Princess Academy: Palace of Stone

Author: Shannon Hale
Author's Website: http://www.squeetus.com/
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Released: August 21, 2012
Genre: YA Fantasy
Series: Princess Academy #2
Source: Library

When Miri and a few of the girls from Mount Eskel's princess academy travel to the capital to help the princess-to-be get ready for her wedding, they have no idea what to expect. Some are worried about leaving their beloved mountain for the first time, others are thrilled about going to the big city, and Miri is mostly just happy to see her best friend. But not everything in Asland is as perfect as the mountain girls hoped. As Miri learns more about her new home, she finds herself deep in the middle of an upheaval that affects everyone she loves. Torn between loyalty to the princess and her belief in her new friends' daring ideas, Miri must test the strength and skills she gained in the princess academy.

When I first read Princess Academy, I thought it was a classic like The Secret Garden or A Little Princess. This was before I started paying attention to publication information like dates, and I honestly thought it belonged in that category.

Well, it does. It may not have been written at that time, but I love the way it has the same "feel" and atmosphere. And Palace of Stone has that same quality. Palace of Stone reads like a more contemporary fantasy, where the heroine has a clear choice to make between two impossible situations. But it still captures that undefinable magical quality that, in my opinion, will make it last for a long time as a favorite book.

Miri, as we already know, is a strong, opinionated character. It's great to see her falter in her opinions, to really have to stop and grapple with things. She has that same can-do attitude as in the first book, but nothing is as clear-cut as it was back then. And she realizes more and more that her actions can have devastating or liberating effects - sometimes both, and she has to know which one is more important.

I love the way everything is resolved. The solution is classic Miri, when she finally sees things clearly and knows which side to be on. The way all the characters get in on it (well, almost all..) adds to the sweeping quality of the resolution, but we're still kept breathless until it really all succeeds, with many twists along the way to pose obstacles to the girls' plans.

That's something I love about this book, also. It's not a clear rise and fall, things get worse and then they get better. It's a roller-coaster. Things appear to be starting to move forward, and then suddenly they're all back to square one and have to start over, or they come across new information that changes the way they see things and they try desperately to turn back the tide of what their actions started. It's a great journey to be on!

Chasing Fire

Author: Nora Roberts
Author's Website: http://www.noraroberts.com/
Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons
Released: April 3, 2012
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: No
Source: Library

Rowan Tripp has been jumping fire for quite some time now, but this season, everything changes. First, there's the rookie, Gull, who challenges her rule of not getting romantically involved with her colleagues, wearing down her resistance with charm and personality. Then there's the more sinister angle of the season, with someone obviously out to get her and her team, aiming to wound or even kill members of the squad as payback for last year's tragedy. Rowan knows she has to keep her wits about her at all times, in the plane and on the ground when she's fighting fire, but all these distractions make it difficult. She has to figure out how to let someone in and be a part of her life, to have someone to lean on in the hard times, without allowing it to overtake her.

What struck me most about this book is the amount of research that must have gone into getting every detail of fighting fires exactly right! Each fire that they battle is described in its own way, each time they have to choose different strategies based on the nature of each fire, and it amazed me how many variations there are in it, that it's not just going in there and spraying water on the fire. And that Nora Roberts was able to vary things in that area is an amazing feat in itself!

The romance in this book takes a bit of a back burner to the suspense portion of the story. The focus is on the danger and on figuring out who the perpetrator is. I guessed early on who it was, but I kept doubting myself as new information came in - which is the point. I was a little disappointed in that I felt it was unreal that the police would keep the same suspect they first charge with the crime, because it looks like he was set up right from the beginning, and as things progress, it becomes clearer and clearer that he didn't do anything. 

But overall, I was fully engrossed in the story and enjoyed it very much.

The Uninvited

Author: Liz Jensen
Author's Website: http://www.lizjensen.com/
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Release Date: January 8, 2013
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Series: No
Source: ARC from Publisher

A seven-year-old girl puts a nail gun to her grandmother's neck and fires. An isolated incident, say the experts. The experts are wrong. Across the world, children are killing their families. Is violence contagious? As chilling murders by children grip the country, anthropologist Hesketh Lock has his own mystery to solve: a bizarre scandal in the Taiwan timber industry. Hesketh has never been good at relationships: Asperger's Syndrome has seen to that. But he does have a talent for spotting behavioral patterns and an outsider's fascination with group dynamics. Nothing obvious connects Hesketh's Asian case with the atrocities back home. Or with the increasingly odd behavior of his beloved stepson, Freddy. But when Hesketh's Taiwan contact dies shockingly and more acts of sabotage and child violence sweep the globe, he is forced to acknowledge possibilities that defy the rational principles on which he has staked his life, his career, and, most devastatingly of all, his role as a father.

The Uninvited is like an environmentalist, anti-capitalist - and much more violent - Childhood's End. Arthur C. Clarke leaves many things unanswered in Childhood's End - all the whys and what for's - and I feel like The Uninvited is (intentionally or not) a sort of response to that. The group-think of the children is what led me to this train of thought at first, but as the narrative moves on, the motives and results of the children's actions faintly echo how Clarke told his story.

Of course, the way the story is told is affected by Hesketh's Asperger's. The choice of making Hesketh have Asperger's is brilliant in so many ways. First of all, it provides a detached narrator, someone who can relay events in a logical way without having it tinged by his emotional attachment. That of course disappears about halfway through the novel, which makes the effects even stronger. When an outsider like Hesketh begins to feel personally involved, you know there's something really terrifying going on. 

Besides that, Hesketh's voice adds a chilling quality to the story. Having all these crazy things going on, but told in such a matter-of-fact, plodding sort of way - it takes you a step back from the events and forces you to expend energy to think about what's going on and what it all means for the way the adults have to deal with it - and that means that as a reader, you're much more involved and definitely more affected by the shocking turns of events. And then when Hesketh's survival method of origami-making in his mind escalates and escalates, becomes more frenzied and more common, it heightens the eeriness of it all.

I loved watching Hesketh grapple with his innate logical and reasoning skills when presented with things that just don't fit. I loved seeing him fight and fight against admitting that "supernatural" things could be happening. And I also loved trying to stay a step ahead of him and figure out what was really going on. I didn't. But I tried! When he finally comes to terms with it all, when he finally figures out the real truth, I love the way he reacts. It emphasizes the futility of fighting back, the way he accepts it as reality and goes on with his life, albeit very much altered.

Book Sale!!

I'm selling some used books over at the Book Sale page! Click here to head on over to the sale. Instructions and list of books are on that page. Happy reading!

Survey

Hey everyone! I'm conducting a survey about book-buyers' demographics and buying/borrowing habits.  This started out as a for-fun thing, but a friend advised me on the style and format of the questions, saying that if I ever decide to publish the results (!) I need to have questions and choices that will be accepted. So who knows....?

Please take a few moments and fill out the survey. I will hopefully be sharing the results here in a couple of months!

Click here to take survey

Smart Girls Get What They Want

Author: Sarah Strohmeyer
Publisher: Balzer + Bray (HarperCollins)
Released: June 26, 2012
Genre: YA Contemporary
Series: No
Source: Kindle

Gigi and her friends are smart. They work hard for great grades that will earn them spots in Ivy League colleges. They're only in tenth grade, but they've been working for this forever. But when they realize that their focus on schoolwork and smart stuff has earned them status as social non-entities, that some of their classmates don't even know they exist, they take a good look at their priorities. Gigi, Bea, and Neerja begin to take a more active role in high school activities and social life, and the things they discover astound them. Their preconceived notions about people, about life, about everything they think they know - all are challenged as they venture out into the big, wide world of high school.

A really exciting ride, this book! Lots of twists and turns, lots of surprises - which fits for a book about how blind and ignorant such smart girls could be. They're definitely book smart, but they lack all fundamental knowledge of how things work, of what makes people tick, even of themselves. I love, though, that as clueless as they are, I still identified with them and felt for them right from the start. They're not bad girls, they're not hermits by choice, they just need an education. And boy do they get one!

The people who seem smart are not necessarily so, and vice versa. And people who think they like one person find out they actually like someone else entirely, for reasons that become clearer and clearer to the reader even as those people remain in the dark. And when the girls think they're being shunned, they don't realize that it's mostly their own fault they feel that way.

Then there's the aspect where the girls overcome their fears. Especially Gigi - the way she starts out vomiting at the thought of public speaking and ends up speaking fearlessly when it's necessary is so great, so indicative of her overall growth as a teenager instead of an Ivy-League-bound bookster. 

Small point - I like the parent figures in this book. They're not too meddlesome, but I like that the girls have their parents to support them, even when they go behind their backs. Parents who are there and not in some emotional turmoil with their kids is rare in this kind of fiction, but in this case it allows the focus to be on the girls' social life without being eclipsed.

A really fun read with some deep, thoughtful moments...

Torn

Author: Stephanie Guerra
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Editor: Marilyn Brigham
Released: May 15, 2012
Genre: YA Contemporary
Series: No
Source: Kindle

Stella is captivated by Ruby from the moment Ruby makes her grand entrance into class as a new student. When Ruby singles her out for friendship, Stella gets a taste of what taking risks and living on the wild side feels like. But it comes at the expense of her old friends who disapprove of Ruby, and Stella is left to choose whether to stand by Ruby and become a social pariah or to go back to her old friends and reclaim her previous comfortable place on the social ladder. When things seem to be spiraling way out of control, Stella makes a desperate attempt to set things straight and salvage her life - but is it too late?

I love the way Stella's descent into madness is so vividly and realistically portrayed. It's gradual, one little thing at a time, so it feels natural, and I felt the whole time like I was watching it happen. Ruby is definitely a fun character to read about, but she also pulls at your heartstrings quite a bit. Stella's home life also plays on your emotions, and the way she balances everything adds to the complexity of the story.

Though I do wish some points had been more developed - like her home life, particularly her relationship with her mother. Her sister's relationship with Stella is fully developed, but I feel like there are some points with her mother that could have been explored more. Her relationship with Mike also. That's laden with psychological possibilities, but it gets superficial treatment.

Stella's relationship with Ruby, though, is so real, so believable. And the way everything wraps up at the end - beautiful!

Blink Once

Author: Cylin Busby
Author's Website: www.cylinbusby.com/
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Agent: Brenda Bowen
Editor: Melanie Cecka
Released: September 4, 2012
Genre: YA Contemporary
Series: No
Source: Library

West wakes up in a hospital bed, being rotated by a nurse, unable to move or speak. The nurses and his family and friends who visit don't seem to be able to understand him, but Olivia does - beautiful, former dancer Olivia who is the patient in the next room, who comes up with the system of blinking once for yes, twice for no, and gives West a pen and whiteboard to write on so they can communicate. She always knows what he wants to say even when he can't say it. And slowly, over the stolen time they spend together, Olivia and West fall in love. But then West is moved to another hospital for surgery, and he recovers his physical capabilities. And that's when everything falls apart. Who is Olivia, really? And what's the connection between her and the dreams she claims are ghosts of previous patients haunting West?

I love the tone of this story. West doesn't actually talk while he's in the Wilson center, but we get to know him fairly quickly by the way he tells the story, even without seeing him interact with Olivia. He tells the story with a sort of dry humor, but at the same time he's very serious and somber. It's an interesting mix.

The way the story moves from West's current experiences to his dreams and memories is really great. The tense shift from past to present in his dreams and memories makes his inner stories more immediate, which adds to the effect of the fog West is in while he's hospitalized. And the way they're interspersed at matching points, the way the end of each dream matches what's going on in real life, really made me wonder what the significance of his dreams are, where his memories are going to take him...

The mystery (mysteries, really) of what is really going on is really compelling. How does Olivia get away with everything she does, visiting West, stealing files from the nurses' station...? Who are these people West is dreaming about? What happened to the patient who was in his room before West, and is he connected to West or Olivia in any way?

It's really powerful when West recovers and finds out the truth about all this. Accepting the truth is hard for him, but I love how it affects him and how he manages to go one from there. Recovering and going back to normal life is hard enough, but it seems that experiencing this added bit of strangeness actually helps him get back on his feet mentally and emotionally, regardless of what everyone else thinks.

Butter

Author: Erin Jade Lange
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Agent: Jennifer Laughran
Editor: Caroline Abbey
Released: September 4, 2012
Genre: YA Contemporary
Series: No
Source: Library

Butter's nickname reminds him of an experience he'd just as soon forget. It's all in the past, after all. Everyone leaves him alone now, and he sits at his own lunch table with his big spread every day. But when he finds out it isn't over at all, that he just isn't aware of what people say about him behind his back, Butter decides to take control, to be the one to decide what people say about him. And he creates a blog promising to eat himself to death on New Year's Eve at midnight. He's an instant sensation, and suddenly he's included in all the popular crowd's activities. It feels like popularity - but is it, when all his new "friends" are cheering on his suicide?

The premise of the book drew me in before I even started reading. A boy so down about his size and his resulting social ostracizing, and a promise to commit suicide in a novel way, streaming live for all his classmates to see - definitely intriguing, in a morbid kind of way. But the book itself is not morbid - or not entirely, anyway. Butter is a funny guy, which no one appreciates because they can't see past his size. His friend from fat camp recognizes Butter's true personality, but Butter can't process that because it's too tied up in fat camp experience, and he sees it only as being friends with another fat person, not a "real" person, not the people who "count."

His personality tones down the horror of what he's going through. Seeing the story from his eyes, the way he feels about each event, means that there's a sarcastic commentary to everything - everything except what matters to him, like the girl he likes or the real attention he gets from his new "friends." But when he talks about his plan to eat himself to death live, when he's busy compiling his last meal's menu, he's snarky and sarcastic.

While Butter is enjoying his newfound popularity, I as the reader was aghast at how his "friends" were reacting, realizing that this is a completely realistic situation. I could totally believe that this could happen in real life, and it's a sad commentary on teens' emotions and capabilities of immense hurtfulness and callousness. Butter's reaction is equally saddening, as a desperate boy clings to even the merest resemblance to friendship and acceptance.

Of course, as the date of his last meal gets closer, the tone changes and he begins to realize the realness of it. That brings a real dilemma, as he tries to decide if he'll go through with it. He isn't quite sure if his "friends" think he'll go through with it or not, and he knows there are some people who would tell the authorities if they thought he really will. So he tells his "friends" he'll do it of course, while telling everyone else it's just a joke.

Thus begins the really tense reading experience. Will he or won't he? What will his social outcome be? The ending fully satisfies, with the lessons he learns about friendship and real life, and relationships in general.

Divergent

Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher: Katherine Tegen (HarperCollins)
Released: February 28, 2012
Genre: YA Dystopian
Series: Yes (Book #2 Insurgent)
Source: Library Kindle

In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

As usual, it took me a while to get with the program and read the book everyone is going crazy over. And as usual, I loved it and am waiting impatiently until I get my hands on the second book!

Tris's emotional struggle and her journey to self-realization are so clearly, so starkly portrayed. I felt along with her every step of the way - every moment of confusion, every time she had to make a decision that would alter the rest of her life based on two seconds' thought. Her romance with Four both helps and hinders her internal battles, and I loved that it was ambiguous, not that he is clearly a good influence on her.

All that is a great backdrop for the action and suspense of the story. The intrigue is really cleverly strung out, keeping the reader guessing as to what it all means while giving little glimpses into the "enemy's mind" and letting Tris find things out slowly but horrifyingly. But more than the main conflict and plot, the encounters between the guys and girls in Tris's training/initiation group are terrifying for what they reveal about how the society has fallen from the practices that were put in place originally to help protect them. That sixteen-year-olds are able to behave so ruthlessly is more frightening in some ways than what the adults are planning.

The Declaration Trilogy

Author: Gemma Malley
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Released: August 19,2008 / February 2, 2010 / January 4, 2011
Genre: YA Dystopian
Series: The Declaration Trilogy
Source: Kindle / Library Kindle

In 2140, no one dies. Thanks to the drug Longevity, old age and disease have been eradicated. In order to keep the world from becoming too crowded, everyone who takes Longevity must sign The Declaration, promising not to have children. Those children who are born illegally are called Surpluses and stored away in homes where they are trained to understand their sin against nature and to groom them to be Valuable Assets, to serve a Legal when they are ready.

Anna is one such Surplus. She Knows her Place and is poised to become an extremely Valuable Asset. But then Peter shows up - defiant, confident, and dangerously alluring. He tells her that she is valued and wanted by her parents, that she is not Surplus, and he plans to help her escape. Once they flee Grange Hall, Peter and Anna face the daunting task of setting things straight - of fighting against the twisted view of the Longevity makers, joining the Underground to ensure that the future is secured through children, the real natural cycle. The fight seems long, endless - but when events unfold in a way no one could imagine or predict, perhaps the world can be saved after all.

After I started reading The Declaration, I realized I'd read the first two books in the series years ago. I had never read The Legacy, though, so I read through all three books in order again. And I loved them this time just as much as I did last time.

Anna is the first thing that draws the reader into the first book. She is brainwashed, but somehow she still manages to retain a bit of defiance, hiding her journal, an illegal thing for a Surplus to have. It's that spark that gives her character and relatability, even when she is blindly refusing Peter's help and information. Throughout the series, Anna maintains her likability by being quietly strong. She doesn't figure so much in the actual events, the plotting and scheming of the second and third books, but she's always there, just doing what has to be done, choosing between right and wrong in her newfound views, and being a steadying force for Peter.

And Peter needs that steadying force. In the first book, he's the dashing hero - he rescues Anna from a miserable life, he gives back to her parents for sheltering him in the best way possible. Mostly, though, I think he comes off as the strong, brave hero because it's a contrast to Anna's meekness and confusion. He is brave and daring, he is also kind and generous. But the second and third books show a different side of him as well - he makes mistakes, mistakes that cost progress and even lives. He always has that burning desire to make things right, but I love that he's so not the perfect guy.

The question of immortality vs. the rebirth of life through children is brilliantly explored throughout the three books. From the start, we obviously agree with the Underground's ideas, but by the end, I think we come to see it for ourselves. The plot's trajectory is fantastic - we go from a situation that seems hopeless to complete salvation in a series of twists and turns, with breathless action and suspense right along with heartbreak and emotion.

Life Is But a Dream

Author: Brian James
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends (Macmillan)
Released: March 27, 2012
Genre: YA Contamporary
Series: No
Source: Library

Sabrina has always been special. She sees swirling colors that streak across the clouds in the sky like rainbows on soapy water, and feels the wind blowing through her soul like a fiery wave from an atomic blast, things she uses in her art. Before, she felt special in a good way, like she was delicate and rare. Not like now, when everyone thinks she's special like something is wrong with her. Even her parents look at her that way. That's why they put her in the Wellness Center, hoping she can be fixed.

Sabrina wonders if everyone is right, that she is crazy. Then one day, she looks up and sees Alec. He is a familiar stranger, someone Sabrina has seen before in her dreams, as if they have always known each other and are meant to be together. Alec looks at her as if she were still special in a good way. He doesn't believe there is anything wrong with them. Now Alec and Sabrina have a choice: to stay and be changed into the people the doctors want them to be or to run away and chase their dreams...

Life is But a Dream is a really good look at how mental illness affects a person's life - not just how she copes with being different, not just with how she comes to terms with being on medication, with acknowledging that the way she thinks is wrong and harmful. The parts that really tore at my heart were her flashbacks to how her classmates and friends started changing the way they behave towards her when she starts exhibiting symptoms. The way they take advantage of her, when she is so defenseless and obviously struggling with reality - it underscores the cruelty of teenagers, and really the world in general, and the misunderstanding and recoil that comes instinctively when people are confronted with this situation.

Sabrina's story is very much dependent on Alec. At first, I thought Alec was the best thing that could have happened to Sabrina. But as the story progressed, I started doubting that Alec was a good influence at all, and when Alec's story becomes clearer, I felt outraged at what he was doing. I was basically confused by Alec, and I think that's part of the point. The story is set in a mental hospital, but Alec insists there's nothing wrong with them while Sabrina has already begun to accept that she has to be "fixed." Since Alec presents himself, and Sabrina only knows him from what he reveals, it's hard for the reader to figure out if there's really something wrong with him as well. He mixes things up by sticking to the idea that they're the normal ones and everyone else is crazy. And while Sabrina does harm herself, there is always the underlying question of whether she should be allowed to think the way she does, seeing color and beauty in the world where no one else does. Medicating her means taking away those beautiful thoughts, and the way the story is told brings a pang of regret for the reality of its necessity.

Hearing everything from Sabrina's own voice colors the whole story with a surrealistic touch. There's a bit of whimsy, and the whole time it felt to me like I was hearing a schizophrenic person dreamily relating what happened. It adds to the strength of the narrative, and everything together makes a beautiful, terrible, wonderful, tragic story.

The Dark Unwinding

Author: Sharon Cameron
Author's Website: http://sharoncameronbooks.com/
Publisher: Scholastic
Editor: Lisa Sandell
Agent: Kelly Sonnack, Andrea Brown Literary Agency
Released: September 1, 2012
Genre: YA Steampunk
Source: Library
Series: Yes (?)
Challenge: 2012 Debut Author Challenge

Katharine Tulman is sent by her aunt (by marriage), Alice Tulman, to her uncle's estate, with the sole purpose of declaring her uncle unfit, basically insane, so that her cousin can inherit the estate and Aunt Alice can have more to spend. Katharine has every intention of carrying out this plan, because her own fate hangs in the balance according to the outcome of her visit. But she falters in her plans when she gets to Stranwyne Keep, as she meets and gets to know her uncle and all the people in Stranwyne. Torn between doing right by her uncle and securing a future for herself, Katharine also has to deal with the disturbing incidents that question her own sanity. In the process, Katharine learns what true love and loyalty mean.

From the start, I was drawn in by Katharine's voice and personality. She's been downtrodden all her life, forced to face the fact that she has nothing, reinforced by the declaration by her aunt that she is worth nothing. But still, she has such verve, such strength of character. She is confident without being obnoxious, and that definitely helps when she has to deal with her uncle. She shows this later on in the story when she firmly but kindly takes charge of the goings-on, displaying her strong leadership abilities along with her compassion - compassion that she thinks she can't afford to have but soon learns that she can't afford not to have it.

Uncle Tully also captivated me from the moment he stepped on the scene. Aside from puzzling out what label today's society would give him, there was the delight in his innocence and eccentricities, empathy for his need for routine and fear of strangers. It makes Katharine's struggle all the greater, especially when she is one of the few people who seem to understand Uncle Tully and know how to deal with him.

And then there's Lane. Exasperating, glowering, generally annoying, he tries to interfere with Katharine's plans, and then toys with her emotions. But I love Lane. He's only looking out for the good of Uncle Tully and the villagers, which Katharine understands, but in doing so he reveals his kind and generous nature even as he torments Katharine.

I love the little twists ate the end of the story, the introduction of a dark subplot that Katharine gets to save everyone from. And the resolution - perfect! Everyone gets exactly what they deserve, so I'm well satisfied!

Throne of Glass

Author: Sarah J. Maas
Author's Website: http://sarahjmaas.com/
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Editor: Margaret Miller
Agent: Tamar Rydzinski
Released: August 7, 2012
Genre: YA Fantasy
Series: Yes (Book 2 Fall 2013)
Source: Library
Challenge: 2012 Debut Author Challenge, YA/MG Fantasy

Celaena is in the deadly prison camp Endovier after having been caught and tried as an assassin. She's the most feared assassin in the kingdom, though many don't know her true age. And now the Crown Prince has come to offer her freedom - in exchange for serving as his candidate in a contest for King's Champion. Celaena travels with him to the glass palace and begins training and competing - but soon the competitors start dying in gruesome murders one after the other. It's up to Celaena to find out what's killing them, and to rid the palace and the kingdom of the evil lurking beneath the harsh surface...

The first thing that struck me when I started reading Throne of Glass was Celaena's voice. She's strong and confident, but scared and vulnerable at the same time. She seems to have nothing to lose, but there's a depth of complicated feelings and needs to her, something that makes the stakes that much higher. She wants her freedom, but she's not willing to do just anything to win it, which means that her struggle throughout the book is not merely against the other would-be Champions but also within herself as she contemplates what she agreed to and if she'll agree to anything further. All through it, her clear and distinct voice narrates the story and commands respect and admiration as she holds up under terrible circumstances and through confusing turns of events. When she begins to investigate the murders, it's again interesting that she reveals two sides of her personality - she's strong and fearless, so it seems, as she ventures into frightening places, but then she reacts like any normal girl and becomes scared and confused.

Part of this is shown in her relationship with Nehemia, the visiting princess. Celaena has never had a real friend before, and she lets her guard down with Nehemia in ways she hasn't done before. But Celaena has to deal with the ups and downs of friendship as well, and that reveals her as just as vulnerable as anyone else.

Celaena's interactions with Chaol show her bravado and vulnerability too. The way she tries to rile him up at the beginning, and then as the relationship progresses and they both begin to like each other and see each other not as guard and guarded but as friends - it showcases the face Celaena feels she has to put on for the world and the emotions running deep beneath the surface.

Aside from Celaena's personality and relationships, though, the plot of the story is fantastic and amazing! The mystery gets deeper and deeper, the danger more and more heightened, the risk and tension mounting page by page. Each new development adds layers to the problems, and raises more questions and more excitement. The pages almost turned themselves as I eagerly waited to see how everything would turn out!

The ending of the book is perfect, in that it deals again with Celaena's inner struggle about how far she's willing to go, and it sets up nicely for the plot and relationships of the next book. The second book in this series is due to be released Fall 2013.

50 Follower Giveaway!!

So I said when the blog hits 50 followers, I'll host a giveaway. Here it is!

The winner will tell me which $10 book from The Book Depository they want, and I'll have it shipped.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

In My Mailbox 38

In My Mailbox is a meme created by Kristi of The Story Siren, where bloggers share the contents of their mailbox that week - books bought, borrowed, received... It's a great way to see lots of new books all at once, and leads to great coveting and more buying!

From the Library:

Blink Once, Cylin Busby

Butter, Erin Jade Lange

Throne of Glass, Sarah J. Maas

The New Historicism Reader, H. Aram Veeser

Library Kindle:

The Resistance, Gemma Malley (The Declaration #2)

The Legacy, Gemma Malley (The Declaration #3)

Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin

From the Publisher:

Shadows in the Silence, Courtney Allison Moulton (Angelfire #3)

Bought:

Insular Romance, Susan Crane

Heroes and Anti-Heroes in Medieval Literature, Neil Cartlidge

Kindle:

Rock and a Hard Place, Angie Stanton

Watermark: A Novel of the Middle Ages, Vanitha Sankaran

The Secret of Ella and Micha, Jessica Sorensen

Whispers in Autumn, Trisha Leigh (The Last Year #1)

Hide 'N Go Seek, Dale Mayer

The Steward, Christopher Shields (Weald Fae Journals #1)

Smart Girls Get What They Want, Sarah Strohmeyer

I bought a ton of Kindle books - I'm falling prey to the Kindle deals! Now to find time to read all of these...

Born Wicked

Author: Jessica Spotswood
Author's Website: http://www.jessicaspotswood.com/
Publisher: Putnam (Penguin)
Editor: Ari Lewin
Agent: Jim McCarthy
Released: February 7, 2012
Genre: YA Historical Fantasy
Series: The Cahill Witch Chronicles (Book #2, Star Cursed, June 2013)
Source: Library
Challenges: 2012 Debut Author Challenge, Witchy Books

Cate is a witch, at a time when the Brothers have an iron grip on society and sentence girls and women to cruel fates for the merest suspicion of independence or witchcraft. Not only that, her mother was a witch and two sisters are witches, too, and after she finds her mother's diary revealing a secret that could mean her life is even less hers than she thought, Cate is more determined than ever to keep her family together and safe from the Brotherhood and the Sisterhood. She has her personal affairs to deal with too - her old friend Paul who wants more than friendship and her confusing but exhilarating feelings for the gardener Finn, her new friendship with the most sought-after girls in town. But navigating it all may come at a price too high to pay.

I love the world of Born Wicked. Okay, no, I hate it - it's cruel and evil, with the controlling Brotherhood. But it thrills me to read about all the secrecy. It's like when on TV a character has a secret she must hide from another character, and my stomach is in knots the whole episode waiting for her to slip up and spill the secret. The whole book was like that - heart in my throat with each interaction, each time Cate decides to share a secret with someone, wondering if it's the wrong move, if this is the time she confides in the wrong person and gets turned in to the Brothers.

Cate herself is a wonderful character. She obviously cares about others a great deal, especially her sisters, and it's both heartwarming and heartbreaking to watch her try to keep them together and united, against so many forces, including her sisters themselves. But she also wants things for herself, and she's not totally swallowed up by her feeling of obligation to her sisters - which Maura accuses her of at one point. True, she does consider the effects of her decisions on her family first and foremost, but when it comes down to it, she does think about herself. She's a strong girl, with just enough weakness and vulnerability to soften her that I felt for her completely, got mad right along with her, cried when she couldn't stand it any longer, cheered for her when she got her kisses.

And those kisses... Her romance with Finn is absolutely amazing. It develops so beautifully, from her initial involuntary noticing him to her admitting she loves him. Finn himself is the perfect guy. He's possibly a bit of a klutz, though that may be Cate's fault, but he's introduced as somewhat incompetent because he doesn't actually know anything about gardening and intends to learn about it from books! A complete contrast to Cate, who prefers to learn by experience than from books. Paul points out that he and Cate are a good match because they're exactly alike. Finn and Cate are very different, but they're perfect for each other because they balance each other out that way, with Cate's outbursts and slight moodiness, and Finn's steadiness and constant calm. Though Finn has his moments too.

I love how good and evil are so mixed up in the book. You're never sure, first of all, who's on which side, who's a witch, who sympathizes with witches, and who's a witch hunter. But beyond that, once you do know, hardly anyone is either pure good or pure evil. Some are, but  most aren't and it's hard to tell. Every time you think you have it figured out, something changes.

That's a big part of what makes this book so good - the constant surprises. Just when everything seems to be falling into place, everything is shaken up and thrown upside down and Cate has to figure it all out all over again. Which leads to the very shocking ending...

Abandon

Author: Meg Cabot
Author's Website: http://www.megcabot.com/
Publisher: Point (Scholastic)
Released: January 1, 2012
Genre: YA Paranormal
Series: The Abandon Trilogy: The Myth of Persephone, Darkly Reimagined (Book #2: Underworld, May 8, 2012)
Source: Library

Pierce died. She knows what lies in wait after death, and it's nothing good. Especially not for her, after she caught the attention of John, the one in charge of the Underworld. But she managed to escape and get back to life - though all the doctors claim credit for that - and now she spends her time dodging John. Because he keeps showing up. And along with him comes lots and lots of danger. Pierce and her mother move back to the island where her mother grew up, Isla Huesos, but things only get worse after the move. Strange things get stranger, dark things get darker, and it seems Pierce is the key to setting things straight. All Pierce wants is to live this life like a normal teenager and to forget all about the Underworld and John. But it looks like that's impossible.

I love the way the story is told, starting out with the move to Isla Huesos and going back and forth to reveal the past bit by bit, a little at a time, showing Pierce's time in the Underworld and what happened in her old school after she came back from the dead. It really places Pierce in a state of living and grappling with the past, trying to come to terms with happened while trying to move forward, which doesn't seem to be working very well for her! 

It also means that we get to see her relationship with John evolving over time, because she gets mad at him as she remembers certain events, each time he shows up. The way she softens to him is really great also - if you can even say she softens to him! But that whole part, the way John and Pierce interact with each other, is developed really well, built up slowly and steadily.

The mythology of the story is really fun to watch. There is one point where everything is explained, but for readers who know the mythology and have been following the parallels, that section is easily skimmed over, which I did just enough to get the character of the person giving Pierce the information but not enough to slow me down with unnecessary explanations. And the epigraphs from Dante at the head of each chapter are a nice touch!

For once, I don't have to wait for the next book in the series because I'm so late in reading the first one! So off I go to find Underworld!

In My Mailbox 37

In My Mailbox is a meme created by Kristi of The Story Siren, where bloggers share the contents of their mailbox that week - books bought, borrowed, received... It's a great way to see lots of new books all at once, and leads to great coveting and more buying!

From the Library:

The Dark Unwinding, Sharon Cameron         Goodreads / Amazon

Born Wicked, Jessica Spotswood            Goodreads / Amazon

That's it for this week!