Life After Theft by Aprilynne Pike

Life After Theft by Aprilynne Pike
Genre: YA Paranormal
Publication: April 30th, 2013
Publisher: HarperTeen
Page Count: 352
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Moving to a new high school sucks. Especially a rich-kid private school. With uniforms. But nothing is worse than finding out the first girl you meet is dead. And a klepto.

No one can see or hear Kimberlee except Jeff, so--in hopes of bringing an end to the snarkiest haunting in history--he agrees to help her complete her "unfinished business." But when the enmity between Kimberlee and Jeff's new crush, Sera, manages to continue posthumously, Jeff wonders if he's made the right choice.

Clash meets sass in this uproarious modern-day retelling of Baroness Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel.

*A review copy was provided from the publisher* 

I thought that this one would be a really fun, light read.  I like the cover and the premise sounds interesting enough.  I mean, how many people get the chance to talk to ghosts?  I do feel that paranormal stories, however, are everywhere and it's hard nowadays to make it original.

I honestly prefer books written in the guy's POV.  I'm not entirely sure, but I just suppose the guys don't have the long, clique-y, insecure internal thoughts.  Readers really dodge the bullet in that department with the guy's POV, but Jeff didn't really stick out that much to me.  There wasn't that much dimension or growth in his character, and he was extremely moody.  Now, I've had my fair share of imperfect characters that I absolutely adored, but Jeff didn't fit the bill.  There wasn't that original quality to him, or at least a sense that he was real.  

And this pretty much applied to all of the other characters.  Kimberlee with two "e's" wasn't very likable, and I felt that I barely even got to meet Sera because that was how fast Jeff and Sera's relationship moved.  I felt as if there was a bunch of amateur actors  trundling across the pages.  Nothing felt deeper than substantial.  Scenes with witty banter felt forced.  Lifeless.  Dull.

The book essentially followed the same direction of the characters.  The plot was barely alive and, while I finished the book, I lost interest early on.  I thought that I would enjoy this one, possibly even fondle it a little because the story would be cute and all, but it didn't connect with me.

Life After Theft could definitely be an enjoyable book to some, but for me, the whole story fell flat.  I like that Pike included the adolescent struggles to fit in throughout the novel, but other than that, I didn't like much from this book.  I've seen this kind of plot all over, and I understand that this is a retelling, but I wasn't blown away with it.  I'm positive that some will enjoy this book, but Life After Theft was not the book for me, unfortunately.

2 Splashes

The Mephisto Covenant by Trinity Faegen

I've had this baby on my TBR list for a really long time.  I'd almost gotten it on numerous amount of times after discovering it on Amazon, but after all of the negative reviews written about it, I wasn't so sure if I wanted to read it.  So on the back burner it went until I won The Mephisto Kiss ARC in a giveaway.  So then, of course I knew I had to read it before I received the second book.

The Synopsis:
Sasha is desperate to find out who murdered her father. When getting the answer means pledging her soul to Eryx, she unlocks a secret that puts her in grave danger--she is an Anabo, a daughter of Eve, and Eryx's biggest threat.
A son of Hell, immortal, and bound to Earth forever, Jax looks for redemption in the Mephisto Covenant--God's promise he will find peace in the love of an Anabo. After a thousand years, he's finally found the girl he's been searching for: Sasha.
With the threat of Eryx always looming, Jax knows he has to keep Sasha safe and win her over. But can he? Will Sasha love him and give up her mortal life?








My Thoughts:
This was yet another book I had borrowed from the library.  What had originally drawn me to the book was the cover.  I mean, just look at it.  Isn't is beautiful?  The big dress, the mysterious blue background; it had drawn me like a moth to a flame.  The idea I thought was interesting, too.  The girl being the uber pure daughter of Eve and the imminent danger of her losing that purity from a son of Hell. Sweet deal.  I could just imagine all of the conflict and the budding romance.  The idea held a lot of potential.
Sasha was quite a different character.  Not only was I able to not really connect with both her and Jax, and the other characters, but she wasn't a very stable one, either.  I felt as if her personality wasn't always in-character or believable.  There were moments where she would do certain things that would have me confused, and not in the impressed way.
As I mentioned, I thought that the story had a lot of potential.  I was imagining demons and other creepy Hell-bound creatures.  Then as I read the book, I changed my mind about that theory and thought that this creepy cult that worships Eryx would become a big deal.  And it did.  But I didn't exactly feel the danger about it.  Though, I was totally bummed with all of the people that joined, and I wanted to throttle them, shake them until they could see logic.  It's kind of hard to do that when the people are fictional and are only words written on a page.
On an even more positive note, I really loved the writing.  It wasn't poetic like The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wesserman, but it most definitely had it's own lyrical qualities to it.  It was my favorite quality of The Mephisto Covenant, so I have to give my props to Trinity Faegen.
Overall, I wasn't exactly thrilled with this book.  I read it all the way through, following the story to the very end because I had to know how it ended, but I wasn't content with it.  It's not that there was this huge cliff hanger, but I thought that the way it ended with a bit rushed and sloppy, almost like the end of Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins in that sense.  I also found that some of the situations in the story were just plain awkward and also that others weren't very believable.
And with all of that, I gave this book two out of five stars.  I'm excited to read what will happen next in The Mephisto Kiss and see if maybe I will enjoy it more than I did this one.
Please don't let this review convince you to not read this book.  If you were interested in reading it before, by all means, go ahead and read it.  This is only just my opinion of The Mephisto Covenant, and I'd hate for this to prevent others from possibly enjoying it.