Review: WitchStruck by Victoria Lamb

If she sink, she be no witch and shall be drowned.

If she float, she be a witch and must be hanged.

Meg Lytton has always known she is different—that she bears a dark and powerful gift. But in 1554 England, in service at Woodstock Palace to the banished Tudor princess Elizabeth, it has never been more dangerous to practise witchcraft. Meg knows she must guard her secret carefully from the many suspicious eyes watching over the princess and her companions. One wrong move could mean her life, and the life of Elizabeth, rightful heir to the English throne.

With witchfinder Marcus Dent determined to have Meg's hand in marriage, and Meg's own family conspiring against the English queen, there isn't a single person Meg can trust. Certainly not the enigmatic young Spanish priest Alejandro de Castillo, despite her undeniable feelings. But when all the world turns against her, Meg must open her heart to a dangerous choice.

The Secret Circle meets The Other Boleyn Girl in Witchstruck, the first book of the magical Tudor Witch trilogy. 

Published September 24th 2013 by Harlequin Teen 

(info grabbed from GoodReads)

"Oh, d-d-dear."

-Piglet

This chick needs to take a lesson from Piglet from Pooh Corner.  That quote would be an appropriate reaction to being a witch in Tudor times.  Seriously.  We need to go back in time and into this fantasy land to get this girl some Winnie the Pooh.

Witchstruck is about a young witch, Meg, and her escapades in witchcraft while being bestie to the future Queen Elizabeth.  There is also a Spanish priest that makes Meg’s heart pitter-patter.  There’s the plot of Protestants trying to overthrow the Catholics that really felt more like a sub plot thrown in there too.  But really, this book is about one thing: stupidity.

Meg is somewhat interesting in the sense that she is not what I'd expect of a girl from this time period.  She isn't quiet, timid, or any other of those supposed girlish traits that were more admired in those days; she is stubborn and slow witted.  She also does not know what fear is, in a bad way.  You could say she doesn't let fear stop her from using her craft -- she doesn’t.  I would say that she has an inability to think things through and likes to show off her power.  She consistently picks bad times and places to practice witchcraft with little reason to her actions.  The reasons she continues practicing witchcraft are never established that solidly; she does it because she can for all I can tell.  It doesn’t really help predict anything or have any benefit.  It comes off as pointless and exercising “power” just because.  She is rash… and I guess that could be interesting to someone. There is little to no reason behind what she does why she does it, but everything ends up magically working in her favor.

The romance has very little purpose in the story and makes no sense, which is why I would recommend Witchstruck to people who get less hung up about facts.  A catholic priest and a witch?  And he knows she is a witch?  And no explanation to the priest's motives and blind trust on both sides?  Let's get real.  The backstory on the priest didn't explain why he is okay with Meg being a witch; it actually was fuel to hate witches.  But he doesn't.  He isn't so much as flustered by it.  He is Sexy-Spanish-Priest-in-Training-Man here to save the day and make sexy glances.  Not really a defined personality or capable of conversation as far as I can tell -- just sexy sex sex.

I liked Meg's relationship with Elizabeth, but I don't understand why the future queen is sticking her neck out (quite literally) for Meg.  People are constantly helping Meg, but there isn't a lot of reason written into the pages.  Meg has an extraordinary ability to get herself into trouble, but also is exceptionally lucky.  She makes irrational decision after irrational decision and somehow doesn’t die.  If I was the future Queen is such a predicament as Elizabeth (her sister is looking for an excuse to kill her), I would drop Meg like she was hot.  But that’s me.

WitchStruck gets a big ol' resounding "Meh."

Final Thought: 1 out of 10 toadstools

This review is also posted on GoodReads

Review: Feuds by Avery Hastings

In this breathless story of impossible love, perfection comes at a deadly cost. For Davis Morrow, perfection is a daily reality. Like all Priors, Davis has spent her whole life primed to be smarter, stronger, and more graceful than the lowly Imperfects, or “Imps.” A fiercely ambitious ballerina, Davis is only a few weeks away from qualifying for the Olympiads and finally living up to her mother’s legacy when she meets Cole, a mysterious boy who leaves her with more questions each time he disappears. Davis has no idea that Cole has his own agenda, or that he’s a rising star in the FEUDS, an underground fighting ring where Priors gamble on Imps. Cole has every reason to hate Davis—her father’s campaign hinges on the total segregation of the Imps and Priors—but despite his best efforts, Cole finds himself as drawn to Davis as she is to him. Then Narxis, a deadly virus, takes its hold--and Davis’s friends start dying. When the Priors refuse to acknowledge the epidemic, Davis has no one to turn to but Cole. Falling in love was never part of their plan, but their love may be the only thing that can save her world...in Avery Hastings's Feuds. Hardcover, 272 pagesPublished September 2nd 2014 by St. Martin's Griffin(info grabbed from GoodReads)

Feuds is a set in a future with a dystopian hierarchy based on if you're an upgraded human or not.  There are essentially two levels: super humans (Priors) and normal people (Imps), with normal people being the underbelly of society.  Davis is a Prior with aims of being a ballerina and competing in the Olympiads, who unknowingly falls in love with an Imp, Cole.  There is the complication of Priors getting sick with Narxis and a bunch of other stuff that's not that important to the story.

Honestly there is a lot going on and nothing at all at the same time.

The entire story -- world building, characters, plot, setting, everything -- took a back seat to the romance.  And while that might not necessarily be a bad thing, the romance wasn't that spectacular of a read.  It was insta-love.  There was no witty banter or chemistry between characters; just all of sudden they would be making out.  The conversation to make out session ratio was way off.  Halfway through the book, they have kissed several times and had one instance of actual dialogue.  I kid you not.  One.  Meaningful.  Conversation.  How can anyone take such a relationship seriously or rally behind the characters?  I would have liked to have read a less hormone induced romance.

Characters in the story were little more than plot devices or foils.  There was no depth to a single character other than Davis or the romantic interest, Cole.  For example, when Vera, one of Davis's friends, brings up DirecTalk, it doesn't feel like a conversation between friends; it was an excuse to explain a piece of technology in the world.  So while yes, she does have some purpose (of sorts), there are no real feelings of friendship and she doesn't move the plot in any way.  The sad thing is that Vera is the most defined "friend" character.

Speaking of DirecTalk, there is very little technology or world building to speak of.  DirecTalk is one of the only technological advancements to speak of and it's only cell phones disguised as jewelry.  The futuristic dystopian setting felt like a filter laid over the story to add interest and cause problems for the relationship of Davis and Cole.  Other than mentioning a tech here and there, it's never explored how the future is different.  There's also corrupt government officials, including Davis our main character's father, but that's not really addressed either.

I was not impressed with Feuds to say the least.  The writing was not fluid and immersive, the characters were one dimensional and inconsequential to the story, and the plot -- what plot?  The background, setting, and everything else that was interesting in the book was skimmed over.  But even the parts that were interesting formed together into another generic mediocre dystopian novel.  There is nothing worth reading in this novel.  The end.

Final Thought: 2 out of 5 toadstools.

This review is also posted on GoodReads

Review: Plus One by Elizabeth Fama

It takes guts to deliberately mutilate your hand while operating a blister-pack sealing machine, but all I had going for me was guts.

Sol Le Coeur is a Smudge—a night dweller in an America rigidly divided between people who wake, live, and work during the hours of darkness and those known as Rays who live and work during daylight. Impulsive, passionate, and brave, Sol deliberately injures herself in order to gain admission to a hospital, where she plans to kidnap her newborn niece—a Ray—in order to bring the baby to visit her dying grandfather. By violating the day-night curfew, Sol is committing a serious crime, and when the kidnap attempt goes awry it starts a chain of events that will put Sol in mortal danger, uncover a government conspiracy to manipulate the Smudge population, and throw her together with D'Arcy Benoît, the Ray medical apprentice who first treats her, then helps her outrun the authorities—and with whom she is fated to fall impossibly and irrevocably in love.

Set in a vivid alternate reality and peopled with complex, deeply human characters on both sides of the day-night divide, Plus One is a brilliantly imagined drama of individual liberty and civil rights—and a compelling, rapid-fire romantic adventure story.

Hardcover, 373 pages

Published April 8th 2014 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

(info grabbed from GoodReads)

This book started off real well, which a main character with a lot of personality and with an interesting concept for a dystopian.  It fell apart somewhere in the middle.  Plus One takes place in a dystopian Chicago where people are separated into Day and Night classes.  People are not allowed to mix between each or even be outside during hours not approved for them.  Sol is a Smudge, a night dweller, with a pension for trouble.  She lives with her kindly (and dying) grandfather and used to live with her older brother, Ciel. While Sol was in her younger teens, Ciel was transferred to Day class to never be seen from again. Since then Sol gets word that her brother had a baby.  The story begins with Sol setting off with plans to kidnap said baby so her grandfather can hold the child once before he dies.

With the cover and blurb, I was surprised that the romance was not more a part of the story.  For more than half of the book, it is non-existent.  For some readers, that may be more of what they are looking for.  With the cover and implications of the blurb, I was expecting a more emotional dystopian story like Delirium by Lauren Oliver.  That is not Plus One.  Plus One is more about half baked kidnapping plans and terrorist plottings than anything else.  What the blurb doesn't tell you is that Sol's plan goes awry and she gets swept up a conspiracy that could shake her world.  It's jarring to read a book that is completely outside of your expectations.  But really, that is all marketing's fault and the team did not do the book justice.

Even though the book was not what I was expecting, I did enjoy it at first.  I thought it read really well and that Sol was interesting, even if her plan was a little undeveloped in her mind.  But the story quickly spiraled into something else: a hot mess of family drama, escapades in Iowa, and more plans that shouldn't work but somehow do.

The back story of the system's origins came from hospitals having day/night shifts, and thus resulting in better work flow and producing power.  I thought the idea that economics and productivity could create a divided society such as this was profound.  Especially with the setting choice of Chicago, made to be one of America's biggest cities because of booming business, I thought it could be plausible.  For a minute.  While I thought the idea of this Day versus Night class system was cool, it seemed so weakly put together it was unbelievable it could have lasted so long.  Maybe in one city in one country, but it not the entire world.   

Everything felt about to collapse at any moment within the story -- and not just the system, but the whole book.  The world building was just so fragile, it might as well have been a house of cards and desperately needed to be elaborated on.  Hour Guards are mentioned, but not explained.  They do random checks on people to see if they are breaking curfew, but what power do they have?  Are they police or are they KGB?  Do they have any kind of enforcement power?  There is a Night Minister, but that role is not fully explained.  The dystopian aspect of this world was skimmed over; it's never clear what is holding this system together.  There’s very little tyranny in this supposedly oppressive society.

Even with less than stellar world building and story that came out of left field, I really liked Sol as a character.  She is smart, impulsive, and full of life.  Her snark is the sunlight of this novel.  However, that is the book's only saving grace.  D'Arcy, the day-dwelling love interest, had no spark to his personality, and the relationship between him and Sol was a fickle match that burned out before the plot even began.  His motivations are never clear or make sense, and he just wasn't enough to hold a candle with Sol. The myriad of other characters were just... I don't even know.  Blah.  They were a blah blur. It felt like random characters were being thrown at the reader in this whirlwind of story.  And not a good whirlwind of story; it's a backwards tornado with a bunch of things that don't belong together.

Without Sol's unrelenting personality, I would have given this book one star.  The story is a bit of mess, the world building was less than stellar, and I just didn't like it.  I was bored.  Plus One earns the stars it does with its good writing and interesting main character, but it wasn't enjoyable.  I read the entire book out of stubbornness, purely.  It really did nothing for this review, because as I kept reading I only got more upset at myself for continuing to read.  Just... ARGH.

Final Thought: 2 out of 5 toadstools

This review is also posted on GoodReads

Review: Dollhouse by Anya Allyn

Dress-up turns deadly. . .

When Cassie’s best friend, Aisha, disappears during a school hike, Cassie sets off with Aisha’s boyfriend Ethan and their best friend Lacey, determined to find her. But the mist-enshrouded mountains hold many secrets, and what the three teens discover is far more disturbing than any of them imagined: beneath a rundown mansion in the woods lies an underground cavern full of life-size toys and kidnapped girls forced to dress as dolls.

Even as Cassie desperately tries to escape the Dollhouse, she finds herself torn between her forbidden feelings for Ethan, and her intense, instinctive attraction to The Provider, a man Cassie swears she has known before…

Because Cassie’s capture wasn’t accidental, and the Dollhouse is more than just a prison where her deepest fears come true—it’s a portal for the powers of darkness. And Cassie may be the only one who can stop it.

Kindle Edition, 205 pages

Published May 20th 2014 by The Studio, a Paper Lantern Lit imprint

(info grabbed from GoodReads) 

The Dollhouse, a young adult horror set Down Under, begins with Ethan, Cassie's best friend's boyfriend, bursting through her bedroom window in the middle of the night.  This is an awkward dream come true for Cassie, as she has been pining over Ethan for over a year, but he is her best friend's boyfriend.  Her missing best friend's boyfriend.  Ethan has decided to pop in on Cassie to let her know the cops are after him and that he didn't do it even though there may be evidence that indicates otherwise.  He informs her that he is running into the woods to avoid being arrested.  Cassie and her friend Lacey decide to chase after Ethan, the boy who may or may not have murdered Aisha, and help find Aisha (their missing friend).  Cassie has lingering guilt over crushing on Aisha's boyfriend and feels that she is responsible for Aisha running off, which serves as her motivation to run into the forest that three other girls have disappeared without a trace into.  Mayhem ensues.

So, I think I made it clear in my synopsis that these teens don't make the brightest of decisions.  It felt like the author had to dumb her characters down to get them into a horrific situation.  Which isn't anything new, unless you missed the slasher flick bonanza of the 1990's.  I love horror and especially so when it's creepy.  The Dollhouse promises that and so much more in the blurb, but it doesn't really deliver.  It's hard to be horrified when you can't stop thinking about how all of this nonsense could have been prevented.  I mean, really, your friend just disappeared into the woods and you go breaking and entering into a creepy mansion?  That just screams, "Murder me."  Darwin award goes to Cassie.

The biggest problem for me, however, is the writing.  It is what I have decided to call green writing -- it needs to ripen on the vine a bit.  Or be breaded and deep fried.  Anyway, the pacing of the novel was all over the place.  It's fast, it's faster, it's normal; The Dollhouse was like being on a possessed treadmill with all it's stopping and going.  The story starts off in a rush with Ethan busting in through the window and promptly delivering an info dump.  Half the plot and all the build up between characters happens before the novel even begins.  While I appreciate the different approach, it really destroys any chance to get attached to the characters.  Along with the rushed beginning, there is an info dump every couple pages in the first couple chapters to make up for the lost beginning.  Where could have been build up, world building, and character development, we get a rush into a haphazard romp in a creepy house.

The ideas of The Dollhouse really stuck out to me as I love all things messed up and creepy.  I was hoping to be shocked and horrified, but that just didn't really happen.  Reading the Dollhouse is like watching a bad slasher flick in slow motion, but with a lot less blood and entertainment.  I really just wanted to shake the main character until she got some sense and went home, forgetting about her self-rightous journey into the woods to find her friend.

Final Thought: 1 out of 5 toadstools

This review is also posted on GoodReads

Review: The Here and Now by Ann Brashares

An unforgettable epic romantic thriller about a girl from the future who might be able to save the world . . . if she lets go of the one thing she’s found to hold on to.

Follow the rules. Remember what happened. Never fall in love.

This is the story of seventeen-year-old Prenna James, who immigrated to New York when she was twelve. Except Prenna didn’t come from a different country. She came from a different time—a future where a mosquito-borne illness has mutated into a pandemic, killing millions and leaving the world in ruins.

Prenna and the others who escaped to the present day must follow a strict set of rules: never reveal where they’re from, never interfere with history, and never, ever be intimate with anyone outside their community. Prenna does as she’s told, believing she can help prevent the plague that will one day ravage the earth.

But everything changes when Prenna falls for Ethan Jarves.

From Ann Brashares, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, The Here and Now is thrilling, exhilarating, haunting, and heartbreaking—and a must-read novel of the year.

Hardcover, 288 pages

Expected publication: April 8th 2014 by Delacorte Press 

(info grabbed from GoodReads)

This book was written with only half baked ideas that needed to go back in the oven BECAUSE THEY WERE NOT DONE COOKING.  The science is deplorable, Prenna is an idiot, and no other character is even defined other than an outline of what could perhaps be a person.  THE HERE AND NOW is the story of Prenna, a time traveling girl from a future where most of the population has been wiped out by a plague.  The book then tries to be a dystopian, mystery, and love story all at once, but is fails at all three.  The story just skims the surface of a story; it's like reading an outline based on good ideas, but not a full, finished novel.

This is the worst thought out dystopian society I’ve ever read.  They are controlling, but they let people live their lives with little restrictions.  There are vague rules, but they give people freedom to break those rules and then follow through with inconsistent punishments.  It’s not the imposing society of a dystopian that we’re used to.  For example: Prenna’s friend is found to have been speaking with Prenna about things they shouldn’t be.  Her punishment is being sent away to boarding school.  Whatever.  However, another of the children of the time traveling society raises the suspicion of one of his teachers at school.  The teacher asks questions.  So what does the society do?  They kill the child and his family.

WTF.

I actually had to read that section in the book a couple times to wrap my head around it.  First of all, if you’re trying to be all secretive, why was the kid in regular schooling?  And furthermore, after the issue happened, I would think that every other child a part of this society would be a prime candidate for home schooling.

But there’s more!  Prenna herself isn’t safe from the wrath of her society.  For catching pneumonia, they would let her die rather than let her get medical help.  After all the trouble of traveling through time, they are very willing to just let people die.  It makes no sense; travel all this way to escape a plague and then let your youngest citizens die of something there’s treatment for?

But Prenna’s pneumonia episode brings up other issues in the book: it’s complete lack of research.  If you’re going to have anything medical, one could at least check out webMD to see if something is plausible.  In the book, Prenna has asthma and gets pneumonia, but her mother is a doctor and insists all she would need is a ventilator. 

First of all, you don’t get pneumonia from asthma.  Asthma is chronic illness that is characterized by episodes of spasming of the bronchioles.  People are on lifelong medication oftentimes for this illness.  Pneumonia is an infection.  Asthma does not cause infections.  Bacteria (and viruses) cause infections.  Also, it’s never mentioned again if Prenna has an asthmatic issue, but she does have moments of being in and damp potentially moldy places and also moments of running.  No mention of so much as a wheeze.  Next, Prenna did not need a ventilator, she needed a nebulizer.  A ventilator is a device that breathes for you and puts you at higher risk for pneumonia.  A nebulizer delivers medication to expand your lungs.  But really, she needed to be hospitalized with an “as needed” order for suctioning, if you asked me.

But what’s really irritating is that this whole episode of Prenna’s illness is simply a plot device to show the society as being controlling and cold.  It could have been interesting to have a character with asthma or to see how the society adapted to unexpected situations the children cause, but it’s not explored.  These ideas are only half good, and it’s the other half of the idea that makes the story bad.

I can’t really complain about the time travel science too much because it was never addressed.  Physics are not mentioned, the potential of a paradox is skimmed over; just poof, naked and wet Prenna in a pond.  That’s how they arrive.  Why is she naked?  Never mentioned.  Other than that she had to be naked so Ethan can give her his hoodie.  Or whatever he gave her, it was kind of a big deal in comparison to everything else.

I could rant about the science for days, but it’s not that large a part of the book (which is funny since its science fiction).  So how was our main character, Prenna?  DUMB.  She makes one bad decision after another, but somehow everything works out.  She doesn’t figure a single thing out for herself and only has a brain when it’s convenient to the story.  There is one thing (that is a bit of a spoiler) that any person with half a brain would figure out or notice that Prenna doesn’t get until the last second.  It was just handled badly; the characters are being cryptic at time where it doesn’t make any sense to be cryptic.  Seriously, the fate of the world is at stake and the moment to change it is in less than 24 hours, and our protagonist is at the beach with her new beau. … WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THIS.  How could you relax enough to laugh?  …But on the bright side, she is the most fleshed out character in the book.

Oh, Katherine.  She is the only character other than Prenna and Ethan that has a significant role in the story and I cannot for the life of me think of a personality trait that describes her.  She is the Best Friend.  She is concerned for Prenna.  She wears glasses and is from a society from the future where everyone wears glasses.  Real exciting character building there.  When she is taken away, I should care, but there is no character to care about.  The only reason to care is because it’s causing problems for Prenna. 

What’s sad is that I barely touched half of the notes I wrote while reading this.  There is so much wrong with this book.  It’s a huge pet peeve of mine when an author didn’t do their research or didn’t think an idea out, and this book is guilty of that.  Super guilty.  There is nothing I thought redeeming in the story.  The ending is the best part of the book, but it’s not anywhere close to saving it.  I recommend THE HERE AND NOW to no one.

Final Thought: MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH

This review is also posted on GoodReads

Review: Imposter by Susanne Winnacker

Can Tessa pose as Madison . . . and stop a killer before it’s too late? 

Tessa is a Variant, able to absorb the DNA of anyone she touches and mimic their appearance. Shunned by her family, she’s spent the last two years training with the Forces with Extraordinary Abilities, a secret branch of the FBI. When a serial killer rocks a small town in Oregon, Tessa is given a mission: she must impersonate Madison, a local teen, to find the killer before he strikes again.

Tessa hates everything about being an impostor—the stress, the danger, the deceit—but loves playing the role of a normal girl. As Madison, she finds friends, romance, and the kind of loving family she’d do anything to keep. Amid action, suspense, and a ticking clock, this super-human comes to a very human conclusion: even a girl who can look like anyone struggles the most with being herself.

Hardcover, 274 pages

Published May 28th 2013 by Razorbill 

(info grabbed from GoodReads)

 

So, I hated this book.  I hated it so much, I don't even want to go through the effort of writing a proper intro paragraph.  Quick summary: Tessa is a variant with the power to change her appearance into anyone she touches (like a cross between ANIMORPHS and Mystique from X-MEN).  She is part of a special faction of the FBI called FEA, which is a collection of variants formed for the purpose of fighting crime.  Woop, sounds cool -- but this book is really about Alec and Tessa's relationship and petty hate between girls.

I find it rather pathetic that Tessa's relationship with Alec can be summed up with the Taylor Swift song "You Belong with Me," but without the upbeat music.  Nope, it's just a girl whining about how she should be with a guy because she is less of a primped up skank.  She seriously thinks she's entitled to Alec because she gets him, because liking the same movies and being great friends means you are meant to be.  No, that's not how relationships work.  The only saving grace for any of the characters in this book is that Alec tells her off because he does have a girlfriend. 

Everyone adores Tessa.  They love her so much, they're giving her a super special top secret mission even though she's still a minor.  And for what reason does everyone love Tessa?  Because she is abnormally average except for having a Variation like everyone else at this FEA summer camp?  I'm still trying to figure out why anyone would love Tessa, because there is nothing really likeable about her.  She is jealous, she is impulsive, and she isn't remarkably talented other than having a cool variation.  It drove me crazy that I couldn't stand the main character, but everyone in the book does without reason.

Everyone, except Kate.  Who is conveniently Alec's girlfriend and placed in the hateful bitch trope without any depth.  Kate has no reason to hate Tessa; she just does.  If there was a bit more feeling or a history there, I would have enjoyed that whole bit more.  But alas, this character solely exists as a foil to Tessa, to show how "girl-next-door" and plain Tessa is.  And so we're supposed to not feel so bad that Tessa is attempting to be a homewrecking tramp. 

The girl on girl hate in this book is so rampant and petty, it is unreadable.  The mystery is not very mysterious or even what the majority of the book seemed to want to focus on.  Nope, it seemed rather intent on focusing on Tessa's pity party over not feeling ready for such a mission and pining over her taken best friend.  The end.

Final Thought: NOPE

This review is also posted on GoodReads