Book Review: Cryer's Cross

TITLE: Cryer's Cross
Book 1 in the new Cryer's Cross Trilogy
AUTHOR: Lisa McMann
PUBLISHED: 2011
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: horror, paranormal, drama
PREMISE: teens start disapearing from the small town of Cryer's Cross.
MY REVIEW: Cryer's Cross is rather hard to explain. It mostly revolves around a girl named Kendall who lives in the small farming community of Cryer's Cross where nothing much happens. Then a girl disappears. She's never found and life goes on but then her best friend disappears and things change. Mostly the book deals with Kendall and how she deals with her best friend disapearing and then a few spooky scenes at the end and wham we're done.
For the most part, I liked this a lot. McMann's writing has vastly improved since Wake. Kendall was a nice well-rounded character, it was free of annoying YA tropes, it was nice and spooky but also had drama. It was a solid book and I'm definitely going to read the rest of it. However, I'm a tad confused about the ending. I don't know if that's the author's fault or mine either. I'm just confused by it and I'm not sure why this needs to be a trilogy unless the next two books are going to be about answering some of my nagging questions in which case great, bring them on.
But this is definitely a solie book. If you liked Wake you'll like this one probably. It's also a good one for kicking off my annual paranormal spooky books summer reading. During the summer I like to read paranormal books. I don't know, it's a thing with me.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of the Wake Trilogy, paranormal fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five school desksp

In My Mailbox (39)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi over at The Story Siren that tells people what new books we've gotten over the week. All the links in this post go the book's Amazon page if you want more info on them.

Just library books this week:
Forgive My Fins Book 1 by Tera Lynn Childs-Book I meant to read last year and am now reading due to my curiousity in this mermaid thing. The second book comes out next month for those who don't know.
The Splendor Falls by Rosemary Clement-Moore-YA paranormal that recently got rereleased in paperback. I figured this would be the jumpstart to my paranormal summer reading.
Clarity Book 1 by Kim Harrington-YA 2011 Debut that looks interesting.

Well, that's it for me. What did you get in your mailbox?

Book Review: Kindred

TITLE: Kindred
AUTHOR: Tammer Stein
PUBLISHED: 2011
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: angels, drama
PREMISE: an angel from heaven gives premonitions to a girl while her twin brother gets missions from angels from hell.
MY REVIEW: For the sake of readers I've decided to try and add more description of books because after reading my blog a bit I realize I have the tendancy to jump right into reviews and the premises I give tend to be short. So from now on first paragraphs will be me trying to describe books to you. So Kindred is about a girl who starts getting random premonitions from an angel. She goes about trying to follow these vague visions and ends up kind of screwing up. Meanwhile her twin brother has been visited by agents of hell and he's now in their corner doing favors for them. Confliction between the two ensues because while they are now on different sides, they still love each other cause they are twins.
I admit I am still not totally sold on this angel thing. I really liked Unearthly, Fallen and Hush Hush have become guilty pleasures for me and I completely hated Halo, but for the most part I'm pretty passive on the angel business because I honestly don't get it. For the record I have not yet read Angelfire though I plan too cause it looks right up my alley. But Kindred? I really got into it. It is not a totally perfect book. Sometimes it dragged, romance came totally out of left field, and ending was slightly abrupt and a tad dissatisfying but I'm hoping that's because there's going to be a sequel in the future (please author?) also writing was random, sometimes it was good but sometimes I did an eyeroll at a bad description.
But on the whole this book is honestly what I've been wanting from the angel genre I think. For starters the author did research into angel mythology. It also goes into angel mythology from the jewish religion side of things. Yes, that's right, the jewish religion has angels too, it's not just a Christian thing. Who knew right?
It was also nice seeing a book free of the usual YA tropes. The girl has involved parents, no love triangle, slight angsting but it's kept to a minimum and is about legit worries, no whining, and no wimpy heroine falling for a bad boy who's a jerk with a heart of gold.
In short this book was refreshing. Now there is a lot of talk about faith in it but it doesn't preach to you. There even is some minor theoretical stuff in it that was rather interesting. If you don't mind stuff like this then I definitely recomend this book to you.
WHO SHOULD READ: angel book fans, those interested and not afraid of books talking about faith
MY RATING: Four out of Five angel wings

Book Review: Wither

TITLE: Wither
Book 1 in the new Chemical Garden Trilogy
AUTHOR: Lauren DeStefano
PUBLISHED: 2011
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: dystopian, science fiction, romance
PREMISE: In a future world where the human race is dying out a girl is forced into a marriage to a man she doesn't love.
MY REVIEW: I'll be honest I'm split on this book. Some things I loved about it, others not so much. Once again, we have a book that was most definitely overhyped and I must say bloggers STOP THIS. Please. It starts to set up people's expectations higher then they'd normally be and then they get disappointed when no, actually the book is rather average. Which, I'm sorry Wither is. Not phenomenal like everyone keeps saying, but not horrible either.
The Good stuff: the author's writing. For a first book, this is some rather good writing, a few bad description words aside. I really look forward to when her writing matures and is more polished because then I have a feeling she'll be more in the phenomenal category people are putting her in now. Everything is explained clearly, she tries to think outside the box, there are some morally gray areas in here and she tries to get you to think. For a first book it's not that bad.
HOWEVER the world building is really sloppy. Yes, she explains things clearly however the stuff she comes up with makes very little sense once you think about it. I mean for one thing how does a third world war cause the entire earth aside from North America to sink underwater? Details please. Also, where have I heard this premise before? Oh yes, a little thing called The Hunger Games perhaps you've heard of it? Second in this supposingly advanced medical world where we've cured cancer they haven't figured out one thing about this virus in fifty years? Really? Then I find it REALLY hard to believe that a advanced society like this would perfectly accept poly marriages as the norm. Please. Some sure, but you can bet feminist groups and even christian women would be like "um, hell no." I'm sorry, I think she just did this idea for shock value and while the relationships with the sister wives were mildly interesting it was just really hard to believe that people in a modern America would let this become normal. Especially as with society dying out wouldn't it be more logical for single marriages to be more popular instead of poly marriages? Especially as the women die first here?
I think the key to enjoying this book is to just not think about the details too much. Because once you do, it tends to derail it. Once I stopped letting the details nag me I was able to mildly enjoy this. Like I said, it's a very decent first effort. I just wish the world-building and small details made more sense. I also wish there was less focus on the oh-so-obviously predictable "love triangle" in here because that was frankly the least interesting thing about it. But this is YA so of course that's going to be the focus because apparently we're not supposed to care about anything else. Sigh. I like romance as much as the next girl but I like it as a SECONDARY PLOT. But apparently I'm alone in this.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of dystopian books
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five barred windows

Book Review: Dime Store Magic

TITLE: Dime Store Magic
Book 3 in Women of the Underworld
AUTHOR: Kelley Armstrong
PUBLISHED: 2004
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: urban fantasy, mystery, drama
PREMISE: Paige deals with raising Savannah which is not easy as now a prominant sorceror family is after the girl for her powers.
MY REVIEW: This is one of those series that is getting better and better. I was just sort of into the first one, I liked the second one a lot, and now I'm fully on board with this series. It probably helps that now it's about Paige who I find much more enjoyable then Elena and it's about witches this time and I'm sorry no offense to werewolfs but witches are where it's at for me. Now this book is not without it's issues. Sometimes it got repetitive, Paige had her annoying moments, and sometimes Savannah felt like an annoying Mary Sue but I chalk that up to her being 13 (and in her menstral cycle and with a lot of stuff going on). So it's not perfect and sometimes the prose were cringe-worthy.
However, this series makes up for it's flaws with just being outright enjoyable. It's nice to have a series that's not focused on romance for a change. That's not about a vampire and the wimpy heroine who loves him (Paige would probably stake a vampire before falling for him). I also appreciate the deep world-building in this series. THIS is how you world-build authors! YA authors please take notes.
I am now really into this series, especially now that they got rid of the skanky covers. I applaud this move. Especially since Paige looks nothing like the woman on the previous covers. She is mentioned to be a bit curvy. Now I just wish Briggs would do the same to her Mercy books because Mercy never dresses like the woman on the covers of those books (and the woman on those books is not Native American looking either). Sorry, this is a pet peeve of mine. Anyway, I highly rec this for any who are into urban fantasy.
WHO SHOULD READ: those that have read the first 2 books, urban fantasy fans, Mercy Thompson fans, Darkest Powers Trilogy fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five pentagrams

In My Mailbox (38)

This is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi over at The Story Siren that tells people about what new books we've gotten over the past week. Since, I missed last week due to family vacation this post will include last weeks library books as well as this weeks. As always the links in this post go to the book's Amazon page if you want more info on them.
BOUGHT:
Darkest Powers Book 3: The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong-I can't wait to read this! I bought the first one in paperback because I wasn't sure if I'd like it (I hadn't read anything of Armstrong's at that point) and I'm anal about having all my book series match so I had to wait till the other books came out in paperback. However, as soon I finish this I'm getting The Gathering. No way am I waiting for that one.
Airhead Trilogy Book 3: Runaway" by Meg Cabot-Can't wait to get my hands on Abandon next.
LIBRARY BOOKS:
Mercy Thompson Book 3: Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs-Trying to get caught up on this series this year.
The Chemical Garden Trilogy Book 1: Wither by Lauren DeStafano-I'm about halfway through. Not as enamoured with it as I wish I could be, though the writing is good for a first book.
Cloaked by Alex Flinn.-2011 book, I'm giving Flinn one more chance because I wasn't super impressed by Beastly.
Cryer's Cross Book 1 by Lisa McMann-2011 new series by the author of the Wake Trilogy (which I still need to finish, opps)
Bloody Jack Book 1 by L.A.Meyer-I've been wanting to try out this series. It's about a girl disguised as a boy (my favorite trope) who is a pirate.
Kindred by Tammar Stein-angel 2011 book that's actually pretty good so far.

That's all I got this week. What did you get in your mailbox?

Book Review: Spirit Bound

TITLE: Spirit Bound
Book 5 in the Vampire Academy series
AUTHOR: Richelle Mead
PUBLISHED: 2010
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: vampires, adventure, romance, drama, urban fantasy
PREMISE: Rose sets out to find a way to turn back Dimitri, but simply turning him back doesn't automatically make everything all right...
MY REVIEW: Yay, finally a book I can get excited about this week. I'm sorry I've been Debbie Downer over here on books lately but I've had rotten luck this year for some reason, every other book this year has been mediocre to outright bad to boring. I'm hoping it's just a beginning of the year slump or something. Besides I haven't gotten the ones I'm excited about anyway so maybe that's the issue. Anyway, like all of Vampire Academy I adored and was excited by Spirit Bound. Seriously, I love this series. Admittedly it is sometimes eye-rollworthy and I get definite Buffy flashbacks while reading this. But I happen to love Buffy so this is a point in the author's favor. Oh and she could stand to not summarize as much.
But for the most part this series is awesome and it's one of those that get better as the book series goes on. Rose is developing, not just in skill but in maturity as well but she's still the same awesome Rose too. In fact all of these characters are given development of some sort. There are multiple plots aside from the Dimitri/Rose romance angle to keep you interested and honestly, Rose and Dimitri aren't even really center of the universe in this series (which I adore because I tire of "oh our love is so epic, the world counts on us being together!"). Plus, it has characters I actually LIKE. The writing is maybe a tad average but the author is great with weaving plots together and has phenomenal dialogue.
With that cliff hanger I am not waiting for Last Sacrifice to get into paperback. I'm going to try and get my library's copy. Besides that way I'll be all caught up in time to read Bloodlines! Which is apparently about Jill and Sydney who is a character I adore so I can't wait.
WHO SHOULD READ: those that have read the first 5 books, Buffy fans, vampire book fans, fans of Twilight, fans of House of Night
MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five silver stakes

Just a note, I now have a Tumblr where I will post about various fangirly things such as tv, movies, and of course books. Come visit and if you're on tumblr let me know, I'll give you a follow!

Book Review: Fallen Grace

TITLE: Fallen Grace
AUTHOR: Mary Hooper
PUBLISHED: 2011
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: historical fiction, drama
PREMISE: 2 girls struggle to survive in Victorian England.
MY REVIEW:Yet another book I wasn't blown away by. In this book's case it wasn't that it was horrible. It was just that it was so DULL. There is some very nice writing in here, particularly when the author describes the historical scenes. But other then that and a good beginning I was just bored with this and waiting for it to be over.
Part of the problem is that it's predictable. Another part is that it's so repetitive. The sisters go through bad circumstance after bad circumstance and of course get rewarded at the end by getting a huge inheritance and everyone's happy! Really?
Again, this book does have some nice writing and if you just want a atmospheric historical novel but don't care about the plot persay then this book is for you.
WHO SHOULD READ: historical fiction fans
MY RATING: three out of five teacups

Book Review: Across the Universe

TITLE: Across the Universe
Book 1 in a planned series
AUTHOR: Beth Revis
PUBLISHED: 2011
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: science fiction, romance, drama
PREMISE: a girl gets frozen and then wakes up over 250 years into the future on a ship that's headed back to a ravaged Earth.
MY REVIEW: I really wanted to like this as much as everyone else did. Believe me, I am very tired of being the naysayer about popular books. It's not fun and despite what it may seem like lately is not what I've set out to be. Unfortunately I review my books honestly so I will just say that this book is...mediocre but shows promise.
There is some nice writing here, especially for a author's first book so yay author on that point. She explained things clearly and I was able to picture everything. She also did try to think outside the box and throw in some thought-provoking stuff and try to make the book interesting. Unfortunately she didn't try enough because everything in this book felt familiar.
Now I know there isn't a lot of sci-fi on spaceships in YA right now so maybe that's why people are so giddy about this and I agree I am intrigued by that and a girl stuck in the far future. However, the whole frozen and waking up in the future has been a staple of sci-fi for years so it's nothing new. Also not new is the guy falling for the girl practically overnight and for no real reason other then she's "different". Also there's a lack of character developement, or even character personality at all. No, author, throwing in random hobbies for your girl MC does not make her a character. Also, while stuff was explained, the stuff explained...didn't make a whole lot of sense. The plot also didn't make much sense and the ending was predictable. Honestly it just felt like a mish-mash of every other sci-fi stereotype out there (I even felt a few allusions to Wall-E in there).
The book isn't completely hopeless like I said. There are some good things in it and I think it's good starting point for getting YA readers more interested in sci-fi (if any of you haven't read it, I rec Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy if you want more of this). It's just that it's yet more of the same old same old and didn't really grab me like everyone else. But if you don't happen to read a lot of sci-fi this may be interesting to you. Just please know, the hype is overdone.
WHO SHOULD READ: Twilight fans, those not really into sci-fi but looking to get started
MY RATING: Three out of Five spaceships

Book Review: Shadow Walkers

TITLE: Shadow Walkers
AUTHOR: Brent Hartinger
PUBLISHED: 2011
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: glbt, paranormal, mystery, drama
PREMISE: A boy tries to find his missing brother via astral projection with the help of another boy.
MY REVIEW: This book was so short I honestly have very little to say about it. It's one of the first YA glbt books I've read so it's gotten me slightly interested in reading more. Oh, and just so we're clear any bigoted homophobic comments I may get for reading glbt will not be tolerated. Your comment will either be ignored, mocked, or deleted depending on my mood and how rage inducing your comment is.
Like I said this book was short. It was sweet, mystery went by fast, and the mechanics of the astral projection were interesting. It's just that it isn't very memorable, you know? I'd rec this book for open-minded people looking for a quick read.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of glbt books, fans of Geography Club
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five incense sticks