All posts in Young Adult

Everless was Endearing

By Brookelorren on 6 Comments

Everless coverI recently read Everless by Sara Holland.  Driving my daughter to school takes quite a lot of time, which I can use to listen to audiobooks.  This one came available at my library recently.

Jules lives in a humble village with her papa.  They barely are able to make ends meet — then again, that’s true of most people in the village.  Once again, the rent is due, and they don’t have the money to pay for it.

Everyone in Sempera uses time as a currency.  If you can’t pay the rent, then you can take it out of the time you have remaining in your life.  Most of the poorer people have shortened lives as a result.  In a place like Everless, where the wealthy people live, some people can live for hundreds of years.

Jules used to live in Everless, as a child.  A tragedy forced them to flee years ago, however.  Now that Jules is 17, she can help Papa pay the rent by using her own time.  Papa forbids it, but if he uses some of his time, he might die.  In an attempt to save Papa’s life, Jules decides to go back to Everless, where well-paid jobs as servants await, preparing for the wedding of Roan Gerling and the queen’s adopted daughter.

Roan and Jules used to be friends as children.  Going back to Everless means that she will see Roan again, although he will be marrying someone else.  It also means that she will see his nasty brother, Liam.  Everless is not a very safe place to be, and Jules believes that part of that reason is Liam.

As the story progresses, we find out why Everless is such a dangerous place, and we find that there are long-buried secrets held there.  We find out that things aren’t exactly as they seem, and the past may come back to haunt everybody.

I enjoyed this book.  The imagery was wonderful.  I started getting my suspicions about some of the plot points partway through the story, although there were still some surprises, even at the very end.  When I was getting towards the end of the story, I would want to sit in my car a little longer, just to find out what was going to happen next.

I’m looking forward to finding out what happens in Evermore, which should be coming out on December 31st.  Which is weird, because most book releases come out on Tuesdays and December 31st is a Monday, but who knows?  More than likely I’ll read it sometime next year.

King’s Cage Will Keep You Trapped (Until You Finish Reading)

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King's Cage coverKing’s Cage, by Victoria Aveyard, finally became available at the library, shortly after Glass Sword did.  In this book, we get to continue on our journey with Mare and Cal and their friends (and enemies).  This review may contain spoilers for the first two books in the Red Queen series.

When we first meet up with Mare in this story, she has voluntarily submitted herself to imprisonment in exchange for her friends’ freedom.  Although she expects to be put to death, Maven is still obsessed with her, and won’t let that happen.  Instead, she is left to rot in a nice room with a few books… and is slowly suffocating due to the effects of the silencing of her powers that occurs continuously.

Maven is engaged to Evangeline, who is looking forward to becoming queen, although neither Maven nor Evangeline are crazy about each other.

On the other side of the story, where Cal and the Scarlet Guard are, we see the story through Cameron’s eyes.  She’s not a huge fan of Cal and Mare, but she provides an interesting perspective to what is going on with the Scarlet Guard, which is continuing to gain followers.  Cameron still is trying to save her brother, and Cal is trying to get Mare back.

In order to avoid giving away spoilers, I’ll be vague about what happens next.  There are some plot twists and political intrigue, and by the end of the story, instead of wondering why Mare is acting like an idiot, I’m left wondering “Why are you so stupid, Cal?”

So far, this is my favorite story of the series.  I love how we are able to see more of the characters and of the world.  We are already familiar with Maven’s court from previous books, but in King’s Cage, we get to see more from countries outside of Norta.  As in previous books, the characters are crafty and have political motives that can’t be trusted.  In this book, the whole world seems to be at war, and people are choosing sides.  I may have to read this series a second time some day to be able to understand all of the details of this story.  It is outstanding.

As far as characters go, I love seeing the world through Cameron’s perspective.  Cal and Mare do get together again during this book (I don’t think that should be too much of a spoiler… that’s a fairly logical thing to happen) and I love seeing their relationship develop.  Again, with the caveat that I’m saying “Cal, why are you so stupid!?” at the end of the book.

If you enjoyed the Red Queen series so far, then I definitely think that you should continue to read King’s Cage.  It is a great book, and although I had to put it down to go to work and sleep and things like that, I was excited to find out what was going to happen next.

The Glass Sword Gleams

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Glass Sword coverI recently was able to read Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard.  There was a really long wait at the library, and it was finally my turn (since I was waiting for King’s Cage at the same time, I get to read that next.  I thought it was a great book.  Since this a continuation of the Red Queen tetralogy, there may be spoilers for Red Queen in this review.

When this book begins, Mare and Cal have just escaped from the Bowl of Bones.  They are with the Scarlet Guard, but there is still a distance between them and everybody else because of their different abilities, and because of what they did in the first book.

Mare becomes more of a leader in this book, and she sets out to go find all of the other people like her: reds that have the genetic mutation that gives them abilities (called newbloods).  This is a dangerous mission, and some people end up getting hurt.  Mare takes some of this burden upon herself in the form of guilt.  At times, it separates herself emotionally from some of her friends, like Kilorn.

Mare and Cal grow together as a couple in this book, although things aren’t always rosy.  They both seem to have some growing to do.  I really like them together, but sometimes I had to say “Mare, you’re so stupid!”  Not only with regards to Cal, but with regards to some of her other relationships as well.  But she does admit that she’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and she does have to make some very difficult leadership decisions.  She never wanted to be a leader, but leadership was thrust upon her anyway.  I also think that other people unfairly placed blame on her for things that weren’t entirely her fault.

Throughout the book, the characters go through several different trials, and the struggle between silvers, newbloods, and reds widens.  The world is complex and the plot twists are interesting.  In addition, Aveyard is not afraid to kill off some of her babies (sorry).

Towards the end of Glass Sword, I was a little frustrated at Mare because of how she kept thinking of herself as selfish and how she alienated the people that were close to her.  We are left with a cliffhanger at the end of the book (fortunately, King’s Cage is available for me to read now), and Mare makes a decision that shows that she is at least trying to do the right thing, even though she doesn’t always know what that is.

The Red Queen Should Be Read!

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments

Red Queen CoverA few months ago, I was trying to figure out what book to read next.  I had read all of my favorite authors’ books, as well as mammoth series like The Song of Ice and Fire, and needed to find something.  Then I ran across Goodreads’ YA Novels of 2018 List… where have you been all my life?  It was like this neverending supply of book ideas.  War Storm, by Victoria Aveyard, was #1 on the list for this year.  I can’t read the last book in the series, of course (I made that mistake with Joel C. Rosenberg’s Dead Heat years ago), but in just a few clicks, I found the first book in the series, Red Queen, and put it on hold at my local library.  Several months later, I was able to read it.

Red Queen is based in a land where there are two types of people: Silvers, who have silver blood and magical powers, and Reds, who have red blood and no power.  Our heroine, Mare Barrow, is a Red who has no prospects in life except to get drafted into the neverending war and die.  In the meantime, she steals for a living.  A few random events change her life.  She discovers that, despite her red blood, she also has powers.  These powers push her into a posh prison, faking that she’s a silver in the royal court.

Mare has to figure out how to survive in her new life.  In addition, she’s not the kind of person to lie still and let the corruption around her corrupt her.  She wants to fight for a better life for her people.  But how will she do that?  She begins to play a dangerous game where you’re never really quite certain who to trust… and you’re not quite certain who to love either.

The Red Queen series is popular for a reason: it’s good.  Although I think that Mare is foolish sometimes, I still like her, and think that she was portrayed well.  I enjoy reading about her love interest (or not) with Cal and Maven.  I enjoyed this unique world with electricity and cars and motorcycles… but not too much of it, if you’re not rich.  It’s not a medieval world, but it’s also nothing like ours.  All of these elements add up to an interesting universe.

The book has twists and turns, and you’re not exactly sure who to trust.  There are the “I didn’t see that one coming” moments.  Even though I read the blurb about what the book was about before I read the book, I didn’t know exactly how this book was going to play out, and was kept excited until the end.

Fortunately, even though I had to wait a couple of months to read Red Queen (I read this book and am writing this review at the end of July), the next two books will be available at the library soon, as I signed up to read them at the same time.  I might not get to read War Storm until 2019, but that’s okay.  Although I am excited to read the next installment of this series, I have a stack of books waiting to be read, and I’ll just have to have patience to read the rest of this series.

Books By Awesome Authors I Still Haven’t Read

By Brookelorren on 48 Comments

Welcome to another Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl).  Today’s topic is supposed to be “Books By My Favorite Authors That I Still Haven’t Read,” but I want to also include authors that I like, but don’t necessarily consider to be among my “favorites”.  That way this post can have more variety.

Cassandra Clare.  There are a lot of books that I haven’t read by Cassandra Clare yet.  I haven’t read any of The Infernal Devices yet, or The Dark Artifices.  Although I’m finishing up The Mortal Instruments, I haven’t had the time to read any of these.  I’ll be checking them out of my library soon, however.

Court of Thorns and Roses coverSarah J. Maas.  I have had the opportunity to read most of the Throne of Glass series over the last couple of months, but I haven’t read any of A Court of Thorns and Roses.  Or any of the novellas.  I’ll get around to them someday, but she’s written quite a lot.

Rose and the Dagger coverRenée Ahdieh.  I read Flame in the Mist, Smoke in the Sun, and The Wrath & the Dawn earlier this year, but I still haven’t read The Rose & the Dagger.  I would like to read it at some point, but I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.  Maybe because this book doesn’t have a waiting list and I can read this whenever I want to.

War Storm CoverVictoria Aveyard.  When I first wrote this post, I thought that there would be no way War Storm would become available at the library before today.  Well, it did become available, and I did get to read it, but I haven’t read any of the novellas.  I’m going to be really busy in November with NaNoWriMo, maybe I’ll read some of the novellas that month.

Legendary CoverStephanie Garber.  I read Caraval earlier this year, and I thought it was great.  I haven’t had the chance to read Legendary yet.  Of course, I also haven’t had the chance to read Finale yet, because it’s not out yet.

Muse of Nightmares coverLaini Taylor.  Now we’re getting to the part of today’s list where I’m getting desperate to find books I haven’t read by amazing authors.  I haven’t read Muse of Nightmares yet, although I do have it on pre-order.  But then again, I also haven’t read her Daughter of Smoke and Bone series yet, so I guess we’re not getting too desperate to find books I haven’t read.  Yet.

1434 coverGavin Menzies.  I’ve read two of his books, and I thought they were pretty good.  I still haven’t read 1434:  The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance yet.  I’ve had to dig into nonfiction at this point, but I haven’t read this book, and would like to.

Killing the SS coverBill O’Reilly.  There are quite a few of O’Reilly’s Killing series that I haven’t read yet.  I have read Killing the Rising Sun, Killing Reagan, and Killing Lincoln, and I thought they were really good.  I haven’t read Killing the SS yet, although it’s not out yet.  There are a few other Killing books I haven’t read yet either.

slasher girls and monster boys coverMarie Lu.  Amazingly enough, I actually haven’t read everything by Marie Lu.  Shocking, right?  While technically she’s only a contributor to these books, I recently found out about some stories that she wrote for a couple of anthologies, including Slasher Girls and Monster Boys.  I really liked Veronica Roth’s story in Summer Days and Summer Nights, so I figure that I have to go check this one out now.  Plus, there are other great authors in this anthology too.

She also has a story in A Tyranny of Petticoats that I’m going to have to check out as well.  Then she has an essay in another book and I think a Middle Grade book that I haven’t read yet.  So I guess I have some things to check out between now and 2020 when Kingdom of Back comes out!

Untitled Sabaa TahirSabaa Tahir.  I haven’t read the fourth book in the Ember in the Ashes Tetralogy either.  It doesn’t even have a title yet.  But fortunately, we’re at 10 books now, otherwise I’d tell you how I also haven’t read The Chosen Ones, which will be Veronica Roth’s new book, out in 2020.  But we’re out of time now.

Frequency Resonated with Me

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments

Frequency CoverI recently read Frequency by Christopher Krovatin.  I absolutely loved it.  It kept me interested from the very first chapter until the very end.  I was fortunate enough to receive a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Fiona is an 18 year old girl who lives in a small town and has a secret.  When she was nine years old, she saw her father and a few of the town council members beat a boy half to death.  It changed the way that she felt about her father — and her small town — forever.

When the boy comes back into the town, everybody seems enamored by his music — except Fiona.  It turns out, this boy is enamored with her.  Fiona ends up distancing herself from her friends; in the process, she discovers that her friends — and herself — are in danger.  Can she save her friends?

Frequency is infused with music.  This may be one of the reasons why it struck such a chord with me.  Fiona is always listening to one band or another; I used to be almost a walking encyclopedia of music (if I hadn’t been going into the military after college, my music recording professor would have offered me a job in his recording studio).  We both play instruments.  This book mentions a lot of bands and uses a lot of musical jargon.

While Frequency is primarily a contemporary novel, there is a bit of magic involved in this story.  Music has an ancient magical power here (in reality, doesn’t it actually have some sort of power?).  I love watching those shows where they discuss ancient mysteries like figurines that look like airplanes from ancient Peru or computers from ancient Greece; the ancient power of music in this story reminds me a bit of that.  The magic added to the allure of this story for me.

This story is geared towards young adults, but I would recommend it for the older range of the YA spectrum, probably 15/16+.  Several of Fiona’s friends are into drugs, and there are frequent mentions of sex in this story (although nothing is actually explicitly described on the page).  Most of the characters are 18 or older.  Frequency could also be categorized as NA instead of YA.  It was probably a marketing decision since YA tends to be more popular at the moment.

If you enjoy YA contemporaries and you love music, I highly recommend this book.  I absolutely loved it.

Queen of Shadows Rules

By Brookelorren on 4 Comments

Queen of Shadows coverI just finished reading Queen of Shadows, the fourth book in the Throne of Glass series.  Although I loved it, I have to be honest — after several weeks of reading a ton of LONG books (this one is about 650 pages) I want to read something a little shorter for a change.  The next book, Empire of Storms, is almost 700 pages, and I’m not ready to conquer it yet.

Because this is the fourth book in the series, this review may contain spoilers for the first three books.

Celaena (now mostly going by Aelin) returns to Rifthold in this book, and she’s ready to bring justice to the world.  She has a few goals in mind as she comes back into town.  For one thing, she wants to obtain the amulet that her parents gave to her when she was a child.  Arobynn has it, and it also happens to have the third Wyrdkey in it.  Speaking of Arobynn, she wants to have her revenge on him as well.  Then she has a score to settle with the king.  While she’s at it, maybe she’ll bring magic back into the kingdom.

It’s a tall order, but if anybody can do it, the Queen of Shadows can.  This book is full of action and is not without a dull moment.  There are many delicious scenes involving deceit and killing monsters and exacting revenge.  It was a lot of fun.

Rowan comes back in the book, which also brought a lot of amusement to me with it.  I loved how he bickered with Aelin’s cousin Aedion after he returned; the fae can sometimes behave like humanoid animals, and it was quite a bit of fun to watch.

When I read Heir of Fire, I wasn’t that excited about the chapters involving the witches.  I actually enjoyed the chapters with the witches more in this book than in the last one.  Manon shows character growth in Queen of Shadows, and I am beginning to like her some.  I’m looking forward to see how the alliances shake up involving the witches in the next book.

I definitely recommend this book, along with the books before it in this series.

Heir of Fire was Awesome

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments

Heir of Fire CoverToday, we’re continuing our review of different books from Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass Series.  Heir of Fire is the third book, and although I liked it a lot, I’m not sure if I liked it as well as I liked the second book.  Since this is the third book in the series, there may be spoilers from the first two books.

In Heir of Fire, Chaol has sent Celaena Sardothien away to her homeland.  The king sends her there as an assassin, but she finds out that she can’t carry out her mission.  Instead, she hopes to get some information from her aunt, the fae Queen Maeve.

Heir of Fire splits off into three storylines.  In the first storyline, we see what happens to Celaena, now going by her fae name of Aelin, along with the fae prince, Rowan, who is supposed to oversee her training.  The second storyline revolves around Prince Dorian, Chaol, and some rebels back at Rifthold.  The third storyline revolves around the witches, who are gathering in a fragile alliance.

Since the first Throne of Glass book, we see a dramatic change in where the story is headed.  Whereas there was fairly little magic in the first book, this book is overflowing with magic.  There is magic everywhere, from the fae, to Rifthold, to the witches, and of course, there are magical creatures to fight.

I think that one of my favorite parts of this book was Celaena and Rowan’s growing relationship.  It looks like they can’t stand each other at the beginning of the book, but even then, you can tell that there should be something going on between them.  I like them together.

My least favorite part of the story was the storyline involving the witches.  I didn’t dislike their story, it just wasn’t my favorite.  I was always looking forward to seeing Celaena and Rowan together.  I did like the character of Manon though.

I love how this world continues to get more complex and diversified as the books continue.  I’m glad that the next book in the series is already waiting for me to read on my Kindle (even though I’m currently drowning in library books).

 

Crown of Midnight May Keep You Up Until Midnight!

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments

Crown of Midnight coverBack in May, I put the Throne of Glass series on hold at the library; it took until July for the books to start becoming available, but shortly after that book became available, Crown of Midnight was ready to read.  I had to start reading it right away, and I think I liked it better than Throne of Glass.  Since this is the second book in a series, this review may contain spoilers for the first book.

As we begin this novel, our heroine, Celaena Sardothien, is now the king’s champion.  The king has been asking her to kill enemies of the realm for a while now.  Not too far into the book, however, you realize that Celaena is keeping a secret about these assassinations…

Meanwhile, Celaena is getting closer to Chaol.  At the end of the last book, Celaena decided to break things off with Prince Dorian, giving the excuse that she didn’t think it was appropriate for the king’s assassin to be dating the crown prince.  While reading the first book, I didn’t get the impression that Celaena was that into Chaol, but in this book things dramatically shift.

But not all will remain rainbows and lollipops for the king’s assassin.  There are forces at work in the kingdom that were hinted at in the first book, and we find out more about them here.  Celaena’s most recent assassination assignment leads her to a group that may be trying to overthrow the kingdom… but are they on her side?  Well, let’s just say that you don’t want to piss the king’s assassin off.  In this book, you get to see quite a bit of Celaena’s badassery.

Even though magic was supposedly banned in the kingdom years ago, we learn in this book that plenty of magic remains.  Crown of Midnight reveals more magical secrets, both of the world, and of some of our main characters.  Because the king has banned magic, these secrets can be very dangerous.

This series is like an onion: the farther you get into the book, the more is revealed about the characters and the storyline that you need to find out answers to.  Throughout this story, we find out more about Celaena’s past.  The king’s assassin definitely has some secrets that she wouldn’t want to have exposed.

The book concludes with a nice set-up for the next story.  There are no nail-biting cliffhangers, but you’ll want to find out what happens next to these characters.  I’m looking forward to Heir of Fire becoming available at my local library!

Throne of Glass Sparkles!

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments

I recently started reading Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass series.  Well, I’m waiting for the second book to become available at the library, but I got to read the first book.  I thought it was excellent and can’t wait until the next one becomes available.

Celaena Sardothien has had a difficult life.  After her parents died, she was trained to be an assassin, and was pretty good at it.  Unfortunately, she was caught and was sent to be a slave in the mines.  Although most people die in the mines fairly quickly, Celaena survived for over a year there.  When the king needed a trained assassin to do his bidding, Celaena as picked as one of his potential “champions.”  If she became picked as his champion, she would receive her freedom after several years of service.  Otherwise… back to the salt mines she goes (literally).

When she gets to the castle where the competition is going to be held, she has to train hard and regain her strength.  It takes her a while to get up to speed.  All the while, other things are going on in the castle.

We find out that the king is corrupt, but the prince, Dorian… maybe not so much.  There is something out there that is killing some of the competitors vying to be the king’s champion.  Celaena makes a friend for the first time in probably eons, and maybe… there still is a little bit of magic in the world after all.  This story is full of court intrigue and political maneuvering.  Celaena also has a love interest in this story; I’ve seen other reviewers say that there’s a love triangle, but she really only seems to show interest in one person for most of the book, even though another person seems to be developing an interest in her as well.

There really is a lot going on in this story, and it doesn’t all get resolved by the end of the book.  It’s a good thing that there are more books in this series, because there is so much happening that it will probably take a while to resolve everything.

I like the main character, Celaena.  She might be a little bit too bad-ass to actually be believable in real life, but this is a story, so anything is possible.  I like the fact that she actually has interests beyond killing — she is also a girl who is into fashion and reading books.  There are also a few funny scenes in here that are pretty cute.

It seems like most people who read Throne of Glass either love it or hate it.  Most people who hate it seem to dislike the main character.  I happen to like her, and also happen to like the books.