Suspense and a bit of Claustrophobia

 

A Millions Suns by Beth Revis

Oh god, the INTRIGUE! The suspense! The wanting-to-slap-everyone-into-their-senses!

Sorry, let me introduce this properly.

This is the sequel to Across the Universe.  If you haven't read it, it is really good and you should go do that first.*

A Million Suns takes place three months after the first book ends.  And everything is in chaos.  Secrets are being discovered and the majority of the population has taken to discord and rioting as their new favourite pastime.  When things get stressful in novels, (usually when one character is trying to convince another character to do the right thing at a crucial moment) I find my brain yelling out what I would be saying in that situation.  And somehow the characters never hear me.  Anyways, I had those moments often reading this book.

My thoughts upon reading the last page were, "AHHH".** Cliffhangers. They are not good for ones health.

Anyways, to fans of the first book I definitely recommend you continue onto this one. For anyone who bothered reading this review who hasn't read Across the Universe, but liked what they read, I urge you to go out and read the first.  It gave me similar anxiety issues (in a good way).

I am heading over to my library's webpage to put a hold on the third book.


Others in the Series
Across the Universe
A Million Suns
Shades of Earth


*If you want, I mean, I won't make you.
**direct quote

Audiobook Review: Anna Dressed in Blood

I received this audio book last summer through Sync's annual audio book give away (which is still happening right now, right HERE).  Two free audio books every week all through the summer. It is a pretty sweet deal.

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake, narrated by August Ross

Plot: Cas Lowood is a high school student and a ghost hunter.  With the knife he inherited from his father (also a ghost hunter) Cas travels around the world killing murderous ghosts, and protecting the innocent people who believes ghosts only belong in stories.  Until he comes to Thunder Bay* to kill Anna, where things don't go quite so smoothly.


Favourite line: “You fuck - you ate my cat!”.  It's not much in print, but the delivery was hilarious.

I loved listening to this book.  The story was captivating; action, romance, and a bit of horror.  There were a few pretty graphic descriptions of the nasty things ghosts could do to humans, and I am pretty sure I was making some weird expressions on public transit while listening to this one.  The narration was pretty good.  It was a male narrator for a male protagonist, which worked.  He made a valiant effort to do girl voices, but they weren't his strongest.  I loved the voice he did for one of the male jocks, it reminded me of one of the frog hunters in The Princess and the Frog**

Sequel:
Girl of Nightmares

*Yay Canadian location! AND a Canadian location that is treated like any America location (that is, no emphasis on beavers, or mounties or anything.

**"I will make him pay for his insolence!" (video)

Ghostly Visions

17 & Gone by Nova Ren Suma

17 & Gone features Lauren, a 17 year old girl who becomes obsessed with other 17 year old girls who have gone missing.  The ghosts of these girls begin to haunt Lauren, telling her details about their lives and urging her to help them. 

I picked up 17 & Gone based on a few reviews I had read here and there around the Internet which said how great this book was.  I have mixed feelings about it.  For the first 2/3 of the book, all I got from it was a "meh" kind of feeling.  The idea was interesting, but it didn't have the suspense or spook factor that I had been expecting.  Then all of a sudden, right around the 2/3 mark BAM.  All the careful fact laying and plot building that had felt dull before finally made sense.  I wish I could say more, other than this book will play with your expectations.  My mixed feelings come from the fact that the first half of the book was a bit blah for me, despite the payoff at the end. 


Recommended for: someone looking for a haunting read; fans of first person narration that is very much inside the head of the narrator (so much so that at one point I felt vaguely claustrophobic)

Jazz, Gin, and Jealousy

Absolutely gorgeous cover.

Vixen by Jillian Larkin

Vixen follows three society girls in 1920's Chicago - the height of Prohibition, flappers, and speakeasies.  Gloria appears to be the perfect debutante daughter: well mannered, pretty, and engaged to the most eligible bachelor in the city.  When she and her best friends Lorraine and Marcus go to one of the cities most notorious speakeasies Gloria realises that the life she wants might have less to do with debutantes and more with the handsome black piano player she meets there. Her cousin Clara arrives on the scene to complicate matters and soon everyone is keeping secrets and wanting what they can't have.

This book is very similar in tone and theme with the Luxe series by Anna Godbersen.  The clothes and parties are described with a luscious attention to detail and their is no shortage of scandal and betrayal. 

I wasn't enthralled by this book.  The prologue was gripping and I loved the setting, but the characters didn't really interest me.  The three main characters all seemed very similar, and sometimes I would get a few pages into a new chapter before realising I was in a new perspective.*  Until the end, when one of the characters (not naming names) seems to begin a dark descent into desperation and dirty deeds, I hadn't had any interest in pursuing the rest of the series.  Now I need to read the next one to know if this character will become as deliciously devious as I dare dream. Well played Ms. Larkin.  Well played.

Overall it was an entertaining read.  It didn't have me wildly turning the pages to see what happened next but I do now have a strong desire for a martini, a bobbed hair cut, and an evening watching Chicago.**

Recommended for: fans of Gossip Girl, The Luxe series, and any other of those books about scandalous young people doing scandalous things

Sequels:
Ingenue
Diva

*Partially due, I will admit, to my habit of never ever reading chapter titles and headings. Particularly troublesome when reading epistolary novels.
**Which is, sadly, not on Netflix.

The Old College Try

Do you remember that old saying parents used to tell us to make us stop calling our sister a bumhead? "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all".  I think that for me (as well as for a lot of people) I have taken that and mutated it into "If you don't have anything GOOD to say, don't say anything at all".  What's the difference between the two?  Well, the first one prevents you from hurting someones feelings, or saying something you might regret.  That is a good rule to follow in most situations.* That second one prevents you from trying things that you want to try - but you don't, because you aren't good enough at it.  It doesn't just apply to speaking, it applies to writing, or acting, or kayaking, or doing taxes.  But the secret is that those people who are good at these things?  They probably weren't that good the first time they did it.

I love reading.  I love talking about what I have read with other people.  I love it when a book I have read and loved and talked about to another person becomes a book THEY read and loved.  So I am going to attempt a blog where I can review and talk about the books I have read.  And probably other things.  So bear with me while I am still in my "sucking-at-this-stage".  I promise I will get better.**



*Except when some jerk takes the last scoop of chocolate peanut butter ice cream, or someone tries to tell you that dogs are better than cats.  Then the (verbal) gloves come off.

**That's a lie. I was crossing my fingers there.  I will TRY to get better.  "Practise makes perfect" is another one of those old sayings, and who knows, maybe it's just one of those things that your parents told you to trick you into doing something.  Like "eating crusts will make your hair curly" or "carrots are good for your eyes" or "brush your teeth so you don't get cavities".  Yeah, right mom.  Suuure.