Splintered by A.G. Howard

Release Date: 1 January 2013

Publisher: ABRAMS
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Get a copy! Amazon

Goodreads description:

Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers—precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now.

When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family. She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own.

My Thoughts...

(ARC) YA Book Review: The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke

Release Date: 2 October 2012

Publisher: Strange Chemistry
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher

Pre-order a copy! B&N | Amazon

Description:

When Ananna of the Tanarau, the eldest daughter of a highly-ranked family in the Pirate's Confederation, runs away from an arranged marriage, the offended parents hire Naji the assassin to murder her.

Ananna accepts the magical help of a mysterious woman to save herself from her assassin. Unfortunately, the woman's magic fails, but Ananna inadvertently saves the assassin's life in the skirmish, thus activating a curse that had been placed on him, binding them together. Follow Ananna and Naji as they sail across the globe in their desperate effort to lift the curse. 

My Thoughts...

Early Preview Teaser: Teeth by Hannah Moskowitz

Release Date: 1 Januar 2013

Publisher: Simon Pulse
Format: DRC
Source: Publisher via Edelweiss

Goodreads description:

Be careful what you believe in.

Rudy’s life is flipped upside-down when his family moves to a remote island in a last attempt to save his sick younger brother. With nothing to do but worry, Rudy sinks deeper and deeper into loneliness and lies awake at night listening to the screams of the ocean beneath his family’s rickety house.

Then he meets Diana, who makes him wonder what he even knows about love, and Teeth, who makes him question what he knows about anything. Rudy can’t remember the last time he felt so connected to someone, but being friends with Teeth is more than a little bit complicated. He soon learns that Teeth has terrible secrets. Violent secrets. Secrets that will force Rudy to choose between his own happiness and his brother’s life.

My Thoughts...

(ARC) MG Review: Cold Cereal by Adam Rex

 
Release Date:  7 February 2012
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Goodreads description:

Cold Cereal Facts
Serving size: 1 chapter | Number of servings: 40
Primary human characters: 3
Scottish Play Doe, aka Scottpossible changeling
Erno Utz genius
Emily Utz supergenius
Magical creatures: at least 3
Mick Leprechaun (or Clurichaun)
Harvey Pooka (rabbit-man)
Biggs, indeterminate origin (hairy, large)
Evil organizations 1
Goodco Cereal Company - Purveyor of breakfast foods aspiring to world domination
Adventure 75%
Diabolical Schemes 40%
Danger 57%
Legend 20%
Magic 68%
Humor 93%
Puzzles 35%
Mystery 49%

Not a significant source of vampires.
May contain nuts.

Daily values based on individual interest. Reader's estimation of value may be higher or lower, depending on your tolerance for this sort of thing

My Thoughts...

(ARC) YA Book Review: Darker Still by Leanna Renee Hieber

Release Date: 8 November 2011
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Buy It! Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Goodreads description:

New York City, 1882. Seventeen-year-old Natalie Stewart's latest obsession is a painting of the handsome British Lord Denbury. Something in his striking blue eyes calls to her. As his incredibly life-like gaze seems to follow her, Natalie gets the uneasy feeling that details of the painting keep changing...

Jonathan Denbury's soul is trapped in the gilded painting by dark magic while his possessed body commits unspeakable crimes in the city slums. He must lure Natalie into the painting, for only together can they reverse the curse and free his damaged soul..

My Thoughts...

I loved this book.  It's the kind of read that kept me up late reading and sneaking in pages here and there at work (shhh....).  I found the writing and the story incredibly compelling. The characters were unique, the story appropriately creepy, and the setting absolutely perfect.

Let's start with the setting and atmosphere.  Darker Still is set in Victorian New York (1880s).  The gritty, dark parts of the city of contrasted against the opulence of the wealthy, flashier parts of town.  It's a world where social status still reigns and wealth is openly flaunted through architecture and fashion.  What I loved in Darker Still was that we got to see all sides of society--from Maggie and her high-fashion friends to Natalie and her father's modest living to the dark alleys of The Five Points. I felt like I had stepped into a real world, something I must attribute to Ms. Hieber's stellar writing.

Natalie was a really awesome MC to read about.  To start with, she's MUTE. How many MCs have you read about who are mute?  I thought it was really interesting to have a main character who struggled to communicate with the world around her.  It made everything that she learned and did just a little more amazing.  It also makes so much sense when you learn *things* later in the book. It also ensured that she wasn't some flaky chick, but instead, she was a tough, intelligent young woman who wasn't afraid to stand up for herself.

"I am not deaf and most certainly not dumb!"

Lord Denbury was an enigma all unto himself.  He has some of the same characteristics as our favorite typical male love interests (well, primarily that he is extremely gorgeous), but he's (a) not a "bad" boy and (b) trapped in a painting! I adored watching him interact with Natalie because he gave her a sort of confidence in herself and encouraged her to find her voice and be brave.  She was already a strong young woman, but he really seemed to encourage her to...expand her horizons (I'm not really sure that's the turn of phrase I'm looking for, but you get the idea, right?).  Also, I liked Denbury (or Jonathan, as he asks me Natalie to call him) in his own right.  He handles the whole "I'm trapped in a painting" with fairly minimal whining (which would have drove me crazy) and he actively tries to help Natalie find a solution to his predicament.

This story is told (mostly) from the POV of Natalie as she record events in her diary, a perspective that I felt really worked.  It allows you to really get into her head at times.  The perspective may seem a bit improbable at times because the diary entries are a bit more detailed than most of us would ever remember in real life, but for me, it simply added to the notion that Natalie has a good head on her shoulders.  Her quick-thinking, highly observant nature comes to the forefront in her personalized diary entries in a way that may not have been clear written in any other way.

One thing that really caught my eye about this novel was that while it was set in Victorian New York, it had a very contemporary feel--and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this fact yet.  The customs and manners of the Victorian age are prominently displayed throughout the novel but not in an overbearing sort of way.  Even as I reached the end of the novel, I had the sense that the story was rather timeless.  It could have easily been a contemporary fantasy type of read, as Ms. Hieber tackles many issues relevant to both the past and the present, including disability, class, and gender.  She looks at these issues through a Victorian lens but not in a manner that in any way disconnects the reader from the more present-day meanings.  At times I did find myself wishing that I felt more immersed in the setting...so take that as you will.

While Darker Still isn't a fast-paced novel, the beautiful prose and intriguing storyline kept me turning the pages. I think what it may lack for some readers is a stronger sense of mystery and impending doom since you know who the bad guy is from the beginning and the only mystery is to solve the few clues (which comes together in a rather unexciting way).  However, for the reader looking to dive into a well-written story of Gothic romance and intrigue, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this one.

YA Book Review: Tris & Izzie by Mette Ivie Harrison

Release Date: 11 October 2011
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Goodreads description:

A modern retelling of the German fairytale "Tristan and Isolde", Tris and Izzie is about a young witch named Izzie who is dating Mark King, the captain of the basketball team and thinks her life is going swimmingly well. Until -- she makes a love potion for her best friend Brangane and then ends up taking it herself accidentally, and falling in love with Tristan, the new guy at school

My Thoughts...

Isn't this the most GORGEOUS cover? Doesn't it make you want this on your shelf as a face-out display? I know that I would.  It's truly stunning and I have to give a HUGE round of applause to the designers of this gorgeous cover because it makes you want to pick it up. It makes you want to buy it.  But what's on the inside? Well, that's less than impressive and more than a little disappointing.

From the start, this book has almost a mocking feel to it.  I felt like the author didn't really give her audience enough credit.  The characters were shallow.  The main character, Isolde (or Izzie), is flaky and self-centered.  From the beginning, all she seems concerned about is having the perfect star-athlete boyfriend and being beautiful.  She doesn't even have a solid relationship with her "best friend," Branna, whom she treats like she's "beneath" her and needs her help.  There were a lot of opportunities with Branna and Tristan to create solid, realistic characters but I felt like it didn't happen.  Branna ends up being almost as shallow as Izzie with her little ultimate revenge truth serum, Tristan is just eye-candy for Izzie to fall in love with for some unknown reason (except that he's beautiful), and Mark is the perfect Romeo boyfriend who doesn't really know what he wants.

I really wish that this story would have played up the magic and the fighting and Izzie's path to learning about her magic because when we got to THAT stuff I enjoyed the book much more.  I struggled less to keep reading after Izzie discovers that she does actually have magic.  From that point on, the action picked up and during the big fight scene, I actually like Izzie for a few minutes, which tells me that this story really did have a lot of potential that it didn't quite capitalize on.

This book, overall, probably could have been a lot better if it wasn't trying to be a modern retelling of Tristan and Isolde. It has some potential as contemporary fantasy if the focus would have been changed to the magic and the action instead of the flaky characters and their shallow relationships.

[That being said, I've heard phenomenal things about this author's other YA books, so start with those! If you're interested in this book, my recommendation is to check it out from your local library before the cover lures you into buying it yourself.]

Book Review: Alexander Death by JL Bryan

Release Date: 23 September 2011
Publisher: Self-published
Source: Author via Kismet Book Tours

Series: The Paranormals (Book #3)

Goodreads description:

While Seth searches for Jenny, Dr. Heather Reynard of the CDC unravels Seth and Jenny's secrets.

Alexander opens Jenny's mind to her deep past, and to the full horrific extent of her powers.

Torn between her feelings for Alexander and Seth, and between her past lives and her present, Jenny must prepare to face her enemies in the final, catastrophic battle...

My Thoughts...

I HAVE to start out by saying this--BUY THESE.  (And absolutely no one has paid me to say that--it is my absolute, 100% honest opinion that you should go HERE and buy these.  They are worth every freaking penny.)

The conclusion to The Paranormals series, which began with the fabulous Jenny Pox, was a stunning finale to an absolutely phenomenal series. (How many positive adjectives can I put in one sentence?)

Alexander Death picks up right where we left our characters at the end of Tommy Nightmare. Jenny is on the run with Alexander, the mysterious zombie-master who rescued her from the riot in Charleston. Seth is desperately searching for Jenny and feeling completely guilty about his actions in Charleston (as he SHOULD BE). Dr. Reynard is trying to figure out what really happened in Fallen Oak. Ashleigh/Esmerelda is on the run with Tommy.  The scene is set for some major drama and action.

JL Bryan is not afraid to pull out all the stops, and if you're as emotionally invested in these characters as I was, this book will send you on an emotional roller coaster. I love how much Jenny really came into her own in this book, even if she totally had me worried a few times. Seth, even though I was totally mad at him at the end of Tommy Nightmare, continues to grow on me and he's really pining after Jenny and determined to get her back (which may have helped him win my heart back just a little).

Ashleigh is totally, 100% back to her manipulative self in this book and I absolutely HATED her.  Seriously, this chick is a straight-up crazy b*tch. I hated the way that she used Tommy and Esmerelda. HATED.  When she pretended to BE Esmerelda so Tommy could be with the girl he loves, well, I wanted her to DIE (for real this time).

The tension builds up throughout this book to an absolutely stellar, explosive ending.  A perfect (albeit, bittersweet) ending. I, for one, know that I will miss Jenny and the gang, so this will be a series I re-read again in the future (and probably one that I'll give away as Christmas presents to my unsuspecting family).

Be sure to check out ALL of the fabulous Alexander Death posts this week as part of the Kismet Book Tours' The Paranormals Blog Tour!

 Monday, October 31st – The Slowest Bookworm
Tuesday, November 1st – Buried In Books
Wednesday, November 2nd- Paranormal Opinion
Thursday, November 3rd – Belle Books
Friday, November 4th – Supernatural Snark

YA Book Review: The Juliet Spell by Douglas Rees

Release Date: 27 September 2011
Publisher: HarlequinTeen
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Goodreads description:

I wanted the role of Juliet more than anything. I studied hard. I gave a great reading for it—even with Bobby checking me out the whole time. I deserved the part. I didn't get it. So I decided to level the playing field, though I actually might have leveled the whole play. You see, since there aren't any Success in Getting to Be Juliet in Your High School Play spells, I thought I'd cast the next best—a Fame spell. Good idea, right? Yeah. Instead of bringing me a little fame, it brought me someone a little famous. Shakespeare. Well, Edmund Shakespeare. William's younger brother. Good thing he's sweet and enthusiastic about helping me with the play...and—ahem—maybe a little bit hot. But he's from the past. Way past. Cars amaze him—cars! And cell phones? Ugh. Still, there's something about him that's making my eyes go star-crossed....

My Thoughts...

While I have to admit that this book didn't quite live up to my expectations, it was a light-hearted, quick-paced read. The premise is cute and the story is fun, but I guess I was expecting a little more pizazz. 

Miranda is a fairly typical teenager with high aspirations for her acting career. In a moment of desperation, she casts a spell, which she's not really sure will actually DO anything, and the next thing you know there is a man standing on the table in front of her, clearly from another century. He's amazed by everything in her world, from the paved streets and fast-moving cars to the tv and cell phones. Miranda (and pretty much everyone else in her life) takes Edwards appearance in stride and adapts to make him a part of their world.  Miranda even finds herself falling for him (which is unfortunate after she tells everyone he is her cousin).

While I didn't outright dislike Miranda, I had a bit of trouble connecting with her character.  She seemed a bit self-centered in my opinion.  When she casts the spell in the first place, she is really just trying to ensure through magical means that she gets the part she wants in the community play. Throughout the novel, there are few instances when she really seems to think about how her actions affect those around her. I felt like she missed a lot of what was right in front of her.

Drew was my absolute favorite character.  He was always there for Miranda, especially after she opens up to him about the Edward situation.  He takes everything in stride, but for his character, this made sense as he seems to know/study some weird stuff (yay, nerdy friends!). You could tell he had some strong feelings for Miranda almost from the beginning but the silly girl is just too blind to notice him.  Throughout the story, he is always there for her, even when he realizes that she's got it bad for Edward.  He is constantly looking for a way to help Edward return to his own time period and he's really a key player when it does come to sending Edward back home.

I truly wanted to enjoy this story and trust me, I tried.  However, there were a few things that threw me and really made it difficult to immerse myself in the world in the way that I usually can.  First, the characters were far too trusting/forgiving.  No one bats an eye when they find out that Miranda actually brought Edward from the past to the present with some crazy spell. Miranda and her mom welcome her absent father back in to their lives with open arms, despite his crazy abandonment to "find himself" without offering up any financial support or constant/continued communication. Second, the language often caught me off guard.  I expected Edward to use outdated language/phrases, but when those same words/phrases started popping up in the normal conversations of Miranda and her friends, I felt like it didn't flow quite right.  It sounded too forced. if anything, I felt like Edward was adapting his language better and often sounded more normal than anyone else.

While I might recommend checking this out from the library before buying it, I wouldn't go so far as to discourage an interested reader from checking it out. It is a fun, light-hearted read with a decent amount of humor emanating from Edward's character and his reactions to the modern world.  There's also nothing in this story that would deter me from offering it up to younger readers. Pick this one up if you're looking for something quick and fun to read.

(ARC) YA Book Review: The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

Release Date: 30 August 2011
Publisher: Atheneum
Source: S&S Galley Grab

Pre-Order It Amazon

Goodreads description:

Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness.

Elisa is the chosen one.

But she is also the younger of two princesses, the one who has never done anything remarkable. She can’t see how she ever will. Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king—a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who needs the chosen one, not a failure of a princess. And he’s not the only one who needs her...

Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If she doesn’t die young.

Most of the chosen do

My Thoughts...

Wow...let's just say that this book plus Witchlanders by Lena Coakley have give me a whole new perspective on my "dislike" of fantasy. Obviously I just haven't been reading the right fantasy books!

The Girl of Fire and Thorns was a truly fabulous coming-of-age story. Elisa is married off to a foreigner on her sixteenth birthday, whisked off to a new land, and then hidden away as a secret. She can't reveal her Godstone and she can't reveal her marriage.  Not the best start to a whole new life! She feels even more alone and worthless than she did in her home. What she doesn't realize is why it is so important to hide...and what could happen when her secrets are uncovered.

Elisa was such a dynamic character and I absolutely fell in love with her. At the beginning of the novel, we area introduced to a fifteen-almost-sixteen year old girl who is preparing for her out-of-the-blue wedding. She is clearly uncomfortable in her own skin.  She's been chosen for some great act of Service, but she feels like it must have been a mistake. How can she ever be as successful as her beautiful older sister? How could anyone ever fall in love with an overweight, less-than-perfect naive Princess? Her lack of confidence is fed by the secretive nature of her marriage and the multitude of secrets that she is forced to keep when she arrives in her new husband's country. Elisa was such a fabulous character because you literally watch her grown up and come into her own. She is forced to embark on this harrowing journey and along the way she transforms into a strong young woman. She experiences the joy of first love and the pain of death that war brings.

The world and cast of characters that Rae Carson has presented in this book left me longing for more. The world is phenomenally and intelligently crafted. Carson's descriptions of the landscape gave me a real sense of the world without becoming cumbersome. In addition, her characters were understated but well-developed.  We learn about them through Elisa's eyes and for me, that worked here. When characters were successful, I cheered, and when bad things happened to good people, I got upset (VERY upset in some cases).

The religious overtones of this novel took me by surprise.  Not in a bad way--I just didn't expect it. I am sure that some people will find this to be a negative for the book, but I thought that it helped develop Elisa's character. It becomes the one trait that she holds on to throughout her transformation. It also never specifies that the god she is praying to is the Christian God. Since this is a fantasy novel, I think that point is definitely open to interpretation and best left to personal imaginations/beliefs.

My overall sense about this book is that it is the start to a fabulous trilogy that I cannot wait to devour.  I must also applaud Carson for wrapping up this book without any major cliffhangers! The world and characters have a lot of room to grow and develop in future books, but I wasn't left beginning for a conclusion to a completely undeveloped (or suddenly new) plot line.

(As an extra aside, after reading this book, I'm even happier that they chose to change the cover for this book.  The original was beautiful with it's swirling blues and beautiful girl in a dress, but it lends itself to the criticism that the publisher was white-washing and weight-washing.  Elisa describes herself as dark and overweight--not the thin, pale girl who was on the original cover.)

(ARC) YA Book Review: Witchlanders by Lena Coakley

Release Date: 30 August 2011
Publisher: Atheneum
Source: S&S Galley Grab

Pre-Order It! Amazon

Goodreads description:

High in their mountain covens, red witches pray to the Goddess, protecting the Witchlands by throwing the bones and foretelling the future.

It’s all a fake.

At least, that’s what Ryder thinks. He doubts the witches really deserve their tithes—one quarter of all the crops his village can produce. And even if they can predict the future, what danger is there to foretell, now that his people’s old enemy, the Baen, has been defeated?

But when a terrifying new magic threatens both his village and the coven, Ryder must confront the beautiful and silent witch who holds all the secrets. Everything he’s ever believed about witches, the Baen, magic and about himself will change, when he discovers that the prophecies he’s always scorned—

Are about him.

My Thoughts...

I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK. It is probably the first real fantasy novel that I've read that I've truly enjoyed and I'm still trying to figure out why that is.  I've tried other fantasy books before and I've found the worlds cumbersome and difficult to immerse myself in.  This was not at all the case with Witchlanders. Lena Coakley's descriptions of the world, including its people and its history, flowed from the pages and completely drew me in.  The beginning was a bit of a slow burn and I admit that I almost gave up. Thankfully, I gave the book at least 100 pages to draw me in.  Once it did, I never looked back--I can't believe I almost gave up on reading this book!

Now, first off, don't let the pretty girl on the cover fool you. This story is fabulous and one of the elements that drew me to this book in the first place was the presence of not one, but two, male POVs.  The YA novels that I read tend to be inundated with female MCs, many of whom tend to suffer from the swoon-prone klutzy girl syndrome (although I'll concede that I have read a lot of kick-butt girls lately). It was a fabulous change of pace to read from male POVs and I must say that Coakley pulled it off well. I always wonder how easy it can be to get into the head of a character of the opposite sex.  Obviously, for Lena Coakley, not problem whatsoever as she has done a brilliant job.

Both of the MCs drew me in with their stories.  Each must deal with the loss of a loved one, whether well in the past or more recently, and each seems to be a on significant journey of self-discovery. Coakley uses brilliant foreshadowing to hint at the boys' connection but watching them discover it for themselves is quite an experience. Their views of each other and the pre-conceptions that they must overcome throughout their journey seem like a constant uphill battle with no end in sight.  Each must make decisions that will sacrifice the other and the reader is in constant conflict as to which side is right and which will prevail in the end. The characters also quickly become people that you can relate to. Their heartache is intense and each clearly has strong loyalties to family.

The ending leaves a lot for the reader to ponder and I know that I was particularly mystified. I honestly kept trying to turn the page on my Nook only to look up and discover that I had come to the end! I need to know if there will be more Witchlanders because I'm ready to read more!

(ARC) YA Book Review: The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab

Release Date: 2 August 2011
Publisher: Hyperion
Source: Disney-Hyperion via NetGalley

Buy Your Copy! B&N | Amazon | Book Depository

Goodreads description:

The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children.

If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company.

And there are no strangers in the town of Near.

These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life. But when an actual stranger—a boy who seems to fade like smoke—appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true. The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. Still, he insists on helping Lexi search for them. Something tells her she can trust him.

As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi’s need to know—about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy.

My Thoughts...

When I began reading The Near Witch, I wasn't sure that this was a book that I was going to enjoy or even be able to get through.  It sounded intriguing enough, but I was quite wary.  I loved being proved wrong every minute of reading this. The Near Witch is an enchanting tale of magic, family, and first love set against a small-town backdrop of suspicion and fear.

Enter the town of Near--an undefined, historical town settled in the moors, where the wind sings through the windows and the people live in fear of those things unknown.  When a stranger arrives in the town, there is an immediate panic, which escalates as children begin disappearing from the beds in the dead of night.  Could this stranger be to blame? For most of the villagers, he is the obvious person--and the easiest--to blame.  But Lexi believes otherwise; she will go to great lengths to prove this stranger's innocence.

Lexi was a character that I liked from the very beginning. Her tomboyish nature and clear, unwavering love for her mother and sister (and deceased father) combine to create a lovable, real main character.  I especially connected with her profound desire to protect her sister--a natural response between close sisters. Lexi is the type of character who knows what she wants/believes and doesn't waver from those things.  She proves this over and over again during the hunt for the children--never wavering in her belief that it wasn't the stranger, never giving up searching despite set-backs.  She was strong and courageous, even in those moments when the reader was allowed a glimpse of her loving nature and true despair at her father's death.

The stranger, whom Lexi names Cole, is intriguing throughout and I never quite knew what to make of him.  Don't take that the wrong way--I thought he was perfectly done.  The "strangeness" of him complemented the town of Near and it's fear of the outside.  His friendship with Lexi stood to complement the situation more and more as she struck out on her own to find the children, even when the people of Near didn't believe her. Now, I will say that the romance between the two seemed to pop up out of nowhere.  I saw it coming in a sense, but I thought that it progressed at an interesting, slightly too sudden tempo.  I liked them together, but they didn't have enough to get to know each other before that first kiss pops up.

Overall, Ms. Schwab has written a truly stunning novel, one that I can't wait to buy for myself and read over and over again (and maybe pass along to kids someday).

Tween Tuesday: Liesl & Po by Lauren Oliver

Release Date: 4 October 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins
Source: Once Upon a Twilight Book Tours

Pre-Order this! B&N | Amazon | Book Depository

Goodreads description:

We meet Liesl the night after the day her young father has died. That same day she is visited by a ghost, Po, an eight year old boy who lives on the other side, the territory between life and death that runs parallel to the living world. Po has come to tell her that her father is stuck on the other side, and that she is the only one who can help him cross over. A couple of wooden boxes. Some ashes. Some magic dust. A ghost, its pet, and a boy who forgot to wear a hat in the cold. From these seemingly odd, random characters Oliver weaves the enchanting story of how, with the aid of Liesl, these elements come together over the course of one week to restore love and luster to a world gone grey and heartless.

My Thoughts...


My love for Lauren Oliver's writing in her novel Delirium gave me some pretty high expectations for this MG debut.  Thankfully, Lauren Oliver's writing is truly as spectacular as I first thought.  Her ability to tell breath-takingly beautiful story shines like no other in this book.  Oliver has created a story that shines as a mix of fairy and folk tale with a mix of magic, fantasy, and love (although not the romantic kind that you may be thinking).

Liesl is a child whose situation will at once remind you a bit of Cinderella--the unwanted step-daughter hidden away from the world by her "evil" stepmother.  However, that's where I'll stop with the fairy tale comparison.  Liesl is an independent child, hidden away in the attic of her stepmothers house, slowly forgetting the outside world and her past as each day passes.  When Po shows up in her attic one day, no one could guess how drastically the lives of each would change.

Alongside the story of Liesl, the reader follows the story of Will, the alchemist's apprentice who admires Liesl from the street corner each evening.  Will's life, much like Liesl's, is not of beauty or love, but of sadness, loneliness, and dreaming.  Each child dreams of a world bigger than themselves without knowing how to achieve it.  When fate throws them together into a whirlwind adventure, only time can tell what the outcomes will be.

I don't want to spoil anything about this story for you, so I'm going to stop here.  Just know that this magic tale will pull you in and make you remember why you loved fairy tales so much as a child.  The love and care that Lauren Oliver put into this story is apparent in her beautiful writing and the enchanting story that she has woven.  This is not a book that you will regret picking up, and it's definitely not just a book for younger readers.  The themes in this book will resonate with readers young and old alike.

YA Book Review: Immortal by Gillian Shields

Release Date: 1 August 2009
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Source: HarperTeen "Browse Inside"

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Goodreads description:

Wyldcliffe Abbey School for Young Ladies, housed in a Gothic mansion on the bleak northern moors, is elite, expensive, and unwelcoming. When Evie Johnson is torn away from her home by the sea to become the newest scholarship student, she is more isolated than she could have dreamed. Evie's only lifeline is Sebastian, a rebellious, mocking, dangerously attractive young man she meets by chance. As Evie's feelings for Sebastian grow with each secret meeting, she starts to fear that he is hiding something about his past. And she is haunted by glimpses of a strange, ghostly girl—a girl who is so eerily like Evie, she could be a sister. Evie is slowly drawn into a tangled web of past and present that she cannot control. And as the extraordinary, elemental forces of Wyldcliffe rise up like the mighty sea, Evie is faced with an astounding truth about Sebastian, and her own incredible fate.

My Thoughts...

While Immortal isn't the kind of book that surprise and blew me away, it was a pleasant, fast-paced read.  Shields' writing is well-crafted and her gothic abbey boarding school setting, complete with ruins, was well-put-together and vividly imagined.

Evie is sent to boarding school when her grandmother becomes too ill to take care of her.  From the beginning, Evie has a very "poor me," self-deprecating attitude.  I found myself quite a bit annoyed with her at the beginning because I felt like she didn't really even attempt to make herself at home at the school.  Her "whiny" nature made it difficult for me to connect with her as a reader/friend/acquaintance. 

Evie's instant and immensely strong bond with Sebastian also through me for a bit of a loop.  Where Evie is whiny, Sebastian is the epitome of teenage boy angst. The two of them together made sense only in so much as they could wallow together.  The reader sees very little in the way of relationship development and a solid reason for the strong connection between the two.  (And I say these things as a reader who generally accepts the whole "insta-love" thing pretty darn well.)  I just couldn't figure out why Evie was so determined to be with Sebastian.

Overall, the redeeming quality in this book truly is the pacing.  The story moves along at a quick pace and keeps the reader engaged.  It was easy to read the book via HarperTeen's "Browse Inside" feature during work breaks and such.   I liked the magical element to the story and the way that it wove together the past and present.  Agnus' journal entries were also a welcome addition to weave together the past and present and help the reader begin to piece things together. I did like this one enough that I've checked out the second book from the library in hopes that Evie steps up a bit!

This is my second "HarperTeen July" post! (4 of 5)

(ARC) YA Book Review: Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Release Date: 30 August 2011
Publisher: Tor Teen

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Goodreads description:

Just your average boy-meets girl, girl-kills-people story...

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

But she, for whatever reason, spares Cas's life.

My Thoughts...

Anna Dressed in Blood is a must read! Ms. Blake has woven a ghost story together that will thrill and terrify you while along the way you fall in love with her characters.

Cas Lowood has moved to Toronto with one goal: kill the infamous "Anna Dressed in Blood."  Anna has killed a countless number of people since her untimely, mysterious death in the 1950s.  Cas learns during his first encounter that Anna isn't just a normal ghost--but just what is she?  Anna isn't the only thing that's "different" about Cas and his mom's new home.  For the first time, Cas finds himself unable to avoid one thing that he's always been able to avoid in the past--making friends. Cas slowly learns to accept the help and friendship of his small group of companions while attempting to free Anna from years of torment.

Cas was a fabulous character.  I really enjoyed getting to know him throughout the story because whether he realized it or not, he did a lot of growing up in the novel.  I think that his expectations for his life changed as he finally learned to let people in to his life and his expectations of ghosts changed as he got to know Anna.  However, what really shined for me in this book was the "side" characters--especially Thomas and Carmel. Ms. Blake doesn't just throw in a couple of friend characters at random.  She really spent time developing these characters and weaving them into the story. They had roles to play throughout--both in uncovering Cas' character and moving the story along.

This book really offers a lot of different attractive elements for a vareity of readers.  You've got the scary ghost who kills people, the contemporary friendships, the magic, and the romance (yes, there's romance!).  The quick pacing keeps the story moving and is guaranteed to really suck you in. You won't want to put this one down until you've turned the last page!

Source: I received this book as part of an ARC tour.

YA Book Review: The Magnolia League by Katie Crouch

The Magnolia League by Katie Crouch
© May 2011 by Poppy

Goodreads description:

After the death of her free-spirited mother, sixteen-year-old Alex Lee must leave her home in northern California to live with her wealthy grandmother in Savannah, Georgia. By birth, Alex is a rightful, if unwilling, member of the Magnolia League, Savannah's long-standing debutante society. She quickly discovers that the Magnolias have made a pact with a legendary hoodoo family, the Buzzards. The Magnolias enjoy youth, beauty and power. But at what price?

Thoughts, Musings, Ramblings...


I haven't read too many books set in the South, but after reading The Magnolia League, I know I want to read more!  The ambiance that Crouch conveys through that setting is phenomenal.  I could almost feel the humid heat during the sweltering Georgia summer and reading the book made me want to speak with a Georgia drawl.  


At the beginning of the book, I really liked Alex.  She seemed like such a strong character with these unwavering beliefs that made her seem crazy to the new people in her life.  When the Magnolia girls start to get to her, I was a little disappointed at how quickly her started to cave to their beliefs and leave behind little parts of herself.  As soon as she lost her dreadlocks, it was like little pieces of her personality just flaked off here and there. That was a tad annoying to me, but the story itself kept me involved enough that I didn't put the book down at that point.


Things really do turn around though and at the end I there was a glimmer of hope for Alex.  She seems to start to find her roots and realize what's really important...and the only way to get that back.  A last minute twist in the plot definitely leaves you hanging.  I will more than likely pick up book 2 next year to see if Alex can redeem herself...