Best of the Bunch - June 2014

Best of the Bunch is a book blog hop hosted over at Always Lost in Stories on the last day of each month, where we can look back over the books we have read over this past month and give a Best of the Bunch award to our favorite book of that month.

June 2014

I've felt l've been in a little bit of a reading slump this month (no horrible books, just books that were good, but not great).  But when I look back over my reviews, I realize that it was better than I remembered.  It's nice to put it in perspective!

This month I reviewed the following:

• The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker | Review | Rating: 5/5
• Of Stardust by February Grace | Review | Rating 4/5
• I Am the Weapon by Allen Zadoff | Review | Rating 4.5/5
• Time Return by Micah Caida | Review | Rating 4/5

• Time Lock by Micah Caida | Review | Rating 4.5/5
• Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan | Review | Rating 4/5
• Rematch by Janine Caldwell | Review | Rating 4/5
• Double Fault by Janine Caldwell | Review | Rating 4/5

• Deuce by Janine Caldwell | Review | Rating 3.5/5
• Afterlife Academy by Jaime Admans | Review 3/5
• Talented by Sophie Davis | Review | Rating 3.5/5
• Invisible Magic by Mary Buckham | Review | Rating: 3.5/5

• The One by Kiera Cass | Review | Rating 4.5/5
• Your Perfect Life by Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke | Review | Rating 3.5/5
• Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta | Review | Rating 5/5
• This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner | Mini Review | Rating 5/5

• After the Parch by Sheldon Greene | Review | Rating 3.5/5

And my June 2014 Best of the Bunch winner is . . .

This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

I wasn't sure if I should include This Shattered World this month or not because I didn't do a full review of it yet (the book's not being released until December).  But, I eventually decided that I just had to include it because December is just too far away and it didn't seem fair to wait six months after I read the book to include it in my Best of the Bunch.  I loved this one even more than These Broken Stars (which won my Best of the Bunch just last month)!

Summary: The second installment in our epic Starbound trilogy introduces a new pair of star-crossed lovers on two sides of a bloody war.

Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac should never have met.

Lee is captain of the forces sent to Avon to crush the terraformed planet's rebellious colonists, but she has her own reasons for hating the insurgents.

Rebellion is in Flynn's blood. Terraforming corporations make their fortune by recruiting colonists to make the inhospitable planets livable, with the promise of a better life for their children. But they never fulfilled their promise on Avon, and decades later, Flynn is leading the rebellion.

Desperate for any advantage in a bloody and unrelentingly war, Flynn does the only thing that makes sense when he and Lee cross paths: he returns to base with her as prisoner. But as his fellow rebels prepare to execute this tough-talking girl with nerves of steel, Flynn makes another choice that will change him forever. He and Lee escape the rebel base together, caught between two sides of a senseless war.

The stunning second novel in the Starbound trilogy is an unforgettable story of love and forgiveness in a world torn apart by war.

My Review

    

Runners Up:

Random Reads Review - After the Parch by Sheldon Greene

Title: After the Parch

Author: Sheldon Greene

Release Date: March 1, 2014

Pages: 220
Goodreads Rating: 3.10 Stars

My Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

My Content Rating: Adult (Sex, including sex involving a child; Some violence)

Summary from Goodreads: It's 2075. California is nothing like we know it. The USA has broken up and California has become an independent refuge dominated by a single omnipotent corporation. Eighteen-year-old Bran, a shepherd, is given a mission to traverse the California republic in ten days, in order to save his rural community from forfeiting its land. On the way, he teams up with a seventeen-year-old girl who has the skills and prowess of a warrior, an eleven-year-old wild boy with uncanny survival skills, and a wandering musician with a secret revolutionary agenda. 

After the Parch is a fast-paced, vivid, dystopian fantasy with a chilling resemblance to the way we are, and a vision of what we might become. 

This is one of those books that's a little bit hard for me to review because there was nothing tangible that held me back from really enjoying it, but I just didn't connect with the characters as well as I wanted to.

The story follows Bran as he travels to purchase the rights to the land his people live on before a mining company takes over.  The book takes place in the future after a worldwide drought has caused chaos.  Bran has lived most of his life in a small self-sustaining community and has been taught to trust no one on the outside.  But when his journey goes wrong, he finds that he has to depend on strangers if he wants to complete his task - and survive.

The negatives:

• Lack of connection.  Like I said, the main reason that this book doesn't get a higher rating from me was because I just didn't connect to the characters all that much.  I'm not exactly sure why.  I think that the characters were relatively well-developed, but I just didn't empathize with them.  I wish that I could give solid reasoning why, but unfortunately, this was just one of those cases when I can't really define the issue.  I simply didn't feel anything for these characters much of the time (at least not strongly). June was the one exception to this.
• Attitude about sex.  Sex is handled very cavalierly in this book.  In this version of the future, re-population is important, so sex is seen as something necessary and natural.  I suppose I understand this, but I just wasn't crazy about it.  At one point an 11-year-old boy has sex and it's noted with little comment (a slight thought that he was kind of young).  Bran has sex with June (the girl who is traveling with them - who was being prepared to be a prostitute) even though he's supposedly devoted to his mate back home.  He says that the sex doesn't matter, but then also wonders what his mate would think if she saw him - and June obviously feels something for Bran.  I just couldn't quite get on board with the idea that sex meant nothing.

What I enjoyed:

• The worldbuilding. I thought that Greene created an interesting dystopian world and did a good job at worldbuilding.  The breakdown of the government felt realistic and there was plenty of explanation about how the world got to its current state.
• June.  June (the 17-year-old girl who is mentioned in the synopsis) is the one character in this book who I truly liked.  She had spunk, strength and character.  She had been in an interesting environment - on the one hand, she was educated and fed and treated well, but she was being groomed to basically be sold to a man.  In this dystopian society some girls might have been happy to be taken care of, but June wanted her freedom.  But she was also willing to risk that freedom to help Bran and the others in their group.  June wasn't perfect, but she was trying her best in a world with few options.  June was the one character in the book that I truly cared about.
• The ending.  The ending of this book is sort of introspective, leaving Bran with some lessons learned and a new sense of what it means to be a citizen of the world.  I really liked the note that the book ended on.  It has stayed with me.  I liked the overall message that Greene put forth in the book - that we cannot stand alone, or even just in our own little communities, that we need to reach out and think about the needs of others - even those we may not know and may never know.  A worthy message.

So, overall, I enjoyed this book, but I would have enjoyed it more if Greene had been able to give me a deeper connection to his characters.  I give After the Parch 3.5/5 stars.

***Disclosure: This book was provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given. All opinions are my own***

Sunday Post & Giveaways Galore 6/29/14

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It's a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on my blog and share news about what's coming up in the week ahead. 

Last week on FYFA:

On Friday, I was featured over on The Masquerade Crew!  Head over there to check it out and to learn a bit more about me!

I haven't been doing as many tours this month because I'm trying to catch up on reading some books from my TBR that I haven't gotten to yet (and some BEA books and random review books).  So, not too many giveaways posted this week.  Lots of other stuff, though!  Check out what you may have missed:

• The One by Kiera Cass (review)
• Top Ten Cover Trends I Love (or Hate) - Find out what makes me love a cover!
• Your Perfect Life by Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke (review)
• Death Warmed Over by T. Michelle Nelson (spotlight & giveaway) - Still time to enter to win signed copies of the whole series!
• Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta (5 star review)
• This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner (Mini Review Preview)

Coming this week on FYFA:

• Destiny by Cindy Ray Hale (review)
• After the Parch by Sheldon Greene (review)
• Landline by Rainbow Rowell (review)
• The Rose Master by Valentino Cano (review & giveaway)

For Review:
(A couple of these are from past weeks - I missed them because Amazon changed the way it shows me my Kindle books and I didn't notice right away! Trial By Fire was from NetGalley.)

Other Current Giveaways on FYFA:

(Besides the ones that are listed above.)

• FREE YA Audiobooks All Summer Long - Don't forget to get your free downloads from SYNC!
• Time Return and Time Lock by Micah Caida - Still time to get the first book for free and to enter to win lots of awesome prizes!
• Fan Art by Sarah Tregay - Still time to  enter to win a signed ARC!
• Midsummer's Eve Giveaway Hop - Come join us!  Over 100 blogs are hosting giveaways!!  Last chance to win!

Even More Awesome Giveaways on Other Sites:

• June New Release Giveaway Hop - Lots of blogs participating!  Last chance to win!

Lots of good stuff!  Have any giveaways running on your site right now?  

Feel free to share them in the comments!

ARC Mini Review Preview - This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

Title:  This Shattered World
Series: Starbound #2
Author: Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

Release Date: December 23, 2014

Summary from Goodreads:  The second installment in our epic Starbound trilogy introduces a new pair of star-crossed lovers on two sides of a bloody war.

Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac should never have met.

Lee is captain of the forces sent to Avon to crush the terraformed planet's rebellious colonists, but she has her own reasons for hating the insurgents.

Rebellion is in Flynn's blood. Terraforming corporations make their fortune by recruiting colonists to make the inhospitable planets livable, with the promise of a better life for their children. But they never fulfilled their promise on Avon, and decades later, Flynn is leading the rebellion.

Desperate for any advantage in a bloody and unrelentingly war, Flynn does the only thing that makes sense when he and Lee cross paths: he returns to base with her as prisoner. But as his fellow rebels prepare to execute this tough-talking girl with nerves of steel, Flynn makes another choice that will change him forever. He and Lee escape the rebel base together, caught between two sides of a senseless war.

The stunning second novel in the Starbound trilogy is an unforgettable story of love and forgiveness in a world torn apart by war.

This Shattered World isn't going to be released until December, so I don't want to share my full review quite yet, but I definitely wanted to put this book on your radar.  So, I'm doing a little Mini Review Preview.  

Here's why you should be ready to love this book:

• Complex main characters who have strong, opposing beliefs (and neither of them are really wrong).
• Lots of action!!
• The mysteries of These Broken Stars continued.  Don't worry, you haven't seen the last of the Whispers (or of other old friends!).
• A slow-building romance that will make you swoon!

This Shattered World was even better than These Broken Stars, in my opinion.  I did not want to put this book down!!

Make sure to watch for this book in December!!

   

5 Star Review - Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta

Title: Froi of the Exiles

Series: Lumatere Chronicles #2

Author: Melina Marchetta

Release Date: October, 2011

Pages: 593

Goodreads Rating: 4.39/5 Stars

My Rating: 5/5 Stars

My Content Rating: Mature YA/Adult (Some sex, including assault; Some violence)

Summary from Goodreads:  Blood sings to blood, Froi . . . 

Those born last will make the first . . . 
For Charyn will be barren no more. 

Three years after the curse on Lumatere was lifted, Froi has found his home... Or so he believes...

Fiercely loyal to the Queen and Finnikin, Froi has been trained roughly and lovingly by the Guard sworn to protect the royal family, and has learned to control his quick temper. But when he is sent on a secretive mission to the kingdom of Charyn, nothing could have prepared him for what he finds. Here he encounters a damaged people who are not who they seem, and must unravel both the dark bonds of kinship and the mysteries of a half-mad Princess.

And in this barren and mysterious place, he will discover that there is a song sleeping in his blood, and though Froi would rather not, the time has come to listen.

***NOTE: This review may contain spoilers for the first book in the series.  Click on the link to read my review of Finnikin of the Rock.***

I had high expectations for this second book in the Lumatere Chronicles - everyone told me that it was even better than Finnikin of the Rock.  In some ways, the high praise made me nervous, but I shouldn't have been - the book definitely lived up to what everyone said!

What I loved:

• Complex characters (Froi).  One of the best things about this series is how complex the characters are.  After all, Froi nearly raped the Queen in book #1 and he's the hero in this book!  I have to confess that I was slightly skeptical of Froi as a main character - I wasn't completely and totally won over by him in the first book.  But he definitely won me over in this book - mainly because he didn't let himself off the hook.  Froi doesn't think that he can ever escape his past - who he was or the things he did while growing up on the streets.  He doesn't forgive himself.  Which gives us time to.  Reading the book from Froi's perspective, we realize what drove him, and we get to see how completely dedicated he is to becoming a better person.  The more that Froi learns about himself, the more he becomes convinced that he is truly hopeless - and the more the reader sees hope in him.  I loved that dichotomy!  Froi never became a complete knight in shining armor, but he was a hero nonetheless.
• Quintana.  Quintana is another complex character.  She is, in many ways, unlikable - constantly on the edge of madness, often savage.  But Froi saw strength in her, and he recognized her desperation.  He treats her with a kindness and a respect that no one else does - and we are able to see her through his eyes, as a person not a monster (which is how most people see her).  Once we learn the cause of her madness, Quintana's story becomes even more complex!
• Secondary characters.  There are many strong secondary characters in the book as well.  And, the lines between the "good guys" and the "bad guys" becomes increasingly blurry (which you know I love!!).  These characters are amazingly drawn - no two-dimensional characters here!
• Froi's quest.  On the one hand, Froi's quest is cut and dry - he is sent to kill the King.  But nothing stays so simple.  Froi learns things along the way that confuse him - he starts to question himself - to wonder where his loyalties lie (or, at least if they can lie in more than one place).  This book keeps you guessing - I never knew what was going to happen next!!

The negatives:

• The beginnings of the romance.  At first, I had a bit of trouble connecting with Quintana (because she was a bit unlikable), and I didn't quite see what Froi saw in her.  Her savage nature actually attracted Froi, but I didn't quite see it.  As the book went on, I was able to connect with the romance more, though.

Froi of the Exiles was an amazing follow up to Finnikin!  I can't wait to read Quintana of Charyn! 5/5 stars.

Books in the series:

Spotlight & Giveaway - Death Warmed Over by T. Michelle Nelson

Title: Death Warmed Over
Series: Lily Drake #3

Author: T. Michelle Nelson
Release Date: June 30, 2014

Summary from Goodreads: In the conclusion of the Lily Drake series, Lily must choose not only what is best for herself and her son, but for her people.  Her sword will be stained with blood through her efforts to preserve the lives of the people she loves, but she won’t be able to save them all.   

When a devastating loss crushes her will to live, can Lily go on and be the leader she has to be?  What is she willing to sacrifice to save others?

Death comes to everyone...even the Queen’s house...

What doesn't kill you will make you wish it did...

About the Author

T. Michelle Nelson became enamored with vampires at an early age when she watched George Hamilton in “Love at First Bite.” As she got older, her tastes leaned more toward the dark and morose, but her love of all things vampire never wavered.  Little has changed over the years, except now T.  makes up her own macabre stories of the undead… mixed with a splash of romance, tough heroines and tons of dark humor.

T. Michelle Nelson is a native of Benton, Kentucky and a graduate of Murray State University.  Currently she resides in a small town in Ohio, which is also the setting of her Lily Drake series.  The first two books in the series, Life and Death of Lily Drake and 'Til Death Do Us Part, are currently available at Barnes and Noble, Amazon or any of your other favorite online bookstores. A short story prequel The First Time is also available. Death Warmed Over, the third and final book of the series will release in late June.

When she isn’t writing, you can usually find her spending time with her son, singing out of key, watching B-Horror movies or discussing world problems with her little dog, Toadie.

Author Links:

   

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