Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas | Book Review

Posted September 27, 2017 by Jana in Book Review, Young Adult Fiction / 0 Comments

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
Series: A Court of Thorns and Roses #2
Also in this series: A Court of Thorns and Roses
Published by Bloomsbury Children's on May 3, 2016
Genres: Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 626
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased
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Feyre survived Amarantha's clutches to return to the Spring Court—but at a steep cost. Though she now has the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and it can't forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin's people.

Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates its dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms—and she might be key to stopping it. But only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future—and the future of a world cleaved in two.

So… I have been struggling and struggling with how to review A Court of Mist and Fury since I read it almost a year ago. I almost considered not reviewing it at all because it seemed so overwhelming to me. It’s a huge book, filled with so many things that I loved so much that writing down all my feelings and thoughts seems impossible. BUT… I want to be able to look back and remember how I felt, so this “review” is really just for me. It’s an unorganized list of feelings and impressions and fangirliness. As always, my main points are bolded. :)

1. Everything that happened in ACOTAR that I thought I loved so much was replaced and/or outdone by everything that happened in this book. For example, I was totally on team Tamlin… until I wasn’t. The book starts out with a very emotionally destroyed, almost traumatized Feyre, and Tamlin sucked so bad. I literally hated him within the first few pages. How the crap did this even happen? I LOVED him! But Rhysand… *swoon* He made me fall in love with him even more, even though I hated his villainous ways in ACOTAR. He’s still his normal mischievous, cunning, slippery self, but he’s also passionate and tender and so caring and protective of those he holds dear. I was sold. My loyalties were flipped on a dime. I had no idea I was capable of loving Rhys, but now I can’t imagine feeling any differently. That’s what this book did to me!!

2. The reason Feyre and Rhys fall in love is super sweet and magical, at least in my opinion. I thought Tamlin and Feyre were meant to be, but these two are on a completely different level.

3. The romance… I just can’t. It was everything I hoped for and more. I love so many romantic passages and quotes, but here are some of my favorites:

“I am broken and healing, but every piece of my heart belong to you.”

“I heard every word between you. I knew you could take care of yourself, and yet … ” He went back to his pie, swallowing a bite before continuing. “And yet I found myself deciding that if you took his hand, I would find a way to live with it. It would be your choice.”
I sipped from my wine. “And if he had grabbed me?”
There was nothing but uncompromising will in his eyes. “Then I would have torn apart the world to get you back.”

“I was his and he was mine, and we were the beginning and middle and end. We were a song that had been sung from the very first ember of light in the world.”

4. There is so much emotion in A Court of Mist and Fury. There’s so many feelings, and I felt them right along with the characters. Feyre has been through a lot, if you’ll remember the end of ACOTAR and the whole Amarantha debacle. She’s very delicate and is having to recover from the trauma and abuse she went through. I related to her a lot, and found it refreshing that she didn’t just jump right back into her hardened, brave, strong self. I liked seeing the impact those prior events had on her. Even strong people have to process the bad in life. The author could have had them all recover during the break between books and then come back and show us strong characters. Tamlin is struggling, Rhys is struggling, others are struggling. Life is hard for these characters and I liked being able to witness it instead of hear about it after the fact.

5. I LOVED The Night Court and the secret, beautiful city of Velaris. The setting was just so pretty and magical. I also loved the people there, and all the new characters I got to meet.

6. The writing was wonderful. I love all the details and the feelings that Maas put into words.

7. This is the first time I have felt that the second book was better than the first. I never thought I’d see the day!

Basically… read it. Read. It. A Court of Mist and Fury was my hands down my favorite book of 2016, and I’m actually considering a re-read which I rarely ever do. Do yourself a favor and et invested in this series.

Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon Hale | Graphic Novel Review

Posted September 13, 2017 by Jana in Book Review, Graphic Novel / 0 Comments

Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon Hale
Published by Bloomsbury Children's on August 5, 2008
Genres: Retelling
Pages: 144
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
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Once upon a time, in a land you only think you know, lived a little girl and her mother . . . or the woman she thought was her mother.

Every day, when the little girl played in her pretty garden, she grew more curious about what lay on the other side of the garden wall . . . a rather enormous garden wall.

And every year, as she grew older, things seemed weirder and weirder, until the day she finally climbed to the top of the wall and looked over into the mines and desert beyond.

Newbery Honor-winning author Shannon Hale teams up with husband Dean Hale and brilliant artist Nathan Hale (no relation) to bring readers a swashbuckling and hilarious twist on the classic story as you've never seen it before. Watch as Rapunzel and her amazing hair team up with Jack (of beanstalk fame) to gallop around the wild and western landscape, changing lives, righting wrongs, and bringing joy to every soul they encounter.

Here we have a wild western retelling of the classic Rapunzel. Rapunzel lives in a walled-up city with her mother, Gothel, before climbing the wall and realizing how horrible things are on the outside. She also discovers that Gothel is not her real mother and goes on an adventure with a man named Jack to try and free the people of Gothel’s evil magic.

This story has a lot of elements that are the same as the original Rapunzel. Rapunzel was taken from her parents because the stole Gothel’s lettuce, Rapunzel has very long hair that she uses to her benefit, there is a handsome man along for the ride, and she is thrown into an isolated tower. In this version, though, her mother his been imprisoned, and the story takes place in the Wild West. Rapunzel is very feisty and brave, whereas most renditions depict her as a helpless, naïve girl who can’t take care of herself and does not understand the concept of evil. She goes up against gun carrying vigilantes, thieves, monsters, and scary situations. This time the man sits in the back seat and has to be saved. I loved seeing a fairytale heroine with a brain, who can hold her own and get things done. The illustrations are very well done and are infused with color, perspective, and a ton of detail. Children who enjoyed the original story of Rapunzel or Disney’s Tangled will enjoy this fractured version of the tale.

The Leaving by Tara Altebrando | Boldly Bookish Blog Tour Book Review (+ Giveaway)

Posted June 22, 2016 by Jana in Blog Tour, Book Review, Giveaway, Young Adult Fiction / 5 Comments

The Leaving by Tara Altebrando
Published by Bloomsbury Children's on June 7, 2016
Genres: Contemporary Fiction, Mystery
Pages: 432
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
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Six were taken. Eleven years later, five come back--with no idea of where they've been.

Eleven years ago, six kindergarteners went missing without a trace. After all that time, the people left behind moved on, or tried to.

Until today. Today five of those kids return. They're sixteen, and they are . . . fine. Scarlett comes home and finds a mom she barely recognizes, and doesn't really recognize the person she's supposed to be, either. But she thinks she remembers Lucas. Lucas remembers Scarlett, too, except they're entirely unable to recall where they've been or what happened to them. Neither of them remember the sixth victim, Max. He doesn't come back. Everyone wants answers. Most of all Max's sister Avery, who needs to find her brother--dead or alive--and isn't buying this whole memory-loss story.

Welcome to my stop along Bloomsbury’s Boldly Bookish blog tour, hosted by The Irish Banana Review! It’s week three of the tour, which means it’s all about Tara Altebrando’s The Leaving. This book is crazy and weird and intriguing and I’m excited to review it today! As always, my main points are bolded. :)

1. I’ve always been a huge fan of mysteries involving missing persons and amnesia, and this book treats the topic differently than I’ve ever experienced. Six small children disappear from school one day, and five of them return eleven years later with no memories. At all. They remember snippets of life before “the leaving”, and they have small flashes of what happened while they were gone. For the most part, though, they have forgotten the last eleven years of their lives. What’s crazy is that they are very well educated and are able to transition into their proper grade level with ease after their return. They seem to have been well taken care of. So what happened? And where were they? And why can’t they answer these questions themselves? I was intrigued immediately.

2. The mystery is super unique because all five of these teens (and some family members of theirs) are working with the police and hypnotists and therapists and specialists to try to piece together the past. But nothing is really working. The flashes of memories that I mentioned before continually occur, and these teens are getting more and more confused because they don’t make sense. But this confusion causes them to vigorously search for answers, putting themselves in danger in the process. They don’t know who to trust, and as more information surfaces the reader is left possibly more clueless than the characters. It’s quite a page turner of a book!

3. The story is told in alternating perspectives by three narrators: two of the teens and the sister of the boy who never made it home. This is a really tricky thing to do, and Altebrando did a great job of giving each narrator a recognizable voice. For example, one of the narrators is a little bit crazier… or eccentric? Or maybe she is just not handling things well and is spiraling out of control. Some of her words and sentences made weird designs or were written backwards, and I thought that formatting was a cool touch and gave us more insight into how she was feeling. There were other unique formatting details, but I can tell from reading other early reviews that they did not transfer properly to my eARC.

4. I do wish all five of the returned teens got chapters to tell their thoughts. I would have liked to understand them better. Perhaps that would’ve made things too hard to keep track of, but what’s the point of having four more kids if they don’t contribute to the solving of the mystery?

5. There is some romance that I wish hadn’t been there. I was more focused on learning the why’s and how’s and the romance took me out of that mindset.

6. The suspense was palpable. Practically every chapter ended on a cliffhanger that was not resolved or even addressed until that specific narrator had their turn to talk again. I was just SO curious that I read this book in record time, flying from narrator to narrator and wanting more details and more answers. Altebrando knows what it takes to keep a reader up reading instead of sleeping.

7. The ending was a little anticlimactic and some of the answers went in a direction that almost completely switched the genre of the story. It was a surprise for sure, but I guess I hoped the story would end with more of a bang.

8. I had it all wrong. I thought I knew what was going on, but I was wrong. And that’s a good thing.

Despite my few qualms, I’ve come away from this story with an overall favorable opinion of it. I can’t give many specifics of why I liked it because I’ll end up spoiling things,which is why this review is vague and lukewarm. I was throughly entertained, and Altebrando pulled me out of a reading slump I didn’t know I was in! The unique storyline had me intrigued to the very end, and I enjoyed the ride. I haven’t read a book this fast in years. I’d definitely recommend it to people who are looking for a spin on the normal YA contemporary mysteries. There are twists and turns and details you won’t see coming!

About Tara

Tara Altebrando is the author of numerous books for young adult and middle-grade readers. Her upcoming book, THE LEAVING (Bloomsbury), is a YA thriller that received a starred PW review and is a Junior Library Guild selection. Her other YA novels include ROOMIES, coauthored with Sara Zarr; Dreamland Social Club (A Kirkus Reviews Best Books for Teens), The Best Night of (Your) Pathetic Life, What Happens Here, and The Pursuit of Happiness.

Tara is a Harvard graduate who lives in Queens, NY, with her husband and children.

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Tour Schedule:

Week 1 – BREAK ME LIKE A PROMISE by Tiffany Schmidt
6/6: Pretty Deadly Reviews – Review
6/7: The Young Folks – Q&A
6/8: Swoony Boys Podcast – Character Interview
6/9: In Wonderland – Review
6/10: Jenuine Cupcakes – Guest Post

Week 2 – THE LONG GAME by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
6/13: Beauty and the Bookshelf – Guest Post
6/14: YA Bibliophile – Review
6/15: Such A Novel Idea – Playlist
6/16: The Cover Contessa – Q&A
6/17: Avid Reader – Review

Week 3 – THE LEAVING by Tara Altebrando
6/20: Once Upon A Twilight – Guest Post
6/21: Literary Lover – Review
6/22: That Artsy Reader Girl – Review
6/23: Novel Ink – Q&A
6/24: The Irish Banana Review – Top 10

The Devil You Know by Trish Doller | Mini Book Review

Posted June 5, 2015 by Jana in Book Review, Young Adult Fiction / 6 Comments

The Devil You Know by Trish Doller
Published by Bloomsbury Children's on June 2, 2015
Genres: Contemporary Fiction, Thriller
Pages: 256
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher (Mail)
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Eighteen-year-old Arcadia wants adventure. Living in a tiny Florida town with her dad and four-year-old brother, Cadie spends most of her time working, going to school, and taking care of her family. So when she meets two handsome cousins at a campfire party, she finally has a chance for fun. They invite her and friend to join them on a road trip, and it's just the risk she's been craving-the opportunity to escape. But what starts out as a fun, sexy journey quickly becomes dangerous when she discovers that one of them is not at all who he claims to be. One of them has deadly intentions.

A road trip fling turns terrifying in this contemporary story that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.

I gobble up mysteries and thrillers like the best of ’em, so I was all over The Devil You Know as soon as it arrived on my doorstep! Road trip + mystery + suspense + a little romantical intrigue and I was sold. And honestly, I loved it! I read it in one day because I was so creeped out that I worried I would not be able to sleep if I did not read the resolution and the wind-down of the story. The Devil You Know was exhilarating and refreshing and reminded me why I love reading so much.

Cadie, in an almost rebellion against her typical life and her typical self, daringly sets out on a road trip with two total strangers, doing many stupid and reckless things along the way. How could she NOT expect to end up in a boat load of trouble, unsure about who to trust? I mean… oh the scary. I kept wanting to tell her to stop! Go home! But the thing is, teens do this. Teen Jana NEVER would have, but I know teens who have done things like this, so I believed everything even though I was so flabbergasted that it was happening. I can only describe it as watching a train speed towards the end of the track with nobody in control. You know something is going to happen and you can’t do anything about it. This is the kind of thriller I love! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.

This is my first book by Trish Doller, and I can’t wait to get my hands on more of hers. I loved her writing style in this story, and her ability to completely transport you to the scene at hand. No matter what was going on in the story I was on pins and needles. There is this underlying feeling of discomfort that envelopes you from beginning to end, which is why I honestly could not stop until things were over. The characters are not the most important part of the story, and that shows. And it’s fine. Trish really focuses on feelings and settings and events more than the people involved, which actually made me feel even more nervous. The boys are both mysteries, and Cadie is a normal girl that I think most readers can relate to in some way or another. I felt like I was Cadie, and that I was the one in danger. The entire story is incredibly well done, and I continually think about it even though I finished it months ago. I really hope Trish writes more thrillers!

Wish You Were Italian by Kristin Rae | Book Review

Posted April 21, 2014 by Jana in Book Review, Young Adult Fiction / 4 Comments

Wish You Were Italian by Kristin Rae
Series: If Only... #2
Published by Bloomsbury Children's on May 6, 2014
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Pages: 323
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher (Mail)
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Pippa is in Italy for the summer and, despite her parents’ wishes, she has no intention of just studying the local art! She has a list of things of her own to do: from swimming in the Mediterranean Sea to getting a makeover – and falling for an Italian boy! As Pippa explores the dramatic ruins of Rome and Pompeii, she is swept into her own drama with two guys: an irresistible local she knows is nothing but trouble and a cute American archaeology student . . . Will she find her true love?

OH MY GOODNESS. I actively seek out romances that take place in Italy. I kid you not, I have spent hours looking for them. It’s kind of ridiculous, but I just love them because I love Italy so much and want to go back SO BAD. When I saw this lovely on Goodreads, I could not handle it! I immediately requested it, and was delighted when it arrived in the mail. Thank you SO much, Bloomsbury for sending me to Italy during the craziest time of my life (right now). I loved Wish You Were Italian so much, and I will be making everyone I know read it! As always, my main points are bolded. :)

1. Italy. *sigh* Within just the first few pages, Pippa is in Rome eating gelato by the Pantheon. I DID THAT. I did that exact thing! You can totally tell the author has been to Rome, because she described everything I did! She perfectly described getting off the subway, seeing the massive Colosseum, walking past the Arch of Constantine to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. I was back in Italy! And she made Cinque Terre sound so beautiful. I have always wanted to go there, but I want to go even more now! Rae’s descriptions of scenery are just breathtaking.

2. I loved Pippa. I really respected her for taking such a risk and ditching her art program in Florence to run off to Cinque Terre to live with the cashier from the coffee shop and her family. I would never, EVER be able to do that! It would eat me alive. Her dream is to be a photo journalist, which is not at all what her art aficionado parents want for her. And instead of sulking through the art museums of Florence, which I would have hated her for doing because I LOVE FLORENCE, she actually did something about it and thought of herself for once. She had the best, most snarky, and level-headed voice I’ve read in a while.

3. I really loved the supporting characters. Bruno, the sexy Italian boy was just so endearing. I loved his broken English and his desire to be everything Pippa wanted. He developed a lot throughout the course of the story, and I really enjoyed seeing him change and become a better person. Chiara (Bruno’s sister), the new best friend who takes Pippa to Cinque Terre, is the kind of friend every girl needs. Pippa was floating around on Cloud 9, and Chiara kept pulling her back down to Earth and giving her doses of reality when she needed them. And the family was wonderful. Typical, loving, completely Italian. Darren was just perfection. I loved that he was this nerdy archaeology student with big hair, and he kept popping up wherever she was! I mean, when does that even happen? Pippa is one lucky girl.

4. I was totally ok with the love triangle. *dodges tomatoes* I know, right? I liked both boys for different reasons. I liked one more than the other, but I never found myself rolling my eyes. I was mainly jealous that Pippa was getting attention from both of them!

5. I love all the adventures! Long walks, exploring ruins, eating a lot, souvenir shopping, train rides, swimming in the Mediterranean Sea, working in the restaurant, sightseeing. I wanted to be there so badly.

6. The romance is adorable and slow burning. There’s no insta-love, and I loved watching the slow development.

7. The ending is pretty everything-you-want-it-to-be.

I could rave and rave about this book, but I’ll quit now and let you go buy it and read it yourself! Seriously, this book will fly you to Italy and deposit you right into the middle of the best parts of it. My very favorite part was Italy, but the romance and the gelato and the wonderfulness of growing up and discovering your independence and your identity solidified my love. Like I said, I will be recommending this to everyone! And I’m going through Italy withdrawals now. Thanks a lot, Kristin Rae. :P