The Silence of Six by E.C. Myers Review

4.5 stars.  
I received a copy of this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

When I received this book to review I wasn't sure when I would get to it.  The synopsis was enough to make me interested but I felt no real rush to start.  I am so glad that I jumped right in!

E.C. Myers uses the world around us.  Snowden, Anonymous, the fight for the privacy and freedom on the net, all of these things are real.  He takes them and turns them into a nightmare.  Panjea is a social networking site like Facebook and twitter and he shows us exactly what can happen when we put all this information about ourselves online. It is some truly scary premises.

One of the most infuriating things I found about this book was the emotional detachment I felt from Max.  Max watched his friend commit suicide and he manages not to react in front of hundreds of kids.  He's a teenager for crying out loud, not some sociopath!  There is a difference between keeping your head in tough situations and what happened in the beginning of this book.  Then there is his girlfriend who goes full blown reporter not even an hour after Evan is dead!  What a bitch!  Other then this I found the rest of it plausible and understand his cool head is the only reason he made it out of there.

Other then that Max and the others seemed like a pretty solid character, he wasn't contradictory or full of holes to be poked at and wondered over.  Getting involved in a world you thought you had left behind is no small feat, especially when it comes to hackers.   (Every time I read a book that has hacking and or virtual worlds it makes me wish I was better with computers, unfortunately it is all I can do to keep my laptop operational) but Max and his friends will do whatever it takes to make sure Evan's story isn't buried, that his life wasn't for naught.

Overall I loved this book.  It was full of danger and excitement and even political intrigue.  

Recommended if you like:
Ready Player One By Ernest Cline

A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab! Excerpt review!

To be released Feb 24 2015

I received and excerpt of this book from Tor Books on Net Galley and boy am I glad I did.

This excerpt got me hook, line and sinker from the get-go. 

Four different versions of London, two people who can walk among them.   Both are used as pawns for their magic to 'deliver messages' with varying degrees of freedom.   One illegally transports trinkets between the worlds, considered Treason, and the other is trapped in a horrible situation!

Then there is Lila, a cross-dressing, pick-pocket who aspires to be a pirate.  What's not to love?  Add a magic with a Dark history, and the fact that one of the London's is dying and you have the melting pot of mysterious intrigue  that is A Darker Shade of Magic.

Magic is dangerous, it needs to be treated with care, but is it?

I simply can not wait to get my hands on the full text!  The characters are interesting in their ambitions and drives and even just the general circumstances of their being combined with the amazing world building that Victoria Schwab has done leaves me craving more!

This is definitely one of my most anticipated books in the history of my reading career!

The Siren and the Sword: Magic University Book One by Cecilia Tan

I got a Galley of this book from Riverdale Avenue Books for review.

I was drawn to this title because it was recommended for people who where looking for a more adult version of Harry Potter.   This was nothing like an adult Harry Potter.  This book was listed as New Adult and Sci Fi & Fantasy, but that is missing one very important marker, Erotica.

I was so excited to start reading what they hailed the 'American Harry Potter' and on the second page I wanted to gouge my eyes out, and it just got worse from there.   First off, the main character Kyle was suppose to go to his senior year of high school but because he's such a special snowflake he gets to skip his senior year and jump straight into the magical side of Harvard.  From here he remains pretty damn clueless about everything. 

"So… Magic people eat Spanish food?"  "Magic people drink soda?"  No, Kyle, they only drink the blood of innocent animals and potions with eye of newt.

Now, at this school, he falls in love with the very first girl he meets.  She is saving her virginity for 'esoteric studies' but they do date and get each other off, in vivid and horrifying detail.  In fact, that is pretty much the first half of the book. 

The second half is where the plot gets involved, Alex, Kyles best friend is attacked by the Siren that haunts the library and put into a coma.  Which means clueless little Kyle is going to try to find the Siren.

The end part where he may or may not find the siren was the only real part that I enjoyed.  It was a surprise I didn't see coming but the ending was also horrific. ' Yes, you can now have sex with your girlfriend to save someone's life, but she's no longer your girlfriend because she found the man she dreamed of when she was a little girl.  Oh and you have to make her come twice. ' 

Not to mention the detail to the sex scenes… Odd wording and too detailed about weird aspects of it.   Not to mention it was like 75% of the book.  Honestly I've read better erotica in fanfictions.  This was just horrible. 

Needless to say I will not be continuing this series.