Two Moon Princess- Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban

Written By: Kellie - May• 19•11

Summary: In this coming-of-age story set in a medieval kingdom, Andrea is a headstrong princess longing to be a knight who finds her way to modern-day California. But her accidental return to her family’s kingdom and a disastrous romance brings war, along with her discovery of some dark family secrets. Readers will love this mix of traditional fantasy elements with unique twists and will identify with Andrea and her difficult choices between duty and desire. -Goodreads

On the cover: What I like about this cover is what I like about this book (well, one of the things), two moons! Very pretty. I think the colors used in the sky here are beautiful and the look of longing on the girl’s face perfectly matches the main character, Andrea’s, desire to experience something more than what she’s been given.

Review: Finally made a dent in my Net Galley books, hurray! This book was a fun, quick read but unfortunately I didn’t love it nearly as much as I thought it was going to. The premise really interested me as it’s been awhile since I’ve read something along these lines… Person from magical/medieval/alternate world gets pulled into our world, it usually goes the other way. It just wasn’t always executed to my liking.

Two Moon Princess took a long time to get going and once it did it kept whizzing off in random directions. The initial pace was slow, taking a lot of time to set up the story. The main plot didn’t get going until about twenty percent of the way through the book. This can be okay when done right but it does set up some reader expectations. After the main character, Andrea is finally in California the pacing really starts to jump around. A couple chapters on her first week, sure. Then there’s a bit of build up about this road trip that Andrea really doesn’t want to go on, and a paragraph later it’s all over, weird. Kept you guessing, but not in a good way.

The characters also didn’t do it for me, unfortunately. I did like Andrea even though she isn’t your usual spunky, quipping heroine but everyone around her just seemed a little off. Her sister’s were all static and about as deep as puddles, and her uncle ran so hot and cold it was hard to figure out if you were even supposed to like him.

Not to say that this book was all bad, or remotely unenjoyable. It’s always fun seeing the wonders of the modern world from another perspective and there was some fun, random Spanish history thrown in. You can tell the author is very interested in Spanish history and culture, it really shines through. Also, it was a nice change of pace that this book focused more on the characters and less on any fantasy aspects.

Galley provided via NetGalley! Thanks!

Rating

Second Opinions…
Talia Newland reviews Two Moon Princess
Two Moon Princess @ Chapter Chicks
Books by their Story, Two Moon Princess

Posted in Fantasy Books, Young Adult Books , | No Comments »

It’s Monday! What are your reading? #

Written By: Kellie - May• 16•11


My first ever Monday meme. This one is dedicated to keeping track of what books you finished last week and what you will be working on this week. So, here goes!

Last week I finally polished off…

Thorn Queen by Richelle Mead- A reread, still as much fun as I remember.
After the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn- A great, superhero stand alone by one of my favorite authors

Annnd, that’s it for last week! Slow week for finishing books off, I’ve still got a couple that I’m slowly working through while reading other books.

This week I’ll be reading, as part of my Net Galley Catch Up Week…
Two Moon Princess by Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban
The Twisted Tale of Stormy Gale by Christine Bell

and I’ll probably read

Raised by Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, just because I’ve been waiting for this one to come out in paperback forever

Posted in Fun Stuff & Promos, Reading , , | 3 Comments »

Dark Swan 1 & 2- Richelle Mead

Written By: Kellie - May• 15•11

Title: Storm Born & Thorn Queen
Author: Richelle Mead
Series: Dark Sawn
Rating: 4/5 Athemes

Premise: Just typical. No love life to speak of for months, then all at once, every horny creature in the Otherworld wants to get in your pants…

Eugenie Markham is a powerful shaman who does a brisk trade banishing spirits and fey who cross into the mortal world. Mercenary, yes, but a girl’s got to eat. Her most recent case, however, is enough to ruin her appetite. Hired to find a teenager who has been taken to the Otherworld, Eugenie comes face to face with a startling prophecy–one that uncovers dark secrets about her past and claims that Eugenie’s first-born will threaten the future of the world as she knows it.

Review: I decided to reread books one and two in this series in order to give myself a bit of a refresher before book three, Iron Crowned came out which was at the end of March (I’m a little behind on, hehe). Plus, any excuse to reread one of my favorite series, right?

This series is a lot of fun, as long as you like semi romantic, paranormal romps. It also throws in quite a bit of fae politics which is the part I really enjoy. The main character Eugenie starts off firmly in the human world, disdaining all things Otherworld (faerie) but the more she learns about the people and the culture, the more she get’s sucked into their world and as a reader you’re right there with her. This is doubly the case in book two, but I’ll try not to go into too much detail because if you haven’t read these books, you definitely should.

Shockingly… or not so much, there’s a love triangle featured heavily through both books. What makes it interesting is for once I’m not entirely sure who I want her to end up with. Both guys have their perks and both call to a different part of who Eugenie is. It’s interesting. Of course, both men are super handsome and charming, and why the hell not? Her reactions to both men are believable and I sometimes can see myself making the same choices she does when she’s got a tough decision to make, when it comes to her men or otherwise.

There is also a decent amount of action in this book, which was well written enough that I didn’t tend to just skim to the end of a fight and hope everyone I liked made it to the end. I have trouble visualizing a lot of action scenes if things get bogged down in each punch and jab and I had no problem here. Of course some of the fight scenes involve epic elemental demons, so that’s some incentive to follow along.

This series get’s pretty dark at one point and while I wasn’t sure I agreed with it at first, you eventually come to realize that it is something Eugenie has to go through in order to progress the series. Definitely not something she should go through as a person, but book three will be interesting because of how things went down. Just you wait.

Overall, this series just goes to show why Richelle Mead is one of my favorites. The plot is fun, the characters are likeable and the series warrants not only a read but apparently a reread or two as well.

Posted in Fun Stuff & Promos, Urban Fantasy Books , , , , | 3 Comments »

My 50th Post- Blog Updates!!

Written By: Kellie - May• 14•11


Yayyyy! Post #50! I started book blogging about three months ago and am absolutely loving the experience so far. Blogging has been a lot of fun, the community is outstanding and the whole thing has already given me some great experiences and opportunities. I even won my first blog giveaway this week! =D Seriously, I’m thrilled! So, in celebration…

1. I bought myself a second domain name! I am now the proud owner of reawrite.com!!! Right now I’m just using it as a mirror back to the subdomain I started with and it will probably be another three months before I transfer everything over (because I have no idea how to do it and don’t want to risk smooshing things up) but still! It’s progress! Now I can leave nice, concise links!

2. Starting next week I’m going to be changing my review style a little bit. I’m doing my best to learn as I go and so I want to start making use of what I’ve figured out so far.

3. Unrelated to the fiftieth post buuttt… Next week will be NetGalley week for me. I’m falling a little behind on the wonderful books I’ve been approved to read so I want to take a little time to focus on those books that I’m very excited to read but have just had too much on my plate for.

4. I’m trying to come up with some way to work in book discussions as well as book reviews. I hate giving away spoilers but sometimes I really just want to get into the nitty-gritty of a book. What I liked, what I didn’t etc. Book reviews are wonderful for finding new books but once I’ve read the book I wish I could yap about it a bit to fellow book junkies without ruining anything for anyone. Something to think about.

Anyways! Thank you to everyone who has stopped by so far. Love you all oodles!

Posted in Fun Stuff & Promos , , | 2 Comments »

After The Golden Age- Carrie Vaughn

Written By: Kellie - May• 14•11

Title: After The Golden Age
Author: Carrie Vaughn
Rating: 3.5/5 Superhero Masks

Synopsis: Can an accountant defeat a supervillain? Celia West, only daughter of the heroic leaders of the superpowered Olympiad, has spent the past few years estranged from her parents and their high-powered lifestyle. She’s had enough of masks and heroics, and wants only to live her own quiet life out from under the shadow of West Plaza and her rich and famous parents.

Review: There is something to be said for stand alone novels. They’re hard to find in the fantasy genre now, which is a shame because sometimes I just crave getting real closure at the end of a book. Plus, there is an invaluable added suspense, not being 100% certain that the main character is going to survive whatever situation gotten themselves into. No one needs to survive for a sequel, that’s tense. One of my favorite authors, Carrie Vaughn, has been churning out stand alone books on top of her Kitty books for the last year or so. Yay! They haven’t been getting super fantastic reviews but they’re still fun reads.

I enjoyed this one. While it is all about superheros (yay!) there is a very relate-able themes of living up to the expectations of your parents and not being able to ever fully escape past mistakes. The main character Celia grew up the daughter of two mega superheros who had dedicated their lives to protecting ‘Commerce City’ and who were always just waiting to see what powers their daughter would develop. What powers does Celia get? None, and that is what pretty much defines her. So after making some bad choices Celia decides she can’t live up to the pressure and breaks away from her parents, attempting to live a normal life, as an accountant no less.

The romance in this book isn’t remotely predictable, and that manages to be both a good thing and a bad thing. It’s fun when things don’t go quite how you expect but sometimes things are stereotypes for a reason. This book lacked some of the hallmarked budding romance moments that while expected still give you the warm and fuzzies to read about. It was all just handled a little awkwardly but since the romance was a secondary (if that) plot line, it didn’t effect the book too much, but it still would have been a nice addition.

The characters were very reminiscent of traditional comic book superheros but with a more obvious shade of gray, something novels can give you that comics aren’t always able too. Celia feels like she is the only person who sees her parents as real people when the rest of the world is so busy seeing Captain Olympus and Spark. Her take on the world she was born in to is sometimes a-typical and usually very dry and funny.

Overall, I liked it but probably won’t be rereading it. Carrie Vaughn is still one of my top four, probably even top three and I won’t hold the fact that this book wasn’t earth shattering against her because I enjoyed it and really, that’s what I was hoping for when I picked this book up. That and book characters in spandex, I pretty much got that too! Hurrah!

 

Posted in Fantasy Books , , , , | 1 Comment »

Cast in Chaos- Michelle Sagara

Written By: Kellie - May• 10•11

Title: Cast in Chaos
Series: Chronicles of Elantra #6
Author: Michelle Sagara (West)
Rating: 4/5 Rune Tattoos
Spoilers: None!

Synopsis: Kaylin Neya is a Hawk, part of the elite force tasked with keeping the City of Elantra safe. Her past is dark, her magic uncontrolled and her allies unpredictable. And nothing has prepared her for what is coming, when the charlatans on Elani Street suddenly grow powerful, the Oracles are thrown into an uproar and the skies rain blood….

The powerful of Elantra believe that the mysterious markings on Kaylin’s skin hold the answer, and they are not averse to using her—how ever they have to—in order to discover what it is.

Something is coming, breaking through the barriers between the worlds. But is it a threat that Kaylin needs to defend her city against—or has she been chosen for another reason entirely?

Rating: Woops! Have been meaning to post this review for over a week now, got a little caught up in some other nonsense (work! pfft!) Anyways, it’s in no way a reflection on the book, which I enjoyed. The series had been losing a bit of steam for me, but this was a really great addition which also added in some new content that I’ll be looking forward to the fallout from in future books.

This book, like the rest of the series, is really well written and engaging. Michelle Sagara has created a pretty fantastical world that I think is fairly uncommon now for this kind of fantasy. For me, the Chronicles of  Elantra series has always read a lot like Urban Fantasy. This has a lot to do with how much of the plot lines have to do with the goings on of a very urban city, albeit not a modern one. That, and Kaylin is witty, kick-ass and a little self deprecating like a lot of my favorite UF heroines.

It’s hard to really go into the plot of this one without getting into spoilers since the books description tells you next to nothing, but I’ll tell you it was good. This series has a tendency to get a little sidetracked away from the main story due to all of the intricacies of the world the characters live in. All of the different races in this story lead pretty specific lives, most of which we’ve seen Kaylin (MC) delve into, even if it wasn’t necessary. Good world building, absolutely! But it does tend to pull focus away from plotting. Only happened a little in this one though and the detours are usually well worth it :)

Even though the back cover of the book didn’t tell you much, one thing I did love was the blatant foreshadowing. We did get a feel of what was coming midway through the book while the tension was still rising and it made for a pretty exciting read! I also loved getting to know some of our dragon characters a little better. Damn those mysterious immortals!

Anyways, like I said, I’m really excited to see what’s coming next although I have a feeling book seven will go off in some random direction. To be fair though, I don’t know how many books this series is planned to go for… but there are still a lot of loose ends that need to be dealt with so I doubt the next book will be the last! *fingers crossed*

Posted in Fantasy Books , , | 1 Comment »

Divergent in the mail!

Written By: Kellie - May• 09•11

So, I got a pretty fantastic surprise today. I got a copy of Divergent in the mail! It came right from the Toronto office of HarperCollins and I really don’t know what prompted it it, or who I can email to say thank you, thank you, thank you! I had requested the NetGalley arc but got rejected (it was like two days before the book came out) and then a week or so later… voila, book! There’s a bookmark with a link to http://thesavvyreader.ca/, no idea what that is either. Will need to check it out!

Anyways, if whoever decided to send me that book reads this (unlikely, but here’s hopin) then thank you, thank you! Divergent is a book I will definitely reread and here I was thinking I’d have to wait until it came out in paperback before I could have  a copy to call my own. It’s now sitting on my ‘special stuff shelf’ besides my Wizarding World of Harry Potter wand. Bleeee!

 

Posted in Reading , | 1 Comment »

Cinder and Ella- Melissa Lemon

Written By: Kellie - May• 08•11

Title: Cinder and Ella
Author: Melissa Lemon
Rating: 4/5 Glass Slippers
Spoilers: None

Synposis: After their father’s disappearance, Cinder leaves home for a servant job at the castle. But it isn’t long before her sister Ella is brought to the castle herself—the most dangerous place in all the kingdom for both her and Cinder. Cinder and Ella is a Cinderella story like no other and one you’ll never forget.

Review: We’ve all heard the story a million, billion times. Girl leads hard life, girl has crappy family, girl goes to ball, girl meets boy, girl lives happily ever after. Cinderella. We all know it. Or do we? Melissa Lemon has written a wonderfully creative new take on one of our favorite classics.  She’s left the bare bones of the story and has done something really wonderful with what she had to work with, and as someone who is a sucker for rewritten classics, I loved it.

In Cinder and Ella there isn’t one girl but two. Sisters. They try to make the best of a bad family situation (sisters don’t have to be of the step variety to be jerks) and from there… adventures ensue! I won’t give anything away, but the story is a lot of fun. It has all the makings of a fairytale and yet you never know what little twist is coming next.

Most of the characters aren’t taken from the classic version (okay, for me that means Disney) of the story and for me that was a big part of what kept this fresh. I didn’t go into this book with any preconceptions about who these people were supposed to be (prince charming, evil step sisters etc) so I never got pulled out of the story because something wasn’t going how I thought it should. My favorite was definitely Ella, but I thought her sister Beatrice was pretty hilarious to read as well.

One issue I did have with it is that sometimes this book read a little awkwardly, and I couldn’t always tell which age group this story was meant for. Granted, usually I know going into a story who it was meant for, so that might have helped but I do think no matter which book shelf this story ends up on, it will be a welcome edition. Anyways! The solution to the story reading awkwardly problem…

This story was meant to be read out loud! I noticed it a few chapters in, and while I didn’t actually read the whole thing out loud to myself, it was so clear that the language used in this book is perfect for reading to someone. I even found myself thinking about the different voices I would use for each character. It made the whole thing really come to life. THAT is the making of a true fairytale.

It’s awhile still before this one comes out but it is definitely a title to watch for!

Provided by the publisher via NetGalley

Posted in Fantasy Books , , | 2 Comments »

Divergent- Veronica Roth

Written By: Kellie - May• 04•11

Title: Divergent
Series: Divergent #1
Author: Veronica Roth
Rating: 5/5 Factions
Spoilers: None

Synopsis:

In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she’s kept hidden from everyone because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Review: ZOMG! I’m in love. There is nothing quite like finding a book you just can’t put down, and that’s what Divergent was for me. I got it from work this morning and finished it just now. I liked the base premise enough that I picked this one up without reading any reviews. At 16, everyone has to pick which faction they will become a part of. Each one is basically based on a trait that is considered the best. Honesty, bravery, intelligence, selflessness and kindness. I was a little irked that the faction I probably would have chosen ended up being the bad guys. Grrrr.

The real action in this book doesn’t start until that last 20% of the book, but you don’t even notice because you get so caught up in the wonderfully imagined society that has been created for this novel. Tris’s initiation into her chosen faction is both harsh and thrilling the entire way through.

I would have thought that Tris’s personality being pretty opposite from mine that I may have had trouble relating to her but that wasn’t the case at all. She was brave, a genuinely good person and someone I would totally want to hang out with.The other characters were excellent as well. They don’t always do exactly what you expect and when.. err… someone… commits a pretty harsh betrayal you can’t help but feel shocked and hurt on Tris’s behalf.

One part of this book I especially loved as the lurrrvvee interest. It wasn’t overly convoluted or drama-ey and that’s what made it great. No love triangles or broken hearts, just good people finding each other during an otherwise crappy period in their lives. Hurrah!

Anyways, this book is the reason I usually don’t read books right after they come out. I don’t know how I am going to survive an entire year without seeing what happens next! If you haven’t read this yet… do it now!

Everyone keeps comparing this to the hunger games, which I haven’t read yet… but I just might now. If I love those books as much as I loved this one it will be time well spent.

Posted in Young Adult Books , , | 2 Comments »

Poor unwanted books

Written By: Kellie - May• 01•11

Today at work I was working on returns… Collecting all the unwanted books that have been sitting around the store for more than six months. Made me sad that a few of my favorite authors had made the list this time around. It was the first time I’d had to pick books that I’d actually read before. So imagine the epic blahness when I realized these books were marked as ‘SC’, strip cover. The books are now waiting in my store back room to have their covers ripped off. Those will be sent back to the publisher, pretty much as proof of the books demise, and the actual books get thrown out.

Seems like such a waste to me. If you’re going to destroy the books anyways, why not donate them to a worthy cause. Okay, probably because there would eventually be so many cheap books out there that I dunno, some sort of doom would happen, I’m sure. But still, every once in awhile I’m sure a library or school would love to get some of the books that are just going to waste. Even if it’s just the kids books. Save the books, people! Save them!!!

Posted in Fun Stuff & Promos , | 4 Comments »
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