Review: Partials (Partials #1) by Dan Wells

Partials (Partials #1)

by Dan Wells

Published: February 28th 2012 by Balzer + Bray

The human race is all but extinct after a war with Partials—engineered organic beings identical to humans—has decimated the population. Reduced to tens of thousands by RM, a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island while the Partials have mysteriously retreated. The threat of the Partials is still imminent, but worse, no baby has been born immune to RM in more than a decade. Our time is running out.

Kira, a sixteen-year-old medic in training, is on the front lines of this battle, seeing RM ravage the community while mandatory pregnancy laws threaten to launch what’s left of humanity into civil war, and she’s not content to stand by and watch. But as she makes a desperate decision to save the last of her race, she will discover that the survival of humans and Partials alike rests in her attempts to uncover the connections between them—connections that humanity has forgotten, or perhaps never even knew were there.

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My Review

It is the year of 2076. Sixteen-year-old Kira Walker works gathering data from dead human babies in order to help researchers find a cure for the deadly virus RM that killed most of the human race during the Break.

The Senate controls everything and everyone and has approved the Hope Act, which makes it obligatory for every fertile female to start breeding from the age of eighteen. They hope that the more babies are born, the bigger the chances one of them will survive longer than three days, becoming somehow immune to the RM.

When there is talk about the Senate wanting to drop the pregnancy age to sixteen, the Voice of People (a group of terrorists that disagree with the breach of human rights that is the Hope Act and all the intense control the Senate inflicts on people) start to attack the perimeter of the city, burning things and killing innocents

But even an even worse threat than the Voice are the Partials. Machines with human DNA built to be stronger and faster, made to protect the humans and fight for them during war times... until they turned against their makers and released the RM virus on all mankind.

Kira is tired of seeing babies die and mothers suffer from their yearly losses. So she decides to look for a cure herself. There are great amounts of data on how the virus works in the infants it infects, but not much in how the survivors became immune to it. After a lot of researching, she comes to the conclusion that the ones who created the virus should have the cure in their blood. Kira gathers all her most trustworthy friends and asks them for help with capturing a Partial for study. After a lot of debate and hesitation, they have it all planned out, but the Partials are so much more powerful than they could have imagined, and only with much luck do they get one as a prisoner... just so the soldiers of the Senate can have him killed. But the Partial is saved by the bell. The senators decide they want to 'interview'

Kira intervenes and is allowed to study him for five days, on the agreement that afterwards the specimen is to be exterminated. The Partial, Samm, turns out to be brighter, more complex and more human than she was led to believe. He may also carry the secret to cure the virus. A virus he insists his kind did not create. Samm starts to make Kira doubt everything she's ever been taught. He also needs her help. Their only hope, for either of them, is to work together.

Sometimes your enemies aren't as bad as you were led to believe... and your heroes aren't nearly as good as they claim to be.

Partials was just pure action, packed with a whole lot of tension, drama and polemic issues. Teenagers being forced to breed like cattle for the survival of the species, a government controlling every single breath you take, hiding and distorting every piece of information to keep you under their thumbs, machines that are also part human...

You won't regret it. I bet my firstborn on it. Well....maybe. LOL. Seriously, you'll love it. When I first saw that cover, I just knew I had to read it. The synopsis almost blew my head off, it sounded so good. I'm glad it delivered everything it promised and more!! I devoured the whole thing in one afternoon, in one sitting. I just wish I had the next volume in my hands already. Oh, the waiting!!! Dan Wells, will you hurry up, pretty please? *-* (BTW, a love triangle with Samm really wouldn't hurt, now, would it? ;))

If you like creative, fast-paced Young Adult books with science fiction,post Apocalyptic and dystopian themes, GO FOR IT. If you don't, just read it, anyway! Or you'll be missing out on a really awesome new series. ;P

Stacking The Shelves #24

Stacking The Shelves is all about the books we are adding to our shelves each week, sharing with you our excitement for our newest titles and maybe have you discover a new book in the process!

This new feature is hosted by Tynga from Tynga's Reviews.

This week I got:

From an online store:

Beautiful Creatures

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Eve

Variant

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Don't they look gorgeous?
I'm feeling very pleased with myself right now. :D

What did you get this week?

Great book. Don't judge it by its cover.

'How to screw in the dark'

So... don't judge a book by its cover. LOL.

Review: Thorn by Intisar Khanani

Thorn
by Intisar Khanani

Published May 25th 2012 by Intisar Khanani

Princess Alyrra’s strength lies in silence. Scorned by her family, she avoids the court, spending her time with servants. When her marriage is unexpectedly arranged with the prince of a powerful neighboring kingdom, Alyrra feels trapped. As the court celebrates her match, dark rumors spread about the unexplained deaths of the women of her new family. Alyrra begins her journey with mounting trepidation; betrayed while traveling, she seizes an opportunity to start a life away from court.

Walking away from a prince whom she doesn’t know should have been easy. But from the moment she sets eyes on him, Alyrra realizes that her freedom could cost him his life. Without any magical defense of her own, she is plunged into a lethal game of sorcery and deceit. Now Alyrra must decide whom she can trust and what she’s willing to fight for—before her silence proves fatal.

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Publication Date: May 25th 2012

Publisher: Intisar Khanani

Format: e-book, 264 pages 

Series: no

Source: Review copy from author
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My Review

Princess Alyrra is not sure why the King from a much bigger Kingdom has arrived to her family's castle. She's much too busy most of the time, what with trying to escape from her brother's violence and avoiding her mother's coldness and pretty much any other member of the court, all of which seem to hate her. So she simply assumed the King was there for some political reason. And, as she quickly finds out, he technically is... but it involves her. She is to marry his son, a man she has never seen before, and is said to be cold and mean. But Alyrra has little choice in the matter. And, really, how worse can her life be from the one she already has?

Alyrra is sad to part with her beloved horse, Fleet Wind, and the servants of the palace, the only ones who treated her like a friend. She will also miss her invisible friend, the one who has always been there to listen and comfort her, ever since she was but a child. Her friend, The Wind. 

Shortly before leaving, Alyrra receives a strange visit in her room. A man appears out of the shadows, wanting to speak to her and warn her of the incoming trip. Before he can say much more, a scary woman, a witch, breaks into her room, too. She calls herself The Lady, and seems to have evil plans concerning both Alyrra and the strange man. The intruders disappear as quickly as they have come, and Alyrra is left alone, confused by it all. When she tell her mother about it, she crafts a blood spell, binding Alyrra's strength to it, suposedly to protect her from The Lady. Her mother also tells her that a companion will travel with her, a noblewoman, Valka, who hates Alyrra. Her brother gifts her with a beautiful white horse, seemly unbreakable and untamable, most likely in the hope that she tries to ride it and hurts herself while doing it, she muses.

On the trip to the new Kingdom, Alyrra tries to free the white horse, speaking softly to it while doing so. Valka tricks Alyrra into drinking from a lake, and The Lady surges out of the water and overpowers the princess. She uses the spell Alyrra's mother made (and warned her to carry around with her) to make an even bigger spell. The Lady transfers Alyrra's soul into Valka's body and vice versa. The witch also puts a magic choker around the princess/Valka's throat, to keep her form speaking about the exchange to anyone.

Now the princess is imprisoned inside Valka's body, and at the mercy of the power the woman inside her old body now holds. Alyrra, who could not stand being called Valka, names herself Thorn and starts to accept the situation as an oportunity to start a new life, away from court. She becomes a goose girl. WIth the help of the magic white horse, Falada, who returns after being freed, Thorn will make powerful friends and just as powerful enemies, all who will be very important characters in this fantastic tale, filled with pain, betrayal, trust and magic.

This book is a retelling of the fairytale "Goose Girl", one I wasn't familiar with, but that Wikipedia quickly explained. I found Thorn to be incredibly faithful to the original story.

I enjoyed this book much more than I expected to. It was very engrossing, and I read it very quickly. Alyrra was an interesting character, and so were the -many- other secondary ones. Intisar Khanani has a very good way with words and a very fertile imagination, LOL. So fertile that this book was almost too much. It had a lot to the plot. A lot. The book mentions too much and explains too little. It made the story quite unpredictable, because I was never sure what would be introduced next... and there was so much to cover, that the ending was very... dull. We don't see how Alyrra makes her family regret mistreating her. We don't see how she changes the laws to stop those terrible crimes from going unpunished. We don't even see her grow very much. She continues to be as she was when the book started: easily swayed and almost incapable of making decisions by herself. She makes some good choices, sure, but only after being driven into making those decisions. That was a bit of a let down. 

Also, I don't see how or when exactly she fell for the prince. I mean, I see how he fell for her, but nothing pointed towards the existence of her feelings for him. I was expecting her to fall for pretty much anyone. The lead Thief. One of the stable boys. The chief of the Prince's Guard. But not for the prince... but then again, the focus of this book is adventure and fantasy, not really romance. I also wasn't expecting so many deaths in a YA book...but they did fit in very well.

Anyway, even with the small things that did bother me, it was still a very enjoyable read! One that I recommend. ;) It was an excellent first book, and I'll be sure to look out for the next ones by this new author.

* I received an e-copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.*

The entrance of a bookstore (in Lyon)

What if I took one of those books on the side...? :P

Teaser Tuesday #39

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along, just do as 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 any spoilers so as not to ruin the book for others.

Make sure to share the title and the author so other TT participants can add the book to their TBR piles.



"He was going to have a scar - like that mattered?
He slapped a Band-Aid on the thing, and didn't bother with the antibiotic stuff. He was far more likely to die from Smith & Weston-related lead poisoning than any skin infection."

Crave (The Fallen Angels #2)
by J.R. Ward

Pocket paperback, page 142. 

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Dude. That's totally what Khal Drogo thought... and look what happened to him! :P

This one is my first book by the famous Ms. Ward. Yup, I started on the second book of a series. Go, me. LOL. After I finally sort of sorted things out enough to get into the story, I went straight into an action-packed ride. A very hot ride. :P 

The book is filled with correction mistakes, though. And there's a lot of question marks missing. LOL. But maybe that's just how the author writes.

Anyway, what is your teaser this week?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? #36

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Book Journey. 

Welcome to It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading?  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

I'm Currently Reading:


Finished:

Last Reviews posted:
Review: Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Early Review: Velveteen by Daniel Marks
Early Review: Yesterday by C.K. Kelly Martin

Next Reads:

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What are you reading this week?

Stacking The Shelves #23

Stacking The Shelves is all about the books we are adding to our shelves each week, sharing with you our excitement for our newest titles and maybe have you discover a new book in the process!

This new feature is hosted by Tynga from Tynga's Reviews.

This week I got:

From an online trade:

Play Dead

(Doesn't that look awesome?)

The Demon Trapper's Daughter

(I've heard so many good things about this one)

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What did you get this week?

Kids reacting to books in the future

I don't think we're very far from that (please disregard the high tech gadgets from the 80's, of course. LOL). 

Because who needs books when you have swag, right? YOLO... >.>



And that actually reminds me of a part of the movie High School High. Click and see if you agree. 

#FF - Feature and Follow #33

Feature and Follow is hosted by Alison Can Read and Parajunkee's View.
Lovely button by Reading Into Hiding.

Q: What is the BIGGEST word you’ve seen used in a book lately – that made you stop and look it up? Might as well leave the definition & book too.

Okay, so these aren't exactly big words, and I did get the general meaning from the complete phrase, but it's the only thing that I could think of to use as an answer here:

"(...) To be this pale in real life I'd have to have been the most simpering, lily-livered dandy ever to grace London. I confess I may have been a bit of a dandy, but I never simpered."

That was declared by Colin Ames-Beaumont, british vampire, in the book Demon Moon by Meljean Brook. It has a very unfortunate cover, but turned out to be very entertaining. :)

Let's get to the definitions, then:

* sim·per  (smpr)

v. sim·pered, sim·per·ing, sim·pers

v.intr.

To smile in a silly, self-conscious, often coy manner.

v.tr.

To utter or express with a silly, self-conscious, often coy smile: simpered a lame excuse.

* dan·dy  (dnd)

n. pl. dan·dies

1. A man who affects extreme elegance in clothes and manners; a fop.

* lil·y-liv·ered (ll-lvrd)

adj.

Cowardly; timid.

There were many other unconventional words in this book I could have chosen, such as scientific and technical terms, Hindi expressions, and names of indian herbs... but I thought these would be  funnier. :)

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If you're a new follower on GFC or Networked Blogs, please let me know and I will be glad to return the favor. :)

Review: Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Pushing the Limits
by Katie McGarry

Published August 3rd 2012 by Mira Ink

No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with "freaky" scars on her arms. Even Echo can't remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal. But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo's world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible.Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she'll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.

Genre: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction

Publication Date: August 3rd 2012

Publisher: Mira Ink

Format: eARC, 416 pages 

Series: yes

Source: Netgalley
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My Review

First line: "My father is a control freak, I hate my stepmother, my brother is dead and my mother has... well... issues. How do you think I'm doing?"

Last line: "Yes, but I'm driving."

Favorite quote: Luke used to give me butterflies. Noah spawned mutant pterodactyls.

Two years ago, there was an accident... and now Echo Emerson is no longer the same girl she used to be. She has to do therapy, which was "strongly encouraged" by Child Protective Services. She can't see her bipolar mom, thanks to a restraining order her father filed for. She's still grieving for her brother, who died in Afghanistan. She can't stand her new stepmom, who is now pregnant, and her father, who seems eager to control her life for her. Oh, and she can't go anywhere without long sleeves or gloves, in order to hide the most horrible scars on her wrists and the inside of her arms. Scars of what happened two years ago... on the night she can't remember. A night nobody seems to want her to remember.

Echo's new school therapist seems like a good enough person, but Echo really isn't interested in therapy. She just wants to fix her dead brother's car and get over high school. But to fix said car, she needs money... money her rich father won't give her. So Mrs. Collins, her therapist, suggests a job. A tutoring job. Sounds easy enough, right? Except for the guy she's supposed to tutor....

Noah Hutchins is smoking-hot, super bad boy material. (Heavy emphasis on 'smoking'). He smokes pot, he skips school, he sleeps with a different girl every night, and his stepparents couldn't care less about him... and now he can barely see his brothers, because the State won't allow him visitation privileges. All because he hit his first foster father to stop him from hitting his own biological son. Go figure. Noah used to be the perfect, popular, good guy jock type, but after a fire killed his parents, life has been very different for him. Now he wants custody of his brothers, but to have that, he needs to change. Starting with his attendance and grades, which is why Mrs. Collins, his new social worker/therapist, talks him into being tutored. Like he has time to sit around and have some stupid brainiac tell him how dumb they think he is. 

Noah and Echo are two opposites... with a lot in common. And now they have to decide what they want from their lives. To either keep ignoring the feelings blossoming between them, or to accept them and fight for their right to be happy, and screw what others think of them.

I've been hearing praise for Pushing the Limits for months now... and I have to admit that neither the cover nor the blurb interested me... however, after getting tired of seeing people gushing over it, I decided to -finally- give it a try. And I really enjoyed it!

Echo is a walking, talking bomb, waiting to explode. I wanted her to just remember everything and be free! I loved how her art and talent were incorporated in the story so perfectly, I loved the mythological references, I loved to see her get over things. What I didn't love was how she just took the bullshit her father and so-called friends threw at her. Oh, and she forgave them way too easily... I'm pretty sure I'd still hold a grudge over her father, stepmom AND that bitch Grace. But maybe that's just my black/nonexistent heart talking. No. She really did forgive them way too soon.

Noah was a delight. Such a complex character! So strong, so self-confident, so grown-up, and, yet, so vulnerable and angry. Understandably so, of course. The State really did help make his life even more miserable than it already was after he lost his parents. It was funny seeing how he lost it everytime Echo was around. Very cute to see such a... hard person soften like that. He really needed some luv.

I like mature YA's liek this one becuase they don't try to pretend teenagers are saints, all pure and nice. No, they freaking fight, curse, drink, use drugs, and, OMG! O.O They have sex. Yup. Echo remained a virgin throughout the book, sure, but this was still a lot more believable than most YA's out there... but I guess that's what parents want, right? To pretend nothing like that is happening. If books don't have those things in them, then surely they don't happen in real life... Yeah, right. :P

Aaaaaaanyway, I digress. I really liked this book, with characters with real-life problems and feelings.... if not for some weak moments and stupid decisions from Echo, of course. I was also surprised to find out this one is a series. From the way the book ended, I would have never expected it to be. Things wrapped-up so nicely... but I might still check the next book.

If you like realist fiction with your YA, then you'll really enjoy Pushing the Limits.

* I received an eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Great idea for sale

Don't you just love it? *evil laugh*

Best Book Ever!

I need to get a copy for my future children. :) Along with a gun, of course. 

Stacking The Shelves #22

Stacking The Shelves is all about the books we are adding to our shelves each week, sharing with you our excitement for our newest titles and maybe have you discover a new book in the process!

This new feature is hosted by Tynga from Tynga's Reviews.

This week I got:

From an online trade:

Guardian of the Dead

Divergent

The Body Finder

Oh, and mom got me this lovely mug with all my favorite memes. *-* So pretty!!!

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What did you get this week?

When My Parents Said 'Let's Buy You A New Bookshelf'

LMAO!!! Been there. And still am. :P

#FF - Feature and Follow #32

Feature and Follow is hosted by Alison Can Read and Parajunkee's View.
Lovely button by Reading Into Hiding.

 Q: What hyped up book do you think was worth all the talk?

Oooh, I have been anxiously waiting for this question. :P

I was quite surprised with all the hype around Shadow and Bone and Pushing the Limits. I actually hesitated to join in for a couple of months... until, against my better judgement and fear of being disappointed, I went to Netgalley and gave them a chance.

Boy, was I right to risk it. I just LOVED Shadow and Bone and quite enjoyed Pushing the Limits. :)

_____________________________

If you're a new follower on GFC or Networked Blogs, please let me know and I will be glad to return the favor. :)

Early Review: Velveteen by Daniel Marks

Velveteen (Velveteen #1)
by Daniel Marks

Expected publication: October 9th 2012 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Velveteen Monroe is dead. At 16, she was kidnapped and murdered by a madman named Bonesaw. But that’s not the problem.

The problem is she landed in purgatory. And while it’s not a fiery inferno, it’s certainly no heaven. It’s gray, ashen, and crumbling more and more by the day, and everyone has a job to do. Which doesn’t leave Velveteen much time to do anything about what’s really on her mind.

Bonesaw.

Velveteen aches to deliver the bloody punishment her killer deserves. And she’s figured out just how to do it. She’ll haunt him for the rest of his days.

It’ll be brutal... and awesome.

But crossing the divide between the living and the dead has devastating consequences. Velveteen’s obsessive haunting cracks the foundations of purgatory and jeopardizes her very soul. A risk she’s willing to take—except fate has just given her reason to stick around: an unreasonably hot and completely off-limits coworker.

Velveteen can’t help herself when it comes to breaking rules... or getting revenge. And she just might be angry enough to take everyone down with her.

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal

Publication Date: Oct 9th, 2012

Publisher: Delacorte Books

Format: eARC, 464 pages 

Series: yes

Source: Netgalley

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My Review

First line: When Velveteen Monrow pictured Bonesaw's house -and she did, more often than could be considered healthy- blood striped the paint a muddy reddish-brown, internal organs floated in jars of formaldehyde, and great big taxidermy crows leered from branches that twisted from the wall like palsied arms.

Last line: Again.

Favorite quote: Could he actually be a decent guy?
Hard to imagine.
He was pretty to look at, though, she thought. Boys weren't objectified nearly enough, and turnabout is always fair play.

Sixteen year-old Velveteen Monroe was murdered by the psychopath/looks-like-the-boy-next-door Bonesaw. Now she's stuck in purgatory for who knows how long. There she is the leader of the Salvage team, i.e., they 'salvage souls  that don't have any business in the daylight'. She works as a body thief, and really enjoys her job. But Velvet won't be able to really rest in purgatory until she can have her revenge on her killer. 

When she finds a hidden crack through the veil between the world of the living and the dead, she goes for it. She starts to haunt him. And that is the WORST thing she could ever do. Haunting is against the law. It's pretty much the only serious offense a soul can be charged with in purgatory... which is why she's keeping it a secret from everyone.

Every once in a while, something triggers small parts of her memory back. Memories from those days. Her days at the mercy of Bonesaw. Bloody, painful scenes that makes us hurt, too. And they just serve to reinforce her decision to make him suffer as much as possible. 

However, she starts to slightly waver in her decision when she rescues her fifty-seventh soul: a very handsome, very sweet young guy named Nick. Nick seems to quickly gain everybody's sympathy and friendship, especially from those that are part of her Salvage team, which he soon joins. Velvet is torn between feeling jealous about him becoming so close and dear to her best friends so quickly, and being happy that he is such a good influence to them. Oh, and she can't decide exactly how she feels about him. Annoyed? Absolutely. Attracted? Well... yes! Uncomfortable? That's for sure. Thankful? Sometimes. :P

As if trying not to fall for her newest rescued soul while doing her best to haunt and drive her killer to commit suicide wasn't hard enough, now there's a revolution starting underground, and every single one of Velvet's mentors are acting suspiciously... 

The first chapter of Velveteen really sucks you in. It's very abrupt, very raw, very shocking. It's awesome. But then things slow down. Excessively. There were moments I almost gave the book up, things were so dull... then we get to the middle of the book. And that's when things get interesting. From middle to end, I got totally caught up into it again. I have to say it was worth the waiting. ;)

This is a very different book from the usual YAs out there. It way, after all, written by a guy, even if the main character IS a girl. It somehow just made her more believable, in my opinion. The same goes for her relationship with Nick. Teenagers (and, let's face it, adults, too) aren't nice and cuddly, YA writers! They are mean, horny, and selfish. Even if they do have their good moments. And reality isn't all about cute romance, butterflies and happy endings. The world is NOT a nice place. And Daniel Marks was able to capture every single realistic aspect (while still making it very readable, if slightly gruesome) in this fantastical/paranormal tale. Velveteen rocked.

If you're looking for something different and refreshing, with an imperfect and bloodthirsty heroine (repeatedly called a super bitch) and a very cool, very crushable hero, then you'll go bananas over Velveteen, just like yours truly.

* I received an eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

I know that I am... are you? (Book Sniffers Anonymous)

I do that all the time (except with very old or moldy books, of course). Surely I'm not the only one. LOL. I specially love the new ones... the smell of a book 'fresh from the oven print' is my favorite.

My friends make fun of me for it, though. I am NOT ashamed to say I do it!

Book sniffers, UNITE!!!