Filling the Shelf is basically Mailbox Monday or the more recent Stacking the Shelves, but with a title that suits my blog! If you’re interested in joining the fun or seeing what other bloggers added to their shelves, I invite you to visit the two hosts!

Happy Monday readers!

Hope you had a good week! Time goes by so fast; only a little less than 3 weeks before our move. 3 weeks! It’s going way too fast for my taste, if you ask me. I’ve been all anxious and worried, and feeling a mix of sadness (I do love our actual apartment, and wish we hadn’t been forced in an unplanned move) and excitement (our new place is at least as nice, and it’s quite a thrill to finally become owners rather than renters!)

I’ve also been accumulating books. I guess I stress-book-shop? I’m sure at least a few of you can relate! So my next book updates should be a little heavier. For this week though, here is part of what was added to the shelves the moving boxes; catching up with Sarah Dessen, finally reading the conclusion to Anna Godbersen’s series, and… The Elite. Yes, even though I didn’t really like the first book. I was struck with the need for a light dystopian read this week, and I just knew this would fit the bill perfectly!

What Happened to Goodbye and Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

The Elite by Kiera Cass / The Lucky Ones by Anna Godbersen

What did you add to your shelves recently?

The Lost Husband 

What it’s about :

My Thoughts :

You know you’re reading a great book when you don’t want it to end – and it is exactly what happened with The Lost Husband, which has been one of my favorite books to read this year! It’s true that I came in with some high expectations : I had read numerous positive reviews about the author’s previous work, and friends had recommended her to me many times. I am so glad I finally cave; in a style slightly reminiscent to Sophie Kinsella and Jennifer Weiner, Katherine Center offered here a cute, moving and at times funny story about grief, family and love.

I can’t say I’ve ever been a widow with children, yet I found myself relating to Libby from the start. Her voice is honest and straightforward, and she is certainly complex. Though she is long past the initial grief her husband’s death left her in, Libby still lives with the weight of it all, which only accentuates her flaws and her strengths.

But Libby’s story, while offering some serious thoughts on grief and moving on, isn’t heavy with sadness and regrets. Instead, we get to know her and her kids, as well as the new people in her life on the farm. It’s colorful and charming, with a bit of mystery (her aunt hides some secrets of her own, as do her new friends). While I did think she adjusted quite easily to the life on the farm, I’ll admit it seemed to suit her.

I loved her kids and her relationship with them. I loved that she sometimes questioned her decisions or her mothering, even though she didn’t know how else to do things. I loved that the kids were kids : they talked and acted like them and I completely believed they were their age. Her relationship with her aunt was also perfect; a few quirks and a lot of love is how I would describe it.

And I can’t not mention the romance. In some ways, O’Connor is the typical guy you would imagine in a romance novel; a bit secretive yet manly, they have a push-and-pull relationship for most of the novel. Yet it worked beautifully without making me feel like I was reading the biggest cliché ever. Katherine Center can definitely make magic happen!

I don’t think I need to insist any more about how much I loved this book! It was such a quick read, too; perfect for the beach, or a nice day under the sun. I was enchanted, and I know, with absolute certainty, that there will be more Katherine Center in my future reading.

I would gladly take suggestions as to which title this should be, if some of you have read the author before!

The Lost Husband is available for sale right now! Thanks to Ballantine Books for generously providing a digital copy of the book for this review.

Reached 

From Goodreads :

My Thoughts :

I’ll admit; I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Reached, after being so bored with Crossed. I’m still glad the series is ending here though, but it was a fun ride for that short while.

Last books in a trilogy are difficult to comment on without revealing too much about the book itself, but also about the previous ones. In this case particularly, I feel that I am mostly repeating myself from my reviews of Matched and Crossed: I’m still not a fan of Ky, Cassia still does nothing special for me (good or bad), I still sort of like Xander. So there is really nothing new for me to say about the characters or the author’s writing.

The narration in this book was split between the three main characters and, surprisingly, I actually liked that. While I felt the the voices in Crossed were indistinguishable, here I loved hearing their three different stories (well, not so much Ky, but whatever). It’s not that they had three very distinctive voices, but they had different lives, which helped keeping my interest up a little.

What surprised me most though, was how passive this book felt. Maybe I was spoiled by all the wonderful, constant action of Insurgent and Prodigy, but I kept turning the pages waiting for something big to happen, and it didn’t, really. Well, their lives certainly changed, but their was no “OMG” moment for me as a reader.

I loved the new characters though, and loved to have Cassia back in the city. I truly enjoy the worldbuilding in the series, which is a bit more complex and developed than in some other YA dystopian series I got to read. And I liked how it ended for Xander, mostly.

In the end, for me the series concluded the same way it began; entertaining, light, interesting worldbuilding.

In other words : it was okay.

And now I’m on to something (hopefully) better!

Series Reading Order : 

1. Matched
2. Crossed
3. Reached

The Cottage at Glass Beach by Heather Barbieri

Two copies landed on my doorstep, and I am happy to have the opportunity to to give away one of them! Since the shipping will be out of my pocket’s money, this unfortunately means this giveaway is only opened to people in the US and Canada (but I promise to have something open for everyone soon!)

Find out more about the book here!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Cottage at Glass Beach 

From the book’s jacket :

My Thoughts :

The Cottage at Glass Beach was a very pleasant read. It has a soft, quiet quality to it and from the start gives you a hint of magical realism. Burke’s Island is rich in history, and I found the numerous characters to be all equally intriguing; as Nora, Ella and Annie (Nora’s daughters) meet them, I wanted to know more about them and their life on the island.

There’s also a beautiful mix of styles; the book isn’t straight romance, and in fact I would say it mostly isn’t about the romance. There’s the mystery of Nora’s mother’s disappearance, the story of Maire (the aunt they are living with), the family aspects, the mystery of Owen, etc. While the book isn’t a mystery novel, there are enough unanswered questions to keep you guessing all along.

While I loved the setting and enjoyed the story, there were two aspects that kept me from truly loving the book. The first was my inability to connect to Nora. I felt for her, sure, but I was unable to reach over that wall that exists between reader and character and really understand her. That was a bit unfortunate since she was the main character, and I am not sure where the fault is since I actually liked the author’s writing, which I found to be poetic in places. The second point was Nora’s daughters. Again, I understood they were going through a lot, but I had a hard time sympathizing with them, especially Ella. Also, I found their conversations to be a bit too adult-like, and until I went back, confused, to reread the first few pages, I actually thought they were both teenagers.

This being said, I mostly enjoyed the book. I went through it quite quickly and its dreamy, mysterious atmosphere stayed with me thorough the days. It reminded me how much I love magical realism, and it was nicely done here. The story gave me a taste of summer and made me wish I could go hang on the beach, too!

In the end, while it wasn’t a perfect read, I closed the book feeling satisfied. I would definitely read more of this author – which is great since I already have one of her books on my ereader!

Thanks to TLC Book Tours for giving me the opportunity to review The Cottage at Glass Beach!

The author of three novels, The Cottage at Glass Beach (Harper, 2012), The Lace Makers of Glenmara (Harper, 2009) and Snow in July (Soho, 2004), Heather Barbieri has been awarded fellowships and international prizes for her short stories. Before turning to fiction full time, she was a magazine editor, journalist, and film critic. Heather is half Irish. Her paternal ancestors left counties Donegal and Tipperary after surviving The Great Famine; they worked in the coal mines of Eastern Pennsylvania before settling in Butte, Montana, a rugged town in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, which, though having nary a hint of green in its landscape, once boasted the largest gaelic-speaking population outside of Ireland. Heather was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. She lives in Seattle with her family.

Filling the Shelf is basically Mailbox Monday or the more recent Stacking the Shelves, but with a title that suits my blog! If you’re interested in joining the fun or seeing what other bloggers added to their shelves, I invite you to visit the two hosts!

Good day to you, readers!

It’s a good thing that blogging isn’t done using your voice, because I lost mine this weekend. I’m thinking I may have accidentally slipped it into one of the boxes, since we packed most of the books for our move!  The shelves look so empty and sad now; I can’t wait to be in our new place to unpack them all – you just know it’s the first thing I will do! Who needs dishes and towels when you can have books?

It’s sort of funny to me to see new books arrive as I am packing the older ones. It’s like an incessant flow of paper through the door! Not complaining about it, for sure!

Here are my new additions, a mix of fiction and YA; it was very exciting on the YA side as If I Should Die and Light conclude their respective series, and The Eternity Cure was a sequel I was really looking forward to (even though I still haven’t reviewed the first book)!

J’adore New York by Isabelle Laflèche / The Witch of Little Italy by Suzanne Palmieri / The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow by Rita Leganski

If I Should Die by Amy Plum / Light by Michael Grant / The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa

What did you add to your shelves recently?

The Lives We Lost 

From the book’s jacket :

My Thoughts :

When I read The Way We Fall last year, it was one of my favorite post-apocalytic novel of 2012. I loved the quiet pace, the introspective aspect of the narration, the gloomy atmosphere and the absence of the typical love triangle. It made the book feel more realistic and mature, and I was excited to see where the story would go from there.

The Lives We Lost took a bit of a different route; from the start, the danger is more present as the characters find themselves on the road. If the danger is a constant  in their lives, I wouldn’t say the novel is packed with action. There’s more happening than in the first novel, but I still felt it was a slow story (in a nice way). The characters are faced with some very hard decisions, difficult circumstances and unfathomable consequences. It’s harsh, but realistic.

What I liked less was the addition of the love triangle. It was sort of predictable, with Kaelyn’s best friend coming back into the picture after so long, but I could have done without. To be clear though, the novel isn’t heavy with romance; Kaelyn and her friends have a lot more important things to think about. But the hints are there, often enough to have annoyed me. Can’t we have a young adult trilogy without some geometric love story? Does everyone really find themselves into those? It never happened to me, and I don’t think I’m such a unique specimen, you know?

Anyway, I liked The Lives We Lost, even though I thought parts of the plot felt a bit forced or predictable. But these aspects are well balanced with positive ones : new characters that add to the story’s complexity, a well developed world-building that expands outside the island, an adventurous story with lots of suspense.

Also, can I say “Yay!” for the Canadian setting? I have absolutely nothing against my american neighbors (quite the contrary!), but it is so fun and refreshing to be reading a post-apocalyptic novel in a setting I know at least a little!

I will absolutely be reading the next book. I have a long wait ahead of me though, as The Worlds We Make is planned for February 2014. Sigh! But for those of you who like not to wait too much between each book, it means now is the perfect time to start the series!

Series Reading Order : 

1. The Way We Fall
2. The Lives We Lost
3.  The Worlds We Make (coming February 2014)

Filling the Shelf is basically Mailbox Monday or the more recent Stacking the Shelves, but with a title that suits my blog! If you’re interested in joining the fun or seeing what other bloggers added to their shelves, I invite you to visit the two hosts!

Hey everyone!

Can you believe it? This is my 100th “Filling the Shelf” post! I won’t dare counting how many books I received over the years, haha! But I’m just so happy to still have the opportunity to share about the books I receive and love (and even the ones I don’t end up loving!)

It feels kind of silly to be adding books only to pack them away for the move, but as always I am super happy with the ones that landed home in the past couple weeks. I also received books for reviews, one that accidentally multiplied itself so expect a giveaway soon!

And now, the beloved books; two from favorite authors (Rutherfurd and Kinsella), one I was curious about after reading reviews from favorite bloggers (In the Shadow of Blackbirds) and The Panopticon. This one really intrigued me, because I wrote a huge philosophical/art historical paper on Bentham and Foucault’s theories, and I can’t wait to see how this translates into fiction. It looks like a YA novel, but apparently, it really isn’t. Can’t wait to read it!

Paris by Edward Rutherfurd / The Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella

In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters / The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan

What did you add to your shelves recently?

Of course the book I need to read always ends up at the bottom of the first box I packed!

On another note : colors! I had been wanting to add colors to the comics for a while, and I finally gave it a try this week. It was more work than the usual black and white, but I think I like it… what do you guys think?

Prodigy 

From the book’s jacket :

My Thoughts :

Just like last week with Insurgent, I was at a loss when trying to summarize this book. So much happened between these pages, and it gets so hard to tell you what it’s about without spoiling it. So instead, I decided to use my time to talk about how I felt about the book. Here we go!

Like its predecessor Legend, Prodigy is a dystopian tale told both from the voices of June and Day. Marie Lu did a great job of giving the two protagonists distinctive voices, a distinction I felt was even more present in this book. I liked both of their narrations, too, and liked how the author ended each of their chapters leaving you wanting more, without the suspense feeling forced into the story.

Prodigy’s story is so full of action! The pacing is well balanced, with quiet times between the action sequences, without one boring moment. I was in turn hooked to the characters’ thoughts, to the mysteries, to the conversations. I loved learning more about the world Day and June grew up it, and I enjoyed even more that it wasn’t black and white, either. This brings the duo to question themselves and what they know of the world, adding to the complex feel of the world-building.

When reading Legend, I had been thrilled with the lack of love triangle. It’s such an overused device these days in YA fiction that it was very refreshing to have a romance be between only two characters. Prodigy changes that a little, although nothing is really clear; it could be a triangle, or a square, or neither. June and Day’s feelings are complex, because they both are in a very complex situation. I hadn’t realized how shortly they had known each other in fact, which gives a lot of weight to their hesitations and doubts. I’m still rooting for them, but considering the book’s ending, I am ready for anything, really.

Because that ending! Oh, that ending! How I wish I could say more, but it would be horrible to spoil it. But, wow. I sort of saw it coming, but really I didn’t. Which made my jaw hit the floor even harder. I’m not sure where this will lead. Most authors would find some cheap ploy to take the easy way out without any real consequences for the characters, but with Marie Lu, I’m really not sure. Hum…

So, yeah, I like this series. I feel that Prodigy confirms, for me, that it is one of the strongest current dystopia stories on the YA market. I am really, really looking forward to the third book.

Series Reading Order : 

1. Legend
2. Prodigy
3. Champion (coming November 2013)