Review of The School for Good & Evil by Soman Chainani

Review of Soman Chainani's The School for Good & Evil: The Last Ever After

Release Date: July 21st, 2015

Synopsis as found on Amazon.com:

In the stunning conclusion to the New York Times bestselling School for Good and Evil trilogy, everything old is new again, as Sophie and Agatha fight the past as well as the present to find the perfect end to their fairy tale.

Former best friends Sophie and Agatha thought their ending was sealed when they went their separate ways, but their storybook is about to be rewritten—and this time theirs isn't the only one. With the girls apart, Evil has taken over and the forces of Good are in deathly peril. Will Agatha and Sophie be able to work together to save them? Will they find their way to being friends again? And will their new ending be the last Ever After they've been searching for?

Soman Chainani delivers action, adventure, laughter, romance, and more twists than ever before in this extraordinary end to his epic series.

Synopsis as found on GoodReads.com:

In the epic conclusion to Soman Chainani’s New York Times bestselling series, The School for Good and Evil, everything old is new again as Sophie and Agatha fight the past as well as the present to find the perfect end to their story.

As A World Without Princes closed, the end was written and former best friends Sophie and Agatha went their separate ways. Agatha was whisked back to Gavaldon with Tedros and Sophie stayed behind with the beautiful young School Master.

But as they settle into their new lives, their story begs to be re-written, and this time, theirs isn’t the only one. With the girls apart, Evil has taken over and the villains of the past have come back to change their tales and turn the world of Good and Evil upside down.

Readers around the world are eagerly awaiting the third book in The School for Good and Evil series, The Last Ever After. This extraordinary conclusion delivers more action, adventure, laughter, romance and fairy tale twists and turns than you could ever dream of!

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I have been in a reading slump as of the past few months. This past month was the worst for me in reading. I have had a lot going on and can attribute some of my lack of focus in reading to that... but it is still super upsetting. I have loved this series ever since I picked up an ARC of the first book 3 years ago. While portions of story were slow & not as exciting as the previous books, it did pick up closer to the end.

I love the morals behind the story. Whether it be about beauty being in the eye of the beholder, having to find beauty within yourself, not to judge a book by its cover, or that there is true love out there for everyone, the story had some beautiful undertones.

My biggest dislike for the series ender is that the book was quite a bit too long. Seeing as how this book is written for the Juvie section, I think that 655 pages is a little excessive. If some of the more boring parts had been cut, it could have been much more to the level of the rest of the series.

If you enjoy fairy tales or the retelling of fairy tales, you will absolutely love this book.

Review of Me & Earl & The Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

Review of Jesse Andrews' Me & Earl & the Dying Girl

Release Date: March 1st, 2012

Synopsis as found on GoodReads.com:

Greg Gaines is the last master of high school espionage, able to disappear at will into any social environment. He has only one friend, Earl, and together they spend their time making movies, their own incomprehensible versions of Coppola and Herzog cult classics.

Until Greg’s mother forces him to rekindle his childhood friendship with Rachel.

Rachel has been diagnosed with leukemia—-cue extreme adolescent awkwardness—-but a parental mandate has been issued and must be obeyed. When Rachel stops treatment, Greg and Earl decide the thing to do is to make a film for her, which turns into the Worst Film Ever Made and becomes a turning point in each of their lives.

And all at once Greg must abandon invisibility and stand in the spotlight.

Synopsis as found on Amazon.com:

Sundance U.S. Dramatic Audience Award
Sundance Grand Jury Prize

This is the funniest book you’ll ever read about death.

It is a universally acknowledged truth that high school sucks. But on the first day of his senior year, Greg Gaines thinks he’s figured it out. The answer to the basic existential question: How is it possible to exist in a place that sucks so bad? His strategy: remain at the periphery at all times. Keep an insanely low profile. Make mediocre films with the one person who is even sort of his friend, Earl.

         This plan works for exactly eight hours. Then Greg’s mom forces him to become friends with a girl who has cancer. This brings about the destruction of Greg’s entire life.

         Fiercely funny, honest, heart-breaking—this is an unforgettable novel from a bright talent, now also a film that critics are calling "a touchstone for its generation" and "an instant classic."

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I have found that I have gotten more interested in reading books about terminally ill children recently with the realization that they were actually great books after reading John Green's The Fault In Our Stars and Robyn Schneider's Extraordinary Means. When I saw this book was being made into a movie I wanted to read it before seeing it in theaters. I also heard great reviews about it from a friend at work.

Maybe it is my reading funk of lately, but I did not enjoy this story as much as I had been hoping. I found the narrator a bit annoying and the writing style of going back and forth from novel, bullet point, and play script styles a little too hectic. The character talks a lot about how you will hate this book and how he doesn't understand why you haven't put it down already. I was hoping that the main character would have been a more successful filmmaker, but I guess he wouldn't have been as realistic.

I just felt like the story had no real ending and lacked a reason for being. It wasn't about Rachel "the Dying Girl's" Life, because you don't find out much about her of substance until the end of the book. I'm just a little confused by it.

Another book bites the dust.

Review of The Dollhouse Asylum by Mary Gray

Review of Mary Gray's The Dollhouse Asylum

Release Date: October 22nd, 2013

Synopsis as found on GoodReads.com:

A virus that had once been contained has returned, and soon no place will be left untouched by its destruction. But when Cheyenne wakes up in Elysian Fields--a subdivision cut off from the world and its monster-creating virus--she is thrilled to have a chance at survival.

At first, Elysian Fields,with its beautiful houses and manicured lawns, is perfect. Teo Richardson, the older man who stole Cheyenne's heart, built it so they could be together. But when Teo tells Cheyenne there are tests that she and seven other couples must pass to be worthy of salvation, Cheyenne begins to question the perfection of his world.

The people they were before are gone. Cheyenne is now "Persephone," and each couple has been re-named to reflect the most tragic romances ever told. Everyone is fighting to pass the test, to remain in Elysian Fields. Teo dresses them up, tells them when to move and how to act, and in order to pass the test, they must play along.

If they play it right, then they'll be safe.

But if they play it wrong, they'll die.

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So I just finished The Dollhouse Asylum... my slump in reading continues. I need a good book or series to get me out of this funk. While this book had good moments, the plot was confusing and the characters were given poor personalities. The whole book had potential, but in the end was just poorly written. I am not one to stop reading a book, because I always want to know what happened to the characters. I'm sorry to say that for the characters that lived in the end, they were the unlucky ones. Had they died early, they would have been saved the embarrassment of continuing on.

I know that every author puts a lot of work into writing a book and I hate giving negative reviews for any book, but I am just a little upset with this one. Upset... confused... just over it!

Here's to hoping the author keeps this story at only 1 book. Maybe her next series will more thought out... and here's to hoping my next book keeps me entertained. 2015 has been my worst year in reading in almost 6 years.

Review of The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow

Advance Review of Erin Bow's The Scorpion Rules

Release Date: September 22nd, 2015

Synopsis as found on GoodReads.com:

A world battered by climate shift and war turns to an ancient method of keeping peace: the exchange of hostages. The Children of Peace - sons and daughters of kings and presidents and generals - are raised together in small, isolated schools called Preceptures. There, they learn history and political theory, and are taught to gracefully accept what may well be their fate: to die if their countries declare war.

Greta Gustafsen Stuart, Duchess of Halifax and Crown Princess of the Pan-Polar Confederation, is the pride of the North American Prefecture. Learned and disciplined, Greta is proud of her role in keeping the global peace, even though, with her country controlling two-thirds of the world’s most war-worthy resource — water — she has little chance of reaching adulthood alive.

Enter Elián Palnik, the Prefecture’s newest hostage and biggest problem. Greta’s world begins to tilt the moment she sees Elián dragged into the school in chains. The Prefecture’s insidious surveillance, its small punishments and rewards, can make no dent in Elián, who is not interested in dignity and tradition, and doesn’t even accept the right of the UN to keep hostages.

What will happen to Elián and Greta as their two nations inch closer to war?

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So... I'm conflicted. I really loved the plot of this book. What would happen if Man-made Artificial Intelligent Computer Programs became sentient and to stop war all over the world, they held hostage the first born child of every world leader? It sounds like an amazing story. And for more than half of the book it was amazing. It had me on the edge of my seat. Then it went down hill really fast. By the end of the book, I was over it. I hate when books end so weirdly. I'm distraught, confused, and angry all at once.

Greta is a child of peace. Although she is the crown princess of the Pan-Polar Confederation (we know it as Canada), she has lived in the prefecture since she was 5 years old. She has seen friends be dragged away to be killed and all because their parent's country went to war... because when a country goes to war with another country, both of the first born children for either country are put to death. That is the threat that the AI, Talis has controlled world leaders with for the last 400 years.

When Elian arrives at the prefecture, Greta knows she is in trouble. He is the grandchild of the ruler of the country that is most closely bordering her own. The look in his eyes when he recognizes her tells her all she needs to know. Their countries are about to go to war and if they do, she is going to die.

With a plot like that, you know you are in for a wild ride. Maybe by the time the book comes out, the ending will change?!? I highly doubt it, but I can always dream right? I don't know how the author will be able to continue this into a series. Oh well! I am still rating this book 3 out of 5 stars, because I did enjoy most of it. Let me know what you think of it when it comes out in September!

Review of The Killing Jar by Jennifer Bosworth

Advance Review of Jennifer Bosworth's The Killing Jar

Release Date: January 12th, 2016

Synopsis as found on GoodReads.com:


“I try not to think about it, what I did to that boy.”

Seventeen-year-old Kenna Marsden has a secret.

She’s haunted by a violent tragedy she can’t explain. Kenna’s past has kept people—even her own mother—at a distance for years. Just when she finds a friend who loves her and life begins to improve, she’s plunged into a new nightmare. Her mom and twin sister are attacked, and the dark powers Kenna has struggled to suppress awaken with a vengeance.

On the heels of the assault, Kenna is exiled to a nearby commune, known as Eclipse, to live with a relative she never knew she had. There, she discovers an extraordinary new way of life as she learns who she really is, and the wonders she’s capable of. For the first time, she starts to feel like she belongs somewhere. That her terrible secret makes her beautiful and strong, not dangerous. But the longer she stays at Eclipse, the more she senses there is something malignant lurking underneath it all. And she begins to suspect that her new family has sinister plans for her…

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It makes me so sad thinking how long you will have to wait to read this book. Words can not express how much I loved it. When it has been stop and go this year for the quality in Young Adult Literature for me and I have started to get bored with reading, because I haven't read as many books that I have truly loved... Bosworth's The Killing Jar brought me out of my reading funk.

A flawed girl with a dangerous power finds herself trapped between losing her family and using a gift that can make her lose herself. Kenna is a teenager who has only known sadness through out her life. Her twin sister, Erin, is dying from a debilitating affliction and there is nothing she can do. They don't know their father, so their mother, Anya, has had to raise them on her own while running her bakery in a small town. She is so afraid to get close to anyone, because of a freak accident from when she was a child, in fear that she will be the cause of another death... so she won't let her cute neighbor and best friend, Blake, get within arms reach. With all these day to day obstacles, its a wonder that she even gets out of bed.

When she is forced to use her power to stop a man who is hell bent on destroying her family, she is sent away to the family she didn't know she had so that she can recover... kind of like a rehab in the mountains, Eclipse is a secretive commune that does not look kindly upon outsiders trespassing. There she will meet a grandmother she didn't know she had, a hot new young suitor named Cyrus, find the truth about her mother's past, and meet more people like herself. Whereas she has always been a loner, believing she is the only one with this dark power... now she will have a new family full of people with the same secret she has. But for Kenna, finding the truth behind one secret, only opens up the door to many many more.

I hope that in January of next year, you will pick this book up and read for yourself just how incredible it is. It may be 6 plus months away, but it is definitely worth the wait!!

Review of Alive by Scott Sigler

Advance Review of Scott Sigler's Alive

Release Date: July 14th, 2015

Synopsis as found on Amazon.com:

For fans of The Hunger Games, Divergent, and Red Rising comes a gripping sci-fi adventure in which a group of teenagers wake up in a mysterious corridor with no knowledge of who they are or how they got trapped. Their only hope lies with an indomitable young woman who must lead them not only to answers but to survival.  
“I open my eyes to darkness. Total darkness. I hear my own breathing, but nothing else. I lift my head . . . it thumps against something solid and unmoving. There is a board right in front of my face. No, not a board . . . a lid.”
 
A teenage girl awakens to find herself trapped in a coffin. She has no idea who she is, where she is, or how she got there. Fighting her way free brings little relief—she discovers only a room lined with caskets and a handful of equally mystified survivors. Beyond their room lies a corridor filled with bones and dust, but no people . . . and no answers.

She knows only one thing about herself—her name, M. Savage, which was engraved on the foot of her coffin—yet she finds herself in charge. She is not the biggest among them, or the boldest, but for some reason the others trust her. Now, if they’re to have any chance, she must get them to trust one another.

Whatever the truth is, she is determined to find it and confront it. If she has to lead, she will make sure they survive. Maybe there’s a way out, a rational explanation, and a fighting chance against the dangers to come. Or maybe a reality they cannot comprehend lies just beyond the next turn.

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Ahhhhh... Finally a book that I really am truly happy with this year. I have read quite a few that I loved so far in 2015, but more often than not I have read books that have disappointed me. Now, the pattern has been for the past few years that I read the first book in the series and love it, but the sequels are no where near as good as the first... so we will have to wait and see if Sigler can match the success of this book with the next.

A girl wakes up in the dark, unable to move or see anything. She doesn't remember her name, where she came from, or anything about herself, except that she is 12 and today is her birthday. As she is screaming for her mother and father, she thrashes around trying to get herself loose from the binds holding her arms and legs down. She fights to get herself free, even as something slithers up to her neck and bites her. This first chapter really is foreshadowing for the rest of the book, because she ends up being a fighter all the way until the end.

When she finally frees herself, she sees that she is in a room with 11 other coffins. She finds a tag on the one that she just busted herself from that says M. Savage. The name resonates somewhere inside of herself and she knows that it is her name. When she hears someone wake screaming from inside of a coffin near her own, she makes it her mission to get this person out. She finds some kind of tool against the wall and with strength she didn't know she had, pries open the box to find a girl inside. The girl is incredibly beautiful and everything she has always wished she would grow up to look like.

They both notice symbols on each other's heads, but the symbols are never really explained in this book. They also realize through talking that they both are 12 and today is their birthday. The only problem is, neither looks 12 years old. The both are wearing clothes that are too tight and do not fit. Each believes the other looks closer to 16 or 17 years old. After their talk and introductions (the name on the new girls coffin being T. Spingate), together they look into the other coffins. While some of them hold shriveled up dead children, there are 3 boys and 1 more girl that are still alive.

These 6 children all believe that they are 12 years old and that they are waking on their birthday. They will begin referring to themselves as the Birthday Children. Together they will set out to discover why they were locked in coffins and where all of the adults are.

I loved this book so much and don't want to spoil anything for you, as the reader. I will say this much... I had multiple clear ideas as to what and why the story was going a certain way, as well as how I expected the story to end... I was wrong. It is not about what I thought at all. That plot twist is what made me truly entranced. I hope you will find it as exciting as I did.

Review of Unleashed by Sophie Jordan

Review of Sophie Jordan's Unleashed

Release Date: February 24th, 2015

Synopsis as found on Amazon.com:

Unleashed, the romantic, high-stakes sequel to New York Times bestselling author Sophie Jordan's Uninvited, is perfect for fans of James Patterson's Confessions of a Murder Suspect.

Davy has spent the last few months trying to come to terms with the fact that she tested positive for the kill gene HTS (also known as Homicidal Tendency Syndrome). She swore she would not let it change her, and that her DNA did not define her . . . but then she killed a man.

Now on the run, Davy must decide whether she'll be ruled by the kill gene or if she'll follow her heart and fight for her right to live free. But with her own potential for violence lying right beneath the surface, Davy doesn't even know if she can trust herself.

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I just finished Unleashed and I have to say, I'm a little confused. Not about the story, because for the most part, that was explained. I just don't know how the progression from the beginning of Uninvited could get us to the ending of Unleashed. When I read Uninvited, I felt the author's excitement about the new book series. I was a huge fan of the Firelight series, so I know she can write beautifully... Unleashed felt almost like a new author took over the series. It felt disjointed and disconnected from the over all story.

Davy and her friends are on the run. They are trying to get to Mexico, where people with HTS are not yet being persecuted as they are in America. They are hoping for some semblance of freedom in a place where they wont have to live in a Camp for people with the "Kill Gene." For Davy though, she will always be looking over her shoulder. She is now haunted by the man she killed. The man who is also the reason she ran.

When a Davy is shot during their escape attempt into Mexico, she gets separated from her friends. She is luckily picked up by Caden, one of the head's of a resistance group. This may be a stroke of luck of misfortune, because even though she wants to get better and get back to her friends/boyfriend, she finds herself drawn to Caden. Even when she is falling in love with him, she is still pulling away. Will she stay and make some kind of life in the resistance or will she go out in search of her friends and lost love?

So, the love story from book 1 is completely lost in book 2. I liked how that story was going, but it seems as from the beginning of Unleashed, before there ever was a Caden, you could tell they were over. Did Sophie Jordan meet a Sean that made her hate all men with that name? I don't know what happened to flow that she had going in the story, but it was lost somewhere in between. Is that why this book ended the series? I'm not sure what happened Mrs. Jordan, but I hope by the time you write your next YA series, you get your Mojo back. I miss the writing from Firelight!