Review: More Than Good Enough by Crissa-Jean Chappell

First, thanks to Flux Books and Netgalley for allowing me to read an e-galley of this title.  I have been a fan of this author since I got to read a copy of her first YA book, Total Constant Order.  I think I got an ARC of that too, can't remember for sure, because it was before I was blogging here.  The second book, Narc, was one that I got at BEA 2012, when I got to meet the author.  Which was really cool.  Now this one, while I think the storyline was pretty good, I had some issues.  One, I kind of wanted a bit more at the beginning.  I felt like I walked into a movie 20 minutes late, and while there were recaps, I felt like there was more that I missed.  And then the other issue has to do with the formatting I had with this Kindle e-galley, and nothing to do with the actual story, so I'll stop with that.

The main character is Trenton, and he is half Native American, Miccosukee to be exact.  His mother is actually from England.  His parents have been divorced for a long time, his father has just been released from prison, and starts out moving back in with his mother.  This doesn't work really well.  You see Trent had been attending a special school for music, but lately he's been slacking, and is now failing.  So he gets kicked out, and has to attend the public school.  Not only that, but his mom sends him to live with his father, who is now living on the reservation.  Life isn't great for Trent there.  He feels left out, as he doesn't understand their language.  And now, his father who has been absent for most of his life is really seeming to be on his case all the time.  And not just that, his dad is a drunk.  And is really getting to be hard to take.  So Trent has found that at his new school, the girl he grew up with as a best friend is there.  And she has grown up nicely.  Trent immediately seeks Pippa out, and tries to get her back as a friend, and maybe more.  But there are all kinds of things in the way.  Pippa's past experiences with boys, as well as the other people in her school.  Trent is dealing with his father, and then he is drinking, and doing drugs.  Plus his mother has a boyfriend that he doesn't like, and he feels abandoned by her.

I think the story is really the way a teen would think and act.  I just don't know if it is the way the e-galley was formatted that made it hard for me in some parts to not feel like I was missing something, but I just wanted a bit more at the beginning I think.  The end was great, I love how that went, good, but really a learning experience, and of course, always things to work on.  A great realistic fiction, and I am still a big Crissa-Jean Chappell fan, as you can tell from this picture with her back at BEA 2012.

Redemption (Hearts of Stone #1) by Veronique Launier

First, of course, thanks to Netgalley and Flux books for letting me read an egalley of this book.
I have to say as soon as I figured out from the cover, as well as the description of the book that this was about gargoyles, I was hooked!  I have always been fascinated by gargoyles, from the time my dad used to play the scary gargoyle sounds record to wake me up when I was younger, to even buying books about them and looking for them on buildings when I traveled with my mom.  And, let's face it, a whole new type of paranormal character to write about!  But, of course, there has to be magic, and that comes into the story through witches, who made gargoyles to protect them.  And also, there is magic in this story from the Native Americans of the area it takes place in.  It is in Canada, Montreal to be exact, so that is a little bit of an unfamiliar area to me.  But it works.
The main characters are Guillaume, and Aude.  Guillaume is the gargoyle, who is somehow freed from his stone self even though the witch family who brought him about is long gone.  Aude is the girl who Guillaume and his fellow gargoyles/family are watching be attacked when this all happens.  As it happens, they hear this strange chanting, and drumming.  They are of course intrigued and wonder how this happened, and so Guillaume begins to follow Aude, trying to get to know her and find out how she did this.  Aude, who goes by Odd, lives with her mom, who is a bit of a strange woman, but knows she is, and so her daughter has always dealt with her strange ways.  Aude is a musician, and it turns out, so was Guillaume in the past.  But it wasn't a one time attack on Aude, she continues to get attacked and have strange things happen around her.  Without completely trusting Guillaume, she works with him to try to figure out exactly why these things are happening to her.  She also learns about her past and things about her family she never knew.
I really liked this book.  I like that even though there may be a "connection" almost right away between the 2, they don't just all of a sudden fall in love, and all that.  They work through it.  Aude is attracted, but doesn't know whether to trust this strange guy who appeared out of nowhere when this weird stuff starts happening.  Guillaume is the one who doesn't seem to have feelings, according to his "family" anyway.  So he is sure he is just interested in her to find out what he needs to, in order to stay alive, so he doesn't have to go back to being a stone creature who just watches the world around him go on.  I liked the use of both witches as an ancient power, as well as the Native American "magic" as story lines.  The stone creatures are really good too.  Makes me think of golems.  I'm glad to see this is going to be a series, because while it did end pretty well, it doesn't HAVE to go on, I am eager to follow the story on and see what happens next as Aude learns about her powers and her lineage.
I will be adding this to my A-Z Reading Challenge as well, on the V for the author's first name.

Deviant by Adrian McKinty

Deviant by Adrian McKinty

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


After reading the reviews already posted before I'd really gotten into this book, I was a bit nervous about reading it. But then I got into it and really enjoyed it. The serial killer aspect to the book was very interesting. I liked how really it kept me guessing, it's that guy, no it's this kid, no wait, it's that kid. I love when it takes me a bit to figure out who the bad guy is. As a science teacher I also like how it talked about Tesla and other science topics. As a teacher, can I say that while I don't think that is the proper method for helping children learn, I would be in heaven if I had a classroom of students who sat without talking when they weren't supposed to? HEAVEN!



The main character is Danny Lopez, but he is actually part Native American. He doesn't really know his real dad, but doesn't really like his stepdad either. He's grown up in Las Vegas now moving to Colorado because of a mistake he made. Also his mother will be in charge of the new casino opening up on the reservation here. His stepdad is working at the prison, with the convicts that are really close to being let go for the end of their sentences. Danny meets some interesting prisoners, on in particular who will be a help, but could be the problem later on. The girl who lives right by him, Tony, tends to just walk into his house without knocking, even going into his bedroom when he's still sleeping! But he kind of has a crush on her. He is immediately asked to join one of the secret societies in this school with its unorthodox method of teaching students. There are cats being killed, and this seems to be the work of a serial killer in the way it is being done. Danny has issues with other students at the school of course being the new kid. All in all this was a good book, I can see many boys I've taught that would enjoy it. Danny is also a big skateboarder, which is kind of difficult in Colorado with the snow.

I read this as an egalley from NetGalley.com from Abrams publisher, it will be released in October.



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Gateway 18: The Devil's Paintbox by Victoria McKernan

I love, love, loved this book! It was another male main character, but I think I must really enjoy historical fiction, something I never knew I enjoyed really before I was an adult. Our main character is Aiden. We meet him and his sister Maddie trying to find grasshoppers to eat while they're living in Kansas, in the dustbowl time. The rest of their family is dead, they've had to bury their siblings, older and even newborn babies. They also buried both parents. When we start the story, a man is riding through looking for people he can take west to be loggers. Aiden sees a chance and convinces Mr. Jackson to take him and his sister, saying he will work off the money it costs him. Over the passage they face all kinds of hardships, and run into Indians, Native Americans, whatever you want to call them. The Nez Pearce to be exact, a peaceful tribe. As they head to Seattle, there are all kinds of tragedies and scares, a river that is not going to let them cross. A small pox epidemic, and even soldiers that want to kill the Indians that have showed up to help them. When Aiden finally gets to the logging camps he has been through so much misery and loss that he is only relieved to give in to the pain and no thinking life of logging. He becomes a fighter in the camp, to make more money. One of his Indian friends comes back at the end to ask his help in obtaining the small pox vaccine. I always knew that our diseases were part of what killed off a lot of the Native Americans, but didn't realize that part of the reason was that we refused to share our vaccine with them.

I like how at the end the author talks about the historical things in the story, even gives websites for readers to go read further about these topics. This is one I really will recommend highly for next year's Gateway List.