5 TO 1 by Holly Bodger: Review & Giveaway!!!

Given my love for this book I was more than happy to be part of the blog tour, and although I was not selected for the official blog tour, Hannah sent us all the info and the giveaway so we could share it too!

Today I'm sharing my review for this amazing book and don't forget to check out the giveaway at the end of the post!

Review

This book first captured me when I saw its gorgeous cover, because I absolutely adore the lovely mehendi art. And then when I read its summary, and how it promised a bit of dystopia with a sharp look at gender inequality and mixing prose and verse? I knew I had to get it!

I was beyond lucky to get an eARC thanks to the author and I ordered Indian food and started reading right away! I was extremely captivated by the narrative and I was once again surprised by how easy it is to read verse.

Having dual alternating POVs work if both sound distinctive and separate, so you could tell who are you reading about without having to read the header, and that's accomplished not only by having one in verse and the other in prose, but Sudasa and Kiran both have such distinctive voices! They come from opposite sides, but unknowingly to each other both disagree with the current state of affairs in Koyanagar.

The world building had a very interesting premise and one that works more brilliantly as a way to make you stop and think about the current state of affairs, and even more when we're presented with a society completely different, based on a big change and taking power and reversing it. And how power can affect and change the best intentions we might have... Absolute power corrups absolutely, and how sometimes reasons are not as good as we thought they were, when we bend them to serve other interests.

Although the main two characters are Sudasa and Kiran, there are other characters, some that we get to know by interacting with them and others that we just get to know by hearing about them, but all have substance and more to them than we would have expected at first.

One thing I loved that maybe not everyone will get so easily is how immersed we get to an Indian-like culture, since Koyanagan was part of India, and it was done so well, it made me feel like I was back in India! I can understand that without a glossary of some sort you might be confused about some terms and customs, but for someone that has spent quite a few months in India in the past, it was like meeting an old friend and it felt so very genuine.

I adored this book because it was told beautifully, it's full of food for thought and it's full of diversity anywhere you look! Diverse, beautiful and feminist... my only complain is that I would have wanted to continue reading more many more pages, so I am hoping we'll get a sequel!

Very much deserved 4.5 to 5 stars and one of my absolute favourite debuts of the year!

 5 TO 1 by Holly Badger

Publishing date: May 12th 2015
Knof Books for Young Readers

In the year 2054, after decades of gender selection, India now has a ratio of five boys for every girl, making women an incredibly valuable commodity. Tired of marrying off their daughters to the highest bidder and determined to finally make marriage fair, the women who form the country of Koyanagar have instituted a series of tests so that every boy has the chance to win a wife.

Sudasa, though, doesn't want to be a wife, and Kiran, a boy forced to compete in the test to become her husband, has other plans as well. As the tests advance, Sudasa and Kiran thwart each other at every turn until they slowly realize that they just might want the same thing.

This beautiful, unique novel is told from alternating points of view-Sudasa's in verse and Kiran's in prose-allowing readers to experience both characters' pain and their brave struggle for hope.

Amazon | iBooks | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

 About Holly Bodger:


HOLLY BODGER has a BA in English Literature and has spent her entire career in publishing. She is an active member of RWA and is a 2013 Golden Heart finalist in the Young Adult category. She lives in Ottawa, Canada.

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Giveaway

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The Wrath & The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh Release Day Blitz!!!

Hello there guys!!

I am so excited that THE WRATH AND THE DAWN by Renée Ahdieh releases today and that I get to share the news, along with a special introduction from Renée herself!

If you haven’t yet heard about this wonderful book (what rock have you been living under?!?) by author Renée Ahdieh, be sure to check out all the details below.

This blitz also includes a giveaway for a signed copies of the book and some beautiful book inspired scarves, courtesy of Renée, Penguin Teen, and Rockstar Book Tours. So if you’d like a chance to win, enter in the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post.

A letter from Renée Ahdieh.

There are not enough words to express how thrilled I am to share THE WRATH AND THE DAWN
with you! From the moment I typed the first word, I felt connected to Shahrzad and her world in a way that carried me through the long process of publication to where we are today. 


Everything about this process has been a dream come true, and hope you love my book half as much as I enjoyed writing it. In celebration of release day, I'll be giving away a signed, first edition hardcover of the book, as well as a gorgeous scarf. . . or two!


Always remember to make it a story worthy of you!

Renée

About The Book:

THE WRATH & THE DAWN
by Renée Ahdieh

Pub. Date: May 12, 2015

Publisher: Putnam Juvenile

Pages: 388

A sumptuous and epically told love story inspired by A Thousand and One Nights

Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old
Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi's wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend.

She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all. 

 Amazon | Barnes&Noble | iBooks | Goodreads

About Renée:

Renée lives in North Carolina (Go Heels!) with her husband Victor and their dog Mushu. Her YA fantasy novel, THE WRATH AND THE DAWN, will be published on May 12th, 2015. In her spare time, she likes to cook, dance salsa, and wreak havoc on the lives of her characters.

She’s also a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, as well as an active member of theScience Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America
.

WEBSITE| TWITTER | FACEBOOK | GOODREADS | TUMBLR  |PINTEREST | INSTAGRAM

Giveaway

3 winners will receive a hardcover of THE WRATH AND THE DAWN and a beautiful book inspired scarf (IMAGES BELOW)! US Only.

Ends on May 22^nd at Midnight EST!

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Interview with Holly Bodger author of 5 to 1!!!

Hello guys!!

The blog is currently on hiatus, but I still have a few posts scheduled here and there because no matter how busy, crazy, crazy busy or totally exhausted that I might be this month with the paperwork, the cleaning, the furniture buying & assembling and the move... I want and NEED to share some things with you all!!

And one of the things that I REALLY NEED to share with you is my love for 5 to 1 and its author, Holly Bodger! I do hope to get to meet her at BEA with some luck! She was fantastic on assuring I got an ARC from NG and she was so nice to agree on coming over here for an interview!

Welcome and thank you so much for visiting my blog, Holly! Feel free to grab a cupcake and sit anywhere except where the two mini-dragons are!





Mmmm, cake.

- First off, I want to start asking you how did you end up writing a dystopian novel set in the Indian subcontinent? We don't get as much fiction written about India by a non-Indian author and even less a dystopian!

The story was inspired by a journal article I read about the effects of son preference and gender selection in countries such as India and China. Once I started to think about what is going to happen in these countries in the future, I couldn’t get it out of my head. I initially put the idea aside because I didn’t think the world needed another dystopian novel (even though I don’t really consider this book dystopian but I knew others would). When I realized I would not get the idea out of my head until I wrote it, I decided to just go for it. The rest is history!


- As someone that has been part of an Indian family for a few years and spent time in India and living the society from the inside, I love all the lil touches that make the book so realistic, like the different names for the family members and the like, how much reseach did you do? Anything very interesting or curious that you learnt but didn't end up using?

I did an insane amount of research and probably used only 5% of it in the book. I would have loved to go on and on about all the beauty and the ugly of India, but I needed to stay true to what Sudasa and Kiran would notice and so I had to leave a lot of that out. I also had to keep reminding myself that this Koyanagar had separated from India because they wanted to fix things, and so it would not have made sense for them to keep all the laws and customs of India.


- I love how your story was told in dual POV and how we get to see the two sides of the story and how the main characters see each other. Was that always part of the plan for the story or did it happen later as you were writing or editing? If so, who was the sole POV you started with?
I wrote the book entirely as verse from Sudasa’s point of view first. It was only when I was told that something was missing that I realized I needed to add Kiran, too. At the time, it had never occurred to me to write a half-verse, half-prose book, but now that I’ve done it, I can’t imagine it any way else!

- Your descriptions of Indian food and clothes and jewelry are fantastic! Have you worn a saree yet or do plan to? Your favourite Indian food? I do hope you'll get to try cheese naan soon!

I have not yet worn a sari, although I have a friend who says she’s going to put me in one soon! I do own a salwar kameez, a kurta, several dupattas, several pairs of juttis, and tons of Indian jewellery. I eat curry probably once a week (more often after Christmas and Thanksgiving since I love TURKEY CURRY!) My lack of cheese naan really deserves some kind of attention from a national foundation. J But don’t worry, I am going to be in New York several times this summer and I’m sure I’ll find it there!


- I love how your book uses a dystopian setting to explore big and important issues as feminism and gender equality. It seems like this world started as a way to protect the women from the horrible treatment that girls still get to this day in India, but those good intentions go awry pretty soon and oppression of the other gender is not a better option. I wonder how did you decide to turn the tables to make us see how wrong gender inequality is?

I did this for two reasons. The first was because the reality of gender selection is that countries such as India and China will soon find themselves without enough girls of marriageable age. As of 2011, India had 7 million more boys than girls under the age of 6. Fifteen years from now, that means there will be 7 million boys who can’t find a wife or partner. The girls who marry will have their pick of boys which is why I imagined them all ending up with the rich ones, thus gaining more riches and power for themselves.

The second reason I did this was because I felt like there were already enough people yelling about gender inequality from the rooftops and yet their words have been falling on deaf ears. I wanted to show the situation in a different way; in a way that shows that this will hurt boys too. That is the real crux of the situation: gender equality helps everyone while gender inequality hurts everyone.


- I'm a big fan of mehendi/mendhi and when I saw your cover I was in insta-love! How was the process of the cover? Were you involved at all or was it a stunning surprise for you too? Is there a particular meaning on the fishes drawn in the palms?

I am going to be interviewing my cover designer as part of my book launch blog tour and plan to ask her these same questions. I really had no idea what to expect and was extremely surprised when I saw the first comp of the cover. I’m guessing that she used the fish because of Kiran’s poem at the end, although I like to imagine that she knew I was a Pisces and wanted to incorporate that. J

- The ending of the book was quite open and although I'm sure it could stay as a standalone, I must confess to hope and wish for a sequel to see what else is there in this world! Might we be getting lucky? If so, will it be a proper sequel, a companion novel?

I would love to publish a sequel to this book. I always imagined it as a two-parter: one part in Sudasa’s world and the other in Kiran’s. I have also been thinking about the idea of a companion, however those thoughts are mostly still inside my head!


Thank you so very much for all your answers, Holly! Be sure to check your pockets and bag so neither dragons or sheep try to smuggle out! Take another cupcake for the way!

Mmmm, cake. You know the way to a girl’s heart!

 5 TO 1 by Holly Badger

Publishing date: May 12th 2015
Knof Books for Young Readers

In the year 2054, after decades of gender selection, India now has a ratio of five boys for every girl, making women an incredibly valuable commodity. Tired of marrying off their daughters to the highest bidder and determined to finally make marriage fair, the women who form the country of Koyanagar have instituted a series of tests so that every boy has the chance to win a wife.

Sudasa, though, doesn't want to be a wife, and Kiran, a boy forced to compete in the test to become her husband, has other plans as well. As the tests advance, Sudasa and Kiran thwart each other at every turn until they slowly realize that they just might want the same thing.

This beautiful, unique novel is told from alternating points of view-Sudasa's in verse and Kiran's in prose-allowing readers to experience both characters' pain and their brave struggle for hope.

 About Holly Bodger:




HOLLY BODGER has a BA in English Literature and has spent her entire career in publishing. She is an active member of RWA and is a 2013 Golden Heart finalist in the Young Adult category. She lives in Ottawa, Canada.

Cover Reveal: Nightmare Charade by Mindee Arnett!!

Hello there guys!!

Welcome to the “official” cover reveal of The Nightmare Charade, the final installment of the Arkwell Academy series by Mindee Arnett from Tor Teen. The book is out August 4th, but below is your chance to win an advanced copy. So scroll down to see the cover and learn a little bit about the book (please note the cover is not quite final but almost).


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The Nightmare Charade by Mindee Arnett

It’s her junior year at Arkwell Academy and Dusty Everhart just wants to be alone with her boyfriend, Eli Booker. But fate is literally keeping them apart. See, Dusty is a Nightmare, who can enter Eli’s dreams to find clues to the future, but an ancient curse predicts that any romance between them is doomed to end in tragedy. Dusty and Eli are willing to take that risk, but the authorities disagree—and have assigned a chaperone to make sure their relationship is strictly platonic.
As if that’s not bad enough, they’ve been recruited by the Department of Intelligence for Magickind Secrecy (D.I.M.S.) to use their dream-seer bond to help recover the most powerful object of black magic known to magickind. The Animus Mortem can raise the dead by stealing the souls of the living… which makes tracking it down a genuine matter of life and death. 

To make matters worse, one of Dusty’s friends is accused of murder, and is counting on her to clear his name.
Dusty has too many dreams, too many commitments, and too many people looking over her shoulder, but a Nightmare seldom plays by the rules. Curse or no curse, chaperone or not, she has to go deep into Eli’s dreams if she’s going to find the truth—and discover a way for them to truly be together at last!

A message from Mindee herself!:

Hello! And thanks for coming to my “official” cover reveal. By that I mean, the cover has been leaked for months now, but we’re not going to let that stop us from celebrating! So firstly, can I just say how much I love this one? I’ve been lucky in all my covers for the Arkwell Academy series, but I adore this color so much. We almost made book 2 this color, but it worked out so much better for this one. Thanks so much to the artist Kate Forester and to my brilliant editor, Whitney Ross.

So what exactly are we looking at here with the strange boat and river scene? Well, if you guessed “dream sequence” then you’re right. Charade starts off two months after the end of The Nightmare Dilemma. Dusty has just returned from a summer-long tour of Europe with her mother, and she’s eager to reconnect with Eli. But of course their reunion doesn’t go as
planned when they are interrupted by a magickind special agent who has come to recruit them for a special—and dangerous—task.

What else can you expect? Well, there’s kissing, and magic, old enemies and new, and kissing, and scary dreams, and good friends, and action, oh and more kissing. Sadly, there are also a few casualties as well. This really is the end of the story for Dusty and Eli, but I hope you enjoy the ride!


Guys, I don't know about you, but I'm super excited to finally get my hands on this one, even more after that cruel ending for book 2 and also a lil sad because we'll be saying goodbye to Dusty and Eli!

Giveaway

-Closes midnight EST on May 13, 2015

-Open internationally

-2 signed advanced readers copies of The Nightmare Charade

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Chantress Fury by Amy Butler Greenfield Blog Tour: Review & Giveaway!!

Hello guys!! Welcome to the blog tour for Chantress Fury by Amy Butler Greenfield, the final book in the Chantress Trilogy!

Chantress Fury (Chantress Trilogy #3)
by Amy Butler Greenfield

288 pages
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Release Date: May 19th, 2015
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Rate: 4 stars

Synopsis:

The sea is coming. We are coming. And we will drown you all.

With a song, Lucy can control the wind and the water; she can bring castles and kingdoms to their feet. Since Lucy mastered her powers, King Henry has kept her close as he’s rebuilt England. She’s his best ally—and his workhorse. And now he’s called her to investigate attempted murder: His men claim they were almost killed on the Thames…by a mermaid. All Lucy can glean from the creature they’ve captured is a warning: The sea is coming. We are coming. And we will drown you all.

And then the floods begin. Swaths of London are submerged as the people scramble to defend themselves against the water—and the monsters—that are flooding their streets. As mistrust of Lucy's magic grows, the king relies on Nat, Lucy's great love, to guide them through the storm. But Nat is cold and distant to Lucy. He swore his love only a year before, and now he calls her “stranger.”

Lucy is determined to defeat this powerful new magic alone if she must. But then she hears an eerie song within the water…can it mean that she’s not the last Chantress after all?

Sweepingly romantic and crackling with magic, Chantress Fury triumphantly concludes the powerful Chantress trilogy.

After the rather heartbreakingly emotional ending of Chantress Alchemy, I was so very happy to have an ARC of Chantress Fury at hand to see what was in store next! As this one is the last book in the trilogy, you might expect spoilers for the previous books happenings, so this is your warning to keep reading at your own discretion!

The beginning of the book threw me off a lil bit, because a year has passed since the ending of Chantress Alchemy, and Lucy and Nat have been apart during that time, both of them doing the King's work and both of them avoiding being at the same time at Court.

It might be because of my personal situation but I could relate so very well with the feeling of loneliness that Lucy carried for most of the book, no matter what no one can carry your pain for you, even if your friends would want to be there to share it. It is also true that Lucy had spent a year working herself to exhaustion with her own company of soldiers and not having someone to confide in, not even Norrie and even less Sybil, since she's now Queen and therefore not so free with her time herself.

Then the one time Nat and Lucy will be at Court at the same time, something extremely unexpected happens and London is under attack by magic, and Lucy finds herself unable to fight back properly. Mermaids have appeared in the Thames and are threatening with drowning London and the world. This really was a very unexpected twist, but one that lead us to learn so much more about the world of the Chantresses and their past, piecing together old legends and that in the end gaves us all the answers we might have wanted!

The way the world building and the plot was woven together in this book was fantasic and if you add all the character growth for Lucy, it's remarkable how well everything flow! From the threats and the mistrust the new magic brings once again against Lucy, to the way she has to deal with the change in her relationship with Nat and how she has to face the revelations about her nature and her past and her heritage. And how the way it all makes her grow as a character and that moves the plot forward, I really couldn't put this one down!

The mix of accurate historical feel with the fantasy elements is done superbly well! The descriptions of London, the Court, the intrigues and the ambiance of the book feels very genuine, and somehow makes even more plausible all the fantasy elements woven! In that time magic & science were pretty much one and the same, not so easy to distinguish, so the magic elements feel like they really belong.

I really wasn't expecting so many of the revelations about Chantresses and their history and Wild Magic and some of the surprises & shocks that Lucy had to deal with, but they were so well done that they never felt random or thrown in without rhyme or reason. Prepare your heart because there is plenty of heartbreak to come!

Tightly woven plot, amazing world building and very well developed characters, even the secondary ones, makes for a fantastic final installment for this trilogy! Very much deserved 4 stars!

Follow the Chantress Fury by Amy Butler Greenfield Blog Tour and don't miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.

Amy Butler Greenfield was a grad student in history when she gave into temptation and became a writer. Since then, she has become an award-winning author.

Amy grew up in the Adirondack Mountains and later studied history at Williams College, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Oxford. She now lives with her family in England, where she writes, bakes double-dark-chocolate cake, and plots mischief.

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Saturday Pages: Mini-reviews for Rogue & Magonia!!

Hello there guys!

Happy Saturday! After today, the hiatus officially starts on my blog... I'll still have some post here and there, but I'll spend less time checking posts or comments, because I really need a bit of a breather and I'm gonna have other demands of my time pretty soon with everything involving the apartment.

I'm having a pair of mini-reviews for two books for this week's Saturday Pages, one an awaited sequel, the other a new book from a new-to-me author, both counting towards my 2015 releases category for the 105 Challenge!

Rogue by Julie Kagawa

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Julie Kagawa is one of my auto-buy authors, because I've loved everything I've read by her and Talon was no different last year, it wasn't exactly what I expected but it was a great book nonetheless. When I got approved on NetGalley to read Rogue early I was extremely excited.

I'm not gonna say I was terribly disappointed, but I must confess to not be as thrilled with the book as I expected. It was a book full of action, with Ember on the run with Riley, full on rogue, and rescuing Garret and running from Talon and the Order of St George both from then on.

I felt like there was a lot of action, a lot of running and fighting but we really aren't getting to many places at all. Talon want Ember back and we continue to perceive that there's a lot more behind the why but no idea why, we know Talon is hiding something big and we only get an answer that leads to more questions by the very end. And we still don't discover anything more about the past of Talon & St George and their battles.

And my biggest issue with this book is probably Riley, I think that I like him as a dragon and head of the rogue operation well enough, and I liked getting his backstory of when he left Talon, although I felt it didn't give us all that much information, but when it comes to him and Ember? I just cannot stand him.

So there comes my big issue, I don't tend to like love triangles, and although I still understand this one, two guys, one for each side of Ember, the human and the dragon... I cannot stand Riley as a love interest, I'm Team Garret and I am very much bothered with how Riley acts.

Ember is confused from her own feelings and the way her dragon reacts, but I'm still not sure how that dichotomy works, but I guess we might get more explanation for that in the next and final book, or so I hope! She is still hoping that her twin will choose her instead of Talon despite the initial betrayal, and she proves a bit too naive and not as good a fighter as you'd have expected after her training.

All in all, a good enough book, but I wanted more... more answers and less triangly! Oh well, 3 stars to this one. I do hope to get moooore answers on the final book!

*EDIT* There will be 5 books total, so who knows when we'll get answers!!




Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


What a fascinating book! I loved the pacing and the writing and although I had a few issues with Aza at the very start, I grew to love her dearly!

I wasn't 100% sure I'd like Aza because somehow her snark and way to deal with her illness seemed a bit odd to me at first, but very soon I saw the way she tried to face every day, and how she tried to define herself, not only as the girl with the death expectance and the freak insides. We see her with her family and with Jason, and I fell in love with the lot!

I really enjoyed having their alternating POVs, both Aza's and Jason's, since we went to know them both better from each other's perspective in a way we wouldn't if we only saw each other as they see themselves, and it also completed the events happening.

The book has a big feeling of contemporary story at first, and then moves into the fantasy realm without a hitch, making us wonder too about the possibilities of ships in the sky! I was rather annoyed at the insistence of the Magonians for Aza to believe them and to simply leave everything behind and to adapt quickly to their expectations, when all she knew was the human life for fifteen years! I really liked that Aza was so realistically thrown for a loop and tried to adapt while still feeling out of kilter.

The worldbuilding on the ships and Magonia and was fascinating, as we learn details little by little along with Aza, and I feel like there is more to discover in hopefully a sequel, because although we get a wrap up on the plot ARC that was central to this book, there is plenty to expect to come up for a sequel for sure!

A word of warning, there might be some hints of a somewhat love triangle, but not. Just a few vibes here and there, all justified for reasons I won't discuss because spoilers, but it never went full love triangle.

It was a very compelling read that I couldn't put down and that I thoroughly enjoyed! A wonderful 2015 that I highly recommend! Well deserved 4 stars for this one!



View all my reviews

Friday Reads: Chantress Alchemy by Amy Butler Greenfield!!

Hey again guys!

I have another review ready for this week's Friday Reads and this one also counts towards my 105 Challenge as part of the books from the TBR pile category!

Chantress Alchemy by Amy Butler Greenfield

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I read Chantress last year as one of my Alyssa Recommends and enjoyed it well enough, then it took me a lil while to get this book and it's been sitting in the TBR pile for quite some time, but finally I started it a few days ago, and although it didn't grab me instantly and I had to put it aside to finish some other books, once I got back to it, I read it in one sitting!

I had some issues with Lucy at first because she was such a mix of unsure and reckless at the same time, that she was a bit frustrating! I began to grow more fond of Lucy when she started to be cautious about who to trust but still tried to play it wisely enough to get information to keep herself safe.

As the title clearly illustrates, there is alchemy involved in this book, and Lucy has to deal with feeling like she has enemies coming from all sides and very lil ways to defend herself if any other than her wits.

We meet some new characters, like Gabriel and Sybil that keep us guessing about them being friends or foes and their motivations, and Sybil in particular made me wish time and again that she would really be an ally and not another antagonistic female character. We also meet old characters, both foes and allies and there comes a point where even the friends aren't exactly as friendly, and the foes... the foes get even more frightening that ever before! I so hated Wexham with a passion!

I loved how Amy managed to be historically faithful with the position of women in the society in her books but also how she managed to give some power back to them and ways to navigate a would where they're at a disadvantage. And I loved that she made Lucy stubborn enough to not bow to the oppresion but deal with it very cleverly.

Nat and Lucy's relationship went through a lot of hardship on this book, even if they still worked great together and shared fantastic chemistry, but things do end in a very painful way for both of them! But it was done so very well and very true to character that I just felt it made sense, even if it was a very painful ending to read!

This book was both a fantastic sequel and a book that can stand on its own with its own plot that gets resolved and finished, although there are plenty of threads left unresolved (like Lucy +Nat!!) to make us want to grab the final book sooner than later! Very well deserved 3.5 to 4 stars for this one!



View all my reviews

Friday Reads: A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle!!

Hello there guys!

I shall be putting the blog on hiatus after this weekend, although there will still be some scheduled posts since I had some blog tours and interviews and posts that I agreed to do and I've already worked on them and have them ready so now I can stop worrying about my blog and focus only on worrying about my apartment, getting the damned keys already and pack for BEA!

Today, I have a late review to start this Friday Reads, because I'm talking about April's choice for The Midnight Garden's Classic MG & YA challenge! I was a bit late to start reading it because April truly got away from me!

A Ring of Endless Light: The Austin Family Chronicles, Book 4 by Madeleine L'Engle

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I finished reading this one on my last night shift at work and holy hell, was that a bad choice... If you’re wondering why it was a bad choice for me to read this one at work? Well, I was feeling pretty down with all the death and with Vicky’s reaction to it all and did I mention all the death and accidents? A real bummer to go and try to smile at my patients while I wake them at 6 am for meds and blood tests.

Well, I give this one 4 stars, even if I have some serious issues with some parts of the book, but Vicky being a rather wonderful almost 16 year old girl, that felt realistic and rather sensible even being a dreamer and poet and one that didn’t feel like she had to do or give in or feel guilty-ed (not a word, I know, forgive me, I slept lil today!) into doing what any of the boys would want her to do, from Zachary pushing her (for goodness sake, HE’S BLOODY 20!?!), to Leo wanting to be more than she wanted and Vicky being very clear that she just wanted to be friends, and Adam… Adam pushing her away and also needing her and Vicky being mature enough to know she what she wanted but also respecting the boundaries as long as she was treated as someone mature enough to talk to and not a child to be condescending. I was very glad to see that Vicky was more into thinking than simply swooning…

But what really made me give this book the 4 stars was the dolphins! All the dolphin interactions, the swimming, the mind-melding/telepathy with them, Norberta, Basil, baby dolphin… and everything about them really! I adore every interaction, every way in which dolphins are shown as interesting and intelligent creatures with perhaps a different intelligence & understanding from ours. I just couldn’t help but hum “So long and thanks for all the fish” sometimes in my head, and my Hitchhikers fangirl was squaling a bit at all the dolphin-ness. I need to go swimming with dolphins somehow, it’s always been on the bucket list, but boy have I been reminded of HOW MUCH I WANT TO!!

The dolphins also bring me to another favourite part of the book, because I loved how characters discuss and talk about why’s, how’s and science and philosophy and how to figure out your questions about life, the universe and everything (sorry, had to do it, again) and how to figure out yourself. Vicky’s demands of being treated like mature enough would have been rather more annoying if her main demand was caused because she wanted to be treated as someone that can talk about complex issues and will bother to learn and understand and be open enough to new ideas, not just as “someone old enough to kiss” which unfortunately is more the focus on more recent YA’s.

I really liked the Austins, even if I felt some of the Bible talk and quoting and discussions about God felt a lil preachy at times for me, but never too much to make me want to stop reading, only a bit of frowning now and then. And they were what I call the good kind of Christians, if you allow me to use that qualifier. They are kind, inclusive, eager to talk and learn and to help people and not think they are better than others or have all the answers. A bit preachy or not, they’re a family I probably wouldn’t mind spending time with, if I can duck having St Agustin quoted at me! ;)

Going back to the three boys… if this would have been another book I would have totally said “hell no!” but it was done so very well! More in a way of exploring friendships and attraction and relationships, and not simple indecision back and forth of declarations of love. Vicky is clear with them all and the boys are more or less clear too. And quite frankly, the only one actively trying to woo her and taking her on dates is Zachary, since Leo and her seem to be hanging out as friends mostly, even if he tries to push the boundaries and Vicky is clear and upfront with him all the time. And Adam… well, he’s the one with the most genuine connection and that spend more time with Vicky talking and interacting with the least “date” scenario, and he ends up being the best option, even with the age difference. I was shocked and rather appalled when Zachary was revealed to be 20!! O_o I felt bad about Zachary but I was bothered that he was made such a “broken bad boy” cliché. And that the non-Christian option was represented so cartoony, and with the most shallow characters, like Zachary and his dad.

And last but clearly not least given the importance and how overwhelmingly present the theme was all over the book: death. It made me wonder if the author had suffered some loss recently when she was writing? Because sometimes it felt like a way for her to go through the stages of grief and how to get yourself together! I feel like the illness and clearly upcoming death of Grandfather and the dolphin baby would have been rather enough, but there’s so much of it! Yes, I know quite well that life can suck like that sometimes, but oh boy! The way Grandfather’s illness progression and treatment and deterioration and how that affects the family as a whole and each one of the differently was done brilliantly, and that would have been more than message enough, I feel. Some of the added deaths felt a bit like kicking us in the gut when we were already down, you know? I am someone used to death surrounding her and it took me a while to kick the gloominess after finishing the book!

Still, this is a very recommended book for teens to try and make them stop and think about life, and for adults too, because we all might need a reminder now and then. And dolphins make everything better!



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