Top Ten Tuesday: Spring TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme 

created by The Broke and the Bookish.

Talking about books I'm excited to read never gets old. 
Especially ones that I want to happen sooner rather than later. 
So here we go...

  

 

Have you read any of these?

What's at the top of your Spring TBR?

Review: Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Half-Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Series: Covenant #1

Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal, Mythology

Release Date: October 18, 2011

Format: Trade Paperback

Source: Purchased

Find it here: GoodReads | Amazon

Synopsis

The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi pure bloods have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals--well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures.

Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden. Unfortunately, she's crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn't her biggest problem--staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is.

If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck.

My Thoughts

Gods and mortals, pure-bloods and half-bloods, Hematoi and daimons... yep, I was ready to dive into another paranormal series from Jennifer L. Armentrout. I'm not sure how I even managed to not read this series before now. The Lux series remains my favorite paranormal series ever (hello Daemon Black), I loved the Dark Elements trilogy (hello Roth), and her new adult contemporaries are some of my favorites. So it was past time for me to jump into the Covenant series and the world of the Hematoi.

At 17, Alex and her mother have been on their own for 3 years. They left the only home Alex had ever known, the Covenant, and Alex has never understood why. When a horrific attack leaves Alex alone and on the run, she returns to the one place her mother fled from. Alex just wants to pick up where she left off and continue her training. All she's ever wanted is to become a Sentinel, one who hunts and kills the daimon enemies of the Hematoi. But as a half-blood her position is precarious and her options are limited. If she doesn't become a Sentinel she'll be forced into a life of servitude in the home of a pure-blood.

Sentinel Aiden is assigned to train Alex over the summer to get her up to speed with her classmates. That turns out to be tricky when Alex develops feelings for Aiden - and relationships between half-bloods and pures are strictly forbidden. Just when it seems like things can't get more complicated, there's a girl who hates her, a stepfather she doesn't trust, and a chilling prophecy.

There was so much to enjoy in Half-Blood: learning the mythology of a new world (the Covenant), trying to figure out everyone's ulterior motives, the slow-burn between Alex and Aiden, Alex's friendship with Caleb, and the fact that Alex is no shrinking violet. On the flipside, I did get frustrated with Alex at times. First, because her strength sometimes seemed to come at the cost of her showing any emotion at all. She mostly refused to open up to anyone and instead stoically carried on. It sometimes made her hard to relate to. And secondly, she made some seriously stupid decisions. Aiden referred to her as 'foolishly brave' and that pretty much summed her up. Alex was a fan of rules be damned, lack of training be damned, and even common sense be damned - just take action even when it was truly ill-advised. Sure it made me want to throttle her at times but it was also impressive because like I said - the girl is no shrinking violet who stands around waiting to be rescued.

I've seen plenty of people say this series (or at least this first book) has a lot of similarities to the Vampire Academy series. Since I've never read VA (despite the entire box set sitting on my bookshelf... but that's a story for another day), any similarities went right over my head. So no issues here. I don't think Half-Blood really grabbed me like most of JLA's other books have. I was hooked on the Lux series from page one of Obsidian. I was invested in the Dark Elements series from the very beginning of White Hot Kiss. Even though I thoroughly enjoyed it, I didn't feel that same connection to the story or the characters here - but I have no doubt that will change as I continue with the series. If anything, I have to find out what's going to happen with Alex, Aiden and Seth!

4/5 Stars 

Have you read the Covenant series? What did you think?

Mini-Reviews: I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest & Daimon by Jennifer L. Armentrout

I've read a couple books lately that don't really warrant lengthy reviews, sooo... mini-reviews it is. I always have *something* to say, I just don't always have a *lot* to say. :)

Title: I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest

Series: No

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary

Release Date: May 26, 2015

Format: Hardcover

Source: Library Loan

Find it here: GoodReads | Amazon

Synopsis

Once upon a time, two best friends created a princess together. Libby drew the pictures, May wrote the tales, and their heroine, Princess X, slayed all the dragons and scaled all the mountains their imaginations could conjure.

Once upon a few years later, Libby was in the car with her mom, driving across the Ballard Bridge on a rainy night. When the car went over the side, Libby passed away, and Princess X died with her.

Once upon a now: May is sixteen and lonely, wandering the streets of Seattle, when she sees a sticker slapped in a corner window.

Princess X?

When May looks around, she sees the Princess everywhere: Stickers. Patches. Graffiti. There's an entire underground culture, focused around a webcomic at IAmPrincessX.com. The more May explores the webcomic, the more she sees disturbing similarities between Libby's story and Princess X online. And that means that only one person could have started this phenomenon - her best friend, Libby, who lives.

My Thoughts

I saw I Am Princess X mentioned on a blog not too long ago and it caught my eye. Enough so that I nabbed it from the library. This is a YA (that often felt more like a MG) novel about May and her friend Libby. As children they created Princess X - Libby drew and May wrote. A few years after Libby's untimely death May starts to see Princess X stickers all around and begins to dig into the how's and why's. 

This was a fun blend of traditional story telling and a graphic novel/comic. When May discovers the Princess X web comic, fantasy and reality start to blend as she pieces together clues from the comic to solve the real life mystery of what really happened to Libby. However, the "mystery" of what happened to Libby isn't particularly mysterious since it's basically all spelled out right in the comic. And it didn't take a genius to decipher the clues. Add in the fact that May's new friend just happens to be a hacker extraordinaire (gee, how handy!) and all answers basically just fell in their laps. Middle grade readers will probably have fun with the comic aspect and the few "action" scenes but this is just too dumbed down for teens. I still give it 3 stars for the cool concept and the entertainment value.

3/5 Stars

Title: Daimon by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Series: Covenant #0.5

Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal, Fantasy, Mythology

Release Date: May 10, 2011

Format: Trade Paperback

Source: Purchased

Find it here: GoodReads | Amazon

Synopsis

For three years, Alexandria has lived among mortals—pretending to be like them and trying to forget the duty she'd been trained to fulfill as a child of a mortal and a demigod. At seventeen, she's pretty much accepted that she's a freak by mortal standards… and that she'll never be prepared for that duty.

According to her mother, that’s a good thing.

But as every descendant of the gods knows, Fate has a way of rearing her ugly head. A horrifying attack forces Alex to flee Miami and try to find her way back to the very place her mother had warned her she should never return—the Covenant. Every step that brings her closer to safety is one more step toward death… because she's being hunted by the very creatures she'd once trained to kill.

The daimons have found her.

My Thoughts

Despite my deep and abiding love for all things Jennifer L. Armentrout, there was still one of her series that I had yet to start. I changed that over the weekend when I picked up the prequel to the Covenant series. This was a super short (60-something pages) introduction to the series but was still packed with plenty of action. It's interesting getting familiar with the world and the mythology of a new series. I've never read anything based on Greek mythology so the gods and demigods, etc are all new to me. I've seen some reviews that take issue with the series because apparently (at least the start of the series) is very similar to the Vampire Academy. Well, guess what... I haven't read the Vampire Academy series so any similarities will go right over my head. (Look at that, a little bonus to being behind on my TBR.) I enjoyed this one enough that I immediately picked up the next book, Half-Blood, and I'm excited to see where the series goes. Plus, I'm a sucker for JLA's male characters and I've heard plenty about Aiden and Seth. So let's be real - I'm way excited about meeting them. *cue the heart eyes* 

4/5 Stars

Have you read the Covenant series? What are your thoughts on it?

And, if you've read JLA's other series, how does this compare?