Category Archives: Young Adult

Review: The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson (@raecarson @harperteen)

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As you probably know, because I’ve been complaining about it, I’ve been stuck in somewhat of a reading rut lately. I’m not sure why. It just happens sometimes. Reading was not as appealing as, say, television. Or Twitter. Or staring at a blank wall.

I had these lofty expectations of blazing grandly through my long list of NetGalley review titles, but then I wound up watching YouTube videos of Avengers featurettes instead.

Don’t judge. These things happen.

Anyway, I got sick of my complete apathy towards reading (which, in all fairness, had only been going on for about a week and a half), so I decided to get back in the game with some pleasure reading. Some just-for-me books that I expected to be awesome. And the first one I picked up was The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson.

The Plot

The story follows Elisa, the younger of two princesses, whose father has agreed to marry her off to the king of a neighboring country. A man she has never met. On her wedding day, Elisa prays for King Alejandro to be old and fat, because then maybe he won’t be disappointed in her, as she considers herself overweight and unremarkable in every way save one. Elisa  bears the Godstone, a multi-faceted gemstone mystically attached to her stomach that shows she is destined to perform an act of great service to God.

However, Elisa constantly wonders whether God made a mistake, as she doesn’t think she will ever have the opportunity or capability to perform this service.

But soon after accompanying Alejandro to his kingdom, she begins to learn how powerful, and dangerous, the Godstone can be, both to the bearer and to those who would use it against her. She discovers a history of bearers whose acts of service are unclear, and she struggles to figure out how she fits into the centuries-long story.

Meanwhile, a vast and terrifying army approaches, and the lives of thousands may rest in Elisa’s hands.

My Thoughts

This book was totally unlike any other fantasy I’ve ever read, both in characters and in plot. I’ll talk about characters first.

First, Elisa was not beautiful (and not in that “she doesn’t think she’s beautiful but guys keep falling all over themselves when she appears” kind of way). Second, she was not highly skilled. She bore the Godstone, but she had absolutely no idea why or what to do with it. And third, she had a steep learning curve. She didn’t find herself to have a mysteriously strong aptitude for any sort of noticeable skill. Basically, what she had was a connection to God that she didn’t understand, decent intelligence, and a desire to do the right thing so she could fulfill her service. That was pretty much it. It was refreshing to see a fantasy protagonist with no major advantages over the other characters (save the Godstone, but again, she spent most of the book being utterly flummoxed by it).

Then there was the plot. It had a decidedly religious and philosophical slant, which I wasn’t really expecting going into this book. It didn’t preach any specific religion (that I am aware of anyway), but the overall themes of God and prayer and faith in an overarching purpose that is bigger than any of us can understand were huge. I found this totally different than other fantasy I’ve read, and although this wasn’t by any means a preachy or religious book, I liked the way it tackled the complex issues of religion and faith and trying to understand the will of God. It did it within the world of fantasy and magic, so I don’t think it would turn off non-religious readers, but for me, I enjoyed a fantasy book that both fulfilled my need for magic and adventure, in addition to making me really think and question.

Of course, this book is not all religion and philosophy, not by a long shot. Elisa goes through a HUGE transformation, both physically and mentally, throughout the course of the book. The adventure is sweeping, the world-building highly unique and interesting, and the danger is palpable. Rae Carson was not afraid to put her characters in tough and terrible situations, and that gave the book a gravity that kept me fully engaged.

There were a couple downsides to the book. A couple of the characters I was never able to fully warm to, and it seemed like I was supposed to. I thought Elisa’s development was one of the most realistic hero journeys I’ve ever read, but it almost came at the expense of the other characters’ development. There’s one exception to that, and it was actually a pretty secondary character, but I loved him in the brief time I got to know him. However, he disappeared for the entire middle of the book, and doesn’t reappear until the final act. So that was somewhat disappointing. I hope we see a lot more of him in the sequel, Crown of Embers (which releases September 18, 2012).

I did find the climax a tiny bit hard to swallow. I don’t want to spoil anything, so let’s just say that I was expecting it to be…more difficult. After the way everything is set up, it feels like it should have been more difficult. But one big thing happens, and then everything else is just…over. Seems like it should have been messier than that.

But, as I said, that was just a tiny complaint.

Overall, Girl of Fire and Thorns (which, if made into an acronym, is “GOFAT,” which seems like kind of a subliminal encouragement Elisa, who is rather portly at the start of the book) was a refreshing and highly engaging fantasy, with a unique and interesting world, a complex plot, and a fantastic main character.

Content Guide: Contains large amounts of violence

Throwback Thursday (July 5) – Little Women

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Welcome to Throwback Thursday, a weekly meme hosted by The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books!

It’s the nature of book blogging to focus mainly on new releases, but there are thousands of great books out there that haven’t seen the “New Releases” shelf in years. We hope to be able to bring attention to some older titles that may not be at the top of the current bestseller list, but still deserve a spot in your To-Be-Read pile.

You don’t have to be a book blogger to participate! You can put up a Throwback Thursday post on your non-bookish blog; or if you don’t have a blog at all, just use the comments to tell us about a book you remember fondly.

Here’s how it works:
1. Pick any book released more than 5 years ago. Adult, YA, Children’s; doesn’t matter. Any great book will do.
2. Write up a short summary of the book (include the title, author, and cover art) and an explanation of why you love it. Make sure to link back to The Housework Can Wait and Never Too Fond of Books in your post.
3. Link up your post at The Housework Can Wait or Never Too Fond of Books.
4. Visit as many blogs as you can, reminisce about books you loved, and discover some “new” books for your TBR list!

Feel free to grab the Throwback Thursday button code from the sidebar to use in your posts.

Thanks for participating, and we look forward to seeing which books you choose to remember!

My Throwback this week is…

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

This is another one  of those classic books that I tend to assume everyone has read, but maybe you haven’t.

Little Women is the story of the March sisters – Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy – and their mother, who they call Marmee. Mr. March is away at war and the girls are left to fend for themselves as they grow up together and experience friendship, love, loss, and heartbreak. The bond between the sisters is so real. Sometimes they infuriate each other, sometimes they can’t stand each other, but they always love each other. And I adore how Marmee leads her family with a quiet strength, and how close they all are in spite of their differences.

I find a lot of classics kind of ponderous as far as the prose goes, but Little Women flowed very naturally for me. I can’t remember how old I was when I first read it – probably somewhere between 13-16 – and I didn’t have any trouble getting into it.

I’d recommend this book to any woman, “little” or not, because the characters and relationships are among the best I’ve ever read. It will warm your heart and soothe your soul.

Happy reading!

Link up your Throwback Thursday post below!

Review: One Moment by Kristina McBride (@EgmontUSA)

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I received this book as an advance digital review copy from NetGalley

Here’s a confession: I don’t read a lot of contemporary. Shocking, I know. I like most of my entertainment to be a sort of escapism, and I gravitate towards stories that have an element of the fantastic. I love stories that inspire my imagination with things like magic and space and superpowers and monsters. But, on occasion, when the mood strikes, a contemporary will spark my interest.

This was one of those occasions. I was intrigued by the summary for this book — a mysterious death and a case of amnesia? What’s going on? — and thought it may actually be kind of refreshing to read a story based in the “real” world after all the crazy fantasy and sci fi I read. And it was.

The Plot

Maggie’s group of 6 friends has been together since elementary school. They’ve grown up together and shared in all their activities. Cliff jumping is no exception, and the book opens as Maggie tries to gather up the courage to participate in a jump over Memorial Day weekend. Encouraged by her friends, especially Joey, who she has been dating for the past 2 years, Maggie finally summons up enough courage to jump off the cliff with Joey into the water far below.

But one minute Maggie and Joey are holding hands, running for the edge of the cliff; the next, Maggie is disoriented at the top and Joey is on the ground below — dead.

What follows is the aftermath of the accident, as Maggie struggles to remember what happened up on that cliff top, and attempts to recreate the last few week’s of Joey’s life. The five survivors are left with lots of questions and few answers as they all try to make sense of what happened. And their frustrations are exacerbated by the fact that one of them, Adam, has started avoiding them.

My Thoughts

One Moment is actually fairly simple, and although the revelations throughout are shocking to Maggie, they were pretty predictable for me. But that didn’t keep me from enjoying the book.

The story is told from Maggie’s perspective, which means we are treated to the story of her friendships with the others and especially her romance with Joey in brief flashbacks, as Maggie tries to make sense of everything that’s happened to her. The flashbacks help to develop the characters and convey the depth of Maggie’s grief and confusion, and I thought they fit in well with the flow of the story.

Maggie herself is relatable and likable, although occasionally frustratingly naive. It got a little tiring to see all the clues laid out so obviously, but for her to still have no idea what was going on. I could excuse her partly because she’s young, and partially because she’s struggling to get past a major shock, but her continued ignorance (especially when she was offered answers and refused to listen) got a bit grating.

The other friends are developed to varying degrees. Joey is the most developed, through Maggie’s memories, and maybe it’s because I never really went for the mega-popular partying guys in high school, but I just failed to see his appeal. He and Maggie never seemed all that well matched to me, even in her memories. So while I appreciated what Maggie was going through, I didn’t find this book as sad as I was expecting, because I didn’t really mourn Joey along with her.

Her friend Adam was by far the most likable to me, and although I figured out really quickly what was going on with him, I still enjoyed reading about him. Shannon was the epitome of every girl I’ve ever had nothing in common with, and although she was far from one-dimensional, I couldn’t really understand what Adam and Shannon were doing in the same group of friends.

The least developed were Tanna and Pete, who don’t really add much to the character development of the other four, or do much to propel the story forward. It seems like they were mostly there to just establish that this is a group of friends, and not a teen soap on the CW. But I wish we’d have seen a bit more from them, Pete especially, whose main contribution to the story was playing semi-recent pop songs on his guitar (and Nickelback. Huh.)

The pacing was good, and I had absolutely no trouble finishing this book in just a few hours. I was never bored, I didn’t have any trouble keeping up with what was going on (which was impressive considering the frequent flashbacks), and I liked the simplicity of it.

There was an element of the story that I wish hadn’t been there, and I think the story would have been more poignant and bittersweet if the focus had simply been Maggie coming to terms with learning the truth about her dead boyfriend.

Highlight if you want to be spoiled: The love triangle between Joey, Maggie and Adam. I wish Adam could have just been her friend, helping her through her grief, instead of the patient guy waiting in the wings. A story about grief and PTSD doesn’t really need a love triangle to work, and having it resolve at the end almost cheapens everything that Maggie goes through in dealing with Joey’s death. He may not have been a saint, but watching her reactions as she learned more about him was definitely interesting enough. Additional romance was unnecessary.

Ultimately, I thought this was a well-written, interesting, simple story. While it didn’t pack quite the emotional punch I was hoping for, I still enjoyed it.

Content Guide: A disturbing death, some sexual content, profanity

Review: Graceling by Kristin Cashore

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I’ve been hearing fabulous things about Graceling by Kristin Cashore for some time now. It consistently pops up on “favorites” lists all across the blogosphere, along with its companions, Fire and Bitterblue, which in and of itself made me curious. Add to that the fact that its YA fantasy, which is a genre I actually haven’t read much of (most of the fantasy I read is adult), and I knew I’d need to read it ASAP.

The Plot

Katsa is a Graceling, identifiable from a young age because of her two different-colored eyes. But instead of a harmless Grace, such as painting or swimming, Katsa is Graced with killing. She first killed a man with her bare hands when she was eight years old, and has since been used by her uncle the king as an assassin and thug.

However, Katsa yearns to be more than just a killer, so she joins forces with a secret Council of citizens who have banded together to seek out and stop injustice. It is on a mission for the Council that she meets Po, the prince of a neighboring kingdom, and also a Graced fighter. Katsa is wary of Po, but as they grow closer through their sparring, the two soon become friends.

Then Po requests Katsa’s help on solving the mystery of his grandfather’s kidnapping. And as Katsa and Po search for the truth, they discover a terrifying secret that could affect the future of the entire Seven Kingdoms.

My Thoughts

I can see why Graceling is so well-loved by so many people. The writing is fantastic, and the world-building exquisite. I love the idea of this fantasy world where certain people have what essentially amounts to mutant powers. The notion of the different-colored eyes marking the Graced is great, as is the exploration of how the inhabitants of the different kingdoms view the Graced. In one kingdom, the Graced are honored, where in another, they are shamed. It’s a very subtle look at prejudices and stereotypes woven throughout the plot, and how those perceptions impact an individual’s self-image, and I thought it was very well done.

The plot was also lovely. I enjoyed the action, and although I’ve read several reviews that thought the pacing was slow and the length ponderous, I thought it moved rather quickly. Maybe that’s because most of the fantasy I read is adult. This book was certainly longer than a lot of YA fare, but I thought the length was justified by the story.

Po was a fantastic character. I liked him immediately. I loved that he was nuanced and flawed, and I was surprised along with Katsa when new facts were revealed about him. There are certain parts of the book where Po is not present, and while they are extremely exciting and tense, I was still slightly distracted wishing Po was there. It’s always fun when a book makes me actually miss a character when he’s not around.

I also loved the character of Princess Bitterblue, who is the focal point of one of the companion novels. While she was a child, I admired her attitude and spunk, and I enjoyed reading about her.

I did have a few issues with the book, and these were just matters of preference, not of the storytelling or the writing. I was not a huge fan of Katsa. I understood why she was the way she was, and I definitely acknowledge that she is a far cry from many of the helpless damsels in distress that are abundant in YA literature. However, her extremely guarded and untrusting nature didn’t make her a character I really enjoyed reading about. Don’t get me wrong – I enjoyed the story that she was involved in, I just didn’t really enjoy her. And although she does exhibit some growth during the course of the book, it wasn’t enough to make me really like her by the end.

I also was a bit let down by the climax of the book (which actually occurs several chapters before the ending). It seemed kind of lacking after so much build-up. Now, I’m not entirely sure how it could have been done better or differently; I just know that after I finished reading it, my thought was, “Oh, that was it?”

However, as an overall story, Graceling excelled. And considering neither of the companion novels focus on Katsa, I’m extremely interested in reading more about this beautiful fantasy world and the amazing characters that populate it.

Content Guide: Contains lots of fighting/violence/killing, sexual situations, implications of child and animal abuse.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (June 18)

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Hello everyone, and welcome to another It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? post, hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. Last week I skipped my Monday post because I was so dreadfully behind. But I’m finally catching up to where I want to be. So here’s what I want to attempt for this week, keeping in mind that my anniversary (NINE YEARS SAY WHAAAAA????) is on Wednesday and so I may not have quite as much time as I think I do.

We’re going to go to Chili’s, because although there’s absolutely nothing cool about Chili’s, for some reason we really like it. I think it’s the chips.

And we are going to go see Snow White and the Huntsman, because although it’s receiving kinda lukewarm reviews, it is my husband’s most anticipated movie this year, other than The Hobbit. Yes, I am married to a man who anticipates Snow White and the Huntsman more than The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, Spiderman, The Bourne Legacy, and all the other comicy/actiony/geeky movies that I personally am excited about this year.

Don’t get me wrong, he still wants to see those too. But the Snow White and the Huntsman trailer has gotten into his blood, and there is no cure other than seeing it in all its CGI and K-Stew glory. (Disclaimer: he in no way wants to see it because of K-Stew.)

Anyway, I think I just digressed quite a bit. So. Here’s the books on my plate for this week:

First up, finishing Graceling and Fire by Kristin Cashore. I’m enjoying Graceling so far and am guessing that Fire will go pretty quickly once I get to it. I don’t have Bitterblue or the means to acquire it yet, so I’ll just have to wait on that one.

Once those are finished, I am going to exercise some self discipline (fancy that!) and start hacking away at my NetGalley list. I have a bunch of books waiting for me to read, and I keep putting them off, not because I don’t want to read them, but because I tend to give precedence to physical books. I just enjoy the reading experience more with paper.

I don’t know why. It’s just how I roll.

But release dates are creeping up, so I need to get a bunch of these NetGalley titles knocked out. So first up will be:

One Moment by Kristina McBride. This is a contemporary YA, which is not my usual fare, but the synopsis intrigued me. A mysterious death and a case of amnesia? I want to know what’s going on!

The Girl in the Clockwork Collar by Kady Cross. Okay, I’m going out on a limb with this one, because I have not read The Girl in the Steel Corset, which is the first book in this series. I don’t normally plunge into Book 2 without reading Book 1 (actually, to my recollection, I have never done this), but I’ve heard such good things about these books and the cover is so pretty and the book was right there and I couldn’t resist.  I do have TGitSC on hold at my library, so I will eventually get the whole story. I just didn’t want to put this one off any more, since it’s already been released.

So that’s my week! We’ll see how I do 🙂 What are you reading?