Valkyrie Rising

Nothing ever happens in Norway. But at least Ellie knows what to expect when she visits her grandmother: a tranquil fishing village and long, slow summer days. And maybe she’ll finally get out from under the shadow of her way-too-perfect big brother, Graham, while she’s there.

What Ellie doesn’t anticipate is Graham’s infuriating best friend, Tuck, tagging along for the trip. Nor did she imagine boys going missing amid rumors of impossible kidnappings. Least of all does she expect something powerful and ancient to awaken in her and that strange whispers would urge Ellie to claim her place among mythological warriors. Instead of peace and quiet, there’s suddenly a lot for a girl from L.A. to handle on a summer sojourn in Norway! And when Graham vanishes, it’s up to Ellie—and the ever-sarcastic, if undeniably alluring Tuck—to uncover the truth about all the disappearances and thwart the nefarious plan behind them.

Deadly legends, hidden identities, and tentative romance swirl together in one girl’s unexpectedly-epic coming of age.
from goodreads.com

Beth says 4 Stars...
The only reason I have this book is because I happened to be on Facebook at the right time when HarperTeen was giving this away as a free download.  It's one of the few times my procrastinatorial tendencies have paid off.  I think this book resonated a little more with me because I'm currently spending a bit of time living in the Nordic region.  I could laugh at how everyone seems to be blond (although I have found some brunettes here) and relate to the small village atmosphere.  Revamping Valkyries was a good idea because it offers ample opportunities for awesome mythological women.  Who doesn't like giant blond warrior ladies?  The plot takes a little bit to get going and has a few stops and starts along the way, but I read this novel quite quickly because it was pure fun.  Although twists and turns are few, the plot moves at a brisk pace that will keep you involved.

Ellie was a fantastic heroine.  Although she does suffer a bit from the typical perennial lack of awareness of her own attractiveness, most of her personality is pleasant to read about.  She holds her own when she needs to and grows into a better self awareness throughout the book.  I really appreciated that the main romantic tension is between Ellie and Tuck, who've known each other for years.  None of that madness where people meet and within two hours are professing their love.  I just have to say that Ellie and Graham's grandmother is awesome.  I think it's fantastic that such a character exists.

Overall this is a super fun read.  If you feel the need for a little more Norse mythology in your life, grab this book.  It's a nice reminder of the beautiful Scandinavian summer with some seriously awesome warrior women.
ebook from publisher

Ever Shade

A dark twist on faeries. For Shade, a chance meeting with a powerful Teleen faery warrior who wields electrical currents and blue fires along his skin, has her joining him on a treacherous mission for the good Seelie Faerie Court across the land of Faerie. Magic and malice abound and nothing is what it really seems to be. The evil Unseelie Queen and her treacherous allies are around every corner as Shade makes her way across the breathtaking landscapes of the world of Faerie, which exists alongside the mundane human world. Shade discovers her own uncharted magic and meets some of the most powerful warriors in Faerie while battling evil dryads, conniving Teleen guards and challenges on her life with every step in a world where nothing can be taken for granted
from goodreads.com

Beth says 2 Stars...
Every reader has their pet peeves (or at least I do) and sometimes a book seems to know just how to hit them.  Ever Shade did just that for me.  What irritated me the most was the language, in both the dialogue and the narration.  The language contintually switched levels of formality, from highly stilted to standard modern conversation.  I wouldn't have minded if there was a reason for it, but I couldn't find one.  Because this book dealt with high faeries and a teenager, having super formal and modern speach together in one set of dialogue would make sense.  However, it doesn't make sense to combine them in the same character and even the same sentence.  Similar things happened in the descriptions and the other text of the novel.  Perhaps my intense dislike is unwarranted, but I don't think I'm the only person who this sort of writing annoys.  The story itself was decent, however, I felt like few things were fully explained.  Maybe it's because there are more books in this series, but I really wish the culture of Faerie and its inhabitants had been explained a bit more.  Several intersting things had just a quick line or two of discussion that wasn't enough to understand anything.

I found Shade fairly irritating.  Within the first chapter she makes a series of questionable decisions and begins getting involved in events she doesn't understand.  She just forges ahead without really attempting to gather information about what's happening.  Beyond that, I didn't find her particularly interesting.  I just couldn't gather strong feelings about both her and her epic quest, except that the quest would be interesting to follow with a different person in the focus.  The other characters were equally blah.  There was a real lack of characterization in general, but especially with the members of the company who should have been significantly more flushed out.  If asked immediately after finishing the book to name all the individuals who traveled with Shade, I couldn't do it.  Again, there was a lot of potential for neat subplots and showing different sides of Faerie that was completely squandered.

As much as I love a good story about the Fey, I would pass on this one.  Maybe the series gets better, but I'm honestly not going to continue.
book from Publisher

Shadows of Ghosts

Shadows of Ghosts carries readers to Enara, a kingdom at war with itself, where for centuries centaurs have been treated like animals because of their horse-like lower bodies; they’ve been forced to work as slaves in the southern agricultural provinces, and have been bought and sold like livestock. But a strong abolitionist faction has convinced many that centaurs’ human torsos, heads, and intellectual abilities make them humans, who should be liberated from slavery and granted the same rights as any other person. After four years of being forced to live in a remote village and having to keep his real identity a secret, Cal Lanshire, days away from his thirteenth birthday, is given the best birthday present he can imagine. He is told the war is almost over and he will soon be allowed to return home. But then an old acquaintance unexpectedly arrives with news that changes everything. Cal’s father, the king, has been assassinated. Suddenly the outcome of the war and the very fate of the kingdom depend upon Cal being able to reach the capital where he will take his father’s place. With only his crafty best friend by his side and an escaped centaur to guide him, can Cal make it through the enchanted, hostile wilderness, past the assassins sent to kill him, and back to the capital before it’s too late?
from goodreads.com

Beth says 2 Stars...
This book has a really interesting premise, especially with the war over centaur slaves.  However, basically everything went downhill from the idea. Haucke uses a heavy hand with similarities to the US Civil War; to the point where the king is assassinated by an actor with southern sympathies while attending a play.  The southern states have left the rest of the kingdom because they want to keep their centaur slaves (condescendingly called "naggies").  I will go ahead and say that my opinions are probably colored by having just watched the movie 12 Years A Slave, which is an astounding and heartbreaking portrayal of slavery.  In comparison, this novel felt cheap and far too simplistic.  The former centaur slave's tale of escape is as cliche as it could be without any emotional power.  I think I could have forgiven some of the flaws if the story actually made me feel something, but I had no emotional response to anything in the novel.

I also had a major problem with the characters; they were so flat.  I got no depth from any of them, not even the intrepid prince Cal.  Cal constantly had these"bad feelings" about things that served to warn him of whatever danger might be around.  However, we received no explanation for his gut knowledge that kept being casually mentioned whenever something would go wrong.  Not only that, but the secondary characters also lacked complexity.  The madman at least managed to tell his story in a truly crazy way, but I'm not entirely sure how much of that was intended.  For me to really enjoy a novel I have to form some sort of connection with one of the characters, but none of them were deep enough for me to do that.  I also felt an almost complete lack of female characters.  We met one woman in the course of the action and a few others in the course of major characters' flashbacks, but none of them were given their own subplots or even lasted more than a chapter.  Where were the interesting females (because we could have had an awesome lady centaur)?

Overall I'd give this book a pass.  Although the concept is really cool, the execution fails constantly.  The plot itself isn't bad, but so much more could have been done.
ebook from publisher

Pieces of Me

Release date 2/11/2014

When high school oddball and introvert Jessica Chai is killed in a car accident, her parents decide that Jessica would have wanted her organs donated to those who so desperately need these gifts of life. But Jessica is angry about dying and being dismembered. Taking the idea of cell memory to the next level, not only do the recipients get pieces of Jessica, but gets pieces of their memories and lives moving forward—she knows what they know and keeps tabs on their growth, recovery, and development. This begins her journey to learn her purpose as she begins to grasp that her ties to these teenagers goes beyond random weirdness. It's through their lives that Jessica learns about herself, as she watches the lives she literally touched continue to interlock.

from goodreads.com

 

Beth says 4 Stars...

I was super excited when I read the summary for this book.  I'm really passionate about organ donation, to the point where I was the president of an organ donation awareness club in high school (SODA - we had a pretty solid acronym).  However, I hated the first part of the book.  So much so that I would have put it down if I didn't have to review it.  Jess comes off annoying and self-centered, while only giving us a brief sense of her life.  The introduction of several characters feels forced any quite a few scenes don't seem relevant to anything.  I'm so glad that I pushed through because after the car crash things really get going and it becomes a wonderful book.  The plot isn't action based and focuses instead on the characters.  Their struggles with the reality of chronic illness and the aftermath of the transplants were conveyed beautifully.

 

As I mentioned, the characters are the most important piece of this novel.  We get to see them from Jess's close, but just removed enough perspective.  Through her we get to know the others from both her and their thoughts and I loved it.  The ways the character's lives intersect were fun and touching.  I actually had to reread the beginning of the book when I finished because I realized I'd missed a few connections.  It was great to read about such different people because they all have different journeys to go on.  What Kizer did so skillfully was let each character have their own story and growth.  None of the arcs felt forced.  I don't want to give away too much, but suffice it to say that I wanted to alternately hug and shake certain individuals.

 

A final warning: don't read the end of this book in public unless you're okay with crying in front of strangers.  I think the summary for the book is a bit misleading. This isn't a story full of anger (although there is a bit of it); it's filled with pain and hope.  It shows how incredibly important organ donation is and how, despite everything, good can come from heartache.

ebook from publisher

Beastly

I am a beast.

A beast. Not quite wolf or bear, gorilla or dog but a horrible new creature who walks upright--a creature with fangs and claws and hair springing from every pore. I am a monster.

You think I'm talking fairy tales? No way. The place is New York City. The time is now. It's no deformity, no disease. And I'll stay this way forever--ruined--unless I can break the spell.

Yes, the spell, the one the witch in my English class cast on me. Why did she turn me into a beast who hides by day and prowls by night? I'll tell you. I'll tell you how I used to be Kyle Kingsbury, the guy you wished you were, with money, perfect looks, and the perfect life. And then, I'll tell you how I became perfectly . . . beastly.

from goodreads.com

 

Beth says 4 Stars...

 

I thought this book was a lot of fun!  I'm always a sucker for a fairy tale update, so when I saw this one go on sale I bought it.  For some reason it took me months to read it, but I'm glad I finally picked it up.  I was probably a bit apprehensive after seeing stills from the movie.  The books is quite short; I read it in one sitting.  The update was done cleverly and made sense once the framework was established.  There's no way a prince could mysteriously vanish from the public consciousness in this day and age.  Making Beast one of the uber rich who in reality occupy much of the entitlement that royalty used to have was a smart move.  There weren't many twists and turns to the overall plot of the fairy tale, so no big nasty surprises.  I wish for a talking plate, though.  I did adore the little chat room dialogues that brought in snippets of other fairy tales.  The names cracked me up.

 

The characters fit in with the update of the story.  Kyle starts out like a run-of-the-mill popular pretty boy, but grows throughout the book.  Although he's the narrator, I didn't fully connect with him.  That might be because Belle is my spirit princess and I waited for this version to come along.  She's just as wonderfully bookish and smart as I expected.  The hardest part to modernize was that she is essentially kidnapped and it wasn't done as successfully as everything else.  Because of the isolation that Kyle imposes upon himself, there aren't too many supporting characters to discuss.

 

Overall I really enjoyed the book.  It's a fun, quick read perfect for a winter evening when you want something both light and dark.  Flinn made some smart choices and I look forward to reading more of her books!
ebook purchased

Pegasus by Robin McKinley

Because of a thousand-year-old alliance between humans and pegasi, Princess Sylviianel is ceremonially bound to Ebon, her own pegasus, on her twelfth birthday. The two species coexist peacefully, despite the language barriers separating them. Humans and pegasi both rely on specially-trained Speaker magicians as the only means of real communication.

But it's different for Sylvi and Ebon. They can understand each other. They quickly grow close-so close that their bond becomes a threat to the status quo-and possibly to the future safety of their two nations.
from goodreads.com

Beth says 5 Stars…

I’ve been a huge fan of Robin McKinley’s books for years now, and this was no exception. She has a habit of writing stand-alone novels, so imagine my absolute shock when I reached the final page of this book… and it cut of in the middle of the action. I honestly had no idea this would be a series; nothing gives any indication of another book on the way except for McKinley’s website, which I immediately scoured for information. I know that quite a few people won’t agree with me because this book moves slowly where plot is concerned. The story focuses more on the development of characters and relationships than obvious action. There is some in there, but it doesn’t command the focus of the book. However, I still read this in one afternoon/evening in one sitting because I couldn’t put it down. The sheer atmospheric beauty of the prose entranced me and kept me wanting more. So much of current fantasy relies on a constantly fast paced plot to entertain readers and often the writing suffers. I felt transported into the lives of Sylvi and Ebon; the world they lived in was stunningly crafted. The pegasi didn’t fit my expectations in the most wonderful of ways, and allowed me to release my preconceptions of the species that I’d received from other mythologies. It gives in depth views of two completely different cultures and captures the feeling of “otherness” which is rarely done successfully. The pegasi are so different from humans (those in the book as well) that I found it easy to sympathize with Sylvi because I felt the same way through the pages.

The characters manage to be themselves in a breathtaking manner. I never had a moment where I couldn’t understand why a character did something; I couldn’t image them any other way. The friendship between Sylvi and Ebon grew in a genuine way, changing just enough based on their circumstances but never losing its essence of care for one another. Sylvi delighted me as she grew into her role (which I’ll just say has the potential to make the second book fascinating), with her unintentional grace and ever present intelligence making her even more brilliant as a heroine. Ebon as a pegasus is obviously not the typical leading male of a fantasy novel, but that endeared him even more to me. His personality shined through the cross species differences, keeping him both relatable and foreign. Other characters do take part in the book, but it belongs so thoroughly to these two that nobody else particularly merits mentioning.

I’m rather surprised that the book is geared for children age 12… it lacks the action most of them probably crave. I would say that mature readers who want something mellow and lyrically written should pick this up. Pegasus strikes me as another one of McKinley’s grown up fairytales that rely on her gorgeous prose and immerse readers in a whole new world. If you’re looking for a thrill ride this isn’t for you, but it’s a stunning novel with a sequel I can’t wait to read.
Book from Library

Sabriel

(I know this is an older cover, but it's the one I first picked up and read - for nostalgia's sake!)

For many years Sabriel has lived outside the walls of the Old Kingdom, away from the random power of Free Magic, and away from the Dead who won't stay dead. But now her father, the Mage Abhorsen, is missing, and to find him Sabriel must cross back into that treacherous world - and face the power of her own extraordinary destiny.
from garthnix.co.uk

Beth says 5 Stars...

This book is perhaps the best example I have of an oldie, but a goodie... I can't believe I haven't reviewed it before! I remember the first time I read it that my mother came into my room at midnight to take it away from me since I wouldn't go to sleep until I finished it; that's how good it is. The setting feels like a real world, not just something created on a page. Nix manages to capture the pain and fragmentation of a nation in turmoil as if it existed alongside us. More than that, the plot just plain sucks you in. It goes back to having a fascinating story unlike anything else the readers have seen. The novel falls into some delightfully dark places without becoming terrifying. This I think, really shows in the representations of Death and how it can be conquered by the bells, but eventually must be surrendered to. I also have to mention the magic in the book because I adore the way it takes shape. The combination of the old, traditional mark system with the completely new mythology of the different bloodlines and the charter stones still makes this one of my all time favorite representations of magic.

Then we get to the characters, each of which finds a facet of awesome somehow. The most basic way to describe Sabriel is that she kicks ass. Not that she prefers fisticuffs, but her determination and ability to accomplish tasks no matter what makes her fabulous. I really connected with her because of her imperfections; she does get panicked and make wrong decisions. However, despite it all she has an ability to set herself aside and work things out for the good of everyone. Then we come to Touchstone, who half the time makes me want to hug him and the other time smack him. I think he becomes endearing once his relationship with Sabriel grows (although even at the beginning he's awkward in a cute way), and when you learn how much love and compassion he has for everyone. I'm going to leave off with perhaps my favorite character... Mogget. The sarcasm that drips off his every word makes me smile. He acts as a sort of acerbic reality check for Sabriel, which makes so much sense with the talking cat persona, and teaches her how to survive in the Old Kingdom. At least, when he's not trying to con her into taking off his collar or just flat out attempting to kill her.

This book is nothing new, but still absolutely amazing. If you love YA fantasy and haven't read it yet do so now. Sometimes I'm in the mood for the latest thing, but this is one I've read over and over again. Even though what I got from it at 12 is different from what I learned at 20, the story still haunts and captivates me after all of this time. This should be a classic example of how to create an intense and magical experience that you have to come back for again and again.