YA Review: Aftermath by Kelley Armstrong

Book info:

Title:  Aftermath
Author:  Kelley Armstrong
Genre:  YA contemporary thriller
Release Date:  May 22nd, 2018
Publisher:  Crown Books for Young Readers - Random House Children's Books
Source:  Physical ARC from publisher which had no influence on my opinion
My rating:  5 stars

Synopsis:
Three years after losing her brother Luka in a school shooting, Skye Gilchrist is moving home. But there's no sympathy for Skye and her family because Luka wasn't a victim; he was a shooter. 

Jesse Mandal knows all too well that the scars of the past don't heal easily. The shooting cost Jesse his brother and his best friend--Skye. 

Ripped apart by tragedy, Jesse and Skye can't resist reopening the mysteries of their past. But old wounds hide darker secrets. And the closer Skye and Jesse get to the truth of what happened that day, the closer they get to a new killer.

My Review:
Once again Armstrong has proven to me that she is an expert at writing a page-turner in any genre.  Personally I've only read her young adult books, but I've yet to find one that wasn't a winner.  This one is another 5 star read for me.  While the main subject of the story has to do with a school shooting, that isn't what the story is.  We got parts of the story from both Skye and Jesse's viewpoints, although only Skye's chapters were told in first person, Jesses's chapters were third person, and there were not as many chapters for him.  Both of them did the usual misunderstanding of the other's signals and reactions.  But when you got the story of the night that Jesse went by Skye's house right after the shooting, you really understood what Skye had been thinking, even if it had been a misunderstanding.  

The way the author set the story up, you are definitely given lots of clues and hints, but still kept guessing the entire way.  I like that.  Even though I get pretty turned around, I like being kept on my toes as I read, and not being able to figure it out right away.  I like that even though you get the bullies like you'd expect, and the people who are still really upset, totally understandably, from losing family in the school shooting, you also get people who understand that it wasn't the sister's fault.  I like that there were some points that are similar to real-life incidents.  The boy who came out of the bathroom with the gun, but as far as anyone knew he may not have actually shot anyone. And what if they'd been able to get help to her brother before he died, maybe a lot of the information about the reasons behind the shooting would have been found out.  I like that it is pointed out how sometimes the kids who are really talked about after a shooting tend to be the sports hero, the popular kid, and maybe, just maybe, they weren't as great of people as they are made out to be. Maybe they had their own problems. But maybe even with those problems, there is a point where it is realized that in that situation, everyone is human, and scared, and you must overlook what they may or may not have done.  

Really I liked the characters, the good guys, the bad guys, the bullies, and the adults.    This book was not really on my radar until the publisher reached out to me, but just like with the last book I read by Armstrong, I know I've got to make sure it is available for the students at my high school.
 

Review: Missing by Kelley Armstrong

Book info:

Title:  Missing
Author:  Kelley Armstrong
Genre:  YA Romantic Thriller
Published:  April 18th, 2017
Publisher:  Random House Children's Books
Source:  E-galley from publisher for honest review
My rating:  5 stars

Synopsis:

The only thing Winter Crane likes about Reeve’s End is that soon she’ll leave it. Like her best friend did. Like her sister did. Like most of the teens born in town have done. There’s nothing for them there but abandoned mines and empty futures. They’re better off taking a chance elsewhere.

The only thing Winter will miss is the woods. Her only refuge. At least it was. Until the day she found Lennon left for dead, bleeding in a tree.

But now Lennon is gone too. And he has Winter questioning what she once thought was true. What if nobody left at all? What if they’re all missing?

My review:
I rarely read YA books that don't have a paranormal or dystopian type of story-line.  But there are certain authors that I will read almost any book they write, no matter what genre, and Kelley Armstrong is one of those.  This book is a perfect example of why she is on my YA author automatic read list.  The story read just like I was sitting on the edge of my seat watching a suspense movie at the theater.  It had so many twists and turns, and while I had a tiny inkling of who or what might be behind all of these threatening events, Armstrong still made it so that I really was guessing up until that final climactic scene at the end.  All of the characters were so complex, and while you felt like you really got to know them, the whole story was used to unravel just who they really were.  And I like that in a YA book, as that is how it really is for teenagers, not knowing just yet who they are.  

Winter is a character that you root for right away.  She's a bit of an underdog in the small town, she comes from a trailer park, and lives alone with her father, who is verbally and emotionally abusive, if not also physically abusive at times.  Her sister took off after high school, and Winter hasn't heard from her since.  We are given small peeks into what the reasons for her sister leaving have to do with Winter, and the blanks are filled in all the way up until the end, again, keeping you reading and very involved with the story.  Then there is Lennon, the boy she finds in a tree near her cabin in the woods.  He's a charmer, and you can't help but like him.  When he disappears though, it causes Winter even more distress, since his showing up also led her to believe that her best friend was in trouble.  And then in comes Jude, Lennon's slightly older brother.  He's different, not a charmer, but there's still something about him that you can't help but like.  With Jude comes a whole new set of suspects and scenarios for Winter to wade through in order to try to help her best friend, her new friend Lennon, and possibly past teens who disappeared after high school.

There really wasn't anything that I didn't like about this book.  It kept me reading, to the point that after lunch breaks I did not want to stop reading to go back to work.  It kept me guessing, not having completely figured it all out until the big reveal scene at the end, and even that had a twist in it.  Once again Armstrong has blown me away with a great story.  She'll continue to stay high on my list of must-read YA authors. 

 

Waiting on Wednesday - Empire of Night (Age of Legends #2) by Kelley Armstrong

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.   My choice this week is a sequel to a book that I read earlier this year about the same time I got to meet the author, Sea of Shadows.  Here's the blurb from Goodreads.com:

Sisters Moria and Ashyn are the Keeper and Seeker of Edgewood. Or at least, they were.

Their village is gone. Their friends have betrayed them. And now, the emperor has sent them on a mission to rescue the children of Edgewood—accompanied by Prince Tyrus and a small band of imperial warriors. But the journey proves more perilous than they could have imagined. With treachery and unrest mounting in the empire, Moria and Ashyn will have to draw on all their influence and power to overcome deadly enemies—not all of them human—and even avert an all-out war.

I'm very eager to see what has happened now that they've arrived to get the help of Prince Tyrus.  Of course it doesn't come out till next April, so I'll be waiting a while.  What about you?  What book are you eagerly awaiting this week?

Review: Sea of Shadows (Age of Legends #1) by Kelley Armstrong

If you follow me, you know the drama I've had about this book.  I won it in a contest probably 2nd week of April.  Had hoped/assumed that it would be to me by the time I got to meet the author on May 8th.  It wasn't.  So I ended up buying a copy that night.  And actually, although I'd never read any books by Kelley Armstrong before, after hearing her describe it, I was extremely excited to read it, even though I'm not truly a fantasy fan.  And I had heard this was high fantasy.  Not sure if it really would be considered that or not though.

It was a pretty good story.  Ashyn and Moria are twin sisters who are the Seeker and Keeper for the village.  Ashyn is the Seeker, and the Seeker is used to find the bodies of the criminals that are taken into the Forest of the Dead, near their village.  She is supposed to help quiet the souls of the damned that die in the forest.  Her sister Moria is the Keeper.  And I'm not completely sure on what exactly she does, other than she is more of a warrior, but she can also talk to the spirits.  They each have an animal that is their, familiar, I guess you'd call it.  It is a wildcat, that Moria has named Daigo, and a giant yellow hound that Ashyn has named Tova.  The twins live with their father.  This year will be the first year they do the Seeking on their own.  And of course, as you'd expect, it doesn't quite go as planned.  A boy that Moria ran into before he got left in the forest to die is named Ronan.  Ronan's plan is to somehow find a weapon, and be able to live the year that they are expected to survive if they want a pardon.  Another character in the book is a boy named Gavril Kitsune.  He is from a warrior family, but when his family was disgraced, and his father sent to the forest, he was given this unwanted job of being a guard for the town.  After  the seeking, many,  many things go wrong in the town.  The adults are killed by what are called Shadow Stalkers, basically zombies.  The children are all kidnapped.  Several men, mainly Ronan and his uncle, have survived the year.  Soon Ashyn and Ronan, and Moria and Gavril are on their way to find the children in a nearby town called Fairview.  They must cross the Wastes, a horrible landscape, where they run into monsters that were only thought to truly exist in the fairy tales that Moria told the children to scare them.  The two pairs are separate on their way to Fairview, but they meet up there.  And from there they must journey to the emperor for help.

The ending had a pretty good twist, and now I'll be looking forward to book 2 to see what will happen next.  While there was a lot of what seemed to be Japanese type stuff in it, I felt it wasn't just limited to that, and that may be what did draw away from it a bit for me.  I don't know if I assumed it was just a Japanese type world.  But I guess not, it had other types in it.  The twins are blond I believe, which talks about being from the North in the story.  Still, a pretty good read, I would recommend it to fantasy readers.

Dark Days of Summer Tour Stop - Kansas City, Missouri

Last night I was lucky enough to have the pleasure of getting to go to one of these awesome events, with four really awesome authors.  I had mentioned earlier this year about getting to be a moderator, but then a couple weeks ago the publicist said that they were sending someone on tour with them to be the moderator, so I didn't get to.  :-(  But the community resource manager at the bookstore where I work part-time, and that was hosting the event, still introduced me to the moderator, and she made sure to ask me for at least one question during the audience Q and A period.  And honestly, she was such a bright, upbeat person, that she did a way better job than I would have anyway.  It was fun meeting her though!  They had the authors sit at a table up in front where they all answered questions from the moderator. Then they opened it up for a few audience questions. Then they moved all the authors to separate tables in the back of that part of the store, so that people could line up for the authors they wanted to see.  Which makes sense when you saw Kiera Cass's line!  While it was moving not too bad, by the time I got over to that line, I still ended up starting the line at the same place it seemed to have been ending for the whole time!  It just kept getting filled back up as people moved through.  I had to go ahead and buy a copy of Sea of Shadows by Kelley Armstrong because even though I supposedly won a copy from Adventures in YA Publishing back on April 14th, I've not received it yet.  Has anyone else won anything from them before?  I'm just curious, because I've replied to the email twice now, and no one has responded.  Guess maybe I'll just give the copy I won away on my blog, if I ever get it.

The lines were kind of long to wait in, but I figured it was good practice to get ready for BEA in 3 weeks!  I mean 3 weeks from today, BEA will almost be half over for me!!  So excited to go!  I didn't take too many pictures last night, mostly just with the authors.  So I'll share a group photo below, then one with each of the authors, and a picture of the book they were there promoting last night.  First thing though, I hate how I look in every picture!  I guess the good thing?  Is that you can see just how excited (and nerdy) I was to meet them all.  I'm guessing I look like this in every picture I take with authors.

 

L to R:  Danielle Paige, Kimberly Derting, Kelley Armstrong, Kiera Cass, Me

Danielle Paige:

Danielle Paige was really funny!  She talked about actually knowing Al Roker, from working with him on a pilot for MTV, that wasn't picked up she said.  It's really cool that she used to write for a soap opera.  Not sure which one, although it was one that had a clone storyline, so maybe I can figure it out from that.  When I see her at BEA in 3 weeks, I'm going to ask her that!!

Kelley Armstrong:



I have to admit I've not read any of Kelley Armstrong's books before.  But I know she is a very popular author, and there are some of hers that do look very good.  This one is described as high fantasy, which is normally not my type of book.  But, when she was describing what it was about, I'm so excited to read it now!  She was very nice, and the reason why she writes the YA characters that she does, is because there weren't a lot of YA books available when she was a teen.  And I remember that there didn't seem to be as many when I was younger either.  I know I'm around the same age as Kiera Cass, wondering how close in age I am to Kelley Armstrong as well.

Kimberly Derting:



I actually got to meet Kim Derting last May here in Kansas City at the Romantic Times Convention, and she remembered me!  Yay!  I had to shamefully admit that I still hadn't read The Body Finder yet, even though I'd gotten it signed by her last year.  But, I have read The Taking, and loved it, you can read my review HERE.  So now I know I must go back and read all her books!  It was fun to hear her talk about how she always picked something for her characters to be good at that she wasn't.  In this case, softball.  In The Body Finder series, it was running.

And last, but certainly not least, the somewhat "star" of the show last night:

Kiera Cass:

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So, I think part of the reason Kiera Cass was the biggest "star" of the night, is the fact that she has just had the final book in such a popular series come out this week.  And she was so funny!  I loved listening to her talk, and at the beginning she laughed at something, or pointed at something, that was so random and she just seems like someone so much fun to hang out with.  It was cool to hear her say that writing kissing scenes was so much fun, and that there are parts of her husband in both Prince Maxon and Aspen, so she just can't be Team either one!  Since I had finished The One yesterday, and loved it so much, I had to bring her Milk Duds, something she mentioned in her little blurb at the back of the book had helped her get through the writing process.  I would have brought her some Coke Zero as well, but she said that couldn't be brought on the plane, so it wouldn't be practical. 

There were some really great things talked about last night.  One thing I loved hearing was that these authors all see their stories as "movies" playing in their heads.  Now they admitted that not all authors do, some hear it, or other ways, depending on their styles.  Also, one of them mentioned that it wasn't good to base a character on yourself as the writer, because then when reviews talk about how boring or horrible that character is, it would be really hard to take those criticisms, because it would be like they were criticizing you!  And that made me think, because my novel that I'm closest to finishing is kind of me as the main character.  So, hmm.  Now I have to think about changing it. 

It was a great time, I think had by all! 

Review - Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions - A collection of short stories by 16 different authors

I checked this book out from the high school library where I work because I really wanted to read it.  I'm glad I did, as I can now say I have read a story by one of the authors I'll be moderating a panel with in May, just in case I don't get a chance to read her newest book before then.  That author is Kelley Armstrong.  Along with some authors I haven't read before, there were a few of my favorite authors in this book:  Sarah Rees Brennan, Ally Condie, Carrie Ryan, and Rachel Vincent to name a few.  One of my new favorites, Kimberly Derting was also a part of this.

Some of the stories go along with series of books, such as Rachel Vincent's Soul Screamers series, and Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampire series.  Even Carrie Ryan's story fits into the world of her Forest of Hands and Teeth series.  While I haven't read the Morganville Vampire series, and still don't know that I will, I really did like the story in this book, Automatic.  It reminded me a bit of the whole True Blood idea of making synthetic blood.  Only in this story, they were putting the blood into cans, and into a vending machine.  But something went wrong with it.  The recipe/formula was more calculated for the vampires that had been around longer, and caused the younger ones to lose themselves to the monster inside.

I haven't read Claudia Gray before, unless it was another short story, but her story, Giovanni's Farewell, the first one in the book, was one I really enjoyed.  Ravenna and Cairo were twins, who have a very close connection.  But they have kind of grown apart a bit, until a class trip to Italy.  She finds out that the little episodes her brother has are because he can hear/see what everyone around him is thinking, and it is a lot to take in.  At the same time, Ravenna learns while in one of the tombs that she can see dead people.  I won't tell too much more, just wanted to point out that I really liked this story, and now will have to read the other books Claudia Gray has written.

Another of my favorite stories in the book was Red Run by Kami Garcia.  It's based on one of those old stories about there being a ghost on a stretch of road that if you stopped to pick him up, you would die in an automobile accident or something.  I enjoyed the twist on the story that Garcia put to make it different.

The final story I'll talk about is by another author I haven't read before, Jeri Smith-Ready.  It is called Bridge, and is written in a prose sort of way.  It's about a future when people born after a certain time can often see ghosts.  And there is a ghost who wants to talk to his brother, to save his brother from killing himself out of guilt that it was his fault his brother died.

Sixteen paranormal stories, some better than others, but I think everyone will like different ones based on what types of stories and writing they prefer or enjoy.

A to Z April - J: Journalism?

Okay, I'm kind of stretching for today.  Wasn't sure anyway what to do for J, journaling was my other idea.  But, I decided to use today's post to get some help from my followers and anyone else who stops by.  On May 8th, I am so excited to get to be a moderator for an author panel at the bookstore where I work part time.  It is the Pitch Black Dark Days Summer Tour, and includes the authors:  Kelley Armstrong, Kiera Cass, Kimberly Derting, and Danielle Paige.  I'm so excited because Kiera Cass is the author of one of my favorite series, The Selection series, and the final book in the series, The One, comes out this May and I can't wait to read it!  Danielle Paige is the author of the exciting new book, Dorothy Must Die.  Kimberly Derting is an author I just fell in love with from reading her latest book, The Taking.  And Kelley Armstrong is an author I have yet to read, other than short stories, but am still very excited to meet.


So, to me, journalism is reporters, telling the news, interviews, magazines, newspapers, etc.  So I feel like I would love to have some ideas of questions you think I should ask when moderating the panel with these awesome authors next month.  Here is what I'm asking.  Please give me some question ideas in the comments below.  I will also make this into a contest.  Whoever comes up with the most original question, that I think is appropriate and perfect to ask the authors, I will purchase one of the titles from these authors and have it signed for them as a giveaway.  So think hard about what you'd like to know or what you would ask these authors if you had the chance to moderate this.  And keep in mind, it can be a question for just one of them, but even better would be something I could have all of them answer.

Can't wait to read your ideas!!!