Book Birthdays! -- March 10, 2015

Once again, there are quite a few great YA titles coming out this week. March is shaping up to be a great month for YA releases!

*Note: when celebrating birthdays for books in a series other than Book 1, I will not list the summary, in the interest of avoiding spoilers. If you've read the first book(s) in the series, or are just insanely curious, follow the book title link to the Goodreads page to read the summary there! 

Standalones

Title: Confess
Author: Colleen Hoover

Summary: Auburn Reed has her entire life mapped out. Her goals are in sight and there's no room for mistakes. But when she walks into a Dallas art studio in search of a job, she doesn't expect to find a deep attraction to the enigmatic artist who works there, Owen Gentry. 

For once, Auburn takes a risk and puts her heart in control, only to discover Owen is keeping major secrets from coming out. The magnitude of his past threatens to destroy everything important to Auburn, and the only way to get her life back on track is to cut Owen out of it. 

The last thing Owen wants is to lose Auburn, but he can't seem to convince her that truth is sometimes as subjective as art. All he would have to do to save their relationship is confess. But in this case, the confession could be much more destructive than the actual sin...

Title: Vanishing Girls
Author: Lauren Oliver

Summary:  Dara and Nick used to be inseparable, but that was before the accident that left Dara's beautiful face scarred and the two sisters totally estranged. When Dara vanishes on her birthday, Nick thinks Dara is just playing around. But another girl, nine-year-old Madeline Snow, has vanished, too, and Nick becomes increasingly convinced that the two disappearances are linked. Now Nick has to find her sister, before it's too late. 

Series Starters

Title: The Orphan Queen

Author: Jodi Meadows

Series: The Orphan Queen #1

Summary: Wilhelmina has a hundred identities. 

She is a princess. When the Indigo Kingdom conquered her homeland, Wilhelmina and other orphaned children of nobility were taken to Skyvale, the Indigo Kingdom's capital. Ten years later, they are the Ospreys, experts at stealth and theft. With them, Wilhelmina means to take back her throne. 

She is a spy. Wil and her best friend, Melanie, infiltrate Skyvale Palace to study their foes. They assume the identities of nobles from a wraith-fallen kingdom, but enemies fill the palace, and Melanie's behavior grows suspicious. With Osprey missions becoming increasingly dangerous and their leader more unstable, Wil can't trust anyone. 

She is a threat. Wraith is the toxic by-product of magic, and for a century using magic has been forbidden. Still the wraith pours across the continent, reshaping the land and animals into fresh horrors. Soon it will reach the Indigo Kingdom. Wilhelmina's magic might be the key to stopping the wraith, but if the vigilante Black Knife discovers Wil's magic, she will vanish like all the others. 

Series Continuers

Title: Shadow Scale

Author: Rachel Hartman

Series: Seraphina #2

Title: Burning Kingdoms

Author: Lauren DeStefano

Series: Internment Chronicles #2

Tell me: what new releases are YOU excited for this week? Did I miss any? Let me know in the comments below! 

Review: I WAS HERE by Gayle Forman

Title: I Was Here
Author: Gayle Forman

Summary: Cody and Meg were inseparable.
Two peas in a pod.
Until...they weren't anymore.

When here best friend Meg drinks a bottle of industrial-strength cleaner alone in a motel room, Cody is understandably shocked and devastated. She and Meg shared everything--so how was there no warning? But when Cody travels to Meg's college town to pack up the belongings left behind, she discovers that there's a lot that Meg never told her. About her old roommates, the sort of people Cody never would have met in her dead-end small town in Washington. About Ben McAllister, the boy with a guitar and a sneer, who broke Meg's heart. And about an encrypted computer file that Cody can't open--until she does, and suddenly everything Cody thought she knew about her best friend's death gets thrown into question. 

Why I read it: I really enjoyed Gayle Forman's If I Stay duology (reviews of which can be found here and here.) So I received her other duology for Christmas, and then immediately picked this up when it came out. Then in February, I finished Insurgent after reading it for almost three weeks. I needed some short books to read at the end of the month to make sure I didn't get into a slump, so I picked this one up!

Thoughts: I absolutely loved this book. I couldn't put it down and finished it in two days.

All of the characters in this book are so distinct, and I loved all of them. Cody is a strong girl, much stronger than she even thinks she is. I loved her relationship with all of the other characters, and how she slowly lets them in throughout the book. She is "the" best friend to Meg's more outgoing and strong character, but we're shown over and over that Cody is just as strong, which I really appreciated. Too often, the narrator of books like this really are weaker than the best friend, but that wasn't the case here.

I loved Meg's roommates: Harry, Stoner Richard and Alice are so unique, both in their personalities and their interactions with Cody, but I loved all three of them.

And then there's Ben. The evolution of his character as Cody gets to know him was spot-on. I loved that he was so far from perfect. He definitely had his moments where I wanted to punch him in the face, but I actually like that kind of character because they're realistic.

I know a lot of people have disliked the romance, but I thought it was perfect. In real life, things get messy and complicated, and this book reflected that. The romance progressed really naturally in my opinion, and I was swooning by the end.

I also cried at the end. This book does a great job of coming full circle and bringing the story to a satisfying conclusion. Yes, it's a sad book, but I think the story began and ended exactly where it needed to.

If you are a contemporary fan, and if you don't mind suicide as a theme, I would highly recommend this standalone, especially if you're a fan of Gayle Forman's other books!

Rating: 5/5 stars

Review: ECHOES OF US by Kat Zhang

Title: Echoes of Us
Author: Kat Zhang
Series: Hybrid Chronicles #3

Why I read it: As the third book in a trilogy, it went along perfectly with my goal of finishing more series than I start this year! So onto my TBR for January it went. (AKA this review is really late. Sorry!)

Thoughts: The way I felt about this book was similar to how I felt about Lark Ascending.

This was a very solid conclusion to the Hybrid Chronicles trilogy. Reading about the institutions and the plight of the hybrid children was still interesting, and I definitely felt the words pull at my heartstrings a few times.

I still loved the characters, especially Addie and Eva. Even though the book is only told through Eva's POV, I still felt like we really knew both of them as individuals, driving home the point that they are distinct souls and have distinct personalities, but they are still intertwined. This is something I think the series did really well throughout.

My only problem with the characters is that there were so many of them. And with this series, adding more characters often means adding twice the number of characters, since most of the new people Eva and Addie meet with are hybrids, which means the reader has to learn not one, but two new names for these characters. And I just had trouble keeping all of them straight in my mind. I think the only ones I consistently kept straight were Hally/Lissa and Devon/Ryan. So when something would happen, it often took a few moments for me to realize who I was dealing with. Even now, I can remember all of the main events from the book, but I can't remember which characters were involved.

My other problem with this book is that it felt like it wrapped up a little too neatly. The last couple of chapters felt like everything had magically solved itself, even though we are told that everything does not change overnight. I appreciated the turn at the end, but I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it never did. While I always love a good happily-ever-after, sometimes it feels like our characters have gone through too much to have a truly HEA. I'm not sure if that's just me, or if others were slightly dissatisfied with the ending.

Overall, I did enjoy this book. The pace of this series is slower than most, and moments of action are few and far between, but I enjoyed reading about the relationships between the characters, even if I couldn't remember all of their names. If you've started the series, I still recommend finishing it out!

Rating: 4/5 stars

Tell me: have YOU read this book? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments below!

Waiting on Wednesday (16): A MADNESS SO DISCREET

WoW is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine!

Title: A Madness So Discreet

Author: Mindy McGinnis

Release date: October 6, 2015

Summary: Grace Mae knows madness. She keeps it locked away, along with her voice, trapped deep inside a brilliant mind that cannot forget horrific family secrets. Those secrets, along with the bulge in her belly, land her in a Boston insane asylum. 

When her voice returns in a burst of violence, Grace is banished to the dark cellars where her mind is discovered by a visiting doctor who dabbles in the new study of criminal psychology. With her keen eyes and sharp memory, Grace will make the perfect assistant at crime scenes. Escaping from Boston to the safety of an ethical Ohio asylum, Grace finds friendship and hope, hints of a life she should have had. But gruesome nights bring Grace and the doctor into the circle of a killer who stalks young women. Grace, continuing to operate under the cloak of madness, must hunt a murderer while she confronts the demons in her own past. 

Thoughts: THAT COVER. God, it is beautiful and eerie and just SO COOL. It makes me so intrigued. I own Not a Drop to Drink, another Mindy McGinnis book, but I haven't read it yet. But then I saw this cover of her next book and was so drawn in and curious. It sounds intriguing, too. Madness? Crime solving? And that last line of the first paragraph, "the bulge in her belly?" I am SO CURIOUS. I seriously can't wait to read this. 

Tell me: what are YOU waiting on this Wednesday? Does my pick sound intriguing to you, too?  Let me know in the comments below! 

Book Birthdays! -- March 3, 2015

There are a TON of awesome YA releases this week, so let's jump right in!

*Note: when celebrating birthdays for books in a series other than Book 1, I will not list the summary, in the interest of avoiding spoilers. If you've read the first book(s) in the series, or are just insanely curious, follow the book title link to the Goodreads page to read the summary there! 

Standalones

Title: Mosquitoland
Author: David Arnold

Summary: "I am a collection of oddities, a circus of neurons and electrons: my heart is the ringmaster, my soul is the trapeze artist, and the world is my audience. It sounds strange because it is, and it is, because I am strange." 

After the sudden collapse of her family, Mim Malone is dragged from her home in northern Ohio to the "wastelands" of Mississippi, where she lives in a medicated milieu with her dad and new stepmom. Before the dust has a chance to settle, she learns her mother is sick back in Cleveland. So she ditches her new life and hops aboard a northbound Greyhound bus to her real home and her real mother, meeting a quirky cast of fellow travelers along the way. But when her thousand-mile journey takes a few turns she could never see coming, Mim must confront her own demons, redefining her notions of love, loyalty, and what it means to be sane. 


Title: The Memory Key
Author: Liana Liu

Summary: Lora Mint is determined not to forget. 

Though her mother's been dead for five years, Lora struggles to remember every detail about her--most importantly, the specific events that occurred the night she sped off in her car, never to return. 

But in a world ravaged by Vergets disease, a viral form of Alzheimer's, that isn't easy. Usually Lora is aided by her memory key, a standard-issue chip embedded in her brain that preserves memories just the way a human brain would. Then a minor accident damages Lora's key, and her memories go haywire. Suddenly Lora remembers a moment from the night of her mother's disappearance that indicates her death was no accident. Can she trust these formerly forgotten memories? Or is her ability to remember every painful part of her past driving her slowly mad--burying the truth forever? 

Series Continuers

Title: The Boy Who Lost Fairyland
Author: Catherynn M. Valente
Series: Fairyland #4

Title: The Winner's Crime

Author: Marie Rutkoski

Series: The Winner's Trilogy #2

Title: Selection Stories: The Queen and The Favorite
Author: Kiera Cass
Series: The Selection #0.4 and 2.6
(Novella bindup!)

Series Enders

Title: The Forgotten Sisters
Author: Shannon Hale
Series: Princess Academy #3

Title: Death Marked 

Author: Leah Cypess

Series: Death Sworn #2

Title: Sorceress
Author: Claudia Gray
Series: Spellcaster #3



Tell me: what new releases are YOU excited for this week? Did I miss any? Let me know in the comments below! 

Top Ten Tuesday (15): Books I Consider ALL TIME FAVORITES From the Last 3 Years

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the lovely ladies at The Broke and the Bookish!

10. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein. I don't read a ton of historical fiction, so for this to be one of my favorite books is a fairly big deal. But this book is beautifully written, and heartbreaking and a fantastic portrait of female friendship. I only read this less than a year ago, but it's stuck with me ever since.

9. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. My very first Patrick Ness book, and the one that told me I should buy all the Patrick Ness books. It's a beautiful, simple story, and it's another tearjerker. It's also fairly short with big print and gorgeous illustrations, so I highly recommend this one. Read my review here.

8. Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo. This is the second book in the Grisha trilogy, and it is my favorite of the three. Don't get me wrong; I love all of them. But this one introduces Sturmhond and gives him a great deal of "screen time," and since he's my favorite character in the series, of COURSE this is my favorite book. One of my favorite complete series of all time!

7. Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas. These books just keep getting better and better, and this one left me breathless. This is also the first book where we got a really great sense of just how big this world is, and we got peeks into what is going on outside of Rifthold. I am loving it, and I can't WAIT for the next book! Read my review here.

6. I Was Here by Gayle Forman. I JUST read this book last week, but when I read the topic for this week, it was the first book that came to mind. I've heard some mixed reviews on this book, but I absolutely LOVED it. I laughed, I cried, I thought a lot about life. And since it's a fairly short book, I sped through it in two days. (And this just got optioned to become a movie. Hopefully that pans out, and we get to see this one on the big screen!) Look for a review of this soon!

5. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. I will never stop loving this book. It is difficult to explain, so I will just say that if you're looking for a book to completely mess with your mind and you don't mind irregular formatting and multiple appendices and breaking codes and stories within stories within stories and footnotes and clues that lead nowhere and...crazy stuff...just read it. I cannot EVER do it justice. I just love it so much.

4. Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi. Gah. This series. This book. The character development here, the plot, the beautiful writing style; it all just adds up into an amazing book. This is definitely one of my favorite series conclusions that I've read in a long time. Read my review here.

3. Cress by Marissa Meyer. I've loved all four books in the Lunar Chronicles series so far, but Cress has definitely been my favorite. I think as each book gets longer, there's more to love. I love all three main characters thus far, and we got some seriously amazing plot revelations in Cress, so it just totally made me THAT MUCH more excited for Winter!! Read my review of Cress here.

2. Champion by Marie Lu. Another one of my favorite conclusions, this book had it all. Action, plot, character development, heartbreak, and just an amazing ending. What I love about this book is that there is actually a resolution of the conflict from the series, and that Marie Lu wasn't afraid to do certain things. That, and the romance is just top-notch for me. Love!

1. This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers. Hands down, new favorite book in the last few years. I read this in October and I still can't stop gushing about it. Dark contemporary meets zombies, both of which I love. The characters are so well developed; no one is a caricature. The writing is beautiful, and haunting, and will stay with you for a long time after you've finished. Read my review here.

Tell me: what are some of YOUR all-time favorites books? Do you also love any of my choices? Let me know in the comments below! 

Review: A DAWN MOST WICKED by Susan Dennard

Title: A Dawn Most Wicked
Author: Susan Dennard
Series: The Spirit-Hunters #0.5

Why I read it: I was bored late at night and I realized that I still hadn't read this yet. I have it on my Kindle app on my tablet, so I just opened it up and started reading. Then I finished it over the next couple of late nights!

Thoughts: I love Susan Dennard's writing, and I absolutely LOVE her Spirit Hunters trilogy. And I thoroughly enjoyed this novella! It was great finding myself back in the world of the Spirit Hunters and seeing some of the characters once again.

This novella is centered around Daniel, the sarcastic inventor and member of the Spirit Hunters. A Dawn Most Wicked explores Daniel's backstory and how he ended up in a team with Joseph Boyer and Jie. In the original trilogy, this past was hinted at, but we got a much deeper understanding of Daniel's character in the novella.

The novella is a lot longer than I had expected, but that definitely works in its favor, because we have time to really explore Daniel's history, as well as his relationships. None of it feels rushed, and everything seems necessary.

While I loved reading this novella, I admit that the story wasn't exactly what I was expecting, though it definitely makes sense for Daniel's character. I was just expecting to be much more emotionally invested in Daniel's relationship with Cassidy, especially after finishing the trilogy last summer. But I still loved the writing, and the action scenes were so fast-paced.

My only other problem isn't with the novella itself, but rather how it is marketed. It is listed as the #0.5 installment in the series, meant as a prequel. However, the beginning and end of the novella take place at the end of the first book, and contain major spoilers for that book. Therefore, I would strongly suggest waiting to read this until you've read at least the first book, Something Strange and Deadly, otherwise you'd be spoiling yourself.

I highly recommend this novella if you're a fan of Susan Dennard's trilogy. It might not be crucial to the story, but it definitely is enlightening and entertaining.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Tell me: have YOU read this novella? What were your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below!