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. It was a sad, strange week for the world this week. And so not much chat.
I will say that it's looking like it might snow here, or that it might've already snowed when this goes up. It all depends on how cold it gets and how long the clouds linger.
Reviews going up next week will feature Chasing Power by Sarah Beth Durst (Tuesday) and Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin (Friday). :)
Bought/borrowed/received:
The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall (ARC from Penguin Canada)
The Truth Commission by Susan Juby (ARC from Penguin Canada)
A preview booklet of An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir (from Penguin Canada)
How to Outswim a Shark Without a Snorkel by Jess Keating (e-galley from Sourcebooks on NetGalley)
This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner (e-galley from Disney-Hyperion on NetGalley)
Dream a Little Dream by Kerstin Gier (e-galley from Macmillan on NetGalley)
A Cold Legacy by Megan Shepherd (e-galley from HarperCollins on Edelweiss)
Monstrous by MarcyKate Connolly (e-galley from HarperCollins on Edelweiss)
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard (e-galley from HarperCollins on Edelweiss)
Reviews of young adult novels and the occasional middle grade, adult fantasy, or graphic novel. Plugging Canadian YA when possible. :)
Saturday, November 29, 2014
Friday, November 28, 2014
Me on Blue Lily, Lily Blue
Title: Blue Lily, Lily BlueAuthor: Maggie Stiefvater
Release Date: October 21, 2014
Publisher: Scholastic Press
There is danger in dreaming. But there is even more danger in waking up. Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have become theirs. The trick with found things though, is how easily they can be lost. Friends can betray. Mothers can disappear. Visions can mislead. Certainties can unravel.
Blue Lily, Lily Blue is haunting and powerful, a far more heavy and melancholy book than I had anticipated. A return to Henrietta, Virginia, yes. A return to Blue and her raven boys, to their search for a dead Welsh king hidden along the ley lines, yes. A return to a place where the real world and ghosts and psychics combine and make the world a far stranger place, yes. But not at all what I had expected.
In some ways, in good ways and bad ways and sad ways, this is Blue's story. She's always felt like her raven boys pulled her into their world, their search. But the truth is that all they did was turn on the light hanging over Blue's world when all that was lighting it before was a candle. All they did was show her that there was far more going on right under her nose at 300 Fox Way that she ever would've imagined. Which is so Blue. A girl who sees herself as the white sheep in a family of black sheep. A battery in a house full of psychics.
Everyone, everything, is changing. And not necessarily in a good way. They're all thinking about what the future holds, or what it doesn't. College, family, romance, escape, dead Welsh kings. Life. The only one who doesn't think about change is Noah, already dead. He changes in little ways, in frightening ways, but he's always the same Noah. Blue is no longer the same Blue. The same can be said of Gansey, Adam, and Ronan.
A somber tone trickles and winds its way through the pages of this book. Their mortality is so obvious now. They all seem so fragile, ready to break the second someone tips them over. But things are getting darker, more dangerous. They're getting closer. The Raven Boys is discovery, full of possibilities. The Dream Thieves is adrenaline and mistakes and dreams, it's harsh and explosive. Here, they're staring to think about the future and what it might hold.
This is the step before the last. This is one more step before jumping off a cliff. They're getting close, so close I can feel it skitter up and down my spine. What's to come, what will come and what won't, both frightens and excited me. I will never want my hours, my days, my weeks and months and years, in this world to come to an end.
(I purchased a copy of this book.)
Labels:
book review,
family,
friendship,
magic,
paranormal,
psychic,
romance,
YA
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Me on Waiting on Wednesday (203)
Waiting on Wednesday is a bunch of weekly fun hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. :)
Title: Invaded
Author: Melissa Landers
Release Date: February 3, 2015
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
From Goodreads:
The romantic sequel to Alienated takes long-distance relationships to a new level as Cara and Aelyx long for each other from opposite ends of the universe...until a threat to both their worlds reunites them.
Cara always knew life on planet L'eihr would be an adjustment. With Aelyx, her L'eihr boyfriend, back on Earth, working to mend the broken alliance between their two planets, Cara is left to fend for herself at a new school, surrounded by hostile alien clones. Even the weird dorm pet hates her.
Things look up when Cara is appointed as human representative to a panel preparing for a human colony on L'eihr. A society melding their two cultures is a place where Cara and Aelyx could one day make a life together. But with L'eihr leaders balking at granting even the most basic freedoms, Cara begins to wonder if she could ever be happy on this planet, even with Aelyx by her side.
Meanwhile, on Earth, Aelyx, finds himself thrown into a full-scale PR campaign to improve human-L'eihr relations. Humans don’t know that their very survival depends on this alliance: only Aelyx's people have the technology to fix the deadly contamination in the global water supply that human governments are hiding. Yet despite their upper hand, the leaders of his world suddenly seem desperate to get humans on their side, and hardly bat an eye at extremists' multiple attempts on Aelyx's life.
The Way clearly needs humans’ help . . . but with what? And what will they ask for in return?
I liked the first one, and so I'm looking forward to reading this one. I'm curious as to how much second book syndrome (when the main couple is split up) this is going to suffer from, though. It happens so much in the second book of a trilogy, it's a plot twist/cliché I wish would go away. But I'm still looking forward to this, I'm hoping what happens with Cara and Aelyx makes up for the separation.
Title: InvadedAuthor: Melissa Landers
Release Date: February 3, 2015
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
From Goodreads:
The romantic sequel to Alienated takes long-distance relationships to a new level as Cara and Aelyx long for each other from opposite ends of the universe...until a threat to both their worlds reunites them.
Cara always knew life on planet L'eihr would be an adjustment. With Aelyx, her L'eihr boyfriend, back on Earth, working to mend the broken alliance between their two planets, Cara is left to fend for herself at a new school, surrounded by hostile alien clones. Even the weird dorm pet hates her.
Things look up when Cara is appointed as human representative to a panel preparing for a human colony on L'eihr. A society melding their two cultures is a place where Cara and Aelyx could one day make a life together. But with L'eihr leaders balking at granting even the most basic freedoms, Cara begins to wonder if she could ever be happy on this planet, even with Aelyx by her side.
Meanwhile, on Earth, Aelyx, finds himself thrown into a full-scale PR campaign to improve human-L'eihr relations. Humans don’t know that their very survival depends on this alliance: only Aelyx's people have the technology to fix the deadly contamination in the global water supply that human governments are hiding. Yet despite their upper hand, the leaders of his world suddenly seem desperate to get humans on their side, and hardly bat an eye at extremists' multiple attempts on Aelyx's life.
The Way clearly needs humans’ help . . . but with what? And what will they ask for in return?
I liked the first one, and so I'm looking forward to reading this one. I'm curious as to how much second book syndrome (when the main couple is split up) this is going to suffer from, though. It happens so much in the second book of a trilogy, it's a plot twist/cliché I wish would go away. But I'm still looking forward to this, I'm hoping what happens with Cara and Aelyx makes up for the separation.
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Me on The Shadow's Curse
Title: The Shadow's CurseAuthor: Amy McCulloch
Release Date: July 8, 2014
Publisher: Doubleday Canada (Penguin Random House Canada imprint)
Raim is no closer to figuring out the meaning of the broken vow that sentenced him to exile for life. But with his former best friend now a tyrannical Khan who is holding the girl Raim loves captive, he finds it hard to care. Every day, he and Draikh learn more about their powers, but it quickly becomes clear that he will never be able to stop Khareh and free Wadi unless he can free himself from the ultimate taboo of his people. Reluctantly, Raim begins the long journey down to the dangerous South, to find the maker of his oath. In Khareh's camp, Wadi is more than capable of devising her own escape plan, but she's gradually realizing she might not want to. The more she learns about Khareh, the more confused she becomes. He's done unquestionably bad things, horrific even, but he's got big dreams for Darhan that might improve their dire situation. What's more, rumours of a Southern king massing an army to invade Darhan are slowly gaining ground. Only if the Northern tribes can come together under a single ruler will they have the strength to fight the South - but what if that ruler is an impulsive (albeit brilliant) young man, barely able to control his ever-growing power, and missing the one part of him that might keep him sane? Whoever conquers the desert, wins the war. And the secret to desert survival lies in Lazar, which is set to become the heart of a great battle once again.
The Shadow's Curse is the conclusion to an epic journey all about the struggle between following fate's path and forging your own. It's a magical tale of promises and spirits, fear and friendship, and the blistering heat of the desert.
Raim is on a mission to discover the truth about his broken oath and to stop his former best friend from slaughtering thousands in his quest to rule the world. He's very much an unintentional hero in his own mind. He never thought he would be a leader, a ruler. He knows what he wants. He wants his sister and grandfather to stay safe. He wants to rescue Wadi. He wants to stop Khareh. He wants to know the truth. But he keeps getting pushed further and further in order to complete someone else's plans.
Wadi is confined to Khareh's side because of reasons she can't control. She's trapped by circumstance and Khareh's own growing tyrannical leanings. Unlike the first book, here we see more of her, of her supportive and bold personality, her desire to see Raim and return to his side in order to help him, and also see more of Khareh. He is the other side of Raim's journey. The cruel leader who wants control over the desert, control over the continent. Over the world. I was torn because he doesn't abuse or torture Wadi, not physically. She's actually treated rather well, but I still didn't want to like him.
This is very much a journey to find oneself kind of book, a journey in order to discover our purpose in life. It feels rather Canadian, the prolonged journey across a trying, harsh landscape in order to find oneself. Fate and choice are intertwined. Is everything fated, already sees by prophets and set in stone? Or can we still make our own decisions? Are we still in control of our own destinies?
This is the story of one young man searching far and wide, over deserts and across the sea, in order to discover the truth about himself. On this journey he will discover his fated purpose when all he really wants is to live a comfortable, safe life with those he wants to protect and support. At the beginning of the duology, Raim never acts like he wants to be a hero, and here he's still humble and unassuming, even with Draikh at his side, but now he has to decide if he will actually step up and save everyone. A definite must-read for epic fantasy fans.
(I received a copy of this title from Random House Canada.)
Labels:
adventure,
book review,
Canada,
fantasy,
friendship,
magic,
YA
Saturday, November 22, 2014
Me on This Week's Book Week (130)
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. ;)
The rain has returned, like we all knew it would. Lately I've been thinking about the winter, about how much snow we'll get. I'm hoping it'll be like most years, some but not enough that everything shuts downs and people freak out. Some snow is nice. Lots of snow sucks.
I posted the January-February book for the Canadian YA Book Club. Everyone is welcome to join in and read along with us next year. :)
I read Blue Lily, Lily Blue this week and unfortunately couldn't savour the book hangover that followed because I had to jump right into an e-galley before it expired. And I'm doing it again now with what I'm currently reading.
I see that, like past Friday evenings, Twitter was all a-buzz with HarperCollins' YA e-galleys going up on Edelweiss. And then, like always, I go look to see what's there, and I see some titles I'm interested in but not a lot because A) it stings a bit not being on the auto-approve list for Harper titles, and B) most of the e-galleys are contemporary. We're still feeling each other out, me and contemporary-set YA. I'm really hoping I'll get approved, the only one I requested was Made You Up.
Reviews going up this week will feature The Shadow's Curse by Amy McCulloch (Tuesday) and Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater (Friday). :)
Bought/borrowed/received:
Jewel of the Thames by Angela Misri (from Fierce Ink Press)
Thrice Burned by Angela Misri (e-galley from Fierce Ink Press)
The rain has returned, like we all knew it would. Lately I've been thinking about the winter, about how much snow we'll get. I'm hoping it'll be like most years, some but not enough that everything shuts downs and people freak out. Some snow is nice. Lots of snow sucks.
I posted the January-February book for the Canadian YA Book Club. Everyone is welcome to join in and read along with us next year. :)
I read Blue Lily, Lily Blue this week and unfortunately couldn't savour the book hangover that followed because I had to jump right into an e-galley before it expired. And I'm doing it again now with what I'm currently reading.
I see that, like past Friday evenings, Twitter was all a-buzz with HarperCollins' YA e-galleys going up on Edelweiss. And then, like always, I go look to see what's there, and I see some titles I'm interested in but not a lot because A) it stings a bit not being on the auto-approve list for Harper titles, and B) most of the e-galleys are contemporary. We're still feeling each other out, me and contemporary-set YA. I'm really hoping I'll get approved, the only one I requested was Made You Up.
Reviews going up this week will feature The Shadow's Curse by Amy McCulloch (Tuesday) and Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater (Friday). :)
Bought/borrowed/received:
Jewel of the Thames by Angela Misri (from Fierce Ink Press)
Thrice Burned by Angela Misri (e-galley from Fierce Ink Press)
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