Book Review: Riding On Air by Maggie Gilbert

At First Sight: At 16, Melissa dreams of becoming a champion at Dressage with her horse Jinx, an already difficult goal that is even more complicated due to the fact that Melissa has JRA (Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis) and sometimes her hands get so stiff she can barely stand the pain.

But now, her dream seems to be within reach as she and Jinx caught the eye of the person in charge of selecting the national juvenile team and they have a big competition coming up.

Yet everything is put in jeopardy because of Melissa's illness and what she's doing trying to manage the pain - sneaking pills, and working through it even though she knows she shouldn't - as she clings to her dream, without realizing how much she's damaging herself, her chances and her relationships with friends, family and her new boyfriend.  

Second Glance: There were two things the drew me to Riding on Air, one that it featured horses and horses are awesome and not nearly in enough books! We need more horses!! And the second was the JRA thing - I used to be tested for it once or twice a year when I was in elementary school, so I knew what kind of disease it was and was intrigued to see how it was woven to the story.

And I have to say that Ms Gilbert did a great job addressing JRA and it's effects on Melissa's day to day life, not only her riding - she is always mindful of her hands, she has to have special mugs and has to get her brothers to do her hair because she just can't handle a brush most of the time, etc - and you get the sense that it really does suck to have JRA - which totally does.

Beyond that, it was a great story in other aspects too, Melissa has a great relationship her stepmom and stepbrothers Gavin and Brendan (even though they are older and kind into doing their own things, they still care about Melissa), and her parents actually pay attention to what's going on with her, even if they are divorced.

Melissa's friends were a bit more of a mixed bag because sometimes they were really annoying, particularly Tash, but they were there for Melissa when needed be. Melissa herself could be kind of reckless and annoying sometimes too, but she was also very likable, and I felt for her and for what she goes through.

William was a great boyfriend, by the way, there was definitely some swoonage going on for me, though sometimes he sounded a bit older than the 18 year old he was supposed to be.

The whole horse aspect was fun too, though I admit some of the stuff mentioned just went over my head because I'm not very familiar with Dressage and horse sports, but you could tell Melissa was very passionate about it.

Oh, and I loved the Australian setting!

Bottom Line: I quite liked Riding on Air, it was a sweet contemporary romance, I loved the setting and  the characters and I look forward to reading more from this author. 

At the Movies: Iron Man 3

Tony Stark is awesome, and no one knows it better than himself. However, he's starting to realize he might not be invulnerable, as he tries hard to protect the one person who loves the most, his girlfriend Pepper. 

And that is before a terrorist called The Mandarin starts wrecking havoc in his life. 

All right, so I just went to see Iron Man 3 and it ROCKS! I love Tony Stark and pretty much everyone in the Iron Man/Avengers continuity and this movie totally gets why people goes to see big super hero movies: to have a good time and eat lots of pop corn and it delivers. 

It's great fun all the way through and you don't have to have seen the previous movies understand what's going on. There are plenty of laughs, a plot that actually says something without punching you on the face with it and it's just insanely fun. 

Unabashedly recommend it!!!

A 

Book Review: Covet Thy Neighbor by L. A. Witt

At First Sight: Ever since he came out to his ultra conservative christian parents and was shunned because of it, tattoo artist Seth Wheeler has stayed far away from religious people in general and christians in particular.

Until Darren Romero moved across the hall from him. Darren who is funny, and nice and easy to talk to... and who also happens to be the new youth pastor at the local church.

Now, Seth doesn't know what to do, Darren is the person he has been most attracted to in years, maybe ever, and he seems to be just as into him.

But there is the issue of their respective beliefs and of the fears and worries they each have because of the lives they have lead. 

Second Glance: I really liked Covet Thy Neighbor. First of all, I'm going to come out and say that if you are worried this book was going to turn out preachy or hating on grays or christians, well, you can rest assured that it doesn't.

Even though Seth's beliefs are pretty extreme on the religion front because of what he went through with his family, he's not annoying about it, and Darren is someone that's pretty open to dialogue and who doesn't try to cram his beliefs down anyone's throat.

This struggle, however, does take a big chunk of the plot, it's not exactly a complaint and I'm glad they didn't swept it under a rug, but yeah, sometimes I felt like other aspects of their relationship weren't as well explored. And I also felt like I got to know Seth a lot more, since he's the narrator and I would have liked to learn more about Darren.

On the other hand, the cast of characters for Covet Thy Neighbor was very small so Darren and Seth do spend a lot of time together, which is always a plus for a romance novel. And they are sweet together, and make sense.

My only real complain about the book is that it was a bit on the short side, but other than that, I had lots of fun reading it. And it was nice to be back in Tucker Springs.

Bottom Line: Covet Thy Neighbor was a fun book, the main characters were interesting and likable, it was fun seeing them get together and had an interesting perspective and something to say about love and religion and prejudice, without being a dense book. 

Review copy provided by the publisher, via Net Galley. 

Book Review: Reboot by Amy Tintera

At First Sight: Wren Connolly was dead for 178 minutes before she woke up as a Reboot, a stronger more resilient version of her former self, and all thanks to a deadly virus that has decimated the population and brought he world to it's knees.

Years before, when the virus started to make the rounds and humans started to return from the dead, the Reboots rebelled against humans who were terminating them as soon as they rose, and after the war, when the humans in charge realized that Reboots could be useful, they became sort of slaves, living in segregated facilities, always under the supervision of the HARC (Human Advancement and Repopulation Corporation), which is the governing entity of the former US of A.

Reboots to the HARC's biding without question, taking care of all the dirty work, and Wren is the best at it. She's kind of like an enforcer of whatever laws and policies HARC tells her to enforce. And part of this includes training the new Reboots, and this time around she got stuck with Callum 22.

Callum was only dead for 22 minutes, and still keeps a lot of the human emotions and affectations that seem alien to Wren: His physical strength is average, he keeps asking questions and is under the delusion that he can pick and chose which orders to follow.

Worse, he's making Wren feel things again, for the first time since she Rebooted.

Second Glance: Well, there is a lot more to Reboot than I what I just tried to recap, and I have to say that I'm not really the target audience for this because I'm not that into dystopia in general, but the concept of Reboot sounded quite interesting and it was.

There is a lot of stuff going on in some aspects, and there is a lot of set up (because it turns out this is the first book of a trilogy), but the book takes some time to explain and the whats and hows of the world, as far as Wren knows and understands them both in her inner monologue and when she's trying to explain the rules to Callum. 

I appreciated that because, while you get thrown into an already on-going situation, you never really feel lost, you can understand there is something a foot, but it also becomes evident very early on that Wren might not know all the facts.

Callum was a good contrast to Wren's coldness, he's basically still human and from a middle class family he got along well with, so his outlook is very different from Wren whom as a human lived in the slums and knew very little of healthy family dynamics or friendship.

I also really liked the character of Ever, though I do think the author could have explored her character a little more.

As for the not so Stellar stuff, well, sometimes Wren acts really out of character, both by what other think of her and what she thinks of herself, so that was weird, and there are parts of the story that just aren't all that interesting, and some things in the world building never finish making sense or are explained.

For example, I'm pretty sure the people who reboot smell different than the humans - like rotten or something - and it's constantly mentioned, but no one ever stops and explains what's that about? and it only seem to really bother Wren and the humans, none of the other reboots seem to dwell on it.

Plus, this is a set up book and it feels like a set up book, but a bit strange at that because the ending is a little anticlimactic and I didn't feel like there were any real major stakes (for Wren at least) to carry into a second book.

Bottom Line: Again, I'm not really the target audience for Reboot, as dystopia isn't a go-to genre for me and I'm actually very critical of it, but, Reboot has an interesting set up, and at times tries to say some pretty interesting things. Is it perfect? not really, but it's not bad, it sounds like there is a method to the madness that goes on - even if it's never fully explained - and the characters were distinct enough between them. 

DNF Review: The Academy: Game On by Monica Seles and James LaRosa

Summary (courtesy of GoodReads)*

The Academy is an International Sports Mecca for teen athletes of all sports. There are only two ways in. Deep pockets or enough talent to score a scholarship. 

Young tennis star Maya's dreams have finally come true when she earns a scholarship to The Academy. Plucked from her small town, Maya moves to the sports training facility/boarding school to (hopefully) start the beginning of her pro career. But Maya's fantasy of The Academy doesn't quite match the reality. Because where there are hot, talented teens, there's a lot of drama. Meet the players:

Cleo: Maya's rebel/punk roommate who is nearing the top of the golf world.

Renee: The gorgeous swimmer with enough money to buy her way into The Academy.

Nicole: A tennis star who feels threatened by Maya (but she'd never admit it).

Travis: The son of The Academy owner--perfectly groomed to be the next NFL star. 

Jake: Travis' younger brother--the bad boy to his brother's good.

My Thoughts:

I don't even know where to start with the Academy, so I'll just start with the most obvious things: It reads and feels fake. And, save for maybe Renee (who isn't around nearly enough, but we'll back to that later), it has no likable, endearing, engaging or worth-rooting-for-characters, not even the "villains". 

The Academy is supposed to be this super awesome place part boarding school, part high performance sports training facility. Everyone who goes there is supposed to be the next big thing to happen in their respective sport, or they have enough money to buy their way in, which is kind of ridiculous on the face of it since in the world of the Academy everyone who is talented is also super rich, except for the poor little scholarship students, but not even they take it seriously enough even though they say they do.

Maya is the new scholarship student and from the start she's awestruck by the Academy - which sounds more like a spa than any school I've ever heard of - where none of these supposedly super competitive athletes ever do any training other than run a few laps every once in a while. 

This includes Maya who is supposed to be on a trial period at school but who spends most of her time hearing her roommate Cleo bitch about something or other, worshiping the obviously fake and mean Nicole King (who almost gets her expelled from the Academy in her second day) and alternatively drooling over brothers Travis and Jake without ever being clear why she likes them other than because they are hot and rich and popular (and that is the extent of their personalities.). 

In fact all the characters are just as bland and have zero motivations or traits other than being the good hot guy, the bad hot guy, the bitchy unpopular girl, the bitchy scheming and popular girl and the ingenue, just because that's who we are told they are. 

The one exception, somewhat is Renee - the resident dumb, rich girl that Maya befriends early on and then proceeds to take advantage of and ignore when its convenient. I know more about Renee's background from her first interaction with Maya than about any of the other characters by the point I stopped reading the book around page 100. A lot of it is exposition - Renee basically says "I'm a poor little rich girl, and my parents don't love me" and yes it is cliched, but at least Renee was likable. 

No one else was. 

There was also slut shamming in this book, courtesy of Cleo who has an opinion about everyone she doesn't like and often criticizes them even though she doesn't know them, like, at all. 

Anyway, I made it to page 100 before I gave up, not because they book was any good - I stopped caring around page 50 when the first overt slut shamming happens - but because I kept playing a game of "Oh, this sounds like that bit of Mean Girls/Insert Teenage Movie Here" with myself. 

I don't think The Academy even gets the sports side of it right (or at least it doesn't sound like it) and it should because it was written by Monica Freaking Seles whom, in case you are too young to remember, is a legendary tenis player, often considered one of the best in history. 

To close, The Academy was a mess of overly-broad, archetypal and bland characters, slow as hell pacing and a plot based on worship of the rich. And it's boring to boot. 

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* Can't be bothered to write my own summary.

** This book was provided by the publisher via Net Galley in exchange of an honest review.