All posts in Young Adult

The Raven Boys

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments
The Raven Boys cover

I finally got around to reading The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater! You know those authors that every week (usually right around Tuesday) you get a reminder that you have to read one of their books? Well, Maggie Stiefvater was one of them, and The Raven Boys is the book that everybody associates with her. So when I found out that there was a Raven Cycle readalong, I had to get involved. I wasn’t disappointed.

Blue is a non-clairvoyant girl in a family of clairvoyants. She does have a gift for making it easier for the other ladies in her family to be able to see into the spirit world more strongly. Her family isn’t wealthy, and she works a couple of jobs to help out.

She’s also been told that the first boy she falls in love with and kisses will die.

Also in her town is one of those stuffy-stuck up private schools for rich boys. The one in her town is Aglionby Academy. The boys absolutely rankle her when she has to help them at the restaurant where she works. So when a boy shows up and asks if she’d go talk to a friend of his (both from the Academy) she gets really upset. They don’t really hit it off on the right foot.

Until they realize that she actually has something in common with this particular group of boys. They’re in the process of going on this supernatural treasure hunt.

They’re not the only people going on this treasure hunt. And the other person searching doesn’t want to play nice. You’ll just have to read the book to find out more.

The Raven Boys is a great friendship book. Despite being from Aglionby, these particular boys aren’t stuck up or snobby. They allow her into their group, even though she’s neither a boy nor wealthy. The four boys themselves care about each other too. Additionally, these boys aren’t just caricatures… they all have little quirks, things they like, etc. that make them seem like real people.

At the end of book one, you don’t find out who Blue is going to kiss or who’s going to die, but you’ll want to read the next book to find out anyway, so it doesn’t matter.

Conclusion: read the book. Especially if you’re into the paranormal, great friendships, and cool settings with fairly small towns set near the forest. I’m glad I finally got the chance to read it.

The Thousandth Floor

By Brookelorren on Leave a Comment
The Thousandth Floor cover

I recently read The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee, and I liked it quite a lot. This book is not without its controversy, however. In interest of fairness, I’m going to talk about what I liked about the book, as well as the more controversial elements of this book. That way you can make a more informed decision about whether this book is for you or not.

The Thousandth Floor takes place in 2118, in a giant tower that soars 1000 stories in the air. It deals with the über-wealthy, the poor, and the places where their lives intersect. Not one of the characters in this book is a saint. I feel a sympathy for most of these people, but at the same time… wow, they really mess up. It makes for an interesting story that climaxes at a party that ends in tragedy.

What I Liked

This story was fun. The characters on the upper floors live lives where money isn’t a concern and morality is quite loosely defined. Most of the parents aren’t very involved in their children’s lives, sometimes even drinking alcohol with them. On the lower floors, the characters are just trying to survive, and their descent into illegality has more to do with survival than just trying to have a good time.

Still, they all have their secrets. Some of these secrets are deadlier than others. As I read this book, sometimes I’d be afraid to read on, afraid that one of them would get caught. Of course, if you read the prologue, you know something bad is going to happen. You just don’t know who. I didn’t know until the end.

In many ways, this seems to be an escapist read. These aren’t really problems that I have to deal with, and there can be something satisfying about wealthy people with problems.

The Controversy

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding this book, which may make you decide not to read it.

The “incest” storyline – from nearly the first chapter, you find out that Avery, a girl that was genetically designed to be as “perfect” as possible, is in love with her adoptive brother. They’re not genetically related, but if you find this sort of thing creepy, then you’re probably better off not reading this series.

Skip this paragraph if you don’t want spoilers – there is one character who is bi. None of the characters seem to think that it’s a big deal or anything. However, the character does die. I can see how this might be troublesome.

Other Social Issues – The Thousandth Floor seems to have some social difficulties. The white girl is perfect. The brown girl seems to be the villain. The Indian guy is the computer genius. Drugs are used to take advantage of a boy. There’s some sexual harassment. This seems to be a pattern.

Conclusion

The Thousandth Floor is fun to read. It drew me in from the prologue (and I don’t care for most prologues). However, this book isn’t without its controversy, and there are issues you should be aware of before you should decide to read this book or not.

Beasts of the Frozen Sun

By Brookelorren on Leave a Comment

I recently had the opportunity to read Beasts of the Frozen Sun by Jill Criswell (thank you Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for the Advanced Reader Copy!). I enjoyed the book and would recommend it for older young adult readers.

Lira’s known loss, but everything seems to fall apart shortly after she finds a boy, half-dead, wash up onto the shore. He’s from another land — enemies of her clan. The boy happened to be the same boy that saved her from gods-knows-what years before. She decides to save him, and that’s when her adventure started. And you’ve all heard the ancient Chinese curse, “may you live in interesting times”.

What I Liked

There’s a lot I liked about Beasts of the Frozen Sun. Lira is a strong-willed character who is willing to do what is right, even if it could be dangerous or defies her own family and clan. She cares about her good friend and about her family. She’s also willing to see past a person’s birth circumstances and judge a person on what’s in their heard. Lira happens to have the ability to see into a person’s soul, and Reyker — the boy she saved — is not who he appears to be at first.

The culture and circumstances seem to go along with what the societies this story was based on were like historically. I like to read about girls that kick butt just as much as the next person, but realistically, girls are generally not as physically strong as trained male warriors (unless they have some sort of magical power). In most ancient cultures, girls weren’t much autonomy and were controlled by their fathers. When fighting, Lira doesn’t have a physical advantage over the invading warriors. Her father thinks that he can use her as a pawn. Of course, Lira overcomes this.

I also enjoyed the relationship she develops with Reyker. Their trust in each other develops very slowly, as you would expect with people that grow up being taught to hate each other. Although their relationship takes time to grow, it becomes strong and I found myself wanting to see everything work out for them.

This book has political maneuvering and evil characters making deals with the enemy. I liked the twists and turns it made.

What I Liked Less

The story took a little while to grow on me. By the end, I didn’t want to put it down, but it didn’t immediately grab me. That happens often with books that have prologues, but at least the prologue to Beasts of the Frozen Sun directly ties into what happens afterwards.

Other Things to Note

YA books cover a wide age range, and I wouldn’t recommend this book to younger YA readers. There are also things that could trigger some readers. This book has a male-dominated warrior culture, and the way they treat the captured women is not good (although not really elaborated on). There are executions and one attempted rape.

Beasts of the Frozen Sun ends in a cliffhanger. It’s not a massive cliffhanger where you’re just dying to find out what happens next, but I definitely was left with wanting to find out what happened next. I’ve already added the next book to my TBR.

Obsidian

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Obsidian cover

It’s summer now, which means it’s time to get started on my Summer TBR! One of the books on that list was Obsidian. I’ve been meaning to try out Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Lux books since I received an ARC of The Darkest Star last fall (just to be clear, I recieved it from a blogger after the pub date, not the publisher, so I wasn’t obligated to review it right away). I accidentally read Storm and Fury, and I really liked it, so I figured it was time to read the rest of her books.

Katy is the new girl in this fairly small town where everybody seems to know each other. Her mom wants her to get to know her neighbors, while she’d rather stay home and blog (she even mentions Waiting on Wednesday!). The boy next door, Daemon, happens to be hot… but for some reason he seems to have this immediate hatred for her. His sister seems to like her though. Over the course of this story, Katy and Daemon seem to develop this enemies to… enemies that are attracted to each other relationship. Oh, and the neighbors happen to be aliens too.

What I Liked

So what book blogger can’t identify with another book blogger? I’ve never written a Waiting on Wednesday post, but I’ve certainly read them. I thought it was a great touch that Katy actually seemed like a pretty normal blogger. I also really liked Katy’s voice. She had enough of an attitude to be interesting.

Then there was the whole relationship aspect in Obsidian. There’s a good friendship portrayed here between Katy and Dee. Once high school starts, Katy makes some other friends as well. Then there’s Daemon; their relationship is kinda hawt.

What I Didn’t Like Quite as Much

Daemon is a world-class jerk. Katy doesn’t do anything to him the day they meet, and he insults her pretty much immediately. Then they end up having to spend time with each other, and he’s kinda nice, and then he’s a jerk again…

Katy, you deserve better than this!

She’s not a stupid girl. She puts all the clues together and figures out what’s going on. Yet… she still hangs out with Daemon even after he’s been an ass, and he really doesn’t make amends and give a good apology for his behavior. Yes, the book was fun and I enjoyed reading it, but I really had to set this particular aspect of the book aside.

I guess the other thing I didn’t like quite as much about this book was Ash. She’s one of the other students in the school and was formerly in a relationship with Daemon. There’s something of an explanation to her behavior as it relates to the situation and Daemon (which I won’t mention here) but she again was a jerk to her for no reason, and Daemon was again an ass about it.

Conclusion

I know I wrote more about what I didn’t like than what I did like here, but I really did like Obsidian. I’m looking forward to clearing some room in my reading schedule to continue this series. Katy was a great character and I really liked her, and I want to find out what happens to her. But yes, there were some problems with Daemon. I’m willing to overlook it, and there are reasons to explain his behavior, but this isn’t a good example of a healthy beginning to a relationship.

So I would recommend Obsidian, but if you’ve had problems with verbally abusive boyfriends in the past, perhaps this might not be the book for you. If you didn’t like Jude and Cardan in The Cruel Prince series, this probably wouldn’t be a series you’d like either.

The Kingdom of Back Cover Reveal Up!

By Brookelorren on Leave a Comment

So many good things happen on Fridays. The start of the weekend. Fangirling on Friday. And sometimes, cover reveals to promising books. Woo hoo!

I recently had a spammer, bandarq 365, leave this message on my blog:

I’m gone to inform my little brother, that he
should also go to see this weblog on regular basis to obtain updated
from hottest news.

Well… I’m flattered, but…

But today is one of those days when I have news. The cover reveal to Marie Lu’s The Kingdom of Back is out!

So head on over to Entertainment Weekly and check out the cover! It’s still supposed to be exclusive over there, so I won’t copy it here, but you can see it now! And you can read a short excerpt too. You can also pre-order The Kingdom of Back over at Amazon.com. I’ve pre-ordered the Kindle edition already (I’ll definitely get a hardback copy too, but there might be a special edition I can get elsewhere). It’s scheduled to be released on March 3, 2020 (the same day as Chain of Gold… why do you do this to me!).

And speaking of Marie Lu special editions, you can pre-order a signed copy of Rebel! This one won’t arrive on release day, but if you’re willing to wait a few days, then you can get one signed. My dh said I was a geek because I was planning on buying this signed copy and then getting a Kindle edition (which will arrive at 10 PM MST on September 30th), but this would be really cool to have.

And since we’re already on the subject of my auto-buy authors, Veronica Roth’s The Chosen Ones is also available for pre-order… but only on the Kindle at the moment. Amazon says the pub date for this one is May 4, 2020. I’ll probably just get this one on hardback, so I guess I’ll have to wait.

So that’s all the news for now!

Update: It’s up on Amazon now so I guess it’s safe to post it here. Isn’t it gorgeous?

The Storm Crow

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The Storm Crow cover

I recently had the opportunity to read The Storm Crow by Kalyn Josephson (thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire). I enjoyed it a lot, and plan on reading the sequel sometime after that one comes out.

Things are going badly for Thia, the princess of Rhodaire. One day, she’s a mischievous teen about to become a crow rider; the next day, all her dreams fall apart. Worse yet, her sister expects her to marry Prince Ericen from the enemy’s kingdom! All Thia wants to do right now is lay in bed all day. The situation looks hopeless, but if that was the case, this wouldn’t be a very good story.

What I Liked

Thia becomes depressed in this story. She doesn’t have chronic suicidality (I know someone with this problem), but she has a situational depression that can occur after a traumatic event. After our house fire years ago, I felt pretty upset and anxious, although not to the point where I was in bed all day. Still, I can see where she was coming from. I liked how Thia was able to rise above her depression and become the heroine that her kingdom needed her to be.

I like how things aren’t always as they seem to be. The characters that are portrayed as bad guys might not actually be that bad. In addition, there was a revelation that happened towards the end of The Storm Crow that surprised me. I won’t say what it is because… spoilers.

The Storm Crow also had some pretty good friend rep. Thia has a best friend, Kiva, who gets to stay with her, even when Thia is forced to travel into the enemy’s kingdom. Yes, Kiva does work as Thia’s guard, so she’s kind of a subordinate, but they both have a friendship kind of respect for each other, and Kiva isn’t afraid to kick her friend in the butt every now and then shen she needs it.

What Was Not Quite As Good

Although I really liked the story, it did kinda get off to a slow start. The really exciting parts happened towards the end of the book. The last part of the book flew by for me, while I wasn’t as excited about the book during the first part of the story.

Conclusion

I enjoyed The Storm Crow enough that I plan on reading the sequel at some point whenever it comes out. Although the book doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, there are several unanswered questions that I’d like to know the answer to. I don’t know when it’ll come out, but I added it to my TBR.

This book doesn’t come out until July 9th, but you can pre-order it now.

Favorite Fathers (Fangirling on Friday)

By Brookelorren on 4 Comments
Fangirling on Friday

::Waves:: Hello! Welcome to another edition of Fangirling on Friday, where we fangirl over something. Today, we’re going to talk about favorite fathers!

I thought this topic might be easier than Favorite Mothers, but now that I’m writing this, I’m not so sure. There aren’t too many parents — period — in YA books! I’ll do my best though.

Crooked Kingdom cover

Colm Fahey: Crooked Kingdom – Leigh Bardugo

Jesper’s dad was the first name that came to mind when I thought of good dads. Sure, he wasn’t perfect — he kinda messed up a bit when Jesper was a kid — but he also didn’t freak out too badly when he found out just how badly his son had messed up. I don’t know about you, but if I found out my kid was about to lose my house, had dropped out of college, and now bad guys were after us? I wouldn’t be that cool.

Alex, Approximately cover

The Dad in Alex, Approximately – Jenn Bennett

So I don’t remember the dad’s name, okay? Anyway, he gets Bailey a job, fixes up a motorcycle for her, and seems like a cool guy. His relationship with Bailey’s mom didn’t really work out, and now he lives on the opposite side of the country from her, and he eventually starts to have a life of his own again, finding a new girlfriend. Doesn’t seem like such a bad dad to have.

Here and Now and Then cover

Kin: Here and Now and Then – Mike Chen

I remembered Kin when I first started thinking about this topic. In this book, the dad is literally the hero. He’s the time-traveler with the daughter he’s trying to save. He doesn’t give up on her, even though he has to break a few rules in the process. Ultimately, he is willing to give up some of his own happiness for his daughter’s benefit. But it does turn out all good.

Storm Glass cover

Cetti’s Adoptive Dad: Storm Glass – Jeff Wheeler

I almost forgot Cetti’s adoptive dad in Storm Glass (I can’t remember his name). There aren’t too many adoptive parents in YA. I haven’t read any of the other books in The Harbinger series yet, but at least in the first book, he seems like a good guy. First, he takes in this little street girl. Then, he still pursues adoption even though his social circle is against it. And he seems like an understanding and caring guy.

I tried to find some other dads, but I’m drawing a blank for good dads. The dads in Spin the Dawn, Red Queen, and A Court of Thorns and Roses meant well, but they were broken. And let’s not even talk about dads like those in The Young Elites and Heartless — those were awful. Let’s face it, it’s hard to find good parents in YA.

Kingdom of Ash

By Brookelorren on 4 Comments
Kingdom of Ash Cover

The final installment of Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass series is Kingdom of Ash. At 980 pages, this is an epic book. To be honest, it was a little bit too long. But it was a fitting end to a great series.

Because this is a review of the last book of a series, there are spoilers for the first six books.

At the beginning of the book, things look hopeless. Aelin is in an iron box trapped by Maeve (whom we now know is Valg), all of our protagonists are separated, and the forces of evil have their armies everywhere. How are they going to find Aelin and fight off all these forces? I don’t think I’m really spoiling much to say that they’re going to eventually win. An ending where Maeve and Erawan win and everyone dies would have everybody shaking their fists, vowing to never read another Sarah J. Maas book again.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. It was interesting to see the twists and turns, and find out how Ms. Maas was going to pull the characters out of all the messes they got themselves into. There were several situations where things looked really bleak. Sadly, not everybody will survive. In the end, there was no irrational “oh the gods came down and saved everyone” end either. The way the conflict was resolved was quite satisfying.

A Really Long Book

I like big books as well as the next person, but Kingdom of Ash might have been a little bit too long. There were too many long, detailed battle scenes. While I enjoy history, I don’t particularly care for reading a lot of battle scenes. They can easily become too much for me. I gave this book four stars on Goodreads – pretty much the reason it lost a star was the length. Partly due to the battle scenes.

Kingdom of Ash is very detailed. I found myself referring to the map several times while reading this book. There were characters that show up in this book that we haven’t seen since Throne of Glass. There is so much going on in this book that someday I may have to binge-read this series again just to remember everything that happened.

To give an example of how long this book is, there’s about 100 pages of this book where stuff happens after the climax of the book: coronations, wedding talk, that sort of thing. Yes, I want to find out what happens to the characters afterwards, but for 100 pages? After already reading nearly 900 pages? It was a little bit much.

Conclusion

I liked this book. There were a lot of great characters and subplots, but the length was just a bit too much, even for someone that reads a lot of long books. If you’re going to make your fiction book nearly 1000 pages, make sure they’re all necessary.

Alex, Approximately

By Brookelorren on 8 Comments
Alex, Approximately cover

Alex, Approximately is a sweet, enemies-to-lovers story where the characters unknowingly already care for each other.

At the beginning of the summer, Bailey moves across the country to a small town in Northern California. Her online friend Alex lives here, but because of a tragic event that happened in her past, she’s afraid of telling him that she moved into town. Instead, she tries to find him first; if he seems like a cool guy in real life, she’ll reveal herself to him.

After starting a summer job that her dad makes her get, she begins to be tormented by Porter, one of the security guards there. He’s probably tormenting her because he’s attracted to her. At the same time, Bailey finds that she can’t act normal around him because she’s attracted to him as well. Over the summer, she finds herself drawing closer to Porter and drifting away from her online friend Alex. Although if you read the synopsis, you know that Alex and Porter are the same person. Eventually, they find out the truth.

What I Loved

I loved Alex, Approximately and devoured it in two days. When I couldn’t read the book, I kept thinking about the characters. Both Bailey and Porter had previous hurt in their lives (which we do find out about) and it affects their relationship in a realistic way. They’re three-dimensional characters who have a variety of interests, friends, and family relationships. Bailey (oh my) acts like a teenager sometimes, getting upset and doing stupid things. I love how she develops as a person.

The setting was great as well. I’ve been to Northern California a few times before, and I could just picture this little town near the redwoods and the ocean. The museum where they worked at was another setting that stood out in my mind.

What Could Have Been Better

Bailey doesn’t hear from her mom the whole summer. She lives with her dad, but wouldn’t a teenager at least want to hear from her mom every once in a while? Other than this, there wasn’t really anything I could think of.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a cute contemporary romance to read this summer, Alex, Approximately would be a good choice. It has beaches, summer jobs, great characters, and a sunny (well, sometimes foggy, this is Northern California) setting. I’m glad that I read it and definitely recommend it to others.

Spin The Dawn

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments
Spin the Dawn cover

I recently finished reading Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim (thank you Netgalley, for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy) and I loved it! Just look at that gorgeous cover! And there’s magic! After reading this book, I definitely plan on reading the second book in this series.

I have to admit though, for a while I wondered “why did I request to read a book about sewing?” Because as much as I love the cover and the whole magic thing is great, there was a part of me that started thinking what can be interesting about sewing? As it turns out, there’s way more to this story than a girl making clothes.

Maia has always wanted to be a tailor. I love her. She has three brothers, but loses two of them in the war. Her father isn’t the same as he used to be, debilitated by a broken heart. And when her other brother comes back from the war, he has a bad leg. And he’s never been able to sew. So when the emperor sends envoys planning to take a family member to become the emperor’s tailor, Maia decides she needs to impersonate her brother and go in his place. She can’t go herself because girls can’t be tailors. It’s either that, or she’ll have to marry the baker’s son. Eew.

When she gets there, things aren’t as easy as they seem. She has to compete for this position. And the other tailors play dirty. But even after the competition, that’s not the end of the story. There’s way more to it. So much more, that there’s another book (which I definitely plan to read). But I can’t say much more because spoilers.

Not only are there evil villains, magic, and political intrigue in this story, there is also a love interest. I really like them together. But I can’t say any more about that either.

Can I think of anything I didn’t like? Not really. It’s a beautiful book and I highly recommend it for people that enjoy fantasy.  The book isn’t out until July 9th, but you can pre-order it now.