The Alchemy of Forever

Author: Avery Williams

Series: Incarnation # 1

Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance, Young Adult

Publisher: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers

Released: 3 January 2012

Summary: courtesy of goodreads.com Seraphina has been alive since the 1300's, made immortal when the boy she was beginning to love back then, Cyrus, saved her from death with a strange liquid - a method of alchemy that lets them swap bodies with any human being. But now, in modern day America, Sera has decided that she can no longer bear the weight of stealing people's lives so she can keep living on. So she decides to run away from Cyrus and end her stolen existence once and for all. Her plan goes awry when she accidentally takes the body of a dying teenager and feels forced to take over her life. When the lines between Sera and Kailey's identity begin to blur, Sera finds a reason to desire to live once more. But she can't shake the guilt of having taken Kailey's life, even if she was dying. And what if Cyrus finds her?

For Fans Of: Elixir, My Name is Memory and Touching the Surface

My Review:  The Alchemy of Forever reminded of a firework, in that at the beginning it was really enticing and exciting and fun with an initial boom and really grabs you, but slowly things fizzed out and by the end I was asking myself why I had bothered finishing.  Because of the pacing I felt that Alchemy fell into the category of “novella” as opposed to a bonafide novel.  I felt that things were pretty stop and go from the beginning, and it also relies heavily on fads, specifically ‘Words with Friends’.  I have a really hard time when novels rely on fads because it automatically dates them.  As a matter of fact the only novel I’ve been able to accept a fad in has been Flat Out Love.  Which worked because of the characters.

For some reason I couldn’t really get behind any of the characters in Alchemy.  For someone who has been around for a couple hundred years I felt like Seraphina should have been a little stronger and a little less stupid.  I mean, if she is so set on dying than why is she afraid of Cyrus in the first place?  Because it really didn’t make sense to me in that respect it made it hard for the novel to make sense.

I don’t know, Alchemy just felt really cookie cutter to me, I didn’t really understand the point of the novel, I realize that books especially ya books are meant to be entertaining, but I have a hard time when they don’t make any sense, as in the point of them doesn’t really make sense.  I left this one asking more questions about than feeling like I had any answers.  I understand that with a series there should be some questions left behind, but with Alchemy I felt like I had asked too many questions throughout the novel to make it worth seeing how it ends.

Waiting

Author: Carol Lynch Williams

Series: Stand Alone

Genres: Realistic, Young Adult, Contemporary

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Released: 1 May 2012

Summary: After her brother’s death, a teen struggles to rediscover love and find redemption in this gripping novel.
Growing up in Africa and Latin America as the children of missionaries, London and Zach were as close as could be. And then Zach dies, and the family is gutted. London’s father is distant. Her mother won’t speak. The days are filled with what-ifs and whispers: Did Zach take his own life? Was it London’s fault?
Alone and adrift, London finds herself torn between her brother’s best friend and the handsome new boy in town as she struggles to find herself—and ultimately redemption—in this authentic and affecting novel from award-winning novelist Carol Lynch Williams.

For Fans Of: Crank, Unbreak My Heart, and One Moment

My Review: There is something that you should know about Waiting.  It is written in that weird free verse sort of way that Crank is written in.  I did not know this before reading it.  And I think that pertains in part to why I did not like this book.  Waiting was hard for me for a number of reasons.

Reason 1: The love triangle.  SERIOUSLY!  Why?! Love triangles are completely ridiculous and should be banned from ya books.  Since when have girls like London become the object of guy’s affection?  I mean, she is one messed up chick, which brings me to reason 2.

Reason 2: London is annoying.  How many times do I have to read a ya book where every other verb seems to be crying, sniffling, weeping, etc.  I get it.  This book is sad, but there are ways to do sad.  There are ways to balance it out and make you think more about life than death. 

Reason 3: The relationships.  In addition to London having weird, awkward, and having ultimately unresolved amounts of boy trouble she also has really weird family issues going on.

In addition to the reasons listed above this writing style really just drove me completely crazy.  It felt like a high school essay contest, dripping with angst that by the time I finished I was exhausted. (and it’s a fast read!)  It seems like so many ya books today are dealing with death, which means that it has been done right before.  Books like Saving June, get it right.  This book was not one of those.  I honestly can't say what exactly it was about this book that truly bothered me so much, but it's definitely not one that I would read again.  Once was enough.

Fracture

Author: Megan Miranda

Series: Stand Alone

Genres: Paranormal, Young Adult, Supernatural, Fantasy

Publisher: Walker Childrens

Released: 17 January 2012

Summary: courtesy goodreads.com Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?  Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's motives aren't quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?  

For Fans Of: Existence, The Alchemy of Forever, and The Catastrophic History of You and Me

My Review: Fracture was a hard one for me, mainly because I felt like there were two warring plot lines that didn’t feel like getting along.  One was a paranormal, ghost story, first love sort of thing and the other was a girl trying to figure out what exactly has happened to her.  A lot of books have competing plot lines, but for some reason in Fracture, it doesn’t work.  The reason, in my opinion that they don’t work is because Miranda skims the surface of both without making either the dominant.

Is Delaney somehow a paranormal anomaly now?  Or is she just crazy?  I felt like her condition was never really explained and that things were all over the place.  Like a parent trying to keep a child under control.  That’s how this plot felt to me.  Like someone was constantly getting reigned back in.  Although I really liked the idea, it almost had too much basis in the realm of reality that when the paranormal stuff was introduced I had a hard time believing it.  This also made it hard to get behind any of the characters.  Delaney makes a lot of lame decisions concerning Decker and Troy and I get that she is just a girl trying to figure things out, but seriously.  Another love triangle?  Why not just axe Troy, he was annoying and vindictive and kind of a creeper anyway.

For a novel about death, that is sort of similar to this I would go for the Soul Screamer series, because although they aren’t exactly the same at least the plot isn’t all over the place.

Underworld

Author: Meg Cabot

Series: Abandon Trilogy # 2

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult, Mythology

Publisher: Point

Released: 8 May 2012

Summary: courtesy of goodreads.com Escape from the realm of the dead is impossible when someone there wants you back. Seventeen-year-old Pierce Oliviera isn’t dead. Not this time. But she is being held against her will in the dim, twilit world between heaven and hell, where the spirits of the deceased wait before embarking upon their final journey. Her captor, John Hayden, claims it’s for her own safety. Because not all the departed are dear. Some are so unhappy with where they ended up after leaving the Underworld, they’ve come back as Furies, intent on vengeance…on the one who sent them there and on the one whom he loves. But while Pierce might be safe from the Furies in the Underworld, far worse dangers could be lurking for her there…and they might have more to do with its ruler than with his enemies. And unless Pierce is careful, this time there’ll be no escape

For Fans Of: Dreamless, The Goddess Inheritance, Goddess Interrupted, and Envy.

My Review: After reading Abandon, I really didn’t know if I had it in me to continue on with the series.  But, they’re not that many pages and I read pretty fast so I thought “what the heck, might as well”  and unfortunately, I wasn’t too impressed (I should have known, right!?)  Underworld picks up exactly where Abandon left off.  It was a worthy sequel in that it didn’t really feel like a sequel.  Pierce is still kind of a whiner, and manipulates John into doing whatever she wants.  Although she is getting a little bit better at listening to him.  The strangest thing for me about Underworld is that I never really felt a lot of chemistry happening between Pierce and John.  Cabot is excellent at chemistry.  She is practically the QUEEN of shy glances, and epic pseudo damsel in distress sequences.  Seriously.  This is one of the best things about Meg.  She knows how to write the perfect girl book.  She has a lot of heart, and so do her characters.  And she knows how to write the perfectly cute dialogue between teenage boy and girl that makes up the relationship.  However, with Pierce and John the spark that Meg is so good at was noticeably absent.

I’ve read all of Meg’s books (well, all of the ones for Young Adults and Middle Readers, and the Boy series, and the Heather Wells Mysteries and the first and second Queen of Babble books) and there was just something so…off about this one.

The story was well constructed, and I sort of like the idea.  As in, I'm warming up to it.  The story of Persephone is one that has always been incredibly fascinating, and the way that it is incorporated into this one is awesome! (Although I must admit, I had my misgivings with Abandon) But now I've realized Meg isn’t trying to re-create anything, or do a simple “YA Updated Version” she is spinning the tale on it’s head and has created some pretty real characters.  In fact, it’s their real-ness that has me annoyed.  Meg is pretty good at taking me out of real life, to a witty, hilarious other-world that I really love and wish actually existed.  Is that weird.  Underworld, which is one of Meg’s first legitimate “fantasy” novels is the one that is most real dialogue wise.  And that is the reason that I was kind of disappointed in it?

Abandon

Author: Meg Cabot

Series: Abandon Trilogy # 1

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance, Mythology

Publisher: Point

Released: 26 April 2011

Summary: courtesy of goodreads.com Though she tries returning to the life she knew before the accident, Pierce can't help but feel at once a part of this world, and apart from it. Yet she's never alone . . . because someone is always watching her. Escape from the realm of the dead is impossible when someone there wants you back. But now she's moved to a new town. Maybe at her new school, she can start fresh. Maybe she can stop feeling so afraid.
Only she can't. Because even here, he finds her. That's how desperately he wants her back. She knows he's no guardian angel, and his dark world isn't exactly heaven, yet she can't stay away . . . especially since he always appears when she least expects it, but exactly when she needs him most. But if she lets herself fall any further, she may just find herself back in the one place she most fears: the Underworld.

For Fans Of: The Goddess Test, Starcrossed, Hereafter, and Fury

My Review: Abandon was…difficult.  I LOVE Meg Cabot books, seriously.  She is one of the authors that I actually follow blog-wise.  I think she is hilarious, I usually count down the days until her books are released, so I was pretty disappointed with Abandon.  Abandon doesn’t sound like Meg to me (see, I call her Meg, that is how much of an affinity I have with this woman).  Abandon sounds…older.  I wanted to like this book, I wanted to like this book so much that I read it twice.  I love Meg’s characters, I think that they are hilarious and captivating.  Except Pierce.  Pierce is kind of an idiot.  Pierce is annoying.  Pierce is...well, Pierce.  I wanted Pierce to be more intellectual.  She would do the strangest things and then expect everything to work out in her favor.  I know that Meg's heroines aren't necessarily the brightest bulbs in the box, but I just felt like Pierce was being forced into a role that didn't really suit her, and with that I mean I felt that she was forced into being the "nice girl" everyone is always telling her how nice and helpful and great she is, which is nice, except I would like to see how nice and helpful and great she is, not have characters telling me right and left.  I don't know, maybe I'm alone in this, but if you want a Persephone re-imagining then skip this one for something else. (I recommend The Goddess Test, even though it’s completely different from the actual Persephone tale.  Still, the characters were more entertaining and less ridiculous than in Abandon.)

Immortal City

Author: Scott Speer

Series: Immortal City # 1

Genres: Paranormal, Romance, Adventure, Young Adult

Publisher: Razor Bill

Released: 3 April 2012

Summary: courtesy goodreads.com Jackson Godspeed is the hottest young Angel in a city filled with them.  He's days away from becoming a full Guardian, and people around the world are already competing for the chance to be watched over by him. Everyone's obsessed with the Angels and the lucky people they protect - everyone except for Madison Montgomery.  Maddy's the one girl in Angel City who doesn't breathlessly follow the Angels on TV and gossip blogs. When she meets Jackson, she doesn't recognize him. But Jackson is instantly captivated by her, and against all odds the two fall in love.  Maddy is swiftly caught up in Jackson's scene, a world of glamour, paparazzi - and murder. A serial killer is on the loose, leaving dead Angels' wings for the police to find on the Walk of Fame. Even the Guardians are powerless to protect themselves in the face of this threat & and this time it's up to Maddy to save Jackson

For Fans Of: L.A. Candy, The Fame Game, and Angelfall

My Review: I don’t know why, but as I was reading this I got the distinct impression that it was written to that Foster the People song “Pumped Up Kicks” No joke.  Every time Jacks was headed to an event I had the first few chords of that song begin to run through my brain.  Anyways, that’s not really the point.  Immortal City is a good idea.  I like the idea, I had high hopes for the idea.  Hot super star angel falling for a mortal?  I’ll take that for a light read!  Sure had been done before, but Speer almost seems to try a little bit too hard to change everything.

Angel City is Los Angeles (which literally means in Spanish ‘The Angels’ fyi) And it is truly the main problem with Immortal City.  Speer spends so much time detailing a city that the world already knows.  An editor could have axed a fifth of the novel by simply stating, “in a city that was once Los Angeles…” Instead I stumbled through detailed glimpses of one of the worlds most famous cities, and still left not really knowing what I was looking at.  Speer has a talent for writing a lot of words, but not really saying much.  This is something that Adult novels and movie scripts get away with on a regular basis.  They paint you a nice picture without telling you what you’re really looking at.  In my opinion it makes for a tedious read.  There were a lot of little things I liked about Immortal City, the build up of Maddy and Jacks’ relationship (though it seemed to go from mere ‘hey maybe I like you’ to ‘hey I want to jump you’ in about ten seconds)  I liked that she was the anti-celebrity (or, in this case, ‘angels’)  but too much of Speers book seemed to be contrived.  Like he fancied himself to be introducing everyone to how Hollywood works.  Where people who read a lot, which are the people that are probably drawn to reviews like this, usually find themselves reading magazine covers in grocery stores, or hanging out at bookstores all day skimming cover jackets, and with everything that television does shove down our throats, people I think have a pretty good idea of how Hollywood works.  I don’t need Speers to ‘fill me in’ I want him to tell me the story of how a Guardian Angel fell in love with a girl, I don’t want him to explain the intricacies of fame and fortune.  I have the L.A. Candy series to do that. 

Guys, I don’t know.  Maybe if Jacks had been a little bit more bad ass, instead of a pretty boy who wore ‘YSL’ shoes.  Maybe if Maddy hadn’t been so atypical (she thinks she plain, he thinks she’s something out a Shakespeare sonnet) maybe if Speer had kept to directing movies (because this would be a beautiful movie) instead of writing books, then maybe I would have liked it a little bit more.  I don’t know, maybe I expected too much out of it.  If you’re looking for a novel that involves a strong angel hating girl, and very good looking angel I recommend Angelfall by Susan Ee (seriously, read it. It’s bad ass.)  If you’re looking for a series on the ins and outs of fame in Los Angeles read anything by Lauren Conrad.  If you’re looking for a really weird combination of the two and then add to them what felt like a cross between the aforementioned Foster the People song and A Cinderella Story (remember that movie with Hilary Duff and Chad Michael Murray) then Immortal City is totally for you.