Ascendent, by Diana Peterfreund or in my head: Return of the Killer Unicorns!!

I don't know why I love the concept of killer unicorns so much. I think it's partly the way it sounds, partly the concept, and partly the genious of taking such an innocent seeming thing and ripping away it's facade to reveal a MAN EATING MONSTER!!!!! [cue evil laugh]. No, I'm not crazy-just brave enough to say what all my nonexistent readers are thinking.

All killer unicorns aside, or maybe not considering they are part of the book, Ascendent was very different from Rampant. It was darker, turning everything you and Astrid thought you knew upside down and around and right side up again. I liked the darkness though, because a book about killer unicorns shouldn't be happy go lucky. Hence the killer. The problem with the darkness is that it didn't really come in to the story at all until the middle and once it did, everything moved at lightening speed. The twist near the end almost had me in tears which is rare in a fantasy book (rare that it was fantasy, not that I was in tears. I have leakage issues when I read genuine sad stuff).

And now, for the killer unicorns: they were awesomer than ever, reaching new heights of awesomeness that have never been reached before.

One more thing that I liked: the character from the short story that directed me to Rampant came in somewhere in the middle. It was very happy-making.

4.99999999 stars. I just couldn't do 5, even though there are KILLER UNICORNS KILLER UNICORNS KILLER UNICORNS KILLER UNICORNS KILLER UNICORNS KILLER UNICORNS!!!!!

Fallen, by Lauren Kate

I am going to start off by saying that Kate is an awesome last name. Now that I got that out, I can actually tell you about the book.

Fallen is one of those teen romance books where the couple is destined to be together but something major and earth shattering is in their way. And one of them is always some fantastical creature. In Fallen, you don't find out what type of creature or thing makes it fantasy until you are more than halfway finished the book. As much as that annoyed me, I did like how the suspense was built. You can guess but your guesses seem unrealistic until you find out the truth, and then comes the spot where the perfect melody must be played, like something between Titanic (not My Heart Will Go On, but the wordless stuff you don't really hear) and Pirates of the Carribbean (I might have spelled that wrong).

So, basically, this girl always has creepy stuff happen to her and her parents think she is mildly psychotic so they send her to a messed up school for messed up teens. The people there are all, yup, messed up. And then she stalks this guy who is giving totally mixed messages because she thinks she knows him from somewhere. Boy is she surprised when she finds out where they know each other from. And I don't get why this girl is so special--seriously, I know blank walls that are more unique.

4.3 stars. I am way too nice-I don't usually go this low. I definitely recommend it, just don't go crazy obsessed teen while waiting for it. And there are no killer unicorns.