The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Lesley Walton

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Synopsis:
Foolish love appears to be the Roux family birthright, an ominous forecast for its most recent progeny, Ava Lavender. Ava — in all other ways a normal girl — is born with the wings of a bird. In a quest to understand her peculiar disposition and a growing desire to fit in with her peers, sixteen-year old Ava ventures into the wider world, ill-prepared for what she might discover and naive to the twisted motives of others. Others like the pious Nathaniel Sorrows, who mistakes Ava for an angel and whose obsession with her grows until the night of the summer solstice celebration. That night, the skies open up, rain and feathers fill the air, and Ava’s quest and her family’s saga build to a devastating crescendo. First-time author Leslye Walton has constructed a layered and unforgettable mythology of what it means to be born with hearts that are tragically, exquisitely human.

I can honestly say that I have never read a book like this one before. It is extremely unique! While it was interesting, I was bored and found it hard to pay attention.

The author does not even begin to talk about the main character until about halfway through the book. The synopsis as well as the prologue of the book make it seem as if Ava has spent years trying to figure out why she is different. In reality, the book focuses on her family tree until we finally hear about her actual life later on.

This book was just okay for me. It wasn't exactly what I expected and was slow paced. If you are looking for a unique book that doesn't really have anything happen until the last 50 pages then this book is for you.

Monsters (Ashes Trilogy #3) by Ilsa J. Bick

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Synopsis:
The Changed are on the move. The Spared are out of time. The End...is now. When her parents died, Alex thought things couldn't get much worse—until the doctors found the monster in her head. She headed into the wilderness as a good-bye, to leave everything behind. But then the end of the world happened, and Alex took the first step down a treacherous road of betrayal and terror and death. Now, with no hope of rescue—on the brink of starvation in a winter that just won't quit—she discovers a new and horrifying truth. The Change isn't over. The Changed are still evolving. And...they've had help.

The action is this book is still as good as the other other books in this trilogy. I don't think that there was ever an issue with that part of the trilogy. The issues for me lie with the different points of view. They were not as bad in this book as they were in Shadows, the second book in the ashes trilogy. It was still a bit bothersome though. 

My main issue with this book was that the ending was so open ended. I have no idea what happens. The majority of the questions that I had while reading the first two books were answered but the author left the ending in such a way that I have no idea what the future holds for any of the characters. I don't feel like things with Alex were resolved and she is the character that matters the most because she is the first one introduced. 

Shadows (Ashes Trilogy #2) by Ilsa J. Bick

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Synopsis:
The Apocalypse does not end. The Changed will grow in numbers. The Spared may not survive. Even before the EMPs brought down the world, Alex was on the run from the demons of her past and the monster living in her head. After the world was gone, she believed Rule could be a sanctuary for her and those she'd come to love. But she was wrong.

Now Alex is in the fight of her life against the adults, who would use her, the survivors, who don't trust her, and the Changed, who would eat her alive. Welcome to Shadows, the second book in the haunting apocalyptic Ashes Trilogy: where no one is safe and humans may be the worst of the monsters.

I think that this book is even better than the first with one exception. There are way to many points of view!  I don't understand why the author felt the need to have so many people talk about their journeys when I was used to hearing only Alex's voice in the first book. Honestly, I don't give a crap about Lena. She annoys me and I don't feel any connection to her whatsoever. There were other characters that were interesting to hear from but I found myself confused about whose point of view I was reading about many times. I had to look back and remind myself who it was before I could continue reading the book. It would have been easier and more satisfying to only have Alex's point of view during the book. 

I thought that everything else was done well. The action and tension were taken up a notch and everyone is fighting for their lives in different ways due to their specific situations that they find themselves in. I have a feeling that the new characters we met along with others are going to clash and we are going to have an epic battle on our hands! 

Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick

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Synopsis: 
It could happen tomorrow . . .

An electromagnetic pulse flashes across the sky, destroying every electronic device, wiping out every computerized system, and killing billions.
Alex hiked into the woods to say good-bye to her dead parents and her personal demons. Now desperate to find out what happened after the pulse crushes her to the ground, Alex meets up with Tom—a young soldier—and Ellie, a girl whose grandfather was killed by the EMP.

For this improvised family and the others who are spared, it’s now a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human.

Author Ilsa J. Bick crafts a terrifying and thrilling novel about a world that could be ours at any moment, where those left standing must learn what it means not just to survive, but to live amidst the devastation.

Gripped me from beginning to end – dark, creepy and suspenseful.  James Dashner,
New York Times Best-Selling author of The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials       
             
This book is what I have been looking for! I wanted to read something with action that I could really sink my teeth into much like the changed in this book do. Haha! 

I loved Alex! She is the kind of heroine that I want to read about. She was strong yet vulnerable. She didn't always know what to do or how to go about things but she never stopped trying. After reading the reviews, it seems like people didn't appreciate the change in her at about the halfway point because it changed the tone of the story. I think I can understand where the author is coming from though. Alex is terrified! He entire world has changed and she is attempting to adapt to it the best way that she can. After fighting through tragedy and now the new dangers that surround her, she had to have been exhausted. Everyone gets tired of fighting and I believe that is what happened to her. 

I'm not sure that I loved how long the book focused on this but I was able to understand because the next book seems to be the one where readers get a lot of questions answered. This book was laying the ground work for the next one and it couldn't do that unless readers were able to understand the different factions of people in the world now. 

Salt and Stone (Fire and Flood Series #2) by Victoria Scott

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Synopsis: 
How far would you go to survive?

In FIRE & FLOOD, Tella Holloway faced a dangerous trek through the jungle and a terrifying march across the desert, all to remain a Contender in the Brimstone Bleed for a chance at obtaining the Cure for her brother. She can't stop - and in SALT & STONE, Tella will have to face the unseen dangers of the ocean, the breathless cold of a mountain, and twisted new rules in the race.

But what if the danger is deeper than that? How do you know who to trust when everyone's keeping secrets? What do you do when the person you'd relied on most suddenly isn't there for support? How do you weigh one life against another?

The race is coming to an end, and Tella is running out of time, resources, and strength. At the beginning of the race there were one hundred twenty-two Contenders. As Tella and her remaining friends start the fourth and final part of the race, just forty-one are left . . . and only one can win.

Wow! What a thrill ride! I loved this book as much as the first one! There are new obstacles that the contenders face and the action/thrills keeps coming. I didn't know that it was possible but there is even more action in this one than the last book. 

Tella was a lot stronger in this book which I loved but I couldn't understand why the author felt the need to keep telling us how different she was when the character's actions showed us throughout the entire book. I got so frustrated with the amount of times that Tella kept having inner dialogues about how she was tough now compared to when she was planning on wearing a sparkly dress for this or that or how new jeans used to be all she cared about. BLAH, BLAH, BLAH! It made it seem as if the author didn't trust readers to be smart enough to pick up on the fact that Tella was stronger so it was thrown in our faces time and again. 

I know that it may sound as if I didn't like this book when it reality it was really good! I loved reading about the new challenges the contenders were forced to face as well as the new skills that we found out about the pandoras. The relationships between the characters grew and changed in interesting ways as well. Overall, this book is just as good if not slightly better than the first book.

Victoria Scott has said that she is unsure whether this will be the last book in the series and I will be so upset if it is. So may things are left unanswered at the end of the book. I have to know what happens to the characters after Brimstone Bleed concluded.

Killer Instinct (The Naturals #2) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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Synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Cassie Hobbes has a gift for profiling people. Her talent has landed her a spot in an elite FBI program for teens with innate crime-solving abilities, and into some harrowing situations. After barely escaping a confrontation with an unbalanced killer obsessed with her mother’s murder, Cassie hopes she and the rest of the team can stick to solving cold cases from a distance.

But when victims of a brutal new serial killer start turning up, the Naturals are pulled into an active case that strikes too close to home: the killer is a perfect copycat of Dean’s incarcerated father—a man he’d do anything to forget. Forced deeper into a murderer’s psyche than ever before, will the Naturals be able to outsmart the enigmatic killer’s brutal mind games before this copycat twists them into his web for good?

I had some apprehension about reading this book with it being a sequel to The Naturals. I was curious if it would end up being like other similar series which are just a bunch of who done its, one after the other with no overarching story line. It seems as if there might be one but there is no solid evidence of that yet.

My theory is that the books will all be connected because each book will bring one of the naturals team's demons of their past to the focus. The first book focused on Cassie and the fact that there was a killer murdering people similar to her mother and in this one Dean is the focus because someone is attempting to replicate his father's MO and signature when murdering victims. I'm assuming the third book will focus on Sloan because it has poker chips on the front cover and she used to be a card shark.

Anyway, it's not that I don't like these books but I wish, like I said, they would have a plot line that carries over. This book did manage to be different from the first one but I was able to figure it out fairly easily. There were a few twists that I found particularly interesting in the story and the author's writing style still manages to grab my attention and ratchet up the tension as the story moves forward in the book. Jennifer Barnes knows how to write a thriller!

I did appreciate how the author didn't just gloss over the events of the first book. It is easy to tell that the characters were and continue to effected by what happened to them in the first book. I'm sure that I will be able to say the same thing for the next novel in the series. 

This book explains a bit more about Dean's background which I loved. I feel that he is the most interesting character and it is probably because he was raised by a serial killer and is not forthcoming about himself. I enjoyed getting to learn more about him and seeing his reactions to the events in the book.

The Edge of Everything by Jeff Giles

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Synopsis:
For the perfect love, what would you be willing to lose?

It’s been a shattering year for seventeen-year-old Zoe, who’s still reeling from her father's shockingly sudden death in a caving accident and her neighbors’ mysterious disappearance from their own home. Then on a terrifying sub-zero, blizzardy night in Montana, she and her brother are brutally attacked in a cabin in the woods—only to be rescued by a mysterious bounty hunter they call X.

X is no ordinary bounty hunter. He is from a hell called the Lowlands, sent to claim the soul of Zoe’s evil attacker and others like him. X is forbidden from revealing himself to anyone other than his prey, but he casts aside the Lowlands’ rules for Zoe. As they learn more about their colliding worlds, they begin to question the past, their fate, and their future.
 
I thought that the book had an interesting plot but it wasn't executed as well as I would have liked. The book focused more on Zoe and her whining/angst than the most interesting part of the story which was X , his purpose, and where the Lowlands. I wanted to read more about that because it was what made me want to read the story in the first place. 

The pacing was odd throughout the book as well or maybe it was the characters actions that made the pacing seem off somehow. The characters took actions that didn't make any sense. For example, when someone has violent tendencies you expect them to perform violent actions or when your life has been threatened you don't just forget about that right away. 

I also hated the insta-love! Why would an author have characters express their love for each other when they have known each other for a couple hours. I can understand if two characters are attracted to each other but they shouldn't be saying that they are in love with each other.

I called what was going to happen towards the end of the book from the very beginning. The book was extremely predictable. It was not hard to guess what would happen which made the story boring and hard to pay attention to.

I was able to read about 60-70 percent through the book then I skimmed the rest. I don't usually do this but like I said before I was bored. I was also tired of hearing the two main characters pine for each other even though they had much bigger things to worry about. This book may have been more successful if it was solely a love story rather than adding in the paranormal elements.