Carnelian

Everyone has a past, but for most it isn’t as long ago as Seth Sangre. His past is literally thousands of years ago. Seth’s life led him to the present seeking something that might help him save his country from destruction. He has been in the present for over three years now and just found exactly what he has been looking for.

Mari had dreams that college will be a fresh start, one where she would start over and not fall for the good looking player like high school. Unfortunately for her, that’s exactly what ends up falling into her lap on the first day she moves into the dorms. Now she has to hold to her promise to herself and not fall for the handsome Seth. But he doesn’t plan to make it easy for her. Seth has already marked her as his next conquest. As the semester progresses, Mari learns that Seth might just have a life of his own that’s actually from the past. Suddenly Mari finds her future along with her past put into question. She’s connected to Seth far more than she ever wanted to be and maybe the player isn’t who she thought he was. If Mari can trust her heart enough to follow him, Seth will lead Mari on an adventure of a lifetime and reveal family secrets she never knew existed. 
from goodreads.com 

Beth says 1.5 Stars...
There are some moments where a pretty cover gets the better of me.  This book is certainly an example of my weakness.  The plot had me interested, but I just couldn't resist when I saw the stunning image.  Unfortunately, nothing about the novel lived up to expectations.  The only good part was that the plot was fast paced.  There wasn't that much waiting around for the action.  Besides that, everything else was rather bad.  The plot itself wavered between predictable and totally absurd, with many questions left completely unanswered.  At the end of the book it seemed as though no progress had been made towards reaching the main goal of the story.  Either that or the author just forgot to enlighten the readers.  The writing was also sub par.  Information was repeated constantly.  I now have an aversion to the number 23, which is evidently the number of girls dated by the totally amazing Seth Sangre.

Mari was a great big nothing as a character.  Her motives, like her characterization, never gained significant depth.  Her obsession with putting people in nice little boxes got wearying quite quickly, especially since the first bit of the book consisted primarily of talking about how Seth seemed like a player and she was done dating players.  As the novel progresses her identity becomes increasingly wrapped up in that of another individual.  Instead of being her own person, she's defined by her position as part of a pair, thus hitting straight on another one of my pet peeves.  Seth ended up as too perfect; some flaws make for a much more interesting character.  The only non-stock individual was Ty.  More page time for him might have helped the book a bit.

Overall, this isn't worth your time.  It's a shame to waste such a pretty cover, but sometimes looks are deceiving. 
ebook from Netgalley

The Academy - Thief

Kayli Winchester is a dirt-poor girl living out of a hotel, forced to be the parent for a drunken father and teenage brother who she’s desperate to keep in school. The only way she scrapes by is to utilize her one skill: pickpocketing. But even though she’s a thief she has a moral code: no kids or old ladies, only targets who can defend themselves. Not that they see her coming…

Thinking she’s been working under the radar, Kayli has no idea The Academy has been watching and taking notice. Now a team that needs her skill has offered her a way out of her predicament and it’s her last chance: work with them, or face jail time. Kayli resists at first, but slowly the boys reveal they can be trusted. With Marc, the straight man, Raven, the bad-boy Russian, Corey and Brandon the twins as different as night and day, and Axel their stoic leader, there’s a lot Kayli can learn from these Academy guys about living on the edge of the law. If only she can stay on the good side instead of the bad.

Especially when the job they offer her is more than any of them bargained for. After it’s done, the hunters have become the hunted and their target is now after Kayli. The Academy boys do their best to keep her hidden, but a thief like Kayli will never sit still for long.
from goodreads.com

Beth says 1.5 Stars...
Ugh, this book.  It starts out with Kayli, who I initially liked.  At the beginning she's working and picking pockets to try to make rent because her alcoholic father can't keep a job.  When the "team" catches up with her, the action supposedly starts.  I say supposedly because Stone doesn't actually reveal much information and has things happen without explanation.  The plot is totally confusing, with the actual badness of the bad guys constantly up for debate.  Throughout most of the book the team is chasing this guy without knowing any real details of what's going on.  The pacing was always off; sometimes really slow and other times all together too fast.  The climax of the book left me very unsatisfied and didn't serve to actually resolve any of the issues brought up during the story.

So I initially liked Kayli, but that quickly faded.  I thought she was going to be reasonably interesting because she seemed conflicted, but with morals and a giant protective instinct.  However, when she met the boys of the team it completely turned me off.  Literally every time a new young male character was introduced she had the hots for him.  EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.  Then she started feeling conflicted because her heart got all aflutter when the super sexy mancandy entered the room, no matter who it was.  At that point all of the potentially compelling parts of her personality were shoved aside to make room for romantic longing and thought.  Either she was sinking into angst about her thieving lifestyle or wanting to make out with someone.  I couldn't even pay attention to the male characters because I was so frustrated with the insane focus on flirty romance at the expense of all development.  It basically evolved into a love star with Kayli at the center connected to most of the guys introduced in the book.

My advice about this book: don't bother with it.  There were occasionally quips that made me laugh, but the rest of it isn't worth the time it takes to read the novel.
ebook from publisher

Explorer X - Alpha

For most kids, a trip to space camp is a trip of a lifetime, for Aadi it was life altering. After receiving a camp immunization needed for travel to Mars, Aadi finds that the immunization is the catalyst of an insidious experiment. Lucky for him, he was engineered to survive, thrive, and dominate. Without realizing he is being trained to conquer worlds, and manipulated under the guise of a camp, he unfolds the plot too late for a change of fate. Aadi’s world is shaken upon the revelation that life before camp was not what it appeared. This solidifies his plan to save them all from the company that seeks to control him, only for his rescue to end abruptly due to a freak accident on a field trip to Mars. The full experiment is set in motion when he and his co-pilot, Eirena, crash in a distant galaxy called Shrenas, where they change and realize the full extent of their power. Holding onto his humanity, in the midst of turning into a god is Aadi's biggest battle yet. This turn of events causes him to put his childish thoughts away, forcing him to accept his change, and to decide to save a world, or to do what he was trained to do, dominate it. In the midst his struggles with his changes, his power is coveted by the warring leaders of Shrenas, and he is forced to choose sides to save a life, or to save himself. A decision that may prove just how much humanity he has left.

from bookmasters.com

Beth says 1.5 Stars...
I hate writing this review. I really wanted to like this book, but I couldn't. The issue that ran throughout the book was the writing. It was in want of a good editor. The way it was written distracted from everything else in the book. It had almost no flow from sentence to sentence. There wasn't a consistency in the tense and formality of the language. At one point it would be informal and full of contractions, yet a short while later it would be very proper. This was done without a major change in context. I have no problem with formal or stilted language, but it has to serve a purpose. In this case it did not, and the constant change made it very hard to follow. Additionally, the sentence structure was often strange. There were things that made very little sense the way they were said. I was often left to puzzle out what was happening and what the implications were for a particular moment.

The issue with the writing makes me really sad, because the plot of the book really had potential. The idea isn't amazingly original, but it was worked in an interesting way. Again, my involvement in the plot was severely hampered by the writing. The same happened with the characters. I couldn't connect with them because I was to busy examining the writing. It took me a very long time to feel anything for them, and by that time it was just too little too late.

I wouldn't really recommend this book. Perhaps you know an avid sci-fi fan who just wants something new, and this might be fun for them. If you have a lot to read and have to be really picky with your books, don't pick this one up.