A Temptation of Angels by Michelle Zink

Michelle Zink continues to impress me! I loved her Prophecy of the Sisters series. I remember thinking while reading those books just how surprisingly good they were. And I felt that way again with this one. It starts with immediate action. And it combines so many things I love (romance of the triangle variety, history, the paranormal, mystery, corsets, a strong female lead, magical methods of transportation, secrets, and a little bit of made up mythology! What’s not to like? Thank you Penguin Young Readers and Net Galley for letting me read this! Though, just so everyone knows, it did come out yesterday...so go read it!

It begins with Helen’s mother telling her to hide in a hidden compartment in her room that she never knew existed. Helen has to hide quietly in the dark while her parents are murdered and then her whole house is burned down. She follows her mother’s directions that lead her to a not-so-safe neighborhood in London where two brothers live who will supposedly help her. Helen is never really given much time to grieve. Because as soon as she meets the two brothers, she learns about what she is: a descendant of angels sworn to protect the world.

The only problem is that all of the people like Helen (chosen to protect) have been murdered before they’ve even realized their positions. And the night Helen’s parents were killed was the night Helen was supposed to be killed as well. And it seems like the only three people left to help protect the world and its past, present and future is Helen, Griffin (the brother she slowly falls in love with), and the grumpy, demanding brother Darius.

The three (with the help of some friends) go out to find who’s been killing everyone. And a major theme is revenge or even attaining justice for the deaths of their parents. Helen learns to fight, to use deadly weapons, to travel by lamplight, to fight for what she wants, and most of all to follow her heart. It soon becomes clear that Helen’s favorite childhood friend (Raum) is involved with all of the murders and despite all the wrongs he has committed, Helen can’t help but feel drawn to him. And while I absolutely loved Griffin, I don’t think I would have been able to hold back as well as Helen did with Raum.

The book is full of action! Fights with magical creatures that also travel by lamplight reminded me a lot of the creatures you find in Cassandra Clare’s books. And I loved how innovative Helen was, creating presentable/suitable women’s clothes that she could also kick some serious butt in. Helen was a fantastic main character! I love how quickly she adapted to the role she was meant to play. For once, there was a YA main character who didn’t whine about how awful the world was and how awful it would be to have such responsibility and such power. Helen embraced it! And I loved her for it. She was not afraid to stand up to Darius and she refused to be left behind.

I loved the boys and how passionately each of them (including the grumpy one) loved. The romance in this book was fantastic! The brothers were amazing too. I loved their relationship, and how much they embraced their roles as well.  The angel protectorate and the crazy inventions and weapons made it so much fun too! Really, there isn’t much I can say against this one. It can definitely stand alone because Zink wasn’t afraid to have her characters make fully thought out decisions. The story does have a resolution, a final battle, and a final sounding romantic decision. But, I would so not complain if there were a sequel in the works. I loved this one and give it a 10/10!

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

I’m not going to lie; the thing that drew me to this book, and the thing that drew me into purchasing this book, was definitely it’s gorgeous cover. It can be an album cover, really. The way it’s focused on the couple kissing and having the rest of the world just go by in a blur. It’s gorgeous.

And the book, itself, was just adorable! It’s a coming of age story at its finest. Hadley is flying out of the country for the first time to her father’s wedding. Hadley’s dad went to Oxford, England to teach a class for a few months, due to the persuading of Hadley and her mom. Yet, while in England, her dad falls in love with someone else.

Hadley meets Oliver at the airport when an old lady refuses to watch her bag for a moment. Oliver offers to help carry her bags to wherever she’s going. They quickly become friends. Oliver is also flying to England, for what Hadley assumes to also be a wedding. Without too much persuasion, the two end up sitting together on the long flight overseas. And that’s where we really get Hadley’s story. She tells Oliver about her dad. And in turn, Oliver tells her about his (a little bit).

The two have a somewhat dramatic, yet necessary goodbye at Customs in London. And while suffering through the wedding, Hadley hears that some guests of her father’s are going to a funeral in Paddington (where Oliver said he was going) before making it back to the reception. Hadley then realizes that Oliver wasn’t going home to a wedding, but instead most likely to his father’s funeral. And she goes on and adventure to Paddington to find him.

The book deals with the connections random strangers can make. It’s about healing and grief. And it’s about growing up and realizing that life isn’t fair. But, it’s also about realizing that life can be remarkable and that love is possible. There’s a lot about family, and how divorce affects everyone involved. And I loved how Hadley and Oliver were able to confide in each other and find each other when they were needed the most.

I felt like Hadley was so angry, yet so likeable. She was real. All of her frustrations toward her father just felt so authentically how any girl could feel about her dad. And while the gorgeous cover promises a romance, I love that the book was more about growing up and acceptance and family. And I loved the romance too and how it grew from a sort of frienship/comeraderie that while very short lived (lasting one plane ride) ended up being so powerful.

I really enjoyed reading this one. It did have a very predictable ending. And it did feel a bit like a teen romantic comedy movie that I may have seen in the past. Yet, it worked so well! I just wish I got to know Oliver more. And I also wish to be able to sit next to Oliver the next time I fly... I give it a 9/10. And I highly recommend this one to fans of Sarah Dessen!

Fever by Lauren DeStefano

So, I may have gotten this book the day it came out. And I may have gone to work that day and shrieked (quietly) to finally see this one and just how pretty it looked. It was my plan to read this one and another dystopia sequel I picked up after I had finished all of my galleys that came out in March, but so many books come out in March! So, I allowed myself a little break from galleys for this one and another one I’m doing a book club discussion on tonight at my volunteer library.

I’m so glad I broke my rules and read this one! I read it in one sunny afternoon yesterday. I took it outside to the 80 degree March weather Chicago has been having, and sat by the lake for one fantastic sequel! Be warned that I am about to spoil some things if you have not read book one (which was one of my top ten books from 2011).

It begins immediately after book one finished. Rhine and Gabriel just emerge from the water they used to escape the mansion and are almost immediately bombarded with more depression and harsh circumstances. They get captured outside this sort of red light district carnival. Rhines’ looks (or more importantly her eyes) save her again from immediate danger. The madame in charge of the circus explains that she sells love and the illusion of love, and needs Rhine to be part of that illusion. She dresses her and Gabriel up to put on a “show” of sorts for an audience.

Rhine is the only girl in the carnival that isn’t making money for the madame by having sex. She is almost sold to one wealthy client, but then things get really crazy. Madame almost kills a well loved (yet deformed) child, Maddie. And Rhine and Gabriel are finally capable of making an escape (Maddie in tow).  They make their way to New York, both recovering from what happened at the carnival. Gabriel had be been forcefully medicated a drug that he is now having withdrawal symptoms for. And Rhine is losing a lot of the determination she had in book 1 as she discovers just how bad the world is everywhere when you are a woman.

The three find Rhine’s old destroyed house. They find some clues they need to put together. And end up finding Maddie’s grandmother by following an address they have in a picture book that Maddie carries. Rhine and Gabriel’s relationship grows. Yet, it’s also clear she kind of misses her jerky husband. Her father-in-law, the creepy bad guy from book one who kills babies, experiments on women, and lies to his son is on the search for Rhine and always seems to know where she is. And Rhine slowly becomes sicker and sicker, even though it’s not time for her die to quite yet. (Women live to 20 and men to 25).

There’s drugs, prostitution, captures, escapes, journeys, reunions, good people, bad people, a general lack of hope, experiments, forced medication, forced experiments and surgeries, love, and hate. Only thing scarier than a sex circus is probably being kidnapped and then experimented on (painfully) against your will. At first, I didn’t think I would enjoy this book as much as the first one. The book description makes it sound like the whole book takes place at the carnival, when in actuality about 1/3 of it takes place there. And the carnival scenes were definitely terrifying. I kept dreading what would happen to Rhine there. But, my favorite parts of the book all took place later.

I loved learning about Maddie’s family. I loved the new characters. I loved the romance with Gabriel and how so much of it was stemming from this intense friendship. I loved Maddie, and felt so bad for her mother. I think these books are so good because nothing is easy and this makes it so much more real. Rhine’s brother wasn’t sitting at home waiting for her to come back. She has to go look for him and work hard for everything she wants. And with each obstacle, Rhine continues to do what she thinks she needs to, helping as many girls along the way as she can.

I was really impressed that this book continued to draw me in as much as it did. Rhine was definitely less hopeful in this one and I guess this makes sense, though it was so hard to see her so broken. It reminded me somewhat of the Post Traumatic Stress version of Katniss in Mockingjay. It also didn’t help that Rhine was drugged for what seemed like most of the book. She was surrounded by fumes and drugs at the circus. And then later she was drugged by her father-in-law. And when she wasn’t drugged, she was sick. She really had no luck in this novel. Yet, despite all the unconsciousness and lack of full mental capabilities, Rhine continued to be a character I couldn’t help but want to succeed.

Like all dystopia sequels, there is a bit of a cliffhanger ending. And I know book three is promising to have a lot more politics, violence, and discoveries in respect to the disease that everyone has. I can’t wait for it! I loved this one (even though it was a bit slower than the first one). I highly recommend this series to fans of dystopia. They can be a little intense though (more intense than others), so don’t jump into it lightly. I give it a 10/10.

Starters by Lissa Price

I got this book on Net Galley courtesy of Random House Children’s Books. I also got the ARC at Barnes and Noble. I actually did an ARC swap with an employee. She hadn’t read Partials yet, and I hadn’t read this one, so we traded! It just came out yesterday, and it’s definitely a book I’m considering purchasing and owning a finished, final copy of. It was just that good!

It wasn’t too easy from the brief description on the ARC or galley to gather what the book was actually about. Also, there’s a lot of talk about people liking the cover, but I kind of hate the cover and might not have picked this one up if I didn’t get an advanced copy of it. The cover is too middle grade; kind of Animorphs/Goosebumps looking, and I can totally see how it would turn some teens away. I mean I get the cover; I really do. There’s a reason the girl is so white and her hair is so white and her eyes are two colors. I just wish it came off as a little older.

But, I’m so glad I got to read this one! The story is fantastic! Though, I did have some original reservations about the story as well. Once I understood what the layout of the world was and how Prime Destinations worked, I kept thinking, “This better not just be a copy cat version of Joss Whedon’s show, Dollhouse. And I’m proud to say that after finishing it, this book, while very similar to Dollhouse, definitely is its own story!

It’s a dystopia and takes place in a future that occurs after a serious war and serious spread of a virus. The virus ends up killing all those who were not vaccinated early enough. All the children and elderly are fine, but all the adults and those off fighting in the war are now gone. There’s a huge age gap between the enders (the elderly) and the starters (the youth). Plus, it doesn’t help that the enders can live to into their 200’s due to the future medical technology that exists in this world. Eventually, the ender government comes and takes all the homes that no longer have adults living in them. Children are taken by the truckload to government facilities that work more like prisons because they have no legal rights till the age of 19.

The book begins with Callie walking into Prime Destinations, a company she heard that helps minors. In Callie’s world children are not allowed to work. And to take care of her sick little brother, she fights, steals, and takes whatever food she can. She learns that Prime Destinations is a company that rents out teens’ bodies to enders. Enders can rent a body for a period of time to play sports and do things they haven’t been able to do since they were young. All Callie has to do is rent her body out three times, and then she will get enough money to boy her brother a house.

She thinks about it, but then decides she has to do it. And everything goes smoothly until the third person to rent her body alters Callie’s brain chip. Callie goes in and out of consciousness, swapping brain time with the old lady, Helena, who’s renting her body. She’d go back to Prime Destinations to get fixed (to make sure she gets her final payment), but a voice in her head, Helena’s voice, says never to go back there.

Soon Callie learns that Helena is a murderer and wants to use her body to murder a senator! She learns that Prime Destinations is way worse than she could ever have imagined. Between the kidnappings, the disappearing teens, the promise of a complete beautifying surgery that really appeals to image obsessed kids, the kids and teens fighting to stay alive and dying of hunger and lack of running water, this book has it’s intense moments.

But, my favorite moments involve Callie figuring things out and putting together the pieces that Helena left behind. There’s a lot written about the differences in age, class, and power. There’s voices, car chases, prison escapes, guns, assassination attempts, love triangles, and so many twists and turns that I read it all in one day. This book had the first ending in a very long time to actually shock me! I won’t say what happens, but just know that it so good.

I loved how clever and desperate Callie was. And I especially love that she is the way she is because of how much she wants to care for her little brother. I love the boys in the book. And I love the friends Callie makes (the old people inside young people’s bodies). And most of all I love the positive effects Helena had on Callie, and how much she got the girl to stick up for herself and fight for what she knew was right. This story was remarkable. The characters were fantastic! I’m dying for book two (which is supposed to come out at the end of the year). I highly recommend this one to fans of Dollhouse, and the Maximum Ride series by James Patterson. It gets a 10/10.

Pieces of Us by Margie Gelbwasser

What an intense book! I got this one on Net Galley, courtesy of Flux. I wasn’t expecting a fluffy book, but I certainly wasn’t expecting this! I thought it would have more to do with teens vacationing for the summer and less to do with abusive relationships and rape.

I give this writer a lot of points for not sugarcoating anything. She doesn’t fast-forward the hard parts. And in some respects this made it take longer for me. It’s hard reading about abuse and rape. I had to force myself to keep reading it at times just because it was so hard for me to read about. But, I’m glad I kept reading because Gelbwasser is a wonderful writer. The ending tied some things up so nicely. And while the book (and the end) could have been a lot happier, it was also beautiful.

Any way, it’s about four teens: Katie and Julie (sisters) and Alex and Kyle (brothers). Katie and Julie are brought up by a controlling, image-obsessed mother and a very submissive father. And Alex and Kyle are brought up by a single mother (who works for the most part as a stripper). Their father killed himself when they were young. They all come together every summer in a lake house community in upstate New York.

The books begins and I feel so bad for Julie, the sister who is completely outshined. Her mother only tells her negative things. And you can’t help but feel sorry for her. Katie, the pretty one, seems to have it all. That is until she gets wasted at a party, and then raped by her boyfriend and his best friend. It was hard to like Katie to start with because of how perfect she was. And then it was even harder for me to like her because of the stupid decisions she made, and her inability to stand up for herself. But as the stories of the sisters progress, I came to feel nothing by empathy for Katie, despite her continuation of bad decisions. And the not as pretty Julie gets worse and worse. She refuses to understand why Katie keeps sinking deeper and deeper, and actually believes that her sister deserves to have a sex tape out there for the world to see…

Katie’s summer boyfriend, Alex, is the perfect boyfriend the summer after Katie is raped. But when he actually learns what happened he becomes the terrible guy you would expect from a stripper mother and a series of abusive boyfriends. He sort of put Katie up on this pedestal as being the one girl who was not a slut. So, when he learns about what happened, he comes to think that all women are just like his mom.  Kyle and Julie have a fleeting romance that dwindles around the same time that Julie becomes awful. He really feels bad for Katie, and ends up being her one true friend (besides her father). And you learn something that really explains it all about Kyle at the very end.

I repeat, this book is intense. There’s sex, rape, abuse, sex tapes, rumors, bullying, student/teacher relations and so much more. It’s about image. It’s about how a woman can be a rape victim yet, still end up being the bad guy. It’s about surviving the toughest of situations. And it’s about growing up when nothing is easy and the way you look is more important than the way you think or want to be.

All of the characters are flawed, and this just makes them more real. I like how the author played with perspective and I loved getting their individual points of view. I loved how Kyle’s point of you was in second person. I hated the girls’ mother so much sometimes that I kept hoping for something in the plot that would destroy her. And even though I hated Alex, I could still somewhat understand him. Nothing in this book was easy. So it makes sense that it wouldn’t be easy to love or hate any of the characters. If anything this book shows that nothing is black and white (except maybe the evil mom). And while Julie becomes the sister from hell, I still want her to end up okay so I can’t hate her completely.

I wish I had a little bit more warning about what I was getting into before I read this, but then I’m not sure I would have picked it up so quickly. And I really am glad I read this. It was well put together. If anything, maybe it will help prevent future incidents from happening. I give it a 9/10.

Katana by Cole Gibsen

I got this one on Net Galley courtesy of Flux Books. And it actually comes out today! I really loved this one! I’m not going to lie; it was cheesy, predictable, full of cliché story arcs, and layered with terrible dialogue. However, aren’t all Samurai movies rather on the cheesy side?

The book’s description calls it, “Kill Bill meets Buffy,” and frankly I don’t know if it could have said anything else to make me want to read it more. And like with Kill Bill and Buffy, I couldn’t stop until I finished the whole thing.

It’s about Rileigh. She and her best friend Q witness a mugging outside the mall one night, and somehow because of Rileigh the muggers get away with nothing. She ends up in the hospital with doctors letting her know it was adrenaline that helped her fight off the attack, but really it’s clear immediately that there’s a lot more going on than adrenaline. For starters, she’s having dreams about Samurai warriors that take place hundreds of years ago. She also hears a voice that tells her how to fight, warns her of danger, and seems to take over her body when violence ever happens. And how cool would it be to just all of a sudden have the power, strength, and knowhow to fight off bad people?

Apparently Rileigh’s fight was broadcast on the news, and she starts getting both a lot of positive and negative attention. The positive attention comes from Kim a Martial Arts instructor who tries (for a good portion of the book) to convince Rileigh that she is a reincarnated version of the warrior Senshi, his soulmate. Rileigh unfortunately is more interested in a boy she’s been crushing on for months at her high school, but she does eventually get talked into learning about her warrior past. How long can anyone pretend that dreams, voices, super powers that involve wind, and kick butt fighting skills are just adrenaline? The bad attention she receives is from cryptic, creepy letters and several more attacks, where she always comes out unscathed.

To make sure it’s not adrenaline, there’s this one scene where Rileigh goes into a biker bar to test her theory. It was probably my least favorite scene in the whole book. Mostly, it’s just dumb. But, also I feel like it’s totally disrespectful to bikers. It says you can go to any biker bar and will have no problem having a fight. There’s a terrifying moment when she can’t get her keys in the ignition and she’s surrounded by angry biker girlfriends destroying her car, and I almost just stopped reading from being so insulted by the whole thing. Not, that I’m a huge fan of bikers, but really it just made them all look so terrible, especially the women.

Any way, to fully get all her Samurai memories back Rileigh has to touch something that belonged to her former self. And this would help if Senshi’s sword didn’t keep getting stolen. There’s a lot of fight scenes, memories of a past life that involved some serious betrayal and decapitated heads, love triangles, a wonderful gay best friend who stands behind Rileigh no matter what, kidnapping, evil power struggles, and then all the typical teen stuff like summer jobs and girl rivalries.

The book is about Rileigh coming to terms with who she is and who she wants to be. She’s not my favorite main character. Mostly because she kept making really bad decisions and she didn’t realize things till way too late. But, I did come to really like her by the end. I just wish that it didn’t have to take her so long to get to where she did. Because finally when she’s become a stronger more likeable character, the book ends. I’m hoping there will be a sequel because I would love to see her mastering her skills and seriously getting some bad guys.

I predicted almost all aspects of the ending. But, I still wanted to get to that ending any way. Sometimes predictable can be good, and in this case it was.

The biggest thing that bothered me though was the dialogue. The author was trying a little too hard to make Rileigh sound young. I get that she’s snarky and sarcastic, but her sarcasm was kind of terrible. It was a lot of catchy one-liners like from the first season of Buffy and not enough wit and intelligence. I liked that Rileigh talked back to her attackers and never stopped fighting for her life, but no one really talks that way. Again, this adds to the Samurai feel, but…it just felt like the author was focusing too much on how a young person should sound and not just naturally writing Raileigh down or focusing on how a Samurai should sound.

Regardless of the predictability and dialogue, I loved this book. It’s just what I needed to read outside with me on some beautiful Chicago days. And I give it a 8/10.

Embrace by Jessica Shirvington

I got this ARC at work, courtesy of sourcebooks. And it has such a gorgeous cover! The cover clearly makes it an angel book, and I sort of told myself I’d stop doing the cheesy angel YA books, but I couldn’t help myself with this one. It was free and just so pretty! Plus, it’s a debut and I can finally start adding more books to my challenge.

I did have a lot of fun reading this one. It was a little cheesy, a little “done before,” and certainly a little predictable. But, oh did it have some fantastic romance! It’s about a girl named Violet, who grows up with her dad because her mom died in childbirth. Her dad is a workaholic, and Violet is an artist, spending most of her free time in her art studio.

Violet has a bit of troubling past that involves a teacher cornering her in a classroom, and almost raping her. Another teacher came in just in time, but not in time to prevent all the sad mental after effects. Violet has as strong inner voice that prevents her from running away from problems. She works hard to not to stand out too much and she is so hard on herself about being weak. She signs up for a self-defense class and meets Lincoln. She and Lincoln have a long lasting friendship. And it’s clear from the beginning that they are both in love with each other. However, it’s understandable for why Violet doesn’t push a relationship, but it’s not so clear why Lincoln doesn’t do anything.

On her 17^th birthday, Violet’s dad gives her a box that her mother wanted her to have on this day. She gets her baby charm, a letter, and a poem that refers to good and evil. Violet also starts getting weird marks on her arms that she hides. And she starts sensing some weird things. Soon, she realizes that Lincoln has been lying to her and that actually she’s part angel and he’s her angel partner. If a baby’s mother dies soon after her child is born, the child will grow up to be part angel. Though, apparently angel partners are not allowed to be romantically involved, hence Lincoln not making a move.

Violet gets so mad at Lincoln lying to her all this time. She learns about angels from someone else who seems to be in love with her. There’s clubs, dancing, best friends, special powers, spiritual journeys, some interesting angel folklore, angel hierarchies and politics, good joining forces with evil, dead/mutilated bodies, fight scenes, and a lot of learning about trust.

I really liked Violet. I only ever wanted her to succeed and get over her hard past. I also loved Lincoln. And I did fall along with her for the bad-ish angel Phoenix. I liked how Violet didn’t want anyone else to get hurt, not just because she’s the main character and the main character always has to have the best conscience in the world, but because she knows what getting hurt feels like and doesn’t want it for anyone else.

I really did not find her dad to be all too believable. He was conveniently working most of the time. And he knew about what happened to Violet, yet still besides from a few snarky comments to Phoenix, never really objected to Violet hanging around all these older men, and that’s so not real for me. I also feel like the whole art thing was just a convenient way to show Violet dealing with her angst, and that wasn’t real for me either. I needed to see some of her art. The only piece mentioned was a wall in Lincoln’s apartment that she hadn’t gotten to yet. I wanted to see her other stuff, learn who inspired her, and maybe get why she became so interested in art to begin with. Without something, I find her hobby just kind of fake.

I also think she was way too hard on Lincoln, who was clearly doing what he had to do. I get that a lot of her anger is explained through something at the end, but still. I so would have forgiven the guy!

Any way, this book was still a lot of fun. And the romance was so good! The love triangle was excellent. The moments with Phoenix could have been pulled from an adult romance novel! And Lincoln just sounded like every girl’s dream. I give this one a 8/10, and I know I will have to continue with this series when the sequel come out later this year.