Two Minute Review: Zodiac by Romina Russell

Title: Zodiac
Author: Romina Russell
Genre: science fiction, young adult
Series: Zodiac #1
Pages: 336
Published: expected December 9 2014
Source: Book Expo America
Rating: 3/5

At the dawn of time, there were 13 Houses in the Zodiac Galaxy. Now only 12 remain….

Rhoma Grace is a 16-year-old student from House Cancer with an unusual way of reading the stars. While her classmates use measurements to make accurate astrological predictions, Rho can’t solve for ‘x’ to save her life—so instead, she looks up at the night sky and makes up stories.

When a violent blast strikes the moons of Cancer, sending its ocean planet off-kilter and killing thousands of citizens—including its beloved Guardian—Rho is more surprised than anyone when she is named the House’s new leader. But, a true Cancrian who loves her home fiercely and will protect her people no matter what, Rho accepts.

Then, when more Houses fall victim to freak weather catastrophes, Rho starts seeing a pattern in the stars. She suspects Ophiuchus—the exiled 13th Guardian of Zodiac legend—has returned to exact his revenge across the Galaxy. Now Rho—along with Hysan Dax, a young envoy from House Libra, and Mathias, her guide and a member of her Royal Guard—must travel through the Zodiac to warn the other Guardians.

But who will believe anything this young novice says? Whom can Rho trust in a universe defined by differences? And how can she convince twelve worlds to unite as one Zodiac?

There are admittedly some strong elements at play here that almost make the story work, but others (the eyeroll-worthy love triangle, the unnecessary division of society into a Divergent/faction-like set up for astrological signs) just detract from the good that Zodiac has to offer.

I mean, it's okay. It's entertaining for a day's read. It's definitely not bad, but it could be better, more original. The writing is serviceable, Rho is an interesting MC who learns and changes over the course of the novel...but so much of Zodiac rests on its premise.. which is threadbare. The world-building is minimal for each House and the Zodiac galaxy as a whole. Zodiac and its characters spend more time focused on identifying traits of each House and making up vocabularies/technologies with little explanation than in taking time to flesh out the world/galaxies/planets.

Also, if anything, this is scifi lite. Scifi-ish, maybe. And it's even less fantasy than scifi. 

 

Book Tour Review: Past Encounters by Davina Blake

Title: Past Encounters
Author: Davina Blake
Genre: historical fiction
Series: N/A
Pages: 445
Published: June 30 2014
Source: Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours for review
Rating: 3/5

From the moment Rhoda Middleton opens one of her husband’s letters and finds it is from another woman, she is convinced he is having an affair. But when Rhoda tracks her down, she discovers the mysterious woman is not his lover after all, but the wife of his best friend, Archie Foster.

There is only one problem - Rhoda has never even heard of Archie Foster.

Devastated by this betrayal of trust, Rhoda tries to find out how and why her husband, Peter, has kept this friendship hidden for so long. Her search leads her back to 1945, but as she gradually uncovers Peter’s wartime secrets she must wrestle with painful memories of her own. For if they are ever to understand each other, Rhoda too must escape the ghosts of the past. Taking us on a journey from the atmospheric filming of Brief Encounter, to the extraordinary Great March of prisoners of war through snow-bound Germany, this is a novel of friendship, hope, and how in the end, it is the small things that enable love to survive.
Includes discussion points for reading groups.

Past Encounters is a different sort of historical fiction from this author. Under her Deborah Swift name, she published more traditional, medieval type of story such as Shadow on the Highway. This novel here is something different. Ostensibly a story about Rhoda and her husband Peter, Past Encounters is really a tightly-focused and strong narrative that supports and explores varying themes from duty to love and more against the backdrop of WWII in England. 

WWII, and the storyline that takes place earlier (1939-1945) in the chronology was by turns familiar and freshly devastating. Everyone knows of or has heard of things like war brides and "waiting for your man" type stories from WWII, but Blake shows just how hard it is to cling to an idea when physical love is far away. Both Peter and Rhoda (and to a lesser extent Helen) all participate in less than stellar behavior during the novel, (before and after the war) but you want to excuse them, forgive them their transgressions due the international atrocity that subsumes their normal lives.

I liked a lot about this particular story and raced through it in a day, despite its hefty page count. I wanted to rate this higher than a 3, but where Past Encounters succeeds at a lot it attempts to do in just under 450 pages, I just couldn't personally connect with any of the characters. That isn't to say that they aren't well-drawn or fully dimensional, because they (especially Rhoda) are such. They just make decisions that make it hard to engender any sympathy or empathy from my viewpoint. They are interesting, dynamic and I was always curious about the paths the story would take, I just never fully invested to the point of loving the book.

Book Tour Review: Color Song by Victoria Strauss

Title: Color Song
Author: Victoria Strauss 
Genre: young adult, historical fiction
Series: Passion Blue #2
Pages: 334
Published: September 2014
Source: Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours
Rating: 3.5/5

Artistically brilliant, Giulia is blessed - or cursed - with a spirit's gift: she can hear the mysterious singing of the colors as she creates them in the convent workshop of Maestra Humilita. It's here that Giulia, forced into the convent against her will, has found unexpected happiness and rekindled her passion to become a painter - an impossible dream for any woman in 15th century Italy.

But when a dying Humilita bequeaths Giulia her most prized possession - the secret formula for the luminously beautiful paint called Passion blue - Giulia realizes she's in danger from those who have long coveted the famous color. Faced with the prospect of a life in the convent barred from painting as punishment for keeping Humilita's secret, Giulia is struck by a desperate idea: What if she disguises herself as a boy? Could she make her way to Venice and find work as an artist's apprentice?

Along with the truth of who she is, Giulia carries more dangerous secrets: the exquisite voices of her paint colors and the formula for Humilita's Passion blue. And Venice, she discovers, with its gilded palazzos and masked balls, has secrets of its own. Trapped in her false identity in this dream-like place where reality and reflection are easily confused, and where art and ambition, love and deception hover like dense fog, can Giulia find her way?

This compelling novel explores timeless themes of love and illusion, gender and identity as it asks the question: what does it mean to risk everything to pursue your passion?

Victoria Strauss's second novel in the Passion Blue series is a strong follow up and an engaging conclusion to main character and narrator Giulia's ongoing historical story. With minimal but thorough recapping, it's easy to begin this series with Passion Blue itself or by picking up Giulia's story here with the sequel. With some interesting plotlines and well-defined characters, Strauss creates a plausible and entertaining story of this strong-willed female artist living during the late 1400's in Italy.

Breaking away from the established locations of the first book, Color Song sees Giulia on an adventure in Venice after her painting Maestra, dies, thus leaving Giulia's future (and present) with the convent in jeopardy. It's a year and a half past the events of book one, but Giulia's sense of wellbeing and belonging start to fray once the new Maestra begins plying her for the secret to Passion blue. Giulia has always been strong-willed, so her battle of wills with her new mistress is not unexpected, but does add a new layer of struggle to Giulia's story.

Using Giulia and her less-than-well-received goals and dreams for the time, Strauss creates a subtle discussion about gender, identity, and gender roles in her newest novel. Color Song isn't taking a stance on anything or here to lecture, but the point is proved over and over throughout. Giulia is talented and capable and her fight for recognition, for an education, is compelling and frustrating all at the same time. Her vocation for art and expression is undeniable and it's easy to find yourself sympathizing and cheering for this character.

Detailed, rich, evocative, Color Song is a great sequel to what Passion Blue began. Victoria Strauss ably recreates the past, almost as easily as she creates realistic and defined characters. I would easily recommend this to historical fiction readers who like genderbending, going against convention, or just a well-written YA historical. 

Color Song Blog Tour & Book Blast Schedule

Monday, September 16
Book Blast at Passages to the Past
Book Blast at The True Book Addict

Tuesday, September 17
Review at Oh the Books
Book Blast at The Maiden’s Court

Wednesday, September 18
Review at Casual Readers
Review at Leeanna.com (Passion Blue)

Thursday, September 19
Review at Leeanna.com

Monday, September 22
Review at Ageless Pages Reviews
Feature at Oh the Books

Tuesday, September 23
Book Blast at Flashlight Commentary

Wednesday, September 24
Review at History from a Woman’s Perspective
Interview at Bibliophilia, Please
Book Blast at Reading Lark

Thursday, September 25
Book Blast at A Book Geek

Friday, September 26
Review at Reading Room Book Reviews
Book Blast at Just One More Chapter

Monday, September 29
Review at Tribute Books Mama
Interview at Math, Science & Social Studies…Oh My!

Tuesday, September 30
Review at Book Babe
Book Blast at Historical Fiction Connection

Wednesday, October 1
Review & Interview at Bookish
Book Blast at Historical Tapestry

Thursday, October 2
Review at Brooke Blogs
Review at Oh, for the Hook of a Book

Friday, October 3
Review at A Bibliotaph’s Reviews
Book Blast at The Lit Bitch

Saturday, October 4
Book Blast at Susan Heim on Writing

Monday, October 6
Review at WTF Are You Reading?
Book Blast at Let Them Read Books

Tuesday, October 7
Review at A Leisure Moment

Wednesday, October 8
Review at Peeking Between the Pages

Friday, October 10
Review at A Bookish Affair

Review: The Little Christmas Kitchen by Jenny Oliver

Title: The Little Christmas Kitchen

Author: Jenny Oliver 

Genre: Realistic fiction, Women's fiction
Series: None
Pages: N/A
Published: October 20, 2014
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Rating: 3 out of 5

The mince pies are cooling, the lights are twinkling, and just when you think you’re a roasted chestnut away from the perfect Christmas….along comes the new gift-wrapped treat of a book from Jenny Oliver. Enjoy!
Christmas at the Davenports’ house was always about one thing: food. But when sisters Ella and Maddy were split up, Ella to live in London with their Dad, and Maddy staying in Greece with their Mum, mince pies lost their magic.
Now, a cheating husband has thrown Ella a curved snowball…and for the first time in years, all she wants is her mum. So she heads back to Greece, where her family’s taverna holds all the promise of home. Meanwhile, waitress Maddy’s dreams of a white Christmas lead her back to London… and her Dad.

But a big fat festive life-swap isn’t as easy as it sounds! And as the sisters trade one kitchen for another, it suddenly seems that among the cinnamon, cranberries and icing sugar, their recipes for a perfect Christmas might be missing a crucial ingredient: each other.

Ella and Maddy are sisters in their mid-to-late twenties, living opposite lives. Thick as thieves until their parents' divorce fifteen years ago, Ella moved to London with Dad, while Maddy stayed in Greece with their mom. Now Ella is a wealthy ad exec with the perfect trust-fund husband and Maddy is a laid-back mechanic slash waitress at their mother's tavern. That is, until Ella's husband cheats and she runs back to Greece, just in time to find Maddy venturing to London to follow her dreams of singing.

Swapping places for the Christmas season is just what both women need in order to let go of old hurts and move forward with their lives. Of course, that's always easier said than done.

Ella's POV and story comes across as the more important, and the book could have stood just fine on her chapters alone. Maddy's is a little more muddled and she felt a lot younger than 24. It didn't help that Ella had something from the beginning to be overcome, while Maddy's issue doesn't appear until the book is almost over. It could have been better balanced.

In some ways, the book is very fanciful. Ella gets over her husband with nary a second thought. She and her ex are super friendly and there's no drama or issues dividing their huge piles of money. Everyone ends up right where they need to be, there are no coincidences, and famous but disillusioned authors arrive at Christmas with signed first editions of their books. Yet when it comes to confronting the girls’ parents, it's very realistic and hard to read. People holding onto decades old grudges, even after talking them out over cookies and tea, because of fear that letting go means all that time was wasted. People blaming children for bad decisions and adults for not being mind readers. It's at odds with the rest of the book, where a childhood friend flies across the continent to express his true love and you can walk away from your life to cook baklava in paradise.

I did still like The Little Christmas Kitchen. I wish Ella had ever told her mother, the one person most likely to understand, that she was getting a divorce. I kept waiting for the conversation that never came. Likewise, I wish Maddy’s confrontation with her dad was set up a lot sooner. But, as in Ms. Oliver’s first novel, the book works best in the kitchen. Both girls get a stand out scene where they make Christmas dinner, and the description and love of the food creates a great connection between the characters and the reader. In the end, that love carries some overly serious parts into a fun and light Christmas story.

Review: The Unhappening of Genesis Lee by Shallee McArthur

 Title: The Unhappening of Genesis Lee
Author: Shallee McArthur
Genre: Science Fiction
Series: None
Pages: 352
Published: November 4, 2014
Source: Publisher via edelweiss
Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Seventeen-year-old Genesis Lee has never forgotten anything. As one of the Mementi—a small group of genetically enhanced humans—Gena remembers everything with the help of her Link bracelets, which preserve them perfectly. But Links can be stolen, and six people have already lost their lives to a memory thief, including Gena’s best friend.

Anyone could be next. That’s why Gena is less than pleased to meet a strange but charming boy named Kalan who claims not only that they have met before, but also that Gena knows who the thief is.

The problem is that Gena doesn’t remember Kalan, she doesn’t remember seeing the thief, and she doesn’t know why she’s forgetting things—or how much else she might forget. As growing tensions between Mementi and ordinary humans drive the city of Havendale into chaos, Gena and Kalan team up to search for the thief. And as Gena loses more memories, they realize they have to solve the mystery fast…because Gena’s life is unhappening around her.

The Unhappening of Genesis Lee and I are not meant to be. I thought we were. It’s a young-adult sci-fi, one of my favorite genres, with a great synopsis, a pretty cover, and high ratings. Unfortunately, it’s also heavily Christian, with a saccharine ending, and not enough character development.

Gena’s a Mementi, genetically enhanced humans who have perfect recall of every moment of their lives, but only if those memories are stored in Links, special wood beads worn as jewelry. Someone is stealing Links, and after a night out with friends, a mysterious normal boy approaches Gena and tells her that she knew who it was, before she lost her own memories of the night.

Kalan is my first issue with the book. While Gena got character development, though a lot of it was very surface level, all I know about Kalan is his dad’s a preacher and he believes in God. He works at a garage, but does he like it? Does he go to school? Where are his friends? What does he dream of? I’m supposed to love the character as much as Gena does, but I never felt why. He’s nice, sure, but maybe YA characters should stop falling in love with the first guy who helps them.

Speaking of, the mystery they’re solving is a convoluted mess. It doesn’t help that Gena forgets Kalan and has to start all over three times, which was too many. There are two feuding science companies, corrupt police, missing persons, arson… and yet, it wasn’t very exciting. Except for the actual thief, all the people involved are the shady people the characters have suspected since chapter three. (And the actual thief is so out of left field and ridiculous, it’s not shocking. It’s cheap.)

I don’t read Christian fiction. I don’t find it enjoyable and it doesn’t match my personal values, so I choose to avoid the genre. I really wish there had been some hint in the blurb or the shelving to indicate how preachy the scenes with Kalan’s dad are. The rest of the book certainly has some overtones, particularly in the questions of how memories define our sense of self, but I really almost DNFd at the protracted sermon. It didn’t even add anything new. We already knew the non-Mementi didn’t like the enhanced people. It read like a different book every time the character was on the scene.

The Unhappening of Genesis Lee isn’t a bad debut, but it’s not one for me. There are some good science fiction ideas: the Links, the Mementi graveyard, the Low-G dance club. I really appreciated that Gena loves astronomy and ballet. Too often “smart” characters aren’t allowed to have “girly” interests, too. I liked the diversity, that she was a quarter Chinese and acknowledged that often. Unfortunately, there was just too much I didn’t like to overcome.

Review: The Body Electric by Beth Revis

Title: The Body Electric
Author: Beth Revis
Genre: Science Fiction
Series: None
Pages: 336
Published: October 6, 2014
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Rating: 3 out of 5

The future world is at peace.

Ella Shepherd has dedicated her life to using her unique gift--the ability to enter people's dreams and memories using technology developed by her mother--to help others relive their happy memories.

But not all is at it seems.

Ella starts seeing impossible things--images of her dead father, warnings of who she cannot trust. Her government recruits her to spy on a rebel group, using her ability to experience--and influence--the memories of traitors. But the leader of the rebels claims they used to be in love--even though Ella's never met him before in her life. Which can only mean one thing...

Someone's altered her memory.

Ella's gift is enough to overthrow a corrupt government or crush a growing rebel group. She is the key to stopping a war she didn't even know was happening. But if someone else has been inside Ella's head, she cannot trust her own memories, thoughts, or feelings.

So who can she trust?

The Body Electric was a really challenging book for me. I liked a lot of the ideas, but I found the execution very lacking. The twists aren’t just telegraphed, they’re explicitly revealed halfway through the book. Yet, the story continues to try and build tension by asking questions that have already been answered. “What is Ella?” The boat scene made that clear. The lab scene made it clearer. When she laid down on the medical table, crystal. But still the big climax contains as “shocking” flashback. I felt hammered over the head. And yet, the initial reveal did have great impact and kept me reading, though I’d been planning on stopping at the end of the chapter.

Over the course of the book, I made a pro/con list to help me with this review, but I realized that it said all I wanted to. So I give you, Pros and Cons of The Body Electric:

Pros:

WOC main character
WOC LGBT best friend
Memento-style clues to prior life
Cool futuristic city
Impactful initial twist - well written
Exciting action scenes
Interesting premise with the dreamscape
Female MC vs female villain with no male interference
Villain with three dimensional motivations
BEES

Cons:

Underdeveloped main character
Fridged WOC LGBT best friend
Memento plot dropped out of nowhere?
Derivative world building
The forced kiss between MC and LI
The romance. The whole thing.
Easily guessed twists - and a lot of them
Government reveals their big secret for no reason
Government reveals their big secret in front of rebels who could easily be recording
Muddled climax, layers of reality not well explained
Very little conclusion
NOT THE BEES

Danielle's October Reads and Book Hauls

Brandon Sanderson is a jerk. He's ruining my stats. All summer, I read ten books a month, but in September, I just had to read a 1,005 page fantasy epic. And then I just had to read the 1,080 page sequel. Best books of the year, though. All the stars.

I exaggerate, of course. Even with WoK and WoR, I still read 8 books in October. Unfortunately I added TWENTY books to my TBR list. Because I have poor impulse control and an amazing best friend.

Read:

Lark Ascending by Meagan Spooner - 2 stars (Review)
The One by Keira Cass - 1.5 Stars
Stitching Snow by R.C. Lewis - 3 Stars (Review)
Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty by Christine Heppermann - 5 Stars
Hit by Lorie Ann Grover - 2 Stars (Review)
The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg - 3.5 Stars (Review)
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson - 5 Stars
The Glass Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg - 3 Stars (Review)

I bought Poisoned Apples for myself and finally picked up The One from the library, but my real haul this month was this beauty:

That is the AMAZING box Jessie sent me. I can't even say enough thank yous. There's even a bookmark with my initial! She's beyond.

As far as ARCs? I made a huge mistake, but a good one. Two paper ARCs, (I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios and Witherwood Reform School by Obert Skye,) arrived from Macmillan, which, YAY.

Thanks again MacKids. Something Real's the debut of the year, so far.

I also got eight eARCs. Did I mention poor impulse control?

Not Shown: The Marriage Game by Allison Weir, Hit and The Paper Magician completed

Finally, I hosted two discussion posts this month, How Do You Find Time to Read? and Bookish Costumes for Great Imaginations' Blogger Trick or Treat. You should check those out ASAP.

What'd you read in October, darlings?