Super Six Sunday

Super Six Sunday is an original bookish meme hosted at Bewitched Bookworms and inspired by “Top Ten Tuesday” from The Broke and The Bookish . 

Super Six Books that made me cry. hard!

These books all had me bawling.  All of them dealing with loss of a loved one or personal tragedy and the overwhelming grief that goes with it.  Whether it be a human or an animal involved, I sob uncontrollably.  I have to go for a much lighter read next to get over it.  There are of course, so many more I could have added to this list but I chose the first six that came to mind.

Review: Origin

This is the fourth book in the Lux series.  If you've read the other books in the series, you know that the third book left the reader with a huge cliffhanger so I was so excited to get my hands on this one to see what happened next.

Synopsis of Origin from Barnes and Noble:

After the successful but disastrous raid on Mount Weather, he’s facing the impossible. Katy is gone. Taken. Everything becomes about finding her. Taking out anyone who stands in his way? Done. Burning down the whole world to save her? Gladly. Exposing his alien race to the world? With pleasure.

All Katy can do is survive. 

Surrounded by enemies, the only way she can come out of this is to adapt. After all, there are sides of Daedalus that don’t seem entirely crazy, but the group’s goals are frightening and the truths they speak even more disturbing. Who are the real bad guys? Daedalus? Mankind? Or the Luxen?

Together, they can face anything.  

But the most dangerous foe has been there all along, and when the truths are exposed and the lies come crumbling down, which side will Daemon and Katy be standing on? And will they even be together? 

My Review:

I wasn't disappointed.  If you have read my reviews before, you know that I get frustrated when the two main characters get torn apart over and over again.  Jennifer Armentrout doesn't do that.  Katy and Daemon were separated at the end of the last book but it wasn't for long and it didn't happen over and over. They got to face the other challenges in the story together.  Their relationship is strong and lasting and, even though Daemon got a bit sappy at times, I was glad they had each other for support.  They certainly needed it with everything that was happening!

Archer has quite a large role in this story and I really liked his character.  I had a hunch from the beginning when he was placed as Katy's guard that he would help her.  He didn't let me down.  However, in one scene where she is hurt pretty badly, he just lets it happen. I understood why he had to do it, but it still angered me that he didn't jump it to prevent it from happening.  When his true identity was revealed, I was glad he was on the right side. Although I love Dee and Dawson and Beth just as much as I did in the earlier books, Archer became one of my favorite characters in the series.  I hope we get to see much more of him.

As for the plot, I thought it was creative that the author used area 51 as a major setting.  It fit perfectly. Katy found out just what she was capable of and this produced a lot of conflicting emotions for her.  She did some things that she will always regret and some she will never regret.  Every character made life changing decisions and had to live with the results, good or bad.  There were definitely some dark moments in this book. Family came first no matter what the cost.

Introducing the Origin as this entirely different race brings about a lot of new possible paths for the series to take. Plus, without giving anything away, we have a big turn at the end that could change everything.  I predict that war is coming but it is impossible to tell yet who will be fighting on which side.  Now comes the long wait to the next book but I am just as excited for this one as I was for each of the others in the series.  Keep them coming!

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser for the week:

"You've killed Katy.  You know how it feels to take a life, but you aren't a murderer.  You aren't a killer."  He caught my sharp inhale with a knowing look.  "Not yet, at least."

Origin by Jennifer Armentrout

WWW

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

What am I currently reading:  Origin by Jennifer Armantrout.  I can't wait to see what happens now that Katy has been taken and Daemon has to get her back.

What did I recently finish reading?:  The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty.  This was a book I just reviewed.  I liked it more than I originally thought I would.

What do I think I'll read next?:  I have a few in my top TBR.  The Liberator by Victoria Scott, Hotshot by Julie Garwood, and Mariana by Susanna Kearsley.  These will give me my monthly dose of YA, adventure/romance, and historical fiction with a touch of paranormal.  ;)

Review: The Husband's Secret

Synopsis from Barnes and Noble:

Imagine that your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret—something with the potential to destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others as well. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive. . . .
Cecilia Fitzpatrick has achieved it all—she’s an incredibly successful businesswoman, a pillar of her small community, and a devoted wife and mother. Her life is as orderly and spotless as her home. But that letter is about to change everything, and not just for her: Rachel and Tess barely know Cecilia—or each other—but they too are about to feel the earth-shattering repercussions of her husband’s secret.

My review:
Let's start with the positives because there are a lot of them.  First off, I loved the premise of the The Husband's Secret.  A woman is in the attic and finds a letter from her husband to be opened upon his death.  He is of course, still alive.  How incredibly tempting.  I was so easily able to put myself in her position, completely torn as to whether or not to read the letter.  The endless questions running through her mind, the issues of trust and betrayal.  Is it a love letter that will deepen the love or is it something terrible that will make me regret reading it forever.  Well, either way, I wouldn't have been able to hold out nearly as long as Cecelia did.

I also loved the way the author kept each character's story separate but yet connection all of the women to one another in some way.  The empathy I felt for Rachel all throughout the story was almost tangible.  The anger I felt toward Felicity and John Paul had me practically yelling at the book as I read.  The author easily brought these ladies (and men) to life and gave them challenges that almost broke them but also made them reflect on their lives and contemplate their futures.  

The epilogue was creative.  I loved the whole "If they had only known" format.  It really made me think and wish that I could go back into the story and give the characters the information that would prevent some of the tragedy. 

On to the negative.  There was really only one and that was that I found I was able to predict what was in the letter from John Paul almost from the beginning of the story.  It didn't really have any shock value for me. However, this didn't stop me from enjoying the book and the relationships between the characters.

I had never heard of this author before and this isn't a book I would have picked on my own.  I thank my group at www.shereads.org for choosing it because otherwise, I would have missed a wonderful story of tragedy and the way it can both tear people apart and bring them together.  Uplifting and heartbreaking.  A great read!