Review: Jailbirds by Samantha Steele

Format: ebook (.pdf)
Pages: 180
A few months ago, Zac committed his second murder to save a girl he thinks he loves. His mother refuses to bail him out, so he spends the months before his trial locked in a prison cell. At first, the guards feel sorry for him, but after a fight with his cellmate, Zac is put in solitary confinement. 

Enter Blaise, the Soul Searcher. Introduce The War, the Ghost Boy, the Signs, and most notably the Corrupted.

And Zac finds his calling.

Samantha will die.

If only the human justice system would get out of his way.
Summary from Goodreads


   This is what I'm talking about!
   Continuing the story from Teenagers this book takes us through Zac's life well incarcerated. Although the characters may be the same the take on them from Zac's point of view changes how they seem a little bit. It makes their personalities seem slightly different and make's Zac himself seem a little more... deep? I guess that'd be the word for him. You're able to see why he's a little shy. He himself is a well written character though the other's are a little less so leaving you to wonder a bit about them (though there is a whole section of the story where it's from all of his friends points of view).
   Though I like this book, to be honest, the trials seemed to drag a little bit and switching between perspectives so much gave me mental whiplash. There is a point in almost every book/ series that just has that kind of boring moment in it where it's dominantly description. Avoiding that in a book that mainly takes place in prison, well, that's practically impossible. I like how this Jailbirds seemed to show the other half of the story that your wondering about in Teenagers. This one definitely had more supernatural in it but if you don't pay attention to a few of the little details some things might not make very much sense. Personally, I love everything the paranormal or supernatural in it and this book has a slight mention of how all of the gods from different beliefs and religions live together as the "Divine" with those who appose them as the "Corrupted", or evil. I liked the story itself quite a bit (though I highly doubt that Jesus [Christian] and Pagans would be on the same side do to the conflicting beliefs). The story was great for the most part with just a few little things that seemed to take ways from it.
    Not only was this well written (for the most part) but it was a great story itself. With the occasional hiccup here and there in the book (Zac's overly fast change in personality and the equally abrupt ending), this is a story I would recommend to someone who like's paranormal YA books and who doesn't mind a little swearing here and there.

Review: Teenagers by Samantha Steele

All her life, Samantha has felt a little awkward, like she belonged somewhere else - certainly not the cold blue mountains of Alaska. Her feelings are confirmed when a Ghost tells her a little story about her past and who she really is: a Sign.

But the Palace is in danger, and its leader must know the story that Samantha has forgotten. The story about Zac and the high school Samantha attended. This is that story; this is the beginning.


Review from Goodreads

The Characters:
The protagonist of the book, Samantha "Sam", wasn't fairly well written in the sense that you could tell her what emotions were and, most the time, why she felt the way she did... most the time. Her personality on the other hand made her seem shallow though not conceited and there were some parts in the story that had me confused about her personality. Jacob, the main protagonist of the story, had a very visible personality, he was either bipolar or a psychopath, and I go for the latter option. Though his point of view occurred only a handful of times they provided great insight into his mind making it easier to understand his actions. The love interest Zac was okay but not that great. Same goes for all the friends with the exception of the secondary love interest Mitchell, who I absolutely adored and was by far the best written character. Overall the characters were okay but not amazing.

The Setting:
I kept forgetting it was Alaska. What does that say? If it wasn't for the title and a brief mention here and there I would have totally spaced it out because it wasn't really described, or if it was I missed it because it was probably in the middle of a lag in the book. The setting wasn't really that great in description but was okay for the story.

The Story:
Now I get to both the best and worst part. Yes, the story was really nice. No, I couldn't keep track of where it was at times. By that I mean that at the start it seemed like a paranormal fantasy, by the middle it was a romance, and toward the end it was a mesh of murder, mystery, drama, and a little bit paranormal fantasy making me wonder which is it supposed to be. I liked the story line though even if it was a little hard to follow. The book is written primarily as a flashback through... someone's mind via paranormal/ Harry Potter like ways, but veers from that a little since "flashback" stories are usually written from one point of view.


Overall, this book was "nice" and "okay" because the story, characters, and setting fit together nicely although they weren't that great themselves. It doesn't make it to my top favorite's list but isn't the worst book I've ever read.