Fragile Destiny

Fragile Destiny
by Suzanne Lazear
The Aether Chronicles, book three

Publication date: August 8, 2014 

Noli and her true love V fear the worst if the Staff of Eris—a potent Otherworld relic—falls into the wrong hands. Broken into pieces and hidden in the mortal realm long ago, the staff bestows vast powers on whoever possesses it. Ciarán, the dark king, is trying to rebuild the staff, intending to use it to install a new queen.

In a desperate effort to keep the Otherworld from falling into darkness, Noli and V plot the daring theft of a jewel Ciarán needs to complete the staff. But Ciarán is not so easily defeated. Through his devious machinations, he has set a plan in motion for a final showdown that will decide who rules the Otherworld once and for all. (Description from Goodreads.com)

I used this description of the book from Goodreads, but honestly, I don't think it really captures the heart of the book that well.  Though it is true that there is a quest to keep the pieces of the Staff of Eris out of the wrong hands, this book is more about Noli regaining her own identity and finding her place in the Mortal and Otherworlds. 

Let me say, without getting TOO spoilery, that when Noli does find her place,...it's a doozy.  I was not expecting that, but I think that she's a strong character who acclimated well once the initial shock wore off. I loved seeing her take charge of her own life once again and return to the character that I'd loved so much in Innocent Darkness. One character I did not love in this book, though, was V. Readers will find out there's a reason why he becomes an obnoxious prig in this book, but ugh... I kind of wanted to hit him a few times. 

The only other thing I really want to say, without revealing too much, is that there MUST be a book after this! Too much is foreshadowed but not truly explored.   True we get Noli to a point where I can imagine how her story continues, but I  DESPERATELY want to read it...and more about Jeff and Vix...and Elise and her new best friend... and how Tiana might get her comeuppance in the end... there's SO much more that could be explored! 

Full disclosure: eARC received through Netgalley

The Future of Us

The Future of Us
by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

Josh and Emma are about to discover themselves--fifteen years in the future

It's 1996, and Josh and Emma have been neighbors their whole lives. They've been best friends almost as long--at least, up until last November, when everything changed. Things have been awkward ever since, but when Josh's family gets a free AOL CD-ROM in the mail, his mom makes him bring it over so that Emma can install it on her new computer. When they sign on, they're automatically logged onto Facebook . . . but Facebook hasn't been invented yet. Josh and Emma are looking at themselves fifteen years in the future.

Their spouses, careers, homes, and status updates--it's all there. And every time they refresh their pages, their futures change. As they grapple with the ups and downs of what their lives hold, they're forced to confront what they're doing right--and wrong--in the present. (description from Amazon.com)

To be totally honest, I did not really like this book. I had expected to love it, but it just never really worked for me.  In the first couple of chapters I was totally into the whole nostalgia thing...I loved flashing back to my high school self...but as the story moved on, it just never grabbed me. 

I thought the concept was really cool, but I didn't really connect to either character. The plot didn't seem to move enough for me.  I liked the ending, but knew exactly where it was going almost from the start. 

I just felt, eh, about most of this book.  :/
Did any of you love it?

The Thirteenth Chime

The Thirteenth Chime
by Emma Michaels
A Sense of Time, book one

No one knew of its existence until it was removed from the attic upstairs.

In a beautiful house that overlooks the sea, an antique clock has the power to change the course of their lives.

The power the clock resonates will not only force Destiny and ex-boyfriend David on a journey into the depths of one man's mind long dead, but into the mind of a man filled with hatred and bent on revenge.

With the only clues to the nature of the clock having disappeared into the sea, Destiny and David must retrace the steps the man had taken into the darkness, before they fall prey to the trap he had set in motion over half a century ago. (description from Emma Michael's blog)

The Thirteenth Chime is Emma Michael's debut novel. The writing could be cleaned up some, but hopefully that will change with experience. The storyline, though, was interesting.

When Destiny joins her friend Stephanie at her new house for a short vacation, she's expecting to relax and have a fun time with a good friend. Unfortunately, Stephanie and her mother are attacked the first night and what Destiny has seen haunts her. In a panic, Destiny calls her ex-boyfriend, not her fiance, and has David come out while Stephanie and her mother are in the hospital.

Destiny and David begin investigating and soon tie the attack to the previous owner of the house and a mysterious grandfather clock that looms on the staircase landing. The ghostly aspect of the story was well done and the ties to the old prison on the nearby island were very interesting. I loved the twist with the clock and the suspense of not knowing if everyone would survive. For all that Emma Michael's writing is rough around the edges, she does know how to build suspense and set the mood.

I was somewhat confused, though, why this book was toted as being young adult. With adult characters and a focus on deepening relationships (marriage), I did not really get a young adult feel from this book at all. It is a contemporary paranormal story, but I think it actually should be categorized as an adult book....maybe the series introduces teen characters along the way?

Wither - Blog Tour

Wither by Lauren DeStefano The Chemical Garden Trilogy, book one By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children. When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out? (description from Amazon.com) This was a compelling and creepy dystopia. DeStefano's debut is impossible to put down. Though I really enjoyed the characters, the world DeStefano creates is even more of a draw. I never would been able to imagine this society with a very short life expectancy...and how society has managed to cope...or not. The polygamous marriages that become common amongst the wealthy to continue procreation, the Gatherers that kidnap girls to become brides, the orphanages that must exist when most parents are now dying before their children are old enough to care for themselves...unnerving. I just want to creep into the back of Lauren DeStefano's brain to see what else she'll imagine! I really felt for Rhine. She was trapped in sooo many ways. Physically, metaphorically, and mentally - their entire society is pretty much trapped...so sad. The cover (which is absolutely GORGEOUS) really epitomizes the story. They did a phenomenal job designing it. Anyway, I think the thing that really struck me the most - out of all these crazy, shocking ideas was that poor Rowen, Rhine's twin brother, would outlive his sister by five years. They're twins! The closest that two people can really ever be...and there was no way that he could know that she was alive for those years, even if she was all the way across the country...she will die at twenty, no matter what. That broke my heart a little. I am super curious to see what happens in the second book. I don't want to go into spoilers, but I will say I cannot wait to see more of this world. DeStefano was a master at dropping in little bits of information to build the world. Mini-flashbacks, sensory triggered memories, and explainations built into events just kept adding layers into what became a more and more fascinating (and scary) version of our future. An extremely well-done and fascinating debut. Full disclosure: ARC received from Book It Foward ARC Tours 2011 Debut Author Challenge title

I Now Pronounce You Someone Else - Blog Tour Stop for Sept. 19th!

Welcome to day three of the "I Now Pronounce You Someone Else" Blog Tour!!
I'm stoked to offer you a review of this great book today and then later this week I'm going to have a guest post from the author, Erin McCahan, herself!

First, let me tell you about the book:

Eighteen-year-old Bronwen Oliver has a secret: She's really Phoebe, the long lost daughter of the loving Lilywhite family. That's the only way to explain her image-obsessed mother; a kind but distant stepfather; and a brother who has a small personality complex (he thinks he's Jesus). Bronwen must have been switched at birth, and she can't wait to get away from her family for good.

Then she meets Jared Sondervan. He's sweet, funny, everything she wants - and he has the family Bronwen has always wanted, too. She falls head over heels in love, and when he proposes marriage, she joyfully accepts. But is Jared truly what she needs? And if he's not, she has to ask: What would Phoebe Lilywhite do? (description taken from jacket copy)

This was a book that I connected with on several levels...Bronwen comes from a family that cannot openly communicate. Tragedy tore them apart and mother, sister, brother...never really drew back together for solace. I also come from a family where oftentimes appearance and politeness mask unaddressed issues. It is a very English thing to "put on the happy face" and not really talk about the things that are lying beneath the surface. When Bronwen's mother tells her that she looks beautiful as a blonde, and though Bronwen doesn't like dying her hair, but refuses to tell her mother that she'd like to be brunette like her father was...that totally struck a cord with me.

Even as Bronwen doesn't feel like she fits in with her family, she does not let that affect her ideals, her morals, or let anyone sway her from her beliefs...even if she's not sure how she came about them. She stands firm on her belief in not having premarital sex (which I thought was handled very well in this book - not at all preachy!) and when she decides a relationship isn't working, she stands firm though it may hurt to break up with someone. The times that Bronwen may not stand up for herself may seem incongruous with her character, based on my family history, I can totally understand. Even though Bronwen doesn't eat meat, she does with Jared's family, because she's been raised that it's the polite thing to do...she doesn't talk about family issues, because that's what she's been raised to do...those were all things that I was raised to do, and it takes time to break those habits.

As much as I related to Bronwen, what really struck me about this book was that it has a very refreshing, healthy outlook about relationships. Not just romantic ones, either, but families and friendships, as well. Bronwen, her Mother, and Stepfather have some major issues to address, but once they open up communication with each other, they become much closer and really get to know and understand each other. When Bronwen seeks a family that she thinks is much more "her," and she embraces the Sondervans, she witnesses a family that talks. Unfortunately, as she becomes more involved with them, she does a very typical thing and drops her bestfriend for her boyfriend.

It's not until Kirsten confronts her about it that Bronwen even realizes that she has neglected her friend. McCahan also addresses this very realistically, both in the problem in the first place, and in that there is no easy solution. When the girls begin college, their relationship is never quite the same. In fact, one minor complaint that I had about the book was that the end scene is Bronwen and Kirsten sitting in a cafe having coffee, which has always been their thing, reconnecting, only to have them interrupted with a romantic moment. It would have been better if the happy ending had happened outside the coffee shop afterwards.

I'm trying to be spoiler-free, so I'll only say that the romantic relationship in the book is more like real life than most. Where a lot of books are all about the happy ending and scorching heat and readers not caring how they stay in that moment afterwards, I Now Pronounce You Someone Else reaches the happily ever after moment and then plunges Bronwen into the morass of "what happens next?" that comes beyond. Things do not always work out. Real life can be a mess...but, if it's really meant to be, then it will happen. That is a message that I can really get behind.

I thought this was a really great read. I am very excited now to learn more about Erin McCahan's storycrafting process and I hope you will be, too, so keep your eye out for my followup guest post later this week!

If you are interested in checking out other stops on the INPYSE blog tour, stop by The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly to get the complete tour stop schedule!

Full disclosure: ARC provided by publisher for blog tour