Review || The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black ★★★★☆

Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown’s gates, you can never leave.

One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself.

This is going to be a difficult review to write. I always seem to struggle with the books that I enjoyed.

While I liked Black's White Cat well enough when I read it last year, Coldtown is heads and shoulders above that. I really enjoyed this book. It was dark, twisted and full of compelling characters and mythology.

The set up here, for those of you who somehow don't know what this book is about already, is vampires. A fairly standard vampire mythos is accompanied by some really interesting world history. Vampires are publicly recognized--albeit as monsters. But also, in some cases, as a very twisted form of celebrity. It's not too unbelievable, given our modern penchant for reality TV.

Combine that with some really complex and diverse characters, and you have Coldtown in a very simplified nutshell.

I am very much a character person when it comes to books. Give me depth and complexity. The characters here are so beautifully flawed. They are fully of shades of grey. They have their own complicated histories. It was really fantastic. I really loved Tana as a narrator, for no reason that I can eloquently express. I just clicked with her as a character, despite us being very different.

One of the things I've seen this book praised for is its inclusion of a transgender character. Which, truthfully, brought it higher up my reading priority list than it had been before. I'm going to quibble a bit, since said character was a secondary character and did not feature as much as I would've liked. She still got a really cute side love story, which made me really happy.

Still, despite all my praise, this was not a 5 star book for me. I can't really pin down what it was about this book that made it 4 instead of 5 stars. I just never really got that "5 star" feeling, if you know what I mean. Never had that smack my hand against the cover slash want to throw the book across the room it was so good feeling.

Regardless. Highly enjoyable and definitely recommended--especially if you're looking for something new to try in the vampire realm.

Waiting On Wednesday || Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper

Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper
September 23, 2014

Sixteen-year-old Avery Roe wants only to take her rightful place as the witch of Prince Island, making the charms that keep the island's whalers safe at sea, but her mother has forced her into a magic-free world of proper manners and respectability. When Avery dreams she's to be murdered, she knows time is running out to unlock her magic and save herself.

Avery finds an unexpected ally in a tattooed harpoon boy named Tane--a sailor with magic of his own, who moves Avery in ways she never expected. Becoming a witch might stop her murder and save her island from ruin, but Avery discovers her magic requires a sacrifice she never prepared for.

Two witch books in a row... I promise that was unintentionally.

I really love magical tales, especially ones that skirt the edges of our reality. And clairvoyance is also definitely a thing I am super into. Plus, the whole embracing your inheritance thing is also a win.

And let's take a moment to appreciate that cover. Oh my.

Monday Mix || Trailer Heart: Marvel Edition

I'm just going to leave this one here without much explanation.

Except: I love instrumental movie scores. And I love Marvel movies. (Who doesn't?)

by amaltheias

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Review || Timeless by Alexandra Monir

Timeless (Timeless #1) by Alexandra Monir ★☆☆☆☆

When tragedy strikes Michele Windsor’s world, she is forced to uproot her life and move across the country to New York City, to live with the wealthy, aristocratic grandparents she’s never met. In their old Fifth Avenue mansion filled with a century’s worth of family secrets, Michele discovers a diary that hurtles her back in time to the year 1910. There, in the midst of the glamorous Gilded Age, Michele meets the young man with striking blue eyes who has haunted her dreams all her life – a man she always wished was real, but never imagined could actually exist. And she finds herself falling for him, into an otherworldly, time-crossed romance.

Michele is soon leading a double life, struggling to balance her contemporary high school world with her escapes into the past. But when she stumbles upon a terrible discovery, she is propelled on a race through history to save the boy she loves – a quest that will determine the fate of both of their lives.

In my mind, there's a distinction between "bad" and "not good".

This book was not "bad" by any means. But it certainly was "not good".

Despite a promising premise, this book suffers from a very mediocre execution. The writing style is very simplistic and overly descriptive--not in a good way, but in a "telling, not showing" kind of way.

The plot is virtually non-existent, unless you want to count "impulsive teenagers make heart eyes at each other" as the plot. In which case, there you have it. Except the teenagers are separated across 100 years.

And though I appreciate cyclical time travel as a plot device, the rest of the mechanics are sort of hand-waved away. What I'm sure are supposed to be shocking twists can be seen from miles away--which doesn't necessarily detract from my enjoyment, but it just wasn't particularly original.

Everything else sort of falls under the melodrama category. The characters have very little depth and with this clocking in at under 300 pages, you don't really have enough time to see growth.

If you're looking to kill about 2 hours on something completely mindless, you could pick this up. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother.

Waiting On Wednesday || Trial By Fire by Josephine Angelini

Trial By Fire (The Worldwalker Trilogy #1) by Josephine Angelini
September 2, 2014

This world is trying to kill Lily Proctor. Her life-threatening allergies keep her from enjoying many of the experiences that other teenagers take for granted...which is why she is determined to enjoy her first (and perhaps only) high-school party. But Lily's life never goes according to plan, and after a humiliating incident in front of half her graduating class Lily wishes she could just disappear.

Suddenly Lily is in a different Salem - one overrun with horrifying creatures and ruled by powerful women called Crucibles. Strongest and cruellest of all the Crucibles is Lillian... Lily's identical other self in this alternate universe. This new version of her world is terrifyingly sensual, and Lily is soon overwhelmed by new experiences.

Lily realizes that what makes her weak at home is exactly what makes her extraordinary in New Salem. It also puts her life in danger. Thrown into a world she doesn't understand, Lily is torn between responsibilities she can't hope to shoulder alone, and a love she never expected.

But how can Lily be the saviour of this world when she is literally her own worst enemy?

Alternate universes! Witches! Evil selves!

This book has basically everything I'm into. I can't wait to see how this is all going to play out. Also, come on, Salem and witches... this is obviously going to end badly.

Monday Mix || Fight the Future

The soundtrack for the dystopian future.

When I saw that description, I knew I had to listen to this mix. And even better, it turns out that the creator was inspired to make the mix after reading a number of YA dystopian novels. 

Though the tracks are instrumental, there's still a story told in the music.

According to the creator: 

At first, everything is dark and there is no hope. Then, a hero/heroine emerges to be the symbol of the rebellion. The cruel war begins, but in the end the truth will win.

You can definitely hear the storyline as the tracks move along. And clocking in at just under 2 hours, it certainly is an epic mix.

Enjoy!

by veroniqueanne94

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Review || Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Steelheart (Reckoners #1) by Brandon Sanderson ★★★★☆

Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary men and women extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics. But Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man you must crush his wills.

Nobody fights the Epics...nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, they spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them.

And David wants in. He wants Steelheart - the Epic who is said to be invincible. The Epic who killed David's father. For years, like the Reckoners, David's been studying, and planning - and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience.

He's seen Steelheart bleed. And he wants revenge.

Sanderson knocks it out of the park again for me. Though very different from The Rithmatist this book has a lot going for it.

Some people will find this book more accessible, because even though Sanderson still builds his world, it's much subtler. The book is fast paced and full of pulse pounding action. In fact, I ended up finishing it by accident. I had only intended to read the next section, but got caught up in everything.

This twist on "superheroes" reminded me a lot of Vicious in places. Yes, the Epics are evil, but the Reckoners aren't exactly good either. David is obsessed with revenge. Some of the team has questionable morality. At least two of them are hiding massive secrets...

Steelheart ends up being more of a mystery book than you'd expect. The central plot is trying to take Steelheart down. But in order to do that, the Reckoners must find his weakness--every Epic has them, and they're often bizarre. As the plot unspools, you start to construct your own theories about what's going on and how Steelheart might finally be defeated. And I have to admit, I guessed wrong!

Still, being wrong didn't detract from the enjoyment of that final epic showdown at the end of the book. There were several plot twists that were incredibly shocking. I didn't see them coming at all!

That said, not a perfect book for me. This is very plot driven instead of character driven. Which is fine, since the plot is awesome, but David in particular didn't really do anything for me. I mean, I certainly understood him as a character, but I never connected with him. And his ridiculous insta-crush on one of the female Reckoners was obnoxious.

But the same goes for most of the main Reckoners cast. They all definitely had implied Pasts, capital P necessary, but they were all still relatively two-dimensional.

I like to have some investment in my cast of characters. I want to feel like I know them. There was a major character death near the end of the book that didn't make me tear up even a little bit. I felt fairly detached from everyone.

Still. This was a great book. I'm fast becoming a Sanderson fan. And if you're looking to jump into his work but are intimidated by the thought of his complex worldbuilding, I'd start here. (I love complex worldbuilding myself, so I feel like if I had to rank them, I liked The Rithmatist better than Steelheart, but I'm definitely in for book 2.)

Waiting On Wednesday || Girl of Fire and Thorns Stories by Rae Carson

Girl of Fire and Thorns Stories (Fire and Thorns #0.5-0.7) by Rae Carson
July 22, 2014

The Shadow Cats is told from the perspective of Elisa’s older sister. Discover how their sibling rivalry looks from Alodia’s viewpoint, and find out why Alodia agrees to marry her sister off to King Alejandro of Joya de Vega.

The Shattered Mountain revolves around Elisa’s best friend and handmaiden, Mara. Before she meets Elisa at the rebel camp in The Girl of Fire and Thorns, she suffers her own tragedy. Her village is destroyed and she must lead the few young survivors to safety.

The King’s Guard centers on Hector, Commander of the Royal Guard and Elisa’s true love. Set years before The Girl of Fire and Thorns, it shows us fifteen-year-old Hector as a new recruit. He must prove himself—and he discovers a secret he must keep forever.

!!!!!!!!!

I don't know how I'm going to talk about this without flailing all over myself.

I read the Fire and Thorns trilogy in its entirety earlier this year and just loved it. Like. You don't even understand. It's probably one of my favourite trilogies of all time.

I knew these prequel stories were out in ebook form when I was reading the trilogy, but I didn't really have any desire to seek them out. I'm not super huge into ebooks right now. And plus, I saw that this collection was being published in paperback form soon.

So soon!

I absolutely cannot wait to be back in this world. I'm excited to see what Alodia has to say for herself in the first story. And I really want to know more about Mara. And ughhhhhh, Hector. I just. Can you say book boyfriend? I am so ready for this.

Monday Mix || stay eighteen forever

We're going to continue the sort of nostalgia theme this week with this next mix. Because this is another mix that I just adore.

All the songs are circa the early 00s and just make me remember what it felt like to be 18 (and a little older) and listening to these songs. They transport me back to the halls of high school and through my early days of university.

As the mix says:

the pop-punk soundtrack to an adolescence full of converse shoes, band t-shirts, and black eyeliner.

This music was such a huge part of my life in the early 00s. I went to a lot of concerts while I was at university. I took the 2 hour Greyhound ride up to the nearest major centre and got bruised in the mosh pit. I slept on friend's couches and in the back seat of their car. I got back into town past 2am and still got up the next morning to go to class. I wiped mud off my shoes from Warped Tour and screamed along to the lyrics despite them threatening to end the set early due to a tornado warning.

This was the formative soundtrack of my early adulthood. It makes me super nostalgic.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

by mermaidsformisandry

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Review || Slated by Teri Terry

Slated (Slated #1) by Teri Terry ★★★★☆

Kyla’s memory has been erased,
her personality wiped blank,
her memories lost for ever.

She’s been Slated.

The government claims she was a terrorist and that they are giving her a second chance - as long as she plays by their rules. But echoes of the past whisper in Kyla’s mind. Someone is lying to her, and nothing is as it seems. Who can she trust in her search for the truth?

Everything The Program should've been, but better.

When you use memory loss as a plot device in books, you have two choices: show the before so the reader knows what's going on even if the main character doesn't OR let the reader figure things out with the main character.

Now, either method has things going for it. I, for one, am a huge fan of the first situation as a plot device. But when The Program did it, it fell really flat for me. Slated goes with option two and it is so much stronger as a novel because of it.

With Kyla, you slowly start to see how this world is different from ours. At the beginning, things seem to be fairly in keeping with what you'd expect. Aside from the Slating procedure itself, it looks and feels very much like our world.

But as Kyla starts to notice things, so do you. And everything is not as it seems.

Slated paints an intriguing and not unrealistic portrait of a tight fisted government rule. And man, I love me some government crackdown in my dystopias. Through the course of this book, you (along with Kyla) start to understand how we got here and what the norm is now.

The pieces of the puzzle are arranged carefully by Terry, enough so that you tend to figure things out just before Kyla. Which was refreshing in two ways. Firstly, because sometimes I feel like there aren't enough breadcrumbs in books that are trying to be mysterious. A sudden plot twist or deus ex machina hits you out of nowhere and it's jarring. That is decidedly not the case with Slated. The other refreshing bit is that Kyla is smart. Sure, you can put things together a few pages before she does, but it's not as if you're waiting chapters upon chapters for her to finally figure things out. It was a nice change from some decidedly dense protagonists I've dealt with in the past.

That said, the ending of this book got a little wonky for me. There was a major shift in one of the characters and suddenly things were spiralling out of control really fast. And then they were ended just as abruptly. If there's one flaw to this book, it's that it definitely does not stand on its own. There is so much left unfinished, so many new questions and problems raised in the last handful of pages.

Like with Proxy, though, that just made me want to go out and get my hands on the sequel. Which isn't a bad thing. There are a few recent developments that have me a little wary, but I'm more interested to see how it all gets tied in.

Definitely recommended!