Review: Anna Dressed in Blood

Title: Anna Dressed in Blood
Author: Kendare Blake
Pages: 316
Rating: 5/5

Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story. . .

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

And she, for whatever reason, spares his life (www.goodreads.com)

A few years back, I discovered the show "Supernatural" which I watched religiously until this last season (I'm pretty sure the new writer/producer/whatever ruined the show...just sayin').  Anyway, I loved Supernatural for several reasons, but the biggest was that it was something different - these guys were ghost hunters...they lived on the edge...they were hot in that bad boy ghost hunter way.  When I started Anna Dressed in Blood, I got those same warm creepy feelings I had while watching Supernatural.  I was hooked from page one.

This is probably one of the best debuts I have read in a long time and 'm on pins and needles waiting for the sequel.  It needs to be out NOW!!

But on to the review...let's start with Anna.  Anna has to be one of the most terrifying characters I have ever encountered in YA lit.  When Cas first lays eyes on Anna, she is a force to be reckon with - her black eyes, writhing hair and simple white dress dripping in blood along with the strength to rip grown men in half with one hand would definitely make me take a step back.  Her rage is uncontrollable - yet she spares Cas' life.  And try as he might, Cas cannot bring himself to kill her.  And so the story goes...with each turn of the page the suspense builds.  My heart broke when I learned of Anna's past, and my blood turned cold, as I became privy to the biggest twist I've read in a long time.

Blake's writing is really top notch.  The cast of characters she brings to the table are unforgettable.  Not only is Anna amazing, so is Cas, our troubled ghost hunter.  Reading through the pages, I came to feel Cas' pain, his confusion, and his anger.  I also loved seeing his friendship bloom with Thomas and Carmel.  Every character in this book had a purpose.  There wasn't one character that was there just because.  To me, that is what makes a book really good...knowing that every thing that is done, every character introduced, is done so with purpose. 

All in all, Anna Dressed in Blood is a real page turner and will probably be one of the best books I read this year!!

Review: You Are So Undead to Me

Title: You Are So Undead to Me
Author: Stacey Jay
Pages: 263
Rating: 4/5

Fifteen-year-old Megan Berry is a Zombie Settler by birth, which means she's part-time shrink to a bunch of dead people with a whole lot of issues.

All Megan wants is to be normal and go to homecoming, of course. Unfortunately, it's a little difficult when your dates keep getting interrupted by a bunch of slobbering Undead.

Things are about to get even more complicated for Megan. Someone in school is using black magic to turn average, angsty Undead into flesh-eating Zombies, and it's looking like homecoming will turn out to be a very different kind of party the bloody kind.

Megan must stop the Zombie apocalypse descending on Carol, Arkansas. Her life and more importantly, homecoming depends on it (goodreads.com).

You Are So Undead to Me is Stacey Jay's debut novel and I loved it!!  The main character Megan Berry was so much fun and I couldn't wait to see what happened to her next.  She was a zombie fighter with heart!

Jay's novel follows the life of Megan as she settles back into her life as a Zombie Settler, a group of people who act as shrinks for the dead.  Megan had all but lost her powers at a young age due to a horrific attack and she's not too happy to have them back.  Now Zombies are ruining her dates, and someone is summoning the evil undead to kill Megan.

Jay's writing was spot on.  Never once did I feel that the book was lagging, and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.  The plot was well written and developed and I enjoyed every minute of it.  The character development was spot on and I truly connected with Megan and Ethan.  I really felt that I was part of the story and that's when I know that I truly love a book.  I was sad when I turned the last page and I'm so happy to know that there is a sequel!

I certainly won't be waiting long to read Undead Much?  I'm already upset I waited as long as I did to read You Are So Undead to Me.  I'm also going to be checking to see what other books Stacey Jay has out there and can't wait to get my hands on them too!!

Review: The Hollowland

Title: Hollowland
Author: Amanda Hocking
Pages: 312
Rating: 2/5

"This is the way the world ends - not with a bang or a whimper, but with zombies breaking down the back door."

Nineteen-year-old Remy King is on a mission to get across the wasteland left of America, and nothing will stand in her way - not violent marauders, a spoiled rock star, or an army of flesh-eating zombies (goodreads.com).

I found Hollowland late one night when I was cruising around Amazon trying to find things to download onto my new Kindle Fire. I always check out the free books because free is free right? Hollowland was listed among them, and after reading the blurb about the plot I promptly hit the download button. Then a few days later when looking for challenges in 2012 I came across the Zombie Reading Challenge. "Score" I thought! "I can use Hollowland to help complete this challenge." And that is how I came to read this particular book...

I'm not really sure what was worse on this one. The character development and plot, or the writing itself. The writing was so choppy at times, I found myself re-reading sentences three times before if finally dawned on me what the author was trying to say. And the typos! I hate typos. I know everyone makes them including myself, and this book was self published...and free, but still a little extra proofreading probably wouldn't hurt.

Hollowland was like one bad rollercoaster ride. This book is non-stop. It seemed like something was happening around every turn. This would have been amazing had there been some character development to back it up but the book was completely void of this detail. There was absolutely no real emotion in this book. Our main character Remy is like a robot. She's killing zombies with the kind of attitude I take towards cooking dinner...yeah it sucks but it's got to be done. I wanted to feel some real fear. I do think some of the plot devices that were used were there to serve a purpose. Remy must leave a friend behind in the desert because she may have been infected with the zombie virus. I think this was there to show that Remy was a strong, focused leader...but actually just made her look like she really didn't give a crap about anyone. And then there was the lion...I mean really...a lion. I'm not sure what the author was trying to establish with a lion unless she thought it would be really cool, but to me it was just weird.

From the lion, things went downhill fast. Remy and her small group of followers ended up spending the night with a cult leader named Koresh and his band of merry followers. Koresh hopes to cleanse Remy's friend Lazlo, a rockstar before the zombies came and took over the world, so they try to escape but are held up when Remy, of course because this makes sense, tries to find her lion...do I really need to say more?

The sad thing about this book is it started off really good. Zombies had envaded a secure government facility. We see that the zombies are beginning to develop a higher since of intelligence. They're working together to destroy the world rather than running amuck. We get a glimpse at the life that Remy was leading...secure but no where near perfect. It was a great setup. Had the author not choosen to go down the road of a B grade horror film, I probably would have given this book a lot higher rating. But instead I was left exhausted and drained and not in a good way.

Save your self the trouble of reading this book. Go out and rent Shaun of the Dead instead...

Review: Catching Jordan

Title: Catching Jordan
Author: Miranda Kenneally
Pages: 288
Rating: 5/5

What girl doesn't want to be surrounded by gorgeous jocks day in and day out? Jordan Woods isn't just surrounded by hot guys, though- she leads them as the captain and quarterback of her high school football team. They all see her as one of the guys and that's just fine. As long as she gets her athletic scholarship to a powerhouse university.

But everything she's ever worked for is threatened when Ty Green moves to her school. Not only is he an amazing QB, but he's also amazingly hot. And for the first time, Jordan's feeling vulnerable. Can she keep her head in the game while her heart's on the line (cover blurb)?

I always like to start the New Year off with either a book I've been wanting to read for a long time, or one that I've been hearing a lot of chatter about in the blogosphere.  In the past few months, I have read tons and tons of positive reviews for Catching Jordan, but still I was hesitant.  One of my favorite books (and series) is Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock.  I was nervous that Catching Jordan would fall short, and I would spend the entire time comparing Jordan to DJ Schwenk.  Once I started reading I quickly learned two things:  Catching Jordan was addictive in its own way, and two - Jordan Woods could definitely hold her own (DJ who???).

I started this book last night, as the ball was dropping, and finished it early this afternoon.  I only put it down to eat, go to the bathroom, and play with Anthony for a bit.  Sometimes I'm so thankful that he's a great napper...lol!!

So what made this book so good?  Well for one, the characters were fabulous.  Jordan is quarterback and captain of her football team.  She's a girl swimming in a male world, and that's perfectly fine with her.  She shuts down a lot of her feelings to be a leader, and doesn't want to show weakness among her teammates.  Kenneally developed Jordan in such a way, I'm pretty sure for a few short hours I was a high school quarterback, surrounded by a team that loved and respected me.  I agonized over every misstep and decision.  I felt the hurt and the pain.  I felt the joy and the happiness.  I wish there were always characters like Jordan around.  I'd never read a bad book.

And let's not forget about Jordan's teammates and love interests.  Of course, my favorite, was Sam Henry.  He has to be one of my new favorite male leads today in YA literature.  He was so darn cute and sweet...and also very, very frustrating.  There were times that I really wished I could crawl in among the pages and smack him right up alongside his head.  Along with Sam, we had Ty, who was just smokin' hot...lol.  I loved how he felt about Jordan and how their relationship grew and changed. 

Over all, this was an amazing read, and a great addition to current YA Contemporary Lit.  I look forward to reading more from this author!

Here's to my first book of 2012!!!