I asked recently if you guys would be interested in reviews of adult books because I was reading a really good trilogy by Nora Roberts, and the response was awesome. Seriously, you guys rock. :) Anyways, I've done a few reviews of adult books before, but it's not a regular thing and I don't usually review... you know, romance novels because I figure most of you are more YA fans and not interested in that kind of thing, but... diversity is always good, right? (You can tell I'm a bit nervous about this, I'm babbling a bit.)
This is more of a mini-review of the whole trilogy than a review review, sort of to test the waters. And now I'm going to quit rambling and get to it! Key trilogy by Nora Roberts
(Summary/teaser thing of trilogy from publisher's website, summary/teasers of individual books from inside cover of book.)
Nora Roberts invites you to unlock your dreams... Three women. Three keys. Each has 28 days to find her way through a dangerous quest. Nora Roberts brings us a unique series with a twist—each novel is written in real time, and the novels will be published in consecutive months.
Key of Light
Malory has the soul of an artist and an eye for beauty. She must find the Key of Light - on the first of three dangerous quests that could fulfill her destiny... or forever destroy her life.
Key of Knowledge
Dana has always found her greatest passion in books. She must search for the Key of Knowledge - on the second of three dangerous quests that leads her to find the truth hidden among deception and lies... or succumb to her worst nightmare.
Key of Valor
Zoe is about to discover her true courageous spirit. She must find the Key of Valor - on the last of three dangerous quests that will force her to confront her darkest fears... or suffer immeasurable loss.
Review:
What I thought of the plot: I thought it was a very interesting plot. It's not a super-unique plot, but the way it was handled, I never once thought "Oh, this is so much like this book or that book". In all fairness, it was a bit predictable, but that wasn't a bad thing at all. It didn't drag and wasn't slow, you just had a fair idea what was going to happen.
What I thought of the characters:
They were so great. They were all unique, interesting, funny and so, so good. As each book progressed, Malory, Dana, and Zoe each developed strong, unique voices (even though the books were in third person, which is a talent) so you could finish one book and immediately start the next book without getting confused about who was telling the story.
My favourite character was a giant black dog named Moe, owned by Malory's love interest (they are romance novels, after all) Flynn. This excerpt is from the first time Flynn and Malory meet and Moe knocks Malory down hard. She crouches down to pick up the stuff that scattered when she hit the sidewalk.
"I'll get this stuff." He crouched beside her, then stabbed a finger at the dog who was trying to inch his way toward them with the same stealth as an elephant tiptoeing across the African plain. "Stay, or there's no treat for you."
Gotta love that dog. He's such a sweetie and absolutely hilarious throughout all three books.
PG-13 stuff:
Nora Roberts' writing, in my experience and opinion, is very mild when it comes to sex. Personally I've read more graphic stuff in YA books where it's treated as not a big deal, which I find far more inappropriate than between two responsible, consenting adults, but that's a rant for another day. My point before I got distracted was that it wasn't graphic or R-rated or anything, so it's a good step up for YA fantasy or romance fans looking for adult books to try.
Conclusion:
I decided not to assign a rating to the series because it'd be too much of a blanket rating. Let's just say it's a really good series with very realistic characters and a great story and I'd recommend it to anyone who's interested in the slightest by this review. One quite nice thing is that the covers are more elegant than anything and don't have any pictures you wouldn't want your parents seeing you with, which can be really embarrassing, honestly. It's nice that with this trilogy, you're not thrown off a good series by a tacky cover, because that would be very much a shame.
Okay, well, that's it for me. What do you guys think? Peace and cookies, Laina
I'm doing this a bit early because I'm tired and I want to sleep early tonight and late tomorrow morning, and I probably won't feel like it tomorrow, and I'm too lazy to schedule it.
Anyways, In My Mailbox is the creation of The Story Siren, who was inspired by Alea.
The boughten: None.
The borrowed: None, I didn't go to the library this week.
The received:
Sleepaway Girls by Jen Calonita
When Sam's best friend gets her first boyfriend, she's not ready to spend the summer listening to the two of them call each other "pookie." Sick of being a third wheel, Sam applies to be a counselor-in-training at Whispering Pines camp in the New York Catskills. But what she doesn't realize is that it's not going to be all Kumbaya sing-alongs and gooey s'mores. If Ashley, the alpha queen of Whispering Pines, doesn't ruin Sam's summer, then her raging crush on the surfer-blond and flirtatious Hunter just might. At least she has playful Cole, who's always teasing her, but is oh-so-comfortable to hang out with, and the singular gang of girls that become fast friends with Sam-they call themselves the Sleepaway Girls.
To Carley Wells, words are the enemy. Her tutor's innumerable SAT flashcards. Her personal trainer's "fifty-seven pounds overweight" assessment. And the endless reading assignments from her English teacher, Mr. Nagel. When Nagel reports to her parents that she has answered "What is your favorite book" with "Never met one I liked," they decide to fix what he calls her "intellectual impoverishment." They will commission a book to be written just for her—one she'll have to love—that will impress her teacher and the whole town of Fox Glen with their family's devotion to the arts. They will be patrons— the Medicis of Long Island. They will buy their daughter The Love Of Reading.
Impossible though it is for Carley to imagine loving books, she is in love with a young bibliophile who cares about them more than anything. Anything, that is, but a good bottle of scotch. Hunter Cay, Carley's best friend and Fox Glen's resident golden boy, is becoming a stranger to her lately as he drowns himself in F. Scott Fitzgerald, booze, and Vicodin.
When the Wellses move writer Bree McEnroy—author of a failed meta-novel about Odysseus' failed journey home through the Internet—into their mansion to write Carley's book, Carley's sole interest in the project is to distract Hunter from drinking and give them something to share. But as Hunter's behavior becomes erratic and dangerous, she finds herself increasingly drawn into the fictional world Bree has created, and begins to understand for the first time the power of stories—those we read, those we want to believe in, and most of all, those we tell ourselves about ourselves. Stories powerful enough to destroy a person. Or save her.
Summary from this site as the amazon one was a review, not a summary, book from the publisher to review. (Which made me go all "ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh" and completely lose all dignify.)
Quick question for you guys, I'm currently reading a Nora Roberts trilogy that's really good, would any of you be interested in reviews of adult books? Not all the time, but occasionally to fill the gaps between YA books.
Okay, well, that's all, and if you want, leave your answer in the comments.
Peace, love and cookies,
Laina
Let's play a game. (Play a love game, do you want love? Or you want fame? Are you in that game?) Sorry, I got distracted. Anyways, I'm bored and I got curious. How do you guys feel about reprints? Do you like them better or the originals better?
For example, Flowers in the Attic. The one on the left is the one I read and will always be the one I think of when I think FITA. The one on the right looks like YA to me, which it's not and th people on the cover must be Cathy and Chris and I don't want to see that... you'll know what I mean if you've read it.
The other series on my mind is the Dark Visions books by L. J. Smith.
Original covers:
New cover (All three are in one):
I own the first one of these, original cover, and to be honest, I think I like it better. Maybe because I've read it probably a dozen times, maybe I'm weird. (Random bit of trivia, you know how books from back then had a thing at the back of the book "Look for the next exciting book", and it always had the title capitalized and then a paragraph describing the book? Mine has the wrong title there. It says the Possession, and there's no book called that in this series.)
Anyways, I think that's all I wanted to say. What do you guys think? Peace and cookies, Laina
(P. S. Read the Dark Visions series!! It's really good.)
Waiting on Wednesday is brought to us by Jill at Breaking the Spine. (Saying that always makes me think of Sesame Street. This blog post was brought to you by the letter L and the number 13.)
This week we have two totally different books that I'm waiting on. The first one is:
After by Amy Efaw
(Summary stolen from Reviewer X because I can't find one anywhere else. I also borrowed the picture from there because it too was impossible to find.)
Who would leave their own baby in the trash to die?
Certainly not someone like Devon--a straight-A student, soccer player with Olympic dreams, more mature than her own mother. But desparation and panic drover her to do what most people can't even imagine. Now Devon's in a juvenile detention center, charged with attempted murder. If she's tried as an adult, she faces life in prison.
Does Devon deserve that punishment? Your answer depends on whether you believe her story--that she didn't even know she was pregnant. Was she buried in a denial so deep that she was unable to register the seemingly obvious signs of pregnancy? Or were her actions the result of a more devious, premeditated plan?
One of the reasons I want this so badly is a woman near where I live is being charged with abandoning a child in a Wal-mart bathroom, and I've watched a bunch of shows about woman who didn't know they were pregnant (TLC marathon) so, personally, the denial line irks me enough to make me super curious about it. The cover is gorgeous, too. So simple but striking.
Nothing is beyond Kristi Carmichael’s disdain—her hippie high school, her friend Jacob, her workaholic mom. Yet for all her attitude and her mind-reading abilities, Kristi has a vulnerable side. She can hear the thoughts of her fellow students, calling her fat and gross. She’s hot for Gusty Peterson, one of the most popular guys in school, but of course, she’s sure he thinks she is disgusting. And she’s still mad at her father, who walked out on them two years ago. Soon, a school project brings her together with Gusty, her father comes home and drops a bombshell, and a friend comes out of the closet, and suddenly she is left doubting that she can read people at all.
I think this one sounds really cute, and the cover reminds me of Skye Sweetnam's Myspace (whose music I love as I'm sure you all know).
Well, it's almost 7am and I only got four hours of sleep last night, so I'm going to go get some sleep now. Goodnight, all! Peace and cookies, Laina
(P. S. Pictures too big?)
In My Mailbox comes to us courtesy of The Story Siren, who was inspired by Alea.
(I know this is late. In my defense, I have no idea what day of the week it ever is. I didn't even realize when it became May. That's my only excuse.)
Anyways, on to the books. There's quite a few because I haven't done this in a few weeks.
The recieved:
Smoke & Whispers by Mick Herron
When a body is hauled from the River Tyne, Sarah Tucker identifies the dead woman as private detective Zoë Boehm. Did Zoë kill herself, or did one of her old cases come looking for her?
I won this one from Wendy. It's an ARC copy, so this isn't my cover, mine's just white with the title and author's name on it but this cover is prettiful nonetheless and I'll post it for that reason alone.
Summary from the back of the book because I don't like the one on amazon.*
The bought (because my friends insist that boughten isn't a word even though dictionary.com says it is):
Cage of Stars by Jacquelyn Mitchard A young Mormon girl finds herself torn between retribution and forgiveness in The Deep End of the Ocean author Mitchard's latest. Twelve-year-old Veronica "Ronnie" Swan witnesses the murder of her two sisters in her family's yard in tiny Cedar City, Utah. Murderer Scott Early is immediately apprehended, but is diagnosed with schizophrenia and ends up spending just three years in a state mental hospital. The rest of Ronnie's family turns to their faith to forgive Early, visiting him just before his release after a battery of drugs have restored him to normalcy. But Ronnie remains angry and haunted by her inability to save her sisters from him, and as she comes of age she tracks Early to San Diego, becomes an EMT, talks his wife into hiring her as a nanny for their infant daughter, and starts planning her vengeance. But as Early's life comes into focus, Ronnie's plan leads to an unexpected, if overly summative, climax. Ronnie progresses from a stock girl-next-door type to a young woman with considerable emotional depth, and Mitchard understatedly portrays her attempts to navigate romance and other interactions as a Mormon raised very "of the Church." The results are sweet and solid.
I bought this ages ago and just found it today when I was cleaning my room. It was four dollars, hardcover, and didn't look half bad so I bought it.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians Book FourThe Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan.
As an incoming freshman, Percy isn't expecting his high school orientation to be any fun. But when a mysterious mortal acquaintance appears, followed by demon cheerleaders, things quickly move from bad to worse. In this fourth installment of the blockbuster series, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near. Even the safe haven of Camp Half Blood grows more vulnerable by the minute as Kronos's army prepares to invade its once impenetrable borders. To stop them, Percy and his demigod friends will set out on a quest through the Labyrinth-a sprawling underground world with stunning surprises at every turn. Full of humor and heart-pounding action, this fourth book promises to be their most thrilling adventure yet.
Bought for either five or six dollars, hardcover.
Summary from amazon.com. The Secret of Castle Cant by K. P. Bath
Lucy Wickwright, maidservant to the Baron of Cant''s daughter, does what she''s told, never lies, and always takes the blame for her mistress''s whims, which unwittingly leads her to become a spy in a mysterious rebellion that is pitted against her own mistress. When Lucy discovers that she is actually the true heir of Cant and at the heart of the revolution itself, she must choose between foiling the rebels, who support her right to the throne, or betraying her own flesh and blood. This one was either five or six dollars, I can't remember which book was which price. It's also hardcover.
Summary from this site because I don't like the amazon one. 2020 editing Laina: This book is by a child predator so I'm removing the cover. Borrowed (from the library) Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway
Within a few weeks after their breakup, Audrey’s boyfriend, Evan, writes and performs a rock song about their split that catches the attention of a music executive and catapults Evan and his band to stardom. Because she is the song’s subject, Audrey suddenly becomes a celebrity, too, and over the course of a school year, she finds herself dodging paparazzi, rock stars in search of a muse, and star-crazed classmates. Set in Southern California, Benway’s memorable debut is a highly entertaining fantasy of teen fame, narrated in Audrey’s sardonic voice and perfect timed comedic lines that channel contemporary YA culture: “It makes my parents crazy how I can do all of this at once, talk on the phone and email and IM. I’m just like, how can you not?” Readers will be captivated by the well-drawn supporting characters, particularly Audrey’s loving, bantering parents and vibrant best friend, and fans of David Levithan and Rachel Cohn’s Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist (2006) will find a similarly raw, honest celebration of music, friendship, romance, and teen resilience.
Philadelphia high school who doesn’t care about the prom. It’s pretty much the only good thing that happens there, and everyone plans to make the most of it—especially Ash’s best friend, Natalia, who’s the head of the committee and has prom stars in her eyes. Then the faculty advisor is busted for taking the prom money and Ash finds herself roped into putting together a gala dance. But she has plenty of help—from her large and loving (if exasperating!) family, from Nat’s eccentric grandmother, from the principal, from her fellow classmates. And in making the prom happen, Ash learns some surprising things about making her life happen, too.
Summary from this site because, again, I don't like the amazon one.
Cleavage: Breakaway Fiction for Real Girls Edited by Deb Loughead & Jocelyn Shipley
Hilarious, edgy, comforting, intense, these stories are full spectrum, from the crazy antics around a town of a giant 'regina' to bittersweet moments with a mom who has cancer. A pubescent girl longs for breast implants, a teen carries on a tongue-in-cheek correspondence with a glam magazine columnist, a painter's daughter experiences the first awakenings of gay sexuality ... These stores are about holding back and letting loose about sex and glamour and common sense.
Summary from the back of the book because the amazon one is nonexistent and typing it was easier than searching for one.
Promises in Death by J. D. Robb
Amaryllis Coltraine has recently transferred to the New York City police force from Atlanta when she's killed with her own weapon. Eve starts questioning everyone while her husband, Roarke, digs into computer data on Coltraine's life back in Atlanta. To their shock, they discover a connection between this case and their own painful, shadowy pasts. The truth will need to be uncovered one layer at a time, starting with the box sent to Eve containing Coltraine's guns, badge, and a note from her killer: "You can have them back. Maybe someday soon, I'll be sending yours to somebody else."
I love these books! I was literally bouncing on the balls of my feet when I saw it was in at the library. Summary from the back of the book because, again, I don't like the amazon one. I sure am picky today.
Meet The Austins, The Moon by Night, The Young Unicorns, and A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle. I'm getting lazy, so no summaries for these ones. Besides, most of you know this series. I've read A Ring of Endless Light (and I think I may have seen the movie, but I don't remember), but I haven't read the other ones, even though I've been meaning to. When I saw these at our library, I snatched them up. There's another one, Troubling a Star, but I own an older copy of it and I'd rather read the copy I own then take it out of the library. I may even own A Ring of Endless Light, but I'm not sure. I just need to find it/them, which is the problem, as I have no shelves so all my books are in boxes. Luckily, I'm insane, so I have a reasonable idea where they might be, since they're a bit organized by size and age, but not as much as they'd be if they were on shelves.
And now I'm babbling and that's it, so I'm done!
Peace and cookies,
Laina
*You guys all know that when I turn amazon.com into a link, the link I use to the book's page, not just to amazon, right? I'm just curious if that's clear.
EDIT:
I found Troubling a Star! And I discovered I do own A Ring of Endless Light, along with a Wrinkle in Time (one of my favourite books ever) and a few other Madeleine L'engle books. Yay for library sales. This is my copy of Troubling a Star, and my cover of A Ring of Endless Light, although you can barely see it. Give me a second... try this instead. I'm good. :) Sorry it's a bit blurry but it was taken with my webcam. You can see what bad shape it's in. Also you can see part of my curtain and I think my shoulder.
Okay, that's it for real this time.
Peace and cookies (again)
Laina
(I know this is a bit late, I wasn't here most of today and lost track of what day it was. P.S. What do you guys think of the new title?)
No real theme this week, but I think there are some similarities in the three guys' voices. Anyone agree?
First up is Hemorrhage (In My Hands) by Fuel. I don't like how the video is so wide, but I can't find a non-widescreen version that doesn't have the embedding disabled.
Edit ages later: I fixed it!
Next up is Let Me Sign by Robert Pattinson (I don't like the video, but what can you do? It has good audio, so we can all do other things while listening to it.)
Finally is Lightning Crashes by Live, which some of you probably know as it's a bit older than some of the other songs I've put here.
Okay, so that's it for this week. Thoughts, questions, concerns, current song addictions? Peace and cookies, Laina
Key of Light
Key of Valor 
