Goodbye Crewel World, Hello Earth

 

Expected Publication:  October 29th, 2013

Altered (Crewel World # 2)

By: Gennifer Albin

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

ISBN-13:  9780374316426

 

Life. Possibility. Choice.
All taken from Adelice by the Guild—until she took them back.

But amid the splendid ruins of Earth, Adelice discovers how dangerous freedom can be. Hunted by soulless Remnants sent by Cormac Patton and the Guild, Adelice finds a world that’s far from deserted. Although allies are easy to find on Earth, knowing who to trust isn’t. Because everyone has secrets, especially those Adelice loves most. Secrets they would kill to protect. Secrets that will redefine each of them. Torn between two brothers and two worlds, Adelice must choose what to fight for.

In this thrilling sequel to Crewel, Adelice is about to learn how tangled up her past and future really are. Her parents ran to protect her, but nothing can save her from her destiny, and once she uncovers the truth, it will change everything.

 

Review

 

     At the end of the first book, Adelice, Jost and Erik found themselves in a place they'd been told no longer existed - Earth.  When they discover that Earth is still inhabited, with a stronger connection to the past than Arras could have ever hoped for, their lives are thrown into deep turmoil.  Standing on the brink of destruction and with little time left, the trio must get beyond a number of obstacles and find their way back to the very place they sought to escape.  With the horrifying new additions of the soulless, cannibalistic people known as Remnants, complicated family secrets and extreme romantic tension, it's not long before things explode for Adelice.  Not everyone is left standing in one piece, but will they find their way back together in the end?

     So, unlike in the first book where Adelice was a strong protagonist who did what seemed like minimal whining and where the love triangle was far from in-your-face-pushy, this book took things to another level.  Being set on Earth, things were obviously going to be very different from Arras, the home world of Adelice, Jost and Erik.  The dynamic between the three of them has shifted and their roles in each other' lives are becoming different while they fight for survival.  The main focus of Jost shifts away from Adelice, towards getting back to his daughter.  Especially when they find out that time passes differently on Arras and one Earth month is equal to about one Arras year.  This makes for an interesting plot line in regards to a mysterious guy named Dante, who has a much deeper connection to Adelice than she ever imagined. 

     I did feel like Albin managed to world build with the destroyed, but not dead shell of Earth just as spectacularly as she did in Crewel.  The descriptions were gorgeous and I really felt like I was seeing it as I was reading it.  That is the best kind of reading, though I do like being able to imagine things as well.  But having them given to you for inspection is just as nice to me, as a reader.  The creepiest character award goes to Kincaid, a young-looking guy who is cheating death and is basically the revenge obsessed counter-part to Cormac.  Adelice left Arras looking to get away from Cormac and Kincaid is just as twisted, if not more so.  The scene that left me cringing with it's grotesque brilliance was the one where he puts on a play for Adelice and the boys, but does it with actors who have had their life threads altered to look like famous 1940s film stars.  I enjoyed all the action, and the fast pace of the plot.  I think where Albin lost me was the search for the "Whorl" and the identity of famous scientist who led the 'rebellion.'  I just felt like the revelation of his identity came completely out of left field.  Nothing else really suggested to me that she was going to use a real historical figure and I found it really jarring.

     One thing I will say is that with the developing of the love triangle, and Adelice's inability to make a coherent decision I got pretty annoyed as a reader.  I really dislike the love triangle trope and ESPECIALLY dislike the whole two-brothers-and-one-'perfect'-girl thing.  It makes me gag.  But I did like that Gennifer put a lot of tension and drove a believable wedge between Adelice and one of the guys, before easing her towards the other one.  At least the complications were believable, if really eye-roll inducing and overall annoying to me.  Plus it made for some swoony romantic action between Adelice and my favorite brother (no, I won't say which one!).  Overall, a good follow up to the first book in the series.  I would recommend it to those who enjoyed Crewel, but advise them to expect a major shift from almost straight fantasy, with a little sci-fi to the complete opposite end of the spectrum.  It makes for an interesting read!

 

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 is October 29th, 2013.*



It's All Relative

Expected Publication:  September 10th, 2013
Relativity 
By: Cristin Bishara
Walker Children's
ISBN-13:  9780802734686

If Ruby Wright could have her way, her dad would never have met and married her stepmother Willow, her best friend George would be more than a friend, and her mom would still be alive. Ruby knows wishes can't come true; some things just can't be undone. Then she discovers a tree in the middle of an Ohio cornfield with a wormhole to nine alternative realities. 

Suddenly, Ruby can access completely different realities, each containing variations of her life—if things had gone differently at key moments. The windshield wiper missing her mother’s throat…her big brother surviving his ill-fated birth…her father never having met Willow. Her ideal world—one with everything and everyone she wants most—could be within reach. But is there such a thing as a perfect world? What is Ruby willing to give up to find out?

Review

     Ruby is un-enthused to say the least about moving to Ohio from California.  Especially when it means that she's gaining a new 'Mom' and a psychotic stepsister.  So when the aforesaid stepsister, Kandy, is terrorizing her one day Ruby comes across a tree that is famed for being haunted - killing anyone who tries to chop it down.  So when she sees a door in the tree she uses it to escape from further pain.   Once inside the tree, things get really weird.  When Ruby steps out again she's in a universe where her dead Mother is still alive, she has an older brother and she's a popular girl - an average student and purveyor of the color pink.  Desperate to find out what's going on (especially when she realizes that the money is different and history has changed), Ruby does some investigating.  She finds out that each time she goes in and out of the tree, she enters an alternate universe where everything might be different, or just a couple small things.  In one she lives in Ohio, but so does her best friend George from California and they start dating.  In another her Mom is her Math teacher, and lives in an apartment by herself, while Ruby and her brother live with their Dad.  Will she ever be able to get back to the world she belongs in?  Or will she choose to live in another universe, as a slightly altered version of herself?

     I really thought that Bishara managed to be creative and fresh in a world of growing amounts of alternate dimensions/freakish time exchange novels.  It managed to throw in some decently explained scientific stuff, while still packing in the action and keeping me glued to the edge of my seat.  That said, I feel like it could have used another 50-100 pages so that a little more explanation could be done on the tree and some specific differences in the history of each dimension.  The addition of a brother to Ruby's life in a couple of the dimensions was interesting and actually added something to it in my opinion.  I did like Willow, her stepmother, but felt like she wasn't very interested in Ruby or what Kandy was really doing when no one was watching.  Ruby's Dad seemed well-intentioned, but was more interested in his advertising campaigns than in making time for his daughter (leaving her mostly to her own devices).  The relationship she has with George is obviously a really intense and close one, but I felt like it wasn't really the focus of the novel.  

     The main question of it was this:  would you choose to live someone else's life just to have things exactly the way you always wanted them?  Even if it meant you'd no longer be yourself?  The ending (with the lightning strike) was pretty fitting, but I felt like this story was too open-ended for my liking as a reader.  I really did like that Ruby got a chance to know the Mother she lost so young to a bad car accident.  But at the same time, the action's focus did feel jerky sometimes.  I guess I'm in the minority that likes a medium to slow pace on novels that have a complicated story to tell.  My only complaint is that it gave me a lot, but not enough.  Overall, a really great read that I would recommend to fans of sci-fi and time-travel/alternate universes.  It's definitely a fresh piece of literature for someone who geeks on that stuff.  I oughta know, cause I'm one of those people! :)

VERDICT:  3.75/5  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 is September 10th, 2013.**

Just a Girl In a Frozen World

Published:  December 11th, 2012

Greta and the Goblin King (Mylena Chronicles # 1)

By: Chloe Jacobs

Entangled Teen

ISBN-13: 9781620610022

While trying to save her brother from a witch’s fire four years ago, Greta was thrown in herself, falling through a portal to Mylena, a dangerous world where humans are the enemy and every ogre, ghoul, and goblin has a dark side that comes out with the eclipse. 

To survive, Greta has hidden her humanity and taken the job of bounty hunter—and she’s good at what she does. So good, she’s caught the attention of Mylena’s young goblin king, the darkly enticing Isaac, who invades her dreams and undermines her will to escape. 

But Greta’s not the only one looking to get out of Mylena. An ancient evil knows she’s the key to opening the portal, and with the next eclipse mere days away, every bloodthirsty creature in the realm is after her—including Isaac. If Greta fails, she and the lost boys of Mylena will die. If she succeeds, no world will be safe from what follows her back...

Review

     Greta has been living in Mylena for the past four years, working as a bounty hunter and trying to fit in with the locals.  But she never will, because Greta is forced to hide the fact that she is human due to the complete and total hatred of her race by all the people of Mylena.  But she has drawn the attention Isaac, the young Goblin King, who is determined to have Greta for his own and invades her dreams every night using his powers.  When Greta's identity is exposed and her mentor murdered, she is forced to go on the run from other bounty hunters looking to collect the price on her head.  Also, she just may be the key to opening an escape portal for the bloodthirsty Agramon, the demon who destroyed Mylena the last time he was loose.  Banding together with a hidden group of human boys, Greta is determined to rescue those of her race and send them home again.  But can she stay alive long enough to accomplish it?  This was different from anything that I had read before, with main supernatural characters being goblins, sprites and other beings instead of the requisite vampires/werewolves.  That alone made me want to read it.  But adding in the elements of romance and adventure definitely helped.  I enjoyed the characterization of Greta, as a strong female heroine who has rolled with the punches and done what was necessary to survive.  The whole romance with Isaac just didn't appeal to me though.  The fact that he was pretty much stalking her in her dreams (*cough*FreddyKrueger*cough*)  was creepy to me and not a basis for romance.  Not to mention that he expresses serious distaste for her entire species and makes a point of being willing to overlook that she happens to be human.  And he spends the whole entire book lying about why she's being hunted and whether he knew about Agramon's human slaves.   The interactions with the Lost Boys (a.k.a the other humans) were sweet but realistic.  Jacob, the littlest one was meant to be cute but basically annoyed me and took time away from the main plot.  Wyatt was definitely a major contender for Greta's romantic interest, but as usual the stupid supernatural stalker won that battle.  I was surprised at the ending, but felt that it wasn't a good enough cliffhanger to keep me going as a reader.  Overall, a disappointment and mostly mediocre book that I had hoped would be great.

VERDICT:  2.5/5  Stars

* I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book was published December 11th, 2012.*

Kinfolk, But Not By Blood...

Published: July 31st, 2012

Otherkin (Otherkin # 1)

By: Nina Berry

Kensington

ISBN-13: 9780758276919

I thought I knew myself. Then I met Caleb.

Dez is a good girl who does as she’s told and tries not to be noticed.
Then she rescues a boy from a cage, and he tells her secrets about herself.
Now inside her burns a darkness that will transform her.

Everything is about to change -- and neither Caleb, nor the Otherkin, nor those who hunt them are prepared for what Dez will unleash.

Review

   Desdemona (better known as Dez by her friends and family) has a loving Mom and Step-Dad, great friends and a safe home.  Plus the boy that she's been crushing on has just noticed her, although her back brace makes it kind of humiliating on top of the excitement she feels.  Then Dez shapeshifts into a tiger for the first time and all Hell breaks loose.  She's shot, kidnapped and stuck inside a cage by an organization called the Tribunal who wants to eliminate all shifters.  But she manages to escape, rescuing Caleb the boy in the cage next to hers on the way out.  It turns out that Dez is Otherkin and is able to tap into her shifter form due to an alternate dimension known as the Othersphere.  Forced to go into hiding at a special school for Otherkin teenagers, Dez and Caleb (who is actually able to call up the shadow in other objects and control it, but not shift himself) slowly begin to make ties with the other shifters, even though their clans are very stand-offish and self-serving.  But when the Tribunal attacks the school itself and the school's leader, Morfael, is wounded and other students captured it will be up to Dez, Caleb and the others that are left to face the Tribunal head on for a change.  Can they work together in time to save the clans from starting a war on each other?  And what explosive secrets is Caleb hiding that will change everything?

     I have been trying to steer clear of shifter/vampire/werewolf/fairy/angel, etc. fiction as of late because it always seems to disappoint my expectations.  This book pleasantly surprised me!  I liked Dez from the start, even if she is a little bit whiny about the back brace.  But the book got into the action right away pretty much, with Dez being forced to deal with a supernatural world underneath her own.  And yes, she's pissed off and bewildered.  But she's also strong, kick-ass and take names which lends to my liking of her.  She rolls with punches very well, especially with a tradition of wishy-washy YA heroines trailing behind her.  I liked that this book had some major set-up for the rest of the series, but also had a lot of action sequences to break up the monotony.  The tentative friendships between the kids from each Clan, who had been pre-conditioned to dislike and distrust each other their whole lives, very realistic.  When the shit hits the fan, those beginning steps almost get thrown from the window until Dez steps up and decides to take on the Tribunal.  It had a Percy Jackson vibe, but with shapeshifters.  The one thing I could have done without was the unnecessary romance between Dez and Caleb.  But it was easily ignored and for that I was grateful.  I just hope the next book bypasses the usual Supe love triangle.  Here's hoping! :)

VERDICT:  4/5  Stars

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book was published July 31st, 2012.*

Be Still My Fluttering Heart

Expected Publication: October 23rd, 2012
Flutter
By: Gina Linko
Random House Books for Young Readers
ISBN-13: 9780375869969

All Emery Land wants is to be like any other 17-year-old—to go to school, hang out with her friends, and just be normal. But for as long as she can remember, she’s suffered from seizures. And in recent years they’ve consumed her life. To Emery they’re much more than seizures, she calls them loops—moments when she travels through wormholes back and forth in time and to a mysterious town. The loops are taking their toll on her physically. So she practically lives in the hospital where her scientist father and an ever-growing team of doctors monitor her every move. They’re extremely interested in the data they collect when Emery seizes. It appears that she’s tapping into parts of the brain typically left untouched by normal human beings.

Escaping from the hospital, Emery travels to Esperanza, the town from her loops on the upper peninsula of Michigan, where she meets Asher Clarke. Ash’s life is governed by his single-minded pursuit of performing good Samaritan acts to atone for the death of a loved one. His journey is very much entwined with Emery’s loops.

Drawn together they must unravel their complicated connection before it’s too late.

Review

   Emery Land is sick of being treated like a walking, talking, laboratory experiment by her Dad and the government.  Ever since she was little Em has been 'looping' back and forth through time, while having seizures that have nearly destroyed her body's functions.  Practically living in the hospital, all Em wants is to be a normal high school girl.  When her visions of the mysterious little boy and his town become more vivid, Emery enlists the help of her best friend Gia to run away to Esperanza, Michigan to find him.  While there she makes a connection with another wandering teen named Asher Clarke.  His life is consumed by acts of kindness, to make up for the death of a family member he blames himself for.  He is familiar to Em and she's determined to figure out their connection.  But can they solve the mystery before Em is caught by her Dad, and the NSA/FBI/CIA agents he's working with?  Also, will they be able to reconcile their feelings for each other with their messed up situation?  This book just about broke my heart.  It really did deserve the comparison to The Time Traveler's Wife, with it's extremely complicated and winding narrative.  Even though it was far more linear that the aforesaid novel by Audrey Niffenger, it was still very similar.  However, a plot twist near the very end sets it apart on a plane of existence all its own.  Emery is a compelling main character.  Her seizures are becoming more frequent and effectively killing her, bit by bit.  She is a constant hospital patient and it makes so much sense to me that she would fixate so heavily on something in one of her loops, because what else does she really have other than a really crappy, probably short-lived existence?  I loved that the book was set in Michigan - how often does that happen in YA books that are published by major publishing houses?  The representation of the home state was seriously awesome! :)  Other readers complain about the slow build of the plot, but in this case it really worked for me.  I liked having the focus set on Em trying to figure out the mystery behind the little boy and the town in her loops.  I also loved seeing her build a slice of real life in Esperanza while she searched.  Ash was an interesting character and I enjoyed that fact that he didn't follow the current trend of YA love interests by being a self-righteous prick.  He was kind, caring and had his own shit to deal with.  But he still had time to make Emery feel special and become someone important in her life.  I could have used more resolution at the end with the Dad/government subplot and the choice that Emery and Ash ultimately made was beautiful on a tragic level but also majorly disappointing.  They could have done so many other things, so why choose that road?  Overall, not for the faint of heart and not for hardcore sci-fi fans, because it was really more of a romance/fantasy novel.  I myself would have liked a larger dose of sci-fi.

VERDICT:  4/5  Stars

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication date is October 23rd, 2012.*