December 2013 Recap

December, and really, the whole year, went by so fast. I was happy to actually fit in some decent reading time this month even with the holiday rush and actually wrote some reviews for a change, lol!

I hope you're all having a great holiday season, and I wish you all the best for 2014!

Reviews Posted:

• Angelfall by Susan Ee
• Control by Lydia Kang
• Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances by John Green, Maureen Johnson, & Lauren Myracle
• Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta
• Enders by Lissa Price

Featured Posts:

• 2013 Rewind

ARC Review: Enders by Lissa Price

* This review may contain spoilers for the previous book, Starters. *

Enders (Starters #2)
By Lissa Price
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Format: eBook
Source: Author’s Publicist/NetGalley
Publication Date: January 7, 2014

To Sum It Up: Callie Woodland may have helped shut down Prime Destinations, the creepy business operation that allowed elderly Enders to relive their youth by renting the bodies of young Starters who desperately needed the money, but Prime’s mastermind, the Old Man, is still after Callie. Not only can he speak to her via the chip still implanted in her head, but he also won’t hesitate to hurt those she cares about to get to her. Callie’s chip is unique, and the Old Man has plans for it. With her nemesis closing in on her fast, Callie races to find a way to stop him.

Review: With its creeptastic plot centered around teens renting out their bodies to the elderly so the latter could experience being young all over again, Starters was quite a novel read for me. Factor in its protagonist, Callie, unexpectedly regaining consciousness during the time an Ender was supposed to be inhabiting her body, and the book was all the more intriguing to read. Starters concluded with Callie watching the demolition of Prime Destinations, the body rental bank founded by the shadowy figure known only as the Old Man, who can still communicate directly with Callie through her chip implant. And so Enders begins with the Old Man as determined as ever to find Callie.

Whereas Starters grabbed me from the outset because of how different the premise was compared to other dystopians I'd read, I thought the plot of Enders took a little while to get moving. To me, it didn’t have quite the same sense of urgency that Starters did, where Callie woke up during the rental and was going to assassinate a senator if she didn’t thwart her renter, Helena, in time. It’s not that Enders is short on action; there’s more than an adequate supply of it, some of it literally explosive. But the shift of focus to Callie and her companions trying to aid their fellow Metals, other Starters who were body donors for Prime, while staying one step ahead of the Old Man just didn’t carry the same oomph for me as Callie’s experiences in the first book did.

Initially I was surprised that a character who featured prominently in Starters barely figured into the story here. That gets explained toward the end of the book, though, and I thought it was a very clever twist. We’re also introduced to a new character named Hyden, who proves to be a technical genius. His trustworthiness is another question, however, and one of the highlights of the book was trying to figure him out.

Once again, Callie is a steady heroine with a solid head on her shoulders. She’ll do anything to protect her younger brother, Tyler, and she doesn’t want to see any harm come to her fellow Metals, who are also being targeted by the Old Man. He’s just as diabolical in Enders as he was in Starters; every time he talks to Callie in her mind, it’s absolutely chilling.

Although I enjoyed reading Starters just a tad more, Enders is still a solid follow-up with some eye-opening twists of its own. Lissa Price excels at catching you off guard, and I look forward to many more of those moments in her future works.

All in All: If you liked Starters, you should find Enders to be a satisfying sequel and conclusion to Callie’s story.

2013 Rewind

My mom always used to tell me that as I got older, the faster time would fly by, and she could not have been more right about that. I cannot believe that 2013 is just about over; I truly, truly feel like I just wrote the look back post for 2012.

Where to begin with the past year? I met my Goodreads reading goal for 2013 despite reading about 10 fewer books overall, mostly thanks to adjusting to some real life changes. On the bright side, I now have the financial means to support my book buying habit, so hooray! I'd happily give up some reading time to be able to buy books (and other necessities, like, say, food).

I admit that it's been hard for me to sometimes watch the blog go for days without a post because I haven't had time to write one or simply because I can't review any books if I haven't read any books. At the same time, though, taking unintentional reading/blogging breaks has made me appreciate both more. For a while I was too caught up in worrying about whether I'd have enough posts for the week, and I was racing through books so I'd be able to post some reviews. I feel like I'm reading for fun again, and I needed to regain that perspective. And, despite my anxiety, the blog is still here, and I thank all of you with all of my heart for sticking around. I absolutely love talking about books with you, and that is what keeps me blogging. I seriously can't imagine life without you guys, and now I need to change the subject before I really begin blubbering.

And now for the hardest part of this post: choosing my favorite books from 2013! Two of my picks were finales to series that still make me sad to think they're over. Two are parts of series that I love so much I wanted to pick all the books I've read from both series during the past year, but I didn't because I'm trying not to cheat with the list. So here is the list, in no particular order:

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

The most beautifully written novel I read in 2013, hands down.

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

It was every bit as amazing as I'd hoped, and I cried every bit I thought I would. Will, Jem, and Tessa—I'll never forget you.

Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta

It's insanely difficult choosing between this and Quintana of Charyn, the last book in The Lumatere Chronicles and which I also read this year, but Froi's incredible transformation from Finnikin of the Rock to the book that bears his name gives book 2 in the series the edge.

Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

Dear Captain Westfall, I know you're a fictional character, but will you marry me?

Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi

Another tough choice between two books from the same series. I loved Warner even more after reading this, and I already loved him a ton before, so that's why Unravel Me gets the spot on the list over Shatter Me.

Boundless by Cynthia Hand

A fantastic end to a fantastic angel series.

Sanctum by Sarah Fine

A stellar debut with a unique premise, a kick-ass heroine, and a swoon-worthy hero.

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

This is the book that made me laugh the most this year. It also has the honor of being the book whose ending most made me want to scream in anger.

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

A superb fantasy novel featuring dragons.

To wrap up this post, I thought I'd give an update on the handful of last-minute bookish goals I'd hoped to accomplish by the end of the year:

1. Read Divergent. I'm working on that right now. I'm not sure I'll finish it by December 31, but at least I finally started reading it!
2. Complete the Australian Women Writer's Challenge. Done. The review for the last book was posted two days ago.
3. Read a Christmas-Themed Book. Done. I even read the title I mentioned in my original post, Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle.
4. Buy Some Bookshelves. Sadly, this isn't looking like it's getting done before year's end. Buying new bookshelves is not a decision to be made lightly, and I just haven't had time to shop around.
5. Go to the Library. I went once in November, and only to pick up a book I had on hold, but it was soooo nice to set foot in there again after such a long absence.

And that's it. It's been another awesome year in books, and I'm looking forward to beginning a new reading year!

2014 Australian Women Writers Challenge

I participated in this challenge this year, and I'm happy to report that I completed my goal yesterday! Nothing like getting things done at the last minute, lol. I had a lot of fun with this challenge, and so I'm signing up for the 2014 Australian Women Writers Challenge as well. I'm keeping my goal the same for 2014, which will be:

Miles: read 6 – if reviewing, review at least 4

If you'd like to join, too, just click the button or the link above!

Review: Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta

Looking for Alibrandi
By Melina Marchetta
Publisher: Ember
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: Seventeen-year-old Josephine Alibrandi is in her final year of high school at St. Martha’s and planning to study law. It’s not just her imminent passage into adulthood that’s weighing on her mind, though. There’s her complicated relationship with her tradition-minded grandmother, who’s such a domineering presence in the lives of both Josephine and Josephine’s mother. There’s also the sudden appearance of her father, who’s been absent all her life until now. Finally, there’s Jacob Coote, a public school student who literally drives Josephine crazy at times. Although she knows it’s going to be a challenging year, there are still some unexpected events that nothing can prepare her for.

Review: I’ve fangirled big time over Melina Marchetta’s novels on a few occasions now, so it’s a no-brainer for me to want to read everything she’s ever written. Originally published in 1992, Looking for Alibrandi is Marchetta’s debut. When I first found out the publication year, I had to laugh a little because waaayyy back in 1992, I was a Catholic high school student, just like the book’s protagonist and narrator, Josephine Alibrandi. Even at the old age I am now, I couldn’t help but feel a bit thrilled to share something in common with a Melina Marchetta character. Geeky? Yes, I know I am.

Despite heading into this book feeling like I already had a connection with the main character, I didn’t find Looking for Alibrandi to be on the same level as Marchetta’s The Lumatere Chronicles or Jellicoe Road, the other Marchetta contemporary that I’ve read. I feel like I just committed the ultimate sacrilege in saying that, but I couldn’t find the pure love for this novel that I have for some of her other ones. I don’t want to give you the wrong impression here, especially if you’re a huge Marchetta fan like I am. Looking for Alibrandi is nowhere near being a bad book; I just don’t think it’s quite as seamless as her later works are.

Sometimes it seemed to me that Looking for Alibrandi couldn’t figure out exactly what its focus should be. Sure, it’s a character-driven novel and Marchetta’s characters are as expertly constructed as ever, but I didn’t always find the transition from one plotline to another to be smooth. There were a few times when I started a new chapter and felt as though I had missed something from the previous one. I thought the strongest story lines revolved around Josephine’s evolving, and occasionally stormy, relationship with her very traditional grandmother and the tentative one that develops between Josephine and the father who’s been a total stranger to her for seventeen years. Marchetta is at her best in depicting both how complex family ties can be and how powerful the love that comes from those same ties can be. I wish I could say I was as keen on Josephine’s relationship with Jacob Coote, her on-again/off-again love interest. These two have a serious love/hate thing going on, and I just found it more frustrating than endearing.

Josephine is a rather selfish character with a mouth that often doesn’t know when to keep quiet, but those are the qualities that make her so real. I can never emphasize enough how multi-faceted Marchetta makes her characters. They’re not perfect, but that’s why you love them. Their flaws make them human. I didn’t really care for Josephine’s grandmother for a long while because I found her overbearing, but you discover later on that there’s so much more to her than her stories about her life when she first arrived in Australia from Sicily. I wanted to hug this woman by the end of the book and tell her that I misjudged her. Yet again, Marchetta’s characters surprised me.

While Jellicoe Road remains my Marchetta contemporary of choice, Looking for Alibrandi isn’t without its merits. The character development is brilliant as usual, and the writing itself is sharp. The sometimes choppy pacing and abrupt switching between plotlines kept this from becoming an instant favorite of mine, but I can say with absolute certainty that these are not issues I encountered while reading Marchetta’s later novels.

All in All: To put it simply, I liked this, but I didn’t love it. And believe me, it’s so tough for me to say that I didn’t love a Melina Marchetta novel. This one fell a tad short for me, but it’s definitely still worth reading if you’ve enjoyed her other books.