Sharing the Awesome Awards – Day 1: The Books

Posted on June 27, 2011 by janicu

Nomes of inkcrush is hosting the Sharing the Awesome awards – which is a series of posts about people’s favorite books for 2011 (so far) are. Looks like she’s doing this until the end of June and everyone is welcome to jump in whenever they want. Day 1 is about your favorite books, Day 2 focuses on your favorite characters and Day 3 is about the scenes and randomness!

Looks like fun to me! There are 20 categories at inkcrush, but I don’t think I have answers for all of them, so I’ll just wing it. Here are my choices out of the 38 (and a half) books I’ve read so far in 2011.

favourite book read so far in 2011:

Unsticky… oh how do I love thee. This book left me obsessed with Grace and Vaughn after I finished it. I would ponder the ending for weeks afterward. Part of the reason I bought So You Think You Can Love Me, (Manning’s second adult novel) halfway through reading Unsticky was because I read Grace and Vaughn would make cameos, and I wanted to check to see how they were doing. I didn’t move this book from my bedside table for about a month after reading it because I “may need to reread my favorite parts before I go to bed”. Yeah.

Brilliantly funny:

I’m actually halfway through this book right now. I didn’t expect this, because this is an urban fantasy, but it’s got a lot of amusing moments. There’s a doggy sidekick (an Irish wolfhound), who makes me smile like crazy (yes, magically talking dog trope = one of my weaknesses). I’m constantly chuckling over this one.

Delicious rainy day comfort read:

Sugar Queen surprised me with its charm and magic. This is a definite comfort read. I felt like I trusted the author to make everything all right in the end, even though I’d NEVER read anything by Sarah Addison Allen before. And she did. Yes, I know, I need to go and find Garden Spells.

Adrenalin-fuelled, unputdownable award:

Oh. My. God. Freaking.. ahhh. Part of the adrenalin here comes from Toby and one of her love interests and what happens in this book. One of those books that has you looking for someone else who has read it so you can basically scream “OMG!” “RIGHT?! RIGHT?” “AND THEN THAT PART WHERE… ” “I KNOW!!!” and both of you will know exactly what the other is saying. There’s a lot going on in this series to mull over and try to guess what it means. Which I love.

Most original and imaginative:

Chime wins most original/imaginative hands down. It’s WEIRD, and I’ve said this in my review, the weird takes some getting used to, but I think if you’re a reader where the weird works for you, it works very well. I would also put this down for the most atmospheric and vivid setting award for the strange swamp and the creatures that live there. I have images of lush vegetation, water, and mist.

I-so-want-to-go-there award

Because of The Thief, going to Greece and seeing the Sea of Olives is up there on my List of Things I’d Like To Do.

Outside my comfort zone but gosh how i loved it:

I loved a ZOMBIE BOOK. A zombie won me over as a romantic lead. Did not expect that at all. Did not expect to love this one as much as I did. And I find myself trying to convince other zombie-no-love people to try it (which is – sigh, kind of difficult).

Series that i’m loving:

If you’ve been following this blog, you knew I would choose this. I tried The Thief, and then I just couldn’t help it – I had to read the rest. And now I must wait for book 5. Darn lack of self control, I should have paced myself.

I’ve also been blown away with Carolyn Crane’s Disillusionists trilogy. The ending of Double Cross? Amazing. A very well thought out series that has the reader guessing about who the real villain is. Love the anti-hero angle here.

I believe I’ve already talked about this one. Quite addicted, thank you.

I-had-no-idea-I-would-love this-so award:

You know, I didn’t think this would do it for me, but after one review I decided I had to read it, and I’m so glad I did. I found Bianca’s casual use of expletives so refreshing, and although I didn’t agree with her using a guy she hardly likes for sex, the unapologetic messiness of her life appealed to me. I wanted her to figure things out, and she does. I was dithering whether I should put this book down for the most memorable voice award. I guess it goes there too.

Chime by Franny Billingsley

Posted on June 25, 2011 by janicu

Chime

Franny Billingsley

I read Billingsley’s The Folk Keeper back in the day (2007) before having a book blog (but I did write a very brief review which is on goodreads), and I liked it. It was different enough to stick in my mind and to take note of the author’s name. Fast forward to this year, and when I saw Chime being marketed, I was excited, and I asked for a review copy via Shelf Awareness. This is a review based on an ARC copy.

The Premise: Swampsea is a place that sits on the edge of a strange world – where creatures like witches, Dead Hands, Dark Muses, and the Boggy Mun await the unwary who stumble upon them. Briony Larkin is the daughter of the local clergyman, and she can see these Old Ones. Why she has this second sight is a dark secret that could have Briony hanged – her true nature is why her stepmother is dead and why her twin sister is different. To stop herself from harming more people, Briony promised her stepmother that she would avoid the swamp. Sadly, this is promise that is impossible to keep, and Briony fears that she has caused more destruction on those around her. While Briony frets and tries to right her wrongs, Eldric Clayborne, new arrival at Swampsea and the first boy Briony doesn’t find tiresome, gets dangerously close to unraveling her secrets.

Read a short excerpt of Chime here

My Thoughts: This story starts off in a puzzling, “I can almost make sense of this, but not quite”, way. It begins with Briony, and she’s telling someone that she deserves to be hanged. Obviously there is something wrong and as she tells us her story, more things just don’t seem to add up. Briony admits early on to not being a “regular girl” and not having any idea how to be. She tells us her family is not normal either, and from Briony’s first description, I believe her. She describes awkward silences at home, her sister’s childlike behavior, and her stepmother’s death. Then Briony begins to describe the swamp and the creatures in it. She uses terms like “the Boggy Mun”, “the snickleways”, and calls herself a “wolfgirl”. The past weaves in out of the present in her storytelling.

I began to suspect that Briony was actually quite crazy.

Briony isn’t crazy, but her world is. It’s like Wonderland – where all the residents know the rules, but any newcomer will find themselves completely at a loss and in disbelief at the local customs. Of course you need to bring a Bible Ball (a piece of scripture) into the swamp to ward off the Old Ones! Of course the Dead Hands will come to grab your hand and squeeze it off, unless something else finishes you off first! It’s not intuitive at first, but once you understand what the Old Ones are and what they do, it starts to make sense. So too does how Briony’s past affect her present.

No, Briony isn’t crazy but she is an unreliable narrator. Everything she tells the reader is colored by her belief of her own wickedness, and some of her “of course”s may not be the indisputable truths she thinks they are. In Briony’s industrial English world, a place like Swampsea is at odds with the new and exciting progresses in science and engineering. Briony feels keenly aware that Swampsea doesn’t have the same shine and bustle as the city, nor does she have the education she would have had if not for her stepmother’s illness. But while Briony feels like she and Swampsea lack refinement, Eldric challenges her outlook. He sees Swampsea as an amazing place, a different planet, where he must do as the locals do (“when in the Dragon Constellation, it’s wise to do as the Dragon Constellationers do”), and he likes Briony as she is.

As a reader I was inclined to share Eldric’s sentiments: Briony is likable, despite what she thinks. She has a sharp humor that she wields like a weapon, but only on those who deserve it. Otherwise, she’s a fiercely protective champion of those weaker than herself. And although Briony is like the moon to Eldric’s sun, they’re really quite complementary. Eldric is a fun, boyish character, endlessly making his “fidgets”, speaking to Briony in their own silly language, and organizing events which make ordinary days special, but he’s not frivolous at all. Behind his laughing exterior is a gentle astuteness which Briony fears will be her undoing. The relationship between the two is something that unfurls slowly – from Briony determined not to like him, to an easy friendship, to an uneasy friendship, and more.

I really enjoyed the way this story kept my interest with it’s strange world building but at the same time, the development of the characters (all quite colorful and three dimensional) and the romance is deftly done. Even though sometimes Briony’s narrative goes off in odd tangents, once I settled into her storytelling style, it adds to the flavor of the story. Chime is not a book that I could read cover to cover though. I could only take it in small pieces, digest what was going on, then continue. Overall I think this book, the ARC only 358 pages, took me something like 10 days of slow reading, savoring each scene, for me to finish it. I think this odd duck quality is what makes me hesitate to recommend it to everyone I know. But me? I loved it. It was one of those books that made me sigh contentedly when closed its pages.

Overall: Chime is a historical fantasy that has a mix of whimsy, creativity, and emotional depth. It’s also a story with an odd flavor. It took me a little bit to adjust to Briony’s world and her way of thinking, and I had to read Chime a few pages at a time so I could process it at my own pace, but it was so worth it. In the end, I loved it. I loved Briony. I loved Eldric. I loved Swampsea. It’s weird, but in a wonderful way, and I just felt good after reading it. I know this is going to be on the top ten list for this year.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
Steph Su Reads – positive
Chachic’s Book Nook – liked, but didn’t love
My Favourite Books – positive
The Book Smugglers – 9 (Ana), 7, leaning towards an 8 (Thea) – I’m with Ana on this one
Ellz Readz – positive
The Reading Date – positive

River Marked by Patricia Briggs

Posted on June 20, 2011 by janicu

River Marked

Patricia Briggs

This is one of the few urban fantasy series that I make sure I stay on top of (and with the number of series I’m in the middle of, this is no mean feat). With the change to hardcover and my all-my-books-in this-series-are-paperback-dammit stance, I bought the UK copy, only to find that the paperback in the UK is oddly bigger than usual and messes up the conformity of my bookshelves anyway. Why do you do this, publishers? Why? My book-buying OCD dislikes you.

River Marked is the 6th book of this series, which you should really read in order. If you haven’t read the last book, I urge you to skip this review and go to an earlier one, since the premise itself has a spoiler for earlier books.

Book 1: Moon Called
Book 2: Blood Bound
Book 3: Iron Kissed
Book 4: Bone Crossed
Book 5: Silver Borne

**** This review contains spoilers for earlier books ***

The Premise: Mercy Thompson is a magnet for trouble, and has no reason to believe that a romantic getaway with her significant other will be any different. A relaxing trip for two at a private campsite begins idyllically, until Mercy and Adam rescue a terrified Native American man floating alone on his boat. This encounter brings Mercy and Adam face to face with an evil in the Columbia River, but it also gives Mercy a chance to meet her father’s people and to learn some surprising things about her heritage.

My Thoughts: Compared to the other books in this series, River Marked is a bit toned down. After a shindig where Mercy sees the people she loves, she finally gets a bit of relaxation and alone time with Adam. The Pack and Mercy’s responsibilities, including worrying about vampire Stephan are touched upon, particularly at the beginning of the story, but the focus quickly shifts to couple-time. I don’t think there’s been much space devoted to just Mercy and her romantic relationship in previous books, so this trip alone as a couple comes at what feels like the right time. I liked seeing Mercy actually having time for herself and not necessarily being Everyone’s Keeper. Yes, there are problems looming in the horizon, but for now things in the Tri-Cities can take care of themselves and Mercy takes a break.

That said, Adam shows his brains and his familiarity with his mate when things begin to happen and not being too surprised: things just happen around Mercy. His expectation of disaster, but also his respect of Mercy’s ability to deal with it highlighted why he’s the right guy for Mercy. That said, he isn’t thrilled at the danger to his wife, and there are moments where his protective instincts override all else, but he doesn’t call in the cavalry, nor does he expect Mercy to walk away. He assesses the problem, takes into account his wife’s ability, and decides he, Mercy, and a handful of Native American allies can handle it. This is a book that focuses more on Mercy’s romance than previous books. This is good in some ways – I liked seeing Mercy in a happy, established relationship (and there were some real misty-eyed bits), but it danced a little on the over-emphasizing line for me with the constant references to Mercy and Adam’s healthy sex life. Even though it was mostly alluded to and not gone into detail, it wore thin for my tastes, but this is a relatively minor complaint, because it was balanced with what I DO like to see; the quiet, realistic moments as a couple in a healthy relationship.

But my favorite part of River Marked was the new and surprising discovers that Mercy makes during the story about her heritage as a half-Native American. Mercy and Adam are close to tribal territory and their rescue of one of their own kicks off a series of visits from men who recognize Mercy as a skinwalker (although they call it something else) and who knew her father, Joe Old Coyote. I always like seeing some interesting new world building, so I was fascinated by the new information that gets dropped (like a bomb) in River Marked. There have been installments in this series where the concentration has been on the Fae, or on vampires, or on werewolves, but never really on Mercy and her own history and her own magical abilities like this before. It was a pleasant surprise and I’m hoping we get some reappearances by one of the characters she meets in River Marked in further installments so we can find out more.

In contrast to Mercy’s usual adventures, this one is almost quiet, despite it coming with the usual dangers of death and dismemberment. It doesn’t take long for everyone to figure out that the danger is some sort of evil lurking in the water, and the problem is just how to stop it. This is a relatively straightforward problem in comparison to some of Mercy’s other adventures, although I found the river creature as creepy to read about as it is to watch Jaws. Blergh, not wading into any rivers for a while.

Overall: I’d call this a solid, maybe a bit muted installment of the Mercy Thompson series. With 5 books of non-stop action, there had to be a bit of a breather where Mercy could pull back a little and have the focus on herself and this was it. That’s not to say that there was no action – there was, but in my mind this is more of a character growth rather than action driven installment in comparison with the rest of the series. I also found this review a bit hard to write because it’s difficult to qualify how I felt reading this book, which was: it basically delivered what I expected. I liked it, but it also didn’t blow me away, but on the other hand, “solid” and “as expected” from Briggs feels like a high bar.

Buy Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository (UK ed.)

Other Reviews:
See Michelle Read – positive
Un:Bound – positive
Book Binge – 5 out of 5
Persephone Reads – “I enjoyed it, but not wholeheartedly.”
SFF Chat – “while I did enjoy reading River Marked it wasn’t my favorite book of the series”
Books & other thoughts – positive
Tynga’s Reviews – positive
Wicked Lil Pixie – 4.5 stars (out of 5)
Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell (reviewed with Silver Borne) – “Even if I did not love as much as the previous book I still loved it”
Scooper Speaks – positive
The Book Smugglers – 8 (Excellent)
Smexy Books – B

Other Links: an interesting series on Feminism in the Mercy books @ What If Books

Forget You by Jennifer Echols

Posted on June 13, 2011 by janicu

Forget You

Jennifer Echols

This is one of the books in that slew of Jennifer Echols books I bought, which I managed to read on the plane ride to Denmark last month.

The Premise: Zoey is going through a tough time. Her parents have split up because of her father’s infidelity (he got the twenty-four year-old HR manager of his water park pregnant), and her mom cannot cope with it. When her mother has a nervous breakdown, Zoey’s life is completely upended. Now she has to live with her father and she’s terrified that her friends will find out about her mom.

Then Zoey has a car accident. All she has is a vague recollection of Doug Fox, pulling her out of the wreck, but not much else. Now her football player boyfriend Brandon is acting weird and Doug Fox, the one person in her class who hates her, is acting like something happened between them. Zoey knows she was supposed to go parking with Brandon that night, but she can’t remember a thing. With little she can control, Zoey pretends that everything is okay while secretly trying to piece together exactly what happened the night of her crash.

Excerpt of Chapter 1 of Forget You

My Thoughts: This is a book where it’s pretty clear from the get go that while Zoey is a good kid, the strain of dealing with her parent’s fighting and her mother’s depression is something she’s having a very hard time dealing with. The story opens up with a prelude: Zoey driving home after finding out at her father’s water park that he got an employee pregnant. Since Zoey helped get most of her swim team get jobs there, they all know too. Unable to talk to anyone about what’s going on, she does something rash, but this time there are no dire consequences. But her rashness here proves to be the beginning of a pattern for Zoey – one in which her her hidden turmoil makes itself known in self-destructive ways.

Fast forward to the present and Zoey gets hit with the blow of her depressed mother’s hospitalization. Zoey has to move in with her furious dad, who wants her to keep her mouth shut about what is going on. The only people outside their family who know are Officer Fox and his younger brother, Doug. Zoey is appalled about this, since Doug’s given Zoey nothing but a hard time ever since his stint in juvie. His dislike doesn’t improve after she got everyone in the swim team a job at the water park except for him. Rather that confiding in any of her friends, and studiously avoiding Doug, Zoey starts a relationship with uncomplicated jock Brandon. But within a week she’s in an accident, wondering why Brandon is acting strange and guilty, and why Doug is suddenly soft-eyed around her. Zoey can’t remember the night of her accident and she’s afraid to admit she can’t, so she pretends, again, that everything is fine, while secretly scrambling to figure it out.

I really liked Doug’s character in Forget You, because he’s essentially this guy who really tries to looks out for Zoey and has her back even when she doesn’t want it. You have to give the boy points for being pretty much the only person, including her missing-in-action parents and her clueless friends, who seems to spend any time worrying about Zoey. As together as Zoey usually is, no one really knows she needs help except Doug. Now, Zoey doesn’t exactly welcome his interest, mostly because she can’t really remember what happened the night of her accident and doesn’t know why Doug suddenly cares. I’ve read reviews where readers don’t like how Zoey treats Doug, but I found her reactions to him believable. Yes, she hurts him, but with all that she’s dealing with, and with her past history with him, she has reasons to be mistrustful and generally unhappy. She also thinks that she is with Brandon. I liked how their relationship progressed throughout the book despite it being rather rocky.

I feel like Forget You has the same engrossing writing that is in Going Too Far, and there’s a similar intense relationship, but while I thought it was very good, it didn’t blow me away the way Going Too Far did. It’s not that I didn’t like Doug and Zoey as much as I liked John and Meg. I did. I think the problem that kept the book from giving me the same reading high was that the story hinged on believing that Zoey would keep the fact that she can’t remember the night of her accident a secret. I had a problem with holding my disbelief at bay when it seemed like life would have been so much easier for her if she admitted she couldn’t remember, and basically the whole premise falls apart without this. That’s the only fly in the ointment for me. Otherwise I felt that Doug and Zoey were complex, layered individuals, and I liked them as a couple. I particularly liked Doug’s Being There For Zoey persona. Although he did sometimes feel unreal, his crappy relationship with his father, and his missteps with Zoey stopped him from being perfect.

Side note: I also liked that Doug was half-Japanese, although his green eyes gave me serious pause.

Overall: Very good. This book portrays the intense connection of young love and the strain of being a teen going through troubled times very well. The writing is engaging and it’s easy to compulsively flip the pages until you are finished. However, it does have it’s flaws. My biggest one was suspension of disbelief at the idea of a girl hiding the fact that she can’t remember the night leading up to her car crash, which kind of makes the whole premise, and everything after that, unravel. Readers may also have issues with Zoey’s treatment of Doug and her methods of escaping her situation. Your mileage may vary.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
The Compulsive Reader – positive
Chachic’s Book Nook – positive
Giraffe Days – positive
Pirate Penguin’s Reads (mini review w/ Going Too Far) – 4 stars (out of 5)
La Femme Readers – 5 flowers (out of 5)
Steph Su Reads – 2.5 out of 5
Book Fare Delights – 3 out of 5
Ramblings of a Teenage Bookworm – 5 (out of 5)
Angieville – “great setup that fell flat”
See Michelle Read – positive
Pop Culture Junkie – 4.5 out of 5
Gossamer Obsessions – B
Lurv a La Mode – 4 scoops (out of 5)
Ticket to Anywhere – positive

A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner

Posted on June 6, 2011 by janicu

A Conspiracy of Kings

Megan Whalen Turner

I’ve been reading one of these a week since I finished The Thief. This one I finished in one day during our cruise. I’m going to try to review this one without spoilers, but if you haven’t read this series before, here are my reviews for the first three books:

Book 1 – The Thief
Book 2 – The Queen of Attolia
Book 3 – The King of Attolia

This is a review of an ARC copy another blogger passed along, but I need to get the finished copy since I hear that there’s new (and possibly awesome) scenes in the finished copy that aren’t in the ARC.

The Premise: This time the focus shifts away from Eugenides and towards his friend Sophos (who was introduced in The Thief). Sophos is the heir of Sounis, but he’s not very keen on becoming king. He’d be happy if he uncle marries and produces another heir. In the meantime, he would rather spend his time with his books and poetry than on learning how to govern. Then one day his uncle’s barons change the game by attacking his family’s villa. Betrayed by those he trusted, Sophos finds himself getting exactly what he wanted: to be absolutely nobody.

Browse Inside The Conspiracy of Kings

My Thoughts: Megan Whalen Turner goes back to the first person point of view again with A Conspiracy of Kings, and yeah, I kind of missed this. I like a good first person POV, and while Sophos’ voice isn’t as sarcastic as Gen’s, he has his moments. He’s a very affable person. Sophos is that guy that almost everyone likes because he’s such a sweet soul. He even befriends Gen all the way back in The Thief, and Gen notes then that Sophos “was much too nice to be a duke”. Unfortunately for Sophos, he is a duke, and not just a duke; he is the heir of Sounis. While he’d love to bury himself in poetry and books, his father and uncle want him to toughen up. They send Sophos to the island of Letnos, far from the influence of Sophos’ favorite mentor, the magus, but Sophos just isn’t interested in war and how to wage it. He chafes under the revolving door of tutors and wants to be allowed to follow his own interests. He wishes that his uncle would marry and quickly produce another heir.

His wish is not granted. Instead, Sophos and his family are attacked at the villa and Sophos is spirited off. Now he’s nameless, helpless, and no one can find him, all while his country is weakened and vulnerable to it’s enemies. Sophos realizes with bitterness the cost of not being Heir to Sounis, but he has the choice to reverse his fortune. Sophos can fade into obscurity and be free from the responsibilities he said he never wanted, or stride towards the destiny he once shied from.

This is essentially a story about Sophos growing up and making a conscious decision about who he wants to be. Before this book, I’d always sympathized with Sophos as an heir to a warmongering king (and there is at least one other character in this series who doesn’t love being royalty), but here for the first time I saw the argument that his detractors had been trying to make. To avoid his responsibilities and education as heir is the act of a boy who cannot see beyond his own personal problems, not that of a man who has to lead a nation. I think that Sophos’ likability in The Thief obscured this flaw a little, but I love how it becomes center-stage in A Conspiracy of Kings, and how the story handles Sophos’ character development.

Sophos is the main character in A Conspiracy of Kings, and much of his story is of his own journey but we do see reappearances from characters from earlier books, and yes, that does include Gen. From Sophos’ perspective the brief glimpses of Gen show yet again a different facet of his character. I have mixed feelings about that, but I couldn’t really fault his behavior, since his character seems to be constantly evolving. I think that while you probably could read this series out of order, there is an evolution that is better when it’s followed in the correct sequence. The character growth is a large part of that, but I also think that the understanding of the overarching plot arc and the world building is worlds better when you read this series in order.

I’m looking over this review and wondering if I’m leaving out one essential point, which is that I really liked A Conspiracy of Kings! I like good guys like Sophos, and rooting for him was easy. I was turning these pages like crazy person to see if he would be alright. Megan Whalen Turner throws in a couple of twists and turns along the way, including a whopper which will likely impact as-of-yet untitled Book 5, but I was left feeling quite pleased with how things turned out.

Overall: Another good one (at this point, was there a doubt?), with the same great storytelling, character development, and surprise twists as the earlier books. I enjoyed the return to a first person point of view, even if Gen wasn’t the main character. Sophos is a nice guy that I could root for and I still got my Gen fix. Each installment adds a little more to the whole series, and while A Conspiracy of Kings ended satisfactorily, it has me very curious about what we’ll see in Book 5.

(Yes, I know the next book may not be out for a couple/few years, but I’m willing to wait).

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
The Book Smugglers – 9 (Damn near perfection)
See Michelle Read – positive
Fantasy Literature – 5 stars (out of 5)
Chachic’s Book Nook – positive
The Book Bluff – positive
fully_immersed – 4 out of 5
Stella Matutina – 4 (out of 5)

book trailer:

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

Posted on June 3, 2011 by janicu

Warm Bodies

Isaac Marion

I’ve mentioned to people before that I’m not a fan of zombies, but when I was pitched this book to review on my book blog by Atria Books, I couldn’t help being intrigued. A love story with a zombie protagonist? I did a little checking and loved the voice in the excerpt (link is to a .pdf file), and before long I’d accepted a review copy, despite my zombie-dislike.

The Premise (blurb is from the publisher, since it describes the story very well) : “R is a young man with an existential crisis–he is a zombie. He shuffles through an America destroyed by war, social collapse, and the mindless hunger of his undead comrades, but he craves something more than blood and brains. He can speak just a few grunted syllables, but his inner life is deep, full of wonder and longing. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he has dreams.

After experiencing a teenage boy’s memories while consuming his brain, R makes an unexpected choice that begins a tense, awkward, and strangely sweet relationship with the victim’s human girlfriend. Julie is a blast of color in the otherwise dreary and gray landscape that surrounds R. His decision to protect her will transform not only R, but his fellow Dead, and perhaps their whole lifeless world.”

My Thoughts: The reason I don’t really like zombies in my fiction is that they’re generally in there for horror purposes – they moan and shuffle and they kill, so there’s lots of gore and eating of brains. They’re typically not the protagonist, nor are they prone to sensitive thoughts when they are. This just isn’t my thing, but Warm Bodies surprised me by going against this grain. Told from the first person perspective, Warm Bodies describes the unlife of R, a zombie with a rich inner world. R is unsatisfied by the way things are, and searches with seeming futility for something more beyond an existence that is just mindless repetition (killing, standing around, occasionally sleeping). He’s deeply introspective. He makes gently humorous observations about his ‘”life”. He wants to know who he was and what he did before he died. He has a friend (“M”) whom he converses with (albeit in slow, low syllable sentences). He feels torn about eating people.

“I trail behind the group as the city disappears behind us. My steps plod a little heavier than the others’. When I pause at a rain-filled pothole to scrub gore off my face and clothes, M drops back and slaps a hand on my shoulder. He knows my distaste for some of our routines. He knows I’m a little more sensitive than most. Sometimes he teases me, twirls my messy black hair into pigtails and says, “Girl. Such….girl.” But he knows when to take my gloom seriously. He pats my shoulder and just looks at me. His face isn’t capable of much expressive nuance anymore, but I know what he wants to say. I nod, and we keep walking.”

R is incredibly articulate on paper despite his verbal incoherence (R’s “personal record is a four rolling syllables before some …thing…jams”), which is a big part of what makes his story compelling and readable. He’s different from the undead stereotype, and his uniqueness makes his follow zombies eye him with a certain degree of discomfort.

Outsider status aside, it is difficult to see R as a hero or romantic lead until he kills a teenager named Perry Kelvin. R experiences the scraps of Perry’s memories and his love for girlfriend Julie. It’s normal for zombies to see visions of their victim’s life, but R has never had a vision like this. Instead of killing Julie, R is compelled to keep her safe. Once Julie enters the story, her interactions with R slowly but surely move the story in a more hopeful direction. R’s sweet gestures and shy courtship and Julie’s bright view of the world despite it’s bleakness, had me in rooting for them, but it is well-balanced by the dark and gritty environment. There are also those who don’t like change in any form who see their relationship as a threat to the way things are, and there are many tense moments when Julie and R are confronted by them.

Although I would put “character” down as the greatest strength of Warm Bodies, (both primary and secondary characters were well fleshed out), I was impressed by the world building as well. There is a great sense of setting – the airport that is the ‘home base’ of the zombies and the sometimes surprising activities there (zombies go to church, don’t you know?), and on the flip side, the stadiums which have become the last refuge of the living. It fascinated me to read how society has coped with zombies and how children are raised in this new world.

I even liked the ending. It may push against your suspension of disbelief, but I found the conclusion completely satisfying. Any complaints I’d have are nits. One is a small inconsistency in R being unable to read early in the book but I’m not sure if I misunderstood this. The other is that I’m not sure whether or not R really gives the reader an explanation for the zombie outbreaks, which some readers may dislike. As it was, I preferred the ambiguity.

Overall: Zombies usually aren’t my favorite supernatural creature and I never expected to believe in a zombie hero, but I liked Warm Bodies. R’s voice is so sensitive and eloquent that I found myself rooting for him to get the girl and save the world. The romance works, and is incredibly sweet to boot, but the story also doesn’t shy away from describing the new realities in a post-apocalyptic landscape. I really enjoyed this fresh take on zombies: recommended.

In other news – Warm Bodies is being adapted into a movie. The Internets tell me that it’s being directed by Jonathan Levine and will star Nicholas Hoult (of About a Boy and X-Men:First Class fame) as R.

Book Blogger Convention goodies

Andd… Warm Bodies is a book that was being given away at the Book Blogger Convention, and I snagged a couple of extra copies. One is going to a friend, but the other is up for grabs in a giveaway! I’ll be putting that post up in a bit.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
Angieville – positive
The Book Smugglers – 9 out of 10
My Favourite Books – positive
Escape In a Book – 5 out of 5

Trailer:

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

Posted on May 29, 2011 by janicu

The Sugar Queen

Sarah Addison Allen

[Yup, quiet yet again, and I fear end of June is the light at the end of the tunnel, but I’m trying to break the sad hiatus over here ]

I remember seeing positive reviews of Sarah Addison Allen’s books, but what kept me away was knowing that they had a bit of magical realism in them. This is my confession – high school has ruined magical realism for me. It made me hate magical realism. I have avoided it for a very long time since, but because the cruise library had a very small section, The Sugar Queen was the only book I was remotely interested in, so I picked it up on a whim. It was fortunate that limited choices led me to this one, because I ended up really liking it despite my prejudice.

The Premise: Josey Cirrini is trying to resign herself to a life of obedience to her mother Margaret. They are one of the richest families in Bald Slope, North Carolina, thanks to the late Marco Cirrini, who made his fortune in turning a nowhere town into a popular ski destination. Josey spends her days trying to make her mother happy, while secretly hoarding a cache of candy, romance novels and travel magazines in her closet. Then one night, Josey discovers local waitress Della Lee Baker hiding in her closet too, and Della refuses to leave without fixing up Josey’s life. Soon Josey finds herself befriending cafe owner Chloe Finley, who has problems of her own – she just kicked out her boyfriend Jake Yardley after discovering that he cheated on her. Slowly but surely Josey and Chloe’s lives intersect and change, causing a ripple effect on those around them.

Read an excerpt of Chapter 1 of The Sugar Queen here

My Thoughts: It’s hard to come up with a premise for this book that doesn’t sound like it has some very plot points that go off in seemingly non-related tangents. This story begins without any preamble and drops us into an odd situation – Josey finding Della Lee hiding in her closet. If you were to make any assumptions of where this is going you’d likely be wrong, but the unpredictability of the narrative is part of the charm of this novel, along with it’s infusion of odd magics.

Let’s start with Josey, because the story begins with her. Her life is regimented by her mother’s schedule and not much else. She’s constantly told what colors to wear (not red!), what to do and how much trouble she was as a child. It’s a dreary existence, despite it’s well-to-do trappings, and she could be a meek, pitiful daughter because of it, but Josey has resilience. She has her pocket of escapes and happiness – her candy and reads, her love of winter, and her secret crush on mailman Adam. Then Della Lee’s interference pushes Josey out of her rut. She tells Josey to wear a bit of makeup and that she does look good in red, that she should leave Bald Slope and see the places she dreams about, and she nags Josey to go to the courthouse to buy a grilled cheese sandwich. This leads Josey to cafe owner and excellent sandwich-maker, Chloe. It’s a hard time for Chloe too, because she just kicked out her boyfriend, but she’s still happy to befriend Josey. In fact, their friendship seems to come as easily as breathing, and it’s just the thing for both of them.

The narrative flows easily, albeit in a route that’s difficult to foretell. We spend some time with Chloe, discovering the back story of her current problems, and even spend some time with Margaret, Josey’s mother and discover what she’s hidden behind the aging beauty’s strict adherence to propriety. The women are the central characters here, but we also spend a few moments peeking into the minds of their respective paramours, Jake and Adam, both whom are caught by surprise from the women they took for granted.

“Why hadn’t he seen it before? Three years. Why hadn’ he known she was in love with him? “Are you sure you don’t want to keep this scarf?” he called after her.
“No.”
“No, you don’t want to keep it? Or no, you’re not sure?”
She looked over her shoulder at him and smiled slightly. His breath caught.
He felt a strange stirring, something he hadn’t felt in a very long time. It felt a little like when a limb falls asleep but then slowly surely, there’s a tingling, an almost uncomfortable sensation… of waking up.
“

Throughout it all, wondrous things happen. Della Lee is part of this magic, like the way books suddenly appear when Chloe needs them, the way water boils when Jake and Chloe get close, the way Josey came feel that Adam is nearing her house. It’s a rather quirky and charming species of magical realism; not the kind I’m used to, which is a good thing, and this charm permeates the rest of the book.

Overall: I liked it, and maybe I’m a bit surprised I did but it charmed away my misgivings about reading a book with magic realism in it. I find it hard to describe – simple, yet clever, slice-of-life, yet magical, twisty, yet genuine. I found it landed on the feel-good side, so I think I’ll be returning to Sarah Addison Allen when I’m looking for a nice read that will leave me with a small smile on my face.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
Angieville – positive
Stephanie’s Written Word – positive
Good Books and Good Wine – positive
Books and Other Thoughts – positive
Chachic’s Book Nook – positive

Other links:
Extras @ Sarah Addison Allen’s website

Spellcast by Barbara Ashford

Posted on May 20, 2011 by janicu

Spellcast

Barbara Ashford

This is a review for a book I received from the publisher/author.

The Premise: When Maggie Graham is laid off and her apartment ceiling collapses into her bathroom on the same day, she has a good cry, then dusts herself off and decides she needs to figure out what to do next. So she packs up and drives. She finds herself in Dale, Vermont, next to a tiny theatre holding auditions for their summer program. On a whim Maggie tries out, and gets a small part. At the Crossroads Theatre, Maggie meets many people, including mysterious, otherworldly director, Rowan McKenzie, who chooses roles according to need rather than talent. As the summer at Dale continues, the more Maggie learns about Rowan and his special relationship with the theatre and the town.

Read an excerpt of Spellcast here

My Thoughts: It’s hard to categorize this book. I think it falls under contemporary fantasy, but it feels like it’s themes are more about the human condition than it is about the fantastic, although there is a definite otherworldly influence that permeates Maggie’s experiences in Dale. It also has romantic elements, it doesn’t follow the usual romantic conventions. I would say that the story has fantasy and romance elements but it also has a healthy dose of realism.

The story begins with Maggie’s introduction to the Crossroads Theatre and is integrated into it’s family-like atmosphere. I think that if you are a fan of musical theatre and if you’ve been part of the stage atmosphere yourself you will enjoy the camaraderie that quickly becomes part of Maggie’s life. It starts off as you would expect: meeting a lot of people in a short amount of time – the other out-of-towners who have stumbled upon the Crossroads and have auditioned, as well as the locals that keep the Crossroads running. There’s a a dizzying number of characters introduced in a short time, particularly at the start of the book, which I found a little confusing at first, but once I got my bearings and was able to group characters into cast and locals I was good to go, and the large number of characters seems necessary to the theatre atmosphere.

There’s a friendliness and enthusiasm that Maggie feels, but she notices some strange things as well. The other actors found themselves in Dale much the way she did – they somehow stumbled upon it by chance, with no prior plans to be there. Then there is the theater director, Rowan, who makes some odd choices in who will play what roles. As Maggie gets to know the Crossroads, she realizes that there’s a reason for the plays beyond mere entertainment, and Rowan is at the center of why. So Maggie watches the enigmatic Rowan, taking note of his Svengali-like appeal and influence over the cast and crew. The permanent theatre people are protective of his secrets, which only makes Maggie more curious. As the summer continues, she finds out what he really is, and of course the more she discovers the more involved she becomes in Rowan’s life.

Compared to most of the other characters, Maggie is relatively level-headed, and most of the story is told in her first person point of view, so we get to see the Crossroads through her no-nonsense, slightly cynical gaze. Maggie’s refusal to have the wool pulled over her eyes makes her the ideal character to explain the unreal goings on at the theatre and to uncover what is behind it. Interspersed with Maggie’s POV are small sections where Rowan’s feelings about Maggie are described in a sort of diary-entry format.

Of course the combination of Maggie’s character with that of Rowan’s and the mutual interest, there is the set up for a romance, but while this story is romantic, i didn’t feel like it followed the rules of your usual Romance. Although I could feel Maggie’s excitement and growing feelings for Rowan, I found myself disconnected from it. It felt like there were too many obstacles and people involved, and that I didn’t know enough about Rowan to understand Maggie’s feelings, but this disconnect worked within this story, where it may not have worked elsewhere. Ultimately Maggie and Rowan’s relationship in Spellcast is more about their individual growth through their knowing one another than it was about following the usual romantic path. I actually liked where their story went and how this book was resolved. There was something satisfying and hopeful about the ending of Spellcast even though it may not be the ending you expect (although it does try to warn you).

Spellcast felt self-contained but I found out that its the start of a series. The sequel comes out Spring 2012.

Overall: I liked this one. It has a unique mix of elements – real life with it’s human problems sharing space with the fantastic and fairytale, with a romantic, musical theatre twist. I’m not sure how to describe it, but it managed to convey love and life in a way that felt equal parts everyday and otherworldly. I like that it had elements that were a little uncomfortable and alien, and that things didn’t work out as they would in a fairytale, but it still had an ending that felt right. With a sequel in the works, I’m eager to discover where the story will go next.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
Wicked Lil Pixie – 5 stars (out of 5)

Wolfsbane by Patricia Briggs

Posted on May 6, 2011 by janicu

Wolfsbane

Patricia Briggs

I read and reviewed the first part of this duology by Patricia Briggs here:

The Premise: Aralorn has been called home after ten years away as a spy for the mercenary city-state of Sianim – her father, the Lion of Lambshold has died. Aralorn returns to the family she left behind and to the reasons why she left. She also discovers that her father is actually alive but kept in a death-like state through some malicious black magic spell which neither she nor Wolf can easily break. The question becomes – how can they free Aralorn’s father before his life leaves him for real, and who is responsible for his “death”, and why?

My Thoughts: This book starts off not too long after the events of the last book – just enough time for people to settle down again after what happened at the ae’Magi’s castle. The principle characters of the first book have gone back to their regular roles, and Aralorn and Wolf have gone back to the spying game. Apparently the world has accepted happened at the ae’Magi’s castle with minimal repercussions, and if there are to be significant world changing events because of it, they aren’t happening right away.

Almost no one knows or suspects that Aralorn and Wolf were ever involved with what happened, but when Aralorn’s father is targeted, the first thought to come to mind is that their fight is not over. It’s natural to wonder if such a evil villain, whose body is never found, is really still alive. When people begin to have strange dreams that feel like they are memories rather than dreams, it suggests a perpetrator with magical power, again pointing at the ae’Magi, but there are a few magic users in the vicinity of Lambshold, including Aralorn’s brother-in-law as well as her shapeshifter relatives. And then, there’s the new ae’Magi. Thus, Wolfsbane is a sort of a magical whodunit to find out who is behind the Lion of Lambshold’s “death”,with the side effect that we get to delve into Aralorn’s beginnings and explore her relationship with Wolf.

I love Patricia Briggs’ current urban fantasy series, but when I read Wolfsbane and compare it to her newer work, it lacks finesse. I can see the foundation in Wolfsbane for the writer Briggs is now. It has the ideas and a relationship between two unique characters which I love in Briggs’ recent work, but the execution here is a little clunky. Aralorn and Wolf have only two weeks to lift the spell on her father but there’s little sense of urgency or pressure from Aralorn’s family about how little time they have and how little they know. Compared with Masques, which had quite a bit of action, Wolfsbane less physical, more verbal. It mostly deals with Aralorn and Wolf asking the opinions of the nearby experts, deciding what to do next, and contemplating their relationship with each other.

In both the mystery and the relationship I found things a little too scripted. Aralorn would tell stories or make decisions that seem out of the blue, but they had a direct bearing on the story later on. Similarly she knows Wolf’s state of mind before he does, and while he’s being the self-hating hero, she’s cheerfully understanding. I enjoyed Aralorn and Wolf’s relationship in Masques, because I felt that Wolf’s prickliness was well balanced with Aralorn’s ability to see what he was really feeling. Unfortunately, in Wolfsbane, this same relationship didn’t work for me, probably because Wolf’s role as a tortured hero was revisited constantly. After a while I began to find his angst and Aralorn’s response tedious. That’s not to say that there were not one or two sweet moments between Aralorn and Wolf that I liked reading, but I felt that some of the space used to repeat what we know about their relationship could have been used to deepen the plot and flesh out the secondary characters. Instead, the relationship took precedence over the plot, and the cheerful demeanor Aralorn uses with Wolf jarred in the face of her father’s near-death state.

Overall: Many aspects of this story were fit together in a way that lacks the polish I expect of Briggs today. It feels like an early work, and one that doesn’t quite have the same charm that I found in Masques. For die-hard fans of Patricia Briggs, this is a must read, but as a fantasy novel, it’s mildly entertaining, but did not stand out. The story may work better for readers who are more interested in the wounded-man-and-his-savior relationship between the two main characters and are not as invested in the fantasy aspects.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
One Good Book Deserves Another – 4/5
Fantasy Literature – 3/5 (“lacks thrills, but romance is sweet”)

The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

Posted on May 5, 2011 by janicu

The King of Attolia

Megan Whalen Turner

Well I’m just going through this whole series for some reason. *cough*.

Book 1: The Thief

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Book 2: The Queen of Attolia

**** This review does spoil earlier books so if you haven’t read The Thief and The Queen of Attolia, here’s your chance to leave. I’m going to be circumspect in the premise and first paragraph, then I’m diving in. 🙂 ****

The Premise: Costis is a captain in the Attolian palace guard and he has very little respect for the new king of his country. Like most Attolians, he’s certain that his queen is not a willing wife to the new king, a weak and silly man, who is nothing like how a king should be. So when the king makes a disparaging remark about the Attolian guards, Costis sees red and hits his king in the face. This begins his own personal nightmare as he’s forced to redeem himself by becoming the king’s new whipping boy. It also gives Costis an up-close view of the new king of Attolia and the longer he serves him, the more he discovers.

My Thoughts: Heheh, things get good in this installment. Once again the story is in the third person, but the focus is now on a new-to-us character – Costis, a member of the Attolian palace guard and what his perspective is on his king and queen shortly after their wedding and the treaty between their two countries. Costis is a very straightforward kind of guy. He’s honest about how he feels and he prefers things to be simple and out in the open. Which makes him not only the complete opposite of his king, but an easy target.

I really hope that the people who haven’t read the first two books are gone now so that I can stop dancing around who is now king. If not, you did this to yourself.

Alright, so by the third book, I think readers have gotten to the point where they have certain expectations of Eugenides. Namely: you don’t underestimate Eugenides. He’s just good at thinking several steps ahead and at pretending to be more vulnerable and powerless than he actually is. While this is something that I love about his character, he can’t approach his current situation the way he is indefinitely. The problem here is that he is king, and as Costis tells him after hitting him, it is “because you didn’t look like a king”. I think that part of Eugenides reluctance to take up the reins of power and to really show his true strength is that he wants to be married to Attolia, but becoming king to be married to her wasn’t something he thought about. Now he’s far from his home and family in unfriendly territory.

This book is about Eugenides moving forward towards accepting his position. He already has it in him to be kingly, but these are the first days of his rule in a country that has its share of unrest. Its Barons test the Queen when they can, and no one likes the new King. It’s in Eugenides’ nature to poke fun at people even when they don’t know that they’re made fun of. He dances with the wrong girls, he falls asleep at important meetings, he looks bored and foolish.

The fun of this book was sitting back and seeing him through the eyes of a new character and in a new role and setting. It’s fun to watch the subtle progression in Costis’ feelings as the book goes along, because he becomes privy to things other Attolians do not see. For instance the relationship between the king and the queen, and Eugenides’ weak moments. There’s a certain amount of darkness there, much more than previous books.

I think this may be my favorite of the series, but I don’t think it was perfect. There were parts that felt over explained, and this is a series that explains though showing – so for instance the relationship between Eugenides and Attolia was sometimes theatrical. I also felt like part of this book had Eugenides exerting his powers to direct Attolia towards a different rule – one that has less fear and mistrust, and they way this was shown was problematic. I felt like some parts were heavy handed if you got what was going on, but on the other hand, if you didn’t understand the point of what Eugenides was doing, it may just look confusing.

Overall: I pretty much loved The King of Attolia. There were minor details that I felt could have been better, but otherwise I had a ton of fun reading it. I think it appealed to the thinker-aheader in me to see if Eugenides could surprise me. I love books that do that.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Fantasy Cafe – 8/10
Emily and Her Little Pink Notes – 5/5
Angieville – positive
Stella Matutina – 4.5 stars
Book Harbinger – positive
fully-immersed – positive
All About Books – positive
jmc-bks – positive