Annette's Book Spot

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Book Review: The Prey, by Andrew Fukuda @AndrewFukuda

The Prey equaled The Hunt in it's desperation and intensity, but in a lot of ways, its a different book.

At the end of The Hunt, our main characters are on a raft on the river. The Prey starts out immediately where The Hunt ended. They have many trials on the river, but eventually get to a place on land. I don't want to say much about what happens, but what seems to be a safe haven, isn't always what it seems.

I don't really think that's a spoiler, because when they arrive at this place, we're around page 80, and it's a 320 page book. So you know something is going to happen. They do encounter "people" (the vampire monsters in The Hunt), but now they are called duskers. But we don't really get up close to the duskers much. I enjoyed all of their quirks that were described in The Hunt - scratching their wrists, the drooling, the noises -- you know, all that gross stuff. And I missed that. I wanted more close up contact with the duskers. Not much of that is in The Prey. But, what is in The Prey is some character growth (including a budding romance), some really creepy new characters, and a lot of detective work on the part of Sissy and Gene to figure out what the heck is going on.

For the most part, I was rapt. You never get a sense of comfort and are never allowed to catch your breath. It's just one thing after the other, and the pages fly by. I'm intrigued by what we've found out in The Prey about how the world got so screwed up -- but I'm still not sure if everything we've learned is entirely accurate -- because these books have a way of turning things on their heads.

Fukuda isn't afraid to kill people. Just warning you. There's a bit of heartbreak, and a huge cliffhanger at the end of The Prey. Our characters are by no means safe but moving on. The final book, The Trap, is due out in September, so I'll definitely be looking forward to that one.

If you enjoyed The Hunt you should definitely pick up The Prey ASAP. It's another great second book. If you like your vampire books relentless and scarily dangerous, this series is for you.

Published by St. Martin's Griffin, January 29, 2013
Copy obtained from the library
322 pages

Rating: 4/5

Monday, April 15, 2013

Book Review: Starting Now, by Debbie Macomber

Starting Now is a new addition to the Blossom Street Novels and if you enjoy that series, this one will also warm your heart. If you haven't experienced Macomber's books, she can really wrap you up in her characters. You should give her a try -- it's not necessary to read this series in order.

That's what these books are -- heartwarming. I couldn't read books like Starting Now every day, but they are wonderful change of pace for me.

Libby is a divorced, hard-working attorney that has sacrificed almost everything to make partner in her firm. She is very surprised when instead of being made partner, she is laid off. Her boss admonishes her to take some time and get a life. It takes Libby a while, but she does change her life tremendously.

Part of that change is taking up knitting again, which brings her to A Good Yarn, the shop on Blossom Street. The shop doesn't play a huge part in Starting Now, but it's there in the background, as always.

Libby's path to happiness isn't straight, by any means. Every time she thinks things are going her way, something happens to throw her off the path, but eventually she gets there -- after all, that's what these books are all about -- you feel SO GOOD when they end.

I find some of the dialog to be overly dramatic. I feel like I'm reading a soap opera, and I guess I really am. But, I go into these books knowing that, so it's not really a criticism in my case. Also, the inner dialogs get really repetitive. These aren't direct quotes, but things like "Libby had always wanted to please her mother," and "She was so attracted to Phillip, even though they both had been burned by relationships before." These types of sentiments are repeated on almost EVERY page. Worded differently, but OK, I get it!

Macomber does have a way of attaching me to her main character and dragging me along through every emotion and trial they experience. She's very good at describing feelings (maybe too much, though.)

I'm not embarrassed to say I really enjoy these books -- in moderation. Everyone likes to melt at the end of a romantic book, right? You should try it, if you don't think that's true. Starting Now is a very clean read and appropriate for older teens who might be looking for some adult romance books.

Published by Ballentine, April 2, 2013
ARC obtained from LibraryThing Early Reviewers
338 pages

Rating: 3/5

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Stacking the Shelves -- Ups and Downs

Welcome to Stacking the Shelves, hosted by Team Tynga's Reviews. I hope you had a great book week, and now I'll tell you about mine.

For Review:

All I Need, Susane Colasanti from LibraryThing Early Reviewers

The Testing, by Joelle Charbonneau from NetGalley

I wanted this one really badly, and NetGalley turned me down! I hardly ever get turned down. Then, the next day I got a "special invitation" from NetGalley to download this book! Go figure.

Imaginable, by J. Meyers, from the author

Free:

Remembrance, by Michelle Madow, from the author

Well, that's it for me this week. Have you read any of these? What did you think? What did you get this week? Leave me your links, and please come back soon.

Friday, April 12, 2013

Feature & Follow Friday - Conventions

Hey! Welcome to Annette's Book Spot. I hope you have a great weekend planned. Here's Parajunkee's and Alison's question for this week:

Q: We are about to see a lot of posts & tweets about reader conventions, RT, BEA, ALA and many more are starting soon. Which one would you love to attend? Where and why?

I'd love to go to BEA (I do armchair BEA, but it's not quite the same!) and I SHOULD go to ALA, since I'm a librarian and a member, but realistically, I'm never going to be able to go to any of these.

I feel fortunate that my administration will pay for me to attend my state school librarian conference (or at least pay for part of it) and it's a great conference, so I can't complain too much.

Thanks for visiting. I hope you get to attend ALL the conferences you want! But if not, I hope you enjoy visiting some of the blogs participating in Feature & Follow! Hope to see you back here soon!

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Book Review: Taken, by Erin Bowman @erin_bowman

Although I found Taken to be reminiscent of The Maze Runner, the book has enough originality to make that comparison a good thing and the book a worthy addition to the genre.

The setting is a primitive walled village called Claysoot. Anyone who tries to escape over the wall, comes back dead. Every male on his 18th birthday is subjected to the Heist. Basically, they just disappear right at midnight.

Grey's brother, Blaine, was born on the same day as Grey, only one year earlier. After Blaine's Heist, Grey is all alone, since his mother died several years earlier. Grey finds a hidden note that his mother wrote to Blaine, and it changes the way Grey thinks. He starts to question why their world is the way it is. He begins to investigate with his girlfriend Emma, and he decides he must go over the wall.

What he finds on the other side is eye-opening, and confusing. At first, he feels a sense of comfort, but eventually suspects he's been lied to.

That's really all I want to say about the plot, because I don't want to give anything away. Taken is an adventure and survival book that is well written (many typos in the ARC, though) and quick. The action never stops and the suspense builds nicely.

The world building was unique and exciting. I thought the descriptions of the different settings (I don't want to say what they are) drew me into the world and therefore, the story.

The characters are not the strength of Taken. I didn't really care much about Grey or the other main characters. I'm not sure why. They just weren't "nice." They didn't seem to grow much, or learn from their mistakes. They are pretty self-centered (like most teens are.) The love triangle was an interesting addition, and I felt torn, just as the characters did.

I liked the explanation of the purpose of the walls, and the reasoning behind their creation. I did have a problem with the description of how the Heist was accomplished -- it's a bit of a stretch. Some things weren't explained, like why does it always look dark outside the walls? How could this possibly be accomplished?

I'm excited to turn my teens on to this book. I those who are craving more of The Maze Runner will enjoy Taken. This episode is wrapped up nicely, but all is not right with the world, and the end of Taken is the beginning of a whole new adventure. Taken is Bowman's first novel, and I hope she's working on the sequel--I was unable to find any details on that.

Published by HarperTeen, April 16, 2013
eARC obtained from Edelweiss
352 pages

Rating: 4/5

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Book Review: The Death Cure, by James Dashner

The Death Cure is the conclusion to The Maze Runner series, and while I found the third book to be entertaining and exciting, I'm glad it's over.

Even though I just finished The Death Cure yesterday, it's hard for me to remember the sequence of events. These books are action packed, but also kind of repetitive.

Thomas and his friends are at the WICKED headquarters, and now WICKED (and the evil Rat Man) want to restore all their memories. They have used these kids to collect data to find a cure for the Flare, and now they are finished and want the kids to help with the final design of the cure.

Thomas and some others (Minho and Newt) don't trust WICKED (should they ever?) and decide to escape. So they get away, and they find some more stuff out about WICKED and the Flare and they end up going back, and then they escape, and then they go back, and then they escape....Oh, sorry, I got carried away there.

You see, The Death Cure felt like "more of the same." I've lost my appreciation for the originality of these stories. I wanted to find out what happened, but while the details might not have been predicted, it still felt predicable. I think I'm just tired of this struggle and wanted it to be over.

One big thing that bothered me was that there was such a dilemma about whether to get you memories back or not. Thomas, Minho and Newt chose not to. The others had this procedure. But when they meet up later, this is barely mentioned, and the fact that these kids have their old memories back doesn't seem to matter. It isn't an issue, and it's almost never mentioned again.

We do find out what happened to some old characters. I like the fact that even at the end of The Death Cure, we still don't know the motives of some of the characters. How much were they involved with WICKED?

The writing in The Death Cure is easily accessible, and the action never stops. I would still recommend this series to my teens. The first book (The Maze Runner) is by far the best, but you can't not read the other two once you are invested. (The second book is The Scorch Trials.) And they are quick and exciting reads that both boys and girls will enjoy.

Published by Delacorte BFYR, 2011
Copy obtained from the library
336 pages

Rating: 3/5

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Book Review: Strangelets, by Michelle Gagnon

Strangelets is a "light" dystopian that kept my interest, but might be more appropriate for younger teens.

We meet three teens, in very different situations in different parts of the world. As they experience death, they are sucked into a black hole. They all wake up in separated rooms in an abandoned hospital and discover there are a couple more kids with similar stories. They have no idea where they are or how they got there. They begin the process of trying to escape and find other people. Once they escape, they realize they are on Long Island, and things just get more and more confusing.

I had some problems with the actual plot of Strangelets. It seemed like one second it was impossible to escape the hospital, and the next minute they were outside. It was a bit too easy. It was unbelievable that none of these teens caught on that it wasn't just the next day -- everything was grown up with trees and mold, but still they think it is the day after they "died?" No teens are that stupid.

I found the "monsters" to be scary -- but then again, I didn't really feel a build up of tension, because escape always seemed too fast and easy. These creatures appeared over and over again, but some how the kids actually never SAW them until over halfway through Strangelets. Another weak plotting element. And, while I love a happy ending, the ending of Stragelets seemed a bit too unlikely and too happy.

Strangelets is easy to read and fairly fast-paced. I think it read a little slow for me, just because I thought they should have figured at least SOME things out before the big reveal. I got frustrated at their stupidity.

I think younger teens, who have not read the more complex dystopians that are so popular now will enjoy this book. There are plot flaws which bothered me, but a more inexperienced reader will be sitting on the edge of their seat for much of the time.

Published by Soho Teen, April 9, 2013
eARC obtained from Edelweiss
272 pages

Rating: 2.5/5

Monday, April 8, 2013

Book Review: Thorn, by Intisar Khanani @IntisarKhanani

I thoroughly enjoyed Thorn. I usually go into a book fairly blind, and since I received Thorn so long ago, I didn't remember it was a fairy tale retelling of The Goose Girl.

I became attached to Princess Alyrra very quickly -- within the first pages -- and that's why I enjoyed the story so much. She gets betrothed to a prince from a far away land, and on the way there, her nasty companion uses magic to change places with her!

I think the twist is that Alyrra doesn't mind becoming a common, relatively poor, hard-working girl. She tends the geese with a quiet and somewhat scary man. She works hard and makes friends with several people who tend the horses. She's a wonderful, strong character who always wants to do the right thing for everyone. She's caring and eventually realizes that the best way she can make a difference, is to reach her true destiny and become princess. This takes her a long time.

Meanwhile, the prince knows something is up. He keeps making contact with Alyrra (who is now known as Thorn) because he doesn't entirely believe her story. Thorn can't tell him what happened to her because of the curse, but she doesn't really want to because she's happy where she is.

I'm not a big fan of magic, but this is a fairy tale, and I'm pretty good at just going with the flow. So, there's a talking horse, and the wind speaks to Thorn, and a mean witch has cast the spell to change Alyrra's life because she wants to kill the prince. The talking horse is a bit over the top, but he's part of the original tale, so I'm OK with that. And, he's a great character, even if he is a horse. Very wise.

It's just all great fun, and I even choked up during a few parts. The writing is excellent. The only problem I had was during a few of the magical moments -- I didn't think things were explained very well. I had to read several passages a few times, and still, I thought some "leaps" were necessary, and I wasn't very good at taking those leaps.

Fans of The Goose Girl should definitely find this book. Thorn stays pretty true to the original story but is colorful and embellished nicely. Fans of any retellings will not be disappointed.

Published by CreateSpace, May 15, 2012
eBook obtained from the author for review
246 pages

Rating: 4/5

Sunday, April 7, 2013

The Other Side of Life - A Wine Tote

I'm using these posts to occasionally describe other things I enjoy (besides books.) I used to post these projects on my other blog, but I posted so seldom that I decided to include them here. Feel free to skip this one, if you are strictly in it for the books.

I was in the mood for a small sewing project this weekend, so here's what I made:

The pattern came from Needle and Spatula, although I made a modification. I chose to quilt the entire fabric piece, cut out the handle, and bind it with the bias tape.. It made the quilting a lot easier. I made it from scrap fabrics, so it cost me nothing. Took about 2 hours. I think I may make some of these for gifts. What do you think?

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Stacking the Shelves -- The Wait is Over

I received some really great books this week -- a couple that I've been waiting a long time for.

For Review:

Some Quiet Place, by Kelsey Sutton eBook from NetGalley

I have to admit this one is all about the cover. Isn't it beautiful?

Won:

The Tragedy Paper, by Elizabeth Laban, from RandomBuzzers

Strands of Bronze and Gold, by Jane Nickerson, from RandomBuzzers

I already read the eARC, and this finished copy will go to my library.

Purchased:

Tiger Lily, by Jodi Lynn Anderson, eBook bargain from Amazon

Beautiful Creatures, by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl, eBook bargain from Amazon

I've wanted to read this for so long, but it's always checked out of the library. When I saw the bargain, I grabbed it up and intend to read it soon!

From the Library:

The Death Cure, by James Dashner

Don't for get to visit Team Tynga's Reviews, our host for this weekly event. Thanks for stopping by. Leave a link so I can add to my wish list!