Book Review: Peaches

Today I'll be reviewing Peaches by Jodi Lynn Anderson. This book has been described as a Ya-Ya Sisterhood for teens as well as a cross between The Breakfast Club and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

Title: Peaches
Author: Jodi Lynn Anderson

Series: Peaches #1

Publisher: HarperTeen

Publication Date: May 9, 2006

Genre: YA Contemporary

Purchase: Amazon

Official description from the back of the book:

Three Georgia peaches are in for one juicy summer . . .

. . . but Birdie would rather eat Thin Mints and sulk in the AC.

Leeda would prefer to sneak off with her boyfriend, Rex.

And Murphy just wants to cause a little mischief.

Together these three very different girls will discover the secret to finding the right boy, making the truest friends, and picking the perfect Georgia peach.

I'm not sure how this ended up on my to-read list, but I'm guessing it has something to do with the references. The Divine Secrets of Ya-Ya Sisterhood? Read it and liked it. The Breakfast Club? Great movie. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants? Love it. The book even has a blurb on the cover from Ann Brashares, "PEACHES is a sweet and delicious read." So, I picked up the book and started reading hoping for another wonderful coming of age story. What I ended up with was something meh. The book was okay, but nothing in it blew me away. 

In the book you follow three teen girls. Birdie is the daughter of peach farmer Walter. She has mostly been home-schooled by her mother, Cynthia, who up and left one day. Poopie is the other woman figure in Birdie's life. She cooks and cleans for the family and is basically the second in charge on the peach farm. The farm is not doing well and the summer could very well be the last peach harvest. 

Leeda is Birdie's cousin. Leeda's family is very well off. Leeda is always trying to get the attention of her mother, who only ever seems to have eyes for her perfect older sister, Danay. It's even worse now that Danay is about to get married, so it's all about the upcoming wedding. Leeda even attempts to get attention by dating wrong side of the tracks Rex. Rex is her crutch for dealing with her family.

The final girl of this trio, is Murphy. Murphy is the daughter of Jodee. Jodee had Murphy very young and is always going from guy to guy getting her heartbroken. They live in the local trailer park. Murphy tends to get teased about her mother. She is known to be a little looser with the boys in the town as well as a little bit of a troublemaker. She tends to pull pranks that get her into trouble. Murphy is also very smart, like 4.0 GPA smart. 

Even though the book mentions the girls' summer, it starts out with them all working on the farm over spring break. How did they end up there? Well Birdie lives there and is trying to help her dad keep the farm going. Leeda is sent there to be a comfort to her cousin since Cynthia left. Murphy, well Murphy got into trouble and instead of getting another mark on her record, she is sent to the farm to work over spring break. At the end of spring break everyone goes there separate ways and basically pretends they don't know one another.

As summer approaches, Murphy realizes she doesn't want to spend time in the trailer with her mom and her latest boyfriend. She goes and gets herself in trouble again and is once again sentenced to work it off at the farm over the summer. Leeda makes some offhanded comment to her mom about spending the summer with Birdie, but doesn't really mean it. When her mom takes her up on her statement, she goes along with it. And of course, Birdie live on the farm, so where else would she be. 

From there we follow the girls on their journey to friendship with a little bit of mischief and boys involved along the way. Your standard coming of age set up.

Even though I liked each of the girls just fine, it still took me awhile to believe in the friendship between the girls. I understood where the author was coming from, but had a hard time believing it myself until closer to the end of the book. In fact, even though the book was fairly easy reading, I found the majority of it to be just okay. If you keep reading, you will find the story picks up a little towards the end and at that point I finally found their friendship believable or at least more realistic. If the rest of the book would have been more like the end, I rate this book higher. Even so, the ending did raise up my original rating by half a star. 

Overall, it's an okay read, but I have definitely read better coming of age and friendship stories, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Ann Brashares being one of them. Some other good ones being: 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman, and The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.

I do not see myself continuing with this series.

My Rating: 

Book Review: Throne of Glass

Today I'm going to be reviewing a book that has been showing up in lots of places. Based on the original description, it looked like a book that would be right up my alley. I got a copy and dove right in. 


Title: Throne of Glass
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Series: Throne of Glass #1
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Publication Date: August 7, 2012
Genre: YA Fantasy
Purchase: Amazon

In Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas, you follow Celaena Sardothien. A year  into serving her life sentence of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier, eighteen year old Celaena is paid a visit by Prince Dorian. Prince Dorian offers her a chance at freedom. All she has to do is agree to be his champion in a contest to find the new royal assassin, win, and sign a contract to be the royal assassin for four years. At the end of the four years, her record will be scrubbed clean and she will have her freedom. She agrees and is the only woman in the competition among thieves, assassins, and warriors, each sponsored by a different member of the King's council.

After arriving at court, an undernourished Celaena is trained by the captain of the guard, Chaol Westfall. She finds the training to be very exciting as she works her way back into shape for the contest. However, outside of training, things are a little boring as her life at court is very limiting. Things start to pick up as the Prince starts to show more interest in her. As well as after one of the contestants is found dead, followed by another. Who is killing off the contestants? Can Celaena figure it out before she becomes the next victim?

Like I previously stated, based on the description, this looked like a book I would love. However, it ended up taking me a few tries to really get into it. I read a little bit here and there until I got up to about Chapter 8, then I really got into the story. I read from Chapter 8 until Chapter 30 in one sitting. At that point I realized it was one in the morning and time to go to bed. I got up the next morning and finished the rest of the book.

I really like the story idea that the author came up with. I liked the world where it took place, although I did have some trouble picturing exactly what the glass castle looked liked. I liked the main character, Celaena even though she was apparently good at everything and liked to rub it in your face. I think part of that was just trying to survive and work extra hard to prove herself against men who think less of women. I like Prince Dorian, who was a nice guy trying to work around a bad father/King. He ends up being Celaena's main love interest in the story. I liked Captain Westfall, who also seemed like a good guy. There is suppose to be some sort of standard YA love triangle between the three. Although, it didn't really seem like there was much of Westfall as the book blurb would have you to believe. He felt more like a big brother to me in the story. The story has some interesting twist and turns along the way too. 

What I didn't care for was how the story was written. It's written in the third person, which normally isn't a problem for me, but with this story it just read weird. I had trouble figuring out exactly who I was following at times. The author had little dots and breaks when we were switching, but even with that it was hard. I found myself having to re-read parts to figure out who exactly I was following. To confuse things even more it seemed like we sometimes switched who we were following within the sections. Some of the characters personal thoughts even read strange. When I got to the end of the story I found out the author wrote her original first draft when she was sixteen. I think that might be the culprit. I finally figured out what was bothering me. The writing reminded me of high school writing, when you still don't know that there are other, possibly better ways to tell the story. Clearly the editor did not help the author as well as they could have.

Now, that not to say, that I won't be reading further into the story. I fully plan on checking out the next book in the series when it comes out later this year. I just hope that the writing/editing skills will have evolved some since the first book. If not, then I will not be picking up the third book in the series, no matter how interesting the story idea is. 

I'm looking forward to Crown of Midnight and seeing where the story takes Celaena. While the mystery of who is killing off contestants is solved by the end of the first book, there are still mysteries to be solved about Celaena herself and what her true purpose is. Overall, I think this is a good start to what could be a very interesting series.

If you like this book, you might like, The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson or Green Rider by Kristen Britain, both of which are 4 star reads in my book.
My Rating:

Book Review: Tiger's Quest

The Tiger's Quest is the second book in The Tiger Saga by Colleen Houck. You can find my review of the first book, Tiger's Curse here.

Tiger's Quest picks up where Tiger's Curse left off. With Kelsey back in Oregon, trying to move on from Ren and a live normal life at college, going to classes, dating boys, etc... Things don't go as planned, when Ren shows up trying to woo Kelsey back. Then Lokesh manages to find out where Kelsey is and they are once again off to India and on another quest to break the curse. Only this time instead of with Ren, Kelsey is on her adventure with Kishan.

I once again listened to the beautiful audio edition. I think it is wonderfully performed. However, I had a little more trouble getting into Tiger's Quest, than I did getting into Tiger's Curse. I found myself putting it down and even had no problem taking a couple day break from it to listen to my February Book Club Book, Unwind. It seemed slow in the beginning getting back to Kelsey and Ren. That is not to say there weren't interesting bits. I do like the main portion of Kelsey and Kishan quest and the tie-in with the Ark story. The different challenges they had to face and the people they met where interesting. 

I also believe that Kelsey has grown as a person. I like her better. I like how we get to find out more about Kishan too. At the same time I feel like this book doesn't quite have the same level of magic as the first. I still plan on reading more of the series. Based on the ending of this one I can see the third book having some interesting plot lines.

I think that if you liked the first book, you will probably like this one too.

My Rating: 

Book Review: The Selection

The Selection by Kiera Cass is the first book in The Selection Trilogy.

In The Selection you follow America. All of the eligible girls between the ages of 16 and 20 are requested to fill out an application for The Selection. America reluctantly fills out hers as she is already in love and wants nothing to do with the competition or a spoiled Prince. She ends up being one of thirty-five girls chosen to compete for a chance at Prince Maxon's hand and therefore the crown. It is a televised event (a la The Bachelor). However, once America meets Maxon, she starts to question all of the previous plans she made for herself.

The Selection takes place sometime in the future after World War IV in Illéa (some distant variation of the US/Canada???). I would classify is as YA Dystopian Post-Apocalyptic Lite Fantasy Chick Lit. I know, that's a lot for a book. In this world, Princesses are married off to other Kings/Princes as part of a political match. Princes, however, marry a "True Daughter of Illéa," i.e. one of the people to keep up morale. In this society, people are in a caste system made up of numbers ranging from One (royalty) all the way down to Eight (the homeless). What you do depends on your number. People usually marry someone of their same number or some lucky girls gets to marry up into a higher number. When you marry you end up being the same number as your husband. And, of course, the higher the number, the wealthier you are. It is also possible (though rarely) to buy yourself up a number or two.

Our Main Character (MC) is currently a Five. Fives are artists and musicians. She is secretly in love with Aspen, a Six. Aspen encourages America to enter as he does not want any what ifs hanging over anyone's heads. They figure her chances of getting picked in the lottery of thousands of girls is pretty slim, but those that do get picked are automatically moved up to being a Three (an example of a Three would be a teacher), and of course, if you win you AND your family are automatically Ones. Also, those in the competition get weekly compensation sent back to their families. This is something that America's family desperately needs as most Fives, Sixes, and lower tend to not have enough money for food. Here is a better breakdown from the author.

So, Needless to say, Mrs. Cass has come up with a quite the world. 

The winning ladies are brought to the castle and given makeovers - pretty dresses, hairstyles, make-up, jewelry, etc...And while there is certainly competition between the girls they are told outright that no violence will be tolerated. If you hit, kick, or abuse a fellow contestant, you are OUT. Surprisingly enough, I actually liked the competition bits and how supportive some of the girls were for one another. I do not watch those types of shows. All while the competition is going on, they also have to worry about rebels, faceless rebels. What do they want? Why to they keep attacking? 

And of course our Prince is not at all what America expected. At first she just wants to be his friend, but does she really want to be more?

This is the type of book where you will either really hate it or really like it. I really liked this book and sped right through to the end, where I promptly wanted to throw the book (I read it on my Kindle, so I didn't) against the wall. Cliffhanger, much? So, while I would highly recommend this book as a little fluff chick lit, I wouldn't recommend reading it until the second book comes out in April 2013, so you can move right onto the next one. And please be aware, the books cuts off right when you are starting to get to the good stuff. I will definitely be checking out the second book, The Elite, when it comes out on April 23, 2013.

I can't think of any other books to recommend based on this book. I have heard, that if you like this book, you will probably like Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas, but I can't confirm that yet as I am still reading it.

My Rating: 

Book Review: Paranormalcy

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White is the first book in the Paranormalcy series.


In the book you follow Evie. Evie thinks of herself as a normal, human, teenage girl even though she works for, and is the ward of, the International Paranormal Containment Agency (IPCA) and is the only person who can see through paranormal's glamours. She has a mermaid for a best friend, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, and she thinks she might be falling for a shape-shifter. 

Evie has been a ward of the IPCA ever since she was eight. Before that she was bounced around foster care and couldn't remember her parents. 

When the book starts we follow Evie on a standard bag and tag of a vampire. After the paranormal is tagged a Faerie transports Evie back to the Center. As the book progresses, Evie thinks her ex-boyfriend, Remy is trying to harm her and and someone or something is killing off the paranormals without leaving a mark.

I have to say I found this book to be a very easy read and I really liked it. The story moves along at a nice pace. I found myself quickly progressing through the novel whenever I had a spare moment and completed the book in a couple of days. 

I found myself really liking Evie and her perspective. I think the author does a good job of representing a teenage girl who tries to kid herself into thinking she is absolutely normal, but is not. I like the show she is always watching and how excited she gets over normal teenage things, like a locker. I like how the author describes what Evie is seeing through each of the glamours, how each of the paranormals really look. Vampires are NOT pretty or glittery.

It's different from other YA books I've read. The closest thing I can compare it to is an adult novel, First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones, but in that book the main character is an adult and a grim reaper and a little more graphic in the love scene department. But if you like Paranormalcy and think you might like a more adult book, I think you might like First Grave on the Right. 

My Rating:

Book Review: Grave Mercy

I received Grave Mercy for free from Nicki Haylon on behalf of Robin LaFevers on Libboo. This is no way influences my review of this book, other than I'm happy I got a book I wanted to read anyways for free :) Bonus, if you are reading this the day I originally posted, you can get the book for $1.99 on Amazon as it is a Kindle Daily Deal (click below).




Follow fourteen-year old Ismae as she escapes from an abusive father and an even worse, but very short lived arranged marriage. Unknown to Ismae, she was being watched all her life. On the night of her arranged marriage she is rescued. The confused girl is brought to the convent St. Mortain. Here is is given a test and the option to train to serve Death Himself as an assassin. Ismae accepts the challenge and we fast forward over three years of training. 

Now seventeen, barely out of training, and not yet a full initiate into the order, Ismae finds herself in the high court of Brittany, where she discovers she is woefully unprepared for the task at hand. We follow her as she tries to navigate through the politics of court to complete her assignment. Who is the French Spy? Can they keep the duchess alive until she can be crowned? Can she trust Duval?

My thoughts: 
I found myself liking this book more and more as I read it. In fact, I've already decided to give it a 1/2 star bump from my initial rating thoughts. I don't read a lot of books that take place in the 13th century, but I certainly liked this one. I liked the added paranormal part to the story, how they are given gifts from Death Himself. There is action, mystery, love, adventure...The characters feel fairly well rounded to me. LaFevers does a pretty good job at descriptions too. It's not very hard to get sucked into the story. If you are anything like me, you will find yourself reading, most, if not all, of the book in a day, possibly even in one sitting. 

LaFevers does a good job of starting off Ismae as ignorant in some ways. As you go through the book, you feel like the character has a very natural progression in the ways that she grows and the things that she learns.

I like the relationship between Ismae and Duval. There are definitely some amusing moments there. I also really like the side character Beast. I'm not sure what else to say as I don't want to tell you the whole story, but let's just say it's a really good book and I think you should read it.

If you like this book, you might also like, The Girl of Fire and Thorns (Fire and Thorns #1) by Rae Carson as well as Waterfall (River of Time #1) by Lisa Tawn Bergren.

My Rating: 

Book Review: Boundless

Boundless is the third, and final, book in Cynthia Hand's Unearthly trilogy.

You continue to follow Clara, who over the past few years/books, has discovered she is a very special part-angel, fell in love, been told she is destined be with someone else (not her love), and lost someone close to her. It's been a pretty rough few years. 

In the third book, Clara is trying to forget Tucker as she, Christian,  and Angela all head off to Stanford. From Angela'a visions, they know that is where Angela's purpose takes place. However, once there Clara realizes someone is following her and she keeps having her own dark vision (literally, is in a dark place and is very scared). What are the Black Wings up to? And can Clara ever really be safe and live a normal life?

My thoughts: I have to say I was really looking forward to reading this one. I really liked the other two books in the series. 

In this book, I like how Clara is trying to live as normal of a life as possible with her friends, but then that creepy bird starts following her around, she starts having scary visions, and her friend Angela starts acting strangely. I liked Clara's vision in this book the best or at least the description of it that Cynthia Hand provides. I can see where she has grown as a writer over the series. The mystery in this book is really good. I liked trying to figure out what was going on and what the visions were really all about. 

When I started with this series, I was all about Team Tucker, but as time went on I moved over to Team Christian. In this book I was hoping to get a little more Team Christian as Clara broke up with Tucker, partly in an effort to keep him safe, but broke up nonetheless. And they do try in this book. 

I think overall, I liked how this series ended, but I don't truly feel like all of the characters got a proper wrap up. The ending left me feeling happy and not happy at the same time. 

***SPOILER ALERT*** Some of my spoilery thoughts on the book. Don't read, if you don't want to know.

• Does anyone else like Cynthia Hand's version of hell? I found it to be pretty cool. I like how it was just below our world or on another plane of the world. Everything dull, gray, black & white, and no one really knew they were in hell. Very intriguing.
• I also found how Clara kept popping up in Tuck's barn very amusing.
• I like how we got a little bit more of Clara's Dad and how he helped train her and Christian. Glory sword? Cool.
• I don't really get Clara's brother Jeffery, I almost felt like his parts in the book because he had to be, because it would have been just weird for the author to completely drop him out. I felt like his part was a little stretched. 
• Christian, Christian, Christian, as part of Team Christian, can I just say I'm frustrated. Dang mind reading and Tuck popping up whenever there were about to kiss. Dammit Christian, you just needed to kiss her until she forgot about him. Oh, and Christian's ending! Ugh! Made me almost want to chuck the book against the wall. I guess I have some consolation in the fact that Tucker will eventually die and then there is the possibility, but really? So sad.

***END SPOILER ALERT***

This was the second series I picked up with Angels in it, the first being Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick (a really good series). I think each has it's own pluses and I really liked both of them. So, if you read Hush, Hush, you might like this series, or if you liked this series, you might like Hush, Hush. Other books you might like: Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon and Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater 

My Rating: 

Book Review: City of Glass

The City of Glass by Cassandra Clare is the third book in The Mortal Instrument Series. I have previously read the first two books in the series. I recommend reading them before reading this.


 
In the third installment, you follow Clary as she travels to the City of Glass searching for a cure to her mother's sickness. Also in this book, her relationship with Jace becomes strained as he no longer wants her around and her best friend Simon is thrown in prison by Shadowhunters who are suspicious of his ability to walk in the sun. You follow as we meet new characters and find out more about Clary and Jace's family. 

At the same time, Valentine is working on building an army to destroy the City of Glass. Protecting the city and defeating Valentine all comes down to Shadowhunters and Downworlders working together, but can they?

While I liked this book, I didn't like it as much as the other ones in the series that I've read. It doesn't mean I won't read anymore of the series, I fully intend to read more books in the series, I just didn't care of this one as much. Maybe it's because I had the "big" reveals in this book figured out well before they where officially reviewed (I don't want to spoil them for you). I still enjoyed the ride getting there. It's possible you might not realize the "big" reveals way before they happened like me. I am the type of person that almost always figures out the twist in movies, etc... way before it happens. 

I did listen to the audio version of this book. I want to say I felt the performer did a pretty good job of reading the book. I have heard better and worse. 

I'm curious to see where this series is heading as the third book concludes the original trilogy Cassandra Clare set out to write. 

My Rating: 

Book Review: Prodigy

I LOVE dystopian novels. The Legend Series by Marie Lu is included in that category. I loved Legend and was excited was the 2nd novel of the series to come out. I recently finished reading Prodigy by Marie Lu and was not disappoint. Based on the first book there was a lot to live up to.



In Legend and Prodigy you follow two different viewpoints, June and Day. June is a 15-year old prodigy being groomed for success in the highest ranking military circles of the Republic. June is also from a well-to-do family. Day, also 15, was born in the slums and had grown up to be the country's most wanted criminal, struggling to survive day to day.

In the first book, June and Day cross paths after Day is accused of murdering June's brother Metias. June breaks the rules and goes on her own manhunt for the murder of her brother. Only she finds out things are not what they seem. What follows is a very action packed book that includes some wrong side of the tracks romance. The book ends *SPOILER ALERT* with June and Day escaping town. 

In the second book, June and Day, arrive in Vegas seeking help from the Patriots. Shortly after arriving, the Elector Primo dies. His son Anden immediately replaces him as Elector. Will Anden continue the bad ways of his father? Will he be able to maintain order or will the entire Republic break down? One thing is for sure is that the Republic is resting at a tipping point.

June and Day meet up with the Patriots and in exchange for healing an injured Day, helping Day rescue his brother, and helping June and Day escape to the Colonies, they MUST help the Patriots assassinate the new Elector. But, will June and Day be able to go through with it? Are the Colonies all that the people of the Republic are led to believe?

This book is a very action packed sequel. I loved every minute of it. I love how June and Day's viewpoints are differentiated in the book. I like the blue used for Day's chapters. I found it to be a nice easy color and font to read. The relationship between June and Day has also moved onto the can we really be together stage as they are from different worlds. You also discover more about the Patriots, the Republic, AND whether or not the grass is really greener on the Colonies side of the wall. 

If you liked or loved Legend, you will probably feel the same about the second novel of this series. If you liked/loved other dystopian series, like The Hunger Games, Divergent, or Matched, I recommend you check out the Legend Series.

I can't wait to see what the third book has in store.

My Rating for BOTH Legend and Prodigy: 

Book Review: Tiger's Curse

While I have an earlier edition hardcover of Tiger's Curse by Collen Houck, I ended up listening to the audio book version. I really liked the performers reading this one. They really helped to suck me into the story.




I must admit, I picked this one up because because of the good reviews and the story line seemed interesting. At the same time I don't normally read books that take place in India.

The story starts off a little slow. You follow Kelsey as she gets a short couple week job with the circus to help out with cleaning, ticket sales, and taking care of a tiger named Ren. Kelsey finds herself strangely drawn to the tiger. Over her short time with the circus she ends up spending more and more time with the tiger. One day a man shows up and buys Ren, the tiger. 

Kelsey ends up getting offered a job to accompany Ren on his journey to a sanctuary in India. Once in India, Ren ends up running off into the Jungle. Kelsey follows him in an effort to get him back. However, she ends up discovering that Ren is really a prince who was cursed over 300 years ago to be a tiger. Since Kelsey came along Ren was finally able to turn into a man again, but only for a very short period of time each day. Ren tells Kelsey, he believes she is the one who can break the curse. Kelsey agrees and the pair go on an adventure to see if they can.

I applaud Colleen Houck for her creativity in coming up with this story. It's not a storyline I've heard before. I liked the adventure they had searching for the things needed to break the curse. 

At the same time, Kelsey drove me bonkers with her whole *SPOILER ALERT* OMG I can't get into a relationship with Ren, because even though we are totally into each other, it's just going to end in heartbreak, so I'm not even going to try. *END SPOILER ALERT* I wanted to smack her upside the head so bad. I also felt like it was something the author was trying to do to stretch out the story a little. 

Colleen Houck provides great visualization in her writing. I felt like I was there with the characters the whole time, hence the wanting to smack Kelsey. 

Overall, I think is a great start to a series and I'm looking forward to reading more of it. 

Rating: