Book Review: The Girl With the Iron Touch

TITLE: The Girl With the Iron Touch
Book 3 in the Steampunk Chronicles series
AUTHOR: Kady Cross
PUBLISHED: May 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Steampunk, Romance
PREMISE: Emily is kidnapped and her friends search for her.
MY REVIEW: What can one say about the steampunk chronicles? They're campy fun and they pretty much stay that way.
This one stayed pretty much on the same level as the other two though I kind of wanted to smack Finley and Griffin for messing around every other moment while Emily was gone. It also felt disjointed at times, like the author was afraid there was too much action going on so here, have a cute moment with our couple even if it's really out of place.
So if you loved the first two Steampunk Chronicles books, chances are you'll enjoy this one too.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of the first two books, steampunk fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five clockwork contraptions

Thank you to Harlequin Teen for the Net Galley

Book Review: Strands of Bronze and Gold

TITLE: Strands of Bronze and Gold
AUTHOR: Jane Nickerson
PUBLISHED: March 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Retellings, Historical Fiction
PREMISE: A retelling of the Bluebeard fairytale set in the eighteen hundreds.
MY REVIEW: I wanted to like this one way more then I did. Certainly it was ambitious. I liked that for once, the author chose a lesser known fairy tale instead of the usual Little Mermaid/Beauty and the Beast/etc. Granted, I don't really know the Bluebeard fairy tale all that well so I can't vouch for how well it's translated here. So this review is mostly focused on the story itself.
I loved Nickerson's writing. She's very a vivid story-teller. I literally could picture everything and had no problem understanding what was going on. So I may or may not pick up another book she's done. However...there were things in this that bothered me way too much. Number one was the slavery angle. It was white savior trope and badly done white savior trope at that. I could go on about how bad it is but I'll spare you my ranting. There also was a problem where every time it got to some of the darker aspects of the tale, the author suddenly shied away and would focus on lighter things like dresses or romance. It was kind of frustrating because some things in here were interesting but never explored the way they should have been in favor of  the lighter things.
So it was a good idea....but I kind of wish the idea had been in the hands of a more seasoned author.
WHO SHOULD READ: Historical fiction fans
MY RATING: Three out of Five this could have been better frowns

Book Review: Venom

TITLE: Venom
Book 3 in the Elemental Assassin series
AUTHOR: Jennifer Estep
PUBLISHED: 2010
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Urban Fantasy
PREMISE: Gin finds her sister Bria in a unexpected way.
MY REVIEW: There's really not much about this series I can add that I haven't already said in my previous two reviews.
I love that Estep didn't drag out meeting Bria. I love that we don't get a dragged out waffling where Owen is concerned. Estep manages to avoid all the pitfalls of most UF long series and still makes it damn entertaining.
In short, still good. Can't wait to read more.
WHO SHOULD READ: those that have read books one and two, UF fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five snowflake necklaces

Book Review: Looking For Alaska

TITLE: Looking For Alaska
AUTHOR: John Green
PUBLISHED: 2006
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Realistic Fiction, Drama
PREMISE: Miles goes off to boarding school and meets the girl of his dreams: Alaska Young.
MY REVIEW: Reviewing books as big as this is always hard for me because really, what can I say that hasn't already been said about this book? You probably already know about the Catcher in the Rye illusions, how Alaska is a deconstruction of the manicpixiedreamgirl trope, and so on and so forth.
So I'll just say this: I really liked it. John Green is a great writer, I get why he's a big thing and the hype is totally deserved (even if it's maybe a bit overdone as usual with most hype). I am now most definitely going to be reading his other stuff as soon as I can get to it. I have a lot on my tbr owned books pile so bear with me.
I will however also say this: please please please stop acting like John Green is the ONLY good writer in the YA category. I direct this mostly to the outsiders of YA. Most YA readers/bloggers probably know this already, but Green is not the only good writer in YA. In fact, much as I loved Looking for Alaska it's not terribly different from other YA books I've read such as 13 Little Blue Envelopes, or If I Stay. Yet I never hear Maureen Johnson or Gayle Forman referred to as literary greats even though they write very similar stories. I have to say that bugs the hell out of me.
But that is not John Green's fault. He'd probably the first to tell you he's not the only author in YA worth reading. Because from what I've seen in his (very hilarious) vlogs, he's pretty humble about everything. So yes, John Green is a good author, you should totally read him. But he's not the ONLY good YA author there.
WHO SHOULD READ: John Green fans, Maureen Johnson fans, Gayle Forman fans, Stephanie Perkins fans
MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five thumbs up

Book Review: Furious

TITLE: Furious
AUTHOR: Jill Wolfson
PUBLISHED: April 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Urban Fantasy, Mythology redux
PREMISE: Three girls have had enough of the rotten treatment they're getting in their school and become furies.
MY REVIEW: Sigh. WHY is it so hard for YA to do a decent book with furies? The only books I've read that have done furies in a logical/tolerable way is the Starcrossed series and the furies weren't even the main thing going on in that book.
Like another fury book, Fury, this one tries to tie in furies to modern day high school. It's a great concept but once again: bad execution. The writing is decent and I like how the author tried to follow the greek tragedy formula but she made the same mistake of Fury: she didn't make her characters likable. I do get that not all characters HAVE to be the best person in the world. I mean if that were the case, Game of Thrones wouldn't be popular. But you should at least make them tolerable or help the reader understand where they're coming from and why they are acting the way they are. A lot decisions the girls made in this book didn't make one lick of sense to me and that's mostly because the characters are poorly developed stereotypes who aren't given clear personalities.
The take on furies was interesting, but the rest of it was just a mess. I really wanted to like this one more then I did. Maybe from now on I'll just avoid YA books with furies. It seems YA doesn't really know what to do with them.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of the Fury Trilogy, greek myth fans
MY RATING: Two and a half out of Five hot messes

Book Review: Nameless

TITLE: Nameless
Book 1 in the Tale of Beauty and Madness series
AUTHOR: Lili St. Crow
PUBLISHED: April 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Urban Fantasy, Fairy Tale Retelling mash-up
PREMISE: In this UF take on Snow White, Cami was discovered and adopted nameless and mute. Now sixteen, she starts to learn the secrets of her birth and heritage...
MY REVIEW: I tried to get into this one. It's a retelling and I love retellings. But this one just didn't click with me for some reason. I can't put my finger on why. I think part of it is that I don't particularly see this as a Snow White retelling. It was more a story that had some illusions to Snow White (there's an apple for instance, a hairpin which is part of the original SW, and the hunter), but bears little resemblance to SW. It kind of bugs me when authors say it's one thing, but really it's just the bare minimum to pass as that thing because that thing happens to be popular and sell well in YA. Saw it in Showalter's Alice in Zombieland, and it's the same deal here.
Though at least this is more tolerable then Alice in Zombieland even if it didn't click with me. I can imagine other readers getting into it, particularly those of the UF persuasion. I just have read way to many similar stories to this to really call it original.
So this was...okay. I'm just not very eager to continue it. Sometimes books just don't click with you and it's not that they're really bad, it's just you and the book. That is what happened with me and Nameless.
WHO SHOULD READ: Once Upon a Time fans, Alex Flinn fans, fairy-tale mash-up fans
MY RATING: Three out of Five apples

Book Review: Unbreakable

TITLE: Unbreakable
Book 2 in the Unraveling series
AUTHOR: Elizabeth Norris
PUBLISHED: April 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Science Fiction, Adventure
PREMISE: Janelle's world has been changed forever ever since Ben left, now she has to work with an unlikely ally to find him as well as people who have gone missing from her own world.
MY REVIEW: Unraveling was one of those happy surprises for me last year. It hadn't gotten tons of reviews so I knew little about it beyond the summary. I wound up loving the hell out of it. So much so that Unbreakable has been one of my anticipated books of the year.
And it did not disappoint. Norris builds one what happened in the last book and takes the story to Fringe territory. As someone who just recently started to watch Fringe (only on beginning of the second season) I love this. But it's also not a total rip-off and manages to be it's own unique thing.
So if you loved Unraveling, chances are you'll love the second book just as much. This is a great sequel, I can't wait for the next book.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of Unraveling, Fringe fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five parallel universes

Book Review: Foretold

TITLE: Foretold
Book 4 in the Demon Trappers series
AUTHOR: Jana Oliver
PUBLISHED: 2012
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Urban fantasy, Romance
PREMISE: The demon trappers series comes to an end as Riley helps Rafe solve a murder from his past and confronts the evil that has been haunting her.
MY REVIEW: Well, if you're a demon trappers fan who was mainly there for the Rafe/Riley stuff, you're in luck. This book makes it happen and neither die.
If you wanted more from this series because you felt it could have more...you may be slightly disappointed by a rather predictable ending.
But it ended in a way that satisfying for all so really, can't complain too loudly.
WHO SHOULD READ: Demon Trappers fans, UF fans, Richelle Mead fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five grade 5 demons

Stacking the Shelves: June 2nd

Apologies for lateness, I had a weird work shift today...
This is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga over at Tynga's Reviews that tells people what new books we've received over the week.

Bi-Weekly book haul:

Darkness Rising Trilogy Book 3: The Rising by Kelley Armstrong-FINALLY off of reserve. Yeesh. Took three tries to get this.

Vampire Huntress Legend series book 1: Minion by L. A. Banks-Me trying out the UF series that I should have read long ago.

Elemental Assassin series Book 3: Venom by Jennifer Estep-Already reading and am loving it as always with Estep.

I Hunt Killers Book 1 by Barry Lyga-2012 book I originally had no interest in, but have seen a few rave reviews about and so have changed my mind.

Colors of Madeleine Book 1: A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty-Start of a new trilogy that sounds interesting.

Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson-2013 debut that looks awesome.

Icons book 1: Icons by Margeret Stohl-It's going to be interesting reading Stohl's book (as well as Garcia's book coming out later this year) and seeing what their writing is like separate from each other. Plus, this one sounds awesome. It's one of my anticipated books of the year.

Book Review: Boundless

TITLE: Boundless
Book 3 in the Unearthly Trilogy
AUTHOR: Cynthia Hand
PUBLISHED: January 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Angels, Urban Fantasy, Romance
PREMISE: Clara deals with college, growing up, and trying to move on from her breakup with Tucker.
MY REVIEW: Last books in trilogies are always tricky things. Everyone always has those things they want to happen and usually it doesn't and people will ultimately get upset about it (see Mockingjay backlash). While I didn't love EVERYTHING about Boundless, it was good and satisfying ending.
I will say there were a few things that disappointed me. The baby thing was really unnecessary but then I tend to get twitchy eyed whenever YA tries to tackle teen pregnancy because they are never handled properly unless it's specifically about teen pregnancy and even then... Plus it was just a whole one-eighty for Angela's character. Honestly, I didn't get the purpose of that whole story line at all. As someone who loved Angela...that annoyed me. I also felt annoyed by Christian's exit because that was rather unresolved in my opinion (and I'm not even Team Christian) but I have a feeling the author is doing that to give us a spin-off about Christian. So I wouldn't be surprised if we get an announcement about a book (or series) for him soon. Such is the way of the YA publishing world. Another one who could possibly get a spin-off is Jared because again: many unresolved issues.
But at least I got my Team Tucker ending but really, even that was kind of obviously going to happen. I would have really been shocked if she had ended up with Christian. I wouldn't have been dismayed (I never put much stock into these team battles really, even if Tucker was my favorite), but I would have been surprised. But this brought Clara's character full circle and it ended her story so really I can't complain too loudly even if I don't like everything that happened.
WHO SHOULD READ: Unearthly Trilogy fans, angel book fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five feathers