Review: The Bone Season

Title: The Bone Season (The Bone Season #1)
Author: Samantha Shannon
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Released: 20th August 2013
Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to my obnoxiously frustrating mood lately, it took me far longer than it should have done to read The Bone Season.  Through no fault of its own, three chapters in it was ungratefully cast aside so my restless mind could settle on other things - other books - until I actually forced myself to go back to it.  This time I pushed through; finally my mind calmed and I was able to lose myself in what is an undoubtedly exceptional read.

We find ourselves first in the heart of London, where the Seven Seals reside.  In a world where clairvoyance is illegal, this syndicate must ensure they keep their abilities secret.  Paige Mahoney in particular is a rare type of clairvoyant; she is a dreamwalker, with the ability to break into and explore the minds of others.  The last thing she needs is for the Scion to find out, the ruling force and the reason behind the sudden disappearance of so many clairvoyants.  But then she's caught, and she finds herself in the voyant prison in Oxford.  Except here there are creatures even worse than the Scion: the Rephaim.  To them, clairvoyants are good for something: fighting.  Unknown to the rest of the world, there is a war going on, and the Rephaim see the clairvoyants as soldiers.  Paige subsequently finds herself without any freedom.  She has a Master, Warden, and if she wants to survive she'll have to take care.  But at the same time she has no plans to stop fighting for her freedom, and doing so will meaning learning more about this man who seems to have many secrets of his own.

Of course one of the most significant achievements of Shannon here is the absolutely incredible world building.  I loved the alternative version of London she presented, the idea of Oxford being this ancient, barely acknowledged place and shrouded in mystery.  There is a lot of variety to be found here.  We have the term 'clairvoyant', yes, but there are so many kinds; this is a world truly thought out.  Unbeknownst to me, there was a glossary at the back (I was reading it on Kindle), so it was somewhat confusing at first.  Admittedly trying to take in everything is a bit of a task, since there's just so much.  After a while, though, I was used to it and everything was starting to make sense.  The mix of both old and new, familiar and unfamiliar, was done in a manner entirely appealing.  There is also a level of complexity and suspense that made this book all the more delicious.

Paige, our heroine, was a character easy to appreciate.  She's a strong, independent person, and realistically so.  Her voice is such that it doesn't just recede into a background hum with loads of other protagonists; it stands out and becomes something familiar, something welcoming, something you want to hear more of.  Warden, too, is someone I found impossible not to like - except there is an extra layer of complexity to him that leaves me eager to know even more.  My trust of him was a slow thing; naturally, I was intrigued from the start, but Shannon draws you in, pulls you along slowly so that you're as wary as Paige.  There are so many aspects to him, some of these simply hinted at, so that while the reader is offered a good impression of who he is, it is still too vague.  I mean this in an entirely positive sense.  The romance, which was gloriously slow, still allowed for two separate individuals, each with their own distinct personality.  The dynamics changed constantly, and each of the characters, and their relationship, were all written masterfully.

All in all, Samantha Shannon has come out with an excellent debut.  With her truly astonishing world building and vivid characters, this is an author you don't want to miss, and her book leaves me itching for more.

Cover Reveal, Excerpt & Giveaway: The Almost Girl

Seventeen-year-old Riven is as tough as they come. Coming from a world ravaged by a devastating android war, she has to be. There’s no room for softness, no room for emotion, no room for mistakes. A Legion General, she is the right hand of the young Prince of Neospes, a parallel universe to Earth. In Neospes, she has everything: rank, responsibility and respect. But when Prince Cale sends her away to find his long-lost brother, Caden, who has been spirited back to modern day Earth, Riven finds herself in uncharted territory.

Thrown out of her comfort zone but with the mindset of a soldier, Riven has to learn how to be a girl in a realm that is the opposite of what she knows. Riven isn’t prepared for the beauty of a world that is unlike her own in so many ways. Nor is she prepared to feel something more than indifference for the very target she seeks. Caden is nothing like Cale, but he makes something in her come alive, igniting a spark deep down that goes against every cell in her body. For the first time in her life, Riven isn’t sure about her purpose, about her calling. Torn between duty and desire, she must decide whether Caden is simply a target or whether he is something more.

Faced with hideous reanimated Vector soldiers from her own world with agendas of their own, as well as an unexpected reunion with a sister who despises her, it is a race against time to bring Caden back to Neospes. But things aren’t always as they seem, and Riven will have to search for truth. Family betrayals and royal coups are only the tip of the iceberg. Will Riven be able to find the strength to defy her very nature? Or will she become the monstrous soldier she was designed to be?

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We’re at an impasse, staring at each other with stubborn fury. I’m not above using force to get my way but Shae’s just taken out two Vectors. Alone. I’m not about to make any rash and stupid decisions about her combat skills or apparent exhaustion. The silence hangs between us like an impenetrable wall as we stare at each other across the five feet that could well be an abyss between us. After a few tense minutes, Shae clears her throat.

“Do you remember that day? When I left?” Shae asks and I give the barest of nods. It’s a day that etched into my memory so deeply that I couldn’t forget it if I tried. “I wanted to take you with me but you wouldn’t go,” she says. Her laugh is empty. “You remember what you called me?”

Defector.

She doesn’t have to say it; we both know what I said.

“That was the day I realized that you were your father’s daughter. He robbed you of anything close to love,” Shae says. “You chose to stay with him out of fear for him than out of love for me. He owned you then, and he owns you now.”

“I am nothing like him,” I grit out. “No one owns me.”

“He used to say that I could never be a killer because I was too emotional. Said I loved too much. How can someone love too much? He said I was too much like mom. Soft. I proved him wrong even though I died a little bit inside every time I took a life.” At Shae’s words, my eyes feel like there’s sand behind them, and a boulder settles in the pit of my stomach. “But he was right about you, wasn’t he? The stone cold sister? The one who wouldn’t be torn by emotion, the one who kills without feeling a thing? Servant to the monarchy… obeying orders without question… He’s made you into their killing machine. So what? You’re going to kill me now, Riven?”

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Seventeen Magazine Summer Club author Amalie Howard grew up on a small Caribbean island where she spent most of her childhood with her nose buried in a book or being a tomboy running around barefoot, shimmying up mango trees and dreaming of adventure. 22 countries, surfing with sharks and several tattoos later, she has traded in bungee jumping in China for writing the adventures she imagines instead. She isn’t entirely convinced which takes more guts. She currently resides in New York with her husband and three children.

She is the author of The Aquarathi series from Harlequin TEEN (Waterfell and Oceanborn), The Almost Girl from Strange Chemistry, Alpha Goddess from Sky Pony Press, and Bloodspell from Langdon Street Press. She is represented by the Liza Royce Agency. Visit her at www.amaliehoward.comor on Twitter (@AmalieHoward).

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Cover Reveal: Defector

 Title: Defector (Variants #2)

Author: Susanne Winnacker

Publisher: Razorbill

Released: 26th June 2014

 

 Synopsis currently unavailable

 

Title: Impostor (Variants #1)
Author: Susanne Winnacker
Publisher: Razorbill
Released: 28th May 2013

Can Tessa pose as Madison . . . and stop a killer before it’s too late? 

Tessa is a Variant, able to absorb the DNA of anyone she touches and mimic their appearance. Shunned by her family, she’s spent the last two years training with the Forces with Extraordinary Abilities, a secret branch of the FBI. When a serial killer rocks a small town in Oregon, Tessa is given a mission: she must impersonate Madison, a local teen, to find the killer before he strikes again.

Tessa hates everything about being an impostor—the stress, the danger, the deceit—but loves playing the role of a normal girl. As Madison, she finds friends, romance, and the kind of loving family she’d do anything to keep. Amid action, suspense, and a ticking clock, this super-human comes to a very human conclusion: even a girl who can look like anyone struggles the most with being herself.

AUTHOR BIO

Susanne Winnacker studied law before she became a full-time writer. She lives with her husband, a dog and three bunnies in Germany. She loves coffee (in every shape and form), traveling and animals.  When she isn't writing, you can usually find her in the kitchen, experimenting with new vegan dishes.  Her YA thriller IMPOSTOR will be published on May 28, 2013. It has been optioned for TV by Warner Brothers!

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Review: The Edge of Never

Title: The Edge of Never (The Edge of Never #1)
Author: J.A. Redmerski
Publisher: Harper
Released: 28th February 2013
Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hype can be a dangerous thing - and, sometimes, for me at least, utterly baffling.  Perhaps on some level I can understand why this book got the attention it did.  I did like it enough to give it the midway rating.  But those things weren't enough for me to justify anything higher, and I did have some concerns while reading this that put a damper on my enjoyment.

An incident from the past and following the same routine every day leaves Camryn feeling confined by life.  Unwilling to follow the same path that society seems to live by, she impulsively grabs a few things and boards a bus, intending to get some answers and just see what's out there.  What Cam didn't expect was someone to help her figure out who she was and try things she'd never done before.  Namely, Andrew Parrish.  On his way to see his dad in hospital, Andrew has secrets of his own that he isn't willing to share, and in a relationship that grows closer by the day, that could be the thing that splits them apart.

I may as well tell you straight away, I did want to keep reading this.  Even as I had concerns and wished certain things had been done differently, there was something about this that did pull me in.  It was funny at times, and I liked getting to know Cam at the start.  It did feel like something of a guilty pleasure at times, but there were character insights that left me intrigued and wanting to see more and even deeper into their minds and personalities.  There was also an emotional element that occasionally rose to the surface, and when the ending came, the emotion I felt actually surprised me because it seemed I cared for more Andrew than I'd initially thought.  There was a dual POV that I wish had been more equally weighted because I wanted to see more from Andrew about certain events, but I think we get more of him in the sequel?  (That is actually a question.  Please tell me we do.)

Having said all of this, my issues with this book are not such that I can just dismiss them.  Even now I can still recall them, nearly a month after reading it, and I'm unhappy at the memory.  One of the problems was the way the author phrased certain things.  I'm actually surprised that I came across this.  It seems to me that there are some words that are so meaningful, or whose connotations are so strong, they can only be used within a certain context worthy of the meaning.  I felt uncomfortable with the way Redmerski was describing little things like goosebumps because the way she described it really seemed both irrelevant and unnecessary.  What I also didn't like was how jumpy it all seemed.  It felt like there were thought processes missing, things I wanted to see to know more about the characters and actually see them grow.  Instead it was like, one minute Cam is not in a million years going to do this; the next she was doing precisely that.  Things were left unexplained.  The speech and overall flow just didn't feel right.

Those are the more technical issues.  On a much more personal level, I was somewhat uncomfortable with the type of relationship Camryn and Andrew have.  It wasn't massively bad, but I'm not into the whole dominance thing.  Even if it's not completely full on, it's just not for me.  Which actually reminds me, this wasn't as deep a book as I was hoping it would be.  It was fine until Cam and Andrew were together, and then it just seemed like Cam's development in particular took a backseat.  Also, 'baby' as an endearment.  The more I see it in books, the more it irritates me.

With all of my qualms, then, why am I even considering the sequel?  I'm not entirely sure.  There is something about Redmerski's writing, something about Cam and Andrew, that leaves me wanting more.  I do want to see it through to the end of the story, find out what more is in store for them - and, by extension, me.  I'm hoping that I'll enjoy it more.  The Edge of Never drew an entirely mixed reaction from me which wasn't easy to pin down.  That does make it more memorable, even if not for wholly the right reasons, which might help to explain why I'm so reluctant to let go.  With my complicated relationship with this book, all I can say for certain is that it was not worthy of the hype, yet somehow left me wanting more.

Review: Keeping Her

Title: Keeping Her (Losing It #1.5)
Author: Cora Carmack
Publisher: Ebury Digital
Released: 15th August 2013
Rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book came at exactly the right time for me.  I was feeling quite low, and what I really needed was a pick-me-up.  Then I remembered that I had been approved for this that very day, so I started...and I was laughing in minutes.

Keeping Her sees Bliss and Garrick head off to London for Bliss to meet her soon-to-be in-laws.  Of course, this wouldn't be a trademark Cora Carmack book without the mishaps and mayhem, and all its accompanying hilarity.  Bliss being her usual self, put her together with Garrick's parents and you really can't say it's ever boring.  I absolutely love Carmack's portrayal of Bliss.  She's as adorable as ever.  Her clumsiness and awkwardness are charming, but she's also quite intelligent and has a core of strength.  At the same time as retaining Bliss' personality, the author also allowed her some growth, which was wonderful to see.  She seemed to be coming into herself that much more, and helping Garrick keep himself along the way.

Garrick.  My wonderful Garrick.  I know I said I didn't love him in the first book, but I think I'm much closer to that feeling now.  (His POV might, possibly, may be the reason I enjoyed this one more than the other two.)  I could see how much he was worrying about seeing his parents and introducing Bliss.  His obvious love for her was completely endearing.  The relationship between the two of them really seemed to solidify and strengthen, and it was amazing to see.

I wanted something light and funny that would lift me out of my mood, and this did not disappoint.  Instead, it was even better than I expected.  Carmack's writing is such that it leaves a lasting impression - perhaps not the deeper kind that I might usually strive for, but this impression was special in its own right.  This novella is one you want to pick up as soon as possible.

An Apology and an Update

Hey, guys!

As you might have noticed, I've been quite lax when it comes to the blog for the past few weeks.  My reading mood has been a bit (read: way) off, so I've been reading erratically, and as for reviews...yeah, they kind of went out the window.  And now I have to catch up.  And I am sorry about that, especially since I promised both you and myself that I'd try not to let that happen.

What this post is for, is to let you know that I will be scheduling things - review things - but I might not be commenting for a while longer.  Because...I'm starting university.

Yep.  I move in on Saturday, term starts the following Monday, and things are going to be crazy hectic for a while while I find my footing and unpack and go from meeting to lecture to event and try not to get lost.  I have no idea how much free time I'll have, how things are going to work.  This week itself is going to be full of packing.  It might be that I do actually have time and will find my way around your blogs.  If I do have the time, I will absolutely be making the rounds.  But this is to let you know just in case.

So that's all.  I hope everyone's okay and reading amazing books.  Hopefully I'll see you soon!  And if you want or need to contact me, you can catch me on Twitter or through email. :)

Happy reading,
A

Cover Reveal: The Wicked We Have Done

Title: The Wicked We Have Done

Author: Sarah Harian

Publisher: Penguin/InterMix books

Released: 18th March 2014

 

Evalyn Ibarra never expected to be an accused killer and experimental prison test subject. A year ago, she was a normal college student. Now she’s been sentenced to a month in the compass room—an advanced prison obstacle course designed by the government to execute justice.

If she survives, the world will know she’s innocent.

Locked up with nine notorious and potentially psychotic criminals, Evalyn must fight the prison and dismantle her past to stay alive. But the system prized for accuracy appears to be killing at random.

She doesn’t plan on making friends.

She doesn’t plan on falling in love, either.

About the Author

Sarah Harian grew up in the foothills of Yosemite and received her B.A. and M.F.A. from Fresno State University. When not writing, she is usually hiking some mountain or another in the Sierras, playing video games with her fiancé, or rough-housing with her dog.

 

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