Me on Midnight Thief

Title: Midnight Thief
Author: Livia Blackburne
Release Date: July 8, 2014
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Growing up on Forge's streets has taught Kyra how to stretch a coin. And when that's not enough, her uncanny ability to scale walls and bypass guards helps her take what she needs. But when the leader of the Assassins Guild offers Kyra a lucrative job, she hesitates. She knows how to get by on her own, and she's not sure she wants to play by his rules. But he's persistent, and darkly attractive, and Kyra can't quite resist his pull. Tristam of Brancel is a young Palace knight on a mission. After his best friend is brutally murdered by Demon Riders, a clan of vicious warriors who ride bloodthirsty wildcats, Tristam vows to take them down. But as his investigation deepens, he finds his efforts thwarted by a talented thief, one who sneaks past Palace defenses with uncanny ease. When a fateful raid throws Kyra and Tristam together, the two enemies realize that their best chance at survival, and vengeance, might be to join forces. And as their loyalties are tested to the breaking point, they learn a startling secret about Kyra's past that threatens to reshape both their lives.

Midnight Thief is mysterious and intriguing, a curious tale of secrets, plots, and plans. A tale of one girl trying to fix her mistakes and save lives before even more are lost. A girl who discovers there's more about the world, and herself, than she thought possible.

Kyra spends her days and nights trying to survive. She has friends, those who would support her, but she's mostly alone in the city of Forge. She struggles to steal and scrape together enough coins to eat and sleep and be safe. When James comes along with his offer, she's wary but she's interested. There's looking a step ahead, and there's looking three or four ahead of that. Some can't see that far, can't piece together situations that quickly, and so Kyra falls in with people far more dangerous and ruthless than she expected. But she tries to make it better, she tries to fix her mistakes. She's foolish, stubborn, but not careless. She cannot be faulted for giving up, for stopping and going back to fix what's gone wrong.

Tristam, by contrast, is a loyal by-the-book knight, intelligent and straight-forward. Maybe he's a little more soft in the heart than some, a little more compassionate. Those traits are at odds with each other, the caring and the following orders with a cool head, but he's still trying. He believes in the old ways, the old methods, the basic codes of conduct and behaviour. It's just too bad that people have their own motives and with push the rules around in the mud.

Kyra's world feels familiar in that it's a fantasy world with knights and thieves, palaces and taverns, orphans wandering the street looking for scraps of food, and hints of magic here and there. Even out in the forests it feels familiar, but it's the characters that set it apart. Their motives and plans, their decisions. Their encounters with the Demon Riders and their wildcats.

This book reminded me of a Tamora Pearce fantasy novel. Hints of magic and intrigue, characters with shadowed pasts and evil plans, a slowly moving tale. There is tension and action, yes, but it doesn't necessarily happen that quickly. There's no rush for Kyra to discover the truth behind her missions for the assassins, no rush for Tristam to stop the Demon Riders and their repeated attacks. Well, there is somewhat of a need for those things, but it feels like they were given time to figure things out as opposed to being rushed into a dangerous situation. After how this book ended, I'm very curious as to what will happen to Kyra in the next book, what other secrets she might discover about herself.

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

Me on This Week's Book Week (109)

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. ;)

Yay for rain in the summer. I'm not looking forward to it, they're saying it's going to be hotter than normal with less rain than usual. Other people are happy, but I guess those people like going to the beach, have air conditioning, and don't have to mow their lawns in the blazing heat.

I hope everyone who made the trip down to Vegas for ALA is enjoying themselves. :) I heard it's supposed to be really hot this weekend, so remember to fan yourself with books to stay cool. ;)

I was watching 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' the other day with the family and discovered what a bizarre but funny movie it is, just like 'Moonrise Kingdom.' I would recommend both if you're looking for a movie that's funny and a bit weird but also very clever. Both are well-crafted stories with great actors.

Reviews for the coming week will feature Midnight Thief by Livia Blackburne (Monday) and Relax, I'm a Ninja by Natalie Whipple (Friday). On Tuesday, there will be a special cover reveal with a giveaway so be sure to stop by. :)

Bought/borrowed/reviewed:
The Shadow's Curse by Amy McCulloch (from Random House Canada)
Starbird Murphy and the World Outisde by Karen Finneyfrock (e-book borrowed from the library)
Eternal Night by Carina Adly MacKenzie (from Paper Lantern Lit through NetGalley)
The Last Changeling by Chelsea Pitcher (from Flux Books through NetGalley)

Me on Sinner

Title: Sinner
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Release Date: July 1, 2014
Publisher: Scholastic Press

Cole St. Clair has come to California for one reason: to get Isabel Culpeper back. She fled from his damaged, drained life, and damaged and drained it even more. He doesn't just want her. He needs her. Isobel is trying to build herself a life in Los Angeles. It's not really working. She can play the game as well as all the other fakes... but what's the point? What is there to win? Cole and Isabel share a past that never seemed to have a future. They have the power to save each other and the power to tear each other apart. The only thing for certain is they cannot let go.

Sinner is enthralling and mesmerizing, a powerful punch right into the heart of everything. It's two people trying to find something, trying to find everything. They cannot live without each other, but they can't let the other in for fear of being broken.

In the beginning I saw Cole as all slick and sly and smooth and all kinds of other words that start with 'S', but he isn't. He's all of those things and he's none of them. The world sees him as talented but broken, an addict, a joker, a car accident waiting to happen. But is he truly any of those things? What I am sure of is that he's complicated beyond all understanding of the word. What I am sure of that he's human, and that he's a werewolf. And that he's completely and utterly head-over-heels in love with Isabel.

In the beginning I saw Isabel as a doll, her expressionless and carefully sculpted face covered in barely there hairline cracks. No one else can see them but her. No one is allowed to see them, she won't let anyone near her, near her heart, fractured and tucked away deep inside her hollow body. She's one blow away from breaking, shattering, falling to the ground in a shower of glass and screams and tears, and that blow will only ever come from Cole.

They want each other, they need each other. They fear each other. They rage and cry and fight and love and scream and curse and wish and dream of, at, and for each other. This is Cole and Isabel at their most vulnerable.

The ways in which we wreck and ruin ourselves and put ourselves back together are all in this book. As are the people we need in our lived who make us feel whole and the people who break us and leave us lying in the street with the proverbial bullet to the heart, because they are often the same person.

Who we are, who we were, who we want to be, who the world sees, who the world wants us to be. Never will they be the same thing, the same person. As Cole says to Isabel, "'Looks and is aren't the same. Otherwise they'd be the same word.'" (Chapter 32, will update with page number as soon as possible.)

Reading this, it felt like I was sitting at the edge of my chair watching a movie and waiting not-so-patiently for the explosion at the end. My heart would race, my breathing would speed up, my eyes would grow wide in an attempt to soak up every single word on every single page. I would be hard-pressed to think of a book more honest and more powerful than this.

(I received an advance copy of this title from Scholastic Canada.)

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (183)

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

Title: The Spiritglass Charade
Author: Colleen Gleason
Release Date: October 7, 2014
Publisher: Chronicle Books

From Goodreads:

After the Affair of the Clockwork Scarab, Evaline Stoker and Mina Holmes are eager to help Princess Alix with a new case. Seventeen-year-old Willa Aston is obsessed with spiritual mediums, convinced she is speaking with her mother from beyond the grave. What seems like a case of spiritualist fraud quickly devolves into something far more menacing: someone is trying to make Willa "appear lunatic," using an innocent-looking spiritglass to control her. The list of clues piles up: an unexpected murder, a gang of pickpockets, and the return of vampires to London. But are these events connected? As Uncle Sherlock would say, "there are no coincidences." It will take all of Mina's wit and Evaline's muscle to keep London's sinister underground at bay.

Contrary to my struggle to suspend my disbelief while reading the first book, I did enjoy it. It was interesting and fun, it was different. It showcased two rather similar but different young women trying to solve problems while struggling with their weaknesses (stubbornness, more often than not). And so I'm looking forward to reading more.

Me on Rain

Title: Rain
Author: Amanda Sun
Release Date: June 24, 2014
Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Katie has decided to stay in Japan. She's started to build a life in the city of Shizuoka, and she can't imagine leaving behind her friends, her aunt and especially Tomohiro, the guy she's fallen in love with. But her return is not as simple as she thought. She's flunking out of Japanese school and committing cultural faux pas wherever she goes. Tomohiro is also struggling. As a Kami, his connection to the ancient gods of Japan and his power to bring drawings to life have begun to spiral out of control. When Tomo decides to stop drawing, the ink finds other ways to seep into his life: blackouts, threatening messages and the appearance of unexplained sketches. Unsure how to help Tomo, Katie turns to an unexpected source for help: Jun, her former friend and a Kami with an agenda of his own. But is Jun really the ally he claims to be? In order to save themselves, Katie and Tomohiro must unravel the truth about Tomo's dark ancestry, as well as Katie's, and confront one of the darkest gods in Japanese legend.

Rain is certainly darker than the first book in the trilogy and perhaps even more dangerous. If the first book was all about discovery, this one leans more toward revelation, answers to complicated questions, and an introduction to a new and deadly problem.

Katie is still in Japan, still hopelessly in love with Tomohiro, still awkward in terms of social cues and customs, and still taking control in finding out what's wrong. She seems to take the reins in terms of discovering the truth behind her connection to the ink threatening to take over both of their lives. She's trying, she's not that passive about the situation, but the trying and searching make her seem reckless. She doesn't want to lose someone she cares about, not after losing her mother so suddenly, and so she'll do whatever it takes to keep Tomohiro sane and in control of the ink he can command. Even if that makes her a target.

Katie staying in Japan means she's still immersed in Japanese culture, customs, food, language. It means more opportunities for her to make mistakes, for her Western culture upbringing to shine through and make her look like she's just fumbling around. She's still struggling with the real life aspect of living in Japan, like learning kanji and knowing when to address someone by their last name instead of their first. It's a different culture than what she's used to, less noise and more silent opinions and judgments. A lot of people seem to keep their thoughts to themselves, but Katie can't complain because she does that, too. She doesn't tell everyone the truth about everything, she doesn't tell Tomohiro everything because she's afraid it'll make everything worse. She's still trying to find her middle ground, still trying to find her place, and it's not going well.

The romance is still present, and maybe it does take over, the two of them do get rather involved with each other, but I wasn't surprised. I knew the romance would take over, would wind itself around the mythology as the book went on. Katie and Tomohiro have hit a bit of a rocky road, though, with him thinking he can protect her from the ink if he stays away from her, but it's not that simple. It'll never be that simple.

I like how this book goes deeper into the mythology introduced in the first book, deeper into the Kami and their origins in Japan's distant past. This feels very much like a learning and growing kind of second book. Questions are answered here, about the Kami, about Katie and Tomohiro's connection. Not every question was answered, of course, but hopefully the rest of the secrets will be uncovered in the last book.

(I received an advance copy of this title to review from Harlequin though NetGalley.)