Review: The Dark Divine

Title: The Dark Divine
Author: Bree Despain
Publisher: Egmont
Pages: 372
Series: Dark Divine #1
Rating: 4.5 stars
From the book jacket: 
A prodigal son.
A dangerous love.
A deadly secret.

Grace Divine - daughter of the local pastor - always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kalbi disappeared and her brother Jude came home covered in his own blood.

Now that Daniel's returned, Grace must choose between her growing attraction to him and her loyalty to her brother.

As Grace gets closer to Daniel, she learns the truth about that mysterious night and how to save the ones she loves, but it might cost her the one thing she cherishes  most: her soul.

When I started the book, I really loved the story but I kept getting distracted by the print. The font seemed to be in all bold, which I thought was weird, and honestly, that was the only thing that kept me from getting into this book from the very beginning. But once I got used to that...wow. Awesome book.

Grace is the daughter of a pastor, and her family is almost obnoxiously religious and saintly. On the surface, anyway - but they go out of their way to not talk about anything that creates a real problem. So they don't talk about Daniel Kalbi, Grace's one-time childhood crush and a friend who used to be so close he was like an extra brother to Grace and her older brother Jude. Three years ago, he disappeared, and something happened between him and Jude that Jude still won't talk about. So when Daniel turns up in her AP art class and starts flirting with her, Grace has no one to turn to.

It quickly becomes clear that something is up with Daniel, who is demonstrating abilities bordering on superpowers, and there are almost too many clues lying around (I figured out the secret well before the end of the book). Something's up with Jude, too: he's not acting like himself at all. Grace wants to find out the secret about what happened that night, but it might put her in more danger than she can imagine. And as she works to find out what's going on and how to fix it, her once-perfect family life is falling apart around her.

I really loved The Dark Divine. Grace was such a relatable character, and even though her family was kind of unnaturally nice, I felt like all of those characters could have been real (Jude probably least of all, but even him). And Daniel was the ultimate bad-boy, unlovable-and-yet-totally-lovable character, and I really related to him, too. I also loved the characters of Don Mooney and Grace's father, especially. And the plot had just the right mix of action and romance and mystery...it was great.

Also, Bree Despain did an awesome job with the mythology in this. It was a very interesting new approach to a very familiar paranormal topic (and no, it's not vampires). I'm not going to say anything else about that because I don't want to spoil anything...but, yes, it was awesome.

So, the one-sentence summary of that review: The Dark Divine is an excellent paranormal romance with an interesting twist on the legends that I would absolutely recommend.

Links:
Bree Despain's website

Waiting on, um, Saturday

Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, but I was traveling this week so I kind of missed it. Instead, I have my WoW pick up today:

The review that went up on Wednesday was of The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting. I absolutely loved it - it was completely fantastic. So, naturally, the news that there's a sequel, Desires of the Dead, was very exciting to me.

Very, very excited for this one to come out. I need more Violet and Jay. *happy squeak*

Desires of the Dead comes out March 15, 2011. I'll definitely be reading it ASAP.

Two Giveaway Links at Once!

I'm still working on getting a giveaway of my own set up, but in the meantime you should check out these two:

Pop Culture Junkie, who is giving away several ARCs, and

La Femme Readers, where there is a giveaway of six preordered 2011 YA releases.

~Becky

Review: The Body Finder

Title: The Body Finder
Author: Kimberly Derting
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 327
Series: The Body Finder #1
Rating: 5 stars
Description from Goodreads:
Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her “power” to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes the dead leave behind in the world . . . and the imprints that attach to their killers.


Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find dead birds her cat had tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he’s claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.


Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping that Jay’s intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she’s falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer . . . and becoming his prey herself.


I fell in love with this book from the first chapter. I couldn't tell you what about it made me love it, but once I started reading, I just couldn't put it down. At the very beginning, I was concerned that it might not live up to my expectations (which were very high, from all of the positive reviews I've read), because I felt like it was doing more telling and less showing...but then...it was just amazing.


Violet is such a relatable character. She's got a few friends but she's not super-popular, she has a hard time coming up with clever comebacks, she's trying to hide a crush on her best friend, she's scared but she's trying to do something about it. She has her flaws, but they're just a part of her - she could be real. And Jay. Oh my goodness, Jay. He has definitely earned a place in the top few Crush-worthy Fictional Guys. I wish the side characters had been developed more (I need more Chelsea and Claire, please!) but I think their role in the story worked.


The set-up, basically, is that Violet gets these sensory stimulations when she's around a murder victim or a murderer. Mostly that means that her cat smells weird after he kills a bird and she can always find the bird, but then she finds a dead girl her age in a lake at a party. Soon other girls start disappearing, there's a serial killer on the loose, and Violet may be the only one who can find and identify him. I had worried that the premise of "I see dead things" might be too cliche, but it totally wasn't. The mystery is really well done and I just could not put the book down until I knew what had happened. It was fantastic. I also really liked that it occasionally flashed to the killer's point of view, telling us just enough to keep us sufficiently horrified by the crimes but not enough to ruin the mystery.


And the ending. No spoilers, I promise, but if you read it you'll know what I mean: the ending was very well done. It works as a stand-alone, I think, but I'm sooo glad there's going to be a sequel, because I need more Violet and Jay. And Chelsea. And Claire. And so on and so forth...you get the picture.


Anyway, long story short, definitely read this one, you guys. It was awesome.


Links:
Kimberly Derting's website

Tuesday Twins

I think the girl on these covers must be a stock photo: the original cover of Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson, and Kindred by Tammar Stein.

 

That aside, there's not a whole lot of similarity in the covers; the Maximum Ride book (the original cover, mind, not the new ones with Max & Co. in battle - this is the one I have) has a lightning-y cityscape that basically says "action!" while Kindred looks a little more laid-back and chill. But I'm pretty sure that is the same girl.

Personally, I'm partial to the Maximum Ride cover, but that may just be because I haven't read Kindred but I have read and loved the Max Ride books. What do you guys think?

Review: The Demon's Covenant

Title: The Demon's Covenant
Author: Sarah Rees Brennan
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Pages: 440
Series: Demon's Lexicon trilogy #2
Rating: 4.5 stars
**Warning** Review may contain SPOILERS from previous book.
From the book jacket: 
Mae always thought she was in control, but in the past few weeks, control has turned into chaos. She's learned that her brother, Jamie, has magical powers, and that Gerald, the new leader of the Obsidian Circle, is trying to persuade Jamie to join the magicians. The same magicians who tried to kill Mae and Jamie last month in London. The magicians who get their power by feeding people to demons.

Mae turns to brothers Nick and Alan to help her rescue Jamie, but they are in danger themselves. Every magician in England now knows what Nick really is -- and they all want him dead.

Nick's new power has also caused a rift between the brothers. In the weeks they were gone something terrible happened, something that haunts them both. With Nick as unreadable as ever and Alan making secret bargains with a demon, Mae finds herself attracted to both brothers -- though she knows she can't trust either of them. The magicians are closing in on one side, and the dangerous, seductive Goblin Market is tempting her on the other, and Mae has to form her own plan to save them all. She's going to find that the price she must pay is more than she ever imagined.

The covenant is binding. There is no escape.

Okay, so, I'm not really sure where to start with this book. I can't decide whether to rant and rave about the plot, the characters, or the actual writing. I guess I can go in that order. The plot was fantastic, it just kept me reading and reading (I went to bed at 3:30 a.m. last night - this morning? - because I was reading this book). The Demon's Covenant picks up about a month after the conclusion to The Demon's Lexicon, only this one is told from Mae's perspective rather than Nick's. Jamie's a magician, and suddenly he's hanging out with Gerald - the leader of the magicians who tried to kill them just a month ago. Mae calls Nick and Alan for help, and they set out to determine what exactly Gerald wants. Then there's the fact that something is clearly wrong between Nick and Alan, and although Mae doesn't know what, it's clear that she's going to have to save them both. And the Goblin Market has a huge role to play, although no one is quite sure what. There's also the fact that she's deeply attracted to both of them. That was really my only problem with the book - I got tired of Mae's attractions toward Nick and Alan and the tall-dark-and-handsome Seb from school. Even so, it was worked in really well and the book would not have been the same without it. Everything about the plot just kept me turning the pages, wanting to find out what happened next.

And the characters. I love the characters so much. It was really cool getting inside Mae's head instead of Nick's this time - I think they're both such dynamic characters that it's awesome to get to see both of them that way. Mae's struggles with her own emotions and with her relationship with her brother are very engaging, and Nick's development as he's trying to figure out what it means to be human and whether he can ever be that is just amazing to watch(/read about). I do wish we'd seen more of Jamie, he's one of my favorites, and his role in this book is also spectacular. I am glad that we got to see more of Sin in this one, and it's really neat watching her character come to life too.

Then there's the writing. It's the perfect blend of seriousness and lightness. There were bits that had me laughing out loud (I'd quote them, but there are a lot), and the characters' dialogue is so full of sarcasm and dark humor, and it was just fantastic; then there were the parts where everything was incredibly serious, and reading it you can just feel the atmosphere that the characters are in.

So, long story short: awesome, awesome book. If you haven't read The Demon's Lexicon, go pick that one up and read it right now. If you have, and you haven't read The Demon's Covenant yet, I dunno why you're still reading this, because you should be reading this book instead.

Links: 
Sarah Rees Brennan's website
Sarah Rees Brennan's blog

Giveaway Link!

Update to previous post: for the moment, my internet seems to be working. So you may be able to disregard that last post entirely.

Anyway, this post is to let you know that Carolina at Carol's Prints is giving away a lot of really awesome ARCs.  You can click here to visit her page and check out the contest!

I Think This Might Be Why I Prefer Paper Books

I'm about halfway through The Demon's Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan right now, and I plan to finish it either tonight or tomorrow. This means you can expect a review by either tomorrow evening or Tuesday, on one condition.

My internet has to be working.

We've been having some technological problems here at the house of Becky's Family, namely that our internet connection has been very unreliable and has, at least temporarily, stopped working on my laptop altogether. I've borrowed my dad's work laptop for the moment to let you know that you might not hear from me as much over the next couple of days because we're trying to get the connection fixed. There's also a college visit on my schedule for this week (but I'm trying to pretend that I don't have to think about all that).

Anyway, the long and short of it is that I'm not going to be able to post as often as usual over the next week or so while I'm traveling and my internet is down, and also I'm very glad to have a physical copy of The Demon's Covenant, because it's great and I'd hate to have to stop reading it because an e-book wouldn't load.

Catch you later!

~Becky

Book Blogger Hop!

I know, I know, all of my posts this week have been memes. But I haven't had time to read much of anything -- except for a 600+ page monster of a book that I'm reading in preparation for AP Lit. So, I am joining the Book Blogger Hop! This is a weekly meme hosted by Crazy for Books.

This weeks Book Blogger Hop question is "Tell us about the book you are currently reading." I'm actually between books right now, because ten minutes ago I finished reading John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany (the 600 page AP Lit book) and in those ten minutes I have not started a new book. Owen Meany is about a very small boy who thinks he is the instrument of God; it got a bit tedious in places, not really my cup of tea, but it actually wasn't bad.

I'm considerably more excited about the book I'm about to start reading: The Demon's Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan. I loved, loved, loved The Demon's Lexicon and I'm so excited to finally get to read the sequel!

What are you guys reading right now?

In My Mailbox

In My Mailbox is a meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. I've been reading other people's IMM's for a long time and I was pretty excited for when I'd get to do one of my own. And today, I received books in the mail!

I got two books in the mail that I won in a contest on Elizabeth Scott's blog (it was very exciting. Thank you Elizabeth!!): an ARC of The Replacement and a hardcover copy of Only the Good Spy Young.

I was excited to read The Replacement from the first time I heard about it (on Maggie Stiefvater's blog, actually). It looks delightfully creepy and exciting and wonderful and I cannot wait to read it.

Also, the cover. It's like...the epitome of creepy, but it's awesome. And in person, it's even more awesome, because the cover is this really cool silvery color and it shimmers.

I confess to already having read Only the Good Spy Young. Actually, I already have a copy of it - I just got it for my birthday. So, it is very possible that I will be giving away my extra copy. (My dad, who teaches a graduate class on YA Lit, is trying to talk me into giving it to him for his classroom library, but we'll see.) BUT - it is an awesome book and I did receive a copy, so I'm going to talk about it for a minute.

Only the Good Spy Young is the fourth book in Ally Carter's Gallagher Girls series. It's got spies and cute boys and a mystery about a secret organization, and terrorists,  and all sorts of other super-awesome fun stuff like that. I will tell you that this is probably my favorite of the Gallagher Girls books so far (and also that you definitely have to read them in order...so go read the first one now, if you haven't!).

Also "in my mailbox" are the books that I'm reading for school, A Prayer for Owen Meany (which I'm finally almost finished with) and The Things They Carried (which is just going to get put off until I get to read some more fun books. Not that Owen Meany is horrible, but it's not exactly my cup of tea. I need some fun YA books).

I also have two library books on hand right now, just waiting for me to finish Owen Meany: The Necromancer by Michael Scott (book four of The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel), which I'm very excited about, and The Demon's Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan (*squee of joy*). You'll hear more about those once I read them, I'm sure.

That's pretty much it for me this week! What's in your mailbox(/library stack/bookstore bag/etc)?

Waiting on Wednesday: Last Sacrifice

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

This week I'm waiting on Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead. The cover art was revealed yesterday. Just try to tell me that this is not amazing and exciting and all sorts of other awesomeness:

Last Sacrifice is the sixth and final book in the fantabulous Vampire Academy series. It will conclude Rose (and Dimitri and Adrian and Lissa and Christian)'s story arc (although - yay! - the author is planning another "spin-off" series set in the same world), and I absolutely cannot wait to find out what happens. Not sure how much I can say about it without posting spoilers for the earlier books in the series, but these books are definitely must-reads if you haven't read them yet! The books follow Rose Hathaway, who is in training to become a guardian (dhampir) for a royal Moroi vampire (those are the good vampires) and fight off the evil Strigoi vampires (think Dracula, sort of).  VA is definitely not your average vampire series. These are awesome. Read them!

The release date for Last Sacrifice is December 7, 2010. I'll definitely be there to get my copy as soon as it comes out. You can find out more about LS and the rest of the series on Richelle Mead's website or blog.

Tuesday Twins

This week's covers are distinct enough that no one's going to be getting them mixed up, but they're still strikingly similar in their cover image: Forget You by Jennifer Echols and Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead.

 

These two covers are blatantly different in a lot of ways; Forget You looks like a summer beach read and Spirit Bound, maybe because I'm so familiar with the series, looks like a paranormal romance; the text is different (no caps vs. all caps); the backgrounds are different (beach backdrop vs. solid color with VA series gate). But the image of the not-quite-kissing couple (although the male/female models are on opposite sides) and the sort-of-pinkish/skin-toned color schemes, plus the darker-haired-guy-and-lighter-haired-girl thing, sort of connects these covers for me. What do you guys think?

Review: Heist Society

*This review was originally written before the creation of Bookworm Boulevard. It has been reformatted and reposted here for archiving purposes.

Title: Heist Society
Author: Ally Carter
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Pages: 287
Series: Heist Society #1
Rating: 4.5 stars
Description from Goodreads:
When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her on a trip to the Louvre...to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria...to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own -- scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving "the life" for a normal life proves harder than she expected.

Soon, Kat's friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring her back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has good reason: a powerful mobster has been robbed of his priceless art collection and wants to retrieve it. Only a master thief could have pulled this job, and Kat's father isn't just on the suspect list, he is the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat's dad needs her help.

For Kat there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it's a spectacularly impossible job? She's got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in history -- or at least her family's (very crooked) history.

Heist Society follows the story of Katarina "Kat" Bishop, a fifteen-year-old girl who comes from a family of thieves. She's been helping her dad with heists for as long as she can remember, but now, Kat is walking away from a life of crime. She's conned her way into one of the country's best boarding schools, and she's done with thievery. At least, that's what she thought.

When five valuable paintings go missing, Kat's dad is in danger. Interpol is watching him closely...and so is the man who the paintings belonged to, Arturo Taccone. Taccone is even more dangerous than Interpol, and if Kat is going to save her dad's life, she's going to have to do the craziest thing she's ever done. With a little help from her friends, she's going to have to steal the paintings back.

Kat is a wonderful character - as are Hale, Gabrielle, and the rest. (Hale may have a place in the lineup of Amazing Fictional Guys now.) And Taccone is one of the best YA villains I've read in a long time. All of them are so real, the story is just so engaging, bits and pieces are laugh-out-loud funny and other bits have you sitting on the edge of your seat thinking "AHH!"

The writing style of Heist Society is quite different from Ally Carter's (equally awesome) Gallagher Girls series; it's in third person, not first, and while the Gallagher Girls audience would certainly appreciate it just as much, I feel like it's aimed at and appeals to a wider and maybe a little bit older audience. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone, and I'll be eagerly awaiting the second installment.

Links: 

Ally Carter's website

Review: Living Dead Girl

*This review was originally written before the creation of Bookworm Boulevard. It has been reformatted and reposted here for archiving purposes.

Title: Living Dead Girl
Author: Elizabeth Scott
Publisher: Scholastic
Pages: 170
Rating: 4.5 stars
From the back cover:
"The thing is, you can get used to anything. You think you can't, you want to die, but you don't. You won't. You just are."


This is Alice. 
She was taken by Ray five years ago.
She thought she knew how her story would end.
She was wrong.


Living Dead Girl is about Alice. Once upon a time, her name wasn't Alice. But ever since Ray took her five years ago, she has been Alice. The once-upon-a-time girl is gone.

Ray is a pedophile. He took Alice from a class trip right before her tenth birthday, and since then he has claimed to be her father figure, but basically she's his sex toy. She's broken; she doesn't know how to be anything other than Ray's little girl. But Alice is fifteen now, and that's too old for Ray. Ray wants a new Alice. And this Alice is going to help him get her, because if she isn't good, the once-upon-a-time girl's family will be killed. Ray will kill them.

It took me a grand total of maybe an hour to an hour and a half to read this book, but the shortness of it absolutely doesn't mean it's lacking in any way. It's an excellent read. It's also incredibly haunting. Not gonna lie, it was a pretty creepy/disturbing story. My recommendation for this one comes with caution labels. It's not a lighthearted story that anyone who's just looking to kill some time should read. But if you're looking for a genuinely well-written (the writing style is great), haunting story that will make you think, I would recommend Living Dead Girl in a heartbeat. It's an excellent book. One of those ones that you can't really say "I enjoyed that," because you don't enjoy reading about abuse, but it is a gripping story that you can't put down.

My only complaint was that I wanted a bit more resolution at the end; I felt like it stopped kind of suddenly. But I can also see why the ending works, so it's not much of a complaint. Definitely worth reading.

Links: 

Elizabeth Scott's website

Elizabeth Scott's blog

Review: Before I Fall

*This review was originally written before the creation of Bookworm Boulevard. It has been reformatted and reposted here for archiving purposes.

Title: Before I Fall

Author: Lauren Oliver

Publisher: HarperCollins

Pages: 470

Rating: 5 stars

Description from Goodreads:

What if you had only one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?

Samantha Kingston has it all - looks, popularity, the perfect boyfriend. Friday, February 12th should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it's her last. The catch: Samantha still wakes up the next morning. In fact, she relives the last day of her life seven times, until she realizes that by making even the slightest changes, she may hold more power than she ever imagined.

Oh my goodness. Where to begin? Before I Fall is amazing. So, I have to confess, for the first few chapters of the book, I didn't like it at all. I hated the main characters (except Kent, who the main characters hate), and I expected the constant talk of sex, drugs, alcohol, and obsessive popularity to get really old really fast. I was prepared to hate the book.

I was wrong. Yes, at the beginning of the novel, Samantha ("Sam") Kingston and her friends, Lindsay, Ally, and Elody, are - there's no other word for it - bitchy. They're mean to everyone, they're bullies just because they can be, they can get away with anything and do whatever they want. They talk about sex a lot, and they drink a lot just because they can, and they smoke and cut class and all that other stuff that gives teenagers a bad reputation.

But then Sam dies. And after her nightmarish last day, she wakes up again the same morning. She relives her last day seven times over. During this miraculous final week, she changes. Sam starts to understand things about the world around her, and about herself. The question is, will one day be enough to change everything?

By the end of the novel, I didn't hate Sam or her friends at all. I sympathized with Sam, I wanted to just give her a big hug and make things okay, and I will confess that there were a couple of parts near the end that almost made me cry. I sat down and read the entire second half in one afternoon. It was fantastic. Lauren Oliver has some kind of magic with storytelling, to be able to create a character so real and to change the reader's attitude toward her so completely. It is absolutely worth the first couple of chapters (although the prologue may be compelling enough on its own; very well set up) to get to the rest of the story. READ IT. Please. It took me a little longer than I liked to get into it, but once I did, it was absolutely fantastic. Definitely, definitely check this one out.

Links:

Lauren Oliver's website

Lauren Oliver's blog

Review: Hush, Hush

*This review was originally written before the creation of Bookworm Boulevard; it has been reformatted and reposted here for archiving purposes.

Title: Hush, Hush
Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 391
Series: Hush, Hush #1
Rating: 5 stars
From the book jacket:
A sacred oath.
A fallen angel.
A forbidden love.


Romance was not part of Nora Grey's plan. She's never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how hard her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her. Not until Patch comes along. With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Patch draws Nora to him against her better judgment.

But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora's not sure whom to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is and seems to know more about her than her closest friends. She can't decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is way more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel.

For she is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those who have fallen -- and, when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost Nora her life.

I'm going to try to stay realistic and objective about this book, like all of them, but I may not be able to avoid a little bit of gushing. Because the fact of the matter is, I loved this book. It was amazing.

At first I thought it was going to be just another dark fantasy romance novel. Which was okay - I like dark fantasy romance novels. But I wasn't expecting anything spectacular and out of the ordinary. And seriously, I have never been so glad to be wrong. I fell in love with the story from the very first chapter, and it just got better from there.

Patch Cipriano is the ultimate bad boy, and he's also kinda perfect in that dark, flawed way. Let's just say he ranks on my list of Amazing Fictional Guys with Mr. Darcy (Pride and Prejudice), Sam Roth (Shiver), and Jace Wayland (City of Bones). You'll probably hear more about that list later.

Anyway, we meet Patch because he is Nora Grey's lab partner. Nora is not at all happy with this arrangement, because Patch is creepy - and also strangely magnetic. She feels drawn to him in a way she can't explain and doesn't at all like. So when a man in a ski mask starts stalking her, she can't help but suspect Patch, especially when she starts hearing him in her mind. I can't say anything more without giving out any spoilers, which I absolutely refuse to do, but ohmygosh you should read this book.

The chemistry between Patch and Nora is excellent, and I really just love the interactions between all of the characters, Nora's relationship with Vee, the way the plot unfolds and the mystery/suspense develops...it's just fantastic. I will say, I thought Patch was a bit of a jerk at the beginning and I figured out part of the plot twist before we got there, but it was still completely amazing and definitely worth reading.

Links:

Becca Fitzpatrick's blog

Becca Fitzpatrick's website

Plus, check out this super-awesome countdown widget for the sequel, Crescendo:

Travel Notice!

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that over the next few days I'm going to be venturing off into the Land of No Wireless Internet (aka a friend's house in another state), so I'm not going to be checking comments/writing new reviews/any other sorts of blog-related things.

Instead, I figure this is probably a good time to move over a few more old reviews from other places (i.e. Shelfari, a few-months-old personal blog, whatever; I talked about it a bit here). Tomorrow through Sunday, I'll have some of these old reviews (all written sometime within the last six months, though) prepped to post automatically once each day.

Hope everyone's having a lovely summer and reading lots of awesome books!

~Becky

Review: The Gardener

*This review was originally written before the creation of Bookworm Boulevard. It has been reformatted and reposted here for archiving purposes.

Title: The Gardener
Author: S.A. Bodeen
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Pages: 232
Rating: 3.5 stars
From the book jacket: (I whited out parts of it because they're spoilery; highlight to read)
This greenhouse...grows humans.

Mason isn't supposed to know about the Greenhouse. He isn't supposed to meet the beautiful girl who is part of the experiment, and who doesn't need food or water to survive.

Now, Mason is on the run with the girl. And the Gardener, who is the mysterious mastermind of an institution that grows humans, wants them both, dead or alive.

Having read the description on the inside jacket of The Gardener, I was expecting certain things to be revealed early in the plot and have the rest of the story about what happened afterwards. Instead, it felt like the big mystery in the story was for Mason and the girl to find out all the things that the reader finds out just from reading the book jacket. This story was incredibly predictable, I thought; I figured out the ending well before I got there. That said, I still enjoyed the book.

The only connection Mason has ever had to is father is a DVD of the man, shoulders-down, reading The Runaway Bunny. So when a comatose girl at the hospital where his mother works suddenly wakes up when she hears the story on the DVD and begs to leave, Mason - who has a bit of a hero complex - rescues her.

The girl only remembers bits and pieces of who she is and what has happened to her, but Mason can tell that she's anything but normal. The circular scars covering her legs only add to the mystery of the girl's past. Add in that there's a tattoo on her arm that matches the one on Mason's father on the DVD and the fact that the least official police force Mason has ever encountered is chasing the girl he rescued. There's mystery and adventure brewing, and Mason may not like what he discovers.

This novel takes a real, present-day scientific crisis and gives it an impossible solution with just enough scientific backing that it just might happen. Add in two teenagers who are trying to figure out the truth behind the science and the mystery of the girl's past, and you've got The Gardener. Science fiction + global warming + eco-cyborgs = a pretty intense mix of stuff. The science-fiction part of the novel was really well done; the solution the Greenhouse proposes is totally ridiculous, but based in just enough truth to make it plausible, which is how I think science fiction should be. Mason and the girl were great characters, too, so they were fun to read about. I think the romance between the two was a little bit excessive and unbelievable, but besides that, I liked them.

All in all, The Gardener was not the best book I've ever read, but it wasn't bad, and I'm glad I read it. If you're looking for a quick, fun science-fiction story, consider this one.

Review: Kiss in the Dark

Title: Kiss in the Dark
Author: Lauren Henderson
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pages: 247
Series: Scarlett Wakefield #3
Rating: 4 stars
From the book jacket:
With Dan McAndrew's murder finally behind her, Scarlett has high hopes for a fresh start at Wakefield Hall Collegiate, the elite English boarding school her grandmother runs. Unfortunately, those hopes are dashed when her nemesis, the infamous Plum Saybourne, is transferred to the school. Plum wastes no time turning Scarlett's impressionable classmates against her.

Scarlett has dealt with Plum's nasty schemes before, and she can handle her archenemy very nicely, thank you -- until Plum sets her sights on Scarlett's best friend, Taylor, and new boyfriend, Jase. Then Scarlett is more than willing to fight for what's rightfully hers.

Fighting doesn't solve everything, though, and things only get worse after Scarlett becomes entangled in a mysterious death on campus. A reluctant sleuth, Scarlett is compelled to investigate because she wants to protect someone close to her. She never imagines that she'll uncover secrets related to her parents' fatal accident so many years ago...

I'm so glad that I had a couple of uninterrupted hours in which to read this book, because I would not have been happy to have to put it down. Kiss in the Dark is a fun, quick read with a perfect blend of boarding school drama and murder mystery. Oh, and Britishness. It gains lots of awesome-points just for the sheer Britishness of the characters and the story.

Kiss in the Dark is the third book in a series (the first two are Kiss Me Kill Me and Kisses and Lies), but it's not really essential to have read the first two to understand and enjoy this one. I still definitely recommend reading them in order as it provides a lot of the characters' backgrounds and explains events that are referenced in this one (plus, who wouldn't enjoy two more books of Scarlett?), but at the start of this book, the major events of the first two books are firmly in the past. Scarlett thinks she's starting over now that she's solved the murder of Dan McAndrew, except now Plum Saybourne, her ultra-popular nemesis, has transferred to her school.

Within a few weeks, Plum has the other girls at Wakefield Hall practically worshiping her, and Scarlett and her best friend Taylor are left to deal with it on their own. The verbal battles and the power struggles between Scarlett and Plum are certainly entertaining to read about. Scarlett's a strong character who knows how to stand up for herself, so the conflict escalates rapidly. In addition to all of the popularity struggles, Plum's out to destroy Scarlett's relationship with the gardener's son, Jase. But it turns out Plum isn't the only one who's not pleased with that relationship: Jase's father and grandmother and Scarlett's aunt have all indicated that the two should not be together. Scarlett's already trying to solve that mystery when she and Taylor stumble onto a dead body.

I felt like the mystery was really well-done - both mysterious situations, the murder and the objections to Scarlett's relationship with Jase, are handled realistically and thoroughly. My only complaints wer that in places it felt like Scarlett was a way better detective than she should have been, so it was a tiny bit inconsistent, and it was a little more predictable than I liked. There's enough of a conclusion to make Kiss in the Dark tell a complete story all on its own, but with enough questions left unanswered that I'll definitely read book four when it comes out.

The characters are great, too; I feel like the character development in this book is a lot stronger than in the first two, which is nice. I especially love that we get to see a new side to Taylor's character, as she's probably my favorite. And I love these books' approach to strong female characters. Kiss in the Dark is a great continuation of the series, and I definitely recommend the entire series to any teenage girl looking for a fun, quick read. Especially if you like Britishness. (They kick bums instead of butts! It's awesome.)

Links:
Lauren Henderson's website

Waiting on Wednesday: Darkest Mercy

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Quick question: Do you love the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr? Because I know I do. And over the weekend, the cover for the final book in the series, titled Darkest Mercy, was released on Melissa's livejournal page. She says it's not quite perfect yet, but still, is this a beautiful cover or what?

The flap copy was also released not too terribly long ago: 


“Send the messengers for the faery courts. This is the end.”
The Summer King is missing; the Dark Court is bleeding; and a stranger walks the streets of Huntsdale, his presence signifying the deaths of powerful fey.

Aislinn tends the Summer Court, searching for her absent king and yearning for Seth. Torn between his new queen and his old love, Keenan works from afar to strengthen his court against the coming war. Donia longs for fiery passion even as she coolly readies the Winter Court for battle. And Seth, sworn brother of the Dark King and heir to the High Queen, is about to make a mistake that could cost his life.

Love, despair, and betrayal ignite the faery courts, and in the final conflict, some will win…and some will lose everything.

The exhilarating conclusion to Melissa Marr’s New York Times bestselling Wicked Lovely series will leave readers breathless.


I am so, so excited for this book! If you haven't read the Wicked Lovely series, I don't know why you're still reading this blog post. Go to your local bookstore or library right now and pick them up. The books, in order, are Wicked Lovely, Ink Exchange, Fragile Eternity, and Radiant Shadows. They're full of faeries and romance and danger and excitement and suspense and magic and pretty things and...well, and all sorts of other amazing things.


So, my WoW pick this week is Darkest Mercy, because as sad as I will be to see the series end, I absolutely cannot wait to find out what happens to Ash and Seth and Donia and the rest. After reading Radiant Shadows, I hope to see a bit more of Ani and Devlin too. 


Darkest Mercy (HarperCollins) will be released in February 2011. Here's to hoping we can all wait that long. :)

Tuesday Twins

I cannot count how many times I've heard people say that a book's cover is its most important marketing technique. Book covers are important. That in mind, I know a lot of bloggers have cover-comparison features (such as Pop Culture Junkie's Lookalikes and Hooked on YA Books' Cover-Compare Fridays), but I love covers too, so I'm going to jump on the bandwagon.

So, we all know that Twilight is a huge deal right now. Even if we do feel like vampires are getting incredibly overdone right now, there's no denying that Twilight is popular and it sells. We see the black cover with the red and/or white image and that's just what we think of.  The whole series is that way. Red-and-white flowers on a black background are associated with the New Moon cover, period, end of story.

But even knowing that, I still got rather upset when I saw the new covers for Romeo and Juliet, Pride and Prejudice, and Wuthering Heights in my local Barnes & Noble:

  

I mean, the way these four covers look, they could be a series. The black backgrounds with red-and-white flowers and a trace of green in the stalks; the curlicue script for the titles; the spaced-out capital letters spelling out the authors' names...never mind that they were all written at different times by different people, these covers make them look like they simply belong together. The Wuthering Heights cover even mentions Bella and Edward!

I have to admit, the cover designers did a good job of it; I'm quite sure the covers were meant to resemble New Moon, and they do that well. And the covers are pretty, too! Not sure how well the roses represent Pride and Prejudice, but I do think that cover especially is really nice-looking. But it still makes me a little sad that someone might assume Pride and Prejudice to be a young-adult vampire romance novel just because of the cover. (If you didn't know or hadn't guessed, I really love Pride and Prejudice.)

What do you guys think of the new covers for these classics? Yay or nay?

Release Day!

Hey guys: Linger comes out today. You know, the one by the amazing Maggie Stiefvater, the sequel to the fantastic book Shiver. I know there are some copies already out there, but today is the official release date. That means that you should go get a copy right away.

Also out today: Siren by Tricia Rayburn and Shadow Hills by Anastasia Hopcus, both of which I am very excited to read. Unlike Linger, I don't have anything else to base my excitement for these two off of, but they both look very awesome and I cannot wait to read them.

Review: Tangled

*This review was originally written before the creation of Bookworm Boulevard; it has been reformatted and reposted here for archiving purposes.

Title: Tangled
Author: Carolyn Mackler
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 320
Rating: 4 stars
From the back cover:
Jena, Dakota, Skye, and Owen are all at Paradise - a resort in the Caribbean, that is - for different reasons, but in Paradise their lives become tangled together in ways none of them can predict. The week might take Jena one kiss closer to having a life; set Dakota on a new path; push Skye to stop playing a role, or face the consequences; or inspire Owen to take a leap from his online life to a real one, all because of a girl he met in Paradise. Whatever happens here, it will change them all.

At first, I wasn't sure I liked Tangled. I thought it was going to be just another chick lit where the dorky-girl-who-has-no-life either ends up with some hot guy who turns out to have a sweet personality or discovers that being hot and popular is not all it's cracked up to be. But I kept reading, because I kind of liked the characters, and...wow. It turned out to be really good.

This book tells the story of four teens - Jena, her mom's friend's daughter Skye, a hotshot jock named Dakota, and his dorky younger brother Owen - who for various reasons have to spend a week at a resort called Paradise. Jena meets(/falls for) Dakota and finds a suicide note by a hot tub, and then things are in motion that are beyond their control. There are four sections in the book, each told from a different character's point of view and surrounding that character's individual story, but there's definitely crossover between them. The book is about how their lives get tangled together and how it changes all of them. Skye's and Owen's sections were probably my favorites because I could relate to them better, but they were all great. It was a little difficult to believe in places, but it worked. 

There is some strong language and some sexual content, especially in the first half, but it's written in so that on the whole it adds to the book rather than taking away from it. I almost put it down because of some of that content, but I am reeeally glad that I kept reading. Seriously. Sweet story, great characters, and just overwhelmingly real. Probably more of a girl book than a guy book, although guys would probably enjoy Dakota's and Owen's sections just as much; I'd definitely recommend it to anyone.

Links:

Carolyn Mackler's website

Carolyn Mackler's blog

Review: Glimpse

*This review was originally written before the creation of Bookworm Boulevard; it has been reformatted and reposted here for archiving purposes.

Title: Glimpse
Author: Carol Lynch Williams
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 484
Rating: 5 stars
Glimpse is absolutely wonderful. It's 484 pages long, but it's written in verse so in terms of word count it's probably pretty short. I read it over about an hour and a half. It's a quick read and an amazing book so please don't let the length scare you off.

Hope is 13. Her older sister Lizzie is 14. They have other friends, but ever since they were 3 and 4, they've been best friends and they've protected each other. So when Hope walks into their shared bedroom to find Lizzie pointing a gun at her own head and Lizzie gets shipped off to a mental hospital, Hope's world turns upside down. She doesn't understand why her sister would want to die. She doesn't understand what she's supposed to do now that she can't protect Lizzie anymore.

Hope's mother is not exactly a source of comfort; it seems like Lizzie has always been her favorite, but neither one of them was planned, and Momma hasn't really been there for the girls since their father died eight years ago. What Momma does have is a secret, and that secret may explain why Lizzie wanted so desperately "to leave/for good."

Glimpse was beautifully written and once you start reading it you just can't stop. Absolutely a must-read. So, so good. It was excellent. Both of the girls are incredibly relatable and real. Their problems don't make them any less normal girls. Hope's interactions with her best friend were always a lot of fun to read. And the writing is just spectacular. I really loved all of the poems and everything. This was a really, really awesome book. Definitely recommended.


Links:
Carol Lynch Williams' website

Review: All Unquiet Things

*This review was originally written before the creation of Bookworm Boulevard; it has been reformatted and reposted here for archiving purposes.

Title: All Unquiet Things
Author: Anna Jarzab
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Pages: 352
Rating: 4 stars
Description from Goodreads:
Carly: She was sweet. Smart. Self-destructive. She knew the secrets of Brighton Day School's most privileged students. Secrets that got her killed.

Neily: Dumped by Carly for a notorious bad boy, Neily didn't answer the phone call Carly made before she died. If he had, maybe he could have helped her. Now he can't get the image of her lifeless body out of his mind.

Audrey: She's the reason Carly got tangled up with Brighton's fast crowd in the first place, and now she regrets it - especially since she's convinced the police have put the wrong person in jail. Audrey thinks the murderer is someone at Brighton, and she wants Neily to help her find out who it is.

As reluctant allies Neily and Audrey dig into their shared past with Carly, her involvement with Brighton's dark goings-on comes to light. But figuring out how Carly and her killer fit into the twisted drama will force Audrey and Neily to face hard truths about themselves and the girl they couldn't save.

I will admit it took me a while to get into All Unquiet Things, but after the first few chapters I was completely hooked. Long story short, it's essentially a murder mystery. A year before the story starts, Carly Ribelli is found dead with four gunshot wounds to the chest. Her uncle, the father of her cousin and best friend, Audrey, was convicted of the murder, but Audrey doesn't believe her dad is guilty. So Audrey enlists the help of Carly's ex-boyfriend, Neily - who was still in love with Carly - to help her figure out who really did it. The story is a mix of murder mystery and high school drama; the focus is on the murder mystery, but the clues are embedded in the high school drama.

The story alternates between Neily and Audrey's perspectives. It's really well-written, maybe a bit slow at times but still very engaging, and the story - oh my goodness. Some of it is a bit hard to believe, but Anna Jarzab makes it believable. And the characters are so real and well-developed and amazing. They each have their own distinctive voices, but the transitions from one narrator to the other are (mostly) very smooth. There is some language and content that might not be appropriate for younger teens, but to anyone who doesn't mind that stuff, I would absolutely recommend this book.

Links:
Anna Jarzab's website

Quick Note About Reviews

Hey guys,

I've got a bunch of reviews that I've written in various places on various other websites from before I started Bookworm Boulevard. I'm going to start reformatting those reviews to the format that I use here and reposting them, for the purpose of archiving all of them in one place. I'm not reading four or five books a day or anything; just reposting them. Any reviews that have been reformatted and reposted from somewhere else will be marked, so if there's nothing saying "hey, this is an old review from a different source," it's safe to assume that it's new. :)

Review: Infinite Days

Title: Infinite Days
Author: Rebecca Maizel
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Pages: 308
Series: Vampire Queen Trilogy #1
Rating: 4.5 stars
From the back cover:
"I release you, Lenah Beaudonte.
Believe, and be free.


Those were the last words I could remember. When I awoke, I immediately felt a cold surface on my left cheek. An icy shiver rushed down my spine. 'Rhode!' I screamed. He had to be here. There would be no world without Rhode. A door somewhere near me opened and closed. Rhode loomed over me but he was a blur. Even in the haze of that moment his icy-blue eyes pierced me, down to my soul."


After centuries of terrorizing Europe, Lenah Beaudonte, with the help of the handsome Rhode, has been able to realize the dream of all vampires - to be human again. Now, as a raven-haired, sixteen-year-old, Lenah believes her greatest challenge is fitting in at her new school. But the challenges have only begun. The vicious coven Lenah once ruled is threatening the new-found pleasures of her human life, including the one guy who makes her feel most alive, Justin. Can this ex-vamp survive in an alien time and place or will her past come back to haunt her...forever?


I received an ARC of Infinite Days through LibraryThing Early Reviewers, and while I was excited to read it, I was a little wary of reading yet another vampire novel. I shouldn't have worried. With this one, Rebecca Maizel has completely remade all the rules. It's a completely new take on vampirism and I really, really loved it. It was also great to see vampires portrayed as the "bad guys" for the first time in a long time. I could have enjoyed it just for that. But there was so much more. It was a fantastic book.

Lenah is a wonderful character. Her emotions are so real, and the way she reacts to being in the twenty-first century for the first time is spectacular. It's a lot of fun watching her adjust to the modern world, getting used to the technology and the slang. You can really get inside her head. And the side characters were awesome too. Justin is a popular guy with depth to him, and Lenah's first friend in the human world, Tony, is easy to imagine just stepping off the page and coming to life. I felt like the "Three-Piece," the popular girls who date the most popular guys, could have been developed more than they were, but on the whole, the characters were excellent.

And the plot! Yes, it's a vampire romance novel, but it's so different from anything that's already out there. Lenah's relearning what it means to be human, what it means to have human senses, and that includes falling in love. The developing relationships between Lenah and Tony and Lenah and Justin are beautifully crafted, and the impending danger of the coven is really well-done too. There's a lot of mystery surrounding the ritual used to make Lenah human, and the reader gets really engaged in that.

Most of Lenah's vampire life is revealed through flashbacks, so she's really telling two stories at once: what's happening now, in the present, and how she got to be there. The flashbacks aren't necessarily continuous, which can get a tiny bit confusing, but it tells the story effectively. And almost all of the flashbacks are really well-done. Some of my favorite scenes were in the flashbacks.

So, in short, Infinite Days is a really great novel with an awesome new twist on vampire mythology and characters that you will not want to let go of. Definitely worth reading.

Links: 
Rebecca Maizel's blog

Giveaway Link

Hey, guys, Katie at Katie's Book Blog is giving away an ARC of Cassandra Clare's upcoming book The Clockwork Angel! Click here to go to her site and enter.

The Clockwork Angel comes out at the end of August. I absolutely cannot wait!

Summer Reading

So, for those of us still in high school, "summer reading" has a more sinister meaning than just "YES! Summer! I can read as much as I want!" Yes, the "YAY!" meaning definitely still applies, but there's also assigned reading. For me, the assigned reading is usually a lot less interesting than the stuff that I pick up on my own. So either it gets put off until the last possible minute, or I bribe myself.

I wouldn't dislike the school reading so much if not for the fact that at my school, we're expected to annotate all the books, and they don't give us a clear definition of how much annotation they want. Personally, I hate writing in books, and sometimes they're not even my books, so I can't write in them. Instead, I use sticky notes or write notes in a spiral-bound notebook. But the act of interrupting my own reading to write down my responses to the story really annoys me. I'd rather just read the book straight through, because I'll process it better and enjoy it more that way. Annotating is going to pretty much guarantee that I will not enjoy the book. My conclusion: having to annotate makes me not want to read. Which is a very, very sad thing for a total bibliophile like me. Anybody else have stuff like that?

I'm reading 1984 (Orwell), A Prayer for Owen Meany (Irving), The Things They Carried (O'Brien), and Naked Economics (Wheelan) for school this summer, in preparation for AP Literature and AP Government and Macroeconomics. What's anybody else reading for school?

Review: Perchance to Dream

Title: Perchance to Dream
Author: Lisa Mantchev
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends (Macmillan)
Pages: 333
Series: Théâtre Illuminata #2
Rating: 4 stars
From the book jacket: (highlight gaps to read; spoiler warning)
Act Two, Scene One
Growing up in the enchanted Théâtre Illuminata, Beatrice Shakespeare Smith learned everything about every play ever written. She knew the Players and their parts, but she didn't know that she, too, had magic. Now, she is the Mistress of Revels, the Teller of Tales, and is determined to follow her stars. She is ready for the outside world.

Enter BERTIE AND COMPANY
But the outside world soon proves more topsy-turvy than any stage production. Bertie can make things happen by writing them, but outside the protective walls of the Théâtre, nothing goes as planned. And her magic cannot help her make a decision between--

NATE: Her suave and swashbuckling pirate, now in mortal peril.

ARIEL: A brooding, yet seductive, air spirit whose true motives remain unclear.

When Nate is kidnapped and taken prisoner by the Sea Goddess, only Bertie can free him. Bertie's dreams are haunted by Nate, whose love for Bertie is keeping him alive, but in the daytime, it's Ariel who is tantalizingly close, and the one she is falling for. Who does Bertie love the most? And will her magic be powerful enough to save her once she enters the Sea Goddess's lair?

I read and fell in love with the first book in the Théâtre Illuminata series, Eyes Like Stars, several months ago. I was a bit concerned about starting the sequel because I was a little hazy on the details of the first book. I needn't have worried; while you certainly want to read the first book first, book two is almost self-sufficient.

As Bertie, Ariel, and the four Midsummer Night's Dream fairies are off on an adventure outside the Théâtre; Bertie is desperate to rescue her sort-of-boyfriend, the pirate Nate, and she also wants to discover the identity of the Mysterious Stranger who is her father. At the same time, she's maybe-a-little-bit falling for Ariel. She's also learning how to use her storytelling magic without accidentally doing anything dangerous, like lighting her fairy friends on fire.

So much of this book had me literally laughing out loud. I adored it. The comic relief, mostly in the form of the fairies but from other sources as well, is excellent. And I love, love, love all the literary references (the first line is "'It is a truth universally acknowledged,' Mustardseed said, flying in lazy loops like an intoxicated bumblebee, 'that a fairy in possession of a good appetite must be in want of pie," and it only gets better from there). But even through the lighthearted tone and the cheerfulness, there's a fair amount of danger and dark situations that definitely kept me turning the pages.

And the characters. Oh my goodness, the characters. Peaseblossom, Moth, Cobweb, and Mustardseed alone would be enough to keep me reading even with out all the other amazingness. Edible boyfriends and parodies about pie? Oh, yes. And Bertie is so sweet and so relatable - an awesome protagonist. And then there are the love interests. Nate and Ariel are both great characters (I'm Team Ariel, but that's me.) And all of the side characters are so much fun too. It's just spectacular.

My one complaint is that some of it was really hard to follow. While Bertie was experimenting with her magic, there were two or three places where I got really confused as to where she was and who she was with. But I think even that worked, because Bertie was confused a lot too. It made it difficult to keep up in places, but I still really, really loved the story.

So if you're looking for a quick, lighthearted, bundles-of-fun summer read (er, two), the Théâtre Illuminata books (first one titled Eyes Like Stars and the second one, of course, is Perchance to Dream) would be an excellent choice.

Links:
Lisa Mantchev's website
Théâtre Illuminata website
Lisa Mantchev's blog

Release Date News!

So, as I have just learned from Maggie Stiefvater's official Facebook fan page, the release date of Linger has been moved up from the 20th to the 13th. That means that it'll be in stores on Tuesday! Much excitement.

You can read my review of Linger here, and you can read the book for yourself in just a few days. Are you guys excited? Because it's pretty awesome. :)

Review: Pretty Little Liars

Title: Pretty Little Liars
Author: Sara Shepard
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 286
Series: Pretty Little Liars #1
Rating: 4 stars
Description from HarperTeen: 
Never trust a pretty girl with an ugly secret.

Gossip thrives among the Mercedes-Benzes, mega-mansions, and perfectly manicured hedges in the exclusive town of Rosewood, Pennsylvania. Behind their big Gucci sunglasses, beneath their perfectly pressed Polos, everyone has something to hide, especially high school juniors Spencer, Aria, Emily, and Hanna. Spencer covets her sister's gorgeous new boyfriend. Aria is having an affair with her English teacher. Emily is infatuated with the new girl at school. And Hanna is using some ugly tricks to stay beautiful. Deeper and darker still is a horrible secret the girls have shared since sixth grade - a secret they thought was safe forever.

Then the girls start receiving threatening messages signed by someone named "A." Could "A" be Alison, the ultra-popular girl who disappeared three years earlier? Alison was their best friend. She knew everything about them. But if Alison isn't "A," who is? And how could anyone else know so much about the bad girls they were and the bad girls they've become? Suddenly, their secrets - the big ones, the little ones, the long-buried ones - no longer seem so safe. Suddenly, nothing is safe in Rosewood.

I have to confess that when I started this book, I was not prepared to enjoy it. I liked the idea of the mystery and the girl who disappeared, but I was afraid there would be too many designer-labels and "popular" girls that I couldn't relate to. I am very pleased to say that I was wrong.

The characters in Pretty Little Liars are incredibly relatable. Aria's the English nerd who's trying to figure out who she is and wants a guy with more to him than just looks. Spencer's always had a lot of pressure on her from her parents to do well in school. Emily's the younger sister who's living in her older siblings' shadow and a little scared of disobeying her parents. Hanna, probably the hardest to relate to for me, is dealing with her step-sister being Daddy's favorite and feeling like her parents don't think she's good enough. Each of the girls have their issues that they're dealing with, and they're also dealing with the unavoidable social changes of high school - changing friend groups, changing interests, romance or the lack thereof. Plus, it's one of those books that really just says "Hey, everybody has issues. People are people, regardless of social status." These characters, obnoxious though they can be at times, are ones that you can't help feeling drawn to.

And the mystery of A and Alison's disappearance is very well done. I've already said I like the characters, but even if I didn't, I think I'd be reading the rest of the series just to figure out who A is and what happened to Alison. There's enough to it so that readers aren't just like, "oh, whatever, sideline mystery," but it doesn't tell you so much that you can figure it out halfway through. The mystery is very well crafted and I am definitely going to pick up Flawless ASAP.

And, okay, Pretty Little Liars also has a fair amount of guilty pleasure appeal. The torrid affairs, the parties, and all the deep, dark, juicy secrets - it's the kind of stuff that you know you shouldn't want to read about, but you can't help wanting more anyway.

I felt like some of it got a bit over-the-top in places; some of the drama could have been toned down a bit and still worked just as well if not better. But on the whole, I really really enjoyed Pretty Little Liars. I read it straight through; put it down for bathroom breaks and family dinner, and not much else. Definitely a fun read for just about any teenage girl.

Oh, and one more thing. The cover. I'm not a huge fan of the yellow background, but the idea of the dolls to represent the girls? Love it. If I started going on about the metaphorical significance of the dolls, we'd be here all afternoon, but I think it works really, really well. So, three cheers for Sara Shepard, and another three cheers for the cover designer.

Links:
Pretty Little Liars website

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Breaking the Spine, in which you post on a Wednesday about a pre-publication book you're excited about. There's a lot coming out soon that I'm excited about, so I thought I'd join in.

Description from Goodreads: (highlight to read - spoilers!)
Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she's made it out of the bloody arena alive, she's still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what's worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss's family, not her friends, not the people of District 12. Powerful and haunting, this thrilling final installment of Suzanne Collins's groundbreaking The Hunger Games trilogy promises to be one of the most talked about books of the year.


Maybe I'm a bit behind the times with this one - we've all been waiting for Mockingjay for months and months - but I couldn't get the widget to load yesterday and so this is my way of saying "YES! I WANT TO READ THIS!"


Mockingjay is the third and final novel in Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy, an excellent dystopian YA about Katniss Everdeen's will to survive. Each year, the government holds the Hunger Games, in which each of the 12 districts must send two children to the arena. The twenty-four selected children must fight to the death to earn their district extra food - and to remind the people that the government has total control over them. 


But Katniss doesn't want to play by the rules. And the government can't take it. From the very first page, The Hunger Games sucked me in. I could not put it down. Whether it's the characters or the action or something else entirely, something about the book is absolutely amazing. And the sequel, Catching Fire, was just as good. So this Wednesday, I'm waiting for Mockingjay, the conclusion to the series. 


It releases on August 24. I can't wait. 

Review: Beautiful Creatures

Title: Beautiful Creatures
Author: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Pages: 563
Series: Caster Chronicles #1
Rating: 5 stars. Or more.
From Goodreads: 
Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she’s struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps, and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever. 


Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town’s oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them. 


In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.


I don't know where to start on how spectacular and amazing this book is. Right after I finished it, I walked by a mirror and almost did a double take when it was me and not Ethan or Lena looking back out. It's that engaging, and it does that good a job of putting you right there in the characters' shoes.


It was really refreshing to see a paranormal romance told (and told well) from the perspective of a guy, but that barely scratches the surface of all the things that are amazing about Beautiful Creatures. Danger, mystery, witches, history, and a sense of something bigger than any individual looming before the characters...this novel has it all. The conflict, mystery, and danger are all wonderfully developed, and the story moves quickly, so don't let the length scare you off. And the detailed plot does not at all take away from the characters. Ethan and Lena are two very complex, very real characters who can make you forget about yourself and just be someone else for a couple of hours. 


I completely adored this book. Read it, you guys, it is made of awesome. Beautiful Creatures is a beautiful book.


Links: 
Beautiful Creatures website