Reread Challenge: The Supernaturalist

WHEN I First Read

I read this right after I finished all available Artemis Fowl books and was desperate for more of Eoin Colfer's writing. It's my second favourite from Eoin Colfer, after the Artemis Fowl series.

WHAT I Remember

I remember the general story, and some vivid memories of specific scenes (the satelite scene, the end scene). I also remember wondering why on Earth we didn't get a sequel. I would still dearly love to revisit this world and it's inhabitants.

WHY I Wanted to Re-Read

My library has it available in audiobook. While waiting for the rest of the Artemis Fowl series became available, I listed to this one.

HOW I Felt After Re-Reading

I still really like it. It isn't as strong as Artemis Fowl, in my opinion. The plot and action isn't quite as tight. I don't like the dialogue as much, but there's something about Eoin Colfer's science fiction that's really excellent.

The Supernaturalist is also a bit grimmer in my eyes than Artemis Fowl is. Colfer is pretty good at bittersweet endings, but I think the end of The Supernaturalist is darker than the end of Artemis Fowl, not helped by the fact that it doesn't really feel finished. The Supernaturalist reads more like the begining of a series than a standalone. Also I don't think I'm totally over what happened to Stefan... he ends up being a bit of a tragic hero, doesn't he?

Basically the end verdict is "still pretty great, 10/10 would read more of this story."

WOULD I Re-Read Again

Probably at some point. I think I'll always feel a twinge of regret that this book is the only one I'll see with these characters, though.

Review: The Star-Touched Queen

Title: The Star-Touched Queen
Author: Roshani Chokshi
Series: The Star-Touched Queen
Volume: 1
Genre: Fantasy
Goodreads

A Quick Introduction: Cursed with a horoscope promising a marriage full of death and destruction, Maya is content to resign herself to life as a scholar. Thanks to her horoscope, she is blamed for anything that goes wrong. However, when her father decides to try and marry her off to quell outside rebellions, she finds herself married to Amar and queen of Akaran. But both Amar and Akarnan have secrets, and Maya begins to suspect that her life is in danger and must figure out the truth on her own.

Out of Ten: 6/10

Review at a Glance: A fantasy debut with a great concept that faltered a bit on execution.

Review: This was one of my most anticipated debut novels of the year, and overall I enjoyed it! While I didn't love it, it was still both an interesting concept and fairly well executed. The story pulled me in initially, but stumbled a bit as the story continued.

Maya's horoscope means that she is treated terribly by the women in her father's harem, where she lives and is blamed for every bad thing that happens- from small injuries to stillborn children. Maya basically navigates from difficult situation "people in the place I live routinely tell me to go die" to difficult situation "my father just told me he's planning to marry me off to a stranger" to difficult situation "I'm now the queen of a magical kingdom where nobody tells me anything about anything." For so much of the book it felt like things were happening to her, as opposed to her being an active participant in making them happen. Which was weird because she did do things, but there's something about the writing that feels kind passive.

I think that was one of the things that stopped me from all-out loving this one. It kept me from really being involved in the story. While I enjoyed reading about Maya's journey, I wasn't fully engaged in it. The romance between Maya and Amar felt kind of rushed as I read it. I also found all the secrets being kept from Maya frustrating. I know that, within the story, there was a magical reason, but from a storytelling perspective it felt a little contrived.

The plot itself was a great way to showcase a very interesting world- one that is both beautiful and imaginative. While this book did struggle in some places, I did overall enjoy the story, and I'm still looking forward to exploring this world more in the next book.

Review: Love, Lies, and Spies

Title: Love, Lies and Spies
Author: Cindy Anstey
Genre: Historical fiction, Romance
Goodreads

A Quick Introduction: All Juliana Telford wants while in London is to get the scientific research she and her father have been working on published. She is determined to get that done, and have an otherwise completely uneventful season before returning to her father in their country home. This plan is interrupted by a chance encounter (one where she was stranded on the side of a cliff) with Spencer Northam. Unbeknownst to Juliana, he has is own reasons for being in London- he's working as an Agent for the War Office, and the family she's staying with are under suspicion.

Out of Ten: 5/10

Review at a Glance: This novel focused mostly on a romance that I just wasn't feeling, and would have benefited from a change in pacing.

Review: I think this novel was okay for what it was, and the issue is that it just wasn't what I was hoping it would be. You may have noticed that I don't generally read stories that are just romance. I confess I was hoping for explosions. And also lady scientists. And this book didn't really deliver on those fronts.

I didn't really feel like either of the main characters were particularly memorable. It wasn't that I disliked them, but I wasn't terribly invested in the characters, or their romance. And since this story was entirely romance, that was a biiiiiit of a problem. They didn't really have any chemistry, I suppose? They didn't really have the characteristics that I like in my fictional pairings. I think I would have been more invested in the relationship if I'd been more invested in them as individuals. (Is this a veiled complaint of NOT ENOUGH LADY SCIENTISTING? Maybe.)

The writing was just kind of "meh." There were certain word that were used excessively, and I found that really getting on my nerves. (The overuse of the word "pure" for one thing kind of made me want to scream.) Otherwise this writing was just sort of flat, and the dialogue suffered for that. The plot meandered somewhat- it was fairly simple, and didn't move anywhere with much urgency.

Overall, this novel just didn't have what I was looking for. It was definitely a fluffy romance, but didn't have the kind of character depth and writing that I would have liked to see.

P.S. Also the lack of an Oxford comma in the title dove me to distraction.

Review: Rebel of the Sands

Title: Rebel of the Sands
Series: Rebel of the Sands
Volume: 1
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: Mar. 8, 2016
Goodreads

A Quick Introduction: Sharpshooter Amani is desperate to get out of her dead-end desert town. When she meets Jin, a foreigner passing through, she seizes an opportunity for escape. However, escaping her family proves more difficult than expected, and she's finds herself in a situation beyond imagining.

Out of Ten: 7/10

Review at a Glance: A quick, fun fantasy debut set in a magical desert.

Review: Wow, I should not have put of review this one for so long. I still remember stuff, but I don't think I'm going to really communicate the full impact of the book. This is what happens when I read during exams. I picked this one up during an author event that ACTUALLY CAME TO CANADA.

I really enjoyed this one. It wasn't a particularly heavy read, it was overall just a fun fantasy. Amani was a very determined, and such a resourceful character, and she also has her flaws. She makes impulsive decisions, and she has a temper that occasionally gets the better or her. Jin was... sort of flat in the beginning, and I still feel like he's not completely formed as a character. Their relationship felt a little abrupt, but I also think it has potential to grow as the story progresses (this is a series).

I seem to enjoy fantasy novels set in the desert. Granted, I haven't read that many, partly because there really aren't that many. A place as hostile as the desert opens up a whole bunch of new challenges, and novels set there also draw on different cultures for inspiration. There's a lot of potential there, and I'm delighted to see it being explored!

The magic system is interesting. It's familiar somehow, but I'm not quite sure how. I get the sense that there is going to be bigger magic as the series continues.

Overall, this was a fun read, and I'm looking forward to continuing the series.

Review: A Study in Charlotte

Title: A Study in Charlotte
Author: Brittany Cavallaro
Series: Charlotte Holmes
Volume: 1
Genre: Mystery
Goodreads

A Quick Introduction: When Jamie Watson ends at Sherringford prep school, the only thing he's looking forward to is meeting Charlotte Holmes, hoping that they'll get along as well as their great-great-great grandfathers, the famous John Watson and Sherlock Holmes. When a student who both Jamie and Charlotte have reason to want hurt dies under mysterious circumstances, they agree to team up and figure out who really is to blame.

Out of Ten: 7/10

Review at a Glance: An enjoyable Sherlock Holmes tribute debut featuring some interesting and complicated characters.

Review: At this point, reading various Sherlock Holmes retellings, tributes, and spin-offs has just become a thing I do, with very mixed results. This one surprised me by falling more toward the "I liked it" end of the spectrum than the "well that wasted hours of my life" end. Which was nice.

This is a really quick read. Once I got invested, I flew through it. The story itself is a fast-paced mystery, set at a boarding school. While components were a little unbelievable, at times, the overall plot was still enjoyable.

Jamie and Charlotte have an interesting dynamic - they both expect a lot from each other when they first meet based on their legacies, and they have to get to know each beyond those. They definitely have an immediate connection, as well as a dynamic one that changes over time. I'm interested in seeing what their dynamic settles into.

This novel does touch on some more serious concepts (sexual assault and substance abuse), which I am assuming will be touched on in the next two books in the trilogy, and I'm hoping they'll be handled alright. Overall, I'm quite looking forward to the sequel.

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If you're looking for other YA mysteries featuring teens solving crimes, using their talents of observations.

Mini-Reviews: The Slightly Belated ARC Review Edition

"Slightly."

Title: Into the Dim

Author: Janet B. Taylor

Release Date: March 1, 2016

Out of Ten: 4/10

Review: I actually started reading the eARC of this one totally on time. Then my computer corrupted the file I had on there and I had to wait until I could borrow my mother's iPad, to which I had sent a Kindle copy of the eARC, in order to finish it, and that is why this is so late. (Advice: always send copies of everything to at least two different places.)

I wasn't terribly impressed with this book. I am a big fan of time travel, but I have come to realise that I am also a VERY PICKY fan of time travel. And this one just missed the mark for me. The pacing was wonky, and I truly didn't enjoy the set-up of the novel, which felt forced. It leaned too heavily on some tired tropes, and romance was more frustrating than anything. While it was clear that aspects of the story had been researched fairly well, the setting wasn't particularly vivid, and I really wasn't clear on how a lot of aspects of the time travel were meant to work.

I don't think I'll be continuing the series, this one overall just wasn't for me.

Title: Tell the Wind and Fire

Author: Sarah Rees Brennan

Release Date: April 5, 2016 (Today!!)

Out of Ten: 7/10

Review: This was a weird book for me to rate, because my reading experience was a bit all over the place. I didn't like it as much as I enjoyed the books from The Lynburn Legacy, but, since those hold a special place in my heart, that isn't really a comparison. I think part of it is that Sarah Rees Brennan's storytelling style isn't quite as well suited to first person narration as it is to third, but she still manages to create a cast of characters that are interesting (and sometimes at least a little terrible as people). (One bone to pick: do not kiss people who are not also into kissing you. Just saying.) The nature of the magic system was pretty simple, but served its purpose. 

Confession: I've never read A Tale of Two Cities. Along with The Giver, it seems to be one of those books that everyone else had to read for school, but I never did. So I can't really tell you how it compares, I only know the shape of the story in the original. That said, I overall enjoyed the plot, though it was a fairly straight forward one (despite the identity-based chaos). I quite enjoyed this one, especially toward the end- the last 70-or-so pages especially... hurrah for examinations of human nature and also sadness! 

I might actually write a complete review on this one, but with exams coming up I'm not sure how my next few weeks will look.

Review: Gambit

Title: Gambit
Author: C. L. Denault
Series: The Prodigy Chronicles
Volume: 1
Genre: Post-apocalyptic

A Quick Introduction: In a world where power is in your genes, Willow Kent has always expected to hide her ability for fear of being taken from her family to one of the Core cities. Then, just as she is coming into her power, revelations about her parentage turn her world upside-down. Suddenly she finds herself adrift in an unfamiliar city, with a family she's never known, with a new destiny and set of expectations upon her.

Out of Ten: 3/10

Review at a Glance: This fairly formulaic post-apocalyptic novel had a rather disturbing romance which destroyed any enjoyment I might have had.

Review: I've discovered the number one way to take a "well it was okay..." rating down to a "please let's never do that again" rating for me! The secret ingredient is to at a disturbingly unbalanced relationship! Especially when you season it with actual physical violence! Yep!

Okay, I'll stop with the sarcastic exclamations now. Basically, this book started off fine. A bit formulaic, but fine. I can do formulaic! I've been known to actually enjoy formulaic if I'm in the mood and the writing's good. The book opens with Willow on the verge of developing her gift (which come in around sixteen). Though the novel says that there is a scientific reason for all the gifts, it is, for all intents and purpose, essentially magical in nature.Willow was a fairly typical heroine, but none the less one that I was getting comfortable reading. She's quick-tempered, confident, and has ambitions far beyond working the tavern run by her family.

The setting was fairly typical of this sort of post-apocalyptic novel- the privileged living in glittering cities, the ungifted generally living in poverty outside. I am curious about how the wars that led to this world happened... were they civil wars between prodigies and normal humans?

So writing was fine, the story was fine, I was just beginning to enjoy myself, when it happen. It being the relationship which I was trying through shear force of will to ignore the signs of until I could not deny that it was happening anymore. And then my enjoyment rapidly decline until the point I was considering just not finishing the book. Because this relationship handled a power-imbalance between two characters very poorly, and basically romanticized a pretty worrying dynamic.

Overall, this book really wasn't for me. Relationship dynamics are something that can really make or break a book for me... and this one fell on the "break" side of that line rather spectacularly.

2016 Challenges

I'm a huge fantasty reader already, but I figured it would still be fun to challenge myself. This year I'm going to try and read 40 books that are fantasy in some way. The Flights of Fantasy challenge is hosted by Alexa Loves Books and Hello, Chelly.

The Re-Read Challenge, hosted by Belle of the Literati.  I took part in this one last year, and it was great (I reread kind of obsessively anyway, but, again, it was kind of fun to incorporate a challenge into it). Last year I set a goal of 10 books, which I exceeded. I'm still going to keep 10 books as my goal for this year.

I've challenged myself to read 100 books again for the Goodreads challenge. It's the same number I chose last year, though I didn't quite meet it, I still believe it's completely withing my abilities- I just wasn't completely focused last year.

I took a year off of The Debut Author Challenge, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, but I actually found I kind of missed it, so I'm giving it a try again this year.