Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (REVIEW)

EVERY OTHER DAY by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Published December 27, 2011 by Egmont
336 Pages // Netgalley eARC
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Every other day, Kali D'Angelo is a normal sixteen-year-old girl. She goes to public high school. She attends pep rallies. She's human. 

And then every day in between . . .She's something else entirely. 

Though she still looks like herself, every twenty-four hours predatory instincts take over and Kali becomes a feared demon-hunter with the undeniable urge to hunt, trap, and kill zombies, hellhounds, and other supernatural creatures. Kali has no idea why she is the way she is, but she gives in to instinct anyway. Even though the government considers it environmental terrorism. 

When Kali notices a mark on the lower back of a popular girl at school, she knows instantly that the girl is marked for death by one of these creatures. Kali has twenty-four hours to save her and, unfortunately, she'll have to do it as a human. With the help of a few new friends, Kali takes a risk that her human body might not survive. . .and learns the secrets of her mysterious condition in the process.

 

EVERY OTHER DAY is the type of book I love – well, at least love the synopsis and the general idea. Action-oriented, kickass protagonists, girl power. For the most part, Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ latest book did not disappoint. Although I have not read any of her previous books, I found myself enjoying this one with a few minor issues. This is, at the heart of the matter, a story about a girl trying to come to terms with herself with the aid of new friends, new powers, new inhabitants in her body, and lots of new, fun weapons.

Touch of Frost by Jennifer Estep (REVIEW) + GIVEAWAY!

In the market for a fun, quick read filled with romance, intrigue, and lots of awesome fight scenes? Jennifer Estep's TOUCH OF FROST might be right up your alley!

TOUCH OF FROST by Jennifer Estep
Published August 1st, 2010 by K-Teen
350 Pages
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My name is Gwen Frost, and I go to Mythos Academy — a school of myths, magic and warrior whiz kids, where even the lowliest geek knows how to chop off somebody's head with a sword and Logan Quinn, the hottest Spartan guy in school, also happens to be the deadliest.

 But lately, things have been weird, even for Mythos. First, mean girl Jasmine Ashton was murdered in the Library of Antiquities. Then, someone stole the Bowl of Tears, a magical artifact that can be used to bring about the second Chaos War. You know, death, destruction and lots of other bad, bad things. Freaky stuff like this goes on all the time at Mythos, but I'm determined to find out who killed Jasmine and why—especially since I should have been the one who died. . .

 

Sometimes there are things where you read them or watch them or listen to them and you cannot quite figure out why you liked it as much as you did. For me, TOUCH OF FROST is one of those books. Many of my fellow bloggers had issues with this book. Several did not finish it. Meanwhile, I loved it. I know where people are coming from when they cite several issues with the book – an unclear plot, choppy dialogue, cliché characters and settings. For some reason, my love of this book and the fact I find it an ooey gooey fluffy pile of goodness transcended those issues and I came away from reading Jennifer Estep’s first foray into young adult fiction feeling very, very happy.

Jenny Pox by J.L. Bryan (GUEST REVIEW)

Thanks to NaNoWriMo, please be advised that Book Brats might have a few more guest reviews than normal. Please welcome back UK Correspondent Rebecca (follower on Twitter @mephster) and check out her review of JL Bryan's JENNY POX, book one in the Jenny Pox series!

Jenny's touch spreads a deadly supernatural plague. She can't control her power, so she devotes her life to avoiding contact with other people in her small Southern town. Her senior year of high school, she meets the one boy she can touch...but if she's going to be with him, Jenny must learn to use the "Jenny pox" inside her to survive his devious, manipulative girlfriend, who secretly wields the most dangerous power of all.

JENNY POX by JL Bryan

Published July 24th, 2009 by CreateSpace

292 Pages

Jenny Pox is another one of those novels I downloaded to my kindle because it was free, which I am fully happy to admit. The blurb really didn’t inspire too much hope in me, but I picked it for something to read in the afternoon with a nice cuppa and possibly replace with another after the first few pages because I can’t stand the writing. For once, I am glad to have been proven wrong. Perhaps the old adage ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ should begin to be adapted to ‘don’t judge a book by its badly written description’. 

At first, I was convinced that Jenny Pox would be another one of those novels jumping on the bandwagon of ‘Rogue-esque’ powers, wherein they are unable to touch anybody. I was pleasantly surprised to find a very dark novel, with well-developed and believable characters with all the flaws and back handed arseyness of real teenagers. The plot itself isn’t the strongest and is in fact a bit clichéd (girl has problem, girl meets unattainable boy with a bitch/popular girlfriend, bitch/popular girlfriend attempts vengeance, girl kills everything in her path…mostly cliché, then) but it’s a very easy read and the violence isn’t as overwhelming as might be expected. 

I felt the religious slant of the antagonistic Ashleigh was a little heavy handed but I’m really putting that down to my contact with religion being limited to being stopped in the street and told I’m going to burn in hell for my lack of belief…but in a polite way. I’d normally give the writer the benefit of the doubt, seeing as the character in question (to my eyes at least) was using the religion bent for the power and little else. At least to me, the angle works. It gives what would otherwise be a run of the mill YA novel standard bitch archetype a more sinister edge. Maybe I’m reading a little too much into it, but hey, it added something and I am not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

All in all, I’d give Jenny Pox 4*. It’s not perfect, but few novels are. The characters are flawed and human, with complexities that are rarely found in YA fiction. 

♥♥♥♥ - FOUR HEARTS