Review and Blog Tour (and giveaway!): Jubilee Manor (Landry Park #2) by Bethany Hagen

Jubilee Manor (Landry Park #2)
by Bethany Hagen

Publisher: Dial/Penguin
Release Date: August 11th 2015

Genre: Dystopian, Young Adult, Romance, Science Fiction
Rate: 5/5 Stars

Synopsis:

The thrilling conclusion to Landry Park is full of love, betrayal, and murder--perfect for fans of Divergent, The Selection, and Pride and Prejudice.

In Landry Park, Madeline turned her back on her elite family, friends, and estate to help the Rootless. Now, in Jubilee Manor, she struggles to bring the Gentry and the Rootless together. But when Gentry heirs—Madeline’s old friends—are murdered, even she begins to think a Rootless is behind it, putting her at odds with the boy she loves and the very people she is trying to lead. If she can’t figure out who is killing her friends and bring them to justice, a violent war will erupt and even more will die—and Madeline’s name, her estate, and all the bonds she’s forged won’t make any difference.

This conclusion to Landry Park, which VOYA dubbed "Gone with the Wind meets The Hunger Games,” is a richly satisfying, addictive read.

First of all I have to say thanks to The Fantastic Flying Book Club for allowing me to read an egalley of this title. Although, I was lucky enough to get to meet the author about 2 weeks before the book was coming out, and was able to get an ARC from her!!  So I actually read the ARC.  And LOVED it!  Before I go on with my review, let me share the picture of me and the author from that Comic-Con again:

She was so cool!  And we had a great conversation about writing, and libraries, and Kansas City!  But anyway, on with the review.

We jumped right back into the story, and learned that even though Madeline's father had been tortured by the Rootless, fed the radioactive material, he was quickly healing, and would soon be pretty close to back to normal.  With her uncle, Jack, she is trying to do what she can to get the Gentry and the Rootless to come to an agreement, a way to settle things in order to move on.  But when the night of one of the first big gatherings of both groups is ruined by finding the body of one of the heirs, Marianne Wilder, finding her murdered, chances for peace seem to be less and less a possibility.  And when another heir is murdered, things look even worse.  

Madeline has heard one of the Rootless seeming to plot something horrible, such as killing the heirs, and she noticed his absence during the finding of the first body, she must decide whether to tell what she knows to the police, or keep it to herself until there is actual proof as her uncle asks.  Yet everything she does seems to be the opposite of what her boyfriend David wants.  So now she must find a way to get the trust built between the Gentry and the Rootless, as well as keep anymore of her friends from being murdered, and figure out if she and David can stay together despite their difference of opinions on the way to do these things.  To make matters better, there might be a cure for the radioactive poisoning!  And Madeline will welcome a new family member, other than her Uncle Jack's family now living in Landry Park.

I love the story.  I got so mad at David throughout the story though.  Even knowing what he ended up knowing at the end of the story, the fact that he kept it from Madeline, well, he deserved the things that she did, since she didn't know.  In the end though, I was happy with how it all went.  Although the Kansas City references weren't quite as many in this second book, I still enjoyed when I read them and recognized them.  So excited to read more from this author, and I highly recommend this series to everyone!

Follow the Jubilee Manor by Bethany Hagen Blog Tour and don't miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.

Bethany Hagen was born and raised in Kansas City. She grew up reading Charlotte Brontë, Jane Austen, and all things King Arthur, and went on to become a librarian. Landry Park is her debut novel.

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Review: Landry Park by Bethany Hagen (TBR Challenge #8)

I'd been interested in this book for awhile, the cover of course caught my eye first, then I read the synopsis and was really intrigued.  I got this book in February through the Books & Bloggers swap hosted by Chaotic Goddess Swaps.  My swap partner was Emily from Follow the Yellow Book Road, and this was one of the books I got from her.

What it didn't tell me in the synopsis, but was one of my favorite parts of this book was that it all took place in Kansas City, where I live!  I could picture so many things in the story just from the author naming the locale or a landmark that I was familiar with from living here my whole life.  It was also cool to find out that the author was from KC.

It is a dystopian society where classes have once again become the way people live.  The East, China, Japan, etc., fought a war against the US, and now a lot of our country is gone.  Not only because of that though, but because of global warming and the depletion of the fossil fuels that led to the creation of a nuclear fission type of material that was expensive and harder to come by, mainly for the wealthy.  The main character, Madeline Landry is the descendant of the creator of the charges that are used for electricity now.  So of course her family is one of the highest regarded in the gentry.  As the oldest/only child, she must marry and take over managing the estate one day.  But Madeline wants to go to the University, something that first children don't get to do.  She doesn't care about getting married, would prefer to wait until after she has at least attained the education she so wants.  But her father will not let her, he only sees the responsibility she has to the family.  And when a very eligible boy comes to town, her mother hopes for her to make a match with him.  His name is David Dana, and when Madeline first meets him, she is intrigued by him.  He doesn't seem to be the same as her other peers who are pretty much proud to be gentry, and feel as if all is deserved to be given to them.

But a tragedy occurs when a childhood friend/enemy of Madeline's, a girl named Cara, is attacked outside a debut party.  The gentry assume it is a Rootless, the people who change the charges for them, and end up dying younger because of all the radiation poison they get in their lifetimes.  Soon the gentry are persecuting the Rootless because of the attack.  And Madeline's father seems to be leading the hunt.  But Madeline knows Cara is hiding something, because she has grown up and knows the signs when Cara is lying or covering herself.  Soon David and Cara debut together, and while there seems to be a connection between David and Madeline, she can't quite figure out why he is still being Cara's boyfriend in public.

A great story, I kind of wondered about some kind of little twist at the end that had to do with some stories about Madeline's childhood earlier in the book.  It didn't really seem to fit in until the end, when I thought, yeah, I knew it had to do something with what was going on.  And I'm guessing the sequel will go into that much further.

Stacking the Shelves - February 8th, 2015

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.  It is a way for us to share the new books we have collected.  I already shared earlier this week the books that I received from my partner Emily at Follow the Yellow Book Road from the Books and Bloggers Swap HERE:

Landry Park by Bethany Hagen

Born of Illusion by Teri Brown

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa

I also found out that I had won a Halloween giveaway from Stephanie at Chasm of Books.   Those books arrived in the mail today.

E-galley:

I got this one from Edelweiss, finally. Didn't realize it had been on there so long! I've really got to start just typing in titles I'm looking for on Edelweiss because it says it had been on there over 170 days.

E-book purchased:

I had to have this, even though it cost because I loved the other two books.

Free e-books:

 Both of these were from Amazon.

That's what I added this week.  What's new on your shelves this week?

Books & Bloggers Swap Reveal

Okay, so today I got my awesome package in the mail from my awesome partner, Emily at Follow the Yellow Book Road.  The first glance when I opened the first flap of the box was this:

I saw the cover of Landry Park, and if I hadn't been at work in the high school library where I work, I would have screamed and danced!  I have wanted this book for a long time, and even last night when I was working at the bookstore I was thinking about how much I wanted it.  So this was very exciting.

Now, here is the picture of everything my awesome partner sent me:

The rules were to give:

1. A book from your partner's wishlist:  Landry Park by Bethany Hagen
2. A book you loved:  Graceling by Kristin Cashore
3.  A book you've wanted to read: Born of Illusion by Teri Brown

My partner had sent an email the first day letting me know she might not get my package mailed by the set date, and she decided since she was late to throw in an extra book, The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa.  Honestly, she didn't need to do that, I totally understood, but with that being the extra book, I'm definitely not complaining either!  Of course I still have to finish the The Iron Fey series before I can start that one, but it will happen!  Another thing that was part of the deal was some kind of book swag, etc.  I got a cool The Fault in Our Stars bookmark too.  I'd actually been talking to my bookstore manager about Graceling last night, so I'm now excited to have my own copy to read.  And  Born of Illusion is a book I remember seeing around a lot, and wondering about, so now I'm very excited to get to read it as well!

Thanks so much Emily!  This was a lot of fun.  I think everyone who can participate should try to do that in the future!