Book Review: Maplecroft

TITLE: Maplecroft
Book 1 in the Borden Dispatches
AUTHOR: Cherie Priest
PUBLISHED: September 2nd, 2014
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Historical Fantasy
PREMISE: The story of Lizzie Borden is not what we think it was: her parents were murdered because they were possessed by an evil.
MY REVIEW: I admit, I mostly picked this up because the idea sounded clever. It was. It was a twist on a familiar tale and I always like it when authors take events in history and go "well what-if".
That said...I could have done without all the POVs. Probably could have left it in the sister's POV and be done with it. We didn't need all these doctor men chiming in. Especially because that really slowed down the pace. I found myself skimming their chapters to be honest, because I didn't feel they added anything I really needed to know.
So, other then too many POVs and slow pace, this was an interesting take on Lizzie Borden.
WHO SHOULD READ: horror fans, Cherie Priest fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five axes

Book Review: Unmade

TITLE: Unmade
Book 3 in the Lynburn Legacy Trilogy
AUTHOR: Sarah Rees Brennan
PUBLISHED: September 23rd, 2014
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Urban Fantasy, Witches
PREMISE: Kami and the gang take a final stand against Rob, but not without consequences.
MY REVIEW: Warning: I have extreme bias when it comes to this series. Pretty much, I adore anything Brennan writes. This book is no exception. It's not often I can say I loved a trilogy the whole through, but with this one, I can honestly say that.
As a conclusion, it did it all. It solved lingering questions, it solved plot lines, had a epic conclusion where Rob finally got his and that conclusion was not without sacrifice (RUSTY! ;gross sobbing;). It did it all through the trademark humor this series always had. I'm honestly hard pressed to find things I didn't like about this series. I don't know...maybe if you don't like snark? Or sassy characters? I'm sure such readers like that exist some where (and I feel very sorry for them).
Basically, I loved the hell out of this. Just as I've loved the hell out of this whole trilogy. I can't wait to see whatever Brennan has up her sleeve next. Whatever it is, I'm game.
WHO SHOULD READ: Sarah Rees Brennan fans, fans of the first two books,
MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five (would be full five stars, but I'm feeling a bit vindictive about Rusty ;never forget;)

Book Review: Unmarked

TITLE: Unmarked
Book 2 in the Legion series
AUTHOR: Kami Garcia
PUBLISHED: September 30th, 2014
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Urban Fantasy
PREMISE: Kennedy and the other members of the legion continue their quest to hunt down the demon that was set free on their watch.
MY REVIEW: THIS is how you sequel, folks. I actually go as far to agree with the blurb that this surpasses the original. Not that the original was bad, it certainly wasn't. But this one definitely upped it a notch.
First: no more love triangle! Which means, no more clogging up page space, which means we get to focus more on plot and character development. This is always a good thing in my book. We get more details on characters and the result is more fully realized people and less looking like a Supernatural with better female characters.
This was all around a good sequel with better character focus/development, better plot thickening, and just all around...better. Now really looking forward to the next book.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of the first book, Supernatural fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five good sequels

Book Review: The Infinite Sea

TITLE: The Infinite Sea
Book 2 in the Fifth Wave Trilogy
AUTHOR: Rick Yancey
CATEGORY: YA
PUBLISHED: September 16th, 2014
GENRE: Science-Fiction
PREMISE: Cassie and Ringer try to survive in a world where aliens want all the humans dead.
MY REVIEW: For some reason, I couldn't get into this one as much as I got into the Fifth Wave. Part of it was that it suffered from major second book syndrome.
Another part is that it didn't seem to have any focus. POVs jumped around, which did not happen in the first book. The plot went all over the place. It just kept going back and forth between focus and it was startling when that happened. It didn't help that all the characters sounded alike, so I was busy trying to figure out who was speaking all the time. It made for a far less enjoyable reading experience then my experience with the first book.
I concede that it moved the plot forward and gave character development. It just...wasn't as focused as I would have liked. It actually sort of felt like a stall book. Like the author meant to have this be two books, instead of three. It wasn't bad or anything...it just wasn't as good as Fifth Wave.
WHO SHOULD READ: The Fifth Wave fans, sci-fi/dystopian fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five alien spaceships

Book Review: Unraveled

TITLE: Unraveled
Crewel World Trilogy Book 3
AUTHOR: Gennifer Albin
PUBLISHED: October 7th, 2014
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Fantasy, Dystopian
PREMISE: Conclusion to the Crewel World series
MY REVIEW: As far as final books go, I will concede this got everything done. It answered questions, solved plot lines, had a satisfying conclusion, etc.
It's just...it wasn't very shocking of a conclusion. Literally, everything happened as I expected it too. Which is fine, that means readers who liked this trilogy a lot will get what they wanted. It just doesn't make for a very memorable conclusion like say Mockingjay. Say what you will about Mockingjay, that ending is memorable and powerful.
This...was perfectly all right. It just isn't one of those endings I feel a need to discuss that much.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of the first two books
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five shrugs

Book Review: The Fire Artist

TITLE: The Fire Artist
AUTHOR: Daisy Whitney
PUBLISHED: October 14th, 2014
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Urban Fantasy
PREMISE: A girl has magic powers that she obtained illegally and meets a jinni who promises to make her powers real.
MY REVIEW: I have to hand it to Whitney, she comes up with different books every time. This time, she's tackling jinnis and the world she's come up with here is great.
The only real downside is, once again, the instant-love. If we purged instant-love and love triangles from YA, the section would be ten times better off. The instant-love dragged down an otherwise pretty decent read. The world building is great, the character journey is satisfying. I particularly liked what the author did with jinni's (genies?) here. The only unsatisfying thing is the romance, on which the book focuses too much time on.
But again, for the most part it's a rather decent read. Definitely worth a check out from the library at the very least.
WHO SHOULD READ: Daisy Whitney fans, urban fantasy fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five jinni's being shady

Many thanks to the publishers for the Net Galley of this book.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read in 2014

This is a weekly meme hosted by the ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish.

This week: Top Ten New-To-Me Authors in 2014

1) Rainbow Rowell-I was late to the Rowell parade. I heard about her last year, obviously (you would have had to be living in a cave not to have heard about her last year), I just never got around to reading either of her books, even though Fangirl was practically calling my name because of its title. But I finally got to her this year, and I'm really glad I did. I shall be reading her adult books this upcoming year, when I get the chance.

2) Ben Aaronovich-Aaronovich was one of the first authors I found in my reading through the library project (I'm on the second shelf for those curious about my progress). The Peter Grant series is awesome urban fantasy with diversity, humor, and great world-building and wonderful descriptions of London. Go check it out immediately, especially if you're a urban fantasy fan of any sort.

3) John Scalzi-I finally got to Scalzi this year by reading his latest, Lock In. I wound up loving it and I think this year, I'm going to try and get to Redshirts and some of his other previous work.

4) Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie-Another library find author, this one from Nigeria. She writes well written and thought provoking historical fiction. I read Half of a Yellow Sun, and next year I'm hoping to tackle Americanah.

5) A. S. King-I literally just finished my first A.S. King yesterday and loved it (review is coming). Definitely will be reading more of her books next year.

6) Robert Jackson Bennett-I'd actually never heard of Bennett before I picked up City of Stairs. Apparently the fantasy world has been keeping him under wraps or something because he's been apparently writing for awhile.

7) Mark Lawrence-Never read the Broken Empire series, though I had heard of it. I picked up his latest from this year not realizing it was a spin-off of said series. Might look into the rest next year if I have the chance.

8) Lauren Beukes-I've actually never heard of Beukes either, until everyone started raving about Broken Monsters. I definitely see why she's a thing, even if Broken Monsters wasn't my favorite in the world.

9) Megan Abbott-Another read through the library find. As luck would have it, I discovered her just as The Fever started getting buzz. I haven't read that one yet, but shall try my best too, next year.

10) Natalie Whipple-This author has actually written a YA or two before that I've always meant to read but never got too. This year though, I got to House of Ivy and Sorrow and loved the hell out of it. Definitely will be looking into her other books now.

Book Review: Firebug

TITLE: Firebug
Book 1 in the Firebug series
AUTHOR: Lish McBride
PUBLISHED: September 23rd, 2014
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Urban Fantasy
PREMISE: A girl who can start fires with her mind tries to pull out of the mafia that she's tied too.
MY REVIEW: I have never read Lish McBride's work before this. Therefore, going into this I had no expectations because I had no experience with this author's work before. So, that said....I'm not particularly impressed.
The book is not horrible. I love the set-up of the world. The plot is fun. It just...reminds so much of many YA urban fantasy books that I've read before. The magical mafia thing, for instance, reminded me of the Curse Workers (and the Curse Workers was better thought out). The fire starter idea is not really anything new, it's been done in several series. What helped was the characters, except even the characters were problematic for me, because of the holy slut shaming Batman. Yes, that's right, the author did the whole "girly girls are the enemies folks" and I cannot go on enough about how over that trope I am. The main character was cool to me, up until she took one look at the blonde girl she was double-dating with and decided then and there she must be a slut. How did she decide this? Because she's blonde and had the nerve to wear make up and nice clothes to a date. All of this, without having ONE full conversation with her, or knowing anything about her background. STOP THIS AUTHORS. PLEASE. It's shitty. Girls get torn down enough as it is, do you have to encourage girls to tear each other down too? No, the girl being super girly and liking boys does not make it okay.
So...this one was a bit of a mixed bag for me. I liked the set up, and dialogue, and plot. But it just wasn't really that original and I wanted to scream at all the slut shaming. So...mixed feelings about this one.
WHO SHOULD READ: Lish McBride fans, urban fantasy fans, Curse Workers fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five mafias

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I'm Looking Forward Too in 2015

This is a weekly meme hosted by the ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish

This week: Top Ten Books I'm Looking Forward Too in 2015

1) Fairest and Winter from the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

Being Released: Fairest is out Jan. 6th, Winter is out November 24rth.

Why: Yes, I'm totally cheating by putting two books from the same series and counting them as one. I'm looking forward to BOTH of them. Don't make me choose just one. I can't.

2) Magnus Chase 1: The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan

Being Released: October 6th, 2015

Why: Um, Riordan tackling Norse Gods? Can I get a hell yes? Note to self: maybe try to actually read the rest of the Heroes of Olympus series before this comes out (I've only read Lost Hero, I'm woefully behind).

3) Diviners Book 2: Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray

Being Released: God willing, April 14th, 2015

Why: Please no more delay, please no more delay, PLEASE NO MORE DELAY.

4) Seraphina Book 2: Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman

Being Released: God willing (again), March 10th, 2015

Why: Seraphina was awesome. I needed the sequel like a year ago.

5) The Custard Protocol Book 1: Prudence and Finishing School 4: Manners and Mutiny by Gail Carriger

Being Released: Prudence is out March 17th and Manners and Mutiny should be out sometime in November.

Why: Yes, I'm cheating again. There's just so many awesome books coming out this year and ten is not enough to go over them all.

6) Nevermore Trilogy Book 3: Oblivion by Kelly Creagh

Being Released: God willing (please note, I'm saying that a LOT this year ;glares at authors; ;then hugs them in understanding;) July 28th, 2015

Why: See the god willing thing. Also, this trilogy is awesome and seriously underrated.

7) Embassy Row Book 1: All Fall Down by Ally Carter

Being Released: January 27th, 2014

Why: I love this author's books. I can't wait to read her new series which looks like it's going to be just as fun as the other two.

8) Illusionarium by Heather Dixon

Being Released: May 19th, 2015

Why: I loved Entwined. It is one of my favorite retellings. Among the top ten at least. This one sounds particularly awesome. Steampunk, parallel worlds. Sign me up.

9) Rook by Sharon Cameron

Being Released: April 28th, 2015

Why: The Dark Unwinding books are seriously underrated and this one sounds pretty awesome. Also, cover lust, I have it right now.

10) The Wrath and the Dawn Book 1 by Renee Ahdieh

Being Released: May 12th, 2015

Why: A retelling of A Thousand and One Nights? Um...yes, please?

Book Review: Half of a Yellow Sun

TITLE: Half of a Yellow Sun
AUTHOR: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
PUBLISHED: 2006
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Historical Fiction
PREMISE: A group of people live their lives during the Nigerian civil war in the 1960s.
MY REVIEW: This is both a another library find and a book I've been meaning to read for awhile now. So, two birds with one stone, right?
I will warn, this is a heavy book. It's about the civil war in Nigeria that took place in the 1960s, therefore many not so happy things happen. Because Nigeria during that time, wasn't the best place to be.
This is not a light read, it's very much a thinking kind of book. It will make you think about many things, because the author has a lot of stuff happen in this book worth discussing. First, there's the Nigerian civil war itself, a topic I confess I don't know much about because of our amazingly American centered education system. After that, there's much discussion about race issues, which as evidenced by Ferguson are still very much relevant. Then there's just how war effect all of us, no matter what walk of life we come from.
Again, this is not a book I would read if you want light hearted reads. However, if you want a book to curl up with that makes you think about some serious issues for awhile...I definitely recommend this one.
WHO SHOULD READ: Literature fans, historical fiction fans, Book Thief fans, war book fans
MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five