Book: Altered by Gennifer Albin

Published October 2013 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux|295 pages

Where I Got It: nook store/e-book

Series: Crewel World #2

Genre: YA Dystopic, Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy

You can find Altered on goodreads & Gennifer Albin on twitter, facebook and her website

Goodreads Summary: 

Deadly Secrets

Tangled Lies

Woven truths

Life. Possibility. Choice. All taken from Adelice by the Guild—until she took them back.

But amid the splendid ruins of Earth, Adelice discovers how dangerous freedom can be. Hunted by soulless Remnants sent by Cormac Patton and the Guild, Adelice finds a world that’s far from deserted. Although allies are easy to find on Earth, knowing who to trust isn’t. Because everyone has secrets, especially those Adelice loves most. Secrets they would kill to protect. Secrets that will redefine each of them. Torn between two brothers and two worlds, Adelice must choose what to fight for.

Altered is Gennifer Albin’s thrilling sequel to Crewel. Adelice is about to learn how tangled up her past and future really are. Her parents ran to protect her, but nothing can save her from her destiny, and once she uncovers the truth, it will change everything.

What I Thought:

I really liked Crewel when I read it over a year ago, and I was really looking forward to reading Altered…which I liked, but not as much as Crewel.  I really liked seeing the ruins of Earth, and how different it is from the world of Arras.

There really is so much more to this world than I ever could have imagined, and there were some things I didn’t see coming at all.  The remnants are definitely interesting, and I kind of wish we saw more of them. Especially one we happened to see for part of the book…

I really like the parallel between earth and Arras, and the connection to World War 2 and Einstein and how/why the looms were created.  Those connections were fascinating to me, and it worked really well.  It’s also one of those things I didn’t see coming.

But while there were things I really liked and elements that were really interesting, there was also something about Altered that I didn’t find as captivating.  It’s an interesting world, but…I just wasn’t as interested in the book as I thought I would be.  I’m feeling pretty “meh” about the characters, and I’m not sure why.  I don’t know if it’s because they left Arras and found themselves on Earth or something else I don’t feel like trying to identify, or even something I can’t identify.  I just know that things got really interesting in Altered and I liked it, but I didn’t love it like I thought.

I will say that Adelice’s abilities as Creweler got really interesting, because of the people she meets and the things she learns along the way.  I am curious about how she’ll use her abilities and how everything will turn out for both Arras and Earth, given everything that comes up.

Let’s Rate It: 

I liked Altered, and I really liked a lot of the revelations and elements that come up in Altered, but there’s also something about it that wasn’t as captivating as Crewel.  Altered gets 3 stars.

Book: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

Published January 2014 by HarperCollins|229 pages

Where I Got It: Nook store (e-book)

Series: For now, it’s a stand-alone, but there may be other books and novellas set in this universe

Genre: YA Fantasy with a Greek Mythology and Beauty And The Beast twist

You can find Cruel Beauty on goodreads and Rosamund Hodge on Twitter, Facebook and her website

Goodreads Summary:

Graceling meets Beauty and the Beast in this sweeping fantasy about one girl’s journey to fulfill her destiny and the monster who gets in her way-by stealing her heart.

Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.

Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.

With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she’s ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.

But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle-a shifting maze of magical rooms-enthralls her.

As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex’s secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.

What I Thought:

When I first saw the summary for Cruel Beauty, I was really excited!  It seems like such a different take on re-tellings, and I love that it’s a blend of Greek mythology and Beauty And The Beast.  So when I started reading, I wasn’t sure about it, but by the end I was enjoying it a lot more than I was at the beginning.

So, here’s why I wasn’t sure about it at first.  There is this very alternate history feel to the book. which is awesome, but it also made me feel like there was some piece of history that I was missing, and wasn’t being explained.  It very much felt like I needed to have some special knowledge to know what was going on, and it was driving me crazy that I didn’t know what it was.  It definitely takes a few chapters before you learn what’s going on.

Despite me feeling like I was missing some key knowledge at the beginning, I came to really like Cruel Beauty.  Nyx is an interesting character, and it’s interesting how drawn she is to Ignifex.  Ignifex is also an interesting guy, and I really like their relationship, which really changes throughout the book.

I really liked Ignifex’s castle, which was described really well,  It’s creepy but very vivid, and I could picture it so well!  Much better than the world that the castle resided in, because that world…there’s something about it that doesn’t seem completely explained.  Then again, most of the book focuses on Ignifex and Nyx, so perhaps that part of things doesn’t need to completely be there.

I’m not sure how I feel about the romance.  Maybe it’s because of Nyx’s mission, or something else I can’t identify, but I wasn’t completely into the romance.

Let’s Rate It:

Initially, I felt slightly confused by what was going on, and I felt like I was missing something, but as the book went on, I got really into Cruel Beauty.  It’s a very detailed world, and there’s something very intricate and vivid and imaginative about this world.  It’s definitely a great read for fans of fairy tales and Greek mythology.  Cruel Beauty gets 4 stars.

Book: Bimbos & Zombies: Bimbos Of The Death Sun & Zombies Of The Gene Pool by Sharyn McCrumb

Bimbos Of The Death Sun was first published in 1986 by TSR Books and Zombies Of The Gene Pool was first published in 1992 by Simon & Schuster|Bimbos & Zombies is a combined 310 pages for both books

Where I Got It: I borrowed the hardcover from my friend Heather

Series: The Jay Omega Series #1 & #2

Be sure to check out the series on goodreads (the link will take you to the series page) and you can find Sharyn McCrumb on her website

First up, we have Bimbos Of The Death Sun!

For one fateful weekend, the annual science fiction and fantasy convention, Rubicon, has all but taken over a usually ordinary hotel. Now the halls are alive with Trekkies, tech nerds, and fantasy gamers in their Viking finery, all of them eager to hail their hero, bestselling fantasy author Appin Dungannon: a diminutive despot whose towering ego more than compensates for his 5′ 1″ height…and whose gleeful disdain for his fawning fans is legendary.

Hurling insults and furniture with equal abandon, the terrible, tiny author proceeds to alienate ersatz aliens and make-believe warriors at warp speed. But somewhere between the costume contest and the exhibition Dungeons & Dragons game, Dungannon gets done in. While die-hard fans of Dungannon’s seemingly endless sword-and-sorcery series wonder how they’ll go on and hucksters wonder how much they can get for the dead man’s autograph, a hapless cop wonders, Who would want to kill Appin Dungannon? But the real question, as the harried convention organizers know, is Who wouldn’t?

I thought Bimbos Of The Death Sun was an amusing but okay book.  It’s a really amusing look at one particular fandom, and the characters really felt like real people.  I could definitely people like them, and they were really believable.  I can definitely appreciate this particular fandom and how much a fan they are of their particular thing.  However…I’ve never been to a sci-fi/fantasy convention or comic convention or any other sort of fan convention, and I feel like I could have related to it a little bit more if I had some convention-going experiences.  I also think that I would have appreciated it a little more if I were a convention person.  I definitely appreciate the fan experience, but not as much as I could have.  Still, it was an entertaining read.

And now, Zombies Of The Gene Pool!

In the 1950s, eight young men, dreaming of literary immortality, buried a time capsule with their science fiction stories and cultural relics from the time. Now the capsule is being dredged up because a few of those men have in fact become very famous. As a result, the excavation turns into a multimedia event. Everything goes off without a hitch until a surprise guest makes an appearance—a writer who was supposed to have died thirty years ago. Still cynical and angry, he is threatening to expose secrets the famous and the obscure have kept from the world all these years. When murder suddenly materializes to throw the agenda into chaos, one man must separate science fact from fiction—and unearth a killer with a story of his own to tell… 

Zombies Of The Gene Pool is also an entertaining but okay read.  It’s an amusing look at a different side of fandom and authors as fans of the genre they’re a part of.  Like Bimbos Of The Death Sun, I can see the events of the book happening and I felt like everyone could very easily be a real person.  I think I liked it a little bit more than Bimbos Of The Death Sun, but not by much.  Something about it was slightly more relateable than Bimbos, and it was a little bit easier to get into than Bimbos, but there is something about Zombies that isn’t as entertaining or amusing as Bimbos.

Overall, Bimbos & Zombies was amusing but okay.  The mystery that gets introduced in each book seemed to pop up late and is solved relatively quickly.  My rating for each book individually would be 2 stars, since they were both okay.  For the collection (since that’s what this is), I’d give it 2 stars.

Book: Awry by Chelsea Fine

Published June 2012 by Firefall Publishing|236 pages

Where I Got It: Nook store

Series: Archers Of Avalon #2

Genre: YA Paranormal/Fantasy

You can find Awry on goodreads & Chelsea Fine on Twitter, Facebook, and her website

Goodreads Summary: 

Three curses. Two brothers. One love triangle.

Sometimes love is meant to be. But sometimes…love is the death of you.

Seventeen-year-old Scarlet has just died. Only, dying isn’t unusual for a girl under a centuries old curse that left her semi-immortal. 

This time, though, she comes back to her current life instead of awaking in a new one, and she realizes her curse is changing. With the help of the immortal Archer brothers, Scarlet tries to piece together her life and break the curse before her impending death comes again.

What I Thought:

So, back when I read Anew, the first book in the series, I thought that the curse was really different and unique, and in Awry, we learn more about the curse and how Scarlet meet Gabriel and Tristan.  I really liked seeing how she met them and how Raven, the girl who cast the curse fits into the picture.

Oh, and remember when I said that there is more to Scarlet’s guardian than what we saw in Anew?  We definitely learn more about her guardian in Anew.  And not good things (naturally).  Still, I feel like her part in things is not over, and that we’ll get the last bits and pieces of her story in the last book.

I really liked the flashbacks and how they were incorporated.  It really added to the romance and the curse, and it really made the curse have more of an impact because you know the history behind everything.  There’s so much there, and all of the details and history seem so real, and well thought out, and not there just to be there.  Plus, the flashbacks really made the relationships between everyone easier to understand because you know where everyone is coming from.

I really like how everything is coming together, and how they’re still trying to figure out everything…but also how they’re getting closer to finding the Fountain Of Youth.  There are still some missing pieces, of course, but I have this strong feeling that Fine will wrap everything up really well.

Let’s Rate It:

I really liked Awry and how it built on the world that Fine created in Anew.  I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how everything comes together.  Awry gets 4 stars.