Tag: young adult

Review: Across a Star-Swept Sea

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Across a Star-Swept SeaDiana Peterfreund, Across a Star-Swept Sea

In this post-apocalyptic retelling of The Scarlet Pimpernel (!), Earth’s civilization has been all but destroyed, thanks to the horrific unintended consequence of genetic engineering known as Reduction. Now, the island of Galatea seeks vengeance through revolution: aristocrats are being captured and forcibly Reduced, their minds irreparably damaged. Meanwhile, the neighboring island of Albion seems more interested in flirtation and gossip than in Galatea’s problems — except for the Wild Poppy, who daringly rescues Galatean aristocrats out from under the noses of the rebels. No one suspects that the Wild Poppy is really Persis Blake, a seemingly idle and frivolous courtier of Albion. In order to maintain her cover, Persis must befriend Justen Helo, a Galatean scientist whose family is famous for curing the initial Reduction. Justen seems to disagree with his country’s violent policies, but can Persis trust him? And will she be able to maintain her cover as their relationship deepens?

The Scarlet Pimpernel is one of my all-time favorite books, so I was really excited to discover this retelling with a sci-fi twist! I think the novel does a good job of following the original story while not being a scene-for-scene copy. While the original novel is mostly told from Marguerite/Justen’s point of view, this version is largely from the perspective of the Pimpernel character, Persis. In fact, one of the most fun aspects of this book is that the characters are gender-flipped! I did have one large-ish problem with the book, though; most of the larger narrative of How We Got To This Point was totally lost on me. There were some wars, and some people got Reduced, and the people who didn’t became the new aristocrats, I think? To be fair, it’s not that complicated…I’m afraid I just didn’t want to pay that much attention! Still, I picked up enough to get the gist of things, so I guess it doesn’t matter that much. Overall, I didn’t love the book, but it’s still a fun read for Pimpernel fans, especially those who also like YA.

Review: The Grimm Legacy

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Grimm Legacy, ThePolly Shulman, The Grimm Legacy

High-school student Elizabeth Rew is feeling lonely: her new stepmother is taking up most of her father’s time, and she’s just transferred to a new school where she doesn’t have any friends. So when her history teacher suggests that she get a job with the New York Circulating Material Repository, she looks forward to the new experience. The Repository is a lending library for objects, including famous historical artifacts like Marie Antoinette’s wig; but Elizabeth soon discovers that there are even more important objects to be found. Specifically, the Grimm Collection houses fairytale items with magical properties, including flying carpets and seven-league boots. As Elizabeth explores the wonders of the Grimm Collection, she also befriends her fellow employees, including popular Marc, beautiful Anjali, and standoffish Aaron. When some of the magical items go missing, it’s up to Elizabeth and her newfound friends to discover who is stealing from the Grimm Collection — before they become the thief’s next victims.

A few years ago I read Polly Shulman’s other book, Enthusiasm, and really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, this book didn’t work for me quite as well. I absolutely loved the premise — what if you could actually borrow the magic mirror from Snow White or Aladdin’s lamp? — and many of the details related to this concept worked very well. I especially liked the idea that borrowers had to leave a “deposit” for the items, which could be something like their sense of direction, their singing voice, or their firstborn child. The problem with the book is that it’s geared toward a very young audience. I don’t have a problem with YA in general, and I’ve read many excellent books in the genre, but this one really felt like YA or even juvenile fiction. If I’d read the book at age 11, I probably would have loved it, but as an adult, I found it far too simplistic. There were also a few plot points that weren’t fully fleshed out, such as Elizabeth’s relationships with her dad and stepmom. Overall, the book is a decent read, but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re really OK with juvenile or YA fiction.

Review: The Girl Is Murder

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Girl Is Murder, TheKathryn Miller Haines, The Girl Is Murder

Fifteen-year-old Iris Anderson is having a hard time. About a year ago, her Pop returned from Pearl Harbor with a missing leg, which meant he was no longer able to do the active work required by his business as a private investigator. As a result, Pop and Iris have moved from their old affluent neighborhood to a poor area on the Lower East Side, and Iris has to go to public school instead of the elite private school she formerly attended. Hoping to get closer to her only surviving parent (her mother committed suicide shortly after Pop returned from the war), Iris tries to help Pop with his cases, but he forbids her from having anything to do with the PI business. When one of the boys at Iris’ new school goes missing, however, she can’t help but do a little sleuthing. Along the way, she makes a few friends at her new school, including the unpopular Pearl and the glamorous, fast-talking Suze; but as Iris navigates her way through various cliques and social minefields, how will she know whom she can really trust?

If you enjoy Haines’ Rosie Winter mysteries, you’ll feel right at home in the world of this novel, set in the fall of 1942. The book isn’t about World War II, yet the war permeates almost every aspect of Iris’ life, from the slang used by Suze and the other cool girls at school to the disturbing racisim and anti-Semitism espoused by some of the characters. (These attitudes are definitely not condoned by the book, however; they simply mirror the atttitudes of many Americans at that time.) I liked Iris as a protagonist; her problems are specific to her era yet also universal, as she struggles with her own identity, fitting in, and building a relationship with a distant parent. Her voice is occasionally too precocious for a 15-year-old, but I found that flaw forgivable since she’s so entertaining. As a mystery, the book is very weak; Iris doesn’t spend much time investigating anything, and she’s not even the one who solves the case! So I’d recommend this to someone looking for an interesting YA book about World War II, but it’s not a great read for a mystery fan.

Review: Dear Mr. Knightley

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Dear Mr. KnightleyKatherine Reay, Dear Mr. Knightley

Samantha Moore has been in and out of foster homes her whole life. Now, at age 23, she’s living at a group home called Grace House, but she’ll soon have to leave unless she can find a way to go back to school. One day she gets a surprising offer: if she can get into the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, an anonymous donor will pay her tuition and living expenses. The only condition is that she must write regular letters detailing her educational progress to the donor under the name Mr. Knightley. Samantha is reluctant at first, particularly because she feels much more connected to fiction than journalism. Indeed, her closest friends growing up were the classic novels that kept her company through dark times, and she frequently hides in the world of books when real life is confusing or difficult. Still, Sam agrees to the deal, and through her letters to “Mr. Knightley,” she is finally able to face her past — and her future.

Despite what the title might suggest, this book is not a Jane Austen spinoff; rather, it’s a contemporary reimagining of Jean Webster’s novel Daddy-Long-Legs. My overall opinion is that the original is far better, but I can’t get into more depth without SPOILERS for both books, so skip the rest of this review if you don’t want to know how they end! … OK, so if you’re still with me, what happens is that Samantha eventually falls in love with “Mr. Knightley,” who turns out to be the handsome mystery novelist who’s been keeping Sam company throughout the book. He knows everything about Samantha, whose letters to him have been more like a diary, yet he doesn’t confess his true identity until the very end of the book. There’s this huge power imbalance between him and Sam, and the book never really addresses it, and I just couldn’t buy it as a romantic or satisfying ending at all. For some reason I didn’t mind it as much in the original – maybe because of the time period in which it was written? So I had a huge issue with the core of the story, and I also didn’t like the author’s writing style. It’s a very readable book, and if you like Daddy-Long-Legs you may enjoy this one too, but I was disappointed.

Review: The Wanderers

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The WanderersCheryl Mahoney, The Wanderers

Jasper is a wandering adventurer-for-hire, fighting monsters and rescuing damsels in distress — for a fee. He stays in one place just long enough to collect his reward; he never sticks around for the happily-ever-after part. He doesn’t want any emotional entanglements, and he’s got a whole list of Rules to keep him suitably detached. But when a seemingly ordinary battle against an evil magician introduces Jasper to a talking cat, he finds himself breaking Rule 18 (always travel alone) and making a friend in the process. Things get even more complicated when one of the damsels Jasper rescues demands to join him on his adventures. Julie is determined, thirsty for adventure, and desperately afraid of her (literal) witch of a mother. As Jasper, Julie, and Tom the cat continue to travel in search of wrongs to right, Jasper finds it harder and harder to follow the Rules. Will this unlikley team be able to conquer their personal monsters and find their way to their own happy ending?

This is the debut novel of a blogger I follow, Cheryl Mahoney at Tales of the Marvelous. It’s always a little nerve-wracking to read a book by someone you know — even someone you only know on the Internet — but I’m happy to say that I found this book absolutely delightful! I loved Jasper as a protagonist, with his stubborn practicality and his long list of Rules. I like that he’s brave but not foolhardy; he knows that walking away from a fight you can’t win is sometimes the best choice. Julie is also a wonderful character, strong and capable but also legitimately fearful of her mother’s evil magic. Since she’s not invincibly tough all the time, I found her more relatable than many fantasy heroines. I also loved the world of this novel, which operates on fairytale-esque principles, but with some interesting twists. For example, third sons are normally fated to succeed on quests, but sometimes the son in question doesn’t quite have what it takes to get things done. Then there are the Good Fairies, who are actually much more dangerous than Bad Fairies when crossed. Ultimately, all I can say is that I finished this novel with a huge smile on my face. I would definitely recommend it to fans of this genre!

N.B. — The book is available as an e-book for Nook and Kindle, as well as through Amazon if you want a hard copy.

Review: Shadows

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ShadowsRobin McKinley, Shadows

At first glance, Maggie seems to be an ordinary teenage girl: she loves animals, hates algebra, and thinks there’s something wrong with her new stepfather, Val. But it’s not just Val’s funny Oldworld accent or terrible taste in shirts that worries Maggie. It’s the fact that he’s always surrounded by shadows that don’t make sense; they’re the wrong shapes, and there are far too many of them to be natural. To make matters worse, Maggie has started to notice some troubling things about her hometown in Newworld — unexplained phenomena that almost look like breaks in reality. Eventually Maggie confronts Val and learns some unpleasant truths about Newworld and its way of dealing with unnatural occurrences.

I’ve been a huge fan of Robin McKinley’s since the first time I read The Hero and the Crown in elementary school, so I was ecstatic to learn that she’d written a new book, even if it wasn’t the long-awaited continuation of Pegasus. However, I’m sorry to say that I was very disappointed in this book. It does contain many of the classic McKinley touches, such as a wonderful canine companion, a no-nonsense heroine with plenty of gumption, and (less happily) a magical system that is never fully explained. But overall, I felt let down by this story; there were a lot of very interesting threads running throughout the novel, but they were never gathered together in the end. I’m not sure whether a sequel is planned or not, but some further resolution of the story definitely seems necessary. I can’t help but wonder if McKinley was attempting to write her version of the dyptopian YA novel that is so popular nowadays. All I can say is, I vastly prefer her older books!

Review: The Dream Thieves

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The Dream ThievesMaggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

***Warning: SPOILERS for The Raven Boys!***

Ronan Lynch has the unusual ability to steal objects from his dreams. This doesn’t seem very strange to his group of friends, but then, they’re not exactly normal either. Gansey is obsessed with finding the medieval Welsh king Owen Glendower, Adam has made a strange bargain with a magical forest, Noah is a ghost, and Blue lives in a house full of psychics. Although they’re all working together on the Glendower quest, Ronan is more preoccupied with his own talent and how it might be linked to his family’s past. He’s also being drawn into the orbit of another Raven Boy with a bad reputation and a reckless thirst for danger. But the greatest threat of all seems to come from the sinister Grey Man, who is hunting for something — or someone — that can bridge the gap between dreams and reality. Only Ronan’s friends stand between him and the darkness that awaits…who will prevail?

While I enjoyed The Raven Boys when I first read it, I wasn’t completely sure that I cared enough about the story or characters to continue with the series. This book, however, sold me; I’m now committed to reading the entire series as it comes out. Stiefvater is an excellent writer, with a sparse yet poetic way of describing things that I really admire. Also, since this is book #2 in the series, the characters and world have already been established, so there’s an opportunity to dig deeper into Ronan’s and his friends’ backstories. It doesn’t hurt that this book features Ronan heavily; he’s definitely my favorite of the Raven Boys, and his story arc in this book is compelling. I can’t wait to see what happens to him and the other characters as the series continues!

Review: Fangirl

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FangirlRainbow Rowell, Fangirl

Cath and her twin sister Wren have always been close, and they’ve especially bonded over their love of Simon Snow, a Harry Potter-esque series of books with a huge fan base. Cath is even writing a slash fanfiction novel about Simon and Baz (think Malfoy from the HP books), with some help from Wren. But now that they’re starting their freshman year of college, Wren wants to branch out and meet new people — which means she doesn’t want to be Cath’s roommate. Which means Cath is all alone in a strange place, with a painful amount of anxiety and no idea where the dining hall is. Cath’s only solace is hiding out in her dorm room and writing fanfiction, but slowly she begins to make friends and come out of her shell. She even meets a boy and experiences the shock of falling in love for the first time. But can Cath embrace these new experiences and emotions without losing the person she’s always been?

I’ve absolutely loved both of Rainbow Rowell’s previous novels, Attachments and Eleanor & Park, so I had high expectations for this book; happily, I wasn’t disappointed! Cath is a character I can really relate to, as I think most readers and book bloggers can. She knows what it’s like to get lost in a fictional world and really engage with the characters in a book. I also really liked the way fanfiction is portrayed from various perspectives. There’s Cath, who uses it as an outlet for creative expression; her roommate and friends, who think it’s weird; her creative writing professor, who views it as plagiarism; and a devoted fan of Cath’s work who eagerly awaits each new installment of her fanficiton. The romance is very well done, as always, and I loved watching Cath slowly let down her defenses. I wasn’t nuts about all the excerpts from the Simon Snow books and Cath’s story, but other than that, I really enjoyed this book!

Review: Dirty Little Secret

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Dirty Little SecretJennifer Echols, Dirty Little Secret

Bailey Mayfield grew up playing classic country songs with her sister, Julie. They’d always planned to pursue a music career together, with Bailey on her fiddle and Julie playing guitar. But when a big record company signs Julie — and only Julie — Bailey is left out in the cold. She’s not even allowed to play music in public anymore because it might damage Julie’s career. Now Bailey is living in Nashville with her grandfather, and the only place she can play her fiddle is at the local mall, where she accompanies country musician impersonators. Everything changes, however, when Bailey catches the eye of Sam Hardiman, a fellow musician who wants Bailey’s fiddle in his band. He also seems to want Bailey herself, but will his dreams of stardom come between them? And will Bailey be able to follow her own path without ruining her sister’s life?

After being disappointed by Echols’ adult romance, Star Crossed, I’m happy to say that I really loved this book! I’m a sucker for plots that involve music and musicians, so this particular novel was right up my alley. I loved the descriptions of the Nashville music scene, which really made me want to experience it for myself! And of course, Echols does teen drama and swoony romance so well; Sam might be my favorite hero yet! I wasn’t totally crazy about the storytelling structure, though. We meet Bailey significantly after the record company snubbed her in favor of her sister, but we don’t really learn what’s happened to her until much later in the novel, so there are a lot of allusions to Bailey’s past that don’t make sense initially. I understand that writers do this to build suspense, and it can be effective, but here I just found it confusing. Still, that’s my one issue with a book I otherwise loved. YA and/or romance fans should definitely check it out!

Review: Spies and Prejudice

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Spies and PrejudiceTalia Vance, Spies and Prejudice

Berry Fields isn’t exactly your typical teenage girl. Working as an assistant for her P.I. father, Berry is more likely to spend her weekend tailing a suspect than hanging out at the mall. She has also caught so many cheating boyfriends and husbands in the act that she doesn’t fully trust any of the guys she meets. So when drop-dead gorgeous Tanner and his stepbrother Ryan show up at her school, Berry is immediately suspicious and hostile — especially when she overhears Tanner dismiss her as “nothing amazing.” Meanwhile, Berry continues to grieve for her mother, who died eight years ago in a supposed accident. But Berry can’t help suspecting that there’s more to the story…and the more time she spends with Tanner, the more she’s convinced that he’s hiding something.

First off, this is definitely not a book you want to judge by its cover (which is pretty awful, am I right?). It has been described as a cross between Pride and Prejudice and “Veronica Mars,” and if that concept appeals to you, I think you’ll enjoy this book! I found Berry a very believable and interesting character, and her investigation into her mother’s death was a great way to propel the story forward. The romance between her and Tanner was well done, not too melodramatic or sappy, and the mystery balanced out the love story very well. I didn’t 100% understand the final solution to the mystery, but I was reading pretty quickly by that point, so I probably just missed a few background facts along the way. Finally, I really liked the way P&P was incorporated into the story; there’s enough for Austen fans to pick up on and appreciate, but it’s not an exact replica of the original plot. I like the fact that this book uses the P&P framework but incorporates its own spin. Definitely recommended to YA and Austen fans!