Review: Lola and the Boy Next Door

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A sort-of sequel to Anna and the French Kiss (Anna and St. Clair are supporting characters), Lola takes place in San Francisco and the Bay area, following eccentric high school senior Lola through her trials with boys, friends, and parents.

Let me just put it out there, in case the five-star rating didn't make it clear: I loved this book! While I wanted to smack Lola at times (she is a teenage girl, it comes with the territory), for the most part I found her adorable and wanted her for my own. I loved her style, her relationship with her dads (more on that in a minute), and her general outlook on life. I loved Lola's best friend Lindsey, who stuck around even when Lola was being a brat about boys. And I ADORED Cricket. But, of course, that was probably the plan.

When the book starts, Lola is dating and "older man," Max, who is 22 and in a band. Needless to say, Lola's dads don't approve, and do what they can to keep tabs on her when she's with him (Sunday brunches with the family, calling in once an hour). You just KNOW that Max isn't the boy for her, you're just waiting for Lola to figure that out for herself. That is helped along quite a bit by the return to town of the Bell twins, Calliope and her brother Cricket, with whom Lola has a long history. Things get a little less clear for Lola when Cricket comes back into her life. And that's a good thing.

Now, Lola's dads. Yes, they are a gay couple, but they're not portrayed stereotypically or campy in any way (though her dad Andy does have a deep love for figure skating, which Lola considers his "gayest" trait). They are also not the typical absentee YA parents. They know where their kid is (or think they know where she is -- again, she's a teenage girl with an older boyfriend), and they discipline and punish her when necessary. Her birth mother is in the picture, but I won't say any more about her here.

Lola does some growing and changing in this book, but in what I feel are completely realistic ways. She feels like a real teenager with a real family and friends, and I love her.



View all my reviews

Book Review: Lightning of Her Own

Lightning of Her Own by Levi Montgomery

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I received this book for free from BookRooster.com. That did not affect my review.

Lightning of Her Own is a post-apocalyptic story, taking place about 70 years after an alien invasion that resulted in electricity no longer functioning on earth, and the subsequent chaos that caused. Teenage Amarylla travels with her father, an engineer, and two guards out of the Republic of New York in search of a man her father has heard of who has made electricity work again.

I enjoy a good post-apocalyptic story, as I like to see the world the author creates. This was a very interesting world. People don't really know what the aliens (which they call "bugs") are, though there's much speculation, including that Earth was treated as a penal colony, and the electricity was destroyed to prevent the bugs from leaving.

Amarylla and her party leave the relative glamor and riches of the Republic of New York to head into the wilds outside their walls. During the trip, Amarylla grows into a strong woman, one who abandons her frilly dresses and stuffed animals for practical pants and shirts, and learns how to shoot, stand guard, and drive a wagon.

This is told from a third-person omniscient point-of-view, which is a little disconcerting at first, but I ultimately liked it, because it lets you see the thoughts and feelings of characters without convoluted POV changes or annoying repetition of events.

This is part of a trilogy, but, unlike many books in series, I didn't feel like anything was missing from this book that could only be solved by reading the next. It's complete in itself, but reading the others would probably give one a more complete view of the world.



View all my reviews

Book Review: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


How do I explain how much I loved this book? It was laugh-out-loud funny, poignant, sad, and ultimately uplifting. I have a feeling that the authors wouldn't really like the "uplifting" part of that sentence, but I had to say it.

Will Grayson #1 had me laughing right off the bat. The whole "you can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose" thing was hysterical. And I liked how that was a recurring theme through the book.

I wanted to bring Will Grayson #2 home with me and keep him safe and warm and happy. Luckily for all of use Tiny Cooper and WG1 sort of took care of that.

Oh, Tiny Cooper. I want a Tiny Cooper in my life. He struck me as the kind of kid who figured that, given his life circumstances, he could be miserable, or he could embrace who and what he was and run with it. Thankfully, he chose the latter. I really want to see his musical. :)

This book is definitely for the older YA audience. The characters are 16-17, and that's the age I would recommend for the reader, as this book deals with some mature issues, and the language is rather raw at times.



View all my reviews

Review: Force of Habit

Force of Habit by Alice Loweecey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Giulia Falcone is a former nun trying to make her way in the world. She works for P.I. Frank Driscoll, first as his administrative assistant, then as an investigator-in-training. When the case they're working on takes a personal turn, their relationship and Giulia's life are put in jeopardy.

I very much enjoyed the premise of the former nun as a private investigator. Watching Giulia struggle with the real world after being so sheltered in the nunnery was very interesting. Giulia isn't a shrinking violet, though. She stands up for herself and what she believes in, and doesn't take any crap. I wanted to punch Frank on her behalf for a few chapters, but I eventually got over it.

Honestly, it took a little while for me to get into this book, but once I did I didn't want to put it down, including staying up way too late to read just one more chapter.

I had the honor of meeting the author at a book signing and talk. I wish her luck with her other books.



View all my reviews

Review: Delirium

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I was really hoping to like this book. I've been into the whole dystopian, government-knows-best thing for a while. However, I think my problem with this book was that the dystopia was so severe, the government so all-powerful, that it didn't leave room for anything to happen other than what happened. That is to say, the characters had no choice but to do what they did. I felt that I knew how it would end about half way through. I was mostly right, and I'm not pleased by that.

I enjoyed the maturing of Lena, as she was forced to realize that the world as described and dictated by the government wasn't necessarily the truth. But, again, that was inevitable given the way the story was told.

It was an interesting look at censorship and government control, and maybe would be satisfactory for a teen reader, who is obviously the target audience. It was a bit "been there, done that" for anyone who has read other dystopian novels.

This is the first book in a series, but I won't be reading further.



View all my reviews

Review: When You Reach Me

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I read this book at the urging of my 10-year-old son, who read it then gave it to me, saying, "I think you'll really like this, Mom." Smart kid.

I did really like it. The narrator is 12-year-old Miranda, whom, we find out, is writing this to a mysterious person who leaves her notes accurately predicting the future. Her voice is perfect, just right for her age. Nothing really horrible happens to her, she develops an age-appropriate crush, and she loves her mom like any kid would. She does have to deal with some hard things, both actual (witnessing an accident) and theoretical (trying to suss out the twists and turns of time travel) but she handles all the way you'd expect a savvy girl of her age to do.

This was a delightful book, and I highly recommend it. And I'm thankful to my son for making me read it.



View all my reviews

Review: Ready Player One

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I LOVED this book. And having Wil Wheaton read it was just the cherry on top.

This is the story of Wade, an 18-year-old computer nerd, whose entire life is spent in the OASIS, an online virtual reality world where much of the world spends there time, as the real world is a miserable place of fuel shortages, global warming, and unemployment. When the creator of the OASIS dies, he leaves his entire fortune to the person who can find the Easter Egg hidden in the OASIS. Wade, along with hundreds (thousands?) of others join the quest to find the Egg.

The creator of the OASIS grew up in the 1980s, so much of what the Egg Hunters (Gunters) study to figure out the location of the egg is 80s "stuff:" music, movies, literature, computer games. As a child of the 80s myself, it was great fun to hear references to all that stuff I'm familiar with.

This book combines a dystopian world with MMORPGs, 80s notalgia, adventure, suspense, and kick-ass fun. There's also a little bit of nerdy romance.



View all my reviews

Review: Shatter Me

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Beautiful book. I loved Juliette's voice, and how it changed as the book progressed, from fragile, scared girl to a confident woman. This is one series I'm looking forward to continuing.



View all my reviews

Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I wish I could give this 3.5 stars. I liked it too much to give it three, but not quite enough for four. So I'm rounding up.

I loved the first 2/3 of this book. The story of Karou, her life with the chimaera, her meeting with Akiva, were all very good. I didn't need allllll of the information about Madrigal, though. I think that part could have been greatly trimmed down yet still give us the information we needed. I honestly don't know why I would read the next book, as there's nothing more I feel I need to know.

As my friend, Cyndy mentioned in her review, this isn't really a YA book. It feels like the main character was shoehorned into being a 17 year old, when there was NOTHING in her life that fit that of a typical 17 year old. She lived on her own, traveled around the world on errands for Brimstone, and was in the equivalent of a fine-arts college program. It was like the publisher or someone said, "Hey, YA is hot now! Let's make the heroine a teen!" and nothing else about her was changed.



View all my reviews

Review: The God Delusion

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book is Richard Dawkins' argument against the existence of any sort of divine being that runs the world. While getting deeper at times than I was comfortable following (quantum physics and philosophical arguments sometimes do that to me), I found it very interesting, and it addressed many of the questions raised by the religious when they're confronted with Atheists.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when religious people say that one can't have morals if one isn't religious. Dawkins does a splendid job of debunking that idea, and I recommend the book for that section alone.

I also loved his use of "American Taliban" to describe American fundamentalist religions. I know he didn't coin the term, but this was the first time I'd heard it, and I will be using it from now on.

I'm sure this book would horrify and anger many of the faithful. However, if you are open-minded and willing to listen, this book opens a whole world.



View all my reviews

Review: Buffalo Gal

Buffalo Gal by Laura Pedersen

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I couldn't finish this book. I tried, but, really, life's too short to waste it on books that don't keep you interested.

In the half of the book that I read, I got the feeling of nothing more than "man, this is meandering." She'd start a chapter talking about one thing, and two pages later be on a completely different topic, and you have no idea how or why she made the transition. As a friend emailed me while she was reading, "Wow, does she ever need an editor!"

Yes, it had some funny things about living in Buffalo, but it also fed into the stereotypes. Although maybe they weren't stereotypes in the 70s. Buffalo doesn't spend its entire winter buried in snow. Yes, winters are long, but we're not walking uphill in thigh-high snow to and from school every day. I understand the use of hyperbole. There was too much of it in this book. Also, much of the book (that I read) discussed things that were of national import (Vietnam War, energy crisis, etc.) and not particular to Buffalo. I didn't feel that needed to be in the book. There are others that cover those topics much better.

So, read this book if you want to have a giggle over some Buffalo-isms, but not if you enjoy a cogent narrative.





View all my reviews

Review: Divergent

Divergent by Veronica Roth

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I really, really enjoyed this book. At first I found the narrator's voice a little distracting, but I soon got past it, as she seemed to so clearly inhabit Beatrice/Tris, and I got so caught up in the story that it really didn't matter who was reading it.

I appreciated the strong heroine, who understood her limitations yet tried to work around them. And, thankfully, there was no love triangle. I was left with questions which may be answered in the subsequent books, such as what happened to create the Factions, and what is going on in the rest of the world.

Although this is the first book in a series (I think trilogy), I don't feel as resentful toward it as I have toward other first books lately. It could stand on its own if you don't feel like exploring the world any further.



View all my reviews

Review: The Shop on Blossom Street

The Shop on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is the story of four women: Lydia, a cancer survivor who opens a yarn store, and her first three customers/students, Jacqueline, a society matron, Carol, a business woman trying to get pregnant, and wild-child Alix. The book takes us through their lives and how being in a knitting group together changes them.

This was, by far, the most predictable, formulaic book I've ever read. As soon as every woman's story, and those of supporting characters, was laid out, I knew exactly what was going to happen with each main character, and, sadly, I was right.

It's a fine story if you're looking for a comfortable, female-centric feel-good novel. But don't come to this looking for any depth. It's very simply a light, happily-ever-after.

As a yarn-crafter, and member of my own crafting group, I wanted to love this book. I'm a little sad that I didn't.

View all my reviews

Review: The Space Between

The Space Between by Alexandra Sokoloff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I got this book free from BookRooster.com.

This is the story of teenager Anna Sullivan, who begins have dreams of a something horrible happening at her school. When she begins interacting with school mates in her dreams, and discovers that they're having the same dreams, she tries to figure out if they can change the events of the dreams and, if they do, how/whether that will affect reality.

I enjoyed this book. The premise was quite interesting -- quantum physics, parallel universes -- and I think it was written at a level that those tricky ideas would be understandable to a teen audience. It was a bit repetitive, but that may have been the authors desire to make the principles clear.

I'm not entirely certain I understood the ending, but that's ok. I don't need to have everything spelled out for me. I like things being left open to interpretation.

View all my reviews

Stray

Stray by Andrea K. Höst

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Alert: Spoilers Below!!!

I need to say up front that I received this book for free from BookRooster.com.

Cassandra is an Australian girl who walks through a sort of wormhole on her way home from school, and ends up on a completely different planet. She manages to make her way through the forests she initially stepped into, and winds up in what appears to be an abandoned city, encountering various animals and plants that resemble some on Earth along the way. She is finally "rescued" by a people from a nearby planet, who tell her she's a "stray" -- a person who wanders from their own planet/space-time and into another. When it is discovered that Cass has the ability to enhance the psychic powers of the people on this new planet, she takes on a special role with them.

I very much enjoyed this book. It was well-written and well-edited, which have been problems with recent ebooks I've read. The story is told completely from Cass' point of view, via her journal. She is very resourceful, managing to stay alive on an unknown planet completely by herself -- but still falls into funks on occasion, especially when she's feeling particularly like a lab rat.

As another reviewer on Goodreads pointed out, this is quite unlike other popular YA fiction in that there's no love triangle. In fact, there's no romance at all, other than Cass' crush on one of the people she's working with. While part of me was rooting for her to break through Ruuel's tough exterior, for the most part I was happy that wasn't a focus of the story; it really couldn't be for the story to remain true to the plot.

I was intrigued by the concept of the Ena, near-space, far-space, and the Ionoth. It seemed like the Setari spent most of their time battling bad memories. Quite a metaphor, that. I wondered a number of times throughout the book at the ethics of the Taren's fight against the Ionoth, especially during the mission in which they were attacked by the "white-gray hairy" Ionoth. Were the Setari really protecting themselves and others, or were they invading another world and killing the inhabitants. Although the Setari said their scan indicated that the hairy humanoids were from another area, it seems like those Ionoth may have been acting simply to defend themselves. Perhaps that question will be answered in the next book.

Sigh. Next book. Perhaps I'm getting old and jaded, but I remember a time when a book was just a book, not part of a trilogy, and the whole story was told in one shot. Yes, this is the first of a trilogy. I should have confirmed that before I started, but I chose to be blissfully ignorant. I will probably read the next two books, at some point, to hopefully clear up some of my questions, but I can't help but feel a little like a sucker for getting, well, sucked in by another series. Does everything really have to be a series these days? Can't authors try to pare themselves down to one book? I'm getting skeptical enough to believe that this is done solely for money-making purposes, rather than a real need for a story to take up more than one volume. Feel free to argue with me about that.



View all my reviews

A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I didn't realize until I reached the end that I listened to the abridged version of this audiobook. Despite that, I thought it was a terrific story, and I'm sure that the main plot points were covered.

The woman who read the book was fantastic. Her accent is lovely. I also appreciated getting her pronunciation of people and place names. "Miriam" and "Laila" sound like music with her accent. And the way she said "Afghanistan" was very interesting.

Now, to the story itself. Heart-wrenching and hopeful at the same time. It was such a stark examination of life for women in Afghanistan. The differences between their lives and my own, and those of women I know in the Western world, was startling. Where we'd say "Leave the bastard" or "Just say no to your father," such things were impossible for Miriam and Laila. That's the heart-wrenching part. The hopeful was that they kept going. These women made lives for themselves, in spite of the way they were treated.





View all my reviews

Divine Justice by Cheryl Kaye Tardiff

First of all, I must say that I got this book for free from BookRooster.com.

The main part of this story takes place in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, where a prominent politician has been found murdered, and another comes up missing. Three members of the CFBI's PSI department -- agents with psychic abilities -- are on the case.

This murder case, dubbed "The Parliament Murders," is bracketed by the story of one of the agents being in a coma in the hospital some time after the main events of the book. The story of the Parliament Murders is being told through her dreaming/reliving during her coma. (There is no way of knowing how her subconscious could know things that happened when she wasn't present. Just one of many plot weaknesses.)

About a quarter of the way through the book I thought "This sounds like The Manchurian Candidate. I bet these guys are being brainwashed." Around the half-way mark I figured out who the bad guy was. I was really hoping I was wrong, but, no. I was absolutely correct. Disappointing.

I didn't buy the "story within a story" construct in this book. The coma and events immediately after the main character wakes up seemed completely superfluous. The main story could have easily, and less confusingly, been told on its own. As this was the second book in a series, perhaps the first book sets up this premise in a more believable way.

This book also suffered from simplistic, obvious, and repetitive dialogue. "We have to keep looking for connections between [the victims]." They were closing in on the link between the two men. They just had to figure it out before the second was killed. Yes, yes, we got that already, we understand. Write better dialogue or stop talking. I hope that real (C)FBI agents don't state the obvious so often and with such conviction.

There were editing problems, both with spelling (lose vs. loose), and with continuity. For example, one of the characters notices twice that there are no cars in the parking lot; two characters power off their phones, then one uses her (now powered) phone to unlock a door. First someone was shot in the head, then the bullet wound is in his arm.

Finally, I had to wonder if this heroine is the most stupid cop on the planet. She decided to confront the suspect with no backup and without telling anyone where she's going, and didn't realize her mistake until she was confined with him on a yacht headed to open water? And then she willingly drank a beverage he gave her, when his victims had all been drugged with Rohypnol? The conversation between her and the culprit was laughable and, again, repetitive.

I wanted to like this book. I didn't. If I hadn't committed to finishing it in order to write the review for BookRooster.com, I would have stopped reading half way through.

As a side note, the formatting was completely messed up, making it difficult to follow the flow of dialog, especially, as statements by a given character would often be split by line breaks that shouldn't have been there. 

Huntress (Grace Murphy, #1) by Nicole Hamlett

Huntress (A Grace Murphy Novel)

First of all, I need to say that I got a review copy of this book for free from BookRooster.com. I'm glad I did, for positive as well as negative reasons, all of which I'll get to.

Huntress is the introduction to Grace Murphy, a romance writer who, on the day her divorce is final, meets her biological mother, the goddess Diana. Grace is the snarky mother of an 11-year-old boy, with whom she seems to have a very loving, trusting relationship. She shares custody of her son with her husband, who has Dylan on some weekends and holidays.

Now, on to the reasons why I'm glad I got this book for free. First, it introduced me to this very fun and interesting character. Grace is irreverent, self-deprecating, and can't seem to keep her mouth shut. I like the universe this author has created, with her take on Greek mythology. There are also some interesting supporting characters, such as Drew, Rose, and Zachary.

However, I found my enjoyment of the book dampened quite a bit by editing problems. There were some serious punctuation issues, such as a blatant misuse of semi-colons; continuity issues (when, exactly, did the ex-husband first encounter Drew?); and the confusion of words ("physics" and "psychics" getting mixed up -- she meant to use the former).

In addition to the editing problems, I think that Grace's voice, while fun and, as I said before, irreverent, may be off-putting to some. She is definitely not a narrator who will last the ages. Her language is very 2010.

I hope that the editing issues are taken care of in the next book in the series. Oh, yes, this is the first book in a series. And that particular point is not a topic to be discussed here. Just know that, if you choose to read this book, you won't be getting what I would consider a professional product. Enjoy the story, try to ignore the mistakes.

(This review originally posted on Goodreads June 26, 2011.)