Review to Come: The Book Thief

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


There were so many different emotions going through me reading this book and it's hard to pinpoint what emotions happened when. Amazingly, for a while I thought I was unable to "feel" the right feelings at the right moments; this book is based in a very depressing, tragic time in history, and as well written as it was, there were a lot of moments where I felt detached from the book and its characters, but at the same time knowing the extent of the grief, tension, and darkness presented. And then there were moments where I DID feel the sadness.

It's hard to put into words at all how I personally felt about The Book Thief, so I'm going to try my best to go back through my notes and put my thoughts together. In the end, it might just be that I'll have some very simple opinions formulated.

On the aside, when my BFF finishes this book, we still need to have our Mini Book Club discussion. So I'll include some points from that discussion into my review as well.

Simply put, I really just really enjoyed reading The Book Thief. It was quite the pleasure.

Review to come. Soon, hopefully.



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Continuing: The Diviners

by Libba Bray


Picking up where I left off about a month ago.  So this is sort of a first impression opinion post.

Anyway...

When I first read Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle series, this phenomenon seemed to happen: I just could NOT get into the story at all.  A Great and Terrible Beauty had some beautiful writing and great attention to detail.  I don't know what it was, but I had started reading the book and put it on hold a total of three times before I finally hunkered down and got past that strange barrier.  And after that, I enjoyed the book alright -- it wasn't the best of reads, but it was enough to keep me hooked in and interested.

And now, with The Diviners, the same exact thing has happened.

Here is a brief rundown of my thoughts written by the chapter up to how far I'd gotten before I put it on hold due to one series marathon, new book releases, and other interests...


First Chapter: A Late-Summer Evening
I'm sure I skimmed over half of this chapter without really knowing what the significance of describing an entire city in intricate detail merits if we won't even be seeing it again.  As far as the summary depicts, our heroine is leaving the town anyway.  The scenes taking place with the Ouija board and then the very last paragraph of the entire chapter were the only parts I cared enough about to pay attention to... so, whatevs.

I've read this first chapter three times (due to that mental block that keeps drawing me away from this book), and it still doesn't get any better.  If anything, I'm starting to wonder if this is my blatant disinterest in historical fiction, or if Libba Bray's introductory style just turns me off since I had the same problem with A Great and Terrible Beauty.  While I love her writing style, her pacing just hits me as being kind of slow.


Second Chapter: Evie O'Neill, Zenith, Ohio
No big comments.

Not sure how I like Evie right now -- spoiled, snobbish, selfish, destructive trouble-maker...  Things I absolutely hate in main characters.  Then again, she's different and outlandish, so this might be fun and unconventional from typical YA females.  I certainly ended up liking Gemma Doyla in a neutral I-don't-outright-hate-you way by the time I finished the last book in that trilogy.  Not saying that I loved her or that I'll love Evie, but we'll see where this goes.

Dialogue and narration might be a bit tacky, but I'm not familiar enough with 1920s lingo to know whether or not this fits the time period.  As I've mentioned, my interest in historical fiction is a little on the meh side.  However, I might start up a counter for how many times someone says "pos-i-tute-ly" or ends their exclamations with a "-ski".  I feel like a teenager trying not to roll my eyes at the thought of lame parents trying to sound cool...


Third Chapter: Memphis Campbell, Harlem, New York City
Not much to go on.  Moving along now.


Fourth Chapter: The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies
I totally want to see a Museum of Creepy Crawlies (says the nerd in me).  Cause THAT is an interesting chapter title too.

Anyway... about the book itself:

"If God is an all-knowing, all-powerful deity, how can he allow evil to exist?  Either he is not the omnipotent god we've been told, or he is all-powerful and all-knowing, and also cruel, because he allows evil to exist and does nothing to stop it." 

"Well, that certainly explains Prohibition..." 

-- page 37, Nook edition

Yeah.  I can't believe it actually started getting a little exciting.  I should have seen it coming.  I wish I would have caught up with the museum and Uncle Will before I had decided to start a new book (nay, a completely new SERIES of four books I borrowed from the library that lasted me four weeks since THAT excursion flopped as well...)

Evie, Evie, Evie... maybe it's the nerd in me speaking.  While I like your penchant for sarcasm and wit... how could you NOT find interest in the free guided tour of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult?  I could spend hours in a place like that and never get bored.  And Jericho, the young history nerd buff?  I'm interested already!  :D


Setting that aside...We're jumping into the thick of the story now: The Diviners is finally coming to light.  I'm almost wondering if she couldn't have shortened the first three chapters into one prologue to show us the "troublesome Evie" stuff and introduce Memphis, then send her off to New York.  And then, Chapter Two, BANG! we get into the religious controversy speeches with a dash of Diviners talk laced into it.

Then again, I guess even if I didn't know how to appreciate the build-up from the first three chapters, others might find it good.

Looks like this is the chapter that finally did it for me and I choose not to drop the book for this reason.

***

Gemma Doyle hooked me with character development and writing style and story creation.  Hopefully The Diviners does the same.  As a first impression, I see a very solid 3 star rating in this book's future.  If reading a book feels like such a chore to me, it's hard to give it more than an average rating even if I end up enjoying it in the end.  Unless there's some surprisingly pleasant twist or whatever that truly catches me in awe.

So we'll leave it at that for now.

Review to Come: Cinder

by Marissa Meyer


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3.5 Stars out of 5 (leaning more towards 4)


Well... maybe a review to come.

I find that despite the fact that I feel like I really liked this book (I certainly read through the entire thing like I had a physical need to find out what happens next), I can't think of anything to say about it.

I take back what I said about the blocky Asian dialogue -- I had only read the first chapter and was a little concerned with the world building being based on a futuristic Asia (known in the book as the Eastern Commonwealth).  But everything turned out pleasantly awesome... in a way.

I'm going to take some time to think about this book before I finally decide whether or not I want actually write a review about it.  For the meantime, I really DID enjoy it a lot, though I can't exactly pinpoint what I liked about it and what didn't work for me.  The book just kind of... happened and I was satisfied with it as a whole.

I will say, there were some awesome feels going on during some points of the story.

For certain, I AM going to read the next book and have put the rest of the series on my To Read list.  I'm just going to pace myself since the third book won't be out until February and it seems there are talks of the ending of the second book being a suspenseful hanger.  Not fond of those...

And lately I've been contemplating just waiting for the entire series of certain books to be completed before starting them.  Cliff hangers are just going to be the death of me one of these days.  Especially if I've grown attached to the series and its characters.



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Review: Never Fade

Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



3.5 Stars

It had taken me a couple months to formulate more than one paragraph as an official review for the first book, The Darkest Minds, so I don't doubt that it'll take a while for me to write, re-write, and re-assess my thoughts on Never Fade.

For now, it's a pretty simple, straight-forward gush, mainly for the characters of this book that kept me going and will continue to keep me going onto the next book. I pretty much enjoyed the same things about this installment that I did from the first. Ruby is a nice development in progress, and I love her more than I did before. There are new characters introduced whom you ALSO come to love, and then there are the old characters you still love.

The conspiracy of this dystopian is revealed more and more, but it doesn't seem like anything we weren't expecting. This is definitely a character-driven story, which doesn't really bother me in the least.

Anyway, review to come, hopefully soon.



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Review: Froi of the Exiles

Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I wasn't going to write a review for these Lumatere books (though I DID think about writing a review for the series overall), but the book took me so long to read that I actually started formulating thoughts... of the non-positive persuasion. And that's usually not so great.

Did I say in an earlier post that I loved the characters from Finnikin of the Rock? Honestly, I don't know where that came from, but the more I read Froi of the Exiles the more I believed that I must have been bewitched or something. I think I'm more neutral on these characters than in love or in hate with them.

In fact, I don't really have too many complaints about Froi of the Exiles or Finnikin of the Rock save for the characters. The book was adventurous and fun; and I love adventures!

I liked the way the book was written and I liked the whole big curse theme with it's supernatural/mystical/magical elements and I liked the background of the world created for Lumatere. And some of the dialogue isn't so bad either, witty and thoughtful.

But the characters make life so miserable (and yes, I DO understand that life is miserable for everyone in the story with power struggles and wars and fighting and killing and death and curses, but still...) because I get the feeling that everyone is going out of their ways to prove just how much suffering they all went through and who suffered more than so-and-so... It's a world of people trying to one-up each other on their stories of misery.

I know that there was more going on than what I mentioned above, but this is what I ended up focusing on.

The only bright spots of happy in the entire series so far... well, there's Lady Beatriss's daughter Vestie. And then there are Trippideaux (how to pronounce name...) and Grijio, De Lancey's children, who are actually kind of fun for their brief presence.

So, in the kingdom of Lumatere, instead of everyone playing nice and trying to work together to bring their kingdom back into a flourishing world... everyone's just being all prickly and mean and angry at each other. I mean, I also take note of those behind-the-scenes moments that mention how people are working together to rebuild their kingdom... but then we emphasize on all the more hideous attitudes and behaviors from a group of people who feel like they've been wronged the most by this entire power struggle of the kingdoms.

And then in Charyn... well, THAT kingdom is kind of... arrogant and angry in its own way? I don't know how to describe it. I mean, do people really have nothing better to do than to condemn a young princess who has no control over her own life, has been targeted for death since she was a child, and just so happened to be the baby born when the big curse came into effect throughout the kingdom? I mean, she was JUST a baby when the curse happened and it's NOT like she was the one who cast said curse. And when she seems to be the only person with an answer to the resolution of the curse, everyone continues to treat her like an insane person as they ridicule her and verbally demean her routinely?

I don't see anyone else trying to figure out how to break the curse.

It's kind of sad. Everyone's so pissed off. Can't we all just get along? Am I too naive, maybe?


And so, entertaining as this book/adventure was, it's pretty telling when I begin to put off reading the book at times. But then when I DO pick it up and start reading it, I seem to fall right into the darn thing.

So... yeah... I'm not even sure what to think about this book (or the first one, cause the same sort of ish happened while I was reading Finnikin). I DID like this one a little bit better than Finnikin... if only by a slight margin.

And yes, I'm already beginning Quintana of Charyn... it's just my stubborn way of saying: "I looked forward to this series, and gosh darn, I'm going to finish it!"

And darn it, looks like this post turned into an actual review after all...



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Review: The Dream Thieves

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Edited 10/03/2014 with official review




10/03/2013

I’m going to try to relate this review more with the actual book than my emotionally stimulated feelings of “OMG, this book is so freakin’ awesome, so let me tell you how awesome I think it is!” type of gushing. I’m sure I did enough of that in The Raven Boys to scare off hordes of the more emotionally stable population out there.

Anyway…

Aside from a typical introductory segue to make my posts look a little more structured and lengthy, honestly, I suck at structure. I’m not sure how I managed to make it through high school and college with my inability to format my essays properly, but I did and I must say, I’m not sure I ever really learned anything from any of my English classes about proper structure for a piece of written work.

So here I am with more random segways (yes, the above), and random thoughts on The Dream Thieves. Because, well, who cares about structure anyway?

Let’s start with the beginning though.

Before I started reading The Dream Thieves, I was worried about being overwhelmed. Sometimes, when I love a book so much that it hurts, and when I am in such high anticipation of the next book in a series that I can’t sleep, it’s a dangerous situation. Because as the time approached for the release date of The Dream Thieves, I began to have little panicky moments of the usual: “What if this book isn’t as good as the first one?” “What if this book is so good, but I don’t catch onto how good it is and I can’t do it any justice when I’m reading it?” “What if Book One had been the exception?” “What if I have too high expectations?” “What if I just don’t know what to do anymore?” “What if my dog eats my book review?”

“What if, what if, what if….?!!”

I’m ALWAYS like this with sequels to books that I personally loved and found fabulous (also for movies and Asian drama series as well; sequels can give me a heart attack easily with just BEING there). I’m always worried that the sequel or the second book won’t hold up to the first and that I’ll be disappointed.

So, I’m ecstatically delighted to announce (as many probably already have guessed) that this was definitely, absolutely NOT the case with The Dream Thieves. As I already mentioned: so many “AWESOME!”s to put out there.

I first realized one of the main reasons why I’d been loving The Raven Cycle series so much after about three chapters into this book. From the review of the first book, I had already mentioned how much I loved the characters, their interaction and their development. In this book, having paid more attention during my reading, I found another reason to love Maggie Stiefvater: her writing style is just so consistently witty and amazing. Let’s see, what did I call it in a note to myself?

Her writing borders on fantastical fairy tale meets whimsical, magical and mystical, with a side dish of natural sarcasm and dry humor to boot. And honestly, this is a type of dry humor I can appreciate because it’s not even in a laugh out loud, “you’ve gotta laugh at this particular scene” type of comedy. They are the little descriptors and analogies, one-liners and strange quips… They are strewn all over the place, every few sentences as a thought or an action or just as part of the ending of a paragraph. It’s like “serious, serious, snicker, emotional, serious, strange, serious” and then suddenly, all too smoothly and naturally, “insert O.o quip here” and it always makes me giggle or chuckle or backtrack just to reread it only to be impressed by how genius it was. And then we keep moving along the story like I hadn’t just been laughing at something snarky. They are very fine, little details that just fit into the writing effortlessly.

And I’m a sucker for attention to detail, that’s for sure. It’s one of those things where, if you aren’t really looking and you couldn’t really appreciate it; and if you’re looking at other parts of the story, you probably wouldn’t notice it at all and it won’t tickle you in the right ways.


The Dream Thieves is centered on Ronan Lynch -- a boy with a secret that we learn early on. He’s able to pull things from his dreams, tangible objects that just appear to him when he dreams about them. But aside from this little magic trick, there are even deeper, darker secrets about Ronan Lynch that he hides behind his anger and dark sarcasm.

I didn’t dislike any of the characters from the first book. Ronan had been a destructive bastard, a rich boy with a tendency to cause trouble and become antagonizing to everyone around him. But there had always been something about him that still drew me to like him for who he is -- dark, scathing humor and asshole personality all included. When I learned that the second book would be Ronan-centric, I was a little conflicted, because I’m sitting squarely in front of a Gansey pedestal. However, as I began to read The Dream Thieves, I realized that, despite being Ronan-centric, the telling of the book manages to capture so much more than just the base storyline.

Written in the third-person omniscient, we still get to see through the perspectives of each of the characters we fell in love with from the first book. In this, I believe is wherein lies a big success of this series. Because despite being a book about Ronan Lynch, it’s also a book that shows us the rest of the characters in varying degrees, smoothly tying everything up with Ronan’s journey.

So while we delve deeper into Ronan’s as well as the Lynch family’s secretive history, we’re also shown a lot of more reveals about the rest of the characters. Again, little moments that may not propel the main story, but manages to pick up significance in light of the surrounding actions.

It’s brilliant.

Characters continue to develop and their circumstances all continue to tug at heartstrings. There are so many moments in this book that make you smile and laugh, moments that make you churn those logical thinking wheels, and even a lot of gripping moments that have you at the edge of your seat waiting for the fall out. And then there are heartbreaking moments as well.

So much happens in this book that, if not handled properly, the story would have gotten out of hand and confusing. But The Dream Thieves manages to make it work, because even as more mysteries begin to occur and more side tangents present themselves, the story only manages to become more exciting.

On a final note, I feel like the characters are definitely the driving force of this series, and especially of this particular book. They’re all so intriguing that, even with an antagonist like The Gray Man, or the minor characters at 300 Fox Way or the Orphan Girl in Ronan’s dreams, I’m drawn to them and their significance -- no one seems to be “just a background character” with no rhyme or reason. I even enjoyed seeing the interaction between Ronan and his brothers, which draws upon so much more understanding of Ronan and his behavior. And it’s great! They all have their own stories if given the time.

I loved the interaction between the five friends -- the Aglionby boys and Blue -- and found that, despite my hopeless romantic love, I appreciate that the romance unfolds so subtly with such care. It’s the friendships that I love the most: between Blue and Gansey, between Gansey and Ronan, between Gansey and Adam, between Ronan and Adam, and especially between Blue and Noah. There’s a different air about each of these pairings in the friendship, and then the atmosphere is made all the different when they all come together.

I’m wholeheartedly and completely in Gansey’s boat. That boy has a charm to him that makes it hard NOT to love him. I’m particularly biased because I’ve let my love of Gansey get a little out of control. So, of course, I’d love to see Gansey and Blue complete their OTP pairing soon, and as the romance slowly unfolded itself in this book, it came to me that I loved how it was such a sweet, yet quiet occurrence. The fact that they started off as friends first and bonded through various interactions and sweet little moments made it all the better. Because I enjoyed the friendships in this book (and the series so far) that the romance is honestly the last of my priorities concerning The Raven Cycle series.

After the first book, it didn’t bother me at all that the romance seemed to be heading in a different direction with Blue and Adam starting a somewhat relationship. Because compared to Gansey, even though I loved all of the characters, I loved Gansey more and so it didn’t matter to me whether or not he paired up with the girl in the end.

I’m at least glad to say that I’ve grown to love Blue more in this book than I had from Book One. She has a strange and quirky personality, but in this book, she proved that she’s also feisty and fiery and doesn’t let anyone walk on her at all. It’s something I appreciate in a female character since, too often in a lot of books (especially YAs), the girl is painted in a demure, doormat fashion, written for readers to pity and sympathize with. No, I prefer the Blue Sargents of the world where, even if there are moments when she is scared or even when she doesn’t know how to act, she still doesn’t just lay there and let people walk all over her.

The Dream Thieves is a very magical, well written, fun and witty adventure (that’s not quite an adventure) with great characters and an intriguing story. There are times when you find that perfect book that you can’t help but to completely fall in love with.

Today, that book, for me, is this one.


***

08/28/2013

I just saw a rating of 4.5 stars pop up from one of the reviewers I follow.

Aaand.... so now we are counting down the days until the release of this book! September 17 seems like so MUCH longer than just the 20 days from this moment... well, 21 days, but I'm rounding down a little for my own benefit.

Oh man, I'm all fidgeting just waiting for the book release. I need this book so BADLY! RIGHT NOW!


09/19/2013

If I thought I loved the first book... I think I love this second book just as much and am not even quite sure which one I loved more. It's safe to say I've found another favorite series to add to my list, and officially declaring another favorite author I will be following.

So many thoughts, so many "AWESOME!"s to put out there. And I'm not even sure how this will go. But if I had to highlight every line of this book that I personally loved, my book would look like a striped lollipop.

Going to try to put my thoughts together in a more timely fashion this time, although I'm not sure how well that will serve my review since my review of the last book was simply a big ol' four page declaration of how much I loved The Raven Boys. I doubt there will be much different for The Dream Thieves -- though there may be a lot of added gushing over Maggie Stiefvater, my newest girl crush of an author.

She is so freakin' brilliant!

Review to come... maybe. If I can stop gushing. And after I get some sleep.



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Review: Why Do Dramas Do That? Part 1

Why Do Dramas Do That? Part 1 by Javabeans

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Well, it wasn't what I was expecting (not all of it), but I still had fun reading through this little "guide" for K-dramas. Some sections I kind of hoped would have been a little bit longer with some more examples from dramaland, but we take what we get, right?

Still, it was just as entertaining as it usually is reading from the Dramabeans blog, and for that, I'm satisfied.

As I said before, I will read anything these ladies churn out, even if I don't always agree with some of their opinions. They are witty and creative and that, for me, is just enough. I mean, sometimes reading their drama series recaps and reviews are just so much more fun than actually watching the drama series itself.

So this was a nice little detour from the other books I'm in the middle of reading.

Looking forward to Part 2 now, which I'm sure won't be far behind.



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Review: Inhuman

Inhuman by Kat Falls

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I looked forward to this book mainly due to the premise which sounded intriguing just by the summary alone. And while the basis for the story's concept was pretty strong, the set-up of the world (a desolated, post-apocalyptic place where a virus called Ferae has turned most humans into savage, mutated creatures) is pretty much standard YA dystopian fare. But I'm not complaining. There's a reason why I'm drawn to these types of books -- they're exciting, they're intense, adventurous, interesting... if written properly.

And ultimately, my love of a YA dystopia comes down to a simple factor: how this author depicts his or her post-apocalyptic dystopian society differently from others running on this same trend, and how well the author incorporates this idea using well-developed characters and a good plot to follow with.

Inhuman already had a good premise going for it, though a little vague. Delaney "Lane" Park McEvoy (she of whom I had been referring to as simply "Delaney Park" because I kept forgetting she has a last name) lives in a societal safe haven away from the rest of the American nation which has turned into a wilderness of life infected by the Ferae Naturae virus. Due to certain reasons (big corporate greed and the fascination of rich people's need to play god in this world), this virus broke out and life became chaotic. I'm sparing the details since I don't really remember all of it anyway -- something about the richest company during that time, called Titan, playing around with animal DNA because the CEO wanted to include a centaur or something like that into her amusement park-like mazes as entertainment. But Ferae broke out, people became infected, and apparently the virus spread like rabies (which isn't really a rabies-like virus) is turning all humans into savage animals when infected -- a blood-borne pathogen, if you will, that affects a human's mental faculties and turns them into wild animals. I was still trying to understand the nature of Ferae, but then the action started, so I just kind of shrugged and moved on.

In order to repent for this problem, Titan's CEO builds a wall, isolating the uninfected half of the population in a safe bubble from the rest of the population in the eastern part of the country now known as The Feral Zone. And this wall is safe guarded by Titan-employed line guards to keep each half in their designated sides on the wall. Familiar set-up, interesting concept, nonetheless.

Anyway, the rest of the story details how Lane must go into The Feral Zone in order to save her father's life. I like how, in the beginning, it was supposed to be a simple task for Lane. She was to find her father and tell him the situation so that he could perform a "fetch" (retrieving items in The Feral Zone for clients on the other side of the quarantine wall for money). When she couldn't find her father, eventually, she ends up having to do the fetch herself. Adventures ensue.

As I said, the premise of this book was good to begin with. The first half of the book was also quite intense and exciting as we got introduced to the The Feral Zone with Lane as our guide. She's got a good voice and tone and I actually enjoyed following along with her, as she also shows us that one can be a kickbutt heroine and take care of herself, without also being that annoyingly stupid type who tries too hard to be tough and gets herself into troublesome situations -- which eventually require a man to come to her rescue. There are various situations in which Lane manages to pull herself out of danger, or to stay out of danger all together, and this works for me.

Rafe was a boy I couldn't quite put my finger on. While at first I thought he was a douche for being rude, arrogant and seemingly dangerous, he surprises you by using that jerk of a personality to become charming at the same time. He kind of just sneaks up on you. But then, he kept reminding me of all the other douche main characters you loved to hate, and by then I couldn't figure out how I managed to stop disliking him. Rafe has an interesting history and an interesting lifestyle; and his survivalistic mode is understandable. It's really just HIM I have trouble understanding.

Everson is the typical good man, stoic, intelligent, lovely, heart of gold, Mr. Congeniality and... well, boring. I have little to say about him, mainly because he doesn't stray far from the standard descriptions. There was maybe once or twice in the book that he surprised me a little bit, but then it didn't seem too significant, so I didn't take much note of it.

The ideas that went into the effects of Ferae become quite fun and intriguing the more that Lane learns from others about it. There's a very great suspension of disbelief being tossed around the more scientific topics as well: the human/animal mutations (both feral and manimal), a specific number of virus strains being known to be in existence, the animal/animal mutations called "mongrels", the fact that second and third generation offspring of mongrels and manimals don't become feral and don't transfer the virus if they bite...

These are all really creative and interesting, but only if you don't really try to think about them or analyze them. Otherwise, you just end up continuously asking yourself: "Hmm... is that even possible?"

Anyway, story-wise, Inhuman had a lot of good going for it. But the second half of the book reminded me of the word "Deadline". Because that's how it felt -- the rest of the story seemed rushed and the climax and twists and conclusions felt underdeveloped. It was as if we got to a point where the story needed to find a proper ending, and well, there IS a properly thought out ending in outline form... but, how to write it? And then we run out of time and simply patch things up the best that we can with deux ex machina tricks and supposed surprising occurrences of the emotional kind that ended up going by so quickly that I didn't even have time to react to them. I wish I could point out a couple instances at the end of the book that caught me off-guard (and not in a good way), but then we'd get into spoilery territory, and I honestly don't really like including spoilers in my reviews if I can help it, even WITH tags.

Finally, the romance... I wasn't really too bothered by it, honestly, because it felt kind of underdeveloped and placed in the sidelines. So it's not that I didn't enjoy it, but I just didn't really think about it too much aside from, "Oh, we've got a triangle at hand now", but since it didn't really take off in a significant fashion, I've got no complaints about it despite how much I dislike triangles (or any kind of relationship polygon).


Final Conclusion: Great premise, good characters, decent writing, intact story, great imagery and creativeness... I enjoyed it even if it wasn't the best and even if it was just another one of your typical YA dystopian affairs. I'll keep an eye out for the second book since I'm intrigued to know where Lane, Rafe, and Everson go from here; most especially Lane since I overall liked her the most of all the characters.





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Review: The Iron Queen

The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I've started this review three times now.

After finishing The Iron Queen, I thought about just giving it a rating and being done with it. After all, I had finally decided to stop thinking about the book and just reading it.

And honestly, while I managed to enjoy parts of the book, there were still too many factors keeping me from fulling liking the book as a whole. The Iron Fey world is still as magical and exhilarating as it had started off from The Iron King. The ideas, the creations, the obstacles... all of it in adventure form was lots of fun. Because, as I'd said before: I DO love me some adventure. And adventure there was plenty of in this third installment of The Iron Fey series. And so I couldn't drop the stars too much since the ratings kept sliding back and forth until I finally just settled on a rather neutral area.

I didn't entirely like this book, but I didn't entirely hate it either. But I DID get caught up in more parts than I got turned off by, so there you have it.

I've made my thoughts known about how I feel on two aspects from the second book, The Iron Daughter. Those thoughts have not gone away, even if they HAVE ebbed slightly. For one, Meghan's development was MUCH better in this book than it had been for the past two books -- she goes through so much more growth in this single book alone than she did in the two books prior. Or well, let's put it this way:

In the first book, Meghan had her chance at growth and she got to a good point where it was acceptable, even if not ideal by the end of the book. But in the second book, it was like she just completely back-tracked and then picked up about fifty other personality flaws while she was at it, only to end off the second book by developing back to square one where we'd left her at the end of the first book. If I could pretend that the entire second book didn't happen, then I might be a much happier reader. But I can't, and so that's why we've got the history of Meghan's journey hanging over our heads while reading the third book.

Nonetheless, I appreciate the development that Meghan finally goes through, and were this not the THIRD book in the series, I might have liked the book a whole lot more, merely for the fact that, everything that happened in this book, I sort of kind of wished that it had happened throughout the three books -- even a lot of the romance. Meghan's self-absorbed behavior gets set aside as more important things start to happen, although at the beginning of the book, I felt she was a little harsh on Puck. She still tended to get all loud and dramatic at the most insignificant things. And, honestly, sure she's a bit more badass with the fighting at the glamour and the finally picking up a backbone thing... But Meghan was still a bit stupid and still a bit slow on the uptake.

So... while she DID finally grow on me, I'm not quite going to be classifying her under my list of well-liked female characters any time soon.

Coming to the romance, if Ash and Meghan had had a stronger supportive relationship history, I would be a hundred percent behind their love. Because it was written rather well and kind of touching in this book. But it was hard for me to separate the feel of the romance's premature beginnings from the first two books (and the mopey, angsty, oh-my-god-stop-whining-and-crying-about-your-shallow-love relationship from book two), from the more emotional, more agreeable, and much more heart-warming love between Ash and Meghan displayed in this third book.

Anyway...

There's nothing left to say about this book. Adventures happen, magic happens, stuff happens... the characters were flatter than ever before, and I got through it.

It's as simple as that.

I realize that I am a minority in a sea of Iron Fey worshippers here. So maybe this series isn't really for me. I'm currently contemplating whether or not I want to start reading The Iron Knight since the synopsis seems pretty straight forward. I have about a week and half left before I have to return all these books to the library, so maybe I'll just see how far I get. Or, maybe I'll just have to come back to it another day after I've padded myself with some other books in between.



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Review: The Dream Thieves

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



08/28/2013

I just saw a rating of 4.5 stars pop up from one of the reviewers I follow.

Aaand.... so now we are counting down the days until the release of this book! September 17 seems like so MUCH longer than just the 20 days from this moment... well, 21 days, but I'm rounding down a little for my own benefit.

Oh man, I'm all fidgeting just waiting for the book release. I need this book so BADLY! RIGHT NOW!


09/19/2013

If I thought I loved the first book... I think I love this second book just as much and am not even quite sure which one I loved more. It's safe to say I've found another favorite series to add to my list, and officially declaring another favorite author I will be following.

So many thoughts, so many "AWESOME!"s to put out there. And I'm not even sure how this will go. But if I had to highlight every line of this book that I personally loved, my book would look like a striped lollipop.

Going to try to put my thoughts together in a more timely fashion this time, although I'm not sure how well that will serve my review since my review of the last book was simply a big ol' four page declaration of how much I loved The Raven Boys. I doubt there will be much different for The Dream Thieves -- though there may be a lot of added gushing over Maggie Stiefvater, my newest girl crush of an author.

She is so freakin' brilliant!

Review to come... maybe. If I can stop gushing. And after I get some sleep.



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Review: About That Night

About That Night by Julie James

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



3.5 stars

Mmmm... Well, I was excited going into this book, but I wasn't all too excited as the book progressed. There is definitely that all too familiar witty banter and humor between our main couple, but other than that, not much else seems to happen. This is more or less a contemporary romance first and foremost with law and proceedings coming in at a close second. I was kind of expecting some suspense and crime thriller type (since the first two were sort of in that genre), but there wasn't much action going on.

Nonetheless, if you look at it as a standard contemporary romance, it's an excellent book. The characters are wonderful, intelligent, fun, and lovable; the story line is cute and trendy. But since I went into the book expecting a side dish of suspense and crime and thrill, I came out of it a little conflicted... and feeling kind of meh.

I tried giving the book two days to sink in before deciding how I REALLY felt about it, but since the excitement was lost on me while I was reading it, I don't think I ever got it back. And honestly, I know it's unfair to this book since it IS written well, and it DOES have excellent characters.

On a side note, I find it really strange that my interest in Kyle when I was reading the second book kind of deflated after he became center stage in this third book. On the other hand, while I was reading A Lot Like Love I didn't really feel like Nick McCall stood out too much outside of being the hot, hero, FBI agent type. However, in THIS book, I found that I fell in love with Nick as a side character.

Stranger things have happened, I must say.

A few things I DID appreciate about this book:

- Rylann's law geek tendencies.

- The sibling banter between Kyle and Jordan.

- Sam Wilkins and his "meet cute" line.




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Review: The Iron Daughter

The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



So here are my thoughts, unedited and extremely rough because I told myself to stop over-analyzing this book after the first eight chapters.

Julie Kagawa weaves a very magical, creative world with the Fey kind -- the Summer and Winter Courts, the emergence of the Iron Fey, Oberon, Puck, Ash, and all of the other faery that appear throughout the books (both first and second). I even appreciate the adventure and the mission of defeating the Iron Fey and retrieving the Sceptor of Seasons. It's a very well planned, intricate adventure. And, BOY, do I love me some adventure!

But all of that got severely overshadowed by two very large factors that made me frustrated by the progression of the story line.

1) Meghan -- I can't find it in me to like her. I've been trying so hard because I know that there must be reasons why she does things the way that she does. She has so much potential to blossom into a relatable, kickass heroine. But in the end, she's a very gullible, sensitive, selfish, and sometimes stupid teenage drama queen who needs to just stop and think before she speaks or acts. For some time, everything seemed to be about HER insecurities, HER love for Ash, HER suffering and sacrifice, HER humiliation or dignity... It got old real fast. For a long time, while reading this second book, I've been trying to figure out what role Meghan was supposed to be playing outside of narrator. Because she was pretty much useless to everyone despite the fact that she insisted on being present for all the important events -- and I asked aloud, "What good are you going to be for everyone?" Because she seems to have a really good talent for putting herself and others into danger while she hides behind protectors at every bend. On top of that, she's got an EXTREMELY selective back bone (probably because her priorities are a little skewed).

But enough of her negatives. In the end, I'm at least glad that things got explained -- why her powers weren't working, I mean. And I'm glad that we at least see some of that potential sparking in her once again when she discovers a new form of power in herself (which was kind of predictable, but I'll take what I can get). I don't completely despise her. She just frustrates me to no end. But I'm still holding a small flame of hope for the rest of the series.

It's just... It's BOOK TWO and you're still a fearful, crying mess with no backbone and THAT is what frustrates me about her. Add onto that her "love" for Ash... and things just get really cruddy for my brain.

There are few books that I actually banged my head against because I couldn't physically slap some sense into the main character. The first and only other book that I did this with was Twilight. And now, I have done it with The Iron Daughter. It's when I KNOW that frustration is too overwhelming.


2) The romance -- I already mentioned in the first review that I thought the development of Ash and Meghan's romance was too premature. They barely knew each other -- they STILL barely know each other. But they act like they've been in love for centuries. Instalove is one thing, but this type of romance, bordering on an unhealthy obsession due to one's own runaway emotions? It drives me totally NUTS! I'm even setting aside the fact that Ash was in a deep love not long ago and had watched that girl, Ariella, die in his arms and that he might still hold a flame for her. How he managed to fall in love with Meghan without too many reserves was pretty hard for me to take -- and that little moment where he mentions that Meghan reminded him of Ariella... And then the whole "I'm treating you like dirt in order to keep you safe" thing... sigh. I hate those devices. They're highly unnecessary, because the girl never gets it and in the end, you get more misunderstandings and more deaths than you would have expected.

Which brings me to that whole self-absorbed Meghan Chase issue -- ANYONE with eyes could see that Ash was deliberately treating her coldly to keep her safe (even if I don't like the way he goes about it), but Meghan was stuck in her own "woe is me" world and HER own misery and sufferings, blinding her from seeing what was really going on. I'm not saying Ash was right in his actions, but I want to point out that Ash had already warned her, not once, but twice, that emotions were seen as weaknesses in the Unseelie Court, and that she needed to learn to control her own emotions.


Backtracking to The Iron Daughter's overall story line -- I honestly DID enjoy a lot of moments in this book. And the sad part is, for a hopeless romantic like me, it had been the moments that Meghan and Ash were separated that her presence was a bit more tolerable to me -- when she had her mind focused on other priorities outside of her unhealthy obsession with Ash. To the point, this was a good book with a great adventure and the only thing that ruined it for me happened to be the romance. Because I can still deal with Meghan being an underdeveloped heroine; there are two books left to go and hopefully some room for her to grow. It's just a bit of a disappointment to me that Meghan's development didn't stem from the conclusion of Book 1, but her irritating immaturity managed to continue on into Book 2.

Nonetheless, this wasn't a bad book and the story line is still intriguing. I'm just glad I have other books to distract me before I plunge into the next book, because I need a break from Meghan. If not for her and the romance, I might have really, really liked this book.

Although, I DO love Grimalkin! I think I did a little squeal when he showed up again. So I hope to see him again in the next two books. Because if anyone is going to keep me anchored to this series, I really think it's going to be that awesome, snarky, wise Caith Sith.



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Review: A Lot Like Love

A Lot Like Love by Julie James

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Another good one from Julie James with one of my more favored story tropes: Pretending to be a couple for whatever reason. So much potential for sizzling romances to begin this way. These FBI/US Attorney ones aren't as intense and action-packed as the I-Team novels, but what I love about Julie James are the characters and their witty, insightful, intelligent banter. These are great characters you can't help but fall in love with.

I think I liked the chemistry and the dialogue exchanges between Jordan and Nick more so than when I was reading the first book with Cameron and Jack (also witty and fun, but not as sassy). I also loved the relationship between Jordan and Kyle and hope to see more interaction between the twins in the next book as well.

Lots of fun to read and highly entertaining.

Also... Tall, Dark, and Smoldering...? lol That's a good one. But I think I also liked Kyle's description of "Tall, Dark, and Sarcastic". It fits, and it also gave a little foray into Kyle's character, which I immediately took a shine to, so I'm looking forward to seeing how his story pans out in the next book.



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Review: The Iron King

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



9/11/2013

This book was just as much fun as I thought it would be, entertaining, thrilling, and magical. Of course, with praises come quibbles that I can't seem to shake. I have some thoughts, though only few that really stand out -- which probably means I'll have more than a short and sweet two paragraphs of opinions I usually claim to have.

Review to come when thoughts are mustered, and hopefully I can keep thoughts from the next book out of this review since I've already started Iron Daughter.


9/12/2013

So here it is, a lengthy review that I hadn't been planning on making so lengthy. But a side rant proceeded to write itself and I decided not to change anything.

***

You know that one story you always wanted to write? That one about a young girl who felt out of place in her own world? Who didn’t seem to fit in with her family or her school mates? Who always felt like there was so much more out there? That there had to be more to her life than just being an invisible teenager? And then she falls through some magical portal, meets strange people and creatures, and finds out that she’s from another world altogether? And not only that, but she’s a Faery princess who possesses powers she never dreamed of?

Yeah. That book.

That’s the book I always wanted to write ever since I was a teenager. Aside from the Faery princess bit, of course. My own brainstorms had other elements. But it was pretty much the same concept. I’m just not a good writer, is all.

And so this is why I read so much. I’m in an eternal search for that perfect book (or rather, all of those perfect books, plural) that I always wanted to write, but never managed to get around to writing. My imagination is limited apparently.

Julie Kagawa’s The Iron King may not be that perfect book I always dreamed about writing, but it comes pretty darn close -- at least to a certain extent, it comes pretty close. If there were things that I would change to make it my own, with my own input and preferences, I probably would. But otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed The Iron King.

From the beginning of the sample chapter I read, to actually borrowing it from the library and diving into the rest of the story, I was hooked. The writing style is smooth and the pacing is steady. Events came together so quickly that I was actually glad I didn’t really have much time to think too hard on them (reading leisurely is so much more fun than looking for things to analyze and make note of for future review writing references). And, of course, by a certain point, I realized that this book is one that DOES need to be read in leisure rather than having a review post in mind.

The Iron King is magical, creative, exciting, fast-paced, and so, so much fun. I do love a good adventure in Faery land, and Meghan Chase’s adventure starts as such, where you follow her “through the rabbit hole” (so to speak), and get to see and experience all the strange happenings as she is chased by monsters and enemies, meets new allies and friends, before she lands in the presence of Lord Oberon of the Summer Court Fey, only to find out the biggest secret about her own life. I especially liked the little Goblin excursion where Meghan manages to get herself out with a little bit of wit and creativity.

And meeting Grimalkin -- that was the highlight of my journey alongside Meghan.

RESPECT.

But that seems to be where everything sort of ends. I was looking forward to an adventure with fairy-tale fun, magical obstacles, testing trials… you know, all the goodness that a hero or heroine has to go through to become stronger and develop a sense of kinship with the land and her companions. The moment that Meghan encountered the Summer Court, it seems that her own adventure dwindled in significance to become “the narrating spectator” who just also happens to be the driving force in getting everyone else to act.

I appreciate that she’s brave (she came to a dangerous world in order to save her little brother after all). I appreciate that she’s got a heart of gold. Yes, her heart is in the right place. And we still get to see some adventurous trials and obstacles. But I had been hoping there would be more of those Goblin excursion moments. That Meghan wouldn’t end up being delegated into the “damsel in distress” role where she spends so much of the last 50% of the book crying, hiding and being fearful that she becomes virtually useless.

But don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate her. She DOES redeem herself by the end of the book, which I’m relieved about. I just wish she could have had the opportunity to explore her own powers a little bit more rather than having to be rescued time and time again, over and over again. I mean, I’m all for the hero rescuing the damsel in certain situations -- that’s fine. And it’s not like I think the girl should be the savior and the badass all the time. But at the very least, she should be able to take care of herself and not have to rely on others for protection all the time. It’s a crippling effect for her and will make it hard for me to root for her success if she’s always being rescued and always hiding behind her prince. I honestly kept hoping for more instances where she’d get kidnapped or taken away or stray off and be forced to help herself get out of trouble. I wouldn’t mind if Grimalkin were there to advise her along the way.

But she just keeps getting rescued, time and time again. On top of that, she has no sense of tact -- either that, or she’s naive and doesn’t listen to the facts of danger. I don’t want to say she’s stupid, because she’s still adapting to the fey world. However, it seems like she so easily steps into danger without a second thought as to what she’s doing, once again requiring a rescue from one of her two bodyguards.

If you’re going to make rash decisions, at least be able to follow through with a save for yourself if things don’t work out. And if your rash decisions have created trouble before, maybe stop and think about future rash decisions before acting? Just a thought.

There was a moment that I actually “WHOOPED!” in excitement. Nearly 50% into the book when she’d been fearing everything and letting everyone walk all over her, and getting herself into troublesome situations, she finally stands up and tells her two bodyguards to “Sit down and shut up.”

I must admit, I was ecstatic. She was finally finding her back bone and taking charge… but of course this little respite lasted a whole of one chapter before she started hiding and crying and being fearful of everything again. I mean, she strengthened herself up a little bit, but it didn’t seem like it was enough. She went back to being the fragile princess who needed protection.

But enough about Meghan, because I could go on for ages if given the opportunity.

Of all the characters introduced in this book, I do feel that Grimalkin is my favorite. A sensible, wise, manipulative cait sith who knows what he wants and can get himself out of trouble without forethought. I found myself hoping to see more of him throughout the book (glad that we did) and hoping that he’d become like a loyal advisor and good friend to Meghan throughout the series. His presence is excellence and he points out a lot of Meghan’s own logic fails that made me at least see that these weren’t simply problems with the writing, but that Meghan is just plain naive and maybe a little tactless. Is this on purpose, I wonder, then? Or were we going for making Grimalkin a snide, blunt, bitchy character and he just happens to have the same line of thought that I do concerning our main characters’ actions?

But whatever, The Iron King was an adventurous, magical journey and I loved it as such. Meghan was a big hindering factor in my full love of this book, but I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt that, given time, she’ll be the kickass heroine I’ve been looking forward to following.

The rest of the characters were pretty standard fare: Ash is the broody warrior and potential love interest; Puck is the playful best friend and potential suitor who is obviously in love with Meghan even if he doesn’t show it; then there are the standard evil villains, the parental figures who don’t understand their own children, the few side characters who don’t really get much scene time… And then there’s Grimalkin who is just so much awesome rolled into a furry, fuzzy puff of cat!

I’m already moving onto the second book, The Iron Daughter and with all of my hope, I really want the adventures to continue magically. I really, earnestly enjoyed a lot about this first book, even if I have a single ranty complaint about it -- while it may seem like a big problem for me since I put a lot of influence on the main female character, it honestly wasn’t that big of a deal. Setting aside the three+ paragraphs I just wrote about it... It didn’t really deter my enjoyment of the book overall, honestly.

Anyway, I’m getting a slight feeling of mopey forbidden love at play in the stirrings of the first few chapters of The Iron Daughter, where it seems we’ll spend some time pining after each other… Ash and Meghan, that is...

Which, speaking of romance… Am I the only one who feels that the Meghan/Ash love relationship developed a little prematurely? I mean, I saw it coming. They were obvious the OTP of the series, but the two knew each other for very few days and the entire time Ash was either trying to capture her to offer up to his Queen Mab to use against Oberon, or he was trying to kill her best friend. And otherwise, he was being quite the cold, posturing ass, making threats and insulting her like she was dirt. Sure, he saves her a few times, and apparently she’s managing to melt his cold exterior. But I’m not sure that merits much of a “I can’t live without you” type of relationship. I would have settled for a “first stages of dating” lustful attraction and respectful admiration with a side dish of “you’re cute, let’s get together” type of romance. But we fell into the extreme end of this romance, in my opinion, almost too quickly.

I mean, these two could barely keep up with a lasting friendship, no less be in love with each other.

Then again, I’m far removed from teenage years… though that only means that I can see why Meghan would throw around her emotions so easily. It’s Ash that I don’t really understand -- prince dude has been around for hundreds of years, apparently, and had a heart-wrenching love story of his own before he met Meghan. And suddenly he’s all over her like she’s his oxygen or something. Then again… love is a funny thing and maybe I’m just not seeing the romance of it all and I’m clawing too much for logic outside of emotions.

Go figure. Maybe I missed something.



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Review: The Iron King

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



9/11/2013
4.5 Stars

This book was just as much fun as I thought it would be, entertaining, thrilling, and magical. Of course, with praises come quibbles that I can't seem to shake. I have some thoughts, though only few that really stand out -- which probably means I'll have more than a short and sweet two paragraphs of opinions I usually claim to have.

Review to come when thoughts are mustered, and hopefully I can keep thoughts from the next book out of this review since I've already started Iron Daughter.



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Review: Better Read Than Dead

Better Read Than Dead by Victoria Laurie

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Much like the first book, this one was fairly enjoyable, and a little more action-packed and intense than the first one. Also, the mystery was a little bit more twisty-turny (I know that's not a word) than the one from the first book.

I may not like every logic and detail that Abby seems to live by, but for the sheer sake of entertainment, I'm just going to overlook those few frustrating moments I had with her. Especially since the pacing was so fast that I didn't have time to really think about what I didn't like. That's a good thing, because when I nit-pick, it gets personal. And I don't make it my life's work to ALWAYS nit-pick a book to death -- It's not like I go into a book thinking "What can I find wrong with this?" I've only done that once and it wasn't pretty at all and made ME miserable and upset.

But anyway, back to Better Read Than Dead:

Fun and entertaining. I still really love Abby's tone and voice, and I especially love her no-nonsense attitude. And the mystery was intriguing. I still have a bone to pick with Dutch Rivers though and am still far from accepting him as good main love interest material. There are certain things I don't agree with concerning his behavior towards with Abby, but I'm not certain I can actually pinpoint what it is.

Cat got slightly annoying in this one; something I hadn't expected. And other characters are still pretty consistent. I like the silent, companionship between Abby and Milo as friends; awesome interaction there.

Otherwise, this was a fast-paced and fun read, so kudos on that!



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Review: The Collector

The Collector by Victoria Scott

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Well it's true what another reviewer had said: If you don't like Dante Walker, you probably won't like this book, The Collector. So it's probably a good thing that I liked Dante decently enough to enjoy this book.

This book was fairly entertaining, although there were some other factors playing against it that didn't work well for me. The ending seemed to drag a little bit, and I'm not sure how well I like Charlie. She's a nice girl, she just doesn't really stand out enough from a standard Mary Sue, which makes it hard to relate. Otherwise, I enjoyed following Dante's narration and seeing the story unfold through his eyes. The rest of the characters seem overshadowed by Dante's strong personality (which makes sense considering the type of person Dante is), but even still, they held their own personalities on a different level. Character interaction was on par with what I love seeing.





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Review: False Memory

False Memory by Dan Krokos

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I don’t really have much to say about False Memory. It was a fun, action-packed, fast-paced read that got you from Point A to Point B without hesitation. There didn’t seem to be any dull moments, because things just kept happening. And I’m fine with that.

This book just wasn't for me.

One of the problems was that by the time I’d gotten to the midpoint of the book, I had already forgotten what was going on at quarter-point. At 80%, I wouldn’t be able to recall what was going on at 50%. And then, by the end of the book, I’m not sure I knew what I was expecting anymore. False Memory was a fun read, but it’s not entirely memorable or relatable. I recall the main storyline of the book (pretty much what’s written in the summary blurb). But if you asked me to pick out a detail that stands out about False Memory that had me excited or squealing-due-to-awesome, I’m not sure I can pull anything off the top of my head at all.

I’m not at all disappointed though -- maybe it has to do with the fact that I went into it not really expecting anything exciting (not like those highly anticipated books that have me jumping for joy when I finally get my hands on them). So I hadn’t actually set up a standard for what I had expected from False Memory. Not that the book wasn’t exciting since it was a big, ongoing plot of action. But it just didn’t really do anything for me, personally.

And now that I’ve gone off on another tangent, I’ve totally forgotten the few thoughts I had had initially when I started writing this review. So we’ll try this again.

In a nutshell, False Memory, now that I think about it, is a nice break from the typical post-apocalyptic YA dystopian storylines that have been trending lately. A bunch of kids with mysterious superpowers are caught up in a conspiracy involving government, power, money… the works. Honestly, I’d been a little conflicted on whether or not to like this book when the first few actions occurring during Miranda’s initial “I’ve lost my memories” segments made me think of The Bourne Identity... (not knowing who you are, but still able to know those natural instincts instilled into your subconscious from years of training) and then I started questioning Miranda’s memory loss because it seemed so random and convenient, the things she remembered and the things she didn’t remember. And then when the ball got rolling, It’s not like her memory loss meant anything to me anyway.

And then after the initial memory loss segue passed and we jumped right into the main conflict of the book, things just kind of… went… and I followed. The conspiratorial idea of these children being altered and created as weapons to be sold off was pretty interesting. I mean, there are so many other ways to make money and so many other “super soldier” ideas that could have taken off better (such as in The Bourne Identity), but I’m cool with the superpower to strike fear into people and cause chaos. It’s not perfection, but for this story, it will do.

And that was pretty much it for me. More conflicts started surfacing, more reveals started happening, and then I just stopped thinking about the storyline and just kept reading so that I could get to the end to find out what was going on. The pacing of events flew by so quickly that you really didn’t have time to really think about any of it. But I’m not certain I knew what I was expecting. However, I am certain I had a vague idea of what was going to happen. In all honesty though, I couldn’t really keep up with all the new “surprise” reveals.

It didn’t help that a lot of those supposed emotional and surprising twists that were revealed didn’t feel at all that emotional or surprising. I’m not sure if this is the fault of the way those scenes were written, or just that the build up didn’t get me where I needed to be for those reveals. But while the characters are in there, drowning on their devastations of such-and-such occurring, I really just couldn’t understand or feel what the big deal was. The tone was so flat that, even though I knew what I was supposed to be feeling, I was really just in a cloud of indifference.

And now this brings me to the characters. I honestly have no complaints about the four kids, called Roses: Miranda, Peter, Noah and Olive. But I have no praises for them either. I appreciate that they’re pretty damn kickass when it comes to this whole “saving the world” stuff. I like that they can handle all these stressful situations pretty well. And that they each seem to have their own personalities. And that they all like and care for one another. On paper, it’s all pretty awesome. But in action, narration, in this story alone, all four of them seem pretty flat and boring. I didn’t really care about them or what happened to them. Maybe a little bit about what was going on with Miranda, cause her voice wasn’t too bad -- it’s easier to relate to a flat character when she’s the one narrating.

But otherwise, the rest… meh. I might like Peter a bit more than I liked Noah or Olive. But that’s because there’s that OTP spark between Peter and Miranda… while she still had SOMETHING going on with Noah… and things just get complicated on the romance angle. And I stress, I really, really do NOT like love triangles -- they are the bane of my existence. (Maybe it’s just envy talking since those triangles seem so arrogant when I think about my own polygon-less love life; I don’t even have a single -gle, no less an -angle… Go ahead guys. Mope about your inability to choose between two people you love while some of us don’t even have the luxury of choices...)
But, y’know, triangles are fine when they’re written tastefully -- I don’t hate all of them, really… I swear…

I caught the sample preview of the next book and it seems pretty agreeable. I did enjoy Miranda’s narration, even if I didn’t really care for the book as a whole. So I will probably end up getting the next book, although I won’t be certain when that’ll happen.



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Review: Storm

Storm by Brigid Kemmerer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I see why this book/series is so popular. It didn't take long for me to finish. And it hadn't taken long before I'd gotten so far into it that there was no point in stopping and leaving the rest for later. So I powered through the entire thing in less than a twenty-four hour span; maybe even less than ten hours like I did my last book.

I had some nostalgic feelings of those teenage years in high school with all the talk of sports, cheerleaders, parties, bullies... the like. Except, either I came from a really tame high school, or my perception of those fragile teenage years was a little different. I had remarked to myself (in written note format), that this gaggle of teens formed one of the most immature high school classes I'd ever read about in a YA book... then I realized that my genre usually teetered on the paranormal and post-apocalyptic, so usually there were very few actual high school settings to choose from. Still... the "ooh-ing" and the "ah-ing" and the snickering and the gossip and the rumors...

Okay, maybe I might be a little far removed from my high school years, but a lot of that stuff seemed a bit extreme... even for kids.

But enough of that, because, somehow, it still brought the nostalgia in me out to recognize what it used to be like to be young. Seriously, this might be one of the first YA books I've read that "brought me back to the good ol' days". Strange, no?

Anyway, back to the book itself (y'know, cause I tend to ramble and segway so much...).

Storm was incredibly exciting and highly entertaining.

It had a lot of moments that made me wonder or frown or cringe.  A lot of the relationship dynamics were a little extreme, and a lot of character details that had me... well, I didn't like all of the character relations, honestly.  Did I like every moment of it? No. Was it a perfect book? Not quite.  Were there things that made no sense?  Oh yea.  Would I change any of it to suit my needs? Absolutely not. Storm seems to have a unique personality of its own (if that makes any sense), and despite the fact that there were moments that made me cringe, I don't think I would change any of it for any reason at all. It's got a creative story line, interesting characters, and a smooth pacing (with some bumps), and decent dialogue.

It reminds me (just a little bit) of those highly addictive anime or manga adventures I used to immerse myself in. Stock characters and stock story lines in a highly exciting story progression... These are always fun.

It's a modern world with a hidden secret (which is a genre that I love), and it involves multiple youngsters in action (another plot device I adore), and none of the characters were completely standardized and unique (even if their stereotypes were fairly standardized and boring). Unfortunately, due to the type of characters and story line presented, the entire book ended up being completely predictable. All of those supposed-to-be surprise twists? I figured them all out before Becca even had a chance to start asking questions. Surprise secret identities... yeah, I figured those out almost immediately as well.

But that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy the book. In fact, I really DO respect the creativity of those surprise twists and surprise secret identities. They worked. I liked them.

And judging from the fact that I just couldn't seem to make myself put the book down, I'd also chance to say that I enjoyed it A LOT. It's not a book I would sit around being speechless about because all I can think of is how "awesome" it is. But it also isn't a book I have much to contemplate about since it stood in an "easy read" category as well. The reading experience WAS, however, quite addicting -- I don't even think I consciously had a moment to begin my "just one more chapter" mantra because I just kept right on reading without other thoughts.

Storm was lots of fun. I'm not going to bend over backwards to get my hands on the next book. I mean, those Merrick brothers are kind of assholes even if they seem to have hearts of gold underneath all of that prickly surface. And they ARE pretty nice to see together. But I could do without too much asshole and male posturing for a couple books.

Although I DO plan on reading the rest of the series. That's for certain.



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Review: Ultraviolet

Ultraviolet by R.J. Anderson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



4.5 Stars

It seemed like it took forever for me to finish this book, but the truth is, once I started getting into it, I pretty much powered through the entire thing in less than ten hours. I had a feeling it wouldn't take me long to finish, especially after reaching the midpoint of the book without even realizing it.

Ultraviolet was pretty amazing. I was hesitant about the rating, but in the end, I felt like the rating doesn't really matter much more than the fact that I genuinely enjoyed every part of this book, even the climactic twist that had me doubting whether or not the transitions made any sense. I just couldn't put it down and I needed, desperately, to see this book to the ending even if I had to lose sleep because of it.

And so here I am, ten hours later, despite the fact that I had tried to start reading the book days ago. Things kept coming up and I kept putting off this reading up until sometime in the wee hours of third shift last night when I made myself continue where I left off in chapter one... and then I just kept on going.

The story was fascinating, the characters were well-developed, the pacing was great, and the ideas were simply excellent. I learned a lot of things as well and I do have plans to look up synesthesia and educate myself a little bit. It sounds extremely interesting. Just as well, I loved the writing -- I loved how the descriptions were present through Alison's narration, with the visuals of how sounds taste and look, and how colors feel... The analogies, the descriptors, the colors and sights and smells... I only regret that you can't really experience those sensations physically, but the writing style was so wonderful that I could try to imagine everything that Alison was feeling, hearing, tasting, and so on.

Yeah. Ultraviolet was pretty amazing.

Again, I didn't quite expect the twist in the ending, but honestly, there's such an open-endedness to the entire telling that it seems appropriate. Otherwise, I loved the way the rest of the book was told and how everything unfolded slowly for us to see and make our own determinations in this whole "There more to Tori Beaugrand's mystery than we'd bargained for" journey.

It was tons enjoyable. I WILL go on to the next book, but even if I don't, at the very least, I'm satisfied with the wrap-up and conclusion of this first one.



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