I’m over at Dear Author with a review of The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith. I don’t read all that much YA and I had mixed feelings about this one. There is some simply beautiful writing however – click the link to see my thoughts.
Tag: YA (Page 4 of 5)
Why I read it: I’ve had this one on my TBL for a little while and decided to sneak it in between review books.
What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Bitterblue is now queen of Monsea, still under the influence of her father Leck, a violent psychopath who altered minds. Her advisers want to pardon evildoers and forget everything, but she sees the past holds fast. Two thieves, who only steal what has been stolen, hold the truth and change her life. One, his Grace skill unidentified, has a key to her heart.
What worked for me (and what didn’t): Oh, so many things to say!
I’ll start with the narration because I’m far less conflicted about that. It was superb. Emma Powell doesn’t have/use a super deep voice for her male characters, but she manages to imbue each with enough difference and enough about what makes them that particular character (which is in part due to the writing which provides those details) that almost all are easily differentiated. I found it hard to identify Rood from Runimood (apologies if I have the spelling wrong – I only listened and haven’t seen these names in print). Perhaps Prince Sky was hard to differentiate from Po – but Sky was in the story for such a short time, it wasn’t a problem. Saf has a Lienid accent (which Powell does as Welsh) and is similar to Po but so different a character, it was easy to tell them apart. Katsa has a more brash tone than Bitterblue and the elderly characters have a convincing wobble to their voices. I noticed subtleties when listening that enhanced the experience beyond what it could have been just reading. Tones that were perfect but which I wouldn’t have thought to give certain words or phrases. The subtext was also clearly delivered by the emotions in the narration.
Ahoy! Thar be spoilers! Read on at own risk.
with an audiobook review of Wild Cards by Simone Elkeles, narrated by Amy Rubinate and Kirby Heybourne. The narration was so good by this pair – I didn’t notice some of the flaws in the story when I was listening.
That said, the story was very entertaining and I’m looking forward to the next instalment.
Up until 16 December, I read a total of 251 books for the year. Of those, 145 were books published in 2013. Last year, my 2012/all-reading ratio was a lot lower. Good for the newly released books, not so good for the books languishing on Mr. TBR.
Out of all the books I read, only 27 were rated 5 stars, but 144 were rated 4 stars. I’d have to say that’s a pretty good reading year.
Of the books released in 2013, my favourites were (click on the pics to see my reviews):
Fantasy/Urban Fantasy/Paranormal elements
New Adult/YA
I have another review at AudioGals today – The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black, narrated by Christine Lakin. I went a bit outside my usual reading zone with this one and I’m so glad I did. There are layers and subtext and beautiful prose as well as a great story with excellent worldbuilding. I recommend.
Why I read it: I received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley but I’m also a fan of the series.
What it’s about: (from Goodreads) The girl with straight As, designer clothes and the perfect life-that’s who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private-school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy parents and overbearing brothers…and she’s just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker-a guy she has no business even talking to. But when the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can’t get him out of her mind.
Isaiah has secrets, too. About where he lives, and how he really feels about Rachel. The last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks-no matter how angelic she might look.
But when their shared love of street racing puts both their lives in jeopardy, they have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they’ll go to save each other.
What worked for me (and what didn’t): I have always liked Isaiah since I first met him in Pushing the Limits. As much as I loved Dare You To, enjoyed Beth’s romance with Ryan and thought that the author was right; Beth and Isaiah should not be together, I was still a bit sad for Isaiah. I felt he got a bit of a raw deal. So, I was excited to read his story – where he finally gets his happy.
As expected, it was hard won and I had some nervous moments wondering how the author was going to achieve it (but she totally did) and in the process I met a wonderful heroine in Rachel, her yummy brothers (who I hope to see again in future books – especially West please) as well as more of Logan (may we have his book also? pretty please?) and had the opportunity to check in with Beth and Ryan and Noah and Echo. I felt all of the characters had an organic place in the book and as much as I was happy to see previous characters again, I’m also happy they were present because they had things to do relevant to the story being told.
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