Review: Conjured by Sarah Beth Durst

Title: Conjured
Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Format: egalley
Pub. Date: September 3rd 2013
Source: Netgalley/Bloomsbury USA Children's Books

★★★★

Three and a half stars, rounded up.

Eve doesn't remember anything. Where she came from, what her name is.... Or what she saw that has marked her as a target for a paranormal serial killer on the lose and has her enrolled in the witness protection program. But she's special, and they know it. She questions little about what her agents Nicki and Malcolm tell her... That is, Until things don't start adding up. When a friend mentions painful truths and her memories start adding up, she'll have to decide once and for all who she can trust, whose side she's on, and who she truly is before it's too late. The time for her destruction is counting down.

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This book took me by surprise, to say the least. It has far more paranormal/fantasy aspects than I had anticipated, and I enjoyed it. This book is also strange, to put it mildly. It was a weird, enticing form of bizarre that kept me turning the pages.

This book is told through third person perspective, until Eve shifts into one of her memory "visions" from before she was in the program, where it turns to first person. I have to say that normally changes like that are confusing for me, but Durst wrote them well enough so that I was able to follow the flow of the story and Eve's thought process.

The detail in this book is amazing. I was able to conjure (buh dun tsss) up images of the worlds described with ease, and found myself wanting to know far more about them than the plot gave me. I also felt that the characters were well described, but I felt like information about them was missing. I wanted to know more of their history and their allegiances. Like Eve, I felt like I was being kept in the dark with certain explanations. My favorite character was probably Zach, who is shamelessly honest, loyal to a fault, and who never really stops talking and spouting useless facts about trivial things.

I felt this plot was definitely unique. I kind of suspected what was going to happen based off of clues given by the author throughout the story, but I didn't expect the explosive climax that I was given. Almost all of my questions were answered by the time the book came to a close. It did feel a bit blurred and rushed in parts near the end, but I didn't feel like it really impacted the plot too much.

The entire book has this confused, dark tone to it, I assume to match Eve's confusion with finding out who she is. It seems like no one can be trusted, and that bad things are always eminent. This tone, mixed with the notion of "living dolls" gave this book a mega creepy feel, not unlike the book Coraline. I enjoyed it, in an eerily discomforted kind of way.

This book is one that will stand apart to me based on its concept and spooky writing. Fans of YA paranormal/fantasy books with a hint of romance and a dark tone to it should pick this book up, for sure. If changing perspective or flashbacks bother you, this might not be up your alley. If Sarah Beth Durst ever decides to write a novella telling more about these new worlds or the ill fated carnival, or writes another story regarding these characters, I would definitely read it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury USA Children's Books for my copy.

Codes and Roses by Julia Talbot

Title: Codes and Roses (Bloodrose #1-3)
Author: Julia Talbot
Format: Paperback, 226 pages
Pub. Date: September 1st 2009
Source: Ramblings From This Chick blog

★★

A weak two stars.

Codes and Roses is a set of three short stories about the customers of a sex club called the Bloodrose. Willing paranormal participants are partnered up according to taste for an optimum time, based on an application and experience. It's sort of an in-real-life eharmony or Fetlife for werewolves and vampires. The stories circle around a werewolf, naked Deacon, who gets off on the bite of vampires. He is paired up with a vampire named Kasey, who wants nothing more than to drink from and ravish the sexy werewolf that he has just obtained. The other stories include a rouge shapeshifter, a weird scientist, and a douchebag werecat.

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First, let me just say, I don't mind reading erotica. I don't mind reading MM erotica. So anything I say about this review should be read with that in mind.

-This is one of the few times that I would judge a book by its cover. It's not well done, in my opinion, and it would never get my attention on a shelf.

-Dare I say- there is too much sex. I like erotica just as much as the next girl, but I would actually like a plot. I was only fifty pages into this collection and I found myself thinking, "Oh, we're doing this again?" And when it did happen, it was rather short and anticlimactic.

-On that note, I didn't feel that the sex was varied. There was a very limited vocabulary that made it seem as though I was reading the same scene over and over again. There are a LOT of words out there to use, other than the "c word". It made the book seem a bit trashy and not all too original.

-On top of that, there was some very poor grammar. There were sentence fragments that irked me, but what bothered me the most was the vampires. It's acknowledged in the mythology of vampires (as well as specifically in this book) that they are old, and come from different times. They should speak eloquently, while these vampires seemed like truckers.

-I'm a bit confused on the chronicling of these stories. This novel is supposed to contain books 1, 2, and 3. But when I clicked on the series page, I saw that the "third" story in this is marked as number four, and that there's another in front of it. I have no idea what that's about.

+That being said, I really do like the concept of this club. Enough so that it bumped this rating to a two star review, instead of one. If properly written, it would have been a delightful setting to read about.

If you're into M/M or paranormal erotica, or like when there's constant, short lived sex scenes, great. Maybe you'll like this better than me. If you prefer detailed, slower moving types of stories, give this a pass. I don't really recommend it to anyone.

Thanks to Danielle of Ramblings From This Chick blog for my copy.