ARC Review of Awaken by Meg Cabot

AWAKEN (#3)

By: Meg Cabot

Review by: Kaede 

Release Date: July 2nd, 2013

Publisher: Point 

Pages: 343

Format: e-ARC

Source: NetGalley (Thank you, Scholastic!) 

 

Death has her in his clutches. She doesn’t want him to let go.

Seventeen-year-old Pierce Oliviera knew by accepting the love of John Hayden, she’d be forced to live forever in the one place she’s always dreaded most: the Underworld. The sacrifice seemed worth it, though, because it meant she could be with the boy she loves.

But now her happiness — and safety — are threatened, all because the Furies have discovered that John has broken one of their strictest rules: He revived a human soul.

If the balance between life and death isn’t fixed, both the Underworld and Pierce’s home back on earth will be wiped away. But there’s only one way to restore order. Someone has to die.

As far as conclusions go, I honestly think AWAKEN was done very well. A fantastic wrap-up of the series, it leaves you with a sense of closure but also the promise that the story doesn't just end with the last world. The characters' journeys will continue, and maybe even one day they'll return to tell us about all that they've seen since the last time we saw them. But for now, this is the right time to say goodbye. 

Something I found myself doing a lot while I was reading that I didn't expect was laughing. It isn't to say ABANDON and UNDERWORLD didn't have moments where it was funny, but they definitely couldn't compare to AWAKEN for me. Although, as a whole, I wouldn't say comedy and humor are this series's main priority or strong point, so I can't really hold anything against the first two books for not being as amusing as the last. 

There were a few issues I had with AWAKEN, one of them particularly perplexing to me. If something seems odd or unusual, chances are that something is likely off about the picture. I watched as Pierce would think about how something looked out of place and then the next second she'd forget all about it on a few occasions and I didn't understand why. 

However, AWAKEN was also filled with action and suspense that managed to keep me interested all the way through. I kept flipping pages, curious to see what would happen next. As far as characters went, Pierce definitely isn't my favorite heroine of all time, but she isn't the worst. I definitely do prefer the secondary characters when it comes to this series though.

I really liked Cabot's writing style in AWAKEN, and the overall way she presented the finale to her series. Problems were wrapped up nicely with resolutions and answers were given so that there would be little to no questions left. Although I still can't figure out why I found some of things John said so funny. All in all, if you enjoyed ABANDON, I would encourage you to continue on to AWAKEN. While this series isn't an absolutely favorite, I certainly don't regret reading it. 

4 coffee cups! 

*An advance copy of this book was provided  for review. However, all opinions remain honest and my own.*

~♥~

Contact Kaede: 

Email: kimberlyho75@yahoo.com

Goodreads: Kaede
Twitter: Kami178xx

Stacking the Shelves (2)

 Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted at Tynga's Reviews. It's pretty damn awesome.

This week we got quite a few books, so try not to fall asleep.

Sarah:

Books:

Eon by Alison Goodman

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

Dare Me by Megan Abbott

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Between You & Me by Marisa Calin

 ARCS:

 The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

Kaede:

BOOKS

 

The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11...

Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12...

CLASSICS: 

(They were free. And no one expects to resist free books, do they? >:DDD) 

Persuasion by Jane Austen - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21...

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18...

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14...

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (audio) - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45...

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34...

ARCS:

Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson (and of course, his ghostwriter: Maxine Paetro) - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...

NETGALLEY:

The Archived by Victoria Schwab - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10...

Prototype 2 by Dan Jolley - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14...

Izzy:

Basically, I'm a total recluse and didn't leave the house. Therefore, I only got books in the mail this week. Happy times!

WON:

A Need So Beautiful by Suzanne Young (#1)

A Want So Wicked by Suzanne Young (#2)

Thank you to Lizzy Lessard from Lizzy's Dark Fiction!

PS- They were signed copies, too!

 

ARC of Erasing Time by CJ Hill

Thank you to Epic Reads! (They totally don't email you if you win- I had NO idea this was coming.)

A signed bookmark from Let the Sky Fall by Shannon Messenger.

For Review:

The rainbow isn't randomly photoshopped. That's just the sheen, which is freaking amazing.

Finished copy of The White Forest by Adam McOmber

ARCs I'd Sock the Pope for... Part Two

The other day, I posted about ARCs that I'm pretty much dying for. Well, I really can't limit it to just 5, so here's part two. Here's the intro from the other post:

Ignore the title. I like the Pope a lot.

So there are just a few things on my wishlist that I need, like NOW. I know a lot of other people have made posts on this, so I decided to join the frenzy and provide me Matt Lauer style commentary. (AKA- It sucks and is totally unnecessary and contrived.)

NONE of these are sequels, because I hate reading sequels. It feels like too much work.

5. The Raven Boys

 

Title: The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1)
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Release Date: September 18th, 2012
Publisher: Scholastic Press

“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

I wasn't a huge fan of Shiver by Maggie Steifvater, but I cannot deny that she writes so heart-achingly beautifully. In that vein, I'm very excited to see a new venture in fantasy.

4. Mystic City

 

Title: Mystic City (Mystic City #1)
Author: Theo Lawrence
Release Date: October 9th, 2012
Publisher: Random House Children's

For fans of Matched, The Hunger Games, X-Men, and Blade Runner comes a tale of a magical city divided. A political rebellion ignited. A love that was meant to last forever.

Aria Rose, youngest scion of one of Mystic City's two ruling rival families, finds herself betrothed to Thomas Foster, the son of her parents' sworn enemies. The union of the two will end the generations-long political feud—and unite all those living in the Aeries, the privileged upper reaches of the city, against the banished mystics who dwell below in the Depths. But Aria doesn't remember falling in love with Thomas; in fact, she wakes one day with huge gaps in her memory. And she can't conceive why her parents would have agreed to unite with the Fosters in the first place. Only when Aria meets Hunter, a gorgeous rebel mystic from the Depths, does she start to have glimmers of recollection—and to understand that he holds the key to unlocking her past. The choices she makes can save or doom the city—including herself.

I'll admit that this really doesn't sound all that exciting. However, I actually HAVE an e-arc of this (and I didn't even sock the Pope!) and I've read the first chapter and I'm quite excited. I'd love to get my grubby hands on a physical copy of this.

3. Renegade

Title: Renegade (Elysium-Chronicles #1)
Author: J.A. Souders
Release Date: November 13th, 2012
Publisher: Tor Teen

Since the age of three, sixteen-year-old Evelyn Winters has been trained to be Daughter of the People in the underwater utopia known as Elysium. Selected from hundreds of children for her ideal genes all her life she’s thought that everything was perfect; her world. Her people. The Law.

But when Gavin Hunter, a Surface Dweller, accidentally stumbles into their secluded little world, she’s forced to come to a startling realization: everything she knows is a lie. Her memories have been altered. Her mind and body aren’t under her own control. And the person she knows as Mother is a monster.

Together with Gavin she plans her escape, only to learn that her own mind is a ticking time bomb... and Mother has one last secret that will destroy them all.

I'm familiar with underwater utopias. (*cough* Bioshock *cough*). I'm also familiar with futuristic utopia literature. I'm participating on the blog tour for this, so I'm interested in seeing how this turns out.

2. Mind Games

Title: Mind Games (Mind Games #1)
Author: Kiersten White
Release Date: February 19th, 2013
Publisher: HarperTEEN

Fia was born with flawless instincts. Her first impulse, her gut feeling, is always exactly right. Her sister, Annie, is blind to the world around her—except when her mind is gripped by strange visions of the future.

Trapped in a school that uses girls with extraordinary powers as tools for corporate espionage, Annie and Fia are forced to choose over and over between using their abilities in twisted, unthinkable ways…or risking each other’s lives by refusing to obey.

In a stunning departure from her New York Times bestselling Paranormalcy trilogy, Kiersten White delivers a slick, edgy, heartstoppingly intense psychological thriller about two sisters determined to protect each other—no matter the cost.

Two words: Cov and er.

1. The Archived

Title: The Archived (The Archived #1)
Author: Victoria Schwab
Release Date: January 22nd, 2013
Publisher: Hyperion

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often-violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn't just dangerous—it's a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da's death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.

In this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit, unbearable loss and hard-won redemption.

If this author is as awesome at writing as she is on Twitter, then I think I won't have any trouble loving this book.

ARC Review of Confessions of an Angry Girl by Louise Rozett

by Isabelle Doan

Website/Goodreads/Amazon

Random Info:
Release Date: August 28th, 2012

Publisher: HarlequinTEEN

Pages: 304 pages (paperback)

Series: Yes, this is #1

My Format: NetGalley

Time it Took me to Read: 10 hours

Rating: Library/Borrow/e-book/Paperback/Hardcover

Rose Zarelli, self-proclaimed word geek and angry girl, has some CONFESSIONS to make... #1: I'm livid all the time. Why? My dad died. My mom barely talks. My brother abandoned us. I think I'm allowed to be irate, don't you?

#2: I make people furious regularly. Want an example? I kissed Jamie Forta, a badass guy who "might" be dating a cheerleader. She is now enraged and out for blood. Mine.

#3: High school might as well be Mars. My best friend has been replaced by an alien, and I see red all the time. (Mars is red and "seeing red" means being angry-get it?)

Here are some other vocab words that describe my life: Inadequate. Insufferable. Intolerable.

(Don't know what they mean? Look them up yourself.) (Sorry. That was rude.)

 From Underachiever's Guide to being a Domestic Goddess

The age of fourteen is probably the most awkward year of anybody's life. (And if you're shaking your head at the screen right now, I suggest you stop lying to yourself.)

It's the age where you're too young to do anything, and too old to do anything. Too young for parties, drinking, IT (ahem), and too old for bouncy castles and slides and eating off the kids menu. You know, all the fun stuff. Rose Zarelli realizes this, and thus begins her tumultuous freshman year of high school.

But there's a catch- her father died the summer before, and she's an Angry Girl. (Note the use of capitalization.)

In a way, I suppose that Rose's angry-ness would have made her unlikable. After all, she treats her friend, Robert, like crap. Robert is basically one of those clingy, whipped guys, and Rose continually ignores him and figuratively beats him up, even as Robert gives Rose gifts and treats her nicely. And he keeps coming back for more, just as Anastasia kept going back to Christian.

But the love interest is not Robert. It is Jamie, who is pretty much a jerk. He's older (a junior, I think), and he's taken. And YET Rose wants him.

...

...

Yeah, I would have not read this book based on what I just said.

However, things pick up. Although Rose is sort of unlikeable, she's real, and acknowledges her faults. There is amazing character growth, and as the credits were scrolling, I came to the conclusion that I did, in fact, like Rose as sort of an anti-hero.

The supporting characters were interesting as well. The cast includes Angelo, (although all I really know about him is that he likes Nirvana and Metallica), Tracy (the best friend who has a falling out with Rose), Michelle (the nice cheerleader), and others. They're all pretty much archetypes, but I can't blame Rozett. They all exist in high school.

I still didn't like Jamie, though. He's a jerk to his girlfriend (Regina), who helped him in a time of need. WHY. Why would you do that?

From horrormovies.org. Yes, this is a real movie.

Because Regina is a stereotypical cheerleader that deserves to be punched in the face?

No.

NO.

I'm only hoping that in the sequel Rozett will make Regina more of a layered character, because I don't want to have to deal with some more cheerleader witches.

Other than that, the technicalities in this book were minor. There were a few discrepancies that removed me from the reading experience. For example, Robert works at a restaurant, and he's able to serve Rose's mom alcohol. It's illegal for minors to serve alcohol.

So. If you don’t enjoy reading about high school, don’t read this book. It is as much a tale of that dreaded place as any I’ve read.

Also, if you’ve never had anyone close to you die before- I probably wouldn’t read this book. It would be hard to connect with Rose, and I would understand why someone would find her character to be totally and utterly awful if said person could not make the connection.

But if you don’t fall into those categories, know that Confessions of an Angry Girl has a surreptitious way of filtering into your heart with its clever writing and humor. Definitely a worthwhile read.

4 STARS! 

Content: There's quite a bit of underage drinking, implications of sex, and mentions of condoms. However, none of these are condoned.