Unraveling Isobel

Author: Eileen Cook

Series: Stand Alone

Genres: Paranormal, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Released: 3 January 2012

Summary: courtesy of goodreads.com Isobel’s life is falling apart. Her mom just married some guy she met on the internet only three months before, and is moving them to his sprawling, gothic mansion off the coast of nowhere. Goodbye, best friend. Goodbye, social life. Hello, icky new stepfather, crunchy granola town, and unbelievably good-looking, officially off-limits stepbrother.
But on her first night in her new home, Isobel starts to fear that it isn’t only her life that’s unraveling—her sanity might be giving way too. Because either Isobel is losing her mind, just like her artist father did before her, or she’s seeing ghosts.
Either way, Isobel’s fast on her way to being the talk of the town for all the wrong reasons.

For Fans Of: Anna Dressed in Blood, Second Chance Summer, and The Catastrophic History of You and Me

My Review:  Unraveling Isobel was such a fun read, and finally a stand alone book that we really well written!  I have been so sick of series lately, and this one was such a well done single that I couldn’t help but like it.

First I want to talk about the relationship that Isobel has with her mother.  Although it falls into the classic “despondent” mother/daughter relationship that so many ya books fall into, however Cook justifies it by focusing on the “why” of their relationship.  I appreciated this so much as a reader, don’t get me wrong: I was still annoyed that her mother blindly followed Dick but at least it wasn’t really out of character for the mother to act that way.

The supernatural aspect of Isobel was a little ambiguous for my taste.  It left me with a few questions that I didn’t expect to have after reading a stand alone.  I wish that Isobel’s “tendencies” had been a little bit better explained, but nobody’s perfect.

I was very pleased with how the Nate/Isobel thing works out.  At first I’ll admit, I was a little bit freaked out.  I didn’t want this to go all Twin Peaks on me.  However, Cook brings out their relationship really beautifully and with plenty of butterflies.  I really enjoyed it.

The mystery aspect, although simple is well thought out.  There were definitely some “Nancy Drew” like moments and I enjoyed the psychological aspect of the mystery.  Overall it was a good and enticing read that may or may not keep you wanting the light on.

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.

Under the Never Sky

Author: Veronica Rossi

Series: Under the Never Sky # 1

Genres: Young Adult, Dystopia, Fantasy, Romance

Publisher: Atom

Released: 3 January 2012

Summary: courtesy of goodreads.com Aria has lived her whole life in the protected dome of Reverie. Her entire world confined to its spaces, she's never thought to dream of what lies beyond its doors. So when her mother goes missing, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland long enough to find her are slim. Then Aria meets an outsider named Perry. He's searching for someone too. He's also wild - a savage - but might be her best hope at staying alive.  If they can survive, they are each other's best hope for finding answers

For Fans Of: Incarnate, Delirium, and Blood Red Road

My Review: Under the Never Sky was one of those books for me that grabbed a hold in the beginning and refused to let go.  I was first attracted by the cover, but feared it would be similar to Across the Universe (a book I hated, by the way).  The love story in it was honest, I know that it is typical of YA novels to start out with the love interests being disinterested in each other and then let it grow into something more over time, but from the first moment Perry is a bit taken with Aria and then proceeds to fight with himself over it for the rest of the novel.  There are a lot of complex themes that are taken on in this book.  It definitely wasn’t a cookie-cutter love story.

The mystery that encompasses the book is large enough to be a driving force and powerful enough to propel the characters from one page to the next.  I adored that nearly everything was explained, such as why Aria doesn’t die right off in The Death Shop.  Rossi has such an incredible way of saying so much with so little, you can glean the impact that these people have on each other, as well as their drive to achieve their goals without being bogged down with inane ‘question and answer’ sessions that characters seem to go through in YA books.  Rossi shows us that her characters are driven, she shows us that her characters are strong, and that they have feelings.  She doesn’t need to say every five pages; “Perry aka a wild savage man” or “Aria is kind of stupid, but so much smarter now” which I hate, it lessens the writing if you keep telling me how ‘strong-willed’ of ‘sad’ a character is,  show me that they are sad, show me that they are strong willed.  In Under the Never Sky the audience actually gets to see the main characters grow and change over the course of the novel.  Aria and Perry come from completely different places, literally polar opposites and seeing them begin to understand each other is truly a wonder.

The only thing that I had a relatively hard time with was the lack of description of the Aether storms, when Aria first leaves Reverie Perry mentions something about her attracting them which I didn’t understand, nor did I understand how they truly came about in the first place I understood that it was probably due to the overuse of technology, but I wasn't really positive. Maybe the answer will come in book two?

I cannot wait for book two (currently entitled Through the Ever Night) to come out next year.  The ending of Under the Never Sky was so incredibly perfectly open-ended that I wasn’t having a panic attack (cough Delirium cough) but will definitely pre-order book two.  I cannot wait to see where Aria and Perry head next!