A Thousand Nights

ISBN: 9781484722275
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Publication Date: October 6th 2015
Number of Pages: 328
Source: Advanced Reader Copy
Goodreads Summary: Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to her village, looking for a wife. When she sees the dust cloud on the horizon, she knows he has arrived. She knows he will want the loveliest girl: her sister. She vows she will not let her be next.

And so she is taken in her sister's place, and she believes death will soon follow. Lo-Melkhiin's court is a dangerous palace filled with pretty things: intricate statues with wretched eyes, exquisite threads to weave the most beautiful garments. She sees everything as if for the last time. But the first sun rises and sets, and she is not dead. Night after night, Lo-Melkhiin comes to her and listens to the stories she tells, and day after day she is awoken by the sunrise. Exploring the palace, she begins to unlock years of fear that have tormented and silenced a kingdom. Lo-Melkhiin was not always a cruel ruler. Something went wrong.

Far away, in their village, her sister is mourning. Through her pain, she calls upon the desert winds, conjuring a subtle unseen magic, and something besides death stirs the air.

Back at the palace, the words she speaks to Lo-Melkhiin every night are given a strange life of their own. Little things, at first: a dress from home, a vision of her sister. With each tale she spins, her power grows. Soon she dreams of bigger, more terrible magic: power enough to save a king, if she can put an end to the rule of a monster.

My Rating:  

*I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

"Lo-Melkhiin rode into the desert as a man, and he was something else when he came out." pg. 40

 

Very intriguing story that is reminiscent of the Arabic tale One Thousand and One Nights AKA Arabian Nights. In that tale, a king finds his wife to be cheating on him and has her executed. He assumes all women are like his wife and proceeds to marry a different virgin every night, having her executed the next day. Finally, there are no more virgins left in the city and his vizier's (high official) daughter offers herself. On the first night, the daughter tells the king a story but fails to finish it - thus promptly the king to spare her life so he can find out the end of the story. She does this for 1,001 nights. 

Like the Arabic tale, we have a king, Lo-Melkhiin, who takes a girl from each village to marry and they are found dead the next day after they marry. That is until one day he finds a girl willing to offer herself to save her older sister from this deadly marriage. We never find out the girl's name (the story is told partially from her point of view) and we actually never are told anyone's name, save for Lo-Melkhiin. The author doesn't give a reason for this but does tell us in the acknowledgements "Emily Meehan, who took me very seriously when I told her that no, no one was ever going to get a name." 

There is a mystical element to the story, as the girl has been made a smallgod from the shrines and prayers offered to her. This power allows her to battle with the demon who has taken possession of Lo-Melkhiin's body and mind. We have some chapters told from the demon's perspective that give us a little more insight into this strange and dangerous creature. 

The story is very well written and moves at a quick pace. I haven't read anything like it before.  

A Little Something Different

by Sandy Hall

ISBN: 9781250061454
Publisher: Swoon Reads
Publication Date: August 26th 2014
Number of Pages: 272
Source: Local Library
Goodreads Summary: The creative writing teacher, the delivery guy, the local Starbucks baristas, his best friend, her roommate, and the squirrel in the park all have one thing in common—they believe that Gabe and Lea should get together. Lea and Gabe are in the same creative writing class. They get the same pop culture references, order the same Chinese food, and hang out in the same places. Unfortunately, Lea is reserved, Gabe has issues, and despite their initial mutual crush, it looks like they are never going to work things out. But somehow even when nothing is going on, something is happening between them, and everyone can see it. Their creative writing teacher pushes them together. The baristas at Starbucks watch their relationship like a TV show. Their bus driver tells his wife about them. The waitress at the diner automatically seats them together. Even the squirrel who lives on the college green believes in their relationship. 

Surely Gabe and Lea will figure out that they are ment to be together....

My Rating:  

What a sweet read!!! Aww I loved it :) This is also an interesting book, as we get 14 different points of view with none of them being the two love interests! You might be thinking, well then, how do you know what Gabe & Lea are thinking or wanting? Don't you worry, Ms. Hall does a fantastic job with her characters and you learn all you need.

Everyone around Gabe & Lea see that they have a spark and just want them to do something about it!! But Gabe has some mysterious issues stemming from the time he went absent a year before plus he is extremely shy, so things don't look good.

Characters we hear from:

1.     Maribel (Lea's roommate)

·     Always pushing Lea to talk to Gabe & her partner in crime in stalking Gabe

2.     Inga (creative writing professor)

·     Inga has this niche for matchmaking and her couple this year she has decided will be Lea & Gabe

         “They have a story. I’m telling you, there’s no way they don’t have a story. They have this chemistry that’s impossible to ignore. I don’t even know what it is. But I’m going to do whatever I can to get them together.”  

– A Little Something Different, 27-28

3.     A Bench out on the green

·     The weirdest point of view of them all. Not sure the purpose too much except for eavesdropping on Gabe’s & Lea’s private conversations.

4.     Sam (Gabe's brother)

·     Looking out for his younger brother & always encouraging him to tell Lea “his secret” and just ask her out!

5.     SQUIRREL! 

·     This little guy is just too cute :)

6.     Victor (creative writing classmate)

·     Very angry young man but he does serve an important role in getting these two lovebirds to connect.

7.     Bob (a bus driver)

·    An outsider who sees Gabe’s & Lea’s connection

8.     Casey (Gabe's friend)

·    Gives advice to Gabe about talking with Lea

9.     Maxine (a waitress)

·     This lady is 80 years old and still serving all the college kids at the diner. She also sees the connection between Lea & Gabe and helps do something about it.

·  "Maybe next time I’ll have to accidentally sit them all together. I’ve done that in the past and it always worked out. But my boss doesn’t like it much. Says I can’t go messing around, playing with table seatings like that. And to him I say, 'Ptooie! This ain’t Buckingham Palace!'”

– A Little Something Different, 20

10. Danny (Lea’s friend)

·     As a gay guy, he is absolutely certain that Gabe is playing for his team and isn't shy about vocalizing this to Lea

11. Pam (Inga's wife)

·     I think we only hear from Pam once, and it is to hear Inga talk about her matchmaking antics

12. Charlotte (a barista at Starbucks)

·    Thinks Gabe is a loser but warms up to him & Lea

13. Hillary (creative writing classmate)

·    Wants Gabe for herself and throws a wrench in Inga’s matchmaking scheme

14. Frank (Chinese-food delivery guy)

·     Lea & Gabe always order the same exact thing within hours of each other

·   “Seriously, these two need to get their acts together and order at the same time. I’m getting tired of driving out here twice in the same day." 

            – A Little Something Different, 90

I loved when Gabe wrote & read aloud his story concerning his shyness:

"I did lose some of my wariness and my fear as I matured, but I’ve never quite shaken my shyness. When I think about it, it’s like I would have never been able to grow out of it. It’s like the tree and the bicycle. I grew around it and it became part of me." 

– A Little Something Different, 82

Tree with Bicycle that Gabe references
Read about the real story here

"'…those two seriously need to get their acts together. I mean, how can it be so obvious to everyone around them and not to them?'"

– A Little Something Different, 181

So do these two ever end up finally owning up to their feelings for each other and get together?? Read and find out! ;)

I really want to encourage you to also read the interview with the author at the back of the book. She wrote this book in only 6 days!! She is also a Teen Librarian in NY. If you are a romance writer and are looking for feedback and a chance to get published, go take a look at Swoon Reads' website, "A teen romance imprint and community where writers and readers can share, read, rate, and discover swoonworthy manuscripts for publication."


*Classified as New Adult as the characters are in college.

After the End

by Amy Plum

Series: Book #1 After the End Series
ISBN: 9780062225603
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: May 6th 2014
Number of Pages: 322

Source: Local Library

Goodreads Summary: World War III has left the world ravaged by nuclear radiation. A lucky few escaped to the Alaskan wilderness. They've survived for the last thirty years by living off the land, being one with nature, and hiding from whoever else might still be out there.

At least, this is what Juneau has been told her entire life.

When Juneau returns from a hunting trip to discover that everyone in her clan has vanished, she sets off to find them. Leaving the boundaries of their land for the very first time, she learns something horrifying: There never was a war. Cities were never destroyed. The world is intact. Everything was a lie.

Now Juneau is adrift in a modern-day world she never knew existed. But while she's trying to find a way to rescue her friends and family, someone else is looking for her. Someone who knows the extraordinary truth about the secrets of her past.

My Rating:  

I loved this book! I went in with an idea of what this was going to be about and the book flipped me upside down! We start out thinking this is a dystopian world (and to Juneau, it kinda of is..) but BAMN - just kidding, the world is still turning without you and your group of "survivors."

The story is told through two perspectives - Juneau (one of the "survivors of WWIII" living out in the Alaskan wilderness) and Miles (the son of the CEO of Blackwell Pharmaceutical, who just got kicked out of his HS). This way of narrative really works for me, as we have two story-lines running parallel to each other and when they do meet, we get each person's thoughts.

Juneau seems kooky to Miles because of what he calls "magic." Juneau has grown up with the Yara (the life force that runs through everything) and has been training to take over her clan as kind of the head spiritual adviser, so this is all natural to her.

"The concept behind Reading is that everything in nature is alive in a certain fashion. So everything has its own version of what it sees or experiences: either past memories, what is happening in the present, or, since we think time is flexible, a 'memory' of what will have happened in the future. Every living thing is connected through the Yara. So Reading is just reaching out to the right element in nature that can give you the information you want to know." After the End, 220

These two meet up because Juneau's clan disappears on her (kidnapped of course) and it looks like Mile's father is the one behind it all. But things aren't what they seem, as Juneau's mentor, Whit, looks to have joined the other side and the fact that there are two sets of people chasing her (Miles himself could be a third).


I loved the relationship between Juneau and Miles and the way it developed throughout the book. Another aspect of this book that I liked was science and "magic." The whole intrigue surround Juneau and her clan and what could possibly make her valuable is well-written. The questions you think of are pretty much answered in the book, but we do come to a shocking ending - where we must now wait for the next installment in what looks like a series.

This book is full of adventure, mystery & intrigue, science fiction and the occult, and a little tinny bit of romance thrown in for good measure. Highly recommend :)

*UDPATE* - Book #2, Until the Beginning is due out May 2015!!

Noggin

By John Corey Whaley

ISBN: 9781442458727

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: April 8th 2014
Number of Pages: 342
Source: Local Library
Goodreads Summary: Listen — Travis Coates was alive once and then he wasn’t. Now he’s alive again. Simple as that. The in between part is still a little fuzzy, but he can tell you that, at some point or another, his head got chopped off and shoved into a freezer in Denver, Colorado. Five years later, it was reattached to some other guy’s body, and well, here he is. Despite all logic, he’s still 16 and everything and everyone around him has changed. That includes his bedroom, his parents, his best friend, and his girlfriend. Or maybe she’s not his girlfriend anymore? That’s a bit fuzzy too.

Looks like if the new Travis and the old Travis are ever going to find a way to exist together, then there are going to be a few more scars.

Oh well, you only live twice.

My Rating:  

This is a pretty amazing book, just saying. Our main character is a teenage boy named Travis. Thing about him is that he "died" five years ago of cancer. However, he decided to have his head frozen through the power of cryogenics and amazingly enough, doctors were able to connect his head to that of a donor body:

"Healthy or sick, Jeremy Pratt's body was better than mine. I knew this because the only thing separating me from him was a straight, pink line that circumnavigated my neck. There were no stitches, though - I was told this was a thing of the past. Connecting us together, Jeremy's body and me, was a spinal cord, blood vessels, nerve endings, and this swollen scar right in the middle of my neck about halfway between my clavicle and my chin." - Noggin, 23

Poor Jeremy had a brain tumor, so his body from the neck down was still healthy and that is just what Travis needed!


This book did an excellent job of telling us Travis' story and how it would feel to go to sleep and then wake up and everything has changed.

"I had said good-bye to them and I had closed my eyes. I had opened them and nothing. No word from either of the two people I wanted to be seeing more than anyone. Were they so different now? If it was really five years into the future, could that be all it took to change them? I mean, what's the point of getting another chance at life if everything's going to be so different that I can't stand it?" - Noggin, 14

Travis' best friend Kyle is in college now, as is his former girlfriend Cate (who just happens to be engaged). You understand his hurt and what he feels is betrayal. He does make a new friend, Hatton (who is like a younger version of Kyle) and together they try to find a way to win Cate back.


Travis has a great sense of humor and his story is one you must read!!

I loved the ending (though it might not be what you are expecting).

Cress

By Marissa Meyer

Series: Book #3 The Lunar Chronicles
ISBN: 9780312642976
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Publication Date: February 4th 2014
Number of Pages: 550
Source: Local Library
Goodreads Summary: Rapunzel’s tower is a satellite. She can’t let down her hair—or her guard. 

In this third book in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles series, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army. 

Their best hope lies with Cress, who has been trapped on a satellite since childhood with only her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker—unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice. 

When a daring rescue goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing stop her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only ones who can.

My Rating:  

Yes, I have got another fairy-tale retelling for you guys! I think I'll be posting a list of my favorite re-tellings in the next month.

I am so happy with this series by Marissa Meyer. This is the third book in the series. The first two books are Cinder and Scarlet. If you remember, Scarlet was my top pick for 2013 (see the post). I'm going to write this review as if you have already read the first two books, thus they will probably contain spoilers for them! If you like a futuristic dystopian society mixed with some science fiction and then add in some fairy-tales - this book is for you!

We pick up the story-line right where Scarlet ended. Linh Cinder (aka Princess Selene), Scarlet, Wolf, and Captain Carswell Thorne hiding out on the Captain's ship, the Rampion (which has the personality of the beloved Iko!) We are introduced to our latest main character, the namesake of the book's title - Cress (aka Crescent Moon). She is our Rapunzel in the story, the evil "mother figure" is Mistress Sybil, our prince is Thorne, and the tower she is locked away on happens to be a satellite circling Earth.

Let's start with the romance in this book, mainly between Cress & Thorne *sigh*. I love Thorne - he is the typical player with the awesome personality that also happens to have a secret soft spot. You can feel the chemistry between them (though some may think it's one sided, as Cress has been obsessed with Thorne for years - which yes is a little creepy, but hey it's kind of romantic too right?!)

"Though they were separated by two screens and vast amounts of empty space, she could feel the link being forged between them in that look. A bond that couldn't be broken. Their eyes had met for the first time, and by the look of pure amazement on his face, she knew he felt it too." - Cress, 40-41

When things go awry, we get our fairy tale optimism as Cress has unshakable faith in him:

"Thorne would come for her. He was a hero. She was a damsel. That's how the stories went - that's how they always went." - Cress, 293

We do get a little bit of Kai & Cinder towards the end, so hold out! There is no Scarlet/Wolf interaction (as you will find out why in the book!) His moping did get a little annoying at times but I was intrigued by Scarlet's story-line.

Speaking of story-lines, I think Meyer has done it again with weaving several plot lines perfectly and changing the chapters up in the exact time for us to see what's going on at the same time with our other characters. The book did get a little bit slow in the middle, but I think she was trying to build some suspense and also set us for the reveals that come at the end.

We find out the shocking origins of the deadly disease, Letumosis (which the cure is being used as a bargaining chip to force Kai to marry the scary & evil Lunar Queen Levana).

We are being set up in this book for the big war that is coming between Luna & Earth and we discover that Princess Selene has support.

"'That's what it's like,' said the woman. 'To have your own body used against you. To know that your brain has become a traitor. We came to Earth to get away from that, but we're all lost if Levana gets her way. Now, I don't know if this young lady can stop her, but it seems she's the only one worth putting any faith into right now, so that's what we're going to do.'" - Cress, 368

Still a little confused on why some Lunars are born as "shells" but hey, I guess we just have to accept it.

We also get a glimpse at our final "princess" whose book Winter won't be out until February of next year (2015)! I'm pretty excited that we are getting a crazy and ethnic Snow White, aka Princess Winter:

"Her warm brown skin was flawless and healthy, her fingernails perfectly shaped and clean. Her eyes were bright, the color of melted caramel, but with hints of slate-gray around her pupils. On top of all that, she had silky black hair that curled into perfect spirals, neatly framing her high cheekbones and ruby-red lips." ...

"Yet there was one anomaly. Or - three. The right side of the girl's face was marred by three scars that cut down her cheek from the corner of her eye to her jaw. Like perpetual tears. Strangely, the flaws on her skin didn't reduce her beauty, but almost accentuated it." - Cress, 517

We also discover that her love interest is the confusing character of Jacin Clay, "with the blond hair and beautiful eyes and the rising sun in his smile." - Cress, 521

We end the book with the hint of things to come:

"War had begun.
'You said yourself that the people of Luna need a revolutionary.' She lifted her chin, holding his gaze. 'So I'm going to Luna, and I'm going to start a revolution.'" - Cress, 550

DUN DUN DUN!! Ahhh - I can't wait for the final installment of this series!

Just Like Fate

by Cat Patrick & Suzanne Young

ISBN: 9781442472715
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: August 27th 2013
Number of Pages: 304
Source: Local Library
Goodreads Summary: Caroline is at a crossroads. Her grandmother is sick, maybe dying. Like the rest of her family, Caroline's been at Gram's bedside since her stroke. With the pressure building, all Caroline wants to do is escape--both her family and the reality of Gram's failing health. So when Caroline's best friend offers to take her to a party one fateful Friday night, she must choose: stay by Gram's side, or go to the party and live her life.The consequence of this one decision will split Caroline's fate into two separate paths--and she's about to live them both. Friendships are tested and family drama hits an all-new high as Caroline attempts to rebuild old relationships, and even make a few new ones. If she stays, her longtime crush, Joel, might finally notice her, but if she goes, Chris, the charming college boy, might prove to be everything she's ever wanted. Though there are two distinct ways for her fate to unfold, there is only one happy ending...

My Rating:  

Warning: Review may contain slight spoilers

Awesome book. We see two different paths play out from one decision Caroline makes - to stay with her grandmother in the hospital or to go and enjoy herself at a party (mainly to get her mind off the sadness of her grandmother dying). I honestly can't say which choice I would have made. It was so interesting to see how her life plays out and she realizes very similar things about herself and the people around her. The epilogue is intriguing. It shows us that even though you can't figure which life choice brought her to that point, either one still would have brought her there. - I think Patrick & Young are trying to tell us that fate is something that is real and we end up were we need to be. The journey may take us through different trials, but we are who we are.

"I'm saying we have freedom to make mistakes...I'm saying that our mistakes - one mistake or many of them - don't define us. They don't derail us. We end up where we need to be in the end...But hopefully having learned something from our stumbles...having grown into better people because of them." - Just like Fate, 292

I love the song brought up at the end and how it says some very interesting things about life, fate, and the choices we make.

I will say that I (and probably a lot of readers) wished that the life Caroline lived was the "go" one. I'm just partial to Chris and she gets more life with him in that version ;)

I would recommend that all teenagers should read this book - it teaches us some valuable lessons about the mistakes and choices we make in life.  If you like science fiction, I also recommend reading more of Cat Patrick's books - she is an amazing writer who writes good stand-alone YA books. I have read some of Suzanne Young's work, she's good but not as good as Patrick :D