Book Review: Made For You

TITLE: Made For You
AUTHOR: Melissa Marr
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Mystery/Thriller
PUBLISHED: September 16th, 2014
PREMISE: A popular girl gets stalked by a guy who may be closer to her then she thinks...
MY REVIEW: This one...I don't know what to make of this one. It's not Marr's usual work, that's for sure. I certainly don't want to discourage writers from trying new things/genres. So her trying a new genre out wasn't a problem or why I didn't get into this.
Honestly, I think this one was just me. I'm not into stalker books. Mostly because they all tend to be alike. Once you find out who the stalker is, either a) they kill the person they're stalking (which sucks) or b) the person they're stalking gets pissed and manages to defeat them somehow (my preferred ending to these). Luckily this one was option b. The psychology behind this book was pretty interesting. Marr definitely got into a stalkers head and pointed out everything that is wrong with stalking.
So as far as this genre goes, it did the trick. It's just I'm not a huge fan of this particular genre. I mostly just read this because it's Marr.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of The Bodyguard movie, thriller fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five creepy stalkers who need to stop

Book Review: City of Stairs

TITLE: City of Stairs
AUTHOR: Robert Jackson Bennett
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy, Mystery
PUBLISHED: September 9th, 2014
PREMISE: In a fantasy world where a country is controlled by another country after defeating their gods, a prime figure is murdered and a woman is sent over to investigate his death.
MY REVIEW: May I just say, fantasy murder mysteries is starting to become my new favorite thing? It's sort of like historical fantasy where it's a blending of two of my favorite genres and it just makes me sigh with happiness.
This one is no exception. It's such an interesting premise that goes into slight social commentary without hitting over the head with the message. If you pay attention to the political scene and what's going on in other countries, you can get what the author is getting at here. That, along with wonderfully complicated characters, make this a very intriguing mystery/action thriller.
Possibly this is one of my favorites of the year. I'm definitely going to have to look into the author's other work now.
WHO SHOULD READ: fantasy fans, mystery fans, Inheritance Trilogy fans
MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five angry gods

Book Review: The Girl With All the Gifts

TITLE: The Girl With All the Gifts
AUTHOR: M. R. Carey
PUBLISHED: June 19th, 2014
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Dystopians, Zombies
PREMISE: A young zombie is held with other zombie children and experimented on.
MY REVIEW: This was definitely an interesting one. It is what you could call a thought provoking zombie book. It actually reminds me a lot of The Walking Dead so if you're a Walking Dead fan I highly recommend it.
The thing I loved most about it was the writing. This guy can WRITE. He knows how to build suspense, and create atmosphere without info-dumping you all over the place. Such good prose too. Now plot wise...it does slow down a bit in the middle, I'm also still not sure how I feel about the ending. But it was fitting for the story so I'm not complaining about it too loudly.
If you're looking for a zombie thriller to read this Halloween, I highly recommend this one.
WHO SHOULD READ: The Walking Dead fans, The Forest of Hands and Teeth Fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five zombies taking over

What to Read Next: Creepy Classics

Since the Halloween season is upon us you may or may not have been reading those time honored Creepy Classics of Frankenstein, Dracula, or Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Now you want some more but maybe a little less classics, more modern. Here are some options for you:

1) Stephan King-Looking for more creepy? Check out this author like now.

2) This Dark Endeavor duet by Kenneth Oppel-Looking for some books on Frankenstein himself? I highly suggest these which are a fantastic character study of a well-known character and how he came to be in the book of Frankenstein.

3) The Madman's Daughter Trilogy by Megan Shephard-Good series involving the daughter of the Doctor Moreau, the doctor in the Island of Doctor Moreau (the author of Jekyll and Hyde, a good creepy classic). The third book comes out in January.

4) The Nevermore Trilogy by Kelly Creagh
Awesome paranormal trilogy that deeply involves Edgar Allen Poe (he of the fabulously creepy short stories/poems) in a clever way. Sadly book 3 doesn't come out till summer of next year. Hopefully. We were actually supposed to get it this year but it got pushed back. ;frowns;

5) Stoker and Holmes series by Colleen Gleason
Fun Steampunk mystery series featuring the descendant of Bram Stoker (whose family all hunt vampires) and the niece of Sherlock Holmes. You know you want to read it.

Book Review: P.S. I Love You

TITLE: P.S. I Love You
AUTHOR: Cecelia Ahern
PUBLISHED: 2003
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Romance, Drama
PREMISE: A women's dead husband has letters sent to her to help her get over her grief.
MY REVIEW: So here's another book from the reading through the library thing. This is again, a good example of why I'm doing this project. Under normal circumstances, I would probably never pick this up. Girly chick lit is NOT my thing. This is that in spades.
But I will say I have seen the movie (it was on TV one time, I was bored. That's usually when I see these romantic comedies). I'll spare you comparisons between the two. Everyone already knows them probably anyway. As for the book...my feelings on it are much like my feelings on the movie: cute. Good for when you're in the mood for a sappy romance. Other then that...it's not exactly a must read.
If you liked the movie or like sappy romance books, this one is for you. If that's not your thing, then I would avoid this.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of the movie, romance fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five tissues for sappiness

Book Review: Chasing Power

TITLE: Chasing Power
AUTHOR: Sarah Beth Durst
PUBLISHED: October 14, 2014
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Urban Fantasy, Witches/Wizards
PREMISE: A girl gets blackmailed into helping a boy find his mother which unearths a ton of family secrets...
MY REVIEW: I've said it before and I'll say it again: Durst is a seriously underrated author. Like all of her books, I didn't quite know what I was getting when I got this. But like all of her books, it turned out to be a creative treat to read.
This time, Durst went in for urban fantasy. As always, her heroine gets swept up into an epic adventure where she has to use her wits to survive. That is the only thing her books tend to have in common: her heroines aren't fools and I love that so much. The real shine in this book for me though was the dialogue. The dialogue between Kayla and Selena and Daniel is fabulous. I can't go on enough about how much I adored Selena. I adored her to the point where I want her to have her own book.
So after a slight slump with Conjured, Durst is back on the awesome list. I can't wait to see what her brain comes up with next. I do have one complaint though and that is the cover. This lightbulb here has NOTHING to do with the plot. Maybe it was supposed to be a pun. I don't know. I do know it's not a good cover. I can take funky covers if they actually have something to do with the plot. This one doesn't have anything to do with the plot. Bad cover artist. Bad.
WHO SHOULD READ: Durst fans, adventure book fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five bad covers hiding a good book

Making The Leap: Twilight

So you've read Twilight. You've devoured all the vampire novels YA has to offer and are looking for options beyond YA/MG. Luckily for you there are plenty of options to choose from. Despite popular belief, vampire romances are not just a YA thing.

If you liked this:

The Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer

Then check out this:

The Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris

Why: Well, the obvious answer is that it involves vampires and the main character has a romance with supernatural creatures like in Twilight. But it also has interesting takes on the mythos, and involves a small town like Forks. It's also very atmospheric like Twilight, accept its atmosphere is the deep south. Sookie is just slightly more involved in the plot then Bella (and also ten times more likable then she is but I'll spare you all my Twilight ranting for once).

Other Adult books to look into for Twilight fans:
Outlander series by Diana Gamboldon (for those who loved the romance aspect)
Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice (for those who loved the broody vampire aspect)
Discovery of Witches series by Deborah Harkness (for those who loved the paranormal romance aspect)

Book Review: Broken Monsters

TITLE: Broken Monsters
AUTHOR: Lauren Beukes
PUBLISHED: July 31rst, 2014
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Mystery
PREMISE: A serial killer is on the loose and detectives are on the case.
MY REVIEW: I have really mixed feelings about this one. I picked it up after hearing Book Riot rave about it and I love my thrillers so I figured it'd be cool.
It definitely was...interesting. I did love the way the author wrote. She has lovely prose and knows how to weave a story. I may not have cared for this one, but I think I will maybe check out her other books.
My issue was that there were too many characters and that interfered with the very good mystery going on. Like why was the plot with the teenage daughter even there? It should have focused more on the mystery part because it got too caught up in drama that slowed the book down a LOT and made the middle a struggle to get through.
This sort of reminded me of Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling and it had the exact same problem that book had: good main idea and lovely writing/storytelling skills, but too many characters to focus on who cluttered up the plot.
WHO SHOULD READ: Mystery fans, Lauren Beukes fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five serial killers

Book Review: Fiendish

TITLE: Fiendish
AUTHOR: Brenna Yovanoff
PUBLISHED: August 14th, 2014
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Urban Fantasy
PREMISE: A girl wakes up and gets saved from being locked in a cellar only to be brought into a dark world of magic...
MY REVIEW: I love Yovanoff's imagination. This author is seriously underrated. Like Durst, each one of her ideas is unique in some way.
Also, I want to point to this book as a good example of how to world build without doing info dump after info dump. Because this is a complicated world with interesting rules. Yet Yovanoff managed to show it to the reader piece by piece, without having the main character go "this is this because of that and this etc." So refreshing to see. All authors should take notes.
Mostly this was just a fun creepy book that was perfect for this time of year. The romance was what it was. I could take it or leave it. But it was never the focus of the book, it was kind of just there. What was the focus was this fabulously creepy town and idea.
If you want a good creepy tale for Halloween, I highly recommend this one. As well as any of Yovanoff's other books.
WHO SHOULD READ: Yovanoff fans, Stephan King fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five creepy houses

Book Review: The Jewel

TITLE: The Jewel
Book 1 in The Lone City Trilogy
AUTHOR: Amy Ewing
PUBLISHED: September 2nd, 2014
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Fantasy
PREMISE: A girl who is raised to be a surrogate gets bought. Has forbidden romance in difficult times.
MY REVIEW: I'll sum this book up like so: it's trying to be A Handmaiden's Tale, but it's more like The Selection combined with The Chemical Garden Trilogy. Which means, I didn't like it very much.
It's readable. I'll give it that. I just wish we would get away from these fantasy/dystopians that have this great set up and then do everything they can to focus on a boring stock romance instead of the great idea going on. It doesn't help that this came off as pretty anti-feminist. Or at least what conservatives think feminists are. Because this society was basically women in charge, yet the women in charge were all horrible and the ones forcing these girls to get pregnant for them. At one point one of the woman makes fun of her husband and says "that's why you don't leave men in charge." Literally these women are stereotypes of what people think feminists are like. Maybe she didn't mean it to be anti-feminist, but that's what it came off as.
On top of that, everything in this is just...uninspired. Again, it's readable, the author has decent writing skills. The story has just been done before. Not just in the two series I mentioned either. It also does all the usual YA tropes: love triangle, insta-love with no basis (that leads to mentioned boring stock romance), stock characters, and again, a BORING plot that doesn't get interesting untill the last few chapters and even then, it wasn't enough to make me want to get the next book. Honestly...this was just a lazy book that could have been better had the author put a wee bit more original thought into it. But again, I did see potential in her writing skills. Perhaps she'll be like DeStafano: have a slightly mediocre first series then have a much more interesting second series because her writing has become more polished.
WHO SHOULD READ: The Selection fans, Chemical Garden Trilogy fans
MY RATING: Two and a half out of Five disappointed sighs