ya

Instant Karma

/ Brienna / Leave a comment

I picked this up because I absolutely adore Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles series. And guess what? It did not disappoint! While it’s not the greatest book in the universe, I really enjoyed it. That’s what it all comes down to, isn’t it?

It’s cute and endearing if a tad predictable. Great beach read or a good listen for a road trip. Yes, our main character Prudence is self-centered and judgemental, but she wants to be better. In fact, she does try to be better and even learns some life lessons over the course of the plot.

Now, it’s fairly obvious in some places what will happen. The novel follows a fairly standard rom-com narrative with introducing the couple, them finalizing realized what we’ve known all along (they like each other!), some sort of fight/split, and a reunion at the end. Don’t let that spoil it for you!

The things I loved:

  • Prudence learning that her judgemental attitude is not serving her as well as she thought, and her judgments are often wrong and hurtful.
  • The sea rescue!
  • Quint – until I didn’t.
  • The narrator – I listened to the audio version and felt she did a great job.

Things I didn’t love:

  • The obvious way Prudence was doing things wrong, but that was part of her journey, I suppose necessary for the book to happen.
  • The instant karma device – I’m not sure it was necessary, but I guess it worked ok? Also, it would be something kind of cool to have personally, but Prudence just didn’t get it for almost the entire book.

Overall, as mentioned at the start, this is a great beach read, or for any day when you don’t want to read something serious or heavy.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley.com for a free advanced copy of the audiobook in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Black Wings Beating

/ Brienna / 1 Comment

This YA fantasy book by Alex London pairs falconry and mysticism for a fun, but ultimately unsatisfying adventure. Kylee and her brother Brysen are desperately trying to pay off their dead father’s debts to the Tamirs, the family that lords over the Six Villages. Brysen gets into some trouble, and Kylee is forced to help him get out of it.

With a forgotten language, opposing religious factions, and a strong female lead character—Kylee—this novel started with a lot of promise. It gets bogged down by the spelling of each character’s name; We have Kylee, Brysen, Nyall, Nyck, Vyvian, Yzzat, Dymian…. is there a law in the Six Villages that names must contain the letter Y? While this might be a minor or non-issue for some people, I found it to be very distracting.

Quite a bit of the plot is predictable. There are two big plot twists; one you can see coming from miles away and the other is sort of a let down given the obviousness of the other. I felt it dragged on for a long time, and then it had a bit of a cliff-hanger ending, where to find out how it ultimately ends, you need to read the next book. All in all, I don’t think I liked it enough to read the next book, so it gets 2.5 stars from me.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley.com in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Giver (Quartet)

/ Brienna / Leave a comment

This was selected as the monthly selection for my book club, and has been described as “the quintessential dystopian novel.”

Jonas lives in a world where there are no choices. No one knows passion or pain. Everything is determined by the committee, including who shall marry and when, and who will be assigned children.

There is ultimate unity, with no one having a birthday, and all the children celebrating year 1, year 2, year 3, etc at the same time.  Each child has a number within their year (1-50, so only 50 children per year), and at the annual ceremony, they all turn a year older.

Each year has a significance, from losing ribbons on braids, to getting a bicycle, or getting a job assignment at 12. After 12, age does not seem to be tracked or celebrated in any meaningful way.

When Jonas reaches his 12 year ceremony, his number is skipped over during the announcement of assignments. This causes quite a stir, and at the end of the ceremony, it’s announced that he has been selected to become “the receiver.”

In his job information packet, he gets unexpected instructions. He is told he can ask anyone, anything, and that he is allowed to lie, something that has been strictly forbidden in their society and ingrained since birth.

The Giver follows Jonas on his path as the “the receiver” where he learns that there are many memories of before, and it is the giver who is the keeper of these memories. Jonas will receive them from the giver, and then become the giver when the time comes.

What Jonas learns from the giver is reality changing for Jonas, and he must come to terms with this new knowledge, which leads into the climactic ending.

A grade 3-7 book, this is a very easy read. As such, it also lacks some depth, but still kept my attention. At the end, I wasn’t sure if I loved it, yet I was intrigued enough to keep reading the remaining books in the quartet.

The second book, Gathering Blue, tells the story of a parallel society, where things are much different.  Kira is a young girl who has just been orphaned. With her crippled leg, she has always been somewhat of an outcast, and without her mother to defend her, the other women in the society want her gone.

Fortunately for Kira, the counsel (another committee!) deems her talent as a seamstress worthy, and she is suddenly moved into a private room, where her meals are brought to her, and she has a private bathroom with running water (something she had never even known existed).

Like Jonas, Kira uncovers some unsettling information about her society and must make a decision as to what to do with this information.  I won’t say anymore because I don’t want to spoil the ending.

The third book, The Messenger, brings the return of some familiar characters, and shows us that these societies are co-existing!  The final book, The Son, brings the stories to a conclusion.  Personally, I enjoyed these more and more as I progressed through each one.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

/ Brienna / Leave a comment


In world where angels and demons are at war, the humans are blissfully unaware.

Karu lives like a normal human, except that she was raised by Chimera and is aware of magic that allows granting of wishes.  Wishes such as turning her hair blue… forever.

Karu lives in Prague and passes as an almost normal teenage human girl. Secretly, she runs errands for a chimera is are the only family she’s ever known. He makes trinkets that grant people wishes, and she doesn’t ask questions.

Suddenly, a mysterious stranger, the likes of which Karu has never seen before, appears in her life.  Akiva, a seraphim, his race is at war with the chimera. And so the love story begins.

At first, I wasn’t sure I would like this book, or the series. But little by little, I was drawn into the story and fell in love right along with Karu and Akiva.

Having read all three books in the trilogy, it’s sort of blurred in my mind where the story ends in book 1, but I highly enjoyed all three books. If you like fantasy, and you’re OK with the angels and demons overtones, you should check these out.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this through NetGalley, in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Rating: 4 out of 5.