Can't Wait Wednesday #8: Berserker by Emmy Laybourne

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they're books that have yet to be released. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine.  This week I'm picking a book that is by an author that I really like, but that I feel is not that well-known.  It's also a Norse mythology story, and that is really getting to be more popular these days.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

Are Hanne's powers a gift from the old Norse gods, or a curse?

Her brother Stieg swears their powers are a gift from the old gods, but Hanne Hemstad knows she is truly cursed. It's not Stieg's fault that their father is dead, their mother has left, and their brother Knut has been accused of a crime he didn't commit.

No, the fault lies with Hanne and her inability to control her murderous "gift"--she is a Berserker. When someone she loves is threatened, she flies into a killing state. The siblings must leave Norway for the American frontier or risk being brought to justice.

Aided by a young cowboy who agrees to be their guide, Hanne and her siblings use their powers to survive the perilous trail, where blizzards, wild animals, and vicious bounty hunters await.

Will they be able to reach their uncle, the one man Hanne believes may be able to teach her how to control her drive to kill? With Berserker, Emmy Laybourne, the author of Monument 14, presents her vision of an American west studded with Viking glory.  

Have you read anything by Emmy Laybourne?  Do you like the new trend of Norse mythology?  Will you be adding this to your TBR?  What book are you eagerly awaiting this week?

Review: Sweet by Emmy Laybourne

First, thanks to Feiwel and Friends, along with Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of this title.  Now, I could have sworn that I had this downloaded a ways back, but maybe I had just picked it as a Waiting on Wednesday book one time, and was mistaken about that.  Then it was published, and I figured I'd have to wait to get a copy to read.  But it showed up on Edelweiss, at least I found it, and downloaded it.  I was really excited to read this one, not just because the synopsis sounded really good, but also because I really enjoyed the Monument 14 series by her as well.  While Sweet isn't a post-apocalyptic book really, I would definitely have to say that this author knows how to write a good "teens in a deadly crisis" story.  And in a way, both stories have their own zombie type of people, again, without being actual zombies in the most well known definition. 

The story is told in alternating chapters by two main characters.  One is Laurel, a pretty normal girl.  You might call her a bit of a wallflower.  Her favorite clothes include boots.  Nothing really dressy or trendy.  Her best friend, Viv(actually her rich, divorced father), got them tickets to be on a really big cruise event.  The premiere of a new weight loss fad.  It is as diet sweetener called Solu, and it is supposed to be a miracle, possibly solving the obesity problem by helping the user drop a ton of weight in no time, with really nothing else needing to be done!  Laurel isn't really worried about losing weight, she's find with her curves, and once the ship gets started moving, there's no way she can take it at first, because she's experiencing seasickness to an extremely embarrassing degree.  And that's where our 2nd main character comes in.

Tom Forelli is a former child star.  He's now trying to get his career going again after a horrible movie choice, as well as trying to get out from under his child start personal of "Baby Tom-Tom".  He was a chubby kid, but now he's grown up and has really started taking care of himself.  He eats right, and works out every day. All according to what his personal trainer, and best friend, advises him to do.  His publicists booked him the gig of being the host for this cruise, interviewing the passengers, promoting the Solu, etc.  He also doesn't really try the sweetener, as it doesn't really fit his eating plan, since it is in the desserts on the boat, ones that he doesn't really plan to eat.  While the plan is for him to "hook up" with a beautiful celebrity reality star, think Kardashian with a little exotic-ness thrown in, he feels a tug toward the cute, normal girl, who he meets when she throws up on his shoes.  You guessed it, that was Laurel. 

The two will meet again in a few mishaps, and then seek each other out as they both are attracted to each other, as well as feeling that the other passengers taking the Solu begin to get a little wild.  Not just a little wild, but obviously addicted in a short time to the substance.  It all goes horribly wrong with the Solu, leading to deaths, and even killing just to get more.  And once Tom finds out it isn't all it was hyped up to be, he wants to do an expose report, even against the advice of his publicist, who is herself addicted to the Solu.  All of this has to be done, hoping that they can survive the mass hysteria and melee caused by the Solu addicts. 

It was a fun story, funny, yet suspenseful. Some surprises on where it would go, and what was actually causing the problem.  I didn't even get what was the final turning point at the end ahead of time, and I like it when an author can surprise me like that.  I highly recommend another Emmy Laybourne book, a standalone I would think this time. Even though there is that little comment at the end, that makes you say, "uh-oh!"

Waiting on Wednesday: Sweet by Emmy Laybourne

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.  This week I've chosen a book by the author of the Monument 14 series that I really enjoyed.  This one sounds like a totally opposite type  of story, well, no apocalypse, but still sounds really good!  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

*People would kill to be thin.*

Solu’s luxurious celebrity-filled “Cruise to Lose” is billed as “the biggest cruise since the Titanic,” and if the new diet sweetener works as promised—dropping five percent of a person’s body weight in just days—it really could be the answer to the world’s obesity problem. But Laurel is starting to regret accepting her friend Viv’s invitation. She’s already completely embarrassed herself in front of celebrity host, Tom Forelli (otherwise known as the hottest guy ever!) and she’s too seasick to even try the sweetener. And that’s before Viv and all the other passengers start acting really strange.

*But will they die for it, too?*

Tom Forelli knows that he should be grateful for this job and the opportunity to shed his childhood “Baby Tom-Tom” image. His publicists have even set up a ‘romance’ with a sexy reality star. But as things on the ship start to get a bit wild, he finds himself drawn to a different girl. And when his celebrity hosting gig turns into an expose on the shocking side effects of Solu, it’s Laurel that he’s determined to save.

Emmy Laybourne, author of the Monument 14 trilogy, takes readers on a dream vacation that goes first comically, then tragically, then horrifyingly, wrong. 

Sounds really good to me!!  How about you?  Does this one sound good?  Do you have a book you're eagerly awaiting this week?

Review: Savage Drift (Monument 14 #3) by Emmy Laybourne

I was lucky enough to get an ARC of this from the publisher, Feiwel and Friends.  This is a series that I have enjoyed the whole way through.  And the final book in the series was definitely full of all kinds of twists and turns.  Moments of holding your breath, and not wanting to put the book down. Even when I had to go back to work from lunch break.  There are definitely spoilers below, so stop reading now if you haven't read the 1st or 2nd book.

This was another good ending to a series.  At the end of book two most of the kids from the first book ended up in a safe place in Canada.  Not Josie, who had gone "O" in order to save those who were with her.  Well now she's been captured and is in a detainment camp for O's in Missouri.  Now I loved this since I am from Missouri.  And it was even more fun to read as it is located at the campus of University of Missouri, where my sister went to college.  Remember that Astrid was pregnant with Jake's baby at the end of book 2.  The camp they're staying at has seen some things happening to people.  Pregnant women have disappeared.  And so Astrid is worried about going to the doctor because she's afraid that will happen to her too.  Then they see something about Josie being in Missouri, and now Niko wants to go get her out of the camp. This camp isn't great.  We get the book from two points of view, Dean, and Josie.  So what we learn about Josie's camp is that it is not a good place.  While she is able to stay with the women and children, all the men in her dorm are on the first floor.  Except Mario, the older man who had helped Josie and her friends in book 2.  He actually stayed with Josie after she had killed a man to save her friends, and helped her get back to "normal".  Many of the men have formed into gangs.  It seems a lot like a prison.  So not only do she and Mario, and a group of kids that have no parents around, have to deal with these gangs, there is also a guard who seems to have it out for Josie.  And, the dream again is for everyone to get to Niko's uncle's farm and all live happily ever after.

Of course there will be obstacles to getting there.  And not everyone may make it.  Astrid's pregnancy isn't going normally.  And there are now something called drifts.  These drifts are supposedly clouds of all the bad chemicals that are now in the air from all the things that caused the disasters.  We meet some new people along the way, good and bad.  But in the end, it is all tied up neatly.

I have to admit that about 50 pages before the end, I was thinking that there must be another book, because I couldn't for the life of me see how in the world they would tie all these things up that were happening to everyone!  But it was done in a pretty good way. Although one loose end/problem was fixed in a very quick, almost too quick way.  But not an unbelievable way.  A great post-apocalyptic type series, a good read, I was sucked in, although at first it did take me a chapter or two to get back into it.  The two person viewpoints worked for two reasons.  One, different font.  Two, the people in the story were in different places, so you could tell what was happening right away.

Waiting on Wednesday: Savage Drift (Monument 14 #3) by Emmy Laybourne

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting. I haven't participated in this since last month, just haven't been quite sure which book to pick, or I was waiting for a cover to be released, or I had other things to post.  But here is a book that I just read some e-novellas from the series as part of my November is for Novellas Challenge.  If you haven't read the Monument 14 series yet, you need to get started!  The third book in the trilogy is supposed to come out next year, in May.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

The survivors of the Monument 14 have finally made it to the safety of a Canadian refugee camp. Dean and Alex are cautiously starting to hope that a happy ending might be possible.But for Josie, separated from the group and trapped in a brutal prison camp for exposed Type Os, things have gone from bad to worse. Traumatized by her experiences, she has given up all hope of rescue or safety.Meanwhile, scared by the government's unusual interest in her pregnancy, Astrid (with her two protectors, Dean and Jake in tow) joins Niko on his desperate quest to be reunited with his lost love Josie.

What do you think?  Sounds good, right?  What book are you eagerly awaiting this week?

While you're here, don't forget to stop by my spot on the Gratitude Giveaway Hop.

And if you think you'll read at least 4 novellas this month, there is still time to join into my November is for Novellas Challenge, which comes with a giveaway for participants as well!

November is for Novellas Challenge #3 and #4: Dress Your Marines in White (Monument 14 #0.5) and Jake and the Other Girl (Monument 14 #1.5) by Emmy Laybourne

These are two e-books I've had on my e-reader since I first found them available.  I've read both books that are out in the Monument 14 series, and so these fit perfectly in.  And like the last two, these also were pretty good.  The first one more than the second, but both were useful stories to the series.  Or not useful, because they weren't necessarily "needed."  But, they weren't a waste of time to read.  They filled in information that we didn't have, didn't "need", but it definitely added to the story.  While I didn't list them on my original November is for Novellas Challenge post, it was definitely a good time to read them.  Plus, I ended up choosing them because I finished my book I reviewed yesterday, The Living, as I was waiting for the Fierce Reads Event, and the Monument 14 series is a Fierce Reads series.  Again, like the last two e-novellas I reviewed, these were both short, and they go together, so I'm reviewing them together.

This is a good "review" of what led to the development of the disease that breaks out in the first Monument 14 book.  Disease, or should I say the gas that causes the problems.  It's a look at the military scientists who developed it for a weapon, and how they demonstrated it for their superiors.  And honestly, since I already knew how the gas affected each of the blood types, this was still a really detailed look at the reactions in a controlled environment.  Even knowing that there was a way they could "stop" the effects, something of course had to go wrong, and it ended up as even more horrifying than it was supposed to be in this "controlled" demonstration.  Quick read, if you like the series, read this.

Now Jake is a character you don't like much in the first book, at least I didn't.  And so he left to try to find help basically.  Well, in this short story he returns to his previous personality in that he gets so freaked out by what he sees and thinking of the responsibility he'll have when he gets back that he takes off.  He drops the video camera and takes off.  While he has been out, he's been thinking back to life before that fateful day.  He was known as basically the horniest guy at school.  In fact there was a girl that he used to go visit for lunch all the time just to have sex with her.  And he brought her chocolate every time.  So he takes a Snickers bar and goes to her house to see if she is still there and if she is still alive.  She is, but her father is still there, and his blood type is O, the kind that turns into a dangerous monster.  A pretty short story, again, I'll let you read it yourself to find out more about what happens.

In conclusion, these stories did add to the original series, unlike the ones I read earlier this week.  Definitely worth the read this time, no doubt about it.  Now we just have to wait for the next book.

Sky on Fire (Monument 14 #2) by Emmy Laybourne

This is the first book I finished for my 2nd Annual September is for Sequels Challenge.  It's a short book, so a good way to get started, but it was a good book, and one that I'd been waiting to read for awhile.  In the first book we had the 14 kids left stranded in a big department store, maybe like a Walmart?  That's what it seemed like to me.  Outside there had been some disastrous weather and earthquakes, along with a poisonous chemical released in the air from the nearby NORAD compound by accident.  The compound caused different types of reactions in people based on their blood types.  The kids had been dropped off there by their bus driver while she went to get help.  The ages of the kids ranged from about 5 or 6, up to high school age.  The two main characters are brothers, Alex and Dean.  Dean is the older brother, 16, and Alex is younger, 13.  Here come the SPOILERS if you haven't read the first book.
Due to allowing some outsiders to come into the store to share with them, and then having those two attack and try to rape one of the girls, one of the older boys gets injured.  Some of the kids decide they need to get him on the school bus and try to get to the Denver airport, where they hear the military is waiting to help people and get them to safety.  Alex goes with that group.  Dean stays back with some of the younger kids and his long time crush, Astrid, because Astrid feels they should stay and wait for help.  Along the way the kids on the bus run into all kinds of trouble.  One thing they notice is that there is some kind of mold growing on all the cars, and that none of the cars that have been outside have tires anymore.  When trouble strikes (I won't tell you how) they must leave the bus, and try to make their way on foot.  The only problem is all their supplies of food were on the bus, and of course the air isn't safe to breath.  Plus, there is no knowing what kind of people may be out there, the ones that the gas turns into killers are just one worry.  Thanks to the help of a couple people along the way, they learn things that can help them survive, and finally can get back on their way, even after some people aren't as helpful.
Back in the store, Dean's group is trying to stay safe, even with people banging on the outside of the store trying to get in, even to the point where someone tries to drive a heavy piece of machinery into the back of the store.  Astrid's boyfriend Jake returns.  And Astrid is hoping he can be what she'd wanted him to be, and that hopefully his time away has helped him with his drug use and similar behavior.  But of course some of the bad guys will find a way in, and Dean and Jake must find a way to save the rest of the group from these seemingly deranged boys.
I feel like this story was even better than the first.  The details and all the different things that happened were really well developed and made the story very interesting.  While it definitely left off at a point that was an ending, it was also left that there could be a next story.  And I find on Goodreads the listing for a #3, so that made me happy!  I also found a 0.5 and a 1.5 and downloaded them right away!

Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne

First I have to say thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Childrens Publishing Corporation for letting me read the egalley of this book.  It really fits in with all the end of the world stories I seem to be reading lately.  It is set slightly in the future, eveyone carries a "tab" around with them for use of a phone, internet, etc.  We begin with our main character, Dean, traveling on a bus to school.  In this school district they have 2 buses for each route, one that carries the high schoolers, and one that carries the middle school and elementary kids.  They are both traveling to school when all of a sudden a freak hail storm begins.  The high school bus gets hit the worse and slides until it flips over and crashes.  The younger kids' bus driver is able to control their bus better and pulls/crashes it into the front of a huge department/grocery store, kind of like a Walmart or Target supercenter I would say.  Maybe a shopping mall?  Not quite sure.  Then she goes back and helps get the high school kids out and over into the store and out of the storm.  It's early enough in the morning that the store is empty.  Mrs. Wooly, the bus driver, leaves the kids saying she is going for help. About that time the security gates come crashing down around the store, making it impossible for the kids to leave.  So while they're waiting there, they figure they'll eat at the pizza shop.  Astrid, one of the high school girls that Dean has always had a crush on, used to work there, and so she get the pizzas going.  Their tabs aren't working, the network seems to be down, which never happens according to Dean's brother Alex, who is a tech wizard.  But they do find an old fashioned tv that they turn on to find out what is happening.  Turns out there have been lots of disasters.  A huge tsunami has wiped out most of the East coast.  And near where this is taking place, a huge government testing facility has either been attacked or something we don't know for sure, but anyway, chemicals have been released into the air.  The kids finally find a way out, on the roof of the store, but when they get up there, they see a huge mushroom cloud, the chemicals.  And then Dean turns murderous, and Niko, one of the other high schoolers, breaks out in blisters.  They learn that the chemicals have different effects based on a person's blood type.  So, they end up settling in waiting for Mrs. Wooly to return, which she doesn't.  At first they let Jake, the big football hero kind of take over as boss.  But soon other things begin to happen.  They figure out the water also contains the chemicals in the bathroom when Astrid attacks one of the little kids she is helping clean up.  Astrid then takes off on her own and hides.  Jake and his buddy Brayden just want to relax.  Aren't up much for organizing or getting things figured out so they can survive on their own.  Other problems that they must deal with, people outside trying to get in who have been affected by the chemicals.  Worrying about if the electricity will go out.  Food lasting, etc.  We've got 6 high schoolers and I think about 6 little kids plus a middle school girl.  One of the little kids speaks Spanish mostly.  Dean ends up being in charge of the food, and gets the little kids to take turns being his helpers.  Niko ends up in charge and plans things out.  Dean's brother Alex is in charge of all the power and things like that. 
This was a pretty good story, an interesting take on end of the world.  In a way, a bit of Lord of the Flies, kids must learn how to take care of themselves, and when/if adults show up, they may be surprised by how the kids have had to handle things.  Definitely a good, quick read.  My only negative on it, is I don't quite know what the title has to do with the story.  I think there has to be a sequel, but not sure.  I will read on because I have to know if they do ever find their parents.
I am going to put this on my A-Z Reading Challenge as the "Y" for the two of them in the author's name.