Lynne EwingRezensionen

There were parts of this I loved, namely Jimena conducting a car-jacking, Collin and Serena being the best siblings ever, and the hint that Serena will choose "darkness" in the end. But boy oh boy do I get sick of these kids. It's a combination of miscommunication (or no communication) and flip-flop, flippy, flip-flop behavior that drives me nuts. You are either with Stanton or against him, make up your minds! All of the girls are so immature in their dealings with Stanton's whole slave to an evil entity situation that I was forced to remember that this man is grown, like 700 years grown. What is he doing around all these kids?!

Did not finish book. Stopped at 60%.
Another DNF in my favorite childhood series re-read. This one introduces a new teen goddess to the mix and she isn't very likeable. One of my favorite things about all of the other girls in this series is that they always prioritize their friends and their "work" over the guys they're interested in. In this book, as soon as Michael shows up Tianna is completely thrown off course from what she's in the middle of doing. It happens again and again. She has murderers after her and is the only person who can communicate with a missing girl stuck in another dimension. I got about 60% of the way through when she's in the middle of talking to the only people who seem to know anything about these two massive problems she has, Michael shows up and she literally starts dancing with him instead of continuing the life saving convo she was in the middle of. She has a lot of other unlikeable traits, but this was where I gave up and skim-read the rest so I wouldn't be lost for the next book.

The next books focus on characters I know and love, so I'm hoping this is just a mid-series slump.

Did not finish book. Stopped at 50%.
This was my first DNF on the reread of this series. I don't remember how I felt about this book in particular when I read it as a young teen, but as an adult reader it was both boring and annoying. This is where we get an insider look at the big bad Atrox and its Followers. There's an interesting, kind of pervy seduction immortal, hundreds of years old Standon plays on a fourteen year old girl, but aside from that, this evil bunch doesn't seem to do much other than go to clubs and squat at abandoned houses. It's very boring. Halfway through the book, the goddesses show up and I found their attitudes about Stanton's evilness so incredibly immature that it was annoying. Again, a teenager might not find these girls immature, but I did and reading them having these overblown reactions to an immortal being who's been evil for hundreds of years resorting to evil deeds in order to solve problems is so...teenager-y. They all lacked empathy.

When I was a teenager, I stopped reading the series at Book 10, so I'm hoping the next few will be better. After getting through half of this novel, I read the last few chapters of it to get ready for the next one.

This was such a turnaround from the last two books in the series, which I ended up not finishing and skim reading. In Moon Demon, we're back to Vanessa who started out the series. When I was a young reader, Vanessa was my second favorite character. But during this reread, she's become my favorite. In Moon Demon, Vanessa is feeling neglected by her friends and stifled by her good-girl reputation. She meets an alluring young man, Hector, at a place where girls can make a few bucks by dancing with men. And it kicks off this whole drama. The romance between Vanessa and Hector is hot and exciting, even though you know how it's going to end. Michael is still in the picture, so there's a bit of a triangle. Stanton shows up as a dark aide. And basically we're just waiting to find out how bad Vanessa is finally gonna let herself be. The book is super page-turny, though the ending let me down a bit. The villain in this book was a refreshing opponent in that all of the goddesses skills were useless against him. He was a formidable opponent. But the way he was defeated was really anticlimactic. Also, out of all the romantic leads in this book and the series, Michael is the most boring and he's been presented as Vanessa's endgame from the start. So the romantic conclusion to this book was definitely meh. Overall though, this book was a very pleasant return to form and has me looking forward to continuing the series.

I'm coming up on the end of this series and this book is the very satisfying end to Jimena's story. As the only brown character in this series, Jimena's story has always been the most realistically dark story in the series. And this conclusion is a super dark and fast-paced ending that doesn't disappoint. Jimena is dropped into enemy gang territory and she must reckon with her past, save the future, and decide on whether she wants to live as a normal girl or go through a mysterious transformation that will keep her in this fantasy world. When your childhood has been pretty fucking nightmarish, the prospect of living a normal life feels like paradise. I really love the choice that Jimena makes and I love that she gets her happy ending.½

Catty was always my least favorite character of the series and I don't think this book is written particularly well either. It's pretty obvious what's going on very early on in the novel and Catty seems kind of dumb for not figuring it out. The ending feels very slapdash as well, with multiple outsiders helping Catty figure out how overcome her problem instead of her being able to rely on her own creativity and ingenuity. When it comes to chemistry though, the chemistry between Catty and Chris is probably the best written until this point in the series. Chris doesn't have much of a personality, like all of the males aside from Stanton, but the physical chemistry is written well and feels a tiny bit more adult than the previous books.

Jimena was my favorite character in the series, but because she's so different than the other characters, she doesn't fit as easily into the format of the other books. Jimena is a reformed gangbanger with a drug addicted mother who abandoned her, a father she never knew, a best friend who was shot in a drive-by as a kid, and a gangbanger ex-boyfriend who was murdered on the streets. This background provides her with so much more darkness and maturity than the other girls in the book series, that it requires a tone shift.

While everyone being all optimistic and kind of cheesy works in the first two novels about girls without any real problems, it doesn't quite work in Jimena's story. The book was at its strongest when Jimena was alone or with her abuela or ex-boyfriend. Her new love interest and the other daughters are living in a much happier and simple world, so they sound more weird / cheesy when they enter Jimena's. That being said, this book did pull an emotional reaction out of me with Jimena and Veto's storyline. For a YA novelist, Ewing did a great job of telling a story about loving someone and losing them and being delusionally desperate to get them back, no matter what.

This was a reread of the first book in my favorite series of books as a child. I thought there was no way I could still love it so much and was ready to donate these beloved books so some other child could fall in love with them. But, wow, do I still love this series. The first 50 pages or so of this book are a little slow, but once the mystery of who's following Vanessa picks up, it becomes a quick read. I read it in three sittings.

What I love most about this book is how relatable Vanessa is. She's a confident girl with a loving parent. She's a good student, but she'll skip school for a good time. She's into a guy, but she'll forget that guy in a heartbeat for her friends. She's not overly brave or foolish, she's not trying to be the best at anything. She's just a good kid. As someone who has a hard time readying a lot of YA because of characterization issues, Vanessa will always be a refreshing character to follow.

Despite her feeling like a freak because of her invisibility, she has a quiet confidence and self-assurance that shines through. When people tell her rumors, she listens but keeps an open mind and discovers the truth for herself. When boys touch her inappropriately, she addresses it in the moment. When her friends pressure her to do things, she's comfortable refusing...unless it's something she secretly wants to do herself. She's just cool and normal and nice. I love her.

There's so much to say about the world Ewing created and set this in and all of the other beautiful characters, but I'll save that for another review as I work my way through the series again.

Serena was my favorite character from this series as a kid because I loved her duality and forbidden love story. As a reread, this book was even slower than the first one though. Things really didn't pick up until around page 100, but after that we were off to the races and the ending was so satisfying that I couldn't give it anything less than five stars.

I just really love this series and how all of the relationships are written. Even though there's sort of a love triangle plot at the center of this installment, the romantic plot line isn't written as a traditional romance arc. It's as if the author thought that falling for a boy was the least interesting thing that could happen to a girl and thusly refused to dedicate a significant amount of pages to it. This book deals so much more with female friendships, brother-sister relationships, frenemies, and aspirations for the future.

This series of books will probably always be my gold standard for teen romance, for how little importance Ewing gives them. It's realistic and refreshing. And the teens sound like the teens of my generation. Their deepest convos still sound very teenage, a little clumsy, and maybe referential.

Det här är en bok som jag tror att jag hittade första gången på Boktipset när jag var en aktiv medlem där. Det var ingen bok jag kunde få tag på på biblioteket så det blev aldrig av att jag läste den. Jag sprang på den på myrorna och såg min chans att se om den var något.
Jag måste säga att jag blev lite besviken. Den var inte det som jag nog hoppades på den första gången. Det känns som att Ewing inte riktigt kan bestämma sig för vilken målgrupp boken rör sig till. Ena stunden är det ganska läskigt och i nästa känns allting väldigt tillrättalagt för att det inte ska vara för komplicerat och läskigt.
På ett sätt känns det som att det är en prolog till serien. Får se om jag kanske ger serien en chans till.

didn't actually finish this, but my checkout timed out and the library took it back. I had real trouble reading on my browser, and I would like to check this out in physical format.

The Lure depicts the life of teenagers in the outskirts of Washington, D. C. They live where living is not easy. There is never enough money for the essentials of daily living and life is dangerous because gangs rule the neighborhoods. So Blaise and her friends join a gang, Core 9, in order to survive. But they find out that life as gang members isn’t always trouble-free either, since there are always ongoing rivalries between opposing gangs. And it gets even more dangerous when Trek the leader of Core 9 asks Blaise to become the “lure” who will help beguile unsuspecting enemies from a rival gang in order for Core 9 to seek retaliation. And then danger escalates for Blaise and her friends as Trek, the leader of Core 9, shows his dangerously corrupted need for power and control. Blaise begins to see that being a part of Core 9 may not be in her best interests. But can she redeem herself without causing her own demise.

This YA novel explores gangs from the female member’s viewpoint. And even though gang members are respected and feared, life is still not uncomplicated. Since I am not familiar with gang activity I would unfortunately have to believe that this fictionalized account may be factually representative of the grim life of a teenage gang member.

Not my type of book

Though I didn't like the concept so much, I enjoyed the characters and the story.

When Kata’s best friend Ana is killed in a drive-by, Kata deals with her anger, feelings of vengeance, and depression before finding within her the strength to get out of “the life.” Good lit for reluctant readers.

Narrated by Robert Ramirez. Tito’s Jimmy is killed in a drive-by shooting but the trouble doesn’t end there. Gang members turn Tito’s house upside down. Tito’s friend Gus tries to convince him to join the gang. And soon the gang is threatening Tito and demanding he turn over what Jimmy owed them. Tito learns that Jimmy’s support of the family came about by his involvement in running drugs for the gang. Tito respects his brother too much to join up with a gang.

Good cliff hanger, going to have to get the next book sooner than I planned.

Not as much action as I expected.

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: The Lure is a well-written story that failed to hook me in. It fell a little flat in my eyes, considering the potential of the plotline.

Opening Sentence: The night heat melted over me, the quiet unsettling since the laughter had stopped.

The Review:

The Lure tells us about Blaise, new member of one of the three nearby street gangs. She has been chosen to be the lure, to seduce members of rival gangs to hurt or kill. All Blaise wants is money to give her grandmother’s rest on her numbered days, so she doesn’t have to work when she can barely walk. But among this life of betrayal and violence, Blaise will have to fight for it.

To be honest, this was a very slow read for me. It was hard to get into the characters and oftentimes I didn’t understand what was happening. There were lots of characters and a plotline with almost a confusing amount of action. However, there were some pros.

Blaise is a good character. She has a dark side, but for the most part has a strong goal and the perfect balance of strength and weakness. However, Satch and Rico, I weren’t feeling any connection with them (they’re two members of the love triangle). I tried to be open-minded and enjoy their personalities, but neither struck me as my favorite characters. Melissa and Kaylee I liked. And the antagonist, Trek, he was a good villain, extremely creepy and cunning.

I never really got into this book. It took awhile for me to read because when I like a novel, I won’t stop reading, but after failed attempts to connect with it I stopped trying. It didn’t have the element that really hooks and “lures” me in (see what I did there?).

Sure, someone else may like it. Someone else may appreciate the things that irritated me. However, be it as it is, I don’t have a lot of positives. It was interesting and had a unique setting, and a few of the characters were pretty awesome, but other than that I’m coming up pretty blank.

The Lure is an okay novel with definite pros and cons. I wasn’t a fan, to be blunt, but I’m sure that some people will like it because it isn’t horribly written or anything. Try it out and see if you enjoy it, then we can compare how we felt about it!

Notable Scene:

Slowly, my strength returned. I balanced precariously on quaking legs and faced Tara, who used my blood to write Core 9 across my face, each letter stinging my raw skin.

When she finished, Tanya began to jump from one foot to the other, back and forth, faster and faster, pounding the ground in praise of me. The other girls joined in and stomped with her until the earth hollered with a stampede of feet. Joy raced through me. I had done it. My heart soared with pride.

FTC Advisory: Balzar+Bray/HarperCollins provided me with a copy of The Lure. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.

Vanessa and her friends discover that they are goddesses, daughters of the moon goddess Selene, sent by her to Earth to fight the evil Atrox. Vanessa can turn invisible, Catty can jump through time, Jimena has premonitions and Serena can read minds. This entire books series is highly entertaining with the perfect blend of mythology, teen angst and the best kind of "boy drama." This series was my introduction to teen fiction and is a great one for girls who are reluctant readers.

I couldn't put it down! It was a rollercoaster of feelings....I loved it!

Amazing I couldn't put it down!

I'm sooo happy for Serena & Stanton!!

I like getting to know Stanton more just wasn't so excited about what he did but I understand why...on to the next bk in the series

I couldn't put it down....I'm so enthralled on to the next book...