Alone and Dancing, You Know It Baby...

 

Published: March 1st, 2013

Things I Can't Forget (Hundred Oaks # 3)

By: Miranda Kenneally

Sourcebooks Fire

ISBN-13: 978140227

 

 

Kate has always been the good girl. Too good, according to some people at school—although they have no idea the guilty secret she carries. But this summer, everything is different…

This summer she’s a counselor at Cumberland Creek summer camp, and she wants to put the past behind her. This summer Matt is back as a counselor too. He’s the first guy she ever kissed, and he’s gone from a geeky songwriter who loved The Hardy Boys to a buff lifeguard who loves to flirt…with her.

Kate used to think the world was black and white, right and wrong. Turns out, life isn’t that easy…

 

Review

 

     Kate has always done the right things and kept a close relationship with God.  But she has done something that she isn't sure she can ever forgive herself for, let alone ask God to forgive her.  When she goes to be a counselor at Cumberland Creek summer camp, Kate is feeling lonelier than ever after losing her best friend and having her beliefs put into question.  But when she meets Matt, another counselor she used to know as a kid, things start looking up.  Kate just might be falling in love for the first time.  While desperately trying to make up for what she did, Kate just might learn that it's okay if others believe differently than you, it's a part of life.  Can she keep her relationship with Matt, even when he wants to go faster than she does?  And can she make it up to all the people she's hurt in the past?  Either way it will be a summer to remember...

     I went into this one kind of wary, because while I didn't hate Catching Jordan, I didn't love it either.  Stealing Parker read a lot better for me, and I went into this with some hope I could maybe love it.  This book came awful close to accomplishing its goal!  Kate, while religious to a fault, was nothing but sincere even when she was wrong.  And that made a serious difference.  Kate is naïve, kind, funny and thoughtful.  She just has a hard time realizing that its okay for people to have beliefs that are different from hers, because she's been taught otherwise her whole life.  She has a big problem with hypocrisy and with the amount of it going on at camp, I totally sympathize with her.  I personally don't believe in abortion, but do believe in a woman's right to choose so I could understand the agony of helping another person get the procedure, especially when you believe it's against you God's wishes.  The romance with Matt was sweet and they had so many 'awwww' moments that I was in danger of smiling my face off.  Even though I wasn't super in love with Miranda's previous books, I did enjoy the candid and realistic way she dealt with sex and love and what it means to teenagers.  This book was no different, except she finally portrayed a girl who decided to wait instead of giving herself to the boy (which was a change for me in YA fiction as I don't read much Christian YA where it occurs more often).  I liked the way Kate managed to slowly win Parker's trust and become friends, when previously she had stayed away from her (scared her 'sin' would cause Kate herself to stray) and Parker thought she was being a judgmental bitch.  They still were two very different girls at the end of the book, but their friendship was a nice fit.  My least favorite thing was how Kate treated the friend who had the abortion (not that the friend was very understanding either).  But I understood how she could originally go in that direction, believing as she did.  Overall, a really good contemporary YA novel that deal with romance, belief, friendship and the difficulties of growing up.  I highly recommend it.

 

VERDICT:  4.5/5  Stars

 

*I received this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie. No favors or money were exchanged for this review. It became available for purchase March 1st, 2013.*

Let's Level Up Already!

Expected Publication:  January 15th, 2013

Level 2 (The Memory Chronicles # 1)

By: Lenore Appelhans

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

ISBN-13:  9781442441859

Since her untimely death the day before her eighteenth birthday, Felicia Ward has been trapped in Level 2, a stark white afterlife located between our world and the next. Along with her fellow drones, Felicia passes the endless hours reliving memories of her time on Earth and mourning what she’s lost—family, friends, and Neil, the boy she loved.

Then a girl in a neighboring chamber is found dead, and nobody but Felicia recalls that she existed in the first place. When Julian—a dangerously charming guy Felicia knew in life—comes to offer Felicia a way out, Felicia learns the truth: If she joins the rebellion to overthrow the Morati, the angel guardians of Level 2, she can be with Neil again.

Suspended between Heaven and Earth, Felicia finds herself at the center of an age-old struggle between good and evil. As memories from her life come back to haunt her, and as the Morati hunt her down, Felicia will discover it’s not just her own redemption at stake… but the salvation of all mankind.

Review

     Felicia Ward died in a car crash two days before her eighteenth birthday, with no chance to say goodbye to the love of her life.  Now she is trapped in Level 2 of the afterlife, reliving her memories with the original intent of focusing on the ones that will teach her what she needs to learn before moving on.  But the keepers of Level 2, the Morati, have since made adjustments to the procedure and keep Felicia and a host of others locked inside their memories indefinitely so they can siphon their energy in hopes of breaking through to Heaven eventually.  The one of the girls in a chamber beside her own dies and Felicia is the only one her remembers she even existed.  Then Julian, someone from Felicia's mysterious past, finds her and offers to help her find Neil if she helps overthrow the Morati so everyone can move on.  Can she help prevent a Heavenly war or will the Morati triumph in their sinister endeavors?  I went into this very excited because I am a follower of Lenore's blog and the book's premise sounded interesting and not overused like so many other YA novels.  Unfortunately (and I hate saying this) I was left feeling very underwhelmed at the end.  I liked Felicia, but felt no real connection to her.  Learning about her life before Level 2 (a.k.a. Purgatory) was a good buildup for the novel, but at the same time a lot of the writing felt stilted and the characters felt fake.  At times it was like when I was reading Twilight in the sense that Felicia felt like a Bella - a cardboard cutout, easily replaceable.  The idea of the Morati being the lukewarm angels of the rebellion versus the ones who actively participated was a good one.  It was something that made sense - eternal waiting room for the indecisive/"bad" followers of God.  The romance with Neil was unappealing for me, because I personally have never met anyone who is that good, without any visible flaws.  It made him very boring, even as a retroactive love interest.  The whole situation with Autumn and Julian didn't make Felicia sympathetic to me and it just made Julian look like a selfish prick.  Plus the way he manipulates Felicia in Level 2 made me mad.  It felt like Felicia was just there to move the action along by making stupid/good decisions.  At the end when she finally got what she'd wanted for the entire book, I just felt very ambivalent about it.  Overall, an interesting book with lackluster characters and so-so plot resolution (which I will concede was probably in part due to being book 1 in a series).  I probably won't be reading the next one.

VERDICT:  2.5/5  Stars

*I received this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie. No favors or money were exchanged for this review. It will be available for purchase on January 15th, 2013.*

Blood and Tears, My Sacrifice...

Published: September 20th, 2011
The Girl of Fire and Thorns
By: Rae Carson
Greenwillow Books
ISBN-13: 9780062026484



Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness.

Elisa is the chosen one.

But she is also the younger of two princesses, the one who has never done anything remarkable. She can’t see how she ever will.

Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king—a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who needs the chosen one, not a failure of a princess.

And he’s not the only one who needs her. Savage enemies seething with dark magic are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary thinks she could be his people’s savior. And he looks at her in a way that no man has ever looked at her before. Soon it is not just her life, but her very heart that is at stake.

Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If she doesn’t die young.

Most of the chosen do.

Review

   This book is all about Elisa's journey from a fat, lazy, self-loathing young princess to a brave and strong young woman.  At the beginning of the novel we meet Elisa on her sixteenth birthday - also to be her wedding day to a man she has never met, King Alejandro.  She is to replace the wife he lost in childbirth years before and give power to his kingdom against the Inviernos, a warring race that is attacking his kingdom through the Godstone in her navel.  Elisa was blessed as a baby to be the one person in her century who carries the godstone, who is destined to do great things.  Most of the carriers die very young with nothing accomplished.  As with fantasy novels, things do not go according to plan quite so smoothly.  Elisa is introduced as a guest and told to keep their marriage a 'secret' for now.  Their traveling party is attacked on the way into the kingdom, forcing she and her maidservant to each kill a man.  Political machinations and court intrigue surround her.  She feels completely out of her element.  Then she is kidnapped by people from a village in the desert of the kingdom who are desperate for the 'power and blessing' the godstone is said to bring.  Elisa must become a warrior of mind and body if she is to survive and save her people from the Inviernos and the evil Animagus sorcerers.  I loved this book in so many ways!  It reminded me greatly of Tamora Pierce, but I lived inside this book in a way I've never been able to in hers.  Probably because Elisa was flawed and deeply human, so very relatable it astonished me at times.  Sometimes the ungainliness of the religious rules/codes, names of the peoples/kingdoms were distracting, but when a whole new world and its mythology are being created, that is bound to happen at times.  This book ended with some resolution but also lingering questions.  I cannot wait to see what Rae Carson has in store for the readers in the next book of the series.  Elisa definitely has more adventures left in her!

VERDICT: 4/5  Stars

*No money was exchanged for this review.  This book is now available in stores and online.*