Cover Compare: Legend

Legend by Marie Lu is one of those books that has been on my wishlist for ages, but I still don't have a copy. Christmas hint much? ;)

Most of these are very similar, which the symbol dominating the cover space. I like these, because they are eye-catching and different and not super YA-ish, if that makes sense. I'm really not a fan of the Indonesian cover. I like imagining my own faces etc. on the characters. I'm also not crazy about the Collector's Edition. It's a bit cartoon-y. The two different English versions are my favourites. What do you think? Let me know which is your favourite in the comments.

Portuguese

Indonesian

German

English edition - Putnam Juvenile

English - Speak

English - Collector's Edition

Spanish

Review: Stitching Snow

Info: 

Title: Stitching Snow
Author: R. C. Lewis
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Publication Date: October 14, 2014
Source: I received an eARC in exchange for a honest review.

Synopsis:
Princess Snow is missing.

Her home planet is filled with violence and corruption at the hands of King Matthias and his wife as they attempt to punish her captors. The king will stop at nothing to get his beloved daughter back—but that’s assuming she wants to return at all.

Essie has grown used to being cold. Temperatures on the planet Thanda are always sub-zero, and she fills her days with coding and repairs for the seven loyal drones that run the local mines.

When a mysterious young man named Dane crash-lands near her home, Essie agrees to help the pilot repair his ship. But soon she realizes that Dane’s arrival was far from accidental, and she’s pulled into the heart of a war she’s risked everything to avoid. With the galaxy’s future—and her own—in jeopardy, Essie must choose who to trust in a fiery fight for survival.

Review:
I'm beginning to realize that I have a soft spot for YA sci-fi. I (almost) always end up really enjoying them and this one was no exception. Space ships and secrets and intrigue for the win!

I ended up really liking the main character Essie. She's pretty gruff and, while her pushing everyone away got a touch annoying, her strong spirit more than won me over. Let'a just say Essie is one tough chick. Seriously, she makes extra money by fighting a bunch of surly miners. And builds robots in her spare time.

Speaking of Essie's robots, I really enjoyed them and the parallels to the seen dwarves they represent. Especially Dimwit, who I totally fell in love with.

Then there's Dane. A crash landing brings them together, but there's a lot more than that to keep them together (not always with both party's consent). I really liked Dane. He actually probably one of my favourite YA boys of 2014.

The part with Essie's dad really creeped me out a lot. However, I feel like it should have been bigger somehow to have a bit more impact, because I do think it added another layer to the story.

Overall, I'd call Stitching Snow a win. Definitely adding it to my list of YA Sci-fi, which is possibly becoming my new favourite sub-genre. 

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Review: How We Fall

So, I kind of took a month off from blogging. Oops. But I'm back and will be doing my best to post more regularly. Because I have a few books coming out in 2015 that I am pretty excited about!

Info: 

Title: How We Fall
Author: Kate Brauning
Publisher: Merit Press
Publication Date: November 3, 2014
Source: I received a complimentary copy in exchange for a honest review.

Synopsis:
Ever since Jackie moved to her uncle's sleepy farming town, she's been flirting way too much--and with her own cousin, Marcus.

Her friendship with him has turned into something she can't control, and he's the reason Jackie lost track of her best friend, Ellie, who left for...no one knows where. Now Ellie has been missing for months, and the police, fearing the worst, are searching for her body. Swamped with guilt and the knowledge that acting on her love for Marcus would tear their families apart, Jackie pushes her cousin away. The plan is to fall out of love, and, just as she hoped he would, Marcus falls for the new girl in town. But something isn't right about this stranger, and Jackie's suspicions about the new girl's secrets only drive the wedge deeper between Jackie and Marcus--and deepens Jackie's despair.

Then Marcus is forced to pay the price for someone else's lies as the mystery around Ellie's disappearance starts to become horribly clear. Jackie has to face terrible choices. Can she leave her first love behind, and can she go on living with the fact that she failed her best friend?

Review:
Let me start by saying that I'm a science fiction\fantasy girl. I like action and somehow it's even better if there are dragons or airships or aliens. However, every so often, I throw in a contemporary read to spice things up. So when I got a copy of How We Fall, I decided to give it a try.

Unfortunately, this was not the book for me. There were about 40 pages near the end that I enjoyed because there was action. However, the rest I did not. There is such a strong forbidden love thing going on, which I don't really like. I felt like most of the book was Jackie complaining and/or being a b****, all relating to her forbidden love. So there's my problem. I didn't like the main character and I found the focus on forbidden love boring. I did enjoy the mystery plot running through the book, but there wasn't enough of it compared to the love-whining to come close to saving this book for me.

I didn't really connect with the characters, which didn't help things. As I said, I didn't like the narrator Jackie. I appreciate how brave she is at the end, but other than that, not a fan. I can't really blame Marcus for a lot of how he acted, but that doesn't mean I liked him either. The other characters had such small roles that I didn't form too much of an opinion on them.

However, my problems with the book completely come down to personal preference. I don't generally like romance books (I like romance in books, but prefer it to take a back seat to action). If romance is your thing, check out some more reviews and don't base your decision on this one. If you're more of an action and adventure reader, give this one a pass.

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October Recap

I managed to get back into the swing of blogging a bit in October after my weird reading slump. Unfortunately, I spent the entire month unemployed and have been trying not to get depressed about that. I somehow feel more busy than I did when I was working. Lack of routine I guess. I better get a job next month though. Or else.

Books Reviewed in October:

The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place - 3.5 hearts
Gideon Smith and the Brass Dragon - 4 hearts
Centaur Rising - 3.5 hearts
Blue Mountain - 3 hearts
Who R U Really? - 3 hearts

Average Rating = 3.4 hearts - pretty ho-hum this month.

Incoming Books:

I almost had nothing to put here, until I got double book mail on Wednesday. Plus two books from Netgalley. Now so much to share! All are for review. Thanks to Merit Press and Macmillan!

How We Fall by Kate Brauning

Alex as Well by Alyssa Brugman

Stone in the Sky by Cecil Castellucci

Dream a Little Dream by Kerstin Gier

Beastkeeper by Cat Hellisen

Skandal by Lindsay Smith

Fight for Power by Eric Walters

The Whisper by Aaron Starmer

The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski

Waistcoats & Weaponry by Gail Carriger

Giant TBR Challenge:

Previous TBR Total: 171
Incoming Books: 8
TBR Books Read: 3
Current TBR Total: 176

I was doing really well until my super bookmail day!

Review: Who R U Really?

Info: 

Title: Who R U Really?
Author: Margo Kelly
Publisher: Merit Press
Publication Date: September 18, 2014
Source: I received a complimentary copy in exchange for a honest review.

Synopsis:
Thea's overprotective parents are driving her insane. They invade her privacy, ask too many questions, and restrict her online time so severely that Thea feels she has no life at all. When she discovers a new role-playing game online, Thea breaks the rules by staying up late to play. She's living a double life: on one hand, the obedient daughter; on the other, a girl slipping deeper into darkness. In the world of the game, Thea falls under the spell of Kit, an older boy whose smarts and savvy can't defeat his loneliness and near-suicidal despair. As Kit draws soft-hearted Thea into his drama, she creates a full plate of cover stories for her parents and then even her friends.

Soon, Thea is all alone in the dark world with Kit, who worries her more and more, but also seems to be the only person who really "gets" her. Is he frightening, the way he seems sometimes, or only terribly sad? Should Thea fear Kit, or pity him? And now, Kit wants to come out of the screen and bring Thea into his real-life world. As much as she suspects that this is wrong, Thea is powerless to resist Kit's allure, and hurtles toward the same dark fate her parents feared most. Ripped from a true-life story of Internet stalking, Who R U Really? will excite you and scare you, as Thea's life spins out of control.

Review:
I'll admit it, I've played online RPGs a fair amount. But I've never gotten in a situation like Thea (mainly because I play MMORPG like they are single player and never talk to anyone except my boyfriend). But I know of people who met on one and actually ended up getting married! So clearly not everyone who wants to meet up IRL is a psychotic murderer. I did find this book a little preachy like that. Thea literally played with only 2 people that she didn't know IRL and one turned out to be totally evil. I know it could happen, but I still think the majority of people playing these games are normal people like me and you totally can have online friends, despite what the detective in the book says.

This book was really engaging. Like I would sit down to read a chapter and end up reading three or four. It kept me wanting to know what happened next for Thea and Kit! I have a bit of ADD, so I love it when a book can really hold my attention like that.

Thea kind of got on my nerves. She was really sullen and secretive. Her mom tried so hard to forge a connection with her, but she constantly pushed her away, which is probably pretty true to some teenagers, but still annoyed me. She also kept so many secrets for everyone that was trying to help her. I remember being a teenager in love and how all-encompassing it was, but so many times I just wanted to shake her!

As far as secondary characters, I really like Thea's mom. She tried so hard, but was still flawed and believable. I felt like her brother Seth could have had a bigger role, instead of just popping up to either drive Thea to school or get mad at her. I wasn't a huge fan of Tim. He basically put his life on hold for a girl who wouldn't even give him the time of day for most of the book and kept touching her when she didn't want to be touched. I did like Thea's best friend Janie, but I really think more could have been done with her subplot and the impact of it could have been much stronger. 

The other thing that bothered me was how quickly the author skipped forward to the part where Thea is already in love with Kit. She was already saying she loved him by page 50 (not instalove though, because a few months had passed in the book already). I would have liked to see the relationship develop a bit more, because I think that part could have been fascinating.

The ending though! So exciting and terrifying! I probably would have been losing my mind why more than Thea, because seriously, that is some creepy shit. And when we finally find out who Kit is? So creepy and ugh...

Despite my issues with the book, Who R U Really? was an interesting and engaging cautionary tale about internet safety. And a reminder of how lame online flirting is.

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Review: Blue Mountain

Info: 

Title: Blue Mountain
Author: Martine Leavitt
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Publication Date: October 28, 2014
Source: I received a complimentary copy in exchange for a honest review.

Synopsis:
Tuk the bighorn sheep is told he will be the one to save his herd, but he is young and would rather play with his bandmates than figure out why the herd needs saving. As humans encroach further and further into their territory, there is less room for the sheep to wander, food becomes scarce, and the herd's very survival is in danger. Tuk and his friends set out to find Blue Mountain, a place that Tuk sometimes sees far in the distance and thinks might be a better home. The journey is treacherous, filled with threatening pumas and bears and dangerous lands, leading Tuk down a path that goes against every one of his instincts. Still, Tuk perseveres, reaching Blue Mountain and leading his herd into a new, safe place.

Review:
I'm having trouble pinning down my exact feelings on this interesting, but strange, little book. On one hand, I loved the concept and the message, but on the other hand, the writing style was hard for me to get used to.

As I mentioned, I loved the idea and message behind this book. I think it is immensely important for kids (and adults!) to understand the natural world and that our actions can affect plants and animals and ecosystems. So for that I give huge kudos to Martine Leavitt.

However, the writing style really threw me on this one. It was kind of blunt and chopping and the dialog came through very strangely for me (although since I don't speak bighorn, maybe that's how they do speak). I feel like maybe this writing style would appeal more to younger middle grade readers, since it was quite simple and they may not mind the choppiness when their own reading skills are a bit lower than my own. However, I think older readers might have some of the same issues as me (I even considered DNFing this one, but am glad I didn't).

The other thing I wasn't crazy about were the amount of characters. We are thrown a lot of names at the beginning when all the lambs were born and it was tough for me to keep track of them. Eventually they begin to become their own characters, but it was still a bit difficult for me for much of the book.

Overall, I think younger middle grade readings who are interested in nature would enjoy this book. There is quite a bit going on and some parts kind of read like a fable.

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Cover Compare: Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini

Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini was actually a DNF for me, but that doesn't mean we can't talk covers!                                                                                                              
             

UK

US

German

Italian

Quite a few to pick from here! The Italian and US covers are really similar, but I would give the edge to the Italian because it is more of a close-up. I think that the German on is my favourite though, even though it is so different and doesn't really look like YA. The UK cover is my least favourite. It's pretty, but it looks like so many NA covers out there. Which cover is your favourite?