Dreaming In Books

Title:  Paranormalcy

Author:  Kiersten White

Publisher:  Harper Teen

Series:  Paranormalcy #1

Other Reviews for This Author:  None

Paranormalcy is one of those books that you hear a lot of hype about, then you hear some dissent about it following publication because it just didn't gosh-darn please everyone that read it.  In your mind, you know that the book's premise hasn't changed at all - people just put expectations on it because of the hype or the bestseller status.  So you get scared and don't read it because you just aren't sure.  I should have listened to my gut and gotten this book when it first appeared, because it was like every awesome YA paranormal concept was a part of a torrid love-shape of wonder.  (Or, if you want it to make sense, it's one of those books where a whole bunch of paranormal creatures and concepts are introduced instead of just one or a few.)  This book was flat-out excellent, and I enjoyed every minute of reading it.

Ever since she was a child, Evie could recognize something different in the world that others couldn't.  The presence of paranormal beings.  While others would find someone to be sexy and debonair, she could see through the glamor and find the corpse-y vampire underneath.  She'd been orphaned and brought into the Paranormal Containment Agency (PCA) to get training and to help further their goal of protecting people from the more dangerous paranormal creatures - vampires included.  Evie's known about the PCA (and the international organization - the IPCA) for most of her life, and working for it is basically her life.

Evie's a teenager now.  Her training from IPCA has provided her with valuable experience and tools in order to properly capture, detain, and deal with paranormal creatures.  That includes working with faeries and their true names and being able to battle it out with her sequined taser, Tasey.  Evie works with faeries, vampires, werewolves, and even mermaids on a daily basis.  Her best friend, Lish, is actually a mermaid who works with IPCA and talks with her via a computer because of the aquatic creature/land creature barrier.  What Evie revels in is taking the time to watch simple shows like Easton Heights that focus on what regular high schoolers go through.

Sometimes it would feel better just to be a regular teenager - and not the kind of normal that Evie's grown up with her entire life.  Her already-strange environment begins to be turned upside down when paranormals begin turning up dead without rhyme nor reason.  What frightens Evie is that they look....odd...when she finds them.  A new shapeshifter taken into the IPCA lab also stirs up trouble, and seems to be connected to the way that paranormals are dropping like flies. Evie is the only one that can see him vaguely for what he really is.  There's something impossible to pin down about the new addition to the paranormals at IPCA, but Evie is certain about one thing concerning him - he's making her think about more than just fighting baddies.

This is the part of the review where I would go on and analyze the death out of the character.  I'm going to do that.  What readers should know about Evie right away is that she's real.  By that, I mean that she has a very defined personality that is not so subtle as to be nearly non-existent, which seems to be the trend of a lot of YA at the moment.  Evie starts off as being a character that we immediately find appealing.  The kind of character that look at a creepy vampire and make fun of his horror presentation.  Yep.  Snarky and slightly annoyed with a majority of the people who pepper her life.  In case you can't tell, Evie is the definition of a teenager.  I found her to be a character that came across as humorous but still generally cheery and respectful despite the snark and teenage angst.  She longs for a "normal" life, but doesn't spend her entire page time focusing on it because she has more important things to do with her time.  I also love that she actually grows throughout the book.  She keeps some of her hang-ups - most notably the one that gives her a strange fascination with the lives of normal teenagers - but grows into such a deeper character as the story progresses.  Meeting the shapeshifter and other events allow her to begin to question the politics of her organization and others.  She begins to see how IPCA and its detractors are both in gray area that's extremely hard to define.  I found that to be a really smart development on the author's part.  I love it when a character begins to realize her world is bigger and more complex than she could have imagined.  It resonates so well with the teenage experience, and in this case it's used as a paranormal world building device.  So it's kind of the thing I look for in paranormal novels.

Paranormalcy's description immediately makes you think that the book will have a diverse and eclectic range of side characters to go along with the protagonist's journey.  I found myself impressed and surprised (in a good way) with the type of characters that White brought to the table.  Lish is one that immediately struck a chord.  Not only is she a mermaid, but her skewed connection to Evie's semi-human life is humorous and intriguing - as is her BLEEPed mermaid swearing.  She's the type of character that plays off of the protagonist so well that she shows her own personality quite clearly without much effort or trouble.  She's a character that really stays in your heart throughout the read.  Then there was Reth, the creeper stalker faerie who could easily creep me out within the space of a few pages.  Again, this is a relationship that is clearly portrayed as creepy to the reader and the protagonist.  I found Reth to be a really good example of a fae character, too.  He really is biting and self-serving, and you realize that he has his own twisted sense of morals that just really mess you up.  Evie's instructor at IPCA was also interesting, although I felt like she wasn't around enough to be a stand-out secondary character like Lish or Reth.

Lend, Mr. Shapeshifter Hero Guy, is probably one of my favorite love interests of the YA paranormal spectrum.  He's got actual flaws - especially in regards to being trusting with Evie and explaining the full depth of what his status as a paranormal being is - but he's a kind guy at heart that treats Evie with a lot of respect.  Respectful heroes for the win!  I also found it different that White gave him mystery by making it clear that even he doesn't know entirely what he is or what his true 'form' is.  It manages to make the reader interested in him and his character development...not just his hotness.  I found the overall romantic connection between Lend and Evie to be well written and satisfying.  There was a fair amount of push and pull between them, and they eventually settle into a slow friends-to-more path.  It was a nice break from the (admittedly fun) stories of the just-met-you-to-wanting-to-make-out-with-you variety.  The winning romance was one of the highlights of this book overall, so it made me very pleased.  Even thought it's chaste, it's a believable and cute chaste.  Don't let that detour you from checking it out.

White's writing style is really deserving of the praise its gotten so far.  I found it to be very funny.  It made me giggle.  That's a very good thing.  What White does best is that she writes with a purpose.  Her books read quickly, and they aren't bogged down with too much extra stuff.  She shows a lot of her development with great effectiveness, and the reader finds that they get a lot of story for what they're reading.  While it focuses more so on plot than on relationships overall, the balance is pretty close to 50/50, and it makes the book really well-rounded.  I'm a fan of  books that can use this type of writing style effectively, so Paranormalcy won major points for that.  If I had one flaw with it, it was how the middle of the book had more of a 'set-up for more things' feel to it.  It didn't detract enough from my experience to make me think less of the book grade-wise, but it's worth mentioning because it's almost unusual that the reader is hit with that preparedness during that period.  The ending really rocked it, though, and there was a lot of plot that was unique and thrilling (but it would be spoiling it to just tell you about it.)  White doesn't give the same old, same old with Paranormalcy, and I'll be going back to her writing style after reading it.

Reading Paranormalcy is something that I really and truly enjoyed.  It was fun and had great writing, plot, and character development.  I felt like Kiersten created a strong and detailed world, and she made it seem realistic.  This book is a little 'cleaner' than a lot of paranormal YA (just hand-holding and slight kissing here; no cuss words) but felt organic in how it worked (a character would 'swear' but not say the specific word, Evie just didn't grow up with it, and Lish was BEEPed.)  That being said, I've seen the complaints on it and have to agree that it won't be for everyone.  I found it to be realistic enough to get sucked into it without any problems.  Supernaturally can only get better.

Cover:  I love the drama of the cover, but it doesn't really scream the type of urban fantasy that the book is.

Rating:  5.0  Stars

Copy:  Received from publicist/publisher for review  (Thank you so much, Heather and Harper Teen!)

Title:  Forgotten

Author:  Cat Patrick

Publisher:  Little, Brown

Series:  Unknown

Other Reviews for This Author:  None

Oh, books that I don't know anything about before I read you.  How I wish you would surprise me.  I expect great things from you, because you have every chance to be a hidden gem.  A diamond among pieces of cubic zirconium.  [Insert more dramatic metaphors and similes here.]  I had no idea Forgotten was supposed to be a titling people were buzzing about.  I didn't realize until after reading it that it received a large advance.  For what it's worth, I rarely put stock into advances because they're complicated and reflect how a book will sell more so than what it would be to me.  I liked Starcrossed, which received a large advance, so I was hoping that my enjoyment of Forgotten would be possible.  Forgotten lived up to its title, and is a book that you will most likely forget about reading after a while.

London Lane has more than her share of forgetful moments.  Every day with her is a struggle, because her memory wipes most of the small things clean between one day and the next.  Aside from the people involved in her future, she can't remember the ones that just pass by in the hallway.  If it's not in her future, then it doesn't exist.  She can't remember what her school assignments were or what she wore the day before.  Little errands and chores that she has to do are impossible to recall.  She survives by writing down a list of the basic things.  What she ate, what she wore, what happened, and what she needs to do.

There is no such thing as a normal memory for London Lane.  Her odd amnesia is balanced by her ability to see into the future.  If someone is involved in her future, she can see what happens to them.  Knowing what happens before it actually does tampers with time and fate.  London keeps the harder knowledge away from her best friend for that very reason.  These strange abilities are something that London's dealt with since she was young.  Doctors have examined her, but nothing appears to be wrong.  She's since lived with them and has managed to lead a fairly normal life despite them.

The appearance of Luke Henry makes London question everything she's come to learn about her memory.  She can never remember him between the days - so he must not be a part of her future.  He can't be if she doesn't see him there.  So her memory of him fades between the days.  Luke seems to refuse to be forgotten, however, and instead quickly catches London's attention.  She begins writing about him in her lists, and works up a strange but intense romance with him.  Strange flashes of memory that could be from her past or future also give London a sense of warning.  They promise a depressing event that would rock her entire life should it come true.  What's going on with London's memory, and how is Luke Henry a part of it all?

London is really the only part of this story that felt unique, and I liked her despite my initial problems with her situation.  She's an every girl who has to deal with a daily traumatic situation, but she's extremely resilient and mature in how she goes about it.  She has almost no angst regarding her condition, and she has a lot of maturity in regards to how she uses her ability to see the future.  Not letting her friend know about the consequences of her actions because of further ramifications was something that I felt was of a more mature cut than most teenagers would make.  It caused its own problems, but it was better than outrightly preventing her friend from learning from her mistakes.  Her relationship with her mother was also rather sweet.  London can come across as a little too terse and mature for her age, but I think readers will overall find her an agreeable character.  She's lived with her condition for so long that - with the support of her mother - I could believe that she would use it maturely at this point in the story.  I didn't fall in love with London, but I liked her for everything that she stood for in terms of her maturity.

Side characters play a pivotal role in London's life despite of her amnesia, and most of them are effective if forgettable.  Her mother was supportive and slightly pained, and I found that their strong relationship and the way her mother was fleshed out worked for me on multiple levels.  There was some good stuff there, and I always like it when the parental characters have a connection to their kids - good or bad - because it's realistic.  I found London's best friend to be interesting if at times too stubborn and stupid to follow her advice.  It was hard for me to accept her whole crush/need for a physical relationship with a male teacher despite the obvious problems that would arise from it.  I didn't feel like London's friend had a lot backing her up with that to make me understand the situation.  I liked her relationship with London, though, and felt like the two really were good friends despite the whole teacher/student mess.

Luke Henry, however, was someone I really, really disliked.  Not because he's an asshat, but because he's so utterly perfect that he's inhuman.  I know there are male characters like him that I've connected to, but I found his whole relationship with London to be problematic.  He starts off sympathizing with her right away and it feels unrealistic.  Here comes this boy that's utterly perfect for her and understands her already.  Luke Henry has some later information that seems to explain some of this, but I found the overall progression of his character frustrating.  His familiarity and sympathy for London was still unrealistic because of the frequency at which he shows it.  The whole Luke/London relationship is a  problem, really, because of the development issues.  London forgets him every day.  She has to read her lists and notes in order to get an idea of who he is, because she quite literally cannot remember him.  That felt really annoying to me, and the annoyance increased as the book went on.  The character cannot remember any of the emotional moments that she had with Luke, yet she magically grows to love him anyway.  The emotion she would experience on reading about events that supposedly happen would not be personal enough to warrant the relationship growth that we see.  As far as I see it, there would be a lot of angst and struggle in London being able to figure out if her love for Luke is genuine and warranted because of her daily amnesia.  Show, not tell, is a part of life.  Not just good writing.  I could not believe that London would have fallen in love with Luke by just telling herself that she was.  Some might, but to me there were just too many opposing factors for the relationship to make sense.  A lot of it was also fast-tracked as the book went on, such as "so many months later..."  That made me feel like I missed out on development that could have changed my mind.

The plot of Forgotten is really strong in concept.  An extreme case of amnesia and the ability to remember the future?  It sounds intriguing.  The execution of the plot concept felt sub-par to me.  There's a lot of promise but not a lot of thought put into the working of the world.  Yes, London has amnesia.  But why is it that she can see the future because of it?  How can she establish emotional connections with people that don't stay in her memory - like Luke?  Why is it that her memory sporadically starts to be cured?  Why are we supposed to believe in this when it is mainly used to just further the plot?  There is also the fact that I am not entirely sure what this book is supposed to represent.  It could be an extreme case of something realistic, or a light paranormal read with a lot of contemporary basis.  The problem is that I really didn't feel like the author explored the depth of her subject.  I didn't get a feel for how concrete the amnesia situation was, and I didn't feel like there was the appropriate emotional attachment to the situation for it to work.  London never got frustrated with her abilities, and she never once angsted over it or had emotional debates over what it meant to her.  As a teenager, I expected her to be questioning herself and her life more.  It was just like the emotional attachment to Luke.  Based on the situation, I felt like London's emotions were cop-outs and didn't make sense to the overall world.  The random structure of the amnesia made it impossible for me to like the execution.  It was a lot of disbelief to suspend.  I didn't feel like the whole "seeing the future" thing would allow her to retain her relationships (because aren't they about our history with the person?) with certain people.  It also seemed odd because I didn't get enough of an idea of how selective it was.  So her mom, dad, and best friend were remembered, but Luke wouldn't be?  Would other vague classmates at school be?  I had so many questions that didn't feel like they were answered.

Patrick's writing was one of the few highlights of the work.  She has a strong voice that is very cut and collected.  Some of her sentences read beautifully in their simplicity, and there are a lot of fans of simple prose that would find it to be a strength of the book.  Upon finishing it, I couldn't help but wonder at it, though.  Prose repetition is something inevitable in a book (50,000 + words for the average YA novel, and only so many ways to structure a sentence and use appropriate vocabulary) and it shows when a writer is losing your attention enough to spot it.  In many cases the writing is still beautiful, but you still notice it.  It happens to me in Maggie Stiefvater's books as well, but in this case it's more of a negative because of the lack of description.  The lack of intensive description could be a reason why I felt the emotions and the world-building were too one sided.  Still, I would read something else of Patrick's because I felt like she has a strong writing style that could work well in a solid contemporary work or in a paranormal work that was stronger in the world's structure.

Forgotten is a book that I've seen people love.  My friend Stacey enjoyed it (couldn't find a review, but I recall her saying it was a four-star book to her), and I think a lot of the readership is divided as to the quality of the book.  I personally enjoyed the protagonist and the writing style to an extent, but found the romantic relationship and the world building lacking in depth and sense for me to be comfortable in reading it.  Forgotten tries to be serious, but lacks an overall emotional resonance that makes its faults show through to this reader.  Some may love it and find it to be an exemplary read, and fans of clean prose and more thought-provoking issue novels would find it interesting to check out.  It just didn't work for me.

Cover:  I like the cover for this book.  I find it haunting and intriguing, although I almost wish the model weren't there.

Rating:  2.0  Stars

Copy:  Received from publicist/publisher for review  (Thank you, Faye, Sarah, and Little Brown!)   

This is late.  I've been gone for a good portion of my day.  I swear, whenever I say that I'll do things, I get busy and thus have to....do unrelated things.  So reading has taken a hit for the day.  And for the record, I will be sleeping, too.  There is just a lot of stuff I have to do in the next two days that would require sleep.  So I'm a halfway-participant in this readathon, but I will aim to attempt it to some extent, anyway.  Here are my reading goals for this 24-hour period.


Stargazer by Claudia Gray (this would be a partial read, as I was midway through before the challenge started)

O Pioneers by Willa Cather  (same as Stargazer)

His Wife for One Night by Molly O'Neil

-  If time allows, I'll probably also try to read Sharks and Boys by Kristen Tracey and/or The Iron Thorn by Caitlin Kittredge -

That's about it.  Sorry this post is so short, guys, but I have a long day tomorrow.  And my plans to stay awake?  None.  I know that makes me kind of lame, but I need sleep.  Waking up early will be my compromise.

Title:  Bad Girls Don't Die

Author:  Katie Alender

Publisher:  Disney/Hyperion

Series:  Bad Girls #1

Other Reviews for This Author:  None

When a book in YA is considered horror, I sit up and take notice.  I'm not obsessed over the genre.  Stephen King, while interesting, is not someone I will sacrifice myself for.  I find horror movies a waste of time if you pay to watch them - Repo! The Genetic Opera being the general exception to my rule.  YA books that people say are terrifying intrigue me, though.  I generally find it harder to be disturbed by things in books, and YA doesn't go into the horror sub-genre that much.  Bad Girls Don't Die was indeed a book that would make many quite scared, and there were many tense moments that came close to me.  It's not the level of crazy-disturbing that Stephen King is, but it's a quick read that keeps your interest and involves ghostly possession.

Alexis has always lived in a house with a history.  It's old and has character, an old tree taking up its front yard.  Architecture that's mixed up and makes it look like something right out of the part of history that you've forgotten.  Living in that house is just one of the things that makes her not like everyone else at school.  The other things are pretty common ones, though.  Alexis isn't conformist or popular.  Her one remote friend is someone who hates the idea of popularity more than her, but she isn't really close to the girl.  She's a loner in friends and in love, and it feels like that's how it will always be.

Her younger sister, Kasey, is weird.  Differently, though.  She isn't necessarily a depressed loner like her older sister.  She has friends.  Her new obsession with dolls seems to help her become alienated, however.  Alexis doesn't think too much of it.  The real problem seems to be the attitude Kasey takes on.  Not the fact that she likes creepy old dolls. Well, maybe that, too, but Kasey seems to be getting hostile towards her friends and Alexis.  One even claims that she broke her arm. While Kasey's always had some odd things about her, breaking other people's arms hasn't been one of them.

Strange things seem to happen more and more as Kasey's doll obsession grows.  Kasey becomes more and more alienated from her emotions, and it feels like she has something sinister going on inside of her head.  Things start happening around the house that could be dangerous.  Breaks that are cut in the family car.  A member that goes to the hospital.  The threat of foul play.  Alexis jumps from being worried to being flat-out scared of her little sister.  She's no longer dealing with a middle schooler who has a thing for dolls.  She's dealing with something more - something that's very frightening and very, very dangerous.

The social outcast figure is always the go-to character for these kinds of stories?  Who else would have the hardest time finding a support system and getting people to notice that her sister has gone crazy?  Alexis has a personality that fits with the plot more than anything, but she ends up becoming an interesting character in her own right - although she never really escapes the confines of her use in the plot.  Alexis starts off as being brooding, jaded, and angry at the world.  She doesn't have anyone she considers as a friend, and what's interesting is that she actually acknowledges it.  One character is vaguely in her life as a "friend", but she's very honest when she makes it clear there's no one that she has a legitimate friendship with.  Keeping her an isolationist makes it really intriguing when she starts dealing with her younger sister and her parents.  It isolates her family issues a lot, so those are easily the prominent portions of the story.  As it goes on, Alexis mostly grows up in how she views her family unit as a whole.  She also gains a lot more self-respect and confidence in her socializing skills.  However, I didn't feel like Alexis really grew as a person on a large level.  She had small changes and revelations, but most of it was brought on quickly by her needs in relation to Kasey.  She's someone I am interested in reading about again, but not someone that I remember for leaping off of the page and making a life of her own.

The secondary characters and their relationships with Alexis are what make the book alive on the character front, and I thought that Alender really did well with them.  Kasey is the most notorious of them all, and I liked that a lot of her issues while being possessed were at least partially related to the ones she was experiencing at home.  Her parents' absence caused an act of defiance and a need for attention on a character level and a plot level.  Kasey actually felt the emotions, and the possession meant that the events actually happened.  I thought that was a pretty cool connection that worked in the character's favor.  We don't really get to know a lot of the real Kasey, but the overwhelming majority of the book we feel a mixture of pity and fear because we don't know her entire situation and how dangerous she could become.  Alexis and Kasey also have some well-placed parents.  They aren't around too much, but the way that Alender shows the long-term effects of their mother overworking herself is well done. The family relationships are what make up a lot of the emotional conflict behind the book, and I found that a nice change of pace.  Megan, while a good character for the character growth of Alexis, wasn't my favorite.  I liked her as a character, but her use in the story was very ridiculous.  She quite literally comes out of nowhere and shows how she knows stuff about the paranormal.  It felt like that would have required a lot more time and trust between the two characters to seem like a plausible course of action.  They gain trust in each other so quickly, and I found it hard to swallow even with the immediacy that the plot needed.  It felt like the author could have introduced it earlier and caused it to stew enough for it to be more believable and have a stronger effect on the character interaction than it did.

Alender's book focuses mainly on the plotting, and plot-wise Bad Girls Don't Die is a good read.  It's the kind of read that attracts you with the premise.  Possession and haunted dolls?  Sounds like something that would immediately grab the reader if they were remotely interested in it.  Concept over characters is a hard sell for me on the enjoyment front, but I found that Alender wrote the latter well enough to keep me turning the pages.  She knows how to build up a believable suspense - one that could be found in many horror movies.  The downside is that the pacing of the first half of the book is a lot of set-up.  Much of it is Alexis questioning whether Kasey is crazy or if there's something more going on, and I felt like Alexis could have realistically noticed this earlier in the text.  The fact that the reader can predict what happens long before the protagonist shockingly discovers it isn't a good thing.  It makes the suspense seem tedious for that period of reading.  Her writing was smooth and minimalistic, which allowed the read to not be too burdened by the pacing issues of the plot.  It wasn't enough for me to ignore it, but I think readers who look for more plot-focused reads will get caught up in the excitement of the slight horrors and the twisting of Kasey's personality.  Character readers will have a harder time getting invested enough to keep in the present with the story.

Bad Girls Don't Die is a strong first YA novel, but some things kept it from being great.  I enjoyed the premise and the focus on the family problems vs. the minor romance/friendship problems, but I felt like the slowness of the first half and the main character's lack of excitement hinder the story some.  It's like a lot of books I've been reading recently - good, but not great.  Bad Girls Don't Die is something that I would highly recommend for reluctant readers or readers interested in horror to a small extent (as the horror isn't quite the focus of the narrative.)  Most will be satisfied with it, but I'm hoping that the next book takes the series into some new directions.

Cover:  I really *really* love this cover.  It captures the mood of the book and is just so eye-catching.

Rating:  4.0  Stars

Copy:  Received from publicist/publisher for review  (Thank you, Jamie and Disney/Hyperion!)

Title:  Jane Jones: Worst. Vampire. Ever.

Author:  Caissie St. Onge

Publisher:  Random House Ember

Series:  Unknown

Other Reviews for This Author:  None

You know those moments where you're utterly brain dead and completely lacking in any ability to have cognitive function?  That was my week last week.  My reading was awkward and slightly challenged.  Think First-Date-Nerves combined with 2 am-Punch-Drunk mentality.  Band camp does that to you.  I spent the week reading fun books that mostly didn't push my brain envelope, and Jane Jones was one of the few books I picked up.  It's one of the first books to start its run in Random House's new paperback imprint, Ember, and it just screamed "Read me," to my addled mentality.  So pink!  So snarky!  While it doesn't break any new ground and has some pacing issues, Jane Jones is a read that is pure fun...with vampires.

Most vampires are normal, but Jane Jones isn't.  Most vampires can drink blood without any complications.  Jane can only drink an extremely rare type of blood.  Every other type has the potential to seriously harm her - and gives her major intestinal complications.  Basically, Jane is blood intolerant.  A blood intolerant vampire just screams dorky, and Jane is already considered to be a little eccentric because she still puts effort into her schoolwork despite being well over 70 years old.  The other "teen" vampires in her community see her as this mousy girl with a strange family and an even stranger attitude.

It is without a doubt that Jane Jones has a rough few years ahead of her as she lives out high school - again.  Her parents lack of wealth in the vampire community seems to be something else that sets her apart, but her mother is determined that she make friends.  Friends in the vampire community, importantly, but friends period.  Jane seems completely adverse to making friends of any kind among all of the snotty vampires that look down on her and make fun of her condition.  Timothy is the only vampire that seems to give a care about who Jane is, and even he still hangs out with the other vampires like it's okay.  Jane is really and truly a loner.

Befriending the dorky, socially awkward, and fatally mortal Eli is the only real change in Jane's actions.  Working with him on a project for history shows her that there's someone sweet under the stuttering and the red curls.  Eli isn't like the brooding Timothy, but he's nice to her.  Jane starts seeing potential in Eli, and she also starts seeing something in her history teacher that brings her a chilling reminder from her past.  The knowledge of a possible cure for vampirism leads Jane to be stuck between two different directions for her life to go in and very little time to make her decision.  Will Jane continue life as a blood intolerant vampire, or leave her family behind and become human again?

Reading about Jane is essentially reading about the smart girl in class who's too quiet to make an impression on everyone until she says something either extremely intelligent or extremely funny.  Jane is the kind of girl that will identify with a lot of readers on the basic levels.  She's different from everyone else.  She doesn't feel like she'll fit in with the other vampires because she doesn't have the same things as them.  Jane's a character we've seen time and time again, and it's one that I'm fond of.  Jane's vampirism is really the only thing that sets her apart from other characters like this that we've seen before.  That's my main complaint about Jane in this book, and it's that she's just so average.  I can love an average heroine the way I love Jane, and I can love them because they're average in a way that defies the cliches.  I do love Jane, but she's just entertaining.  Her problems are all ones I've seen before - loves her parents, but they work hard and embarrass her sometimes, younger sibling who is a super genius, social outcast with great intelligence.  There's nothing here that feels fresh.  I could get past it if the book explored Jane more, but the fluffy nature of it was taken to the point where I didn't feel like there was enough room to make Jane a character I liked and remembered beyond the story.

The other characters are much the same way.  I was actively disappointed in Timothy, who was probably the worst of the lot.  He didn't have any depth to him, and his interest in Jane isn't really understandable in the slightest.  He just sees her get teased once and suddenly he notices her as this different an unique girl and plans on becoming human with her.  When they've shared absolutely no substantial interaction between them.  It made him seem very stupid for a vampire that lived through several hundred years.  It was one end of a love triangle that just wasn't well done.  Jane's younger brother and her parents are characterized pretty well.  I like that her family still stays to their roots and works hard, and I found her mother and younger brother to be funny when they were around.  I wanted their relationship with Jane explored more, but for their page time they made the most of it, which is always a good thing.  Eli was my favorite because I thought he was the most enjoyable and present of the characters in the story in relation to Jane.  His stuttering around Jane got excessive to read after a while, but he ended up being an extremely cute love interest with a genuine affection for the heroine.  It's safe to say I was rooting for him a hundred percent of the time.

The writing in Jane Jones is probably going to be something you expect.  There's fluff.  It's the kind of writing that you sit down with when you just need some escapism and some space.  What worked was the voice itself.  St. Onge is funny, and it shows very well and very quickly in the text.  Jane's voice is realistic and snarky.  You know how I am a sucker for snark.  It helped me latch onto the main character and want a sequel ready for when I was feeling in the mood again.  That's good writing.  She also wrote the Jane/Eli relationship in a cute way, which was a plus.  The downside was that the pacing/fleshing out of the text was lacking.  The rush in Jane's relationship with Timothy - from "I barley know you" to "Should I run away with him foreeeeeever?" - was awful.  Stuff like Jane's relationships with her parents and Timothy were glossed over in favor of a fast narrative.  The non-relationship part of the plot that dealt with Jane's past came on extremely fast, and it felt like it went from this cute story about a plucky vampire and her personal problems to an attempt at intrigue.  It needed a good extra 100 pages.  There needed to be more build-up, plausibility, foreshadowing, and world building in the text for the stuff that went on - much of which was vampire stuff that really needed a bit more grounding to seem less random.  The rushed feeling to the last half of the story brought it down for me, and I think it was why several of the characters felt like they weren't given their proper dues. 

Criticism said, I enjoyed this book.  It was fun and quick.  I read it in like two or three hours, and it gave me a few good laughs and a new main character to watch out for.  Jane herself is a worthy protagonist.  Her relationship with Eli is adorable, and her relationship with her family is just enough to get by.  Problems like a majorly rushed plot and a tacked on love-triangle-ish vampire boy that makes implausible decisions just made the story pretty average.  I will be checking out the next book by St. Onge - which is hopefully a follow-up - to see if she's improved, as the character of Jane and the writing are both worth a quick peak if you're in the mood.

Cover:  I really like the simplicity and the bold colors. 

Rating:  3.0  Stars

Copy:  Received from publisher for review  (Thank you, Random House!) 

Title:  Uncommon Criminals

Author:  Ally Carter

Publisher:  Disney/Hyperion

Series:  Heist Society #2

Other Reviews for This Author:  None

I read and enjoyed Heist Society on my own, non-bloggy time months back in preparation for the Rochester Teen Book Festival*, and I found it to be a really strong plot-oriented book that was just like watching a good spy movie.  Uncommon Criminals was a title that was highly anticipated, and after reading Heist Society I could see why.  Carter has a writing style that is fresh and perfect for the stories she conveys.  What's great is that these books are good at standing alone, so readers could easily start Uncommon Criminals without knowledge from the previous book.  Uncommon Criminals continues to the series' strengths, and made for a really enjoyable, fast-paced read.

She thought that she would give up the thieving life for good.  Live away from making detailed, extravagant heists with her extended "family".  Kat thought she could do it - be one of the few to walk away from the business, even though she'd been in it since birth.  She didn't realize that it's true what they say.  Making heists is a part of her.  There's nothing that can take it away.  It all came to a head when she had to steal back some elusive paintings hanging in one of the world's most protected museums.  Katarina Bishop was thought a fool for attempting the heist.  She proved everyone wrong.

Heisting has made its way back into her life.  Kat pulled off something unbelievable last time with her crew of fellow thieves.  The devilishly handsome Hale, who managed to tug on her heartstrings with his charm and finesse.  Her cousin Gabrielle.  Techie Simon.  Nick, the Parisian street-thief who remained one of the few fairly knew to the ins and outs of the family codes Kat grew up with.  For all of those in her crew, Kat's gone out on her own.  Heisting is an addiction - a thrill she's left behind for far too long.  It's only natural that she would eagerly take up new challenges.  The only problem is that she's doing them alone.

Katarina Bishop takes on a new project that is possibly more elusive and difficult than the museum heist.  Stealing the Cleopatra Emerald.  A jewel of infamy that is worth millions and  was supposedly stolen from a pair of scientists who discovered it in an Egyptian tomb long ago.  The client even invokes a Chelovek Pseudonima - a name used by the thieving families for only the greatest of heists.  It has to mean something.  Not to mention the challenge and the excitement of being able to steal what is supposedly unable to be stolen.  Katarina Bishop soon finds herself ensnared in a web of deception, heists, superstition, and strained relationships that span decades and families.  Can she perform another miracle, or will she finally be caught in the act?

If there's one reason to like Katarina Bishop, it's because of how ruthless she is.  She's not ruthless in the sense that she would abandon you on a snow-capped mountain because it's easier to just save herself, but she is ruthless in how she does her work.  Being a professional teen thief would require a certain level of severity, and Kat has it in spades.  What makes her so fun to read about is how realistic she is under the strong mask she wears when committing a heist.  One minute she can expertly discuss security details and maneuvers for stealing priceless objects, and the next she can switch over to her personal life and deal with those things. It works for her.  I've had books with great main characters that ended up not appealing to me because of how the character brought their internal conflicts into their external conflicts too much (such as whining about a boy in the middle of fighting bad guys - as an example, not an actual situation I've come across yet) and it would get frustrating.  Kat's narrative doesn't do that, and it allows the reader to view her as a strong and put-together character.  I also liked that a lot of her struggles involved who she was as a thief - not just her romance with Hale.  Kat's self-identity is so important to the direction of the narrative, and I loved how Carter handled it without making it the centerfold problem of the story.

Where the plot-centric areas reach negative aspects are the secondary characters.  Carter's plots are very thrilling and rely on a speedy pace that never stops going.  Characters come in and out within a few chapters, so we see people like Kat's Uncle Eddie and her father - characters that show their glimmer of depth, but don't have enough page time to make enough impact in one book.  Reading both books in the series has made it apparent that these characters are deep and interesting, but on a stand alone basis Uncommon Criminals has this problem (as did Heist Society.)  Characters like Simon and Gabrielle leave a good impression with their personalities, but I didn't see as much of them in this installment as I would have liked.  Kat's a lot more secluded, and it really shows in how much the characters make an impression on the narrative.  Hale was the only one that struck me as being as well-rounded as Kat was, and I think that was because of his placement in the romance.  Hale is an elusive character that purposefully avoids letting Kat know about what his personal life is like.  The way that he subtly lets her in to his emotions is excellent, though.  The Kat and Hale relationship is one that I am a big fan of, and I think a lot of readers will like it.  Nick is a wild card that (as of yet) is not a love triangle interest, and his backstory makes him a worthy secondary character (although it's admittedly much better if you read Heist Society prior to this book.)  

Uncommon Criminals is a remarkably strong sequel, which is a big reason I enjoyed it so much.  Heist Society is a strong book that's worthy of a read on its own, but Uncommon Criminals is a great instance where the author purposefully raises the bar in how she goes about her plot.  Heist Society is more basic, and Uncommon Criminals deals with more betrayal and deception (both in the plot and how the reader reads it.)  I found it to be more surprising and, in the case of the ending, pretty genius.  Carter knows how to outwit her reader at their own game.  It's all very reminiscent of one of the classic spy movies, but not in a way that feels cheesy.  The writing style just seems to channel it.  Third person works best for this series in my opinion because of how it can bring in the feeling of the work and keep the story focused on the plot of the heist within the book.  The nice thing about this series is that each book is secluded enough for a beginning reader to get most of what's going on - save jokes from book one and some character backstory - and not feel like they've dropped into the middle of Wonderland and have no idea where they are.  I wish more authors were writing series like this, so it gets props for that.

Uncommon Criminals wasn't perfect, but it was very, very good.  The characters are amusing, if at times thinly drawn, and the plots are so intricate and intelligent.  Carter knows her stuff.  This series will appeal to readers of younger and older YA, and I think that the potential for broad appeal is why readers like her book so much.  If you haven't picked up an Ally Carter novel yet, this book (or this series) is a great way to see how she writes.  Fast, quick, and fun, but not lacking in intelligence or depth in its protagonist. 

* Where I met the lovely author and was called handsome because I wanted a picture with her.  I never did a post on the festival (forgot my camera) but this was a highlight.  Okay, rambling with useless footnotes completed.


Cover:  I like the covers have continuity to them.  The reflection of the object of the heist in her shades (as in the cover for the first book) is pretty sneaky and clever, too.

Rating:  4.5  Stars

Copy:  Received from publicist/publisher for review  (Thanks Jamie and Disney/Hyperion!)  

Title:  Hereafter

Author:  Tara Hudson

Publisher:  Harper Teen

Series:  Hereafter #1

Other Reviews for This Author:  None

Paranormal romance is one of the few things that can honestly get me out of any reading rut.  I get bored and tired of it sometimes, but those moments are rare and usually derive from one or two books that go wrong consecutively.  For the most part, I've enjoyed the YA paranormal that's been coming into the fray.  It doesn't always have the raw addictiveness that adult paranormal romance has, but it many times has so much more heart and soul-sucking ability.  If that makes any sense.  Hereafter was a book I eagerly anticipated coming into 2011, and it matched my expectations by sucking me in the way I wanted it to.

Waking up and drowning.  Swimming for dear life under murky water, but not being able to reach the surface in time.  That's what Amelia wakes up to.  Amelia is dead, and in her nightmares she relieves the experience of her death.  She has no real idea how much time has passed since she left the world of the living, but she knows that breathing doesn't matter.  There is no walking through walls or floating like the ghosts people imagine, but she doesn't have the same life requirements she did long ago.  No need to eat or breath.  Amelia simply floats on.

Her empty existence is interrupted when a car crashes into the lake she's in, sending a boy's body flying into the water.  He can barely remain conscious as he sinks down.  Amelia tries so hard to get his attention, but she has no way of letting him see her.  Until he dies for a brief moment.  Amelia eventually manages to rouse him somehow when he seems to recover just a bit.  The only difference is that he can somehow see her.  He swims to shore and runs away, leaving her to fend for herself.  Amelia can't get him out of her head, however.  He was the only one she'd met who was ever able to see her, and he was utterly fascinating.

The boy comes back.  Joshua isn't just a nameless face anymore.  He's a real, live person.  The first to come into Amelia's afterlife and have any significant meaning whatsoever.  She can't remember her past life but for bits and pieces.  Nothing personal or concrete, but simple things.  Joshua is the first person to step into any of her memories for a long time, and it amazes her as to how attached she can get to him when he's the only one there.  Amelia and Joshua strike up a friendship with subtle flirtations, and he shows her what his life is like.  Memories from Amelia's past seem to come up as Joshua shows her around, and a dark force by the name of Eli appears and gives her another option that doesn't involve discovering her past.  Amelia realizes that being a ghost is becoming far more complicated, and the complications only grow greater with the more she uncovers about herself and what she's become.

I was immediately attracted to Amelia as a main character.  The opening scene of Hereafter is some really good stuff, and it manages to make you really consider what's going on in Amelia's afterlife right away.  It's kind of like a twisted version of opening with a dream sequence, and Hereafter uses it to its advantage.  My emotions were immediately tied to Amelia's, and she began revealing herself as a character.  Somehow, Hudson manages to make a character without much tying her down into someone that you care about.  Amelia's emotions are the chief way you connect to her, because her knowledge of her past is pretty much nonexistent in terms of the personal relationships and facts about her life.  The lack of knowing who her parents were, what school she went to, where she lived, or what happened to her before her death makes it hard for the reader to establish a deeper connection with who Amelia is.  The tie to the present made for a different way of character connection, though, and the slow reveal of bits and bobbles of her backstory kept her wrapped in enough mystery to keep me invested.  Amelia herself see-saws between riveting and ho-hum in some things.  I found her immediate intrigue with Joshua to be understandable - one would naturally become a bit invested in the one person that can see them - and her romance with him was pretty sweet.  I would have liked more concern from him, though.  Amelia is a ghost.  A ghost!  Shouldn't the romance be a little more angsty?  Falling in like/love with someone who is a ghost when you are living is kind of a problem that you would talk with them about on a regular basis when you aren't really sure what's going on.

Amelia's romance with Joshua was surprising to me in how smooth it was.  As said previously, it could have used a bit more tension before it really got going, or at least a little bit more pull with the whole ghost/human difference going on between the two.  Joshua himself is a character that I really liked with Amelia.  He's joining in on the canon of YA PNR heroes that are just genuinely good people.  I liked that there was actual conflict with his family - a bratty sister who seems to have her own issues with him and a grandmother who can see Amelia and thinks her to be evil - and that they were involved period.  Hudson struck a nice balance there between Joshua's love for his family and his disappointment in their behavior around and towards Amelia.  His grandmother is really the only one that has any significant (read - any) interaction with her, so I can't say how much more the rest of his family will be involved in the plot.  Joshua needed some fleshing out in terms of his interests and life - which seems to be very easy to put on hold for Amelia.  There were some really cute scenes with him and his love for music, and those coupled with how well he treated Amelia allowed me to accept the romance despite the ease with which it began.

Conflict is brought in with Joshua's grandmother, who I felt was flatter than necessary in her interactions with Amelia.  She's perceived as this stubborn church lady who takes full belief in her society and  heritage as somebody around to protect others from ghosts like Amelia.  While understandable, it still came across as a very typical portrayal of an older character set in their beliefs.  I would have liked to see her at least attempt at understanding Amelia or her grandson before determining that Amelia was the same ghost that was causing problems.  The majority of the non-Romeo and Juliet conflicts come from Eli, the ghost of a dead rock musician.  He's the classic bad boy, and his obsession with Amelia is creepy (and thankfully portrayed as such.)  He believes her to be the love of his life, and he continuously tries to get her to cross over to a distorted underworld to be his partner in gathering souls for mysterious dark forces.  This conflict took a while to materialize, but it was interesting.  I enjoyed the Eli A) was a misguided evil with complex reasons behind his actions  B) had his obsession with Amelia shown as negative and C) was a character with a good backstory.  I liked him as a villain.  The classic dark, mysterious forces have yet to get an opinion from me one way or the other, but Eli's a character I want to see more of.

Hereafter has a writing style that I think will appeal to a lot of readers, self included.  It's not anything unusual for the YA PNR field, but it really sucks you in.  That's a quality that alone makes this book worth a look.  If you find yourself easily turning the pages and getting caught up in the drama, it's a good thing.  Hudson's style is very haunting and dramatic, and I liked that a lot of the story snuck up on me as a reader.  Some parts were predictable, but her style allowed some plot points and characterizations to really sneak past me.  You don't realize just how much you like Amelia and her story until you pull yourself out of it.  The voice was on the mature side, which I felt took away from some of the story's strengths in the slow moments.  Amelia sounds mature for someone who died at eighteen.  While most of her narrative was believable, there were a few moments where it didn't work as well as it should have for me.  I found that a lot of Hereafter was like that.  There were intelligent story concepts, a slow but well-paced nature to the plot, characters who kept me reading, and a feeling to it that made it worth reading.  I had little problems dotted throughout, though, and I think that was why I didn't feel like the book made it as high as it could have for me.  These problems are ones that I'll be interested to look for in the next two books in the series.

Books like Hereafter are great additions to the YA PNR canon.  They don't necessarily gel with me as much as a five-star read, but they provide great entertainment and do interesting things.  Hudson established herself as an author to continue to watch and follow with her atmospheric style, characters, and the way she added different conflicts to the story.  Small problems left me wanting more from the book, but as a debut novel I think it's pretty strong for what it is.  If readers find themselves wanting a less-angst-ridden PNR with some ghostly happenings, they'll find Hereafter to be a worthy reading choice.

*Note*  If you, like me, have seen authors talk on Twitter/Goodreads/what-not, you may have noticed that Hudson often enjoys the work of Josephine Angelini and Amy Plum.  I've reviewed Starcrossed and Die for Me on the blog, and I found all three of these books to be similar in how they capture the reader in style and storytelling.  Check them out if you like, or avoid it you don't.  

Cover:  I adore this cover.  The dress even has story purposes, so that's an added plus.

Rating:  4.0  Stars

Copy:  Received from publicist/publisher for review  (Thank you so much, Heather and Harper Teen!)

I love writing about vampire Glory St. Clair in the REAL VAMPIRES series because she’s what my friend Nina Bangs calls “everywoman with fangs”. Yes, Glory’s just like me, a human who has figure flaws. Big difference though—she’s was turned vampire in 1604. Unfortunately she was stuck with an extra ten to fifteen, okay maybe twenty pounds, when she was turned. On the positive side, being stuck like that forever means exercising and dieting won’t do her a bit of good. Of course with her new liquid diet, real food’s history anyway. Sigh. Glory did like her food back in the day. Her sire was hunky Scot Jeremy Blade. He’s still around. She won’t marry him because forever with a sixteenth century male is a little much for our independent gal.

Yes, I write Glory as a modern woman. She’s had to change with the times. She owns her own business and supports herself even when the domineering men in her life try to take over. It isn’t easy. There are always bad things happening around her and to her. In REAL VAMPIRES DON’T WEAR SIZE SIX, demons come visiting determined to make her life miserable. Glory’s had demon issues before, but this time they are on a mission from the head guy himself.

Think about it. If Lucifer wanted to get Glory to work for him what reward would he dangle in front of her? The Devil always knows exactly what button to push. And he gets to Glory with a tempting offer: To make her that size six she’d always dreamed of being. Her best friend is a size six. That “other” woman who is always chasing Blade is a size six too. They have tiny waists and no hips. Damn them. Glory wears a twelve (really a fourteen) on a good day. And it had better have elastic or spandex. Know what I mean?

I fight the battle of the bulge every day. That’s why it’s so easy for me to write Glory’s story. She’s me with fangs. Well, with an over-the-top love life and some near-miss adventures that I’d rather not have. Glory’s life is a fantasy where an imperfect woman can kick ass and at the same time get perfect guys to fall for her. That’s why we read romance, isn’t it?

REAL VAMPIRES DON’T WEAR SIZE SIX hits shelves today, August 2nd. It’s book seven in the series. It can be read as a stand alone but you might want to start at the beginning. I’d love to know why you read vampire romance. For the bite? The hot guys? Do you prefer the light or the dark? A lucky poster could win a set of the first three REAL VAMPIRES books and a $20 gift card to the bookseller/vendor of his/her choice. Come on, spill.

Reminder:  Leave your email in the comment!


*I have disabled comment moderation for today so you all can comment to your heart's desire.  Gerry  is going to try and comment as well, so be on the look-out for that.  She'll be the one to award the prize.  Also, be warned that these books are filled with sexy-times, and if the reader is under 18, they should be aware of that before purchasing or reading them.*