Book Review: The Sin Eater's Daughter (The Sin Eater’s Daughter #1)

Release Date: February 24, 2015
Author: Melinda Salisbury
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Length: 320 pages
Source: Purchased Book/Library Audio Book

A startling, seductive, deliciously dark debut that will shatter your definition of YA fantasy.

Seventeen-year-old Twylla lives in the castle. But although she's engaged to the prince, no one speaks to her. No one even looks at her. Because Twylla isn't a member of the court.

She's the executioner.

As the goddess-embodied, Twylla kills with a single touch. So each week, she's taken to the prison and forced to lay her hands on those accused of treason. No one will ever love her. Who could care for a girl with murder in her veins? Even the prince, whose royal blood supposedly makes him immune to her touch, avoids her.

But then a new guard arrives, a boy whose playful smile belies his deadly swordsmanship. And unlike the others, he's able to look past Twylla's executioner robes and see the girl, not the goddess.

Yet a treasonous romance is the least of Twylla's problems. The queen has a plan to destroy her enemies-a plan that requires an unthinkable sacrifice. Will Twylla do what it takes to protect her kingdom? Or will she abandon her duty in favor of a doomed love?

    

Review:

Protagonist: Ever since Twylla was young she's known that she is Daunen Embodied. Her destiny is to take a poison monthly that will seep through her skin and kill anyone she touches, and use that gift to kill traitors to her kingdom. However, being capable of killing with a single touch has made Twylla lonely, she's ostracized and seen as a monster for her gift. That is until a new guard sees past her monstrous gift, to the beauty underneath. Honestly, while I liked Twylla at the start of the book, and her character development isn't all that bad, some of the choices she makes in the end honestly rubbed me the wrong way. She's not a bad character on the whole and honestly, I do like a majority of her characterization, it's just that I felt she made some less than wise decisions near the end of the book.

Romance: So, much like Twylla, I really enjoyed the romance at the beginning of this book. It's a romance that stems from friendship and at first, it starts off rather slow and I was sort of getting into it. Heck, even when the dreaded "L" word pops up I almost believe that the two characters deserve to use that word to describe their romance. However, there's a shift when their romance is portrayed as this end all be all, soulmate type of romance, though the word soulmate was never brought up. I have a problem with "soulmate" types of romance, not really because I don't believe in soulmates, but more because it just feels like a lazy way to say that two people are meant to be together, and while the author didn't officially go into soulmate territory, with the way she was describing the love between these two characters, she might as well have.

World Building: So, I have a problem with the world building. The worst part of this problem is that I cannot describe it to you without spoiling a fairly large twist in the story, so I'll say this and hope that you won't be able to understand specifically what I'm talking about. So the world building for a fair bit of the story is really interesting, but then there's this game changing shift in the story that honestly kind of pissed me off. Don't get me wrong, had the author set it up a different way this would have been an amazing twist, but for some reason, it just rubbed me the wrong way and dragged down my feelings of this book's world building.

Predictability: So, for the most part, this story was really unpredictable, I mean, I had assumptions, going into this book, that were shattered, things happened with a bit of randomness, but there were still a few things I was able to grasp before they were revealed. One thing, in particular, was foreshadowed so much that I understood what was going to happen like a hundred pages before it was revealed. Okay, so maybe not that much, I'm not sure I mostly listened on audiobook at x1.25 speed, but it was quite a while before the reveal, and honestly there was another twist, that wasn't foreshadowed to death, that I figured out around the same time, but I digress, it's that first twist that I took issue with since there was just so much foreshadowing and it wasn't really that well-disguised foreshadowing which is probably what hurt the most.

Ending: There's a great deal of this ending that made me uncomfortable, but unfortunately, I cannot describe quite why just know that I felt as though I was supposed to have more emotional attachment to certain things and I just didn't care. As for the final climax though, that had me very excited. I won't spoil it, but it's really good and made me not really care that much about the uncomfortableness I felt earlier and was nearly worth it for the final climax alone. The story ends with an epilogue, but honestly, as much as I love epilogues I just felt like this one was tacked on in case this was never a series.

Rating:

So, I did really enjoy this story, but the romance, and the shift in the world building, put a huge damper on my overall enjoyment for the book. I'm still excited to read the next book in the series, though that may have more to do with it being more of a companion novel than a direct sequel.

Book Review: Camelot Burning (Metal and Lace #1)

Release Date: May 8, 2014
Author: Kathryn Rose
Publisher: Flux
Length: 408 pages
Source: eGalley from NetGalley

By day, Vivienne is Guinevere's lady-in-waiting. By night, she's Merlin's secret apprentice, indulging in the new mechanical arts and science of alchemy. It's a preferred distraction from Camelot’s gossipy nobility, roguish knights, and Lancelot’s athletic new squire, Marcus, who will follow in all knights’ footsteps by taking a rather inconvenient vow of chastity.

More than anything, Vivienne longs to escape Camelot for a future that wouldn't include needlework or marriage to a boorish lord or dandy. But when King Arthur's sorceress sister, Morgan le Fay, threatens Camelot, Vivienne must stay to help Merlin build a steam-powered weapon to defeat the dark magic machine Morgan will set upon the castle. Because if Camelot falls, Morgan would be that much closer to finding the elusive Holy Grail. Time is running out and Morgan draws near, and if Vivienne doesn't have Merlin's weapon ready soon, lives would pay the price, including that of Marcus, the only one fast enough to activate it on the battlefield.

    

Review:

Protagonist: Vivienne is the queen's lady-in-waiting by day, but by night she secretly studies the mechanical arts and alchemy from Merlin himself. As a woman in Camelot, it's not appropriate for a woman to be learning anything other than maintaining a household and how to catch the attention of a suitable husband, but Vivienne dreams of more than a life at court and a loveless marriage to some noble or dandy. She wants to learn new things and build mechanical feats of brilliance. While I did enjoy the character of Vivienne, I also found her to be a bit too much of a cookie cutter "strong and inquisitive heroine." most of the time she has a fairly logical mindset, but when her emotions come into play she can be impulsive and charge headfirst into danger. She is a great character, but I feel she lacks something to set her apart from the archetype she embodies.

Romance: This book did get off to a great start in terms of the romance. Vivienne is intrigued by Marcus, Lancelot's new squire, and that curiosity eventually blooms into attraction, though she knows nothing could come of that attraction since knights are required to be celibate, a requirement that it seems everyone knows isn't actually kept, but any sort of marriage with Marcus is still off the table. However, while this romance starts off at a slower, but very enjoyable pace, at a certain moment I feel as though there's a skip in the romantic development, and before I could fully get on board with these two characters' romance they suddenly were sharing their intensely strong feelings toward one another. Now, I'm not opposed to these characters being together, in fact, I think they work really well together, but the abrupt jump in their devotion to one another is extremely jarring. My hope is that in the next installment we'll see more chemistry between these two characters so that I don't feel as though I missed a bunch of romantic development between these two characters.

World Building: A Steampunk Camelot? Sign me up! I was really excited to read this book on the Arthurian Legend aspect alone, but a steampunk element really amped up my excitement to read this story. (Although it did take me nearly three years to get around to, please don't judge me!) One of the elements to this story I found the most compelling was that the author didn' romanticize the famous characters from Arthurian legend. They all have flaws, some more than others, and it helped to bring a nice element of realism to this magical and mechanical world. Now as for the settings that we get to see, I was a bit bummed that Camelot felt sort of generic, much like our heroine, in that while we hear about Camelot as this wonderful utopia-esque place, there's nothing that really separates it from other kingdoms and since we don't get to see much of the world outside of Camelot, there wasn't all that much to this world, at least from a setting standpoint that stood out to me. As for the steampunk and alchemical elements to this story, I sort of felt underwhelmed by them, I mean there were definitely a few really cool steampunk scenes, but I felt as though the alchemy wasn't explained the best it could be and while I'm sure we'll get a greater understanding of it in later installments, I wish it was explained better in this book.

Predictability: As far as predictability goes, I was also similarly underwhelmed. I mean, there were quite a few surprising twists in this book. There were things I had no way I could see coming just pop right up, but in most of these cases, I never got the shock factor that I usually get when a surprising twist is revealed. One of the twists, I'm not going to go into specifics because I don't want to spoil anything, but one of the twists was actually a trope I've seen a lot of times before, but since there was no real foreshadowing for it, there was no way I could have seen it coming, and yet when it happened I sort of just brushed it off. Now, that's not to say that I was never shocked, nor was there never a time that I was able to predict something and get super excited that I got it right, but they were very few and far between.

Ending: Honestly, as this story started to wrap up I had a lot of theories about what was going to happen next, but I was surprised and even shocked, to learn where all of the characters end up by the time this story is over. The ending of this book actually had the majority of shocking moments for me in this book, and most of them happened during an epic final climax. There's a lot of tension as this book ramps up toward the ending and there are a few "blink and you'll miss it" moments. As the story winds down we get to see where the story will be going and how Vivienne and those she cares about factor into it.

Rating:

I do sort of feel like I've trashed this book more than I meant to because it is a really enjoyable book, but there were a lot of things that just felt underwhelming or didn't pop in the way I wanted them to. I will be continuing this series, but probably not for a little while.

Lord of Shadows (The Dark Artifices #2) by Cassandra Clare (WOW #19)

Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that everyone’s excited about!

Sunny Los Angeles can be a dark place indeed in Cassandra Clare’s Lord of Shadows, the sequel to the #1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling Lady Midnight.

Emma Carstairs has finally avenged her parents. She thought she’d be at peace. But she is anything but calm. Torn between her desire for her parabatai Julian and her desire to protect him from the brutal consequences of parabatai relationships, she has begun dating his brother, Mark. But Mark has spent the past five years trapped in Faerie; can he ever truly be a Shadowhunter again?

And the faerie courts are not silent. The Unseelie King is tired of the Cold Peace, and will no longer concede to the Shadowhunters’ demands. Caught between the demands of faerie and the laws of the Clave, Emma, Julian, and Mark must find a way to come together to defend everything they hold dear—before it’s too late.

Lord of Shadows releases on May 23, 2017 from Margaret K. McElderry Books

Look at that cover! Seriously, it's kind of tripping me out here. I loved Lady Midnight so much, much more than I actually thought I would and I cannot wait to dive back into this fantastic series and see where our heroes will go next and what dangers they may face. On a less vague note, I'm particularly interested in the romantic entanglements that seem to center around Mark Blackthorn, he's fake dating Emma, but he had a thing with Cristina, and while he was trapped in Faerie had some sort of romantic relationship with the dark faerie prince Kieran. Plus, I'm interested to see how the reawakening of Lady Midnight will factor into the overall storyline since it's not mentioned here.

So, what are you waiting for this Wednesday?

Book Review: The Hammer of Thor (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #2)

Release Date: October 4, 2016
Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Length: 480 pages
Source: Purchased Book

Thor's hammer is missing again.

The thunder god has a disturbing habit of misplacing his weapon--the mightiest force in the Nine Worlds. But this time the hammer isn't just lost, it has fallen into enemy hands.

If Magnus Chase and his friends can't retrieve the hammer quickly, the mortal worlds will be defenseless against an onslaught of giants. Ragnarok will begin. The Nine Worlds will burn.

Unfortunately, the only person who can broker a deal for the hammer's return is the gods' worst enemy, Loki--and the price he wants is very high.

    

Review:

Protagonist: Magnus Chase has died, been taken to Valhalla, and stalled the Norse Apocalypse, called Ragnarok, for the time being. Now, with Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, still missing, the giants of Jotunheim are growing restless and preparing for war, the only thing that can stop them is to find the Hammer of Thor, but of course it isn't as simple as just locating the hammer. On this adventure, Magnus will make new friends, learn more about the pasts of his current ones, and with any luck save the world... again. I have to say that out of all of Riordan's protagonists Magnus is probably my favorite followed closely by the hilariously vain Apollo, and in this book he shines like never before. Now that Magnus has had some time to get acclimated to his new situation, train, and learn about what it means to be an Einherjar he's a bit more confident, but he still has a great sarcastic streak to him. Looking back over the book I tried to see if he had any really noticeable or overly significant character development, but there was nothing that conspicuously stuck out at me. Nonetheless, he's still spectacularly well-rounded character and narrator.

Romance: So Magnus doesn't really have a romance in this book, though there is some more implied romance or foreshadowing to a possible romance or I'm reading way too much into things. Anyway if what I may be reading too much into is true than Magnus does get a love interest in this book, but the romance is pretty subtle, i.e. no kissing or declarations of feelings, but (again if I'm reading the situation correctly) there's some really great chemistry that left me shipping the hopefully future couple. Romance isn't a large plot point in this series, however, it does come up here and there and one place it comes up is with Magnus's (best?) friend Sam and her betrothed, Amir. Amir has a slightly larger role to play in this story and Sam and his relationship is very compelling to read. It's easy to see how much they care for each other and even though they are a romantic pairing established prior to the start of the series, they are really easy to root for and you don't find that very often with couples who get together prior to the start of a book or series.

World-Building: Reentering the world of Norse myths I was really excited. If you've read my review of the first book in this series you know there were parts of this series' world-building that I wasn't very impressed with, i.e. there were just enough parallels to the Percy Jackson series to make me uncomfortable. The being said though I still really enjoyed this world and was excited to get back. Once again this world is steeped in Norse Mythology and this one as you may be able to guess based on the title and cover features myths about Thor and/or Loki most of all. Don't get me wrong there are shot outs to plenty of Norse tales and myths but Thor and Loki definitely take center stage. I love learning more about Norse mythology and all of the variations on tales I'd already heard. I'm by no means as knowledgeable about Norse mythology as I am with Greek or even Egyptian mythology, but I was pleasantly surprised with all of the tales I already knew.

Predictability: This book has some good, if not fantastic twists in it. Without giving too much away, or really anything if I can help it, there were a few times when I thought I knew what was going on and what would happen only for this author to throw a huge curve ball. There are of course easily predicted moments, and for the most part, it's easy to see where the story's headed with got me to notice something. This story and the story in The Sword of Summer have a lot of parallels. I'm not going to name them since I don't want to spoil anything but there are a few too many similarities between the two that, like with the first book, it made me a bit uncomfortable. Unlike with the first book, it wasn't "plot specific" details that were paralleled but the adventure itself. There were certain points in both adventures that were mirrored and once I saw the first couple it was impossible to unsee. There aren't a whole lot, but, again, like last time just enough to make me a bit uncomfortable.

Ending: Dear lord this ending was intense! Going into the final climax things were going according to plan, or well they were going the way I had expected them too, and while the ending was *mostly* predictable, there were a few moments that made up for it in the gravity of their twists. After the dust settles things are set up for the final book in this series, I'm sad that there's only one book left but Rick Riordan did throw readers a pretty big bone with one of the best, and probably most excruciating to wait, cliffhangers yet. (Excluding the one in Mark of Athena)

Rating:

I loved this new adventure in the Nine worlds! Even though the two quests have so far hit similar notes in a slightly uncomfortable and seemingly unintentional way, since I enjoyed this story so much I think I'll reserve judgment to see how this trilogy comes together.

Book Review: The Screaming Statue (The Curiosity House #2)

Release Date: May 3, 2016
Authors: Lauren Oliver & H.C. Chester
Publisher: HarperCollins
Length: 368 pages
Source: eARC from Edelweiss

In this second book in the exceptional Curiosity House series by bestselling author Lauren Oliver and shadowy recluse H. C. Chester, four extraordinary children must avenge their friend’s death, try to save their home, and unravel the secrets of their past . . . before their past unravels them.

Pippa, Sam, Thomas, and Max are happy to be out of harm’s way now that the notorious villain Nicholas Rattigan is halfway across the country in Chicago. But unfortunately their home, Dumfreys’s Dime Museum of Freaks, Oddities, and Wonders, is in danger of closing its doors forever.

But their troubles only get worse. The four friends are shocked when their beloved friend, famous sculptor Siegfried Eckleberger, is murdered. As they investigate, they find clues that his death may be tied to the murder of a rich and powerful New York heiress, as well as to their own pasts.

This is the second book in the series and so boasts many wondrous and mysterious things inside, such as:

· Howie, the “Human Owl,” whose head turns just about all the way around
· A mean but important house cat
· Some perfectly ghastly wax sculptures
· A very thin boy named Chubby
· An awful mechanical leg

It continues not to have:

· A cautionary tale about running with scissors
· A list of time-consuming chores
· Nutritious and decidedly not delicious vegetables
· A perfectly sweet bedtime story about a wayward bunny
· Two wet kisses on the cheek from your aunt Mildred

Learn more about the series online at www.thecuriosityhouse.com.

    

Review:

Protagonists: After discovering their troubling roots Pippa, Max, Sam, and Thomas just want things to go back to normal at Dumfrey's Dime Museum of Freaks, Oddities, and Wonders, but tickets aren't selling well and their only hope seems to be a new exhibit featuring the murder of a prominent New York socialite who seems by all accounts to have been killed by her husband in a jealous rage. However, before they know it their dear friend, Siegfried Eckleberger, is murdered and it seems to be connected in some way to their new exhibit. As they look deeper into this mystery everything is not quite what it appears. I have to say I really love these characters. It's very easy to get a grasp on these characters and see where they're going. Pippa's gifts are growing and yet it happens very gradually, there's no great surge of sudden power, but fleeting feelings and moments. Max becomes a bit distracted by a new member of the Dumfrey's Dime Museum family who isn't all well liked by the others. Sam, still unable to fully control his strength is full of angst, just wanting to be like everyone else, to have a pet or even open a door without risking pulling it off its hinges. Then there's Thomas, as curious as ever and in many ways the tie that binds this group. I loved seeing these characters grow and face challenges that while a bit different can still resonate with the reader.

Romance: As with the first book in this series, there isn't a lot of romance, in fact, I'm skeptical to even call some of the stuff in this book romance. That being said, though, there are some romantic feelings floating around this cast of characters. It's all very innocent stuff that wouldn't make me hesitant to use the word "crush." There's a bit of a Middle-Grade love triangle in this book as well, but it's done in such a way that makes it obvious where things may eventually go. I really enjoyed the small spatterings of romance through this story. It never detracts from the story and as I said before it's all very innocent blushes of new feelings for the kids involved and so I'm not sure where it'll go or if it will even come to anything before the series comes to a close, but either way it's so far been spectacularly done.

World Building: So I looked back at my review for the first installment in this series and I have no idea what I was thinking. In that review I said there wasn't a lot of world building, however, there's a whole lot of it in both that book and this one. I think where my mind was, was that the author wrote a fantastic 1950's-ish setting but there wasn't a lot of this unique part of this world expanded upon. The origin story of the children is a bit muddy (from what I can remember) and while the makeshift family in the Curiosity House is fantastic, it comes off a bit underwhelming. In this book a lot of those problems are still there, although the world is expanded upon, it feels very isolated to this one installment. It's been a while since I read the previous installment, so maybe there's some mention of the events and people that seem to be introduced in this installment, and if they are I take back what I am going to say, but there's a lot introduced in this book that feels like it deserves some sort of, at the very least casual, mention in the previous installment, otherwise the two stories have a weird unseen division between them. I found the further world building a bit underwhelming for the second book in a trilogy. I was expecting big surprises and twisted revelations but while there were some great twists, which I'll get to in a moment, there wasn't a whole lot of meat to this story. Don't get me wrong it's extremely entertaining, but it just feels lacking as a prominent fixture in this trilogy.

Predictability: As I said above this book does a good job to throw twists in the way of the story. There are a lot of moving parts to this story and because of that, there's a lot of possibilities for where the story can go and what the possible twists could be. That being said there's one twist that while incredibly well concealed, was a tad underwhelming. I was hoping for something more elaborate and again, while the author did do a great job at covering her tracks so the surprise would be a good one, I just wish there was something a bit more complex going on. I know this is a middle-grade book, but even so, there could have been some other facet of the story, some greater plan that could have still been accessible to a younger reading group.

Ending: As seems to be the theme of this story there's a lot to the ending that feels underwhelming, that being said though as the story comes to a close there are some fantastic little surprises that genuinely caught me off guard and helped round out this book just a tad more. The final climax of the story was very well done and had a very cinematic feel to that defining climactic moment, and the cooldown period is where things start to come together again. With a lot of the moving parts to this story out of play, things become clearer and some really interesting red herrings come to light. I did truly like how this story ended in a way that settles things down for a while and there isn't some over the top crazy cliffhanger to make readers go crazy for nearly a year.

Rating:

I did really enjoy this story, it's a wonderfully written and nicely paced mystery, I just wish it wowed me more and felt a bit more cohesive. It's still a great addition to this trilogy and I'm excited to see where the story will go in the grand finale.

Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen (Villain Tales #1)

Release Date: August 18, 2009
Author: Serena Valentino
Publisher: Disney Press
Length: 250 pages
Source: Purchased Book

The tale of the young princess and her evil stepmother, the Wicked Queen, is widely known. Despite a few variations from telling to telling, the story remains the same—the Queen was jealous of the girl’s beauty, and this jealousy culminated in the Queen’s attempt on the sweet, naive girl’s life.

Another tale far less often spoken of is the one that explains what caused the Queen to become so contemptuously vile. Still, some have attempted to guess at the reason. Perhaps the Queen’s true nature was that of a wicked hag and her beautiful, regal appearance a disguise used to fool the King. Others claim that the Queen might have hated the girl for her resemblance to the King’s first wife. Mostly, the Queen is painted as a morally abhorrent woman who never loved another being during the course of her miserable life.

In fact, the theories about exactly what cause the Queen’s obsessive vanity and jealous rage are too numerous to catalog. This book recounts a version of the story that has remained untold until now. It is a tragic tale of love and loss, and it contains a bit of magic. It is a tale of the Wicked Queen…

    

Review:

Protagonist: With this being a story about how the queen in Snow White becomes the deplorable envious woman she is, it's no surprise that nearly all of this book focuses on that queen. One of my biggest problems with this book is that the Queen is never given a proper name, only being called "the Queen." Now I know she doesn't have a name that's officially canonical, but if the author did, or was allowed to, give her a name it would have added a sense of realness to the story since everyone from her husband, her stepdaughter, to the friend she viewed as a sister, called her anything but a given name and that kind of bothered me quite a bit. As to her characterization, by the end of the book I understand why she's as horrible as she is, I can even see how the catalyst that drove her into her jealousy did so, but considering how sweet and loving she was for most of this book it's really hard to fit that with the character we know from the movie and the person she is by the end of this story.

World-Building: Speaking of not being able to fit two pieces together, the book and the movie were really hard for me to connect with so much of this story. There are only two major characters in this book that are also in the movie, the Queen and Snow White, however for most of the movie the Queen is a kind soul who only seeks love in her life and Snow is a small child holding no real personality traits other than being sweet and innocent. That being said for so much of this book it felt as though this could easily be another story completely if Snow White's name was changed and that story wouldn't bee all that compelling, unfortunately. The story was okay for the most part but other than learning more about the Queen's background and the circumstances that made her who she was, this world was never really fleshed out. The Queen had a husband who was constantly off defending his kingdom, but from who? Barely any of this book takes place somewhere not seen in the movie and I just wish I could feel this world more wholly. That there wasn't this vague sense of a kingdom that was barely held together by nostalgic memories of the movie.

Predictability: Another aspect of the story that I wasn't a huge fan of was how predictable it was. After a certain point, it was easy to see where the story was going and that was long before the aspects of the movie started to bleed into this story. That's not to say that there weren't some interesting surprises, there were connections to other classic Disney stories that I rather enjoyed and certain aspects of the movie were expanded upon to give it a much more realistic feeling, There was even a twist in the end that I did not see coming.

Ending: I'm not sure what to say about this ending that will give this review more substance. The ending of this book is basically the Queen's role in the Snow White movie. There are some embellishments here and there that go with this expanded story and universe, but it's not as if there was some magical twist that changed everything forever. There is an epilogue, and other than one surprising, although idealistic, twist it wasn't necessary. In fact, I almost feel as though the story would hold more power without that. Where that last official chapter ended wrapped up the moral of this story so well and really hit everything home rather well.

Rating:

This book isn't a total waste of time, in fact, if you're someone who's a huge fan of the Disney Snow White movie you may even love this, but for me, it was too hard to connect with the movie and I'm sure that the author was restricted by Disney from expanding this world but I wish that she would have/could have given this world the depth and vitality that it needed.

Book Review: Nevermore (Nevermore #1)

Release Date: August 31, 2010
Author: Kelly Creagh
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Length: 543 pages
Source: Purchased Book

Cheerleader Isobel Lanley is horrified when she is paired with Varen Nethers for an English project, which is due—so unfair—on the day of the rival game. Cold and aloof, sardonic and sharp-tongued, Varen makes it clear he’d rather not have anything to do with her either. But when Isobel discovers strange writing in his journal, she can’t help but give this enigmatic boy with the piercing eyes another look.

Soon, Isobel finds herself making excuses to be with Varen. Steadily pulled away from her friends and her possessive boyfriend, Isobel ventures deeper and deeper into the dream world Varen has created through the pages of his notebook, a realm where the terrifying stories of Edgar Allan Poe come to life.

As her world begins to unravel around her, Isobel discovers that dreams, like words, hold more power than she ever imagined, and that the most frightening realities are those of the mind. Now she must find a way to reach Varen before he is consumed by the shadows of his own nightmares.

His life depends on it.

    

Review:

Protagonist: Isobel is part of a higher social circle than most of her school. She has her own crew of friends and a boyfriend on the football team. She's nearly the complete opposite of goth boy Varen Nethers, but after they're assigned to collaborate on a school project they find they might have more in common than they thought. Soon Isobel actually wants to spend more time with Varen, and, after she starts having some freaky dreams, he might be the only person who can help her make sense of what's going on. On the whole, I actually really like Isobel as the main protagonist. She's a very realistic character and sure she has flaws and does things that annoy me as a reader, but as the story goes on she becomes a stranger character without losing what makes her so realistic and relatable. Her development and growth throughout this monster of a book feels natural and never feels too rushed or like it's being drawn out too much.

Romance: Going into this book I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about the romance. I've seen "opposites attract" love stories before and there's usually something disingenuous about them or they feel rushed, but I actually really enjoyed this romance. There isn't a love triangle in this book but we do have to suffer through Isobel's huge tool of a boyfriend Brad for a while before the romance between Varen and Isobel starts. The main romance is a fairly slow burning one and yet it also feels very realistic. I was actually really surprised at how soon in the story I found myself rooting for this couple and while there were a couple of times when the romance gets a bit too cliched, it was always something I could easily shrug off.

World Building: If I had to talk about one thing about this book that bothered me, it would probably have to be how this book is so large and yet it takes so long to get to the exciting paranormal stuff and to get any sort of straight answer as to what's going on and why. Don't get me wrong I found the first eighty or so percent of this book oddly compelling, before a lot of the exciting paranormal stuff started, I liked the connections with Poe's writing, how there were samples of the writing straight in the text of the book, and the contemporary style romance and drama stuff was compelling as well, but for so long I just wanted some sort of straight answer as to what's going on in this world, what the paranormal stuff is and what it means, we do finally get some straight answers towards the end, but even the straight answers didn't satisfy me enough, or maybe just the answer itself wasn't all that satisfying.

Predictability: Looking back on this book I have to say that a lot of it is really predictable. Not in a bad way necessarily, but there is a lot that I was able to guess. I wasn't able to fully guess what was going on in the story obviously, but there were a lot of cliche contemporary drama moments, some even exaggerated from the cliche to explosive results. Now I will say that there are things, other than the large answers, that I wasn't able to predict, but there wasn't all that much.

Ending: One of the things that was fairly easy for me to predict was how this story was going to end, or well certain parts of how this story was going to end. Before that, though, the last hurrah of this book that leads up to the final climax was pretty epic. It really brings to life some of the Poe stories referenced in this book and makes for a terribly frightening stage for the final climax. The final climax itself was both enlightening and pretty awesome. It wasn't some battle or fight, but nevertheless, I was fully enthralled as the final climax came to a blazing end. The cooldown period was a lot longer than I anticipated and almost felt like it bled into the second installment almost. There's definitely some foreshadowing for what's going to happen next.

Rating:

So I debated with this rating a lot, before writing this review I thought I was going to give this book 3.5 stars, the world building stuff really bugged me and for a while I thought that's what it would get, but in actuality, now that "the cat's out of the bag" so to speak I'm anticipating a very interesting couple of sequels. However, it does still bug me that it took so long in this beast of a book to find out what's going on, especially when there were so many points where I thought, yes here it is I'm going to finally figure this thing out, only to be sorely disappointed.

Book Review: Midnight City (Conquered Earth #1)

Release Date: October 30, 2012
Author: J. Barton Mitchell
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Length: 374 pages
Source: eGalley via NetGalley

Earth has been conquered by an alien race known as the Assembly. The human adult population is gone, having succumbed to the Tone---a powerful, telepathic super-signal broadcast across the planet that reduces them to a state of complete subservience. But the Tone has one critical flaw. It only affects the population once they reach their early twenties, which means that there is one group left to resist: Children.

Holt Hawkins is a bounty hunter, and his current target is Mira Toombs, an infamous treasure seeker with a price on her head. It’s not long before Holt bags his prey, but their instant connection isn’t something he bargained for. Neither is the Assembly ship that crash-lands near them shortly after. Venturing inside, Holt finds a young girl who remembers nothing except her name: Zoey.

As the three make their way to the cavernous metropolis of Midnight City, they encounter young freedom fighters, mutants, otherworldly artifacts, pirates, feuding alien armies, and the amazing powers that Zoey is beginning to exhibit. Powers that suggest she, as impossible as it seems, may just be the key to stopping the Assembly once and for all.

    

Review:

Protagonists: This book focuses one three characters, the first one we meet and the one whom this book focuses on the most is named Holt. Holt is a closely guarded person, he does everything on his own because the only person he can count on is himself. Then there's Mira, a smart and cunning girl who is faced with an impossible task, one which just got harder since being taken by bounty hunter Holt. Finally there's Zoey, a sweet young girl who doesn't remember who she is, just her name. She's strange and seems to always know things, where to go, who to trust, and what to do. As this book goes forward these characters grow closer and grow as individuals. I really enjoyed these characters, while they aren't as compelling as some of the characters I've read, I still enjoyed watching them grow and develop over the course of this book.

Romance: There is actually very little romance in this book. I almost feel bad for even adding this part in here, but since the romance was still very much present in the story I felt compelled to. The romance in this book is between Holt and Mira, it's fairly obvious right off the bat that they're going to have at least some sort of romance, however I really enjoyed that it wasn't grand or overshadowing. Instead there's just talk of feelings at first, innermost thoughts that we see through third person narration, but there's also chemistry and romantic tension there as well. There is a hint at a possible love triangle down the line so I'll be interested to see how that all turns out.

World-Building: In this post apocalyptic world where an alien invasion has invaded Earth, nothing is as it seems. We get a fairly vague overview of what's going on in this world, the fact that there is a weird Tone that forces most adults into a zombie-like state leaving only the children to survive with their free will. I kind of wish we got a better idea of what's going on in this world, though I expect that there is still a lot left to learn in future installments and I understand that giving away too much now will ruin things for the future. Overall, I enjoyed the world-building, there were a few things that don't really make all that much sense, but they're easily forgiven, and I can't wait to learn more about the mysteries of this world.

Predictability: Looking back over this book I'm trying to remember all of the twists that occurred and which ones I saw coming, and apart from a few obvious big picture ones there isn't all that much that I was able to see. There are quite a few twists in this book, some have very subtle foreshadowing and some have none at all. I was really surprised with how many things caught me off guard. Normally I'm very intuitive when it comes to twists, but since the author didn't want to give up too much information too early there weren't all that many times when I saw something coming.

Ending: Gah! The ending of this book is great, although it's highly reminiscent of the ending to the first season of a cult classic cartoon. I won't say which one, but I'm sure when the time comes you'll figure it out if you're familiar with that TV show. There are a lot of choices made in the final climax of this book, things that will indeed have insane repercussions to these characters. The final battle, and it is a battle, was intense action packed and everything I needed in this book. The cooldown period hinted at some possible plot points for the next book and led into the traditional first book plateaued ending where if you need to wait to read the second installment it won't be too tortuous.

Rating:

So, I thought about this rating a lot, I was on the fence between this and four stars and at the end of the day, while I really enjoyed this world and these characters, and like I said I can't wait to continue this trilogy, it just didn't grip me in a way that I felt merited more than three and a half stars.

Book Review: The Outliers (The Outliers #1)

Release Date: May 3, 2016
Author: Kimberly McCreight
Publisher: HarperCollins
Length: 352 pages
Source: Review Copy from Publisher

From the New York Times bestselling author of Reconstructing Amelia comes a fast-paced teen series where one girl learns that in a world of intrigue, betrayal, and deeply buried secrets, it is vital to trust your instincts.

It all starts with a text: Please, Wylie, I need your help. Wylie hasn’t heard from Cassie in over a week, not since their last fight. But that doesn’t matter. Cassie’s in trouble, so Wylie decides to do what she has done so many times before: save her best friend from herself.

This time it’s different, though. Instead of telling Wylie where she is, Cassie sends cryptic clues. And instead of having Wylie come by herself, Jasper shows up saying Cassie sent him to help. Trusting the guy who sent Cassie off the rails doesn’t feel right, but Wylie has no choice but to ignore her gut instinct and go with him.

But figuring out where Cassie is goes from difficult to dangerous, fast. As Wylie and Jasper head farther and farther north into the dense woods of Maine, Wylie struggles to control her growing sense that something is really wrong. What isn’t Cassie telling them? And could finding her be only the beginning?

In this breakneck tale, New York Times bestselling author Kimberly McCreight brilliantly chronicles a fateful journey that begins with a single decision—and ends up changing everything.

    

Review:

Protagonist: Wylie has had a whirlwind few months. She's lost her mother, she isn't really talking to her best friend after their last fight, and she hasn't been able to leave the house in three weeks. However when Wylie receives a text from Cassie saying that she messed up again and Wylie needs to come rescue her, Wylie drop everything to come to her aid. Wylie isn't your typical YA heroine, she's a strong character for sure, but she doesn't really fit into the archetype of the typical heroine, she's anxious about everything, she's still grieving the loss of her mother, but still she pushes past all the negative emotions to try and rescue her estranged best friend. Wylie is a many layered character and I really liked her development over the course of this book, it's subtle but it's there.

World-Building: So, going into this book I expected it to be sort of a YA thriller about a girl going to save her best friend, which it is, but it's more than that. Without giving too much away I'll say there's a lot going on in this book, and when we get to the meat of the world building this book explodes with wonder. I'll talk a little bit more about my experience going into the larger world building in the next section, but let's just say it was a shock. As you can no doubt see there is no romance section to this review but I do want to talk about it a little bit here. There really isn't a romance in this book, hence no section, but unless I'm mistaken there's some foreshadowing to future romance sometime in the next to books. I have to say there were times when I thought there was a spark between Wylie and Cassie's boyfriend, Jasper, but before too long there would be something to squished those thoughts.

Predictability: The foreshadowing in this book is ON POINT! I love the way the author weaves key pieces of information into the text as if they're just trow away lines of world-building is astonishing. This book has several twists, but there's one big one that sort of starts the snowball sown the hill. This is a twist I didn't see coming at all, but after it was revealed, I knew I should have. After that I kept getting stumped by twists. There isn't an overabundance of them, but they carry a heavy impact on the story. Even the little things I saw coming had some sort of twist to them that I couldn't guess. I'd advise you to stick with the tagline of this book and "Trust Your Instincts."

Ending: With this book being so fast paced it was hard to isolate the final climax. However it is there, it's not a scene full of action and battles, but it's there. The cooldown period of the book though is where everything comes into place. When I went into this book I didn't figure out that it wasn't a standalone until quite a few chapters into it. I wanted to check  the length and chapter count and that's when my eyes, of their own accord, roamed over and saw the cliffhanger ending. Boy was it a doozy, however it wasn't until I was actually reading the end, when the full impact of the ending hit me. I'm excited for the next book, mad at the author for leaving it like that, and just overall emotionally drained.

Rating:

I was not expecting this book to be this good! I mean I expected to like it, but I freaking LOVED this book. It's super fast paced, it grabs you and won't let you go until you're on the floor sobbing over this story, and it's so worth it too!