Angieville

Where She Went by Gayle Forman

2012-02-10T12:16:00.003-07:00

So I approached Where She Went with almost equal amounts trepidation and excitement. It's hard to follow up an ending like the ending of If I Stay. In many respects, I felt like the mere existence of a sequel might mar the beauty of the first book. I just . . . I loved how it ended so much, I wasn't at all sure I wanted to know what happened next. And if you know me at all you know how hilarious that sounds. I always want to know what happens next. I regularly fill my life with beloved series I can't quit. But I am also an enormous admirer of standalone volumes, particularly those featuring a judicious and perfect ending. Such was the case with If I Stay. But the tenor of my emotions for Mia and Adam by the end of that book ensured that I wouldn't be able to stay away from a follow-up in the end. Especially as that follow-up was set three years later. So I only lasted about 24 hours in between finishing the first book and plunging into the second.

A warning: If you have not yet read If I Stay, I suggest doing so now before proceeding any farther. It really is worth it, and there is simply no way to discuss the sequel without ruining the surprise both books have in store. Also, the nature of my feelings regarding this one demand a discussion of the ending. So. You have been warned, yes?

It's been three years since Mia awoke to find Adam there waiting for her. And, as happy as she was to see him (and he her), it turns out three years is more than enough time for everything to fall apart. At first, everything seemed fine. More than fine. She was awake. She was alive. She had Adam there to help her through her recovery and convalescence. She had an acceptance letter from Julliard. But none of those positives were enough in the end. They weren't enough to outweigh the loss of her family. They weren't enough to keep Mia in the town where it all happened a moment longer than she had to stay. And, though neither of them could have seen it coming, they were not enough to sustain her relationship with Adam. So Mia makes the command decision to break things off entirely and leave, leaving behind an utterly demolished and dumbstruck Adam. Over the course of the next three years, both of their lives change beyond measure, as Mia embarks on the concert career she's always wanted, and Adam is skyrocketed to stardom in a whirlwind of success and good fortune. But time catches up with them. And when they both find themselves in New York over the same 24-hour period, they are forced to deal with the detritus that is all that remains of who they once were.

Where She Went is the opposite of If I Stay in every way. Where If I Stay was quiet and elegantly somber, Where She Went is chaotic and jaggedly painful. Where If I Stay was told from Mia's self-contained, removed perspective, Where She Went is told from Adam's very different point of view. And, unfortunately, where If I Stay has a breathtaking ending, Where She Went has an ending that left me with my mouth hanging open at how inadequate it was. I know it was the ending so many readers were hoping for, and the truth is I wanted that ending as well. Especially after I followed Adam around and watched with such sadness the person he had become, my heart practically bursting with sympathy for him. I loved Adam so much in this book. It's his story in every sense of things, and it's written incredibly well. I soaked up his version of events and how he never got over Mia and how all the riches life deposited in his lap weren't enough to compensate for the loss of love and friendship. Full of rage, sadness, and basically every negative, hurt emotion I can think of, he absolutely steals the show. Enter Mia and everything that has happened to her in the intervening years. I loved the setup, and I loved how it was simultaneously easy to be together again and awkwardly ruinous at the same time. From their halting physical proximity to their loaded verbal exchanges, everything was handled so well. I couldn't wait to get to the culmination of things and the inevitable decision they would have to make. And this is where we come to the inadequacy. I wanted that ending, but not this way. Not at the expense of my respect for the characters. After all of that, all of the thought and heartbreak and complexity that went into these two people who loved each other as kids and have surmounted tragedy to become adults all on their own, how could it wrap up so easily? How could either of them be satisfied with the meager resolution that was proffered? I wasn't. I wanted more for Adam and more from Mia, and that's all there is to it. All of that excruciating growth and hard-earned experience deserved more than a token apology on her part and a grateful acceptance on his. It was too fast, too simple, and too saccharine even for my romantic heart. I ended it in dismay, wishing it wasn't so. In other words--the exact opposite of how I felt at the end of If I Stay. Each reader's reaction will be different, of course (see linked reviews below). This was mine and mine alone. I'm so very glad Mia chose to stay. I just really wish I hadn't found out where she went.

Linkage
The Crooked Shelf Review
A Dream of Books Review
Everyday Reading Review
Fluttering Butterflies Review & Interview
Galleysmith Review
Laura's Review Bookshelf Review
Taming the Bookshelf Review
That's What She Read Review
Wear the Old Coat Review
Wondrous Reads Review

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

2012-02-07T14:33:00.002-07:00

It was all the hype surrounding the release of Where She Went that actually got me interested in reading If I Stay. I was aware of the love it received upon its publication a couple of years ago. But even though it appeared to be universally loved, I never picked it up, as I tend to be somewhat leery of coma/out of body experience stories. It's not that I've read a ton of them, but in the few that I have read, I've had a hard time connecting to the main character. What with them being . . . well, comatose and all. So I'd pretty much decided I wasn't going to try this one, until the blogosphere had a collective meltdown over there being a sequel at all and then at how awesome it apparently was. You know how hard it is to resist that promise of a sequel that lives up to (possibly even surpasses) its predecessor. I'm certainly not able to hold out against it for long. So I snagged a copy of If I Stay and ignored my niggling concerns to see just what all the fuss was about.

Mia comes from a musical family. From her ex-rocker dad and groupie mom to her adorable drummer of a little brother, her family has music in its bones. And Mia does, too. But not in exactly the same way. You see, Mia loves classical music. She's a dedicated cellist and just waiting for that acceptance letter to Julliard. Her loving family supports her passion, if they remain a bit bemused at how straitlaced and determined she is. Then the unthinkable happens. Mia wakes up to find she's been in a car crash. Her entire family was in the car, and now she's in a coma and her parents and brother are . . . gone. From a foggy distance, Mia watches life go on and alternates between watching her body in the hospital and flashbacks to life before the crash, to her relationships with her family members and with her sweet musician boyfriend Adam. What will happen, Mia is not sure. Is there anywhere to go from here? Is she stuck in an eternal in-between? And most importantly, will she ever have the chance to tell her loved ones how much they meant to her?

My emotions about If I Stay have not faded over time. It's a monumentally quiet story, and the reader drifts along with Mia on a gently wistful refrain of loss. In fact, it's so quiet and gentle that it borders on bland. Which is not to say that I didn't like Mia and Adam and the rest. I did. Very much. And I'm not sure what I was expecting, but what I got was much lower key than that. The writing was competent and unobtrusive, the characters sympathetic, and the situation (naturally) absolutely heartbreaking. But I wasn't consumed. I wasn't so attached that I couldn't put it down. But I kept reading because I did feel fond of these characters, and I really did want to find out how Gayle Forman would resolve Mia's story. And here's where things get interesting, my friends. Because If I Stay has the best ending I've read in some time. And I am not even a little bit joking. I am seven kinds of serious when I say that this book ramps up to one humdinger of a climax. It was so good it took my breath away. And it sneaks up on you like nobody's business, so that when it does happen you immediately look back on the whole in wonder. Because it really was more than the sum of its parts. It was one of those not just a good ending, but the only one, you know? And all I could think was how well-crafted it was, how seamless and inconspicuous, how softly it crept, all so that you could experience the sheer magnitude of that ending. Honestly, I was just so impressed. It was the perfect ending, and truthfully I wasn't sure at all that I wanted a sequel. Which is actually how you ought to feel after finishing any book, isn't it? Bravo, Ms. Forman.

Linkage
Books for Company Review
It's All About Books Review
Maw Books Blog Review
Medieval Bookworm Review
My Friend Amy Review
Novel Thoughts Review
One Librarian's Books Review
Presenting Lenore Review
See Michelle Read Review
StoryWings Review

Flat-Out Love by Jessica Park

2012-02-03T11:21:00.001-07:00

I bought the ebook version of Flat-Out Love when I saw what a good deal it was right now. I'd seen it read, reviewed, and loved here and there for several months now, but for some reason nothing pushed me over the edge into trying it out myself. I know. Then when I found myself in between books and casting about for the next great thing, I remembered I had it on my nook and pulled it out to see how we got on. The answer is: famously! This is one of those books you kick yourself for not picking up sooner and then attempt to make reparations by singing its praises in the hopes that others will be quicker and savvier than you. I also just ordered the paperback, because I can tell that a digital copy is not going to be enough. This is one I'll want to have on my shelves for lending and rereading and the like. Plus, it's pretty, that cover. I mean, it kind of fills me with a maelstrom of emotions after the fact. But pretty it is. This is my first book by Jessica Park and I'm eager to find out what she's working on next and what we have to look forward to.

Julie is a bit down on her luck already and it's only her first day in Boston. She's come all the way out east to go to college, leaving her mother and the Midwest behind. But it turns out using Craigslist to secure an apartment wasn't the brightest idea. Fortunately, after one harried phone call with her mother and one minor meltdown in front of the burrito shop that was supposed to be her apartment, Julie is saved when the son of her mother's old college roommate shows up. Her mother's old roommate Kate and her family live in town and offer to let Julie stay with them until she finds an actual apartment where she will not be mugged or killed. Putting aside the fact that she really didn't even know Kate existed, and that she's just about as different from her mother as it's possible to be, Julie settles in to life with the eccentric Watkins family. And eccentric doesn't even really touch the surface when it comes to these people. Kind and generous, they are also incredibly . . . different. What with professor parents Erin and Roger never being around at all, MIT student Matt's over-the-top nerd shirts and doubtful social skills, and 13-year-old Celeste carting around a life-size cardboard cutout of her big brother Finn, whom she has dubbed Flat Finn. Between searching for a place to live, trying not to make a nuisance of herself, and navigating the obviously treacherous waters going on in this family, Julie has her work cut out for her. Doesn't help that she appears to be developing a crush on one far-flung member of the family along the way . . .

What is it about me and books set in Boston? It may come from having devoured a large quantity of Ellen Emerson White books as a young adult, but hand me a book about a girl and Boston and I am one happy clam. The hilarious thing is, I've never even been there! I dream about parts of this city I feel like I know like the back of my hand, I've read about them so many times. But I have yet to see them with my own eyes. One of these days . . . So, rather unsurprisingly, I fell in love with Boston and the Watkins family right along with Julie. Quite frankly, it's impossible not to. They are wonderfully obtuse and endearing. The banter between Julie and Matt has a hilariously natural flow to it, as she ribs him for being hopelessly uninterested in Things Not Math, and he responds in kind teasing her for being too preoccupied with pop culture and caffeinated drinks and other lower aspects of life. Honestly, it is such a good time following the way Julie organically becomes a part of the family. She takes a special interest in Celeste, determined to get to the bottom of why she felt the need to create Flat Finn and what she's afraid will happen if she doesn't have him by her side (talking to him) every minute of every day. Finn himself is off traveling the world and his communications with Julie via Facebook had me grinning ferociously. As it happens, this book engaged every one of my emotions. The romance is of the heart-palpitating variety, somehow managing to be sweet, genuine, and seriously intense all at the same time. And even as I laughed out loud at one of Finn's many digital witticisms or one of Celeste's oddball contraction-free responses, fear crept up on me reading from behind. Fear of what Julie would find and that her finding it would shatter the fragile peace Matty, Celeste, Erin, Roger, and Finn had constructed. I wiped tears away more than once, and my love for every single one of the characters only grew and never diminished. Flat-Out Love is not only incredibly addicting but packs an emotional punch I felt in my gut for days after. Highly, highly recommended.

Linkage
Chachic's Book Nook review
The Compulsive Reader review
Janicu's Book Blog review
Rather be Reading review
Reading After Midnight review
Stuck in Books review
The YA Curator review

The Raven Boys Cover

2012-02-02T13:25:00.000-07:00

I knew next to nothing about The Scorpio Races before it was published, and look how spectacularly that turned out. So my reaction to Maggie Stiefvater's announcement that she has another book coming out this fall, that it's called The Raven Boys, and that it features a girl named Blue and a guy named Gansey was pretty much . . . BRING IT.

First in a four-part series, The Raven Boys is due out September 18th.

Queen's Thief Week

2012-01-25T22:18:00.001-07:00

Today I'm over at Ch-ch-ch-Chachic's place losing my crap over Eugenides and Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief series in general. Chachic invited me to talk a little bit about how I've gone about convincing others to read this wonderful series, and I happily accepted. I mean, talking about talking about books? Count me in! Bibliovangelizing is one of my very favorite pastimes and these books have caused me to indulge in quite a lot of it. This is one spectacular event Chachic's organized and the posts so far have been top notch. Do drop in and say hi, won't you?

Bibliocrack Review: Simply Irresistible by Jill Shalvis

2012-01-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure I ran across Jill Shalvis as part of a list of recommendations for people who enjoy Kristan Higgins books. As that would very much be me, I decided to investigate the matter. And you know what? The woman has written an absolute crap ton of books! Where to start, where to start? I finally settled on the first book in the Lucky Harbor series, Simply Irresistible, as a nice little point of entry. I was encouraged by the fact that the covers and titles for this series feel like they hail from the chick lit end of the romance spectrum, and I still feel like I'm getting my feet wet, so to speak, when it comes to those genres. Several people I trust on Goodreads seemed to be keen on it, which is always a plus and an excellent indicator of where I'll fall, so hello Lucky Harbor it was. Well, I made short work of the three books currently out in this series, and I'm happily awaiting the next three on the horizon. In retrospect, I think this series is definitely a good fit for Kristan Higgins fans, if a bit higher up on the heat scale.

Maddie Moore is on the road to the small coastal town of Lucky Harbor, Washington and not at all sure how she feels about it. Recently sprung from both a relationship that was demolishing her and a job that was keeping her afloat, she is understandably torn over recent developments. Breaking it off with her "boyfriend" (I use the term with extreme disdain) was the hardest thing she's ever done. Leaving L.A. was a close second. But when the news came that she (along with her two half-sisters Tara and Chloe) had inherited a moldering old inn up in Lucky Harbor when their mother passed away, Maddie thought it just might be a sign. That her life had a new direction. That perhaps she might be able to reinvent herself after all. That is if she can convince her somewhat estranged sisters that they shouldn't sell the place on the spot, pocket their thirds, and head for the hills. Fortunately, she runs into a general contractor on her way into town who might be able to help with the major rehabilitation the inn will need in order to convince her sisters it's worth their time and money spending a little more of both in Lucky Harbor than they planned. Maybe even putting down some roots and see if they take.

Cute. Very cute is the way I'd describe Simply Irresistible. Maddie and I got on right off the bat. She forms the sensible, forthright center of the trio of sisters, and she made me feel grounded while I laughed and shook my head at Tara and Chloe's respective charisma and antics. I enjoyed mapping their widely disparate histories, as Maddie and Tara both grew up with their fathers, leaving Chloe the only daughter to actually spend any time at all with their wild and inconstant mother. Sandwiched in between her livelier, more colorful half-sisters, Maddie often gets overlooked and shunted to the side. But she is definitely the heart of the girls and the story. And I was pleased to see her push her way to the fore from time to time, carve out a little place for herself, and face up to her past. With the help of a little added purpose in the form of the inn and the admiring eye of Jax Cullen. Jax is a general contractor, among other things. He has his hand in a lot of Lucky Harbor pies, a past to match Maddie's for pain, and a good eye when it comes to character. Jax and I got on just fine. Here's one of the exchanges between Maddie and Jax that, well, it made me giggle:

"Sorry," he said. "Let me drop the belt--"

"No." She held on when he would have pulled away. "Dont. I like it."

Again, he lifted her face, and he smiled. "The tool belt turns you on."

"No." She closed her eyes and thunked her forehead to his chest. "Little bit."

So basically I waltzed my way through this introduction to Jill Shalvis and ended our first encounter with a heart as light as one of Tara's muffins.

For what it's worth, after reading (and enjoying) all three books, Simply Irresistible remains my favorite. I think that's because, while I really liked Tara and Chloe, Maddie and Jax remain the ones with the kind of gravitas that works for me. It's the one that I want to have on my shelf for those nights when something cozy is in order. For what it's worth.

Reading Order
Simply Irresistible
The Sweetest Thing
Head Over Heels

Linkage
About Happy Books review
Book Binge review
Book Obsessed review
Ex Libris review
Fiction Vixen review
Gone with the Books review
Smexy Books review
Smokin' Hot Books review

Icy Pretties

2012-01-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

The good news is these are all due out in the spring. So, not really that far away at all. The bad news is one of them is only coming out in Australia. When, oh when, will the American publishers tune in to the awesome that is Kirsty Eagar? I refer you to my review of Raw Blue. All three look interesting to me, and I'll be searching them out come springtime for sure.

Night Beach by Kirsty Eagar
After falling hard and fast for Raw Blue, I am quivering with anticipation over this upcoming release. As with its predecessor, this one looks like it involves surfing and a girl finding solace in the sea. Unlike its predecessor, it also has Gothic mystery elements. Uh-huh. Where do I sign?
Due out (in Australia) April 26th.

The Selection by Kiera Cass
Another pretty dress, I know. Apparently I am still prey to the allure of the ruffles and the endless reflections. Ah, well. You can only grow up so fast. This is a dystopian. And though it does sound a bit like Princess Academy meets The Bachelor, I'm intrigued by the caste system and the selected living in a palace under rebel assault.
Due out April 24th.

Pure by Julianna Baggott
This one is popping up under post-apocalyptic, steampunk, and young adult labels alike. It's also garnering rave reviews from the likes of Richard Russo and Justin Cronin. Featuring mechanical butterflies and a society of the damaged versus the pure, I'm cautiously optimistic.
Due out February 8th.

Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie

2012-01-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

In the mood for a cozy, post-holiday read? I suggest you give Maybe This Time a try. I first discovered Jennifer Crusie through the insanely entertaining Bet Me. I then immediately went on a Crusie binge. And though I enjoyed several of them, none quite matched up to that first one. So I'd been kind of avoiding another Crusie read, even after hearing very positive reviews of her newest. The fact that it was categorized as a mystery/romantic suspense piqued my interest, but when I received it as a gift awhile back, I placed it on my nightstand and promptly forgot about it. Sometimes you have to wait until the right time for a certain book rolls around, you know? I've made my mistakes trying to force a book at the wrong time, and it never accomplishes anything but driving a rift between us. So I waited on this one. And the right time rolled around (as it almost always does) a few nights back. I'd been bouncing around from book to book for awhile, searching for the one I needed. What a relief and a surprise to find it was the unassuming little ghost story that had been patiently sitting on my nightstand lo these many months.

Andie Miller is trying to do the right thing. Walking into her ex-husband North Archer's law office to sever all remaining ties seems to be, by all accounts, the right thing to do. Even if it is almost impossibly hard. After all, they have been divorced for ten years. And the single torrential year they were married ended so spectacularly badly it almost crushed Andie. They've both moved on since, and it's time for some closure. But when she sits down with North, the man who never asked anything of her while they were married now has a favor to ask. Will she travel down to one of the family estates where his two young wards are living? Their aunt died not long after their parents did, and it seems there's some trouble keeping a reliable caregiver in the house. Could she possibly go down and check on them, see if she can get them ready to attend school? Then in just a few weeks' time they'll be done with each other for good. She can go off and marry her fiance and start that calm and peaceful life she's been looking for. In the face of the hefty wad of cash North is offering her in exchange for her efforts, Andie agrees, overrules her own doubts as well as her fiance Will's objections, and packs her bags. Of course, circumstances at the old house are far grimmer than North suspected. Twelve-year-old Carter and six-year-old Alice are unusual, to say the least. And desperately unhappy. Creepy old Mrs. Crumb, the housekeeper, seems to encourage Alice's tantrums and Carter's increasing isolation. And the longer Andie stays there, the more convinced she becomes that the whole place is haunted. She tries to convey the extent of the weird in her sporadic calls to North, but it's clear that saving these children from whatever dark force is lurking will be up to her and her alone.

I started making a list of my favorite things about Maybe This Time on page one, and I quickly lost count. A retelling of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw complete with all my favorite Gothic trappings and a leading lady and man with a history with a capital H? I was instantly in heaven. From the first page, which has just two lines on it:

This book takes place in 1992.

Because.

And you know the slightly odd, not-so-very-far in the past setting is perfectly suited to this wacky, atmospheric, romantic tale. I was charmed by the sartorial, cultural, and musical references throughout. In fact, the song "Somebody's Baby" plays a significant role in the book, and I could not get it out of my head (in a good way) the entire time I was reading it. I love it when that happens, when an author successfully accesses a specific cultural artifact that I as the reader have experience with. And so we both bring a set of emotions to the table, creating a wholly new, vibrant experience through the act of reading. I hadn't thought of or heard that song in years. But suddenly I'm singing it in the shower and humming it while I'm driving. And from now on I will associate it with this story and these characters. Speaking of these characters, here's a representative phone conversation between Andie and North which shows a hint of why I keyed into this thing going on between them so quickly:

She sounded worried, and North tried to think of a way to make her feel better and then realized that was ridiculous. She was doing a job for him, she hadn't called for comfort, they weren't married anymore no matter what lies she was telling down there, he had Mrs. Nash waiting, and there was nothing he could do anyway . . . "Do you need me to come down there?"

"No, I can handle this," she said, her voice as confident as ever. "It's the kids I'm worried about. I don't know if I can make things normal for them. I think I can make things better."

"You always make things better."

The silence stretched out at the other end of the phone as he thought, Dumb thing to say, and then she said, "Thank you." Her voice was softer than it had been, and it brought the past rushing back again.

"You're welcome," he said, thinking, Get off the damn phone. "I'll get you your cable and your contractor and somebody to fix the phones."

"I know you will. You always come through."

Jesus. "Call me if there's anything else," he said briskly, trying to find his way back to normal.

"I thought we weren't supposed to talk to each other."

"I was going through an independent phase," North said, and then closed his eyes as her laugh bubbled through the phone.

"That was a helluva long phase. I'll call if there's anything else. You have a good day."

She hung up, and he sat there with the phone in his hand for a minute, trying to find his way back to normal.

There's a lot going on behind those words, and one of the highlights of this book was tracking down those hidden histories, following the progress of this relationship that ignited, flared out, and is trying to find its way back to normal. Another highlight was far and away Andie's relationship with the two kids. Alice and Carter are just barely hanging on. I loved them immediately, and if North did nothing else admirable in this book, I would love him for sending them Andie. She's strong and mouthy, and without blinking an eye she sets herself up as their protector, promising she won't leave until she sets things right. I lapped it up right along with them. Truthfully, I was glad she was there, because this book effectively creeped me out. The roaming spirits and the eerie, bloody history of the house's inhabitants slipped their icy fingers under my skin. And, while the last third of the story got a little too crazy, and I started wishing it had gone back to the restrained tension it mastered in the first two-thirds, I thoroughly enjoyed it for taking me away from it all, giving me characters I could root for, and sending chills down my spine.

Linkage
Alpha Heroes review
Books from the Addict review
La Deetda Reads review
Medieval Bookworm review
S. Krishna's Books review
Smart Bitches Trashy Books review
Smexy Books review

Friday Evening Stops

2012-01-06T11:07:00.000-07:00

It's still just the first week in January and already all kinds of things are going on around the blogosphere. It's these kinds of things that remind me it's okay that the holidays are over and good things will certainly come this year. Starting with these three:

First off, I wanted to be sure to point out that today is the last day to download Magic Gifts--the free Kate Daniels novella that Ilona Andrews gave as a Christmas gift to the fans. Best idea in the world, if you ask me. I've read it and loved it and you will, too. So scoot on over and download it before it's gone!

Next up, I would be remiss if I didn't direct you to the screamingest Kindle book deal around. Linda Gillard's fabulous Emotional Geology is now available on Kindle for a mere 99 cents! This is my favorite of all of Linda's wonderful books. Previously out of print, you do not want to miss this one. My review here.

Lastly, I'm going to be taking part in an exciting event in just a couple weeks. Chachic's Book Nook is hosting The Queen's Thief Week as a way of celebrating and spreading the word on that wonderful series. I had my own meltdown over its awesomeness almost exactly two years ago now, and the awe has yet to fade. I'll be guest posting (along with several other awesome authors and bloggers), so be sure to check it out then.

Have a good weekend!

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

2012-01-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

I read The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Christmas tree light in one blissful chunk. I fell in love with the cover awhile back, because, well, love the font and the red on black and white, and the blessed not-a-single-word title. Honestly, they're few and far between these days, and they always snag my attention as a result. But I knew very little about it otherwise. Nevertheless, when it became available on NetGalley, I went ahead and downloaded it to my nook. I figured it looked to be a nice, sweet way to kick off the new year. A light romance about two kids who meet in an airport? I tend to get a bit anxious, a bit maudlin come the end of the holidays and the beginning of a new year. So it sounded like a perfect January read to me. Of course, I let it sit there for a bit, trying to finish up a few end-of-year reads. And then one late afternoon I found myself with a couple of hours to kill. I'm not sure what combination of stars aligned to create that little event, but I immediately plopped down on the couch in front of my Christmas tree and opened up this little baby. I didn't look up once until I was done.

Hadley is on her way to her father's wedding. Against her will. To a woman she's never met. Despite the fact that he left her and her mother for a position at Oxford, England in general, and a woman named Charlotte, both her parents think she ought to attend his wedding. And so after much mutiny, she finds herself on her way to the airport. But as happened so many times in her dreams, she's late and misses her plane. Unfortunately, that poses as many problems as it solves. Now she's stuck in the airport waiting for the next flight to London, and she has that much more time to hash the whole painful debacle out in her head. Terrified of flying, she has both the wedding and the mode of transportation to dread. And then a small kindness. The boy across the way offers to watch her suitcase for her while she makes a trip to the bathroom. In fact, he does her one better and comes with her. They get a bite to eat and start talking about why they're both headed across the pond. Turns out Oliver is actually British. Studying at Yale, he's on his way back for a similar command performance. And an unlikely friendship is struck up on the one night of the year Hadley was most afraid of confronting alone. Of course, the flight only lasts a finite number of hours. And all too soon they touch down at Heathrow and must say goodbye. Just when they were beginning to really get to know one another.

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight stuck with me long after I finished reading. I mentioned how cute the cover and premise made it seem, but I actually find myself in the position of saying that it is so much more than the cover (which I really do like) makes it seem. I expected short and sweet. What I didn't expect was wonderfully mature characters and thought-provoking situations. Hadley may be putting up a fight over attending a wedding, but I can't fathom someone blaming her. Her dad left them. He left them, and nothing has been right since. Her mother went into a spiral of depression, and for awhile there it was Hadley keeping the two of them afloat. And when all the adults seem to have risen above things to put on a good show, it's pretty clear that no one gave Hadley enough time to marshal her own emotions and do the same. So she's forced to do it on the fly. Anyone would be a wreck. And then there's Oliver. Oliver reminded me of one Cricket Bell. Cute in a gangly, smart way. He's got his own demons breathing down his neck, but he doesn't prance about wearing them on his sleeve. In fact, he's able to reach out to someone else--a total stranger--in distress. The way he manages to distract Hadley literally in her hour of need was charming and understated and won me over so that I, too, was pained at the thought of parting just after meeting him. The lovely bit is that Jennifer E. Smith allows the story to continue beyond the parting, and we get to follow Hadley as she confronts her fears and all the water not-so-far under the bridge between herself and her father. I felt folded into the simple beauty of this story of a girl coming to terms with her father being so deeply fallible, and whether or not his very real failures negated the years of love and care he gave her growing up. Setting her struggle against the unexpected possibility of a fledgling relationship was the perfect touch on Ms. Smith's part. As was the wonderful incorporation of a love for Dickens and a certain copy of Our Mutual Friend. Here, my favorite passage, which shows you what I mean about the thoughtful writing and the emotion it wrung from me. It's long, but worth it:

When she was little, Hadley used to sneak into Dad's office at home, which was lined with bookshelves that stretched from the floor to the ceiling, all of them stacked with peeling paperbacks and hardcovers with cracked spines. She was only six the first time he found her sitting in his armchair with her stuffed elephant and a copy of A Christmas Carol, poring over it as intently as if she were considering it for her dissertation.

"What're you reading?" he'd asked, leaning against the doorframe and taking off his glasses.

"A story."

"Yeah?" he asked, trying not to smile. "What story?"

"It's about a girl and her elephant," Hadley informed him matter-of-factly.

"Is that right?"

"Yes," she said. "And they go on a trip together, on a bike, but then the elephant runs away, and she cries so hard that someone brings her a flower."

Dad crossed the room and in a single practiced motion lifted her from the chair--Hadley clinging desperately to the slender book--until, suddenly, she was sitting on his lap.

"What happens next?" he asked.

"The elephant finds her again."

"And then?"

"He gets a cupcake. And they live happily ever after."

"That sounds like a great story."

Hadley squeezed the fraying elephant on her lap. "It was."

"Do you want me to read you another one?" he asked, gently taking the book from her and flipping to the first page. "It's about Christmas."

She settled back into the soft flannel of his shirt, and he began to read.

It wasn't even the story itself that she loved; she didn't understand half the words and often felt lost in the winding sentences. It was the gruff sound of her father's voice, the funny accents he did for each character, the way he let her turn the pages. Every night after dinner they would read together in the stillness of the study. Sometimes Mom would come stand at the door with a dish towel in her hand and a half-smile on her face as she listened, but mostly it was just the two of them.

Even when she was old enough to read herself, they still tackled the classics together, moving from Anna Karenina to Pride and Prejudice to The Grapes of Wrath as if traveling across the globe itself, leaving holes in the bookshelves like missing teeth.

And later, when it started to become clear that she cared more about soccer practice and phone privileges than Jane Austen or Walt Whitman, when the hour turned into a half hour and every night turned into every other, it no longer mattered. The stories had become a part of her by then; they stuck to her bones like a good meal, bloomed inside of her like a garden. They were as deep and meaningful as any other trait Dad had passed along to her: her blue eyes, her straw-colored hair, the sprinkling of freckles across her nose.

Often he would come home with books for her, for Christmas or her birthday, or for no particular occasion at all, some of them early editions with beautiful gold trim, others used paperbacks bought for a dollar or two on a street corner. Mom always looked exasperated, especially when it was a new copy of one that he already had in his study.

"This house is about two dictionaries away from caving in," she'd say, "and you're buying duplicates?"

But Hadley understood. It wasn't that she was meant to read them all. Maybe someday she would, but for now, it was more the gesture itself. He was giving her the most important thing he could, the only way he knew how. He was a professor, a lover of stories, and he was buildng her a library in the same way other men might build their daughters houses.

The most important people in our lives elicit the strongest emotions and the broadest array of them. Sometimes we love them. Sometimes we hate them. Sometimes the love and hate are so inextricably intertwined, it's easier to give up than stick it out and find your way to peace. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight explores these themes of love and anguish in such unassuming and meaningful ways that I found myself pressing my hand to my chest the emotions were that true and close to the surface. What a beautiful way to start of a new year of reading. I do hope you seek it out.

Linkage
Forever Young Adult review
In the Good Books review
Novel Thoughts review
One More Page review
pretty books review
Sophistikatied Reviews
wordslikesilver review

Best of 2011

2011-12-31T18:49:00.000-07:00

It's New Year's Eve, and I've managed to compile my best of 2011 list. I've come to realize I don't really believe in top tens. They're so limiting. When have I ever been able to fit anything I love into an even ten? So here are my top 14 favorite books of the year.

Best of 2011

(in order of publication)

River Marked by Patricia Briggs

Children of Scarabaeus by Sara Creasy

The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

House of Silence by Linda Gillard

Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews

The Dark Enquiry by Deanna Raybourn

I'll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan

The Demon's Surrender by Sarah Rees Brennan

Until There Was You by Kristan Higgins

A Lily Among Thorns by Rose Lerner

How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

FYI, that's 3 urban fantasies, 4 contemporaries, 2 historicals, 1 fantasy, 1 mystery, 1 magical realism, 1 post-apocalyptic, and 1 scifi.

Best New Discovery of 2011

Sarra Manning
I took Sabrina of About Happy Books' word for it and ordered both Unsticky and You Don't Have to Say You Love Me on a whim. I waited impatiently for them arrive from across the pond, and I literally did not resurface for days after. And now? Now I will read anything she writes. Just . . . anything.

Biggest Character Crush of 2011

Alan Ryves

So maybe he was my crush from last year. So what?

Biggest Author Crush

Sarah Rees Brennan
I can't tell you how many laughs I've had this year because of this woman. She is active on all my favorite social media sites, and she could write cereal box copy that would have me in stitches. Not only does she write books and characters that fill me with the feelings, but she is also the dispenser of wicked good book recommendations. What more can a devoted reader ask?

Best Books I Read in 2011, Which Were Published a Different Year

Bachelor Boys by Kate Saunders

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Unsticky by Sarra Manning

Song of Scarabaeus by Sara Creasy

Raw Blue by Kirsty Eagar

The DUFF by Kody Keplinger

All I Ever Wanted by Kristan Higgins

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

Happy New Year!

Retro Friday Review: Son of the Shadows by Juliet Marillier

2011-12-30T22:07:00.000-07:00

Retro Friday is a weekly meme hosted here at Angieville and focuses on reviewing books from the past. This can be an old favorite, an under-the-radar book you think deserves more attention, something woefully out of print, etc.Everyone is welcome to join in at any time!

Do we have time for one last Retro Friday review for the year? I figured it ought to be a good one. And since I reviewed Daughter of the Forest a few weeks back, it seemed only right to close the year out with the sequel. Just another one of those perfect books I read before I started reviewing books and then sort of shied away from reviewing because it's well nigh impossible to do justice to a book you have all the feelings for, you know? It also happens that this is not only one of my very favorite books of all time but one of my favorite winter reads, as the night of Midwinter's Eve plays rather a large role in the story. Son of the Shadows is one of those unexpected wonders and another example of how to absolutely kill it with a sequel. If you asked me if it was possible for Juliet Marillier to write a sequel as good as the first book, I would have immediately laughed out loud and uttered a resounding no. I truly didn't believe it was possible to follow Daughter of the Forest with anything that would even remotely measure up. Well, I was never happier in my life to eat my words. Because Son of the Shadows blew me out of the water. I finished it ready to say that it was not only as good as but better than its predecessor. I'm pretty sure I still think it is. It's hard because they're both stunning, and while Liadan is different from her mother Sorcha in many ways, she shares the strength and determination and goodness that made me fall in love with her mother. I love them both unreservedly, as I do both of these dear, dear books. If you haven't read this one, perhaps this winter is the perfect time to sink back into the world and family of Sevenwaters once more.

My mother knew every tale that was ever told by the firesides of Erin, and more besides. Folks stood hushed around the hearth to hear her tell them after a long day's work, and marveled at the bright tapestries she wove with her words. She related the many adventures of Cu Chulainn the hero, and she told of Fionn mac Cumhaill, who was a great warrior and cunning with it. In some households, such tales were reserved for men alone. But not in ours, for my mother made a magic with her words that drew all under its spell. She told tales that had the household in stitches with laughter, and tales that made strong men grow quiet. But there was one tale she would never tell, and that was her own.

Liadan has grown up surrounded by the love of her family and the peace and safety of the forest of Sevenwaters. The younger daughter of the beloved Sorcha--the young woman who sacrificed everything for her brothers and won them back from the clutches of the powerful sorceress Lady Oonagh--Liadan has tried to emulate her mother in every way. A talented healer, she spends her days making salves and medicines and taking care of the people of the keep. She is also a twin, an unexpected third child to her parents. And because she was unforeseen, her mother feels certain Liadan's path will be her own, that she is outside the pattern, and that her choices may have the power to change things for good or for ill. But Liadan has no idea just how outside the pattern her path will take her, until she is abducted on the road while on a journey to visit her sister. Taken by the band of the Painted Man, she is forced to offer her services as a healer or pay the price of failure with her life. From the tales whispered around firesides at home, Liadan knows the kind of ruthless killer the Painted Man is. And so she is determined to use her skills to save the man in question, and then return home to her family as soon as is humanly possible. But just as the Fair Folk took an interest in her mother's fate, an even deeper magic is at work in Liadan's. And though the outlook is bleak, and the people around her may not be entirely what they seem, the light of hope still burns as does Liadan's formidable will to survive.

To say that Son of the Shadows holds a special place in my heart is a bit of an understatement. Okay, it's a massive, massive understatement. I love it when an author shows you just how much she has in her arsenal by exceeding every expectation you had and then some. Where Daughter of the Forest was a retelling of a fairy tale, this one is all her own, and the places she takes it are incredible. I think about these characters on a regular basis, they've become so much a part of my consciousness. I fell in love with Liadan first, because she refused to give up on on those she loved. When she was backed into a corner, she pushed back with everything she had. Like her uncle Finbar, she wants more than the rules of her world will allow. And when she comes up against those constraints, she devises ways of holding onto those she has called hers. There is much of darkness in this book. Each character is forced to deal with the pain of their past and the shortcomings of their present. Some of them succumb to their faults and some rise above. But what I love best of all is the ways in which they reach out to each other, across the barriers of time, gender, race, and space. Across even the margins between this world and the next. As with its predecessor, the love story is second to none. I think I fell even harder for these two for how hard they had to work to keep their happiness. Amid the harshness and the violence surrounding them, their bond was doubly precious for its ability to outlast adversity and to mend that which is broken. Here is one of the passages closest to my heart. It comes early on and it just encapsulates Liadan (and the lovely writing):

I sat there and made my breathing slow and calm, and told myself what I had told others many a time: Breathe, Liadan, the pain will pass. The night was very quiet; the darkness a living thing, creeping in around the two of us. I felt how tight strung his body was; I sensed his terror, and how he fought to conquer it. I could not hope to touch his mind, nor did I wish to see more of the dark images it held. But I could still speak, and it seemed to me words were the only tool I had for keeping out the dark.

"Dawn will come," I told him quietly. "The night can be very dark, but I'll stay with you until the sun rises. These shadows cannot touch you while I am here. Soon we'll see the first hint of gray in the sky, the color of a pigeon's coat, then the smallest touch of the sun's finger, and one bird will be bold enough to wake first and sing of tall trees and open skies and freedom. Then all will brighten and color will wash across the earth, and it will be a new day. I will stay with you until then."

The color of a pigeon's coat. One bird brave enough to sing of tall trees and open skies and freedom. That is Liadan. That is the power of her hope and her incomparable will. In this beautiful book of light and shadow, of choosing who you will be and protecting those you love, hers is the light that shines the brightest. You could do far worse than give your heart to her and to her story. It will be safe in her hands.

Linkage

Book Harbinger review

Book Rat review

Chachic's Book Nook review

Nose in a Book review

Royal review

See Michelle Read review

Starlight Book review

Merry Christmas to all . . .

2011-12-25T21:06:00.000-07:00

. . . and to all, a good night.

Anna's Beauty, Or Reason #265 Why My Niece is Awesome

2011-12-22T14:49:00.000-07:00

Last night we went up to my sister-in-law's house to meet our newest niece. And in between oohing and ahhing over her indisputable adorableness, I got to take a peek at my oldest niece's bookshelves. Anna's twelve and a reader. The real deal. And I'll admit that I got a little thrill when I saw that she owns not one but two copies of Robin McKinley's Beauty. I had to take a pic of the one edition, because I've never actually seen a copy in real life, and, because, really, it's too spectacularly 80s for words:

I feel compelled to point out how appalled this particular Beauty would be at this representation of herself. But otherwise? Yup. Too spectacularly 80s for words.

The Hobbit Trailer

2011-12-22T13:06:00.000-07:00

Watching and rewatching this is making me incredibly happy. Especially the part where Richard Armitage sings. *quietly fangirls*

Untying the Knot by Linda Gillard

2011-12-15T08:55:00.000-07:00

I love this cover. It has all kinds of interpretations once you've read the book, and I've enjoyed contemplating all of them after the fact. Linda Gillard's novels have become comfort reads for me when I'm looking for quietly moving stories with a hefty amount of substance to match the touching moments. I would not categorize any of them as "cozy" reads. There's far too much pain and history in them for that. Rather they are meaningful and full of thoughtful explorations and characters whose feet are a bit more rooted to the ground than you sometimes find in similar novels of a lighter nature. Having read and loved Ms. Gillard's first self-published novel House of Silence, I was nothing but excited when I heard she had another coming out just a few short months later. On an only slightly related note, do you ever bemoan the fact that you've never had the chance to run hell bent for leather through a field in a wedding dress? It just never occurred to me on my actual wedding day, and now I'll never know if it's as headlong and romantic as it looks on covers such as this one. Alas.

Fay left her husband. But then he left her first. And so sometime around about the hour of his greatest need, Fay checked out. Unfortunately for the two of them, it turned out to be the hour of her greatest need as well. They neither of them were up for supporting the other through their particular trials. Not anymore at least. And after more than a decade of marriage as an army wife, Fay can barely hold herself together, let alone her husband Magnus who suffers from severe PTSD after being invalided out of his career in bomb disposal. And so she calls it quits, saying farewell to the guilt, the bewilderment, the talking her husband off a ledge on a regular basis. And she moves into their apartment in Glasgow and starts a career as a textile artist. Their daughter Emily chooses to stay with Magnus in the crumbling tower he purchased with the lofty intention of restoring it to its former glory. And life goes on. Then several years later, Magnus attends one of Fay's exhibits and the whole messy business rears its ugly head. Emily is getting married. So the estranged couple is forced to act polite and attend the requisite functions. Despite her reservations about Emily's choice, Fay believes she's up to the task of playing mother-of-the-bride. What she may not be up to is the task of watching Magnus get married, too. But then Magnus may not be either . . .

Linda Gillard's books always make me feel. They make me feel more than I expect to and in very different ways than I think I will. In short, they're more than meets the eye in the very best kind of way, and they surprise you even when you think you have a handle on the author's style. I absolutely loved where Untying the Knot began. Two people in a room with such back story between them it fills the air with so much regret and uncertainty you could choke on it. Then it goes and unfolds so very slowly that you're half in love with Fay and Magnus before you even realize just how exactly and in what particular order the components of their marriage came apart at the seams. But by that time you love them, and you're not willing to condemn either party for what happened. Not until you find out the cold, hard facts. And, of course, even as you're waiting, you hope against hope they'll be able to reconcile, that they'll wake up and realize they're still in love with each other and can somehow live together again. It's a tall order, all those feelings. And Ms. Gillard admirably resists the easy path. And the cold, hard facts. Because though the ancient stones of Tullibardine Tower are both cold and hard, what lies between Fay and her ex-husband is not. It fairly seethes with life, messy and unfinished. The road to redemption is painful at best, and I felt a bit wrung out by the final pages, almost wishing it had resolved a bit sooner. The ending felt just a bit off. Both slightly overdone and anticlimactic at the same time, as if it were trying to atone for making its appearance so late in the game. This may just be my own lack of stamina, because it was the only complaint I had of a novel filled with beautifully thorny relationships, true love, not a little bit of hysterical humor, and that lovely writing I've grown so fond of from Linda. The truth is I will read anything she writes, and that's all there is to it.

Linkage
Book Harbinger review
The Book Jotter review
I Prefer Reading review
Views from the Countryside review

Cinder Audiobook Giveaway Winner!

2011-12-12T08:24:00.000-07:00

And the winner is . . . Sarah (Escaping Through Books)!

Congratulations! Sarah's favorite fairy tale has always been Sleeping Beauty. That was definitely a favorite of those who entered the giveaway, including a shout-out for Spindle's End--my favorite version of it. More favorites included Cinderella (appropriately), The Twelve Dancing Princesses, Beauty and the Beast, and The Little Mermaid. And one mention of The Seven Swans--a personal favorite of mine. So if you could send me your contact info, Sarah, we'll be happy to get your package on its way. Thanks to Macmillan Audio for hosting the giveaway and to all of you for stopping in and sharing your favorites!

Christmas Couples Countdown

2011-12-12T08:11:00.001-07:00

Today you can find me over at Not Enough Bookshelves guest posting on my favorite couple from 2011. I know! How did I narrow it down? It was agonizing. But I think I landed on the two that really set my pulse permanently racing this year. If you've got a minute, be sure to drop in and see who it was. This is the third year running Alexa has hosted her Christmas Couples Countdown and it's always a blast, especially as we usually have several favorite duos in common. Happy holiday reading, everyone!

Cinder Audiobook Giveaway!

2011-12-02T14:18:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased to host a giveaway today of the audiobook of Cinder by Marissa Meyer. This cyberpunk/scifi retelling of Cinderella has a lot going for it (you can read my review here). The book and audiobook are due out January 1st. But Macmillan Audio is letting us in on a sneak peek of the audio version below. If you like what you hear, please leave a comment with your favorite fairy tale and your contact information, and you'll be entered to win the audiobook! This giveaway is open to U.S. addresses only and will end at midnight on December 9th.

Smugglerific

2011-12-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

Today you can find me over at The Book Smugglers kicking off their annual Smugglivus celebrations! The usual awards will be given out. Think you can guess who I picked for Best Declaration? Villain? Ridiculously Charming Hero? Be sure to stop on by to see who and say hi!

Until There Was You by Kristan Higgins

2011-11-29T12:42:00.000-07:00

It's taken me forever to get around to reviewing this one, and I feel bad about that, because I don't want that lag time to be a reflection of my reaction to it. At all. This is actually the second Kristan Higgins book I read immediately after inhaling All I Ever Wanted a few months back. It's also her newest publication, and I was interested to see if I liked her new stuff as well. You know how sometimes you really connect with an author's work from a certain "period," if you will? And then some of their other works don't quite do it for you? I really hoped this wouldn't be the case with Higgins. Given how blissfully I fell into my first of her books, I had all sorts of appendages crossed for more of the same. I knew she had a huge fan following, but I also knew that (much like Jennifer Crusie or Julie James) people seem to really have their favorites and the ones they just didn't like much at all. Case in point, I thought All I Ever Wanted was the freaking bee's knees, but not everyone feels the same. Which is just dandy. I'm glad of it, in fact, as I'm always drawn to authors where that is the case. Which camp will I fall in? Which bench will I plop down on and feel at home? The anticipation is excellent.

Posey (short for Cordelia--sort of) Osterhagen has asserted control over her life. At thirty-four years old she's no longer living with her adoptive parents, working in their German restaurant, invisible to one and all. She owns and runs a salvage company. She's even got a handful of employees of her own. And she's moved out of her folks' house and into a converted church bell tower. It's drafty. And the enormous old bell may crash down and kill her at any given moment. But it's home. It's hers. And life is looking pretty good for Posey. Until Liam Murphy moves back into town. When she was 16 years old, Posey had the mother of all crushes on the bad boy biker from the wrong side of town. No one knew, of course. And Posey herself didn't realize until now that she never quite got over Liam when he left Bellsford, New Hampshire for college in California. Of course, he didn't go alone. And he hasn't returned alone, either. His wife (and hometown girl) Emma Tate passed away in the intervening years, and Liam has brought their 15-year-old daughter Nicole home to Bellsford, where he's set up a custom motorcycle shop. And, unwittingly, sent one Posey Osterhagen's well-ordered life into a tailspin. As you can imagine, mayhem, snark, and sizzle ensues. Not necessarily in that order.

Posey is my favorite Higgins heroine, and that's all there is to it. Not only is she the most complex, in my opinion, she also exhibits the largest growth as a character. Also in her favor--she never bored me or drove me crazy with her inability to call a spade a spade. I always sympathized with her plight, and I admired her drive to stand up for herself and be stronger than she used to be, no matter how many times her past rose up and tried to squeeze the life out of her. She did this, over and over, throughout the course of the book and in the face of parents and various and sundry town denizens who seemed hell bent on refusing to recognize her as an adult. Also in the face of Liam Murphy's considerable charisma. All in all, no mean feat. When she succumbed to her weaknesses, I understood why. When she called Liam out on his arrogance and assumptions, I applauded. Kristan Higgins is able to infuse her ostensibly quite light stories with an incredible amount of warmth and heart. I just buy the connections between her characters because they're laid out clothed in so much genuine emotion. In this case, I was particularly enamored of Liam's struggle with his overwhelming guilt, fear, and love for his daughter. His insecurities as a single father with a checkered past rang true for me and pleasantly balanced out what vestiges of his cocky teenage self remained. I also felt my heart thump in my chest for Posey and her struggle being so different from her adopted family as well as her sensitivity to Liam and Nicole's fragile little family. The emphasis on being seen for who you really are, despite the name you're given, the shape you hold, or the nature of your roots was decidedly a highlight. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, you guys. Gobbled it up, in fact. Until There Was You is right up there with All I Ever Wanted for my favorite. It's sweet, funny as hell, and everything I've come to expect from Kristan Higgins.

Linkage
The Allure of Books Review
Book Binge review
Book Harbinger Review
The Book Pushers review
A Girl, Books and Other Things Review
Lauren's Crammed Bookshelf review
thelibrarianreads review
My Guilty Obsession Review
S. Krishna's Books Review
Smexy Books review

Watery Pretties

2011-11-22T11:28:00.000-07:00

I feel a bit like I'm drowning looking at these three watery covers. But I'm kind of drawn to them as well. I love the font on New Girl and the other two are creepy and grand in their own way. I've never read anything by any of these authors. All three due are out in the first half of next year, and I'm interested to find out more.

When the Sea is Rising Red by Cat Hellison
Eerie cover, no? And the contents sound fairly grim as well, but in a most intriguing way. Arranged marriages, fake deaths, vampires, magic from the ocean, and washing dishes in the slums. As Abed would say, "Cool. Cool, cool, cool, cool."
Due out February 28th.

New Girl by Paige Harbison
This one caught my eye because it's a contemporary retelling of Rebecca. I know! The mind boggles at the possibilities. Set at the prestigious Manderley Academy (lol) where the "new girl" is trying to fit in in a world where the name Becca Normandy is on everybody's lips. Awesome.
Due out January 31st.

Of Poseidon by Anna Banks
Emma is on vacation in Florida when a dangerous encounter with a shark results in the opening up of an entirely unknown world. An ocean kingdom and a prince in need of saving are suddenly at the forefront of Emma's mind. That and her hitherto unknown ability to communicate with fish. Count me in.
Due out May 22nd.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

2011-11-21T21:18:00.000-07:00

This cover. This cover is in the running for my favorite cover of the coming year! I love it that much. And I love the title. And, even more than both of those put together, I love the premise of a sci-fi/cyberpunk retelling of Cinderella with a cyborg as the main character. You should have seen my face when I first found out about Cinder. It's like Marissa Meyer asked me for my list of all that is good and then slapped them together into this book. Add to that the fact that it's the first in a quartet (oh, how I love quartets, see this one, and this one, oh, and this one over here), and the name of the series is the Lunar Chronicles. I don't know . . . it kind of seemed like this book and I were a match made in heaven. I've been reading sci-fi for as long as I can remember, and I feel like we don't get enough of it these days in young adult fiction. So I would have been on board for that aspect of the book alone. But a sci-fi/fairy tale mashup? Fuggedabout it. And so it was with much relief that I started it and found out it was legitimate on both counts.

Linh Cinder is a mechanic and a cyborg. Orphaned as a child in a terrible accident, her life was saved when doctors intervened, replacing her missing hand and foot with metal ones. Now she works long hours in her stall at the market in New Beijing, and she goes home to a loveless household headed by her evil stepmother. There's certainly no love lost between these two. But while her older stepsister Pearl takes after her mother in every respect, her younger stepsister Peony is as innocent and sweet as Pearl and her stepmother Adri are cynical and conniving. Unfortunately, Cinder also has the question of class working against her. Cyborgs are second-class citizens in every way. Looked down on, and often outright loathed, by the people of New Beijing, cyborgs are the first to be offered up for medical testing and the last to be invited to social events such as, oh, say--a ball. Incredibly, our girl Cinder is headed for both, though she has no idea yet. Then one day the emperor's son Prince Kai shows up at her stall with an android in need of repair. The emperor himself is dying of the deadly plague letumosis, which has been decimating the population for the past decade. And before she knows it, Cinder is caught up in both the fight against the disease and an unlikely friendship with a young man who has his own set of problems.

Cinder is quite a serious book, both in the sense that it takes itself seriously and that it deals with serious issues, such as death, disease, class conflict, and war. I think I was expecting something lighter, but the whole taking-itself-seriously and the fascinating world building quickly set me at ease. I loved the attention to detail with which Ms. Meyer depicted the grimness of Cinder's life and her world. She's a mechanic and an outcast. She wears castoff coveralls and a worn-out work belt in place of the flouncy dresses and jewels other girls her age are flaunting. And her outlook matches her clothes. Cinder is a realist, and that is my favorite thing about her. She knows the way things work. And mechanics with steel appendages do not make good with emperors' sons. No matter how charming they may be. As a result, there is very little of the lovelorn teenager about this girl. As much as she slowly allows herself to enjoy the prince's company, not once does she fool herself into forgetting the horror that would blossom on his face were he to discover what she is. Instead, she reserves the majority of her emotional energy for fixing up an old car she finds in the junkyard, harboring the long-shot hope that it just might serve as an escape vehicle when the time comes that she can no longer stand her abysmal home life. Then when the plague strikes close by, Cinder taps already flagging reserves of strength to help and support the ones who are stricken. She's tough and pragmatic. We like Cinder, yes we do. Then there's Kai. Prince Kaito. What you need to know about Kai is he's . . . very cute actually. Determined to do right by his own obligations, he won me over as he did Cinder for being more than he seemed. At the same time, this is the aspect of the novel that needed more development, in my humble opinion. I liked that the story took its time, but with all that time, there wasn't actually much of it devoted to these two developing their relationship. What was there was good. I just needed a little more. Perhaps a better way of putting it would be, I wish that the relationships between characters had benefited from the skill applied to the world building and the awesomely creeptastic villain. There's quite a buildup by the end (the end is possibly the best part). But just when things finally get going, it ends. On one big, fat doozy of a cliffhanger. Which is fine. I'm not opposed to cliffhangers, per se. But I did expect just a hint more in the way of resolution depth for such a slow cycling climax. I was left wanting. My needs aside, I thought the characters deserved to have it out. I realize there are three more books in the series, and there is clearly more to come. I just could have done with a little more emotional payoff to keep me believing, if you will. That said, I loved each of Marissa Meyer's clever sci-fi tips of the hat to the elements of the original fairy tale. Word is the next books will incorporate more fairy tales, including Rapunzel, Red Riding Hood, and Snow White. Color me intrigued (and hopeful) for more development in future installments.

Cinder is due out January 3rd.

Linkage
Bibliopunkk Review
The Book Lantern Review
Fluidity of Time Review
Karin's Book Nook Review
Nice Girls Read Books Review

Retro Friday Review: A Woman of the People by Benjamin Capps

2011-11-18T11:54:00.001-07:00

Retro Friday is a weekly meme hosted here at Angieville and focuses on reviewing books from the past. This can be an old favorite, an under-the-radar book you think deserves more attention, something woefully out of print, etc.

I first read A Woman of the People for an assignment in my 7th grade English class in San Antonio as part of our Texas literature unit. I loved it then. I really did. And I wasn't expecting to. I had recently moved to the Lone Star state from the island of Sicily and things were . . . a little different. Which is a really understated way of saying I was hopelessly unequal to the task of handling the differences between living in Italy and living in Texas. On top of that it was 7th grade, and 7th grade, as you know, is hell. I wasn't comfortable in my own skin. I wasn't comfortable back in the states. And I certainly wasn't comfortable at the middle school with its walls that felt as though they were closing in on me a little closer and a little tighter every day. So a book set on the Texas frontier didn't exactly have my engines racing, you know? Fortunately, I started it anyway. And that was all it took. Just starting it. I've re-read it a couple of times over the years since. For awhile there at work, I was conducting quite a bit of research on the history of Native American tribes and their interactions with early settlers. That research reminded me of this book and I discovered my old copy had gone walkabout. But I couldn't shake the urge to pick it up again, so I managed to find a copy to reread. It was as wonderful and heartbreaking as I remember it being. I feel like I say this more than I'd like, but I don't think I've talked to a single soul (outside of that 7th grade class) who's read this book and that's a shame. It deserves a wider readership than a handful of reluctant 7th graders.

Helen Morrison is nine years old and her little sister Katy is five. Living with their parents and their older brother George near the Brazos River on the Texas frontier, Helen and Katy's lives are practical but airy. They play and work and dream, and when Helen can't sleep at night she keeps herself up with stories of the scariest thing she can imagine--the Comanches. But while she believes they're real (even though she's never seen one), her young mind cannot really conceive of the terrible warriors her Aunt Melinda whispers of so threateningly. Then one fall day the Comanches come. The tribesmen destroy the Morrison homestead, killing the parents and older brother and carrying the two young girls off captive. In shock, angry, and determined to escape and return back home, Helen puts all her energy into taking care of Katy and not giving an inch to the people who have shattered her life. She soon becomes known among the tribe as Tehanita, or Little Girl Texan, and over the course of the next fourteen years she slowly (almost unbeknownst to herself) becomes assimilated into the Comanche tribe, finding family, companionship, and love among the people she once feared and distrusted.

I love Helen's story. I think my 12-year-old self, struggling to bridge two different cultures, found a lot to resonate with in her anger, fear, and uncertainty. I had read several traditional captivity tales around that time (Calico Captive comes to mind), and this one held the allure of being based on a true story. Interestingly, re-reading it as an adult, I relate to the story just as well as I did then, albeit this time more along the lines of the pain associated with actually being a grown up, leaving the world of childhood and home behind, and the wonder and joy of finding family where you didn't expect to and people who take you in and love you when they don't have to. I especially appreciated the emphasis on transformation and the many different roles we fill over the course of our lives, whether we go in willingly or not. Helen goes from scared young girl to Tehanita to a woman of the people, but her final role as Story Teller for her people may be my favorite. And I will always love the ways in which she is loved and taught by her adopted family Lance Returner and Come Home Early, Old Woman and Blessed. And of course by one unusual young man who falls in love with the outsider and the grand gesture he makes. I was and remain enchanted by the beautiful chapter titles: Mountains That Wander Away, The Winter of Living in Graves, and West Toward the Setting Sun. Strong and bittersweet, A Woman of the People is a beautiful narrative and one that should not be forgotten.

Retro Friday Roundup
Good Books and Good Wine reviews Sweethearts by Sara Zarr
One Librarian's Book Reviews reviews Alanna: the First Adventure by Tamora Pierce

The Hunger Games Trailer

2011-11-14T20:35:00.001-07:00

Oh. Holy. Crap.

Retro Friday Review: Carpe Diem by Autumn Cornwell

2011-11-11T22:57:00.000-07:00

Retro Friday is a weekly meme hosted here at Angieville and focuses on reviewing books from the past. This can be an old favorite, an under-the-radar book you think deserves more attention, something woefully out of print, etc.

I ran across Carpe Diem around four years ago in the Feiwel & Friends catalog. They had the excellent good sense to reprint the wonderful President's Daughter series by Ellen Emerson White, and I wondered what other YA titles they had on the docket at the time. My eye was drawn to this cover right off the bat, and I still think it's just perfect for the book. I love the slightly faded parchment look of it. With the silhouette and the hair and the style it could be anything really. In this case, it's a contemporary novel about a girl who goes on the trip of a lifetime and who's priorities are rearranged a bit as a result. I never hear very much about the book around the blogosphere and I wonder if it just sort of flitted and floated its way by or if others picked it up for its pretty outsides and enjoyed the insides as much as I did. I haven't seen anything else from Autumn Cornwell after this debut, but I would certainly be interested in more from her.

Vassar Spore's parents just went ahead and named their only daughter after one of the most prestigious women's colleges in the country. Unsurprisingly, she grows up a goal-oriented perfectionist intent on winning a Pulitzer Prize and marrying an MIT grad. Yawn. In steps Vassar's bohemian grandma who demands she spend the summer with her backpacking across Southeast Asia. Blackmailed to within an inch of their lives, Vassar's parents give in and off she goes to a region of the world she never thought she'd see. And it's all bugs and dirt and complications from there on out. She encounters a myriad of people and pests from different walks of life and vastly different outlooks from her own. And the girl who thought she was so open-minded and so adaptable discovers she has just a few more things to learn about life before she heads off to college to save the world.

Okay. So I think we can all agree that this plot line could have easily slipped into the predictable too-serious-girl finds there's more to life than book learning . . . but somehow it just . . . doesn't. I kept waiting to succumb to that familiar jaded feeling and it never came. And even though I did predict one key surprise correctly, Cornwell absolutely won me over with her genuine love for her character and the region of the world she was exploring. You could tell the author had traveled herself (and loved it) as there's just that certain kind of wanderlust and experience with being immersed in something wholly other that's difficult to manufacture. It was here in spades and I was suffused with memories of living abroad growing up and studying abroad later in college. Precious memories, every one. This wonderful sense of adventure lent the story a freshness I wholly enjoyed. Vassar's voice is a strong one, one that changes and grows over time, which I always appreciate. Lastly, if none of this has induced you to read the book, all I have to say is you might want to meet the handsome young man Vassar encounters on her sojourn. Because Hanks the Malaysian Cowboy Bodyguard alone is enough reason to read the book. "Hanks plural, not singular." Man, I love that cowboy.

Retro Friday Roundup
Chachic's Book Nook reviews The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope
A Girl, Books and Other Things reviews The Accidental Vampire by Lynsay Sands
Good Books and Good Wine reviews Esio Trot by Roald Dahl
A Jane of All Reads reviews Miss Suzy by Miriam Young

Linkage
bookshelves of doom review
Fields of Gold review
Over my Head review
The YA YA YAs review

Scarlet by A. C. Gaughen

2011-11-09T07:59:00.000-07:00

Okay. I'm not saying that this blog is necessarily going to become a repository for all things Robin Hood. Not as such. But you are all familiar with my . . . what's the word . . . thing . . . for thieves. And Robin is perhaps the thief I've loved the longest. So it should come as no surprise when I say that I was filled with glee when I first heard about A. C. Gaughen's upcoming retelling--Scarlet. I liked the cover and, without running down too many spoilery details, I looked forward to the focus on Will Scarlet and the fact that it hailed from a debut author. All of these things add up to that most wonderful of things--possibility. I've reviewed both my favorite Robin Hood retellings for past Retro Friday reviews. And I've read quite a few more. They have all been interesting reads aimed at a variety of types and ages of readers. This particular one is being marketed YA, and I wondered idly, as I anticipated the book, what form my beloved characters would take in this incarnation.

Scarlet is a thief. And a liar. She's a thief and a liar and about twenty different kinds of deadly with her knives. And she's loyal to one person on this earth and one person only--Robin Hood. Also known as Robin of Locksley or (less commonly now) the Earl Huntingdon, Robin gave her a place and a hood to hide behind when Scarlet needed it the most, and now she forms an integral member of his band in Sherwood Forest. Standing up to the ruthless Sheriff of Nottingham, Robin, Scarlet, and the lads (Little John and Much) are determined to spare the good folk of Nottinghamshire from the sheriff's wrath for as long as it takes. Outside of her three comrades, few folk have any idea Scarlet is a girl. The boys refer to her as Will, and she has no intention of disobliging anyone of that particular notion. You see, Robin is not the only one with demons in his past. And when the sheriff goes and hires the dreaded Guy of Gisbourne to hunt down the Hood and his band, Scarlet knows her days may at last be numbered. It's only a matter of time before her past catches up with her, and then even Robin's protection may not be enough to keep her from the hangman's noose.

Scarlet is massively entertaining. I was caught up in this unusual thief's story from the first page. At the point in which we meet her, Scarlet herself is eighteen years old. The same age as John and just a couple or three years younger than Rob (I love that she calls him Rob). This age spread worked nicely as Robin is home from the crusades--an old man in a young man's body--and Scarlet herself is an old soul, having prowled the streets of London before Rob hauled her off to Sherwood to join his noble cause. These two broken youths find something akin to hope in each other despite the harshness of their previous lives, and I can't tell you how many times my heart contracted with sympathy for them. The characters in Scarlet like to keep their secrets. Every one of them is holding onto something they'd prefer not come out into the light of day. Nobody more than Scarlet herself, of course, but I appreciated the various histories and enjoyed the ways in which A. C. Gaughen incorporated the many traditional threads of the tale. I'm always a fan of girls in disguise, and this one has the bite to match her bark, if you will. She has few soft spots--possibly just the one--and that one is so rife with impossibility and unspoken hope that it hardly warrants the name. But I happily plunged into those impossible hopes with her and adopted them as my own. Which is to say, Scarlet had my affections from the get go. The boys I liked at first and grew to love (and sometimes hate) as the game unfolded. I like that Robin isn't portrayed perfectly. Don't get me wrong. He's a hero through and through. But he has his fair share of shortsightedness. And ghosts. And I wasn't always sure he deserved the ending I wanted for him. I also wished for a bit more complexity on the part of the villain. There was so much potential for Gisbourne in this retelling, and I felt as though he came off a bit, well, ridiculous at times, when he should have been terrifying. But despite these smallish quibbles, I stayed up hours past my bedtime devouring the final chapters in this delightful debut. If you're at all a fan of Robin Hood and women who know their way around a weapon, you won't want to miss it.

Scarlet is due out February 14th.

For Darkness Shows the Stars Cover

2011-11-03T12:37:00.000-06:00

It's covertastic around these parts lately! This time in a very good way. Here you have the absolutely gorgeous cover for Diana Peterfreund's upcoming novel For Darkness Shows the Stars. My excitement for this post-apocalyptic retelling of Persuasion (yes, you have my permission to swoon from the sheer awesome) has been building for some time now, and I am thrilled to finally see the actual cover. I love it. Love the sweep of the dress, the stars, the font, her hair. Love it all. Your thoughts?

For Darkness Shows the Stars is due out June 12th.

Coverfail, or How to Make Angie Cry

2011-11-02T10:31:00.000-06:00

So I was prowling the shelves of my local bookstore, and I found myself (as I often do) trailing my fingers along the spines of Tamora Pierce's Alanna books. When what to my wondering eyes did appear but a new set of covers on my beloved old books. I pulled them out quickly, eager to see what kind of artwork they'd gone with this time. For the record, I own three different editions of this series: my original copies from way back when, the interesting mini-hardcovers they put out several years ago, and the somewhat more recent, fun black paperbacks Simon Pulse published. But I am nothing if not open to a possible fourth set.

These are the new covers of the first two and fourth books:

Not too bad, right? A little generic. I mean, the halo thing is all right, and she has a kind of Peter Pan quality on the first one that is charming and will hopefully bring in some new young readers. So not too bad overall. Unfortunately, this is the cover of the third book:

Whaaa . . . ? I'm sorry. Have I unwittingly slipped into some alternate universe in which ~~Bella~~ Alanna loses her spine, dresses in flutter-sleeve tees, and dithers between two brooding alpha males? I understand we're trying to appeal to new readers here, but this is so misleading and reductionist that I don't know where to start. I couldn't get it out of my hands fast enough. This book (and series) is so not a paranormal romance. And that is most definitely not Jon or George on that cover. This is traditional fantasy, not some contemporary love triangle with a token sword thrown in for some flair. The whole thing makes me want to cry. If you haven't read these books before, don't be deterred and/or confused by the new packaging. They are so much more than these coverfails make them out to be.

Pirate + Rapunzel

2011-11-01T11:18:00.000-06:00

One Book, Two Book, Three Book, Four . . . and Five!

2011-10-31T12:44:00.002-06:00

I actually don't remember the last booky meme I filled out. And so when I ran across this fun (quick!) one over at Read the Book, I decided it looked like just the thing.

1. Book I am currently reading: Cinder by Marissa Meyer
I love everything about this idea. I'm about 80 pages in right, and so far so good!

2. Last book I finished: Untying the Knot by Linda Gillard
Linda writes some of my very favorite contemporary adult titles. This is her latest and, as usual, I fell right into it. Review to come.

3. Next book I want to read: The Shadow Reader by Sandy Williams
Entirely because of this review. I can only hold off a trip to the bookstore for so long. It must be mine soon.

4. Last book I bought: Mastiff by Tamora Pierce
Because even though I wasn't crazy about the previous book in the trilogy, this is the third and final book, and I find I do want to see how Beka's story turns out.

5. Last book I was given: Imaginary Lands by Robin McKinley
This unexpected gift brought tears to my eyes not only because I've been looking for a copy of this out of print collection for years, but because it arrived on a bad day. And suddenly something good had happened. Thanks so much, Martha.

Retro Friday Review, Halloween Edition: Sunshine by Robin McKinley

2011-10-28T23:32:00.000-06:00

Retro Friday is a weekly meme hosted here at Angieville and focuses on reviewing books from the past. This can be an old favorite, an under-the-radar book you think deserves more attention, something woefully out of print, etc.

I look forward to this season every year because it means I get to reread Sunshine. This is one of my few solid seasonal reads. I revisit it every year for so many reasons. Because it originally came out in October. Because it absolutely encapsulates autumn for me. And Halloween, of course, what with all the vampires and the midnight outings and the smell of fallen leaves and cinnamon rolls in the air. And because it's just one of the biggest Angie books there is. I remember being almost apoplectic with excitement when I heard Robin McKinley was writing a vampire novel. The whole notion filled me with tingles. And imagine how happy I was when it turned out to be better than I could ever have imagined. I know people have strong feelings on this book, one way or the other, and it's certainly not your run-of-the-mill urban fantasy (thank heavens for that). But for those who love feisty girls with thoughts of their own, ugly vampires with developing senses of humor, and wonderfully rich, dense, smart writing, this book may very well have your name on it. As for me, I bought it the day it came out (almost exactly eight years ago). I took it home and read it aloud with DH. And to this day favorite passages and scenes come up in our daily conversation. So as Halloween approaches, a Retro Friday review of my very favorite spooky read.

A side note: I'm not even slightly embarrassed to admit I own all three editions pictured above. If a new edition of Sunshine comes out, I buy it. End of story. It helps that they're all so very pretty. If pressed, I will admit that the original U.S. hardcover with the chandelier is my favorite. But I adore all three. And the important thing is that they're there. On my shelves. So that when the urge arises, I can take them out and stroke them and know that they're there and that they're loved. I know. But like I said--not even a little embarrassed.

It was a dumb thing to do but it wasn't that dumb. There hadn't been any trouble out at the lake in years. And it was so exquisitely far from the rest of my life.

These opening lines set the scene. Sunshine just wanted some solitude. Just a little time away from the strange and chaotic life she leads as the head baker at Charlie's and as her mother's daughter. She gets up every morning at the butt crack of dawn to get the dough going for her famous Cinnamon Rolls as Big as Your Head. And for Sunshine's Killer Zebras. And for Bitter Chocolate Death. And any number of awesome, original desserts and pastries she whips up on a daily basis at Charlie's--her stepfather's diner. She gets up and fights another round with her overprotective, obsessive mother. She gets up and goes out with her former soldier/reformed biker/cook boyfriend Mel. She gets up and gets through another day in New Arcadia--one of the few remaining spots that wasn't utterly demolished by the Voodoo Wars. And all she wanted was a moment alone in a peaceful place. So she drove out to the lake to sit. And that's when they came. And that's where they got her. As everybody knows, you don't hear them coming. Not when they're vampires. And you don't come back either. But Sunshine does come back after her extended and terrifying encounter with one vampire Constantine. She comes back and comes home. But. Even though she's home once more, nothing is the same. For all her surviving the encounter, she may not survive living with herself after.

Sunshine is one of those sarcastic, supremely set-in-her-ways tough girls that I seem to live for. The girl holds my heart in her flour-dusted hands. And because she is rendered in Robin McKinley's trademark prose, she's even more quirky and meandering and tangentially-inclined than those girls usually are. The tangents and meanderings bother some readers, I understand. If long internal monologues aren't your cup of tea, then they're not your cup of tea. But nobody can say that Ms. McKinley didn't go all-out hardcore when she sat down to write an urban fantasy. Because she did. And I love Sunshine with the fierce kind of love I reserve for those characters and stories that take no prisoners and make no apologies. I knew I would love Sunshine herself on page two when she set out to describe her stepfather.

Charlie is one of the big good guys in my universe.

There's so much fight and heart in that simple statement. Her relationship with Charlie is a highlight of the book, as he took her in as his own, gave her a job and a way out, and understood her when her mother could only scream. The way she introduced him made me love her. Many of Rae's rambling monologues include wry, self-effacing asides that always make me grin. For example:

I didn't want to know that the monster that lived under your bed when you were a kid not only really is there but used to have a few beers with your dad.

Set against the backdrop of almost certain doom, these barbs of humor secured my affection the way nothing else could have. I laugh a lot when I read Sunshine. I also shiver deliciously with fear. Which brings us to Con. As if Sunshine wasn't enough, Robin McKinley had to go and write Con--a vampire as far removed from the sexy-sparkly variety as is inhumanly possible. I really don't know of any other author who could make me fall in love with a vampire with skin the color of old mushrooms and a voice that unhinges your spine. But fall in love with Con I did. Or, more precisely, fall in love with the unlikely alliance of Sunshine-and-Con I did. It is this unprecedented friendship between human and vampire that is the real heart of the book. And it is made more believable (and much more valuable) by the lengths to which the author goes to to display how antithetical, how other, they are from one another. These two are not drawn together by attraction or random circumstance. They are bound together by the will to survive, by the refusal to live at the expense of another life, and by a slow-simmering, if uncomfortable, mutual admiration. The combination of Sunshine's jittery rambles and Con's remote and ominous silences gets me every time. As does the smart, knotty writing, Sunshine's passion for what she does, and the wonderful, wonderful restraint exercised to let the story unfold in its own way. Every time I read it, I find extra nuance and sympathy. And a perfect ending. As only she knows how to write them. This book, you guys. This best of all combinations of fairy tale, urban fantasy, and horror story. Neil Gaiman notably described it as "pretty much perfect," and I have to concur. I never tire of it. It's October once more, and I'm feeling that familiar Sunshine pull. Which copy shall I read this time?

Retro Friday Roundup

A Girl, Books and Other Things reviews Magic Knight Rayearth Vol. I by CLAMP

Janicu's Book Blog reviews Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

2011-10-26T09:42:00.000-06:00

Shatter Me came across my radar purely through the blogosphere. I'm fairly certain I wrote it off initially based on the cover alone. Having read it now, I'm even less of a fan of the cover. In fact, I vastly prefer the plain white cover of my ARC. It retains the slashed title (which I love), but otherwise it is just a field of white. The final cover sells the book short, in my opinion, especially Juliette herself. The model, her expression, and the dress are just too froufy and faux intense for Juliette and for my taste. I feel like the story deserved a starker, more ambiguous cover. So what encouraged me to check out this debut novel was definitely not the cover, but rather the collective heart attack it seemed to be giving a slew of my favorite bloggers. I heard "beautiful writing" and "awesome dystopian" and I hoped. But I made sure to go in with carefully measured expectations, because I've had a few of those "beautiful writing awesome dystopians" lately that have just not worked for me, even if they knocked it out of the park with other readers like me. Probably says more about me than it does the books, but there it is.

Juliette counts. She counts everything, from the square footage of her cell to the number of days since she's seen the outside. By numbering the terrifyingly small confines of her world, she is able to stay somewhere in the vicinity of sane as those parameters slowly shrink around her. Locked up for a murder she did commit, Juliette has no idea what the Reestablishment plans on doing with her, or why she's in what seems to be an insane asylum and not hanging from the end of a rope. In fact, she is as haunted by the inadvertent experience as anyone. But then everything about her world is haunting these days. Nothing is as it was, and the longer she sits alone in her cell, the more it seems no one will ever come around to bothering with one lone girl whose touch is lethal. And then one day. Someone comes. Or, rather, is thrust against his will into her cell. And so now there are two. But Juliette is immediately haunted by the innumerable possibilities. Why give her a cellmate? Why now? And why this particular person? The one who has eyes she remembers, even though it's been years and years. More importantly, who is behind this sudden change and what exactly are they trying to accomplish?

Reader, I liked it from page one. And the reason is Juliette. My heart broke over her. Over and over again. She tells her story as it happens, in exquisitely close detail, and with an eye and ear attuned to the colorless vagaries of her world. Her words are full of metaphors, raining down on the reader. And I liked how the that sweeping language was balanced by the frequent strikethroughs that pervaded her thoughts. I know some readers are bothered by those, but I appreciated the way they simultaneously underscored and brought into question Juliette's take on what is going on around her. They encompassed the words she longed to say but couldn't, the thoughts passing through her head that were so horrifying they must literally be struck from the page. I will say that, while I never tired of the strikethoughs, the constant use of repetition and hyperbole did wear on me after awhile. The thing is, overall I think Tahereh Mafi does such a fine job with the language. I just thought it needed to be reined in some places so as to not tax the reader, and in order to preserve the emotional effect of those particularly devastating phrases and passages. Because when she nails it, she nails it. And when it comes to the three principal players in this novel, Ms. Mafi's words paint them in livid color. I love all three of them--Juliette, Adam, and Warner--for very different reasons. You guys, this villain, he is not kidding around. He may be my favorite aspect of the book. In fact, the strength of my love for Warner may have caused me to overlook a few places in which things happen too quickly or too easily to be credible. In retrospect, I sort of wish they'd never left the asylum. Or Warner's compound. Because those sections are incredibly tight and afterwards things get a bit nebulous, a bit uneven. But so you get a feel for what I'm talking about with the characters and the writing style, here is a scene fairly early on between Juliette and Warner (taken from my uncorrected ARC). This was the scene in which I really fell in love with them both.

Warner follows me into my room.

"You should probably sleep," he says to me. It's the first time he's spoken since we left the rooftop. "I'll have food sent up to your room, but other than that I'll make sure you're not disturbed."

"Where is Adam?" ~~Is he safe? Is he healthy? Are you going to hurt him?~~

Warner flinches before finding his composure. "Why do you care?"

~~I've cared about Adam Kent since I was in third grade.~~ "Isn't he supposed to be watching me? Because he's not here. Does that mean you're going to kill him, too?" I'm feeling stupid. I'm feeling brave because I'm feeling stupid. My words wear no parachutes as they fall out of my mouth.

"I only kill people if I need to."

"Generous."

"More than most."

I laugh a sad laugh, sharing it only with myself.

"You can have the rest of the day to yourself. Our real work will begin tomorrow. Adam will bring you to me." He holds my eyes. Suppresses a smile. "In the meantime, try not to kill anyone."

"You and I," I tell him, anger coursing through my veins, "you and I are not the same--"

"You don't really believe that."

"You think you can compare my--my disease--with your insanity--"

"Disease?" He rushes forward, abruptly impassioned, and I struggle to hold my ground. "You think you have a disease?" he shouts. "You have a gift! You have an extraordinary ability that you don't care to understand! Your potential--"

"I have no potential!"

"You're wrong." He's glaring at me. There's no other way to describe it. I could almost say he hates me in this moment. Hates me for hating myself.

"Well you're the murderer," I tell him. "So you must be right."

His smile is laced with dynamite. "Go to sleep."

"Go to hell."

He works his jaw. Walks to the door. "I'm working on it."

Dynamite is right. Call me crazy, but I love these two together. I mean Warner is a complete and utter psycho. But heaven help me, I love him. And hate him. I . . . okay. So my Warner feelings are an inexplicable and very violent hodgepodge. But I wouldn't have felt the same way about Shatter Me without him. And I will return for the sequel because of him. And Juliette. And the love story. And the out-of-left-field ending that left me humming the theme song to X-Men.

Shatter Me is due out November 15th.

Linkage

Babbling About Books, and More Review

The Crooked Shelf Review
Good Books and Good Wine Review

GReads! Review
Makeshift Bookmark Review

Novel Thoughts Review

Presenting Lenore Review

The Reading Date Review

Rebecca's Book Blog Review

Tez Says Review

YA Bliss Review

Retro Friday Review: Mad Kestrel by Misty Massey

2011-10-21T16:54:00.001-06:00

Retro Friday is a weekly meme hosted here at Angieville and focuses on reviewing books from the past. This can be an old favorite, an under-the-radar book you think deserves more attention, something woefully out of print, etc.

I decided to pull this one out not long ago, because I've been feeling like pirates lately. Sometimes you just feel like some good piracy, don't you? The boy has chosen to be a pirate for Halloween this year, and so the various accouterments and necessities have been swirling around the house, and so the whole thing has been on my mind. I ran across Misty Massey's debut novel somewhere over three years ago on the shelves of my local bookshop and the cover pulled me in right away. It's wonderful, isn't it? So many possibilities in it . You don't know whether it's historical fiction or steampunk or fantasy or a combination of all two or more of those. I love it when a cover allows you to avoid genre stereotyping like that for a little while at least. And then there was a lovely blurb from Sharon Shinn to give me that little extra push. So I grabbed it off the shelf and took it home with me. And I was very glad I did. I almost never hear people talking about Mad Kestrel, and yet I really think it deserves a wider audience. I mean, as Tom Stoppard said, "Pirates could happen to anyone."

Kestrel is a pirate. After years fighting to prove her worth, she's now the quartermaster on the pirate ship Wolfshead. She has become invaluable to her captain and mentor Binns, and the crew respect her and follow her lead. The story opens in the midst of a sea battle between Kestrel's crew and a mysterious vessel that seems to disappear and reappear out of the mist like some sort of phantom ship. Later, while on shore, Kestrel and Binns run into the captain of the mysterious ship, one Philip McAvery who is both dashing and maddening and who seems to have his sights set on Kestrel and her captain. Unfortunately, all hell breaks loose at this point. Binns is captured and imprisoned under false pretenses. McAvery makes off with the Wolfshead, and Kestrel is on the run from a pair of assassins and a bounty hunter.

No one is what they appear to be in this book. Even Kestrel. Gifted with the power to whistle up the wind, she has spent her life determined to hide her ability and thereby avoid the Danisoban Brethren--an order of mages who routinely round up all magically inclined children in order to use them for their own purposes. Interestingly enough, water is supposed to dampen magical ability. But our Kestrel is an exception. And she would prefer her unusual status remain safely anonymous. But Binns' capture and the continual interference of the inimitable McAvery gang up on her, making it difficult for Kestrel to maintain her grasp on the life she so carefully crafted for herself. What I like about Kestrel is how comfortable she is in her skin. Her qualms about her magical ability aside, she straddles the gap between women and pirates with panache. She is endearingly unselfconscious in her admittedly unusual role. And though she despises skirts and does not actively seek men out, she doesn't avoid them either. Misty Massey doesn't spend much time laying out back story on her characters. The reader is plunged into the middle of the action and comes to know the characters slowly as the story progresses. It wasn't until the end that I felt like I was getting a handle on who Kestrel, McAvery, and Binns really were. But it was a fun ride, packed with characters full of secrets and escapades on the high seas. I look forward to checking out Kestrel's (and McAvery's....grin) further adventures. It's been my understanding that Ms. Massey has been working on the second volume for awhile now, but I have heard very little about it. This distresses me. I'm crossing my fingers that it finds its way into print (and my hands) very soon.

Retro Friday Roundup
Chachic's Book Nook reviews Blackbringer by Laini Taylor
A Girl, Books and Other Things reviews Treasured Vows by Cath Maxwell
Good Books and Good Wine reviews Poison Study by Maria Snyder
One Libarian's Book Reviews reviews The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe

Linkage
The Discriminating Fangirl review
Fantasy Book Critic review

The Fault in Our Stars Cover

2011-10-19T15:07:00.000-06:00

And here we have the cover for John Green's upcoming book The Fault in Our Stars, due out January 10th. I like how simple it is (yay for simple these days). I like that there are no people on it. And I like the chalk writing. It's a little hard to fall utterly in love with, however, because of the countless unbelievably awesome fan-made covers sent in. Happily, they impressed his publisher so much they're holding a contest for fan-made covers for the next edition of An Abundance of Katherines. I cannot wait to see the results! For now, I'm off to go pre-order my signed copy of tFiOS.

Virtuosity by Jessica Martinez

2011-10-19T10:21:00.001-06:00

I wasn't really planning on reading Virtuosity. I'm not sure why, because I'm actually often drawn to stories featuring prodigies or people with highly regimented lifestyles due to their skills/abilities/life choices. Also, I like the title. But, the cover doesn't do a whole lot for me (it looks more paranormal than contemporary). Nothing wrong with it, but I will say that it would help if she was at least holding a violin. Then a galley floated my way, and so I went on the hunt for a few reliable reviews. And wouldn't you know, I found them (see links below). Enough of them to prod me to see for myself. I actually started Virtuosity right after finishing another book, somewhere in the vicinity of midnight, and I was absorbed quickly and deeply enough that I just read it straight through. I kind of feel like it's one of the ones best read that way, one of the ones that benefits largely from a quantity of undivided attention and a lack of breaks throughout.

Carmen Bianchi is a virtuoso. Her mother sang with the New York Metropolitan Opera at an unprecedentedly young age. All set to ride her stardom high, her career was cut short by an unexpected operation and an unexpected pregnancy. And so she transferred all of her drive, all her expectation, all her determination onto her daughter. And so Carmen eats, drinks, and breathes the violin. Her days are regimented to within an inch of her life, and her activities are sharply curtailed by her demanding schedule. With the most important competition of her life just a few short weeks away, she decides to scope out the competition. But it turns out Jeremy King isn't exactly the way she pictured him. And yet while his manner (both onstage and off) is about as far from her own as possible, he does share an unmatched understanding of what her life is like. Both that overwhelmingly innate love of music and the unparalleled isolation the lifestyle engenders. And so an alarmingly inconvenient friendship is struck up just at the moment when she needs to be the most focused and cutthroat she's ever been in her life.

I have never come anywhere even remotely in the vicinity of the kind of talent and dedication Carmen (and Jeremy) possess in this story. But I did grow up surrounded by music, and I played one instrument or another (or a few) nearly every day of my life from the time that I was four years old on. My mother taught me two of them. I was one of her many students, and so there was always the sound of music, the talk of music, and the practice and performance of music in the house. As a result, I was immediately drawn to Carmen's focus and love of everything that goes into the composition, the discipline, the appreciation, and the skill involved in her vocation. Unlike Carmen, however, I was always given the choice. Given options. And so my heart went out to her in sympathy for having none of those. I wanted her to explore the world outside. I wanted her to stand up to her mother and her horrible, horrible destructive influence. And at the same time I was fearful of the repercussions, fearful of what might be unintentionally but inevitably lost in the process. Beauty and fear make up the primary emotions of this novel, and I think the strength of it lies in those emotions and in the incredibly authentic way Jessica Martinez portrayed Carmen's life. I liked her. I liked Jeremy. Both of them so painfully solitary in their ways. And I really liked her mother, her stepfather, her tutor Helen, and her trollish instructor Yuri. I mean, I hated some of them, but I hated them right, you know? In fact, my heart was wrung several times throughout Virtuosity, and I was in the dark all the way up to the very end as to how things were going to turn out. I, for one, was very pleased with the "ending" Carmen got, and I'm definitely looking forward to Jessica Martinez's next offering.

Linkage
All-Consuming Books Review
A Girl, Books and Other Things Review
GReads! Review
Makeshift Bookmark Review
Pirate Penguin's Reads Review
Steph Su Reads Review
There's a Book Review

November Cakes

2011-10-17T10:49:00.003-06:00

For those of you who've read The Scorpio Races, you'll know what these are. And for those of you who haven't yet (it's due out tomorrow), you'll soon be in for a treat. Reading about the November cakes was like reading about the Cinnamon Rolls as Big as Your Head from Sunshine. You just want one Right Now. Served at the local bakery and festival around race time, the description of the November cakes made my mouth water while reading. And then Maggie went and posted her very own recipe for them, and I just had to try making them for dessert yesterday. I had to grin as I ate one, picturing Finn smiling as he placed one in Puck's hand and Sean and Puck munching on them quietly as they sat atop the cliffs gazing out to sea.

So, here's the recipe:

And here's what it makes:

Yum.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

2011-10-11T09:30:00.000-06:00

I love a good surprise. And Maggie Stiefvater pulled off an excellent one this year by surprising her readers with not one, but two books. The one we'd been expecting for a year, the other we had no clue was even in the works really. And so when the cover of The Scorpio Races was released, my mind went in a hundred different directions at once trying to parse out the possibilities behind such an interesting title and such an absolutely lovely cover. The truth is, I didn't want to know that much at all. This was a surprise book, and as such I wanted to go into the first page uninformed as to the particulars. So I stayed away from synopses, snippets, even the trailer (and I adore her trailers), because I didn't want to go in with any kind of preconceived notion. Unable to attend BEA this year, I bemoaned the fact that I would miss out on the stacks of ARCs I knew would be available there. Fortunately, someone who knew I would be suffering went and picked me up a copy and popped it in the mail so I could get an early sneak peek.

It is the first day of November and so, today, someone will die.

Sean Kendrick knows this truth only too well. It forms the fabric and the boundaries of his life. He races in the Scorpio Races every year and, for the past four years, he's come home the victor. More importantly, he's lived to race another day. Not everyone can say the same. Puck Connolly is racing for her first time this year. It's not so much by design as by way of keeping her older brother Gabe from leaving them. It's been just the three of them for years now, and Puck and her younger brother Finn can't fathom how they will go on without Gabe there to look after them. And so it's the races for Puck. If she puts her life on the line by entering (the first girl ever to do so) perhaps her older brother will think better of leaving and starting a new life on the mainland. Because the Scorpio Races aren't even remotely like your average horse race. In the Scorpio Races, the riders ride the dreaded capaill uisce--deadly water horses thrown up (or caught) from the sea. Faster, bolder, deadlier than any normal horse, they will kill you as soon as look at you. And Sean Kendrick is the only man around who is able to control them. If you can call it that. He has a way with them, can whisper in their ears, and anticipate their thoughts. And so these two young people are linked together by the races, by the fact that the capaill uisce took the lives of their parents, and by a spectacular love for horses and for the island that is their home.

How to begin, how to begin? I'm just going to go ahead and go on record as saying The Scorpio Races is the best book I've read all year. On top of that, I think it's Maggie Stiefvater's best book yet. Some of you won't agree with me, because this is a very different book from her others. And, as much as I've enjoyed each of them, I love that it is so very different. Where her other novels read like fiery fugues and romantic sonatas, The Scorpio Races is a quieter, more atmospheric piece. There's a charming vagueness as to time and place, leaving various and sundry particulars deliciously up to the reader's imagination. This timelessness extends to the earthy characters, the mythology of the water horses, and the almost elegiac tone. There is romance, and rest assured, it is of the very highest caliber indeed. But it is an altogether more restrained, more gradual affair, as befits the principle players. In fact, everything about this novel develops slowly and at its own wonderfully meandering pace. There is violence, passion, anguish, and ever-present danger, but they are a part of life to these characters. The harsh, beautiful, unrelenting environment is reflected in the faces and on the palms of every one of them. How could I not love this book? I fell under its spell without even noticing it. The language, as is always the case with Maggie's books, is enchanting. But even that, this time, is blended more seamlessly into the tale as a whole. Into the feel of the island, the weather, the waves, all of whom felt like characters to me. Into Puck and Sean Kendrick, Finn, George Holly, and Tommy Falk of the pretty lips. Here, a representative exchange between Puck and Sean Kendrick:

"Your brother is going to the mainland," Sean says.

I hold my breath in my mouth for a long moment, and finally say, "Right after the races." There's no point in treating it as a secret; everyone knows. He already heard me talking about it with Gratton in the truck.

"And you're not going with him."

I'm about to answer he didn't ask but I realize before I do that that's not the reason, anyway. I'm not following him because this is home, and everywhere else isn't. "No."

"Why aren't you going?"

The question infuriates me. I demand, "Why is it that going away is the standard? Does anyone ask you why you stay, Sean Kendrick?"

"They do."

"And why do you?"

"The sky and the sand and the sea and Corr."

It's a lovely answer and takes me entirely by surprise. I hadn't realized we were having a serious conversation, or I think I would've given a better reply when he asked me. I'm surprised, too, by him including his stallion in his list. I wonder if, when I talk about Dove, people can hear how I love her the way that I can hear his fondness for Corr in his voice. It's hard for me to imagine loving a monster, though, no matter how beautiful he is. I remember what the old man said in the butcher's, about Sean Kendrick having one foot on land and one foot in the sea. Maybe you need a foot in the sea to be able to see beyond your horse's bloodlust.

"It's about wanting," I say eventually, after some considering. "The tourists always seem to want something. On Thisby, it's less about wanting, and more about being." I wonder after I say it if he'll think I sound like I have no drive or ambition. I suppose in comparison to him it must seem that way. I seem at once cursed to say precisely what I'm thinking to him and unable to tell what he thinks about it.

He says nothing at all. We watch the horses mill and surge below us. Finally, he says, not looking at me, "They'll still try to keep you off the beach. It won't have ended last night."

"I don't understand why."

"When the races are about proving something about yourself to others, the people you beat are as important as the horse you ride." His eyes don't leave the piebald.

"But that's not what they're about for you."

Sean pushes up to his feet and stands there. I look at his dirty boots. Now I've offended him, I think. He says, "Other people have never been important to me, Kate Connolly. Puck Connolly."

I tip my face up to look at him, finally. The blanket falls off my shoulders, and my hat, too, loosened by the wind. I can't read his expression--his narrow eyes make it difficult. I say, "And now?"

Kendrick reaches to turn up the collar on his jacket. He doesn't smile, but he's not as close to frowning as usual. "Thanks for the cake."

Then he strides off across through the grass, leaving me with my pencil touching my paper. I feel like I've learned something important about the race to come, but I've no idea how to write it down.

It's such a beautiful story. Ponderous, yet filled with bright dots of humor here and there, it moves, strums, and throbs through you with a feeling of ancient inevitability. The Scorpio Races feels like a throwback to the fantasy novels I read as a girl, which still seem, somehow, so much realer than everything else. There were a few pages so perfect, I simply stopped and held them in my hands. Like the island of Thisby, this book will take you, if you let it. Recommended utterly without reservation, especially for fans of The Blue Sword and Fire.

The Scorpio Races is due out October 18th.

The gorgeous trailer once more for your viewing pleasure. Having read the book now, I can tell you this trailer is just like this book--perfect.

Linkage
The Book Stalker Review
Coffee & Cliffhangers Review
Feeling Fictional Review
Fluttering Butterflies Review
Letters Inside Out Review
The Reading Zone Review
Throuthehaze Reads Review

Retro Friday Review: A Separate Peace by John Knowles

2011-10-07T11:20:00.000-06:00

Retro Friday is a weekly meme hosted here at Angieville and focuses on reviewing books from the past. This can be an old favorite, an under-the-radar book you think deserves more attention, something woefully out of print, etc.

Did any of you ever struggle with American literature in high school? I did. In fact, I developed a strong British bias early on as a result of being forced to read the slogging, long American works before any of the mind-blowingly awesome ones. I continue to feel this was a failed strategy. I mean, I still cringe whenever I think about The Grapes of Wrath, and it took all the way till college to discover that Steinbeck was actually awesome, when my professor slapped a copy of "The Chrysanthemums" in my lap. Same goes for Hemingway. Who knew his short stories were incredible? When it came to high school, it wasn't until they handed us The Catcher in the Rye and A Separate Peace that things got interesting. And then Fitzgerald came along and it was like, where have you been all my life F. Scott? We read A Separate Peace in 10th grade, and I had a copy with the middle cover above. I still do, and to this day that is how I picture Gene. At least, I've always assumed it was Gene. Finny somehow seemed to me too large, too dark, too chaotic a personality to try to represent on a mere cover. I do love this cover, though, because it is both beautiful and menacing at the same time. Those of you who've read it will know what I mean.

Gene Forrester attends the prestigious Devon prep school in New England. During the period leading up to World War II, Gene shares a dorm room with a young man by the name of Phineas. Finny. Finny is everything Gene is not. Popular, handsome, athletic, and happy. Gene envies his roommate his easy manner and way with life. The two become close friends, and Gene's feelings come to torment him, particularly as Finny is as nice as he is talented. He seems to care little for his reputation or status and so Gene lives under the shadow of both his friend's prowess and the crushing guilt of his own emotions. Then one day Gene's actions (as nebulous as they may be) cause a disastrous event. And the relationship between the two boys will never be the same again. As the war draws ever closer, the boys of Devon prepare to be drafted and boast of how well they will match up to the requirements of war. Meanwhile, Gene and Finny wage their own war of sorts, between reality and memory, shaking the ground their friendship is built upon. It is this silent war that will determine the remains of their lives, far more definitively than the one taking place across an ocean.

A Separate Peace is one of those books that, once I start reading it, becomes immediately impossible for me to stop. Every passage is memorable, and every one of Gene's remembrances is weighty with meaning. The entire story is told from Gene's perspective, looking back on the experiences of that summer, several years after they took place. The opening unforgettable lines:

I went back to the Devon School not long ago, and found it looking oddly newer than when I was a student there fifteen years before. It seemed more sedate than I remembered it, more perpendicular and strait-laced, with narrower windows and shinier woodwork, as though a coat of varnish had been put over everything for better preservation. But, of course, fifteen years before there had been a war going on. Perhaps the school wasn't as well kept up in those days; perhaps varnish, along with everything else, had gone to war.

I didn't entirly like this glossy new surface, because it made the school look like a museum, and that's exactly what it was to me, and what I did not want it to be. In the deep, tacit way in which feeling becomes stronger than thought, I had always felt that the Devon School came into existence the day I entered it, was vibrantly real while I was a student there, and then blinked out like a candle the day I left.

Now here it was after all, preserved by some considerate hand with varnish and wax. Prserved along with it, like stale air in an unopened room, was the well known fear which had surrounded and filled those days, so much of it that I hadn't even known it was there. Because, unfamiliar with the absence of fear and what that was like, I had not been able to identify its presence.

Looking back now across fifteen years, I could see with great clarity the fear I had lived in, which must mean that in the interval I had succeeded in a very important undertaking: I must have made my escape from it.

I felt fear's echo, and along with that I felt the unhinged, uncontrollable joy which had been its accompaniment and opposite face, joy which had broken out sometimes in those days like Northern Lights across black sky.

How is it possible for one opening passage to induce smiles, tears, and a deep sense of foreboding all at once? A lot of it has to do with remembering how utterly without abandon I fell into this story the first time I read it, when I, too, was fifteen. Just like Gene. And part of it is, like Gene, knowing what's coming and being so afraid of getting there and so helpless to turn back. But most of it is simply the mild, thoughtful writing, the mingled fear and nostalgia, and the wonderful, wonderful characters. If you've never had the chance to pick this one up, I envy you the experience of meeting Finny for the first time. You won't meet his like again. Like Gene, you'll be drawn to this magnetic young man who has everything going for him, who loves sport more than anything on this earth, and who is all set to become the most stellar soldier there ever was. With his personal set of commandments, his Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session, and his invention of blitzball, Finny is the world. For himself, for Gene, and most certainly for the reader. Which is, of course, why the events of the story have such a strong impact. I think these two have been in the back of my mind ever since I read this book for the first time sophomore year in high school. And I'm not sure I've passed judgement on either of them yet. What I do know is I've loved the name Finny ever since, and when we had our little boy earlier this year, Finn was at the top of the list of names. Though I hope my boy doesn't share all of the same qualities with this character, we call him Finny every day. And it always makes me smile.

Retro Friday Roundup
A Girl, Books and Other Things reviews Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas
Good Books and Good Wine reviews I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
One Librarians Book Reviews reviews The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer

Bitterblue Cover

2011-10-06T20:41:00.000-06:00

It's here! It's here! I'm so excited, I have nothing else to say. Except for this--576 pages! Music to my ears.

Kristin Cashore, I love you.

May 1st, you and I have a DATE.

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

2011-10-03T16:59:00.000-06:00

I originally heard about Graffiti Moon around about the time I read Raw Blue and thought to myself, is every Australian YA author crazy talented or what? (The answer, by the way, appears to be an unequivocal YES). Then some of the Usual Suspects read and reviewed and loved it, and so Cath Crowley got noted down on my mental TBR, despite the fact that it, too, was not published in the U.S. yet. Then a little while after, it showed up on NetGalley and there were no more excuses to be had. Graffiti Moon was originally published in Australia more than a year ago. Fortunately, Knopf Books for Young Readers has picked it up and is publishing it here in the U.S. this February. I know it's a ways away, but I really enjoyed it. And I figured if you're in desperate need you can go ahead and order it from Oz, depending, of course, on which cover is your favorite. I'm not incredibly fond of the stark yellow spraypaint can, so I think I'll hold out for the U.S. edition to add the physical volume to my shelves.

Lucy's time is running out. Year 12 is about to end and she still hasn't tracked down the graffiti artist known as Shadow. Though his work is all over the streets and walls and broken down buildings of the city, he only comes out at night. And despite her best efforts, Lucy hasn't been able to be in the right place at the right time to see him at work. He works in tandem with a street artist named Poet. Together they put words to pictures and grace the worn out sections of the city with their unique blend of poetry and urban art. Lucy would be happy to find the mysterious Poet as well, but when it comes down to it, it's Shadow she cares about. Something about the pictures he creates strikes a chord deep inside her and she feels as though a chance will have been missed if she never meets him. Never gets the opportunity to tell him, even for a moment, what his work means to her. Then one night she and her two best friends Jazz and Daisy are out and run into Daisy's on again, off again boyfriend Dylan, and his two friends Leo and Ed. Dylan knows Shadow and Poet, and the group decide to visit the two's known haunts and see if they can find them. Lucy is reluctant to go as she and Ed have had encounters in the past that did not end well. Ed is just as loathe to renew the acquaintance. But Jazz and Leo talk them into it. And they're off.

Graffiti Moon is a gem--a breath of fresh air. The narrative alternates between Lucy's, Ed's, and Leo's points of view and I enjoyed them all equally. Okay. I may have been just a teensy bit more partial to Leo's sections when it comes down to it. But that's because they're poems. Just freakishly good poems. I wanted to share my favorite of Leo's poems because they were such a highlight of the book for me. Here it is, fairly early on in the book (taken from my uncorrected ARC):

Where I lived before

I used to live with my parents

In a house that smelled like cigarettes
And tasted like beer if you touched anything
The kitchen table was a bitter ocean
That came off on my fingers

There were three doors between the fighting and me
And at night I closed them all
I'd lie in bed and block the sounds

By imagining I was floating
Light years of quiet
Interrupted by breathing
And nothing else

I'd drift through space
And fall through dreams
Into dark skies
Some nights

My brother Jake and I would crawl out the window
And cut across the park
Swing on the monkey bars for a while
One the way to Gran's house

She'd be waiting
Dressing gown and slippers on
Searching for our shadows
She'd read us

Poetry and fairy tales
Where swords took care of dragons
And Jake never said it was a load of shit
Like I thought he would

And then one night
Gran stopped reading before the happy ending
She asked, "Leopold, Jake. You want to live
In my spare room?"

Her voice
Sounded like space and dark skies
But that night all my dreams
Had floors

That last line has been haunting me ever since. In such a good way. "But that night all my dreams had floors." A line so good it had me swallowing hard, brushing back sudden tears in my eyes, and turning to my husband to read it aloud, because I just had to share it with someone instantly. I love Leo. Comparisons between this book and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist abound, and I certainly understand why. Graffiti Moon is to be preferred, in my opinion, as the characters are more fully fleshed out and the writing is just a cut above. Here the focus is on art instead of music, and the combination of Shadow's evocative paintings and Lucy's burgeoning glassblowing skills is a lovely feast for the imagination. I could picture, without any trouble at all, the heart growing grass. That perfect shade of blue he's been searching for. The birds--their wings bound--struggling to break free. I could see it all. Truthfully, this book reminded me more of Lisa Schroeder's Chasing Brooklyn or Donna Freitas' This Gorgeous Game. It shares with those stories a certain elegance in the telling. I loved each of the main characters, with the real draw being the ethereal connection between Lucy and Shadow, and the complicated friendship between Ed and Leo. There's much of humor and heartbreak within these pages, and I read them through in one sitting, so happy was I to be with these kids, inside these words, as they expressed themselves the only way they knew how.

Graffiti Moon is currently available in Australia and is due out in the U.S. February 14th.

Linkage
Book Harbinger Review
Chachic's Book Nook Review
Inkcrush Review
Midnight Fume Review
One More Page Review
Persnickety Snark Review
Reading is the Ultimate Aphrodisiac Review
The Tales Compendium Review
A Thousand Little Pages Review
Wear the Old Coat Review

One for the Money Trailer

2011-09-27T11:39:00.002-06:00

I ran across this trailer for the upcoming movie based on the first book in Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series over at the excellent Bookyurt and had to share it here. This one's been a long time in the making. I discovered these books at a somewhat trying time in life, and they brought a lot of laughter and fun into my long days. And while the series itself has grown too long-winded for words, I will be going to see Stephanie, Lula, and the gang on the big screen. Even if they did cast Katherine Heigl. *sigh*

So what do you think Plum fans? Yay or nay?

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

2011-09-26T08:01:00.000-06:00

Like most of you, I've been eagerly awaiting the release of Stephanie Perkins' sophomore novel for months and months now. My copy arrived on my doorstep Friday afternoon and I carried it around in my purse the rest of the day, just in case I had a chance to start it. Sadly, I did not. But that only meant I got to curl up that night with it and read it straight through from cover to cover in one sitting. In all honesty, that wasn't actually my original intention, as sleep and I have not been as one lately as I would like us to be, and I was really hoping for some Zs. But. It was not to be. I couldn't sleep. And Lola was so madcap and charming. Put the two together and there really wasn't any way I was putting it down at all. So I toddled off to bed somewhere around 4 AM, exhausted but grinning ear to ear. I love this cover, too. Much more than the cover of Anna and the French Kiss. I liked the title on the park bench and the Eiffel Tower and all, but neither person on that one looked anything like Anna or Étienne to me. On the other hand, this is very much how I picture Lola. On a low key day, of course. And curvier, naturally. And while the dude isn't quite eccentric enough to be Cricket, he's certainly not too shabby to look at. I do love, though, how both covers have been set, if you will, in pivotal places in their stories. Don't think for a minute I don't notice (and appreciate it) when you get things right, Cover Gods. Because I do.

Lola Nolan asks for very little in life. Just the freedom to dress up in a different costume (complete with wig, false eyelashes, matching nails, and combat boots) every day of the week. The freedom to date her significantly older rocker boyfriend without mountains of judgement raining down on her head from her disapproving parents. And the freedom to never, ever have to see the Bell twins again. Unfortunately, the stars are not aligning in Lola's favor. She can't figure out how to fabricate a key element of her fabulous Marie Antoinette costume she's been planning to wear to the winter formal forever. Her dads appear to be on a set course to disapprove of her boyfriend Max for the foreseeable future. And the Bell family has just moved back in next door, thereby completing the Trifecta of Terror in Lolaland. And to add insult to injury, Cricket Bell (the male half of the Bell twins) appears to remember everything--every last horridly embarrassing detail from the last time they saw each other several years ago now. Not only that, but he seems bent on addressing their history, if you will, in wholly unforeseen and unwelcome ways. Then there's his ever-caustic sister Calliope, with her perfect life and her perfect disdain for all things Lola. And before long, it's like Lola can't do anything right. No matter how hard she tries, everything is falling apart at the seams she's worked so hard to stitch tight.

Too much fun, that's what Stephanie Perkins books are. Just a handful of pages, a little orientation on people, place, and hair color, and I am settled in with my bowl of popcorn and a sloppy grin plastered on my face. Lola is very different from Anna. She's all about appearances and entrances and carefully orchestrated moments. And because of a few key devastating experiences in her past, she's far less confident in her own skin. But she has style oozing out of every pore. And she has a good heart, which she'd prefer not to get crushed ever again, thank you very much. And so she is blind to a few rather important things, such as how her peers actually perceive her, the true state of her relationship with Max, and the kind of lengths she wants to go to to preserve the image she projects. Despite her blindness and her continual emotional missteps, I cared about Lola. I wanted her to come to see things clearly. And I wanted to be there when she did. Fortunately, the journey to clarity is a hilarious and moving one here. Stephanie Perkins excels at dialogue and at the wonderful observations Lola makes on those around her. Witness the introduction of Cricket Bell:

"I called your name." He tries to stop smiling, but his mouth only opens wider with delight. I can practically count his teeth. "I called it a dozen times, but your music was too loud, so I was waiting it out. You're a good dancer."

Mortification strips me of the ability to engage in intelligent conversation.

"I'm sorry." His grin hasn't disappeared, but he visibly squirms. "I only wanted to say hello."

He swings his legs back inside of his bedroom in one fluid motion. There's a lightness to the way he lands on his feet, a certain grace, that's instantly recognizable. It washes me in a familiar aching shame. And then he stretches, and I'm stunned anew.

"Cricket, you're . . . tall."

Which is, quite possibly, the stupidest thing I could say to him.

Cricket Bell was always taller than most boys, but in the last two years, he's added half a foot. At least. His slender body--once skinny and awkward, despite his graceful movements--has also changed. He's filled out, though just slightly. The edge has been removed. But pointing out that someone is tall is like pointing out the weather when it's raining. Both obvious and irritating.

"It's the hair," he says with a straight face."Gravity has always been my nemesis."

And his dark hair is tall. It's floppy, but . . . inverted floppy. I'm not sure how it's possible without serious quantities of mousse or gel, but even when he was a kid, Cricket's hair stood straight up. It gives him the air of a mad scientist, which actually isn't that far off. His hair is one of the things I always liked about him.

Until I didn't like him at all, that is.

She knows how to introduce a character, doesn't she? And this particular one is an absolute highlight of the book. Cricket Bell stole my heart and tucked it away in his pocket along with a few mechanical bits and bobs and a candy wrapper or two. Again with the nice guys! It's like Stephanie Perkins is their champion or something. But Cricket is something special. Unfathomably tall, always in motion, he jerks his way through the novel with utterly disarming charm. From his pinstripe pants to his indefatigable hair, the boy tugged at my heartstrings every time he opened his mouth. Which brings us to my favorite thing about Stephanie Perkins' brand of romance. I am most riveted, most in love, when these two are simply talking to each other. It's those quiet scenes where their hearts are laid bare and there's nothing but words between them, and inside each of those words is an entire world, that kill me. My heart squeezes just thinking about it now. Happily, there are also a couple little scenes between Anna and St. Clair as well. They are secondary characters in this one, but let's face it--St. Clair has a hard time being secondary to anything. I delighted in the scenes they shared with Lola and Cricket. Every one of them made me want to re-read Anna and the French Kiss immediately upon finishing this one. While San Francisco didn't manage to have the wonderful ambiance of Paris, and while I may have questioned Lola a bit for persisting in a couple of her emotional missteps for quite as long as she did, she, like Anna, felt real to me. And she felt well-meaning. As though she knew she was making mistakes right and left but was helpless to stop them somehow. Haven't we all felt that way before? Especially when in the death grip of our insecurities. And there's nothing to do but try to mend things the best we can once we do get a hold of ourselves. Such is the case here. I loved how bold and colorful Lola is. And I loved how reticent Cricket is, all the while wearing his enormous heart on his sleeve. I tell you it's a sort of exquisite agony watching Lola and Cricket sit in their windows and do battle with what lies between them. Oh, the longing. It is so very good.

Lola and the Boy Next Door is due out on Thursday!

Linkage
The Allure of Books Review
Chick Loves Lit Review
Fiction Folio Review
Fyrefly's Book Blog Review
Good Books and Good Wine Review
A Jane of All Reads Review
The Perpetual Page-Turner Review
Reading Teen Review
Sash and Em Review

Retro Friday Review: Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier

2011-09-23T10:32:00.001-06:00

Retro Friday is a weekly meme hosted here at Angieville and focuses on reviewing books from the past. This can be an old favorite, an under-the-radar book you think deserves more attention, something woefully out of print, etc.

The time has come. I knew when I started Retro Fridays that at some point I would have to review Daughter of the Forest. Do you ever go through the reviews on your blog and realize you haven't reviewed one of your favorite books of all time? And the reason is simply that you read it before the blog was even a twinkle in your eye. You may have talked about it here, there, and everywhere. You may have heckled dear friends shamelessly until they broke down and read it. But you haven't actually reviewed it. And the other day I realized that was the case here. Despite the fact that I've read everything Juliet Marillier has written, I've only actually reviewed two of her books. And so while I feel like I've talked and talked about it, it's only in references here and there. Okay, sometimes impassioned exclamations. But you catch my drift. So I decided it was only right to go back to the beginning and tell you how and why and when my love for this book began. And it began, as so many wonderful things in my life have, on a plane to Italy. I needed a book to read on the flight over to visit my folks, and I had been eyeing this one in the bookstore for awhile. I knew it was a retelling of the Seven Swans fairy tale, which was a mark in its favor even though I was pretty unfamiliar with that particular tale at the time. It was a debut novel by an Australian author with a beautiful French name. And it just looked so lovely. So I snagged a copy and cracked it open after my beverage service, with a lovely long night ahead in which to lose myself in the writing. Which I promptly did somewhere in the middle of the first paragraph.

Three children lay on the rocks at the water's edge. A dark-haired little girl. Two boys, slightly older. This image is caught forever in my memory, like some fragile creature preserved in amber. Myself, my brothers. I remember the way the water rippled as I trailed my fingers across the shining surface.

Shivers of delight, my friends. That's what that opening sent down my spine then, and that's what I felt just now as I typed it. Published over a decade ago now, this book loses none of its magic over time. Rather it grows stronger and more captivating with each read.

The seventh child of a seventh son, Sorcha is the daughter who should have been a son--that most magical of all beings--a seventh son of a seventh son. Instead she is a girl. And with six older brothers and a mother long dead, she grows up wild and free at the heart of the forest of Sevenwaters. And while her father, Lord Colum, has been ever distant and forbidding, her brothers have always been there to watch out for her and to teach her. Especially Finbar. So close that they are often able to tell what the other is thinking or feeling, Sorcha knows something is wrong when Finbar goes suddenly distant and troubled shortly after her father's men haul in a stranger from foreign parts found trespassing on their land. It's all very cloak and dagger, but it quickly progresses to a nightmare, when Finbar defies his father and sneaks the prisoner out under cover of night. Sorcha's healing skills are immediately called upon to treat the wounds her father's men inflicted upon him. In the meantime, her father shocks them all by marrying again. His chosen bride, the Lady Oonagh, fills the boys and Sorcha with an almost irrational fear. But it's not till the prisoner she has worked so hard to help disappears, followed shortly by her brothers, that Sorcha comprehends the magnitude of her danger. For a spell has been cast on those she holds dear. Turned into swans, her brothers are gone, only to reappear briefly each Midsummer's Eve. Prompted by the Fair Folk themselves, Sorcha makes a terrible bargain, exchanging her voice and her home for a faraway land, a stranger's protection, and the slimmest of chances to restore her brothers and her fragile peace.

A retelling of the Wild Swans fairy tale set in 9th century Ireland, this gorgeous historical fantasy shot right to the top of my comfort reads list the moment I closed the final page. Happily, in my experience, it has proved to be one of those books that binds people together through their shared love of its characters and their story. An example of a young woman triumphing over evil through love, sacrifice, and unfathomable determination, Daughter of the Forest is also a truly remarkable bit of storytelling. Sorcha is at the heart of it, with her love for her brothers, and the way she gives of herself, harnessing her considerable skills and will to bring them back from the brink of annihilation. What a daring feat of storytelling to strike your heroine literally silent for the majority of the book and still render her incredibly vibrant and active within the narrative. Everything comes together so perfectly in this book, as it is historical novel, fantasy epic, and flawless fairy tale retelling at once. And it is, of course, also a love story. How could it not be? Even now I find it difficult to express my feelings about this aspect of the story except to say that these two have one of the most tender, romantic, and equal relationships I've had the fortune to witness. The love story will lay you out flat, it's that outstanding. Here, a non-spoilery section taken from my very favorite scene in the book:

It was getting late. The beach was half in shadow, the sky darkening. I realized there would be no return to Harrowfield that night. He did not press me for my answer; he just stood there, watching the seals, waiting. He had done a lot of waiting. A scrap of parchment lay on the rocks behind him; the rising breeze threatened to snatch it away from the round stone that had held it there while the ink dried. There he had made his final meticulous markings that morning as he sat there in the sun; that morning that seemed, already, so long ago. But there were no tallies of cattle or crops on this page, only pictures, small delicate pictures in careful pen strokes. I had watched him at this task before, and marveled at how he could choose to work, and disregard the wonder of the place that surrounded him. But it seemed he had not needed to look, to know its beauty. For this sheet showed the open sky, and the smooth, shining surfaces of wet stones, and the curling lace of breakers. It showed the great seals with their knowing eyes, and the flight of the gulls against tiny scudding clouds. At the foot, very small, was the last image he had made. A young woman running, her hair blown out behind her like a dark, wild cloud, her gown whipped against her body by the breeze, her face alight with joy. Red reached across and picked up the parchment, slipping it out of sight between the boards and away into his pack. I thought, after all this time, I do not know this man. I don't know him at all.

And that is how she writes. That's the kind of breathtaking emotion Juliet Marillier can evoke in her characters and in her readers. Nothing could possibly erase my memory of this scene or my memory of reading it for the first time. Sorcha and Red. The wind on the waves. Her blue dress trailing in the sea. And so much unsaid between them. I think of it often, when I am in need of a quiet, perfect moment. The best part is, this scene is just one of many, including a climactic moment that had me literally losing my grip on the book and gasping aloud it is so intense. Those of you who've read it, you know the one I mean. Finest, finest kind.

And, if what I haven't said in this review is enough, here--perhaps the most accurate example of my love for this book--is my original copy as it looks now:

I know. It kind of makes me want to cry just looking at it. I tend to treat my books rather tenderly. And I'm pretty sure this is the most shocking state any of mine are in. But really what can you expect when it's been read and handed out and reread and handed out so many times that it's literally falling apart at the seams? Someone along the way kindly stuck some tape in there on the worst parts. I can't tell you how many times I've lingeringly run my finger over that lovely raised foil F on the cover. This is a book both well-read and well-loved. I hope a copy finds its way into your home and your heart someday. I hope it never leaves.

Reading Order

Daughter of the Forest

Son of the Shadows

Child of the Prophecy

Heir to Sevenwaters

Seer of Sevenwaters

Linkage

Book Harbinger Review

Book Rat Review

The Book Smugglers Review

Chachic's Book Nook Review

Emily's Reading Room Review
It's All About Books Review

One Librarian's Book Review

Reading Under the Influence Review

See Michelle Read Review

Things Mean a Lot Review

Retro Friday Roundup

Chachic's Book Nook reviews The Thirteenth House by Sharon Shinn
One Librarian's Book Reviews reviews Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

Uncertain Pretties

2011-09-22T11:59:00.003-06:00

We're looking at the beginning of next year here, but I had to highlight these pretties I'd seen floating about in the ether lately. I've only read one of these authors before, and I adore her. The others are new to me and come with all the possibility inherent in an unknown quantity wrapped in a pretty package.

This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers
Courtney Summers does zombies. If that doesn't make the top of your head blow off, I don't know what will. I cannot wait to read her take on them, especially as her main character is a girl with a death wish. Normally, I'm not a fan of covers where the girl's head is missing or cut off or covered, but what with the zombies and the blood splatter--I'm kind of okay with it.
Due out June.

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
Well, I love the cover, you see. And the font. And the title. Even if I do keep saying im-probability in my head. What is up with that? I'm hearing good things about this one, and I can tell I will be in the mood for a romantic meet-in-the-airport-we-only-have-four-minutes kind of happy read come cold January. Set in a 24-hour period, British boy named Oliver, yeah, where do I sign?
Due out January 2nd.

Tempest by Julie Cross
Okay. Truthfully, this cover is a little too reminiscent of the cover of Hush, Hush for my taste. And the font is a bit Twilight-ey. But I'm trying to not let that bad taste in my mouth from previous books get in the way of my enjoyment of others. So. Time traveling dude trying to save his girl's life and escape the Enemies of Time who are out to get him. It's set, well, in several different times (obviously), but it starts out a couple of years ago, and I always like it when authors do that.
Due out January 3rd.

So how about you? Which ones are you up for?

How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr

2011-09-20T09:55:00.000-06:00

Well, I knew this was going to be hard. I knew that going in. I mean, how do you go about revealing something like this? It's embarrassing is what it is. And I hate being embarrassed. But it's also the truth. So here you go--the truth in all its humiliating glory:

This is my first book by Sara Zarr.

That's right. Before I picked up How to Save a Life, I had never read a Sara Zarr book.

Cue the echoing Silence of Judgement.

Okay, before you go off all half-cocked--I know. I know. It's just that everyone loves her. Like Sarah Dessen kind of love. And I was afraid I'd be disappointed (particularly as Sarah Dessen doesn't do much for me--I know, I know). So the hype got to me. I'm not proud of it, but there it is. And I'm not sure exactly what pushed me over this time around. All I can say is I saw this one pop up on NetGalley and just felt like it was time.

Jill doesn't recognize herself anymore. Ever since her father passed away eight months ago, it's been like this. She and her mother are existing in the same house, but that's about it. The crushing realization that he was the one thing connecting them weighs on Jill's soul, as day by day she grows more and more remote, driving away her friends, her boyfriend, and especially her mother. Then her mom hits her with the astounding news that she plans on adopting a baby. And not just that, but the teenage mom currently carrying said baby is on her way to stay with them for the duration of her pregnancy. And so Mandy enters their lives. Her past a big, vague gray, Mandy moves into the MacSweeney household and changes the frigid dynamic between Jill and her mother Robin in so many subtle ways. And while Robin fawns over Mandy, anxiously checking on her welfare, her comfort, her general happiness level, Jill suspects a snake in the grass. Determined to find out just exactly where Mandy comes from and why she doggedly insists on doing this open adoption her way, Jill sets out to protect her grief-blind mother from making the biggest mistake of their lives.

Jill is my kind of narrator. She's gruff on the outside, bit softer on the inside, and she would rather show anger than fear. And so she does. In spades. Those around her have to really care about her to stay. And when we meet Jill, there aren't so many of them left. Mandy is not normally my kind of narrator. She is ponderous in almost every way. Basically the polar opposite of Jill, Mandy wears long flowered dresses and "does" her hair every day. But she is also wonderful. Wonderfully awkward socially. As the narrative alternates between Jill and Mandy, I was able to get my fill of each girl. And I loved every minute of it. How well-rounded Sara Zarr's writing is, how smart the dialogue, how thoughtful the prose. Here's is one of my favorite examples, from Mandy's point of view (taken from my uncorrected ARC):

I don't want my daughter to ever hear a story or see a piece of paper or know that one exists on which I signed her away. I don't want her to ever think that I didn't want her. No matter what. I don't want to leave any evidence she could find later that she might think proves to her the worst things she thinks about herself on a bad day. Not when she's ten, not when she's fifteen, not when she's forty. Maybe I'll be there to explain it to her, but I can't know that sure enough right now to plan on it. I want it to feel like fate, the way she ended up with Robin. I want to be in her life like a good dream, like someone who might not always be there but who never really left. Her world should feel full of possibilities and open doors, not full of things that are closed and final.

I mean, come on. How beautiful is that? And more than that, it's right. The writing rings with authenticity and feeling. My throat actually began to close up reading that passage, it felt so true. The excellent thing is, Ms. Zarr excels on several fronts. She is able to weave together the perfect blend of the profound and the light--such an important quality in contemporary literature, I think. Jill's relationship with her sometime (some would say long-suffering) boyfriend Dylan comes to mind. As does her friendship with Ravi--a boy from her high school who she reconnects with in a rather hilarious way. Because I can't resist, here is just a great passage early on between Jill and Dylan:

"I almost thought you weren't going to come. But I know you and winter and Tuesdays and pho."

He shrugs. "What can I say? Pho is rock."

Dylan has this whole rating system for everything--food, bands, clothes, teachers, movies, cars, songs, life events--based on the game rock-paper-scissors. Whatever is the utmost in awesomeness, whatever is profoundly good, whatever is right and true, is rock. Because rock, though it can be beat (or "hidden," as Dylan prefers to say) by paper, can never be destroyed.

Brilliant. And just like that, it becomes impossible not to like both of them. Dylan for coming up with such an awesome system and Jill for understanding it. And him. I liked all the characters in this book. They were presented in 360, if you will. As a result I, as the reader, was afforded the opportunity to view them from all angles. And so I loved them. Because I knew them. You're so smart, Sara Zarr. Love is rock.

How to Save a Life is due out October 18th.

Linkage
Hers for the Reading Review
Owl and Sparrow Review
Wear the Old Coat Review

BBAW: Interview with Ryan of Wordsmithonia

2011-09-13T07:53:00.001-06:00

The interview swap day is always one of my favorite parts of Book Blogger Appreciation Week. I anxiously look forward to finding out who my partner will be and then have a grand time exploring their blog. Invariably, it is a new-to-me site and I love the excuse to branch out and add a new blog to my reader. This time around I was lucky enough to be paired with Ryan of Wordsmithonia. So without further ado, please welcome Ryan!

What prompted you to start a book blog, and how has your approach to blogging changed, if at all?

It all started on a dark and stormy night....actually I think that may be true. I had been on the Barnes & Noble book club forums for about a year and a friend on there had started her own blog. I had never been a big blog reader in the past, the few I did read, were mainly political (liberal) blogs. She, Deb of Book Magic, seemed to be having a lot of fun doing it, so I checked her blog out, but even then I never thought of starting my own. She just kept on having so much fun doing it, that I had to get in on the action. My first post went up Saturday, July 18, 2009. I haven't looked back since. I know that's a long answer to the first part of the question, so I will try to keep the second part as short as I can.

I don't think I have changed my approach too much. I still, I think, primarily do the blog for myself. If I don't like the way something is done, I change it. I realized early on that if I'm not happy with what I'm putting out there, not many others will be. I still get overwhelmed at times that anyone even bothers to read Wordsmithonia, let alone follows it. I'm grateful for every single person who reads the blog, whether they comment or not. My advice to anyone who is just starting out is, enjoy what you are doing. Have fun with it. Don't let anyone else make you doubt what it is you are doing. If you ever get to the point where book blogging isn't fun, stop doing it. You don't want this too feel like a tasking second job that you don't' get paid for. I think this part was even longer than the first, sorry!

Have you always been a reader or was there a specific book or series that really got you into reading?

I've always been a reader. My mom tells people that I learned how to read before I learned to talk. I'm not so sure she's joking on that one. In the beginning it never really mattered all that much what I read. I loved the Sweet Pickles books. I would devour the Golden Classics series as much as any other kid. I even loved My Book Of Bible Stories, the old one with the yellow and red cover. I even remember one summer of going through my great-grandma's set of Encyclopedia Britannica.

It wasn't until I was a bit older that I became a reading nerd though (okay, maybe the encyclopedia thing started it.) I discovered mystery books and I was a goner. It started with Encyclopedia Brown, Nancy Drew, and The Hardy Boys. It quickly became an obsession and by 5th grade all I wanted were Agatha Christie books.

In your About Me section, you describe yourself as (among other things) an Eeyore admirer. Do elaborate.

Oh, Eeyore. Such a misunderstood guy. First of all, I love him because he's just so damn cute. There is nothing about him that doesn't make me want to go to The Hundred Acre Wood and bring him home to live with me. He's a pessimist and always a bit sad, but there is an undercurrent of hope about him. He's not one to sit around feeling gloomy all the time, though it appears that way at times. He's always thinking that something will change and make the world right again. He's an optimistic pessimist. He's a lot like me in that regard, I mumble and complain a lot, but mostly that's for show. At heart, we both know everything will work out, and I don't think either one of us would have it any other way.

My only issue with Eeyore, and this is mainly Disney's fault, is the way the company will feminize him. It's very hard, I dare you to try, to find merchandise that makes him look like a guy. I have seen so many coffee mugs in pastel colors with flowers all around. I own one mug that looks like a guy's mug, and it took years to find. I even have a stuffed animal of him dressed as the Sugarplum Fairy, tutu and all. What other male character would they do that too. The poor guy.

What do you do when you hit a reading slump and nothing you pick up seems to do the trick?

That's when I put the review books down and go back to an old favorite. I'm a huge re-reader for the simple fact that if I loved the book, why would I not want to revisit it. I have quite a few books that have been read at least 10-12 times. I have a few of them I will go to for a bit of relief: Watership Down by Richard Adams, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, The Thief of Always by Clive Barker, quite a few books by Agatha Christie, and The Last Herald Mage trilogy by Mercedes Lackey. There isn't one of them that isn't guaranteed to perk me back up and set me down the road of enjoyment again.

I love your Favorite Fictional Character Wednesdays! I know exactly what you mean about those characters that really mean something to you. If you had to pick one character to be stranded on a desert island with, who would it be?

Thank you! I have so much fun doing the feature. It's always a great time to go back and think of some of the characters that I've enjoyed over the years. When I first started doing it, I thought it would last a few months or a year at most. I didn't think I would be able to keep coming up with great characters. Thankfully I didn't run out and I don't think I will anytime in the foreseeable future.

If I had to pick one for the long term, it would be Vanyel Ashkevron from The Last Herald Mage trilogy by Mercedes Lackey. First of all he's pretty frickin hot, even with long hair, not something I would normally like, but I'll make an exception for him. He's that hot. He's very intelligent, so conversation will flow easily. He's a master Bard, so he will be able to keep me entertained with music. He's a master with a sword, so any unfriendly natives would be quickly taken care of. The fact that he is one of the most powerful mages to ever exist would keep us safe and should provide most of the comforts we would need. Now that I'm thinking about this, being stranded on an island with him would be quite nice. Is there anyway for me to sign up for it?

What book have you found yourself recommending the most this year?

Of the books I've read for this first time this year I would have to say either Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin or The Swimming Pool by Mary Roberts Rinehart.

If you asked me about my all time favorite books to recommend (other than the ones I mentioned in my answer to the reading funk) I would say: Atlas, Shrugged by Ayn Rand or Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory. They are both terrrific books that everyone should read.

Thanks so much, Ryan!

If you have a chance, do stop by Wordsmithonia today for Ryan's interview with me.

BBAW: Community

2011-09-12T14:00:00.001-06:00

It's the first day of Book Blogger Appreciation Week again! I love this week and look forward to browsing through all the lovely posts each year. Today we're talking about blogs that have made a difference to us. I wanted to highlight A Jane of All Reads--a blog that I've really loved and spent a lot of time frequenting in the past year.

In case you can't read the fine print, Laura's tagline reads,

. . . in which we just keep falling hopelessly in love with very good books and every now and again form very sensible and respectable relationships . . . with vampires.

Ahhhh. It was this tagline (and the original name of the blog--Life After Jane) that first drew me to Laura's site, and it was her hilarious and utterly honest reviews that kept me coming back. That and the fact that she fell in love with Richard Armitage and North and South shortly after I did, so we ~~fangirled~~ bonded all over the place on that. Everything about this blog delights. I get a kick out of her her excellent review labels: loved it lived it miss it, so-so, fantabulousness, borrow don't buy, and my personal favorite--makes bunnies cry. And I get an excellent sense of whether or not a book is for me after reading her review of it. So if you haven't discovered this little corner of awesome in your bookish rambles, I suggest you do so immediately. Thanks for all the laughs, Laura.

Retro Friday Review: Illusion by Paula Volsky

2011-09-09T07:47:00.000-06:00

This cover. This cover remains one of my favorite covers ever! I had never heard of Paula Volsky before or read much historical fantasy at all when a copy of Illusion arrived at my house. I was fifteen and my Aunt Claudia sent it to me for my birthday. She's a great reader, my aunt, and she has flawless taste. When they were kids, she and my dad would ride their bikes to the library and each check out a stack of Nancy Drews and Hardy Boys, go home, read them, switch, read, return, and repeat. She loves Dickens and Georgette Heyer and all manner of good ones. So I knew this one would be good. And I loved how reassuringly thick the mass market copy was. Slick gray pages and 674 of them in all--absolute bliss. I ended up reading the majority of it during a couple of late night babysitting stints. After the kids brushed their teeth and went to bed, I curled up in an oversize chair in the living room and lost myself in the crazy elaborate world Ms. Volsky created. I had honestly never read anything like it, and sadly, I have yet to actually talk to anyone else (besides my aunt) who has read it.

Eliste vo Derrivale (wow, did I love her name when I was 15 . . . oh, who are we kidding? I still do) is a member of the ultra-privileged Exalted class in the land of Vonahr. Having grown up on a rather idyllic estate in the countryside, she can hardly focus on anything else when the summons comes to move to the capital city of Sherreen and become a lady-in-waiting to Queen Lallazay herself. And so she packs her bags and trips off to make her debut at court without a backward glance. Unfortunately for Eliste, her timing is catastrophic. While she is primped, prodded, and ruthlessly trained in the intricate ways of court life, the nation's serfs are rising up. Sick of centuries of subservience to the Exalted class, whose rule is based on their much-lauded but rarely-seen magical abilities, the peasants have united. Before she has fully adapted to her new life, violence breaks out in the city and the life she longed to lead is ripped from her grasp. Forced out onto the streets, Eliste comes to grim terms with a very different way of life. And a past uncharacteristic and seemingly insignificant action comes back to haunt her, as one of the key members of the rebellion is none other than Dref Zeenosen--a serf she once freed from her father's tyranny in a fit of momentary pity a long time ago. If she is to survive, Eliste must develop a whole new set of skills and avoid the dreaded Kokette--the death machine that awaits any Exalted the rebels can get their hands on.

Just thinking about this gorgeous epic sends pleasant little sparks to the tips of my fingers. And I do mean epic in the long and drawn out sense of the word. Densely written, Illusion is expansive and filled with exquisite, minute descriptions of everything from the lace in Eliste's hair to the bloody spikes on the horrific, possibly sentient Kokette. Based on the events of the French Revolution, Eliste's world is richly evocative of that period in history and, while some of the events in the story may not surprise you as a result, the elaborate and sympathetic characterization and the delicious magical overtones will reel you in. I love that Eliste is such a spoiled brat at the beginning. She's the epitome of snobby upper crust debutante with a disdain for anything she deems beneath her--which is pretty much everything. She's young and thoughtless and incredibly annoying. But. She is often a keen judge of character. She is always a survivor. And she's unwittingly in for a real nightmare. The joy is in the transformation that is wrought and the growth she achieves as a result of having front row seats for the devastation of her world. I very much like who she becomes. Everything about this book takes its time, from the main character's evolution, to the extremely subtle and slow-building romance, to the final quiet and bittersweet conclusion. It could get tiresome, but to me it felt earned. If historical fiction is not your thing, you might find it difficult to sink into the slightly affected vocabulary and speech mannerisms of the principle characters. For me, the unusual blend of historical tapestry, magic, and early steampunk (in the form of crazily creepy machinery used as part of the revolution) worked like a charm. I would love to hear what fans of any or all of those genres think of it as it has long been a favorite.

Linkage
The Bookwyrm's Lair Review
A Small Accomplishment Review

Retro Friday Roundup
Chachic's Book Nook reviews Mystic and Rider by Sharon Shinn
A Girl, Books and Other Things reviews Secrets of a Summer Night by Lisa Kleypas
Good Books and Good Wine reviews The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
One Librarian's Book Reviews reviews A Train to Potevka by Mike Ramsdell

Heroes at Odds by Moira J. Moore

2011-09-06T12:08:00.003-06:00

It's been a year--an entire year--since Heroes Return came out, and I am nothing if not ready for my fix of Lee and Taro. What better way to celebrate the summer than with a visit from my favorite paranoid and accident prone Source and Shield? I can't believe we're six books in with this series. It's one of the most consistently good series around. I can always count on a madcap adventure, humorous interactions between this long suffering Pair, and that vaguely ominous threat I've felt from the very beginning, and which I just know is going to erupt in all sorts of unpleasant ways in the very near future. Truly? That's one of my favorite aspects of this weird and fascinating world Moira J. Moore has created. I never feel like I get it all, like there are massive secrets lurking above me in the restless clouds, and when they are revealed will they be as sinister as they feel? As Oscar Wilde said, "The suspense is terrible, I hope it lasts." Truer words . . . Last but not least, I do have to hand it to the cover gods this time around. Taro has gotten measurably more attractive. He's gone from having a face like a foot and jazz hands to an NFL linebacker-type mug with yon brawny sword in hand. You never fail to entertain, cover gods. I want to thank you for that.

Lee and Taro are still in Flown Raven. Still serving out their time (and the Emperor's bidding) in Taro's former home, though some things have changed. Lee has grown more comfortable exploring spell casting. She even joins a group of local casters who are interested in exploiting her particular powers as part of their enterprise. And Taro has grown a bit more at ease in the place that meted out such pain and disappointment to him throughout his childhood. And Lee is excited because her family has announced they're to visit her soon. She hasn't seen them in so long and it will mean some variance from their normal routine. Her excitement is extinguished quicker than Taro can channel a storm, however, when her mother reveals the reason for their visit. It seems a very long time ago, when Lee was just a child, her parents betrothed her to a fellow merchant's son--one Marcus Pride--as part of a business deal intended to benefit both families. They never expected the betrothal to amount to anything, though, and Lee's calling as a Shield should have annulled any prior contracts in any case. But wouldn't you know, the Prides are here to collect on the bargain. The father and son are, in fact, soon to arrive at Flown Raven themselves. And so the greatest challenge Lee and Taro face may in fact be winkling Lee out of a wholly unwelcome marriage before she is forced to wed where she does not want in order to save the family she left behind years ago.

I laughed several times while reading this one. It was lighter and funnier in tone than the last couple have been. Though there has always been an appreciable amount of humor to be found in Lee and Taro's banter and haplessness, this time around they seemed wryly cognizant of how often their circumstances go south. They seemed to take it in stride, so that the sham betrothal that could very well take them under just adds a cherry on top of the sundae that's been their predicament ever since they bonded. In one sense this was very satisfying because Lee and Taro were on the same page and very much at home in their own skin, within their relationship, and of one mind when it came to the impossibility of Lee marrying Marcus. I loved that. I loved Taro playing his part in keeping Lee from a distasteful marriage. And I most especially loved Lee's family in this one, specifically her two brothers. They are irreverent, fun-loving, boisterous and, more importantly, they care about Lee even when she doesn't quite get them. They don't take any of her occasionally dense nonsense when it comes to people. In that sense, they reminded me of a certain Source who cared about our Lee from the very start. Interestingly, they care about Taro as well, and they know how to go about it. In fact, they seem to really get the endlessly complex relationship between their sister and her partner better, at times, than anyone. And so I loved them, because they had the good sense to love Lee (and by extension Taro). I did miss a little of the, well, fire between the Pair in this one. Despite their solidarity, they seemed utterly exhausted throughout. I felt for them, but missed their more heated encounters. In the final installment, I would welcome a little more focus on their wonderful connection and that sense of concern for each other that makes me so fond of them. As for the ending of Heroes at Odds--it may possibly be my favorite thus far. It was touching, funny, fitting, and exactly what I wanted. I am so looking forward to the next and final book in this wonderful series.

And now the depressing news. Moira has announced that Ace will not be publishing the last book in the Heroes series. In an utterly shocking (and in my opinion reprehensible) move, Ace has chosen not to renew her contract and publish the finale of the series. Ms. Moore has said she will finish it and publish it either herself or on her blog for loyal readers to read. For this, I'm incredibly grateful as it would be devastating not to get to conclude the series. And at least this way she will have the freedom to finish the series the way she would like to. Hey, I bet there might even be a more accurate (and attractive) cover! And I think we'll be getting quite a treat as a result, since it sounds like there will be several short stories along the way and, of course, the final volume. Speaking of, if you get a chance, be sure to stop in and read the great Taro POV piece Moira recently posted on her blog. It's set early on in book one and it has a killer last line. I love that boy so much.

On a happier note. Just a fun peek at what you'll find inside Heroes at Odds should you pick up a copy:

Linkage
The Book Smugglers Review
Skunk Cat Book Review

Retro Friday Review: My Brother Michael by Mary Stewart

2011-09-02T07:51:00.002-06:00

Retro Friday is a weekly meme hosted here at Angieville and focuses on reviewing books from the past. This can be an old favorite, an under-the-radar book you think deserves more attention, something woefully out of print, etc.

I've been dreaming of Greece. I've never been there myself, much to my continual dismay, and so it remains at the very top of my list when it comes to countries I need to visit next. Lately, I've been doing some research on the country for work. Hence the dreams. And whenever I dream of Greece, I remember my original copy of Edith Hamilton's Mythology that I read cover to cover several times over. And I remember Mary Stewart and the wonderful mysteries she set there. From The Moon-Spinners to This Rough Magic to My Brother Michael, I read them and drift from Crete to Corfu to Delphi in a haze of lemon trees, windswept isles, and footprints of the gods. I've been in love with this place for a long time, and I fervently hope I get to travel there someday. But for now I shall have to be content with my battered copies of Mary Stewart's novels and the adventures her heroines take in this place I long to see. It's so hard for me to choose which of her three Greek books I prefer. They're all splendid and it most likely depends on my mood at the time. The Moon-Spinners has, perhaps, the best mystery, This Rough Magic the swooniest male lead (and all that Shakespeare), and My Brother Michael my favorite title and lady. And, of course, Delphi. So today, you get Delphi, Michael, and Miss Camilla Haven. Not necessarily in that order.

Camilla Haven is sitting alone in a cafe in Athens, bemoaning the lack of action in her life. Having recently broken off her engagement to larger-than-life Phillip, she goes ahead on holiday to Greece all by her lonesome hoping it will be good for her. All that sun and history and good food. But it turns out it's just lonely, albeit in a spectacular setting. Until a stranger approaches her with a set of car keys and a whispered message of urgency. Someone named Simon is in Delphi in need of the car. It is, the man assures her, a matter of life and death. She must take it to him. Several rounds of language-stilted protests ensue. And before she knows it, Camilla is behind the wheel of the big black car and on the road to Delphi. On her way there, she does, in fact, meet a man named Simon, who is in Delphi trying to decipher the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of his brother Michael more than a decade earlier during World War II. Armed with Michael's last letter and three gold sovereigns, Camilla and Simon set out for the site of his brother's death. Simon is convinced Michael was on the track of something important, and before long they begin to realize they're not the only ones who are still looking for whatever Michael found.

Lady Stewart is so great at first lines and openings. The first passage of My Brother Michael:

"Nothing ever happens to me."

I wrote the words slowly, looked at them for a moment with a little sigh, then put my ballpoint pen down on the cafe table and rummaged in my handbag for a cigarette.

As I breathed the smoke in I looked about me. It occurred to me, thinking of that last depressed sentence in my letter to Elizabeth, that enough was happening at the moment to satisfy all by the most adventure-hungry. That is the impression Athens gives you. Everyone is moving, talking, gesticulating--but particularly talking. The second one remembers in Athens is not the clamour of pneumatic drill or even the age-old sound of chisels chipping away at the Pentelic marble which is still the cheapest stone for building . . . what one remembers about Athens is the roar of talking. Up to your high hotel window, above the smell of dust and the blare of traffic it comes, surging like the sea below the temple at Sunium--the sound of Athenian voices arguing, laughing, talk-talk-talking, as once they talked the world into shape in the busy colonnades of the Agora, not so very far from where I sat.

Within the space of two paragraphs I not only feel for the main character, but I feel as though I'm sitting there with her. I can hear it and smell it and taste it. I'm in Athens wondering how in the world I got there. This is one of Ms. Stewart's most atmospheric and action-packed novels. From negotiating the hairpin turns to Delphi, to wandering through ancient amphitheaters with handsome Classics teachers, to scrambling through caves, enough happens to Camilla within the space of these 240 pages to last a lifetime, let alone one brief holiday. I love Camilla's audacity. She's always lived in other people's shadows. And yet she goes on the trip to Greece. She takes the car keys. She cares about this Simon she does not know. And speaking of Simon? I'm excessively fond of him. For his part, he never casts Camilla in shadow, his or anything else's. He quotes Euripides and courts death in the name of his brother, and he accepts Camilla's strange story at face value and the two of them are off like a shot in no time. So much about this novel is based on mistaken identities, years of subterfuge, and bad blood. And I eat it up with a spoon every time I re-read it. I am fairly swept away at the richness of it all. And, as I return to it, the romance in this one appeals more and more. Hints of it are established from glance one. But hints is all they are at first. This is a relationship that builds slowly and surely and to great effect. Truly all of Mary Stewart's strengths, from intrepid women to mouth-watering locales to heart-pounding suspense, come together in this exciting tale. Withe one crazy, climactic ending to top it off. Whenever I return to My Brother Michael, it almost comes as a bit of a shock that I've never actually been to Delphi, that I'm not returning to a place I know so well and people whose hands I've held in mine. A classy, perennial favorite.

Retro Friday Roundup
A Girl, Books and Other Things reviews The Wedding Planner's Daughter by Coleen Murtagh Paratore
Good Books and Good Wine reviews Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Chachic's Book Nook reviews Graceling by Kristin Cashore
One Librarian's Book Reviews reviews The River Between Us by Richard Peck

Linkage
Bookwitch Review
I Prefer Reading Review
One Literature Nut Review

Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay

2011-08-30T08:07:00.000-06:00

What a beautiful cover. I remember when I first saw it my initial thought was, Oh, please don't let it suck. I know that sounds harsh, but sometimes a cover just calls out to you and you know when you finally hold a physical copy of the book itself you'll just want to stroke it and love it and tell it it's found its home on your shelves. Unfortunately, the innards (as my boy is fond of saying) don't always match the outtards. And then I am forced to cry. Because . . . so pretty. So when a review copy of Stacey Jay's Juliet Immortal came my way, I held my breath. Just a bit. Okay, maybe for the first five pages or so. Thankfully, that's all it took. Because this innovative retelling (of sorts) of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet has teeth. And they sank into me with delicious ferocity. This was my first foray with Stacey Jay, though I know she has a handful of books already out. After this encounter, I look forward to checking out her other work.

Juliet Capulet's nightmare is never going to end. No one knows what really happened to her. Murdered by her true love, Juliet is saved at the last minute by powerful but nebulous forces of good (known as the Ambassadors), who recruit her immortal soul in their timeless battle against the powers of evil (known as the Mercenaries). Filled with grief and hate at Romeo's unforgivable action, Juliet accepts the offer and finds herself pitted against Romeo, who essentially sold his soul to the Mercs for promised immortality. And the two of them face one another over and over and over again. For seven hundred years, they've been racing against the clock and each other to save (in Juliet's case) or damn (in Romeo's) pairs of soul mates, literally slipping into human bodies (in Juliet's case) and dead ones (in Romeo's) in order to sway their charges for good or ill. Each and every time Romeo tries to kill Juliet and Juliet fights back and escapes, though she is forbidden from taking his life as part of her mission for the Ambassadors. But this time--this mission--something is different. And they can both tell. This time more seems to be riding on the outcome than just a point scored for one side or the other. This time it's difficult to tell just who exactly are the soul mates, just who loves who. This time Juliet may not escape with her immortal soul intact.

Juliet Immortal wins because it is both a competent retelling and re-envisioning of the most famous star-crossed lovers of all time, while managing not to forget the ruthlessness, violence, and eerie inevitability of the original. In fact, I thought Stacey Jay's clever explanations went a long way toward fleshing out the characters and events of the play. I certainly loved the life and depth she breathed into both leads. How brave Juliet is. And evil Romeo? Where have you been all my life? There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. This Romeo is evil, he's out for Juliet's blood, and the enmity between them is real. The story starts off with a bang, literally, as Juliet is flung into the body of a girl who has just decided to end it all and drive the car she's in off a cliff, taking her shoddy date with her. It's one of my favorite scenes in the book and the first one to give me real chills. Right after the crash (taken from my uncorrected ARC):

Dylan's eyes flutter open.

Even in the moonlight shining through the ceiling they look dark, peculiar. There's something strange about this boy, something warped inside him. I'm not surprised that he played a cruel trick on Ariel, but I'm curious to see what he'll do next. How will he deal with the fact that she nearly killed them both?

"Ariel?" he asks, his voice slurred. "Are you okay?"

"Ye-yes, I think so." Maybe he doesn't remember how the car crashed? If so, I won't be helping him with his recall. I keep my expression carefully blank. "Are you okay?"

"I think I'm fine. I . . . think I might be . . ." His words fade as he leans closer. He's staring at me. I can feel it, though his chin is tipped down, creating hollows the light through the roof can't touch.

The roof! I look up, and a sigh of relief escapes my lips. Glass. It's made of glass! Thank goodness. Getting out of this car seems like a better idea with every passing second. If Dylan is this disturbing at eighteen, he'll be a serial killer by the time he's twenty.

"We'll be fine. We just need to get out." I lift blood-slicked fingers to pry at the latch, ignoring Dylan when he leans even closer.

The sunroof is manually operated. I see that the glass panel can pop out, but the mechanism gives me a bit of trouble. Still, I'll get it open and there will be plenty of room for us to fit through the hole. Me first, of course.

"I'm sorry, could I--" He exhales, his breath hot on my neck. I fight the urge to shudder. "Could I ask you something?"

He wants to talk. Lovely.

I sigh. "Sure." I pull on the hinges, then realize I should have been pushing and sigh again.

"Has anyone told you your hair looks silver in the moonlight?"

I glance in the rearview mirror. My new hair does look silver, like something from a fairy tale. And the rest of what I can see of myself is equally haunting--shocking, really.

Why does Ariel think herself so repulsive? Huge blue eyes dominate my new face, dwarfing my small nose and thin lips. The scars on my cheek and jaw are visible, but they aren't as terrible as Ariel thinks. The face looking back at me is attractive, compelling. There's something about it that makes you want to look twice.

So I do, staring a little too long, giving myself away.

Dylan laughs, his lips suddenly far too close to mine. "But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?"

No. It can't be. We've never-- He's never--

"Did you miss me, love?" He kisses me on the cheek, a rough, playful kiss that leaves a bit of wet behind.

Dylan has died after all. And Romeo has found a corpse. It's my last thought before his hands are around my throat.

Yep. Chills. There's also a pretty sweet love story going on within the pages. I was delighted with who Stacey Jay chose for Juliet and how she updated him for a contemporary take. Their initial encounter is another of my very favorite scenes in the book, and my affection for them lasted for the duration the story. So much so that I actually could have done with a little more connection between the modern boy and the one from the play as it would have enriched the bond for me. That part, along with one section in which Juliet sort of uncharacteristically fails to make a few connections, are the only instances that bothered me a bit. Otherwise, the novel's strengths stood out, particularly older-and-wise Juliet herself. She's such a strong character, able to contain a plethora of rich and complex emotions. She is clawing her way toward revenge or peace, whichever comes first. I loved her fire, and I loved how the writing reflected her rage and pain, without marring that original, first love between the two kids from Verona. Rather, it supports its authenticity in all its breathless perfection. Which then only highlights the atrocious betrayal and the loss she feels. It's all very affecting and enjoyable. As is Juliet's foray in young Ariel's body. Her interactions with Ariel's well-nigh estranged mother and her problematic best friend Gemma are nuanced and gripping. Lastly, I do have to say that my favorite thing about this book is that it scared me. There are a couple of scenes in particular that gave me the cold shivers, and I just love it when that happens. All in all, Juliet Immortal is an unexpectedly visceral read. I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to handing it around.

Linkage
All Things Urban Fantasy Review
A Backwards Story Review
A Blog About Nothing Review
A Book Obsession Review
The Book Smugglers Review
Good Books and Good Wine Review
A Jane of All Reads Review
The Reader Bee Review

New Year's Pretties

2011-08-26T12:05:00.000-06:00

I'm quite excited for these three, you guys. They hail from two favorite authors of mine and one newcomer. They each look rather dark in their own way and just like excellent ways to start off next year's reading.

The Shape of Desire by Sharon Shinn
Ever since I heard the fabulous Sharon Shinn was working on an urban fantasy, I've been walking around with a tingle of anticipation running down my spine. Then I ran across the cover the other day and that tingle got upgraded to a full-fledged shiver. Love the girl's pose on the log, love the creepy wolf who seems to be channeling Gmork--the werewolf from The Neverending Story. Given how I love her take on angels, I can hardly wait to read her take on werewolves. Due out April 3rd.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer
The first in the Lunar Chronicles, this futuristic debut novel is also the first in a quartet. Don't you love quartets? They put me in mind of the Alanna books and, therefore, all good things. On top of that this cover is slowly killing me with its awesome and as far as I can tell, the book itself needs little introduction. All I really feel the need to say is: Cyborg. Cinderella. Are you with me? Due out January 3rd.

Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale
And it would seem we're heading back to Austenland for another visit. This time with a new and different Austen addict and an added mystery for good measure. Charlotte Kinder is addicted to Jane Austen, recently divorced, and in need of a good vacation. So off to Pembroke Park she heads and hi jinks, one would assume, ensue. Though it's not my favorite of her books, I liked Ms. Hale's Austenland just fine and find myself up for this companion novel. Due out January 31st.

A Lily Among Thorns by Rose Lerner

2011-08-22T09:14:00.000-06:00

I've had A Lily Among Thorns on my list ever since I read Rose Lerner's debut novel--In for A Penny--more than a year ago. In fact, I actually reread it a couple of weeks ago to see if the character and writing were as lovely as I remembered. They were and it was. So I practically bounced in my seat when I saw the tweet pop up stating that A Lily Among Thorns was available on NetGalley. Click, click, click. And I sat down with it that night. Personally, I think this cover is nowhere near as nice as the cover of In for a Penny, which I thought both represented the tone of that novel as well as the "lighter" romance found within. These two look nothing like how I picture Serena and Solomon, particularly as he seems about to eat her nose and, honestly, Solomon would never do that. And even if he did give it a go, Serena would most certainly never let him get that close. Ah, the woes of cover art. On to the tale!

Serena Ravenshaw and Solomon Hathaway have A History. And they don't even know it. Ever since that one fateful night, years ago, when Solomon inadvertently provides Serena with the means to change her life, she's thought of him and wondered. Who was he? Why did he give her that money? Where is he now? And most importantly--does he have any idea what that inexplicable act meant to her? And while Serena has been carving out a new life for herself, Solomon has been quietly watching his fall apart. After the death of his twin brother in the Napoleonic Wars, Solomon can hardly summon the will to go on. A gifted chemist and tailor, he spends his days and nights working in his uncle's shop and fending off the aching loneliness and despair. Then his sister announces her marriage and the family jewels go missing. And when his sister announces she cannot be wed without the precious heirloom, Solomon seeks out the famed Black Thorn--the one woman in town who is rumored to be able to find anything that is lost. When Serena sees the one man she thought she'd never see again walk through her door, she is at once panicked, thrilled, and suspicious. Whether or not Solomon will survive the encounter is another matter entirely.

What a talent Rose Lerner has for making her characters essential to your happiness in such a short period of time. And not in a superficial way either. I genuinely care about them, believe in their fears, and grin affectionately at their quips and quarrels. By the end of the shattering prologue, I simply had to find out what in the wide world was going to happen to these characters after the intervening years had their way with them. A favorite scene early on (taken from my uncorrected ARC):

"After Elijah died, I moved my laboratory into the back of the shop for awhile."

"How kind of him, to allow you to use his space in your work for his business. I'll wager he doesn't pay you enough either."

"Did you tell him that?"

"Maybe."

The corner of his mouth quirked up. "Anyway, that's not what I meant. I moved it there because I--well, I caught myself eyeing the bottle of arsenic. And I didn't think I would, but I knew I wouldn't if my cousin Clara might find the body."

The oyster Serena has just eaten transformed itself into a brick in her stomach.

"I couldn't sleep and I'd show up there at all hours to work. Uncle Hathaway took to waking at three or four in the morning and coming downstairs. He'd bring in tea, and then he'd go into the other room and work. He didn't try to talk to me, but I could hear him through the door and it--it helped."

Serena leaned back against a tree. "I--"

"I said I didn't want to discuss it."

"I know. I just wish I could have been there."

Solomon looked at his hands. "So do I."

It was incredibly fun watching mild-mannered Solomon court death and heartbreak (not necessarily in that order) by renewing his association with Lady Serena Ravenshaw. Hard-hearted, calculating, and about as remote as formerly renowned courtesans turned underworld mavens come, Serena has vowed no one will ever have control over her again. But since she is determined to repay Solomon, she agrees to find the Hathaway rubies and call it good. Unfortunately for both of them, there are larger forces brewing outside the Ravenshaw Arms. Within the space of 24 hours, Serena's former partner returns with unexpected demands, her imperious father threatens her life, and this thing between she and Solomon threatens to break the choke hold she has on control. This book lived up to its promise from the first page to the last. Charming and intriguing, I never tired of it. The secondary characters were excellent as well, and all the threads tied up satisfactorily in the end. My favorite things about Ms. Lerner's books are the sly humor that weaves its way through the stories and the wonderful, endearing protagonists she creates. Like Penny and Nev, Serena and Solomon are . . . well, they're good. And by good I don't mean they're above reproach or without their fair share of flaws. But they are people I would want to know and keep in my life. Witness my favorite passage in the book:

"You're right," he said again. "I haven't been fair. I was afraid, too. Afraid of being alone, I suppose. Afraid of being without you. But--you know, I--" His voice cracked. Damn.

"Solomon--" she said, and he loved the way she said his name so much that he had to keep talking or he might do something selfish like tell her that.

"I never believed, before I met you, that I could go my own way," he said. "That I could deserve more than someone was willing to give me. That love might not be worth the sacrifices we have to make for it. You've taught me that. What I mean is--I do understand, if you decide you don't want--" He waved a hand between them, as if in a moment the word that would describe all that lay between them would pop into his head. As if such a word existed. He shook his head. "This."

She stared up at him, the shadows making her eyes look huge.

"You're giving up?"

He stood up. "That's exactly the problem. This has turned into some kind of tug-of-war. I'm not giving up. I'm just saying that I won't push you anymore. I won't ask for anything. I've been torturing you, and it's not fair. If nothing's changed when we go back to London on Sunday, I'll leave. Just please--make a decision that will make you happy. Take good care of yourself." She looked as lost as he felt. He went to the bed and stood looking down at her: at her perfect face and her perfect body that suddenly, for the first time, looked ordinary.

She wasn't a goddess, or an angel, or a harpy. She was a woman, a frightened, unhappy, determined, beautiful woman, and he loved her so badly that just leaning down and brushing his lips across her left temple, where her birthmark was, brought tears to his eyes. "Thank you for everything," he said, and left.

You see? All that and an ending that will make you smile, too.

A Lily Among Thorns is due out September 15th.

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