Allegiance by Cayla Kluver

Legacy Trilogy #2

YA historical fantasy, Published 2012

Challenges: YA Historical Fiction, NetGalley Reading Challenge

Read May 2012, 490 pp.

4/5 Stars

#1: Legacy

Book Blurb:

“Only I saw Narian for who he truly was: a young man with courage and an independent mind, and made to pay for what was outside his control. He couldn’t help his past any more than he could help the way those intense, deep-blue eyes pierced me and held me captive.”

AN EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD QUEEN IN LOVE WITH THE ENEMY AS THEIR COUNTRIES PASS THE POINT OF NO RETURN…
Bound to a man she cannot love, Queen Alera of Hytanica must forget Narian, the young man who holds her heart. For Narian is destined to conquer Hytanica at the behest of his master, the powerful magic-user known as the Overlord. Alera doesn’t truly believe Narian will fight against Hytanica—until Cokyrian troops attack with Narian commanding the charge.

Faced with the greatest betrayal a heart can know, Alera must set aside personal feelings and lead her kingdom through its darkest time. And when all hope, will and courage seem lost, she must find strength and remember that even the blackest night must have a dawn….

Thoughts:

*Be aware that this may contain spoilers to Book 1 – Legacy.

I thoroughly enjoyed this second installment of Cayla Kluver’s Legacy trilogy.  Her writing style has really improved and matured since Legacy and I liked that there was a lot more action in this one.  The book starts off right after Legacy ended with Alera’s wedding to Steldor.  Her father then hands over the reigns to the kingdom to them.

I really got to like ♥ Steldor in this book and over and over again I felt sorry for him and desperately wanted Alera to love him – or get out of the way so I could .  I actually liked him more in this book than Alera (!! and I couldn’t stand him in book 1). Alera seems to have a hard time growing up and making mature decisions.  She was so bratty that I couldn’t believe she was a queen.  I really thought the story would go a completely different direction and am still disappointed in the way some story lines went.  The love story between Alera and Narian seems almost forced and takes away from the many strong characters and world building of the book.

While Alera left much to be desired, there are a lot of great characters throughout the kingdom that I adored.  Canaan, Steldor’s father, and her longtime bodyguard London are among my favorites.

Then there was then end of this book…it definitely left me wanting more! I cannot wait to see what happens in Book 3 – Sacrifice slated to come out October 23, 2012.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarlequinTEEN for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

What About Cimmaron? by Lauraine Snelling

Children’s Fiction, Published 2008

Read May 2012, 96 pp.

2/5 Stars

Book Blurb:

Sarah loves living in the pristine Toutle Valley with her parents, her sister Kathy, and her horse, Cimmaron. They are all used to occasional tremors from nearby Mount St. Helens. But when the volcano erupts, Sarah’s family is forced to evacuate, leaving behind their house, their chickens, their cows and Cimmaron.

As Sarah hears the news of hot ash and mud flows covering her valley, she wonders why God would let such a terrible thing happen. Since He doesn’t seem to be answering her prayers, Sarah decides to solve the problem herself. Somehow she will get back into Toutle Valley to save Cimmaron.

Thoughts:

The 1980 explosion of Mt. St. Helens happened 22 years ago.  Sarah and her family live in the Toutle Valley when the volcano explodes.  Like most large natural disasters, Sarah’s family never thought their mountain would really explode.

While I really loved the premise behind this story, it was hard to love Sarah’s character.  While she is understandably worried about her beloved horse Cimmaron, she displays no respect for the people’s lives she puts in danger when she goes out to search for him.  Sarah has many doubts about God’s love and it takes her until the end of the story to really grasp the feelings of everyone else around her.

I think it could be used as a learning tool in several ways, but I just didn’t enjoy the story.

Thanks to NetGalley and BJU Press/JourneyForth for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Suddenly, she was thrust into a brassy spray of light.  And, blinking her eyes in the stark brilliance, she saw a good-looking young man standing at the door.

~p. 43 of The Fiddler (Home to Hickory Hollow #1) by Beverly Lewis

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

YA Contemporary Fiction, Published March 2012

Read May 2012, 352 pp.

3.5/5 Stars

Book Blurb:

It all begins with a stupid question:

Are you a Global Vagabond?

No, but 18-year-old Bria Sandoval wants to be. In a quest for independence, her neglected art, and no-strings-attached hookups, she signs up for a guided tour of Central America–the wrong one. Middle-aged tourists with fanny packs are hardly the key to self-rediscovery. When Bria meets Rowan, devoted backpacker and dive instructor, and his outspokenly humanitarian sister Starling, she seizes the chance to ditch her group and join them off the beaten path.

Bria’s a good girl trying to go bad. Rowan’s a bad boy trying to stay good. As they travel across a panorama of Mayan villages, remote Belizean islands, and hostels plagued with jungle beasties, they discover what they’ve got in common: both seek to leave behind the old versions of themselves. And the secret to escaping the past, Rowan’s found, is to keep moving forward.

But Bria comes to realize she can’t run forever, no matter what Rowan says. If she ever wants the courage to fall for someone worthwhile, she has to start looking back.

Kirsten Hubbard lends her artistry into this ultimate backpacker novel, weaving her drawings into the text. Her career as a travel writer and her experiences as a real-life vagabond backpacking Central America are deeply seeded in this inspiring story.

Thoughts:

Everyone daydreaming of summer will enjoy a trip into Wanderlove.  Bria has just graduated from high school and is looking for an adventure before deciding what to do about college.  She put all her hopes and dreams of attending art school with her boyfriend, but he is now her ex-boyfriend.  She feels let down by him, her friends who were supposed to join her on this trip, and her parents.  So not willing to give into their doubts about her, Bria decides to take off with the Global Vagabonds and heads to Central America by herself.  But she soon finds that she’s much younger than the average Global Vagabond and decides to strike out on her own adventure. 

I really loved the artwork that is incorporated into the book as Bria starts to open up to her new friends as well as herself about her love of art.  I liked that Bria’s character does stay true to her age and I liked that she took the trip on her own and the reader really gets to go on this coming of age journey with her.  I would’ve really liked to have seen Bria get out of her own head a bit more and actually visit more places as she was backpacking with Rowan as well as see more of Rowan’s character.  With such travel experience, I knew Rowan had more to offer, but his character often fell a little flat for me.  Ultimately though, I loved this story and the backpacking travel experience that the author brings to the book.  I think it does stay true to a YA audience and they will love traveling alongside Bria, Starling, and Rowan.

Thanks to NetGalley and Delacorte BFYR/Random House Children’s Books for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Do you tend to read to the end of a chapter or can you stop anywhere?

This about sums it up for me…

I need to make me a bookmark like this, but I usually fail to put the thing in the book until I find the bookmark laying on the floor later.  I don’t need to finish the chapter before putting a book down, but I do like to be in a good stopping place.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Musing Mondays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

Legacy Trilogy #1

YA historical fantasy, Published 2009

Challenges: YA Historical Fiction, Audio Book Challenge, Mt. TBR

Shelf Life: 7 months – bought 9/20/11

Read April 2012, 12.5 hours unabridged

Story: 4/5

Narration: 5/5

Book Blurb:

Myth #1

So many colonial American women died from burns when their long petticoats caught fire that it became the second-most common cause of death, after childbirth.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

YA Fiction, Published May 8, 2012

Read September 2011, 204 pp

5/5 STARS!

Book Blurb:

Libby Kelting had always felt herself born out of time. No wonder the historical romance-reading, Jane Austen-adaptation-watching, all-around history nerd jumped at the chance to intern at Camden Harbor, Maine’s Oldest Living History Museum.

But at Camden Harbor Libby’s just plain out of place, no matter how cute she looks in a corset. Her cat-loving coworker hates her, the geeky local reporter keeps pushing her buttons, the sailor she’s dating is more shipwreck than dreamboat, and Camden Harbor might be haunted.

Over the course of one unforgettable summer, Libby learns that boys, like ghosts, aren’t always what they seem.

Thoughts:

This book was one of my favorite reads for 2011 and I have already pre-ordered myself a final copy for my bookshelves!  I absolutely adored Libby’s sarcastic sense of humor.  As a history buff, Libby cannot wait to start her summer job at a living museum.  When she finally gets there though, she is immediately thrust into a quirky group of teenagers – from the “suffragette” who’s barely sufferable, the marine biologists, the journalism intern, to the hottie squaddies.  Libby doesn’t immediately take to her corseted pilgrim outfit, but soon loves meeting with the children teaching the cooking and needlework that women pilgrims did.  She also soon finds herself in a love triangle with one of the hottest hottie squaddies and the insufferable journalist student (who she has to share a room with).

This will be the perfect summer “beach” read.  It’s a feel good, unputdownable read – be prepared to laugh!

Quotes (taken from ARC):

“I’ll be like an eighteenth-century Disney princess! Colonial Cinderella!”

“NO CELL PHONES?!” I exploded. “They shatter the illusion of the eighteenth-century village,” Maddie explained calmly.  “But what if we hide them from the tourists?  And only check them when no one’s around?” I wheedled.  What if Dev needed me?  What if Meryl Streep needed him to get an unpublished Harry Potter manuscript and I was the only one who could help?  Not that I’d know how to do that anyway, but that was beside the point.

Now, here is the dirty little secret of almost every girl who loves history: somewhere along the line, she fell for a fictional historical hottie.  Maybe it was Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy in that dripping wet shirt.  Or Clark Gable imagining Vivien Leigh without her shimmy.  Or a rascally Hugh Grant charming a girl Senseless.  Even Leonard DiCaprio clinging to the Titanic as he slowly turned blue.  Believe you me.  If a girl loves history, this probably happened.

Easy, breezy, beautiful, ColonialGirl.

I like a little something on under my petticoats, thank you very much.

I don’t want to spend my summer in a Nancy Drew – Hardy Boys Crossover Mystery Super Spectacular,” Garrett shouted.  “I want this to be a piece of serious journalism.”

“Why do you keep saying my name like it’s in air quotes?” he interrupted.  “What are you talking about?” I snapped.  “You keep saying ‘Garret’ like it’s allegedly my name.”

“You don’t need to call her you-know-who, Suze.  We’re not in Harry Potter, and she’s not Voldemort.  Fear of a name creates fear of a thing.  Or whatever it was that Dumbledore said.”

“Why, thank you, my dear.  Might as well just stick a feather in my hat and call it macaroni.”

Suddenly everything was clear.  Maybe Prince Charming just looked charming and wasn’t charming at all.  Maybe he was just a cocky asshole with a crown and a boat.

Thanks to NetGalley and Graphia/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.