LulzCat Reviews

The Goddess Test

6:00 pm 22 June 2015

There are TONS of bad reviews on this book and I figured it would be a DNF for me. I ended up enjoying it well enough to keep going. Did I love it? No, but it was a pretty decent read. It was a good book to kill some time with. The pacing was good and kept me interested. I even liked the characters.

If you have a special interest in Greek mythology then you probably would be annoyed with The Goddess Test. The characters that play the Greek gods are unbelievable. I just pretended that it had nothing to do with them. Those guys were nothing like I'd expect Greek gods to be.

That's about all I have to say, I didn't feel strongly about this book either way. This is the first book in the series, and in my opinion it can be read as a standalone.

Halo

6:00 pm 8 May 2015

I wish I could've written a review of this when it was fresh on my mind. It was a fantastic dystopian read and I wish I could remember all of the details.

The story starts out with a female warrior (Kit) fighting and eventually killing her best friend in the ring. Picture a Roman Colosseum with Gladiators, but in the future type setting. The warriors all wore collars around their necks to "regulate" their emotions. Right before killing her best friend, Kits collar is broken and she experiences a rush of strange emotions. She goes on to hide this fact from everyone around her and things get incredibly crazy. Not to mention, while all of this is happening our characters are living in the midst of an insanely psychotic and corrupt government. BTW, I love reading about insane governments, it's kind of "my thing".

"Just know, Kit. After seventeen years, I'm finally awake. And I'm going to find a way to wake you up, too."

After the Kit losing her collar (halo) fiasco, she escapes the city and makes a run for it. Outside the city, she meets Ryka. Things get even more interesting after she follows him back to meet a large isolated community of people living in the woods.

Halo really impressed me, and it was exactly the type of dystopia I was looking for. It was exciting, mysterious and had a great cast of characters. I definitely want to read more of this series.

The Kiss of Deception

6:00 pm 4 April 2015

I'm one of those people that can't write a decent review unless the story is fresh on my mind. I read this book a few months ago and I'm so bad at remembering that I couldn't even remember the name of the book.

Luckily a friend on here left a review for another book in this series and I remembered.

So all I can say is this.....Yes, there was a love triangle but this book was a really good read. You're probably thinking it couldn't have been that great because I couldn't remember the name, but yes it was. I've thought about this story for months and nearly drove myself crazy. This book is about a prince, a princess and an assassin....and it's freaking great. Check it out if you like that kind of thing. =)

Plants vs Zombies: Timepocalypse

6:00 pm 29 March 2015

Read this to my 5 year old and he LOVED it. I was so excited to find out that there were PVZ comics! In our house PVZ is king, so this comic was right on time. Crazy Dave was absolutely hilarious. In this comic, Zomboss was trying to take over the world, so Crazy Dave and his group had to travel back in time to set everything straight. It was funny because they didn't know the plants names, so instead of calling Sunflower, "Sunflower", they called her Fred.

It was a really cute comic and the drawings were great. I'm sure we will read every issue that's released. I was surprised that my son had the attention span to stick with this comic because it was somewhat long.

So freaking cute....

Untitled

6:00 pm 14 March 2015

I'm really bad at writing reviews if I don't write them as soon as I finish a book. This will be a crappy review, you have been warned.

MAJOR BOOK HANGOVER! It's been nearly two weeks since I finished this and I'm still in book hangover mode. I keep starting and stopping new books, I'm just a big mess. I wish I had waited for the trilogy to be completed, and I will regret it until the author puts out the third and final book.

There's not much that I can say about this one without spoiling those of you that haven't read The Winners Curse. Just know that there was a TON of angst, but the book was still amazing. Well....it was frustrating and amazing at the same time. There was a lot of political madness in this story and the ending was a jaw dropper. I'm still in disbelief about that ending.

The relationship between the two MCs was one of the most frustrating things I have ever read. So much confusion that could have been solved easily had they just talked it out. Proceed with caution if you hate that type of thing because this series is full of misunderstandings. I usually hate it when books do that but it worked for me in this case.

The Winner's Curse

6:00 pm 11 March 2015

Three good books in a row? This must be my lucky month! Well this book was better than good, I thought it was fantastic! I wasn't so sure what to think about it in the beginning, but it was unputdownable (yes that actually is a word) once the story got going.

This story is centered around too groups of people: The Valorians and the Herrani.

The Valorians have enslaved the Herrani people. The story begins with our MC Kestral buying a Herrani slave (Arin) on a whim. A forbidden friendship eventually builds between these two people and chaos ensues. I won't tell you anymore because I want it to be a surprise for you like it was for me. I will say this though...this story is actually about so much more than just Kestral buying a slave. I wasn't expecting such an engaging plot with so many twists and turns. I'd have read this book much sooner had I known.

Kestral and Arin have definitely made my list of favorite characters. They are both so smart and incredibly cunning. I love strong heroic type characters and they were both very strong and heroic. The author was incredibly skilled at character building because I felt like I knew them both very well by the end of the book.

Goodreads has categorized this book under a few genres, which include fantasy and science fiction/dystopia. I'm pretty sure this book is none of those things. It read more like a historical fiction to me. I felt like the world in this book was once real. The world building was good, but I found myself wanting to know more about the inner workings of society. Maybe we will learn more in the next book (which I'm going to read as soon as I publish this review).

Overall I loved The Winners Curse. This book has earned a place on my "favorite books ever" shelf.

If you want to read a really good detailed review of this book, go check out V!ckys review here.

Daughter of the Forest (The Sevenwaters Trilogy, #1)

6:00 pm 6 March 2015

I have three words to describe this book....beautiful, heartbreaking and enchanting! Okay maybe four words if you count and...

This book is something special and it has made its way to my "favorite books ever" shelf! If this is a book you're interested in then stop right now and read it. It's that good. Juliet Marillier is an amazing writer and this will be a book that I will never forget. She creates amazing imagery through her writing and you'll find yourself swept off to another land in no time.

Sorcha and her six brothers live with their father Lord Colum of Sevenwaters. They had lost their mother as young children, but otherwise lived a happy life. Then one day this jerk wad of a woman (Lady Oonagh) decides to marry their father. The father suddenly seems to be placed under a spell that nobody can break.

"There was something deeply unsettling about Diamid's fawning admiration, and my fathers readiness to be overruled by his lady. And by the way the servants were scurrying about nervously, as if afraid of taking a wrong step."

"But if felt bad, not as if she just wanted to get to know us, but - I shivered. I don't know. As if she would store the information and use it somehow. Use it against us."

The family is torn to shreds after the wedding. Lady Oonagh placed a spell on more than just Lord Colum and it's up to Sorcha to make it all right again. We are taken on a heartbreaking but beautiful adventure, while Sorcha does everything in her power to make her family whole again.

This is not an easy read. It's kind of a heavy read and be prepared to want to punch (or worse) some of the characters. Even though things get difficult and hard to read, this is a very rewarding story. There were at least two times that I just wanted to give up because there was so much despair. You'll be so happy once you finish this book, so don't give up if you feel like I did during those chapters. It did take me a bit to get completely absorbed into the story, but once I was, there was no going back.

My favorite characters in no particular order were: Sorcha (of course), Finbar, Simon and Red. I'm moving on to the next book because I must know more about this world and these characters. I can't stress this enough...If you like this genre then read the book!

"You cannot do this. It is wrong, all wrong. How can you even think - oh, for words to tell him properly. The threads of this story were tangling, knotting, falling into chaos. It was one thing to break the pattern, another to tear it boldly apart."

Oh and I must warn you that there's a small bit about rape in this book. It didn't overly bother me personally (I didn't like it of course), but it may bother you, so beware.

Also, I've been on the search for a mind-blowing book. I've been grabbing random books and hoping for the best. I started this before the hunt but I'd definitely consider Daughter of the Forest as being a winner.

The Woodlands

6:00 pm 4 March 2015

I varied between 3 and 4 stars until the last half of the book.

The Woodlands was the second random book that I picked up in my search for a mind-blowing book. I don't care about the genre, I just want a mind-blowing book. Anyway, while this book was very good, it certainly wasn't mind-blowing. This was an above average read for the dystopian genre and I really enjoyed the story. I ended up really liking the characters and I'm 100% sure that I will continue this series. I think there are already 4 books written. Those books actually have a higher rating than this one.

I can't really give a good description of this book without giving up spoilers. I will say this though....it's starts out very dystopian and ends up becoming more of a survival story. I enjoyed both aspects of it. The last half of the book was my favorite though, due to the survival parts. There's also some romance, but no love triangles.

Somewhere somehow...this book got compared to The Hunger Games.

I've read a lot of reviews about people being angry that this book is nothing like The Hunger Games. I'm not sure where that comparison came from but no, this book is nothing like that. It's something else entirely on it's own.

The main character is a bit of a pain at times. She's an angry girl that has a bad outlook on life. I'd probably have a bad attitude as well if I had lived the life she lived. The society that these people live in is brutal. Her character does grow a lot, so don't give up on her to soon. I'm assuming this is why people like the later books better. I'd strongly advise against reading this if you loathe those types of characters.

Overall, it was a great little dystopia and right now it's free on Kindle (or has been for awhile). It didn't read like a free book at all. I'm glad I finally gave this book a chance. I'm actually really excited to get into the next book.

Sword of Darkness

6:00 pm 1 March 2015

I've been on a quest to find a mind-blowing book, so I've been picking up random books to read (which apparently is NOT the way to go about this). Needless to say, Sword of Darkness was not a mind-blowing book, for me at least. I knew I wouldn't like it by 20%, because I already had the plot completely figured out. So I skimmed the rest, so that I could put this book to the side and continue on with my hunt.

This is one of those books with a plot that exists only for the sole purpose of romance. I just can't with those books. I can tell when an author writes a plot like that, it just feels inauthentic to me. This book was based on the King Arthur tales, but instead it focused on the good girl/bad guy trope.

This trope works very well in the Fever series, but not here.

I have read one other book by this author that I really enjoyed. She went by the name of [a:Sherrilyn Kenyon|4430|Sherrilyn Kenyon|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1382066830p2/4430.jpg] then, and I thought this book would be a no-brainer. Wrong.

If you like romance over plot, then I think you'd probably enjoy this book. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just not for me.

Crimson Bound

6:00 pm 27 February 2015

I have heard many times that this is a retelling of Red Riding Hood. I just didn't see it....at all. This story was unique to me in so many ways and I never once thought it was a retelling. Crimson Bound felt really dark to me. I'd compare the darkness of this story to something like [b:Shadow and Bone|10194157|Shadow and Bone (The Grisha, #1)|Leigh Bardugo|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1339533695s/10194157.jpg|15093325]. I'm not saying this book is like Shadow and Bone, just the darkness aspect of it. I thought the writing was exceptional because everything felt so realistic to me. I felt like I was right there with the characters experiencing this strange dark world. I will definitely read more from this author.

"The Forest was just like her dreams. The dark, tangled growth of trees, branches, and roots woven together. The cold air, pulsing with half-hearted laughter, that tasted of blood and smoke. The glint of a bonfire in the distance."

How it Starts
The story starts out with our MC Rachelle wandering out into the Forest. The Forest is a dangerous place because there's all kinds of evil lurking about. She sees a man standing near her and immediately knows that he is a forestborn (I won't explain this because I don't want to give too much away). Rachelle is curious about him and begins asking questions. Then......

A forestborn marked her and left her with a choice: die in three days, or kill somebody and live as a bloodbound, heir to the power of the Forest.

I pictured the man in the forest as the guy from Assassin's Creed.

The MC in this book is what I'd classify as a "strong heroine". I think that's why I enjoyed Crimson Bound so much. I really enjoyed all of the characters in this book. This dark fantasy (well I'd probably call it "fantasy lite") was full of mystery and I liked that a lot as well. The book had a slow buildup, but it was amazing once everything unfolded. There were a few slow parts but I never found myself bored.

If you're a fan of this genre then I'd recommend giving this book a try. There was a little romance (no insta-love), but it was never overwhelming. Also, the MC was one of those "self loathing" characters, but it really worked in this case.

The Selection

6:00 pm 21 February 2015

Here's another book that I just knew I'd hate but ended up loving. America Singer is the name of the MC...that name nearly drove me crazy. I kind of "get" her name now that I've finished the book. At the beginning of the book, I kept having mental images of a map each time I read her name. I can't help that my brain associates "America" with a map of America. Surely I'm not the only one...right?

I guess I should have known that I'd love this book. A dystopia plus "The Bachelor....yes! I love reality television and this book is very similar.

In this story society is separated by different castes, depending upon how they are born. Our MC (the map) was born in a lower caste, so her family was poor. To keep the public morality up, people born in royalty are married off to someone of a lower caste. They do this by having a "selection". It's basically like the show, "The Bachelor". So, in this book the prince is having a selection to find the person he will marry. Our MC is chosen as one of the many girls in "The Selection". The thing is...she's kind of pissed and doesn't want to be there. She's just there for the money to help feed her family (because they get a sort of stipend just for being there). This makes for some very interesting circumstances.

I ended up being completely absorbed by The Selection. I read it in one sitting. It's been a while since I've liked a book that much. America and Maxon were really great characters and the entire story moved along at a perfect pace. The plot and subplots were engaging and I felt like I was a part of this world that the author built. I'd love a little more world building and less drama amongst the other selection girls though.

One thing to note: Don't read this book expecting a resolution. I think this is one of those series that you have to view the trilogy as one big book. If I had read this before the trilogy was finished I'd be pretty upset.

Edited to add: Well it looks like I'm going to be upset because I just found out that there's a fourth book on the way. No, there's no way that I can hang in there for another book. The second book already has me bored to tears....nope just nope. I still love this one though!

Burned (Fever #7)

6:00 pm 21 February 2015

Another awesome buddy read with Jonnie!

I honestly cannot believe that I'm giving this 4 stars. I truly thought I'd hate it.....

I expected Burned would be a mediocre read at best. I speed read when I'm not really into a book…a lot. I was quite shocked upon realization that I'd made it to the end of the book without speed reading. I found myself immersed into the story, and I even felt like there was a resemblance to the old Fever books here. I think KMM might be getting back on track. Slowly but surely, we may just get back to the old Fever. I'm not saying this was as good as the old books, but it was a lot closer than Iced was. The end of Burned really reminded me of some of the older books.

"Oh, yeah, Mac is really behind me, bizarre entourage in tow".

I didn't like the fact that Dani was missing in a lot of this book. I really liked Jada but she certainly wasn't the Dani that I had grown to love!I had grown an attachment to her and was kind of pissed off when Mac came around. After all of my crying that I wanted Mac and Barrons back, I can't believe I'd found myself wanting them to leave. Mac was SO WHINY. I wanted to slap the sense back into her! She did a lot of things outside of her character and didn't even seem like the same person at times. I kind of hated her until she became invisible. I loved how Mac started snooping around after that. That was probably one of my favorite parts of this book. I found out all kinds of interesting info, it was awesome! The stuff about Ryodan was the best.

"Then I have a worse thought: Criminy, have all roaches since time immemorial been spies? Or only certain ones, and that's why every now and then you find one in your bathtub that just won't die no matter how much hair spray you coat it with or how hard you try to squish it?"

I thought the end of this book was amazing. That thing with the Crimson Hag! Yes! Oh and that cliffhanger! That was very interesting…..I can't wait for the next book.

"I'll be a straightjacketed bookworm burrowed into the binding of an insane, homicidal book, staring helplessly out from the pages of my own life, as they're writ by someone else, and I'd commit atrocities that would damn a saint's soul."

Stitching Snow

6:00 pm 14 February 2015

I was so surprised by this book! What a cute little story! I picked this up because I had overheard rumors that it was a, "Cinder ripoff", which it was not. I had been looking for a similar books to Cinder for quite awhile and this seemed to fit the bill. This book had the misplaced princess and lots of droids, but that's about as far as I can compare it to Cinder. The droids had cute little personalities but they were nowhere near as human as the ones in Cinder.

This is how I imagine the droids in Stitching Snow...

And the droids in Cinder...

Plot Summary
After running away from home as a child, Essie (our MC), was a refugee and living on a mining planet called Thanda. Essie participated in fights with men (like a boss) in her spare time to make extra money. Her main job was programming (or stitching as they call it), where she programmed droids to work in the mines. She had a happy and somewhat peaceful life there until there was a crash one day. A young man by the name of Dane crashed his ship on their planet. This is the part where Essie's life gets out of control and we learn a lot of new things about her. We learn some very interesting things....

You know what's crazy about this book? It's a standalone! Yes a standalone! When I was finished I thought there'd be another book. Everything wrapped up neatly at the end, but there could be more books written easily. I say bravo to the author for not dragging things out.

I really enjoyed this book. I hate to keep making Cinder comparisons, but you'd probably enjoy this book if you liked Cinder. I can't say that it was as good as The Lunar Chronicles, but still a great read nonetheless.

Heir to the Empire

6:00 pm 13 February 2015

Buddy read with my fellow Star Wars fanatics over at Fantasy Buddy Reads.

You guys have no idea how excited I was to read about my favorite Star Wars characters. I hyped myself up for two weeks in preparation for reading this book.

So......it's absolutely crazy that I'm only able to give this three stars. I'm going to try my best to explain this unfortunate three star rating.

What I Liked
Obviously the characters. The new characters that I really enjoyed were Thrawn and Mara. I actually liked Mara's parts in the book over most of the others. She was very mysterious and I love mystery. Artoo and Threepio had their predictable cute banter that made me laugh a few times. Did anyone else find it weird that Threepio and Artoo weren't spelled as C3PO and R2D2?

Those guys are so cute. I think I could read an entire book just about those two.

What I Disliked
I felt like everything was a bit flat. I wasn't immersed in the story like I would have liked. I've never read fan fiction before (I'm assuming that's what this is called) and this may be a normal thing. I wanted to get inside of the characters minds more. Characters always fall flat for me when there's not much character building going on. Even though I know these characters very well, I still need more to stay interested. This may be a thing with fan fiction and for that reason it may not be for me. I really needed a bit more action as well.

Another thing I noticed is that some of the characters seemed a bit off. The best example of this is Luke. Luke didn't even seem like the same person to me. He gave off major wuss vibes. He seemed a bit whiny and made some very dumb decisions.

I think I'll give a different Star Wars author a try. I'm going to start one of the series that has all new characters so that I don't have any expectations. There's a ton of books out there, so surely there's something that I'm bound to love.

Iced (Fever, #6; Dani O'Malley, #1)

6:00 pm 8 February 2015

Buddy Read with the fabulous Jonnie!

Iced was not the same gripping story found in books 1-5, but was overall enjoyable. This book surprised me because I was convinced that I would hate it. Dani was nothing like I had imagined from her appearances in other books. I ended up loving her character. She was a feisty little chick that didn't take crap from nobody. Dani gave zero "fecks". I loved how she called the sidhe-seers sidhe-sheep.

"Half the time I'm spying, it's all I can do not to jump down there, waggle my ass and say Baaaa, see if any of them catch my drift.

Sometimes I find myself wanting to do the same thing in public places. Three lanes open at the bank, but everyone lines up in one lane...baaaa. Five checkout lanes open at the store, but everyone lines up in one lane...baaaa. I could go on for days.

"I sleep with my sword in my hand. I shower with it. I never let anyone else touch it. I love my sword. It's my best friend.

Diamonds are a girls best friend? No, weapons are a girls best friend, especially in a fae filled world.

The plot in Iced was pretty decent and I found the iced mystery interesting. Was it as interesting as the plot found in earlier books? No. I don't think I'll ever find any UF books that measure up to the earlier books in this series. What made me like this the most was the characters. KMM is very good with characterization. I don't think I'd have liked this book as much if it weren't for that. The new monsters were awesome. The Crimson Hag...yes!

There is this one thing that drove me a little nuts. The use of the word.....

The word slay was used way too much, stop this madness KMM!

Here is the rare case that I need a half star because this book falls right between 3 and 4 stars.

The Heretic

6:00 pm 1 February 2015

I ended up really enjoying The Heretic. This story was interesting and extremely thought provoking. This is how the story began:

Jordi and his family live in a village out in the middle of nowhere. Night falls and Jordi hears the sound of a dog barking. While investigating the sound, Jordi sees a group of armed men walking through the village. Jordi immediately wakes his family and they begin to flee their house.

"Freedom exists, he had told them, and there will come a time when you must all fight for it. No one will give it to you.

The author didn't waste any time here. The beginning of the book was chaotic (in a good way). The setting was a mix of post apocalyptic and science fiction.

The Heretic had a very strong beginning. I was honestly pulled in from the very first page. The author made me care about the characters during the beginning of the story, even though I didn't know much about them. I was very impressed with how the beginning reeled me in.

The book starts off strong, and then slows down a good bit. There's not a lot happening during this time, but this is when we learn more about the plot and characters. We are also introduced to a new character and a really awesome spaceship. Yay for spaceships!

The main characters live in a state of repression. The citizens are teetering on the edge of a revolt due to a corrupt government. There is absolutely no freedom on this planet.

A little side note: A corrupt government is one of my most favorite things to read about. I am obviously the target market here. =)

"What you believe in, you are told, is not your choice to make. The moment you refuse the First Concession-the moment you choose to believe in something greater than the Magistratus and its New Republic-you will be hunted forever. You must be ready to take your freedom."

There wasn't as much world building as I would have liked. Mr. Bale please give us more of this evil government! The world is so very intriguing and I need more.

"By conceding our freedom in return for protection, each citizen of the Republic permits that control."

"Citizens in the Core do not question that control, because they have everything they need to live their pampered lives; everything except the freedom to believe in something more than the Republic."

The last quote is my favorite because it is so true. Julius Caesar once said to prevent a revolt all you need is bread and circuses. Keep their bellies full and their minds entertained. Why would they bite the hand that feeds them? Most wouldn't, even knowing that it may lead to eventual doom.

This is a short book, at only 192 pages (on Kindle). I found myself wanting more once I made it to the end. I'm hoping this is just an introduction, with many more books that follow. I was a bit shocked to learn that Mr. Bale is a self-published author and The Heretic is his very first book. I thought the book was written and edited very well. I can see how this reminded some readers of Star Wars (which I LOVE). One of the MCs reminded me of Han Solo. Oh, and this book was filled with so many amazing quotes.

I got this book on Kindle Unlimited.