ETIQUETTE & ESPIONAGE by Gail Carriger

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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!)

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.

Endlessly (Paranormalcy #3) by Kiersten White

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Ta-da!! It's out!

The blurb:

Evie's paranormal past keeps coming back to haunt her. A new director at the International Paranormal Containment Agency wants to drag her back to headquarters. The Dark Faerie Queen is torturing humans in her poisonous realm. And supernatural creatures keep insisting that Evie is the only one who can save them from a mysterious, perilous fate. 

The clock is ticking on the entire paranormal world. And its fate rests solely in Evie's hands. 

So much for normal.

The Afterglow:

HarperTeen does this thing where they let people read the first seventy-or-so pages of an upcoming new release online -- in order to whet our appetites and boost sales. When I first get notice in my email about these deals, I LOVE HarperTeen.

But when I hit the end of the sample... Boo HarperTeen! It's almost torture to get so far into a story only to have to wait for release day! Because I'm such a Kiersten White fan girl, I've begun all of her books this way. So last week some time I was exactly 80 pages into Endlessly, the third and final book in the Paranormalcy trilogy, and craving more. Needless to say, when my book arrived the afternoon of July24th (Happy Pioneer Day to me!), I gobbled it up.

The first book redefined my expectations for the paranormal genre. The middle book served its purpose as a bridge, but left me wanting so much more of Lend, Reth, and Evie. But this last book...

It fulfilled all the promises of the story. It's superb! It's exciting and epic and well-crafted. I never could have imagined it would end the way it did. Somehow all the loose ends I'd been worrying about throughout the series got tied off in a gorgeous, complicated bow.


It's one of those endings that delivers exactly what you didn't know you were hoping for all along.

As in the first and second books, Evie's voice is endearing and funny. The theme of being true to yourself and not allowing yourself to be absorbed in someone else was as striking as ever as Reth - the gorgeous golden trickster - continues to guide Evie as best he can toward the choice he believes is best. In a moment of exasperation, he says, "You take a tremendous amount of leading to make the correct choices."

Reth's story arc was surprising to me, as we are given to understand the fey are eternal and changeless. Shallow, scary Jack's transformation, too, was unexpected and satisfying.

Reading this last book was for me like spending time with old friends. The humor, sarcasm, and wit in each character's unique voice made this book a pleasure, and the spot-on pacing made it unputdownable.

I highly recommend this trilogy to anyone, but especially teen readers who love all things paranormal. They'll find a feast of magic in Paranormalcy, Supernaturally, and now Endlessly.

Happy Reading!

Have you read any of this trilogy yet? Join my lovefest in the comments.


(p.s. For Operation Awesome readers, Kell Andrews just posted her COVER REVEAL for DEADWOOD!!!!!)

Grasping at Eternity, by Karen Amanda Hooper

I just finished this book last night, so I technically can't tell you exactly how long the afterglow lasts, but I was so surprised by how much I liked this book, I wanted to write about it right away. That sounds weird, so let me clarify. Karen is a friend of mine. We blog together at YA Confidential. I went into this book knowing I would at least enjoy it a little bit, because I know Karen's a fine writer, but to be honest, I was under the assumption that I wasn't going to like it as much as her last book, Tangled Tides. I don't know why, exactly, but I expect it had to do with my own preference for Fantasy over Paranormal/Supernatural.

Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that either of these books fits neatly into those categories, because they don't, but I will admit that I started reading Grasping at Eternity with the misguided assumption that I wasn't going to like it as much as I had liked Tangled Tides.

So, now that I've gone on rambling for a few hundred words about all the hang-ups I brought into reading this book, let me just say: I really enjoyed it. I don't know what the marketing experts would call it, but they might say it's a YA Paranormal Romance, and while I wouldn't completely agree, I also wouldn't be able to prove them wrong.

What I really loved about this book was the unique scenario Karen set up to provide the utmost tension between her two main (which are also both POV) characters. I don't want to give too much away, but suffice to say both Nathan and Maryah are more than just your average human teenagers. But, the cool thing is that Karen created a dynamic in which Nathan is aware of their ... special status, and Maryah is not. I can see how this could have easily led to some cringe worthy writing (and I don't mean awkward moments between characters), but it was done so well it left me rooting for both of them the entire way.

Sure, Maryah makes some poor decisions, but you can't even begin to blame her because she is basically 95% ignorant of the truth for 80% of the book. Anyway, I could go on in more detail, but it's easier to just recommend this book as a great YA PNR.

Both Karen Hooper's novels are the first in a series, so be sure to keep an eye on her as her career continues. You can find more of Karen:

At her blog
On Twitter
At her website
On Goodreads

HOURGLASS by Myra McEntire

One hour to rewrite the past . . .

For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn’t there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents’ death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She’s tried everything, but the visions keep coming back.

So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson’s willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may change her past.

Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he’s around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should have happened?

My Take

I just sat here for a solid five minutes trying to think of how to start this review. I’m pretty sure that has never happened before.

Here’s the thing: When I started this book, I had really, REALLY high hopes. I’d heard SUCH great things about it and I saw Myra at DBF this year, and she is ADORABLE, and I just could not wait to get my hands on her book.

The premise is amazing. It’s a whole new spin on time travel: instead of the person going back in time (which does happen but is not the core of the story), people/things from the past come to her. It’s a great idea, and I loved watching the MC, Emerson, analyze people’s clothes to determine if they were real, or if they were a “rip” (time ripple).

I didn’t immediately click with Emerson, but by the end of the book, I liked her. I’m still struggling to identify with Michael; I just never got a clear picture of him. My favorite character was Kaleb, who’s peripheral, although important.

BUT: The dialogue is funny, the writing is good, and I would recommend this book to others. If you’re looking for something new to read and you enjoy teen fiction, this is a great choice!

SUPERNATURALLY by Kiersten White

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FIRST LINE: "Oh, bleep. I was going to die."


THE BLURB: 

Evie finally has the normal life she’s always longed for. But she’s shocked to discover that being ordinary can be . . . kind of boring. Just when Evie starts to long for her days at the International Paranormal Containment Agency, she’s given a chance to work for them again. Desperate for a break from all the normalcy, she agrees.
But as one disastrous mission leads to another, Evie starts to wonder if she made the right choice. And when Evie’s faerie ex-boyfriend Reth appears with devastating revelations about her past, she discovers that there’s a battle brewing between the faerie courts that could throw the whole supernatural world into chaos. The prize in question? Evie herself.
So much for normal.

THE AFTERGLOW:

Middle books in trilogies, in my experience, are a crapshoot. Typically, they have problems with pacing and character arcs and leave you feeling like you just read a patch between Book 1 and Book 3.

Not this book! It did surprise me by the pacing, which was different from Book 1 (Paranormalcy), but really it fit Evie's predicament. Sort of like the 5th Harry Potter, Evie is dealing with a lot of crap, and hence has a lot of introspection. But the delightful dialogue that made me fall in love with the characters the first time around was back in full force.

There were even a couple new characters to love or hate. Jack falls distinctly in the, well, actually I couldn't figure it out which category to put him in even at the end. White did an amazing job fleshing out his character and making him a truly sympathetic being. The many unexpected twists kept me on my toes and turning the pages. There were several laugh-out-loud or giddy-in-love-with-Lend moments that made my husband wish I wasn't reading in bed next to him.

And the ending! THE ENDING!! It's probably the best pay-off I've ever experienced in a middle book. I was expecting some kind of cliff hanger, and dreading it. And in a way, there is a lot left in the air, but Evie has such an amazing arc in this book, you hardly notice the details about faeries and vampires that hang ominously in mid-air at the end. Of course I still want Book 3  (Endlessly), like, yesterday! But I'm not shaking my fist at the author for leaving me hanging (Suzanne Collins! *shakes fist*).

Just like Paranormalcy, Supernaturally is a sweet, scary read - the perfect blend of adorable and kick-ass. I recommend it to all ages 13+.

Courtesy her awesome publishers:

First seventy pages of PARANORMALCY

First seventy pages of SUPERNATURALLY

Seriously, just click on the link to read SEVENTY pages of either book! Enjoy!