Me on Witches of East End

Title: Witches of East End
Author: Melissa de la Cruz
Release Date: June 21, 2011
Publisher: Hyperion

Out in North Hampton live three unique women, Joanna Beauchamp and her daughters Freya and Ingrid. They are witches, powerful, but banned from openly practicing magic. Not until each of them are presented with certain situations do they break out their wands and start casting spells again, bringing to life their small town. Then the darkness comes, and the sickness, and the missing girl, and the Beauchamp women realize it's time to uncover what dark forces have come to their small town hidden in the mist.

This book has what I love about Melissa de la Cruz books: magic, secrets, powerful but flawed characters, New York class and style, and hidden romances. It's another exciting book, with hints of her Blue Bloods series. Characters like Freya and Ingrid and Joanna help this book stand on its own, but it's still half-related to its well-established and well-loved Blue Bloods cousins.

This is not a YA book, per se. The characters are not teenagers, but I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of readers of this book have drifted over from Melissa's YA series. It's still what I've come to expect from a Melissa novel: a blend of character and plot driven with characters in conflict and aren't sure what they really want (or who, Freya) and events happening that slowly change the world around them (the dead birds and the sickness).

I loved the inclusion of (maybe spoiler) Norse mythology (like you couldn't see it with a name like Freya or Ingrid). I like tweaks and spins on mythology in general, it explains why I loved Aimée Carter's The Goddess Test so much (Greek mythology) and why I'm excited to read Tera Lynn Childs' Sweet Venom (also Greek mythology). It's another idea that sets Witches of East End apart from Blue Bloods, that it's not all blue blood-angel-reincarnated soul-vampires.

Such a fun, interesting, mysterious summer read. I couldn't help but think of summer as I read this. They're at the beach, it's New York, Freya is bubbly and sexy and fun. And I liked Ingrid, too, and not just because she's a librarian. She wants to help people. I hope in the next book she gets kissed as much as Freya did in this book. ;)

(I received this book from HarperCollinsCanada for the intent to review it. I haven't received any sort of compensation for my time, but I do appreciate them sending it express overnight to me.)

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (33)

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

Title: Glimmer
Author: Phoebe Kitanidis
Release Date: April 17, 2012
Publisher: Balzer + Bray (HC imprint)

From Goodreads:

What if you forgot your identity and had to rely on other people to tell you who you were?

And what if to discover your true self, you first had to unravel a mystery so big and terrifying you were not sure you’d survive solving it?

When Marshall and Elyse wake up in each other’s arms with zero memory of how they got there or who they are, it’s the start of a long journey through their separate pasts and shared future.

Terrified by their amnesia, the two make a pact to work together to find the answers that could jog their missing memories. As they piece together clues, they discover they’re in the idyllic mountain resort town of Summer Falls, where everyone seems mysteriously happy, but as Marshall and Elyse quickly learn, darkness lurks beneath the town’s perfect facade. Not only is the town haunted by sinister ghosts, but none of its living inhabitants retain bad memories of anything—not the death of Marshall’s mom, not the hidden shame in Elyse’s family, not even the day-to-day anguish of high school.

Lonely in this world of happy zombies, Marsh and Elyse fall into an intense relationship...but the secrets they uncover could be the death of this growing love—and the death of everyone, and everything, they love in Summer Falls.

I'm kind of kicking myself for not reading Phoebe's first book Whisper yet, but I'll finally get it when I see her at the end of the month. Yay. Because this book sounds so good.

Me on Rage

Title: Rage
Author: Jackie Morse Kessler
Release Date: April 8, 2011
Publisher: Harcourt Graphia

Missy didn't mean to cut so deep. But the party was terrible, and someone she once cared for humiliated her in front of everyone. Who could blame her for wanting comfort? Sure, most people don't turn to a razor blade, but Missy was always... different.

Now, Missy has become War, one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and she wields a new weapon, a giant sword that can cut down everything and anyone in her path. But it's with this weapon heavy in her hand that Missy learns something that could help conquer her own pain: control.

What I love about this series is that it's heart-breakingly honest. No sugar-coating, because why would you? These are real issues that reel teens face every real day. I want a teenager to pick up this book, read it, and go, "Wow, that was amazing. Maybe I should talk to someone/talk to a friend because I think he/she is cutting/because I'm a cutter. I need/my friend needs help."

Missy is ruined, her body a road map of scars, of pain and sorrow and hopelessness. I could see myself in her, the teenager who wanted to avoid school, avoid the pointing, avoid the name calling and public shunning. The anger in her is like a disease, slowly building, growing, until she unleashes it upon the world so they can feel how she feels. So they can rage like she can.

There's something about this book that cuts so deep with me, no pun intended. I considered committing suicide when I was in high school, on a rainy day in November, at a point in time where most of my friends had dumped me over something stupid and pointless. Those months were my lowest, when I didn't want to leave the house, when I didn't want to get out of bed. Sometimes I think I would've started cutting. I don't know if it was reading that saved me, I still don't know to this day if I've gotten past that depressed point in my life, but I know that in those dark points, in the shadows, there's still hope. There's still a reason to go on living.

There are a few days here and there when I feel lost and alone, when I imagine the rush of blood and the brief flash of pain before it all rushes away, but I pull back when I remind myself I don't want to fall into the darkness.

Gritty, dark, honest, and powerful, Rage reaches into the heart of the reader to squeeze tight. This book gives Missy to us to care for and to love, to watch her grow and learn, to face her pain and hopefully, find the love and support she craves. To find victory.

Me on In My Mailbox (29)

In My Mailbox is a bunch of fun hosted every week by Kristi over at The Story Siren. :)

So, this whole Canada Post strike/lockout/back to work legislation stuff has been a huge pain in the butt. Now we enter that weird time where all the backed-up mail gets sorted and delivered, like the books and other fun mail people sent me before the lockout. *sigh* FedEx and UPS and DHL probably all had a good spike in business this past month.

Sent by Emma at Booking Though 365: (both are ARCs she picked up for me at BEA, which makes her awesome)
Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
The Mephisto Covenant by Trinity Faegen

Requested from NetGalley: (not really requested, it's in the public catalogue so anyone can read it)
Tris & Izzie by Mette Ivie Harrison

Me on Imaginary Girls

Title: Imaginary Girls
Author: Nova Ren Suma
Release Date: June 14, 2011
Publisher: Dutton (Penguin imprint)

Chloe has an older sister, Ruby. Everyone looks at Ruby, longs for Ruby, but she can't be caught or caged. A night with Ruby and her friends goes wrong for Chloe when she discovers the body of her classmate London Hayes floating in the reservoir, and Chloe goes off to live with her father.

But Ruby wants her back. When Chloe returns after two years away, things in town are different. As she starts to poke at the changes in the town she's come back to, at the truth that Ruby's hidden away, the fragile line between life and death is redrawn, recreated by the bonds of sisterhood.

Initially, this book just sounded like the kind of book I love reading about (and writing). Realistic characters in a realistic setting with something tweaked to be just a little unrealistic and impossible and compelling. Reality can be boring. ;) There so much suspense and intrigue in this book. And I'll fully admit to reading this book after 11pm, which totally increased the spook factor. I did the same with Dia Reeves' books, which are heavy on the spook and the creep and the horror-fun. ;)

There's something so simple about this book, but there's also so much hidden just under the surface, waiting to be exposed. On the surface, it's a book about sisters, like Dia Reeves' Slice of Cherry or Jackson Pearce's Sisters Red, but under the water there's something lurking, something dark, something mysterious and dangerous and forbidden, like Dia Reeves' Slice of Cherry or Jackson Pearce's Sisters Red.

Chloe's an interesting character. She loves her sister, wants to be with her sister, but she doesn't quite understand what Ruby does and why she does it. Something motivates her beyond sisterly love, something possibly more obsessive or possessive of Chloe.

To Ruby, Chloe is her sister, hers to take care of, hers to have fun with, hers to spend all of her days with talking and laughing and having fun. Nothing will hurt Chloe or bother Chloe, no one will touch her. Chloe will be the safest girl in town, as long as she follows Ruby's rules.

As long as she stays out of the reservoir, away from the sunken town of Olive.

This haunting and mysterious book sucked me right in. I was right there with Chloe, trying to figure out life with Ruby again, trying to understand why the town seems different. Nova Ren Suma has written such a moving book, and such a spooky book. I'm not talking about spooky in the Hallowe'en sense, but spooky as in you don't know what's going on and when you figure it out you're shocked and creeped out.

And I would so recommend you read this book in the middle of the night. It took me a little while to fall asleep after finishing. ;)