What's Hot? Books.

Stained by Ella James.

Title: Stained
Author: Ella James
Publication Date: Sept. 14th 2011
Publisher: Barkley's Books
Goodreads Synopsis: After a fire destroys seventeen-year-old Julia’s home and kills her foster parents, she chases the half-demon responsible across the country and back, determined to avenge her family and discover why a host of celestial baddies want her dead. With Julia is enigmatic hottie - Cayne, who has his own score to settle with the half-demon, and who might be just as dangerous as the creature he and Julia hunt.

{ Review }

So I just finished reading Stained and I loved it. I have to admit, the only reason I read this was because I randomly stumbled across it on my kindle and was confused as to how it got there, but I sure am glad that it found its way to my library! I was initially reading this on the Kindle app for iPod which is my least favourite method of reading but once I'd started Stained, I just couldn't stop! Stained had me gripped from the beginning to the end with its compelling story and characters and I can't wait to read the rest of the books in this series!

The story centres around Julia and Cayne and there are very few other characters. I absolutely fell in love with Cayne as I suppose any teenage girl would. He's badass. Like Nephilim badass. He's super hot, super alluring and super secretive and you can't help but fall in love with him. From the minute he burst through the Julia's ceiling (literally), I was completely under his spell. You can see both Julia and Cayne develop as the book goes on and you get more and more engrossed in their story. What's interesting is that both of these characters are searching to find out more about themselves, but the more they learn the more complicated things get. Whilst Nora is one of the 'stained', Cayne is a Nephilim and it appears that these two races have it out for each other,  though this isn't explored that much in book 1. Although this book is written from the third person perspective, you still get glimpses into Julia's thoughts and you really understand her as a character. Sometimes I found Cayne thoroughly confusing, but I liked that we didn't know everything about him because it added to the allusion.

Some aspects of this book are pretty predictable, but some really aren't. Just as I'd started to get into the groove of this book, there was a random passage featuring some new characters teasing me just enough to have me turning pages like crazy trying to figure out how this new info would all fit in. You feel a build up as you're reading and you just know that something is coming, but you're never quite sure what it is.

Stained ends on such an abrupt and unanticipated cliffhanger and as I hadn't been keeping tabs on how far into the book I was, I found myself frantically pressing the 'page turn' button, willing there to be more. I cannot wait to get started on Stolen, the second book in this series, so that I can find out exactly what happens to Cayne and Julia! I, rather shamefully, have to admit that I have never purchased a book from Kindle ebook from Amazon but for this book I think I'll have to make an exception because I need to know more!

Having finished reading the book, I have to say that I don't think the cover is particularly representative of the content. The girl standing there is nothing like what I'd imagine Julia to be like, particularly because she has very short hair and I can't really imagine her in those clothes, but hey, that's just the way my imagination sees things. Personally, I feel the cover lets the book down a bit, but, as they say, never judge a book by its cover! For me, the cover is the only negative thing about this book, everything else is brilliant! 

This book very much reminded me of the series Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick so I'd definitely recommend this to any fans of Patch and Nora. This ebook is only £0.77 on Amazon, which is incredibly cheap for such a fantastic novel so get your hands on it now - no excuses!