Bibliobibuli YA

I’m going to say this a lot, but this was a typical YA novel which really failed to grab my interest. Overall it was a pleasant read, just nothing terribly new or stimulating.

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RC Lewis’s debut was a delight. Essie was a fantastic character from her sometimes surly attitude to her ability to take care of herself to her fascination with ‘stitching’ electronics. It had its parallels to the fairy tale it was based on, Snow White, and these were easy to pick out and I loved finding them, but the story was also one all its own, which is just how I like my fairy tale retellings.

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I’m really bad at rating books, but a 5-star book is DEFINITELY anything that forced me to sit and re-evaluate my life afterwards. In which case, American Gods is at the absolute top of my list of 5-Star books. Although maybe that was also because I finished reading it on an airplane, as I was coming back to Berlin after a three-week trip around Europe, and the view of my city from the plane was just as much of a ‘holy shit’ moment as the book.

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When it comes to discovering that you are psychic, there really isn’t a worse time than the day that you start your period for the first time. Besides the fact that you get to look forward to monthly shark weeks until menopause, there is the added bonus of seeing ghosts, and the future, and sometimes the past. This is exactly the situation Crystal is in when she starts seeing the ghost of a girl who died the year before.

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You know, a lot of people go all gloom and doom about the end of the world, without ever bothering to ask ‘what happens next?’. I mean, obviously since it’s the end of the world, not much...but then again, maybe something.

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So, this is an interesting book, in the sense that I went into it expecting it to be highly predictable and I finished it dying to get my hands on the sequel. The book starts with the murder of Johanna’s father, an acrobat and a member of the Perfomers’ Camp, a guild of sorts for those who are part of the carnival-type community of the country of Santarem. This is in addition to the murders of girls that look eerily similar to Johanna. The book goes on to introduce us to many different points of view, from the Keepers who hope to find Johanna and restore a balance of power to Santarem, to a young lordling Rafael.

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Emily ~ This book, once again, lived up to my established expectations for Kerstin Geir: it was fun, clever, witty, and fast-paced with a delightful heroine who I have grown to love even more since the first book. The book opens with Gwen once again at odds with Gideon, dreading attending a ball with the creepy-as-hell Count Saint-Germain, and in the dark to most of the goings of the secret society that is based around her inherited time travel capabilities.

Rosi ~ Here is what I will say about this book: it was a rousing ending to (I’m going to use this word again) a romp of a series. It delivers everything promised in the first two books, and in spades: strange magic, sinister forces, love, friendship, and quite a lot more.

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Emily ~ Sapphire Blue is very much a middle book. It builds on aspects from the previous book and leaves, and creates, some seriously big questions to be answered in the last installment. It also picks up immediately where the last book left off, so, if you are reading the books back to back, they kind of flow into one another. Which is a good and bad thing. You don’t miss any action, or, rather, snogging, and the already very fast paced story doesn’t lose any time. However, the first book ended quite abruptly and the sequel started on a similar note.

Rosi ~ I'm going to be honest: this is a book I simply cannot remember details about. I blame most of it on the very quick pace, which means that I tend to race through this one to get to the third. It might also be a bit of middle book problems, though. Anyways, that aside, it is still a wonderful book, that really gets into the heart of the world Gier is giving us.

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Emily ~ This book was fantastic and all kinds of fun. While not necessarily a work of great depth, it gets five stars for a lovely, humorous, and spunky main character and an expansive cast of minor characters with diverse personalities. The concept was also wildly unique, I have yet to come across a plot quite like it and approached with skill similar to Gier’s. She is able to make you fall in love with Gwyneth after only knowing her for a few days, book time, and feel immediate apprehension when meeting the intimidating and fairly scary Count Saint-Germain and his belladonna-imbibing sidekick Rakoczy.

Rosi ~ Goodness, it’s really hard to know how to start this off. I mean, in the first place, all of the books seem to muddle together into one big story in my mind. They’re all very fast-paced, and it feels like the instant I get to the end of one I HAVE to race into the other one...but, for the sake of the reviews, I shall try.

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I picked this up fully knowing that it was an Elizabeth Wein novel, aka that it would rip out my heartstrings and make me cry bitter tears in the name of friendship. If you don’t believe me, go read Code Name Verity, which is on the list of my favorite books of all time. What I didn’t realize when I settled down with it for a bit of light reading was that IT WAS ABOUT THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS, especially RAVENSBRUCK. I still don't know how I missed that, but I did. Consequently, I stayed up until somewhere around 4 in the morning, and then cried like a baby. Be forewarned.

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With its description as a YA Da Vinci Code, I went into this book expecting something fun and light with international adventure and some slightly out-there conspiracy, which is exactly what I got. However, the book starts with the main character, Avery, getting into the whole situation through what can only be described as bumbling naivete. This made the book hard to read in the beginning, and sadly, was something that distracted me for the rest of the book.

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Seems to me that everyone is obsessed with Game of Thrones. I don’t really understand it, but what really irks me is when Game of Thrones is the only fantasy story anyone knows, and so they compare all other fantasy stories to it. And yet, sometimes fantasy deserves the comparison. Wolfblade, for instance, is a good bet for the Game of Thrones fan still waiting for the 6th book. I find it somewhat superior, since Jennifer Fallon has written a book that holds all the political intrigue and scheming of GoT, minus the gratuitous sex and violence. This also makes it a better bet for younger readers (kind of).

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Every once in a while, you read a book that is totally predictable. However, said book is such a wonderfully amazing take on typical predictable plot choices, with amazing settings and characters and writing, that the fact that you know how it is going to end doesn’t even matter. This is because everything that happens in between the introduction and the big reveal is just too awesome and makes a plot that sounds predictable anything but. This is what Threats of Sky and Sea does, and now Jennifer Ellision is on my permanent to-buy list. You can hear more about this permanent to-buy list later. For now, I’ll tell you why you need to read this book: when a book opens itself up to tropes but doesn’t fall into them, you must read that book.

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My first impression of Terry Pratchett was also the first time I came to Germany by myself. In a little bookstore in...Bamberg, I think it was, visiting my cousin, I picked up a book with a funny title and a comical picture on it. I think I read it maybe 10 times in a row in the next two weeks, and couldn’t put it down or stop talking about it. The book was Unseen Academicals, one of Terry’s Discworld series. 

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In the second Divinicus Nex novel, Drop Dead Demons, the stakes are up and Aurora tries even harder to keep her identity a secret as she becomes a more active member of the Hex Boys while dealing with threats on both her life and her heart.

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Soulless, by Gail Carriger, is a book that first and foremost doesn’t take itself too seriously. It is not meant to be a window through to our corrupt society, or any sort of powerful message about our world. What it is, it is: a delightful romp through the whimsy and ridiculousness of steampunk, victoriana and romance.

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