Thursday, April 20, 2017

Review: Obsidian by Jennifer Armentrout

Obsidian (Lux, #1)

I bought a copy of Obsidian at the 2013 RT convention to have signed.  Book Nerd Mary and a few others told me "I had to read it", yet it has remained on my TBR shelf ever since.  In fact, I didn't have a clue what it was about until I started reading it a couple of weeks ago.

Katy Swartz is originally from Florida.  After the death of her father her mother decides to relocate to West Virginia for a change of scenery.  Jennifer Armentrout is from WV, so she is clearly giving her home state a little love, but I can't imagine how that would impact a high school senior.  In addition, her mother chose to live in a REALLY small town filled with "strange" people.

Katy is a book blogger, so it was funny to hear her geek out about her In My Mailbox or Waiting on Wednesday posts.  A shipment of books would arrive and it was like Christmas in July.  She was also worried about getting a new library card, which I'm sure would be on the top of my to-do list if I moved, so Katy should definitely appeal to most readers.

Living next door to Katy are the Black twins, Dee and Daemon.  They will be starting their senior year as well and Katy quickly becomes best friends with Dee.  Her relationship with Daemon is very hot and cold to say the least.  He can be sweet one minute and a complete ____ the next.  Katy can't figure out why Daemon and his friends think there is something inferior about "her kind" until she begins to notice some unusual things.  Daemon and Dee seem to move faster than humanly possible at times.  Daemon can swim under water WAY longer than he should be able to.  After witnessing several more dramatic events, she take the news that they are aliens pretty well.  The fact that there are beings known as Arum trying to kill her Luxen friends, and now her due to her association with them, is a different matter. 

Overall, I thought this was an action packed and tension filled start to the series.  Once we got past the whole "you aren't one of us" issue and the truth was out there, the story really began to flow.  Katy must guard their secret with her life and she is forced to do so on more than one occasion.

The only issue I had with the book was the word choice.  I'm sure everyone has seen the posts about why moist is the worst word ever and shouldn't be used.  She didn't use that word, but there was another cringe worthy word used on at least two occasions that needed to be removed.  If you have read the book and would like to guess the word I'm referring to, please leave a comment and I will be sure to reply.  Maybe it is just me, but I'm guessing not...

There are 5 books in the series, so it is a bit of an undertaking if you want to start this series.  I can tell you that the ending of this book left me wanting to jump right into the next book, but  I'm committed to reading the books on my spring TBR list first.  I will be sure to include Onyx on my Summer TBR list!

Monday, April 10, 2017

Review: Where She Went by Gayle Forman

Where She Went (If I Stay, #2)

This was an exceptional sequel to If I Stay!  It is rare that a book I loved has a 5 star sequel, but Where She Went definitely earned its 5 star rating and then some.  I would not; however, recommend reading this as a stand alone.  It is a continuation of the first book and the reader would lose a tremendous amount by skipping over the original installment.  

Where She Went was told from Adam's point of view, which I absolutely loved.  We get to see how he was affected by the accident that changed Mia's life forever.  We can see that he was just as much a casualty as the rest of her family.  While the world thinks Adam is on top of the world with the success of his band, he is barely hanging on.  Even after three years time he hasn't been able to cope with Mia walking out of his life with no explanation.

Mia appears to have moved on and is completing her Juilliard education.  She is one of the up and coming classical musicians and is beginning her tour at Carnegie Hall.  Adam happens to be in New York for an extra day before heading to London to start his tour.  He is walking past Carnegie Hall and notices an advertisement for Mia's performance.  He is able to get a ticket and the story takes off from there.

From their awkward reunion to their heart breaking confessions you could feel the emotion radiating from these characters.  Throughout their day together, Mia takes Adam around to all of her favorite places in New York and they slowly begin to reconnect.  I wasn't sure where Gayle would leave them at the end, but the ending couldn't have been more perfect.  I finally felt like I could be at peace with the story vs. the way she left readers hanging at the end of If I Stay.  I had no idea there was a sequel and I couldn't believe that was the end to Mia and Adam's story.

I haven't read any of Gayle's other books, but I have added them to my TBR list based solely on this exceptional series.  I would absolutely recommend these two books to any YA fan.  

Saturday, April 8, 2017

Review: The Black Circle by Patrick Carman (39 Clues #5)

The Black Circle (The 39 Clues, #5)

My son and I have been reading the 39 Clues series together.  The one thing that I have enjoyed about this series is that it is historical fiction, so I feel like he is learning something while enjoying the fictional elements of the story.  In the fifth installment, Amy and Dan are off to Russia in search of their next clue.  This time we learned about the Romanovs, which was the Russian royal family.  They focus mostly on the Romanov children Anastasia and and Alexei.  We also learned about Rasputin and his involvement with the Romanovs.

It was very coincidental, but my son was learning about Rasputin and the Romanovs in school while we were reading this book.  In addition, my step-dad suggested that I start listening to these "Remarkable Lives, Tragic Deaths" podcasts.  When I pulled them up, the first podcast was about Rasputin, so I feel like quite the expert after this comprehensive history lesson.

Amy and Dan were forced to work with their cousins, the Holts, in order to accomplish this mission.  The clues were spread out all over Russia and there was no way any one team could collect all of them on their own in the designated time frame.  Amy and Dan continue to receive help from the unknown "NRR" .  We finally find out who NRR really is, which was a major surprise.  I don't want to give away any spoilers, but it wasn't who I thought it was all along.

The Kabras trail the Holts and Irina Spasky mysteriously turns up in places Amy and Dan are searching.  She is definitely working against them, but at one point it seemed like she was genuinely concerned about their safety and offered them a warning.  Of course, the kids took it with a grain of salt and continued on with the quest.

Their final discovery appears to be leading them to Australia.  I can't wait to see what we will learn about Australia in book 6.