Review - A Court of Thorns and Roses

A Court of Thorns and Roses
Sarah J. Maas
2015
Bloomsbury Australia

3 stars

This book has been hype central on the book blogosphere since it was first announced last year, so I was ridiculously excited when I got an unsolicited ARC from Bloomsbury back in February. Unfortunately, I have a confession to make, you guys: it really didn't live up to the hype for me. 

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Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed it a lot. And I feel like my attitude towards it was more about me than it was about the book?? But it just... It wasn't great. And it wasn't what I was expecting from a Sarah J. Maas book. 

This book tells the story of Feyre. She's strong and independent and quite a lot like Celaena Sardothian but with a family, you know? While out hunting for food one day, Feyre (pronounced Fay-ruh, apparently) shoots a wolf. Except it turns out that the wolf wasn't really a wolf so much as it was a faerie in disguise. All of that stuff was pretty great. It was fast paced, and full of interesting characters, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

But then things changed. As a result of killing the faerie, Feyre ends up getting kidnapped by the Fae and taken over the wall to their kingdom. So...she's a prisoner. But they feed her really well and give her pretty clothes to wear and are generally really nice to her?? All the people in the land she's taken to have fancy masks stuck to their faces, but that doesn't even remotely disguise how totally hot the guys are??? The story took a massive turn for the romantic, and while I liked the individual characters, I had zero fucks to give about the romantic subplot. It wasn't swoony, it wasn't cute, it wasn't hot. It was just...there, being slow paced and not very interesting. I know, this totally makes me a terrible fangirl. But it just wasn't my thing. 

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Somewhere along the way, Feyre finds herself facing a series of challenges. That, for me, was where the story finally picked up again. But that was about two thirds of the way through the book, so it was almost too little, too late. The last third of the book was action central, and given that I'd finally gotten into the story for real, the ending seemed all too sudden. 

Look, it's probably not entirely surprising that this wasn't a huge success with me. While I adore Sarah J. Maas' writing and her characters as a general rule, the Fae are basically my least favourite paranormal creature to read about. I bailed on the Sookie Stackhouse series when fairies turned up. I read a couple of Laurell K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry books, and they were kind of squicky. Same goes for Karen Marie Moning. So when I dove into this and found Fae waiting for me, I may have cried a little inside. 

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It's still got great characters and fabulous action scenes and I'll probably read the other books in the trilogy when they come out. But frankly? I'm a little afraid that it's going to turn out exactly like a Nora Roberts trilogy, where there's an overarching story but each individual book focuses on one of three sisters/cousins/best friends falling in love with a guy who's somehow involved in the overarching story. They fall into bed together more or less instantly, and get engaged after dating for like two weeks. 

So yeah. I feel terrible saying it. But Fae-centric + heavy on the romance = not really the book for me. 

Have you read it? What did you think??

K xx

Disclaimer: I received an unsolicited ARC from the publisher. A Court of Thorns and Roses is available now. 

Review - We All Looked Up

We All Looked Up
Tommy Wallach
2015
Simon & Schuster

4 stars

The blogosphere has been all atwitter about this book for quite a while now, and with good reason. It's a fascinating and pretty unique concept, and I was super excited that I got my grubby little hands on an ARC. Thanks, Simon & Schuster!

Essentially, the gist of the story is that there's an asteroid heading for Earth. And there's a 66% chance that it will hit and wipe out the entire planet. And it's due to hit in two months. What would you do with your last two months?

The book follows the stories of four high school seniors: Peter, the popular basketball star. Eliza, the photographer with a bad reputation. Andy, the underachiever. And Anita, the brainy good girl with a dream of being a singer. The narrative flows between the four of them as their stories weave together during the last two months before the asteroid arrives. Where they were all expecting to graduate high school and move on to bigger and better things, now their futures are uncertain. 

Okay, first things first: I adore this cover. It's absolutely stunning, and it even includes the blue asteroid up there in the top left corner. I really enjoyed the changing narrative. Even when there were elements of the story that overlapped, each voice was unique and featured its own set of circumstances, complications and emotions.

On paper, Peter has the dream. But he's not happy. Eliza has a reputation she doesn't deserve and her father's dying of cancer. Andy wants to lose his virginity before the world ends and is kind of freaking out about his best friend's growing presence as a drug dealer. And Anita's father is ridiculously strict and doesn't think the end of the world is a reason to stop working. 

So the characters were all relatable and reading about their hopes and dreams over the last two months was bittersweet. I really enjoyed the writing, too. There were some beautiful passages, but I think my favourite was right near the beginning: 

"The best books, they don't talk about things you never thought about before. They talk about things you'd always thought about, but that you didn't think anyone else had thought about. You read them, and suddenly you're a little bit less alonein the world. You're part of this cosmic community of people who've thought about this thing, whatever it happens to be."  

(ARC, p. 11)

I think that quote actually sums up the book pretty well. I mean, it's a book about the end of the world. Who hasn't secretly devoted at least a little bit of time somewhere along the way to wondering what they'd do if the world were going to end tomorrow/in a week/in a month/in a year?

Personally, I'd eat cake for breakfast every day. And stop flossing. And demand that Sarah J. Maas release the remaining books in the Throne of Glass series immediately, even if they're still first drafts. And read everything on my TBR shelf.

Basically, this is an incredibly realistic book about the end of the world. Not everything is happy fun times. There's anarchy and looting and the authorities struggle to keep control of things. Which is FABULOUS because as if everyone's going to suddenly become peaceful BFFs when they find out that the world is ending. Please. Everything would go to shit in a heartbeat.

And that's what this book demonstrates. The loss of control. Everything you thought the future held being turned on its head. And learning that the little things everyone stresses over - getting a bad grade, for example - are totally and utterly meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

Does this sound like something you'd read?

K xx

Disclaimer: I received a free ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. We All Looked Up is available now.

Review - Red Queen

Red Queen
Victoria Aveyard
2015
Hachette Australia

3 stars

I was pretty excited about reading this book. The cover is GORGEOUS and the blurb sounds pretty damned amazing. I mean, it's basically a mix between dystopia and high fantasy, which YES PLEASE. 

Red Queen is the story of Mare Barrow, who grows up as a Red - a commoner - but is found to have the powers of a Silver, one of the elite. The Reds are basically powerless servants and farmers, supporting the Silver way of life, and acting as cannon fodder for the Silver wars. Meanwhile, the Silvers have all kinds of nifty powers, like controlling fire, water, or metal, telepathy, and healing. Mare can produce and control lightning. When her powers are revealed, the King forces her into an engagement with his younger son and tells the world that she's the child of a long-dead Silver family, hiding her red blood and its implications. But Mare doesn't want to live a lie, and she'll do anything it takes to help her people, even if it means supporting a rebellion.

So basically? It sounds like a totally fascinating story. And in a lot of ways, it was. I loved the writing, the characters were fun, and the world building was great - there was enough of a sense of "this used to be America" in the regions and place names to make it identifiable despite the mysterious powers and castles and royalty and whatnot.

But.

This felt really familiar the whole way through. It felt like I was reading a book I'd read before. To me, it felt a little bit like a cross between The Hunger Games and X-Men. The blurb on Goodreads - which I didn't read until after I finished the book - bills it as a cross between Graceling and The Selection. (I'm really glad I didn't read that until after I finished it, because I really didn't like either of those books...)

There were a number of different elements used throughout the story that gave off a niggling sense of "I've read this before". It wasn't necessarily a bad thing - I particularly liked that I could compare the powers of the various Silver characters to the X-Men - but it did pull me out of the story at times and I felt like I wanted to skim over parts of it because I'd been there and done that. 

If I hadn't guessed the big plot twist well before it happened, this might have been a four star book for me. But I guessed it quite early on, and spent the rest of the time waiting for a certain character to do a certain thing, and so by the time it eventually happened, I was more or less over it. Add in a love triangle (or possibly square??), and I was rolling my eyes at times. 

In short, I loved the world that Aveyard created. The characters were fun, and the story was compelling if a little too familiar. And maybe if you don't see the big twist coming, it'll be a four or more star book for you!

Does this sound like something you'd read?

K xx

Disclaimer: I received a free ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Red Queen will be available on 10 February 2015.

Review - Whisper the Dead

Whisper the Dead
Alyxandra Harvey
2014
Bloomsbury Publishing UK & ANZ

4.5 stars

I read the first book in this series, A Breath of Frost, back in January and I LOVED IT OMG. So needless to say, I was pretty excited when I got approved for an ARC of the second book. I read a decent chunk of it on a bus from Mafra to Lisbon, and polished it off on the train from Lisbon to Sintra because I just couldn't put it down.

Basically, this is the middle book in a trilogy about three cousins in Regency London who discover that they're witches. Each has a different power, and together they have to try and stop a group of insanely evil sisters (who just happen to have died like 200 years ago) from destroying London. They're pretty clueless, but luckily there are some cute and knowledgeable boys to help them out. Score. (Yes, I'm aware that's a terrible synopsis, but it's kind of hard to recap the plot of a middle book without listing a bunch of spoilers, so...yeah.)

Anyway, I loved pretty much everything about this. It didn't seem to suffer any of the dreaded middle-book syndrome that so often plagues trilogies at the moment. And I think a big part of that is the fact that each of the books is dedicated largely to one of the three cousins. Book 1 focused primarily on Emma, and this focuses on Gretchen. So while we're still getting the overarching narrative slowly unfolding and building towards the big finale in Book 3, we also get Gretchen growing into her powers and learning what's really important to her.

I liked Emma in the first book, but I adore Gretchen. She's ridiculously sassy when she wants to be and isn't afraid to break the rules when they're endangering the people she cares about. And before you ask, YES. There's some serious swoon in this book. I loved the relationship between Gretchen and Tobias. He needs someone to bring him out of the cage he's got himself locked in, and she needs someone a little out of the ordinary but who still knows when the rules should apply, so Tobias fits the bill perfectly. And yes, there's still a healthy dose of swoon from Emma and Cormac, with a side of squee.

Honestly, I think my only issue would be the cliffhanger ending. Because I don't know how on earth I'll wait until I-have-no-idea-when-but-my-money-is-on-next-year for Book 3. And OMG book 3 better feature lots of Penelope and Cedric squeeing or I will have serious words with Alyxandra Harvey. Because of reasons...

In short, I loved this. It was a great middle book that upped the intensity and the action, and which overcame a lot of the minor niggles I had with the first book in the series.

Does this sound like something you'd read?

K xx

Disclaimer: I received a free ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Whisper the Dead will be available on 9 October 2014. 

Review - Heir of Fire

Heir of Fire
Sarah J. Maas
2014
Bloomsbury Publishing UK & ANZ

5 stars

I stumbled across this series back at the beginning of the year because the first two books were part of the Kindle post-Christmas sale. I'm really picky when it comes to high fantasy - I either love it immediately or I hate it with a fiery passion, and the odds of me loving it are about 1 in 10. So I'm not usually willing to spend a whole lot on high fantasy books. So when I came across Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight for about $2 each, I figured it was worth a shot. It took me a while to get into the first book, but once I did, I was sold and immediately read Crown of Midnight, which I loved even more.

All of which is a VERY long-winded way of saying that I was indescribably excited when I got approved for an ARC of Heir of Fire. Right. Fangirl gushing aside, let's get on with the actual review, shall we?

I LOVED IT. It's long, yes, but it's worth every single second that it takes you to get through those 565 pages. The story this time around is split between multiple characters in multiple locations, which I think was part of why I loved it so much. We still get Celaena's story - she's abroad learning about her own kind and how to use her fae powers. And, for the first time, we see what happened to her between finding her parents dead and being rescued from the river. Celaena's opening up properly about her past for the first time, and we can see just how broken she really is.

But we also get narration from Chaol, who's struggling with the idea of going home. We get Dorian's story, who's learning more about himself and what his father's been doing, and making new friends along the way. And we get the story from Manon Blackbeak's perspective, which was definitely the most interesting for me. Look, I know that the witches are antagonists in this world, I know that. But Manon is such an AMAZING character that I couldn't help but love her. Yes, she's cold and brutal and part of a really messed up society. And yet I still found myself cheering for her time and time again. I can't wait to see what the rest of the series has in store for Manon and her wyvern, Abraxos.

We also get a new major character, the fae prince Rowan Whitethorn. I'll admit, I had a tough time with Rowan to begin with. He was all broody and demanding and kind of a jerk. But as we learn his story, and as he and Celaena bond, I came to really like him. Celaena + Rowan = BroTP, you guys. I love that there's no hints of romance between them. They're just two soldiers thrown together by circumstances, and they form a really significant friendship as a result. It's pretty great to see that kind of non-romantic relationship in young adult fiction.

It's darker than the first two books, and the ending was pretty mindblowing. The writing felt cleaner and more developed, and the changing narration worked beautifully. It's very action oriented - moreso that the previous books - and there are few signs of the "which pretty dress shall I wear today?" Celaena that we knew in Ardalan.

In short, fabulous new characters, awesome new settings, incredible character development and darker, more compelling writing. Heir of Fire is definitely a strong contender for my favourite book of the year. And given that I've read over 170 books this year, that's really saying something...

Does this sound like something you'd read? (Hell, even if it doesn't, you really should. Because it's amazing. If I could give it more than five stars, I would.)

K xx

Disclaimer: I received a free ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Heir of Fire is available in Australia and the UK on 11 September, and is already available in the US.

Review - Cop Town

Cop Town
Karin Slaughter
2014
Random House Australia

4 stars

I first picked up one of Karin Slaughter's books at the library on a whim, and it was basically love at first sight. First read? First something, anyway. While her books always have an element of the icky or disturbing about them, they're always massively compelling and filled with fascinating and deeply flawed characters, and I've yet to read one of her books that I haven't absolutely loved. So I was pretty freaking excited when I got an email saying I'd been approved for an ARC of this one.

About the book:
Cop Town is quite different to Slaughter's other books to date. For starters, it's a stand-alone which is pretty exciting because it means I won't be frantically refreshing her Goodreads page hoping for news of a release date for the next installment! But there's also more of an emphasis on police work in general than there is in any of her other books, which always seem to focus exclusively on one particular case.

Cop Town is set in Atlanta in the mid-1970s, and takes place over the course of about a week. Our protagonists are two female cops - Maggie Lawson, who's from a cop family and joined the force about five years earlier, and Kate Murphy, who's about to start her first day on the job, and who's woefully unprepared for it. Five police officers have been shot dead on patrol in recent months, including Maggie's older brother's partner, and it's believed a murderer known as "The Shooter" is responsible. Maggie's uncle planted evidence on a suspect months earlier which led to the suspect being found not guilty at trial, so the police are desperate to find the man responsible.

My thoughts:
It's not an easy book to read. As one might expect of a book set in the South during the 1970s, it's riddled with just about every type of offensive statement you could imagine. The female police officers - of whom there are only a handful - are treated with extreme misogyny by their male counterparts and, often, by members of the public. Despite the Civil Rights movement, the police force is effectively still segregated, and racist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic remarks and epithets are par for the course. So it's not an easy book to read, despite its historical accuracy.

Where the ick factor in Slaughter's other books comes from the way in which the victims are murdered, here it's from the way anyone who's not a straight white man is treated. In addition to all the racist and sexist comments, we add a dose of police brutality. Every character has their own prejudices and every character is flawed, even if they have redeeming characteristics. As Kate asks her father and grandmother at one point, "How can they be so awful, yet they do these good things?". Because these characters, just like the real world, are massively complex.

Though the story is often difficult to read, it's also enormously compelling and I found myself unable to put the book down. The writing is incredible, bringing the world and the characters to life with ease. There were plenty of twists and turns, and a surprising amount of character development considering the story takes place over the course of only a few days. I could have done with a couple less chapters from the killer's point of view, because they became a little same-same-but-different after a while. But on the whole? It was a fabulous, if dark and gritty read.

Have you read any of Karin Slaughter's books? Does this sound like something you'd be interested in?

K xx

Disclaimer: I received a free ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Cop Town is available now.

Review - Tales of the Hidden World

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Tales of the Hidden World
Simon R. Green
2014
Open Road Integrated Media

3.5 stars

Simon R. Green and I have a long running relationship. I first picked up one of his books - Shadows Fall - at the library in about 2002, and absolutely loved it. I went on an immediate spree, reading as many of his books as I could find, whether from the library or in bookshops. The love wavered a little after I read Deathstalker, which was a little too sci-fi for my liking, but it bloomed anew when I moved back to Melbourne and discovered that in the three years I'd been gone, my library had bought every book in The Secret Histories series.

All of this is a very long-winded way of saying that I love Simon R. Green's books, and I was insanely excited when I stumbled across this little gem on Netgalley a few months back.

Tales of the Hidden World is a collection of seventeen of Green's short stories. The majority of the first half are new (within the last few years) stories, while the second half features some of his earliest work. A couple fit within the worlds Green's created in his novels while others cover world building, character development and plot in a mere handful of pages. At the end of each story is a short note from Green, providing the reader with some additional information about what drove him to create that story or the significance of that story in his career.

For the most part, I really enjoyed these stories. If there's any one theme running through them, it's death. They all feature death in some way, so it can be a pretty dark read at times. But that's to be expected with Green's work! I absolutely loved the first story, which focuses on The Armourer from The Secret Histories series. The Armourer has always been a character who's had to deal with moral grey areas, given that he's in charge of creating the Drood family's weapons. So it was great to get flashbacks to his time as a secret agent and see that he struggled with the moral grey areas as much in his youth as he did in his role as the Armourer.

I must admit, I liked the recent stories a lot more than the older stuff. While still enjoyable, it was clear that Green's writing style has developed and changed dramatically over the years, meaning that some of the earlier stories felt unpolished. Green tells us in several cases that they were published in magazines and fanzines in the 1980s, and in some cases, it showed. Still, despite their unpolished writing style, they were still enjoyable to read.

I read this a few weeks ago now, and the fact that so many of the stories have stayed with me says a lot about Green's writing, and how masterfully he crafted all these worlds.

So why 3.5 stars? Several reasons: 
1. The final two stories in the book should be in the opposite order, as the way they are, the prequel comes second. Green states that he has specific reasons for putting that story last, but it did remove a lot of the suspense from the prequel, knowing that the characters would survive unscathed.
2. There were zombies, and zombies are my personal squick. This is less to do with the book itself and more to do with me, but the presence of zombies in a few stories did mean that I cringed my way through a couple of stories, expecting the worst.
3. I kind of feel like it would have been better suited to alternating between the newer stories and the older stories. I understand why it was organised the way it was, but clumping all the older, less polished stories together meant that I found the second half a little difficult to get through at times simply because of the writing style.

Final verdict?
There's a lot to enjoy for fans of Green's work. Touches of The Nightside, a new Droods story, and a sense of how far he's come as a writer. For new readers, this book will give you an example of what Green's capable of. Either way, it's dark but thoroughly enjoyable.

Have you read any of Simon R. Green's books? Does this sound like something you'd be interested in?

K xx

Disclaimer: I received a free ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Tales of the Hidden World is available now.

Review - The Winner's Curse

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The Winner's Curse
Marie Rutkoski
2014
Bloomsbury

3.5 out of 5 stars

Reading this was something of a nightmare. Not because the book was bad - far from it. No, it was a nightmare because the e-ARC file was insanely wonky, and as a result, every single screen of it had numerous lines where allthewordsweresmooshedtogetherintoonebigword. See?

And this was one of the better screens! 

It was like reading a never-ending hashtag, and it made my brain hurt. But don't let that colour your impression of the book, because I'm like 900% sure that the actual published editions won't suffer from wordsmooshsyndrome!

This is a really hard book to classify, genre-wise. It's not strictly fantasy - there are none of the typical fantasy elements like dragons or magic or supernatural beasties. And it's not technically historical fiction because it's set in a completely fictional world. Instead, it's somewhere between the two, set in a world clearly influenced by Greek and Roman history with added extras, like gunpowder (although as far as weaponry goes, we're talking cannons and swords, not small arms). It's a post-conquest setting, with slaves and villas and ballgowns aplenty.

Our two protagonists - Kestral and Arin - are from the conquering and conquered sides respectively. As a result, we get a fairly good understanding of both cultures, though what we learn about the conquered Herrani is more about their quest for freedom and revenge than their culture before the Valori invasion. I liked both of their characters. Kestral is strong without being a fighter. She's great at the strategy side of things, which shows through time and time again. Arin is sneaky, and not in a bad way. He's a natural leader who knows how to keep information to himself.

Basically, the writing was excellent (once I learnt to read wordsmooshsyndrome), the characters were great, and I'm really interested to see where the series goes from here. BUT. There are a couple of reasons why this didn't get five stars from me:
1. It was a bit on the slow side at times, and then the big climax felt rushed. And then dragged out. And then rushed again.
2. While Kestral and Arin were excellent characters individually, I struggled to deal with the idea of them as a couple. She spends an awful lot of time glancing at him from a distance and generally being intrigued by him. He spent an awful lot of time going "She's pretty and stuff. And she plays piano really well. And I feel protective about her. BUT SHE OWNS ME AND I AM NOT PROPERTY I HATE THIS." But we're meant to see it as this big epic love story? Um. Okay???

Final verdict? A well written story set in a brilliantly constructed world, populated by characters that I liked. However, the pacing was sometimes off, and the romance was a little meh for me.

Have you read it? What did you think? If not, does this sound like something you'd be interested in?

K xx

Disclaimer: I received a free ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The Winner's Curse is available now. 

Review - Side Effects May Vary

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Side Effects May Vary
Julie Murphy
2014
Penguin Australia

2 out of 5 stars

It seems inevitable that this book - about a teenage girl with cancer - will be compared to John Green's The Fault in Our Stars. But the two books couldn't be more different. I was really excited about reading this, because I'd heard good things, and the blurb made it sound like it was going to be all about Harvey helping Alice cross things off her bucket list and then Alice having to process the aftermath of that once she goes into remission. And to some extent, that's what I got.

For the most part, however, I got a book about an angry, confused and - to some extent - self-destructive teenage girl. The narrative is split between Alice and Harvey, and also split between the past ("then") and the present ("now"). The split narrative worked well, and the story unfolding gradually throughout the book kept me interested. The writing flowed well and the two voices were sufficiently different and authentically teenaged.

Let's talk about the characters though. Alice is NOT a likeable character. Yes, she's dealing with a lot. But she's horrible to everyone around her. Her bucket list is less "things I would like to accomplish before my life is cut short" and more "I want revenge before it's too late". There's not really any other way of putting it: Alice is a bitch.

Something like this. Also, source.

I tried to understand her, to put myself in her shoes, to see WHY she acts the way she does. But I couldn't. When she's sick, she loves Harvey. But the minute she's in remission, she pushes him away because it's too much pressure. When he's single and following her around like a puppy dog, she's annoyed by his presence and his neediness. But the minute he has a girlfriend? She's brushing her boobs on his arm and suggesting they go skinny dipping. She doesn't want Harvey, but she doesn't want anyone else to have Harvey either.

Harvey, for the duration of the book, is a doormat. And he just goes with it almost every time.

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Alice says jump, he says how high. Alice says "I want to destroy people's lives", Harvey says "Hmm. I don't really agree with it, but OKAY." Alice tells him she hates him and Harvey says "I'm here all the same". Sure, he's loyal to his friend. But he's loyal to the point of pathetic. Not to mention the fact that he's watching her fade away before his eyes as a result of her chemotherapy, and he's still focusing on how much he'd like to have sex with her. And the worst part? He *knows* that he's a doormat but does nothing to change it:

"I didn't know what was worse: the fact that everyone could see that she was using me or the fact that I could so readily admit it."

Alice does change over the course of the book and eventually sees the error of her ways. But for me, it was too little too late. Yes, she's got cancer and is in excruciating pain a lot of the time. (Which reminds me, why on earth was she still being sent to school most days?!?!?!) Yes, she's afraid that her life is going to be over well before she's ready for it to be. But that doesn't give her a free pass for ruining people's lives and abusing her friends and family members.

Still, despite all of this, it was an interesting take on the whole teenagers-with-cancer concept. Getting a second chance isn't always a good thing. She's still dealing with uncertainty, as her doctors tell her with every visit that she's in remission FOR NOW and that things could change at any moment. Perhaps, with a little therapy, Alice would have been a different character. Perhaps, if her turn around had started earlier in the book, I would have had a different reading experience. It's not a bad book - it's well written and something very different in YA. But it is a frustrating book, if only because you can't reach into the pages and shake some sense into Alice... 

Source

K xx

Disclaimer: I received a free ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Side Effects May Vary will be available in Australia on 26 March.

Review - The Geography of You and Me

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The Geography of You and Me 
Jennifer E. Smith
2014
Hachette Australia

3.5 out of 5 stars

I make no secret of the fact that I love adorable books where teenagers fall in love in exotic locations. I've enjoyed both of Smith's previous books, and this was no exception. This one, however, was less about exotic locations and more about the ways in which a chance encounter can stay with you long after the event itself.

The meet-cute between Lucy and Owen was heavy on the cute - I mean, stuck in an elevator together during a blackout and then deciding to hang out together in the absence of any responsible parents? YES. Their general "I'm lonely and no one cares" bonding? YES. The continuation of their budding friendship through the sending of postcards and emails? YES. The ending? YES.

I had a few problems with Owen, at least one of which was nothing to do with the book itself and more to do with the fact that any time I read that a character has white-blond hair, I automatically picture Draco Malfoy. So that was a little odd... I also found it a little hard to believe that in this day and age, there would be a teenager who didn't have a smartphone OR social media OR who didn't check his email more than once in a blue moon. I'm sure they exist, but it was just a little odd to see a character that young who was that disconnected from his peers.

I related more to Lucy, simply because I've been the kid who grows up in a family that are constantly moving around and dealing with new schools and new friends on a regular basis. The irresponsible parenting on both sides of the story made me a little twitchy, but they came good in the end. Well, good enough that we might consider giving them some portion of a Sandy Cohen Eyebrow of Responsible Parenting over on Snark Squad.

Still, despite my problems, their respective stories were sweet and occasionally feels-tastic. And the ending was implausibly adorable.

Final verdict? A few bits that dragged a little, but generally a cute story about teenagers falling in love in an unconventional way. A nice, quick rainy-Sunday-on-the-sofa-in-your-PJs kind of a book.

Does this sound like something you'd read?

K xx

Disclaimer: I received a free ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The Geography of You and Me will be available in Australia on 8 April.

TTT - Top Ten Reasons I Love Being a Blogger/Reader

It's time to link up with the Broke and the Bookish again!

Today's topic has to do with being a blogger (more specifically, a book blogger) and a reader. 

1. ARCs.

Free books? YES PLEASE.

2. Interacting with authors.

This is more a Twitter or Tumblr thing that anything else, but there are so many authors now who are more than happy to talk to their fans, and who actually take the time to read the reviews you write, and who clearly actually read the tweets and messages that people send (see: Stephanie Perkins, John Green, Rainbow Rowell, Patrick Ness, Alysia Gray Painter and Joanne Harris).

3. Millions of new worlds to discover.

Need an escape from reality? What better place to find it than a book!

4. The friends.

I've made the most amazing friends all over the world through blogging, and I am so indescribably grateful for each and every one of them.

5. Branching out and reading new stuff.

Sometimes you'll come across a book that's not in your usual sphere of interest, but a fellow book nerd has written a rave review, or a friend emails you and is all "READ THIS BOOK IMMEDIATELY". So you take a chance, and it's amazing.

6. Recommending books to friends.

See above, but in reverse. Sometimes you find a book that no one else knows about and it's so fabulous that you want to sing its praises from the rooftops.

7. Getting to talk about books all the time without people thinking you're crazy.

This was one of the best parts of doing a Masters in librarianship - hanging out all day with people who are as passionate about books as I am, and think nothing of hour-long conversations about nothing but books. The book blogger community is pretty much the same thing. 

8. It's a cheaper addiction than most.

Sure, books aren't exactly cheap (especially in Australia...). But you can get them from secondhand shops or in ARC form or from friends or on sale or from the library for free. Try doing that with other addictions. 

9. Learning new things.

There's a book out there on pretty much any subject you can think of - I mean, there's one on the history of swearing! All you have to do is open a book and you're automatically learning new things. 

10. Books make me happy.

I've reached the point now where I can't sleep unless I read for at least 20 minutes first. There is no crappy day that can't be made at least a little bit better with the addition of a book.

What's on your top ten list?

K xx

News. Of the exciting variety

You ever have one of those days where everything just seems to go RIGHT? Yesterday was one of those days. Okay, so I tried to comment on a bunch of blogs that use Disqus, and it decided it hates me and ate all my comments. And the comments I wrote going "ARGH, IT ATE MY COMMENT!!" That part wasn't so awesome. But then when I bitched about mentioned it on Twitter, the co-founder of Disqus tweeted me to say that they'd look into it. #reasonswhyTwitterisawesome

Some books that I'd ordered online and forgotten about arrived. WHEEEEEE - PRESENTS!! (That I paid for but that's totally not the point!) So now when I run out of library books, I have a nice little stash waiting for me. Plus, yesterday was Charles Dickens' 200th birthday. If you've been here for a while, you'll remember that Charlie D and I go waaaaaay back and that he's one of my favourite authors. So yesterday afternoon when Penguin Australia were tweeting pictures of the covers and you had to say which cover was from which book for the chance to win a copy of the book in question, I jumped at the chance. And scored myself a free copy of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Which is completely awesome because I've always wanted to read it but have never been able to find a copy in a bookstore.

But the biggest news came in the form of an email I received yesterday morning.

"Dear K-,
Congratulations, you have been offered a place at ___ University in 1st Semester 2012"

That's right, kids. I'm going back to uni again! I enrolled online today, and it's all official. Classes start in just over two weeks. 18 months from now, I'll have a Masters degree and will be qualified as a librarian!!

I'm crazy excited about it. I wanted to be a librarian from about the time I was seven until somewhere during high school when I decided that archaeology sounded like more fun. (It's not.) So really, I'm just getting back on my original career path. With a few major little scenic detours along the way.

And if you know me at all, you'll know already who my librarian inspirations for the future are:

Source

Source

And how could you go wrong with inspirations like that??

Off to buy a lot of tweed,
K xx