Book Review: Relic

TITLE: Relic
Book 1 in The Books of Eva Trilogy
AUTHOR: Heather Terrell
PUBLISHED: October 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Fantasy/Dystopian
PREMISE: Hoping for answers, a girl takes her brother's place in a dangerous game...
MY REVIEW: Okay YA summary authors, please repeat after me: I will not try to make a reader think this is going to be anything like Game of Thrones ever again. Because seriously, no YA series is ever going to be like Game of Thrones because Game of Thrones is adult fiction. It can go where YA can't because...honestly I'm still a little fuzzy on the rules that YA seems to have upon itself but I just know that there's very little chance of any YA series matching Game of Thrones when it comes to bloodshed/what the hellness/etc. Promising me that this book will do that, is basically setting me up for disappointment. This is like the third YA book I've tried that promised me Game of Thrones for YA and failed to deliver. That isn't even going into the fact that this has NOTHING to do with Game of Thrones. I can sort of see the Hunger Games comparison. But where the hell did the Game of Thrones comparison come in? Have you people even READ Game of Thrones? Because it's got nothing in common with this. At all.
Honestly...this book isn't even Hunger Games league. It's got its moments but there are so many plot holes that I just couldn't get into it. It also relied on the usual YA tropes: love triangle, girl being able to do everything magically, etc. Also, don't get me started on the rampant sexism in the society. I'm sorry but if you're going to have deep sexism that is totally accepted like this in a future society, you better give me a damn good reason for it. There wasn't any reason given. It was just there. Why? Who knows. I do know it made me side-eye the author hard.
All of this combined with flat characters and a very predictable plot made for a rather boring book. I probably won't be reading the rest.
WHO SHOULD READ: Hunger Games fans looking for lulz
MY RATING: Two and a half out of Five sighs

Book Review: Bad Girls Don't Lie

TITLE: Bad Girls Don't Lie
AUTHOR: Jennifer Shaw Wolf
PUBLISHED: September 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Mystery
PREMISE: A girl looks into the death of her best friend.
MY REVIEW: This review will be short because I don't have much to say about this book.
It was a typical YA murder mystery. Some things were good. Most were average. It wasn't terrible. But it didn't blow me away either.
So...it's okay. You could do worse. It's good for if you're looking for a murder mystery. But that's about all I can say about it.
WHO SHOULD READ: Murder mystery fans
MY RATING: Three out of Five shrugs

Book Review: Two Lies and a Spy

TITLE: Two Lies and a Spy
Book 1 in the new Two Lies and a Spy series
AUTHOR: Kat Carlton
PUBLISHED: September 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Mystery
PREMISE: A girl's parents go missing and it's up to her and her friends to find them. Only they are spies who according to their government are traitors.
MY REVIEW: I'm a little conflicted about this one to be honest. I really like the IDEA of it. I get the feeling the author was going for a Gallagher Girls vibe and was hoping to snag those of us who were missing the series already (Bex! Macy! Come back to me!). However...it doesn't have the wonderful effortless feel that series does.
Sometimes there are these series that just feel like the author is trying too hard to be cool and edgy and that's what I get from this. Only instead of actually being cool and edgy, the book came off like a immature teenager trying too hard to fit in. There was much name dropping, there was teen-speak, etc. While there are some funny moments in it, the characters/dialogue aren't nearly as engaging as some other books (like say Percy Jackson for example).
I liked the concept. There is enough there with the parents where I may be reading the next one. But...it's a bit amateurish.
WHO SHOULD READ: Gallagher Girls fans (who don't mind a slightly lower quality book)
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five teen spies

Book Review: The Magicians

TITLE: The Magicians
Book 1 in the Magicians series
AUTHOR: Lev Grossman
PUBLISHED: 2009
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy, witches/wizards
PREMISE: A guy gets into a magic school but learns that magic isn't all it's cracked up to be.
MY REVIEW: Does everyone remember when this book came out? I do and the way everyone billed it as "like Harry Potter but actual literature" was a honest turn off for me so I avoided it like the plague. I'm sorry I hate it when literature snobs latch onto a book and use it to bash a popular book and act like that book is better. Especially as usually the book in question is actually quite boring and tends to be condescending to the very readers it tries to aim itself at. I'm sorry I don't understand the whole "oh it's fantasy but it's LITERARY fantasy" type of deal. Just because something is literary, that does not automatically mean it's going to be better. Literature is a certain way of writing a book. It does NOT MEAN "automatically better then everything else". I wish book snobs would get that through their heads. Okay, I'm done. I swear.
Unfortunately that attitude is kind of what this book has. It has that whole air of trying way too hard that most of these critically acclaimed books tend to have. It doesn't help that none of the characters are remotely interesting or even really likable in any way. No, I don't think characters HAVE to be likable. But you better give me something or at least some reason for why your character is the way they are. I see absolutely NO reason for Quenten's behavior. He even says there's no reason for him to be miserable! He just is. I'm sorry, but I have zero patience for characters like that. That's like ninety percent of why I loathed Twilight.
On top of the unlikable and boring characters, the plot itself was just plain boring. I got what the author was doing with it: magic doesn't solve everything. Which, yes. But you can come up with more interesting ways to do that message. I can name several YA book series and adult series that do this same message but in much more entertaining ways. But I guess since they aren't "literary" they don't count or something.
To be frank, I didn't like it. I got what it was doing. The writing was pretty.But honestly, I thought it was just average. Certainly not at all worth the hype that surrounded it when it first came out. It's a shame too, because Lev Grossman himself is kind of awesome sounding in interviews. I guess this is a case of liking a author's personality more then their books. Usually it's the other way around for me (love the books, don't like the author ;cough;His Dark Materials;cough;).
WHO SHOULD READ: Um...not sure. Literature fans?
MY RATING: Three out of Five yawns

Book Review: United We Spy

TITLE: United We Spy
Book 6 in the Gallagher Girls series
AUTHOR: Ally Carter
PUBLISHED: September 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Mystery, Adventure
PREMISE: Cammie and her friends are in their senior year of school. But graduation seems far away when people are constantly trying to kill you...
MY REVIEW: It's always a bit bittersweet to say good bye to a series. Especially when it's one I've loved as much as Gallagher Girls. It was one of the first ones I tried out for this blog (god, has it really been almost three years now?!) and I've been in love with it ever since.
When a series ends, you're pumped, because you finally get answers. You get closure for your favorite characters. If a author does it right, endings can be pretty big too (STILL not over Deathly Hallows or Mockingjay). But it's also sad because now, no more books (but hopefully more awesome stuff from Carter).
I'll keep it short and sweet: I loved the ending. It was a satisfying, no loose ends ending. It answered questions, it was entertaining as this series always is, and it ended in a fitting way. I'm going to miss Cammie and company something fierce.
WHO SHOULD READ: Those that have read Gallagher Girls books 1-5, Ally Carter fans
MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five diplomas

Book Review: The Hangman's Daughter

TITLE: The Hangman's Daughter
Book 1 in the Hangman's Daughter series
AUTHOR: Oliver Potzsch
PUBLISHED: 2010
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Historical Mystery
PREMISE: A child is murdered and the hangman goes on the case.
MY REVIEW: This was...not really what I expected. Which I can deal with if what I got instead was much better. Unfortunately...it's not. I don't know about anyone else but I thought this would be about well...the hangman's daughter. I mean that's the title of the book, right? Heck, it's the title of the series! So I was under the impression this would be about the Hangman's Daughter going against convention and solving mysteries with her father's help or something.
Sadly, all the Hangman's Daughter does is hang around being pretty and distracting to the men folk who are the ones who do the mystery solving. Kind of disappointing no? I could deal with that, I mean this is in the sixteen hundreds, so I get that women can't be totally liberated but you could give her some sort of role to play still. Instead she kind of just is there as a love interest. It doesn't help that all the characters aren't very interesting and the mystery is pretty average.
It wasn't the worst thing I've ever read. But it wasn't the most ingenious thing either. It's basically just another historical mystery.
WHO SHOULD READ: Historical Mystery fans (who don't want creativity)
MY RATING: Three out of Five could have been better shrugs

Book Review: Perfect Ruin

TITLE: Perfect Ruin
Book 1 in The Internment Chronicles series
AUTHOR: Lauren DeStefano
PUBLISHED: October 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Science Fiction/Fantasy
PREMISE: Morgan and her friends and family live in Internment, a floating land above earth where there has been peace for years. But then a murder happens...
MY REVIEW: Some of you may recall, I tried getting into the Chemical Garden Trilogy and just couldn't. The world-building just made no real sense to me and the author sort of wrote herself into a corner by the second book so I was bored and gave up. But I loved DeStefano's writing style. She has a wonderful style and even if I wasn't crazy about the execution of the series, I did love the concept. So I gave this a chance in the hopes that there would be improvement.
There was! This is such a better, more thought out premise then Chemical Garden. Granted, it probably helps that the author isn't making this a straight up dystopian and asking me to believe that this will really happen. It's more fantasy/Science Fiction then dystopian and it works much better. It also helps that it isn't as dull as and as obvious. Sure, the usual YA suspects are in here (I forsee a love triangle in the upcoming books ;sigh;) but it's interesting and not just relying on romance alone.
This one was a pleasant surprise and a much more satisfying read for me then Chemical Garden. I can't wait for the sequel because that cliffhanger was evil and thus well done.
WHO SHOULD READ: Chemical Garden fans, Dystopian/Sci-Fi fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five pleasant surprises

Book Review: Frozen

TITLE: Frozen
Book 1 in the Heart of Dread series
AUTHOR: Melissa De La Cruz and Michael Johnston
PUBLISHED: September 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Dystopian/Fantasy
PREMISE: In a world frozen over in a second ice age, a girl goes off into the sea to find the voice that speaks to her in her head...
MY REVIEW: I'll be honest, I'm not the hugest Cruz fan. I like her concepts just fine, but her execution generally leaves a lot to be desired. I honestly picked this one up in the library on a whim but with really low expectations.
I will say, I liked this a lot better then her two previous series that I've tried (Blue Bloods, Witches of East End). It does still have some issues (forced love interests, trying to make me feel a certain way about a character in a super obvious way, etc.) Writing is still average but story telling is much better. World building could use some work but I've kind of given up on dystopians making sense.
Not the best intro to a series I've ever read. But considering I was expecting it to be a lot worse, it was pretty decent. Not sure if I'll continue or not though as I'm honestly rather passive about it as a whole.
WHO SHOULD READ: De La Cruz fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five

Book Review: The Lazarus Machine

TITLE: The Lazarus Machine
Book 1 in the Tweed and Nightingale series
AUTHOR: Paul Crilley
PUBLISHED: 2012
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Steampunk, mystery, Classic Book Referencing
PREMISE: A girl and boy find their paths crossing when they investigate mysterious events.
MY REVIEW: So I enjoyed this one a lot and that probably comes as a surprise to no one who has figured out my taste. It's steampunk. There are Sherlock Holmes characters. There are fun and snarky characters solving a mystery. Basically this was gold for me.
Sure, the soul thing is a bit weird (along with the twist about Tweed). But...the author runs with it in a way that makes it work and makes it entertaining. The writing is pretty average but overall this was just a fun intro to a series that looks like it's going to be fun. I'm now going to check out the second book which has recently been released.
WHO SHOULD READ: Steampunk fans, fans of The Clockwork Scarab
MY RATING: Four out of Five mechanical contraptions

Book Review: Antigoddess

TITLE: Antigoddess
Book 1 in the Antigoddess series
AUTHOR: Kendare Blake
PUBLISHED: September 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Urban Fantasy, Mythology
PREMISE: A girl gets caught up in a war between the gods...
MY REVIEW: I freely admit, there is bias in this review. I loved Kendare Blakes Anna Dressed in Blood series so I had pretty high expectations for this series. I will say I didn't love it as much as the Anna books, but it was still a very good read.
Like Anna, it was creative and unexpected and well written. Things are slowly revealed over time, so if you're the impatient sort, you probably won't get into it much. But if you are, it's worth it. Characters are not perfect. They have moral gray areas which I know is not everyone's cup of tea but it is mine (there's a reason I love Game of Thrones).
So this one was not at all what I expected but I liked it a lot. I have a feeling it's one of those that won't appeal to everyone though, so I say check it out of the library first before you buy it.
WHO SHOULD READ: Mythology fans, Starcrossed Trilogy fans, Anna Dressed in Blood fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five feathers