Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Summary- Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.
In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Thankful for... Mammoth

   

 At first the contest had me confused. Thankful? There wasn't a particular book that immediately came to mind. Nothing had an impact earth-shattering enough for me to remember instantly. And, just sayin', I'm not a fan of anything Narnia although Turkish Delights sound heavenly. The Narnia book series has always sounded like it would be better read aloud to a gaggle of poor stuffed geese by an aloof, elderly English man. Not that I discriminate against aloof, elderly English men who pass lonely, lonely days reading aloud to a gaggle of stuffed geese. Much. The movie was surprisingly good, but I ending up falling asleep during the hour-long fight scene.

      I had to dig through my bookshelf to find a book I had almost but not quite forgotten about. Mammoth by John Varley was my Narnia. It was a just-because present from my college broke sister. I was ten, and I knew Mammoth was probably going to be a  face-palmer. The tip-offs?

1. The only books my sister ever reads are Serious Books. One bored weekend in her apartment, I found myself learning all about the joys of feminism in a concise work of literature topping a thousand pages. My sister had read over and highlighted the most important bits. Fun stuff.
2. The book in question was purchased new for a dollar.
3. I was ten. Mammoth was meant to be read by adults.

     Oh, yeah. Ten-year-old me had major skills of deductive reasoning. But my skills had failed me. Mammoth was good. While I was right about some scenes being too old for me (what did Matt and Susan mean when they said making love? Why did they lay down together? So. Many. Questions.), the parts that made sense opened my mind up to the possibilities of the good in bigger, more complex books. Mammoth helped me to branch out and find worth while middle-grade books leading me to become my obviously awesome bibliophile self. : D 

  

   

Drink, Slay, Love by Sarah Beth Durst

 

That's some crazy drink right there...

When Pearl, a bloodthirsty, teenage vampire, unexpectedly gets stabbed by a rainbow-tooting wereunicorn, she develops the ability to be out in the sunlight. It's a helpful ability when trying to lure in humans to be oh, I don't know, feasted on in an age-old king's coming of age ceremony. Lucky for Pearl's vampire family, the honored host of this event, Pearl has gained her Daywalker status in time to be of some use. There is one problem the Family did not anticipate getting in the way. The problem being Pearl starting to think maybe, just maybe she would much rather be with her forbidden human crush than become a mass murderess. Gaining a conscience can be a bitch.
  I didn't know whether to place Drink, Slay, Love by Sarah Beth Durst on the top of my reading list or the bottom. So, to work through this little dilemma of mine, I made a pros and cons list:

CONS 

• Vampire. The only vampire for me is a academy vampire. None others can possibly compare. If I find a vampire that can even halfway measure up to Rose's tendency to be kick-butt amazing, I'll eat one of these.
• As awesome as I think the cover is, the general population of my school would think it's creepy-looking and inevitably ask me what Drink, Slay, Love is about. It's an example if a deplorable situation for all ya'll PSAT takers. I will use the phrase "stabbed by a wereunicorn" in my summary, and either the person will think "wereunicorn" is as awesome a word as I do, or said person will blink very slowly then leave me. Alone. Forever. Not fun.

PROS

• Drink, Slay, Love is by SARAH BETH DURST. SARAH BETH DURST. I am love with Enchanted Ivy's blend of supernatural and sarcasm.
•  Wereunicorn. Even as a young child, I had always known that my goal in life was to be one-third unicorn, one-third human, and one-third owl. A wereunicorn is, like, two-thirds closer to my goal.

         The choice finally got made for me when I got sent a review copy. (Thanks, Sarah Beth Durst!)

The characters of Drink, Slay, Love all have the personality and spunk I love, even the villains.  Matt, wannabe vampire hunter, video-game lover, my favorite, has a quirky make-ya-wanna-smile response for everything and so do the others. It was impossible to discreetly read Drink, Slay, Love-- I had a perpetual smile going on the entire book.

          And Pearl... (I do not wish to eat a bug...) passes the Rose test. Although she keeps her sarcastic attitude the whole way through, it made me happy and somewhat giggly to spot the subtle changes in Pearl's thoughts and actions that signified her new found conscience.

    I give Drink, Slay, Love five stars. THIS is a book I can read over again.

Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon

All Megan wants when she moves to Ireland is to fit in. But this seems unlikely when she catches the attention of the famously anti-social, famously hot Adam DeRis. Megan knows she has a connection with Adam from first glance. But what Megan doesn’t know is that Adam is one of the four rare Carriers of the Mark—and so is she. Able to control one of the four elements, she and the other three Carriers are in constant danger from those who wish to control them. The fear of being captured and exploited might be bearable if Megan had Adam to comfort her, but an ancient prophecy foretells great destruction if two Carriers ever get together.

The relationship between Adam and Megan is, in my opinion, unbelievable and slightly clichéd. Adam has perfected his Edward Cullen stalker gaze, and he shares Edward’s propensity for confessions of deep and undying love in the early stages of casual dating. Although, technically, Adam and Megan are secretly spying stalking keeping tabs on one another for a while before that first date, so I guess he knows her well enough.

Although the madly-in-love-at-first-sight type of romance is overdone and flinch-worthy, the ultimate let down is the star-crossed lover aspect. Here’s the thing: If Adam and Megan have a baby, then the world will implode. Great twist, right? Who cares that they’re still in high school? Who cares that they’ve only been dating for a few months? Their relationship will undoubtedly lead to babies. Multiple babies. Yep, this is the type of paranormal YA novel where talking about baby making and the earth’s ultimate demise as one in the same is a major plot point.
The Carrier if the Mark reminds me in plot and characters of Hourglass, Hush, Hush, and The Seven Rays. If you like those books, I would recommend trying The Carrier of the Mark. But if you’re not a die-hard paranormal romance fan, there’s nothing spectacular about the formulaic romance to make The Carrier of the Mark stand out in the vast genre of YA paranormal fiction.