Book Review: Stone Cold Touch (The Dark Elements #2)

Name: Stone Cold Touch (The Dark Elements #2)
Author: Jennifer Armentrout
Number of Pages: 464 in Kindle
Published: October 21st, 2014
by Harlequin Teen
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance

“Every touch has its price
Layla Shaw is trying to pick up the pieces of her shattered life—no easy task for a seventeen-year-old who’s pretty sure things can’t get worse. Her impossibly gorgeous best friend, Zayne, is forever off-limits thanks to the mysterious powers of her soul-stealing kiss. The Warden clan that has always protected her is suddenly keeping dangerous secrets. And she can barely think about Roth, the wickedly hot demon prince who understood her in ways no one else could.
But sometimes rock bottom is only the beginning. Because suddenly Layla’s powers begin to evolve, and she’s offered a tantalizing taste of what has always been forbidden. Then, when she least expects it, Roth returns, bringing news that could change her world forever. She’s finally getting what she always wanted, but with hell literally breaking loose and the body count adding up, the price may be higher than Layla is willing to pay… .”

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you would have known by now that I’m torn about this series from the very start. I have issues and whatnot, but still I’ve eagerly waited for Stone Cold Touch to come out. I’m excited to know if I would finally love the series (Not that I hate it in general).

Since White Hot Kiss ended on a depressing note, I started reading this in a hopeful mood. The writing is still in a semi-fast pace. There are parts that have slow down a bit, but I can’t say it’s dull. If you’ve noticed, the book is 400+ pages and I’m surprised that I was actually wanting more after staying up until one in the morning last night to finish it. Stone Cold Touch is more action-packed and oozing with sexiness compared with White Hot Kiss. More thrilling and amazing if I may say. So much FEELS.

Last Hour for the SCT Journal Giveaway: Stone Cold Touch by Jennifer Armentrout

Here’s your last chance to win this:

Contest Rules:
International
Author is not responsible for lost or damaged prize package
Prizes cannot be swapped for any other prize

Click here for the Rafflecopter

You could also vote on which guy you want to see Layla end up with!

Update + Giveaway: Ensnared by A.G. Howard

I must admit I have a love and hate relationship with this series, but I can’t help waiting for it too. Weird eh? January is still a long way from now. I dig up updates so I can share it with you guys since like most of you, I can’t wait to get my hands on this book as well.

Name: Ensnared (Splintered #3)
Author: A. G. Howard
Number of Pages: 384 in Kindle Edition
Published: January 6th 2015 by Amulet Books
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Retellings, Romance, Paranormal

After surviving a disastrous battle at prom, Alyssa has embraced her madness and gained perspective. She’s determined to rescue her two worlds and the people and netherlings she loves. Even if it means challenging Queen Red to a final battle of wills and wiles . . . and even if the only way to Wonderland, now that the rabbit hole is closed, is through the looking-glass world–a parallel dimension filled with mutated and violent netherling outcasts. In the final installment of the wildly popular Splintered trilogy, Alyssa and her dad journey into the heart of magic and mayhem in search of her mom and to set right all that’s gone wrong. Together with Jeb and Morpheus, they must salvage Wonderland from the decay and destruction that has ensnared it. But if they succeed and come out alive, can everyone truly have their happily ever after?

I found a giveaway by Ms. Howard herself and I got so excited there’s no way I’m not sharing this with my friends. The ARCs for this book has finally come out and she’s sharing it with us. The book cover is amazing, I can’t wait to have mine. Please click the link below to enter the giveaway.

Giveaway: Ensnared by A.G. Howard

This is an international giveaway and here’s what’s up for grabs:

Update: Penryn & the End of Days, Book 3

Susan Ee

– USA Today bestselling author
– Author of ANGELFALL and WORLD AFTER (Penryn & the End of Days 1 & 2)

“I’m super excited! The third book is END OF DAYS. It will be the finale of Penryn’s story! The US/Canada/Philippine version will be published on May 12, 2015. UK/AUS/NZ/Scotland version should come out right around that time as well. For all other countries, please ask your local publisher or bookstore. It’s finally happening! I can’t wait to share END OF DAYS with you.”

This is basically from Susan’s blog. Apparently, the third book for the series Penryn & the End of Days will be entitled End of Days and it will be published 12th of May next year. The thing is, Susan confirmed that this will be the finale of the series, which is in fact surprising because this was initially introduced as a five book series. I didn’t see that coming. That is just so heart breaking. 💔

You see? FIVE BOOK SERIES. What’s happened? I’m really torn about this update. Excited yet disappointed. I’ve been looking for interviews as why this was cut short to three books, but found nothing. I remember, I had a hard time liking the first, but eventually like the second book and really thrilled about the third one. It’s still a long wait until May. Perhaps Susan can still change her mind and go back to its original plan. LOL! Anyway, I’ll watch out for the date when the cover will be revealed.

Here’s my reviews 😀

Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days #1)

World After (Penryn & the End of Days #2)

Excerpt: Stone Cold Touch (The Dark Elements #2)

I remember having issues on the first book of this series, but still I’m eagerly waiting for the second book to come out. I even included this on a Waiting on Wednesday post back in July because I still have faith on the book. I’m looking for recent updates, since the released date is fast approaching, when I’ve stumbled upon this excerpt. Yipeeeee! 😀

Name: Stone Cold Touch (The Dark Elements #2)
Author: Jennifer Armentrout
Number of Pages: 446 in Kindle Edition
Published: October 21st 2014 by Harlequin Teen
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance, Paranormal, Supernatural

He traced the delicate scales around Bambi’s nostrils, and when I shivered, his gaze lifted, snaring mine. There was so much heat and intensity in those cobald eyes that there was no mistaking how he was looking at me.
Like he had the night he’d seen me in my bra.
One side of his lips tipped up, and my heart jumped in my chest. His gaze returned to where Bambi rested, to where his finger was idly tracing her scales in smooth strokes. “It doesn’t feel like I thought it would. The skin is just slightly raised, but it’s really like a tattoo.”
Mouth dry, I closed my eyes as his finger moved over her head, nearing the tiny lace that decorated the hem of my tank top. I wasn’t wearing anything under the tank and he was so, so close.
“Does she like it?” he asked, breath warm in the space between our lips.
I nodded, assuming she did, because she wasn’t trying to kill him.
“Do you?”
The question whipped through me with the force of a destructive hurricane. My eyes snapped open and my breath came in short little pants. He was still so close, his hair tickling my cheeks and his finger trailing farther south, following the curve of Bambi, under the lace of my tank top.
His lashes swept up again and his gaze collided with mine. I had no idea how we’d ended up here. His hand stilled and he waited, and there was no denying the driving force behind the question. If I said no, he would move away. And if I said yes, then… I couldn’t even wrap my head around those possibilities.
If I said yes, everything would change—change in ways I couldn’t even fathom, ways I never truly believed could happen between us. My heart was beating too fast, and a strange kind of heat pooled deep in my body.

Book Review: Spell Bound (Hex Hall #3)

Hailed as “impossible to put down,” the Hex Hall series has both critics and teens cheering. With a winning combination of romance, action, magic and humor, this third volume will leave readers enchanted.

Just as Sophie Mercer has come to accept her extraordinary magical powers as a demon, the Prodigium Council strips them away. Now Sophie is defenseless, alone, and at the mercy of her sworn enemies—the Brannicks, a family of warrior women who hunt down the Prodigium. Or at least that’s what Sophie thinks, until she makes a surprising discovery. The Brannicks know an epic war is coming, and they believe Sophie is the only one powerful enough to stop the world from ending. But without her magic, Sophie isn’t as confident.

Sophie’s bound for one hell of a ride—can she get her powers back before it’s too late?

+++

I love the first two books, but I’m not so sure about its final installment. Hex Hall and Demon Glass are those books that I can’t afford to put down. There are a lot of things to be excited about, but this one, I’m torn. It lacks the action I’m expecting. Yeah. The writing is still awesome, but I find the plot slowing down at some pages. Like dull moments. I know there were a lot of things to conclude, but for me everything is just easily laid out. There are moments when I thought like “This should be where Sophie would be doing some cool stuff defending her friends or whatever.” It didn’t happen apparently. I’m a little disappointed, I must admit.

Currently Reading #15

Spell Bound (Hex Hall #3)

Hailed as “impossible to put down,” the Hex Hall series has both critics and teens cheering. With a winning combination of romance, action, magic and humor, this third volume will leave readers enchanted.

Just as Sophie Mercer has come to accept her extraordinary magical powers as a demon, the Prodigium Council strips them away. Now Sophie is defenseless, alone, and at the mercy of her sworn enemies—the Brannicks, a family of warrior women who hunt down the Prodigium. Or at least that’s what Sophie thinks, until she makes a surprising discovery. The Brannicks know an epic war is coming, and they believe Sophie is the only one powerful enough to stop the world from ending. But without her magic, Sophie isn’t as confident.

Sophie’s bound for one hell of a ride—can she get her powers back before it’s too late?

+++

I am so excited about reading this because of the intense cliffhanger from Demon Glass. It’s a good thing that I got all three books before I started reading or I might go looney. The cliffhangers are just so insane. It’s a relief that Spell Bound picked up where Demon Glass left off ’cause I’ll definitely freak out if it will have some silly segue to get this started.

Book Review: Demon Glass (Hex Hall #2)

Sophie Mercer thought she was a witch. That was the whole reason she was sent to Hex Hall, a reform school for delinquent Prodigium (a.k.a. witches, shape-shifters, and faeries). But then she discovered the family secret, and the fact that her hot crush, Archer Cross, is an agent for The Eye, a group bent on wiping Prodigium off the face of the earth.

Turns out, Sophie’s a demon, one of only two in the world-the other being her father. What’s worse, she has powers that threaten the lives of everyone she loves. Which is precisely why Sophie decides she must go to London for the Removal, a dangerous procedure that will either destroy her powers for good-or kill her.

But once Sophie arrives, she makes a shocking discovery. Her new housemates? They’re demons too. Meaning, someone is raising demons in secret, with creepy plans to use their powers, and probably not for good. Meanwhile, The Eye is set on hunting Sophie down, and they’re using Archer to do it. But it’s not like she has feelings for him anymore. Does she?

+++

I still can’t believe I’ve finished this in two days. Two freaking days. Considering all the stuff I need to do at work, housewife duties and extra curricular activities in between? That was unbelievably fast. I must admit, I’m not a pretty fast reader since I have a whole lot going on, but this book is that wonderful I can’t put it down. I stayed practically awake late at night though I still need to be at work at eight in the morning. I thought the first book was awesome, but this one is amazing.

Book Review: Infinityglass (Hourglass #3)

The stakes have risen even higher in this third book in the Hourglass series.

The Hourglass is a secret organization focused on the study of manipulating time, and its members — many of them teenagers -­have uncanny abilities to make time work for them in mysterious ways. Inherent in these powers is a responsibility to take great care, because altering one small moment can have devastating consequences for the past, present, and future. But some time trav­elers are not exactly honorable, and sometimes unsavory deals must be struck to maintain order.

With the Infinityglass (central to understanding and harnessing the time gene) at large, the hunt is on to find it before someone else does.

But the Hourglass has an advantage. Lily, who has the ability to locate anything lost, has determined that the Infinityglass isn’t an object. It’s a person. And the Hourglass must find him or her first. But where do you start searching for the very key to time when every second could be the last?

+++

I didn’t realize that this would be the last book of the series. It’s either I enjoyed reading it and still can’t get enough of the book or I’m looking for something that the book came short of. I still can’t decide which of those really explain how I’m feeling for InfinityGlass. I adored the first two books especially Timepiece because I love Kaleb and Lily, but this book? I’m not so certain. Hallie and Dune were not compelling enough to end the series in a remarkable way.

I can’t say I’m disappointed entirely, a little I may say. I like the book. There are chapters that kept me reading it and really thrilled me. Some pages made me even feel that I can’t stop reading. I love how the setting is depicted, which is in New Orleans. I like the twists, how the story has ended and how things turned up, but there are some things that bothered me.

Currently Reading #3

Infinityglass (Hourglass #3)

The stakes have risen even higher in this third book in the Hourglass series.

The Hourglass is a secret organization focused on the study of manipulating time, and its members — many of them teenagers -­have uncanny abilities to make time work for them in mysterious ways. Inherent in these powers is a responsibility to take great care, because altering one small moment can have devastating consequences for the past, present, and future. But some time trav­elers are not exactly honorable, and sometimes unsavory deals must be struck to maintain order.

With the Infinityglass (central to understanding and harnessing the time gene) at large, the hunt is on to find it before someone else does.

But the Hourglass has an advantage. Lily, who has the ability to locate anything lost, has determined that the Infinityglass isn’t an object. It’s a person. And the Hourglass must find him or her first. But where do you start searching for the very key to time when every second could be the last?

+++

I have so many books lined up to read and also so many books that I forgot to read. Apparently, this is one of those books that are left forgotten. As you can see, this is the third book for the Hourglass series. I’ve read the first two books and it excites me thus far. This has been published the 6th of August of 2013 and I’m reading it just right now.

Yeah. I know. Loser.