Friday, September 28, 2012

Stray (First Fall Book Review)

courtesy of rachelvincent.com

Hope you all are having a good week. The fall season has started and its time to collect some of those books for the time in between work and school.

And talking about books, today I finally finished an awesome adventurous one I was reading ebook style:

Written in first person narrative, Stray by Rachel Vincent is centered on Faythe, a girl doing her years in graduate school to escape her family life. Independent and stubborn, Faythe has spent her years in college studying and annoyed at the bodyguards her father sends to protect her. Being the only female daughter who is a werecat, she has always been a great concern of her parents. And as human girls start to appear dead within werecat territory, worry starts to bubble even more.

The concept of a “werecat” was interesting to find in this book since werewolves have been one of the famous fantasy archetypes along with the vampire. Here, werecats are very similar to werewolves in behavioral aspects but have different elements of stealth. For example, in this book werecats are impervious to silver.

I also found the main character, Faythe, to be a little too stubborn and crazy in the beginning but as the story progresses it becomes apparent the reason why she is that way and why she avoids her family. There is suspense in this book in which there are twists and unsuspected turns along with adventure and romance. And even the romance itself is intense and less sweet than your usual conventional one.

Finishing this book, I find myself highly intrigued and waiting for the next one since this book is the first in the series. However, I do have to say that this book was really graphic in the violence content and there were some scenes that I actually had to take a 2-day break before continuing reading. I definitely recommend to read this book for those of you who are shape-shifter fans and like some good suspenseful action. 

Beware: this book requires a certain tolerance to violence.

Til Next Blogpost,
Miss Bobo

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Last Seen Leaving (book review)

courtesy of kgbbar.com
Hope you all are enjoying these last days of summer.

As usual I have a book review here for you. I love mysteries and this one is in that category. Now please do not get mad at me when you finish this review just because I said I love mysteries.

At some point we end up finding ourselves with a book that leaves us speechless. This one most definitely left that impression on me.

Written in third person by Kelly Braffet, Last Seen Leaving is about a girl who disappears after an accident and a short time later is searched by her mother who has never been the same since the death of her husband.

I remember Kelly Braffet from reading Jack and Josie, so when I picked this book I figured maybe this would be disturbing. Man, was I wrong.

 This book was all over the place with the characters and the setting. There was a lot of flashbacks going on along with unnecessary focus to things happening in the background of whatever character the narrative was focusing on.


I have read a lot of books using a past and present tense in their narrative and still be able to keep a composure in how the story flowed. This novel only flowed well in the switch of focus on the main characters. What kept me reading this book is the concept of the mother finding the daughter but that didn't even happen (sorry to spoil that small detail). So I am still questioning what is the point of this book? If it isn't about the mother finding the daughter then what is it truly about? Is it about growing up and finding home? Or is it just a story of 2 aimless characters?

If you don't like confusion, I suggest NOT to pick up this book because you will either A. get annoyed and/or B. throw the book across the room or even C. look at the book with a question mark above your head just like I did.

For the first time on this blog, I am going to say this book is one of the bad apples.

Til Next Blogpost,
Miss Bobo