Marie August's Blog, page 11

Book Review: Heist Society by Ally Carter

A caper adventure for teens

Heist Society by Ally Carter

Reading Level: Young Adult
Release Date: February 9, 2010
Pages: 304 pages
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Source: Library
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

Katarina Bishop belongs to a close-knit extended family whose members have been international art thieves for generations. Her mother brought her father into the business when she married him, and Kat's dad developed a brilliant flare for art theft. Kat, too, has the family gift in spades--she has been trained by her parents since she was three years old to participate in heists, doing them with both her parents until her mother's death a few years ago, and after that in conjunction with her father and other family members.

When Kat was 13 years old, she met 14-year-old W.W. Hale the fifth when he interrupted her while she was attempting to steal his grandmother's Monet in his family's enormous mansion. Much like's Kat's father's romance with her mother, Hale's instant attraction to Kat, and his willingness to, quite literally, follow her to the ends of the earth, pulled Hale into Kat's family business. Over the previous two years, Hale has become nearly as adept at art theft as Kat, but during the past few months, though Hale has remained an art thief, Kat has attempted to retire for her own survival.

She has decided that if she does not imprison herself willingly in a boarding school, sooner or later she will inevitably become an unwillingly inhabitant of an actual prison. Fabricating the records required to get herself accepted into the school was to have been her final con. Unfortunately, Hale's means of informing her that her father is in big trouble, which only Kat can rescue him from, is to pull off an outrageous prank that gets her expelled, leaving her no recourse but to abandon her boarding-school plan.

I am not normally a fan of stories about thieves, no matter how charming, unless they are trying to go straight (To Catch A Thief and The Town), stealing back something that is theirs (How to Steal a Million), trying to right a wrong by stopping a heist (Die Hard), or stealing back something that has been stolen by others and returning it to the rightful owners (the upcoming 2013-release movie, The Monuments Men, written, directed and starred in by George Clooney).

This book falls into one of those categories, but it would be a spoiler to say which one, because we don't know that information until the very end of the book.

It is a tribute to the amazing writing of Ally Carter that she pulled me into this story without my knowing for sure that it portrays a laudable type of heist. I did, however, suspect that might be the case because, as a rule, YA novels tend to avoid protagonists who are unrepentant criminals.

Kat Bishop is an ideal heroine. She is smart, talented, loyal to those she loves--and unwilling, no matter how much the odds are stacked against her, to give up when the going gets rough.

The subcharacters in this book are outstanding, too, especially Hale. He is a terrific romantic interest, though the romance is, sadly for those of us who enjoy romance as the A-Plot of a teen novel, only a relatively minor focus of the plot. The main emphasis is on a presumably impossible heist that Kat has to pull off within a very tight time limit in order to save her father's life.

Parental guidance: Other than the dubious morality of Kat's relations as thieves, there is no sex, no drinking or drugs, no swearing, and no overt violence.

I rate this book as follows:

Heroine: 5

Subcharacters: 5

Heist Plot: 5

Romantic subplot: 4

Writing: 5

Overall: 5

Comic: Page 100

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Book Review: Awkward (Smith High #1) by Marni Bates

Wonderful young-adult chick lit with a terrific romantic subplot

Awkward (Smith High #1) by Marni Bates

Reading Level: Young Adult
Release Date: December 27, 2011
Pages: 300 pages
Publisher: Kensington Books
Source: Library
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

Seventeen-year-old Mackenzie Wellesley is an excellent student, but she's unfortunately both socially and physically awkward. Her clumsiness has become a way of life for her during the past ten years, ever since she tripped at a ballet recital, yanked down a curtain, and exposed her father's kissing her dancing instructor. Mack has blamed herself for the resulting divorce, and has been estranged from her father ever since, because he remarried, moved out of state and essentially abandoned poor Mack. As a result, she has been distrustful of the entire male sex, other than her kind and light-hearted, gay best friend Corey, and she has never dated. In addition, Mack has purposely chosen to remain socially invisible, existing on the outskirts of the various social groups at her high school. Her only relationship other than Corey is her other best friend, Jane, a fellow, studious, introverted geek, until the day that Mack accidentally knocks down a huge football player with her backpack. While he is lying, stunned, on the ground, Mack assumes his life is in danger, and unknown to her, a fellow student records her hysterical and wildly funny attempt at administering CPR on the fallen jock. When the video is posted on YouTube, Mack becomes an overnight sensation, originally due to being a laughingstock, but soon after because a famous boy band cuts clips of the infamous CPR video into their own music video of one of their most popular songs. This new mashup video receives millions of hits, and paparazzi begin stalking Mack everywhere she goes.

This is a humorous and endearing chick lit novel. Mack is an extremely sympathetic heroine, and her overwhelmed but witty reactions to the events surrounding her YouTube fame are enormously entertaining. I love her existing best friends Corey and Jane, as well as the new friends Mack makes after she is catapulted from obscurity to a national limelight.

I was also delighted with the terrific romance subplot. Mack's love interest, Logan, is a great guy, and the repartee between him and Mack is my favorite part of the book. Amidst all the other craziness befalling poor Mack, there isn't as much on-stage time with Logan as I would personally have liked, because he is one of the best YA male love interests I've read this year--not just a handsome face but compassionate, responsible and very smart.

I'm looking forward to reading more books by this talented author. Mack's friend Jane has her own novel in the sequel, Invisible.

I rate this book as follows:

Heroine: 5

Subcharacters: 5

Chick-Lit Plot: 5

Romantic Subplot with Logan: 5

Writing: 5

Overall: 5

Book Review: Awkward (Smith High) by Marni Bates

Wonderful young-adult chick lit with a terrific romantic subplot

Awkward (Smith High) by Marni Bates

Reading Level: Young Adult
Release Date: December 27, 2011
Pages: 300 pages
Publisher: Kensington Books
Source: Library
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

Seventeen-year-old Mackenzie Wellesley is an excellent student, but she's unfortunately both socially and physically awkward. Her clumsiness has become a way of life for her during the past ten years, ever since she tripped at a ballet recital, yanked down a curtain, and exposed her father's kissing her dancing instructor. Mack has blamed herself for the resulting divorce, and has been estranged from her father ever since, because he remarried, moved out of state and essentially abandoned poor Mack. As a result, she has been distrustful of the entire male sex, other than her kind and light-hearted, gay best friend Corey, and she has never dated. In addition, Mack has purposely chosen to remain socially invisible, existing on the outskirts of the various social groups at her high school. Her only relationship other than Corey is her other best friend, Jane, a fellow, studious, introverted geek, until the day that Mack accidentally knocks down a huge football player with her backpack. While he is lying, stunned, on the ground, Mack assumes his life is in danger, and unknown to her, a fellow student records her hysterical and wildly funny attempt at administering CPR on the fallen jock. When the video is posted on YouTube, Mack becomes an overnight sensation, originally due to being a laughingstock, but soon after because a famous boy band cuts clips of the infamous CPR video into their own music video of one of their most popular songs. This new mashup video receives millions of hits, and paparazzi begin stalking Mack everywhere she goes.

This is a humorous and endearing chick lit novel. Mack is an extremely sympathetic heroine, and her overwhelmed but witty reactions to the events surrounding her YouTube fame are enormously entertaining. I love her existing best friends Corey and Jane, as well as the new friends Mack makes after she is catapulted from obscurity to a national limelight.

I was also delighted with the terrific romance subplot. Mack's love interest, Logan, is a great guy, and the repartee between him and Mack is my favorite part of the book. Amidst all the other craziness befalling poor Mack, there isn't as much on-stage time with Logan as I would personally have liked, because he is one of the best YA male love interests I've read this year--not just a handsome face but compassionate, responsible and very smart.

I'm looking forward to reading more books by this talented author. Mack's friend Jane has her own novel in the sequel, Invisible.

I rate this book as follows:

Heroine: 5

Subcharacters: 5

Chick-Lit Plot: 5

Romantic Subplot with Logan: 5

Writing: 5

Overall: 5

Book Review: Strangely Normal by Tess Oliver

Excellent New Adult contemporary romance

Strangely Normal by Tess Oliver

Reading Level: New Adult/Young Adult
Release Date: May 13, 2013
Pages: 290 pages
Source: Purchased
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

Eighteen-year-old Eden Saxon is the eldest daughter of two hippie parents who conceived her as an unplanned pregnancy in their teens. Her parents are very supportive of Eden, and during their long, happy marriage they also gave birth to two much younger siblings. Unfortunately, as loving as they are, Eden's parents are completely unwilling to hold down steady jobs in the mainstream world because her dad is a rock musician. He never managed to make much money at it, but surrendering his makeshift musical career in order to adequately support his family is not a sacrifice he's ever been willing to make. As a result, his family has been forced to move frequently, wear thrift-shop clothes, and live in dilapidated housing in crime-ridden neighborhoods.

Eden loves her adorably immature parents very much, and bears no resentment toward them for their obvious flaws, but she wants far more out of life than the grinding poverty they've subjected her family to. She has kept up her grades and hopes to get a scholarship to college. When the counselor at her high school offers Eden a great opportunity for a summer job which pays a huge amount of money, as well as room and board, in what seems on the surface to have an amazingly easy set of tasks to perform, she jumps at the chance. The counselor is related to rock legend, Nicky King, and she has recommended Eden to serve as a companion to his nineteen-year-old daughter, Finley, in his enormous mansion. Eden's father is awestruck that his own daughter will have the opportunity of a lifetime to associate with his all-time hero, and she has no trouble getting both her parents' blessing to take this job. Though her mother is sad that Eden will not be able to move with them hundreds of miles away for a temporary job situation her parents have taken.

Eden is blown away by the luxury that abounds in Finley's mansion, but Finley herself is extremely welcoming to Eden, and the two of them immediately form a close friendship. Two of Finley's older brothers are also living in their father's home, each of them products of different marriages of their father. The King siblings are clearly close to each other, and both young men are very protective of the emotionally fragile Finley.

Eden has no problem evading the casually flirtatious overtures of the younger King brother, but the older one, Jude, makes it plain that he is suspicious of her by his arrogantly confrontational remarks. Eden resents his rudeness, but unfortunately for her, she can't simply ignore him because he is irresistibly gorgeous and he constantly pins her with a burning gaze filled with sensual heat.

I really liked Eden. She is capable, intelligent, and I admired her self-disciplined focus on her goal to get a college education. Her parents are more like Eden's children than the adults of the family, and I felt rather sorry for her that they were so irresponsible. On the other hand, it was hard not to forgive them their sins of omission when they are so obviously attached to their children.

I liked everything about Jude except for the fact that he smokes. The adult romance genre has not offered protagonists who smoke since the 1980's in support of anti-smoking health goals in this country. Only in rare instances have I seen a smoking hero, and in those cases the heroine states that she would never kiss a smoker, and the guy instantly throws away his cigarettes for good. That did not happen here. Instead, the author glosses over the fact that Jude's smoking would inevitably leave him smelling and tasting like an ashtray--which is anything but sexy. I also found myself wishing that Jude knew self-defense (something that the son of a world-famous rock star could easily have learned) and had shared his knowledge with Eden. It would have led to a much more empowering outcome for the two of them in the climax of the story.

I was impressed with how authentically the author portrays Finley's agoraphobia. Eden's attempts to desensitize Finley to her fear of stepping beyond the boundaries of her safe space on her father's estate is very much in keeping with how agoraphobia is treated.

Finally, I was delighted to discover one of the very few Young Adult/New Adult contemporary romance which actually is a romance, that is, Eden and Jude are on stage together over 50% of the book. I am also happy to report that there is no romantic triangle, and there is an upbeat ending to the romance.

As a New Adult romance, this book is geared toward an audience 17 and above due to the mature subject content of swearing, drinking, drugs, and violence. There is also sex in this story, but unlike the semi-pornographic sex in most New Adult novels these days, the sexual encounters in this novel are romantic in nature rather than lewd, and they are tastefully presented, with no graphic descriptions.

I rate this book as follows:

Heroine: 5

Hero: 4

Subcharacters: 5

Romance Plot: 5

Family Drama Plot: 3

Writing: 5

Overall: 4.5 stars rounded to 5 stars

Book Review: Sometimes a Rogue (Lost Lords) by Mary Jo Putney

Exciting Regency romance, #5 in the wonderful "Lost Lords" series

Sometimes a Rogue (Lost Lords) by Mary Jo Putney

Reading Level: Adult Romance
Release Date: August 27, 2013
Pages: 432 pages
Publisher: Zebra Books
Source: Purchase
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

Sarah Clarke-Townsend is the identical twin sister of Mariah, the Duchess of Ashton. They've recently discovered each other after being separated for decades due to their father abandoning their mother and Sarah and taking Mariah away with him when the twins were toddlers. While Sarah is visiting with Mariah, who is in the last stages of her first pregnancy and due to deliver at any moment, the two of them go alone on an early morning carriage ride and stop at a church on the Duke's estate. Sarah overhears evil men outside the church who are clearly there to kidnap Mariah and, on the spot, devises a daring scheme to save her sister. She urges Mariah to hide while Sarah pretends to be her sister. When Sarah is surrounded by rough men who have her helplessly outnumbered and demand to know where her baby is, she declares that she left the baby with a wet nurse. Not wanting to miss the chance to capture her while she is undefended, they grab her and carry her away with them. Sarah soon is very grateful that she made her plan for her sister's sake, for it is clear that Mariah and the baby would never have survived the rigors Sarah is subjected to. Her kidnappers spirit Sarah away to Ireland, and though hungry and afraid and living in physical deprivation, Sarah never gives up watching for a chance to free herself from her captors.

Meanwhile, Rob Carmichael arrives at the estate of the Duke of Ashton right after Sarah is taken. He is a long-time friend of the Duke and the younger son of an Earl. Rather than leading the idle life of a privileged aristocrat, Rob has made a career for himself as a Bow Street Runner. Because of his training, he is eminently suited to mounting a rescue attempt, and he instantly volunteers to go after Sarah. The Duke cannot go with him because Mariah is in labor, but Rob assures him this is a one-man job since he needs to be as nimble and invisible as possible if he is to have a chance of success.

When Rob eventually catches up with Sarah and the evil men holding her, he makes a bold plan to help Sarah escape, but it comes very close to disaster until Sarah offers feisty and timely assistance to Rob.

Mary Jo Putney (MJP) is justly famous for her very strong, extremely sympathetic heroines, and Sarah is a terrific addition to that remarkable coterie. It is difficult for me to choose one favorite heroine among so many that I have adored over the years as a long-time fan of MJP, but Sarah is definitely in the top tiers of my list. She never complains, no matter how difficult the conditions her captors subject her to. She is always ready to do whatever it takes to survive--and make sure that Rob or anyone else she cares about is kept safe as well. In short, she is the very best kind of protagonist. She gets into trouble because she is brave, compassionate and sacrificial.

Sarah and Rob are well matched, because he is brave, compassionate and sacrificial as well. Without offering spoilers as to specific details, I have to say that I particularly enjoyed the middle section of the book. Rob's fortunes shift drastically and the manner in which, with Sarah's influence and input, he adjusts to those circumstances is a very entertaining read. Theirs is a relationship in which we experience, every step of the way, that these two people are made for each other. They are an ideal match in temperament, outlook and personal ethics. Every romance novel implicitly claims that the protagonists are soul mates, but MJP delivers on that promise in every possible way in this moving story.

As always for MJP, the historical detail of her story is precisely and accurately done, but it is offered as a natural, seamless backdrop, never intruding on the story itself. That is, there is never any feeling in a book by MJP that we are reading a dull recitation of historical facts. Instead, we are immersed in a world as real and vivid as if we had a personal time machine that had delivered us in the midst of the colorful, Regency era.

I rate this book as follows:

 
Heroine: 5

Hero: 5

Subcharacters: 5

Romance Plot: 5

Action-Adventure Plot: 5

Historical World-Building: 5

Writing: 5

Overall: 5

Book Review: Taken by Storm by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Review of the Kindle edition of the exciting third book in a terrific YA urban-fantasy series

Taken by Storm (Raised by Wolves, #3) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Reading Level: Young Adult
Release Date: May 22, 2012
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Pages: 320
Source: Library (Digital Copy)
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

I checked out this book from the online, digital portion of my local public library. Once I checked out the book, it was a simple, two-click procedure to download a Kindle edition of this book through Amazon, and I had a full three weeks to read it. This Kindle edition is well-edited, well-formatted, and well-designed.

Human "resilient" Bryn is alpha of a pack containing baby, child and teenage werewolves. They continue to face terrible danger from the evil werewolf packleader, Shay, as well as a new, horrible enemy, a rabid werewolf who is slaughtering innocents and might possibly be the female werewolf who left Bryn's pack at the end of Book 2.

The resolution of this story is exciting and quite surprising on a number of levels. Some may find at least one death very disappointing. I can't say more than that without creating a spoiler. I personally thought that death was inevitable given a story arc with one of the main characters across multiple books that has only one meaningful way to go.

I continue to find Bryn a very strong, positive heroine. I love the kids in her pack, especially Devon, who is a purebred werewolf (a were born of two werewolves, an extremely rare event in this book's cosmology, since only one or two female werewolves are born every hundred years). Dev is a gorgeous, six-foot-four hunk with a quirky sense of humor who also is a huge, powerful, meant-to-be-an-alpha werewolf. He is also, very significantly to this story, the much younger brother of the evil Shay. I also love the female werewolf, Lake, who adores guns, and is the same age as Bryn, both now 16, about a year older than the first book. I find the baby werewolves utterly adorable and quite funny.

This is an exciting, action-packed story, and the relationships are fascinatingly complex. This author just gets better and better.

I rate this book as follows:

 
Heroine: 5

Subcharacters: 5

Fantasy World-Building: 5

Writing: 5

Action-Adventure Plot: 5
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Mystery Subplot: 5

Romantic Subplot: 3

Overall: 5

Book Review: Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

A stand-alone YA, urban-fantasy novel by a talented YA author

Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Reading Level: Young Adult
Release Date: December 27, 2011
Publisher: EgmontUSA; Reprint edition
Pages: 336 pages
Source: NetGalley
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

Sixteen-year-old Kali D'Angelo is only human every other day. On alternate days, she is imbued with superhuman strength and speed--and the fiery urge to employ those powers to hunt down and destroy vicious, supernatural predators. Unfortunately for Kali, her government has made the ruinous decision to label these creatures as endangered species who must not be killed, and what Kali is doing is considered a serious crime.

This is an extremely well written book, as are all of Ms. Barnes's contemporary, young-adult, urban fantasies. This book is filled with such amazingly complex world-building, I was shocked to learn from the author, when I contacted her through her website, that she does not plan any sequels for this novel. I'm sure I'm not alone among her legion of fans in wishing it had been otherwise. Kali is the ideal action hero, strong, compassionate, and refusing to ever give up as she seeks to defend those who are either defenseless, or have been overwhelmed and outnumbered by the attacks of the evil villains. It would have been a real pleasure to have had the chance to spend more time with her in other books.

For those who love plenty of action, there are some truly scary situations in this book and lots of well-choreographed fights. For those who enjoy paranormal romance, Ms. Barnes is not an author who focuses much attention on happily-ever-after courtship subplots. Instead, she utilizes romantic relationships in much the same manner that they occur in male-oriented, action-adventure novels and movies. The love interest is someone for the protagonist to track down and rescue or fight side-by-side with in combat situations rather than someone to cuddle up with.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from NetGalley.

I rate this book as follows:  

Heroine: 5

Subcharacters: 5

Fantasy-World Building: 5

Action-Adventure Plot: 5

Writing: 5

Overall: 5

Comic: Page 98-99

Pages 98-99 of Marie August's webcomic, The Fox and The Firebird, have been posted.


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Book Review: Crossing the Line by Katie McGarry

Wonderful young-adult, contemporary-romance novella

Crossing the Line by Katie McGarry

Reading Level: Young Adult
Release Date: April 1, 2013
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Pages: 67 pages
Source: Purchase
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

This novella is #1.5 in the Pushing the Limits series by talented young-adult author, Katie McGarry.

Echo, the heroine of Pushing the Limits (PTL), #1 in this series, describes her best friend Lila McCormick this way in PTL: "With her nonstop mouth and tight clothes, Lila was Eastwick High's own version of Glinda the Good Witch." Lila has been best friends with Echo since preschool. It is currently the summer following the events of PTL. Lila and Echo have graduated high school, and they are both 18. Lila is no longer with her boyfriend of PTL, Stephen. She had been in a long-term relationship with him, thought she loved him, and gave him her virginity, but stopped wanting to have sex with him a while ago. Stephen didn't understand, and she hasn't told him that she has fallen for someone else. Someone, she reluctantly admits to herself, who may not actually exist except in her imagination. She only knows him through a long-term correspondence conducted via the slow, old-fashioned method of snail-mail letters.

Lila met Lincoln two and a half years ago at the funeral of Aires, Echo's older brother who died in Afghanistan. Lincoln is Lila's age. His brother Josh was part of the same Marine unit as Aires, and they were both killed in the same roadside bombing, which is why Lincoln's family attended Aires's funeral. Lila and Lincoln became penpals soon after the funeral as a way to help each other deal with their mutual loss, and over time they have come to be very close friends. In particular, they made a pact that they would attend the University of Florida together, which is the only thing giving Lila the courage to leave behind her familiar home town, family and friends--especially Echo--and move far away. Then two things happen to put at risk this daring plan that means the world to Lila. First, she finds out Lincoln has failed to do something crucial to his being accepted to any university and, worse, he has lied to her about it for some time. Second, her ex-boyfriend Stephen is urging her to avoid the scary uncertainty of moving to Florida and instead stay behind and attend a nearby university with her friends to support her--including him.

Like PTL and its sequel, Dare You To (DYT), this novella is told in alternating points of view of the hero and heroine, which gives the reader a great opportunity to view their romance from both sides and experience each protagonist with equal depth. I really liked both of these characters, and I enjoyed their sensitively told romance. Though this is not a full novel, there is a sense of completeness and positive resolution to the story that is very emotionally satisfying.

Like PTL and DYT, there are subplots of family dysfunction for both protagonists, though not as dark as in the full novels. We are given a well-rounded peek into both Lila's and Lincoln's families which helps to characterize who they are and motivate the difficult life choices they have made.

I read this book as a Kindle edition, which is well formatted and edited.

I rate this book as follows:

 
Heroine: 5

Hero: 5

Romance Plot: 5

Family Drama Plots: 5

Writing: 5

Overall: 5