young adult fiction Archives - Brooke's Reviews and Sweeps

Lord of Shadows Rules

By Brookelorren on February 21, 2019January 25, 2019Leave a Comment

Right before Cassandra Clare’s Queen of Air and Darkness came out, I had a marathon read of her last books, including Lord of Shadows. It’s the second book in The Dark Artifices series, and I highly recommend it.

Because this book is the second book in the series, there may be spoilers. Also, since the Shadowhunters books tend to build on one another, I also recommend that you start these books with City of Bones (although not my favorite).

There’s a lot going on in this book (which is probably why it’s a whopping 699 pages). But there are certain things that stand out.

The Clave has gone rogue again. Is that any surprise? Some of the people in charge truly remind me of Nazis. They are also quite crafty. If you oppose them, it can’t be good for you. Although a huge plot involves finding The Black Volume of the Dead, because it would be dangerous if it gets in the wrong hands, the Clave’s action keeps the plot driving in the background for the whole story.

The ships in this story are twisty and complicated. Emma and Julian are parabatai and aren’t supposed to be in love, of course, but you can’t really deny your feelings. They certainly try though. Emma decides to conjure a fake relationship with Mark that backfires, because he starts to fall for someone else. Emma and Julian know that something drastic has to be done, but there seem to be no good choices.

The platonic relationships in this story are fantastic as well. I love Kit and Ty together, and I’d love to see them become parabatai in The Wicked Powers series. Then of course Ty and Livvy are close. Dru is going through her own difficulties as being too old to feel like a child, yet not old enough to be thought of as an adult.

The characters spend a lot of time in Faerie in Lord of Shadows. The plot revolves heavily in this area. I love how, even after 10 books, there are always new places to explore in the Shadowhunter’s world.

And the ending! I don’t want to spoil it, but it ends in quite a cliffhanger. Fortunately, I finished this book the day Queen of Air and Darkness arrived, so I didn’t have to wait. After finishing Lord of Shadows, you’ll probably want to dive right into QOAAD, so get them both at the same time if you can.

Overall, this was a great book that I highly recommend. Just get QOAAD at the same time!

I’m a Fangirl

By Brookelorren on December 14, 2018December 13, 201810 Comments

I recently finished reading Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I had been seeing it on a lot of Top Ten Tuesday lists and decided it sounded good. When it became available on audiobook, I had to read it, because it seemed like a story I could identify with.

Cath is starting her first year of college. She has an identical twin sister that wants to live on her own this year. As a result, Cath feels… lost.

She also has a difficult time talking to people, and she writes fanfiction. Wow, you could say the same thing about me! Only Cath is way more successful at writing fanfiction than I am, and she really has a difficult time talking to people. She has such a difficult time talking to people that she’d rather hang out in her room eating protein bars than ask someone how to get to the dining hall.

Throughout the story, Cath finds love (who I’m saying I won’t say), deals with being a fanfic writer when her professor thinks it’s unprofessional, and deals with family difficulties. Most of the excitement happens towards the end of the story, and that’s when I really didn’t want to put down the book. I was just okay with the story at the beginning, but when it picks up, it really picks up. I loved it.

The characters were great. I could identify with Cath, but there were so many other great characters. Her sister Ren is a typical college student who gets a little too into partying. Her roommate, Reagan is the brooding, moody type with a good heart. Levi is one of those really friendly but not so smart types. Nick from Cath’s fiction writing class makes a good writing partner. Cath and Ren’s dad is a little wacky. They all make this a great story.

If you’ve ever been to college, thought about going to college, or have written fanfiction, you should probably read Fangirl. It’s an excellent story.

Since I read Fangirl on audiobook, I have some comments about that. I was NOT a fan of the audiobook quality. The voices were outstanding, don’t get me wrong. My problem with the audiobook was the editing. It was horrible. Half the time, when a new section of the book took place, the first few words of the sentence were cut off. Not acceptable. I took music recording classes in college, and I seriously could have done a better job editing this audiobook as a college senior. There’s no excuse for cutting off words in an audiobook.

City of Heavenly Fire was Heavenly!

By Brookelorren on November 28, 2018October 17, 20182 Comments

City of Heavenly Fire cover This summer, I started reading Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments series. I recently finished the amazing conclusion, City of Heavenly Fire. Having read all the books, I can tell you that this is a series that you will want to read.

Because this is the sixth book in the series, there may be some spoilers to previous books.

At the beginning of City of Heavenly Fire, Sebastian is on the loose, and he’s beginning to cause trouble again. Around the world, Institutes are being attacked. None of the shadowhunters are safe; they all decide to retreat (temporarily) to Idris. This leaves the downworlders vulnerable.

Sebastian and his Endarkened forces attack the fortress of the Iron Sisters. It’s almost a massacre for the shadowhunters that show up to fight, but Jace turns out to be an extraordinary weapon. The Endarkened are vulnerable to his heavenly fire, as is Sebastian. Unfortunately, the heavenly fire makes it difficult for him to get close to Clary.

As our adventure continues, the teens from the New York Institute make a journey to end Sebastian once and for all… and may have to give up a little more than they would like. You’ll just have to read this amazing book to find out what happens.

I love how this book expands on setting elements that we saw in previous books. In City of Lost Souls, we first hear about The Wild Hunt. In this book, we hear more about it. We are also introduced to places in other dimensions. The book is full of imagery from Biblical and classical sources, which adds a little bit of color to this series.

I continue to grow more in love with these characters and their relationships. Jace and Clary, Simon and Isabelle, and Alec and Magnus continue to have their relationships develop in different ways. We are also introduced to some new characters, some of whom we will see in both The Infernal Devices and The Dark Artifices books. I plan on reading both.

Part of me was sad to see this amazing series end, but I’m glad that there are other shadowhunter books to read. I already have the first two books from The Infernal Devices on hold at the library. I have to take a short break from this series while they become available, but I’m sure it will be worth it. At the time I write this, there was a great sale on Lady Midnight, so I’m all ready to read that when the time comes.

Popular YA Books That I Loved

By Brookelorren on July 31, 2018July 30, 201826 Comments

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday Topic is Technically “Popular Books that Lived Up to the Hype,” but since I’ve really only been paying attention to new releases of books for a few months now (in fact, I missed the fact that my favorite author had a book coming out last year until after it was out), I can’t tell you which books were hyped and which books were not. So… I will be posting the top 10 most popular YA books (according to the Goodreads YA by year lists) from the last 5 years that I loved.

As usual, if a book is part of a series and multiple books of a series are eligible for this list, they will be listed together. And as always, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

10. Our tenth book to make the list is Summer Days and Summer Nights, which I just finished a little over a week ago. It was the 26th most popular book on the Goodreads YA list of 2016. If I were to redo this list in a couple of months it probably wouldn’t make the list (since there are a lot of books that were more popular that I have yet to read) but today it makes the list.

9. Number nine on the list is The Wrath & the Dawn, by Renée Ahdieh. Since I haven’t read The Rose and the Dagger yet, only this book makes the list. The first week of June was a Renée Ahdieh week this year, as I read this book on June 3rd and immediately read Smoke in the Sun on June 4th (I was so excited because it arrived a day early, LOL). Renée Ahdieh is the first of two authors to have to books (or book series) to make this list.

8. The second author to have two books on this week’s list is Marie Lu. All three books in the Young Elites series were fairly popular on the Goodreads YA lists (The Young Elites was #14 in 2014, The Rose Society was #11 in 2015, and The Midnight Star was #15 in 2016).

7. Lazlo might have a Strange name, but Strange the Dreamer was a very popular book, and I loved it as well. I can’t wait for Muse of Nightmares later on this year, but since that one hasn’t been released yet, it’s not eligible for this list.

6. Warcross is the second Marie Lu book to make this list. It was the 6th most popular book on the Goodreads YA list of 2017, although it was my #1 book from last year. Since I haven’t read Wildcard yet, it’s not eligible for this list, although I’d be willing to bet a year’s salary that I will like it once I get to read it this September.

5. Caraval was the fifth most popular book of 2017, and it comes in on today’s list at number five. Since I still haven’t read Legendary, that book does not make today’s list, but chances are I will probably like it once I get the chance to read it.

4. Number four on today’s list is the other Renée Ahdieh book, Flame in the Mist. Because I also loved Smoke in the Sun, that book also places here. Flame in the Mist was the fourth most popular book of 2017.

3. Veronica Roth’s Carve the Mark was immensely popular last year, coming in at number three on the Goodreads list as well as on today’s list. I also loved The Fates Divide, so that also gets a spot here on today’s list.

2. Sabaa Tahir’s An Ember in the Ashes books get the number two spot this week. A Torch Against the Night and A Reaper at the Gates also share this spot. The first two books in this series were both number 6 on the Goodreads list in 2015 and 2016, but A Reaper at the Gates is number 3 on the 2018 list, which is why it ranks so high here (in case of a tie, the newer book wins out).

1. I just finished Red Queen on Saturday, so it barely makes its debut on this web site by only a few days. It was the second most popular book on the 2015 Goodreads list (#1 was Winter, which I haven’t read yet), and so it makes top spot on this week’s list. I have not read any of the other books in this series yet, so this is the only one in the series that is eligible for this week’s list.

And that’s this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, tracking the most popular YA books released in the last five years that I have read and loved. Have you read any of these? What is your favorite popular YA book?

Should You Fear A Reaper at the Gates?

By Brookelorren on June 18, 2018June 19, 2018Leave a Comment

A Reaper at the Gates is Sabaa Tahir’s third book in the Ember in the Ashes Quartet. It is another outstanding book in the series. I read the three books in three days, and now I feel like I’m stuck in the Waiting Place until 2019 when the final book comes out.

This review contains spoilers for An Ember in the Ashes and A Torch Against the Night.

When we last left our fearless characters at the end of A Torch Against the Night, Elias had died, but in exchange for his life, he had agreed to become the Soul Catcher, which allowed him to return to the mortal world and help Laia and his friends in the outside world, when he wasn’t working with the ghosts. Darin had been busted from Kauf prison, but he wasn’t like his former self. Laia had discovered that she was gifted with the power of invisibility, and was starting to become a leader (although she didn’t want to admit it). Helene’s family had been killed, with the exception of Livia, who was now married to the sadistic emperor.

Can things get any worse? I asked that while I was reading A Torch Against the Night too. Unfortunately for these characters, things continue to get even darker in the third installment of this series.

Like the last book, A Reaper at the Gates is primarily told from the perspectives of Laia, Elias, and Helene. A lot of the time, they are dealing with their own battles, so it makes sense to follow these three. The Nightbringer also has a couple chapters from his perspective.

After she accidentally gave away a piece of the Star to the Nightbringer (dumb dumb dumb!), Laia goes on a quest to prevent him from getting the final piece. She’s also trying to help the scholars rage against the machine (the Empire, that is) and not get killed. Meanwhile, her brother wakes up, and she needs to help him get back to work making Serric steel weapons.

Elias has his own battles to face. He’s taking over as the Soul Catcher, but he’s still trying to help Laia, whom he loves. If he doesn’t do his job as Soul Catcher well enough, there could be disastrous consequences. Unfortunately, there is a tug at him to give up his care about the world in order to do his Soul Catcher duty.

Helene is dealing with politics in the Empire. Keris Veturius is trying to undermine her at every step, and there are enemies trying to wage war on the Empire. Meanwhile, her sister Livia is in danger, both with the Emperor and with Keris.

A Reaper at the Gates is even darker than A Torch Against the Night. The characters deal with court intrigue. They learn secrets. Many of them grow as people. Some of them seem to be fighting a losing battle.

One of the subplots of the series is the relationship between Elias and Laia. If I were to give this relationship a tag on Archive of our Own, it would be sloooooooow burn. At least they finally realize that they love each other in this book, and are willing to admit it. There are a couple of really nice scenes between the two regarding their love for each other, but with Elias’s new gig as Soul Catcher, is their relationship doomed? You may or may not find out the answer in this book.

At the end of A Reaper at the Gates, the characters don’t run off into the sunset and sing Kumbaya. They still have a lot to deal with. You may finish this book and, like me, feel like you will be stuck in the Waiting Place until 2019 when this book concludes. I’m personally a little scared though… I really hated chapter 50 of Allegiant, and I hope to not see another repeat of that. However, the darkest hour is just before the dawn. Perhaps there was a little foreshadowing involved when Laia said what Nan once told her “as long as there is life, there is hope.” While things will look bleak when you finish this book, you will want more, and fortunately, there is one more book to hopefully set this world right once again.

Other books in this series I have reviewed:

An Ember in the Ashes Has that Spark

By Brookelorren on June 14, 2018June 18, 20182 Comments

An Ember in the Ashes is the first book in Sabaa Tahir’s Ember in the Ashes tetralogy, and it is excellent. If you haven’t read it yet, you want to add this to your TBR list. Be warned, however, once you start reading this series, you’re going to want to get your hands on the next two books so you won’t have to wait for the next book.

I was originally planning on reviewing Marie Lu’s Legend series today, but since the third book in this series, A Reaper at the Gates, just came out, I will be reviewing the three books in this series over the next several days instead. I plan on reviewing A Torch Against the Night on Saturday, and A Reaper at the Gates on Monday. As I am writing this, I’m only 120 pages into the second book, but I already know that I’ll be spending most of my free time reading these books until the series is done. It’s that good.

An Ember in the Ashes is set in a fictional world that is based on the ancient Roman Empire. In the beginning of the story, it’s a normal world with stories of magical creatures, but as the story progresses, it turns out that these stories are real. The story is told from the point of view of our two protagonists, Laia and Elias.

Laia is a lower (maybe lower-middle) class girl living under the oppressive Empire. Elias is about to graduate from 14 years of grueling training that have turned him into an elite soldier. After Laia’s life is turned upside down in one horrific night, she undergoes a quest to try to save her brother, voluntarily becoming a slave. This is where she meets Elias, who is not like most of the other trained killers in his profession. Elias doesn’t want to be a killer – he wants to be free to be something else. Over the course of the book, they develop an unlikely relationship and realize that they both can help each other.

The book is well-done. The characters are interesting, the plot is intricate but not confusing, and the world is well-built. Before I was even halfway done with this book, I made plans on obtaining the next two books. I didn’t go to bed until I had finished the book, and I’m sure that I will finish the second book tonight.

I couldn’t find anything that I didn’t like about this book. It seems appropriate for most teens. There is a lot of violence and some threatened sexual violence, but there is nothing explicit and there is no cursing (when the characters “curse” they say things like “ten hells” or expressions that we don’t consider to be obscene).

This book seems to have positive messages. Don’t beat yourself up for protecting yourself. As long as there’s life, there’s hope. I liked that about this story.

If you like young adult stories with a little bit of magic, check out An Ember in the Ashes, and the followup books. I’m loving it so far.

Other books in this series I have reviewed:

The Smoke in the Sun Robbed Me of Sleep

By Brookelorren on June 5, 2018June 5, 20181 Comment

Smoke in the Sun, the sequel to Renée Ahdieh’s Flame in the Mist, robbed me of my sleep. I was fortunate in that it arrived a day early. Yay! It was a great book, although perhaps not as captivating as the first one was.

This review contains spoilers for Flame in the Mist, so if you haven’t read it yet, proceed at your own peril.

What of Mariko
With wedding bells in her sight
Will she lose her love?

As we begin our story, Mariko is getting ready to marry Prince Raiden, a man that she does not love. Her true love, Ōkami, is locked away in the dungeon, destined for death. Mariko has to play the part of a clueless, submissive girl in order to try to save her love, even if it means that she will have to marry someone else.

Smoke in the Sun answers a lot of the questions that we are still left with at the beginning of the first book. Will Mariko be able to save her true love from the jaws of death? Who tried to kill her in the first place? Will Mariko and Ōkami get to live happily ever after? You’ll have to read this book to get the answers.

I enjoyed Smoke in the Sun a lot. The book was full of court intrigue, introduced us to new characters, some honorable, some not, and kept us wondering what will happen to our two lovebirds up until the very end. I love how Ahdieh wraps up the book nicely. I also loved how some of the characters that we got to know in the first place stepped up to become more than they were in the original book.

I didn’t think that Smoke in the Sun was quite as good as Flame in the Mist, however. One of the charming things about the first book is watching Ōkami and Mariko fall in love, share their first kisses, that sort of thing. That’s a little hard to do when half of the couple is in the dungeon and the other half of the couple is marrying somebody else. I suppose it’s not the story’s fault — obviously, these problems are going to have to resolve themselves before they can get back together, but it does make the first book much more fun than the second book.

If you enjoyed the first book, you’ll definitely want to read Smoke in the Sun. It answered all of the questions that I had at the end of Flame in the Mist, and resolved itself in such a way that I’m not going to go to bed tonight (as I just finished it) crying in frustration or vowing to fix the ending with fanfiction. Even if it’s not quite as good as the first one, I’m sure that you’ll still love it like I do.

Veronica Roth Strikes Again with Carve the Mark

By Brookelorren on January 18, 2017Leave a Comment

Yesterday I was a really happy camper because I had worked late on Monday and Veronica Roth’s new book, Carve the Mark, had already arrived in my mailbox before I woke up. Thank you mailman! Of course, I was then up late yesterday finishing the book.

Many people that know me know that I absolutely adore Divergent. The first time I read the book, it took me a few days to read the first 50 pages or so, but once I got to that point, I read the rest of that book AND the next two books in two days. Then I read the entire series in Spanish. I also have the first book in German and Russian. At one point, I think I was the second best player in the world, of all time, in Divergent trilogy Quiz Up (I was the best player in the world in that game in a couple of different months… I’m currently the 3rd best player in the world of all time).

When I heard a year or two ago that Veronica Roth had been signed to write a sci-fi book about some characters in space, I was a little skeptical. Is this going to be a Star Trek type book, and is it going to be any good? I was going to have to read it anyway.

I love this book. I will definitely be reading the rest of the books in this series when they come out (I believe that this is also supposed to be part of a trilogy). Although the setting of this book is different, it still has a great plot, characters that you love (and some that you hate), and relationships that you are interested in. Oh, and there’s a plot twist at the end of the book that leave you with theories… and leave you with wanting more.

The book is set in a universe that is quite unlike ours. As a result, the first chapter introduced a lot of new vocabulary that took a while to get used to (there is a glossary in the back though). If you feel that way about halfway through the first chapter, don’t put the book down! After the first chapter, the fact that we were in a completely different universe with all different plants and ways of doing things didn’t seem so distracting, and I’m sure that as I read through the book a second time, it will all seem normal and I will see more things in the book.

I don’t want to give out any spoilers, but I will give out some basics. In one part of the planet, we have Akos. He’s from a well-off family that cares for each other in a fairly peaceful society. On the other part of the planet, there’s Cyra, part of the royal family in a more warlike society. Due to circumstances beyond their control, Akos and Cyra are forced to be a part of each other’s lives. They find a way to work together when they find out that they have similar goals, even though on paper, they probably shouldn’t trust each other. While that one-paragraph synopsis might not sound that exciting, the book is.

If you love Divergent, then you’re probably going to love Carve the Mark. Even though the setting is different, people (or human-like people, at least) in Veronica Roth’s worlds are people no matter where you go. Some are inherently ambitious and evil, others have that spark of good, and others are a little more complicated than that. If you find out that you love both Divergent and Carve the Mark, you might also be interested in Marie Lu’s Legend and Young Elites series. I may review those at a later date, but those are similar books (Legend is a distopian YA novel set in future Los Angeles, the Young Elites is a YA novel set in a different universe). I may review those at a later date.

Get A FREE Copy of the Divergent Epilogue!

By Brookelorren on January 7, 2017January 7, 2017Leave a Comment

I’m a HUGE Divergent fan. Veronica Roth could buy… something… with the money that I’ve spent on her products. I own the entire series in English, the main trilogy in English and Spanish, and the first book in German and Russian as well. I also have all of the movies that she’s released so far. Being the huge Veronica Roth fan that I am, I have, of course, already pre-ordered her new book, Carve the Mark (of course I will be reviewing it here).

Did you know that Veronica Roth has created an epilogue to the Divergent Series? AND you can get it for free? There’s one catch though: you have to either buy Carve the Mark or pre-order it someplace.

I won an Amazon.com gift card in the last couple of days of last year, and I knew exactly what I would be spending it on: the new Veronica Roth book. So I already have met the requirements to get this free book. Yay!

So if you want to get the free We Can Be Mended book like me, you’ll first have to pre-order the book. You can get it by clicking on this lovely Carve The Mark link that leads you to Amazon.com (and if you do, I thank you for supporting this blog), or the Amazon.com picture to the right..

Once you pre-order the book, you’ll want to follow the following link get the FREE We Can Be Mended Divergent epilogue. You’ll need to submit a digital picture of your receipt, along with your address and basic contact info. That’s it!

The free We Can Be Mended epilogue giveaway is sponsored by Epic Reads, which is a promotional service of Harper Collins Publishers.