Stupid silly fan girl moment

So, I've been slowly becoming addicted to subscription boxes (to be clear, slowly was, one month I had one subscription box and the next month I realize I'm signed on for four, and contemplating a fifth--No, I don't have a problem, why do you ask?)

I signed up because I've been suffering from a bit of apathy when it comes to reading. Sometimes, books really strike a cord and I  love them. Sometimes, books that I feel like I should really love are just sort of "meh."

I ran into too many of the "meh" books--and these books sold really, really well, that I was starting to doubt my whole "reads enough to consider being a writer" thing. It was bad.

So I made sure that one of my subscription boxes was for books (two of them are for books, but that's a longer story).

Subscription boxes are expensive, so I laid out some rules:

Rule 1. I would read everything they sent me.

Rule 2. If I couldn't be bothered to read it, I'd cancel the subscription.

Rule 3. If I liked it, I'd make sure to tell others about it and rate the book on Amazon and Goodreads.


How'd it go?

So a couple weeks ago, I got my first box. It was a Lit Cube box



Inside was the book Spelled, by Betsy Schow. And it was a blast. It was light hearted, fun, adventurous and a retelling of a fun favorite bit of story. It had enough hints of the original Wizard of Oz books that it kept tickling the old memories from when I was a kid, and it was just fun. I had a hard time with the first couple chapters, but then everything was smooth sailing after those first bits of chapters. I'll be posting my reviews up on Goodreads and Amazon soon. In the mean time, it was a fun read, and I enjoyed it.

Altar of Reality

Today I have a review of the Altar of Reality! Altar just released, and it is a fantastic read.  

On to the review!

I very much enjoyed this book. I think I can put this squarely in the 9 out of 10 category. I really enjoyed the story, and it was clever and well told. There were parts that felt thin to me, but that’s probably because I’m more used to the giant tomes of fantasy.

The premise of this book knocked me off my socks, to be frank. I loved that we got to hang out with MC who had epilepsy, and that her seizures were part of what made her powerful. It was a very refreshing take on main characters, and I very much enjoyed it.

There was a lot of angst in this book. Now, to be clear, if you are ready a YA book and you are moaning about the Angsty Teenagerness of the book, maybe you should consider reading a different age category. Part of the teenager experience involves the difficulties of being caught between childhood and adulthood. What this book did really well was give the MC the opportunity to have a very normal teenage experience coupled with the very exotic other world dystopian. I have to say, I thought that was masterfully done.

I wish we had gotten more of the dystopian world. I felt like there could have been more there, but when the book is split between two realities, it can be hard to present two fully formed worlds. That being said, I loved the idea and premise so much that I really didn’t mind at all, and would have followed this book for a long, long time.

The love interests. The problem with multiple love interests is that, for whatever reason, there are people who fall on both sides of any equation. I didn’t like one of the people in the triangle because I felt like those character’s actions came from the willful desire to manipulate another character, and that made me dislike that individual very quickly. I know that’s something real people have to deal with, but it made it hard to care for the manipulator later, even when bad things happened to that character. However, the split world made it really easy to understand why the other people involved in the triangle would forgive the manipulator, and this part was masterfully done (even though I never forgave the manipulator).

Lastly, the ending. I’m going to put this part in a different color, so if you want to read it you can, but otherwise, it’s going to contain spoilers.

SPOILERS. Highlight to read:

The ending is a complete cliffhanger. This book is not a standalone, and there is no closure in this book. As I got closer to the end, I was expecting some sort of wrap up, but nope, it cuts off at the knees. At least there is no question as to whether there is a sequel or not. 

 

Altar of Reality, by Mara Valderran

Genre: young-adult, dystopian, science-fiction romance

Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press

Date of Publication: January 22, 2015

Cover Artist: Alexandria Thompson at Gothic Fate

Description:

Sixteen year-old Madeline has struggled with epilepsy for most of her adolescent life, leaving her something of a social pariah. Things go from bad to worse when she wakes up from her first grand mal seizure in an extremely unfamiliar world but surrounded by familiar faces. Her hometown is in ruins, the aftermath of a Cold War turned hot.

Thomas, the boy that stomped on her heart a year ago, and his brother Brandon have been hiding her away since the explosion that killed her parents. The Lord Commander, now running the southern territories, believes Madeline died with them and the brothers need to keep it that way.

The biggest problem? The explosion happened when she was twelve.

Madeline isn’t sure what to believe. The brothers insist her memories must be of a dream life she created while in her coma. But when she returns to the reality she knows, they insist this war-torn world must be the dream. She doesn’t know if she’s truly caught in the middle of a brewing rebellion or teetering on the brink of insanity. As she finds herself flipping between the two lives, her heart becomes torn between two versions of the same boy and the lines between her realities begin to blur.

Goodreads | Amazon US | Amazon UK

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About Mara Valderran:

Mara Valderran is an author of young adult and new adult books, but she's more than just a madwoman with a writing box. She is an avid reader and fan of all things sci-fi and fantasy. She loves roller skating and movies, though typically not together. She hopes to one day meet Daniel Jackson from SG1, or at least the actor who played him. When she’s not writing, you can find her reading, playing video games, or counting down the days until DragonCon.

Her debut novel, HEIRS OF WAR, has been met with great reviews and was featured on Wattpad in 2013, raking in over 600k reads. The series continues with the second book, HEIRS OF WAR, CROWN OF FLAMES, released in Summer 2014. Her short story “The Austenation” will is included in the Borderlands Anthology and she is looking forward to publishing her young adult dystopian ALTAR OF REALITY with Curiosity Quills Spring 2015.

Find Mara Valderran Online:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Stitching Snow: A Spoiler Free Review

Umm, spoiler free? Oh, uh, that could be a little harder.

If you follow me on twitter (@RenaTheWriter) then a couple weeks back you might have seen this pic in my feed.

Good tea, great book, what could be better?

I love that picture. It just sums up a perfect day.

For those of you who missed it, I won an ARC of Stitching Snow by R. C. Lewis. This book doesn’t come out until October, but I can tell you right now that it’s a spectacular read.

The bare bones go like this: The plot is great, it picks you up and takes you on a ride. Vague? Yeah, well I said this was spoiler free, so here’s where I can give you comparison titles. If you read and liked Across the Universe, this book will probably be a slam dunk for you. It has similar aspects (Sci Fi, YA narrator), but you should know that it is, first and foremost, a retelling of Snow White in space. The other obvious comparison title is Cinder by Marissa Meyer. This comparison is a little closer to home in that the whole retelling is there and in a sci fi setting, but the circumstances of that setting are both greatly changed and extremely well told (that applies to both books).

What I loved: I loved how the tropes were all subverted perfectly. Every scrap of Snow is there and it is perfect and natural to the setting. I giggled—yes, I am allowed to giggle—at certain diminutive characters. I also loved how the story was faithful and irreverent (quite the feat).

There were no chapters or expositive areas where I wished the author would just get on with it (this is a common problem I have with all books; I hate having every detail spelled out for me). Each word is well chosen and I read every word (I’m a skipper, so when I read all the words, it’s a major compliment).

In short, go get this book. Preorder it now. It’s a really great book, lots of fun, adventure, and a healthy dose of cage fighting (because Snow White was totally a cage fighter).  

STITCHING SNOW

Princess Snow is missing.

 

Her home planet is filled with violence and corruption at the hands of King Matthias and his wife as they attempt to punish her captors. The king will stop at nothing to get his beloved daughter back—but that’s assuming she wants to return at all.

 

Essie has grown used to being cold. Temperatures on the planet Thanda are always sub-zero, and she fills her days with coding and repairs for the seven loyal drones that run the local mines.

 

When a mysterious young man named Dane crash-lands near her home, Essie agrees to help the pilot repair his ship. But soon she realizes that Dane’s arrival was far from accidental, and she’s pulled into the heart of a war she’s risked everything to avoid. With the galaxy’s future—and her own—in jeopardy, Essie must choose who to trust in a fiery fight for survival.

About the Author

R.C. Lewis teaches math to teenagers—sometimes in sign language, sometimes not—so whether she’s a science geek or a bookworm depends on when you look. That may explain why her characters don’t like to be pigeonholed. Coincidentally, R.C. enjoys reading about quantum physics and the identity issues of photons.

Something I enjoyed

I thought I had a post, but it turns out I'm just sick.

I've been sick for a while, and I'm starting to think my judgement may have gone with my health.

As such, I'm going to leave you all with a book recommendation:

I just finished Soulless by Gail Carriger. It's not a new title, but if you haven't already stumbled across the series, I give it a hearty shout out. Two thumbs up. It's corsets and vampires told from the point of view of a spinster who is vexed most by having a father who was both audacious enough to be Italian and worse, dead.

I had a blast reading this silly book, and I hardly know why. It took just a few pages for me to become completely swept up in the adventures of a parasol wielding spinster, and if you enjoy an entertaining read with vampires, werewolves and smart heroines, then you'll love this.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go thank the gals at my local bookstore for pointing this one out to me. So much fun!

A Million Suns

I recently posted my review of Across the Universe because, well, it was a great book. I enjoyed it. But there was something else there motivating me. I’d entered Beth Revis’ holiday giveaway and I thought it would be awesome to start the new year with a review of an ARC for A Million Suns. 

I didn’t know I’d win. It was a gamble. And it panned out. I won an ARC of A Million Suns! (I’d like to point out that it’s actually the first internet thing I’ve won since I started entering blog contests over a year ago). So, next week A Million Suns hits shelves, and here’s my opinion for those of you who want it:

GO BUY THIS BOOK! Stampede that little old blue hair if you have to, but make sure you get a copy of A Million Suns. It is incredible.

And it’s also really hard to review because it is easily spoiled. Which means that if you are thinking about talking to some people about it, don’t: just go buy it (or check it out from your library).

First, I really liked Across the Universe. I loved A Million Suns.

So what was the biggest difference? Hope. There is so much more hope in A Million Suns, and hope makes tension. When you have something to lose, the stakes go through the roof, and the tension is thicker than a San Francisco fog in June. A Million Suns sets up our main character to really lose everything she holds dear.

In Across the Universe, it was a murder mystery on a tiny little ship hurtling through space, but A Million Suns is a scavenger hunt combined with the great social commentary possible on a generation ship. Some of the social commentary reminded me of Frank Herbert’s The Dosadii Experiment and The Godmakers (in a good way, I liked those books), but without the often over dense writing style common to Herbert—in short, it was the good parts version.

I think that’s all I’m going to say about this incredible book for now. And just think, I have over a year to wait for the next one to come out… Patience really isn’t one of my virtues.