Review: Tarnish by Katherine Longshore

Title: Tarnish

Author: Katherine Longshore

Series: Companion novel to Gilt

Genre: YA Historical

Summary (from Goodreads)

Anne Boleyn is the odd girl out. Newly arrived to the court of King Henry VIII, everything about her seems wrong, from her clothes to her manners to her witty but sharp tongue. So when the dashing poet Thomas Wyatt offers to coach her on how to shine at court–and to convince the whole court they’re lovers–she accepts. Before long, Anne’s popularity has soared, and even the charismatic and irresistible king takes notice. More than popularity, Anne wants a voice–but she also wants love. What began as a game becomes high stakes as Anne finds herself forced to make an impossible choice between her heart’s desire and the chance to make history.

Review

It must have been frustrating to be a woman at the time of Henry VII. With no outlet for self expression, other than needlework and fashion, the women that inhabit Katherine Longshore’s Tarnish turn to bitching and betrayals to subtly manoeuvre themselves to positions of power. Or at least, as much power as it was possible for a woman to possess.

Which sounds all dreadfully anti-feminist, quick let’s burn some bras to cancel out the degradation, but Anne Boleyn is actually a refreshingly strong female character – realistic within her time frame, but feisty and modern enough for modern girls to relate and look up to. Only not too much, she does get her head chopped off for witchcraft, after all.

Anne’s drive to be her own woman – a near impossible task for the time – is admirable, and makes her an excellent topic for historical fiction. I guess her tragic end means she’s more often explored in a tragic way, but here she’s very much alive and on the cusp of greatness, her sordid end a shadow on the horizon, but never reached. At least, not in this book.

The pageantry of court life is wonderfully brought to life, and Anne’s position as an outsider, her disdain for it all and yet her desperation to fit in amongst it, because to fit in gives her power, make reading the novel like walking on a tightrope. You can see clearly as Anne can that it’s not the sort of place you’d want to spend any time in, but at the same time the glamourousness of it all is an ever present temptation, leaving you to wonder if you would have done any differently.

Like all the best historical fiction, it creates a world that sucks you in and makes you want to hang around, explore, and when you run out of pages to perhaps find some more in another book, perhaps one that isn’t fiction this time.

Rating: 4/5

Review: Some Quiet Place by Kelsey Sutton

Title: Some Quiet Place

Author: Kelsey Sutton

Series: N/A

Genre: YA Fantasy

Summary (from Goodreads)

Elizabeth Caldwell doesn’t feel emotions . . . she sees them. Longing, Shame, and Courage materialize around her classmates. Fury and Resentment appear in her dysfunctional home. They’ve all given up on Elizabeth because she doesn’t succumb to their touch. All, that is, save one—Fear. He’s intrigued by her, as desperate to understand the accident that changed Elizabeth’s life as she is herself.

Elizabeth and Fear both sense that the key to her past is hidden in the dream paintings she hides in the family barn. But a shadowy menace has begun to stalk her, and try as she might, Elizabeth can barely avoid the brutality of her life long enough to uncover the truth about herself. When it matters most, will she be able to rely on Fear to save her?

Review

There’s something eerie and disquieting about this novel. The way that the reader is kept in the dark about so many thing, discovering them as Elizabeth does, so that you’re never really sure what’s happening creates a disorienting atmosphere. Sutton doesn’t hold the hand of her reader – there are moments when you feel every bit as confused and uncertain as Elizabeth, but rather than making the novel inaccessible, it just adds to the compelling nature of the story.

Elizabeth isn’t the most likeable character. With her total lack of feeling, she’s wooden and harsh and difficult to relate to. She swings back and forth between acting nice, and being her true self – who isn’t very pleasant – in a way that makes you feel more empathy for all the other characters she encounters. However, with the central mystery so tied up with what she can and can’t remember, there’s no better place to be but inside her head, even though it’s a bit disconcerting at times.

The plot is a bit slow to get going, with the main antagonist only really showing up in the later second half of the book, and a lot of slow paced ‘I went to school’ story in the first half. But, because there’s so much else that’s compelling – from the mystery to the concept of Emotions being physical beings to Fear’s character – the slower plod of the first half never feels boring, though at times you do wonder where on earth it’s all going. The yoyo-ing back and forth between the two boys felt a little bit forced and repetitive at times as well, though the payoff for the unlucky party in the love triangle was a touching and brilliant moment.

So, not the most polished structure, nor the most relatable character, but everything else that’s going on makes this a haunting and interesting read, where what shines really does outshine any tarnish. Even when there wasn’t a lot happening, I had to know what happened next.

Rating: 4/5

Review: The Disgrace of Kitty Grey by Mary Hooper

Review: The Disgrace of Kitty Grey

Author: Mary Hooper

Series: N/A

Genre: YA Historical

Summary (from Goodreads)

Kitty is living a happy, carefree life as a dairymaid in the countryside. The grand family she is employed by looks after her well, and she loves her trade, caring for the gentle cows and working in the cool, calm dairy. And then, of course, there is Will, the river man who she thinks is very fond of her, and indeed she is of him. Surely he will ask her to marry him soon? Then one day disaster strikes: Will disappears. Kitty is first worried and then furious. She fears that Will has only been leading her on all this time, and has now gone to London to make his fortune, forgetting about her completely. So when Kitty is asked to go to London to pick up a copy of Pride and Prejudice, the latest novel by the very fashionable Jane Austen, Kitty leaps at the chance to track down Will. But Kitty has no idea how vast London is, and how careful she must be. It is barely a moment before eagle-eyed pickpockets have spotted the country-born-and-bred Kitty and relieved her of her money and belongings. Dauntingly fast, she has lost her only means of returning home and must face the terrifying prospect of stealing in order to survive – and of being named a thief …

Review

I love Mary Hooper’s work. This is about the fourth of her books that I’ve read, and I’ve loved every one. They are so romantic, interesting, but above all easy that they make utterly perfect reading for a warm summer’s afternoon.

Hooper’s primary talent is taking a small facet of historical times and bringing it beautifully to life – simple story lines a vehicle to portray some of the fascinating practises of times bygone. In The Disgrace of Kitty Grey it’s the prisons of London and how men and women who stole to feed their families faced the terrifying prospect of transportation to Australia. As Kitty is helplessly thrown from one bad situation to another, the sad reality of life for many of London’s poor is illustrated.

The storyline doesn’t offer much in the way of challenge, and there’s always an overriding sense that everything will work out alright for everyone in the end. I did think there was something of an imbalance in the structure – with a lot of time spent in Kitty’s home before anything perilous happens, then by the 80% on my Kindle edition I was wondering if there was enough room left to resolve all the plot points. There was. Just. But the ending did leave me wanting a little more.

Overall, though, this was thoroughly enjoyable. As I said, Hooper’s books are just easy going, light reads, and sometimes that’s just what you need.

Rating: 4/5

Review: Losing It by Cora Carmack

Title: Losing It

Author: Cora Carmack

Series: Losing It #1

Genre: Contemporary NA

Summary (from Goodreads)

Virginity.

Bliss Edwards is about to graduate from college and still has hers. Sick of being the only virgin among her friends, she decides the best way to deal with the problem is to lose it as quickly and simply as possible– a one-night stand. But her plan turns out to be anything but simple when she freaks out and leaves a gorgeous guy alone and naked in her bed with an excuse that no one with half-a-brain would ever believe. And as if that weren’t embarrassing enough, when she arrives for her first class of her last college semester, she recognizes her new theatre professor. She’d left him naked in her bed about 8 hours earlier.

Review

I can’t really believe that the big publishing houses have taken so long to catch on to the New Adult genre. It’s such an obvious hole in the market. People don’t just magically go from seventeen to suddenly being all grown up. As someone who’s only just left her ‘early twenties’ I can definitely say there’s a long period of ‘Oh, hell, I’m not a kid anymore. What on earth am I supposed to do now?’

Carmack taps into that mindset excellently. Her characters are twenty two – drinking, earning, living, but still carrying that uncertainty of ‘what next?’ about their shoulders. For Bliss, ‘next’ is losing her virginity. And for what could have been such a cringeworthy topic, again Carmack handles it well. I was really glad that Bliss wasn’t painted as prudish, or ‘wrong’ to still be a virgin at that age, nor was she shown to be holier than thou, perfect. She was just an ordinary girl for whom it hadn’t happened yet. Bliss’ journey to her first sexual experience is full of fear and uncertainty, but ultimately she stays true to herself, not choosing to rush relationships just to ‘get it over with’ even though that’s how she initially starts out. It’s a refreshing and very feminist outlook, without being preachy or boring.

The plot is a bit shallow, and there are some events thrown in purely to generate excuses to snuggle (whole cast being struck down by mono, anyone?) but even the love triangle element – normally the bane of my reading experiences – was handled in a fashion that it didn’t become annoying.

A lot of Bliss’ thoughts and feelings rang very true to me – reminding me of that transitionary period between University and what I thought of as ‘real life’ – and I imagine will to many other readers. And with the sexiness ramped right up, there’s plenty for chick lit readers to enjoy as well.

So, an interesting first dabble into the world of New Adult, and I look forwards to reading many more as the genre starts to really find its feet.

Rating: 4/5

Review: All Fall Down by Sally Nicholls

Title: All Fall Down

Author: Sally Nicholls

Series: N/A

Genre: YA Historical

Summary (from Goodreads)

A deadly contagion races through England…

Isabel and her family have nowhere to run from a disease that has killed half of Europe. When the world she knows and loves ends forever, her only weapon is courage.

The Black Death of 1349 was the deadliest plague in human history. All Fall Down is a powerful and inspiring story of survival in the face of real life horror.

Review

When I was a kid, I had a real obsession with the Plague. Morbid, I know, but I had this book that was all about diseases – in the fun, quirky illustrations, cartoony sort of way. Despite the cartoons though, it used to scare the hell out of me. Every time I felt even slightly ill I managed to convince myself I was going to die of the plague. And this was before you could Google your symptoms.

There’s just something really scary about the thought of a plague that could kill more than half the population of Europe. It’s a fear that has inspired a whole horde of modern preoccupations, from the Zombie apocalypse to superflu pandemics. All Fall Down plays on that fear, bringing it to life through Isabel, who has the misfortune to be stuck in the middle of Black Death’s worst outbreak in history.

Isabel is not a particularly likeable character. She’s a coward, equally selfish and fearful most of the time. But in the context of the story, it works. She’s not got a massive quest to go on, requiring bravery and heart. She’s stuck in her village while all her friends and family die around her, and her reactions to this are realistic, leaving you questioning how you would behave should you find yourself in that situation. Exactly the same, I would imagine.

It’s a claustrophobic little tale, made worse by the fact that we now know why the plague spread, but the ignorance of people at the time meant they endangered themselves unknowingly. The story also brings to light how the absolute dregs of society acted – charging for digging graves and stealing from the homes of the dead. The dark side of human nature is illuminated, and it’s about as pretty as a Black Death buboe.

A scary little story that fans of the grizzlier side of historical fiction will enjoy. The period is brought scarily to life.

Rating: 4/5

Review: The Accidental Time Traveller by Janis Mackay

Title: The Accidental Time Traveller

Author: Janis Mackay

Series: N/A

Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy

Summary (from Goodreads)

Saul is on his way to the corner shop on a seemingly ordinary day, when a girl appears suddenly in the middle of the road. She does not understand traffic or the things she sees in shops, and she’s wearing a long dress with ruffled sleeves. Her name is Agatha Black.

Agatha Black is from 1813, and Saul needs to find a way to get her back to her time. With help from his buddies Will and Robbie, he tries to figure out how to make time travel happen.

Review

There’s a lot about Saul’s disgruntled voice that will appeal to children of 8-12. His worries about whether or not he’ll get a BMX for Christmas, his frustration with his twin baby sisters and his lacklustre attitude towards school all come across in a very realistic and relatable way.

And though I know little about Scotland, let alone Scotland in 1812, because Saul rings so true, it was easy to get swept up in believing Agatha’s voice as well. The little details about life in the 19th century were interesting, and would no doubt be enough to send the more historically minded tweenager to their history books or Google to find out more.

In terms of story, it’s a fairly predictable but sweet tale of friendship and realising that money isn’t everything. There are some missed opportunities with outcast character Agnes, but otherwise it’s a heartwarming tale and one that could be enjoyed by both parents and children.

I did keep hoping when I started a new chapter that this would be the one where Saul ends up back in 1812, but that never happened – another shame, as I would have been fascinated to see Agatha’s world. But other than that, I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it to any younger fantasy fan.

Rating: 4/5

Review: The New Hunger by Isaac Marion

Title: The New Hunger

Author: Isaac Marion

Series: Warm Bodies #0.5

Genre: Post Apocalyptic Science Fiction

Received for Review

Summary (from Goodreads)

New York is a bayou. New Orleans is a reef. The entire country has been devastated by natural disasters and governmental collapse, and on top of everything else there is the annoying problem of zombies trying to devour you at every turn. But sixteen-year-old Nora and her younger brother Addis are about to discover the most frightening thing yet: being abandoned in this horrific world by their own parents.

Left with only a bag of clothes and a first-aid kit, Nora and Addis begin a harrowing journey to connect with anyone who isn’t looking to rob them or eat them. A wounded man wrecks a meal of green beans and French fries at the top of the Space Needle in Seattle. An attempt to get a good night’s sleep in a fortified motel is ruined by an undead face staring at them through the window. And they just can’t seem to shake someone – something – that’s been following them everywhere they go….

Meanwhile, a girl named Julie is traveling toward the city in an SUV with her parents. She is only twelve, but has already seen friends die and her school burn. She has watched her father become nearly as cold and remorseless as the Dead. All she wants is someplace to call home, even if it never really will be.

And somewhere nearby, a tall man awakens in the woods, unsure of exactly where he is, or even who he is. As he struggles to remember details of his life, a single consonant comes to him: R. He is…a name that begins with R….

Review

It’s been a while since I read Warm Bodies, and I don’t really remember it all that well. All I remember is really enjoying it. I really enjoyed this, but it was odd. Very definitely a prequel – more for the benefit of pleasing fans than gaining new ones.

Because I couldn’t really remember Warm Bodies, I only just barely remembered that the main girl was called Julie, and therefore that the Julie featured may be her. I didn’t remember Nora at all, so events that transpired there did come as something of a shock, though those more familiar with the story may see where it’s going.

Despite the disparate threads of story all leading up to the set up of Warm Bodies, there isn’t really a story. It’s more just background information about the characters. But because Marion writes so well about life and death, it doesn’t really matter. You get swept along with the lyrical prose and the wider questions posed and sink easily into the horrific but beautifully depicted world.

And though Warm Bodies is a romance, and The New Hunger definitely has notes of that – though the characters are too young really for it to be a major element – there is definitely a strong thread of horror. One particular scene with some skeletal zombies is quite discordantly horrific after pages of the zombies being no more than a shuffling presence, outpaced by a brisk walk.

So, it’s enjoyable fare for fans of Warm Bodies, though I wouldn’t recommend it as a starting point for the series. Read and enjoy Warm Bodies first, then come back to sample this.

Rating: 4/5

Review: Open Minds by Susan Kaye Quinn

Title: Open Minds

Author: Susan Kaye Quinn

Series: Mindjack Trilogy #1

Genre: YA Dystopia

Self Published

Summary (from Goodreads)

Sixteen-year-old Kira Moore is a zero, someone who can’t read thoughts or be read by others. Zeros are outcasts who can’t be trusted, leaving her no chance with Raf, a regular mindreader and the best friend she secretly loves. When she accidentally controls Raf’s mind and nearly kills him, Kira tries to hide her frightening new ability from her family and an increasingly suspicious Raf. But lies tangle around her, and she’s dragged deep into a hidden world of mindjackers, where having to mind control everyone she loves is just the beginning of the deadly choices before her.

Review

You’d be forgiven, from reading the first few chapters, that Open Minds is about surviving high school and navigating the strange world of boys with a little bit of superpowers thrown in to make things interesting. What unravels after the obligatory boy drama, however, is a downward spiral into a dangerous world where the “bad” and “good” guys are pretty much the same as each other, and it’s difficult to know who to trust.

It’s very clever how Kira gets drawn into the conspiracy, how each choice she makes puts her further into danger, while manipulative other characters use her to further themselves. I was glad, too, that when Simon, Kira’s boyfriend, plays her, she doesn’t immediately forgive him and go back to making out. YA Heroine who realises her boyfriend has been a tool for the win.

Some things are lingered over, while others are brushed past when I would have preferred it the other way round, and the slang is a bit of a twee way to immerse the reader in Kira’s world – a world that’s otherwise well imagined and realised. But in terms of presentation and editing, you wouldn’t know this book was self published.

So, overall, this was a tense story, once the initial section was out of the way, with a resolution you’ll have seen before, but remains a satisfying solution to the conspiracy problem. The characters and the world were interesting, and it’s the first time I’ve truly been tempted to purchase the sequel to a Self Pub. Maybe when I’ve got through my impressive review backlog!

Rating: 4/5

Susan’s Website: 
http://www.susankayequinn.com

Review: Dark Child (Episodes 1-3) by Adina West

Title: Dark Child (Episodes 1-3)

Author: Adina West

Series: Serialised Novel

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Summary (from Goodreads)

Kat can run a marathon without breaking a sweat. Catch anything you throw at her. Differentiate blood types by smell alone. And she’s spent years hiding the fact. But secrets from the past have a way of slipping out when least expected … and a simple blood test is enough to turn her quiet life in the shadow of the Appalachian Mountains upside down forever …

Pathology technician Kat Chanter isn’t looking for trouble. On a good day, the most exciting thing in her life is the iridescent violet nail varnish on her housemate Tiffany’s manicured fingers. But lately, Kat’s been craving raw meat, and her dreams – always weird – are getting so realistic it’s scary. When she visits a psychic she’s told her life is about to change forever. Kat isn’t so sure change is a part of her plan, but a blood test at work raises more questions about her unique heritage she has no idea how to answer, so when a fabulous job offer comes her way – one that will give her the chance to research others just like her – she’s tempted to say yes and make the move to New York.

Will her dream job bring answers to all her questions or will it lead her into more trouble than she could ever imagine?

Review

This is my first encounter with a serialised novel. I’ve heard of a few before, but never read one. I’m the sort of person who records TV series and watches them in big chunks over a couple of days. I don’t like waiting, and I have a bad memory, so serialisation doesn’t do me many favours, especially as books don’t have handy ‘Previously on…’ catch up segments.

My reading of this hasn’t perfectly reflected the experience of reading a serial, as I had parts 1 through 3 in one bunch, so it’s only now that I’ve read all three that I’m left hanging on the edge of a cliff, waiting for the next. When I get my mitts on those, I’ll be able to comment on how well the story carried forwards across the gaps between parts.

But, for now:

Part One: The first part is mostly dedicated to the establishment of the main character and the world. There are some tantalising suggestions of a world beyond the ordinary, and plenty of foreshadowing for future events, but as with all ‘establishing’ sections of books, things are a little slow, and the cliffhanger at the end wouldn’t necessarily be enough to have you hanging on for the next instalment. It’s not a fault of the writing, which is good, or even the structure – everything is necessary, it’s just that things hadn’t had enough room to really start getting interesting before the serialisation made it necessary to cut off.

Part Two: Things pick up much faster in this instalment, with the much needed injection of more palpable threat in the shape of some hunters chasing Kat through New York. New character Char is interesting and the plot starts moving towards the answers I now really want. The cliffhanger ending works much better this time (though it doesn’t exactly come as a surprise) and I can imagine a few readers frustratedly wishing for the third instalment.

Part Three: Things really pick up in this instalment, with some much needed answers given and a few new characters introduced. There are hints of political intrigue and a wider reaching threat that ratchet up the tension as well as fleshing out the world that Kat inhabits. The outside threads of the story are brought more firmly into play, with characters being brought together, promising some interesting encounters in the next instalment.

I’m still not convinced by the format, but the story itself is engaging, with good characters and an interesting twist on what could easily be considered a much overdone mythology. I look forwards to the next two instalments.

Rating: 4/5

Review: Perception by Kim Harrington

Title: Perception

Author: Kim Harrington

Series: Clarity #2

Genre: YA Paranormal

Summary (from Goodreads)

When you can see things others can’t, what do you do when someone’s watching you?

Everybody knows about Clarity “Clare” Fern. She’s the psychic girl in school, the one who can place her hands on something and see hidden visions from the past.

Only Clare would rather not be a celebrity. She prefers hanging back, observing. Her gift is not a game to her.

But then someone starts playing with her head . . . and heart. Messages and gifts from a secret admirer crop up everywhere Clare turns. Could they be from Gabriel, the gorgeous boy who gets Clare’s pulse racing? Or from Justin, Clare’s hopeful ex-boyfriend who’d do anything to win her back?

One thing is certain. Clare needs to solve this mystery, and soon. Because the messages are becoming sinister, and a girl in town has suddenly disappeared.

Review

I enjoyed Perception for all the reasons I enjoyed Clarity, the first in the series. It’s not a challenging book, nor is there anything particularly original or exceptional in any way, but it’s just such good fun.

I read this literally in a morning, while I was still waiting to wake up. I was done before I felt like having breakfast. It’s fast paced, with good, believable characters, entertaining sub plots and just a dash of hot boys and romance in the mix. It takes everything in the chemical formula for a successful YA Paranormal book and uses them. Like I said – not original, but hugely entertaining.

The plot is fairly predictable at times, but it didn’t really detract from my enjoyment. Especially as the drama extends outwards from the central mystery of the stalker and the missing girl. The ripples of events in the previous book are still being felt – a nice touch, as all too many second books seem to hit the reset switch – particularly in Perry, Clare’s brother, who is more than a little traumatised by being accused of murder. And the idea that Clare is suddenly landed with something like celebrity status in her school is not only believable, but also gives the perfect opportunity to explore characters and relationships in a new and fresh way.

If you liked Clarity, or like books in the genre, buy this one, save it for your holidays, pull it out when the sun is shining down on you and there’s sand between your toes and enjoy.

Rating: 4/5