Addictive and annoying: Renegade by Amy Carol Reeves

I enjoy reading Amy Carol Reeves' Ripper novels. I love the setting and the overall gothic feel the author creates from London in the 1880's with a sprinkle of the supernatural. It is also interesting to travel back in time to an era when girls weren't supposed to want anything for themselves, other than a nice home, and certainly not should they ever fancy themselves becoming a physician.

My copy of Renegade was provided by the
publisher via Netgalley for an honest review.

If you missed my review of the first book in the series you can check it out by clicking on this link.

There will be spoilers - continue on at own risk!

"The End Is the Beginning Is the End"

We're picking up almost where the first book ended. One of the members of the cruel and twisted Conclave is still out there somewhere and of course he is after Abbie Sharp and her friend. This time there are cruel murders in London, again, people being resurrected and suspiciously sounding like vamps. However things get lost and Abbie keeps having these visions of a creature that is half woman, half large reptile. Not a good sign! The rest is up to you to find out, I will not reveal the whole caboodle.

Some pet peeves - and start spoilers 

Why does the girl, almost without exception, choose the guy who is an ass over the good guy?! Some bad guys(and girls) are nice and just bad by reputation and if you've tried being with them once and it doesn't really work out that well then why o' why try again?

Old affair out in broad daylight

In this case the love interest confesses as to have had a partner earlier in his life, after Abbie picks up some vibes when she and Mr.Lovely visits this past flame, an older woman, and her husband for dinner. Abbie reacts to this, no wonder really it must feel weird to discover such a thing in that kind of setting and I would think that had made anyone a bit insecure. Also Abbie is no more than seventeen, she is supposed to react to these sort of things with a bit of a hormonal outburst. It will pass, but that was not the issue for me here. My problem was the way the boy/man behaved after the relationship went down the drain after this. He behaved like an ass and turned to the bottle instead of trying to win Abbies trust and be the best man that he could be for her and make her see that the past was the past. Instead he welled in self pity, very charming! How can a girl resist such a behavior? Read with dripping sarcasm on tongue.

Chemistry with a capital C

When Dr. Charming makes Abbie's heart beat faster, and the chemistry actually makes my own heart beat a bit faster and the butterflies in my stomach start to dance, she gives it a thought about five seconds and decides no I'll go hook up with "Mr. pity party" over there. Please Mrs. Reeves don't let it end like this, I am begging you!

Historical

I love the historical setting and all the bits and bobs of history that lies hidden in the inky lines. Some historical figures has been written into the story and others are mentioned so I've taken my sweet time with this novel as I wanted to find out more about the real characters(Google, Wikipedia etc). This is not necessary, I am just that kind of curious girl. I have to say that as a bonus I discovered what is thought to be the first modern vampire story; The Vampyre by John William Polidori. It was a short little thing and I will try and review it shortly.

Little clues and pieces of read string are strewn throughout the story making it possible to write some dark and intriguing stories in future novels in this series. I am sticking with it and looking forward to what comes next for Abbie and co.
 

Youth Media Awards and the Printz goes to...

Yesterday at the American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Meeting the winners and honors of the Youth Media Awards were announced. There are several awards for the top books written for children and young adults being awarded at this event and one of them is the Michael L. Printz Award that "exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature". It was first awarded in 2000 and is named after a high school librarian from Topeka that worked hard to ensure his students had access to good literature and encouraged writers to focus on young adult readers (read more about the award here). Previous winners are among others John Green, Libba Bray and Melina Marchetta. The blog Someday My Printz will Come have been speculating about the books they found likely to be considered for the award along with their readers. Take a look to see if they were right, because here comes the winner and the honors.

The Winner:
In Darkness written by Nick Lake



2013 Honor(s):

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Dodger by Terry Pratchett

The White Bicycle by Beverley Brenna


Have you read any of these? I have just started listening to Code Name Verity and I know this was one of Mari's absolute favourites last year (there's a link to her review). I am definitely checking out In Darkness very soon as it sounds very good and interesting.

Discussion: Give me more ugly people in YA!

May I have your attention please? I just want the world to know that I want more ugly people in YA(young adult) novels. What is your opinion on the matter?

 

We've all started out as tiny buds, as a young adult one is
on a journey towards full blossoming.
Photo by kaktuslampan via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Stunning 
By ugly people I mean normal people, if ugly is the correct term for those of us who doesn't look like stunning beauties? It sure is easy to interpret it that way these days. For the supernatural creatures beauty might be the norm, but honestly I’m tired of the perfect YA characters. I mean come on come up with something else and let young adults feel that they way they look are fine, perfectly normal! Girls don't have to have perfect, shiny, blond/red/brown/black/blue (whatever!) hair falling in lush waves down their straight back. Boys don't have to have muscles that give of so much reflection from the sun the girls nearly go blind from it.

Diversity = true
I want to have some real people in my books. Teens quite often do have zits for one(!), some are chubby, some are overweight, some are very long, some are very skinny, some are short, some have a crocked nose, some have scars and so on. Of course some are picture perfect but that doesn't necessarily mean that life is any easier for them! What I want to say with this little rant is that I want diversity, a good blend.

And yeah, I feel the same way about all the pretty girls that is overrepresented on book covers these days as well.

Do you have any opinions on the matter? Is it ok that YA seem to be overflowing with ideals that might not be all that healthy for young adults' perception of self?

An author that I love for setting the spotlight on this beautification of our society is Scott Westerfeld and for that I love him.

Remember that to the world you are someone, but to someone you are the world.

With love from your average girl, Mari!

Book review: Night School by C.J. Daugherty.

Night School by C.J. Daugherty is a great young adult novel that will have you turning pages well into the night. I was never quite sure what I was reading and for that I loved this story. Is it a thriller or a paranormal mystery? I'm not sure yet, the jury will come with a verdict but that will have to wait until the next book in this series is out.

Allie is not doing so well after the disappearance of her older brother. She has been keeping the grief at bay by acting out, now she has done so one time too many. Allie's parents has had enough and they believe that sending her away to boarding school, the Cimmeria academy, might do Allie some good.

Cimmeria is one weird school but in spite of herself Allie quite enjoys life there. That is until the day she discovers that she has been surrounded by a bunch of liars. What is really going on at the Cimmeria academy?! Weird sounds, shadows in the night, people breaking into Allies room. Who can Allie trust?

My thoughts:
Are you ever charmed by cute guys with a sexy French accent? Do you like an author that can write a kissing scene that gives you that fluttery feeling of butterflywings in your stomach? Do you enjoy a boarding school setting where both students and teachers have their secrets? If the answer to any of these questions is yes then you have to go out now and grab yourself a copy of Night School. This has been one exiting and mysterious read. In addition to that I think C.J. Daugherty writes about dealing with grief in a great way. People react so differently. No, this is not a particular sad read but the novel do touch upon the subject early on.

This is a YA that stands out in the crow, it will have you turning pages and wondering where on earth the last few hours went off to.

Check out the book trailer:





My rating of this book:

/- I'm eagerly awaiting a sequel(which I know that C.J. just recently finished)!

I think you should follow C.J. Daugherty on Twitter and visit her homepage! For more thought out and eloquent reviews of Night School check out these fab bloggers Vivienne and Brodie.


This book can be purchased from a number of local retailers and on-line book stores such as Amazon or The Book Depository (I'm not an affiliate of either). The latter store does by the way have free shipping to about 100 countries.


I purchased my copy from The Book Depository.

Book review: Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Delirium was a FANTASTIC young adult dystopian by Lauren Oliver(check out my review). Can it be possible Pandemonium, the much anticipated sequel, to live up to its predecessor? Continue on reading this review and ye shall find out.
**Spoiler free**

Pandemonium started off right where we abandoned Lena in Delirium and it was by no means a disappointment.

My thoughts:
I continue to let myself be amazed by how seamless Lauren Oliver manages to create her dystopian world by drawing from a mixture of history (quite clearly inspired by WWII) and the constant threats of a world wide pandemonium. The setting feels both alien and familiar at the same time, which gives the reader a perfect blend of thrilling and ominous feelings.

In Pandemonium Lauren Oliver introduces both the reader and Lena to a whole set of new characters. Most of them managed to carve themselves a space in my heart. The characters all have more to them than what it might look like from their introductions. More then one of the characters brought me on the verge of tears several times while I read Pandemonium. There were just so many moving fates among the people with & without the dreaded deliria. Did I mention that I had my swooning moments? I'm in loooooove :D

I know quite a few people were blown away by what they thought of as a surprise ending, funny enough that was the one part of the book that felt kind of obvious to me. I would have given Pandemonium a 5 star rating if the ending had a bigger surprise factor, that being said it brought just that to a lot of other readers :) Don't miss out on this exiting second part of Lena's journey.


My rating of this book:

/

This book can be purchased from a number of local retailers and on-line book stores such as Amazon or The Book Depository (I'm not an affiliate of either). The latter store does by the way have free shipping to about 100 countries.


Source:
My copy was given me by Hodder & Stoughton in exchange for an honest review.

Book review: Angelfall((Penryn & the End of Days #1)) by Susan Ee

Angelfallen by Susan Ee is a surprisingly dark and exiting new addition to the dystopian YAlit genre. Did I mention that this book features some HOT angels? No, well it certainly does ;)

In a broken city Penryn is desperately trying to bring her little family to safety. By accident the little group finds themselves nearby a small gathering of angels. The angels are all attacking a lone angel. The situation is out of Penryn's control and an angel kidnaps her younger sister, Paige. The group of angels disperses and leaves the broken angel behind.

Now a beaten and disabled angel, Raffe is Penryn’s only hope. Will she ever find her little sister again, alive....?

My thoughts:
I have to admit that the first thing that caught my eye when I discovered Angelfallen was the gorgeous cover. I decided that this was a book I had to find out more about, one brilliant review later and a click on Amazon and I was the lucky owner of the e-book(also available in paperback) edition of Angelfallen.

I didn't have all that high expectations when starting out so I was pleasantly surprise by the story. The angels have taken over earth and humans live in fear, in hiding. Human gangs roams the streets during daylight but at night everything is quiet, something, even worse than the angels, cruel and predatory stalks the streets at night.

Penryn, the main character, plays the part as the head of the family; taking care of a disabled sister and a mother with a mental illness. She reminded me quite a lot of Katniss from The Hunger Games, taking care of the family and having such a strong bond to her little sister. Angelfallen has several interesting characters and since this is the first book in a series I'm hoping to get to know them all even better in the future. Raffe, "the fallen one", was one of those characters there were so many small hints as to his past and I can hardly wait to find out more about his past in the aerie.


The drama was built up nicely, I wanted to keep turning pages and towards the end the story I was completely taken by surprise. Let me tell you it is equally parts scary and repulsive and still you have to keep on reading. I will most definitely pick up the next book.

Recommended for the mature YA reader.

Cover:

I believe graceful would be the correct adjective since we're dealing with angels! Love the wings on the cover, it plays such an important part in the story!

My rating of this book:

Want to know more?

Add Angelfall to your Goodreads wish list

Visit Susan Ees' website
Read the 5 first chapters for free
Follow Susan on Twitter

Full disclosure:
Purchased on Amazon.

This book can be purchased from a number of local retailers and online book stores like Amazon and The Book Depository (I'm not an affiliate of either). The latter store has free shipping to about 100 countries.