Book Review: Aru Shah and the End of Time

TITLE: Aru Shah and the End of Time
Book 1 in the Pandava Quartet series
AUTHOR: Rhoshani Chokshi
PUBLISHED: March 27th, 2018
CATEGORY: Middle-grade
GENRE: Fantasy
PREMISE: A girl goes on a quest after she accidentally causes time to freeze after lighting a lamp....
MY REVIEW: I have been meaning to read this for awhile now. I adore Rick Riordan's books, and this new imprint he has going on with his publisher is frankly awesome. I want to read every book that he has previewed so far. Sadly, some of them don't come out until 2020 ;pouts;
If they are anything like this though, we're in for some good stuff, guys. This is very Percy Jackson like, so I understand why Riordan picked it for his imprint. But it does its own thing. I confess...I don't really know anything about the poem that this book is drawing inspiration from. So I can't tell you how well Chokshi is using the mythology or anything like that. I can tell you, she spins an entertaining story, with delightful protagonists.
This is a great start to a new series. The ending is very interesting and I can't wait to see what happens next.
WHO SHOULD READ: Percy Jackson fans, Rhoshani Chokshi fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five sassy birds

Book Review: The Belles

TITLE: The Belles
Book 1 in The Belles series
AUTHOR: Dhonielle Clayton
CATEGORY: YA
PUBLISHED: February 6th, 2018
GENRE: Fantasy
PREMISE: In a world where beauty is everything, one girl competes to be the favorite Belle and learns that there is more to her world then there seems...
MY REVIEW: I admit it...I wasn't sure how much I was going to like this. People kept comparing it to The Selection and I kind of loathe that series. But thankfully, this turned out to be ten times better then The Selection (and frankly, nothing like that series) and I wound up really enjoying it.
It is not really groundbreaking stuff. YA fantasy that does social commentary happen all the time. But this is very enjoyable and very readable. I love the world Clayton has built here. Like with The Cruel Prince, it's one of those worlds that has me itching to get out my drawing supplies, it's so vivid. The main character is enjoyable, there's plot intrigue, some good twists at the end, and I honestly kind of love the villain in this.
This was just a very nice, solid, YA fantasy. I think YA fantasy and I are starting to get our groove back. I've really enjoyed the last few I've read and that has been a nice change from the past year of just okay to boring fantasy books.
WHO SHOULD READ: Dhonielle Clayton fans, if you enjoyed all the descriptions of the Capital in Hunger Games (this place is like the Capital on steroids)
MY RATING: Four out of Five solid starts to a series

Book Review: The Hazel Wood

TITLE: The Hazel Wood
Book 1 in a new series
AUTHOR: Melissa Albert
CATEGORY: YA
PUBLISHED: January 30th, 2018
GENRE: Fantasy
PREMISE: A girls mother disappears and finding her requires looking into an old book of fairy tales....
MY REVIEW: This is a book that will probably not be for everyone. Hence all the mixed reviews on Goodreads. It's a very quirky type of story with whimsical writing and a slow pace. If you loved the prose in stuff like Strange the Dreamer and The Raven Boys, you'll probably love this. If you wished those had moved a little quicker...it might not be your thing.
Luckily, it was my thing. I love dark fairy tales. This had that in spades. The best parts in the book happen near the end, where there's a pretty good twist. It's not a mind-blowing twist (I kind of saw it coming early on) but when it happens, it changes things and gets very meta and look, I like meta things okay?
This is not a perfect debut. There are pacing issues, and a lot of conveniences and what not. But it is the first fantasy debut in a while that really spoke to me and didn't feel like a redo of something I'd seen before. I loved it. I can't wait for more.
WHO SHOULD READ: Alice in Wonderland fans, fairy tale fans
MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five really promising debuts

Book Review: The Cruel Prince

TITLE: The Cruel Prince
Book 1 in the Folk of the Air Series
AUTHOR: Holly Black
PUBLISHED: January 2nd, 2018
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Fantasy
PREMISE: A human girl forced to live among the fae, who despise humans, tries her best to survive and thrive there.
MY REVIEW: If you are around any sort of bookish communities, chances are you've heard of this one. It's been pretty much everywhere. I'm a little surprised that people are surprised at how good this is. It's Holly Black. She's pretty much queen when it comes to the fae. But hey, at least people are discovering her now. FYI, if you like this check out her older books. They're all just as good.
Now I don't think this is as mind-blowing as the hype machine is making it out to be. There are pacing issues and this is actually pretty usual stuff for the fae. It's also pretty usual stuff for Holly Black. To all the people saying this is something new and unique...sorry, no. Not so much. That doesn't stop it from being good though. It's damn entertaining, the world-building is fantastic, the characters are memorable and interesting.
I do think this is very good. I just don't think it's as good as people have been saying. But that seems to be my lot when it comes to hyped books. About the only ones I've agreed with the hype machine on is The Hate U Give and Harry Potter. I still really enjoyed this one though. But that's not surprising, I've always enjoyed Holly Black's books to some extent.
WHO SHOULD READ: Holly Black fans, fans of faerie books
MY RATING: Four out of Five excellent starts to a series

Book Review: Unearthed

TITLE: Unearthed
Unearthed Book 1
AUTHORS: Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
CATEGORY: YA
PUBLISHED: January 9th, 2018
GENRE: Science Fiction
PREMISE: Two people get thrown together on an adventure in space...
MY REVIEW: I have...mixed feelings about this book. There's nothing really wrong with it. It is very much what it advertises: a space adventure with a dash of romance. It's just...there's not much difference between this and the author's other series, These Broken Stars.
It has the same type of plot: boy and girl on opposite sides of a conflict meet. Boy and girl wind up in life and death survival situation. Boy and girl fall for each other by the end. I honestly had a lot of deja vu while reading this. But it does have a slight difference in the end. It looks like the next book will not go into different characters, so it does look like we'll get a divergence of plot in the next one.
The book did do a satisfactory job of telling the story. There was decent character development, there was a decent plot. I will probably pick up the next book. I just can't ignore how similar this is to stuff the authors have written before.
WHO SHOULD READ: These Broken Stars fans, sci-fi fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five good, but familiar stories

Book Review: Truly Devious

TITLE: Truly Devious
Book 1 in the Truly Devious Trilogy
AUTHOR: Maureen Johnson
CATEGORY: YA
PUBLISHED: January 16th, 2018
GENRE: Mystery
PREMISE: A girl goes to an exclusive private school where she soon becomes involved in solving a decades old cold case...
MY REVIEW: Maureen Johnson is an interesting author for me. Some of her things, I'm a bit ho hum about (like 13 Little Blue Envelopes for instance) but other things she's done I really liked (the Shades of London trilogy). Luckily, I can put Truly Devious in the category of I liked it.
This is a fun little mystery. It is a bit slow in parts, but what it does with characters is great. It does have Maureen's habit of quirky characters. So if you are not into that, this might irk you a bit. But if you don't mind quirkiness, this does turn into a very interesting mystery. On one hand, you have the older mystery with the family, and then things happen and there's a modern day mystery to solve.
I thought this was a very good introduction book. It gives you a larger mystery solve. There are more modern ones for the character to tackle, and some new questions get raised at the end. I'm personally looking forward to the next book.
WHO SHOULD READ: Mystery fans, Veronica Mars fans, fans of boarding school stories
MY RATING: Four out of Five solid mysteries

Book Review: Everless

TITLE: Everless
Book 1 in the new Everless series
AUTHOR: Sara Holland
CATEGORY: YA
PUBLISHED: January 2nd, 2018
GENRE: Fantasy
PREMISE: In a world where years of your life are used as currency, a girl goes to work in the kingdom of Everless, a place she and her father were banished from years ago...
MY REVIEW: My first book that came out in 2018! I'm sad to say...it was just okay. It pains me to say this was mediocre. I have been waiting for YA fantasy to get its butt in gear like YA contemporary has, but sadly, that has not been happening. There were some good YA fantasy books from last year, but a majority of them were from seasoned authors. Among the new authors, the only stand-out ones from last year for me were Caraval. Daughter of the Pirate King, and Daughter of the Burning City. Three books in all of those debuts we had last year is...not very promising. I was hoping this year would break that cycle.
Alas, this book does not give me much hope that YA fantasy will step it up this year. There is nothing terrible about it. It has decent writing. The world is somewhat interesting. There is plot, characters, twists, etc. My problem with this was the same problem I kept having with a lot of the YA fantasy from last year: it played it really safe (heck, even Caraval and Daughter of the Pirate King played it safe. I liked those books, but they weren't exactly ground-breaking). Everything in this book, I predicted from the first chapter. If you read a lot of fantasy, you can pretty much immediately tell how it's going to go. It's that paint-by-numbers. I could go on about how white and hetero-normative it also is, but I'll refrain. I even can't give much credit for the clever premise. The whole thing about using people's years of life as currency has been done before, in a movie.
I might read the second book. Because, I have had fantasy trilogies suddenly become amazing in the second book (for example: Rebel of the Sands or The Young Elites). I just am sad I didn't like this one. I really really wanted to like it. Again, there's nothing really BAD about it, which is why it will get an average rating from me. It's just...not mind-blowing and like other YA fantasy lately: played it really safe. Playing it safe is not good enough, authors. With the amount of books out there nowadays, you need to be better then just safe.
WHO SHOULD READ: those that don't mind predictable fantasy books
MY RATING: Three out of Five plot ideas I saw coming a mile away