Flo & Wendell

Flo & Wendell by William Wegman
4/5 stars
Dial, 2013
32 pages
Children's Book

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

Just a quick review as I've been busy and haven't had as much time to read as I'd like.

This randomly arrived in the mail and while I'm definitely a cat girl, the image of these dogs in clothes acting like humans caught my imagination. Even now after completing the book the incongruity makes me chuckle, even more so as I like seeing an older sister boss around her younger sibling (oh those were the days!) even when the younger sibling demonstrates some reluctance.

This book's story is very simple, exploring a sibling relationship between Flo and her little brother Wendell. But obviously it's the artwork that is the draw. As can be seen in the cover, it's a mix of photographs of Wegman's own dogs and beautiful colorful paintings. I wish I had more of an artistic eye to do justice to their loveliness but the colors are the part that really gets me. They seem very rich with Flo's pink sweater probably being my favorite hue featured.

Overall: I don't really know any children to recommend this to but if you appreciate sibling stories/have an artistic bent/have an actual child in your life, this could be a fun book to go through together.

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

by April Genevieve Tucholke
3.5/5 stars
Dial, 2013
360 pages
YA Fantastical Horror

Source: Received an ARC through Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest opinion.

My favorite covers tend to have pretty dresses on them (see Wither for example) but something about the font for this one immediately caught my interest and had me positively salivating for its release. I'm so glad I've finally had the chance to pick it up!

Now that I've finished, I'm of two opinions. On the one hand, I loved the writing. I found it absolutely atmospheric and arresting, nearly impossible to put down. But I hated the characters and the fact that the plot felt pretty aimless for the majority of the book before ratcheting up the horror.

Violet and her twin brother Luke live in a falling apart mansion unsupervised while their parents pursue their art abroad. Desperate for some cash, she advertises for a renter and soon enough along comes the charming River West. Coinciding with his arrival are some strange occurrences, ones that have Violet mistrusting her senses as River seems to possess extraordinary powers of persuasion. But he's not the only devil in town...

We'll start with the good, which was the beautiful writing. I found myself completely sucked in and nearly incapable of putting the book down for long. I'd set it down after a chapter, intending to do something else but kept finding myself drawn back to find out what would happen next. BUT then we reach a plot twist that would be a spoiler that led to me thinking what was the point?! We were all set up to believe one thing and then that is taken away and twisted. True, that is the point when things really start getting horrifying and really had me clutching my pearls but it also negated a lot of the information that had previously been shared with us. And not in a way that had me doubting the reliability of the narrator, which was already shaky; rather it is in a way that left me upset with the author for this poor contrivance.

Moving on to the distinctly negative, I didn't feel much of anything for any of the characters and when I did, it was anger with them. I never got much of a feel for Violet outside of her relationship with River, Luke is so disgusting with his machismo, and their neighbor/friend Sunshine seemed to be entirely defined by her sexuality without being allowed a brain. River's manipulation rubbed me the wrong way and obviously I hated that other character who shows up.

Overall: Beautiful writing with some truly horrific events, the writing about which only drives home their horror but with poor characters leading the way. I'm still inclined to check out the second book in this two-part series if only to see if the characters can be deepened and redeemed enough for me to care.

Other Opinions: Again my blogging friends had a lot of thoughts, here are just a few
A Reader of Fictions
Candace's Book Blog
In Bed With Books
Jen Ryland/YA Romantics
The Book Swarm
The Flyleaf Review

Wedding Night

Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella
3.5/5 stars
The Dial Press, 2013
446 pages
Adult "Chick-Lit"

Source: Received a copy from Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review.

Although I don't much like the Shopaholic series, I have loved most of Kinsella's standalones so I was excited to pick this one up. Further adding to that was the knowledge that it featured sisters. Unfortunately my sister put a bit of a damper on my enthusiasm when she said she was not impressed with this book but I think she was being too hard on it as I had a lot of fun with it.

I think a big part of your enjoyment will stem from whether or not you can tolerate someone meddling in the affairs of someone else. This often irks me but when I read about a sister thinking she knows what is best for her five years younger sister, I'm pretty sympathetic (guess how much younger my sister is than me?) And in this case, Fliss has some good reasons for being concerned for Lottie. After every breakup, Lottie has flung herself into some horrendous decisions but this latest is probably her worst: deciding to marry her gap year boyfriend who she hasn't seen in 15 years. Fliss interferes by attempting to prevent them from consummating their marriage so that they can get an annulment when they inevitably realize they are wrong for each other thereby avoiding the trauma of divorce which Fliss is presently undergoing. Needless to say some ludicrously hilarious things occur.

My personal favorite moment is when Lottie and her new husband are on their honeymoon, attempting to cram for a Couples Quiz and he is incapable of answering such simple questions as "What is her favorite alcoholic drink?" However he can answer as if they were Dirk and Sally, the lead characters on their favorite TV show. When they decide to play as Dirk and Sally, the tide changes and they can answer any question perfectly. I have a soft spot for the Newlywed Game and this version of it made me so happy to imagine.

A close second is how Lottie's ex-boyfriend Richard (the one who sends her spiraling into the arms of the old boyfriend) reappears in the story. He realizes he was wrong to have let Lottie go and is planning to fight for her. It's quite romantic although I'm not going to spoil any of the details (does he win Lottie back? No spoilers here!)

Overall: Although this is not my favorite Kinsella book, I think fans will find plenty to love here. Suspension of disbelief has often been necessary for these kinds of books and this one is no exception. It's perfect for a light summery weekend beach read!

My Life Next Door

My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick
4/5 stars
Dial Books, 2012
394 pages
YA Contemporary

Source: Checked out of library

This book has received a lot of praise and, as a lover of contemporary, it always makes me happy to see non-contemporary fans fall for one. Of course, I had to check this book out for myself!

 For years, Samantha Reed has watched the Garrett family, growing to contain eight children to the dismay of her single mother who laments their mess and noise. Still to Sam, it looks spectacular, the kind of life she'd prefer to her sterile spoiled life. One night to her surprise, while she's spying on the Garretts, she is greeted by the third-eldest child, Jase who brings her over and introduces her to a whole new kind of life as they begin a romance.

Parts of this plot strongly reminded me of Sarah Dessen's excellent The Truth About Forever. We have privileged daughter who tries to live up to her mother's expectations including the boring jobs that send out the right image while daughter ends up taking a fun job that opens her up in new ways. However suffice it to say that Jase is no Wes (sa-woon) as Jase doesn't seem to have any flaws (such as a bit of a temper which would have been totally justified at one point) and his "perfectness" is exactly what I dislike most about him. Still he is a good guy rather than the bad boy so I give him points for that.

However as the book progressed, some concerns niggled at me.  First the Reeds are quite wealthy while the Garretts are not. Yet they live right next door to each other. How did the Garretts afford that house? Did they inherit it somehow? Have they really been able to keep up with the property tax? Why didn't Mrs. Reed move? This isn't normally something I'd pick at but the fact that they live next door to each other is the main plot contrivance so I feel like it's fair game.

Next why does Sam have a sister? Personally I loved Tracy and would have liked more of her but she spent most of the book away. On the one hand, she serves as an example of what standing up to their domineering mother looks like; but on the other hand, if she didn't exist, it would have made even more sense for then only child Sam to long for what the boisterous Garrett family has.

Third, I was very displeased with the resolution of Sam and Nan's ruptured friendship. Namely because there wasn't any. There were cruel words, hurt feelings, and then that was it. Their long-standing friendship was dissolved. I guess it's okay because now Sam has Jase and a boy can totally replace your best friend of 12 years-note the sarcasm. I started out the book really happy that Sam at least had one friend and was very disappointed with how this was handled.

Lastly was a sudden plot twist near the end involving Sam's mother. It came out of left field for me and just seemed to be used to add some drama to shake up the book. I understand a book needing that jolt but this particular choice didn't sit well with me. And related to that, I found the ending of the book way too ambiguous. Don't worry, romance fans-that part is stable but for everything else, I wanted to know more.

Warning: Extreme language (one character who didn't make it into this review swears a lot and it made me wince every time), drugs, and sexual content probably make this a better read for the older end of YA.

Overall: A strong start but too many loose threads left me dissatisfied by the end.

Cover: Very cute-love the bright summery yellow as this book takes place over the course of one summer.

Bitterblue

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore
3.5/5 stars
Dial Books, 2012
539 pages
YA Fantasy

Source: Picked up from library to review

I remember when I first read Graceling and Fire. It was actually back to back over spring break in 2010 (hence the quality of the reviews-I didn't really know what I was doing!) And since then I have been eagerly anticipating another story from Cashore with my wish finally fulfilled with this release, picking up approximately nine years later with one of the important characters from Graceling.

Thus this review is really hard to write because I did not love Bitterblue the way I anticipated. I think I have narrowed it down to a couple of main reasons why.

1. One big reason was my inability to connect with the characters.  I think this might be partly intentional as the characters themselves are in deep psychological pain. It has been eight years since the death of Bitterblue's cruel father King Leck who used his Grace to manipulate everyone's minds. They aren't always in their right minds and many are haunted by the actions he made them take. Queen Bitterblue wants to be a good queen but due to her youth, she is not always able to assert herself and is often looking to her advisers for what she should do next.

2. I also had some general confusion about all of the lies, of who wanted what and who knew what when. Again this is understandable due to the havoc wreaked by Leck but it was difficult for this reader to parse all of the lies, cover-ups, and conspiracies.

3. Another big piece of the lacking was the romance. Bitterblue (another problem was that I kept wanting to call her Butterblue) wants to know more about her kingdom so she starts sneaking out at night, meeting two honorable thieves. She falls for Sapphire (whose name sounds like a girl's name) and I just did not like him. I much preferred his friend Teddy. Thus any time Bitterblue swooned for him, I questioned her judgment. Sapphire spends much of the book being a jerk-why does she like him again?

It's not all bad; there were still a lot of good points. Cashore is an amazing writer and despite the length of this book, it moves fairly quickly. It's definitely a big time commitment but there are quite a few things to really enjoy.

1. One was the character Death (rhymes with teeth) who is the court librarian, loves cats, and has the ability to remember everything he's ever read. He's a new character but one I really enjoyed meeting.

2.  There are a lot of extras in the back of the book such as maps, which help the reader keep track of where characters are located in every scene. I've read some other fantasies that did not include maps and I was grateful that this book included them.

3. There are some really cool examples of ciphering and codes in this book. I particularly loved Bitterblue's discovery of some codes from her parents. I can't share too much without spoiling something.

One note: Bitterblue is billed as a standalone on the jacket flap but I would not recommend that. I would say you'd need to read at least Graceling in order for this book to make sense and it wouldn't hurt to read Fire as well beforehand.

Impossible

Impossible by Nancy Werlin

Dial Books, 2008

364 pages

YA

Source: Library

Summary: Lucy discovers that she is another family member doomed to be cursed: she will become pregnant at seventeen, give birth, and descend into madness as her daughter grows up to repeat the cycle unless they can perform three seemingly impossible tasks. But Lucy has something earlier generations didn't have: a loving foster family, notes from her birth mother, and Zach. Inspired by the ballad "Scarborough Fair."

Thoughts: I've been wanting to read this for a while so I was very excited to pick it up at my library. I was not familiar with the ballad but I had seen some reviews around and they seemed largely positive. I'm glad I picked it up because I flew through it.

I really loved the characters; I felt for Lucy as she was struggling to make sense of everything. I loved her foster parents Soledad and Les who were so loving to her and supportive. I liked her (basically only) friend Sarah. And I liked Zach...

In fact I think Zach is a big part of my happiness with this book; he sounds super hot and is basically just a fantastic guy as evidenced by this quote: "...who had just told her she was competent to take care of herself, but who was still there to hold her up anyway" (116). He knows that she is strong and can take care of herself but he still wants to be there along the way to help her if she stumbles and to love her when she needs it and to watch her be awesome.

The tasks set to Lucy were quite difficult-I'm still not entirely sure how she completed the first one but it doesn't really matter because in the end "True love conquers all!" (Does anyone else sing this like they do in Sleeping Beauty?)

The villain, the man who had placed the curse on Lucy's family, is suitably creepy and I felt dread when he showed up because obviously nothing good was going to happen but I also felt drawn to him like the characters in the book do because he had that magnetism.

Warning: There is a brief rape scene, which is obviously horrifying.

Overall: 4.5/5. I'm not sure this deserves this high of a rating but it was so much better than some of the other stuff I've read this week that this is more of a immediate reaction; later on I may feel it is more deserving of a 4.