Review: Luminaire by Ciye Cho

Luminaire by Ciye Cho
Series: Florence Waverly #2
Published: November 28th 2012
Source: Author
Rating:

Being the only human in a world of merfolk... isn't easy. Florence Waverley chose to stay in Niemela, but things have gone awry. Secrets have risen and the prince she cares about has pulled away. All the while, dark dreams warn her of a tragedy that only she can stop. But in order to save the merman she loves, Florence will have to enter the Life Path tournament: a brutal test of fear and madness.

The tournament is a rite of passage--a maze where young mermaids and mermen battle to find their purpose. It is also a place where Florence will face grave danger: mermaids with evil magic, tunnels filled with sea fire, and guardians who wish to use her as a pawn in their secret plans. But will Florence be strong enough to survive the tournament... or will she perish inside it?

Everything hangs in the balance: her life, her world, and her love.

After posting the review for the first installment of this series, Florence, I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from Mr. Cho, offering his second book in the series for review. Of course I was happy to do so. I was unable to get to the book for a few weeks but finally, I picked up my kindle and started reading it. WOW. Amazing. It is absolutely incredible to see the evolution of an author, and how their writing changes and matures. Some authors start off badly and stay that way. Some start off excellently and never manage to achieve that again. And some just keep doing better. Ciye Cho keeps doing better.

The first installment had it’s kinks and issues, but merited the 4 armchairs I gave it. After reading this one, I’m tempted to change my rating to three armchairs, and give this one 4, just so that the improvement is more obvious.

There is less of a focus on the world-building details given that it has already been established in book one, instead, we get to focus more on the characters; Florence’s adjustments to her new life, and the fact that not all is what it seems. The first book works hard to establish the Reader’s belief in a harmonious and peaceful society where every creature has its place and its job. The second book deconstructs that. Not only is this a part of the plot, but you see in the new mers that Florence meets that not everybody is that simple. The princess mer is not the only one with difficulty choosing a life path. Wynn wants more than one life path and Marilenna wants to excel at them all before she settles for one.

The plot of the book was refreshing. It made use of a different “bad guy” with different ambitions and intentions. Because it does this, it avoids that “middle book” slump where the middle of a series isn’t as developed as the beginning and end. Instead, Cho used Luminaire to drive forward characterization, demonstrate how anxious Niemela is getting, and set up the scene at the end so that the third book ties back to the first.

There were a few inconsistencies and plot holes, but overall, this book was a huge improvement and highly entertaining, and I can only expect more of the same at this point for book three.

Bout of Books Wrap-up

I'm happy to report that I did accomplish my main goal for the Bout of Books read-a-thon, which was to read 4 books!

Books I read:

• Liberty by Laurie Ann Cechini
• The Runaway King by Jennifer Nielsen
• The Rules for Disappearing by Ashley Elston
• The Summer I Became a Nerd by Leah Rae Miller

But it was a crazy week, so I didn't really accomplish my other goals of participating in a twitter chat or any of the challenges. That's one thing I hope to change when the next Bout of Books rolls around!

Overall, I had a great time, and I can't wait to repeat the experience. :)

Review: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
Series: The Fifth Wave #1
Published: May 7th 2013
Source: Bought
Rating:

Buy @ Amazon ▪ The Book Depository

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

Not long ago, I put Rick Yancey on a list of top ten authors I’d auto-buy. Anything he publishes, I’m willing to give it a try, and with The 5th Wave, I had absolutely no qualms about putting it at the top of my tbr list. I don’t think I’ve read any books about the alien apocalypse before, so I was really excited about Cassie’s story.

I’m happy to report that The 5th Wave lived up to all of my expectations and surpassed them. With so much hype built up prior to its release, it wouldn’t be a surprise if such overwhelming praise was an exaggeration, but no, it’s all very accurate. The 5th Wave is easily the next big thing. With a compelling story and incredibly strong characters, there’s so much to love about it!

First of all, let’s talk about Cassie. She is a badass, period. Cassie has been through an incredible amount of shit and made it through, for better or worse. Rather than having grand ideas of saving the world, Cassie just wants to survive. Why? Because she made a promise. She promised her little brother Sammy that she would find him, and she intends on keeping it.

Her story is interwoven with another narrator, Zombie, who is being trained as the next generation soldier to find the aliens disguised as humans. I found his storyline equally compelling, especially once his identity was revealed. It really shows the far reaching effects of the invasion, and it’s interesting because it gives the story a different angle.

My only major qualm with The 5th Wave was the romance. I understand that this YA, but I felt that Cassie’s romance with Evan was too rushed. Evan is a mysterious, super helpful character, but I won’t say much about him because I did think that his development was interesting. However, it felt superficial, especially when it came to his feelings for Cassie. I appreciated the angle but wished it had happened more organically? Although I guess if the world has basically ended and I’d spent months on my own, I would also be a little starved for human contact/affection. I don’t blame Cassie, and I think she handled it really well?

It definitely didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the book, which I read in a day and a half basically. I did lose sleep over it, but it was so worth it because I just couldn’t put it down. Despite the slight lull on Cassie’s side as she heals from her injuries, the pace is relentless with Zombie, and Yancey can right some excellent action scenes. All the reveals are so fantastic! Especially that of the anticipated/dreaded fifth wave, which is awful and chilling.

It’s clear that Yancey put a lot of thought and attention to detail in writing The 5th Wave. This is the best and worst kind of alien invasion story because it makes for a great story and incredible nightmare fodder. Be sure to pick up a copy from your local library or bookstore because this is one apocalypse you won’t want to miss.

Review: Ephemeral by Addison Moore

Ephemeral by Addison Moore
Series: The Countenance #1
Published: September 12 2012
Source: Borrowed
Rating:

Buy @ Indie Bound Bookstores

The last thing Laken Stewart remembers is the oncoming car, then bursting through the windshield.

Two months dissolve without her knowledge and she finds herself in unfamiliar surroundings with strangers who not only profess to know her but insist she’s someone else entirely.

Laken discovers her long dead boyfriend, Wesley, has been thrown into this alternate world as well. He is quick to inform her she suffered a horrible fall and that her memory hasn’t fully returned. According to Wesley the other life she had—her name, her family, they were simply a side effect of her brain trauma.

In her quest for answers she meets Cooper Flanders, the son of her psychiatrist who readily believes every word she says.

Laken Stewart knows she died on that hot July afternoon, but now she’s alive—or is she?

I’m not normally into books with the “is she dead or alive?” trope. I’m not sure why…I know some books have been really well done, but something about them doesn’t really reel me in. Maybe it’s the fact that after they’re dead, they usually discover that everything they held near and dear was not as it seemed. Or maybe that their afterlife problems tend to be as trivial as the ones they had when they were alive. However, my roommate urged me to read this book and the high ratings on goodreads helped persuade me, so I decided to give it a shot.

What I love about the book is how it pokes fun at the “rich kid pretentious names” all it’s characters seem to have. I love that it feels like it’s a book within a book because this entire time the characters keep making references to what is supposed to happen and who was assigned to be a friend, etc. I love Laken’s loyalty to her first love, despite things not being what they seemed. I love her ability to recognize that she had turned her brother into a hero figure he never was after his death, and acknowledging that he wasn’t so awesome in real life as she liked to think he was. I like how despite her attraction and feelings for another boy, she insists on being loyal to her first love despite all the evidence being stacked against him, she believes that the Wes she remembers is in there somewhere.

But I didn’t give this book three armchairs because of what I liked about it. I gave it three armchairs because what I didn’t like outweighed the good.

It is written in first person, which is not usually something that my attention is drawn to unless I purposefully check or something makes it stand out to me. In this case, it did not make sense to me that the first person narrative would be so descriptive about her surroundings. Particularly in situations where she would not normally have the time or attention to spare on such details, particularly in light of everything else that is going on. I almost didn’t get past the first few pages of the book, where Laken is running for her life through a forest and she is describing her surroundings in painstaking detail. I’ve never had to run for my life before but I’d imagine that if I did, I would not have time to describe everything around me in as many of the five senses as possible. This is a recurring theme throughout the book.

Another problem is her inability to be discreet. She is constantly having to be told to not tell everybody about everything she doesn’t understand. Yet she continuously does so. On the one hand, I understand that being caught in a world with people you know but seem to be completely different (or used to be dead) is mind-boggling. But given the way that everybody keeps acting like this is normal, by constantly freaking out over everything she is in danger of being institutionalized for extreme delusions and possibly a nervous breakdown. Reading about her constantly proving her inability to keep her mouth shut was completely against my survival instinct and made me feel highly uncomfortable to read those scenes, knowing that she was just digging the hole deeper for herself.

This may just be a part of the character’s personality and I know not everybody has to like that, but seriously; some survival instincts would be nice.

The book has potential, but overall, the unnecessary complexity of a first person narrative, among other things, kept me from fully enjoying the book.

Waiting on Wednesday (21): The Coldest Girl in Cold Town by Holly Black

This is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine.

The Coldest Girl in Cold Town by Holly Black
 To be published September 17th 2013

Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown’s gates, you can never leave.

One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself.

The minute I heard about this book, it made it onto my tbr list. Why? It's a vampire story by the amazing Holly Black. What other explanation do I need to give? Also, that cover is gorgeous. I am super excited for this title, and I can't wait to get my hands on it!