Review: Graffiti Moon

    

Author: Cath Crowley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Purchase: Amazon | B&N | TBD

Synopsis: "Let me make it in time. Let me meet Shadow. The guy who paints in the dark. Paints birds trapped on brick walls and people lost in ghost forests. Paints guys with grass growing from their hearts and girls with buzzing lawn mowers."

It’s the end of Year 12. Lucy’s looking for Shadow, the graffiti artist everyone talks about.

His work is all over the city, but he is nowhere.

Ed, the last guy she wants to see at the moment, says he knows where to find him. He takes Lucy on an all-night search to places where Shadow’s thoughts about heartbreak and escape echo around the city walls

But the one thing Lucy can’t see is the one thing that’s right before her eyes.

Review:

I definitely love this book— no doubt on that. I love how Crowley wrote this using simple words but still able to get the right emotions. I love how that it's written in Ed and Lucy's POV alternately.

It's amazing how Crowley managed to cover everything that happened in one night and made it into an amazing work of art. Good pacing and each POV were written in an amazing way that expressed what the character feels.

I understand Ed's struggle and his need for an alter-ego to express the feelings and thoughts he can't express by himself. I understand how Lucy understands Shadow by his works alone even though they haven't met yet. Through his works, he gets to express himself. Through his works, she understands him. Through his works, the connection is made between them.

Review: Exiled

    

Author: RaShelle Workman

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Purchase: Amazon | B&N | TBD

Synopsis: Stubborn, sixteen-year-old Princess Venus of Kelari wants one thing, to become immortal, that is, until someone exiles her to Earth, kills her irrihunter and takes her family. 

Now she wants revenge. 

First she’s got to get home. But before she can return to Kelari, the Gods have commanded her to help an arrogant boy named Michael find his soul mate. 

Only she doesn't know the first thing about love. 

Rather quickly, her inexperience with human emotion is obscured by other matters--alien-controlled psychotic teens that are out to kill her, and a government group that is set on capturing and dissecting her. 

Worst of all, Venus will suffer a painful death-by-poisoning, thanks to Earth’s atmosphere, if she remains on the planet longer than one week. 

Still, Venus is a Princess and she's got a plan. Surely, with her help, Michael will fall in love with a human. 

But time is running out and Michael is falling for the wrong girl--her.

Review:

I expected a lot from this book. It has an interesting plot and it's actually the first one I've read that concerns a different planet.

The way it was written was kinda off for me though. I was trying hard to feel the excitement whilst reading it but failed. There are terms used in the first few chapters that were obviously unfamiliar. I wish the author explained them. I had a hard time imagining scenes and things, or maybe that's just me. Good thing, the narration got better at the later chapters.

As far as the characters are concerned, I don't like Venus as much as I like other protagonists. She's— okay but not really likeable. I can't see the character development I expected for her after she came to Earth except that she now feels what humans feel.

Michael on the other hand confused me at first. He was first shown as a loving and thoughtful boyfriend, then an abused child, a teen with suicidal thoughts and a football player. His traits don't seem to go hand in hand. I pegged him as an angsty, loner teen after his scene at the lake but that thought was squashed when he played football and attended the party.

Vinny on the other hand was my most appreciated character because of how he played his role as a villain whilst pretending to be their friend all along.

As far as shipping is concerned, I root for Venus/Zaren though I know she's suppose to end up with Michael. I just don't feel her connection to the latter and their interactions weren't enough. But then again, maybe it's just me.

Sadly, I don't feel the anticipation for the next book but I still hope it would be better since the setting is now back at Kelari.