To Take or Not Take A Book, That Is The Question

So I'm off to the Dominican Republic for a week starting tomorrow. My younger sister is getting married and there will be tons of family all over the place. So I'm not sure if I'm going to have time to read at all, though I am hoping for some nice time in a deck chair with something readable. Not to mention I'm working on September Spectacular which I can technically begin on Sunday. Hm... what do you think? Do you take books to family vacations?

PS: I have to wear a bright orange Calvin Klein bridesmaids dress. Help!

Review: The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong

The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong

Release Date: April 6, 2010
Library Borrow Date: August 7, 2010
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 400
Reading level: Young Adult
My Rating:

My name is Chloe Saunders. I'm fifteen, and I would love to be normal.

But normal is one thing I'm not.

For one thing, I'm having these feelings for a certain antisocial werewolf and his sweet-tempered brother - who jut happens to be a sorcerer - but, between you and me, I'm leaning toward the werewolf.

Not normal.

My friends and I are also on the run from an evil corporation that wants to get rid of us - permanently.

Definitely not normal.

And finally, I'm a genetically altered necromancer who can raise the dead, rotting corpses and all, without even trying.

As far away from normal as it gets.

I have to say that I enjoyed this book much more than the previous two books in the series. I had finally grown accustomed to the idea of a 15 year old girl raising rotting corpses accidentally and Armstrong finally explained things enough that I could grasp the full extent to which Chloe differed so drastically from those who weren't genetically engineered.

In the first two books, I struggled with the desire to roll my eyes every time Chloe got into another scrape. It seemed as though she was always finding herself backed into a corner with no way out, over and over just with different people. Having Armstrong have Chloe point out how dumb that was for the heroine of a movie didn't help matters. However, with this book, I thought that the character development was brilliant and the scrapes that Chloe and her gang got in (and out of) had more of a unique feel to them.

For an author who is just testing the waters of YA fiction, I think Armstrong was a little out of her depths at first. However her writing strengthened considerably through the process of these three books and gave us a great finale for the trilogy. I enjoyed the scenes she wrote that had me reminiscing about how I felt with my first real boyfriend and first real kiss - something Armstrong seems to know how to craft really well with just the right amount of realistic nervous awkwardness.

Over all the series was not my favorite of all the YA series I've read (it seemed to, at first, borrow very heavily from the Dark Visions series by LJ Smith) but this last installment was very well done. I'd recommend the whole series knowing the payoff is well worth it and I'm looking forward to the next installment of Armstrong's teen books in the same universe.

Retro Reads #003: The Dark & Deadly Pool by Joan Lowery Nixon

The Dark & Deadly Pool by Joan Lowery Nixon

Release Date: October 1, 1987
Purchase Date: Unsure
Publisher: Delacorte
Pages: 179
Reading level: Young Adult
My Rating:

Mary Elizabeth's summer job at the health club of a ritzy hotel would be just about perfect except for a series of eerie incidents that occur when she is alone by the pool at night. Convinced they are related to a series of robberies plaguing the hotel and its guests, she tries to figure out the link a mission of increasing urgency once she discovers a corpse in the pool. By the end of the story, Mary Elizabeth has exposed a circle of thieves headed by her own boss, a group said to have links to organized crime. This is a moderately suspenseful mystery, rounded out with touches of humor and romance, but not one of Nixon's best. There are too many glitches in the complicated plot for it to be fully convincing. The protagonist's foolhardy ingenuousness strains credibility: she discusses events related to the case freely, even after it seems likely an insider is involved. The relationship between the thefts and the syndicate is never really clear, and the revelation that drug deals are somehow involved which would justify the otherwise inexplicable violence is tacked-on, vague and ultimately unpersuasive.

Now, Joan Lowery Nixon was on my nightstand probably 3 times out of 5 when I was between 12-16. She seemed always write the most interesting and quirky characters and then plunk them into the craziest of situations. I'm sure that was also why I loved Richie Tankersley Cusick, Lois Duncan, RL Stine, Christopher Pike and the whole slew of other authors who were household names in YA fiction back before the Meyers, Rowlings, Collinses, and Clares of this decade. That and they wrote books that could keep me up at night without giving me (too many) nightmares.

This book has stayed on my shelf (along with its sequel) for years because I just adore the story and the characters. In some ways the two books were written with a very Agatha Christie, house mystery* feel in mind. The characters are all colorful, especially the main two.

Mary Elizabeth, who feels awkward and too tall, gets a job that should be easy as pie, not to mention the fascinating cadre of characters she observes and interacts with. It doesn't take her long to end up in the thick of a mystery (and perhaps romance?) with short, oddball Francis. Some of their dialog is pretty giggle worthy and the action, while definitely slower than what modern books deliver, is pretty darn good.

Definitely one of my all time faves even if it is a bit hokey, I've read it probably 10 times since I first bought it.

* To me, the "house mystery" is one of those things Agatha Christie was so good at (think And Then There Were None, Murder on the Orient Express, and Death on the Nile). She'd gather a whole cast of characters, each with their own quirks and secrets, and have a murder in some confined place like a house or a train or a boat. Then the reader would sit back and watch all the people, stuck in a house together because the police won't let them leave or a storm is preventing it, try to figure out who among them may either be the killer or next to die. Love love love those.

Challenge: September Spectacular

I love a challenge and my current self-challenge is to read 75 books this year. Now I've taken on a further challenge thanks to Stephanie at The Thoughts of a Book Junky - The September Reading Spectacular wherein one must read a book per week totaling 5 books for the month. Sounds simple enough but I know how difficult it is for me to read an entire book in a week so I'll definitely be stretching my reading horizons for this one!

My 5 books are the following:

My Review	My Review

 

I'll be writing my reviews here though I'll also be extending Retro Reading into September a ways too since I'd like to give them away eventually.

Go. Sign up too (you don't have to have a blog to do it)! Happy Reading.

Review: The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan

The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan

Release Date: March 9, 2010
Purchase Date: March 11, 2010
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Pages: 416
Reading level: Young Adult
My Rating:

One night beyond the Barrier... One boy Gabry's known forever and one veiled in mystery... One reckless moment, and half of Gabry's generation is dead, the other half imprisoned.

Gabry lives a quiet life, secure in her town next to the sea and behind the Barrier. She's content to let her friends dream of the Dark City up the coast while she watches from the top of her lighthouse. Home is all she's ever known, and all she needs for happiness. But life after the Return is never safe, and there are threats even the Barrier can't hold back.

Gabry's mother thought she left her secrets behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, but like the dead in their world, secrets don't stay buried. And now, Gabry's world is crumbling. Gabry knows only one thing: if she is to have any hope of a future, she must face the forest of her mother's past.

I devoured The Forest of Teeth and Hands in one sitting when I first got my hands on it. I was fascinated with the mythology of this town that thought it was the last vestiges of humanity. The sisterhood and the way of life was all so interesting to me and I loved how the plot developed even if it did leave the reader a little romantically unsatisfied at the end and perhaps disillusioned by Mary's ultimate selfishness.

I figured The Dead-Tossed Waves would be a furthering of that mythology, those characters, that same quest to find something more than what Mary had always known. Instead we're plopped into the story two seconds before life erupts for Mary's daughter, Gabry.

Okay, that's fine. And some clever ideas were introduced but so unfortunately they became so riddled with the internal whining of the narrator that it was hard to appreciate them. There was very little development of the characters or the mythology (though we did get a small taste that left me hopeful for the third book).

As everything changes for Gabry we're treated with her repetitive thoughts on that - ad nauseum - until it really was more like reading a very long, whiny blog entry.

We're also treated to all the times Gabry thinks she ought to say or do something that might actually help the story move on or ease her unhappiness but she almost always chooses against it. And the many times she goes from being attracted to one boy, then becoming angry with him, then suddenly being attracted to the other, then becoming angry with HIM... Well, you get the picture. Another reviewer pointed out that her final choice really does come out of the blue. For a book written entirely in the thoughts of the narrator, that was probably one of the thought processes the reader would've liked to have heard. Though I'd much rather understand Ryan's need to leave the reader romantically unsatisfied with each book.

I hope with The Dark and Hollow Places Ryan will steer more toward developing the mythology/universe, the Sisterhood, the history of the Return, and cut back the whiny teenage angst back at least a fourth. I mean, teenage angst is a given and I enjoy it in YA fiction. But the whiny kind? Not so much.

Retro Reads #002: Night World #7 - Huntress by LJ Smith

Night World #7: Huntress by LJ Smith

Release Date: The original book was released in 1997 but this cover was on a UK reprint from 2002. So technically it fits the "retro" rules.
Purchase Date: 2003
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Hodder (for the UK version here)
Pages: 224
Reading level: Young Adult
My Rating:

Half-vampire vampire hunter Jez vows to be faithful to Hugh, the human she loves, but in order to catch one of the legendary Wild Powers, she must rejoin her old gang and risk tasting blood again.

Jez Redfern is unique. She's a vampire hunter...who's half vampire. Raised in the Redfern family, the girl with fiery hair and silvery-blue eyes was the undisputed leader of a gang of vampire raiders. Then came the discovery that shattered her life -- her mother was a human. Now, Jez hunts her former friends, protecting humans from the Night World.

But when Circle Daybreak sends her on a search for one of the legendary Wild Powers, Jez has to rejoin her old gang. They want her back -- especially Morgead, the gorgeous green-eyed vampire who used to be her second-in-command. Jez wants to stay faithful to Hugh Davis, the human she loves. But Morgead swears he's her soulmate and he'll do anything to lure her back to the old ways. With danger and temptation around, Jez finds herself irresistibly drawn to him. And she's afraid that if she tastes blood again, she'll become the evil huntress she once was...

Apparently we have a "hunting" theme this week!

One of the best things about the Night World series by LJ Smith is that you don't necessarily have to read them in order to understand what's happening throughout the series. Basically theme is a group of good supernaturals trying to find special, magically gifted people called Wild Powers who will join in the end of the world to save it. There's always the evil and the misunderstood along the way that creates great tension and of course romance.

Probably the best part of reading this book was the romance. The rest of the story was okay, if a bit more of the politics of being part of a "gang" than I really cared about. But the romantic tension and the love triangle (which LJ does so well!) were key to the enjoyment of the book for me.

I highly recommend snagging this from the bookshelf, especially if you are a vampire fiction fan. But beware that this was written well before Twilight and doesn't contain any sparkly blood suckers. I can almost guarantee that if you enjoy ya fiction and vampire lit you will want to pick up more from this series if you haven't already.

Retro Reads #001: The Hunter by LJ Smith

The Hunter by LJ Smith

Release Date: March 1, 1994
Purchase Date: Sometime during the summer of 1994
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Pages: 240
Reading level: Young Adult
My Rating:

When Jenny Thorton and her friends open the mysterious white box given to her by Julian, they discover a mysterious game and enter a house of horrors full of their worst nightmares.

When Jenny buys a game for her boyfriend, Tom, she finds herself inexplicably drawn to the guy behind the counter. There is something mysteriously alluring about Julian's pale eyes and bleached-blond hair. And when he places the Game into her hands, she knows their connection is something deeper.

But as Jenny and her six friends begin to play the Game at Tom's birthday celebration, a night of friends and fun quickly turns into a night of terror and obsessive love. Because the Game isn't just a game - it's the seven friends' new reality, where Julian reigns as the Prince of the Shadows.

One by one the friends must confornt their phobias to win the Game. To lost the Game is to lose their lives. And that is only the beginning. . . .

Okay, squee. This has to be one of my all-time favorite teen novels. I remember waiting (im)patiently for the next book to come out at the supermarket during the summer when I happened upon this book accidentally at a used bookstore. It was the beginning of life-long fan-girl geekdom over all things written by L.J. Smith. I've read every words she's ever published but this is the best of them, in my humble opinion, and I'm so glad they've decided to reprint it too!

I was always a fan of the movie Labyrinth and this book reads like a sort of retelling in some ways though the story is entirely a new idea on it's own. Part haunted house, part supernatural romance, it's easy to get sucked into the story because Smith jumps right into the action from the first page.

The story is somewhat innocent in comparison with some of the teen reading these days. It's not nearly as gritty as anything I've picked up lately but I still love it. The characters start off a bit archetypical (I make up words, yes) but they progress through the trials they have to face. It was really a story about getting into other people's shoes, understanding their nightmares, and standing by your friends no matter what.

There was, of course, a romantic angle to it all as well. One that definitely had me sympathizing with the devil, as they say. The man with the eyes, a color Jenny describes as something like the color of the sky the moment just before sunrise, is deliciously intense and mysterious.