A Good Week in Books (21)

This is actually my 200^th blog post! I have a super sweet book giveaway planned that I’ll be announcing in the next few days. I needed some more shelf space at the end of the summer so I pulled some books I have multiple copies of or just don’t think I’ll read again, etc. And I think I’m going to have two winners, so come back and enter it!

But to my week in books, I got some good ones! I definitely went back to another Half Priced Books last Monday (to take advantage of the big Labor Day book sale), and I purchased two books (1 ARC). I won another ARC from an awesome blog. I received a new one from NetGalley. And I found this adorable, little bookstore, to spend some time in after I dropped my dad off in physical therapy. I sort of had 3 hours to waste before I picked him up. And where did I go? A bookstore and a Starbucks, of course. Not a bad 3 hours, I must say. Needless to say, I bought a book and then got into a 30 minute Harry Potter/Team Starkid discussion at Starbucks (where I just so happened to be wearing my Starkid shades!) Potter fans are the best!

I got this one from NetGalley (thank you, Harlequin Teen Ltd.):

 
Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan (I’ve actually read, reviewed, and loved this one already but now I have an ebook of it and can read it again!)

These are the three books I purchased this week:

 
Secret Letters by Leah Scheier
Cold Fury by T. M. Goeglein
Grim by Anna Waggener (ARC)

And I won this ARC from TheReadiacs:

Wings of the Wicked by Courtney Allison Moulton

The Springsweet by Saundra Mitchell

This is another one of those books I picked up months ago (at a conference) and only now have had the extreme pleasure of reading! I met the author when I picked this one up. She had no line in front of her, and I remember not even realizing who she was until I was right up in her face, by which point I was all, “I loved The Vespertine!” I honestly don’t remember much about what we talked about, but I know we chatted for a little while until she did develop a line (behind me), and I just felt so special being able to talk with Saundra Mitchell for a bit –because she is awesome.

She even signed the book in a pretty, light blue sharpie that matches with the colors of the cover. And these book covers are always so pretty! I really enjoyed the first book in the series, and I was a little surprised to learn of a sequel because I sort of remember the last book ending with a big bang of a fire, gun wounds, and a main character in ruins (with a final inkling of hope). It was a good ending. And I sort of went into this book thinking it would be a continuation of The Vespertine and it wasn’t. It’s about Zora, the best friend/cousin of the MC, Amelia, in the first book.

And I actually liked this book more than the first book because I really just liked Zora more. She really has become so much more than that girly best friend character. And frankly, whereas I remember Amelia coming off as rather weak, Zora is the epitome of strength. It begins with Zora in a not so good place. During the epic bang of the finale of the first book, Zora lost the boy she loved (who she was engaged to marry). She starts off much like how Amelia ended: really depressed. She gets it in her head though that she would enjoy moving out west to live with her widowed aunt.

She believes her cousin, Amelia, to be dead because of a letter written to her mother. And after a poor attempt at attending a dance, she purposely makes a spectacle of herself, and publicly kisses a stranger in front of everyone. Her mother then has to send her to go live with her aunt. And while Zora expects that the living arrangements in the west will be different and the work will be hard, she had no idea that she would be living in a one-room hut, and doing chores like making her own soap.

It turns out the guy Zora kissed at the dance, followed her to the west because he was already in love with her before they kissed. Too bad for him, Zora refuses to barely look at any males and spends a lot of her time focused on her dead fiancé. Or at least that is what she keeps telling herself to do whenever Emerson is near by. On her initial carriage ride to her aunt’s, Zora’s carriage is robbed, and instead of letting it all happen quietly like the rest of the carriage, Zora is foolishly brave and stands up for herself (and well, her belongings –mostly non-profitable memories of her dead boyfriend). The carriage then decides to leave her stranded. After walking for some time, with nothing, Zora is picked up by Emerson who saves the day.

Too bad the whole world seems to hate Emerson (particularly Zora’s aunt, who runs him away with her shotgun when he drops Zora off). The people in town think of him as a robber because he cheated people on land when people first arrived out west. Though, if it weren’t for Emerson, Zora would never have realized her supernatural ability to find water. She told him his well was in the wrong spot and when he jokingly asked her where it should be, she told him and it turned out she was right. And as the story moves forward and Zora learns to live along with her grief, learns to work hard, and learns to love her aunt and little cousin, she learns how to use her gift. She also learns that Emerson has an ability of his own. He’s really good at growing things, unnaturally good at it. He helps Zora’s garden grow in return for helping him with his water situation.

When Zora’s aunt realizes her skill, Zora is convinced to go around town to tell people where to dig their wells (for a fee of course!) And even though Zora knows how well going around town with a “magical” ability worked out for her cousin, she does it because her aunt really needs to the money to buy a cow.

There’s a small smidgen of magic, lots of grief, some wonderful new characters, a western lifestyle rarely mentioned in YA, more fires, some Western style land disputes, fights, and lots of love. The love and romance in this book is the slow developing kind, the kind where the characters really learn a lot about each other before diving into anything. Zora outright refuses to fall for Emerson’s charms until he tells her his story. And even though the guy who followed her cross country after a single kiss pretty much announces his intent to marry her, Zora refuses to take an easy out. She chooses love over comfort and money.

And I just love how much spunk Zora has! She never backs down in a fight. She refuses to let thieves get away with stealing! She cheats a cheater with her powers. She uses her abilities to help her family. She loves her family more than anything. And she adapts to a completely different kind of lifestyle without even trying. She’s brave and so strong in her convictions about what is right. I also loved Emerson and his rough kind of honesty. I loved Zora’s aunt and how strong she was too, barely older than Zora and raising a child on her own in terrible circumstances.

The best part though is the writing. Mitchell wrote about this setting and this time period so beautifully! Everything just flowed. And it was so easy to get lost in the language and the time of this story. The little supernatural elements blended in nicely and I liked that they were not the major focus of the book. I was really impressed with this. I loved the ending! There was a definite cliffhanger with hints of a book 3 that will include characters from both novels. I give this one a 10/10. I loved it.

Entice by Jessica Shirvington

Firstly, I have to mention this cover. It’s just not Violet. I just can’t ever imagine the main character ever wearing that outfit. Pretty much any time clothes are mentioned for Violet, they include sweat pants, jeans and t-shirts. Maybe it could be one of her mentors or something, but still. It looks awesome and I get how it would sell, working to the urban fantasy fans, but it’s just not Violet to me at all.

Moving on, I was so excited to get my hands on this ARC. The book actually just came out two days ago. And I must say, if you liked Embrace (book 1), you will most definitely also love Entice (book 2). I tend to be kind of biased against book 2’s in general because a lot tend to be that filler book that just takes up space before the good stuff can happen in the conclusion. However, the one good thing I tend to love about book 2’s in general is that all the realization is over. No more realizing your world is not what you thought it was, and hopefully no more complaining about a lack of normality, and no more taking ridiculous amounts of time to believe in things like magic, or vampires, or fallen angels. All the time can be spent on the good stuff: the action, romance, and story!

And this book definitely focused on the good stuff. Violet and Lincoln are playing the “let’s be fallen angel killing partners and pretend that there is nothing else happening between us” game. Violet keeps thinking about her embracing where she literally had to kill a version of herself. Everyone seems to have Phoenix on their minds (the fallen who seduced Violet and healed her in the last book). And Violet’s human best friend, who is totally in the know (!) really steps forward in keeping everything running smoothly. But the book really begins with the arrival of the new Grigori (3 teens: Spence, Salvatore, and Zoe, and two mentors: Nyla and Rudyard). They’ve come to train with Violet, Lincoln, and Griffin and to all work together to find the ancient scrolls that both sides (good and evil) so desperately want.

There’s training, fighting, nightclub attending, and some mysteries involving Lincoln’s past. There’s some small spark of hope for Violet and Lincoln when they discover a different set of partners who are romantically involved and not dead because of it. Apparently, there’s an exception to the not dead rule for soul mates. Then it’s decided that the scared scrolls are in Jordan (at Moses’ tomb –yes, the Moses), and all the action and romantic drama travels internationally to a totally unique YA setting. Violet pushes her abilities to the max to discover how to find the scrolls. There’s run-ins with the fallen at every turn, and everyone seems particularly interested in making Violet experience her worst fears over and over again.

It all kind of ends with an epic battle in one the most historically significant places of all time. There’s a big betrayal at the very end. And of course there’s death, more things standing in the way of Lincoln and Violet, and a seriously fantastic cliffhanger that only comes into fruition because of the character, Jude (short for Judas –yes, the Judas).

Before I go into serious review mode I need to say that I love that this book doesn’t force religion. Yes, there are things like Moses’ tomb, the 10 commandments, bible references, etc; however, Violet, herself, doesn’t really believe in God. And other religions come into play besides Christianity. There were definite religious differences amongst the Grigori  in Jordan and the Grigori from the US. And never is it really said that one religion is right or better than the other; they’re just different. And I thought this was done so well!

Moving on, I loved the new characters! Spence was just completely amazing in a sort of Jace (from Cassandra Clare’s books) type way. Salvatore and Zoe were hilarious, and I loved how Steph, the best friend, flocked towards Salvatore and worked as his interpreter. I loved getting to see more of the angelic powers, and really realizing how unique Violet was in comparison to everyone else. Because that didn’t really kick in until I saw how much more limited all her friends were.

I loved the setting in Jordan. I loved all the scenes with Pheonix, who never quite seems totally evil. He most definitely has a good side, and he most definitely still has some feelings for Violet, even though he pretty much tortured her and planned on possibly killing her. Secrets are revealed (which I always love). And I loved how helpful Steph was. Normally the best friend character just provides some kind of comic relief or some shred of teen normalcy, but Steph was legitimately able to help solve problems with her intelligence, and I loved her all the more for it. Also some of the romance scenes were beyond sizzling!

All the publicity and summaries for this book made it seem to be about this big betrayal. When in fact the betrayal was a small part of the story, and totally predicted. You pretty much know who betrays everyone in the first or second chapter…I was kind of hoping it would be more surprising, but whatever; I think that’s more of a marketing problem than any cause of the author’s.

I give this a 9/10. And I will definitely be anticipating the release of book 3!

Waiting on Wednesday (10)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that allows bloggers to share which books we are most anticipating.

This week, I am waiting on Undeadly by Michele Vail (11/20/12):

Description on Good Reads:

“The day I turned 16, my boyfriend-to-be died. I brought him back to life. Then things got a little weird...

Molly Bartolucci wants to blend in, date hottie Rick and keep her zombie-raising abilities on the down-low. Then the god Anubis chooses her to become a reaper-and she accidentally undoes the work of another reaper, Rath. Within days, she’s shipped off to the Nekyia Academy, an elite school that trains the best necromancers in the world. And her personal reaping tutor? Rath. Who seems to hate her guts.

Rath will be watching closely to be sure she completes her first assignment-reaping Rick, the boy who should have died. The boy she still wants to be with. To make matters worse, students at the academy start turning up catatonic, and accusations fly-against Molly. The only way out of this mess? To go through hell. Literally.”


Well, this book sounds awesome! I have only had good experiences with Reaper/necromancer stories in YA so far. I’m hoping it’s a trend. Also, it kind of sounds like a Hogwarts for necromancers at one point! Also, throw in Anubis mythology, zombies, and forbidden romance, and well, how could this not be awesome? I only just happened to read this description the other day, and I have no idea how it’s not been on my radar for longer. Really, it just sounds so cool. I cannot wait for this to come out.

Taken by Storm by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

I’ve had so much fun reading these books! I got this one the day it came out, and sadly only just got to it now! So many books to read, so little time (says the girl who tends to read a book a day…)! Also, how pretty is the purple thunderstorm cover? I think it’s my favorite cover in the series.

I think a small part of my reluctance to start this book was that I was pretty okay with the ending of book 2. I knew that with this third installment would only come more troubles for Bryn, and I really wanted to feel like she would be alright and trouble-free for a while. She deserved it. But, I had to see what happened!

It takes place not too long after book 2 finishes, which finished with Bryn killing the werewolf, Lucas. He asked to join Bryn’s pack, so he could leave his old, abusive alpha behind. There were all kinds of bad wolf politics going on and it all resulted in an epic fight to the death that unfortunately for Maddy (fellow pack member, and close friend to Bryn) meant the violent death of her boyfriend).

This book starts with a Senate meeting where all the pack alphas meet and discuss a rabid wolf who has made more than one violent kill. The reason Shay (abusive alpha from books previous) calls a meeting about the rabid wolf is because he knows the wolf to be female. Since female werewolves can only be born as part of a set of twins, they are rare.

Werewolf pups are rare period considering their tendencies to shift throughout pregnancy, which a lot of time results in death all around. Bryn’s pack has the most females and the most pups because she sort of rescued her ragtag crew from some horrible situations. Bryn, herself is the only female alpha and also the only human alpha at the Senate meeting, where close to no one takes her seriously.

The female wolf whose been doing the attacks is near Bryn’s land, and Shay clearly wants permission granted to the Senate to enter her lands to find the female wolf. But, Senate decides they’ll wait and see if the wolf makes herself any more noticed by humans first. Bryn has the bad feeling that the new rabid wolf is actually Maddy, the girl she let leave her pack after the death of her boyfriend, Lucas.

And if any of the other alphas, particularly Shay, get to Maddy before Bryn does, Maddy will be claimed to a new pack, and not necessarily a nice one. Also, if alphas along with other packs are allowed access to Bryn’s land, her pack will not be safe. She has a lot of kids and female wolves that the other packs might “want” too much.

With the help of her old clairvoyant alpha, Callum, Bryn learns the wolf involved in the vicious killings is Maddy and sets off immediately. There are camping trips and disgusting murder scenes –we’re talking season finale episodes of Dexter, disgusting. There’s a little bit of romance between Bryn and her werewolf boyfriend, Chase. There’s teaming up with psychics, meet-ups with old characters, and the introduction of ghosts! There’s a lot of stuff going on that involving werewolf twins. There are serial killers (aka: rabid werewolves). And just when things start going right and it looks like Bryn can save the day for everyone, including Maddy, in comes Shay again with his shady politics and violent need for “justice.”

Good characters die. New people and wolves join Bryn’s pack. There was a moment at the end (after I shed a tear or two), where I literally fist pumped the air in response to some kick-butt move Bryn pulls! The politics are dirty. The fighting is even dirtier. And it’s really hard to find the good wolves when everyone seems out for females…

It took me a little while to get into this book. It was first so much about finding Maddy and that wasn’t the most fascinating storyline for me –it was like when a favorite tv shows spends a few two many episodes on the same awful story arc that I wish would just end (cough, True Blood with Lilith, cough). But the arc made itself better when other things like un-killable serial killer ghosts enter the picture.

I loved how Bryn’s pack really became a pack in this one. Bryn has grown into such an empathetic, strong, leader. There’s still a lot of things I wish Bryn would have picked up on sooner. There were things that happened with Callum that I knew were happening weeks before Bryn did, and she’s the character who is supposed to really know the guy. Though, I do give the girl credit for thinking on her feet, and always protecting those who need her protection.

I’m not quite sure how I felt about the end. It wasn’t what I wanted, but I get why it was necessary. It’s definitely a bittersweet ending, and I really do hope that Barnes continues Bryn’s story so I can see more of Bryn’s growth. However, I can also see this working as the end book; it does end with a bit of a bang. I give this one a 9/10.

A Good Week in Books (20)

What a fun book week! I got one book to review from Net Galley (thank you, Angry Robot!). I got one free book for my Kindle (thank you, Epic Deals). I purchased 3 books from Half Priced Books (technically it’s 2 ARC’s and one book). And I purchased two new books that I have been waiting and waiting for.

And for anyone that has a Half Priced Books near them, it’s apparently 20% off all books this Labor Day weekend, so that’s like 70% off books! I might actually go find a second Half Priced Books today…because well, I’m me.

I received the one on the left from Net Galley, and the one on the right for free for my Kindle:

 
Broken by A. E. Rought (this one sounds so cool!)
Cold Kiss by Amy Garvey

I got these three extremely marked down in the Labor Day sale (!):

 
Starcrossed  by Josephine Angelini
Dreamless by Josephine Angelini (ARC)
A Want so Wicked by Suzanne Young (ARC…I pretty much jumped for joy when I saw this because I loved book 1, and I’ve been dying to buy this one.)

These are the two new ones I absolutely needed to buy:

Unwholly by Neal Shusterman (!!!!!!)
Outpost by Ann Aguire

How was your week in books?

Defiance by C.J. Redwine

I have the ARC of this one, but it came out a couple of days ago (and the finished copy looks so pretty). The book pretty much gave me everything I expected it to give me; a tough heroine, a love story years in the making, adventure, some dystopian elements, and a lot of action! I have read some mixed reviews for this one, and I wasn’t expecting to love it as much as I originally thought I would when I first saw the cover, but I have to disagree with all the mixed feelings. I loved it.

Rachel is the daughter of her city’s best courier (aka: package/message deliverer) who goes outside the protection of the city and ventures across dangerous lands to deliver things for the Commander. The Commander overrules a sexist, yet protected city. Girls are not allowed to go anywhere without their fathers/Protectors or their husbands. They are all expected and taught to be nothing less than obedient, submissive house maids who get auctioned off as wives at the age of 17. Rachel never seems quite capable of obedience.

Her father has trained her in weaponry, fighting skills, survival skills, and independence. She’s smart and generally knows when its acceptable for people to see the real her. Though, this all goes to the wayside when her father is more than a few weeks late in returning home after a carrier mission. The city declares him dead, and when the Commander reads his will, it is determined that Rachel’s new Protector is Logan, her father’s apprentice. And because the point of view shifts back and forth between Rachel and Logan, it is clear from the beginning that Logan is a great guy even though Rachel refuses to see his greatness. She does this because she announced her love for him a couple of years ago and he outright rejected her. Can you imagine how awkward it would be to find out that your new Protector is going to be the guy who rejected you romantically?

And to make matters worse, the Commander seems to think Rachel knows something about her father’s disappearance and he keeps a steady eye on her and Logan. Even though Rachel knows to fear the Commander, the man who gave the order to have Logan’s mother killed publicly for going to the market without a man to escort her (her husband had died), she still acts without thinking. She tries to escape her city because she knows there has to be a better explanation for why her father hadn’t returned. Too bad she gets caught.

The Commander then tells Rachel and Logan that he expects them to go on a journey to find the package Rachel’s father was supposed to return to him. But nothing is as it seems with the powerful Commander. There’s forced wedding ceremonies, creepy scenes in carriages with dead friends, plans gone awry, come communications with rebels, some sword fighting, and then Logan gets thrown in prison, while it’s up to Rachel to find and bring back the package, or Logan will die.

There’s torture, fighting to the death, tracking, inventions (Logan can make some pretty awesome stuff including handy tracking bracelets!), villages of people living outside the protection of Rachel’s city, hints of massive rebellions to come, and a giant, terrifying monster that lives outside the city’s walls and that can only be thwarted by the Commander. Apparently, humans dug too far into the earth for resources and unleashed this sort of dragon type creature that can breathe fire and kill thousands of people in a few heartbeats. For some reason, I imagined a giant dragon/bull combo. And Rachel, Logan, and some other friends along the way definitely have their fair share of encounters with the beast.

Poor Logan really gets the stuffing get kicked out of him in prison. He’s beaten to a bloody pulp. And other characters are really pushed to their limits. The commander pretty much turns decent human beings into raging murderers by holding on to their loved ones. Seriously. While in prison, Logan resided next to the fully pregnant wife of the tracker that went with Rachel to get the package. And it’s not like there was any preferential treatment to the shivering pregnant woman.

There’s science, engineering, mysterious packages, fascinating objects, plenty of weapons, hunting, and surviving! I have to talk about the romance. I loved the romance! It was just so awkward and awful in the beginning and I really felt bad for Rachel and the whole unrequited love thing. And then as it progressed, it became one of those slow-building yet inevitable romances (like Castle and Becket, or Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, or Riley and Beck) and really aren’t those kind of romances the best? The ones you feel like you’ve earned the right to see happen and escalate because you’ve suffered along with the characters long enough.

I found the world so interesting too! It definitely had some modern day attributes mixed in with the prominent fantasy dragony feel. It was certainly a believable, yet scary society that existed in the confines of the protected city. Will there ever be a fantasy/dytopia about a protected society that has ladies in charge? Why do we always seem to get the short end of the stick in all these books? I also loved all the hints and foreshadow of a future rebellion. This definitely had me in the mindset of the first Hunger Games book –where you can’t necessarily see how desperate people are for rebellion, but it’s an aroma in the air –that is just so ready to spread.

I give this one a 10/10. And I highly look forward to anything else Redwine writes!