Review: Sekret by Lindsay Smith

Sekret (Sekret #1)
By: Lindsay Smith
Published: April 1, 2014
Roaring Book Press / Macmillan Children's
Hardcover, 341 pages

An empty mind is a safe mind. Yulia knows she must hide her thoughts and control her emotions to survive in Communist Russia. But if she sometimes manipulates the black market traders by reading their thoughts when she touches their skin, so what? Anything to help her survive.


Russia's powerful spy agency, the KGB, is recruiting young people with mind-reading capabilities for their psychic espionage program. Their mission: protect the Soviet space program from American CIA spies. Why shouldn't the KGB use any means necessary to make the young psychic cooperate? Anything to beat the American capitalist scum to the moon. Yulia is a survivor. She won't be controlled by the KGB, who want to harness her abilities for the State with no regard for her own hopes and dreams. She won't let handsome Sergei plan her life as a member of elite Soviet society, or allow brooding Valentin to consume her with his dangerous mind and even more dangerous ideas. And she certainly won't become the next victim of the powerful American spy who can scrub a brain raw—and seems to be targeting Yulia. --GoodReads

 3.5 Stars

Review

Plot: Yulia Andreevna Chernina is not your average Russian girl; she can read the minds of those around her, and even pick up past memories with just a touch. Having lived luxuriously for most of her childhood, Yulia has now been in hiding with her mother and brother for several years. Set in 1963 Communist Russia, Yulia is recruited by the KGB and forced to participate in their espionage psychic program. If she doesn't cooperate, they threaten to harm her mother and young autistic brother. There, she meets several other teens who share similar psychic abilities but all specialize in something different. Together, they must work to fulfill their mission to protect the Soviet space program from the Americans. Yulia chooses not to succumb to the corrupt government's ways -- she works to find a way to escape her psychic prison and save her family.

When reading this book, I admit that I didn't really keep track of events as much as I should have. There's so many tiny events that go on, it just gets a little overwhelming. It's like - "Who's doing what now?", "Who is that?", "What does this have to do with the plot!?" and "I'm so confused..." [This happened to me several times. I had to flip back and reread some stuff] Basically, all that really matters is the relationships between characters...

It's been maybe a week since I finished reading it, and to be honest, I can't really remember much of what happened. I just know that there were a helluva lotta characters and events.... all I remember was that she had to work as a psychic spy to order set her family free and along the way she meets these 2 guys, Sergei and Valentin, both vying for her attention...

Characters:

Yulia: Yulia quickly hardens in the few years she's lived as a street rat. She learns to not trust anyone and to use everything she's got to her advantage -- even her mysterious psychic powers.  She's got her head on straight as well as her top priorities - first her safety, and then her family's. Yulia is no fluffy princess; she is quite the opposite (even if she gets swept up in a complicated love triangle...but let's face it: what YA heroine hasn't?). Even when presented the luxurious life she had once lived, Yulia yearns for something more -- freedom from the oppressed life she's been leading. 

I really admired Yulia's strength, intelligence, and persistence to seek freedom. Despite all the horrible things she experiences, she always clings to the hope of a better life. 

Sergei: Bad boy hockey player Sergei accepts his life as a KGB spy. He'll do anything to stay on the ice, even if that means turning against his friends. After all, who needs friends when you've got a rich life? It's much better to know work towards a goal than to live day by day. He doesn't understand why Yulia doesn't love her newly enriched life at the psychic school. 

Valentin: At first a seemingly distant musician with very dangerous powers, Yulia has a hard time opening up to Valentin. With time, she comes to understand his true self, and not just by his abilities as a psychic.

Overall: The whole idea of a psychic program within the government itself is just really cool. Yulia is a strong female lead -- that's also cool! A complicated love triangle is ehhh, but understandable -- it's one of the requirements of a YA novel, I suppose. However, the delivery and just number of events and people and places these spy kids needed to accomplish/meet/be at were just very overwhelming and rather... forgettable? I'm not saying this book wasn't an enjoyable read - it certainly was - but was it really worth remembering for the long run? Probably not.

BTW - a pretty generic background knowledge of the relationship between Russia and the USA after WW2 would be really helpful.

Happy Reading, folks!

Let's end with an awesome song that has no relation to the review I have just written. He talks a bit in the beginning, so I suggest scrubbing the video and skipping to about 40 seconds in.

Skip to 0:40

Review: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

Cruel Beauty
Rosamund Hodge
Published: January 28, 2014
Balzer +  Bray
Hardcover, 342 pages

Graceling meets Beauty and the Beast in this sweeping fantasy about one girl's journey to fulfill her destiny and the monster who gets in her way-by stealing her heart.Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny. Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him. With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle-a shifting maze of magical rooms-enthralls her.As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love. --GoodReads

3 Stars

Review:

OK, so I read this about a month ago, and I've been meaning to get to a review of this... jeez, it has been a while, hasn't it? So therefore, my review isn't going to be so much of a review, but rather some kind of rant thing.... I'm just going off the bits and pieces I remember, so bear with me, folks. 

Summary Rosie-style- From what I remember, a father makes a deal with a demon prince, and it all goes horribly wrong. With demons, you gotta remember to choose your words very carefully. At the time, his wife, pregnant, was very sick, and he wished that his twin girls would come out healthy and happy. However, he forgot to wish for his wife's health, and she ends up dying. There's a catch, though. The father sealed away the fate for one of his daughters, Nyx, who is fated to marry this demon prince, Ignifex. She's super bitter about this and tries not to hate her twin sister, who got the better part of the bargain. Her sister, on the other hand, receives all the love and attention from daddy, while Nix receives the "heroic" speech stuff. She gets the "Oh it's your duty to kill the demon prince and blah blah" and is reminded everyday of her terrible fate.

So she goes and marries the demon prince, right? Except he's not exactly what she expects. No matter how many times she [pathetically] tries to kill him, she never succeeds, and every time he brushes her off like a bug. He's very compliant and has quite a humorous approach to his situation. Apparently, being a supreme ruler with awesome powers becomes very boring, so much to the point of marrying a woman who YOU KNOW wants to kill you. The demon prince, master of all deals, makes Nyx a bargain. If she can guess his true identity, she will be set free, no questions asked. BUT, if she guesses wrong, he will turn her into stone, and she will forever reside in his haunted castle unable to do anything but be aware of her surroundings. So as a living result of a bargain gone wrong, she opts for the other route and explores his castle for ways to kill him and escape. 

So the whole book is about her relationship with her sister (Nyx struggles especially with her feelings about her sister. Her feelings of love and hatred battle throughout the book) , her father (who she yearns to receive approval from), her aunt (who shacks up with Nyx's father), and Ignifex (to whom she can't resist her carnal attraction!!! ooOOOoo ♥♥♥) Oh, and did I mention his Shadow? She falls in love with his Shadow, a mirror image of Ignifiex, a seemingly more human side of him, but possibly another trapped man?

Characters: Alright, now that the summary stuff is done, lemme tell you MY impressions of the characters. 

Nyx- So she lives there for a coupla years and cannot do jack****. She stinks as an assassin, and for a majority of the book (she narrates it, she's the POV) she just complains about her situation and ponders what she can do to possibly escape it. She worries over things she can't control, and she hates herself for being attracted to Ignifex. Also, she is so indecisive!!! Her feelings about her family change from chapter to chapter - I swear - and her love from Shadow to Ignifex changes every time one of them kisses her. Or maybe from page to page. At least it feels like that...you try to root for her, but she changes her mind way too much.

Ignifex- Ok, so he's super badass, and pretty funny when needs to be. He puts up with a failure of an assassin wife. He's a thumbs-up in my book.

Shadow- Um, is it just me, or is cheating on your demon husband with his shadow kinda WRONG??

Father- 5 Star jerk. Has sex with his dead wife's sister. Feels no remorse for what he's done, inadvertently killing his sick pregnant wife while selling the soul of his oldest daughter to the demon lord, all the while telling her its her duty to save the city, AND giving all his affection to his other clueless daughter. 

Astraia- Nyx's twin sister who gets the better part of the deal. Nyx says some pretty crappy things to her before going off to marry the prince...It's not really Astraia's fault - in fact, it's her father's fault for it all happening, yet Nyx despises her sister for a good part of the novel. But then loves her sister. But then hates her. She actually is pretty badass though...

Plot- Sooo, the city they all live in is taken over by some sort of dark force/demons, and is plucked away from the normal world. Um. The demon prince controls the demons, which everybody fears because once you see a demon, you're pretty much down for the count, aka DEAD. They live in a world where it's similar to Earth, but no really. They have a fake sun and such... it's like they're all living inside the pages of a book. Or at least that's how I imagined it. It really gets quite confusing how everything is explained.

The author tries to make a mish-mash between Beauty and the Beast and Greek Mythology, but it's just kind of a warble between the two. I can see how some aspects of Beauty and the Beast play into it - the living house - and how Greek Mythology plays into it, since Nyx's family worships Greek Gods... but that's pretty much it. Hodge kind of just goes on her own path and creates a story that hits you from out of nowhere. This book will not be what you will expect....but in a semi-good way I guess?

BTW - the pace is kind of slow, but it really doesn't feel that way. Unless you hate reading about indecisive POVs - now that could go really slowly. Not to spoil it, but it does end kind of weirdly. It takes a turn that you really don't expect... deus ex machina?

Overall- OK..... uh. If you like mish-mashing of stories you already know and don't mind indecisive MCs, then this is the book for you! One thing I really liked was the emotional progression of the relationship between Ignifex and Nyx. It wasn't supahfast like some YA novels, but was instead very realistic. The way the background info explained was a little shakey and a bit confusing. SO DON'T SKIM.

Happy Reading, folks!

Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Published: Nov. 11, 2011 by Harper

Hardcover, 338 pages

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior. --GoodReads

Review

Shatter Me is a dramatic, beautifully written story of a girl who is given the chance to hope, smile, and laugh once more. It's emotional, heartening, and many times, very DEPRESSING. And a bit very really uber repetitive. To those of you who have read the book, you will understand my stylistic joke.

Okay, so I know a lot of people out in the YA novel world think that this novel was "ahbsolutelygoodohmygawditwassodramaticandallthat." I can't say that it was perfection, but I would like to point out a few things. For those new and have yet to read it, I would suggest "Go for it!," but I shall warn you. It is quite, no, VERY d r a m a t i c. With an extra "-uh-"

That's my representation of the story in about three pictures. Oh, I kid, I kid. But really.

Soooo, for the new people around town that just skipped to the review. The story's about a girl, Juliette, who's lived a life without love - even from her parents! Yippee, that sounds like just a SWELL childhood. She's completely good, and takes crap from people around her just because of one thing. When she touches people, she kills them. Sorta like Rogue from X-Men. Except that she's blond, 5'3, can't fly, and just kills them (you know, instead of making them pass out.)

But, oh, hey! They both end up wearing dorky jumpsuits!! Oh, and every man she encounters, which is a lot,  by the way, thinks she's "stunning, gorgeous, beautiful." Yeeeeet, she can't see for herself that she's attractive. I don't understand YA heroines. JUST LOOK IN THE MIRROR. If you're gorgeous, you KNOW you're gorgeous. Don't beat around the bush. Just admit it. No body likes an indecisive girl.

But anyway. Juliette is really an unstable (sort of annoying) girl. It's narrated in her POV, so we get to hear her innermost thoughts! My joke from before was that Tahereh's writing style was to depict the story such a way that looks like the notebook she writes in all the time. There are fragments that make no sense, yet still work with the story. Those things are fine.

My only real pet-peeve is that she crosses out thoughts she thinks she shouldn't be thinking ALL THE TIME!!!!! It happens at least 4-5 times per chapter.  It's really annoying. No it's super annoying. Terribly horrible. And then you can barely read the letters because the darn line is right in front of eeverything so how are you really supposed to tell an "E" from a "C" in lowercase????

One more thing. This book is really emotional and deep so if you flip to a random page in the middle and start reading aloud to your friends, you'll probably burst out laughing because you won't know what's going on. I feel like you have to have understood the plot line and be really into it in order to feel the emotions that Juliette is trying to convey. Otherwise, it's just silly.

NOT TO MENTION, Adam (the love interest) and Juliette enjoy each other's presence. A LOT. Probably way too much. Every other chapter they're going at it like rabbits.

Frankly, I'm surprised it's still a YA novel.  Shut yer eyes, you little kids that shouldn't be reading YA lit!!

However, I cannot deny this book's addictive quality. Although the drama may be a little over the top, I can't ignore the fact that I couldn't put it down! Setting the cliché factor aside and an author who may have went a little too happy with the "strike-through" option, this book was over all pretty good. I would suggest this to anyone willing to give an emotional/feels book a try and/or loves Rogue from X-Men.

Order Shatter Me at: Amazon/ Barnes&Noble/ The Book Depository

YAN Banner Tribute!

Just wanted to show you guys the latest banner I've designed! Here it is:

Images used to create this badge were found on Google Images and were labeled "free." This banner was created by YA Novelties, and it is our property. Please do not use this image for your own purpose without our permission. Thanks!

Soooo, instead of writing a suuuuper long review like I usually do, I decided to show you guys our new banner! I'll be replacing our old green "tea banner" as I like to call it, with our new and improved bamboo version! As you can see, our website theme is bamboo. As loyal panda lovers, we find it is our duty to respect the creature and its food source by stamping them on our site like there's no tomorrow! I think I'll replace the old banner in the sidebar with the new one sometime soon.

Now, as a tribute to the old banner before it gets taken down as well as other replaced models:

Super old one. First one I created, actually. It wasn't so great...

This was after I discovered transparent backgrounds! It's still quite full of colors, busy, and, in general, quite horrible.

I think this one's a keeper. Try not to YAWN at our YAN. Ha ha. I know, it's quite boring, but it does its job.

Hey, our old one! Good bye, old banner. Goodness, my centering is waaay off and the colors don't work together at all....

Hopefully any new banners will be even greater and more attractive! Bear with me folks as I teach myself Photoshop. Well, I hope this applies to our website design as well as our banners as stuff. Actually, I was thinking of redesigning our name banners to something simpler, and more uniform. I feel like the current ones are really busy.

If you're interested in seeing the name banners:

 

BTW- I ordered them by date of creation, oldest to newest.

They will forever reside in my heart, for they took me about 3-4 months to complete. ( I kept on getting distracted with other things.) My favorite has to be Angie's. I'm jealous of her panda. I love my tiger, though. Hers [Angie's] was the original design I based everyone else's off of. The new design I was thinking of creating was to have the name of the person resting on top of a piece of bamboo, like it was carved into it. It's going to be interesting!

See you guys next time & hopefully by then I'll have finished some reviews,
PS: HAPPY READING!

Rosie

Review: Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins

Sweet Evil (The Sweet Trilogy #1) 

By Wendy Higgins

Published: May 1, 2012

Publisher: HarperTeen

Paperback, 453 Pages

Embrace the Forbidden

What if there were teens whose lives literally depended on being bad influences?

This is the reality for sons and daughters of fallen angels.

Tenderhearted Southern girl Anna Whitt was born with the sixth sense to see and feel emotions of other people. She's aware of a struggle within herself, an inexplicable pull toward danger, but Anna, the ultimate good girl, has always had the advantage of her angel side to balance the darkness within. It isn't until she turns sixteen and meets the alluring Kaidan Rowe that she discovers her terrifying heritage and her willpower is put to the test. He's the boy your daddy warned you about. If only someone had warned Anna.

Forced to face her destiny, will Anna embrace her halo or her horns? --GoodReads

4 stars

Review

Hrm. This one is gonna be tough to review. It's great, but it's also not great. Bnaiovmaklfjopekmbko!!!! I am so not in a writing mood today. This is quite difficult for me to put into words, but here goes nothing.

Let's start with the cover and summary.

Cover: so cheesy, I can taste it. Seriously. Girls in long flowy dresses have become so overrated these past few years. Come on, especially with a creepy guy in the background!

Summary: equal cheesiness level. It tells us close to nothing and is so repelling. It's hilarious to watch my friends read it and ask me why I even bothered to read it. However, it's still really worth reading.

In this story, Satan is in charge of a committee of 7 Dukes, each representing one of the 7 sins. These dukes are "fallen angels" = demons. As Dukes, it is their job to influence humans to make bad decisions. Although they cannot directly make a person choose something, the Dukes can whisper into their ears. These Dukes can produce offspring by possessing human females, who usually die after/during labor from the strain of giving birth to a nonhuman soul. These half demon children are called Nephilim; it is their duty to continue their father's legacies by continuing the spread of the Duke's influence. If they don't follow their orders, they are killed (and unfortunately, they always end up in hell). Anna, the main female POV is born from a guardian angel mother and demonic father. Anna's father is the Duke of Substances (drug dealer) while Kaidan's father is Duke of Lust/Pleasure. Anna, as the female heroine, naturally falls in love with the kid that oozes pheromones and danger.

Not many others are too enthusiastic about the the two main characters - Kai[den], and Anna. It's really funny how stereotypical these two are. Anna is a goodie-two shoes girl who can't possibly do anything wrong in her life like, ever. She's a devout daughter of God, she gets good grades, she never lies and she always follows the rules. She's SO not the person you'd expect to fall in love with bad-boy.

An Ode to the British Guy Named Kaiden Who Also Happens To Be the Main Love Interest

Kai is a guy

Oh Me OH MY.

He's really quite English

Oh my gawd, he's delish

He's on the top rung!

With his proper tongue

He woos the gals

And loses his pals

He's outgoing - not shy!

He'd be a really nice guy-

But - (with that butt...)

He's just a man-slut

That's right. A half-demon boy that sleeps with other women on a daily basis to relieve his "needs." Yup, you heard me right. His needs. As a man. Er- Demon...thing. Ya know.

I really don't understand what's so attractive about a guy who JUST HAS THIS BURNING PASSION AND NEED to sleep with other women every night. Oh, Anna, where did yo' common sense go?

Tone: Was very dramatic. Uber dramatic. Like, kind of hilariously dramatic. But because this story is so captivating, it's really unnoticeable until you take a step back and really look at it.

I do have a confession to make. I love it when the main characters have super powers. I loved the fact that all Nephilim, induding Anna and Kaidan, had super senses and special abilities, which vary depending on their father's "sin." A big check in my book when it comes to the fact that Anna and Kaidan never get sick and are able to withstand high levels of alcohol, not to mention other harmful physical attacks. Nothing is worse than a super heroine defeated by a glass of alcohol.

Then again, Anna and Kaidan DO make some stupid questionable decisions here and there....but you'll have to read the book to find out. *wink wink*

Style: I really like Wendy Higgins' writing style, and it's so easy to get lost in the story [ good "lost" ] - no matter how unrealistic or fake the characters are. It's so natural and so easy to relate to. Sweet Evil is narrated, first person, by Anna. I love reading first person POVs because I like reading how the character feels and thinks at a certain moment in the story. It allows me to connect with the character on a deeper level than with an omniscient narrator. (Which is why Harry Potter should have been written in first POV!!!!) I kept flipping and flipping the pages, until, whoa! Am I finished already?! If only physical exercise time went that fast, amirite?

I did not, however, enjoy this book's conclusion. It was a job left unfinished. Obviously, not as much time was taken in the end of the story compared to the wonderful beginning of the story. It's really quite a shame, because Higgins was really going somewhere. She probably ended it so quickly in order to scrape up as many readers as she could to read the rest of the trilogy. There are more elegant ways you can end the first book of your trilogy! Find a conclusion that slyly leads readers in for more.

I'm really wondering how she will write the second book because I don't see where this book is leading. It got especially confusing in the last 100 pages or so when Higgins introduced 4 other characters. Clearly made to separate the two love interests, these poor characters just muddle the pile of who'sitsandwhatitsgalore even further. Love triangles that are comprised completely of Nephilim (the worst kind of relationships according to Dukes) are S-C-R-E-W-E-D with a capital SCREWED. There's no real plot line other than the fact that Anna has to survive being half angel and *gasp* half demon. Anna basically has to look like a bad girl in order to not get in trouble with the other demons. I found it equally ironic that Demons praise the mischievous, but punish the angelic.

Goodness I'm tired. Okay, time to wrap this up. Overall: it's okay. I would recommend it because I like the idea of angels and demons and Nephilim in the world that Higgins creates and I love it when female POVs have superpowers. Read it if you like fluffy LONG pleasure reads, but don't read it if you're looking for something really *cough* intellectual....or quick. The second and third books don't come out for quite a while.  So don't read it if you are impatient. Hrm. Well, that's a wrap.

Happy reading everyone!

Purchase Sweet Evil here: Amazon/ B&N/ TBD

Review: Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

Scarlet

By A.C. Gaughen

Released: February 14, 2012

Publisher: Walker Childrens

Hardcover, 292 pages

Many readers know the tale of Robin Hood, but they will be swept away by this new version full of action, secrets, and romance. 

Posing as one of Robin Hood’s thieves to avoid the wrath of the evil Thief Taker Lord Gisbourne, Scarlet has kept her identity secret from all of Nottinghamshire. Only the Hood and his band know the truth: the agile thief posing as a whip of a boy is actually a fearless young woman with a secret past. Helping the people of Nottingham outwit the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham could cost Scarlet her life as Gisbourne closes in.

It’s only her fierce loyalty to Robin—whose quick smiles and sharp temper have the rare power to unsettle her—that keeps Scarlet going and makes this fight worth dying for.  --GoodReads

Three Stars!

Review

Ah, yes. Yet another fairy tale retelling of an old, OLD classic. Passed down from one generation to the next by word of mouth, no one really knows the original, but rather the "renditions" of previous stories. A whisper down the lane game, if you will. Robin Hood is the story of a fearless, as-honest-as-you-can-get thief, that steals from the pompous rich and gives without fail to the poor. Based upon a well known story known throughout the world, A.C. Gaughen pulls off a gender-blending story centered on the Hood's female partner-in-crime. 

Now, truth to be told, when someone mentions the name,"Robin Hood" to me out of the blue, I would never ever suspect a girl. 

I think this counts as a traditional Robin. Doncha think?

Sorry. Doesn't come to mind...

However, this is (almost) exactly what Gaughen thought of. At first, I was really excited. I mean, a girl creaming a guy in the art of thievery? Heck yeah! Count me in! Scarlet even specifies at one point that she has to teach all of the guys in her troop how to thieve properly (err, if there's actually a way to break the laws properly...)

YEAH! Love the fist.

Scarlet, the main protagonist, narrates the story in such a great way. She's crude, rude, and fits in with all the other guys in her "band" of lads. This band is made up of her, Robin Hood, Little John, and Much. Not to mention that she's one bad-ass with the knives. But, somehow, even with her foul mouth, she attracts the attention of two worthy-to-be-mentioned guys, the Hood and John. This is why I have a love/hate YA novels. No matter how insecure, rude, crude, sassy, silly, or introverted the main gal POV is, there's always 2 guys that fall head over heels in love. While I love the fact that the 2 coolest guys in the story fall in love with Scarlet, I also loathe the fact that it's so unrealistic and sometimes a bit cheesy. 

Anyway.... back to the main point. I mean, I love Scarlet's potty mouth, but she's so over emotional about her past. I don't know. It's the one chink in her armor. Oh, yeah, and expressing her feelings without blowing up as red as a tomato. 

Like a tomato. Seriously.

But well... I suppose that's what makes her  a believable character. If you don't mind reading about some head strong girl fighting a guy 30 times stronger than her but is as shy as a lily when it comes to talking about love...well, have fun! Cause I didn't. Not really. 

Another thing: this has to do with Robin and John. Remember how I said that both boys are seriously infatuated with this poor girl? Well, Scarlet leaves them hanging for quite a some time and as you know, boys  with raging lusty hormones fighting over a girl that "just doesn't know who to pick because she loooooooves them both" doesn't end very well. Scarlet's indecisiveness really irked me. You can't have both Scarlet! You may have a six-pack (well, probably. She goes so long without eating and works out as a career, why not throw in a couple of abs. She more than deserves it.)

Just image this on Scarlet. I dare you to.

Oh. Don't get me started on her eating habits! They were really bad, even for an anorexic girl. Scarlet calmly states throughout the book that she's not eaten for weeks and days on end. Not to mention the fact that she's the type of person that fills others' stomachs before one's own. John and Robin nag her constantly to eat (I don't blame them. Curves are way better than bones for a teenage boy...*cough*) and Scarlet takes it as an offense. She says she can barely choke down two bites, and hates to accept charity when THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT SHE'S DOING TO FEED THE VILLAGERS. I BET THEY DON'T LIKE IT TOO BUT THEY ACCEPT IT ANYWAY BECAUSE WHO DOESN'T LIKE FREE STUFF THEY'RE STARVING. So in reality, I believe that Scarlet ends up looking something like this:

Bbnieoanfidasj!!!!! TOO SKINNY!

Sooooo, back on to the overall analysis. 

Plot: It was interesting at first but doesn't give you the feeling of "I CANNOT PUT THIS DOWN UNTIL I FINISH IT" sort of reads. It was a bit flimsy and it mainly focused on Scarlet's, John's, Robin's interactions and daily routines.

Style: Robin Hood does take place in England, so some of the slang is a bit hard to understand at first, but you get used to it. It's rough and some  a LOT of the grammar is incorrect (so if you're a perfectionist or have OCD, this may be a problem for you.) Here. Let me give you a few sentences as examples.

 "[The bar] were heaving with bodies, laughs, and mugs slinging 'bout," (Gaughen 1).

"He were the youngest of us, too, bare sixteen, which didn't help none but Rob knew what Much were capable of in true." (Gaughen 2)

There's a lot of lads', lasses', and were's. The were's were the worst. They drove me insane...

Overall, if you're looking for a medium-quick read (depending how fast you read), a fairy tale retelling, cheesy love triangle and foreign slang doesn't bog you down while reading, go check out Scarlet. All I can say is that it's not half bad. (Although I am a bit disappointed with the lack of a sturdy, interesting, edge of the seat story. I loved the book because of the concept of a female side kick to the famous Robin Hood). Just don't get your hopes up too high for this one.

Happy Reading Everyone!

Order online at: Amazon/ Barnes&Noble/ The Book Depository

Review: Shelter by Harlan Coben

Shelter (Mickey Bolitar #1) 

By Harlan Coben

Published: September 6th 2011

Publisher: Putnam Juvenile

Hardcover, 304 pages

Mickey Bolitar's year can't get much worse. After witnessing his father's death and sending his mom to rehab, he's forced to live with his estranged uncle Myron and switch high schools.

A new school comes with new friends and new enemies, and lucky for Mickey, it also comes with a great new girlfriend, Ashley. For a while, it seems like Mickey's train-wreck of a life is finally improving - until Ashley vanishes without a trace. Unwilling to let another person walk out of his life, Mickey follows Ashley's trail into a seedy underworld that reveals that this seemingly sweet, shy girl isn't who she claimed to be. And neither was Mickey's father. Soon, Mickey learns about a conspiracy so shocking that it makes high school drama seem like a luxury - and leaves him questioning everything about the life he thought he knew.

First introduced to readers in Harlan Coben's latest adult novel, Live Wire, Mickey Bolitar is as quick-witted and clever as his uncle Myron, and eager to go to any length to save the people he cares about. With this new series, Coben introduces an entirely new generation of fans to the masterful plotting and wry humor that have made him an award-winning, internationally bestselling, and beloved author.

3.5 Stars

REVIEW

As you may have, or may not have known, I am generally not one to (want to) sit down with a contemporary YA novel. I have this reading mentality that if I'm gonna read a book, I'm gonna go all out. Why read a book about real life when I can just live my own and be done with it? That's mainly why I enjoy reading some fantastical crazy story that I won't get anywhere else. So why did I pick up Shelter? The world may never know. (Actually, Jenny practically shoved this book into my hands and said, "Read it," and read it I have.)

One of my new years' resolutions (that I have just pulled out of thin air) is to definitely broaden my reading horizons. Although I did read this before 2013, I still think it's quite important to do so. After reading Shelter, I am neither satisfied nor disappointed. I had (little to practically) no expectations to begin with, so to come out feeling "Meh," is not so bad I should think.

Being a new reader of Harlan Coben, I had no idea who this Mickey character was. Reading the summary now from GoodReads, I see that he was earlier introduced in Coben's earlier series. Some backstory might have been a teeny weeny bit helpful, but I was alright. Moving on.

Reading the story through the eyes of a teenage male full of angst, love, frustration about drug-addict mother and dead father really was quite a different experience for me.

First: Me, being a girl (you know, having that second X chromosome)

Second: I am not full of angst

Third: I have no relatives that are drug addicts (that I know of)

Four: I am not a loner

Five: I do not walk into strange houses on an impulse that are under the care of an old mysterious woman named the "Bat Lady"

Six: I am not (that) full of raging hormonal imbalances.
Seven: I am not six foot four
Eight: I am not obsessed with Rachel Caldwell's boobs/face/hair/smell/smile.

All of these factors contributed to my ill at ease feeling with the style of writing.

Oh, I don't know what to say. Everything worked out the way it was supposed to, nothing really resolved that much in the end that you wouldn't want to read the sequel, blah blah blah. It was all very boring, boring, boring. I do not like contemporaries!!
................................

Bah humbug. I have nothing more to say.

Happy Reading?

Order or purchase Sheltered here: Amazon/ B&N/ The Book Depository

Review: Insignia by S.J. Kincaid

Insignia by S.J. Kincaid
Published: July 10, 2012 by Katherine Tegen Books
Hardcover, 444 pages

More than anything, Tom Raines wants to be important, though his shadowy life is anything but that. For years, Tom's drifted from casino to casino with his unlucky gambler of a dad, gaming for their survival. Keeping a roof over their heads depends on a careful combination of skill, luck, con artistry, and staying invisible.

Then one day, Tom stops being invisible. Someone's been watching his virtual-reality prowess, and he's offered the incredible--a place at the Pentagonal Spire, an elite military academy. There, Tom's instincts for combat will be put to the test and if he passes, he'll become a member of the Intrasolar Forces, helping to lead his country to victory in World War III. Finally, he'll be someone important: a superhuman war machine with the tech skills that every virtual-reality warrior dreams of. Life at the Spire holds everything that Tom's always wanted--friends, the possibility of a girlfriend, and a life where his every action matters--but what will it cost him?

Gripping and provocative, S. J. Kincaid's futuristic thrill ride of a debut crackles with memorable characters, tremendous wit, and a vision of the future that asks startling, timely questions about the melding of humanity and technology. --GoodReads

4 and a Half Stars

Review

Insignia truly brought out my inner geek. A mish-mash of sci-fi, fantasy, dystopian, and government, Insignia  may seem quite daunting: 444 pages is definitely NOT something you want to joke about. But since it was so fun to read, it went by in a flash. The only thing that reminded me of its sheer size was the fact that I had to lug it around everywhere I went because I couldn't put it down!

Now, if you look around at all the other Gals here at YAN, you'll find that only a few of us are patient enough to endure books this long with a plot focused on a male POV, let alone one set in a futuristic, yet somewhat plausible society.  I really enjoy these types of novels because they're so utterly unique that they create their own genre; these days, there's a better chance that you'll end up picking up a vampire/werewolf/faerie/dragon/dystopian-hullabaloo story that's been retold a bajillion times over. When I first picked up Insignia, I have to admit, there were a few shreds of doubt. Once I got in about 40-50 pages, I was entranced! I absolutely HAD TO finish this story- it was that good. 

Hypnotized......

Plot/Story/Style: So special, and very creative. As you advance through the story, you watch Tom, the main character, worm and weasel his way out of tough situations, always lightening the worst scenarios with his self-depreciating humor. Tom is no ordinary high school kid: he's a gamer, an online gaming god. Tom is recruited by the government to train as a teenage war combatant - with a computer chip in his head! I really enjoyed this plot because it follows this "loser" of a kid as he blossoms and transforms into his someone he never dreamed he could become. As a techno-geek, I loved reading about different tidbits and ideas about "futuristic" technology. It was a no-brainer that I'd fall in love with this story immediately.

Although Insignia does explain a few of the main problems, the way it started definitely could've improved. I felt like it left enough "la-la" fuzzy time in the beginning for some readers to want to drop out. If you do choose to read this book, I warn you to not be disappointed/frustrated with the ending! It's SUPPOSED to be a cliff-hanger! That's what they do. They lead you on and make you want/itch/NEED to read the sequel. So, yes, there will be a sequel. Other than that, I really enjoyed the plot, story, and style.

Characters: I can't say that these players of the plot aren't a bit cliche, but Kincaid manages to work out the knots and details and adds pizzazz so much so that you barely even notice the slight predictability of the characters.  Insignia, through all its crazy concepts and ideas, manages to create realistic friendships and relationships between different characters. As their back-stories unravel you begin to see why they tick the way they do. Just putting this out here now: if you're looking for some cheesy never-gonna-happen, lip-smacking, on-the-edge-of-the-seat-love-pentagon romances, please do not read this book. Need I remind you that the main character of interest is only 14. Yes, only 14.

My favorite character would probably be Tom. I enjoyed his transformation, and his boyish sense of humor! I've read waaaaaay too many YA books on girls, that this one really conked me on the head with its boyishness. Tom is not hot, he is not swoony, he is not sexy. He is a real boy. You know, that annoying guy that teases the girl he likes, the one that needs to prove everyone wrong, the one that makes a fool of himself, the one you can't help but smack your head against the wall 20 bajillion times every time he opens his mouth?   You know: it's that guy. 

Movie Possibility- ??? This book really has the potential to become a pretty decent movie. I'd probably go see it, if it means anything to you.

Overall, Insignia was a wonderful read, full of laughs, reminders of why you hated boys in elementary school, and technology. Kincaid really is a writing genius; kudos to you Kincaid! To anyone out there, I recommend this technology infested story, whether you may love or hate electronics. It's a guarantee that you'll get "plugged" into the story right away.

Order Insignia at: Amazon/ Barnes&Noble/ Book Depository