Book: Tiger’s Curse by Colleen Houck

Book Info: Published by Sterling Publishing; 496 pages; purchased for my Nook

Genre: YA: Romance/Fantasy

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Goodreads.com Summary: Passion. Fate. Loyalty.

Would you risk it all to change your destiny?

The last thing Kelsey Hayes thought she’d be doing this summer was trying to break a 300-year-old Indian curse. With a mysterious white tiger named Ren. Halfway around the world. But that’s exactly what happened. Face-to-face with dark forces, spellbinding magic, and mystical worlds where nothing is what it seems, Kelsey risks everything to piece together an ancient prophecy that could break the curse forever.

Tiger’s Curse is the exciting first volume in an epic fantasy-romance that will leave you breathless and yearning for more.

The cover drew me in, as did the premise.  The book, however, was just okay.

Here’s what I loved about Tiger’s Curse.  I loved the mythology aspect and how well it was incorporated into the story.  Not only that, but it focused on Indian mythology, which was a nice change from the Greek/Roman mythology you tend to see.  I also loved that Kelsey traveled all over India to figure everything out.

As for what I didn’t like…I just didn’t like the characters.  It was hard to believe that Ren, Kishan, and Mr. Kadam were a few hundred years old.  And Kelsey seemed a little more mature than I expected.  I didn’t find them particularly interesting, and by the end of the novel, I was just irritated with them, and I don’t particularly care about what happens to them.

I would rate it at 2 stars out of 5.  The mythology was interesting but the characters weren’t.

Book: Gilt by Katherine Longshore

Book Info: Published by Viking Juvenile; 398 pages; purchased for my Nook

Genre: YA/Historical Fiction

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Goodreads.com Summary: When Kitty Tylney’s best friend, Catherine Howard, worms her way into King Henry VIII’s heart and brings Kitty to court, she’s thrust into a world filled with fabulous gowns, sparkling jewels, and elegant parties. No longer stuck in Cat’s shadow, Kitty’s now caught between two men—the object of her affection and the object of her desire. But court is also full of secrets, lies, and sordid affairs, and as Kitty witnesses Cat’s meteoric rise and fall as queen, she must figure out how to keep being a good friend when the price of telling the truth could literally be her head.

I really liked Gilt.  I’m a big fan of Tudor history, and it was nice reading about Katherine Howard, because she tends to be overlooked in both non-fiction and historical fiction alike.

I liked that it focused on Katherine Howard and her circle of “friends.”  I found them to be irritating, especially Katherine and her best friend Kitty, who narrated the novel.  Katherine was definitely ambitious and self-absorbed, while Kitty would do anything to make Katherine happy.  Despite being annoyed with both girls, I thought that Longshore did a great job writing them. It just goes to show that some things never change.

Back to Katherine for a minute.  She knew what she wanted, but couldn’t really see the consequences of her actions.  If she did, she certainly didn’t care, but then again, Katherine thought she was invincible because she was queen.  As for Kitty, she was loyal to the point of almost losing her head.  But I also understand her going with everything too, especially when Katherine became queen.

I also liked her attention to detail, and described everything beautifully.  I especially liked her descriptions of the places and the clothing.  You can tell Longshore is interested in Tudor history, and of Henry’s 6 wives, Katherine Howard is probably the one teens would most relate to. I’ll admit that the language was a bit modern, but I wasn’t really bothered by it.  And with so many other details being there, I’m willing to overlook it.

My rating would be a 4 out of 5.  It was pretty accurate, and fans of The Luxe by Anna Godbersen will love this book.

Book: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Book Info: Published by HarperCollins; 248 pages; purchased for my Nook

Genre: YA: Dystopic/Romance

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Goodreads.com Summary: “You can’t touch me,” I whisper.

I’m lying, is what I don’t tell him.

He can touch me, is what I’ll never tell him.

But things happen when people touch me.

Strange things.

Bad things.

No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon.

But Juliette has plans on her own.

After a lifetime without freedom, she’s finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time—and to find a future with the one boy she thought she’d lost forever.

I really liked Shatter Me.  It’s certainly interesting, and while it takes a while to draw you in, it is so worth it!

I thought her ability to torture and kill people just by touching them was very unique, especially when you discover that there are 2 people who are immune to her touch.  I am curious as to what makes them so special, and why there are people with different abilities.

I wasn’t terribly impressed with the romance.  What’s interesting, though, is that there could be 3 potential love interests for Juliette.  I mean, Adam is the guy we’re supposed to be rooting for, but there’s also Warner.  And I might be reading too much into it, but it seems like Kenji could be a love interest as well.

The novel is very much the life and thought process of a 17-year-old girl, which Mafi does very well with striking through some of the text.  I loved how she wrote it, but it did get a little tiresome because things were a tad disjointed and jumbled.  It was a little hard to completely get into what was going on, but she does have a way of putting things together that’s really interesting.

Overall, I really liked it.  It gets a 4 out of 5.  I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.

Book: Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris

Book Info: Published by Balzer and Bray; 464 pages; read on my Nook

Genre: YA: Mystery/Thriller/Romance

Find out more at: Goodreads~Barnes And Noble~Amazon~Author Website

Goodreads.com Summary: Two days before the start of her junior year, seventeen-year-old Janelle Tenner is hit by a pickup truck and killed—as in blinding light, scenes of her life flashing before her, and then nothing. Except the next thing she knows, she’s opening her eyes to find Ben Michaels, a loner from her high school whom Janelle has never talked to, leaning over her. And even though it isn’t possible, she knows—with every fiber of her being—that Ben has somehow brought her back to life.

But her revival, and Ben’s possible role in it, is only the first of the puzzles that Janelle must solve. While snooping in her FBI agent father’s files for clues about her accident, she uncovers a clock that seems to be counting down to something—but to what? And when someone close to Janelle is killed, she can no longer deny what’s right in front of her: Everything that’s happened—the accident, the murder, the countdown clock, Ben’s sudden appearance in her life—points to the end of life as she knows it. And as the clock ticks down, she realizes that if she wants to put a stop to the end of the world, she’s going to need to uncover Ben’s secrets—and keep from falling in love with him in the process.

From debut author Elizabeth Norris comes this shattering novel of one girl’s fight to save herself, her world, and the boy she never saw coming.

Unraveling is an action-packed book, and it was hard to put down.  I was very intrigued by the idea that there are other people out there, and that they are a lot like us.

I liked Janelle’s curiousity, and her desire to figure out what’s going on and save the world.  It is a little hard to believe that it’s so easy for her to hack into her father’s work computer and to look through the files he brings home.  But I’m willing to overlook this because otherwise, there wouldn’t be a story.

I didn’t like the romance in the book, and while it was a little different than I expected, it was pretty predictable.  I have to say that part of me wanted Janelle and Struz to end up together, even though I knew it was never going to happen.

I thought the structure of the novel was interesting.  Each chapter is a different point in the countdown to the end of the world, and was titled as such.  The chapter length was pretty random, with some being really short, and others being sort of long.

Norris did manage to get a lot in the book, which made the book action-packed.  But at the same time, everything that was happening was slightly overwhelming.

Overall, it gets a 4 out of 5.  It was fun and action-packed but had a few flaws.

Book: Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Book Info: Published by Harper Teen; 375 pages; hardcover; borrowed from the library

Genre: YA/Dystopic; Romance

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Goodreads.com Summary: 

I’m pushing aside the memory of my nightmare,
pushing aside thoughts of Alex,
pushing aside thoughts of Hana and my old school,
push,
push,
push,
like Raven taught me to do.
The old life is dead.
But the old Lena is dead too.
I buried her.
I left her beyond a fence,
behind a wall of smoke and flame.

Lauren Oliver delivers an electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Delirium. This riveting, brilliant novel crackles with the fire of fierce defiance, forbidden romance, and the sparks of a revolution about to ignite.

I really liked Pandemonium.  I definitely liked it more than Delirium, and you can’t help but wonder what’s going to happen next.  You’re thinking that Alex has been dead for the entire novel, only to have him return at the very last minute.

I really like that each chapter is a different time.  Seriously, the best way to describe it is past-Lena and present-Lena.  It’s nice to see the difference in time, and what happened while she was in the wild, and how she infiltrated the DFA.  I liked that we learn having the surgery is all about control, which should have been obvious to me.  Oliver did a really good job of keeping things going, and the book doesn’t feel like filler for the next book.

I really didn’t like the ending, where Alex appears.  I get why we think he’s dead, because it really seemed that way.  And I suppose that Oliver needed to get a romance in there somehow.  For me, it was a lame attempt at getting in a love triangle- almost like Oliver couldn’t think of anything else.

Overall, it gets a 4 out of 5.  It was fast-paced and enjoyable, but the ending and the romance felt a little forced.

Book: North Of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley

Book Info: Published by Little, Brown Books For Young Readers; 373 pages; hardcover; borrowed from the library

Genre: YA/Contemporary; Realistic

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Goodreads.com Summary: As he continued to stare, I wanted to point to my cheek and remind him, But you were the one who wanted this, remember? You’re the one who asked-and I repeat-Why not fix your face? 

It’s hard not to notice Terra Cooper.

She’s tall, blond, and has an enviable body. But with one turn of her cheek, all people notice is her unmistakably “flawed” face. Terra secretly plans to leave her stifling small town in the Northwest and escape to an East Coast college, but gets pushed off-course by her controlling father. When an unexpected collision puts Terra directly in Jacob’s path, the handsome but quirky Goth boy immediately challenges her assumptions about herself and her life, and she is forced in yet another direction. With her carefully laid plans disrupted, will Terra be able to find her true path?

Written in lively, artful prose, award-winning author Justina Chen Headley has woven together a powerful novel about a fractured family, falling in love, travel, and the meaning of true beauty. 

North Of Beautiful is stunning.  It is a very realistic novel, and I found Terra to be very relatable.  I think, more than anything, it is about family and how they relate to each other.  There were scenes were I wanted to cry, because it was so heart-wrenching.

I thought the element of map-making was very unusual, but it worked really well.  I think I might like to learn more about it at some point.  And geo-caching was also an interesting plot point.  I thought it added to the theme of self-discovery really well.

I am so glad I read this, and it’s beautifully written.  She does a great job of making everyone real.  The whole time I was reading it, I was reminded of different people in my life and how I relate to them.  You can’t help but be drawn into Terra’s world.

My rating?  I give it a 5 out of 5.  It’s something everyone can relate to.  I think this book will stay with me for a long time to come.