Book: M.I.A.: Missing In Atman by Michelle Reed

Expected Publication is December 16, 2014 by Month9Books|Expected Number Of Pages: 325

Where I Got It: I got a digital ARC directly from Month9, which hasn’t influenced my review in any way.  Promise!

Series: Atman City #2

Genre: YA Paranormal

You can find M.I.A.: Missing In Atman on goodreads & Michelle Reed on twitter and her website

Goodreads Summary: 

Dez is finally hitting her afterlife stride. She hasn’t missed a meeting or session in forty-two days, and she’s put the adventures and danger of her first days at Atman behind her. Life after death is becoming tolerable, yet nothing is quite what she’d hoped. Confusion over her feelings for Charlie, residual resentment over losing Hannah, and a continuous stream of unwanted assignments leave Dez restless and argumentative.

In a missed encounter with Crosby, her prying gaze lands upon a single entry in the datebook on his unoccupied desk. These few, hastily scribbled words reveal an enormous secret he’s keeping from her. Possessed by a painful sense of betrayal, she once again sneaks off to Atman City, determined to find answers to an unresolved piece of her life. 

It begins as all their adventures do, but as light falls into darkness, a stop in an unfamiliar neighborhood sets forth a chaotic series of events. Dez will have to fight for her very existence, and will face painful, irreparable loss in an afterlife teeming with demons wielding ancient powers.

In M.I.A.: Missing in Atman, the second book in the Atman City series, Michelle E. Reed continues the story of Dez Donnelly, pushing her to her limits and surprising readers at every twist and turn of the vast world that is Atman.

What I Thought:

I liked M.I.A.!  Not as much as the first book in the series, but I still liked it!

In the first book, I really liked seeing Dez deal with what happened to her (but also starting to accept what happened), and I feel like that wasn’t there as much.  She does have new things to deal with, like seeing an entry in Crosby’s calendar, which then leads to all sorts of craziness that happens.

I don’t get why Dez dealt with the secret the way she did, and I don’t know if it’s something that I didn’t remember from the first book, or if it’s something that Dez didn’t really think about or deal with before or if it’s going somewhere in the next book, because I felt like it was ignored once everything else started happening.

We did see more of Atman, and some of its inhabitants- some good, others, not so much.  I liked seeing more of Atman, and some of the people there, but for reasons I can’t figure out, they didn’t strike me as much as the characters we meet in the first book.

And with what happens at the end, I have no idea where things are headed, and how they’ll turn out.  They really could go in any direction, so I’m curious to see how everything comes together, and how it all will end.

Let’s Rate It:

I liked the story, even though how Dez dealt with one thing in particular didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Still, I liked seeing more of Atman itself and some of the people there, even if I didn’t like the story as much as the first book.  M.I.A.: Missing In Atman gets 3 stars.

Book: Lifer by Beck Nicholas

Expected Publication is November 16, 2014 by Month9Books|Expected Number Of Pages: 330

Where I Got It: I got an digital ARC directly from Month9Books, which hasn’t influenced my review in any way.  Promise!

Series: None

Genre: YA Sci-Fi/Post-Apocalyptic

You can find Lifer on goodreads

Goodreads Summary: 

Asher is a Lifer, a slave aboard the spaceship Pelican. A member of the lowest rung of society, she must serve the ship’s Officials and Astronauts as punishment for her grandparents’ crimes back on Earth. The one thing that made life bearable was her illicit relationship with Samuai, a Fishie boy, but he died alongside her brother in a freak training accident.

Still grieving for the loss of her loved ones, Asher is summoned to the upper levels to wait on Lady, the head Official’s wife and Samuai’s mother. It is the perfect opportunity to gather intel for the Lifer’s brewing rebellion. There’s just one problem—the last girl who went to the upper levels never came back.

On the other side of the universe, an alien attack has left Earth in shambles and a group called The Company has taken control. Blank wakes up in a pond completely naked and with no memory, not even his real name. So when a hot girl named Megs invites him to a black-market gaming warehouse where winning means information, he doesn’t think twice about playing. But sometimes the past is better left buried.

As Asher and Blank’s worlds collide, the truth comes out—everyone has been lied to. Bourne Identity meets Under the Never Sky in this intergalactic tale of love and deception from debut novelist Beck Nicholas.

What I Thought:

Lifer…I have thoughts on Lifer!  I liked it, but not as much as I thought.  I really liked Asher’s story, and the structure of the people on the ship was interesting and different, but also familiar.  Generations being punished because of what their ancestors did- it’s something I can see happening (and probably has happened in the past), and I hope it doesn’t happen again (even though it probably will).

Blank’s story wasn’t as intriguing to me, and I get why his story is told the way it is, but it also made it hard for me to care about his story, and trying to figure out what happened and who he is.  Still, I liked seeing how it connected to Asher’s story.

This is one of those books where I wish it were a series, because I’m still not quite sure what the deal is with the alien attack or the Upheaval or The Company.  It’s possible I missed something, and the story did come together by the end of the book, but I really wanted to know more about what was going on. and how this world came to be.

The structure on the ship was really interesting- the Nauts are at the top, the Lifers are at the bottom, and the Fishies are in the middle.  I wish it were explored a little more, because while I got a sense of the divides between the groups, I also wish we saw more of it.

Let’s Rate It:

I like the idea of people trying to escape aliens by going to space, and the structure of the ship, and what earth is like after everything happened.  I liked seeing how Asher and Blank’s story connected, and Asher’s story was interesting, but I also wanted to know more about what this world was like and how it got to the way it was in the book.  Lifer gets 3 stars.

Book: Princess Of Thorns by Stacey Jay

Expected Publication is December 9, 2014 by Delacorte Press|Expected Number Of Pages: 278 pages

Where I Got It: I received a digital advanced copy from netgalley.com, which hasn’t influenced my review in any way.  Promise!

Series: None

Genre: YA Fantasy/Fairy Tale Re-telling

You can find Princess Of Thorns on goodreads & Stacey Jay on twitter, facebook and her website

Goodreads Summary:

Game of Thrones meets the Grimm’s fairy tales in this twisted, fast-paced romantic fantasy-adventure about Sleeping Beauty’s daughter, a warrior princess who must fight to reclaim her throne.

Though she looks like a mere mortal, Princess Aurora is a fairy blessed with enhanced strength, bravery, and mercy yet cursed to destroy the free will of any male who kisses her. Disguised as a boy, she enlists the help of the handsome but also cursed Prince Niklaas to fight legions of evil and free her brother from the ogre queen who stole Aurora’s throne ten years ago.

Will Aurora triumph over evil and reach her brother before it’s too late? Can Aurora and Niklaas break the curses that will otherwise forever keep them from finding their one true love?

What I Thought:

I was really intrigued with Princess Of Thorns, mostly because I know there are a few Sleeping Beauty re-tellings out there (even though I have yet to read any of them).  While I liked Princess Of Thorns, it wasn’t as much as I expected.

I liked the idea of Aurora being blessed with fairy gifts, and how she can’t kiss any male because of a curse.  I also liked that she was trying to take back the throne from an Ogre Queen, because of this prophecy that will usher in a new age that involves ogres taking over.

I thought we got the right amount of information we needed about this world.  Everything made sense, but there were times when I wanted to know more!  With stand-alone fantasy and re-tellings, I always worry that one book won’t be enough to know what we need to know about the world, but I found that Princess Of Thorns was fast-paced (and also well-paced), and had the right amount of detail.

I still wanted to know more about Aurora’s childhood, and what happens after the end of the book, and the different groups of people.  I wanted to know more about how this world came to be and some of the very much in the background characters. Especially the real antagonist.

I will say that I really liked seeing Aurora and Niklaas change over the course of the book, and how they both had some things to overcome, and I wish we had more time to see it happen.

I know the basics of the Disney version (and not surprisingly, there is no connection between the two) but since I’m not familiar with the original tale of Sleeping Beauty, I am not completely sure how much it follows the actual tale.

Let’s Rate It:

Overall, I really liked Princess Of Thorns, because I thought Jay did a great job with telling the story in a really simple way. I do wish that this book was the first book in a series,  because I wanted to know more about this world.  Princess Of Thorns gets 4 stars.