Review: This Song Will Save Your Life

Title: This Song Will Save Your Life
Author: Leila Sales
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux (BYR)
Released: 17th September 2013
Rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I looked back over the synopsis before I started this, I wondered what had made me add it in the first place.  I'm not usually into books with high school issues like popularity.  But really, the answer is quite simple: music.  Second to my love of reading is my love of music, and a book with music in it is even more irresistible than chocolate cake.  But you know, reading this, I discovered that this book is about so much more than popularity.  It's about finding out who you are and accepting who you are.  Music is a way of enabling that, and we can see just how powerful it is here.

Elise Dembowski is unpopular and without friends.  She can't pinpoint what it is that makes her different from everyone else, but whatever she does she still stands out.  So, in one final attempt to change all this, she changes her appearance and catches up on all the latest celeb gossip.  When this fails, she's ready to give up - not just on popularity, but on life.  But that doesn't go to plan, either, so she takes to long walks at night, unable to sleep.  On one of these walks she meets Vicky and Pippa at a warehouse party, and is introduced to Char, the DJ.  Suddenly Elise has found acceptance and friendship and a hidden talent that will redefine her life.

There is something entirely unique and refreshing about Elise's voice.  The first word that came to mind when I was reading this was 'dignified', which may seem strange given her suicide plan and her thoughts on her life.  But her voice is quiet and honest, even funny.  She challenges the reader to judge her, and she's right.  We can't possibly dictate what she should do and how she should feel unless we've been through her experiences.  She kept her feelings from her parents, and I could see why.  They aren't exactly the most astute, and one anecdote she shared about her father showed him incapable of dealing with her problems appropriately.  Nor was her mother much better.   It was nice to see them communicate more towards the end, however.  But what I especially loved was seeing Elise come into her own, transforming from someone who desperately wanted to fit in to realising her own worth and refusing to let anyone get in the way of who she was.

My favourite character after Elise had to be Vicky.  This girl proved herself to be an amazing friend, accepting and supportive, loyal, honest.  I loved Mel, too.  Pippa wasn't the person I thought she was, but I was glad to see some measure of growth in her by the end.  I'm not sure about Char.  He was a nice guy who liked being a DJ, and he really helped Elise by mentoring her; on some level, he did care about her.  But at the same time he's someone trying to get somewhere in life and he doesn't like that Elise is better than him at DJing.  He's not the type of person to commit to anyone.  But I think underneath it all, he's sort of like Elise: when he DJs, he gets to be someone else, someone who matters.  Perhaps he's not as relatable, but we can understand him from a more objective viewpoint.  Sales has created quite a realistic range of characters here.

This Song Will Save Your Life is a very powerful novel.  I haven't talked about the music, but I will say that it is explored incredibly well.  I loved Elise's voice and the beautiful way that Leila Sales has explored issues of identity.  I had a smile on my face for a long time while reading this,, and I have honestly not read anything like it.  This novel is definitely not one to be missed.

Review: The Fury

Title: The Fury (The Fury #1)
Author: Alexander Gordon Smith
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Released: 23rd July 2013
Rating: 3 of 5 stars

First of all, can we just talk about that cover?  I love how unashamedly creepy it is (though if it's too creepy and you favour something slightly more traditional, you can see the 2012 edition).  I didn't really know what to expect going into this, and I haven't read anything else by this author, although from what I understood his works have generally been well-received.  What I got, then, was a solid read that actually offered something a little different.

Life was normal for Cal, Brick and Daisy until everyone suddenly turned on them for no reason.  Family, friends, complete and utter strangers - literally everyone is after them, mindlessly attacking them, wanting nothing but their deaths.  This is the Fury.  In their struggle to find out what's happening, the three of them realise they're not the only ones - that there are others who for some reason have also become potential victims.  But as they find out the truth, it becomes clear that they are in a war, and the power of their enemy means they all may well end up dead.

I said before I didn't know what to expect when I started this.  I didn't expect it to be creepy; I didn't expect it to be dark.  I certainly didn't expect the kind of ideas and world that are explored here.  Smith brings to life an engaging storyline and actually succeeds in making this chilling at specific moments.  I really liked his concept, finding his take on certain aspects to be different from the usual.  The synopsis doesn't give much away, and I think that's a good thing.  What I would comment on, however, is the length.  If there is one thing about this book, it is that it is so incredibly long.  In all fairness, I was short on time when reading this, but even so, I never felt a need to keep reading fully, so I did end up skimming chunks of it.

The Fury is told from multiple perspectives.  Cal, Brick and Daisy are the three main protagonists, but there are also some extra perspectives as well.  The range of characters here were, I felt, true to life: some with weaker personalities, some stronger, brought to light by the harsh circumstances.  Smith played with my emotions here somewhat; at the start, when I read from Brick's point of view, I was interested in reading more of it.  Yet when it came to Cal, I didn't really feel anything.  But the more I read, the more I came to dislike Brick and actually really like Cal.  Not only that, I liked some of the relationships developed here.  All of these characters started out as complete strangers to one another, and yet they start to take protective roles - Cal with Daisy, younger than him by several years, and Daisy with Adam, younger than her again.  Some of this was really sweet to see, which unfortunately could not be said of other characters I could mention - but again, isn't this representative of life?

The Fury is quite a dark book and also somewhat emotional at times...particularly with that ending.  It was an excessively long book, but despite this, it was one that I truly enjoyed.

Interview, Extra & Giveaway: Bryony Pearce (The Weight of Souls)

Hey, guys!  As some of you may know, I recently read The Weight of Souls and really enjoyed it (you can find my review here).  Bryony Pearce has very kindly agreed to do an interview, and she's also provided a set of rules of the sinister V club for you to peruse.  It's Truth or Dare like you've never played before.  As if that wasn't enough, she is also hosting a giveaway, the details of which you can find here. So.  Shall we move on?  Bryony Pearce, everyone!

Hello, Bryony, and welcome to the blog!  For those who don't know, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and your upcoming novel, The Weight of Souls?

Hi there.  Well, I have two children aged 7 and 4 (a girl named Maisie and a boy named Riley) and a cat who likes to sit on the laptop when I'm working.  I live in a village at the edge of the Peak District, a welcome change from London, where I lived (or rather survived) for six years after university.  I'm a chocolate and wine loving vegetarian and people who know me are often surprised about how dark my writing is.

Generally I write books about good vs. evil and redemption.  My books are embedded in the modern world (or alternative reality versions), but with a supernatural twist.  I believe that the more realistic the starting point, the more creepy the supernatural element becomes.

My first book, Angel's Fury, published by Egmont in 2011) was about a girl who suffers from terrible nightmares, who discovers that she has been reincarnated and that all of her lives are being manipulated by a fallen angel who is trying to destroy mankind.

My second book, The Weight of Souls, out in August with Strange Chemistry, is about a teenaged girl who sees ghosts...but if a ghost touched her she has to avenge its death.

I visit schools, festivals and events and love it if people come and say hello...particularly is they have enjoyed my work.

One of the things I really liked about The Weight of Souls was how there was so much more to it than I expected.  How difficult was it for you to incorporate all the different ideas?

I like the stories I read to be complex, to make me think over an idea, to be something I come back to and reread from a different lifetime perspective and I try to write books that offer my readers the same experience without hitting them over the head with an 'issue'.  The first novel I ever tried to write was a dreadful mish-mash that extended to over 100,000 words, I tried to include way too many themes and ideas.  As I have grown as a writer I have learned that it is about selecting a few ideas that work together to form a story and blending them seamlessly.  I felt that the character of Taylor was complex enough to hold together several different story strands: bullying, ancient curses, Egyptian gods, a murder mystery, a secret society, they all work together in The Weight of Souls to form one cohesive whole and through Taylor I had no problem incorporating them all.

The hardest thing was where to put the 'backstories'.  Originally I had two prologues: 200 years ago (which was the story of Oh-Fa) and five years ago (the story of Taylor's first experience seeing ghosts).  I struggled with this, especially as my agent is not a fan of the prologue, and ended up putting them into the main body of the book.  It works because I think the opening of The Weight of Souls is strong as it is, but I still wish I had managed to keep some of the content that I had to dump in order to keep the story flowing.

Even as a child in primary school, I never really liked Truth or Dare, mainly because I was worried about the kinds of things that might be asked and where it might go.  And it looks like I was right to be wary.  Was there something in particular that made you want to write about a secret society?  And why Truth or Dare?

Interestingly The Weight of Souls was originally titled 'The Society' because, for me, that was the key part of the book, the heart of the murder mystery and the issues I wanted to explore (bullying, fitting in, crowd mentality).

School is hard (certainly not the best years of life) and sometimes it feels as if there are secret societies all around you: every clique that you cannot enter (because you are not sporty enough, not beautiful enough, not cool enough, not clever enough) and do not understand has its own rules.  So I decided that I wanted to write about a clique that literally did have rules, that started off fairly innocent, but that got out of control.  I wanted to use the V club as a microcosm of society, to explore power structures and the experiences of people doing things they never otherwise would, just because the crowd, or their social rules, demand it (much as in Angel's Fury I used the Milgram Experiment to explore how people will do terrible things when directed to by an authority figure: 'Ordinary people...can become agents in a terrible destructive process.' - Milgram).

For The Weight of Souls I looked at Freud's Crowd Behaviour Theory (the idea that the moral centre of consciousness - the super-ego - is displaced by the larger crowd, to be replaced by a charismatic crowd leader) and I explored the idea of Deindividuation which argues that in typical crowd situations, factors such as anonymity, group unity and arousal weaken personal controls (e.g. guilt, shame, self-evaluating behaviour) by distancing people from their personal identities and reducing their concern for social evaluation:

'The intelligence of that creature known as a crowd is the square root of the number of people in it.' - Terry Pratchett.

In the V club people do 'what they do':

'Justin nodded.  "This game is crazy.  Look at what we do.  Look at what you're doing.  You don't break the rules, you just don't.  Plus they've got something on you now."'

'Pete raised his head.  "I'm so sorry.  I didn't know.  I mean, I knew something was way off, but I wasn't sure, and it was V, man, you just do what you do.  You know."'

 

And the reason I chose Truth or Dare was because I wanted a game that easily gets out of control and results in people going further than they ever would because they are goaded to do so.  I needed something with a clear rule structure which I could embellish.  

Taylor makes a nice change from the standard YA protagonist, and she's also a very real character.  Is she based on you or someone you know?

 

I am one of those writers whose main characters pretty much pop into their heads fully formed.  Taylor has been sitting grumpily in the back of my head for some time now, yelling at me and growing in clarity over time.  She is not based on anyone I know (although her experiences being bullied are very much drawn from my own school experience).  Several of the secondary characters, however, are amalgamations of people I know.

 

Justin's character undergoes a lot of development, from someone unlikeable to someone the reader sees as more complex, and who I actually came to love.  Did that change in his character come naturally, or were there challenges along the way?

 

Like Taylor, I knew Justin and his story pretty well.  I knew that he came into the school late and needed to fit in.  That he was cool and attractive enough to lead the 'cool clique', but that he secretly fancied Taylor.  However, like many young boys who are only just starting to discover girls, he goes about expressing his interest in the wrong way - trying to get her to notice him by picking on her.  This leads the rest of the cool kids to follow his lead.  By the time he and Taylor are teens Taylor hates him, he is trapped in the V club (with its scary lifetime membership) and stuck with a girlfriends who is more interested in her own lifestyle than their relationship.

 

I liked Justin and was a bit sorry to make him unlikeable at the start of the book, but the book is told from Taylor's perspective, so it is her own view of him that colours the reader's.  As she finds out more about the real Justin, her view changes and so the reader's is able to change too.

 

What was your favourite scene to write?

 

I love so much of it, but the part I enjoyed writing the most was the moment when Taylor realises that Justin has been murdered.  That was the scene that had been playing in my head for months, screaming at me that it needed a book to go in.  It was great to finally get it on paper and out of my brain!

 

Finally, can you tell us anything about what you're working on at the moment?

 

I am currently working on a book about a boy who can jump from one universe to another, based on Homer's Odyssey and multi-universe theory; there are cannibals, killer machines, crazy priests, mad gods and much more.  As usual it is on the dark side and deals with good and evil, redemption and freedom.

Side note: *stares* 'Cannibals, killer machines, crazy priests, mad gods and much more'.  That book is obviously meant for me.

Rules of the V Club:

TRUTH OR DARE

• Club meets once a week unless there are exceptions such as  new members coming in.
• No talking about the club outside the club.
• To get into the club you have to be proposed by another member, seconded and you must complete the dare set by the club master.  Then you are in, but have no right to set challenges until you complete another round.
• Each time you complete a dare, you have the right to set the next challenge.

Choosing the challengee:
Either the challenger can choose the challenged (you cannot choose the same person more than twice in a row) or, if there is no preference, the challenger spins a wheel to select the challenged.
Dares:

• Dares have to be witnessed by at least three other members (where possible) and video recorded.
• Dares can be anything, but at least three other members have to agree that they are achievable.  You cannot set an impossible dare.  If you set an impossible dare you are forbidden from setting another dare for three rounds, even if you complete your own challenge.
• A member has the right to turn down a dare up to three times in a row, after that they have to complete a challenge, or they are barred from the club.

Double Dares:
Challengees have the right to double dare - send it back to the challenger.  However, they have to 'double up' - make the challenge doubly difficult (that has to be gauged by three other members).  If the challenger does not choose to accept the double dare he or she will then lose their chance to be challenger for that week.  Furthermore, anyone else in the club has the chance to accept the double dare.  They will then accrue points.
Points:
Points can be accrued through completing double dares - these can be saved up and used at any time.  Points enable you to either:

• Force someone to give you a truth
• Make someone do something for you outside the environs of the club - e.g. complete a homework assignment

Truth:
If the challenge does not want to do the dare, they may ask for a truth instead.

• Or a truth may be set instead of a dare.
• If a truth is asked for the challenge MUST enter the confessional.
• A truth is not just a question and answer.

The truth about your personality:
The confessional explores concepts such as:

• How brave/cowardly are you - facing your worst fears.  Challengers may put other things in the confessional with you.  You must remain inside for ten minutes with e.g. spiders, mice, cockroaches etc.
• How nice are you?  You have the chance to swap your place in the confessional with your 'best friend' - do you do it?
• How much pain can you stand?  You have to put your hand through a hole in the confessional wall.  You may be burned, iced, cut etc.  This is a three minute challenge.

Questions:
If you are asked a question you MUST tell the truth.  This truth must be verifiable.

Verifying the truth:

• At least one other member should be able to verify that you are not telling the truth.
• If this is not possible but the answer is found to be a lie of misdirection at any later time - because the truth is immutable - the challenge will be 'sent to Coventry' (for a period to be determined by a vote) - see barring from the club.

Barring from the club:

• No-one is permitted to talk about the club or its challenges.  Anyone barred from the club or who doesn't get into the club is not permitted to talk about the club - if this happens they will be 'sent to Coventry' - total social death.
• Often hounded out of school.



Angel's Fury - GoodReads - Purchase

The Weight of Souls - GoodReads - Purchase

 

If you want to know more about Bryony Pearce, you can find her here:

Website

Twitter

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Review: Fall of Night

Review: Fall of Night (Morganville #14)
Author: Rachel Caine
Publisher: Allison & Busby (UK)
Released: 2nd May 2013
Rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm sure I don't need to tell you how I was feeling or what my expectations were when I started this - the fact that I'm still here reading this series, fourteen books in, speaks for itself.  While Fall of Night didn't have that extra spark that some of the other books did, Rachel Caine, once again, did not let me down.

In this penultimate instalment of the Morganville Vampires, it's time for a change of scene.  Claire is leaving Morganville and heading to MIT.  Saying goodbye to her friends - not to mention Shane - is one of the most difficult things she's had to do, but she needs to do this.  She needs to leave, for a number of reasons, and not for anyone else, but herself.  At MIT she's enrolled in a special study programme where she'll be working with Professor Irene Anderson, also of Morganville.  This is a chance for Claire to work on VLAD, her machine that should, in theory, eventually be able to cancel out vampiric abilities.  But where anything even remotely relating to Morganville is concerned, trouble is never far behind.  Claire thought the outside world would be safer than Morganville.  Truth is, it might be even worse.

Taking the storyline outside of Morganville was, I thought, a nice change.  And I also like the direction Caine has taken with this series.  I liked the draug, I thought they were an intriguing twist, but I can see how they might be considered as nothing more than a tool to elongate the series.  For me, this book brought a more natural turn of events, and it certainly sets the basis for what should hopefully be an amazing finale.  It does take some time for the pace to pick up and the action to kick in, but once it did I was fully hooked.  I think the first half to two thirds is more character-focused, especially with Claire getting acclimated to her new surroundings and being on her own.  This book is split only into two POVs, that of Shane and Claire, which I actually thought was really nice.

Now.  Speaking of characters.  There is something of a mixed bunch in here.  I loved Jesse, and when I found out who she actually was, the history geek in me was thrilled.  Myrnin was amazing and sweet; I love that vampire so much.  Claire is, of course, as kickass as ever, making the best of situations that are out of control.  Actually I felt really bad for her, because some of the things she had to do to make it out alive - for them all to make it out alive - didn't necessarily warm her to other characters, and she had to make some difficult decisions.  The two characters who grated on my nerves were Liz and Eve. Are you surprised at my mentioning Eve?  I'll come to her in a minute.  Liz is Claire's housemate and her old best friend from high school.  Despite her bad experiences, I could only feel the barest of sympathy for her.  I found her to be an exceptionally annoying character who didn't know how to stand up for herself or learn from her past mistakes, and the choices she made were far from wise.  In truth, she grew to be quite a pathetic presence in the book.  Now, Eve...I had already been somewhat irritated with her in Bitter Blood; for someone who sees Claire as a sister, she was incredibly quick to turn on her.  And the same happened here.  After all they have been through together, it seems she really does not trust Claire.  And because of that, I actually found myself wishing that Claire had a better set of friends.  Because - and it pains me to say this - at this point it doesn't seem as if any of them are worthy of her.  And much as I love Shane, that does kind of include him.

In some ways, then, this instalment did bring disappointment; it wasn't as good as could be hoped, and my love of this set of four friends has somewhat diminished because of the way they've been starting to treat each other, particularly when it comes to Claire, who, let's not forget, was the newcomer to this group.  I think Eve particularly has become something of a weak point.  Nevertheless, there is something about Rachel Caine's writing that draws me in, and while I can see that this is not as strong as it could be, that did not stop me from enjoying it.  Indeed, with how this one ended, I am left crying for that final book.

Thank you to the lovely Emma for joining me in a read-along!

Review: The Weight of Souls

Title: The Weight of Souls
Author: Bryony Pearce
Publisher: Strange Chemistry
Released: 6th August 2013
Rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Weight of Souls took me by surprise.  As good as it looks on the surface, I was not expecting the extra layers that came with it.  Pearce brings to the table ghosts, bullying...a secret society and Egyptian mythology.  What you see is not just what you get.  There is a lot going on, yet it all comes together nicely to form a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Taylor Oh is cursed.  Not only can she see the ghosts of murder victims, but when a ghost touches her, they leave a mark on her skin; she has three weeks to find the murderer and pass it on, thus avenging the victim.  If not, the Darkness will come and take her instead of the murderer.  This is bad enough as it is, but it only gets worse.  Justin, popular kid at school and who's made it his life's mission to bully Taylor, is murdered.  Does she really want to help him?  Help the guy who helped ruin her life?  But it's too late.  He passes the mark to her and she has to find his murderer in three weeks, otherwise the Darkness will come for her instead.  Her findings lead her to the V Club, a secret society that is a little more sinister than just a group of sixth formers messing around.  Somehow Taylor needs to find out who exactly killed Justin, preferably without actually dying herself...And what about the fact that she and Justin are becoming closer?  Just when Taylor thought her life couldn't be any more complicated, Justin's murder makes it take a turn for the worse.

Pearce wastes no time in introducing us to Taylor's ability, showing us immediately how it works.  It's quite a simple idea, really: a girl who sees ghosts.  Yet with that comes emotions and questions, and these were explored nicely.  Despite the layers in this book, it never became cluttered; it never felt like the author was trying to fit in too much.  Everything was connected, with Taylor in the middle to truly bring it all together.  The flashbacks and extracts from The Tale of Oh-Fa (a diary of Taylor's ancestor) particularly gave this added flavour.  It was also a strange yet compelling mix of ordinary elements, such as bullying, and mythological aspects.  Then in the middle was the V Club.  This was a well-thought out idea which was interesting to read about.  The only thing I would have liked added here would be the truth side of the game, as all the focus was on the dares - understandable, but I would have liked a glimpse of the other side.

Taylor herself was a real character, one easy to relate to.  The fact that she gets bullied implies a vulnerability - and she is vulnerable - but she is also strong.  Her struggle with her curse comes across clearly - the fact that she has to be on the constant lookout for ghosts because they all come for her and want her to help them means she can't enjoy a normal life.  This isn't helped by her father, whose character frustrated me with his obstinacy and absolute refusal to believe that Taylor suffers from nothing more than a genetic condition.  All of this made her a character easy to like.  Yet Justin's character is, for me, the most transformative.  As a bully, and seemingly having no other side to him than that, I disliked him and could not really imagine why Taylor would end up loving him.  But when he is a ghost and we learn more about him, his character evolves and becomes more complex, until I loved him.  He really is sweet; he simply allowed his twisted guy logic to lead him the wrong way (what is it with guys picking on girls to show their interest?).

The Weight of Souls is a novel commendable in all the themes it explores and its success in doing so.  At the moment the matter of a sequel is in question, but I sincerely hope there will be one, as there were certain issues and questions specifically brought up towards the end that I would like to see resolved.  But even aside from that, my first experience with this author has left me wanting more.  This is definitely one I would recommend.

Waiting on Wednesday (#28)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases we can't wait to get our hands on.

Title: Find Me
Author: Romily Bernard
Publisher: Harper Teen
Released: 24th September 2013

"Find Me." These are the words written on Tessa Waye's diary. The diary that ends up with Wick Tate. But Tessa's just been found...dead.

Wick has the right computer-hacking skills for the job, but little interest in this perverse game of hide-and-seek. Until her sister Lily is the next target. Then Griff, trailer-park boy next door and fellow hacker, shows up, intent on helping Wick.

Is a happy ending possible with the threat of Wick's deadbeat dad returning, the detective hunting him sniffing around Wick instead, and a killer taunting her at every step?

Foster child. Daughter of a felon. Loner hacker girl. Wick has a bad attitude and sarcasm to spare.

But she's going to find this killer no matter what.

Because it just got personal

Cover love!  Again!  But besides that, Wick sounds like an amazing protag, so I'm really hoping she lives up to that.  This seems quite mysterious as well.

What do you guys think?

Review: Gameboard of the Gods

Title: Gameboard of the Gods (Age of X #1)
Author: Richelle Mead
Publisher: Dutton Adult (Penguin)
Released: 4th June 2013
Rating: 3 of 5 stars

So I don't usually (almost never) review adult books, but for Richelle Mead I will make an exception.  Like many of us, I think, having loved Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy series (Bloodlines is a story for another day), I was eager to see what more she had to offer us.  While this wasn't entirely as good as I was hoping, it was still a fairly decent and enjoyable read that leaves me hopeful for the rest of the series.

Religion is now, for the most part, forbidden, as it is this that is mostly blamed for the Decline.  The two forces in power are the RUNA (Republic of United North America) and the EA (Eastern Alliance).  These are surrounded by provinces, which are typically considered backward.  Justin March is a servitor exiled to one of these provinces; his job was to investigate religious groups and believers in the supernatural, but one of his reports led to him losing his job and his citizenship.  Now, however, a spate of ritualistic murders has the government calling him back.  Mae Koskinen, an elite soldier with enhanced skills, is assigned to protect him.  But as the investigation goes on and more truths come to light, unknown powers start to assemble for their own power play, with the world as their gameboard and humans as pawns.

In this new venture Mead brings to life an intriguing and complex world, with a remarkably tiered society and a clash between the scientific and the religious, or the mythological.  I did feel this lost some of its effect as I found myself somewhat confused at times; we are thrust straight into this new world and after a while you start to get a feel for it, but I think it would benefit from clarification about a few things.  Still, this did not completely hinder my enjoyment of it, and I found myself taking things in with interest.  I liked seeing such a mix of ideas, with technological and scientific elements, and the supernatural, coming together nicely.  The murder mystery aspect of this was also decently done, although I think it took a while to really kick off and could have been used to better effect.  The ending, really, is where all of these elements were at their best, where we finally get some answers and some intrigue and some pace, and if the whole book had been done at that level, this would have been given a higher rating.

Mae is a pretty badass character - she has to be, I suppose, given that she is who and what she is.  Even so, she's impressive.  And when you learn about her past, and later as we find out more about her, she is easy to feel sympathy for.  Justin did not get the benefit of such warm feelings from me, at least not consistently.  Truth be told, I found him annoying at times, impossible to deal with and, I felt, with something of an entitled attitude when it came to Mae; part of the reason he excels at his job is because of his powers of observation and being able to take in every minute detail, and I felt like he was almost invading Mae's privacy when he could simply have asked her things.  By the end of the book, though, this had changed, and I became more sympathetic towards him.  I quite liked reading from both their perspectives; this is all in third person, which made a change for me, but it was nicely done.  The one perspective I didn't appreciate was that of Tessa.  I'm not sure why, but she grated on me almost as soon as I met her.  As well as that, for some reason she constantly sounded younger than her 16 year old self.  I'm not sure if that was just me, but in any case, I was never in a hurry to get back to reading from her point of view.

All in all, Gameboard of the Gods was, if somewhat underwhelming, still an enjoyable read.  I particularly love the mythological side to it, and I really can't wait to see how this develops in the sequel, particularly with the ending of this one being what it was.  Richelle Mead has once again proved herself a wonderful storyteller, and I look forward to coming back to this series.