In the Age of Love and Chocolate (Birthright #3) by Gabrielle Zevin

First I must say thank you to Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, as well as Edelweiss, for allowing me to read an e-galley of this.  I have the first two in the series in actual physical ARCs, and I had emailed the name on the back of them to ask to get on a list to get the 3rd ARC so that I could have a matching set.  Alas, the agent emailed back and said they wouldn't have ARCs this time.  So I searched until I at least found an e-galley.  As with the first two, I was not disappointed.  I really just love these characters, and the storyline.
With all that had happened in the last book, we begin this one with Anya wanting to open a cacao night club in this futuristic NYC.  Since chocolate is illegal, the way they get around it is to use cacao beans, and people are allowed to have cacao if they get a prescription for it.  So they have doctors on staff, one to start and see how it goes, who will give prescriptions, and since Mr. Delacroix had lost his bid for mayor in the last book, he is now her business partner.  But moving forward with this business has put a rift between Anya and Win.  Anya is not sure if it is the business itself, or the working with his father that has Win so upset.  All she knows is that Win is now cold, and has moved on.  In fact when she even tries to say at least they can still be friends, he says no, the good thing about being broken up is that he doesn't HAVE to be friends with her.  It is clear that Anya still loves him, but he seems to really be over her.  And it is easy to understand why she's made her decisions, when you've read the first two books, and know all that she's been through, and fought against.  When her sister Natty comes home from camp, it seems that she is not having a good time.  She is ahead in school because of how smart she is.  But she seems to be rebelling.  Almost worse than Anya did.  Finally to try to do the best for Natty, especially when her 14 year old sister takes up with a 17 year old boy, Anya sends her away to a boarding school.  It is in Boston, where Win is going to school, so Anya asks him to look after her.  Meanwhile her nightclub is a success.  So much that she must ask Theo, from the chocolate farm she spent time on in the last book, for more help with finding the perfect chocolate/cacao drink recipes, and to also get the amount of cacao they are shipped increased.  While the book pretty much ends the way I would have hoped, the right people together, it still is a very emotionally reached ending.  Almost all the characters from the prior books are back, even if just a very minute mention.  But the poisoner from the first book is back, and other villains.  Some returned to make up for what they've done, others to try to finish what they started.  Leo gets out of prison, and convinces Anya to let him open up a club in San Francisco, and I love the location, Alcatraz!!
I just love this dystopian world set up.  Not that I could imagine living where chocolate was illegal, that would really be a horrible world!  But all the world building the author has done, and using landmarks/buildings that are well known enough you can help to picture it in your head.  Definitely a good conclusion to the series,  although I only gave it a 4 instead of 5 stars on Goodreads because of one aspect of the ending.  While it definitely fits the story, it made me sad, and I wish it had been a bit different.  If you haven't started yet, go ahead and start the first two now, as this third and final installment will be released the end of October, so only a month to wait!  And because I loved the series so much, once again I will share my picture from when I met the author!

Because it is My Blood (Birthright #2) by Gabrielle Zevin

You know how sometimes I've talked about how the 2nd book in a series is slow and hard to get through?  Not true in any way, shape, or form for this book!!  I was sucked right back in!  I just love Gabrielle Zevin's writing style I guess!  And of course, if you haven't read the first one yet, there will be some spoilers here, but I'll try really hard not to make them anything horrible!!
So, anyway, we begin with Anya back in the Liberty Children's Facility for shooting Jacks, who had shot Win.  When she leaves, Mrs. Cobrawick gives her a funny speech about how it would be good to remember what she's done for her, how she let Win visit, even though she had been instructed by his dad Charles Delacroix to alert him if he showed up, and that they could then extend her sentence.  She's also made a friend of her roommate, the same one as last time, who goes by Mouse.  And Mouse asks if after she gets out, maybe Anya can get her a job doing something for her family.  Gable and Scarlet are dating, hard as it is for Anya to believe.  And Win  has moved on. She thinks, with Alison Wheeler, a friend of the family, appoved of by his father.  Anya finds out from her little sister Natty's teacher that she is basically a genius, and they want to send her to a special camp to help her continue learning and be able to help come up with solutions to the problems facing the world.  While Anya is nervous at first, she only wants what is best for her.  With Leo gone, hidden in Japan by Yoji.  Her family is now still wanting her to help and take over, along with Yoji.  But she doesn't want to, she wants to go back to school and graduate and then go on to college.  But it's hard to get into any of the schools.  And soon all kinds of things seem to happen that mess up Mr. Delacroix's bid for District Attorney.  Thanks to an anonymous donation to her old school, Anya is able to get back in, where her sister has skipped ahead two grades and is not in the lower school anymore.  But as these things keep piling up making Mr. Delacroix lose more and more ground in his campaign, the worst seems to happen.  Even though Win and Anya are not dating, when Win shakes her hand at lunch one day, a picture is taken and it looks as if they are back together.  Suddenly Anya is taken back to Liberty Children's Facility for supposedly violating the terms of the deal.  And she is then sent straight back into the hole she spent time in before.  When Mr. Delecroix comes to see her, he offers her a choice to leave, to get out of town.  Well, kind of.  Technically it is her lawyers that figure while she is sick and in the infirmary they can sneak her out of town.  And an elaborate plan does it, and she's off to Mexico.  She stays on a cacao farm with part of her cousin Mickey's wife Sophia's family.  And she grows to love chocolate again.  She has no idea how long she'll have to stay there.
Until she is forced to leave by an attempt on her life, and on Imogen, the nurse still staying with her sister, as well as on her brother Leo in Japan.  With funerals and other problems, she comes home, and makes a deal with the new district attorney, who is as crooked as the one before.  Mr. Delacroix has lost his bid for the job, and now she and Win can be together.  Especially once she learns that he was only with Alison as a cover to try to help his dad's campaign.  Lots of intrigue in this book.  Who is actually behind what?  And who can Anya actually trust?  And at the end, will Anya's idea for the family business be successful?  Or will it put her and her loved ones in more danger.

I won't go on about anything else.  You need to read it, and I don't want to spoil it.  But I will say I loved learning about cacao right along with Anya.  I have always actually been fascinated with cacao beans.  Or chocolate anyway.  And I love that the recipe for the hot chocolate we hear so much about in this story is at the beginning of the book!  One other thing that really was cool is that at the end of the book the location that is talked about seems to be the library in New York City with the lions in front of it, one I have visited, the one that Carrie was going to get married at in the Sex and the City movie, and even of such fame as from the first Ghostbusters movie.

Now, as I said before, I have both of the books in the series as ARCs, even this one that is autographed.  So it would be so cool if I can find an ARC of the final book to make a complete set!  Since I put my picture of myself with the author in the last blog post, this time I'll share a photo of how she autographed this book for me at BEA last summer.

All These Things I've Done (Birthright #1) by Gabrielle Zevin

Can I just say, WOW?  Why in the world have I waited so long to read yet another ARC that was sitting on my shelf since before it was published?  I mean this came out in September 2011, so I  got the ARC before then, and it sat on my shelf.  I'd only wanted it because it sounded interesting as a new dystopian style story. I must admit that I am soooooo glad now that I also got the ARC to the 2nd book in the series, Because it is My Blood, at BEA last year when I got to actually meet the author.  Because once I finished this one, I was soooo ready to pick up the sequel.  And now, it seems I'll have to wait until the 3rd one comes out this fall, unless I can somehow find a way to get my grubby little hands on an ARC of it!  That's something I'll be looking into as soon as I finish the second one.  I'll have to make sure to share my reviews with the publicist listed on the books.
This book, well, let me just say that it is almost impossible to put down once you pick it up.  Honestly, there are no "down" or "slow" parts in the book.  Not to say it is all action, excitement, adventure, etc.  But it is always something going on that you want to know about.  Someone that you need to know what is really going on with them, or where they've been, or what they've been up to.  And as I'm reading the 2nd book right now, I'm even trying to figure out if some of the people that are supposed to be the good guys are really good guys, or if the "understandable" mistakes they make, aren't quite the mistakes they are seen as.
In this future society, 2083, chocolate and caffeine are illegal.  Paper and water are both scarce or rationed.  And this story takes place in New York City.  A New York City much like it was probably back in the 20's during the first prohibition, the one with alcohol.  Our main character is Anya, (a name I've loved since Buffy the Vampire Slayer).  Anya is part of the Balanchine family, one of the chocolate families of the world, and basically a mafia.  She is living with her grandmother, who is basically about to die at any time.  Along with Anya, there is her older brother Leo, who isn't quite right in the head since an accident when he was younger when someone tried to kill their father.  And finally her younger sister Nattie.  Both her mother and father died because of her father's crimes.  Fortunately Anya has a great support system in her immediate family, as well as "the family".  She also has her father's lawyer, who is there to take care of her and any issues she may have.  And finally, her best friend Scarlet.  Scarlet is so loyal, she has stuck by Anya through all of the situations that come with being part of an infamous family.
As happens in most teen books, there is a new boy at school.  His name is Win.  Of course Scarlet likes him first, and even though he seems to be flirting with her, Anya would never do that to her friend.  Plus, he is the assistant district attorney's son, and so that's not a good relationship to have for someone with her background.  It does soon become evident to both Scarlet and Anya, that Win and Anya are perfect for each other.  And of course, they fall in love.  But as usual things can't go happily ever after.  Something happens to her family's supply of chocolate, with Anya's ex-boyfriend being the first one to eat the poisoned chocolate.  And she gets accused of trying to murder him since not all of the shipment has been discovered to be poisoned at first.  She gets sent to Liberty Island juvenile detention center.  And wow, it is a horrible place to be.  Liberty Island is where the statue of Liberty is today, although in this future, only part of the statue is left.  Anya gets out thanks to an unlikely friend.  But this doesn't mean things get better.  She has to worry about issues with the family business, even if she doesn't want to.  And when they try to get Leo to come work for them, she worries about what that will lead to for him.  And so she must be responsible for her brother and sister, and hope that her grandmother can live long enough for her to be 18 and be able to legally take responsibility for her sister.  But her grandmother is getting worse, to the point where she doesn't always remember who people are, and she gets mean too.

I won't say much  more about the story, because I don't want to ruin anything, I want you to pick it up and give it a try.  This was such a great book, like I said, I hated every minute that I had to put it down.  And I'm feeling the same about the sequel as I read it now.  Now, there was one other part of the book that really drew my attention, and that was in the second chapter when one of the teachers started talking about prohibition.  What both he said, as well as what Anya remember her father saying about the same issue, just really stood out to me and made a lot of sense.  I don't remember the exact bit that really hit me, but it was the whole idea and how it stood out that something being banned could supposedly solve all the other issues, but how people will always find a way to get what they want, and there will always be criminals willing to provide it.