Review: The Reader by Traci Chee

The Reader (Sea of Ink and Gold #1)
By Traci Chee
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley

To Sum It Up: In Kelanna, reading is unheard of, although legend says that an object known as a book holds the key to wielding powerful magic for those select few with the skill to use it. Sefia knows only too well how dangerous this mysterious object is; her father died hiding a book, and Sefia and her aunt Nin have been on the run from his killers since his murder. Now it seems those same people have kidnapped Nin, and Sefia is determined to save her aunt and avenge her father.

Review: A book called The Reader, about a world without books? What a promising premise! And a fantasy, to boot? Check and check!

And so it was with much anticipation that I finally got around to The Reader. The story follows Sefia, a young woman on the run with her fiery aunt, Nin, and in possession of a mysterious object that Sefia’s father died protecting—what Sefia later realizes is a book.

Shortly after the novel opens, the same people who killed Sefia’s father kidnap Nin, and Sefia embarks on a desperate search to find her aunt, despite still being in serious danger herself because she has the Book. A rather standard quest for vengeance with a rather unmemorable heroine ensues.

I became frustrated with Sefia quickly. Not far into the story, the book casually mentions that she’s spent a whole year looking for Nin and her abductors without any progress. A whole year passes in the span of a sentence! Sefia also teaches herself to read at what feels like an unrealistic pace. I think it’s a little ironic how fast Sefia picks up reading when the pacing of The Reader is laborious. At 15% in, I was still trying to work out what was going on plot-wise.

In addition to murky world-building, what really made this book confusing to me was the stories within the main story. While you later find out how they’re connected, for most of the book I found switching between the multiple narratives disruptive. Why are there now pirates in the story? Who is this Lon guy and why should I care about him? By the time the book explained the pirates and Lon, it was too late; the window for building my investment in them had passed.

I will say that the camaraderie among the pirates was well written. It’s evident that Captain Reed and the crew of the Current of Faith are a tight-knit group in a way that only surviving some harrowing adventures together can make them. I might have even enjoyed an entire book centered around their exploits on the high seas.

I’m sad to say that this was a disappointing read for me. While there are some very pretty passages of prose, the tedious pacing, lackluster characters, and jumping back and forth between multiple story lines made this a tough book to finish. I loved the premise so much, though, that I kept going, hoping that the story would pick up. Alas, it did not.

All in All: This book had so much potential, but I felt it didn’t dive into the books are forbidden/magic aspect enough, and that was the reason why The Reader appealed to me in the first place.

Review: The Valiant by Lesley Livingston

The Valiant (The Valiant #1)
By Lesley Livingston
Publisher: Razorbill
Format: Print ARC
Source: YALLFest

To Sum It Up: Fallon is a Celtic princess, a proud warrior hoping to join her father’s war band to fight for her tribe. Her father, however, has a different plan for her, and his decision sets into motion a chain of events that ultimately leads to Fallon’s capture by a slave trader. She’s taken to Rome, where she’s sold to the Lady Achillea, who runs a training academy for female gladiators that is owned by Julius Caesar. Trapped within the very heart of enemy land, Fallon must find a way to prove herself in the arena.

Review: When I read the synopsis for The Valiant, images of ancient Rome, Celtic folklore, and fierce female gladiators kicking ass all immediately sprang to mind. While all of these are present to some degree in the book, I found the resulting combination to be a rather mixed reading experience.

The Valiant is really more historical fiction than fantasy with its mostly Roman Empire setting and appearances by both Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. I did not, however, feel fully transported back to that time. The world-building needed more than references to chariots and the occasional Latin word. One of the greatest eras in history just didn’t seem alive.

At first I was very excited to discover that our heroine Fallon was the daughter of a Celtic king because—warrior princess! I’m also very intrigued by all things Celtic: history, music, knitting patterns. As with the thinly detailed Rome, though, the book didn’t really capture much about the Celts during this period, either. Where the novel spends most of its time is setting up Fallon’s entry into the world of professional gladiatrixing. And it is a looong while before she ever sets her sandal in the arena. I wasn’t expecting this because the book got off to a frenetic start, with the complete upheaval of Fallon’s life in a matter of a few chapters. The plot then loses its urgency as we wait for Fallon first to reach Rome and then for any action to happen. For a novel about female gladiators, there’s more talk about competing than there are actual competitions.

I also wasn’t too impressed with Fallon’s character arc. Despite her believing the opposite, everything just seems to fall into place for her. Except for some mean girls at the gladiatrix academy, everyone instantly sees how extraordinary Fallon is, including Caius Varro, a Roman soldier who insta-falls for her. They go from using his formal title to, “Just call me Cai” in a nanosecond. There’s no buildup to the romance, and since I like my romances to simmer for a while first, this one didn’t do much for me.

The Valiant turned out to be very different from what I’d anticipated going in. After the opening chapters, the pacing slowed down considerably and never really regained its momentum. I’d also thought this would be action-packed with epic gladiatrix matches, but that wasn’t quite what this book delivered, either. The insta-love also made this kind of tough for me to see through to the end, but I got so far in that finishing the book made more sense than DNF’ing it. This isn’t a series I’ll be continuing with, though.

All in All: For me, The Valiant fell short of the potential its premise held. I’d hoped this would be the book to pull me out of my reading slump, but alas, it was not.

Review: The Diabolic by S.J. Kincaid

The Diabolic (The Diabolic #1)
By S.J. Kincaid
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Format: eBook
Source: Jellybooks

To Sum It Up: Diabolics like Nemesis are bred to protect a single human—and to kill anyone who poses a threat to that individual. Nemesis must do whatever is necessary, including sacrifice herself, to keep Sidonia von Impyrean, the daughter of a galactic senator, safe. When Sidonia’s father angers the galactic emperor, the latter retaliates by summoning Sidonia to court. It’s Nemesis, however, who assumes Sidonia’s identity and goes in her place. At court, Nemesis must navigate potentially lethal politics in order to guard her secret and Sidonia’s life.

Review: Promotion for The Diabolic around its release date drew my attention to the book, so when the opportunity to read it popped up, I totally went for it. A cool cover and a protagonist named Nemesis? Sign me up!

Nemesis certainly lives up to her daunting name. She is a Diabolic, engineered to protect only Sidonia von Impyrean, the daughter of a galactic senator, at all costs. Nemesis is a born killer, and her unique skill set is on display several times throughout the book. Nemesis and Sidonia inhabit a futuristic world where scientific advancement is banned and the elite Grandiloquy, led by the galactic Emperor, wield all the power. Politics are brutal in this world, and gentle Sidonia, the heir to her father’s title, is not cut out for them. So when the Emperor orders Sidonia to the galactic court as punishment for her father’s misdeeds, it’s Nemesis who’s sent in her place. All of the preparations involved in pulling off the impersonation reminded me of the transformation the main character in Pierce Brown’s Red Rising must undergo to also infiltrate the upper echelon of society. Unfortunately, I ended up having some of the same issues with The Diabolic that I had with Red Rising.

I’d seen some other reviewers mention that The Diabolic got off to a slow start for them and then picked up. I definitely found the pacing slow at the beginning, but it never gained any momentum for me. I also found the world-building rather thin, with a heavy reliance on titles to differentiate social rank. The details of the world just scratched the surface of it; I never felt immersed in it.

Politics and intrigue at the galactic court, which often resembles the Roman Empire with all of the debauchery that goes on there, take up a lot of the book. That would have been fine if there also hadn’t been so much telling. I couldn’t find much investment in the plot or the characters. I kept reading, hoping that I’d finally discover some aspect of the novel that would spur me on to read, but alas, I slogged through to the end.

Something that I do think the book does well is examining Nemesis’s increasingly conflict thoughts on her increasingly human behavior. Sidonia has always treated Nemesis like a sister—like a human being. Nemesis has always drawn the line, fully aware that she was created by science to be a killer. The novel touches on the nature vs. nurture debate, and it’s rather thought-provoking. It’s too bad that the rest of the book spends so much time on the excesses and scheming at court because the gray area Nemesis finds herself in, between human and a product of science, provides a really solid plot foundation. Or maybe I’m just feeling this way because I’ve been binge watching Westworld.

All in All: The Diabolic turned out to be a very long read for me. I definitely wasn’t expecting the intensive focus on the day-to-day goings-on at the galactic court. I also wanted to know more about the history of this world than what was given. Telling rather than showing was the biggest issue for me, and I won’t be going further with the series.

Review: Thrall by Jennifer Quintez

Thrall (Daughters of Lilith #1)
By Jennifer Quintez
Publisher: Secret Tree Press
Format: eBook
Source: Author

To Sum It Up: Braedyn Murphy has never thought of herself as anything but ordinary. As her sixteenth birthday approaches, however, everything Braedyn has ever believed about her life is going to be turned upside down. Demons are real and closer than she could have imagined possible, and they have a particular interest in Braedyn. A war is building, and she’s caught right in the middle of it.

Lee's Review: I seem to be stuck in a bit of an odd reading cycle lately, where I either absolutely love a book or have to push through to finish it. Unfortunately, Thrall falls into the latter category, another case of a solid premise that pulls up short in the execution. Although I really liked how the story of Lilith, Adam’s first wife according to some legends, was worked into the novel, that alone wasn’t enough to wholly invest my interest in the book.

I’d read some books featuring demons before, but none that focused on the succubus in particular. They’re called Lilitu here, and despite their breathtakingly beautiful appearance, underneath that surface lurks a potential destroyer of souls. There’s a Guard that fights to combat the havoc that the Lilitu wreak, and as far as good vs. evil battles go, I thought this one had a nice little twist to it. This book had some strong framework on which to build a rich story, but the slow pacing worked against it.

I often found it difficult to settle into long reading sessions with Thrall because it felt too drawn out. The exposition could have used some trimming, as could have the character descriptions. Whenever a new one is introduced, you’re given a mini biography of his/her life that starts sounding like a block of telling and which breaks up the flow of the narrative. I would have liked to have seen more showing, to have become acquainted with the characters through their dialogue and actions as opposed to what was said about them.

I had a few quibbles with the main character, Braedyn, mostly her lengthy reflections at the beginning of the novel on how unexceptional she was. Braedyn believes that she’s plainer than plain and then some, and the reiteration of this idea touched a nerve more than once. I could see how her self-perceived ordinariness figured into the part of the story where her Lilitu powers begin emerging and suddenly every guy at school now notices her. I suppose I just wasn’t keen on the transformation-into-a-swan angle. I also found Braedyn a little lacking in development as a heroine. Even in the later chapters, she’s still unsure of herself and looking to the Guard to save the day. Believing in Braedyn as a heroine proved challenging when she didn’t believe in herself.

Though they were up to no good, the Lilitu were interesting to read about and lent the novel some welcome edge. That’s what I think Braedyn needed—a touch of fire to her character to make her less of a cookie-cutter protagonist. Thrall delivered well on the paranormal side of things, but I can’t quite say the same about some of its other aspects.

All in All: While I liked the book’s take on demons, I wasn’t as enthused about Braedyn as a narrator/main character.

Ally's Review: Thrall sounded like a story I would really enjoy. Demons, angels, and demon hunters—what's not to like? What I wasn't expecting was all the stereotypical teenage angst and high school drama that took up most of the book.

Oh, the drama. I was slightly offended reading about Braedyn's high school life. Being in high school myself, I found the whole interpretation comical and highly inaccurate. You had the mean jocks, the bitchy cheerleaders, and the self-righteous outcasts. Braedyn and her friends obviously fall into the last category. The whole high school scene was very distracting. I felt like it tried so hard to be a part of the plot that it ended up taking over the whole book. Instead of reading about demons and hunters, I was reading about high school dances and bullies.

Braedyn, herself, wasn't a bad character. I actually though she was kind of all right. All the other characters were bringing her down. Her token best friends, who are terribly stereotypical, have so much book time but have nothing to contribute. Seriously, they are wasted. They pretty much do nothing to help Braedyn in her transition from teenage girl to demon. All they do is drive her to and from school. The man of the hour, Lucas, is the absolute worst. Of course it is love at first sight for Lucas and Braedyn. And of course their love is forbidden because Braedyn is a Lilitu—a soul sucking demon, and Lucas is a member of the Guard—a team of Lilitu hunters. But despite all of Lucas's training, he fails to see that his girlfriend isn't necessarily human. Lucas was so clueless that he quickly became my least favorite character. Braedyn is no better. She is told, time and time again, that she needs to stay away from Lucas for his safety. But does she care? No, she loves him but she'd rather be selfish and endanger him with her presence instead of keeping her distance. The whole romance is a mess from the start.

The coolest part of the book should have been the Guard. Somehow, the demon hunters turned out to be super lame, though. They are such a hindrance and spend almost the entire book running around like headless chickens. They have no idea what they're doing. The Guard is really judgy, too. Braedyn is treated like crap, although she's the one doing all the work.

The most redeeming aspect of the book is the bad guys. The Lilitu are cool. Not only are they practically all women, but they're also pretty powerful. I really enjoyed learning about the back history of Lilith and her daughters. I also liked how there was a dream realm involved. The demons were so interesting, and I wished they would have been focused on more.

The book was easy enough for me to get through because I found it somewhat entertaining. That being said, I didn't particularly look forward to sitting down and reading it. I have no attachment to the characters and I have nothing that motivates me to be intrigued to find out what's going to happen.

All in All: Thrall was disappointing in some ways and interesting in others. What I expected to like, I hated, and what I expected to dislike, I enjoyed. It's safe to say I have mixed feelings.

ARC Review: The Here and Now by Ann Brashares

The Here and Now
By Ann Brashares
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Format: eBook
Source: NetGalley
Publication Date: April 8, 2014

To Sum It Up: Since her arrival from the future, Prenna James has been trying to hide the fact that she’s from another time. She and her fellow travelers live by a strict set of rules in order to keep their origin undetected, but Prenna finds herself questioning them more and more, something that is not tolerated by the leaders of her community. She also worries that Ethan, one of her classmates, knows that there’s something different about her. As Prenna tries to unravel the secrets she believes are being kept from the time travelers, she must also race to stop a potentially future-altering event from happening, with only a date for a clue.

Review: Have you ever read a book and afterwards thought, “What did I just read?” Well, that’s how I’m feeling about The Here and Now. Although time travel features prominently in the novel, it also covers climate change, a plague, and a murder. How do all of these things fit together? The book tries to explain just that but isn’t entirely successful at molding these disparate pieces into a cohesive plot.

Prenna, the protagonist, is part of a group of time travelers who escaped a world ravaged by a blood plague by journeying to the past. They do their best to blend in with what they call the “time natives” and follow a rigid set of rules to avoid drawing attention to the fact that they’re not from the present day. The community has a cult-like vibe to it, and questioning leadership is a big no-no. The lengths that those in charge go to in order to maintain control over the community is mind-boggling in more than one sense and involves an elaborate scheme with pills, eyeglasses, and surveillance. Again, we have a rather odd combination of items, and their relationship, as explained by the book, asked me to stretch my imagination to an extent that I couldn’t always manage.

I’m all for books that span multiple genres, but I thought this one attempted to work in too many. The future Prenna comes from sounds like something straight out of a dystopian, and I wanted that world to be more fully explained. Something else that I found lacking in the explanation department was how the travelers made the jump back in time. If the book had gone a little sci-fi there, I wouldn’t have minded. We also have a mystery to solve regarding a date that might prevent the future Prenna and the others left. Finally, the YA contemporary romance angle is represented by the mutual attraction between Prenna and Ethan, a classmate with a very keen sense of observation. There are several threads to this story, and they’re not exactly woven together seamlessly. It’s as though the book couldn’t figure out what direction it wanted to go in, and I couldn’t figure that out, either.

Prenna didn’t bowl me over as a main character. I really liked that she was through accepting whatever yarn the community leaders spun and started digging for the truth. What I didn’t like was how she’d freeze up in critical situations; when she should have been taking action, she’s kind of just go with the flow. By far my favorite character was Ethan; he’s smart, funny, and sweet and the type of character who’s easy to connect with. He brightened every scene he was in, and I’m bumping up the rating by half a star because of him. Otherwise, this was a rather disappointing read that struggled to find its footing. The ending actually made me fume for a little while and I debated knocking off half a star, but my fondness for Ethan won out.

All in All: I haven’t read many time travel novels and had been looking forward to this one. Sadly, The Here and Now fell short of my expectations; it contained some good ideas but they needed to be better integrated into a whole.

Review: Tower of Obsidian by L. T. Getty

Tower of Obsidian
By L. T. Getty
Publisher: Burst Books
Format: eBook
Source: Author

To Sum It Up: Friends since childhood and now engaged to be married, Aoife and Kale’s future together is put on hold when Kale must answer the call to battle. His return quickly becomes bittersweet when duty requires him to break the betrothal and marry a woman of higher rank. Not everyone in the court is pleased with this turn of events, and some underhanded plotting results in Kale’s capture first by corsairs and then by a cursed people in need of a hero to slay the witch responsible for their fate. As Kale embarks on this quest, Aoife has set out on one of her own—to bring Kale home.

Ally's Review: A book where the maiden has to rescue her warrior—sounds promising, right? The prologue of Tower of Obsidian made a very good first impression. I was excited to start reading, but the more I read, the more I disliked.

The premise of the book was great. I was all for a female protagonist who could take charge and lead a rescue mission. I was not expecting the whiny, annoying, red-headed Aoife. She was a huge disappointment. There I was, expecting a likeable female character only to be stuck with some bossy lady. I definitely admired her love and loyalty to Kale (her betrothed who managed to get himself kidnapped). I did not, however, particularly enjoy her lack of appreciation for the people who actually cared for her. Poor Aaron was pining over Aoife for the better half of the book. Aoife treated her “friends” like crap. She didn't think twice about leaving Aaron or Naguset behind. I can kind of excuse her abandonment of Aaron, seeing that he's a big boy and can handle himself, but Aoife was responsible for Naguset. It really upset me how Aoife treated her; she was too blinded by her love for Kale.

Another disappointment was Aoife's sister Fianait. It wasn't Fianait herself who was the disappointment; she was one of my favorite characters and an actual badass. Fianait didn't care about what others thought of her. She was definitely one of the most interesting characters. Her POVs were the only motivation for me to keep reading. And then she dropped off the face of the earth. About a quarter of the way through the book, Fianait disappeared. There were no more chapters with her point of view; she wasn't even mentioned. It wasn't like something happened to her to excuse her absence and it wasn't like she didn't have an interesting story line or anything. She was just forgotten. That royally peeved me off.

An aspect of the book that I did enjoy was the plot centering around the sorceress in the tower. That was cool. The book would have been much better off if it was based solely on that. There were dragons, magic, and other cool stuff. I just wish they would have been more prevalent in the story from the very beginning.

I honestly found Tower of Obsidian kind of boring. I don't want to say that I had to force myself to continue reading the book, but I wasn't looking forward to sitting down with it, either. It's kind of sad because it had so much potential.

All in All: Tower of Obsidian sounded so promising, but it definitely fell short of my expectations.

Lee's Review: Tower of Obsidian is the sort of book that neither blew me away nor inspired intense feelings of dislike toward it. The world is a creative mix of both Celtic and Norse myths and also features dragons (yay!). While there are some solid epic fantasy elements here, I couldn’t get into the story like I’d hoped to.

The novel’s pacing was the primary issue. I realize that quest-driven fantasy is almost always a slow build, but I need some kind of stepping stone points of interest to hold my, er, interest. I struggled here to stay focused on the story; not all of the subplots leading up to the scenes in the titular tower carried equal intrigue. For me, the novel finally got going once Kale, one of our heroes, began unraveling the mysteries of the tower and its resident witch, Aurore. In fact, I found myself wishing for the book to remain on his story line instead of continuing to check in on the other characters, like Aoife, the young woman who’s searching for him. While the narrative remains in the third person, you view the story from the perspective of multiple characters, a technique that varies in success depending on the character being followed. This echoes my feelings toward the subplots, in that some were better developed than others.

I thought it was a nice change to see the maiden dash off to save the knightly-type guy. I couldn’t help wishing, however, that Lady Aoife had put a tad of forethought into her rescue mission. Sure, she’s acting on a ton of impulse to find the man she loves, but once she gets out into the world, she has a tough time roughing it. She knew heading into her adventure that Kale had been taken captive by corsairs, so I didn’t have much sympathy for her upon discovering that life on the road/high seas was harsh. The thing about Aoife that frayed a nerve or two was that she possessed the initiative to take charge of Kale’s rescue, but she was prone to damsel in distress moments. Much better equipped to cope with Aoife’s situation are her sister, Fianait, and Naguset, her guide on her journey. Both are strong female characters whom I think would have made compelling leads instead of Aoife. As for the male characters, Kale was all right, but it was his friend, Aaron, who proved quite the hero. I love a good underdog story, and Aaron, the son of a smith, plays a huge role in saving the day.

By far the best scenes take place in the tower, which is guarded by some very special dragons. The book really hits its stride here as you await the fate of its heroes/heroines. Reaching this point, though, does take time and requires patience. I didn’t always find myself up to this challenge, which in turn affected my reading experience. Tower of Obsidian has its moments, but I needed them to be spaced closer together.

All in All: I love fantasy and am extra scrutinizing whenever I read it, so maybe the things that didn’t quite work for me in this book wouldn’t be of consequence to another reader.

Review: Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Shadow and Bone (The Grisha #1)
By Leigh Bardugo
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library

To Sum It Up: Orphaned as a child by the wars that have plagued her homeland of Ravka for years, Alina Starkov is now a mapmaker in the army. Her life is nothing like that of the Grisha, who, with their powerful abilities, are an army of their own, led by the enigmatic Darkling. Alina never images being a part of the elite group, but everything changes when an army mission goes horribly wrong. Alina’s actions shock everyone, including herself, and draw the full attention of the Darkling. Alina is then taken to the royal court to be trained, and not only must she deal with the pressure of possibly being the only person who can save Ravka, but there’s also the separation from her childhood friend, Mal, who’s always been there for her.

Review: January is not shaping up to be a good month for really, really popular YA books and me. I am now 0-for-2 in that department, with another greatly anticipated read pulling up short. Shadow and Bone was on my to-buy list when it was first released to so many glowing reviews, and finally having read it . . . well, I’m glad that I borrowed it from the library instead.

World-building is everything in fantasy, and I just wasn’t all that impressed with the world of Shadow and Bone. It seemed rather rudimentary, with everything revolving around the concepts of light and darkness. That in itself wasn’t an issue; the lack of depth to the clash between the two was. The novel also utilizes italics for a bit of Russian-inspired lingo, and again, this in itself was not a problem. Where it became distracting was in encountering words like kefta (the official garment of the Grisha) repeatedly. I think supplying context clues for kefta and other terms specific to the world would have been sufficient. I know I’m nitpicking over italics, but it was as though they were telling me I needed to pay special attention to these words long after their meaning became clear.

I was also disappointed with the plot. It lacked the kind of drive that makes a book impossible for me to tear myself away from. The novel essentially follows the journey of humble orphan Alina as she learns that she’s not so ordinary after all. To me Shadow and Bone adheres to the standard Meek Girl Develops Amazing Power template, and it needed some variations on that theme to make it compelling.

Alina has a very big self-esteem problem, and that was both very troubling and very frustrating. She’ll never be pretty enough for Mal, her friend since childhood, to see her as more than a friend. She’s not as pretty as the other female Grisha. Repeat self-confidence crushing thought pattern. Really, I wanted to shout, “THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH HOW YOU LOOK!” at her. Despite discovering that she possesses an incredible power that could be the salvation of her people, Alina never grows into the role of heroine. When she’s not hung up on her inferiority to everyone else, she’s pining for Mal. And I didn’t find Mal, who’s not particularly distinguishable from other YA love interests, pine-worthy.

I admit to being a little intrigued by the mysterious Darkling (as one always is by guys who have titles for names) until I realized that there wasn’t much more to his character than shooting darkness out of his hands. He also ended up really creeping me out.

I really wanted to love Shadow and Bone, and it had some promising ideas, but alas, the world, story, and characters didn’t cut it for me. Plenty of other readers have thought otherwise, however, so with this book, it’s probably me and not the book.

All in All: Not really caring for this or Divergent back-to-back has me feeling rather stumped over exactly what it is that I’m looking for in a book at the moment. So I wouldn’t immediately cross Shadow and Bone off your TBR list; I just didn’t feel the love for it.

Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Divergent (Divergent #1)
By Veronica Roth
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: As the day approaches when Beatrice Prior must decide whether or not to remain with the faction she was born into, she worries that she does not possess the selflessness that embodies Abnegation. When the time arrives to make the choice that will determine her future, Beatrice opts for a life that is vastly different from the one she knew. Now calling herself Tris, her initiation is grueling, and she carries an extra burden—a secret about herself that is so dangerous, it could get her killed.

Review: Heavily hyped books bring high expectations, and Divergent is one of the most talked about titles I can think of in recent memory. I am extremely late to the Divergent party, despite the fact that I purchased a copy of the novel not too long after its release, having been persuaded to do so by said hype. I always get a little nervous before reading books with massive fandoms; I know it’s silly, but when an über popular book doesn’t work out for me, I think, “But everyone else loved it!” Unfortunately, Divergent left me questioning what I missed that so, so many other readers adored about it. So if this happens to be one of your favorite books, you might want to skip the rest of this review.

At first I found the social structure of the world intriguing; there are five factions, each associated with a particular attribute: Candor (honesty), Abnegation (selflessness), Amity (peace), Erudite (intelligence), and Dauntless (bravery). I also thought it was interesting how faction members could be identified by how they dressed (plain gray garb for Abnegation, for instance). As I continued reading, however, I found myself looking for more depth to the world-building than clothing descriptions and the characters acting a certain way depending on their faction (Abnegation willingly give up their seats on the bus, Dauntless jump on and off moving trains, etc.). The world never seemed fully fleshed out, and I also had a lot of trouble buying that it ever came into existence in the first place.

The more I thought about this society, the more its plausibility bothered me. The formation of the factions has supposedly resulted in years of peace, and I struggle to see how that’s possible. I just don’t think it’s so easy to compartmentalize people like that. Tris’s conflict is that she doesn’t neatly fit into any one faction, and it kind of boggles my mind that this isn’t a much more common occurrence. I can’t imagine my life revolving around a single trait, and maybe that’s why I couldn’t wrap my head around the way this world operated.

Beatrice/Tris presented another problem for me; her character seemed all over the place, sometimes lacking confidence and other times arrogant. I never felt any sympathy for her troubles; I never connected with her, period. I thought the book tried too hard to portray her as a badass heroine, and I’m sorry, but it takes more than getting a few tattoos and leaping from a rooftop to convince me that you’re a badass heroine. Something that I think contributed to the distance between Tris as a narrator and me as a reader was the prose. It just sounded choppy in my head, and it was almost as though the book had an aversion to using contractions, not so much in the dialogue but in Tris’s narration.

Some of Tris’s fellow initiates, like Christina and Will, fared slightly better in the character development department, but in the end, none truly stood out. Tris’s attitude toward them sometimes really annoyed me; one minute she’d consider them her friends, the next she’d be thinking not-so-friendly thoughts about them. As for the famous Four, he has a rather compelling backstory, but like the rest of the characters, he just didn’t make an indelible impression.

I will give Divergent credit for some intense action scenes, especially during Tris’s punishing initiation. Those were quite engrossing to read; if only the rest of the novel had been that engaging. Overall I was not wowed by this, as much as I tried to give it a chance to awe me the way it has its legion of devoted fans.

All in All: At last I can say that I’ve read Divergent. It didn’t go as I’d hoped, though, and at the moment I’m really hesitant to continue the series.

Review: Eve by Anna Carey

Eve (The Eve Trilogy #1)
By Anna Carey
Publisher: Harper

To Sum It Up: After the plague that has decimated the population claims her mother, Eve is left orphaned and grows up in an all-girls school. Now ready to graduate and about to spend the next four years learning a trade, Eve is looking forward to the next phase of her life. But when she discovers the horrifying truth about what really becomes of the young women who graduate, Eve runs away. After years spent in the confines of her school, she must face whatever awaits her outside of it as she tries to make her way to what she hopes is refuge in a place called Califia.

Review: Eve comes from the line of dystopian novels in which a plague has devastated the population, and there’s an appalling plan afoot to replenish it. Orphaned girls are sent to schools in which they’re taught to fear men; little do the girls know that once they graduate, they’ll be sent to another facility where they’ll spend years birthing baby after baby. Meanwhile, orphaned boys are put into labor camps. Like a few other dystopians I’ve read with a plague-based premise, Eve falters on the world-building.

What was once the United States is now the New America, and it’s ruled by the mysterious King. Who is he? You don’t find out, at least in this book. All you do learn is that he’s after Eve, and his soldiers are out looking for her. As for the plague, it’s the catalyst that plunged the country into chaos, but it’s only mentioned when necessary to remind you that you’re reading a dystopian novel and it’s the reason why Eve was orphaned. Most of the book focuses on Eve bumbling about in a world that’s completely alien to her because she spent all those years sheltered in her school. Speaking of the school, its curriculum was all over the place. The girls take courses with titles such as “Manipulation and Heartache” and have to take a “Dangers of Men and Boys” exam, but they also read works like Anna Karenina and The Great Gatsby. Supposedly the goal of the anti-male education is to pretty much condition the girls into not wanting relationships, making them more compliant with the King’s Repopulate New America plan. Yet they’re allowed to read classic literature? In my mind, the two formed an odd combination.

Someone who did end up being extremely naïve due to the cloistered nature of her schooling was Eve. Oh dear. Okay, I understood that her ignorance of the outside world was central to the story, but some of her actions really made me cringe. Thanks to what she “learned” in school, when she first meets Caleb, a young man living in the wilderness with a group of other orphaned boys, Eve fears that he’s going to throw himself at her. And then she’s insulted when he doesn’t. Eve might not have even run into Caleb if he hadn’t decided to rescue her from an angry mama bear who didn’t like Eve petting her cub. Eve remembers being taught in school that bears are dangerous animals, but this knowledge doesn’t stop her from thinking of the cub as Winnie the Pooh and wondering if she could keep him as a pet. I didn’t have much patience for Eve, and that was before I started noticing a pattern of Eve doing what was best for Eve, even if it meant other people getting hurt, which they did. So no, I wasn’t a big fan of hers.

I did think Caleb and Arden, also an escapee from Eve’s school, were okay. I liked Arden quite a bit because she used common sense and was infinitely smarter than Eve was. Despite the world being fuzzy with the details and as much as I disliked Eve, the story itself was actually well paced. The writing was also solid. I believe, however, that one book about Eve’s escapades was enough for me, and I’ll be leaving the series here.

All in All: Meh. Eve got on my nerves too frequently, and it’s tough for me to like a book when all I can think about is how much the main character annoys me. The world also didn’t quite add up, which is my number one pet peeve when it comes to dystopian novels.

• Ally's Review of Eve

Review: The Year of the Great Seventh by Teresa Orts

The Year of the Great Seventh (The Tropic of Cancer #1)
By Teresa Orts
Publisher: Drayton Press

* A copy was provided by the author for review.

To Sum It Up:

Despite living in Los Angeles, having a casting director mother, and being surrounded by friends with budding acting careers, Sophie Bennett doesn’t aspire to be part of the glamorous crowd. Instead she hopes to follow her dream of studying history at New York University. In the meantime, Sophie still has two years of high school to get through, and her crush on one of the most popular students, Nate Werner, isn’t making it easy. Even when Nate suddenly begins behaving erratically, Sophie continues to be drawn to him. It turns out that she may be the only person who can save him and prevent an ominous ancient Egyptian prophecy from being fulfilled.

Review:

Ancient Egyptian history is a subject that I’ve always found interesting, and so the premise of The Year of the Great Seventh intrigued me. I’d expected this to be a quest-oriented type of novel, and to some degree, it was. But a sizable portion of it was also devoted to detailing the everyday life among the young, rich, and beautiful of L. A. The book often seemed like two separate books to me, one a contemporary about Hollywood glitz and the other the quest-centered novel I’d assumed it was. Unfortunately, the two didn’t quite find a melding point, and I felt like the novel was competing to be both books at once.

At first I didn’t mind the heavy focus on the L. A. acting scene, but when I reached the 40% mark or so and not much related to the ancient Egyptian prophecy had happened, my patience started to wane. It seemed as though every minor character needed to have his/her life story explained; after a while, it really didn’t matter to me who was playing what role in whatever production. I kept waiting for the prophecy-related action to kick in, but it only made brief appearances here and there. By the end of the novel, I thought that an entire book could have been written solely about the struggles of the protagonist, Sophie, to fit in among her circle of acting friends.

I had a couple of issues with Sophie’s character. She’s very insecure and constantly fretting over how she’s not the social equal of her friends. To me, though, they didn’t appear to see her differently because she wasn’t involved in the acting scene. They definitely don’t treat her like an outcast. Sophie’s “I’m not worthy” outlook extends to her crush on Nate Werner, one of the most popular boys in school. He steps in to defend her at a party after another of the school’s social elite, Ethan Dulwich, gets overly friendly with Sophie at a party. But Nate loses complete control of his temper and makes himself look like the bad guy. Sophie tries to talk to Nate about what happened, but he warns her that it’s in her best interest to stay away from him. He eventually reveals his deep, dark secret to her, which only makes her obsess over him even more. Sophie expends so much effort thinking about Nate that her grades begin to suffer. That is a big NO in my book. I’m sorry, but no guy is worth failing classes over. I had a problem with her whole attitude toward Nate; she centers her existence around him and talks about him in such a melodramatic way. I didn’t actually dislike Sophie; I just wanted her to realize that she was perfectly capable of standing on her two feet by herself.

The book’s prose utilizes more telling than showing, resulting in a rather stilted narrative voice for Sophie. I also had a hard time believing that her dad was fine with allowing his sixteen-year-old daughter to go to New York, ostensibly for a college tour, on her own. Both parents object to the idea initially, but then her dad has a change of heart. He doesn’t even know that Nate is secretly going, too, so he and Sophie can look at some obelisks that once belonged to Cleopatra (finally—something relevant to the prophecy). Sophie uses the New York University tour as a cover story, but she does actually visit the campus. I had to wrestle with my disbelief again during her time there, and I think even more so because I’m an alum of the College of Arts and Science, the very same school of the university that Sophie is interested in applying to. I’m sure many things have changed since my days as a student there, but I don’t believe a visit to the basement of a dormitory to see a secret smoking/drinking lair is a standard part of the tour for a prospective student. I know this is a fictitious use of a real place, but this place happened to be one that’s very close to my heart. What really bothered me, though, was how totally cool Sophie thought her tour guide, Paul, was for showing her this room and for basically asking her out. To me, this was all kind of . . . creepy.

The story did gain some momentum when Sophie and Nate went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Public Library to further investigate the prophecy, and with any luck, to find a way to help Nate. I wish that events like these had taken place a lot sooner and a lot more frequently. The characters were occupied with something other than discussing someone’s latest acting gig, and there was a palpable sense of tension to the story. I definitely would have enjoyed this book more if the historical/mythological element had played a much larger role because when it had the spotlight, it was absorbing.

All in All:

Unfortunately, there wasn’t quite enough adventure here to draw me in. The look into L. A. life, while interesting in the beginning, wasn’t the kind of story line that was going to hold my attention for a whole book.

Review: Gravity by Abigail Boyd

Gravity (Gravity #1)
By Abigail Boyd
Publisher: Abigail Boyd

* A copy was provided by the author for review.

To Sum It Up:

Ariel Donovan has been doing her best to move on with her life since her best friend, Jenna, disappeared one night. The beginning of Ariel’s sophomore year of high school means a fresh start, and it brings new people into her life: Theo, with whom Ariel strikes up a friendship, and Henry, the enigmatic newcomer to Hawthorne High. Ariel can’t stop wondering what happened to Jenna, though, especially when she begins dreaming about Jenna and the town’s abandoned, creepy orphanage. Ariel becomes determined to find the connection between the two and to discover what else lies hidden in her hometown.

Review:

When a book takes place in a town called Hell, like Gravity does, my attention is instantly grabbed. The residents of Hell like playing up the name, too, going all out for Halloween to live up to its moniker. Hell is also home to the abandoned Dexter Orphanage, which has a shady history and is to be turned into a haunted house attraction. While Gravity boasts an eerie atmosphere that holds the promise of a chilling tale, flat characterizations and a plot that doesn’t quite come together overshadowed everything else about the book.

I never got a good sense of what kind of character Ariel, the protagonist, was, other than she was on the bottom rung of the social ladder at school. I found her narrative voice rather dull, like she was just relaying her observations of what was going on around her instead of sounding like she was an active part of anything. Ariel’s friend, Theo, was much more interesting to read about; she had personality and depth and stuck by Ariel’s side. In contrast, I couldn’t get much of a read on Ariel, which made reading from her perspective frustrating at times.

Ariel’s love interest, Henry, was even tougher to figure out. I’m all for guys with an air of mystery to them, but Henry was a roller coaster of moods. First he’d act all charming around Ariel, even volunteering to tutor her in math. Then he’d appear to be on super friendly terms with Lainey, the school’s resident mean girl. Then Henry would appear to be very interested in Ariel again. Their relationship was like watching a tennis ball bounce back and forth over a net. Even when Henry was in Pay Attention to Ariel mode, though, I just couldn’t find any chemistry between the two.

The pacing made this a long read for me. There were a lot of hints that something creepy was underfoot, but they never amounted to anything significant. I kept waiting for things like the reluctance of Ariel’s parents to talk about her grandmother and the suspicious behavior of her school’s principal to be explained, but I waited in vain. I also couldn’t buy the villain’s identity; it was definitely a surprise, but I didn’t feel like there were enough links to tie this person to the deeds in a way that was logical to me. There isn’t much offered in the way of a motive for this character’s actions, either, which left me pretty puzzled over the whole matter.

Overall, I thought there was a great deal of potential here for a chiller of a novel, but after finishing the book, I felt like nothing had really happened. I would have loved to have read more about the spooky orphanage as well as seen it utilized more in the story. Most of all, though, I wish that I’d been able to connect with Ariel.

All in All:

I don’t expect a series to spill all of its plot details in the first book, but I do assume that each individual book in the series will have a definite beginning, middle, and end. Gravity read like a prolonged exposition to me, and that just didn’t work for me.

Review: Ten by Gretchen McNeil

Ten
By Gretchen McNeil
Publisher: Balzer + Bray

To Sum It Up:

When best friends Meg and Minnie are invited to an exclusive party on Henry Island, they jump at the chance to go on the weekend getaway. Without telling anyone about their whereabouts, they reach the party, but the hostess is nowhere to be found. The raging storm outside is attributed as the cause. But the party must go on, and it does—until the partygoers start showing up dead. Meg realizes that they are getting picked off one by one, and she's figured out that one of them is the killer. With no way to send for help and no way off the secluded island, all the teenagers can do is survive until morning.

Review:

I was beside myself when I found Ten lurking in my mailbox. Eagerly, I sat down and started reading. The book started off okay, but several chapters in, I was rolling my eyes, snickering, and leaving the book unread and desolate on my nightstand. It took me an eternity to finish the book, and it took me even longer to review it. I wanted to like the book and be kind, but I just couldn't do it.

Ten, being a horror book, was lacking a great deal in the horror department. I read the book in solitude at night and I still wasn't scared. I could have been camping on an island while reading and still have been perfectly at ease. I'll admit that the book was kind of creepy, but that's about it. I was confused, though. For a book written under the genre to scare people, I was a little more than disappointed—my bravery knows no bounds.

Everything about the book was so typical it hurt. Several teenagers are stuck on an island with a psycho killer on the loose! Oh, but there's a twist—the killer is one of them! Been there, done that—several times, actually. I was quite bored with the triteness and predictability of the plot. I started counting how many times I rolled my eyes. This book bothered me so much because I really did want to like it! The odds were not in Ten's favor.

The characters in the book annoyed me to no end. You have Meg, with her co-dependent, depressed bestie, Minnie, and her angsty ex-boyfriend, T.J. That's about all of the characters I can remember. There were more than several secondary characters, but I gave up on remembering them, seeing as most of them died. The book was cluttered with names, and, I'm sorry, but it's terrible that a character's sole purpose is to kick it. I tried to like Meg, I really did, but she was just so annoying. She kept trying to please her friend Minnie, who I have come to resent, and barely tried to figure out what was going on. I'll admit that Meg and T.J. were the most sensible of the characters, but their “I like you, but I hate you” relationship distracted me from rooting them on to survive. The baddie, who isn't revealed until the very end, is the most interesting out of the lot.

I will admit that the ending caught me off guard—just by the slightest. That's what saved the book for me. I had everything fairly figured out; the little twist, however, sent me back to the drawing board. I found my balance quite quickly after the bump, but the bump was enough to make me rethink the book. Yeah, most of my time was spent yelling at Meg to open her eyes and dig a little deeper, but at least I was involved in the book. Unbeknownst to me, I was all caught up in the action, and that's all anybody can ask for in a book—an escape.

All in All:

I was sorely disappointed with this book. Although the horror just wasn't there for me, I do encourage others to try it out for themselves.

Review: Illuminate by Aimee Agresti

Illuminate (Gilded Wings #1)
By Aimee Agresti
Publisher: Harcourt

To Sum It Up: As one of the recipients of an internship at the Lexington Hotel in Chicago, sixteen-year-old Haven Terra is about to enter a world filled with power and extravagance. The opportunity to walk among famous figures on a daily basis seems like a dream come true. Although everything about the hotel and its staff exudes perfection, Haven soon begins to sense that there’s something sinister going on behind all of the glamour. Her search for answers uncovers an evil plan that Haven must stop by fulfilling the destiny that she never knew existed until now.

Review: When I first eyed the size of this book, which clocks in at a little over 500 pages, I figured that a lot of exciting things must happen in it. Unfortunately, that’s not quite the case. The pacing in Illuminate is very slow, at least for a reader like me who needs periodic bursts of action to maintain my interest in a story. I’m all for building up suspense, but I don’t believe in making readers wait forever for the payoff. I really had a hard time focusing on this book and struggled to finish it.

The protagonist, Haven, is yet another I’m-so-ordinary-there’s-no-way-I can-be-extraordinary main character. In the beginning, I thought she was okay. She’s an exemplary student and a photography enthusiast, which grabbed my attention because I love taking pictures and messing around with Photoshop. So I harbored high hopes of liking Haven. She never really materializes into a dynamic heroine, though. If it weren’t for the mysterious book that magically appears one day to give her instructions on how to unravel the nefarious plot that’s underway at the hotel, Haven probably wouldn’t have made much progress on her own. I wish that she had been more of a take-charge type of protagonist.

The secondary characters are similarly run-of-the-mill. Aurelia Brown, the owner of the Lexington Hotel, is your stereotypical boss from hell (almost literally). Aurelia’s lieutenant, Lucian Grove, is the inhumanly good-looking mystery man whose talents include smirking and turning on the charm. Of course Haven completely falls for him. I think that the most relatable character in the bunch is Lance, one of Haven’s classmates and fellow interns. He certainly shows the most development over the course of the book. At first Lance is sort of just there, lurking on the periphery of things, but by the end of the novel, he’s turned into a certifiable hero. This is exactly the kind of transformation that I wish Haven’s character had undergone.

The true star of Illuminate is the Lexington Hotel. Agresti does a stellar job of bringing its grandeur and opulence to life. Even with all of the creepy business that goes on there, I’d probably still accept an internship just so I could explore the impressive library and sample some of the delectable desserts that are described in mouth-watering detail. The setting of this book is so vivid; if only the characters brimmed with the same intensity.

Illuminate includes nods to Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dante’s The Divine Comedy, and Goethe’s Faust. In the end, though, the story boils down to your standard battle between good and evil and doesn’t really venture into new territory. As fascinating as the world of Illuminate is, it’s not enough to keep me invested in the series.

All in All: I’m not very patient when it comes to drawn out plots and passive main characters, so this book and I just weren’t destined for each other. If Illuminate had been condensed by about 200 pages, I might have formed a different opinion of the book.

Review: Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood

Born Wicked (The Cahill Witch Chronicles #1)
By Jessica Spotswood
Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons

To Sum It Up: Cate Cahill and her sisters are hiding a dangerous secret. They are witches living in a community that punishes those suspected of using magic by sentencing them to hard labor on a prison ship or shipping them off to an asylum. Since her mother’s death, Cate has assumed responsibility for protecting her younger sisters, but this is not an easy task, especially with Cate quickly approaching the age at which she will either have to get married or enter a convent and join the Sisterhood. A mysterious letter warning her that she and her sisters are in great peril leads Cate to find her mother’s diary and with it a shocking prophecy that could tear her family apart.

Review: Because I love a good historical fiction read every once in a while, books set in a historic time period with a paranormal twist to them are especially appealing to me. I had high hopes for Born Wicked, which is set in an alternate version of late 19th century New England, but I ended up disappointed. I just couldn’t buy into this world, and there wasn’t enough magic to really draw me into the story.

The book’s narration attempts to capture a manner of speaking consistent with its time period, but it doesn’t always succeed. The rather abrupt shifting between wording that was supposed to be contemporary with the book’s setting and more modern sounding language became distracting to me after a while. I wasn’t fully convinced that Cate inhabited a world filled with afternoon tea socials, calling cards, and petticoats. Overall, I thought that the book had a choppy rhythm, and I had a tough time getting past it.

I didn’t really connect with any of the characters, either. Cate’s idea of protecting her sisters pretty much amounts to bossing them around. I don’t doubt that she loves her sisters and means well, but her methods of dealing with them need a serious rethink. I did not like the middle sister, Maura, at all; she was a brat with a bad attitude. My favorite sister was the youngest one, Tess. She showed some pluck that would have made Cate a far more interesting heroine. I think that I would have liked the book better if it had been told through Tess’s eyes.

Most of the action in Born Wicked doesn’t take place until about 2/3 of the way through the book, and even then, it’s not that heart-pounding. I understand that the Cahill sisters are trying to keep their magical abilities a secret to avoid a horrible fate and so cannot perform magic openly. I still think that the novel could have benefited from the sisters using their powers more, though. In a book about witches, I expect to see a fair amount of spell casting, and that doesn’t really happen here. Still, this might be worth a read if you’re interested in Puritan New England and the Salem Witch Trials, albeit with several creative liberties taken.

All in All: This wasn’t a standout read for me, so I won’t be continuing with the series. I do hope that Tess plays a larger role in the sequels, though; she’s a character to keep an eye out for.

Review: Dragonswood by Janet Lee Carey

Dragonswood
By Janet Lee Carey
Publisher: Dial Books

To Sum It Up: Tess is a frequent visitor to Dragonswood, the territory sanctioned to the mythical creatures of Wilde Island. Wanting to escape her father's rage, Tess seeks refuge in the forested depths, finding comfort in the beauty of the woods and watching the dragons and fairies from afar. The only problem is that Dragonswood is forbidden; people found in the woods are labeled as demons or witches. This doesn't stop Tess, though. She has an undeniable connection to Dragonswood, and she can't help being drawn there. When a bloodthirsty witch hunter comes to Tess's village, word of Tess's illicit travels to Dragonswood begins to spread. Condemned, Tess is forced to go on the run with her two closest friends. The hunt is on, and only with the help of the mysterious Garth Huntsman, a warden of Dragonswood, do Tess and her friends escape. Even now, after all the trouble Dragonswood has caused her, Tess can't help but be lured deeper within it.

Review: Just like Tess, I, too, was lured to Dragonswood because of its charming beauty. I fell in love with the pretty, mystical cover at once. I hate to say it, but the cover and the title heavily influenced me to pick up the book, and looking back now, I wish I would have read the synopsis before I blindly snatched up the book. Dragonswood was a decent read; I guess I just had a hard time getting into it.

A few different things bothered me about this book, the first being the setup of the story. I was completely lost going into the book and was still confused by the time I finished it. I really wish that there would have been an explanation of the world in the first couple of chapters. From what I've gathered, Dragonswood was a mix of fantasy and history. The Holy Wars, Europe, and Prince John are mentioned more than once throughout the book. Then, on the other hand, you have Wilde Island just off the cost of Great Britain, home of dragons, fairies, and humans, held by the legendary royal Pendragons. It just felt really bizarre. The book felt like it was being pulled in two very different directions, and it just wasn't working for me. If the fantasy and history had been more neatly stitched together, this would have been an imaginative idea.

Another problem I had with Dragonswood was relating to the characters. I could not for the life of me connect with any of them. I associated more with the dragons, whom I adored, than with Tess or Garth. Tess, to me, was not a strong protagonist. She ratted out her friends as being witches just after a few minutes of torture. I know, you must be shaking your head and saying, “Ally, come on, she was tortured, can you really blame her?” And I say yes! Yes, I can blame her! She ruined her friends’ lives, forcing them to leave behind their families for a life on the run! And even when Tess did look like she was finally going to be strong and armor herself in my high expectations, she went ahead and made a silly mistake, making things ten times worse.

Garth Huntsman was no better. This mysterious “huntsman” was a major letdown in the story. Garth is supposed to be uber sketchy, but, obviously, Tess is bonkers for him and cannot see him doing any wrong. I, being a hopeless romantic myself, had no problems with this; my problem was with the mystery part. There was no mystery! I felt like I figured things out way too easily. Garth's mysterious side was the backbone of the story! It seemed as though little, secretive Garth was hiding in this little shallow puddle. All I had to do was reach in, pluck mysterious Garth out, shake him dry, and voilà, I figured the whole thing out!

Yet another thing that bugged me about Dragonswood was the storyline. There could have been a beautifully simple storyline, which would have been perfect, but instead there were whiplash turns and unnecessary drops. The first half of the book was all right. I got it without too much confusion, but by the second half of the book I was feeling extremely dizzy and lost. I think it was the fairies that did it in for me. I felt like they were shoved into the story with a lame excuse. The fairies annoyed me to no end. But, hey, that's just me and how I felt.

Well, I feel as though I've ranted and raved like a lunatic, and I don't want to come off that way. I certainly don't want to put anybody off of reading Dragonswood. It was an okay book in the end, and I really did enjoy some things in the book. I love, loved the dragons. I loved their story and history. Carey describes the dragons beautifully, masterly bringing them to life. They were really wise and brave; they were the glue that held this book together. The dragons could talk and often put their two cents in where they were much needed.

In the end, Dragonswood had so much potential! A few things did bug me throughout the book, while other aspects were highly entertaining and easily loveable. I guess you can say I have mixed feelings about this book.

All in All: Although Dragonswood wasn't really my cup of tea, those who have an appetite for dragons, fairies, or plain old heartbreaking romance should definitely check this book out.

Review: Embrace by Jessica Shirvington

Embrace (The Violet Eden Chapters #1)
By Jessica Shirvington
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

To Sum It Up: On her seventeenth birthday, Violet Eden is about to get the surprise of her life. She is destined to become one of the Grigori, part-angel/part-human guardians who keep the exiled angels on earth in check. Violet, however, is not sure that she wants to accept her fate, even as the exiles’ determination to eliminate the Grigori intensifies.

Review: Embrace got off to a promising start; I really liked the premise and this version of angel lore. As the novel went on, though, I found myself less and less enthused with the main character, Violet. Some of her actions really frustrated me, making it difficult for me to connect with her and with the book.

I liked that Violet’s personal philosophy was to never back down from a tough situation, but I didn’t think that she always adhered to it. In fact, I thought that she was rather whiny and petulant at times. She’s very reluctant to give up her life for the Grigori, and I understand her concerns. To a point. Violet spends a good chunk of the book going on about how she’s been lied to, how’s she’s not really being given the choice to decide, etc. I could only take so much of her ranting before it became tiresome.

What bothered me the most about Violet was the way that she treated her destined Grigori partner, Lincoln. Again, I understood that she was upset with him for not telling her who she really was in all the time that they knew each other, as he secretly trained her to potentially become a Grigori. Lincoln wasn’t allowed to tell her, and I felt that Violet could have cut him a little slack. She doesn’t, and her anger towards him just continues to snowball. Lincoln essentially turns into Violet’s doormat. There are some extenuating circumstances behind Violet’s behavior, but I didn’t feel that they let her off the hook completely.

And then we have Phoenix. This sketchy exile reminded me of Patch Cipriano from Hush, Hush, with his frequent smirks, impertinent remarks, and penchant for turning up wherever Violet happens to be. Yet Violet seems to find him irresistible. I don’t quite get what she sees in Phoenix. I don’t get what she sees in this love triangle’s other vertex, Lincoln, either. Neither of these guys was interesting enough to set my heart aflutter.

In the end, Embrace just wasn’t my kind of book. I’m all for tough, independent heroines, but I couldn’t warm up to Violet. I think that she still has some growing up to do, though it’s unlikely I’ll be reading the sequels to find out if that happens.

All in All: Fans of Hush, Hush might enjoy Embrace. I wasn’t too crazy over the former, so if you’re like me, then you might want to try borrowing Embrace from the library first before investing in a copy.