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Category: Love & Romance

Review: Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

[ 7 ] November 27, 2011

Reviewed by Elizabeth Talbott

Lochan and Maya are siblings that have been forced to become the heads of their household following their parents’ divorce. Their mother’s neverending quest to reclaim her youth through irresponsible and immature behavior does not help the matters either. They act as parents to their younger siblings, feeding them, caring for them, and even forcing their mother to give them money for necessities. Their biggest nightmare is child protective services coming in and splitting up their family, so they work hard to make everything appear normal, despite their lives spinning out of control.

As a result of their situation, Lochan and Maya become extremely close and the friendship they had as children slowly evolves into a forbidden romantic love. Lochan and Maya grapple with their feelings and must decide if their relationship is worth risking everything they’ve worked for.

I have to be frank: Forbidden is about incest. I was initially pretty shocked that an author of young adult fiction would be brave enough to write a book like this. I assumed that people would hate it and be shocked and disgusted, but the general consensus seems to be quite the opposite.

I would characterize Forbidden as a more coherent, better written version of Flowers in the Attic (see our review). That was my first encounter with incestuous relationships in literature and I was surprised that throughout that series, I really wanted Cathy and Christopher to be together. There are many similarities between the two works (abusive mother, parenting siblings, worrying over separating their family), but Tabitha Suzuma infuses her story with much more realistic situations and emotions. My heart broke for Lochan, Maya, and their siblings. Nobody should have to suffer as they did, struggling to get the basics of life while their mother squandered their money on clothes, drinks, and presents for herself. The bright light for Maya and Lochan, as well as the readers, is their budding romance.

Incest is taboo in most societies and most of us wouldn’t hesitate to call it disgusting, but Suzuma made Maya and Lochan’s relationship organic and like any other romance. Of course, they were fraught with guilt and tried to push each other away in an effort to uphold the values of their society. The chapters were alternately narrated by Maya and Lochan, which gave insight to their inner thoughts and conflicts. This aspect was essential in making the subject matter believable and palatable.

Forbidden is a very fast read that grabbed my heartstrings and took me on an emotional and complex journey. I would recommend it to those not afraid to put aside their own feelings on the subject matter.

Rating: 5/5

Elizabeth is a student at Cal State Long Beach. She laughs a lot, loves cats, and lives for music and books. You can read her blog here: http://titania86-fishmuffins.blogspot.com/.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Simon Pulse. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Hooked by Catherine Greenman

[ 4 ] November 20, 2011

Reviewed by Grace Soledad

Thea is a junior in high school and she’s ready to grow up and move on with her life. She can barely tolerate weekends with her father, and her mother (ex-nightclub-owner Fiona) doesn’t even seem to care about her. Then she meets Will during a fire drill.

Will is the perfect boy. He just gets Thea, and like her, he’s so over high school. The relationship gets very serious very fast; first are the kisses, and the touching, and then one night, they start having sex. While visiting her father, Thea forgets to take her pill. Then Thea discovers the unthinkable: she’s pregnant. Thoughts of abortion and morals fly through her head and she wonders if she’ll be able to do the right thing. By the time she gathers up the strength to go through with it, it’s too late.

Thea is going to have a baby. Her relationship with Will becomes strained; embarrassment over being a teenage mother follows her everywhere; the shame of telling her parents is unbearable. Everything has changed because of a few nights when her parents were out of town.

Hooked follows Thea, Will, and the people around them through the ups and downs of pregnancy. It explores the struggles of having a child when you’re only just a child yourself.

As interesting as the premise was, I just didn’t like it. Most of my distaste arose because of the characters.

Thea was completely unbelievable. She had no common sense whatsoever and I had the feeling that the author just made her dumb so that she had an excuse to explain what happened. Thea seemed relatable in the beginning, but towards the middle of the book, around the time she became sexually active, I just couldn’t stand her. Will was likable enough but I just didn’t see the chemistry between him and Thea.

The worst characters by far were the parents. A trend in young adult fiction seems to be the parents having nothing to do with their children’s lives, but this was a whole new level of discomfort. Fiona, Thea’s mom, encouraged her daughter’s sexual activity, and “told Thea about her various escapades in the nightclub” when she was really young.

Another thing that made Hooked irritating to read was that it wasn’t very well edited. The text was extremely close together, and paragraphs went on for the entire page. I wish that somebody had caught the various typos scattered through the book.

Teenager pregnancy was an excellent topic for a book, but it was executed poorly and the characters fell flat.

Rating: 1/5

Grace Soledad is a teenage bibliophile who runs the blog Words Like Silver. She is described as “antisocial” because she constantly has her nose buried in a book or a notebook. When not reading, she can be found dancing, writing, or at the beach. 

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Tandem Literary. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Cleopatra’s Moon by Vicky Alvear Shecter

[ 3 ] November 18, 2011

Reviewed by Grace Soledad

Cleopatra’s Moon is not the type of book that you will normally find in young adult literature. While most books focus on a smaller viewpoint, Cleopatra’s Moon draws in on a larger perspective. It deals with politics, intrigue, death, suspense, and the darkest bits of history. While still incredibly intriguing to a young adult audience, most adult readers will be satisfied by this novel as well.

Cleopatra Selene has been raised in luxury. While primped by palace servants, she also has a deeper insight into the roiling confusion of politics in Egypt and conflict with Rome. She is preparing to help rule Egypt alongside her brother when they are both old enough to take the throne.

What Selene doesn’t expect is a war. Her mother is killed and her father commits suicide. Egypt is thrown into chaos, and the Romans control the government.

Octavianus decides to take the children back to Rome, because they can do far worse things in Egypt, where many people are still loyal to them. Treated awfully in Rome, Selene and her brother vow to try to escape from the fates that the Roman Empire has dangling over their heads.

Cleopatra’s Moon follows Selene through one of the darkest times in Egyptian history, showcasing the emotional and political consequences of the Roman takeover, and chronicling their time as prisoners of Rome. It didn’t focus on boring facts and figures, which would turn off most young adults, but on the powerful imagery accompanying them.

To begin with, I adored Selene’s character. The book spanned months and years into her life and I got to truly see her grow in her later years when faced with the troubles thrown at her. The supporting characters were brilliant as well, but the true star was the protagonist.

Vicky Alvear Shecter’s writing was smart, mature, and polished. Shecter made the topic engaging to a teen audience while still appealing to a wider range by subtly infusing history into a clever story.

Cleopatra’s Moon is truly a standout novel and was a source of wonder for the time I sat – spellbound – absorbing the story.

Rating: 5/5

Check out our reviews of other books featuring Cleopatra Selene:

Song of the Nile by Stephanie Dray

Cleopatra’s Daughter by Michelle Moran

Grace Soledad is a teenage bibliophile who runs the blog Words Like Silver. She is described as “antisocial” because she constantly has her nose buried in a book or a notebook. When not reading, she can be found dancing, writing, or at the beach. 

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Arthur A. Levine Books. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

[ 8 ] November 14, 2011

Reviewed by Megan Saldecki

I’ve been extremely excited to read Shatter Me for a while because every review I saw has been a positive one. I’m so glad I got my hands on a copy! It was definitely one of the best young adult books of 2011!

Juliette was such a great character. I’ve been reading a lot of books full of tough, independent young women lately and Juliette was such a different story. She was thrown into independency and all she craved was for someone to love her. Tahereh Mafi really did well with describing just how lonely and attention-deprived Juliette was. I could relate to her as sometimes I question everyone’s love for me. Mafi sends a message that sometimes you just have to trust people.

Juliette stood her own ground, though, and I grew more and more proud of her as the story went on. She really evolved to the point of understanding that she was not a monster after all.

Adam was wonderfully perfect. He was strong and sexy and the right choice of character for Juliette. And Mafi once again shined  - this time in her ability to create the romance that every girl dreams of.

I must admit, Mafi’s writing did throw me off at first. For example, since the book was written in first person, some of Juliette’s personal feelings would be crossed out, as if she was writing a diary and getting rid of sentences she disliked. There were also plenty of short sentences, sentences without verbs, i.e. the type of things that would give an English teacher a heart attach. However, I quickly fell in love with this somewhat informal style. It often reminded me of Chuck Palahniuk and a bit of my own writing, which made it just a bit more personal.

Overall, Shatter Me was perfect in every way. I read it in one sitting because I couldn’t get enough. I highly recommend it to anyone that likes both paranormal and dystopian genres, and to anyone looking for a gateway novel into those genres.

Rating: 5/5

Meghan is a 18-year-old book blogger. She likes to read and write in her spare time and would like to become a published author one day. She plans on going to college soon.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by HarperCollins. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: If I Tell by Janet Gurtler

[ 5 ] November 12, 2011

Reviewed by Grace Soledad

Jasmine is the result of a one night stand. She’s half-white and half-black, the child of a black football player and a blond socialite. She thinks that she knows more than anybody about mistakes. She doesn’t connect with her parents and living in a small town makes things even more difficult. Jasmine should only be struggling with finding herself, but when she makes a simple discovery that could affect her mother, she has to make a choice. Should she reveal that she saw her mother’s boyfriend kissing her own best friend, or acknowledge that people make mistakes and keep quiet?

I found myself very deeply embedded in the story within If I Tell. I ignored piles of homework to finish this book because the characters and the romance were stunning in their simplicity.

I don’t know what it is about this book that improved the writing, but I felt that Janet Gurtler was connecting to her audience on a much higher level in If I Tell than in her other novel, I’m Not Her (see our review).

The best part of the novel to me was the constant theme of mistakes. Gurtler explored the question of whether humans should be forgiven for their mistakes, or if these mistakes should be allowed to shape the rest of their lives. Another huge theme of this book was family, and I loved that. We need more of that in young adult fiction; it was nice to read about a mixed-race family and family values in general. It was wholesome and beautiful all at once.

At first, the plot moved a bit slower than I would have liked it to, but it was still entertaining enough to keep me interested. Part of this might be because of the character development occurring, but I hope that Janet Gurtler’s writing will keep improving. On the slope it’s at, the next novel should be a knockout!

Rating: 4/5

Grace Soledad is a teenage bibliophile who runs the blog Words Like Silver. She is described as “antisocial” because she constantly has her nose buried in a book or a notebook. When not reading, she can be found dancing, writing, or at the beach. 

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Sourcebooks Fire. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: I’m Not Her by Janet Gurtler

[ 6 ] November 6, 2011

Reviewed by Grace Soledad

Tess has always been overshadowed by her older sister. Her sister is the volleyball super star, the girl who can dance, the girl that every boy wants to go out with. The worst part of this is that although her sister is perfect, her sister also has to be nice too! She’s always trying to get Tess to join her in her reign at parties, and to set her up with a cute guy. Her family loves Kristina more than Tess, and she always ends up on the sidelines watching it happen.

Tess resigns herself to the fact that she’ll never be anywhere as good as Kristina, until something unexpected happens: her sister has leukemia. Her family’s vitality had always revolved around Kristina. First comes the denial, and then the panic, and the secrecy. Kristina doesn’t want anybody to know, but Tess is quietly screaming. What will they do as her cancer progresses?

When I first saw I’m Not Her, I thought it looked strangely similar to Between Here and Forever (see our review). They’re both good, but I’m Not Her was definitely different.

Tess was very relatable. She was a strong girl, but her quiet strength wasn’t realized by many. She was the one always watching at parties, just waiting until her sister would let her go home. Kristina would try so hard to get Tess to socialize, but she wouldn’t. I did not realize just how much Tess relied on her sister until the cancer diagnosis.

One thing that I didn’t like was that the entire family’s world revolved around Kristina. I thought that perhaps Tess would grow more independent and her family would pay attention to her needs too, but it was always about Kristina. It was kind of irritating at first, but I eventually saw how Kristina affected everyone and understood why the author chose to portray her as she did.

There were several parts of the story that felt a little exaggerated to me; some of the reactions felt cheesy and overdone. For example, after the scene where we actually find out that Kristina has cancer, I just had to put down the book and think. The family members’ reactions got tended and poignant towards the end, but felt very unauthentic at first.

The plot of I’m Not Her was somewhat slow, but in a good way. I realized each character’s strengths and weaknesses, and connected to them well. Janet Gurtler took a sad topic and turned it into a wholesome YA book.

Rating: 3/5

Grace Soledad is a teenage bibliophile who runs the blog Words Like Silver. She is described as “antisocial” because she constantly has her nose buried in a book or a notebook. When not reading, she can be found dancing, writing, or at the beach. 

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Sourcebooks Fire. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Nocturne by Christine Johnson

[ 7 ] October 27, 2011

Reviewed by Grace Soledad

Nocturne, the sequel to Claire de Lune, is the story of a girl named Claire. She’s nervous about her boyfriend asking her to the Autumn Ball, tangled friendships, and most importantly, the fact that she’s a werewolf.

With the date of her confirmation as a complete werewolf looming, she’s worried that she won’t be able to do her part. What if she’s incomplete? Something that should come naturally is causing her to struggle.

Her best friend may be drifting away from her, her boyfriend may be uncomfortable about his role in the pack, but these are the least of Claire’s problems. When somebody discovers Claire’s secret, she could lose everything.

Christine Johnson manages to convey a sense of culture and ceremony when talking about the werewolves. I felt like I was right there when she described the full moons and hunts that Claire participated in. The naming ceremony was another scene that she hit perfectly. She is a talented writer and knew exactly when to put in tension or emphasis on parts of the hunt.

I also loved how in both Claire de Lune and Nocturne Christine makes the condition of being a werewolf a well-known position. Like in the House of Night series, people know that these paranormal creatures exists, and it give the setting that little oomph. Not to mention that it makes everything a constant game of Guess Who?

For me, a lot of second books are kind of blah and read like fillers, like bridges from the first book to the third book. For me, one of the major reasons why I liked Nocturne was that everything that occurred in the book was plausible, filled with action, and actually important to the overall story.

The pacing in Nocturne was perfect. It wasn’t all action or paranormal; some problems were simply social or came with the territory of being a teenager. The romance was fantastic, the friendships were tangled, and there was a delightful little twist at the end. Nocturne is utterly delicious.

Rating: 4.5/5

Check out our review of Claire de Lune

Grace Soledad is a teenage bibliophile who runs the blog Words Like Silver. She is described as “antisocial” because she constantly has her nose buried in a book or a notebook. When not reading, she can be found dancing, writing, or at the beach. 

Review and giveaway copies were provided free of any obligation by Simon Pulse. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review & Giveaway: Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

[ 151 ] October 24, 2011

Reviewed by Grace Soledad

Beautiful Chaos is the third book in the Caster Chronicles series. Since Lena claimed herself as both Light and Dark, the balance of the universe has been upset. There are earthquakes, lakes in Gaitlin drying up, a heat wave, lubbers. Mrs. Lincoln tells everybody that the apocalypse is starting, but Lena and Ethan know the truth: Lena is the case of the anomalies. Meanwhile, Link and Ridley are in a love/hate relationship, they don’t know where John Breed is, and all the Casters’ powers are inconsistent and strange.

As a new song filters in about the “Eighteenth Moon”, Lena and Ethan find themselves on a race to find the meaning of the song and pray that they can save everybody. Ethan is losing his memory, though, and strange things are happening to him. Tastes that he’s loved since the second grade now seem awful to him, he can’t remember his own phone number, and Amma is going dark again. As the Eighteenth Moon draws nearer, one thing becomes painfully clear to everyone. Someone will have to die.

Third books are typically devastating for me. I was heartbroken while I read Beautiful Chaos because I wanted it to last forever, but the pages just kept turning. I felt like the book was a magnet for me. I was up until four in the morning just telling myself, “Okay, I’ll stop at the next chapter,” but I couldn’t ever actually stop. I was also really really nervous to read this installment because the synopsis promised that, “This time, there won’t be a happy ending”.

Ethan is the perfect boy. I may just be in love with him. He and Lena are perfect together and they both just know each other down to their souls. He was struggling with his memory throughout this book, and the hints about that were so subtle that I didn’t put it together until later in the book, which I loved. The writing style in Beautiful Chaos was superb. Not only do Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl have a keen knack for dialogue, but they know when to draw things out and when to heat things up.

The ending for this book killed me. As more and more people read Beautiful Chaos, you will probably hear about how the ending played with people’s hearts. I sobbed like a baby after finishing this book because while the ending for the story was appropriate, I was too attached to let them go. The good news is that there will be a fourth book, so I look forward to a different, and hopefully happier, ending.

Rating: 5/5

Grace Soledad is a teenage bibliophile who runs the blog Words Like Silver. She is described as “antisocial” because she constantly has her nose buried in a book or a notebook. When not reading, she can be found dancing, writing, or at the beach. 

Giveaway:
I have 2 copies of Beautiful Chaos to give away!

Mandatory entry: Please comment here and include your e-mail address.

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This giveaway is open to US and Canada residents only. Deadline to enter is midnight on November 10, 2011.

Review and giveaway copies were provided free of any obligation by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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