Four ARC Mini-Reviews

Getting behind again!  So here we go with some mini-reviews of ARCs I either won or were unsolicited.

Men and Dogs by Marie-Eva Chopin and Alice Chaygneaud:

Published:  September 26th, 2017
Source:  ARC from publisher - won through Shelf Awareness
Genre:  Humor
My rating:  3 stars

Cute little book, although maybe something more to each page.  The dogs and men were both nice to look at.  For different reasons of course.

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

From the authors of Men & Cats comes this delightful follow-up, featuring 50 new pairs of gorgeous men and candid canines When the world has you down, there's no better way to instant happiness than with handsome men paired with cute puppies. In this new book from the creators of the popular website Des Hommes et des Chatons, you'll find an original collection of 100 clever photo match-ups, with a heartthrob human on one page and a pooch in a similar pose or with a similar expression on the next. 
 
Wearing a tux.
Taking a walk.
Playing catch.
Toweling off after a bath. 
 
Can't decide between man or man's best friend? Well, with Men & Dogs, you don't have to choose.

Monster (Gone Series #7) by Michael Grant:

Published:  October 17th, 2017
Source:  ARC
Genre:  YA science fiction
My rating:  5 stars

The Gone series has always been one of my favorites, so when I saw there was another one coming out, I was excited, yet a little leery.  I was worried it would mess up where the story had left off.  Fortunately, I was wrong.  I loved how at the beginning the author gave a shout out to some other awesome YA authors.  The book was very action packed and while mostly we had all new characters, there were a few from before, and that made the story even better.  I look forward to where this story will go in the next book, and will be eagerly awaiting the next installment.

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

In the stunning follow-up to the globally bestselling Gone series, Michael Grant continues the story of the teens who morph into superheroes—and supermonsters—when they ingest an alien virus.

Four years after the events of the FAYZ, new meteorites are hitting Earth, and the whole world is exposed to a strange alien virus that gives humans unique superpowers. 

As some teens become heroes and others become dangerously out of control with their new powers, the world will become more terrifying than the FAYZ—and only a monstrous battle between good and evil can save them.

Year One (Chronicles of the One #1) by Nora Roberts:

Published:  December 5th, 2017
Source:  ARC
Genre:  Science fiction/post-apocalyptic
My rating:  5 stars

I feel like this is my first Nora Roberts book, although I think I've read one or two under another pen name she has.  While I don't know that this has made me want to go read all her other books, it definitely was a good read, and I am probably going to read on in the series, if I have time when the next ones come out.  It reminded me a lot of my favorite post-apocalyptic stories Swan Song by Robert McCammon, and The Stand by Stephen King.  There wasn't really a lot that was that unique compared to other stories, but the story itself was still good.  This one tied in both magical beings along with some kind of disease.  And it is this mixture that makes me want to read on and find out just what caused all of it to happen.  If you like post-apocalyptic or the other titles I mentioned, you should give this one a try.

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

It began on New Year’s Eve.

The sickness came on suddenly, and spread quickly. The fear spread even faster. Within weeks, everything people counted on began to fail them. The electrical grid sputtered; law and government collapsed—and more than half of the world’s population was decimated.

Where there had been order, there was now chaos. And as the power of science and technology receded, magic rose up in its place. Some of it is good, like the witchcraft worked by Lana Bingham, practicing in the loft apartment she shares with her lover, Max. Some of it is unimaginably evil, and it can lurk anywhere, around a corner, in fetid tunnels beneath the river—or in the ones you know and love the most.

As word spreads that neither the immune nor the gifted are safe from the authorities who patrol the ravaged streets, and with nothing left to count on but each other, Lana and Max make their way out of a wrecked New York City. At the same time, other travelers are heading west too, into a new frontier. Chuck, a tech genius trying to hack his way through a world gone offline. Arlys, a journalist who has lost her audience but uses pen and paper to record the truth. Fred, her young colleague, possessed of burgeoning abilities and an optimism that seems out of place in this bleak landscape. And Rachel and Jonah, a resourceful doctor and a paramedic who fend off despair with their determination to keep a young mother and three infants in their care alive.

In a world of survivors where every stranger encountered could be either a savage or a savior, none of them knows exactly where they are heading, or why. But a purpose awaits them that will shape their lives and the lives of all those who remain.

The end has come. The beginning comes next. 

The Girl in the Tower (Winternight Trilogy #2) by Katherine Arden:

Published:  December 5th, 2017
Source:  ARC won on Goodreads
Genre:  Historical fantasy
My rating:  4 stars

As with the first one, while it took me a minute to get into the story, once I got into it a little bit, I was sucked in and had trouble putting it down.  The characters were very well written, and I loved all the Russian folklore and history.  The scenes were all written very vividly, in such a way that you felt you were there.  My only issues were kind of the same that I'd had with the first book in the series.  The fact that there would be more than one name for the same person, and sometimes that was confusing as to who was being talked to.  Or who was doing the talking.  And then, there was a character that said his house name or his name or something was ironic, but even after googling the name, I could not find what reason made it that - Bashnya Kostei?  If you can figure it out, I'd love to know.  Anyway, I'll definitely be interested to see what the final book includes.  

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

The magical adventure begun in The Bear and the Nightingalecontinues as brave Vasya, now a young woman, is forced to choose between marriage or life in a convent and instead flees her home—but soon finds herself called upon to help defend the city of Moscow when it comes under siege.

Orphaned and cast out as a witch by her village, Vasya’s options are few: resign herself to life in a convent, or allow her older sister to make her a match with a Moscovite prince. Both doom her to life in a tower, cut off from the vast world she longs to explore. So instead she chooses adventure, disguising herself as a boy and riding her horse into the woods. When a battle with some bandits who have been terrorizing the countryside earns her the admiration of the Grand Prince of Moscow, she must carefully guard the secret of her gender to remain in his good graces—even as she realizes his kingdom is under threat from mysterious forces only she will be able to stop. 

Can't Wait Wednesday #5: Monster (Gone #7) by Michael Grant

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.  My pick this week is a book that I squealed at work when I saw on another blog that this was going to be a book.  The Gone series by Michael Grant is one of my favorite series, it is a much better version of the very similar story, Under the Dome by Stephen King.  And to know I get to read more?  Well, let's just say I can't wait!  Here's the blurb from Goodreads:

In the stunning follow-up to the globally bestselling Gone series, Michael Grant continues the story of the teens who morph into superheroes—and supermonsters—when they ingest an alien virus.

Four years after the events of the FAYZ, new meteorites are hitting Earth, and the whole world is exposed to a strange alien virus that gives humans unique superpowers.

As some teens become heroes and others become dangerously out of control with their new powers, the world will become more terrifying than the FAYZ—and only a monstrous battle between good and evil can save them.





Have you read this series?  What do you think, do you want to read this one, or go back and start the whole series?  What book are you eagerly awaiting this week?
 

Review: Messenger of Fear by Michael Grant (TBR Challenge #9)

I was lucky enough to get an ARC of this at BEA in the summer of 2014.  I also got to meet the author last summer, who I have been a huge fan of ever since I first read his book Gone. Unfortunately, I'm not quite sure I was a big fan of this book.

The main character is Mara, although she doesn't quite remember who she is when the book first starts.  She wakes up in a field that she doesn't recognize and has no idea how she got there or where she is.  As she begins to try to make her way out of the foggy field, she comes across a coffin with a girl inside. But as she looks at the girl, she knows it is not her.  She turns around and sees a cute boy, who will only tell her that he is the Messenger of Fear.  And he shows her how the girl in the coffin died.  She shot herself.  So then they follow back in time to the bullying that led to her death.  But it's not only this that he shows Mara.  She also sees a boy and girl that run over a dog.  I almost quit at that point.  But since the book was portraying what they'd done as bad, I went ahead and read on.  There was another bullying type of situation that Mara saw.  She also saw the people get punished, or tested in a game.  Soon, Mara will find out why she is there with the Messenger, she will learn what he does. She will meet other people that he deals with.  Some not quite so nice.  Some that she can't quite figure out.

The people are all bad, and for the most part they get what they deserve. And I wondered if the little twist at the end would be what was going to happen early on, but it was done in a very good way.  I don't know if I'll read on or not.  Will see if I feel like it and can fit the next one in.  I think I saw an egalley of it on Edelweiss.

I wanted so bad to like it since I've loved Grant's other books, and since I met him when I got this one.  I remember when I saw him at BEA last summer.  I'd come back and got in line pretty early, before anyone else, and it was during the time when they were having a lunch break for the workers, so there weren't any authors there at the time.  When he came up I was first in line, and he called  us up and said he'd sign whatever we had. Well, I felt greedy, but I asked him if there were any books because we'd thought we were supposed to get Messenger of Fear.  So he went in the back and helped them bring his books up front to be signed.  He was really cool!

Review: Light (Gone #6) by Michael Grant (September Sequel Challenge #6)

I actually got a copy of this through a trade on YA Book Exchange a while back.  And just didn't seem to get around to it till my September Sequel Challenge.  Which I'm so not going to meet my goal this year.  But, I must say that the sequels I did read this year, including this one, were all really good.  And this was another great ending to a favorite series of mine.  As I watch Under the Dome on tv, I think about how much better this series would be on tv.  At least in my opinion.

The end of all the kids' time in the FAYZ is almost over.  The gaiaphage is coming into its own, ready to break lose, and take over the world.  Little Pete, the one who created the dome is now fading away.  The kids have kind of revolted, and no one is working.  Partly because the dome has now become see through, and they can see their parents and the outside world, and all they want is to get out and go back to normal life.  It will take the most powerful, Sam, Caine, Breanna, Lana, and others to stop Gaia.  But not before she kills many of the kids.  There will be lots of death, and even of some who may have started out as the bad guys, but who had a redemption of some sort.  Orc who found God.  Albert who knew he was the only one to get the kids back working. Even Diana, the mother to the monster, will do what she must to try to save the others, including Caine, who she loves.  And some of the deaths will be beloved characters.  And then there will be some that are thought to be dead, that may survive and show up after everything is over.  The kids know that they will have to face authorities when they get out.  That people will want to punish them for what they don't understand.  And in the end, Sam will find out things from his mother that will really change his whole view on everything, including his brother Caine.

As I said, such a great ending to a great series. If you haven't started, you need to.  They have started putting them all out in new covers, which aren't bad, but I'm glad I was able to get them all with the same cover.   Now I must fit in my ARC of Messenger of Fear that I got at BEA.  And because I must share, here is my picture when I met Michael Grant this summer at BEA.  Let me just say how cool and personable he was!

Me with Michael Grant

BZRK by Michael Grant

I checked this book out from the library because I saw the sequel was available on Netgalley, and I love the Gone series by this author.  The science geek in me really ended up enjoying this book.  While really we get to know several of the characters throughout the book, we really have 2 central characters.  First is Noah.  His brother came back from the military and had gone insane.  We kind of begin with Noah going to visit his brother in the mental hospital.  His brother is mumbling lots of things that don't really make sense, including the word "berserk".  Sadie is the other kind of main character.  Although we don't really start out by meeting her, but by meeting her father and brother as they are flying to a business meeting, in Japan I think it was.  On their way something happens to the plane, and it crashes in a stadium.  The exact stadium that Sadie just happens to be at while she is on a date.  Sadie's family is rich, in fact her father's company is heavily involved in nanotechnology.  Both Sadie and Noah get recruited into the BZRK organization of hackers/nanotechnology experts to help defeat an organization called Nexus Humanus and their evil plan to take over some of the world's leaders in order to further their plans for mankind.  Both sides have the same types of technology.  Nanobots which can get inside and spy or at least attach the biots.  Biots are nano-organisms created from actual pieces of a person, and then they become a part of that person to the point that whoever they came from can then see through their eyes and control them.  The problem is this is that they are a part of you, and to lose them, well it is like a part of you actually dies, and it can drive you crazy.  Just the training of going down to that tiny level can be stressful.  There are all kinds of things that are freaky looking when they get that small.  For example, a lot of times the biots try to get into the brain through the eyeballs, but on everyone's eyelashes are tiny creatures called Demodex.  And while they are kind of frightening at the size they are compared to the biots, really they aren't dangerous at all.
Other characters are the evil twins, conjoined twins, Charles and Benjamin Armstrong who run the Nexus group.  On their side is one of the best "twitchers" as the people who do this are called, and he goes by the name Bug Man.  Vincent is one of the good guys, but he is an interesting character as he has an actual medical issue that he can't feel pleasure.
So we've got Noah trying to do something to make up for what happened to his brother, and Sadie who is now alone in the world, with a chance to get revenge for her brother and father.  In BZRK, everyone takes a new name, Sadie chooses Plath from the basic rules given to her, and then Noah is named Keats.
I can see that for some this book may be way too technical, but that is kind of what I really liked about it!  And reading all the descriptions of what things looked like at that small of scale was kind of cool.  I could totally see a movie out of this, but only if someone who could afford awesome special effects did it, so that they could make this stuff look as real as possible.

Stacking the Shelves - May 2013 Round-up

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.   With the end of the school year, things get really hectic, especially in my school where we have to pack up all our stuff in our classroom every year.  So, I've gotten several books, ebooks, etc., since my last STS post.   I tried to write them down as they came, but I think I may not get all of them.  Here are the ones I remember/wrote down:

Although I was disappointed to get 4 rejections of books from Edelweiss over the past two weeks, two of which I did REALLY want, I was approved for Asylum by Madeleine Roux, the author of a zombie book I enjoyed called Allison Hewitt is Trapped.  This is her first teen novel, and it is compared to Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.  So excited to get this one!

I won an e-book of The First Days by Rhiannon Frater, from At Random Blog from the Spring Carnival Blog Hop.  This is one I've been interested in awhile, even blogged about it in one of my "Hazards of Working at a Bookstore posts.



I had 2 successful trades through the YA Book Exchange.  I got an ARC of Light by Michael Grant from Lori, and Exposure by Kim Askew and Amy Helmes from Megan @ The Book Babe.



And finally, the Scholastic Book Warehouse had their big sale, similar to the one I bought about $200 worth of books at last December.  But since I am not teaching English next school year, and just bought a bunch at the RT Convention at the beginning of May, I limited myself to the 2 books you see above.  Finally I can read the very popular Cinder by Marissa Meyer, as well as The Always War by Margaret Peterson Haddix, one of my favorite authors.

What about you?  What books did you add to your shelves this week?

Waiting on Wednesday: Light (Gone #6) by Michael Grant

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'm choosing one that comes out next week, and I don't think I've used it yet.  I have loved the Gone series by Michael Grant since I read the first one a few years ago in preparation for possible Gateway Award nominees for that year.  And now, the final book in the series is coming out.  And I can't wait to see how Grant wraps the whole story up.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads.com:  

It's been over a year since all the adults disappeared. Gone.

In the time since everyperson over the age of fourteen disap-peared from the town of Perdido Beach, California, countless battles have been fought: battles against hunger and lies and plague, and epic battles of good against evil. And now, the gaiaphage has been reborn as Diana's malicious mutant daughter, Gaia. Gaia is endlessly hungry for destruction. She yearns to conquer her Nemesis, Little Pete, and then bend the entire world to her warped will. As long-standing enemies become allies, secrets are revealed and unexpected sacrifices are made. Will their attempts to save themselves and one another matter in the end, or will the kids of Perdido Beach perish in this final power struggle?

So, tell me, what book are you eagerly awaiting this week?

Eve and Adam by Michael Grant and Katherine Applegate

I got this as an Advanced Reader's Edition through Shelf Awareness from an imprint of MacMillan, Feiwel and Friends.  And I'm ashamed to admit, that once again, I was behind on my reading, and just now got to it, almost 3 months after it came out.  It was a good story, and really a pretty quick read.  The story kept me interested the whole time.  However it was a bit different than I expected.  Not in a bad way, just not quite the way I'd expected.  And while I'd kind of assumed it would be a stand alone novel, it does end at a place that is a good stopping place, at the end of the book it showed a page that say the story will continue in Adam and Eve.
Eve is our main character.  Her actual name is Evening.  Her friends call her E.V.  She doesn't like being called Eve.  The story begins with her being hit by a car.  She is rushed to a hospital, where soon her mother, who is the head of Spiker Biopharmaceuticals shows up to take her back to their research facility.  Supposedly it is because she trusts the doctors there better.  But soon Eve learns it is because she has somehow healed much better.  Her leg had been basically severed from her body.  Her arm crushed.  A boy named Solo lives at the facility.  His parents had once worked there, but died in a car crash.  Which he and Eve soon realize that it was the same car crash that killed her father as well.  Solo was taken in by Eve's mother, and lived at the facility.  Since he's been there, he wants to seek revenge for his parents' death.  He sees Eve's mother as an evil woman, using science to create things that aren't natural, stealing his parents ideas.  Now, the research facility has come up with all kinds of cures for diseases, so it is doing good work.  But there is some genetic research going on.  And Solo plans to blow the place wide open.  Until he meets Eve, and becomes her friend.  At that point he's not sure if he wants to hurt her.  While Eve is staying there to "heal" her mother puts gives her a project to play with.  To create the perfect boy using some software that they want tested to see if a normal person could use.  This is a highly advanced system.  Actually using the genes on the chromosomes to develop a person.  So Eve works on this, calls him Adam, makes him perfect looking, intelligence, personality.  All while trying to help out her friend Aislin.  Aislin has her own issues, a boyfriend who is dealing drugs and keeps getting either taken to jail, or in trouble with the drug suppliers.  To the point that Aislin even gets beat up by these guys.  So Eve makes her come stay at the facility to be safe.  While Aislin is there, they basically finish Adam, not all the way, but mostly.  And, Eve and Solo soon learn it isn't safe for them there.  Well, not after Solo does some spying into one of the scientist's computers, and gets caught.  But the footage he finds, well, it is shocking and disturbing.  When he shares it with Eve, and they realize their danger, they must decide whether to leave and leak the information to the public, or what to do.
I won't say anymore.  You need to read it yourself.  I kind of hoped for more of the science stuff, and not as much of the type of danger stuff.  But all in all it was a good story.

Fear (Gone series #5) by Michael Grant

This is a series I began reading back in 2009 when I was reading to help pick one of my state's award nominee list for the 2010-2011 school year.  I believe it was the same year I read Hunger Games.  You can read my review of Gone here.  I would say it was probably my 2nd favorite from the list, after The Hunger Games of course.  In fact I belive it might have been the runner up choice in the vote last year, which of course Hunger Games was the state winner.  Anyway, all of the books have been really long, and this one wasn't any different, once again over 500 pages.  The main theme of the story is that one day all the adults, or everyone over the age of 14 I think, disappear.  Then the kids left soon find out that they are inside a huge dome.  As someone else compared it recently to Lord of the Flies, in a way, that is the type of story.  You have all these kids, some really, really young, that must learn how to take care of themselves, as well as those younger.  And, to top it off, some of the kids have been developing strange new powers.  Really fast, suspending gravity, creating balls of light/fire, etc.  Throughout the last 4 books, we've gone through the fight for power between the "good" group led by Sam, against the "evil" group led by Caine, who we learned were twin brothers.  But not only are they dealing with kids gone bad, but with an evil being that is also causing animals to mutate, and is called the gaiaphage.  The kids eventually get a system going, fishing, farming, etc.  The leadership changes as different things occur, and where we left off in the 4th book, Plague, one of the main players, Caine's 2nd in command, and love interest, Diana, is pregnant.  But she has left Caine because he didn't listen to her and just stay out of all the drama, and she now is sorry for a lot of what she did and wants to turn over a new leaf it seems.  So she goes to stay in Sam's new camp.  We also learned in past books about how Astrid, Sam's love interest, and her little brother, Petey, who was autistic I think, she learned that it was Petey who was somehow controlling a lot of the bad things, and so Astrid had to sacrifice her brother to save others.  Where we join in to this story, Astrid has gone off to live by herself in the wild, until she can forgive herself for what she's done to her brother.  Caine and Albert are in charge of Perdido Beach, the town where it all began, and Sam has his following out at a lake by the military base they explored in book 4.  What's neat is the map at the beginning of the book showing where everything is in the dome, or the FAYZ as it is called by the kids. 
Now, I have to say my favorite part was the very beginning, when we FINALLY got a glimpse out the outside, the parents, and what was going on in the "real" world.  And then, we have chapters sprinkled throughout finding out what is going on outside, and what the scientists and military think about the dome and what to do about it.  And what would you think?  Yeah, they want to launch a nuclear bomb down underground at the bottom of the dome.  Not caring which happens, either it destroys everything inside, or it could just open it up, and who knows what will happen.
Inside the dome, something is changing, the dome is going black.  It is soon going to be completely dark inside.  The gaiaphage is losing its power, because without Petey, who was helping it without really knowing it, it has no physical body, and it needs one.  And it locks onto Diana's baby, and so sends one of the worst villians from the series, Drake, to get her.  Diana knows something is wrong, because she isn't that far along in her pregnancy, but is already bigger than she has read about in the pregnancy books.  She also can feel the baby kicking, way before it should be.
Now, I was pretty sure this was going to be the final book.  Not that I'd ever heard it anywhere, but come on, 5 books at over 500 pages?  That beats even the Harry Potter books!  I think.  And I did something I rarely do, in fact don't think I've done since New Moon, I went to the end of the book.  I was looking for two things.  First, for a little blurb about the next book in the series.  There wasn't one.  Second, I wanted to read what was going on at the end, but didn't want to see who was saying what.  The lines I read on the last page sounded like a happy ending, like it was all over.  But as I got to the end from actually reading it, I don't think it's done.  Pretty sure the story will go on.  I won't tell you why, I'll let you read on and see. 
In conclusion, another great story, kept me on the edge of my seat, and I literally read these 500 pages in 2 days.  I couldn't put it down!  If I hadn't gotten it done earlier tonight, I wouldn't have gone to sleep till I'd finished.  Great book, now I'll just be hanging on till book 6. 

Waiting on Wednesday - Fear (Gone #5) by Michael Grant

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event sponsored by Jill at Breaking the Spine. This is where we share the books we are eagerly anticipating the release of.

This week I've chosen Fear (Gone Series #5) by Michael Grant. I first learned of this series when I was reading for the Truman nominees a few years ago. I was hooked and begin burning my way through them. And these are some thick books! But really quick reading, hard to put down. In the series all adults have disappeared, basically anyone above a certain age. Turns out that whatever did happen, the town is now inside a giant dome and they can't see what is outside. And when the kids turn that age, they can, but don't always have to, disappear as well. Inside the dome there are monsters and of course there are kids who are "bad" in the Lord of the Flies way almost. So here is a synopsis of this book from Goodreads:
This is a blood-pumping, white-knuckle sci-fi thriller of epic proportions. Night is falling in the FAYZ. Even though it's been nearly a year since everyone over the age of fifteen disappeared, the sun has continued to shine on the kids of Perdido Beach. Now, though, the gaiaphage has blotted out the sun and plunged the FAYZ into perpetual gloom. Divided and dispirited, the survivors face their greatest enemy yet - the darkness of their own minds ...

I can't wait to read this and continue on with the story. What book are you eagerly awaiting?