Wicked Lovely - Melissa Marr

Sorry for the delay in posts. Suffice to say that while taking 6 classes wasn’t my best idea, taking six classes including a high level accounting class ONLINE, a high level literature class, and an economics class of any kind, was among the worst I’ve ever had. But I actually had some time to read over spring vacation, and manage to devour a whole three books in my free time, and I wanted to share them with you all!

So Wicked Lovely was prominently placed at the library by my fiance’s house in South Carolina, where I spent my week, and his mother let me use her card to get it. I’ve heard of it a lot, but I’ve never actually had a chance to look at it before. I’m really glad I did pick it up, though, because I kinda fell in love with it. I also hate myself for picking it up, because I can’t read the sequels until after May 16^th, when finals are over!

Wicked Lovely is the story of four interesting individuals and a lot of fairies and magic. Keenan is the summer king of the fairies, but his powers are bound by the winter queen, his mother, until he can find his own queen of summer—a human girl converted by his will into one of the fae, who can withstand the power of winter when she touches the winter queen’s staff. Aislinn is the newest human girl he’s pinning his hopes on—but what he doesn’t know is that Aislinn can see fairies, has always been able to see them, and knows what he is…and she doesn’t want anything to do with it. Seth is her human crush and her safe house, a mortal boy who lives in an old converted train car and provides her a place surrounded in steal and empty of fairies. Donia is the winter girl—the last human girl who took a chance of Keenan, but couldn’t withstand the magic of winter. Thus, she is bound to be in the winter queen’s power until such a day that another girl takes the test and loses, taking the winter magic from her. Her goal is to tell any girl who prepares to try of the dangers of trusting Keenan and taking the test.

First off, I’m biased and I can admit that. I absolutely love books about fairies, even to the point that I was able to get over my initial desire to avoid the book just because of how central the romance is to the plot, something I’ve been more and more uninterested in lately. From the very first chapter, I was so incredibly glad I’d decided to give it a chance. The book starts out with the test of the summer queen, and Donia reaching for the staff and first becoming the winter girl. This is the part where I instantly fell in love with the book, because Donia is truly in love with Keenan when she takes this test….and it doesn’t matter. Love doesn’t cure all, and Donia still becomes the winter girl, and faces the fact that Keenan continues looking for his queen even while she suffers in love for him.

This certainly isn’t an entirely original idea, and I’ve read plenty of books where the main character has an old flame who tries to tell off his current affection, but I’ve never read a book where the old flame had such reason, and had her story told just as much as his. Wicked Lovely completely takes the stereotypes that young adult books have been producing in the past few years, stereotypes about love conquering all, the old jealous flame, and the girl who starts out headstrong and somehow ends up melting into the male lead...and it turns them on their head. I love it for that reason.

There are so many things I could say about this book that I’m honestly afraid I’d ruin it for you if I went on, because I truly, truly love this book. I know I could gush about it for pages, but that wouldn't be as much fun for you! So I’m going to just say that I heartily recommend this book, if you’re one of those people who haven’t yet touched it—although I think I’m a minority in not having done so before this past few weeks, haha. Wicked Lovely is a great book, with a great idea behind it, and I completely devoured it in a few mere hours because I didn’t want to put it down. So if you’re a fan of fairies, especially wicked and cruel fairies, or you just want to read a book that breaks some of the romantic stereotypes of the modern YA genre, definitely look into picking up a copy of Wicked Lovely next time you go book hunting!

Falling Kingdoms - Morgan Rhodes

Oddly enough, I've considered myself a huge fan of fantasy books for years--but reading this book made me realize that I've moved away from fantasy a lot. Mostly, I've been hitting nothing but urban fantasy for so long that reading this book was like a refreshing wake up to a genre I used to love.

Falling Kingdoms is a fantasy novel by Morgan Rhodes that's due for publication this month, Dec 2012. According to the book itself, at least, Morgan Rhodes is a pen name. A google search tells me that if you're a fan of Michelle Rowen, you might be a little more interested in this book than you thought.

Falling Kingdoms is the story of a land split into three kingdoms, where magic is real to some but not to others, and where a series of young people find themselves swept into politics and danger created before their time. Cleo is a young princess of a rich kingdom who watches in horror as a noble of her kingdom kills a boy from the poor kingdom next to them, without the power to speak up against it. When chaos breaks out between the kingdoms, she runs from her home seeking a cure for her sick sister and is forced into dangerous politics she wanted no part of. Magnus is the son of the king of a religious kingdom nearby, the king of blood, so known because he taxes his people into starvation and slaughters any who might be accused of witchcraft. To protect his beloved sister and make his father proud, Magnus is willing to do anything--he just hopes that in making his father proud, he doesn't hurt his sister in the process. Jonas is a poor boy in a poor kingdom, who watches as his beloved older brother is slaughtered in front of him by a noble of a kingdom which flaunts its wealth while his people starve. For revenge on nobility everywhere, he is willing to do almost anything. When rumors of war begin to break out over the kingdoms, he finds his chance to do so much closer than he had imagined.

This book is fascinating in many ways. At once it is both three separate stories while also being one huge interwoven fantasy, and the effect is amazing. There are so many different perspectives on every situation that it is incredibly difficult to figure out who the victims are and who tho villain is--if there is one at all. While one chapter has Jonas spewing vitriol and hate about how Cleo is a heartless noble, and even the reader can't deny that she has done wrong, the next will be about how heartbroken Cleo is about what happened, and how self-sacrificing she is in the name of helping her sister. I think my favorite part about this entire book was this sort of depth to the story--no matter how much one part makes you want to hate a character as a villain, the next section of the story gives you such a heartbreaking look into the motives of that villain that you can't hate them. As a reader, I found myself hating various side characters, but I couldn't not love every one of the main characters.

Another cool thing about this book was the way it looked at magic. In the kingdoms of this book, magic is either outlawed completely, and witches burned if they are suspected, or else it isn't believed in at all--despite the fact that it is very much real. It's so rare that it's barely remembered, thought of as a legend or a fairytale, yet there are still characters willing to risk everything for the very chance that it might be true.

My absolute favorite thing about this book, that I can't say too much about without spoiling a pivotal scene, is completely about the magic. Unlike in many other stories, where the entire plot is about seeking out some magic power that can save the world and usually does, magic isn't some godlike plot device where the main character finds some magic ring and is suddenly able to save the day. Even in a world with magic, like in Falling Kingdoms, there are no easy answers--and even magic can't make everything okay.

The last thing that really stands out about this book is how interwoven some of the lore and plot points are. A story will be mentioned, for instance, that is barely remembered by the reader--until suddenly, something about that story or fact or whatever is massively important, just waiting for the reader to pull everything together. I -love- books like this.

In fact, I really like this book a lot. I wouldn't say it's a new favorite, and I probably won't reread it constantly, but I could see myself reading it at least once more in the future. It's decent, it has a good story, and I'm going to look into the sequel when it comes out.

That being said, it's not perfect and there are some things that might turn a reader off. There are some squicky issues that I don't want to go too in depth with, because I'm not sure how much I might ruin for you. Nothing too bad, and nothing that terrible, but I know there are some readers who might really hate a certain character because of one of his major motives--so if you think you might be easily grossed out, specifically by anything of a incestuous nature, maybe give this book a pass.

My only real problem with the book is that it suffers from what I'm going to call 'sequel-itis', a common problem found in books that are coming out nowadays. The entire premise of Falling Kingdoms, as given by the first few chapters, is about a type of magic that must be found in order to save things. I won't say too much, but suffice to say that this magic is mentioned constantly, hinted at, discussed, and it's a huge thing. Yet, by the end of the story, the main characters have yet to even look at this magic. It has not been searched for, it has not been anything, it's just been SET UP for. This entire book literally could be read like nothing more than a set up for some magical awesome journey that I'm sure is going to be found in a sequel. And some people like that, so maybe that's not a bad thing for you, but I hate it. I won't go to much into why, because that's a rant for another post, but I have a problem with series that take one single plot and just stretch it out into two or three or five books so that you can't even get a conclusion to the very first story unless you're willing to pay for five books. I feel that if you're going to have a series, each book should have its own complete plot while the series collectively might have another overarching plot--like how the Harry Potter books each had a story of Harry saving the stone or Harry winning the tournament, and the overall series was about Harry defeating Voldemort.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Falling Kingdoms, and it doesn't have sequel-itis near as bad as some other books I've read recently...but at the same time, I felt very bereft and unhappy when I finished this book and there was no real conclusion. I would have rather had a good conclusion with such a good story that I wanted to buy a sequel on merit alone, rather than no conclusion and a need to buy a second book just to get the rest of the first story. But I digress.

I think that fans of Tamora Pierce's fantasy novels might really like this book, although it doesn't have as much magic as they might like. Fans who enjoy stories with semi-villains with motives they can relate to would also enjoy this book. I'd also recommend the book for fans of Game of Thrones, actually, who enjoy YA books. I haven't read much of Game, but from what I HAVE...well, they have a very similar, fantasy and political feel to them.

Oh my goodness, I am so, so sorry!

Ahh! I didn't mean to go so long without posting. I thought I'd figured out blogger's queue system, and had a few reviews set to post occasionally while I knew I'd be too busy to uphold everything. Apparently, I was completely wrong! I really sorry! The hiatus was only actually supposed to last a month, with preset reviews before that, and it just didn't happen. Ugh.
So so sorry, guys. I have a few reviews backed up and waiting, since they didn't get posted, that I'll work on getting up, and I have an entire month off starting on the 18th to figure out the queue system, read, review, and prep a bunch of new ones in case my course load prevents me from posting again this semester--which, considering that I'm taking 6 courses -and- recently got promoted at work, is very likely to happen.
I'll get one of the reviews I have saved posted today and work on setting up lots more for later.
Happy Holidays, everyone!

Zom-B - Darren Shan

I found this book in a stack in the middle of the publisher's wing at Book Expo, and I swear I lucked out majorly because when I tried to bring ZenitaD back to get one herself, they'd vanished. It was one of the first ones I read, and the first thing I noticed when I opened the front cover of this ARC was a huge letter on the first page, telling me to watch out when I reviewed because of spoilers. Zom-B is a very interesting book in that it has two very big things you can spoil--one being the ending, and one being something that you just KNOW is something you shouldn't mention as soon as you find it in the book. But the problem is that the spoiler they tell you not to spoil, despite being at the end of the book...well, it's -damn- hard not to. Because of that, I'm only going to provide you with the synopsis provided to me--I'm not sure how I'd sum this book up myself without messing up.
"When news reports start appearing of a zombie outbreak in Ireland, B Smith's racist father thinks it's a joke-- but even if it isn't, he figures, it's ok to lose a few Irish. B doesn't fully buy into Dad's racism, but figures it's easier to go along with it than to risk the fights and abuse that will surely follow sticking up for Muslims, blacks, or immigrants. But when zombies attack B's school, B is forced on a mad dash through the serpentine corridors, making allegiances with anyone with enough guts to fight off their pursuers."
Actually reviewing this book is pretty difficult. It's supposed to be the first book out of what is going to be a 12 book series--the second book is already listed on Shan's website, despite this book not even officially being out yet. When you read Zom-B, it's very obvious that it's only the beginning. The last thirty pages or so, the ending, literally seems to only set up a platform for a new book to begin. It's kind of disappointing, in that regard, because so many things about B's story aren't touched. As a reader, I don't mind series--but I tend to have a problem when there isn't any resolution whatsoever in the first book. There's a difference between book one in a series, and book one being spread out over a 'series'. If you're going to write a series, that's fine, but have the decency to finish one mini plot per book, so it doesn't feel like you just cut one big book into tiny little pieces. When I want broken stories, I read comics, not books, thanks.
That being said, it's a fantastic opening. There are a lot of real issues that are tackled in this book, so don't count it out just because it involves zombies. B's father is a huge racist, and seeing the effect that this has on B is just...wow. There really are no words, and I'd probably recommend this book just for that, even ignoring the actual plot. It's a very bleak look at bigotry, and adding in that 'spoiler' I can't actually talk about...well, it's fantastic.
I can't say much more without spoiling everything, so I'll just say that I would recommend Zom-B, despite the fact that I really wish it wasn't just a beginning. I'm personally going to be getting my hands on a copy of the sequel if it kills me, because I hate cliffhangers--and let me tell you how big of a damn cliffhanger this book has. As to whom I'd recommend this book to? Well, that's a little iffy.
Fans of Darren Shan's earlier works are obviously going to want to get into this one, because it's very much his typical style, I think. I don't think I'd recommend it to fans of typical zombie books, like World War Z, because for all that it is called Zom-B and the later books look like they're going to be very heavily zombie related...well, this one kind of isn't, and I don't want to recommend this to a crowd of zombie lovers until I read the second one and actually know how the zombies play out. But like I said, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in books about the effects of bigorty and hate on children--it's a fictional account, yes, but it handles this issue spectacularly. If Zom-B sounds interesting to you, pick up a copy on September 27th, when it comes out!

(This review was originally supposed to be autoposted on 8/27/12, and is being posted now due to queue problems. Sorry, everyone~!)

Alice in Zombieland - Gena Showalter

 "I wish I could go back and do a thousand things differently.
I'd tell my sister no.
I'd never beg my mother to talk to my dad.
I'd zip my lips and swallow those hateful words.
Or, barring all of that, I'd hug my sister, my mom and my dad one last time.
I'd tell them I love them.
I wish... Yeah, I wish." (Alice In Zombieland, prologue)

Alice in Zombieland is the first book in Gena Showalter's new White Rabbit Chronicles, and I got my hands on a copy in the Harlequinn Teen Hour line at BEA on Wednesday. I'd been really wanting it since I'd seen the cover advertisement, so I was pretty excited when the exhibitors began randomly passing them out. Needless to say, I had this book open as soon as I got on my first bus home, and had it finished by the end of my four hour commute.

Like the title implies, Alice in Zombieland is the story of a girl named Alice. Orphaned after a tragedy takes her parents and sister away from her, Alice is forced to move to a new school and live with her maternal grandparents. She makes new friends, misses the ones she's lost, and generally acts how you'd expect a girl to act whose lost everything. Well, except for a few small things. Like the fact that there's this boy she can't ignore--literally can't ignore, because something she can't control forces her into visions whenever she's near him, visions of love and violence and confusion-- and there's also the fact that she might be going crazy, because she's seeing things that shouldn't exist, things that she used to think her father was crazy for talking about.

Alice in Zombieland is literally nothing I actually expected with my first impression of the book, and that's actually pretty amazing. For one thing, besides the fact that the main character's name is Alice, I really don't see a connection between Alice in Wonderland and this book. There's a few very small references, but no real big 'AHAH!' moment for me. There's always the possibility that I might just be missing references or something, but still. It doesn't actually matter, but it definitely skewed my ideas for what this book was going to be about.

Secondly, Showalter breaths new live into the zombie myths with this book. The zombies Showalter writes are still very obviously zombies: living dead, rotting, shambling, feeling no pain, etc. But they're also a bit more than that, although I really can't say much without ruining what I feel is a part of the book that you should read for yourself. Without spoiling it for you, let me just say that I like Showalter's idea of a zombie a -lot-, particularly because it somewhat makes Alice's story more applicable to real life, in the way that so many other authors manage to make vampires seem like things that could actually lurk in the night.

Like all YA books today, it seems, Showalter threw in a nice dash of romance in this novel, and surprisingly, I'm pretty okay with that. I absolutely despise how every other YA book I pick up is nothing but a romance story with some paranormal aspects, sans explicit scenes. Like, I love romance. I do. But sometimes, I'd really enjoy reading a book that has an amazing plot and doesn't get derailed for seven chapters by whiny teenage romance. That being said, Showalter really pulls it off. The romance in Alice in Zombieland is played off really well, without really allowing it to completely overshadow the story. It's woven in expertly, and I really applaud Showalter for her efforts.

Overall, I really liked Alice in Zombieland, so much so that I've already passed it on to a fellow book blogger because I want the word of this book to get out. It's a great story, has a lot of humor, and I loved it! I'd recommend it to fans of the zombie genre in general, as long as they don't mind tossing a bit of paranormal and magic into their zombie mythology. I'd also recommend it to the huge YA romance fandom, as Showalter's romance is amazing. Finally, I'd kind of like to recommend Alice in Zombieland to fans of Hack/Slash, with the understanding that Alice is a lot more children friendly and less violent. The attempted female zombie slaying kind of speaks to me in both cases, haha.

Alice in Zombieland actually comes out in September 2012, so keep an eye out around that time to get your copy on this amazing book!