Review: Greek Gods #Squadgoals by Courtney Carbone

Book info:

Title:  Greek Gods #Squadgoals
Author:  Courtney Carboone
Series:  OMG Classics
Genre:  Retellings of the classics told through texts.
Release Date:  November 7th, 2017
Publisher:  Random House Books for Young Readers
Source:  Finished copy from publisher
My rating:  5 stars

Synopsis:
Imagine: What if Mount Olympus got WiFi and the gods and goddesses had smartphones? The classic Greek myths get new life in irreverent and hilarious texts and posts! 
Zeus, a king of the gods always in search of a new bae.
A squad of goddesses who can't resist stirring the pot.
And the selfie-obsessed heroes out for all the likes. 
If you have trouble telling Perseus from Theseus (#Greek2Me) or have ever wondered about Oedipus's tragic dating profile or why Medusa's Instagram never got traction--this satirical book of Greek myths retold for the Internet age is for you! 
tl;dr D'Aulaires' and Homer's Greek myths told through characters texting with emojis, posting photos, checking in at locations, and updating their relationship statuses. The perfect gift for any reader--young or old--with a sense of humor! 
A glossary and cast of characters are included for those who need it. For example: tl;dr means too long; didn't read.

My Review:
Okay, once again I was blown away by the immensely creative way this book was written.  As an adult, some of the text shortcuts were not ones I understood or knew what they meant, but fortunately there was a bit of a glossary to help with that.  As a high school librarian, I love how well this explains in an easy to understand way the Greek myths and really how messed up all of those gods were.  It only took me two thirty minute lunch breaks to read this, as it is a very quick read.  But I was laughing and snorting the whole time!  I even passed it on to one of the teachers in my school who used to teach mythology, and he loved it, and returned it me later that same day!  I don't know if enough teachers know about these books, but I am going to try to get out there and share them with teachers more, as they are some of the best ways to get someone interested in all these crazy stories.  So many parts that were snarky and just hilarious.  The only thing that maybe I had an issue with was the WTF and FML abbreviations.  Knowing what the "F" stands for did bother me a bit.  However I also know that teens are using those abbreviations, so it is probably a bit naive to expect that would be anything new for them.

Another great book in this series, and I look forward to hopefully more to come! 
 

Blog Tour: Review and Giveaway - Glitter by Aprilynne Pike

About the Book:

Title: GLITTER

Author: Aprilynne Pike

Pub. Date: October 25, 2016

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers

Pages: 384

Formats: Hardcover, eBook

Find it: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Goodreads

 

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Aprilynne Pike comes a truly original new novel—Breaking Bad meets Marie Antoinette in a near-future world where the residents of Versailles live like it’s the eighteenth century and an almost-queen turns to drug dealing to save her own life. 

Outside the palace of Versailles, it’s modern day. Inside, the people dress, eat, and act like it’s the eighteenth century—with the added bonus of technology to make court life lavish, privileged, and frivolous. The palace has every indulgence, but for one pretty young thing, it’s about to become a very beautiful prison.

When Danica witnesses an act of murder by the young king, her mother makes a cruel power play . . . blackmailing the king into making Dani his queen. When she turns eighteen, Dani will marry the most ruthless and dangerous man of the court. She has six months to escape her terrifying destiny. Six months to raise enough money to disappear into the real world beyond the palace gates.

Her ticket out? Glitter. A drug so powerful that a tiny pinch mixed into a pot of rouge or lip gloss can make the wearer hopelessly addicted. Addicted to a drug Dani can sell for more money than she ever dreamed.

But in Versailles, secrets are impossible to keep. And the most dangerous secret—falling for a drug dealer outside the palace walls—is one risk she has to take.  

My Review:
While I'm not a fan of Breaking Bad, I've never even seen the show, the idea of this combined with Marie Antoinette totally grabbed me.  The book grabbed me right away.  I loved hearing about this world, and the mixture of 18th century French traditions and clothing with technology even more advanced than what we have today.  There was just enough information telling about how the world had gotten to this point, and how this little society got set up.  Normally I'm not a big fan of drugs, probably why I don't watch Breaking Bad, but the way it was done in this story made drugs to be the way that I feel they are. Addictive, and not good for people, while also being a very large money-making business.  I liked all the characters.  Even the King was one that you hated him, but also felt a little sorry for him in some situations, until he turned around and showed the very side you'd seen before.  I liked the main character Danica.  She definitely worked well in this story. She wasn't the perfectly innocent and virtuous character as you might often see in this type of story.  I felt that she was much more realistic to her situation.  The only issue I had with this is that the romance at first seemed almost like an after-thought, and when it came into being a bigger part of the story, in a way it felt like it was almost out of place.  I liked the romance, I just had a little issue with it fitting in seamlessly.  As others have mentioned in reviews, if there is a sequel, I would be very excited to read it!  I highly recommend this story!

My rating:  4.5 stars

About the Author:

Aprilynne Pike is a critically acclaimed, #1 New York Times best-selling author of young adult fiction. At the age of twenty she received her BA in Creative Writing from Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho. When not writing, Aprilynne can usually be found running; she also enjoys singing, acting, reading, and working with pregnant moms as a childbirth educator and doula. Aprilynne lives in Arizona with her husband and their four children.

Website| Wattpad | Facebook | Twitter |Goodreads    



Giveaway:

• 3 winners will receive a finished copy of GLITTER, US Only  

    a Rafflecopter giveaway
Tour Schedule:

Week One:

10/17/2016- Tales of theRavenous Reader- Interview

10/18/2016- Lisa Loves Literature- Review You are here!!!

10/19/2016- Pandora's Books- Excerpt

10/20/2016-  BookHounds YA- Review

10/21/2016- Two Chicks on Books- Interview

Week Two:

10/24/2016- Brooke- Reports- Review

10/25/2016- Brittany's Book Rambles- Guest Post

10/26/2016- Seeing Double In Neverland- Review

10/27/2016- A Glass Of Wine Blog- Interview

10/28/2016- Mundie Moms- Review   

Review: YOLO Juliet by Brett Wright/Shakespeare and srsly Hamlet by Courtney Carbone/Shakespeare

Okay, thanks to Edelweiss and Random House Books for Young Readers for allowing me to read a sampler of these two titles.  Now, I am a little disappointed that it was only samplers, but that is fine. While I normally do enjoy books like this, I might not have made it all the way through, as I have actually read Romeo and Juliet.  But I think this could be a great way to help kids today understand Shakespeare.  Yeah, you could say it "dumbs" it down.  But, it's not any different to me than translating it into more modern words like the No Fear Shakespeare books do.

These are basically told through Romeo and Juliet texting each other, or else writing in diary mode on their phones.  They use normal texting abbreviations and terms, as well as emojis.  One of the exchanges between Romeo and Juliet that I love was like this:

Romeo:  Juliet, I swear on the

 

Juliet:  Wait, you swear on a piece of rock in the sky?  Um.

Romeo:  Okay, what should I swear on, then?

Juliet:  Maybe we shouldn't make any promises yet.  All of t his happened as fast as 

Doesn't that kind of look like fun?  Of course in the book each person's speaking part is in bubbles like in a text message.

So I would recommend this as a fun book for someone trying to understand Shakespeare as they read it.

Review: Be Not Afraid by Celilia Galante

First, thanks to Random House Books for Young Readers and Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of this title.  Obviously the cover is pretty creepy looking.  This is a great horror story, much better than I was expecting, which I know is horrible to say, but I'd never heard of the author, so wasn't sure.  I was definitely pleasantly surprised.  I could totally see this as a movie, in fact I'd be very excited to go see it.  If you know someone who can get it turned into a movie, get it to them!

The main character is Marin.  Her mother committed suicide about a year or so ago, and right at that time she started seeing colors and shapes inside of people.  She soon figured out she was seeing their pain.  No one believed her though, even after she went and saw many therapists and even regular medical doctors.  Her father moved the two of them to live with his mother.  She's got one friend, Lucy.  She thought maybe she'd have another, when one of the really popular girls invited her over shortly after she started the new school.  Instead that visit ended up in Marin being locked in the closet by the girl, Cassie, and screaming and yelling to be let out until Cassie's older brother Dominic heard her and let her out. 

All the different pain colors that Marin sees are so bright sometimes that she has to wear sunglasses, or in chapel she tries to read a book, until one of the nuns takes it away.  It is while they are in this mass that all of a sudden Cassie stands up and starts yelling that the communion wafer is hurting her and screaming and having almost a seizure. And as she goes down the aisle she stops right in front of Marin's row and points at Marin and says something about "It's You!"  Then she does fall on the floor and have a major seizure.  Everyone is freaked out of course, including Marin, who gets sent home early because of being traumatized.  When Marin decides to go see her friend Lucy, who has been calling and texting constantly, she is waylaid along the way when Dominic shows up.  He says that Cassie has been asking for Marin, and he's hoping that maybe if she sees her, it will help her feel better or at least calm her down.

For some reason having Marin around helps Cassie, when it's not sending her into major fits.  There seems to be something inside Cassie though.  Marin sees a black shadow inside her, something she's never seen before.  And this black thing moves around, and hides at times.  Soon Dominic and Marin will begin to think that Cassie is possessed by a demon.  And Dominic will feel it is up to him to try to save his sister.  He and Marin will grow close in their trials with this.  In the end there will be evidence to where the demon came from, and Marin and Dominic will even ask the priest from their school to help with an exorcism. 

A great story.  All the normal things you expect with possessions, and even a lot of the tings for exorcisms.  I really liked it.  I really mean that I could see it as a horror movie.  It definitely reads perfectly like many that I've seen.  If you like stories of exorcisms and demon possession, this is a good one!  

Review: Unmade (The Lynburn Legacy #3) by Sarah Rees Brennan (September Sequels Challenge #1)

I have to thank Random House Young Readers and Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of this title.  Ever since I read the first book in this trilogy, Unspoken, I've been a huge fan of this author.  And when I got to meet her at the Romantic Times Convention back in 2013, she was one of the neatest people I've met as well.  I've loved this series, even the middle book, Untold, and the ending is no different.  Once again, I just fell right back in love with the characters. The way that their sarcastic remarks were just a part of them, even during the least joking of times, makes them people I want to hang out with. Here's a synopsis of this final book, and of course that would be impossible without some spoilers.  But my only spoilers are for those who haven't read the first 2 books.  I will do my best not to give anything away for those who are caught up and waiting for this one.

As we left off in the last book, Kami is now linked to Ash instead of Jared.  And as far as anyone knows, Jared is probably dead, inside the Aurimere mansion with Rob Lynburn and all the sorcerers that were now following him.  The only magic left against him was Lillian (Ash's mother), Henry (their friend from out of town), Ash, Holly, and what little magic Kami has as a source for Ash.  Rob Lynburn wants the town to give him a sacrifice.  A person to take their life, to give him the power he wants.  Only what he wants may not be just to rule the town as it used to be.  And Jared isn't gone.  Rob has kept him alive, and has tortured him trying to bring him to his side.  Kami's mom feels that there is no use in fighting and so she has gone to serve at the mansion.  This makes Kami's father very upset, and he tells her to move out.  The townspeople are all hiding in their homes.  They let Rob have the mayor as the first sacrifice.  He doesn't go willingly, but no one does anything to save him.  So before the spring equinox, they must figure a way to defeat Rob, save Jared as well as Kami's mom, and hopefully not die.  There will be many setbacks, some people losing their magic on the good side.  People they love being turned to stone.  And a fire that will destroy a home.  And Kami will lose more than one friend to the evil.  But she will not let them take her brothers, or even who she loves, and always will, Jared.  She will learn that there are others who may love her as well, and who knows if there was never a Jared if she would maybe have been able to love them back.  But all will be settled in the end, in the way that hopefully is best.

I loved the story, the twists and turns, how they had to work to get where they needed.  I loved the friendships and family bits.  I will miss my favorite characters now that the story is over.  Especially one that was lost towards the end.  I will just now be waiting for Ms. Brennan's next story, and more characters that I will love and want to hang out with.

My only complaint about the story, may not even be the story's fault.  I feel like towards the end, the very final battle, kind of went by really fast, and I feel like maybe I missed a fact or detail.  However, this may be my own fault as I raced through at the end, wanting to know how it would end, how could they save the world?  So once it comes out and I get my finished copy of the book, I'll have to go back and re-read at a slower pace to see what I might have missed in my rush to take it all in.

Review: Astray (Gated #2) by Amy Christine Parker

Thanks once again to Random House for Young Readers as well as Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of the next book in this series.  Although I'm sure it is the conclusion, not really needing another book.  I gave this one a 5 star rating on Goodreads, although looking back, I'm not quite sure why I didn't give the first one, Gated, 5 stars, as I remember thinking it was a very originally told story.  Although there was one thing that bugged me, although I don't know if I mentioned it in my review of the first book. It was the name, Mandrodage Meadows.  Mandrodage is just hard to say and my mind tripped over reading it every time.  But anyway, I thought the first book was really good, and it didn't need a sequel.  So I was unsure about this one. But then I picked it up, and it was such a great sequel, and I could see that Lyla did need more to be done in order to finish her story.  Some spoilers of course, so if you haven't read the first one yet, you should probably go read my review with the link above.

We ended the last book with Lyla running away from the Community and her family after their leader Pioneer seemed to kind of go crazy, including killing her friend Marie right in front of Lyla.  After the big shoot out and confrontation at Mandrodage Meadows, when to get away Lyla had to shoot Pioneer, all the children were taken away and moved to foster homes, Lyla being moved to the Sheriff's house with her new friend Cody.  Eventually the Community, after counseling and meetings with officers were allowed to have their children back, and they moved into another place with trailers.  They were helped out by a group of militants who are about making sure the government doesn't take away people's rights.  But now all the kids are required to go to the public school.  And Lyla chose not to go back with her parents, doesn't even want to visit them after her first visit to the trailer when she sees just how far they've fallen back under Pioneer's spell, even with him in jail.  A man like Pioneer still has ways in jail to get into Lyla's life and make her scared, to tell her she still belongs to him, she is his "Little Owl". Scary things begin happening to Lyla, she can tell she is being watched by someone from the Community.  And all her old friends do crazy things at school, like chanting their strange sayings in the middle of classes, and they shave their heads to support Pioneer with his shaved head, even the girls do it.  When the trial begins things will start happening around the town, making Lyla wonder if maybe Pioneer's predictions are right, and she sometimes doubts if what she remembers is real, or if what Pioneer says happened to Marie is the truth.

It will all come to a conclusion, with Lyla, her old friends, and even her parents, having to find out and choose what is the truth about this Community, and what kind of a man is Pioneer, and is he really getting help from some aliens that they call the Brethren.

I just have to say it was a very realistic and attention grabbing ending to the story.  Even when I was saying out loud that Lyla shouldn't doubt things, and being shocked at what types of things these people following Pioneer would do, I couldn't put the book down.  Such a compelling story.  One that I would guess is similar to what someone who has actually been part of a cult and escaped would probably recognize.  And the way they reacted to the outside world again seems just like examples of the same situations we've seen in the news.  The emotions of Lyla, and even of those who follow Pioneer almost blindly are so potent and grab you to keep you involved in the story.  A great series, that I intend to make sure is in the library where I work.

Review: Divided (Dualed #2) by Elsie Chapman

First, thanks to Edelweiss and Random House for Young Readers for allowing me to read an e-galley of this.  I read the first book, Dualed, back in the summer of 2012.   So it had been awhile since I'd read it. But I remembered the main points of the story.

In this futuristic society, people have become sterile.  They are able to make babies, and what they do is make two of the same genetics, twins basically, but set them with two different families. At a certain point they are called or given the the order where they must find and kill their "Alt" or twin.  Whichever survives is the strongest, and therefore the best to survive and help protect their city from the outside world that wants to come in and take over.

West Grayer is still the main character, if you didn't read the first one, stop now.  She survived after killing her own Alt, which made her a complete.  Now she is helping train other "idles" so that they can be prepared the day they are called to fight their own Alts.  Now in the last book, in order to prepare to kill her own Alt, she became a Striker for awhile.  Killng other people's alts for them.  She has given it up, as her boyfriend, Chord, asked her to. And because she doesn't want to kill anymore.  But one day she is contacted by someone high up on the board. And they want her to kill 3 more alts.  Children of board members, who even though they should be way better prepared because of all the benefits they have, their parents just want to make sure they are able to become completes.  West decides to do it, but only after getting a chance to get several things she wants.  She is promised that when they day comes for her to have children, they will not create alts for her children, so they will never have to kill to live.  And the other is to remove the tattoos she has that mark her as once being a Striker.

There is a new type of weapon available as well.  It can make the death quick and painless, if you hit in the exact spot it is meant for.  If you hit them in the eye, it will remove their ID mark, thereby turning them into incompletes, but also saving their alt, and keeping them from dying.  So West decides to do this. She's saved the lives of two of the Idles, but when she comes to the 3rd, he looks familiar, because he is her brother's alt.  Which means that he is complete, because her brother is dead.  Now she knows something is up.  And from there, it all goes downhill.  The controversy and reasoning behind this deal becomes known through bits and pieces, and more and more danger shows up in West's way.

I liked this one.  It had a lot of twists and turns, and while we learned quite a bit of background information, I really think there needs to be a 3rd book, because I have a LOT more questions about what is going on, and what could change in this world.

Untold (The Lynburn Legacy #2) by Sarah Rees Brennan

I actually thought this came out in August, so rushed to read it at the beginning of August, but now see that it isn't to be published till September, so I'm typing this review about 20 days before you will see it! I am so thankful to Random House Books for Young Readers and Edelweiss for allowing me to read this e-galley. At the end of the review, look for pictures of when I got to meet the author, Sarah Rees Brennan, this past May at the Romantic Times Convention. Now, when I met her, she said I could ask one question about this book, which I didn't have the e-galley of yet, and didn't know I'd even be able to get it. But my mind blanked! I couldn't think of anything specific to ask! She probably thought I was lying when I said I loved the first one, Unspoken, but I wasn't! I loved this one too. And a lot of what I love isn't just the story, it is the characters, the dialogue, all of it. There are times when I laughed out loud, literally, because the characters are written so realistically sarcastic.
So the main characters are back, Kami, Jared Lynburn and his "cousin" Ash Lynburn.  Kami's best friend Angela and her brother Rusty, and their friend Holly.  Kami and Jared's link was broken, and since then, things have been strained between them.  Ash's father has left and is gathering sorcerers to his side to try to take the town from his wife, Lillian, the true Lynburn heir.  And he wants it to go back to the way it used to be, where the people who weren't magic served the sorcerers, and magic was done by spilling blood.  Ash's mom, Lillian is very condescending, and doesn't see how someone like Kami could possibly help.  When Kami broke her bond with Jared, she lost any magical power that she had.  When Lillian gathers the sorcerers who do not want to go back to the old ways, they see they have way less than the other side.  Rob Lynburn goes and tells the townspeople that they must give him a sacrifice of one person on the fall equinox.  On the night it is to happen, they must all go to see if they can find a way to defeat his side.  Kami refuses to sit and let the magical people do all the work, so she does what she does best, investigates.  She tries to find out who all of the sorcerers are, and tries to get a personal item from each in order to maybe create a protection or blocking spell for the sorcerers on their side.  Kami uses her paper, The Nosy Parker, to get the message out to the students.  But as much as her mother has tried to keep all of this secret from her father, he finds out.  And now, Kami is not only worried about the town, she is worried about her mother and father not being able to repair this breach of trust.  And in the end, the Lynburns will do something to her family to try to win the war, and they will all have to decide what is left of their family.  And Kami must figure out if she and Jared are really over, if Ash is really going to be the nice guy he seems, or maybe it will be Angela's charming and humorous older brother Rusty who wins her over.
If you haven't read this series yet, you need to give it a try.  It's such a good read, such a smooth read, and like I said, a laugh out loud at times read!  My one complaint about the first book was the cover, but I'm much happier with this cover.  And now, how long do I have to wait for the 3rd book?  Too long!!

And as promised, some pictures of the author from when I met her.  First, a picture of me with her (I look like such a dork, but I was so excited!):

Next is a fun picture from one of the panels I saw her on.  She was timing all the authors as they read from their books, and as they got too close to the end time, she would go up and pretend she was choking them.