The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

I recently realized that I never posted my review for The Iron King. I read it right before I met Julie Kagawa in Louisville, but I never really publicized my thoughts.

But my thoughts are: This book is awesome.

Meghan Chase is a completely normal girl until she realizes her brother's been swapped for a monster and she's best friends with Puck (the Puck, of Shakespeare fame.) And that there's an entire faery world hidden behind her veiled eyes. When she enters the realm of Faery, she realizes normal is just a pretense - dark creatures are peeking out at every corner, hungry for some Meghan garnish, and a talking cat collects a favor or two. And things just get trickier (and cooler) from there.

I really loved this book. Mixing original dark faery lore with modern technology created something totally unique and interesting. And I might have developed a teeny weeny crush on Puck. I think Kagawa created a great character with Shakespeare's version, adding layers and layers to his bad ol' trickster self.

The imagery created to describe Kagawa's Faery world was enchanting, from the summery forests of Oberon's courts to the wintery frost of Queen Mab's. From dresses made of spider webs to swords made of ice, it was an alluring, if dangerous, place. The depth behind all the faery illusion is one of the things that made me fall so hardly in love with Puck this book.

There's romance, action, and some mad world-building skillz in The Iron King, and I expect no less with the sequel. I may sound biased because Julie's awesome and fun and likes me more than you, but even if she was a Nicholas-Sparks-esque ego freak, I'd have loved this book. And I can.not. wait for The Iron Daughter.

And Then Everything Unraveled by Jennifer Sturman

I really, really liked And Then Everything Unraveled. I'd originally picked it up because I'd wanted a contemporary fic while taking a small paranormal/fantasy break. I expected little and was truly surprised because of it.

Delia finds out her mother's missing, presumed dead after venturing to Antarctica. Since she has no mother or father to watch over her, Delia's sent to live with her aunt, whom I completely loved. She's this bohemian actress who loves to watch old classic movies while eating takeout. Totally awesome. The characterizations were interesting and I found myself very quickly attached. The rest of the plot follows Delia as she tries to figure out what happened to her mom while simultaneously trying to fit in at her new high school.

It wasn't the best book I've ever read. I had my issues with it (mainly because I'm me and have to have issues with almost everything.) Mysteries bug me unless they're done in a unique way, and there were some plot issues - I didn't think the mystery/high school combo worked for me. If the mystery plot had been left out altogether, I think I would have liked this book far better. But, again, I'm a grouch and hate mysteries (not to say I hate every mystery, because there are books like Death by Denim that I really enjoyed, but for the most part, I'm negative towards 'em.) I find them too predictable. The reason I enjoyed this book so much was because of the characters in it, so the "mystery" intrigue didn't capture me.

But my dislikes were outweighed by very, very good writing. There was a subtle, slight quirkiness to this book, and I very much enjoyed reading it. There wasn't something particular that I truly adored or loved about it, but it was a read that I was totally raveled up in. I just sat back and enjoyed it, never needing to stop or overthink or analyze anything, which is rare for me. This was a great break for my usual reading habits and it was a lot of fun to flip through.

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

I was bullied into reading this series by Erica from The Book Cellar. I've had it on my tbr list for ages but only just started reading it because of her pushiness (when she was here visiting, she prioritized all the books on my shelves.)

I'm very glad she claimed Vampire Academy as top priority. I was kind of wary about the originality - I love vampire books, but I've read so many of them that they've become almost rudimentary and predictable to me. But Vampire Academy had its own lore and vampire society that was completely intriguing and unique: Strigoi and Dhampir and Guardians - I wanted to learn everything about each of them. I wanted to explore the vampire structure much further than the book allowed me to. It was completely fascinating.

And I thought the relationship between Rose and Lissa was awesome - not only their mental connection, but their friendship. There's been a noticeable lack of strong female friendships in YA, and to find one in a paranormal vamp book, where I least expected one to be, was refreshing. Lissa's dialogue with Christian totally made me smile, and Dimitri earned a little bit of drool from that smile. Character interaction = A+

So I'll definitely be reading the sequels (of which I found signed copies of when I was in San Francisco), and I'm really excited to see where the plot goes.

What other vampire books have you enjoyed?

Carrie Ryan Blog Tour

Today, I'm pleased to have Carrie Ryan, author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth and The Dead-Tossed Waves, stop by. She's here to talk about her titles and then follow up with ten of her favorite zombie pastimes.

About her titles:

I must admit that my fiancé, JP, is the one who comes up with all my titles (including the third book in the series: The Dark and Hollow Places). Before I even thought about writing The Forest of Hands and Teeth, JP and I had been discussing a world set after the zombie apocalypse and a village in a forest full of zombies. We were kicking around what to name the forest one day at lunch and that’s where we came up with it! Hands for the way the zombies grab you and teeth for the way they infect you. I actually never planned to use that as the title of the book but just needed something to name the file when I saved it… turns out the name stuck!

For the second book I’d been playing around with titles that had the same format: the ____ of _____ and ______ and I knew ocean or sea would probably fill in the first blank. I’d been emailing ideas to JP all week and one day during lunch he emailed me The Dead-Tossed Waves and I loved it then and there. I even had the title before I wrote the book!

I definitely felt a little pressure when working on the title for the third book. Thankfully, JP’s really great under pressure!

Top Ten Zombie Movies/Books, etc:

1. World War Z. Max Brooks is just a genius with this book -- not only does he go through the zombie apocalypse step by step but he creates a huge cast of very distinct voices and stories along the way. Utterly absorbing.

2. Night of the Living Dead. George Romero’s movie that really created the modern zombie (though they weren’t called zombies in the film). I actually really hated this movie the first time I saw it because I was so frustrated at the characters inability to get it together to survive. But then I heard Romero talk about the point of the movie which was society’s inability to get their act together to solve really big issues in the world like poverty, hunger, war, etc. This made me love the movie (I always love finding the deeper meaning to zombie books and movies).

3. The Walking Dead. Robert Kirkman notes that his goal with this graphic novel series is that it has no end -- there’s not set story arc but instead he just wanted to explore what happens to people constantly trying to survive after a zombie apocalypse.

4. Left 4 Dead (1 and 2). Brilliant video game with lots of zombie killing.

5. Zombie Fluxx is a fun little card game where the rules are constantly changing. And one rule is that every time you draw a zombie card you have to groan like a zombie - best rule ever!

6. Plants v. Zombies because OMG have you seen the music video for it? It can brighten even the darkest day.

7. Dead Set. This is a British mini-series my brother-in-law gave me and I love it. It’s about what happens when the zombie apocalypse hits but the cast of Big Brother has no idea anything’s going on. It’s pretty much the perfect satire of reality TV (with zombies).

8. I Kissed a Zombie and I liked It. Adam Selzer also does a brilliant job satirizing paranormal romance -- I found myself nodding my head and cracking up in several places (and yes, loving this book kind of breaks my rule about not liking sentient zombies).

9. Zombieland. Because everyone wonders if they’ll be the one with the most zombie kills once the apocalypse hits.

10. Zombies!!! board game (yes, with three exclamation points). There’s the basic game: fighting through zombies to be the first to the helicopter. But the real awesome part of this game are the expansions -- there are mutant zombies (glow in the dark figurines), zombie dogs, zombie clowns (yes, that’s right zombie clowns) and even an expansion called Humans!!! that allows you to play a zombie trying to decimate the human population (or at least keep them from the helicopter).

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Carrie will be answering questions on Random Buzzers from March 22-April 2, if you have anything burning you'd like to ask her.

Fans can also become friends with Dead-Tossed Waves on Facebook (where you can also view the book trailers). Or check out: www.CarrieRyan.com to learn more, see the trailers, read Carrie's blog and follow her tweets.

Check out the full tour schedule below:

3/16. Cynsations: http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/

3/17 The Book Smugglers: http://thebooksmugglers.com/

3/18 MTVNews.com “Hollywood Crush:” link

3/19 The Page Flipper: http://thepageflipper.blogspot.com/

3/20 Through A Glass, Darkly: http://throughaglass.net/

3/21 Reader Girlz: http://www.readergirlz.com/

3/22 Mundie Moms: http://www.mundiemoms.com/index.html

3/23 Cheryl Rainfield: http://www.cherylrainfield.com/

3/24 Just Blinded Books: http://justblindedbookreviews.blogspot.com/

3/25 The Story Siren: http://www.thestorysiren.com/

3/26 Bildungsroman: http://slayground.livejournal.com/

3/27. Beautiful Creatures: http://beautifulcreaturesthebook.com/blog/

Radiant Darkness by Emily Whitman

It's no secret that I love mythology. Absopositivolutely love it. I can read about Artemis and Athena and Hermes and Zeus, and even the obscure little stories that are less popular but tell just as great of a tale, for hours. I'm even working on writing my own retelling of a favorite, much less popular, myth.

So when I found out about Radiant Darkness, I was a little overly excited. I read and loved Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan - I thought he did a great job of incorporating myths but also making his own story out of it - so I was eager to read another mythology retelling.

Radiant Darkness was much more particular than Percy Jackson. This story was focused solely around the myth of Persephone. The myth goes as follows: One day, while Persephone is out frolicking in a flower garden, an evil, evil man (the vile and much-hated Lord of the Dead, Hades), appears out of nowhere. Demeter, the goddess of harvest, and also Persephone's mother, could do nothing to stop Hades from dragging her daughter into the underworld. The myth goes on to tell how the season of winter came to be, but if you don't know this myth, I wouldn't want to spoil this book for you.

Because this book is GOOD. You don't have to be popular with mythology to enjoy it. It takes the well-known myth of Persephone and completely twists it on it's ass. Emily Whitman questioned the basic structure: What if Hades wasn't evil, but instead Persephone fell in love with him and chose to go to the underworld her own accord? What if this happened and what if that happened, instead? She kept the basic idea and setup of Hades' underworld but added some of her own elements to it, and its politics, that I found very interesting. Ah, writers. You've got to love 'em.

I'm very, very glad this particular writer asked those particular questions, because she created a fantastic book with them. I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed this one.

The Unwritten Rule by Elizabeth Scott

I'm a huge fan of Elizabeth Scott. I've read and loved Bloom, Perfect You, Something, Maybe (my personal favorite), and Living Dead Girl. Scott takes on realistic stories - ones that could have been mundane had they been written by anyone else - and makes them into masterpieces. Her characters jump to life from the pages, mastered with little details and side characters that create a life more real than I've seen created in any one book before. The black ink on these pages turns into a real-life flesh-and-blood story by Scott's hand.

The Unwritten Rule sounded like one of her most simple plots - a love triangle. Sarah falls for her best friend's boyfriend and he falls back. Before reading this book, I felt like this was a betrayal that could be unforgiven. I thought it was shady and unlawful and a rule you just shouldn't break. But the way Elizabeth Scott created this setup, I couldn't help but understand. This book was told from the eyes of Sarah, and her feelings were realistic, making me believe in her relationship with Ryan and even root for it.

Brianna, Sarah's best friend, had her own storyline - one that was very interesting for me. I would love to read this book from her point of view, too. As it was, I felt like I could understand her reasoning but not her emotions. Sarah feels incredible guilt over what she feels for Ryan, but it's what she feels. It's pretty dang hard to control feelings. This book really opens your eyes to these types of chaotic messes, making you question what you'd do had you been put in the same situation. This particular triangle is messy and gritty and just...real.

Elizabeth Scott and "real" go together like fish and water, man. And she seriously rocks her literary socks with this one. She did it again. This woman is my idol, and I can't wait for her next book, Grace.

Rae: Louder than Words (AKA: MY BOOK COVER!!!)

So. I got the cover for my book, Rae. Look! It has my name on it! (DUDE!) If you don't know about it (I've only talked about it briefly on my blog), it's part of a teen memoir series called Louder than Words, the first three of which were titled Marni, Emily, and Chelsey (hence mine being called Rae, after my middle name) and came out last year. The next three, released in Fall 2010, will be titled Alexis, Hannah, and Rae (me!) Mine's about dealing with anxiety in high school, among other things, and told in novel format. I tried to make it funny. You'll have to tell me if I succeeded.

So. What do you think about the cover?

YA Literature Chat!

On Thursday, March 11th at 9 pm EST Fallen Archangel is hosting a YA lit chat. Please spread the word - hopefully we can have diverse opinions from various YA readers and writers of all ages. We want to know what YOU think! Hope to see you there.

Here's what was posted on the Coldwater High eZine:

It’s no secret that YA books have grown in popularity with teens, tweens and adults of all ages. With that popularity comes more scrutiny – it has been said that some YA contains immoral themes that could negatively influence young readers. We want to hear from YOU young and old, YA Lovers, Readers, Writers, Editors (etc). Are you influenced by the storylines and relationships you read about? Join us on Thursday night at 9 pm to discuss this on FallenArchangel.com

Read My Lips by Teri Brown

Serena has perfected the art of reading lips; even though a lot of deaf people are good at it, she has a particular knack. When she moves to a new school, a group of popular girls discovers her talent and wants her to join their sorority. Because who else but a lip-reader can find out all the best juicy gossip? When an outsider, Miller, comes into the picture, Serena has some trouble balancing her "popular" life with his.

I thought this was an interesting book. The premise is original: having a deaf character isn't something I've seen a lot in YA. Serena's also a skater, which adds another detail of originality to her character. But I felt like that uniqueness was sometimes overshadowed by an unoriginal plot. The cliques were kind of a cliche - although popular vs. nonpopular grouping happens, this was very obviously cut.

I did like the relationship between Serena and Miller but wish it had been more fledged out. If the book had focused more on them and less on the popularity dynamics of high school, I think I would have liked it more. I loved the depth that both Miller and Serena touched on, but I didn't get an entirely full grasp on it. Putting both struggles together into one book overwhelmed me and made me like the plotting less.

It was a cute read, and I enjoyed it, but it wasn't completely suited for me.

Conspiracy 365 by Gabrielle Lord

Conspiracy 365, a YA thriller mystery, is set up incredibly cool. The story is about a boy, Callum, who is told about some kind of Ormond Riddle - relating to his family - by a bum on a street corner. He was also told, on the new year, that he has to survive 365 days and then he'll be safe. From what, Callum has no idea. Starting that very night, a series of sabotage and kidnappings occur, one after the other, while Callum tries to figure out the secrets his dad has been implanting ever since his trip to Ireland and his subsequent death.

Conspiracy 365: January was almost non-stop action from page 192 to page 1. The page count headed downwards instead of forwards, followed the chapter headings proclaiming how many days are left before the end of the year. It was like a countdown, which added a lot to the story. And I'm really interested to see what happens on December 31st.

There will be 12 books, one coming out each month, until the end of the year. I think the unique setup for these books contributes a lot to the mysterious, thriller factor. It almost reminded me of a teenage version of the show 24.

I'll definitely be wanting to read February, March, April, May, etc. And so will you. While there isn't a lot of depth to the characters or writing, the plot is so addicting that it's almost hard to put down.

Louisville, KY

On Friday, I drove through the snowpocalypse to visit Louisville, Kentucky. I arrived at my hotel, after being confused by the labyrinthine streets, and found a multicolored horse statue standing near the entryway. I left the horse to stand and be pretty while I went to a titanic museum at some science center.

At the beginning of the museum, I was given a Boarding Pass with a passenger's name on it and facts about them, etc. At the end of the museum, you can find out what happened to your passenger and their family.

I was a 44 year old woman with a husband and 8 children accompanying me. I walked through and saw tiles from the ship's floor and china from the kitchens. It was crazy to think about who walked on those tiles and who drank out of those cups. Did Annie, my passenger? There was also a piece of an igloo that you could feel. It was freezing, obviously.

At the end, I found out my entire family died. What a downer. One of the facts on my card I found particularly interesting: "A few years earlier, Annie's daughter Dorothy almost drowned in a well. Believing the local lore that a person saved from drowning will one day die the same way, Annie boarded the Titanic with great trepidation."

After I sat all depressed in my hotel room, I fell asleep and woke up on Saturday morning. YAY! This is what I came to Louisville for in the first place. Julie Kagawa's (The Iron King) signing.

I met Julie, along with Kristi from The Story Siren and writer Susan from Waste Paper Prose, at Borders. Then we went to Sake Blue and ate sushi. I went for a vegetarian option - sweet potato rolls - while Julie ate an eel, pictured. It had a tail, with eely ridges and everything. Yuck.

We chatted about books and writing, etc, while we were there. Susan was talking about a book she was writing, saying "My werewolf clan is very troublesome," when a waiter passed by and gave us all a very odd look.

Then, we went back to Borders and drank much-needed CAFFEINE. I had chai, and I almost dumped it all over the books I bought (The Iron King (signed - "To Chelsea, put down the coffee!", Before I Fall, I Am Apache, Some Girls Are, Cracked Up To Be, and Poison Study). I had so. much. fun.

Two other Tenners, Kelly Creagh (Nevermore) and Jessica Leader (Nice and Mean), also made an appearance. They were both incredibly nice and fun, and it was great to meet them.

On Sunday, I stopped in Cincinnati and met up with Lauren from Shooting Stars Mag for, of course, coffee. We chatted for a while and then I went to an awesome Native American museum where I might have caught a picture of a ghost. What do you think? Check out the picture. There was NOBODY behind me, but a reflection made it seem like there was. Doesn't it look like an Indian girl, in a dress, squatting? It's creepy! And cool! Anyway, I'm part Native American, so it was really cool to see all this stuff.

I had a really fun time in Louisville, KY! Maybe I'll head back that way again sometime.

Formspring

Okay, seriously, how cool is this? I don't know how I've missed it until now, but formspring lets people anonymously (or non-anonymously) ask you questions, which you answer by replying and posting straight to your profile. So. Cool. I'm kind of a question-junkie - I LOVE answering them as well as asking 'em.

So if you're on formspring, let me know!

And whether you are or not, PLEASE ask me questions! They can be reading/writing related or just hecka random, I don't care! I'll answer 'em all!

Social Networking, you've seriously pulled me to new brain-mushing levels.

March Prize Pack

The winner of the February Prize Pack is Zara! Congrats! Check your inbox for an email from me shortly.

For March, I'm giving away 5 more delicious reads. Remember, there will be a prize pack once at the beginning of each month! The prizes for March are *drumroll*:

1 HC of The Maze Runner by James Dashner
1 PB of WTF by Peter Lerangis
1 HC of How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford
1 ARC of The Lonely Hearts Club by Elizabeth Eulberg
1 SIGNED HC of Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick (!)

If you already have one or more of these books, enter anyway - I will try and find a substitute prize if you happen to win (in the form of either different books or swag.)

*I'm sorry, but this prize can only be shipped to those with a U.S. address. (This is because it's about $20 extra to send a prize overseas, FYI. I love foreign countries, but I can't afford it.)

*This contest ends on March 31st.

To enter, fill out the form below. As always, being a blog follower earns you an extra entry but is NOT required.

Bookaholism

I'm sure a lot of you have this problem, so I thought I should take the time to acknowledge it.

My name is Chelsea and I'm a bookaholic.

This weekend, I went to Louisville (I'll make a post about this later, since it involves a few very fabulous authors and reviewers.) I meant to buy two books. Just two. I spent $80. And that was mild for me. I can go to Half-Price-Books and spend well over $100-$200 (which is bad, considering, uh...they're half-priced.) I can go into Barnes & Noble and leave with a completely empty wallet.

I see some of you smirking and shaking your head. You are a bookaholic, too.

Bookaholism follows the same six signs of a shopaholic, understandably, but only applies to books:

1. You spend more when you're emotional. (ie, "Freaking people piss me off. I'm gonna go buy an apocalyptic book and watch them die!")

2. Your spending habits result in added stress: (ie, "Holy shit, my tbr bookshelf is up to 400 now. Oops.")

3. You're a compulsive spender (ie, "Oh hey Poison Study, lookin' cute." ie, "Oh hey, Before I Fall, lookin' cute." ie, "Oh hey, Cracked Up To Be, lookin' cute." etc, etc.)

4. You can't live without plastic. (ie, "Hey, I have a Borders Rewards card! It'll be fine! I can get free books out of this...!")

5. You're constantly making excuses. (ie, "Well, I'm just helping the publishing business, really. It's a tough economy. I'm such a nice person.")

6. You've tried to control your spending in the past. (ie, "Okay, I'll only buy paperbacks, I promise. But maybe just this ONE hardcover...")

If you've agreed with one or more of these statements, you're a bookaholic, too. Keep on keepin' on.