Review: A River of Royal Blood by Amanda Joy

A River of Royal Blood by Amanda Joy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I seriously blew through the last third of this book at 1am and was dying for more. I did not like how this book ended, but can't wait to read book 2!

Eva has some good character development - at the beginning of the book she's pretty much resigned to the fact that her sister is going to murder her, and by the end she wants to fight for life and the Queendom and boy does she ever. Isa was hard to deal with - there were moments where I thought she'd crack and have some sisterly feelings for Eva again, but then her hard shell would close around her and she essentially made herself irredeemable. I'm hopeful for book 2 that there will be a way to end the Rival Heir system, because I really want Isa and Eva to have a happy ending together as sisters. Although if the author chooses not to go that way, I think that would be fine too.

Baccha was interesting and I didn't quite understand his love for/loyalty to Eva. And I wasn't so keen on Aketo either, just because he's so perfect. Falun's presence by about the midpoint, once Baccha and Aketo show up, becomes just as Eva's attendant and he's no longer an important presence in her life. I thought that was a shame, because he showed some real promise in the beginning as an important character.

Thank you to Bookish First and the publisher for the review copy of this book. My opinions are my own. And I'll be looking out for book 2!

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Review: War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi

War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow.
Wow.
Wow.

I feel like the star fairy here, I want to give all the stars for this book.

Having been, up until this book, completely ignorant of the fact that there was a Nigerian civil war in the 1960s, I don't feel qualified to address the commentary this book is absolutely steeped in. I will, however, say that I *get* it. Even not knowing a damn thing about the war, I completely *get* what the author was arguing, what he was condemning, and what he was honoring.

The story was engrossing. I read 400+ pages in the span of two and a half days. I was surprised and not surprised yesterday when I looked down at the page number I was reading and realized I'd just read 200 pages. I was sucked in immediately by Onyii and Ify, by the attack on their compound, and by everything they suffered in the years after. The relationship between them and everything that worked to tear them apart, it was exciting and horrible and absolutely devastating. The idea that maybe everything they went through later could have been avoided if Onyii had made a different decision as a child, or maybe it would have been just as bad but in a different way... There are so many ways the story could have gone, and I'm blown away by the direction it did take.

Everyone do yourselves a favor and read this book. If you love science fiction, if you love a gripping story, if you love fantastic writing, then go read this book.

Thank you to Bookish First and the publisher for providing a review copy of this book.

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Review: The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe by Ally Condie

The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe by Ally Condie
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I had to read a few other reviews to really get a handle on why I can't give this book four stars. I liked it, it was a fast read, and the main character was very well-developed (for the most part). Then I realized - it's the rest of it that didn't add up. Poe was really the only thing that was fully fleshed out (besides the ship). The worldbuilding was vague, not much was known, and not much was discovered. The raiders/drifters have their own society somewhere, but there's absolutely no information about it. Even the Outpost didn't make much sense. And I really wish there had been more about the Palingenesis at the end. I wanted to see what that group was about, I wanted to know about them. Basically, I wanted *more.*

Poe is deeply flawed, but still a character I found myself liking (or at least rooting for). I wish I'd been able to learn more about the others, especially Tam and Brig. Naomi's motivations fell completely flat and I just couldn't really believe how her character development went off the rails at the end.

There's a lot to like here - an interesting story, fast-paced and easy to read. I breezed through it in a few hours, so I definitely liked it. But there's also a lot missing, which really is why I can only give this book three stars.

Thank you to Bookish First for an advanced reader copy of this book for my review.

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Review: Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal

Unmarriageable: A Novel by Soniah Kamal
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley for review purposes, and I also won a paperback ARC from the Goodreads First Reads program.

The high-starred reviews on this one got me really excited. I'm a sucker for Austen, and I know P&P like the back of my hand. Which made this... disappointing. Here's the thing. It was a really good book. I enjoyed the feminism and the characters' forward-thinking opinions (well, some of them anyway). I loved the writing style, and I even like how Kamal really explored Alys' change of heart regarding Darsee, instead of leaving it to feel like she was wowed by his awesome house.

But despite all of that, I could *not* get past the fact that this was a literal retelling of the story I know and love, complete with similar-sounding character names and some even identical situations. My biggest problem is not that it was just a retelling, but that it was a retelling that CONSTANTLY referenced P&P and Austen, and yet the main character did not seem to realize she was freaking LIVING P&P! She talks about it all the time, but never once thinks, "Hm, I feel like I know how this is going to end because my life and everyone in it is exactly like this book I'm obsessed with..."

This would have been a four- or even five-starred review if the book didn't reference Austen at all. It was so amazingly similar that every time Austen was mentioned it threw me out of the story and back into the original. And in that respect, the Bollywood movie Bride and Prejudice did it much better. Yes, it was super cheesy. But there was no Austen reference, so I wasn't sitting there wondering why all the characters were so damn dense about it. (Plus, we got the Mr. Collins character and his "No Life Without Wife" hand gestures, and the ridiculous song, which are arguably the best things about that movie. So there's that.)

That said, if none of what I said above bothers you (and apparently it didn't bother a bunch of other P&P fans, so to each his/her own), then by all means, read and enjoy. I liked it, but because it constantly referenced its primary source, I couldn't love it.

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Review: Juliet's Nurse

Juliet's Nurse by Lois Leveen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book through the Goodreads Giveaway.]

In Juliet's Nurse, Lois Leveen takes on the story of the nurse from Romeo & Juliet. The first half of the book is devoted to the bonding between Angelica, the nurse, and Juliet as a newborn through three-year-old. And if you're going to talk about a wet nurse, there's going to be a lot of talk about breastfeeding. But Angelica is also a bit randy (to put it mildly) and her husband can't get his fill of her often enough, so of course there's a lot of sex and sex talk, too. The story also involves Tybalt and his attachment to the nurse and to Juliet, and even to Angelica's husband Pietro and his bees.

For me, by about 30% of the way through the book I'd had enough of the narration of Juliet's breastfeeding, talking about how Angelica lost her virginity to her much older husband at the ripe age of 12, sex jokes, and finding ways to sneak sex with her husband. And the sheer number of times she mentioned her six boys lost to the plague was staggering. Almost every time she mentioned one of their names, it was followed up with something like, "but the plague took them and everything I loved." I feel like there wasn't enough to this nurse to make her into a full character or story. It relied too much on the fact that she was a wet nurse, that she loved Juliet and Tybalt, that she loved her husband, and she missed her sons.

That's not to say it wasn't well-written, and by the time we got to part two things started moving a bit more quickly. It is around the 75% mark where we start getting into the story that Shakespeare wrote, with a few lines from the play thrown in, and the dialogue changing actually quite noticeably to more Shakespearean language. It was not nearly as obvious in the first half of the book as it was when we flash forward to Juliet's 13th year. This part was interesting, although I really had to make myself "get over" how close Juliet and Angelica were since, in this century, it would seem odd (and a bit uncomfortable for me) for a nurse to clean her charge's teeth and sleep cuddled up with her every night (at 13 years old!). There is a lot more to the story of why this happens, and I don't claim to be an historian so I don't know if it would have been normal back then, but even so it made me feel uncomfortable, a bit leery.

The copy I received was an advanced reader, so there were many many typos and wrong words and missing letters and such. Hopefully they have all been fixed in the final release.

It was a good book, but I didn't love it, only liked it. It had an interesting perspective to present, and a strange back story to develop. Nice speculative fiction based on previous fiction. Just not something I really loved.

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Review: The Awakening of Miss Prim

The Awakening of Miss Prim: A Novel by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I won a copy of this book in the Goodreads First Reads giveaway.]

3.5/5 stars (Oh how I wish Goodreads did half stars!)

"I'm cold. Would you mind taking me home now?"
"Mind? I'm always happy to take you home, Prudencia."

Prudencia Prim shows up in an isolated town, to apply for the position of librarian. It turns out to be in a man's home, which also functions as a school of sorts, and this man (never named, other than as "The Man in the Wing Chair") is the perfect person to infuriate, frustrate, and turn Miss Prim into an emotional pretzel. She prides herself on her civility, her delicacy, her own good manners and intelligence, and frequently turns her nose up (quite literally, to a somewhat comedic effect) at other people's faults. But she learns that her way is not the only way, that there are other people who live different lives, more peaceful and happy lives, and maybe her prudish and stuck-up ways aren't exactly making her the best person she can be.

I'm afraid I may have missed the point of this book. Rather than laughing at Prudencia as I think the author might have intended, I found her insufferable and a bit stupid. I'm amazed, with all of her haughtiness, that she managed to make an entire village full of friends. She overreacts easily to just about everything, and only towards the end does she allow herself to feel anything short of indignation that someone would speak to her plainly and without "delicacy." Although the last couple of chapters sort of redeem her, I'm not sure I followed where the author was going with the "idea" of Miss Prim.

And yet, for all of my inability to feel comfortable with my own understanding of the work, I thought it was well-written and funny, an interesting story, and I'm happy to have read it. I'm giving it the full four stars rather than knocking it down to three because of that, and because I quite enjoyed hating the main character. Not to mention the bluntness of the children, who are relatively minor characters but give the book much of its charm. Also, I really want to move to San Ireneo de Arnois.

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Do you want to read this book?  If so, keep an eye on this blog in the next week or so because you'll have a chance to win it!

Review: Extraction

Extraction by Stephanie Diaz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in the Goodreads First Reads giveaway.]

Note: There are some relatively minor spoilers in this post, but as I discuss later in the review, they are completely predictable, so they aren't really spoilers.

I've been reading a lot of YA fiction and sci-fi lately. I think that may have been the reason I didn't LOVE this and only liked it. The market is saturated with Hunger-Games-esque books where kids are disposable, constantly in danger, and often forced to kill other kids. There is always a protagonist who is "better" than the rest in some way, special, able to withstand torture that would have broken another person in her (more often than not female) position. I caught a lot of reference to The Hunger Games, Divergent, and even Eve in here, which all of course hearken back to much earlier science fiction such as The Handmaid's Tale and Rollerball Murder and the like. It makes sense that readers like what they like, and want to read more of it. But I'm at the point where they all read the same to me.

Style-wise, this was no different than any other dystopian SF I've read lately. It's in first person present tense, with a female narrator, who doesn't know where she comes from but finds out she's special in some way and decides she doesn't want to conform (because conformity is *always* a bad thing, no matter what). So she becomes hell-bent on proving herself and eventually ends up a rebel. That's the entirety of this book, in a nutshell. It's well-written, intriguing, and I enjoyed the read, but there's nothing truly different about it other than the fact it's on a planet with a toxic moon.

It was also completely, absolutely predictable. Of course Clementine would be picked as an Extraction at the last second. Of course there's a truly horrible character who attempts to rape her twice (because that's the "in" thing in YA dystopians, isn't it? And how gross is that sentence for being true?). Of course she becomes a rebel, because that's what these protagonists do. And that's not a bad thing, because questioning authority and thinking for yourself is always a good idea. But the fact is, it's predictable. And that doesn't necessarily make for a good read.

And of course there are my usual gripes about word choice, there were an awful lot of people who slipped hands around Clementine's wrists. Apparently that is the best and only way to describe the act of taking someone by the wrist and leading them in another direction. There were also numerous typos, especially towards the end of the book when one sentence made absolutely no sense. This I will chalk up to the fact that I read an advanced copy, and I hope that these errors have not made it into final publication.

The love story was rather meh. The introduction of a potential second love interest was clumsy, since I can't see Clementine as someone who is so easily swayed in her feelings, but she seems to take a liking to Beechy before she finds out he's married, at which point that entire angle is dropped (as it should be, but shouldn't really have been introduced to begin with). Her body language and his are all quite awkward, and their friendship is fast, forced, and very strange.

If you haven't immersed yourself into the world of YA dystopian SF lately, go ahead and read this book. It wasn't "unrecommendable," to use a made-up word. I liked it enough to finish it, and to actually put a good amount of effort and thought into what I wanted to say. It was fun, entertaining, and well-written for the most part. Most of the people I follow would probably enjoy it as well. But it's not really ground-breaking or unforgettable (as the blurb on the giveaway brands it), certainly not something I would call "great literature." For what it was, it's worth the three stars.

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As an aside, if you are interested in reading this book, there is a giveaway on the Goodreads page (just click the title link at the top of this page) for one copy, ending July 22, 2014.  You must be a member to enter.

Review: Prototype

Prototype by M.D. Waters
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I won a copy of this book in the Goodreads First Reads giveaways.]

This book was like a hell of a lot better than the first one. It still had its problems, but overall the story was better, and the action a lot better too. It wrapped up very neatly (and I mean, pretty much every loose end is tied up), which is almost always a plus for me (I hate loose ends, especially at the end of a series), although maybe a little too neatly? Not sure yet.

Since I don't want to spoil this book for anyone who hasn't read Archetype yet, I won't post the rest of the review here.  If you want to read it, you can click here!

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Review: Archetype

Archetype by M.D. Waters
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I won a copy of this book in the Goodreads First Reads giveaways.]

There's nothing particularly special about this book that makes it terribly innovative. It has the typical dystopian women-as-property-because-they-overbred-boys idea, a controlling husband, a woman who wakes up on a table and doesn't know who she is or anything about her past... It's what she figures out as she tries to understand her history that sets this apart from other dystopian SF I've read lately.

Now, I'm not saying this was a particularly bad book, but it wasn't amazing, or mind-blowing, or recommendation-worthy. I enjoyed the read, and I plan to read the second book because I want to know what happens (especially with what happened in the last 50 pages or so, and also because I won the second book too).

What I liked (in list format because I feel like it):
* The reveal towards the end as to who Emma really is
* Declan's personality coming out in full, and the way he slowly showed it throughout
* The flashes of memory (this is also something I didn't like)

What I didn't like:
* The way Emma speaks. She does not use contractions, she speaks like a robot. And I guess this can be considered a clue (no, she's not a robot), but I would have thought as her memory came back she would start speaking like a normal human being again. She doesn't.
* The descriptions of lovemaking, and love, and all that junk. I'm cool with sex in books, that's not the problem. It's just that I've never *ever* had (or heard of anyone who has had) sex like the stuff in this book. And coupled with the flowery romantic language when Emma is thinking about Declan and this mystery person she sees in her memory flashes, it was too over-the-top for me to be even remotely realistic.

As long as you aren't expecting a mind-blowing thriller, or epic SF, you'll probably enjoy this book. It was interesting, and I read it in two days. So I'm judging it for what it is, and not for what it's not (although I do wish the writing hadn't been so flowery most of the time), and yeah, I liked it.

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Review: Thunderstruck

Thunderstruck & Other Stories by Elizabeth McCracken
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in the Goodreads First Reads giveaways.]

The back and inside jacket of this book has adjectives like "magnificent" and "exquisite" and "marvelously quirky," but I didn't really see much of that in the actual stories. I wasn't, I suppose you could say, impressed with the stories themselves, and the writing style was generic in that I felt I had read several other authors who write the same way. Nothing really stuck out to me as being "magnificent" or "marvelously quirky," just a bit plain.

I managed to make it through to the end, feeling a bit more satisfied with the title story than with the rest of them, although I enjoyed "Peter Elroy: A Documentary by Ian Casey" and "The Lost and Found Department of Greater Boston" almost as much. It felt a bit like trudging through mud to get there, though, which is unfortunate because I did have high hopes for this collection. Maybe that's what did me in.

So rather unfortunately, this book is just "okay" for me, and therefore gets 2 stars. Obviously others enjoyed it more than I did, but it was not my cup of tea.

(Also, as an aside, every time I look at the cover of this book I start to hear this in my head.)

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Review: The Almond Tree

The Almond Tree by Michelle Cohen Corasanti
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book through the Goodreads First Reads program.]

This novel really moved me, but having read books (mostly fiction) on both sides of the conflict I don't feel I am qualified to determine whether the political facts are correct. I appreciated the idea that to make peace we must work for peace with others.

The story itself was very compelling, moving forward in spurts and moving years in seconds. That was the only problem I had with it - years would pass without a mention and suddenly our main character is in college, and then in his 60s, and you have to wonder where the time went. I liked having the years in front of the sections, but even within those sections years would go by in a handful of pages without any real acknowledgment.

I was on the fence about reading this and I'm really glad I won a copy because I never would have bought it on my own. Recommended to those who are interested in reading about the conflicts in the Middle East.

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Review: Three Souls

Three Souls: A Novel by Janie Chang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book through the Goodreads First Reads program.]

I don't even know where to start with my review. This book was downright fantastic, hands-down the single best First Reads win I've ever received. There are 496 pages in the book and I read almost 400 of them in one day. I never do that!

I adored the main character, through all her faults and inability to understand she was dealing with things that were much too adult for her. Her character in death was beautifully contemplative and I loved how she was able to see, along with the reader, the impulse of youth contrasted with the reflection of consequences. We all forget, as teenagers, that our actions have repercussions. Even in our adult life it's hard to picture what will happen if we make this decision or that one. In death we are able to see exactly how everything Leiyin did in her youth contributed to the events around her, even without her knowledge or comprehension.

I did not imagine Hanchin to be the character he ended up as. It was an interesting turn to experience the realization of his true character alongside the woman who loved him.

The only thing I didn't fully connect with was the idea of three souls. It certainly was a great thing to have the commentary of each different personality throughout the book, encouraging Leiyin, reproaching her, understanding and commiserating with her, and telling her flat-out she was wrong. I loved having them around, but it was difficult (for me personally) to tell the souls apart, and I often found myself reading them as pretty much a single character. I also did not quite follow with the tastes and smells that they projected onto her, as I don't know what most of them meant. Maybe this is something that would be better understood by someone with Chinese heritage.

The writing style was exceptional, the language was poetic and flowed so easily that it was difficult to stop reading once I'd started. You might think that a book that's almost 500 pages long might be wordy, and it was, but in a way completely necessary to tell the story. Chinese culture and traditions were explained so well they felt familiar to me. I could picture the landscapes and gardens and houses (I'm sure I got them wrong but the point is I could see them in my head), the parties and offices and even the most downright heartbreaking things. I felt along with Leiyin, and experienced her emotions and mourned with her when things went badly. I never felt like a word was out of place. (Also, thumbs up to whoever edited this proof copy - I only caught ONE typo!)

If you liked Snow Flower and the Secret Fan or any other Lisa See novel, this one is a must-read and something you will not regret picking up. What a beautifully told story. This is going to stay with me, I can tell.

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Review: Facing the Music and Living to Talk About It

Facing the Music and Living to Talk About It by Nick Carter
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

[DISCLAIMER: I won a copy of this book on the Goodreads Giveaways]

I turned 30 this year. It was hard to admit, harder to deal with, and I still don't feel like I'm in my 30's. But one thing I promised myself was, I am not going to spend any more time reading books I don't like, just because I have this masochistic tendency to finish every freaking book I start.

Unfortunately, Facing the Music and Living to Talk About It is one of those books that's going to have to be put down and never picked up again. I wanted to get at least 25% of the way through before I let go, just to give it a fair shot. But that 25% was brutal. This is a disorganized, rambling piece of self-help, and it did not do a darn thing for me. What bothered me even more than the "If I can do it, so can you!" reiteration was that he kept saying things like, "I wish I'd written this book sooner so I could have given it to my sister and maybe she wouldn't have died." I know that he didn't mean it to come across as arrogant, but my goodness did this scream "Her death was all my fault even though it wasn't!" I feel for you Nick, I really do, and I wish your sister had gotten better too, but this book was not going to save her life.

I have always had a huge soft spot for Nick Carter. BSB were my boys. Okay not really. But I always loved them, especially Nick. Nick, you are not a writer. You should keep singing, because as you said in your "strengths" chapter, that's what you do best. I love you! Really! I promise!

As a sidenote: When I entered to win this book in the giveaway, there was next to nothing about it being a self-help book. This book, as I remember it, was marketed as an autobiography with bits of advice for people on how to get through the tough times. As you can clearly see, I'm not the only one who had this impression from the description provided back in September. Now, I don't know if the publisher or Goodreads have changed the description several times since then, but I can tell you that what's up there now ("This book is Nick Carter’s autobiography and self-help hybrid in which he chronicles his struggles with a dysfunctional family and the unimaginable rigors of becoming an internationally successful pop-star at the age of 12.") was not up there when I entered the giveaway. If it had actually been autobiography instead of self-help with a few anecdotes about his childhood and time with BSB, I might have liked this. A suggestion to Goodreads, then: Add a time/date-stamp for edits because it's misleading to put up one description and then change it later with no proof of the old description.

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Review: The Forbidden Book

The Forbidden Book by Joscelyn Godwin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the Goodreads Giveaway]

Overall, this book was just "okay" for me, but since it wasn't bad I didn't want to just give it two stars, so that's why it gets three.

Minor spoilers after this point.

I enjoyed the mystery aspect of the book, but felt that it was trying to go in three different directions, none of which matched up quite as well as it seems the authors had wanted. It's one part mystery - who killed Angela and kidnapped Orsina? - one part mysticism - the Baron's magical powers and those he is trying to pass to Orsina - and one part, well, just plain weird - the Baron's influence over his "students" in getting them to blow up monuments to make it look like the Muslims are behind it. I understand where the authors were trying to go with that last bit, but I really don't think they arrived.

Inspector Ghedina is a fool of a character, Orsina's weak, as is Angela, and Leo is the only one worth much of anything in the grand scheme of things.

The sexual aspect was... well, gross. Again, I get where the authors were going, and I see its relevance to the story, but it kind of grossed me out. Plus the fact that Orsina just (view spoiler)[glosses over her attempted rape and says she'll have to figure out how to live with it, then moves on to something else (hide spoiler)] kind of makes me feel like she's vapid and shallow, with no real emotions to speak of other than her love for Leo.

I guess if you were a fan of The DaVinci Code and other such nonsense, this book might appeal to you. I didn't mind it, it wasn't offensive, I just didn't really find it compelling. And there was so much Italian in it that even with translations it was distracting.

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Review: Lighthouse Island

Lighthouse Island: A Novel by Paulette Jiles
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a copy of the ARC from the Goodreads Giveaways]

I'm giving this 2 stars instead of 3 because it was just okay for me. I didn't love it, I didn't hate it, I mostly just wanted to read it and be done with it. I had a major problem with the lack of quotation marks in the dialogue because I had a very hard time figuring out when a character was speaking and when the narration ended and became dialogue.

Style-wise, again, it was just okay. There was too much exposition, and it took way too long for anything to truly happen. There was also a continuity problem, when a character's death was clearly described, but later in the book he's still alive. I couldn't figure out if I had misread, or if this was an error that has been fixed in final publication, or if it was really supposed to be a plot twist (which I found poorly executed).

The ending dragged on too long. I have a problem when books end too suddenly, but this one should have ended about 70 pages before it did. It felt like the book had actually ended, and another book had started. Maybe it would have been better if that's what had happened - I kept saying to my husband, "It's like she's started the sequel and included the first 1/3 of the next book in this one without noting that it's another book." Introducing several new characters only that close to the end of the book seems pointless. Not that I want another series, but this seems like it should have been at least a duet. OR, she should have written more and made it just a longer book.

Since this doesn't come out until October, I have no way to tell if any of this was changed in the final version. But I don't see myself spending the money on the hardcover or even spending the extra time on re-reading the finished copy. It was an interesting idea, but I don't think it was fully successful.

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Review: Hooray For Me

Hooray For Me: A Foggy Memoir by Ello Black
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

[DISCLAIMER: I RECEIVED A COPY OF THIS FROM THE GOODREADS GIVEAWAYS IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW]

I *really* wanted to enjoy this book, because it sounded so funny and interesting. Unfortunately, it just didn't live up to expectations. I read the little introduction, explaining that the spelling and grammar wasn't going to be standard because it's just the way she writes, which is fine, but I couldn't really get past it.

This book is a series of vignettes about Ello Black's life. It was too short to have any depth to it, and none of the stories related to each other except for the fact that they all had at least something to do with her dad (some more than others). Yes it was funny, and yes the stories were biographical, but at some point there needs to be cohesion and that cohesion just never came.

It was also difficult to read because of the voice. It was as if she was speaking the book to me instead of writing it, but that's not really how I enjoy to read. Dialect is one thing, but there should have at least been some proofreading done to make it grammatically correct. I know that she said in the intro that she isn't grammatically correct and that's just the way it is, but there's only so much of it that I can take before I start getting out my red pen.

I wish this had been more of a cohesive story and less of separate essays on various parts of her life that, frankly, weren't all that extraordinary in the first place. The chapter on her father's death was certainly heartbreaking and the chapter in which she recounts being bullied struck a chord with me. But the rest felt like filler.

Ello, you seem like a cool person and I hope you keep on being your bad self. And thanks for the book. It just didn't do it for me.

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Review: The Boleyn King

The Boleyn King by Laura Andersen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

[DISCLAIMER: I RECEIVED AN ADVANCED READER'S EDITION OF THIS BOOK FROM THE GOODREADS GIVEAWAY]

There were some parts of the ARC that I received that I hope have been fixed in the final edition of the book. For example, halfway through the book extra "u"s started showing up in words like "for" and "more" and "tomorrow." If the author was going for authenticity, the "u"s were completely out of place because (a) there wouldn't have been a "u" in "for" or "more" or "tomorrow", and (b) "tomorrow" back then used to be written as "to-morrow" not "tomourrow." There were also some glaring typos towards the end, not so many in the beginning. It was a distraction which I hope has been taken care of since the book was published formally on 6/4/2013.

Anyway, to the story.

I was expecting an historical fiction novel but this was more of a romance/mystery. The way the book was set up was that there would be breaks in the text when it was switching POVs from one character to another, but this could have been better accomplished by telling one person's story first, then in another chapter moving to another character. I've found several authors are doing this now, and it becomes confusing and muddles the story.

There are also sections of the story written as a diary, but they aren't signed. Sometimes the author finishes the diary entries and says something like "Minuette closed her diary," which tells us they were Minuette's entries, but again, this would have been better accomplished with a header saying something to the effect of "Entries from Minuette's diary." There was one section where Dominic is writing dispatches to William, and there is a header on those. Some consistency would have been nice.

The book read too much like a mystery novel to me, sort of a "whodunnit" that bothered me since that's not what I signed up to read. There is a plot afoot to discredit William as Henry VIII's son and most of the book is spent trying to figure out who it was, as well as who killed Alyce de Clare, a young woman who supposedly throws herself down a flight of stairs because she's pregnant. None of this is resolved by the end of the book, and no one seems to wonder or care. The reader gets closure in the Interlude at the end of the novel, and it's pretty much what I had expected.

The romance was also strange and forced. I knew Minuette and Dominic would be in love right from the start, because that made the most sense. But the other men who fall in love with her don't seem to work right. Especially the one at the end. That one is too quick happening, and the end leaves it unresolved and pretty much ridiculously laid-out. I didn't enjoy it at all.

Overall, I'm giving it two stars because I did end up finishing it, but it wasn't a great book and wasn't at all like what the description made me think it was. I didn't really enjoy it, especially as a "what-if" type book. It just didn't read as a sincere re-imagining of what the world would have been like had Henry VIII fathered a living son.

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Review: Families and Other Nonreturnable Gifts

Families and Other Nonreturnable Gifts by Claire LaZebnik
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

[DISCLAIMER - I WON A COPY OF THIS BOOK IN THE GOODREADS GIVEAWAY.]

Actually, I rather enjoyed this book. It was well-written, funny, sad, pretty much everything you could want in a contemporary-style book. I knew right from the start that Jacob had a crush on Keats, simply because of the way they interacted and the way she seemed oblivious to his adoration. Later on she admits she's known about it forever, but I never got that feeling. Oh well.

Getting to know her sister Hopkins via phone and e-mail conversations was interesting, but then when she shows up in person at the end it was kind of surprising just what her character was actually like outside of a thirty-second window.

I recognized a lot of stuff in this book as being similar to my own family and myself, and pretty much understood everything Keats was feeling (especially as she feels trapped and stagnant).

Overall, a good light read. Not my normal type of book, but it was a nice trip down the sidewalk anyway.

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Review: Noah Zarc: Mammoth Trouble

Sorry for all the reviews lately, but I like to share :) Here's another book I would recommend!

Noah Zarc: Mammoth Trouble by D. Robert Pease

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


***There are spoilers in this post***

Noah Zarc is a 12-year-old time-traveling pilot who helps collect two of each species of animal for the future earth, along with his family. The title and character name are not in the least a subtle tribute to the Noah's Ark story, which is essentially what this story is loosely founded on. While I appreciate the pun, I do wish it had been more subtle only because the book was rife with other references to the Biblical story.

Considering I'm a woman in my late 20's, I really enjoyed this book, which was obviously aimed at younger boys around Noah's age. And that's fine - because even if it is a YA SF written for teen boys, I still got a kick out of reading it. There is a lot in here for the "adult" reader, such as the complex ideas of time travel that are explained at the end, and the different worlds that are built up around the characters. What I especially liked was Adina, the cave girl who ends up on Noah's ship and helps rescue his mother from Haon, the antagonist of the story. Adina's smarts are pretty impressive, considering modern humans tend to think that cave people were barely functional.

We also get to grapple with the mind-bending question: Is Haon truly evil? Or is he simply doing what he thinks is best for the human population (read: Venus's citizens)? I do think that a lot of his actions were dictated by desperation - the loss of his wife, giving up his son, his mother's death in a war on Venus, and finally the rejection of every legal thing he tried to get Earth repopulated for those who were barely surviving on Venus. But, like with most tragic characters, he ends up doing the worst possible thing and is then (presumably) punished for it.

The resolution at the end of the book came too quickly. It had a happy ending, which was awesome considering the reader is led to believe that Haon does release the nanobots and Obadiah is dead. But I felt that it was all too easy, and too easily explained. It was also strange to me that a character, Draben, was introduced and dismissed in a few pages, never to be mentioned again, when it seemed that he would play a much larger role. Perhaps his story will come in the second book, due out next year. The assassin bots also played a minimal role in the book, and aren't really explained except to say that Haon left them on Earth when he ran off with Noah's mother. I wish that story line had been fleshed out a little bit, but overall it was not important to the plot. My last gripe is actually with the cover - the boy's half-face is a bit unsettling to me, and would not lead me to pick up the book in the store. However, I was taught a valuable lesson: even while judging the cover, give the book a shot.

4 out of 5 stars because I enjoyed the read even though it was probably a bit "young" for me. Great writing, fast pacing, characters who are mostly developed (Sam and Hamilton kind of get left out of a lot of the story), and an intense climax are all positives for this book. I definitely recommend this to anyone who is struggling to get their kids to read, because it was very easy to get into and kept me hanging on.



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