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Book Review – See How She Fights (The Chronicles of Izzy #2) by Michelle Graves

Posted on August 28, 2014 by charmouabb

I was still floating in a cloud of Izzy and Kennan love from the first book in this series when I dove straight into this one. (You can read my review for See How She Runs HERE) I literally finished SHSR and jumped straight onto Amazon to download this one. I HAD to know where this story was going to go next and of course I had to get more of Izzy and Kennan…

She thought it was over.
She thought her life was finally her own.
She was wrong.

Izzy is thrust back into the world of Seers and Guardians. With a summons from the Council she can’t ignore, Izzy heads back into the fray. Now, it is up to her to figure out why Seers are being sacrificed, carved up, and left for ruin. If she doesn’t find the person orchestrating the deaths, she may well be next.

If that wasn’t enough, her powers have started to expand exponentially. Kennan is keeping secrets. Moreover, a strangely familiar Symbol-smith starts wreaking havoc on her precariously balanced world.

Will Izzy survive this latest crisis? Will she stop fighting destiny and accept her fate? Find out in See How She Fights.

So like the blurb goes, Izzy has to re-immerse herself in all things Seer, not only that, but she also has to leave the beginnings of her future perfect life and attend the Council whom have summoned her. To put it mildly both Izzy and Kennan are VERY unimpressed with this development. After everything how could this be a fair situation?! As she will soon learn, a lesson in the reality of fairness is one of the numerous lessons Izzy will learn by the end of this book.

When I reviewed the first book I mentioned it was mostly romance and built up towards action near the end and I LOVED it… Well this book is mostly action with the romance to sweeten the story… and guess what? I LOVED it!!! I love that this is a series that doesn’t just follow the same familiar formula for each book. Instead the story flows and the books are what they need to be to tell the story, at the start that was a romance, detailing the background, the characters and the romance. Now that we’ve moved into this book we can focus on the fast paced action which is (to put it simply) awesome. Luckily though, we don’t lose the romance, we just have to learn to share Izzy and Kennan with the world, for better or for worse…

Izzy has to deal with some horrific happenings, violent bloody crimes are being committed against seers and before long she has been dragged right into the middle. She needs to fight and stay one step ahead, just so she can stay alive. The things that were happening both to Izzy and around Izzy were intriguing and more than a little disturbing. I was definitely with Izzy and her intense frustration at the beings around her, they can see into the future, read minds, jump into the dreaming but they are so damn vague! A little heads up once in a while would’ve probably helped Izzy from feeling like she had missed out on reading a Seer instruction manual, but then I guess, where’s the fun in that? Make no mistake, going into this book Izzy hasn’t developed and understood half of what she needs to. This is a drag out, dirty dealing, fight to bloody knuckles, scream in your sleep story, yet I loved that despite everything, Izzy still retained one of her traits the I love the most about her, her snark. Only Izzy could pull off sassy conversations with a sacrificed seer spirit…

“this sucks,” I said, frustrated.

“You’re telling me. At least you still have your eyes. Oh, and your life,” Ren griped.

“Seriously, if you are going to be haunting my visions, could you at least be a little nice?…”

Once again Michelle Graves strikes the character chemistry just right, I loved the developing friendship between Izzy and Molly (everyone needs a BFF!) I laughed at the fiery feisty relationship between Ian and Molly and I melted at the love between Izzy and Kennan. It’s also in this book that we are introduced to a few more book boyfriend contestants. The first being Conall, sometimes too formal, way too gruff and fiercely loyal, he half the time rubs Izzy the wrong way and the other half of the time he’s trying to help Kennan reign in the carnage that inevitably follows her around. Also, another manly man of note we meet Aberto. Ancient and mysterious, he doesn’t throw a spanner in the works for Izzy and Kennan as such, but there is a lot more to him than what originally meets the eye. Along the way we start to get to slowly unravel his secrets, although very vaguely (there’s a theme here!)… and the big tough guy vs big tough guy interactions between him and Kennan, as well as his confusing relationship with Izzy are pretty much everything you could ever need for that little bit of tension every story needs.

By the end of this book I was feeling completely and utterly on edge and I knew this story was far from over. I definitely didn’t have a feeling that all was lost, but there sure will be a lot of obstacles to come, of that I am certain. Like I said, I loved the first book, it was so good to have a strong start to the series… But this second book has nabbed the top spot out of the two for me… Everything about it was just perfect and made sure I could literally not put it down. Which is why I jumped straight onto Amazon after I finished this one and one-clicked the next… It’s an addiction and I’m not even sorry…

See How She Fights (The Chronicles of Izzy) (Volume 2)

By Michelle Graves

photo credit: nicole.pierce.photography ♥ via photopin cc

Book Review – Flat-Out Celeste (Flat-Out Love #2) by Jessica Park

Posted on June 21, 2014 by Kristal

Flat-Out Celeste is the second book in this series. The series is about a family and each book (so far) has been about a different family member. The first book, Flat-Out Love was Matts (Celeste’s older brother) and Julies story. Because I’m ridiculous, I did not read the first book. I saw Flat-Out Celeste pop up on my Goodreads feed, and people were raving about it. I clicked on it and read the synopsis and was instantly hooked. I saw the words “stand alone” and dove in head first. And I am in LOVE with this story and these characters.

For high-school senior Celeste Watkins, every day is a brutal test of bravery. And Celeste is scared. Alienated because she’s too smart, her speech too affected, her social skills too far outside the norm, she seems to have no choice but to retreat into isolation.

But college could set her free, right? If she can make it through this grueling senior year, then maybe. If she can just find that one person to throw her a lifeline, then maybe, just maybe.

Justin Milano, a college sophomore with his own set of quirks, could be that person to pull her from a world of solitude. To rescue her—that is, if she’ll let him.

Together, they may work. Together, they may save each other. And together they may also save another couple—two people Celeste knows are absolutely, positively flat-out in love.

One of my favorite things in the world is stories that have unique and diverse main characters. There’s actually nothing that thrills me more than jumping into a story and discovering that the characters are incredibly interesting and engaging. No boring clichés, no same-same personalities, no standard hot-guy/good-girl mold. It instantly engulfs me in and gets me emotionally invested.

“We all have something. All of us. Every single person in this world has a quirk.”

I adored Celeste. It was clear that the author had spent a lot of time and energy researching her characters. She didn’t just slap a label on Celeste and run with it. It was all extremely well thought out and portrayed in a thought provoking manner. I actually found myself wondering at times what I would have behaved like if I had come across a “Celeste” at high school. I would hope that I would have spent the time trying to understand her but let’s be honest, most high school kids are pretty wrapped up in their own lives.

The connection between Celeste and Justin made me sigh with happiness. They were so understanding of each other and their individual personalities quirks. If I could clone Justin in real life and keep him for myself I would. He was gorgeous (personality wise, but also physically I’m sure). I relished the slow build of their relationship from friends to romance and I loved the time we got to spend getting to know them. Even though these two put me through a full and varied range of emotions, I was so happy with where their story left us.

“There are battles, some greater than others. But they are worth getting through.”

This book is a must-read. It had me feeling every emotion and the characters are some of my favourite now. Even though I don’t think you NEED to read Flat-Out Love first, I would definitely advise it. I loved Flat-Out Celeste so much that I’m going back to read Flat-Out Love. I’m dying to read about Matt and Julies story from the beginning. I’m not sure if the author has more books planned in this series or if she is moving on to other things but I will definitely be checking out more by Jessica Park.