Blog Update

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Blog Update, Thank You

Hi guys! I just wanted to give you an update on what’s happening with me migraine wise. I still have one, although it’s not quite as bad. It was a 10+ and now it’s down to a 7 or 8. My Dr. just started me on a new medication so I’m hoping that kicks in soon. I’m going to try to start catching up with everyone’s blogs and doing some new book reviews but it may be a little slow going over the next few days. Just writing up the review for Winter Of The Gods made the pain increase, so I’m going to tread carefully until this thing is gone. I really want to thank all of you for your support and well wishes. I can’t tell you what it means to me, and I hope you don’t mind bearing with me a little longer. I’m going to go find an ice pack right now, but I want you to know how much I appreciate you!

Winter Of The Gods (Olympus Bound) ~ By Jordanna Max Brodsky – 5.0 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Greek Mythology, Mystery, Romance, Thriller, Urban Fantasy

Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

432 Pages

Synopsis: Manhattan has many secrets. Some are older than the city itself.

Winter in New York: snow falls, lights twinkle, and a very disgruntled Selene DiSilva prowls the streets looking for prey. 

But when a dead body is discovered sprawled atop Wall Street’s iconic Charging Bull statue, it’s clear that the NYPD can’t solve the murder without help. The murder isn’t just the work of another homicidal cult–this time, someone’s sacrificing the gods themselves.

While raising fundamental questions about the very existence of the gods, Selene must hunt down the perpetrators, tracking a conspiracy that will twist the bonds of loyalty and love.

For a quick recap: the Greek gods and goddesses are actually real and many of them reside in Manhattan, including Diana, Goddess of the Hunt, who now goes by the name of Selene DiSilva and protects women from abusive men. Winter Of The Gods picks up three months after The Immortals. While Theo’s and Selene’s lives have been relatively uneventful, it’s not long before they’re drawn into the investigation of a murder on Wall Street. Much to their surprise the victim is no ordinary mortal, but is one of the gods themselves. When I read the premise of this my first thought was “ANOTHER killer cult?” But I really enjoyed the previous book so I knew I had to try this, and I’m so glad! This sequel has all the phenomenal worldbuilding, action, and fascinating characters of The Immortals, and adds even more. Even though there’s another cult involved, Brodsky ups the stakes by having them murdering the Greek gods themselves. No one is safe, and I was sad to see one of my favorites fall victim to this murderous group. While the first book was dense with mythology and history, this one is even more so as Roman mythology is brought into play. It’s obvious that Jordanna Max Brodsky is a meticulous researcher and she successfully adds all the mythology and history into the story without slowing down the pace one iota. Selene’s and Theo’s relationship further develops although it has its ups and downs which is understandable given he’s a mortal and she’s a three-thousand-year-old virgin goddess. Selene isn’t the easiest person to get along with and I loved how Theo is devoted to her, yet isn’t afraid to call her on her shortcomings. More of Selene’s rather dysfunctional family are introduced which provides for some funny, and heartbreaking moments. The new cult is led by a mysterious masked villain, and when their identity was revealed, it caught me by surprise, but it made perfect sense. The ending is a bittersweet cliffhanger which has me eagerly anticipating the next book. The Winter Of The Gods is a perfect book for fans of Greek Mythology, urban fantasy, and books like The Da Vinci Code. Olympus Bound is shaping up to be an exciting series and I really can’t recommend it highly enough!

Words To Remember ~ Black History Month

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Inspirational quotes, Rosa Parks

People always say I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I wasn’t tired physically…No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.

~ Rosa Parks ~

R.I.P. Bill Paxton 1955 – 2017

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Inspirational quotes, R.I.P. Bill Paxton

Through readiness and discipline, we are the masters of our fate.

 

Hundreds of storm chasers using their GPS coordinates pay tribute to Bill Paxton on Sunday.

A Brief Break

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Migraines

As many of you know, I suffer from really bad migraines, or as I like to call them Malfoys. (If this doesn’t say how Harry Potter obsessed I am, I don’t know what will!) Anyway, I’ve been dealing with a particularly stubborn one for the last week, so I’m going to to take a brief hiatus over the next few days to see if I can beat it into submission. I apologize in advance if I miss anyone’s posts. I’ll do my best to catch up…Promise!

Gardenia ~ By Kelsey Sutton – 3.5 Stars

Tags

Contemporary Fiction, Mystery, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Diversion Publishing for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: February 28th, 2017

260 Pages

Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Ivy Erickson has one month, twenty-seven days, four hours, fifty-nine minutes, and two seconds to live.

Ever since she was a child, Ivy has been able to see countdown clocks over everyone’s heads indicating how long before they will die. She can’t do anything about anyone else’s, nor can she do anything about her own, which will hit the zero hour before she even graduates high school.

A life cut short is tragic, but Ivy does her best to make the most of it. She struggles emotionally with her deep feelings for on-again, off-again boyfriend Myers Patripski. She struggles financially, working outside of school to help her mom and her sister. And she struggles to cope with the murder of her best friend, another life she couldn’t save. Vanessa Donovan was killed in the woods, and everyone in town believes Ivy had something to do with it.

Then more girls start disappearing. Ivy tries to put her own life in order as she pieces together the truth of who ended Vanessa’s. To save lives and for her own sanity.

The clock is ticking. And Ivy’s only hope is to expose the truth before it runs out completely.

When I first saw Gardenia offered on NetGalley I hesitated about requesting it because it sounded so similar to Numbers, by Rachel Ward, and When, by Victoria Laurie, but my curiosity won out, and overall, I’m glad it did. While the idea of seeing the death dates of people isn’t entirely original, the author successfully puts her own spin on it. Ivy is a character you can’t help but become emotionally invested in. She’s an interesting mix of vulnerability and cynicism. Her love for her family, and her ex boyfriend Myers, is a big part of the story, as is the love she had for Vanessa and the guilt she feels over her death. With her own clock ticking down, her determination to find out not only what happened to her friend, but also to the other girls who are being killed, makes her even more likable. Even though her efforts are hampered by skeptical law enforcement and suspicious classmates, she doesn’t give up. This is a teen who know she has left than a month to live and instead of hiding away in the trailer she lives in with her mother and sister, she sets out on a course to not only make her own life matter, but to stop a serial killer from claiming any more victims, even though she knows she’s putting herself squarely in his path. There’s a feeling of sadness and anxiety that permeates the story since right from the beginning Ivy states she’s never been able to prevent a death from occurring. She sees her own impending death, with a sort of fatalistic resignation which leads her to make some understandable but unwise choices, but this just makes her even more relatable. The relationship between her and Myers is really sweet, even though at the beginning, they’re broken up. I also loved the family dynamics between Ivy, her older sister, and her mom. I’ve found that many times when I’m reading a YA novel, that family is thrust into the background but that’s not the case here. There are a few things that kept this from being a perfect read. The book is described as a thriller/mystery but these themes wound up taking a backseat at times to the more contemporary aspects is the storyline. And, the revelation of the killer’s identity was rather sudden and had me scratching my head a little. I also would have liked to see some sort of explanation about Ivy’s ability. But what makes this work is Ivy and her interactions with her family, boyfriend, and others. In the end, Gardenia is a pretty solid read, that adds something new to the “I can see death dates” trope. It’s a character driven story that I think will appeal to a wide YA audience. 

Why do we have to fight this stuff?

POWERFUL POST FROM 17-YEAR-OLD Alyssa!

Whimsical Wednesday

Tags

Inspirational quotes, Lauryn Hill, Whimsical Wednesday

Picture courtesy of The Odyssey Online

I consider myself a crayon. I may not be your favorite color, but one day you’ll need me to complete your picture.

~ Lauryn Hill ~

You’re Welcome, Universe ~ By Whitney Gardner – 5.0 Stars

Tags

Bullying, Deaf culture, Eating disorders, Graffiti Artists, LGBTQ Families, Relationships, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: March 7th, 2017

304 Pages

Synopsis: When Julia finds a slur about her best friend scrawled across the back of the Kingston School For the Deaf, she covers it up with a beautiful (albeit illegal) graffiti mural.

Her supposed best friend snitches, the principal expels her, and her two mothers set Julia up with a one-way ticket to a “mainstream” school in the suburbs, where she’s treated like an outcast as the only deaf student. The last thing she has left is her art, and not even Banksy himself could convince her to give that up. 

Out in the ‘burbs, Julia paints anywhere she can, eager to claim some turf of her own. But Julia soon learns that she might not be the only vandal in town. Someone is adding to her tags, making them better, showing off–and showing Julia up in the process. She expected her art might get painted over by cops. But she never imagined getting dragged into a full-blown graffiti war.

Told with wit and grit by debut author Whitney Gardner, who also provides gorgeous interior illustrations of Julia’s graffiti tags, You’re Welcome, Universe introduces audiences to a one-of-a-kind protagonist who is unabashedly herself no matter what life throws in her way.

After reading You’re Welcome, Universe the first word that popped into my head was “Wow!” I started this at 9 p.m. last night and couldn’t put it down until I reached the last page around midnight. The story is told from the first person POV of Julia who is deaf, Indian, and has two moms. So yes, this book is extremely diverse. I know we’re still in the early part of 2017, but I already know Julia is going on my top ten list of favorite fictional characters for this year. She’s confident in who she is and isn’t afraid to stand up for herself. She’s sarcastically funny and downright blunt at times, which I absolutely loved. Because she was hurt badly by her former best friend, she has some serious trust issues which makes her eventual friendship with a girl who she nicknames “YP” even more touching. Both girls have been the victims of betrayal so their relationship is rocky and slowly develops throughout the course of the story. While the deaf culture is thoroughly explored in this book, it’s not the only theme. There’s also: bullying, body image, racism, eating disorders, and “slut shaming”. These are all blended into the story in a very realistic way, and I was impressed that the author managed to balance all of these successfully in a just over 300 page book. But what’s really at the heart of this book is Julia’s graffiti, and how it helps her cope with the stresses in her life. As the premise states, the Julia’s graffiti tags are very much a part of her story. The black and white illustrations literally leap off the page and fit in perfectly with the narrative. In my opinion Whitney Gardner is a refreshing and vibrant new voice in YA fiction. You’re Welcome, Universe is an incredible debut and one that I can’t recommend highly enough for teens and adults. It’s touching and full of humor, and Julia isn’t a character you’ll forget anytime soon!

Lifeblood (Everlife #2) ~ By Gena Showalter – 4.5 Stars

Tags

Fantasy, Paranormal, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Teen for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: February 28th, 2016

443 Pages

Synopsis: My Firstlife is over, but my Everlife is only now beginning. 

With her last living breath, Tenley “Ten” Lockwood made her choice and picked her realm in the Everlife. Now, as the war between Troika and Myriad rages, she must face the consequences.

Because Ten possesses a rare supernatural ability to absorb and share light, the Powers That Be have the highest expectations for her future–and the enemy wants her neutralized. Fighting to save her Secondlife, she must learn about her realm from the ground up while launching her first mission: convincing a select group of humans to join her side before they die. No pressure, right?

But Ten’s competition is Killian, the boy she can’t forget–the one who gave up everything for her happiness. He has only one shot at redemption: beating Ten at a game she’s never even played. As their throw-downs heat up, so do their undeniable feelings, and soon, Ten will have to make another choice. Love…or victory.

Before jumping into Lifeblood, you definitely need to read Firstlife, because otherwise you’ll find yourself completely lost in this rather complicated world. To sum it up briefly, in this alternate world, humans have a Firstlife but they need to make a contract with either Troika or Myriad to spend their second lives in, or their spirits will wind up in the extremely dangerous Many Ends, which is something like Purgatory. Troika is all about love and light, while Myriad is about power and might. Both realms are continually at war with one another. So, this sequel picks up exactly where the first book left off, Ten, has just been betrayed and killed, but before dying, she declared her allegiance to Troika. Unfortunately, she’s in love with Killian, who’s from Myriad, so there’s definitely a Romeo and Juliet theme here. Ten really finds her feet in this story and fully embraces her inner warrior princess. What I love about her is even though this is a fantasy novel, Ten, and for that matter, the rest of the characters come across as very real and relatable. While she has many positive characteristics such as strength, loyalty, and compassion, she can also be naive, stubborn and impulsive, which in this case can lead to people getting killed. Showalter does a phenomenal job at character development and Ten learns from her mistakes, thereby becoming a better friend and leader. The supporting characters come with their own backstories which makes them equally interesting. The romance between Killian and Ten is wonderful and considering everything that’s stacked against them, there’s virtually no relationship drama as far as love triangles, blow-ups, etc. However, this does lead me to the one criticism I had. Ten spends a lot of the story mooning over Killian, and not only did it get a little repetitious and annoying after awhile, but it was also at odds with everything else that was happening. I understood that she’s madly in love with him and worried about him, but I didn’t need to be told this constantly throughout the story. But honestly, this is just a minor complaint. These are two people who trust each other implicitly, and will do whatever it takes to be together. The world building continually amazes, with layer after layer being added, so as a reader you’re constantly being introduced to new things. How the author does this without taking anything away from her characters is testament to her talented storytelling. There’s plenty of action which keeps the momentum up and I finished this in two sittings. The Everlife series is shaping up to be a standout series that will appeal to teens and adults alike, especially if you’re looking for something totally unique. I can’t wait for the third book which is due out next year!