READING: Fever by Lauren Destefano

Fever by Lauren Destefano

Publication date: February 21st, 2012
Published by: Simon&Schuster Children's Publishing
Genre: YA Dystopian
Rating: 4/5

Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but danger is never far behind.

Running away brings Rhine and Gabriel right into a trap, in the form of a twisted carnival whose ringmistress keeps watch over a menagerie of girls. Just as Rhine uncovers what plans await her, her fortune turns again. With Gabriel at her side, Rhine travels through an environment as grim as the one she left a year ago - surroundings that mirror her own feelings of fear and hopelessness.

The two are determined to get to Manhattan, to relative safety with Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan. But the road there is long and perilous - and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and young men die at twenty-five, time is precious. Worse still, they can’t seem to elude Rhine’s father-in-law, Vaughn, who is determined to bring Rhine back to the mansion...by any means necessary.

Wither was one of my favorite reads of 2011. Fever was perhaps the most anticipated read of 2012 for me. Admittedly, it wasn't as amazing as Wither, but still very good.

First and foremost the writing, I was very relieved to find out, remained its glorious self. Wither was definitely not a fluke and I am now adamant that this girl can write and write well. Thing is, the feeling you had from Wither that something somwehere is incomplete, that you feel a certain kind of void, has unfortunately tripled in Fever. And that's the world building. It's obvious that DeStefano focuses more on the characters, Rhine basically, and her endless inner turmoil (I would have liked a little less of that) rather than explaining to us how this world she describes came to be, how it is to live and grow up in this dystopian world. I get Rhine's fear but at times I don't understand the reason she's afraid. Yes, bad things have happened obviously, but what was so traumatic and frightening to justify so much terror?

I was also a little disappointed in Gabriel on this one. He fell completely flat and he suddenly lost his personality. Also, he and Rhine spent the better part of the book fighting and that just felt weird. For a minute there I thought Gabriel will turn into a bad guy. But then I figured that they hadn't slept, eaten or showered for days. The last thing on their mind is make out. Then again, there is always a time for everything.

I loved the last 50 pages of the book because it gets us back to more familiar territory. People who liked Fever thought that it was an improvement from Wither and that Wither was boring. I feel exactly the opposite. In my opinion, Wither's plot was constantly changing and Fever's was static. So I guess people who liked Wither will like Fever, too. Maybe not as much as Wither, but they will like it. Now, people who didn't like Wither I honestly don't get why you would want to read Fever.

Just saying.

READING: Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

Publication date: April 3rd, 2012
Published by: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Genre: YA Fantasy
Source: NetGalley
Rating: 5/5

Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf? 

Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.

Ismae's most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?

I firmly believe that when it comes to fantasy literature, anything goes-no matter how gruesome, horrifying, far fetched or impossible it may seem. That's why I am always a bit reluctant to read YA fantasy because by definition and of course the audience it targets, YA tends to be restrictive in a lot of aspects and that just ruins the fun. 

However, Grave Mercy managed to turn that on its head and leave me utterly speechless!

First off, LaFever's writing was amazing and captured the medieval style precisely. The way she wove her sentences and her wording travelled you back to old, dingy , torch-lit castles. 

She created great characters to go along with her story and most importantly a very likeable protagonist, one you are happy to root and care for. Ismae, apart from being an assassin nun (whaaaat? Awesome, that's what!), is trained to all kinds of combat and she is pretty bad ass. Thankfully, she is neither arrogant or smug about it, but kind and determined. She is not manipulative, but not entirely naive, ether. 

Duval…ah, Duval! You can tell by my dreamy preamble that Duval was hot as hell without even trying. Apart from his apparent hotness though, he had this presence, he oozed confidence and strength, again without being cocky and a jerk about it. He was really admirable. And yeah, drool-worthy if you wanna go there :)
He may not have had lengthy make out sessions with Ismae, however the scenes they shared together were filled to the brim with sexual tension and that was good enough for me. Plus, it shows how a skilled writer can control the love aspect of a YA book without going overboard, and that's LaFevers.

As for the story, there was never a dull moment in Grave Mercy. Filled with action, mystery and politics schemes, I guarantee you will enjoy every minute of it and trust me, there's a whole lot of it to enjoy. 564 pages of it, actually!

The catch is that the next book will feature another character from Grave Mercy and will not be a continuation of Ismae and Duval's story. On the one side, I was sad that their epic saga is over, but on the other I felt that their adventure was well told from start to finish and LaFevers was right to not let it become tiring with a sequel, although I really doubt it would!

I have nothing but love, love and love for Grave Mercy. I recommend it to everyone who lives and breathes and know that when someone chooses not to read Grave Mercy, a swan cries. I'm not kidding, you guys. It really does.

This book has been given to me by NetGalley free of charge

READING: A Beautiful Evil by Kelly Keaton

A Beautiful Evil by Kelly Keaton

Publication date: February 21st, 2012
Published by: Simon Pulse
Genre: YA Paranormal, Gods&Goddesses, Vampires
Rating: 1/5

Myth and mayhem inhabit a richly reimagined New Orleans in this sequel to Darkness Becomes Her.After the epic graveyard battle at the end of Darkness Becomes Her, Ari and her friends know what they’re up against: Ari is facing the Medusa curse and is haunted by the image of what she will become. To make matters worse, the heinous goddess Athena has kidnapped young Violet and is threatening to destroy Ari.

Ari, along with the superhot Sebastian, is doing everything she can to learn more about Athena and to get Violet back. But the battle of good and evil is bigger than she realizes, and she’s about to be pulled into a world more horrific than she could ever imagine...

Whoa. What was that??? I feel like I've just been hit by a truck. Hurt, bewildered but mainly pissed off. I liked Darkness Becomes Her, I really really did, and I was particularly eager to read A Beautiful Evil. I don't know what happened to Keaton, but ABE for me was very, very bad.

First off, it never once managed to catch my attention. Nothing that went on was interesting or important to me. The character development was non existent and there was no chemistry not only between Ari and Sebastian, the alleged love interest, but also between Ari and her father, Violet, her friends. Not that secondary characters had any role to play. They were as useless as a toothbrush to a fish. I'd have liked to see more of the school and the classes. 

The book itself was very short with basically no story at all, except maybe for the action scene in the last couple of chapters which pretty much includes everything you need to know about ABE's plot. There was no need for a whole different book for that. Maybe if it was a novella or a companion novel, it would still be pretty bad, but at least it wouldn't count as a sequel. 

Ari was not at all the assertive and strong young woman I remembered from DBH. 

She rather acted like a silly schoolgirl throughout the whole book. She is in enemy territory, her friend and father's lives are at stake, she could die any minute, and as she and Sebastain are moving stealthily towards their target, first thing that comes to mind is ask Sebastian about a girl that looked at him funny the other day and announce to him that she is not interested at all in love triangles.

WTF?? Eww. Just please, stop talking. 

I am so so disappointed in A Beautiful Evil. So much so, that reading it made me doubt if Darkness Becomes Her was even that good, and I hate second guessing myself. Unfortunately, I'm breaking up with this series :(

Evernight's Balthazar Returns!

For all the Balthazar fans out there :)