Review: Lips Touch Three Times by Laini Taylor

Summary from Goodreads.com:

Three tales of supernatural love, each pivoting on a kiss that is no mere kiss, but an action with profound consequences for the kissers' souls:

Goblin Fruit: In Victorian times, goblin men had only to offer young girls sumptuous fruits to tempt them to sell their souls. But what does it take to tempt today's savvy girls?

Spicy Little Curses: A demon and the ambassador to Hell tussle over the soul of a beautiful English girl in India. Matters become complicated when she falls in love and decides to test her curse.

Hatchling: Six days before Esme's fourteenth birthday, her left eye turns from brown to blue. She little suspects what the change heralds, but her small safe life begins to unravel at once. What does the beautiful, fanged man want with her, and how is her fate connected to a mysterious race of demons?

Lips Touch Three Times is a collection of three short stories by Laini Taylor along with illustrations by Jim Di Bartolo. I thought each story was eerily good. Definitely not happily ever after stories, but each story is original and beautifully written. The language cannot be described as anything less than gorgeous! Not to mention, the illustrations are beautiful (Kudos to Jim).

I don't want to spoil this book for anyone, so I won't say much about it.

The first story, Goblin Fruit, is about a girl who just wants to be with someone and be loved. A goblin tempts her with his delicious fruit that if eaten, she will waste away to nothing.

The second story, Spicy Little Curses, is about the ambassador to Hell being convinced by a demon to curse a baby girl in exchange for saving the lives of some children that would have otherwise died. The girl is cursed with a voice so beautiful, but anyone who hears it will fall dead. How can she ever fall in love?

The third and final story, Hatchling, is about Mab and her daughter, Esme. Mab has been trying to protect Esme her whole life from the evils of her past life, which involved the Druj, an immortal race. However, Mab does not realize how much Esme is connected to the Druj. This is the longest story of the three, and it is just lovely. A little dark at times, though.

I would recommend this book to any mature reader because there are some dark issues in it. Definitely an amazing book.

Rating: 4/5

Once again...

Swords are for fighting,

In My Mailbox

In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren. It is a weekly event where I share all the really cool things I received in my mailbox!



Won-


Oxygen by Carol Cassella from @SimonSchusterAU


Essence of Twilight giftpack from Eve's Fan Garden



Bought-

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks

And that's all for this week! Can't wait to start reading my new books!

Swords are for fighting,

Review: Intertwined by Gena Showalter

Summary from Gena Showalter's website:

"There’s something about the new guy at Crossroads High…

Most
sixteen-year-olds have friends. Aden Stone has four human souls living inside
him:
One can time-travel.
One can raise the dead.
One can tell the
future.
And one can possess another human.

With no other family and
a life spent in and out of institutions, Aden and the souls have become friends.
But now, they’re causing him all kinds of trouble.

Like, he’ll blink and
suddenly he’s a younger Aden, reliving the past. One wrong move, and he’ll
change the future. Or, he’ll walk past a total stranger and know how and when
she’s going to die.

He’s so over it. All he wants is peace.

And
then he meets a girl who quiets the voices. Well, for as long as he’s with her.
Why? Mary Ann Gray is his total opposite. He’s a loner; she has friends. He
doesn’t care what anyone thinks; she tries to make everyone happy. And while he
attracts the paranormal, she repels it. For her sake, he should stay away. But
it’s too late. . .

Somehow, they share an inexplicable bond of
friendship. A bond about to be tested by a werewolf shape-shifter who wants Mary
Ann for his own and a vampire princess Aden can’t resist. Two romances, both
forbidden. . . doomed. Still, the four will enter a dark underworld of intrigue
and danger. . . but not everyone will come out alive. . ."

Intertwined starts off with a bang! Gena Showalter does not waste any time by immersing her reader in an action packed first chapter. The book begins with Aden accidentally walking onto a graveyard, causing the dead to awaken (with the help of one of the spirits in his head, of course). The beginning was a little confusing at first because of all the spirits talking in his head, but once you know who is who, it is easy to understand. Each spirit has a very distinct way of speaking as they are all extremely different.

I thought this book was overall great! I found myself being sucked into the story, and I could not put it down. Definitely a quick read. I loved the supernatural world that Gena created with werewolves, vampires, zombies, witches, ghosts, fairies, goblins and who knows what else! Don't let that make you think this is just a vampire book because it is definitely not. One of the best aspects of this book was that it was filled with tons of surprises that keeps you guessing.


The only part I did not like were the last three chapters. It seems to me that the story could have ended at Chapter 22 with Chapter's 23, 24, and 25 being a part of the next book in the series. However, as I am typing this, I realize that those last three chapters were necessary to set the story up for the next book in the series. Other than that, Intertwined is a well-written novel that I definitely recommend reading.

Rating: 4/5

Well, that's all for now.

Swords are for Fighting,

Hey Everyone!

I decided to start a blog today, so we'll see how it goes...

I'm not sure what this blog will be about yet. Probably will be made up of some book reviews along with posts about movies or shows I've watched recently. Hopefully, as things progress it will be easier to write these posts because I can't think of anything else to say, at the moment.

Anyways...

Swords are for fighting,