Review: Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

The Lynburn Legacy #1

Release Date: September 11^th, 2012

Number of Pages: 370

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers

Source: NetGalley 

Kami Glass loves someone she’s never met . . . a boy she’s talked to in her head ever since she was born. She wasn’t silent about her imaginary friend during her childhood, and is thus a bit of an outsider in her sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale. Still, Kami hasn’t suffered too much from not fitting in. She has a best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is in order, just the way she likes it, despite the voice in her head. But all that changes when the Lynburns return. The Lynburn family has owned the spectacular and sinister manor that overlooks Sorry-in-the-Vale for centuries. The mysterious twin sisters who abandoned their ancestral home a generation ago are back, along with their teenage sons, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami. Kami is not one to shy away from the unknown—in fact, she’s determined to find answers for all the questions Sorry-in-the-Vale is suddenly posing. Who is responsible for the bloody deeds in the depths of the woods? What is her own mother hiding? And now that her imaginary friend has become a real boy, does she still love him? Does she hate him? Can she trust him?

Wow. I didn’t think I would find this book so addicting. I mean, I did find the idea of the book interesting, and I have enjoyed about every book I have read written by Sarah Rees Brennan. Still, I didn’t think I would become that involved in the story. By involved, I mean I was almost yelling at the book since I was a little waiting for a kiss that never seemed to come. And of course, I can’t forget my reaction to that ending, which would have been slightly embarrassing if I had been in public. Fortunately, I was home alone, meaning I could express my anger toward the end of the book. Not that it was a bad ending. It simply was a mean ending since book two comes out only next year.

One thing I really enjoy about this book was Kami, who was simply an amazingly fun character to follow. She’s no damsel in distress. More than that, she doesn’t care that much about finding love with one of the (I would say extremely interesting) male characters. Her priority is finding who is responsible for the “bloody deeds in the dept of the woods” Finally someone who has more ambition than simply being an arm candy! And I can’t forget about her friends. I love the diversity of characters we are given in this book. Angela was one that really made me curious and left me hoping we would get more about her, even if we did learn quite a bit about her. Of course I can’t forget about the male characters, mostly Jared and Ash, who do a great job of leaving us slightly unsure of who they really are.

Sarah Rees Brennan really created a book that will get most readers hooked form the beginning. Still, I have to say I find her a little mean to leave us with that kind of ending. 24 hours later, I’m still not over it. You can be sure that book two will be at the top of my list once it comes out, since I’m dying to know what will happen next to her characters. Definitely one of the best books I’ve read in a while!

Waiting on Wednesday: The Unfailing Light by Robin Bridges

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly Meme hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine. It is an opportunity for us to show books we can't wait to get our hands on.

This week, my pick is:

The Unfailing Light by Robin Bridges

Katherina Trilogy #2

October 2012

Random House Children's Book

Having had no choice but to use her power has a necromancer to save Russia from dark forces, Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, now wants to forget that she ever used her special powers. She's about to set off to pursue her lifelong dream of attending medical school when she discovers that Russia's arch nemesis--who she thought she'd destroyed--is still alive. So on imperial orders, Katerina remains at her old finishing school. She'll be safe there, because the empress has cast a potent spell to protect it against the vampires and revenants who are bent on toppling the tsar and using Katerina for their own gains. But to Katerina's horror, the spell unleashes a vengeful ghost within the school, a ghost more dangerous than any creature trying to get in.

What book are you waiting for this week?

Giveaway: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

GIVEAWAY!

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

I just received a second copy of Code Name Verity, and since I don't need two finished copies, I'm giving one away! It's US/CANADA only since shipping is pretty expensive, and I'm slightly poor these days. If you want to win, simply fill out the rafflecopter form below! Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: Rapture by Lauren Kate

Rapture by Lauren Kate

Fallen # 4

Release Date: June 12^th, 2012

Number of Pages: 448

Publisher: Delacorte Books books for Young Readers

Source: NetGalley 

The sky is dark with wings . . . . Like sand in an hourglass, time is running out for Luce and Daniel. To stop Lucifer from erasing the past they must find the place where the angels fell to earth. Dark forces are after them, and Daniel doesn’t know if he can do this—live only to lose Luce again and again. Yet together they will face an epic battle that will end with lifeless bodies . . . and angel dust. Great sacrifices are made. Hearts are destroyed. And suddenly Luce knows what must happen. For she was meant to be with someone other than Daniel. The curse they’ve borne has always and only been about her—and the love she cast aside. The choice she makes now will be the only one that truly matters. In the fight for Luce, who will win? The astonishing conclusion to the FALLEN series. Heaven can’t wait any longer.

I had discovered this series a while back, and I have to say that it feel strange to see it coming to an end. There’s one thing I do am happy about, it’s that this book provide a great ending, true to the rest of the series. I had been disappointed with Passion, but this book did made up for it. Was it love? No, it wasn’t. Was I satisfied once I finally put the book down? Yes, as most of the questions I had were answered.

I can’t say I didn’t see coming the truth about Lucinda. It was clear from the beginning why she was the one who could, in a way, save them all. I do have to say that I didn’t see coming the twist with Lucifer. I was expecting something a little different (featuring Cam. I missed Cam in this one. We clearly don’t see him enough.) We FINALLY learn how Luce and Daniel met, how they fell in love. That’s what really made me happy with this book, as it is what we were all hoping this book would be happy.

The ending brings a complete end to the series. There’s no really need for anything more after that, and that’s something that I’m really happy about. They do mostly get a happy ending, even though it isn’t every character we have grown to love that will live to see it. I didn’t feel that sad to see the story of Luce and Daniel end. I felt so disappointed in Passion, and having this book simply bring back the aspect that made me enjoy this series was enough. We get answers. We get closure. We get what we were waiting for from this series. Now, all we can do is wait to see what Lauren Kate will bring us next, with some new characters, and hopefully a new world.

This book will satisfy those who did enjoy this series. I found it to be a lot better than Passion, so if you still like this series even after Passion, you’ll be satisfied with the closure this book brings.

Review: Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan

Title: Boy Meets Boy

Author: David Levithan

Series: None

Release Date: September 9^th, 2003

Number of Pages: 185

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf

Source: Bought

This is the story of Paul, a sophomore at a high school like no other: The cheerleaders ride Harleys, the homecoming queen used to be a guy named Daryl (she now prefers Infinite Darlene and is also the star quarterback), and the gay-straight alliance was formed to help the straight kids learn how to dance.

When Paul meets Noah, he thinks he’s found the one his heart is made for. Until he blows it. The school bookie says the odds are 12-to-1 against him getting Noah back, but Paul’s not giving up without playing his love really loud. His best friend Joni might be drifting away, his other best friend Tony might be dealing with ultra-religious parents, and his ex-boyfriend Kyle might not be going away anytime soon, but sometimes everything needs to fall apart before it can really fit together right.

This is a happy-meaningful romantic comedy about finding love, losing love, and doing what it takes to get love back in a crazy-wonderful world.

Boy Meets Boy is set in a strange Gay Utopia. Why strange? Well, it seems so unreal, a town where most characters seem to be gay (or at least, most characters we meet), where everything seems perfect. It is almost a dream town, where people or so open-minded. Even Tony’s religious parents seems kind of okay with it (well more than some religious family I’ve known…) Still, it felt kind of strange, mostly with the fast food restaurant turning meat-free because of some vegetarians being against their use of meat (I’m vegetarian, and sometime it can be hard to find a good alternative in a restaurant…)

Now, the characters were mostly great. Paul really made me laugh, and he seems like the kind of guy I would love to have as friend.  He was just seems to be bringing something to all his friends. The only thing, I have to say that he was a little of a drama queen. Out of all his friends, I have to say that I didn’t like Joni. I’m sorry, but I’m the kind of girl that thinks that friends should come first. Her relationship with Chuck just brought the worst out of her, in my opinion. Now, let’s talk about Noah, Paul’s love interest. I liked him, yet he wasn’t my favorite character. (No, I don’t prefer Kyle, it’s just that I feel like Noah should been more open to what Paul wanted to tell him, when he tried to explain everything.

Overall, I did enjoy this novel. It wasn’t love, but I would recommend it. It was a short read, enjoyable enough. It was my first book by David Levithan, well written only by him (I’ve read Will Grayson, Will Grayson, which he wrote with John Green).  No completely what I expected though. I wasn’t expecting that much of an “utopic” setting.

Review: Starters by Lissa Price

Title: Starters

Author: Lissa Price

Series: Starters #1

Release Date: March 13^th, 2012

Number of Pages: 368

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Source: NetGalley + Bought

HER WORLD IS CHANGED FOREVER

Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie. Callie's only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man.

He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie's head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, and going out with a senator's grandson. It feels almost like a fairy tale, until Callie discovers that her renter intends to do more than party—and that Prime Destinations' plans are more evil than Callie could ever have imagined. . . .

Okay, if I’m honest, I wasn’t sure I would love this novel at first. The cover made me feel like it was a little too science fiction. How wrong was I! This is a dystopian novel that will keep you addicted until the end. I got a review e-copy on NetGalley first, yet I never got around to reading it. When I went to Indigo a few days ago, I saw it and thought I should probably buy it if I want to finally read it. I started right away and I couldn’t put it down until I was done.

The world Lissa Price created was amazing. Yet, there were a couple of things that left me wondering. I didn’t really get why everyone between 20 and 60 died from the “Spore Wars”. The history behind everything that is going on was lacking for me. I wanted to no more.

Still, the story was full of twits, which were enough to get me captivated from page one. I really enjoyed following Callie as a narrator. I felt like she was doing things for the right reasons. She was putting her freedom on the line to save her brother. Helena grew on me, as I understood the reasons behind her plan. She was, after all, trying to protect people. Some other characters made a great impression on me. I really liked Sarah. I wish we could have seen her a little more, but she really made a difference, in my opinion, during the few moments she was present. Michael, on the other end, didn’t really impress me. I just thought his role would be different at first. He ended up being in the background most of the time.

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel. I simply can’t wait to read more, and also learn what will happen with the final twist that really got me begging for more. 

Review: Someone Else's Life

Title: Someone Else’s Life

Author: Katie Dale

Series: None

Release Date: February 14^th, 2012

Number of Pages: 512

Publisher: Delacorte books for Young Readers

Souce: NetGalley

When 17-year-old Rosie's mother, Trudie, dies from Huntington's Disease, her pain is intensified by the knowledge that she has a fifty percent chance of inheriting the crippling disease herself. Only when Rosie tells her mother's best friend, "Aunt Sarah," that she is going to test for the disease does Sarah, a midwife, reveal that Trudie wasn't her real mother after all. Rosie was swapped at birth with a sickly baby who was destined to die. 

Devastated, Rosie decides to trace her real mother, joining her ex-boyfriend on his gap year travels, to find her birth mother in California. But all does not go as planned. As Rosie discovers yet more of her family's deeply buried secrets and lies, she is left with an agonizing decision of her own, one which will be the most heart breaking and far-reaching of all.

I was quite surprised by this book. It wasn’t that I wasn’t expecting to really enjoy it (I really couldn’t wait to read it, based on the premises). It was more that the story itself kept me guessing. I was expecting the story to go one way and BAM, Katie Dale made Rosie’s life and Rosie’s choices a lot harder. That’s one of the thing that I loved about this book. It surprised me so many times.

One of the main aspects of the book is the Huntington’s. It wasn’t something I had heard of before, so I did appreciate that Katie Dale took the time to explain what it was, without it sounding out of place. That information was well incorporate to the story.  That disease is simply terrifying, if you think of it. Other than already having been through the pain of seeing her mother die, now she may have 50/50 chance of suffering from it, well, if she was her biological daughter.

Rosie’s character broke my heart. It is unimaginable all the pain she must have gone through, first by losing her mother, and then learning that her mother, Trudie, isn’t her real mother. After all, it was like she lost her all over again. That’s one of the reason why I could understand why Rosie wanted to go through everything she did, to find her real mother. She needed answer, and she needed something to make go on. She just lost the woman who raised her, only to learn that her life was based on a lie her “Aunt” Sarah created. Still, Andy was one of the characters that really surprised me. I find it hard to believe he stood by her through so much, as she wasn’t always that honest with him. Of course, there are other characters that stood out for me. Yet, I can’t really talk about them without giving away too much, so I guess you will have to discover them on your on.

Katie Dale really impressed me with this novel. Even though it is a pretty lengthy novel, I read it in a matter of hours, because I simply couldn’t put it down. It was beautifully written, and the emotions simply kept me reading, as I was hoping thing would finally get better for Rosie and the others.

Someone else’s life is a novel I would definitely recommend to fan of contemporary.

Review: My Beating Teenage Heart by C.K. Kelly Martin

Title: My Beating Teenage Heart

Author: C. K. Kelly Martin

Series: None

Release Date: September 27^th, 2011

Number of Pages: 288

Publisher:  Random House Books for Young Readers

Source: Publisher

Ashlyn Baptiste is falling. One moment she was nothing—no memories, no self—and then suddenly, she's plummeting through a sea of stars. Is she in a coma? She doesn't remember dying, and she has no memories of the life she left behind. All she knows is that she's trapped in a consciousness without a body and she's spending every moment watching a stranger.

Breckon Cody's on the edge. He's being ripped apart by grief so intense it literally hurts to breathe. On the surface, Breckon is trying to hold it together for his family and his girlfriend, but underneath he's barely hanging on.

 Even though she didn't know him in life, Ashlyn sees Breckon's pain, and she's determined to find a way help him. As her own distressing memories emerge from the darkness, she struggles to communicate with the boy who can't see her, but whose life is suddenly intertwined with hers. In alternating voices of the main characters, My Beating Teenage Heart paints a devastatingly vivid picture of both the heartbreak and the promise of teenage life—a life Ashlyn would do anything to recover and Breckon seems desperate to destroy—and will appeal to fans of Sarah Dessen, John Green, and David Levithan.

I’m a little torn about this book. I was really hoping I would love it, but I just couldn’t get into the book at first. After a while, I got a little more into the book, but it simply felt a little too slow at first.

One of the things that I really liked about the book was the writing. That’s what kept me going, as I was hoping I would get captivated by the book. The emotions were beautifully portrayed, but it was only that. Breckon couldn’t get past his sister’s death, as he felt guilty, but Ashlyn was only an observer. That made the book a little slower for me, as she only seemed to be giving me z second point of view on Breckon, which I didn’t personally need.

I wish Ashlyn could have had a bigger impact on the book. I wish there could have been something better for her. Strangely, she’s the one I felt the most sorry for. She lost her life, her chance to bet with her family, to have a future. Breckon may have lost his little sister (which is a tragedy), but he still had his future, his family and his friends. I felt like Ashlyn should have had more. Does it sounds heartless? I felt sadder for Ashlyn that Breckon.

Overall, I liked it, but I sadly didn’t fall in love with this book. I enjoyed the writing though, which is why I’ll have to read more from C.K. Kelly Martin. I know many readers have loved this book, but it simply wasn’t for me.

Review: The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges

Title: The Gathering Storm

Author: Robin Bridges

Series: The Katerina Trilogy Vol. I

Release Date: January 10^th, 2012

Number of Pages: 400

Publisher: Delacorte BFYR

Source: NetGalley + Bought

St. Petersburg, Russia, 1888. As she attends a whirl of glittering balls, royal debutante Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, tries to hide a dark secret: she can raise the dead. No one knows. Not her family. Not the girls at her finishing school. Not the tsar or anyone in her aristocratic circle. Katerina considers her talent a curse, not a gift. But when she uses her special skill to protect a member of the Imperial Family, she finds herself caught in a web of intrigue. 

An evil presence is growing within Europe's royal bloodlines—and those aligned with the darkness threaten to topple the tsar. Suddenly Katerina's strength as a necromancer attracts attention from unwelcome sources . . . including two young men—George Alexandrovich, the tsar's standoffish middle son, who needs Katerina's help to safeguard Russia, even if he's repelled by her secret, and the dashing Prince Danilo, heir to the throne of Montenegro, to whom Katerina feels inexplicably drawn.

The time has come for Katerina to embrace her power, but which side will she choose—and to whom will she give her heart?

I was really excited to read this book, once I saw it was on NetGalley. I love the Russian Culture, and I was really curious to see a book set in Russian during the nineteenth century. I wasn’t really expecting that kind of story ( Vampires? Really?) This stopped me a little at first from reading the eARC. The first few chapters were a little slow for me. Still, when it was released, I bought myself a copy of this book. That’s when I really got into the book, and I was really able to enjoy it.

The setting was something that really enchanted me. It thought it really added something to the story. The characters were interesting, but I have to say that the names ended up being hard for me to remember (I don’t remember most of them, which is sad) Katerina was interesting, as she wants more than only the balls and the status. She wanted to do something good: find cures, help save lives… That was nice to see, especially since most of the girls around her were focused on finding a nice husband. Prince Danilo kind of creeped me out a little, and I really liked George Alexandrovich. I can’t wait to see more of him.

I have to say that I really enjoyed the romance we got to see, as it was subtle and realistic. Overall, it was a beautifully crafted novel. I really enjoyed it and I can’t wait to read more from this series. It will please fans of historical novel, and of beautiful paranormal romance. Do not fear, it isn’t a love triangle. It is simply the story of a girl, caught in fight for power bigger than her.