Falling For YA

I adored Throne of Glass, I enjoyed it so much that I actually went and bought all of the prequel novellas. This is a huge feat for me! Throne of Glass is actually the only series I’ve ever bought novellas for. And if possible I loved the novellas even more then the first book itself. Needless to say my expectations for Crown of Midnight were set high, and unfortunately while the story was enjoyable I didn’t like it nearly as much as the first book of the novellas.

I’ve been thinking about the reasons I didn’t love this book for a couple months now and I think the problem wasn’t necessarily with the characters because I still love each of them. I think it was the pacing of the story and the plot itself that left me wanting something more. Let me explain, there was just a lot of down time in Crown of Midnight there was Celaena researching, brooding, following people, eating, whining, being the king’s champion, walking, hanging out at the library, exploring underground. It felt like I was always waiting for the action to begin and when it actually did begin it felt lackluster. There was a lot of buildup in Crown of Midnight for future novels I think.

Despite the fact that Celaena spent a lot of time doing menial tasks she was still an absolute badass in this novel! Whenever she had the chance she shined and I definitely think she is still one of the strongest and most kick-ass heroines in YA!

One of my favorite things about Crown of Midnight was the relationship developments between Celaena and Chaol! I wasn’t really sure how I felt about the two of them in the first book. I actually liked Celaena with Dorian in Throne of Glass and in the novella’s I LOVED Celaena with Sam…actually I still kind of want Celaena /Sam to work out even though it is completely impossible. Anyway, back to my original point! I really like Celaena and Chaol in this novel and hope that Celaena can finally be happy.

I think my biggest non-plot related disappointment with Crown of Midnight was the lack of Arobynn. I understand he wasn’t really in the first novel but after reading the novella’s I couldn’t get enough of him! Arobynn is just a good bad guy. The type that has no redeemable qualities and just when you think he can’t get any worse he sells you out even more. I really do hope he makes an appearance in later novels.

Overall, Crown of Midnight was an entertaining sequel but I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as the book and novellas that proceeded it. I am still definitely looking forward to the next installment in the series though!

Thank you Bloomsbury USA and Netgalley for allowing me to review an advanced reader's copy of this novel.

DNF

Reasons why I couldn't finish this novel

1. The world building made absolutely no sense. There is a deadly virus but the virus has no name. This is ridiculous. Our society can not stand to leave things unnamed; we name our pets, parks, buildings, and even different strains of the flu (e.g. Swine Flu, Spanish Influenza) there is no way that doctors or society at large would have been okay with leaving this unnamed, especially not when it is causing the end of the world!

2. The POD system is not explained. I wasn't sure why the POD system existed, why it was commissioned, who made it, who paid for it. It just seemed really strange that this system is underground and no one had heard about it before.

3. The selection "lottery" for the PODS was dumb. They wanted only young people who were good at science to be in the PODS. Some of the brightest minds were not college educated but rather self taught. If you have a bunch of book smart people trying to lead the future it's going to fail because they tend to not have any common sense. Just saying.

4. The main character said she was sad but never showed that she was. The entire world is falling apart and this girl is leaving behind her best friend and her parents yet I never got any shred of emotion from her. I felt so detached when I was reading.

Overall, this novel had an interesting premise but it just didn't deliver. I was unable to understand the world building or connect with the main character so I stopped reading.

I finally decided to read Anna and the French Kiss at the urgings of Rachel from Beauty and The Bookshelf and Courageous Grace. I bought a signed copy at the RT Convention in Kansas City but was still kind of on the fence about the whole thing. Admit it, the title of this book is beyond cheesy and I was actually somewhat embarrassed when people asked what I was reading. I was shocked to discover that despite the cheesiness factor I loved this novel!

Anna was instantly likable. Her Dad is basically the next Nicholas Sparks and ships her off to France to become more “cultured”, despite being excited to go to France Anna is upset because she was never given the choice. She was told what she was going to do and that would piss anyone off. Initially, Anna struggles to adjust but as she finds a group of friends she undergoes some serious character development and ends up being a better person for it.

I really liked the friend group Anna develops in France; Josh, Roshmi, Meredith, and of course Etienne or “St. Clair”. I liked that at first Anna is just trying to find people to hang out with and despite being attracted to Etienne, as most girls are, she realizes he has a girlfriend and that the relationship probably won’t go anywhere. This situation felt true to life (don’t all hot, great guys have girlfriends?) and I think the fact that Anna and St. Clair were friends first made me like the romance between them so much more.

Now on to the romance itself, I just loved everything about it. Etienne and Anna were painfully cute and I was always rooting for them to be together (I think everyone was). There was so much miscommunication between the characters that in the end I wasn’t even sure if they were going to be together or leave France as just friends. Luckily, there is an HEA.

I also want to briefly mention that this book is funny! Like laugh out loud, goofy smile kind of funny and no one told me that it was going to be. I expected a cute love story but I did not expect to laugh as much as I did. The humor each of the characters brought to the story made me like them so much more and it made it feel like I was a part of their friend group rather then just an observing reader.

Overall, Anna and the French Kiss despite the cheesy title was a very cute, very fun read and I am now excited to begin the companion novel Lola and the Boy Next Door, which I’ve heard features cameos by Anna and Etienne.

Born of Illusion is about Anna Van Housen the daughter of Marguerite Van Housen, a famous medium, who has just moved to New York to begin performing. Anna is also possibly the illegitimate daughter of Houdini. The problem is Anna’s mother is not a real medium and Anna is. There are also mysterious secret societies, swoony 1920’s boys, and genuine magic.

Why then did I not rate Born of Illusion higher? Because despite an interesting synopsis the plot fails to deliver. The beginning was exciting and so was the ending but in the middle there was a huge lull in action where I felt the main character kept repeating the same information over again in different ways.

Anna is likable enough, because of her mother’s profession and personality Anna has been forced to be the adult. She has stood in her mother’s shadow performing as the opening magical act at her mother’s medium performances. I hated the relationship Anna had with her mother. Brown made Anna’s mother look petty, annoying, and unreasonable then tried to redeem the mother’s character and completely failed. I was left with a sour taste in my mouth and a longing feeling that Anna should have stood up to her mother rather then passive aggressively fighting with her.

I also was not a huge fan of the romance in this novel. There was a sort-of love triangle between Cole, Anna, and Owen. Cole was supposed to be the guy we are rooting for but he was a total wet blanket, nothing about him was fun or interesting and the way he treated Anna bothered me! He never gave straight answers (in order to create tension apparently), he gave her warnings, and I felt like I could just play insert generic male lead here. There nothing about him that interested me. Owen was the quintessential young, fun, 1920’s male but there was so much foreshadowing that you were never allowed to like him, Anna didn’t even give him a chance.

All of the foreshadowing in this novel made the twist at the end painfully predictable and that disappointed me. If certain events had been left out then the twist would have been wonderfully executed and surprising. Instead, as a reader, I felt talked down to at the end of the novel. The author explained every little detail so that I could put the puzzle together. In trial techniques I learned that the jury likes it when attorneys lay out a puzzle and allows the jurors make the connections. It gives them the sense that they’ve figured something out and it connects them to the case. People don’t like being told what to believe or told they need to make connections. I feel that this is the same case for readers.

Overall, Born of Illusion was a middle of the road read for me. I liked certain aspects of the story including the setting, and the fact that the author has researched the subject. If the entire novel had been like the beginning and ending then I would have liked it more, unfortunately the middle really dragged. I am a sucker though and will be picking up the next book in this series for the sheer fact that it deals with Rasputin who is one of my favorite historical figures.

The Assassin’s Curse took me entirely by surprise last year! I fell in love with Ananna the feisty pirate, Naji the assassin, and the epic quest they were on to break the curse cast over both of them.

The Pirate’s Wish begins immediately after The Assassin’s curse ends. Naji and Ananna are trapped on the northern island with no way of getting off and three impossible tasks to complete before the curse can be broken. Things are initially rather bleak but after befriending a Manticore things start to look up, and Ananna is able to break on of the unbreakable curses. Thus begins an action packed sequel that I could not put down!

I didn’t think it was possible for me to like Ananna and Naji more in this book then I did in the last book but I was wrong. Their quirky personalities and miscommunications made them all the more endearing to me; I liked that neither of them was ever truly sure of themselves, both Ananna and Naji had insecurities that made them completely real even in a fantastical world.

I had two issues with the Assassin’s Curse that prevented me from giving it 5 stars. I had to adjust to Ananna’s pirate dialect in the beginning of the novel. In The Pirate’s Wish her dialect was not as pronounced and never gave me pause. My second issue was the lack of romance. The Pirate’s Wish more then makes up for the lack of romance in The Assassin’s Curse and kept me on my toes. Be assured though that in a manner of speaking Ananna and Naji get their happily ever after.

If I could get one Blogger’s wish it would be that this series would continue! I love the world Clarke has created and I would love to spend more time amongst the assassins who can work blood magic, the magical mists, and the open seas with the pirate clans! This was a very fitting end of the series but was also bittersweet because I had a hard time saying goodbye to Naji and Ananna.

Thank you Strange Chemistry for providing me an advanced reader's copy of this novel for review purposes.

Miki Jones dies when she is saving the life of a little girl. Doing the right thing ends up leading her to a alternate plane where with a team of other teens she has to eliminate the Drau, who are aliens.

Hold on, I know what you’re thinking. Aliens? Emily are you serious right now, you liked this? And you know what, I more then liked this book. I really liked this book! When I was describing it to people the first thing that kept coming to mind is that Rush is a more YA version of Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card which I really really liked!

Miki Jones was an instantly relatable character despite the fact that we have nothing in common. She is withdrawn because of the loss of her mother, quiet, and obsessed with eating healthy and exercising. We definitely have nothing in common. Despite that Miki got in to my head and I was always rooting for her. I also appreciated the fact that she is half-Japanese, we need more Asian American’s represented in YA lit! It was fun to have a different cultural perspective with Miki.

There was one character who was a total scene stealer and that was Jackson Tate. Jackson is the team leader and he obviously knows more about the ‘game’, which he insists isn’t a game, then he is letting on. I enjoyed trying to ferret out his motives. His character was just the right amount of mysterious while still giving me the answers I so desperately craved in this novel.

Overall, Rush was a non-stop thrill ride from start to finish that I had trouble putting down! I loved the characters, the world-building, and I can not wait to start the next book. I should warn you though to watch out for the ending of Rush that cliff is a doozy!

Your Guardian Angel follows Ruby Moore after she is attacked by her step-father who has become a vampire. In Ruby’s world a vampire must drink the blood of a goddess or guardian angel in order to look more human, and those that look more human are more powerful. Ruby and her mother just happen to be goddesses. After her father kills her mother Ruby becomes a half-vampire and her entire life changes.

Ruby was a likable character she is independent and really wants what is best for those around her. I liked her dedication to her adopted Aunt and Cousin. The instant she felt that there was any danger to them she dropped everything in order to protect them.

I really like mentor/student relationships so I was already biased toward liking the romance between Eli De Luca and Ruby. Not only is there an age taboo but Guardian Angels are not supposed to mix with Goddesses and especially not vampires. There is a lot working against the attraction these two share.

Overall, Guardian Angel was a pretty good read. There were a couple problems I had with the plot, they were mostly little things; I wished the world was further fleshed out but this is the first book in a series so I expect the author will explain things further in the next book. This novel is perfect for fans of Half-Blood by Jennifer Armentrout and Halo by Alexandra Ardonetto.

The Rules for Disappearing follows Meg as she tries to figure out what happened to land her family in the witness protection program. She has been in 6 placements since she got stuck in the program and her family is falling apart. Meg wants this to be her last placement but with her track record she isn’t hopeful.

Possibly my favorite thing about this novel was that Meg had a part time job at a Pizza Place. When I was in High School my family owned a pizza place so I really relate to characters that work at family owned pizzeria’s. It also instantly biases me to enjoying a novel more when I see a character working.

I really liked Meg she was very mature and willing to do anything to protect her family and those she cared about. My favorite thing about her was her relationship with her younger sister Mary. Meg took care of her, got her to school, and helped her come out of the shell that she had assembled because of the program. I also liked that Meg was really no-nonsense, she didn’t get roped in to school drama and she was willing to call people out.

Another aspect of this novel I enjoyed was the relationship between Meg and Ethan. Ethan was both sweet and supportive. He didn’t press too hard when Meg was unwilling to give him information about her past, and when everything did come out he was there for her and willing to do anything to help. He was the model of how a good boyfriend should act.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Rules for Disappearing it was action packed with enough twists and turns to keep me interested and I am eagerly looking forward to the sequel!

Where to start…I feel like every gush worthy thing about The Fault in Our Stars has already been said. I think I’ve shown up late to the party and have nothing worthwhile to add to the conversation. The problem is, this novel affected me in such a way that I still want to share how I feel! Even if there isn’t an original idea in the bunch I want everyone to know I loved this story.

Hazel has cancer, she has had cancer for most of her life and despite a miracle medication she doesn’t have any illusions that she is anything but terminal. I mean, her favorite book is An Imperial Affliction and features another teen girl with cancer. It isn’t until Hazel meets Augustus Waters that her life changes.

Augustus shifts Hazel’s entire outlook on life, love, and what it means to be dying. I thought Augustus was absolutely grand. He is charismatic, positive, and he genuinely loves Hazel. He was just so hopeful throughout the entire story, he is the type of person more people should strive to be. Yeah, at times he had his faults but I can’t think of a better male lead in recent memory. Augustus truly made the story for me. Hazel was the body of the story but Augustus was the heart and soul.

The Fault in Our Stars is in the unique position of being the first audiobook I’ve actually enjoyed. I have tried getting in to audiobook’s before and I usually lose interest or feel disconnected from the story which results in bad ratings. With The Fault in Our Stars I was eager to keep listening and was actually looking for excuses to drive places so I could get a few more minutes in. The narrator was wonderful and incredibly easy to listen to. The voices she did for Hazel and Augustus were truly superb and I will definitely try and find something narrated by her again.

Overall, I probably haven’t added anything substantial to the discourse on The Fault in Our Stars with my review but I’m glad to have shared my opinion about this wonderful novel about love, loss, dying, and living.

I traded for this book on YA Book Exchange and then the novel proceeded to sit on my shelf for a while. When I heard Susan Dennard was coming to Vermillion (BTW no on ever comes to Vermillion, SD so this was really exciting!) I started reading Something Strange and Deadly and was upset at myself for not reading it sooner!

Something Strange and Deadly follows Eleanor Fitt as she deals with her families financial troubles, her brother failing to return home, spirit hunters, and the rising dead! Eleanor was a character that was easy to root for, so much was going on in her life yet she didn’t let it get her down. Quite the opposite actually she was very inquisitive and willing to do anything to help those she cares about.

I really liked Daniel, Eleanor’s love interest, he was sharp and witty and I liked all of the devices he put together for the spirit hunters. Actually the spirit hunters were my favorite part of the novel. They were just the right amount of science and supernatural.

There have only been 2 zombie novels I have actually enjoyed, The Dead Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan and The Scourge by AG Henley so I was worried when I began this novel. I can now add Something Strange and Deadly to that list. I enjoyed the way Dennard handled the zombies, they were more reanimated corpses and necromancer type dead rather then scary zombies walking the earth type dead. Their inclusion in the story seemed oddly natural and helped Eleanor’s character to develop.

Overall, Something Strange and Deadly was a very fun read and I am not eagerly awaiting the sequel A Darkness Strange and Lovely which comes out in a couple months!

I was really excited for this novel because I like boarding school stories, or I thought I liked boarding school stories…after DNF-ing The Last Academy by Anne Applegate and then trudging through Night School I think I am going to take a long break from boarding school novels.

Allie, the main character, began the story with such promise. I liked that she had problems and was getting in trouble before being shipped off to Cimmeria Academy. She was taking the fact that her brother disappeared really hard. The problem was as soon as she got to Cimmeria she forgot all her problems and randomly decided to excel at school and care about everything she hasn’t been caring about for the last year. It was like I was introduced to two characters and the first one I liked but the second one I didn’t care about. It was upsetting that Daugherty began the story with an interesting main character and then morphed her in to Mary-Sue.

There was the requisite love triangle in this story. The “sexy” French student, Sylvain, was Allie’s first romantic interest but I kept forgetting things about him. We were constantly reminded that he was hot but I was never told anything that made him feel French to me which bothered me. I’m tried for being told things about a character and then having them never followed up on. The second love interest Allie had was Carter, the lone-wolf, boy from the wrong side of the academy type. He kept telling her Sylvain was dangerous but never gave a reason for his opinion and was generally vague and uninteresting. I never cared who Allie would choose.

(Spoiler: At one point Sylvain tries to date rape kiss/date rape Allie when she’s had too much to drink but Allie only breaks up with him and never reports anything. Later on she decides to be friends with him again. I decided Sylvain wasn’t a good love interest at that point but Allie apparently hasn’t).

I could have forgiven a Mary-Sue main character and even a terrible love triangle had this novel had an interesting plot. Unfortunately, the plot is boring. By 66% in to the story I didn’t really know what was going on and there were tons of questions but no answers, at first all the questions created tension but then it just made the story unnecessarily long. You should not have to keep your readers in the dark to make them continue reading.

Overall, I did not enjoy Night School and the more I think about it critically the more I disliked the story. I have no plans to pick up the sequel even though almost no questions were answered by the end of Night School. I just don’t care about Allie, her family, or Cimmeria.

The Loop follows Ben and Maggie who are stuck in a time loop which means that they relive the same two days over and over again. Each time they relive the loop they die in the storage room of a Walgreens. Interesting premise right? Unfortunately, there was a disconnect between the interesting premise and the execution of the story.

The Loop started off intensely. Ben is going to his favorite New Orleans district and while at the mall he runs in to a girl who drags him all over, shoots a guy, and then starts explaining things about the loop that they are stuck in and how they will eventually die. The problem wasn’t a lack of action in this novel, quite the contrary, there was always something happening. I think my main problem was the characters. Ben and Maggie seemed immature and the decisions they made never made sense to me. I wanted to reach out and shake both of them! I understood that they were trying to resist fate but why did they even make some of these decisions in the first place loop or not?

That brings us to the second thing I disliked about this novel. The Loop itself made no sense to me. The basic concept was alright but there was no explanation of how people get trapped in these loops or why certain people are more susceptible to loops (Maggie had apparently been in 4 prior to this one). It was never explained why the characters could sometimes remember what happened in previous loops but at other times couldn’t remember anything. And what were Maggie and Ben doing in Shreveport in the first place prior to the loop ever activating? At the end of the novel I was left with the feeling that nothing was really answered or accomplished. I felt unsatisfied.

Overall, The Loop was action packed but that was about it. The characters never experienced any real growth and I’m not entirely sure what the point of the story was. I will say that I am in love with the cover of this novel though, I’m a sucker for awesome word pop-art and the exploding diamond effect really caught my eye. Hopefully more authors and publishers switch to these type of covers and get away from ‘the girl in the pretty dress’ style covers.

Thanks Disney/Hyperion for allowing me to read an advanced readers copy of this title

Initially I had no desire to read Ender’s Game. I’m not a very big fan of science fiction and the thought of pre-teens in space fighting aliens didn’t really appeal to me. After the urgings of my law school friend, okay actual friend, Melissa (=P) I decided to give this novel a try and boy am I glad I did! I actually can’t believe I put off reading this for so long.

Ender’s Game follows Ender Wiggins as he is plucked from his childhood home, loaded on to a space ship, and enters Battle School in case of an attack by the buggers, alien life forms that attacked Earth but were successfully repelled. At Battle School Ender is the youngest but he is constantly put in situations he doesn’t appear equipped to handle. Ender has to overcome isolation, loneliness, fatigue, and other psychological endeavors in order to become the person society needs him to be.

Does it make me a bad person if I say I enjoyed reading about Ender’s struggles? Ender is so young and yet he has to deal with so much. His character goes through so many turning points that I felt like I was growing up right along with Ender, readying for battle and defending against the buggers. The novel was completely engrossing and action packed. Saying that it was all action though belittles the plot itself. The story is about so much more then action, it is also ripe with political commentary, personal fears about turning in to someone we don’t want to be, and lessens on what it means to be a living being and a leader.

The supporting cast was just as amazing as Ender himself I loved Ender’s platoon and how those around him followed Ender and accepted him as their leader despite his age. Even if the other characters could not be his friends they still respected and admired Ender. This fact made me both happy and sad. I was happy to see Ender finding success but I was sad to see a very young boy without any friends to support and love him. This is something I feel a lot of career driven people have to deal with and I liked that parallel.

I must also say that the technology described in Ender’s Game was phenomenal. This novel was originally published in the 80’s and yet there was something akin to the internet, tablets, all manner of futuristic devices that are still futuristic despite this novel being written almost 30 years ago! This impressed me because I think it shows the depth of Card’s world building, he was truly immersed in this society.

I understand that at present there is controversy surrounding Orson Scott Card, the author, and while I do not agree with his personal opinions I really enjoyed this novel. The originality, and intricacy of the plot surprised me and I’m so glad Melissa talked me in to reading this novel! I am now super excited for the movie which is coming out November 1, 2013

Rosie’s boyfriend dumps her and then is seen all over town with his “skank” of a new girlfriend. Rosie doesn’t take this well and in a moment of impulsivity ends setting his car on fire. Her ex-boyfriend then files a temporary restraining order against her and her parents force her on a summer road trip to get away from the situation. Rosie sets off with the boy next door, who has been her friend forever, and the boy next doors best friend and older brother.

I really like road trip books and How My Summer Went Up in Flames was no exception! The camaraderie between characters was my favorite thing about this book. After Rosie gets over her initial shock and frustration about being on the road trip she settles in with the boys and we get to know each of them in turn.

At first Rosie got on my nerves she was very selfish and wouldn’t let go of her relationship with her ex. I really wanted to play on a loop “He’s just not that in to you”. Luckily as the novel progressed and she put some distance between her and the ex Rosie got a lot better.

It was the boys Rosie was on the road trip with that really stood out to me. I loved her relationship with Matty, who had been close with her family since forever. He was a great foil to Rosie who was rash and impulsive he was calculating and dependable. I also liked Matty’s best friend Spencer who was a totally likable dork. That brings us to Logan who is the reason this road trip is happening in the first place, he was a funny leader, even though I don’t think he ever intended to be funny. I also liked the little relationship that developed between him and Rosie it was sweet and I liked how grown up Rosie was about it.

Overall, How My Summer Went Up in Flames was a very cute beachy read, I really enjoyed Rosies’ character transformation and look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

When I started Life After Theft I thought it was going to be a light beachy sort of read. It was not what I expected and upon finishing something felt off to me. I later found out Life After Theft was meant to be a modern retelling of The Scarlet Pimpernel, a story I’ve never read, and that may be one of the reasons I didn’t enjoy this more.

Jeff moves from Phoenix to a new school in California, on his first day he sees the ghost of Kimberlee, the girl who used to rule the school and was universally regarded as a “bitch”. He is the first person who has been able to see her and after some coaxing Kimberlee cons Jeff in to helping her with some unfinished business so that she can move on.

I wanted so badly to like Jeff, mainly because I really like male POV in YA novels but his voice never felt natural. Jeff also never truly came off at male, At times Jeff’s and Kimberlee’s voices could have been interchangeable. I did like that throughout the novel Jeff was an overall good sort of guy even when Kimberlee and everyone else were making things truly hard for him to do the right thing.

That brings us to Kimberlee, she was a terrible person in life and a terrible person in the afterlife. At the least she was consistent even if I couldn’t stand the girl. I kept waiting for her to change but she stays the same bitchy secretive person right until the last few pages of the novel. Her conniving and unreasonable actions irked me.

Overall, this story was just all right. I didn’t hate it but I didn’t really enjoy it either. I think if I had been better able to connect to the characters and they had gone through more of a transformation then I would have really enjoyed it but unfortunately these things never happen.

DNF, gave up reading at page 189/316. The story is painfully disjointed and I had no idea what was going on, but not in the good keep my interest sort of way.

I was bored despite lots of unconnected "actions". I also couldn't remember the main characters name. And there was some strange insta-love/crush going on.

This was just really not my thing.