Paranormal YA is so hot right now, especially books about angels or fallen angels. (Two of our recent favorites have been Angelfall and Unearthly/Hallowed!) We know how many people are in love with this genre so it is exciting for us to announce that we're giving away ARCs of two exciting, upcoming paranormal YA books. A little book love to belatedly celebrate Valentine's Day...

Graffiti Moon
Author: Cath Crowley
Publication Date: 2/14/12
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

Blurb(GR): Senior year is over, and Lucy has the perfect way to celebrate: tonight, she's going to find Shadow, the mysterious graffiti artist whose work appears all over the city. He's out there somewhere—spraying color, spraying birds and blue sky on the night—and Lucy knows a guy who paints like Shadow is someone she could fall for. Really fall for. Instead, Lucy's stuck at a party with Ed, the guy she's managed to avoid since the most awkward date of her life. But when Ed tells her he knows where to find Shadow, they're suddenly on an all-night search around the city. And what Lucy can't see is the one thing that's right before her eyes.



Review:
I can’t imagine a better young adult romance to read on Valentine’s Day.  In fact, my advice to all of my fellow book nerds out there is to just toss out those chalky conversation hearts, forget about the rest of humanity, and hole up with this book today.  If you have a significant other, tell him or her to skip the flowers and buy you this instead.  If you’re alone then all the better – more time to read.  Who needs a date on Valentine’s Day anyway?  Or rather, who needs a date with a person?  Books always smell nice, they’re patient, undemanding, and they can say all the right things.  This book is a terrific date.

This is the book that I wish today’s teens would read.  I wrote that last April about the Australian edition and it still stands.  While many young adult romances seem to be propagandizing the all-consuming, identity swallowing, love at first glance kind of romance, this book goes so much deeper.  It acknowledges the instant attraction, the lust, the electricity, and then it moves on.  It moves past the romantic ideals to celebrate the more complex truth.   
 
This story is told in alternating chapters by Lucy, Ed, and “Poet,” as they celebrate the end of year twelve through the hours of one very long night.  Lucy dreams of finding“Shadow” – a graffiti artist who she’s convinced (based on his work) is the one she’s been waiting for.  She has a teenager’s assumptions of what love and romance will be like, but she lets her assumptions eclipse any possibility of real romance.

“We’ll meet and click and sit up all night and everything will tip out of me and into him and the other way around and while we’re tipping the night will fade and the world will get pink and in that pinkness he’ll kiss me. We’ll keep taking bits of each other till we get to our center, then we’ll do it and it won’t feel scary or strange.”

Lucy is a bit like a literary fangirl – she bases all of her assumptions about love and romance on her favorite books and when asked to come up with a list of guys who she would “do it” with (by Jazz), she names all fictional characters. It’s very satisfying to see her journey to the realization that love is very different from what she assumes, and so much better.

“Real is better.  The truth is better.  It makes you feel stupid, but it’s better.”

This book has a few elements that I’ve seen in other YA novels, but here they are accomplished with so much more heart and authenticity.  I loved Lucy’s parents in the Australian edition and although their presence is scaled back quite a bit in this U.S. edition, they are still a wonderful example of three dimensional, quirky, loving, human parents.  Lucy is very worried throughout the book because her father has moved from their home to the shed out back, which doesn't conform to her view of how love should be: 

"You should feel it like a horse tumbling through you.  You shouldn’t be able to sleep knowing that the person you love is lying in the shed.”

Even though Lucy has doubts about her parents’ relationship, their love is visible in these pages. It’s such a rare treat to find a complex, realistic adult romance hidden within a young adult story.  Lucy’s parents argue and struggle financially and have problems, and their relationship isn’t perfect.  And yet it works for them, which is the only thing that matters.  

Cath Crowley also does such a wonderful job with Leo and Ed– two boys who manage to be sensitive and artistic without seeming whiny or pretentious.  They feel like real boys, complete with awkwardness, bad decision-making, and insecurities. They never feel (as many young adult love interests do) like shallow illustrations of the author’s own wish-fulfillment.  

One thing that I noticed a lot more this time is that this book is not only about Lucy’s awakening to reality; it’s about Ed’s.  Lucy’s view of Shadow is a rosy-hued fantasy, but Ed’s view of himself is a dark and painful place.  Even as Lucy is blinding herself to the possibility of real romance, she’s helping Ed – to see himself in a new way, as someone amazing.

This book is excellent proof that a light read can also contain serious topics like death, poverty, parental abandonment, and divorce.  It's a sweet, hilarious, romantic book that won't make you choke on saccharine sweetness.

4/5 Stars

And now...
A Few Notes About the Differences Between the U.S. and Australian Editions:

I started looking through the U.S. edition yesterday, thinking that there wouldn't be too many differences - maybe a few less u's, maybe the word "Maccas" would be changed to McDonald's.  Nothing major.

Boy was I wrong.  I hesitate to say that this book is completely different, but...this book is completely different.  Nearly every single page has some alteration. There are the simple changes that one would expect, like “real estate agent” becomes “landlady,” “abseil” becomes “rappel,” and the Peppermint Freddoes become Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.  In the Australian edition, Jazz loves chess.  In the U.S. edition, she loves Scrabble.  Lucy no longer "can't get no" anything.  Barry's diner is now called Feast cafe.

And then there are large-scale rewordings, additions, and deletions.  

I was in over my head and I needed help.  So I decided to call in an expert.  Enter the lovely Maggie - ie, one of Graffiti Moon's biggest fans and the only person on Goodreads who can make me want to read a contemporary romance.  Not only did she provide me with a few hilarious screen shots to get me through this trial, she read through my scattered notes and gave me hers to supplement them (and had a good laugh at my zany note taking I might add...).

So what exactly are the major differences?  The largest addition is a new chapter by Poet, featuring a poem called Dance Floor, which is written like a conversation between Jazz and Leo.

The U.S. edition also expands on quite a few things: Ed’s Mum has a bigger role, as do Al the glass artist, Bert the paint store owner, and there are several new scenes with Jazz that replace ones with Lucy’s parents.  There’s more information about Leo’s home life and Ed’s relationship with Beth (Ed and Beth's ending has also been changed). There’s a gorgeous new passage where Lucy draws her memory bottles for Ed in charcoal next to one of Shadow’s paintings. 

Some passages are completely rewritten.  I spent probably too much time trying to figure out why.  For example, check out the differences between these two frequently quoted passages:

Australian edition:
"Every time he looked at me I felt like I’d touched my tongue to the tip of a battery.  In Art class I’d watch him lean back and listen and I was nothing but zing and tingle.  After a while the tingle turned to electricity, and when he asked me out my whole body amped to a level where technically I should have been dead.  I had nothing in common with a sheddy like him, but a girl doesn’t think straight when she’s that close to electrocution."

U.S. edition:
"Most times when I looked over he wasn’t drawing.  He was leaning back in his chair and staring at me.  And every time he stared I felt like I’d touched my tongue to the tip of a battery.  I was nothing but tingle.  After a while the tingle turned to electricity, and when he asked me out my whole body amped to a level where technically I should have been dead.  I was pretty sure we had nothing in common, but a girl doesn’t think straight when she’s that close to electrocution."

Do Australians feel zing and we don't?  What is zing anyway?  Can I have it shipped here for free from fishpondworld?

In general I was disappointed that the U.S. edition seemed to be striving for more of an adult presence in Ed and Leo’s lives, and that Lucy’s parents were scaled down.  It felt a bit...sanitized, which I didn't like.  However, I think that Ed's insecurities and inner emotions come across much more clearly in the U.S. edition.  It's hard to say which one I like more.  If you're a fan of this book and you've read the Australian edition, it's definitely worth getting the U.S. edition as well.

Perfect Musical Pairing
Tegan and Sara - Call it Off
Twins Tegan and Sara Quin can so effortlessly capture raw longing with their bare, harmonizing voices.  This song is such an emotional ode to missed chances and I think that it’s the perfect complement to Graffiti Moon. 

Black Heart (Curse Workers, #3)
Author: Holly Black
Publication Date: 4/3/12
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Book

Blurb (GR): Cassel Sharpe knows he’s been used as an assassin, but he’s trying to put all that behind him. He’s trying to be good, even though he grew up in a family of con artists and cheating comes as easily as breathing to him. He’s trying to do the right thing, even though the girl he loves is inextricably connected with crime. And he’s trying to convince himself that working for the Feds is smart, even though he’s been raised to believe the government is the enemy.

But with a mother on the lam, the girl he loves about to take her place in the Mob, and new secrets coming to light, the line between what’s right and what’s wrong becomes increasingly blurred. When the Feds ask Cassel to do the one thing he said he would never do again, he needs to sort out what’s a con and what’s truth. In a dangerous game and with his life on the line, Cassel may have to make his biggest gamble yet—this time on love.

Review: 

The picture I've posted at the top of this review is not how the cover of the upcoming Black Heart is going to look, but I'm very fond of the old covers and feel sentimental at the moment and sad that I won't hold the book with that image on the jacket. I understand publishers' desires to attract a wider audience by repackaging these books but, boy, do I feel nothing for the new ones (except annoyance). In fact, I don't think I know anyone who actually likes the new covers. After witnessing SO many of

the series I follow revamped and having slight heart palpitations at seeing unmatched books in the same series on my shelves, I'm inclined to propose for publishers to  start offering alternative book covers in cases like this. So that in a chase for the new readers they don't upset the readers they already have. Maybe having double-sided covers is a way to go? But I digress.

If you haven't read White Cat and Red Glove yet and are still contemplating if you should start another series that might take a nosedive half-way through, let me assure you, Curse Workers remains fairly consistent. Just don't read book synopses and spoilers or the rest of this review and enjoy the ride.

As a trilogy conclusion,  Black Heart is satisfying, albeit a little weaker in terms of plotting than its predecessors. Hence, 3.5 stars instead of 4.

Cassel's journey to find his place in a world, where his value as a transformation worker is unprecedented, continues, and it seems he just can't catch a break. Everyone (Feds, mafia, his family) wants to use him one way or another, through threats, blackmail or shiny promises. But what is the right thing for him to do? Who to join? And what to take a stand against?

I keep repeating myself talking about these books, how much I like the cons and how entertaining it is to watch Cassel outsmart his much more powerful enemies. And although there is a certain slackness about  a couple of story lines in this finale (for instance, the subplot about Cassel's classmate needing help in a blackmail scheme required a little more development) Black Heart is still sufficiently mysterious and twisty. And the conclusion to Cassel's and Lila's story is both tied up and open-ended, just the way I like my endings to be.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I stand by this series from the beginning to the end. Holly Black created a unique world with unique magic and the characters I'd love to meet again.

And the last thing. I can't finish reviewing this series without mentioning Jesse Eeisenberg who narrated the audio versions of the novels. For me, he was a major factor in getting me wildly attached to Cassel Sharpe. He added a layer of nerdy vulnerability and puppy charm to Cassel's character.  What can I say? I have a bit of a thing for Jesse.

3.5/5 stars

I've been on Goodreads for a few years now and I've made some wonderful friends during that time, some with whom I converse daily and share inside jokes, international mail, and long, long conversations about books. There are people on the social media site whose opinions I trust and who I look to for insights as to why I might or might not enjoy a book. Sometimes they disagree with me and sometimes they capture the essence of a book in cases where I couldn't figure out what to say. Everybody has something to say and very rarely do we agree on all counts. Since I joined the site, I've enjoyed Tatiana's reviews. She always takes the time to discuss what worked (and what didn't work) for her about a book and I've devoured tens of books based on her recommendations.  The two of us have very different reviewing styles and sometimes a different opinion on books but I honestly think that can only be a positive from a blogging standpoint. We hope to do monthly tandem book reviews (reading the same book but posting two separate reviews) and she's already posted several reviews to our archives for titles I'd previously reviewed and some new ones as well.  (I've marked every review with the first initial of its author) I look forward to the dynamics of our new blogging partnership and I hope two opinions are better than one. To me, that is already the case--Tatiana has given me wonderful suggestions on how to improve the organization of the blog! I hope you all will enjoy her reviews as much as I do. So, without further ado, I'll let her get to it!

Thank you, Flannery!

I've been toying with the idea of blogging for a while. Probably everyone who spends as much time as I do talking about books, researching books and writing about books, is. After consuming so much information about books, it's only natural to want to share this knowledge with others. I adore Goodreads and it's my favorite place to be on the net, but it has some limitations, which I feel a blog platform could compensate for.  So yes, blogging interested me, but I was skittish to undertake it on my own. I have neither computer savvy nor courage to start such a project by myself. This is why I'm so happy to have Flannery as my partner in crime. She's been my close Goodreads friend for a long time now. Although we don't always agree, we share not only the love of literature, but eclectic reading tastes as well. We both dabble in almost any genre you can think of.  I'm absolutely sure we'll make a great blogging team and I look forward to all the fun times this joint project is bound to bring and, of course, to getting to know you better, our followers and friends.

And now, my first official review for The Readventurer.

Bitterblue (Seven Kingdoms, #3)
Author: Kristin Cashore
Publication Date: 5/1/12
Publisher: Dial

Blurb (GR): Eight years after Graceling, Bitterblue is now queen of Monsea. But the influence of her father, a violent psychopath with mind-altering abilities, lives on. Her advisors, who have run things since Leck died, believe in a forward-thinking plan: Pardon all who committed terrible acts under Leck’s reign, and forget anything bad ever happened. But when Bitterblue begins sneaking outside the castle—disguised and alone—to walk the streets of her own city, she starts realizing that the kingdom has been under the thirty-five-year spell of a madman, and the only way to move forward is to revisit the past. Two thieves, who only steal what has already been stolen, change her life forever. They hold a key to the truth of Leck’s reign. And one of them, with an extreme skill called a Grace that he hasn’t yet identified, holds a key to her heart.

Review: 
It's with a heavy heart that I'm giving Bitterblue only 2 stars. This book was one of the most anticipated reads of the year for me and will go down my personal history as one of the most massive disappointments. It has to be acknowledged, though, that most of the reviews of Bitterblue so far have been very positive and contained words like "genius" and "masterpiece" in them. My opinion appears to be out of norm.

After recently rereading both of Kristin Cashore's earlier books, I feel that with each new one she moves away from the simplicity of her debut Graceling (and what I personally like to read) and in a direction that I can't follow. I enjoyed the action/romance/magic mixture of Graceling and mostly liked Fire, even though some of it was boring and over-complicated (I'm talking about the ball conspiracy scene), but Bitterblue is a completely different beast, a story that is confusing and indulgently long.

I've always felt after finishing Graceling that Bitterblue's story had to be told. She carries such a dreadful legacy - a deranged, mind-manipulating father, a country damaged by the 35-year long abuse by Leck's twisted magic, Bitterblue's own childhood traumas. All of this is in the novel.

Bitterblue is 18 now, a rightful queen of Monsea, running her kingdom efficiently enough with the help of her advisers who urge her to forget the horrors of the past and look ahead. But then she starts noticing that there is something really wrong going on around her. People act irrationally, they lie about the smallest things, they make no sense. She ventures outside the walls of her castle, to meet regular people and to find out the real state of things in her country. Bitterblue comes across an even bigger amount of odd behaviors and crimes. She does her best to untangle the web of lies, puzzles and madness...

The truths Bitterblue uncovers are powerful, and they have to be explored. But I feel like Cashore arrives at those truths by a route that is too complicated, convoluted and scattered. Too many side plots, too much talk of ciphers and codes, too many characters coming and going, too many illogical occurrences that instead of making the story more intricate, end up making it too busy and messy.

I am definitely a fan of twisty, complicated plots. Bitterblue has that, it strives to be something akin to Megan Whalen Turner's and Melina Marchetta's fantasy novels (these three authors appear to draw inspiration from each other's works). But whereas I was consumed by Turner's and Marchetta's mysteries, trying to spot what was wrong and who was lying and why and guessing the connections among the characters, reading Bitterblue was mostly a confusing and irritating experience. Events and characters in this novel are completely insane. They make no sense, they defy logic, they stand out to any person as odd. Most of the book I spent repeating Bitterblue's own thoughts: What is going on? And why is everyone acting so crazy? As a mystery, Bitterblue did not work for me at all. Untangling a mystery in which no one even makes an effort to pretend to act normally is too much of a challenge for me.

There are things I did like in Bitterblue. The prologue, containing a scene of Leck mind-raping Bitterblue and her mother is, in my opinion, the best piece of Cashore's writing, horrifying and affecting. We also meet quite a few characters from the author's prior novels. Many, I am sure, will be happy to see Po and Katsa again (although they seem to be a lot more... animated than they were in Graceling). And the last hundred pages, where some secrets are uncovered and things start coming together, are much more pleasurable to read. But even keeping the positives in mind, I can't say I enjoyed reading Bitterblue. It was a challenge, it was a struggle.

I am waiting for more readers to review the novel to see if there are people out there who share my assessment of it or my reaction to Bitterblue is just a result of a severe case of reader/book incompatibility.

2/5 stars

I'm always excited to find out about new things whether it is a television show, board game, book, website, beer, recipe, ANYTHING. The downside of this (or perhaps just my personality) is that I get extremely excited to tell other people about these things. I will tell you all about this Discovery Channel special I watched about building a transatlantic tunnel, make you watch Summer Heights High, dance like Dawn Weiner from Welcome to the Dollhouse, and show you about 40 YouTube videos that I watch all the time. So, without further adieu, here are some completely unsolicited recommendations for books based on liking other things.

If you are into shows like Battlestar Galactica and Firefly, you should try the Grimspace series by Ann Aguirre and The Native Star series by M.K. Hobson. 

If you are into British humor and tons and tons of puns and literary jokes, you should try the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. (I also absolutely recommend his work, Shades of Grey!)

If you like the feeling of laying on your back in water in direct sunlight, you should read Raw Blue by Kirsty Eagar. 

If you like the movie Heathers, you should read Fury by Shirley Marr.

If you like the worldbuilding in shows like Merlin and want to feel immersed in a world, you should try Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, any books by Tamora Pierce, or anything by Brandon Sanderson.

If you like YA and science fiction exploration stories, you should read Singing the Dogstar Blues by Alison Goodman and the Touchstone series by Andrea Höst .

If you like books about rehab and are looking for great LGBT YA lit, you should try Suicide Notes.

If you like being dropped down in the middle of a community and following large casts of characters, you should read any of Maeve Binchy's books. (I recommend Tara Road, Circle of Friends, Light A Penny Candle, Firefly Summer, and Minding Frankie)

If you want to read some great short stories (for free! online!), you should try Harrison Bergeron, The End of the Party, Ponies, All Summer in a Day, and 2BRO2B.

If you like MMORPGs, you should read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.

If you like zombies and politics (there are some of us out there!), you should read the Newsflesh books by Mira Grant.

If you like Nora Roberts books but wish they were a little sexier, you might try Susan Elizabeth Phillips. (try Kiss An Angel) 

If you liked Buffy during the college years, you should read the Chicagoland Vampires series by Chloe Neill.

If you like Doctor Who, you might like Walls of the Universe by Paul Melko and Replay by Ken Grimwood.

If you are an teen/adult who liked the tone of The Hunger Games, you should read Stephen King's The Running Man and The Long Walk.

If you still think Penny from Inspector Gadget deserved to be recognized as the brains behind the operation, you might like What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn.

If you liked The Thirteenth Tale, you should try The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell.

That's it for now. If you have any random "If you like this, try that" suggestions, comment away!