All posts in Young Adult

Ember in the Ashes Sale on Today!

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments

Just thought that you might want to know, the Kindle version of An Ember in the Ashes is currently on sale TODAY for $2.99 (I know that it says $9.99 next to this paragraph, but if you’re reading on June 15, 2018, it’s actually $2.99).  I posted a glowing review for it yesterday, so if you’re interested, now is the time to get it.

Sabaa Tahir’s Twitter feed says that the sale is for today, so I wouldn’t count on it being this price tomorrow.

Since I picked up the copy that I read at the library, I took advantage of this offer myself.  I’ll probably eventually want to get the entire series in hardback, but for now, at this price, it’s hard to pass up.

An Ember in the Ashes Has that Spark

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments

An Ember in the Ashes CoverAn 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:

No Angry Morning with the Wrath and the Dawn

By Brookelorren on Leave a Comment

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée AhdiehThe Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh is a modern retelling of 1001 Arabian Nights.  After reading Flame in the Mist and absolutely adoring it, I thought that I should check out her other works.  This became available at the library the day before Smoke in the Sun showed up on my doorstep, so I had a little Renée Ahdieh reading marathon going on this week.  I enjoyed this book, and plan on reading the follow-up book soon, but I didn’t like it as much as I liked Flame in the Mist.

Like 1001 Arabian Nights, The Wrath and the Dawn is set in the Middle East during the time of sultans: if images of Aladdin and flying carpets come to your mind, that is exactly the type of world we are experiencing with this book.  The king, Khalid, has been marrying a new girl every day, and in the morning he has been killing her.  Shahrzad’s best friend, Shiva, was killed by this king, and Shahrzad volunteers to marry him (knowing the consequences), although her intention is not to die, but to take revenge on Khalid for what he did.  Shahrzad tells stories in order to get through the first couple of nights, which keeps her alive.

Shahrzad’s plan for revenge doesn’t quite go the way she intends, because she eventually develops feelings for her husband.  She starts to believe that he’s not the monster that everybody says that he is.  Threats to the kingdom develop, and we are left with something of a cliffhanger (that’s why it’s a duology).

I enjoyed this story.  I haven’t had the chance to read 1001 Arabian Nights yet, but I’m suspecting that there are many differences.  I loved how Ahdieh put together this world, which brings us a world with a little bit of magic and characters that you want to read more about.  Although the character’s problems don’t magically resolve at the end of this story, it leaves you wanting more, and doesn’t leave you frustrated, sad, or wrathful at the ending.  If I had read this book in 2015, I might be upset that I have to wait another whole year to find out what happens, but since the sequel to this book has already been written, I don’t have to wait.

The Wrath and the Dawn is not my favorite book by Renée Ahdieh, but I can say that, so far, I’ve liked everything that I’ve read that she’s written.  It’s probably a matter of personal preference, but I didn’t click with these characters quite as much as I did with the characters of Flame in the Mist, but I enjoyed this story all the same.

If you like YA stories with a little bit of magic to them or enjoy Renée Ahdieh’s books in general, you might want to check out this book.  Since this book has been out for a while, you can get a pretty good deal on this book in paperback, or your local library probably has a copy that you don’t have to wait very long to read.

The Smoke in the Sun Robbed Me of Sleep

By Brookelorren on 1 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.

Marissa Meyer’s Heartless is Good Fanfiction

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I recently read Marissa Meyer’s 2016 book Heartless.  It is a story based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland stories, with a few references to some familiar nursery rhymes and Edgar Allen Poe thrown in for good measure.  I thought that it was an excellent piece of fanfiction and is well worth the read.

I’m not sure if many people refer to this novel as fanfiction, but that is what it is, and it’s not meant to be an insult.  As someone that’s written over 1000 pages of fanfiction myself (and have probably read at least a million words of it written by other authors) I happen to like fanfiction.  Meyer herself wrote more traditional fanfiction (based on Sailor Moon) years ago, so it probably shouldn’t be surprising that someone can make a career writing fanfiction based on works that are in the public domain.

Heartless delves into the question of “What was the Queen of Hearts like before she became the evil creature that Alice runs into?”  It’s a fair question, because most children aren’t calling for the heads of people that they’re angry with.  It turns out, at least in Meyer’s world, that the Queen of Hearts was just an ordinary girl with big dreams.  Big dreams, a love interest, and a family that didn’t quite have the same dreams for her that she did.

Like most good fanfiction, the story is much richer if you are familiar with the original stories that it is based on.  There are characters in this story that you’ll run into that play a minor part in Alice in Wonderland that play a larger part here.  You can still enjoy this story even if you aren’t familiar with Alice in Wonderland; the more you know about the original work, the more you will appreciate the little details in this story, however.

I enjoyed most of the elements of this story.  Meyer uses beautiful imagery to tell about the treats that the future Queen of Hearts, Cath, makes, she creates an interesting little love story, and the story ends with a good explanation of how the Queen of Hearts becomes the heartless creature that we see in Alice in Wonderland.

This is not a feel-good story, but that’s not really to be expected, because if it truly was a story that emitted happy feels, then the Queen of Hearts wouldn’t become who she becomes.  She is a character who, although she is brave in some areas, can’t assert herself in other areas, and is slightly unlikable as a result (overall, I do have a favorable impression of her though).  Her love interest, Jest, is a likable guy, and I would have liked to have seen more of the story exploring their relationship.  These are just minor complaints, however.

If you haven’t read this story yet, I recommend it, especially if you like stories set in an Alice in Wonderland-style fantasy setting.  If you like Lewis Carroll, I definitely recommend it, as there are some passages with witty banter like you would find in the Wonderland stories.  Although it is not the best book that I’ve read this year, I did enjoy it a lot, and I kept reading it on my work breaks and in the evenings until I finished it.

Win Some Free Books!

By Brookelorren on Leave a Comment

Win some free books in JuneI love to win things!  I’m sure that you do as well.  When I started this blog a year ago (before life got sidetracked and I started spending a lot of time at a different job) I was thinking of making this blog into one where I had a lot of sweepstakes and reviews.  When I decided to reboot this blog a couple of weeks ago, I thought that it might make sense to focus on book reviews.  I still love sweepstakes though.  When I saw that there was a June blog hop going on, I thought that I’d share it with you here!

There are some great books coming out in June.  I’ve got almost my entire day set aside on Tuesday so I can read Smoke in the Sun.  Of course, there are a lot of other wonderful books coming out in June, and you can have a chance to win one of them!  In fact, there are several chances for you to win a new book, since this is a giveaway hop.

Here are some of the opportunities you have to win:

Each of these giveaways have their own rules and end dates, so make sure that you check the rules before you enter.  There may be some more added later to this giveaway hop, but the ones listed above are ones that are currently working and that I have successfully entered.

Good luck!  And may the odds be ever in your favor.

I Loved The Fates Divide

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The Fates Divide coverThe Fates Divide is Veronica Roth’s sequel to Carve the Mark, which I reviewed last year.  I loved this entire duology.  Some people anxiously await the releases of new movies… other people (that would be me) anxiously await the releases of new books, counting the days until they arrive in the mail.  I pre-ordered this book months in advance and couldn’t wait until it was released.  I currently work as a self checkout host at Walmart — right before this book came out, there was a sign saying how many days until Easter, and I would add nine days every time I looked at the sign and would excitedly think to myself “that’s how many days until The Fates Divide comes out”.  I’m currently anxiously awaiting the release of Marie Lu’s Wildcard on September 18th (and her scheduled 2019 release Kingdom of Back) and Renée Ahdieh’s Smoke in the Sun on my daughter’s birthday (June 5th), but I digress.

I had to go to my kids’ homeschool coop in the morning, but as soon as I got home, I went straight to the mailbox (oh, and I was tracking the package’s progress to my mailbox for days before its arrival), got my book out, and started reading.  Aside from having to take my daughter to American Heritage Girls that evening, I didn’t stop reading that evening until I was finished.  I love that I don’t have to work on Tuesdays, because that’s when all the new books come out :-).

If you haven’t read Carve the Mark yet, don’t read on if you don’t want spoilers.

The Fates Divide follows Akos and Cyra as they fly off into the stars after they capture Eijeh and Ryzek.  Lazmet, Cyra and Ryzek’s father, was recently revealed to be alive, and they will have to put a stop to him; after all, Ryzek learned to be the cruel person that he was because of his father.  It is written in four POV’s: those of Akos, Cyra, Eijah, and Cisi.

Before I started reading this book, I was a little wary of how this duology was going to end, especially since the book has the tagline He’d die for her.  She’d kill for him.  I absolutely hate chapter 50 of Allegiant (and no, We Can Be Mended did not fix things for me), but I still love the Divergent series because the rest of the story is so good.  Before this book’s release date, I reread Carve the Mark 3 times (twice in English and once in Spanish) and mused over the fates that these characters have.  Is there any possible way for this story to turn out well? I thought to myself.

Fortunately, I’m very happy to say that this story did have a satisfying ending and did not leave me crying at 4 AM as I crawled into bed as Allegiant did.  There are a couple of twists in this book (one I kind of guessed could be a possibility of after I finished Carve the Mark, the other one that happens in chapter 2, surprised the heck out of me).  I was very happy with the direction that this book went in and I’m sure that most readers will too.

Although I loved this book overall, I didn’t really love the storyline with Cisi as much as I loved the storyline with Akos and Cyra.  Cisi’s POV chapters were an interesting side story, and they did contribute to the overall progression of the story, but I didn’t love her character as much as I love the characters of Akos and Cyra.  I didn’t really find Eijah’s chapters to be detracting.

The Fates Divide is definitely written for the older side of the YA audience.  I recently read The Weight of Feathers, and one of the readers commented about how he was disturbed by the scene where one of the characters was swimming topless in front of a boy that she liked because her bikini that she normally wore with her mermaid costume had been destroyed.  If that sort of scene disturbs you, then you should probably seek out Middle Grade books and avoid The Fates Divide for now.  Akos and Cyra do quite a bit more than kissing in this book, and some of the scenes are fairly descriptive.  I love their relationship, but it’s also part of what makes this book suitable for an older YA audience.

This is the kind of book that leaves me thinking about the characters after reading the book, and is one that I plan on rereading.  It is the kind of book that I might write fanfiction about (I actually did write a short fanfiction scene called Five Seasons Later the morning after I read the book; it contains spoilers for The Fates Divide, so don’t read it if you have not read the book yet).  I give this book a rating of 5/5 stars.

Ōkami and Yumi: Free (for now) Flame in the Mist Stories

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Okami coverŌkami and Yumi are two short stories by Renée Ahdieh that occur after the book Flame in the Mist (which I can’t say enough good things about).  They are currently free for now (although some of Renée Ahdieh’s other short stories are currently selling for $1.99 on Amazon.com, so you probably can’t expect them to stay free forever).  You will not want to read either of these stories before reading Flame in the Mist, because you’ll either figure out some spoilers, or you’ll be completely confused.  Neither short story goes into a great deal of world-building, and assumes that you are already familiar with the characters and the situations that they have gotten themselves into.

Ōkami is the story of… Ōkami (who else?).  It does advance the story of Flame in the Mist a little bit, although I’m sure that if you don’t read this short story, you’ll be caught up once Smoke in the Sun comes out.  It’s a story that allows you to delve more deeply into his character and thought process.  At only 13 pages, it doesn’t take a great deal of time to read.  It’s more of a scene than a heart-stopping action sequence or love story with a plot, but if you love this fandom, it’s well worth reading.  Plus, it’s free (for now) so you might as well pick it up, even if you are taking advantage of the generous offer to get a free paperback copy of Flame in the Mist when pre-ordering Smoke in the Sun.  Don’t read this first, but get it now so you can read it later.Yumi Cover

Yumi is the story of what happens to Yumi (duh) after the events of Flame in the Mist.  We don’t see much of her in the first book, but after reading this short story, I have a feeling that we’ll be seeing a lot more from her in Smoke in the Sun.  In this story, Yumi receives a letter from her brother, containing news of what happened at the end of Flame in the Mist.  As she reads the contents of the letter, and thinks about the recent shakeup that occurred at the capital, she makes a decision.  She had lived for quite a while as a protected bird in a gilded cage; her brother had done what he could to protect her, but she wanted more out of life than to be protected.  This story doesn’t show her taking action, but it does hint at the promise that we will see more from her.  I am excited to see more from her.  It seems like she may end up having a bold spirit like Mariko does.

With the release of Smoke in the Sun being only a week away, now would be a great time to pick up these free Kindle books.  It will get you excited for Renée Ahdieh’s new book release next week.  Plus, they’re free right now, so even if you’re not planning on reading either book right now, you might as well get the books now so you can read them later.

A Free Book? Yes, Please!

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Want a free book?  Specifically, do you want a free book that I just raved about and said how great it was?  Preorder a copy of Smoke in the Sun and get a free paperback copy of Flame in the Mist, plus get a free book plate signed by Renée Ahdieh.  Yay!

I had been thinking about ordering the first book (since I checked it out of the library and definitely want to read it again) but then I saw this deal.  Since I had already pre-ordered my copy of Smoke in the Sun, all I had to do was fill out this form (alternatively, you can click on the picture above) and Penguin Teen will send you a free copy of Flame in the Mist.  That’s a pretty good deal!

I did the Carve the Mark pre-order deal and got a free copy of the Divergent Epilogue, so I know that they actually do send these things.

Flame in the Mist was On Fire!

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Flame in the Mist coverFlame in the Mist is one of my new favorite books. I was recently looking through Goodreads for something good to read that I could check out of the library on my Kindle, and I came across it as a recommendation. It was available for checkout, so I decided to take a look.

I couldn’t put it down. Well, I actually had to, because I had to go to work, but I read it at lunch.  I thought about it while I was working.  I read it on my break.  When I went home, I finished it.  Then I pre-ordered the sequel, Smoke in the Sun.  Then I read it some more.  Even though I checked it out of the library, I’m considering buying a copy of my own.

This book is set in a sort of medieval-fantasy Japan.  Our heroine, Mariko, is set to marry one of the emperor’s sons, but she is very resentful of that fact.  Mariko is very clever and wants to be more than just a bargaining chip that her family can use to improve their status in the kingdom; however, in the beginning of the book, she has resigned herself to becoming just that, and nothing more.

All that changes when she is traveling to the capital city of Inako and her party is ambushed by, presumably, the Black Clan.  She manages to escape, and must make brave choices in order to survive.  One of these brave choices is to dress up like a boy and infiltrate the Black Clan itself — she wants to find out why they tried to kill her.  While with the Black Clan, she finds that she is valued for who she is, and ends up falling in love.

As I read the book, I had to know what was going to happen next.  Surely, they’re going to discover that she’s a girl.  I had to go back to work right in the middle of a scene where she is taking a bath in these hot springs with a boy, and I’m at work thinking about whether she is going to be found out or not.  Of course, she is eventually discovered, and that does cause some complications, but I won’t give away any spoilers here.  You’ll really just have to read it to find out (I’m sure that you’ll want to).

I love just about everything about this book.  I love the characters, I love the setting, I love the relationship between Mariko and her newfound love (and I’m not saying who that turns out to be either) and I find the plot twist at the end interesting as well.  There are still a few unanswered questions left as I finished the book, but I’m sure that they will be resolved on June 5th, which I will be spending reading Smoke in the Sun (hooray, I don’t work on Tuesdays and can spend the entire day reading it!).  I feel fortunate that I just discovered this book last week and only have a few weeks to count down before the sequel comes out (whereas I spent months anticipating the release of The Fates Divide).  I think that the one drawback that some people might find a little hard to deal with is all the Japanese terms that are used.  Some of them I understood, like katana, but then there are others that I didn’t.  There is a glossary in the back (which I didn’t know about until I finished reading the book for the first time), but even without the glossary, I still had the general idea of what all the terms meant.

Read this book though.  It’s great.