Cover Love: Anna, Lola & Isla

Hello guys!! 

I've been meaning to post the new covers for Anna and the French Kiss and Lola and the Boy Next Door, since I posted the cover for Isla and the Happy Ever After last month but it has been slipping my mind. 

I kind of like these covers more than the originals - to me they always looked a little funny - so I might actually buy the books now :)

Okay, so here they are:

And here are the original covers:

What do you guys think?

Book Review: Quintanna of Charyn by Melina Marchetta

I have to warn you that this review might be a bit of a love letter, or a rant, or a rave, or a very strange mix of all three.

But first, let me get some stuff out of the way!

US Edition

Quintana of Charyn is the third and likely last full length book* of the Lumatere Chronicles series which at first tells the story of Lumatere (a smallish but prosperous kingdom whose royal family is massacred, an event followed by 10 years of very bad stuff) and then adds the story of Charyn (the kingdom that orchestrated massacre of the royal family, but whose inhabitants possibly have an ever rawer deal - and curse - than the Lumaterans).

It's a very complex story, with lots of sub plots and lots of characters and it's not one of those stories that you can just pick up in the middle. TRUST ME.

Having said that, Quintana of Charyn is a great and epic story where all the stuff you have been learning and feeling and thinking since Finnikin of the Rock and Froi of the Exiles finally comes to a head.

The story starts pretty soon after the ending of Froi (or at least I think so, I'm a bit hazy with the timeline of the Epilogue) and things just start happening. Froi and Quintana are separated by a lot of distance and circumstances, and in some ways they spend the bulk of the book trying to get back to each other.

As this plays out there are many other plots and subplots moving afoot and I have to give Melina Marchetta major props for keeping all these treads - big and small - on a tight leash, everything that happens matters one way or another.

Actually, there was this scene near the end of the book that has to do with something minor that happened in Froi that made me cry so hard, and I get teary eyed just remembering that scene. It just guts me.

Anyway, since I'm not going to spoil the conclusion of the story for you guys, I'm just going to say that, over all, I found the book to be great. Froi is still my favorite book of the series but I'm happy with where things ended.

I did have a couple of problems with Quintana though. The first one is minor, and is mostly born out of my selfish longing for wanting the couples I love spend more time together on the page, just because I like seeing people be happy after all the suffering (and to clarify, you do get some of this, but I just (selfishly) wished for a bit more).

The second trouble is a bit bigger: I freaking hate Isaboe and her daughter Jasmina. There, I said it!!
I know a lot of people like Isaboe but, boy, she just rubs me the wrong way. For me, and this is MY OWN PERSONAL OPINION AND JUST THAT, Quintana got a much rawer deal in life than Isaboe did (though admittedly neither of their lives has been a walk in the park), yet Isaboe is actually the one that whines about it the most.

People LOVE her, she's the freaking Queen of Lumatere and yet she's so hell bent on revenge and tends to see the people of Charyn as this "Other" thing that don't quite deserve her compassion. She's not all that bad, and I don't hate her like I do the actual villains of the story, but she irritates the bejesus out of me.

Same goes for her daughter. Every single thing I hate about children in books is embodied in Jasmina. Again, JUST MY OPINION, but yeah, each time she was around or was mentioned I clenched my teeth. And I don't hate children in books, I love Vestie in this story, she's awesome. Go, Vestie!!

Now, back to the good stuff and to end in a sweet note: have I mentioned that all the characters I loved going into Quintana I LOVE even more after Quintana? no? well, I totes do. Melina writes some of the best adults/parents in the history of fiction, these aren't some stock/token characters or carton cut outs put there to foil our younger, more intrepid protagonists. Hell, no!

They are people with lots of flaws and virtues, who make mistakes and love their children and are just trying to do the best they can with the (often) shitty hand they have been dealt. Beatriss, Trevanion, Perri, Tesadora, Lord and Lady A, Lirah, Gargarin, Arjuro and DeLancey (to mention a few) are three dimensional characters and they totally make their presence felt! They matter to the story.

Aussie Edition

Second shout out? The Last Borns!! I FREAKING LOVE YOU GUYS!! I've mentioned it before, but these kids just slay me. No one really expected much of them, they could have skated through life just being adored, but instead they recognize that what's happening to Quintana isn't right (in book two) and they decide to do something about it even though they don't have the means or skills to do it. That's SO not going to stop them. Not all of them are perfect, I definitely have my favorite(s) but yeah, I love the Last Borns. And they keep the awesome going in Quintana of Charyn.

And I'm not even going to start with Phaedra and Lucian because a) SPOILERS!! and b) This is already to long as it is. I can just go on and on about how much I love those two.

In closing: If you're a fantasy fan, go read this series. If you are not, then go read it anyway. It's fantasy but with really strong characters, a complex plot that isn't overly complicated and terrific writing. Quintana of Charyn will be released on April 23, 2013, and thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the e-galley.

1/2

* There is a short story about Lady Celie of the Flatlands , published by the Australian review, and rumor is that there might be another one. 

Book Review: Under the Hood by Juanita Kees

The Deal: When taking over his newest dealership in semi-rural Australia, the least thing Scott Devin expected to find was TJ Stevens, the shop's manager and lead mechanic, wearing a skirt and impractical shoes and telling him to cool it while she deals with some stuff.

Scott is none too amused by this and quickly fires her, only to realize that TJ is pretty much the heart of the dealership and he hires her again. 

TJ (short of Tiffany Jo, I think) is a pretty good mechanic and she loves working at the dealership, though not as much as she loves the teenage rehabilitation program she runs; and the de campground she inherited from her grandfather. 

She doesn't have time for Scott... too bad she can't seem to get away. 

My Thoughts: *sigh* From the cover I thought Under the Hood would be a fun, cute, fluffy story but it wasn't. It starts fun enough but then things get muddled pretty quickly. 

The plot jumps from one thing to another with little explanation or link between events, so much so that I often felt like I was reading the cliff notes of the story, rather than the actual story. It was oddly episodic and overly complicated for it's length. 

I liked Scott and TJ at the beginning, there were some cute moments between them but the development of their relationship seems to be on fast forward from the start which doesn't leave much room for character development.

Blogversary Giveaway Announcement!!

Hey guys!! A Girl, Books and Other Things turns 5 on April 17th, and I thought I would run a giveaway to celebrate!! All the deets are bellow! Good luck!!!

The Prize: 1 book up to 15 dollars from The Book Depository* **.

Open Internationally (so long as Book Depository delivers to you).
Must be 13 or Older to Enter.
No need to follow to enter.
No personal information will be kept.
Winner will be chosen using Rafflecopter.
Winner has 48 hours to answer once she/he has been notified of the win.

The Fine Print:
*You can opt for an Amazon Gift card if it that works better for you.
** If the book you want is less than 15 dollars, you can add a second book as long as to combined total is 15 dollars.
 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Speed Date: Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

The Plot: Franny Banks moved to New York to become a famous actress and she gave herself 3 year to make it before moving on and doing something else. Said deadline is just six months away but she still hasn't landed more than a small part on a regional comercial that barely ran at all.

In the midst of auditions and call backs, acting classes and a waitressing job that barely pays the bills, she spends her time with her best friend Jane  (who wants to be a movie producer) and Dan, the aspiring writing they took in as roomate.

Franny is really struggling with her deadline, with what to do with her sort-of-long-distant relationship with her college boyfriend Clark and her attraction to a fellow student in her acting class. Is she making the right choices? will she be a struggling actress for life?

First Date: Okay, Franny I'll play along. Sometimes you're really funny but others you just can't seem to hold my attention. I like the 90's references though, and I even like Dan and Jane. 

Second Date: I'm not sure I want to hear so much about auditions and call backs and that whole process, I don't care that much about it. Also I'm not liking this James character, I have seen his type before, I know where this is going. 

Third Date: Well, that was a little abrupt wasn't it? The ending felt a little like an non-ending and it wrapped things a little to neatly for me. but it was a fun story. 

Relationship Status: Don't call me, I'll call you.... maybe.
Okay, here is the thing about Someday, Someday, Maybe, it has it moments of great charm but it also has some stuff I just didn't care about. I liked Franny for the most part, she was very believable as an struggling actress. I liked her friends and her voice was funny. But it took me a while to warm up to the story and really care about what was going on, and the pace of the story was a bit uneven.

On one hand, I totes love Lauren Graham, and I can see a lot of her in the writing - mostly in the humor - but on the other hand, it wasn't a really stellar book for me. It was okay, fluffy, fun (though sometimes I lost my patience with Franny and her choices) but no more than that.

Someday, Someday, Maybe, comes out April 30th, 2013

What's a Book Speed Date, you ask? It's a quickie review--about 150 words or so--of any genre book (variety is the spice of life, after all).

If you want to join in or just read other speed date reviews, check out The Book Swarm