Review: Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

Book Title/Author: Incarnate by Jodi Meadows
Publisher/Year Published: January 2012 by Katherine Tegen Books
Where I got it: The library
Rating: 3/5 stars

Summary:via Goodreads

Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.

Even Ana's own mother thinks she's a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she'll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?

Sam believes Ana's new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana's enemies—human and creature alike—let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else's life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?

I read this book in about 4 hrs on a trans-continental(ish) flight. So it was engaging. I will say that about it. But something just makes me go, "Hmm".

After more pondering, I think I liked it mostly for the romance aspect, which was fine. Not great, but definitely not bad, better than some other YA books I've read recently. Actually, before I complain more, let me first laud this book with multiple praises for NOT having a love triangle. Praise the YA book Gods!

But if I took out the romance, it was meh. I needed less romance and more world-building. I feel like I still don't understand the rules of this world. Can you hold a philosophical conversation with a baby? How does the money work? Why is the temple so weird? How do you get your name? If Ana is reincarnated male will she always be Ana? (Unfortunate)

And to get really vague to avoid spoilers, I really dont understand the ending and all the science behind the twist.

Let's look at the characters. Ana didn't bother me too too much. I forgave a lot because she was emotionally abused her whole life. Obviously she is not going to be a beacon of sunshine and normality.

Sam was nice but at the same time not. I didn't like some of the things he hid from Ana. He is curious and a kind person especially for accepting Ana into his home, but outside of initial physical attraction between them, what draws him to her? Why her and not any other of the souls? Is it her ability to pick up music? I don't know, and I think I should.

However, if you wade through all the moaning I just did, I did enjoy it. The romance was done well enough, and the story was fine. There are things that could have been better, but by virtue of the fact that this is a YA without a love triangle, it in the pro column of my book.

I'm totally going to keep reading this series.

Review: The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook

Book Title/Author: The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook
Publisher/Year Published: October 2010 by Berkley Trade
Where I got it: Borders Blowout
Rating: 4/5 stars
Challenges: Reading Romances May Challenge: SciFi; TBR Pile Challenge
Summary:

After the Iron Duke freed England from Horde control, he instantly became a national hero. Now Rhys Trahaearn has built a merchant empire on the power-and fear-of his name. And when a dead body is dropped from an airship onto his doorstep, bringing Detective Inspector Mina Wentworth into his dangerous world, he intends to make her his next possession.

But when Mina uncovers the victim's identity, she stumbles upon a conspiracy that threatens the lives of everyone in England. To save them, Mina and Rhys must race across zombie-infested wastelands and treacherous oceans-and Mina discovers the danger is not only to her countrymen, as she finds herself tempted to give up everything to the Iron Duke.

I've been hearing rumblings about The Iron Duke around the internet for quite a while, especially when talking about steampunk books. I don't know what put me off reading it. Maybe there were a bit of mixed messages, but forever reason I didn't read it. I ended up reading it now because I randomly picked it up at one of Border's going out of business sales because I vaguely remembered good things. Well now I have an option. And overall that one is good.

The Story:
I don't even know how to start explaining the story. There is just so much intricacy built in with the way Brook constructed the book. The world-building was excellent. It really felt like the past mixed in with the alternate reality future. At first I was a little put off and confused by the terminology but she doesn't deluge you with facts and slowly awakens your knowledge of the world she has created. I was soon up on the lingo and the world.

The basic plot is there an inspector, Mina, who get's called out on a case at the Iron Duke's house. He is sort of a celebrity in London due to him freeing them from their former occupiers, the Horde. As the investigation grows into something bigger either thought, they are pushed together more often than not and drawn to each other.

I don't want to give too much away, but this story is WAY more than just a who done it. It turns into some crazy shiz. And yes, that is the technical term.

The plot was no too hard to follow, but some scenes I thought were a bit rushed or non-existent. Like one in particular time, she built us up for a sea battle and we saw very little of it. Boo. The ending was okay I guess. I can't put my finger on why it felt off for me (and I mean like the VERY ending).

The Characters:
This was by far my favorite part of this book. The leads were wicked dimentional. The secondaries were as well and I really hope to see more of them again with their own book.

Mina, the inspector, has some interesting issue to deal with and I thought they were handled well. I didn;t think they were too glossed over and instead took a bit to be worked out. Rhys, the Duke, though could be a hit or miss for people. Early on he seems like the biggest alphole to ever walk the pages of my brain, but slowly you see him grow and change. His growth and change however does not make him lose his alpha characteristics. That's why he could be hit or miss. Within the context of this book and because of this character growth, he was a hit for me. Well, I warmed up to him.

It's gotta be mentioned. Scarsdale made me laugh out loud at least once a time he was on the page. Between him and Lady Corsair they were probably the most well rounded secondary characters I have seen in a romance novel for a while.

The Romance:
This is a paranormal romance novel and thus there are a number of romantic-centric scenes. But I hesitate to say that is how I would define it. It is very much a well done interweaving of romance and paranormal. It's easy to get lost in either side.

There are some difficult romantic elements in this book dealing with the way sexuality was expressed during the Horde rule. They are not comfortable scenes. Were they necessary in the context of the book? I think so. I really do. It made the world more real to me.

Also, the sexy times are frequent, hot and like I mentioned sometimes tied to some heavy emotional moments that could be triggers for some of us, so if you are not into that, this may not be for you.

The Execution:
Overall I enjoyed it but my biggest qualm lay here. Some of the scenes, especially ones with lots of action seemed unbelievably confusing to me. I literally read a page 3 times very slowly to try and get what just happened and I still had trouble. The times I had to do this were not overwhelmingly high, but enough to bother me.

What did bother me though is there are two admirals each with a B name and one is a good guy and one is a not-so good guy (?) and I still get them confused. We didn't see them enough for me to remember the name and who was what. I wish that one of the other letters of the alphabet were used so I wasn't like "Wait, isn't he dead?"

The Overview:
Overall, I sure as hell enjoyed it enough to survive this hectic work week with only on average 5 hrs of sleep. That may even be a max of five hours each night. All because I wanted to go back into this world and be with these people. I am really excited to continue this series.

Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Book Title/Author: Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Publisher/Year Published:January 2012 by Feiwel & Friends
Where I got it: The library
Why I read this book: Short answer: The cover
Rating: 4/5
Cross posted at The Broke and the Bookish

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

This summary sounds amazing right?! And the book totally lived up to the it. So let me just dive in.

Humans and Androids? Already seems intriguing, right? Yes. We'd be correct. The intermingling of humans, machines, and human machines is awesome and unique. The machines are incorporated into the culture, just like watching an updated Jetsons. The futuristic bit of this book is quite well done!

This is set in the East, specifically New Beijing. I LOVE Asian-esque books. Sadly this isn't maximized to it's full possibilities, but the mentions of the culture are there if you look. The people use chopsticks, the celebrations are decorated in red and gold, things like that. But outside of the Chinese honorifics and these side things, it could very well be set in America.

Let's look at the gifted mechanic cyborg, Cinder. I love that she is, for lack of a better term, useful. She takes control of her own destiny despite obstacles thrown in her path. She is a strong lead and the highlight of the story by far.

Mentioned in the summary is the step-sister's illness. This is clear distinction that while it is a Cinderella retelling, Meyer also makes it her own. And it really succeeds at this. Meyer takes a fairy tale that we know from either the original story (or the Disney movie) and seamlessly interweaves the plot points into an awesome retelling.

How could I not mention Intergalactic struggle? Space?! LUNAR PEOPLE! Well, yeah. There is an evil moon people and an interesting story-line surrounding that. The post-apocalyptic atmospheric and this story line make it a wonderful SciFi dystopian.

Let's not forget the forbidden attraction. Yay, a love story! Yay, not a love triangle! I love myself some forbidden attraction. And it is done decently well.

Outside of all of that, the story was very fulfilling. A little more world building would have been cool, but there are three other books in the series. Kai's character is starting off okay, but I look forward to reading more about him and watching him develop further. Cinder however is awesome now and probably one of my favorite heroines that I have read in a while. The twist, if that is what is was suppose to be, is really predictable as is the story if you are at all familiar with Cinderella, but I don't think that is a bad thing.

It is a wonderful start to a new series that I know I will be devouring as they come out! If you like fairy tales, dystopians, scifi or YA, check this out!

And I still really like that cover!

Review: Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

Book Title/Author:Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
Publisher/Year Published:May 2001 by Ace (first published in January 2001)
Where I got it: The library
Rating: 3/5 stars

Challenges:The January entry for the TBR Pile Challenge

Summary:

Sookie Stackhouse is a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. She's quiet, keeps to herself, and doesn't get out much. Not because she's not pretty. She is. It's just that, well, Sookie has this sort of "disability." She can read minds. And that doesn't make her too dateable. And then along comes Bill. He's tall, dark, handsome -- and Sookie can't hear a word he's thinking. He's exactly the kind of guy she's been waiting for all her life.

But Bill has a disability of his own: he's a vampire with a bad reputation. He hangs out with a seriously creepy crowd, all suspected of -- big surprise -- murder. And when one of Sookie's co-workers is killed, she fears she's next.

I am going to start this review off by getting this out of the way. I have never seen True Blood, a TV series on I don't even know what channel that I hear is 'loosely' based on this book series. I don't even know what the characters look like, or if I did I am not sure who is suppose to be who or if I am even mixing up vampire television shows.

The point with leading off with this is that I was able to experience Dead Until Dark unscathed and not judging based on seeing a different medium.

I knew that this was set in the South and had vampires in it. Well we find out soon that vampires are not just in this world but are accepted into society (with some prejudices to overcome of course). Quite an interesting concept which isnt the normal twist that you see in vampire lore.

The story itself was pretty interesting in that it played off of this concept quite heavily. We see vampires trying to integrate themselves and others trying to stay as separate as possible. A main point of the novel is our main vampire, Bill, which by the way is an awesome vampire name, trying to live with the humans. It is actually quite interesting and something I almost wanted to see more than the romance. Because, yes that is there too.

So outside of that the plot is rather interesting. There is a mystery murderer running around. It's a pretty decent story. I extremely loved all of the references to the early 2000s. I don't know if it was a detriment, per say, but it does date the story. For instance, there were times before I checked the publication date where I thought, why isn't he just calling her on her cell. Well, silly, those were not that popular yet. Hard to believe.

The characters were alright, decently well rounded, and overall enjoyable. I did feel like Sookie was a little annoying at times and that clothing was mentioned overmuch. But Bill and Sookie and the host of secondary characters were fleshed out (ha pun) and ... well enjoyable.

I keep using that word, because that is what it was for me. Enjoyable. I didnt overly love it and I didn't overly hate it. The story was good, the characters were good, the setting was good; I am not sure if there is much more to say.

Will I read more of the series? Maybe. I am definitely not going to rule it out. Will I be making a mad dash to Netflix to watch True Blood? Eh. Probably not.

It's worth a read if you are interested in vampires and a time so close to our own, yet without cell phones :)

Review: A Million Suns by Beth Revis

Book Title/Author: A Million Suns by Beth Revis
Publisher/Year Published: January 2012 by Razorbill
Where I got it: The library
Series: Second in the Across the Universe Trilogy
Rating: 4/5 stars

Summary: via Goodreads

Godspeed was fueled by lies. Now it is ruled by chaos.

It's been three months since Amy was unplugged. The life she always knew is over. And everywhere she looks, she sees the walls of the spaceship Godspeed. But there may just be hope: Elder has assumed leadership of the ship. He's finally free to enact his vision - no more Phydus, no more lies.

But when Elder discovers shocking news about the ship, he and Amy race to discover the truth behind life on Godspeed. They must work together to unlock a puzzle that was set in motion hundreds of years earlier, unable to fight the romance that's growing between them and the chaos that threatens to tear them apart.

About this time last year, I reviewed the first book in this series, Across the Universe. I remember wanting to read it from the buzz I had seen in the blogger reader world, and also because I couldn't take my eyes off that breathtakingly gorgeous cover.

In summary, I loved the first book. Devoured it in 24 hours almost. I've been looking forward to the sequel for a while. And now it is hear and read.

And just as awesome as the first one.

Not to give too much away about the first book, but we left the story with the 16-year-old Elder in charge. And things go south pretty quickly. Elder is trying to fix all the problems while warring with doing what he really wants, spending time with Amy the girl from Sol-Earth. Amy has her own fascinating story arc with a nice mystery twist.

Elder and Amy's characters were just as dynamic as the first book, showing ever growing well rounded personas. Nothing is cake and cookies in this book, and each teen is dealing with that in their own way. I really enjoyed these characters and could empathize with all of their feelings. The writing and style convey this really well.

One downside is that the non-main characters are not as well rounded as these two. Though they are close to being plot points that can talk, ultimately they are fine especially because the plot picks up for any lost character development. I guess this is also a limit from the first persons narratives. The villain to me was really predictable, not so much in his actions but the twists surrounding the character. The plot however sometimes did throw me for a loop.

The plot was another thing this book does exceptionally well. I was always eager to find out more of what was going on, turning the page to get my fix. What sort of clues are on this ship? What actually is going on? I read this book in two large stints because it was that page-turner good.

This is a great middle book. It sets the third book up well but doesn't just serve as a bridge between the first and last. It has a strong plot and the main characters are continually growing and changing, and it left me champing at the bit for the final book, Shades of Earth.

The cool thing about this series is it is science fiction fantasy but not in such a way that makes me want to claw my eyes out or feel like I am being talked down to. If you are interested even remotely in dramas set in space, give this series a go. The first person narrative that switches between each chapter can be jarring at first, but it really adds to the feel of the story.

So in short: Ingenious storytelling, excellently wow.

Review: Across the Universe - Beth Revis

Book Title/Author:Across the Universe by Beth Revis
Publisher/Year Published: January 2011 by Razorbill
Where I got it: The library
Rating: 4/5 stars
Challenges: A to Z Challenges: Male Name (E), Female Name (A), Book (A) and Author (B)

Summary:via Goodreads

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

Thoughts:
I am shocked by how much I liked this book. I read an author Q&A around the release date and thought the premise sounded good, so onto the TBR library waiting list it went. It would probably be a quick read and if it was bad, I'd stop reading.

It was not bad.

You can read the summary above but basically there is a ship living in a fairly dystopian world, where a leader born to rule runs the people. The ship is on a trans-universal flight to inhabit a new earth and thus has frozen some smart people to help colonize it once they get there. Amy is one of those people. Well, she is the daughter who was aloud to be frozen, but she is accidentally woken up too early. Elder is next in line to be leader and is trained by Eldest, the current leader. With the unfrozen Amy now in his life he begins to question all that he knew.

Despite the summary being mostly about Amy, I really think this was Elders story, or at least I identified more with him. Everything he knew gets upended during his quest for discovering more about his destiny.

This book is gripping. The world that Revis builds is completely believable and interesting. She shows us the right amount of atmosphere without bogging us down in details. The narrative is told in first person alternating between Amy and Elder. It bothered me a bit occasionally but knowing how the course of the novel plays out, it was the best choice.

The novel is marketed YA, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and the questions it raises. I would recommend it to anyone who likes dystopian-science fiction. The way I would classify it would be a gripping science fiction book without getting bogged down in all the heavy details that science fiction books usually contain (I'm looking at you Dune).

Although, I am left with a general annoyance that was just kind of aggravated to the point of discussion. It seems that right now EVERY YA book is a damn series. This is too, (I found out by looking at the authors website) but that narrative doesn't suffer because of it. I fully believe that I could just read this book and be happy with how it wrapped up content that this is the end. That is the mark of a good first in a series book. I don't want to have to keep reading to finish a story that I started a book ago. So bravo on that account. You've passed this cynic's annoyance test with flying colors. So 1 point in her favor there.

I don't plan to stop reading here though. I like the voice and the concept of colonizing another planet, so I'll read on.

Review: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Book Title/Author:
Publisher/Year Published: 2005 by RH Audio
Where I got it: The library
Rating: 4/5 stars
Challenges:A to Z Male Name: Z, A to Z Female Name: T, A to Z Book Title: H, A to Z Authors: D, 2011 TBR Challenge

Summary:via Goodreads
Don't leave Earth without this hilarious international bestseller about the end of the world and the happy-go-lucky days that follow. Join the gruesome twsome of Arthur Dent and his friend, Ford Perfect, in their now-famous intergalactic journey through time and space.

Thoughts:
I can't believe it took me this long to read this, well listen to it anyway. Back in 2004 I took a novels class where we were allowed to chose our own books. My one friend read this trilogy and told me I would love it. Well 6ish years later and I finally got around to it!

I think I really liked this book hearing it read to me by the lovely Stephen Fry. Would I have liked it just reading it myself? Sure. But I really think that his voices and twists on some of the dialogue really brought it to life for me during the snow-filled trecks home from work.

The most interesting part for me was stumbling across a word or phrase that I'd heard thrown around before and realizing that it originated in this book! And it was so nice to finally hear the story behind the answer to the life, universe and everything!

It's hard for me to describe this book in review form. I read a review on Goodreads that mentioned that however you feel about Monty Python is how you will feel about this book, and I think that is true. It's out there comedy; sometimes it's extremely random. But overall, it's super entertaining! So if you like fantastical fantasy and random insanity, I think that you would enjoy reading or listening to this book!

I plan to continue my listening journey with the other 4 audiobooks and also the radio plays!

Six Degrees of Separation: Book A

In honor of Six Degrees of Separation (play premiered on May 16, 1990) and Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon (headlined on April 7, 1994, do the following:

A. Read any book off your TBR
AND
B. Read a book that the author is at a maximum of six degrees of separation from the author in Part A. In your post for this task you must explain the connection in order to get credit.

At first, this was a bit daunting. How am I going to pick a book that can be connected to another book? Well what happened was I really wanted to read Fahrenheit 451 so I spent at least 2 hours finding a connection to a book I had just randomly picked up off the shelf (I'll review that one next).

Book Title/Author: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Year Published: 1953
Where I got it: The Campus Library
Rating: 4/5 stars

I'm not going to lie. I had no idea what this book would be about when I first picked it up. So when I read the opening section about how he is a book burner and books burn at 451 degrees (I see what you did there, Mr. Bradbury), I was intrigued. Why did it come to this? What happened to America?

The book goes on to mostly answer these questions and leads you along through this world through the main character who is a fireman (now this means book burner). He gets into some trouble and dystopian shenanigans ensue.

During the reading, I would have given this book a three, but since I stopped reading, I ruminated over the concept for at least an hour. Thus I had to give it a four. The concept of a world without books is truly a nightmare world for me. As with all good dystopian literature, Bradbury presents it to us in a way that makes it seem this society is not far off from our own.

My new favorite question to ask readers of this book is "If you could save only one book for humanity, which would it be?"

I cannot come up with an answer. I can barely do the what books would you take to a desert island game.


Here is how I completed the 6 degree challenge:

Book A: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Book B: In the Electric Eden: Stories by Nick Arvin

Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 which is being (re)made into a movie directed by Frank Darabont.
Frank Darabont also directed The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist, all written by Steven King.
Steven King was on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in Feb 1999
Conan O'Brien also interviewed Fred Savage in Feb 1999
Fred Savage graduated from Stanford where Nick Arvin is also a grad.