Me on This Week's Book Week (169)

This Week's Book Week is rather similar to Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga's Reviews only with far more rambling and a less witty title. ;)

It's raining! Sort of. It rained early Friday morning, then most of the day was cloudy, but it's supposed to rain on and off for the next week. Which is great, considering the super hot summer that's led to a drought on most of the west coast. It also means that there's a good chance that the fall and winter will be mild and rainy.

I had a DNF moment this week when reading an e-galley. I don't know what it was, it just didn't grab me. Things were happening, but sometimes I didn't know what was going on. Sometimes the characters were cruel or emotionless. *sigh* I might finish it, but it expires soon and I have a lot to get through for September and October. Curse you September 22nd and October 6th release dates. *shakes fist at the sky*

Reviews going up next week will feature Storm by Amanda Sun (Tuesday) and Tonight the Streets Are Ours by Lelia Sales (Friday). :)

Bought/borrowed/received:

Vermilion by Molly Tanzer (borrowed from the library)
Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente (ARC from Raincoast Books)

Me on Nimona

Title: Nimona
Author/Artist: Noelle Stevenson
Release Date: May 12, 2015
Publisher: HarperTeen (HarperCollins imprint)

Nimona is an impulsive young shapeshifter with a knack for villainy. Lord Ballister Blackheart is a villain with a vendetta. As sidekick and supervillain, Nimona and Lord Blackheart are about to wreak some havoc. Their mission: prove to the kingdom that Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin and his buddies at the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics aren't the heroes everyone thinks they are.

Nimona is about good and evil, friends and enemies, heroes and villains. This wonderful comic takes them all, mixes them up, and makes you wonder which side is the 'good' side. Who is really the 'villain' here?

Nimona is bold, unpredictable. She flies off and takes action without waiting for Ballister's instructions. Their relationship is like student and teacher. As the older villain, he guides her in the fine art of eviltry. Teaches her about plots and plans, drawing maps, biding their time, and striking when they're ready. As the plucky shapeshifter, Nimona teaches Ballister to care about people again. There are some dark days in his past, most of them involving hero of the people Ambrosius Goldenloin, and because of that time in his life he's given up on people.

The setting brings so much to the comic. Everything takes place in a medieval-style village full of peasants and knights, castles and swords, magic and dragons. Combined with this is a lot of modern science. Television, video calling, chemical warfare. Laser guns. There's a sense of whimsy here, that anything is possible. It's also interesting, that anything is possible in this world and people can still be at each other's throats. There's still complicated friendships and complicated politics in fantasy settings.

This comic is sweet, funny, tense, and emotional. It plays with long-running perceptions of good and evil, heroes and villains. The shades of grey that separate us, that we never see until we stop to explore what motivates people. A must-read for comic fans, for kids and adults. For everyone, basically.

(I purchased a copy of this book. Before publication, I read this when it was posted online as a webcomic.)

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (241)

Waiting on Wednesday is a bunch of weekly fun hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. :)

Title: Their Fractured Light
Authors: Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner
Release Date: December 1, 2015
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

From Goodreads:

A year ago, Flynn Cormac and Jubilee Chase made the now infamous Avon Broadcast, calling on the galaxy to witness for their planet, and protect them from destruction. Some say Flynn’s a madman, others whisper about conspiracies. Nobody knows the truth. A year before that, Tarver Merendsen and Lilac LaRoux were rescued from a terrible shipwreck—now, they live a public life in front of the cameras, and a secret life away from the world’s gaze.

Now, in the center of the universe on the planet of Corinth, all four are about to collide with two new players, who will bring the fight against LaRoux Industries to a head. Gideon Marchant is an eighteen-year-old computer hacker—a whiz kid and an urban warrior. He’ll climb, abseil and worm his way past the best security measures to pull off onsite hacks that others don’t dare touch.

Sofia Quinn has a killer smile, and by the time you’re done noticing it, she’s got you offering up your wallet, your car, and anything else she desires. She holds LaRoux Industries responsible for the mysterious death of her father and is out for revenge at any cost.

When a LaRoux Industries security breach interrupts Gideon and Sofia’s separate attempts to infiltrate their headquarters, they’re forced to work together to escape. Each of them has their own reason for wanting to take down LaRoux Industries, and neither trusts the other. But working together might be the best chance they have to expose the secrets LRI is so desperate to hide.

After the first two books, and reading an ARC of Amie's next series with Jay Kristoff Illuminae, I'm really looking forward to reading this. How will it all end??

Me on Vengeance Road

Title: Vengeance Road
Author: Erin Bowman
Release Date: September 1, 2015
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt imprint)

When Kate Thompson's father is killed by the notorious Rose Riders for a mysterious journal that reveals the secret location of a gold mine, the eighteen-year-old disguises herself as a boy and takes to the gritty plains looking for answers and justice. What she finds are devious strangers, dust storms, and a pair of brothers who refuse to quit riding in her shadow. But as Kate gets closer to the secrets about her family, she gets closer to the truth about herself and must decide if there's room for love in a heart so full of hate.

Vengeance Road is a dangerous journey, a story of revenge and justice, of secrets and painful truths. A story about what drives us to take revenge and who we become along the way.

Kate is hard and tough, crafted from years on a homestead with her father. She's rough around the edges, practical, and passionate. After the grisly death of her father, she vows to kill the men who killed him. Revenge pushes her across Arizona, it fuels her. But is it all she is? Is she nothing but a hunter of cowardly men and justice? No. Kate wants her revenge, but there's more to her than that. There's a lonely girl under that Stetson, a girl who suddenly lost her father and is looking for closure, for answers. And she does get them, in the end. They just might not be the ones she was hoping for.

This takes place in a rather bleak and desolate setting. It's a hard journey for Kate and the Colton brothers, the trek across Arizona towards the Superstition Mountains. The dust and the rocks and the grime. The relentless summer heat. The lack of protection beyond some pistols and a rifle. The canteen that seem to feel lighter and lighter as they go on. The bullets that come at them seemingly from nowhere. It's a dangerous place, the Wild West, a setting not often seen in YA.

I found this to be an intriguing story led by a head-strong and stubborn heroine. This is a story about revenge, about doing whatever it takes and travelling as far away from home as it takes, but it's also about more than that. Kate has to learn to trust people, to let people in. Which isn't easy, considering how the story starts. I would recommend this to those desperate for a western YA and those looking for a strong, determined heroine.

(I received an e-galley of this title to review from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt through NetGalley.)

Me on This Week's Book Week (168)

This Week's Book Week is rather similar to Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga's Reviews only with far more rambling and a less witty title. ;)

Hi all! Not much to talk about this week. The cold that vaguely brushed up against me a couple of weeks ago looped back around to crash straight into me. This meant I spent most of Wednesday and Thursday in a sinus pressure congestion haze, kept alive by tea, some reading, and some puppy snuggles. And then Friday was spend coughing until I was hoarse.

Reviews going up next week will feature Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman (Tuesday) and Nimona by Noelle Stevenson (Friday). :)

Bought/borrowed/recieved:
A History of Glitter and Blood by Hannah Moskowitz (Bought)
The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma (Bought)

Me on Lonely Hearts

Title: Lonely Hearts
Author: Heidi Cullinan
Release Date: August 11, 2015
Publisher: Samhain Publishing

With the quiet help of his wealthy family, Sebastian "Baz" Acker has successfully kept his painful past at bay. But as the end of college draws near, his friends—his buffer zone—are preparing to move on, while his own life is at a crippling standstill.With loneliness bearing down on him, Baz hooks up—then opens up—with Elijah Prince, the guy Baz took a bullet for last year. The aftershocks of their one-night stand leave giant cracks in Baz's carefully constructed armor. For the first time, the prospect isn't terrifying. Accustomed to escaping his demons by withdrawing into his imagination, Elijah isn't used to having a happy herd of friends. He's even less comfortable as the object of a notorious playboy's affections. Yet all signs seem to indicate this time happiness might be within his grasp. When Baz's mother runs for a highly sought-after public office, the media hounds drag Baz's and Elijah's pasts into the light. In the blinding glare, Baz and Elijah face the ultimate test: discovering if they're stronger together... or apart.

Lonely Hearts is emotional and rough, all about two battered and bruised young men, one trying to find his place with everything changing around him, one still broken and waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Now that he's free from his overly religious parents, now that he's in a safer situation, Elijah's bitter with all the happiness around him. It's not his scene, not after the time he spent on the streets, not after what he's done to distance himself from his pain. He didn't want to be saved by his new friends, but saved he was, and now he has to accept that people actually care about him. But he still can't shake the feeling that they're all going to chuck him to the curb the second he lets himself care back. There's also Baz to deal with. Bax who saved him from street living. Baz who took a bullet for him. Baz who attracts him and infuriates him by barely talking to him.

Baz carries around a lot, more than the scars and the titanium he got after being targeted and attacked when he was a teen, but he's happy. For the most part. He has friends who care about him, he has family who supports him. But the oldest of his friends are about to graduate, and his mother's about to run for a Senate position. Things are changing and it's making him panic. He also has Elijah, in some way, but it's complicated. He sees himself in Elijah, he wants to help, but they can barely string a conversation together, what with all the awkwardness and the attraction smoldering between the two of them.

One of the things this book highlights, along with the previous two in the series, is the ways in which we rely on and ask others to rely on us. For help or support, be it emotional or financial. For companionship, for affection. After his attack and through his resulting chronic pain, Baz accepted help from those around him, supporting them as they supported him. It's harder with Elijah, he's far more jaded because he's never had anyone on his side supporting him. He's wary, skittish. He's better than he was, no longer snapping at every offered hand, but he's overwhelmed by the need to pay everyone back. He needs to learn that sometimes people offer help, money, and time without expecting it in return.

I think this is the hardest and grittiest book of the three, that this one too the most out of its main characters. That this was the furthest they were pushed compared to the others. Both of them are so broken, so stuck, and it takes so much for them to change, to realize that everything's going to be okay. I'm pretty sure fans of the previous books will enjoy this.

Quick note that this title contains explicit sexual content and some drug use (some prescription).

(I received an e-galley of this title to review from Samhain Publishing through NetGalley.)

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (240)

Waiting on Wednesday is a bunch of weekly fun hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. :)

Title: Seven Tears at High Tide
Author: C.B. Lee
Release Date: October 15, 2015
Publisher: Duet Books (Interlude Press imprint)

From Goodreads:

The sea holds many secrets ...

Kevin Luong walks to the ocean's edge with a broken heart. Remembering a legend his mother told him, he lets seven tears fall into the sea. "I just want one summer—one summer to be happy and in love."

Instead, he finds himself saving a mysterious boy from the Pacific—a boy who later shows up on his doorstep professing his love. What he doesn't know is that Morgan is a selkie, drawn to answer Kevin's wish.

As they grow close, Morgan is caught between the dangers of the human world and his legacy in the selkie community to which he must return at summer's end.

Why are there almost no YA books about selkies? I'm really looking forward to this. Selkies and LGBTQ and romance and angst. ;)

Me on Lair of Dreams

Title: Lair of Dreams
Author: Libba Bray
Release Date: August 25, 2015
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (Hachette Book Group imprint)

After a supernatural showdown with a serial killer, Evie O'Neill has outed herself as a Diviner. Now that the world knows of her ability to "read" objects, and therefore, read the past, she has become a media darling, earning the title, "America's Sweetheart Seer." But not everyone is so accepting of the Diviners' abilities... Meanwhile, mysterious deaths have been turning up in the city, victims of an unknown sleeping sickness. Can the Diviners descend into the dreamworld and catch a killer?

Lair of Dreams is as mysterious as the first, as lengthy and involved as the first, and hints at so much more just as much as the first did. Secrets abound in this series, secrets often left unspoken until it's almost too late. Until it is too late.

There's a cast of connected characters so large here, sometimes it's hard to keep up with who knows who and who hasn't met yet. Evie. Sam. Jericho. Theta. Henry. Memphis. Isaiah. Ling. Evie's uncle Will. The two men in the brown car. The woman in the veil. The man with the tall hat. What is clear is that Evie's not as in the driver's seat this time around as she was previously. She's too busy settling into her new role as famous radio darling and Sweetheart Seer. Instead, the mysteries of the sleeping sickness are left more to Henry and Ling, the Chinese girl with the green eyes, to uncover.

As with the first book, there's a heavy dose of racism, sexism, bigotry, and class warfare running through New York. Rich white people looking down on poor black people. The Irish and the Italian crime families. Chinese immigrants hoping to keep working in order to send money back home to their families. Men with more control and social mobility than women. Young men and women having to hide that they're not attracted to members of the opposite sex for fear of being branded unnatural. People working long hours every day in order to keep something that resembles a roof over their heads. It's depressing and heartbreaking, how familiar it all sounds. The words that glorify America while at the same time shames it for its racism and economic inequalities. In the moments where America is talked about, where the voice of the story reaches out across the country, there's hope. Hope for the future. But knowing what happens between then and now, knowing what wars and hatred followed, makes it bittersweet.

It's hard to write a review of this book. There's so much that happens to so many different people, so many secrets they keep. So many different agendas, some good, some not so good. Because of all these agendas, information is rarely shared. They will all have to come together if they want to survive the night. If they want to survive their dreams. If they want to face who is on their way to them. The King of Crows.

(I received an e-galley of this title to review from Hachette Book Group through NetGalley.)

Me on This Week's Book Week (167)

This Week's Book Week is rather similar to Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga's Reviews only with far more rambling and a less witty title. ;)

Hi there! I'm exhausted after a week of volunteering at book camp, so there won't be much babbling this week. What was your week like?

Reviews going up next week will feature Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray (Tuesday) and Lonely Hearts by Heidi Cullinan (Friday). :)

Bought/borrowed/received:

Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman (e-galley from HMH Books through NetGalley)
An Inheritance of Ashes by Leah Bobet (e-galley from HMH Books through NetGalley)

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (239)

Waiting on Wednesday is a bunch of weekly fun hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. :)

Title: Exit, Pursued by a Bear
Author: E.K. Johnston
Release Date: March 15, 2016
Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers (Penguin imprint)

From Goodreads:

Veronica Mars meets William Shakespeare in E.K. Johnston’s latest brave and unforgettable heroine. 

Hermione Winters is captain of her cheerleading team, and in tiny Palermo Heights, this doesn’t mean what you think it means. At PHHS, the cheerleaders don't cheer for the sports teams; they are the sports team—the pride and joy of a tiny town. The team's summer training camp is Hermione's last and marks the beginning of the end of… she’s not sure what. She does know this season could make her a legend. But during a camp party, someone slips something in her drink. And it all goes black.

In every class, there's a star cheerleader and pariah pregnant girl. They're never supposed to be the same person. Hermione struggles to regain the control she's always had and faces a wrenching decision about how to move on. The assault wasn't the beginning of Hermione Winter's story and she's not going to let it be the end. She won’t be anyone’s cautionary tale.

Yay for more Kate books. :)

Me on This Week's Book Week (166)

This Week's Book Week is rather similar to Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga's Reviews only with far more rambling and a less witty title. ;)

It rained this week, which was just the best. So cool and breezy outside. Of course, with rain comes wet puppy smell. And wow, does she ever smell when she's soaking wet.

I won't be around next week because I'll be volunteering in Vancouver at the public library, like every August. Hopefully I won't miss too much while I'm away from my computer during the day. ;)

The election campaigning has kicked off here. It probably won't be mentioned on the news in the US much, or any other country, but it'll fill the airwaves here. Has it been mentioned anywhere outside of Canada that there's an election going on?

No reviews next week because, as mentioned above, I won't be around to keep track of posts or tweets. Check back next Saturday for which reviews will be going up the week of the 17th. :)

Bought/borrowed/received:
A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis (ARC from HarperCollins Canada)
A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston (ARC from Hachette Book Group Canada)
Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin (ARC from Hachette Book Group Canada)
Spinning Starlight by R.C. Lewis (e-galley from Disney Book Group through NetGalley)

Me on A History of Glitter and Blood

Title: A History of Glitter and Blood
Author: Hannah Moskowitz
Release Date: August 18, 2015
Publisher: Chronicle Books

Sixteen-year-old Beckan and her friends are the only fairies brave enough to stay in Ferrum when war breaks out. Now there is tension between the immortal fairies, the subterranean gnomes, and the mysterious tightropers who arrived to liberate the fairies. But when Beckan's clan is forced to venture into the gnome underworld to survive, they find themselves tentatively forming unlikely friendships and making sacrifices they couldn't have imagined. As danger mounts, Beckan finds herself caught between her loyalty to her friends, her desire for peace, and a love she never expected.

A History of Glitter and Blood is at times magical and gruesome, a story of what war leaves behind, of what war makes us do in order to survive. A story of family and friendship, of the ways we bind ourselves together.

Beckan, Josha, Scrap, Cricket. When the war starts, they're the only ones to stay in Ferrum. Why would they leave their home? But staying behind means surviving bombs. Staying behind means joining together. Staying behind means heading underground for work. It's not easy for any of them. In no way is anything any of them goes through easy. It's harsh, painful, distasteful. But it's what they do in order to survive. And when they're not working? They pretend as hard as they can, they laugh and love and look forward to the day when the war will be over. But when it ends, how it ends, is it what they expected would happen?

The narrator is unreliable. The story is told in a mixture of fictional prose and journal accounts, of what the narrator knows and witnessed and what the narrator imagines happened when they weren't in the room. It's an intriguing way to tell the story. It gives it authenticity, makes it sound real. Makes every cut and bite and fever dream feel that much more real. Like this war actually happened.

This book highlights all the parts of war, uncovers the secrets often left unspoken by survivors. What happens to those who stay, what decisions they are forces to make. What pieces of themselves they're forced to give up. If after reading this you're filled with all kinds of uncomfortable feelings, if you're all squicked out inside, then the book did its job. It's not a happy book, it's not meant to cheer you up. This book is all harsh reality and the day-in day-out of those living with war every single day, the stories you never hear about on the news. The stories you should hear about.

This is fairy tale, but one without the usual magic. The fairies do have glitter, but it's to keep the gnomes from eating too much of their limbs and bodies. This is a messy book about war, politics, racism, family, and love. It's a slap in the face and a punch in the gut. This won't be for everyone, but if you find yourself interested, read it for the characters. Read it for Beckan, for Scrap, for Josha and Cricket. Read it to learn what their lives become, to learn who they become. Read it to learn what war does to them, does to us.

(I received an advance copy of this title to review from Raincoast Books.)

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (238)

Waiting on Wednesday is a bunch of weekly fun hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. :)

Title: Lock & Mori
Author: Heather W. Petty
Release Date: September 15, 2015
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

From Goodreads:

In modern-day London, two brilliant high school students, one Sherlock Holmes and a Miss James "Mori" Moriarty, meet. A murder will bring them together. The truth very well might drive them apart.

Before they were mortal enemies, they were much more.

FACT: Someone has been murdered in London's Regent's Park. The police have no leads.

FACT: Miss James "Mori"Moriarty and Sherlock "Lock" Holmes should be hitting the books on a school night. Instead, they are out crashing a crime scene.

FACT: Lock has challenged Mori to solve the case before he does. Challenge accepted.

FACT: Despite agreeing to Lock's one rule--they must share every clue with each other--Mori is keeping secrets.

OBSERVATION: Sometimes you can't trust the people closest to you with matters of the heart. And after this case, Mori may never trust Lock again.

I'm curious as to how this book will go, how the Sherlock/Moriarty rivalry will play out in a modern world where they start as sort of friends.

Me on The Accident Season

Title: The Accident Season
Author: Moïra Fowley-Doyle
Release Date: August 18, 2015
Publisher: Kathy Dawson Books (Penguin imprint)

Every October Cara and her family become inexplicably and unavoidably accident-prone. Some years it's bad, like the season when her father died, and some years it's just a lot of cuts and scrapes. This accident season--when Cara, her ex-stepbrother, Sam, and her best friend, Bea, are 17--is going to be a bad one. But not for the reasons they think. Cara is about to learn that not all the scars left by the accident season are physical: there's a long-hidden family secret underneath the bumps and bruises. This is the year Cara will finally fall desperately in love, when she'll start discovering the painful truth about the adults in her life, and when she'll uncover the dark origins of the accident season--whether she's ready or not.

The Accident Season is mysterious and haunting, a mixture of real life and witches and ghost stories, of bumps and bruises and broken bones. Of accidents and impossibilities. Of family and friendship and the things that join us together.

Cara is a thoughtful, quiet girl. Now, near the end of October, she has questions. Questions about her family, about a missing classmate that seems to haunt her photographs, about the accident season. Why? How? In some ways, Cara sees the possibility, the magic, but in other ways she sees them as they are. Takes them at face value. It's those things she doesn't ask questions of. It's those things she needs to ask questions of, even though she's afraid to know the truth.

A significant part of this book is the ways in which the different characters interact with each other, the choices they make and the repercussions that follow. Everyone felt rather realistic and believable. Cara, sister Alice, ex-stepbrother Sam, best friend Bea, mother Melanie, their classmates. There's a non-traditional family, there's a fair amount of teenage drinking and smoking (as the book is set in Ireland, this might have something to do with the more relaxed view of teenage drinking and smoking), there's talk of relationships and sex. Of homework. They all feel like real people with real quirks and hangups and issues.

Imagine if your family had an accident season, a span of time where you could be inundated with cuts and scrapes, broken bones, of even death. How mysterious would that be. How inescapable. Would you spend your days cautious, watchful, wrapping yourself and your life in bubble wrap? Or live recklessly and full of passion? Would you want to know why, would you search deep in your family's past in order to earn the truth? Would they still be accidents?

This book reads as very visual, descriptive and realistic. The sound of autumn leaves crunching under boots, the chill of the river water, the smell of cigarette smoke. As the book goes on the story turns dark, rich. Lush with impossibility and potential, with secrets revealed and finally spoken aloud, no longer kept locked away in the corners of their hearts.

There's a subtle sense of something magical in this book. The line that separates reality and fantasy is smudged, like a thumb rubbed across a line of charcoal, until one seeps across into the other and you can't tell what side you're on anymore. For those looking for more magical realism, for books sort of similar to The Walls Around Us (I would say this is more grounded in reality), I urge you to give this book a read.

(I received an advance copy of this title from Penguin Random House Canada.)

Me on This Week's Book Week (165)

This Week's Book Week is rather similar to Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga's Reviews only with far more rambling and a less witty title. ;)

*waves from melted person puddle* Hi there. Summer came back this week with a real slap in the face. I'm trying to cope with the heat, but it isn't easy when the puppy wants to go out and snuffle around in the grass and sit in the blazing sun. She's slowly getting better on the obedience training, sitting and lying down and not chewing on shoes. Hands still seem to be fair game, though.

What's everyone reading this weekend? I'll be trying to get through Cloud Atlas and The Bone Clocks. My mother borrowed them from the library and has passed them on to me since I said I was interested, but she couldn't finish them. Seeing the Cloud Atlas movie ruined the book for her and The Bone Clocks is too weird. We'll see how I fare over the holiday weekend (Monday's a holiday for most of Canada).

Does the same happen to you with book movies? I try to have read the books first, but sometimes being patient is hard. I saw The Maze Runner movie recently, I read the book a while ago and sort of remembered what happened. I thought it was ok, it was mostly like the book. Except for the telepathy, and some other things that I've forgotten since I've read it.

Reviews going up next week will feature The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doyle (Tuesday) and A History of Glitter and Blood by Hannah Moskowitz (Friday). :)

Bought/borrowed/received:

Da Vinci's Tiger by Laura Malone Elliot (e-galley from HarperCollins/Edelweiss)