A Long Time Ago, We Used to Be Friends

Published:  June 11th, 2013

Spies And Prejudice

By: Talia Vance

Egmont USA

ISBN-13:  9781606842607

Berry Fields is not looking for a boyfriend.  She's busy trailing cheaters and liars in her job as a private investigator, collecting evidence of the affairs she's sure all men commit.  And thanks to a pepper spray incident during an eigth grade game of spin the bottle, the guys at her school are not exactly lining up to date her, either.

So when arrogant -- and gorgeous -- Tanner Halston rolls into town and calls her "nothing amazing," it's no loss for Berry.  She'll forget about him in no time.  She's more concerned with the questions surfacing about her mother's death.

But why does Tanner seem to pop up everywhere in her investigation, always getting in her way?  Is he trying to stop her from discovering the truth, or protecting her from an unknown threat?  And why can't Berry remember to hate him when he looks into her eyes?

With a playful nod to Jane Austen, Spies and Prejudice will captivate readers as love and espionage collide.

Review

    Berry Fields has been working as a private investigator for her Dad for years now, because no one ever notices a teenager following them.  And she usually manages to catch all the liars and cheaters that are trying to scam other people.  Berry herself doesn't date and isn't really interested in it.  Then Tanner blows into town and declares that Berry is nothing special.  She can't help noticing how hot he is, even while she's determined to ignore and shun him for his arrogance.  All of this romantic confusion doesn't help either, when she sees her best friend's Dad handing off papers with her dead Mom's name on them.  Berry thought, along with everyone else, that her Mom committe suicide.  But now there is a very real possibility that her Mom might have been murdered to stop her from blowing the whistle on something illegal.  It's up to Berry to find out the truth, with help from her best friend Mary Chris Moss, her crush Ryan and of course Ryan's annoying brother, Tanner.  But will the truth be worth uncovering and will it hurt more than the lies ever did?

     I had some major fun with this one!  It was snarky, funny and I loved how much it had in common with one of my favorite shows ever, Veronica Mars.  It's a pretty loose adaptation of P&P, with mostly just the title and character types playing into the original frame of Austen's novel.  Every once in a while, there is a nod to the original novel - an enterprise named Pemberly, Drew who is the obvious Wickham parallel, etc.  It isn't overwhelming though.  I liked that Berry was a smart, independent girl who has a strong friendship with Mary Chris.  My least favorite thing about her would be her "damage" when it comes to romance.  It just felt a little too much like a convenient excuse for a strained romance dynamic between her and Tanner for my taste.  Berry's relationship with her Dad was mostly good and it did seem to have a pretty great depth to it.  But the way he treats her Mom's death and the investigation was a little too head-in-the-sand to appeal to me.  Berry acted more adult about it than he did.  

     The whole corporate espionage, FDA scandal thing was kind of bizarre but I did appreciate it for being different from most of what all else I've seen other authors do when it comes to "murder" mysteries in YA fiction.  The ending while resolved, was still a little bit open.  It makes me wonder if Vance is considering a sequel at all, but if not I am satisfied with the end.  Overall, it wasn't very good as a P&P retelling.  I feel like that component to this book was almost completely unnecessary and sometimes actually harmed my enjoyment of the plot and characters.  But it definitely succeeds as a slightly fluffy, slighty deep YA mystery with a sense of humor.  If you're into the teen P.I. thing, or a VMars fan I'd recommend it to you.  But if you're looking for a strong YA P&P retelling, look elsewhere.

VERDICT:  3.5/5  Stars

*I received this book from Egmont USA, on NetGalley.  No favors or money were exchanged for this review.  This book was published on June 11th, 2013.*

No One Lives Forever

Expected Publication:  March 11th, 2014

Liv, Forever

By: Amy Talkington

Soho Teen

ISBN-13:  9781616953225

When Liv Bloom lands an art scholarship at Wickham Hall, it's her ticket out of the foster system.  Liv isn't sure what to make of her new school's weird traditions and rituals, but she couldn't be happier.  For the first time ever, she has her own studio, her own supply of paints.  Everything she could want.

The she meets Malcom Astor, a legacy student, a fellow artist, and the one person who's ever been able to melt her defenses.  Liv's only friend at Wickham, fellow scholarship student Gabe Nichols, warns her not to get involved, but life is finally going Liv's way, and all she wants to do is enjoy the ride.

But Liv's bliss is doomed.  Weeks after arriving, she is viciously murdered and, in death, she discovers that she's the latest victim of a dark conspiracy that has claimed many lives.  Cursed with the ability to see the many ghosts on Wickham's campus, Gabe is now Liv's only link to the world of the living.  To Malcom.

Together, Liv, Gabe, and Malcom fight to expose the terrible truth that haunts the halls of Wickham.  But Liv must fight alone to come to grips with the ultimate star-crossed love.

Review

     Liv has been on the fringes her entire life.  A tenant of the foster care system, and someone who feels more comfortable with art than people, she is excited to get the opportunity to become a better artist.  A scholarship to the prestigious Wickham Hall is a dream come true for Liv - or so she thinks until she actually gets there.  The rich students love to humliate the scholarship kids and liv is even more outcast than ever.  But she has a connection with rich, legacy studen Malcom Astor and manages to find a friend in fellow poor kid Gabe.  Soon Liv's sneaking off to meet with Malcom and they are falling in love.  One night Liv doesn't make it back to her dorm - she is murdered and thrown down an old well.  The main question is who did it - and why?  Also, Gabe is able to communicate with her still and together they try to solve Liv's murder, which is just the newest in a string dating over 150 years back.  Can they convince Malcom to turn his back on the secret society he belongs to and do the right thing, to bring the killer to justice?  And how will Malcom and Liv say goodbye, when they'd only just begun?

     I started this book off thinking how shallow and stereotypical of a character Liv was - and it's not like any of the side characters were all that much better.  Gabe is a prickly, disenfranchised loner who sees ghosts and Malcom is a weak-spined, rich boy who is slumming it with Liv.  It's only after we see Malcom and Liv sneaking around together, get a hint at Gabe's terror of the ghosts around the school (and short POVs from the ghosts on their respective origins/murders) that we get a little more meat to the story.  Things really pick up after Liv's murder.  It's up to Liv, Gabe and Malcom to find the truth with the Wickies (rich kid, secret society students) trying to cover it up and make it look like a suicide.  It's a genuinely interesting plot, with Liv and Gabe spending much time trying to convinve Malcom she's still there.  And once they do, the annoyance factor of the go-between is still there.  However, a snarky bromance builds between Gabe and Malcom that is absolutely hilarious to watch.  Liv is discovering her limitations as a spirit, what she wants now that she's dead and what the Hell happened exactly.  It's good stuff plotwise and the pacing is excellent.

      The backstory on all the ghost girls of Wickham Hall and the mystery of Liv, which was really the mystery of them all, definitely lent some much needed detail to what could have been a very thin and schmaltzy plotline focus.  The twists and turns involving the motives, supernatural/non-supernatural origins of the killer(s) and the resolution were well executed.  Nothing truly shocking, but nothing truly cliched and overused either.  And the ending is absolutely gorgeous.  I loved that this book reads like a screenplay for a T.V. show or a film.  It made it much easier to swallow that there was a complete lack of characterization of Liv, Gabe or Malcom beyond their actions and mystery solving needs.  It didn't try to waffle between novel and screenplay in style or tone, which helped it out considerably.  It stuck to its guns and I appreciate and respect that beyond belief.  The fluffy tendencies of this book often won out, and I think what saved it for me was the ending.  It fit exactly and I loved how realistic it was (for a book with sentient, ghostly beings that is!).  Liv and Malcom didn't linger on the past.  They both moved forward with what they knew to be right for themselves and each other.  Overall, this has a very detailed and well written mystery, with multi-layered ghosts.  It has romance, comedy and action is high degree.  I recommend it if you're okay with ingesting some cotton candy and like a break from the overly serious every once in a while.

VERDICT:  3.5/5  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.  This book's expected publication date is March 11th, 2014.*

Summoning Forces Beyond Your Control

Expected Publication:  June 24th, 2014

Summoned (Redemption's Heir #1)

By: Anne M. Pillsworth

Tor Teen

ISBN-13:  9780765335890

When the Elder Gods extend an invitation, be wary of the strings attached.

While browsing in a rare book store in Arkham, Sean finds an occult book with an ad seeking an apprentice sorcerer, from a newspaper dated March 21, 1895.  Even more intriguing, the ad specifically requests that applicants reply by email.

Sean's always been interested in magic, particularly the Lovecraftian dark mythology.  Against his best friend Edna's ("call-me-Eddy-or-else") advice, he decides to answer the ad, figuring it's a clever hoax, but hoping that it won't be.  The advertiser, Reverend Redemption Orne, claims to be a master of the occult born more than 300 years ago.  To prove his legitimacy, Orne gives Sean instructions to summon a harmless by useful familiar -- but Sean's ceremony takes a dark turn, and instead he accidentally beckons a bloodthirsty servant to the Cthulhu Mythos god Nyarlathotep.  The ritual is preemptively broken, and now Sean must find and bind the servitor, before it grows too strong to contain.  But strange things are already happening in the town of Arkham.....

Review

     I thought that the premise of this one sounded pretty cool.  A boy answers an ad for a wizard's apprentice, to find out the secret behind the authentically aged piece of newspaper containing it.  The mystery is there, because the ad mentions email which was not invented until over 100 years after the ad was taken out!  I thought to myself, okay, here we go.  A book with some humor and mostly about a modern teenage boy training to become a wizard's apprentice.  I even speculated that it involved time travel (that interesting me slightly more than just a wizard character who is centuries old), which would have been spectacular.  I was unfamiliar with the term "Cthulhu Mythos god" and was sincerely hoping that I would have it explained to my satisfaction, or be so minor to the plot that it didn't matter what it was.  None of my expectations were met in a way that I wanted them to be.

     Being that I am not really a horror aficionado, I can't really compare the mythology in this book to that in the stories of H.P. Lovecraft.  But I can tell that the author draws heavily from him, on the basis that in her book's world, Lovecraft was part of a secret society in the know and just writing the truth.  That is a cool concept and I would have loved it - had I already been a Lovecraft fan, and been in on the history.  The whole plot of this book relies on prior knowledge of terminology and ideas from a mythology that I was not the least bit familiar with (at least in my opinion and reading experience)  and it wasn't really fleshed out in the novel.  I felt like it assumed prior knowledge, and because of that the terminology was vague to me - something that I was never really able to picture all that well in my mind.  Something that might have made this book a better experience for me would have been highly developed and sound characters.  I love characters that are so real they could walk off the page and share a drink with me at the local coffee shop.  That, or a plot that surpasses my need for intimate connections with the main characters (it takes an extremely special kind of book to accomplish this feat).  Keeping that in mind, me being on the outskirts of this very plot driven novel, with characters whose whole lives seem to revolve around the plot, it never really connected.  

     Eddie was only there to scold Sean for contacting some "creep" on the Internet and to annoy the heck out of him.  To be the one-dimensional best friend (although their strong bond is showcased when later on she knows exactly where to find him when he's missing).  I believe the friendship, but it does nothing for me.  Sean's Dad is the "concerned single parent" who also restores stained glass windows.  That's about all there is to him, other than him being a widower who doesn't date and a skeptic of all things magic/supernatural.  His role is parent and skeptic: check mark.  Most of the other characters are fleeting, just there to move along the plot.  Redemption Orne, arguably the most important character other than Sean, is nothing more than an Internet presence, of someone who might be a mentally deluded weirdo just playacting.  Sean is the typical hero, just goofing off and doing things out of curiosity - until it gets him into real trouble and the shit hits the fan.  I never really got to know him as a character though, outside of his mission to bind the servitor, find out the truth about Redemption and become "serious" in regards to messing with the supernatural.  The message of this book seems to be, don't play with fire unless you're ready to be burned.  And it's not a subtle message, with the very serious consequences of Sean's actions on a pet-killing spree across the neighborhood and sucking his own blood.  The action was spotty, the plot dragged in it's odd pacing and the novel was mostly set up for a series.  The disappearing pharmacy and its quirky pharmacist felt like they belonged in a different novel altogether, the one I had initially thought I was going to read (and its not a coincidence they were my favorite part/little fantasy quirk).

     That said, a lot of people would probably adore this book beyond belief.  I am not by any means stating that this book was bad, or does not have its audience somewhere out there.  Hell, Pillsworth probably has a built in curiosity audience in all the Lovecraft fans lurking out there, waiting for a book like this.  It's modern, approachable for a younger audience and has a very dark, science fiction edge to it.  But as someone who self-proclaimedly prefers fantasy to science fiction it just wasn't the book for me.  I thought it was a fantasy book and was highly disappointed.  But I did finish the book and was interested in the resolution of the whole issue Sean caused, so Pillsworth did manage to draw me in regardless of my slight boredom.  Overall, a decent book but not my thing.  Lovecraftians take notice and add to your to-reads.

VERDICT:  3/5  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.  This book's expected publication date is June 24th, 2014.*

Sugar and Spice, but Nothing Is Nice

 

Published:  January 7th, 2014

Salt (Salt #1)

By: Danielle Ellison

Entangled Teen

ISBN-13:  9781622663484

 

Penelope is a witch, part of a secret society protecting humans from demon attacks.  But when she was a child, a demon killed her parents -- and stole her magic.  Since then, she's been pretending to be something she's not, using her sister's magic to hide her own loss, to prevent being sent away.

 

When she's finally given the chance to join the elite demon-hunting force, Penelope thinks that will finally change.  With her sister's help, she can squeeze through the tests and get access to the information she needs to find "her" demon.  To take back what was stolen.

 

Then she meets Carter.  He's cute, smart, and she can borrow his magic, too.  He knows her secret -- but he also has one of his own.

 

Suddenly Penelope's impossible quest becomes far more complicated.  Because Carter's not telling her everything, and it's starting to seem like the demons have their own agenda...and they're far too interested in her.

 

Review

 

     It took me A LONG TIME to become invested in this book.  Probably because Penelope is kind of stubborn, stupid and overall annoying for a great portion of this book!  The whole premise of this one, is that Penelope is a witch (part of a secret community of witches) and her sacred duty is to protect the Nons (humans) from demons.  But when Pen was a young child, her parents were killed by a demon who also took away her essence, leaving her without magic.  It should have killed her, but instead it left Pen almost an ordinary human and only able to do magic with family members around to draw power from.  Penelope is absolutely determined to be one of the elite demon hunters prized by her society, since it will give her access to the ritual she needs to restore her essence.  But one problem - without powers she can't pass the tests!  When mysterious fellow witch Carter comes into her life unexpectedly and she is able to draw magic from him, Pen needs to find out why.  Also why are all these demons after her?  Can they discover the truth before it's too late?

     The very first scene of this book, after us learning how important it is to have salt to fight off demons, is Penelope being cornered by one - without any salt, because she forgot it at home!!!  For someone with absolutely ZERO powers, you'd think she'd have a heck of a lot more common sense.  Also, she has a truly asinine need to join the Enforcers and fight against demons.  Every time her Grandma, Grandpa, or younger sister try to reason with her and get her to come to terms with her lack of magic, Pen basically does everything but actually stomp her feet and throw a fit!  She basically sticks her head in the sand and comes up with stupid plans to "work around it," by using her sister's magic secretly so she can pass her tests.  She doesn't seem to think about what will happen afterwards, when she has no one to draw from out in the field, and has to face a demon on her own!  Her family is made up of pretty flat characters, and her sister is especially a cardboard cutout only there when Pen really needs her.  There's a nice moment near the end, when she's forced to tell her boyfriend Thomas the family secret and he breaks up with her.  Then we see a little more depth to Pen's sister - too little, too late though for the most part.

     The whole family secret thing and speshul snowflake reveal of why Penelope is so different from anyone else with no essence, wasn't really all that surprising.  The reluctance of any adult in this book, EVER to listen to reason and do something about the demon crisis also wasn't surprising.  That's what happens when you write a young adult fiction book with NO strong, sensible, capable adult characters and make the teens the end-all-be-all of you fictional world.  They are the only ones able to clean up the mess, even if all they do is make out with each other and fumble the world saving until they barely squeak by.  Carter was nothing special as heroes go, though he was a likeable protagonist and I liked his backstory much more than Penelope's.  But him saving her stupid ass every five seconds from her own inability to THINK BEFORE ACTING got very old.  I'm glad  I didn't DNF, because I truly hate doing that and I did start enjoying myself later in the book.  Near then end it started getting its act together and the cliffhanger left me genuinely curious.  But all said and done, I don't think I'll be reading any further in this series for one reason alone: Penelope.

 

VERDICT:  2/5  Stars

 

*I received this book from Entangled Teen on NetGalley.  No favors or money were exchanged for this review.  This book was published on January 7th, 2014.*

Neverwas, Otherwhen & Maybe Soon...

Published:  January 7th, 2014

Neverwas (The Amber House Trilogy #2)

By: Kelly Moore, Tucker Reed, & Larkin Reed

Arthur A. Levine

ISBN-13:  9780545434188

"I was sixteen the second time I had my first kiss..."

At the end of AMBER HOUSE, Sarah made a choice that transformed everything -- and now she must choose it all again.

Things are very different -- better -- for Sarah and her family: her Aunt Maggie grew up; her parents are happily married; her grandmother died after a long, productive and respected life.  But other things are different too, and not for the better.

After growing up in the free country of the Pacific Northwest, Sarah Parsons has settled in at Amber House, the stately Maryland home that's been in her family for generations.  But the world surrounding the House feels deeply wrong to Sarah.  It's a place where the colonists lost the 1776 Insurrection, where the American Confederation of States still struggles with segregation, and where Sarah is haunted by echoes of a better world that she knows never existed.

Her friend Jackson shares these visions of a different world -- and together, they manage both to remember the way things ought to be, and to plan a daring mission that will reset the universe once again.  Sarah must figure out what has changed, and why, and how she can fix it -- how she can find her way to an otherwhen.

Review

     I can see why some people would be confused by this book, especially the theory behind the alternate history in it.  It's a whole Hell of a lot to take in, even if you have read the first book in the series.  I did understand that in saving her younger brother, Sarah has managed to reset time.  She is now living in an alternate reality, where the colonists lost the Revolutionary War (known as the "Insurrection") and "America" doesn't exist as we know it.  Slavery continued a lot later on, the Civil Rights movement is basically happening now and North "America" is divided up into territories (the naming of the land as the American Confederation of States confuses me, as it's NOT really America).  In Sarah's own life, her Aunt Maggie is still alive, her brother Sam is okay, her Grandma wasn't a lonely alcoholic who drank herself to death and her parents are still marries.  For the Parsons family, life is good.  Everyone else, not so much.  Oh, and did I forget to mention that the Nazis won WWII and they are still around as a major political influence?  But the major mystery is what exactly did Sarah do that changed things so drastically?  Just saving Sam, or even Maggie couldn't have caused such a ripple effect, so far back in time.  So what else is different?  Where does the buck stop?  And just what lengths will Sara have to go to, to make the world the way it should be?

     I enjoyed trying to figure out the catalyst for the time travel and the break as to where the major shift was caused.  I definitely loved all of the intricacies of the plot involving Sarah's family history and the way it played into the present of the alternate timeline - and Sarah's original timeline as well.  As in the first book, Amber House in this one seemed like a living character alongside all of the people.  The addition of Aunt Maggie mixed things up in the family dynamic, with it causing Sarah and Sammy to not be quite as close as in the original scenario.  Also, the cultural differences definitely showed us that this Sarah was different from the old Sarah.  Similar in some ways, but definitely different in others (this Sarah loves designers, is comfortable with wealth, and only seems to be liberal when it suits her to be).  The relationships between Sarah and Jackson, & Sarah and Richard were at a contrast in different ways in this book than in the first.  Especially with a South that is reminiscent of Jim Crow era-South in our own timeline.  

      Sarah's biggest challenge in this book is to do what she knows to be right.  She spends a lot of the book trying to puzzle through her visions of an alternate timeline, with some help from Jackson, and waffles quite a bit on whether or not she wants to mess with the timeline again.  What if she makes things worse this time around?  Is it worth trying to get back to where she was, if it means the possibility of something even more horrific than her current time?  Probably the biggest problem for me was the contradictions of the alternate timeline.  At times it felt completely clear to me, and others it was a bit of a muddled haze.  How could a failed Insurrection in 1776 lead to WWII?  With a skewed geography, history and timeline of events, you'd think Europe would be more heavily effected than it seemed to be.  Also that means WWI still happened in this timeline.  How much different or the same was that from originally?  This is just the nitpicky history nerd in me though, dying to puzzle everything out, and fit it together!  Overall though, it's definitely a pulse-pounding adventure, sweet romance, historical mystery and time travel adventure of the one-of-a-kind variety!  It keeps you thinking the whole way through, and if you're willing to suspend some disbelief and enjoyed the first one, you should check it out!  Personally I can't wait to see how the ladies resolve it this time around, in the last book!

VERDICT:  3.5/5 Stars

*I received this book from Scholastic on NetGalley.  No favors or money were exchanged for this review.  This book was published on January 7th, 2014.*

Your Kiss Might Kill Me

Expected Publication:  February 25th, 2014

White Hot Kiss (The Dark Elements #1)

By: Jennifer L. Armentrout

Harlequin Teen

ISBN-13:  9780373211104

One kiss could be the last.

Seventeen-year-old Layla just wants to be normal.  But with a kiss that kills anything with a soul, she's anything but normal.  Half demon, half gargoyle, Layla has abilities no one else possesses.

Raised among the Wardens - a race of gargoyles tasked with hunting demons and keeping humanity safe - Layla tries to fit in, but that means hiding her own dark side from those she loves the most.  Especially Zayne, the swoon-worthy, incredibly gorgeous and completely off-limits Warden she's crushed on forever.

The she meets Roth -- a tattooed, sinfully hot demon who claims to know all her secrets.  Layla knows she should stay away, but she's not sure she wants to -- especially when the whole no-kissing thing isn't an issue, considering Roth has no soul.

But when Layla discovers she's the reason for the violent demon uprising, trusting Roth could not only ruin her chances with Zayne...it could brand her a traitor to her family.  Worse yet, it could become a one-way ticket to the end of the world.

Review

     This just might be my favorite book by JLA now, even more so than Obsidian.  I think Roth has replaced Daemon in my affections!  That said, I know a lot of people awaiting this book are worried that it's going to devolve into juvenile, annoying love triangle territory.  It definitely does NOT go down that road.  It reminded me a lot of her almost-semi-quasi love triangle in her Lux series.  There are a few moments where you think the heroine might really have to make a decision between the two guys.  But then you realize that she is not confused, and knows what she wants.  Layla knows what and who she wants by the time White Hot Kiss ends.  Even if it might be beyond her reach at that point...

     Layla spends a lot of the book at war with herself, and her craving for the souls of others.  Being half gargoyle she doesn't really fit in with the Wardens of Heaven that raised her, due to her demon half which Layla tries to forget exists.  But she knows that she can never be with Zayne, the guy she likes, because of the need to propagate the race of Wardens by breeding full-bloods together.  And she can't even shift like a real gargoyle.  Not to mention, most of the Wardens wish Layla was dead.  Enter in Roth, an Upper Level demon who is all of the sudden one of Layla's classmates at school.  Turns out that someone in Hell is gunning for Layla due to a yen to start the apocalypse.  Her blood opens the door so to speak, and now that she's seventeen it's game on.  Can she trust Roth, who claims to want to prevent the apocalypse?  Or should she confess everything to the Wardens before it's too late?

     The mythology of this book was really well built, and while I myself didn't know it, a friend told me that originally gargoyles were thought to be Wardens of Heaven and protectors of the people.  So there is some basis in history to that particular nugget!  Also, this book had a great secondary cast of characters including Layla's sex-obsessed and boy crazy BFF Stacey.  She absolutely cracked me up!  Sam, another friend, was a font of random knowledge and always said the weirdest stuff, completely out of the blue (which actually works to Layla's advantage later in the book).  Oh and Roth!  Oh my goodness, what a guy!  I loved the fact that his familiars were tattooed on his body (that could come to life).  A killer snake named Bambi, some vicious kittens, and a dragon named THUMPER.  Also, Roth reminded me a lot of supposed "bad-boy" Daemon Black from the Lux series, but he definitely had more of an edge that Daemon did.  Because Roth is a demon from Hell - so he technically is the bad guy!  

     Layla herself was smart, loyal and could kick-ass, even without the ability to access her Warden abilities.  I loved that she refused to let Roth or Zayne (who was seriously overprotective and yo - mixed signals to the max) boss her around.  The revelation of her Mother and Fathers' identities were pretty twisted, especially that of her father.  That one kind of broke me as a reader!  Poor Layla, to have any hope of being wanted shattered was pretty devastating.  The first sixty percent or so of this book though, is more world-building than anything else and moved kind of slow.  But the shit definitely hits the fan at the end!  Overall, I loved it and am super excited to read the next book in the series and maybe get to know Zayne a little bit better.  I highly recommend it if you're looking for something different or are already a fan of JLA.  You won't be disappointed!

VERDICT:  4.5/5 Stars

*I received this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie & also from Harlequin Teen on NetGalley.  No favors or money were exchanged for this review.  This book's expected publication date is February 25th, 2014.*

V is For Villain and A is For A-Hole

Expected Publication:  May 20th, 2014

V Is For Villain

By: Peter Moore

Disney-Hyperion

ISBN-13:  9781423157496

Brad Baron is used to looking lame compared to his older brother, Blake.  Though Brad's basically a genius, Blake is a superhero in the elite Justice Force.  And Brad doesn't measure up at his high school, either, where powers like super-strength and flying are the norm.  So when Brad makes friends who are more into political action than weight-lifting, he's happy to join a new crew - especially since it means spending more time with Layla, a girl who may or may not have a totally illegal, totally secret super-power.  And with her help, Brad begins to hone a dangerous new power of her own.

But when they're pulled into a web of nefarious criminals, high-stakes battles, and startling family secrets, Brad must choose which side he's on.  And once he does there's no turning back.

Perfect for fans of The Avengers, Iron Man, and classic comic books, V Is For Villain reveals that it's good to be bad.

Review

     This book reminded me of a cross between the Disney film, Sky High, and a recent superhero read called Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson.  It has elements of YA angst, with the majority of the novel being set in a superhero school and the classes being split into those with powers and those without them (or with entirely useless or barely there ones).  The Disney edge about it is that the novel centers around the Baron family, is which Blake has all the powers and works on a team, as a real-life superhero.  His younger brother Brad is ordinary and viewed as an embarrassment to the family, a freak accident of nature.  The Steelheart thing about this book, is that the entire world knows about the superheroes.  They are the celebrities of this world and are followed constantly for coverage of their heroic exploits.  

     Brad is the protagonist of this novel and we spend the whole thing in his head, trying right along with him to decide if the superheroes really are the good guys and if he should become a villain instead.  We definitely get Brad's end of the spectrum quite a bit more, with him almost being paralyzed at the start of the book after being tackled by one of the powered kids too hard.  After mouthing off to his teachers one too many times, Brad is switched over to the A Program, and falls in with a group of kids who call themselves A-Holes.  The real reason Brad is interested in becoming villain though, is to hack into his geneticist mother's computers, and look at his gene mapping.  He wants to know why Brad has powers and he doesn't, when genetically speaking he should.  But digging deeper into his own past brings to the forefront a horrifying secret about the involvement of the government in the existence of super powers in the world - and just who the real heroes and villains are after all.

     I really enjoyed reading this one.  I felt that the characters were well developed, especially Brad and Layla, who were both really trying to think things through and have a sound reasoning for going to "the dark side."  Also, the whole superpower thing with Brad made for an interesting ride.  I wasn't expecting Moore to give him a secret one that he never knew he had.  It did make for a connection with Layla on a completely different level and still allowed Brad to be a societal outcast, albeit in a different way.  I liked the rest of the crew too, but felt like they were little kids playing dress up and sure enough, as soon as shit got real they all bailed out.  Blake was a superb caricature of the smug, self-involved, dumb brute hero character that's common in comics - that is, until he wasn't.  I loved the way Moore lulls you into thinking everyone is something different than really are and rips you apart with revelations.  My only complaint is that while the big reveal about Brad and Blake's respective powers at the end made sense, it was pretty cliched and really damn "muhahaha" in tone.  Other than that, I truly enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it to fans of comics and superheroes.  It struck the right balance most of the time between humor, action and philosophical musings.

VERDICT:  4/5  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.  This book's expected publication date is May 20th, 2014.*