Waiting on Wednesday: A World Without Princes

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is: A World Without Princes by Soman Chainani which is due to be released on April 15th

In the epic sequel to the New York Times bestselling novel, The School for Good and Evil, Sophie and Agatha are home, living out their Ever After. But life isn’t quite the fairy tale they expected.

When Agatha secretly wishes she’d chosen a different happy ending, she reopens the gates to the School for Good and Evil. But the world she and Sophie once knew has changed.

Witches and princesses, warlocks and princes are no longer enemies. New bonds are forming; old bonds are being shattered. But underneath this uneasy arrangement, a war is brewing and a dangerous enemy rises. As Agatha and Sophie battle to restore peace, an unexpected threat could destroy everything, and everyone, they love—and this time, it comes from within.

I LOVED School for Good and Evil and I can't wait to jump into that world again.  I mean, just look at that cover.  How can you NOT pick it up?  I am seriously hoping for a lot more villain action this time, especially if that involves Sophie's roomates: the three unforgettable witches.  I also have high hopes that the title means the princes are taking a backseat and the girls/women are going to be the real heros in this fairy tale. 

ARC Book Review: The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy by Kate Hattemer

Title: The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy
Author: Kate Hattemer
Publisher: Knopf/Random House
Release Date: April 8, 2014
Rating: 2/5

Cover Impressions:  This cover is interesting, but I am not sure that I love it.  The colors are a little bland and the two characters on the front are trying far to hard to look cool.

The Gist: The students at Sewlyn Arts Academy have been invaded by reality TV.  The new hit show For Art's Sake is being filmed in their halls and is pitting student against student for a once in a lifetime chance at a scholarship that could change their lives.  Mediocre student Ethan, and his friends are appalled at the changed that this has caused in their school and the way that Ethan's crush, Maura, is being portrayed.  Inspired by Ezra Pound's long poem, they decide to write one of their own - to protest and bring down For Art's Sake, even if it means losing one of their own. 

Review:
I had a difficult time with this novel.  I feel like this book was written for a reader that is far hipper than I am and I found the overly adult dialogue being spouted from the mouths of teenagers to be more annoying than refreshing.  I actually found myself finding other things to do and other things to read, rather than to finish this novel.  

This book had a bit of a strange structure.  At the beginning, there were 3 "opening" chapters that jumped around in time.  I found this to be a bit disconcerting as I was concentrating more on figuring out the time structure than in relaxing into the story.  This is repeated at the end with three "How it could have ended" chapters which did not allow me the sense of closure that I was hoping for.

My biggest problem came from the fact that there was no real sense of urgency in this story.  Yes, their school was hosting a reality show competition but, I never really felt like this impacted their life in any meaningful way.  It had to be annoying, sure, but other than having a few classes interrupted or having to avoid certain hallways, school appeared to be continuing as usual.  Instead, the characters just felt like overprivileged children that were desperate to find something to rage against.  The whole idea of protesting through the use of a long poem was so inauthentic and it turned me off the characters immediately.  I teach teenagers and even my brightest student would never find this idea the least bit appealing nor would they have any chance getting their entire student body to read it.

The story could easily have been saved if the characters had been a little more interesting.  I saw hope, the triplets were wonderful.  I loved how funny they were and the sweet way that Ethan's relationship with them was portrayed.  I found myself daydreaming about my son playing Candy Land with a (yet to be conceived) younger sister.  These moments gave me real hope for the story and the characters because they were so well written, cute and funny.  They showed a unique view of the teenage boy's personality and made for some very amusing interludes.  I actually found myself very unhappy to see them end and the "real" story pick up again.  The other characters were flat and boring.  Other than their particular talents, they didn't seem to have any personality.  Ethan's ridiculous crush on Maura was maddening, even more so when he was blind to see that he actually did have a shot with her, and self deprecation and dependence on Bacconaise in every situation became more and more annoying as the story wore on.

In the end, I was treated to a predictable plot twist and ending.  What I was not expecting was how preachy things would get.  Clearly the author has some issues regarding reality TV which, quite honestly, may be founded in a great deal of truth.  However, I was not prepared to listen to a soap box lecture on the woes of commercialization.  

Teaching/Parental Notes:

Age: 14 and up
Gender: Both
Sex: Kissing
Violence: Electrocution of an animal
Inappropriate Language: Piss, Ho, Slut, Bitch
Substance Use/Abuse: None

Stacking the Shelves - (28)

Stacking The Shelves hosted by Tynga's Reviews.  It is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

EBOOKS I GOT:

Lots of pretty ebooks this week!  Sometimes I go for weeks without finding a single book that I want to request or spend ages waiting on replies from publishers and then there are other weeks - like this one - where there are tons of books I want to read and snappy publishers who get back to me within hours!  I think I am most excited about Creature of Moonlight, I just love that cover!  I also just HAD to pick of Monsters and Madness as I am a sucker for anything Poe related. 

ARC Book Review: Salvage by Alexandra Duncan

Title: Salvage
Author: Alexandra Duncan
Publisher: Greenwillow/HarperCollins
Release Date: April 1, 2014
Rating: 1/5

Cover Impressions:  The cover is pretty, if a little boring.  I do appreciate how the dry and dusty print within the color font stands in juxtaposition with the blue background.

The Gist: Ava has spent her entire life aboard a merchant ship.  As the head daughter in a polygamous family she spends her days working and overseeing her sisters in the menial day to day tasks.  Bound as bride, she is led to a sister ship as the marriage negotiations seal her fate.  After a fatal mistake, she is forced to flee for her life or risk being turned out into the void.  Ava finds her way to Earth and, for the first time, sees what options may lay before her.  Options that she, as a daughter and woman, never dreamed were possible.

Review:
Salvage is one of those frustrating books, not because of what it contained, but because of what it didn't.  The element that drew me in was the whole Polygamists in space angle.  Polygamous families here on Earth are pretty fascinating all on their own.  Combine that with a community that tries to cut their children and wives off from the outside world, and things start to get scary. 

Picturing that same thing happening on board a ship where it was actually possible to live your entire life without knowing that other people have freedoms that you never even conceived as possible - now that had the possibility of being downright terrifying.  This is where my hopes went with Salvage and why I wanted to review it in the first place.  In the beginning, that is just what I got.  The sexist nature of the family/community on board the Parastrata was disturbing and the thought that it was the only way of life left (as the first few chapters led me to believe) was even more so.  However, this quickly changed as Ava was forced to flee.

My first real problem came when sweet, obedient Ava who had never stepped out of line except to secretly fix a few machines, suddenly forgets everything she has ever been taught and every secret shame that has been imbeded in her and has sex with someone that she THINKS she is going to marry and whom she barely knows.  This seemed completely out of character and, instead of getting involved in the romantic nature of their tryst, I spent this scene yelling at her to stop, and think about what she is doing. 

This theme continues as Ava escapes to earth.  The speed with which she picks things up is more than a little unrealistic and certainly did not help me relate to her.  She accepts her new life wholeheartedly, despite never even knowing that this type of life was a possibility and without any surprise or shock that she had been lied to her entire life.  She learns to read and navigate a ship in what, a few weeks?  Months?  All the while she remains flat and boring.  I understand some desire to make her this way since she was born into a society that valued blandness, but even the other characters were flat and uninteresting.  None of them seemed to have any personality quirks and their backstories were left untold.  The characters motivations confounded me especially when faced with personal tragedy and simply accepting it and moving on without so much as a moment to mourn.

Confession time: I am not the greatest lover of Science Fiction but it seemed like this one had a lot of new terminology simply for the sake of throwing it in.  I found it distracting, particularly how Ava marked time, and rather than enjoying the story I spent a great deal of time simply trying to figure out what the heck she was saying.  I will admit, this might be an issue with me and Sci-Fi rather than just with this novel but I just can't handle being bombarded with invented language at the expense of clarity.

This new language came with no explanations of the Sci-Fi elements, how the ships work, why some people are on earth and some living on ships, etc.  This was particularly frustrating because, with Ava having lived confined to a ship for her entire life, the author had a fantastic, legitimate reason for other characters to explain to her (and subsequently, the reader) how these things actually worked.

Two things forced me to give up on this novel.  First, a great character died and it didn't have any emotional impact.  Instead, it was used as a cheap ploy to move the plot along (however sluggishly that occurred).  At this point I started skimming, awaiting the event that would signal a shift in the plot, spoiler - it never came.  Instead, I was treated to a love triangle.  This is the point where I stopped.  I was interested in the life of a girl raised in a polygamous bubble who escaped to the outside world - I was NOT interested in listening to her whine about her romantic feelings. 

I don't think I will be coming back to this author again, unless the next book has a kick ass idea and some really awesome reviews....

Teaching/Parental Notes: These are just for the half of the book that I read, there may be other issues further along in the novel.

Age: 15 and up
Gender: Both
Sex: Kissing and Sex
Violence: Severely sexist attitudes, Physical Violence towards Women
Inappropriate Language: Whore, Bitch
Substance Use/Abuse: Underage Drinking

Waiting on Wednesday: Sea of Shadows

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is: Sea of Shadows by Kelley Armstrong which is due to be released on April 8th

In the Forest of the Dead, where the empire’s worst criminals are exiled, twin sisters Moria and Ashyn are charged with a dangerous task. For they are the Keeper and the Seeker, and each year they must quiet the enraged souls of the damned.

Only this year, the souls will not be quieted.

Ambushed and separated by an ancient evil, the sisters’ journey to find each other sends them far from the only home they’ve ever known. Accompanied by a stubborn imperial guard and a dashing condemned thief, the girls cross a once-empty wasteland, now filled with reawakened monsters of legend, as they travel to warn the emperor. But a terrible secret awaits them at court—one that will alter the balance of their world forever.

Kelley Armstrong has always been a favorite author of mine.  I read her entire Women of the Otherworld series when I was younger and I am currently watching the TV show based on one side of that series: Bitten.

I didn't enjoy her earlier YA series nearly as much as the adult books, but I am hoping that by the time we got to Sea of Shadows, all the kinks have been worked out.  It also seems, based on the synopsis, to be a very different series from those that she has written before and I am hoping that works in her favor.  

ARC Book Review: Going Over by Beth Kephart

Title: Going Over
Author: Beth Kephart
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Release Date: April 1st, 2014
Rating: 2/5

Cover Impressions:  The cover is cute and, having read the synopsis, most of the elements make sense.  However, I don't particularly feel this would jump off the shelf at anyone.  To be honest, the reason I stopped to take a second look was because of the National Book Award Finalist tag from an author that I had not yet encountered. 

Review:
I will admit, I got sucked in by the award nominated author tag.  I had never heard of Beth Kephart before and certainly not read any of her books, but the National Book Award is a big, prestigious silver sticker - and she was a finalist!  Perhaps, there is a reason the committee passed her over and I probably should have as well.

Going over is the story of two teenagers stuck on opposite sides of the Berlin Wall.  Full disclosure: that is not a part of history with which I am entirely familiar.  I started the book, hoping for some sort of explanation or perhaps a story that started when the wall first went up (incidentally I would love to read a book about waking up on that morning, suddenly cut off from family and friends whom you had embraced just the night before - get on that authors) but instead, I got thrown right into the midst of the story and actually had to go do a little online research before I felt qualified to read this novel.  Ada lives in the East with her mother and grandmother.  At night she sneaks to the wall to capture the images of famous escapees with her paint cans.  By day she works at a daycare and dreams of the day when her boyfriend, Stefan will make the leap of faith to join her.

I did find this novel rather difficult to follow.  There were no explanations of certain unfamiliar words or customs and I did not understand the mechanics of the wall.  Were people actually allowed to visit from the East?  Weren't they afraid that they wouldn't be allowed to return?  I realize that the West was meant to be a place of suffering and anguish, but the author didn't make this particularly clear.  Stefan never spoke about his hardships, other than have had a job chosen for him, while Ada constantly mentioned hers.  Speaking of which, it seemed particularly selfish that while the family lived in very poor conditions, Ada was spending money of spraypaint to cover the wall.  Perhaps I am reading all of this wrong and it might be different for a reader that is more versed in the time frame and circumstances in which the book takes place.  

Part of the narrative is written in the third person, which takes some getting used to and I am still not entirely sure that I liked it.  Neither of the characters is particularly moving and I did not relate to either of them.  This had a serious impact on my enjoyment of the novel because I simply did not care what happened to Ada and Stefan.  Ada was loud, impetuous and pushy.  She constantly talked to Stefan of escape and would not listen to his concerns about leaving his grandmother behind, not to mention the serious chance that he would be killed in the attempt.  As a result, Stefan did not make many arguments and seemed like a complete pushover.  He was flat and boring with nothing to define his character other than an interest in astronomy.  I was actually far more interested in the story of the little boy who ran away than I was with the two teenagers. 

This most interesting part of the novel, for me, was the snippets of stories of people who either made it over the wall successfully, or died trying.  A particular heartbreaker was

"Giuseppe Savoca, six years old, who wasn't even trying to escape.  Giuseppe was a kid playing with a friend.  They were looking for fish along the riverbank and he fell.  The guards did nothing; they let him drown.  He was six."

These stories were moving and painful and made me even more angry at Ada for pressuring Stefan into something with such real danger behind it.  

The novel itself was pretty slow paced.  I didn't see any real excitement until the very end.  By this point however, I was not emotionally invested enough in the characters for it to have any real impact.  I think this novel had great potential but, for me, it simply was not realized.  


Teaching/Parental Notes:

Age: 15 and up
Gender: Both
Sex: Kissing
Violence: Gunplay, Knifeplay, Murder, Rape
Inappropriate Language: Bitch, Shit, Bastard
Substance Use/Abuse:

First Lines: February 2014

The first words you read can often set the tone for the entire story.  I thought it would be fun to keep track of the first lines of the books I read each month and share them with you.  Below are the first lines for all the books I read in February.

 Fog Magic by Julia L. Sauer

"From the time she was a baby in her cradle, Greta had loved the fog."

Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen

 "The wet night air bounced against the electric street lamps, giving off tiny sparks like flint."

World After by Susan Ee

"Everyone thinks I'm dead."

The Cracks in the Kingdom by Jaclyn Moriarty

"Maximillian Reisman can stand on his head for thirty minutes if he wants to."

Going Over by Beth Kephart

"We live with ghosts."

Salvage by Alexandra Duncan
"The morning before our ship, Parastrata, docks at the skyport, I rise early."

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

“Please tell me that's not going to be part of my birthday dinner this evening.”

Cress by Marissa Meyer

"Her satellite made one full orbit around planet Earth every sixteen hours." 

My favorite this month is a toss up between Lost Lake's  "The wet night air bounced against the electric street lamps, giving off tiny sparks like flint." and The Cracks in the Kingdom's "Maximillian Reisman can stand on his head for thirty minutes if he wants to."

I love the magic and beauty of Sarah Addison Allen's line and the sheer ubsurdity of Jaclyn Moriarty's.  

My least favorite line was Salvage's "The morning before our ship, Parastrata, docks at the skyport, I rise early."  It isn't that there is anything in particular that is WRONG with this line, it just isn't particularly interesting.