Review: Croak

Croak by Gina Damico

Synopsis (From Goodreads): Fed up with her wild behavior, sixteen-year-old Lex's parents ship her off to upstate New York to live with her Uncle Mort for the summer, hoping that a few months of dirty farm work will whip her back into shape.

But Uncle Mort's true occupation is much dirtier than shoveling manure. He's a Grim Reaper. And he's going to teach Lex the family business.

She quickly assimilates into the peculiar world of Croak, a town populated by reapers who deliver souls from this life to the next. But Lex can't stop her desire for justice - or is it vengeance? - whenever she encounters a murder victim, craving to stop the attackers before they can strike again.

Will she ditch Croak and go rogue with her reaper skills?

I have to admit Croak has been sitting on my bookshelf for way too long and I'm not sorry that I finally brought myself to pick it up. Lex is the perfect character to follow through this twisted story of grim reapers with her snarky attitude and her disregard for authority. After her parents take drastic actions to try and change Lex's wild and delinquent behaviour by sending her to work on the farm with her Uncle Mort, Lex finally finds a place where she feels she belongs. First, her uncle isn't a farmer, he's a Grim Reaper and Lex is about to join him in the family business, finally putting her violent rages to some use. She quickly makes Croak a home, finding friends and a purpose in her life, the two things she was missing at home, but every time she comes to a violent death she just wants to make the person responsible pay. Will she break the one most important rule Croak has and bring justice to the victim or can she just let the killers get away?

I love macabre stories and the idea of a town full of Grim Reapers instantly drew my attention towards Damico's Croak, and I wasn't disappointed. The world of Croak has been delved into in great detail that she has set up a whole society of Grim Reapers which made it fascinating to read about and then there are there characters. Each character has their own backstory, and for characters who deal with death on a day-to-day basis it added a lot of personality and flaws which I loved. Lex, the main character, is rude, snarky and is likely to hit someone in the face just for speaking to her (yes, she does that several times), but it is this attitude and Damico's humorous writing style that still made Lex a likeable and funny character. Then there's the hot and goofy housemate, Driggs, who's not afraid to hit a girl

With plenty of page-turning twists and dark humour, it made it a fun read. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who loves grim reapers and dark fantasy.

Source: Audible

2013 TBR Pile Reading Challenge: #5 of 21
2013 Audio Book Challenge: #4 of 25

Review: Anna Dressed in Blood

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Synopsis (From Goodreads): Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story... 

 Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead. 

 So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay. 

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn’t expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home. 

 And she, for whatever reason, spares his life.

I first had Anna Dressed in Blood on my to-read list ever since I first heard about it. I'm an absolute sucker for a good ghost story, and Kendare Blake certainly produced one with Anna. Cas is a ghost hunter. His father was before him and now he follows in his footsteps, preparing for the time he can face the ghost who took his father's life. Anna is not supposed to be anything different, just another ghost he's meant to kill, but there is something different about Anna, for some reason Anna decides to spare his life. As Cas tries to understand the motivations of Anna and why she doesn't behave like any normal ghost, he becomes fascinated with her, he has to figure out whether he can kill her in the end.

Kendare Blake has written an original ghost story with a splash of romance chucked in between the two most unlikeliest of couples. It's always good to find a story from a well-written male perspective, and Cas was a strong hero with his own insecurities and vulnerabilities, but also one who knows his own duties and he's a character that I fell in love with from the first page till the end. Anna, for the ghost and supposed villain at the start of the piece, it was easy to sympathise with and I loved that the reader was made to feel sorry for her rather than hate her.

The plot was fast-paced and will keep the reader guessing with many twists and graphically described scares, everything that a good ghost story needs. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves to be scared or loves a good horror story, and I definitely can't wait to see where Anna's story heads to next.

Source: kindle
2013 TBR Pile Reading Challenge: #3 of 21

2013 Reading Challenges

Last year I managed to succeed in my reading goal mainly due to the reading challenges I challenged myself in, and I found plenty of good challenges out there. This year, I've decided to take up the challenge again. Here are the challenges I'm going to be tackling throughout the year:

The challenge is to read 12 debut authors in the year, and at the moment my list is as follows:

1. Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum
2. Broken by A.E. Rought
3. Insomnia by J.R. Johansson
4. The Cadet of Tildor by Alex Lidell
5. Pantomime by Laura Lam
6. My Sister's Reaper by Dorothy Dreyer
7. Altered by Jennifer Rush
8. The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett
9. Level 2 by Lenore Appelhans
10. Echo by Alicia Wright Brewster
11. The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door by  Karen Finneyfrock
12. Lawless by Jeffrey Salane

This challenge is to read 10 sophomores (second in the series or second novel published in 2013). Some of the books I plan to read include:

1. Pretty Sly by Elisa Ludwig
2. Fragments by Dan Wells
3. The Elite by Kiera Cass
4. Vortex by Julie Cross
5. Everbound by Brodi Ashton

The challenge is to read books from my TBR list (and I have a LOT of books waiting to be read). This year I'm aiming for the level Sweet Kiss (21-30 books). Some of those books I plan to read include:

1. Torment by Lauren Kate
2. Specials by Scott Westerfield
3. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
4. Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick
5. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
6. The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot
7. The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting
8. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
9. I'd Tell you I'd Love you but then I'd have to Kill you by Ally Carter
10. Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins

This challenge is all about reading audio books (which I absolutely love and devour), so I'm going all out and selecting the goal of Married (25+ audio books). Some of those books I've already got on my list to listen to include:

1. Altered by Jennifer Rush
2. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
3. Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink
4. Endlessly by Kiersten White
5. Revived by Cat Patrick

Last year I definitely outdid myself, reading 10 more books than the previous year, reading a total of 70. This year my goal is 75, so I'm aiming for the goal Getting my Heart Rate up (1-5 books more).

Yay!!! So, that's my reading goals for this year. What reading challenges, if any, are you going to be participating in?