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Category: Series

Review & Giveaway: Wishful Thinking by Alexandra Bullen

[ 156 ] January 27, 2011

Reviewed by Jennifer J.

On her 18th birthday, Hazel Snow’s foster father hands her an envelope with her birth certificate and the name of the woman who gave her up so many years ago. Desperate for answers and to know where she came from, Hazel sets out to find her. When she discovers that her mother will be at a fundraiser, Hazel makes plans to be there to meet her.

She takes a beautiful dress she’d picked up months earlier at a thrift store to a seamstress named Posey, hoping to have it back in time for the event. But when she opens the garment bag prior to the event, she discovers she’s been given the wrong dress! With nothing else to wear, Hazel slips into the replacement dress and continues with her plan, only to discover that she’s attending a funeral instead.

Fervently wishing that she could have known her mother when she was still alive, Hazel finds herself transported back in time just before she was born. Armed with just the dress on her body, a mysterious note from Posey, and two more dresses with wish-granting capabilities, Hazel befriends the woman who would give birth to her, falls in love, and finds out where she truly belongs.

In Wishful Thinking, Alexandra Bullen recaptures the magic from her debut novel Wish, this time tackling unplanned pregnancy. I was enthralled by the relationship between Hazel and her birth mother, eagerly turning one page after another to find out how their story would end. Just about everything in this thought provoking novel is unpredictable, and I found myself in tears as I read the last few pages.

Bullen’s talent for putting emotions into words and creating memorable and heartwarming characters are sure to keep you coming back for more and more.

Rating: 4/5

Check out our review of Wish and Alexandra Bullen’s guest post!

[amazonify]0545139074[/amazonify]Giveaway:
I have 1 hardcover copy of Wishful Thinking to give away!

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This giveaway is open to US residents only. Deadline to enter is midnight on February 22, 2011.

Jennifer graduated from the University of Utah with a BA in English. She occasionally dabbles with her own fiction writing, particularly with the Young Adult and Paranormal genres. She currently resides in Utah with her husband and daughter.

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

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Review: October Girls: Crystal & Bone by L. C. Glazebrook

[ 6 ] November 27, 2010

Reviewed by Leigh A.

Unlike most teenage girls, when Crystal Aldridge and Bonnie Faye Whiteheart AKA ‘Bone’ said they were best friends forever, they meant it. Even Bone’s recent death via UPS truck hasn’t kept them from hanging out during Crystal’s latest mind-numbing shift at the video store. But something is coming to Crystal and Bone’s small North Carolina town, and it has something to do with the portal to the Underworld that Crystal’s family has been guarding for centuries.

L. C. Glazebrook’s October Girls is a complicated work: a novel with great strength in its execution and character development that none-the-less can leave the reader with a feeling of literary deja vu.

The world of publishing loves its trends and will milk them til the cow has run dry, and its meat is sold off to the nearest fast food chain. (Reimagined Austin-verse Horror Novels anyone?) And October Girls seems poised to be the latest addition to the YA Coming-of-Age Supernatural Genre. But despite being solidly written, it’s hard not to think of October Girls as a marketing strategy. Undead in the South? Love triangles with humans and creatures of the night? A young high school girl forced to guard an other-worldly portal at the cost of her personal life? Haven’t we seen this movie before?

While the tongue-in-cheek references to its predecessors Buffy, True Blood, and Twilight are satisfyingly vicious, the rest of the references are too topical. Facebook, Old Navy, and Twitter all popped up with such consistent regularity that I wondered if the author had a product placement deal with the companies.

[amazonify]B00433TD0I[/amazonify]But in spite of this, Glazebrook’s writing style is an utter delight. Crystal’s description of life around her perfectly fits a precocious teen who knows how the world works better than some adults. But she still winces at every mispronounced word or awkward moment with a cute guy. Glazebrook’s word choices are almost lyrical with crisp, unique metaphors like ‘meat candy’ and ‘cool beans and ice rice.’

You can tell a tale that has been told a hundred times before, so long as the characters connect with the audience. Which Crystal and Bone do. They are unabashedly two best friends in high school, and all the in-fighting, back-stabbing, and devotion that comes with that title. They joke with each other about the horror of the situations around them, and find strength in each other that they can’t always find in the people who are supposed to be guarding and helping them.

October Girls is not without its problems, but it is still a satisfying read.

Leigh is a fearless writer who never met a genre, subject, or format she didn’t like. She has written professionally for the past six years and enjoys biking, exploring odd corners of Northeast Ohio, and discovering those good books she hasn’t read yet.

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

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Review: The Princess and the Snowbird by Mette Ivie Harrison

[ 7 ] November 19, 2010

Reviewed by Jennifer J.

Mette Ivie Harrison’s The Princess and the Snowbird begins with a unique fairy tale about the snowbird, thought to be extinct, and with it all hope for the future of animals and mankind. Told from two alternate points of view, The Princess and the Snowbird is the unlikely love story of Liva, the daughter of the hound and the bear from Harrison’s previous novel The Princess and the Bear, and Jens, his town’s outcast. Jens possesses no tehr-magic, the magic of Man which is abused and used only to take life for the pure enjoyment of it.

Liva and Jens couldn’t be more opposite from one another: Liva has been raised with loving parents, whereas Jens is cruelly abused and mistreated by his father and his peers. Convinced he can survive and find happiness in the forest, Jens leaves behind the only home he has ever known and creates a new one for himself amidst the animals. Fate brings Liva and Jens together, urging them to unite to stop the Hunter, who has set out to destroy anyone who possesses the aur-magic, the magic to communicate with animals.

Liva is stubborn and sure, like her mother the hound, and brave and strong, like her father the bear. Jens is at times weak and naive, but courageous and sure-footed when the situation is dependent on his actions. The romance between Liva and Jens is sweet, but not overpowering, and does not dominate the main plot line. Through the main characters, we feel the emotions of both animals and humans, and learn that we are not as different as we might think.

[amazonify]0061553174[/amazonify]The Princess and the Snowbird and its companion novels are unlike any other Young Adult fiction. They are beautifully written with deep purpose, compelling characters, and a message readers will be left pondering for some time after. This third novel in the series is darker and more tragic than its predecessors, hauntingly beautiful and complex. I was reintroduced to characters I grew to love in both The Princess and the Hound and The Princess and the Bear, and reminded of the fragility of life and each of our great purposes in the circle of life.

The Princess and the Snowbird can be read without too much confusion as a stand-alone, but to understand and embrace fully the world of these characters and the motives behind the humans, it’s best to read them in the order they were published.

Jennifer graduated from the University of Utah with a BA in English. She occasionally dabbles with her own fiction writing, particularly with the Young Adult and Paranormal genres. She currently resides in Utah with her husband and daughter.

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

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Review: Jack Blank and the Imagine Nation by Matt Myklusch

[ 3 ] November 7, 2010

Reviewed by Caleb S.

Jack Blank and the Imagine Nation is the debut novel for Matt Myklusch. The book is marketed for young adults with Jack Blank as the 12-year-old main character. He has spent his whole life in St. Barnaby’s Home for the Hopeless, Abandoned, Forgotten, and Lost, an orphanage for those so described, and has wished everyday to be someone else.

Jack Blank was left on the doorstep of St. Barnaby’s as a babe with a note pinned to his blanket calling him Jack. He grew up at the orphanage, much against his preferences. Like all boys, Jack had daydreams about getting super powers and becoming a superhero.

One day while bailing out the basement as punishment for reading comic books, he’s attacked by a large cyborg that resembles the robots in his comics and he barely escapes. While trying to explain the damage caused by the robot (which blew up leaving no trace and Jack as the culprit), a stranger, Jazon Knight, arrives and whisks Jack away. Jazon tells him about the Imagine Nation where all the impossible is possible and that is Jack’s homeland. This is the beginning of Jacks adventures and the old adage ‘be careful what you wish for, you just might get it’ holds true.

The book is similar to the Harry Potter and Alcatraz Smedry (Alcatraz Versus The Evil Librarians) books and in many ways really reminded me of Alcatraz. Both Alcatraz and Blank are raised as orphans, knowing/wishing they had a different life, then finding out they were sent from their secret country to live among the unenlightened. While Alcatraz is very tongue-in-cheek, Blank is a bit more serious, though still a lot of fun. A great young adult novel.

Caleb is a software engineer and amature woodworker living in southern Minnesota. He has more hobbies than he has time or money for, and enjoys his quiet time reading.

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

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Review: Darklight by Lesley Livingston

[ 2 ] October 25, 2010

Reviewed by Lauren K.

Darklight, the sequel to Lesley Livingston’s first novel, Wondrous Strange, is a fluid and exciting follow up in the series. The reader is instantly brought up to speed on the life of the half Faerie, half mortal teenager Kelley Winslow. Livingston excels at catching a new reader on the original story line from the first book while at the same time manages not to bore a reader who is familiar with the back story. Both books from Harper Teen are great for any age and the fanciful events are just realistic enough to evoke excitement without too much disbelief.

Back in New York City, Kelley has returned to normalcy; Sonny Flannery, her hero and love, has returned to the Faerie realm to attend to some unfinished business. The two are miserable apart, but know that for the time being their separation is critical to their future. Kelley is very stubborn and head strong, and does not heed instructions to stay away from Central Park and the gate into the Faerie realm. As a result, she has a harrowing run in with an unruly, tattooed leprechaun and is saved only by Janus fighters, who work to protect both worlds.

As the daughter of the Faerie King Auberon and the dark queen Mabh, dark forces are after Kelly both in the Otherworld and in New York. After the attack by the leprechaun, she finds herself reunited with Sonny, only to be ripped away again. When the two meet again, their moment is loving, but brief, and I can only assume that the battle that unfolds with the Green folk only sets the stage for the third book in the series.

Darklight adds more depth to role characters other than just Kelley and Sonny, and although the two do act as dueling narrators as they did in Wondrous Strange, it is nice to see more character development in the sequel.  Livingston has a knack for building the anticipation for the next book without leaving the plot dangling. A great sequel by Leslie Livingston and I look forward to the third installment.

Check out our review of the first book in the series, Wondrous Strange.

In addition to working on her own personal writing, editing Messy Magazine, and writing for multiple sites, Lauren is also currently pursuing her MFA in English. More of her work can be found at goldiesays.wordpress.com.

This book was provided free of any obligation by HarperTeen. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George

[ 6 ] October 25, 2010

Reviewed by Jennifer Jensen

In the delightful follow-up to Princess of the Midnight Ball, Jessica Day George puts an enchanting spin on the beloved fairy tale of Cinderella. Princess of Glass features one of the twins first introduced to readers in Princess of the Midnight Ball.

To strengthen the ties between the various kingdoms, the young royals must travel and visit other lands in hopes of making a fruitful match. Poppy, who has never been apart from her twin sister Daisy, is homesick while in the land of Breton. She quickly makes friends with the kindly, spoiled princess Marianne and several of the visiting princes. Rumors about Poppy and her sisters nearly prevented the Dane prince, Christian, from being allowed to leave his kingdom. Upon introduction, Christian is drawn to Poppy and her eccentricities. In turn, Poppy finds herself warming to prince Christian. However, she is not the only lady in Breton to have her hopes set on Christian’s love.

Eleanor, once the daughter of an earl, has no family left nor any hope of living the lavish life she once had. Now working as a maid in Breton, Eleanor is simply known as Ellen. Having already been fired from one station for her ineptitude, Ellen needs this position to survive. Just as all seems hopeless, Ellen meets her fairy godmother, who dresses her in beautiful gowns and jewels for the kingdom’s balls. Everyone in Society is quite taken with Lady Eleanor, including Christian. Only Poppy and Robert, an old acquaintance of Eleanor’s, seem to [amazonify]1599904780[/amazonify]see through her magical guise. It is up to Poppy, who is no stranger to bargains struck with practitioners of dark magic, to save both Eleanor and Christian from the curse –even if it means once again picking up the dancing shoes she retired three years ago.

Cinderella is probably the most retold fairy tale there is, yet I never tire of discovering it all over again in exciting new words and magical settings. Princess of Glass is hands down my new favorite! It is familiar, but at the same time a new fairy tale to enjoy altogether. I loved the blooming romance between all three of the main couples: Eleanor and Robert, Christian and Poppy, and Marianne and Dickon. It’s fairly obvious who will end up with whom, but the fun of it is how they all get there. This is definitely a “must read” for anyone who loves fairy tales and happily ever afters.

Jennifer graduated from the University of Utah with a BA in English. She occasionally dabbles with her own fiction writing, particularly with the Young Adult and Paranormal genres. She currently resides in Utah with her husband and daughter.

This book was provided free of any obligation by Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Fallen by Lauren Kate

[ 9 ] September 28, 2010

Reviewed by Jennifer Jensen

The Sword and Cross boarding school in Savanna, Georgia feels like a prison to Luce. Security cameras monitor the students’ every move, cell phones are forbidden, and all of the students seem like nothing but trouble making misfits. Luce wants to make the best of her situation and forget the incident which landed her at Sword and Cross in the first place. As Luce tries to fit in with the other students and make friends, she is shown nothing but hostility and disdain from handsome, aloof Daniel Gregori. When Luce starts to become romantically entangled with Daniel’s rival Cam, the secrets of Daniel’s past start to reveal themselves. Luce will learn that her past and future are tied to Daniel in more ways than she ever could have imagined.

Fallen, the first in a new young adult series by Lauren Kate, is haunting, mysterious, and romantically tragic. Its darkly dramatic cover art and intriguing title are sure to attract fans of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga and Alyson Noel’s Immortals series. From the moment I laid eyes on the alluring art work and read the synopsis of this book, I knew I had to read it. I was not disappointed.

We first see Daniel Gregori through Luce’s eyes, and the first impression he gives is anything but attractive. Daniel tries to avoid contact and conversation with Luce, while she tries all the more to get him to notice her. He becomes more and more enticing as his defenses begin to wear away. Luce is easy to relate to; there is no girl out there who hasn’t yearned for the heart of a boy she simply couldn’t have. I kept turning the pages, eagerly anticipating the moment when Daniel would stop denying his affections for Luce.

Fallen is part romance and part mystery. It’s heavier on the romance, but the mystery is still tremendously satisfying. The big reveal, where the reader learns who (or what) Daniel Gregori is, was perfectly implied throughout the novel. Fallen‘‘s conclusion is nothing short of riveting, and has left me impatiently anticipating the next installment.

Jennifer graduated from the University of Utah with a BA in English. She occasionally dabbles with her own fiction writing, particularly with the Young Adult and Paranormal genres. She currently resides in Utah with her husband and daughter.

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

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Review: Siren by Tricia Rayburn

[ 7 ] August 24, 2010

Reviewed by Cal C.

Siren, Tricia Rayburn’s first novel aimed at Young Adults, falls pretty squarely into a familiar genre for its audience: supernatural romance. Vanessa Sands has always played second fiddle to her gorgeous, fearless, outgoing older sister, Justine, but they were still remarkably close. One night, however, after a fight at home that reveals Justine’s relationship with Caleb Carmichael to her whole family, Justine runs away… and washes up on the beach the next morning, dead, leaving Vanessa and the rest of her family bereft and confused. While Vanessa’s family returns home, she opts instead to return to Winter Harbor for the remainder of the holiday season to try and piece together any explanation she can for why her sister might have killed herself.

The romantic aspect is pleasantly underplayed for the first two-thirds of the book as Vanessa investigates Justine’s death and Caleb’s subsequent disappearance with Caleb’s older brother, Simon. The investigation keeps the plot moving along at a healthy clip, but Rayburn smartly keeps the pacing extremely measured, more concerned with introducing and building up all the important characters and locations than with revealing and combating the titular monsters. Vanessa and Simon have an easy chemistry, but it’s the scenes where Vanessa is alone, facing her fears without her big sister for the first time, that really sell the character.

Unfortunately, however, the final third feels extraordinarily rushed. Relationships that had been building slowly are suddenly laid bare, while conflicts we had only just begun to understand consume the whole story. The climax seems rushed and a bit cluttered, and the villains are given extremely short shrift. Finally, a late-game twist doesn’t entirely mesh with what we’ve seen before, and casts some characters in an entirely different light.

[amazonify]1606840746[/amazonify]Ultimately, Siren is an enjoyable mystery/romance that falters as it approaches the finish line, but remains a satisfying read. Rayburn displays confidence and skill when approaching the book’s quieter moments, which makes her handling of an underused and potentially fascinating mythology all the more disappointing. Despite its flaws, however, Siren is a quick, engaging book you won’t want to put down.

Check out Tricia’s blog, Maggie Musings & More.

Cal is a young, underemployed librarian and a frequent contributor to Read/RANT comic book reviews. He’s currently living in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, with his family and using the post-grad-school grace period to read and write as much as he can.

This book was provided free of any obligation by EgmontUSA. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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