The Storyteller - Waiting on Wednesday

The Storyteller by Antonia Michaelis. Release date: January 1st 2012. Published by Amulet Books.

Why am I pining for The Storyteller?

I'm usually not the one to read contemporary novel but this sounds like it might be amazing and heartbreaking.

Synopsis(borrowed from the Goodreads):

Anna and Abel couldn’t be more different. They are both seventeen and in their last year of school, but while Anna lives in a nice old town house and comes from a well-to-do family, Abel, the school drug dealer, lives in a big, prisonlike tower block at the edge of town. Anna is afraid of him until she realizes that he is caring for his six-year-old sister on his own. Fascinated, Anna follows the two and listens as Abel tells little Micha the story of a tiny queen assailed by dark forces. It’s a beautiful fairy tale that Anna comes to see has a basis in reality. Abel is in real danger of losing Micha to their abusive father and to his own inability to make ends meet. Anna gradually falls in love with Abel, but when his “enemies” begin to turn up dead, she fears she has fallen for a murderer. Has she? 

Award-winning author Antonia Michaelis moves in a bold new direction with her latest novel: a dark, haunting, contemporary story that is part mystery, part romance, and part melodrama.

Want to know more about the authors or the book?

Visit the homepage of Antonia Michaelis 

Add The Storyteller to your Goodreads shelf

What are you waiting for this week?

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. This event spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. Please visit Jill's blog to find out what other book bloggers are waiting for.

Tiger's Curse - Teaser Tuesday

This weeks teaser is brought to you from Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck, paperback page :

The panther's sharp claws were extended and glistened in the moonlight. Transfixed, I stood and watched the snarling cat's claws and gaping maw full of teeth draw closer to my face and neck.

This book showed up as a plesant surprise in my mailbox a few days ago. I think I might have fallen in love with a couple of tigers! And oh, this book has such a beautiful cover, much prettier in real life than in the photo.

MizB of Should Be Reading host this meme called Teaser Tuesday . Anyone can play along! Just do the following: 

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Book Review: Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien

Summary:

After climate change, on the north shore of Unlake Superior, a dystopian world is divided between those who live inside the wall, and those, like sixteen-year-old midwife Gaia Stone, who live outside. It's Gaia's job to "advance" a quota of infants from poverty into the walled Enclave, until the night one agonized mother objects, and Gaia's parents disappear.

As Gaia's efforts to save her parents take her within the wall, she faces the brutal injustice of the Enclave and discovers she alone holds the key to a secret code, a code of "birthmarked" babies and genetic merit.

My thoughts:

Birthmarked is much darker than most dystopian novels I have read. I love how it is set in the Lake Superior area - the story somehow feels more real when it's set in a real place. All through Birthmarked we get a lot of information about how this dystopian world came about, and why the society is split between those inside and outside the wall, and all of this makes it a very believable setting. 

Gaia is a very reasonable sixteen-year-old, and she's got such a strong sense of what is right and wrong. She does not always make the smartest decisions, often based on how incredibly naive she still is, but that is what makes her feel real. None of the other characters felt as real to me, and I would have loved to see some of them described a little more. I'm having a hard time putting my finger on exactly why I didn't like Birthmarked as much as everyone else, but I think it mostly comes down to the similarities to so many other dystopian novels; the world divided into the haves and have-nots, and the teenage girl who can change it all. But then again, it works.

The cover:

Beautiful, but a little too cluttered for my taste.

My rating of this book:

3.5 stars out of 5

Want a second opinion? Check out these reviews written by some of my book blogging friends:

The Little Bookworm

Parajunkee

Want to know more?
Add Birthmarked to your Goodreads wishlist
Visit Caragh M. O'Brien's website
Follow Caragh on Twitter

Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien

Published: March 30th 2010

Pages (hardcover): 362

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

ISBN: 1596435690 (ISBN13: 9781596435698)

Full disclosure: Checked out at my local library

This book can be purchased from a number of local retailers and on-line book stores such as Amazon or The Book Depository (I'm not an affiliate of either). The latter store does by the way have free shipping to about 100 countries.

Contest winners!

So I don't know how many of you who remember it but back in the beginning of January I decided to do a new regular thing on my blog to show my appreciation to my regular followers/commentators:

In the end of each month I will use random.org to draw a winner among my top 10 commenters of the month. The comments has to be real, meaning that a person who has left say 20 comments saying "nice" or "great review" will be disqualified. The winner will get to choose a book of their choice, price limit $15, from The Book Depository (or Amazon if TBD doesn't offer shipping to the winners country).

Well I haven't forgot it even if it's been awhile since I announced a winner. Today I'm announcing the winners of March and April, that's Fredamans from Freda's voice and Lisa from The Garden of Books. .

And now for the winner of my Norway + international giveaway. Random.org has choosen ~Enamored Soul~ as the lucky winner.

Congratulations to all the winners :-) All of you should have received an email from me.

Book Review: Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder

Summary:

I'm Trella. I'm a scrub. A nobody. One of thousands who work the lower levels, keeping Inside clean for the Uppers. I've got one friend, do my job and try to avoid the Pop Cops. So what if I occasionally use the pipes to sneak around the Upper levels? The only neck at risk is my own…until I accidentally start a rebellion and become the go-to girl to lead a revolution.

My thoughts:

Finally - a YA dystopian novel without a sappy love story! The setting of Inside Out might be a little confusing at first, with Inside's complicated layout and their special way of telling days and weeks in multiples by ten, but it is all very well described, and once I got into it I really enjoyed this book.

What I liked the most is that even if the concept of Inside is so far from the way we live, it is really easy to relate to. If I lived like a scrub, like the main character Trella, I'd jump at the first possibility of a rebellion, because even with the risk of punishment, the hope of something different would make it all worth it. Inside Out is a well written, original novel with a very compelling female lead. I was a little disappointed by the ending, but it really just made me want to read the sequel, Outside In, that much more. 

The cover:

Inside Out has two different covers, but the one on my version is very fitting, and once you've read the whole novel you'll see why.

My rating of this book:
4 stars out of 5

Want a second opinion? Check out these reviews written by some of my book blogging friends:

The Book Cellar

The Book Butterfly

Want to know more?
Add Inside Out to your Goodreads wish list.
Visit Maria V. Snyder's website 

Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder

Published: April 1st 2010
Pages (paperback): 320
Publisher: Harlequin
ISBN: 037321006X (ISBN13: 9780373210060)

Full disclosure: Checked out at my local library

This book can be purchased from a number of local retailers and on-line book stores such as Amazon or The Book Depository (I'm not an affiliate of either). The latter store does by the way have free shipping to about 100 countries.

"Waiting On" Wednesday: Hit List

This week I am waiting on:

Hit List (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #20)

by Laurell K. Hamilton

Release date: June 7th 2011

Publisher: Berkley Hardcover

Pages: 400

"Word has leaked to Anita Blake that hit men are headed for St. Louis - and that she, Jean-Claude and Richard are the targets." 

This is the only summary that's been released yet (not counting the full first chapter that you can find on Laurell's website), but it's more than enough to get me excited. If any of you have read this series, I'm sure you'll know that hit men means a guaranteed appearance from Edward, and from what Laurell has been posting on her Twitter, we're also going to get a little reunion with Olaf. Since these are two of my favorite characters, and coincidentally two of the few humans in the series, I can't wait to read Hit List! I'm also hoping that such a normal problem as hit men means there will be fewer unnecessary supernatural sex scenes..:) I finished the previous Anita Blake novel, Bullet, in October last year, and have been waiting patiently for Hit List ever since. Definitely a novel I'll have to buy for my Kindle as soon as it's out!

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. Visit her blog to find out what other book bloggers are waiting for. If you want to participate, just grab the logo from Jill's page, write a WoW post on your own blog, and leave your link on Jill's post!

Book Review: Matched by Ally Condie

Summary:

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander’s face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate... until she sees Ky Markham’s face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.

The Society tells her it’s a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she’s destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can’t stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society’s infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

My thoughts:

Matched is one of many dystopian YA novels I have read lately, but it definitely manages to stand out from the rest. The story is set in a world where The Society decides everything from how fast you can run on the treadmill, to who you will marry, to when you will die. We don't get much of an explanation as to how this system developed, but the purpose seems to be that if everyone wears the same clothes and eat the same food, and nobody has anything more than anyone else, people won't have a reason to be jealous of each other. It's hard to imagine living in a world where you're never allowed to make your own decisions, but if that's all you've ever known, would you just accept the situation or would you long for something more?

The main character Cassia has never questioned the ways of The Society, but throughout this novel she will start seeing everything in a different light. She goes through some pretty big changes, and it was very easy for me to relate to Cassia and the choices she has to take. Will she risk everything she's used to, or choose what's familiar and safe?

Matched is so much more than just another dystopian YA novel. It is a beautiful love story, a great tale of how difficult it can be to tell right from wrong, about the choices you have to make, and the consequences those choices will have on both you and others. I cried, I laughed, I cursed some characters while I fell in love with others, and when I had read the last page I was left with a feeling of hope. My only complaint about Matched is that it is very slow paced, and any scenes with action are over almost before they've begun. Still, it is one of the better YA love stories I have read in the last year.

The cover:

Beautiful, and very fitting for the story.

My rating of this book:

4,5 stars out of 5


Want a second opinion? Check out these reviews written by some of my book blogging friends:
MoonStar
Confessions of a Book Addict

Eating YA Books

Want to know more?
Add Matched to your Goodreads wish list
Visit Ally Condie's website 
Follow Ally Condie on Twitter

Matched by Ally Condie

Published: November 30th 2010
Pages (hardcover): 366
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
ISBN: 0525423648 (ISBN13: 9780525423645)
Full disclosure: Checked out at local library

This book can be purchased from a number of local retailers and online book stores like Amazon or The Book Depository (I'm not an affiliate of either). The latter store has free shipping to over 90 countries.

It's Monday What Are You Reading? Week #15

"It's Monday What Are You Reading?" is a weekly event to list the books completed last week, the books currently being read, and the books to be finished this week. This meme is hosted by the wonderful Sheila at One Persons Journey through a world of Books.

Books finished last week:

Grave Suprise - Charlaine Harris

The Sugar Queen - Sarah Addison Allen

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky

Halfway to the Grave - Jeaniene Forst

An Ice Cold Grave - Charlaine Harris

I'm currently reading:

Storm Glass - Maria V. Snyder 

The Tale of the Body Thief - Anne Rice

Last week was a great reading week for me, thanks to some long rainy days. This coming week I'll hopefully be too busy enjoying a change of weather to get much reading done, but I still plan on finishing both of the books I'm currently reading, and get started on Spell Hunter by R.J. Anderson. It's Monday, what are you reading?

Book review: Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles

My summary:
Brittany is from a wealthy family, on the outside her life seems perfect but in reality Brittany struggles to keep up apparences. In chemistryclass the teachr announces that they're having a project and Britney gets partered up with Alex Fuentes, a mexican student who also happens to be a gangmember. Everyone knows that the wealthy cacuation inhabitants of the city and the mexicans doesn't intermingle and for Brittany's family this is a disaster. What would their neighbours think if they saw a gangmember knocking on their door? It gets worse.. Brittany falls head over heels for Alex.

My thoughts:
Perfect Chemistry was a beautiful love story. I carried the book with me everywhere and read whenever I had a second to spare. The story reminded me of a modern mix between Westside Story and Romeo & Juliet. Westside Story is the first movie I have a really strong memory of watching actually, I was quite young the first time I saw it. I remember I could cry just thinking of the story for days later.

I instantly connected with Brittany as a character, not that I'm like her but her world feels so real and I felt myself empathizing with her. As for Alex he was one likable bad boy, he really wasn't all that bad he was just looking out for his loved ones, I think I fell for him just as hard as Brittany did. He might be up there on my fictional boyfriend list along with Jane Austens Captain Wenthworth.

Author Simone Elkeles has taken inspiration from a town near Lake Michigan, where the Caucasian and the Mexican inhabitants in a very little degree interact with each other. Elkeles does something wonderful with her story, she reminds the reader that everything might not be what it appears on the outside. It's not uncommon for young adults to build an image that isn't true to who they really are as a person on the inside.

I recommend this book for girls up to 100 years ++

Book trailer:

The cover:

Kind of sexy romantic :) Just like the relationship in the novel.

My rating of this book:

5 stars out of 5

Want a second opinion? Check out these reviews written by some of my book blogging friends:
i.eat.words.
Marie loves books

Want to know more?
Add Perfect Chemistry on your Goodreads wishlist
Visit Perfect Chemistry's homepage
Visit Simone Elkeles homepage
Visit Simones fan page on Facebook
Follow Simone on Twitter

Perfect Chemistry by Siomone Elkeles

Published: 2010
Pages(paperback): 360
Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0802798225 (ISBN13: 9780802798220)
Full disclosure: My copy was provided by the Norwegian publisher for an honest review. 

This book can be purchased from a number of local retailers and on-line book stores such as Amazon or The Book Depository (I'm not an affiliate of either). The latter store does by the way have free shipping to about 100 countries.