saz101

Deep Blue (Waterfire Saga #1), Jennifer Donnelly

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah (saz101)) — Fri, 04 Jul 2014 19:19:00 +0000

Title: Deep Blue (Waterfire Saga #1) Author: Jennifer Donnelly (author website) Release Date: May 2014 Age Group: Young Adult Genre: Fantasy My Rating:

From Goodreads: Waterfire Saga is an epic new series set in the depths of the ocean where six mermaids seek to save their world.Written by Carnegie Medal winning author of A Gathering Light, Jennifer Donnelly.When Serafina, a mermaid of the Mediterranean Sea, awakens on the morning of her betrothal, her biggest worry should be about reuniting with handsome Prince Mahdi, her childhood crush. Instead she finds herself haunted by strange dreams foretelling the return of an ancient evil, and dealing with the deaths of her parents as assassins storm the betrothal ceremony, plunging the city into chaos.Led only by her shadowy dreams and pursued by the invading army, Serafina and her best friend Neela embark on a quest to avenge her parents' death and prevent a war between the mer nations. In the process they discover a plot that threatens their - and our - world's very existence.

Mermaids: Vampires of the sea. Half human, half fish--possibly a drunken sailor's misdiagnosis of a beluga whale--they come in many variations, from the creepy, kill-happy sirens of myth, to the all-singing, all-dancing, Disney-princess variety we grew up with. With more puns than you could throw a harpoon at, the mermaids of Jennifer Donnelly's grandly named Waterfire Saga fall nearer the Disney end of the scale, and are every inch as entertaining as their animated sisters. The firstborn daughter of an uninterrupted line of firstborn daughters, stretching back to the fall of Atlantis, Principessa Seraphina was born to rule. But Sera is crippled by self-doubt, and she'd rather be off riding her hippocampus, or swimming out the palace windows and eating sweets with her glow-in-the-dark (bioluminescent) best friend, Neela. But on the day of her betrothal to childhood sweetheart, what 'she'd rather' bears little import--as her kingdom is attacked, and hundreds killed. Pursued by an enemy army, and haunted by prophetic dreams, Sera and Neela set off in search of a group of mythological witches, and a way to save their world from absolute destruction. Character development plays second fiddle to sheer, seat-of-your-pants action in Deep Blue. Though stakes never seem too high, as someone is always waiting to put themselves on the line to save Sera, the book is bursting with adventure, and its world struck me as surprisingly well-developed and vivid, given the book's slightly fluffy beginning chapters. With a high-stakes fantasy quest, and sugar-sweet teen mermaid drama, I found myself describing the book to a friend as 'The Little Mermaid meets Lord of the Rings.' Sera is a competent heroine. She has has her fair share of self-doubt, but is sweet, selfless, brave, and pretty--yet she's what a paddle pool is to the deep blue sea. Deep Blue offers its fair share of compelling characters, though many are killed, or left for dead as quickly as they're introduced--and the next adventure commences before we're offered any chance to grieve, which stops the book from every feeling too dark, or too heavy--despite the end of the world being on the line. While I giggled at puns, and gritted my teeth frequently at Sera's self-doubt, not to mention a predictable plot twist, Deep Blue is nothing if not compelling. I devoured the story and, for all its flaws, enjoyed it immensely. But I'm brought to the one and only problem I truly had with this book: it is not, by any stretch intended to be read as a single book. Deep Blue has no climax; no end. It is very much a beginning chapter in this 'Waterfire Saga.' And, in a way, I want to be annoyed--but I'm not. What I am, is desperate for the next book.

An enormous thank you to Hachette for providing a review copy of Deep Blue!

Dreams of Gods and Monsters (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #3), Laini Taylor

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah (saz101)) — Thu, 29 May 2014 00:01:00 +0000

Title: Dreams of Gods and Monsters
Author: Laini Taylor (author website)
Release Date: April 2014 by H&S Fiction
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy/Paranormal
My Rating:

A foreign queen is hunting, a fleeing daughter hiding from terrors in the night, and Akiva and Karou, lovers crossed by stars, godstars, moons and mighty rulers alike, fight a desperate battle for a dream that has spanned three lives between them: a dream of a future free from hate. A dream of peace.

From Goodreads:

By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her, if there can even be a future for the chimaera in war-ravaged Eretz.

Common enemy, common cause.

When Jael's brutal seraph army trespasses into the human world, the unthinkable becomes essential, and Karou and Akiva must ally their enemy armies against the threat. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people.

And, perhaps, for themselves. Toward a new way of living, and maybe even love.

But there are bigger threats than Jael in the offing. A vicious queen is hunting Akiva, and, in the skies of Eretz ... something is happening. Massive stains are spreading like bruises from horizon to horizon; the great winged stormhunters are gathering as if summoned, ceaselessly circling, and a deep sense of wrong pervades the world.

What power can bruise the sky?

From the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond, humans, chimaera and seraphim will fight, strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy.

At the very barriers of space and time, what do gods and monsters dream of? And does anything else matter?

If Daughter of Smoke and Bone was a love story, and Days of Blood and Starlight a tragedy, Dreams of Gods and Monsters knits the two together in a conclusion that, while an ending, feels anything but final. Which is satisfying... And not.

In those final pages, Dreams of Gods and Monsters leaves so many questions unanswered; futures and histories left untold... Yet it doesn't feel like a missing dessert, or an 'improper' end. Rather, it feels precisely how I believe its author intended: Dreams of Gods and Monsters ends with beginnings. With life, and possibility, and resurrection. As it should--with hope. It feels the right place to leave Akiva and Karou to their new beginnings. But it doesn't feel an adequate conclusion to the histories it tells. Having turned the final page, I feel as though its characters have more stories to tell--and wonder if Taylor has plans to do so, or is simply teasing with a lingering, poetic ending.

Dreams of Gods and Monsters encompasses so many beloved (and hated) characters, so many versions of their lives, so many threads in Taylor's grand tapestry it's difficult to comment on a single point, play, or page. This story carries a weight, a vastness, to it. While, 'what happens?' seems a fair, if unspecific, question, cover closed on Dreams of Gods and Monsters, I'm at a loss for an answer. Words fail, which seems a tiny irony, for a book weighing in at no less than 600 pages. Yet, 'stuff happened. And love. And cake,' seems to do Taylor's rather splendid work a slight injustice.

Karou and Akiva are thrust front and centre in Dreams of Gods and Monsters, both to the reader, and their people. They assume roles as leaders, far beyond their own comfort, and the responsibility both pulls them together, and apart. We see them even more intimately than before, and they've grown (oh, how they've grown!) since misty Prague, dusty Morocco. But they share their stage. Zuzanna and Mik return, more charming than previously imaginable; Ziri shoulders an incredible burden--the fate of the Chimaera rebellion resting firmly on his shoulders; Liraz, icy-cold half-sister to Akiva, reveals pieces of herself, and even begins to thaw... But what kept me skipping pages ahead, desperate to know more was an enigmatic young woman named Eliza Jones--who has many, many big surprises up her sleeves. Anonymous, hiding Eliza, who finds herself anything but anonymous and hidden by the story's close.

As I've commented, often, before, I believe that, there are great writers, and great storytellers, and is a rare and wonderful joy to find an author who is both. Returning to Eretz, and a slightly more magical Earth than our own, Dreams of Gods and Monsters reaffirms Taylor as both. Between a story that flows like narcotic dream, and prose which dances seductively throughout its pages, the conclusion to the Smoke and Bone trilogy is as beautiful, intoxicating and breathtaking as its predecessors, though seems to lack something satisfying, as though it is the end of a love story, but not a world story.

The Verdict:

Goodbyes are hard and, if you are to believe Seraphim warriors' folklore, farewells are bad luck. So it's fitting that it proves a difficult task, farewelling not just Akiva and Karou, but the families they've made for themselves. Perhaps (for me at least) the true measure of a good book is the desire to unread it, more than to re-read it--so as to fall in love and lose oneself in its pages all over again, and how I long to do so here. Eretz may be closed to us all for now, but perhaps like Akiva and Karou, I'll dream an impossible dream and hope that while it's gone, it's only gone for now.

Books in This Series:

Daughter of Smoke and Bone (September 2011)

Days of Blood and Starlight (November 2012)

Dreams of Gods and Monsters (April 2014)

An enormous thank you to Hachette Australia for providing a review copy of Days of Blood and Starlight!

LET'S TALK: Finding the Time to Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah (saz101)) — Fri, 23 May 2014 20:21:00 +0000

For me, it runs something like this: you've been blogging for a while now. You have a schedule; post regularly (or irregularly); you interact; you participate; you have fun. There's the books, the lists, the memes, and, best of all: the friends.

Why would you ever want to take a time out from this community, you ask yourself. Are you crazy? Sure, it's hard work sometimes, but the rewards--and I'm talking the intangible ones here--friendship, community, fun, make up for that--
Then life gets in the way.

Family emergency, deadlines at work, exams... your husband taking two and half months vacation from work and having a baby.

Life has well and truly gotten in the way for me.

And, as the dust has settled, and life has regained a new sense of normalcy (though a very different kind) I've rediscovered an itch. I've missed you. You, my friends, my blog, this community, and the BOOKS. Oh oh OH the books.

Yet, I'm left with a question: how do you manage blogging around your busy lives? Mums: how do you blog with children? Students: how do manage blogging with school, study and work? Those who write: where do you make the time, balancing writing with day jobs, families, and often an impressive social media presence?

I'm curious as to how you about finding time to blog in your busy lives--especially when, in order to blog, one must also READ. I'd love you to share any hints or tips, my friends!

P.S. OH HOW I'VE MISSED YOU ALL!

Magic Bites (Kate Daniels #1), Illona Andrews

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah (saz101)) — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 11:00:00 +0000

Title: Magic Bites
Author: Illona Andrews (author website)
Release Date: March 27, 2007
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
My Rating:

I had a pretty good idea of what to expect coming into Magic Bites: the typical urban fantasy in a slightly different version of our own world, tough heroine, and sexy alpha male to add a romantic twist. While, in some ways, I was right, I was wrong. Magic Bites is something different entirely.

From Goodreads:

Atlanta would be a nice place to live, if it weren’t for magic...

One moment magic dominates, and cars stall and guns fail. The next, technology takes over and the defensive spells no longer protect your house from monsters. Here skyscrapers topple under onslaught of magic; werebears and werehyenas prowl through the ruined streets; and the Masters of the Dead, necromancers driven by their thirst of knowledge and wealth, pilot blood-crazed vampires with their minds. In this world lives Kate Daniels. Kate likes her sword a little too much and has a hard time controlling her mouth. The magic in her blood makes her a target, and she spent most of her life hiding in plain sight. But when Kate’s guardian is murdered, she must choose to do nothing and remain safe or to pursue his preternatural killer. Hiding is easy, but the right choice is rarely easy ...

Now, normally I'd write up my own summary of the book, but I'm just not sure how to manage. Magic Bites is complex and dark and, at times, confusing, if not deliberately cryptic. The book left me with a myriad of unanswered questions.

Real Urban Fantasy

I think the key thing here, is that Magic Bites is urban fantasy. Have you read any of those books with with swords and monsters and dragons, and worlds so foreign and vast you can only just begin to wrap your mind around them? For me, Magic Bites was this, in an modern, urban environment. The creatures that inhabit this place are different, and so are the humans. The paranormal beings that inhabit this world are darker, more complex, and complicated than what I've come to expect from this genre. The world's familiar, sure, but so very unlike our own. I had recurring impressions of a low-tech version of Blade Runner where instead of technology, magic has taken hold, and become the world's driving force. Instead of androids, we have shifters and other creatures we can't quite understand. The magic here is like... real magic, somehow. Dark, twisty, dangerous and sinister. Not evil, but a perversion of the current order--a sentient force stretching and reaching out in all directions, a beast gnawing away at the world we currently live in and recognise. Imagine if technology stopped working--cars, phones, televisions--and was replaced by an equally powerfully medium that you couldn't begin to understand, one that was slowly taking over and changing the way we live.

Kate Daniels:

In the middle of this world is Kate Daniels. An enigma. Equally as mysterious, strange, and well realised as the world she exists in, Kate's a freelance mercenary. Need someone found, killed, or captured? She's your lady... but she's not just any lady. And I really don't know much more than that. The authors are playing their cards pretty close to their chest. Here's what I do know: the girl is a trained warrior. She's tough--really, really tough--and hard as nails. She has a problem with authority. And she's hiding something huge. In Magic Bites we learn she has very powerful magic running through her veins, one that she'll do anything to keep hidden, but we're not told what it is, why it's so important to hide that she must burn anything that holds a trace of her blood, or where it came from. We're given tantalising hints and elusive clues, but this doesn't mean it's unsatisfying.

Romance?

Kate has a cast of fascinating, compelling men in her life, but she's not a flirt, and no, they're not all falling at her feet. In fact, let me say right here and now: Magic Bites is not a romance. In fact, there's little-to-no romance in it. There is definitely a very faint spark of something that could grow into a romance, but it's barely hinted at.

The Verdict:

Magic Bites is, well, incredible. I've never encountered an urban fantasy so dense and complex, and in such a detailed, real world. It's gritty, it's strange, and it's utterly compelling. So basically? Despite an alarmingly ugly cover, Magic Bites is awesome.

Books in This Series:

Magic Bites

Magic Burns

Magic Strikes

Magic Bleeds

Magic Slays

Want It?

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American Gods, Neil Gaiman

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah (saz101)) — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 23:00:00 +0000

Title: American Gods
Author: Neil Gaiman (author website)
Release Date: June 19th 2001 by Headline
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
My Rating:

It's no secret I'm completely, utterly and blindingly in love with uuhhhh, a most ardent fan of Neil Gaiman. I know this isn't the type of book I'd normally review here, but a few weeks ago I mentioned I was a fan of mythology-based stories, and I seriously, seriously am. And Neil Gaiman is a master of it. He has such an unique grasp on folk tales and stories, and when you read Stardust and American Gods, you'll love the vaguely perverse way he weaves these stories. Both familiar and profoundly strange, they have that feel of 'real' old fashioned fairy stories and verbal-mythologies. Dark, twisted, and not necessarily with a Disney ending. But I digress: I love Neil Gaiman, and I just couldn't.... not, share my thoughts on this book with you. While perhaps not the most accessible of Gaiman's work (try Stardust or The Graveyard Book), American Gods is a modern masterpiece.

From Goodreads:
The storm was coming...Shadow spent three years in prison, keeping his head down, doing his time. All he wanted was to get back to the loving arms of his wife and to stay out of trouble for the rest of his life. But days before his scheduled release, he learns that his wife has been killed in an accident, and his world becomes a colder place.On the plane ride home to the funeral, Shadow meets a grizzled man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. A self-styled grifter and rogue, Wednesday offers Shadow a job. And Shadow, a man with nothing to lose, accepts.But working for the enigmatic Wednesday is not without its price, and Shadow soon learns that his role in Wednesday's schemes will be far more dangerous than he ever could have imagined. Entangled in a world of secrets, he embarks on a wild road trip and encounters, among others, the murderous Czernobog, the impish Mr. Nancy, and the beautiful Easter--all of whom seem to know more about Shadow than he himself does.Shadow will learn that the past does not die, that everyone, including his late wife, had secrets, and that the stakes are higher than anyone could have imagined.All around them a storm of epic proportions threatens to break. Soon Shadow and Wednesday will be swept up into a conflict as old as humanity itself. For beneath the placid surface of everyday life a war is being fought -- and the prize is the very soul of America.As unsettling as it is exhilarating, American Gods is a dark and kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth and across an America at once eerily familiar and utterly alien. Magnificently told, this work of literary magic

A Storm is Coming.
The day before Shadow is due to be released from prison, he's called to the warden's office. His wife, Laura, is dead.

Free, and on his route home to Laura's funeral, he encounters a strange old man who calls himself Wednesday. Wednesday--who claims to be a god--knows more about Shadow than he possibly should, and Shadow, reluctantly, agrees to work for him. Led by Wednesday, Shadow is taken on a profoundly strange journey across the USA. A journey to help Wednesday recruit fellow gods, mythical figures and culture heroes to his side of the oncoming storm: a battle of truly epic proportions.

There is something totally unique about Gaiman's writing: instantly recognisable; utterly charming; and deceptively simplistic, when it's anything but. American Gods is no exception. It's brilliant, beautiful, and profoundly strange. The story starts off in an oddly detached fashion. For a while I wondered about this, until you learn more about Shadow. You're experiencing the world through his lens, and detached is exactly what he is. With his wife's death, he's shocked into numbness. When he learns of a painful betrayal on her part, that numbness crystallises, leaving him encased in a protective shell he wears as goes about what's left of his life. Nothing--and I mean nothing--shocks the guy anymore, as it never reaches his core. Nothing can shock him more than what he experiences in the opening chapters of the story.

"This isn't about what is," said Mr Nancy. "It's about what people think is. It's all imaginary anyway. That's why it's important. People only fight over imaginary things."

In addition to Shadow's tale, we also get glimpses into the back-story of other characters, with a chapter here and there telling the story of an immigrant to America arriving, and bringing their gods with them, or following one of the numerous gods who make up the story. Gaiman's take on folklore, cultural stories and myth is extraordinary, and it grounds American Gods in a world that is tantalising familiar--one of stories and tales you recognise, you have heard, you’ve known, your whole life.

American Gods is a long story, and at times is confronting, meandering, fast-paced, slow-paced, funny and witty, deeply philosophical, or utterly absurd (which, of course, is Gaiman at his very best). It's not always an easy read, but it's a very satisfying one. I loved it, and it's a story I can't imagine having been written of anyone less than Neil Gaiman.As another reviewer observes, the book is the story of the "the battle for the soul of America". Gaiman's cutting observations of American culture and life are pure genius. The parts of the nation we visit are charming, and the back drop to the tale is a delightful country of contradictions and opposites: a world embracing modern technology, yet still deeply a product of a rich past. Do we embrace our past as a part of our future? Or do we push it aside and become a world of McDonald's, Starbucks and chain stores? Is there room for both our past and our future in our changing world?

"We need individual stories. Without individuals we see only numbers: a thousand dead, a hundred thousand dead, 'casualties may rise to a million'. With individual stories, the statistics become people--but even that is a lie, for the people continue to suffer in numbers that themselves are numbing and meaningless...
We draw our lines around these moment of pain, and remain upon our islands, and they cannot hurt us. They are covered with a smooth, safe, nacreous layer to let them slip, pearl-like, from our souls without real pain."

Want It?

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Brigid Kemmerer's SPIRIT Blog Tour: Interview & Giveaway!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah (saz101)) — Tue, 28 May 2013 10:29:00 +0000

The admission that I'm a big fan of Brigid Kemmerer, will surprise exactly no-one who knows me, and I'm super excited to have her here today as part of the blog tour for her latest book, SPIRIT. Those who follow the series will know that this is the third full-length book in the Elemental series, and stars Hunter—who I've long thought was one of the series' biggest enigmas. Well, folks, the book is fantastic. Action-packed, exciting, and, in parts, unexpectantly heart-breaking. Brigid's been kind enough to answer a few questions about, so buckle-up and have fun!

Don't forget to vote for your favorite Elementals character below—there'll be very exciting results if your choice wins—and enter the giveaway!

OK, first up: Spirit is AWESOME. The most 'actiony' (totally a word) of the books so far. Was this a deliberate departure, or just how it happened? It kind of seems... on-theme with a pair of characters like Hunter and Kate. So. Was it a chicken or egg type of thing?

Brigid: Thank you! I think the books tend to follow the characters, and Hunter is definitely not a peaceful guy. His head is full of action and turmoil, so his life follows suit. It was a deliberate departure in that I knew his book was going to be full of drama, of all kinds. :-)

You've mentioned in the past that you've been writing about the Merricks, in various incarnations, since you were in High School. Was Hunter always part of this group, or is he a more recent addition?

Brigid: Hunter was always part of the group — but he was always the villain. (Side trivia: while the brothers' names haven't changed, his name has changed several times over the years. He's been Trent, Gareth, Garrett, and finally Hunter.)

I've always thought Hunter was one of the series' biggest enigmas--I could never quite get a read on him. In Spirit, we finally get to see inside his head. It's a pretty dark place. What was that like for you to write?

Brigid:It was DIFFICULT. Seriously, the most challenging character yet. Sometimes I couldn't even write on my laptop because it was too intense. I had to sit down and sketch out scenes in a notebook.

Maybe he just needs a big hug? Here, I have some volunteers...

Brigid: :-D

And Kate. She's one hell of a heroine... and very unexpected. She's a pretty big departure from 'everygirls' like Becca and Layne. Did you take a different approach to writing her? Was she a challenge?

Brigid: She was a bit of a challenge, because she's nothing like me. She's very ballsy and sure of who she is. (Though she's not too sure of what she wants.)

For me, getting some insight into the guides was one of the coolest parts of meeting Kate. We've met Becca's dad, but only in passing. Becca and Hunter are Fifths, but they're not trained. Kate is a Guide, proper. You know, in practice, I get why the Guides exist. They're a good idea, but they're... not nice people. Why? What went wrong? You'd think they'd be able to relate to people like Merricks more than anyone else...

Brigid: This is a great question! The Guides have a connection to the spirit, so they have an empathetic link with people, in addition to being able to influence the four elements. In the beginning, they were the natural choice to police the full Elementals, because that empathy for humanity allowed them to see right from wrong. But that same empathy made it difficult to destroy full Elementals — they felt for them, too. So the Guides learned to turn off their emotions, to do what they felt was necessary. Unfortunately, turning off their emotions for so long hasn't made them the nicest people...

I'm sensing we haven't seen the last of super-villain, Silver, and the Guides. Any hints on what to expect?

Brigid: You definitely haven't seen the last of them. There are some exciting times ahead in Nick's book...

A HUGE thanks to Brigid for her time, and the lovely Wendy at The Midnight Garden for making this tour happen. If you haven't had enough Brigid, well, you're in for a treat.

Check out SPIRIT on Goodreads:

Who's Your Favorite Elemental?

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Still Want More?

Check out the other SPIRIT Tour Stops!

5/20 The Midnight Garden
5/21 Bewitched Bookworms
5/22 The Reader's Den
5/23 Hobbitsies
5/24 The Starry-Eyed Revue
5/27 Saz101
5/28 Realm of Fiction
5/29 Stuck in Books
5/30 Books with Bite
5/31 Cuddlebuggery

Follow Brigid Around the Internets:

Goodreads | Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter

Hushed, Kelley York

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah (saz101)) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:57:00 +0000

Title: Hushed
Author: Kelley York (author website)
Release Date: December 6th 2011 by Entangled
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary
My Rating:

From Goodreads:
Eighteen-year-old Archer couldn't protect his best friend, Vivian, from what happened when they were kids, so he's never stopped trying to protect her from everything else. It doesn't matter that Vivian only uses him when hopping from one toxic relationship to another-Archer is always there, waiting to be noticed.Then along comes Evan, the only person who's ever cared about Archer without a single string attached. The harder he falls for Evan, the more Archer sees Vivian for the manipulative hot-mess she really is.But Viv has her hooks in deep, and when she finds out about the murders Archer's committed and his relationship with Evan, she threatens to turn him in if she doesn't get what she wants... And what she wants is Evan's death, and for Archer to forfeit his last chance at redemption.

My father once wrote a ‘Letter to the Editor’ of a major Sydney newspaper. The paper in question had run an article discussing the dangers of certain breeds of dogs. Now, my father was not a particular fan of the breed; he was, however, a big fan of dogs in general. Having owned many in his life, he argued that there is no such thing as a bad dog, and that those animals which are dangerous are so for a reason: Abuse; training; mistreatment—themes which all rear their ugly heads in Kelley York's Hushed.

It recalls that well-worn argument of nature verses nurture. Take a child, a human being who is, for all intents and purposes, a blank canvas—a sponge. Expose that child to horrors; rob him of innocence, and what will remain? If that child reaches its darkest most desperate moments, what will he be capable of? Hushed looks at nurture: that we’re a product of our environments. But what it is far more interested with is a far more compelling question: how far is too far for redemption? Can a monster ever really change?

Archer is just such a monster, and saying as much is no secret. Hushed opens as he, ahem, supervises a ‘suicide’. He would do anything to free his best friend, Vivian, from the ghosts of her past, from those horrors, and if he has to murder to do it? Good. He’s never questioned his actions, until a boy named Evan forces his way into Archer’s life. Archer’s beginning to see that there’s more to the world than Vivian; that he’s capable of happiness, and not only that he’s capable, but he wants it. But is it too late for him to change and, perhaps more importantly, will Vivian let him?

Hushed is a tale with very few bright points. It’s bleak and cruel; a book about terrible people doing terrible things to one another. Its characters—Archer and Vivian especially—fascinated me, but I can’t admit to liking them. Archer draws to mind a teenage Dexter. He shows, and feels, no remorse for his actions until he learns to want something more for himself, and it’s rather heartbreaking to watch him doubt ‘more’ is something he can ever have, or deserves.

There are two key relationships are the core of Hushed: the sweet and tentative developing romance between Archer and Evan, and Archer’s toxic friendship with Vivian. The two prove rather antithetical of each other. The relationship and tangled history between Archer and Viv is complex and disturbing. It’s not co-dependent, exactly, but warped and twisted and rotting. While, in many ways, Vivian proves the narrative’s villain, she also represents Archer’s past and choices, and it’s not hard to draw parallels to any abusive relationship, where one party is terrified to leave. What is fascinating, here, is that it goes both ways, and as Vivian’s behavior grows more needy, callous, and cruel as the story progresses, it’s difficult not to step back and ask if Archer is really any better than she.

I’m sure I comment on this weekly, that a review is ‘hard to write’, but, truly, what makes Hushed so much so is the experience of reading it: I cannot admit to enjoying reading it. It’s compelling, fascinating, and I liked it immensely, but I took no sense of joy from it. No-one in this tome, even the ‘good’, is innocent, and no-one leaves with their hands truly clean in this story of manipulation, grief and horror.

The Verdict

Hushed is tense, bleak and gritty and boasts complex, layered characters. It offers a sweet, atypical romance worth reading for alone. But what Hushed does best is ask uncomfortable questions about the nature of redemption and revenge, and the difference between monsters and men, if, indeed, there are any.

Coverlicious Comparison: Love it or hate it with a PASSION?

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah (saz101)) — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 14:30:00 +0000

Left: AU/UK/US Right: Portugese

A recent comment entirely out of the blue brought this to my attention — a entirely different cover for Lauren Kate's Passion.

Love 'em or hate 'em, what initially drew me to the series was the utterly gorgeous cover of Fallen. I liked Torment less, and when Passion came out? It's fair to say I hate the AU/US/UK cover with a passion. The girl looks skeletal, her arms are creepily thin and oddly re-colored, and the funereal veil of hair complete with 1980's crimping (see the fully blown up version here for detail)? Make me shudder. And the dress! The lovely voluminous gowns from Fallen and Torment are absent, replaced with... well, you get the point.

I love the drama of the Portugese version —the passion. The feel evokes what I loved about the cover of Fallen, and the cover for Rapture.

My opinion's clear, but what about you? Let the cover wars begin:

The version you know, or the version that could have been?

Biting Cold (Chicagoland Vampires #6), Chloe Neill

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah (saz101)) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 11:36:00 +0000

Title: Biting Cold (Chicagoland Vampires #6)
Author: Chloe Neill (author website)
Release Date: November 1st 2011
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
My Rating:

I've long been a fan of Chloe Neill's Chicagoland Vampires. The funny, relatable heroine, the very-human vampires, the utter obsession with food—all combine to create a world I love coming home to. We're six books in now, and I've been there all along—but Biting Cold and I didn't get off to a good start. I thought it was going through the motions, plodding along; meanwhile, it kept telling me to sit down, shut up, and buckle up for the ride.

I hate being told what to do.
It's funny how that works out, because it always so happens that it's best when I comply.

From Goodreads:
Clouds are brewing over Cadogan House, and Merit the vampire can't tell if this is the darkness before the dawn, or the calm before the storm. With the city itself in turmoil over paranormals and the state threatening to pass a paranormal registration act, times have never been more precarious for the vampires. If only they could lay low for a bit...Then magic rears its ugly head when Lake Michigan turns black. The mayor insists it's nothing to worry about, but Merit knows a panic is coming. She'll have to turn to friends old and new to find out who's behind this, and stop them before it's too late for both the vampires and humans.

It's been a long wait between Drink Deep and Biting Cold for me—a year or more—but time has not passed in Chicagoland, picking up immediately following the conclusion of Drink Deep. This is not a book for newcomers, nor is it easy to write a review on the back of the series' last installment (especially given potential for spoilers). With five books of complex politics, training, and infuriating, addicting, stop/start romance, Merit's back, as are the rest of the gang—the good and the bad. And the very, very bad.

Tasked with tracking down a threat not just to her vampire-family, Cadogan House, or even her city, but the entire world's continued existence, we join Merit—graduate-student turned-reluctant-vampire—on route to secure a magical book that could prove the key to halting the world's destruction. And “halt” is a word long-time Chicagolanders will learn to hate by the time Biting Cold is through. The blurb of Biting Cold tells as much as I have so far, but what you may not know is that you're looking at a mere third of the novel, and it's safety off, brake lines cut the rest of the way through.

Much of Biting Cold's action happens in its final chapters, but there is more than one kind of action. Whether it's sparring, bickering, eating 'mallocakes' (marshmallow filled, chocolate covered cakes, people!) or navigating the dangerous pathways of local and international politics—both human and those of a dangerous vampire Grand Poobah—there is never time for rest in this world. There is, occasionally, some time for other bed-bound activities, and fans will get their share of such carnal delights here, making Biting Cold the steamiest installment of the series so far. Finally.

On the topic of 'finallies' Neill offers more than a few of them, providing resolution and satisfaction in a number of key relationships, and—one of those most fulfilling points of all—long awaited answers. Specifically on the question of one of Chicagoland's longest-standing riddles: ex-mayor of Chicago, the enigmatic Seth Tate.

Despite all this, I do hesitate to call Biting Cold action-packed. To be fair, well, it is, but for a large chunk, I was waiting, even while watching it happen. The complicated entanglements in Neill's Chicagoland world are infuriating, stopping before they start, and they continue, here. While I can see the players moving towards their finales and happily-ever-afters, the series is hardly changing down gears, or moving towards a conclusion—Neill is not done yet. This was a book made, for me, by its thrilling final chapters, each of which left me a breathless, crazed mess. I keep finding myself staring off into space, daydreaming about Merit and her pals and itching for more. Well. Just as well House Rules is already on its way to my Kindle.

Biting Cold, I'm sorry I doubted you, darling.

Books in This Series:

Some Girls Bite

Friday Night Bites

Twice Bitten

Hard Bitten

Drink Deep

Biting Cold

Want It?

Get it from Booktopia
Get it from Book Depository
Get it at Amazon

The Gathering Dark (The Grisha #1), Leigh Bardugo

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah (saz101)) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 16:56:00 +0000

Title: The Gathering Dark/Shadow and Bone
Author: Leigh Bardugo (author website | blog)
Release Date: June 2012 by Indigo/Hachette Australia
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
My Rating:

Every now and then you fall in love with a book (I do, too, for that matter). The kind of love for which the stars align and angels sing on high. It may be perfect, or perhaps its imperfections make it so. Nevertheless, it calls to you, something inside it sounding in recognition, and you know the weight of true love. This book, the one you fall for, flaws and all, or despite its blinding perfection, is the hardest to discuss and review. How do you communicate the depth of that affection in a few brief sentences? Well, I suppose you gush—you've been warned.

From Goodreads:
Sweeping, glorious fantasy romance about an orphan who must save her kingdom from the seductive and terrifying Darkling. The most compelling romance since Twilight.The Shadow Fold, a swathe of impenetrable darkness, crawling with monsters that feast on human flesh, is slowly destroying the once-great nation of Ravka.Alina, a pale, lonely orphan, discovers a unique power that thrusts her into the lavish world of the kingdom's magical elite - the Grisha. Could she be the key to unravelling the dark fabric of the Shadow Fold and setting Ravka free?

The Darkling, a creature of seductive charm and terrifying power, leader of the Grisha. If Alina is to fulfil her destiny, she must discover how to unlock her gift and face up to her dangerous attraction to him.

But what of Mal, Alina's childhood best friend? As Alina contemplates her dazzling new future, why can't she ever quite forget him?

‘Like calls to like’, is the mantra of the Grisha, the powerful mages reviled and worshipped in the country of Ravka, a reimagined, fantasy Russia. And so it is, like called to me from the heart of The Gathering Dark/Shadow and Bone, touching something deeper than an intellectual appreciation alone. Bardugo’s debut struck a chord with me, still humming with the long keening echo that remains after the sound.

We’ve heard similar stories before: Simple, ordinary girl discovers extraordinary powers and is drawn into danger and intrigue and Destined To Save The World, and, at its simplest, this is the tale of The Gathering Dark, also. Alina Starkov, orphan—cartographer in the King’s Army—and best friend to a boy who is not so different to herself, discovers a power her people have awaited for centuries. It turns out she is rather different, afterall—she is a Grisha.

‘Grisha’ are a part of life in Ravka, able to wield fire, water, or air; heal with a glance; or rip a heart from a chest. The most powerful of them can control darkness itself, and he stands alone, ruling them all: The Darkling. And the Darkling, powerful and compelling, has been waiting for Alina longest of all. He believes that, together, they will change the world.

He is not wrong. He seldom is.

For all The Gathering Dark’s treasures, from its ‘everygirl’ heroine, to its charming cast of secondary characters, it is this Darkling that shines the brightest, despite his name, and not for inspiring schoolgirl crushes alone. Compelling and enigmatic, he is, to quote another reviewer, “one of the most amazingly crafted, heartbreaking characters of YA.” It’s rare I find a character gets so deep under my skin I’m still feeling him hours and days later, itching like phantom limbs.

Darklings aside—especially when they are not our narrators—The Gathering Dark boasts a strong, admirable protagonist, as any good fantasy should, but her strength is internal, despite crippling self-doubt. Alina is likeable and capable, and the ease with which her voice flows through the novel’s pages adds to its pull. What captured me most was the intensity of feeling she shared with me, the reader; how she drew me into friendships and romances I felt passionately about.

While the world of The Gathering Dark is immersive and lovely, strange and foreign, it’s a largely character driven tale, but then, the beginnings of most heroes’ journeys are. That aside, the Russian inspiration of the world of Ravka lends it a new and exciting texture, unique from the European-themed high fantasies which have long dominated the genre.

The Verdict

I’m not sure I believe in perfect books, not really. For me, ‘perfect’ is utterly subjective; a feeling, not a fact. "Perfect", to me, is the book which captures my imagination, and something deeper, more profound—the kind of book I would read as a child and search deep inside myself afterwards, looking for hidden powers, and perhaps still do in adulthood. Filled with mystery, wonder, magic and dread, The Gathering Dark is precisely such a book.

Books in This Series:

The Gathering Dark (AU/UK) / Shadow and Bone (US) June 2012

The Shadow Fold (AU/UK) / Siege and Storm (US) June 2013

An enormous thank you to Hachette Australia for providing a review copy of The Gathering Dark/Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Through the Ever Night (Under the Never Sky #2), Veronica Rossi

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah (saz101)) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 11:25:00 +0000

Title: Through The Ever Night
Author: Veronica Rossi (author website | blog)
Release Date: January 8th 2013 by ATOM
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Dystopian
My Rating:

Sequels are tricky things; even more so 'middle books'. With a happy romantic union cemented in book one, how does the author sustain chemistry? With a journey underway, how does she maintain momentum on route to a distant conclusion? Is it time to answer questions? Pose them? Fans are demanding creatures—the more ardent, the more so—but, as readers, our favourite authors win our trust for a reason, a reason Veronica Rossi demonstrates in Through the Ever Night.

From Goodreads:
Aria has struggled to build a life for herself outside Reverie. It hasn't been easy adjusting to life in the wilderness but that struggle has been worth it with Perry by her side.But Perry has other challenges. His people are looking to him for answers. Answers about what happened to his nephew and what's happening to their world. And they don't trust the privileged Aria, one of the enemy, in their midst.Soon he'll be forced to chose between the tribe that looks to him for leadership and the girl that looks to him for love.

We left Aria and Perry locked in a joyous embrace in Under the Never Sky, and it is where we find them in Through the Ever Night. But their reunion is not to be a drawn out, happy thing. Peregrine of the Tides is now Peregrine, Blood Lord of the Tides. Where once he enjoyed unfettered freedom, the weight of hundreds of lives now rests on his teenage shoulders, and his people do not take kindly to a daughter of the people who stole their children sharing their home.

Aria finds herself no less entangled. Charged with the hope of those who exiled her, Aria must find the Still Blue, a fabled land free from the deadly storms of the Aether sky, or face the death of all she holds dear.

It’s a dark place to find Perry and Aria, and where Under the Never Sky ended with hope, Through the Ever Night quickly forms fractures and wears it down. Aria, exiled from her home, without family, and trapped as a pawn of the manipulative Consul Hess, is isolated, even from Perry. She’s strong and selfless, and, having developmed a quiet wisdom, finds herself torn between love and sacrifice. Though Perry owns her heart, Aria—an outsider amongst the Outsiders—can see her presence undermining Perry’s new and fragile leadership. She’s faced with difficult choices, and each direction leads to pain and isolation. It’s the first of many obstacles the couple faces, and creates a wedge, forcing larger cracks.

The story separates the couple quickly and, apart, Through the Ever Night shows Perry’s analogous strengths and weaknesses. It seems that, in story, nuance and detail, Rossi may be playing favourites with her children. There’s a weight given to Perry’s story, an extra layer of complexity which render Perry’s pages the most memorable. If, perhaps, Under the Never Sky was Aria’s tale, this is Perry’s. Perry is caught in an unenviable position between right and wrong, instinct and reason. Seen as ‘rash’ by his tribe, he is judged not entirely by his actions, but a violent undercurrent of desperation. He’s torn between the ability to act with the freedom he has always known, and his responsibility for hundreds of lives. It is a painful thing to witness, but Perry, as Aria, demonstrates remarkable growth over of the course of the story. Both battle very real internal foes, as well as external: doubt, fear, desperation and betrayal are demons they both face in varying degrees.

While Aria and Perry are separated by distance much of the novel, they are never far from each other's thoughts, and each grows stronger individually. While second instalments frequently see couples breaking up and angst filled confrontations, the couple share something profound, and it shapes them, but they have purposes and goals. Neither abandons their friends and responsibilities because they cannot live without the other.

It seems as though Through the Ever Night could easily pose as a parable for the pressures of childhood and young adulthood in the modern world; the conflicting worship of youth, but the push to learn faster, grow faster, mature, absorb, and assimilate. The burdens its young heroes face are crushing and unfair, yet ultimately the story concerns itself more with love and friendship and family. There are messages to be found, certainly, but they are much like images seen in clouds on lazy days: there for those who choose to find them, regardless of their creator's intent.

The Verdict:

With the final page turned and many months free for reflection (the trilogy's conclusion is, after all, not expected for a year), I find myself reluctant to leave Aria and Perry's world behind. The Aether sky shines and flows in my imagination, and its characters whisper, beckoning my return. Rossi proves a talent for creating hope, sweet and pure as, despite the tale's darker moments (of which there are many), I find myself lingering not on the pain, but on its hopeful final pages, on reunion, smiles, and a wish for tomorrow.

Books in This Series:

Under The Never Sky (2012)

Through The Ever Night (2013)

Into the Still Blue (Expected 2014)

Want it? Get it:

Amazon | Book Depository | Booktopia (AU) | Bookworld (AU) | Dymocks (AU)

Sanctum, Sarah Fine (Guards of the shadowlands #1)

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah (saz101)) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 00:01:00 +0000

Title: Sanctum
Author: Sarah Fine (author website | blog)
Release Date: Oct. 16th 2012 by Marshall Cavendish Children's/Amazon Children's Publishing
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
My Rating:

In Sanctum, Sarah Fine's début offering, nightmares walk the streets of a hellish city, normal girls can be fierce warriors, and tortured boys so much more. The world of Sanctum is terrifying and fascinating, the characters’ pain palpable, and the romance? Phwoar.

From Goodreads:

"My plan: Get into the city. Get Nadia. Find a way out. Simple.”

A week ago, seventeen-year-old Lela Santos’s best friend, Nadia, killed herself. Today, thanks to a farewell ritual gone awry, Lela is standing in paradise, looking upon a vast gated city in the distance—hell. No one willingly walks through the Suicide Gates, into a place smothered in darkness and infested with depraved creatures. But Lela isn’t just anyone—she’s determined to save her best friend’s soul, even if it means sacrificing her eternal afterlife.

As Lela struggles to find Nadia, she’s captured by the Guards, enormous, not-quite-human creatures that patrol the dark city’s endless streets. Their all-too-human leader, Malachi, is unlike them in every way except one: his deadly efficiency. When he meets Lela, Malachi forms his own plan: get her out of the city, even if it means she must leave Nadia behind. Malachi knows something Lela doesn’t—the dark city isn’t the worst place Lela could end up, and he will stop at nothing to keep her from that fate.

"Would you risk your afterlife to save your best friend’s soul?" I’m not sure I would if the friend was Nadia, but Lela would. Especially since she owes Nadia her life. Nadia helped Lela recover from the darkest point of her life; overcome a history of neglect, abuse and depression... Only to succumb to darkness herself.

When the seemingly perfect, sunny Nadia takes her own life, Lela is shattered, unable to comfort herself with thoughts of Nadia being in a better place, afterall, she knows better. She’s haunted by dreams of a shell-shocked Nadia wandering the streets of a place Lela knows all too well--the place all suicides go on their death. A place worse than the life they fled from. Lela will do anything to save Nadia from her fate, even risk death, itself.

But Sanctum is not Nadia’s story. It is Lela’s. And while it is a story of love, and a kind of selfless friendship that crosses worlds, it’s a little something more.

Sarah Fine approaches her story from a unique background — she’s a psychologist. Sanctum deals with suicide, and it’s done well, Fine capturing conflicting feelings of guilt, despair, anger and betrayal from its ‘left behind’ protagonist, but what sat uncomfortably true was its departed Nadia’s hopelessness and pain.

It’s a dark book, dealing with dark matters, but, for the most part, it doesn’t feel like a book about suicide. It reads as Urban Fantasy, with all the dark, gritty hallmarks of the genre. What Sanctum does well is the creepy, the visceral, the haunting. Tortured souls wonder the streets of Suicide City, grasping at ‘things’ to fill their empty spaces; monsters hide within the shadows, and without. Nightmares grow and grasp like living creatures, and in one particularly disquieting scene, a building which feeds people their own fears in order to consume them left me with chills.

Sanctum’s heroine, Lela is tough, brave and damaged. At times she felt forced, and with her voice to guide me, it took me some time to fall into the story’s flow. But, once she held me her grasp, she did not let go. When she’s not posturing and telling the reader she’s tough and people don’t mess with her because she done time on the inside, yo, I liked her immensely. It’s the fragile, aching inside of her, not the tough girl exterior, I grew to love. She’s capable of great selflessness—as indicated by her willing trip to hell to save her friend’s soul—but there are times when her selflessness puts others on the line, teetering dangerously close to its antonym. There’s an interesting theme of choice here, or perhaps, if not choice, the difference between ‘want’ and ‘need’. The lines between both in Sanctum are vague, as they can be in real life.

Of course, at the core of Sanctum is a romance, intense and sexy as could be wished for. Lela falls for Malachi, King of the Underworld. Okay, okay, he’s not at all King or ruler. He’s a guard, a protector, with some very dark secrets. The two share an instant attraction and fascination with one another, and it develops, while alarmingly fast at first, into something far deeper. To put it succinctly, when I finished the book, my thoughts on the romance could be distilled into one word: phwoar. It’s totally a word, right?

That romance aside, Malachi himself was, for me, the story’s greatest draw, and as his long history unfolds in Sanctum’s final pages, I found it hard to look away.

The Verdict

So there you have it. Sanctum. Combine scorching chemistry and a creepy, living world, built of old and new. Add swords, knives, a kickass heroine and dashing, tortured hero. Then take another girl—a broken one; a friendship and loyalty powerful enough to reach across worlds, and you’ll have Sanctum. To quote another, far more eloquent, reviewer, Sanctum is “an amazing story of loss and redemption and courage and grief, but I know you’re all skimming this paragraph to hear about the boy, right?” Well, the wait was worth it, and I’m sure you, ‘dear reader’, will find it so, too.

Want it? Get it:

Amazon / Kindle | Booktopia (AU) | Book Depository | Bookworld/Borders (AU) Dymocks (AU)

Blogspiration (58): The End

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah (saz101)) — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 13:50:00 +0000

Blogspiration is a weekly meme hosted by GrowingUp YA & Saz101. The meme was created to help spark inspiration among bloggers, readers & writers alike. An inspirational quote/picture/video is posted weekly, on the day of the author's choosing, so that it may inspire creativity, conversation & just a little SOMETHING.

Over a year ago, an idea took root in a blogger's brain. An idea to inspire those around her, and, in doing so, inspire herself. To release something positive into the world.

I was not that blogger.

That blogger was Kristin of GrowingUp YA. For the last year, and longer, I've been privilege to call Kristin one of best friends, or, as we prefer, my 'boo' (don't tell her I called her that in public), and when she approached me this idea, and asked if I'd like to co-host, I said yes. Thus, Blogspiration was born.

Over the last year, it's been an honour and a privilege to share Blogspiration with you. Seeing what everyone has to share, every week, the wisdom they offer, and the happiness and inspiration you have all brought me is a gift I cannot adequately thank you all for.

I do not believe all good things come to an end. The very best things -- faith, friendship, hope and love -- can be boundless, stretching out over our lifetimes, and long past them, to change the world, indelibly, and leave it a better place. But life and death, beginning and end, are the nature of most things, and Blogspiration, too, has drawn to its close.

As Blogspiration was Kristin's dream, it seems fitting it reaches its conclusion as she, herself, takes her leave from blogging -- though whether or not that is permanent is not for me to say; she may very well return!

So, today is the very last day of Blogspiration as it stands. I'd like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has made this little meme what it is, for your friendship, and for making our little corner of the blogosphere and better, more positive place.

More on Blogspiration and Linky sign-up below the jump!

Le Rules:

Blogspiration posts will go live on Sunday. While you don't have to post on Sunday, you have one week to drop by and share your links.

Go check out the participating blogs! Feel free to comment/follow

Most importantly, HAVE FUN with it!!

So, what are you waiting for? Grab a button and spread some BLOGSPIRATION!!

PLEASE NOTE: Kristin and I will use the SAME Linky, so please enter your Blogspiration links on one blog.

Buttonses!

Linky!

GIVEAWAY: Touch of Power AND Scent of Magic by Maria V. Snyder

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah (saz101)) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 13:34:00 +0000

It's Wednesday. It's cold. I'm sleepy.
And did I mention it's Wednesday?

So let's add some cheer to the mid-week slump with a giveaway! Thanks to the very kind folks at Harlequin TEEN Australia I have one prize pack including Touch of Power and Scent of Magic from the HEALER series, the latest offering from my long-time favorite author, Maria V. Snyder.

Entry is easy, but it's only open to Aussies, I'm sorry folks.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blogspiration (57): librocubicularist

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah (saz101)) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 09:34:00 +0000

Librocubicularist, you say? Why yes, I believe I am. Though I also read on the couch, on the train, on buses, and while I'm walking down the street. Is there anything more wonderful than finding a word which had to have been made just for you?

More on Blogspiration and Linky sign-up below the jump!

Le Rules:

Blogspiration posts will go live on Sunday. While you don't have to post on Sunday, you have one week to drop by and share your links.

Go check out the participating blogs! Feel free to comment/follow

Most importantly, HAVE FUN with it!!

So, what are you waiting for? Grab a button and spread some BLOGSPIRATION!!

PLEASE NOTE: Kristin and I will use the SAME Linky, so please enter your Blogspiration links on one blog.

Buttonses!

Linky!

Penelope, Rebecca Harrington

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah (saz101)) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 09:58:00 +0000

Title: Penelope
Author: Rebecca Harrington (twitter)
Release Date: January 24th 2013 by Virago Press/Hachette
Age Group: Young Adult/Adult
Genre: Contemporary
My Rating:

It’s not every day a book like Penelope finds itself in one’s hands – or mailbox.

Accompanied by a personalised note singing its praises, and a double-sided page of gushing commendations from the staff of its Australian publisher, Penelope made grand promises, and charmed me from page one.

From Goodreads:
Prep meets The Marriage Plot in this uproarious debut novel, a send-up of campus life starring one singularly unprepared, socially maladroit, charmingly clueless freshman named Penelope.

When Penelope O'Shaughnessy arrives on the Harvard campus she is amazed: she has never seen such a vast and majestic Au Bon Pain. She has also never met anyone like her fellow freshmen. Everyone is overwhelmed and overworked, striving to get into the right social clubs and frantically pulling all-nighters at the library - and classes haven't even begun.Penelope's roommates aren't exactly the soul mates she had hoped for (Emma is a social climber intent on punching The Pudding, while Lan is a misanthrope who paints her room black). Meanwhile, her 'Images of Shakespeare' class seems mostly to involve angry discussions over whether or not the Bard was overweight; the dorm room 'pre-game' sessions never seem to lead to a real game; and the aristocratic upperclassman she has admired from afar never seems to be eating in the freshman dining hall, where she might woo him alongside the make-your-own waffle bar. When Penelope finds herself roped into a production of Camus' Caligula, she begins to worry that her entire college experience is beginning to resemble an absurdist play.

A laugh-out-loud depiction of college life, PENELOPE announces the arrival of a deliriously funny new writer.

The Story:

Those of us who didn’t have our day in high school, are often advised to wait. That high school isn’t everything. That, eventually, the popular kids will wind up selling cars or hamburgers, while for us, the awkward, the quiet and the outsiders, the best is yet to come. As Elizabeth Halsey sagely advises in Bad Teacher, “I’m thinking college is your window.”

So it is, with years spent cultivating personality, peculiar anecdotes about car seats and a Tetris addiction to rival Elvis’ love of cheeseburgers, Penelope arrives at Harvard ready for her day. And her first year is going to be a very long day.

The 101:

Now. I loathe the word ‘quirky’ with an irrational intensity. Yet I can think of no term which better suits Penelope and its titular protagonist. With its sweet, intellectual humour and matter of fact whimsy, there is a touch of fairytale to its pages.

Penelope herself is a peculiar character, hapless and naïve, yet practical – somewhat. There’s something of Amelie to her and, despite claiming to loathe whimsy in all its forms at one point in the novel, she’s possessed of a certain matter-of-fact dreaminess which fits the word perfectly. What makes her so utterly charming is how relatable she is as a character. From her social awkwardness and proclivity for playing Tetris on her phone instead of talking to her vaguely neurotic way of seeing any given situation, I rather felt I knew Penelope as I know myself.

With the familiar tone of a humorous observer and a plot concerned not with what is happening, so much as to whom, Penelope has been likened to the work of Wes Anderson, and it is not difficult to see why. There’s a delightful incongruity between Harrington’s writing and the book’s semi-adult subject, and it is this which lends the book its fairytale leanings. After all, infant-eating witches are not light reading, but when told with childlike honesty it lends new perspective. Penelope is hardly this dark, but the deceptive simplicity and levity of its tone hides something sweeter and deeper.

The Verdict:

Penelope is not a love story, nor a coming of age story, but a simple insight into Penelope and her friends' life with often humorous honesty. With an affable and ‘quirky’ protagonist and Rebecca Harrington’s charming prose, Penelope's delightful naïveté will prove a welcome balm to all who have ever felt out of place.

Want it? Get it:

Angus & Robertson | Booktopia | Bookworld | Dymocks | QBD

An enormous thank you to the Australian publisher of Penelope, Hachette for providing a review copy of Penelope!

Blogspiration (56): Family

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah (saz101)) — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 21:01:00 +0000

Brodie from Eleusinian Mysteries has been one of my favorite bloggers since the start, and when she speaks like this, it's think obvious why. That's it, for this week. Happy Sunday, my blogging family and friends xx

More on Blogspiration and Linky sign-up below the jump!

Le Rules:

Blogspiration posts will go live on Sunday. While you don't have to post on Sunday, you have one week to drop by and share your links.

Go check out the participating blogs! Feel free to comment/follow

Most importantly, HAVE FUN with it!!

So, what are you waiting for? Grab a button and spread some BLOGSPIRATION!!

PLEASE NOTE: Kristin and I will use the SAME Linky, so please enter your Blogspiration links on one blog.

Buttonses!

Linky!

Unravel Me (The Juliette Chronicles #2), Tahereh Mafi + GIVEAWAY

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah (saz101)) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 15:57:00 +0000

Title: Unravel Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi (author website | blog)
Release Date: 1st February 2013 by Allen & Unwin
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Dystopian
My Rating:

Once upon a time, on a day much like any other, a girl had An Idea: What if Rogue had a purple suit? And a boyfriend? She sat down to write, and Shatter Me was born. Soon to follow was a sister named ‘Unravel Me’, and the other X-Men joined the tale. Unravel Me was fair and lovely, quickly surpassing her older sister, and, oh yes, she got all the boys.

From Goodreads:
Juliette has escaped to Omega Point. A place for people like her - people with gifts - and it is also the headquarters of the rebel resistance.She's finally free from the Reestablishment, free from their plan to use her as a weapon, and free to love Adam. But Juliette will never be free from her lethal touch. Or from Warner, who wants Juliette more than she ever thought possible.Haunted by her past, terrified of her future, Juliette knows that in her present, she will have to make some life-changing choices.
Choices that may include choosing between her heart - and Adam's life.

What a broken heroine Unravel Me has. We join Juliette two weeks after we left her, but for all that hope Shatter Me offered in its dénouement, Juliette is shattering all over again. Adam is distant, and if she thought she found a place she belonged, with people like her, who could accept her, the wary stares and constant isolation say otherwise.

Broken, isolated and misunderstood are familiar places for Juliette, but was there ever a lonelier place than the kind felt surrounded by people? Juliette is a most singularly damaged heroine, and it’s difficult finding her withdrawing into her shell and shouldering so much blame for problems outside her control – both from herself and those around her. While it would be easy to find fault in her anxieties and self-pity, it’s important to acknowledge her unique position: while Juliette runs afoul of good opinion with her inability to assimilate in the new community in which she finds herself, surrounded by 'special' people who can relate to isolation and discrimination, it's important to understand there is no way she could.

A girl who has never known love, never known the basic necessity of human touch, thrust into an established, tight-knit community would not function. While certainly not the most scientific source, livestrong.com features an article discussing the essential nature of touch in human development. Not only can touch, in infancy, affect physical health, it has a huge impact on psychologic development. Children robbed of touch, of contact, can suffer anxiety, stress, and emotional disorders. It's painful watching a character like Juliette so misunderstood, and there's an interesting parallel here, however intentional, to the failures of our own society in caring for, and understanding those outside the sphere of what we consider 'normal', but it also seems Mafi enjoys the odd poke at the elevated emotions and angst of the typical YA heroine and hero.

But. Juliette grows in Unravel Me, develops new strength, and discovers new steel. She makes many, many mistakes, but she is a very human heroine and, for all her melodramatic angst, an eminently likeable one, her urgent stream-of-consciousness flowing in that uniquely Juliette/Mafi style making it easy to slip inside her head.

From Juliette’s narration, to the scalding romance, to the ominous cloud of impending war, Unravel Me bursts with feeling, and it carries a sense of immediacy. It’s impossible to pass that ‘romance’ with only a sentence, as Unravel Me, like Shatter Me, is sexually charged, each glancing touch carrying a weight intensified by a life filled with its absence. Adam returns, sweet and kind and with scorching chemistry – if not a little bland personality-wise – and Warner, the uncomfortably compelling villain of Shatter Me, appears in a new light entirely. More than a few readers may find themselves surprised by interesting feelings as Shatter Me's villain becomes something... more.

But for all this talk of intensity and dark matters, Unravel me ultimately aims to entertain, and succeeds. Sexy and gripping, filled with bone-melting romance and gripping intrigue, Unravel Me is an outing stronger, even, than its extraordinary predecessor. Mafi’s prose dances swiftly across pages, dropping metaphors like bombs, and it feels a tighter book on a whole, with a stronger focus on plotting. Unravel Me sizzles with passion and chemistry, and offers surprise twists to keep those pages turning well into the wee hours. Fans will delight in Unravel Me as it unravels its spectacularly complex heroine just in time for an ending fine-tuned to leave them desperate for more.

Books in This Series:

Shatter Me (November 2011)

Unravel Me (February 2013)

As Yet Untitled (Expected 2014)

Want it? Get it:

Angus & Robertson | Booktopia | Bookworld | Dymocks | QBD

Win It:

I have one copy of the Australian paperback of Unravel Me up for grabs! Giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY. Check the T&Cs for details, and good luck!
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An enormous thank you to Allen & Unwin for providing a review copy of Unravel Me!

Blogspiration (55): Discoveries

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah (saz101)) — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 20:25:00 +0000

Today's quote comes from Morgan Matson's Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour. My very good, very amazing friend, Elena, from Novel Sounds, has started a feature where she creates gorgeous wallpaper with her favorite bookish quotes. And what a wonderful one this is. Happy Australia Day, people! xx

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Le Rules:

Blogspiration posts will go live on Sunday. While you don't have to post on Sunday, you have one week to drop by and share your links.

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Scent of Magic (Healer #2), Maria V. Snyder

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah (saz101)) — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 00:01:00 +0000

Title: Scent of Magic
Author: Maria V. Snyder (author website | blog)
Release Date: Jan. 1st 2013 by HarlequinTeen Australia
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
My Rating:

There’s a comfort returning to the pages and world of a favourite author: a sense of familiarity and trust that where she leads, you will follow. With this firmly in mind, I enter any Maria V. Snyder novel with excitement, and, in Scent of Magic, was well rewarded. With romance, intrigue, magic and war, I was thrilled, but even more delighted to find myself surprised.

From Goodreads:
Hunted, Killed—Survived?As the last Healer in the Fifteen Realms, Avry of Kazan is in a unique position: in the minds of her friends and foes alike, she no longer exists. Despite her need to prevent the megalomanical King Tohon from winning control of the Realms, Avry is also determined to find her sister and repair their estrangement. And she must do it alone, as Kerrick, her partner and sole confident, returns to Alga to summon his country into battle.

Though she should be in hiding, Avry will do whatever she can to support Tohon’s opponents. Including infiltrating a holy army, evading magic sniffers, teaching forest skills to soldiers and figuring out how to stop Tohon’s most horrible creations yet; an army of the walking dead—human and animal alike and nearly impossible to defeat.

War is coming and Avry is alone. Unless she figures out how to do the impossible ... again

After healing the dying Prince Ryne at the cost of her life, no-one’s more surprised to find herself alive than Avry of Kazan. We join Avry and Kerrick where we left them, together at last, but Avry’s ‘death’ provides opportunities too good to ignore, and the couple are soon separated, providing the catalyst for the first of many surprises Scent of Magic has in store.

As Avry and Kerrick separate, so too does Scent of Magic’s narrative, a first in Snyder’s novels. While Avry assumes a new identity, travelling to join the army of High Priestess Estrid, Kerrick reunites with Prince Ryne, helping to rally his troops and join Estrid in the fight against the evil King Tohon. If this has you confused, you’re not alone. While Scent of Magic is not the place to enter this series, and it took some few chapters to acclimate, its world and characters re-emerge from the shadows swiftly, and at this, it takes off.

Scent of Magic is, perhaps, Snyder’s most action-packed novel to date. When ‘The Plan’ goes awry, Avry and Kerrick’s paths careen off in disparate directions and, with each alternating chapter ending on a high-stakes note for both leads, maintains a rocketing pace, an element sometimes lost to the minutiae of High Fantasy — though a typical fantasy novelist this author is not.

Snyder has a particular talent for writing strong, capable and intelligent leads, and Avry is, of course, no exception. Even better, Avry’s grown since Touch of Power, and been shaped by her experience. No longer running from danger, she confronts it. She assumes a ‘woman of action’ role in Scent of Magic and, separated from her lover and protector, readers are shown what she’s truly capable of. With magical healing abilities, feared powers, and a knack for finding herself desperately entangled with the Powers That Be, Avry could easily be compared to Snyder’s most memorable heroine, Yelena, but possesses a spark and a special magic all of her own.

Kerrick, meanwhile, gets his moment to shine like no other Snyder hero has, and his job is harder, even, than Avry’s. Beaten, kidnapped and held captive, he becomes a more flawed and relatable hero, and through his eyes we learn more about the magic and construct of the Fifteen Realms. Kerrick’s intimate knowledge of his world’s workings is a welcome addition, offering form and familiarity to a complex world system that would otherwise prove confusing.

While it’s no surprise a Snyder novel offers wonderful leads, there's an interesting moral ambiguity in the Healer series’ characters, one which seems absent from Snyder's previous work, at least in comparison. It boasts a vile, narcissistic, megalomaniac villain, made all the worse as he genuinely believes his evils are justified in the scheme of things, for the greater good – and may just have a point. Meanwhile, the ‘good guys’ themselves don't seem quite ‘good’, and it offers a plethora of opportunities for unexpected twists, turns, and surprises.

The Verdict:

High stakes, gripping intrigue and an immersive magical world, Maria V. Snyder delivers yet another fantasy romp which will appeal to fans of Kristin Cashore, not to mention the inimitable Maria, herself. This is Snyder at the top of her game. Filled with unexpected betrayals, double crosses and an expansive cast of warm, wonderful supporting characters, Scent of Magic is surprising and compulsively readable, and one of Snyder’s finest offerings to date.

Books in This Series:

Touch of Power (December 2011)

Scent of Magic (January 2013)

Taste of Death (Expected December 2013)

Want it? Get it:

Angus & Robertson | Booktopia | Bookworld | Dymocks | QBD

An enormous thank you to Harlequin Teen Australia for providing a review copy of Scent of Magic

Blogspiration (54): Freedom, Books, Flowers and the Moon

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah (saz101)) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 14:01:00 +0000

Such a lovely sentiment. While, truly, I do believe it's a little too general a statement to give too much weight, but it's lovely all the same, no?

More on Blogspiration and Linky sign-up below the jump!

Le Rules:

Blogspiration posts will go live on Sunday. While you don't have to post on Sunday, you have one week to drop by and share your links.

Go check out the participating blogs! Feel free to comment/follow

Most importantly, HAVE FUN with it!!

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Days of Blood and Starlight (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #2), Laini Taylor

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah (saz101)) — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:01:00 +0000

Title: Days of Blood and Starlight
Author: Laini Taylor (author website)
Release Date: 8th Nov. 2012 by Hodder & Stoughton
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal/Fantasy
My Rating:

Following Daughter of Smoke and Bone was never to prove an easy task. How could any book trump the romance, the beauty, the glittering darkness of its predecessor? Of course there was no cause for concern. While Days of Blood and Stalight may not ‘trump’, Laini Taylor builds, breathing life and magic into an Eretz yet unknown to readers. She abandons romance. This time, it's war.

From Goodreads:
Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a new way of living - one without massacres and torn throats and bonfires of the fallen, without revenants or bastard armies or children ripped from their mothers' arms to take their turn in the killing and dying.

Once, the lovers lay entwined in the moon's secret temple and dreamed of a world that was a like a jewel-box without a jewel - a paradise waiting for them to find it and fill it with their happiness.

This was not that world.

Returning Karou and Akiva’s world and doomed love is a painful journey. We left them in horror and pain at the end of Daughter of Smoke and Bone, and they are found, in Days of Blood and Starlight, even deeper in darkness. The opening pages are like those few brief moments of peace, of happiness, between falling asleep with the knowledge of some terrible, asphyxiating grief, and waking, the world crashing down twice as dreadful as before.

Karou and Akiva are separated, but fighting. A war is being faught, and while the Seraphim believe themselves victorious, and the Chimaera population is decimated, all is not as lost as it may seem. It’s a story different in tone from its predecessor. Where Daughter was filled with light and love and hope, even in its darkest moments, Blood and Starlight is a tale beautiful, still, but bleak. It carries a feeling worse than that of hopelessness, but of hope lost – but perhaps not forever. The hope tangled in its pages will be drawn more from readers – lovers of these characters and their world and their creator – and faith that things must get better. After all, at the tale’s conclusion, it is difficult to see how they could get worse.

“Dead souls dream only of death. Small dreams for small men. It is life that expands to fill worlds. Life is your master, or death is”

Days of Blood and Starlight is a tale of war and vengeance – of all the associated horrors and atrocities and needless violence. Readers are shown much of its greater impact, of genocide, of murdered or twisted children, of a pervasive learned hatred, and while Taylor never seems to be pushing an agenda, or concealing an underlying message, it’s fascinating to consider how this applies to life; especially in light of a recent quote she posted (do go read it. It’s short, and brilliant).

“You have only to begin, Lir. Mercy breeds mercy as slaughter breeds slaughter. We can’t expect the world to be better than we make it.”

It is certainly the greater impact of the eons old war between Chimaera and Seraphim which carries Days of Blood and Starlight’s greatest horrors, but it’s the personal, more intimate facets shown that drive it home. Through the eyes of an escaped slave girl, a seraphim sentry, a soldier, and our beloved Karou and Akiva themselves, Taylor shows the price of hatred, of greed, of bitter, empty bloodshed for its own sake.

And it is, of course, Akiva and Karou who form the book’s emotional core, and its most crushing moments. Where once upon a time, the lovers dreamed together of a new world, a better one, one free from endless war and killing, they are now separated by more than distance and race and ancient enmity.

“A dream dirty and bruised is better than no dream at all.”

The two work separately, clinging to their tattered dream. There is still innocence in that dream, however bloody it becomes, but innocence, while a beautiful garb, is not always the best armour. Akiva, consumed with gnawing agony and guilt, is a shell, and Karou as beautiful as ever, is lost. Where, once, Karou could almost be synonymous with life, she is robbed of it, drowning in grief and anger and sorrow. It’s devastating watching such beloved characters suffer so greatly, but even more so as it blinds them to the machinations and manipulations of others.

“You could look out the window today, see the sky raining fire, and say that it has all been for nothing, everything we've ever done, because now we've lost. But folk were born and lived and knew friendship and music in this city, ugly as it is, and all across this land that we fought for. Some grew old, and others were less lucky. Many bore children and raised them, and had the pleasure of making them, too, and we gave them that for as long as we could. Who has ever done more, my friend?”

There is light in this dark tale, however, in the form of Zuzanna and Mik who, separated from Karou by worlds, don’t give up on their friend. Zuzanna brings laughter, and Mik humour, and together, a friendship and romance which grounds the otherwise fantastical tale in reality, where the human world would be otherwise lost to Ertez.

The Verdict

Told between two worlds and the yawning pit between them, Taylor weaves her tale of war, of magic, and of course, blood and starlight, in a fashion uniquely hers. Crushingly sad and beautifully written, Days of Blood and Starlight is, as its predecessor, a triumph of fantasy and of prose, but it offers precious few answers, instead building towards a yet unknown climax and conclusion I’m not quite sure if I should dread or celebrate, but one I most keenly anticipate. Once again, Taylor delivers magic.

“One world on its own is a strange enough seethe of coiling, unknowable veins of intention and chance, but two? Where two worlds mingle breath through rips in the sky, the strange becomes stranger, and many things may come to pass that few imaginations could encompass.”

Books in This Series:

Daughter of Smoke and Bone (September 2011)

Days of Blood and Starlight (November 2012)

As yet untitled (expected 2014)

Want it? Get it:

Angus & Robertson | Booktopia | Bookworld | Dymocks | QBD

An enormous thank you to Hachette Australia for providing a review copy of Days of Blood and Starlight!

Blogspiration (53): Happy Endings

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah (saz101)) — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 14:01:00 +0000

This is taken from The Oatmeal's newest comic. Guys, I'll warn you. This one is happy sad. It's strange. But if you want to cry from laughing, then cry from sadness, then cry again from the bittersweet, it's a good one. Though perhaps you have to be an animal lover for the tears.

This quote rang true for me. Whether you write, or whether you read, there's a sense of escape. It's easy to emerge from a fictional world and feel your own life will never have such moments of pure happiness, resonance, or meaning. But happy endings do happen, in real life, even when it's easy to forget.

More on Blogspiration and Linky sign-up below the jump!

Le Rules:

Blogspiration posts will go live on Sunday. While you don't have to post on Sunday, you have one week to drop by and share your links.

Go check out the participating blogs! Feel free to comment/follow

Most importantly, HAVE FUN with it!!

So, what are you waiting for? Grab a button and spread some BLOGSPIRATION!!

PLEASE NOTE: Kristin and I will use the SAME Linky, so please enter your Blogspiration links on one blog.

Buttonses!

Linky!

Under the Never Sky, Veronica Rossi

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah (saz101)) — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 00:01:00 +0000

Title: Under the Never Sky
Author: Veronica Rossi (author website)
Release Date:
Re-published by ATOM (AUS) 8th Jan. 2013
Originally Published January 2012
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Dystopian
My Rating:

With a world both beautiful and brutal, skies of liquid blue fire over endless wilderness, fearless savage warriors and beautiful lost girls, Under the Never Sky reads something like a fairytale. With all the sex, blood, magic and violence one can find in those Grimm tales, perhaps it’s not so poor a comparison, for Rossi weaves as certain strange, familiar magic into her story, making for a spellbinding debut.

From Goodreads:
Aria is a teenager in the enclosed city of Reverie. Like all Dwellers, she spends her time with friends in virtual environments, called Realms, accessed through an eyepiece called a Smarteye. Aria enjoys the Realms and the easy life in Reverie. When she is forced out of the pod for a crime she did not commit, she believes her death is imminent. The outside world is known as The Death Shop, with danger in every direction.

As an Outsider, Perry has always known hunger, vicious predators, and violent energy storms from the swirling electrified atmosphere called the Aether. A bit of an outcast even among his hunting tribe, Perry withstands these daily tests with his exceptional abilities, as he is gifted with powerful senses that enable him to scent danger, food and even human emotions.

They come together reluctantly, for Aria must depend on Perry, whom she considers abarbarian, to help her get back to Reverie, while Perry needs Aria to help unravel the mystery of his beloved nephew’s abduction by the Dwellers. Together they embark on a journey challenged as much by their prejudices as by encounters with cannibals and wolves. But to their surprise, Aria and Perry forge an unlikely love - one that will forever change the fate of all who live UNDER THE NEVER SKY.

The first book in a captivating trilogy, Veronica Rossi’s enthralling debut sweeps you into an unforgettable adventure

The Story:

Aria has lived her whole life safe within her enclosed society, safe from deadly aether storms, toxic air and savage cannibals under a protective dome. But When her search for answers about her missing mother goes terribly wrong, Aria finds her friends dead, and herself as good as: exiled into the world outside.

But perhaps the outside is not quite as it seems.

Aria is rescued by a 'savage' boy named Perry. A boy who is also searching for someone dear. Together, they set out in search of what they've lost, and find something in each other entirely unexpected...

The 101:

Under the Never Sky is a hard book to label, and perhaps that’s a good thing. To call it ‘dystopian’ doesn’t quite fit — like squeezing into too-small pants and seeing everything overflow. Rossi’s world is vast and deep and lovely, and the book carries a sense of wide-eyed wonder at the world more than it does a sense of suffocating oppression.

"She stepped out of the elevator to a new sky, shot through with swirls of blue light. The eddies ran calm above her, but turned brighter and faster on the horizon. It was Van Gogh’s Starry Night, right before her eyes."

Almost a character itself, Rossi’s world, and its eponymous ‘never sky’ are captivating. Each facet of the world, from the swirling blue Aether sky, to the desert, to the lush forest flooded with blue light is spectacular, and it's shown through new eyes, each scene vivid and fresh and filled with a child's wonder as Aria truly sees for the first time.

"In the Realms, falling off a horse hurt. Twisting an ankle did too. But pain was just an effect, sprinkled in to boost the thrill. They couldn’t actually get hurt in the Realms. This felt different. Like there was no limit to the pain. Like it could go on forever."

In Rossi's take on a post-apocalyptic world, the people in Under the Never Sky are split into two separate societies: ‘Dwellers,’ safe from the world’s fiery sky in futuristic domes, and ‘Outsiders’– those who survive the climate’s fury in more primitive tribes. Aria has lived her whole life ‘inside’, where her days are spent with her friends in Virtual realities as limitless as imagination. Aria’s entire civilisation runs digitally, with classrooms, entertainment and work existing in the ‘Realms,’ a reality which pronounces itself “better than real.” When Aria finds herself expelled from this world, from her home, to an outside she has never seen before, she truly does begin to see. Each flower, storm, stone and tree are new, exciting, and her curiosity and surprise in the most basic elements of creation — of the real — carry a sense of magic – not to mention the talents of outsiders she encounters which really do border on magic themselves.

"Perry could see a sliver of the Aether swirling in the sky. On calmer days, it was like being on the underside of waves, seeing the Aether roll and pitch above. Other times it flowed like rapids, furious and blazing blue. Fire and water, come together in the sky."

The novel’s other star – and perhaps its brightest – is Peregrine. Perry is not a mere love interest, a boy created simply to admire. He is rich, layered, conflicted and rash. He’s passionate, kind and unpolished. For all his faults – and both Aria and he have their fair share – he’s near impossible to dislike, and he carries an authenticity to him; he feels like a real teenage boy. Filled with fire and drive and conflicting confidences and insecurities; he does not always know the right thing to say, nor does he possess a flare for grand romantic gestures – his best friend, Roar, is the polished, urbane one – yet he is more beautiful and perfect for his imperfections.

"Some force had pulled their hands together. Aria looked at their fingers as they laced together, bringing her the sensation of his touch. Of warmth and calluses. Soft and hard together. She absorbed the terror and beauty of him and his world. Of every moment over the past days. All of it, filling her up like the first breath she’d ever taken. And never had she loved life more."

For Aria and Perry there is, of course, a love story, and it’s a wonderful, sweeping one, reminiscent of that much beloved John Green quote: “I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, then all at once.”. The connection shared between Dweller and Savage develops slowly, slyly, underneath the noses of both, followed by a tide of emotion and a sudden connection, like a jigsaw finally falling into place. The tentative bond, with all its words unspoken and feelings unshared is tender and touching and devastatingly romantic. It feels like first love, the powerful rush of feeling so overwhelming it’s blinding. But both keep their heads, and there is much left unsaid by the novel’s close. A close which left me desperate for more.

"She knew how to put one foot in front of the other even when every step hurt. And she knew there was pain in the journey, but there was also great beauty. She’d seen it standing on rooftops and in green eyes and in the smallest, ugliest rock. She would find the answer."

The Verdict:

Under the Never Sky is a tale of a rare quality: it is not writing, nor imagination, nor characters or world building alone which make it what it is, but a complex alchemical formula artfully combined to create something splendid and beautiful and unique, even in its genre similarities. It is no difficult task to discover why Rossi’s debut is lauded as one of 2012’s finest. Fantasy quest meets breathtaking dystopia in a novel which feels like a dream I still don’t want to wake up from.

Books in This Series:

Under the Never Sky (2012)

Through the Ever Night (January 2013)

Into the Still Blue (2014)

Want it? Get it:

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SUMMER GIVEAWAY: Win One of 2013's Hottest Releases!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah (saz101)) — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 13:53:00 +0000

It's Summer in Australia, but let's turn up the heat even further with the chance to win one of early 2013's hottest releases. Entry is simple: just fill out the Rafflecopter form below the jump.

Win a copy or a pre-order of one of these smoking-hot books, all due to release in the first three months of 2013. Just fill out the Rafflecopter form below!

BONUS:

Want to win a copy of Clockwork Princess AND a Book Depository book of your choice? Head on over to my brother-in-booking, Braiden, and enter his giveaway. Even better? Entering HIS giveaway will get you an extra entry in mine!

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