Past Perfect by Leila Sales

Past Perfect by Leila Sales
First published by Simon & Schuster in 2011 (this edition was an eGalley, provided through the S&S GalleyGrab programme)

Description (from Goodreads)

All Chelsea wants to do this summer is hang out with her best friend, hone her talents as an ice cream connoisseur, and finally get over Ezra, the boy who broke her heart. But when Chelsea shows up for her summer job at Essex Historical Colonial Village (yes, really), it turns out Ezra’s working there too. Which makes moving on and forgetting Ezra a lot more complicated…even when Chelsea starts falling for someone new.Maybe Chelsea should have known better than to think that a historical reenactment village could help her escape her past. But with Ezra all too present, and her new crush seeming all too off limits, all Chelsea knows is that she’s got a lot to figure out about love. Because those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it….

My thoughts
Past Perfect was such a perfect and sweet little book! I remember being in the mood for something light and funny with a bit of romance to top it all off, and this book definitely delivered!

In Past Perfect, we have Chelsea, a girl who has spent the last I-can't-remember-how-many summers working at the Essex Colonial Village; first, because her parents worked there and they used to take her with them and then, as a fully paid re-enactor. So, she was really looking forward to working at the mall this year with her best friend. But then her best friend thinks it's a good idea to work at the Colonial Village and so, Chelsea ends up working there for yet another summer. And lots of other things going on, including ex-boyfriends working at the Colonial Village too, them dating other people and also, cute romantic interests; all amidst the big "war" that has been going on between the Colonial re-enactors and the Civil War re-enactors.

This book focuses a lot on the relationships between the characters, and not just the romantic ones. There is the relationship between the exes, the relationship between two people who are attracted to each other but know that the attraction could pose some problems, the relationship between friends, the relationships between co-workers. But it still doesn't feel too relationship-heavy, as it's all part of being a person.

My favourite thing about this book - and which made it one of the most unique books I have read this year - was the setting. The story actually takes place "now", but, because of the fact that the setting is the Colonial Village, it has a rather historical feel to it. The feud between the Colonials and the Civil Warriors and the actual "War" going on between them is fun, as they actually come up with some hilarious ideas to win the battles.

The romantic story in this book is also rather cute, as are the two characters involved. I'm not going to go into many details, but I am going to say that even though the romance is very "Romeo-and-Juliet"-esque (as in they are on opposite sides of a feud, you do end up wanting them to come to their senses and just ignore the stupid war already!

I know this is not a good review, but a) it has been ages since I last wrote a review, b) I have been writing this review for over two weeks (with not much success!) and c) it has been ages since I read it, so I can't really remember that much about it. I promise the next ones will be much better, though!

Rating: 8/10


Author: 
Leila Sales grew up just outside Boston, Massachussets. She has a degree from the Universiry of Chicago and currently lives in Brooklyn. Other than Past Perfect, she has also written a book called Mostly Good Girls.

Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011

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 

Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson
First published by Simon & Schuster BFYR in 2011 (this edition by Simon & Schuster in 2011)

Description (from Goodreads)

Amy Curry thinks her life sucks. Her mom decides to move from California to Connecticut to start anew--just in time for Amy's senior year. Her dad recently died in a car accident. So Amy embarks on a road trip to escape from it all, driving cross-country from the home she's always known toward her new life. Joining Amy on the road trip is Roger, the son of Amy's mother's old friend. Amy hasn't seen him in years, and she is less than thrilled to be driving across the country with a guy she barely knows. So she's surprised to find that she is developing a crush on him. At the same time, she's coming to terms with her father's death and how to put her own life back together after the accident. Told in traditional narrative as well as scraps from the road--diner napkins, motel receipts, postcards--this is the story of one girl's journey to find herself.

My thoughts

I really don't know where to start talking about Amy & Roger's Epic Detour is just that; epic! I enjoyed it so, so much that I started getting sad towards the end of the book, because then the characters would be gone and I would never be able to read about them again. That is sometimes the pity with stand-alone novels. But it's always nice to read a stand-alone novel, as so many books nowadays - especially new books, that are just being written now - seem to come out in trilogies or even multi(morethan3)book series.

In this book, we follow Roger and Amy while they travel through America (from the West Coast to the East Coast) in Amy's car. Amy is supposed to be driving her Mum's car from California to Connecticut, but she refuses to do the actual driving, because of the accident in which dad died. So, Amy's mum manages to rope Roger (the son of an old friend) into it, who is also supposed to be travelling east at the same time. Amy and Roger are supposed to be following a rather tight driving plan (courtesy of Amy's mother). But, of course, they decide to deviate from it and follow their own course on a once-in-a-lifetime trip across the United States.

When we first meet Amy in this book, we can see that she has sort-of "put her life on pause". She's avoiding her best friend and she is living in her house all by herself, while also trying to make herself scarce while the real estate person shows potential buyers around. As the story begins, Amy has just finished school and is getting ready to join her mum in Connecticut (where her mother has decided to have a fresh start). She only gets to meet Roger for the first time (after many, many years) on the day they're starting their trip across America, which is not something she's really looking forward to (Roger or the trip).

One of my favourite things about this book is the way Amy and Roger interact with other, as well as the way each of them grows up a little during this short trip. Amy is reluctant to get to know Roger at first, until she realises what a lovely, down to earth guy he is. She starts off by being confined in a small space (that she has created for herself), but Roger's being there is pivotal in helping her escape from her self-imposed prison. Though Amy is the one with the major "baggage" which she has to face (a recently deceased father and a brother who used to be as high as a kite and is now in rehab), Roger has some growing up to do, too.

Another amazing thing about this book - and I admire Morgan Matson for taking all the time to do it - were the playlists Amy and Roger made during their trip. There is a huge variety of songs on those playlists and it's obvious that the author has put great thought into putting them together. I haven't tried to listen to a whole playlist yet, but I have listened to certain songs and they do seem to fit in with the whole road-trip feel!

All in all, Amy and Roger's Epic Detour is a book you must definitely read! I'm pretty sure that fans of contemporary fiction are going to love it, but I also think that it will definitely appeal to people who are looking for something enjoyable, but, at the same time, not all that fluffy.

And, oh my gosh, but isn't that cover just so, so pretty?? (end of gushing)

Rating: 10/10 (because it is one of my favourite contemporaries of the year!)


Author
Morgan Matson has an MFA in Writing for Children from New School. She has been on three cross-America road-trips (!!!) and currently lives in LA. Amy and Roger's Epic Detour is her first book. Her second book, Second Chance Summer, is expected to be published in May 2012. You can check her website out HERE.

Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

The Perks of Being a Wallfower by Stephen Chbosky
First published by MTV Books in 1999 (this edition by Pocket Books in 2009)

Description (from Goodreads)

Charlie is a freshman. And while's he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. He's a wallflower--shy and introspective, and intelligent beyond his years, if not very savvy in the social arts. We learn about Charlie through the letters he writes to someone of undisclosed name, age, and gender, a stylistic technique that adds to the heart-wrenching earnestness saturating this teen's story. Charlie encounters the same struggles that many kids face in high school--how to make friends, the intensity of a crush, family tensions, a first relationship, exploring sexuality, experimenting with drugs--but he must also deal with his best friend's recent suicide. Charlie's letters take on the intimate feel of a journal as he shares his day-to-day thoughts and feelings.

My thoughts
The Perks of Being a Wallflower had been sitting in our bookshelf for a couple of years before I decided to finally read it. I remember that it was my brother who had wanted to buy it and read it straight away, and I am pretty sure I remember him telling me that it was a pretty amazing book. It's a rather small book, so I can only think of one reason to explain the fact that I didn't read it earlier: I forgot about it. But when my brother and I were re-organising our bookshelves so as to fit all our new books, I re-discovered it and decided to read it.

I will admit to not really remembering much about it, because of the fact that I read it more than a month ago (I have been very remiss in writing up my reviews not long after I read the book and now they've all seemed to pile up), but I am going to try my best.

In this book, we follow Charlie, who is a freshman in school and is also a bit of a wallflower (as the title suggests). On the back cover of the edition I read, there is a short description of Charlie; he's shy, introverted, intelligent, not very popular and socially awkward. To me he came across as a tiny bit weird, but mostly in an endearing way. We meet Charlie through the letters he writes to someone of unknown identity. In those, he changes everyone's names (in fear of recognition) by that person he sends them to and essentially catalogues all the events that take place within a given period of time; from the 25th August 1991 to the 23rd August 1992. Within that year, many changes take place, which either cause Charlie confusion or play an essential role in his becoming what he the end of the novel. The most important factor that influences the progress of this book is his friendship with Sam and Patrick, with his Aunt Helen also being an important presence throughout (directly or indirectly).

There were things in this book that I did not completely understand when I was reading them; what Chbosky was trying to say was not completely clear to me. (Which is probably why I will have to read this one again sometime in the not-too-distant future) But I do recognise that it is an extremely well written novel, with a main character who is engaging enough and self-deprecating enough to make you feel for him. Charlie did come across as a bit of a weirdo at times, because, try as I might, I couldn't understand what was going through his head some of the time. There are things going on in various parts in the novel that aren't explained properly at the time (probably so as to make the reader speculate as to what is happening), but it led to a slight confusion on my part. Especially regarding some of the Aunt-Helen parts.

All in all, The Perks of Being A Wallflower is a lovely coming-of-age story, with a rather endearing (though not always) character, who faces "real problems" and tells us about them in his own unique voice. Definitely a book that is worth reading and one that I am going to be re-reading myself soon, in hopes of understanding those parts that I missed the point of the first time.

Rating: 8/10


Author:
Stephen Chbosky grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and graduated from the University of Southern California's Filmic Writing Programme. He managed to win an award with his first film ("The Four Corners of Nowhere"). He has written screenplays, directed and co-produced a number of films. The Perks of Being A Wallflower is his first novel.
For more information about Stephen Chbosky, you can check him out on Wikipedia.


Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011

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

Fury by Elizabeth Miles

Fury by Elizabeth Miles
First published by Simon Pulse in 2011 (this edition is an e-Galley, courtesy of the S&S Galley Grab programme)


Book #1 in The Fury Trilogy


Description (from Goodreads)

Sometimes sorry isn't enough....                                It’s winter break in Ascension, Maine. The snow is falling and everything looks pristine and peaceful. But not all is as it seems...
Between cozy traditions and parties with her friends, Emily loves the holidays. And this year’s even better--the guy she’s been into for months is finally noticing her. But Em knows if she starts things with him, there’s no turning back. Because his girlfriend is Em’s best friend.
On the other side of town, Chase is having problems of his own. The stress of his home life is starting to take its toll, and his social life is unraveling. But that’s nothing compared to what’s really haunting him. Chase has done something cruel...something the perfect guy he pretends to be would never do. And it’s only a matter of time before he’s exposed.
In Ascension, mistakes can be deadly. And three girls—three beautiful, mysterious girls—are here to choose who will pay.
Em and Chase have been chosen.

My thoughts
Before I got round to reading Fury, I remember that I used to see it everywhere for a while. Reviews, IMM posts (lots of IMM posts) etc. And then it was on Galley Grab. Since Galley Grab is pretty much the only way I can get to read books before their release that is available to people outside the UK and the US (along with NetGalley, of course), I grabbed it. And was I glad I did! (By the way, is it only me who didn't get a September Galley Grab email?)

Anyway, I had read a few reviews of Fury before I started reading it myself and their main characteristic was that they were very mixed. I tend to like it when reviews/ratings are mixed, because then I don't feel the pressure of having to like a certain book, or feeling as if I missed something when I didn't like a book that everyone seems to. In the case of Fury, I am very happy to say that I am on the side of the people who enjoyed it.

Fury is the story of a group of teenagers, with the main characters, according to the description, being Em and Chase. When I was reading the book, I was under the impression that Em was the main character... Things are definitely happening to Chase, too, but the focus wasn't on him enough to classify him as a main character (in my opinion).

The actual storyline itself rather surprised me. The title should have given me a clue as to what it was about, but never did I think of the Furies (Erinyes) of Greek Mythology. (It was pretty obvious, but I probably just couldn't see it.) The fact remains that weird things are happening in Em's hometown of Ascension, starting with a teenage girl who decided to try and end her life by jumping off a bridge and continuing with the appearance of three mysterious girls, who no-one knows where they came from. And they always seem to appear whenever something weird is actually happening; they're never too far away.

I found the writing in this book to be superb! The choice of words and the sentence building was so good, that I kept reading and reading and reading, without realising how many pages I had actually read, and I ended up finishing Fury in just a few hours. (Which is really good considering I was reading from my computer screen.) The characters were well developed, though not particularly nice. Each one of them, excepting a couple of "secondary characters", had some sort of irritating quality. Em, for example, was very selfish, a little immature and quite self-delusional, but, by the end, you could see that her heart was in the right place (most of the time).

Some of the things that happened in this book shocked me. In the sense that I really was not expecting them to happen. And that they were also rather sudden in happening, with limited build-up to the event. But I suppose that is what the author was trying to do; present us with events we didn't think would happen and shock us.

All in all, Fury is a book that I am definitely going to be buying when it comes out in paperback and one that I think is worth reading. If you want to look up some different opinions about this book, then just check its Goodreads page. Looking forward to reading the next two books in the trilogy!

Rating: 8/10


Author:
Elizabeth Miles grew up in a city/town not very far from New York City. She has a degree from Boston University and has worked ever since as a journalist for an alternative newsweekly. Fury is her first novel. You can find out more about Elizabeth Miles from her official website/blog.




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

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

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

Wildefire by Karsten Knight

Wildefire by Karsten Knight
First published by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing in 2011 (this edition is an e-Galley, courtesy of the S&S Galley Grab programme)


Book #1 in the Wildefire series






Description (from Goodreads)

Every flame begins with a spark.

Ashline Wilde is having a rough sophomore year. She’s struggling to find her place as the only Polynesian girl in school, her boyfriend just cheated on her, and now her runaway sister, Eve, has decided to barge back into her life. When Eve’s violent behavior escalates and she does the unthinkable, Ash transfers to a remote private school nestled in California’s redwoods, hoping to put the tragedy behind her. But her fresh start at Blackwood Academy doesn’t go as planned. Just as Ash is beginning to enjoy the perks of her new school—being captain of the tennis team, a steamy romance with a hot, local park ranger—Ash discovers that a group of gods and goddesses have mysteriously enrolled at Blackwood…and she’s one of them. To make matters worse, Eve has resurfaced to haunt Ash, and she’s got some strange abilities of her own. With a war between the gods looming over campus, Ash must master the new fire smoldering within before she clashes with her sister one more time… And when warm and cold fronts collide, there’s guaranteed to be a storm.

My thoughts

Before I start saying anything about this book, I have a comment to make regarding character names. As of late, I have read three books whose main characters are named Ash. Granted, they're all different Ash's (Ash from Aislinn in Wicked Lovely, Ash from Aisling in Ash and Ash from Ashline in Wildefire). Just saying...

Anyways... Wildefire... This book tells us the story of Ashline Wilde, a girl who has faced many problems growing up and even more during the latest year in her life, which caused her to want to transfer to Blackwood Academy, a private school thousands of miles away from where she lived. There, she leads a rather peaceful existence for a while (and by peaceful I mean that she ends up being the captain of the tennis team and she is also dating one of the hottest guys at school), when one night something unexpected happens. Something which leads to 6 students being thrown together, when they hadn't really spend much time together before. 

As is obvious from the blurb, there are gods and goddesses involved in the story. That might just seem like another shot at quite a popular subject in young adult fiction as of late, but Wildefire manages to stand out. Mainly for the reason that it is a mesh of different gods and goddesses from different civilisations over the world; there's Egyptians, Japanese, Norse, Polynesian and a little bit of Greek. The writing was also rather good and helped draw me into the story, despite the fact that for a large part of it, there is not that much going on. The ending of this book was what surprised me the most. It was action-packed and some of the things that happened just came out of nowhere. Especially that very last thing that happened. If you've read Wildefire, you'll know what I'm talking about. Honestly, though, talk about unexected!


As for the characters, most of them were very well developed. We got to see a little bit of the past of each one of them (though obviously we got to see more of Ashline's) and it helped with the background building. Even still, I would have preferred a little more explanation about the whole god/goddess thing and how that came to be. As for my least favourite character, that would have to be Eve, Ash's sister. She is unbelievably irritating, seems to justify some completely and utterly wrong actions from her part (like murder) and seems to show up very often in the book, making her even more irritating. She's definitely not an ideal older sister.


All in all, Wildefire was a rather good book, with an interesting plot and solid characters. I will definitely be reading the next book in the series, Embers & Echoes.


Rating: 7/10


Author:
Karsten Knight has been writing since the age of 6 when he wrote a book series about an adventurous worm.  He has held a number of different jobs, including being a proofreader and a bookseller, until he finally settled on becoming a writer. Wildefire is his first book, with another two coming after it in the series: Embers & Echoes and Afterglow.
If you are interested, you can find an excerpt of Wildefire to read HERE or you can check out his website (where he uploads all those ridiculously hilarious videos).


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

A Season of Eden by Jennifer Laurens

A Season of Eden by Jennifer Laurens
First published by Grove Creek Publishing in 2008 (this edition by Grove Creek Publishing in 2008)








Description (from Goodreads)
He's my teacher. I shouldn't be alone with him. But I can't help that he's irresistible.
I let the door silently close at my back. He stared at me, and a taut quiet stretched between us. "I like hearing you play," I said, moving toward him. He turned, in sync with my slow approach. He looked up at me but didn't say anything. I rested my clammy hand on the cold, slick body of the baby grand. "May I?" The muscles in his throat shifted, then he swallowed. "Eden." My knees weakened, like a soft tickling kiss had just been blown against the backs of them. "Is it okay?" I asked. His gaze held mine like two hands joined. He understood what I was really asking. "Let me stay," I said. "Please." "You're going to get me in trouble," he said.


My thoughts
I was planning on getting round to this book sometime soon, but the time came sooner rather than later as it is a rather short book and I wanted to finish another book during the Once Upon A Read-a-thon I participated in. It was a really easy book to read, very well written, the plot was easy to follow and each event came naturally after the previous one. However, I can't say I loved this book. I liked it well enough to want to read something else by Jennifer Laurens, but didn't really love it.


A Season of Eden deals with the rather taboo concept of a relationship between a teacher and a student. Something which is prohibited by law (if I am not mistaken), as usually, one half of the party is underage. Anyway, in this book we follow the story of Eden and James (also known as Mr. Christian), as the student and teacher respectively. Eden is 18 and James is 22, so the age gap is not so large. But the fact that James is Eden's music teacher poses a bit of a problem, as James could lose his position if he became involved in a relationship with a student. The thing is that even though you understand why it's wrong, you end up rooting for them and wanting them to be together!


Eden was not a character I could really relate to. She was a bit of a bitch, as well as quite a bit selfish. She has obviously had a tough time growing up, but throughout the book, she just comes of as a very spoilt rich girl, who is accustomed to getting what she wants, even if what she wants can get others into trouble. The good thing about her was that she did do a fair bit of growing up during the course of the story. James, on the other hand, was just plain dreamy! He is a musician (with a fair share of talent) and he's young and extra good-looking. But what I liked most was the fact that he tried to remain as level-headed as possible.


I was a little disappointed about how the story ended. I wanted to know more about the two characters. But I do understand why Jennifer Laurens chose to end it where she did. All in all, it was an ok story, with a mix of characters, but a lovely style of writing. I will definitely be picking up another one of Jennifer's books!


Rating: 6/10


Author:
Jennifer Laurens, also writing as J.M. Warwick, is the author of several YA romance books. She currently lives in Utah. Her books include:

Heavenly   |   Overprotected

Falling For Romeo

You can find out more about Jennifer Laurens and her books by visiting her website and her blog!

Read for the: 100 Books In A Year Challenge 2011