Gretchen C. Hohmeyer's Blog, page 80
October 23, 2012
Spooktacular Giveaway Hop
That’s right! I know, it’s been FOREVER. But I just HAD to participate in I’m a Reader, Not a Writer’s BIGGEST hop of the year! (Cohosted by The Diary of a Bookworm).That’s right, there are over 500 blogs on this hop. You CANNOT miss out. Check out the list of the 500 blogs HERE.
AND NOW FOR MY GIVEAWAY!
You guys are getting THREE books this time – the three books of the Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray! That’s…
A Great and Terrible Beauty ~ Rebel Angels ~ A Sweet Far Thing
They might not look like it from the covers, but they are a pretty good Halloween read!
Interested? This giveaway goes til midnight on Halloween and is US only. Enter HERE!
Top Ten Books To Get In The Halloween Spirit
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.
Alright guys, this is kinda a strange list. My typical idea for this post would be scary books, but I don’t read many of those. So we’re just going to try this out and hope it goes well.
1. Dead Beautiful by Yvonne Woon
ZOMBIES. That’s Halloween-ish, right? You know it. I also reviewed this book at the beginning of the blog. So yeah. ZOMBIES.
2. Beautiful Lies by Jessica Warman
I actually DNFed this one because it FREAKED ME OUT. But I’m thinking some of you might like that, especially around Halloween.
3. League of Strays by L. B. Schulman
This doesn’t include any ghosts or ghouls, but it leaves chills at the back of your spine and that counts for me. I used the word “creepy” way too much in my review.
4. The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
VAMPIRES. EPIC vampires written BEAUTIFUL and CORRECTLY. You can’t get better than that. See my review for more.
5. The Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan
DEMONS. Awesome demons. You can never get enough demons on Halloween.
6. The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong
Necromancy. Werewolves. Genetic experiments. FREAKING EVERYTHING. You can’t miss with this one.
7. Jessica’s Guide to Dating the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey
If you’re looking into snagging your own Edward this All Hallow’s Eve, allow Jessica to be your guide.
Arguably my funniest entry on this list, but c’mon. I couldn’t NOT put it on here. It’s HEX HALL. It has EVERYTHING. Spell Bound is the only review I have on the blog, but I loved them ALL.
9. Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton
Given the origins of this holiday, let’s through in some mythology, shall we? Also, demons and demon slaying. My review of the second book in this series, Wings of the Wicked, might tell you more.
10. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
BEST VAMPIRE BOOKS EVER. READ THEM. (AND THEN READ BLOODLINES AND THE GOLDEN LILY.)
October 22, 2012
ARC Review: “Dear Teen Me” edited by E. Kristin Anderson and Miranda Kenneally
Dear Teen Me – An Anthology edited by E. Kristin Anderson and Miranda Kenneally
Dear Teen Me includes advice from over 70 YA authors (including Lauren Oliver, Ellen Hopkins, and Nancy Holder, to name a few) to their teenage selves. The letters cover a wide range of topics, including physical abuse, body issues, bullying, friendship, love, and enough insecurities to fill an auditorium. So pick a page, and find out which of your favorite authors had a really bad first kiss? Who found true love at 18? Who wishes he’d had more fun in high school instead of studying so hard? Some authors write diary entries, some write letters, and a few graphic novelists turn their stories into visual art. And whether you hang out with the theater kids, the band geeks, the bad boys, the loners, the class presidents, the delinquents, the jocks, or the nerds, you’ll find friends–and a lot of familiar faces–in the course of Dear Teen Me.
Thank you to Zest Books for this ARC! This book will be released October 30th, 2012
You may notice that this book has no rating. Certainly it will have to have one on Amazon, Goodreads and the like because they demand it, but Dear Teen Me is, to me, a book that transcends ratings.
What is a rating, anyways? It is a mark of sometimes good technical storytelling, other times it is because of a person’s simple like or dislike of a book. With Dear Teen Me, the former aspect especially holds no place.
Dear Teen Me is not a story. It is a conglomeration of personal, nonfiction stories about the teen years of dozens of YA authors. The concepts of “good technical storytelling” do not apply. The content is just not that kind.
I don’t know what I thought when I requested an ARC of this book. Whatever it was, I only know that the book exceeded my expectations. I was certainly expecting a great deal of “Were you an outsider in high school, because it’s okay to be weird!” and I got that, but not one of these stories was cheesy. Not one was a cliché of an adult trying to empower a teenager. The topics that these authors went over ranged from self-harm and eating disorders to coming out and dealing with abusive parents—and everything in between. Yes, every story had a happy ending and a moral, but you never felt like you were being told. All of the letters—though in some more than others—I felt as if I was intruding on someone’s most personal journal entry, and the that raw emotion on display was not for my eyes.
Dear Teen Me was not a book that I may have picked up of my own volition, simply because I am tired of books where “former teens” share their inspiring stories and tell you how to learn from them. I don’t want to hear inspirational “rah rah” stories meant to make me feel better about myself because it’s okay to be a broody teenager. The authors who contributed here seemed to understand that. No one is lecturing. No one is pretending that wounds leave no scars. No one is shying away from topics sometimes adults and teens alike are afraid of discussing. No one is censoring a thing.
And why would they? They’re writing these for themselves. For their mistakes. For their pain. They just happen to be gracious enough to allow them to be read by others.
October 19, 2012
ARC Review: “Meant To Be” by Lauren Morrill
Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill
Meant to be or not meant to be . . . that is the question.
It’s one thing to fall head over heels into a puddle of hazelnut coffee, and quite another to fall for the—gasp—wrong guy. Straight-A junior Julia may be accident prone, but she’s queen of following rules and being prepared. That’s why she keeps a pencil sharpener in her purse and a pocket Shakespeare in her, well, pocket. And that’s also why she’s chosen Mark Bixford, her childhood crush, as her MTB (“meant to be”).
But this spring break, Julia’s rules are about to get defenestrated (SAT word: to be thrown from a window) when she’s partnered with her personal nemesis, class-clown Jason, on a school trip to London. After one wild party, Julia starts receiving romantic texts . . . from an unknown number! Jason promises to help discover the identity of her mysterious new suitor if she agrees to break a few rules along the way. And thus begins a wild goose chase through London, leading Julia closer and closer to the biggest surprise of all: true love.
Because sometimes the things you least expect are the most meant to be.
4 stars
Thank you to Random House/Delacorte Press and NetGalley for this eARC! This title will be released November 13th, 2012.
Sometimes I read YA contemporary romance and I wonder if maybe I’ll a little too jaded for my own good. I mean, is there nothing left in this realm that I can stand?
Turns out, there is. And it’s this book.
I’ll admit I had my reservations going into it. I mean, the premise is nothing new. The main character, Julia, has the nickname of “Book Licker” for good reason. She’s a straight up nerd with a kooky best friend, a secret crush on a childhood friend and then she gets stuck with a guy she abhors for nine days in London. Quite frankly, I’ve seen this a million times with the variables tweaked.
But there’s a saying, and that’s that everything that is being written has always been written, and it’s how you write it that makes a difference. If you’ve followed any of my reviews on romance in any kind of book, you’ll know I’m very hard to please. That gives more weight to be saying that I fell head over heels for this book.
It wasn’t perfect, and I’ll get to that in a minute, but the point is that I found it amazingly cute. Julia’s devotion to her parents and the concept of finding the one “meant to be” was absolutely touching. I was reading and giggling all the way through. Julia and Jason are the standard rom-com couple that can’t stand each other, but the way they handle it and the things they say are just far too cute. They actually do end up getting rather nasty with each other too, which makes it more real—it’s not just surface tension. I don’t want to give away anything about the rest of the plot, but the twists thrown that complicate everything were actually interesting for the most part.
I do think that things fell apart a little bit on the characterization side. For one, there was an attempt to include way more characters then the story had real room for, and then to try to make those characters more than flat. I appreciate the attempt, but frankly it wasn’t relevant, it got in the way and it bogged down the story. I really wish more of an attempt had been made to flesh out Jason’s character as well. Throughout the story, he switches back and forth between sweet and immature way too easily. I understand that that’s what Julia was seeing and everything, but honestly I never believed that there was another level to Jason beyond what we were seeing because it was never addressed in great detail. There is also the character of Mark, who I can’t address without giving things away, but the way he was handled really annoyed me.
I think the greatest connection I made in this book was with Julia. She made the book for me. Sure, the nerd who’s a secret romantic isn’t a fresh story line by any means, but she managed to wrap her hands around my heart even so. She was funny, she was awkward, and—most importantly—she was real. Her reactions to all situations were genuine.
October 18, 2012
Review: “Endlessly” by Kiersten White
Endlessly (Paranormalcy #3) by Kiersten White
Evie’s paranormal past keeps coming back to haunt her. A new director at the International Paranormal Containment Agency wants to drag her back to headquarters. The Dark Faerie Queen is torturing humans in her poisonous realm. And supernatural creatures keep insisting that Evie is the only one who can save them from a mysterious, perilous fate.
The clock is ticking on the entire paranormal world. And its fate rests solely in Evie’s hands.
So much for normal.
4 stars
Disclaimer: If you haven’t read Paranormalcy or Supernaturally, mild spoilers WILL follow
Holy bleep. It’s over. It’s really bleeping over.
I need to go grab my pinkest, sparkliest shirt and cry.
But you know what?
This trilogy not only STAYED a trilogy (thank God), but it also ended just the way I wanted it to, in the way that I wanted it to.
Well, sort of.
Opening these pages was really hard to do. It’s the beginning of the end, you know? I really enjoyed the first two books of the series for what they were: fun, fluffy, sugar hyped rides that made me giggle while gripping the pages in a MUST KEEP READING frenzy. I expected everything and anything from Endlessly. In a way, I got both.
It was, as ever, a crazy, quirky ride. Evie remained the same crazy chick she always was, but in a way that also bothered me a little. I honestly can’t see too much difference between Evie at the start and Evie at the finish, and after all she’s gone through I expected at least a little bit of something more. Because of the way Evie is written, it’s often hard to find depth in her character. …of course, if you’re reading these books for depth, you’re kind of in the wrong place.
Lend didn’t take as much precedence in this book as I wanted him too, simply because he and Evie are so cute together. Of course, Evie was FREAKIN’ BUSY saving the world and everything, but Lend could have helped out a little more than he did. The one time he DID go with Evie, he spent most of his time naked and passed out and Evie didn’t even appreciate it. (No, it was totally PG. It’s a loooong story, folks.)
I was actually quite surprised to see as much of Jack and Reth as we did. After all, who would partner up with two people who tried to kill her and/or otherwise harm her? Oh, right, Evie. Despite her and Lend’s apparent lack of depth, a surprising amount of it was given to Jack and Reth, which I absolutely loved. We really got to know these characters and understand them, and they became so much more than just accomplices. Reth, especially. I didn’t even like him in the first couple of books, but after this one I just felt … all of the things for him.
You guys all know how I pick at logical consistencies. For Kiersten White, I’ll put a lid on it. Several key plot points and twists did not make sense and/or happened far too fast, but you know what? Again, if water tight plot is what you’re looking for, you’re in the wrong place.
I don’t want to talk too much about the plot, but let me just say this: did you want to know more about the faeries? You’ll get it. You’ll get A LOT of it. This one is very faerie-centric. You’ll even get to spend a LOT of time in the Faerie Realms. Did you want to see more supernatural creatures? You’ll get them. There’s even a dragon and a unicorn. Do you want to know the entire purpose behind creating the Empty Ones? You’ll get that. (Hint: It’s not what you think by a loooong shot.) Several characters make unexpected returns as well. And that’s all I’m saying. 
I enjoyed Paranormalcy as much as I did because it was quite possibly the quirkiest book I ever read. I laughed out loud out of pure, “Are you serious?” at times, just because of Evie’s personality. It was pure, undiluted mind candy. PINK, SPARKLY mind candy. And it was amazing. Supernaturally was more of the same, even if I felt it didn’t measure up to Paranormalcy. Endlessly at least matched Supernaturally. There were too few opportunities for me to laugh in this one–again, understandable because Evie is freaking out trying to save the world, but still. That said, I found Endlessly to be a fitting finale for the series. The entire series was tied neatly with a bow–a pink, sparkly one. Have fun with your normal life, Evie!
However unnormal it will be.
October 17, 2012
Waiting on Wednesday #29
Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine!
Title: Sirens
Author: Janet Fox
ETA: November 8th, 2012
Summary from Goodreads: When Jo Winter’s parents send her off to live with her rich cousin on the glittering island of Manhattan, it’s to find a husband and forget about her brother Teddy’s death. But all that glitters is not gold,. Caught up in the swirl of her cousin’s bobbed-hair set—and the men that court them—Jo soon realizes that the talk of marriage never stops, and behind the seemingly boundless gains are illicit business endeavors, gangsters, and their molls. Jo would much rather spend time the handsome but quiet Charles, a waiter at the Algonquin Hotel, than drape herself over a bootlegger. But when she befriends a moll to one of the most powerful men in town, Jo begins to uncover secrets—secrets that threaten an empire and could secure Jo’s freedom from her family. Can her newfound power buy her love? Or will it to ruin Jo, and everyone around her?
What are you waiting on?
October 16, 2012
Top Ten Favorite Authors in YA Fantasy
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish!
Okay guys, this is going to be a fun one. There are SO many great authors in this genre it is going to SUCK to pick just one. But I’m going to try. So here we go!
1. Tamora Pierce
She’s my idol and an all around amazing person. (I met her! Did you not see?) I have also only ever disliked one book she’s written in like a gazillion. (And sadly that’s the only review of her stuff on the blog.) I have read and own everything she’s written anyways.
2. Cassandra Clare
Another idol of mine. Another person whom I have met (Did you miss that too?). I also own everything she has ever written. It is even more impressive that she managed to win me back over into the Mortal Instruments series after City of Fallen Angels and the whole three more books thing. City of Glass still had the perfect ending, but City of Lost Souls was actually really good! (See here.)
3. Rachel Hawkins
I cannot get over how much I love these books. It’s actually the only series I’ve read where my favorite book is the middle one. (Not that I didn’t like Spell Bound. Review here.) These books are SO quotable and fantastic and they make me laugh EVERY TIME. EVERY TIME. Most books get stale fast with me, but not these! Also, she’s a fantastic person to follow on Twitter.
4. Richelle Mead
While not solely a YA author, her Vampire Academy books and Bloodlines series are all the ones I’ve read and OHMYGOD I LOVE. After VA I thought I’d never love another character of hers like I loved Dimitri, but Adrian is just so … ohmygod. I prefer Rose over Sydney only because Rose is snarkier, but Adrian totally picks up the slack. (I have reviews of Bloodlines and The Golden Lily.)
5. Courtney Allison Moulton
Another writer whose work just never gets old. Ellie is as snarky as I like them, and Will is just hello-honey. Romance that I can stand in YA is few and far between, and this would be one of those select few. Courtney is also an AWESOME person to follow on Twitter, and I actually got to update a few things I said on my review of Wings of the Wicked because we discussed it. I had a moment right there.
6. Jodi Meadows
She may only have one book out so far, but she’s cemented her spot on my list like whoa. (There is too much CAPS in my review of Incarnate, for one.) I freaking themed my prom dress around that cover (albeit accidentally to begin with). I may have mentioned that Twitter is an awesome place. Well, Jodi happens to be another awesome person in the twittersphere who I’ve had awesome conversations with. Asunder can’t come out soon enough.
7. Julie Kagawa
Several people may kill me when they realize I have only ever read her book The Immortal Rules. It was actually one of the first books I was approved to review from NetGalley! I have her first Iron Fey book in my possession, though, and I plan to read it as soon as humanly possible. Either way, though, I can’t handle the way she writes. It’s beautiful. Therefore, spot on this list without further proof necessary.
8. Sarah J. Maas
While we’re on the subject of gorgeous writing, let’s skip on over here, shall we? Again, Sarah has only released (in full novel form anyways) Throne of Glass, but it completely blew me out of the water on so many levels. I appreciate good writing, and Sarah HAS IT.
9. Rae Carson
My review of The Girl of Fire and Thorns still makes me laugh. I mean really. It was one of my earlier reviews and its second in hystericalness only to my review of Anna and the French Kiss. But I just LOVED IT. I have the next book in my possession RIGHT NOW but I’m so behind on reviews I haven’t been able to read it yet. I’m dying inside just staring at the pretty cover.
10. Jay Kristoff
My review of Stormdancer was a long and complicated thing, but that still doesn’t change how I feel about the way he writes. For me, a favorite author can have issues as long as the writing is solid and HOLY BANANAS. Jay can write me into deep jealousy.
October 14, 2012
Book Trailer Reveal: “The Cadet of Tildor” by Alex Lidell + Giveaway!
HEY GUYS! I’m trying something new here at My Life is a Notebook. That’s right, I’ve got my first ever BOOK TRAILER reveal! You may remember that a while ago I had a cover reveal for a book called The Cadet of Tildor by Alex Lidell. (If you don’t remember, check that out HERE.) Well, I hope that got you excited for this book. If it didn’t, here’s another reason why!
Title: The Cadet of Tildor
Author: Alex Lidell
Expected Release: January 10, 2013
Book trailer by: Medieval Reenactment Group “Liberi Lusenta” located in Italy
Organized by: AToMR Tours
Summary
Tamora Pierce meets George R. R. Martin in this smart, political, medieval fantasy-thriller.
There is a new king on the throne of Tildor. Currents of political unrest sweep the country as two warring crime families seek power, angling to exploit the young Crown’s inexperience. At the Academy of Tildor, the training ground for elite soldiers, Cadet Renee de Winter struggles to keep up with her male peers. But when her mentor, a notorious commander recalled from active duty to teach at the Academy, is kidnapped to fight in illegal gladiator games, Renee and her best friend Alec find themselves thrust into a world rife with crime, sorting through a maze of political intrigue, and struggling to resolve what they want, what is legal, and what is right.
Bio:
Alex is a YA fantasy author, a Tamora Pierce addict, a horse rider, and paramedic. The latter two tend to hand in hand a bit more often than one would like. Alex started writing at 2 am.
Alex Lidell| Facebook| Twitter
AND NOW!
FOR THE MOMENT YOU’VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!
(Don’t forget to MEET THE TRAILER CAST!)
AND LET’S NOT FORGET THE GIVEAWAY! It’s for an ARC PLUS a custom made bracelet! ENTER NOW HERE!
October 12, 2012
ARC Review: “Katya’s World” by Jonathan L. Howard
Katya’s World (Katya Kuriakova #1) by Jonathan L. Howard
The distant and unloved colony world of Russalka has no land, only the raging sea. No clear skies, only the endless storm clouds. Beneath the waves, the people live in pressurised environments and take what they need from the boundless ocean. It is a hard life, but it is theirs and they fought a war against Earth to protect it. But wars leave wounds that never quite heal, and secrets that never quite lie silent.
Katya Kuriakova doesn’t care much about ancient history like that, though. She is making her first submarine voyage as crew; the first nice, simple journey of what she expects to be a nice, simple career.
There is nothing nice and simple about the deep black waters of Russalka, however; soon she will encounter pirates and war criminals, see death and tragedy at first hand, and realise that her world’s future lies on the narrowest of knife edges. For in the crushing depths lies a sleeping monster, an abomination of unknown origin, and when it wakes, it will seek out and kill every single person on the planet.
3 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and Strange Chemistry for this eARC! This book will be released November 13th!
Did you know that dystopian is technically filed under scifi? Because Jonathan Howard didn’t forget. Oh Lord he didn’t forget.
It has been ages upon ages since I read a YA book that was this much a straight scifi. The other dystopians I’ve read don’t compare by a long shot. Katya’s World is what scifi is supposed to be: pages of tech description, tons of tech usage, that kind of thing. Quite honestly, I’m not a fan most of the time because I’m just like ALRIGHT STORY NOW.
Katya’s world was, at least, fairly refreshing. I enjoyed how it tried to give itself a twist by adding an essence of Russian heritage. Honestly, though, the real emphasis was on the submarines. Kept reminding me of that submarine movie with Sean Connery. It was a very serious place; humor was not an obvious element to this book.
That’s probably because once the book got going, it didn’t stop. The beginning has about 30 seconds of normalcy before things start to spiral out of control at one heck of a sharp angle. By about halfway through the book we’ve gone from, “Man, the government has commandeered our boat” to “THE WORLD IS GOING TO BE DESTROYED.” And then it just keeps careening out of control from there. Freaking nobody in this book can catch a break, and Howard isn’t afraid to kill people.
The character of Katya was interesting to me. I always like analyzing what happens when a guy writes a girl MC versus a girl writing a girl. Katya’s character is supposed to be anti-feminine from the get go, but the amount of emotion she displays for most of the book is minimal. I mean, she displays it at the most serious times, but quite frankly she might as well have been a guy. While this was a plus for me, some people might not like the fact that Katya spends the entire book being one of two females on multiple submarines full of dudes and there’s no romance. She didn’t have time trying to freaking save the world.
My biggest issue with this book is an issue I’ve seen a lot of scifis struggle with, and that’s the balance between information and content. This book was a fast paced thing, but it never felt like it because of all the block description thrown it. Now I understand part of this is just what scifi books DO, but, for example, at the beginning: the entire first chapter is a prologue that explains the world. That’s great, whatever. But THEN in about chapter TWO, ALL that information is repeated. Redundant information description happened a lot in block chunks, that was just all together frustrating. Maybe he was trying to remind the readers, but it way cluttered up the book.
Katya’s World is the kind of book I enjoyed, but would probably hand my copy off to my brother. This book would blow him out of the water. I appreciate the extensive world building that Howard clearly sweated over, but I think the plot suffered for it. The characters were okay, but few were fleshed out and fewer had any range of emotions. If you’re a lover of straight scifi then you’ll probably adore this one–I liked it myself without being one such person. However, it’s just not one I’d read over and over again.
October 10, 2012
Waiting on Wednesday #28
Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine!
Title: Ink (The Paper Gods #1)
Author: Amanda Sun
ETA: June 25, 2013
Summary from Goodreads: I looked down at the paper, still touching the tip of my shoe. I reached for it, flipping the page over to look.
Scrawls of ink outlined a drawing of girl lying on a bench.
A sick feeling started to twist in my stomach, like motion sickness.
And then the girl in the drawing turned her head, and her inky eyes glared straight into mine.
On the heels of a family tragedy, the last thing Katie Greene wants to do is move halfway across the world. Stuck with her aunt in Shizuoka, Japan, Katie feels lost. Alone. She doesn’t know the language, she can barely hold a pair of chopsticks, and she can’t seem to get the hang of taking her shoes off whenever she enters a building.
Then there’s gorgeous but aloof Tomohiro, star of the school’s kendo team. How did he really get the scar on his arm? Katie isn’t prepared for the answer. But when she sees the things he draws start moving, there’s no denying the truth: Tomo has a connection to the ancient gods of Japan, and being near Katie is causing his abilities to spiral out of control. If the wrong people notice, they’ll both be targets.
Katie never wanted to move to Japan—now she may not make it out of the country alive.
Why I’m Waiting: GUYGUYSGUYS I HAVEN’T BEEN THIS EXCITED ABOUT A BOOK IN A REALLY LONG TIME LIKE OHMYGOSHANDBEJEEZUS SOMEONE GIVE ME THIS NOW. This better be as good as it sounds or I will die a slow and painful death.
