[REVIEW] Reckoning by Lili St. Crow

Published: November 2011
Publisher: Razorbill
Age Group: Young Adult
Series: Strange Angels #5 [end]

Nobody expected Dru Anderson to survive this long. Not Graves. Not Christophe. Not even Dru. She's battled killer zombies, jealous djamphirs, and bloodthirsty suckers straight out of her worst nightmares. But now that Dru has bloomed into a full-fledged svetocha - rare, beautiful, and toxic to all vampires - the worst is yet to come.

Because getting out alive is going to cost more than she's ever imagined. And in the end, is survival really worth the sacrifice?

DRU ANDERSON'S NOT AFRAID OF THE DARK.
BUT SHE SHOULD BE (From Goodreads)

Reckoning was...not horrible but different from what I expected.  First of all, the majority of the story takes place with Dru on the run.  Personally I found the drama in the Schola to be very funny and intersting so imagine my dissapointment when I realized that they wouldn't be going back.

Also, I appreciate the action and excitement I got when I read about Dru running but there wasn't really anything else but that.  In all honesty, she could have stayed captured in the fourth book and still come up with the same ending. So in reality, There could have really been four books in the series as oppose to five.  I guess five makes it more spaced out and there's more room to write about events but I just found it unecessary.

Dru is a girl who means buisness and every book she kicks butt.  Really. That's why I like her, because she's different from other heroines. I find her very similar to Rose from the Vampire Academy series.  The only bad thing about Dru I would have to say is her indecisiveness in regards to love.  I find both of these characters have this problem. Although Dru is really good at adapting and fighting bad guys, she's stuck in the teenage drama of which guy do I choose. That might be what makes her relatable because her fighting vampires is not normal at all but because she suffers from all the teenage angst most common in teenagers, we can relate to her.

Lastly, the ending is horrible.  Another book in the dissapointing ending pile. I was expecting much more and I sort of felt like the ending was left too open...like anything could happen. She could be with Christophe but Graves could return. Or she could live a happy life in the Schola or another evil vampire could come to life and threaten her again... It was sort of ambigious to me and I hate that.

So give it a try, hopefully you won't be as dissapointed as I was and if you like this series, definitely give the Vampire Academy series a try too!

Enjoy!

MEH

[REVIEW] Folly by Marthe Jocelyn

Published: May 2010
Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books
Age Group: Young Adult - Historical

Three fates intertwine in this moving and passionate love story set in Victorian London.


Mary Finn: country girl, maid to a lord in London

Caden Tucker: liar, scoundrel, and heart's delight

James Nelligan: age six, tossed into a herd of boys
When Mary Finn falls into the arms of handsome Caden Tucker, their frolic changes the course of her life. What possesses her? She's been...Three fates interwine in this moving and passionate love story set in Victorian London.

Mary Finn: country girl, maid to a lord in London

Caden Tucker: liar, scoundrel, and heart's delight

James Nelligan: age six, tossed into a herd of boys

When Mary Finn falls into the arms of handsome Caden Tucker, their frolic changes the course of her life.  What possesses her? She's been a girl of common sense until now. Mary's tale of alternates with that of young James Nelligan, a new boy in an enormous foundling home.

In Folly, Marthe Jocelyn's breathtaking command of language, detail, and character brings Victorian London to life on every page, while the deep emotions that illuminate this fascinating novel about life-changing moments are as current as today's news. (From Goodreads)

Folly is an amazing book and the author mangaes to squeeze in countles emotions in to less then 300 pages. 

Folly is written in two perspectives, one in 15-year old Mary's perspective and the other in a young child named James. Mary is sort of like your typical cinderella. Her mother dies and her stepmother decides to send her away from the family and become a maid in London. James on the other hand is a child that was abandoned by birth. Living through the foster care, his foster parents must send him back to the foster care centre when he turns six. The years that both these perspectives take place are about 8-10 years apart. Mary's narrations are from around 1876-1878 and James is from 1884. 

Throughout the whole story, both characters fall in to a sort of trap. Mary conflicts with the other maid in the house, Eliza, and starts to fall in love with a man ultimately committing the greatest sin possible. James flees the foster centre and is left homeless on the streets. Both characters truly grab you and it's hard not to feel sympathetic or share the saddness that they are experiencing. 

The ending of the story also has a sudden twist that is quite rewarding. In my opinion, it answered alot of questions that iIthought of and couldn't find an answer too. 

The title of this book is also quite ingenious. Folly essentially means being foolish and throughout the book, the word folly tends to appear quite often. When I read this book, I really felt that the majority of the writing was focused on the character's emotions. Often there would be alot of descriptive paragraphs to aid in the understanding of a character's feelings.

The settings are nicely explained. And the character's actions are also described very in depth. 

Personally, I found folly to be a very heartbreaking story but that really depends on how emotional you are. 

I would definitely recommand this to those who enjoy reading emotional stories or just those that would like to understand how the people in the lower classes survived back in the late 1800's.

5/5!
(originally posted in the TPL Word Out program)

[REVIEW] Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

Published: January 2011
Publisher: HarperTeen
Agee Group: Young Adults
Series: Unearthly #1

In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . . .

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.

Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place—and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.

As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make—between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?

Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart. (From Goodreads)

Unearthly is first a book about angels, yet again. 

In this book though, every angel gets a purpose that they recieve through visions later on in their adolescent life. Clara is a girl with a quarter angel blood and at the beginning of the book, she starts to recieve her purpose. Clara's mother is half angel blood and immediately decides after listening to Clara's brief vision, that they need to move to the location of her purpose, that being Wyoming. When they first get to Wyoming, Clara's glory starts to show in her hair. Glory is essentially when someone of angel blood starts to show their angelic light and it also makes those without angel blood become shocked, unable to speak. Because of this, Clara is forced to die her hair an unpleasent carrot orange. Later on in the story, as the visions become more frequent, Clara recognizes what her purpose is, that she has to save Christian Prescott, the official hottie of school. That starts Clara's attempts at trying to become his girlfriend although he already has one, and completing her purpose. 

The one thing that I absolutly loved about this book was that I didn't know which boy she was going to end up with. There's Christian and someone else, who I won't say because that sort of spoils the story. Usually the guy that the main character loves is pretty obvious but in this story, you think it's one person but no, it's the other then it switches all over again. It definitely will keep you on the edge and the pages turning until you get to the last page.

I also really like surprises in the books I read because usually I figure out what the surprises are going to be as well but i guess I was so caught up in the romance of this story that I didn't even pay attention and expect the surprise. 

The setting isn't explained with much depth and the focus is more on dialogues. 

The one thing I found bad about this book was the some of the characters weren't developed fully until they showed up later. A character would appear with a brief description of who they are and then leave. Later they would reappear and have more description but not fully. I guess what i'm trying to say is that everytime a minor character appears, you learn more about them. I don't like describing characters and it could just be me who feels that way. 

The main plot of this book is also throughout the story but often is forgotten in the main characters social and romance problems. Often it's problem problem, back to the purpose, problem problem, and the purpose, problem again and then new vison. There are alot of sub plots in this story. That being said, this is probably my favourite new series and i absolutely cannot wait for the new sequel! Go read it if you haven't!!!

5/5!
(originally posted in the TPL Word Out program)

[REVIEW] Forever by Maggie Stiefvater

Published: July 2011
Publisher: Scholastic Press Inc.
Age Group: Young Adult
Series: The Wolves of Mercy Falls #3 [end]

In Stiefvater's "Shiver," Grace and Sam found each other. In "Linger," they fought to be together. Now, in "Forever," the stakes are even higher than before. Wolves are being hunted. Lives are being threatened. And love is harder and harder to hold on to as death comes closing in. (From Goodreads)

Forever is the last book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy. If you've never heard of them, I think you should go read the first one (Shiver) right now. That being said, the Wolves of Mercy Falls revolves around the two main characters Grace and Sam. Maggie Stiefvater though, has a peculier way of writing each chapter. She tends to change the narrator, of course she lets you know when she does, but the change in narration adds an extra perspective. Often the characters are present during the same event but Stiefvater's way fo changing the narration gives you more thoughts and feelings as oppose to having  only one narrator. 

In Forever, the narrators are Grace, Sam, Isabelle and Cole. As a brief explanation of each character in case you haven't read Shiver or Linger (the second book in the trilogy), (NOTE: these are technically spoilers) Grace was attacked by wolves when she was younger but has yet to change in to one. At the end of Linger though, she is overwhelmed by the wolf cells inside her and eventually turns into a wolf. Sam was turned in to a wolf and adopted, in Shiver, he was cured temporarily, meaning he doesn't change into a wolf again but the wolf cells are still inside him. Grace and Sam are in love with each other. Isabelle is the girl who figures out the wolf secret. Her brother was turned into a wolf and killed. Cole is a famous singer, missing after he chose to be turned into a wolf. Cole is a genius and in forever, spends his entire time attempting to find a cure. 

So with that out of the way, Forever starts right after Grace turns in to a wolf. It follows Grace's experience from shifting from human and wolf, and the eventual wolf hunt that seeks to eradicate all the wolves living in Mercy Falls. Thus, throughout the book, Isabelle, Cole and Sam are attempting to save the wolves while Grace deals with personal issues when she tells her friend what she truly is. 

I find that at the end of every series, there seems to be a MAJOR battle at the end. The good guys usually win and then the series ends in a happy ending. Forever follows that exact pattern. At the end of the book, there's the giant wolf hunt. The wolves live and it is implied that everyone lives a happy life. The ending of this book though, in my opinon, was absolutely horrible. The ending just didn't seem like an ending. I remember flipping over trying to find the actual ending and actually visiting the book store in an attempt to see if my copy of Forever was faulty. No, turns out that really bad ending was the ending. Maggie Stiefvater's writing is truly amazing but i guess she didn't know how to end the series. 

Although the ending sucked, Maggie Stiefvater can really convey the character's feelings through her writing. I can really feel the sadness, happiness, anxiety and frustration that each character emotionally goes through. I remember at the ending of linger, I was crying and could not wait for the next book. Forever was just a whirlwind of emotions. With so many different narrators, I was feeling angry, then happy, then sad, then sympathetic. For Steifvater to do that just with her writing is truly amazing. 

Out of all three of the books, forever is my least favourite but this trilogy definitely is and if you love books about romance and werewolves, you should definitely try reading shiver.

3/5
(originally posted in the TPL Word Out program)

[REVIEW] Timeless by Alexandra Monir

Published: January 2011
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Age Group: Young Adult - Historical
Series: Timeless #1

When tragedy strikes Michele Windsor’s world, she is forced to uproot her life and move across the country to New York City, to live with the wealthy, aristocratic grandparents she’s never met. In their old Fifth Avenue mansion filled with a century’s worth of family secrets, Michele discovers a diary that hurtles her back in time to the year 1910. There, in the midst of the glamorous Gilded Age, Michele meets the young man with striking blue eyes who has haunted her dreams all her life – a man she always wished was real, but never imagined could actually exist. And she finds herself falling for him, into an otherworldly, time-crossed romance.
Michele is soon leading a double life, struggling to balance her contemporary high school world with her escapes into the past. But when she stumbles upon a terrible discovery, she is propelled on a race through history to save the boy she loves – a quest that will determine the fate of both of their lives. (From Goodreads)

The first time i looked at this book, I convinced myself to try it, although I thought it didn't sound very good. 20 pages in and I was about to stop reading it but I persevered and the result was...shock, with a little bit of tears and anticipation for the next book. 

Timeless is probably the most romantic book i have read this year (so far) which says alot since I usually only read books that involve some form of romance. 

The characters in this book express their feelings so deeply that at some times, I feel words couldn't even describe their emotions. I do admit that at some times the author's descriptions, mainly objects, left me confused. I had to read them over before I had any sense of what she was saying. 

The story follows Michele and her romantic, heartbreaking journey through the past. Michele is a time travelor. She has a special skeleton key that can transport her back to the past, usually to one of her ancestors. There she meets a boy and essentially sets the entire story. 

About two thirds of the book is spent in the past which is alot considering the book is only about 250 pages. 

The research that went in to this novel is also astounding. At the end of the novel, there is a little section briefly explaining the historical facts mentioned in the story. After reading them, I'm now very curious about New York (where the story takes place) around the 1900's and the whole aristocratic lives then. I also remembering crying at some point while reading Timeless. 

The climax of the story was really a climax, unlike other books. I won't tell you what happened because that would ruin the story but i will tell you that the "to be continued" ending is a happy one so no matter how heartbroken you may feel, know that everything will be alright...in the end. 

Timeless truly reveals the love one can feel for another and how hard they would go to stay with their beloved. I would definitely recommend this book for all romance readers, I'm sure you won't be disappointed. I absolutely can't wait for the sequel!




5/5!
(originally posted in the TPL Word Out program)