Absolutely

Young adult romance by Melissa Veracruz

THE BLURB:

One mistake sends Ashlyn Ramos plummeting from popular naiveté and into the outskirts of the social order. She’s had a great life so far. So many things were going right! Now, she has a wrecked car, a parentally confiscated cell phone, and ex-friends making life miserable. Not the way she wanted to start the best year of her life. And walking to school was totally going to suck. Until she saw him on the sidewalk ahead of her.

Kiel Fuller has a past he’d prefer to keep to himself. He’s had several rough years. His own fault, admittedly, for screwing up. Now, he’s settled in a small town and ready to make the most of senior year. However, his dad is borrowing his Jeep. Walking to school won’t suck too much, though. He could blast his iPod and think. What he didn’t count on was Ashlyn walking up beside him.

It is not love at first walk. Kiel’s heard the rumors about her. And Ashlyn can’t make herself heard over his blaring iPod. They’re both facing demons, but they learn it’s better to face them together.

MY THOUGHTS:

The young adult romance situations I tend to read about usually involve the supernatural. As much as I love those kinds of books, I admit the market is saturated with them now, so this purely human tale of a high school romance is somewhat refreshing. It incorporates many real issues faced by that set, including underage drinking, the excitement of homecoming, and most notably the problem of bullying.

This is not my usual type of book, but it was well-written and an admirable example of its kind. I enjoyed seeing the relationship through the eyes of both characters, and there is a good dose of humor in these pages. If you like a good old-fashioned romance that has you just as breathless as the characters, odds are you will enjoy this book.

MY RATING:

3.5 booksies

Author's website: http://literaryhomebody.com/

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The Complete Check Your Luck Agency

This urban fantasy was written as a five book series, and was first published under the name Cara d'Bastian. The individual installments are titled The Check Your Luck Agency, Return of the Hantu, Wrath of the Harimau, Night of the Pontianak, and Five Card Draw, Jinn are High.

THE BLURB:

After the tragic death of her parents, and with nothing left tying her to the United Kingdom, Ursula Formosa returns to her homeland of Malaysia and a job with the eccentrically-named Singapore firm, “The Check Your Luck Agency”.

What begins as an attempt to stave off boredom turns into a new way of life as the scales drop from Ursula’s eyes and she tentatively enters a realm that contains vengeful ghosts, toyol, demons, pontianak and curses, not to mention old-fashioned fraud and larceny. As she befriends bomohs, mediums and a young woman already centuries old, Ursula’s ideas of friendship expand into a fresh view of the world that surrounds her.

But she isn’t going to be left to ease into things. A criminal mastermind, who is also a powerful sorcerer, is gathering mythical creatures to help him possess every living soul in Singapore, and he isn’t about to let the members of The Check Your Luck Agency stand in his way!

MY THOUGHTS:

This wasn't bad, but in the end it failed to excite me.

There's an interesting premise here, about an agency who investigates cases of "bad luck" to see if the cause is paranormal in nature, or simply boils down to a jealous relative or plain old fraud. The protagonist, a fairly likable character named Ursula, at first denies the existence of the supernatural world, before eventually admitting to herself that she in fact has an affinity for the arcane herself. She can see the spirit world, can even communicate with ghosts better than many other practitioners of the art. In the face of unnatural enemies, and enemies who use unnatural means for their own gain, she learns to hone her new craft. All of this is set against the backdrop of a colorful part of the world I was not very familiar with before.

This sounds like the making of an intriguing story. Unfortunately, it kind of fell flat for me. None of the ghost stories really spooked me or thrilled me, the romantic interest did not make me swoon. Nothing in particular was bad, by any means, but I found myself reading on just for the sake of finishing it.

My favorite parts would probably be learning about the staples of southeast Asian ghost stories, and the specter of Simon Oakland. Simon was definitely my favorite character of the bunch.

MY RATING:

3 booksies

Author's website: http://www.ksaugustin.com/

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Obsidian (Lux #1)

THE BLURB:
 

Starting over sucks.

When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I'd pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring...until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.

And then he opened his mouth.

Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something...unexpected happens.

The hot alien living next door marks me.

You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon's touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I'm getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades.

If I don't kill him first, that is.

MY THOUGHTS:

This was a pretty enjoyable young adult paranormal romance read. One of the my main issues with it, though, is that it basically follows THE formula for young adult paranormal romance. Involving aliens instead of vampires was unique, but otherwise this book had many parallels to others such as Twilight. Human girl just moved to new town (and new state) meets gorgeous mysterious guy who tries to fight his own attraction to her, but in the end can't resist her. There develops a hot friction between the two. Then throw in the revelation of the boy's paranormal origins, complete with supernatural enemies who target the girl in order to get at the guy.

However, even though the premise is very similar, it's still mostly a fun one to read about! I have to say, though, Obsidian did not suck me in completely as did Twilight.

It was still fun enough and chances are I will pick up book 2 at some point. The relationship between gorgeous mysterious guy and human girl (who, in this rendition, hearts books and has her own book review blog - extra points for that!) never actually fully develops in this first installment, leaving me feeling frustrated in way that made me equal parts annoyed and anxious to keep reading to get to the good stuff!

MY RATING:

3.5 booksies!

The Lux series continues in Onyx, Opal, Origin, and Opposition. There is also a prequel titled Shadows.

Author's website: http://www.jenniferarmentrout.com/

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Both kindle and nook ebook versions are currently free to download!

Tiger Lily

This is not a self-published novel by an indie author.

THE BLURB:

Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair. . . .

Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn't believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell.

Peter is unlike anyone she's ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland's inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is risking everything—her family, her future—to be with him. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she's always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter.

With enemies threatening to tear them apart, the lovers seem doomed. But it's the arrival of Wendy Darling, an English girl who's everything Tiger Lily is not, that leads Tiger Lily to discover that the most dangerous enemies can live inside even the most loyal and loving heart.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Peaches comes a magical and bewitching story of the romance between a fearless heroine and the boy who wouldn't grow up.

MY THOUGHTS:

This magical book narrated by Tinkerbell tells the Peter Pan story through the eyes of Tiger Lily, a remarkable girl from the Sky Eater tribe of Neverland. Rather than a fun romp, this tale was poignant and haunting, in a beautiful way.

Tiger Lily is the adopted daughter of the tribe's transsexual shaman, but she often feels more herself when running wild through the forest, untethered by society. This fearsome nature along with her stoicism in social situations makes her something of an outcast, and rumor among her neighbors is that she is cursed.

Tiger Lily's life changes when she meets the lost boys, headed by Peter. Here is where I struggled a bit with the story - everyone is supposed to just love Peter, he is utterly irresistible to every person (and mermaid) around him and breaks hearts without even realizing he does it. But I never really understood him at all in this book. The author tried to convince us of his many virtues, but I just didn't get it. I missed what everyone else apparently sees in him. I saw nothing that showed me why he and Tiger Lily were supposedly in love. So that part fell kind of flat for me.

In the end, though, I took it at face value that everyone loves Peter, and so my heart broke with Tiger Lily's when her whole world crumbled around her. The English find the shores of Neverland, Peter follows the pert and pretty Wendy back to England, the missionaries infect the minds of her tribes people, altering their way of life and poisoning them against her father and driving him to despair.

When entering adulthood, Tiger Lily saw changes tear through her world, and nothing can ever be the same again. She suffers dear losses. And she comes to terms with who she is and what it is in life that is truly important.  

MY RATING:

4.5 booksies! 

Cruel Beauty

This is not a self-published novel by an indie author.

Cruel Beauty is be described as young adult fantasy where Greek mythology meets Beauty and the Beast.

THE BLURB:

Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.

Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.

With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.

But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle-a shifting maze of magical rooms-enthralls her.

As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.

MY THOUGHTS:

This was a super fun read!

I had my doubts at first, when I picked up on a couple of silly little things that irked me (repetition of words and phrases too many times, some phrasing that just didn't sit right with me, a couple of overdone ideas), but really those seemed limited to the beginning. I didn't notice things like that later on, and the author turned out some beautifully written sentences with delicious imagery.

The story itself was great fun. It hooked me and I finished it in 2 days, staying up until 3am to finish it and probably ignoring my children a bit more than I should have (sorry boys!) The author ended up hitting me right where she wanted to. I will definitely want to check out more of her work as it comes out.

MY RATING:

4.5 booksies!

Author's website: http://www.rosamundhodge.net/ 

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Red Rising

This is not a self-published novel by an indie author.

Red Rising is the first book in the

Red Rising Trilogy.

THE BLURB:

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and lush wilds spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity’s overlords struggle for power.  He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society’s ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies . . . even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.

MY THOUGHTS:

This book was pretty darn good. In some ways it's a bit like The Hunger Games for adults, but better still.

A corrupt ruling class wields power over the castes below them. They can be ruthless, invested in keeping themselves in power. Our main man Darrow is going to help start a rebellion against them, but first he must place himself in their midst, disguised as one of their own, and earn their trust.

Book 1 follows his transformation from a lowly Red into a valued member of Gold society. In order to advance among the Golds, their youngsters must prove their worth by being thrown together in an engineered situation of war and conquest, which is meant to weed out the weak and raise up those with qualities the Golds admire. Here is the meat of the story told in the first book - dozens of young men and women split into Houses based in Roman mythology and pitted against one another. They strategize, they form alliances, they meet in battle. Some go beyond the others in the levels of violence they are willing to commit against their peers.

This book had me hooked once we reached this part of the story. I stayed up waaaay too late to keep reading! It was exciting and fun, and also touched on some poignant subjects. My only complaints have to do with the ending - things wrapped up rather quickly. We are told that person A captured the much feared person B, but we don't get to see it unfold, and we're not even told HOW they managed it. We don't get to see the reactions of those involved. I can only hope book 2 gives us glimpses of those moments and the emotions involved.

I greatly look forward to the next book to see how things advance from here for the rebellion, for the characters we have grown fond of, and for the relationships amongst them. Oddly, I find myself hoping we get to see more of the Jackal. His character was kind of fascinating, in a creepy sort of way

MY RATING:

5 booksies!

The Red Rising Trilogy will continue with Golden Son, due out January 2015

Author website: http://www.pierce-brown.com/red-rising-trilogy.html

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The Phoenix Project Compendium

Books 1 through 3 are now available in a single volume

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paperback only

Crown Duel

Most of the books I review here are self-published, but not all of them, and so coming up there will be a few traditionally published novels sprinkled in with those written by indie authors.

This young adult fantasy was originally published as two books,

Crown Duel and Court Duel

THE BLURB:

Young Countess Meliara swears to her dying father that she and her brother will defend their people from the growing greed of the king. That promise leads them into a war for which they are ill-prepared, which threatens the very people they are trying to protect. But war is simple compared to what follows, in peacetime. Meliara is summoned to live at the royal palace, where friends and enemies look alike, and intrigue fills the dance halls and the drawing rooms. If she is to survive, Meliara must learn a whole new way of fighting-with wits and words and secret alliances.

In war, at least, she knew in whom she could trust. Now she can trust no one.

MY THOUGHTS:

This is a young adult fantasy about a rebellion against a corrupt king, and then the aftermath including the fashioning of a new and better court. There's some magic here, but it's more of a given in the background of the world Smith has created, and not a focal point of the story. A bit of romance as well. 

Overall I didn't think this book was anything great, but it was entertaining enough to keep me interested through to the end. Then again, I may have been somewhat more taken with it if I had been in the targeted young adult range when I read it.
 
What I did like: the parts with Meliara on the run in the first book were exciting. In the second book, building the world of the Court of Athanarel and all of the court intrigue was super fun.

The ending was actually kind of anticlimactic for me. I mean, the final hurrah seemed to get wrapped up really quick and easy.

As for the romance, I would have liked to have seen the two interact AFTER the big revelation. Everything building up to it was nice though.


MY RATING:

3 booksies!

Author website: http://www.sherwoodsmith.net/

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