Posts Categorized: new YA fiction

Book review- Spells by Aprilynne Pike

23 Jun, 2010 by in new YA fiction, Spells 3 comments

published: May 4th 2010 by Harper Teen
details: Hardcover, 359 pages
characters: Laurel Sewell, David Lawson, Tamani
isbn 0061668060
3.5 Stars

Six months have passed since Laurel saved the gateway to the faerie realm of Avalon. Now she must spend her summer there, honing her skills as a Fall faerie. But her human family and friends are still in mortal danger–and the gateway to Avalon is more compromised than ever.
When it comes time to protect those she loves, will she depend on David, her human boyfriend, for help? Or will she turn to Tamani, the electrifying faerie with whom her connection is undeniable?

WARNING: Review contains spoilers…

Okay, I have to say that I waited a few days to write this review to see if Spells would seep in and entrance me like WINGS did and I have to say, not so much. I love Tamani, really love him, and felt much like I did during Eclipse and New Moon of the Twilight series. Enough with David already! He is great as far as humans go but I was Team Tamani from the start. Now I will have to read book three so I can see him win somehow. I got to the second to last chapter and was shouting “what is she thinking?!!” Pick the fae!

What I liked:
  • tinkering of the fairies and learning about herbs at the academy
  • The festival and kiss with Tamani
  • Kae and her men in black. Some serious Troll butt kicking!
  • The World Tree and meeting Tamani’s family
  • Seeing the feelings revealed between David and Chelsea…go get her David! Leave Laurel to Tamani.
  • The high speed, big action ending. Gotta say I loved the end of the book, Aprilynne amped it up quite a few notches
  • Her mother’s store and apothecary business

What I would Change:

  • Spells was a little too slow moving for me
  • Too much poinitng out of the class structure in fairy land. It doesn’t seem to bother anyone but Laurel
  • The mention of gong to bed with David in her joking with Chelsea, it seemed totally out of place. Why do so many YA authors feel they have to slip in sex somewhere?
  • I’d love to see more action and less of Laurel’s teen aged complaining and rants on social status.

Overall though, I am a huge fairy fan and will read the whole series I am sure! I am hoping the love triangle resolves itself in a suitable way *coughs* and kudos to Aprilynne Pike for another interesting book. With that cliff hanger end I will HAVE to wait to see what happens…

Browse inside SPELLS at HarperCollins http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Spells-Aprilynne-Pike/?isbn=9780061668067
Get to know Aprilynne Pike at her website here: http://www.aprilynnepike.com/Spells/
See our Wings inspired shop on Etsy here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/HeatherZahnGardner?section_id=6655519

Current Books/ ARCS on Tour

17 Jun, 2010 by in new YA fiction 3 comments

What is up with the mail?
I have learned a lot this week. Mainly that delivery confirmation is worth the 80 cents extra for peace of mind. Just this month over $400 of jewelry orders and books have been lost or stolen. YIKES! No more trusting my postal workers! Thanks to those of you who have emailed us to let us know you received your prizes!
Miraculously our Shadow Hills ARC resurfaced after 15 days in the Bermuda Triangle of USPS delivery.The awesome news came from Avonlea/ “Violet” at The Eager Readers
http://theeagerreaders.blogspot.com/ She wrote three days ago…”Shadow Hills arrived today!!! The package looks like it was ripped open and taped back together, and it has a “Rewrapped at the Seattle Network Distribution Center” sticker on it. Crazier still, it was delivered at 5:15 pm (completely separate from our normal mail) by a carrier that isn’t even on our route. He is on a different postal route altogether but had two packages for our address. I am still in complete shock & was totally amazed to see it! So, if in doubt fellow book bloggers and ETSY sellers…– USE delivery confirmation!! We are…

Here are the books we currently have on tour:
Shadow Hills by Anastasia Hopcus
The Cinderella Society by Kay Cassidy
Scones and Sensibility by Liz Eland
Raised by Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
The Mark by Marilyn Bunderson
Siren by Tricia Rayburn
The Tension of Opposites by Kristina McBride
Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller
The Hourglass Door #1-2 by Lisa Mangum
More coming soon! Email us if you are interested in reading and reviewing any of these books on your site. Must be willing to ship with DC and send us the link to your review. Thanks!

Book Review- The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller

17 Jun, 2010 by in new YA fiction, razorbill, the eternal ones 1 comment


To Be published August 24th 2010 by Razorbill (first published 2010)
details Hardcover, 432 pages
isbn 1595143084
four stars

Synopsis from goodreads:
What if love refused to die?

Haven Moore can’t control her visions of a past with a boy called Ethan, and a life in New York that ended in fiery tragedy. In our present, she designs beautiful dresses for her classmates with her best friend Beau. Dressmaking keeps her sane, since she lives with her widowed and heartbroken mother in her tyrannical grandmother’s house in Snope City, a tiny town in Tennessee. Then an impossible group of coincidences conspire to force her to flee to New York, to discover who she is, and who she was.

In New York, Haven meets Iain Morrow and is swept into an epic love affair that feels both deeply fated and terribly dangerous. Iain is suspected of murdering a rock star and Haven wonders, could he have murdered her in a past life? She visits the Ouroboros Society and discovers a murky world of reincarnation that stretches across millennia. Haven must discover the secrets hidden in her past lives, and loves¸ before all is lost and the cycle begins again.

This is a really tricky review for me to write because I had a hard time figuring out why this book stuck with me so much. It’s been several days since I finished reading it and it has been with me the entire time, even while reading two other books. I won The Eternal Ones in an ARC giveaway and when I first picked it up I almost stopped reading after the first few pages. Everything was too “in your face” for me…the best friend, the naivity of Haven, the contant sexual talk, near nudity and her grandmother’s personality. As a whole, the book read more like an adult book for me rather than a YA book. There was too much mature content as filler. I kept picturing the characters as older that High School even though the author tries to fir them into that age group. I don’t picture 17 year olds getting married, traveling to Italy or being involved in a murder trial with a 900 year old attorney. However, since the premise of the book is that the characters are really older and reincarnated I suppose it may work.
All of this aside, I must say I really loved the book. It spoke to me. I soaked in the settings, lived the history, the mystery and the main protagonists. Still scratching my head about what to say but I give it four stars because it is rare that a book stays with me so long and deep after I close the pages.
Anyone else want to give it a whirl and converse? Send me an email to join the ARC tour!

Friday in the Fort

26 Feb, 2010 by in giveaway, myra mcentire, new YA fiction Leave a comment

We are hanging out in the fort today with author and YA book reviewer, Myra McEntire- queen of sweet and retweet!! Her debut novel, Hourglass, a YA time slip romance, will be published by Egmont USA in 2011. Come on over and roast marshmallows with us, as well enter to win one of my handmade Steampunk Clockwork Journals!
Find us here : http://writingfinally.blogspot.com/2010/02/friday-in-fort-with-heather-zahn.html and be sure to follow her on Twitter @MyraMcEntire

Teaser Tuesday- The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

19 Jan, 2010 by in book trailer, new YA fiction 1 comment

AHHHHHH… I can not wait!

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny – one she could never have imagined…

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan’s life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school…or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she’s known is about to change.