Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree, With Anyone Else But Me

Expected Publication: January 20th, 2015

First Frost (Waverley Family #2)

By: Sarah Addison Allen

St. Martin's Press

ISBN-13:  9781250019837

It's October in Bascom, North Carolina, and autumn will not go quietly.  As temperatures drop and leaves begin to turn, the Waverley women are made restless by the whims of their mischievious apple tree...and all the magic that swirls around it.  But this year, first frost has much more in store.

Claire Waverley has started a successful new venture, Waverley's Candies.  Through her handcrafted confections -- rose to recall lost love, lavender to promote happiness, and lemon verbena to soothe throats and minds -- are singularly effective, the business of selling them is costing her the everyday joys of her family, and her belief in her own precious gifts.

Sydney Waverley, too, is losing her balance.  With each passing day she longs more for a baby -- a namesake for her wonderful Henry.  Yet the longer she tries, the more her desire becomes an unquenchable thirst, stealing the pleasure out of the life she already has.

Sydney's daughter, Bay, has lost her heart to the boy she knows it belongs to...if only he could see it, too.  But how can he, when he is so far outside her grasp that he appears to her as little more than a puff of smoke?

When a mysterious stranger shows up and challenges the very heart of their family, each of them must make choices they have never confronted before.  And through it all, the Waverley sisters must search for a way to hold their family together through their troublesome season of change, waiting for that extraordinary event that is First Frost.

Review

       I generally like my magic and my reality clearly defined and in their separate boxes (or if mixed in the same box, it's obvious and for a specific reason).  Magical realism is a type of writing that I have very limited experience with, and before requesting this book I had read nothing by Sarah Addison Allen.  I'm glad I didn't realize it was a companion to a previous work, or I might not have tried reading it.  That said, I really enjoyed the idea that this ordinary southern family, the Waverleys, had magical powers passed down through the female line.  Everyone just accepts this as a fact, including the people of the town they live in.  It kind of reminded me of Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman, in that while not completely ostracized by their peers, the Waverley women (especially teenaged Bay) are treated like freaks - there for convenience and never to truly belong with the rest of the world.  It was a realistic attitude that I'm sure many people would adopt out of fear, if magic was truly real.

       The Waverley women are always restless in autumn, and nothing is exactly right again until first frost happens.  When the apple tree blooms, everything is good once again.  Until then, nothing is sitting quite right with the sisters or their own children.  Claire Waverley has gone from her catering business into a candy business, that while successful, is making her feel like her magic might be manufactured, and not real after all.  Sydney Waverley is desperate to give her husband Henry a son, a namesake to carry on the traditions of the men in his family.  Her hair gets redder and redder with desire, and she allows herself to be unsatisfied with her already full life.  Bay Waverley has a talent for knowing where things belong.  She knows that she belongs with Josh Matteson, but can't seem to make him understand that.  Then a strange old man rolls into town, claiming that Claire was the daughter of his friends and isn't really a Waverley - that her "mother" kidnapped her.  Will Claire let this con shake the last of her faith in herself and the magic, or will she band together with Sydney, Bay and their cousin Evanelle, to come out even stronger?

       Since I didn't read the novel before this one, Garden Spells, I had no previous impressions of the characters.  Therefore, I think I liked Bay the best.  She's the most in tune with herself and knows that she is a Waverley woman - that magic is a fact of her life.  She's not boy-crazy, and isn't being a total goof over Josh.  In fact when we get to know what her infamous note to him really said, it was really just an offer of friendship.  She isn't trying to push anything, but Bay knows they belong together and that she can help Josh, who is miserable and being crushed beneath his family's expectations.  I also really liked Evanelle, whose talent is giving people the things they need.  She was a hilarious, strong old lady and she cracked me up.  Sydney was my least favorite, mostly because she lets this young girl Violet, her receptionist (a teen Mom) walk all over her and steal from her.  All because she's obsessed with Violet's baby son.  She was so laser-focused on getting pregnant that she stopped talking to her daughter and basically used Henry as a sex-machine.  I empathized more towards the end, but the plot "twist" Allen had in regards to her was super predictable and made me roll my eyes.  I did like that Claire's daughter Mariah, the "normal" one of the family," did turn to have an unexpected gift.  Overall, I enjoyed reading this one and might attempt more magical realism in the future.  I might even backtrack and read Garden Spells.

VERDICT:  3.5/5  Stars

*I  received this book from St Martin's Press, on NetGalley.  No favors or money were exchanged for this review.  This book was published on January 20th, 2015.*

Sweet Hitchhiker

 

Published:  October 1st, 2013

The Beautiful and the Damned

By: Jessica Verday

Simon Pulse

ISBN-13:  9781442488359

 

Cyn’s blackouts have deadly consequences in this sexy, suspenseful spinoff to the New York Times bestselling Hollow series.Cyn and Avian are far from a perfect match. She’s a witch who casts spells on men so she can steal their cars. He spends his time being judge, jury, and executioner to the truly evil in the supernatural realm.

When the blackouts Cyn’s been having ever since her time in Sleepy Hollow start escalating, she finds herself unable to remember where she’s been or what she’s been doing. Frightened, she seeks guidance at a local church, and it’s there she meets Avian.

The unlikely pair soon discovers that her blackouts are a side effect of what she truly is—an Echo—a conduit for souls of the dead. The only way to prevent Cyn from losing complete control is to return to Sleepy Hollow and vanquish the source of her power—but she may not survive the process. And if she does? She won’t ever be the same...

 

Review

 

     Cyn is on the run from her life right now, starting over with a new identity.  If only she wasn't blacking out and losing chunks of time where someone else has control of her body, using it to do horrifying things.  What is sharing Cyn's body?  And did it cause her to kill her boyfriend Hunter, the love of her life?  Maybe with the help of Avian, also known as Thirteen, who is a Revenant and belongs in neither Heaven or Hell.  Half angel and half demon, Avian no longer wants to get mixed up with Echoes (people possessed with souls of the deceased, sharing their bodies) and at first avoids Cyn at all costs.  But when Father Montgomery, the priest helping them both, is murdered and Cyn gets in over her head he decides to try and bail her out.  Is it too late, or can Cyn be saved from the monsters within?

     I originally was a pretty large fan of the initial Hollow trilogy.  At least until the third book, when I feel like the series completely fell apart.  I don't even know why I decided to read this one, seeing as I honestly didn't enjoy numbers 2 or 3 in the last series and its a companion novel.  I was intrigued though, so I decided to read it anyways.  I was not very impressed to say the least.  I felt like while the action kept the plot moving along fairly well, that the world-building didn't allow for newcomers to really understand everything that was happening.  I enjoyed the cameo with Abbey and Caspian near the end of the book, when Cyn and Avian head back to Sleepy Hollow but I felt like it was kind of cheesy all the same. 

     I am not a very big fan of undying, clichéd romantic relationships so I wasn't all that invested in Cyn and Avian's slow burn for each other.  I did like that they weren't involved with one another right away though, as insta-love would have been ten times worse.  The coolest part of this book was the mystery behind whether or not Cyn was being possessed and what it meant to be an Echo sharing a body with the soul of a Revenant, especially since the Revenant was trying to kill her.  I did like Cyn for the most part, but I felt like I didn't get to know her all that well either.  This book was kind of short for any in depth character development, or real backstory on what makes her tick.  And the conclusion about Avian's dead girlfriend's soul made me roll my eyes.  I found myself skimming pages and just trying to get finished.  So in the end, all I can really say is that this definitely was NOT the book for me personally.  Maybe the whole angel/demon thing would appeal more to someone else and make up for the pretty weak writing in this one.

 

VERDICT:  2/5  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 was published October 1st, 2013.*

If I Was Invisible...Wait, I Already Am

Expected Publication:  August 1st, 2013
Invisible
By: Marni Bates
K-Teen
ISBN-13:  9780758269386

Jane Smith has survived three years of high school without making a single enemy, all by keeping a low profile. Not even her three best friends, Kenzie, Corey and Isobel, can say the same. But with Corey dating the lead singer from ReadySet and Kenzie in a relationship too, being invisible tends to be lonely. But now she's written an article for her school newspaper that has accidentally snagged the attention of some celebrities. Turns out, people get really upset when their innermost secrets are splashed all over the front page. And new her well-ordered life is being blasted to hell, with results that are wildly unexpected.

Review

 

     Jane Smith has managed to fly under the radar for her entire time in high school and she liked it that way because she still had the support of her truly awesome best friends.  But than Cory started dating a famous lead singer and Kenzie became America's Most Awkward Girl AND got the guy.  Now they never have any time for her and are always going places/doing things that they don't invite Jane along for.  Not to mention they take her for granted any time the opportunity arises. This does nothing for her already non-existent self-esteem.  Than she punches school bully Scott in the lunchroom and gets forcibly teamed up with Scott, a boy she can't stand (because of a perceived snub) for a front page article in the school newspaper that she never even wanted.  All Jane wanted was for someone to let her add a fiction page into the paper - quietly!  Now she's breaking rules, making changes and forcing everyone to actually look at her for once.  But not everything that happens as a result is good and Jane ends up hurting the people she cares for most unintentionally.  Can she fix things before she really does end up invisible and alone?

     To be quite honest, if you have read the first book with Kenzie you may be kind of wary of this one like I was.  And the synopsis is really misleading, because the blow-up with the article doesn't even happen until the last 25% or so of the book.  The main focus is Jane learning to stand up for herself and assert her own needs to the other people in her life.  Also, learning that we can't choose who we have romantic feelings for and that you shouldn't be a douchebag because of it (that last part is something she's REALLY slow at learning, but having Scott on the other end does nothing to help the point across!!!).  Jane got on my nerves for a good majority of the book and that's putting it mildly and politely.  She was one of the most milquetoast 'heroines' that I've read so far this year in the realm of YA.  Yes, teens are not a species of perfection which is perfectly okay.  But she has no self-respect, which kind of detracts from when she does something really awesome (like punching Scott in the face or...yeah can't think of anything else right now).  The whole book is spent with her whining about how no one sees her and her friends are ditching her.  Of course she does NOTHING about it until she blows up at Kenzie closer to the end of the book.  Also, there's something borderline call-the-suicide-prevention-hotline about coming up with ways to die when you're bored, etc.  It kind of creeped me out.  I loved Isobel and honestly thought a book with a romance between her and the girl in the baking club would have been lots more interesting and majorly cute (Mabye I'm inferring something there, but that's what I saw anyways).

   The romance with Scott wasn't swoonworthy at all.  He spent most of the book acting like a complete manipulative, blackmailing douchebag to Jane (who spent the whole book being an a-hole to him cause she wanted to pretend she didn't like him).  Scott crashes her first date, provides the pictures for the ruinous article and goes to a horrible family dinner at Jane's being her fake 'boyfriend.'  All while doing his best to be an arrogant jerk and make her life a living Hell!  And this is supposed to make me root for them as a couple?  WTH???  Their whole dynamic is borderline abusive and after spending the whole book just wanting him to jump off a cliff and with the meanest interactions possible, they suddenly like like each other?  A world of no!  Just not a thing I could get behind.  I did like Jane's crazy old lady, bookstore boss who wanted them to take a picture in the makeout section.  She was hilarious.  The real highlight character-wise for me though was the nice side of somewhat mean-girl Chelsea.  At times she was a better person than Jane's supposed best friends.  By the time the story broke, I had already started skimming through it because this book was boring me and making me cringe.  Some may identify with this book and really like it.  They may even find it somewhat funny and cute.  I just really didn't and wouldn't really recommend it to anyone.  Just re-read Awkward instead, it'll be a much more satisfying experience!

 

VERDICT:  2.25/5  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 is August 1st, 2013.*

Life Is a Highway

Expected Publication: October 1st, 2012
Stealing Parker
By: Miranda Kenneally
Sourcebooks Fire
ISBN-13: 9781402271878

Parker Shelton pretty much has the perfect life. She’s on her way to becoming valedictorian at Hundred Oaks High, she’s made the all-star softball team, and she has plenty of friends. Then her mother’s scandal rocks their small town and suddenly no one will talk to her.

Now Parker wants a new life.

So she quits softball. Drops twenty pounds. And she figures why kiss one guy when she can kiss three? Or four. Why limit herself to high school boys when the majorly cute new baseball coach seems especially flirty?

But how far is too far before she loses herself completely?

Review

   Parker Shelton used to have the perfect happy family complete with her stay-at-home Mom, overachiever brother Ryan and architect Dad.  But then her Mom revealed that she was a lesbian and left them for another woman.  Now Parker is ostracized by her ex-best friends Laura (the youth pastor's daughter at the family's church) and Allie, gossiped about by everyone in church and only her friend Drew stands by her.  Conflicted about whether or not to stay in touch with her Mom and forgive her, or to stay angry and keep herself away from the 'sin' Parker is determined to prove that she is NOT a lesbian like her Mom.  She quite softball and loses 30 pounds to seem less 'butch.'  She refuses to have committed relationships and instead only hooks up with a guy once and moves on to another the next day.  But with her brother becoming more and more into drugs, her Dad never being home and no Mom to guide her, Parker is making some serious mistakes.  Can she do the right thing for her family and herself?  And is it really okay to sneaking around with the new, college graduate assistant coach Brian when it's against the law and could get them both in serious trouble?  Can Parker find a way to keep her friendship with Drew and start a real relationship with his teammate Will?  Parker has some serious issues and I honestly think that made me sympathize more with her and like her more than I would have if she'd have been more like Jordan Woods, the main character in Miranda's other book.  Parker wants for things to go back to normal with her family and she does want a relationship with her Mom.  But at the same time, her church and her old friends have managed to make her so confused about what's right or wrong, that she is reluctant to communicate with her Mom at all anymore.  I felt so sorry for Parker that had the idea that she needed to hook up as much as possible to avoid the label of 'lesbian' because of her Mom.  Small towns are so cruel.  I have gay relatives, but that doesn't mean that by association I'm anything less than straight as an arrow.  I loved the realistic family conflicts and I wasn't surprised when Drew tells Parker about his personal revelation.  I liked the slow-growing relationship between Parker and Will (aka Corndog) and was seriously pissed when Drew questioned her ability to remain faithful and have a serious relationship.  I enjoyed the prayers that Parker wrote at the start of each chapter and burned to keep them personal.  Brian was an unusually sympathetic character for me, as it was obvious that  he really did care about Parker, but had so many issues of his own that he wasn't capable of a strong relationship.  Not to mention that she was a student and that their hook up could have destroyed his coaching and teaching careers for good.  I liked the plot, characters, overall story and the development that each person went through, but especially Parker.  The ending was very sweet and I am impressed with this book's approach to life.  I am interested to see what the author does next and I would recommend this to fans of YA contemporary fiction, especially Sarah Dessen, Deb Calleti and Susanne Colasanti.

VERDICT:  4.25/5  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 October 1st, 2012.*

Oh, Sweet Child Of Mine

Published: April 17th, 2012
The Springsweet (The Vespertine # 2)
By: Saundra Mitchell
Harcourt Children's Books
ISBN-13: 9780547608426

Heartbroken over the tragic death of her fiancé, seventeen-year-old Zora Stewart leaves Baltimore for the frontier town of West Glory, Oklahoma, to help her young widowed aunt keep her homestead going. There she discovers that she possesses the astonishing ability to sense water under the parched earth. When her aunt hires her out as a "springsweet” to advise other settlers where to dig their wells, Zora feels the burden of holding the key to something so essential to survival in this unforgiving land. Even more, she finds herself longing for love the way the prairie thirsts for water. Maybe, in the wildness of the territories, Zora can finally move beyond simply surviving and start living.

Review

   Zora Stewart stops caring about life after her fiance Thomas and her cousin Amelia both die.  With her Mother determined to shove her back into her old life, Zora takes drastic measures.  After almost publicly ruining herself, her Mother finally agrees to send her to live with her widowed Aunt Birdie(not much older than her) and her cousin Louella in West Glory, Oklahoma.  Once she gets there, Zora finds out that she is a springsweet, able to sense water underneath the parched surface of the Earth.  This is a really valuable talent on the dry frontier land, so her Aunt Birdie starts hiring her out to the neighbors.  Meanwhile Zora is resisting the attentions of Theo De La Croix, the man from back home that she used in scheme to get sent away.  She is undeniably attracted to Emerson Birch, a man regarded as trashy and a problem waiting to happen by the other townspeople.  Can Zora make a decision that will allow her to follow her heart or will she be unable to let go of the past?  I honestly was iffy about reading this book after being disappointed by the mediocrity of The Vespertine.  But I was pleasantly surprised.  I really liked Zora in the first book and watching her grow as a person, become even stronger and move past the heartbreak she'd suffered was wonderful.  I honestly didn't particularly care for Aunt Birdie all that much.  I felt like she was too pushy and not a deep enough character.  While I liked Theo, I felt that Emerson was definitely the right match for Zora.  Theo was too much like her old life, while Emerson was part of the frontier world Zora joined.  The supernatural abilities that Zora and Emerson possess were unique.  I've never read of anything like Zora's water sense before in YA.  My major complaint is that this book was far too short.  I would have liked another 50-100 pages to allow the story more time to develop and the characters more time to get into my heart.  All the same, this book stands alone pretty well but the ending would be a little confusing without the backstory of The Vespertine.  Other than that, I'd say skip the first one and dive right into this interesting and fun novel.

VERDICT:  4.25/5  Stars

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

Just a Thread Connects Us

Expected Publication: September 11th, 2012
Hanging By A Thread (Banished # 3)
By: Sophie Littlefield
Random House Children's Books
ISBN-13: 9780385741040

Summer is the best part of the year in Winston, California, and the Fourth of July is the highlight of the season. But the perfect town Clare remembers has changed, and everyone is praying that this summer will be different from the last two—that this year's Fourth of July festival won't see one of their own vanish without a trace, leaving no leads and no suspects. The media are in a frenzy predicting a third disappearance, but the town depends on tourist dollars, so the residents of Winston are trying desperately to pretend nothing's wrong.

And they're not the only ones hiding something.

Clare, a seamstress who redesigns vintage clothing, has been blessed—or perhaps cursed—with a gift: she can see people's pasts when she touches their clothes. When she stumbles across a denim jacket that once belonged to Amanda Stavros, last year's Fourth of July victim, Clare sees her perfect town begin to come apart at the seams.

In a town where appearance means everything, how deep beneath the surface will Clare dig to uncover a murderer?

Review

   Clare has just moved back to Winston, California with her Mom following the economic crisis.  Her family has a long, sordid history with Winston beginning with her Great-Grandmother Alma's murder in her seamstress shop.  Since then, every other generation a woman in Clare's family is born with the gift to see other people's emotions and past deeds by touching their clothing.  Clare and her Nana both have the gift, but her practical Mom prefers to pretend that it doesn't exist.  For the last two years, someone has died on the Fourth of July in Winston and the town's panic is rising as the day draws near, anticipating a third tragedy.  Clare finds a second-hand jacket that belonged to Amanda Stavros, the girl who went missing last year.  The feelings that she gets from it are ugly and terrified.  Clare knows that something bad has happened to Amanda and she was probably murdered.  There is no way to prove it until she finds evidence though, so Clare begins to investigate what really happened last year, starting with Amanda's juvenile-delinquent boyfriend, Jack, who everyone thinks is behind her disappearance.  However, as the suspects pile up and her attraction to Jack grows, will Clare be able to separate fact from fiction and solve the mystery?  Or will she be the killer's next victim?  I might be one of the few people who didn't find all of the clothing talk off-putting.  Clare designs and sells clothing using new and vintage pieces that she fuses together.  Yes, the author used A LOT of mostly repetitive description.  But that didn't bother me, because clothing is an important element of Clare's ability.  I loved that the psychometry was clothing related.  It was interesting and I'd never seen it done before.  Clare was an independent, strong girl who had a goal in life.  The relationship with her Mom was realisitc.  In some YAs the parents are unrealistically distant or close to/from their kids.  In this on there was balance.  They had their differences and Clare is a lot closer to her Nana, who shares her ability.  My main complaint is the slow speed and overall bad plot pacing technique used.  The story all happened in the last third of the book.  It was a pretty disjointed mystery and while I enjoyed Clare, I wasn't such a fan of her stubborn antics and her nonsensical relationship with Jack, who for all she knows might be a killer.  She's attracted to him despite that fact which turned me off.  The ending just seemed rather anticlimactic comapred to the way the mystery was built up throughout the novel.  A fun book, but not the best I've ever read; I won't be revisiting it anytime soon, if ever.

VERDICT:  3/5  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 is September 11th, 2012.*

Into The Dragonswood We Go...

Published: January 5th, 2012
Dragonswood
By: Janet Lee Carey
Dial Books
ISBN-13: 9780803735040

Wilde Island is not at peace. The kingdom mourns the dead Pendragon king and awaits the return of his heir; the uneasy pact between dragons, fairies, and humans is strained; and the regent is funding a bloodthirsty witch hunt. Tess, daughter of a blacksmith, has visions of the future, but she still doesn't expect to be accused of witchcraft.

 

Review

 

   Tess has always known there was something different about her from everyone else in her small village.  She can see visions of the future in fire sometimes.  She has always been very careful to keep this a secret, but when a witch hunter comes to town and Tess stands accused, her only option is to run for her life.  If only Tess hadn't gone into the Dragonswood to escape her abusive Father, the place everyone believes to be cursed and a sanctuary for witches and other evils.  In reality it is land that was set aside to house the dragons and the fey, protect them from the outside world.  Tess is joined on the run by her friends Meg and Poppy, because she mentioned them while she was being tortured.  They are all taken in by a strange woodsman named Garth, who seems only to have the best intentions.  He has a secret though and it may be one that could ruin them all.  Will Tess and the others be able to clear their names and save the kingdom, using an ages old prophecy as their guide?  This book was absolutely wonderful.  It has a sincerity that endeared it to me from the beginning and Tess is such an honest character, even with all of her flaws.  I loved the prophecy and royalty storylines.  Plus it was nice to see the slow but steady romance of Garth and Tess, which even though it wasn't the book's focus, added an extra layer of depth to it.  All of the supporting characters were interesting and attachable as well.  I loved the dragons and fey, their treaty with the humans and the fact that this was a companion novel but I was able to read it as a stand-alone perfectly well.  I CANNOT WAIT to read the first book about Rosalinda, a princess with dragon blood.  Highly recommended for lovers of fantasy.  Half a star is deducted though for the obviousness of Garth's 'shocking' secret.

 

VERDICT:  4.5/5  Stars

 

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