Top Ten Book Boyfriends of 2012

Hey guys :) After telling you all about my favorite books, covers, and villains of 2012, now it's time for my book boyfriends... and choosing was tough, though made slightly easier by the fact that some of my top book boyfriends are from novels I haven't read this past year. I'll have to make a post about them some time...


Here are my favorites of the past year:

Varen Nethers from Kelly Creagh's Nevermore series
I'm really glad that I re-read Nevermore to prepare for Enshadowed, so I could choose this cover. Varen would have topped my list anyway, read in 2012 or not. I went completely nuts about this book as soon as I first read it, and the year-long wait for the sequel nearly killed me. It was very much worth it though! I love Varen's mysteriousness, implied vulnerability, intelligence, looks (dark haired and green eyed? Yes please. And the cover model is perfect.), musical and dressing taste, humor, handwriting and choice of ink color, car... the list goes on. I am also slightly scared of him... in a good way.


Tod Hudson from Rachel Vincent's Soul Screamers series
I liked Tod from the beginning, but absolutely loved him in If I Die and Before I Wake. His humor, his loyalty, his wit, his courage. How perfectly he understands and suits Kaylee. I have marked up so many of his quotes, and actually found myself sighing out loud. Which is untypical for me. Nevermind that he's dead, selectively visible, can walk through walls, and short-range teleport.


Ash from Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series
I've only read the first three books but I love Ash. He's winter court, and I am winter born. His sword skills and looks do not hurt. Neither does the fact that beyond the icy exterior he is actually caring and passionate when it comes to Meghan. When he pledged himself to her in The Iron Queen I had tears in my eyes...


Bram from Lia Habel's Dearly, Departed
If you had told me that a ZOMBIE would be one of my favorite book boyfriends of the year, I would have laughed at you. Then I would have told you Hell No. That was before Bram. That his face is still intact and he doesn't look zombie-gruesome apart from the pallor certainly helps. But from the beginning, I liked the parts from his POV. He is just such an honest, loyal, selfless guy. I love him and Nora as a couple, and kept trying very hard not to think about how little time they will actually have together because of his inescapable eventual demise.


Ash Fisher from Elizabeeth Richard's Black City
I still owe you guys the review for this novel... my apologies! I loved Ash from the beginning. I could tell that much already from the sample chapters I read months before the book actually came out. He is smart, tall, edgy, my type. I liked his sarcasm. I even liked his... realistic hopelessness? His yearning for the Darkling side of the wall? But I found that I liked him even more when he finally found something worth fighting for. Worth dying for. (Damn now I want to re-read the book...)


Daemon Black from Jennifer L. Armentrout's Lux series
I would find Daemon incredibly infuriating. I think if I met him in real life, we would be bitching at each other non-stop. But I would feel drawn to him anyway. I've only read the first two books but I adore how much he cares about Katy and how they can push each other's buttons. Also, he's super strong and fiercely loyal to his sister.


Adrian Ivashkov from Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy and Bloodlines
I remember finding him very annoying when he first shows up in VA, but then I grew to like him. Great humor. I felt very sorry for him at the end of VA, though I thought Rose did belong with Dimitri. I never would have guessed that I would start shipping him with Sydney of all people! I didn't even like her until I was inside her head. I love Adrian trying to change and become a better person. Plus, he's an artist, and a little tragic. But his way with words is what really does me in.


Cassel Sharpe from Holly Black's Curse Workers series
Oh Cassel. Another tragic case. The actually good guy who can never conceive of himself as such. His family is completely wacked and I would never want to meet any of them, but Cassel is so full of guilt over what he believes to have done... he's different. His grandpa thinks so too, was my impression. Cassel has great snark, an incredibly resourceful mind, and amazing ideas for cons and how to pull them off. My heart kept breaking for what was happening to him during the series. Over and over.


Sebastian from Kelly Keaton's Gods and Monsters series
I liked him from the moment Ari laid eyes on him. Another boy fighting the nature of who and what he is... are you beginning to see a pattern in my boy choices? Sebastian is half warlock half vampire and caught in the middle of two of the most powerful families in all of New 2, a re-imagined New Orleans. Powerful. Smart. Torn. And ready to help Ari with whatever she needs. I adore him, and I'm so glad there will be a third books after all!


Cas Lowood from Kendare Blake's Anna Dressed in Blood
Cas' voice was one of my favorites I read all year. I love snarky and sarcastic. Cas tries never to get emotionally involved with anybody, because he knows that as soon as he solves one of his ghost hunter cases, he will have to move anyway. He is incredibly determined and strong, and exceptionally good at what he's doing. Boys with knives. Yum. Provided the knives are not pointed in my direction. I also liked to see him slowly change and come to appreciate having friends and opening up to them a bit. Can't wait for Girl of Nightmares to come out in paperback so I can read more of him and Anna!


Honorable mentions:
Noah from Katie McGarry's Pushing The Limits, Ziri from Laini Taylor's Days of Blood & Starlight (I don't care that he's a minor character!), Kaidan Rowe from Wendy Higgin's Sweet Evil. Maybe I should have put Kaidan in above - he's certainly hot and conflicted enough. Hm... Oh well. I bet he was picked by enough others ;)

So what do you guys think of my picks? Anyone you felt the same about? Someone you would kick off the list immediately? Leave the link to your own post if you have one, I'm curious :)

Review: Black Heart, by Holly Black

Published: April 3, 2012
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Format: Hardcover, 296 pages

Goodreads description:
In a world where Magic is illegal.

Cassel Sharpe has the most deadly ability of all. With one touch, he can transform any object - including a person - into something else entirely. And that makes him a wanted man. The Feds are willing to forgive all his past crimes if he'll only leave his con artist family behind and go straight. But why does going straight feel so crooked?

For one thing, it means being on the opposite side of the law from Lila, the girl he loves. She's the daughter of a mob boss and getting ready to join the family business herself. Though Cassel is pretty sure she can never love him back, he can't stop obsessing over her. Which would be bad enough, even if her father wasn't keeping Cassel's mother prisoner in a posh apartment and threatening not to let her leave until she returns the priceless diamond she scammed off him years ago. Too bad she can't remember where she put it.

The Feds say they need Cassel to get rid of a powerful man who is spinning dangerously out of control. But if they want Cassel to use his unique talent to hurt people, what separates the good guys from the bad ones? Or is everyone just out to con him?

Time is running out, and all Cassel's magic and cleverness might not be enough to save him. With no easy answers and no one he can trust, love might be the most dangerous gamble of all.


The following review is based on a copy I purchased myself.

Review:
(spoilers for the first two books, but none for Black Heart itself)

I enjoyed Black Heart immensely! It’s definitely a worthy conclusion to the Curse Workers trilogy. I would love another sequel or maybe a short story to see how things continue for the characters, but I was also content to see them where they were and leave the rest up to my own imagination.

At the end of Red Glove, Cassel tricked Barron into joining the feds to help the government against the mob worker families. Cassel himself promised to join the program after finishing school. That was the price he paid for his immunity after being used as an assassin without his knowledge. What I love most about Cassel is that he tries so, so hard to be good and make the right decisions. He loves his family, but he also wants to get away from the fate that seems to be already determined for him – a life of crime, desired by everyone for his rare transformation talent. A life as a tool, a pawn to the powerful. Cassel wants to find a way to use his talent for good ends, he wants a self-determined, independent life. All the while, he is tormented by guilt and cannot believe in his own goodness.

Joining the feds seemed like the lessest evil at the time, but things begin to go downhill pretty quickly. Lila has joined her father and taken the marks of a member of the Zacharov crime family. Even though there seems to be no chance for the two of them, Cassel cannot stop thinking about her. However, his greater problem is that Zacharov is holding his mum captive. The good part: she is wanted by the police and they certainly won’t find her in Zacharov’s apartment. The bad part: Zacharov is holding her hostage until Cassel can find and return the resurrection diamond to him, which she stole and then wanted to sell back to him. Too bad no one knows where the real stone is.

Meanwhile, Zacharov of course cannot know about Cassel’s involvement with the feds. He’d have Cassel’s mom, Barron, and Cassel himself killed immediately for that kind of ‘treason’. And anyway, the lines between good government and evil mobsters become increasingly blurred as the story continues… has Cassel made the right choice? Or is this a case of out of the frying pan, into the fire? Is there anyone at all he can trust?

There’s his roommate Sam, of course. But Sam is trying to piece himself back together after breaking up with Daneca – who is now seeing a mysterious new guy. Then there is a new character with unclear motives who asks Cassel for help, which he cannot deny even while he realizes she might be conning him…

One of my favorite minor characters is Cassel’s grandfather. He is the only family member who truly cares about Cassel, in my opinion. He tries to look out for him without intruding too much into his business and provides comfort and stability.

And Lila… I love Lila. She’s tough. She gets to do things other female characters in YA novels don’t get to do or can’t get away with. She’s a future mob leader! She’s also shrewd, and cruel at times. She knows what she wants and how to get it. She’s (nearly) fearless. In short, she’s something of a mystery and what I enjoy about her is also trying to figure her out, to separate her ‘real’ self (as far as we can glimpse it) from the picture Cassel makes up of her in his mind. I love the scenes between them, how they collide and repel one another but can never truly fight their attraction. Their chemistry is incredible, and there are also some steamy scenes.

I could ramble on and on about how much I love the world of this trilogy, but let me keep that aspect short. The fight for worker rights that got more coverage in Red Glove also plays an important part here. Governor Patton is really pushing for Proposition Two and has become too great a danger to be ignored any longer. I can’t really say more about it without major spoilers. Also the way worker kids are exploited for their talents plays an important role in the novel. I love how realistic and gritty the Curse Workers world is. If people with such talents existed for real, this is what it would be like. I also think it’s amazing how Holly Black interweaves the workers’ past and the fight for worker rights with the working camps of WWII and with the fight for minority rights that is still an issue today.

I love the pacing. This book is incredibly hard to put down, things start off interesting and it just escalates from there, leaving you breathless and quite desperate for Cassel’s situation. I also really like the way Holly Black implies that Cassel has a plan, but manages to keep up a first person narrative without Cassel actually divulging his plan to the reader. So it’s impossible to have an inkling of what he might do and whether it might work. It’s genius.

As is the prose! Amazing descriptions, turns of the phrase, witty ironic snarky remarks, banter… There are beautiful passages, but they sting. There are horrid passages, but you can’t help but admire the way they are crafted. It’s like a paranormal noir thriller of sorts. Holly Black’s writing punches a hole into your heart at times, but you will love her for it.

All in all I love this book to bits. The plot is incredibly well-crafted, the characters fully fleshed-out, the pace gripping and the prose sharp and unique. It’s full of twists and turns and uncertainties but things resolve nicely, though the reader has to figure out plenty on his/her own. It’s a great conclusion that also leaves an opening for the reader’s own imagination or a possible bonus story (please, Holly Black?). I can only recommend these books to anyone who loves their YA with a little more off an edge!

I could have gone on and one about Cassel and his attitude to his ability and to Lila etc etc but that would be more interpretation than review. I really seem to be unable to keep them short, but I blame Holly Black for writing a book that is too good to be written of(f) with just a few short paragraphs.

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What did you think of Black Heart? Was it a good conclusion of the series for you guys? Do you want more? You can also share your thoughts of the other books. I love your comments :)