Early Review: Perfect Lies by Kiersten White

Perfect Lies by Kiersten White

Mind Games #2

Annie and Fia are ready to fight back.

The sisters have been manipulated and controlled by the Keane Foundation for years, trapped in a never ending battle for survival. Now they have found allies who can help them truly escape. After faking her own death, Annie has joined a group that is plotting to destroy the Foundation. And Fia is working with James Keane to bring his father down from the inside.

But Annie's visions of the future can't show her who to trust in the present. And though James is Fia's first love, Fia knows he's hiding something. The sisters can rely only on each other - but that may not be enough to save them.

Fia is so beautifully broken. While everyone seems to think she's insane, I'm honestly surprised she's held it together as well as she has. To have her talent while amazing, is undeniably a curse when misused. She feels horribly sick and wrong when she's making the "wrong" choice. And considering what her life has been like since the Foundation took over her and her sister's lives. She's learned to function as best she can with all that wrongness, but when you add those terrible feelings to the immense guilt she feels from what the Foundation has forced her to do, she's constantly teetering the edge of sanity. My heart broke so many times for her, and where others saw anger and abrasiveness, I saw emotional devastation and a girl pushed too far. That being said, I was really happy to see her finally start to make decisions based on her own needs and wants rather than allowing herself to be completely manipulated. Sure there still was more than plenty manipulation placed on her, but in PERFECT LIES, she started to throw off a little of her chains one link at a time, and I was cheering for her every step of the way.

So much of this series involved relationship dynamics and secrets. I loved getting to see how each side of the story interwove with the other, and how I was always left guessing at everyone's motives, even Fia and Annie themselves. One relationship that really stood out to me was the one between Fia and James. It was powerful, yet completely confusing at the same time. I'm still honestly not sure whether or not his motives were pure towards her or not even after finishing this final book in the duology. Honestly I think it's a mix of both as while he may genuinely care for her, it didn't seem to stop him from using her for his own gain. Still a part of me thinks (or hopes) that he didn't really mean to keep damaging her more, and to give him credit, he wasn't exactly free himself, and always was there to help pick up the pieces.

This is one of those books that sucks you in from the very start. Granted, the flipping timeline was a bit hard to follow at times, I absolutely adore these characters and it was one heck of a read that you won't want to miss!

(Received a copy from the publisher via Edelweiss)

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Other Reviews:
     Blkosiner's Book Blog
     The Nocturnal Library
     Dark Faerie Tales

Previous Books:
     1. Mind Games

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Early Review: The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White

The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White

Isadora’s family is seriously screwed up.

Of course, as the human daughter of Egyptian gods, that pretty much comes with the territory. She’s also stuck with parents who barely notice her, and a house full of relatives who can’t be bothered to remember her name. After all, they are going to be around forever—and she’s a mere mortal.

Isadora’s sick of living a life where she’s only worthy of a passing glance, and when she has the chance to move to San Diego with her brother, she jumps on it. But Isadora’s quickly finding that a “normal” life comes with plenty of its own epic complications—and that there’s no such thing as a clean break when it comes to family. Much as she wants to leave her past behind, she can’t shake the ominous dreams that foretell destruction for her entire family. When it turns out there may be truth in her nightmares, Isadora has to decide whether she can abandon her divine heritage after all.

As the mortal daughter of the Egyptian gods Isis and Osiris, to say that Isadora's life is complicated would be an understatement. While most of her family will live for eternity, she has been designing her TOMB since childhood. She's more than a little bitter, especially considering the strained relationship with her parents as it seems they only had her to have a built in worshiper to guarantee their own continued godhood. So when her mother gets pregnant with her "replacement" Isadora decides she's had enough and moves to the States to live with her other mortal brother. But life isn't any easier there as a dark cloud seems to have followed her, and being a mortal surrounded by gods has never been so dangerous.. or deadly. 

I have to admit that I almost did not finish this book. Don't get me wrong, there were parts that I really enjoyed, but I had a really big issues with the narrator, Isadora which at times made it difficult to continue reading since everything was colored through her eyes. She was so selfish and grated on my nerves like nails on a chalkboard, at least for most of the book that is. She did slowly start to change her attitude some as time went on, but honestly that too little, too late for me by that point. She was just so convinced that her perception of things was the only possibility and refused to even think of seeing anything in a different light. This in turn led to really terrible relationships with her family and in my eyes made her little more than a self entitled selfish brat. You may be asking why I did decide to continue on with this book even after my very strong issues with Isadora, and honestly the answer to that was easy. The side characters and the mythology thankfully outshined her. I have to admit that the side characters were so strong considering this was a first person narrative, so we only get to see them through Isadora's eyes, but they were. I especially loved Tyler as she was the sweet and spunky best friend determined to set Isadora up with Ry. And Ry, well I could go on and on about him since he stole my heart pretty early, but since he is one of the best parts about the book, I'll leave it at that to avoid giving too much away.

Now, onto the mythology. I feel like I should start with a disclaimer that I have always been incredibly fascinated with Egyptian mythology, so of course this book really jumped out at me. That being said, I enjoyed how the mythology was played out. Granted there was one issue that I wished had of been explained a bit better, and that was the mortality of the god's children, like Isadora. The only mention made was that after some naughty behavior from some of the younger gods, that perhaps it was better to not create any more gods. But there still was no real explanation as to how two gods could possibly have mortal children, or why they would consistently have another every 20 years. But putting that aside, I especially enjoyed the balance between the new and the old explanations of the mythology. Each chapter would start with a short tale of the ancient past and how the gods came to be in their roles, and then it would continue into a short modern section where Isadora explained how that tale then related to the modern version of the gods and her parents. I just felt it was really interesting how the old and the new were tied together, and made it really right up my alley since I'm such a sucker for Egyptian mythology.

While this review was rather easy for me to write as I felt I had a lot to say about this story, and I probably could have continued on even longer, I am having a very hard time deciding how to rate. THE CHAOS OF STARS is one of those books that I both loved and really hated at the same time. Perhaps hate is a bit strong, but I definitely had strong feelings against her. And yet I was so captivated by the rest of the story. If I could rate it separately, I would give Isadora's character a one star, and the rest a 4.5-5 star rating. I guess the best thing to do would be to take an average of the two and go with a 3 even if it isn't quite the best representation. So I'll end by saying, THE CHAOS OF STARS was an enjoyable read with an excellent use of mythology and secondary characters, but readers should be warned of the grating narrator.

(Received a copy from the publisher via Edelweiss)

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Other Reviews:

     Nocturnal Library

     Dark Faerie Tales

     Bookfever

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