Review: Reaping Me Softly

Title: Reaping Me Softly

Author: Kate Evangalista

Rating: 4.5 stars

The Blurb:
Ever since a near-death-experience on the operating table, seventeen-year-old Arianne Wilson can see dead people. Just as she's learned to accept her new-found talents, she discovers that the boy she's had a crush on since freshman year, Niko Clarke, is a Reaper.

At last they have something in common, but that doesn't mean life is getting any easier. All while facing merciless bullying from the most powerful girl in school, Arianne's world is turned upside down after Niko accidentally reaps the soul of someone she loves. This sends them both into a spiral that threatens to end Arianne's life. But will Niko break his own Reaper's code to save her? And what would the consequences be if he did?

The Review:

When I first read the blurb for this book I got really excited because I really love the whole reaper mythos. I just think it's so interesting and full of story potential. This story is told from two different points of view which is always interesting because you can see how each person is feeling about the other and you can see how things can be interpreted differently. The two points of view we get is from Arriane and Nikolas.

This story started out a bit strangely for me. We meet Arriane, a girl who can see dead people, telling her best friend Ben about her mysterious powers. I'm so used to books where the lead character debates on and on about whether or not they should tell anyone about their gifts so it was surprising to skip all of that and start right where she tells him her secret. Regardless of this I have to say I really enjoyed this book! I like Arriane as a character, she is smart, nice, and caring. She has also been in love with Nikolas Clark (AKA Niko) since he moved to her hometown freshman year. That's not all that's going out in her life though, she also has a sister in the hospital with kidney failure.

I loved Niko, the handsome gentlemanly reaper. He was just the right amount of being a complete sweetheart and being a total badass. When we first meet Niko he's going through an existential crisis of sorts. He feels like his life has no meaning and he starts to let himself fade away much to the chagrin of his boss, Death. When he finally meets Arriane in his chemistry class he is shocked that he hasn't noticed her for the past three years.

Another thing that I found surprising about this  book was that the Reapers are actually allowed to have relationships with humans. In most books like this it is forbidden to have any sort of romantic entanglement with a human. I really liked that the author went this direction, it was refreshing. I was also surprised at Death himself, I was expecting him to be a terrible guy but when he actually said that Niko's love for Arriane "delighted" him, I couldn't stop myself from saying "aw I love Death" and then feeling super awkward about it...

Things eventually take a turn for the worse when Niko unknowingly reaps the soul of someone very close to Arriane's heart. The actions that take place after that one event threatens to tear them apart while also threatening they're lives.

One thing I found a bit odd about this book was the bully Darla. She appeared to have the whole school wrapped around her little finger, even the teachers. This just wasn't realistic to me and I know that talking about realism while reviewing a book about reapers sounds a bit odd, but something about it really rubbed me the wrong way.

This story had a bit of a cliffhanger at the end so I really hope the author continues writing this series. It was a fun read and the characters were great.

Don't forget to leave a comment on about what you thought of either the book or the review. I love getting other people's opinions :)

Review: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Title: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Author: Michelle Hodkin

Rating: 3 stars

The Blurb:

Mara Dyer doesn’t know if she is crazy or haunted—all she knows is that everyone around her is dying in this suspenseful and “strong, inventive tale” (Kirkus Reviews).

Mara Dyer doesn’t think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can’t remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.

There is.

She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love.

She’s wrong.

After Mara survives the traumatizing accident at the old asylum, it makes sense that she has issues. She lost her best friend, her boyfriend, and her boyfriend’s sister, and as if that weren’t enough to cope with, her family moves to a new state in order to give her a fresh start. But that fresh start is quickly filled with hallucinations—or are they premonitions?—and then corpses, and the boundary between reality and nightmare is wavering. At school, there’s Noah, a devastatingly handsome charmer who seems determined to help Mara piece together what’s real, what’s imagined—and what’s very, very dangerous.

The Review:
Mara Dyer was in a horrible accident, one that left her with no memory of how it even happened. All she knows is that her best friend, boyfriend, and her boyfriends sister are dead. Mara begins seeing things, hallucinating, and she knows that something is terribly wrong with her. She tries to hide it from her family but they can see through her facade. So in order to avoid being put into a mental institution Mara suggests moving and getting a fresh start.

This book was an interesting read. I just couldn't really get into it. I liked the psychological nature of it, it made it exciting and at times a bit scary. The hallucinations that the main character has throughout the book would be terrifying. I thought that it was really interesting how throughout the book the main character slowly starts to get her memory back. The romance was nice. It was one of those flirty bantering types of romance so I really enjoyed it. It seemed to take a while to get to anything paranormal happening and when it did happen I found myself disappointed with the powers.

I liked the Mara Dyer (the main character), she persevered through a horrible tragedy and does her best at living a normal life. Although she can be a bit whiny at times.

The love interest, Noah Shaw was fun. He has a British accent which automatically makes him even more awesome. He is charming and devastatingly handsome so I really liked him.

I really liked Mara's family; they all moved from their home, their friends, their schools, and their jobs just to give her a fresh start. They uprooted their lives without question for her. Honestly I felt like Mara was kind of ungrateful. All she did was complain about how intrusive her mom was being. I think that her mom has every right to be worried about Mara but Mara just complains and yells at her mom to leave her alone. If Mara would just talk to her mom every once in a while she probably wouldn't feel the need to ask how she's doing all the time. Mara's brother Daniel is probably my favorite character. He is kind and smart, I would've liked to see more of the friendship between her and Daniel. Mara also has a little brother named Joseph who is also pretty awesome. Mara's dad is a lawyer and he's working on a big case throughout the book so we don't see too much of him.

The paranormal powers were just okay. They weren't amazing or anything. They weren't even all that helpful. So I really wasn't that impressed with this book but I may read the next one, I haven't really decided yet.