Mundie Moms

Friday, July 22, 2016

Torn by Jennifer L. Armentrout / Blog Tour: Book Review


Hello and welcome to the last stop in the TORN blog tour. I am so thrilled to be apart of this tour, and share my review for Jennifer L. Armentrout's newest release. Torn is the sequel to Wicked, which she released last year. You can read my 5 star review for it, here

ABOUT THE BOOK 


By: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Published by: self
Released on: July 19th, 2016
SeriesWicked #2
Pre-Order fromAmazon | B&N | iBooks | Kobo
Add it to Goodreads

Rating: 5 stars - I Loved It
*I received an e-copy of this book to read, in exchange for my honest review

Torn between duty and survival, nothing can be the same.


Everything Ivy Morgan thought she knew has been turned on its head. After being betrayed and then nearly killed by the Prince of the Fae, she’s left bruised and devastated—and with an earth-shattering secret that she must keep at all costs. And if the Order finds out her secret, they’ll kill her.

Then there’s Ren Owens, the sexy, tattooed Elite member of the Order who has been sharing Ivy’s bed and claiming her heart. Their chemistry is smoking hot, but Ivy knows that Ren has always valued his duty to the Order above all else—he could never touch her if he knew the truth. That is, if he let her live at all. Yet how can she live with herself if she lies to him?

But as the Fae Prince begins to close in on Ivy, intent on permanently opening the gates to the Otherworld, Ivy is running out of options. If she doesn’t figure out who she can trust—and fast—it’s not only her heart that will be torn apart, but civilization itself.

Packed with plenty of emotion, swoon, and action, Torn is the sequel I had hoped it would be, and a whole lot more! 
It's addicting, unpredictable, and one I couldn't put down. I loved it. Armentrout took things to a whole new level in this book. Nothing is at it seems. A lot of secrets are revealed, putting some in danger, and making it impossible of some things to go back to how they once were. Relationships will be tested, new and ones will be made, and some characters will forever be changed.

Picking up right where WICKED left off, TORN thrust readers right back into the dangerously, exciting world Ivy lives in. Still reeling from the events that happened at the end of WICKED, Ivy has a lot of to deal with. Not only has she found out some shocking things about herself, these very things not only put her in danger, but those she also loves. 
Through out the entire book, Ivy is internally at war with herself because of this new discovery.  Naturally a good fighter, it was hard to watch Ivy go through this fight virtually alone, choosing between hiding who/what she really is, vs being able to accept it, and not being able to tell anyone. 

Emotionally, Ivy deals with a lot in this book. Some things were hard to read through, and I give credit to Armentrout for not rushing Ivy's emotions through those moments, no matter how hard they were to read. I understood her reasoning for doing what she does. I loved the way Armentrout allowed me to emotionally connect to Ivy through this. There's no easy choice for Ivy to make. Either choice could have deadly consequences either for her, or those she loves. She'll do anything to protect those she loves, no matter the cost. 

One of the things I have loved about this series, as well as all of Armentrout's books, is the way she writes her characters. Whether they are human, or paranormal, or in Torn's case, both, her characters are easy to love, care about, and root for. Armentrout writes them such a way that it's easy to emotionally connect with them. They bring life to the story, and in the process I can't help but want to get to know them more. I can't help but laugh with them, cry with them, and cheer them on through all their strengths and weaknesses. I love that they make mistakes. It's one of the things that makes them relatable. I think it's one of the things I admired in not only Tink, but Ivy and Ren as well. Armentrout allowed me to understand why each of these characters made the choices they did. 


Speaking of Ren, and Tink, this wouldn't be an Armentrout book without a lot of swoon, snark, and guys who know what they want, and they're not afraid of to do what it takes to get it. First off, let's talk about Ren. One of the things I love about his and Ivy's relationship, is that realistic give and take. No relationship is perfect, whether in real life or fictional, and I love that for all the giving and taking, there is some realistic conflict between the two, especially with the recent events. I completely understood why this hot fae hunter wanted to do everything in his power to protect the women he loves. However, Ivy is very capable of taking care of herself. I loved the she wouldn't back down when it came to handling things her way and her safety. Though Ren may not like it, I respected the fact he accepted it. I also liked that he naturally wanted to protect Ivy. Aside from their conflict, and impending danger, these two have some electrifying chemistry. They definitely ignited the pages a few times... Aside from their sexy times, I LOVED the moments Ren was just what Ivy needed. Someone to be her rock to lean on, comfort and hold. 


Tink is one of my favorite Armentrout characters. I think he surprised me as much as he surprised Ivy and Ren. There's a scene when Tink reveals something, or should I say a few things (snickers) about himself, that no one saw coming. The reaction he got was hilarious. Aside from my moment of hysterical laughing during that scene, what I love about Tink, is that he doesn't make excuses for what he is, and who he is. He's the perfect best friend for Ivy. I love that she's able to at least confide in him, regardless of all the crazy things she's finding out about from him. Plus the nonstop bantering between him and Ren is hilarious as well. 


TORN is the perfect sequel to WICKED! This is a book that has it all. There is so much that happens in this book that it literally broke me near the end. Be prepared to laugh, cry, and want to rock in the fetal position for a time. Seriously, Armentrout knows how to write a story that keeps me wanting more. Like I mentioned in my review of WICKED, with TORN she once again proves why she's one of my favorite writers, both in YA, NA and Adult. Being a paranormal fan, I love that this book is paranormal book full of NA themes, something I think a lot of older YA readers will enjoy. If you've read WICKED, be sure to pick up TORN! Trust me, this book will make you wish the next book was already out. 

* I would recommend this book to any of Armentrout's fans who are 18 yrs and up. There is language, sexual content, and some violence in this book that may not be suitable for younger readers.

ABOUT THE SERIES




Things are about to get Wicked in New Orleans… Don’t miss the first title in the series, WICKED! Purchase it from: Amazon | B&N | iBooks | Kobo

ABOUT THE AUTHOR



#1 New York Times and #1 International Bestselling author Jennifer lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia. All the rumors you’ve heard about her state aren’t true. When she’s not hard at work writing, she spends her time reading, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, and hanging out with her husband and her Jack Russell Loki.

Her dreams of becoming an author started in algebra class, where she spent most of her time writing short stories….which explains her dismal grades in math. Jennifer writes young adult paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance. She is published with Spencer Hill Press, Entangled Teen and Brazen, Disney/Hyperion and Harlequin Teen. Her book Obsidian has been optioned for a major motion picture and her Covenant Series has been optioned for TV. Her young adult romantic suspense novel DON’T LOOK BACK was a 2014 nominated Best in Young Adult Fiction by YALSA.

She also writes Adult and New Adult contemporary and paranormal romance under the name J. Lynn. She is published by Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.



FOLLOW THE TOUR


The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han / Flashback Friday: Audiobook Review


By: Jenny Han
Narrator: Jessica Almsay
Published by: Simon and Schuster
Released on: April 6, 2010
Series: The Summer I Turned Pretty #1
Purchase from: audibleAmazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound | iBooks | Book Depository
Add it to: Goodreads
Rating: 4 stars - I enjoyed it

Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer--they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one terrible and wonderful summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along. 

UK edition

SaveSaveAh summer, when my TBR is filled with contemporary books. How many of you are like me and own this series, but somehow other newer reads always bump up ahead of it? I decided that it's languished on my shelves for far too long, so this week, I buddy-read it with my teen daughter. I highly recommend reading this with someone just because (trust me on this), you will need to talk to someone about it.

Belly is exactly the type of character you imagined from reading the synopsis. She is the quiet, forgotten, tag-a-long to the boys' adventures. Jenny throws in a nice dose of flashbacks, so that the relationships evolve logically and insta-love is pretty much non-existent. The long, hot summer timeline gives relationships plenty of time to come together and fall apart and change in the most realistic of ways. For example, the friendship between the two mothers is so realistic and lovely in its layers that you actually begin to think wait, do I know them in real life?

I've read plenty of love triangles, but in Jenny's hands, this particular push-pull set of relationships is unbelievably real. I found myself rooting for both boys at different times in the story. I even understood bad boy Conner. I didn't want to like him, and yet, I couldn't help it. Belly, girl, I completely get you.

Summer days are long and this is a book you can finish in two trips to the pool. Belly's story has a depth you won't expect and that merited an extra star in its rating. The last quarter of the book is a page-turner which ends (no spoiler, but you've been warned) in a cliffhanger to end all (WHATOHNOWHAT) cliffhangers. So, get the sequel ready.

A quick aside on the audiobook, I would rate it at about 2.5-3 stars. The performance of the narrator makes the book feel like you're reading an elementary-age story. I found her overly dramatic, high-pitched and slow delivery distracting and frankly, a lot easier to take at 1.25 speed (at which her reading pace sounded normal to my ears). I won't be listening to books 2 and 3, but I have them in paperback and I've already started book 2 and boy, does it start off with a bang. My heart has yet to recover.

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