Tag Archives: teen fiction

Jul 1 2013
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Top Ten Tuesday – Top 10 Most Intimidating Books (7/1/2013)

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Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, this is a weekly feature that has quickly become one of my favorites. I love reminiscing about books I’ve read and I love talking about them even more. This week’s topic is a little more forward-looking:

Top 10 Most Intimidating Books

 (Gosh, just looking at these covers makes me cringe)

#1: The Lord of the Rings – I love the movies passion – they are my all-time favorites – and I wanted nothing more than to read the books that inspired them… I made it through the Fellowship (barely) but decided to stop reading because I was basically just going through the motions. My eyes were scanning the pages, but my attention was just not there. I have read a lot of dry fantasies over the years but this one takes the cake. If it hadn’t been for the epic action-packed movies, I might have been able to get into them more. I think I’ll stick with Viggo Mortensen on this one…

#2: The Book Thief – I have yet to talk to someone who’s read this who didn’t absolutely love it. To me, it looks boring. Now, I’m sure it’s an exceptional book and rewarding to anybody who picks it up, but everything from the cover to the summary puts me off.

#3 The Lord of Chaos – I’ve read the first in this series and am in no hurry to continue on. Everybody I’ve talked to about this series says it “gets boring between books 6 – 10” so I just need to “ride it out” because he “gets better” and “it’s worth it.” That’s like three or four thousand pages of “hang in there.” Does this sound appealing to anybody else? And you know what the stupid thing is? I’ll probably read them, anyway.

#4: Touched by Venom – for some reason, I’ve had these books on my shelf for at least ten years but have yet to open one. The longer I wait, the more afraid I am that they won’t be as good as I hope they’ll be.

#5: Hominids – I find the concept of this series highly fascinating. It explores an alternate reality where Neanderthal, rather than humans, inherited the world. I’ve tried to pick it up a couple of times, but it’s so darned scientific and cerebral that he loses me. I love learning things from books, but there’s a point where story needs to be just as important as the concept.

#6: The Dark Moom – I bought these books (at a rather expensive price) over ten years ago. They’ve been collecting dust on my shelf ever since. I have no idea what they are about and am a little afraid to find out – what if I invested all that money and space for nothing? Book hoarder problems 101.

#7: Beautiful Creatures – I bought the big expensive boxed set of these books after seeing a preview for the movie. I don’t even know if I’m going to like them, but they were pretty. That kind of attitude always gets me into trouble.

#8: Way of Kings – People rave about this book. I can’t imagine not liking it after all the incredible endorsements I’ve gotten for it, but the fear is still there. This is one of the few that actually intimidates me because of its size (I’ve been reading teen to long).

#9: Aurian – I actually swallowed my fear and am currently reading this one. This author’s other series (beginning with The Heart of Myrial) was my favorite for several years. I find this one intimidating because it’s only available as a mass-market paperback and holy snot-balls is the writing tiny!  It literally hurts my face to read, but so far the story is pretty good… please expect my review sometime in 2014.

#10: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – I’m really afraid I’m not going to like this series. You see, I’m positively NOT a fan of “punchy” humor in books (such as Piers Anthony and Terry Pratchett). As Adams is sometimes held in that same category, I fear the worst. Also, I think my husband might actually divorce me if I don’t like these books.

There you have it! Does anybody else find these as intimidating as I do?

Jun 10 2013
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Book Review: The Elite by Kiera Cass

16248068Title: The Elite

Author: Kiera Cass

Series: The Selection #2

Genre: Teen Fiction

Rating: 4/5 stars

The Overview: Thirty-five girls came to the palace to compete in the Selection. All but six have been sent home. And only one will get to marry Prince Maxon and be crowned princess of Illea. America still isn’t sure where her heart lies. When she’s with Maxon, she’s swept up in their new and breathless romance, and can’t dream of being with anyone else. But whenever she sees Aspen standing guard around the palace, and is overcome with memories of the life they planned to share. With the group narrowed down to the Elite, the other girls are even more determined to win Maxon over—and time is running out for America to decide.

Just when America is sure she’s made her choice, a devastating loss makes her question everything again. And while she’s struggling to imagine her future, the violent rebels that are determined to overthrow the monarchy are growing stronger and their plans could destroy her chance at any kind of happy ending.

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The Review:

I can’t tell you how many reviews for this book I’ve read so far – it seems that almost everybody read it (and loved it) before I did. The Selection was sweet, romantic, and engaging, and I loved the element of competition in a slightly dystopian setting. It was exactly what I was in the mood for – a fun, lighthearted read – and I picked up the second one immediately (which is something I don’t usually do – all you have to do is check out my “Currently Reading” shelf on goodreads to see how scattered I am with books). Anyway, although I liked this one, I don’t feel as though I got what I signed up for.

The first book was lovely. It was breezy, romantic, and fun, and even though I expected a little turmoil to show up in this second book, I wasn’t prepared for the level of stress I felt while reading it. I had to fight the urge to write a story-rant review – and that tells me the author did and exceptional job of getting me emotionally involved. I was so invested in these characters that I wanted to scream at them to stop being such idiots. I have never gotten so worked up about a book and have spent the last month or so trying to figure out why it affected me so much.

And I think I finally figured it out…pacing.

Cass used several different elements to throw angst at me for almost the entire end half of the book. It was subtle and slow building until I was riding the proverbial snowball down the mountain. I kept reading faster and faster to try to get ahead of it, but I never did. I practically begged for her to throw me a bone, and she ignored me. From her author’s note at the end,  I think she did it on purpose… and that pisses me off. At first, I was angry at the story, the characters, and the situations they put themselves in. After a month of reflection, I am now pissed at Cass for writing it well enough to do that to me. It was truly evoking and I have to applaud that.

Overall, this was a very well-done book. It sticks with you long after you’ve finished it… at least it did with me. Even though it is the second book in the series, I feel like each one is drastically different as far as the emotional payoffs (or lack thereof) are concerned. It was an emotional roller coaster and I can’t wait to see what ride I’m getting on next. I will probably pick the third book up the day it comes out.

Recommendations: Because I’ve read so many reviews, I know a lot of people enjoyed the series as much as I did. It’s technically a dystopian, but it’s definitely not the most well-conceived society of the genre. I would recommend it to people who lean more towards the romantic dystopians such as Delirium and Matched rather than the more conceptual ones like Hunger Games and The Fifth Wave.

 Other books you might like:

by Niki Hawkes

Apr 5 2013
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Book Review: Eve & Adam by Michael Grant and Katherine Applegate

a3Title: Eve & Adam

Author: Michael Grant & Katherine Applegate

Series: ??

Genre: Teen Fiction

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

The Overview: In the beginning, there was an apple – And then there was a car crash, a horrible injury, and a hospital. But before Evening Spiker’s head clears a strange boy named Solo is rushing her to her mother’s research facility. There, under the best care available, Eve is left alone to heal.

Just when Eve thinks she will die – not from her injuries, but from boredom—her mother gives her a special project: Create the perfect boy. Using an amazingly detailed simulation, Eve starts building a boy from the ground up. Eve is creating Adam. And he will be just perfect . . . won’t he?

The Review:

Reactions to this book are all over the board. People either seem to love it or hate it. I’m sort of in the middle, as I liked it, but I didn’t love it. That’s a hard thing for me to admit because I’ve had such a long history with these authors that I feel as though I owe it to them to love their stuff. After all, Applegate is responsible for the series that sparked my love of reading (see Animorphs). Alas, the book just didn’t quite come together for me.

I’m usually pretty good at going with the flow as far as characters are concerned, but in this book I just didn’t get the relationships between all of them. All of them were odd, but I had the hardest time with Eve’s bff, Aislin. She didn’t seem to add any value to the story and I wasn’t on board with their relationship or how they treated each other. This odd compilation of characters and motives made the book feel a bit disjointed, and that’s partly why I don’t think I enjoyed it as much as I wanted to.

There were some cool elements to the book. I found the setting and the technology to be entirely fascinating.I also liked reading from Solo’s perspective – specifically his strategies for outsmarting the “enemy”. The writing itself was also quite interesting. The imagery at the beginning was especially strong, and I will probably go back and study it for my own craft. The duo writer angle was a unique one too – there were several places where the tone of the book changed, and I’m assuming that’s were one author stopped writing and the other took over. The idea of each writer being in charge of a main character’s motives and personality is pretty cool, and I think if there was one place where the relationship development was successful, it was between Eve and Solo (where I saw this phenomenon take place the most often).

Overall, it was not the stellar read that I was hoping for, but an interesting piece nonetheless. I don’t regreat thhe time I spent reading it, as the positives edged out the negatives and I sort of liked how it wrapped up. I’m interested to see where they take the story in the next book, if there is one… the internet was rather inconclusive.

by Niki Hawkes

Other books you might like:

Feb 27 2013

Book Review: Poison by Bridget Zinn

a1Title: Poison

Author: Bridget Zinn

Genre: Teen Fiction

Rating: 4/5 stars

Release Date: March 12, 2013

The Overview: Sixteen-year-old Kyra, a highly-skilled potions master, is the only one who knows her kingdom is on the verge of destruction—which means she’s the only one who can save it. Faced with no other choice, Kyra decides to do what she does best: poison the kingdom’s future ruler, who also happens to be her former best friend.

But, for the first time ever, her poisoned dart . . . misses.

Now a fugitive instead of a hero, Kyra is caught in a game of hide-and-seek with the king’s army and her potioner ex-boyfriend, Hal. At least she’s not alone. She’s armed with her vital potions, a too-cute pig, and Fred, the charming adventurer she can’t stop thinking about. Kyra is determined to get herself a second chance (at murder), but will she be able to find and defeat the princess before Hal and the army find her?

The Review:

The cover of Poison caught my attention right away, and I have to say it was a really fun book to read! I found the storyline totally grabbing – a girl (who happens to be a potion master) is on the run after her failed attempted to poison her best friend… the princess. It was a cool concept, and I thought the author made some excellent plot choices throughout the entire book – I enjoyed it immensely. Initially, I was only planning on reading a chapter or two a day but found myself sucked in each time I picked it up.

Although the writing wasn’t the most sophisticated in the world, the author used a lot of really smart techniques to keep my attention. Most notable of which was the use of really great hooks at the end of each chapter which just begged me to keep going. She also applied the “reveal” tactic successfully quite a few time throughout the book, and did it in a way that wasn’t obnoxious or detracting from the story. Usually when an author does this, they choose to hide silly information, creating a false tension for no compelling reason. Zinn’s application made the book that much more of a page-turner because I kept thinking: “Cool! I wonder what she’s going to reveal next!”

The beginning of the novel was interesting, but not as strong as the rest of the book. It wasn’t until about fifty pages in that I was totally on board. My main issue was a lack of world building. The story evoked a medieval setting, but so many modern terms and images were thrown in that I wasn’t entirely sure where it was taking place. It could’ve easily been in either world. That said, it didn’t take away from the story too much, and after the love interest was introduced, I was hooked.

Overall, for every weakness, there were some major strong points, and I think Zinn did a great job tailoring her writing to her target audience. It was a great first book from a talented new author. Poison is perfect for those wanting a fun, light read!

Other books you might like:

  • Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
  • Wings by Aprilynne Pike (read review)
  • Poison Diaries by Maryrose Wood
  • First Truth by Dawn Cook (read review)
  • Fire by Kristin Cashore

by Niki Hawkes