Waiting on Wednesday: Haven, Choker, and The Grimm Legacy

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we just can't wait to get our hands on!

What am I waiting on? Well, first and foremost - Mockingjay of course!! Seems like the whole YA universe is waiting for that one.

But besides that, these are a few others I have my eye on:

Haven by Kristi Cook

Description from Amazon:

"Violet McKenna isn’t a normal girl with normal teenage issues; she has more to contend with than most people could handle. Violet thought she was just crazy when she had a vivid vision of her dad’s murder. Her life started falling apart when her premonition came true. She’s had flashes of other events too. The problem was nobody believed her until she found a new school: Winterhaven.
At Winterhaven, Violet finally feels like she belongs. She quickly finds a close group friends and discovers that they too have psychic ‘gifts’—as do all the students at Winterhaven. But as soon as she feels settled she discovers the most intriguing and alluring boy she has ever met, and things quickly go awry. As the attraction between them grows, intense visions of the boy’s death start to haunt her. In her premonitions the secret he is unwilling to share begins to reveal itself. And to Violet's horror, she learns that their destinies are intertwined in a critical--and deadly--way."

It sounds like it has potential as long as it isn't done in an over-the-top, cheesy style. Love the cover, especially that font!

Choker by Elizabeth Woods

I actually came across this one while I was looking at the Amazon page for Haven. I have no idea how good it's going to be, but here is the very short description:

"What if the only friend you could trust turned out to be dangerous? A new thriller from debut author Elizabeth Woods!"

The cover's subtle but I like it, and the tagline is intriguing! Just wish there was a little more info...

Finally, I know this one's already been released but neither of my libraries is carrying it yet, so it's one that I'm waiting on anyway!

The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman

Description from Amazon:

"Elizabeth has a new job at an unusual library— a lending library of objects, not books. In a secret room in the basement lies the Grimm Collection. That’s where the librarians lock away powerful items straight out of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales: seven-league boots, a table that produces a feast at the blink of an eye, Snow White’s stepmother’s sinister mirror that talks in riddles. When the magical objects start to disappear, Elizabeth embarks on a dangerous quest to catch the thief before she can be accused of the crime—or captured by the thief.

Polly Shulman has created a contemporary fantasy with a fascinating setting and premise, starring an ordinary girl whose after-school job is far from ordinary— and leads to a world of excitement, romance and magical intrigue."

I read an excerpt from this and really enjoyed it - it feels quirky and different from typical YA fantasy reads! Also anything involving Grimm's fairy tales piques my interest immediately.

And here's the trailer for it:



What are you waiting on?

Garden Spells: Review (Adult)

The Waverleys of Bascom, North Carolina, have always been rather mysterious. Claire has a gift for influencing emotions with her cookery, her cousin Evanelle somehow knows exactly what she needs to give a particular person, and the apple tree in the yard - well, it seems to have a mind of its own. When Claire's younger sister, Sydney, returns after a ten-year absence with her young daughter Bay in tow, it soon becomes apparent that the Waverley gift has been passed onto them as well. Each sister has struggled with her identity as a Waverley: Claire, not born in Bascom, yearns to belong, while Sydney has spent a large part of her life running from the Waverley reputation. That's not all she's running from now, though - her daughter's father is a vicious, abusive man who wants nothing more than make Sydney's life miserable. Gradually Sydney begins to relax, enjoying the stability she finds in her new life in Bascom and helping her sister open up and take risks to find happiness. But not everything's as simple as Sydney might like; her arrival has created waves in Bascom, ones that involve her first love Hunter John and her first friend Henry Hopkins. And the last man she ever wanted to see again is still trying to track her down...

I really don't know how to sum up Garden Spells. It was a breath of fresh air after some of the YA fantasy I've been reading - not that I haven't been enjoying those as well, but this was less traditional and formulaic, more like "magical realism." The element of the fantastical is dealt with so subtly, and yet it is so effective. I loved how the smallest little thing could change the course of events, be it a bizarre and seemingly useless gift from Evanelle which became extremely meaningful, dandelion petals Claire added to the salad encouraging loyalty from those who ate it, or Sydney's hairstyling ability altering the personality an individual projected. It felt as though if you just tried hard enough to believe that magic does exist in our world, this is what you would come up with. The magic makes sense.


Characters:

This isn't a book you read for the plot, it's a book you read for the characters, the interpersonal interactions, and the world that Sarah Addison Allen has created. I immediately identified and sympathized with Claire (although I don't have a green thumb and I am terrible at cooking!) because her need to belong and her fear of being rejected or deserted are universal emotions. It took a bit longer for Sydney to grow on me, as I didn't agree with everything she'd done, but her loyalty to her sister and love for her daughter won me over. It was fantastic to see Sydney playing matchmaker between Claire and Tyler, and watching the sisters grow closer and share more together was a real treat. Bay's insights were mature for her age in some ways, and it didn't feel out of place, because in other ways it was clear she was still very much a child. Tyler was also a wonderful character, well-suited to Claire because he was so persistent (and immune to her magical cooking) and a genuinely considerate guy.

I do wish we'd seen some more of Henry - he's not introduced until about halfway through and we don't get as much from his viewpoint as I would have liked. (Minor spoilers here, I suppose.) Because I didn't have a clear picture of his personality (apart from the fact he always really liked Sydney) their relationship felt a bit forced, as though the author felt that because Claire was ending up with someone, Sydney had to as well. Considering the relationship, if you could call it that, that Sydney had just gotten out of, I don't know that she needed to be jumping into one again so soon. Plus, the fact that Henry was her first close friend ever and now, years later, they were romantically involved, seemed a tad unrealistic.

Also, some of the other side characters - Hunter John, Fred, James, Steve - could have used a bit more fleshing out, as they didn't feel nearly as real to me as Claire, Sydney, Bay, and Tyler. David was well-portrayed as a controlling, abusive man who took pleasure from frightening and hurting Sydney. However, it would have been interesting psychologically to know how he got to this point. 

Another small quibble I had was that Tyler, an outsider, doesn't have a stronger reaction to the revelation that Claire has magical talents. He is told that she's trying to influence him with her cooking, and we don't really see what he thinks about this (but he continues to pursue her, without asking any questions.) Wouldn't he be curious?

Plot:

Like I mentioned before, this book isn't about an exciting storyline. It doesn't need to be. That said, I found that the ending fell a bit short of my hopes, being somewhat anticlimactic (and triumphing over the 'bad guy' too easily and unconvincingly.) Also, I never fully understood why the Waverleys were considered to be "below" of many other Bascom families. Was it because they were not wealthy, or because they had magic? Most people in town knew about their special abilities (or at least knew of the rumours) and didn't seem especially troubled by it, so I don't think it could be that. Claire ran a cooking business that marketed her magic after all!

Writing style:

Sarah Addison Allen's writing style is phenomenal. Her imagery is evocative, bringing her characters and setting to life. Some of the descriptions are amazing, so creative and yet managing to communicate exactly what she means to the reader. Perhaps she is a little simile- and metaphor-happy, but they are wonderful! I especially loved how alive and personal she made the apple tree, giving it emotions and motives like anybody else in the story. The author has mentioned that she draws on fairy tales for her books, and that's a bit what it felt like to read Garden Spells - the same storytelling language that almost sounds like a poem. My description of her writing style isn't really good enough to convey it properly, so I've pulled out a few quotes:

"That morning, when Claire woke up in the backyard garden, she tasted regret in her mouth. With a frown, she spit it out."

"She'd kissed many men who wanted her, but it had been a long time since she'd kissed one who loved her. She'd forgotten. She'd forgotten that love made anything possible."

"They wanted roses tonight to represent their love, but when you added sadness to love it caused regret. They wanted nutmeg because it represented their wealth, but when you added guilt to wealth it caused embarassment."

It isn't the sort of book you need to read all in one setting; indeed, I think if you did the writing style and tone might lose some of its impact and begin to seem repetitive. Because it's not plot-based, though, when you do return to it after a break it's easy to pick back up where you left off without having too much difficulty remembering what's happened.

The addition in the back of the book of the meanings of some of Claire's garden ingredients was a great touch! I loved that aspect of the magic in the story so it was nice to have a glossary for it.

Overall verdict: 4.5 out of 5 shooting stars. Read if you like romance, magic, sisters, and most importantly, characters figuring out how to be happy. (If you are after a gripping non-stop action read, though, this is not the book you're looking for.)

 Note: this is an adult book, and it does have some sexual and violent content.

The Versatile Blogger Award - Round 2!

 
So I've received this award again, both from Jazz at About Books and Stephany at Read-a-holic.

Thanks so much to both of you, I'm flattered that you chose my blog!

The rules for this award are:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself. 
3. Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic for whatever reason! (In no particular order...) 
4. Contact the bloggers you've picked and let them know about the award.

So, let's see, seven more things about me...

1.) At some point or other in my life, I have played piano, trumpet, alto saxophone, recorder, handbells, and guitar. (Guitar's the instrument I stuck with.)
2.) I have traveled to Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece, Switzerland, France, England, Scotland, and Japan. Also, all across Canada!
3.) I want to travel to New Zealand, Ireland, and India.
4.) I have a very sizable sweet tooth. I love chocolate, ice cream, cake, cookies... just about any dessert.
5.) I don't like Coke or Pepsi. I like rootbeer.
6.) I can't read on buses or in cars - I get queasy after only a few minutes. Wish I could though!
7.) I am definitely a dog person.

Passing it onto the following fabulous blogs that have caught my eye recently...


The Grammarian's Reviews
Planet Print
I Am A Reader, Not A Writer
A Girl, Books, And Other Things
Between The Pages 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? (4)

This meme is hosted by Sheila of Book Journey and showcases the books we recently read, are currently reading, and are planning on reading soon!

All right, so this past week I read and reviewed The Dark Divine by Bree Despain and Beautiful Creatures by Kami Gracia & Margaret Stohl (links go to reviews).

I am still working on Dickens' Little Dorrit (that one will be a while, I can tell) and have now started Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen, which I am enjoying thus far.

Up next? Not sure yet. I've got several out from the library I haven't read or finished reading yet, including The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner, Mariah Mundi: The Midas Box by G. P. Taylor, and Story Time by Edward Bloor.

And, The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa and Stolen by Lucy Christopher are waiting for me at the library, so I will have to pick them up as soon as possible! Once I get my hands on those they will definitely be my top priority (so Dickens will once again be put aside).

What are you reading?

Beautiful Creatures: Review

Ethan Wate's used to living in still, slow-moving, boring Gatlin - in fact, he can't wait until he graduates and leaves it behind him forever. Everything changes when Lena Duchannes arrives, and Ethan's drawn to her in a way he's never experienced before. But Lena's got powers he's never encountered, and she's counting down the days until her sixteenth birthday, when she will be claimed as either Light or Dark forever. She doesn't want to risk Ethan getting hurt, but he is determined that nothing will keep him apart from her - and he might just have some unusual talents of his own...

All right, so right off the bat I just have to say: I had some major issues with Beautiful Creatures. It was a struggle for me to get through the first 3/4 of it, at which point the plot picked up a little bit and I became slightly more invested in the outcome. I'd seen lots of reviews raving about this novel so frankly I was expecting something more than I got out of it. Anyway, it's going to be a long review, so pull up your chairs and get comfortable. Also - this whole review will be chock-full of SPOILERS, so you have been warned!

To start out on a positive note, what I liked about it:

• Ethan's voice and personality. He generally came across as a smart, kind guy who wasn't a shallow jerk like a lot of the other guys in his high school. I liked seeing the strong connection he had with his mom and how much he missed her, and he was very sweet and chivalrous in always trying to protect Lena from all the insults she received. And he had a bit of a sarcastic sense of humour at times (I would have liked to see even more of it!) that helped to lighten the mood.

• The setting of the deep South and its history. I haven't seen this setting very often in a paranormal/fantasy novel, and the authors by and large did a good job of getting across what it felt like to live in Gatlin, the type of people that often occupy a town like that, and the history associated with the Civil War that still permeates the attitudes of its residents. The language spoken by a lot of the older residents was definitely evocative of a deep South setting, without being cheesy.

• Some of the characters on the sidelines. Amma was a spunky character who didn't take nonsense from anyone, least of all Ethan; his great-aunts were quirky personalities who totally radiated the old-fashioned ideas of people from another era, but managed to be lovable all the same; "Aunt Marian" had some excellent quotes that she always pulled out for just the right moment, and it was nice to see her sometimes acting as a surrogate mother for Ethan; Link was admittedly not the brightest bulb and rather shallow, but he was very loyal to Ethan and Lena in the face of everyone who hated them.

• Macon Ravenwood. He was a really intriguing character, cloaked in mystery and gifted with extraordinary powers. Half of the time you trusted him and the other half you didn't, but he always radiated an aura of command and control. I didn't like how much he'd concealed from Lena and Ethan, but he makes the ultimate sacrifice for his niece which shows just how much he truly cares for her.

• The different specializations of magic. It was neat to read about all the types of powers, many of which don't pop up that often in YA paranormal/fantasy books (eg. Palimpsest).

• The last few chapters. This was where everything was pulled together and some things finally made sense when the mysteries were revealed; also, there were some tricks and turns that I definitely did not see coming. Namely (*major spoilers here*): that Sarafine had been using Mrs. Lincoln's body for months now to try to make contact with Lena, and that Macon would die. The ending also sets up well for a sequel, with Lena appearing somewhere between Light and Dark (although as her Claiming has only been postponed a year it does feel a bit like a cop-out).

 All right...now for what I didn't like.

• Lena as a character. I'm sorry, but I didn't. Perhaps it was because it was written from Ethan's perspective, but I never felt like I really got to know Lena as a person. What I did see of her, I didn't like. She was usually moping about how worried she was that she was going to "turn Dark" on her birthday, and while I sympathized at first, eventually I got sick of it. She couldn't seem to talk about anything else. Also, she was really moody, so one minute she'd be all depressed, then Ethan would manage to cheer her up, and then in the blink of an eye she would start distancing herself from him again. I don't know why it never annoyed him because it sure annoyed me. It always felt like she was holding out on Ethan (and on the reader) and that what we saw of her wasn't authentic. Plus it seemed like whenever Ethan wanted to do something interesting (even if it was a stupid idea, which it sometimes was), her default response was, "No, Ethan, don't! We can't!" If I had a dollar everytime she responded like that, I would have had a pile of money by the end of the book (and then she just goes along with whatever he wants to do anyway, so what was the point?) We get a brief passage towards the end of the book from Lena's perspective, which helps round her out just a little, but I would have preferred a lot more in order to understand how she perceived everything.

• Ethan and Lena's relationship. I'm having difficulty articulating exactly what it was about their relationship that didn't work for me. I think it's partly that it developed so suddenly, based on this "connection" that they had from the very beginning, and partly that we see it all from Ethan's perspective so it appears rather one-sided. He's clearly fallen hard for her, but we don't get the same vibe from Lena - sometimes she seems into him, sometimes not. She has a terrible time admitting that she cares for him, but we aren't really shown why this is; we don't see what she thinks or feels about him until towards the end. Also, the speaking-mind-to-mind thing did not work for me. Not only could she sometimes (but not always) hear his thoughts, but she would interrupt and reply! Once again, I don't know why Ethan put up with that...poor guy had no privacy. Also, Ethan thinks about Lena so much that we don't discover that much about him as an individual - his likes, dislikes, passions, hobbies, goals, etc. As I liked Ethan's personality I would have enjoyed seeing more of him as separate from his relationship with Lena.

• Ethan's inconsistent reactions and convenient denial. Most of Ethan I liked, however, it really started to get on my nerves the way he kept going back-and-forth on certain issues. Case in point: the odd supernatural occurrences that keep cropping up in his life. Lena starts speaking into his mind, and he keeps flip-flopping between, "There's no such thing as magic!" to "Oh yeah, she's talking to me in my head again. Might as well talk back." I didn't think his initial response to this was realistic - he accepted the magic awfully quickly - but then it annoyed me even more when he kept questioning it, then going along with it, and then questioning it again. Furthermore, sometimes it felt like I had been reading a different storyline than Ethan had been experiencing. At one point he tells Marian that everyone has told them different things about the locket...and I was thinking, What is he talking about? Because both Amma and Macon had basically made it very clear that the locket was bad news and they shouldn't mess with it. So either Ethan was living with some major denial of the situation or I had really read something inaccurately earlier in the story. This kind of denial seemed to happen whenever he found out something that suggested he shouldn't be investigating things that he didn't understand.

• The paranormal/fantasy aspect. I can't even begin to count how many unexplained magical occurrences the authors threw in there, but they were considerable. It was like they couldn't get enough of any one type of magic and so they decided to keep tossing things in there and hoping they would work. It turns into one gigantic hodgepodge of every fantasy cliche and then some! You've got the mind-speak powers of Ethan and Lena, the locket that shows glimpses of the past of Genevieve Duchannes whenever certain people touch it, the family of both Dark and Light Casters, Macon Ravenwood the Incubus, Lena the Natural that seems to be able to cast every single spell on earth, the song that keeps popping up at untimely moments and scaring Ethan, the nightmares Ethan and Lena share that seem to hint at a very dark future, the ghost of Genevieve that conveniently appears, the messages in the books from Ethan's mother... the list goes on and on! And yet we are expected to believe that with all this magic and all these individuals wielding magic running around Gatlin, that half the town still hasn't noticed? All right, so we are given the explanation that they know something's up and just don't want to know any more...but still. I'm skeptical. If the authors had stuck to just one or two types of magic, I would have bought it, but it seemed to have very little rhyme and reason (beyond the passed-down-for-generations magic of the Casters, which made sense to me). Also, much of the supernatural that we see is never explained! Why does Ethan seem to have some powers? What is up with that song? Why was that locket bespelled? How was his mother sending him messages? How does Macon die? While the climax does resolve some very pressing questions, the reader is still left pondering exactly how everything happened.

• The writing style. Personally I never identify as well with a first-person male perspective, so that was already against me. I also found the pacing to be off. There were so many clues that it was difficult to keep track of all of the events, and I kept getting confused as to the chronological order of events (and where the characters were right now in the scheme of things). Also, I just didn't feel that it flowed that well until the climax, where there was an actual time constraint and everything got more exciting. Until that point, there was just the long drawn-out threat of Lena's sixteenth birthday looming in the distance, which was mentioned so many times that I began to feel like it was never going to come. The other thing that bothered me was how the past events involving Genevieve were written. Jumping from Ethan's first-person to third-person was a little disruptive. Also, during these excerpts we were given signs of Genevieve's thoughts and emotions - and although I liked seeing that side of her, it was not made clear how much Ethan and Lena were privy to. Did they see Genevieve, Ethan Carter Wate and the fire objectively? Or were they somehow, like the reader, able to understand Genevieve's perspective?  

This combination of issues made it very easy for me to put the book down and difficult for me to pick it up again. Pretty soon I was reading less for 'oooooh what's going to happen?' and more for 'argh, when's it going to end?' Perhaps some of my many questions will be answered in the sequel...but I won't be reading it to find out.

Still, because the last few chapters redeemed it somewhat, I will say: if you can make it 3/4 of the way through the book, then keep reading. Otherwise, it's not really worth your time.

Rating: 2.5 shooting stars.