Dreamless - Josephine Angelini

Synopsis: As the only Scion that can enter Hades at will, Helen descends to the Underworld in search of a way to overcome the Furies and end the cycle of revenge that has cursed the Scions. But she’s running out of time. Each descent weakens her both in mind and spirit. A mysterious stranger might be her only salvation, but the price may be her love for Lucas Delos. 
As an unforgettable love triangle emerges, Josephine Angelini’s compelling saga becomes ever more intricate and spellbinding. The eagerly awaited sequel to the internationally bestselling Starcrossed, Dreamless delivers with a huge emotional impact that will leave readers satisfied—and longing for more. (From Goodreads)

I was a little worried about where book two in the Starcrossed series would go - Helen wandering around the Underworld, seemed like it could either be a little boring or hard to follow. Also, I was not happy when I heard about a second boy. I was also anxious because the end of Starcrossed left me ranting furiouly and working really hard not to throw things around my room. So, starting from that point was a little nerve wracking. Not to mention, Starcrossed was absolutely epic and I so didn't want to be let down by the second book.

I wasn't. It was just as epic (I use this word a lot when it comes to the Starcrossed series....), if not more so. Instead of solving Helen's problems from Starcrossed and making new ones arise, Josephine Angelini just made everything larger and more complicated. As much as I wanted resolution, I really appreciate this because it makes the book really feel like another installment in a story line, rather than a different adventure with the same characters. The best part was that these weren't just characters with connection to Greek mythology, but the structure of the story was shaped like a Greek epic. With all the revenge, tragedy, inappropriate relationships, and the fight against fate this story has gone beyond a modern re-telling and formed into it's own myth. In Josephine Angelini's world, I could totally see people telling the classic story of Helen and Lucas.

But to the love triangle, which was a huge concern of mine. I have to say that the new boy, Orion, totally surprised me. I was all set on disliking him, but he's kind of impossible not to like. And here is why I think he works: He's not just there to challenge Lucas or to make Helen conflicted. He's actually an important part of the story. Helen needs his help and the job that she's doing is crucial. So in the larger scheme of things, he needs to be a part of the story. And of course, Helen is supposed to be mirroring the life of Helen of Troy - and let's not forget the importance of the two different men in her life.

And if I thought Starcrossed got me all riled up, Dreamless was quite possibly even more emotional. Seeing all the deception and the unfairness of the roles these characters are forced into was difficult. Not to mention the Lucas/Helen thing was painful to read. This is one of those instances where I seriously wish I could transport myself into these pages and yell at everyone involved. I will say that if there's a flaw in this book though, there's definitely not enough Lucas. That was a bummer.

Josephine Angelini blew me away again with another novel full of amazing characters, a great story that seems to have a direct line to ancient Greece, and of course a myriad of emotions that range from devestation, to elation, from anticipation, to rage. I had reservations going into Dreamless but I don't have any concerns about the third book. I have complete faith that Angelini will deliver and the third book will solidify an - yes I'm going to say it again - epic series.

Blood Song - Rhiannon Hart

Synopsis: I wanted to turn but I was held captive by the song on the wind. I’m coming, I told the voices. Please, wait for me.
When her sister becomes betrothed to a prince in a northern nation, Zeraphina’s only consolations are that her loyal animal companions are by her side – and that her burning hunger to travel north is finally being sated.
Already her black hair and pale eyes mark her out as different, but now Zeraphina must be even more careful to keep her secret safe. Craving blood is not considered normal behaviour for anyone, let alone a princess. So when the king’s advisor, Rodden, seems to know more about her condition than she does, Zeraphina is determined to find out more. Zeraphina must be willing to sacrifice everything if she’s to uncover the truth – but what if the truth is beyond her worst nightmares? (From Goodreads)

I got off to a slow start with Blood Song. It starts out with Zeraphina at home in her run down castle in her freezing cold country. In the beginning all we know is that she craves blood, feels drawn to the North, and she has an overbearing mother and a pure white princess of a sister who is her exact opposite. But not much happens in the first few chapters other than travel arrangements to go to meet Zeraphina's sister's prince of a fiance.

The beginning feels a bit simplistic in both world building and character development. I don't think I connected with Zeraphina until much later in the book. Her mother didn't make a lot of sense to me because she's the queen of her country, she's the one in charge, yet all she worries about are dresses and the way her daughters present themselves. She's more of a Mrs. Bennet than a Queen Elizabeth and that felt a bit incongruous.  I actually think what kept me interested in the beginning were Zeraphina's animals - a cat named Leap and an eagle named Griffin that follow her around wherever she goes.

Things started getting more interesting once there was actual movement. But still it wasn't until the last 70 pages or so that I found I was really into the story. Most of what came before was Zeraphina trying to figure out who she is and what secrets the king's advisor, Rodden, is hiding. Yet once she actually ends up in the country to the north that she's felt so drawn to and finally learns everything things start getting really good.

It's near the end that this book really pulls out the fantasy adventure aspects and Zeraphina's personality is drawn out. The things people fear in the world are truly terrifying and the land they live in is dark but vivid. The concept behind her blood cravings turns out to be very interesting (and I was very happy that they weren't vampire things, they were just vampire-like). I also really like the idea that people just accept the way the world is, and have no idea that there is a force out there making it that way. And I love that when Zeraphina finds this out, she does something about it.

I actually felt like as I was reading, Rhiannon Hart was growing stronger as a writer. I felt like I was watching her own progression. So the beginning was a little weak, but by the end I was entranced. If I get the chance, I'll definitely pick up the second book in the series. Because, now that I know Zeraphina and Rodden a little better, I feel invested in what happens to them.

I'm so glad I got a chance to read this Australian book, so thanks so much to Dani @ Refracted Light for organizing the book tour!

The Princesses of Iowa - M. Molly Backes

Synopsis: What does it mean to do wrong, when no one punishes you? A smart and unflinching look at friendship, the nature of entitlement, and growing up in the heartland.
Paige Sheridan has the perfect life. She's pretty, rich, and popular, and her spot on the homecoming court is practically guaranteed. But when a night of partying ends in an it-could-have-been-so-much worse crash , everything changes. Her best friends start ignoring her, her boyfriend grows cold and distant, and her once-adoring younger sister now views her with contempt. The only bright spot isher creative writing class, led by a charismatic new teacher who encourages students to be true to themselves. But who is Paige, if not the homecoming princess everyone expects her to be? In this arresting and witty debut, a girl who was once high-school royalty must face a truth that money and status can't fix, and choose between living the privileged life of a princess, or owning up to her mistakes and giving up everything she once held dear. (From Goodreads)

This book is something special. As far as the plot goes, or even just looking at the synopsis, it doesn't seem out of the ordinary. It presents as your average popular girl gets a clue and finds that the meaning of life is being true to yourself and not who other people want you to be. But the way this story is told, the complexity of the situation, and the details make it stand out as a spectacular piece of young adult fiction.

Paige and her friends are dealing with the aftermath of a drinking and driving accident. Paige and her two best friends are basically royalty in town (thus, the title) so they're almost treated like tragic victims, rather than girls who made terrible decisions and caused an accident that was entirely their own fault. They get off easily, but they basically spend the entire book punishing themselves in little ways. Mainly, these three girls are struggling to remain friends, while they're simultaneously widening the gap between who they were before and who they've become. The way they begin to move on with out one another is painful, as it's clear each girl is dealing with the fall out, but at the same time it feels completely necessary.

It's pretty clear from the beginning that Paige is headed somewhere promising, but that the process is going to be painful and confusing. So the small threads that she begins to trace towards that outcome are highly encouraging. Those threads are the new people in her life - the people who just let her be who she is at that moment - they don't have expectations or illusions about who she's supposed to be. Even if Paige's developing relationships cause further problems - these relationships are worth it when they demonstrate what real friendship is.

Back to the things that are painful and confusing - you'd think that a car accident after drinking and driving would be the highest hurdle Paige would have to face. Yet, she winds up having to deal with more than her fair share of tough stuff. There's a lot of drinking, homophobia, a near sexual assault, and even just the verbal abuse that comes from Paige's friends and her own mother. Still, with the support of her new friends, she's able to put those things away where they can only work to make her stronger.

What makes this book extraordinary, though, is the creative writing teacher. He gives Paige and his students the TOOLS to deal with their hurt and anger. He teaches them to take those things and turn it into something productive. Paige begins dealing and moving on through writing. She's not a spectacular writer by any means and she's thoroughly afraid to show her writing, but just through the act of writing she's able to process and sort out the details and the feelings that stem from her past.

Further, this writing aspect that is at the heart of the novel is pulled off by Backes own extraordinary writing. She changes her writing style subtly, almost sneakily, to match what Paige is going through. The passage that sticks out is one where Paige is incredibly inebriated and the writing changes to reflect that. Everything that Paige feels is naturally transferred to the reader. Backes's incredible control over her narrative is so impressive. Between the amazing writing, the subject matter, and the way that the story goes straight to your heart, shakes everything up, and then sets up camp - this book is one of the greats. I've already gushed to my English teacher friends, and I think anyone who's either a teenager or deals with teenagers, or anyone who needs to believe in the power of words, needs to read this book.

Secondary Character Saturday (7)

I've started a new weekly meme here and I'd love for you to join me. Saturdays are now dedicated to honor the characters that don't always get their voices heard, who support (or work to destroy) our beloved protagonists. This is for the third wheel in the love triangle (can you have wheels on a triangle?), for the BFFs, the family members, or even just the kind and loving (or deceitful and creepy) stranger who shows up and changes the game. We all know these stories wouldn't hold up without support so I'd like to take the time to highlight the best secondary characters I come across. This is an opportunity to talk about what makes these characters special, maybe to speculate what their world would be like without them, or maybe cast them in their own primary roles. If you'd like to create a SCS post leave your link in the comments and I'll check it out!

So today it's all about:

Death from Bitterblue

Man alive, Kristin Cashore rocks my world. And there are so many characters I could choose from today. This isn't really a book about Bitterblue - it's a book about her kingdom and her world. Her world that is bursting with wonderful characters - each one down to the bridge architect, who doesn't even make a physical appearance on the page, is so well rounded. Each of these characters has their own story. Which, really, only works to make Bitterblue a more extraordinary character.

But, I chose to talk about Death (pronounced like "teeth" with a "d") today. There's a lot about the importance of literacy in this book. Bitterblue is dealing with the aftermath of her father's reign of terror, and a big part of that is giving power back to the people - a really difficult thing to do when very few people can read, and even those who can have limited access. Further, King Leck destroyed hoards of books and altered some. So this is where Death comes in. His grace is the one, out of all the graces I'm aware of, that I - nerdily - would covet the most. He can read quickly and remember everything forever.  Yeah, I want that.

But in the larger scheme of things, his grace and his determination make him one of the most important people in Monsea. Mostly because he is the only way everyone will remember. He's the only one who lived through the King Leck's reign, who had contact with King Leck, and who isn't dead, blocking out memories, or completely traumatized. He's confused and hurt, but he does everything he can to make sense of it. He's also taken on the enormous task of re-writing the books that King Leck destroyed. If all this isn't enough, he comes into play in a big way later on - which I won't talk about because it's a tad spoilery.

So yeah, he's incredibly crucial to Bitterblue's story, but he's also an endearing character. At first he's a cranky old, slightly creepy man who has an equally cranky and creepy cat. But as the story goes on, it turns out he's just been through a lot and has a huge responsibility - and his cat kind of becomes sweet too. Plus, he has this way of getting really excited, without showing too much excitement that made me grin.

Words are important, reading is important, books are important. Death personifies and amplifies that.

P.S. Those of you who've read Bitterblue - who was your favorite secondary character? I'd love to know, since there were so many great people to choose from!

Social Suicide - Gemma Halliday

Synopsis: Twittercide [twit-er-sahyd]: the killing of one human being by another while the victim is in the act of tweeting.
Call me crazy, but I figured writing for the Herbert Hoover High Homepage would be a pretty sweet gig. Pad the resume for college applications, get a first look at the gossip column, spend some time ogling the paper’s brooding bad-boy editor, Chase Erikson. But on my first big story, things went... a little south. What should have been a normal interview with Sydney Sanders turned into me discovering the Homecoming Queen-hopeful dead in her pool. Electrocuted while Tweeting. Now, in addition to developing a reputation as HHH’s resident body finder, I’m stuck trying to prove that Sydney’s death wasn’t suicide.I’m starting to long for the days when my biggest worry was whether the cafeteria was serving pizza sticks or Tuesday Tacos...(From Goodreads)

I absolutely loved Deadly Cool. It was smart and fun, and it felt like it was saying something very important. The ending totally snuck up on me, not only because the killer is revealed, but because I realized the book was a commentary on an important and relevant aspect of society. Plus, Hartley is one of those characters that you come to feel is one of your best friends by the time the story ends. So I was so excited for Social Suicide because I couldn't wait to see how it would surprise me, and I really missed the characters.

Hartley is still her sparkling self and Sam is still a great sidekick. Chase is still dreamy and he still has that little bit of an edge. And there's a whole new parade of high school students who each are wrapped up in their own dramas and schemes. I do think, minus the body count, Gemma Halliday does an excellent job of portraying snap shots of high school life - as far as I can tell anyway. There are a few issues raised, particularly the nature of cheating and the competition between teenagers. But I was a little disappointed that I didn't get that same dawning realization that there was something really important behind the drama and the humor. This book just didn't hold the same weight as Deadly Cool did.

My other disappointment was the lack of growth in the characters. While they've all gone through so much, they still seemed to be in pretty much the same place they were at the end of the first book. But, it's a good thing Hartley and her Scooby gang are so likeable. This really is a group of people I'd love to be friends with.

Even with these few minor short-comings, I still thoroughly enjoyed this sequel. It's a quick read and it's thoroughly entertaining. And while I know that if more people drop dead around Hartley, it's going to start being slightly more implausible, but I will definitely will keep reading if the series keeps going.

Intangible - J. Meyers

Synopsis: Twins Sera and Luke Raine have a well-kept secret—she heals with a touch of her hand, he sees the future. All their lives they’ve helped those in need on the sly. They’ve always thought of their abilities as being a gift. 
Then Luke has a vision that Sera is killed. That gift they’ve always cherished begins to feel an awful lot like a curse. Because the thing about Luke’s ability? He’s always right. And he can’t do anything about it. (From Goodreads)

I had no idea going in that this book included vampires and other paranormal creatures. I was a little worried once I found this out, because I've been disappointed by vampires more often than not. It turns out there are some interesting things surrounding the vampires, including where they live and I really appreciated that was allowed to be curious about them. Not to mention, for all the books that figure in the role of Lilith, this one actually spent quite a bit of time showing her and that was refreshing.

There were a lot of things going on in this book and the one I thought was most interesting was the budding relationship between Sera and Marc. Okay, let's face it, I wanted the romance, you can call me a cheeseball now. But it was interesting because Marc hears other people's thoughts and thinks his brain is diseased, and Sera is a healer. Marc was probably the most interesting character because he's struggling dealing with his demons and with trying to do the right thing, but he has some real obstacles that are trying to push him one way or another.

Now the twins. I loved Sera. I loved that she used her ability to heal whenever it was needed, even if it made her a little reckless about being discovered. She's just such a thoroughly good person. I think I would have loved Luke as much, but he didn't actually get much page time unless he was seeing Sera killed. It was clear they had a tight bond, but that wasn't always shown. They're also a part of this prophecy, which means they're in danger, but I'm still a little fuzzy on what the prophecy is.

I really enjoyed the first half of this book, but then my enjoyment ebbed a bit. This story is told from a lot of different points of view. Often having multiple voices tell a story can be beneficial and show different sides or angles to a story. But here, I think it really stood in the way of making me care about the main characters. I was curious to find out what happened to them, but I didn't care which way the story ended. In the end I had mixed feelings about this book. But, there is a short story prequel, Intuition, and maybe reading that would have helped the disconnect I felt.

Horse Camp - Nicole Helget and Nate LeBoutillier

Synopsis: When their mom said she was sending twelve-year-old Percy and Penny and their little brother, Pauly, to stay with an uncle they’d never met, she tried to make it sound better by saying that Uncle Stretch’s farm was a horse camp. Well, the farm animals are actually chickens and pigs, and the only two horses are mean-tempered and not too keen on being ridden by kids. As Penny puts it, “This farm is like the eighteenth century, but way worse! The water has a rusty taste, and all the meat used to be animals on the farm.” If there is one thing the twins can agree on, it’s that between endless chores, no Internet or cell phones, and the prospect that their mom might have to stay in jail (even though some people say she’s a hero), horse camp is a big, fat joke. Will they ever have a real family again? Or is there a family for them right here? (From Goodreads)

I generally don't read Middle Grade fiction and I make very few exceptions. However, I did get really excited about this one and I was very quick to read it once I got my hands on a copy. In my undergraduate days, I took Contemporary Fiction with Nicole Helget. And let me tell you what - this woman is brilliant. I learned more about writing in her fiction class than I did in any creative writing class I ever took. Honestly, I hated EVERY single book she picked for the class (Tomb for Boris Davidovich anyone? I read it four times and still didn't understand it. I could probably read it 80 times and not understand it), but I still loved going to that class and soaking up everything she had to say. Nicole Helget has also written a memoir, The Summer of Ordinary Ways, and a novel, The Turtle Catcher. Both are exceptional. Nate LeBoutillier is her husband and it was interesting to see what they came up with together.

I have to admit that reading her MG fiction after her adult novels was a little surreal. It was hard for me not to overlap her memoir with Horse Camp, but once I kind of got beyond that it was just a thoroughly enjoyable read. It's told from the point of view of twins who have been separated from their parents. There's a whole lot of family drama going down and the kids get shipped off to their uncle's farm. Not gonna lie, I didn't connect with Percy - I guess I just don't quite understand the psyche of the pre-teen boy. But I was delighted with Penny - she grew so much through the book. She was annoying and self-righteous, but by the end she'd become friendly and open minded.

But what I loved, was that I could totally see all these characters five years down the road. I actually spent time thinking about who Penny and Percy would be when they were 18. The farm seems to be constantly growing and it's so full of life. Between the setting and the characters, everything feels so real, I have no problem believing that Penny and Percy's lives go on. I believe that these characters grow up and fall in love and get in all kinds of trouble, but I believe that they will be happy.

After reading hordes of YA lit, it was refreshing to read an MG novel this vibrant. It's nice to see the possibilities of where my most beloved, slightly older, characters could have come from.