Review: Graveminder by Melissa Marr

Title: Graveminder
Author: Melissa Marr
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 52/336
Genre: Paranormal
Publication Date: May 17th, 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins
Rating: No Grade

Summary:
From Goodreads: Melissa Mar is known to young adult readers as the author of the popular faery series Wicked Lovely. Her debut leap into adult fiction lands her in the small community of Claysville, a town where the dead walk free unless there their graves are not properly tended. Into this eerie maelstrom, Rebekkah Barrow descends as she returns to a place that she once believed she knew. Kelley Armstrong justly described Graveminder as "a deliciously creepy tale that is as skillfully wrought as it is spellbindingly imagined." A new genre author to watch.

Why did I read this book? This was chosen for Calico Reaction's October Challenge! Also, I've read Marr's Wicked Lovely series and enjoyed most of those books and wanted to read something else from her.

Source: Library

Rating: No Grade
As you can see by the rating, I didn't finish this book. I didn't get very far but I strongly felt that I wasn't connecting to the characters, setting or circumstances at all. Rebekkah loses her grandmother in the first pages, and I didn't really feel the emotional impact this had on her. We didn't have enough time to really know the characters before their lives are turned upside-down, which causes there to be a lot of telling about past events and relationships. It just wasn't working for me. You can tell from the beginning that romance is going to play a major role in the plot and I just wasn't interested in that either.

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Review: The Faerie Ring by Kiki Hamilton

Title: The Faerie Ring
Author: Kiki Hamilton
Series: The Faerie Ring #1
Format: ARC
Pages: 176/352
Genre: Young Adult, Historical, Fantasy
Publication Date: September 27th, 2011
Publisher: Tor
Rating: No Grade

Summary:
From Goodreads: Debut novelist Kiki Hamilton takes readers from the gritty slums and glittering ballrooms of Victorian London to the beguiling but menacing Otherworld of the Fey in this spellbinding tale of romance, suspense, and danger.

The year is 1871, and Tiki has been making a home for herself and her family of orphans in a deserted hideaway adjoining Charing Cross Station in central London. Their only means of survival is by picking pockets. One December night, Tiki steals a ring, and sets off a chain of events that could lead to all-out war with the Fey. For the ring belongs to Queen Victoria, and it binds the rulers of England and the realm of Faerie to peace. With the ring missing, a rebel group of faeries hopes to break the treaty with dark magic and blood—Tiki’s blood.

Unbeknownst to Tiki, she is being watched—and protected—by Rieker, a fellow thief who suspects she is involved in the disappearance of the ring. Rieker has secrets of his own, and Tiki is not all that she appears to be. Her very existence haunts Prince Leopold, the Queen’s son, who is driven to know more about the mysterious mark that encircles her wrist.

Prince, pauper, and thief—all must work together to secure the treaty…

Why did I read this book? Although I think fey-themed books are a dime a dozen these days, I was interested because it was set in Victorian London and I love historical settings!

Source: ARC from BEA

My Review
As you can see, I didn't have much luck with this book despite it being on my most anticipated reads from BEA this year. I really wanted to be absorbed into Victorian London and experience through the eyes of Tiki, the main character, but it never worked out. Tiki is a street kid living in an abandoned shop with a few other orphaned children. They have to steal to live and often go hungry. I liked that the author chose to tell this story from that angle, rather than the more common tale from the point of view of nobility. However, I never really feared for them, since they always managed to steal enough money or objects for their plans, such as Tiki going to a ball. I thought this was a little hard to believe, and undermined the potential grittiness. However, the bigger issue I had and the reason I set the book aside was that by page 176, barely anything had happened. We only see glimpses of the fey and we spend more time reading about Tiki think about what to do to help her friends and what to do with the ring (which doesn't really have any effect on the story by then anyway).

Rating: No Grade
This book has gotten great reviews so far and it seems I'm in the minority. I just couldn't invest more time after feeling like the story was going on and on without any action or movement of the main plot. I wish there had been more magic in the first couple hundred pages.

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Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Title: Divergent

Author: Veronica Roth
Series: Divergent #1
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 107/487
Genre: YA, dystopia
Publication Date: May 3rd, 2011
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Rating: No Grade

Summary: In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Debut author Veronica Roth bursts onto the literary scene with the first book in the Divergent series—dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance.

My Review

Why did I read this book? I bought this book due to the many positive reviews I've read and I thought the synopsis looked interesting.

Why it's a DNF: The usual reason I don't finish a book is because I reach a point where I realize that the book just isn't for me. Many people love Divergent, but after reading about a quarter of it, I knew I should call it quits. This is another YA dystopia and I think I've been really burnt out from them. I find I'm harsher on the worldbuilding because there's just so much others to compare it to. I was generally interested in the premise and the set up of the world: how people are divided into factions based on the traits they feel they need to exude in order to keep the world peaceful. However, I just couldn't grasp fully onto this idea and in particular, I thought the Dauntless faction was disappointing (which is the one that's focused on highly). I didn't understand why dangerous stunts and fighting each other (even in unfair fights) was brave. Once I got hints to a romance I decided to put the book aside since I was not feeling the worldbuilding and characters.

Overall Thoughts 

Obviously I'm in the minority, so if you like YA dystopias, there's a good chance you'll like this one. If you're someone like me who will really question the worldbuilding, then perhaps it's not for you.

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Review: Resenting the Hero by Moira J. Moore

Title: Resenting the Hero

Author: Moira J. Moore
Series: Hero Series #1
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Pages: 184/304
Genre: Fantasy
Publication Date: February 28, 2006
Publisher: Ace Books
Rating: No Grade

Summary: In a realm beset by natural disasters, only the bonded Pairs—Source and Shield—make the land habitable and keep the citizenry safe. But can Dunleavy Mallorough and Lord Shintaro Karish put aside their differences to defeat something even more unnatural than their reluctant affections for each other?

My Review

Why did I read this book? Abundant praise for the series by the Book Smugglers!

Why it's a DNF: So, this is one of those times where I couldn't finish a book not because I hated it or felt it was really horrible, but because it just wasn't my cup of tea. It had many elements I like in my fantasy: a pairing that stems a romance between two people who come together with many differences, a special/mystical/psychic "bond" and a fun fantasy setting. However, the reason I couldn't continue is because I really, really disliked the main character and narrator, Dunleavy. She's absolutely horrid to her partner, Shintaro and at one point I just became fed up with it. I know characters aren't suppose to be perfect but I was having trouble suspending my disbelief with the way she mistrusted and treated him. Either this is constructed to create a conflicted and unlikely romance or the character is just a jerk. Either way, it's not my kind of story.

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Review: Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Title: Wither
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Series: Chemical Garden #1
Format: ARC
Pages: 137/356
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopia
Publication Date: March 22, 2011
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Rating: No Grade

From Goodreads: What if you knew exactly when you would die?

Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.

When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home.

But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limted time she has left.

As you can see from the no grade, I didn't finish Wither. There's a lot of positive reviews out there and I found that I wasn't able to get into this book as much as others.

The biggest problem I had with Wither was maintaining my suspension of disbelief. DeStefano created a harsh dystopian world that, I think, took backseat to
the romantic story. In her world women die at 20 and men at 25, and it's not very clear whether this was a virus or genetic disease (although the desire for perfect mates made me think it might be genetic). Our heroine, Rhine, is kidnapped from her tragic life with her twin brother and is inserted into this mansion in Florida that also holds two other girls (wives). One thing I didn't understand was, if the world was so full of orphans, why do people have to kidnap girls to marry? Why not take the orphaned girls rather than ones not wanting to go? Also, if the girls are so precious, why kill them so easily?

Rhine is chosen to live (according to her) on her unique trait of having one blue and one brown eye. A lot of the selection of girls was based on appearance, which confused me, because if you were trying to cure this virus/disease, why would you base it on certain looks of the women? Why not use all girls, since who knows who will be the one to have the right traits?

In the end, I thought that the world would have been better explored if not for the huge focus on a love triangle-type romance. Rhine didn't do anything for me. As another reviewer pointed out, if you had four years to live and you were starving to death, why wouldn't you be more interested in living the high life for the last years of your life in a mansion? These questions sat in the back of my mind as I read and finally decided I wasn't interested in the romance and relationship between Rhine and the other characters.

ARC provided by Simon & Schuster.

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Review: Elfland by Freda Warrington

Title: Elfland

Author: Freda Warrington
Series: Aetherial Tales #1
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 236/463
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publication Date: August 18, 2009
Publisher: Tor Books
Rating: No Grade

This book is part of the 2011 Women of Fantasy book club hosted by Jawas Read, Too!.



From Goodreads:
Elfland is an intimate, sensual novel of people—both human and Aetherial—caught between duty and desire. It’s a story of families, and of Rose Fox, a woman born to magic but tormented by her place in her adopted world.

Led by Auberon Fox, a group of Aetherials—call them the Fair Folk, if you will—live among us, indistinguishable from humans. Every seven years, on the Night of the Summer Stars, Lawrence Wilder, the Gatekeeper, throws open all gates to the Other World. But this time, something has gone wrong. Wilder has sealed the gates, warning of a great danger lurking in the realm beyond them. The Aetherial community is outraged. What will become of them, deprived of the home realm from which their essential life force flows?

Rose Fox and Sam Wilder are drawn to the lands beyond the gates, even as their families feud over Lawrence’s refusal to do his duty. Struggling with their own too-human urges, they discover hidden truths that draw them together in a forbidden alliance. Only by breaching the dreaded gates and daring the danger beyond can they confront that which they fear most— their otherness—and claim their birthright.

I've given this book a rating of 'No Grade' because I didn't finish it. I really tried to, but for reasons which I will explain here, I lost interest in moving forward.

The novel starts off interestingly enough: we're introduced to Rosie Fox as a young girl whose family is from the fairy realm, accessed through the Gates. These Gates are closed to them by Lawrence, another Aetherial, due to his belief of evil lurking on the other side, ready to escape.

Through the next 200 pages or so, we grow up with Rosie and her family and all the drama that goes with it. It reminded me of a soap opera, where all the characters are fae, yet they merely only talk about it. It's rare we get to see any Aetherial action. Enormous amount of time is spent on love affairs, adultery, and drugs. I felt this annoyance in the plot events was doubled by the fact that I never really liked Rosie. Everyone would say how nice and good a person she is, but she's rather selfish, passive and abrasive. I never understood why she made certain desicions such as those relating to her romantic life. I felt like drama was created for the sake of drama. I also didn't care for Sam very much: the stereotypical bad boy the main female character can't help fall in love (or lust) with.

For 200-something pages we are given all this backstory and I ultimately stopped reading for lack of movement of the main plot: getting the Gates open or defeating the evil presence beyond them. I wasn't interested in the family saga.

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