A Good Week in Books (44)

So, I am a big fan of used book stores…I sell back a lot of books (that I don’t donate to libraries or put up for giveaways). And because of books I sold back, I only spent 2 dollars to get two pretties today! Also, I bought some brand new ones at Barnes and Noble. And I’m still missing one other one that came out this week! I will have to go back to a bookstore soon…I have a bookstore addiction.

Purchased:

Foretold by Jana Oliver
Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi (ARC!)
Perfect Scoundrels by Ally Carter
The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead (!!!!!!!!!)
Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys

How was your week in books?

Shades of Earth by Beth Revis

You know that feeling when you take your first sip of ice-cold water after a particularly hard workout? Well, this book was my much-needed water. I have been a fan of this series since book one. It shocked me in so many ways. And then book two happened, and I was even more shocked. And frankly, I was a little hesitant with the whole ship-actually-landing-idea thing, but seriously I have been shocked a third time! Why the water metaphor? Well, frankly, I kind of feel like I’ve been drinking some really great, lukewarm water lately, and I’ve just been craving something a little different.

This was definitely different. Think LOST mixed with Jurassic Park, mixed with a really terrifying alien movie, and a classic kind of YA dystopia and you might have an idea of what this book was like. Seriously, though, I already knew that Revis was big on the plot twists and the drama, but well…dinosaurs! There are dinosaurs on this new planet!

It all starts with a dramatic crash-landing. Elder and Amy barely have time to breathe before all the frozen people are awoken (Hello, Amy’s parents!) There are sorts of political and racial divides between the people born on the ship (all of one ethnicity) and the people woken up. The frozen military pretty much take over, ignoring Elder and his people as much as they can. And there’s never really a safe, dull moment for these characters.

Important people (both ship-born and not) are being singled out and murdered. Latches on the ship close immediately, not giving anyone adequate time to take all there things before they run out (instead of being trapped forever). There are ptero’s, creatures that appear almost identical to pterodactyls that really seem to enjoy eating people. There’s so much death, fighting, and fear.

And the scariest thing is the unknown threat. There is some other possible alien race out there that killed off the humans that came first. Since Godspeed was created, technology advanced enough for the people of earth to send people to this planet much more quickly. However, all that seems to be left of these people are the ruins of their past houses. And this unknown element gives this book a whole new level of creepy.

Amy is a little caught between what she has become accustomed to with Elder and his people and what her parents expect of her. There’s a lot of animosity between Amy’s military leader father and Elder. There’s a lot of mystery surrounding the past colony of humans. There’s new, technologically advanced weapons. There’s a lot of focus on phydus, the drug mentioned in the first two books that controlled the people on Godspeed. There’s a lot of new characters and the more the book goes on, the less the people (old and new) seem trustworthy.

There’s slave labor, aliens, dinosaurs, communication with people on Earth(!), underground tunnels, secret communication centers, all kinds of science (particularly the kind that deals with clones and genetically modified DNA), and even a new love triangle! The romance between Elder and Amy finally picks up, and I was so happy to see that happen that I literally put the book down, and said out loud, “Finally…”

The book isn’t so much about learning to live on a new planet as it is about a) finding out who’s murdering everyone, b) learning how to connect with Earth, c) deep-rooted political battles between various different groups of people, and d) fighting to survive even though at every turn, it becomes more and more that death is right around the corner.

I was blown away by this book! I read it in one sitting. Seriously, my eyes are like burning from staying open this long. On top of all of the crazy plot twists, shocks, deaths (the numbers were in the hundreds), romance, ethical battles, and action, was just one really well thought out ending to a remarkable series.  All of the questions I have been gathering since book one have been answered, and it’s so hard not to talk about them now, but I’m working really hard not to spoil anything.

Questions were answered. Lessons were learned. The weaker characters (aka: Amy) became much stronger. I was so happy to see Amy stick up to her father as much as she did. And really this book just dealt with so many things, I don’t even know how to begin to give light to all that it talked about. Themes of diversity, rebellion, slavery, injustice, science, and technology gave this scary, alien dystopia so much more depth than I’m accustomed to seeing in similar books. It’s both a book that made me afraid to turn the lights off, and a book that has me thinking way after I have finished it.

So, I can go on about this awesome series for days, but I just want to throw in that it is one of my favorite YA dystopia series I have yet to read. Most people would probably consider it to be more science fiction, but so many of the elements here are ones that just make up one classic dystopia. I give it a 10/10. I recommend it to fans of: Suzanne Collins, Ally Condie, James Dashner, and Moira Young.

Waiting on Wednesday (32)

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 The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White (9/10/13):

Description on Goodreads:

Isadora’s family is seriously screwed up.

Of course, as the human daughter of Egyptian gods, that pretty much comes with the territory. She’s also stuck with parents who barely notice her, and a house full of relatives who can’t be bothered to remember her name. After all, they are going to be around forever—and she’s a mere mortal.

Isadora’s sick of living a life where she’s only worthy of a passing glance, and when she has the chance to move to San Diego with her brother, she jumps on it. But Isadora’s quickly finding that a “normal” life comes with plenty of its own epic complications—and that there’s no such thing as a clean break when it comes to family. Much as she wants to leave her past behind, she can’t shake the ominous dreams that foretell destruction for her entire family. When it turns out there may be truth in her nightmares, Isadora has to decide whether she can abandon her divine heritage after all.

How cool does this sound? Seriously, can Kiersten White not write something with a great premise? I’m a big fan of this author. I am a big fan of this cover. I’m definitely feeling the stars.  I am so ready for this one to come out!

What are you waiting on?

The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson

So, I absolutely loved The Name of the Star, and when I got my hands on this ARC, I literally jumped up and down with glee. (Read my review of book 1: here). Seriously, if you have not read the first book, and you like YA books that deal with ghosts, ghost hunting, mysteries, and or London, you absolutely need to read it. This series, while supernatural, still maintains all of the charm, embarrassment, and humor of the great contemporaries that Maureen Johnson writes too.

(I am about to spoil pieces of book 1, so stop reading if you haven’t read the first one yet). The first book ended with Rory being attacked by the Jack the Ripper copycat serial killer (that only a select few could see). Getting almost murdered by a serial killer, dead or alive, has its consequences. For Rory, it means being pulled out of her competitive school in London and taken to live with her parents in Bristol, where she can attend plenty of therapy sessions.

Rory had moved to London in the first book to attend school while her parents worked their new jobs. She stood out as being not just American, but from the south. Unfortunately for her, after an embarrassing choking incident, she realized she was able to see dead people. Apparently, when you survive a near death experience, you become gifted with the ability to “see.” And school can be really hard when you are the only one seeing a certain deadly serial killer.

After some serious therapy, Rory’s psychologist tells her parents that she thinks it would be best for Rory to go back to school. With a little convincing Rory is placed back in the setting of her attack, where finals are in full swing, and where she realizes just how desperately behind she is in her education. Not much has changed besides the routine Ripper tours that now take place, the drastically improved and modernized security system installed in the school, and the relationship status of Rory and Jerome, which now would be: dating.

It doesn’t take Rory long to realize that her abilities have changed since her attack too. She now works as a human terminus. She can kill ghosts permanently just by touching them, and with a ghost-hunting secret police force lacking ghost-killing weapons partly due to her, of course there needs to be a reunion! On top of being able to kill ghosts now by simply touching them, Rory has become more aware of other supernatural instances. She finds different clues that link current murders happening in her neighborhood to the Ripper copycat murders earlier.

Between trying not to fail out of high school, proving to her parents and therapists that she’s okay, maintaining a relationship with Jerome, and helping her secret friends rid London of unwanted ghosts, Rory also finds the time to investigate her school’s history, put some scary clues together, learn who really killed the bartender at the bar down the street, and fall in love with someone else.

There’s more death, more ghosts, more romance, and more mystery in this sequel, and I loved it! There were tons of hilarious, sarcastic therapy sessions! There’s also a kidnapping, a creepy supernatural cult, drugged baked goods, visits to mental institutions, and lots of growing up for Rory in this book.

At first, after finishing this book, I would have said I hated it…I’m just a little distraught from a rather shocking ending. I won’t say what happens, but just be prepared to be shocked, and well…distraught. Seriously, distraught. But, I’m glad I have this blog and the chance to seriously think about and review the book as a whole because I didn’t hate it at all. I loved it. I really did. I can’t let that ending spoil my overall love for the genius that is Maureen Johnson. I won’t let it ruin anything.

I don’t know how I will be able to wait for a book three. I seriously do not know how I will be waiting for this. What an ending! I give this one a 9/10 only because of how distraught I was, and because I was hoping for a little more strength from Rory. I get that bad things happened to her in book 1, but I really kept needing her to take back her life better and not keep making stupid decisions. This takes the whole book…but at least I know I will love her in book 3 (hopefully)!

Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr and read by James Marsters

So, it actually took me a long time to read this one. I am a huge Melissa Marr fan, and I pretty much bought this book the day it came out. It also helped that James Marsters was reading it…I am also a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan. I think it took me a while though because of its format. I’m definitely more of a visual learner and sometimes have problems getting through audio books.

It also became my gym book.  And I got into the habit of listening to Florence and the Machine every time I worked out, and poor Carnival of Souls sadly kept getting out-shadowed by music. However, by the time I was through about half of it, the story picked up so much, I couldn’t stop listening to it.

Marr has created a whole new world, parallel to our own, filled with daimons and witches. Daimons are governed by a caste system that seems rather impossible to elevate oneself in. However, once in a generation there is a competition that allows daimons to fight to the death for the chance to be a part of the uppermost caste. And what are daimons? They are very dangerous creatures that can look completely human (when they don’t have their claws out). They can be remarkably fast, strong, and powerful. 

Mallory, a teen girl in our world, has been training her whole life to be able to stand her own against them. She knows self-defense, martial arts, and weaponry. Her father, a witch from the other world, has been protecting Mallory from daimons since before she can remember. They live on the run, moving to new towns whenever her father feels that their safety is threatened. All Mallory knows for certain about why her father is so scared is that he has stolen something very important from the daimons that he will never give back.

In the other world, the competition is in full force. On one side of the fight is Kaleb, the lowest of the low, who would do anything to jump in society (particularly now that he has been spending so much time in the human world spying on Mallory). And then there’s also Aya (my favorite character), a girl who already is of the uppermost class fighting her last potential suitor to the death. She has given up on love, on family, and on everything she always thought she needed all in order to win the competition and be able to rule without being anyone’s wife or mother.

Aya, Kaleb, Mallory, Mallory’s father, the ruler of the Carnival of Souls, and the head of the witches’ council are all guarding their own secrets. They have lived their lives keeping their secrets from everyone, and when all of their lives (in both worlds) become intertwined, and secrets are set loose, all hell breaks loose.

There’s secret marriages, fights to the death, magical spells, love, major secrets revealed, and plenty of action in this new book by Marr! Mallory and Kaleb play the star-crossed lovers. And Aya plays the ultimate heroine. The book ends with a major discovery, a kidnapped father, and a joining of all the main characters. It really was an epic end to this book!

I was not the biggest Mallory fan. Granted, Marsters read her voice how you might picture a grown man trying to sound like a spoiled, whiny four year old girl. But more than that she was just too dumb for my liking. Seriously, I figured out her whole secret in the beginning. Why did it take her 17 years to figure something out I guessed in the beginning? And I get that magic was involved to make her forget things; but still, that just seemed too much. Also, I guess it’s hard for me to like a girl who everyone in the world seems willing to give up their lives for. Can I meet a male character not willing to die for her? What is so special about her?

I also figured out Aya’s secret early on as well. However, I loved her. I loved how she was willing to sacrifice everything for her dream. I loved how she viewed everything (including Kaleb and his pack). She was one tough character and I would not want to be fighting against her in competition or out. All of the scenes where she stood up to her mom were amazing too!

What stood out the most for me was the world building. I’ve never read a setting like this before. I loved the whole class system for the daimons. I loved reading about the carnival and I loved the long time feud between witches and daimons. There were some seriously thought out elements to this setting. I can see games, other stories/books, and movies coming out of this setting. I, personally, would never go there, but it is just so cool.

This wasn’t as good as I was hoping it would be. Besides Marsters’ voice for Mallory, he did a fantastic job with reading the story and pacing out all of the action sequences. I was very impressed with him (even though I wished he sounded less American and more like Spike). I just wasn’t that impressed with the Mallory character or story line. I’m used to better from Marr. I will definitely still read the sequel (if/when there is one) and just hope that plot line improves because I need to know what happens! I give this an 8/10.

A Good Week in Books (43)

So, this is an extremely light book week for me. I’ve been a super busy bee lately. I’ve read books for my adult book club, for my kids (at the school I work at) book club, and I’ve read books for the magazine I review for! I’ve read a couple YA titles for fun too; I will be reviewing them right after this post. I don’t know how I’ve gotten so busy that I’m a couple reviews behind! But this will be rectified soon. I did receive one new title (ARC) from the author this week. And next week, one of my most anticipated books of the year comes out, along with a few more…So I will be buying more new books again soon.

For Review:

The Emerald Tablet by Joshua Silverman

How was your week in books?

A Good Week in Books (42)

So, I might have gone a little overboard again at Barnes and Noble, but there were just so many books to buy…I did have a couple of coupons, and I do have a discount there, but still. I have a problem. And I know there are books coming out in February that I will need to get too. I purchased five books this week (one that isn’t out till next week!). And I received one new one in the mail to review for Romantic Times.

Undeadly by Michele Vail (one of my Wow’s)
Asunder by Jodi Meadows (!!!)
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (a little early!!!)
Prodigy by Marie Lu (!!!)
Everbound by Brodi Ahston (!!!)
The Office of Mercy by Ariel Djanikian (ARC for review, comes out 2/25/13)

How was your week in books?