Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier

I absolutely adored Ruby Red! As soon as I finished it, I knew I had to get my hands on this sequel. It was my Waiting on Wednesday post not too long ago. It kind of reminds me of a better YA version of The Time Traveler’s Wife. So, I was beyond happy to get this one in my mail not too long ago!

As YA sequels tend to do, it takes place immediately following book 1. It begins with Gwen and Gideon leaving the church (they were making out in), and returning back to headquarters after their most recent time traveling mission. Unknown to Gideon, Gwen is followed back by a new friend/gargoyle who only she can see. And at first Gwen is annoyed to have yet another friend only she can see and that everyone else uses as an excuse to view her as crazy or just plain not fit for travel. But later, Gwen’s best friend points out, a gargoyle can come in handy for secret spy missions.

Also, Gwen probably wouldn’t have survived all her training without her new friend. Her new training involves learning classical dances, while memorizing historical figures and being insulted by instructors who prefer mean cousin, Charlotte to naïve Gwen. In other words, Gwen has a lot to learn and a short period of time to do so. She is invited to go back to a certain character from the first book. And well, this involves learning the etiquette and behaviors of a lady at a soiree and a ball. And what can be better than having an invisible gargoyle friend remind you the answers to the hard historical questions being thrown at you while simultaneously learning about fans and minuets?

Between all the learning, training, and dancing, Gwen has a few hot stolen moments with Gideon. And while Gideon has proven to be a fantastic kisser, he is still very much Gideon. He doesn’t tell Gwen how he feels about her. And he goes from making out with her one moment to hating her, the next. Gwen of course then realizes this is because during one time traveling period, Gwen has Gideon wacked on the head to the point of unconsciousness! Except, Gwen hasn’t done this yet; it’s something she will end up having to do in the future. There’s also the complication of the mean cousin, Charlotte, who is also in love with Gideon and never afraid to show off all the things she can do and Gwen can’t.

A little more is figured out about the secret Gwen’s cousins know, the couple who stole an important time travel device. There’s no sword fighting in this one; however, there is all kinds of mental, political, and intellectual fighting. Gwen manages to escape a couple of times to have secret meetings with her grandfather (back in time). There’s more clues discovered about the gemstone prophecy. There’s dances, soirees, secret codes, forbidden passages, costumes, ghosts, and gargoyles! And then there is also a little bit of normal high school drama as well.  Gideon’s brother starts school with Gwen!

This one ends with another cliffhanger that involves Gideon. And stuff does not end well for Gwen, though there is a lot of hope! While what makes these books so much fun is the amazing time traveling story, what makes these books so good are the characters. Gier writes about embarrassing situations like a YA contemporary pro. Gwen is a real, musical loving, pop-culture referencing teen and her time traveling gene is just something that can be added to her character; it doesn’t define who she is.

I also love how real Gideon is. He is by no means perfect like a lot of other YA love interests.  He openly flirts with both Gwen and her cousin. And he refuses to talk to Gwen about his relationship with Charlotte. He also defends Charlotte all the time. Yet, he clearly cares very deeply for Gwen.

The best friend is amazingly brilliant! Having her and the gargoyle really seem to keep Gwen sane. The rest of the time traveling order still doesn’t trust her and it is so frustrating to read about how anyone can doubt the honesty and compassion of Gwen or her best friend. I still love Gwen’s eccentric family, though they weren’t in this one enough. There was another clairvoyant moment with Gwen’s aunt, but I liked it better in the first one.

I loved all the little bits of humor and sarcasm shared between Gwen and Gideon.  If there is anything they have in common, it is their sarcasm! All of the bits about the musical, Cats, and the green sofa were just so hilarious! You’ll have to read this to know what I am talking about. Also, the cover is so shiny, I can’t stop staring it. Shininess plus gorgeous dress = recipe for wonderful YA cover.

The only thing I can see people not liking here is the lack of action. Not a lot of things happened. Gwen only has two serious goes back in time, and the ball hasn’t even happened yet. This book was more about figuring clues out and interpreting certain characters in history. It involved more thinking and less sword fighting. This didn’t really bother me though. I had such a fun time reading it. Really, this is just such an entertaining time traveling series that involves amazing characters. I give it a 9/10.

The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michele Hodkin

I’d like to be able to say that I planned my reading of this book out perfectly. I mean I only recently just read the first book in the series, and therefore only had a matter of days to wait before this one came out! However, I am not that organized. I’m just lucky. If I were really organized, I wouldn’t have read either book till around the release of book 3, because well, the ending of this sequel had the cliffhanger of all cliffhangers. I am not lying. The ending of this book was so insane, I have no problem telling everyone I know to read it just to get to this crazy, crazy ending!

(Stop reading if you have yet to read book 1. I am about to spoil some book 1 important things.)

Any way, the book starts off not long after the first one finishes. It actually begins immediately after the last one finished. And the last one ended with a bang too, literally. (Mara’s father was shot after the big law suit, and then Mara makes a run for it to the police station so she can turn herself in and keep herself away from the ones she loves who she now knows she can murder upon a simple thought). Mara’s plans don’t exactly work out the way she intended. For starters, she sees Jude (the ex abusive boyfriend) who everyone knows died in the building collapse. And second, she faints and blacks out again.

This book begins with Mara waking up in a mental institution. Apparently her fainting at the police station also involved her screaming about Jude being alive. And well, everyone now knows about Jude forced himself on her and Mara realizes she really can’t trust herself not to say important things when she has mental breakdowns.

A lot of this book actually takes place in mental institutions. At first, Mara attends an outpatient practice that allows her to live at home still and sometimes still see Noah (who thankfully believes Mara about everything). There are a lot of fun, new crazy teen characters. And while much of Mara’s mental illness is known to the readers as the side effects of her dark supernatural abilities, I couldn’t help but think that maybe (hopefully) getting therapeutic help could also benefit Mara. Yes, she has the ability to kill anyone just by wishing it. But, does that have to mean she also needs to hallucinate all the time and frequently black out with memory loss? I guess what I’m saying is that there always seems to be something else wrong. And how much of it is supernatural versus mental?

Unfortunately for Mara, the programs she attends seem to do more harm than good. It doesn’t help that she is partnered immediately with a girl who hates her on the spot. The girl steals things from Mara, like photographs, and then cuts out the pictures of Mara’s eyes…Seriously, creepy. And well, Mara is not the most social creature. Putting an introvert in daylong group therapy sessions and team building exercises is not a recipe for success.

In the mean time, Noah is getting closer to Mara’s family and building relationships with her brothers and parents, so they can trust him to be around Mara in her “mental state.” And with Noah’s help, Mara is able to stay relatively sane and not accidentally kill more people. There’s tidbits of romance thrown in amongst the ex boyfriend stalker moments, group therapy sessions, kidnappings, and supernatural mysteries.

There’s also occasional point of view switches to the past that follow Mara’s supernatural grandmother in India. There’s more animal rescues, more discoveries about other people with “abilities,” a little family history, and some seriously scary moments! There’s one scene where Mara is forced to cut her wrists by her kidnapper, so that if she gets rescued in time everyone will think she attempted suicide! And then Mara of course gets admitted to a mental institution for troubled teens where she is forced to stay with no contact with the outside world for months.

There are creepy dolls, important necklaces, flashbacks to India, plenty of people out for Mara, sizzling romance scenes, and then one seriously epic finish! Think another building collapse. Think dystopia-type twist. And then think worst possible scenario for Mara…That’s all I’m going to say about it besides, “I need book 3 right now!”

I was way above and beyond impressed with this sequel. I actually enjoyed the sequel a lot more than I did the first book.  For starters, there was no letter in the beginning that spoiled the rest of the plot. Also, Mara has become a lot more independent. She still has a ways to go. But, she proved herself a strong main character in this one. She knew without a doubt that no matter how much her life sucked, she had to pretend that it didn’t. Only a remarkably strong individual could possibly go through what she did, and then be able to pretend that nothing was wrong.

I also loved that just enough questions were answered and just enough were ignored and hopefully left out on purpose for the next one. I loved the twists! I was genuinely surprised in this book. I loved the resourcefulness of the all the teens left in the mental institution. And of course, I love Noah! This definitely gets a 10/10 from me!

Waiting on Wednesday (19)

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 Linked by Imogen Howson (6/11/13):

Description on GoodReads:

Elissa used to have it all: looks, popularity, and a bright future. But for the last three years, she’s been struggling with terrifying visions, phantom pains, and mysterious bruises that appear out of nowhere.

Finally, she’s promised a cure: minor surgery to burn out the overactive area of her brain. But on the eve of the procedure, she discovers the shocking truth behind her hallucinations: she’s been seeing the world through another girl’s eyes.

Elissa follows her visions, and finds a battered, broken girl on the run. A girl—Lin—who looks exactly like Elissa, down to the matching bruises. The twin sister she never knew existed.

Now, Elissa and Lin are on the run from a government who will stop at nothing to reclaim Lin and protect the dangerous secrets she could expose—secrets that would shake the very foundation of their world.

Riveting, thought-provoking and utterly compelling, Linked will make you question what it really means to be human.

Okay, so twins + evil government + on the run + special twin powers/visions = definite must read for me. Seriously, how awesome does this book sound? At first, I was not the biggest fan of the cover. It was a little too blurry for me. But now having read the description a few times, I think I really like it. It’s like Picasso modern art of the 21^st century twins. Right? Regardless of the cover, the description just sounds too good to pass up. Now, I just have to wait till June. What are you waiting on this week?

Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

This was another one of those books I bought immediately after its publication. The story just sounded so unique and so good! Also, it’s gorgeous! And the prettiness of this book extends way beyond its cover. The book, itself, is purple! And, it has an adorable white butterfly on top of its purple binding. Each chapter always starts with a butterfly drawing too. At first I didn’t fully understand the theme; I got it, but I didn’t think it was that relevant. Later, however, the butterfly theme definitely made a lot more sense, so go HarperCollins for an epic success on the physical beauty of this book!

The book is about Anna, a new soul born into a world of old souls. In the world of Incarnate, everyone is reincarnated over and over again for centuries. There is a set number of people in the world and they all seem to know of each other because there has never been anyone else. Death is not all too scary because no one is dead long. And souls are reincarnated into different genders and completely different bodies each time.

Everything changes with Anna, a new soul who is born when an old soul seems to be permanently gone.  Anna grows up with a mother who treats her poorly, as if she were a Nosoul.  Anna grows up thinking she has no soul and that she deserves nothing and should love and care for nothing. She is taught to blame herself for the permanent death of a soul she knows nothing about. So as soon as she turns 18, she decides to leave her terrible home and move to Heart, a city filled with new faces and new books to learn about her past.

Anna’s terrible mother tricks her and upon leaving her home for the first time, Anna almost dies. In fact she would have died if not for Sam, an old soul who pulls her out of freezing water and brings her back to good health. And with Sam, Anna learns that not everyone thinks of her as a Nosoul and that maybe she might actually deserve to be happy. He helps her get to Heart and protects her against anyone who might want to harm her.

And the list of those who want to harm her seems to be ever-growing. There’s magical creatures (including dragons) who are always on the war path. Someone is following her (but then disappears). And Anna’s cruel mother comes back into the picture with further threats to Anna’s freedom. Also, the government in charge doesn’t really seem to know what to do with Anna, and put her in the charge of Sam, who seems so willing to protect her.

The romantic tension between Sam and Anna is at an ultimate high. And every time it looks like the two will finally come together, they get interrupted or attacked or taken away to prison. And everything comes down to one big dragon attack when Anna’s MIA father comes into the picture. And Anna has to decide what she wants most: to rescue her new friends or find out answers. This book has everything: dragons, magic doors, creepy temples, a strange religion that is kind of proven to be true, soul-mates that span centuries, masquerade balls, giant libraries of awesome, romance, action, and mystery!

And my favorite thing in the book is actually the music. Sam is a famous musician/composer. And every time he reincarnates he makes more music. His and Anna’s mutual love of listening and creating music was just so amazing to read about! I loved reading about all of Anna’s music lessons. All of the studying mixed with romantic tension made this book hard to put down.

For some reason though this book took me a little longer than normal to read (3-4 days). It had a bit of a slow start. There was a lot of world building and concept building before any of the good stuff really happened. And while the one thing that makes this book stand out so much is this amazing idea/world, I don’t really think it was necessary to hold off so much of the plot for this long. All the same though I did end up loving this one. I loved the idea of old souls finding each other in each lifetime. I found everyone’s fears of Anna completely understandable, if not justified.

And I loved Anna. She’s so tough for someone who’s supposed to hate herself. She does have a lot of doubt and a lot of self-hatred. She’s really defensive and always protecting herself. Yet despite this, I never found her whiny or needy. She speaks without thinking sometimes and does things out of passion. She takes a knife that was given to her as a gift and tucks it into her hair. And she’s so intelligent, learning music and reading history like it is the most fun thing a person can do.

I want to learn more about the lives of the old souls. And I really want to know more about Anna’s father. I can’t wait for the sequel. I hope there will be some answers about Anna’s history in it.  And even if there isn’t I’m pretty sure I will enjoy it all the same. Meadows has proven herself to be a writer to keep your eye on. The way she writes about music is magical! And this gets a 9/10 from me.                  

A Good Week in Books (29)

I had another great book week! Special thanks to HarperCollins and Macmillan for making such wonderful books. And more special thanks to my amazing friend, Eti, who not only bought me an awesome birthday book, but also took me to see a wonderful play based off of one of my favorite YA books: The Book Thief! It was beyond amazing, seriously.

 
Death of a Kleptomaniac by Kristen Tracy (haven’t heard much about this one, but it sounds like another post-death YA book of fun!)
Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier (!!!!!!)
The Shadow Society by Marie Rutkoski (This one looks so good too!)
Eve and Adam by Michael Grant
Crewel by Gennifer Albin
Prized by Caragh M. O’Brien (I still haven’t read book 1, but I have it. So this series will happen soon!)
Promised by Caragh M. O’Brien
A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel by Madeleine L’Engle and adapted and illustrated by Hope Larson
Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci (Thanks, Eti!)

How was your week in books?

Everneath by Brodi Ashton

This is another one that I got almost as soon as it came out, but am only now getting to! And honestly, I’m pretty sure I purchased this one before reading any reviews or summaries. I was entranced by the pretty cover.  In fact, I still am. This review will probably take a while for me to write because I can’t stop looking at this book!

And before I say anything else I need to say how happy I was for a YA mythology type book for girls! I love Greek mythology and I’m always excited to see it in YA books! Plus, this one deals with Persephone, one of my favorite, tragic myths. That alone made this book a must-read.

And while the book is sort of a modern day retelling of Persephone’s story, it also is quite unique. In this version, Nikki had to willingly choose to go into the Everneath. The Everneath is a whole other world made up of immortals and tunnels. The tunnels are made up of poor souls like Nikki that fuel the whole underworld. And the immortals only live as long as they can keep stealing the energy of the girls who choose to enter the Everneath. In the Everneath she is physically and mentally attached Cole.

Why would anyone decide to go to the underworld? What is worth loosing your whole soul and 100 years of your life? Nikki is a very sad person. She recently lost her mother. And just as she meets the love of her life, and begins to heal from her serious loss, things take another downturn. The person responsible for the death of Nikki’s mother gets away free after the not-so-good trial, and then Nikki bumps into a naked girl leaving her boyfriend’s bedroom. She practically runs into Cole’s arms as soon as she leaves her boyfriend, Jack.

Technically, 100 years down there is only six months up in the real world. But, most people age those 100 years down there by the time they come back. Nikki has not aged those years like almost everyone else has. She’s not sure why this is important, but she knows it’s why Cole doesn’t want to loose her. As soon as Nikki decides to come back to life after her “6 months,” Cole tries to convince her to come back. She has a total of six more months in the real world before the tunnels will claim her forever. Unless, of course, she decides to go back with Cole (as a queen).

Why go back to the real world for six months? Nikki decides she has a lot of problems to resolve, and a lot of forgiveness to ask, and a lot of goodbyes to say this time. There’s a lot of drama at school because everyone assumed Nikki ran away and had a drug problem. She looks so much thinner and so on edge all of the time. I loved watching Nikki trying to make things right with her father and with her friends. And then of course there was Jack, the boy she couldn’t stop thinking about the whole time she was in the Underneath, even though all of her other memories got sucked away.

This book is loaded with romance, mythology, death, energy, family drama, love triangles (more than one), grief, creepy sacrificing cults, dances, and friendship. Really, this book just has everything! The story and the underworld are just so well contrived and put together. I’ve never quite read anything like it. Nikki is a little hard to like at first because of how broken she is, but I grew to love her because even though she is quite broken, she is still so tough! She doesn’t take anything from anyone. And she gets mad points from me for this. She also has a lot of learning to do and growing to do, and is more than willing to do this. She risks everything to be home and do this.

I really tried hard not spoil too much. It’s always so hard to write reviews for books that tell everything out of order. This book goes back and forth between the time before Nikki goes under and after. There are rare snapshots of her time in the Underneath, but mostly there’s a lot of back and forth of the before and after, which for this story worked extremely well! There was a lot of mystery and a lot of putting together the pieces of Nikki’s life. Also, I thought Cole was such an interesting character too!

This book works a fantastic modern retelling of a classic myth! The story is well thought out and so addicting! The underworld Ashton describes is so unlike any other underworld I’ve read about. The boys in this book are wonderful! The sad parts of this book make everything more believable. And I really don’t know if I have one negative thing to say about it. It gets a 10/10 from me! I’m so excited for the sequel to come out. And I highly recommend this book to fans of the TV show, Supernatural.

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

I was not even finished with Anna and the French Kiss by the time I ordered this book. I just knew I would love it. I don’t think I would have even picked up the first book if not for all the fantastic reviews from bloggers I love. And then of course I had an opportunity to meet the author at Leaky Con and my friend, Emma, was reading these books when she was here in Chicago for the conference and she would not stop talking about how great they were! And now, I finally understand. Stephanie Perkins is just amazing. End of story.

This one is about Lola, a girl who makes her own clothes, or as she calls it, costumes. She seems to never wear the same thing twice, and views each day and experience as a new opportunity to dress in a different costume. Her most prepared for costume is the dress she plans to wear at her school’s winter formal. She dreams of going to the dance dressed as Marie Antoinette! And months in advance she plans, sews, and puts her dress together. Lola is dating someone five years older than her and her parents really don’t like him.

Lola has grown up with two dads who love her to pieces and do seem to have her best interest at heart. They just happen to call after every hour or so when she is out with her boyfriend and they make him come over for an awkward Sunday brunch every week where they can grill him about things. They are a bit overprotective of their girl.

Everything changes though when Lola’s neighbors move back in next door. Lola was originally friends with the Bell twins when she was a little kid, but eventually Calliope grew to be too cool for Lola’s weirdness. Though, as the years go by and Calliope becomes better and better at figure skating, Lola gets closer to Cricket. She falls in love with the boy next door who prefers sitting in his room inventing random machines then to doing anything else. They spend a lot of time together, and just when it finally seems like they will end up together, there is one big, giant falling out that is followed by Cricket and Calliope and their family moving away in effort to pursue Calliope’s skating career.

Any way, when Cricket comes back into Lola’s life, she doesn’t expect to still have feelings for him. She loves her musician boyfriend and she can’t wait to rub in Cricket’s face that she is dating someone. Though, nothing is as easy as it seems, and when it’s clear that Cricket still has feelings for Lola, everything gets really complicated and Lola has a lot of important decisions to make.

This book is full of family drama, fashion, dances, concerts, love triangles, ice-skating, partying, and growing up! It comes to be about doing what is best for you and realizing that life changes all the time (you’re first boyfriend does not need to be your last). I love, love, loved Lola! She is such a character. I loved her costumes. I loved her relationship with her dads. I loved her relationship with her best friend. And I love that she was flawed. Yes, she did some things I did not agree with, but what teenager doesn’t?

Also, I love, loved, loved Cricket! He’s dorky and awkward, but just so understanding and so kind. I felt so bad for all times he was overshadowed by his annoying twin! Though, I even came to really like Calliope too, or at least understand why she was so worked up all the time!

I loved that Anna and Etienne were there! I wasn’t really expecting them! They worked with Lola at the movie theater and sort of worked as the good example of what a happy couple looks like. And it was so nice seeing them again! I loved knowing they were still together and still going after what they wanted.

I am also so glad that the teenager/older man relationship did not work out! I feel like it is a major trend (at least in teen tv) for teen girls to be dating older men, and I’m always so happy to read/watch that not happen. Though, Lola’s original boyfriend did not seem that bad at first. I feel like he went from acceptable older boyfriend to complete jerk right in time for Lola to move on to someone else. Or maybe it’s just that Lola couldn’t recognize how not right her boyfriend was until she saw someone who was completely right for her.

I savored this book. It’s one where I was just dying to get to the end so I could see a happy ending that I kept hoping would happen. I can’t wait for Perkins’ third book! Really, she writes contemporary and romance so well. This story was adorable. I loved the characters. I loved the ending. It gets a 10/10.