Seven Minutes in Heaven by Sara Shepard

Book: Seven Minutes in Heaven (The Lying Game #6)
Author: Sara Shepard
# of Pages: 371 (Hardcover)
Rating: 5 stars

Goodreads Summary:
My sister wants the truth.

But sometimes the truth hurts.

For months, my long-lost twin, Emma, has been living my life and trying to solve my murder. She's unearthed dark secrets about my friends, my family, and my tangled past. But when it comes to finding my killer, she keeps running into dead ends.

Until my body shows up in Sabino Canyon. Suddenly everyone knows there are two girls who look like Sutton Mercer—and that one of them is dead. At first the police assume the body is Emma's. But as questions and accusations start flying, it's harder than ever for Emma to keep playing me. The truth is bound to come out eventually. And when it does, Emma will be suspect number one in my murder investigation. If she can't find my killer before time runs out, she'll end up behind bars . . . or worse.

Sara Shepard, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Pretty Little Liars books, finally reveals the shocking truth about Sutton's murder in this riveting novel about secrets, lies, and killer consequences.

My Thoughts:

I have really enjoyed this series. Even more so that Shepard's PLL series. And the final book was no different.

I have known for a while who the murderer is, but finding out why this particular person did it made me cringe and scream at my book for Emma to run. This person was twisted and clever and made a pretty impressive villain.

Emma is very desperate to find Sutton's killer. Yet at the same time she is terrified about what said killer is capable of. Emma demonstrates great strength in this book despite all the obstacles that are thrown at her. 

This book was creepy and full of suspense. It kept me reading well into the night. At one point, I even cried. I just wish there had been some kind of epilogue Six Months Later/ One Year Later just to show how Emma was coping after all the craziness that she had to endure. 

I really liked getting to know these characters, and I am sad that this series has ended. But, I will definitely be visiting it again.

Overall, Seven Minutes in Heaven was a great ending to a fantastic series. 

Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Book: Beautiful Redemption (Caster Chronicles #4)
Author: Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl
# of Pages: 290 (ebook)
Challenge: 2013 Ebook Challenge, 2013 TBR Pile Reading Challenge
Rating: 1.5 stars

Goodreads Summary:
Is death the end . . . or only the beginning?

Ethan Wate has spent most of his life longing to escape the stiflingly small Southern town of Gatlin. He never thought he would meet the girl of his dreams, Lena Duchannes, who unveiled a secretive, powerful, and cursed side of Gatlin, hidden in plain sight. And he never could have expected that he would be forced to leave behind everyone and everything he cares about. So when Ethan awakes after the chilling events of the Eighteenth Moon, he has only one goal: to find a way to return to Lena and the ones he loves.

Back in Gatlin, Lena is making her own bargains for Ethan's return, vowing to do whatever it takes -- even if that means trusting old enemies or risking the lives of the family and friends Ethan left to protect.

Worlds apart, Ethan and Lena must once again work together to rewrite their fate, in this stunning finale to the Beautiful Creatures series.

My Thoughts:

The final installment of the Caster Chronicles series was underwhelming to say the least.

After the ending of Beautiful Chaos, I was expecting a interesting and suspenseful story. But alas, I'm surprised I even finished the book.

This book is different from the other thee in the series. Instead of Ethan narrating the whole thing, it's split up into three parts. Ethan narrates the first and third while Lena narrates the second.

Ethan, who at the beginning of the series was smart and strong, really disappointed me. Most of the time he just complained about not being able to be with Lena. Yes, I get that he is in a very frustrating situation, but it was impossible to sympathize with someone who wouldn't stop whining.

As for Lena, well, I stopped liking her after the first book in the series, and in this book, she did not do anything to redeem herself, not for me anyway. She was selfish and careless and really got on my nerves. It really should have been Link or John Breed narrating that part of the book.

The one character that really stood out for me in this book was Link. I've always liked him and was glad to see that he got to play a vital role in this book.

Once again we come close to discovering John Breed's parentage and identity, and once again we hit a dead end. I though John Breed was a fascinating character, and not getting a good background story about him really bothered me. It felt like the authors did not think he was important enough to get proper back stories like some of the other characters.

There were a few fighting scenes, but they were all so blah. A big deal was made about how "evil" the villains were, but to be honest I found them dull. Also, I wish more information about the Greats had been revealed. They play a key part in the series as a whole, but we only ever learn specifics about one of them. What about the others?

Overall, this book just did not do anything for me. It's the last book in the series, but there were just so many things that were not fully explained. 

Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Book: Beautiful Chaos (Caster Chronicles #3)
Author: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
# of Pages: 379 (ebook)
Challenge: 2013 Ebook Challenge, 2013 TBR Pile Reading Challenge
Rating: 4 stars

Goodreads Summary:
Ethan Wate thought he was getting used to the strange, impossible events happening in Gatlin, his small Southern town. But now that Ethan and Lena have returned home, strange and impossible have taken on new meanings. Swarms of locusts, record-breaking heat, and devastating storms ravage Gatlin as Ethan and Lena struggle to understand the impact of Lena's Claiming. Even Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals is affected - and their abilities begin to dangerously misfire. As time passes, one question becomes clear: What — or who — will need to be sacrificed to save Gatlin?

For Ethan, the chaos is a frightening but welcome distraction. He's being haunted in his dreams again, but this time it isn't by Lena - and whatever is haunting him is following him out of his dreams and into his everyday life. Even worse, Ethan is gradually losing pieces of himself — forgetting names, phone numbers, even memories. He doesn't know why, and most days he's too afraid to ask.

Sometimes there isn't just one answer or one choice. Sometimes there's no going back. And this time there won't be a happy ending.

My Thoughts:

Although Beautiful Chaos did have its ups and downs, I liked it more than Beautiful Darkness.

In this book, everything is falling apart because of what happened during Lena's Seventeenth Moon. Ethan and the others try to figure out what needs to be done to make things go back to normal. And although I liked the apocalypse aspect of the story, I could not help but feel that a couple things were pretty predictable.

We do learn about Sarafine's history. And though it is pretty interesting, I feel like it should have been revealed earlier in the series. We also get to know John Breed better. There are hints about what his is and his parentage, but they are never specified. At the beginning of the book, Macon and Liv have a theory about John and Lena, which I thought was pretty intriguing, but it is never brought up again. This frustrated me. Why was it brought up if it wasn't going to be incorporated into the story?

Also, the actual Caster Chronicles is finally introduced. But, it is given such a simple description and focused on for only a couple sentences, that had the series not been named after it, I wouldn't have given it a second thought. This too should have been brought up earlier in the series.

The pacing of the story was pretty stop and go. There was just too much description in some places, and it felt like it took me forever to get through it.

Overall, Beautiful Chaos was a good book, but there was nothing about it that really made it stand out and it left me with a lot of unanswered questions.

August TBR Pile

1. I am finally out of the reading slump I've been in for the past couple months, and am hoping to get a lot read this month.

Books:

Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Seven Minutes in Heaven by Sara Shepard

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

Shatter Me by Tehereh Mafi

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

Plus, I have 3 books that I've already started that I really need to finish.

What books are you planning to read this month?