Mini Reviews: Rampant & Infinite Days

Why is it tiny things are always so darn cute?!

  These reviews might not be as cute as the adorable babies, but they are mini! 

Mini Reviews are short reviews of books I have read for my own enjoyment and wanted to share with you. I will describe in a couple of sentences (often fragmented) my thoughts on the book.  I may or may not ever post full reviews of any of these books.  So in the mean time, Enjoy!

Rampant by Diana Peterfreund
"Forget everything you ever knew about unicorns...

Real unicorns are venomous, man-eating monsters with huge fangs and razor-sharp horns. Fortunately, they've been extinct for a hundred and fifty years.

Or not.

Astrid had always scoffed at her eccentric mother's stories about killer unicorns. But when one of the monsters attacks her boyfriend—thereby ruining any chance of him taking her to the prom—Astrid finds herself headed to Rome to train as a unicorn hunter at the ancient cloisters the hunters have used for centuries.

However, at the cloisters all is not what it seems. Outside, the unicorns wait to attack. And within, Astrid faces other, unexpected threats: from the crumbling, bone-covered walls that vibrate with a terrible power to the hidden agendas of her fellow hunters to—perhaps most dangerously of all—her growing attraction to a handsome art student ... an attraction that could jeopardize everything."

A good read, but not one of my favorites.  A new twist on fantasy elements with romance and action.  Filled with killer unicorns; not pretty or white or sparkly.  I wasn’t all that happy with main character’s choices and the mother was a bit crazy, but I am still looking forward to reading the next one.   I give this one a [6- Good read with small flaws.]   

 Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel

"Lenah Beaudonte is, in many ways, your average teen: the new girl at Wickham Boarding School, she struggles to fit in enough to survive and stand out enough to catch the eye of the golden-boy lacrosse captain. But Lenah also just happens to be a recovering five-hundred-year-old vampire queen. After centuries of terrorizing Europe, Lenah is able to realize the dream all vampires have -- to be human again. After performing a dangerous ritual to restore her humanity, Lenah entered a century-long hibernation, leaving behind the wicked coven she ruled over and the eternal love who has helped grant her deep-seated wish.

Until, that is, Lenah draws her first natural breath in centuries at Wickham and rediscovers a human life that bears little resemblance to the one she had known. As if suddenly becoming a teenager weren’t stressful enough, each passing hour brings Lenah closer to the moment when her abandoned coven will open the crypt where she should be sleeping and find her gone. As her borrowed days slip by, Lenah resolves to live her newfound life as fully as she can. But, to do so, she must answer ominous questions: Can an ex-vampire survive in an alien time and place? What can Lenah do to protect her new friends from the bloodthirsty menace about to descend upon them? And how is she ever going to pass her biology midterm?"

I enjoyed the writing style and liked how the story just started off and you gain clues through flashbacks. The story seemed so evenly paced, but then jammed up at the end.  Still a great read and a different twist on a vampire novel than I have seen recently making this an [8- Really good!] for me.