Heartbreak: Book Reviews

It's been over a year since I've written a book review so I have decided to gift you all with two!

Really, these are just two books that I think I need to sit down and write about because maybe then I can finally wrap my mind around them and heal a little. I apologize for any weirdness that comes out while I'm writing, I'm running off of gallons of coffee and 2 hours of sleep.

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

In the last book review I gave a very brief summary on my feelings towards Clare's Shadowhunter series, and it still holds true. I love her books, every single one of them. She does an amazing job with character and plot development and her writing is impeccable. The Shadowhunters are a group of nephilim who protect mankind from Downworlders (demons, vampires, etc.) but let me stress, this isn't a vampire/warewolves series. It features said "beings" but not in the typical sense- a change I very much enjoyed. For a summary of the latest book (without major spoilers) go here. 

This book broke my heart, and in a mostly-good way. This little trilogy features a love triangle and sigh  I really love me a good love triangle. This one is by far the best love triangles I have ever encountered because I loved all three characters. I did not care which one Tess (heroine) chose and I was happy for her choice, even though my heart broke for the man she didn't choose. 

But here's the thing and if you're planning on reading this series, you might want to stop reading now:

She chose (in the previous book) Jem who is slowly dying because of a drug addiction (that totally wasn't his fault) and who I picture looking like this:

Yummy, right? This is Top and I love him.

So I went into this book certain that Jem was going to die and- I kid you not- I cried every time he did something sweet. Which is all the freaking time! And then he died and my soul broke. Will, the other man, was Jem's best friend and both he and Tess were not present for Jem's death. Will, who is connected to Jem on a spiritual level (it's a ritual thing) felt it when Jem passed and my soul broke more. When Will informed Tess of Jem's passing and she cried for the second time in the series (which is pretty darn rare for a YA) I died. Then it turned out that Jem wasn't dead, just changed, which you would think would be a happy thing. It wasn't. Not really. All the characters, and myself, had to mourn the Jem he used to be and it kind of sucked. Tess ends up agreeing to marry Will (happily, I might add) with Jem's blessing, but she's immortal and outlives him. 

This is probably the worse summary ever, and I'm only talking about the love triangle. I love every character in this book and I loathe the villains to the point of love (that totally makes sense). 

Tess' story (from beginning to end) is rather tragic and messy, but it is so worth it for all of the happy moments. I feel like I know her and all the people in her life intimately and I weep for all of them. Only one other author was able to move me to such a degree and I am certain that this is a story I will never never fully heal from. And it was so worth it. 

 I can't seem to recall who actually said this

now onto the other review:

Lover at Last by J.R. Ward

Let me begin by saying that I have not finished this book- I am only a third of the way through and I believe that this is as far as I am going to go. This is book 11 in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series and yes, this one is all about vampires. It is also considered erotica (though I wouldn't classify it as that, but it is a bit racier than your standard romance.) This book as been four books in the making and is a boy-on-boy novel and I have been anxiously awaiting it's arrival. But I am incredibly frustrated by it. My biggest complaint for this series is the villains. The main baddy is called The Omega. Yeah. That's it. The Omega is a black blob of gooeyness who corrupts people by putting his goo in them and turing them into vampires that smell like baby powder. It makes me miss the days when vampires sparkled. The Omega has a right hand man (who changes because they keep dying) and Ward seems to enjoy spending a ridiculous amount of time on them- what they're doing, what they're feeling (or not in the case of erections) and she has pretty much taken the surprise out of their actions. I don't care about them and I don't want to read about them. Alongside the lessers (baby smelling vampires) are The Bastards- another group of warrior vampires who kill the lessers and loathe the Black Daggers. I like one of them, but could really care less about them as a whole.

So, the problem with this book? It was meant to be a novella. I think she intended to be a shorter story (even with all the build up) because she wasn't quite comfortable with writing a m/m story and/or was sure her audience would like it. I happen to really enjoy m/m novels so I was thrilled to learn that she had decided to turn the novella into a full-lenght novel and a ~600 page one at that. But she didn't turn a Qhuinn/Blay novella into a novel. She took a Qhuinn/Blay novella and inserted stupid side stories about the goddamned villains, turning it into a 600 page collection of short stories. Not really, but that's what it feels like. And I have hated every moment of it. I wish she would have just published the novella. So I quit. I rarely give up on a book, but I just cannot proceed. I prefer to have the happy, functional, and super kinky Qhuinn/Blay love story that exists in my head rather than have their creator ruin it. Also- her name spelling is just plain fucked up. I'm sorry, but get over your god-forsaken obbsession with adding the letter "h" into every freakin' word! Just give them normal names! Fhury, Zhadist, Tohrment, and Qhuinn just makes you look stupid.

I am so disappointed right now.

So there you have it. My past three days in a nutshell.

On an unrelated note, I start my new job on Monday.