Gretchen C. Hohmeyer's Blog, page 86

ARC Review: “The City’s Son” by Tom Pollock

The City’s Son (The Skyscraper Throne #1) by Tom Pollock (Click for Goodreads)

3 1/2 stars

A stunningly original urban fantasy debut

Running from her traitorous best friend and her estranged father, graffiti artist Beth Bradley is looking for sanctuary. What she finds is Urchin, the ragged and cocky crown prince of London’s mystical underworld. Urchin opens Beth’s eyes to the city she’s never truly seen-where vast spiders crawl telephone wires seeking voices to steal, railwraiths escape their tethers, and statues conceal an ancient priesthood robed in bronze.

But it all teeters on the brink of destruction. Amid rumors that Urchin’s goddess mother will soon return from her 15-year exile, Reach, a malign god of urban decay, wants the young prince dead. Helping Urchin raise an alleyway army to reclaim his skyscraper throne, Beth soon forgets her old life. But when her best friend is captured, Beth must choose between this wondrous existence and the life she left behind.

This review is of an ARC received from NetGalley. You can get yours hands on a copy September 8, 2012.

So, if you follow me on Goodreads then you know this already, but this is for everyone else.

I HAVE ALL OF THE FEELINGS FOR THIS BOOK.

Not all of them are good. Not all of them are bad. I don’t even know how to deal with many of them right now. But I’m going to try to hash them out for you right here.

I’m going to start with the world, because it makes me drool. Seriously. That awesome set up the blurb gives you? IT’S EVEN COOLER THAN IT SOUNDS. Pollock has an awesome way of writing it, and every single line of description just makes it greater. It was a wonderfully refreshing read on multiple levels. It reminded me of older style fantasy, not simplified or watered down. It’s real, serious fantasy and is delightfully original and great to see in a young adult novel.

However, the world is also where the problem starts. I felt like I was never concretely set in it. All the sudden the book just comes at you and screams “RAILWRAITH ATTACK” and barely pauses to explain what a railwraith IS. How the world works, how the beings in the world work–all of it could have had a little bit more time spent on it and I would have given this book AT LEAST four stars, if not more. The setting was spectacular, but at times I just really didn’t understand it.

Unfortunately, the logical inconsistencies didn’t stop there. The main characters, Beth and Filius, made some really wacky judgements that didn’t make sense even if you try to pass them off for teenage rashness. It got to the point where I was literally yelling, “THINK A LITTLE BIT.” Most of this occurred in the beginning of the book, because I did not believe Beth’s reasons for finding and then joining Filius were believable. For me, it was too rushed and too implausible.

Speaking of which, everyone knows how I feel about insta-love in YA, right? Because I hate it. I hate it with all of my heart and soul. Which is why this book confused me. Beth and Filius never really fall in love, and then all the sudden they’re kissing and trying to take clothes off (they’re 15, people!) and offering to die for each other when I have no idea why. As far as I’m concerned, the reasons they were friends who made each other better was down like concrete and I believed it–that was very well written. But romance? That was never, ever there and just ended feeling awkward.

ALSO–lookout, angry Gretchen coming through–you cannot just have a character raped and forget about it. You really can’t do that. I understand that character then went through a crazy ordeal, but seriously. Why that was there at all I have no idea, because it had no impact on the plot and then wasn’t taken care of at all. It’s literally mentioned in all of two sentences. Rape is a big deal that can’t just be shoehorned like that.

A few technical issues on my part as well: The constantly switching point of view (POV). You were being slung around from character to character in the beginning, chapter to chapter, but for the rest of the book the bulk of it is just Beth. It constantly irked me that while everyone else’s POVs were in the third person, past tense, Filius’s (and a few random moments of other people) were first person, present tense. The editor in me was consistently jolted by this.

But honestly? At the end of the day, I liked the book. I know it doesn’t sound like it, but I really did. I didn’t find it spectacular, but I found it to have potential. Just this world is worth reading, once you get into about the second half of the book. By that point, even if you don’t feel like you know all the details, you get enough so that things make enough sense to be really freaking awesome (if they weren’t already). The war, the description of it and the aftermath of it–for the winners!–was gritty, realistic, and showed the bittersweetness that comes with even being the victor. People died. People got hurt. The ending felt a little rushed, but it worked to show the impact that everyone feels, and the consequences of the choices they’ve made. I would definitely recommend this to all fantasy fans, young adult or no so young adult. This book isn’t watered down or romance oriented. It’s a story of multiple struggles, bravery and war. I eagerly anticipate the next book, The Glass Republic, because I believe that Pollock can only go up from here.

Blog Tour: Review + Giveaway for “Destiny’s Fire” by Trisha Wolfe

Welcome to My Life is a Notebook’s stop for the Summer Reading Event: YA of Omnific Publishing! August 6th-11th, over 40 blogs are reviewing a multitude of YA titles from Omnific Publishing AND offering giveaways for all the books. That’s really exciting, right? Click HERE for a list of all the participating blogs.

Now onto my contribution!

Destiny’s Fire (Kythan Guardians #1) by Trisha Wolfe

Goodreads | Amazon

It’s the year 2040, and sixteen-year-old Dez Harkly is one of the last of her kind—part of a nearly extinct race of shape-shifters descended from guardians to the Egyptian pharaohs. Her home and her secret are threatened when the Council lowers the barrier, allowing the enemy race to enter the Shythe haven. 

As the Narcolym airships approach, Dez and her friends rebel against their Council and secretly train for battle. Not only is Dez wary of war and her growing affection for her best friend Jace, but she fears the change her birthday will bring. When Dez’s newfound power rockets out of control, it’s a Narcolym who could change her fate… if she can trust him.

Dez’s guarded world crumbles when she discovers why the Narcos have really come to Haven Falls, and she’s forced to choose between the race who raised her and the enemy she’s feared her whole life.

Tell me you DON’T want to read this book after that synopsis, and I will do hand stands wearing a clown costume. Seriously. At least, that was my reaction when I saw this blurb waaaaaay back before the beginning of the year, when this book made my 12 Debut Authors I’m Looking Forward to in 2012 list. I have been dying to get my hands on a copy ever since, so imagine my excitement when this event came up.

And the first part of the book was just as epic as I wanted it to be.

This world is SO COOL. It’s part steampunk, part fantasy, and the way they mesh together is freaking fantastic. I soaked in every description of power, of the two different races, and the little bit of back history we got. Dez’s change and resulting powers were also the coolest things to visualize. There was no shortage of power usage, so I got a LOT of it to make me happy. From beginning to end, I never got tired of it. I hope in coming books we’ll get to touch a little bit more on the Egyptian guardian aspects, because that was never really covered as much as I wanted it to be, but maybe that’s because there was WAY too much going. Wolfe never once infodumped, and only gave me what I needed to know, which was a huge plus.

The character of Dez also started out pretty rock solid. She’s my kind of girl, preferring to wear tomboyish clothes and go without makeup. Her friends, the triples Nick, Jace and Lana, were fairly bland, but they made nice foils for Dez and moved the plot forward in ways Dez herself never would have pushed it.

Then Reese came along.

Reese first enters the book as a hot-headed Narco who tries to get it on with Dez up against a club wall despite her protests. Then Dez decks him, and he says that turns him on. For a creep, he was written pretty well.

And then the logical inconsistencies start.

It turns out, Reese is only pretending to be a creep. In reality, he’s a Kythan as special as Dez. I don’t want to give too much away, but basically Dez has been keeping a secret her whole life about just how powerful she really is, and Reese is the first one she can tell it to. So obviously she falls in love with him, despite the fact that Jace is totally into her and she was supposedly crushing on Jace for the first 100 pages. This, of course, causes a love triangle. This is standard YA romance, sure, but you all know I’m ridiculously jaded about standard YA romance by now.

I can’t really go into the others without giving away some serious spoilers, but let me just say that some REALLY BIG PARTS of the end were totally implausible. Or maybe they were plausible, but they were never given much explanation. After the spectacular start this book got off to, I was expecting more out of the plotline and wasn’t prepared to just settle in and enjoy the ride. I was expecting a watertight plot that wasn’t there.

All and all, though, I really enjoyed this book, especially the world. It NEVER stopped moving, even when what was happening wasn’t pure action, which is really hard to have happen. Sure, there was romance and inconsistencies, but as long as you’re ready to just sit back and enjoy the ride, you’ll enjoy this one too. At the very least, you’ll be reading one of the most unique books I’ve read all year.

Besides, I have a giveaway for one of these babies. You could read this thing for FREE on your favorite ereading device. How can you lose? Just leave a meaningful commenton the bottom about how excited you are for this book!

BUT WAIT. THERE’S MORE! How about a chance to win Omnific’s ENTIRE CATALOGUE? That’s right: you can enter to win SEVEN YA ebooks in their grand prize giveaway! Just click HERE to enter!

Both giveaways end at 11:59 PM on August 11 and are INTERNATIONAL.

ARC Review: “Silver” by Talia Vance

Silver by Talia Vance (Click for Goodreads)

4 1/2 stars

Beauty is pointless when no one’s looking.

Brianna Paxton has been invisible to guys since the eighth grade. She’s pretty enough, it’s just that no one bothers to look. There’s almost nothing that can’t be explained with science, and Brianna has a theory: she’s missing the pheromone that attracts people to one another. Brianna’s theory is shot to hell in one frozen, silver moment, when time stops and Blake Williams not only sees her, he recognizes something inside her that she’s been hiding from even herself.

Before Brianna fully understands who and what she is, she accidentally binds her soul to Blake. Forced to find a way to reconcile forbidden love and her bloody heritage, Brianna discovers that there’s nothing pointless about her, and Blake may be in the most danger of all.

This review is based on an ARC received from NetGalley. You can get a copy for yourself September 8, 2012

I don’t even know where to start with this book. I went into it a little apprehensively, because the blurb made it sound like Brie might be another one of those girls who goes on and on about how she’s not pretty and then whoops there would be this insta-love thing and I would be left knocking my head against my desk.

That didn’t happen.

First off, Brie is totally relatable. She’s geeky, but not in the overpowering, stereotype way. She doesn’t think she’s pretty, she thinks she’s invisible BUT she doesn’t spend hours whining about it. She accepts it, she’s chill about it and she let’s that make her stronger. Especially after dealing with the character of America in The Selection, that was fantastic to read. Add in some snappy dialogue and I was hooked.

The book started off with a rocky beginning, and that was when I realized this book was going to go severely either way with me. The reason for the half star dock is that there were a few logical inconsistencies that made me flip back a few pages and say WHAT JUST HAPPENED HERE? or HOW DOES THAT WORK? and I got no explanation. For me, though, they were small (okay, one was not so small and that’s the biggest reason for the docked 1/2 star but I can’t tell you what it is without spoiling!) and I forgot them in the fast pace of the novel. I just enjoyed the ride.

And it is a fantastic ride. There are few books that make me actually laugh out loud, and this is one of them. I was not a fan of Blake at first, but then all the sudden Brie is being all stupidly into insta-love and Blake takes a step back and goes INSTA-LOVE? EW! We became good friends after that point.

The mythology–as you might have seen hinted at and that’s probably the reason why you thought this book was cool–doesn’t disappoint. Vance doesn’t spend an inordinate amount of time explaining it either, which is nice. We know what we need to know as we need to know it. Then, of course, there is all the supernatural powers being flung around. In my book, that is always awesome. Despite not knowing anything about these Irish myths, I was instantly at home in the world and the legend, which isn’t always easy to do.

A big thing with me is always a book’s pacing, and there Silver didn’t disappoint either. There was certainly time set about for “normal” life and romance, but there was plenty of action too–at almost the perfect intervals, actually. Nothing was squashed together or rushed, for the most part. The book kept moving and I was unable to find many places to stop and catch my breath. I know I’m into a book when I have to force myself to literally get up and take a breather for a second.

Overall, Silver is one of my new favorites of 2012. It makes me genuinely sad you guys can’t share this with me until September 8. The characters were relatable and cute, the dialogue was snappy and the mythology was excellent. All the action and romance didn’t help either. If you’re in for a refreshing read with a great storyline, fast action and sexy romance, definitely give this one a try!

Goodreads tells me that Vance will be writing a second Bandia novel, tentatively titled Gold, to be published 2013. However, it also informs me the title isn’t even final. But add it to your TBR with Silver anyways.

Young Adult Giveaway Hop!

TIME FOR ANOTHER GIVEAWAY HOP!

I couldn’t be more excited about this one, hosted by I’m a Reader, Not a Writer and Reading Teen, because GUYS. It’s FOCUSED ON YA BOOKS. MY LIFE. There are over 200 blogs participating in this hop, and you can bet I’ll be visiting EVERY ONE. If you’d like to as well, the list of blogs is HERE.

NOW ONTO MY GIVEAWAY!

You guys may or may not realize just how excited I am for this one. I mean, seriously. Because of that, I have a HUGE prize pack for you guys. Well, I think it’s huge anyways. Do you agree?

 

  

No, you aren’t seeing wrong. One lucky winner is going to get not only Maggie Stiefvater’s first two books, Lament and Ballad (in paperback), but also the entire Wolves of Mercy Falls Trilogy: Shiver (PB), Linger (HB) and Forever (HB).

I TOLD you I was excited about this hop. Believe me now?

Please note that this giveaway is US only, and runs from August 8th-14th. To enter, please open THIS LINK in a new tab!

Top Ten Posts On My Blog That Give The BEST Picture of Me!

Top Ten Tuesday is a feature hosted by The Broke and The Bookish!

Hey everybody! I’ve been missing a few TTTs lately, but I really didn’t want to miss this one! This is a really interesting topic that may verge on me being pretty egotistical, but what’s new? Let’s get this started!

1. Stacking the Shelves #5 (08/04/12)

Okay, so, vlogs are probably a really easy place to go for this, because they ARE a video representation of me, but this gives you guys an EXCELLENT view of how out of control my reading habits are.

2. Alpha Recap – So many goodies you don’t want to miss out! (7/30/12)

I made a point a long time ago to not make this blog about me, my writing and my books, but when my love of writing takes me places THIS AWESOME, I just HAVE to tell you guys. It’s like a side of me I only let the blog see every once in a while.

3. My Epic Quest to Go See Cassandra Clare, Holly Black and Sarah Rees Brennan and Why It was Worth It. (7/16/12)

In this post, I not only ruminate about books but also my family, my birthday and HOLY CREATOR OF CHOCOLATE AUTHOR LOVE! Ahem. Anyways. I lose my mind a little in this post, for good reason!

4. Stacking the Shelves #3 (7/14/12)

I … attempt humor in this vlog. It doesn’t go well. But it gives you a window into my personality! …which you probably wish you could unsee, but whatever! I make no apologies for who I am.

5. The Book Reviews I Couldn’t Give My Teacher (5/31/12)

This one has a disclaimer for those people who enjoy classic books because, well, I’m not one of them and I unleash the snark! There is 7 mini book reviews in this post and it’s STILL not overly long, which impresses me still to this day.

6. ARC Review: “Wilde’s Fire” by Kystal Wade

Anyone who reads my blog regularly knows that I HATE cliché YA romance. HATE IT. And when it happens, I mention it. In this book, though, I was absolutely losing my mind over the weirdness of it all, and for that it kind of recaps the way I feel about YA romance in general.

7. On YA books that make abusive, stalkerish, horrible relationships seem like they’re okay–HERE ME ROAR (2/27/12)

Few books have ever made me outright angry. Actually, it was just this one. This post began as my review of Shattered Souls by Mary Lindsey, the only book I have ever rated 1 star on this blog in its entire existence, despite having DNFed it. Usually I don’t write reviews of those, just a few lines on Goodreads as to why I personally stopped reading. This book made me SO ANGRY that I just HAD to say something or I would explode.

8. Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi (12/11/11)

When I lose my mind about a book, I LOSE MY MIND about a book. Despite having waited to calm down to write this review, I STILL couldn’t get my thoughts in order when I wrote the post. Very few times do I write reviews were I’m just flailing for words, and this is one of them.

9. Review: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins (11/26/11)

This was the very first 5 star review I ever gave on my blog, and OH BOY is there a lot of CAPS and general book love. I mean, it still rather frightens me to read it over because I was SO enthusiastic about the book.

10. Review: Mastiff by Tamora Pierce (11/11/11)

I like to think of myself as someone who can give truthful reviews, not just flail all over the place because it’s something my favorite author wrote. This is my favorite example of this. I tried so hard for WEEKS to forgive Tammy for this book–I mean, but this point I’d MET the woman and found out how fantastic she was when she taught a writing workshop I went to–but I just couldn’t do it. I generally think everything that comes out of Tammy’s fingers is gold, but even I have my limits.

ARC Review: “Redemption” by Veronique Launier

Redemption (Hearts of Stone #1) by Veronique Launier (Click for Goodreads)

3 stars

Guillaume:  For five hundred years I’ve existed as a gargoyle.  Perched atop an old Montreal church,  I’ve watched idly as humanity wanders by.  With the witch Marguerite gone, there is no  one left to protect, nothing to care about. I  never planned to feel again. But then a girl  released me from my stone restraints, allowing  me to return as a seventeen-year-old  human boy. I must find out all I can about  this girl’s power . . .

Aude:  Getting attacked twice in as many days is  strange in itself, but even stranger is the  intriguing guy I keep running into. There’s  something so familiar about him, like a  primal drum rhythm from my dreams. But  spending time together only raises more  question-about my heritage, a native  Mohawk prophecy . . . and an unearthly  magic threatening our city…

Yeah, you heard that right, this book is about GARGOYLES. Awesomesauce, right? Well, that was what I thought when I saw that there description on NetGalley and decided it could be the answer to my prayers for uniqueness. And you know what?

It kinda was.

Reading about something as new and exciting to me as gargoyles was amazing. I don’t know about you, but in a market saturated with vampires, angels and–coming soon!–mermaids, I just couldn’t take it anymore. (Trends bother me SO MUCH, but I digress.) Anyways. Launier has certainly done her homework in her world building. She sets it up, she lays it out and she’s got an answer for everything. There are no plot holes here. The magic is also pretty awesome, because you’re working with gargoyles, French witches and Native American shaman. I don’t know about you, but *I* have never seen that combination before. Yet somehow Launier manages to connect it all.

However, the new type of world also does this book a disservice. You see, it’s almost like Launier feels she needs to spend so much time setting up her world that … nothing else happens. Until the last fourth of the book (or less!) I was becoming more and more bored about the outpouring of exposition on the magic system, gargoyles and even the family history surrounding almost all of the major characters. I’m not an exposition type of girl. I like to be given answers, but I prefer they happen around the action, not the other way around.  Yes, to be fair, there WAS other stuff going on around the exposition, but just not enough for me.

The characters also fell a little flat for me. There are four gargoyles, neither of which seemed to be very different from the others, and Aude’s best friends were rather stereotypical. Aude herself just frustrated me, especially when she proved unwilling for CHAPTERS to find out more about her strange powers and why people were attacking her. I’m sorry, but if people were after me and there was Mohawk chanting in my head, I’d want to know!

In the last fourth of the book, though, things HAPPENED–and I mean they HAPPENED. Multiple things HAPPENED. The problem I had was that they happened too quickly, and they felt mashed together. Some things just didn’t make sense, and–worse–a lot of them just kinda resolved themselves in a snap. There was so much potential in that section that I felt disappointed.

Don’t get me wrong: I adored this world. I even liked that I was able to immerse myself so far into it. But the exposition got to be a bit much, and wasn’t really carried off by interesting characters. The last part of the book had a ridiculous amount of things happening, but a few of them just seemed to resolve themselves abruptly. All and all, though, I’d be curious to read the next book (as it seems to be set up for).  There cannot possibly any more exposition anywhere within this story unless they bring in a whole new round of characters, which means that there would just be STORY. Done right, Launier has a fantastic idea here with great potential. I could see a second book easily becoming a four star or more if she applies the energy from the last fourth of Redemption over the whole manuscript.

Stacking the Shelves #5

Hi guys! Here’s this week’s Stacking the Shelves, as hosted by Tynga’s Reviews!

Blog Tour:

Flight by Alyssa Rose Ivy – Goodreads

For Review:

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire - Goodreads

The Unfailing Light by Robin Bridges – Goodreads

Bought:

Captive Queen by Alison Weir – Goodreads

Figures in Silk by Vanora Bennett – Goodreads

Fudoki by Kij Johnson – Goodreads

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne Valente – Goodreads

Discount Armaggedon by Seanan McGuire – Goodreads

The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross – Goodreads

Gilt by Katherine Longshore – Goodreads

Endlessly by Kiersten White – Goodreads

ARC Review: “A Soldier’s Secret” by Marissa Moss

A Soldier’s Secret: The Incredible True Story of Sarah Edmonds, a Civil War Hero by Marissa Moss

Goodreads | Amazon

The story of Sarah Emma Edmonds, who masqueraded as a man named Frank Thompson during the Civil War. Among her many adventures, she was a nurse on the battlefield and a spy for the Union Army, and was captured by (and escaped from) the Confederates. The novel is narrated by Sarah, offering readers an in-depth look not only at the Civil War but also at her journey to self-discovery as she grapples with living a lie and falling in love with one of her fellow soldiers.

3 1/2 stars

This review is of an ARC received from NetGalley and Amulet Books/ABRAMS. You can get a copy of your own on September 1, 2012.

I picked this one up on a whim from NetGalley, because I really do adore historical fiction. Typically I don’t read Civil War stuff, and I thought it would be a good change. It struck me as something akin to those “Dear America” books I read as a child, so why not, right?

However, straight from the get go, I could see problems with this book emerging. The narrator comes off as stiff and emotionless. The First Battle of Bull Run is also steamrolled right through–as is everything else until about the second half of the book. I was further annoyed because The First Battle of Bull Run was so flippantly run through, and then we get a whole long chapter about how Sarah/Frank was falling head over heels with Jerome to the point where she tells him he can’t ask his sweetheart at home to marry him. This was also the chapter we MET Jerome. I wasn’t even 70 pages in.

The highlights of this book, though, were in the history. Moss does a spectacular job describing what it’s like to be a soldier in battle, seeing what you see and doing what you do. Both her descriptions of the physical scene and the descriptions of the effects of that it had on Sarah/Frank were beautifully done.

The great thing about Sarah/Frank is that she really was EVERYWHERE. She signs up right at the beginning of the war, right before the First Battle of Bull Run. She works as a nurse, a postmaster general, a spy and a general’s orderly.  The descriptions of seeing someone leg amputated, receiving gifts from families whom she had informed has lost their son/husband/father, inside the Confederate camps and inside the general’s tent were fantastic. None of these facts had to be invented to really give you a wide view of the war, because Sarah/Frank really did those things in real life.

Thankfully, after the first half of the novel, someone puts the brakes on. Sure, there are a lot of gaps in time, but that’s to be expected because that always happens in historical fiction when they’re trying to give you all the exciting bits. Sarah/Frank’s “romance” bits with Jerome and then James were still a constant thorn in my side, since there always seemed to be a severe disconnect between Sarah thoughts and Frank thoughts. Still, James acts more like a friend and Jerome ends up getting captured and paroled (therefore gone from the picture for a bit) and we get to focus on the battles and the camp  life.

The part in which Sarah/Frank “leaves” the Army also seemed a little washed over. I think it was supposed to have an impact, but it didn’t. All of the sudden, I was just reading and saying, “What? What?” No preamble. Almost no reaction. She just … moves on.

All and all, this book was separated into a bunch of halves. You have the first half of the book and the second half of the book. You have Sarah/Frank’s personal narration and then you have narration about the war. The first half of the book was a crazy ride that really needed to be fleshed out more, while the second half of the book was a pretty awesome description fest. Sarah/Frank as a narrator seemed to be really lacking in connection with me, yet her description of the war was fantastic.

To be honest, I’m rather used to this in historical fiction. It is really hard to write a compelling character while trying to fit in THIS MUCH history. I understand that. So I sort of stopped trying to connect with Sarah/Frank and just let myself go along for the ride. Moss’s descriptions of the war were compelling enough to make me okay with that. Still, if you’re looking for a real feminist story, I’d look somewhere else. I feel like I could give this book to my brother to read and he’d love it, because all he’d care about are the battle scenes.

ARC Review: “The Dark Unwinding” by Sharon Cameron

The Dark Unwinding by Sharon Cameron

Goodreads | Amazon

A spine-tingling tale of steampunk and spies, intrigue and heart-racing romance!

When Katharine Tulman’s inheritance is called into question by the rumor that her eccentric uncle is squandering away the family fortune, she is sent to his estate to have him committed to an asylum. But instead of a lunatic, Katharine discovers a genius inventor with his own set of rules, who employs a village of nine hundred people rescued from the workhouses of London.

Katharine is now torn between protecting her own inheritance and preserving the peculiar community she grows to care for deeply. And her choices are made even more complicated by a handsome apprentice, a secretive student, and fears for her own sanity.

As the mysteries of the estate begin to unravel, it is clear that not only is her uncle’s world at stake, but also the state of England as Katharine knows it. With twists and turns at every corner, this heart-racing adventure will captivate readers with its intrigue, thrills, and romance.

3 1/2 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Scholastics for this ARC! You can get a copy for yourself September 1st, 2012.

Never before have I read an ARC and needed to insert a disclaimer into the review.

I need to do so now.

This is not a knock against the fantastic folks who allowed me and others to read an ARC of this book. This is more of why there is such a caution about reviewing ARCs. ARCs are never edited as they will be when they are released. However, The Dark Unwinding’s Kindle ARC version was one of the hardest ARCs I’ve ever tried to read. It lacked capital letters, formatting and a lot of punctuation. The reason I’m telling you this is so that you will PLEASE take my review with a grain of salt when I talk about places of confusion while reading the ARC. It is entirely possible they will not exist in the finished version.

Now, with that out of the way, let’s talk about the STORY!

This book intrigued me right from the get-go, and the world did not disappoint. I’ve really never read much steampunk, so I soaked in each and every description about Uncle Tully’s creations. The description in this book, whether it be for the inventions or just the setting, was really fantastic, and I could always see each scene right in my head. What I really liked was that there wasn’t too much emphasis placed on the “fantastical” elements of the book. Sometimes, people writing in fantasy, scifi, etc, have a tendency to hit the reader over the head with how new and exciting their setting is, but Cameron just let it roll like it was an everyday thing that needed only the slightest explanation. Infodumping was never a problem here.

The characterization of this book was interesting. I never really connected with the main character of Katharine, and in fact for a majority of the first part of the book never even liked her. I don’t think you were actually supposed to, so you could see the change in her attitude later on, but I never think that’s a wise choice to start off with. We should always be able to at least understand the main character straight off. Some of the other minor characters were eh, but my favorites were Uncle Tully and Davy, the mute little boy with a rabbit and many secrets. Despite being two of the most intriguing characters, they weren’t particularly given much screen time until the end.

The plot of the story was really where I had my problems. Again, I don’t know if it’s because I was struggling with just reading the words on the page or what, but I was in a state of “WHAT is going ON?” for most of the book. Sure, conversations and everything I could follow and I got the general gist, but some of the segways in between scenes were very abrupt and gave the reader no idea they were about to change. The best example is when the story shot from a normal paragraph to an event wherein Katharine may or may not be losing her own mind. Every time this happened, there was no warning and no preamble. All of the sudden she’s just dangling off the chapel roof or something. The almost supernatural hallucinations she was having were excellently written, yes, but every time they occurred I got jarred.

The ending is really where it all got convoluted. Characters and actions started making little sense, honestly. Personally, I thought the romance between Lane and Katharine was nonexistent until it abruptly appeared at the end. (That is actually a highlight for me, but this may not be for you.) The character of Mrs. Jefferies, Lane’s aunt and the cook, especially befuddled me, because her character kept morphing between someone who seemed truly evil and someone who seemed truly nice. I guess this was part of the suspense of the book, but–again–everything was happening far too abruptly to read smoothly and make sense. I’m all for mysteries, but like every other plot they should flow and never jar the reader out of the story.

A couple more really big elements were added at the end that I think should have been mentioned earlier, but perhaps that’s just my preference. The ending action was certainly–and literally–explosive, which was again wonderfully written. After all the twists and turns with the characters, I found the eventually ending rather expected, but overall I was very pleased. Goodreads doesn’t suggest that there is a second book, but there HAS to be. Right? RIGHT? I mean, that wasn’t a cliffhanger by any means but there is certainly more stuff to go down.

I truly hope there is a next book, and I really want to get my hands on a finished copy of this book. When the editing gets cleaned up, I think this book is going to read a lot smoother and be a fantastic ride for you guys.  The writing is great, the characters are interesting and the plot really does wring you around. If you like steampunk and you like mysteries, I really recommend you pick this one up.

Waiting on Wednesday #19

Waiting on Wednesday is a feature hosted by Breaking the Spine

Title: Foretold – 14 Tales of Prophecy and Prediction

Author(s): Richelle Mead, Carrie Ryan, Simone Elkeles, Meg Cabot, Heather Brewer, Saundra Mitchell, Diana Peterfreund, Laini Taylor, Margaret Stohl, Matt de la Pena, Kami Garcia, Malinda Lo, Lisa McMann, and Michael Grant

Expected Publication Date: August 28, 2012

Summary from Goodreads: Have you ever been tempted to look into the future? To challenge predictions? To question fate?

It’s human nature to wonder about life’s twists and turns. But is the future already written—or do you have the power to alter it?

From fantastical prophecies to predictions of how the future will transpire, Foretold is a collection of stories about our universal fascination with life’s unknowns and of what is yet to come as interpreted by 14 of young adult fiction’s brightest stars.

Why I’m Waiting: Okay, not going to lie, at first I only wanted this book for Mead’s Rose and Dimitri story. I mean, I have been DYING for that ever since Mead said she was writing it. But after seeing that author list? I’m going crazy for the WHOLE THING. This is almost too much awesomeness in one book to handle.