Penemuel (Pen) fell from grace over a millennium ago, yet there are still times she questions her decision to follow her twin brother, Azael, to Hell. Now that the archangel Michael has returned, threatening Lucifer’s vie for the throne, she begins questioning everything she has always believed.

As Hell prepares for war – spreading a demonic virus and pilfering innocent souls to build an army – the lines separating the worlds blur. Fates erase and the future is left unwritten. Azael is determined that he and his sister will continue to serve as demons together, but for the first time in her life, Pen is not ruled by destiny. She has the freedom of choice.

With choice comes sacrifice, and Pen must decide which side she’s willing to risk everything fighting for: the light, or the dark.

Details can make or break a book. Depending on the reader, some details will work and some won’t. Unfortunately for me, Ignite was full of details that just didn’t click together.

The entire premise is based around a looming war between Heaven and Hell, angels and demons. Our main character is one such demon, formerly an angel before she fell, named Penemuel. Pen is now set with the task of killing and collecting souls for Hell for the upcoming battles with her twin brother Azael. However, from the beginning we can see that Pen isn’t really feeling the whole “soul reaping demon” thing anymore, at least not as much as she thinks she should be, so clearly during the course of the novel she’s going to face hard decisions about who she wants to be.

I can understand that, as it is a young adult book, it needs to be easily marketable to young adults and therefore the characters need to be appealing to teens. But it’s severely distracting when a millenia old demon not only appears to be just sixteen physically, but also acts like a sixteen year old girl. There’s a scene with a lake and her intended love interest and all the awkwardness and “tee hee oh goodness he’s shirtless!” of taking your clothes off in front of someone of the opposite sex that felt like it would have fit in better in a contemporary novel than it did this.

These are really old characters, and inhuman characters at that. Why would they care about getting down to their knickers in front of each other? On top of that, why would the demons or angels have a concept of age like the humans do? They live for so long, why would they care about keeping track of how old they look, enough to put it into concepts and words like “sixteen”?

Teens are better readers than some give them credit for. They aren’t going to be disinterested in a story just because the main characters are inhuman and act like it; a lot of them are probably going to be very fascinated by an inhuman main character who acts like an actual otherworldly being. I know I would have been at sixteen, and I still am at twenty one.

There’s also another scene where Pen has to perform CPR on someone. This scene was so jarring it took me right out of the novel, because why would a demon know CPR? They don’t need to breathe and they have no working hearts. Where would she have learned it from? Why would she have thought it important enough to consider it not only useful, but necessary to learn in case she might need it some day? She hangs out with other demons and not humans, unless she’s planning on killing them, in which case the CPR really isn’t going to be of use in that situation. It was just beyond ridiculous.

Added to that, Pen and Azael are two of the snarkiest characters I’ve read about, and that is not a compliment. While we do get a break from the snark occasionally, it’s just so overused and poured on that I got tired of it really quick. Snark is only effective and funny if it’s used sparingly.

Eventually, while I did try to keep with the novel if, I decided I just didn’t care enough to continue. I will say that the technical writing it self, at least, wasn’t awful. It wasn’t anything stunning, but there were occasional moments of nice description and it was easy to read.

But honestly, the CPR thing killed it for me. As I said, small details can make or break a novel, and that one broke Ignite for me.

Ailsbet loves nothing more than music; tall and red-haired, she’s impatient with the artifice and ceremony of her father’s court. Marissa adores the world of her island home and feels she has much to offer when she finally inherits the throne from her wise, good-tempered father. The trouble is that neither princess has the power–or the magic–to rule alone, and if the kingdoms can be united, which princess will end up ruling the joint land? For both, the only goal would seem to be a strategic marriage to a man who can bring his own brand of power to the throne. But will either girl be able to marry for love? And can either of these two princesses, rivals though they have never met, afford to let the other live?

In a kingdom called Rurik lives the Princess Ailsbet, daughter of the cruel King Haikor. Haikor has decreed that taweyr, the magic of men, war and death, is more important than the magic of women, neweyr, which can grow plants and help livestock. Haikor keeps the taweyr strong in his kingdom while eliminating the neweyr, and his kingdom (and its inhabitants) are suffering for it.

Ailsbet is unweyr, so she’s left to focus on her one passion: music. However, when she finds out that she may not be unweyr at all and learns of a prophecy that could save both Rurik and the distant kingdom of Weirland, she has to choose between avoiding her father’s wrath and keeping to her own passions, or possibly saving both the kingdoms and the magic in the land.

Princess Marlissa (or Issa for short) lives in Weirland, and likewise has an interest in the prophecy. When the chance arrives for her to be able to make it come true, she decides with some reluctance to take it. Forced to live in a land with an overabundance of taweyr and little to no neweyr, which she has plenty of, Issa must learn to survive in the dangerous court of King Haikor while giving away no hint of her intention to bring both magics together again, as they once were.

When I saw The Rose Throne up on NetGalley, I jumped on the chance to read it. Despite the fact that Harrison’s last venture (Tris & Izzy) wasn’t up to par, I remember loving her Princess and the Hound series when I read it a few years ago. I hoped I’d love The Rose Throne the same way.

Alas, it was not meant to be.

Harrison introduces a lot of interesting conflict in the second chapter, but she never delivers on it. I get that the book is a fantasy romance novel with a much heavier emphasis on the romance. But honestly, if you don’t intend to follow up with the consequences of what the characters did, maybe you should take out those elements altogether. When I finished the book, I literally sat there for a moment, thinking “That was it? That was your ending?”*

Most of the interesting conflict and other elements are brushed over in favour of the romance. Sadly, that falls incredibly short as well. I did not care whether or not Issa and Kellin got together, or the drama surrounding how they could never be together. I was more interested in both girls finding some way to fulfill the prophecy, except that they never do. They take the prophecy at face value and don’t stop to consider that maybe there’s another way to read it. Therefore, most of the novel is just them standing around trying to avoid Haikor’s cruelty and survive in his court. That kind of tension can only carry a novel so far.

There’s also a huge problem I’ve begun noticing in Harrison’s writing. She writes in a very detached, passive voice. There’s little to no internalization or introspection of events where the girls are concerned. A character close to Ailsbet dies, and she literally has one short paragraph dedicated to Ailsbet’s reaction to her death before Ailsbet goes off thinking about politics in the next paragraph. This character’s death is barely brought up again, and we don’t see Ailsbet’s emotions to it again either. Even if Ailsbet and this particular character weren’t overly close, I still think there should have been more of a reaction past a small cry.

Therefore, I had trouble connecting to any of the characters or caring about their problems. If they apparently don’t care enough, why should I?

Truthfully, I only kept reading to see how the prophecy would come into play and how Issa and Ailsbet would set things to right again. Sadly, that never happened, because it was apparently more important that we focus on Issa’s angst over never being with Kellin and the romance than attempting to save an entire kingdom. I’m not against flawed characters or even selfish characters, but Ailsbet and Issa never progress past what they are in the beginning. They stay stagnant and selfish, and it was bitterly disappointing to see them make the choices they do in the end.

I mention some pretty heavy spoilers in the next bit, so scroll by if you don’t want to see!

In the ending, Issa brings some neweyr back to Rurik and then immediately leaves for Weirland again, after promising Kellin they’d be together one day. Ailsbet likewise leaves for another kingdom. Haikor still lives and both girls legitimately do not care that he will continue to make Rurik suffer after they’re gone, or that they’ve left the throne without an heir, or that Edik, Ailsbet’s thirteen year old brother, was killed by Haikor for standing up for his sister.

But hey, who cares about a dead thirteen year old boy or a possible civil war when Issa has the possibility of getting together with Kellin one day, eh? Or that Ailsbet can focus solely on her music instead of taking up responsibility and doing something to save her kingdom? Clearly that’s not important at all.

End spoilers!

Overall, I wish I could have loved The Rose Throne. It had the bare bones of everything I love in a story, but the narrative choices that were made, the writing style and the characters kept me from liking it. I still have hope Harrison can recreate the magic that I saw in the Princess and the Hound series, but I’ll be more hesitant to try her works in the future.

I haven’t been reading prose lately but I have been reading a lot of manga and comics, so here’s three I have been devouring.

Cardcaptor Sakura
CLAMP
Dark Horse

Fourth grader Sakura Kinomoto finds a strange book in her father’s library — a book made by the wizard Clow to store dangerous spirits sealed within a set of magical cards. But when Sakura opens it up, there is nothing left inside but Kero-chan, the book’s cute little guardian beast . . . who informs Sakura that since the Clow cards seem to have escaped while he was asleep, it’s now her job to capture them!

When I was younger I watched the (Australian edit of the) English-language dub of Cardcaptor Sakura (retitled Cardcaptors), not realising the differences between the original anime and the dub. Fortunately the Australian edit was nowhere near as heavily edited as the American version, but there were still some major differences such as the removal of certain relationships. So when I saw that Dark Horse had released four omnibi editions collecting the whole series (and they were on sale at my local con for an amazing price) I knew I had to get them.

It was very much worth it. The art is spectacular, especially with the inclusion of full-colour prints in each omnibus, and the story is funny, exciting and heart-warming in the greatest combination. While I can’t vouch for the quality of the translation, the English writing is great, with distinctive voices for each character.

The one thing that keeps me from really loving the series is CLAMP’s fondness for student-teacher relationships. A 16 year old marrying her student teacher is one thing. A teacher giving his ten year old student an engagement ring and their scenes together being drawn as all sparklysparklylookhowromantic is BIG NO territory. So there’s your warning.

Ouran High School Host Club
Bisco Hatori
Viz Media

One day, Haruhi, a scholarship student at exclusive Ouran High School, breaks an $80,000 vase that belongs to the “Host Club,” a mysterious campus group consisting of six super-rich (and gorgeous) guys. To pay back the damages, she is forced to work for the club, and it’s there that she discovers just how wealthy the boys are and how different they are from everybody else.

I actually reviewed the first volume of Ouran High School Host Club for the previous incarnation of On The Nightstand, when the people at Simon & Schuster UK were kind enough to send me first volumes of a few series. At the time I thought OHSHCOuran High School Host Club was okay and just perhaps not my thing.

Recently, though, a friend lent me a whole bunch of DVDs including the OHSHCOuran High School Host Club anime. One night I was bored and decided “Why not?” I adored the anime and it was no hard choice to give the manga another go. And this time I loved OHSHCOuran High School Host Club, especially now that I was more familiar with shoujo manga as a whole to really recognise the tropes that Bisco Hatori was satirizing.

I’m now five volumes of OHSHCOuran High School Host Club in and loving it. It’s funny, it’s cute, it’s genderbending and so much more. Now to get my hands on the next 13 volumes…

The Young Protectors
Alex Woolfson (writing), Adam DeKraker (art), Veronica Gandini (colours)
AMW Comics

The Young Protectors: Engaging the Enemy tells the story of how Kyle—a closeted, young superhero dedicated to helping everyone but himself—ascends to become one of the most powerful champions the world has ever known.

But no one ever said becoming a real hero would be easy.

The story begins with Kyle finally summoning the courage to enter a local gay bar. It’s his very first step towards accepting himself. Unfortunately for him, his very next step out of the bar places him face-to-face with The Annihilator, “the most dangerous supervillain in the world.” And the price that The Annihilator demands to keep Kyle’s secret will lead Kyle down a path fraught with danger, adventure and unexpected romance. It’s a path that will force Kyle to question what it really means to be a hero and will ultimately thrust him and his young teammates into an epic conflict against vastly superior foes.

A young superhero is caught coming out of a gay bar by a supervillain. Romance ensues.

While it was that premise that got me to take a look, it was the funny, romantic and exciting writing brought to life by great art and colours that made me stay. The Young Protectors: Engaging the Enemy is just about everything I love about comics… and everything I hate about (web)comics. Why do I have to wait another week for the next page?

While the encounters between the romantic leads is great to watch, it’s also fun to watch the way the team (oh, Spooky Jones!) interact with each other. They’re also ethnically diverse, which is something too often missing in superhero comics. One downside is that, while I love Commander and the Platinum Priestess, it would be great if the comic could pass the Bechdel Test and have more than just these two female characters. I will happily take Commander and Priestess having a yarn, though. Very happily.

Just so you know: The Young Protectors can be a bit racy at times (the entire first interlude is the team discovering X-rated fanart of themselves, for example, and some of the kissing may result in spontaneous combustion) and there is quite the age gap between our romantic leads. Also, that is not a helmet, that is Annihilator’s hair. I thought I’d mention that now, before you start to wonder.

While you can read The Young Protectors for free online, there is currently a Kickstarter to bring the first volume to print. I’ve already backed it, as I am an Upstanding Citizen, and I hope that if you love it that you will do the same.

And there you have it! My first three flash reviews. If you’ve read any of the above (or go off and do it because of this post) let me know what you think!

In Viking times, Norse myths predicted the end of the world, an event called Ragnarok, that only the gods can stop. When this apocalypse happens, the gods must battle the monsters–wolves the size of the sun, serpents that span the seabeds, all bent on destroying the world.

The gods died a long time ago.

Matt Thorsen knows every Norse myth, saga, and god as if it was family history–because it is family history. Most people in the modern-day town of Blackwell, South Dakota, in fact, are direct descendants of either Thor or Loki, including Matt’s classmates Fen and Laurie Brekke.

However, knowing the legends and completely believing them are two different things. When the rune readers reveal that Ragnarok is coming and kids–led by Matt–will stand in for the gods in the final battle, he can hardly believe it. Matt, Laurie, and Fen’s lives will never be the same as they race to put together an unstoppable team to prevent the end of the world.

Unlike some other Norse myth books I’ve read, I actually did enjoy the exploration of the myths and the expansion of them in this book. Some things could have been better–saying that Loki and Thor weren’t friends in the myths when, actually, a large part of the time they were–but overall it fared better than some other books I’ve read in the past.

Unfortunately, there was a lot here that was bad otherwise. The biggest complaint I have is that the writing just got downright stupid at times. There’s a part in the beginning of the book where the three main characters all fight a pack of wolves, and then a tornado touches down and comes right for them, and yet they keep fighting each other. Outside. In the open, on a piece of flat land.

I honestly do not understand the point of this scene at all. It was already tense because the characters weren’t quite so evenly matched in terms of strength or numbers with the wolves; why add in a tornado? It just made everyone seem incredibly stupid, and I had to put the book down for a second to go, “Wow, really?” There’s also the fact that, at times, everything seemed just a little too easy for the kids, especially when it came to avoiding law enforcement.

I also had a hard time reading the main characters as thirteen year olds. A lot of the time they spoke, thought and acted like they were much older; I kept thinking they were sixteen, not thirteen. Other than that, the characters were the main reason I kept reading. They were actually likable, and I rooted for them even when the plotline got silly.

The writing was more or less easy to read, but at times it bludgeoned me with how the characters were feeling. They stated it outright in their narration, and it felt a lot like it was telling me instead of showing me how they felt. I don’t need to be told that two characters are sort of friends now after traveling for a bit, I could tell on my own by how they spoke to each other with more respect than they initially did. Honestly, the writing felt dumbed down at times, and I hate to think it’s because the book is written for a younger audience.

I wish I could have liked Loki’s Wolves more than I did, but honestly, I’ll still probably read the sequel just to see where it goes. I did appreciate the treatment of the myths and the world building, and the characters, so I may overlook the occasional eyeroll worthy moment for the next few books.
 

You wake upon the cold ground. As you struggle to rise, as your breath exhales like a ghost, you know only two things: You can’t remember who you are. And you’re being hunted.

No one sleeps in Abeo City. The lost souls gather indoors at night as Snatchers tear through the sky on black-feathered wings, stalking them. But inside the rotting walls of the Safe Houses comes a quieter, creeping danger. The people of Abeo City have forgotten their pasts, and they can trade locks of their hair to sinister women known only as the Sixers for an addictive drug. Nox will give you back a single memory–for a price.

Like the other lost souls, Lottie wakens in this harsh landscape and runs in terror from the Snatchers. But she soon comes to realize that she is not at all like the people of Abeo City. When she takes Nox, her memories remain a mystery, and the monsters who fill the sky at night refuse to snatch her. Trying to understand who she is, and how she ended up in such a hopeless place, Lottie bands together with other outcasts, including a brave and lovely girl named Charlie. In the darkness, and despite the threat of a monstrous end, love begins to grow. But as Lottie and Charlie plot their escape from Abeo City, Lottie’s dark secrets begin to surface, along with the disturbing truth about Twixt: a truth that could cost her everything.

Twixt is a moving, beautifully told tale about redemption and whether one can ever truly be beyond hope of said redemption. Diemer has definitely developed and improved her writing since The Dark Wife. Not to say the aforementioned novel is bad, because it certainly isn’t, but there’s a marked difference in how that novel read compared to this one, and it’s all an improvement.

At the core of the story is a mystery, or actually several. Who is the girl who woke up in the snow, covered in blood? Where did she come from? Why can’t she remember her past, even with the help of something to remind her? How does Abeo City operate, what are the creatures who terrorize the City and snatch away its residents, where do they take them?

All of these questions are answered in time, and the way Diemer builds upon the mystery and delivers the answers is especially satisfying. This is due also to the terrific world building in the novel. It’s honestly some of the most creative world building I’ve seen. There are so many layers to Abeo City and its residents and creatures that I’m still thinking about the world a week after I’ve finished the book.

Added to that, Diemer manages to capture a great atmosphere in her writing about Abeo City. There’s always a steady sense of unease present in the text, even when the characters are happy, and the City is incredibly creepy.

Granted, it is a little easy to guess what exactly Abeo City is after a while. But for the most part, Diemer keeps the reader guessing, and the eventual reveal of what the City is and how it came to be more than made up for how obvious it was where the characters are.

If there were any downside to the novel, it’s that the main couple do veer perilously close to insta-love. Diemer, for the most part, avoids it a little by having there be a mutual attraction instead of immediate love. But it does progress at a fast rate, due to the short length of the novel. Still, the relationship was sweet, and I also enjoyed Lottie’s relationships with the rest of the cast, who all get their moments to shine.

This book reminded me of why Diemer is one of my favourite authors, and why I’ll read anything she puts out. She’s just so good, and her stories are always wonderful. Twixt is no different.
 

After a string of devastating hurricanes and a severe outbreak of Delta Fever, the Gulf Coast has been quarantined. Years later, residents of the Outer States are under the assumption that life in the Delta is all but extinct… but in reality, a new primitive society has been born.

Fen de la Guerre is living with the O-Positive blood tribe in the Delta when they are ambushed. Left with her tribe leader’s newborn, Fen is determined to get the baby to a better life over the wall before her blood becomes tainted. Fen meets Daniel, a scientist from the Outer States who has snuck into the Delta illegally. Brought together by chance, kept together by danger, Fen and Daniel navigate the wasteland of Orleans. In the end, they are each other’s last hope for survival.

Review: Some readers may be unsatisfied with the open ending and the fact there are no real answers provided by the end, but the world building and characters more than make up for it. Fen is an awesome leading lady, and the fact that romance plays no part of her character arc but her platonic/familial love for others does is something that’s been sorely missing in YA for a long time now.

Seriously recommended for anyone looking for a well done apocalyptic YA story.

St. Petersburg, 1917. After Rasputin’s body is pulled from the icy waters of the Neva River, his eighteen-year-old daughter, Masha, is sent to live at the imperial palace with Tsar Nikolay and his family. Desperately hoping that Masha has inherited Rasputin’s healing powers, Tsarina Alexandra asks her to tend to her son, the headstrong prince Alyosha, who suffers from hemophilia. Soon after Masha arrives at the palace, the tsar is forced to abdicate, and the Bolsheviks place the royal family under house arrest. As Russia descends into civil war, Masha and Alyosha find solace in each other’s company. To escape the confinement of the palace, and to distract the prince from the pain she cannot heal, Masha tells him stories—some embellished and others entirely imagined—about Nikolay and Alexandra’s courtship, Rasputin’s exploits, and their wild and wonderful country, now on the brink of an irrevocable transformation. In the worlds of their imagination, the weak become strong, legend becomes fact, and a future that will never come to pass feels close at hand.

Review: A little messy and all over the place, jumping between time periods in no real order, but I did manage to get sucked into the writing and the stories Masha told. I also enjoyed the different viewpoint of Rasputin, as Masha had a very positive opinion of her father. The romance was a little uncomfortable as one of the people involved is only thirteen, and it could have done without a lot of the sex at the end, but overall I still liked it well enough.

Scrap
Emory Sharplin
Green Leaf Book Group
May 2013
eARC provided by NetGalley for review

On the brutal streets of Hellip, a village in the vast empire of the cruel King Ibis, you either become good at running from the king’s Blackcoats or you die. This is the lesson that twelve-year-old Tucker Scrap, abandoned as an infant among the orphans of Hellip, learned early. Along with her friends Ash and Kally, Tucker spends her time keeping one step ahead of the unjust laws, stealing what she needs to survive, and pondering her own unknown origins—and those of the enchanted bracelet with which she was found.

Now, both Ash and Kally have vanished from the orphanage, perhaps headed for the faraway city where Ibis still rules. When a mysterious girl named Vivian arrives in Hellip with a strange invitation to Tucker, the leader of the orphans decides that this may be her opportunity to find her missing friends. But more than this: it may become an opportunity to recover her hidden inheritance, and to change the fate of an entire kingdom.

Review: I gave it a chance, but from the start I wasn’t overly wild about the writing style. Overuse of exclamation points, an irritating main character who is ~oh so special~, and some pretty basic world building.

But worst of all… a flashback to a near rape scene that Tucker goes through, just to show off how awesome she is and how she isn’t like her slutty prostitute friend Kally. Tucker chuckles at this memory of nearly being raped and fighting off her attacker at thirteen years old.

Sorry, no. Dropped it like a hot potato after that and feel no desire to pick it back up. Just because you can include a scene like that to show how dark or how tough your main character is doesn’t mean you should. Rape and attempted rape should never be used as a basic device to show something off.

]]> http://onthenightstand.net/2013/06/flash-reviews-1/feed/ 0 http://onthenightstand.net/2013/06/blog-tour-review-the-art-of-love-by-anne-whitney/ http://onthenightstand.net/2013/06/blog-tour-review-the-art-of-love-by-anne-whitney/#comments Mon, 10 Jun 2013 20:49:46 +0000 Miranda http://onthenightstand.net/?p=2435

Marina Phillips has spent her entire life as her father’s victim. But enough is enough. All it took was one moment of realization to send her fleeing across the country into the unknown of New York City with no plans and no money. A new life without the constant torture is all she wants, but what she finds waiting is something she never expected.

Fitz is New York’s premiere playboy artist. Sexy, tattooed, and coveted by women and men alike, his performances are heralded as the coming of a new god of modern art. But when Marina wanders into his show, she becomes the inadvertent piece he’s always waited for – a girl to sculpt, to change, and to craft in his own image.

She never expects to fall head over heels into the world of parties, drag queens, agents, and artists craving for her and her benefactor. She didn’t even expect to begin falling in love with someone like Fitz, the sexy, pretentious man of her nightmares.

Above all, Marina never expects her father to stage a cross-country mission to paint her as a kidnapped girl taken by a psychopath.

With her life on the line, Marina has no choice but to accept Fitz’s proposal – change everything she is, inside and out, for the chance to start anew. But Marina has plans of her own. Plans that will rock her world forever.

Title: The Art of Love
Author: Anne Whitney
Genre: Contemporary Romance New Adult

Publisher: Anne Whitney
Pages: 216 ebook
Copy Origin: Review copy provided by the author.

I’m apparently one of the few people who thinks New Adult has a lot of potential to be legitimately good. I realize that a lot of people who dislike NA have read a lot of really bad NA titles, and unfortunately there do seem to be a lot of bad outweighing the good in that instance.

The Art of Love is one of the good. It’s everything NA wishes it could be, and what it should be.

The biggest praise I have is that Fitz is not a romanticized abusive “bad boy”. He’s a little strange, sure, but he’s a normal dude who loves art and actually listens when a woman says “no” and respects her choices. Shocking, I know. It’s sad how I feel that I have to praise this as something noteworthy, but there it is. It’s also refreshingly honest, tackling the idea of love at first sight more often than not being lust at first sight instead.

Marina starts off as the typical YA/NA lead girl, who thinks poorly of herself and her looks, but there are actual legitimate reasons for her to behave and think this way. She’s not some middle class privileged girl being made to think she’s ugly so she’s relatable to the reader; she has a history to back this up, and her struggles at overcoming it were painfully well written. There were times when the book told us instead of showed us her past, but thankfully they were very few.

But better than that, Marina has actual character growth and development. She changes from who she starts off as in the beginning, though she doesn’t completely recover all in one fell swoop. She grows, but she still has a lot of growing left to do by the end of the book. This is such a breath of fresh air compared to what we usually get in a book like this.

And while there are a lot of hormones raging and lust and sexy thoughts, the sex isn’t the major focus of the book unlike a lot of other NA. It really is more interested in Marina’s journey and her struggles to find herself, as well as her relationships with not just Fitz but her new friends in New York City, too.

There were some scenes and characters that felt a little tacked on–a guy Fitz is apparently rivals with has a scene that adds nothing to the overall plot of the book, as another character ends up being the one to drive the conflict in the end–but they don’t really detract from the book.

That being said, the conflict was a little weak and forced. I had a hard time believing no one thought of making one little call to resolve the issue, instead of trying to disguise Marina and obviously setting up the end of the book. But I’m willing to overlook that in favour of everything else this book does right.

I’m really happy I read The Art of Love, and I’m very much looking forward to whatever else Anne Whitney has to offer in the future.

 

AmazonSmashwords

]]> http://onthenightstand.net/2013/06/blog-tour-review-the-art-of-love-by-anne-whitney/feed/ 4 http://onthenightstand.net/2013/04/review-breadcrumbs-by-anne-ursu/ http://onthenightstand.net/2013/04/review-breadcrumbs-by-anne-ursu/#comments Tue, 09 Apr 2013 20:21:29 +0000 Miranda http://onthenightstand.net/?p=2425

Once upon a time, Hazel and Jack were best friends. But that was before he stopped talking to her and disappeared into a forest wth a mysterious woman made of ice. Now it’s up to Hazel to go after him. Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen,” BREADCRUMBS is a story of the struggle to hold on, and the things we leave behind.

Title: Breadcrumbs
Author: Anne Ursu
Genre: Urban Fantasy/Fairytale retelling Middle Grade

Publisher: Walden Pond Press
Pages: 320 Paperback
Copy Origin: Copy provided by the publisher

This had been on my wishlist for a long while, so when I saw that the publisher was giving away free copies, I jumped right on the chance to get one. I’m so, so glad I read it.

Hazel, while a deeply flawed character, was still likeable and one you could root for. Her friendship with Jack was sweet, and the pain of them both drifting away (albeit by supernatural influences) was heart wrenchingly accurate. I teared up twice at this novel, once in part one and another in part two, simply because of the beautiful friendship they had. Unfortunately Jack was not as well developed, which may be a problem for some readers, but it didn’t overly bother me.

What I liked best was that Hazel did not turn into a badass warrior during her stay in the magical woods. This may be a turn off for some readers, as her adventure in finding Jack is mostly just her wandering through the woods and finding various fairytale tropes/characters, or becoming entangled in one herself. She’s only eleven, though; I would have found it hard to swallow if she’d suddenly turned into some super awesome warrior.

And that choice fits in with the rest of the narrative, as well. It’s a simple tale about a girl going to find and rescue her friend, even with the odds stacked against her. There’s no big final boss battle at the end for his soul; she simply perseveres through everything because she loves him.

Some readers may have issues with that stylistic choice. I thought it was perfect.

I will say the ending was really rushed, unfortunately. While I do think ending it where Ms Ursu did is the right choice for this book and the story it was telling, I would have liked to have seen even a little glimpse at how Jack and Hazel handled themselves afterwards. Still, that’s a personal preference and doesn’t affect my love for this book either way.

A beautifully moving tale about the power of friendship, I’ll be recommending Breadcrumbs to anyone who wants a well done fairytale book.

 

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]]> http://onthenightstand.net/2013/04/review-breadcrumbs-by-anne-ursu/feed/ 0 http://onthenightstand.net/2013/04/review-boundless-by-cynthia-hand/ http://onthenightstand.net/2013/04/review-boundless-by-cynthia-hand/#comments Sun, 07 Apr 2013 23:38:11 +0000 Miranda http://onthenightstand.net/?p=2419

The past few years have held more surprises than part-angel Clara Gardner could ever have anticipated. Yet from the dizzying highs of first love, to the agonizing low of losing someone close to her, the one thing she can no longer deny is that she was never meant to live a normal life.

Since discovering the special role she plays among the other angel-bloods, Clara has been determined to protect Tucker Avery from the evil that follows her . . . even if it means breaking both their hearts. Leaving town seems like the best option, so she’s headed back to California – and so is Christian Prescott, the irresistible boy from the vision that started her on this journey in the first place.

As Clara makes her way in a world that is frighteningly new, she discovers that the fallen angel who attacked her is watching her every move. And he’s not the only one. . . . With the battle against the Black Wings looming, Clara knows she must finally fulfill her destiny. But it won’t come without sacrifices and betrayal.

In the riveting finale of the Unearthly series, Clara must decide her fate once and for all.

Title: Boundless
Author: Cynthia Hand
Genre: Paranormal Romance Young Adult

Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 438 Hardcover
Copy Origin: Bought from Amazon.

While ultimately not quite as good as the first two books, Boundless ended up being a great finale to an incredibly good series. It’s a satisfying, if saddening, send off.

When people ask me what I want from the New Adult genre, I’m going to point to this book exactly. While the college setting doesn’t play as huge a role once the plot gets going, the parts we do have of it are wonderful. Clara trying to find what she wants to do and eventually settling on something is an experience I think a lot of students can identify with. I would have liked to stay at Stanford a little while longer, but what we had was great.

Clara herself remains a wonderful main character, having grown a lot over the past two books. There were a few minor characters introduced at the college that didn’t really seem to go anywhere, save for one who was more or less used as a plot device and nothing else. While that is disappointing, the rest of the main cast remain strong and detailed. Then there was Jeffrey’s girlfriend Lucy, who the second she showed up I knew who she was and how she was going to be used in the story.

Which takes me to my main complaint of the novel: I guessed nearly every single plot point this novel had. Foreshadowing has never been the strongest area of the previous novels, and it’s definitely not in this one. I didn’t know exactly how things would unfold, but I knew what would happen to certain characters nearly a hundred pages before it actually did. This ended up not really being that much of a detriment, because I still thoroughly enjoyed the story, but it was a little disappointing nonetheless.

Likewise, I think the ending was majorly rushed. The book is already pretty long at 438 pages, but we don’t see the fall out of some pretty major things that happen in the last few chapters. I can’t say much more without spoiling, but needless to say I wanted to see the fall out of something that happened to one character, and the resolution to a relationship between two others.

Overall, though, I still really enjoyed this book. It’s proven the bad rap angel books get wrong, and it’s one of the finest series YA has to offer. I don’t doubt I’m going to reread this series again and again.

 

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]]> http://onthenightstand.net/2013/04/review-boundless-by-cynthia-hand/feed/ 0 http://onthenightstand.net/2013/03/review-if-you-find-me-by-emily-murdoch/ http://onthenightstand.net/2013/03/review-if-you-find-me-by-emily-murdoch/#comments Mon, 25 Mar 2013 21:13:23 +0000 Miranda http://onthenightstand.net/?p=2411

There are some things you can’t leave behind…

A broken-down camper hidden deep in a national forest is the only home fifteen-year-old Carey can remember. The trees keep guard over her threadbare existence, with the one bright spot being Carey’s younger sister, Jenessa, who depends on Carey for her very survival. All they have is each other, as their mentally ill mother comes and goes with greater frequency. Until that one fateful day their mother disappears for good, and two strangers arrive. Suddenly, the girls are taken from the woods and thrust into a bright and perplexing new world of high school, clothes and boys.

Now, Carey must face the truth of why her mother abducted her ten years ago, while haunted by a past that won’t let her go… a dark past that hides many a secret, including the reason Jenessa hasn’t spoken a word in over a year. Carey knows she must keep her sister close, and her secrets even closer, or risk watching her new life come crashing down.

Title: If You Find Me
Author: Emily Murdoch
Genre: Contemporary

Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Pages: 256 Hardcover
Copy Origin: ARC won in a First Reads giveaway

Despite a solid, clear and distinctive voice and an unflinching way of tackling tough subjects, If You Find Me had some other issues that kept it from being a great read. This is likely down to personal taste again: If you’re going to present me with these characters and their situation and make a whole story about it, I want to delve deep into those issues and really feel who these characters are. Due to the short length, however, while I did grow to care about Carey and Nessa, I never really felt like we delved into them all the way.

What we have is great. Carey is the most fleshed out of all the characters, since she’s the narrator, and Nessa comes close to being as well put together as her sister. It’s the side characters that the novel falls flat on; Delaney, Carey’s new stepsister, is awful. While it’s understandable how hard a thing this must be on her, the things she does to Carey and what she threatens her with are unforgivable. When the two eventually come to some sort of understanding, it doesn’t feel natural or developed. They dislike each other, and then everything’s okay. I wanted to see more of them interacting so it felt believable.

Likewise, the romantic interest, while a cute character, fell flat too. Carey barely talks to him before deciding she loves him, and while I can sort of see the basis for a good romance there, it needed to be further developed so I could actually root for them. I also wish Carey had developed some sort of relationship with her dad, more than what we got. There was a good set up, with her believing that he abused her and her mother when she was a child, but the novel didn’t deliver on that set up until the very end. He more or less dropped off the map until that point.

When the novel does things right, though, it does them well. Carey’s voice is distinct and perfect for how she grew up. I did sometimes wonder at certain word choices that seemed a little off, and the fact that she and Nessa are so smart they can be put into two whole grades above their actual age grade in school veered perilously close to being too convenient.

But when the book wanted to tackle tough subjects, it did it without blinking. I do question the choice of putting in the traumatic flashback scene near the end of the book, especially when Carey tells her dad (and by extension, the reader) what happened a page later. It felt redundant and, frankly, unnecessary. It would have been horrifying enough hearing a fourteen year old girl telling us the story; did we really need to read about it first hand as well?

In all, I think there’s some great stuff here. But I think the short length of the novel keeps it from really delivering on everything it needed to deliver on: The relationship between Carey and her new parents, her stepsister, her love interest, and her new life in general. I’m interested in reading more of the author’s work, but hopefully her next effort is better put together than her first.

 

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