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Book Review: The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

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The Star-Touched Queen CoverBook: The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

Published April 2016 by St. Martin’s Griffin|352 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the e-book from the library

Series: The Star-Touched Queen #1

Genre: YA Fantasy

Blog Graphic-What It's About

Cursed with a horoscope that promises a marriage of Death and Destruction, sixteen-year-old Maya has only earned the scorn and fear of her father’s kingdom. Content to follow more scholarly pursuits, her world is upheaved when her father, the Raja, arranges a wedding of political convenience to quell outside rebellions. But when her wedding takes a fatal turn, Maya becomes the queen of Akaran and wife of Amar. Yet neither roles are what she expected. As Akaran’s queen, she finds her voice and power. As Amar’s wife, she finds friendship and warmth.

But Akaran has its own secrets – thousands of locked doors, gardens of glass, and a tree that bears memories instead of fruit. Beneath Akaran’s magic, Maya begins to suspect her life is in danger. When she ignores Amar’s plea for patience, her discoveries put more than new love at risk – it threatens the balance of all realms, human and Otherworldly.

Now, Maya must confront a secret that spans reincarnated lives and fight her way through the dangerous underbelly of the Otherworld if she wants to protect the people she loves.

THE STAR TOUCHED QUEEN is a lush, beautifully written and vividly imagined fantasy inspired by Indian mythology.

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

I liked The Star-Touched Queen!  As much as I wanted to love it, I didn’t, but I did love that it’s inspired by Indian mythology.  I feel like, with all of the mythology re-tellings that seem to be cropping up lately, that there’s less of a focus on Greek mythology, and more focus on other mythologies.  Like the Indian mythology we see in this book.

I have no knowledge whatsoever of Indian mythology, so I can’t say how much it matches up with Indian mythology. I did find this Q & A on goodreads helpful, since the author explains what myths she drew from/was inspired by. And it makes it easier to actually look up the myths on my own.

I did get a Hades/Persephone vibe from the book, which is odd, considering the book seems to draw on Indian mythology.  That came through very strongly for me- much more than the Indian mythology the book is inspired by, but maybe that’s my own lack of familiarity with Indian mythology.  And possibly because it seems like every culture has their own take on that story.

What I thought was most interesting about The Star-Touched Queen was how much I was reminded of things that were not India.  I mentioned the Hades/Persephone myth, and I felt like this book was an interesting mix of India and the Middle East.  Which isn’t that surprising, and some things did seem like they were Indian…but I also felt like there was something distinctly Middle Eastern about the book too.

Something about the mysterious castle and the locked doorways reminded me a lot of Cruel Beauty.  If you like Cruel Beauty, this might be a book worth checking out.  Cruel Beauty and A Star-Touched Queen are very different stories, though, and there was something very vivid about this story.  I could picture things really well, and Chokshi paints a very vivid picture of this world.

I think part of why I didn’t like the book as much as I thought I would is because there were times were I had no clue what was going on.  That’s partially my fault, because there were times where I wasn’t paying as much attention as I should have.  And there were times where I think my lack of familiarity with the mythology worked against me, because I felt like I was missing something important.  And when you add in the fact that I felt like things were sort of explained but not really, and the fact that it sort of meanders and is slow paced and takes a while to get to the point where things happen (which seemed to be several times).

Honestly, though, Maya didn’t stand out that much to me…and sadly, the same goes for the other characters.  I am having a hard time remembering the characters…man, I really should have paid more attention when I was reading it, because I have the feeling I would have liked it a lot more if I had.  Maybe I’ll do that…after reading up on Indian mythology, which also might help.

Blog Graphic- My Rating

3 stars.  I did like the world Chokshi created, and she paints a very vivid picture of this world. And even though I liked it, I didn’t love it, even though I wanted to!  It’s definitely worth checking out, though.

Book Review: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

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Carry On CoverBook: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Published October 2015 by St. Martin’s Press|522 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the hardcover from the library

Series: None

Genre: YA Fantasy

Blog Graphic-What It's About

Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who’s ever been chosen.

That’s what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he’s probably right.

Half the time, Simon can’t even make his wand work, and the other half, he starts something on fire. His mentor’s avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there’s a magic-eating monster running around, wearing Simon’s face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here — it’s their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon’s infuriating nemesis didn’t even bother to show up.

Carry On – The Rise and Fall of Simon Snow is a ghost story, a love story and a mystery. It has just as much kissing and talking as you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell story – but far, far more monsters.

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

When I heard that Rowell was writing Carry On, I was so excited, because I LOVED Fangirl so, so much, and I was really curious about what a Simon Snow book would look like if we actually got one.

BUT.

Simon Snow lost the magic that it had in Fangirl.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the impact that Simon Snow had on Cath in Fangirl, and as a Harry Potter fan for life, I related a lot to the fictional phenomenon that is Simon Snow.  It’s just…I think the magic was in the little snippets we got in Fangirl and FOR ME, it didn’t work as a full, fleshed-out novel.

I definitely appreciate Carry On as an ode to the chosen-one novel that clearly has inspired Rowell, and I appreciate it as a fictional parallel to the awesomeness that is Harry Potter, but it also relied too much on the nostalgia of Harry Potter.  But as it’s own story?  Not so much.

Let’s do random bullet points, because this is probably going to be all over the place.

  • I wanted more plot!  I mean, I know Simon is trying to defeat the Insidious Humdrum and all, but everything felt random and all over the place, and it was just weird.
  • The bits with Lucy were weird and out-of-place until the end of the book when it actually made sense.  At that point, it was too late for me to care about the random chapters narrated by Lucy.
  • The multiple narrators didn’t work for me at all.  I thought they were absolutely horrible!  Of course, there’s Lucy, who didn’t make any sense until the end of the book.  Of course, there’s Simon and Penelope, who I didn’t care about at all, Bas, who was actually the most interesting character in the book, and Agatha, who…why was she there?  It seemed pointless to me to have her in there, because she didn’t add anything to the book except be part of a trio.  It seemed like an unbalanced trio to me.
  • Anyway, with the multiple narrators: it randomly switched and it was always jarring, especially when we were going back and forth between Baz and Simon every couple of sentences.  It was quite dizzying and not in a good way.
  • I was really disappointed in the Mage.  He became an evil villain sort of guy, and I wanted someone more like Dumbledore.  I guess that’s because Rowell was doing a fictional parallel to Harry Potter but still.
  • I wanted something more fun, and I felt like Carry On took itself a little too seriously.
  • I know it’s Rowell’s take on Simon Snow, and that it’s NOT Cath’s fanfic or the 8th and final book in the Simon Snow series, but I really felt like we were just thrown into this world with not enough backstory.  It has been a while since I’ve read Fangirl, but Simon’s world seemed more confusing than it should have been.  Maybe I’m not as well-versed in Chosen One stories as I thought I was, or maybe Rowell tried to explain things without actually explaining things or both or other things I’m too lazy to think of at the moment.
  • It felt like we were just supposed to know this world and how the magic works and that seemed a little unneccessary.  I needed more world-building for some of the more original elements of the book, and Rowell did not deliver on that.
  • Have I mentioned that there’s no plot?  Because there really isn’t.  I kept waiting for something to happen, and it didn’t.

Blog Graphic- My Rating

2 stars.  I wanted to love it, but instead, I am so ambivalent, I don’t care enough to actually hate or dislike it, even though I didn’t like it at all.  I just didn’t care as much as I thought I would.  I can see why people like it, but it’s not for me.

Book Review: Radiant Days by Elizabeth Hand

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Radiant Days CoverBook: Radiant Days by Elizabeth Hand

Published April 2012 by Viking Juvenile|272 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the hardcover from the library

Series: None

Genre: YA

Blog Graphic-What It's About

It is 1978. Merle is in her first year at the Corcoran School of Art, catapulted from her impoverished Appalachian upbringing into a sophisticated, dissipated art scene.

It is also 1870. The teenage poet Arthur Rimbaud is on the verge of breaking through to the images and voice that will make his name.

The meshed power of words and art thins the boundaries between the present and the past—and allows these two troubled, brilliant artists to enter each other’s worlds.

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

When I first saw the summary after randomly browsing the YA section at the library, I was oddly reminded of that one movie (I think it’s Keanu Reeves and someone else) where they’re both staying at that one house but in different years and they’re somehow able to write letters to each other.  Which, mind you, I actually haven’t seen, but that’s what I was reminded of, just based on the trailer…and honestly, this book was so, so confusing.

Arthur’s timeline seemed a lot more confusing than Merle’s- although I will say that there were points where Merle’s timeline was sort of confusing, mostly where Arthur was concerned.  It didn’t help that Hand randomly switched perspectives and time periods, and it was hard to be fully into a book where things just randomly jump around.  The Orpheus myth at the end of the book didn’t make sense, since it was randomly thrown in, and I didn’t get why it was even mentioned, since it wasn’t important, or even mentioned, up to that point.

Even though Merle ends up being inspired by Arthur’s poetry, and he somehow manages to see her work in a gallery, there doesn’t seem to be a big connection between them.  I really thought there would be more between them, and when they do travel in time, they don’t particularly care about talking to each other.

It’s also a little bit new-age-y, which probably wouldn’t have bothered me in most cases, but it seemed a little weird and over-done in this book.  And honestly, the artist aspect didn’t have much impact for me, and it seemed to take a backseat to the aimlessness this book seemed to have.

I’m also not sure why this was shelved in the YA section, because even though Arthur and Merle are teens in this book, something about this book seemed like it was meant for an older audience, not YA audience.  In general, the overall feel I get from this book is old, and it really does feel like it was written long before 2012…that seems too recent of a publication date, at least for me.

I didn’t really care for Merle, who gets this scholarship (I think), only to drop out of school.  It seems like such a waste, especially for someone who wanted to get away from her family and the rural area she grew up in.  We do get to know more about her than Arthur- possibly because he was a published poet in real life.  Merle’s timeline seemed much more fleshed out than Arthur’s, and I kind of wanted a little bit more of Arthur.

Blog Graphic- My Rating

2 stars.  I think I liked the idea of the story more than the story itself.  Overall, Radiant Days was just okay.

Book Review: Ink And Ashes by Valynne Maetani

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Ink And Ashes CoverBook: Ink And Ashes by Valynne Maetani

Published May 2015 by Tu Books|368 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the hardcover from the library

Series: None

Genre: YA Contemporary/Mystery

Blog Graphic-What It's About

Claire Takata has never known much about her father, who passed away when she was a little girl. But on the anniversary of his death, not long before her seventeenth birthday, she finds a mysterious letter from her deceased father, addressed to her stepfather. Claire never even knew that they had met.

Claire knows she should let it go, but she can’t shake the feeling that something’s been kept from her. In search of answers, Claire combs through anything that will give her information about her father…until she discovers he was a member of the yakuza, the Japanese mafia. The discovery opens a door that should have been left closed.

So begins the race to outrun his legacy as the secrets of her father’s past threaten Claire’s friends and family, newfound love, and ultimately her life. Ink and Ashes, winner of Tu Books’ New Visions Award, is a heart-stopping debut mystery that will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the very last page.

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

I thought Ink And Ashes was really interesting, but I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would.

I like the mystery, and how connected things were between her step-dad and her dad.  I get why she called him her dad, because he’s the only father she’s ever known.  But at the same time, it was a little weird calling her step-dad dad, when she’s trying to figure out the mystery that is her biological dad.  And I get why her mom didn’t want to talk about Claire’s dad, but still, it’s her dad, and I think it might have been good for her and her brothers to know more about him.

I did keep getting confused about who was who- there were her two brothers, her best friend, and two other guys who were definitely friends, and possibly neighbors but I couldn’t figure that out.  Her best friend Forrest was the only one who I separate from the other 4, who weren’t distinguished enough from each other for me to remember who was who.  And…there was a thing with Forrest that I knew was going to happen by the end of the book, so it wasn’t too surprising when it happened.  Plus, I spent the entire book waiting for it to happen.

Everyone was super-protective of her for no reason.  I get the protectiveness of Claire, and I think if they were just protective, I wouldn’t have minded it so much, but they seemed to go overboard with it, in my opinion.

She is pretty resourceful and not too bad as an investigator, but overall, Claire wasn’t as memorable or as interesting as I had hoped.  That being said, I was really surprised by the ending, and didn’t see it coming, so at least it surprised me in that sense.  Some of it, I felt like Claire should have figured out, but no such luck.  At times, things seemed a little too convenient, and that made it hard to get into the mystery of who her biological dad was.

It also moved at a slow pace, and I was waiting for something more interesting to happen, because there’s not a lot of action.  Especially when it feels like you’re being told what happened, instead of seeing what happened.

Blog Graphic- My Rating

2 stars.  There were a couple of things I liked, but overall, the book fell flat for me.

Book Review: For The Record by Charlotte Huang

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For The Record CoverBook: For The Record by Charlotte Huang

Published November 2015 by Delacorte Press|310 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the hardcover from the library

Series: None

Genre: YA Contemporary

Blog Graphic-What It's About

If Almost Famous were a YA novel…a raw, honest debut celebrating music, friendship, romance, and life on the road.

Chelsea thought she knew what being a rock star was like…until she became one. After losing a TV talent show, she slid back into small-town anonymity. But one phone call changed everything.

Now she’s the lead singer of the band Melbourne, performing in sold-out clubs every night and living on a bus with three gorgeous and talented guys. The bummer is that the band barely tolerates her. And when teen hearthrob Lucas Rivers take an interest in her, Chelsea is suddenly famous, bringing Melbourne to the next level—not that they’re happy about that. Her feelings for Beckett, Melbourne’s bassist, are making life even more complicated.

Chelsea only has the summer tour to make the band—and their fans—love her. If she doesn’t, she’ll be back in Michigan for senior year, dying a slow death. The paparazzi, the haters, the grueling schedule…Chelsea believed she could handle it. But what if she can’t?

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

I liked For The Record!  I know it’s compared to Almost Famous, but as a YA novel, but as I’ve never seen Almost Famous, I’m not sure how For The Record compares.

All of the characters are so distinct, and they have their own personalities.  They’re so different from each other, and I liked that Huang made them so unique and not the same person.  They really stood out on their own, as individual people, but individual people who came together as a group.  There’s a lot of balance in the band, and I liked that about them.

I did get frustrated with Chelsea at times, but she’s flawed and not at all perfect, and I liked that about her.  She still has a lot of growing to do, but she also grew a lot in the book.

I also wish we saw a solid friendship in the book.  I’m fine with things being weird with the band, since she’s new but I was really disappointed in the only friend she seems to have.  Mandy seemed shallow, and unwilling to deal with the consequences of her actions.  She came across as ungrateful and expecting Chelsea to fix things for her.  I know she stuck by Chelsea in high school when everyone else hated Chelsea, but if they really were best friends, Mandy wouldn’t have used it to guilt Chelsea into helping her.  I thought Chelsea was too forgiving of Mandy, and even though they talk about what happened, something the way Mandy apologized and talked about it felt really fake.

Even though the ending was open-ended, and things are up in the air for Chelsea, I wanted a little more resolution. It fits with everything that happens in the book, and I do like it enough that if there were something that wrapped up For The Record, or even focused on what Chelsea’s up to, I’d read it.

Overall, it’s a cute book, and I thought Huang did a really good job at showing what it was like for Chelsea to be new girl on the bus, and what it was like for her adjusting to fame and what it was like on the road.  I’m not completely sure how accurate of a portrayal it is, but it did feel like a pretty realistic at all aspects of Chelsea’s rise to stardom.

I wasn’t into the romance, but it was complicated and messy and even a little bit predictable.  But I kind of liked how complicated and messy it was for Chelsea.

Blog Graphic- My Rating

3 stars.  I liked it, and it’s cute, but I didn’t love it.

Book Review: Rebel Of The Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

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Rebel Of The Sands CoverBook Review: Rebel Of The Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

Published March 2016 by Viking Books For Young Readers|320 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the e-book from the library

Series: Rebel Of The Sands #1

Genre: YA

Blog Graphic-What It's About

She’s more gunpowder than girl—and the fate of the desert lies in her hands.

Mortals rule the desert nation of Miraji, but mystical beasts still roam the wild and barren wastes, and rumor has it that somewhere, djinni still practice their magic. But there’s nothing mystical or magical about Dustwalk, the dead-end town that Amani can’t wait to escape from.

Destined to wind up “wed or dead,” Amani’s counting on her sharpshooting skills to get her out of Dustwalk. When she meets Jin, a mysterious and devastatingly handsome foreigner, in a shooting contest, she figures he’s the perfect escape route. But in all her years spent dreaming of leaving home, she never imagined she’d gallop away on a mythical horse, fleeing the murderous Sultan’s army, with a fugitive who’s wanted for treason. And she’d never have predicted she’d fall in love with him…or that he’d help her unlock the powerful truth of who she really is.

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

I liked Rebel Of The Sands!  Not as much as I thought, but I still liked it.

I do like that it’s a fantasy that’s set in the Middle East instead of Europe.  You really get the sense that Amani is in a place that barren and dusty, and I did get a Western feel from the book.  Maybe it’s the shoot-outs and the fact that Amani feels more like a cowgirl than a girl who wants to leave Dustwalk.  It really is a mix of Middle Eastern fantasy meets Western, but decidedly more Western than anything else, and for most of the book, I tended to forget the setting.

It had the potential to be a lot more unique.  I thought there would be more magic and magical horses and dijnn, and they don’t show up until later on the book, so it’s not really the fantasy I expected.  I wish they were more obvious early on in the book, and that it was more defined, because it really wasn’t in this book.  Maybe that’s why it read more as a Western than a fantasy.  It did make me feel distanced from the characters, and I spent a good part of the book waiting for something interesting to happen, because things are pretty slow for a lot of the book.  There’s a lot of traveling once Amani leaves Dustwalk.

It seemed like the first half of the book was paced pretty well, even if it seems like things moved slowly, but after that, it feels like things were rushed and not really developed.  Which is weird, because that’s sort of when the book gets good.

I did like the ending, though!  It didn’t end on a cliffhanger, which was actually nice, because it ends with the idea that there are bigger things happening in Amani’s world than what we see.  It was open-ended in a way, and you don’t know exactly where things are headed but you know there’s something going down.

I’ll probably read the next book just to see what happens, but I won’t be rushing to read it either.

Blog Graphic- My Rating

3 stars.  I did like the magic in Rebel In The Sands, but it felt more like a Western with hints of fantasy instead of an actual fantasy.

Book Review: Stars Above by Marissa Meyer

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Stars Above CoverBook: Stars Above by Marissa Meyer

Published February 2016 by Feiwel & Friends|369 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the hardcover from the library

Series: Lunar Chronicles #4.5

Genre: YA Fairy Tale Re-Telling/Dystopia

Blog Graphic-What It's About

The enchantment continues…

The universe of the Lunar Chronicles holds stories—and secrets—that are wondrous, vicious, and romantic. How did Cinder first arrive in New Beijing? How did the brooding soldier Wolf transform from young man to killer? When did Princess Winter and the palace guard Jacin realize their destinies?

With nine stories—five of which have never before been published—and an exclusive never-before-seen excerpt from Marissa Meyer’s upcoming novel, Heartless, about the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, Stars Above is essential for fans of the bestselling and beloved Lunar Chronicles.

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

Since this is a short story collection, I thought I’d talk about each story.  I’m going in the order that they appear in Stars Above.

  1. The Keeper: This is the first story in the book, and it’s about Scarlet’s grandmother and how Cinder came to be under her care.  I really liked it, because we only get a glimpse of her grandma in Scarlet, and we get to know more about her.
  2. Glitches: This story is all about how Cinder came to live with Garan and his family.  I feel like this story gives some insight into why Adri treats Cinder the way she does- not completely, but enough to not really like Adri.
  3. The Queen’s Army: This story is about the army Levana built, and we see Wolf and how he became Wolf!  I liked it, but it’s not one of my favorites.
  4. Carswell’s Guide To Being Lucky:  It’s not one of the more memorable stories, and it’s not one of my favorites, but I did like seeing Carswell at a young age.
  5. After Sunshine Passes By: I loved it, mostly because it’s about Cress, and how she came to live on the satellite at such a young age.  I also really loved Cress- I can’t decide if I love Winter or Cress more, as far as the main series goes, so it’s no surprise this was one of my favorites!
  6. The Princess And The Guard: This is another one of my favorites, because we see how Winter got her scars, and why she stopped using her gift.  I really felt for Winter!
  7. The Little Android: This is my least favorite of the group.  Even though it’s set in the same world as the other stories, we only briefly see Cinder, and it doesn’t have anything to do with the other stories.  It is a really good re-telling of The Little Mermaid, though.
  8. The Mechanic: I’m sort of in the middle on this one.  It’s a scene we see in Cinder, where Kai stops by Cinder’s stall to have her fix Nainsi, but from Kai’s point of view.  Which was nice to see, but at the same time…I don’t know, I’m feeling neutral about it.
  9. Something Old, Something New: After The Princess And The Guard and After Sunshine Passes By, this is my favorite.  It’s an epilogue of sorts, to the entire series, but especially Winter.  I loved catching up with all of the characters and seeing what they were up to.

Blog Graphic- My Rating

4 stars.  I ranged from not liking a story (The Little Android) to loving a couple stories (After Sunshine Passes By and The Princess And The Guard), with everything else falling somewhere in the middle.  It’s a pretty good addition to the Lunar Chronicle series, and most of the stories (except for Glitches) was new to me, so it was nice to have new stories for one of my favorite series.  It’s also nice to have all 9 stories in one volume, and it’s a great book for any fan of the series.

Book Review: Surviving Santiago by Lyn Miller-Lachmann

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Surviving Santiago CoverBook: Surviving Santiago by Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Published June 2015 by Running Press Kids|312 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the hardcover from the library

Series: None

Genre: YA Contemporary

Blog Graphic-What It's About

Returning to her homeland of Santiago, Chile, is the last thing that Tina Aguilar wants to do during the summer of her sixteenth birthday. It has taken eight years for her to feel comfort and security in America with her mother and her new husband. And it has been eight years since she has last seen her father.

Despite insisting on the visit, Tina’s father spends all his time focused on politics and alcohol rather than connecting with Tina, making his betrayal from the past continue into the present. Tina attracts the attention of a mysterious stranger, but the hairpin turns he takes her on may push her over the edge of truth and discovery.

The tense, final months of the Pinochet regime in 1989 provide the backdrop for author Lyn Miller-Lachmann’s suspenseful tale of the survival and redemption of the Aguilar family, first introduced in the critically acclaimed Gringolandia.

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

I’m not sure what to think about Surviving Santiago!  I wanted to like it, and parts of it were interesting, but I had a hard time getting into it.

I didn’t like Tina’s dad at all.  I didn’t get why he wanted to see her, when he’s always off working or drinking.  For someone who would only divorce his wife if he could see his daughter, he didn’t seem to care (at all) about spending time with her, and it didn’t make sense, especially since it’s been almost a decade since they’ve seen each other.

And even though it takes place during the last months of the Pinochet regime and all of these things are happening, I felt like we were told what was happening, instead of seeing it.  I know Tina visiting Chile from the U.S., and she’s naive and not at all aware of what’s going on in Chile, but I wish we saw, through her eyes, what was going on.  Well, more of what was going on, because we do get a glimpse towards the end of the book.  Which wasn’t really enough for me.

She seemed selfish at times (more than I would have expected) and she seemed to care more about the boy and listening to Metallica and smoking weed than anything else, and the relationship that she does have with her dad at the end of the book…it didn’t work for me.  Her actions did change their relationship, but it also put them in a lot of danger. Granted, her dad’s work probably put him in danger, but her actions definitely made it worse.

Overall, it felt like something was missing.  I admit that I know nothing about Pinochet- I just recognize the name, so for me, the things her dad went through, and everything that happened with Frankie…I think I needed more of what his regime was actually like.  It seemed like she drew on her previous book, which is fine, but maybe I should have started off with that one before reading this one, just to have that context.

Still, I liked the author’s note at the end, and I liked that she had a few recommended titles to read.  I felt like that’s something you don’t see a lot in YA.  And I do like that we see the beginning of the end, because it could have very easily been during his regime.

Blog Graphic- My Rating

2 stars.  I do like what Surviving Santiago deals with, and I wanted more context for what was going on in the book, because I didn’t fully understand some of the more political stuff going.  I’d still recommend it, though, because it is about something that people might not be familiar with.

ARC Book Review: And I Darken by Kiersten White

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And I Darken CoverBook: And I Darken by Kiersten White

Expected Publication is June 28, 2016 by Delacorte Press|Expected Number Of Pages: 496

Where I Got It: I got a digital ARC from netgalley.com in exchanged for a fair and honest review

Series: The Conqueror’s Saga #1

Genre: YA Historical Fiction/Alternate History

Blog Graphic-What It's About

No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwyla likes it that way.

Ever since she and her brother were abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman sultan’s courts, Lada has known that ruthlessness is the key to survival. For the lineage that makes her and her brother special also makes them targets.

Lada hones her skills as a warrior as she nurtures plans to wreak revenge on the empire that holds her captive. Then she and Radu meet the sultan’s son, Mehmed, and everything changes. Now Mehmed unwittingly stands between Lada and Radu as they transform from siblings to rivals, and the ties of love and loyalty that bind them together are stretched to breaking point.

The first of an epic new trilogy starring the ultimate anti-princess who does not have a gentle heart. Lada knows how to wield a sword, and she’ll stop at nothing to keep herself and her brother alive.

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

And I Darken is such a cool book!  I don’t even know where to begin…this book just pulls you in, and you can’t stop reading until you’re actually done with the book!

What I like the most about And I Darken is that it has an alternate history feel to it, which I think is why some people tagged it as fantasy.  Even though there are no fantasy elements in And I Darken, it does have a fantasy feel to it. And who knows, it might become more of a fantasy later on in the series!

It was a lot more political than I expected- not in a bad way, because you really see the politics of the time.  It’s definitely based on history- Dracula is a teenage girl in this book- but I’m not completely sure how historically accurate it is.  Either way, you really get a good feel for what it might have been like when Lada was alive.

Speaking of Lada, she is resilient, cold and calculating.  She knows what her role is in this world, and she doesn’t want to play along.  And it was really interesting to see, because Lada struggles with Lada’s dislike of women and her feelings on her own femininity.  Yet she comes to realize that power comes in a lot of different forms and women have their own power, though it might be different than the power that the men in their world have.

Her relationship with her brother is really different than what we see in a lot of YA.  Her brother, Radu, is a lot more delicate than Lada, and that both frustrates her and draws out a protectiveness she has for her brother. They are everything that the other is not, and it makes for an interesting relationship between them.

We also see both Christianity and Islam explored, but it’s done in a way that’s not preachy.  And we Islam presented in a way that’s not judgmental, which is really refreshing, because it easily could have gone in that direction. Instead, it’s seen as a religion in it’s own right, and it’s not seen as good or bad…it just is.  There’s something very neutral about how religion is presented in this book, and I really like that.

As for Mehmed: both Lada and Radu think about him a lot.  He does change their lives, and we see how much he changes their relationship.  I think I’m just going to leave it at that, because I’m not completely sure how I feel about Mehmed.

As much as I liked this book, it did feel dense, and partly why it took me a while to get through it was because I needed to take random breaks to let everything sink in.  And Lada, Radu and Mehmed seemed so young to be in the positions they were in.  I really forgot that they were around 14 or 15 at the end of the book, and even though it probably wasn’t unusual for that time period, it still seems so foreign.  Then again, I think a re-read is in order, because there’s so much in this book that I’m sure I’ll see some things I missed the first time around.

Blog Graphic- My Rating

4 stars.  I really liked it, and I love the take on Dracula!  I can’t wait to read the next book.

ARC Book Review: The Art Of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson

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The Art Of Being Normal CoverBook Review: The Art Of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson

Expected Publication is May 31, 2016 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux|Expected Number Of Pages: 352

Where I Got It: I got a digital-ARC from netgalley, in exchange for a fair and honest review

Series: None

Genre: YA Contemporary

Blog Graphic-What It's About

David Piper has always been an outsider. His parents think he’s gay. The school bully thinks he’s a freak. Only his two best friends know the real truth: David wants to be a girl.

On the first day at his new school Leo Denton has one goal: to be invisible. Attracting the attention of the most beautiful girl in his class is definitely not part of that plan. When Leo stands up for David in a fight, an unlikely friendship forms. But things are about to get messy. Because at Eden Park School secrets have a funny habit of not staying secret for long, and soon everyone knows that Leo used to be a girl.

As David prepares to come out to his family and transition into life as a girl and Leo wrestles with figuring out how to deal with people who try to define him through his history, they find in each other the friendship and support they need to navigate life as transgender teens as well as the courage to decide for themselves what normal really means.

Blog Graphic- What I Thought

I really liked The Art Of Being Normal!  I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it’s a book I’d recommend to anyone!

I haven’t read many books featuring a trasngender character, but I liked seeing David struggle with telling his family that he’s transgender.  You see how he’s bullied because of this time, when he was little, and said he wanted to be a girl.  You see how people assume he’s gay (or suspect he his) because he’s interested in boys, when, in reality, it’s because David is really Kate.

David’s story is a really interesting parallel to Leo’s story.  As with David, you see bullying and how people treat him because Leo is also transgender, and what happened to Leo was heartbreaking.  It makes me so sad that people treated Leo the way they did, and that Leo had to transfer schools for his own safety.  You have David, who wants to transition, and Leo, who is in the process of transitioning, and I like how their stories come together.  I did like the dual narration, since you see how both teens are struggling, and what their lives are like.

Even though it worked fairly well, it was also hard to form strong attachments to both Leo and David.  I do love the connection they have with each other, though, and I’m glad they have each other for support.  Something about it the dual narration didn’t quite work for me, and I think it’s because we don’t focus completely on one character.  Like, David kind of gets pushed off to the side because of Leo’s search for his father, and it seems sort of random and I’m not sure it completely fits with the rest of the story.

It also starts a little slow, and you’re not really sure where it’s headed at first, but as you get into the story, you get a better idea of where things are headed.  Still, there were times where it seemed like it might be a little darker than you’d expect, and it didn’t really get there.  Yes, you see some of the prejudice that transgender people face, but it didn’t have a big emotional impact, and I guess I just wanted something more.  It did seem unevenly paced, and a little all over the place, and looking back, I think I wanted something a little more evenly paced.

More than anything, The Art Of Being Normal is about class and poverty and making friends and communicating with family.  It’s about growing up and dealing with family.  David doesn’t feel like he’s normal, and you see how hard it is for David to communicate that.  He was a character I think we can all relate, because we all feel like we’re not normal, and we’re all dealing with our thing.

Williamson captures what it’s like to be a teenager really well, and it was really easy to relate to some of the things the characters were dealing with.

I did want to see more of David’s friends, who are there, but not in an important way.  I wish we see them more than the random appearances they make.  Going in, I knew Leo was transgender, but it’s a while before it comes up in the book that Leo’s transgender, and it was frustrating to see the hints that Leo had a secret, but it not being revealed. I get that Leo’s not open because of what happened to him at his old school, but the hints got to me, and I just wanted to know what happened.

Blog Graphic- My Rating

3 stars.  I liked it, and I think it’s a book everyone should read, but for me, I wanted a little more than what we got in the book.