Review for Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel

When I first heard about this book months ago I immediately added it to my wish list and started counting down the days until its release date. It sounded right up my street- a fresh new take on vampires with it being about a 500 year old vampire queen being re-made as a 16 year old human girl, and after reading this the books biggest triumph is definitely the originality of it all but unfortunately for me that’s pretty much where it ends. Lenah Beaudonte is a ruthless, murderess vampire queen to a coven of some of the most feared vampires in the world. Having been made into a vampire in 15th century England she is one of the oldest and strongest of her kind. Despite all of this Lenah isn’t happy. After being turned into a vampire by her lover Rhode at the young age of sixteen Lenah feels like she’d missed out on her chance to live life, so as Rhodes last act of love he performs an ancient ritual that allows her to reclaim the human life that he took away from her. Lenah must now live as a mortal in a boarding school in New England and try to stumble her way through modern technology, make friends and keep her past a secret. But when you’ve lived your days as an evil creature of the night it’s not so easy to put your past and your mistakes behind you, and when Lenah’s coven discovers that their queen is missing Lenah realises that her human days may be numbered… I loved the idea of this story and when I first started it I found myself really enjoying it. It was interesting learning about Lenah’s past as a vampire queen and watching her try to fit in and appear normal amongst her peers but my problem started when this didn’t stop. For 300 pages there’s no real action and it reads very much like a YA realism book. Yes it’s all very interesting watching a vampire try to live as a human but after the first 100 pages it got very tedious and boring and by the time I was half way through I was debating putting it down. When I pick up a book about vampires I expect it to be action packed, and filled with blood and lust but Infinite days just didn’t read that way. The plot moved along very slowly making some parts boring to read. It wasn’t what I was expecting when I picked this book up so it left me very disappointed. The second problem I had with this book were the characters. Be warned - if you find Zoey Redbirds boy problems irritating in The House of Night series you may not get along so well with Lenah Beaudonte. Like Zoey, Lenah has a string of 4 boys in this book that she has some sort of thing with who are all fighting for her love and to make things worse none of them were that great. There was very little character development which made the characters just ok for me. I didn’t love any of them in particular and so wasn’t really fussed who Lenah ended up with. The main relationship that Lenah does have happens very quickly over the period of a few weeks and when that’s done well in a book I don’t mind it but with Lenah and the guy in question I just wasn’t convinced they were the real deal. So after suffering through 300 pages of the above I get to the last 100 pages and that’s when things start to improve considerably. We finally get some action and the ending almost makes it worth getting through the first 300 pages. I won’t say too much about that but it definitely sets things up for a potentially better sequel. During the last 100 pages Rebecca Maizel really shows us what she’s capable of and I just hope that now with everything set up in Infinite days she’ll continue on along that path with the sequel. Her writing is really beautiful and this definitely has the potential to be a great series if she’d just cut out a few of the guys and work on adding some action and suspense through out the book instead of saving it all for the end. Over all I have to say that I was disappointed with this book because I was looking forward to it for so long and it just wasn’t what I expected it to be. It was an ok read though not something to rush out and buy so for that reason I’m giving it 3.5 stars. My Rating 3.5/5 stars ***1/2 Note on the UK Cover: I just wanted to leave a note about the UK edition of this book. The cover has an almost tracing paper like quality to it making it very easy to snag which happened to me - even though I’m a very careful reader - a few times leaving tiny tears in it. The model used also looks like she’s in her late twenties and doesn’t resemble a just turned 16 year old girl at all. After one very careful read of this book the covers crumpled and snagged, this book just isn’t very good quality at all. This is in no way Rebecca’s fault though which is why I didn’t want to include this in the actual review of the book but if your from the UK and are thinking about purchasing this book I’d advise you to try and hunt down the US copy – considering this is a hardcover it’s really not worth the money!

In My Mailbox!

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren Hi guys! I’m so excited about every single book I got this week and I’ve been bursting to share them with you all! Thankfully this is a smaller haul this week – I think my bank balance needed it! But these are all books that I’ve been highly anticipating and now I finally have them *squee!* Anyway, bring out the books! Books from the Book Depository Halo by Alexandra Adornetto Return to Paradise by Simone Elkeles Paranormalcy by Kiersten White Books from Amazon Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters by Natalie Standiford Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel So that’s what I got this week. I’m currently reading Infinite Days right now – I can’t make up my mind whether I like our UK cover or not it’s very unusual with an almost tracing paper kind of cover that you can see through. I’m nearly done with this so look out for my review soon! And can I just say how incredibly beautiful is the cover for Halo? It’s even more gorgeous in real life all the little details to it are amazing I think this if officially my favourite cover ever. So excited to read that one as angels are my favourite paranormal creatures to read about – Halo is definitely my kind of book and I just really hope I’m not disappointed! If you’ve read any of the books I got this week feel free to leave me a comment with your thoughts- good or bad I don’t mind! And make sure you leave me a link with what you got this week :) Hope your all having a nice weekend!

Book Bloggers Hop & Follow My Book Blog Friday!

Hello to all my wonderful followers and to hopefully some potential new ones! This Friday I’m participating in The Book Bloggers hop which is hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books and Follow my Book Blog Friday that’s hosted over at Parajunkee's View if you wish to take part please stop by there and sign the Mr Linky. This week’s question from the hop is... 'Do you judge a book by its cover?' My answer: It depends. If I’m in a book shop browsing for some new titles then yes because if you don’t know anything about a book it’s the cover that draws you in. However if I’ve heard about an amazing book and I look it up and it doesn’t have the best cover it doesn’t put me off buying it. Having a nice looking cover on your bookshelf is always a bonus but it’s not the be all and end all for me. That said a lot of the time US and UK covers are different and if I prefer one cover over the other I’ll either snap up the US title or wait for the UK one an example of this actually happened the other day with Halo by Alexandra Adornetto. I much prefer to US edition over the UK so I just had to order the US one and when it arrived yesterday and I got to see how pretty it is in real life I’m so glad that I got that edition. So over all yes I’m kind of fickle but if a books got good reviews and an awful cover it doesn’t stop me from buying it. Feel free to leave me a comment and if you like what you see remember to follow! Leave me a link with your blog and if you follow I’ll check you out too :) Hope your all enjoying my blog! Happy hopping! :)

August Round Up & Book of the Month!

Hey guys! Today is my very first book of the month! I’ve noticed a few people doing something similar to this so I wanted to hop on the wagon and do one myself. I’m hoping to maybe make this a monthly thing at the end of each month so if you like it and want to see it again next month let me know! Each month I’m going to choose an ultimate book of the month and then also choose the best titles for other categories that people might be looking for in a book. Like some people might love a good romance so I’m going to recommend the best book I’ve read that month for romance and so forth you’ll get the picture as you scroll down anyway! Anyways I hope everyone enjoys it – I’ve definitely had a lot of fun doing it! Feel free to leave me comments on your thoughts! August’s book of the month is… Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins! Do I really have to explain why? It was just awesome and if you haven’t read this series yet you really should. Best Plot: The Maze Runner by James Dashner Best Writing: The Poisoned House by Michael Ford Best Cover: The Iron King by Julie Kagawa Best Characters: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins Best Ending: Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma Best Romance: Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma Most un-put-down-able: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins Most Memorable: Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma Best Moral: Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles Top 3 Most Recommended Books: Mockingjay, Forbidden, The Maze Runner. Bookish Highlights of the month Everything Mockingjay – reading it, buying it, vlogging about it etc; and the book hauling road trip with Rachel and Ellie. Bookish Lows of the month Not enjoying The Iron King as much as I hoped I would and having to come home from the road trip! Book’s I’m looking forward to in September There are so many books coming out in September that I’m looking forward to so many! I’m reading Infinite Days right now which I’m enjoying so far. Halo and Return to Paradise arrived this morning both of which look awesome. Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready, The Duff, Firelight…I have a feeling that Septembers going to be a very good month indeed! ;) So there you have it my reading for August summed up in one post! Links lead to reviews and posts from my blog that are related.

Book Hauling Road Trip Take Two; Vlogs, Mockingjay and More...

Hi guys! I’m finally getting my post for the road trip up! I wanted to get it up sooner but I had reviews to do and things so I’m finally getting around to it now. Last week I went to visit my best friend and fellow book blogger Rachel and when were together we end up buying a ton of books! We also went to visit the lovely Ellie and her book shop Book End and Ellie very kindly let us pick out whatever books we wanted for free which was awesome! Sadly it’s going to be the last time I see them both for a while with Rach heading back to Uni soon and all but plans for a Christmas stop over at Ellie’s is already in the works so I’m very much looking forward to that already! I love both of those girls dearly and just wish we lived closer so I could see them more often! I guess it just makes our rare meet ups even more special though :) Anyway me and Rach made some vlog’s which tell you a little bit about what we got up to so instead of repeating myself I’ll just post them on here for your viewing pleasure ;) The first video is a Mockingjay squee on our first reactions on seeing the book and buying it. This was before we read it so don’t worry, no spoilers! Then the second a book haul. Hope you enjoy!