[review] Maggie Stiefvater - Linger (Wolves of Mercy Falls, #2)

Title: Linger
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Series: Wolves of Mercy Falls, #2
Publisher: Scholastic
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased, personal collection
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Summary (via Goodreads):

In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past . . . and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack. And Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.

Random paragraph: "Once upon a time, Mom had really liked Sam. She'd even flirted with him in her mom way and asked him to sing and pose for a portrait. But that was back when he was just a boy that I was seeing. Now that it was clear that Sam was here to stay, Mom's friendliness had evaporated and she and I communicated in that language of silence. The length of the pauses between sentences conveyed more information than the words within them." (p. 68, paperback edition)

This review may contain spoilers for Shiver.

I really like Maggie Stiefvater's other books. She's excellent at conveying atmosphere and feeling and writes with a very poetic flourish. The Scorpio Races remains one of the best books I've read this year, and I also enjoyed her faerie books. Shiver didn't sit well with me at all -- I found Grace and Sam annoying and the world-building terribly unconvincing -- but I went ahead and read this, anyway.

The result? While I'm still not 100% on board with Grace and Sam, I'm thankful I read this because of Isabel and Cole.

Isabel was one of the few things I liked about Shiver. She's blunt, snarky, and she brought some levity to Grace and Sam's endless twu wuv. Whenever they do something stupid or act annoying, she's the one who calls them out. And I loved her POV in Linger.

In this book, we also meet Cole St. Clair, a former rockstar hotshot turned wolf. The contrast between him and Sam was fascinating. Cole's made a lot of bad decisions in his life, and he's always looking for an escape, which turning into a wolf provides. For Sam, whose only goal in life was to find a cure, this is bewildering and offensive. Cole's POV provided some pretty gritty insights on turning into a wolf and his human transitions. Without going into too much detail, there was one scene that really made my stomach turn. There's a ton of chemistry between him and Isabel, and I thought that was one of the high points of the book -- she's the type who seems too grounded to go for somebody like him, yet it happens.

As for Sam and Grace? Well... I'm not sure. I enjoyed Sam's adjusting to becoming human; now that he doesn't have to worry about changing into a wolf, he suddenly has a future that he never had to concern himself with before. I liked his indecision because it felt real. However, I still didn't like Grace at all. Some of her choices made me want to shake her. When she becomes ill, she decides to hide it from anybody instead of seeking outright help, which I found bizarre. And the problems with her parents mostly made me roll my eyes instead of feeling sympathetic.

While this shed more light on the "science" of the wolf toxin, I still had a lot of unanswered questions, one of the major ones being Olivia. She turned into a wolf in Shiver and disappeared. She was mentioned a few times in this book, and then... it was dropped? What? I was expecting to see her and was surprised that she didn't turn up.

Will I read the next one? I really might. I blew through this one pretty quickly and was surprised at how much I liked it, and though I'm cringing at the thought of more Grace and Sam, I'm curious about Cole and Isabel. Also, there were some big changes happening at the end that legitimately made me worry about the survival of some of the characters. I do wonder how it'll all fall together.

Overall: A step up from Shiver, though with some loose ends.

[review] Tara Hudson - Hereafter (Hereafter, #1)

Title: Hereafter
Author: Tara Hudson
Series: Hereafter, #1
Publisher: HarperTeen
Format: Ebook
Source: Personal collection, purchased via Sony Reader store
Buy from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookdepository
Summary (via Goodreads):

Can there truly be love after death?


Drifting in the dark waters of a mysterious river, the only thing Amelia knows for sure is that she's dead. With no recollection of her past life--or her actual death--she's trapped alone in a nightmarish existence. All of this changes when she tries to rescue a boy, Joshua, from drowning in her river. As a ghost, she can do nothing but "will" him to live. Yet in an unforgettable moment of connection, she helps him survive.

Amelia and Joshua grow ever closer as they begin to uncover the strange circumstances of her death and the secrets of the dark river that held her captive for so long. But even while they struggle to keep their bond hidden from the living world, a frightening spirit named Eli is doing everything in his power to destroy their newfound happiness and drag Amelia back into the ghost world . . . forever.
Thrilling and evocative, with moments of pure pleasure, "Hereafter" is a sensation you won't want to miss.

Random paragraph: "As he spat out the final words, his lips curled into a snarl. He now looked savage, almost feral. But I saw human emotions skirting the edges of his mouth and his eyes. Buried beneath his sneer were desolation and deep, profound loneliness." 

Several things frustrated me about this book, most of which seem to be continuous problems with the YA genre in general.

Insta-love: After Amelia saves Joshua from drowning, he becomes obsessed with her. He visits her, she follows him to school -- they hit it off pretty much instantly and can't stand being apart. There really wasn't much development leading up to this at all, and it seemed to jump from, "Wow, you're a ghost" to "Wow, I think I love you."

Bad pacing: For the first 2/3rds or so, not much really happens. Amelia and Joshua mention that they want to know about Amelia's past, but the majority of the book is spent, well, making out. He realizes that he can touch her, and she can feel him when he touches her, and it sets their skin on fire, etc etc etc. The last 1/3rd of the book is pretty high-stakes and spectacular, but I wish it didn't take so much slogging to get there in the first place.

Villains: There were some moments when Eli was interesting, and others when he was really one-dimensional and laughable.

Amelia herself: I would've liked to see, I'm not sure, more supernatural effects on her? For a ghost, she felt entirely too human to me. 

It's really a shame, because when this book shone, it shone. For example, when Amelia regains her memories and her cause of death is revealed, it's really shocking and disorienting. There was definitely a sense of urgency in the finale, and I wish more of the book had that sort of action. And I really would've liked to see more of Jillian, Joshua's sister, because she had the strongest personality in the book.

I've actually heard that Arise is better-crafted (and it has a gorgeous cover!), so I hope that holds true.

Overall: Once you look past the insta-love and pacing, there's some potential here that I hope is better realized as the series goes on.

[review] Maggie Stiefvater - Ballad: A Gathering of Faerie (Books of Faerie, #2)

Title: Ballad: A Gathering of Faerie
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Series: Books of Faerie, #2
Publisher: Flux
Source: Local library
Format read: Paperback
Buy from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookdepository 
Summary (via Goodreads):

In this mesmerizing sequel to Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception , music prodigy James Morgan and his best friend, Deirdre, join a private conservatory for musicians. James' musical talent attracts Nuala, a soul-snatching faerie muse who fosters and feeds on the creative energies of exceptional humans until they die. Composing beautiful music together unexpectedly leads to mutual admiration and love. Haunted by fiery visions of death, James realizes that Deirdre and Nuala are being hunted by the Fey and plunges into a soul-scorching battle with the Queen of the Fey to save their lives.

Random paragraph: "She was looking at me really intensely then, in the sort of way I had always wanted Dee to look at me. I kind of thought she was going to kiss me, for some reason, because she was looking at my mouth. I had a horrible idea that she would, and then I would think of Dee while she was, and then she would kill me in a long, slow, painful process that would be hard to explain to insurance people." (p. 142, paperback edition)

I think I wanted to shake everybody in this book at least once. Hopefully, I was supposed to feel that way.

[review] Maggie Stiefvater - Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception (Books of Faerie, #1)

Title: Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Series: Books of Faerie, #1
Publisher: Flux
Format read: Paperback
Source: Local library
Buy from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookdepository
Summary (via Goodreads):

Sixteen-year-old Deirdre Monaghan is a painfully shy but prodigiously gifted musician. She's about to find out she's also a cloverhand—one who can see faeries. Deirdre finds herself infatuated with a mysterious boy who enters her ordinary suburban life, seemingly out of thin air. Trouble is, the enigmatic and gorgeous Luke turns out to be a gallowglass—a soulless faerie assassin. An equally hunky—and equally dangerous—dark faerie soldier named Aodhan is also stalking Deirdre. Sworn enemies, Luke and Aodhan each have a deadly assignment from the Faerie Queen. Namely, kill Deirdre before her music captures the attention of the Fae and threatens the Queen's sovereignty. Caught in the crossfire with Deirdre is James, her wisecracking but loyal best friend. Deirdre had been wishing her life weren't so dull, but getting trapped in the middle of a centuries-old faerie war isn't exactly what she had in mind . . .

Lament is a dark faerie fantasy that features authentic Celtic faerie lore, plus cover art and interior illustrations by acclaimed faerie artist Julia Jeffrey.

Random paragraph: "I woke up giddy. Last night, I'd been weirded out by the experience in the church and the idea of faeries stalking me, but this morning, fully rested, with early pale light filtering in through the delicate white curtains, I felt on top of the world. All the negatives seemed far away, and my mind just kept replaying his kiss over and over again." (p. 97, paperback edition)

When I closed this book, I had a huge grin on my face. After a string of less-than-satisfying books, it felt amazing to read a book that worked.

[review] Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl - Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles, #1)

Title: Beautiful Creatures
Authors: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Series: Caster Chronicles, #1
Publisher: Little, Brown & Co.
Format read: Paperback
Source: Personal collection
Buy from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookdepository
Summary (via Goodreads):

There were no surprises in Gatlin County.

We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.

At least, that's what I thought.

Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.

There was a curse.

There was a girl.

And in the end, there was a grave.

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

Random paragraph: "The room was frozen, except it wasn't. I was frozen. My father was frozen. His eyes were narrow, his lips rounded to form sounds that hadn't had a chance to escape his lips. Still staring at the plateful of mashed potatoes, untouched. The Sisters, Aunt Caroline, and Marian were like statues. Even the air was perfectly still. The pendulum of the grandfather clock had stopped in mid-swing." (p. 288, paperback edition)

I'll be upfront: I'm disappointed because this could have been totally awesome.

[review] Josephine Angelini - Starcrossed (Starcrossed, #1)

Title: Starcrossed
Author: Josephine Angelini
Series: Starcrossed, #1
Publisher: HarperTeen
Format read: ebook
Source: Personal collection, purchased from Sony Reader store
Buy from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Sony | Bookdepository
Additional note: Special $0.99 ebook edition with bonus material (extended author's note, four chapters of the upcoming sequel). It's going to be available for only a limited time, so if you're curious about it and don't mind plunking down a dollar, now's the time to get it!
Summary (via Goodreads):

Set on the island of Nantucket, STARCROSSED tells the tale of Helen Hamilton, a young woman whose destiny is forever altered when she meets Lucas Delos and tries to kill him in front of her entire high school. Which is terribly inconvenient, not only because Lucas is the most beautiful boy on the island, but also because Helen is so achingly shy she suffers physical pain whenever she is given too much attention.

Making matters worse, Helen is beginning to suspect she’s going crazy. Whenever she’s near Lucas or any member of his family she sees the ghostly apparitions of three women weeping bloody tears, and suffers the burden of an intense and irrational hate. She soon learns that she and Lucas are destined to play the leading roles in a Greek tragedy that the Three Fates insist on repeating over and over again throughout history. Like her namesake, Helen of Troy, she’s destined to start a war by falling in love. But even though Lucas and Helen can see their own star-crossed destiny, they’re still powerfully attracted to each other. Will they give up their personal happiness for the greater good, or risk it all to be together?

Random paragraph: "As she watched the sand turn gray, then pink, then coral with the rising sun, Helen thought that this was the second dawn she had seen in as many days. Of the two, she much preferred this one. She was in far more pain, but she was also alive and completely free from anger. Helen hadn't realized how heavy the burden of hate had been until she was allowed to put it down."  (p. 76, ebook edition as displayed on Sony Reader)

I've always been curious about this one, and when I won a giveaway for an ARC of the sequel, it encouraged me to finally get to it. I requested an inter-library loan, but the very next day, it went on sale at ebook retailers for $0.99. I picked it up immediately -- maybe there's still a way to cancel that loan request...

This seems to be polarizing among the YA blogging community, which made me extra curious about it. Thankfully, I wound up really enjoying it.

[review] Sherrilyn Kenyon - Acheron (Dark-Hunter, #15)

Title: Acheron
Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon
Series: Dark-Hunter, #15
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Format read: Hardcover
Source: Personal collection
Buy from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookdepository
Summary (via Goodreads): 

The most anticipated story in the blockbuster Dark-Hunter series. The never-before-revealed story of the Dark-Hunter leader, Acheron.  He was made human in order to escape death, but in death he was reborn a god. . .

 Eleven thousand years ago a god was born. Cursed into the body of a human, Acheron spent a lifetime of shame. However, his human death unleashed an unspeakable horror that almost destroyed the earth. Then, brought back against his will, Acheron became the sole defender of mankind.
Only it was never that simple. For centuries, he has fought for our survival and hidden a past he’ll do anything to keep concealed. Until a lone woman who refuses to be intimidated by him threatens his very existence.
Now his survival, and ours, hinges on hers and old enemies reawaken and unite to kill them both.
War has never been more deadly... or more fun. 

Random paragraph: "She started to leave, then stopped and reversed course before she raked him with a scathing glare that was only a pittance of the hatred she felt stinging her every molecule for this man. 'You punk asshole. What was this? A game for you? This is my life's work you just annihilated and for what? Shits and giggles? Or was this nothing more than a fraternity prank? Please tell me that you didn't just ruin my integrity to get some kind of drinking points. This is something I've been working for since before you were born. How dare you make a mockery of me. I hope to God that one day someone degrades you like this so that you'll know, just once in your spoiled pompous life, what humiliation feels like.'" (pgs. 440-441, hardcover edition)

In short: I tried, but I don't think Sherrilyn Kenyon's books are for me.

[review] Thea Harrison - Dragon Bound (Elder Races, #1)

Title: Dragon Bound
Author: Thea Harrison
Series: Elder Races, #1
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Format read: Mass market paperback
Source: Personal collection
Buy from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookdepository
Summary (via Goodreads):

Half-human and half-wyr, Pia Giovanni spent her life keeping a low profile among the wyrkind and avoiding the continuing conflict between them and their dark Fae enemies. But after being blackmailed into stealing a coin from the hoard of a dragon, Pia finds herself targeted by one of the most powerful-and passionate-of the Elder races. 

Random paragraph:  "She turned her back to him and knelt at the stream, already consumed with the thought of scouring the Goblin stink off her body. Self-consciousness tried to take over as she stripped off her ruined T-shirt and filthy bra, but she squashed it. At least it wasn't broad daylight. He had no doubt seen thousands of naked women before. (Thousands? No, definitely not the time to go there.) Nothing mattered more than getting that stink off her." (p. 127, mass market paperback edition)

Thoughts: I've seen this recommended often to fantasy fans who want to try out paranormal romance, and this was so. much. fun.