The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman

Book:  The Book of Blood and Shadow

Author:  Robin Wasserman

Publisher:  Random House

Date:  April 10, 2012

Source:  Half Netgalley, half purchased!

My grade:  A+

It was like a nightmare, but there was no waking up. When the night began, Nora had two best friends and an embarrassingly storybook one true love. When it ended, she had nothing but blood on her hands and an echoing scream that stopped only when the tranquilizers pierced her veins and left her in the merciful dark.

But the next morning, it was all still true: Chris was dead. His girlfriend Adriane, Nora’s best friend, was catatonic. And Max, Nora’s sweet, smart, soft-spoken Prince Charming, was gone. He was also—according to the police, according to her parents, according to everyone—a murderer.

Desperate to prove his innocence, Nora follows the trail of blood, no matter where it leads. It ultimately brings her to the ancient streets of Prague, where she is drawn into a dark web of secret societies and shadowy conspirators, all driven by a mad desire to possess something that might not even exist. For buried in a centuries-old manuscript is the secret to ultimate knowledge and communion with the divine; it is said that he who controls the Lumen Dei controls the world. Unbeknownst to her, Nora now holds the crucial key to unlocking its secrets. Her night of blood is just one piece in a puzzle that spans continents and centuries. Solving it may be the only way she can save her own life.

My Review

Ok, so here’s the story.  I was reading this book and ended up having to put it down for a day and a half (pure torture!) because I took my kids to the zoo and then we cleaned the house the next morning.  When I went back to the book, it had “expired” on my Nook.  So I went to Netgalley to download it again and, lo and behold!  It had been archived by the publisher!  But the problem was that I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about this book since I put it down.  I ended up going and buying it at Barnes and Noble since it had published 2 days before so that I could finish it.

If that little tidbit doesn’t tell you just how compelling this story is, then let me attempt to give you lowdown.  I had been reading reviews that called this book the DaVinci Code for YA.  I had scoffed at those and then I started reading The Book of Blood and Shadow!  Holy cow!  It really did read like the DaVinci Code!

Now, the storyline is worlds away from the storyline of TDVC.  However, they both have a religious mystery, secret societies, an unsolved murder and people other than the police trying to get to the bottom of it since the police are clueless about said secret societies.

Once the murder happened, this book was non-stop.  I did not want to put it down.  It’s a good thing that we went to the zoo before the plotline really picked up, because I think if I had been in the middle of that part of the book, we would have skipped the zoo.  For reals.

I really liked Nora.  She was a cool heroine.  She was smart, but there were times when she was still just a teenaged girl.  I really loved being able to get bits and pieces of the story through the letters that she was translating from Elizabeth.  That was one of the coolest parts of the book.  It was almost like having 2 protagonists.  Seeing the present day through Nora and the past through Elizabeth and then seeing the 2 stories mirror one another in places and fill in gaps in others was just brilliant.

It was also thrilling to have so many places to put blame for the murder.  It was like you could trust almost no one.  I found myself many times wanting to shout out the character equivalent of “Colonel Mustard did it in the dining room with a rope!”  Of course, I would have been wrong every time, but it didn’t stop me from guessing and questioning.

This was just the type of book that I love.  It was a mystery with a supernatural twist.  It read very much like Harry Potter, where you spend the book trying to piece together the clues with the characters.  And yet, I was still surprised by the big “reveal”.  Then the book ended and left my mind reeling.  What a rush!

My grade for this book is an A+.  If you like non-stop mystery novels that make you feel like you’ve just exited a killer roller coaster, go get this book now.  Drop what you’re doing and go on!

Thanks to Random House and Netgalley for allowing me to read half this book.  Thanks to Barnes and Noble for creating Nook and letting me immediately download and read the rest of it.

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  This week's topic is:

Top Ten Tips for New Bloggers

1. Add links to stuff.  It takes more time, but I love it when I can just click on a book in someone's blog and it takes me right to goodreads!
2. Don’t worry about the number of followers you have.  They will come!
3. Join book hops, memes, contests and giveaways.  Those are great ways to network and to get your blog seen.
4. Make sure you write reviews with substance.  I used to write lots of fangirl squeals on goodreads, but on your blog, people want to know what makes the book good.
5. Provide a good mix of things on your blog.  It might be a mix of genres, or a mix of features, but you don’t want to only post reviews of vampire books!
6. Don’t take on so many books from galleys and blog tours that you run out of time to read your own books. (I’m still trying to figure this one out myself.)
7. Don’t stress out over your blog.  You want to post regularly, but remember, this is a fun hobby.
8. Create a pleasant design, but don’t overkill.  If it’s too busy, it’s hard to read.
9. Make sure that your blog reflects your special qualities and personality.  You want to let people hear YOUR voice.  If people want to read boring book reviews, they can go to Publisher’s Weekly.
10. This is just a pet peeve of mine, but make sure you enable e-mail subscription.  I hate it when I find a blog I really like and I can’t get updates through e-mail!  In fact, offer many options for your followers to get your blog updates.

What advice would you offer?  Any tips that I need to heed? : )

In My Mailbox

In My Mailbox was inspired by Alea at Pop Culture Junkie and created by Kristi at The Story Siren.

I’ve decided that I’m going to start participating in the “In My Mailbox” meme.  It probably won’t be every week, but once or twice a month, I’ll let you know what I have hanging around to read.

This list is from the last 2 weeks.

For Review

Of Poseidon by Anna Banks  

 

 Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

 Flirting in Italian by Lauren Henderson

 The Wild Rose by Jennifer Donnelly

 Touched by Cyn Balog

  Kissing Shakespeare by Pamela Mingle

  Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama

 Purchased

 Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

A Beautiful Evil  by Kelly Keaton

The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman

Wanderlove  by Belle Malory

Happy Birthday to Me  by Brian Rowe

Sleeping with Paris  by Juliette Sobanet




What did you get to read this week that was fabulous?

Top Ten Tuesday.....on Wednesday (again!)

Yes, I am becoming quite the blogging loser.  Unfortunately, the professor supervising my master's thesis has sent me on a wild goose chase looking for research that simply doesn't exist. So yesterday, I was doing 400 Boolean searches, again, and suffering a slight panic attack when she told me that she just wouldn't read my work!  Now, without further ado......

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  This week's topic is:

The Top Ten Most Deceiving Books
Ok, so I've decided that I'm going to look at books that I should never have judged by the cover!

Playing with Matches by Brian Katcher

For such an ugly book cover, this was a beautiful and amazing story !  I have to thank Dr. Truett for making me read this one in my YA lit class.

The Space Between Trees by Katie Williams

This was also a YA lit class required read, but this one totally missed the mark.  It has this epic cover that opens up and has cut outs of the trees!  I thought it would be great, but it was just fail.  There is no other word to describe it.

Once in a Full Moon by Ellen Schreiber

This book sounded sooooo good on Netgalley.  And I was looking for something about werewolves.  I should have steered far, far away from this one.  It's this type of book being published on the coat tails of Twilight and The Mortal Instruments that are giving paranormals a bad name.  This is one of the most trite, cheesy books I've ever experienced.

Sean Griswold's Head by Lindsey Leavitt

This book is here because it was good and SO MUCH MORE than what the cover led me to believe.  I thought this would just be a fluffy, light read.  But wow!  Did the author ever pack a punch with this one!  Don't let the cover fool you!  This book has some substance.

Tris and Izzie by Mette Ivie Harrison

I let me love of a beautiful cover and Arthurian legend fool me into reading this one!  Gah!  It was terrible!  I have read some excellent modern-day retellings, but this is not one of them.  If you want a really good modern day Arthur book, read Meg Cabot's Avalon High.

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

I came home with this one and the hubs wanted to know when I had started reading in the cheesy romance genre.  And he's right!  Even though I know that's sexy Jace in all his Shadowhunter glory, it looks like just another shirtless guy on a bad romance novel.  Of course, I wouldn't dare want them to change it.  Even though this is anything BUT a cheesy romance.  Just put a book cover over this one out in public and then take it off and stare at it at home. : )

Starters by Lissa Price

I almost didn't request this one from Netgalley because the cover was so off-putting.  The girl looks very young, so I thought it was maybe a middle grades novel.  Plus, it's so bizarre and the girl is sort of, well, ugly.  I'm really glad I did request it though, because it turned out to be a great read!

Tyger, Tyger by Kersten Hamilton

I won this book on Goodreads from the author and it sat on my shelf for probably a year before I finally picked it up and that's mostly because Kersten Hamilton (bless you, woman!) messaged me and said she was interested in my opinion since I was an educator and in Library Science school.  Guilt trip much?  Thank goodness she did that!  I LOVED this book and couldn't put it down or get enough of it!  But the cover just didn't do anything for me.  Who knew it was hiding such goodness?

Falling Under by Gwen Hayes

I'm going to admit my problem now.  I am a sucker for those covers with the girls in beautiful dresses.  Especially when they are red.  So I expected great things from this book, but it was a little underwhelming for me.  I mean, by the end, I liked the book ok, but it just wasn't a great book.  ::shrugs::

Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

This one isn't about the cover or the blurb.  It's about my own preconceived notions about Sarah Dessen.  I thought she was a teen fluffy romance writer.  Boy, was I wrong!  This book knocked my socks off and my 14 year old has been reading one Sarah Dessen after another and telling me about them.  Sarah!  I'm so sorry I misjudged you!  I can't wait to read more of your books.




So that's my Top Ten List of Books that Deceived Me!  Did any of these deceive you too?

The Green Man by Michael Bedard

Book:  The Green Man

Author:  Michael Bedard

Publisher: Tundra Books

Date:  April 10, 2012

Source:  Publisher via Netgalley

My grade:  C+

Teenaged O – never call her Ophelia – is about to spend the summer with her aunt Emily. Emily is a poet and the owner of an antiquarian book store, The Green Man. A proud, independent woman, Emily’s been made frail by a heart attack. O will be a help to her. Just how crucial that help will be unfolds as O first tackles Emily’s badly neglected home, then the chaotic shop. But soon she discovers that there are mysteries and long-buried dark forces that she cannot sweep away, though they threaten to awaken once more. At once an exploration of poetry, a story of family relationships, and an intriguing mystery, The Green Man is Michael Bedard at his finest.

My Review

I’m glad that I stuck with this book.  At around halfway through the book, the story REALLY picked up and I found that I couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen next.  However, getting to that point to begin with was quite difficult.

I’m not sure how to describe this book.  I love the spooky elements and the paranormal part of the book, of course, but I also loved the way the author waxed poetic about, well, poetry!  This book may be about a teen protagonist, but I don’t really know that I would classify it as YA.  It almost felt like something I would read in an English class, with all the philosophical musings about poetry and poets.  It was also difficult to stick with at first, like many of the things we were required to read in high school English!

I chose to read this book in the first place because of the title.  I’m a big Celtic mythology buff and I was familiar with the Green Man images and some of the beliefs surrounding the Green Man in Celtic myths.  I was really hoping that this book would somehow work that in.  It didn’t.  So if you are looking for a Green Man story, this is not the book for you.

When I got to the end of the book, I realized that I had really enjoyed the story, but I wish that I knew a little bit more about some of the characters and some of the events.  Which people were real and which were ghosts?  Who or what was Rimbaud?  Could O see the people that Emily did?  What happened to O?  I felt that there were still a lot of holes in the story that I really wanted filled in.

I do think this book needs bonus points for the cover.  What a great cover!  And no girls in long dresses!

My grade for this book is a C+.  I thought it was good…..eventually.  It took me a while to get there.  So when I add up a so-so beginning with a great final story, I get a decent read.  Just be warned that this is a book that requires a little patience.

Thank you to Tundra and to Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book.  I did not receive any compensation for this review.

Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross

Book:  Kill Me Softly

Author:  Sarah Cross

Publisher:  Egmont

Date:  April 10, 2012

Source:  Publisher via Netgalley

My grade:  Solid A

Mirabelle's past is shrouded in secrecy, from her parents' tragic deaths to her guardians' half-truths about why she can't return to her birthplace, Beau Rivage. Desperate to see the town, Mira runs away a week before her sixteenth birthday—and discovers a world she never could have imagined.

In Beau Rivage, nothing is what it seems—the strangely pale girl with a morbid interest in apples, the obnoxious playboy who's a beast to everyone he meets, and the chivalrous guy who has a thing for damsels in distress. Here, fairy tales come to life, curses are awakened, and ancient stories are played out again and again.

But fairy tales aren't pretty things, and they don't always end in happily ever after. Mira has a role to play, a fairy tale destiny to embrace or resist. As she struggles to take control of her fate, Mira is drawn into the lives of two brothers with fairy tale curses of their own . . . brothers who share a dark secret. And she'll find that love, just like fairy tales, can have sharp edges and hidden thorns.

My Review

This is not your childhood's fairy tale!  Although the author occasionally tips her hat to the Disney versions that we all know and love, she’s sticking to the original Grimm Brothers versions here.  The blurb on the cover should say something like:  “Welcome to Fairy Tale Town:  Where All Your Dreams, and Nightmares, Come True!”

Wow!  This book became a real page turner for me, somewhere around 1/4 to 1/3 of the way through it.  Make no mistake about it; there is definitely some kitsch in this book.  After all, how else can you do a fairy tale story in a modern day setting?  But it didn’t take long before I totally ignored that and got sucked into the story.  And what a story!

One of the fun things for me in this book was trying to figure out who was part of which fairy tale.  Some of them were easy to spot (Snow White and Beauty and the Beast), but others were much more obscure.  I’m ready to go sit down with the original Grimm tales now and see what I’m missing.  I’m not going to tell you about the more obscure ones because I don’t want to provide any spoilers, but the reveal of the original tale blew me away!!!

I loved the characters in this book.  They were not flat, one-dimensional fairy tale cardboard stand-ups.  And they easily could have been written that way.  There were a few that were close to that (Freddie, for example) but it was interesting to watch these teens, and adults, try to navigate their lives and have some choice even though their fairy tale curse would eventually make decisions for them.

I think this would be an excellent book to read in an English class.  The debate here on how much of life is your destiny and how much you have control over yourself could last a whole semester.  Not to mention trying to figure out the fairy tales.  This could be a great book to end a unit on the original Grimm tales.  But it's not for elementary school kids!

The other thing that I liked about this book is that, like the original tales, the author was not afraid to be gruesome.  And there was definitely gruesomeness and crudeness and evil here!  This book reminds us just how much Disney cleaned up these tales in order to provide the saccharine sweet versions we know today.

The book wrapped up rather nicely, but it still left some questions hanging around.  I’m not sure if a sequel is planned, but there is definitely an opening for one.  I hope there is one because I’m really interested to see what happens to a couple of the other characters, or what has happened to them already that we just didn’t get to see.  But, if she doesn’t write another one, this one still left me with a satisfied feeling at the end.  It also left me with a feeling that just perhaps, some parts of life could be chosen, not pre-destined.

This book gets a solid A for me.  I love fairy tale retellings and this one was great!  The author blended together many fairy tales and made it work and has given me a lot of food for thought.  As well as an urge to sit down and read gruesome fairy tales.  I’m not sure if I’ll be wishing on a star any time soon now!

Grave Mercy by Robin Lefevers

Book:  Grave Mercy
Author:  Robin Lafevers
Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Date:  April 3, 2012
My grade:  Can't I give anything higher than an A?  No?  A++++++ then. 

 

Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf?

Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.

Ismae's most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?

My Review

This novel was breathtaking.  I am still reeling from the brilliance that is Grave Mercy. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this novel, but it was medieval and French, which made it automatically good in my book!  But it is so much more than that!  This book has it all:  mystery, magic, Death and deception, intrigue, true love.  This book was spellbinding.  I am left speechless at the end of it.

First, let me say that I started this book yesterday.  On my Nook, it is 564 pages.  I read the whole thing in just a little over 24 hours.  I did sleep and eat and go shopping for my kids’ stuff for Easter.  But otherwise, I could not put this book down.  I have ignored my children, the dishes, the laundry and my husband to read this book.  I haven’t been this engaged in a book in a really long time.

The story was astounding.  I found myself completely pulled into Ismae’s world.  It helps that the story is told in first person from her point of view.  But I swear, I could feel everything she felt and it was like I experienced the whole book with her.  It left me breathless.

The characters are incredible.  They are so multi-faceted and layered.  Plus, there is whole deception thing thrown in, so that I was constantly trying to figure out, just like Ismae, who can I trust and who is lying.  And the intrigue just kept me turning pages.

I also loved the whole old gods part of the book.  The magic and the pagan twist kept everything very interesting on a different level.  Of course, I’m a sucker for that type of thing.  One of my favorite books ever is The Mists of Avalon.  Just like that book, this book breathed a new life into a historical fiction by adding another layer to the story.  If you liked The Mists of Avalon, you will not be disappointed with Grave Mercy.

But this is still an excellent storyline without all the pagan magic.  The mystery is amazing.  I kept thinking about who was doing what and who was betraying the duchess and where did the loyalties of everyone lie, from the advisors, to Duval and even the abbess and the convent.

Another really nice thing about this book?  The cover features a beautiful girl in a dress, but IT ACTUALLY GOES WITH THE STORY!!!  Now, I am still a sucker for those covers and I think they are beautiful, but it’s even better when it matches the plot of the book!

My grade for this book is an A+++.  I would bet that this novel is ranked first or second in the class!  This book releases on Tuesday, April 2^nd.  Do yourself a favor and go get it as soon as the bookstore opens.

Thank you to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this fabulous book.  I have received no compensation for this review, unless you count being able to read a book this good as compensation! : )