Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder

Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder
Publisher: Mira
Series: #1 in the Healer series
Pages: 390
Published in: 2011

(This copy was obtained via NetGalley for review)

Summary

Laying hands upon the injured and dying, Avry of Kazan assumes their wounds and diseases into herself. But rather than being honored for her skills, she is hunted. Healers like Avry are accused of spreading the plague that has decimated the Territories, leaving the survivors in a state of chaos. 
Stressed and tired from hiding, Avry is abducted by a band of rogues who, shockingly, value her gift above the golden bounty offered for her capture. Their leader, an enigmatic captor-protector with powers of his own, is unequivocal in his demands: Avry must heal a plague-stricken prince—leader of a campaign against her people. As they traverse the daunting Nine Mountains, beset by mercenaries and magical dangers, Avry must decide who is worth healing and what is worth dying for. Because the price of peace may well be her life.... (from Goodreads)

My thoughts

This is the second series I have read by Maria V. Snyder - the other one being the Study series - and I have to say it definitely did not dissappoint! In this story, which is also a fantasy one, we meet Avry, who is a Healer in a period of time when being a Healer is not the safest of things. Due to the fact that Healers were rumoured to have spread a deadly plague all over the world, they have been hunted down and killed. As such, Avry is one of the last ones alive and there is a price on her head. But she ends up being captured and then abducted by a group of men who are in desperate need of her skills (as opposed to the prize which accompanies her capture). And of course, just to make everything interesting, while the group are on their way to heal the plague-stricken prince mentioned in the summary, lots pretty dangerous and deadly stuff happen.

What I enjoyed the most out of this book - in all honesty - was Maria Snyder's writing. As had happened with her Study series, I found that her writing just drew me into the story; made me feel as if I was actually there, right next to the characters; sometimes that I was actually seeing everything through Avry's eyes - that I was Avry. All the descriptions of the villages, of the forest, of the trip they had to take to get to the Prince, it all felt real. 

Another thing that felt really real and logical was the way Avry could heal. It only makes sense that to heal a person, you assume their injuries and then try to fight them yourself. That they don't "just go away". That way you could really appreciate what being a Healer actually means. It means that you have to "want" to do it, because, essentially, it means fighting a lot of pain - which you might not be able to fight to the end. To me, that just made sense.

Then, there is also the small matter of the love interest. From the word go (well, not exactly, but you know what I mean), you know who the love interest is going to be. You can see all the tension, you know that eventually it is going to happen, but it keeps NOT happening. Again and again, there are those perfect moments where you think "Finally!", but then something else (usually rather dire) happens. This part did remind me somewhat of Poison Study - where it was obvious from the beginning that something was going to happen between Valek and Yelena - but it didn't really bother me at all. Seeing as it is do far away from that dreaded "insta-romance" thing.


All in all, Touch of Power was a very enjoyable read and definitely lived up to my expectations of Maria V. Snyder. I still haven't read her Glass series and her Insider series, though that is something I intend to remedy as soon as possible!

For more information about the author and her other books, check out her website.

Mortlock by Jon Mayhew

Mortlock by Jon Mayhew
First published by Bloomsbury in 2010 (this edition by Bloomsbury in 2011)

Description (from Goodreads)

The sister is a knife-thrower in a magician's stage act, the brother an undertaker's assistant. Neither orphan knows of the other's existence. Until, that is, three terrible aunts descend on the girl's house and imprison her guardian, the Great Cardamom. His dying act is to pass the girl a note with clues to the secret he carries to his grave.

My thoughts
That there is the most awful book description I have ever seen! I am pretty sure that is not what is on the back cover of the book, but I can't find the book right now, so I'll just have to keep this one for now. Anyways, other than that fact, this one was a book that try as I might, I just couldn't get myself to enjoy.


((I found another description (from the author's website this time). I think it's better than that one above.))

A wonderfully exciting, dark, and gruesomely gothic middle-grade chiller, set in Victorian London. Perfect and pacy entertainment for both girls and boys of 8+. 

For orphan Josie, life is good with Cardamom, the great magician who took her in as a baby and with whom she now performs her astounding knife-throwing act. But then three mysterious ‘aunts’ turn up - taking over the house and transforming into vicious, giant crows, in thrall to evil Lord Corvis. With his dying breath, Cardamon tells Josie to ‘seek the Amarant - and Mortlock’.  So begins a terrifying quest for Josie and her newly discovered twin, Alfie, the undertaker’s mute, who soon realize that the legendary Amarant is a plant with power over life and death, which Cardamon, Corvis and Mortlock first discovered many years ago in Abyssinia.

Only the final destruction of the plant can quench Corvis’s growing powers and evil plans.  Braving a circus of the living dead, and a terrifying encounter with the Amarant in a graveyard, Josie and Alfie will need all their courage and skills to save themselves and the world.

I'm not sure what it was about it that I just didn't like. The storyline itself was not bad. It was based on a rather interesting idea; it was the delivery that I found to be rather lacking.


The story focuses on two long lost siblings; they grew up separately, one - Josie - as an assistant to a magician and the other - Alfie - as an assistant to an undertaker. But circumstances lead to them being reunited, when three terrible aunts arrive at Josie's home and threaten her and her guardian, Cardamom. In the space of days, Cardamom is dead (yes, guess who did it!) and leaves Josie with barely just enough information to figure out where she came from. Joining forces with Alfie, the two children go through some pretty tough situations before finally figuring out the mystery.


So, as you can see, there is much to go with and it does have the potential to make a pretty good and fast paced story. But for me, it turned out to be a little disappointing. There were quite a few pretty gory scenes of birds devouring various things and of weird transformations, which would be pretty scary for the intended audience, but other than that, the story felt a bit flat. It didn't feel as if the two children were very anxious and scared, and as a result, it didn't make me feel scared.


But then again, I do concede that I read this from a different perspective that if I had been a younger reader. I think I will have felt much different after having read it if I were younger. So, if you do like the sound of it, then don't let my review put you off it. Each to their own!


Rating: 3/10


Author:
To find out information about Jon Mayhew and his book, you can check out his website HERE.




Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011, British Books Challenge 2011

Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
First published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in 2010 (this edition by Razorbill in 2010)

Book #2 in the Caster Chronicles
(My review of Beautiful Creatures - Book #1)

Description (from Goodreads)

Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena's family of powerful supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen. 
Sometimes life-ending. 
Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems.

My thoughts
When I spotted a copy of this one in a charity shop, I just had to buy it! I had really, really enjoyed reading Beautiful Creatures and I was excited at the prospect of reading the second book in the series. And for £1.99??? I just couldn't resist.

As this is the second book in the series, I will probably be mentioning stuff from the previous book, so if you haven't read it but are planning to, just proceed at your own risk. (There, you've been warned.) (I'll still try to be vague, though!)

Beautiful Darkness was every bit as good as Beautiful Creatures. When Beautiful Creatures finished, we were left with Lena in a bit of an inbetween state and with quite a bit of woe and sorrow going around because of the death of one of the "main" secondary characters. In this second book, things take on a completely different turn. Lena is becoming increasingly distant and hanging out with the "wrong" crowd. Ethan knows she is trying to find a way to cope with everything, but he is rather sad that she is choosing to distance herself from him in the process, knowing full well that she is also doing it to protect him from her. There is also the matter of Ethan finding out that he is more than he thought he was; that he really does play an important part in what is going on with Lena and not just in the way that he thought he did.

Link plays a much larger part in this book than he did in the previous one. It doesn't feel as if he is acting like a substitute for Lena, because he was an important character in the first book. It's just like any normal situation. When a boy (ie Ethan) "stops" having a girlfriend, he hangs out more with his friends (ie Link). We also have the addition of a few new characters. First, we have Liv, who came from the UK to Gatlin to work with Aunt Marian and who also knows more about the Caster World than she lets on. Then, we have John Breed, one of the "wrong" crowd Lena is hanging out with. But there is a bit of a problem with John Breed. We have no idea where he came from, what he is, what his intentions are. And also, we get to see a completely different Ridley. Remember the one who caused a lot of the problems in the first book? Yes, her. All pretty mysterious.

Beautiful Darkness has some pretty surprising revelations that keep up the interest in lieu of the third book in the series, Beautiful Chaos, which only just came out in October. Which I definitely will be buying!

All in all, Beautiful Darkness was neither better nor worse than Beautiful Darkness. I found each one of them as enjoyable as the other, a fact I was very glad of, because sometimes, second books aren't as good as the first ones. But, seriously, this series is definitely one to look out for. It's very well written and it also has a male narrator!! (Rather refreshing after all those female narrators!)

Rating: 8/10


Authors
You can find out more about Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl at the end of my post about Beautiful Creatures!


Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011, 2nd In A Series Challenge

Glimmerglass by Jenna Black

Glimmerglass by Jenna Black
First published by St. Martin's Griffin in 2010 (this edition by Pan Macmillan in 2010)

Book #1 in the Faeriewalker series


Description (from Goodreads)

Dana Hathaway doesn’t know it yet, but she’s in big trouble.  When her alcoholic mom shows up at her voice recital drunk, again, Dana decides she’s had enough and runs away to find her mysterious father in Avalon: the only place on Earth where the regular, everyday world and the captivating, magical world of Faerie intersect. But from the moment Dana sets foot in Avalon, everything goes wrong, for it turns out she isn't just an ordinary teenage girl—she's a Faeriewalker, a rare individual who can travel between both worlds, and the only person who can bring magic into the human world and technology into Faerie.
Soon, Dana finds herself tangled up in a cutthroat game of Fae politics. Someone's trying to kill her, and everyone seems to want something from her, from her newfound friends and family to Ethan, the hot Fae guy Dana figures she’ll never have a chance with… until she does.  Caught between two worlds, Dana isn’t sure where she’ll ever fit in and who can be trusted, not to mention if her world will ever be normal again…

My thoughts
Glimmerglass is the story of Dana, a young girl who lives with her alcoholic mother and has never had any contact with her father. One day things with her mother go too far and she makes the decision to leave her home and go to live with her father in Avalon: the only place on earth where faeries and humans co-exist. Her arrival in Avalon isn't what she expected and she soon finds out that a) her father is a pretty important man in Avalon and b) she is a Faeriewalker, an individual who can travel between both world and the only person who can bring technology to Faerie and magic into the human world.

Glimmerglass is the 4th faerie book I've read this year and I was very glad of the fact that it differed significantly from the others I've read (Wings by Aprilynne Pike, Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr and The Iron King by Julie Kagawa). They all follow the same basic outline (with Seelie and Unseelie courts), but each one of them has very distinctive features that set it apart from the other faerie books. (I'm always referring to the ones I have read myself) In Glimmerglass, there is a strong focus on politics. Dana's father and aunt are directly involved and Dana herself - because of the revelation of her status as a Faeriewalker - is thought to be a valuable asset for each and every one of the political big-wigs.

Dana, as a character, was ok. It is obvious in the beginning of the story that she is just plain fed up of "clearing up" after her mother (which is why she decides to up and leave), but then, as the story goes on, and she discovers more and more about her new friends, her father and Avalon, she becomes confused, defensive and distrustful. She is headstrong and tries to make decisions for herself, and while I can't say I loved her, she didn't come off as too annoying.

I was really appalled by the "parent situation" in this book, too. Why is it that in every other young adult book the protagonist has to come from a broken/nonexistent/noncaring family??? Her mother's behaviour throughout the book was pretty bad and irritating and her father wasn't so great (but without being too bad either). As for the boyfriend situation, I have to admit that I didn't really like Ethan. I much preferred a certain other person who appears later on in the book! (If you've read the book, you know who I'm talking about!)

Glimmerglass is a book that is definitely worth reading, if you are in the mood for something fairy-like, but with a splash of something else too. The characters are well developed, the storytelling is good and the plot while, in my opinion, isn't very fast paced, it is definitely engaging and appealing enough. I, for one, will definitely be reading the next books in the series.

Rating: 7/10


Author
Jenna Black has a BA in Physical Anthropology and French from Duke University. Initially, she wanted to be a primatologist, but then found out that primates spend most of their time doing ... not much! She has published quite a few books, including the next two in the Faeriewalker series.

Shadowspell (Faeriewalker #2)  |  Dark Descendant (Descendants #1)  |  The Devil Inside (Morgan Kingsley #1)

You can find out more about Jenna Black and her books from her official website!

Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011, 1st In A Series Challenge 

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Divergent by Veronica Roth
First published by Katherine B. Tegen Books in 2011 (this edition by HarperCollins Children's Books in 2011)

Book #1 in the Divergent trilogy

Description (from Goodreads)

Beatrice "Tris" Prior has reached the fateful age of sixteen, the stage at which teenagers in Veronica Roth's dystopian Chicago must select which of five factions to join for life. Each faction represents a virtue: Candor, Abnegation, Dauntless, Amity, and Erudite. To the surprise of herself and her selfless Abnegation family, she chooses Dauntless, the path of courage. Her choice exposes her to the demanding, violent initiation rites of this group, but it also threatens to expose a personal secret that could place in mortal danger. Veronica Roth's young adult Divergent trilogy launches with a captivating adventure about love and loyalty playing out under most extreme circumstances.

My thoughts
The time has come for me to finally write my review of the book that is possibly the "talk of the year"! (Concerning debut authors) Most of you, even if you haven't read the book yet, have probably seen it everywhere around the blogosphere. The hype that was going on about this book, even from when I had just started blogging and everyone I was starting to follow back then was getting ARCs of this book, Divergent, and then was gushing about it incessantly, telling everyone again and again how good this book is.

All of that hype let me to the decision to actually get the book and see for myself. And the same hype was what kept me from reading for such a long time after buying it. I kept hearing that Divergent is the new Hunger Games a lot and I think the fact that I only discovered The Hunger Games this year (and loved it) made me a little apprehensive about reading it. But I finally got round to reading it.

Divergent is set in a futuristic Chicago. There, all people have been divided into one of five factions, depending on each person's most prominent characteristic. All children are born into the faction that their parents belong to and after they turn sixteen, they are subjected to an "aptitude test" and are free to choose the faction they want to belong to. The main character in this book, Tris, has grown up as part of Abnegation and is now ready to choose the faction which she believes best characterises her. Her choice of Dauntless is surprising both to her and her family and her initiation to the Dauntless faction may be more than she bargained for. But it's what she discovers about herself during her Dauntless initiation that is likely to cause her the most danger.

The book really is beautifully written. Veronica Roth has a way with words that makes you want to keep reading in order to find out what exactly is going to happen to Tris next. She keeps you "on the edge of your seat" (so to speak). I don't know why, but I always find it astounding when (debut) authors manage to do that with their first book. It also makes me a much more severe critic for their next books, as they themselves have set the bar very high. I found the characters to be excellently developed and to have many hidden depths (that actually remained hidden until the last 100 pages of the book). The "unveiling" of those depths were absolutely essential to the continuation of the plot. I really enjoyed having Tris as a main character. She is not sure of what she wants in the beginning of the novel, but seems to mature substantially while she is undergoing the Dauntless initiation process; she finds out more about herself. But the character who steals the show (in my opinion) is Four. Though I hated the name from the first time we meet him in the novel, he really is a great character. You can tell there is something there (hidden depths, as well as attraction to Tris), but the refreshing fact is that he doesn't mollycoddle her or favour her in any way. He pushes Tris to her limits, because he knows she is strong and that she can take it(even though she doesn't know it herself).

Divergent definitely deserves all the hype it has been getting. I am not one for comparing books while I am reading them, but even in retrospect, Divergent did not strike me as "the next Hunger Games", as it is being labelled. Divergent is a story in its own right, despite the fact that it may belong to the same genre as The Hunger Games. I enjoyed reading them both for different reasons and in all honesty, did not find that many similarities. Though, if people mean that it's going to be the next "big phenomenon" in YA dystopian literature (just like The Hunger Games was a few years ago), then ok!

Rating: 10/10

Author:
Veronica Roth was born in August 1988 (oh my gosh, she's only a year older than me!) in Chicago and studied creative writing at Northwestern University. Divergent is her first book. The second book in the Divergent trilogy, Insurgent, will be coming out in May 2012. And here is the pretty cover:

You can find out more about Veronica Roth by following her blog.

Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011, 1st In A Series Challenge, Dystopian Challenge

Spellbound by Cara Lynn Shultz

Spellbound by Cara Lynn Shultz
First published by Harlequin Teen in 2011 (this edition by Harlequin Teen in 2011)

Book #1 in the Spellbound series

Description (from Goodreads)

What's a girl to do when meeting The One means she's cursed to die a horrible death?                                              Life hasn't been easy on sixteen-year-old Emma Connor, so a new start in New York may be just the change she needs. But the posh Upper East Side prep school she has to attend? Not so much. Friendly faces are few and far between, except for one that she's irresistibly drawn to—Brendan Salinger, the guy with the rock-star good looks and the richest kid in school, who might just be her very own white knight.
But even when Brendan inexplicably turns cold, Emma can't stop staring. Ever since she laid eyes on him, strange things have been happening. Streetlamps go out wherever she walks, and Emma's been having the oddest dreams: visions of herself in past lives—visions that warn her to stay away from Brendan. Or else.

My thoughts
Spellbound was a book that I had seen around quite a bit on different blogs, but not one which I felt I had to read sometime (and the sooner that time came the better). I am sure that, had I not won this book in a giveaway, I would not have bought it for myself in the near future, as the whole story did not sound so original or so compelling. That blurb up there, which is the one I had read before I got my hands on a copy of this book, just makes it sound like yet another of those YA books where the main character fancies a boy who is the bad guy and ignores her and then things start going weird.

To be honest, the book isn't much more than that. But I did find myself enjoying Spellbound much more than I thought I would. Emma is a girl who has been through much in her rather short life: she has lost her mother and her twin brother and was made to live with her irresponsible stepfather for some time, until she finally decided to go and live with her aunt in New York City. There she attends a very high class private school and on her first day there, she manages to make an enemy. (Yep, pretty typical.) And she also manages to find a guy that she is "irresistably drawn to". (Yep, again, pretty typical.) And that, by some peculiar (or not) coincidence, they happen to be "soulmates". (... you know)

So, all in all, the storyline is not what you might call very original. Just from the blurb alone, this is not a book I think would cause someone to want to read it straight away, because of the fact that it follows a pretty predictable storyline. But, as I said before, I enjoyed Spellbound more than I thought I would, mainly because of the fact that the writing was rather good. It flowed naturally and, while I was reading it, did not make me feel as if I were reading the same old story, yet another time. What I enjoyed the most was the story behind the story. (I don't want to say more than that, so that I don't spoil the book) Suffice to say, that the explanation given for the "soulmate" theory, while a little cheesy, was sweet and I enjoyed reading the parts where it was explained.

The characters themselves were okay (what I can remember of them, at least). Emma, the main character, though she came from a rather tough background was not very much of a whinge-y person (at least to me) and I appreciated that. As for Brendan, he was rather cool, in an aloof, mind-your-own-business kind-of way and though in the beginning I was just okay with him, I ended up rather liking him. The whole romance between the two of them did feel a tad too instant-romance-y, but at least it wasn't an all-consuming type of romance (like the one that has come to get on my nerves a little in Alyson Noel's Immortals series). One of my favourite characters was Angelique, the school weird-witch. She really is just great.

To sum up, Spellbound is a book worth reading, if you feel that you're not sure about it (as I was). It's not THE most original thing in the world, but it is interesting and well written and will definitely account for some hours/days of enjoyable reading.

Rating: 6/10 (just because it's not a very original plot)

Author:
Cara Lynn Shultz obtained a degree from Fordham University and currently works as a senior editor at People.com. Her work has appeared in a number of magazines, including Teen People, InStyle and Us Weekly. Spellbound is her first novel and the sequel to it, Spellcaster, will be out in March 2012. You can keep up with her updates by following her blog.


Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011, 1st In A Series Challenge 2011

The Declaration by Gemma Malley

The Declaration by Gemma Malley
First published by Bloomsbury in 2007 (this edition by Bloomsbury in 2008)



Book #1 in The Declaration series





Description (from Goodreads)

In the year 2140, it is illegal to be young.

Children are all but extinct.

The world is a better place.

Longevity drugs are a fountain of youth. Sign the Declaration, agree not to have children and you too can live forever. Refuse, and you will live as an outcast. For the children born outside the law, it only gets worse – Surplus status.

Not everyone thinks Longevity is a good thing, but you better be clear what side you’re on. . . . Surplus Anna is about to find out what happens when you can’t decide if you should cheat the law or cheat death. 

My thoughts

I'd seen this book somewhere a while back and rather liked the sound of it, so I decided to try reading it. When I bought it, I found it at the bargain price of £2.10 on Amazon, a fact that I was very happy about! You can't go wrong for that amount of money, can you?

The Declaration is set in the future, in the year 2140, at a time when it is illegal to be young. Sometime during the previous century, Longevity was invented. Longevity is a drug which halts the ageing process of the human body and thus, enables the taker of the drug to live forever. Because of the fact that people are not dying anymore, there is no room on the planet for new people, which essentially means that the new children that are born are very few (because people choose to sign the Declaration and take the Longevity drugs). The main character, Anna, is a child, but she is known as Surplus Anna; a child that was born to people who took Longevity drugs and still decided to have a child. Children like Anna are hunted down and are ''put away'' in halls, where they train so as to become in some way useful to the Legal people when they leave the halls.

The idea behind the story was very clever. You might think the whole thing sounds quite absurd, but what would you do if you were faced with a similar decision? If you had the opportunity of a much longer life, what would you choose? Would you choose to live ''forever''? Or would you want to give another generation (your children) the chance to live? 

Gemma Malley's writing is exceptional, as is her character building. Anna is a lovely character, clearly misguided during the first part of the novel, but she slowly grows into herself and reveals how strong she really is. I will admit to finding her refusal to admit to certain things irritating at first, but then I realised that's it's all part of the ''realisation'' process. Peter was also a great character, who also got irritating at times, especially when he sort-of assumed that he and Anna were destined for each other, even from the time he didn't actually personally know her. But he is so sweet and tries to show that he is fearless, when he really isn't.

One of the things I really liked about this book were the diary entries in the beginning of some of the chapters. These do have some significance - as is explained early on in the story - but for me they serve a different purpose; the one of finding out more about Anna. The diary is her story the way she wants it to be said, portraying her own thoughts and questions and that really helped with her character building. The story itself does get a little slow at times and a little too fast at others, but it is fairly obvious what this story is aiming at. The journey to that ''final destination'', however, is not that clear. There were a few times when things happened or were said and I was left with my mouth wide open (so to speak), because it just came out of nowhere!

The Declaration is a story with a very important message to tell and it one of those that are definitely worth reading. So, read it.

I'm definitely going to be reading the next two books in the series, as soon as I can get my hands on them.

Rating: 8/10

Author:

Gemma Malley is a British author of young adult novels. She studied Philosophy at university and after graduating, worked as a journalist. If you would like to find out more about her, you can read a short Q&A session she has on her blog (just click on the Q&A). She has also written:

The Resistance (Declaration #2)   |   The Legacy (Declaration #3)

The Returners

Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011, Dystopia Challenge, 1st In A Series Challenge

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpartick

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick
First published by Simon & Schuster Children's Books in 2010 (this edition by Simon & Schuster Children's Books in 2010)


Book #2 in the Hush, Hush series
(My review of: Hush, Hush)




Description (from Goodreads)
Nora Grey's life is still far from perfect. Surviving an attempt on her life wasn’t pleasant, but at least she got a guardian angel out of it. But Patch has been acting anything but angelic lately. He’s more elusive than ever and, even worse, he’s started spending time with Nora’s arch-enemy, Marcie Millar.
Nora would have hardly noticed Scott Parnell, an old family friend who’s moved back to town, if Patch hadn’t been acting so distant. Even with Scott’s totally infuriating attitude Nora finds herself drawn to him – despite her lingering feeling that he’s hiding something.

Haunted by images of her murdered father, and questioning whether her Nephilim bloodlines has anything to do with his death, Nora puts herself increasingly dangerous situations as she searches for answers. But some things are better left buried, because the truth could destroy everything – and everyone – she trusts.


My thoughts
Crescendo is the second book in the Hush, Hush series by Becca Fitzpatrick and continues with the same story which started in Hush, Hush, approximately 4 months after the events in the first book. For those of you who have read my review of Hush, Hush (there is a link up there, if you would like to check it out), you will know that Hush, Hush was one of those books that I had been avoiding, because of the fact that it seemed to me that it was just another fallen angel story. When I did get round to reading it (which was because I managed to get my hands on a cheap copy of it), I will admit to enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. So, when one of my friends lent it to me, I read it straight away! (Well, that and the fact that I couldn't choose which book to take with me on my holidays, so I just took that one).


Since Crescendo is the second book in the series, this review will definitely contain spoilers about the things which happened in Hush, Hush. So, only proceed to the next paragraph, if (a) you've read Hush, Hush or (b) you don't mind spoilers.


By the end of Hush, Hush, Patch and Nora were pretty much in a relationship. But only a few chapters into the story, everything goes downhill for very little reason. On top of the fact that Nora and Patch break up, Patch can more often than not be found with Marcie Millar, a girl Nora has never been friends with. On top of THAT, there is also the arrival of Scott, an old family, after many years away, who also acts as if he has something to hide. And to make matters even better, Nora is haunted by the image of her father, who was murdered nearly a year before the events in Hush, Hush.


All of that sounds as if it could make up a really good story. And it does, only not as good a one as Hush, Hush. I am going to be very shallow here and admit to not liking it as much because there wasn't as much interaction between Patch and Nora as I would have liked. Other than that the story was perfectly engaging. There were plenty of things going on in the book, especially including Patch, Marcie Millar and Scott (though not necessarily all at the same time) and they did make me want to read on and on, to find out what happened next, why it happened etc. And there was that ending! I did quite honestly not see that one coming. Up to a certain point in the novel, I was convinced of the worst, when suddenly BANG! Something happened that I could never had predicted! And I liked that.


All in all, Crescendo was a rather enjoyable book, marginally less so than Hush, Hush and I will definitely (definitely!) be reading Silence when it comes out. Plus, I have to get my hands on a copy of Crescendo for myself.


Rating: 7/10


Author:
You can find out more about Becca Fitzpatrick at the end of my review of Hush, Hush.




Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011, 2nd In A Series Challenge

Ash by Malinda Lo

Ash by Malinda Lo
First published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in 2009 (this edition by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in 2010)








Description (from Goodreads)

In the wake of her father's death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.

The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King's Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash's capacity for love-and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.

Entrancing, empowering, and romantic, Ash is about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.

My thoughts

Ash is a retelling of the story of Cinderella, with a very very important twist; the main character, instead of falling in love with some sort of prince, falls in love with the King's Huntress. And therein lies the problem, from what I've gathered. Lots of people on Goodreads seemed to have had a problem with 'Cinderella' being in a lesbian relationship. I will admit to thinking it is rather weird, but then again, Ash is a retelling. Which means that Malinda Lo has used a well known fairy tale (and some things that happen in it) as a backdrop in which to set her own story. In my opinion, the point of retellings is telling a well known story in a different way. If you just say the same things with different words, then it's not a different story. In this, the author has succeeded.


I'm not going to go into any details about the story, as we all know what happens to Cinderella in the original fairy tale. Ash follows approximately the same pattern. Ash's mother dies and her father remarries to a woman who already has two daughters. Then her father also dies and Ash is forced to become a servant for her stepmother and stepsisters. And the prince is also looking for a wife (and the stepsisters are vying for his attention). But there are some very important changes. First of all, the addition of the King's Huntress, Kaisa, a character who has a rather elevated position in the King's court. And secondly, the addition of actual fairies and quite a bit of fairy lore in the story.


The actual writing is very fairytale-like. There is a wonderful choice of words and a very atmospheric portrayal of both the world everything happens in, as well as the characters. The characters are well developed (though not extremely so) and the story flows very well. I just kept reading and reading, until, at some point, I realised I had read 100 pages or so. And one of the things that I liked the most (though it is rather superficial) was the play on the name of the main character. Ash is really short for Aisling, but I liked how it kind-of has the same meaning as Cinderella (as in ashes/cinders). That's just the way I saw it.


As for the main characters, Ash is a rather complicated character; she is timid at first, clinging onto everything she knows from her past in an attempt to keep going in her present circumstances, but, as the story progresses, grows into herself. Kaisa seemed a little distant at all times, but I couldn't really connect with her, though she was likeable enough. As for Sidhean (the fairy), he was rather creepy and possessive for the most part, but he really did help Ash when she needed him, which made him ok.


So, all in all, Ash is definitely a story worth reading. It is very enjoyable, very well written and rather different, which is also what makes it unique. And it really shouldn't be thought of as a lesbian Cinderella retelling, because it is much more than that; it is a story in its own right.

Rating: 7/10


Author:
Malinda Lo is a graduate of Harvard and Stanford Universities and is the former managing director of AfterEllen.com, an entertainment news site for lesbian and bisexual women. Ash was her debut novel, published in 2009, but since then, she has also published Huntress, the prequel to Ash.

You can find out more about Malinda Lo and her books on her official website.

Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
First published by Delacorte Books for Young Readers in 2009 (this edition by Gollancz in 2010)


Book #1 in The Forest of Hands and Teeth series




Description (from Goodreads)
In Mary's world there are simple truths: 

The Sisterhood always knows best. 

The Guardians will protect and serve. 

The Unconsecrated will never relent. 

And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. 

But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future—between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?


My thoughts
I know this book has been around blogs quite a bit as of late (though it is by no means a recent release), and I will admit to liking the cover and wanting to read it at some point or another. But the main reason I bought this book at the time I did was because of the fact that it was rather cheap by Greek standards (though I also found the same cover with the leafy thing on the black background and that cost more than 15euros - not worth it).


So, basically, The Forest of Hands and Teeth is a book about zombies. Not that there is anything wrong with zombies as a theme for a book, just that a) I hadn't realised it before I got round to reading it that the Unconsecrated=Zombies and b) it was the first zombie book I have ever read. And I can say that it was rather interesting!


The main character is called Mary (which I don't think you find often in YA books - everyone seems to have some weird name or, at least, some weird spelling of a name) and she lives in a small village surrounded by a fence, which is there to protect the people who live in the village from the beings that reside in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, the Unconsecrated. The story starts off with an event that plays an important part throughout the book regarding the relationship between Mary and her brother, Jed. After that, Mary is sent to live with the Sisterhood, an sort-of organisation who run the village - meaning they're the authority figure. We also have the Guardians, a group of soldiers who patrol the fence daily to check for any breaks that could lead to the Unconsecrated infiltrating the village.


While she is with the Sisterhood, she gets to see things from a different perspective and realises that things are not how everyone thinks they are: the Sisterhood hides a lot of information from the villagers. Armed with that knowledge and because of a frightful event that occurs in her village, Mary decides to look for the ocean, a place she knows about only from her mother's stories.


As I said before, this is a book with zombies. The Unconsecrated came to be after a major event sometime in the past that infected people with a virus (??) and which caused them to not die, but rather, continue their existence as Unconsecrated. As a result, if you get scratched (or is it bitten?? - it has been ages since I read this book), you become infected and after a few hours/days become Unconsecrated yourself.


The actual story is very good. As I also mentioned before, this is the first book I have ever read that features zombies (and now I won't be avoiding them, as I had been in the past), but I did have a bit of a problem with Mary and some of the other main characters. Mary was a little boring, to put it mildly. She was always going on and on about the ocean (which I suppose is good, to have some hope), but she wanted everyone to follow her blindly on this mission, when even she had no idea where she was going or what she was going to encounter there. Then, there is the matter of the love interest. Early on in the book, we find out that Mary's love-of-her-life is Trevor. And that Trevor might also have feelings for her. But Trevor is going to become bound (engaged) to her best friend Cass. And then, we have Harry, who offers to marry her and also loves her, but Mary doesn't really, because she is full of love for Trevor. Oh my good God... I know it sounds as if it could make a good ''love square'', but I just couldn't see the attraction between Trevor and Mary. On the other hand, there was way more chemistry between Harry and her. Plus, Harry came off as a much nicer to me than Trevor. And to end this paragraph, I must say that Jed was an absolute ass. Well and truly. I can't even begin to think about what was going through his head when he cut off his sister just like that. To be fair, though, he does get a little better later on in the book.


As for the ending, it was actually rather good. I think I liked it more than most of the book, because it was something completely new and different. All in all, though the book was not one of my favourites, I will definitely be reading the next book in the series, The Dead-Tossed Waves, to see what that one is like.


Rating: 6/10


Author:
Carrie Ryan was born and raised in Greenville and holds a degree in Law Studies. She used to work as a litigator, but gave it up to work as a full-time writer. The Forest of Hands and Teeth was her first novel, followed by The Dead-Tossed Waves (Book #2) and The Dark and Hollow Places (Book #3).

You can find out more about Carrie Ryan and her books from her official website.

Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011, 1st In A Series Challenge

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
First published by Doubleday in 2010 (this edition by Anchor Books in 2011)








Description (from Goodreads)
On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein bites into her mother's homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother’s emotions in the slice. To her horror, she finds that her cheerful mother tastes of despair. Soon, she’s  privy to the secret knowledge that most families keep hidden: her father’s detachment, her mother’s transgression, her brother’s increasing retreat from the world. But there are some family secrets that even her cursed taste buds can’t discern.


My thoughts
I was browsing through the internet one day, looking for books to order from the Book Depository, when I suddenly came upon The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. For some reason or another, the title appealed to me and I went on to read the blurb and finally, buy the book. So it was really a random buy. Although I do thing the cover is pretty!!


The premise of this book is actually quite interesting. The main character, Rose, discovers quite suddenly, on the eve of her 9th birthday, that she can taste her mother's emotions in her lemon cake. As the days go buy, she discovers things about her mother that she wouldn't really have wanted to know, just by tasting the food she has been preparing. With the help of one of her brother's friends, she experiments a little and realises that she can taste whatever emotion the maker of the food had while he/she was actually in the process of making it.


The book started off quite well. It was rather interesting and engaging, and I found the writing to be very good. The chapters are also rather small, and they help the story flow. What I was a little surprised by, though, was the fact that the weird things that were happening to Rose with her tasting buds, were proven to be rather mild compared to the weird things that were happening to certain other people in the book. (I won't say names, as I don't want to spoil it for anyone who decides to read it) I can quite honestly say that, even now, nearly two weeks after I finished reading it (and have had time to think about it), I have no idea what was going on with said person.


I did enjoy reading it, though not as much towards the end (as I wasn't sure about what was going on), but I do know one thing: Aimee Bender has a rather distinctive (and very enjoyable) way of writing, so I think I might try another one of her books sometime in the future.


Rating: 6/10 (purely because of my BIG question marks)


Author:
Aimee Bender is an American author. She lives in Los Angeles and currently teaches creative writing at USC. Other than The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (which is her latest novel), she has written another three books:

The Girl In The Flammable Skirt   |   An Invisible Sign of My Own

Willful Creatures

You can find out more about Aimee Bender from her official website.

Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011

Birthmarked by Caragh O'Brien

Birthmarked by Caragh O' Brien
First published by Roaring Book Press in 2010 (this edition by Simon & Schuster UK in 2011)


Book #1 in the Birthmarked series






Description (from Goodreads)
After climate change, on the north shore of Unlake Superior, a dystopian world is divided between those who live inside the wall, and those, like sixteen-year-old midwife Gaia Stone, who live outside. It’s Gaia’s job to “advance” a quota of infants from poverty into the walled Enclave, until the night one agonized mother objects, and Gaia’s parents are arrested.
Badly scarred since childhood, Gaia is a strong, resourceful loner who begins to question her society. As Gaia’s efforts to save her parents take her within the wall, she herself is arrested and imprisoned.
Fraught with difficult moral choices and rich with intricate layers of codes, BIRTHMARKED explores a colorful, cruel, eerily familiar world where one girl can make all the difference, and a real hero makes her own moral code.


My thoughts
Birthmarked I had first seen on Becky's blog when she featured it on some post or another (I really can't remember now...). Anyway, the cover really drew me and I decided I had to get it sometime. It was nearly 5 months after I first saw it that I came round to actually buying it and another 2 before I got round to reading it.


Obviously, I had realised that there would be some marking of children at the time of birth in the book and that it would play a rather important part in the whole story (as if that wasn't pretty clear just by looking at the title). The story was really easy to get into and, to be honest, even though it is mentioned pretty early on, I hadn't realised how the birthmarking fitted into all this and when it took place.


The main character, Gaia, is a really strong and well-developed character. She is a sixteen year old girl, living on the wrong side of the Wall that separates the Enclave from the Outside. Gaia is a midwife and, at the beginning of the book, we find her on the first ever birthing she has had to take care of all on her own. Which means that she will have to advance the baby she helps the woman give birth to, as each midwife has a certain quota of babies that they have to 'advance' every month. On that same night, Gaia goes home to find out that her parents have been arrested.


What is great about Gaia is that she is a very self-conscious character, and not in a bad way. She has been scarred since birth and prefers to hide it (meaning that she is uncomfortable with her appearance), but it has not hindered her in any other way. She has gone through quite a bit of suffering (and taunting and ostracism) through the years because of her scarring, but that didn't seem to have shaped her as a character in making her a meek and will-less girl. Instead, she is a very strong main character and is very determined to be as good as possible at what she has chosen to be - a midwife.


The other characters in the book haven't got such a strong presence. The focus of the story is mainly on Gaia. We meet lots of different characters along the way, who get close to Gaia because of some situation or another, but none who are steady throughout the book, maybe excepting Sgt Leon Grey, who makes some appearances during the first half of the book, but is a more constant character during the second half. (Plus, I just loved him as a character! And the name Leon is such a nice name.)


There was quite a bit of information about biology, heredity and DNA in this book, which was an essential part of the story. At some point in the novel, there was a simile, where chromosomes where likened to chrome spoons. It was a rather interesting way to explain it, to say the least. But, there were also some parts of the explanations about things biological that were a bit off. A very main concept in this story is that of haemophilia. For those of you who don't know (and so that I can show off what I know!), haemophilia is a rather rare hereditary disease, which can cause death by excessive bleeding, even from one little scratch. Haemophilia is brought on by the absence of certain genes, which encode for the proteins that are necessary for the blood to clot (hence the excessive bleeding). What might not be common knowledge about haemophilia is that it is more common in boys than it is in girls, due to the fact that the genes in question are located on the X chromosome (of which boys have one and girls two). That means that if a boy gets the 'bad' X chromosome from his mum, then he will definitely get haemophilia, whereas if a girl gets the 'bad' X chromosome from her mum and a normal one from her dad, she will still be all right, though she will also be able to pass it the 'bad' chromosome on to her sons. That did not seem to have been very well explained in the book. Another thing that also wasn't mentioned was the fact that girls who did have haemophilia tended to die when they were young, even if they were very careful not to get scratches or wounds, and the reason for that was the arrival of their 'monthy courses' (for want of a better phrase).


I'm really sorry for that awfully long biology lesson, but I have to put my degree to good use. All in all, Birthmarked was a really good book, lovely to read, with a storyline that just kept me reading and reading. I loved the ending, which was a teeny bit cliffhanger-ish and I am looking forward to reading the second book in the series, Prized, when it comes out later this year!


Rating: 8/10


Author:
Caragh O'Brien is an American author from Minnesota. She holds an MA from Johns Hopkins University and used to work as a high school English teacher. She has now given up teaching so as to be able to write full-time.
You can fin out more about Caragh and her books from her website.


Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011, Dystopia Challenge, 1st In A Series Challenge