(Review) The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Title: The Evolution of Mara Dyer
Author: Michelle Hodkin
Series: Mara Dyer #2
Published: October 23, 2012 (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
Rating: Stay Up 'til 2 AM
Format: Digital ARC from publisher via Edelweiss (Thank you!)

Summary: Mara Dyer once believed she could run from her past. She can’t.

She used to think her problems were all in her head. They aren't.

She couldn't imagine that after everything she’s been through, the boy she loves would still be keeping secrets. She’s wrong.

In this gripping sequel to The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, the truth evolves and choices prove deadly. What will become of Mara Dyer next?

*Warning: This review contains mild spoilers for the first in the series. Do not read unless you have read The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer.

What a tremendous in second installation in the trilogy! Although I was captivated by the first book in the series, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, it fell short in some ways for me. Evolution, however, exceeded my expectations. It was slightly less creepy, which I appreciated, but still just as thrilling and intense. (Seriously. I was alone in the house, curled up into a breathless, tension-filled ball on the downstairs couch for most of it. When I did finish it, my bladder was about to explode, and it was 2 hours past my normal dinner time. Talk about unputdownable!)

Interestingly, I liked almost all the characters better in this book than the first one. Noah was definitely the biggest one. I really tried to like him in Unbecoming because I kept seeing people talk about how amazing he was, but although he had some redeeming qualities, I was less than impressed. In Evolution, though, I grew to love him a lot more. He finally had some depth as a character and acted a lot less like a boy I'd like to punch in the face. I also liked Jamie more in this book; he annoyed me before.

The relationship between Mara and Noah was developed in a way that made me root for them. Although they displayed some codependency, which is popular in YA novels and always annoys me, they were also in nowhere near normal circumstances. Therefore, I could excuse it. They also had some pretty darn swoon-worthy scenes and sexual tension for a YA book, too. Loved it!

Story-wise, this book had some crazy twists and turns! There were some I saw coming and still jumped when they happened. If Hodkin excels at anything, it is writing jaw-dropping, hit-you-over-the-head, OH-MY-GOD-DID-I-REALLY-JUST-READ-THAT-RIGHT scenes.

If the trilogy keeps improving like this, I cannot wait to see what is in store in the concluding book, The Retribution of Mara Dyer (out WAY WAY FAR AWAY D: Summer 2013)!

Random note: I did not notice #213 in this book. I wonder if all the uses of it in Unbecoming were just coincidence, or if it is going to come into play in the next book?

How about an Obi-Wan slash Gandalf slash Dumbledore slash Giles?

---

Sometimes the biggest secrets you can only tell a stranger.

---

Just because you can’t prove something doesn’t mean it isn’t real.

---

“We’re only seventeen.”
“Fuck seventeen. If I were to live a thousand years, I would belong to you for all of them. If we were to live a thousand lives, I would want to make you mine in each one.”

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Cover Reveal: Divinely Ruined by Diane Alberts

I was going through my twitter feed line and I came across a retweet from somebody about a cover reveal, so obviously I was very intrigued. I love cover reveals, I mean who doesn't? Let me tell you though, I was not excepting to see an absolutely AMAZING cover. I was definitely WOOOOW'ed!

Divinely Ruined by Diane Alberts

Publisher:  Entangled Publishing

Genre: adult paranormal (angels) romance

Scheduled release April 26th, 2012

Cover design by Diane Alberts editor, Adrien-Luc Sanders 
Buy book: Amazon | B&N
Read the 1st chapter

She finally meets a decent man–after she’s oath-bound never to touch

men again! 

Rebecca’s life sucked before she became an angel. Crappy apartment, awful

jobs, abusive boyfriends–it was no wonder she jumped at the chance to

escape it all and become a real live angel. The problem is Rebecca’s not

very angelic, and she’ll have to do more to earn her wings than end her

love affair with the word f–er, frick.

Especially when she’s assigned to save single father Tony Weis, whose

less-than-pure thoughts wreak hell on a telepathic angel’s nerves. It’s all

Rebecca can do to keep her hands off him…but when she loses her memory

injuring herself to save Tony’s daughter, now it’s Tony’s turn to be her

angel and care for her. But will Tony’s devotion tempt her from her angelic

path, even if it means being human again? 

Racquel's thoughts:

Holy moly that has to be one of prettiest covers I have seen in awhile! I haven't had a reaction like this since I cam across the cover of INCARNATE. Has a cover ever done it's job this well?! Drew a reader in to the point where all they want to do is dig into the book to see if the content matches the perfection of the cover?

However don't forget that while the cover definitely intrigues me, thee blurb has HOOKED me! It sounds to be an enjoyable, hot romance with while also being a fun paranormal book. But seriously this cover is out of the world niiiiiiiiiiice and what I love even more is how Diana Alberts said:

Rebecca is an aspiring angel with an attitude problem, and a bit of a potty mouth. But that’s not her only problem…He perfectly captured the heroine’s attitude and sass, and made an eye-catching, perfectly yummy cover!

When I saw this cover my first thought was THIS IS AMAZING but then the second thought was wow, this chick looks sassy! I like! Best thing of all, I only have to wait until Thursday, a measly 3 day wait before I can buy/read this book. Perfecto! I seriously applaud Adrien-Luc Sanders, the man has epic, majooooor talent! Also, there is a book trailer:

*sigh* I'm in love with this cover. I actually saw the cover of the second book in the Mara Dyer series, The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin, 10 minutes before I saw this one but I didn't have the same OHMYYYY reaction. That tells you something ;D The Evolution of Mara Dyer cover if you're interested:

Expected Publication: October 23rd 2012 by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

Two days after Mara walks into a police station in Miami at the close of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, she is committed for psychiatric treatment for what her parents believe is a mental breakdown. But what seems like a hallucination to everyone else is a chilling reality for Mara. Someone from her past has discovered her strange, disturbing secret and that someone wants her to pay. But she's about to discover that the price is more than she can bear.Dark and thrilling, suspenseful and passionate, The Evolution of Mara Dyer will have readers breathlessly turning pages to find out what will become of Mara Dyer next.

Anyways, don't you agree it's been a fantastic day for all kinds of awesome cover reveals? These two are serious beauties! I'm in cover heaven :D Thursday, hurry up please! I want Divinely Ruined NOW!

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{Double Review} The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Title: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Author: Michelle Hodkin
Series: Mara Dyer #1 
Published: September 27th 2011 by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

Goodread's summary:

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.

Racquel's thoughts:

My lovely Mary @Anxiruim & Celine @Forget Me Not along with Roxy @Keeping Up With Roxy's Books & my co-blogger Emma read Mara Dyer together and it was roller coaster of emotions book for me. I didn't like somethings at parts, but then I enjoyed others. I was laughing one page at something then the next I was laughing at the characters from their sheer ridiculousness.

The creepy first chapter was great but up until the middle point I was really just dragging my self through the book.

I'm judging from my definition of realistic and Noah was not so. It's not that he was really rich, I do know people who live in palace-like-houses and can drop hundreds but he's personality was a turn off. He was always pushing/forcing Mara to do something and this is a wish-washy thing with me. Sure if he didn't push he might not have ended up with Mara but it still annoyed me. If I was Mara, I would have stuck Noah.

Also somehow Noah had the power to do crazy things like getting Mara into restricted area's without consequences and such. He was also a panty-dropper who is harmless. Yeah being a man whore is not cute...Mara you best check for AIDS, girlfriend. 

Then there is Anna. One thing really annoyed me: Anna stole Mara's sketchbook and 'humiliates' Mara with it. A crowd gathers around, the entire school knows about this so called humiliation. Umm no. That just doesn't happen. A crowd will not gather to witness this and it won't be school news. Not everyone will have heard about it in 30 minutes because it's STUPID. 

Students only stop if something like this was going on: 

that's when the cameras break out, the Facebook updates are made & the school cops bring out the handcuffs. (no joke)

  

Another thing I disliked is the reactions to characters to certain events and lack of shock on their part. Some characters should be going insane with questions but no, nothing of that sort happens. I also hope to see more explanations of the paranormal aspect of the story int the next books and less confusion.

I did love Mara's family though. I love it when family is included!! Shows that characters have not in fact been brought to the earth asexually and actually have parents. In a YA novel? who would have ever guessed!! Jamie was also another great character that I wish to see more of.

Some people *cough Mary cough* might not agree but I like how romance plays an important part of the book. Sure I might have had my issues with Noah but I grew to like him, more then once I was grinning like a fool at his banter with Mara. I definitely enjoyed the book more towards the end and it saved it from being a 1 or 2 star read. 

My rating: 2.5 round to 3 hearts~ started out meh but showed potential at the end!

 First:

 My name is not Mara Dyer, but my lawyer told me I had to choose something.

Favorite:

"What did you do, bathe in leopard urine before you left the house this morning?"
"Yes. Leopard urine. Never leave home without."

Teaser:

"Did I just see you litter?"
"I'm driving a hybrid. It cancels out."

Emma's thoughts:

First of all, I have to say I like these let's-read-the-same-book things. It's a great way to discuss books while it's still fresh in our minds, and to hear other people's thoughts, not just voice your own. 

So, now, that is one of the vaguest summary I've ever read. It gives away nothing substantial about the book. Like Racquel said, I could not figure out what genre it was supposed to be. It went from horror to paranormal to romance, and straight back to horror (trust me, this book gave me the creeps. I was scared to look in the bathroom mirror by the time I finished).  

Okay, so apparently Racquel and I have very different opinions on Noah! I absolutely adored him. One, his name is Noah. Two, he has a british accent! And that's only the beginning. He's witty, he's smart, he's got disheveled hair and is totally charming. The banter between Mara and Noah is swoon-worthy! That is definitely one of the most outstanding points of the book. I found myself stopping to highlight many, many lines of the dialogue (especially Noah's) when I burst out in laughter or felt my cheeks hurt from trying to smile too wide. I know my housemates gave me some pretty weird looks while I was reading this (I may have squealed at one point...). Also, to me, Noah's bossiness was cute, because he did it for Mara's good. Moments when he ran to open her door and tied her shoelaces made me giddy inside. Where is chivalry these days?! But I admit, there was one point where I think Noah completely overreacted and it seemed way to unrealistic for him to feel that protective over Mara. It reminded me of those fight-for-dominance werewolf books.. 

And oh, I agree with Racquel about Anna. The incident would've only been big and gossip worthy if Noah hadn't actually covered for Mara, but since he did... it was sort of unrealistic. Even the whole Anna business completely confused me. Can someone please tell me WHAT DID MARA EVEN DO TO DESERVE THIS FROM ANNA?!? Why would Anna even bother with Mara? She's so not worth her time, realistically speaking. She'd probably get more of a kick if she spread her legs for Aiden. 

As a whole, I think the book was written beautifully, even the bone-chilling, seriously disturbing scenes. I applaud Michelle Hodkin for writing such awesome scary hallucinations. I kept dreading something awful would happen, and the tension built up so nicely, I was anxious to read read read and turn the page! 

But what bothered me most was that I had no idea what was going on. It was hard to understand what was happening and why it was happening with not a hint of an explanation whatsoever. I know if I ever got interrupted whilst reading this, I wouldn't hesitate to put it down (for the first half anyways). It got better, and some questions were answered. But overall, I do think that we could've gotten a bit more. I have no doubts I'll be getting my hands on the next book as soon as it comes out, because I'm the type of person who is constantly craving for answers. I ended this book with far too many questions in my head, I can't even keep them straight. There are so many incidents in the book that still need some clarifying, I hope Hodkin herself, doesn't forget. And currently in my delirious state, I've been thinking up outrageous theories that would answer my questions. So yes, this book has been on my mind quite a bit since I've finished (which is a good thing!), but I'm afraid I'll start to finish the story myself and be unhappy with whatever Hodkin has in store for us. Though, as I said, I'm all about answers. I'd love to know what's actually going on here...

Rating: 4 stars~ loved it! But I got confused way too many times... 

3 favourites:

"You're so fucking patronizing."
"You have such a filthy mouth."
"Does it bother you?" I smiled, pleased by the thought.
Noah grinned and shut the door behind me. "Not in the least."

Half-smile: treacherous.
Eyes: blue and infinite.
Hair: a beautiful, beautiful mess. 

"Would you like to hear about Curious George's new adventures?"
I shook my head.
"Are you sure?" Noah asked. "He's been such a naughty monkey."

NB: While I was reading this, I was listening to 'Believe' by Safetysuit on repeat. It's an awesome song, and now is my Mara Dyer theme song :)  

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