A Girl Named Digit by Annabel Monaghan

Summary: Farrah “Digit” Higgins may be going to MIT in the fall, but this L.A. high school genius has left her geek self behind in another school district so she can blend in with the popular crowd at Santa Monica High and actually enjoy her senior year. But when Farrah, the daughter of a UCLA math professor, unknowingly cracks a terrorist group’s number sequence, her laid-back senior year gets a lot more interesting. Soon she is personally investigating the case, on the run from terrorists, and faking her own kidnapping– all while trying to convince a young, hot FBI agent to take her seriously. So much for blending in …

My Thoughts: This was such an enjoyable book to read! While the subject matter isn’t exactly fluffy, it’s handled in a way that makes this a light, fun read. I often found myself chuckling, laughing, and/or smiling while reading. Some of it is dialogue between characters, but much of it is just Digit’s take on things. This girl has a way with words. Her voice and persona are very easy to like, and she grows up a lot in this novel.

I didn’t give this five stars because there were moments during which I found Digit a bit annoying. Namely while she’s going gaga over John and seems to forget that their lives are on the line. Or when she lies and says her cell phone is at home. Normally, I wouldn’t have issue with that, but normally people aren’t being told that a terrorist group wants them dead. I would think that a 17-year-old – especially one who’s a genius – would be inclined to leave behind the cell phone (especially when she watches CSI and other such shows regularly). If she was a younger teen, I’d be less likely to find this annoying. Really, it’s a minor thing that doesn’t get in the way of the story – meaning it’s not bothersome enough to keep one from ignoring it. And her stuff with John, well. She is 17. I can see how she’s be busy enough swooning to kinda forget just how grave the danger is. But, still, he’d be trying to talk to her about the case, and she’d be thinking about why he won’t kiss her. Stuff like that. I was quite annoyed during some of those moments, because it was like she thought that was more important than living. But then again, she is a teenager. It’s hard to believe one isn’t going to live forever when so young!

In the end, this book totally left me with a smile on my face. I think one big thing that helped with that is that Digit learns a valuable lesson. After years of pretending she’s not the super math genius, she finds that being herself is so much better. There’s a line in the book at one point about living the lie being so exhausting, or something like that – she didn’t say it. One of her parents did. But, it’s like she has a new take on life, and has decided that perhaps being herself isn’t so bad after all. She also learned that she was so busy hiding herself that she didn’t truly get to know those that she was closest to in her social life. Not to mention that she’d been somewhat judgmental of them, considering them inferior intellectually. It was a humbling lesson for her, but one she took gracefully and learned from it.

In all, A Girl Named Digit is a great story. It’s fun to read, full of adventure, romance, and suspense. And there are some life lessons, too. I would highly recommend this book.

Source: Received through Around The World Tours for review.

Read It: A Girl Named Digit is scheduled for release on June 5, 2012. You can pre-order your own copy HERE. (This is a Book Depository link, and purchase through this link will result in my receiving a small commission at no cost to you. Your support is appreciated!)

Find me on Goodreads.com >>
♥

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Wings of the Wicked (Angelfire #2) by Courtney Allison Moulton

Summary: Life as the Preliator is harder than Ellie ever imagined.
Balancing real life with the responsibility of being Heaven’s warrior is a challenge for Ellie. Her relationship with Will has become all business, though they both long for each other. And now that the secret of who she really is has come out, so have Hell’s strongest reapers. Grown bold and more vicious, the demonic threaten her in the light of day and stalk her in the night.

She’s been warned.
Cadan, a demonic reaper, comes to her with information about Bastian’s new plan to destroy Ellie’s soul and use an ancient relic to wake all the souls of the damned and unleash them upon humanity. As she fights to stay ahead of Bastian’s schemes , the revelations about those closest to her awaken a dark power within Ellie that threatens to destroy everything—including herself.

She’ll be betrayed.
Treachery comes even from those whom she loves, and Ellie is broken by the deaths of those who stood beside her in this Heavenly war. Still, she must find a way to save the world, herself, and her love for Will. If she fails, there will be hell to pay.

My Thoughts: Is your memory of a book ever better than your original reaction was? Do you ever remember a book as being awesome – or at least really good – only to go back, read your review, and end up surprised? That happened to me this week. I remembered Angelfire much better than I apparently thought if it upon completion. When I read books that are second (or later) in a series, I often go back and read my review of the previous book(s) to help jog my memory. (There are so many books between readings that it’s necessary more often than not.) This time, unfortunately, I think that ended up biting me in the ass. I can’t help but wonder whether I would have enjoyed Wings of the Wicked better if I went into it believing that I loved Angelfire. But, it had been so long since I’d read Angelfire I felt I needed the refresher. Oh, well. Too late now!

So, in case you can’t tell, I wasn’t too impressed. First time around, I found Ellie annoying, spoiled, and anything but likable. Unfortunately, she’s not much better this time, either. *sigh* I so wanted to love this book. Unfortunately, my dislike for, and soon impatience with, Ellie just couldn’t be overcome. I wish I could say that the book was so well-written that I could overlook this and just enjoy the writing. Unfortunately, I can’t. I felt like things were overly dramatic, although perhaps that’s because it’s from Ellie’s perspective – and she is on helluva drama queen! Plus, some of the writing made it impossible for me to picture things as they happened.

I let out a choking sob and collapsed at her feet as our arms wound around each other. ~ page 439 (ARC)

First of all, this is the perfect example of Ellie’s selfishness and melodramatic tendencies. She is not the one who should be collapsing. Secondly, I found envisioning this to be somewhat difficult. Embracing each other while one collapses? Seems a bit difficult. I dunno.

The snowflakes landing in my hair were tangling it. ~ pages 320-321 (ARC)

I just can’t help but wonder how that works. Snowflakes tangling hair? I’ve never had that happen, and I have always lived where it snows during winter. I’ve only had it melt in my hair, making it wet. Never tangling it. But then, I suppose if she uses a LOT of styling product, then maybe it’d tangle it. But, not really, that’d be more if the product getting sticky as the snow melts, making her hair a gross, sticky, icky mess. Yuck. Either way, it gave me pause.

Back to Ellie. I can’t say it enough. She’s whiny, spoiled, etc. Complain, complain, complain. Woe is me. Rather than bucking up, accepting her destiny, and finding a way to make the most of it, she whines and complains. “I, I, I … me, me me.” I got so tired of her I almost threw in the towel. But, I finished the book hoping it’d pay off.

I’m not so sure it did.

Can you say predictable? None of what someone might call plot twists took me by surprise. Not a single one. And some, I saw coming a mile away. And the end is a cliffhanger. An annoying one at that.

A slightly redeeming moment comes before the very end, when you see just a tiny bit of character growth. Ellie has some revelations that cause some introspection and some decisions about how she’s going to carry on. That was good to see, but would be even better if she’d get an attitude adjustment.

There’s so much more I want to say, but I think I’ve said enough. The things I could say would only make this an even more negative review, and I’m done with the negativity. That said, I noticed that I seem to be in the minority. Most reviews/ratings/comments I’ve seen about Wings of the Wicked have been quite positive. Others LOVE this book, so please don’t let me keep you from reading it. Look at the book’s page on Goodreads and scroll down to find lots and lots of favorable reviews.

Source: Received through Around The World Tours for review.

Read It: Wings of the Wicked is scheduled for release on February 14, 2012. You can pre-order your own copy HERE. (This is a Book Depository link, and purchase through this link will result in my receiving a small commission at no cost to you. Your support is appreciated!)

Challenges: Counts for the 2012 Sensational Seconds Challenge.

Find me on Goodreads.com >>
♥

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Bewitching by Alex Flinn

Summary (from author’s Facebook page): It is the story of Kendra and her first 300 or so years of life. In Bewitching, Kendra ponders whether to help out a modern day plain-looking stepsister, while also reflecting on her experiences in the 1666 British plague, the court of Louis XV, and on the Titanic.

My Thoughts: This is such a great book. It’s tons of fun to read; I loved the fresh telling of old fairy tales. We start with Kendra’s beginning, which is reminiscent of Hansel & Gretel. And this is told in first person by Kendra herself. She talks about discovering her powers and what that means for witches, who are immortal. According to her, it’s a lonely existence – which is definitely believable. Once she finishes her story, she leads us into the main story we’re concerned.

We read about Emma and Lisette, whose story is a new – and contemporary – take on Cinderella. It’s told from Emma’s point of view – again, first person. And it has a refreshing, new take on Cinderella – perhaps she wasn’t the victim, but was the mean one. Let’s face it, the mean people in life – especially in our teen years – often tend to be the beautiful people. This telling of the tale takes that into account, and is great fun to read. Flinn makes her readers feel for the “evil” stepsister, and even stepmother, and despise the Cinderella figure. Impressive!

Interspersed throughout the main story are shorter anecdotes about other times Kendra got involved – and they illustrate her reluctance to get involved with Emma’s predicament. The first is a telling of The Princess and the Pea, starring Louis, Dauphin of France and eventual father of Louis XVI (Marie Antoinette’s hubby). The second is The Little Mermaid, set at the time of the Titanic. The mermaid rescues the handsome guy. And, it sorta follows the fairy tale – aside from the whole Titanic thing. I enjoyed both, and found them to be fun ways to mix history with fairy tales.

I hadn’t read any of Flinn’s books before, and I really enjoyed Bewitching. I definitely intend to read Beastly soon! I would highly recommend this – especially to fans of fairy-tale retellings.

Source: Received through Around The World Tours for review.

Read It: Bewitching is scheduled for release on February 14, 2012. You can pre-order your own copy HERE. (This is a Book Depository link, and purchase through this link will result in my receiving a small commission at no cost to you. Your support is appreciated!)

Challenges: Counts for the Speculative Fiction Challenge 2012.

Find me on Goodreads.com >>
♥

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

Summary: NEWSOUL
Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.

NOSOUL
Even Ana’s own mother thinks she’s a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she’ll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are suspicious and afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?

HEART
Sam believes Ana’s new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana’s enemies—human and creature alike—let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else’s life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?

My Thoughts: Let me start by saying that I’m sick, and have been all week. So, while I want to write an awesome review for this awesome book, I’m not sure if my mind can handle that at the moment. So, my apologies, especially to author Jodi Meadows!

Incarnate is fabulous. Very well-written, very unique, and a whole lot of fun. There were times when Ana drove me nuts – she’s so negative – but I know it’s the result of years of abuse under Li, her mother. What I don’t get is why Li was such a bitch to her. I get that Ciana was gone forever, but I didn’t get why Li would be such a horrible mother to her child. It’s not like it was Ana’s fault! I didn’t feel that dynamic was explained well. Was Ciana something to Li, like Li’s soul mate or something? Perhaps we’ll find out as the series progresses. I hope so, as this was one huge problem for me.

I gotta say, these reincarnated people are either idiots or willingly blind. Ana, being new, sees a lot of things that no one appears to be questioning – except maybe her father. Biggest one: What’s up with the temple? Why do the dragons ALWAYS go for it? There has to be something to it. Has to. Why is it that no one seems to think much of it, apart from Ana, of course?

I like how Ana’s existence shows just how complacent the oldsouls (is that what they are called?) are. Clearly they’ve gotten too comfortable in their lives, and don’t stop to look around them. Ana notices things no one else appears to. I can’t wait to see what happens next! While the negativity got annoying, I grew to really like Ana. And maybe that’s because she grows a lot in this book.

Problems aside, this is a fantastic YA fantasy book that I would highly recommend. Don’t look for it to be like any others you’ve read before. It’s refreshingly unique and a whole lotta fun. In case I haven’t said it enough: I cannot wait to see what happens next!

Source: Received through Around The World Tours for review.

Read It: Incarnate is scheduled for release on January 31, 2012. You can pre-order your own copy HERE. (This is a Book Depository link, and purchase through this link will result in my receiving a small commission at no cost to you. Your support is appreciated!)

Challenges: Counts for the 100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge.

Find me on Goodreads.com >>
♥

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.