Eve - Anna Carey

Synopsis: Where do you go when nowhere is safe?
Sixteen years after a deadly virus wiped out most of Earth’s population, the world is a perilous place. Eighteen-year-old Eve has never been beyond the heavily guarded perimeter of her school, where she and two hundred other orphaned girls have been promised a future as the teachers and artists of the New America. But the night before graduation, Eve learns the shocking truth about her school’s real purpose—and the horrifying fate that awaits her.
Fleeing the only home she’s ever known, Eve sets off on a long, treacherous journey, searching for a place she can survive. Along the way she encounters Arden, her former rival from school, and Caleb, a rough, rebellious boy living in the wild. Separated from men her whole life, Eve has been taught to fear them, but Caleb slowly wins her trust . . . and her heart. He promises to protect her, but when soldiers begin hunting them, Eve must choose between true love and her life. In this epic new series, Anna Carey imagines a future that is both beautiful and terrifying. Readers will revel inEve’s timeless story of forbidden love and extraordinary adventure.


I read a blurb that states that Eve is a cross between The Hunger Games and The Handmaid's Tale, which naturally got me really excited. It's also, why I think I feel so let down. The book was compared with one epic dystopian novel and a more mature dystopian of high literary quality. I had extremely high expectations for Eve, and so I think I was disappointed that much more.


While this book surpasses Matched by Ally Condie, I had a similar reaction to Eve. It is such a great idea - there's so much you can do with a female character who's been taught that boys are evil and should be avoided at all costs and there's so much that can come out of women who are being raised solely to give birth to children. All the concepts are great, but in execution, Anna Carey falls a bit short.


I had some issues with how quickly the action in the novel went. Everything got kind of glossed over, things happened suddenly with little build up, and it was difficult to judge the emotional reactions of the characters. The way Eve finds out about her purpose in the government is unbelievable to me. One girl, who she seems to think is crazy, mentions that the school isn't preparing her to have a good job and suddenly Eve is questioning everything. That didn't make sense to me, because she's only known what she was taught, and one little question isn't going to make you re-examine your whole life. It's like I've been taught all my life that Pluto is a planet, I'm not going to stop believing that just because some people say, "Hey, you know what...it's not."


I had some issues trying to get a grasp on the exact state of the dystopian society that Eve was a part of. I get that men and women are meant to be raised separately and that women are meant to serve the purpose of making babies, but Eve ran away too quickly. I didn't get much of a sense for how the system operated. There's a king and then there are these, almost like reform schools for girls, and labor camps for boys - but what does everyone else do? What is the function? What is the society trying to achieve or repress? I didn't really get a great sense of that because in much of the book Eve is hanging out in deserted wilderness, only getting select information.


And that ending? If you've read the book, let me know what you thought. Because it kind of made me hate Eve (the character, not the book).


I'm willing to believe that some of the issues I had with this book will be resolved in the next two books - Eve is the beginning of a trilogy - but I haven't yet decided if I'll continue with the second book. The writing in this initial installment wasn't as rich as I would have hoped and it just didn't satisfy.

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted over @ The Broke and the Bookish

This weeks topic is: Top Ten Book I Wish I Could Read Again For the First Time

This week's topic is a little difficult, because I can't help but thinking of books I'd want to reread. The second time through a book is awesome because, English nerd that I am, I can see the tools and methods that authors use to come to a certain conclusion. Still, here are the books I'd love to be reading for the first time, mostly for the reactions they incited. 

1. Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

2. Starcrossed by  Josephine Angelini

3. The Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray - Although it's been so long since I've read them it would kind of be like reading them for the first time. 
4. Wildefire by Karsten Knight - This is one of those books I pass on and then every chance I get I have to ask whats' happening? do you love it? I definitely read vicariously through other's first readings. 
5. Hourglass by Myra McEntire
6. Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols
7. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins - or Lola for that matter. 
8. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
9. Awaken by Katie Kacvinsky - To an extent, this book is about experiencing things for the first time, so it seems right that it's on this list. 
10. Divergent by Veroncia Roth

Lola and the Boy Next Door - Stephanie Perkins

 

Synopsis: In this companion novel to Anna and the French Kiss, two teens discover that true love may be closer than they think. For budding costume designer Lola Nolan, the more outrageous, the outfit - more sparkly, more fun, more wild - the better. But even though Lola's style is outrageous, she's a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins move back into the house next door. When the family returns and Cricket - a gifted inventor and engineer - steps out from his twin sister's shadow and back into Lola's life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.

When I finished Lola, I had the goofiest grin on my face. I, just...ahhhhhh.
I loved Anna and the French Kiss. I read it twice, I loved it so much (there are too many books to read to be rereading, but Stephanie Perkins books are so worth reading more than once). I was so eager to get my hands on Lola, but I was a little nervous too. I always am when I get attached to one book an author has written. I get afraid that the next won't live up to the first and I'll be disappointed. However, I had faith and man, Perkins exceeded all my hopes for Lola.


I actually went into this book thinking - I'm sure it will be great, but it won't be able to replace Anna and St. Clair in my heart. And, Anna and St. Clair are still safely there, but Lola and Cricket have joined them. They're now currently duking it out for my favorite, because I'm going back and forth. Both pairs are just SO incredible. 


My other thought while reading Lola (apparently I'm taking you on my psychological journey as I read this book...) was - this is my life. AGAIN. Dear Stephanie Perkins, are you stalking me? I don't know how it's possible for one author to write two books, on two different continents, with two very different girls, who love two very different boys and still have both of them feel like they are ABOUT my life. Impressive. While I can't exactly relate to Lola's  need to dress in costume or her family life, I have had her feelings. I have been in her situations. I've had her thoughts. Although my Cricket wasn't as great as her Cricket (which is probably telling as to why my story didn't end like hers), I totally projected.


Again, I could talk about this book forever. In fact, if you want to gush about this book with me, gush away. I'll gladly geek out with you. But I'd like to mention one more thing that I freaking love about this book. One of the messgages I think Perkins is trying to get across is - If it's right, it's the easiest thing in the world to be with someone. Love shouldn't be hard. Obstacles are expected, but if you're with the right person you can get past them. Anna and St. Clair show up in Lola and demonstrate just this message. Happiness is easy when you are loving the right person.


So, I'm all swoony about this book. If you haven't read Anna and the French Kiss, you need to read that book as well. Don't let the covers or the titles fool you. These books have more substance than half the books on my shelf put together. Plus, they make me smile. A lot.  

Ashes - Ilsa J. Bick

Synopsis: An electromagnetic pulse flashes across the sky, destroying every electronic device, wiping out every computerized system, and killing billions.
Alex hiked into the woods to say good-bye to her dead parents and her personal demons. Now desperate to find out what happened after the pulse crushes her to the ground, Alex meets up with Tom—a young soldier—and Ellie, a girl whose grandfather was killed by the EMP.
For this improvised family and the others who are spared, it’s now a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human.

I've started to divide books by the ones I really didn't like, to the ones that were okay, to the ones that I am FREaking out about. And this one I'm freaking out about. Oh my goodness, there are so many ways this book is incredible. 

I'm going to start with the genre. This is a new one. I don't know where you'd place it. I'm kind of a dystopian-aholic. Can't get enough of the depressing, dark possible futures ahead of us. This book has a dystopian aspect, but it goes beyond that in an entirely new way. Ashes starts WITH the apocoalypse, turns the narrative into one of post-apocalyptic survival (fully loaded with awesome, but gruesome images of flesh eating zombies) and THEN it becomes dystopian as a civilization struggles to regain order. It was so cool to see how a dystopian society comes to be, where in many other novels in the genre, that part is just mentioned as a history or an explanation. 

So there's this really interesting idea of survival, that is to be expected in a book about the apocalypse, but Bick deals with it differently. Alex has a brain tumor and it's  unclear whether she had intended on surviving even before the EMP changes everything. It seems like she'd given up fighting and was resigned to death. Yet, she fights so hard for her life, as well as Tom and Ellie's lives, through the whole book. She isn't the only one who seemed like she'd given up on living, so it's definitely something Bick seems to be drawing reader's attentions to. What does it take for us to WANT to survive? Is it enough to have something worth fighting for, or do we have to have something that's fightable? 

And I'm adding Bick to an increasing list of authors who make me care about one character, replace him, and then make me care about his replacement. It's so frustrating! I am so convinced my feelings won't change, but then these authors go and make me all fluttery for - seemingly - the wrong character. I always feel like I've been manipulated -  which usually means the author is pretty talented to build the reader up only to shatter everything, then to build again. 

I could quite honestly write on and on about all the wonderful aspects of this novel. It has zombies, it has corruption, it has survival, it has family and love. It's everything you could ever want and more. If you want to live the zombie apocalypse, but don't want your insides eaten, read this story. You'll feel like you're there. When I finished the book I felt a little sick (but again, in a good way...this testifies to good writing - and Bick is incredible with images) and awestruck. The ending was quite a doozy, but it's the first installment in a trilogy and I can't wait to see what comes next. Because holy wow. This  book is incredible. 

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted over @ The Broke and the Bookish

This weeks topic is: Top Ten Book Endings That Left Me With My Mouth Hanging Open 

1. Wildefire by Karsten Knight - Seriously, whoa. Never have I needed a second book so badly.


2. Delirium by Lauren Oliver - ARRRGGHH. Not only did this ending leave me with my mouth hanging open, it also made me want to throw the book at my wall. 


3. Nightshade by Andrea Cremer - Thank goodness I read this one so close to the release of Wolfsbane.


4. Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini - At this point, I just really need to know that it's going to be okay. And that people will stop being idiotic and mean. (Man this list is hard because spoilers just want to vomit out of my mouth right now).


5. Going Bovine by Libba Bray - Well, the whole book kind of left my mouth hanging open - both because of it's craziness and awesomeness. The ending was no different.


6. Demonglass by Rachel Hall - Worst (also best...) place to end a book ever. She seriously just stopped in the middle of a scene. Mean. Mean. Mean. I need Spell Bound, like, now. 


7. 1984 by George Orwell - I think it was the first time I realized that there weren't always happy endings. 


8. City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare - The whole book was kind of slow for me, it felt like it was just meant to bridge the gap between book 3 and 5, but by the end I was freaking out. It was an effective bridge. 


9. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness -  The whole book had some kind of element of hope, but the ending was so surprising and devastating that it dashed all of it. Although, knowing it was the first in a trilogy helped....


10. Does smiling like an idiot for too long after a book ending count? If so I'm including Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins in here. 

Awesome Releases Today!

Today is another great day for book releases.
Check these highly-anticpated books out.


Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick

The noise between Patch and Nora is gone. They’ve overcome the secrets riddled in Patch’s dark past...bridged two irreconcilable worlds...faced heart-wrenching tests of betrayal, loyalty, and trust...and all for a love that will transcend the boundary between heaven and earth. Armed with nothing but their absolute faith in each other, Patch and Nora enter a desperate fight to stop a villain who holds the power to shatter everything they’ve worked for—and their love—forever.

Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon

Their love was meant to be.

When Megan Rosenberg moves to Ireland, everything in her life seems to fall into place. After growing up in America, she's surprised to find herself feeling at home in her new school. She connects with a group of friends, and she is instantly drawn to darkly handsome Adam DeRÍs.

But Megan is about to discover that her feelings for Adam are tied to a fate that was sealed long ago—and that the passion and power that brought them together could be their ultimate destruction.

Eve by Anna Carey

Where do you go when nowhere is safe?

Sixteen years after a deadly virus wiped out most of Earth’s population, the world is a perilous place. Eighteen-year-old Eve has never been beyond the heavily guarded perimeter of her school, where she and two hundred other orphaned girls have been promised a future as the teachers and artists of the New America. But the night before graduation, Eve learns the shocking truth about her school’s real purpose—and the horrifying fate that awaits her.

Fleeing the only home she’s ever known, Eve sets off on a long, treacherous journey, searching for a place she can survive. Along the way she encounters Arden, her former rival from school, and Caleb, a rough, rebellious boy living in the wild. Separated from men her whole life, Eve has been taught to fear them, but Caleb slowly wins her trust . . . and her heart. He promises to protect her, but when soldiers begin hunting them, Eve must choose between true love and her life.

In this epic new series, Anna Carey imagines a future that is both beautiful and terrifying. Readers will revel inEve’s timeless story of forbidden love and extraordinary adventure. 

Tris & Izzie - Mette Ivie Harrison

Synopsis: Izzie loves Mark, and why shouldn’t she? As the captain of the basketball team, he is kind and loving and he’s everything she’s ever wanted in a boyfriend. Her BFF loves . . . somebody, but she won’t say who. So when a hot new guy, Tristan, shows up at school, who better for Izzie to fix up her friend[LL1]  with? And what better way to do it than with a love philtre?
But even the best of magic has a way of going awry—and Izzie finds she’s accidentally fallen in love with Tristan herself. And that’s a problem. First of all, there’s Mark. Second, Tristan comes with baggage—like the supernatural creatures that keep attacking whenever he’s with Izzie, and the fact that he comes from the place where Izzie’s father was killed, years ago, by an enormous, evil serpent that’s still around—and it knows Izzie is out there


Oh man. I hate giving bad reviews. I mean, every time I have to write one it takes me ages because I end up tring to go back over the book looking for anything positive I can say to counter my negative comments on the book. I end up staring at my wall, making coffee, heck, right now I'm even considering grading papers. Anything to avoid this: I did not like this book. 


I'm going to be honest, because I said I'd give honest reviews, and say I think this book missed it's mark. The modern day telling of Tristan and Isolde got me so excited. I love that story and the possibilites are wonderful. I was disappointed from page one and I kept hoping for redemption, but it never came. 


I didn't care for Izzie, I found her very shallow and not very intelligent. Even her sudden love for Tris didn't feel real, and it should, it's meant to be a classic love story. She didn't even know him, he hadn't said more than three words to her before she was throwing around the "L" word. Then there's this whole plot story with Izzie's best friend and her boyfriend that just felt overly dramatic and unreal. 


Furthermore, the narration was juvenile. The plotline is reliant on magic - Izzie's mom is a witch and her dad had some kind of elemental power. Yet, none of this "magic" is explained. It's refered to in terms and potions, but no real description of what this meant or where this magic comes from - how they came to be a part of a magical community. And the villain. I won't tell you about the villain in case you do read it and want to be suprised - I was suprised. And not in a good way. The villain had no real substance - even the power driving him had little substance. He felt like he was meant to be the pawn of an evil entity, but not the villain himself.


Now that I've got that all out, I have to draw back a bit. It could be entirely possible that this is one book that is beyond my reach because it's not meant for my age group. I'm curious (as I always am when I dislike a novel) what others found enjoyable about this particular book. Please, let me know your thoughts. I just really think this book wasn't for me and I was entirely disappointed.