Here are some ditched books that I've given up on these past few months:
Death's Daughter by Amber Benson-Usual UF du jour. I was bored by page thirty. Makes me feel bad because Amber Benson was Tara on Buffy and I think she's awesome. I just didn't like this book.
Vampire Huntress Book 1: Minion by L. A. Banks-Diversity in UF is awesome, but not when it's horribly written like this. Couldn't get past page forty.
Wasteland by Susan Kim and Laurance Klavan-Confusing dystopian is confusing. I'm done with giving dystopians more of a chance. If I can't understand what's going on past page fifty. We're done.
Strangelets by Michelle Gagnon-Couldn't get into it. Not you author, it's me.
Colors of Madeline Book 1: A Corner of White by Jacelyn Moriarty-Magical Realism. I just cannot with this genre. It just drives me batty because it seems like the authors can just come up with any sort of weird scenario and just NOT EXPLAIN ANYTHING. Nope. I just can't with that.
The Engelsfors Trilogy Book 1: The Circle by Sara Elfgren and Mats Strandberg-Douchebag male lead along with usual YA tropes that annoy me. No thank you.
Gorgeous by Paul Rudnick-Nothing made sense. Plot holes galore. Stopped reading by the fifth chapter. I feel a little bad since it's a galley I requested. But I could just tell this book and I weren't going to get along.
Trickster by Jeff Somers-Typical UF. Bored by fifth chapter.
Reboot Book 1 by Amy Tintera-Confusing dystopian that honestly kind of failed to make me care. I was finding it tedious to get through by the fifth chapter and so I parted ways with it.
Arclight Book 1 by Josin McQuein-Just couldn't get into it. Another case of it's not you, it's me.
Paper Gods Book 1: Ink by Amanda Sun-Douchebag love interest. I swear I've had it up to here with douchebag love interests who treat girls like garbage but the main character falls for him anyway (and even ADMITS he treats girls like garbage). Again, feel bad because this was a galley, but it's probably just as well that I stopped reading because I have a feeling the review would have been just one big rage review.
So those are the books I have given up on this summer.
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Book Review: School Spirits
Book 1 in the School Spirits Hex Hall series spin-off
AUTHOR: Rachel Hawkins
PUBLISHED: May
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal
PREMISE: Izzy Brannick gets sent to a honest to goodness regular high school to get rid of a ghost. It turns out to be more then she bargained for.
MY REVIEW: Spin-offs are tricky beasts. Sometimes they're pointless and you wind up not feeling anything for the new characters. In other words, it was an idea that sounded better on paper. But sometimes they can be just as wonderful as the series it originated from and I'm happy to say this series is of the second kind.
It does everything that you should do with spin-offs: make the character their own character. Izzy is not Sophie 2.0 and that's a GOOD thing people (I've seen a few complaints about this and I honestly scratch my head at it. Of course Izzy is not going to be like Sophie, she's a different person with a different background and a different situation. If you weren't going to like a book that wasn't narrated by Sophie then why did you bother?). We get some more insight to the world outside of the one Sophie lives in. We get new characters who just as enjoyable as the old ones (Dex, Romy, and Anderson are freaking AWESOME) and it's got Hawkin's usual brand of humor and fast-pace fun plots.
Frankly, I'm satisfied. This is everything I hoped for. Bring on the next book please.
WHO SHOULD READ: Hex Hall fans (willing to give Izzy a chance and not rail at her for not being Sophie), Percy Jackson fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five sarcastic mirrors
Monday, August 12, 2013
Book Review: Rebel Spirits
AUTHOR: Lois Ruby
PUBLISHED: June 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Paranormal, Romance
PREMISE: A girl tries to help a spirit of a soldier move on.
MY REVIEW: I love ghost stories. I think I may have mentioned that once or twice...if your book has a ghost in it, chances are, I'm going to pick it up. Regardless of how corny a plot it sounds. Lets face it, this one did sound silly. But it managed to surprise me.
I really liked it. The author was good with the historical stuff. She didn't stereotype the south for once. While I was a bit ho hum about the romance part (it was usual insta love), I have to give the author credit for not taking the easy route and having the ghost magically come to life which is a plot that has been used way too often for my taste in YA. While part of me does understand why that plot device is used (readers tend to get bitchy when their romance doesn't end happily ever after, preferably with marriage and baby) I tend to find it annoying. So I appreciated the ending here.
This is a very old school type of ghost story. It's probably considered slow by today's YA standards but I liked it anyway. I would read this one, only if you're willing to let the possibility of a happily ever after type ending go. Not sure if this is going to be a series or not. The way it ended and the way the author set it up leads me to think that it could be. I would certainly welcome a sequel.
WHO SHOULD READ: ghost story fans, readers okay with a romance not ending happily ever after
MY RATING: Four out of Five hot ghosts
Book Review: If I Should Die
Book 3 in the Revenants series
AUTHOR: Amy Plum
PUBLISHED: May 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Urban Fantasy
PREMISE: Kate tries to bring back Vincent in time for war...
MY REVIEW: Honestly, I've never understood the huge love for this series. I like it well enough. It's sort of like Mortal Instruments, where I get entertainment from it, but that's about it. This "best series ever" stuff that I've seen on places like Goodreads, I can't really agree with. To be honest, it's typical YA Urban Fantasy.
Not to say it's bad...like I said, I get entertainment from it and I do get why people like it. The world-building is somewhat interesting. Kate is likable. I love Georgia to death (if ever there was a character that needs her own series...). There's nothing hugely offensive about it. There's just nothing fantastically great about it either. It doesn't push the bar or rock the boat.
Basically this series is as advertised: romantic urban fantasy for the Twilight set. It succeeds (and is thankfully more tolerable then Twilight, otherwise I wouldn't have read past book 1) and is perfectly all right. But that's all it is: all right. The conclusion is also all right. Nothing huge really happened that I wasn't expecting (please, like the author was actually going to seriously kill off Vincent), the usual suspects died, the usual plot devices happened. So it's not a bad series. It just doesn't really push the envelope.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of book 1 and 2, Twihards, Mortal Instruments fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five romances
FOR TRILOGY: Three out of Five
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Book Review: Star Cursed
Book 2 in the Cahill Witch Chronicles
AUTHOR: Jessica Spotswood
PUBLISHED: June 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Historical Fantasy, Witches
PREMISE: Cate navigates her way through the Sisterhood whom she doesn't fully trust as the Brotherhood persecutes witches/women even worse then before...
MY REVIEW: Born Wicked was one of those books from last year that I went into not expecting to love as much as I did. This one continues that trend by actually taking an already decent plot, and pushing it higher.
In other words: this was a fabulous sequel. I loved everything in it. I say, it's actually kind of better then the first because now that the forced love triangle is out of the way, we get to focus on the stronger parts of the series: the Sisterhood and the morally gray battle between them and the Brotherhood as well as the dynamics between Cate and her sisters.
Over all, this was just immensely satisfying. After that evil cliffhanger, all I can say is bring on book three.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of Born Wicked, historical fantasy fans, Gemma Doyle fans
MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five witches getting shit done
Book Review: Permanent Record
AUTHOR: Leslie Stella
PUBLISHED: March 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Realistic Fiction
PREMISE: Badi gets sent to a new school because he got kicked out of his old one...
MY REVIEW: I have split feelings regarding this book. On one hand, it's wonderfully written. I love the issues the author brings up in it because this is stuff that does go on in high school constantly and needs to be addressed as well as other issues that also need to be talked about such as the bs Muslims in the US frequently get thanks to 9/11.
On the other hand...it was predictable. I also feel that for all that the author did their best to make Badi and his family not stereotyped, she had no problem making the school jocks/teachers stereotyped. The jocks were very much the typical jerks that you expect in books like this and there were all the usual suspects in high school: kids who are different get picked on, jocks get special treatment, etc. It quickly turned into the typical underdog gets screwed by the system type story and thus I was able to predict what was going to happen by the middle of the book. It made wanting to finish it, kind of hard. While I understand that yes, there are schools like this and it sucks, I also wish the author had done more to make everything not so black and white regarding the situation.
So I'm split. I think the writer is good and I can't wait to read more from her. The issues raised are important. But at the same time...it was a predictable book.
WHO SHOULD READ: Contemporary fiction fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five underdogs
Monday, August 5, 2013
Book Review: The Fault in Our Stars
AUTHOR: John Green
PUBLISHED: 2012
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Realistic Fiction
PREMISE: Hazel meets Augustus Waters at a cancer survivor support group...
MY REVIEW: Honestly, at this point, there's probably not much I can say about this book that hasn't already been said in the past year and a half or so. Most people have probably read this by now or have made up their minds about whether or not they want to read it or not. I doubt anything I say in this review will impact much of anything.
So good news: I liked it. I see why people like it. I'm looking forward to the movie. I have a feeling Shailene will be perfect. It's quite like The Descendants which is a much better glimpse into her acting ability then Secrets of the American Teenager. I will say, I'm not entirely sure why the literature crowd has latched onto this, because to me, this is usual YA stuff, just a tad more sophisticated in writing style prose. So I don't understand why this gets the thumbs up from them, but the rest of YA gets a sneer when there's a lot of YA that's just as good. But then I don't think I'll ever understand the literature snob crowd and what they deem "okay" to read and what's not okay to read.
So I enjoyed this. I will be reading either Paper Towns or Abundance of Katherines next in my John Green binge. It'll depend on whichever I find first in the store.
WHO SHOULD READ: John Green fans, Gayle Forman fans, Contemporary fiction fans
MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five tissues (you're gonna need them, it's one of those books)
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Book Review: Spies and Prejudice
Book 1 in a series?
AUTHOR: Talia Vance
PUBLISHED: June 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Retelling (sort of), Romance/Mystery
PREMISE: Pride and Prejudice gets a contemporary update.
MY REVIEW: This was basically exactly as it advertised: cute retelling of Pride and Prejudice with espionage. It's what I wanted when I went into the book and it's exactly what I got.
Is it the best thing ever? No. P and P retellings are a dime a dozen. There are so many Jane Austen retellings/reduxes that the women basically has her own genre. For me, I have to be in the mood for these because honestly, they can be on and off.
This was luckily a decent one. I got my Jane Austen book fix, I had fun reading it. It wasn't ground-breaking, but it wasn't horrible either. So if you're in the mood for a Jane Austen type book, I rec this one. For those wondering why I put a question mark on the series part. From what I see, there's no news of a sequel yet. But there's a bit of a unsolved plot in it that leads me to believe the author is setting this up as a series.
WHO SHOULD READ: Jane Austen retelling fans, Pride and Prejudice fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five teen spies
Friday, August 2, 2013
Book Review: Born of Illusion
Book 1 in a series
AUTHOR: Teri Brown
PUBLISHED: June 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Historical Fantasy
PREMISE: According to her mother, Anna is the illegitimate daughter of Houdini, which would explain the strange powers she possesses...
MY REVIEW: Well, this will probably come as no surprise to any of my regular readers: I loved this. Mostly, it just had a bunch of tropes I love and will read over and over again, no matter what: historical setting (twenties! My favorite! Author, how did you know?), people with powers, family conflict, sassy teen girl just trying to do her thing, and so on. In fact, it reminded me very much of The Diviners. Not as polished as the Diviners, but then Bray has written like five books before The Diviners and this is Brown's first so that's a bit unfair. But still, I was rather impressed by it.
It's a quiet book. The plot is mostly character focused and stuff takes awhile to happen but I promise, it happens and I for one, loved where the author took the ending, even if some of it, I saw coming. There were a few of the usual amateur things in it as well (unnecessary love triangle drama, etc.). But for the most part, this was a strong debut. If you're in the mood for historical fantasy type books, I totally rec this.
WHO SHOULD READ: Gemma Doyle fans, Diviners fans, historical fantasy fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five spirits
Book Review: Siege and Storm
Book 2 in the Grisha Trilogy
AUTHOR: Leigh Bardugo
PUBLISHED: June 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Fantasy/adventure
PREMISE: Alina and Mal try to move on from the clutches of the Darkling, but he won't let them...
MY REVIEW: Ever have one of those series where you do honestly like it, you get why it's popular, and you do think it deserves recognition and people should read it, but you're just not "OMG best series ever"? That is me and Grisha Trilogy.
I like the Grisha Trilogy. Bardugo's imagination and world-building here is fabulous. I love her writing, and I like where she's taking this story. But I'm just not as super excited about it as I've seen other people get and I have a feeling that makes people think I don't like it. I do. I could do without the love triangle part though, because I think that's the poorest aspect of it (really did we HAVE to bring in another love interest to replace the Darkling? I loved Sturmhond until it became clear he was going to be used as romance bait and that honestly kind of diminished his character for me. He could have been so much more then "B character there to make Mal jealous and for love triangle drama"). But mostly I do think it's a good series.
Actually, I'll go as far as to say I liked this one better then the first. Warning though: evil cliffhanger. You will want the third book like yesterday and then remember that you have to wait a year. Not cool.
WHO SHOULD READ: Shadow and Bone fans, Graceling fans, Tamora Pearce fans, fantasy fans
MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five "I have to wait HOW long?" reactions
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