Young Adult

Review and Giveaway: My Life as a Lumberjack by Sara V. Olds

June 17, 2013 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 6 Comments

My Life as a Lumberjack or How I Fell for the Wrong Guy(s)
By Sara V. Olds
Publisher: Astrea Press
Publication Date: May 30, 2013
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Source: Publisher for Blog Tour

Me, Mercedes Bennion? Working for the US Forest Service? I’ve never thought of myself as the outdoorsy, hard-working type. But one quick glance at those mouth-watering forest rangers and oh, baby, sign this seventeen-year-old up for a whole summer of fresh air, mountains and starry, starry nights!

Goodreads Summary

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I think it’s my own fear of insects and sleeping outside that makes me take a second look at YA books that come along about summer camps. I actually was a Girl Scout and did camp successfully, but one year some sort of phobia set in and that was it and I haven’t set foot in a tent since then. I still love reading about them though – I love the friendships that develop over the summer and there are always a million stories to be told.

My Life as a Lumberjack begins with Mercedes “Merck” “Benz” Bennion – she prefers Benz – and her best friend Conor Perry showing up for duty for their new summer jobs with the U.S. Forest Service Youth Conservation Corps. Expecting nerdy dweeb phone recruiter Norm, Benz is blown away when Norse God Norm of the U.S. Forest Service shows up to gather the campers and escort them to camp. The kids are all divided into groups and each group is sent to a different area where something needs to be done each week, setting up new camps and heading home on the weekends.

Since the action was with Benz’s group, the detail the author gave to the jobs they did was really a blast to read. From building corrals, tarring troughs and seeding, I could see it all. I had the best time actually in the camps, when everyone sat around making s’mores, wanting to punch certain people, figuring out how to take showers and mooning over the opposite sex. I think I actually learned how to make an omelet in a plastic bag in boiling water.

Benz was a complete nut and gets in the most ridiculous situations. She’s kind of bratty – I think mostly without meaning to. She has absolutely no filter because she’s just that confident. She flirts a lot with Norm and Dan, Dan the Mountain Man, another Forest Service Ranger she meets and is completely oblivious to situations with other boys going on around her. She’s a serious klutz, which I admire as a fellow member of the Ridiculously Clumsy Club. Conor was absolutely adorable in the way only a jealous guy BFF can be. He’s cranky most of the time, which made me want to hug him. I just love guys like that! The members of Benz’s crew are all awesome, especially Adrienne who turns out to be a little spitfire, yummy Matt who’s always around when Benz is in trouble and the hilariously obnoxious twins David and Keith. I was flipping the pages just to see what on earth these kids were going to be doing next.

It killed me, but I had to take a trim to my rating because there were a couple of places where my credulity was stretched just a little too thin. I had a lot of fun with the story and was willing to let a whole lot of things fly in the name of a great story because they made me laugh, but let’s just say some things read a bit like a teenage girl’s fantasy. Not that that’s a bad thing. It also ended a little more abruptly than I’d have liked. I wanted more time to savor Benz’s happiness and maybe see some plans for later. I didn’t want the story to end.

This was just flat-out fun and diverting and would be a perfect light summer read. It would take some heavy persuasion to get me to go hiking, let alone camping, so it was great to hang out with the YCC. I loved the camaraderie that developed in Benz’s crew and the way their group and Conor’s turned into a big dysfunctional family by the end of the summer. As the summer came to a close, I had to believe everyone was coming back next year and they’d fall back into their friendships because it was just that good.

It doesn’t matter how many times I remind myself not to judge a book by its cover, I still get a little revved up by a pretty one. Those cute purple hiking boots had me hoping for a fun story and My Life as a Lumberjack or How I Fell for the Wrong Guy(s) delivered one. I loved it from beginning to end, along with every scratch, bug bite, swoon, undercooked pancake, bedhead, blister, leaking tent and camp crush in between. Sequel, sequel!

My Rating: B+

About the author:

Sara V. Olds has been telling stories for as long as she can remember. One of her favorite memories is of unfolding a tale for friends while they were all bundled in sleeping bags watching a comet shower in the Uintah Mountains.
Mother of three: Large, Medium and Small, she welcomes her newest role, that of mother-in-law.

Life has taken her from thither to yon and back again—she’s moved 22 times during her marriage. She breathes to travel. Longs to fulfill a lifelong dream of owning a horse. Is an addictive reader. Enjoys swimming, skiing, violin and movies. Wonders if she’ll ever get to SCUBA dive again. And has found a calling that fulfills her in ways she never could have imagined—teaching history to—wait for it—8th Graders.

Her stories consume her. There’s nothing she’d rather do than spend all day, all night and the next day conversing with her latest set of characters. History, adventure, action, romance, humor. Adults, YA and kids. Yep, she does it all. Looking for something to enjoy on a quiet rainy afternoon? Or wanting a pulse-pounding, stay up all night turning pages adventure? Or a you’ve-GOT-to-be-kidding romp? You’ll find them in her pages.

Connect with Sara:

Website | Twitter | Facebook

Sara is holding a tour-wide giveaway for 5 ebook copies of My Life as a Lumberjack (open to international entries). Good luck!

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Filed Under: *B Rating, 2013 Contemporary Challenge, 2013 Ebook Challenge, 2013 Standalone Challenge, Barbara Recommends, Contemporary/Romance, Giveaway, Young Adult Tagged With: Sara V. Olds

Review and Giveaway: Charm & Strange by Stephanie Kuehn

June 6, 2013 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 7 Comments

Charm & Strange
By Stephanie Kuehn
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: June 11, 2013
Genre: Young Adult Realistic Fiction
Source: Netgalley for Itching For Books Blog Tour

When you’ve been kept caged in the dark, it’s impossible to see the forest for the trees. It’s impossible to see anything, really. Not without bars . . .

Andrew Winston Winters is at war with himself.

He’s part Win, the lonely teenager exiled to a remote Vermont boarding school in the wake of a family tragedy. The guy who shuts all his classmates out, no matter the cost.

He’s part Drew, the angry young boy with violent impulses that control him. The boy who spent a fateful, long-ago summer with his brother and teenage cousins, only to endure a secret so monstrous it led three children to do the unthinkable.

Over the course of one night, while stuck at a party deep in the New England woods, Andrew battles both the pain of his past and the isolation of his present.

Before the sun rises, he’ll either surrender his sanity to the wild darkness inside his mind or make peace with the most elemental of truths—that choosing to live can mean so much more than not dying.
Goodreads Summary

Pre-order Charm & Strange (Amazon link is affiliate – not mine – all others are not):
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository | iBookstore | Kobo

Sometimes when the opportunity to join a blog tour pops up and the spaces are at a premium, you don’t have a lot of time to research the book before you grab a spot. That was the case with Charm & Strange for me, a book I hadn’t even heard that much about when the tour opportunity came up. I thought I could tell where the story might go based on the synopsis, so I leapt. I found a story and character I can’t stop thinking of and a new writer to love. This book is that powerful.

This is the closest thing I’ve ever found to a book I want to say, “I’m not going to tell you a thing other than to trust me and go read it.” It’s the kind of book you have to just go along for the ride with as it unfolds and without any preconceptions, because as the narrator, Win is unreliable and damaged and to give him any credence can be a mistake. But I’m going to give you a general idea of the plot because I’d probably implode if I don’t. It’ll be a little one though and I don’t even know what to say past it. Win is the sum of his heartbreaking story as it pours out.

Win’s story unfolds in both flashbacks and the present. He seems like such a fragile, strange boy, and odd scenes flow past that I didn’t understand the reason for sometimes. Then the violent episodes start, he was told he was going to boarding school and he learned something about himself that was one of the reasons he found himself at the party that night. In his present, he seems like a cold, even slightly frightening young man. Even when it’s unsaid, I had the feeling that there was something violent under his story, something he may have done that was bad.

Tabitha Suzuma did it to me in 2010 with Forbidden and now Stephanie Kuehn has done it to me with Charm & Strange in 2013. They took my expectations, threw them out the window and gave me something different, something so much more and left me feeling a little out of breath and heart sore at the end. This isn’t the kind of book you read to make you laugh, but one to make you think and feel. Kuehn’s beautiful, evocative writing lulled me into a sense of calm only to jerk me out of it with a few simple, clear sentences more than once. In the end though, she delivered a story that was beautiful and frightening. Just go read it with an open mind and let it take you where Kuehn wants to.

My Rating: A

About the Author

Stephanie Kuehn is a YA writer who grew up in Berkeley, California, which is a quirky sort of a place with a ton of wonderful bookstores. Her very first job was working in one of those bookstores, and she’s been a freakishly avid reader for as long as she can remember.

Stephanie’s other passions include mental health advocacy, social justice, and sports of all kinds. She’s currently living in Northern California with her family and their wild menagerie of pets.

Connect with Stephanie:

Her Website | Twitter

And now for the fabulous giveaway! Stephanie is giving away a finished hardcover version of Charm & Strange to one lucky winner (it’s really a lovely book). This is a tour-wide giveaway and sorry for my wonderful international readers, it’s open to US residents only. The giveaway ends June 20th. Good luck!

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Filed Under: *A Rating, 2013 Debut Author Challenge, 2013 Ebook Challenge, 2013 Standalone Challenge, Barbara Recommends, Giveaway, Paranormal, Young Adult Tagged With: Stephanie Kuehn

Review: Dare You To (Pushing the Limits #2) by Katie McGarry

May 29, 2013 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 12 Comments

Dare You To (Pushing the Limits #2)
By Katie McGarry
Publisher: HarlequinTeen
Publication Date: May 28, 2013
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Source: Netgalley

Ryan lowers his lips to my ear. “Dance with me, Beth.”

“No.” I whisper the reply. I hate him and I hate myself for wanting him to touch me again….

“I dare you…”

If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk’s home life, they’d send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old Beth who knows where. So she protects her mom at all costs. Until the day her uncle swoops in and forces Beth to choose between her mom’s freedom and her own happiness. That’s how Beth finds herself living with an aunt who doesn’t want her and going to a school that doesn’t understand her. At all. Except for the one guy who shouldn’t get her, but does….

Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular baseball star jock-with secrets he can’t tell anyone. Not even the friends he shares everything with, including the constant dares to do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the Skater girl who couldn’t be less interested in him.

But what begins as a dare becomes an intense attraction neither Ryan nor Beth expected. Suddenly, the boy with the flawless image risks his dreams-and his life-for the girl he loves, and the girl who won’t let anyone get too close is daring herself to want it all….

Goodreads Summary

I read Dare You To a bit ago, when Netgalley first approved my request to read the title, but thought I’d play it cool, let all of the week-before, release day and week-of-release reviews get out and maybe do mine that next week or so. Then I read it again and decided to hell with it, it gets done now! I can’t keep my fingers still that long and…just because. I adored Pushing the Limits – it was easily one of my top five books of 2012, but when I saw that Beth was going to be the MC for this book, I wasn’t sure how much I was going to enjoy it. McGarry did a great job of making me hate her and I really couldn’t see how she was going to make me love her.

Beth Risk has a strung out, deadbeat mother with an abusive, son of Satan boyfriend, and she’s been responsible for taking care of her for years. On one violent night, that all changes and the uncle that had been gone since she was a little girl sweeps in to save her when her mom betrays her. The price? Moving in with him, living by his rules and giving up the friends and life she’s built. If she refuses, the consequences are more than Beth wants to pay.

So Beth moves into his perfect, expensive house with his perfect, expensive wife and her reaction to it all is a giant, “F*ck you.” She’s got a bad past with her Uncle Scott and now he can reap the rewards and suck it up. He says wants her in all of her bitchy glory and that’s what he’s getting. She won’t count on him blackmailing her or sticking her with the pretty boy from next door to “show her around” this hick town, the same pretty boy who actually hit on her as a dare from his jock friends. If there’s anything worse than dorks, it’s jocks and this guy is a prime example.

As the star pitcher for the high school team, Ryan Stone has an image to uphold and part of it is playing along with the crazy dares that his teammates come up with. He never dreamed that the smartass skater chick who didn’t give him her number was Scott Risk’s niece, but having the chance to show her around school gives him the perfect opportunity to up the dare and prove to the guys he’s still got it. When he starts liking Beth – really liking Beth, the dare and his entire life get more complicated.

Ryan is always pushing Beth for more answers about herself, right from the beginning, and in one way it drove me a little nuts. It kept dragging up her past which started me crying, so I pretty much spent the entire book in tears. Tears from Beth’s past, tears from Beth’s present, tears from Beth and Ryan’s back and forth relationship, tears from this and that. I had some happy tears once in a while but my god, I went through so many Kleenex reading this, it was insane. If there was anything I don’t like about the book, this was it. I felt like I’d gone through the wringer when I was done but I’m not sure the happy parts balanced out with the horrible parts.

Well, McGarry did what I thought she wouldn’t be able to and made me like Beth. By showing me her past and her loyalty to her friends and even her rotten mother, I saw what a giant heart she hid under a foul-mouthed, closed-off exterior. I knew why she kicked people away and my heart broke for her even as I wanted to scream at her to knock it off. I loved the glimpses of the sweet girl she could be and the passionate side of her she let fly with Ryan. Whenever things went wrong with him, I wanted to reach into my Kindle and handcuff the two of them together and yell at them to work it out, already. Ryan was a sweet, uncomplicated jock on the surface, but so much more underneath. His family put a capital D on dysfunctional, but I’d known so many dads like his – obsessed with the game, pushing their kids to fulfill their own dream. I loved that Ryan never thought less of Beth because she couldn’t be one of the “perfect girls,” and he respected her. He was so romantic too – the rain in the cologne bottle scene – *sigh*.

There are some great supporting characters that really fill in the story and make it wonderful. Scott is a big part of Beth’s background, fills in a lot of holes and I really liked him. Beth’s best friend Lacey, who she knew when she was a little girl, is awesome, and some of the guys on Ryan’s baseball team were fun and just…guys, you know? How could I finish without mentioning Isaiah and Noah? They both are here and important – and broke my heart too. I don’t want to say much, but Isaiah and Beth together again was agony. I love them both so much.

McGarry has this insane ability to take a basic story – troubled girl meets seemingly perfect guy with his own issues simmering beneath the surface – and fill it with characters and situations that tear you apart, before she weaves the story back together into something imperfect but still beautiful. Are they realistic? No. Do I wish that she’d tone down the rollercoaster a little bit before she gives me a heart attack? Yeah, a little bit. Do I think McGarry’s brilliant and am I going to tackle anyone that gets in my way of her next book? You betcha.

My Rating: A

Filed Under: *A Rating, 2013 Contemporary Challenge, 2013 Ebook Challenge, Contemporary/Romance, Young Adult Tagged With: Katie McGarry

Review: Day After (The 19th Year #2) by Emi Gayle

May 27, 2013 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 12 Comments

Day After (The 19th Year #2)
By Emi Gayle
Publisher: J. Taylor Publishing
Publication Date: May 6, 2013
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Source: Publisher

Add After Dark

Demon crypts. Vampire lairs. Glowing angels. Sexy sirens. The stuff of fiction.

Or so Winn Thomas always thought.

Since being accepted into the fold of the supernatural, he knows better. None of what he imagined is true, but everything he feared is, and binding himself to his Changeling girlfriend until her nineteenth birthday will give him an education far beyond what he’d get at his human high school.

Luckily, Winn’s not giving up, he won’t back down, and he definitely isn’t going to run away with his tail between his legs. After all, only werewolves have tails. Right?

In this, the second of the 19th Year trilogy, Winn’s facing the challenge of one lifetime. If he doesn’t learn the truth about mythological creatures, his girlfriend Mac Thorne won’t either. That means, in six months, when she chooses her final form, she won’t know what to pick.

Winn, though, has his own ideas about Mac’s final selection—plans she knows nothing of.

He intends to have her pick human.

Whether she can or not.

Goodreads Summary

I loved After Dark from the very first chapter, so I’ve been anxious to get to the second book and dive back into Mac and Winn’s story. When I heard that Day After was going to be from Winn’s POV it was like an extra bonus, since I’ve kind of gotten addicted to shifting girl/guy first person POVs lately. I’m going to try to avoid any spoilers from the first book, especially since I want to make sure you all go read it, then this one.

Mac is getting closer to her nineteenth birthday and even though she’s been warned of the consequences of a changeling not picking a final form, she hasn’t gotten any closer to choosing. She’s getting pressure from everyone on the Council, and with all their ulterior motives, she isn’t able to trust any of them, only Winn. He agrees to be her teacher, accepting that he has to follow the same rules the Council does – whatever he learns from his own research, he’s bound to only answer her questions, he can’t outright tell her anything. For a boy in love with a girl whose choice could tear them apart forever if he doesn’t uncover the right information, it’s a tough job.

I love the concept Gayle came up with for this story and how she’s built the world. I expected to be entertained, but I was absolutely glued to After Dark until the end. I wasn’t as in love with this one and it had to do with Winn’s voice and the romance because for the most part, I loved the story and expansion of the world even more.

In this book, we meet and get to know each of the Council members up close and personal and they’re both scarier and nicer than they were in the first book. Mac has allies I didn’t expect and I liked that Gayle has me wondering even now about who really meant the things they said. In particular, Raven the Angel surprised me. She seemed so nasty and cold before, but through Winn’s eyes, I saw different things in her too, things that I don’t thing Mac would have the ability to step back and see. The demon Suze has a big part in this book and is absolutely hilarious. I don’t even know what to compare him to, but a demon that goes to pick Mac up from school in a Hummer wearing a spandex costume with a banana hammock pretty much defies description anyway. He also likes to cook in the nude, scaring everyone that drops by. A demon. In the nude. He’s the perfect touch in a book that takes the characters to some dark places.

Mac gets put through the wringer in this book and I didn’t particularly like the way she looked in Winn’s eyes. I loved her in the first book – she was strong, clear-headed, a completely badass fighter, snarky and so cute when she started discovering she had feelings about lesser humans. I found this Mac to be too much of a hothead, impulsive and inconsistent – she was still quite a snarky badass though, which was great. I’m very interested to see what Winn’s POV is of her in the next book is.

I’m sad to say, I wasn’t thrilled with Winn’s POV. In the beginning, I didn’t get a distinct idea of what his personality was. His voice felt kind of generic and not like the Winn I knew from After Dark. It wasn’t until the middle of the book that I picked up on his personality and by then, Mac was such a force that he was overshadowed. I loved that he was doing so much for her – and this is going to sound weird – but in this book, I had the feeling that he was a brain, not really a fully rounded guy. There needed to be a big, big amount of plot movement and it had to involve what Mac learned about herself, so I had to give him some slack for being the vessel that was necessary to deliver all of it, but I wanted more Winn and old Mac time too.

There wasn’t as much romance through this book as the first, mostly because there was a lot of conflict all around. It made for a lot of drama and the romantic gestures that were there were very big and heart-clenching. Prepare for all sorts of up and downs ahead, I’m afraid they’re coming before these two get their happy ending. I’m crossing my fingers I won’t have a heart attack first.

Even though I didn’t particularly like Winn’s POV, I loved the story too much to really knock my rating down very far. Gayle has such a talent for pulling you into her world and keeping you there, no matter how crazy the story gets. I love how she keeps layering on her mythology and characters so I never feel like I’ve had information dumped on me or that I don’t know who’s who. I have one big complaint though and everyone who knows me can understand why this one killed me – why did it have to end way?! Whyyyyyyyyy?

My Rating: B+

The final book in the trilogy, Darkest Day (The 19th Year #3) has an anticipated publication date of January 6, 2014.

About the author:

I had a really great bio in my head around midnight one night …. right before I fell asleep and it disappeared into the nothingness of unconsciousness. Bummer. So here’s something less well thought out.

I want to be young again, so I’m kinda sorta living it again. At least on paper. You see, I write paranormal romance. Now, that stuff can get really hot, and really gritty and well … mine does. But! My characters are teenagers, 18 and under. Like I was once … and want to be again.

Why would I want to be a teenager again? Geez. Because! If you met the man of your dreams at 14 was engaged to him at 19 and married him at 20, wouldn’t YOU want to do all that over again? Especially if you were still in love with him? I mean, c’mon! It’s love! That’s why I write, too.

You see… just because you pass a certain age doesn’t mean you forget what it was like to be 14, 15, etc. Actually, because I kinda grew up with my husband, we both still feel like the 14 and 17 year old kids we once were. So that’s where I’m coming from. You might think it’s totally lame, but you know what? That’s ok! Maybe you’ll like my other me instead.

Connect with Emi:

Website and Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Photo and bio from EmiGayle.com

Filed Under: *B Rating, 2013 Ebook Challenge, Paranormal, Young Adult Tagged With: Emi Gayle

Review: The Caged Graves by Dianne Salerni

May 21, 2013 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 13 Comments

The Caged Graves
By Dianne Salerni
Publisher: Clarion Books
Publication Date: May 14, 2013
Genre: Historical Fiction/Mystery
Source: Publisher

17-year-old Verity Boone expects a warm homecoming when she returns to Catawissa, Pennsylvania, in 1867, pledged to marry a man she has never met. Instead, she finds a father she barely knows and a future husband with whom she apparently has nothing in common. One truly horrifying surprise awaits her: the graves of her mother and aunt are enclosed in iron cages outside the local cemetery. Nobody in town will explain why, but Verity hears rumors of buried treasure and witchcraft. Perhaps the cages were built to keep grave robbers out . . . or to keep the women in. Determined to understand, Verity finds herself in a life-and-death struggle with people she trusted.

Inspired by a pair of real caged graves in present-day Catawissa, this historical YA novel weaves mystery, romance, and action into a suspenseful drama with human greed and passion at its core.

Goodreads Summary

I love historical fiction but with all of the other genres I review, don’t have time to read much of it anymore. When I saw the synopsis for The Caged Graves in the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt catalogue I was completely captivated by it and immediately requested it, hoping it would not only be great but the YA genre would make it of interest to everyone who reads the blog. After reading it, I can only say that YA or not, perfect fit or not, I would have had to review this for you – this was an absolutely gorgeous, captivating story.

It’s 1867, and Verity has returned to the small rural town she was born in to fulfill a childhood promise to marry Nathaniel McLure. She was sent away from home by her father when she was two, so Nate is a stranger for all intents and purposes, except for the letters they’ve been exchanging. They’ve been sweet, romantic letters and Verity has developed a regard for Nate so she’s disappointed when they meet and he’s nothing like that. During one of their stilted conversations and walks, Verity comes across two graves near a church. They’re outside the church’s hallowed ground and have bizarre iron cages built around them. A closer look reveals them to be Verity’s mother and her aunt, who died within days of each other right before Verity was sent away.

No one wants to talk about the caged graves, including her own father. The more Verity searches for answers, the more ugly rumors she hears, from curses to grave-robbers, hidden treasure to witchcraft. When even her father won’t tell her the truth, Verity takes drastic steps to uncover why her mother and aunt were ostracized from the community after their deaths, why their names are whispered with venom and why even those who knew and loved them want to continue the cover-up.

This is one of those stories with a large cast of characters, nearly any of whom could have something to do with what happened fifteen years ago to Verity’s mother and aunt. It was a deliciously rural small town of that era, with all of its class snobbery and racism in place. The area had been a hotspot during the war and after being originally settled with British, Sioux and American, became the local melting pot. One family that had a generous line of Sioux blood was extremely prolific, very poor and discriminated against in the community. It was made known to Verity that most people in town thought Nate was marrying her to gain a large portion of her father’s extensive land through her dowry, even though his family was well-off. I loved having so many characters weaving in and out of the story both helping and hurting Verity’s search – there were suspects and motives everywhere.

Verity was a wonderful character, with flaws that I thought were consistent for a girl of her age in her time. She’d come from a sheltered, fairly affluent situation, expecting a happy reunion with her father and a romantic marriage and found a dusty, spare home, a father who doesn’t know what to do with her and a young man who isn’t what she’d hoped for. Her upbringing meant she was headstrong, outspoken, unapologetic and secure enough to think she could choose her own destiny, which wasn’t always the case with women in the 1800s. I loved her devotion to the mother she’d never known and the lengths she was willing to go to for her, to have her name restored and her grave placed on hallowed ground. I think it was realistic that a young girl like Verity would have doubts about her feelings for Nate, but I didn’t like the sort-of love interest triangle that developed between Nate, Verity and a young doctor’s assistant. I think it was taken a little bit too far, even if it was romantically dramatic.

I don’t want to say a lot about Nate or Hadley, the doctor’s assistant, because they’re both vying for Verity’s hand and she does choose one – the right one, in my opinion. They both brought different things to Verity in a relationship and in different places I went back and forth between them before settling on the one that I knew would have her heart.

The Caged Graves was more than just a good book I picked up. I was completely captivated by the occasionally dark story, by Salerni’s gorgeous writing and the search for the truth behind the burials of Verity’s mother and aunt. I loved that even though there was one true answer in the book there were a few other plausible answers too. The resolution of the mystery was well done and the romantic ending was satisfyingly sweet and believable. I can’t wait to see what Salerni does next.

My Rating: A

Filed Under: *A Rating, 2013 Ebook Challenge, 2013 Standalone Challenge, Barbara Recommends, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Young Adult

Review and Giveaway: Runes by Ednah Walters

May 20, 2013 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 17 Comments

RunesTourBanner

Runes (Book One)
By Ednah Walters
Publisher: Firetrail Publishing
Publication Date: May 20, 2013
Genre: YA Fantasy
Source: Netgalley for Xpresso Book Tours
Follow the rest of the tour!

Seventeen-year-old Raine Cooper has enough on her plate dealing with her father’s disappearance, her mother’s erratic behavior and the possibility of her boyfriend relocating. The last thing she needs is Torin St. James—a mysterious new neighbor with a wicked smile and uncanny way of reading her.

Raine is drawn to Torin’s dark sexiness against her better judgment, until he saves her life with weird marks and she realizes he is different. But by healing her, Torin changes something inside Raine. Now she can’t stop thinking about him. Half the time, she’s not sure whether to fall into his arms or run.

Scared, she sets out to find out what Torin is. But the closer she gets to the truth the more she uncovers something sinister about Torin. What Torin is goes back to an ancient mythology and Raine is somehow part of it. Not only are she and her friends in danger, she must choose a side, but the wrong choice will cost Raine her life.

Goodreads Summary

Purchase Runes at:
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I haven’t done this in a while, so I hope I’m up to the challenge. There will be some serious gushing about a YA fantasy coming up, including some sort-of inappropriate fantasizing about a hot guy. The only problem I’m going to have is avoiding spoilers – Torin keeps telling Raine there are a lot of things he can’t tell her and that’s going to be the theme of my review too.

Raine meets the super sexy Torin when he moves next door into her childhood friend Eirik’s house. He’s a little arrogant, a lot cocky and there’s something kind of strange about him that he jokingly calls magic. Raine is completely tongue-tied and usually irritated around him but can’t stop looking to see if he’s around. Torin seems pre-occupied with her too, always there when she’s in trouble or just on the periphery of her sight when she’s thinking of him. When three new students show up at school and there are actual attempts to harm Raine, it’s Torin who comes to her rescue, displaying otherworldly powers that stir something inside of her.

I sort of knew which direction Walters was going just by the title of the book, since the general area of mythology that uses runes are limited. I was still thrilled with her vision of things and the way she worked it all into a contemporary YA setting. From the outside, this may look like a typical fantasy, but it’s creative, a little violent and a fast ride. There are a number of twists, some I saw coming, some I didn’t. I’ve remarked before that one of my pet peeves is that a lot of YA protags don’t have parents present and I’m happy to say Raine has a loving mother here who actually cares about curfew, dinner, her car and classes. Her father has been missing for three months after his plane crashed into the ocean, and it’s a significant plot in the story too.

Raine was an…interesting character. I can name a lot of things about her character that annoyed me that should have made me not like her, but I still did and I really wanted that happy ending for her. She was ridiculously blasé about all of the insane things that were happening, about a momentous development – several momentous developments – near the end and she went running into trouble so many times after she was told not to. I wasn’t happy that she encouraged Eirik’s romantic feelings for her when all along she and Torin were really practically making fire with the sparks they were throwing, not to mention I kind of saw Eirik with someone else. I still liked Raine a lot though – she had a funny, snarky way about her sometimes, she was sweetly vulnerable and I loved the scenes she had with her chatty and fun friend Cora.

Torin was hot and sexy personified. I’d feel really gross writing that about someone his age, except he’s not really his age. Cryptic, huh? I know I complained a little about his arrogance earlier, but on him, it worked. I loved that he called Raine, “Freckles,” and that even though she hated it when anyone else did, from him it was nice. Sure, it’s kind of stereotypical, but he rode a motorcycle and, hello? Another sexy point. I didn’t understand why he couldn’t explain to Raine what he was, but I think that had more to do with Walters warping the mythology than any character flaw.

I hadn’t planned on it, but I gobbled this book up in one sitting – sorry, laundry. I loved how fast it moved, the way the revelations about the mythology were doled out and the relationship between Raine and Torin. One thing I didn’t like was the ending. I. Hate. Cliffhangers. There’s no doubt that I’ll buy the next book because I have to know what’s going to happen, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t scream a little when I saw the last few paragraphs.

My Rating: A-

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EDNAH WALTERS grew up reading Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys and dreaming of one day writing her own stories. She is a stay-at-home mother of five humans and two American short-hair cats (one of which has ADHD) and a husband. When she is not writing, she’s at the gym doing Zumba or doing things with her family, reading, traveling or online chatting with fans.

Ednah is the author of The Guardian Legacy series, a YA fantasy series about children of the fallen angels, who fight demons and protect mankind. AWAKENED, the prequel was released by Pill Hill Press in September 2010 with rave reviews. BETRAYED, book one in the series was released by her new publisher Spencer Hill Press in June 2012 and HUNTED, the third installment, will be released April 2013. She’s working on the next book in the series, FORGOTTEN.

Ednah also writes New Adult paranormal romance. RUNES is the first book in her new series. She is presently working on book 2, IMMORTALS.

Under the pseudonym E. B. Walters, Ednah writes contemporary romance. SLOW BURN, the first contemporary romance with suspense, was released in April 2011. It is the first book in the Fitzgerald family series. Since then she has published four more books in this series. She’s presently working on book six. You can visit her online at ednahwalters.com or ebwalters.com.

Connect with Ednah:
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Ednah is holding a tour-wide giveaway (open to international entries) with 2 grand prizes. The first is for a signed copy or ebook of Runes plus a $25 Amazon gift card and the second is for a signed copy or ebook of Runes plus a $10 gift card from Amazon. Good luck everyone!

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