ARC Review: "Earthbound" by Aprilynne Pike

Release Date: July 30, 2013
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 352

From Goodreads: "Love, fate, and power collide in this new series by #1 New York Timesbestselling author Aprilynne Pike!

Tavia Michaels is the sole survivor of the plane crash that killed her parents. When she starts to see strange visions of a boy she’s never spoken with in real life, she begins to suspect that there’s much about her past that she isn’t being told. Tavia will soon discover that she’s an Earthbound—someone with the ability to create matter out of nothing—and that she alone holds the key to stopping the Reduciata, an evil society that manipulates global events for its own shadowy purposes. Tavia will ultimately have to make a choice: to come into her powers and save the world from the evil Reduciata or to choose free will and a love of her own."

Admittedly I was quite hesitant to read this book- why? Because Aprilynne's "Wings" series is one of my most favourite series and I didn't think that there was any way that this book could compare. Am I ever glad that I was wrong. This book is, without a doubt Aprilynne's strongest book to date and one of the better books that I have read this year. That being said, that is not to say that this book is without its fault.

The largest strength of this book, in my opinion, is its complexity. While Aprilynne's "Wings" series was complex in the make-up of its world of faerie, I don't think that it could touch this in that aspect. I was never quite sure where Aprilynne was going to take the story next- for instance, I didn't know what paranormal beings the characters were (if any), who could be trusted, and so forth.

That being said, I wasn't a massive fan of the love triangle element of this book- I felt that it was near impossible to make a connection to Quinn and therefore it fell quite flat. Furthermore, when one of the paranormal elements of the storyline was revealed, I couldn't help but wish that it was more unique- it seemed a bit too similar to Lauren Kate's "Fallen" series for my liking. Last, after finishing it, I had the sense that, while a lot happened, not a lot did (what did happen seemed more so action-y than answer-y, very much along the lines of "answering questions with questions").

That being said, I do think that this is an extremely promising to Aprilynne's new series- it becomes evident that with each book she grows tremendously as an author- and, as I am sure that you can imagine, despite my complaints, I am more than excited to see what she has next in store for these characters. As such, I do highly recommend this book as I do think that overall she has done something a bit different than we have seen in the world of YA to this point.

Rating: 4/5

I received this book from the publisher to read and honestly review. I was not compensated in any way for said review.

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Blog Tour: "The Ruining" by Anna Collomore

Release Date: February 7, 2013
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 313

From Goodreads: "Annie Phillips is thrilled to leave her past behind and begin a shiny new life on Belvedere Island, as a nanny for the picture-perfect Cohen family. In no time at all, she falls in love with the Cohens, especially with Libby, the beautiful young matriarch of the family. Life is better than she ever imagined. She even finds romance with the boy next door. 

All too soon cracks appear in Annie's seemingly perfect world. She's blamed for mistakes she doesn't remember making. Her bedroom door comes unhinged, and she feels like she's always being watched. Libby, who once felt like a big sister, is suddenly cold and unforgiving. As she struggles to keep up with the demands of her new life, Annie's fear gives way to frightening hallucinations. Is she tumbling into madness, or is something sinister at play?

The Ruining is a complex ride through first love, chilling manipulation, and the terrifying depths of insanity."

When I first started to read this book I was excited- it had all of the elements that I enjoy in books of this nature, psychological thrillers, where the main character struggles to differentiate between fact and fiction- a fast-paced plotline where you are constantly sitting on the edge of your seat, a build-up and swell of emotions as the main character spirals more and more downwards into insanity, and a villain who is so convincing that you can't help but wonder if they actually are a villain. That being said, I feel that at the crescendo of the book, the most epic part, it just... fell flat, ending on a sour note, or, in this case, too normal of a note, bordering on domestic.

Additionally, I did find the romance element of the book, between Annie and Owen, to be fairly unconvincing. Only after a few encounters, in all of which Annie was horrid to Owen, he was willing to do anything for her. While I think that the author had intended for this to come across as being romantic, I thought that it was anything but- I couldn't help but think that Annie had ended up in almost an identical situation to that of which she was in with Libby, with Owen (being bossed around by another, not having control of her life, etc.)- you'd think that with everything that she had suffered through she would know better than to do that again.

As becomes evident, I am quite torn about this book, perhaps the most torn that I have ever been while rating a book before- does the awesome first 3/4 of the book outweigh the iffy last 1/4? Or is the last 1/4 do disappointing that it colours everything else? Is the book worth 3 stars? 4? Or even 5? Would I recommend this book? Or would I recommend similar books instead? Overall, while I do love the concept of the book I think that the execution is lacking, especially at the end. I personally find that "The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer" by Michelle Hodkins and "Lucid" by Adrienne Stoltz and Ron Bass are more successful at tackling this genre than this book is. That being said, I can see myself rereading this book again in the future- a sign that I like it enough to do so.

Rating: 3/5

I received this book from the publisher to read and honestly review. I was not compensated in any way for said review. 

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"Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas

Release Date: August 7, 2012
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Pages: 404

From Goodreads: "After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin. Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilirating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best. Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined."

If I were to be asked what the first thing that pops into my head when I think about this book was it would be the characters- It has some of the best that I can recall reading in quite some time, main and secondary alike. From Celaena, a young assassin who is trying to find exactly where she stands in life and is loyal through and through, despite not owing anyone anything, to Prince Dorian, who, despite knowing that you'll just be another notch in his belt, you can't help but fall for,due to his larger-than-life personality, to Chaol, perhaps one of the most mature YA boys I have ever read of before, to Nox, a fellow criminal who is thrown into the champion competition alongside Celaena, providing her with the much needed camaraderie/ support that she so desperately needs (I don't know about y'all but for a while there I was totally rooting for Nox to be the third arm in the love triangle).

That being said, if I were then asked what the second word that pops into my head is it would be "busy". At times I thought that there was WAY too much going on- from a crazy king hellbent on committing essentially genocide, to a battle of champions, to a rebellious princess, to Fae,  to a gateway between worlds, to religions and holidays, and the likes of. I personally would have preferred if the champion competition had played a larger role, after all, it is the core of the book- I found that in the latter half of the book especially it was too glossed over, with Celaena just mentioning it in passing (for instance, something along the lines of, "After the sixth competition that I did today..." Would you care to give us a bit more information about what exactly you had to do? How everyone fared, etc.?)- it seemed to be one of those instances of "told" rather than "showed".

All in all, despite my complaints I did quite enjoy the book- it is one of the better that I have read in quite some time and I will be continuing on with this series as I am quite curious to see how all of the various elements will come together. I think that fans of Tamora Pierce will devour this book as it is, in my opinion, her "Song of the Lioness" meets her "Trickster's" duet (and then some).

Rating: 4/5

I received this book from the publisher to read and honestly review. I was not compensated in any way for said review.

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Guest Post: Adrienne Kress

Today I am excited to have author Adrienne Kress stop by the blog to tell us a bit about her writing process- Adrienne is the author of "The Friday Society", a book which I recently read and adored! 

Comedy

Why do I like comedy so much, and why do I make it an important element of my writing?  For these five reasons:

1. I love to laugh. 

2. I love to make other people laugh.

3.  The fact that something is funny doesn’t mean it can’t also speak to human truths and have serious moments.  In fact, I tend to find comedies can pack even more of an emotional wallop than pure drama.  Life, in general, is absurd.  And to deny that absurdity is to take something honest and real away from the moment.  Yes, there are purely serious moments, and, in fact, I have such moments in all my books.  But those are rare.  Usually we feel a mix of feelings, life isn’t all black and white.  I remember when I was delivering the eulogy at my grandmother’s funeral.  I’m an actor as well as an author and I tend to work best when I get audience feedback, be it laughter, applause, etc.  Of course at a funeral people aren’t really doing any of those things.  They are sitting listening to you.  Not really responding that much.  So as I was reading my eulogy, and was getting all teary and missing my grandmother so much, I also couldn’t help thinking, “Wow, tough crowd.”

See? Absurd, right?

4.  Speaking of absurdity.  Douglas Adams has got to be one of my greatest literary influences.  It was his absurd humour that taught me I was allowed to play in the telling of a story.  My father read to me before bed every night, and we worked our way through the classics (Dickens, Tolkien, etc).  But then one day he picked up THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, and my perspective on books and on writing changed in that moment.  I don’t think my mind would have been nearly as blown had I not been introduced to the classics first.  And I think it is very important to have a solid grounding before you start to hop around like a crazy person.  But Adams definitely inspired my love of absurdity, and that tends to be at the core of most of my humour.  I think, going back to point 3, what I like best about it is that life is kind of absurd.  And building up on that idea to an extreme is still a very honest reflection of how humans live.  It is also hilarious.

  

5. A shared joke that everyone loves brings people together in a wonderful way.  It’s an instant moment of connection.  Of “Even if we are quite different, we have this in common.”  The best evenings out with friends are the ones where everyone is laughing, where everyone is having fun.  I really love bonding over comedy.  It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

From Goodreads: "Be your own hero.

An action-packed tale of gowns, guys, guns –and the heroines who use them all

Set in turn of the century London, The Friday Society follows the stories of three very intelligent and talented young women, all of whom are assistants to powerful men: Cora, lab assistant; Michiko, Japanese fight assistant; and Nellie, magician's assistant. The three young women's lives become inexorably intertwined after a chance meeting at a ball that ends with the discovery of a murdered mystery man.

It's up to these three, in their own charming but bold way, to solve the murder–and the crimes they believe may be connected to it–without calling too much attention to themselves.

Set in the past but with a modern irreverent flare, this Steampunk whodunit introduces three unforgettable and very ladylike–well, relatively ladylike–heroines poised for more dangerous adventures."

About the Author: Adrienne Kress is a Toronto born actor and author who loves to play make-believe. She also loves hot chocolate. And cheese. Not necessarily together.

She is the author of two children's novels: ALEX AND THE IRONIC GENTLEMAN and TIMOTHY AND THE DRAGON'S GATE (Scholastic). Her debut YA novel, THE FRIDAY SOCIETY, launches Fall 2012 from Dial, Penguin.

She is a theatre graduate of the Univeristy of Toronto and London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in the UK. Published around the world, ALEX was featured in the New York Post as a "Post Potter Pick," as well as on the CBS early show. It won the Heart of Hawick Children's Book Award in the UK and was nominated for the Red Cedar. The sequel, TIMOTHY, was nominated for the Audie, Red Cedar and Manitoba Young Readers Choice Awards, and was recently optioned for film.

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