Review: Caraval

Review:

I received a copy from Netgalley.

I’m really not sure what to make of this book. In a word? Weird. But at the same time completely absorbing and fascinating.

This is a strange case for me as I didn’t particularly like any of the characters, I found the main character Scarlett to be incredibly timid and dull, the sister she was willing to give up everything for was obnoxious, selfish and a big brat. The potential of the love interest Julian was interesting but there were too many questions surrounding his character - good or bad? It’s impossible to tell for definite. So many questions and very few answers, that didn’t turn into completely different twists.

The story itself was brilliant, the world building of Caraval was one of the most unique fantasy novels I’ve come across in a long time. Scarlett lives on a tiny island with her sister Donatella under the iron fist of their horrible abusive father. When one is caught doing wrong, the other is punished and punished violently. Which is shown right off in the first few chapters. It was horrible.

Scarlett’s dream has been to be invited to the magical game of Caraval, intrigued by it’s Master, a man known only as Legend. Her letters have gone unanswered for years, so she gives up. On the final letter, she tells Legend she's now engaged. And she gets her invitation.

There’s a handsome sailor who comes to the island, Julian who’s flirty with the sister, and before long, Donatella vanishes. Shortly after Scarlett has told her about the Caraval invite arrives, which is actually for Scarlett and her new fiancé. Whom Scarlett has never actually met as it’s an arranged marriage. She sees it as her chance to escape her father (which all becomes a big part of the plot later on in the novel).

Scarlett is torn between staying for the wedding and giving up on her dreams of Caraval, but she can’t abandon her sister, and with the help of Julian, Scarlett decides she can go rescue her sister and get back in time to meet the Count she is engaged to and get married.

Arriving in Caraval is not an easy thing. It’s one disaster after another and one mysterious twist after another. This is what makes the novel so engaging. Even if I did find the characters very dull, the mystery and whimsy of Caraval is pretty damn amazing.

Scarlett is warned nothing is as it seems and not to get too swept away into the game, there can be deadly consequences. She must decipher clues to win the game and win the grand prize. Of course everything unravels very quickly as Scarlett is caught up in the game.

My biggest problem with Scarlett was she came across to me as deeply, deeply dull and ridiculously timid. She’s wanted to go to Caraval most of her life - she’s there and she’s so obsessed with her sister, she can’t even seem to enjoy the wonder surrounding her. She’s scared of so much and seems to have very little regard as to her own needs and desires, other than saving her sister and marrying a man she’s never met arranged by a father she’s terrified of. Given the fear and violence she grew up in in a way it’s understandable why she’s so timid, but it did get a tad bit repetitive and annoying after a while.

It’s impossible to guess what’s going to happen in this novel, and that’s really what kept me interested, just when you think you know what’s going on, bam! plot twists and every perception changes. Lots and lots of twists and turns in the plot, right up to the very end.

I’m very very intrigued to know where this is going. Though I can actually see myself reading this one again. I will definitely be getting a finished copy of this one.

Thank you Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for approving my request to view the title.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1503189/review-caraval

DNF: Blame

Review:

I received a copy from Netgalley.

 

This was a case of it sounded like a good idea at the time. I do actually like dystopias, though they are very samey in terms of basic plot and characters. The plot is usually some horrible form of government has taken over a broken world with hard, harsh rules and a headstrong heroine who will take them all on and bring it down. Some work well, some don't. Unfortunately, this particular title didn't work for me at all.

 

For starters, there's a long list of slang words at the front of the book, which immediately annoys me. Made up words can either work or don't, depending on the book and the context, but a huge list at the front of the book? That's an immediate eye roll and a nope for me. I did give it a try.

 

The idea of this particular dystopian is a society where the children are blamed for the crimes of their parents. This must have sounded interesting when I requested the book, but on actually starting to read it, it didn't sound particularly interesting at all. The heroine is doling out her own form of justice to some bullies in the first scene, and its made clear that she's doing something against the rules and has to be back wherever she's got to be ASAP. She lives in some sort of prison with her adorable brother and her adoptive parents. There's a horrible guard who seems to have it out for this particular girl.

 

I made it to 9% but I know already this one is not for me and I have no desire to finish it.

 

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House UK Children’s for the opportunity.  

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1503111/dnf-blame

DNF: The Fifth Petal

Review:

I received a copy from Penguin's First to Read site.

 

This is a murder mystery set in Salem. The premise was a fairly interesting one, 20 or so odd years ago three women were murdered on Halloween night during what appears to be some sort of ritual, there were two survivors, a little girl and another older woman. The older woman turned slightly nutty, the little girl remembered nothing and was shipped off to an orphanage run by nuns.

 

Now in 2014 something has happened involving the surviving lady Rose, from the original case, someone is dead under weird circumstances, Rose has gone rather loopy. A detective who has dealt with Rose before comes into the picture to investigate, and the little girl, who survived, Callie, all grown up now, comes back to town. There's a connection to the ancestors of the original Salem people who were accused of witchcraft and executed, something to do with the hanging tree and the real location, and missing bodies, consecrating the ground.

 

It's definitely an interesting idea, however, 84 pages in and it's very boring and long winded. This one is just not getting my attention and I'm not all that interested in anymore really. One for the DNF list, unfortunately. Not for me at all.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1501288/dnf-the-fifth-petal

Review: The Space Between

Review:

I received a copy from Netgalley.

 

I’ve said it before and I will probably say it again, I’m all for lesbian relationships in YA fiction, as there isn’t nearly enough of it. Yet this is the second I’ve read I’ve found that the romance was beautifully written but the over all story was very disappointing. Also the second with an overwhelming religious theme causing major distress and upset. I found it preachy to the point of obnoxious. It was also incredibly repetitive, and I did find myself skimming through certain bits. 

 

The story is set in a high school in Canada, Harper Isabelle is going into her freshman year of high school, she’s always been pretty and popular, thanks to the help of her beautiful older sister Bronte, who is the most popular girl in school. Bronte has always been there to teach Harper about fashion and how to date and what to do with boys, how to smoke, how to be cool, how to pick the perfect friends and fit in. (Bronte is supposed to be the coolest thing since sliced bread but frankly she’s a horrible spoiled bitch). 

 

Starting high school Harper is in the perfect position to make herself popular right off. She’s got it made. Until one class where she finds herself noticing another girl, Sarah, who wears all black and is immediately branded a “loser” before she can even answer her name in roll-call.

 

Yet in answering questions in class on To Kill a Mockingbird, Sarah comes off as quite intelligent, but very shy, Harper picks up on her train of thought in answering questions. Of course, Sarah notices Harper who is drop dead gorgeous, but has already suffered the indignities of Harper’s mean girl friends (in which Harper did nothing tp help) decided Harper is not worth her time. 

 

Sarah has a twin brother Tyler, who’s hot and on Harper and her mean girl cronies radars. Sarah and Harper find themselves inevitably getting to know each other. Harper appears to have a little more of a mind than her hive and a  nicer personality than she initially shows herself to have. It seems like she's been living in her sister’s shadow trying to live up to an almost impossible reputation and hasn’t really been able to explore what she wants in her life. Her parents are lawyers and workaholics and never home so she and Bronte have always had money and the means to do pretty much whatever they want. 

Where Sarah’s father is a pastor, she and her brother live by very strict rules and even have to say grace over snacks. Of course Tyler has broken every rule and managed to get away with it, and Sarah the quieter of the two, has always been “different” because she’s not outgoing. Her parents chalk it up to “eccentric artist” type things. 

 

As Sarah and Harper get to know each other their feelings start to change and this slowly developing thing from tentative friendship to romance is actually very believable. Though it doesn’t help that Harper is actually dating Tyler by this point. Sarah is worried that Harper is using her to get to Tyler, and finds herself becoming more and more included in Tyler’s activities and hanging out with Harper and her friends and finally becoming more popular. 

 

One part that really really pissed me off was one Sunday morning when Sarah and her family go to church to listen to her pastor father’s sermon, he’s preaching about sins and how wrong it is to be gay and what a horrible horrible sin it is and how those people should go to hell forever (along those lines) and how those righteous should pray for those poor doomed soles. It is frankly disgusting that people are preaching this kind of ignorant bullshit.  

 

Problem is this hangs over Sarah for the rest of the novel. When the romance finally happens its very compelling. What lets things down for this book, at least for me, was how repetitive it was. Harper’s worried about her reputation, Sarah goes down the same spiral over and over, - I’m finally popular, what if its only to get to Tyler, my religion says this is so wrong. It’s the same thing. Again and again and again.  Though out of the two of them, Harper to be fair, was less annoying. She became more sure of herself, and what she wanted, her thoughts, her feelings without giving into what everyone expected of her. 

 

Though I was let down by the ending of the book, which I found to be overly dramatic and unrealistic. It seemed to want to sum everything up, while some aspects were dealt with - others were glossed over or barely mentioned, and then it’s an epilogue of four years later. Which just seemed overly sickly sweet and made my eyes roll.

 

Boring. 

 

I gave it two stars because some of it was well done, but over all I just didn’t really like this one much at all.

 

Thank you to Netgalley and Book Enthusiast Promotions for approving my request to view the title. 

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1501130/review-the-space-between

Review: The Witch's Kiss

Review:

I received a copy from Netgalley.

 

A very enjoyable UK based YA paranormal novel with some unique takes on witchcraft, a modern day story mixed in with a fantasy like historical side plot made for some really interesting story telling. Sixteen year old Merry has been having scary dreams, involving a boy her age with a scary looking sword, who seems hell bent on trying to kill her. Not helped by the fact there is a serial killer around in her town who is striking at couple in love and taking their hearts. When the boy from her dreams turns up in real life, a hidden family curse is revealed along with the fact that Merry is the latest in the family line to take on an evil wizard who is really responsible for the serial killer taking hearts.

 

All sounds a bit convoluted, but comes together really well. Merry is a likeable heroine, she’s known she’s had witch magic for some time and started using it, the reader learns right away that she won’t any more because something went very very wrong with her magic, and Merry is afraid of it. Though her powers are getting stronger and she finds herself losing control without meaning to. Her dad is out of the picture, left a long time ago, her mum is in complete denial and hates the family magic. Her best friend Ruby knows nothing of the magic, the only solace and comfort Merry has in dealing with it all is her older brother Leo.

 

Initially, Leo comes off as a typical British lad more interested in going to the pub and hanging out with his mates than anything else. But Leo turns out to be one of the best characters in the book. His relationship with his sister turns out to be a really close one, he's there, he listens to her, he helps when he can and even though he doesn't have any magic of his own, he’s by Merry’s side and supporting her every step of the way. The magic comes through the female line, while Mum ignores and wants nothing to do with it, Merry’s grandmother and her coven are the ones who help Merry train her powers once she finally accepts her destiny.

 

Made worse by the fact that the boy from her dreams, turns out to be very very real and part of the family curse. Only the boy has two sides to him, two different personalities one of which he has no control over as it’s tied to the evil wizard and one the normal boy he was before anything happened. Oh, and that boy’s really sweet and Merry might be falling in love with him. Just to complicate things further.

 

Merry’s struggle with her normal school life and her magic duties are very believable. The reader learns a little more about how Merry has handled things with her magic when she first started learning and how things unravelled quickly. She behaved pretty badly, but at least she knew it was wrong and is trying to fix it. Merry has a pretty good moral compass and a good balance of trying to do the right thing.

 

The story also weaves in a family curse, when Merry gets the details from Gran, instead of just being told this is what happened way back when, there’s an evil wizard tied to our ancestors who wants to destroy all lovers because he was jilted a thousand years ago and there’s a curse and an innocent boy tied up in this and turned into a monster and you have to defeat him…the story is actually shown to the reader. In separate chapters, the historical part of the story comes to vivid life like a fantasy novel, then the novel switches back to the present as Leo and Merry learn more.

 

We learn more about the curse and backstory through flashback and Merry’s dreams as she turns out to have a direct tie to one of her ancestors who was involved back then.

 

It’s completely addictive and completely gripping. Likeable characters, deplorable villains and a complex romantic side plot. It’s a really different way of story telling and I really enjoyed it.

 

Thank you Netgalley and HarperCollins UK, Children’s for approving my request to view the title.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1499706/review-the-witch-s-kiss

Review: Sing

Review:

I received a copy from Netgalley.

 

This title had been on my wishlist when I first saw it on Netgalley. I had already pre ordered. I didn’t realise the first galley I applied for was for sample chapters only. I hate sample chapters on Netgalley. Thankfully though, I wind up getting a full review copy.

 

Took a while to get into, but I did end up really enjoying it. A fluffy contemporary YA novel about a famous pop singer who after suffering a very public break up with her movie star boyfriend retreats with her best friends to the small island where one of her friends grew up. (It does kind of read like it could have been Taylor Swift fanfiction, but all the same, it’s an enjoyable read.)

 

Though initially I must admit I did have a hard time liking Lily Ross, the pop star main character. I was getting vibes of poor little famous person. She’s chosen a career in the public eye, and then seems surprised when nasty things are written about her and secrets about her relationships come out on gossip blogs after the breakup and words are twisted and stuff comes out that was taken completely out of context. Maybe I’m being a bit of a bitch here but it’s sort of like – well what did you expect? You chose a career that puts you in the public eye – she’s got legions and legions of fans. While there are plenty of people I’m sure who just love the music and will go to the concerts and enjoy the songs without really wanting to dig into the private life of the person behind the music, there are always going to fans who go to the opposite extreme and will want to know every last little thing about the singer they love. It’s not even like it’s the first time it’s happened to Lily, she’s known for big relationships, falling in  love deep and fast and making wonderful music about the guys and the relationships. She had a whole tour and album planned around her relationship with her current boyfriend Jed Monroe. Which goes up in flames. It’s certainly not fair on Lily, yes, it must be horrible to have someone you thought you were very much in love with break up with you and it becomes unnecessarily very public. Though at the same time it’s like – well, it comes with the territory of being famous.  

 

So a retreat with two best friends who have known Lily forever, Samantha and Tess, sounds like a really good idea. Lily comes to the conclusion all she’s written about is love and relationships. She wants something new and to find new inspiration and who she is without the flashy boyfriends. Sounds like very sensible idea.  Tess grew up on a tiny island community and convinces Lily it’s the perfect spot where she can collect herself after what happened with Jed. So off they go, Lily disengaging herself from her pop star career and getting the chance to just be herself with no fans and paparazzi around.

 

There are of course people who recognise her, but it’s a world away from New York. And just as Lily starts to relax – oh surprise, she accidentally hits a car coming back from somewhere early one morning and meets a really nice guy, Noel.  Um, wasn’t the whole point of this retreat to find something else to write songs about other than boys and romance, Lily? The scenery is wonderful, she can finally be herself with no expectations and has a kind of personal freedom she hasn’t had in a long time. Yet Lily can’t seem to find her song writing mojo. 

 

It’s immediately eye rolling because this is predictable as hell. It’s easy to see exactly where this is plot is going to go. That being said, Noel was actually a really sweet and decent guy. He has a somewhat complex family situation and an awesome little sister who (unsurprisingly) is a huge Lily Ross fan. The sister has own unique personality and becomes quite an important part of the plot. 

 

It becomes quite an emotional turmoil as Lily finds her song writing mojo, gets to know Noel and the island better. Then has to start recording her songs so brings her whole crew to the island to record things and prep for the upcoming tour.  She keeps things from her two besties, and can’t seem to get why the girl who comes from the island is irritated when the whole Lily Ross menagerie comes to produce the songs and record the new album all in time for the tour. Which brings chaos and of course…the paparazzi.  

 

Lily finds herself with some very hard choices to make towards the end of the novel when everything starts going wrong. She keeps secrets, and in some cases can be incredibly naive and dumb, while in others she shows an incredible level of maturity and common sense. She may be a famous person, but after all, she’s just a human girl with a big heart who makes mistakes and realises there are things to learn, and shows herself a damn good role model. 

 

An extremely well written novel, maybe a bit predictable but it’s a very enjoyable read with deep characters and a good emotional pull.

 

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK, Children’s for approving my request to view the title. 

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1498774/review-sing

DNF: The Guests on South Batteru

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1498389/dnf-the-guests-on-south-batteru