Talon - by Julie Kagawa

My rating: 

Long ago, dragons were hunted to near extinction by the Order of St. George, a legendary society of dragon slayers. Hiding in human form and growing their numbers in secret, the dragons of Talon have become strong and cunning, and they're positioned to take over the world with humans none the wiser.
Ember and Dante Hill are the only sister and brother known to dragonkind. Trained to infiltrate society, Ember wants to live the teen experience and enjoy a summer of freedom before taking her destined place in Talon. But destiny is a matter of perspective, and a rogue dragon will soon challenge everything Ember has been taught. As Ember struggles to accept her future, she and her brother are hunted by the Order of St. George. (Goodreads)

 The premise of this book is really interesting. Dragons can take human form and are using this skill to infiltrate human society. Unfortunately the plot is only mildly interesting and this book somehow managed to make dragons boring. It seems impossible, but I swear it's true.

The main character, Ember Hill is a stereotypical teenage girl. This is ironic because she's actually a dragon who is constantly complaining that she doesn't understand humans. Ember is rebellious and doesn't want to go to the training organized by Talon, the international dragon organization. Instead she would rather spend her summer hanging out at the beach with her friends. This book also starts setting up some romance which quickly evolves into a full blown love triangle.

Don't get me wrong, this book wasn't terrible. It also helped that I listened to the audio mostly while driving or doing dishes, so I didn't feel like I was missing out on an opportunity to read something better. There are some interesting plot points but overall the characters are pretty uninteresting and personally I'm not a fan of the love triangle cliche.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown - by Holly Black

My rating: 

Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown's gates, you can never leave.
One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself.
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a wholly original story of rage and revenge, of guilt and horror, and of love and loathing from bestselling and acclaimed author Holly Black. (Goodreads)

I love vampire books and admittedly my expectations aren't that high, but I really do think Holly Black wrote a great and fairly original vampire story here. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown takes place in the modern day in a world where vampirism has become an epidemic and so the infected are quarantined in Coldtowns. The vampires themselves aren't quite as groundbreaking, but I'm totally happy with classic vampires and I appreciate that Black pays homage to previous vampire stories in this book. I think what really sells this novel, though, is the great writing and the characters.

I've heard plenty of complaints about the characters in this book, but I loved them. Tana, our protagonist, is very well written as a normal, teenage girl. Sure, it's frustrating when she mak es stupid decisions but at the same time these decisions seem very believable for a hungover teenager who has just woken up surrounded by dead bodies. Her ex, Aiden, is even more stupid and admittedly obnoxious but again he comes across as a realistic teenage guy. We also have a brother / sister duo of goth Youtubers who are going to document their trip to Coldtown to become vampires. Again, horribly annoying but so well written. The only main character that didn't come across as extremely believable was Gavriel, Tana's vampire love interest. On the other hand, there's totally an Anne Rice-ish Louis/Lestat vibe around him so I was willing to ignore any shortcomings.

The characters fit really well into the plot Black sets up and I think the novel moves along at a great pace without sacrificing any character backstories or development. Holly Black is a great writer and I really love her take on the classic vampire novel. I would definitely recommend this book to vampire fans!

The Shadow Queen - by C.J. Redwine

My rating: 

Lorelai Diederich, crown princess and fugitive at large, has one mission: kill the wicked queen who took both the Ravenspire throne and the life of her father. To do that, Lorelai needs to use the one weapon she and Queen Irina have in common—magic. She’ll have to be stronger, faster, and more powerful than Irina, the most dangerous sorceress Ravenspire has ever seen.
In the neighboring kingdom of Eldr, when Prince Kol’s father and older brother are killed by an invading army of magic-wielding ogres, the second-born prince is suddenly given the responsibility of saving his kingdom. To do that, Kol needs magic—and the only way to get it is to make a deal with the queen of Ravenspire, promise to become her personal huntsman…and bring her Lorelai’s heart. (Goodreads).

I was so excited to get an eARC of this book because I absolutely love fairy tale retellings, but The Shadow Queen just didn't live up to my expectations. This was actually kind of surprising because on the surface this novel has a lot of things going for it. There's a strong, female protagonist, betrayal, romance, magic, dragons, and nonstop action. I'll admit that I did enjoy the dragons and it gave a unique twist to the original Snow White story. In The Shadow Queen, the huntsman isn't just a dangerous hunter, he is the prince of a kingdom where everyone has two hearts - a human heart and a dragon heart. When they give control over to their dragon nature, they actually shapeshift into dragons. For the most part, though, I think Redwine tried to pack too much into one book.

Even though the dragons are awesome and the magic seemed interesting, we just don't get enough worldbuilding. There's not much information about the different races or the kingdoms so all these fantastical elements end up seeming like cheap additions to make this telling of Snow White seem special. If this book were several hundred pages longer I might have liked it better. As it is, I just couldn't get interested in an underdeveloped fantasy world.

The plot and characters felt pretty mediocre, which didn't help my enjoyment of the book. Kol was the only character who showed any growth at all. That is unless you want to count Lorelai going from totally lacking in self-confidence one minute to realizing she can do anything she wants the next. And while the plot has plenty of action, it feels like there's no suspense or point to it. All through the magical battles, earth-shattering magic (literally!), telekinesis, fires, and explosions, I was just kind of reading to get through the book. The romance and ending as a whole were totally predictable, so even when I did manage to finish the book it wasn't that exciting.

The Snow Queen certainly isn't a bad book, but it could have been so much better. I'd say it's still worth a look, though, if you like fairy tales and want a quick and easy read.

Carry On - by Rainbow Rowell

My rating:

Simon Snow is the worst chosen one who’s ever been chosen. That’s what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he’s probably right. Half the time, Simon can’t even make his wand work, and the other half, he sets something on fire. His mentor’s avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there’s a magic-eating monster running around wearing Simon’s face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here—it’s their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon’s infuriating nemesis didn’t even bother to show up.
Carry On is a ghost story, a love story, a mystery and a melodrama. It has just as much kissing and talking as you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell story—but far, far more monsters. (Goodreads)

Rainbow Rowell is a fantastic writer, and that's definitely clear in Carry On. Despite her talent, I still had mixed feelings about this book, but I think the writing is what really saved it for me. Carry On really does read as Harry Potter fan fiction, especially through the first half. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but combined with the slow pacing starting out, I struggled to stay interested until later on in the story.

My main complaint about the fan fiction style of this book is that none of the characters felt very original at first. They all had, at least in my mind, clear counterparts from the Harry Potter series. Carry On also jumps in at would be the last book in an initially fictional series and I feel like it draws too much on the reader's knowledge of Harry Potter to make up for the fact that we haven't gotten any back story. The plot of these "missing" books didn't seem so important to me as the character development. Simon has presumably been growing from all his adventures in previous books, but we don't get to see any of that like we do with Harry Potter. The reliance on Harry Potter also means that there's very minimal world building. I can only imagine that if you read Carry On without being familiar with Harry Potter it would be extremely frustrating.

Luckily the second half or so of the book took a turn for the best. The plot picks up and the characters finally begin to take shape as original creations. I felt like one minute I was questioning if I could finish this book and the next it was two in the morning and I was sad there wasn't more to read. I'll admit I still didn't think the plot was great, but Rowell's writing strength really shows in the interactions between characters. And since everyone seems to have something to say about it, I'd like to add that I am 110% on board with the Simon and Baz romance, which is absolutely adorable.

I am hesitant to recommend Carry On to people because of how much I struggled to get into it at first. On the other hand, if you're okay with Harry Potter fanfic or a fan of Rainbow Rowell's writing style, it's definitely worth the read.

Simon vs.the Homo Sapiens Agenda - by Becky Albertalli

My rating:   

Somehow I hadn't heard anything about Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda until all of my Goodreads friends starting reading it. Everyone had such great things to say that I finally decided to hop on the bandwagon.

The book starts when some of Simon's private emails fall into the hands of his classmate Martin. Simon has been emailing another boy at the school, known only as Blue, and neither of them are quite ready to come out as gay. Martin is hoping he has a chance with Simon's friend Abby, and so he blackmails Simon into introducing them. Simon agrees not only to keep his sexual identity private, but also to protect Blue's privacy.

Even after making a deal with Martin, Simon worries about his secret getting out. He realizes that he would rather come out to his friends and family on his own terms before they hear the news from someone else. Simon soon learns that coming out isn't one-time event either, but something he will have to keep repeating. I also love how Simon realizes that all the small changes in his life will effect how people see him, not just his sexual orientation. "But I'm tired of coming out. All I ever do is come out. I try not to change, but I keep changing, in all these tiny ways. I get a girlfriend. I have a beer. And every freaking time, I have to reintroduce myself to the universe all over again." 

With Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Albertalli takes a very relevant issue and comes up with a book that is a great balance of serious and fun. Simon is an adorably geeky boy without falling into the trap of that being his only personality trait as a character. He has a supportive family and friends, but the relationships aren't so idyllic that we never see them fight. This is an extremely enjoyable book and the writing is realistic and keeps you reading. Finally, the sentiment of this book can be summed up by Simon's wonderful quote: "White shouldn't be the default any more than straight should be the default. There shouldn't even be a default."

That is probably my favorite quote from the book and it also makes me think of this wonderful picture I found recently.

This photo & other great ones from minus18.org.au

Also, a summer reading update for the program I'm taking part in from summerreadingonline.blogspot.com. This is my ninth book for the summer and I am, very fittingly, using it for the book about coming out challenge.

Parrotfish - by Ellen Wittlinger

My rating: 

I had a hard time decided how to rate this book. On the one hand, I really like that Wittlinger chose to write about a FTM transgender teen who is proud of his identity and open about it. On the other hand, the writing was mediocre and some of the characters were pretty shallow. In the end I decided to settle for two paws.

Grady, formerly Angela, feels that coming out is the right decision. Overall he's glad he did, but he didn't expect how his friends and family would react. Especially his best friend Eve, who completely ignores him at school and when she does talk to him, keeps calling him Angela.

Life at school also becomes harder. Other students stare at Grady in the hallway, he doesn't have any friends since Eve stopped talking to him, and most of his teachers are not supportive at all. Grady starts to feel overwhelmed until he finds an unexpected ally in the P.E. coach Ms. Unger and a new friend, Sebastian. These two characters really made the book for me because they are supportive, but also actually have some personality.

Grady also realizes he has feelings for Kita, but I think this is one of the weaker plot lines. All we know about Kita is that she is half African American, half Japanese, and apparently awesome. Oh, and she has a boyfriend, but because they are fighting Sebastian encourages Grady to make a move. This was one of the few times I really didn't like Sebastian or Grady for going along with him. 

Even with some of the troubles Grady faces, this doesn't seem like a very realistic portrayal of what transgender teens have to face when they come out. But despite this, as well as some lackluster characters and some truly cheesy dialogue, Parrotfish was still an enjoyable book. Especially for a younger audience, this is a nice, light read that also happens to have a transgender teen as the protagonist.

I will be using Parrotfish for the young adult category in the reading challenge from summerreadingonline.blogspot.com and this is my seventh book of the summer.

Shadow Scale - by Rachel Hartman

My rating:

Shadow Scale is the sequel to Seraphina and I gather that quite a few people didn't enjoy waiting so long for the sequel. Fortunately I didn't discover Seraphina until the second book had already been release, but I still had trouble waiting a few weeks on the library hold list!

Shadow Scale picks up a few months after the events of the first book and we jump right into the conflict arising from the dragon civil war. In Seraphina's home country of Goredd it looks like the humans will soon be involved in the war as well. Along with Queen Glisselda and Prince Lucian Kiggs, Seraphina makes a plan to gather all the ityasaari (half-dragons) that she can. The hope is that together the ityasaari can use the mind powers they are all gifted with in defense of Goredd.

The first half or so of this novel mainly follows Seraphina and Abdo as they travel throughout different countries search for their fellow half-dragons. Shadow Scale is definitely more plot driven than the first book, but this section does become somewhat tedious and predictable. Abdo is able to help lead Seraphina to the ityasaari they are looking for, but they also end up having to face Jannoula. This half-dragon has the ability to invade the minds of other ityasaari and continuously thwarts Seraphina's attempts to gain the loyalty of the others.

In the second half of the book, we see more of the dragons and their actions in the war. Seraphina also begins the search for her uncle Orma who fled Goredd in the previous book, but is interrupted by more of Jannoula's plots. While Jannoula is a formiddable opponent, Seraphina seems to take a lot of time thinking about how helpless she feels and not actually trying to do anything about it. Seraphina seems a little too helpless in this book and I also didn't like that the tension between her and Kiggs isn't a present as it was in first novel.

Overall, though, I still enjoyed this book very much. Even with a much larger cast of characters, namely all of the ityasaari, Hartman still makes you feel like you know them just as well as Seraphina. I also LOVE the diversity in this book! I've read a lot of YA novels that are specifically marketed at LGBTQ populations, but seeing these themes in a fantasy book was even more exciting. While it isn't marketed to these audiences, Shadow Scale (and Seraphina to a lesser extent) manages to include gay, lesbian, and transgender characters in a completely natural way. I'm just disappointed that Seraphina's story won't be continued in a third book.

Shadow Scale will be my fifth book for the summer reading program from summerreadingonline.blogspot.com and I am using it for the fantasy book challenge.

Bitch Doll - by Orfa Alarcón

My rating:

I had already read Dead Doll (another book in the series), by M.B. Brozon when I was finally able to find Bitch Doll. Of the two in the series I have read, I think I prefer Bitch Doll. Dead Doll is a fun novel, but it doesn't carry the same weight as Bitch Doll. I think that in Bitch Doll, the author treats the main themes in a much more mature way than what I saw in Dead Doll. I had also previously read Perra Brava, by Orfa Alarcón and was very impressed by her writing.

Bitch Doll focuses on the very relevant topic of bullying, both in school and online. Shanti, a student at the Secundaria 33 and the main character, discovers her talent for drawing and decides to create several comics. When she publishes some of these comic strips that make fun of her classmates on Facebook, she is forced to confront the consequences. She also has to navigate arguments with her best friend, who she has fallen in love with, and her family. This book also very clearly shows Alarcón's love of animals, an aspect that I really enjoyed, reflected in Shanti's thoughts. Even though this is a young adult book, Bitch Doll can teach all of us what it means to be friends and what family really is.

This is my fourth book for the summer reading challenge at summerreadingonline.blogspot.com and I will be using it for a book containing bullying. Also, because I read this book is Spanish, I wrote my initial Goodreads review in Spanish for practice. Feel free to check it out below if you're interested!

Ya había leído Dead Doll antes de (finalmente) encontrar Bitch Doll, y creo que de las dos prefiero Bitch Doll. Dead Doll es una novela bien divertida, pero no tiene el mismo peso que Bitch Doll. Me parece que en Bitch Doll, la autora aborda los temas principales de una manera bastante más madura de lo que vi en Dead Doll. También había leído Perra Brava, de Orfa Alarcón y su escritura me impresionó mucho.

Bitch Doll se trata de un tema muy actual, el bullying, tanto en la escuela como en las redes sociales. Shanti, una alumna de la secundaria 33 y el personaje principal, descubre su talento por dibujar y decide hacer unos cómics. Cuando publica unas tiras burlándose de sus compañeros en Facebook, tiene que enfrentar las consecuencias. Además ella maneja discusiones con su mejor amigo, de quien se ha enamorado, y con la familia. También se ve el amor que Alarcón tiene para los animales, un aspecto que me gustó mucho, reflejado en los pensamientos de Shanti.

Aunque sea una novela dirigida a los adolescentes, Bitch Doll nos puede enseñar a todos lo que siginifica ser amigos y lo que es la familia.

Monstrous Beauty - by Elizabeth Fama

My rating:

Monstrous Beauty tells the story of the mermaid Syrenka as she falls in love with Ezra in the year 1872. Then we jump forward over one hundred years to the story of Hester Goodwin who happens to meet a man named Ezra in a cave by the beach. The book alternates between the past and present, telling the story of these two women. Syrenka is a mermaid who has known love, as well the consequences, before and is ready to become mortal to safely remain with Ezra as his wife.

Seventeen year old Hester is trying to avoid love at all costs because she doesn't want to continue the pattern of grief that has plagued her family for as long as she can remember. Hester's mother and the other women in her family have all died within days of giving birth to a daughter. Hester plans to break this chain of death my never falling in love, but she begins to reconsider when she meets Ezra. She also begins to realize that these deaths might not be caused by a genetic condition, as she had believed, but by something more sinister.

I have to say that overall, Fama wrote an excellent novel. The transitions between the past and the present flowed very smoothly, although I think I actually preferred Syrenka's story and would have liked to learn more about her life. Hester's story starts to get more interesting towards the end of the book once she begins to question Ezra's mysterious life on the beach and how it might be connected to her own personal history. I also didn't realize mermaid books had taken off recently, so this is my first one and I love the mermaids Fama created. I've seen good mermaids and evil mermaids, but I think she finds a great balance between these two stereotypes. These mermaids are fierce and mysterious, with no set moral code. I wasn't expecting this novel to be so mature, since it is marketed as YA, but it's definitely great not only for older teens but also adults of any age. I listened to this as an audio book and I would definitely recommend experiencing Monstrous Beauty this way. The narrator was brilliant and really brings Fama's beautiful writing to life.

This is also my first review for summer reading! I'm participating in the summer reading program at summerreadingonline.blogpot.com so be sure to check it out. Even though Monstrous Beauty could fit into numerous categories from the challenges I'm going to use this for the audio book challenge.

El palacio de la medianoche

My rating:               

While at a bookstore here in Barcelona, I found several more books by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, the author of Marina. After debating a bit I decided to buy El palacio de la medianoche, another of his young adult books. Like Marina, this novel also has a somewhat fantastical or supernatural theme and I really enjoyed reading it.

The story focuses on twins who were separated at birth, the sister, Sheere, growing up with her grandmother and the brother, Ben, in an orphanage. They were separated to try to avoid a man who had killed their father and mother and was out to kill them too. Also similarly to Marina, the man, Jawahal, had made himself into a monster while pursuing his work. When Ben and Sheere are finally reunited they, along with Ben's group of friends from the orphanage, work to find out everything they can about the man who is trying to kill them and how they can stop him. While the book does have the same kind of supernatural setting as Marina, I feel like El palacio de la medianoche is more plot-driven. Marina definitely had some intense scenes with plenty of action, but there was also a heavy emphasis on the characters and the general mystery of the situation. This book, on the other hand, still has the mystery but moves forward at a faster pace with lots of action throughout.

Now that I've read two books by Zafón, I really look forward to reading more since what I've read has been great so far. I'm thinking next I might look for La sombra del viento since I have various friends who have recommended it. 

Marina

My rating:                   

Marina is the first book I read this summer, and I actually read it for one of my classes. I'm spending this summer studying abroad, first for a month in France and then a month in Spain (which is where I still am now). For my classes in Spain we have a lot of reading beforehand, which might have been great for the people enjoying their summer vacation but I'm already in France doing my work for those classes and I really wasn't looking forward to reading several novels for my Spanish class at the same time. Fortunately, Marina ended up being an amazing book!

The author, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, is fairly well known for his book La sombra del viento, which I haven't read but plan to at some point. Marina, unlike La sombra del viento, is a young adult novel so it was a pretty easy read. The book focuses on the adventures of Oscar Drai and his friend Marina, two teens in Barcelona. At first Marina is hesitant to spend time with Oscar, but the two end up spending more and more time together, after following a mysterious woman in black from the cemetery. Oscar and Marina end up involved in a mystery that most people had forgotten about years before they born. The mystery centers around Mijail Kolvenik, a foreigner who came to Barcelona and began working making prosthetics. The company he worked for became hugely successful, Kolvenik became rich and married a beautiful woman, but as it turns out he was more or less a mad scientist. Mijail was obsessed with finding a way to cure diseases and avoid death, and he was willing to carry out some pretty extreme experiments hoping to find the results he wanted. Skipping forward to the future with Oscar and Marina, it turns out Kolvenik is still alive but has more or less turned into a monster after experimenting on himself. Along with several people from Kolvenik's past, the two teens try to find out everything they can about the crazy doctor and how they can stop him. 

When I got ready to read Marina for my class, the last thing I expected was a supernatural book aimed towards the young adult audience. Since I read a lot of books like that anyways, I was definitely excited once I started reading. I really like that while Marina still fits into the supernatural genre that seems to be so popular right now, Zafón wrote a very unique book that, at least for me, wasn't too predictable.