The Dark Elements by Jennifer L. Armentrout *Spoiler Free Series Review*

The Dark Elements Series

By Jennifer L. Armentrout

Note: There are no major spoilers in this review, but I do talk about some of the general themes and tropes, so if you don't want to know anything about the series, then don't read this review.

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

A half demon, half gargoyle teenage girl risks the wrath of her adoptive clan and the trust of a boy she’s loved forever by partnering up with a sexy, dangerous demon who claims he can protect her from dark elements in a usually quiet demon population.

Ok, so first I'm going to do a brief breakdown of how I felt about each individual book and my ratings for them.

Bitter Sweet Love:

4 Stars

This is a prequel novella that takes place 5 years before the main series and follows two of the minor characters. You should definitely read this before reading the main trilogy, as it introduces many of the main characters. At first I rated this novella a 5/5 stars, but as I continued with the series I started to realize that I had some problems with it, so I knocked it down to 4 stars. That being said it was super cute and steamy and I loved that I got to see some of the characters before the series really started.

White Hot Kiss:

5 Stars

This first book in the trilogy was by far my favorite. I thought that this book was the most original of the three and I had the least amount of problems (which I will discuss more later) with it.

Stone Cold Touch:

4.5 Stars

This second instalment was also my second favorite book in the trilogy. I felt like this book was more predictable than the first book. One thing that I did like about it was that it made me feel the most emotions.

Every Last Breath:

4 Stars

This final instalment in this trilogy was definitely my least favorite book in the trilogy. I felt like it was the most predictable, I predicted almost every plot point. That being said, I still did really enjoy it.

So as you may be able to tell from my ratings, I really enjoyed this series. It was fast paced and steamy, and I love me a good romance! I would totally recommend it!

Ok, so now I am going to go over the general things that I liked and didn't like throughout the entire series.

The Negatives:

So, I'm going to start by saying that I love Jennifer L. Armentrout, I have read her Lux series and Covenant series and really enjoyed both of them. I love and accept her books for what they are, and I don't expect them to be literary masterpieces or to completely change my outlook on life. I read purely for enjoyment and I don't need a book to be those other things like some people do (but that's a rant for another day). That being said I do have some criticisms of this series, and I'm going to put them in bullet points because they are easier to read. My issues are...

• Love Triangles (I HATE love triangles!!!!)
• Predictable (I was able to guess almost every major plot point in the entire trilogy. This was my biggest problem with the series as a whole)
• Twilight vibes ( I don't know why, maybe it was because I rewatched Twilight a few weeks ago, but this series reminded me of Twilight in a lot of ways)

The Positives:

Ok, now on to what I liked about the series, which was most of the elements, it's just harder to talk about the things that I like, so just keep that in mind if this section is shorter than the negatives. I loved...

• The characters (I always love Armentrout's characters, especially those like Daemon Black, like Roth!)
• The humor (this goes along with the characters, there's always someone that makes me laugh, even when it is inappropriate)
• Armentrout's writing ( l always find it so easy to get into her writing style, I end up reading her books faster than most other authors)
• Gargoyles ( I can't think of any other YA series that is about gargoyles, I thought this was cool and unique) 

Ok, so that's all I can think to say without spoiling anything. Again, there was just so much that I enjoyed! Overall I recommend this series, it was fun and sexy!

Well that's my review! Feel free to comment below if you have read the series already, or if you are thinking about reading. I would love to know what other people think! Also, this is my first try at a fully spoiler free review, so feedback would be greatly appreciated (did I give away too much?, did I not say enough?, etc.)
Thanks for reading!

-Abby

Unspeakable by Caroline Pignat Review

Unspeakable

By Caroline Pignat

 

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

 

On her first voyage as a stewardess aboard the Empress of Ireland, Ellie is drawn to the solitary fire stoker who stands by the ship’s rail late at night, often writing in a journal.

Jim. Ellie finds it hard to think of his name now. After their wonderful time in Quebec City, that awful night happened. The screams, the bodies, the frigid waters … she tries hard to tell herself that he survived, but it’s hard to believe when so many didn’t. So when Wyatt Steele, journalist at The New York Times asks her for her story, Ellie refuses. But when he shows her Jim’s journal, she jumps at the chance to be able to read it herself, to find some trace of the man she had fallen in love with, or perhaps a clue to what happened to him. There’s only one catch: she will have to tell her story to Steele and he’ll “pay” her by giving her the journal, one page at a time.

 

My rating: 5 stars

 

Spoiler Free Review:

This book was so much more than I thought it was going to be! It has defiantly earned a spot on my favorite's shelf. I bought this book solely because of the fact that I was book shopping online and it was super cheap, once I read the plot summary I figured that I would love it because of its similarities to Fateful by Claudia Gray, which I love so much, but it was so much more complex than I could have expected. This book had me tearing up one minute and then speed reading the next just to find out what was going to happen. Unspeakable was about love, grief and finding one’s self and I really liked all of those elements combining to make a great story.

 

The Positives:

Pignat's writing style. I found the story telling in this book very interesting. Pignat jumps all around in terms of the timeline of the story, while I can see how some people would find this difficult to follow I personally really liked it because it was different from how most stories are told.

 

The timeline of the story. I really enjoyed the fact that we followed the protagonist, Ellie for so long. When I first picked up this book I was expecting to just read about the tragedy and a little about the aftermath. But this book followed Ellie through so much more and I loved getting to see her character grow and develop more.

Ellie's character. I really like Ellie as a protagonist. I thought she was a likeable and inspiring character and I really enjoyed seeing her grow as the story went on.

 

The accuracy. While I was not actually on the Empress in 1914 I think that Pignat did a really good job of making you feel like you actually were. You could tell that she did her research.

 

The Negatives:

The cover. While this has nothing to do with the actual story, enjoy my little rant. Why is the girl on the cover wearing what looks like a modern prom dress? This story takes place in 1914, I don’t think that people at that time wore dresses like that. And even if it is supposed to be a fancy dress from 1914 Ellie wouldn’t have been wearing one because 1) she was a stewardess on the ship, not a wealthy passenger and 2) it was night time when the ship sank, and everyone was wearing night gowns. Sorry about the pointless rant, but it really bothers me.

Character relationships. I just wish that some of the relationships between characters had been developed more than they were (more on this in the spoiler section).

 

Overall I was so happily surprised by how much I enjoyed this book and it is completely beyond me as to why it isn’t more popular. I highly suggest picking this book up.

 

 

 WARNING SPOILERS BELOW!!!!!

 I just wanted to talk about how I felt about the characters with some spoilers. While I personally liked Ellie I know that some other reviews of this book that I read said that they thought she was whiny, which she was, but I let it slide because I sympathetic to all that she had endured, between being disowned, having her child taken away from her and then dealing with the sinking. And because of all that she had endured and how she grew and changed as a character I really liked her. Now on to a character I didn’t like, Steele, I really did not like this man. He saw how traumatized Ellie was by all of this but yet he still pushed and bribed her with Jim’s journal. That was so not cool with me. There were a few points in the book where I thought that Ellie and Steele might develop a romantic relationship and all I could think as I was reading was no, no please no. But by the end I really didn’t hate him as much, I had a feeling from the start that he wasn’t actually going to publish the article and I gained more respect for him knowing that he didn’t even write it at all. Now on to Jim, I liked him, I would have liked to have seen more of his and Ellie’s conversations at the rail so that their relationship could have been developed more. I wish there had been a more developed relationship between Ellie and Meg as well. I feel like I didn’t even know Meg or about how she and Ellie became friends. Because of this I felt sad when she died, but her death didn’t hit me as hard as a fully developed character’s would have. 

One last thing that I wanted to touch on was the one problem that I had with the way this book was written, jumping around so much and this was at the end when Jim came back. At the point when he showed up and we finally found out that he was alive I didn’t really feel anything. I just felt so disconnected from him at that point in the story, because we hadn’t seen his character for a while. This was so disappointing for me because I wanted to be so excited when I found out that he was actually alive, but I just wasn't.

 

So that's my review on Unspeakable, I really loved this book and can't wait to reread it at some point. Have thoughts? Feel free to comment them! Thank you so much for reading!

- Abby



Hello!

Hello all,

Hello and welcome to my blog. This is my first time blogging so this is bound to be pretty rough. So I guess I should start with an introduction, my name is Abby and I am a college student from upstate New York, studying Anthropology and History. In all of my time that is not taken up by school work I can always be found with a book. I love to read and to talk about the books that i have read, but most of these conversations end up being with myself as I don't have any friends who share my love of reading. That is why I am making this blog, as a way for me to share and express my feelings for the books I love with other people who love them just as much. But for all I know this could be a huge bust and I will just end up continuing to talk to myself. But I guess we will have to wait and see.

I hope to post my first review very soon!