WoW {4}: Fearsome Dreamer by Laure Eve

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme in which bloggers discuss the upcoming releases they're excited for. Hosted by Breaking the Spine.

From Goodreads:

There is a world where gods you’ve never heard of have wound themselves into hearts, and choice has led its history down a different path.

This is a world where France made a small, downtrodden island called England part of its vast and bloated empire.

There are people here who can cross a thousand miles with their minds. There are rarer people still who can move between continents in the blink of an eye.

These people are dangerous.

And wanted. Desperately wanted.

Apprentice hedgewitch Vela Rue knows that she is destined for more. She knows being whisked off from a dull country life to a city full of mystery and intrigue is meant to be. She knows she has something her government wants, a talent so rare and precious and new that they will do anything to train her in it.

But she doesn’t know that she is being lied to. She doesn’t know that the man teaching her about her talent is becoming obsessed by her, and considered by some to be the most dangerous man alive...

While Fearsome Dreamer has been out in the UK for about six months now, it's being released in the US on Thursday. It sounds similar to Samantha Shannon's The Bone Season, so I'm excited to check it out and see how it compares.

Release Date: April 3, 2014

Stacking the Shelves {2}

Stacking the Shelves is a weekend feature created by Tynga's Reviews in which bloggers share the books they've acquired over the week.

You guys, I really, really, really need to stop making so many trips to the library! Whenever I'm there, I'm worse than a kid in a candy store. I make a beeline for the YA section, zone out the books I originally came to get, and then browse for a bit. It's the browsing that always gets me in trouble. Usually it starts with me seeing a book spine with pretty font or design. I grab it, scan the summary on the cover flap, and if I like it, in the book goes right into my canvas bag. Never mind the fact that I've already got a stack of books a mile high at home. Or that I already have ten other books in my bag. Or that I'm checking out a sequel to a book I haven't even read yet. I'm an unstoppable monster!

Anyway, the library gods must have been looking down fondly on me this week because I somehow got my hands on a copy of The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender!  It's been on my TBR list for months and I am so excited to finally have the chance to read it! During my browsing, I also picked up a few other books:

1. The Book of Dead Days by Marcus Sedgwick
2. Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi3. On Little Wings by Regina Sirois4. Shatter Me (e-book) by Tahereh Mafi (which I downloaded to my e-reader when I got home because the library didn't have a physical copy) 

Now the real question is how many of these will I actually finish, haha. 

So tell me: what books did you get this week? Are you reading anything at the moment that you're particularly enjoying?

 

WoW {3}: In the Shadows by Kiersten White and Jim Di Bartolo

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme in which bloggers discuss the upcoming releases they're excited for. Hosted by Breaking the Spine.

 

From Goodreads:

From the remarkable imagination of acclaimed artist Jim Di Bartolo and the exquisite pen of bestselling author Kiersten White comes a spellbinding story of love, mystery, and dark conspiracy, told in an alternating narrative of words and pictures.

Cora and Minnie are sisters living in a small, stifling town where strange and mysterious things occur. Their mother runs the local boarding house. Their father is gone. The woman up the hill may or may not be a witch.

Thomas and Charles are brothers who’ve been exiled to the boarding house so Thomas can tame his ways and Charles can fight an illness that is killing him with increasing speed. Their family history is one of sorrow and guilt. They think they can escape from it . . . but they can’t.

Laini Taylor recently posted some photos from this book on her blog (her husband, Jim Di Bartolo, is the illustrator) and it looked so pretty that I immediately had to add it to my to-read list! Di Bartolo also illustrated Laini Taylor's Lips Touch: Three Times story collection. The illustrations really enhanced the stories and I can't wait to see more of his work in In the Shadows. I haven't read Kiersten White before but I know lots of people love her Paranormalcy series, so I'm hoping I enjoy her writing, too.

Release Date: April 29, 2014

WoW {2}: Gilded Ashes by Rosamund Hodge

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme in which bloggers discuss the upcoming releases they're excited for. Hosted by Breaking the Spine.

From Goodreads:

Orphan Maia doesn't see the point of love when it only brings pain: Her dying mother made a bargain with the evil, all-powerful ruler of their world that anyone who hurt her beloved daughter would be punished; her new stepmother went mad with grief when Maia's father died; and her stepsisters are desperate for their mother's approval, yet she always spurns them. And though her family has turned her into a despised servant, Maia must always pretend to be happy, or else they'll all be struck dead by the curse.

Anax, heir to the Duke of Sardis, doesn't believe in love either—not since he discovered that his childhood sweetheart was only using him for his noble title. What's the point of pretending to fall in love with a girl just so she'll pretend to fall in love with him back? But when his father invites all the suitable girls in the kingdom to a masked ball, Anax must finally give in and select a wife.

As fate would have it, the preparations for the masquerade bring him Maia, who was asked by her eldest stepsister to deliver letters to Anax. Despite a prickly first encounter, he is charmed and intrigued by this mysterious girl who doesn't believe in love. Anax can't help wishing to see her again—and when he does, he can't help falling in love with her. Against her will, Maia starts to fall in love with him too. But how can she be with him when every moment his life is in danger from her mother's deadly bargain?

You guys, I am so excited that there are only two weeks left until the release of Gilded Ashes! Ever since finishing Cruel Beauty, I've been dying to read more about the world Rosamund Hodge has created. While I'm a bit sad that this novella will not be continuing the story of Ignifex and Nyx, I'm sure that I will love Anax and Maia's story just as much. Fairy tale retellings are quickly becoming my new favorite YA trend!

Book Review: Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay

Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay
Publisher: Delacorte Press, 2013
Source/Format:Library / e-book
Length: 391 pages

From Goodreads:

In the beginning was the darkness, and in the darkness was a girl, and in the girl was a secret…

In the domed city of Yuan, the blind Princess Isra, a Smooth Skin, is raised to be a human sacrifice whose death will ensure her city’s vitality. In the desert outside Yuan, Gem, a mutant beast, fights to save his people, the Monstrous, from starvation. Neither dreams that together, they could return balance to both their worlds.

Isra wants to help the city’s Banished people, second-class citizens despised for possessing Monstrous traits. But after she enlists the aid of her prisoner, Gem, who has been captured while trying to steal Yuan’s enchanted roses, she begins to care for him, and to question everything she has been brought up to believe.

As secrets are revealed and Isra’s sight, which vanished during her childhood, returned, Isra will have to choose between duty to her people and the beast she has come to love.

I didn't think it was possible for me to love a retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" as much as I loved Rosamund Hodge's Cruel Beauty…until I finished Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay. In fact, I'm having such a hard time trying to form my feels into coherent sentences that I'm going to do this review a bit differently--with a bulleted list.

What I Loved About Of Beast and Beauty

• The mythology of the world. The story starts off with a beautifully written prologue about two entities known as the Dark Heart and the Pure Heart, and the dark bargains the humans make with them when they first arrive on the planet. It was so convincingly written that it felt like I was reading an actual myth. I loved how Jay incorporated the iconic roses into her retelling, turning them into living, bloodthirsty things. There is some seriously evil magic going down in this book.

• Multiple points of view. After the prologue, the story is split between three main characters: Isra, the princess and future queen of Yuan; Gem, a Monstrous soldier; and Bo, a Yuan soldier and the son of Isra's calculating head advisor, Junjie. I have mixed feelings about books with different POVs--sometimes it works, other times I find myself wondering why they're necessary. This book was a case in which the different POVs definitely enriched the story.

• The romance. As with any good "Beauty and the Beast" story, the romance doesn't blossom right away. At first, Gem and Isra are so caught up in their mutual hatred of each other's kind that you wonder how they will ever end up together. Even after Isra grows more caring toward Gem, sympathizing with the plight of his people, Gem still clings to his long-held hatred of the "Smooth Skins." Though he recognizes he has feelings for Isra, he is conflicted by his emotions and his duty to his people. 

• The villains: Bo and Junjie. I hated them so much. At first, Bo seems to be harmless, apart from his overeager attempts to woo Isra. But boy when that switch flips, you find out real fast that Bo is not a good guy. Not even close. He is chauvinistic, domineering, prejudiced, and bent on getting his way. At times I was so disgusted by him that I found myself literally shaking with anger while reading his point of view (props to Stacey Jay for writing such a villainy villain). And Junjie, ugh. No wonder Bo is so nasty, having such a cold, calculating man for a father.

• The book is constantly raising the question "who is the beast?" Is it Isra, who has been brought up to believe she is "tainted" by Monstrous traits? Is it Gem, a Monstrous himself, who looks like a beast and burns with hatred for the Smooth Skins? Or is it the power-hungry Junjie, and the nobles of Yuan, who fear the Monstrous and punish those born with the mutations?

•  The ending. I don't want to be spoilery so I'll just say that I may have shed a few happy tears. :)

So, have any of you read Of Beast and Beauty? What did you think?

Book Review: Endless by Amanda Gray

Endless by Amanda Gray
Publisher: Month9Books, LLC, 2013
Length: 269 pages
Source/Format: NetGalley / e-book

From Goodreads:

Jenny Kramer knows she isn't normal. After all, not everybody can see the past lives of people around them.

When she befriends Ben Daulton, resident new boy, the pair stumble on an old music box with instructions for “mesmerization” and discover they may have more in common than they thought. Like a past life.

Using the instructions in the music box, Ben and Jenny share a dream that transports them to Romanov Russia and leads them to believe they have been there together before. But they weren't alone. Nikolai, the mysterious young man Jenny has been seeing in her own dreams was there, too. When Nikolai appears next door, Jenny is forced to acknowledge that he has travelled through time and space to find her. Doing so means he has defied the laws of time, and the Order, an ominous organization tasked with keeping people in the correct time, is determined to send him back.

While Ben, Jenny and Nikolai race against the clock - and the Order - Jenny and Nikolai discover a link that joins them in life - and beyond death.

My Rating:

Thanks to NetGalley for providing this book in exchange for an honest review. 

When I saw the cover to this book floating around NetGalley, I didn't think twice before requesting it. I'm always a sucker for a pretty cover design and Endless proved to be no exception. But, you know what they say: never judge a book by its cover. While Endless wasn't what I would call a terrible book, I was seriously wavering between giving it two or three stars until about the last third of the book. The plot was slow-going at first, and it took far too long to become interesting enough for me to become really invested in the story. I was intrigued by Jenny's visions and dreams of the past, but found the story surrounding her life in the present significantly less interesting--so much so that I ended up skimming through some of the duller parts. If I had to pick out the one thing that I think did this book the most disservice, it would be the third person point of view. I think the story would have been much more interesting had Gray written Jenny's perspective in first person, so we could get a better look into her personality, and saved the third person POV for the flashbacks (or just left it out entirely).

The best parts of Endless were the flashbacks and the exploration of Jenny's relationship with Nikolai, her lover from a past life. I didn't read the summary before starting the book so the whole Romanov reincarnation thing came as a total surprise to me. I thought it was interesting that we got the story of a different Romanov sister, Maria--most stories mainly focus on Anastasia, so it was nice to see a fresh perspective. Nikolai and Maria's relationship was very sweet, and it was truly heartbreaking to read what eventually happened to them both during the Revolution. That relationship carried over nicely to the present-day story, and I liked how Gray made a point of having Nikolai say he loved Jenny not just because she was Maria, but because of who she was in the present.

"The body is just a vessel, but our spirits are energy. They go on and on. And they remember."

Another part of the story I was unsure of at first was Jenny's friendship with Ben Daulton. In the beginning, he comes off as the typical asshole-bad-boy-who-will-probably-later-turn-out-to-be-the-love-interest kind of character, but I pleased to find out that Gray took a different route with Ben. Although Ben is an important character in both Jenny's current and past lives, Gray didn't drag him, Jenny, and Nikolai into yet another infamous YA love triangle. Even after we found out who Ben was in his past life and how he was tied to Maria/Jenny, I still wasn't really sure why he needed to be in the book. Not until the later chapters, that is. I liked his redemptive story arc, and was glad he and Jenny were able to remain friends. I just hope they stay that way (though at this point I'm not entirely sure a future love triangle can be ruled out…).

While I've already mentioned I wasn't impressed with the beginning of Endless, the last third of the book ended up redeeming the story for me. Things finally started to get exciting, and as Jenny and Nikolai were racing to find a way to stay together, I couldn't put the book down. Things wrapped up nicely while leaving just enough mystery for a sequel. I'm looking forward to seeing how Jenny and Nikolai will reunite!

WoW {1}: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme in which bloggers discuss the upcoming releases they're excited for. Hosted by Breaking the Spine.

From Goodreads:

Foolish love appears to be the Roux family birthright, an ominous forecast for its most recent progeny, Ava Lavender. Ava—in all other ways a normal girl—is born with the wings of a bird. In a quest to understand her peculiar disposition and a growing desire to fit in with her peers, sixteen-year old Ava ventures into the wider world, ill-prepared for what she might discover and naïve to the twisted motives of others. Others like the pious Nathaniel Sorrows, who mistakes Ava for an angel and whose obsession with her grows until the night of the Summer Solstice celebration. That night, the skies open up, rain and feathers fill the air, and Ava’s quest and her family’s saga build to a devastating crescendo. First-time author Leslye Walton has constructed a layered and unforgettable mythology of what it means to be born with hearts that are tragically, exquisitely human.

I've mentioned this book on the blog before but now that we're getting closer to the release date I'm getting even more excited! It sounds like such an interesting magical realism novel! And how gorgeous is that cover?!

 Release date: March 25, 2014