REVIEW: Fever Series by Karen Marie Moning

Rating: 4/5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy/Fairy
Audience: Adult/High School

Summary: When her sister is murdered in Dublin, Ireland MacKayla Lane travels there in order to bring the murderer to justice.  Little does she know that there she will discover a world of Fae, Druids, and other realms. Along her journey MacKayla will learn dark family secrets as well as discovering untapped supernatural talents. She will find she has strength and resources that she never thought she possessed as she fights for her very soul and even the fate of the world.

Lucinda’s Views:  A departure from her Highlander novel series, the Fever series is pure urban fantasy.  In MacKayla’s quest to find the fiend who murdered her sister she is caught up in a world she never dreamed that she was a part of, let alone responsible for saving.

Abounding with Celtic and Irish lore, this series pulls in legends, bardic tales, and modern fairy tales and ties them together into a cohesive whole that will entertain but at the same time make you wonder….What if?  The Fae of MacKayla’s world are nothing like the Tinkerbell of modern ideology.  These Fae are dangerous, frightening and out to satiate hungers that have been harnessed for millennium. 

MacKayla’s journey from Southern socialite to a strong, independent woman will keep you interested as well as the myriad of characters that MacKayla encounters. The dark, sexy Jericho Barrons, the Seelie Prince V’Lane, and the irrepressible Dani O’Malley, who is not what she seems, are all well-developed and mysterious.  If you like Urban Fantasy and want to read a well-written original series I encourage you to check this series out!      

FLASH REVIEWS: A YA Roundup

So I recently realized that over the past year I’ve read several YA books that I never got around to reviewing. Now, many of these books have sequels out or soon to be released. Here’s a quick look at some of the books I overlooked:

All These Things I’ve Done (Birthright #1) by Gabrielle Zevin
Genre: Dystopia/Crime Fiction/Romance
Rating: 2.5/5 Stars

 In a near future where chocolate and
caffeine are contraband, water and
paper are carefully rationed, and curfews are strictly enforced, sixteen-year-old Anya Balanchine finds
herself coping with an ailing grandmother and mothering her orphaned siblings.Oh, and she also gets herself tangled up in the illegal family business while falling for the son of New York’s new District Attorney. Anya is a strong and fascinating character and this book provides a slightly different slant in dystopian literature, but I felt that some of the details strained credibility. For me the book fell a bit flat, especially the romantic relationship. But there’s still hope for this wonderful premise and characters: Book 2, Because It’s in My Blood, is due out September 18, 2012.


Ashes (Ashes Trilogy #1) by Ilsa J. Bick
Genre: Apocalyptic Fiction/Horror
Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

On the run from an incurable brain tumor, 17-year-old Alex is camping alone in the mountains when catastrophe strikes. The sudden explosion of an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) instantly kills most of the adults and turns many of the younger humans into crazed, flesh-eating monsters. Tough and resourceful, Alex teams up with a contrary eight-year-old and a young soldier named Tom. The first half of this novel is a high-energy gorefest that kept me enthralled, but events take a sudden turn midway though. The creepy factor ratchets up in a totally new way, but the sudden veer had me baffled for a bit. However, the cliffhanger ending takes a turn back in the right direction. There are tons of questions left in the air, and I can’t wait for the sequel, Shadows, due out September 25, 2012! For its foray into societal issues and mores as well as the vivid action sequences, Walking Dead fans will definitely want to check this one out.


Glow (Sky Chasers #1) by Amy Kathleen Ryan
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: 3/5 Stars

Decades ago, when it became clear Earth would not survive much longer, two pioneer spacecraft were launched to locate and colonize  a New Earth. Fifteen-year-old Waverly and her boyfriend Kieran were born aboard the Empyrean, a completely self-contained habitat. The Empyrean and its inhabitants are still at least 40 years away from reaching their goal when their sister ship, New Horizon, inexplicably attacks and kidnaps all of the girls. Suddenly, Kieran finds himself in a power struggle with Seth, who becomes both a romantic rival and a rival to Kieran’s role as future leader of the ship. Meanwhile, Waverly must figure out a way to thwart her captors. This is a fast-paced space epic with some fascinating twists. A less-than-subtle dig at the corruptible qualities of organized religion may alienate some readers.  The second installment of the series, Spark, was released July 17, 2012. 

 

Hourglass (Hourglass #1) by Myra McEntire
Genre: Science Fiction/Mystery/Paranormal Romance
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole sees ghosts. Or, at least she believes that’s what they are. Now that she is home—after being hospitalized for a nervous breakdown—her older brother and guardian has hired the Hourglass Institute to help Emerson deal with her “hallucinations.” But Micheal Weaver is not the therapist Emerson expects; instead he is a consultant for a secretive organization that works with gifted people of the X-men variety, helping them to develop and use their abilities for good. Emerson believes he’s nuts at first, but soon she’s thinking all sorts of things might be possible, including time travel. This book isn’t perfect, but Emerson is a likeable, slightly offbeat narrator, and the romantic triangle that develops with Michael and Kaleb is intriguing if a bit predictable. Hourglass is a clever combination of science fiction, superheroes, and paranormal romance that will appeal to a wide range of readers. The sequel, Timepiece, is now available.

Wither (Chemical Garden Trilogy #1) by Lauren DeStefano

Genre: Post-apocalyptic Fiction
Rating: 3/5 Stars
In a future world where genetic engineering has created a disease that kills women by the age of 20 and men by the age of 25, polygamy has become a way of life for the rich and a means of ensuring survival of the species. Rhine is sixteen when she is kidnapped from her Manhattan neighborhood and forced to become the bride of Linden Ashby, one of the most handsome and affluent young men in Florida. Even as Rhine struggles with her feelings about her new husband, she also develops a wary relationship with one of the household’s male servants. And yet she is determined not to allow her developing relationships to make her lose sight of her goal to escape and somehow reunite with her twin brother. This is a creepy, dangerous world filled with hidden agendas. The narrative tension is high and although I was often frustrated by Rhine’s inner conflicts, I fully plan to discover more of this disturbing world in Fever.

REVIEW: The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
Genre: Science Fiction/Apocalyptic Fiction, Coming-of-age
Audience: Adult/Young Adult Crossover

Summary: For 11-year-old Julia, the morning that the world changed forever began just like any other Saturday in her suburban California neighborhood. But she soon learns that the Earth’s rotation is slowing down and that there are CONSEQUENCES AHEAD. Her mother leaps into panic mode, while her doctor father goes to work just like any other day. As the days grow increasingly lengthy, world governments declare that citizens should abide by the 24-hour clock even though it is 40 hours or more between sunsets and midnight might come during the brightest part of the day. Fringe groups of “real-timers” spring up in opposition to the “clock-timers.” Birds fall from the sky, people develop gravity sickness, crops fail. Julia herself feels a mild fear as the world around her gradually falls into turmoil, but she is also coping with the everyday disasters of adolescence: bullying at the bus stop, her parents’ rocky marriage, broken friendships, and her first crush.

First Line: “We didn’t notice right away.”

Tracy’s Thoughts:
This book is written as a retrospective, where a now-adult Julia looks back on the time that her world—both her private world and the world at large—changed. As a narrator, Julia frequently provides insights that the 11-year-old Julia could not know (“It was the last time I ever tasted a grape.”). Sometimes these were effective, but at other times I felt that they were unnecessary and even a bit annoying. But Julia’s story is a compelling one. The changes on Earth are profound, and the daily changes to Julia’s everyday life as she adapts to her changing environment and goes through the ordinary growing pains are equally riveting.

Karen Thompson Walker’s writing is simple and vividly evocative. It is nuanced and descriptive without becoming cluttered or overdone. Take the following passage:

When we finally understood what was happening that morning, Hanna and I rushed outside to check the sky for evidence. But the sky was just the sky—an average, cloudless, blue. The sun shone unchanged. A familiar breeze was blowing from the direction of the sea, and the air smelled the way it always did back then, like cut grass and honeysuckle and chlorine. The eucalyptus trees were fluttering like sea anemones in the wind, and my mother’s jug of sun tea looked nearly dark enough to drink. In the distance beyond our back fence, the freeway echoed and hummed. The power lines continued to buzz. Had we tossed a soccer ball into the air, we might not have even noticed that it fell a little faster to the earth, that it hit the ground a little harder than before. I was eleven years old in the suburbs. My best friend was standing beside me. I could spot not a single object out of place or amiss.

I read this book in one sitting. It is a fast, easy read and a timely one. Despite the fast pace, this is a quiet read—not violently dramatic like so many of the other apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic novels glutting the market. The dramas here are mostly small, everyday ones, but they are numerous and poignant. Although I questioned some of the science and would have liked a bit more fullness to the story and characters, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was a pleasant change from the average “world gone wrong” novel, and the premise was top-notch. I look forward to the next offering from this first-time author.