Category: Book Review

Tempest Revealed by Tracy Deebs (Book Review)

Posted June 5, 2013 by Jana in Book Review, Young Adult Fiction / 1 Comment

Tempest Revealed by Tracy Deebs
Series: Tempest #3
Also in this series: Tempest Rising, Tempest Unleashed
Published by Walker Children's on June 4, 2013
Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal Romance
Pages: 352
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
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Half-mermaid Tempest Maguire is trying to have it all: fulfilling her duties as second-in-line to the merQueen Hailana while periodically returning home to the California coastline to be with her family and longtime boyfriend, Mark.

Living under the sea and rebuilding Coral Straits is grueling work, while being back home reminds her of everyone she loves and misses. But when her old flame Kona arrives bearing news that Hailana has died and Tempest is now officially merQueen, she returns permanently to Coral Straits, even though it devastates her family and rips her apart from Mark.

Once there, she discovers that an old enemy has resurfaced, hell-bent on taking over her throne... with or without her. As Tempest prepares for her final showdown against Tiamat and anyone who stands with her, she must decide what - and who - is really important to her. Because there will be few survivors in the ultimate sea battle that is brewing - and Tempest isn't sure she will be one of them.

And so ends the Tempest trilogy, filled with mermaids, selkies, sea monsters, surfer boys, sand, and protective families. While Tempest Unleashed, book 2 in this trilogy, is still my favorite of the three, I am very happy I got to see how everything turned out for Tempest. It goes without saying, but I am saying it anyway, that if you have not read the first two books of this series, my review will spoil them for you. It’s kind of inevitable. :) As always, my main points are bolded. :)

1. I feel like Tempest took a step back in this book. She lost the fire I saw in her in the previous book. She’s still a tad confused over whether or not she loves Mark or Kona… and that bugged me. Maybe I just have The Bachelorette TV show on my mind right now (since I just watched the recent episode), but if you feel like you love two people then you CAN’T and SHOULD NOT be with them! Anyway, I digress. I feel like she played the martyr role out in her mind in a way too dramatic fashion. It’s like she just kept wanting to die for someone, but not for a noble reason… mainly because it would be the convenient way out! It got a little old. And really, so much of this story is of her inner thoughts as she whines and complains and acts selfish. She had a lot of obstacles to go up against, so I give her props for that… but really, she bothered me because she handled pretty much everything like a coward. I don’t like heroines who run away every chance they get.

2. Tempest Unleashed made me really dislike Kona, and now Tempest Revealed made me annoyed with Mark! He kept trying to die too! And all of a sudden, I liked Kona again. Mark has his redeeming qualities, though. His big romantic gesture is really sweet, but both he and Tempest act just a little too immature for me to pull for them. Kona’s maturity and nobility made me end up liking him the most in the end, even though he threw his own temper tantrums every now and again.

3. My favorite person in this book was Zalek, the healer who saved Moku (Tempest’s little brother) in Tempest Unleashed. I felt like he played a larger role than he had before, and I just adored him. I wish the book had been about him instead of Tempest. And I really liked Mahina, her best friend. The book could have been about her as well. She’s inventive, sweet, loyal, brave, and a hopeless romantic. I just love her.

4. Considering the fact that Tempest Revealed is the final book, and all events have been leading up to the destruction of Tiamat (the sea witch), the climax was really anti-climactic. Everything was resolved in a page or two, and it was such a tiny part of the story that I felt really let down. SO much of the book was devoted to Tempest’s mourning over lost this and that.

5. Yet… happily ever after ensues. You know it will. And honestly, I was already so let down by the anti-climactic climax that the pretty bow of an ending just frustrated me. Plus, there are loose ends flapping in the breeze. I would have liked to have heard more about her family. I mean… they end up being such an afterthought, yet everything Tempest did, she claims was to protect her family! So where are they?

All in all, I’m disappointed. I was tearing through the pages for most of the book mainly because I wanted to get past Tempest’s complaining, and get on to the action. When I finally did, it was over in the blink of an eye. Rather than going out with a bang, the trilogy really just fizzled in my eyes.

Going Vintage by Lindsey Leavitt (Book Review)

Posted May 30, 2013 by Jana in Book Review, Young Adult Fiction / 10 Comments

Going Vintage by Lindsey Leavitt
Published by Bloomsbury Children's on March 26, 2013
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Pages: 320
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
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When Mallory’s boyfriend, Jeremy, cheats on her with an online girlfriend, Mallory decides the best way to de-Jeremy her life is to de-modernize things too. Inspired by a list of goals her grandmother made in1962, Mallory swears off technology and returns to a simpler time (when boyfriends couldn’t cheat with computer avatars).

The List:
1. Run for pep club secretary
2. Host a fancy dinner party/soiree
3. Sew a dress for Homecoming
4. Find a steady
5. Do something dangerous
But simple proves to be crazy-complicated, and the details of the past begin to change Mallory’s present. Add in a too-busy grandmother, a sassy sister, and the cute pep-club president–who just happens to be her ex’s cousin–and soon Mallory begins to wonder if going vintage is going too far.

When I think 1960’s, I think cute clothes, Doris Day (I’m obsessed with old movies), The Beatles, JFK, Martin Luther King, The Sound of Music, etc. What a fun time period! I’ve always wanted to go back in time and visit the 60’s, so I was very excited to read Going Vintage. This was a very cute book, and as always, my main points are bolded. :)

1. I love the idea behind Going Vintage. Mallory swears off all modern-day conveniences like the Internet, computers, iPods, cellphones because this technology is what she lost her boyfriend to. Online gaming ruined two relationships of mine, so I totally know how Mallory felt when she found out her boyfriend was cheating on her with an online girl named BubbleYum.

2. I thought it was so much fun that Mallory’s desire to go vintage was inspired by a list of her grandmother’s goals for her junior year of high school. I just wish I liked her grandma more. I actually didn’t like anyone very much in Mallory’s family, especially her mother. Her mom is horrendous, and makes money off her daughters’ misfortunes. I could take or leave her sister, Ginnie, and her dad wasn’t memorable enough for me to have an opinion about him.

3. I also was not the biggest fan of Mallory. She was rather naive to think that life was easy in the 60’s because there was no Friendspace (basically Facebook). If you think back on history, there was a LOT going on in the 60’s that made it hard. It wasn’t all Doris Day and Cary Grant. I liked that she took action to get over Jeremy, rather than curl up in a ball and rot… but I just did not connect with her. And to be honest, I was never convinced she even liked Jeremy. I felt like she mourned the loss of a relationship (she couldn’t make out anymore) than the loss of him.

4. I loved Oliver, the pep-club president. He was charming and swoony.

5. There was a lot going on that had nothing to do with the main idea of the story. It was a little discombobulated for me at times.

6. I appreciate the fact that Going Vintage made me consider my own relationship with technology. I couldn’t help but think of all the time I have wasted online scanning Twitter or Facebook stalking people. I do feel like it rules me a bit too much, and that a technology ban might be beneficial.

Overall, I’m not left with a ton to say about Going Vintage. I was in the mood for a light, fluffy read, and that’s what I got. I loved the idea behind the book, but I feel like there were some things that were missing for me.

RiverTime by Rae Renzi (Mini Book Review)

Posted May 27, 2013 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 1 Comment

RiverTime by Rae Renzi
Published by Carina Press on February 14, 2011
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
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Casey Lord needs a break. Her great-on-paper boyfriend, Reed, is pressuring her to marry him--but she's not sure if he sees her merely as an asset to help his political career. A river-rafting trip in the remote wilderness provides the perfect opportunity to clear her head. Until a flash flood sweeps Casey away from her group--and straight into the arms of Jack, a mysterious man also stranded by the flooding river.

Jack won't tell Casey his last name, and her innocent questions about his life are met with evasive answers. Yet they have to trust each other to survive, and as the pair await rescue, their uneasy truce slowly blossoms into friendship--and love. They agree to keep secret whatever differences may separate them in the real world.

When rescue finally arrives, will it spell an end to their budding relationship?

I have a major thing for books with survival elements, and I absolutely ADORE the Grand Canyon (which I was not even sure was the setting for this book until I started reading it), so this book sounded perfect for me. I even ended up buying it without reading many reviews (which I forget), because I thought is sounded amazingly romantic and exciting. Sadly, I wasn’t really impressed.

The book starts out while the flash flood is in progress. It’s exciting and grabbed me immediately. The synopsis leads you to believe that Jack saves Casey, but she actually saves him. They both have baggage and frustrating lives, so they agree to forget about it all and live in “Rivertime”, which they treat like a parallel universe of sorts. Anything that happens in the canyon stays there, and will not impact their real lives. I didn’t like this element of the story. By turning this time into something that only mattered in the present, they both made decisions I did not agree with. I lost respect for them because of this.

I liked Jack, and his snarky sense of humor. Casey was your typical heroine, and did not really make an impression on me. With a setting as dynamic as the Grand Canyon, very little was done with it. For all I knew, they were stuck in a forest somewhere. I would have liked more scenery. And considering that this is a survival story, not much surviving happened. There were no animals, no chance of dehydration, no nothing really, except for some rain. I feel like a lot more could have been done with this as well. Casey also has this thing with comparing people to very detailed pieces of chocolate (with nuts and caramel, etc.). That got really old.

I don’t like relationships that that start out as pure lust. They both wanted to have steamy times, and they were each others’ only option, so it happened. This was a very insta-love kind of story, to the point of creepiness. I honestly don’t feel like they were stranded long enough to form a realistic relationship. They fell for each other before they even knew each other, which made it really hard for me to believe that their “love” could withstand their tumultuous real lives. Love needs a strong foundation, and you can’t just form that in a week or two.

I think my disappointment all boils down to the fact that this book spun out of control extremely quickly. Jack and Casey’s time in the canyon was a VERY small part of the story. The rest of it was spent on politics, cheating, misery, and weak characters having a hard time making decisions. Jack and Casey’s realities brought so many details and needless drama that I didn’t care about at all. I feel like the story would have been so much better if they had just been left in the canyon. I continued reading because I hoped things would get good again, but after the first quarter of the book, things went downhill and stayed there. And the ending… well, it was pretty terrible. Everything was wrapped up into a WAY too convenient and implausible bow. I love happily ever afters, but they need to be realistic for me or I end up scoffing. With a promising beginning, Renzi should have quit while she was ahead and written a novella instead of a novel.

Heist Society by Ally Carter (Book Review)

Posted May 24, 2013 by Jana in Book Review, Young Adult Fiction / 7 Comments

Heist Society by Ally Carter
Series: Heist Society #1
Also in this series: Uncommon Criminals
Published by Disney Hyperion on February 9, 2010
Genres: Contemporary Fiction, Mystery
Pages: 287
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
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When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her on a trip to the Louvre…to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria…to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own—scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving “the life” for a normal life proves harder than she’d expected.

Soon, Kat's friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring Kat back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has a good reason: a powerful mobster has been robbed of his priceless art collection and wants to retrieve it. Only a master thief could have pulled this job, and Kat's father isn't just on the suspect list, he is the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat’s dad needs her help.

For Kat, there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it's a spectacularly impossible job? She's got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in her family's history--and, with any luck, steal her life back along the way.

I don’t come across many YA mysteries or adventure stories that sound good very often, but after reading Heist Society‘s synopsis and so many wonderful reviews, I pretty much knew I would enjoy this one! As always, my main points are bolded. :)

1. I really like Kat. She tried so hard to leave the family business, but re-entered the crime world because of her family. I love her devotion to her dad. She is confident, but not to the point of cockiness. She understands her limits, but has no trouble pushing those limits as far as possible. She also has this constant battle going on in her head between her conscience and her mission. She’s pretty awesome.

2. Kat’s friends and family, Hale, Simon, Hamich, Angus, and Gabrielle are all amazing and fill the spots in Kat’s heist society. Each of them has a special talent, and when put together, they form this amazing band of criminals. I absolutely love the strength of their relationships, and the lengths they will go to for one another. These people are willing to put everything on the line to protect Kat’s father. I love that. Talk about pure devotion. I have never read a book with such strong familial relationships, and I loved it so much more than I thought I would.

3. I loved Hale so much. He’s rich and classy, and is always looking out for Kat. His previous life goes to show how unlikely a candidate he is for Kat’s crew, but he fits in so well because you can tell how much he cares for her.

4. In the midst of all the hard things they have to go through, these characters say some of the funniest things! Here are a few of my favorite quotes and excerpts from the story:

“Can I see you outside for a second?” Kat glared at Hale, then walked to the patio doors and out onto the veranda. As Hale closed the door behind him, Kat heard Angus say, “Ooh, Mom and Dad are going to fight now.”

“Thanks to you, Gabs, we just figured out a half dozen ways not to rob the Henley.”

“If you die of pneumonia, I’m pretty sure there are at least a dozen guys who’ll try to kill me and make it look like an accident.”

“Do you understand any of this?” he said, pointing to the lines and symbols that covered the massive screens.
“Some people understand the value of an education.”
Hale stretched and crossed his legs, the settled his arm around Kat’s shoulders. “That’s sweet, Kat. Maybe later I’ll buy you a university. And an ice cream.”
“I’d settle for the ice cream.”
“Deal.”

SO fun! I love their interactions and silliness. They are all so mature and worldly, but their dialogue helps remind us that they are just a bunch of extraordinary teenagers.

5. Heist Society travels to so many awesome places in the USA and Europe. We get to visit New York, Las Vegas, Sabina Valley, Naples, Vienna, Warsaw, London, Paris, and Rome. I loved all the jumping around the globe we got to do!

6. I read so many YA contemporaries, that it was rather refreshing to have so little romance this time. There’s a little tension, and a little sweetness… but, for the most part there’s no romance. I have a feeling there will be more in the next book, and I’m SO excited about that because I just love the characters so much.

7. The writing style was so perfect that I barely noticed it. Does that sound strange? It just fit the story so perfectly that I forgot I was reading. So often, I focus on a writing style because it is SO bad. And yes, there are other times when I focus on it because it’s so beautiful. This time, though, not noticing it is the best compliment I can give.

This was my first Ally Carter book, and I absolutely loved it! I need to go check out her Gallagher Girls series now, because I love Ally’s strong characters and her storytelling. I’d definitely recommend this to people who are looking for something outside of the normal romance, vampires and werewolves, heavy issues kind of YA books.

Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill (Book Review)

Posted May 22, 2013 by Jana in Book Review, Young Adult Fiction / 13 Comments

Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill
Published by Delacorte Books for Young Readers on November 13, 2012
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 304
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
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Meant to be or not meant to be . . . that is the question.

It's one thing to fall head over heels into a puddle of hazelnut coffee, and quite another to fall for the—gasp—wrong guy. Straight-A junior Julia may be accident prone, but she's queen of following rules and being prepared. That's why she keeps a pencil sharpener in her purse and a pocket Shakespeare in her, well, pocket. And that's also why she's chosen Mark Bixford, her childhood crush, as her MTB ("meant to be").

But this spring break, Julia's rules are about to get defenestrated (SAT word: to be thrown from a window) when she's partnered with her personal nemesis, class-clown Jason, on a school trip to London. After one wild party, Julia starts receiving romantic texts . . . from an unknown number! Jason promises to help discover the identity of her mysterious new suitor if she agrees to break a few rules along the way. And thus begins a wild goose chase through London, leading Julia closer and closer to the biggest surprise of all: true love.

Because sometimes the things you least expect are the most meant to be.

First of all, look at that cover! I love it, and it’s actually what prompted me to investigate the book. Then I read the synopsis, and I was sold all over again! A heroine who sounds quirky like me, London, breaking rules, and mysterious suitors? Yessssssss! I’m only sorry it took me so long to read it. As always, my main points are bolded. :)

1. Lauren Morrill paints an absolutely lovely picture of London for us. I’ve never been, but I could still picture the quaint streets and the exciting buzz of such an amazing city.

2. I always wanted to go on a class trip to a far off place and make amazing memories with my friends, fall in love, and look back on it fondly forever. This book was my class trip. Well, it’s as close as I can get to one now. I felt like I was there, wandering the museums, running in the rain, and soaking in an old fashioned bath tub after a long day of walking.

3. Book Licker. Oh my. This is Julia’s nickname (given to her by Jason), and I just adore her for her bookishness, her nerdiness, her obsessive compulsiveness, and her hilarious personality. She’s always reading, spouting off random factoids about everything, tripping over her words, following the rules to a tee, struggling to be perfect at everything, and failing at flirting. And she is deathly afraid of geese. I identified so much with her… and I’m not sure what that says about me! Haha.

4. And then we have Jason, her partner (buddy) on this class trip. He is her polar opposite, her arch nemesis, and the thorn in her side. But he’s funny and suave and cute, and he’s getting her to do all these new things and experience London in a way that she never predicted. And he can be so sweet and concerned sometimes. And boy, does he pick on her! I loved watching him burrow his way into the little soft spot she formed for him.

5. Meant to Be is charmingly hilarious. Jason gets drunk, and I could not contain my laughter during this scene. And remember when I said Julia is scared of geese? You have NO idea. And then there’s a street performer… and a pond incident, not to mention the witty dialogue.

6. It’s SO romantic. There’s mud kissing, sightseeing off the beaten path, deep conversations, and a slow burn. I love this kind of romance. It’s a 180 from insta-love. It’s so realistic and believable.

7. Even though these are high-schoolers, I never felt like they were! Julia and Jason are so mature, smart, and well-spoken. They make some very teen-like decisions, but their outlook on the world, and their insights on those decisions make them relatable. Honestly, these two are any age you want them to be. I loved that this is a YA book that adults and kids can enjoy and pull different things from. I just know I will be reading this with my future daughter someday.

8. I loved the smattering of Jane Austen, Shakespeare, and Winston Churchill quotes. They just added a little something special!

9. The ending was really something special, and I could not have seen that coming. This is definitely not a predictable book.

I think I might have found my new favorite YA contemporary romance, and that’s really saying something! I love Julia and Jason, and am quite sad that my time with them is over. I’m also sad I had to leave London and fly back to the USA with them. Meant to Be is such a fun journey, and I loved every single word. Finally, I love that the cover matches the content! Both are absolutely beautiful. If you loved Anna and the French Kiss, Just One Day, and Instructions for a Broken Heart, you will love this! And if you’ve never read any of these, you’ll still love it. It’s full of heart, travel, young love, and humor.