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.*

Heaven Knows, Anything Goes

Published:  November 8th, 2012
Sirens (Faithful # 3)
By: Janet Fox
Speak
ISBN-13:  9780142424308

When Jo Winter’s parents send her off to live with her rich cousin on the glittering island of Manhattan, it’s to find a husband and forget about her brother Teddy’s death. But all that glitters is not gold.. 

Caught up in the swirl of her cousin’s bobbed-hair set—and the men that court them— Jo soon realizes that the talk of marriage never stops, and behind the seemingly boundless gains are illicit business endeavors, gangsters, and their molls. Jo would much rather spend time the handsome but quiet Charles, a waiter at the Algonquin Hotel, than drape herself over a bootlegger. But when she befriends a moll to one of the most powerful men in town, Jo begins to uncover secrets—secrets that threaten an empire and could secure Jo’s freedom from her family. 

Can her newfound power buy her love? Or will it ruin Jo, and everyone around her?

Review

     Jo Winter is still getting over her brother Teddy's sudden death, when her parents decide to ship her off to New York to live with her rich relatives.  All she wants is to finish high school, go to college and become a working woman - do something exciting with her life.  Jo definitely isn't ready for a husband, which is supposedly the reason her parents send her to her cousin Melody (a notorious flapper).  In reality it's to remove her from danger, because the famous gangster Danny Connor has been causing trouble for her bootlegger Father.  And it's all got something to do with Teddy...  Befriending Louise 'Lou' O'Keefe, Danny's Irish girlfriend, is either the smartest or dumbest move Jo could make.  A jealous gangster's moll is nothing to take lightly.  When she discovers Teddy's journal, the mystery behind his 'death' really begins to unfold, as she solves clues to find missing pages.  Danny Connor would do anything to get his hands on that journal as it holds some of his most closely guarded secrets.  Even committing deadly acts that Jo might never get the chance to escape from.  Can she make it out of a harsh new life of crime, booze and partying alive, or will becoming a flapper be the end of Jo?

     I expected this to be something like the Bright Young Things series by Anna Godberson - of which I am not a fan.  I was hoping for something like the Flapper series by Jillian Larkin.  What I got was neither of those things - it was book entirely it's own, shiny new take on the 1920's Prohibition, organized crime and partying phenomenon.   This was a book about a girl who actually doesn't care about being a flapper, as much as she'd like to be an independent career girl.  Also the one flapper we really get to know, her cousin Melody, has a tragic backstory of her own.  She is really only going through the motions and has something that matters more to her than partying ever could - even if she is disillusioned by life.  I liked that it went back and forth between Jo's point of view and Lou's.  They were two completely different women and it was definitely interesting to see the obvious discrepancies in the way they view the world.  Being Irish and poor in America in the early 1900's forced Lou to fend for herself or find someone to take care of her - she chose the latter, and went with Danny Connor.  Jo, from a very different background, is also learning that same lesson throughout the novel, but she chooses to fend for herself.

     Along with the romance and partying in this book, came a murder mystery.  The death of Jo's brother Teddy also was linked with a real-life political bombing that Fox used to very good affect.  Probably the major issue that I had with this book it the absolutely stupid way that Jo's parents chose to try and 'protect' her.  She gets sent to New York, and everyone is told where she's going!  Yeah, that's gonna make it hard to find her for reals Mr. and Mrs. Winter!  Also, her brother was perfect in her imaginings and remembrances.  I would have preferred to have REAL moments between them.  Especially from after Teddy returned from WWI.  He was most likely suffering from some form of shell-shock (PTSD) like many soldiers were and that kind of thing utterly fucks you up.  And if a guy goes to work for a known mobster and also gets involved what is basically a terrorist political group, he's far from some perfect knight in shining armor!  The way the actions builds toward the ending was fast-paced, but extremely cliched and I was rolling my eyes throughout.  I would have liked to have seen more about Melody.  Frankly, it might have been a better book that made tons more sense if it had been about her instead of Jo.  That said, I did enjoy it even if it's not a favorite or the best book ever.  I especially enjoyed the detailed descriptions of NY in the 1920's.  Fox has a serious gift with words.  I am going to be going back and reading the first two for sure.  Overall a good read, and if you like mysteries and 1920's settings, you should try it out.

VERDICT:  3.5/5  Stars

**No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book is now available in stores, online, or maybe even at your local library.**

Burning Down the House

Published:  May 16th, 2013
Firecracker
By: David Iserson
Razorbill
ISBN-13:  9781595143709

Being Astrid Krieger is absolutely all it's cracked up to be.

She lives in a rocket ship in the backyard of her parents' estate.

She was kicked out of the elite Bristol Academy and she's intent on her own special kind of revenge to whomever betrayed her.

She only loves her grandfather, an incredibly rich politician who makes his money building nuclear warheads.

It's all good until...

"We think you should go to the public school," Dad said.
This was just a horrible, mean thing to say. Just hearing the words "public school" out loud made my mouth taste like urine (which, not coincidentally, is exactly how the public school smells).

Will Astrid finally meet her match in the form of public school? Will she find out who betrayed her and got her expelled from Bristol? Is Noah, the sweet and awkward boy she just met, hiding something?

Review

 

     From all of the reviews that I've read about this book, it seems to be one that you either REALLY like/love or one that you straight-up hate!  I am more in the truly like camp of feelings for this particular book.  Astrid Krieger is a truly messed up individual.  She comes from a very rich family, where everyone except for her crazy Grandfather pretty much ignores her and she's been taught that power is everything, that to need anyone else is the worst kind of weakness imaginable.  So when Astrid is betrayed by one of her minions and kicked out of her boarding school, she is determined to find out why exactly they got her kicked out and how they managed it.  In the meantime, she's stuck in public school with the unwashed masses but a boy named Noah might just make things more bearable until Astrid can regain her rightful place at Bristol Academy.  When all Hell breaks loose and her life becomes more of a mess than even she ever imagined, can Astrid pick up the pieces and learn to let someone else into her world finally? 

     I liked the premise of this book and there were a lot of extremely interesting characters.  This whole book centers around Astrid learning that she can't keep everything and everyone distanced from herself forever.  She is a complete and total asshole to everyone around her, the only person being an exception to that is her Grandfather.  Astrid has never truly had friends, only co-conspirators.  She can't stand anyone in her immediate family and refuses to call the exchange student who's obsessed with her by his actual name, instead calling him Pierre.  But when she meets Noah he starts to break through her shield of sarcasm and rudeness.  I loved that she lived in a rocket ship on the property instead of in the house with her family.  I loved the therapy sessions with her former headmaster and thought that his assignment for her was pretty genius.  The way she tries to enact a change in her life, while still being an aggressive, truth-telling bomb of human being was heartbreaking at times and absolutely hilarious at others. 

      I think that my favorite character was a toss up between her Grandfather and Lucy, her hair-chewing friend that she accepts into her life reluctantly.  Both had a certain vulnerability (Lucy's was more obvious) that made Astrid actually stop and think about her actions at times.  Yes Astrid does horrible things to people with practically zero reason: trying to sell the local police station to China, robbing convenience stores, the way she treats Pierre, smashing a Twinkie into a bitchy girl's hair at school.  But she also does good things like giving away burgers at the Dairy Queen, going to Lucy's birthday party and roller-skating when no one shows up, saving her sister's wedding by getting the groom to the church when it looks like he's gonna run for it.  By the end of the novel she is still herself, but has learned that to be an awesome person she doesn't have to alienate everyone.  My main complaint would be the meandering plot that seems to go in a million directions and gets slightly ADD as it moves along.  It takes way too long for Astrid to figure out the mystery behind being kicked out of boarding school, especially who was really behind it.  I had figured out by the halfway point at the latest.  And Astrid's self-monologues did get somewhat repetitive at times.  Overall, it was a seriously amusing and funny book that had memorable characters and a decent plot.  I would recommend it to fans of the more recent run of crazy comedies like Pineapple Express and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, who enjoy an edge reminiscent of that T.V. show New Girl, for which the author is a writer.

 

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 May 16th, 2013.*

W.A.R....What Is It Good For?

Expected Publication:  July 2nd, 2013
This Is W.A.R.
By: Lisa Roecker & Laura Roecker
Soho Teen
ISBN-13:  9781616952617

This is W.A.R. begins with a victim who can no longer speak for herself, and whose murder blossoms into a call-to-arms.  Enter four very different girls, four very different motives to avenge Willa Ames-Rowan, and only one rule to start: Destroy James Gregory and his family at any cost.  Willa's initials spell the secret rallying cry that spurs the foursome to pool their considerable resources and deliver their particular brand of vigilante justice.  Innocence is lost, battles are won—and the pursuit of the truth ultimately threatens to destroy them all.

Review

 

     Everyone knows that James Gregory murdered Willa Ames-Rowan, but no one is willing to speak out against the most powerful family in town.  Those who go against the Gregorys tend to disappear or have bad things happen to them.  But Willa's best friends have had enough and are determined to exact justice for themselves, if the police won't take any real action.  Rose wants to help because she regrets not letting herself really be Willa's friend and also, she is feeling guilty from lying to her police detective Father about what she happened to see.  Rose joins forces with Lina, Sloane, and Madge to punish who they believe to be guilty - but when the truth is exposed what decision is truly the one to honor Willa's memory? 

     I feel like this one was a mixed bag for me personally as a reader.  I actually had originally thought this book sounded like a modern interpretation of An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser.  It seemed like more of a cross between that book, the Pretty Little Liars Series by Sara Shepard and with a hint of John Tucker Must Die.  The beginning gives the last moments of Willa as she is being drowned and then cuts to Rose's narration of the aftermath (for some reason Rose's voice reminded me of the unnamed second wife in Rebecca - in the best way possible) scene at the exclusive Club they all frequent.  Rose's point of view caught me the most because she was completely on the fringes, with only a slight connection to Willa.  Her Mom is a club employee and her Dad is a cop.  But her interactions with the other girls made her my favorite character by far.  Lina is a complicated, tattooed girl with no one who cares about her, except for her friends.  Madge, Willa's stepsister, is the most vengeful and zealous of all the girls when it comes to waging W.A.R. and avenging Willa's murder.  Her intensity and overall bitchiness for a major portion of the novel kept me waffling as to whether or not I liked her character.  Sloane is basically the stereotypical smart Asian girl, except she got there by faking it and cheating in school.  Willa was the only person who believed in her enough to help her try to do things the right way.

     Plot in this novel starts out intriguing and full of wonderful ambiguity, but quickly devolves into something more teen 'movie of the week-esque.'    The girls' revenge ideas for James and his demented brother Trip are juvenile at best and completely ridiculous at worst.  They have $75,000 at their disposal and the best they can come up with is hormone therapy, nude picture scandals, and stealing Cartier watches to auction on eBay.  And they naively seem to think that these things are enough 'bad behavior' for the brothers to be disinherited based on a morality clause in their Grandfather's will.  Yeah, whatever!  I could barely suspend my disbelief on that part.  Also, a lot of the girls' plotting sessions, interactions with each other and thought patterns were extremely shallow and didn't move too far past the clichéd 'killing for the money' trope.  Some of the conversations between James, Trip and their Grandfather (any combo thereof) were pretty chilling though.  It was entirely predictable, but had a very nice tone to most of the novel.  My only real confusion was over the ending.  I won't give any details, but suffice it to say that the prose was beautiful, but nonsensical in relation to the plot (at least in my opinion).  The characters were decently developed, but my favorite was a tie between Lina (who was a truly good person) and Rose, who was completely loyal to the girls who became her friends.  Sloane's emphasized stupidity really bothered me though.  It's like the authors felt it necessary to emulate all the stereotypes in one fell swoop.  Overall a decent read that keeps you guessing at the details of the ending, even if you know most of it already.  This would be a good beach read for the summer, nice and relaxing with more fluff than anticipated.

 

VERDICT:  3.5/5  Stars

 

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via Edelweiss. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication date is July 2nd, 2013.*