Sunday, April 26, 2015

Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers - Review



In the powerful conclusion to Robin LaFever's New York Times bestselling His Fair Assassins trilogy, Annith has watched her gifted sisters at the convent come and go, carrying out their dark dealings in the name of St. Mortain, patiently awaiting her own turn to serve Death. But her worst fears are realized when she discovers she is being groomed by the abbess as a Seeress, to be forever sequestered in the rock and stone womb of the convent. Feeling sorely betrayed, Annith decides to strike out on her own.

She has spent her whole life training to be an assassin. Just because the convent has changed its mind, doesn’t mean she has.




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I read this on winter break from college, which meant the minute I was done with finals I scoured the web for books.  On a whim I bought Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers, a book that I had overlooked for some reason (why, Jasmine, WHY), and then was up until 3AM finishing it.

I have to admit, I haven't read the first or second installments of His Fair Assassin, Grave Mercy and Dark Triumph.  I couldn't get into the characters in those, for some reason, though I enjoyed their cameos in Mortal Heart.  However, I found myself immediately drawn to Annith.  She is tortured for other reasons than recent trauma like her friends in the previous installments and the mystery behind her past is intriguing.  I was also enamored by the dichotomy in her character - she is quieter and more nurturing than most and yet just as skilled if not more so in the dark arts of Mortain.  Also, her weapon of choice is the bow and arrow and really, that's my weakness (sigh, Legolas).  I was so excited to see how her character interacted with the world outside of the convent (and her adventures do not disappoint).

Balthazar, the leader of the Hellequin, soldiers of Mortain that travel around and collect lost souls, is a wonderful character and the male counterpart to Annith.  I love Annith and Balthazar's witty banter and the air of mystery around their (chemistry ridden) relationship.  I'm not going to lie, I predicted most of the book after Annith meets Balthazar, such as Balthazar's secrets as well as the twists surrounding Annith's character.  However, this only added to the suspense I felt reaching the climax of the book, as I wondered how everything would be revealed and the outcomes of so many secrets.

 LaFevers created a complicated and layered world.  I loved the lore surrounding the Nine and how much we learn about Arduinna and Amourna.  I loved the tensions surrounding Annith's inner conflict about her purpose and devotion to Mortain, her interactions between those she meets on her journey to put the convent right, and the international conflicts, complete with an empress and Sybella and Ismae.

I loved this book and kick myself for not grabbing it the moment it was released.  But better late than never, right? The characters are complex, the world is deep, and the romance is authentic and sweet and burdened and...swoon.
If you enjoyed the lore and the romance in Mortal Heart, I recommend Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt (YA) and Kushiel's Legacy series by Jacqueline Carey (adult). 
Keturah and Lord Death: Amazon, B&N, Goodreads
Kushiel's Legacy: Amazon, B&N, Goodreads
Check out more about Robin and her works here: www.rllafevers.com

Robin LaFevers was raised on a steady diet of fairy tales, Bulfinch’s mythology, and 19th century poetry. It is not surprising she grew up to be a hopeless romantic.

Though she has never trained as an assassin or joined a convent, she did attend Catholic school for three years, which instilled in her a deep fascination with sacred rituals and the concept of the Divine. She has been on a search for answers to life’s mysteries ever since.

While many of those answers still elude her, she was lucky enough to find her one true love, and is living happily ever after with him in the foothills of southern California.

In addition to writing about teen assassin nuns in medieval Brittany, she writes books for middle grade readers, including the Theodosia books and the Nathaniel Fludd, Beastologist series. You can learn more about those books at www.rllafevers.com.

Happy Reading!

Jasmine

Monday, April 13, 2015

The Truth About Jack by Jody Gehrman - Review


Dakota McCloud has just been accepted into a prestigious art school. Soon she'll leave behind the artists' colony where she grew up―hippie dad, tofu since birth, yurt―and join her boyfriend and best friend on the East Coast. It was the plan…until Dakota finds out her boyfriend and best friend hooked up behind her back. 

Hurt and viciously betrayed, Dakota pours out her heart on a piece of paper, places it in a bottle, and hurls it into the ocean. But it doesn't quite go where she expects…

Jack Sauvage finds the bottle washed up on the shore and responds to Dakota's letter. Except what if his straight-laced life doesn’t jive with the free-spirited girl he’s only seen from afar? As Jack creates a persona he believes she’ll love, they slowly fall for each other with each new letter. Now Jack is trying to find a way to make this delicate, on-paper romance happen in real life…without revealing his deception.

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I'll be honest, finishing this book was a challenge. Here are some reasons why: 

The characters seem too eccentric and immature for Gehrman's often beautiful prose. I wanted more depth from both the characters, though I related much more to Jack than to Dakota. The story was slow to begin, and when the hitting blow came (spoiler: the best friend and boyfriend at college together kind of betrayal), it didn't affect me very much - maybe because I didn't really know or see Dakota and Cody's relationship or because I didn't believe it was that special or both. After that, I didn't really know what Dakota was looking for - she is hurt and angry but also so incredibly dramatic (as are most people in this story) - she hates boys and doesn't want to go to art school (even though it seems like art is the main love and constant in her life) and then decides she wants to go to Barcelona, tied with memories of her absent mom. I just wish that all these details had been related to us earlier and interwoven, and in a way other than long moments of internalization and retrospection, which felt tiresome and slow in the present tense. I liked Jack's character a lot more, his voice sounding more natural and genuine. Although I didn't really buy into his extravagant and strange lifestyle (his mom is nuts), I found his character much more believable.

Jack and Dakota's relationship and love didn't seem real to me. The letters seemed stilted to me somehow and I didn't really know why or how they really worked to relieve Dakota's turbulent feelings or what about them exactly made Jack so obsessed and attracted to her. Jack falls into lust at first sight with Dakota and until the last quarter of the book, I don't understand why he fell so hard. So much of his attraction is physical and surface-level - not that he likes her only for her looks but they he just notices how quirky and funny she is all the time, rather than really getting to know her. Even the letters that are supposed to be these messages of fate don't sound authentic or like they are really learning about one another (maybe because Jack is trying to incredibly hard to be someone he's not). Jack and Dakota don't even really hang out until the last few chapters, where I finally got hints of their interest in one another and actually enjoyed seeing their growing relationship but by then it becomes rushed and then BOOM there's a happy ending. Maybe a good summer read if you are desperate for a book with a happy ending for the beach but maybe not a great fit for those hardcore romantic readers.

There are moments in The Truth About Jack that are beautiful. Gehrman hints at the end of how much Jack and Dakota have helped one another and she uses wonderful imagery and lyrical prose to make some beautiful sentences.  Sometimes this came out in weird moments, though, and made the voices inconsistent and distracted from the development of the characters. I wish I could read some of her writing without the weight of trying to handle this plot, because overall, I enjoyed the writing. 
I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 
Find out more about Jody and her works here: http://www.jodygehrman.com

Jody is the author of nine published novels, one novella, and numerous scripts for the stage and screen. She grew up in Northern California. Babe in Boyland, published by Penguin's Dial books, was optioned by Disney. Her plays have been produced in Ashland, New York, San Francisco and L.A. She and her partner David Wolf won the New Generation Playwrights Award for their one-act, Jake Savage, Jungle P.I. She's a graduate of UC Santa Cruz, Western Washington University, and University of Southern California. She's currently a professor of English and Communications at Mendocino College.

Happy Reading!

Jasmine

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan - Early Review


Release Date: April 7, 2015

"I might be Cinderella today, but I dread who they'll think I am tomorrow. I guess it depends on what I do next." 

American Rebecca Porter was never one for fairy tales. Her twin sister, Lacey, has always been the romantic who fantasized about glamour and royalty, fame and fortune. Yet it's Bex who seeks adventure at Oxford and finds herself living down the hall from Prince Nicholas, Great Britain's future king. And when Bex can't resist falling for Nick, the person behind the prince, it propels her into a world she did not expect to inhabit, under a spotlight she is not prepared to face.

Dating Nick immerses Bex in ritzy society, dazzling ski trips, and dinners at Kensington Palace with him and his charming, troublesome brother, Freddie. But the relationship also comes with unimaginable baggage: hysterical tabloids, Nick's sparkling and far more suitable ex-girlfriends, and a royal family whose private life is much thornier and more tragic than anyone on the outside knows. The pressures are almost too much to bear, as Bex struggles to reconcile the man she loves with the monarch he's fated to become.

Which is how she gets into trouble.

Now, on the eve of the wedding of the century, Bex is faced with whether everything she's sacrificed for love-her career, her home, her family, maybe even herself-will have been for nothing.

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This book is a perfect summer (spring? I'm in California, it feels like summer already) read. It's full of witty banter, crazy characters, and a wonderful love story. I found myself smiling so often throughout this book and it's a perfect romantic getaway.

The real focus and strong point of this book, in my opinion, are the relationships between the characters. The story of Bex and Nick is adorable. I really understood their friendship and that growth before it turned into the love story that is hinted at at the beginning of the book (the infamous Bexicon). I loved their witty banter and friendship and I loved seeing them around their crew of eccentric British friends. I loved Bex's relationship to her parents, especially her dad and her complicated relationship with Lacey. They all worked to build Bex up as a wonderful character and narrator. They were the driving force behind all the laughs and drama and sadness and I think that Heather and Jessica did a great job with their cast of characters. 

That being said, the form of the story was a little off and the plot was a little flat. The laughs are great and the romance swoon worthy but the writing was just fine and, to me, nothing spectacular. The retrospective form of the story was nice, because on the one hand you get to see how happy Bex and Nick are in the present and you know everything's going to turn out fine. On the other hand, you already know everything's going to turn out fine. Likewise, even though you know the story you are jumping in to, the plot was extremely predicable. It ran a little on the long side, despite the amount of time covered, because it just has a lot of content. While that content adds to the laughs and the eccentricity of the (wonderful) side characters, it got a little lengthy at times. 

This is a fictional William and Kate story (though probably with a lot more drinking and sleeping around and jokes about syphilis then any actual documentary about William and Kate). It's the perfect book to chuckle at and swoon over while chilling on the beach (or in your house, if you experience winter). If you are looking for a cute, funny, romantic happily ever after, this is the book for you!
I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

AND you can read the first seven chapters for free right now! I read the sampler before requesting this book on NetGalley because I was so amused by Bex's story. Check it out! 
Longtime friends Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan have been writing together since 2004, when they co-founded Go Fug Yourself, a popular snarky celebrity-fashion site. But it was their love of cheesy TV, Sweet Valley High, and sports that first brought them together. Together, they’ve penned two young adult novels — Spoiled and Messy — and The Royal We, a work of adult contemporary fiction based loosely on the courtship of Prince William and Kate Middleton. They have also written for various publications, ranging from Grazia to New York to Redbook. They are repped by Brettne Bloom of Kneerim, Williams & Bloom.

Find them and their books here! https://heatherandjessica.wordpress.com

Happy Reading!

Jasmine