Better Off Briends. Review

Hello everyone, I´ve come again to post another review for the DAC and this time is for the lovely author Elizabeth Eulberg. This is not my first book of hers so I sort of knew what was I getting into when I read it (that by the way I ended in least than a day) 

Synopsis 

For Macallan and Levi, it was friends at first sight. Everyone says guys and girls can’t be just friends, but these two are. They hang out after school, share tons of inside jokes, their families are super close, and Levi even starts dating one of Macallan’s friends. They are platonic and happy that way.

Eventually they realize they’re best friends — which wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t keep getting in each other’s way. Guys won’t ask Macallan out because they think she’s with Levi, and Levi spends too much time joking around with Macallan, and maybe not enough time with his date. They can’t help but wonder . . . are they more than friends or are they better off without making it even more complicated?

From romantic comedy superstar Elizabeth Eulberg comes a fresh, fun examination of a question for the ages: Can guys and girls ever really be just friends? Or are they always one fight away from not speaking again — and one kiss away from true love

Source: Goodreads 

Every person that already read anything of this author knows that is a certain pattern to her stories. Well, Better off Friends is told from Levi and Macallan perspective. 

Levi moves from California to this new school and meets Macallan, when they're both 11, first she is reclutant to be friends with him but once they found that have something in common is like a cllick and then the book  takes us through their relationship untill they are 16. 

As you may infer from the synopsis this a typical story, two best friends who can't live without each other that end up falling in love, but the thing is that has Euldberg seal. Her special way to develop characters, makes you fall in love with them and you suddenly can't stop reading. 

Macallan has her own problems, like the way she has to deal with losing her mother in an accident and all the pity she gets from others,  but she is a strong character, so human, you can't help but to like her and relate to her feelings. And Levi is so full of insecurities and never reacts like the prince charming that we all so used to in YA novels wich is also a very clever way to humanize him. 

This novel has no extraordinary plot and yet offers surprises in the story and a lot of sarcasm and witty comments from the characters. 

To summs things up, if you´re looking for a good time with an inocent romantic novel, this is your book. And all former fans of "Take a Vow" or "The Lonely Hearts Club" won't be dissapointed. 

Little Note: I did laugh a little bit with the whole possibility to name your characters as brands of jeans or expensive booze.

Final Score: 4/5

Cruel Beauty Review

The first review for the Debut Author Challenge... Yay! Ok I´ll calm down. Is just that I´m so happy to be finally participating this year, and I get to present you the first novel ever written by Rosamund Hodge due to be released January 28th in the US. 

Synopsis

Rosamund Hodge

Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.

Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.

With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.

But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle-a shifting maze of magical rooms-enthralls her.

As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.

Source: Goodreads. 

Don´t look at the shadows too long or a demon might look back. It was even more horrible for us because we regularly saw the victims of demon attacks, screaming or mute with madness. 

All the book is told by Nyx perspective our main female protagonist, that I didn´t like much since the beginning. So the story plot goes like this: 

Nyx has a twin sister called Astraia and they live with their aunt and father who is a master of Hermetic arts, called like that in honor to the god Hermes who taught them how to use it.

Just four interlocking sigils, those abstract designs whose angles and curves invoke the power of the four elements[...] I could feel the soft pulsing buzz of the working´s four elemental hearts as they invoked earth, air, fire, and water. [...] Everything in the physical world arises from the dance of the four elements, their mating and division. This principle is one of t he first Hermetic teachings. 

Nyx’s father made a bargain with the Gentle Lord (Ignifex) and to seal the deal he had to give one of her daughters to marry him in payment, but since Astraia resembles more to her mother, her father picks Nyx to be the one to be handed to the Gentle Lord as a wife, so he trains her since young age in Hermetic arts so they can destroy the Gentle Lord´s castle. 

"A virgin knife in a virgin´s hand 

Can kill the beast that rules the land"

As you can imagine reading Nyx point of view wasn´t easy because she was constantly blaming her father for her fate and judging her sister for being the one that was saved. So there´s a lot of bitterness and resentment. Now my point is, she goes on and on shutting her feelings and then complains because no one understands her, how come if she never tells anyone?, but is part of the history I guess. 

Ignifex on the other hand is presented with an irresistible human form and only cat like eyes to know he´s a demon (big ugly monster as you can see) and he´s sarcastic and witty and torn and selfish. So Nyx is attracted to him even when she won´t admit it. So a lot of tension in the book, especially when she meets her only ally in the house of Ignifex, Shade. A shadow in the day and an ethereal copy of Ignifex in the night with the only difference of him having clear blue eyes.

I twitched and went still, but he made no further move. Then he whispered-so softly I barely heard it- "Please stay."

All I have to say from the book is that in some parts is predictable, thought the protagonist doesn´t see it. And other parts are an amazing riddle. Like the ending, that I really didn´t expect it to be that way. So that´s the awesome part of it and it keeps you going until the last page (I finish it in about a day). The book in general is really well written. 

I don´t want to go too long explaining the story because is a part of the readers pleasure to discover, so all I can say is that if you´re fans of fairy tales and mythology this is your book.

There´s a lot of mythology and prophecies rhymes and songs and I really enjoyed that, since I´m a fan of that, and I liked the way the author explained the myths, she knows the exact moment when she should put them and leave you with intrigue. 

My personal thought about this book is that in some point I think the author tries to explore the true human nature, how as human beens we are never actually good or bad, we are sort of in between, being selfish or proud, and we need to deal with that and accept us for who we are, and maybe if we are lucky enough we will find someone that see all the good and wicked parts of us and loves us anyway. 

The Cover

Is so pretty, congrats to the designers because is perfect for what you see in the story. If this book ever gets translated I wouldn´t want them to change the cover. And the tittle also goes perfectly with the story. 

Final Score: 3.5 /5  I enjoyed the reading.