The Calling (Darkness Rising, #2)
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publication Date: 4/10/12
Publisher: Harper Collins

Blurb (GR): Maya Delaney's paw-print birthmark is the mark of what she truly is--a skin-walker. She can run faster, climb higher, and see better than nearly everyone else. Experiencing intense connections with the animals that roam the woods outside her home, Maya knows it's only a matter of time before she's able to Shift and become one of them. And she believes there may be others in her small town with surprising talents.

Now, Maya and her friends have been forced to flee from their homes during a forest fire they suspect was deliberately set. Then they're kidnapped, and after a chilling helicopter crash, they find themselves in the Vancouver Island wilderness with nothing but their extraordinary abilities to help them get back home.

Review:

How do I put it gently? It is time for Kelley Armstrong to stop writing the same story. This cow, unfortunately, is almost dry.

I know, it sounds mean, but even though I mostly enjoyed the process of reading The Calling OK, this book is pretty much the same thing as The Summoning, The Awakening, The Reckoning, The Gathering, plus a couple of short stories relating to this whole Darkest Powers series. ALL of these stories have exactly the same plot. I do not even need to read  The Rising to know what will happen in it. Let's be honest, how fun can it be, to go through the same motions again and again?

Yes, I was complimentary in my review of The Gathering. Even though the plot of it was transparent, the setting was fresh, the new supernatural powers were interesting, the back stories were engaging. But in The Calling, here we are again - there is nothing but running around and hiding, just like in all Darkest Powers books (especially the middle one - The Awakening). Is there anyone who has read the first trilogy who does not know where the story is going in Darkness Rising trilogy? One person? No?

There is nothing but action in this book. It feels "meatless," because of the lack of background info (we already kn0w every kid who is on the run) and lack of depth. Just run, hide in the bushes, someone gets caught, rescue, run, hide in the bushes... Rinse and repeat. There are so many fortunate and unfortunate events  and coincidences in The Calling that they often undermine the believability of the whole narrative. The one event that stands out in my mind is when our teens after the helicopter crash and days of wondering in the woods finally reach a public place (a restaurant), they are denied the use of a phone, because, can you believe it, they were reported dead on the news and the owner thinks these teens are just pranking her! This is just a turn of events I have a hard time swallowing.

The characters and relationships are still good in this novel though, but I wish they were a part of a completely different story, unrelated to the Otherworld and Edison Group.

Will I read the follow-up to The Calling? I am pretty sure I will. But if there is another trilogy, with another Project in addition to Project Genesis (Darkest Powers trilogy) and Project Phoenix (Darkness Rising trilogy)? No way! Six books of the same thing is more than enough.

3/5 stars

Unraveling
Author: Elizabeth Norris
Publication Date: 4/24/12
Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Blurb (GR): Two days before the start of her junior year, seventeen-year-old Janelle Tenner is hit by a pickup truck and killed—as in blinding light, scenes of her life flashing before her, and then nothing. Except the next thing she knows, she's opening her eyes to find Ben Michaels, a loner from her high school whom Janelle has never talked to, leaning over her. And even though it isn't possible, she knows—with every fiber of her being—that Ben has somehow brought her back to life.

But her revival, and Ben's possible role in it, is only the first of the puzzles that Janelle must solve. While snooping in her FBI agent father's files for clues about her accident, she uncovers a clock that seems to be counting down to something—but to what? And when someone close to Janelle is killed, she can no longer deny what's right in front of her: Everything that's happened—the accident, the murder, the countdown clock, Ben's sudden appearance in her life—points to the end of life as she knows it. And as the clock ticks down, she realizes that if she wants to put a stop to the end of the world, she's going to need to uncover Ben's secrets—and keep from falling in love with him in the process.

From debut author Elizabeth Norris comes this shattering novel of one girl's fight to save herself, her world, and the boy she never saw coming.

Review:

When I look back at Unraveling, the first word that comes to mind is "calculated."

I read a fair number of commercial genre fiction and I am quite used to certain themes, plots and character archetypes being recycled over and over and over and over. It does not bother me, in general. But Unraveling was the first book that made me think, while reading it, that it had been written off of a checklist of what is currently "in" and sells well in YA market. I do not even have energy (nor a desire) to harp on how much of this novel is tediously familiar. Just a few notes:

1. Opening: the hero saves the heroine from dying.
2. Romance: 50% instalove (see #1)/ 50% I-have-loved-you-forever. Escalates to I-can't-leave-without-you in a matter of 2-3 weeks.
   
3. The heroine is "strong" - smart, good student, knows how stand up for herself, family caretaker, family problems, dark traumatic incident in her past of sexual nature.
   
4. The hero is "good" - sensitive, caring, saves the heroine on multiple occasions, with floppy hair he is constantly running his hands through, crooked smile, with dark secret, fixes motorcycles, hides his smarts under a stoner persona.
5. School: a class that is conveniently designed for the hero and the heroine to banter on a very intimate level, encouraged by the teacher.
6. Other stock characters: stoners, slutty mean girls, stupid jocks, the heroine's best male friend (possibly gay? unclear).
7. Sleeping chastely in the same bed? Yes.

          etc., etc,...

Is it really that hard for writers to break away from the same old, same old? Or is this what publishers are deliberately and actively seeking out? Something that fits the mold?

There are a few saving graces, however, that barely keep Unraveling from the 1-star abyss, in my case, and, apparently, elevate this book to the level of a favorite, for other readers.

First, it appears the author of the novel went out of her way to make sure to put all positive qualities into her characters and situations. There is no promoting of unhealthy relationships, abusive behavior, doormatedness and so on. The main characters even give small lectures along the way on the matters of dating, dangers of motorcycle riding, drunk driving, honorable way of hacking into the school records, etc.

Second, while I was not at any point enamored with the characters, I still thought the book was a very brisk read. The writing has a sense of urgency to it. The chapters are very short and represent a countdown to a very important, possibly life-threatening event. So you just tear through these pages, like there is no tomorrow.

Third, this novel starts out as a paranormal (after all, the hero magically brings the heroine back from death), but eventually turns into a science fiction story (SF is on the rise, people!, that is why it is in this book, I am betting). Several very positive reviews of Unraveling I have read call this SF bend unique, and readers seem to like it a lot.

But I beg to differ here. Maybe because I do read a lot of SF and I have very recently read another (much better) YA SF with the same ideas (I will not name it so that I do not spoil the surprise), but I cannot seriously call Unraveling a good SF novel. There is hardly any science in Unraveling, the SF "hook" goes generally undeveloped. As for how much science there is actually in this book, I would say close to zero. You can expect nothing more, if the characters in this novel say: "I've spent hours going over it in my head. I was wrong when I told A. no one else knows the science. Both B. and C. know the science..." (identities concealed to avoid spoilers). So that is the extent of scientific knowledge in Unraveling. There are no specifics, just that elusive "science" that characters "know" and "do."

Readers less jaded and less demanding are likely to enjoy Unraveling more. The book's pace is snappy and the story itself packs all the "right" elements. But there is just no originality in it, no life in its characters, no true inspiration behind it. An aggregate of bluntly "popular" pieces carefully put together.

2.5/5 stars

Boy21
Author: Matthew Quick
Publication Date: 3/5/12
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Blurb (GR): Basketball has always been an escape for Finley. He lives in broken-down Bellmont, a town ruled by the Irish mob, drugs, violence, and racially charged rivalries. At home, his dad works nights and Finley is left alone to take care of his disabled grandfather. He's always dreamed of somehow getting out, but until he can, putting on that number 21 jersey makes everything seem okay.

Russ has just moved to the neighborhood. The life of this teen basketball phenom has been turned upside down by tragedy. Cut off from everyone he knows, he won't pick up a basketball, and yet answers only to the name Boy21—taken from his former jersey number.

As their final year of high school brings these two boys together, "Boy21" may turn out to be the answer they both need. Matthew Quick, the acclaimed author of Sorta Like a Rock Star, brings readers a moving novel about hope, recovery, and redemption.

Review:

There is not nearly enough YA books about friendships. For some strange reason, romantic relationships are promoted as more important. While I agree that at some point in life you do meet that special person who becomes your partner in everything, up until that point it is friends that help you out, support you, accompany you through life.

Friendship, the healing, supporting, non-judgmental type of friendship, is what Boy21 is about. Or is supposed to be about.

I love the idea of this novel. Imagine Finley, a reserved high school senior with some serious darkness in his past, whose only friend is his girlfriend/soulmate Erin. Finley's most favorite occupation, his therapy of sorts, is basketball. His goal for his last school year is just to be on the team and play well. Enter Boy21, another damaged young boy, a rising basketball star,  who suffers from a mental breakdown after the death of his parents. Finley is entrusted to guard and partner with Boy21 in school. And also guide him back  into playing basketball, because, among other things, what Boy21 had lost is his passion for the game.

There is a very interesting conflict here: Should Finley encourage Boy21 to play, knowing that he will for sure take his place on the team? Should he sacrifice his own dreams in order to save his new friend, because maybe basketball indeed has a power to heal Boy21, bring him back from the imaginary escape world he exists in now? What is more important - your friend's well-being or your own ?

To my disappointment, this conflict never really comes to the front of this novel, never develops to its full potential, never impacts the characters as strongly as it could and should have . The book that was supposed to be about Boy21 (you would assume, judging by the title) and about the friendship bonds between the two boys is diluted and often overshadowed by the side plots - Irish mob, Finley's girlfriend and family problems. In the end, only maybe 25% of the book is about friendship, and the rest - just everything else. I feel like Boy21 is a case of the writer having his fingers in too many (idea) pots. The main point of the story is just lost.

I do not want to take away from the merits of this novel. I admire Quick and some passages in Boy21 made my eyes tingle. But I do think this books lacks clearer focus and a better overreaching story arc.

As often is with these things, I am a little baffled by the overwhelmingly positive critical reception of Boy21. It has already received some serious starred reviews from several major professional publication. His previous YA novel - Sorta Like a Rock Star is a much more accomplished work, in my opinion, and yet it went almost unnoticed.

Do I recommend Boy21? Yes, but with some reservations. However, I  do wholeheartedly recommend Matthew Quick's Sorta Like a Rock Star.

3/5 stars

The Wicked and the Just
Author: J. Anderson Coats
Publication Date: 4/17/12
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books

Blurb (GR): Cecily’s father has ruined her life. He’s moving them to occupied Wales, where the king needs good strong Englishmen to keep down the vicious Welshmen. At least Cecily will finally be the lady of the house.

Gwenhwyfar knows all about that house. Once she dreamed of being the lady there herself, until the English destroyed the lives of everyone she knows. Now she must wait hand and foot on this bratty English girl.

While Cecily struggles to find her place amongst the snobby English landowners, Gwenhwyfar struggles just to survive. And outside the city walls, tensions are rising ever higher—until finally they must reach the breaking point.

Review:

How much do you know about Wales? 13th century Wales? Invasion of Wales by England?

Nothing? Do not fret, neither did I before reading The Wicked and the Just. I can claim to know a little tiny bit about the history of tension between Scotland and England, thanks to Diana Gabaldon and the tidbits of historical information she puts in between hunky Jamie Fraser's kilted adventures in Outlander books. But about Wales I knew absolutely nothing. Now I can thank J. Anderson Coats for educating me on this subject and simultaneously entertaining me.

The Wicked and the Just is set during a very pivotal period in Welsh history - the country has been occupied by England for a few years and the intensity of oppression is so high that the discontent within Welsh population is reaching a boiling point.

Enter Cecily, an English girl brought by her father to the wilderness of Wales to live in a walled town of Caernarvon. Surrounded by snobbish fellow Englishmen and "barbarous" Welshmen, Cecily spends her time being bratty, cunning, strong-headed, and lamenting lack of suitable beaus and dresses. With all her spoiled girl attitude, Cecily is actually quite funny. (Although I have to say, while I enjoyed her humor, I thought it had a very modern pattern to it.)

Cecily's Welsh servant girl Gwenhwyfar (we will call her Gwinny, because I have no clue whatsoever how to pronounce her full name) has a completely different set of challenges, e.g., how not to get raped by rough Englishmen or not to die of hunger.  Her voice is bitter, vengeance-hungry and defiant.

The conflict between Wales and England is portrayed wonderfully through these two perspectives.

Objectively, the main weakness of The Wicked and the Just is that its plot is virtually non-existent. If you do not mind me being technical, what I mean is that rising action, climax, falling action, and dénouement all happen during the last 50 pages of the novel. Exposition, on the other hand, takes up the rest 80% of the book.

Now, if the narrators of The Wicked and the Just were less charismatic, such a narrative structure could have been detrimental to the story. But both Cecily and Gwinny are two very interesting girls and the slice-of-life/everyday minutiae approach works effectively here. I was not bored by the lengthy exposition at all, too busy laughing at and wanting to strangle Cecily and being horrified by the details of Gwinny's life.

If I have not made it clear yet, I enjoyed The Wicked and the Just and I am also thankful that quality historical fiction is, while rare, is still being written by thoughtful and caring of historical accuracy authors.

P.S. If you want to learn a little more of all things Welsh, check out Jo's Welsh Week post. All kinds of useful info there, from pictures of reading (!) muscly Welsh rugby players to how to pronounce something that is spelled like this: Ysgytlaeth. Plus, a guest post by J. Anderson Coats herself.

4/5 stars

Girl Meets Boy: Because There Are Two Sides to Every Story
Editor: Kelly Milner Halls
Publication Date: 12/28/11
Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC

Blurb (GR): What do guys and girls really think? Twelve of the most dynamic and engaging YA authors writing today team up for this one-of-a-kind collection of "he said/she said" stories-he tells it from the guy's point of view, she tells it from the girl's. These are stories of love and heartbreak. There's the good-looking jock who falls for a dangerous girl, and the flipside, the toxic girl who never learned to be loved; the basketball star and the artistic (and shorter) boy she never knew she wanted; the gay boy looking for love online and the girl who could help make it happen. Each story in this unforgettable collection teaches us that relationships are complicated-because there are two sides to every story.

Review:
I cannot start my review of Girl Meets Boy without commenting on its cover. I mean, seriously, look at it! This photo must be the most awkward I have EVER seen. Even Jim C. Hines probably would not undertake replicating this pose, because in which universe is it comfortable, never mind romantic? This cover would have worked if it were designed to be ironic, but alas, this is not the case. It is meant to be taken seriously.

As you can see from the blurb, the anthology's goal was to present a series of stories about (romantic) relationships from the points of view of both parties involved. In theory, considering how differently relationships can be perceived by the participants, this is a very strong concept for a short story collection. However, such approach to story telling, I think, works only if the points of view are drastically dissimilar and do not rehash the same events, etc. There are not many authors that can pull off the double narrator structure (How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr comes to mind as an example of success). More often than not, what happens in many such works, especially romances, is that two narrators are used only for doubling the dosage of love angst and lusting.

Unfortunately, only a couple of story pairs in Girl Meets Boy manage to use the anthology's concept effectively, in those stories people do, in fact, view the relationships they are in differently. The rest of the double stories follow the weaker route, with happy romances viewed exactly in the same light by the couple. In those cases, only the first, original, stories in the pairs are worth reading, and second stories often appear to be fanfictiony rehashes of the same thing.

Why such a high rating from me then?

Well, even though the high concept of the anthology isn't explored to the fullest in Girl Meets Boy, the collection itself is pretty strong. The contributors are almost uniformly critically acclaimed and their stories are generally well written and offer a good variety of romantic teen relationships - you have happy and dangerous romances, couples from different racial, ethnic, religious backgrounds, straight and gay couples. Diversity and quality of writing is what distinguishes Girl Meets Boy from many other YA anthologies.

3.5/5 stars

After the Snow
Author: S.D. Crockett
Publishing Date: 3/27/12
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Blurb (GR): Fifteen-year-old Willo was out hunting when the trucks came and took his family away. Left alone in the snow, Willo becomes determined to find and rescue his family, and he knows just who to talk with to learn where they are. He plans to head across the mountains and make Farmer Geraint tell him where his family has gone.

But on the way across the mountain, he finds Mary, a refugee from the city, whose father is lost and who is starving to death. The smart thing to do would be to leave her alone - he doesn't have enough supplies for two or the time to take care of a girl - but Willo just can't do it. However, with the world trapped in an ice age, the odds of them surviving on their own are not good. And even if he does manage to keep Mary safe, what about finding his family?

Review:
I feel neither here nor there about After the Snow.

From literary standpoint, the novel  is written skillfully. The book's narrator, 15-year old Willo, a half-wild boy raised to be able to care for himself in a world of almost endless winter (Earth appears to be back to the Ice Age in After the Snow), is not of overly educated stock. He can barely read, he speaks in a dialect (akin to Saba's in Blood Red Road or Todd's in The Knife of Never Letting Go) which is sure to put off many readers, if I am to judge by the early reviews of the book. Not me though. Language and the narrative style are the best part of the novel, in my opinion. They fit the desolate, possibly post-apocalyptic landscape and Willo's nature boy persona very well.

The beginning of the novel is particularly enthralling. After coming back from hunting, Willo finds his mountain home empty and his family gone. He suspects that their neighbor, who first impregnated and then married Willo's 14-year old sister, has something to do with the disappearance. So Willo embarks on a freezing cold journey to visit this neighbor and to figure out what happened to his family. He has only his sled with a few necessary for survival items, his knowledge of living in rough conditions and his memories with him. Some of those memories are pure gold:

Magda got her books in that cupboard. Some of them are proper interesting - like the one about every kind of decease a sheep gonna get if you just let it alone and don't go checking under its tail for maggots and under its wool for maggots and behind its ears for maggots. I tell you, sheep must be like a big pile of shit to flies, cos they sure gonna get a maggoty disease just by standing still. Or be falling off a cliff or giving birth in a snowy ditch or some other trouble if you're gonna believe what that book tell you.

(I don't know what it says about me, but I read books for voices like this and and for bits of information like this.)

Things get even more exciting when Willo meets a dying of cold and hunger girl and her little brother in an isolated shack. At that point I was very much looking forward to a survival- in-a-snow sort of story.

To my regret, my expectations never materialized. A series  of unfortunate events (involving wild dogs and cannibals!) brings Willo to a government-controlled and guarded city, and here After the Snow transforms from a post-apocalyptic survival story into a dystopia. The settlements appears to be of a totalitarian, oppressive kind, with a very tight security from outsiders and a necessity for everyone to have "papers." But it all made no sense to me. With a lot of military guarding this place, there is very little order inside. And whoever in this regime suggested living in tents (!) in this climate definitely lacked basic common sense. Overall, the main conflict of the story - which is, apparently, a tension between people who live in the "official" settlement and those, who like Willo's parents, decided to live separately and fend for themselves in the mountains - made very little sense to me. The novel lost me then.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Author: Jesse Andrews
Publication Date: 3/1/12
Publisher: Amulet Books

Blurb (GR): Seventeen-year-old Greg has managed to become part of every social group at his Pittsburgh high school without having any friends, but his life changes when his mother forces him to befriend Rachel, a girl he once knew in Hebrew school who has leukemia.

Review:
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl was my second "cancer book" in as many months. Although both Jesse Andrews and John Green had the same intention - to write a story about cancer that was different from those other tearjerky novels, in my eyes, Andrews was much more successful at stepping away from melodrama and cliches of the genre than Green. Of course, Andrews does not (yet) have a publicity platform of Green's magnitude to promote his novel, so I am glad to be able to help him out a little, because, from my perspective, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a better, more honest, more real book than The Fault in Our Stars.

It is better mainly because it does not try to force you into feeling all the obvious things we are expected to feel reading stories about young, terminally ill characters. There is a certain compulsion to idealize cancer kids, lives ending so tragically early and all that. It is also pretty common to practically guilt you into feeling sorry for their specific predicament. But I like that Andrews allows his characters, even his hero, to be resentful and maybe indifferent towards or burdened by the illness, that his cancer-stricken patient is not an ever-so-wise, heroic saint, that there are maybe no life lessons to learn from such personal tragedies. Maybe having a dying girl in your life is just an event that will affect you in a major way, or maybe it will not and that would be okay, too.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is not all about cancer though, in fact, the dying girl subplot plays only a relatively small part in Greg's story. It is more about Greg defining himself, stopping to play so safe, about bringing a little more focus onto his future and about understanding of who he is. The author might be a little coy repeating again and again in his narrative that there is no point to this novel, but there is one.

Another good thing about Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is that it is very funny. The success of the book with a reader will depend a lot on what he/she finds funny though, because, admittedly, the novel is filled with jokes of the bathroom variety, you know, boogers, boobs and boners. But it was funny to me nevertheless.

Great dialogue, self-deprecating humor (albeit occasionally too self-deprecating to be not annoying), vulgarity, wacky secondary characters, fresh (to me) approach to portraying cancer - I enjoyed it all and I hope you will too.

4/5 stars

The Obsidian Blade (The Klaatu Diskos, #1)
Author: Pete Hautman
Publication Date: 4/12/12
Publisher: Candlewick Press

Blurb (GR): Kicking off a riveting sci-fi trilogy, National Book Award winner Pete Hautman plunges us into a world where time is a tool - and the question is, who will control it?

The first time his father disappeared, Tucker Feye had just turned thirteen. The Reverend Feye simply climbed on the roof to fix a shingle, let out a scream, and vanished - only to walk up the driveway an hour later, looking older and worn, with a strange girl named Lahlia in tow. In the months that followed, Tucker watched his father grow distant and his once loving mother slide into madness. But then both of his parents disappear. Now in the care of his wild Uncle Kosh, Tucker begins to suspect that the disks of shimmering air he keeps seeing - one right on top of the roof - hold the answer to restoring his family. And when he dares to step into one, he's launched on a time-twisting journey - from a small Midwestern town to a futuristic hospital run by digitally augmented healers, from the death of an ancient prophet to a forest at the end of time. Inevitably, Tucker's actions alter the past and future, changing his world forever.

Review:
Good time-travel YA fiction is hard to find. Really hard. The Obsidian Blade is a whopping #2 on my list of good time-travel YA sci-fi (#1, in case you are interested, is Singing the Dogstar Blues). Even though I am giving this novel only 3 stars, I assure you, it is good. The main draw here is the time-traveling system, that includes a series of disks that were engineered by people of the future and that transport you to various significant points in human history. These points range from the Crucifixion of the Christ to 9/11 and more.

Like any time-travel story, The Obsidian Blade requires some effort to keep up with the characters' jumps from one event to another, with changes in setting, with time paradoxes and crossed paths and swallowed years. But not even once does Hautman waver and stumble into a plot hole. I am not sure how he managed to track it all, but every time jump and every after-effect of it in this story seems logical and inevitable. Hautman raises questions of faith and fate, challenges readers to think if our destiny is pre-determined or our free will guides it. Exciting stuff.

There are two reasons for my not rating The Obsidian Blade higher.

One, this novel, to my disappointment, reads not like YA, but like a children's/middle grade novel. Although Tucker is mostly 14 in this story, he appears to be much younger, still playing with his toy truck and engaging in activities equaling in their childishness to banging dumpsters with a stick. (The only reason I am bringing this up, because I have a couple of 10-year old neighbors who just love banging those dumpsters. I personally don't understand the thrill, but my husband does. Apparently, he did the same in the grade school. There are some things I will never understand about boys and men and what they find to be a good time.) There is no helping it, I prefer my stories a tad more mature, dealing with teen age issues, rather than following preteens whose main preoccupation is being annoying and constantly putting themselves at a risk of being injured .

Two, it takes a looong while to get to the sci-fi part of the book. Almost half of The Obsidian Blade is just setting the ground work, introducing main players and watching Tucker being bored or stupid. My attention held only barely during those first 150 pages. After this 150 page mark, though, is when the story finally gets going.

Normally, I do not stick with series if I give its opener 3 stars or lower, but here, I might make and exception and get back to it. I am intrigued by the world and the task Tucker and Lahlia have ahead of them.

3/5 stars

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