REVIEW: Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

            Kami Glass loves someone she’s never met…a boy she’s talked to in her head ever since she was born. She wasn’t silent about her imaginary friend during her childhood, and is thus a bit of an outsider in her sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale. Still, Kami hasn’t suffered too much from not fitting in. She has a best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is in order, just the way she likes it, despite the voice in her head.

            But all that changes when the Lynburns return.

            The Lynburn family has owned the spectacular and sinister manor that overlooks Sorry-in-the-Vale for centuries. The mysterious twin sisters who abandoned their ancestral home a generation ago are back, along with their teenage sons, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami. Kami is not one to shy away from the unknown—in fact, she’s determined to find answers for all the questions Sorry-in-the-Vale is suddenly posing. Who is responsible for the bloody deeds in the depths of the woods? What is her own mother hiding? And now that her imaginary friend has become a real boy, does she still love him? Does she hate him? Can she trust him?

There are 99 reasons to love Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan, and most of them revolve around the protagonist, Kami Glass. Not only is Kami a strong, independent girl who don’t need no man, but she’s the knight in shining armor to not one but two damsels in distress. She’s a sass-a-frass of a girl with the wit repertoire of Loki from Supernatural. She’s a badass girl, and her best friends are too.

Angela and her brother, Rusty are the new kids to town. They’re not let in on town secrets, but they’re fine with that. They don’t care for gossip or social interaction. They like naps, and Rusty teaches self-defense. Rusty has taught Angela and Kami to be the badass girls they are today. Holly, on the other hand, is a bit of a natural badass. She drives a motorcycle and all the boys flock to her like bees to honey. Angela and Holly bond over their mutual distaste for boys and their boyish ways. It’s clear that they are absolutely in love with each other!

Along with her two best friends, Kami’s gang includes two damsels in distress. These damsels are none other than Jared and Ash Lynburn of the infamous Lynburns. I mention the gang members because they really make the story interesting. I love the cast of characters in Unspoken. I didn’t know a supernatural, gothic romance would have such a great cast, but it really does! I really didn’t know that it was going to be such a powerful and savvy females novel.

Aside from the characters and roles they had, the plot was amazing as well. There aren’t a lot of stories in YA that I’ve seen that involve imaginary friends. I think that’s probably something more prevalent in middle grade where kids are actually shifting out of having imaginary friends. It was great to get to read something dealing with such a theme. I loved it, and I think Brennan really handled the problems that would arise from finding out your imaginary friend is real quite well.

I’m incredibly excited to sink my fangs into the rest of the Lynburn Legacy. I can’t say that I found too many cons in the first book of the series. I really hated Jared’s mother, but I think that was the point. The one thing that stuck out to me as odd was how much Jared and Kami were one. Now, let me get to the point before you tell me how that’s the point.

Kami is such a strong character and Jared is too. Clearly there was the question throughout the book about where one person ended and the other began. Jared knew everything about Kami, but Kami really never knew a lot about Jared, and it felt obvious how different they were. Yet, Uncle Rob kept mentioning how their bond made them basically the same in a way. It might have just been something Rob had to say to get his way, but it’s odd to think that some of Kami’s personality is there because of Jared. I wonder if that will make Kami’s character read a little differently in the next book, and I don’t really know if I want that but shouldn’t that be the case? Odd.

That’s the only con I have, but it could just be my imagination.

XOXO Tia

REVIEW: Hawksong by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

            Danica Shardae is an avian shapeshifter, and the golden hawk’s form in which she takes to the sky is as natural to her as the human one that graces her on land. The only thing more familiar to her is war: It has raged between her people and the serpiente for so long, no one can remember how the fighting began. As heir to the avian throne, she’ll do anything in her power to stop this war—even accept Zane Cobriana, the terrifying leader of her kind’s greatest enemy, as her pair bond and make the two royal families one.

            Trust. It is all Zane asks of Danica—and all they ask of their people—but it may be more than she can give.

            Along with Tithe by Holly Black, Hawksong by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes prove to be my all-time favorite books. I don’t reread a lot of books (I find the act silly when there are so many new books that come out every day and plenty more old ones I have yet to read), but I do reread these ones and have many times.

            The thing that draws me back to Hawksong time and time again is partly the characters and partly the premise. Danica is a strong princess not afraid to get her gown a little bloodstained and her crown a little bent. She’s determined to stop the war between her people and her rival, at any cost. This is a characteristic that I absolutely admire. It’s a simple betrothal sort of tale which was really popular back in the early 2000s, but there’s so much more depth because of the premise and the characters.

            At its core, Hawksong is a love story, and getting to see the development of that pure love between the main characters is really what sets this story apart from others in the young adult world. A lot of YA books rely on love of the star-crossed destiny sort, but this book offers up something much more real with a slow burn. Danica never really sees when she falls in love with Zane and neither does the reader. Its just a natural love story set in the middle of a war-ravaged world where two nations have very little trust in the other. But they trust their leaders, and its very interesting to see two nations try to mend after being at war with each other for so long.

            This book is definitely underrated. There are so many great things in this book that really pertain to our world now. We are currently at war with another nation and that has caused much distrust, and I think this book really sheds a lot of real-world lessons that were pertinent in 2004 and still are twelve years later. So yes, it may appear to be a silly love story to some, but it is way more than that. This book will always be one of my favorites and I encourage everyone to read it.

XOXO Tia

REVIEW: All In by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Three casinos.

Three bodies.

Three days.

After a string of brutal murders in Las Vegas, Cassie Hobbes and the Naturals are called in to investigate. But even with the team’s unique profiling talents, these murders seem baffling: unlike many serial killers, this one uses different methods every time. All of the victims were killed in public, yet the killer does not show up on any tape. And each victim has a string of numbers tattooed on their wrist. Hidden in the numbers is a code—and the closer the Naturals come to unraveling the mystery, the more perilous the case becomes.

Meanwhile, Cassie is dealing with an equally dangerous and much more painful mystery. For the first time in years, there’s been a break in her mother’s case. As personal issues and tension between the team mount, Cassie and the Naturals will be faced with impossible odds—and impossible choices.

My first thought when finishing this book was that this series (but I used an expletive or two in place of that word) just got real. I’ve read a lot of Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ books, so I’ve noticed the trend of rising thrill and kill. All In is quite similar in plot-twist-thrill level to her book The Fixer. There was a lot of plot twists, reveals and unveils in the first two books of The Naturals series, but this one far exceeded them. The more that Barnes rights crazy, twisty plots, the better she gets at it.

But do too crazy and too twisty of plots come at a price? A.K.A. the heavy price of losing the believability of the book? Luckily, All In, was still believable, though this is a problem some books pay. I think that’s one of the perks of having a long-running series, because you can initiate the plot twists in the first book, and then escalate them the further and further into the series. I guess in this way, Barnes is a bit like a serial killer.

By the end of the book, I quickly deemed in my favorite Naturals book to date. I cannot imagine how insane The Long Game will be if Barnes keeps up her escalating the thrill trend in her Fixer series. There were a few things that All In lacked, however, and those are the things that I’ll go into next.

When I first saw the cover and title of this book forever ago, I just knew that Barnes was going to delve into Sloane’s character and background more. I was excited and not entirely let down. So far, Sloane’s character has been incredibly analytical and unknown. She’s an open book with an unorthodox love for caffeine and numbers. This book brought her back to her roots, and I really expected to see interactions between her and her father. However, we saw a relationship blossom between her and the brother who never knew who she was.

While I was fine with the introduction of that new relationship, I still wish there’d been more with her father (though then the book might have been too similar to Killer Instinct). I certainly hope more of Sloane’s father comes up later on in the series. The main problem I had was that there wasn’t enough emphasis on Sloane’s story. It was still entirely Cassie’s story, and in a way that saddened me. Every new reveal led right back to Cassie, which is superb plot writing but I also thing it might be too much. Too coincidental.

This leads me back to the believability issue that arises in books laden with thrill and twists. Do many links between twists and the main character can sometimes lead to someone thinking the story is too coincidental which flaws the believability. I think Barnes is treading a thin line with all the links and, if not careful, she could hinder the story’s believability. I’m still a believer, but the final twist Cassie’s mother might be too far for me. Now of course, I believe in making everything personal for the protagonist, but the link with the mother and the potential link to Lia are almost too close.

I loved all the twists and turns, but I hope it doesn’t get too linky and end up wrapping together like a nice, pretty present. I like things put together perfectly, but that could end up far too coincidental for even me.

The characters were great, though the interpersonal relations weren’t the best that I’ve read from the series thus far. I understand that Cassie has chosen Dean, but her relationship with Michael seemed so different than usual. On top of that, I not too fond of the Cassie and Dean show. It seemed to level this book, and if there needs to be interpersonal tension it should be between them. Cassie should not have told Dean her secret before everyone else. She should have told Sloane since Sloane confided in Cassie, and left Dean to find out during the game like Michael. That would have been good.

I’m incredibly excited for the next book in the series. Things are getting quite intense, and I’m ready to see where Barnes takes the series now. I was let down by Killer Instinct, but the series has definitely stepped it up. Although, I’m getting really creeped out by this Fibonacci sequence. It keeps showing up in my books!

XOXO Tia

REVIEW: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve. Either you’re his true love…or you killed him.”

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue never sees them—until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks to her.

His name is Gansey, and he’s a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul whose emotions range from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She doesn’t believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem. But as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

What I really loved about this book was basically everything. I actually checked out the book from the library a month ago and tried to read it, but ended up just having to return it. I checked it out again and began anew with new eyes. I must have just not been in the supernatural niche a month ago or something because I was totally hooked.

The book sort of had a slow burn, with a lot of pages dedicated to really defining the characters’ motives, thoughts, and actions. By the time the boys and Blue finally joined, I knew everything I needed to know about what made everybody tick.

In a way, this detailing of the characters bothered me somewhat. It was mainly Adam and Noah that bothered me the most. Now don’t get me wrong, I love them both, but one of them got too much emphasis and the other received little to none.

Starting with Adam, his character development keeps bringing up his resentment toward Gansey’s background and money and upbringing. It comes up time and time again and it really irks me how often it comes up. I understand the juxtaposition of Adam and Whelk, and I understand that Adam’s resentment paves the way for the ending of the book. Do I still wish there was less emphasis on this part of his character and maybe just a little more air time for the rest of his personality? Yes.

As for Noah, he’s a smudgy guy and reasonably so considering his history. The thing that bothered me was not so much how little we learn about him, but rather how much he and Blue seemingly bond in no time at all. There’s the time they meet, and then the next time we see them together they’re all BFFs. He pets her hair like she’s his own Blue-pet. I understand the contact thing, I do, but it was just a little odd. And I like odd. Blue just seems to adore Noah as much as he adores her, and I wish I had gotten to know more about the guy that is easily adorable.

I think this book is very unique, and that’s what sort of turned me off the first time but reeled and hooked me the second time. Quest books of this caliber in young adult are an easy find, especially if you were to look in the middle grade section. Love and supernatural are an easy find as well. What’s unique, however, is the merging of the two. The book, and ultimately the series I presume, is a bit of a witch’s cauldron. A little bit of contemporary issues, a dash of love and supernatural, a bug dollop of quest, a pitch of magic and mystery, a hint of chaos and whimsy. It’s got a little bit of everything.

The character I’ve fallen the most in love with would have to be Gansey, which is already a bad move on my part since he’s going to die by the end of series. He’s like an eagle willingly surrounded by broken canaries. He’s got such a depth of character that I haven’t quite experienced with any of the other characters. Ronan is my second favorite for this reason as well, and he might inch forward in the coming books. Blue was a fine character, but I much preferred reading about her when she was with the Raven Boys or her family. Her family was great, and I wish my own were that exciting.

All-in-all, I think the plot was incredibly well developed, and I love that I’ve finished the book and there’s still a lot of mystery. In some books there’s only one mystery that links the series, but there are already so many for this one. I think this series is going to do me in emotionally. I can’t wait!

XOXO Tia

THOUGHTS: Year in Review: 2015

            As the final wispy tendrils of 2015 float into the nether, and the year draws to a close, there’s only one thought that comes to mind: thank goodness it’s the new year!

            The year 2015 for me has certainly been one of those years you just want to throw into the dark, furthest recesses of your closet and never, ever see again. I’ve gone through six jobs this year, people. Six! This has not been a good year for me.

People like to say that you’ll figure your life out when you grow up. They say, “go to college” and “everything will figure itself out in due time”. They’re all liars. I graduated last December and I most definitely do not have anything figured out, and I’m currently day-lighting (or would sun-lighting be the opposite of moonlighting?) as a maid.

It’s more stressful being out of college than in! What I wouldn’t give to be one of those naïve undergrads with no grown-up worries again.

Despite how absolutely insane this year has been, there have been a few highlights (though many more lowlights, but this post is not about those):

1.                    I finally committed to doing this YA review blog. Sure, it’s mainly just me reading and writing everything on here, but it keeps me accountable.

2.                    I’ve been with my girlfriend for a little over a year. We’re like an old married couple, I swear.

3.                    After being lost at sea for a year, I think I’ve finally found solid ground. Both my girlfriend and I have steady, decent paying jobs, and we’re finally starting to pay back all the enormous debts we’ve accrued this year.

4.                    I participated in NaNoWriMo. I didn’t quite make it unfortunately, because I just hit a point where I was writing meaninglessly because I finally understand where my novel was supposed to be. It was a struggle because I wanted to make it, but I decided to begin rewrites before finishing.

Not a long list of accomplishments for 2015, but at least it’s something! This year has been a horrible roller coaster of depression and problems and open sea, but 2016 is my beautiful oasis of an island that I can’t wait to explore.

I hope to read way more books this new year. I’ll, of course, review them all and

write up more thought posts over whatever floats my boat. I’ve got high hopes for this new year. I definitely plan on finishing up this novel before next November, which is when I’ll begin a new novel that I am determined to finish! Third times the charm, right? Or maybe 2016 is the charm. We’ll see! Happy New Year’s Eve!

XOXO Tia