Book: Love, Aubrey by Suzanne LaFleur

Published June 2009 by Random House Children’s Books|Pages: 224

Source: E-book|Nook Store

Series: None

Genre: Middle Grade Contemporary

Goodreads|Suzanne LaFleur’s Website

Summary: “I had everything I needed to run a household: a house, food, and a new family. From now on it would just be me and Sammy–the two of us, and no one else.”

A tragic accident has turned eleven-year-old Aubrey’s world upside down. Starting a new life all alone, Aubrey has everything she thinks she needs: SpaghettiOs and Sammy, her new pet fish. She cannot talk about what happened to her. Writing letters is the only thing that feels right to Aubrey, even if no one ever reads them.

With the aid of her loving grandmother and new friends, Aubrey learns that she is not alone, and gradually, she finds the words to express feelings that once seemed impossible to describe. The healing powers of friendship, love, and memory help Aubrey take her first steps toward the future.

Readers will care for Aubrey from page one and will watch her grow until the very end, when she has to make one of the biggest decisions of her life.

I don’t normally read middle grade, but I’ve had this one on my Nook for a while, and was so glad I took the time to read it.  I really need to read more middle grade, because this was such a sweet story!

Aubrey is, like, such a sweet kid, and I loved seeing her relationship with her grandmother and how she opened up about what happened.  There’s something really special about grandparent-grandchild relationships, and Love, Aubrey totally made me think of my grandparents.

I loved that her grandma was there for her after Aubrey’s mom wasn’t able to take care of her, and how her grandma let Aubrey decide where she wanted to live when her mom was finally ready to take care of Aubrey.  I totally loved that Aubrey decided to stay with her grandma until the end of the school year because she liked it there and because she has friends.

I can’t completely relate to having her mom abandoning her, but I can definitely relate to losing people who are important to you but also having people who really love you.  I didn’t particularly care for Aubrey’s mom and how she shut down after the accident.  Is it understandable?  Sure.  But…I don’t know, she had her own journey, but I just wasn’t interested in her part of the story.

I also loved the letters Aubrey wrote to Tilly, her sister’s imaginary friend.  They were all times really well, and the letters she wrote to her parents and sister were also a nice touch.

Final Thoughts:

I really enjoyed Love, Aubrey.  I felt like Aubrey’s voice and how she dealt with things were really real, and I liked seeing her journey.  Also, I loved the cover and how much it related to the book!  I didn’t love it, but I still thought it was a great read, so Love, Aubrey gets 4 stars.

Book Review: Contagious by Emily Goodwin

Published Januar 2012|Self-Published|Pages: 424

Source: E-book from the Nook

Series: The Contagium Trilogy #1

Genre: New Adult-ish: Post-Apocalyptic/Zombies

Goodreads|Emily Goodwin’s Website

Summary: “I wasn’t afraid of death. If I died, it would be over. My worst fear wasn’t of dying, it was of living. Living, while everyone around me had their flesh savagely torn from their bodies to be shoved into the festering and ever-hungry mouths of zombies. It terrified me, right down to my very core, to be alive while the rest of the world was dead.”

In the midst of the Second Great Depression, twenty-five year old Orissa Penwell doesn’t think things can get any worse. She couldn’t be more wrong. A virus breaks out across the country, leaving the infected crazed, aggressive and very hungry.

Orissa will do anything-no matter if it’s right or wrong- to save the ones she loves. But when she discovers that most of the world is infected or dead, she must decided if those lives are worth saving at all.

I liked Contagious.  I really like the idea of different kinds of zombies as the virus progresses, and I’m super-intrigued with the idea that a virus can turn people into zombies.

So while I initially REALLY LIKED Contagious, now…my feelings are a little more mixed.

I thought Orissa was selfish and really unlikable.  She didn’t always think about her actions, and sometimes went running off to save everyone, especially if it meant taking down some zombies.  Granted, it is the zombie apocalypse…but don’t act like an idiot.  Honestly?  Orissa really felt like this amazing, perfect super-girl that everyone loves.  She’s definitely sort-of Mary-Sue-ish.

There were some inconsistencies throughout the book too.  The one that immediately comes to mind is how the character has her appendix taken out and is out for a month at the very beginning of the novel, but gets a severe concussion and gets stabbed, plus a couple MAJOR cuts (one in her hand, one in her head) in a matter of days and keeps going.  The water is (allegedly) contaminated, so they can’t drink it, and yet they use that same water to take their showers and to CLEAN OPEN WOUNDS.  Plus, the zombies are zombies because a virus, and yet they’re not wearing personal protective gear like gloves or goggles.  I know gloves and goggles aren’t cool when you’re fighting zombies…but when it’s caused by a virus we know nothing about, it just seems like a bad idea.

Speaking of the virus, we don’t know anything about it.  The group that Orissa joins up with is trying to find a vaccine; there are also some theories about the virus that don’t go anywhere in this book.  I kind of wanted to know more about the virus.

The other characters didn’t really stand out, and it felt like they were just there.

Final Thoughts:

I did like Contagious, even if my feelings toward it aren’t as strong as they were right after finishing it.  Orissa was easily the most irritating character, and there were things that went nowhere or didn’t make sense, but the idea of a virus that turns people into zombies and the idea that as the virus progresses, your zombie-ness changes.  I’m intrigued but I don’t know if I’m intrigued enough to continue the series.  Contagious gets 3 stars.

Book: Soulless by Gail Carriger|Narrated by Emily Gray

Published June 2010|Published by Recorded Books|10 hours, 52 minutes

Source: Audiobook via Audible.com

Series: The Parasol Protectorate #1

Genre: Adult Fiction: Steampunk/Paranormal

Goodreads|Gail Carriger’s Website

Summary: Victorian romance mixes seamlessly with elegant prose and biting wit – and werewolves – in Gail Carriger’s delightful debut novel. Soulless introduces Alexia Tarabotti, a parasol-wielding Londoner getting dangerously close to spinster status. But there are more important things than finding a husband. For Alexia was born without a soul, giving her the ability to render any vampire or werewolf completely powerless.

After reading Etiquette & Espionage, I thought I would give Soulless a try!  While I liked Soulless, I didn’t enjoy it as much as Etiquette & Espionage.

There were times when I couldn’t help but giggle, because Alexia was hysterical at times.  She was especially hysterical when you got her anywhere near Lord Maccon or her friend Ivy.  There’s definitely an interesting assortment of characters.  Normally, I’m all whatever about werewolves, liking them when paired with vampires but not a huge fan when they’re on their own.  Like, unable to get through ANYTHING involving a werewolf on his own.  Okay, maybe Soulless has a vampire here and there, but as Lord Maccon is a pretty important character who just HAPPENS to be a werewolf, werewolves tend to be pretty important.

…and this is the only time where I actually LIKED werewolves on their own.  I’m not even kidding when I say that Lord Maccon made werewolves sexy!

I thoroughly enjoyed his relationship with Alexia and the banter between them.  I am so glad they finally got married, and I really can’t wait to see what sort of trouble they manage to get themselves into.

There were points where my attention wandered, because I was mildly bored, but overall, it was a fun listen.  Gray did a great job narrating, and I especially liked all the voices she did.  I felt like her voice for Alexia was spot-on.

I loved the combination of steampunk and paranormal, and goes together so well! There’s something about the two genres that work so well together, and Carriger does a great job with blending paranormal and steampunk.  She gives equal time to both, and it doesn’t feel like she spent more time focusing on one and not enough time on the other.

I really can’t think of anything else to say about Soulless!  I really like Victorian London as a setting, and all of the manners and focus on society was fun to listen to.  It really added a nice touch, and I can’t imagine the book without it.

Final Thoughts:

I liked Soulless.  While it was a fun read, it didn’t grab me the way Etiquette & Espionage did.  Still, I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series.  Soulless gets 3 stars.

Book: Such A Rush by Jennifer Echols

Published July 2012|Published by Gallery Books|Pages: 336

Source: E-book from the Nook Store

Series: None

Genre: YA Contemporary

Goodreads|Jennifer Echols’ Website

Summary: A sexy and poignant romantic tale of a young daredevil pilot caught between two brothers. When I was fourteen, I made a decision. If I was doomed to live in a trailer park next to an airport, I could complain about the smell of the jet fuel like my mom, I could drink myself to death over the noise like everybody else, or I could learn to fly.

Heaven Beach, South Carolina, is anything but, if you live at the low-rent end of town. All her life, Leah Jones has been the grown-up in her family, while her mother moves from boyfriend to boyfriend, letting any available money slip out of her hands. At school, they may diss Leah as trash, but she’s the one who negotiates with the landlord when the rent’s not paid. At fourteen, she’s the one who gets a job at the nearby airstrip.

But there’s one way Leah can escape reality. Saving every penny she can, she begs quiet Mr. Hall, who runs an aerial banner-advertising business at the airstrip and also offers flight lessons, to take her up just once. Leaving the trailer park far beneath her and swooping out over the sea is a rush greater than anything she’s ever experienced, and when Mr. Hall offers to give her cut-rate flight lessons, she feels ready to touch the sky.

By the time she’s a high school senior, Leah has become a good enough pilot that Mr. Hall offers her a job flying a banner plane. It seems like a dream come true . . . but turns out to be just as fleeting as any dream. Mr. Hall dies suddenly, leaving everything he owned in the hands of his teenage sons: golden boy Alec and adrenaline junkie Grayson. And they’re determined to keep the banner planes flying. Though Leah has crushed on Grayson for years, she’s leery of getting involved in what now seems like a doomed business—until Grayson betrays her by digging up her most damning secret. Holding it over her head, he forces her to fly for secret reasons of his own, reasons involving Alec. Now Leah finds herself drawn into a battle between brothers—and the consequences could be deadly.

Apparently I felt really inspired/motivated after doing last week’s top Ten Tuesday post, because I started it the same day I posted my list!

I can’t believe it took me so long to read it, because I really enjoyed it.  I could relate to Leah in a lot of ways, especially with love of flying.  Not that I love to fly, because I’ve never been a pilot, but you can’t help but like her passion and enthusiasm for flying.  We all have things we love and we all have our own dreams.

I definitely felt for her, especially with how much she’s had to grow up- she really has had to fend for herself, and you can see how much flying means to her, especially with how hard she has had to work for it.  I definitely got the sense that she really appreciates it because she’s had to fight for it.  Her relationship with Molly was interesting but frustrating.  Molly is the typical rich girl, and they don’t seem to communicate well…it’s sort of hard to see why they’re friends in the first place.  Still, Molly was pretty entertaining.

And Alec and Grayson!  They are very different and while they were trying at times, they do seem to be pretty good guys deep down.  Something about their relationship with each other and with Leah sort of reminded me of the relationship between Belly, Conrad and Jeremiah in The Summer I Turned Pretty.  The two are very different, but the relationships between the characters have a really similar feel.

I really liked Mr. Hall, and it’s a shame we only see him in flashbacks, because he dies pretty early on in the book.  I loved the relationship he had with Leah, and you could tell that he was a really important person in her life.  I also wish we saw more of his relationships with his sons, but considering the book is more about Leah than Alec and Grayson…

Leah also had a difficult relationship with her mom- her mom is pretty much absent, and they move around a lot because Leah’s mom is pretty dependent on whoever she’s dating at the time.  There isn’t a lot of closure with their relationship, which actually worked really well.  Leah’s mom isn’t really around anyway, so it’s no surprise that there is no resolution there.  And had there been some sort of closure…it definitely would have been super cliche.

I love that most of the book takes place at an airport.  It’s definitely unique and the focus on flying worked so well.

Final Thoughts:

I am so glad I finally read Such A Rush!  I loved it, and everything worked so well together.  Such A Rush gets 5 stars.

Book: Level 2 by Lenore Appelhans

Published January 2013|Published by Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers|Pages: 288

Source: E-book from the Nook Store

Series: The Memory Chronicles #1

Genre: YA: Dystopic/Paranormal

Goodreads|Lenore Appelhans’ Website

Summary: Three levels. Two loves. One choice. Debut novelist, Lenore Appelhans has written a thrilling otherworldly young adult novel about a place that exists between our world (Level 1) and what comes after life (Level 2).

‘I pause to look around the hive – all the podlike chambers are lit up as the drones shoot up on memories … I’ve wanted to get out of here before, but now the tight quarters start to choke me. There has to be more to death than this.’

Felicia Ward is dead. Trapped in a stark white afterlife limbo, she spends endless days replaying memories, of her family, friends, boyfriend … and of the guy who broke her heart. The guy who has just broken into Level 2 to find her.

Felicia learns that a rebellion is brewing, and it seems she is the key. Suspended between heaven and earth, she must make a choice. Between two worlds, two lives and two loves.

I really don’t know what to think about Level 2.  I was super-excited about it but having read it…I just don’t know.

Here’s what I liked: It’s definitely an interesting take on the afterlife, and I like the idea of different levels and only being able to move past level 2 when you’ve made peace with everything’s that happened in your life.  I liked how angels were involved, so it’s also gives a dystopic novel a paranormal twist, which really is an interesting combination for me.

There’s a lot about Felicia that I found interesting.  How she died, her life on earth, all of the places she lived because of her mom’s job…her relationships with Neil and Julian.  We see a lot of her memories, and I feel like there’s a lot more to her than what we get to see.  And since she’s dead, we see things as she remembers them, which is something I liked too.  Memories really can be a strange thing.

But while there are things I liked and were intrigued by, I just couldn’t completely connect with the book, the characters or what was happening.

It was a lot more philosophical than I was expecting, and which isn’t a bad.  Actually, it was nice to see a different take on the afterlife.  But there’s just something about it that I just didn’t care about, and I’m not completely sure what it is.  I mean, we do see Felicia’s memories and how some of them connect with what’s currently going on in Level 2.  And I liked her memories of Neil, because he is what is connecting her to Earth and one reason why she can’t move on.

I so wished I was more into the book, and could connect with it a little more.  Just when something’s revealed, you’re off to the next big reveal, and I never felt like things had a chance to sink in, because things kept happening.  I think…I just didn’t find Level 2 as a setting particularly interesting.  Sure, it’s the afterlife and I totally get the whole viewing memories until you’re ready to move on part of it and PARTS of level 2 itself were fascinating…but at the same time, something about it didn’t quite work for me.  While it doesn’t need a lot of explanation- which we do get in the book- I kind of wanted more details about Level 2 as an in-between.  It’s not that what we learn wasn’t enough, because it was.  It might just be me, because I was expecting something slightly different.

Final Thoughts:

I liked parts of Level 2, but I just couldn’t completely connect with it.  I liked seeing Felicia slowly come to accept that she’s made mistakes and can’t change and is finally able to move on.  Overall, though, Level 2 was just okay for me, so I give it 2 stars.

Book: The Midwife’s Revolt by Jodi Daynard

Published January 2013|Published by Opossum Press

E-book from NetGalley|221 pages

Series: None

Genre: Adult/Historical Fiction

Goodreads|Jodi Daynard’s Website

Summary: The Midwife’s Revolt takes the reader on a journey to the founding days of America. It follows one woman’s path, Lizzie Boylston, from her grieving days of widowhood after Bunker Hill, to her deepening friendship with Abigail Adams and midwifery, and finally to her dangerous work as a spy for the Cause. Much has been written about our founding men. But The Midwife’s Revolt is unique in that it opens a window onto the lives of our founding women as well.

This is an interesting take on the American Revolution.

I liked Lizzie and the relationships she had with the people around her.  Just seeing Lizzie, who’s a widow, try to survive on her own as a midwife during the American Revolution was great.  I liked seeing her friendship with Abigail Adams, even though it seemed to have a bigger role in the beginning of the book, and then dropped off a little as the novel progressed.  She had interesting relationships with Martha and Eliza, but I especially liked how her relationship with them changed from beginning to end.

What made The Midwife’s Revolt really interesting was the fact that you have a great combination of real and fictional characters and how well fact and fiction blended together.  It really felt like The Midwife’s Revolt was taken right from history.  It really is a great look at the lives of the women at home while their husbands are off at war, and Abigail being all worried about her son and her husband and getting infrequent letters from John Adams.

I honestly expected Lizzie to have more of a role in helping out.  She does become a spy, and I liked how everyone around her didn’t want her to become a spy…and she went ahead with it anyway.  I think I was a little disappointed with the spying aspect of it- I was expecting Lizzie to have more of a role in the American Revolution that what she did.

There’s only one issue I have with the book: there were times when you’d be reading, and it would end mid-sentence and go on to something else.  There were also times when it felt like paragraphs (or sentences) were missing because you’d be reading something, and all of a sudden, you’d be reading a completely different scene.  I really hope it gets fixed because I think it would make The Midwife’s Revolt a lot better.  As much as I liked the book and as much I enjoyed it, it was also hard to enjoy it wondering if/when it would stop mid-sentence.

Final Thoughts:

I really enjoyed The Midwife’s Revolt, which is full of great characters who are living in interesting but hard times.  It’s a great look at the early days of America and those who are trying to get by.  It gets 4 stars.

Book: Masque Of The Red Death by Bethany Griffin

Published April 2012|Published by HarperCollins

E-book|Purchased from the Nook Store|336 pages

Series: Masque Of The Red Death #1

Genre: YA: Dystopic/Post-Apocalyptic/Steampunk

Goodreads|Bethany Griffin’s Website

Summary: Everything is in ruins.  A devastating plague has decimated the population, and those who are left live in fear of catching it as the city crumbles around them.  So what does Araby Worth have to live for?  Nights in the Debauchery Club, beautiful dresses, glittery makeup . . . and tantalizing ways to forget it all.  But in the depths of the club—in the depths of her own despair—Araby will find more than oblivion.  She will find Will, the terribly handsome proprietor of the club, and Elliott, the wickedly smart aristocrat.  Neither is what he seems.  Both have secrets.  Everyone does.  And Araby may find not just something to live for, but something to fight for—no matter what it costs her.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about Masque Of The Red Death.

So, I am intrigued by this devastating plague that has killed a lot of people, and how only the rich seem to be able to afford masks that keep them from getting the plague.  And the Red Death is also really intriguing.  For the poor, life goes on as it always does, while the rich are partying away.

I thought Araby’s vow was really interesting.  I totally get her feelings of guilt after the death of her brother, and I don’t blame her for trying to forget by going to the Debauchery Club.  However, I kind of feel like Araby is picking and choosing what is a part of her vow to not experience what her brother won’t experience.  She can’t fall in love, but she can wear beautiful dresses and go to a club with her friend April?  In some ways, she’s fully committed, but in other ways, she isn’t.

I thought the world was interesting, with Prince Prospero being in charge, and some opposition in his nephew, Elliott.  And we can’t forget Malcontent.  In some ways, I was surprised by who Malcontent was…but at the same time, it wasn’t too surprising.  We get snippets of what the world is like, and while I was intrigued, I also feel kind of meh.

I feel pretty ambivalent about the characters.  Will is sweet (sometimes) and I certainly wasn’t expecting him to deliver Araby to Malcontent.  Elliott…I just couldn’t care about him, and I also couldn’t care about his sister April.  Araby is the one character that intrigued me the most but there were times when I just couldn’t care about her either.  I thought the romance was just okay, which I think is because I didn’t really care for either guy.

I did like the gothic/steampunk-lite elements of it, and I loved how dark and somewhat chaotic it seemed at the beginning.  I kind of feel like the feel that we had in the beginning got lost as the novel went on.  It did get a little more interesting and action-packed at the end, but it wasn’t enough to get me super-interested in reading the next one.

Final Thoughts:

This one was just okay for me.  There were things I liked and found interesting, but overall, I found I didn’t really care about what was going on.  I know it;’s based on the story by Edgar Allen Poe, which I haven’t read, so I’m wondering if reading it would have made a difference in me liking it.  Masque Of The Red Death gets 2 stars.