Review: To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Pub. Date: March 6, 2018

Source/Format: NetGalley/e-galley | I received a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review. Quotes are taken from the finished hardback.

I've made a mistake. It started with a prince, as most stories do.

To Kill a Kingdom is sort of like Disney's The Little Mermaid meets Pirates of the Caribbean. It's a fairy tale retelling with a serious edge, and I had so much fun reading it! The story alternates between two main characters: Lira, a deadly siren princess known as the Princes' Bane ('cause she's literally stolen the hearts of seventeen princes), and Elian, a human prince turned pirate captain who is searching the seas for, you guessed it, Lira. Elian wants nothing more than to leave the responsibilities of princedom behind and spend his days with his pirate crew on the Saad, protecting the world from the sirens and searching for a way to defeat them, their queen, but most especially the elusive Princes' Bane. Lira has been raised to be ruthless and cruel, a worthy successor to her mother, the evil Sea Queen. But when Lira's worthiness to rule is called into question, her mother curses her to become a human. The only way to break the curse and win back her throne is to bring her mother Prince Elian's heart. After Lira, now human, is pulled from the ocean by none other than Elian himself, she enters into a shaky partnership with him in order to find the one thing that can end her mother's tyrannical reign.

Characters are the most important part of a book for me; if I don't like the main character or characters, there's a good chance that book will end up in my DNF pile. So I knew this book was going to be a wild ride with interesting characters when Lira literally ripped a man's heart out of his chest within the first ten pages. While this is a Little Mermaid retelling, Lira definitely isn't an Ariel knock-off. I love books where we get to see a character everyone sees as a villain transform into someone else––this is definitely Lira's journey throughout To Kill a Kingdom. Elian, on the other hand, for all his talk of being an infamous pirate, isn't quite as devious and swashbuckling as one might assume a pirate prince to be. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the relationship between him and Lira; I'm a total sucker for the enemies-to-lovers trope, especially when there's banter involved. One of my other favorite characters in the story was Kahlia, Lira's cousin, because she brought out Lira's softer, more vulnerable side. Lira is supposed to be this cold, unfeeling monster, but through it all she still has affection and concern for Kahlia. I think it's Lira's love for Kahlia that keeps her from becoming a total monster like the Sea Queen.

I also have to talk about Alexanda Christo's writing style, which is lovely and lyrical and just a pleasure to read. She has a real knack for making settings come alive through her vivid descriptions, and I loved how she made each kingdom Elian and Lira visited so unique.

This is the first standalone YA fantasy novel I've read in a while, and the ending does a nice job of tying up all the loose ends. I am sad, though, that this is the end of Elian and Lira's story. I would have loved to see more of them, but overall, I'd say that as a standalone, To Kill a Kingdom comes to a satisfying conclusion. I hope we see more from Alexandra in the future!

Review: A Quiet Kind of Thunder by Sara Barnard

A Quiet Kind of Thunder by Sara Barnard

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Pub. Date: January 9, 2018

Source/Format: NetGalley/e-galley

**I received a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review. Quotes are taken from the finished Kindle edition.**

I want to bottle this discovery and carry it with me everywhere. Lose the fear, find my voice. So simple. And, yet, so rare.

What It's About
Steffi Brons is a sixteen-year-old with selective mutism—which means she literally can't control when her voice comes and goes—and severe social anxiety. Steffi has always relied on her awesome best friend, Tem, to support her, stand up for her, and help her navigate the social world of school. But this year, Steffi's and Tem's paths are diverging—Steffi is starting sixth form and Tem has chosen the college route—and without Tem around, Steffi finds herself adrift and unsure of where she belongs or how to navigate through school life. Enter Rhys Gold, a deaf boy who Steffi immediately connects with because she can communicate with him through British Sign Language. As the year progresses and Steffi and Rhys grow closer, Steffi finds herself taking small but victorious steps toward becoming more comfortable with world around her.

My Thoughts

Because anxiety doesn't care if you're happy or not ... Just like cancer doesn't care if you're happy. Or a broken leg. Or diabetes.

This review was really hard to write because A Quiet Kind of Thunder covers a topic that is very familiar and personal to me, and it did so in a way that I so appreciated because it was so real. First, I should start by saying that I don't know much about selective mutism or deafness, so I'll just have to echo other reviewers' thoughts here and say that it seems like the author has done her research on these subjects. What I want to talk about is Sara Barnard's spot-on portrayal of a character who has severe social anxiety. Wow. Just ... wow. I wish this book had been around when I was in high school, back when I didn't know that social anxiety was even a thing and was just drifting from one day to the next feeling so isolated from my peers and like there was some massive defect in my personality. I really hope that this book reaches readers like sixteen-year-old me, who desperately need to see that there are other people like them out there who are going through the same struggles, and that there are things they can do to help themselves not feel so scared and alone.

There were so many times while reading A Quiet Kind of Thunder that I felt like jumping up and down and shouting "Yes! Oh my god, someone else gets this!" Barnard captures perfectly those feelings that I and others with social anxiety have struggled with constantly: the feeling that basic, everyday things like saying hello to someone in the hallway or speaking to a cashier at a store are insurmountable hurdles; the feelings of jealousy when you see "normal" people in social settings interacting with others with what seems like total ease; the feeling like you're not normal, will never be normal, or that there's something inherently wrong with you that can never be fixed. It was so validating to  read about a character experiencing those feelings. Equally important were the moments when Barnard showed us Steffi's small victories: those moments of validation when she was able prove to herself that she could do the things that used to seem impossible to her, like answering a question out loud in class, or going to the grocery store by herself, or asking a stranger for help in a dire situation.

Mum has had an anxious daughter for sixteen years, and she still doesn't seem to get the concept of little victories. That spending and evening where I wasn't feeling sick every time someone asked me a question is actually a really big deal, and the fact that it might just be a one-off is the kind of thing I'm already worried about. There's no such thing as getting your hopes up if you're anxious. Little victories are everything in a world where worst-case scenarios are on an endless loop in your head.

The depictions of CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) and Steffi's treatment process for her anxiety were so realistic, and for that reason, so very important. Meds and therapy, while helpful, aren't magical cure-alls; even with these, Steffi realizes she has to actively take steps to help herself. And even then, there are still going to be days that are a struggle. I really appreciated that Barnard didn't shy away from these hard truths. There's a part in the book where Steffi is having dinner with her family and Rhys, and it's been a good day for her, and she says that if her life were a movie, this is were the movie would end—with everything perfect and happy. But Steffi's story doesn't end there, and Barnard goes on to show Steffi's continued struggles. I think that's important. It's important that Steffi doesn't do a complete 180 by the end of the book and turn into a super talkative, vivacious, charismatic person, because that's not how mental illness works. There's no switch that flips or magical pill that you take that turns you into a different person. Steffi does make improvements, but her anxiety doesn't just go away; it's still something she has to manage, and that's okay.

We know you find the world quite hard, and we know we can't make it easier for you, or make decisions for you. But you're growing up and you're learning how to navigate it in your own way. That's fantastic.

What I also loved about this book were all Steffi's different relationships: with Rhys, with her parents, and with her best friend, Tem, who all help her handle her anxiety and selective mutism in different ways. Steffi's parents are divorced and both remarried, so it was really interesting (and sometimes heartbreaking) to see the different parenting styles: one side is super supportive, and one, unfortunately, doesn't fully understand or accept that her selective mutism and anxiety truly are things that Steffi cannot fully control. Tem, who has served as Steffi's protector throughout their school years, is mostly understanding, but as they take different paths and begin to drift apart, Tem tends to throw Steffi's problems back in her face or make hurtful jabs. For those reasons, I both loved and was frustrated by Tem (though it's important to note that Steffi isn't a perfect friend either; she sometimes takes her for granted, because she feels that since Tem is outspoken and social, she doesn't need Steffi as much as Steffi needs her). And then there's Rhys. Their relationship was so adorable and one of my favorite parts of the book! Befriending Rhys is what initially gives Steffi the confidence to be bolder, but, importantly, she learns that she can't be totally reliant on him to make her better; after all, Rhys has his own disability and insecurities to deal with. But together they do help each other.

A Quiet Kind of Thunder is a sweet love story, a relatable coming-of-age story, and a truthful depiction of what it's like to live with an anxiety disorder. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I hope that other readers who can relate to Steffi's and Rhys's situations will find it, read it, and hopefully feel less alone because of it.

Mini Review Roundup: 2017 Reads

As I discovered while filling out the Year-End Statistics Survey last weekend, 2017 was a not a good review year on the blog. I only posted two reviews the entire year—two! Ouch! Granted, I was trying to get back into the swing of blogging regularly, so I didn't post a lot in general, but still. Must do better in 2018! Anyway, I was doing a little cleaning up behind the scenes—updating the layout, deleting drafts of posts I'm not likely to finish—when I noticed that I actually did have a few reviews I started to write but never got around to finishing. So, rather than toss them in trash bin, I decided to tweak them a little bit and make a compilation of mini reviews as a final send-off to 2017. 

The Bird and the Sword by Amy Harmon

Read February 2017 | 

I discovered this book through the art of PhantomRin, who, as you might know, has created some amazing fan art for the Throne of Glass series as well as other YA novels. I came across this gorgeous picture she made of the two main characters from The Bird and the Sword, Tiras and Lark, and I was immediately intrigued because this imagining of Tiras totally gave me Heir of Fire-era Rowan vibes, with the long, silver-white hair.
The writing in The Bird and the Sword is so enchanting, and it was easy to get swept up in Lark's story. One of the most powerful elements of the book, for me, was how acutely I felt everything Lark was feeling––her loneliness and isolation that she felt because she is literally unable to speak, the despair over the seemingly impossible circumstances she and Tiras face, but also her love for Tiras and her stubborn determination to do whatever she can to save him.
While I definitely felt there were elements of the plot and the worldbuilding that could have been fleshed out a bit more––for instance, I'm still not entirely sure why Tiras had such a hard time shifting between his eagle and human forms––The Bird and the Sword makes up for these shortcomings with beautiful writing and a sweet romance.

Once and for All by Sarah Dessen

Read in June 2017 | 

I've been meaning to read more Sarah Dessen books ever since I finished Along for the Ride (which I loved) a few summers back. With its intriguing premise of summer romance amidst the flurry of wedding planning chaos, Once and for All seemed like the perfect book to try next. While it was a quick, enjoyable read, this one unfortunately didn't fully capture my interest. Ambrose's constant cheeriness and knack for landing himself in trouble was a bit annoying, and I never really felt 100 percent on board with the budding romance between him and Louna. I was far more interested in the chapters about Louna's previous relationship with Ethan than I ever was for the chapters about Louna and Ambrose, whose relationship felt somewhat forced. The Ethan chapters tugged at my heartstrings, and I sort of wish the book had just focused on that story instead.

Night of Cake and Puppets by Laini Taylor

Read October 2017 |  

To read my review of the original e-book version, click here.
I absolutely love the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series by Laini Taylor and cannot praise it highly enough. Seriously, why is there not a bigger fandom for these books, or the fantastic Strange the Dreamer, for that matter? Laini never disappoints. There are so many laugh-out-loud moments in this novella, and the romance between Zuzanna and Mik is too adorable for words. I really loved the illustrations and how they brought the story to life (even though these interpretations Zuzana and Mik didn't quite fit my own imagined versions of them). Some of the artwork even creeped me out a bit, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, since the series does have a touch of creepiness––I don't think I really appreciated before just how macabre Zuzana and Karou's habitual hangout, Poison Kitchen, is. The bonus comic at the end for the opening pages of Daughter of Smoke and Bone has me seriously wanting the whole series in graphic novel form. It would be so amazing!

Review: An Enchantment of Ravens

An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Pub. Date: September 27, 2017

Source/Format: Purchased/Hardcover

"One raven for uncertain peril. Six for danger sure to arrive. A dozen for death, if not avoided. The enchantment is sealed."

**This review is NOT spoiler-free.**

Seventeen-year-old Isobel lives in Whimsy, a world inhabited by humans and fairies, and makes a living for her family by performing her Craft: painting portraits for the fairy nobility. The Fair Folk, who are unable to create such works of their own or experience human emotion, desire Craft over all else, and they flock to Isobel to have their portraits done. When Isobel is visited by Rook, prince of the Autumn Court, she discovers the human emotion of sorrow in his eyes and captures it in his portrait. When the painting is unveiled before his court, Rook's weakness is put on display, thus placing his legitimacy to rule in jeopardy. Enraged by this slight, Rook steals Isobel from her home to bring her to stand trial for her unwitting crime. But their dangerous journey to the autumn court is filled with detours and distractions, and soon Isobel and Rook find themselves in danger of breaking an even more dangerous rule—for above all else, fairies and humans must never fall in love.

An Enchantment of Ravens was one of my most anticipated new releases of 2017, not only because the premise sounded amazing but because of the comparisons that were being drawn between it and A Court of Thorns and Roses (which, as you may know, is my favorite series at the moment), and the fact that artist Charlie Bowater, who helped design the A Court of Wings and Ruin cover and has made other amazing ACOTAR fan art, did the cover art. So I went into AEOR with a lot of excitement and high hopes. Unfortunately, it fell somewhat short of my expectations.

Review: The Wood by Chelsea Bobulski

The Wood by Chelsea Bobulski
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Pub. Date: August 1, 2017
Genre: YA Contemporary Fantasy
Source/Format: Library/Hardcover

"Do not travel from the paths. Do not linger after dark. Do not ignore the calling." Winter Parish is a descendent of a long line of guardians, whose duty is to protect the mystical wood behind her family's home from wandering travelers––people who step through thresholds in time either by accident or with the intent to reach another time altogether. Without the guardians, these travelers are in danger of becoming lost in a time that is not their own, or worse, being consumed by the wood itself. Winter's father has been training her since she was ten to become the new guardian in the Parish family line, but when he mysteriously disappears, Winter is left alone to guard the wood, all the while agonizing over what could have happened to her father. Two years later, Henry, a young man from eighteenth-century England, appears in Winter's wood with one purpose: to travel through the time thresholds to uncover what happened to his own missing parents. When it becomes clear that the disappearance of Winter's father and Henry's parents may be connected, the two work together to find their loved ones and defeat the growing evil that plagues the wood.

The Wood is an interesting contemporary fantasy novel linking time travel with a fairy tale–esque magical forest. I did enjoy the characters, especially the relationship between Winter and Henry, although they definitely did not have the whirlwind, passion-fueled romance you see in most YA books of this sort. I especially liked and even laughed out loud at Henry's reactions to modern technology, clothing, lingo, etc. As far as plot goes, though, I was little ... bored. The story takes place over the course of only a few days––with some flashbacks to when Winter was a young guardian-in-training––and everything seems to wrap up a little too neatly, and the "villain" is defeated a little too easily. I would've also liked it if the book had gone deeper into the folklore and origin story of the wood and also the Old Ones, the fae-like creatures who help the guardians in their mission to keep the wood safe and prevent travelers from interfering with the space-time continuum. It felt like we were given just enough information to make that fantasy world plausible but not enough to really make it come alive. Maybe I'm just not used to the pace of standalone books anymore, considering the majority of the books I read now are part of longer series, which gives the author more time to expand the plot and drum up suspense. While I enjoyed parts The Wood, it's probably not a book I'll come back to or one that I'll be shoving in people's faces and demanding that they read.

I'm trying something a little different with my rating system this time around, so we'll see if it sticks! I got the idea from a book journal my mom got me for my birthday this year, which, in addition to giving you space to write down your thoughts about the book and favorite quotes, has a section where you can rank different aspects of the book. I've chosen the three that have the biggest influence over whether a book becomes an instant fave, is just okay, or doesn't click with me.

If you've read The Wood too, I'd love to hear what you thought of it!

Book Review: The Graces by Laure Eve

The Graces by Laure Eve
Publisher: Abrams Kids/Amulet Books
Pub. Date: September 6, 2016
Genre: YA Fantasy/Paranormal
Source/Format: NetGalley/e-galley

Goodreads Summary:

In The Graces, the first rule of witchcraft states that if you want something badly enough, you can get it . . . no matter who has to pay. Everyone loves the Graces. Fenrin, Thalia, and Summer Grace are captivating, wealthy, and glamorous. They’ve managed to cast a spell over not just their high school but also their entire town—and they’re rumored to have powerful connections all over the world. If you’re not in love with one of them, you want to be them. Especially River: the loner, new girl at school. She’s different from her peers, who both revere and fear the Grace family. She wants to be a Grace more than anything. And what the Graces don’t know is that River’s presence in town is no accident. This fabulously addictive fantasy combines sophisticated and haunting prose with a gut-punching twist that readers will be dying to discuss. Perfect for fans of We Were Liars as well as nostalgic classics like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the 1996 movie The Craft, The Graces marks the beginning of a new wave of teen witches.

Thank you to Abrams Kids and NetGalley for giving me an e-galley in exchange for an honest review!

This book was at the top of my Most Anticipated Reads of 2016 shelf on Goodreads, first because of the gorgeous cover and second because heck yes fantasy series about teen witches! Needless to say, I was ecstatic when my request was approved on NetGalley! Sadly, though, The Graces fell short of my expectations.

My biggest issue with the book has to do with the main character, a girl who calls herself "River." The book summary isn't kidding when it says River wants to be one of the Graces––a trio of enigmatic siblings––more than anything. It's her defining personality trait, and it gets old really fast. Almost every thought she has revolves around the Graces and how she can infiltrate their circle to become one of them, popular and admired. Every action is done specifically to get the Graces––but especially the youngest Grace, Summer––to like her and see her as one of them. She's completely and utterly obsessed in a way that just made me cringe. She's unlike the typical YA heroine in that her motives are completely selfish, but she never does anything to redeem herself. Her insecurity and all-consuming obsession with trying to become a Grace make her completely unlikeable throughout the whole book. I never rooted for her, and most of the time I was just waiting for the Graces to finally see through her crap and be done with her. The interesting thing, though, is I don't think we're supposed to like her. In fact, the end of book one sets her up to be very much the antihero in future books.

As for the Graces themselves, for all the awe and fear they inspire in the town, they really aren't all that interesting. Rumor has it that their whole family is made up of witches. But apart from a rumor that a boy was possessed during a Ouija game gone wrong at Thalia and Fenrin's eighth birthday party, and Summer's occasional dabbling in minor spells––which the family disapproves of––there's not a whole lot going on to suggest that they're as sinister or mysterious as everyone thinks they are. They come off as snobs more than anything else. I didn't understand the hold they had over River or their classmates.

I might have been able to overlook some of these issues had the plot been more interesting, but it was slow going and didn't really ramp up until about the last quarter of the book. I'll admit that the showdown between River and the Graces was pretty intense, and it did redeem the book at least a little bit. I just wish there had been more intensity throughout the book as a whole.

Final Thoughts and Rating

Sadly, The Graces just wasn't my cup of tea. The plot was too slow and the characters too unlikeable for me to ever become fully invested in the story. I likely won't be continuing the series, but I'm still holding out hope for Laure Eve's other series, Fearsome Dreamer.

Fairy Tale Challenge {1}: Snow White and the 77 Dwarfs by Davide Cali

Snow White and the 77 Dwarfs by Davide Cali
Publisher: Random House of Canada Limited
Length: 32 pages
Source/Format: NetGalley/e-ARC

 

Snow White is on the run from an evil witch when she comes across some dwarfs in the forest. They agree to take her in and keep her safe if she will help them with their chores. She soon realizes she's taking on a lot more than she bargained for. 77 breakfasts to make, 77 lunches to pack (don't forget the juice boxes!), 77 pairs of pants to mend and a whole lot of dishes. Eventually Snow White decides to take her chances with the witch. There's a surprise ending... well, it may not be so surprising. This is a hilarious retelling of the classic tale, with bright, energetic illustrations featuring busy dwarfs, and the even busier Snow White.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Today I'm kicking off the Fairy Tale Challenge, with a very different sort of review. You're probably wondering why a twenty-four-year-old book blogger of YA fiction would choose to read a children's picture book, and all I can say in response is, Look at that cover! When I saw this in the NetGalley catalog, I hit "Request" without a second thought.

Not only is this book gorgeously illustrated, with each page bursting with a rainbow of colors, but it's funny, too! If you thought the original Snow White had her hands full cooking, cleaning, and caring for a measly group of seven dwarfs, just think how frazzled she'd be with seventy-seven! There's no rest for poor Snow in this version of the story; as soon as she's prepared one meal for the dwarfs, it's already time to start fixing the next. Then there's the mountain of dishes, the bedtime stories (a different one for each dwarf!), and, most importantly, the beard grooming. After all that work, who has time for a prince? All this Snow White wants is a nice, long nap, and when the evil (or maybe not so evil after all) witch offers her a poisoned apple, Snow White jumps at the offer: "I'll take two!" One of the funniest pictures in the book comes at the very end, when Snow White, not waiting to be awoken by a prince's kiss, fully embraces her magically-induced sleep with a sleeping mask and "Do Not Disturb" sign.

Though it only took me all of five minutes to read, I thoroughly enjoyed this retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It definitely coaxed a few chuckles out of me, and I'm absolutely in love with the illustrations. I think I may have to order a copy for myself!

Book Review: The Vanishing Season by Jodi Lynn Anderson

The Vanishing Season by Jodi Lynn Anderson
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pub. Date: July 2014
Genre: YA Contemporary
Source/Format: Library/Hardcover

Girls started vanishing in the fall, and now winter's come to lay a white sheet over the horror. Door County, it seems, is swallowing the young, right into its very dirt. From beneath the house on Water Street, I've watched the danger swell.

The residents know me as the noises in the house at night, the creaking on the stairs. I'm the reflection behind them in the glass, the feeling of fear in the cellar. I'm tied—it seems—to this house, this street, this town.

I'm tied to Maggie and Pauline, though I don't know why. I think it's because death is coming for one of them, or both.

All I know is that the present and the past are piling up, and I am here to dig.I am looking for the things that are buried.

From bestselling author Jodi Lynn Anderson comes a friendship story bound in snow and starlight, a haunting mystery of love, betrayal, redemption, and the moments that we leave behind.

The Review

Maggie Larsen moves to the peninsula town of Gill Creek after her mom loses her job in Chicago. The family has inherited an old Victorian house on Lake Michigan and live practically out in the middle of nowhere, with only two neighbors to speak of. There, Maggie meets and befriends Pauline, a wild, carefree girl, and Liam, the quiet boy who has loved Pauline all his life. As Maggie settles into her new life in Gill Creek, girls in the community start turning up dead--found drowned in Lake Michigan. Rumors fly as to who the killer could be; is it Gerald, the odd old man who sells gramophones at the local antique store, or could it be Liam's father, whose status as an outsider and eccentric atheist make him a prime target for suspicion?

Right off the bat, I was drawn in by the mystery in The Vanishing Season, especially once I learned that part of the story is told through the point of view of a ghost, who seems somehow tied to Maggie's new home. We don't know who she is or why she is so attached to Maggie and her friends; could she be the ghost of the young woman who lived in Maggie's house over a century before, or is she one of the murdered girls, trying to warn Maggie, Pauline, and Liam? While this is certainly a compelling part of the story, the real heart of The Vanishing Season is Maggie and her friendship with Pauline and Liam. Maggie is cautious and thoughtful, the exact opposite of Pauline, who lives in the moment and doesn't want to grow up. And then there's Liam, whom Maggie thinks she might be falling for, even though his world revolves around Pauline. I became so attached to these three while reading and there were parts (you'll know them when you get to them) when I just sat staring at the page, whispering "no" because I knew what was coming and my heart was breaking for them.

What really makes this book stand out is Jodi Lynn Anderson's gorgeous writing style. It especially comes through when reading the ghost's point of view. One of my favorite images from the book is the description of moths gathering around the ghost, as if she's a light they're drawn to. In a lot of ways, the ghost girl in this book reminded me of the narrator, Death, in Markus Zusak's The Book Thief; they both had this mesmerizing way of describing their worlds and the people they watched over.

Favorite Quotes

"Still, below, in the early dawn, something runs rampant through Gill Creek. It tips over garbage cans, taps against windows, breathes onto people's necks. The residents think it's animals, or the wind. But I think it's fear itself."

Okay, how great is this quote? I love the air of foreboding it gives; when I read "taps against windows, breaths onto people's necks," I actually felt a little shiver of fear myself! 

Maggie, Liam, and Pauline musing over who the killer could be:

"I think it's Liam."

Liam stared into the fire. "I did it with s'more sticks."

This line absolutely cracked me up while reading. I love, love, love it when authors add witty banter to stories.

"I think you go on. I don't think you disappear. I think my dad watches over me, like my guardian angel. Only sometimes I feel like if I leave here, or if I change too much, he won't recognize me anymore."

One of the sadder quotes from the book, but I loved it because it really gave us insight into Pauline and why she's so wild and childlike, and unsure about the future, whereas Maggie is cautious and has everything planned out.  

Final Thoughts

Buy | Borrow | Skip

 The Vanishing Season is a beautifully written, heart-wrenching story about friendship and growing up--definitely a book I'll be adding to my collection.

Book Review: Conversion by Katherine Howe

Conversion by Katherine Howe
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Pub. Date: July 2014
Genre: YA/Historical Fiction/Mystery
Source/Format: Own/Hardcover

Goodreads Summary: 

It’s senior year at St. Joan’s Academy, and school is a pressure cooker. College applications, the battle for valedictorian, deciphering boys’ texts: Through it all, Colleen Rowley and her friends are expected to keep it together. Until they can’t.

First it’s the school’s queen bee, Clara Rutherford, who suddenly falls into uncontrollable tics in the middle of class. Her mystery illness quickly spreads to her closest clique of friends, then more students and symptoms follow: seizures, hair loss, violent coughing fits. St. Joan’s buzzes with rumor; rumor blossoms into full-blown panic.

Soon the media descends on Danvers, Massachusetts, as everyone scrambles to find something, or someone, to blame. Pollution? Stress? Or are the girls faking? Only Colleen—who’s been reading The Crucible for extra credit—comes to realize what nobody else has: Danvers was once Salem Village, where another group of girls suffered from a similarly bizarre epidemic three centuries ago . . .

Inspired by true events—from seventeenth-century colonial life to the halls of a modern-day high school—Conversion casts a spell. With her signature wit and passion, New York Times bestselling author Katherine Howe delivers an exciting and suspenseful novel, a chilling mystery that raises the question, what’s really happening to the girls at St. Joan’s?

The Story 

It's hard to talk much about the plot of Conversion without giving something away, as so much of what drives the story is the mystery of what's really happening to the girls of St. Joan's. Is it a virus? The result of environmental pollution? A hoax? Or something more sinister? The story hops back and forth in time between 2012 Danvers, Massachussets, where high school senior Colleen Rowley witnesses her friends and classmates succumb to a "Mystery Illness," and late 17th century Salem, where thirteen-year-old Ann Putnam gets drawn into a witch hunt hysteria. While I preferred the present day story to Ann's, Ann's was still important because it mirrored the events happening in Colleen's time and provided one possible explanation: that the St. Joan's girls could all be perpetuating a hoax for attention, just like the girls in Salem claiming to be tortured by witches. And the farther along you get in the story, the more it all does seem like a hoax. When interviewed on national television, the girls' symptoms seem to disappear in front of the cameras, most notably in Clara, the first girl to fall victim to the illness, whose debilitating verbal tics are miraculously gone But then there's Colleen's friend, Anjali, whose own symptoms--coughing up tiny balls of pins-- still persist and cannot be so easily explained away. If there's one thing Howe is excellent at in this book, it's her ability to keep you guessing, because just when you think you've got it all figured out, she throws another curveball.

Downsides
While the plot of Conversion was definitely intriguing and enough to keep me reading, one major drawback of the book for me was Colleen's voice. It didn't feel genuine to me and I felt more like I was reading a caricature of teenager--everything was very exaggerated and honestly, it kind of put me off. Another problem for me was this sense of disconnect I had with not only Colleen, but with pretty much all of the characters in the story. Although Colleen had all of these relationships in the story--with her friends, her siblings, her parents, and her boyfriend, Spence--I never came to care very strongly for any of them. They all felt like props, just filling up space in the story while you tried to figure out the mystery. 

Final Thoughts

 Buy | Borrow | Skip

Despite the downsides, Conversion kept me flipping the pages until the very end. I absolutely had to find out what was causing the "Mystery Illness" outbreak at St. Joan's, and whether or not it was all tied back to the Salem witch panic. If you're in the mood for a quick read with an intriguing mystery, you might want to put this one on your library request list.

Book Review: Ignite Me {Shatter Me #3} by Tahereh Mafi

Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pub. Date: February 2014
Genre: YA/Sci-fi/Dystopian
Source/Format: Library/Hardcover

From Goodreads: The heart-stopping conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Shatter Me series, which Ransom Riggs, bestselling author of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, called “a thrilling, high-stakes saga of self-discovery and forbidden love.”

With Omega Point destroyed, Juliette doesn’t know if the rebels, her friends, or even Adam are alive. But that won’t keep her from trying to take down The Reestablishment once and for all. Now she must rely on Warner, the handsome commander of Sector 45. The one person she never thought she could trust. The same person who saved her life. He promises to help Juliette master her powers and save their dying world . . . but that’s not all he wants with her.

The Shatter Me series is perfect for fans who crave action-packed young adult novels with tantalizing romance like Divergent by Veronica Roth, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and Legend by Marie Lu. Tahereh Mafi has created a captivating and original story that combines the best of dystopian and paranormal, and was praised by Publishers Weekly as “a gripping read from an author who’s not afraid to take risks.” Now this final book brings the series to a shocking and satisfying end.

**This review contains spoilers for Ignite Me, as well as the previous books in the series.

If you've been keeping up with my journey through the Shatter Me series, you know that I've made no secret of my mixed feelings about it. But, boy, did Ignite Me exceed my expectations! From the first page to the last, the book had my attention in a stranglehold. Finally things were moving, and finally Juliette was becoming the character I'd wished she'd been in the earlier books. At first, I found her personality shift a bit jarring; I mean, I know she got shot in the chest and all, but it was still kind of hard for me to reconcile this new, badass, take-on-the-world Juliette with the timid girl she was throughout so much of the previous books. Then again, if I were miraculously brought back to life, maybe I'd be filled with mega-confidence and vengeful zeal, too. In any case, Juliette's change was definitely for the better.

Speaking of personality shifts...Adam. WHAT THE HELL, DUDE? It's completely understandable that he felt hurt and betrayed and all that jazz, but WOW! Possessive, much? He was like the crazy-jealous controlling ex-boyfriend in this book, and if I had any qualms about him and Juliette being over, Tahereh Mafi did a good job of squashing them. It was frightening to see the dark turn Adam's personality took in this book; at times he was downright cruel. Toward the end I half-expected him to betray Juliette and the others out of sheer spite.

While Adam's drastic personality shift was enough to get me to root for Team Warner, I liked that Mafi offered us some stronger evidence for the case against Adam/Juliette. Juliette's relationships with both Adam and Warner went from being focused on physical attraction to the effect each boy had on Juliette her mentally and emotionally:

"I think he wants to pretend I'm the girl who doesn't really speak and spends most of her time being scared. The kind of girl he needs to protect and take care of all the time. I don't know if he likes who I am now. I don't know if he can handle it."
- Juliette on Adam

I like the way I feel about myself when I'm with him...Warner thinks I'm strong and smart and capable and he actually values my opinion. He makes me feel like his equal--like I can accomplish just as much as he can, and more. And if I do something incredible, he's not even surprised. He expects it. He doesn't treat me like I'm some fragile little girl who needs to be protected all the time."
- Juliette on Warner

I've got to hand it to Mafi--she can take a character you would never in a million years think you'd love and make you fall for that same character so hard you get whiplash. I hated Warner at the end of Shatter Me and for much of Unravel Me, and was furious with Juliette for being so easily blinded by her physical attraction to him. And then along came Destroy Me. Everything I thought I knew about Warner, well, unraveled. We got inside his head, learned his true motives and his reasoning, and suddenly, everything that happened in Shatter Me took on a whole different meaning. (I still can't quite forgive him for putting Juliette through the simulation, however. Regardless of the outcome, it was still a pretty sadistic thing to do, letting her believe that the child was real.) But Warner turned out to be interesting; he was neither wholly good nor wholly evil. He was complex. And, yeah, totally swoon-worthy. I mean, come on. Chapter 55? GOOD. LORD.

Ignite Me turned out to be pretty light on the action and surprisingly heavy on Juliette's personal relationships, not only with Adam and Warner but with the other characters as well. Especially Kenji. Oh, Kenji. I adored him. He provided great comic relief, and his lines almost always had me laughing out loud. While I enjoyed the focus on the personal relationships, it did detract a bit from the action in the story. So much of the last third of the book was spent on Juliette and Warner's relationship that the final battle seemed to come out of nowhere, and it felt rushed. There was a bit of struggle between Juliette and Anderson, but in the end it seemed like she won far too easily. I would have liked to see a more challenging fight. As for the final pages, I can't believe we're left hanging like that! There was so much more story potential and I had so many questions: How is Juliette going to become the new leader? Will there be backlash? What of the other sectors? What is going on in the rest of the world? And just how was Anderson able to create the Reestablishment to begin with? I NEED ANSWERS, TAHEREH!

And so ends my journey with the Shatter Me series. Verdict: I can say without a doubt now that I am most definitely a fan.

Mini Review: Perfected by Kate Jarvik Birch

Perfected by Kate Jarvik Birch
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Expected Pub. Date: July 1, 2014
Genre: YA/Dystopian
Source/Format: Entangled Teen/E-galley

From Goodreads:

Perfection comes at a price.

As soon as the government passed legislation allowing humans to be genetically engineered and sold as pets, the rich and powerful rushed to own beautiful girls like Ella. Trained from birth to be graceful, demure, and above all, perfect, these “family companions” enter their masters’ homes prepared to live a life of idle luxury.

Ella is happy with her new role as playmate for a congressman’s bubbly young daughter, but she doesn’t expect Penn, the congressman’s handsome and rebellious son. He’s the only person who sees beyond the perfect exterior to the girl within. Falling for him goes against every rule she knows…and the freedom she finds with him is intoxicating.

But when Ella is kidnapped and thrust into the dark underworld lurking beneath her pampered life, she’s faced with an unthinkable choice. Because the only thing more dangerous than staying with Penn’s family is leaving…and if she’s unsuccessful, she’ll face a fate far worse than death.

For fans of Keira Cass’s Selection series and Lauren DeStefano’s Chemical Garden series, Perfected is a chilling look at what it means to be human, and a stunning celebration of the power of love to set us free, wrapped in a glamorous—and dangerous—bow.

Thanks to Entangled Teen for providing a copy of Perfected in exchange for an honest review.

When I first read the summary for Perfected, I was immediately reminded of Lauren DeStefano's Wither and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, both of which revolve around women trapped in societies that treat them as little more than objects. Unfortunately, Perfected lacked the high stakes that made its predecessors so compelling. My biggest struggle while reading Perfected was that I was just...well, bored. While I felt sorry for Ella, I never really connected with her. She lacked the fire of other YA dystopian heroines, like Katniss Everdeen or Tris Prior or Juliette Ferrars. At no point did I feel fully emotionally invested in their stories. Another element that made the book boring for me was the incomplete world-building. From what I could tell, the story seems to take place during the present day, but I was never quite sure. Also, there's no backstory to set up how genetic engineering came about, or why. I'm still not even sure what "genetic engineering" means--are the pets clones? Are they birthed from surrogate mothers and then handed over to the kennels? And even if they are genetically engineered, how does that make them less human?

When I wasn't bored with the story, I was genuinely creeped out by the way Ella and the other pets were treated, particularly by men. Some passages were enough to make my skin crawl. Essentially, these human pets are treated like dogs; they're raised in "kennels," given I.D. tags, implanted with homing microchips, and sent off to their new homes with "care instructions" for their owners. At the kennels, Ella has been taught to believe that the pets are taken into their owners' homes to be displayed and admired. But as Ella adjusts to life with the congressman and his family, she quickly realizes she has been ill-prepared for life as a pet. Men leer at her, women look down upon her, and children treat her like a life-size doll. But rather than drawing me into the story and Ella's plight, these details only served to distract me. It just seemed too surreal that these girls were being treated this way, and I couldn't understand how it was being allowed to happen. I think that if Birch had provided us with some backstory, that would have at least helped to explain the mindset and justification behind the movement to create human pets.

Much as I hate giving a book a negative review, Perfected and I just didn't gel. That's not to say that other YA readers won't enjoy Ella's story, but it wasn't for me.

Book Review: Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi {Shatter Me #2} -- AKA My Warner Rant

Unravel Me (Shatter Me #2) by Tahereh Mafi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pub Date: February 2013
Genre: YA/Dystopian/Sci-Fi
Source/Format: Library/Paperback

From Goodreads:

Juliette has escaped to Omega Point. It is a place for people like her—people with gifts—and it is also the headquarters of the rebel resistance.

She's finally free from The Reestablishment, free from their plan to use her as a weapon, and free to love Adam. But Juliette will never be free from her lethal touch.

Or from Warner, who wants Juliette more than she ever thought possible.

In this exhilarating sequel to Shatter Me, Juliette has to make life-changing decisions between what she wants and what she thinks is right. Decisions that might involve choosing between her heart—and Adam's life.

I honestly don't even know where to begin talking about Unravel Me. I have so many emotions. It was exciting, it was steamy, it was frustrating, it was infuriating...it was all the adjectives, basically. And I'm still trying to figure out whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. What I do know is that I enjoyed Unravel Me more than Shatter Me, and even though I was correct when I predicted the direction this book was going, I'm not as upset about it as I thought I would be. I think. I'm upset that Mafi spent so much of Shatter Me convincing me that Warner is this horrible, irredeemably bad guy, only to shove Juliette into his arms in Unravel Me. I feel just as conflicted as Juliette, which I suppose is a good thing (I take it as a sign of good writing if you feel everything the character feels), but at the same time drives me crazy! Warner has done bad things. Really bad things. But I pity him because of his upbringing and the fact that he has a horrible father, and also because he does seem to have the capacity for love and kindness where Juliette is concerned. But just because I (and Juliette) pity him, does that mean he can be forgiven for all the wrong he has done? Should he get off scott-free? I'm not so sure. But now that he's a love interest, I don't want anything to happen to him. I almost want him to skip merrily off into the sunset with Juliette. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?

What bothered me most about Juliette's relationship with Warner is that, at first, it's mainly driven by her physical attraction to him, which, given the circumstances, makes her seem extremely shallow. It was disappointing to see that a little lust was all it took to tip the balance in Warner's favor. I would have been more okay with the whole thing if Juliette had connected with Warner because she felt their miserable upbringings and their yearning for attention and love made them understand each other...but all of that seemed secondary to the physical attraction. And yes, I get that physical attraction is a big deal for Juliette because she's never had the chance to experience it before, but should it really outweigh what she knows about Warner and what he's done?

And then there's Adam. Poor, poor Adam. This dude just can't catch a break. First he's nearly killed and then brought back to life, then he finds out he's not immune to Juliette's touch like everyone thought, then Juliette almost kills him, and THEN she goes and starts having feelings for Warner. I don't know what Ignite Me has in store for Adam but I hope he's able to find some sort of happiness, whether it's with Juliette or not.

Love triangle aside, Unravel Me did have some pretty thrilling action, which kept the story moving along at a nice pace. The war between the Reestablishment and the rebels escalated to an exciting (and unexpected) finish. I'm glad Mafi delved more into the story of Omega Point and Castle, whom, to be honest, I had a hard time trusting for the first half of the book. It was his relationship with Kenji and his willingness to accept Warner into Omega Point that finally convinced me he was a good guy, not power-hungry leader hiding behind his supposed good intentions. And while Juliette frustrated me so much throughout the book, the transformation she undergoes at the end has me very excited for Ignite Me. It will be interesting to see how her new-found confidence and strength will change her, and which side she will choose.

I'm ready to do something I'll definitely regret and this time I don't care. I'm done being nice. I'm done being nervous. I'm not afraid of anything anymore. Mass chaos is in my future. And I'm leaving my gloves behind.

Book Review: "Shatter Me" by Tahereh Mafi

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pub Date: November 2011
Source/Format: Library/Hardcover

From Goodreads:

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

For the first time in I don't know how long, I finished a book in two days! So thank you, Tahereh Mafi, for breaking me out of my slow-reading slump! Shatter Me is a bit sluggish at the start, but once I cleared the first hundred pages it quickly became a fast-paced and addicting read...that is when it wasn't being bogged down by overly-metaphorical prose. When Mafi left the metaphors out and focused on dialogue or describing action, the story flowed much better and finally held my attention.

The world-building of Shatter Me felt a bit shaky at times--I was never quite sure if the story was meant to be set in an alternative present day or in the future. Juliette's descriptions of the world before the Reestablishment don't always match up. From her memories, life before the Reestablishment seems fairly ordinary: people drove cars, went to school, celebrated holidays. And yet:

There aren't as many trees as there were before, is what the scientists say. They say our world used to be green. Our clouds used to be white. Our sun was always the right kind of light. But I have very faint memories of that world.

On top of that, she's only "heard stories" about flying birds. All of this left me to question: was the environment already in trouble when Juliette was young, and people just went on living as usual despite it? Or is the ambiguity of Juliette's recollections of her world meant to showcase her alleged insanity? And that's not the only unsolved mystery of the book. Mafi poses so many questions that are never answered. What is the significance of Adam's bird tattoo? Why does it match the bird from Juliette's dreams? Why can Adam touch Juliette but no one else can? Why is that when Juliette and Adam make their escape she is suddenly susceptible to Warner's warnings, despite being completely wary of him before? Perhaps these are things that will be explained in the rest of the trilogy, but I wish we'd gotten a little more explanation in this volume.

Despite my misgivings about the world-building and writing style, the one thing that kept me reading was the relationship between Juliette and Adam. It was very sweet, the only point of light in an otherwise bleak dystopian world. However, by the latter third of the book, I could sense the beginning of a love triangle forming and was none too happy about it. Warner is such a despicable character--power-hungry and sadistic--that I really couldn't fathom how Juliette could even think about things such as his supposed good looks. I have a nagging feeling that Unravel Me is headed in a direction I really don't want it to go, as far as the relationship between these two is concerned.

Overall, I'm a bit conflicted about Shatter Me. On the one hand, it wasn't ever so bad that I considered shelving it as a DNF. I truly did enjoy reading about Juliette and Adam, and the last half of the book was pretty exciting. On the other hand, I found a lot elements (the prose, the world-building, Juliette's relationship with Warner) to be problematic. I'll be continuing the series with Unravel Me but depending on where Mafi takes Juliette and Warner's relationship, it will probably be a make-or-break read for me.

Mini Review: Night of Cake and Puppets by Laini Taylor

Night of Cake and Puppets by Laini Taylor
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company BFYR
Pub date: November 2013
Source/Format: Bought/E-book

In Night of Cake & Puppets, Taylor brings to life a night only hinted at in the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy—the magical first date of fan-favorites Zuzana and Mik. Told in alternating perspectives, it’s the perfect love story for fans of the series and new readers alike. Petite though she may be, Zuzana is not known for timidity. Her best friend, Karou, calls her “rabid fairy,” her “voodoo eyes” are said to freeze blood, and even her older brother fears her wrath. But when it comes to the simple matter of talking to Mik, or “Violin Boy,” her courage deserts her. Now, enough is enough. Zuzana is determined to meet him, and she has a fistful of magic and a plan. It’s a wonderfully elaborate treasure hunt of a plan that will take Mik all over Prague on a cold winter’s night before finally leading him to the treasure: herself! Violin Boy’s not going to know what hit him.

As much as I loved Zuzana in Daughter of Smoke and Bone, I wasn't quite sure how I'd feel about a whole novella dedicated to her. After all, the lifeblood of DoSaB was its dealings with magic and Karou's travels around the world (both our own and Elsewhere)--so how could a story about two ordinary humans hold up? I should have known that Laini wouldn't let us down. Night of Cake and Puppets is written in the same kind of wondrous, magical prose that first drew me into DoSaB, but with loads of wry humor courtesy of Zuzana, whose feisty voice quickly became my favorite thing about the novella. Actually, both Zuzana's and Mik's voices are fantastic: hilarious and unique and slightly weird, and their personalities shine through. The weaving together of Zuzana's and Mik's narratives is absolutely adorable, showing how they are both completely enamored with each other but too shy to admit it (until now, of course). Even in this story where there is no mention of chimaera or seraphim, Laini still creates a world full of wonder and magic, though in a slightly more lighthearted fashion. It feels, as Mik says, "like something out of a fairy tale." In short, Zuzana and Mik's story is a perfect little break from the angst left over at the end of Daughter of Smoke and Bone.

Favorite Quotes

My Rating:

Book Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (Re-Read)

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Pub Date: September 2011
Source/Format: Bought/Hardcover

From Goodreads:

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands", she speaks many languages - not all of them human - and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

(I've changed up the format a bit this time, so let me know what you think!)

The Story and the World

I first read Daughter of Smoke and Bone a couple of summers ago and was utterly crushed by the ending, but fell completely in love with the story. By the time Days of Blood and Starlight came out, though, I had forgotten a lot of the finer points of the plot of DoSaB and, being swamped with senior year schoolwork, had practically no time to reread it, let alone start the next one in the series. So here we are two years later and I have to say I'm kind of glad I waited until after the series was finished to pick it up again. Now I get to read the whole series back-to-back, which is good because I'm not sure my heart could handle another soul-crushing cliffhanger.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone has easily made its way onto my favorite books list, and one of the main reasons for that is Laini Taylor's beautiful writing. I think I could read it forever and never get tired of it. Her descriptions of Prague and Marrakesh and Eretz are just so lush. She makes the real world settings seem just as mysterious and fantastical as her fantasy world, and so many times while reading I just wanted to jump through the page and be there!

"There was a deceptive tangling of alleys that gave the impression of a map that shifted behind you, gargoyles tiptoeing away, stones like puzzle pieces rearranging themselves into new configurations while you weren't looking. Prague entranced you, lured you in, like the mythic fey who trick travelers deep into forests until they're lost beyond hope. But being lost here was a gentle adventure of marionette shops and absinthe..."

Then there's the world-building, which is amazing and so well thought out. From the caged city of Loramendi, to Brimstone's macabre yet somehow comforting shop, everything felt so real. I was fascinated by the mythological stories of Ellai and Nitid, the Gibborim and the godstars, wanting read about them almost as much as I wanted to read about Karou and Akiva. I found it fascinating how Laini Taylor took a concept familiar to so many--angels versus devils--and turned it into a mythology completely her own. One of the biggest questions I found myself asking while I read was, what defines an "angel" and a "devil" in this world? Brimstone calls human religion "a quilt a fairy tales, which humans had patched together out of glimpses." In this world, the magical beings are divided not as angels and devils ruled by God and Satan, but as seraphim and chimaera, neither of whom can be definitively labeled good or evil.

"There were angels on the Charles Bridge, and she was their foe. She: enemy of angels, in her black coat and evil tattoos, with her lashing blue hair and black eyes. They: so golden, the very image of church frescoes come to life. She was the demon in this scene, and she half expected, glancing at her shadow sharp before her, to see that it had horns."

What also made the fantasy world in DoSaB so unique was how it crossed over into the real world. In a lot of YA, knowledge of the paranormal is contained to a small group of people who are in the know, but in DoSaB people all over the world have sightings of the angels. Media outlets and the police become involved, which leaves me wondering what repercussions this will have later in the series.

The Characters

Karou's chimaera family is one of my favorite things about DoSaB, and Brimstone and Issa (and Kishmish--poor Kishmish!) captured my heart. I loved Issa, who could be so kind one moment, calling Karou "sweet girl" and delighting in dressing her up as a chimaera, but completely fierce and terrifying the next, wrapping her venomous snakes around the necks of Brimstone's unsavory traders. And then there's Brimstone himself, whose tragic past and fatherly nature toward Karou made me want to hug him (even though he could be a little...well, terrifying).

Even the human characters in this book are awesome. Zuzana is seriously the best "best friend" character I've read in a YA book in a long time. She wasn't just a side character thrown in for the purpose of showing the reader that the main charcter has friends; I really came to care for Zuzana and love her for her quirk and attitude. Not to mention the banter between her and Karou had me laughing out loud constantly. I really hope she shows up more in the next books.

Finally, of course, there's the star-crossed lovers themselves, Karou and Akiva. Let's just say I haven't been this crazy over a fictional pairing since Edward and Bella. Goodness, I love these two!  Karou is witty, hilarious, and a total bad-ass, but at the same time she's still vulnerable and achingly lonely. It made her more relatable, more human, and best of all, it showed that a heroine can have flaws and experience real emotions and still be considered a "strong female character" (I have a bit of a beef with that label, but I'll save that rant for another post).

The Ending

~ IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED THE BOOK, BEWARE OF SPOILERS IN THIS SECTION ~

Out of all that happens, my favorite part of the book has to be the breaking of the wishbone and all that ensues afterward. It was the part of the book that stuck with me the most after the first read, and going into this rereading I was partly excited to read it again and partly dreading the heartbreak I knew was coming. Because that ending. So heartwrenching. It was just so unbearably cruel of Laini to put Akiva and Karou/Madrigal through the agony of betrayal and death and rebirth and reunion...only to have them torn apart again by yet another (albeit unwitting) betrayal by Akiva.  My heart twists at the thought of what lies ahead in Days of Blood and Starlight.

Favorite Quote

"Karou wished she could be the kind of girl who was complete unto herself, comfortable in solitude, serene. But she wasn't. She was lonely, and she feared the missingness within her as if it might expand and...cancel her. She craved a presence beside her, solid. Fingertips light at the nape of her neck and a voice meeting hers in the dark. Someone who would wait with an umbrella to walk her home in the rain, and smile like sunshine when he saw her coming. Who would dance with her on her balcony, keep his promises and know her secrets, and make a tiny world wherever he was, with just her and his arms and his whisper and her trust." 

Final Thoughts and Rating
Daughter of Smoke and Bone is a thrilling, beautifully written story of star-crossed love, good versus evil, and the power of hope. I cannot wait to see where the rest of the series will take Karou and Akiva.