Genre: Action


Thursday, January 31, 2019

Old School YA PNR Vibes: Slayer by Kiersten White

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I received this book for free from Simon Pulse in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Old School YA PNR Vibes: Slayer by Kiersten WhiteSlayer by Kiersten White
Series: Slayer #1
Published by Simon Pulse on January 8th, 2019
Genres: Action, Paranormal, YA
Source: Simon Pulse
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three-half-stars

Into every generation a Slayer is born…

Nina and her twin sister, Artemis, are far from normal. It’s hard to be when you grow up at the Watcher’s Academy, which is a bit different from your average boarding school. Here teens are trained as guides for Slayers—girls gifted with supernatural strength to fight the forces of darkness. But while Nina’s mother is a prominent member of the Watcher’s Council, Nina has never embraced the violent Watcher lifestyle. Instead she follows her instincts to heal, carving out a place for herself as the school medic.

Until the day Nina’s life changes forever.

Thanks to Buffy, the famous (and infamous) Slayer that Nina’s father died protecting, Nina is not only the newest Chosen One—she’s the last Slayer, ever. Period.

As Nina hones her skills with her Watcher-in-training, Leo, there’s plenty to keep her occupied: a monster fighting ring, a demon who eats happiness, a shadowy figure that keeps popping up in Nina’s dreams…

But it’s not until bodies start turning up that Nina’s new powers will truly be tested—because someone she loves might be next.

One thing is clear: Being Chosen is easy. Making choices is hard.

While I’d heard a couple of things about Slayer, they were mostly about Buffy and how the book was set in the same world as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I’ve seen less than half an episode of the show so I immediately checked out and assumed it would not appeal to me as someone who does not care about the show. Then I read the synopsis. I got old-school YA feels from the blurb and I’ve been craving old school YA for ages so I was immediately drawn in.

I think the best way to sum up my feelings about Slayer is that the first half was a solid 3 stars and the second half was a solid 4 stars. The first half is sort of slow and takes a while to get into. Slow isn’t necessarily bad because it allows for world building to happen, characters to be developed and relationships to blossom, but also, it was v. slow and it took me a long time to get through it. The second half on the other hand is when action happens and shit hits the fans. IT WAS GREAT.

Nina has always been seen as the ‘lesser’ twin so when it turns out she is a slayer, her life is basically completely turned around. She is now stronger and faster than she has ever been, but also she is now a slayer, the very thing she has come to strongly dislike. It honestly took me a while to warm up to Nina because she is so vanilla but, White clearly has a talent for good characters and Nina won me over in the end.

I think it helps that Nina and her sister, Artemis, so often act as foils to each other but in many ways are often the same. Both don’t like the roles they have been placed in and also don’t enjoy the switching that happens with Nina turns out to be a slayer. Their sisterly bond is incredibly complex and in many ways, defines both of them. They suck at communicating but they also love each other dearly and would fight bitterly for each other if it came to it. Nina and Artemis are both flawed, and occasionally annoying, but in the end, they are both relatable as they figure out their place in an ever changing world.

There is a lot more going on in this book besides just sisterly bonds. LIKE PROPHECIES and SCARY DEMONS and old crushes coming back that the MC was publicly humiliated in front of. ALL THE GOOD STUFF. Slayer isn’t as heavy on the action but I think where it lacks in action it makes up for in the quality of the characters and their arcs. Also the humour. It’s so subtle and yet so funny, I just cannot.

So, are you looking into getting into a new YA PNR series? That makes your heart race and makes your shippy feels tingle? If so, read Slayer. My only regret is that I now have to wait an entire year before getting to read book 2.

three-half-stars

3.5 Hot Espressos

Chef Heroes & Road Trips: Three Little Words by Jenny Holiday

Posted by on 01/18/2019 • 1 Comment

Trigger Warning for eating disorders, drug abuse in the past

I had not read a single book by Jenny Holiday in the past (including the two other books that precede Three Little Words) but when I saw Nick shouting about it, I AM INTRIGUED. Chef heroes own my soul. Nick, who has known me long enough to know I am super picky with contemporary romances, said I would at the very least like Three Little Words SO of course I had to read it because CHEF HEROES.  So, I went in expecting to like it since Nick said I would but I ended up completely engrossed in the lives of these characters and finding a new author to binge. Three Little Words takes you on quite the journey – quite literally because…

Not What I Wanted: #PrettyBoy Must Die by Kimberley Reid

Posted by on 02/21/2018 • 3 Comments

I wanted to love #PrettyBoy Must Die and I did NOT. It’s not even entirely easy to pin point where it went wrong and why I am not here salivating over its goodness? It’s got a teen CIA agent who is undercover, a mystery and some twists. My issue was that even though so many exciting things were happening in the story. I was not invested in the happenings. I did not care about the main character or the secondary characters and I didn’t really care about what was going on.

I didn’t passionately dislike or like the book so I basically have no idea how to rate it. Objectively, its not a terrible book but I do think that the writing might be part of the reason why I…

Superhero Beginnings: Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo

Posted by on 09/14/2017 • 4 Comments

I want this review to start on an honest note and I would like to admit that I haven’t read any of the Wonder Woman comics or watched the movie that recently came out (for reasons I am not going to dive into for the purposes of this review.) However, I’ve always been fascinated by her and when I found out that Leigh Bardugo was the one writing the Wonder Woman origin story for the D.C. Icons series, I knew it was TIME.

The reason I even bother mentioning all of that is because I know that I won’t be able to speak to whether or not Leigh Bardugo did Wonder Woman justice (although, I am sure she did.) However, I ~can~ speak to this as an origin story and…

An Exhilarating Journey: Warcross by Marie Lu

Posted by on 09/07/2017 • 1 Comment

*exhales loudly*

Listen, this book is going to change everything. Are you a non-gamer and kinda wondering if this will really be your thing? The answer is YES. To be fair, I do play occasionally play multi-player Nintendo games with friends but, I am not a gamer and usually don’t have a long enough attention span to actually play anything on my own aside from Mario Kart. Warcross is amazing and has the ability to appeal to almost everyone (so it might not appeal to people who live under rocks and don’t know what books are *shrugs*)

The hype behind this book is INTENSE and honestly, that kind of hype is usually terrfiying to me and might even be terrifying to you but I read Legend by Marie Lu 6 years ago…

#PlayWarcross: My Dream Warcross Team

Posted by on 09/04/2017 • 0 Comments

Hello, hello friends. I’ve been sitting on this post for a while because life is hard but also because coming up with the perfect Warcross team is also hard. There are so many good characters to choose from for the individual roles but I really wanted to get together a team that would complement each other in terms of their personalities and help each other make up for their faults. SO. I PRESENT TO YOU:

THE RED HOT LONES

Team Captain: The captain has the most difficult task of leading a group of rag-tags so finding the person fit for the job requires a lot of thought and care. While there are many great people out there capable of being a leader, I went with Yelena from Poison Study because even…

Playlist for The Dark Days Pact by Alison Goodman + Giveaway

Posted by on 02/02/2017 • 6 Comments

Hello and welcome to Xpresso Reads’ tour stop for The Dark Days Pact by Alison Goodman AKA the book I created my goodreads OTP OF PAIN shelf for. I thoroughly enjoyed The Dark Days Club last year but fell head over heels for The Dark Days Pact. In this book, Goodman really upped the stakes and basically put me through hell :’) It was great. Basically, you need this series on your TBR and to help you do that, I put together a playlist that ~I~ think describes the book/series.

THE PLAYLIST

Feat angsty music + some songs that might not be the best fit BUT SINCE I AM MAKING THE PLAYLIST, you’re stuck with them 😉 Also making playlists is H.A.R.D. If you click on the little thing on…

A Badass Sequel: The Cursed Queen by Sarah Fine

Posted by on 12/18/2016 • 3 Comments

OKAY SO JUST READ THE IMPOSTER QUEEN and THE CURSED QUEEN and EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY. I dove in expecting to love The Cursed Queen and while I did struggle some with it, it packs just as much of a punch as The Imposter Queen. Both books have their strengths and weaknesses. The weaknesses of TIQ are the strengths of TCQ and vise versa in my opinion.

While both Elli and Ansa are strong heroines, they are also very different from each other and I enjoyed that. Ansa is not as easily likable as Elli was and that was one of the reasons why it took me longer to get into the novel but her journey and her character development is worth it. Even though Ansa is not as…