Lola and The Boy Next Door

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The thing about Lola and the boy next door is that, since it's a companion book, it's inevitable to make a comparison with Anna and the French Kiss which, in this case, comes out as a disadvantage because, as far as I am concerned, Anna is the absolute winner.

Lola is a really cute story: she is a quirky, raised by gay parents, unique teenage girl.
When her first crush and ex-neighbor, Cricket, reappears on her doorstep after two years, things get complicated because Lola already has a boyfriend, Max, five years older than her, much more experienced.
As Cricket slowly worms his was back into her life - and into her heart - Lola will have to learn how to be honest with herself - and she will learn it the hard way.

I'll admit I had high expectations for this book and while it's certainly enjoyable and relaxing, it failed to deliver repeatedly for me.
Whereas Anna's story, while still being fluffy, was more believable, less shallow and more charming, Lola's story was definitely more clichéd, more puerile and felt forced in more than one occasion.

The most striking example of this "forcedness" is Max.
I didn't like how he first gets presented as an awesome boyfriend and then, quite conveniently, ends up being the asshole in a total unreasonable way. It was done unreasonably and felt so contrived, that when he does become an asshole and I was supposed to despise him I just couldn't bring myself to and I still liked him from before!

I wonder if it all has to do with the fact that the 5 years of difference in age between Lola and Max are taken as a big NO NO right from the start, because frankly, I didn't buy it. I had a 22 years old boyfriend when I was 17 and it was NOT a big deal. But, since it's taken for granted here that Max is too old for Lola, let's just make him the EVIL guy. The way the author deals with his character royally pissed me off. It wasn't smooth AT ALL.
But the same goes for the other characters: basically, they were just too black or white, they lacked depth and originality: Cricket was just too damn good for his own sake, Max too damn bad (kind of in a beautiful and damned way), Lola too damn in self denial: what she says to Max when she goes to his apartment? So not cool, girl. My eye was twitching madly during that passage.

Still, it's a book I'd recommend if you're looking for something quite readable and relaxing AND you loved Anna. Perkins certainly knows how to write a story and make her dialogues interesting. It's a colorful book, as colorful as its cover, despite the psycho-looking girl there.
I just wish there had been a little more to it, a bit more substance. Anna was definitely more fun for me.

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Bloodlines

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Today I'd like to hone some of my (poor) mathematical skills and entertain you with some simple but self-explaining equations:


Bloodlines: Richelle Mead= x: Cassandra Clare


Hint: Spin-offs? Bad idea. You either planned them from the very beginning or anybody in this solar system can see that you're clutching at straws here.


Lissa : Rose = Adrian : x


Hint: Spirit users have a most peculiar ability. If you're familiar with Aladdin like I am, you'll know it's one of the wishes that the genie cannot grant. The gifted Moroi can, but with, uhm, side effects.


Rose : Dimitri = Sydney : x


Hint: Ah, forbidden love. While in VA we followed the illicit affair of a then underage student and her infinitely hot professor, we are now presented with the blossoming affection between a (racist) human and a Moroi. It's not declared yet but there are 5 more books to go, can't waste it all in the first one, can we?


Should I go on? Not necessary? I'll give you one more:


Mia Rinaldi : the b!tch in VA = x : the same b!tch in Bloodlines.



I could go on and on but then I'll be spoiling all the book for you, in case you want to read it.

Have you guessed all the unknowns of my very simple equations? If you have, then you also have figured out that, in Bloodlines, Richelle Mead has taken a lot of Vampire Academy, given it a touch up and presented it to us AGAIN.

Sub plots differ, of course, but the general idea? The same.


And possibly worse. One element that really, really infuriated me in Bloodlines is the underlying motif of racism and discrimination that permeates the whole book.

I could not decide whether to compare Alchemists to the Holy Inquisition or to KKK. This hate group's radicated belief (including Sydney's) that vampires are untouchable, disgusting and revolting unnatural beings did not sit well with me. The way it was developed and treated sounded very discriminatory and backwards (and a bit unbelievable too, IMO), you could just take out the word vampire and insert any other ethnic minority that has been persecuted in history and it would have fit perfectly.


Hence, I did not like Sydney. I was pulling my hair out when she was naming her car and complaining about its color. I was scratching my nails on a blackboard when she got miffed because the freakin' fitter of the school gave her a size 4 instead of a 2 and she started getting paranoid about being fat. I was trying gouge my eyes out when she came out with stuff like not accepting food from vampires, checking that the water bottles were sealed not to drink from where they drank and stuff like that. I DESPISE RACISTS. Enough said.


Not to mention the fact that this book is like a DIESEL car. VERY slow to warm up. The action picks up at about... yeah, 80% into the book. Before that it's a whole lot of racist comments, car rides around Palm Springs and mini-golf. Yes, you read correctly.


So... are my 3 stars justified? Probably not.

Yet, after being infuriated for about 80% of the book, when it finally started to take off, I have to say I quite enjoyed myself. Mead sure knows how to write some good action scenes and I foresee, in the far, far, far horizon, character development and possible redemption.

Also, I liked Adrian. He's such an ass I cannot help it. His sarcastic and cocky comments were the highlights of my reading experience. And frankly, after the way he got treated by Rose in VA, I could not help but feel indulgent towards him.

So, mathematical rant aside, I will pick up the next book in the series. This book is not as good as any of the Vampire Academy series but it MAYBE got potential, to be determined by further installments and consequent agonizing wait.




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Venom (Elemental Assassin #3)

Venom by Jennifer Estep
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It is a truth universally acknowledged that...

-  Gin Blanco, aka The Spider, professional assassin, always carries at least five silverstone knives on her at all times: two up her sleeves, two down her boots and one in the small of her back;

-  Finnegan Lake drinks a lot of chicory coffee and the supposed caffeine content does not affect him;

-  the symbol for Northern Aggression is a heart with an arrow through it;

-  Mab Monroe's rune is ruby with wavy rays all around;

-  Gin Blanco's eyes are grey whereas Owen Grayson are violet (and by the way, I still have to meet in my life somebody with violet eyes);

You might have guessed from my remarks what kind of problem I had with this book.

If there was ever a GoodReads' contest for Queen of Repetitions 2011, I would vote Estep.

Because she not only recaps events of previous books in the series, she recaps CHAPTERS within the same book. If we took away all the repetitions the book would probably be half its size.

And it is with great chagrin that I say this irritated me and distracted me quite a bit. It feels like like the author suffers from short-term memory loss OR she thinks that it's ME suffering from it.


The plot is good. I enjoyed it quite a bit and that is why I am giving this book 3 stars anyway. The writing is smooth. Characters have become familiar to me, they are well formed and interesting. I liked how she introduced Bria in the story, I liked that she got rid of donovancaine and I give my blessings to Owen Grayson. I WANT to know how the story goes on. But can I take another or multiple books of continuous recappings?

I am baffled: who edited this book?

This could be easily a five star book if not for the fact that my intelligence feels insulted by it.

If you're a lover of UF this is definitely a series I recommend reading. If you can stomach the recappings.




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The Glass Lake

The Glass Lake by Maeve Binchy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5/3 stars



Well,  this should at least serve as an admonition to all women on how a MAN should never ever be the fulcrum around which a woman's life rotates, making him the centre of her universe.


The story - my first Maeve Binchy book ever -  is set in the 50s and revolves around the lives of various families in the small village of Lough Glass, Ireland, during a span of about 10 years. Among this rather extensive set of characters, stars Helen McMahon alias Lena Gray, a desperate woman whose actions, bad judgement and wrong choices in life reverberate throughout the existence of so many people, and with rather unsettling outcomes.


It is basically a book which deals with the concept of MISTAKE and how your actions may or may not reflect on other people's lives and with which consequences.

This, per se, is a rather interesting theme to be treated in a novel, if not for the fact the the gloomy approach and the disastrous ways in which the characters messed up their lives didn't make this book relaxing or enjoyable at any time. It would be actually pretty safe to say that this book is exhausting, emotionally and physically. First, it is well above 700 pages and the action is so slow at times that I felt like I was trying to slowly make my way through quicksand. You won't fall asleep, I swear, and you won't be bored by long descriptions about the nuances of color of the lake in November or on the types of plants growing around it, but you will feel the progress of narration so slow and uneventful, so much so that, if not for one cardinal point which I will explain below, it would have been enough to make me shut the book at page 50.


Helen/Lena.

She is, without a doubt, the most conflicted character of the book. Throughout the story I couldn't help but despise her for her weaknesses and for what she brought upon herself and her family because of her stupidity but, at the same time, I couldn't help but admire her.

And this is where some things about her actually don't add up. I was baffled by how she seems to be two persons. First we meet a ghost of a woman who once was, then we meet the monster who did what no woman on her right mind would ever do and, then we meet the stakhanovist working woman and eventually the remorseful mother. So, what's it going to be? Who is Lena? How can a woman who seems to be able to organize everybody's lives so perfectly and be the catalyst to their happiness, simultaneously be a wreck and helpless about her own life? How can she live her life almost as vegetable for 12 years and then, because of/thanks to a man, run away and become an entrepreneur and go on as if her past never happened? How am I supposed to feel sympathy for a woman who abandoned her children (and let's not forget that even if she makes contact with Kit, she never does with Emmet)? I just can't. I can admire her qualities and her skills for building a career for herself out of nothing, but I cannot justify or forget her horrible actions and selfishness. As you sow, so you shall reap. I think Helen/Lena even collected too much for what she did.

And last but not least, the reasons for Lena's love for Louis were extra feeble, if not inexistent. WHY does she love him? Because he's good-looking? Hardly. You can't base your love on appearances, take a look at the celebrities. That is left unanswered.


Amazingly enough, very few of the rest of the characters were likable. Even Kit, Lena's daughter, makes an enormous mistake early in the book which changes everything. And I mean EVERYTHING. Clio, Emmet, Martin, Ivy, Kevin... they all love in the wrong way, forcing love on the one hand, or confusing it with lust on the other. This book is en emotional disaster, slowly developing in front of your eyes.

The only ONE character whom I found remotely likable, Sister Madeleine, makes a mistake, gets taken out of the book in 2 pages, never to return again. We never discover her past, her background. A bit wasted, if you ask me.


Finally, Kit and Stevie. That relationship smells like a week old dead fish. Kit the virtuous manages to reform the village rake? Mh. Sorry, but life taught me that a leopard cannot change its spots. There might be exceptions but I thought it was all very abrupt, there was not enough development of the matter to justify such undying love on both parts.


Ah, did I mention that the story is incredibly predictable?


On to the good parts:


I am still marveling at the writer's ability to write a 700 page book with no descriptions. THIS is the reason why, earlier on, I said you won't fall asleep. This book is 80% dialogue, no tedious long paragraphs about the crickets or whatever. And it totally works. I was there, in Lough Glass, with the characters, taking walks around the lake or on the streets of Dublin, picturing everything. Picturing something the author actually barely describes. So either I have a fervent imagination or there must be some skill on the author's part.


And to conclude, this book gets 2 1/2, barely 3 stars from me because of my involvement in the story. Even though I hated half the characters, thought the plot was predictable and the image of woman portrayed in these pages is so terribly wrong on so many levels, I could not close the book and set it aside. The plot is engaging and once I read the last page, I really felt emotionally drained. That alone must count for something.


Thanks to Maja and Flannery for suggesting this as my first Maeve Binchy book. Now I know you hate me. :D





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Web of Lies (Elemental Assassin #2)

Web of Lies by Jennifer Estep
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars.

This is not a review.
This is my rant directed towards one of the least likable love interests in the history of Urban Fantasy: Mr. Donovan Caine.
Or donovancaine, which has a certain assonance to a potent anesthetizer, and is truly appropriate, because that's exactly what he does to me. One of the most hypocritical, double-faced, backboneless men ever to have roamed the pages of a UF novel. And I loathe those kind of men - and who wouldn't?
Not only  his ethics are just figments of his imagination and he takes advantage of Gin anytime that the chance arises, but what is most and fastidiously irksome is that he always and systematically gets post-coitum second thoughts - and let's face it, the coitus wasn't even that hot to begin with.
I really, really don't understand what Gin sees in him. She must be pretty desperate in her lonesome wolf-style assassin life. So I am proud to announce that, after his final backlessbone decision, that is to run from his issues and ignore them instead of come to terms with the not so virtuous bastard that he is, donovancaine is finally out of the picture. He left, not to see Gin ever again and face his true self. And good riddance.

Enter Owen Grayson, who I already like infinitely more than donovancaine. At least he's got a sense of humor.

Basically this second installment in the series is in line with the first one and I enjoyed it quite a bit. As readers of Spider's Bite should already know, Estep's problems are really minor and have to do with:
1- the fact that nobody has yet given her a Thesaurus for Christmas - the world sloppy repeated countless times in this book... I mean, WHY?
2- the fact that she perpetuates in the belief that chicory coffee actually contains caffeine, which might actually be the problem with the previous point, that is Estep falling asleep on her manuscript without realizing it, and then forgetting she has used the word sloppy or the phrase "grey on gold" and now the new entry "grey on violet" too many a times.

Aside from that, the plot is really fast paced and interesting and Gin is really a great character, probably without a doubt the main reason why I am going to keep on reading this series.

Maja says it gets better, and I trust her judgement.


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The Harlot

The Harlot by Saskia Walker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Advice to all husbands whose wife's libido has gone down the drain and are experiencing a dry spell: go get this book and give it to your woman NOW.


First off, I should make clear straight away that this is not my usual genre. Or rather it is but slightly less. I do enjoy me some good steamy paranormal romance (I'm thinking Cat and Bones here) but I had some really unfortunate experience with PRN bordering on erotica (I'm thinking Beyond the Highland Misthere). This is mainly erotica with romance and a bit of paranormal added. It shouldn't be my cup of tea.

But I have to confess that this was done rather well.

I recently read a passage from Tempest Rising that summarizes the genre I am referring to and which I do not like:


"She liked a very particular kind of plot: the kind where the pirate kidnaps some virgin damsel, rapes her into loving him, and then dispatches lots of seamen while she polishes his cutlass. Or where the Highland clan leader kidnaps some virginal English Rose, rapes her into loving him, and then kills entire armies of Sassenachs while she stuffs his haggis. Or where the Native American kidnaps a virginal white settler, rapes her into loving him, and then kills a bunch of colonists while she whets his tomahawk."


This is not the case, as Jessie is certainly not virginal.

The Harlot is basically an 18th century version of Pretty Woman. Jessie, known as the Harlot of Dundee, gets spotted during a catfight (imagine various anatomic parts on display here) by Gregor, a man with an agenda of revenge.

Arrested for witchcraft, Jessie gets imprisoned and is bound to be burnt at the stake. But Gregor has other plans for Jessie. He wants to recruit her and employ her fine arts to seduce his long time enemy, the one who caused his father's death and defrauded him of all his properties. Of course, the plan does not go as devised because Gregor and Jessie hopelessly fall in love with each other (and each other's crotches).


But make no mistake. Despite the Pretty Woman motif, this book is no fairy tale for teens. The sexual content abounds and is as varied as it gets: there's m/m and f/f action, all kinds of imaginable positions and some minor bondage.

While I have to confess that the sexual scenes, though... emh, interesting are not something I would read on a daily basis, in Walker's case I appreciated the fact that she kept the weird metaphors and awkward terminology to a minimum, still maintaining the scene highly flammable. If you want to know what I'm talking about you might want to check my review of Beyond the Highland Mist.


I also liked Jessie pretty much. Even though she is a total nympho and the secret dream of 99.9% of the male population on Earth, she is no damsel in distress but a determined woman set to achieve her goals and who will resort to any possible means to do it.


All in all, certainly an entertaining read, well written and less clichéd than usual.


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Lips Touch: Three Times

Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've been eager to read Laini Taylor for a while now, after reading more than gushing reviews about her books here on GoodReads.

Now that I'm done I have to confess that while on the one hand she did not disappoint, on the other I didn't fall in love with this book.



I knew next to nothing about this book before starting it, only that it was a collection of three short stories and that the leit motif is kissing.

What I didn't know is that the author, in this collection, has taken various elements of fairy tales, literature, mythology and much more and stirred it in a big cauldron with a rather nice effect.


First of all, let's get something important out of the way. Taylor writes Wonderfully with capital W. You know the "show, don't tell" rule? This woman probably invented it. As I might have mentioned in many other reviews before, I am a very visual person. Well, this book played like a movie in front of my eyes. I could hear, smell and taste with the characters, with pretty, pretty words fluttering all around me. She is very, very talented. Period.


Goblin Fruit is the first short story and the one that made me think the most. I knew it's based on the poem by Christina Rossetti Goblin Market. So, imagine my shock when I started reading the story and somehow it felt familiar.... where have I read this before? But...but... this is TWILIGHT!

Aside from the obvious abyss in writing skills, the similarities are undeniable: from the physical description of Jack Husk, the analogies in the metaphor of the forbidden fruit up to the end and the choice that Kizzy makes.

I think that, in this case, - and you might think I am crazy - Taylor took the archetype of all contemporary paranormal YA literature nowadays (our beloved or dearly hated Twilight) and reinterpreted it, mixing it with other elements and Rossetti's poem. And you know what? There is even a line in Rossetti's poem: "Twilight is not for good maidens" that sounds just too much of a coincidence to me.

When I noticed, of course,  I rushed to read more accurately the reviews of those who gushed about the book and do you want to know what I noticed? None of the 5 stars reviews I read even mention Twilight. ALL of the 1 star reviews do. I'm not trying to make any point here by saying it is either good or bad (after all, I am one of those who did enjoy Twilight), I am just weirded out that so few people mentioned it. To me it was very obvious.


My main gripe with this story - but it applies in general to the whole book - is the shortness of it. To me, there simply wasn't time for the characters to really become three-dimensional, they felt incomplete and underdeveloped and I was left with lots of questions whirling in my mind about Kizzy, her friends, her family, Jack.


The second story has a completely different, exotic taste to it. Set in colonial times in India, Spicy Little Curses tells the story of a beautiful girl, a terrible curse and a spiteful demon. I found this to be the more fairy-talish among the three, detecting elements from well known fairy tales mixed (well) with Indian mythology. And being a fairy tale, as a fairy tale it ends, with love conquering all and the bad guys defeated.


Much more to my taste was Hatchling. The longest of the three, this is also the darker one. Based on Zoroastrian mythology (I had to go look that up) with a pinch of Irish folklore, Taylor inserts her own set of creatures turning the concept of Druj into something that is midway between fae, shapeshifter and vampire. The body-snatching part was pretty disturbing to me but also perfectly adequate to the dark tone of the narration.


In conclusion, as said before, my main problem with this book was the short story structure, in which I could only catch a glimpse of Taylor's skills at characterization. To me it felt more like three instances of an exercise in writing than the parts of an organic unity.

I will, without a doubt, check out her novel Daughter of Smoke and Bone as soon as it comes out.


And one more thing: if you're planning to read this book, I strongly suggest you buy the paper version rather than the electronic or you'll be missing out on all those pretty illustrations that precede each short story as a sort of background and that make the book a more precious experience.


3.5 stars.




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Story of a Girl

Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Abandon all hope -Ye who enter here.


This is what I wanted to inscribe on a plate and stick on the front page of the book as I was reading the first half.

Have you read my profile description? Well, I state that I read only what relaxes me. This book is NOT relaxing. It's depressing. At least for the first part. So if you are all about flowers and puppies, happy thoughts and happily ever afters, I warn you that this book will not make you feel better.


Deanna is 16 lives in the blue-collar town of Pacifica, where her parents work some pretty low-paid jobs. She is well-known in town because, at age 13, she's been caught by her father in the backseat of a car having sex with Jimmy, her older brother's best friend. Even after 3 years, her life still seems to be defined by this pivotal moment, by this incredibly stupid mistake she's made and just has to live with the slut label.


Being realistic YA fiction, this book is not about action. It's all about characters. The first thing that bugged me is that it's really hard to find a likable character, starting with our MC, Deanna. Deanna is your typical teenager with "father" issues; unable to receive attention and love from the figure she looks up to the most, she throws herself in the arms of the first person that makes her feel somehow special, even though she is too young and this person is all wrong. This is not uncommon.


What irked me was her initial - not so initial because it lasted three years but initial for the book - inability to snap out of it. This event becomes a big deal because she lets it become one and lets it define her. I also thought the whole resonance of the matter in town was a bit exaggerated, that after three years people would still be mean to her about it and adult people would still talk. I come from a small town too and, over the years, there have been a few people who have made some embarrassing mistakes and they got public but I thought this was a bit blown out of proportion, especially by her father. 13 is definitely too young to have sex but, unfortunately, not very uncommon nowadays. It's a mistake but not the end of the world.Aside from Deanna, her whole family is dysfunctional, with the exception of Darren who, even though a father at only 19, seemed to be the only one with a bit of grain in his head.


But the sense of terrible social degradation that permeated the whole story is what struck me the most. The mess in the house, the house falling to pieces with Christmas lights still out and nobody even caring about it, the diner where she works, the descriptions of which made my stomach churn with disgust, her squalid encounters with Jimmy, all left me with a sense of despair and hopelessness I wasn't really willing or ready to get into. I know the problem is me doing the ostrich in this case but, when left with a choice, I'd rather not read about other people's unhappy situations in life.

Fortunately, throughout the second part of the book and to the end, Deanna slowly starts her path towards a partial redemption, finally trying to communicate with her family, confronting Jimmy and salvaging her friendship with Lee. Zarr doesn't leave you completely hopeless but tries to resolve issues in the interpersonal dynamics of the characters, introducing forgiveness, mainly.

This to say that while I was pretty much hating the first part of the book I have to admit that, end in end, this deserves a little more than 3 starts for me and that, in fact, I did like it. The story is very well written and very intense, the characters are well developed - though unlikable - and the ending is in tone with the rest of the book, not overly optimistic and unreal Hollywood-movie-like but more subdued, with little hints that it can get better.

I cannot give it a higher rating because this book is probably not for me. Or maybe it is, because I almost read it in one sitting but it's just that I don't want to read about this. The feeling I had that the characters have limited free will and that are, in reality, victims of their social conditions just leaves me with a bitter taste in the back of my mouth I don't want to have.







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Deadline (Newsflesh #2)

Deadline by Mira Grant
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 stars

It's been difficult to formulate coherent thoughts after finishing this book yesterday. There's a tangle of things I liked and things I didn't like. Sometimes these things even overlap and I both liked them and didn't at the same time. How odd.
The one sure thing is that I liked this book a little less than Feed . First of all because this book had me less emotionally involved than its predecessor and secondly, because of some elements in the plot which did not convince me fully.

It is very difficult to write a review without giving away major spoilers for Feed, so I think that if you haven't read it, you should just stop reading this now, do yourself a favor and go get yourself a copy. It's worth it, I promise, even if you're not a zombie lover.

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MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!



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The story picks up one year after the tragic events which led to Georgia's death. Shaun has become the head of After the End Times management but is still undeniably mourning for his sister and might be well on the way to losing his sanity. He's a broken man. Not only does she talk in his head but she appears to him, giving him a piece of her mind. And we all know how bossy Georgia was - I would have lost my mind, too.
Things get complicated when, at the AET headquarters' doorstep, appears Kelly, a CDC scientist we met in Feed and who is supposed to be dead to the world. She brings with her disconcerting news about the suspicious mortality rate of people with reservoir conditions of KA - namely, people like Georgia.
Through a series of startling discoveries, the guys start to unveil a humongous intrigue that goes well beyond Georgia's death and the events of the Rhyman campaign and who are doomed, once again, to change their lives forever - if they are going to survive at all.

The first main feeling after reading a Mira Grant's book for me is to feel like a total idiot. Not because of the sobbing or because the books are intense - which they are - but because I just feel totally ignorant and with a headache. When reading, I feel like I am always a step behind, both with the info provided and with the plot, never quite catching what is actually going on until it's clearly explained by one of the characters and sometimes... not even then. My random thoughts would be: WHAT??? but...HOW???? WHY? *pulls hair and starts flipping pages back*
You might be smarter than me and keep up perfectly with everything and link everything to sentences written 100 pages earlier but I didn't and boy, did I get a headache. It was like doing Sudoku for me. I'm a lost cause.
Also if you, like me, thought that you were done with the infodump after Feed, think again. This time, the virologist in you will be delighted by the amount of info on Kellis-Amberlee that you will have to digest. Very educative. Very detailed.
It is because of this level of detail that the whole cloning matter stands out like a sore thumb.
I really, really wish Grant had dedicated a bit more time to explain how cloning works. Aside from the fact that it is illegal in this futuristic world as well as in ours, how do they get to grow an adult person in a year? How come the clone retains the memories of the person it's been cloned from, how is that possible?? The body is new but the mind is the same?? The soul migrates? Didn't it say that the "original" holds the copyright on the soul? (and that's BS by the way but I won't even go into that).

The other main gripe I had about the plot are the two totally pointless suicide missions the guys took to the CDCs. I didn't see rhyme nor reason in these two events, especially the first. It felt like they were just doing stupid things, no plan, just to drive around and then go back to Maggie's place - which also brings out the question of how nobody ever thought about looking for them there. Because in their blogs they said they were somewhere else? That's all?

I also said, in the beginning of this review, that I was less emotionally involved with this book. Feed caught me unaware and left me desolated. I felt so sorry for what happened, it's incontestable Grant knows what she is doing when she wants to make you feel like sh*t. This time around though, apart from one dreadful revelation fairly early in the book that Georgia could have been saved, I was left rather... politely interested, that's all. Not even the end stunned me.

Finally, and this annoyed me to NO end, if in the next book I will find more references to a) coffee, b) the acidic sweetness of Coke and c) that bloody motorcycle, I might as well start screaming. Enough said, you know what I am talking about if you've read the book.

These are basically the reason why I hacked off 1 and 1/2 star from the rating. Truth is, I liked the book close to very much and you bet that I am going to read Blackout when it comes out next year. Actually next June can't come soon enough. I invested so much of my brain cells in these series that I HAVE to see what happens. I consider this middle book a transition and I am eager to see what Grant is going to concoct for the final installment.

A must-read if you enjoyed Feed.






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Wisdom's Kiss

Wisdom's Kiss by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'd like to start off by saying that this is the first book I've ever read by Catherine Gilbert Murdock. I have Dairy Queen on the way to my house, a book I ordered after reading more than enthusiastic reviews by fellow GoodReaders and which I know is YA. So when I saw Wisdom's Kiss on NetGalley, I decided to give it a try.
I'm pretty sure I can tell you that this is nothing like Dairy Queen, because this is a children's book. And a really weird one at that.

In the little town of Bacio lives Trudy aka Fortitude, a beautiful maid with a magical gift: she foresees events. Trudy is in love with Tips, her childhood friend who's left Bacio to become a soldier for the Emperor who writes her professing his love.
When Wisdom, aka Dizzy, princess of the kingdom of Montagne, arrives in the girl's town on her way to the Barony of Farina to marry the Baron, Roger, Trudy knows her life is going to change, and not for the better. Forced to accompany Dizzy and her Queen Mother, Ben, to Farina, Trudy will meet with Tips, get involved in a sordid plot to usurp the throne of Montagne and finally find her place in life.

Even though, in its essence, this book can be seen as your regular fairy tale, I think Wisdom's Kiss manages to break all rules in this genre. First of all it is a mix of adventure, magic, grotesque, comedy of errors and shakespearian play.
It's told in EIGHT different point of views, each different in its genre, format, writing style: an epistolary correspondence between Ben and her granddaughter Temperance, the recount of a narcissistic mentor, the "gentle observations" of the wicked villain, the letters of an illiterate beau, the urban-style diary of a rebel princess, the memoirs of a gentle maid, a playwright by anonymous and encyclopedic entries. All these elements, by means of flashbacks, definitions, storytelling and dialogues make up an original fairy tale as you've never seen it before.

I read loads and loads of YA lit and I wouldn't consider this book YA, even though it is categorized as such.
I'd say this is more middle grade level and therefore, when I started this book I had to leave behind my YA's forma mentis  and enter in children's mode to fully appreciate it. Albeit a bit recalcitrant to adjust to it at the beginning, I can say I quite enjoyed this book that has got some hilarious parts.
My favorite quote - the characters are talking about spellcasting - is Tips':

Yet I confess I do not follow Her Majesty's thinking. How does spelling lend assistance - have you no dictionaries?

Talk about a brooding hunk. This guy can sure be dense.

Also, I liked the love triangle, which is far from canonic. I can't describe too much without spoiling it, suffice it to say that the Happily Ever After in this book is unusual and original and I am kind of happy that it ended like that. Nice change.

The only thing that did not convince me entirely in this book is the jargon used by both Dizzy and Tips. It is typical of new generations to deconstruct language in text messaging and in the Internet but, in this case, I found it a bit over the top. But it might be me. This kind of urban style language might appeal more to middle graders who are, end in end, the target audience of this fairy tale.


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The Piper's Son

The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Wow. My heart must be made of stone to give this book three stars.

Five years have passed since the days of Saving Francesca and Tom Mackee is a total mess. He's lost it all: dropped out of school, lost Tara Finke's heart, lost his uncle in a terrorist attack in London, lost all trust in his alcoholic's father, lost him mom and sister who moved to Brisbane and lost his mind getting high on various substances. He's lost his friends too, Francesca, Justine, Siobhan, Tara, Jimmy. Actually, he dumped them. Also... well, the story is pretty complicated and it involves all of his quite dysfunctional family, especially his father and aunt whose lives have changed after losing their brother and who need saving just as much as Tom. This is a book about redemption and how, after touching the bottom and even digging a little bit, it is through love that people can find and hope and trust in themselves to resurface.

The truth is, after reading Saving Francesca only a few days ago and knowing this book features the same set of characters, I was fairly sure it would be along the lines of the other book, with the same tenor.
I was very wrong though, this book is totally different from its companion which really, if you think about it, stands to reason, considering Francesca and Tom are two different people with different lives and therefore their stories are told with different voices.

Marchetta is, truly, a perfect observer of human emotions. She nails them down and describes them with a sharpness and simplicity that unsettle me . When I read some of the sentences all I could think was: Why didn't I think of this before? Some of my favorites:

"Come and have something to eat," he says quietly to Georgie. Tom notices that he does that a lot. Speaks quietly. It's almost as if Sam believes that if he raises his voice, she'll notice he's around and then she'll remember the past and tell him to get lost. So, these days, Sam speaks quietly.

It's the joy of smoking for him. Isolation doesn't have to be explained when you're leaning against a brick wall with a cigarette in your hand. Rolling your own is better. It takes more time, and Tom has all the time to spare.

Truly, this book is heartbreaking and so real, it makes me totally jealous of Tom because, even if his life is pretty messy and with his family with complications, I wish I had friends like his. True ones, who don't ask for anything back and see right through you.

So why the three stars?

Well, my first problem with the book came right at the beginning, when most characters are introduced. The more I kept reading, more names appeared, the more I got confused as to how the MacKee-Finch family was composed. I was even tempted to draw a kind of genealogical tree to figure out the details. Plus, I don't know if it was only me, but sometimes there were scene or dialogues where Marchetta indicates "his father" and in the room there are Tom, Bill and Dom and I couldn't really figure out who the author was talking about. Plus there's TOM, DOM, TOM Finch senior who died in Vietnam... a bit confusing to me, it took me almost 80 pages to finally fix all characters in my mind.

My second problem had to do with the narrative technique. This 3rd person alternating POVs - Tom's and Georgie's - did not work well for me. I've come to the conclusion that there are a few authors whose 3rd person I don't like and I am afraid that Marchetta might be one of them. Both Jellicoe Road and Saving Francesca were in the 1st person and I found them brilliant. In this book, some scenes fell flat, awkward and I'm pretty sure it was because of the 3rd person.

Talking about awkward, I come to the last problem I had with the book. Because, to me, there were some undeniably awkward parts. I'm thinking it might have to do with symbolism and I don't do well symbolism. There were at least three different occasions in which talk of a damn table came up. Now, I might be interested in knowing Dominic was making a table out of wood in order to accommodate the whole extended family but that they have to have a family dialogue three times about it and just to say it needs to be finished, felt just outright weird to me. Was it because it might be that they felt the need to reunite their broken family? Was the table meant to be the symbol of said reunited family?
And that wasn't the only case; I might understand the deep and gut-wrenching grief the characters felt for Joe, died in a Tube terrorist attack in London. I did not understand the weird parallel Joe's and Tom Finch's death had, Tom Finch being the father of Dominic and Georgie, who had fallen in Vietnam some 30 years earlier and that they barely remembered. The importance of bringing his bones back to Australia, not only for the family but for his fellow soldiers as well was just a mystery to me, not to be disrespectful. Again there might be a certain parallel here between their inability to bring back Joe and their grandfather standing as a symbol but...

So for me, there were the parts with the friends, Francesca, Justine and Ned and the story with Tara - and let's not forget Mohrin the Ignorer - which were highly enjoyable, intelligent, witty, laugh out loud parts. I mean,

"Last night", their mother explains to Anabel patiently, "Tom received a call from Tara saying she was flying into Sydney an hour before he's flying out to Hanoi. So they are going to miss seeing each other because Tara will be gone by the time Tom returns. And they really want to see each other."
He was very impressed by his mother's ability to articulate it. In his head it had been a mess of WHAT? WHY? WHAT DID I DO? SHIT. FUCK. WHAT THE HELL?

And then there were the parts which concerned the MacKee-Finch family and those were different and somehow more confusing and less enjoyable to me and definitely more depressing. The Marchetta I love is in the other parts, in the other books.

I'll see what happens with Looking for Alibrandi.

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Hard Bitten

Hard Bitten by Chloe Neill
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Gosh, am I pissed with this book. Angry. Could I go back and choose I wouldn't even read it now. I would wait and pick it up together with Drink Deep in November.


Neill, you cannot possibly bore me for almost 200 pages and then drop the bomb 10 pages from the back cover. I feel betrayed and irritated because this screams very much like a mean marketing strategy. This isn't even a cliffhanger. This is what cliffhangers hang on. Do I make sense? Probably not.

You know, of the people who read this one, who is NOT going to buy Drink Deep? Nobody, that's who. Even me, who thought that 80 % of the book was boring. How can I leave it like that?


So, first part, as I said, was slow for me. Too much politics, too much investigation and detective story. I was not into the V intrigue and fairly pissed at the appearance of Claudius. CLAUDIUS? How original for a centuries-old, bad vampire coming from Europe. Charlaine Harris and Stephenie Meyer did not think of that before. I'm not saying that the plot wasn't interesting but it dragged on for tooo long. Where is my favorite character ever in this book? Where is Mallory??? We just see glimpses of her in this book and they're all pretty senseless, hinting at loose ends and future development.


Actually this is the book of loose ends, no closure whatsoever with anybody. "Unresolved" should be the title of this book. Except for one character, who I hope never to see again, the rest is all hanging in the air, waiting for next book to come out and give readers some peace of mind. This is maybe the reason Neill is coming out with two books this year. The risk of harassment and stalking would have been pretty high, had she left us with our mouths hanging open till next year.


Now about the final 10 pages. I knew a big jaw dropper was coming, impossible not to know with all the reviews out these days and Neill herself stating to trust her, that everything was planned. KNOWING a jaw-dropper was around the corner - even though, again, I did not expect it ten pages from end, you little sly, mean author - I had kind of guessed what that would be. The hints were there, Ethan was becoming too much Knight-in-a-shining-armor, he was groveling too much. Usually, when one of the characters, in a book where nothing interesting happens, says, "Rest assured, I will love you forever", that person has a good chance of dying. Plus, the whole Apex prophecy of the green eyes like Ethan but not quite like his did not leave much space to other options. Unless Merit was getting pregnant and, Bella-like, giving birth to little Ethans. Unlikely. Thank God.


Now, the question is: what's next? what will be the strategy, the loophole, that is going to solve the big mess the last pages left us in? Neill, you said everything is already planned, you better make it convincing for us, because fantasy has a limit as well and I don't want to waste my time waiting for a far-fetched lame excuse for a HEA.


So three stars and waiting for November.




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Just One of the Guys

Just One Of The Guys by Kristan Higgins


My rating: 3 of 5 stars





Chastity is a tall, big, healthy girl - a journalist, who comes back to her native town of Eaton Falls after a decade of studying and working in New York. She is also part of a big family of firefighters, the youngest sisters of four equally tall, big and healthy brothers. Chastity is ready to settle down, find a husband and start popping out some kids, but her rather domineering looks do not help in her quest. When she starts dating Ryan - a doctor, perfect husband material - she thinks she's found her perfect candidate, if not for the constant nagging thought in her mind of Trevor Meade, her childood friend and sweetheart, whom she's loved forever but doesn't seem to be interested in her romantically.
FOREWARNING: Unfortunately I am not going to do this book any justice. Fate has wanted me to pick this up mere days after having finished Bachelor Boys and they're too bloody similar in so many ways to be objective about it. I'll be honest and say I preferred Bachelor Boys because, aside from being simply chick lit, goes also a bit deeper into the dynamics of family, love and friendship.

Don't get me wrong, this is great chick lit. Of the laugh out loud kind. I really had a good time reading this book and never once I put it down groaning because of some dumb scene - well, except at the very end for the sappiness, but I do that with all books that feature said scenes. It was completely hilarious at times, I even kind of started picturing Katherine Heigl as Chastity, in one of those exhilarating chick flicks she does, like 27 dresses. The characters are really well developed and the dialogues are witty and fun.
The only thing that bothered me - as in Bachelor Boys, by the way - were the premises. The whole plot rotates around the fact that Chastity is desperately looking for a husband in order to reproduce because she is 31 and she feels it's about time.
This is a load of old, backward bullshit, sorry to say. I can't believe an emancipated woman with a master's degree in Journalism who's lived in the big city would actually think like that. And this coming from a stay at home mom with a degree in translation English/Russian. That would be me.

For this reason I had a few issues empathizing with Chastity at the beginning but, eventually, she came through, because she is extremely funny.

If you need to relax and have a good laugh, this is the book for you. I'll be certainly reading more of Kristan Higgins's books for therapeutic purposes.





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