ARC Review: Burning Glass - Kathryn Purdie

Title: Burning Glass
Author: Kathryn Purdie
Pub Date: March 1st, 2016
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Page Count: 512

Sonya was born with the rare gift to feel what those around her feel—both physically and emotionally—a gift she’s kept hidden from the empire for seventeen long years. After a reckless mistake wipes out all the other girls with similar abilities, Sonya is hauled off to the palace and forced to serve the emperor as his sovereign Auraseer.

Tasked with sensing the intentions of would-be assassins, Sonya is under constant pressure to protect the emperor. One mistake, one small failure, will cost her own life and the lives of the few people left in the world who still trust her.

But Sonya’s power is untamed and reckless, her feelings easily usurped, and she sometimes can’t decipher when other people’s impulses end and her own begin. In a palace full of warring emotions and looming darkness, Sonya fears that the biggest danger to the empire may be herself.

As she struggles to wrangle her abilities, Sonya seeks refuge in her tenuous alliances with the volatile Emperor Valko and his idealistic younger brother, Anton, the crown prince. But when threats of revolution pit the two brothers against each other, Sonya must choose which brother to trust—and which to betray.

BURNING GLASS is debut author Kathryn Purdie’s stunning tale of dangerous magic, heart-rending romance, and the hard-won courage it takes to let go.

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After hearing such positive reviews of this novel from reviewers I trust, I feel as though I wasn't reading the same novel. - Nova @ Out of Time

This review is a rant. It is angry and possibly long winded. If that is not your thing, I advise that you don't read on.

About a year ago, I wrote a review for The Sin Eater's Daughter in which I highlighted things like a useless main character and nonexistent plot that bothered the crap out of me. This review goes down as one of the most negative I've ever written. I never thought I'd be in a position to write another review, but here we are again.

Burning Glass started off very quickly. It immersed me into the story without much warning so I felt as though I was being thrown in the deep end. I was actually a little confused. But that went away really quickly. What first struck me was how quickly the disaster happens. I felt as though the disaster was written really well and really darkly. I could feel Sonya's pain and survivor's guilt. But after a few chapters, it's like she forgot that all the people she grew up with are dead.

Nevertheless, I kept going and realized that things started to get better. We're introduced to Prince Anton and Emperor Valko. Immediately, I got the sense there would be a love triangle. Cue an eyeroll. The story doesn't do much, going between idle politics and the push/pull between the characters. Nearing the end, it's like the book realizes it hasn't done anything and thrusts and entire story worth of action in a few chapters. The plot itself is very dry and not original. Corrupt ruler gets overthrown by an unlikely heroine. You already know how this ends. It concludes with the main character doing something "strong" and proving that she's got power even though there was no building of any kind. Things fell into place too easy. It made no sense.

Sonya was idiotic and you know, if there was development, I wouldn't have minded. However, there wasn't. Being away from boys for your entire live and then sensing the allure of a prince [and an Emperor], I get it. The initial swoony feeling is totally natural. But once one of the two starts to force themselves on you and treating you like a mistress, I feel as though the choice is pretty clear. Sonya, unfortunately, did not. In the end, she does do something but it has nothing to do with the way the character treated her, which, to me, is SO NOT OKAY. It took her a long time before she realized a person's true nature. It's even more of a joke when you realize that Sonya's Auraseer power makes it so she's supposed to be able to sense people; their intentions and emotions. For someone of that power, she's exceptionally naive and useless.
This went from bad to worse nearing the end as I say it again. When she finally realizes her power, it's like there is no work involved to reach her goal of saving people. The people who have been terrorizing the fictional world since the beginning of the novel happen to bend to the will of a teenager without consequence?

I'm honestly so sick of this trope where the main character has more power than the entire country in her pinky. It stunts development, in my opinion. The worst part is that it's evidently clear that Sonya lacks any kind of control with her power. I don't understand why that wasn't a setback in the novel. Instead, it was all smooth sailing. More setbacks would slow down the story but it would also encourage development and natural growth.


The rest of the characters were no better. I felt as though I was in a wax museum the entire time. First we have the ruler bent on control. Then, there's the naive girl in the wrong place. Lastly, a prince with good intentions and a smoldering gaze who can do no wrong. I love how unique these characters are!1!11!1 Oh wait. This story relied on Sonya as the focal point. The other characters came into when it was in relation to her. It's hard to believe Sonya was not born in the palace with the way people kept kissing her ass.

I'm shaking my head while writing this review. I have no idea how to express my thoughts on this one. I found it a complete waste of my time, only pushing through because I kept assuming there would be something more; that there would be a part that blew my mind and made me realize why I heard so many great things. This didn't happen and now I'm snarky.

Kathryn's Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter | Website

Kathryn’s love of storytelling began as a young girl when her dad told her about someone named Boo Radley while they listened to the film score of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. In high school and college, Kathryn focused on acting, poetry, guitar, and extensive journal writing. Years later, when she was in recovery from donating a kidney to her brother, inspiration for her first novel struck. She’s been writing darkly fantastical stories ever since. Her debut novel, BURNING GLASS, releases winter 2016 from HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books.

 

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Book Review: Last Year's Mistake - Gina Ciocca

Title: Last Year's Mistake
Author: Gina Ciocca
Pub Date: June 9th, 2015
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Page Count: 256

Before:
Kelsey and David became best friends the summer before freshman year and were inseparable ever after. Until the night a misunderstanding turned Kelsey into the school joke, and everything around her crumbled—including her friendship with David. So when Kelsey's parents decided to move away, she couldn't wait to start over and leave the past behind. Except, David wasn't ready to let her go...

After:
Now it's senior year and Kelsey has a new group of friends, genuine popularity, and a hot boyfriend. Her life is perfect. That is, until David's family moves to town and he shakes up everything. Soon old feelings bubble to the surface and threaten to destroy Kelsey's second chance at happiness. The more time she spends with David, the more she realizes she never truly let him go. And maybe she never wants to.

Told in alternating sections, LAST YEAR'S MISTAKE is a charming and romantic debut about loving, leaving, and letting go.

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Me and this book certainly had disagreements. And that's putting it lightly. Bluntly, I couldn't agree with anything or anyone in this novel. I found the relationships to be unhealthy and the characters in need of a dose of reality. - Nova @ Out of Time

Jeez, this book. I was very disappointed in the beginning and downright angry at the end. In my opinion, this is such an unrealistic and petty way of viewing romance and how a relationship should work. I'm not an expert, never having a boyfriend but let's talk about love for a second. Regardless if it's a significant other or family, it's still love and I think all of us have felt love sometime or other. Anyway, this book described love as "keeping your feeling quiet and then getting mad when the other person moves on." I don't know how many times it happened because it was more than once. Even worse! The book is told from past and present, meaning that while three years went by between the past and present - the characters continued to make the same mistakes and had no growth.

There is nothing cute about treating the person you "love" like shit and then getting angry when they get angry. I thought if you like someone, you tell them and ride off into the sunset [that or get your best friend and tubs of Ben and Jerry's.] 

The main characters, Kelsey and David felt very stupid to me. Both of them were on awkward terms in the present because of something that went wrong a few summers ago. When we found out what went wrong, I can't say I'm surprised. While some might've expected a deep and heartbreaking reason, it was basically Kelsey making a stupid decision that hurt everyone.

In the "present," we're told that Kelsey's moved on, she's got friends and a great boyfriend. She's worked so hard for this and though I don't know why anyone wants to be friends with her. Kelsey likes to slut shame [her friend] but it's perfectly justifiable because she's... "jealous."When her friend shows interest in David it's like:

David is no better - playing hot and cold the entire time. They're both stringing each other along, being nice to each other sometimes and then for whatever reason, having a mood swing and stabbing the other in the back. David is also supposed to be really "nice" but he hung out with the people who bullied Kelsey even though he's her "best friend." If someone treated my best friend like shit, I know exactly whose side I would take.

 Something else that really bothered me was how David used a girl to make Kelsey jealous. Near the end, he was dating this girl and Kelsey said, "don't date a girl to make me jealous." Obviously, David got defensive. A few days later, he'd gone to Kelsey [or she went to him - I forget] and they made up the last time. The girl he used was sent to oblivion, now dumped, she had no relevance to the story. And that bothered me. People got hurt because Kelsey and David couldn't just say, "I like you. We should date."

I don't recommend this book at all unless you're into this kind of stuff. However, checking Goodreads, I'm not the popular opinion so if you wanted to check this one out, go for it and then we can discuss!

Gina's Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter | Website

Gina Ciocca graduated from the University of Connecticut with a degree in English. She lives in Georgia with her family. Gina is a member of the writing and blogging group YA Misfits and you can find her online at WritersBlog-Gina.blogspot.com. Last Year’s Mistake is her first novel.

Gina Ciocca graduated from the University of Connecticut with a degree in English. She lives in Georgia with her family. Gina is a member of the writing and blogging group YA Misfits and you can find her online at WritersBlog-Gina.blogspot.com. Last Yea - See more at: http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Gina-Ciocca/474501842#sthash.e2RZLnpm.dpuf

 

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ARC Review: The Sin Eater's Daughter - Melinda Salisbury

Title: The Sin Eater's Daughter
Author: Melinda Salisbury
Pub Date: Febrary 24th, 2015
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Page Count: 336

Seventeen-year-old Twylla lives in the castle. But although she’s engaged to the prince, Twylla isn’t exactly a member of the court.

She’s the executioner.

As the Goddess embodied, Twylla instantly kills anyone she touches. Each month she’s taken to the prison and forced to lay her hands on those accused of treason. No one will ever love a girl with murder in her veins. Even the prince, whose royal blood supposedly makes him immune to Twylla’s fatal touch, avoids her company.

But then a new guard arrives, a boy whose easy smile belies his deadly swordsmanship. And unlike the others, he’s able to look past Twylla’s executioner robes and see the girl, not the Goddess. Yet Twylla’s been promised to the prince, and knows what happens to people who cross the queen.

However, a treasonous secret is the least of Twylla’s problems. The queen has a plan to destroy her enemies, a plan that requires a stomach-churning, unthinkable sacrifice. Will Twylla do what it takes to protect her kingdom? Or will she abandon her duty in favor of a doomed love?

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What I thought was going to be the best book ever turned out to be the complete opposite. Heaviest disappoint of 2k15. - Nova @ Out of Time

I'm going to do my best to not make this a 3000 word review. But I want to, I really do. There was so much about this book that made me want to run into a wall. Nothing about this review is positive. The only reason it gets a rating at all is because I'm not for the "no stars" rating.

Firstly, if you think this plot is about a badass girl who has a lot of power and all the action occurs, you are dead wrong. What this book actually is? Oh hi! I didn't see you there, Bella Swan. Twylla whines the whole book. I don't think she actually did anything at all. She just sat there and it was up to the other [crappily written] characters to haul her ass. Plus, she had these written crappy internal monologues that gave me a headache.

Twylla might be the Goddess Embodied, but I think Ashley's the real deal.

Next, let's go for the lies in the summary. The entire summary is a lie. And what frustrates me is that I can't give specific examples without spoilers, so you're going to have to trust me. Basically, the summary is an epic high fantasy that has a lot of thrill. The book, however, is a badly written episode of Gossip Girl with your favorite ship, Dan and Blair! Seriously, the romance in this book was sickening. Besides the fact that it was cheesy as hell, there was also BOTH instalove [he used the L word when they don't even know each other] AND a love triangle [Twylla, you cannot have both of them. Deal with it.]
But the more the merrier, right?

Let's keep going by talking about every character's uncanny ability to figure out the schemes that were supposed to be surprising in two seconds flat. This story features a few secrets and plot twists; they weren't even bad plot twists. How the bomb was dropped was what made everything go to hell. Do you want the character explaining what is really going on? If you answered yes, you're going to love this! But if you think this method is going to give you the "WHOA WHAT JUST HAPPENED?" feeling, you're dead wrong. Instead, I felt like someone SPOILED the book for me and it was the character. Like what the hell is that?
And worse, that happened a grand total of three times [at least!]

For high fantasy, the world building needs to be top notch. If it isn't, the book will most likely flop. This book went a different route. It sped through the fast lane by using huge amounts of info dumping. I was so confused in the beginning. It would be Twylla doing some wonky narration and then something she said would be a segway to an info dumped memory in the past. Like what?

Finally, the characters! I didn't like ANY of them. Save for annoying Twylla, they were all so one dimensional. I felt like they were all there to be Twylla's footstool and didn't really exist without her. There were a few characters that had potential but ultimately flopped.

All the truth though.

Funny, that's pretty much the entire book. I was willing to let the whole "sounds like Shatter Me but high fantasy" thought go, but this book proved to be something else entirely. And not something good. 

Melinda's Goodreads | Twitter | Website |

Melinda Salisbury lives by the sea, somewhere in the south of England. As a child she genuinely thought Roald Dahl’s Matilda was her biography, in part helped by her grandfather often mistakenly calling her Matilda, and the local library having a pretty cavalier attitude to the books she borrowed. Sadly she never manifested telekinetic powers. She likes to travel, and have adventures. She also likes medieval castles, non-medieval aquariums, Richard III, and all things Scandinavian. The Sin Eater’s Daughter is her first novel.
She can be found on Twitter at @AHintofMystery, though be warned, she tweets often.
Her first novel, The Sin Eater’s Daughter, will be published by Scholastic UK and Scholastic Inc. in March 2015. She is represented by the amazing Claire Wilson at Rogers, Coleridge and White.
She can eat more fondue than you and she saw The Grand Budapest Hotel 11 times at the cinema, in six different cities, across five different countries.

 

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ARC Review: Panic - Lauren Oliver

Title:Panic
Author: Lauren Oliver
Pub Date: March 4th, 2014
Publisher: HarperTEEN
Page Count: 416

Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a dead-end town of 12,000 people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do.

Heather never thought she would compete in Panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She’d never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought.

Dodge has never been afraid of Panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game, he’s sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he’s not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for.

For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them—and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most.

Buy Links

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My Thoughts

I really wanted to like this one. With Lauren Oliver, I usually have an intense love for her writing style, but not her plotting. With Delirium (trilogy), I questioned some of the events that happened. I have a bit of an "issue" with her books, but usually the love and the hate balances out.
Dude... I really wanted to love this one. When I first read the synopsis, I had full confidence it wasn't going to be a Hunger Games knockoff. It wouldn't be fair to compare everything that involves a game with heavy stakes to THG. Fortunately for me, it really wasn't that similar, but that and her writing are about the only good things that I can draw from this novel.

My main problem is how stupid this game of Panic is. The game of Panic is not explained in the synopsis and even after reading it, I don't know if I get it completely. It's a game in which everyone gets challenges to complete. You complete it, you stay in the game. And then there are challenges that everyone has to do and the last to finish is eliminated. Unfortunately, these challenges are not creative and plain stupid. Examples would be staying in a burning house and playing Russian Roulette. It's supposed to put you in situations of "panic" but for me, I was bored and tired of the players' stupidity rather than focusing on their "thrilling" panic. And what you win... money. I don't see why this was such a big deal or why the stakes were so high. 67,000 dollars to your life? Are the people that stupid?
Plus, there was absolutely no justification for Panic. "Panic was started because the people were bored." That is literally the reason for this life-endangering (idiotic) game. Because the people of this dingy town were...bored. *facepalm*

Another thing I didn't get was the worldbuilding or lack of it. This is a town that I'm getting has no law, people do drugs and no one actually cares about Panic. No way this is real. I had absolutely no belief this was a real world; even if it was Dystopian (was it Dystopian? I have no idea...)
Panic was apparently "banned" for being dangerous but there was absolutely no followup to anyone who we obviously knew was playing; does no one notice the burning building? And you've always got one person who can't keep their mouth shut. Unbelievable.

It doesn't help that the entire book was a blur. The plot was so dull. It was a girl who was reluctant to enter Panic (like The Selection... lol) and then ending up winning it. Panic wasn't even the major event in the plot; it was random teenage drama with an eyebrow-raising situations every now and then. I didn't connect with any of the characters and it took me half the book to even realize what was going on. It's horrible that while I'm trying to write a review, I'm drawing complete blanks to the plot and any points that I know I should include in this review.

I hated all the characters. That or I didn't know them. The entire beginning is us introduced to a whirlwind of characters in a matter of pages and I was like who's that? And even after so many characters were named, they weren't given personalities and mentioned only to progress the story, not to add to it or shape it. *facepalm* (again.)

So let's end this review with a good point, shall we? Lauren's writing. I still believe she has a prose that looks effortless. Unfortunately, she pretty much needs to work on everything else. The descriptions were beautiful and thoughts were carried out in a lyrical way, but I had trouble believing everything and trying to understand the characters that I still believe were poorly crafted.

Author Info

Lauren's Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter | Website |

Lauren Oliver comes from a family of writers and so has always (mistakenly) believed that spending hours in front of the computer every day, mulling over the difference between “chortling” and “chuckling,” is normal. She has always been an avid reader.

She attended the University of Chicago, where she continued to be as impractical as possible by majoring in philosophy and literature. After college, she attended the MFA program at NYU and worked briefly as the world’s worst editorial assistant, and only marginally better assistant editor, at a major publishing house in New York. Her major career contributions during this time were flouting the corporate dress code at every possible turn and repeatedly breaking the printer. Before I Fall is her first published novel.

She is deeply grateful for the chance to continue writing, as she has never been particularly good at anything else.

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