Enclave by Ann Aguirre

Enclave by Ann Aguirre

First off, if you’ve read her other series (The Sirantha Jax Series) this book is quiet different but still has the same amazing dialogue and writing style.

Short Background: The story is about a young teenager named Deuce who is pushing to be a huntress in the underground world she lives in. She has to prove her worth and fighting capabilities to her enclave while being paired with a unwelcome male hunter who was taken in years ago but was never truly accepted. An unlikely pair with different philosophies struggle to keep the enclave save against what are essentially zombies, but certain disaster strikes and Deuce forced to face a series of events that challenge her assumptions, show her new worlds and may make or break her alliance with her battle partner Fade. This is not a love story, it is a post-apocalyptic novel with intriguing questions running throughout the book.

The novel provides a glimpse at the truth behind human nature and what might occur if an apocalypse occurred and the young ruled. The writing is typical of Ann Aguirre’s style, smooth and action packed. One drawback is that, being a young adult novel, there are times where action scenes are slightly sugar coated in comparison to her Sirantha Jax series. Where scenes have the potential to be gruesome in detail, the author settles for hints that let the readers mind fill in the blanks. Despite this, the dialogue between characters is strong and Deuce’s lack of understanding words is a cunning way to provide definitions for, perhaps, words the reader may not know at times as well.

The plot line is interesting and fast paced after the first three chapters or so. It begins a bit slow with explanations but gets more action packed as it goes along and has some really interesting moments where the book becomes hard to put down. Toward the end certain scenes appear too quickly, where months are described in pages, but this is feature that is characteristic of Ann Aguirre’s writing and is done in a way that the reader can get a good understanding of how those months occurred.

All in all, this is a good quick read and has interesting turns that make you wonder how you as a person would act in this type of world.

Rage Within by Jeyn Roberts

Type of book: Young Adult
Focus: End of world/Apocolypse

On many sites this book has good reviews, four or more stars, so my opinion is slightly different. After reading her first book, Dark Inside, I had high hopes that this book would be as riveting, interesting and inspiring as the last. Sadly, I found myself disappointed in this book.

The writing style of this book is similar and still good, to a point. There are times where some of the writing appears disjointed and some of the “voice” that was created in the first book gets lost. Writing style aside, the thing that lost my attention was the changes in the characters as they progressed through their experiences. Instead of being as strong, interesting and dark as they were before the characters, especially the females, are becoming more emotional, doubtful and insecure. Although there would be some truth to this occurring given the circumstances of the book, it gets frustrating as it continues throughout the chapters. I would also claim some of the characters to be “whinny” and it was enough for me to put the book aside while I read another.

What brought me back was a desire to know what happens in the book, especially hoping to find out why the world fell into chaos like it did. Roberts delivers well on this point, providing more substantial details about the chaos and showing the inner workings of the enemies. Unfortunately as gripping as this was, it did not make up (for me at least) the shift in the characters I’d come to like in the first book. Needless to say a third book will be difficult to get through.

Dark Inside, Jeyn Roberts

Type of book: Young Adult
Focus: End of world/Apocalypse

Reading the reviews I was not sure what to expect from this book, some say it’s good some say it’s bad. I take a middle ground in saying that it is packed with fast paced action, interesting descriptions that might make your stomach turn and mediocre dialogue between characters. It was a fast and easy read and I was still hooked enough to want to get the second book. (Warning, rest may contain mild spoilers).

I’m not a fan of books where there are multiple characters with each chapter, but I have to say that was an interesting quality of this book. Seeing the end of the world from different characters really makes you appreciate the horror the apocalypse is creating. Roberts’s purposeful lack of explanation as to why this is occurring is both frustrating and page-turning; you want to find out more about why the world is going so wrong and how it might all end.

The lack of potential romance within the novel is disappointing. There are some hints toward possible relationships but all characters seem to be of mind that it is too dark of a time to fall in love. I think if the end of the world was occurring people, even teenagers like those in the book, would be trying to fool around more than not. It is understandable that many are strangers but as the book progresses connections are developed but the reader is left wanting more than just hints of potential intimacy.

The introduction of the character “Nothing” is an interesting add on to the novel. It provides the reader with an understanding of the other characters world view (one of the ones responsible for the chaos). One draw back is at times the “Nothing” chapters, although respectfully brief, get somewhat repetitive.

All together, I would rate this book a 3.5/5 total and 4/5 for its genre.

Daughters of the Blood, Anne Bishop

Please remember my reviews are one of many. If you disagree with the review please leave (nice) comments and let me know! I like knowing if others hate or enjoy the same books.

This review will be biased as this is one of my favorite authors of all time. I will note: You must like Dark Fantasy to enjoy this author and her stories. This is also a general review of many of her books.

The plot isn't too bad. (Brief without trying to spoil) Queens are the rulers which is a slight twist, but often are abusive toward males of their court depending on the queen. People have magical abilities based on their jewel color and of course the main characters are the strongest. If there was any draw back to this book I would state that it was too obvious to make the main characters the strongest and that having them a bit weaker might have been more redeeming. Everyone is waiting for the one queen to come, who will change the fate of how everything has been occurring and there are different prophecies about her and what will happen. There are battles to keep her from power and battles to get her a throne, and so the adventures start.

The first book can be a bit hard to get into without having read the previous series, but I have yet to read that series and probably never will. After a third through the book I couldn't put it down. Each book of the Dark Jewel trilogy is more and more intense, and it was heart-breaking when it all ended.

This book in particular is interesting, focusing a bit more on developing and explaining the growing plot in comparison to the other books in this series. There are some parts of the books you'll question, and I would say this is not always a book for the faint of heart. Description isn't overly detailed but some of the more gruesome scenes are questionable in content.

I find Anne Bishops writing style to be easy to read, and a good flow between dialogue and description. The times where there are pages of description it's written in a way that is captivating and explanatory-- it's not pages of nothing that you can just skip. Her dialogue between characters is often witty, hilarious and sarcastic.

The character development is well done, you get a feel for each of the individuals, their stories and how they all connect together. I personally am not a fan of the main female character as I find she's a tad annoying. The redeeming factor is that the two lead male characters are to die for. Anne Bishop has created wonderfully dreamy dark fantasy based male characters that grab at your heart as they struggle through different adventures. As her series grows you get a feel for different characters, although the trilogy focuses on Jenelle, Damon and Lucifer as well as others, more books are introduced where secondary characters become primary ones. At first I was hesitant about this but find that it actually helped built the world and made it more realistic.

Finally, the romance is perfect in this book. A great balance between teasing the reader with more than satiating that want a few chapters down the road.

So I hope you enjoy this series, it's well worth it!

It's simple. I'm bored as I have finished school for the next while and decided I needed a hobby. As an interested but lazy writer, and an avid reader, I figured creating a blog about book reviews was a good entrance into doing something I might actually stick to.

So this blog will be dedicated to writing reviews for books I am reading. These will include Fantasy, Fiction and Young Adult books. Sorry for those left out but I like specific genres.

Rai is a pen-name, and is used for similar or same reviews I post on Chapters.ca as well as Goodreads.com. So I'm slowly spamming websites with my thoughts on awesome and or terrible books.

Hope this is helpful to some. Enjoy!