Review - A Touch Mortal by Leah Clifford

A Touch Mortal by Leah Clifford
Publisher: Greenwillow Books (Harper Collins)
Publication Date: February 22, 2011
Source: Library

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I started reading A Touch Mortal. The cover copy was very vague, except that it mentioned angels that have fallen. The main characters don’t fit the stereotypes I normally associate with fallen angels, and in my mind that elevates A Touch Mortal above the usual angel novel.

Eden is ready to give up on life when she meets Az and Gabe. She wasn’t expecting them, but with them around Eden is happy and feels loved. So when she suddenly finds herself without Az and in a new situation, Eden lashes out. She wakes up one evening to learn that she is now a Sider, someone who must spread Touch to humans. Without much information about her new “life” Eden must find a way to survive and stay invisible enough that she doesn’t attract the attention of either Heaven or Hell.

Eden is one of those characters you want to root for. She gets put in impossible situations and often has to find her own way out of them. She’s at a disadvantage due to a lack of information, which could have been easily remedies if other characters hadn’t been reluctant to be completely honest. Her whole existence would have been different if she had been told the truth from the beginning.

Gabriel is the character you think you know. His intentions seem pretty obvious; until it turns out he doesn’t match the image you have of him. Gabe was the most conflicted character, but I didn’t realize that until very close to the end and it changed my entire opinion of him. It’s obvious how much Gabriel cares for Eden and Az, so that redeemed him a little for me.

Az is hard to pin down. He doesn’t have as much page time and a lot of that is seen through the filter of Eden’s and Gabe’s perspectives. I’m hoping that he will get more page time in the nest installment, because I want to know more about Az and his history.

The supporting characters add some dimension to the story. Siders like Kristen and Eden’s crew of Adam, Jarrod and James give the reader a little more of the Sider mythology. But there really wasn’t enough. I wonder of that’s because Eden only knew the small amount she was told at the start. Then, she didn’t go after more information on her own. I thought there would be more interaction between the Sider factions but they all seemed content to stay within their boundaries, even though Eden ended up going Rogue (to use the Fallen term).

And speaking of the Fallen, there is Luke. For an antagonist he was quite creepy and very single-minded in his focus. Again, he was a character that was discussed or seen from other characters’ perspectives so that the reader gets the filter, character skewed version. The reader is told what is agenda is without hearing, or seeing it, directly from Luke; this leads to interesting interpretations, which are not really true. The moment his true agenda becomes clear, a lot of what happened before clicks into place. From that point on, it was easy to see that many of the characters’ actions stem from their interpretation of what Luke is really after, what his goal is, and it’s clear to see how that led the characters to make the choices they did. He became the Master Manipulator without actually having to manipulate a lot of people. While he was one of the least likeable characters, he was one of the most interesting.

It was the characters that really stood out to me in A Touch Mortal. They made the story for me and made me want to keep reading. The action felt stop and go and came in bursts, weeks or months would pass by in an instant with little information about what happened. It was here that it felt like the author was telling more that showing what happened. There were moments of brilliance - an intense scene at a rave, Eden’s first contact with Kristen - but I wish there had been more. The ending was very shocking and I’m hoping more will be explained in the sequel.

A Touch Mortal does deal with some dark subjects, specifically suicide. I, personally, would recommend A Touch Mortal to more mature teens that are looking for a book about angels that is different from the usual fare.

Review: Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton

Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (HarperCollins)

Publication Date: February 15, 2011

Source: NetGalley

After reading so many positive, glowing reviews for Angelfire, I had very high hopes for this book. I’m sad that it didn’t quite live up to them. Overall, Angelfire was an okay read for me. There were some things that I really liked and some that I didn’t.

On her seventeenth birthday, Ellie learns that she’s not just an ordinary teenage girl. She is the Preliator, a being that protects human souls from the reapers and is destined to be reincarnated every time her human body dies. Usually, she regains her memories of who she is, but this time her memories do not return and she has no idea why she’s suddenly good with a sword or who Will is. Will, her guardian through many of her reincarnations, must now train Ellie while trying to keep her alive.

Ellie was a pretty kickass heroine; she can fight with the best of them, plus she has not one, but two swords. I just wish that she didn’t also have to be a spoiled teenager. All the talk of high end fashion labels and cars felt jarring, especially the scene where Ellie and her friend Kate go shopping for dresses, it took me out of the story. I’m not sure if Ms. Moulton was trying to differentiate human Ellie with her otherworldly role, or show that she could be both, but I felt that it took away from Ellie’s character. I can appreciate that Ellie was trying to balance this new knowledge of what she supposedly was with the life she knew for seventeen years; it would have been

I also liked Ellie’s scenes with Will. Will was one of those characters who had a lot of layers - and the reader got to learn about him along with Ellie: being on the same learning curve as the main character is always a good thing. But, enough with the “I’m your guardian,” sentence/explanation starters. A few times would have been enough for the reader to understand that some things simply couldn’t be because Will was Ellie’s guardian. It was also nice that there was no love triangle - although some things that happen towards the end of the book point to the possibility of one in the sequel, there was one clear love interest in Angelfire and it worked really well.

Things that I didn’t care for included some of the fight scenes. You’re probably thinking: but wait there have to be fight scenes. Yes, they are a necessity; I personally felt that they were often too long. I lost track of what was going on. I’m all for action, it just seemed like too much as once.

The relationship, or lack thereof, Ellie had with her father was hard to read. He was an awful person and was horrible to Ellie. So horrible, that I hoped there would be some sort of payoff, but his actions fizzled out and didn’t come to anything (my prediction about him was way off the mark). Maybe there will be an explanation for his behavior in the sequel.

There were some things that I wanted more of. The first was Caden. Even though he only had two scenes, he jumped off the page. I can only hope that there will be more of him in Wings of the Wicked. Also more of the big, evil mastermind, please. The reader spent most of the book hearing about him, but then he’s only around for a few pages. Yes, he was definitely evil; I just wanted him to be more directly involved with the evil doing. Again, I hope he’s around for a longer time in book 2.

Speaking of the sequel, despite Angelfire not living up to my expectations, I will definitely be reading Wings of the Wicked. I would like to see how Ellie’s story continues and what’s in store for her next.

Review: Entwined by Heather Dixon

Entwined by Heather Dixon
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Publication Date: March 29, 2011

Azalea and her 11 sisters are supposed to be in mourning for their mother - complete with darkened windows, black clothing, no visits or fun of any sort especially dancing. With their father, the King, away at war, the girls slip out of their room every night to dance in a magic realm. There they meet Keeper, who seems intriguing but has intentions that aren't exactly honorable. Azalea finds that she must work out Keeper's mystery in order to save her family and their kingdom.

So, I may have mentioned that my favorite fairy tale ever is The Twelve Dancing Princesses. The first time I heard it was during a Pre-K story time at the library and I instantly fell in love with it. I checked it out of the library a lot. Then someone gave me a paperback picture book copy as a birthday present. Once I was able to read well enough on my own, that was my go to book. It was literally falling apart when I finally put it away to expand my reading horizons.

Despite my love for The Twelve Dancing Princesses (or The Worn Out Dancing Shoes/The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces) I'd never read a retelling until recently (for YA Lit class last semester). So when I heard that Entwined was another retelling, I knew that it would go on my wishlist for this year. Maybe my love of the original tale made me biased as I was reading, maybe it made me more critical, but overall I loved Entwined. Were there things that I wasn't fond of? Yes, (all the flower names for the sisters, for example) but the great parts outweighed them in my opinion.

Since Entwined revolves around 12 sisters, I thought it would be fun to give 12 reasons why I enjoyed reading it.

1. The sisters - with so many of them, it was sometimes hard to keep them all straight, but the portrayal of their relationships, squabbles, and interactions felt very genuine.

      

2. Lord Bradford - he's pretty swoon-worthy. At one point while reading I decided he was unassumingly dashing, because even though everyone else knows how awesome he is, he seems to be oblivious.

3.  The dancing - the way Ms. Dixon describes each dance makes them seem like additional characters in the story.

4. Azalea, the Princess Royale and oldest sister, she's strong and compassionate and looks after and stands up for her sisters. She's also courageous in that she stands up to the King and doesn't let him off the hook for anything. 

5.  There is magic, but only in small quantities. Only certain parts of the castle are magic and even that is considered a myth until Azalea finds the secret passageway. But also, there is the realization that love is its own type of magic.

6. There is character named Mr. Pudding. For some reason, I just love that name!

7. A certain pocket watch and the theme of time: the passage of time, waiting for something/someone you love.

8. Prime Minister Fairweller - despite his sober demeanor and rule abiding ways, he has a bit of a romantic streak.

9.  A mention of treacle tart - in addition to reminding me of Harry Potter, it just shows how it's all the small details that make the house and the magic realm come to life.

10. A certain scene between Azalea and Lord Bradford involving a closet and some spying.

11. Lord Teddy - my favorite of the suitors - he unintentionally delivers comic relief exactly when it's needed, plus he never gives up!

12. Keeper is super creepy as a villain, right from the first sight of him it's very clear that he is evil. I love villains that are unapologetically evil.

If you enjoy reading fairy tale retellings, Entwined should be on your radar. I definitely will be picking up a finished copy at the end of March.

**Source: Book It Forward ARC Tours

Review: Rival by Sara Bennett Wealer

Rival by Sara Bennett Wealer
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date:  February 15, 2011
Rating: 4.5 Bookcases

The Short of It:

Rival is a story about two girls who used to be friends and now are, pretty much, bitter rivals.  With realistic teen characters, great dialog, and an ending the lets both main characters shine, it is a must read for 2011.

The Long of It:

Brooke is the queen bee of Douglas High; she loves music and is in choir even though it isn’t “cool.”  Kathryn is the social outcast, also in choir (a soprano), and she used to be Brooke’s best friend.  How did these two become enemies and rivals? It all goes back to junior year and what happened at an after Homecoming party.  Now Brooke makes Kathryn’s life hell.  And Kathryn, well, any chance to outperform Brooke - she’ll take it.  That’s one way to look at it.

            Soon, the two of them will compete in the prestigious Blackmore competition.  Both Kathryn and Brooke want to win, will their rivalry get the best of the, or will they find a way to mend their friendship?

Ms. Wealer does not hold punches, she starts in the middle of the story and within a couple of pages it’s clear who Brooke and Kathryn are personality wise and the lines are drawn, so to speak.  Kathryn, the outcast, and Brooke, Miss Queen Bee, both felt like real teenagers.  From the beginning, it was easy to see how just how much alike the two girls were despite their very opposite circumstances.  Despite, not being as much as a music nut as either character, I found them both to be very relatable.  In addition, the dialog, cliques, frenemies and rumor mill could be right out of an actual high school.  Told from both of their points of view as they prepare for the Blackmore and with flashbacks to junior year, the book chronicles exactly how Brooke and Kathryn became friends and how they ended up rivals.

The dual points of view worked well because you get to see both sides of the friendship and exactly what happened to end it.  Even though you, as the reader, know more than either Brooke or Kathryn, you don’t have the whole picture either, because Ms. Wealer keeps certain details hidden until late in the book.  It’s a pretty brilliant plan because you want to know the details, the hows and whys of Brooke and Kathryn’s rivalry - at least I did, but maybe I’m just nosy.  And when “the reason” was finally revealed, I wanted to shake both girls and then sit them down and make them tell each other exactly what they were thinking when everything changed.

Ms. Wealer also did a terrific job of showing just how Brooke and Kathryn’s friendship and rivalry affected them and those around them.  Nowhere is this more evident than with Brooke and Kathryn’s best friends: Chloe and Matt.  Matt is on the geeky side and it’s hinted at that Kathryn is his only friend, but he would do just about anything for her- he’s exactly the type of guy you want on your side.  Kathryn doesn’t really know just how good of a friend he is until she almost loses his friendship.  Chloe, on the other hand, is all about being part of the popular group; she’s the master manipulator who twists situations so that she always comes out on top. Brooke shoved her aside when Kathryn came on the scene and Chloe turned her jealousy into revenge of the highest order.  I wondered, a lot, why Brooke would be friends with someone like Chloe and could only come up with that Chloe wanted to be best friends with Brooke so much that Brooke gave in. 

I really enjoyed reading Rival.  The first section flew by quickly and by that point, I was invested in the story and the characters that I had to read to the end.  And the ending!  This ending just blew me away.   All throughout the story, the girls are training and preparing for the Blackmore and I just knew that it would play a big part at the end.  I was rooting for Kathryn and Brooke equally, knowing how badly they both wanted the victory.  The end result could have gone a lot of different ways, but Ms. Wealer found a way to let both Brooke and Kathryn shine.  Each of their separate story lines were tied up beautifully and the overarching line ended with just enough answers and few questions too - which is really all you can ask for in an ending.

Rival is a must read for 2011.

***This review is based on an ARC borrowed from Book It Forward ARC Tours***

Review - Firelight by Sophie Jordan

Firelight by Sophie Jordan
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date:  September 7, 2010
Source: ARC received from Book It Forward ARC Tours
Rating:  4 Bookcases

Roar! Dragons have arrived on the paranormal scene and if Firelight is any indication, they will definitely be sticking around.

Jacinda is a draki. a descendant of dragons who is able to shift into human form.  Even among her pride, she's special because she is the first fire breather born in over 400 years.  As a result, she's become important and the pride hopes she'll marry the alpha to be.  When Jacinda breaks the rules, her mom and twin sister help her flee the pride and the awful punishment they had planned.  Jacinda doesn't want to leave the pride and resists trying to be happy.  While her sister, Tamra who never manifested, blooms Jacinda's draki begins to wither...until she meets Will.  Will grew up in a family of draki hunters and is a hunter himself.  Jacinda knows she should stay away, but finds that she can't and soon she's risking everything to be with him.

I'm of two minds when it comes to Firelight.  On the one hand, I got swept into the story.  Ms. Jordan knows how to set a scene.  Her descriptions were wonderful, especially when Jacinda was in draki form.  And the romance was epic.  Again, Ms. Jordan has a way with romantic, steamy scenes.  Those scenes with Will and Jacinda were some of the best scenes in the book.  Also, most of the bad guys were really bad; there was this subtle menace to them, but at the same time Jacinda knew exactly what they were capable of.  The ending was the best kind of cliffhanger.  It answered just enough of my questions that I was satisfied, but it also had me asking a bunch more and wanting the sequel.

On the other hand, while the romantic scenes were wonderful to read, the romance itself felt rushed.  Jacinda and Will see each other across the hall at school and from that moment, Will is all Jacinda can think about. There are all these looks and Will tells Jacinda he's not a good guy and that she should stay away.  Tamra tells Jacinda to stay away from Will.  And then all of a sudden they're in love with each other.  I wanted more of the getting to know each other part.  Here's the thing about Will; he's gorgeous, rich, only hangs out with his cousins, never dates anyone.  Does that sound like any other male characters you might have read?  Yeah, Will reminds me of a few other gorgeous, hot, pretends to be a bad boy when he's really got a heart of gold romantic leads.  While this isn't a horrible thing, for me anyway, he blends in with the rest of them.  I'm hoping that in the next book, we'll learn something about Will that really makes him stand out. 

There is more to Firelight than just the romance. There is this whole family tension, let's get away from the pride because it would be better for us plot line that I really liked.  It's obvious that the pride want to rule Jacinda's life and really take away her choices. The pride scared me with their aggressive nature.  Dragons are not meek creatures, so obviously I didn't expect the draki to be pushovers.  But their willingness to punish Jacinda so severely for her rule breaking was shocking, especially since she was so important to them.  So, I completely agree with Jacinda's mom that they should leave the pride, I just didn't agree with her methods.  I felt that she went in the opposite extreme living in a place that was unhealthy for Jacinda. In a way I completely understood Jacinda's wanting to go back to the pride, because that was familiar.  But, I wanted her to see that her mom and sister were trying to help her. The relationship Jacinda has with Tamra is strained to say the least.  They are opposites in lots of ways, the most important being that Tamra never manifested and is wholly human.  For most of the story she comes off as very  bitter, but it's very one note and she seems one dimensional.  I want more of their relationship in the sequel.

Some other things I'm looking forward to in the sequel are getting answers to the questions left by the last chapter, more information about the draki especially their mythology and structure, and seeing how the two worlds (draki pride and human) might intersect.

By now you're probably wondering why I gave Firelight 4 bookcases.  The thing is that I was completely immersed in the story while I was reading.  I read it striaght through without even stopping to take notes.  It was easy to picture everything and see the action almost as though it was a movie I was watching.  I know that I'll read Firelight again, especially since it's the first book in a planned trilogy.  I've read all sorts of reviews for Firelight, both positive and negative, and my final vercict is that it's definitely one of those books (more than any other book I've read this year) that you have to read for yourself and decide how you feel about it. 

Summer Reads #1 - The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1) by Rick Riordan

Published by Miramax Books (Hyperion)
Publication Date: 2005 (Hardcover) 2006 (paperback)
Source: Borrowed from library

Summary from back cover:  Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school...again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus's master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.

Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus's stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.

The Lightning Thief is a fun, fast paced, action-packed book. Rick Riordan combines Greek myths with references to modern culture. Greek gods, a cross country adventure, a reluctant hero’s quest, a traitor and friends who stick by you no matter what can all be found in The Lightning Thief.

Percy Jackson is not your average 12 year-old. For one thing, he’s been kicked out of six schools in six years for behavioral problems. He has trouble making friends; however, he does have one good, but odd, friend named Grover. Percy also has dyslexia and ADHD. Despite all of this, Percy’s Latin teacher has faith that he will succeed and pushes him to do well.

Soon, Percy learns that his father, who his mother always said was lost at sea, is really a Greek god. Injured during a run in with a mythological creature, Percy finds his way to Camp Half-Blood, where he learns about the gods and meets Annabeth, one of Athena’s half-blood children. When Zeus’ master lightning bolt is stolen, Percy becomes suspect number one. To prove his innocence, he must go on a quest for the lightning bolt. Percy is a reluctant hero at best, but he sets off with Annabeth and Grover on a cross country search for the lightning bolt.

I originally read the Percy Jackson books for a children’s literature class I took last year. The Lightning Thief was a required book and once I finished with it, I read the rest very quickly. I can see why the series is very popular and appeal to wide age range. The characters are very realistic and three dimensional. Percy is easy to relate to. I think it’s great that the main characters have learning disabilities, but still end up heroes. The action sequences were a lot of fun to read and made the story move very quickly. Percy is the narrator and the way the book is formatted, it is like he’s telling you about his crazy adventure.

I wholeheartedly recommend The Lightning Thief to kids of all ages, especially those who enjoy adventures and lots of action!

Looking for more information about Rick Riordan or the Percy Jackson series? Pay a visit to:

Rick Riordan's website
The Percy Jackson website