romance Archives - Page 13 of 14

Yzabel / March 19, 2013

Review: Dearly, Departed

Dearly, Departed: A Zombie Novel by Lia Habel

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

CAN A PROPER YOUNG VICTORIAN LADY FIND TRUE LOVE IN THE ARMS OF A DASHING ZOMBIE?

The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria—a high-tech nation modeled on the mores of an antique era. Sixteen-year-old Nora Dearly is far more interested in her country’s political unrest than in silly debutante balls. But the death of her beloved parents leaves Nora at the mercy of a social-climbing aunt who plans to marry off her niece for money. To Nora, no fate could be more horrible—until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses. Now she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting a fatal virus that raises the dead. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble . . . and thoroughly deceased. But like the rest of his special undead unit, Bram has been enabled by luck and modern science to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire.

Review:

This is one of those books I’m having a hard time rating.

On the plus side:
– Zombies. A couple of years ago, I wasn’t really interested in those, but other stories I read since then made this theme more interesting. Here, I liked that some of them were given a chance, and were able to prove that they could still remain “humane” in many ways (sometimes even more than some of the living).
– Girls take matters into hands. Not always from the beginning, but they quickly learn to. Nora could’ve been much more of a crybaby, given her circumstances, yet she didn’t let herself sink. Pamela, too, grew to be more likeable. And Chas. How I loved spunky, mouth-running Chas.
– World-building. Granted, if we dig deeper into it, its bases are probably flawed, but no more than those of a lot of other dystopian/sci-fi stories. I’d say they’re more believale than in, say, the Hunger Games, because the rest of the world is at least mentioned.
– There’s an airship. ‘Nuff said. A certain scene involving it and a church holds a special value to me, due to personal reasons.
– Quirky and crazy engineers, whose names I quite liked, by the way.
– Neo-victorian society, with reasons for customs to revert to those of what was perceived as a “Golden Age”—and said customs indeed correspond the Victorian ones (courtship, dress code, and a lot of tiny details too).
– There’s a parasol involved in killing a zombie.
– Actually, parasols come with different lights to indicate the status of a lady: married, unmarried… and those who prefer women to men, too. Now that’s one of those tiny little ideas I like.

On the minus side:
– Once again, the “steampunk” label is applied to a world that in my opinion is not so much steampunk in the end. Sure, they use coal, but reconciliating this with more modern technology (the local equivalent of iPads, holograms, data chips…) was a little hard. Too often I feel that books get labelled as “steampunk” because it’s a fad, and this is getting annoying.
– The villains felt too cartoonesque at times.
– Some of the point of views weren’t so useful. I don’t mind juggling five POVs—I can juggle 20 if they’re properly written. But at least two of them weren’t justified. I’m not sure about the third one, since it also gives us on what’s happening meanwhile, in the city. Also, at some point the POVs tended to become hard to distinguish from each other. I’d be reading Pamela’s, and then suddenly I wouldn’t know anymore whose “voice” it was, if it was Pam’s or Nora’s.
– Not enough of New London to my taste.

Probably a 3.5 stars on my scale, but I’m not sure I should up it to 4. So 3 it’ll be for the time being. I will probably pick up the next volume, though.

Yzabel / January 11, 2013

Review: The Time Traveler’s Wife

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

This is the extraordinary love story of Clare and Henry who met when Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-two and Henry was thirty. Impossible but true, because Henry suffers from a rare condition where his genetic clock periodically resets and he finds himself pulled suddenly into his past or future. In the face of this force they can neither prevent nor control, Henry and Clare’s struggle to lead normal lives is both intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.

Review:

This book is pretty difficult to rate; I’m not even sure if I want to give it 2 stars or 3, because there are quite a few things in it I liked, and quite a few things I found hard to stand.

Like with some other books I read in the past months, I think I was expecting something else—something shorter, too: some parts I could have done without, because they didn’t bring much to the story as a whole, and felt like they were just delaying the unavoidable. Conversely, I wish the author had spent more time tackling a few problems that should have arisen regarding Henry, especially since she described other issues that came with his chrono-deficiency.

Those very issues were something I appreciated reading about, even though they made Henry hard to like in parts, because they raised interesting questions. For instance, Henry’s coldness at having to regularly steal, pick locks, mug other people, and so on; however, if one had had to do that for his/her whole life, wouldn’t s/he have ended up distancing him/herself the same way? (That, or ending up dying young because of too many scruples.) So, it didn’t make the character very likeable, but it was still a logical development for me. On the other hand, I felt like too many other problems were left aside, such as “how did he manage to hold a steady job like he did?” Also, the setting seemed a little too one-sided (middle-class people, with some annoying clichés).

I’m also shared regarding relationships in this book, more specifically Henry’s and Clare’s. While Clare’s love for him is logical enough, considering she’s known him all her life, Henry’s develops a little too fast (“it’s OK because she’s seen my future self, so I suppose it’s going to happen anyway” is just a tad bit far-fetched). And I found Clare too passive and dependent.

Truth be told, I’m not sure what exactly I was expecting from this novel. It wasn’t bad, but it left me with a lingering feeling of frustration.

Yzabel / December 30, 2012

Review: Becoming

Becoming by Raine Thomas

My rating: [rating=1]

Summary:

Every three years, Amber Hopkins explodes. Okay, not a blown-to-smithereens explosion, but whatever it is always hurts like hell and leaves her life a shambles. She’s already worked her way through five foster placements, and she’s doing whatever she can to avoid getting blasted into a sixth.

As her eighteenth birthday approaches and she feels the strange and powerful energy building, disaster looms. When the inevitable explosion occurs, her life gets its biggest shakeup yet. She’ll not only learn how her fellow foster and best friend, Gabriel, really feels about her, but she’ll discover that she isn’t really without family.

To top it all off, she’ll finally find out why she’s having the power surges: she isn’t entirely human.

Amber must Become, transitioning to another plane of existence and risking the loss of the most important relationship she’s ever had. Her choice will impact the future of an entire race of beings, and will pit her against an enemy that will prey upon her doubt to try and take her very life.

Kind of makes the explosions now seem like a cakewalk.

Review:

I first picked this book because of its cover and somewhat intriguing blurb, not to mention that I’m always up for discovering new authors (published or indie–there are real gems in indie too); but now I’m not so sure what to make of it. I can’t exactly say that I didn’t like it at all, only it doesn’t completely reach the “it was OK” mark for me either.

I think I would have liked it if the story had been closer to what the blurb got me to think. “Every three years, Amber Hopkins explode” would have made up for an excellent in medias res beginning, something that would have prompted the action and then the revelations in an interesting way. Unfortunately, things dragged for too long. Although the romance between Amber and Gabriel was sweet and beautiful, there was too much time wasted in everyday little things, what each character is wearing, and this goes on until the end of the book. The ‘bad guys’ really started intervening some 30 pages before the end, which came too late to my tastes–I’d have appreciated seeing more action from them, especially since the girls were told they were in danger in the human world too. I never really felt the pressure they were supposed to enact.

I found most of the characters hard to relate to, and rather cliché too. Some were just too perfect (Amber, Gabriel), some too detached (granted, it’s a cultural trait), and mostly who they are was told rather than shown (there’s actually a chapter in which the girls’ strong points and shortcomings are described in front of a crowd…). The villains looked cardboard-like, maybe because they didn’t get much screen time, so to speak, which doesn’t usually make for strong development. Add to this a definite feeling of mary-sueness: everyone gets eyes that change colours, wings, super long hair for some, powers, strength… and accepts all of this a tad bit too quickly. By that point, I was rolling my eyes, I admit.

The Estilorian society had its interesting sides, and I liked the idea of how they developed parallel to humans, offering another explanation to the ‘gods’ and ‘demi-gods’ that were said to walk the Earth in times of old. I only regret that their tribal/caste/groups organization was a little too complicated to grasp all in one go, and might have been better kept to 3 or 4 groups only. Even by the end, I couldn’t tell who was supposed to do what and why they were in that specific group. Unfortunately, some things here also added inconsistencies to the book. For instance, the Mercesti were mentioned, they seemed to be a class of their own; then they were simply those who wanted the sisters killed; and then they wanted to recruit them (so what happened to the “kill the half-bloods because our blood must remain pure”?). There were also a few instances where I wasn’t sure where the whole Estilorian society was supposed to stand: though they had many angel-like traits, what I appreciated was that they *weren’t* angels, yet later there’s mention of a sword cursed in Hell, which throws an angels/demons manichean veil over the whole thing.

As for the ending, it didn’t do for me. Too cheesy and cliché to my tastes.

Yzabel / December 26, 2012

Review: The Night Circus

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

In this mesmerizing debut, a competition between two magicians becomes a star-crossed love story.

The circus arrives at night, without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within nocturnal black and white striped tents awaits a unique experience, a feast for the senses, where one can get lost in a maze of clouds, meander through a lush garden made of ice, stand awestruck as a tattooed contortionist folds herself into a small glass box, and gaze in wonderment at an illusionist performing impossible feats of magic.

Welcome to Le Cirque des Rêves. Beyond the smoke and mirrors, however, a fierce competition is underway–a contest between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood to compete in “a game,” in which each must use their powers of illusion to best the other. Unbeknownst to them, this game is a duel to the death, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will.

Review:

This is one of those curious cases where I find lots of faults with the book, yet still end up liking it.

The world of the circus depicted here fascinated me. I’m usually not up for lots of long descriptions, but the author’s writing flows so smoothly that I couldn’t help but being entranced, and find everything delightfully enchanting. Strong visual imagery of the circus, its tents, the characters, their clothes… kept on invading my mind, especially as the dominant colour scheme was all in black, white and grey, with a touch of purple, which are colours that speak to me like no others can (perhaps because of the whole ‘polar colours’ symbolism). Erin Morgenstern created a place full of eerie yet pleasant visions, and I couldn’t help but coming back to her book and read more about those.

The second reason why I liked it is something that a lot of people find fault with, but that I personally appreciate: shifting timelines. I’m quite good at navigating such narratives, and I’m fond of the foreshadowing (or the ‘aha, so THAT was it!’) aspects made possible through it.

On the other hand, the plot itself and the characters were the novel’s weak points for me. Mostly the characters are interesting because of their quirks, but I’m convinced the author could have done more with them, make her readers closer to them. And the plot wasn’t what the cover blurb advertised: intriguing, with a certain amount of suspense, yet not the daring, somewhat dangerous and active ‘competition’ I had been led to expect. It’s a shame, for I guess it wouldn’t have been a bother if from the start I had known that I was going to read something that was slower-paced, and different in many ways. Also, the love story may have been stronger, with more impact, if the two characters had been aware earlier on of who they were to each other, and if they had been able to compete really face to face, and have more time ‘together’. I understand that they got to know each other through their creations; still, it wasn’t exactly as palatable this way.

I liked how everything tied up in the end, though, and I may read the novel again later on, to see if this changes my perception of the whole story.

Yzabel / November 21, 2012

Review: One Last Lie

One Last Lie by Rob Kaufman

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

Philip and Jonathan have had the perfect life together for ten years – fulfilling every dream except that of having a child. Along comes Angela, Philip’s college friend who apparently conquered her old demons of obesity and manic-depression.

After reacquainting and becoming good friends, the three decide to have a child together through artificial insemination of Jonathan’s sperm.

From that point, Philip and Jonathan’s idyllic life begins to unravel. Angela’s mask of deceit gradually slips as her pregnancy awakens psychological and physical problems, leaving Philip and Jonathan regretting ever allowing her into their lives.

Told from an elderly Jonathan’s hospital bed, Angela’s tangled web unwinds into heartbreak, deception, legal battles, and finally murder – with a surprise ending no one could have ever imagined.

Review:

(Book provided by the author through ARR #436 in the Making Connections group, in exchange for an honest review.)

This book proved a little hard for me to read, because I kept on wishing well to the two main male characters, since they were so sweet… yet I knew from the beginning that it couldn’t end well for them, and so, as odd as it may sound, I sometimes found it hard to go on reading. By not reading, I’d delay the unavoidable.

I so enjoyed the relationship between Philip and Jonathan; it had a caring, vibrant dynamics, and they looked and felt to me like people who’d really deserve to be happy, especially after a first scare (Philip’s cancer, that left him sterile–this isn’t really a spoiler, you learn it pretty early in the book). The love between these two men was strong, almost tangible. They were characters I ended up caring about deeply, and this isn’t something that happens too often with me. I kept wanting to tell them “guys, there’s really something wrong with that Angela woman, get the hell away from her, like, fast!” (Angela, yes, I couldn’t stand. Not because she had issues, but because it seemed to me that even with those issues under control, she was still, deep at heart, a cold, manipulative personality who only cared about herself, and was ready to go to many lengths, through many lies, to get what she wanted.)

If there’s one thing I regret, it’s that the story was predictable enough to me. Half into the novel, perhaps a little earlier than that, even, I figured out most of what was going to happen; as I went on reading, I didn’t want to see my suspicions confirmed, and alas, they were. But in the end, it doesn’t matter: predictable or not, this book remains strong anyway for its characters, for the relationships that tie (and separate) them, for the intense feelings that go through it.

Yzabel / November 14, 2012

Review: Fifty Shades of Grey

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

My rating: [rating=1]

Summary:

When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.

Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.

Review:

This book being all the hype, I borrowed it to know what exactly it was all about. Because whether I say “this is great” or “this is crap”, formulating an opinion when I haven’t actually read the book is unfair. Then I wondered if I should bother writing a review or not. And then I thought, screw that, a lot of things in FSoG bothered me, so I might as well write them out in the open.

First, this book is way too long. I don’t plan on reading #2 and 3, but I’m positive that the three of them would just deserve to be condensed into one novel, not more. While I found the first half okay-ish, the second one just bored me, hot scenes included, and mostly I had to force myself to finish and not skim too much. The plot is pretty much inexistant, since what is at stake is given to us fairly quickly, and the ‘twist’ at the end didn’t feel like one at all (in fact, it even felt forced to me, in a “oh, heh, so it took her THAT LONG” way).

Second, I don’t understand what’s all the hype about the sex scenes. I’ve read better fanfic porn than that. Hell, I write better porn myself, and I’ve got, what, two porny short stories under my belt, at most? Maybe it feels hot if all you’ve ever had in your life is sex for the only sake of procreating; or if you’re a virgin and only have had books/movies to enlighten you about what it’s like. And please, authout, please, stop ruining sexy scenes by inserting WTF reality-check moments in them. For instance, we women know very well what it’s like to be on our period; but do we really need to read about Christian removing Ana’s tampon? Or being given the image of Ana lying naked in a hotel bed afterwards… probably putting blood in the sheets? Sorry, E.L. James; not aroused here.

Third, I also don’t get all the “this book is empowering” talk. It isn’t. Ana’s telling of her relationship just looked like abused woman thinking—including moments when she’s afraid of Christian, speaks in terms of “being hit” (and not spanked/other BDSM/sex play terms), and so on—and I just can’t fathom that this would be “empowering” in any way, to anyone. As for the BDSM aspects, even though I’e never been attracted to that kind of play and don’t know that much to it, I fairly doubt that people who enjoy such relationships behave like those characters. Just like I don’t appreciate the underlying message of “every person into BDSM is necessarily like that because s/he’s fucked-up deep inside”. Uhm, (bad) cliché much? (Any review reader who’s into it, please, enlighten me if I’m wrong.)

The characters themselves didn’t do much for me. What we are told about Ana and the way she behaves are mostly contradictory. Just like the way she treats her friends and family doesn’t show her as a kind person, but as egotistic persona who’s only able to bitch and criticize. E.g. almost everything we’re presented with regarding her best, excellent friend Kate is derogatory, when all Kate’s wrongdoings are being pretty, catching a cold, getting into a relationship with a handsome man, and questioning Ana about what she instinctively perceives as being a fucked-up relationship (I guess *I* would like a friend to be like that with me if I’m ever heading into a dangerous love affair with a manipulative man who hits and frightens me—yeah, so empowering, that). As for the cliché of the pale, thin clumsy brunette who sees herself as ugly/not deserving attention: so tiring, especially when the author TELLS us that, but all the other characters seem to consider her as beautiful… and her clumsiness is presented as her only flaw (such a mighty flaw at that…) while her real flaws (like, being a shitty friend) are overlooked.

Also, do your homework before characterizing things like “subconscious” and “inner goddess”, especially since they’re so present in the novel. If we want to dive into psychology here, Ana’s “subconscious” is really her Superego—it’s way too reasonable and logical to be anything else. And her “inner goddess” is definitely an Id in disguise, which is why the author using that expression is another of my pet peeves. (Seriously, the wording”inner goddess” would naturally mean to me “every woman is like a goddess and deserves to be respected, worshipped, etc.” Here, it’s all but that. My Id/reptilian mind/instincts are allowed to call for sex and/or pain; not my “inner goddess”. And let’s not delve into how that goddess of hers is almost constantly compared to a child, jumping up in expectation for ice-cream or play, which is… disturbing when put on the same level as sex.)

There are nice things in FSoG, though. I enjoyed a lot of the e-mails between Ana and Christian, much like I enjoyed their use of Mr. Grey/Miss Steele in their conversations (now that’s the kind of play that can easily become pleasant if, like me, you enjoy teasing banter). But all its flaws definitely put me off too regularly to allow me to enjoy even those fully.

Yzabel / October 31, 2012

Review: Blood Warrior

Blood Warrior by H.D. Gordon

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

When her home is attacked by murderous vampires, 17-year-old Alexa is forced to leave her mother for dead in order to save her sister. She soon learns that she is the last known member of an elite race of supernatural Warriors, and is thrust into a world full of vampires and werewolves who all seem to regard her as some sort of savior. Meanwhile, Alexa battles a monster within herself that seeks to gain control; a monster that seeks blood.

The hidden city she finds herself in appears perfect, but Alexa’s instincts tell her that all is not right within its walls. When she is asked to attend a school of fighters, whose exams consist of gladiator-style competitions, she must decide who she can trust among the smiling faces. And, when she meets Kayden, a vampire she feels undeniably drawn to, she must decide if she can trust herself.

Review:

I picked this book because I had read another novel from the same author (“Joe”) and had absolutely loved it. This time, though, I unfortunately didn’t enjoy my read as much. (However, I’m also aware that this is the author’s debut novel, and you can really feel the difference between this one and her latest work, which is definitely a good point.)

The world developed in “Blood Warrior” is an interesting one, especially on the political level, where something’s definitely amiss and has a nice smell of utopian society on the outside, while being probably rotten to the core on the inside. But I’d have liked this world to be more developed–or rather, to know more about the supernatural creatures that people it, for while we’re told that there are werewolves and three species of vampires, I found it somewhat hard to distinguish some things from others. Sometimes I’d lose the ‘feeling’ of what exactly differenciate those species from each other.

The characters in general, while likeable enough, with their strong points and weaknesses, seemed a little bland to me. Alexa’s emotions were strong, too strong at times, yet I couldn’t feel close to her, and the way she went through them left me quite detached along the story. Also, I didn’t enjoy the love triangle between Alexa and the boys, because I felt as if it was kind of mandatory to have. I doubt the story would have been less interesting if those guys had been/remained friends, without all the banter and allusions about “she’s mine”, “no she’s my girlfriend”, and so on (maybe those lines were delivered as jokes, but it still was a little weird). As if a triangle wasn’t enough, we actually get a square with Tommy’s arrival, which made me wonder what was the point here. Or perhaps I’ve read too many YA novels in too little time, and am getting bored with love triangles, girls surrounded with handsome males, and special, unique heroines who gets everyone’s attention? I don’t know. It just seemed somewhat forced to me, and none of the love interests appeal to me nor make me care about who gets the girl in the end.

In terms of writing, I regularly found spelling and grammar mistakes in the text (their/they’re…), enough to annoy my eyes much too trained to spot typos and the likes. It wouldn’t prevent me from going on reading, but it was still annoying.

I think the biggest problem I had with this novel was that once I was done reading, I was under the impression that it was mostly a backdrop for the real plot to come, instead of a story in itself–the ‘cliffhanger’ at the end would have been good to close the first part of a book, but not a whole book, so to say. Now, as I mentioned before, the world developed here seems to be interesting, and probably will be much more once more is known about it. So maybe I’ll still check the next volume at some point to see where it leads me.

Yzabel / October 30, 2012

Review: Duplicity

Duplicity by Nikki Jefford

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

If Graylee Perez thought sharing a body with her twin sister was bad, dealing with a duplicate of herself is two times worse. Gray the second doesn’t seem to get that Lee’s boyfriend, Raj McKenna, is off limits. Then there’s the problem of Adrian Montez. He expects one of the Grays to be his.

Nearly a year later, the council is onto them for past misdeeds; Lee, along with the rest of the coven, has lost control of her powers; and Gray is being stalked by what looks like the Grim Reaper.

If they work together, they may stand a chance of setting things right and making it out alive.

Review:

I found this second installment as good as the first one, although in different ways, and due to different reasons. As is normal in second books in a series, there was no need to introduce the reader to the world and characters, so the whole story started fast. What was at stake felt more important this time, more serious, and better justified (I must admit that the reason to Gray’s death in the first book was kind of… cheesy in my opinion). And there was no Charlene. I’m not fond of Charlene, that is.

Seeing Lee and Gray interact and progress through the plot was interesting, because of both being basically the same person, yet with diverging personalities and conflicting interests; Gray’s situation was the more problematic from the start, arriving as she was in a world that had gone on spinning without her, and I could quite understand her feelings of being the extra wheel. Also, I really enjoyed seeing more of Adrian in this novel; I had already taken a liking to him in “Entangled”, and here I found his character fascinating. He’s got the markings of someone with a serious potential to do evil, yet it seems to me that there’s much more to him, and that he didn’t start being ‘the Avenger’ just for show; I seriously hope we get to learn about his past in the third book.

On the other hand, I found Gray’s behaviour somewhat odd at times; she was supposed to be the one who hadn’t changed, who came back just as she was one year ago, without having evolved in the meantime, but she all of a sudden seemed muchmore manipulative. Perhaps because she didn’t have much left to lose? I don’t know. The other character that somewhat annoyed me (or whom I felt sorry for) was Raj. He had such a diminished presence compared to what was his in “Entangled”–not in terms of ‘screen time’, but of charisma–and I couldn’t find back the Raj I had learnt to enjoy.

Despite those flaws, I’m still givine 4 stars to this book. It was a light, entertaining read, it made me spend a fairly good time, and this was precisely what I wanted out of it.

Yzabel / September 11, 2012

Review: When Love Is Not Enough

When Love Is Not Enough by Wade Kelly

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

A six-year downward spiral into a world of lies and deception leads to the end of one man’s life when self-discovery crosses the line between being the perfect son or following his heart.

Jimmy Miller never intended to lead a double life starting the day he fell in love with Darian, but his parents’ divorce, fighting in school, and constantly keeping secrets for his closeted best friend and protector, Matt, force his hand. Jimmy finds the demands too great to withstand and ends it all prematurely, leaving behind an angry best friend and a shattered lover.

Matt and Darian cling to one another in the aftermath of their loss, forging a new friendship immediately tested by the truths of their relationships with Jimmy that are hidden in the pages of Jimmy’s journals. Will Matt and Darian discover what truly happened to their friend? And will this tragedy birth something beautiful between them as they learn the balance between life, family, and friendship when love is simply not enough?

Review:

(Book provided by the author through ARR #455 in the Makinc Connections group, in exchange for an honest review.)

I hesitated a lot about which mark to give this book, pondering a 3 at first. I have a few gripes with it… but all things considered, it was a beautiful story that got me hooked no matter what, more complex than it seems, and so I settled on 4 stars.

Part of me perceived the characters and their reactions as often too angsty, too over-the-top, and at first sight too skewed. I thought I may not like this novel in the end. The author tackles a lot of issues in it: violence at home, broken parents-children relationships, homosexuality, rape (left unseen), lies bordering on cheating… Do so many things happen to people? Was it believable? Wasn’t it just, well, ‘too much’?

Then I thought some more, and realized that those plot points, what went in the characters’ lives, were precisely why I liked the book in the end: it made me wonder, it made me try to question people’s motives and reactions, try to understand why such event would lead to such reactions. And this was quite interesting.

There were moments I didn’t get Jamie. I didn’t get Matt. I didn’t get Darian. Why would Jamie keep everything separated, everything hidden? Why wouldn’t he just leave, give the finger, and steer his own life as soon as he was legally of age? Why would Matt be so hell-bent on one night stands? Why would Darian fall into Matt’s arms like that? I couldn’t get those. In a way, their reactions made me angry. That said, as soon as I started thinking more about them, they actually made sense, too.

– Jamie, desperate to be accepted for who he was, yet also knowing deep inside (without admitting it to himself) that it just wouldn’t happen; trying to balance out everything, to keep everything in little boxes because this may have been the only control he felt he could have on his life. I wondered why, after everything he had been through, one conversation would prompt him to commit suicide; but the very nature of that talk, as well as the people involved, had a shattering potential, and I can understand why someone like Jamie would suddenly make a terrible decision after that, after realizing openly that all his efforts were in vain.

– Matt: acting that way, I suppose, because not involving himself, not committing himself, removed the dreaded possibility of having to come out to his family. As long as he kept things like that, he wouldn’t have to make the choice, to cross the line, and could go on pretending that he was ‘just like the others’, like what other people expected him to be. In that regard, he too was caught in the same trap as Jamie, that of feeling he had to conform and hide who he truly was inside. In spite of assuming his being gay, he only assumed it far enough from home to be of no consequence to his official life.

– Darian: so desperate, alone, a young man who from the start had been robbed from half his close family, and was so frightened of losing his newfound happiness that, paradoxically, trying to escape those feelings could have destroyed him. And then Jamie was gone, making Darian’s worst fear come true, in a much cruel and ironic twist. But in spite of his frailty, of his inability to cope, he was still strong in many other ways. Strong in how he assumed who he was from the start. Strong in how he admitted he was afraid, and made the choice to not give in, even though this meant running straight into someting that a lot of people would deem as shocking. He was a beautiful soul, a person with a heart of gold, plenty of love to give freely, and the ability to commit himself fully to the one he loved, without conditions.

As I wrote above, I had some gripes with the book, and I can’t not just mention them, because even though I enjoyed the story, they may be a turn-off for a different reader:

– A couple of inserts were really, really weird. I’m thinking more specifically about that part where Darian reads from a book to Jamie, and we get the whole details about the title, author, the book being on Goodreads, an excerpt from the real text… Although I usually enjoy cameos, that one was too much like some kind of ad, that temporarily made me go “what the heck?” and broke my train of reading. I recovered quickly, but it was seriously weird.

– Matt’s speech in the end. It was spot-on, sure, yet it was also too much of a literal sermon. That too made me quirk an eyebrow and wonder if it was so necessary to present it this way.

– Not so much a gripe as a “I would have preferred if…”: Darian and Matt’s relationship. It evolved too quickly to my taste. It was beautiful, and it sort of made sense in that both of them were drawn together by the very pain that might have destroyed them had they stayed along… but I think I’d have liked it more if it had been closer to budding friendship, with love developing from there, and not the way it had started.

I suppose my review might come off as bizarre and unbalanced: a story that made me angry, confused, with characters whose reactions felt flawed at first, with an episode that destroyed my suspension of disbelief, with a sermon… and I’m still giving it such a high mark?

That’s precisely because it made me angry—and I’m not prone to a lot of feelings while reading, so any author who proves able to elicit something in me like that get to have bonus points. And in spite of the other flaws I mentioned, the way the story managed to captivate me is something I definitely can’t ignore.

(Bonus points go to Jamie’s mother, too, for being one of the craziest bitches I’ve seen in a novel so far. What’s most mind-shattering is that in the real world, there *are* people like her, who should clearly not be left running a family, yet are such skilled manipulators that nobody ever notices how screwed-up they are. I hated that woman, really.)

Yzabel / August 23, 2012

Review: Cold Kiss

Cold Kiss by Amy Garvey

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

Be careful what you wish for. . .

When Wren’s boyfriend, Danny, died, Wren decided that what she wanted—what she had to do—was to bring Danny back. And so, in a heartbroken fury, armed with dark incantations and a secret power, she did.

But the Danny who returns isn’t the boy Wren fell in love with, and she must hide him away while her life unravels around her. Then Gabriel transfers to her school and somehow he knows what she has done—and he wants to help make things right.

But Wren alone must undo what she has wrought—even if it means breaking her heart all over again.

Review:

To be honest, this book surprised me, because it wasn’t what I expected when I picked it. I’m not actually sure what I expected; the usual ingredients in a YA paranormal romance novel, I suppose, some of which are present (witchcraft, zombies, a kind of ‘love triangle’…). Then I found out that what matters here isn’t the plot itself, which is quite pared down in itself. Reading and also writing stories that tend to be heavy plot-wise, sometimes I tend to forget that there are other, powerful elements that can carry a story to its end. Feelings are one of those. And “Cold Kiss” is definitely ripe with feelings.

The novel revolves around Wren, a young witch (although she’s only called that once, I think) who had to deal with finding her first real love, Danny, only to lose him barely a few months later. Heart-broken, grief-stricken, she didn’t think it through so much when she took the fateful decision of bringing Danny back from the dead; only what she brought back was only ‘mostly’ Danny. As a living boy, he used to be sweet; he used to love her with all his soul and give his all for her. As a dead one… no matter how Wren wants to convince herself that he’s still ‘her’ Danny, something’s wrong, definitely wrong. And the time is soon to come when she must face the consequences of what she’s done.

In any other story, I think Wren would have been a whiny, childish, self-centered protagonist, that I probably would have found annoying at best; however, Amy Garvey managed to made her all this, with the added bonus that we actually understand why she acts the way she does, and are driven to wonder, “wouldn’t I react just the same way?” I wanted to be angry at her for brushing Gabriel’s help away—but in truth, were I still 17, wouldn’t I also try to fix my mistakes by myself, and snap off in the process? Wouldn’t I be angry at my mother for never explaining me anything, thus unexpectedly leading me to commit a mistake I might have not considered if I had been warned about it before? If given the opportunity to bring back my beloved from the dead, wouldn’t I desperately want to do it, so broken that I just wouldn’t be able to think about the unwanted consequences? This is the kind of questions I want to ask myself when reading such a story, and the latter indeed hit home with those.

The story in itself was fairly simple: no convoluted plot, nothing that can’t be predicted easily enough from the start. This said, I wouldn’t have it any other way, for what makes the strength of this book is the way the author deals with her characters. Throughout the novel, they were all caught in their own web of conflicted feelings, often stemming from their sadness and frustration—and love. Wren’s love for Danny, and her sadness at knowing that everything was different. Wren’s friends, feeling betrayed, made either fretful or angered by their worry. Growing estrangement between Wren and her mother. Above all, the constant despair; the ticking clock; the certainty that the outcome cannot be a nice happily-ever-after ending; and Wren’s dread at knowing what she has to do, being determined to repair her mistake, trying to make amends, yet also fearing having her heart broken again…

Danny, the undead boyfriend, was frightening in his own way. So pale, so cold, so silent—so disturbing. No need for a gory, brain-eating zombie description to make him creepy. Yet at the same time, he was also a tragic figure (in that he was made tragic by someone else’s hubris and fault), a boy lost in a world he couldn’t understand anymore, because he couldn’t exist in it the way he used to. I tried to imagine what it must have been for such a character: locked in a room all day long, with no one to talk to, only his broken thoughts to keep him company, not even knowing that he was actually dead… And this was just dreadful.

The only think I was somewhat hesitant about was Gabriel’s presence. He seemed a little too intent to help with such a mess, when he indeed barely knew Wren—I was two inches of sighing “insta-love” (not something that I like a lot in books in general, I must say). The story may have worked just as well without him, although in that case, it would probably have been shorter, too. He’s not an unlikeable character, far from it; but he also didn’t feel indispensable to me.