The Grace Year - Kim Liggett

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Have been interested in reading this since I started seeing mention of it on Twitter, in the writer-verse. As soon as I found out NetGalley had it up for grabs, I was so there. And I don't regret being hyper about it at all.

**NO SPOILERS**

The story follows Tierney, a tomboy in a world of girls who are basically expected to be primed to be walking incubators, more or less. Very much heeds back to Handmaid's Tale, eh?

All girls in her world need to be sent away for a year, to rid themselves of a magic that brings men to their knees, can make them control the men. Which is where our story begins, essentially.

The book follows the girls in her year who are sent away, and the things they discover about themselves, each other, and the world around them. Horrifying though it may be.

There's loads of surprises, twists and turns, all of which I loved, and all of which actually worked well for the story. The ending wasn't what I was expecting either, but I really enjoyed it, instead of being disappointed for not getting what I wanted!

Definitely something to look forward to!

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(Coming out in October, 2019!)

Dusting off the... dust.

I've gotten myself into a nice rhythm of writing, so it's time for me to get back to reading, and writing reviews! I've missed it!

I'm not sure what's on the list first, but I've been putting out requests for ARCs, so I wanted people to know I'm for real here. Hi, publishers and agents and writers! I'm ready for y'all!

Let's do this.

Review: Furyborn

Furyborn by Claire Legrand
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'd recommend Furyborn to anyone who likes a good adventure, or more specifically, fans of Avatar (the animes), the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard, or even Sailor Moon!

This book is actually likely one of my top books ever. And I've read a LOT of books!!

It follows two women, a thousand years apart, both with amazing powers and plenty of (what we called in the 90s) GIRL POWER, with a connection that might be obvious from the start, but nevermind all that.

The world is a strange one, where some people have powers that align with one of seven elements, and angels once walked with humans, though now they are trapped away.

Queen Rielle is supposed to be saviour to her people, but the book opens with her seeming to be a total and utter disaster. As in, she's on fire and about to die, so it seems.

The next view we get of her, is two years before the above incident, and you really start to adore her, and feel sorry for what she has to endure, just to make everyone around here believe in her. She's an amazing character, that I feel needed more hugs in her life, maybe things wouldn't have turned out like they did.

And then, 1000 years in the future from when Rielle lived, we have Eliana, the bounty hunter who can heal from any injury, and isn't sure what makes her so special. She has an amazing cast around her, who raise her up and make sure that her secrets stay safe. Though of course, it'd be no fun if those shields of wonderful people remained intact.

All in all, it was a beautiful story, with a very diverse cast, both in heritage and orientation. The main characters are fully fleshed out, and every chapter end made you wish you could see more of what they were dealing with, but then you'd fall into what the other was doing, and just enjoy the ride.

I really can not wait for the next book to come out, nevermind that this was an ARC copy (thank you to Edelweiss for the ebook!) because there's some amazing twists that had me gasping, wanting to know more!!

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Review: Caraval

Caraval by Stephanie Garber
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Even though this was my first time reading the book, it is easily one of my favourite books ever, no joke.

Scarlett has a brutal life, a father who abuses her and her sister, Tella, and she just wants to save them both and get away to Caraval, where magic is real, and wishes can come true.

Of course, nothing amazing can ever be as simple as we'd like it to be.

Tella gets kidnapped, everyone seems to be lying and tricking each other, and Scarlett isn't sure who to trust, or if anything is real anymore.

Then of course, everything comes crashing down, and everything is awful and amazing and magical and crazy.

The language to describe things in the novel are amazing in themselves. Scarlett sees colours in everything, tastes flavours in situations, it's so beautiful and beyond anything I have ever seen in my life. The author has a real gift, and I wish I knew how she could channel such imagery in a few words.

Definitely recommend Caraval to anyone!

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Review: Geekerella

Geekerella by Ashley Poston
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'll be honest, this isn't a book I would have picked up on my own. I do judge books by their covers, and I thought this was going to be a childish novel, based on looks alone.

Thankfully, I was wrong.

This is, as you can imagine, a retelling of Cinderella. Elle is the orphan girl, who suffers her stepmother and twin stepsisters. Her father died, and left her in their care. She not only upkeeps the house, but works a job in a food truck as well.

She is an utter and total geek, and you have to love her for her awkwardness, very true to life. I'd know, I've lived the geek life, and have been going to cons for ... a long time, let's just say that, ha! She is part of a fandom of a sci-fi show, reminiscent of Star Trek. She has a lot to say about the lead cast for a role that she feels strongly about, due to the fact that the show was something her and her father shared. She definitely does not think he can handle the role.

By luck or accident or cosmic joke, the two end up communicating with each other, anonymously. Ah, the modern age.

The characters are all very likable (aside from the step family) and fun. And believable, which is so refreshing! No one is perfect, and everyone has flaws! And they admit to them! They stumble, they fall, they say the wrong things. It's perfect.

If you're into fairy tale retellings (I SO am) then give it a shot. Or give it a shot even if you're not, maybe you'll find a genre you enjoy.

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Review: Deadly Sweet

Deadly Sweet by Lola Dodge
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Warning, reading this book will make you crave baked goods. Every baked good. Pies, cakes, cinnamon rolls, nothing is safe!! Your diet will hate you!

You will probably like this book though!

Anise is a young witch, in a world where magic openly exists, but isn't always accepted. Her mom, also a witch--though she doesn't practice--tries to let her have a life, moving her from place to place as they get cast out again for accidental magic use. While out with friends one night, she uses her magic all wrong, and she's afraid she's going to have to move again, or worse, go to jail.

Luckily, her famous aunt saves the day, and brings her to the town of Taos, to work for her in a learning bakery, while sending her to baking school! Her dreams all come true!!

Life would be so easy if that was all of it though. Anise has to deal with the bitterness left behind between her mother and the locals, a weird so-called bodyguard who is more of a creep than a help, and also the girl that she replaced as assistant, well, she went missing so...

All in all, Deadly Sweet is a fun magical mystery, and you'll never guess who is doing what for what reason. So many twists and turns, I kept thinking I knew what was going on, and then another twist! Loved it.

Will be looking forward to the next book in the series, due out in November of this year!

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So much snow!! And other things...

Not my yard, I wish! Source: WeHeartIt.com

So the weather is out of control everywhere in North America. Snow in Texas? What is that?

We don't live down there anymore, but it's not much better up in Ontario. If anything, it's a bit more ridiculous. We had days that broke high and low records (for like, fifty years!) in the same week. -25*C, and 10*C within three days of each other. And then it snowed some more, after our backyard looked like a swamp. The dog is probably really confused, all of her toys are under the snow now.

It's all due to melt again this weekend. And we're in January!

Despite the wild weather, we've been having a good time. Our kiddo is loving the first serious snow that he's gotten to experience (the last "real winter" we had, he wasn't able to walk yet, so it doesn't count), my husband and I are making plans for our anniversary/renewal in summer, and I'm personally working on maintaining my health. I realize I'll never be "cured", but I'm coming to terms with it. Living with pain every day isn't a picnic, but if I stay positive, it's not so bad. For every bad day I have, I eventually have some good ones. And that's what I look forward to.

In the middle of a good read right now (should have a review later today or tomorrow!), have a painting class tomorrow, and generally just letting my happy nerd side roll with it.

Looking forward to the rest of 2018! Hopefully it's not all cold and lousy!

Review: Enchant

Enchant by Micalea Smeltzer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a fun book, and while I kind of want to see the sequel(s), it'll be a hard time for me to actively seek them out.

Mara is a regular teenager, living a regular life. Then as it goes, everything gets twisted upside down, her friend's crush gets murdered, and her dad's been kidnapped.

Then she gets kidnapped by a guy who keeps flinging sexual innuendo at her, while telling her that he literally can't sleep with her, or else.

It's a cliched romance novel, with some magic thrown in. The characters don't behave very naturally, in fact they seem to be trying too hard to sound like regular people.

A lot of things were out of place, or unexplained for.

If you just want a sappy romance though, this is the book for you!! Despite the dates listed, I read this in two days, easy.

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Review: Renegades

Renegades by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Oh, I am disappointed. I wanted to love this book. I LOVED Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles, felt a bit annoyed with Heartless, but had high hopes for Renegades. I just can't read it. I've been trying for about three weeks. It's just not catching my attention at all!

There's two main characters, and I don't know which one I'm supposed to be rooting for. We have "good guys", and we have "bad guys", but they both seem problematic. Neither really seems to be good, which really, you need to have some kind of line drawn between the sides. Frankly, I didn't care if either side succeeded, that's not good.

I'm also highly overwhelmed by the cast, most of which have double names, a "real" name and a "super" name. So you're trying to track a dozen people, and most of them have alternate names... it gets dizzying!

I'm not going to shelf this forever, maybe one day I'll get back to it, but for now, it's a nope for me.

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What to do?

Coffee and fantasy, two of my favourite things...
Source: WeHeartIt.com

We're a week into the new year, and things are going nicely over here! We're having fun, getting out despite the cold (in our part of the world, it's been around -20*c for the past week!) and just generally enjoying life.

I've run into an odd problem though. I've set myself up with the reading challenges I posted about just before the end of the year, and I'm stuck on a book that's not part of either of them. It's by an awesome author, Marissa Meyer, who also did the Lunar Chronicles series, which I loved. Renegades (link to Goodreads) seemed like it would be amazing based on a sample I got to read a while back, but I'm finding out that I'm not even to that part of the book yet, and I'm already on page 150 or so. There's so many characters, that use double names (real name versus hero/villain name) so there's another problem, trying to remember who's who!

I've been struggling, trying to read it for about three WEEKS now. Which is crazy. I used to be able to read a book a day before I became sick, but I never slowed down this badly.

I'm tempted to put it down, and try again later, so I can get a move on with my challenges.

I don't want to give up on it though. What do I do?

So...

It's been a while since I've blogged, so forgive the confusion, the virtual dust, etc. I'm trying to make everything back to normal!

Tomorrow is my birthday, which gives me one year to finish my 1183 Days List, which is basically a bucket list, for while I'm still alive to enjoy it. Heh. The list is outdated, we've bought a house since I last updated it (wow!), I bought a camera last month (still figuring it out), and so much more, so I'll be updating that a little at a time. I'm hopeful that I'll still clear out the list by this time next year, so we'll see what happens!

My other plans for this blog are the same as before, me trying to make art (I just got two big boxes of paint gifted to me, so that was a nice boost!), and trying to write. And of course, reading and reviewing books!

I've gone ahead and signed up for OwlCrate, to make reading a surprise and more exciting than my usual life. I've heard nothing but good reviews about them, so I have high hopes. I'm also back to doing reviews through Goodreads and NetGalley, which is awesomely giving me lots of eBooks to review!

So lots to look forward to, and hopefully I don't flop out again!

Review: Surprise Me

Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Surprise Me was not what I was expecting, unfortunately. And I say that as a fan of Sophie Kinsella, which is sad, because I generally like what she does. Fluffy chick lit, with a flaky (but not too flaky) main character who gets her happy ending.

And then we have Sylvie. She and her husband Dan seem like the usual married couple. Have twin girls who are cute and spunky, a nice house with a mortgage, and a backyard. Perfect little life. Oh, and they're of course super healthy and toned and gorgeous.

That's where the trouble starts. Their doctor tells the perfect couple, that oh, wow, you're going to live forever. This makes them realize how dull their lives will be in 68 years form now, and what can they do to spice it up right now?!

This leads to hijinks, bad planning, strained relationships, and things coming out of the woodworks that don't exactly help a marriage succeed. (view spoiler)[Of course, everything works out in the end, and they probably go on to have another hundred years of quirky wedding bliss. (hide spoiler)]

Typical chick lit fare, to be honest.

I had so much trouble caring about Sylvie though. She seemed out of her mind, paranoid, and kind of crazy. I almost felt like she didn't deserve her life, and how dare she act like she does? She's a spoiled brat, and maybe this is why she is written to be unlikable, but it's almost to the point that I feel sorry for Dan and the kids. Probably not what you want for your main character's family.

I wish the museum was hashed out a bit more, it seemed like an amazing place, but kept getting thrown off by the randomness of it all. A whole display of fans? Armour? It's a house?

I could nitpick for days, but I'll leave it at this: It's... alright. Not the greatest, and any twists and turns are kind of obvious, but a nice light read for a weekend. Just don't grind your teeth too much when Sylvie acts like, well, a princess.

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Review: All the Birds in the Sky

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a really random book for me to pick up, not my usual. My local bookstore was having a "pick any book under $XX.xx for free!" sort of deal though, and this caught my eye. Magic and science, battling it out? Sweet!!

I wish we'd gotten to see the main characters as kids a bit more, and maybe more of an understanding of their families (why did no one see how whackadoo Roberta was?) but that's not the end of the world. Would have liked to have seen this all drawn out a bit more overall, to be honest. So many characters, I wanted more of. More backstory, more life. Whether by just expanding the novel itself, or making it into a series, would have been amazing. But, we can't all get what we want, eh?

What we did get to see, was fun, and frenzied, which I think was the point. Before you get too interested in any one event, you're flying (heh) into something else. The characters kind of seemed to live their lives in a whirlwind, so this was fun to experience, in a way.

If the author ever writes in this world again, I'd read it, for sure. Not even just based on Patricia and Laurence, but the school, or the league of assassins, or what Roberta is doing with those chickens these days.

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Review: Warcross (Warcross, #1)

Warcross by Marie Lu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not bad!

There's some sloppy bits (the main character has an obsession with her hair, it's a bit odd) and is a bit cliched, but all around a fun time.

Pretty clearly a modern take on Snow Crash, but nothing wrong with that!

Wish the rivalries and relationships within Emika's team were a little more hashed out, but with how busy she is, not too surprising that most of them were kind of one dimensional.

Lots of things popped out at me as obvious twists, the big one at the end included.

Still going to read the rest of the series. I found it a light and easy read, and sometimes that's all anyone needs.

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Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've been reading Harry Potter books since my first year of college, 16 years of HP fandom here. Midnight releases, staying up all night to get onto Pottermore (the first time around), and so on.

So you can imagine I was excited to find a way to read the play I have no chance of getting to, not while it's only in England anyway. I love scripts anyway (used to read the Twilight Zone ones when I was a kid, heh) so this was a great experience for myself.

Or so I thought.

I've read better fan fiction, much better, in my time of being part of the fandom. Some parts had me cringing, and wanting to put the book down. I'm tough though, and trudged on through.

I can suspend a whole lot of belief, afterall, this carries on in a magical world, so I better be able to. But believing in the majority of the characters was near impossible. The opening with the Trolley Witch was particularly confusing, why is she suddenly some sort of demon? Why is Harry not just a jerk (not new), but flat out horrible at times? Did he never grow up? Apparently not. And suddenly Ron is an alcoholic, okay then.

The language of everyone seemed horribly wrong as well, what happened to the intelligent Hermione? I would have thought she'd have expanded her vocabulary as an adult. Why does Scorpius speak like he lives on reddit when he's not at Hogwarts? Not sure Draco would be happy with that.

Not to mention the weird sexual vibe between Albus and Scorpius the entire time, what was that about?

I finished it in a day (all dialogue, much quicker of a read), so at least it wasn't a week-long slog, but I wish I'd come out of it feeling like this really belonged in the Harry Potter world. Instead, I'm going to accept it for what it is, fan fiction that somehow got JK's blessing to become a play. That I'm not going to feel like I'm missing out on, at all.

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Review: Before I Go to Sleep

Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had this book recommended to me, and I'm glad I picked it up!

I actually could relate (not entirely, but enough that it made me feel less alone) to the main character, Christine, as I have memory problems myself, due to head trauma (though not the sort she had, I gave myself a concussion a few years ago, heh.)

It was interesting watching her learn about herself, and her life, as she read her journal entries from the days before the current one. I do this myself, though not in so much detail, so it was interesting to see how someone with total memory loss could benefit from this sort of thing.

Some of the plot twists were obvious, but the ones that surprised me REALLY shocked me. One, I was in mid-read when the phone rang (and I read at work, heh, so no avoiding it!) and I nearly yelled. I needed to know what was happening, and why! And how! AHH!!

It is an older book, but definitely worth hunting down for the read. Going to have to look into the author for more current reads!

It is a little bit confusing, with the flashbacks and journal entries, but I think that adds to the feel of the book, you start to get as backwards as Christine is at some points! At least, I did. Maybe that's due to my own memory issues? Heh.

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Review: The Grownup

The Grownup by Gillian Flynn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Looked for books recommended to people who liked The Girl on the Train and this popped up. I liked Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl so went for it.

At only 64 pages, I plowed through it in probably two hours, would have been faster if I'd not been reading between calls at work. ;)

You have an unnamed narrator, who is a scam artist by birth, essentially. Her mom taught her all she knows, and then she got better at it. At the start, she's a very specific sort of prostitute. She upgrades to a better position, a psychic, in her work place. It makes sense, I promise, if you read it.

In her new role, a woman comes to her and asks her for help at home... Psychic cleansing and the like. Which our narrator doesn't believe in, but she does as asked, and the money is good.

Things get really weird from there, and since it is a short story, I can't say too many details without basically giving it all away, but it is worthwhile of a read! Especially because, let's be honest, it's only 64 pages, not that hard to slough though if you decide it's not your style.

It was a bit strange reading it though, made me think of Neil Gaiman at first! Around the middle part is when it got back to Gillian's style, IMO.

Only four stars because of the ending. I swear this woman likes to drive me (and probably everyone else) insane with the way she does endings. Still good, just kind of infuriating!

Wouldn't mind a full novel of this though. Doubt it'll happen, but it'd be nice.

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Review: The Girl on the Train

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've had this on my "to read" list since the start of the year, and finally got a chance to give it a read! I'm glad I did!

Rachel is a basketcase, pure and simple. She's an alcoholic, divorced, and obsessed with her ex. She's lost her job, but continues riding the train into the big city every day, just to make it seem like she's not a jobless loser. Every day, she watches her old home, and the neighbours, fabricating the perfect life for them in her mind.

Anna is the new wife, and thinks she's queen of the universe, loving her life, her husband (that she got by running around with her husband when he was with Rachel) and their little girl.

Then there's Megan, whose life seems great, almost as good as Rachel's imagined life for her. Nothing is ever as good as it looks like from the outside though.

Megan turns up murdered, while cheating on her husband with her therapist. Rachel, wanting for feel important, pushes herself into the mystery, wanting to help, but mostly getting in the way. Anna gets more and more angry at the sight of the ex, invading her space.

The book switches from woman to woman, from present to past, which can get a bit confusing at times, but that was my only complaint.

I loved the mystery, as well as the writing. I truly hated Rachel though, but I think this was the writer's intent. She was pitiful and annoying, the sort of person that if I were Anna, I'd also want her to get away from me!

There are plenty of twists and turns, with not everything as it seems at any given point. Totally worth taking a few hours to read straight through, if you can get the time!

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Review: American Gods

American Gods by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was the sort of book that once I got into it, I couldn't put it down. We were actually doing a road trip while I had it in my hands, and I'm not a reading-while-riding type of person (car sickness, what a burden to the readers of the world) but I pushed on, during all the daylight hours we had, it was that good...
The story starts with a guy named Shadow, he's in jail for reasons that aren't too clear (a robbery gone wrong) but he's due to be released. Lucky for him, he gets released early, by a day. Unluckily, it's because his wife has died.

She doesn't stay dead though, through a pile of twists and problems.

Shadow meets a whole slew of people, who aren't quite what they seem. They are the old Gods, the ones that were important and worshipped, but not in America. They're fading, they're bored, they're trying to make a living. They were brought over by people who are long dead, and Shadow appearing in their lives is making things worth living for again.

The one who has found him, who offered him a so-called job, is Wednesday, an old guy with a glass eye, who clearly is one of them, but which one? And what is he planning?

The new gods, the ones who people worship in America (you know the ones, big TV, cars, the things that matter these days to most) are tired of the old gods trying to still be relevant.

A war is starting, has been on the edge of happening for a while, and somehow, Shadow, is at the middle of it, thanks to his boss putting him there.

All in all, it's a fun story, with twists and turns, and oddly familiar, with all of the gods that you've probably heard of at some point in time, along with some that had me curious as to who they were supposed to be.

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Review: Cruel Crown

Cruel Crown by Victoria Aveyard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First off, technically this is two novellas in one. Plus a bit of the second book in the Red Queen series, Glass Sword, which I read BEFORE this, and I kind of regret it.

The first mini novella is Queen Song, a look at Cal's mother, Coriane. I really enjoyed this story, even though it was so horribly sad.

In the main series, Coriane is shown as having been adored by all, loved by her king, the people, and so on. With some rumours that she wormed her way in, thanks to her power of being a Singer, someone who can get people to do what they want, with some "singing"...

We see her meet Cal's father, Tibe, and their friendship, which of course, ends up as a romance. She never thinks well of herself though, and I think if this book series were to take place in present time, she would have been diagnosed with depression, the poor girl.

We also see how she dies, though I don't want to spoil how it happens, it's very sad, for her and obviously for her son, whose life turns kind of awful for her lacking in it.

All in all, I was hoping to see something about her, and this satisfied the questions I had about Cal's mother. Sad as they may be.

The second novella included, Steel Scars, has a focus on Captain Farley!

This was where I was upset I'd already read Glass Sword, some people (no, not naming names) who died in the second book, are alive and well in Steel Scars, and it made me upset all over again, to see them living without a care, bah!

The pace also changed, and I'm not quite sure what happened. It dragged on, for the most part, until Farley meets up with someone (for the sake of spoilers, not naming names) that spices the whole party up. But that's about halfway through!

I understood the need for the military notes going back and forth, but I honestly mostly skimmed them, unless deaths were mentioned. They seemed out of place to me, especially since there was no explanation for how the correspondence was even happening!

In the end, it was interesting to see some of the behind the scenes work of the Scarlet Guard, but I'm glad it was just a mini novella, versus a whole novel worth!

I rated this 4 stars, but really, I'd have given Queen Song 5 stars, and Steel Scars 3 stars. 4 stars seems a fair trade off!

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