a little wishy-washy at times, a bit of a pushover and was easily swayed by other people’s decisions. Ashley was probably one of the most emotional characters I’ve ever read – not that that’s a bad thing! She’s had a pretty awful life, living in an orphanage all her life, and having psychiatric medications pushed upon her – she finds can only trust her best friend, Tara. Even though I liked her character a lot, I did think she wept way too much – there was always a scene where she was crying hysterically. Either she was just a very emotional person or she was probably depressed – I wished this was covered in the book.

Arwan is a time-bender, someone who has special abilities like Ashley, but can manipulate time. He also has a smoking hot body, as Ashley can’t help but notice constantly. The minute Arwan see’s Ashley; he falls for her and vows to protect her – not because she’s The Stone Guardian, but because she fills a void in his heart that was created by the death of his mother some years ago. I loved Arwan’s character, he was so sweet and caring, even though he acted like a selfish idiot at times, I thought he was great all the same.

Something this novel had that I hoped it wouldn’t was insta-love. I have to say, I’m not a fan of insta-love at all. I don’t believe in love at first sight, I believe two people can meet and be attracted to each other, but love comes much later. The minute Ashley and Arwan meet, there’s a connection and they have the hots for each other – which is perfectly fine and understandable. However, a day or so later, they’re ‘in love’. I believe their relationship could have been better developed, but their romance was sweet, which made the insta-love a little bit more bearable.

Overall, I really loved reading this book – I thought it was amazing. Unfortunately I had to bump it down to 4/5 stars because of the various little problems and titbits that annoyed me. The characters were great; although some of them were a little under developed they were enjoyable to read all the same. It was an original read, with a fantastic plot – not to mention the cliff-hanger ending! I can’t wait until the next book is released and to find out what happens next.

Quotes

Of course, she didn't know why they were really there. He watched her shift her weight. Did she lie when she said he didn’t make her uncomfortable? It seemed like he did. Every time he smiled at her, her cheeks flushed or her muscles tensed. - 33%.

Ashley watched what seemed like a horror movie as Renato lifted the parasite to her face. The worm elevated the top half of its body, and then launched at her. It expanded to a thick, flat mask, sticking to Hawa’s nose and mouth. Hawa gasped and choked as the worm latched on. Ashley screamed and stumbled.
Hawa righted herself just as the parasite settled on her face. - 56%.

She snatched the box out of his hand and looked inside. Her breath hitched, and she twined the chain around her fingers, pulling out the butterfly necklace. Colored gemstones glittered inside the wings that ended in a scroll tip.
“It’s beautiful,” she said in a gentle breath. Nobody had ever given her a birthday gift before.
They just weren’t allowed. - 76%.

Waiting On Wednesday: Everbound by Brodi Ashton

 

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Hello again everyone. :3 I hope you're all doing well. There's nothing really for me to say today except, If you've not read the first book, Everneath, in this series yet - then I'd advise you not to go and read the synopsis of this book or it may ruin the first one for you!

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Title: Everbound.
Series: Everneath, #2.
Author: Brodi Ashton.
Expected Publication: January 22nd, 2013.
Publisher: Harper Collins.
Genres: Paranormal, Mythology, Young Adult.

Nikki Beckett could only watch as her boyfriend, Jack, sacrificed himself to save her, taking her place in the Tunnels of the Everneath for eternity — a debt that should’ve been hers. She’s living a borrowed life, and she doesn’t know what to do with the guilt. And every night Jack appears in her dreams, lost and confused and wasting away.

Desperate for answers, Nikki turns to Cole, the immortal bad boy who wants to make her his queen — and the one person least likely to help. But his heart has been touched by everything about Nikki, and he agrees to assist her in the only way he can: by taking her to the Everneath himself. Nikki and Cole descend into the Everneath, only to discover that their journey will be more difficult than they’d anticipated — and more deadly. But Nikki vows to stop at nothing to save Jack — even if it means making an incredible sacrifice of her own.

 

Thoughts

I honestly can't wait for this book! I loved the first book, Everneath and I can't believe they ended it the way that they did. What do you guys think of the look of it? I LOVE the cover, it's stunning and the font is gorgeous. ^.^ Everything about this cover is just amazing. :) It's a shame that the release date is so far away. D: Ah well..I hope some of you will add it to your TBR lists. :3

 

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What are you "Waiting On" this Wednesday? Leave me a comment or a link to your blog post and I'll be sure to check it out! :D Happy Reading. (: