QB1

QB1 by Mike Lupica
3.5/5 stars
Philomel Books, 2013
267 pages
YA Contemporary

Source: Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I received this unsolicited from the publisher and decided to give it a chance after reading the back cover comparing its "glamour and emotion(s)" to that of the amazing Friday Night Lights. Well that's a pretty big standard so I was intrigued to see if the book could in fact live up to that.

I definitely got those comparisons as this book is deeply grounded in small town Texas and its fascination with high school football. The main character in this book is the son of a star high school quarterback and the younger brother of a star high school quarterback who is expected by those stars to live up to the same high standards. However he has some competition for the position of quarterback as well as feelings of inferiority over the fact that his father seems to prefer his brother to him.

To start with, the MC's name is Jacob Cullen. Um, what? I don't think the target audience for this book (probably middle-grade to young adult males) will have the same reaction as me but us bloggers might have some feelings about this choice :) The story itself is pretty straightforward covering an entire football season as they pursue glory. An obsession with football is well-documented with radio stations eagerly following the competition to be first-string quarterback and with restaurants offering 50% off after a win-everyone is heavily invested in these boys and their successes (or not) on the gridiron. And that's almost all there is. Plays are described in detail, really too much detail for me but I'd love to see what some football lovers think of it.

Personally I would have liked to known more about Jake. Apparently he pulls straight A's but we never see him in class or really doing anything but playing football, feeling things about his relationship with his dad, and angsting over a girl. Jake is a freshman with very clean thoughts about said girl, which is why I estimate that this might be appropriate for a middle-grade audience. I'm used to sport books having more language and sexual thoughts as they target older readers-this one is quite clean though.

Overall: A cute enough read but I'm not really the audience for it; I wanted more character depth and less football plays.

Other Opinions:
The Reading Date

ARC Review: Proxy

Proxy by Alex London
4/5 stars
Philomel Books, 2013
380 pages
YA Science-Fiction
Scheduled to release June 18

Source: Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This book was sent to me for possible review by the publisher and I entered it with very little expectations. It hadn't been much on my radar probably because it is darker, more action-packed, and less romantic than my typical read. Regardless I still quite enjoyed myself.

In the future, wealthy Patrons can do whatever they want but someone always pays. That someone is a Proxy, owing a blood debt from childhood that they may never be able to repay. Knox and Sydney have been entwined like that for years. When Knox crashes a car and kills his passenger, he sentences Sydney to a lifetime of servitude. But there are still a few tricks up his sleeve and Sydney ends up taking Knox hostage as they run for their lives, looking for a jubilee, a way to crash the system and forgive all debts, upending the entire system.

First I wanted to mention that Sydney's name is Sydney Carton as Proxies draw their names from old literature. If you've read A Tale of Two Cities, this name is so appropriate and once I made that connection, I pretty much squealed with glee. I'm not really sure how I feel about him-Syd is an okay guy whose brains I admired but who I wasn't as warm and fuzzy about as I have been for other MCs. I do know how I feel about Knox though; I hated him. He is such a selfish jerk. Luckily over the course of the novel, Knox grows up a little and becomes almost tolerable. There are quite a few other characters but I don't want to go in to them for fear of spoilers.

As for the plot, I love the idea of a futuristic story about a whipping boy who could end society as they know it by invoking an event from Old Testament times. That's just such a cool plot line to me. This book was almost non-stop action with every chapter spurring you on to the next one until you finished it. The book ends pretty abruptly but I found it satisfying. This is the beginning of a trilogy so rest assured that your lingering questions should be answered in books to come.

Content: There is a lot of violence and drug use-I don't remember there being any language.

Overall: I liked this one and thought it was pretty cool but I'm not in love with it or anything. Craving more dystopia? Love lots of action? Give this one a try.

Other Opinions:
Forever Young Adult
Jen Ryland/YA Romantics
My 5 Monkeys

Small Damages

Small Damages by Beth Kephart
2/5 stars
Philomel Books, 2012
288 pages
YA Historical Realistic

Source: Library

After having some mixed experiences with Kephart's previous works, I had decided to swear her off, sensing that we just did not click. But then in the year end wrap-ups, I saw some of my favorite bloggers praising her latest (see below for links) so I gave in and picked this up at the library. As you can see from my rating, I ought to have abstained.

After her father's death, Kenzie discovers she is pregnant by her Yale-bound boyfriend (realized that my opening may have made this sound like an incest book, which it's not) and she insists on giving birth to the baby. So her mother arranges for an adoption and for Kenzie to reluctantly spend the summer in Spain where the adoptive parents reside. There she meets people and discovers things.

While I can see the beauty in Kephart's writing, I just found the entire experience of reading this so dull and unengaging. I felt dropped into the story without necessary contexts; I spent most of the story thinking it was set in 2012 (it's not; it's 1995-why 1995? I don't know); I think there might have been a new romance blossoming for Kenzie with a boy in Spain but I'm not sure; I'm not entirely sure when and how she got pregnant beyond knowing in my head the mechanics of human reproduction. Was it a reaction to the death of her beloved father? I didn't get a good feeling for their connection (and that's bringing all the feelings about my dad into this story-I know I would have been devastated so why can't I imagine Kenzie as devastated? She didn't feel real to me.) There were some very emotional moments for the characters in the book but I just felt nothing beyond boredom and wondering if I could still count this as a book read if I skimmed to the end (I decided that it does.)

Suffice it to say that I can recognize the skill in the writing here but it all left me cold. I wanted to feel something, I should have felt something considering the themes touched on and yet nothing.

Other Opinions-all positive so you can get another perspective on this book's merits:
Forever Young Adult
Jen Ryland/YA Romantics
My Friend Amy

ARC Review: Out of the Easy

Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
5/5 stars
Philomel Books, 2013
346 pages
YA Historical
Scheduled for February 13

Source: Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

So I knew this was set in New Orleans but I didn't realize it was historical, set in 1950. Other surprises included the setting of a brothel and menacing mobsters. Our heroine is Josie Moraine, daughter of a prostitute, who has pulled away from her mother, earning an honest living at a bookstore and dreaming about a college education away from the town where everyone knows she's a prostitute's daughter. But she also cleans the rooms of the brothel and is deeply reluctantly attached to the madam, the canny Willie and the other women in the house.

When a visiting prominent Tennessean businessman is killed in the French Quarter, Josie mourns, having met the sweet guy at the bookstore. What she doesn't expect is the role that her mother may have played in his murder nor the crooked people who are involved nor the actions it may force her to take.

I don't know how to properly explain my feelings about this book. I'll admit that I didn't enter it with the highest expectations. Yes, Sepetys had already scored with her excellently personal Between Shades of Grey but who thought she'd do it again with such a different story? Plus the South and the 1950s have never been among my favorite reading topics. But this book was absolutely amazing. I kept saying to myself, "I'll just read one more chapter..." until I reached the end and there was no more.

I think most of the credit goes to the delightfully sensitive Josie. Although she's been let down by her good-for-nothing selfish mother and essentially nonexistent father, she has acquired a family of her own including the aforementioned Willie, other workers at the brothel, her bookstore coworker Patrick, and local mechanic and hottie Jesse. I also admired Josie's ambition and drive--she's worked hard for everything she has in life, sometimes against impossible odds without losing her principles and sense of self.

Now I did receive an ARC, which may explain why the chronology of a few scenes felt off. Some pieces of information were explained after when they were actually need earlier. I will need to consult a finished copy to see if this was remedied.

Content warning: Well, it is partially set in a brothel but it's pretty clean actually.

Overall: You NEED to read this book-seriously!

Rift

Rift by Andrea Cremer
3/5 stars
Philomel Books, 2012
430 pages
YA Paranormal Historical

Source: Library

Unlike a lot of people, I did not end Bloodrose furious at Andrea Cremer for one particular event (seriously, there are some angry reviews on goodreads.) So when I decided to treat myself by taking a break from review copies and choosing something special to read, this prequel to the Nightshade trilogy was at the top of my list.

It is billed as delivering the history of Bosque Mar as well as setting the scene for the rift between the Keepers and the Searchers. I have admired Cremer's world-building and history credentials (she has a Ph.D. in early modern history) so I figured this historical setting in 1404 would be incredibly realized as well as featuring the addictive writing that kept me turning pages.

Well I was partly right. I loved the historical settings and I read this book fairly quickly (sidenote: I don't always like deckle-edges but I really liked it on this book). My favorite part was probably in the beginning when we meet Ember Morrow, our heroine for the trilogy, who only survived at birth due to a very skilled healer and whose life is now owed to Conatus for sending that healer. Her father wants otherwise, preferring to use Ember as a tool to enrich his status through her marriage but he cannot fight yet. Ember for her part is thrilled to join Conatus, scorning the wifely arts of weaving and managing a household and craving adventure with her best friend Alistair Hart. 

However once she joins the order she becomes highly infatuated with her mentor Barrow Hess, whose age is probably significantly older than her sixteen years (I could not get past this-I realize he can't be that old in the grand scheme of things but this particular age gap grossed me out.)  I was so bored reading on much Ember was attracted to Barrow and since their teaching relationship requires that they spend a lot of time together, it popped up a lot.  I think it might have been more tolerable if the story was in first-person but as a third-person narrative, I don't think that much time needed to be spent on this guy.

The main reason for third-person narrative seems to be to follow Eira, a fellow warrior of Conatus, who becomes entangled with Bosque Mar. This really gains steam in the latter half but I wasn't very invested in the whole adventure. I really wish I remember Mar better as he certainly has the potential to be a very evil villain as some of his deeds in this book suggest.  But Eira was somewhat sketchily drawn here and I always felt jarred when the book shifted to focus on her to the exclusion of Ember.

Overall: My general attitude toward this book is very neutral. It didn't inspire many passionate feelings in me (except for loathing the Ember/Barrow romance, which was so dull) nor did I find it as addictive as the Nightshade trilogy. I will probably not be continuing.

Bloodrose

Bloodrose by Andrea Cremer
Philomel, 2012
406 pages
YA; Paranormal; Wolves
4/5 stars

Source: Library

My feelings about this series have been so frustrating. Calla is a character I want to root for as I always want to support the main character and to be able to identify with her (or him) and to find some part of myself reflected. But Calla defies that with her hormones directing her actions, with her indecisiveness, with the attempts to portray her as a great feminist when her actions do not support those words. Maybe there is some of me in there but it's not a part I want to search for.

It has been very illuminating reading other feelings about this book, many decrying Calla's personality and actions in much more articulate ways than I can. But there are also some crazy Ren fangirls-I just don't get it (and I mean crazy, as in dictating what they expected Cremer to deliver to them). Shay is the marginally better partner in my opinion although I am extremely anti-alpha males in books, tending to prefer a more sensitive guy who won't get all up in my face and <bleep> every girl he can find.  I can see that Ren has a character arc and experiences some growth but first impressions are lasting and that gross guy always seemed to linger. Meanwhile Shay seems to be separating from Calla, partly due to her desire not to hurt Ren but also due to

While the characters drove me crazy, I continue to admire Cremer's backstory and the history of these characters. It felt rich and like there is so much more for us to discover. It really reflects Cremer's long-time interest in witchcraft and warfare, that led to her Ph.D in early modern history (per the bio on the back cover). Additionally her writing draws me in and pulls me along, as I sped through this book. I was a little bit intimidated by its heft but I sped through it due to the easy writing style and good plotting.

A few last quibbles, starting with the way that time passed. It seemed like everything happened over just a few days, way too fast to be able to process everything. I also think the ending could be quite polarizing; it wasn't to my taste as I would have preferred the opposite fate for Calla (hopefully this makes sense to those of you who've read the book and no I don't mean which boy). I think I'm at peace with the decision but I don't think I would have ended the book like that. It certainly left me with lots to ponder.

Shattered Souls

Shattered Souls by Mary Lindsey
Philomel, 2011
326 pages
YA; Paranormal
5/5 stars

Source: Library

After seeing this cover, I fell absolutely head over heels in love and I was most excited to dive in to this book even despite my wariness of YA paranormal. Such wariness seemed justified as I learned more about the premise of the book while reading.

A young girl is informed that she is the reincarnated soul of a powerful paranormal figure; this news comes from her centuries old protector in the form of the hottest guy. However there are some changes from previous cycles. First she doesn't remember who she is and then it's been significantly longer than usual since her last cycle. Now I don't know what books you've read, but this plot reminded me very strongly of Angelfire, a book that I didn't like. However it was the main character who irked me there because I thought she didn't take her new role seriously and clung too strenuously to her "normal" life.  Happily that is not the case here.

While newly seventeen-year old Lenzi does have trouble believing the crazy things this guy Alden tells her and she seems to fall in lust with him immediately (although since I pictured him as my go-to YA guy William Moseley, I have no idea why this guy is in my head but he is also my Peeta and Will from Firelight, I did not blame her), she also embraces her role. That is partly because it convinces her that she is not schizophrenic like her father was and partly because it helps her begin to heal. She thought she was descending into madness and instead she discovers that she has tremendous powers to help the world.

I did find some of the descriptions difficult because much of it is mental and involves the concept of a soul. These aren't images for which I already have formed pictures nor are they something I think much about. Still I think I have a handle on what happens when Lenzi and Alden aid or confront an earthbound spirit. I also really liked learning about the agency that runs this, the ICDC. I like knowing there's an ultimate head of the group who presides over them with rules and paperwork (there is a lot of paperwork that needs to get done).

One last element I would be remiss to skip over is that at the beginning of the book, Lenzi had a boyfriend Zak. On the one hand, Zak is a decent guy who was basically Lenzi's only friend On the other hand, Lenzi desperately wants to avoid the fate of her father while Zak faces his demons the same way as his father (father died of an overdose and Zak drinks far to excess).  Alcohol fuels the worst side of Zak and puts Lenzi in danger. Furthermore her close association with Alden as well as his consumption of alcohol turns Zak into a jealous crazed man who adds additional fright to the book beyond the spirits Lenzi must work with or fight.

Oh, I also forgot to mention one thing-this appears to be a stand-alone! As of this time, goodreads does not show it to be part of a YA trilogy as Lindsey is working on a novel with a completely different concept. Sadly I kind of wish there would be another book but at least Lindsey has another novel in the works because I am very excited for it!

Between Shades of Gray

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
Philomel Books, 2011
341 pages
YA; Historical
4.5/5 stars

Source: Library

After reading Shades of Milk and Honey, I really wanted to read this book. Not because there's much similar about them (a light Austen-esque fantasy and a serious look at Lithuanian refugees during WWII) but because the titles were so similar to me and I kept confusing them. Well, never again will I confuse them as they were vastly different experiences.

This one features main character Lina, a normal teenager in Lithuania with loving parents and a brother. But almost immediately that world is shattered when Lina, her mother, and brother are rounded up by Soviet soldiers and deported as thieves and prostitutes. They are starved, beaten, and humiliated because they have been deemed subversive elements, antithetical to the Soviet communist ideal.  They were stripped of their possessions, forced to work, and in many cases separated from their family forever.

There were two main things I appreciated about this book. First was how it educated me about something I didn't know. While I knew about Joseph Stalin's and the USSR's "cleansing" of the lands under their control, I had not pieced that together with how Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were part of the USSR. It's so abhorrent and hard for me to fathom, especially with America and other countries basically turning a blind eye. The Author's Note was wonderful, celebrating the human spirit of those countries as they regained their independence in the wake of the dissolution of the USSR.

The other was the sparseness in the writing. It wasn't overwrought, forcing me to picture the horror yet successfully conveyed it nonetheless. Lina's fight for survival was heartbreaking; she was so determined to not give in against such overwhelming odds. One of the most difficult parts for me was the realization, along with Lina, that her family helped her cousin's family escape Lithuania and thereby most probably sealed their own fate of being taken. The book also examines the moral conflicts of how some collaborated, such as in the example of a woman prostituting herself to Soviet soldiers to protect her son and how others turned a blind eye, choosing to protect themselves.

Overall: An intense historical fiction covering a part of history that doesn't receive much attention although it should; especially recommended for how the story is about fighting human evil with love and courage.

Wolfsbane

Wolfsbane by Andrea Cremer
Philomel, 2011
390 pages
YA; Paranormal
3.5/5 stars

Source: Bought

This was a very frustrating experience for me because most of the YA books I've read that feature love triangles are pretty obviously bent to one side (now, I do tend to avoid love triangle stories so my experience is not necessarily representative of the current trends in YA lit). But this book, while leaning one way, has not obviously knocked out the other player.

On the one hand, Shay seems to be the obvious victor. He's now a wolf with a mysterious destiny, has a much higher page count than Ren, makes Calla a little bit jealous, and basically seals the deal by the end of the book. (He's also my personal pick as Ren did some low things to Calla in the first book. Although I'm also on a kill the main character kick, which seems unlikely in this first-person narrated book but if Calla were to die to save her pack, leaving Shay and Ren to mourn, I'd be down with that.)  And yet Ren still remains a presence, confusing Calla's mind and heart.  While I say that I love unpredictability, that element in the triangle is annoying me. I just want Calla to make a decision and remain with it instead of constantly twisting herself. She's supposed to be the alpha, the confident leader and yet when this trips her up, I lose respect for her.

That's the main reason for the low rating. Another is that the characters aren't really exciting to me. Nightshade ended by introducing a bunch of new characters, who are more fleshed out in this book, but none of them grabbed me. We also get to see some more of Calla's pack and the hated villains of the first book but most of the book is spent on the newbies.

The other reason is that I didn't feel very drawn to finish this book. I started it, abandoned it about halfway through, and then came back to it because I knew I wanted to post this review. Thus I did not find it quite as compelling as Nightshade.

However I do think Andrea Cremer shines when giving us backstory and world-building because I gobbled those bits up. I suppose it might have something to do with her being a history professor but the wolf mythology and the way that history has been disseminated among the various rival groups within the Nightshade trilogy has me hooked. I will probably read the third book just to see the unraveling of the past lies and for more of the well-written action scenes.

Overall: Love the wolf parts; not really enjoying the romance.

Invisible Girl

Invisible Girl by Mary Hanlon Stone

Philomel Books, 2010

279 pages

YA; Contemporary

4/5 stars

Source: Won an ARC from Khy at Frenetic Reader

Summary: Stephanie lives in Boston with her abusive mother and cowed father.  When her mother walks out on them, her father sends her to friends in California where she has the chance to remake herself.

Thoughts: Honestly I mostly wanted to read this book because the main character's name is Stephanie and I love seeing my name in print.

At about the halfway point, I was not enjoying this but I pushed through and ended up being pleasantly surprised.  The book opens in a confused way as Stephanie huddles in a closet and the reader tries to figure out her family situation.  Basically her mother is an alcoholic who beats her and her father is a loser.  So she is sent to California.

When in California she meets Annie, who seems nice but is quickly revealed as a mean girl in the vein of her father while her mother is rather spineless.  Stephanie tries to navigate this difficult world and eventually sees a chance of escape when a new girl arrives for the mean girl crowd to torment.

I guess I didn't like seeing Stephanie being a coward although she does love to read (woot!)  I liked when she FINALLY started standing up for herself.  Another problem for me was that they were only 14 but sometimes seemed a lot older.  I really do feel more comfortable with 16-18 year old main characters in YA-personal preference!  I'm glad that I got through it but I don't know who I'd recommend it to.

Overall: A satisfying ending that some readers might not reach if they don't want to muddle through mean girl antics.

Cover: It definitely reflects a girl who's desperate to hide herself.