ARC Review: Red Glove (Curse Workers #2) by Holly Black

Curses and cons. Magic and the mob. In Cassel Sharpe's world, they go together. Cassel always thought he was an ordinary guy, until he realized his memories were being manipulated by his brothers. Now he knows the truth—he’s the most powerful curse worker around. A touch of his hand can transform anything—or anyone—into something else. 

That was how Lila, the girl he loved, became a white cat. Cassel was tricked into thinking he killed her, when actually he tried to save her. Now that she's human again, he should be overjoyed. Trouble is, Lila's been cursed to love him, a little gift from his emotion worker mom. And if Lila's love is as phony as Cassel's made-up memories, then he can't believe anything she says or does. 

When Cassel's oldest brother is murdered, the Feds recruit Cassel to help make sense of the only clue—crime-scene images of a woman in red gloves. But the mob is after Cassel too—they know how valuable he could be to them. Cassel is going to have to stay one step ahead of both sides just to survive. But where can he turn when he can't trust anyone—least of all, himself? 

Love is a curse and the con is the only answer in a game too dangerous to lose.

Description: Goodreads.com
Hardcover, 320 pages
Published April 5th 2011 by Margaret K. McElderry

Thanks to: Simon & Schuester

REVIEW 

Having just finish reading this book, I am a mess. And to think I must wait a whole year for it's sequel, a WHOLE year. Oh Ms. Black, you are evil! 

I really LOVED White Cat, but I LOVED Red Glove even more(as unbelievable as it sounds). 

Oh btw, this has spoilers of the first book. 

The story pretty much starts where it left off, Cassel with his two screw up brothers & mom, & Lila worked into loving him. 

Unlike some sequels, Red Glove doesn't hesitate into reintroducing us into the crazy con world. From the start I found myself wanting to know more & reconnect with the story. 

We see Cassel struggling because of his mom's curse toward Lila, the recent death of his brother & new mysteries. 

The story goes smoothly & in no moment I had any trouble identifying with the characters. Although Cassel is a guy, we can easily relate to his struggles & sympathize with him. Sometimes his family relationship seem a bit far-fetched, but when you think about the ambient they grew up in, it's perfectly understandable. 

Overall, Red Glove keeps you on your toes the whole time. It is a magical tale of crime & romance. 

If I have an issue, is the long wait, a YEAR! 

I wish I had more words to relate how amazing this book truly is. But if you don't believe or have doubts, read the book & find out for yourself! 

 --  5 stars! 

ARC Review: Delirium (Delirium #1) by Lauren Oliver

Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love - the deliria - blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the governments demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy. 

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

Hardcover, 440 pages
Expected publication: February 1st 2011 by HarperTeen
Description: Goodreads.com


REVIEW

I'm still stunned over the ending.

If you have read Before I fall you already know about Lauren Oliver's brilliancy, if you have not then you should read it immediately.

From the start I knew Delirium would be just as good or better than Before I fall. It turned out better. Imagine a world without love, a world were even the slightest filial show of affection is frown upon. Thats' where Lena lives, a world full of cold people who see Love, or Amor Deliria Nervosa, as a disease.

And even if it seems unbelievable for such a place, Lauren Oliver pulls it off. You truly believe people don't love, that they see it as a disease.

At first, I saw Lena a little cowardly, but then as the story goes by we understand, she is terrified of the disease for it was the death of her mom who never stopped loving Lena's father.

I loved Lena, she is the kind of character you sympathize from the start and you just like her more and more as the book goes by and who by the end you just adore.

Delirium is full of sentiments, good ones and bad ones, but as the book itself portrays we can't enjoy the good stuff if you don't bear the bad stuff.

Overall, I suffered a strong case of Amor Deliria Nervosa toward this book and EVERYONE should read it because as sweet and amazing as it is, it can also teach you a lot, like don't trust regulators!

Anyway, can someone give me the sequel? I need to read it pronto.

5 STARS!!!!

Review: Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez

  

 A mysterious and haunting tale of romance and murder, that begins with the marriage of a man and a woman in love. But when he inexplicably mistreats his beloved on the night of the wedding, he is in turn murdered by her brothers, and we are left with a strange sense of inevitability and passions gone terribly awry.
Description: Goodreads.com

Paperback: 120 pages

Published: October 7th 2003 by Vintage 

REVIEW


One of the most respected and celebrated novella of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It narrates the chronicle of Santiago Nasar and how his dead came to be in the full knowledge of the whole town who did nothing to stop him because his dead was so well known they all assumed he knew it too. Killed for a crime he did not commit his story is narrated by his best friend.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez astonished me unlike any other writer with so few pages. The guilt of the town and the secrecy of Angela Vicario of a secret that is never reveal, join together in this beautiful read.
Overall, anyone who has enjoyed his novels before can delight with this novella and his new readers can relish in the new found author.


 -- 5 STARS!