Dark Kiss (Nightwatchers, #1)

Dark Kiss
Michelle Rowen
348 pages
Publisher: HarlequinTeen
Source: NetGalley
★★★☆☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

Samantha is an ordinary high school girl until one night she and her BFF go to an all-ages club where Samantha finds herself being kissed by her long-time crush.  Dream come true, right?  Wrong.  Turns out her crush has just sucked the soul right out of her body.  Now she's hungry all the time, but it's not for food... it's for souls.  Enter Bishop, a fallen angel sent along with a rag-tag group of accomplices to set everything right again.  But instead of killing Samantha like he's supposed to, he takes her on as one of the group and together they must come together to stop the woman behind the whole thing.

I've never read anything by Michelle Rowen before, so this was a bit of a first for me in that aspect.  But considering I've read a few fallen angel books in my day, it wasn't totally new to me.  I did appreciate the spin Rowen put on the whole fallen angel aspect, explaining that heaven and hell balance each other out in the amount of souls they have and I found that aspect of the story very interesting.  It really sets this book apart from the other YA angel novels on the market right now.  Although, it was  just a little frustrating getting to that point of understanding because Bishop and his crew are pretty insistent of keeping Samantha in the dark for as long as possible, so the reader remains confused right along with her for a good chunk of the book.

As for the characters, I thought they were pretty flat.  Bishop is pretty brooding, which is typical.  I hate to say it, but I found Samantha's character to be pretty flat.  I found myself wondering what Samantha was motivated by, it wasn't entirely clear to me.  We don't get to know much about her and her relationship with her mother seems more like acquaintances than mother/daughter.  What I did like was the bond between Samantha and her best friend.  I really appreciated that even though there were times when being friends was hard, ultimately they were there for each other until the very end of the novel.  This is a thread that will be carried on into the next novel and it's what will keep me reading into the series.

Three stars overall.  I liked the story, but ultimately it didn't really do anything for me personally.  But, if you're a huge fan of YA paranormals featuring fallen angels and/or the delicate balance between heaven and hell, you will love the beginning to this promising series.  The book will be released May 29th so go check it out!

The Summer Before

The Summer Before
Ann M. Martin
215 pages
Publisher: Scholastic
Source: library
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

Yes, this book is younger than YA but it was a trip down memory lane that I want to share with you.

I still remember my first Baby-Sitter's Club book.  My parents bought my Kristy's Great Idea to take on vacation with us when I was in first grade.  After that trip, I was hooked.  I had it figured out to the day when new books were coming out and I would drag my father to Waldenbooks to buy them.  I was a pretty big fan and read them well past their intended age range.  Then, earlier this year, my online book club decided it would be fun to revisit the series and do a couple rereads for discussion.  I reread Kristy's Great Idea, both the chapter book and the graphic novel version.  I also found out about The Summer Before, Ann M. Martin's prequel to the series, which she wrote in 2010.

This book follows the lives of the four original baby-sitters the summer before their club started.  Kristy wants to be reunited with her father all while trying to deal with her mother having a new boyfriend after her divorce; Mary-Anne is dealing with a strict father who is very hesitant to allow her to start baby-sitting even though her two best friends have already been sitting for some time; Claudia is discovering clothes and boys more and even gets herself a boyfriend for the summer; Finally, Stacey and her family pack up and leave NYC (and snobby, former BFFs) behind in exchange for a new life in idyllic Stoneybrook, Connecticut.

The Summer Before captures the same voice as the original Baby-Sitter's club novels.  It was great to revisit the characters and see how they become the young women they were during the series.  If you were a fan of the series, and I know there are a lot of you out there!, you must pick up this book and take a trip down memory lane.  I think it's a shame this series has fallen from popularity over time and not many girls are reading them anymore, so after you're done with your copy, see if you can find a little girl who loves reading and introduce her to this iconic series.

The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden, #1)

The Immortal Rules
Julie Kagawa
480 pages
Publisher: HarlequinTeen
Source: NetGalley
★★★★★

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

The Immortal Rules is the first novel I've ever read by Julie Kagawa, not that her other books haven't been on my radar.  I've never read anything bad about a Julie Kagawa novel, so I knew I was in for a treat and I surely was!

The Immortal Rules stars Allison, a young woman coming of age in a very broken society.  In her city, the vampires live in the center protected by a huge wall, but Allison and her human friends live on the fringe, unregistered meaning they do not have a quota of blood to donate to the vampires.  But when she's attacked and left to die, a strange vampire named Kanin comes along and gives her a choice - die or become what she hates the most, a vampire.  She chooses "life" and must come to grips with her new lifestyle on the run, forced to leave the city and venture into the unknown.

I loved this book!  Julie Kagawa is an awesome writer.  Her writing is so concise and beautiful, I don't know how to describe how wonderful it is.  But considering I'm the last YA reader in the universe to jump on the Kagawa train, you probably already knew that.  She has the ability to write a scene that really draws you in and makes you feel apart of the action.

Speaking of action, The Immortal Rules is not lacking for it.  It begins with action as Allison, still human, leaves her safe spot in an abandoned school to venture out for food.  There's action when she's turned, there's action after she must flee, there's action when she joins up with a ragtag group of humans who don't know she's a vampire, there's action all the way until the very last word.  Whew!  Yet there are also down times, times when we get to learn more about Zeke, one of the travelers she's joined up with; times we think there might be a budding romance between the two.  He was a pretty dreamy guy!

But my favorite character would be Allison.  Finally a vampire novel where the female heroine is not weak, needing a man to come save her.  Instead, The Immortal Rules features quite the opposite - a strong heroine who swoops in multiple times to save her love interest.  It was very cool.

Five stars!  The Immortal Rules is a fantastic piece of YA literature.  Even if you think you're done with vampires, you must give this book a try if not for the new twist of vampire lore, but to experience the amazing writing of Kagawa.  Do it!

Does this template make my blog look fat?

Just kidding, just kidding... but I did toy with my layout tonight.  In my continuing quest to expand my blog and make it more professional I decided it needed a facelift.  I've been mulling it over for a few weeks and tonight I finally took action!  I think the doodads look better on the right as opposed to the left.  And, the piece de resistance, I created a new blog header all by myself!  (Well, I had some help from Picasa.)  I love it because it's actually related to what my blog is about!

Leave me a comment... are you liking the facelift?

In My Mailbox (34)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.

FROM THOMAS NELSON:
Angel Eyes by Shannon Dittemore

 FROM WATERBROOK PRESS:
A Sound Among the Trees by Susan Meissner

FROM THE LIBRARY:

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Thumped by Megan McCafferty

Everneath by Brodi Ashton 

The Summer Before by Ann M. Martin

SWAPPED FOR:

Valiant by Holly Black

Total TBR: 174 (Dang, back over 170!)

Thank you so much to Thomas Nelson and WaterBrook Press for the goodies this week!

The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking #1)

The Knife of Never Letting Go
Patrick Ness
479 pages
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Source: purchased
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

I purchased this book because I'm finally joining a real-life book club (YA for adults!  Be still my beating heart!) and this is the first selection.  I'd never heard of it before, but a cursory glance of the back cover made me think it was something I would enjoy.  I was on board.

The Knife of Never Letting Go is the story of Todd Hewitt, just a few weeks away from officially becoming a man, Todd is growing up in Prentisstown in the New World.  In Prentisstown, there are no women and every man's thoughts can be heard by every other man leading to a huge amount of noise.  But one day when Todd walks into the woods and hears silence, his guardians hastily tell him he must leave Prentisstown and soon Todd is on adventure and he's not quite sure why, but he will come to discover that Prentisstown is not all he was led to believe.

The first thing that struck me was Todd's dialect.  It was very backwoods and that's how the whole novel was written.  The first sentence in the novel, for example: "The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say.  About anything."  I was afraid a book full of "yers" and words ending in "shuns" instead of "tions" would be distracting, but I caught on to the voice of the novel rather quickly and ultimately this language aided in creating a wonderful novel.  The story would have been much less believable if Todd spoke perfect English.  Besides, Todd might sound like a dumb hick, but he's actually very smart for someone with practically no education.  Despite his flaws, Todd was a very likable character.

The silence Todd comes across while in the woods is actually a girl.  Growing up in Prentisstown, Todd had been told that when they arrived to the New World (another planet) they settlers had to fight with the local alien group, who fashioned a biological warfare disease that killed off all the women.  So seeing this girl was a huge shock to Todd and thus began his journey, not only of leaving Prentisstown, but of learning the truth.  Taking that journey along with Todd, I began just as confused as he was since no one would explain to him what the truth was (and they couldn't because everyone else would be able to hear it in their thoughts).  It wasn't until the end of the novel that the truth, or most of it, is learned and it all falls into place.

Todd takes a very interesting journey.  The Knife of Never Letting Go is extremely action packed and I found myself having to set down the novel to take a breather.  Todd never rests!  Of course, you wouldn't either if you were being chased.  The journey didn't go quite as I'd hoped, however.  Part of the ending was predictable, but that didn't bother me.  There were two things in particular, on the other hand, that really did bother me, though I cannot recount them here because they are massive spoilers.  I really wanted to drop my rating to three stars because of it, but...

Four stars!  I cannot fault the author simply for writing a story whose outcome I didn't like.  I can kick and scream, but ultimately Patrick Ness is a great writer.  However, the book dragged on a bit towards the end and I got that feeling of "let's be done already" which is where The Knife of Never Letting Go loses a star from me.  If you love post-apocalytic novels, you'll definitely want to check out this, one the YA originals.  You can also check out "The New World," a prequel by Ness that takes place before The Knife of Never Letting Go... it's free!

   

Shadows on the Sand

Shadows on the Sand
Gayle Roper
309 pages
Publisher: Multnomah
Source: Blogging for Books
★★★☆☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

I received this book for review last August and I don't know why I let it sit on my shelf so long, it ended up being a perfectly delightful little mystery read.  Shadows on the Sand takes place in the town of Seaside, New Jersey where Carrie owns a little cafe, working alongside her sister and a motley crew of Seaside residents.  Trouble strikes, however, when one of her dishwashers is murdered and her young server's boyfriend becomes a suspect.  Soon a whole cast of characters is woven together in the mystery.  Meanwhile, a much-wanted romance starts to bloom between Carrie and long-time customer Greg.

That's a lot going on in this book, but I loved it because it really kept the pace of the novel moving.  I felt there was a perfect balance of mystery and romance.  The mystery itself had me pondering all the way through the end and the climatic ending had my heart beating fast.  I loved the way Gayle Roper weaved the lives of those involved together.

I thought the characters in Seaside were diverse and lovable, particularly Carrie and Greg, who find themselves in a long-awaited romance.  Of course, one of my favorite characters was Twitter-loving Cilla; I loved the inclusion of social networking in the novel as a way of keeping the residents of Seaside informed.  And I have to give a shout out to Oreo - I love when pets play a role in mystery novels!

The only thing I would have liked more of was Andi.  As a YA reviewer, her character really intrigued me and I would have liked to have known more about her personal life and her roots.  I think a sequel featuring Andi would be fantastic, but any sequel at all will be a welcome addition on my shelf.  I would have also liked to have seen how Carrie's relationship with her mother progressed, but hopefully that's something we can see more of in future Seaside Mystery books!

Three stars - I liked this book!  Seaside is an absolutely charming town and the residents will capture your heart.  Given its location, I think it would be the perfect beach read this summer.



FTC disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher for free, but that did not affect my review in any way.