Jessie's Book Shelf Tour Pt. 1

Back in November of 2015 (so long ago), I kept planning a book shelf tour. I kept putting it off -- mainly because I have a lot of books and I am lazy -- but I've finally started assembling a series of posts to show off my pretties.

This post is about the books that I've mostly bought (some were gifts, BEA books, sent for reviews, etc.) but have not yet managed to read. As of right now, I have 660 books (at one point in 2015 it was 900!) that I owned that have never been opened. Some are on kindle or Nook, but the vast majority? Right here:

This is my small bookcase of unread books. It's mostly YA -- with ARCs for review on top, hanging out with Toothless.

And the biggies:

These are all also unread. There is still YA on here (mostly on the middle right side) but it's a lot of fantasy and historical fiction.'


I have an entire library for my read books, however. That post will be coming soon!

Review: The Impostor Queen by Sarah Fine

Title: The Impostor Queen
Author: Sarah Fine
Genre: fantasy
Series: Untitled #1
Pages: 432
Published: January 2016
Source: publishers via NetGalley
Rating: 4/5

The elders chose Elli to be queen, but they chose wrong in this beautifully crafted novel in the tradition of Kristin Cashore and Victoria Aveyard.

Sixteen-year-old Elli was a small child when the Elders of Kupari chose her to succeed the Valtia, the queen who wields infinitely powerful ice and fire magic. Since then, Elli has lived in the temple, surrounded by luxury and tutored by priests, as she prepares for the day when the Valtia perishes and the magic finds a new home in her. Elli is destined to be the most powerful Valtia to ever rule.

But when the queen dies defending the kingdom from invading warriors, the magic doesn’t enter Elli. It’s nowhere to be found.

Disgraced, Elli flees to the outlands, the home of banished criminals—some who would love to see the temple burn with all its priests inside. As she finds her footing in this new world, Elli uncovers devastating new information about the Kupari magic, those who wield it, and the prophecy that foretold her destiny. Torn between the love she has for her people and her growing loyalty to the banished, Elli struggles to understand the true role she was meant to play. But as war looms, she must align with the right side—before the kingdom and its magic are completely destroyed.

There aren't many things that would make me try a book three times. But luckily for me, my friend Gillian from Writer of Wrongs finished The Impostor Queen after I had thrown in the second towel and her excitement about the story, the characters, the diversity, sucked me back in when I thought I was out. Sarah Fine takes a bit of time and some patience for her story to build in this fantasy series opener; for her characters to coalesce; for her simple, stark style to suck her readers in so completely into this interesting, dangerous world. 

I am a fan of certain tropes in fantasy but the "chosen one" is used so often in the genre, it's become almost a joke. Which is why I love it that Sarah Fine twisted that trope into an entire plotline and she did it so cleverly. The Impostor Queen asks "what if the chosen one... isn't the chosen one?" and then explores power, community, and identity. Elli spends the early part of the novel preparing for one life and then the rest of the book trying to reconcile her role in an unknown world. It's a strong plot and Fine handles it with nuance and often with lovely writing.

The characters in The Impostor Queen are, for the most part, well rounded, nuanced, and diverse. It's so refreshing to have a canonically confirmed bisexual character in a fantasy. Elli is a great character for a lot of reasons, and her sexuality is just simply a part of who she is, not the entirety of her personality or characterization. She's a smart girl who sometimes makes foolish decisions but she tries. She has agency and her drive to help, to be useful is so real for a girl in her position. Her life is not the life she envisioned but she adapts. 

The characters that surround Elli are not quite as dynamic as she is. Oskar comes the closest but he also has the most time to be characterized and rounded out. Maarika, Freya, Sig, Mim, Raimo all are moderately three dimensional but all have potential to become more nuanced and interesting characters. I did find myself becoming very invested in the lives these disparate characters lead. I was invested in Elli and Oskar as a couple but Sarah Fine plays the romance with a light hand, thankfully. 

There are more than a few twists and turns and unpredictable villains at the heart of The Impostor Queen to keep things interesting. Sarah Fine is deft plotter and kept me actively engaged until the very end of the four hundred page book. As it is the series opener there's less resolution to be found than I would like but I am 100% ready to jump back into this series with the next book.  It took a few tries but the story in this novel is worth the effort and time.

Review: In A Handful of Dust by Mindy McGinness

Title: In A Handful of Dust
Author: Mindy McGinnis
Genre: post apocalyptic
Series: Not A Drop to Drink #2
Pages: 384
Published: September 2014
Source: publishers for review
Rating: 3/5

The only thing bigger than the world is fear.

Lucy’s life by the pond has always been full. She has water and friends, laughter and the love of her adoptive mother, Lynn, who has made sure that Lucy’s childhood was very different from her own. Yet it seems Lucy’s future is settled already—a house, a man, children, and a water source—and anything beyond their life by the pond is beyond reach.

When disease burns through their community, the once life-saving water of the pond might be the source of what’s killing them now. Rumors of desalinization plants in California have lingered in Lynn’s mind, and the prospect of a “normal” life for Lucy sets the two of them on an epic journey west to face new dangers: hunger, mountains, deserts, betrayal, and the perils of a world so vast that Lucy fears she could be lost forever, only to disappear in a handful of dust.

In this companion to Not a Drop to Drink, Mindy McGinnis thrillingly combines the heart-swelling hope of a journey, the challenges of establishing your own place in the world, and the gripping physical danger of nature in a futuristic frontier.

Mindy McGinnis has a great imagination and she likes to take risks with her writing and characters. It's for these two reasons that I keep trying her books, though I've yet to find one of the three that really clicks with me as a reader. I'm willing to give her more of a chance because she is an author that doesn't do what you expect and that makes her stories different and memorable. Not A Drop to Drink was a strong debut and series opener and though this book is set 10 years later, it hardly misses a step settling back with these characters.

This time around, Lucy is 16ish, and Lynn is now somewhere in her late twenties. Having adapted as much as possible in the years since the end of book one, their small community soon faces a new but unrelenting foe for book two: disease and sickness. It's a brutal book and characters drop often, or face harsh realities in dealing with new issues. McGinnis wasn't as cutthroat as I wanted with the main character body count, but she still makes the book hurt. It took a couple chapters for the plot to engage and for the pacing to settle, but once it does, this is a pretty smooth read.

Lynn is pragmatic, determined, and smart. Her characterization remains pretty much the same from who she was in Not A Drop to Drink and doesn't change much over the course of this second novel. She's also quite the feminist ("We hear you shoot like a man." "You heard wrong. I shoot like a woman.") and she is entirely capable in the wild. This time around, though, it is Lucy's show. Almost an adult and with a secret to protect, Lucy is both a reminder of Lynn as a teen and a foil for the adult version of Lynn. Their dynamic of a found family comes into  play a lot over the book but their bond is strong, though still tested.

In A Handful of Dust was a pretty good book but I can't help but feel that it was unnecessary. I'm glad that Mindy McGinnis handled it well and didn't rehash the exact same plot as Not A Drop to Drink but it lacks the punch and the shock that started and ended the first. 

TBR Planning: January 2016

It's the first month of the year I am promising myself I will be so organized. I have done pretty well with these TBR Planning posts because I set a goal and I also feel the shame if I don't read any of the books I planned to.

This month's must reads:

Remembrance by Meg Cabot

In REMEMBRANCE, the seventh installment of the Mediator series, all Susannah Simon wants is to make a good impression at her first job since graduating from college (and becoming engaged to Dr. Jesse de Silva).

But when she stumbles across an ancient murder, old ghosts—and ex-boyfriends—aren’t all that come back to haunt her.

REMEMBRANCE will be the first ever adult installment of the Mediator, published by William Morrow, the adult division of HarperCollins, the company that brought you the YA books in the series.

 

I'm part of the blog tour for this and I am unbelievably excited. I came late to the Mediator fanclub (freshman in college, no I won't tell you what year that was)


Assassin's Heart by Sara Ahiers
This comes later in the month so it's due up soon. Rival families, assassins, betrayal... yeah this sounds right up my alley.

Revenge and the Wild by Michelle Modesto
A fantasyish western? I am not 100% sold on the blurb and summary but it definitely has my attention for a try.

Reign of Shadows by Sophie Jordan
My first Sophie Jordan and I hope it doesn't let me down. I know it's a fantasy romance but I hope the two aspects are.. equal.

Review: Shallow Graves by Kali Wallace

Title: Shallow Graves
Author: Kali Wallace
Genre: supernatural
Series: N/A
Pages: 368
Published: expected January 26 2015
Source: publishers via edelweiss
Rating: 3.5/5

For fans of Holly Black and Nova Ren Suma, a gripping, hauntingly atmospheric novel about murder, revenge, and a world where monsters—human and otherwise—lurk at the fringes.

When seventeen-year-old Breezy Lin wakes up in a shallow grave one year after her death, she doesn’t remember who killed her or why. All she knows is that she’s somehow conscious—and not only that, she’s able to sense who around her is hiding a murderous past. In life, Breezy was always drawn to the elegance of the universe and the mystery of the stars. Now she must set out to find answers and discover what is to become of her in the gritty, dangerous world to which she now belongs—where killers hide in plain sight and a sinister cult is hunting for strange creatures like her. What she finds is at once empowering, redemptive, and dangerous.

Tense, complex, and wholly engaging, Shallow Graves is a stunning first novel from Kali Wallace. 

This was a weird, creepy,  and memorable book for me; it took a few chapters to hook me but once I was in, I could not put it down. If you're looking for a pop culture comparison, it and main character Breezy bring to mind Dexter (a killer hunting killers) meets Supernatural (evil monsters in a modern era). It's a fun premise and makes for an engaging debut. Shallow Graves is a curious and original mix of contemporary and creepy and for the most part of those nearly 370 pages, it works quite well.

Breezy is the best part of the novel; her voice is real, authentic, and dry. She thinks and feels like a, forgive me, living teen. Her struggle to understand what happened as well as to understand what she now is are the two plotlines that make up the story. The other characters weren't as defined as Breezy, but had potential. I liked the inclusion of Zeke and Jake (without adding a romance, even!) but there wasn't much characterization done for them or for Rain/Ingrid/Violet. This was definitely Breezy's show and though she carried it, they could have used some more time and attention. 

This is definitely in the vein of Nova Ren Suma -- there's monsters and mayhem and magic but there's not a whole lot of definitive answers or reasons to be found. There's no grand reveal or worldbuilding; in Wallace's created world, there are hidden monsters and somehow a human girl became one of them.  I was a little disappointed by the lack of resolution to be found -- the book just kinda wanders off after a minor confrontation. There's still definitely possibilities in the air for the characters and the story but the author doesn't committ to anything. 

Shallow Graves is more introspective than gory; more contemplative than horror. There are moments of genuine creepiness to be found, but this would be a good read for fans of novels along the lines of M.R. Carey's The Girl with All the Gifts from 2014. Memorable, supernatural, and different, Kali Wallace's  YA debut was more than enough to make me lookout for whatever her next novel may be.  

 

Jessie's December Wrap Up

It's January! It's 2016! It's a whole new reading year! I know the last few posts have been top tens and surveys but here's what we had going on for the blog in December:

Books Read: 31

Notable Favorites:
Thicker Than Water by Kelly Fiore Stultz
Winterspell by Claire Legrand
The Burning Sky & The Perilous Sea by Sherry Thomas
Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
Their Fractured Light by Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner
Princesses Behaving Badly: Real Stories from History Without the Fairy-Tale Endings by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie


Reviews Posted:

Firsts by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn (3.5 stars)
Kiss Kill Vanish by Jessica Martinez (4 stars)
Thicker Than Water by Kelly Fiore Stultz (4 stars)
Series Review: Original Shannara trilogy by Terry Brooks
Da Vinci's Tiger by L.M. Elliott (2.5 stars)
Covenant's End by Ari Marmell (4 stars)
Bone Gap by Laura Ruby (2 stars)
The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness


Flights of Fantasy Wrap Up: #94 - #100

Beauty by Sarah Pinborough (Tales of the Kingdom #3) 12/5/12 - 12/6/15
The Rose Throne by Mette Ivie Harrison (The Rose Throne #1) 12/13/15 - 12/15/15
The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas (The Elemental Trilogy #1) 12/14/15 - 12/16/15
The Perilous Sea by Sherry Thomas (The Elemental Trilgy #2) 12/17/15 -12/20/15
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George R. R. Martin (Tales of Dunk and Egg #1-3) 12/22/15 - 12/23/15
Winterspell by Claire Legrand (Winterspell #1) 12/23/15 - 12/25/15
Worlds of Ink and Shadow by Lena Coakley 12/17/15 - 12/27/5

2016 TBR

These are the books I own and intend to read as of 1/1/2016. These are the 60+ books that are eligible for #RockMyTBR, in roughly order of priority.

Isla and the Happily Ever After
The Archived
Tower of Midnight
Siege and Storm
Endsinger
Fortune's Pawn
Lips Touch 3 Times
Natural History of Dragons
The Duke is Mine
Nine Rules to Break When Romancing the Rake
Lady Thief
Master Magician
Greatcoat's Lament
Bitter Greens
Discount Armageddon
Vault of Dreamers
Warbreaker
Outlander
Everything I Know About Love I Learned from Romance Novels
Mila 2.0
Graceling
Unwind
The Distance Between Us
Dangerous Women
Rogues
Libromancer
Night Circus
Before I Fall
Memory of After
Old Man's War
Pivot Point
India Black 2
Savages
Hung Up
Where She Went
Evidence of Things Not Seen
Joker: Death of the Family
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight
Monstrous Regiment
Thud
Snuff
Dorian Gray
Mists of Avalon
Fangirl
Beastkeeper
Looking for Alibrandi
Magnolia
Exquisite Captive
Tessa Masterson Will Go to Prom
School of Good and Evil
Sandman Vol.1
Mutineer
Wizard's Promise
Stolen Songbird
Assassin's Curse
Glass Casket
Kushiel's Dart
She is Not Invisible
Love Letters to the Dead
Fade to Black
Shadowplay