REMAKE by Ilima Todd

On Goodreads

The Blurb: 
Nine is the ninth female born in her batch of ten females and ten males. By design, her life in Freedom Province is without complications or consequences. However, such freedom comes with a price. The Prime Maker is determined to keep that price a secret from the new batches of citizens that are born, nurtured, and raised androgynously. 

But Nine isn't like every other batcher. She harbors indecision and worries about her upcoming Remake Day -- her seventeenth birthday, the age when batchers fly to the Remake facility and have the freedom to choose who and what they'll be.

When Nine discovers the truth about life outside of Freedom
Province, including the secret plan of the Prime Maker, she is
pulled between two worlds and two lives. Her decisions will test
her courage, her heart, and her beliefs. Who can she trust? Who does she love? And most importantly, who will she decide to be?

The Afterglow:

I've had my eye on this book for quite some time, ever since I first saw it at the local Deseret Bookstore. When I got it for Christmas, I was thrilled!

Gender is a hot-button cultural issue with many psychological and religious, even political, undertones. Thus, I was very impressed to see an author of faith had taken it on. That's brave. People of faith aren't politically popular right now, unless you're the Pope. And wearing it on your sleeve can earn you plenty of condemnation from your peers. Sure enough, when I went to rate this book FIVE STARS on Goodreads, I ended up exposed to plenty of negative, even angry, reviews. Fortunately, there are enough glowing reviews to land it very near to four whole stars cumulatively.

But this is an Afterglow Review, and this review blog is reserved for those books that wow-ed you, impressed you, or changed you, leaving you somehow better. Remake did that for me. I read it with my husband, which made me blush a bit in the particularly gushy parts, but definitely made the humor more fun. The mystery of it left us speculating and predicting throughout the book as we tried to figure out exactly why Nine is the way she is, so different from everyone else, and what the Prime Maker would do with her if she didn't do what was expected.

The part that impacted me, though, was the artful articulation of the true meaning and joy of FAMILY. It is, after all, what this book is all about. It ponders the questions, "Is family important? Necessary? Desirable? Or is it restrictive of freedom, oppressive of women, and inciting to revolution?"

For those of us who advocate for the continued protection of the natural family (I include myself as a homeschool mom who advocates for parents rights), family means something more to us than it seems to mean to those who believe a child is better off as a ward of the state. It means bundles of pride and joy, to be sure, but it also means mutual sacrifice, deep and abiding love, and an eternal sense of belonging that goes beyond all other affiliations in your life. Not everyone feels this way about family, and not everyone has had a beautiful experience in her own family. It can be difficult for family-lovers to articulate exactly why the family unit is worth protecting and proliferating.

Ilima Todd gently and with plenty of awkward humor, helps us discover the depth of meaning in the family pattern through the eyes of an androgynous girl without family who is fostered into a tight-knit, God-fearing, and hard-working family. From her new mother, she learns what a mother even is, that it's sometimes a painful role to play, and that her impact with a few whispered words can reach her children months later across an ocean. From her new father, she learns how fathers and mothers lead together, how the love of parents is the glue that binds the whole family together, and how to lead with love. From her new siblings, she learns that you can be happy no matter your circumstances, that complaining makes things a lot worse, and that everybody in the family has work they can do for the good of all.

Even though Nine is eased into this new life, it is still very alien to her, having grown up in a batch of genetically engineered children as the social pariah with only one best friend to protect her from ceaseless teasing. She weighs the good and the bad in what she sees, and struggles with concepts like freedom vs. loyalty or choice vs. acceptance of things that aren't easily changed. All she's ever wanted her entire life is to change who she is completely so she can be more like her best friend in every way, even down to his gender. She mistakenly believes that strength and courage are male traits. Right up to the last chapter, the reader must wonder what she will choose to be. Even if you disagree with the Biblical and historic definitions of family, this story will allow you to explore what a world would be like where children aren't considered their parents' charges and natural birth within families is not only discouraged, but illegal.

A good dystopia shows us ourselves in a fun-house mirror to make us think about the distortions and what the real picture is and should be. Suzanne Collins in The Hunger Games forced us to realize the disgusting glamorization of violence in our entertainment by inventing a society where war and entertainment were one and the same. Ilima Todd has shown us our disregard for family stewardship, parents rights, and a child's need for the complementary and different abilities of both parents by inventing a society that isolates children from any constant caregivers, punishes parents for procreating and systematically sterilizes new citizens of a city ironically called Freedom 1.

In one particularly haunting conversation with the Prime Maker, Nine asks herself, "And what if I choose to be me?"


 

ETIQUETTE & ESPIONAGE by Gail Carriger

On Goodreads

The Blurb:
It's one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It's quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to Finishing School. 

Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners--and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.

But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine's, young ladies learn to finish...everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but they also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage--in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year's education.

The Afterglow:

 I absolutely loved Gail Carriger's adult series, The Parasol Protectorate, starting with Book the First: Soulless. With the light, witty tone of Jane Austen crashing into the clockworks and invention of Jules Verne, Gail Carriger has hit the sweet spot in her book universe. Set in the same delightful universe, her Finishing School series for teen readers explores a pair of unorthodox boarding schools for boys and girls: one for training up evil geniuses and the other for preparing female intelligencers to face the wild world of espionage and Picklemen.

I quickly fell in like with the main character of Etiquette & Espionage, Sophronia (love the name!) Temminnick, because of her intelligent fascination with how things work and her innate indifference to fashion and manners. I related to her because she comes from a large family, wears last season's dresses from her older sisters (though in my case it was a cousin), and can't help but be curious about everything! Even better, she doesn't come from a family steeped in the mystery of Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quali-tay. She's more like a scholarship case, referred to in the book as a covert recruit.

With her affinity for stable boys and indifference to gender or racial differences, Sophronia exudes goodness, despite her position at a school for would-be assassins and intelligencers. She is truly a main character to applaud.

While the many intriguing and mysterious characters come from diverse backgrounds and personalities, the school itself is a character. Its shape, its geographical location, and its propensity to float above the ocean all make the setting one of constant excitement and, yes, of course, danger.

While I haven't been a teenage girl for some time now, I do have a little anecdote which leads me to believe this book would be equally beloved by teen girls. Knowing my mom's love of good fiction, especially with a 19th century England setting, I gave her the book as soon as I finished it. She took it to work the next day and immediately lost it. Rather, it was stolen. Fortunately, she found it in the hands of one of her "troubled" girls who lives at the school where she works. The girl begged her to get the book approved so she, too, could read it. Apparently, she had read a few pages and was hooked. If that's not a glowing review, I don't know what is.

I'm waiting on amazon to bring me my sequel copy, Curtsies & Conspiracies.

Have you read Gail Carriger? Would you read her YA series? (Hint: The answer is yes!)

STEELHEART by Brandon Sanderson

The blurb:

(from goodreads)

Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary men and women extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics. But Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man you must crush his wills.

Nobody fights the Epics...nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, they spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them.

And David wants in. He wants Steelheart - the Epic who is said to be invincible. The Epic who killed David's father. For years, like the Reckoners, David's been studying, and planning - and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience.

He's seen Steelheart bleed. And he wants revenge.

The afterglow:

Any blurb I could find simply does not do Steelheart justice. I felt like I had died and gone to reader-heaven.

Sheer, utter, perfection lies within the pages of this book.

From a world that is brilliantly crafted and expertly comments on our own society, to characters that are incredibly unique with complex relationships, Steelheart is one of those don't-even-try-to-talk-to-me-I'm-reading type of books. Every page is filled with excitement. Set in Newcago - the villain, Steelheart's, solid-steel transformation of modern-day Chicago - it feels modern and futuristic at the same time. And with the unexplained and almost magical powers of the Epics, this book seamlessly mixes fantasy and science-fiction to create something that is truly extraordinary.

And the action! I have never, ever, wanted to see a book turned into a movie so bad. It was written perfectly - fast-paced and easy to follow, but also wildly creative and unlike anything I've ever imagined.

Just ... perfect.

If you want a book that will simultaneously break your heart, invigorate your mind, fill you with hope, and split your sides with a slew of hilariously bad metaphors, this is the book for you.

Actually, no matter who you are, this is the book for you. Seriously.

(When does the sequel come out??)

♥tg

PS - I looked it up. Firefight comes out in January. Guess who's pre-ordering it.

The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay

Note: I thought I'd posted my gushing afterglow regarding this amazing book when I finished it a few weeks ago and, come to find out, I never did. How this escaped me until now, I don't know, but I wanted to share this because, not only is the story a great one and Katja's voice beautiful, but what happened with TSOT is the perfect example that self-publishing can lead down paths you never could have dreamed about (you can read about her story, here). And now, here's my review--copied and pasted straight from Goodreads. As usual, my excitement makes me sound a bit annoying, but that's the fangirl going on... the afterglow, if you will. ;)



Blurb:

I live in a world without magic or miracles. A place where there are no clairvoyants or shapeshifters, no angels or superhuman boys to save you. A place where people die and music disintegrates and things suck. I am pressed so hard against the earth by the weight of reality that some days I wonder how I am still able to lift my feet to walk.

Former piano prodigy Nastya Kashnikov wants two things: to get through high school without anyone learning about her past and to make the boy who took everything from her—her identity, her spirit, her will to live—pay.

Josh Bennett’s story is no secret: every person he loves has been taken from his life until, at seventeen years old, there is no one left. Now all he wants is be left alone and people allow it because when your name is synonymous with death, everyone tends to give you your space.

Everyone except Nastya, the mysterious new girl at school who starts showing up and won’t go away until she’s insinuated herself into every aspect of his life. But the more he gets to know her, the more of an enigma she becomes. As their relationship intensifies and the unanswered questions begin to pile up, he starts to wonder if he will ever learn the secrets she’s been hiding—or if he even wants to.

The Sea of Tranquility is a rich, intense, and brilliantly imagined story about a lonely boy, an emotionally fragile girl, and the miracle of second chances.

***

“I know at that moment what he's given me and it isn't a chair. It's an invitation, a welcome, the knowledge that I am accepted here. He hasn't given me a place to sit. He's given me a place to belong.” 

It's official: I have found my readerly niche. The past few books I have absolutely loved are in the style of The Sea of Tranquility, and now I know why. There's something about a narrative where the MCs tell things like they are; where they let you in on their thoughts and their experiences without filtering or sugar-coating it or sounding completely unrealistic. This is the kind of writing that grabs me. (It's what I enjoy writing most as well, so maybe it's just a me thing, but when it comes to reading and loving books, that's a good enough reason.)

Because I am at a loss for words and there is so much that happens (and I'm sure others have already done a wonderful job of explaining that), I'm going to simply point out a few things I loved.

1) Neither MC was perfect. Neither claimed to be. Neither made all the right choices and, aside from one choice that I wanted to scream about, nothing annoyed me. (And you know how that is, when the MC drives you nuts because you cannot figure out what ON EARTH they are thinking and you want to knock them upside the head!) 

2) The secondary character/s (Drew especially) were made of gold, too. They had heart, they cared, they had reasons for being who they were, and I truly was just as invested in them as I was Nastya and Josh (oh man, JOSH!). That doesn't always happen for me. With TSOT, it *so* did.

3) Katja's writing is beautiful and perfect without overly trying, which is my favorite kind of writing. When things flow and move and ebb and you see and feel and hear it all, yet aren't so caught up in the prose that it keeps you from appreciating the experience, I know for sure that I will be reading the book again. And again. And begging everyone I know to read it. And that is definitely true for TSOT. Like I said. It is now on my favorites list. 

4) There are questions not being answered immediately as you read, but this never bothered me. I didn't feel strung along with meaningless events and conversations that kept me from getting somewhere. I was fine with it, because I didn't want the book to rush. I wanted to be in their lives. I wanted to stay there and help them. Some readers might think of TSOT as somewhat slow, but I didn't. I loved it. I feel that Katja played everything out very well. 

5) Did I mention that I loved this book? :)

If you want to read something that's quick and light, TSOT may not be for you. But if you want to get to know two souls who've dealt with way more than they should at their age, who have to learn how to love and accept things they cannot change (including themselves), and if you want to think about them days later because you felt so much of what they felt, then I highly recommend The Sea of Tranquility. I cannot wait to read what Katja writes next.

One last quote (because I'm a sucker for good quotes): 

“Josh isn’t in love with me and I’m not in love with him.”
“Sell it to someone who’s buying, Sunshine. Have you seen the way he looks at you?” I’ve seen the way he looks at me but I don’t know what it means. “Like you’re a seventeenth-century, hand-carved table in mint condition.” 

*Note: considering some situations and language, I would say The Sea of Tranquility is high-end YA


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Katja Millay on Twitter and Facebook

Snark and Circumstance by Stephanie Wardrop

Blurb on Goodreads: One superior smirk from Michael Endicott convinces sixteen-year-old Georgia Barrett that the Devil wears Polo. His family may have founded the postcard-perfect New England town they live in, but Georgia’s not impressed. Even if he is smart, good looking, and can return Georgia’s barbs as deftly as he returns serves on his family’s tennis courts. After all, if Michael actually thinks she refuses to participate in lab dissections just to mess with his grade, he’s a little too sure that he’s the center of the universe. Could there be more to Michael Endicott than smirks and sarcasm? If Georgia can cut the snark long enough, she just might find out.

Example: He shakes his head and his mouth is quirked at one corner. I can't tell if he thinks I am sort of amusing or truly pathetic. It's especially hard to tell because we are both looking resolutely at the teacher so she can't accuse us of not paying attention. We talk out of the sides of our mouths, like gangsters in those old movies my dad likes to watch.

I wasn't sure what to expect from Stephanie's Snark and Circumstance (enovella) but let me tell you, I enjoyed myself. I also laughed. A lot. Georgia, the main character in S & C, rocks. She's a smart girl who knows how she feels about things and what she wants and isn't embarrassed to say it at all. I had seen a few comments on reviews about people not liking Georgia (George, Georgiana... all of the above)'s personality and get that her snarky nature might tug on a few people's nerves, but here's the thing: Georgia is a black t-shirt kinda girl at a school full of girls wearing only sparkly designer camis. (Okay maybe that's not the best description, but she herself says she's the "black sheep" and this is what came to me to describe how she stands out.) She's got attitude and is adamant about the things that matter to her because well, she... cares. Her personality IS snark, hence the title of the novella. It fits her perfectly.

Regarding the similarities of S & C to Jane Austen's work, I'm going to be honest here: I haven't read much of it, so for me, the connections weren't there. This isn't to say it changed the experience; the set-up was perfect and I didn't need to know anything about that to enjoy myself. (I think knowing the history behind everything Stephanie based this series on would only enhance it so for those of you who "get that", you'll appreciate what she did.)

I loved how Stephanie's writing swept me up. I'm talking, as I read it I was thinking about her tie-ins and the way paragraphs melted into paragraphs and how her descriptions were so great and visual and still so "Georgia" and at times I was like, man I'm so jealous about how well she does this! I am not a quick-witted person so the way Georgia spouts off all the time makes me think I would have really enjoyed being her friend in high school. (Again, every time she spouts off, it's because she's got a serious emotionally charged reason for doing so.) I also thought about how likely it is that my 13 year-old daughter will really enjoy this series.

When I read Stephanie's bio and saw that she teaches writing and literature I thought, WELL THERE YOU GO. She knows her stuff and, she does it well. (This is the writer in me speaking now, of course.)

Another example: "Your powers of observation are formidable," Michael says and Darien giggles behind one perfectly manicured hand, like some sort of preppie geisha. (This is the kind of description that had me a) in stitches and b) seeing the scene perfectly.)

So that's my review. Snarky, funny, enjoyable, a light read and, like others have commented, way too short.  I can't wait to see what happens to Georgia and Michael in Charm and Consequence (the next novella in the series, coming out this May).

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Stephanie's blog

CHASERS (Alone #1) by James Phelan

On goodreads

BLURB:

Jesse is on a UN Youth Ambassadors camp in New York when his subway carriage is rocked by an explosion. Jesse and his three friends, Dave, Mini and Anna, crawl out from the wreckage to discover a city in chaos.
Streets are deserted. Buildings are in ruins. Worse, the only other survivors seem to be infected with a virus that turns them into horrifying predators... 

AFTERGLOW:

During the first half of this book, I was pretty sure I wasn't going to love it. Like it, yeah. Like 4 stars like. But then I read this:

We are all storytellers.
We write our stories
where and when we 
can.
This is mine.
I have nothing. 
I have everything.
I am alone.

Maybe you have to have context for this to hit you as hard as it hit me, but it was at this moment that I understood the theme, appreciated the series title, and fell in love with the book. It's a little less than 3/4 into the book.

I wrote this earlier in the day, at the 40% mark:

"I read the first half in a few hours last night and had trouble sleeping. Yay for prayer! It was only after some hardcore praying that I was able to go to sleep. I think I'll try to read the rest of it during the day and then wash it down with some My Little Pony or something. It's just scary and way too realistic-feeling. There are slow parts, which I appreciate in a zombie-esque post-apocalyptic book, and those real survivor parts make it feel a little like Castaway. Castaway with zombies. So yeah. I gotta say, though, the writing is surprising in a good way. The beginning bit has normal dialogue just like any other book, but after the event happens, the quotation marks all disappear and you get this feeling like it's all happening in Jesse's head, almost. Very interesting mechanism there. I'd say it makes the dialogue feel more urgent, and like it's being processed through the fog of trauma. As a writer myself, I always love to see the ways authors pull off something like that. James Phelan has done a fantastic job on his first YA novel. I'll be reading the whole trilogy. The books are shortish, and take place over only a matter of weeks. I'll keep you updated."

Time to update you. :) I would definitely keep the Castaway comparison from my comments above, but the chasers aren't quite zombies. They're something else. A couple of times they're compared to grazing cattle, and in the end the way they evolve from the beginning is very surprising. I guess if I were pitching this I'd say it's 28 Days Later meets Castaway for teens with an Aussie narrator.

The character arc of Jesse, our main guy the Aussie, works really well throughout the story. By the last page, I feel like his twelve or so days post-event have done their work. He's changed for the better. Honestly, that's a tricky feat for a post-apocalyptic book. There's so much going on, the need for so much world-building and explanations, that authors sometimes fudge on the character growth a bit.

Not James Phelan.

This book truly was about Jesse. I guess if he fudged anywhere, it was on the world-building and explanations. You only learn as much as Jesse does, and he's pretty scared so he doesn't take more risks than he has to, which means your information will be limited, too. Other reviewers complained that we didn't see more of the chasers, more action, more thriller.

I felt the suspense during the quiet moments sustained me well. I did not need more chasers. Not at all. In fact, without the thoughtfulness of this book, it wouldn't have made it to Afterglow. It would have been just another zombie book. It was only in getting to know Jesse and his friends that I understood the major themes, came to see the chasers as more than zombies, and got that cathartic feeling of personal growth for myself.

Last few pages = pure gold. Loved them.

I will just say... read during the bright, noisy, happy day. Do not read this at night.

Or if you disregard my admonition, at least keep My Little Pony queued up for emergencies.

17 AND GONE by Nova Ren Suma

The blurb:

Seventeen-year-old Lauren is having visions of girls who have gone missing. And all these girls have just one thing in common—they are 17 and gone without a trace. As Lauren struggles to shake these waking nightmares, impossible questions demand urgent answers: Why are the girls speaking to Lauren? How can she help them? And… is she next? As Lauren searches for clues, everything begins to unravel, and when a brush with death lands her in the hospital, a shocking truth emerges, changing everything.

The review:

Nova Ren Suma has quickly established herself - to me, at least - as a writer of the unexpected. As with her last book, IMAGINARY GIRLS, the impression I got from reading the summary was a very different one than I came away with at the end. I would have still loved the story had it played out as a straightforward supernatural mystery, but in Suma's hands, the story becomes something else entirely, and the reader is pulled along with breathtaking, nightmarish urgency.

I think that building tension is one of the hardest skills for a writer to master, as it's so easy to pull that trigger just a little too soon. Suma is a master at letting each scene build to its own crescendo, and knows how to keep the reader just as unsettled and off-kilter as Lauren is. Her talent for creating atmosphere only amplifies the effect, and I could perfectly picture each lonely setting, whether it was the shuttered, off-season summer camp where Abby disappeared all those months ago, or the darkened house Lauren visits in her dreams.

My favorite part, though, was the economy with which Suma characterizes each of the missing girls. Whether it was Abby, Erica, Shyann, or Yoon-mi and Maura, I was riveted to each of their stories, and just as interested in learning their fates as Lauren. Some of them get chapters, and some of them get just a few paragraphs, but with each one, the details Suma leaves out are just as compelling as the ones she includes

To learn more about the story, visit Nova Ren Suma's blog, which is running a fascinating series of posts in which authors talk about the things that haunted them at age 17.

SPELLBINDING by Maya Gold

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The blurb:

There's more than one way to be powerful . . .

It is during a routine school project that Abby Silva--sixteen and nearly friendless--makes a startling discovery: She is descended from women who were accused of witchcraft back in 1600s Salem. And when Abby visits nearby Salem, strange, inexplicable events start to unfold. Objects move when she wills them to. Candles burst into sudden flame. And an ancient spellbook somehow winds up in her possession.

Trying to harness her newfound power, Abby concocts a love potion to win over her longtime crush--and exact revenge upon his cruel, bullying girlfriend. But old magic is not to be trifled with. Soon, Abby is thrust headlong into a world of hexes, secrets, and danger. And then there's Rem Anders, the beautiful, mysterious Salem boy who seems to know more about Abby than he first lets on.

A reckoning is coming, and Abby will have to make sense of her history--and her heart--before she can face the powerful truth.


The afterglow:

I enjoyed reading this so much. It's exactly the sort of book I would have picked up off the shelf of my middle school library and devoured in a day. This book is well-paced and very much devour-able. 

In preparing this review, I discovered Maya Gold is not your standard debut author cutting her teeth on a YA paranormal romance. She's written two handfuls of novels already for the younger YA crowd, and yes I plan to read all of them! Her skill in weaving a story is evident in the pages of SPELLBINDING. 

I finished reading this a few hours ago, so I still have that happy little buzz from reading a magical story with a great ending. Here's what I loved about SPELLBINDING:

• It is so refreshing to read a book that ends well and doesn't hint at some massive franchise to come! Spellbinding appears to be a standalone novel. Huge props to the author, Maya Gold, for fitting an entire character arc and romantic arc (love triangle, even) into one book. That's no easy task, and she did it beautifully. (If there are more books to come, I welcome them. It's just nice to read a book without a cliffhanger for once.) :)
• The main character is introverted, something we don't see so often anymore in YA (I recently read an article about this, using Disney princesses as an example.) Yay for personality diversity! (This doesn't mean she is shy necessarily, just that she doesn't crave popularity. Even though Abby is sweet on the popular guy in school, she's not seeking hordes of friends and admirers, and is more content with one or two close friends.)
• Neither guy in the love triangle is a grade-A jerk. They are both (Travis and Remy) sweet guys (though one runs hot and cold for paranormal reasons) with individual personalities and flaws. In the end we feel one is better for our heroine than the other, but nobody is disqualified on the basis of being a horrible human being. I love this because it's truer to real life, and it requires the heroine to make an actual CHOICE, rather than having that choice made for her by one of her romantic leads doing something unforgivable. 
• Good old fashioned MAGIC! Ever since I was tiny, I have been head-over-heels in love with magic. All kinds, but there's a soft spot in my heart for the spell-casting kind. The classic trope of girl-discovers-she-has-inherited-magic just hit the spot for me. I noticed many reviewers knocked off a few stars for this, calling it "unoriginal," but for me it was a plus. Note: the story is original; it's the trope that's a classic. Fans of the TV show CHARMED will love it.
• Solid setting and sense of place. The first thing Maya Gold did in her acknowledgements in the back was to thank her travel companions. It wasn't surprising at all to me that she'd visited Salem or talked with the locals about "local flavor." I felt I was in Salem, anchored solidly in Abby's world by details like local museums, libraries, parks, bridges, town history etc. Descriptions of these places weren't distracting or overly florid, either, as I've seen in a lot of books about real places. Maya Gold does Salem proud.
• The ending. The lessons learned. The completion of the character arc. Abby begins insecure, miserable, yearning for some identity, purpose, and for close relationships after her best friend moved away. She ends secure in who she is, understanding where her power comes from, and having several close and healthy relationships (family, friends, and boyfriend). 

People are calling this young YA, but all that means to me is that it's not edgy. I would read this with my niece... when she's 12 or 13. 

My one hang-up was actually the cover. I'm a huge marketing buff, and when I realized Abby's eye-color, elemental power, and prom dress all had something in common, I had to wonder why the cover artist didn't use that color at all! It's still a beautiful cover, but seems like quite a missed opportunity. Also, the model's hair is too tame to be Abby's wild tresses. :) 

Cover gripe aside, I loved this book. I look forward to more from Maya Gold, and plan to read her backlist. Fans of Ally Carter-sized romances will also enjoy Maya Gold's work.

Unravel Me

The Goodreads blurb:

tick

tick

tick

tick

tick

it's almost

time for war.

Juliette has escaped to Omega Point. It is a place for people like her—people with gifts—and it is also the headquarters of the rebel resistance.

She's finally free from The Reestablishment, free from their plan to use her as a weapon, and free to love Adam. But Juliette will never be free from her lethal touch.

Or from Warner, who wants Juliette more than she ever thought possible.

In this exhilarating sequel to Shatter Me, Juliette has to make life-changing decisions between what she wants and what she thinks is right. Decisions that might involve choosing between her heart—and Adam's life.

Wow. Just.... Wow. I'm so glad I stayed away from spoilers before reading this. There were a couple of unexpected twists that had me sitting up in my bed yelling, "Holy crap"! And "This is going to be such a good movie--is it going to be a movie?" and "oh my GOSH!!!"

Without giving too much away, Unravel Me picks up with Juliette and Adam (her boyfriend, one of two people in the entire world immune to her deadly touch) and Adam's pal, Kenji, in the compound they escaped to at the end of the first book in the trilogy, Shatter Me (the compound's called Omega Point). Kenji is by far my favorite character out of all of them, now. He's the quick-witted, sarcastic friend everyone wants to knock upside the head, but still loves to pieces.

One of the main points in Unravel Me is Adam and Juliette trying to learn how to deal with/harness their "energy". Adam discovers something about his "energy" that is a big issue in his relationship with Juliette (Issues are constantly coming up in this book. Constantly.) and that's quite the problem. Juliette still isn't sure how to get her strength to work on command, though boy are there some up close and personal strength moments in there!

Another main point is Warner. Now, if you plan on reading this series, I am telling you, you need to read the novella (ebook), Destroy Me, before reading Unravel Me. I am serious. This is Warner's story, it gives you a window into his brain, his heart and his soul, and not reading it before Unravel Me will only make you want to go read it halfway through Unravel Me to hear more about him, anyway (or kick yourself for not reading it first when you read it after Unravel Me). So, just read it first. I promise you will thank me later.

Regarding sensuality in this book, the heat is turned up even higher than in Shatter Me. Another... wow. There are moments you really truly did not think would ever happen. There are moments you're wanting something to happen, even though you know you should not be wanting it to happen! I wish I could say more, but I don't want to give it away! (As I was reading/reacting, my 13 year-old asked if she could read it. It's going to have to be a no--obviously others will feel different, but I'm talking hot and steamy Nicholas Sparks-y scenes here, guys.)

Regarding the "holy crap" moments, I am not going to ruin the mystery. But let me just say, Tahereh did a wonderful job of tying something in perfectly to where I almost thought later, Well of course she would write it that way--it's perfect. Of course! (And then another OH MY GOSH!)

A quick point before I draw this (hopefully really vague but decent) review to a close: for readers who have issues with Tahereh's prose and metaphors, I personally felt that she relaxed on those a little bit. (Or maybe I was just reading over them too quickly to notice!) And honestly, if just feels like Juliette. That's who she is.

Bottom line: if you liked Shatter Me, you're going to love Unravel Me. If you liked the novella Destroy Me, you're going to love Unravel Me even more. And if you're like me, you're definitely going to be rooting for... Warner.

Code Name Verity

Before I begin, I’d like to clarify that this is my first *ever* official review. (Not sure if there are particulars to doing this, but I’m going to go with my reaction and opinions, as the whole title of Afterglow Book Reviews is the afterglow when finishing a book, and I just finished CODE NAME VERITY.)

I’d like to be upfront by saying that I don’t usually purchase books based solely on reviews (as in, most books are purchased because I’ve seen them around online--trending in my Twitter feed, blowing up the blogs, things like that); but I hardly ever up and order a book because of reviews alone. In fact, the last time I ordered a book based on shock and emotional and surprised reactions only via reviews was THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH. (I tend to find some of the best books this way, I’ve noticed--and they’re usually not books I’d normally buy for myself.)

I almost don’t even know where to start, there’s so much in this book. Here’s the blurb from Goodreads:

I have two weeks. You’ll shoot me at the end no matter what I do.

That’s what you do to enemy agents. It’s what we do to enemy agents. But I look at all the dark and twisted roads ahead and cooperation is the easy way out. Possibly the only way out for a girl caught red-handed doing dirty work like mine — and I will do anything, anything, to avoid SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden interrogating me again.

He has said that I can have as much paper as I need. All I have to do is cough up everything I can remember about the British War Effort. And I’m going to. But the story of how I came to be here starts with my friend Maddie. She is the pilot who flew me into France — an Allied Invasion of Two.

We are a sensational team.

This is the premise of Code Name Verity. To be honest, I did not expect it to open with the MC already captured and writing her confession. But her voice--oh her voice! Wein does a memorable job of creating a character who is speaking like someone at her wit’s end, being tortured and forced to confess, while having more strength than most of us would ever have in the same situation. I was enthralled and loving it by the end of page one. Here’s an example (from my book’s page 6): 

...I am a prisoner in the Ormaie Gestapo HG because I have no sense of direction whatsoever. Bearing in mind that the people who trained me encouraged my blissful ignorance of airfields just so I couldn’t tell you such a thing if you did catch me, and not forgetting that I wasn’t even told the name of the airfield we took off from when I came here: let me remind you that I had been in France less that 48 hours before that obliging agent of yours had to stop me being run over by a French van full of French chickens because I’d looked the wrong way before crossing the street. Which shows how cunning the Gestapo are. "This person I’ve pulled from beneath the wheels of certain death was expecting traffic to travel on the left side of the road. Therefore she must be British, and is likely to have parachuted into Nazi-occupied France out of an Allied plane. I shall now arrest her as a spy. ”

This is how the first bit of the book goes. Her banter. Her defiance. Her fear of being tortured. And then, just as you think you know what’s going on, things change. And then, they change again. And again. And... again. Until things build up to a point where you love these two girls and you feel what they feel and you get why they’re doing what they’re doing and yet surprised at the same time that half of what you thought was going on was actually something else entirely, and then the scene--THE SCENE--and the emotional part I had read about on the reviews and was anticipating just hit me and I was so emotional about it I actually had to set the book down and walk away. (This has never happened to me before.)

As I type this, I am still affected by it. And yet, the story continues. (I went back to reading a couple of hours later.) I can’t imagine anyone not liking Code Name Verity, but as I was impatiently awaiting its arrival, I read a few reviews and was shocked to see that some people flat-out hated the plane/flight elements of the book (it’s quite a bit of info, yes, but I did what I always do when I don’t “get” something I read about... I took the character for what they said, or glazed over it when I couldn’t perfectly picture it). One reviewer said they couldn’t even bear to finish it--I understand how subjective reading is (and here’s a quick shout-out to writers everywhere--this is life, it is never going to change, some will love us and some will hate us, but for the ones who don’t like what we’ve written, there are ten who do, and for the ones who didn’t like it, they’ll find ten books that they do) but all I could think as I read that one part, the part that tore me apart was DID THEY GET THIS FAR? WHEN THEY QUIT, HAD THEY READ TO THIS POINT?????

So bottom line, I loved Code Name Verity. I loved the characters, I loved the setting (World War II--Europe), I loved Wein’s voice. (Quick side note since this is YA: there is a bit of profanity in it, but in my opinion, it's all in context. Considering what was going on, however, it was used quite rarely.)

Princess for Hire by Lindsey Leavitt

Princess for Hire on Amazon

The Blurb

When Desi Bascomb gets discovered by the elite Façade Agency--royalty surrogates extraordinaire--her life goes from glamour-starved to spectacular in a blink. As her new agent Meredith explains, Desi has a rare magical ability: when she applies the ancient formula Royal Rouge, she can temporarily transform into the exact lookalike of any princess who needs her subbing services. Dream come true, right?

Well, Desi soon learns that subbing involves a lot more than wearing a tiara and waving at cameras. Like, what do you do when a bullying older sister puts you on a nasty crash diet? Or when a princess’s conflicted sweetheart shows up to break things off—and you know she would want you to change his mind?

In this hilarious series debut, one girl’s dream of glamour transforms into something bigger: the desire to make a positive impact. And an impact Desi makes, one royal fiasco at a time.

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The Afterglow

The love I have for this book is UNDENIABLE. Lindsay Leavitt paints a perfect world that has you DYING to escape and become a princess. Of course, nothing would be a novel without a whole lot of drama, and Desi runs into her fair share of it.

This was a quirky, fun, read about a girl who struggles being a teenager. Every girl can relate to that feeling. She's unhappy about school, her job, and her friends. Falling across an add for a substitue princess sounds like a luxury almost every girl would be dying to take. She applies and lands the job... she learns several important lessons and realizes that even princesses have problems they'd like to escape.

After you read this you'll be googling for an application to be a substitue princess. The positive - You already know from Desi's experience that it won't be a walk in the park.

The GREAT news

Once reading this delicious tale you can purchase the second novel in the series, The Royal Treatment. This will set you up for the third in this trilogy, A Farewell to Charms.

Lindsey Leavitt has many more delicious tales that can be found on her website. You won't want to miss the magic.

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MEMENTO NORA by Angie Smibert

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The Blurb:

On an otherwise glossy day, a blast goes off and a body thuds to the ground at Nora's feet. There are terrorist attacks in the city all the time, but Nora can't forget.

In Nora's world you don't have to put up with nightmares. Nora goes with her mother to TFC--a Therapeutic Forgetting Clinic. There, she can describe her horrible memory and take a pill to erase it so she can go onlike nothing ever happened. But at TFC a chance encounter with a mysterious guy changes Nora's life. She doesn't take the pill. And when Nora learns the memory her mother has chosen to forget, she realizes that someone needs to remember.

With newfound friends Micah and Winter, Nora makes a comic book of their memories called Memento. Memento is an instant hit, but it sets off a dangerous chain of events. Will Nora, Micah, and Winter be forced to take the Big Pill that will erase their memories forever?

Angie Smibert's remarkable debut novel takes readers on a thrilling ride through a shadowy world where corporations secretly rule and consumerism is praised above all.

The Afterglow:

Memento Nora had me from hello. The title caught my interest because it was so different. Then the blurb held my interest. I immediately put it on my to-read list on goodreads, hoping to spend money on it another day since I was already maxed out that month (a common problem for me). It was just before Christmas that I remembered it. Maybe you can figure out why from the timing. I thought about all the things people wish they could forget, things they can't explain, traumatic things. And I wondered how it would be handled in a book where a pill can help you forget a trauma. 

It was handled well.

From three different points of view, Angie Smibert leads you into this world where consumerism is more than a fashion thing, it's a way of life. And if you stop consuming/buying things long enough to notice what's wrong in society, you might just disappear. 

Things I loved:

• a friendship where half the dialogue takes place through thoughts and facial expressions because they're just that tight. And it actually works. 
• a romance that didn't hit me over the head, was subtle and realistic in a surreal world. 
• a character with an artistic temperament (read: crazy) who builds kinetic sculptures!
• accidental revolutionaries
• unique characters with solid back stories
• the ending. Here's where I always have to be careful because I don't want to give any spoilers. I'll just say that the ending is both inevitable and surprising, troubling and satisfying. Can't figure out what that means? Me neither. Just read the book!

Also, the voice is fantastic! There's art in much of the prose, but it doesn't detract from the story at all. In fact, Winter's POV wouldn't be Winter without it.

As with many excellent books these days, this is the first in a series. I'll be hopping into the next one here soon:

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New breath for THE CLEARING in SHADOWS OF THE HIDDEN by Anne Riley

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I am beyond stoked that Anne Riley's book, formerly titled THE CLEARING, has been given new life and a gorgeous new cover by Compass Press. SHADOWS OF THE HIDDEN now has the cover I pictured when reading it for the first time. Okay, so I didn't picture it exactly, but this was basically it. I love it!

Here's my original afterglowing review:

The short version: Just finished reading The Clearing by Anne Riley and it was a very satisfying read! The twists and emotional intensity really got me. It dealt with the reality of bereavement very well in the midst of a supernatural plot, and made me cry more than once.  

The self-indulgent version: 
*Happy sigh* 

Yeah, I liked this book that much. 

After I read the author's blog--and liked her so much I snagged her for a guest post over at The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog--I started to worry about the inevitable moment of truth: What if I read her book and didn't like it? After all, there are no guarantees about any given book, even those published by the big houses and buzzed all over the place as the next HP or Twilight! So what would I do if I didn't like THE CLEARING? This anxiety kept me from reading it at first, even when I had the lovely paperback sitting on my night stand. It waited patiently for me to grow a spine, which I did, thankfully. 

All my stress, it turns out, was for naught. In fact, Riley's debut novel is right up there with the best in the urban fantasy genre. THE CLEARING boasts a suspenseful, spooky plot and relatable, tortured characters. I thought about it for days afterward. I wished for a sequel or companion novel to continue in the unique world Anne Riley created. I cried multiple times as the protagonist Natalie dealt with such serious issues as bullying at school and her parents' deaths. The twists are sublimely surprising, and the magical escapism enchanted me. Doesn't every girl hope deep down that she's special? Especially those of us who were bullied relentlessly in school! 

And that is as specific as I'll be with the spoilers. :)  

Enjoy! It gets FIVE STARS from me. Well done, Anne! I hope to enjoy many more books with your name on them.

The new edition comes out December 10, 2012. Merry Christmas!

Visit Anne at her website/blog, on twitter, facebook, and look for her as a featured author at Operation Awesome's free, online New Year's Revisions Conference January 4-6, 2013.