Claire Stevens's Blog, page 19

Waiting On Wednesday - In Some Other Life by Jessica Brody

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme that was created by Jill at Breaking the Spine and it's a chance for us all to highlight the upcoming releases we're eagerly anticipating.  This week, my Waiting on Wednesday pick is In Some Other Life by Jessica Brody.  Here's the blurb:


Three years ago, Kennedy Rhodes secretly made the most important decision of her life. She declined her acceptance to the prestigious Windsor Academy to attend the local public school with her longtime crush, who had finally asked her out. It seems it was the right choice—she and Austin are still together, and Kennedy is now the editor in chief of the school's award-winning newspaper. But then Kennedy's world is shattered one evening when she walks in on Austin kissing her best friend, and she wonders if maybe her life would have been better if she'd made the other choice. As fate would have it, she's about to find out . . .


The very next day, Kennedy falls and hits her head and mysteriously awakes as a student at the Windsor Academy. And not just any student: Kennedy is at the top of her class, she's popular, she has the coolest best friend around, and she's practically a shoo-in for Columbia University. But as she navigates her new world, she starts to wonder whether this alternate version of herself really is as happy as everyone seems to believe. Is it possible this Kennedy is harboring secrets and regrets of her own?

What about you?  What new releases are you eagerly anticipating?

Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen

Peyton, Sydney's charismatic older brother, has always been the star of the family, receiving the lion's share of their parents' attention and—lately—concern. When Peyton's increasingly reckless behavior culminates in an accident, a drunk driving conviction, and a jail sentence, Sydney is cast adrift, searching for her place in the family and the world. When everyone else is so worried about Peyton, is she the only one concerned about the victim of the accident?

This book is basically the reason you should never give up on an author after just one book.  It was fun, it had bite, there was tension and a genuine moral maze to navigate and I came away really pleased that I'd picked it up.

Before this I'd only ever read one Sarah Dessen book - The Truth About Forever.  It was okay-ish, but it was a bit tepid.  It didn't blow me away and I came away feeling a bit let down, like I'd wasted however many hours of my life that I'd never get back.

The characters were engaging and showed actual growth throughout the book.  I really liked Sydney and was angry at her parents. The plot is sad and hopeful in equal measure.  The romance was sweet and I liked that it didn't overpower the rest of what was going on and I especially liked that there was more focus on the friendship between Sydney and Layla than on the romance.  In fact, the romance could have been completely written out and it wouldn't have changed the impact of the book that much.

There were a few things that reminded me of The Truth About Forever - the plot was wrapped up quite quickly inthe end and while this book had more tension, it was still fairly plain sailing to the end and although there was some bickering, everyone was pretty nice.  I generally prefer my books to have some truly despicable characters included - especially when the author ends up making me care for them.

I'm so glad I gave this book a chance and I'll probably pick up other books by Sarah Dessen in future.

4 stars

I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios

It gave me hope: if you could make a beautiful piece of art from discarded newspapers and old matchbooks, then it meant that everything had potential. And maybe people were like collages—no matter how broken or useless we felt, we were an essential part of the whole. We mattered.

I quite enjoyed this book.  It wasn't really what I was expecting - it's quite gritty and realistic, and deeply emotional - but I liked it.  It deals with a lot of issues - PTSD, difficult family relationships, homelessness, substance abuse - and none of it feels skated-over.

Skylar is counting down the days until she graduates and leaves Creek View, the small backwater town she has lived in her whole life, for college in San Francisco.  After her dad's death, her mum has struggled to cope and she seems to beona downward spiral that may pur Skylar's plans on hold indefinitely.

Josh, on the other hand, escaped Creek View a couple of years agofor the Marines.  But a serious injury means he's come back and he and Skylar reconnect working at the local motel.

Skylar was a nice enough protagonist - she was hardworking and didn't take crap from anyone.  Her desperation to escape Creek View was palpable as well as her terror at getting drawn into a relationship that might see her go down the same path as her mum.  I liked Josh too and his relationship with Skylar was very sweet.  Neither of them tries to fix the other - they just take each other for what they are (although the narrative does skate a bit close to the wind with the old 'Loveis a cure for mental illness' trope).

It was refreshing to read a book set in California that portrayed California as slightly trashy and not the utopia it's generally painted as (have you seen those Visit California TV ads??)  I quite liked the seediness of Creek View, and I could understand Skylar's desperation to escape.

Skylar does have a pretty hard time of it, trying to sort her mum out and deal with her mum's creepy boyfriend as well.  You know how all good novels have that bit towards the end where the protagonist is at their lowest ebb?  Like everything that can go wrong has gone wrong and it's all 'Why hast thou forsaken me, Lord?'  Well, the lowest ebb bit of this book is literally the lowest anyone could get to and still be not dead, and yet everything gets sorted out in time for the acknowledgements page. I don't know.  Kind of felt a bit rushed there at the end.

Did I love this book?  No.  Did I like it?  Yeah, I did.  Not massively, but it was pretty good.

4 stars

Waiting on Wednesday - The Big F by Maggie Ann Martin

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme that was created by Jill at Breaking the Spine and it's a chance for us all to highlight the upcoming releases we're eagerly anticipating.  This week, my Waiting on Wednesday pick is The Big F by Maggie Ann Martin.  Here's the blurb:

Danielle effed up. Big time.

Danielle's plans for the future were pretty easy to figure out... until she failed senior English and her single college application was denied. Suddenly she's in hot water with very few options, because honestly who applies to a safety school when their mom is a semi-famous "college psychic"?!

Determined to get her life back on track, Danielle enrolls in her hometown community college with a plan: pass her English class and get back into Ohio State—and her mother's good graces. Romance isn't on her radar... until she reconnects with her childhood crush and golden-boy-next-door, Luke.

Between family drama, first love and finding her own way, Danielle can't help but feel a little overwhelmed. Thankfully she has her friendship with the snarky and frustratingly attractive Porter, her coworker at the campus bookstore, to push her to experience new things and help keep her afloat.


What about you?  What new releases are you eagerly anticipating?

Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel

This book had been recommended to me by a number of people and we even had a copy knocking around at home, but it's still taken me a good couple of years to finally pick it up and actually read it.

And I'm so glad I did.  This book is so unusual and interesting, I ended up really enjoying it.  The presmise is that a famous actor dies on stage at the same time as a particularly virulent strain of flu starts sweeping the world, leading to the collapse of civilisation and the decimation of humanity.

The plot dots between a post-apolcalypse world and the pre-apocalypse world.  In the post-apocalypse world, a group of actors and musicians called The Travelling Symphony travel around the US putting on Shakespeare plays and playing musicfor the disparate communities they find because 'Survival is insuifficient' (their motto).  Like even though civilisation has collapsed, it's important to remember where we came from.  

The pre-apocalypse world revolves around Arthur Leander, the actor who dies onstage, and the lifehe has lead,alongwithone of his ex-wives who writes a comic book called Station Eleven.  Although the two time frames are connected, the book ends up feeling a bit like a series of interconnected short stories.  In a good way.  It's so hard to describe, but it's definitely worth taking a punt on.

Also it's a perfect example of how SFF doesn't just have to be pulp or a potboiler (although it can, and that's fine too) - it can actually cross over into literary fiction and pose really interesting philosophical questions.

My only regret with this book was that it took me so long to get round to reading it.

4 stars

Waitingon Wednesday - Breaking by Danielle Rollins

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme that was created by Jill at Breaking the Spine and it's a chance for us all to highlight the upcoming releases we're eagerly anticipating.  This week, my Waiting on Wednesday pick is Breaking by Danielle Rollins.  Here's the blurb:

Charlotte doesn’t fit in with her two best friends, or with anyone else at the Underhill Preparatory Institute, her cut-throat school for the rich and gifted.
But when those best friends kill themselves suddenly, Charlotte doesn’t know where to turn. Were they keeping secrets? Could Charlotte be the reason they did it? Because Charlotte has a secret of her own...

Now Charlotte must decide how much she will risk to discover the truth.

What about you?  What new releases are you eagerly anticipating?

Waiting on Wednesday - The Wood by Chelsea Bobulski

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme that was created by Jill at Breaking the Spine and it's a chance for us all to highlight the upcoming releases we're eagerly anticipating.  This week, my Waiting on Wednesday pick is The Wood by Chelsea Bobulski.  Here's the blurb:

Do not travel from the paths.
Do not linger after dark.
Do not ignore the calling.

Winter didn't ask to be the guardian of the wood, but when her dad inexplicably vanishes, she's the one who must protect travelers who accidentally slip through the wood's portals.

The wood is poisoned, changing into something more sinister. Once brightly colored leaves are now bubbling inky black. Vicious creatures that live in the shadows are becoming bolder, torturing lost travelers. Winter must now put her trust in Henry--a young man from eighteenth century England who knows more than he should about the wood--in order to find the truth and those they've lost.

What about you?  What new releases are you eagerly anticipating?

My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Jodi Meadows and Brodi Ashton

The comical, fantastical, romantical, (not) entirely true story of Lady Jane Grey. In My Lady Jane, coauthors Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows have created a one-of-a-kind fantasy in the tradition of The Princess Bride, featuring a reluctant king, an even more reluctant queen, a noble steed, and only a passing resemblance to actual history—because sometimes history needs a little help.

At sixteen, Lady Jane Grey is about to be married off to a stranger and caught up in a conspiracy to rob her cousin, King Edward, of his throne. But those trifling problems aren’t for Jane to worry about. Jane is about to become the Queen of England.

This book started off so well, but it quickly went downhill.

I think one of the problems was that I was expecting like a historical novel.  Lady Jane Grey is one of my favourite historical figures- so little is known about her and she only reigned for nine days, but she's a perfect exampleof the political machinations of the period and how a few powerful families would do literally anything to get and hold onto the throne.  

So I expected a historical novel with maybe a modern twist but what I got was like ... I don't even know. It was like a fantasy novel where people shape-shift, except instead of being exciting and cool, it was kind of dull.

It was like these three authors had taken the names of some historical figures and created a completely different story, which doesn't sound too bad except I wasn't really a fan of the story they created.  It was too long and not enough happened and I didn't connect with any of the characters.

The romance was really unsatisfying.  I kept thinking that they were going to kiss, but they kept like ... not kissing.

It was such a shame.  Even as a slightly-bizarre fantasy novel it had enormous potential, but I just found the plot a bit boring and by the time I got halfway through I started skimming.

2 stars

Dumplin' by Julie Murphy

Self-proclaimed fat girl Willowdean Dickson (dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom) has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. With her all-American beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked…until Will takes a job at Harpy’s, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn’t surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back.

Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Clover City beauty pageant—along with several other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as any twiggy girl does. Along the way, she’ll shock the hell out of Clover City—and maybe herself most of all.

This book started out really really well. Willowdean Dickson is a fat girl from a small town in Texas whose claim to fame is that it holds the oldest beauty pageant in America every year.  So in a town that is hugely obsessed with feminine beauty, and with a mum who is a former winner of the pageant, you'd think that Willowdean would be all cowed and self-hating.  

Not on your nelly.  Willow dean had a really real voice.  She was comfortable in her own skin but also hated the pressure and expectations society puts on her.

But this isn't just a book about a fat girl.  It's about family and friendship and Dolly Parton.  There's some romance and although I don't like love triangles in general, I could actually see the point of this one.  Willowdean has to choose between two guys, the guy who's sweet and she considers tobe 'in her league' or the guy who's bloody gorgeous but she worries that people will comment and judge them and wonder how she managed to bag a guy like that.

While I really loved Willowdean's confidence, I wasn't so struck on her judginess when it came to the other characters.  She thinks mean thoughts about people like literally all the time.  Poor old Millie gets a right internal-monologue roasting and for someone who hates the way society views her this came across as pretty hypocritical, especially as Willowdean also says 'If it's not your body, it's not your body to comment on'.  She's mean about the girls who work at the clothes shop with her best friend and calls them skanks, which isn't cool either.  I know this just means she's human and imperfect, but it really jarred considering the body-positivity message the book was trying to promote.

I enjoyed reading this book - it had a lovely flow to it and was really easy to pick up.  Willowdean's monologue - judginess aside - was really easy to get caught up in.

3.5 stars

Waiting on Wednesday - In 27 Days by Alison Gervais

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme that was created by Jill at Breaking the Spine and it's a chance for us all to highlight the upcoming releases we're eagerly anticipating.  This week, my Waiting on Wednesday pick is In 27 Days by Alison Gervais.  Here's the blurb:

Hadley Jamison is shocked when she hears that her classmate, Archer Morales, has committed suicide. She didn’t know the quiet, reserved guy very well, but that doesn’t stop her from feeling there was something she could have done to help him. Hoping to find some sense of closure, Hadley attends Archer’s funeral. There, Hadley is approached by a man who calls himself Death and offers her a deal. If Hadley accepts, she will be sent back 27 days in time to prevent Archer from killing himself. But when Hadley agrees to Death’s terms and goes back to right the past, she quickly learns her mission is harder than she ever could have known.

Hadley soon discovers Archer’s reasons for being alone, and Archer realizes that having someone to confide in isn’t as bad as he’d always thought. But when a series of dangerous accidents starts pushing them apart, Hadley must decide whether she is ready to risk everything—including her life—to keep Archer safe.

What about you?  What new releases are you eagerly anticipating?