Book Review: I Was Here by Gayle Forman

February 19, 2015February 18, 2015Leave a comment

Genre:

Young Adult, medications Contemporary

Pages:

288

Part of a Series?:

Standalone Novel

Release Date:

January 27th, purchase 2015

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads Summary:

When her best friend Meg drinks a bottle of industrial-strength cleaner alone in a motel room, Cody is understandably shocked and devastated. She and Meg shared everything—so how was there no warning? But when Cody travels to Meg’s college town to pack up the belongings left behind, she discovers that there’s a lot that Meg never told her. About her old roommates, the sort of people Cody never would have met in her dead-end small town in Washington. About Ben McAllister, the boy with a guitar and a sneer, who broke Meg’s heart. And about an encrypted computer file that Cody can’t open—until she does, and suddenly everything Cody thought she knew about her best friend’s death gets thrown into question.

I Was Here is Gayle Forman at her finest, a taut, emotional, and ultimately redemptive story about redefining the meaning of family and finding a way to move forward even in the face of unspeakable loss.

My Review:

I am blown away at how absolutely amazing Gayle Forman truly is. I find that the struggle to prove that young adult literature provides thought provoking, incredible, well written novels is all consuming. Its part of why this blog exists in the first place. But when I read books like “I Was Here”, I feel as if all I need to do is take a copy of this book and put it into the hands of those who doubt the entire spectrum of YA. Gayle Forman is an incredible writer, an unbelievable storyteller and a person capable of capturing the most human of emotions in a matter of a few thousand words.

Gayle Forman has managed to tug at my emotions in every single book that she writes and she doesn’t fail to accomplish the same thing with this book. As soon as it starts, I know I’m in trouble. This is a story of friendship, and friends have always meant the absolute world to me, but even more so in the past six months or so. Friends are those people that are even better than family at times, in that even when you’re at the very worst you can be, they still somehow find a way to love. Its incredible. The friendship we see between Cody and Meg takes place in the past, as we follow Cody through her grief and her attempt to understand, but it feels real, and raw, and genuine, and so the grief that Cody feels over losing her best friend, over not knowing that this could happen…its incredibly real.

Meg has committed suicide. I’ve been fortunate in my life to have never experienced something like that. I can’t even begin to imagine what I would feel learning that had happened to someone I loved as much as Cody loved Meg. The thought would be…devastating. Should I have known? Should I have seen? Could I have changed what ultimately had happened to someone I was supposed to know better than anyone? And these are core questions that Cody struggles with, as she fights to wrap up the hidden pieces of her best friend’s life.

Without getting too into spoilers, because I keep my reviews as spoiler free as possible, this is where the core of the story is. Cody struggles so hard with trying to figure out why her friend did this and her personal responsibility for it, that she sort of looks for another avenue. Its not her fault. Its not even Meg’s fault. Its someone else’s fault and she actively looks for someone to blame for it, and it only drives her to further heartbreak. Watching as she breaks apart Meg’s life and the things she struggled with, and the things she didn’t know about her best friend, its incredibly humbling and heartbreaking and just…so real. Gayle Forman manages to write the most real characters I’ve read in a book and that is what makes her stories so great.

I can’t wait for more from Gayle. I can’t imagine that she can get any better but every single time I say that, she manages to produce a book even better than the next. If there is ever a doubt that young adult literature is not good enough, or not producing books of literary value, I know without fail that I can hand this book (amongst so many others) and feel strongly in its excellence. Another total winner, Gayle. I’m mighty impressed :)

Rating:

5 out of 5 Stars

Book Review: This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

January 7, 2015January 7, 20151 Comment

Genre:

Young Adult, more about Science Fiction, store Romance

Pages:

390

Part of a Series?:

The second in the Starbound Trilogy

Release Date:

December 23rd, order 2014

You Can Find the Book At:

Amie’s Website / Meagan’s Website

GoodReads Summary:

Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac should never have met.

Lee is captain of the forces sent to Avon to crush the terraformed planet’s rebellious colonists, but she has her own reasons for hating the insurgents.

Rebellion is in Flynn’s blood. Terraforming corporations make their fortune by recruiting colonists to make the inhospitable planets livable, with the promise of a better life for their children. But they never fulfilled their promise on Avon, and decades later, Flynn is leading the rebellion.

Desperate for any advantage in a bloody and unrelentingly war, Flynn does the only thing that makes sense when he and Lee cross paths: he returns to base with her as prisoner. But as his fellow rebels prepare to execute this tough-talking girl with nerves of steel, Flynn makes another choice that will change him forever. He and Lee escape the rebel base together, caught between two sides of a senseless war.

My Review:

While there will be no spoilers for This Shattered World, I cannot guarantee there will NOT be spoilers for These Broken Stars. You can read the review for that book here.

When I read Amie and Meagan’s novel, These Broken Stars, I thought, this is incredible. This is an incredible mix of science fiction and romance and it blew my mind. It ended up being one of my favorites of the year, and I honestly held it in such high esteem when it comes to YA sci-fi. I seriously love it and I was highly looking forward to This Shattered World. I wasn’t able to buy it until this last week because, you know, holidays at Disneyland kept me quite busy. But once I bought this book and started it, I was completely hooked.

Because, honestly, I think this book is even better than the first. Amie and Meagan are absolutely fantastic authors. Such beautiful writing. I honestly had to pause a couple times and just marvel at how incredibly talented the two of them are and how they can collaborate on such a fantastic novel. The descriptions, the way the story flows and the characters they create all flow together in this perfect sequel to These Broken Stars. The world building is so impressive and its easy to forget that this world is fictional because it feels so real.

This is what really gets me about this book: it continues the story that we see in These Broken Stars but it also feels like a completely new story as well. While we do get to see Lilac and Tarver, the main focus is on Jubilee and Flynn and the struggle between the soldiers and rebels of Avon. While this connects to the story that was built in the first book, it feels like a story in its own right and you get so caught up in it that when the connection finally is made, it surprises you. This world is so vast and complicated, which is so great of a science fiction but its also so familiar and small at the same time. It feels new and exciting but you connect with the story so easily.

Which brings me to the characters of Jubilee and Flynn. I adored Lilac and Tarver for sure, but something about Jubilee and Flynn makes me love them more. I loved being in both of their heads, seeing their struggles to help each other out while also being loyal to their “families” so to speak. You felt for both of them, trying to do the right thing, especially when the right thing wasn’t very clear. Their dislike for each other to eventual alliance and later, romance, was natural and it flowed and I was on that painful journey with them the whole way through. A beautiful set of main characters that I definitely won’t forget.

Bottom line, if you’ve read These Broken Stars, you’re going to love This Shattered World. If you haven’t, get your ass off the computer and go buy both of these books. They are absolutely fantastic science fiction romances and you should DEFINITELY read them!

Rating:

5 out of 5 stars

Book Review: Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch

December 6, 2014December 3, 2014Leave a comment

Genre:

Young Adult, information pills Fantasy

Pages:

422

Part of a Series?:

The first in a planned trilogy

Release Date:

October 14th, story 2014

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads Summary:

Sixteen years ago the Kingdom of Winter was conquered and its citizens enslaved, leaving them without magic or a monarch. Now, the Winterians’ only hope for freedom is the eight survivors who managed to escape, and who have been waiting for the opportunity to steal back Winter’s magic and rebuild the kingdom ever since.

Orphaned as an infant during Winter’s defeat, Meira has lived her whole life as a refugee, raised by the Winterians’ general, Sir. Training to be a warrior—and desperately in love with her best friend, and future king, Mather — she would do anything to help her kingdom rise to power again.

So when scouts discover the location of the ancient locket that can restore Winter’s magic, Meira decides to go after it herself. Finally, she’s scaling towers, fighting enemy soldiers, and serving her kingdom just as she’s always dreamed she would. But the mission doesn’t go as planned, and Meira soon finds herself thrust into a world of evil magic and dangerous politics – and ultimately comes to realize that her destiny is not, never has been, her own.

My Review:

Why did I read this book? Can I be completely honest here? I really liked the cover, I heard it was fantasy and I heard it was an incredible. I was technically on a book buying ban because I’m in the worst slump EVER but I saw the book and I thought, I can’t resist. Maybe a book like this will break me out of my slump. Now while it didn’t exactly break me out of this incredible slump that I’ve been in all year, it did completely blow my mind.

I’ve been itching for a really good epic fantasy for awhile. The last one that really blew my mind was the Seven Realms series by Cinda Chima. The world building and romance and everything of that series just…ugh, my heart is exploding with feels. But anyway, reading Snow Like Ashes…I felt like I’d finally found a truly great YA fantasy again, and by an incredibly talented debut author.

First off, she creates these amazing characters. Meira, Mather, Sir, Theron, all of them are so incredible. They feel like they could be these real people, which is incredibly important in a fantasy. The thing about fantasy is that its supposed to take you out of our world and into a world that doesn’t feel familiar. Exciting, sure but not familiar. What is supposed to pull you in and keep you there and make you care about it is the people. The people, their lives, their personalities, their successes and struggles have to feel real in order for you to fall into this world. And that’s exactly what Sara does. She instantly makes you love every person in this novel. From the moment I read the first page, when Meira is struggling in a mock fight with Mather, I knew that I was madly in love with her as a character. Every character was so developed and changed over the course of the novel and I just loved that.

And then there is the story itself. The thing about fantasy is that there are so many similar stories but it is the way you tell the story that makes it so unique. Meira and the people of Winter, what few of them are left, are hanging on a thread of hope that is King Mather, in the hopes that they can bring their kingdom back together, that they can go home. You feel it in every single page, from the elder members of the group who remember everything about their home and even in Meira, who feels such a strong tie to a place that she never even knew. I wanted them to get their home so badly, it hurt. I wanted them to do anything and everything to make it happen. I knew nothing about Winter except stories but it felt real and I wanted them to get it back. I wanted Mather to be king and I wanted Meira to figure out her place and I wanted Sir to realize how important Meira is and all of that.

The world building of the book is perfect. Its really perfect. When there is an issue in world building, it can cause the believability of the story to go down. Everything about the world felt real, Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, everything. The stories, the myths, the cultures and music, the way they fight, the things they believe in, it all felt so natural. It read easily. I felt like I knew the place without having to be confused or having to flip to the map constantly. There was no over explaining or any of that. It just felt real. I love that about a good fantasy. You don’t question it. I want to go there, and be a part of that world.

But I think what really makes this a great book is that she completely takes you by surprise. Completely. Obviously most books have a really good twist but this one…I didn’t expect it. I thought something was a little wrong, I had a feeling that something wasn’t quite what it seemed but when it was revealed, I definitely was surprised. There was so much more to the story than previously expected and that’s what made it even better than what it had been before. I am already dying for the next book, because I’m ready for the next one. Its an absolutely fantastic debut by Sara and I’m so glad to read such a great fantasy. I’m SO ready for it.

Rating:

5 out of 5 stars

Book Review: Black Ice (ARC) by Becca Fitzpatrick

October 1, 2014August 30, 20142 Comments

This review is based on an advanced reader’s copy of the novel obtained through snail mail at the permission of Simon and Schuster. This is in no way had an effect on the integrity of my review. Please note that published novel will differ from this ARC.

Genre:

Young Adult, stomach Contemporary, Romantic Thriller

Pages:

392

Part of a Series?:

Standalone Novel

Release Date:

October 7th, 2014

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads Summary:

Sometimes danger is hard to see… until it’s too late.

Britt Pfeiffer has trained to backpack the Teton Range, but she isn’t prepared when her ex-boyfriend, who still haunts her every thought, wants to join her. Before Britt can explore her feelings for Calvin, an unexpected blizzard forces her to seek shelter in a remote cabin, accepting the hospitality of its two very handsome occupants—but these men are fugitives, and they take her hostage.

In exchange for her life, Britt agrees to guide the men off the mountain. As they set off, Britt knows she must stay alive long enough for Calvin to find her. The task is made even more complicated when Britt finds chilling evidence of a series of murders that have taken place there… and in uncovering this, she may become the killer’s next target.

But nothing is as it seems in the mountains, and everyone is keeping secrets, including Mason, one of her kidnappers. His kindness is confusing Britt. Is he an enemy? Or an ally?

My Review:

This book has been floating around on my radar for quite some time now. I tried to get my hands on it at ALA but I had failed, and I’ve been avoiding getting ARCs on Edelweiss or NetGalley unless I really want them, so I just thought, well, if I’d like to, I’ll buy it in October. I’ve admittedly never read anything by Becca before so I wasn’t in any rush. I was pretty excited actually when I received it in the mail and it seemed to be just the thing I needed to get through an epic reading slump.

What I loved about this book is that it unexpected in every way. The thriller part of the description is completely true. From the moment that we met the two men, Mason and Shaun, I’m terrified. These kinds of things…they are more true to life than any fantasy or science fiction that I read. Girls get kidnapped, assaulted, raped, all sorts of things all the time so it was terrifying, especially after the initial encounter we have with one of the boys earlier in the novel. It was incredibly surprising. I finished it so quickly because I had no idea what was going to happen next, what twists and turns it would make, and where I would end up. It was incredibly gripping and it kept me turning the pages, easily. In the middle of a book slump, as well. Well done, Becca, for taking me out of that, finally!

I also loved the romance! It came from such a random spot and the ending that it took was just…so random. But I loved it. The whole novel I wasn’t quite sure who to root for, who the good guy was or who the bad guy was. It was so confusing and made scenes with different boys seems so incredibly complicated. Another reason for me to keep reading. I had to know what was going to happen next, how it was going to end. Its a complete page turner. That always seems to be a mark of a good book, the ability to keep you addicted the entire time, where you keep turning the pages, just one more chapter, just one more chapter, because you can’t stand not knowing what is going to happen next. That is completely accomplished in that novel.

Plus, I’m really interested in survival lately. I write a lot of survival scenes in my novel so when I see characters attempting to survive, making a perilous journey, I immediately get sucked in. As soon as it starts to snow, I knew that things were about to go down. Not only are we dealing with kidnappers, possible murderers, possible love interests, and all that sort of thing, but we’re also dealing with the elements. There are literally so many things against Britt in this novel, its unreal! But watching as she faces them all, including all the survival stuff, is just fun. I think this book would actually make a really great movie.

I’m excited for this to be released this book so I can pick up a finished copy and Becca will be doing an event here soon so I’ll be able to meet her and talk to her about this super great book. I’m feeling a little bit more open to reading her previous novels now so let’s see how it goes! Don’t forget to pick up Black Ice this week!

Rating:

4 out of 5 stars

Book Review: Exile by Kevin Emerson

August 13, 2014August 12, 2014Leave a comment

Genre:

Young Adult, find Contemporary Fiction, nurse Romance

Pages:

320

Part of a Series?:

The first of a two part series

Release Date:

April 29th, what is ed 2014

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads Summary:

Catherine Summer Carlson knows how to manage bands like a professional—she’s a student at the PopArts Academy at Mount Hope High, where rock legends Allegiance to North got their start. Summer knows that falling for the lead singer of her latest band is the least professional thing a manager can do. But Caleb Daniels isn’t an ordinary band boy—he’s a hot, dreamy, sweet-singing, exiled-from-his-old-band, possibly-with-a-deep-dark-side band boy. And he can do that thing. That thing when someone sings a song and it inhabits you, possesses you, and moves you like a marionette to its will.

Summer also finds herself at the center of a mystery she never saw coming. When Caleb reveals a secret about his long-lost father, one band’s past becomes another’s present, and Summer finds it harder and harder to be both band manager and girlfriend. She knows what the well-mannered Catherine side of her would do, but she also knows what her heart is telling her. Maybe it’s time to accept who she really is, even if it means becoming an exile herself. . . .

My Review:

I absolutely adored this book. I met Kevin Emerson when he did a book signing with Kiera Cass a few months ago while she was on tour promoting The One. His book sounded pretty cool, he produced music to go along with it, which is awesome, he played some music at the book event and he had a sonic screwdriver during the entire event. That, in my mind, was enough for me to want to grab this book.

Unfortunately I was unable to pick it up that night but I did eventually pick it up and I read through it very very quickly. I loved the simplicity of the story, the love of music, the band atmosphere, and the ambition and determination of all the characters. I could be incredibly biased. The main character is a band manager/band girlfriend. I’m not a band manager, nor would I ever be something like that because the idea of wrangling four to five guys together sounds truly awful. But I have been a band girlfriend. My first boyfriend was in a band, my second boyfriend was a musician and my current boyfriend and love of my life has been in a band and is a musician. I’m THE band girlfriend, it feels like.

So the story between Summer and Caleb…it felt familiar in so many ways. The struggle to be with an emotional musician, with high ambitions, without adding all the other drama in…that is so familiar and it read so familiar on the page. Their relationship seemed very real and genuine and I think that’s what makes it such a good story. They have a give and take, the good and the bad. Caleb struggles to keep Summer different as a girlfriend and a manager. Summer struggles to actually be the manager and a girlfriend. Dating a musician, a cute musician whose the lead singer, so naturally brings girls to them without even really having to do anything? Yeah, not easy, and all of this is wrapped up into the story and it feels so real and beautiful.

I think that Kevin Emerson has a way of writing a beautiful and genuine love story while also writing a story about a little band with big dreams, and I think that’s something that everyone can relate to. Everyone has big dreams, dreams that seem so big and encompassing that they’re overwhelming and huge and they seem like they will never come true. Its a story of a band trying to make it, and when they learn something about one of their members that could make them huge, easily, its more than that. Its a struggle between wanting to make it big but wanting to do the work themselves, wanting it to be about them and their music and I just loved every single bit of it.

What really gets anyone about this book is that its about music and love, and I think these are two things that anyone can relate to on some level, especially music. Music is something that transcends everything. Everyone likes music, and they like different music and they like music for different reasons. The music jumps off the page and grabs you in and the fact that there is actual music that goes along with the book just makes it that much better.

I honestly definitely recommend it. In a YA world where fantasy, science fiction and dystopian are ruling the shelves (not that there is anything wrong with it, says the aspiring science fiction writer), it is nice to immerse yourself in a romantic, emotional story about a girl and a boy and a band. Its a quick read, its fun and swoon worthy and I think that you all will like it very much.

Rating:

4 out of 5 stars

Book Review: Opposition by Jennifer L. Armentrout

August 12, 2014Leave a comment

Genre:

Science Fiction, pills Young Adult, Romance

Pages:

350

Part of a Series?:

The final, fifth novel of the Lux series

Release Date:

August 5th, 2014

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads Summary:

Katy knows the world changed the night the Luxen came.

She can’t believe Daemon welcomed his race or stood by as his kind threatened to obliterate every last human and hybrid on Earth. But the lines between good and bad have blurred, and love has become an emotion that could destroy her—could destroy them all.

Daemon will do anything to save those he loves, even if it means betrayal.

They must team with an unlikely enemy if there is any chance of surviving the invasion. But when it quickly becomes impossible to tell friend from foe, and the world is crumbling around them, they may lose everything— even what they cherish most—to ensure the survival of their friends…and mankind.

War has come to Earth. And no matter the outcome, the future will never be the same for those left standing.

My Review:

While there will be no spoilers for Opposition in this review, there will be spoilers for Obsidian, Onyx, Opal and Origin.

When I discovered the Lux series a little over a year ago, I had no idea that it would literally climb into my heart and stay there. Katy, Daemon, Dee, all of the characters would make such an impression on me and the story would make me laugh and swoon and cry. I was eagerly awaiting the end of the series to figure out how this crazy, fun, romantic, out of control story would end.

And for the most part, I felt okay with the ending. I have become accustomed to reading books by JLA and feeling overwhelmed by emotions: happiness, giddiness, excitement, swooning, terror, panic, and more. While there were definitely parts in this book that made me feel this way, I felt, overall, just massively underwhelmed by this book.

And this is not to say it was a bad book! Because I honestly don’t think that. It definitely wasn’t. The story was good, the characters were as lovable as ever, but it felt…rushed to me. Anti-climatic. It just didn’t feel like the finale book to this incredible series. The journey to get to the end seemed way too long for the actual end. It felt almost like things had been wrapped up too quickly and I was very disappointed in that.

Something that annoyed me a lot too was the relationship between Katy and Daemon. Now I adore the both of them SO much. Katy is the awkward, book obsessed book blogger with a sassy streak. What is not to like about that? And Daemon…can we even begin to start on how sexy he is? And I shipped them together from the first moment that they met each other. Easily. But in this book…it just got old. It got old fast. I was like “okay, we get it, you love each other, yes, these scenes are steamy, but let’s have some action or something…” It was like…I lost count how many times they told each other they loved each other, or admired how beautiful the other one was or something like that. I get that this book is a heavy romance science fiction but I missed the playfulness between them that wasn’t always lovey dovey. Plus the Luxen have basically invaded the earth and humanity is on the brink of extinction and let’s focus on that, yeah?

One thing that I did really like is that JLA knows how to make a sacrifice. She has killed Adam and Ash and Andrew, and in this book, she continues to do that, and I admire her for that. I hate finale books that don’t make the sacrifices necessary, especially when there is war involved. (cough cough Cassie Clare). Luxen have invaded, humans are dying, and JLA makes sacrifices. She understands that people need to die and its heartbreaking. There is a particular death in the book that I had…not quite expected and it was very heartbreaking to me, and I think that’s a mark of a good writer, when they can make you fall in love with a character so much that the death of that character just hurts so badly.

Basically, in the end, this is what I felt: underwhelmed. It wasn’t a bad book. In fact, it was fairly good. But as far as a finale book to a series, I just felt disappointed. I didn’t feel the need to speed through the book. I felt like I was slowly reading it and I read it in three hours. I probably could have read it in about 2 if I had really wanted to but I just didn’t. I loved seeing all the characters, I loved the story idea but I just thought it maybe needed to be fleshed out more, have more action, maybe be a slightly longer book. I honestly felt like Sentinel, the finale book to JLA’s Covenant series was much better and this book just disappointed me. I look forward to more books from her in the future, and having read “The Return”, her Covenant spin off, I know she’ll produce great books again and again.

Rating:

3.5 out of 5 stars