Summary: Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war– and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice:
Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

My Thoughts: I’ve been hearing a lot about Shatter Me, and all the hype was right! I finished this one in a day, and while I new it was going to be interesting because it’s the best mix of genres (dystopian, science fiction, young adult fiction, a bit of romance), I definitely didn’t expect the beautiful, almost poetic writing style of debut author Mafi.

I was immediately hooked from the first page. We’re introduced to Juliette as a narrator, and we’re wondering, is this character mentally unstable? Insane? Hallucinatory?Which are also questions that our protagonist keeps asking herself, especially when her life in solitary confinement is disrupted with the addition of a new cellmate–a boy who reminds her of before, before her entrapment and the end of the world.

The narration begins as a stream of consciousness that is alternately tightly controlled, utterly panicked, and all sorts of other emotions that the reader feels right along with Juliette. The action is non-stop, I was never bored, and at every point there was some kind of twist or revelation that I didn’t see coming that only contributed more to the plot and overall atmosphere.

The dialogue was perfect, it was snappy when necessary, and drawn-out when needed, everything pitch-perfect and right. I’m just going to keep coming back to Mafi’s talented writing abilities.

The only issue I had is that I wasn’t complete won over or convinced by our main bad guy. Maybe in the sequel, but he just didn’t tick with me or scare me enough for me to believe in the villainy.

It’s described as Hunger Games meets X-Men, and I think that’s a very apt description. I will definitely be looking for the sequel.

Author Website: http://www.taherehmafi.com/

Second Opinion: Angieville

How did I get this book? Ebook on my phone!

Genres: Science fiction, young adult fiction, dystopian, post-apocalyptic, romance

Summary: 

Maddy’s the one girl in Angel City who doesn’t breathlessly follow the Angels on TV and gossip blogs. When she meets Jackson, she doesn’t recognize him. But Jackson is instantly captivated by her, and against all odds the two fall in love.

Maddy is swiftly caught up in Jackson’s scene, a world of glamour, paparazzi – and murder. A serial killer is on the loose, leaving dead Angels’ wings for the police to find on the Walk of Fame. Even the Guardians are powerless to protect themselves in the face of this threat … and this time it’s up to Maddy to save Jackson.

My Thoughts: Very interesting premise. There’s been an influx of “angel”-related YA fiction in the market recently, kind of tagging along on the supernatural coattails of vampires and werewolves and fae and etc. I’ve tried a few and just been kind of disgusted with the writing quality of some of them. Speer’s novel, however, captivated me from the very beginning with an incredibly intriguing and, might I say it, incredibly “American” (and by “American” I mean extremely capitalist!) set-up for his type of angels.

In Speer’s world, Angel City (aka our own Los Angeles) is populated by Angels who will “protect” you, aka save your life were you ever to be in some catastrophic incident like a car accident, plane crash, natural disaster, for an extremely exorbitant fee. As a result, the only people able to be “protected” are the extremely rich. As well, an entire culture and way of life has grown up around the Angels. They are celebrities, fixtures on red carpet events, and there are reality TV shows that center around normal humans competing against each other in different kinds of tasks (think Survivor) in order to get the chance to be “protected” by an Angel for the rest of their life. Angels are rich and beautiful, the world’s elite–there are tabloids and gossip magazines dedicated to them.

So here we have Jackson, the most famous and hottest and most perfect Angel of all. He lives this glamorous lifestyle, and we learn that he’s kind of “different,” and that he is tired of all the obsession and the craziness and fake illusions that come with his life. This is a premise I’ve read a thousand times–famous celebrity is tired of being a celebrity and having an awesome life, and then oh wow, he meets a perfectly normal, not-special girl (who actually turns out to be kind of special) who sees him for who he truly is.

And I expected to be rolling my eyes by this point. Except that when Speer switches over to Maddy’s narration and point-of-view, I only got more interested. I loved Maddy as a main character. She was down-to-earth and real, and I liked experiencing all the things about the Immortal City from her viewpoint. The romance between her and Jackson wasn’t rushed–it had hiccups and misunderstandings that were realistic and believable.

The evil enemy they have to face together was also a great twist, one I definitely didn’t see coming. Overall, Immortal City was a very enjoyable young adult fiction. I was intrigued and continually surprised by Speer’s plotting, and I definitely enjoyed the last 100 pages when things started getting really exciting. I hope there will be a sequel.

Sidenote: I think it’s fun that the author, Speer, is the boyfriend of Ashley Tisdale (of Disney fame) and his main career is a music video director! He’s directed for some big names. And I found this out after I finished reading, when I googled for more information about the book. I guess he actually knows what “celebrity” really is.

How did I get this novel? I received this as an ARC from the publisher, Razorbill. I haven’t seen very much publicity online for Immortal City, which is strange. There’s not even an official website or even publisher section for it yet, which is odd because on the ARC it details this whole marketing campaign they’re doing for the book release… which is only 4 months away. The website on the book cover, immortalcityseries.com, isn’t even up yet. The author doesn’t have a website for his writing, but he does have twitter, and myspace, and facebook. Also, I can’t even find any other book blog that has reviewed this yet! How strange. I feel like this is something the YA/fantasy world should be all over by now.

Genres: Young adult fiction, science fiction, fantasy, urban fantasy, romance

Giveaway: I’ll be giving this book away soon! Stay tuned.

Immortal City by Scott Speer. This comes out in April 2012, and I got an ARC from the publisher, razorbill! I’m enjoying it a lot so far. Here’s the summary from the back:

Jackson Godspeed is the hottest young Angel in a city filled with them. He’s days away from becoming a full Guardian, and people around the world are already competing for the chance to be watched over by him. Everyone’s obsessed with the Angels and the lucky people they protect – everyone except for Madison Montgomery.

Maddy’s the one girl in Angel City who doesn’t breathlessly follow the Angels on TV and gossip blogs. When she meets Jackson, she doesn’t recognize him. But Jackson is instantly captivated by her, and against all odds the two fall in love.

Maddy is swiftly caught up in Jackson’s scene, a world of glamour, paparazzi – and murder. A serial killer is on the loose, leaving dead Angels’ wings for the police to find on the Walk of Fame. Even the Guardians are powerless to protect themselves in the face of this threat … and this time it’s up to Maddy to save Jackson.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I’ve started this and picked it up in eBook fomat because it was billed as one of Amazon’s be st books of the month for this past September. I’m about a third of the way in and I can’t say I’ve fallen in love yet. But I’ll keep reading. It does have a lovely cover.

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. I’ve been hearing about this one in the book blogging circles. Haven’t started yet, but definitely excited to–dystopian science fiction is right up my alley. 

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war– and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice:
Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

In this electrifying debut, Tahereh Mafi presents a world as riveting as The Hunger Games and a superhero story as thrilling as The X-Men. Full of pulse-pounding romance, intoxicating villainy, and high-stakes choices, Shatter Me is a fresh and original dystopian novel with a paranormal twist that will leave readers anxiously awaiting its sequel.

Another thing I’d like to note is that up until about this fall, I was strictly a dead-trees book kind of girl. I never bought an eBook reader, mostly because the books themselves were too pricey at an average of $10/book, and my local library system doesn’t have the most awesome eBook stash yet. I also just didn’t have the money in the first place to shell out for a Kindle or Nook or, god forbid, a $400 iPad. But the thing is, I’ve had a smartphone for ages–several different kinds of phones, actually. And silly me didn’t realize that you can get free eReaders on your smartphone as apps. Which, in my mind, defeats the point of buying a super expensive reader like the Kindle or Nook. I already carry my phone with me EVERYWHERE (why load myself up with yet another gadget?) and I can read things on it without having to pay $200 or somesuch for the device. The apps (including Kindle) are free for smartphones! I like Aldiko, personally, since it can handle books in .epub format, which my library has a lot of. And it looks pretty

I can legitimately say that at least 70% of the books I’ve read in the past 2 months have been in eBook format on my phone. So convenient.

Summary: 

The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria—a high-tech nation modeled on the manners, mores, and fashions of an antique era. A teenager in high society, Nora Dearly is far more interested in military history and her country’s political unrest than in tea parties and debutante balls. But after her beloved parents die, Nora is left at the mercy of her domineering aunt, a social-climbing spendthrift who has squandered the family fortune, and now plans to marry her niece off for money. For Nora, no fate could be more horrible—until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses.

But fate is just getting started with Nora. Catapulted from her world of drawing-room civility, she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting “The Laz,” a fatal disease that raises the dead—and hell along with them. Hardly ideal circumstances. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble . . . and dead. But as is the case with the rest of his special undead unit, luck and modern science have enabled Bram to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire.

In Dearly, Departed, steampunk meets romance meets walking-dead thriller, spawning a madly imaginative novel of rip-roaring adventure, spine-tingling suspense, and macabre comedy that forever redefines the concept of undying love.

My Thoughts: I was immediately drawn into Habel’s debut novel. Generally I have not read many zombie novels, and I’ve only a little experience in the steampunk genre. I was skeptical of steampunk + zombie + romance.

I loved Nora as a narrator. Like I said, I was interested in what she had to say from the first page. I also liked the way Habel described and invented the history of how exactly New Victoria came to be after an apocalyptic-type era that did away with all the old countries like the U.S., Mexico, etc. Her version of “zombie-sm” was also new and intriguing.

I loved the romance–it developed nicely and was very cute Hope to read the sequel soon!

Author Website, where you can read a sample chapter! http://liahabel.com/

Summary: 

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious “errands”; she speaks many languages–not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When one of the strangers–beautiful, haunted Akiva–fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

My Thoughts: I started this and wasn’t very interested in the beginning. I actually read a few other books while reading this–I kept coming back to it between other novels, because even though I was a little annoyed at first by our main character, Karou, I was still intrigued enough to keep reading. I’m glad I did, because the author definitely came through in the end.

Great world-building. I don’ t think I’ve read anything like Taylor’s world of angels, chimaera, and humans living in parallel universes. My only gripe (and the thing that kept me from being too involved in the beginning) was the sort of Mary-Sue aspect of Karou. She was a little too perfectly quirky, perfectly mysterious, perfectly beautiful. But as I kept reading she developed more dimensions and became less of a cardboard cut-out of somebody’s dream life and became a real person.

As for the romantic chemistry, I wasn’t as drawn into it as I thought I would be. I am mostly intrigued by, again, Taylor’s world-building. I also enjoyed some of the side/supporting characters than I did our main couple, Karou and Akiva, who bored me a few times.

I am looking forward to the sequel.

Book Website: http://daughterofsmokeandbone.com/

I have been doing and will be doing a lot of traveling so that means lots of plane rides and bus rides where I’ll be putting my time to good use towards this goal!

I feel like so many of my favorite authors have passed away recently–Anne McCaffrey, Dianna Wynne Jones, Madeleine L’Engle. The end of an era.

It makes me sad in a way other things don’t make me sad. It sounds cheesy, but I feel like these authors were my friends growing up. Even though we never met or talked in real life, I knew them through their novels.

Mm

1. Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce (re-read)
2. In the Hand of the Goddess by Tamora Pierce (re-read)
3. Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater
4. Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta (re-read)
5. Nightspell by Leah Cypess
6. The Lovers by Vendela Vida
7. The Piper’s Son by Melina Marchetta
8. The Floating Islands by Rachel Neumeier
9. Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta (re-read)
10. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley (re-read)
11. Moon Called by Patricia Briggs
12. Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs
13. Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs
14. Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs
15. Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs
16. River Marked by Patricia Briggs
17. The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
18. Shut Out by Kody Keplinger
19. Eve by Anna Carey
20. The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
21. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

As you can see I barreled my way through the Mercedes Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. I have said previously that I prefer her Alpha & Omega series, because I once tried Moon Called and wasn’t a fan (I didn’t get very far into it). However, I am so glad I tried it out again! I ended up completely sucked in and read the entire series in like a week. Now I’m a big fan.

I’ve also been reading a lot of new YA novels. I just finished The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer–I have never read a book where in one sentence, I am terrified to the point of paralysis, and in the very next sentence, I’m laughing out loud. Michelle Hodkin has definite talent. This book started out one way, and kind of evolved into a whole new, but no less amazing, piece of work. Everything came together so perfectly in Mara Dyer, except for that torturous cliff hanger! I must know what happens next! Highly recommended.

Carson’s debut, The Girl of Fire and Thorns, was a little simpler but still entertaining. I very much enjoyed the heroine, Elisa, and her development and progress throughout the novel. Also–a heroine who is also overweight, in a fantasy novel? Not done very often. And by that, I mean that usually books about overweight protagonists focus on being overweight. You never really get a fantasy or science fiction heroine who, as a sideline, happens to be overweight (as in, her weight is not the focus of the story). I applaud Carson. And really, it shouldn’t need applauding, it shouldn’t be so new/strange, but it is I suppose.

Eve by Anna Carey was a dystopian YA that I enjoyed. Writing style aimed a little younger than Mara Dyer, but still very enjoyable. I was definitely emotionally involved, especially near the end. Another one that I must keep an eye out for the sequel.

I read Keplinger‘s debut, The DUFF, and reviewed it awhile ago and became a big fan of hers. Same here with Shut Out. Interesting plot, interesting heroine, great messages for teenage girls. Keplinger should be on every elementary/middle/high school library’s bookshelves.

I also have a lot of re-reads on there. I love re-reading my favorite books during the summer. It’s like seeing old friends again.

But a new one was The Lovers by Vendela Vida, which I can describe as sort of a perfectly formed, perfectly clear cup of tea. Not sure how else to put it. I was first introduced to Vida through her earlier book, Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name, also perfect.

Probably won’t be able to update again until December!

Summary:

Sixteen-year-old Jill has fought in dozens of fencing tournaments, but she has never held a sharpened blade. When she finds a corroded sword piece on a Caribbean beach, she is instantly intrigued and pockets it as her own personal treasure.

The broken tip holds secrets, though, and it transports Jill through time to the deck of a pirate ship. Stranded in the past and surrounded by strangers, she is forced to sign on as crew. But a pirate’s life is bloody and brief, and as Jill learns about the dark magic that brought her there, she forms a desperate scheme to get home—one that risks everything in a duel to the death with a villainous pirate captain.

My Thoughts: After reading and enjoying Vaughn’s first YA novel, Voices of Dragons, I was pretty excited when I found out she’d written another one. However, Steel bored me. It was fairly formulaic and I predicted every single thing that happened. I like Vaughn’s writing style, but her plot in Steel didn’t interest me at all.

I’ll still be checking out more of her books because I enjoyed Voices of Dragons so much, but I wouldn’t recommend this one.

Author Website: http://www.carrievaughn.com

Summary: 

Told in a letter to her captor by 16-year-old Gemma, Stolen explores the influence that a really wild and remote space can have on the inner development of a young woman.

Gemma, a British city-living teenager, is kidnapped while on holiday with her parents. Her kidnapper, Ty, takes her to the wild land of outback Australia. To Gemma’s city-eyes, the landscape is harsh and unforgiving and there are no other signs of human life for hundreds of kilometres in every direction. Here, there is no escape. Gemma must learn to deal with her predicament, or die trying to fight it.

Ty, a young man, has other ideas for her. His childhood experience of living in outback Australia has forever changed the way he sees things. But he too has been living in the city; Gemma’s city. Unlike Gemma, however, he has had enough. In outback Australia he sees an opportunity for a new kind of life; a life more connected to the earth. He has been watching and learning about Gemma for many years; when he kidnaps her, his plan finally begins to take shape.

But Ty is not a stereotypical kidnapper and, over time, Gemma comes to see Ty in a new light, a light in which he is something more sensitive. The mysteries of Ty, and the mystery of her new life, start to take hold. She begins to feel something for her kidnapper when he wakes screaming in the night. Over the time spent with her captor, Gemma’s appreciation of him develops …but is this real love, or Stockholm Syndrome?

My Thoughts: I loved Stolen. After reading the summary (young girl, kidnapping, stockholm syndrome) I was kind of apprehensive that it would be false, or stupid, or deceivingly and disgustingly-untrue-abuse romanticized and painted over in a Twilight-esque light. You know, where the creepy “love interest” is supposed to be so tragically romantic and possessive and “unique” and she can change his bad ways, really she can!

It was so far from that. Christopher made Gemma’s terror and fear real to me, and it was obvious almost from the get-go that Ty is not your typical dark and brooding bad boy who is supposed to be “saved” by our heroine. Ty has issues. Real issues and a real history that surround the solitary domain he has built in the arid desert of outback Australia, the place he has kidnapped Gemma to.

There are really only two characters in this novel, and therefore we are intensely focused on the psychology and developments between Ty and Gemma. Christopher makes you fall in love with the landscape even as you know, just as Gemma does, that is inescapable, dangerous, and terrifying. There is a sense of building fragile things, anticipation and feelings rising to a point–and then everything topples over so heartbreakingly. You are sitting there at the end, wondering what exactly happened, just as Gemma does–she is no less confused than the reader.

Stolen is one of my Best Books Read in 2011. Beautiful.

Author Website: http://www.lucychristopher.com/