The Siren's Secret by Heather Ostler

               The Siren's Secret is book 3 in The Shapeshifter's Secret series.  NetGalley and Cedar Fort let me review both, here is my link to my first review.  Book 2 picks up pretty much where book 1 left off so if you haven't read it then beware spoilers.

                Julia is happy with her life, strange as it is.  She isn't so fond of the hiding and threats from her evil and deranged mother Alexis and The Guild but looking on the positive side she loves her werecat form (a white tiger if you didn’t remember is my favorite), her friends, and of course the Terrance.  Overall she's feeling pretty good.  Then she learns a truth about herself, one no one dreamed of, one that threatens everything.  She's part Siren!

 

                Yep, if the title wasn't clear.  Not a big deal right?  Oh well there is a curse on Sirens and the whole political aspect where everyone thinks sirens are evil, untrustworthy creatures.  Feel free to insert your own joke about most politics being sirens then.  Julia struggles to understand her place in Ossai if she is a siren or a werecat.  Is she truly cursed or is she destined for something else entirely and what does that mean for her relationships.

Book 1

                The Siren's Secret is a wonderful sequel and quick read.  As a reader you learn more about Julia and all of her relationships, with family, friends, enemies, and unknowns, as well as Ossai itself.  It also gives more bread crumbs into things to come in the series.  The new world of Ossai is ever expanding and we explore deeper into it, as it changes.  I enjoyed the way Ostler showed the characters changing to what was happening around and to them.  Even if you want to scream and strangle them at times you know they are reacting to the information or situation they have or are in. 

                This book came out June 11th, I know I'm behind again.  I give it 4 solid mystical orbs.  Check it out and always please tell me what you think!

Up next:  Forbidden to Love by Debbie Davies

Fractured Light and Fractured Soul

                Another book review, two really, I’m hoping to stay strong and not only meet my reading challenge goal of 2013 but exceed it.  So funny story here is that I read the description of Fractured Soul, on NetGalley before requesting it.  Well normally I don’t request sequels and I always double check them but apparently I overlooked that.  When I went to add it to my goodreads pages the day I went to start reading it is when I saw it listed as ‘book 2’ and thought drats.  Thankfully book 1, Fractured Light, was at a great price on Amazon.  So I bought it and started it instead and no you get two book reviews for the price of one.

                So be warned spoilers will be in the 2^nd half of this review for the first book, I will clearly mark them for everyone.  I’m doing them as two separate reviews and if you don’t want any spoilers for book 1 then only read part 1 of the review…making sense?  I hope so.  Now for you who don’t mind a few spoilers, yes you crazy folks out that, enjoy the whole thing.  Oh and thanks again to NetGalley, Cedar Fort Inc., and of course the wonderful Author for bringing the books to life Rachel McClellan. 

~PART 1~ Fractured Light

                Llona is a  girl in her senior year of high school.  She is practically invisible, just the way she likes it.  Her motto, just survive.  Sounds like most people in high school right?  Wrong she doesn’t care about high school so much as her life because she is different.  She’s not human, she’s an Aura.  She has a light inside of her, Light that evil creatures of darkness, Vykens, want to kill her for.  See not your typical teenage worries.

                She keeps her life isolated never making any friends accept for one, May, who is friends with everyone but not particularly close to anyone just the kind of friend she needs.  Until a new guy starts to pay attention to  her and she feels maybe she can have a normal life.  Strange things start to happen, things that startle and scare her, things that would normally have caused her to uproot and move again but with her Uncle finally starting a life and her new found friends she decides to stick it out.

                Why does all of this start happening and why is this mysterious stranger so interested in her and seem to know her.  Is he interested in her or does he just want to be her friend?  Can he be trusted?  I really liked this book.  I read it pretty quickly and was almost late for work one day because I sat to read for 15 minutes and next thing I know I had 8 minutes to get ready and be out the door some 45 minutes later.  I like the internal conflict within Llona.  She as a being of light, wants to help others but doing so goes against her desire to survive and be invisible.  Something else that maybe just speaks to the giddy girl in me is the way that boys and matters of the heart can sometimes totally seem more serious that life and death issues.  Who can you trust?  With your life and with your heart?

                Now you think being Light is difficult, more so when you are different.  Light means peace and equality, no competitions, no games, and definitely no fighting.  It goes against their long years of history.  Then why does she enjoy sports so much?  Why does she have a desire to learn to fight, to wield the Light inside of her to protect herself instead of sitting around waiting to die.  Does light need to be peaceful or does it want to fight and everyone has just forgotten how?

                This last part I really liked because it brought up other debates, is defending yourself really fighting?  The obvious answer, to me anyways, would be NO.  Then again I know some people who feel violence, even self defense classes to be continuing the cycle of violence.  Personally I feel if everyone learned to defend themselves and there were no more ‘easy victims’ maybe the bullies of the world would back off and lose power.  That though is a topic for another time.  I did like that part as a subplot though it gave me more to think about as well. 

                That is where I leave you for the first part of this review.  Now again I warn you from here on out there will be spoilers for Fractured Light, in PART 2 for Fractured Soul.

~PART 2~ Fractured Soul

                Fractured Soul is book 2 in the series by Rachel McClellan.  Now I'm writing this a few days after reading because it took some time to…calm myself down.  I'm one of those readers who gets seriously into books.  I get all up in arms on the characters behalf, or for them, or anything that I feel is bad or giddy like a school girl for good things.  People laugh at me while I read and I am okay with this.  This book got me all worked up to say the least and as much as I want to blurt out a major spoiler I won't.  So I will simply say be prepared  and I suggest have tissues available.

                We pick up with Llona and May arriving at Lucent Academy, the school for Auras.  A safe place for them to learn the history of what they are, though May isn't an Aura they also have a few people like her there to help her as well.  The school is a place for Auras to safely learn to use their abilities and how to make things beautiful and such.  Llona is more interested in learning things she is way behind on, so she can get out of there.  Plus after her attract keeping her Uncle safe seems like a good idea too.  Though she learns that Light might make you good by natures but teenage girls are still teenage girls and they can be vicious.   She fits in less in a school full of people like her than at a normal school.  Her reputation has proceeded her.  Then again with her new found darkness, she is different.  Can she battle the darkness surrounding her, inside her, or will it destroy her light?

                Now even though this book made me cry my eyes out it was a great read.  Clearly I got invested in the characters and the story.  We have some wonderful new characters to get to know as well as a new place.  Some to like, some to hate, but that's the fun.  We also get to see through Llonas eyes how things are for most Auras.  She realizes that not only did their kind stop fighting, but they stopped taking care of themselves.  Waited on by Lizens, creatures she'd never before heard of, and finds there is yet again more she did not know.

                As she is at Lucent Llona stumbles into something evil, that maybe even she isn't strong enough to defeat.  As with the other book I really liked the characters and story but also the way McClellan is able to weave in subplots that have larger and deeper meanings.

                So with that in mind, I highly recommend these book. Both I give 5 Light Balls.  Have some tissues ready and be prepared to wait for the 3rd book, which you get a sneak peek of.  So yes check them out.  Fractured Soul comes out February 12th.  Already read them?  Tell me what you thought (any discussion on major spoilers feel free to e-mail me or IM me on Goodreads.com) I am always willing to discuss a good book.

Rating:  5 Light Balls

The Shapeshifter’s Secret by Heather Ostler

                Yeah!  I finally finished another book.  This book is an ARC from NetGalley.com and Cedar Fort and comes out June 12, 2012.  The Shapeshifter's Secret by Heather Ostler is the first in a new series and is a mystical story about magic and go figure shape shifters werecats to be more precise.  Yes werecats.  All different kinds of cats too from jaguars and panthers to tigers, and yes speaking to my favorite animal a white tiger.  I have always loved white tigers, they are so beautiful and powerful its amazing, I love most of the while cats for that same reason but what can I say the white tiger just speaks to something in me.

                So yep I’m a sucker for something that speaks to me.  And lets face it who hasn’t wondered what animal they would be if they could turn into one.  Yep mine has always been a white tiger or a wolf, part of me would want to fly as well but as I’m sorta anti birds that doesn’t fit too well.  Check one for a concept that intrigues me.  Now don’t fret if werecats are not your speed there are other mystical type people/types as well and that part is important however the story is focused solidly in the human form.

                Now the story centers around a girl Julia and how her entire life has been a lie.  Yep she never knew she was from a different world or that she had special…abilities.  Now thrust into a world she only just found out about, she comes to learn more about herself and her past that she ever dreamed.  The world at war, her life in constant danger, and trying to survive school, yep you bet things are hard. 

                One thing I really liked about this book was how the shifter changes from human to werecat.  They simply become the animal, no shredding of clothing or anything like that which to me is super cool and makes for less distraction.  So many times do I wonder when reading a book or seeing a movie where the person shifts or something and rips their clothes then poof later they have them on.  Okay normally I just give them the benefit of the doubt and even with Twilight Jacob carried around shorts but to me this just makes things way easier and less confusing.  Plus come on who wants to shift back to human form and be all naked?

                What else?  Well I like that there are different characteristics for the different characters.  Julia had her moments where I thought, ‘seriously? That’s so stupid’ but hey she’s a teenager she’s bound to make mistakes.  Still she learns and she tries to take care of the people she cares about even when her own life is muddy.  Sierra, is colorful and made me laugh.  She was a bookworm but she wasn’t shy she was bold and out there.  Caleb and Terrance, both good but you also have a feeling throughout, or at least I did, that something is going on that isn’t being told.

                Romance.  Sure the romance in this book was substantially more subtle than what I usually read and I was okay with that.  It was there and although it wasn’t the center point I felt I got enough of it that I could see it.  The brief encounters and stolen moments to me made it all the more romantic and also leaves things open also.  Not there is also some fighting, there is a war going on after all.  All be it not too much fighting is presented in the book but what was there I liked.

                So what did I think of this book overall?  I liked it.  I give it 4.5 stars.  I won’t life before I read this book I read a review where someone compared it to Harry Potter because it involves school in a castle and magic.  Okay sure there are a few similarities here and there but come on, just because a school takes place in a castle or there is magic doesn’t mean its related.  Every book has similarities to something else, that’s just a fact.  So yeah I enjoyed some of the things I liked about Harry Potter were in here, a castle.  Come on that’s just cool and spooky.  I personally have always wanted to visit a real castle with its haunted past and possible hidden passages.  Cool right.  Magic…enough said magic is magic and always cool.  Friendship, duh that’s important in any book if you ask me.  The real point is that I enjoyed it.  I had a good time reading this book and when I was finished I wanted to read more and that is in my book the most important part.

                Again The Shapeshifter’s Secret by Heather Ostler comes out June 12^th.  So what would your werecat be?  Leave a comment and share I would be a white tiger (if you hadn’t guessed), I want to know about you.