Review: Wicked by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Once again I'm pretty sure I can't express just how much I have fallen in love with this author's books.  While this one had a few issues that probably needed maybe a closer editor for little slips, it still had great characters, and really hot, sexy scenes.  I would definitely say this is New Adult and not YA though. 

The main character is Ivy.  And Ivy is part of an organization that is tasked with killing the fae, and any other Otherworldly creatures that might be around.  She was raised to be part of the organization until her parents were killed, at the same time her boyfriend was killed.  And now she is living on her own in New Orleans.  Well, not completely alone.  She has a brownie that lives with her.  And no one can know about Tink, as she calls him, because she really should have killed him when she first saw him.  She's also going to college.  Trying to somewhat have a normal life outside of the Order.  But she doesn't want to get close to anyone, not after what happened with her parents.  So she lives vicariously through her best friend Val, who is a bit of a wild child.  And then a new guy comes to town, Ren Owens.  He is also part of the Order, come from a Colorado group.  He has piercing green eyes, dark hair, and a very sexy grin, that goes along with a pretty sarcastic and sexy sense of humor. And Ivy is drawn to him, even against her rules about getting close to someone.  Especially frustrating is just how annoying he can be.  But it's annoying in a fun way, as she is always having to hide a smile at the things he does to annoy her.  And he seems to be interested in her as well. 

Something is going on, there have been two Order members who have been killed in the line of duty.  And Ivy runs into a Fae that barely looks different from humans, isn't hurt by the iron she stakes him with, and pulls a gun out of thin air that he shoots her with.  She finds out this is an ancient.  And it is very rare to see them.  But while her leader dismisses her story, Ren believes, and tells her more about ancients, and about why he's really come to New Orleans.  Ivy learns more about the fae, as well as ancients, and even more about the Order.  She learns of halflings, half fae, half human creatures, that are part of a prophecy that could spell disaster for Earth in opening one of the gates to the Otherworld.  In all of this she gets thrown together with Ren, and the attraction proves unresistable.  All the while there is a traitor in the Order, and possibly a halfling they must find and destroy.

I thought this was going to be a single story, but no, it ended with a big cliffhanger, and I need to know what happens next! Supposedly book 2 was supposed to be this summer according to a blurb in the back of the book, but according to Goodreads it's not expected till 2016.  This is definitely another must read from Jennifer L. Armentrout.  I love all the different pop culture references in the story.  There are Buffy the Vampire Slayer references, Harry Potter references, too many to even list them all.  Some that aren't even stated exactly what they are, you just know if you are a fan of that specific topic. 

My Boring-Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith

I started this book clear back in April of 2008, so it's been almost 5 years that it has taken me to finish it.  Yes it is a big book, but that's not why.  The book is exactly what it says, it is the blog or diary entries of Kevin Smith.  And so, as it seemed he may have been writing some of his entries while in the bathroom, I kept my copy of the book in the bathroom to read the short entries in short times for reading.  TMI, I know. Sorry.  But it goes along with this book.
This is not the sort of book I would normally review, I do review mostly YA, but if you are a long time follower of my blog, you know that I pretty much review any book I read, because that is what I blog for, to share my books.  And along with that, I am a HUGE Kevin Smith fan.  Which was kind of weird for me to admit at first.  I've always been, and still pretty much am, anti-drug.  I'll use a Kevin Smith trait here, and bring in a pop culture reference for why that is.  I was raised with the whole Nancy Reagan "Say No to Drugs" campaign.  And yes, I was, and kind of still am, a good girl in that respect.  I was the kid that all those commercials and campaigns were successful for.  Today I'm really mostly anti-cigarette as I lost both my grandma and grandpa on my mom's side to lung cancer.  And it was not fun to watch.  My grandma was only 46 when she died, and it was a few years of even being in a hospital bed in her own home.  My grandpa quit smoking when she got sick, but then it still got him years later, it seemed to just take him in a few months.  I feel it was from all the second hand smoke he'd gotten in the past few years in the local casinos, but who knows.  It was so hard to watch my grandpa, who I credit with a lot of the things I know and am interested in these days, go through all that pain.  But let's get off my past and onto the book.
I credit Matt Damon for my current admiration of all things Kevin Smith.  I believe it was the movie Dogma, that got me started on Kevin Smith movies.  And once I got past the drugs, I was able to look at the characters, and all the pop culture references that I kind of use in my own life, and just was hooked.  In fact, I have to say, if there was anyone I really wanted to meet right now that I hadn't met yet, it would be Kevin Smith.  He seems like such a cool guy.  And by cool, I mean basically a normal guy who has really succeeded.  And even though I say normal, I mean genius.  The way he is able to hit on so many things that people find hilarious, just normal things, it's genius.
Now it's been so long since I really started this book, that I don't even remember exactly what all was going on in Kevin's life during the entries in this blog.  I do know that we got to see how it was for him to deal with his friend Jason Mewes as he sunk into his horrible drug problem, and how Smith did his best to help him, and what was the final straw you might say that may have done the trick.  We get to read Smith's responses to his critics.  We get to read about all the great things he did for his fans that he knew were as big of "fan-boys" as he was for his own idols.  One thing I'm so disappointed to have missed out on, was getting my name at the end of the Clerks 2 credits.  I never knew about it until after the whole contest was over.
It's neat to read about his life with his wife and daughter.  To hear what it is like to be a parent in the "Hollywood" area, what to do with the fundraisers for the schools among some of the stories.  He talks about being a huge Bruce Willis fan, and talks about when he got the dream job of working with him in Live Free or Die Hard.  I have never been that big of a fan of the Die Hard movies, but because both Kevin Smith and Justin Long were in this movie, it was one I was excited to see.  Hearing Smith talk about what a day of filming on a Bruce Willis movie was like compared to his own movie sets was also really interesting.  To read Smith's fawning words about Willis, would probably be like me writing about all the cool authors I got to meet last summer at BEA.  If I was anywhere near as wordy as Smith.  And I mean wordy in a good way!
I did mark the page of another missed opportunity for me.  When there was a pre-screening for Clerks 2 in Kansas City, my hometown, Kevin Smith was actually  IN the theater!!!  And I know it was at the theater I go to, because a friend of mine was there, and even saw Smith!  I will always be jealous that I didn't get to see him then.  It is interesting how he talks about a woman in her mid-thirties walking out in disgust, when I would have been that age then, but wouldn't have been that woman!
And finally, one other thing I have to say about Kevin Smith, that I can't remember if it was in this book, or that I saw him post it on Twitter.  When the Comic-Con "regular" nerdy guys were complaining about all the screaming girls and their moms there for Twilight, he was like in full support of the girls.  For a couple reasons, one because they were fans, just as nerdy as the other guys in some cases.  The other reason, the guys should think about how many girls were now at Comic-Con, and their moms, who were in many cases, cougars.  And the "nerds" should look at it in that positive light.  Smith is the champion of all people who are mega-fans, like a lot of us bloggers are about our authors. He doesn't criticize anyone's tastes as being stupid.  He knows that many of the things he loves are considered stupid by others, but he doesn't care and loves them, and so he treats everyone how he wants to be treated, or at least that is what he says on social media.  And I choose to believe that is the real Kevin Smith.  And that, if I could hang out with him, in a no-drugs allowed situation, I think it'd be one of the most entertaining get-togethers of my life.
If you enjoy Kevin Smith, and won't be offended by the drug talk, (marijuana and cigarettes are really about all he is okay with, and alcohol of course), and quite a bit of cussing, you will enjoy this book.  It's not a sit down and read in one session book, but one to pick up and enjoy over many different periods.  You can read an entry at a time, or read through several that have a theme as he discussed whatever was going on at that time.
Now, I've had Smith favorite some of my tweets that I've mentioned him in, so my new goal, is to see if I can get him to come post a comment on this blog! So I'm off to tweet about this and see what I can make happen!