Asunder (Newsoul #2) by Jodi Meadows
Series: Newsoul #2
Published On: January 29, 2013
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Source: Library

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The Short, Sweet, and Spoiler-Free Blurb:

In this second book in the Newsoul trilogy, Ana discovers the truth about reincarnation and will have to find a way to embrace love and make her young life meaningful. Once again, Jodi Meadows explores the extraordinary beauty and shadowed depths of the soul in a story equal parts epic romance and captivating fantasy.

I was not planning on reading this book.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the first book in this series (Incarnate), but the ending had a lot of burning acid and death that left a lot of interesting questions so when I saw the second book staring at me at the library with it’s pretty flowers and rainbows, I decided to take it home.

Another reason I decided to read this book was because I had a theory and I wanted to see if I was right.  I was convinced that newsouls came from animals because that’s the first thing you think of when you think of reincarnation.  Turns out I was wrong.  Where newsouls really come from is even better. I love it when authors do that.  I read this book in 2 days and I couldn’t put it down.

Even though I read book 1 in January, I for the life of me couldn’t remember who Sarit was as well as some of the other minor characters.  Sarit is a friend of Ana.  She keeps bees.  Wait is she a she in this lifetime? That is all I know about Sarit.  I still think Sam is boring.  I do not like that Sam-I-am.  He’s unnaturally perfect and completely predictable. I mean when something completely devastating happens, he just lays in bed moping.  Cris was much more interesting.  He’s a new character in this book who is flawed, selfless, and has been trying to achieve a dream for lifetimes but he can’t quite get there.  I just wanted to hug him.

The plot is still pretty slow, but I liked the interesting questions that were brought up.  Some of them were pretty deep that delve into life, death, fear, and immortality.  Ana goes on a quest for answers that is sometimes metaphorical and sometimes more like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  It’s very bittersweet because along this journey Ana starts to realize how different and truly alone she is.  She has to deal with constant rejection and trying to build her self-esteem despite what others think about her.

Also, I hope we get to see more of the creatures mentioned like trolls, centaures, phoenixes, and, of course, dragons.

Overall, I thought this was much more addicting to read than the first book. It answered a lot of questions from the first book which, of course, just brought up tons more to be answered in the next book.  And it delves into some interesting and deep topics that left me thinking long after I finished.

Content Rating: Medium, for one mildly gory scene.

Bullies (Urban Hunters #5) by Gary Taaffe
Series: Urban Hunters #5
Published On: February 1, 2013
Genres: Fiction, Young Adult
Source: For Review

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The Short, Sweet, and Spoiler-Free Blurb:

The son of the mongrel old man who Billy speared wants revenge. Billy could lose the pups. A bloody battle ensues but Diesel doesn’t count on Amber; or Larry, Curly and Moe for that matter.

Another fun short story in the Urban Hunters series.  I really liked how we got to learn a little more about Billy and Amber and their personalities.  We get to see their relationship grow in little, adorable ways.  But I really struggled with the conflict in this one.  It just didn’t feel real to me that an adult, no matter how angry, would actually try to physically harm young kids.  I mean it was cool that we got to see Amber and Billy take care of themselves, but if I’m supposed to see this guy as a sympathetic character afterwords, it just didn’t work for me.  But way to go girl power for Amber! And there was some great humor at the end.

Overall, there’s some cute moments at the beginning and fun humor at the end, but the conflict just didn’t work for me this time.

Content Rating: Medium, mildly descriptive violence.

I received this book for review from the author, Gary Taaffe, in exchange for an honest review. I was not told what to say, I was not paid to write this review and all the opinions expressed are my own. 

Taken (Taken #1) by Erin Bowman
Series: Taken #1
Published On: April 16, 2013
Genres: Dystopian, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Source: For Review

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The Short, Sweet, and Spoiler-Free Blurb:

There are no men in Claysoot. There are boys—but every one of them vanishes at midnight on his eighteenth birthday. The ground shakes, the wind howls, a blinding light descends…and he’s gone. They call it the Heist.  Gray Weathersby’s eighteenth birthday is mere months away, and he’s prepared to meet his fate–until he finds a strange note from his mother and starts to question everything he’s been raised to accept . . .

Taken reminded me a little of The Maze Runner – they both had this engrossing quest for answers.  The plot delivers on answering a lot of the questions that come up.  The story moves quickly and kept me glued to the pages.  The interesting world was the strongest part of this book.  But, sadly there were a few things that kept me from really loving it.

I have mixed feelings about the plot.  I loved how it was so fast-paced and surprised me once or twice, even if it had a few minor plot holes.  I like fast moving plots in books, but I think this was a rare example of the plot moving too fast.  It’s amazing the amount of ground this 360 page novel covers.  Since so much is happening, there is a lot of “monologuing” if you will (to use a term from The Incredibles).  Instead of getting to experience the newly discovered layers of this world, the characters would often have mini-speeches explaining the newest development.  Then the characters would immediately act on the new revelations.  It made for an addicting and zippy plot, but I found myself missing the fleshed-out little details that would have made the world rich and believable.  Sometimes things felt over-explained and sometimes the characters are running for their lives when they feel the need to monologue something new and explain the world a little more.  I wanted to strangle all of them and remind them that they should be running for their lives.  If this book would have taken it’s time with building the world naturally and not skipped over so many details, it would have been an incredible book instead of just an average one.  The matriarchal society structure that Gray grew up in was so interesting. I so wish that it had gone into more detail about the society!

The main character Gray was so likable at the beginning, but I felt his character progressed into kind of an unforgiving jerk. There were a few cute, romantic moments at the beginning – like them talking about wanting to be like the birds – that were so adorable. But I found the way the love triangle unfolded to be very unappealing. It’s possible that I have a gender bias that love triangles are okay for girls and not boys, but I still felt this “love triangle” was more like unfairly dragging two girls along.  Another reason I felt Gray was a jerk was when he has to make decisions through the story that could potentially hurt those he cares about, he completely justifies his actions without some much-needed honest indecision.  It gave me the impression that he didn’t care as much as he said he did.

I didn’t like some of the language used in the writing.  There are a few descriptions of  his chest “heaving” when he’s attracted to a girl. Gross.  And the word “slatings” for dates?  That’s such a bizarre phrase.  The word pairing used later on in the book was much better.

Overall, it had a fast-paced action filled plot that was addicting to read, but it was at the expense of building a fleshed-out world.  This book started out so strong at the beginning and sadly fizzles out towards the end.

Content Rating: Medium, for some swearing and violence.

I received this book for review from the publisher, HarperTeen, through Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. I was not told what to say, I was not paid to write this review and all the opinions expressed are my own.  I read an Advanced Reading Copy for this review.

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
Published On: July 3, 2012
Genres: Retelling, Romance, Young Adult
Source: Purchased

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The Short, Sweet, and Spoiler-Free Blurb:

Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn’t believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell…

Take the beautiful, imaginary world of Neverland and make it a literal place where everything is messy and covered in dirt and that is the uninteresting world where Tiger Lily is set.  I didn’t think it was possible to make Neverland so completely boring.  A few magical elements remain like fairies and mermaids but they felt very flat and unoriginal. There’s also a poorly explained excuse for why some people get old and some people don’t.  If you’re curious the reason some people don’t get old is because it just happens when something important happens in your life for no logical reason whatsoever.

The plot felt very been there done that in the way that Avatar was.  It’s kind of a tired plot line to have new people come and mess everything up for the indigenous people. I also felt like there was nothing new or interesting added to this retelling of Peter Pan.  I personally like my retellings to have new twists otherwise what is the point of the retelling?  I’m not really sure what the overall conflict even was.  It felt like the plot just kind of dragged along with an ending that kind of baffled me.  Honestly, the whole book felt a little preachy.  There were a few cute scenes between Peter Pan and Tiger Lily but not enough to make me really love this book.

The writing was good though it wasn’t my favorite.  The word choice stood out to me sometimes and felt a little awkward here and there like it was trying too hard to be poetic or something, but there were a few quotes I really liked.  Like this one:

“I’m not myself,” [Tiger Lily] offered, guilty.  . . .

“You can never say that. You’re just a piece of yourself right now that you don’t like.”

-Jodi Lynn Anderson, Tiger Lily (p. 69)

My favorite character by far was Smee who sadly shows up in the book only a few times.  The rest of the characters I had a hard time connecting with, especially Tiger Lily and the very strange decision she makes at the end of the book.  I honestly found it hard to tell some of the characters apart.

Overall, I did not enjoy the world building in this book at all. It had a tired plot line with a cast of characters that I ended up not caring much about.

Content Rating: Medium, for some violence and non-graphic instances of rape and abuse.