Book Review: The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong

Love this Cover

At First Sight: Maya lives in a tiny town in Vancouver called Salmon Creek, where everything belongs to the St. Clouds, the corporation that founded the town to house it's employees as they work on medical research in complete privacy. 

Maya has lived there since she was 5, when her father became warden of the forest that surrounds the town. And if it takes a good hour drive to get to another town, and there isn't much in the way of entertainment, Maya is quite happy there. 

That was until her best friend Serena, captain of the swim team, mysteriously drowned before Maya's own eyes. A year later, Maya is still confused about what happened that day and thinking that maybe it's time she got some answers. 

Throw in her best friend Daniel, who is the leader of her group of friends and has a protective streak a mile wide, and Rafe, the new guy in town who acts like a player and it's suddenly interested in Maya, and you pretty much got the makings of this book.

Second Glance: Okay, so The Gathering is the first book in the Darkness Rising Trilogy, which is set in the same world as the Darkest Powers trilogy and even though word is both series will intersect at some point, The Gathering is quite far removed from Darkest Powers so far. 

Maya has a very distinct voice -and very different from Chloe's, the narrator of DP - and is a generally likable person, as is Daniel, and they are both wholesome and 'normal'. Things shake up when Rafe starts to fixate his ever wavering attention on Maya, and when it turns out he has a secret that might affect Maya as well, and I was really quite entertained with the first part of the book, but once Rafe's secret comes out... I felt like the story just ground to a halt and started going in circles. 

Up to that point, it had been fun if a bit slice of life-y, but from that point on I felt like nothing happened. Now, I had some information about the book because of my fangirl behavior where Kelley Armstrong YA books are concerned, so I think it's safe to say that I knew stuff the characters didn't but I'm not sure The Gathering is very interestingting or even that understandable without that ouside information. 

I know what the St. Clouds really are, I know what the town is really about, but it's never explained and it's never really established how fishy everything is, I know it from the info I carry over from Darkest Powers, but I'm not sure it's understood otherwise.

Bottom Line: Standing alone, I don't see The Gathering making much sense. As a fan of Darkest Powers I think this wasn't a great kick off for Darkness Rising. Will I read the next book? Yeah. Do I think this book was awesome? Nope.

Book Review: Where She Went by Gayle Forman

WARNING: This Review might contain spoilers about If I Stay

At First Sight: Three years after the accident that killed his girlfriend's parents, Adam Wilde is still confused about everything that happened afterward, about the things that are still happening to him. 

By now, he's a rock star, his band has made it huge and he's about to leave on a world tour to promote their third album. In theory, he has everything a guy could ever want: success, fame, music and a hot girlfriend; but he doesn't have the things he most wants: peace, quiet, answers. 

Somehow, in the last few years, he stopped loving music as he used to, stopped hanging out with the band, and Mia stopped talking to him without warning or explanation.

But now, the day before he leaves New York, she runs into Mia, who has been living there these past years; and she talks to him, and somehow they end up touring Mia's favorite spots in the the city, as Adam tries to find those elusive answers.

Second Glance: Where She Went is the sequel to If I Stay, and it also takes place over a few hours as the first book did, only that this time we see things from Adam's perspective. 

I raced through this book, I started reading it at around 11 PM and I didn't stop until I finished at around 3 AM. The story just took hold of me and didn't let me go until everything was said and done. Now, things are different, so so different from what they were in If I Stay. Adam is a mess and he knows he is a mess, he knows he is loosing it, but he doesn't know how to stop it. Mia is a rising star in the classical music world, but they haven't spoken since she started at Julliard and there are so many things just standing between them. 

At the beginning, I didn't like Mia all that much, she was somewhere between bitch and ice queen, and seeing things from Adam's POV,  he was angry and hurting and I was angry at Mia too, a bit. But as the book progresses and she starts to show and tell what was going on, why things happened the way they did, I warmed up to her again. She isn't the Mia from If I Stay, but honestly it wouldn't have made sense if she was.

I did feel like the book didn't flow as smooth as If I Stay, the flashbacks and the backs and forths sometimes didn't seem to flow that well this time around, but maybe that's just me. However, I do give props to Ms Forman because she doesn't go for the obvious: in If I Stay, the accident was just that an accident - not a drunk or reckless driver, just an accident; and in Where She Went, it would have been so easy for her to make us hate Adam's current girlfriend Bryn, but she's not a bad person and she was, in her own way, sort of good for Adam. 

Bottom Line: I really enjoyed this book, particularly toward the end. It made me tear up and cry a few times, and Adam was a great narrator - and it's rare for me to find boy-narrators engaging - and his story is heartbreaking but ends up in the place I think it's best for a story to end: hope.

Favorite Quote: There were many quotes I loved but they were all too spoilery, so I'm putting this one.

"This whole night has been a mistake. It's not going to let me rewind. Or unmake the mistakes I've made. Or the promises I've made. Or have her back. Or have me back" - Adam

3/4

Book Review: The Royal Treatment by Lindsey Leavitt

WARNING: This review might contain spoilers about Princess for Hire.

At First Sight: It has been a few weeks since Desi Bascomb became a sub - a substitute princess, as in the person who steps in whenever a royal needs a time out -and she's eagerly awaiting her first assignment as a Level Two sub. Meanwhile, she's trying to improve her princessy skills, like learning to play a musical instrument (which she kind of sucks at) or learning to speak in public. 

She's also trying out for the school play - since acting is an useful skill after all, and because she just likes it - and it's through the play that she becomes reacquired with Reed, the new boy in town who also kind of saved her life last summer. Reed also happens to be the guy Desi's best friend is crushing on. However, sometimes when she's with Reed, Desi doesn't think much about Prince Karl, her own forbidden crush. 

When Meredith - Desi's agent - finally shows up, and looking surprisingly relaxed too!, Desi is ready for the job as she learns that there is a shake up in the works at The Agency, and she begins to suspect that not everything might be as she's been told it is; however, though her sub commitments Desi starts to learn more and more about her Magic Potential, and about her own heart.

Second Glance: *sigh* Oh, this was so hard to write without giving away too much of the plot!  

Anyway, The Royal Treatment is such a good, sweet story. It's so fun to see how Desi finds more and more about herself through trying to be other people - both while acting and while subbing. And I don't want to say too much, but I really felt like things were kicked up a notch in this book, and I loved seeing how Desi rose to the occasion.

I like how some of the Agency's secrets are being revealed, and there is a wonderful twist that it's hinted at if you pay attention, but that it's awesome anyway! Oh, and The Royal Treatment tackles one of the things I really wanted to see, so I'm so happy about that.

Bottom Line:Smalls (of Small Review, check her review here) told me that if I liked Princess for Hire, I was going to love The Royal Treatment, and she was so absolutely right. This is a sweet, fun book about a sweet, lovely girl. It's full of magic and fun and crazy.

Favorite Quote: "Maybe Barrett should see you like this. He can console you far better than I can. Unless he's the reason why you're upset, in which case I'll take care of him." 

"How?"

"A Duel. We are royal," Karl cracked a rare smile. "It's allowed."

Using the Force to accio some books

Sorry if I've been a bit MIA in the last few days. I was visiting my family up in Texas because my cousin just graduated college (YAY!), and we were just running around.  I did leave some posts scheduled but Blogger sort of messed them up (BOO!!!!)

But I'm back!! and I got some seriously awesome stuff. Like this:

How awesome is it?

And this:

*giggles*

*pets books* My precious...

Anyway, things should go back to normal now.

Love,

Book Review: Dreamland by Sarah Dessen

At First Sight: Caitlin has always lived in the shadow of her perfect older sister Cass, but the morning of Caitlin's sixteenth birthday Cass changes the rules of the game by walking out on all the expectations of her family and friends, and running away with her new boyfriend.

Original Cover

Caitlin is used to being the shadow, following her sister, and once Cass is gone, Caitlin finds herself drowning in the void that Cass left behind. Caitlin tries to get her mom's attention by entering the cheerleading squad, but her mom is too wrapped up in Cass being gone.

At a party a few weeks later, Caitlin meets Rogerson - a handsome older guy who attends the local private school, and she is instantly attracted to him, both because he's handsome and because he doesn't think of her as Cass's little sister.

Soon they begin dating, and Caitlin is wrapped up in Rogerson, his world and his friends as he slowly turns possessive and then controlling, and Caitlin starts to isolate herself from her own family and friends.

Current Cover



One night, Rogerson hits her, and even though he doesn't really acknowledges that it happens, it turns out to be just the first time of many. But Caitlin is, by then, in too deep to back away.

Second Glance: There is a key point to this book and it is the fact that Caitlin is in an abusive relationship, but I want to start by saying that, to me,  Dreamland has never been an Issue Book. Yes, it happens and it is an important part of the story, but for me it has always been about Caitlin trying to find her own way once Cass isn't there to lead the way - she takes a bad turn and ends up in a bad situation, but the bad situation doesn't make the book for me.

Now, this is one of those books that had me in tears over and over again as I read it. There were moments when it hit me so hard to realize just how lost Caitlin was.

There were parts of the story that I didn't entirely buy, but over all I think that the systematic destruction of Caitlin, the way her loved ones keep missing the signals - because they just can't imagine something like that happening to one of their own - is amazing and real and it hurts.

Bottom Line: Dreamland is powerful book that touches an important subject. It's also a story about sisters, and finding your own way. I can't read this book too often, it makes me cry too much, but sometimes I can't resist the pull I feel for it, and it does sit in the shelf of honor.

Favorite Scene: Rina cocked her head to the side, studying me. She wasn't a dumb girl; she knew something was up. But she still had faith in our friendship, forged in the war zone of junior high. She thought I would never lie to her.

"Okay," She said, finally, as if we'd battered some kind of agreement, "But if you need me-"

"I know," I said, cutting her off.  It was right at noon: My safe time as up. The muscles in my stomach and shoulders were clenching harder as I picked up my backpack and began to move closer to the turnaround. I looked at her, sitting crossleggged there in her sunglasses, popping her gum, with no greater concern in her life right then than me. And I envied her, quickly and quietly, in a different way than I had all those years we'd spent together.

1/2

Sarah Dessen Week is an event hosted by Heidi@YA Bibliophile and  Jacinda and Jasmine@The Reading Housewives of Indiana