Review of The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things by Ann Aguirre

Title/Author: The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things by Ann Aguirre
Publisher/Date published: Feiwel & Friends, April 7th 2015
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: Sage Czinski is trying really hard to be perfect. If she manages it, people won’t peer beyond the surface, or ask hard questions about her past. She’s learned to substitute causes for relationships, and it’s working just fine... until Shane Cavendish strolls into her math class. He’s a little antisocial, a lot beautiful, and everything she never knew she always wanted.

Shane Cavendish just wants to be left alone to play guitar and work on his music. He’s got heartbreak and loneliness in his rearview mirror, and this new school represents his last chance. He doesn’t expect to be happy; he only wants to graduate and move on. He never counted on a girl like Sage.

But love doesn’t mend all broken things, and sometimes life has to fall apart before it can be put back together again...

I feel like a bit of a black sheep scrolling through the Goodreads ratings of this book, but I didn't like it as much as other people have so far.

I was all set to go for the cute and swoony read, but it never got there for me. I mean, I was ok with Sage at first, it's pretty cool that she's leaving positive messages on people's lockers and just trying to be the best version of herself, but it also felt REALLY forced. I mean, I was never entirely sure if what she was showing the outside world was actually who she was with all her causes and do-gooder attitude or if it's just something she's playing at. And she has this big dark secret (that we don't get to find out until about 75% through, which really annoyed me) and the mention of Shadow Sage which got tiring pretty fast for me. I mean, honestly, we're never really told exactly why Shadow Sage would know what to do with bullies and how to get back at them and everything. I wasn't that impressed.
It did feel pretty realistic that she was constantly being on her best behaviour around her aunt, who took her in, because she was afraid she would get sent back into the system if she wasn't the perfect kid. I do very much get this, because that would be scary.

There's the potential for a love triangle here, but it doesn't really happen, basically because Sage ignores the guy's feelings for her and instead dives into a relationship with Shane. I mean, the other guy has been her best friend for years and when he tells her he's in love with her she gets mad at him because of lying to her (about something that was pretty much a big NO-NO) and then they never really talk about it after. WTF?
Also, the start of the relationship with Shane felt off, it felt a bit stalkerish from her side to me and I was just not really into it. And for me it felt like insta-love, I mean, there's an actual quote in chapter three that says "Until this moment, I didn't realize I was walking around all this time with a Shane-shaped hole inside of me". I mean, SERIOUSLY??? SO much cheese, which I'm usually ok with, but it was way over the top in here.
Towards the end she does this big gesture thing to help him get out of a sticky situation and I just didn't believe it. To begin with, I didn't buy into the biking for 11 hours in one day. And obviously Shane's dad is a bit of a douchebag, but basically stalking and harassing him? I'm not sure that's ok.

The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things does deal with important subjects, like bullying and dealing with grief, but I'm not sure I think it's handled in the best way. And I still can't get over Sage's saintly front, which felt a bit fake to me. Her aunt was pretty awesome though, a strong independent woman who truly cares for Sage and handles being the guardian of a teenager really well in my opinion. And I also liked the friendship between Sage and Lila, because they were truly bonding.

It's possible that this is a case of it's not you, it's me, or that Ann Aguirre's romance just doesn't mesh with me. A lot of other people did love it though, so see for yourself whether you fall more towards my spectrum of viewing it or not.

My rating: 2 stars

Mini-Reviews (7): The Body in the Woods, Making It Count, The Once and Future Duchess

So ever since June of 2014 I've been failing at writing reviews for the books I read. I know. And because it's been AGES since I read these, I'm just gonna do mini-reviews of them, so as to clear my need-review shelf.

Title/Author: The Body in the Woods by April Henry
Publisher/Date published: Henry Holt and Co, June 17th 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

So I read this book on the airplane on the way to Morocco and so much of it was read in one sitting. If I hadn't been on an airplane, this probably wouldn't have been the case.
The premise was interesting, though having teenagers be part of a field search for a body seems sort of inappropriate, I mean evidence sure, but if there's a chance you'll come across a deceased person, I personally feel that you should only use professionals. And obviously the authorities don't approve of the main characters' quest to discover the killer themselves, DUH.

But hey, they do it anyway and find themselves in danger and one of them becomes the target of said killer and towards the end I was like, OMG, SERIOUSLY??? You should really know better than to walk right into this trap that's being laid for you!! Wow, you've been trying to find a killer and then it's like, yeah, ok, I'll go with this strange person, that totally makes sense.
Anyway.
The Body in the Woods was ok, but it wasn't a very exciting read.

My rating: 2 stars

Title/Author: Make It Count (Bowler University #1) by Megan Erickson
Publisher/Date published: William Morrow Impulse, June 3rd 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley

So I'm always looking for that next awesome NA read, and while Making It Count was a decent read, it wasn't that next great thing. The main character Kat is ok at first, but then she blows stuff way out of proportion and does the 'I'm not going to tell you what's wrong, you should be able to read my mind and figure it out' thing and it's ANNOYING. I mean, seriously, just tell the person you're in a relationship with what's bothering you! If we could all read minds, life would be way easier, but we can't ok? Also, I thought she had a shitty reason for staying in a relationship with a guy who was treating her badly at the start of the novel.

Alec was ok, he seemed like a good guy, but I didn't really swoon over him, which I would have expected, cause I like my men hot and nerdy. I thought their relationship could have been developed a bit better, because now it felt to me that they mostly had a physical attraction and that's it.
I did like that Making It Count deals with dyslexia, which is not something that you see a lot in YA or NA and I appreciate this being brought up, because a lot of people have it!

My rating: 2,5 stars

Title/Author: The Once and Future Duchess (Royal Entourage #4) by Sophia Nash
Publisher/Date published: Avon, May 27th 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley

I liked The Once and Future Duchess, one thing I particularly enjoyed is that the heroine, Isabelle, is a duchess one her own, having inherited the title, which is pretty awesome, as that basically never happens in historical romance. I mean, there's always an abundance of dukes, but duchesses who are not married to said dukes are pretty hard to come by.
And I liked Isabelle because she is strong and intelligent and isn't afraid to go after what she wants. Our duke is also likeable in that he is loyal and just a good man, but this loyalty also got majorly in the way of the romance. I mean, so he promised her deceased father that he would make sure she married a man close to her own age and he's what, a decade her senior? It seems to me that this was pretty much the norm back then, but ok. So even though they love each other, he decides that he can't because of said promise.

And while this makes for some real complication in their lovestory, it also made everything move incredibly slow! OMG, it took forever for him to start taking action and in the mean time it wasn't extremely exciting, though they did have wonderfully romantic moments together. I just would have liked for the pace to be a little faster.
But it was a pretty sweet story and I enjoyed reading it!

My rating: 3 stars

Happy Easter!!

I hope you're all having a lovely long weekend and are eating lots of chocolate eggs! I know I'll be doing just that in a little while ;)

Review of Kiss the Earl by Gina Lamm

Title/Author: Kiss the Earl (Geek Girls #3) by Gina Lamm
Publisher/Date published: Sourcebooks Casablanca, April 7th 2015
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: On the eve of her first comic book release, Ella Briley has a problem: no date to the launch party. Things go from bad to worse when she stumbles into the past... and straight into the arms of her very own Mr. Darcy.

Patrick St. John, Earl of Meadowfair, is too noble for his own good. To save his friend from what is sure to be a loveless marriage, he's agreed to whisk the girl off to wed the man she truly loves. But all goes awry when Patrick mistakes Ella for the would-be bride... and finds this modern girl far too tempting for even the noblest of men to resist.

So after reading The Casual Vacancy, I was really looking forward to reading something cute and fluffy and which would possible bring me lots of feelings. And while I sometimes needed to remind myself to just go with it and not be a non-believer, I totally picked the right book for my mood!

Kiss the Earl was so cute! It was fun and thas an abundance of feelings and I was just rooting for these two! Even if I was a bit confuzzled by the hero's reasoning at one point towards the end, but yeah, men-logic sometimes confuses me in real life as well, so...
I really liked Ella and her carreer as a graphic novel illustrator, that is SO cool! Seriously, I have a lot of respect for people who can bring stories to life and I can't draw to save my life, so Ella seemed pretty awesome to me! Also, I love that she has a non-mainstream job that she has a real passion for. Patrick was a fun character as well, he's loyal and a decent guy, who also manages to land himself in some pretty weird situations because of said loyalty.

And together these two were pretty amazing! They have chemistry that made me smile and swoony moments and misunderstandings that would have been easily fixed, but I didn't care because I was totally feeling it and it was just *sigh* romantic. Also, I loved that he nursed her back to health and was pretty much kicking the 'doctor''s ass for not taking better care of his hygiene. So, SO important! And can I just say that EEP Ella definitely has a realistic fear of getting an infection in this time period? OMG, I cannot imagine not having antibiotics and all the other benefits of today's medicine.

So Kiss the Earl didn't really make me cry, but I did have tears in my eyes and the urge to clutch my scarf because I was so focused on finding out if they would have a happily ever after after all. So basically Kiss the Earl was an adorable read that I was so ready for!

My rating: 4 stars

Review of The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

Title/Author: The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
Publisher/Date published: Little, Brown, and Company, September 27th 2012
How I got this book: bought it
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils ... Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

So to be honest, I would not have picked up this book if it wasn't for the author's name on the cover. I mean, come on, it's J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter was a huge influence on my life as a teenager and the main reason I decided to start reading books in English instead of my native Dutch, so obviously I put this on the TBR and then put off reading it for the longest time because actually reading it scared the crap out of me.
And now that I have finished it, I sorta want to shout to everyone that I've conquered the beast!

Although, to be fair, it's really not a beast of a book. It's just huge. And very much literary fiction, which is not my usual go-to genre and I can still spot my comfort zone somewhere in the distance, but we're definitely out of it. And it is very much true what everyone has been saying: don't expect an adult Harry Potter, because this is not it. And that's ok. Because J.K. Rowling's writing is a thing of beauty and it shines in The Casual Vacancy as well.
Even though my heart would have been very happy if it had been an adult Harry Potter or any fantasy at all.

But this time, J.K. Rowling invites us into the world of Pagford, a very small town that carries on as small towns do, until there is an unexpected death and because of that, a spot to fill on the town council: a casual vacancy. She then shows us how all of these people live their lives and how the death of this one man affects them, even the ones who didn't much like him or who considered him their enemy. And in this novel, J.K. Rowling perfectly portrays the small town effect that I both love and not love so much, in which everyone knows everyone's business, but then also turns a blind eye to some of the less pretty things going on.

It did seem to take me forever to finish the first half of this book, I got easily distracted and honestly, these people are a bit depressing. They pick petty fights and there's bullying and basically NOBODY is happy and there doesn't really seem to be any hope for this changing anytime soon. But then I sat myself down, told the beastie we'd be doing this together from now on and it worked. And towards the end, I really wanted to keep reading, because it's like a trainwreck, you just can't look away and have to know how it will all turn out!

Like I said, J.K. Rowling's writing is a thing of beauty and she has once again managed to create an intricate world with very much 3D characters, though not really people to root for per se. I kinda still have to get over the fact that there's swearing and sex and all of those things in this novel... So while The Casual Vacancy scared me, I'm glad I read it because while it's brutal and harsh, it also deals with important subjects and I respect J.K. Rowling for writing this novel.

My rating: 4 stars

Review of Everything That Makes You by Moriah McStay

Title/Author: Everything That Makes You by Moriah McStay
Publisher/Date published: Katherine Tegen Books, March 17th 2015
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: One girl. Two stories. Meet Fiona Doyle. The thick ridges of scar tissue on her face are from an accident twelve years ago. Fiona has notebooks full of songs she’s written about her frustrations, her dreams, and about her massive crush on beautiful uber-jock Trent McKinnon. If she can’t even find the courage to look Trent straight in his beautiful blue eyes, she sure isn’t brave enough to play or sing any of her songs in public. But something’s changing in Fiona. She can’t be defined by her scars anymore.

And what if there hadn’t been an accident? Meet Fi Doyle. Fi is the top-rated female high school lacrosse player in the state, heading straight to Northwestern on a full ride. She’s got more important things to deal with than her best friend Trent McKinnon, who’s been different ever since the kiss. When her luck goes south, even lacrosse can’t define her anymore. When you’ve always been the best at something, one dumb move can screw everything up. Can Fi fight back?

Hasn’t everyone wondered what if? In this daring debut novel, Moriah McStay gives us the rare opportunity to see what might have happened if things were different. Maybe luck determines our paths. But maybe it’s who we are that determines our luck.

I'm a big what-iffer. I always wonder what would have happened if I'd decided to go in another direction, what if I hadn't gone to college in the city I did, what if I hadn't chosen to become a GP and on and on. And I can obviously understand wondering what if, if you've had a pretty bad accident as a kid that leaves you with scar tissue on half your face.

The thing is, Fiona doesn't really wonder what if. She takes things as they're given to her and I respect that, but I can't really understand this not wondering about it. But maybe that's just me. I do think that Fiona is a strong person, and an optimist. She struggles with her mom's trying to 'fix' her, which kinda annoyed me as well, cause hello, that doesn't seem like supportive parenting at all, she does sorta redeem herself in the end though. I didn't really feel like her dad had much of a voice, which felt a bit off. I did really like Fiona's friendship with Lucy, those girls are true friends and I loved how Lucy wasn't afraid to call Fiona out on her crap.

Fi, the girl who didn't have an accident when she was 5 years old, the what if girl, has a lot going for her. She has an awesome brother and best friend Trent, even though she doesn't really seem to have other friends aside from these two. Then she breaks her ankle while playing lacrosse and her world pretty much falls apart. But she meets a boy and has a second tragedy and OMG, I sorta saw it coming, but not all and it was SAD. And then she really falls apart and is left to pick up the pieces in the after. I really don't blame her for not getting it together for a long time, because wow, when something like that happens, you just can't. But I can't help but compare her to Fiona, and believe that Fiona is the stronger personality in the end.

So both have romances and they're sweet, but I think I liked Fiona's better. Also, it is kinda depressing that it seems that even if you avoid one awful thing happening to you, you can't escape it all and get dealt maybe even a worse hand, cause Fi didn't have it easy in the end either.
I do want to give a big shout out to the awesome sibling relationship in Everything That Makes You! I truly felt the love between Fiona/Fi and her brother and this is a big brownie point thing for me. And I was secretly a bit gleeful at how both their lives sort of intertwine as you're destined to meet some people it seems.

Everything That Makes You satisfies my what-if-tendencies, and the notion that sometimes the grass really isn't greener on the other side.

My rating: 3,5 stars

Get On My Shelf! (4) The March 2015 Edition

This is what is supposed to be a monthly feature of the things that I order/pre-order every month when a paycheck comes in and starts burning a hole in my pocket, demanding to have a part of it spent on books. And grudgingly, I oblige.
This month I extra-obliged because I also had some extra moneys coming in from working all these weird hours :)

Blood Song by Anthony Ryan: We have fought battles that left more than a hundred corpses on the ground and not a word of it has ever been set down. The Order fights, but often it fights in shadow, without glory or reward. We have no banners.

Vaelin Al Sorna's life changes forever the day his father abandons him at the gates of the Sixth Order, a secretive military arm of the Faith. Together with his fellow initiates, Vaelin undertakes a brutal training regime - where the price of failure is often death. Under the tutelage of the Order's masters, he learns how to forge a blade, survive the wilds and kill a man quickly and quietly.

Now his new skills will be put to the test. War is coming. Vaelin is the Sixth Order's deadliest weapon and the Realm's only hope. He must draw upon the very essence of his strength and cunning if he is to survive the coming conflict. Yet as the world teeters on the edge of chaos, Vaelin will learn that the truth can cut deeper than any sword.

Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne Vol 1 by Arina Tanemura: By day, Kusakabe Maron is an ordinary high school girl with more then her share of problems. But by night, she is Phantom Thief Jeanne. As the reincarnation of Joan of Arc, her mission is to steal demon-possessed paintings and neutralize their evil. Jeanne's only ally is the angel-in-training Finn. Together, they must fight evil by night while surviving high school by day.

I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson: Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways... until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as someone else — an even more unpredictable new force in her life. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are Jude's. What the twins don't realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.

The Swift Boys & Me by Kody Keplinger: Nola Sutton has been best friends and neighbors with the Swift boys for practically her whole life. There’s the youngest, Kevin, who never stops talking; the oldest, Brian, who’s always kind and calm; and then there’s Canaan, the ringleader and Nola’s best-best friend. Nola can’t imagine her life without the Swift boys — they’ll always be like this, always be friends.

But then everything changes overnight.

When the Swifts’ daddy leaves without even saying good-bye, it completely destroys the boys, and all Nola can do is watch. Kevin stops talking and Brian is never around. Even Canaan is drifting away from Nola — hanging out with the neighborhood bullies instead of her.

Nola just wants things to go back to the way they were — the way they’ve always been. She tries to pull the boys back to her, only the harder she pulls, the further away they seem. But it’s not just the Swifts whose family is changing, so is Nola’s, and she needs her best friends now more than ever. Can Nola and the Swift boys survive this summer with their friendships intact, or has everything fallen apart for good?

Three Amazing Things About You by Jill Mansell: Hallie has a secret. She's in love. He's perfect for her in every way, but he's seriously out of bounds. And her friends aren't going to help her because what they do know is that Hallie doesn't have long to live. Time is running out...

Flo has a dilemma. She really likes Zander. But his scary sister won't be even faintly amused if she thinks Zander and Flo are becoming friends - let alone anything more.

Tasha has a problem. Her new boyfriend is the adventurous type. And she's afraid one of his adventures will go badly wrong.

THREE AMAZING THINGS ABOUT YOU begins as Hallie goes on a journey. A donor has been found and she's about to be given new lungs. But whose?

Thief's Magic by Trudi Canavan: In a world where an industrial revolution is powered by magic, Tyen, a student of archaeology, discovers a sentient book in an ancient tomb. Vella was once a young sorcerer-maker, until she was transformed into a useful tool by one of the greatest sorcerers of history. Since then she has been gathering information, including a vital clue to the disaster Tyen’s world faces.

Elsewhere, in a land ruled by the priests since a terrible war depleted all but a little magic, Rielle the dyer’s daughter has been taught that to use magic is to steal from the Angels. Yet she knows from her ability to sense the stain it leaves behind that she has a talent for it, and that there are people willing to teach her how to use it, should she ever need to risks the Angels’ wrath.

Further away, a people called the Travelers live their entire lives on the move, trading goods from one world to another. They know that each world has its own store of magic, reducing or increasing a sorcerer’s abilities, so that if one entered a weak world they may be unable to leave it again. Each family maintains a safe trading route passed down through countless generations and modified whenever local strife makes visiting dangerous. But this is not the only knowledge the Travelers store within their stories and songs, collected over millennia spent roaming the universe. They know a great change is due, and that change brings both loss and opportunity.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli: Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.

With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out — without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.

The Stars Never Rise by Rachel Vincent: Sixteen-year-old Nina Kane should be worrying about her immortal soul, but she's too busy trying to actually survive. Her town's population has been decimated by soul-consuming demons, and souls are in short supply. Watching over her younger sister, Mellie, and scraping together food and money are all that matters. The two of them are a family. They gave up on their deadbeat mom a long time ago.

When Nina discovers that Mellie is keeping a secret that threatens their very existence, she'll do anything to protect her. Because in New Temperance, sins are prosecuted as crimes by the brutal Church and its army of black-robed exorcists. And Mellie's sin has put her in serious trouble.

To keep them both alive, Nina will need to trust Finn, a fugitive with deep green eyes who has already saved her life once and who might just be an exorcist. But what kind of exorcist wears a hoodie?

Wanted by the Church and hunted by dark forces, Nina knows she can't survive on her own. She needs Finn and his group of rogue friends just as much as they need her.

Death Note Vol 1 by Tsugumi Ohba: Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects - and he's bored out of his mind. But all that changes when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami, a death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and now Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But when criminals begin dropping dead, the authorities send the legendary detective L to track down the killer. With L hot on his heels, will Light lose sight of his noble goal...or his life?