Book Review: The Avery Shaw Experiment - Kelly Oram

Title: The Avery Shaw Experiment (Science Squad #1)
Author: Kelly Oram
Genre: YA - Romance, Coming of Age

Synopsis (from Goodreads): 
When Avery Shaw’s heart is shattered by her life-long best friend, she chooses to deal with it the only way she knows how—scientifically.

The state science fair is coming up and Avery decides to use her broken heart as the topic of her experiment. She’s going to find the cure. By forcing herself to experience the seven stages of grief through a series of social tests, she believes she will be able to get over Aiden Kennedy and make herself ready to love again. But she can’t do this experiment alone, and her partner (ex partner!) is the one who broke her heart.

Avery finds the solution to her troubles in the form of Aiden’s older brother Grayson. The gorgeous womanizer is about to be kicked off the school basketball team for failing physics. He’s in need of a good tutor and some serious extra credit. But when Avery recruits the lovable Grayson to be her “objective outside observer,” she gets a whole lot more than she bargained for, because Grayson has a theory of his own: Avery doesn’t need to grieve. She needs to live. And if there’s one thing Grayson Kennedy is good at, it’s living life to the fullest.

My Review:

Knock another book off the TBR list!!!

So I might be on a little bit of a Kelly Oram kick, since right around the holidays she marked several of her books down to $.99.  Over the last couple years I've grown kind of fond of nerdy-love books....I'm pretty sure Cassie Mae is mostly to blame for this...seriously if you haven't checked out Cassie's How To series - get on that...now!  (I digress) So since I've been into the nerdy books lately (not nerdy books...books about nerds...you know what I mean...) when I was reviewing the books on my TBR, Avery Shaw seemed pretty appealing.

What I loved:  I don't know why I'm a sucker for "best friend romances" but I kind of am.  But I really loved that this one wasn't your typical best-friend romance.  This book was more about unrequited love, and who else to be the perfect love interest after heartbreak than the ever-handsome older brother?!  I have to admit, even while reading the beginning of this book, the pair didn't seem to be a great match, but of course Kelly Oram did not let me down.

I think what I'm finding I love about Kelly's writing is how she throws in bits of humor here and there.  I really need to start using the highlighting feature in my books so I can share a few - but she has more awesome one liners than most! 

Not So Much:  I'm not sure when this happened, but I'm beginning to not be a fan of the insta-love type scenario.  That isn't exactly what happens here, but I wasn't a huge fan of how quickly Grayson's head was turned by Avery.  I think, personally, I would have preferred a more gradual 'ah-ha' moment for both of them.  But, like I said, that's just me.

The Verdict:    

This is a solid YA book, clean and fun.  It makes you laugh, and gives you the "sigh" worthy ending. Oh, the ending was fantastic by the way, but that's all I'm going to say. :)

Cover Reveal: Star Dust - Ali Winters

And now I present to you the cover for Star Dust by Ali Winters....

Book Blurb:
A case of mistaken identity triggers a reign of terror.

A Star Princess of Soleis, bound by tradition, is forced to fulfill an arrangement made prior to her birth. During the masque for her coronation, Oriana meets a handsome stranger, but soon finds out he is not who she thought.

Prince Lucian, unfamiliar with the treaties of the Universe, must restore the reputation of his world and prove his kingdom is not behind the attacks.

No one knew an innocent mistake could lead to the destruction of the solar system. Worlds are conquered, lives torn apart, and destruction reigns, while Oriana, unknowingly, holds the key to salvation.

Now, a Princess who needs saving must save herself, the man she loves, as well as the rest of the Universe, before it is destroyed beyond repair.

Follow Author Ali Winters:
f: www.facebook.com/authoraliwinters
t: @aliwinters_
i: www.instagram.com/authoraliwinters
e: authoraliwinters@yahoo.com

Guest Blog Deathcat Sally - P.S. Brooks

Please welcome Patrick, our guest for the day, he is an illustrator/author and would like to talk about his new book, Deathcat Sally. Included in the post are some fantastic graphics that can be found in the book, all created by Patrick, himself.

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Title: Deathcat Sally
Author: P.S. Brooks
Genre: Fantasy/Horror
Publisher: Vanguard Press
ISBN: 978-1784650049
Release date: 21st January 2016

My name is Patrick S. Brooks and I am a children’s illustrator represented by www.advocate-art.com. I’d like to give some information about my upcoming YA novel ‘Deathcat Sally.'

I wrote the book due to a nerve injury in my neck which left me unable to illustrate for several years as it affected my right hand. The story was inspired by a lucid dream I had while I was volunteering at the local RSPCA looking after a large group of cats. During writing the novel, my father died from lung cancer, my grandmother died from septicaemia and my mother was diagnosed with lymphoma and underwent chemotherapy. Much of the book was cathartic and a reflection upon events at the time. For some further information about the story behind the book and why I wrote it, please visit my website www.psbrooks.com/novels.

Synopsis:
After seventeen-year-old Sally Rancher knocks over a cat named Zachary, it's only the start of her nightmare. Trying to help, Sally is hit by a truck. Waking from a coma, she sees that half of Zachary's spirit is fused to her shoulder and he can talk. Able to communicate with animals, Sally finds when she falls asleep or becomes unconscious, both Zachary and her are pulled into No Man's Land – a dark, spine-chilling realm filled with vengeful animal spirits. As No Man's Land becomes ever more twisted and terrifying, Sally and Zachary become pivotal in solving a mystery that concerns not only them, but all life on the planet. If only Zachary could keep his mouth shut for more than five seconds, they might have some chance. Who… or what… is responsible?

Here is an excerpt of when Sally and Zachary meet The Neighbourhood Watch – a group of helpful animals who enter her house:

Sally thought she’d heard from the entire group, and it wasn’t until she moved her feet and brushed her toes against something furry that she looked down and remembered the Lion Head rabbit resting on the carpet.

‘Watch it!’ the young female creature called out. ‘I’m drowning in my angst here.’

‘Oh my gosh!’ Sally moved back. ‘I forgot you were there!’

‘Might as well be invisible,’ the rabbit moped. ‘I’m always the least important in these meetings.’

‘Now, Twinkle,’ Amber tactfully began, ‘you promised you were going to stop being moody if we brought you tonight.’

‘I’m not moody!’ Twinkle responded, agitated. ‘I’m misunderstood.’

The rabbit looked up to Sally. ‘They never listen to me – I’ve got issues and they never take me seriously.’

‘Is that so?’ Sally tried not to smile and spoke understandably, as though she was talking to a sulking child. ‘What kind of issues?’

‘Oh, lord,’ Sherlock begged, ‘don’t get her started. We’ll never hear the end of it.’

Twinkle licked Sally’s hand, glad that someone was taking notice of her for once.

Flossy, who’d been asleep for the last nine minutes, looked down at what was going on without her knowledge or consent and became furious.

‘She’s my owner, fuzz-neck!’

‘Isn’t it past your bedtime, brat?’ Twinkle cried out.

Lowering his head, Zachary put both paws over his ears as a high-pitched girlish argument broke out between the depressed rabbit and the hyperactive guinea pig.

‘My ears!’ he called in agony. ‘Now there’re two of ’em! Make it stop, for the love of all things holy!’

Sally picked up Twinkle in one hand and put her right next to Flossy. ‘Look, I can keep you both on my knee if you get along, okay?’

The two creatures eyed up one another in a moment of jealousy, then saw Sally’s serious expression and nodded.

‘Well,’ said Snowy, ‘think that’s everyone introduced then.’

The blackbird hopped onto the top of Sally’s head. She looked up as he spoke.

‘Me you already met. I knew you was in some kinda screwed up trouble, so I put in a good word to the fellas and broads in my considerable social network, to see what we could do for youse.’

Sally lay back as Crowther perched on the settee.

‘Look, everyone, honestly I’m really glad you went to all the trouble to get here and introduce yourselves, but I… I don’t know if this is something you can help us with.’

She didn’t even know where to begin, but started to talk regardless.

‘Every time I fall asleep – even when I’m not tired… we find ourselves in a deserted city called No Man’s Land, full of crazy animal ghosts who want to tear me to pieces.’


Sally traced back to the incomplete message in the building.

‘I think No Man’s Land could be a realm for lost spirits. There’s something else there too. It’s not an animal – but it’s not human either.’ She saw their worry. ‘Don’t think my body and mind can take much more.’

Snowy changed stance, looking like he was in deep thought, perhaps trying to solve a riddle.

‘We need to get to the source of all of this,’ he said. ‘What exactly led to Zachary appearing on your shoulder and how long ago was it?’

Book Review: Illusionarium - Heather Dixon

Title: Illusionarium

Author: Heather Dixon
Genre: YA - Fantasy, Steampunk

Synopsis (From Goodreads):
What if the world holds more dangers—and more wonders—than we have ever known? And what if there is more than one world? From Heather Dixon, author of the acclaimed Entwined, comes a brilliantly conceived adventure that sweeps us from the inner workings of our souls to the far reaches of our imaginations.

Jonathan is perfectly ordinary. But then—as every good adventure begins—the king swoops into port, and Jonathan and his father are enlisted to find the cure to a deadly plague. Jonathan discovers that he's a prodigy at working with a new chemical called fantillium, which creates shared hallucinations—or illusions. And just like that, Jonathan is knocked off his path. Through richly developed parallel worlds, vivid action, a healthy dose of humor, and gorgeous writing, Heather Dixon spins a story that calls to mind The Night Circus and Pixar movies, but is wholly its own.

My Review:
Just before my 2016 “shut down” on buying any new books due to the 2016 TBR Reading Challenge, I received one of those Goodreads emails that includes new books which are specifically picked out for you due to what you’ve read in the past. Those emails are evil, and probably half my problem. Anyhow, Illusionarium was on that email. It was there because I have read and loved Heather Dixon’s writing in the past, so of course I NEED to know when she releases a new book, right?

I don’t always fall for those emails. But I’m a sucker for great covers, and let me tell you – I don’t know who Heather Dixon is working with on her covers, but they are both simply amazing. And truth be told – if this cover wasn’t so perfect, I wouldn’t have been buying this book on December 31, 2015, right before I was suppose to be cutting myself off from new purchases so that I could make a dent in the 450+ books already on my kindle/nook/whatever reading app.

What I Loved: This book takes imagination. I took LOADS of imagination to write (I wish I had half this imagination!) and it takes imagination to read – thankfully I’m good at that part! About halfway through reading Illusionarium, I stopped and read a few reviews on Goodreads, and I found a mixed response. But I think the biggest problem with the book is that it is weirdness on top of weirdness – and if you weren’t following from the beginning, you are probably going to have a problem continuing to follow…. I didn’t. I think that the setting (an AIR CITY!!), the illusions, the schism (ß you must read to understand) – everything was so interesting and perfect. If this book were a movie, it would no doubt be directed by Tim Burton. I imagine all kinds of bright colors, but also that gothic darkness that Burton is known for as well.

The illusions (this isn’t really a spoiler, right – given the title?!) were another element that I was so in love with. They weren’t illusions as in, you just imagine it and there you were. You had to create them, as in, understand the science behind what you were making before it became real. It was cool that Jonathan was smart, and shy and not your typical main character at all…but because of this, he was awesome at these illusions, despite his self confidence issue.

I loved the steampunk feel about the book, but also how it wasn’t driven by it’s ‘steampunkiness.’ There wasn’t the constant mention of gadget and devices, and it wasn’t overly Victorian in theme either. It was just kind of there, just another layer.

Okay – I’ve talked about the world and around the theme of the book – but I also really liked the story. It was layered with twists and turns, a few of them I was able to guess as the story progressed, a couple I didn’t guess until closer to the end, and some that took me by surprise. I like that. I like being surprised just as much as I like being able to foretell a story based on the foreshadowing. I think that is one of the things that keeps me engaged while reading, trying to figure out what’s going to happen because of the hints that authors throw out there.

Not So Much: Soo I LOVED the story, and the story line. And I even really liked the characters, so this little bit is nothing but a drop in the book. I really wish that the romantic aspect of the book would have been a little bit more there. I like a little bit of romance, you know? It wasn’t the purpose of the book, but I don’t think a little bit more would have taken away from it either. It was done well, but I just I don’t know…it left me wanting.

The Verdict:     

The only reason I’m not giving this 5-Hearts is because while I really did enjoy this book quite a bit, I’ve read it. I’m done. I don’t have a pull to re-read this one immediately. I’m trying to save 5-Hearts for those books that call to me in that way. This book was clean (even from cussing) and would be great for young teens who read more mature books for sure! And, because they are simply beautiful, I plan on adding this AND Entwined to my hardback book collection. (This is not cheating..I’m not buying any NEW books in 2016!!!)

  

Book Review: Uprooted - Naomi Novik

Title: Uprooted
Author: Naomi Novik

Synopsis: “Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.

But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.

My Review:
I just want to start off by saying that this synopsis does not do this book justice. It is a synopsis of the first part of the book, maybe, but there was so much more than I was expecting. What I was expecting was a loose rendition of Beauty and the Beast with other fairy-tale elements.

Uprooted does have a very fairy-tale feel about it, but it is a tale all of it's own. The evil is not the dragon, the dragon does not need to be slayed. The evil is the Wood - and it is a force to be reckoned with.

What I Loved: Uprooted was a long book, but I'm happy that it was just one book and not a series though. It was refreshing to get a book of this magnitude, and detail that was not broken up over 3-5 years. I do like series, but mostly I love having the complete series in my hands.

I loved the Agnieszka and the Dragon dynamic. They were an unlikely pair of personalities, the kind of personalities that grate on each other's nerves and get under each other's skin....and yet, in the end they did get under each other's skin. It made their relationship a fun side-story to this entire book.

I am attempting to not spoil anything here, especially since the synopsis was rather vague, but let me tell you, there were a few plot twists and turns that make following this book along for it's ride even more interesting! As I said before, it had all of the elements of a good fairy tale; the evil that lurks and terrifies the village and people, it has the knight in shining armor, the girl who's more than she think she is. It has deception and unlikely friends. It takes you through an entire story past the point of no return and then turns around and wraps it up with a happily-ever-after. It has all of those things, but every single element is not like any fairy-tale you've ever read. All the roles are filled with unstereotypical players.

Not So Much: First of all, I listened to this via audiobook, and I kind of had a hard time with the narrators accent. I understood it's purpose and I think it's possible that it was close to this narrators own accent - however some of the conversations sounded stilted or a little bit like a four-year-old attempting full sentences. It was just a little rough for me. I did, however, stop hearing that so much the more I got into the story and the plot took over my concentration.

There were parts of Uprooted where the story did feel like it was getting long. I don't know that it could have been cut or edited without loosing some important elements though. I just had periods of wishing the story would move forward a bit more quickly than it was.

The Verdict:         
I really enjoyed this book. It had a lot of the elements that I love in a good book, and it had a satisfying ending. Due to one scene in this book, I cannot consider this a "clean" novel, though it is categorized as Young Adult. The one scene was rather graphic, and I can't recommend this book for young teens at all - but had it been left out it would have been perfect.