Review: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins was delightful. I'm in looooooooooooove with Paris, Anna, and St. Clair. I would like to Talented-Mr.-Ripley this story and make it my life. Please someone take me to Paris ASAP!


                           
Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris--until she meets Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Étienne has it all...including a serious girlfriend.

But in the City of Light, wishes have a way of coming true. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with their long-awaited French kiss? (GoodReads).

Level of Originality: 4. This reminds me of Meant to Be with high schoolers in love in Europe, with a big of boarding school YA fun added in. No molds were broken here, but I sure liked this combo. Why didn't I get sent to HS in Paris?
Level of Absuridty: 2. Shockingly low! I thought that the complicated nature of liking someone you can't have was very well done and absolutely rang true as to the complicated layers of high school feelings. I also giggled a lot at all of the funny asides.
Level of Paranormal Romance 9. This is the best romantic build-up I have seen in a while. I swooned and cheered.  Would someone please give me a poetry book with this in it?!:

“I love you as certain dark things are loved, secretly, between the shadow and the soul.”

Level of Harry Potterness: 5. For BOARDING SCHOOLS. This book is very readable and while not particularly writerly, it really pulls you in.

Review: Blood Red Road by Moira Young

 If I could travel back in time to 2011 I would visit myself and say PUT DOWN THAT STUPID VAMPIRE BOOK AND READ Blood Red Road by Moira Young. And it would have been excellent advice.

Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That's fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when a monster sandstorm arrives, along with four cloaked horsemen, Saba's world is shattered. Lugh is captured, and Saba embarks on an epic quest to get him back.
Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the world outside of desolate Silverlake, Saba is lost without Lugh to guide her. So perhaps the most surprising thing of all is what Saba learns about herself: she's a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. And she has the power to take down a corrupt society from the inside. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization.

I loved this book! I love the Hawks, I am impressed/terrified by Saba, and I  luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuv Jack.

• Level of Originality: 8. The desert dystopian future is absolutely enthralling. What makes this book so original is the narrative voice. At fist I was distracted by the bad grammar and drawl, but then once I got into it this voice made the book so atmospheric. It also totally submerses the reader in Saba's world and thoughts. Amazing-sauce all the way.
• Level of Absurdity: 6. Sada's cage fighting days are pretttttty intense, and while I am happy she is a good fighter, I am not sure this is the type of characteristic a teenager has that is "surprising'. If your badass, don't you kind of have an idea?
• Level of Paranormal Romance: 9. Smoking! Jack gets to join my awesome-boys fraternity (XXXX). He is even challenging George, the ultimate rogue charmer, for best male love interest in the history of the written word. (No. Big. Deal.)
• Level of Harry Potterness: 7. The GoodReads blurb says: " poetically minimal writing style, violent action, and an epic love story. Moira Young is one of the most promising and startling new voices in teen fiction" Check and check and check.

Waiting on Wednesday Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein

This week I am Waiting on Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein.

While flying an Allied fighter plane from Paris to England, American ATA pilot and amateur poet, Rose Justice, is captured by the Nazis and sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious women's concentration camp. Trapped in horrific circumstances, Rose finds hope in the impossible through the loyalty, bravery and friendship of her fellow prisoners. But will that be enough to endure the fate that’s in store for her?

Elizabeth Wein, author of the critically-acclaimed and best-selling Code Name Verity, delivers another stunning WWII thriller. The unforgettable story of Rose Justice is forged from heart-wrenching courage, resolve, and the slim, bright chance of survival (GoodReads).

Somebody get me a box of tissues! I am going to love this book and it is going to destroy me, just like Code Name Verity. This very well might be my favorite read this coming September.

Top Ten Favorite Book Covers Of Books We've Read

Hello and happy almost Memorial Day Weekend....errrr, Tuesday. While we wait for the long weekend, it is time again for Top Ten Tuesday hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. (Thanks, ladies!) This week's TTT is dedicated to books with covers that we loved. It is hard to be an adult reading YA with all the terrible big faces and prom dresses, but here is a list of books we would be happy to be seen in public with. What made your list?

 

because its not embarrassing

 

"because show me a flowing hair shot that i DONT love."- Goosie Mama

    

because they are pretty

 

"For its simplicity in a world of insane graphics on YA book" -Crazy Camper

  

because they are badass

 

"Cinder because x-ray shots are super edgy....Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter is pretty epic too (also Pride Prejudice and Zombies - like i said, show me some bones on the cover (errr) and i can't pick it up fast enough)" -Goosie Mama

Review: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia

While on vacation, I read Beautiful Creatures, Caster Chronicles #1, by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, and while I had heard mixed responses, I really enjoyed it.

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power, and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything (GoodReads).

Originality:  6. A YA book from a boy's perspective? say what? And a boy who feels quite a few emotions and love?  Maybe this should be in the absurdity section.  But overall, I enjoyed this take on witches, southern stuffyness and history, and a sprinkling of libraries and voodoo.

Absurdity:  8.  Where is this boy who have so many emotions?  in highschool?  it was just hard to BELIEVE that they have feelings like this.  BUT I tired because in my heart I wish they did, for high school girls everywhere, and anyways, there was a lot more absurdity, namely Lenas unrelenting emo-ness.  Girl, I understand you feel doomed, but man, you are way too glass-half-full for me likes.  Though, that Carrie-esq stunt the girls at the dance pulled was rough.

Paranormal Romance: 10+.  Seriously, it is all here: insta/fated love, emotional high schoolers, magic powers emerging, and some flashbacks.  I was very disappointed to how those were resolved, and I would like to go on record saying so.

Harry Potterness: 4.  OK, low score, considering I liked this.. BUT THE ENDING.  You may remember my feeling about books that RESOLVE NOTHING at the end.  huge frustration.  While leaving somethings hanging is a literary technique employed by many authors, here, we read the whole book for the last two pages to basically say, got ya good!  nothing is resolved! read book 2.  siiiiiiiiiiigh.  So, anyone read book two?  If things get resolved and the plot progresses, I am in. But if we circle around Emo-Lena for another year, I dont know if I have the mental fortitude for that...

Waiting on Wednesday: The Beautiful and the Cursed by Page Morgan

After a bizarre accident, Ingrid Waverly is forced to leave London with her mother and younger sister, Gabby, trading a world full of fancy dresses and society events for the unfamiliar city of Paris.

In Paris there are no grand balls or glittering parties, and, disturbingly, the house Ingrid’s twin brother, Grayson, found for them isn’t a house at all. It’s an abandoned abbey, its roof lined with stone gargoyles that could almost be mistaken for living, breathing creatures.

And Grayson has gone missing. No one seems to know of his whereabouts but Luc, a devastatingly handsome servant at their new home.

Ingrid is sure her twin isn’t dead—she can feel it deep in her soul—but she knows he’s in grave danger. It will be up to her and Gabby to navigate the twisted path to Grayson, a path that will lead Ingrid on a discovery of dark secrets and otherworldly truths. And she’ll learn that once they are uncovered, they can never again be buried (GoodReads).

The Beautiful and the Cursed by Page Morgan comes out literally any moment (or just did-- it was scheduled to release yesterday). I could use a good Paris story and this sounds creepy and awesome. Let's call it a day and go buy this book (and maybe read all night).

Review: A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

It is has taken me a while to write this review for A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. Why, you ask? Because I had to cool down. This mix of Victorian boarding schools, Gothic mystery, (insipid, mean)  clique of girls, and magic made me want to THROW THINGS.  Primarily the book. 

It’s 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma’s reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she’s been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence’s most powerful girls—and their foray into the spiritual world—lead to? (GoodReads).


Originality: 2. Victorian girls with sassy, wild, independent sides seem to be the only type of teenage women in YA historical fiction. Don't get me wrong, power to the ladies, but this is a frequent setup.
Absurdity:  1.5 billion. This was all crazy because it made ME crazy.
Level of Paranormal Romance: 7. You know falling for a gypsy boy ( that you can't be with, obvi) when you can commune with the spiritual world is BASICALLY a paranormal romance...because all gypsies are magical, right? Isn't that why the wizard in the Wizard of Oz pretends to be one? This is at least a truth in my brain.
Level of Harry Potterness: 1. I do not want to know more. This book was just not for me. Goosie Mama is going to totally disagree. She loved this series and flew through them. This is even better for me, because now she can just tell me what happens! Then I can know and still move on.

Book Club Recap: An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Non-book-club book club happened again this week in NYC!

We read An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. And guys, GUYS, I hate to admit this, but not one of us really liked it. Sure we liked bits, but the full story just didn't do it for any of us. We talked about how this made us feel guilty, since we like John Green and loooooove The Fault in Our Stars.  Do you ever feel this way when you don't love a book you want to love?

So recap of our thoughts: I thought the flashbacks to the Katherines were boring, but I loved the shenanigans of Gunshot, TN and the repartee between Hassan and Colin. I maintain that I would basically read anything about Hassan. More Hassan!  I also thought the "...." in the dark were adorable.

One friend liked the footnotes, and another swears she is going back to finish the appendix and get a better feel for the math. So at least we liked these portions.

I would like to hear what other people thought about this book. I know Crazy Camper and her BF liked it. (See her review)

Have no fear, the book club was still a success. I mean, who DOESN'T want to drink sangria outside on Stone Street (pictured) and talk books? You would have to be crazy.

And for our next book we decided on Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Since the world is agog at the new The Great Gatsby movie, we thought we would revisit Fitzgerald. Since we have all read Gatsby more than once, we are jumping into the highly acclaimed Tender is the Night. Feel free to join us!

It is the French Riviera in the 1920s. Nicole and Dick Diver are a wealthy, elegant, magnetic couple. A coterie of admirers are drawn to them, none more so than the blooming young starlet Rosemary Hoyt. When Rosemary falls for Dick, the Diver's calculated perfection begins to crack. As dark truths emerge, Fitzgerald shows both the disintegration of a marriage and the failure of idealism. Tender is the Night is as sad as it is beautiful. (GoodReads).

Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal

Shades of Milk and Honey is an intimate portrait of Jane Ellsworth, a woman ahead of her time in a version of Regency England where the manipulation of glamour is considered an essential skill for a lady of quality. But despite the prevalence of magic in everyday life, other aspects of Dorchester’s society are not that different: Jane and her sister Melody’s lives still revolve around vying for the attentions of eligible men.

Jane resists this fate, and rightly so: while her skill with glamour is remarkable, it is her sister who is fair of face, and therefore wins the lion’s share of the attention. At the ripe old age of twenty-eight, Jane has resigned herself to being invisible forever. But when her family’s honor is threatened, she finds that she must push her skills to the limit in order to set things right–and, in the process, accidentally wanders into a love story of her own (GoodReads).

Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal was rather like warm milk mixed with honey: sweet and soothing, but ultimately it did not tide me over (how 'bout them metaphors!?!?!)

• Level of Originality: 9. MAGIC and Jane Austin. Hello.
• Level of Absurdity: 7. Yo, if homegirl disparages herself ONE MORE TIME I am going to force a self confidence intervention a la Stacy and Clinton from What Not to Wear. I know that this is a re-imagining of Regency England, but Jane Austin lived it and gave us waaaayyyy stronger leads. This was absurdly unappealing!
• Level of Paranormal Romance: 7. This is not the case where the score reflects swoon. It reflects how obvious I thought it was that our glamour manipulators would fall for each other. Maybe I would have felt more of a build up and satisfaction in the romance, but it felt flat and obvious instead.
• Level of Harry Potter-ness: 3. This book is nice but dull, like that girl down the hall freshman year of college who was knitting when you were listening to top 40 and wearing jean skirts and Forever 21 sparkly tops (not that it was a good idea, but you know, it was fun). This series keeps going, but I for one will hop off this train for jazzier lands/reads.

Waiting on Wednesday: Divergent Series, Allegiant by Veronica Roth

While we don't have a cover till October (10.23.2013 if you are counting...), the name of the third book in the Divergent Series is....

ALLEGIANT 

What if your whole world was a lie?
What if a single revelation—like a single choice—changed everything?
What if love and loyalty made you do things you never expected?

The explosive conclusion to Veronica Roth’s #1 New York Times bestselling Divergent trilogy reveals the secrets of the dystopian world that has captivated millions of readers in Divergent and Insurgent. via

Here at YAF & WS, we loooove this  series.  Is it too soon to be waiting? And a big thanks to to Jill at Breaking the Spine for hosting WoW!