Torment

"Torment" (Fallen #2)
by Lauren Kate
Hardcover: 452 pages
Published: Random House Children's Books (September 28, 2010)


Book Description:
Hell on earth.

That’s what it’s like for Luce to be apart from her fallen angel boyfriend, Daniel.
It took them an eternity to find one another, but now he has told her he must go away. Just long enough to hunt down the Outcasts—immortals who want to kill Luce. Daniel hides Luce at Shoreline, a school on the rocky California coast with unusually gifted students: Nephilim, the offspring of fallen angels and humans.

At Shoreline, Luce learns what the Shadows are, and how she can use them as windows to her previous lives. Yet the more Luce learns, the more she suspects that Daniel hasn’t told her everything. He’s hiding something—something dangerous.
What if Daniel’s version of the past isn’t actually true? What if Luce is really meant to be with someone else?

The second novel in the addictive FALLEN series . . . where love never dies.

This is a pretty good series so far.  I'm hooked, and can't wait to read the third book in the series called Passion.  I'm currently waiting for it at my library. 

This book is set in a new location (new school) and has some new interesting characters.  There's more angels and demons and part-angels in this book.  We are closer to discovering more about Luce and her background.  She is less afraid, and has discovered a new talent.  A really good book.

Vanish

"Vanish" by Sophie Jordan
Hardcover: 294 pages
Published: HarperTeen (September 6, 2011)

Book description:
To save the life of the boy she loves, Jacinda did the unthinkable: She betrayed the most closely-guarded secret of her kind. Now she must return to the protection of her pride knowing she might never see Will again—and worse, that because his mind has been shaded, Will’s memories of that fateful night and why she had to flee are gone.

Back home, Jacinda is greeted with hostility and must work to prove her loyalty for both her sake and her family’s. Among the few who will even talk to her are Cassian, the pride’s heir apparent who has always wanted her, and her sister, Tamra, who has been forever changed by a twist of fate. Jacinda knows that she should forget Will and move on—that if he managed to remember and keep his promise to find her, it would only endanger them both. Yet she clings to the hope that someday they will be together again. When the chance arrives to follow her heart, will she risk everything for love?

This book is the second in the "Firelight" series.  It's about a girl that is part human, and part dragon...a draki.  She is part of a larger tribe and she is sought because of her special talents.  I found this book to be just as good as the first one was.  The way this one ends leads up to a very interesting and exciting final book.  I'm looking forward to it. 

 

Forbidden

"Forbidden" by Tabitha Suzuma
Hardcover: 481 pages
Published: Definitions (May 27, 2010)

Book Description:
She is pretty and talented - sweet sixteen and never been kissed. He is seventeen; gorgeous and on the brink of a bright future. And now they have fallen in love. But... they are brother and sister.

Seventeen-year-old Lochan and sixteen-year-old Maya have always felt more like friends than siblings. Together they have stepped in for their alcoholic, wayward mother to take care of their three younger siblings. As defacto parents to the little ones, Lochan and Maya have had to grow up fast. And the stress of their lives—and the way they understand each other so completely—has also also brought them closer than two siblings would ordinarily be. So close, in fact, that they have fallen in love. Their clandestine romance quickly blooms into deep, desperate love. They know their relationship is wrong and cannot possibly continue. And yet, they cannot stop what feels so incredibly right. As the novel careens toward an explosive and shocking finale, only one thing is certain: a love this devastating has no happy ending.

This book was kind of predictable and dull.  I guess teens reading this would probably think more of this story, but I found it boring.  I was just flipping through the pages to get through it mostly.  This book took me forever to start reading, and now I just wish that I had tried reading something else instead.

In My Stack

Delirium

"Delirium" by Lauren Oliver
Hardcover: 441 pages
Published: HarperTeen (February 1, 2011)

Book Description:
Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love -- the deliria -- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the governments demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

Forgive me, but I just couldn't keep reading this book.  Every time I tried I only got about a chapter done.  I've been trying to read this book since summer, but just haven't had the time.  Now that I have the time, I couldn't read the book.  This book has gotten some pretty good reviews on other sites, but I just didn't like the fact that LOVE has become a disease that is undesirable in the not too distant future.  The whole idea of removing that part of the brain that controls love and other strong emotions is just dumb.  Why make a book on this subject?  It may be a creative idea, but not very likely.  I generally enjoy most post-apocalyptic books, but they are usually dealing with some kind of event and change in the economy, weather, etc.  I only got about a third of the way into the book and stopped reading.  Therefore, I'm not giving this book a rating.

A Long, Long Sleep

"A Long, Long Sleep" by Anna Sheehan
Hardcover: 352 pages
Published: Candlewick (August 9, 2011)

Book Description:

It should have been a short suspended-animation sleep. But this time Rose wakes up to find her past is long gone— and her future full of peril.
Rosalinda Fitzroy has been asleep for sixty-two years when she is woken by a kiss. Locked away in the chemically induced slumber of a stasis tube in a forgotten subbasement, sixteen-year-old Rose slept straight through the Dark Times that killed millions and utterly changed the world she knew. Now, her parents and her first love are long gone, and Rose— hailed upon her awakening as the long-lost heir to an interplanetary empire— is thrust alone into a future in which she is viewed as either a freak or a threat. Desperate to put the past behind her and adapt to her new world, Rose finds herself drawn to the boy who kissed her awake, hoping that he can help her to start fresh. But when a deadly danger jeopardizes her fragile new existence, Rose must face the ghosts of her past with open eyes— or be left without any future at all.

This book was OK.  I liked it enough, but the futuristic sayings bugged me.  Since she wakes up 62 years later, the slang has changed for teenagers.  The author could have been a little more thoughtful on what the slang would sound like.  I don't think that what she chose would really ever be incorporated into the English language, especially by teenagers.  "Holy coit" and "That is so sky" and "Oh burn it".  Uh, what?  It gets annoying.  The story was good, but the language got in the way for me.  If you can get past the language, then go ahead and read this because it is an interesting book and idea.  A sort of Sleeping Beauty in the future, but with parents that are somewhat abusive.  All in all, just OK for me.

Possess

"Possess" by Gretchen McNeil
Hardcover: 384 pages
Published: Balzer + Bray (August 23, 2011)

Description:
Fifteen-year-old Bridget Liu just wants to be left alone: by her mom, by the cute son of a local police sergeant, and by the eerie voices she can suddenly and inexplicably hear. Unfortunately for Bridget, it turns out the voices are demons – and Bridget has the rare ability to banish them back to whatever hell they came from.

Terrified to tell people about her new power, Bridget confides in a local priest who enlists her help in increasingly dangerous cases of demonic possession. But just as she is starting to come to terms with her new power, Bridget receives a startling message from one of the demons. Now Bridget must unlock the secret to the demons' plan before someone close to her winds up dead – or worse, the human vessel of a demon king.

I realize that I didn't list this book as being read by me right now, but I got sidetracked with it and couldn't put it down.  I was just looking at new books that had come into the library, and started to read the first few pages of this book.  I thought it would be good to read, and it was!  I couldn't stop reading it.  It moved along very quickly and was a great page turner.  I think it's going to be the first in a series, as it was left open-ended.

This book is kinda creepy with the whole demon thing, but had a good believable storyline.  I mean, people have made movies about this sort of thing so why not a book.  Definitely worth reading if you enjoy paranormal and angels/demons.