Rewind and Review: June

Jun 9

Rewind & Review is an AMAZING new meme hosted jointly by two fabulous ladies, Ginger from Greads! and Lisa from Lisa Is Busy Nerding. This meme is all about mining your TBR piles and finding some long-lost gems (from 2010 or earlier) that you meant to read and somehow passed over. I KNOW, but it happens. Each month, each participant picks a few oldies but hopefully goodies to read, reviews ’em, and spreads the word. Huzzah!

So you know what I’ve decided, friends? First of all, let me apologize for being a slacker with this month’s post. Been busy around here this past week! But that time also allowed me to come to grips with my ability to read three books a month for this awesome feature. So I’m knocking it down to two. THAT I can definitely do. Because I just had another month where I only reviewed ONE BOOK, to my everlasting shame, although it was a good one: THE EXILED QUEEN by Cinda Williams Chima. I suck a little bit, guys. But I can do two!! I CAN do it, and June will be the month.

TIME ENOUGH FOR DRUMS sounds so much right up my alley, I can’t even tell you. And SHADE is a holdover that I now own and therefore have no excuse to not read. These books are going DOWN.

Filed Under: Rewind and Review Tagged With: pile of shame, rewind and review

Rewind and Review: May

May 3

Guys, I have consistently managed to underperform for this meme each month. I always pick three books, I always wind up reading LESS than three, and I always wind up switching one book for another all sneaky-like in the middle of the month. SIGH. BUT! I am definitely mining my pile, and that makes me crazy happy! In April, I reviewed I’D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU, BUT THEN I’D HAVE TO KILL YOU by Ally Carter and…that’s it. I told you. UNDERPERFORMED. In fact, I had no idea I only reviewed this one book until just today. I could’ve SWORN there was another one. Alas. I WILL be better next month, guys. I SWEAR. (In my defense, AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES was checked out of my library for most of this month, so….)

THE EXILED QUEEN is chilling in a pile right now, waiting for me, Katherines is on hold at the library, and SHADE–because I’ve been hearing TONS of love for these books now that the third in this trilogy is out–is coming to me courtesy of le wallet because my library doesn’t have them (for shame!)

May, I will crush you.

Filed Under: Rewind and Review Tagged With: pile of shame, rewind and review

Rewind and Review: April

Apr 4

I’m LOVING this meme, friends. Although, the last two months, I’ve only managed to read one of my three proposed titles each, and I keep switching things out. March was just such a month, guys. AND I still haven’t managed to read three books for this meme in one month. But I read some Rewind & Review books last month, and I’m REALLY looking forward to the ones I’ve picked for THIS month. YES I have picked three, and YES I WILL READ THEM ALL. Check out my reviews for THE DEMON KING and LIPS TOUCH: THREE TIMES, and then oooh and ahhhh over April’s selections below (one should look familiar)!

BRING IT, APRIL.

Filed Under: Rewind and Review Tagged With: pile of shame, rewind and review

Rewind and Review (4): The Demon King

Mar 29

The Demon King (Seven Realms #1)

by Cinda Williams Chima

(First published November 19, 2009 by Disney-Hyperion)

Yo, the fact that I hadn’t yet read Cinda Williams Chima’s THE DEMON KING until now is egregious, guys. A serious misstep on my part. Why this happened is beyond me. I knew about the Seven Realms series; I knew it was high fantasy with magic, politics, and intrigue; I knew that lots of people thought it was excellent. I’d even checked it out of my library once before and somehow got distracted by other things. Sometimes, I think I just need to be in the right mood to read certain books, and that includes my beloved high fantasies. THANKFULLY, I was finally in the mood to read THE DEMON KING because guys? IT’S LEGIT, and I can’t wait to read further in this series.

So, THE DEMONG KING by Cinda Williams Chima has lots of things going for it: it’s got magic, a repressed princess, a thief trying to reform, a queen not acting like herself, and a 1,000-year-old truce between wizards and the clans–a Native American-esque race who control and disseminate magic–borne out of the actions of an ancient queen named Hanalea, and the most powerful wizard ever to live, the Demon King. This truce is really the center of the story because it’s losing its footing among the wizard elite, and their efforts to subvert the peace that helps contain their magic loom HUGELY over the whole story.

Of course, the politics of THE DEMON KING wouldn’t mean much if we didn’t have such AWESOME characters flesh out the rest of the story. Cinda Williams Chima gives us well-rounded, complex, funny, bright characters in Princess Raisa and Han Alister. Raisa is confident, strong, opinionated, and feeling a little rebellious. There are times when she might come off as entitled and spoiled, but she has so many redeeming qualities. Raisa is KICK-ASS, friends, and she’s really coming into her own by the end of this book. She’s got BIG THINGS coming, I can feel it!

Han Alister is, to me, almost instantly lovable. He’s got rough edges and a sketchy past, but his motives are sweet and understandable and his struggles with a life of crime on the streets lend to his complexity. But YO, Han seriously CHARMED the pants off of me (and, I feel like, LOTS of girls in Fellsmarch, too. Honestly? I couldn’t blame a single one of them) and I LOVED his story. He’s smart and sneaky and he’s got that unassuming confidence about him that’s really magnetic.

Both Han and Raisa have spent lots of time with the clans and it’s clear that they both prefer the more carefree, natural environment there. Of course, they’ve never encountered each other there. In fact, although I’m assuming that Han and Raisa are the OTP of this series, their interactions are limited in THE DEMON KING, and Cinda Williams Chima throws a further wrench in their interactions by giving Raisa an alias at certain times so that Han winds up having no idea who she really is. They’re definitely feeling the little electric shocks of each other, though, if you know what I mean. MOAR OF THEM, PLEASE.

Don’t worry, though, there’s some kissy face. It just happens to be between the two leads and other people, which I appreciate. Han has clearly gotten some before, and he has a nice little relationship with a girl from one of the clans. And I appreciate very much that Raisa enjoys kissing boys and is looking forward to doing it more often. She’s unashamed of her burgeoning desire for making out and being intimate. (Unfortunately, she mostly kisses the douchebag, Micah Bayar, son of the High Wizard, who is the resident BAD GUY.) She does get some nice relationship complexity with her old friend Amon Byrne, though, who is a member of the Queen’s Guard and is absolutely being set up as the “nice guy” to Han’s “trouble maker” in le triangle.

All in all, the action and the plotting and ALL THE LIES in THE DEMON KING by Cinda Williams Chima make for one gripping tale. There’s all kinds of juicy stuff going, y’all! Back-stabbing, SEKRETS, death, mystery, sneaky political machinations, confusing relationships, magical shenanigans, and a big reveal at the end, which I did kind of puzzle out early, to be honest. But that did NOTHING to dampen my LOVE of this story or the people in it, nor did it make me any LESS eager to get my grabby hands on the rest of the series. Huzzah for great fantasy!! HUZZAH!

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Filed Under: Reviews, Rewind and Review, Young Adult Tagged With: book reviews, Cinda Williams Chima, Disney-Hyperion, fantasy YA, pile of shame, rewind and review, Seven Realms

Rewind and Review (3): Lips Touch, Three Times

Mar 19

Lips Touch: Three Times

by Laini Taylor

(First published October 1, 2009 by Scholastic)

Oh, Laini. I know I’ve said this before, but I think I just might have to say it again: You’re magical. The words you write are so pretty and your stories are imaginative, fantastical, and emotional and I love them! Even when they’re short. And guys? The stories in LIPS TOUCH: THREE TIMES all lived up to my expectations of Laini Taylor’s writing and her ability to evoke FEELINGS in her readers. Yay!

LIPS TOUCH: THREE TIMES is a collection of three novellas that all feature some important turn of events involving a kiss (hence the “lips touching” part). Obviously, this is fantastic. But I actually really enjoyed the fact that Laini Taylor is so good at creating the whole picture of a story that the kisses–to varying degrees–don’t overshadow anything. In fact, the elements from these stories that I recall with greatest clarity and that I enjoyed the most aren’t necessarily the kisses at all. So on that note, into the breech!

The first story in this collection is called “Goblin Fruit,” and it’s good. It’s the shortest of the three, and probably on the whole, my least favorite, although that doesn’t mean it’s bad. Not so. It’s about a young girl named Kizzy who’s family is majorly superstitious. They believe in the old ways, which involves lots of things but most important for this story is their belief in goblins, and the fact that the only way a goblin can steal a girl’s soul is for her to give it up willingly in a kiss. Perhaps you might be able to determine where this story goes without me saying anything else. It’s a good story, though, and I enjoyed reading about Kizzy’s family’s old-world superstitions.

The second story in LIPS TOUCH: THREE TIMES by Laini Taylor is called “Spicy Little Curses” and it takes place in post-WWI British India. Seriously, can we have more of this please?! The setting is lush and gorgeous and, as in “Goblin Fruit,” this story relies heavily on beliefs and superstitions. It’s about an old woman who is an ambassador to hell who must deal with a demon to save the lives of children on Earth (the demon saves the kiddos and she gives him the name of a baddie instead). One time, though, the old woman makes a deal with the demon to save a bunch of children and in return she must curse the daughter of a British diplomat. It’s BAD. Obviously, it also involves a kiss, but that comes later. This story was gorgeous and perfectly contained; I didn’t feel like anything was missing when it was finished. There was drama and love and, OF COURSE, elegant writing. SO PRETTY.

At this point, I’m going to interrupt MY little flow here to say that I thought LIPS TOUCH: THREE TIMES by Laini Taylor had a flow, too, and it went something like this: The first story–good, short, and the lightest in tone of the three; the second story–better, longer, and darker, what with the terms of the curse being what they were; the third story–the BEST and the LONGEST and the darkest, as well. In my opinion, of course, in terms of the “good, better, best” thing.

So, now you know that I thought the third story, “Hatchling” was the best and it was definitely my favorite. You guys, I would read a whole book about this incredibly vivid, imaginative world with a totally unique mythology, and I think it definitely benefited from getting the most air time, as it were. But for real: “Hatchling” was so gorgeous, so fraught, and so absorbing that I wanted it to keep going. It MADE the entire book, for me.

“Hatchling” is about a young girl, Esme, and her mother, Mab (NOT the faerie queen), who find themselves on the run from these wolves after Esme wakes up one morning with one of her brown eyes blue. The wolves serve the Druj queen (the Druj are these soulless, immortal…I don’t even know what to call them, except to say that they aren’t vampires. Just plain demons, perhaps?), and she is a BEYOTCH. Which is fun to read, obviously. Shenanigans ensue. We get LOTS of back story about Mab, who spent some time with the Queen in her youth. These parts were STUNNING, guys. The descriptions of life in the Queen’s citadel were stark and beautiful, and I LOVED the mythology. And the way this whole story comes together I thought was genius, and so satisfying. *Sigh*. Esme was a great character, and I REALLY loved Mihai, this conflicted, unique Druj with a connection to the Queen. This one story is reason enough to pick up LIPS TOUCH: THREE TIMES, guys. It’s seriously LEGIT.

Aside from the gorgeous writing and the FEELINGS and the creative world-building, this book has some absolutely stunning, beautiful, jaw-dropping images by Jim Di Bartolo. Guys, these pictures are out of this world. There are several panels that accompany each story and they’re all exceptional. It almost makes me wish that Laini Taylor had teamed up with her husband to write LIPS TOUCH: THREE TIMES as a graphic novel. They were AMAZING.

So, final assessment: I really enjoyed LIPS TOUCH: THREE TIMES. The stories were all unique, emotional, gorgeously written urban fantasies that got steadily better as the book progressed. As always, Laini Taylor spins some KILLER yarns, friends. If she hadn’t become one of my instant-read authors after I finished DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE, Laini Taylor would certainly be one now. I can’t wait to read ALL OF HER WORDS.

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Filed Under: Reviews, Rewind and Review, Young Adult Tagged With: book reviews, Laini Taylor, pile of shame, rewind and review, Scholastic, short stories, urban fantasy ya

Rewind and Review: March

Mar 2

We’re on to month #2 of this awesome meme, friends, and I can’t wait to keep on keepin’ on! In case you missed my Rewind and Review books from February, you can check out my reviews of VAMPIRE ACADEMY and THE SWORD OF THE RIGHTFUL KING by clicking on the links!

Alas, I had wanted to review a THIRD book in February that I didn’t get to (curse you, shortest month of the year!), so it got bumped to March. THE DEMON KING IS HAPPENING. Plus two more. I WILL read three books a month!

Game on, March! Game. On.

Filed Under: Rewind and Review Tagged With: pile of shame, rewind and review

Rewind and Review (2) | Vampire Academy | Richelle Mead

Feb 9

Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy #1)

by Richelle Mead

(First published August 16, 2007 by Razorbill)

I think one of the reasons that I hesitated to read VAMPIRE ACADEMY is because the Twilight series managed to burn me out on vampires, and the backlash from those books made me wary of other vampy books. So I kept putting these books off because I felt like it would just be reading Twilight all over again. This turned out to be a great lesson in not making assumptions. YOU WERE SO WRONG, AMY. In my opinion, now that I’ve read books from both series, the Vampire Academy series is better for a lot of reasons, and I’m mad at myself that I waited this long to jump in. Also, NOT becoming addicted to these books is as impossible as, like, time travel. THEY ARE BOOK CRACK AND I LOVE THEM. Ahem. So. Let’s discuss, shall we?

There were a few things that I noticed right away about VAMPIRE ACADEMY that I really appreciated, and one is that the world is sophisticated. There’s no silly, cheesy vampires here. The way the different breeds of vampires exist is complex and dangerous and full of drama. I’m digging the impending political/ideological crisis vibe that’s going on between the various Moroi and their dhampirs, and the Strigoi seem badass and creepy. Also, I love me a good rebellion, y’all, and the seeds of one are being sown.

The characters are also FANTASTIC, and are one of my favorite things about VAMPIRE ACADEMY. Generally speaking, I always love it when teens in books act in a realistic way. The kids at St. Vlad’s curse, have sex, get into trouble, and drink. That always gets a thumbs up from me. And the secondary characters are fleshed out and have great personalities. I loved Lissa and Christian, and Mia is deliciously malicious.

But really, the centerpiece is Rose, and she’s a BAMF. Rose is AWESOME, and I think a kind of rarer character in YA in that she isn’t your typical wallflower kind of girl. She’s sassy, impulsive, brash, and confident. When it comes to Lissa, her best friend with whom she shares a very rare, almost psychic bond, she’s fiercely loyal and determined to protect her at any cost. But let me just say that it was refreshing to read about a character who was both aware and unashamed of her physicality. She likes hooking up and flirting and flaunting what she’s got, and I LOVED it. Granted, she’s unashamed of her body because it sounds like she’s basically a 10, but the idea still applies. I loved her confidence. She totally jumps off the page with her fieriness, and I felt all of her feelings almost right away. I LOVE THIS.

Obviously another cornerstone of not only this book but the series itself is the relationship between Rose and Dimitri, her mentor and fellow dhampir. Their relationship has the potential to be tricky, but in the end, I thought it was AWESOME. I recall reading something about how some readers perceived their relationship as weird and inappropriate because Dimitri is 7 years older than Rose and basically, although not technically, her teacher. And those things are true, and they would have bothered me to no end if they had gone unaddressed. But they didn’t. In fact, I think those things are handled pretty well here. Their age difference–both in literal number and in emotional maturity–is a HUGE sticking point in their being together. Don’t mistake me: they have CRAZY chemistry, and a hot little interlude, but their chemistry is something they struggle with, and their interlude has a catch. I’m totally rooting for them.

Guys, I can’t say enough about how glad I am that you all lit a fire under my ass to get me to read these books IMMEDIATELY. Because now that I started them, I literally can’t stop (I’m reading book 3, SHADOW KISS, right now. I literally couldn’t wait long enough to write my review of the first book before I plowed through the second and half of the third). I really can’t think of many negative things about these books: they’re engaging, fun, humorous, fraught with drama and danger, have an interesting mythology, and characters who are unique and fabulous. Are they the most thought-provoking or emotional books I’ve ever read? No, but they’re certainly some of the most flat-out enjoyable. They give vampire books a good name. Now, pardon me, but I must dash. I seriously had to force myself to stop reading these books to write this review. HOLLA!

Filed Under: Reviews, Rewind and Review Tagged With: paranormal YA, pile of shame, Razorbill, reviews, rewind and review, Richelle Mead, series

Rewind and Review (1) | Sword of the Rightful King | Jane Yolen

Feb 2

Sword of the Rightful King

by Jane Yolen

(First published August 1, 2004 by Houghton Mifflin)

Perhaps it’s not too much of a secret that I LOVE all things Arthurian. I read books about Camelot and the Arthurian legends, I’m PLANNING on reading MORE books about it, and I fangirl the TV show, Merlin. I love how Arthurian stories straddle the line between historical fiction and fantasy with their elements of magic and politics, and I’m on a mission to find a book about this world that knocks my socks right off my feet. I had high hopes for SWORD OF THE RIGHTFUL KING, and while it was fun and scratched my Arthur-nerd itch, it kind of let me down, and left me a little confused about what little I DO know of the Arthurian legends.

So this book is basically the story of how Arthur, newly crowned King of Britain, must somehow gain the love of his people, who are still hesitant to accept him (although we never really see this, we are only told), possibly because another man has an equally legitimate claim to the throne: his knight, Gawaine. PROBLEM, though, because Gawaine’s mother is the nasty witch Morgause, who will scheme and kill her son’s way to the throne of England so that she may exert power over the realm herself. Merlinnus–her sworn magical enemy–is determined to see that no one take the throne from Arthur, and so he devises some shenanigans involving a sword and a stone to solidify Arthur’s rightful place (with the shenanigans referred to in the book as “legerdemain.” Without question, this is the most I’ve ever encountered this word EVER.) Alllll of this takes place under a cloud of suspicion over Gawaine and his brothers (including Agravaine, who I did not realize was related to Gawaine in any of the Arthurian tales) because everyone knows that Morgause has sent a spy to Arthur’s court, and he must be uncovered before TREACHERY STRIKES. *Gasp!*

I’ll start with the good things about this book. It really was fun to read. I’m currently REALLY nerding out over Merlin, so it was incredibly enjoyable to see lots of those characters in a different light. (Also, because who would not want to picture Arthur like this, or Gawaine like this?) But I love the characters in this story: Arthur and his brave chivalry, Merlinnus (Although, why the extra “nus”? This drove me a little batty) and his sneaky, secretive magic. We meet Gwen but not in the way you might think. Morgause is vindictive and power-hungry, which makes for great drama. In fact, she was probably my favorite character because she seemed the most fleshed out. All very good things.

Also, the story moved quickly. Things happened without much lagging at all, and the whole sword in the stone “legerdemain” (UGH!) was actually really great, probably because it was the storyline that seemed to be the most developed, what with Arthur demanding that all of his knights attempt to pull out the sword before he does. PLUS, we get to see some of the actual business of the knights meeting at the Round Table, and that was very cool. That’s such a foundational part of the whole Arthurian legend, and it was fun to imagine it in action.

But despite those things–or maybe BECAUSE of those things–the story also felt a little scattered to me, like hopping from one thing to the next without much smoothness. The reveals of certain things were kind of predictable, like the deelio with Gwen and the identity of the spy. (Speaking of Gwen, an aspect of her storyline here felt incredibly rushed, and I wished that we could have seen it fleshed out a little more.) And I was slightly confused about the ages of people, although this could certainly come from my perception of these characters as their Merlin counterparts: Arthur is a young man, but Merlinnus is VERY old. Gwen is young also, but Lancelot is described as having some gray hair. I don’t know. I’m not an expert, but some of the details like this didn’t jive with the way I thought the legends went.

We are also introduced to some things that would have been REALLY interesting to pursue (for example, when Lancelot goes to attempt to remove the sword, he actually kind of pulls it out a little bit. With magic? Don’t know. But I think that could have been a juicy little plotline), but are kind of just left hanging, leaving us hoping for a little more detail. This happens quite a bit, actually, although I have to say that the legends themselves are so rich and so varied that you could write HUGE books about Arthur and Camelot (called Cadbury here. Not sure why, but I dig it because it reminds me of Cadbury chocolate) and still not delve into every detail or examine every thread of the story. It’s something good AND bad about Arthurian legend.

In the end, because I find this topic endlessly interesting, I liked reading SWORD OF THE RIGHTFUL KING. It reminded me of why I love these stories in the first place. But the book left me wondering how much more awesome it could have been had it been a 100 pages longer, with more room to explore some of the plotlines. *SIGH*

Filed Under: Reviews, Rewind and Review Tagged With: historical fiction YA, Jane Yolen, pile of shame, rewind and review, Scholastic

Rewind and Review: February

Feb 1

I’m so excited for this meme, guys! I love that it’s kind of loosey goosey with the rules. Like I can post my reviews–however many I choose–when they fit my schedule. PLUS, it’s a great way to make some headway on my own personal challenge of 2012 to conquer my Pile of Shame, which, sadly, continues to grow. But I can’t wait to get started!! Thanks SO MUCH, Ginger and Lisa, for such a killer idea!

Sooooo…without further ado, for the month of February, I’m going to be rewinding and reviewing:

Let’s get on it, guys!! My first review (for Sword of the Rightful King) will be up lickety-split!

Filed Under: Rewind and Review Tagged With: pile of shame, rewind and review

2012 Challenge: Amy’s Pile of SHAME

Dec 17

Amy’s Pile of SHAME Challenge

I know that I already posted the details of the actual, official challenges I’m taking part in next year. (Check out the Challenges tab up there on the menu for updates, my dears!) BUT because I’m crazy and also a slacker I have decided to create a personal challenge just for me to complete and YOU GUYS? I’m going to DO IT (she says with her fingers crossed).

Some quick background on what caused this masochistic insanity: a couple of weeks ago, I posted a Top Ten Tuesday about the 10 most embarrassing books STILL on my TBR pile. I had some doozies on there. Appropriately, and with some affection I have to say, I called it my “pile of shame.” But because shame is NO FUN, I’ve decided to go after my PoS like I’m cutting through jungle underbrush with a machete. IT’S GOING DOWN. (Hopefully.) I’m not really making any rules for myself, although I can tell you right now that this is probably the worst idea. That might change. Until then, though, here’s my list as it stands right now. Some of the books on there are EGREGIOUS and others are just books that I’ve had for awhile and want to read. Basically, this challenge is an excuse to read books that are slightly past their prime in terms of currency.

I would ask you, friends, to PLEASE try and refrain from the hurling of rotten fruits and veg at me because I really need ENCOURAGEMENT. Ok? Thanks guys. LOVES YOU SO MUCH.

Without further ado, in no particular order…*hears JAWS theme*…

Amy’s PILE OF SHAME

*gasps from the crowd* *babies crying* *women screaming* *civilians running for their lives*

1. Across the Universe

2. Demon’s Lexicon

3. Need

4. Nightshade

5. Revoution

6. Rampant

7. Hunger

8. Beauty

9. Beast

10. An Echo in the Bone

11. Jellicoe Road

12. The Book Thief

13. The Golden Compass

14. The Hobbit

Wish me luck!!

Filed Under: 2012 Reading Challenge Tagged With: 2012 challenge, books, pile of shame

Rewind and Review: June

Rewind and Review: May

Rewind and Review: April

Rewind and Review (4): The Demon King