Books and Sensibility

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Book Review : The Madman’s Daughter

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  • Release Date: January 29, 2013 
  • Genre: Sci-Fi/Historical
  •  Pages: 432
  • Publisher: Blazer + Bray (Harper Collins Children)


Synopsis : Inspired by H. G. Wells’s classic The Island of Dr. Moreau,The Madman’s Daughter is a dark and breathless Gothic thriller about the secrets we’ll do anything to know and the truths we’ll go to any lengths to protect. . . Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself in London—working as a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumors about her father’s gruesome experiments. But when she learns he is alive and continuing his work on a remote tropical island, she is determined to find out if the accusations are true.

. . . and you thought you had father issues. Juliet Moreau’s life has been world of hardship since her disgraced father, the mad Dr. Moreau,  abandoned her family leaving them to ruin. Years later a chance encounter leads Juliet to her father and his mysterious island inhabited by strange islanders.

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Audiobook Review : Days of Blood and Starlight

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” . . . Whatever went on in the ash fall landscape and blood crusted world of war where her creations went forth to do violence.  It wasn’t her concern. She conjured the bodies. That was all. What more could she possibly do ?“

“It was the deed that matter not words. Do the thing. Kill the monster. Change the world”

– Laini Taylor, Days of Blood and Starlight

  • Release Date: January 16th 2013
  • Length : 15 Hours 25 Minutes
  • Genre: Fantasy
  • Publisher : Hachette Audio

Synopsis: An art student and monster’s apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it. . . While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope. But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?


 Laini Taylor’s  Days of Blood and Starlight is the stunning continuation of the Daughter of Smoke and Bone story. I started this audio book the day it came out and I seriously did NOT want to finish it. Taylor’s beautifully written sequel continues the tumultuous tale of war, love and hope.

Placed on different  sides of a thousand-year-old war, Karou and Akiva have made their choice and now must  find some way of peace for their people, but a war this old doesn’t die so easily. Resurrections must continue, war must continue, but is their a place in this world for the  hopes and dreams of two lovers ?

Days of Blood and Starlight  is one of the most epic love stories you will read. Initially I was caught of guard by the insta-love in the first book, but the conflict and obstacles faced by Akiva and Karou will have you constantly wondering if love can prevail.

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Strictly Indie: The Coincedence of Callie and Kayden

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A month long dedication to  indie/self-published YA novels

Synopsis: There are those who don’t get luck handed to them on a shiny platter, who end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, who don’t get saved.
Luck was not on Callie’s side the day of her twelfth birthday when everything was stolen from her. After it’s all over, she locks up her feelings and vows never to tell anyone what happened. Six years later her painful past consumes her life and most days it’s a struggle just to breathe.
For as long as Kayden can remember, suffering in silence was the only way to survive life. As long as he did what he was told, everything was okay. One night, after making a terrible mistake, it seems like his life might be over. Luck was on his side, though, when Callie coincidentally is in the right place at the right time and saves him.

Hiding from a traumatic childhood secret, Callie Lawrence was always known as “Anorexic, Devil Worshiping Callie” in high school. But for her freshman year at the University of Wyoming, Callie plans to make a fresh start.  Until she bumps into Kayden Owens, the rich golden boy from high school who  is hiding the daily physical abuse he faces at the fists of his  father. Guided by Callie’s college version of bucket list, they learn together how to heal and love again.

I’m not one for GIFs and don’t usually use GIFs in reviews, but if there is one that sums up this book it is probably this one:

It seems like everybody in this book is hiding, running or suffering from a traumatic past.

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Strictly Indie : The Crimson Hunt by Victoria H Smith

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 Books and Sensibility’s month long dedication to indie 

It’s hard to be in the YA book blogging world without noticing all the upcoming indie novels and novelists. So, to open myself up to  more independent and self published authors, I am   going Strictly Indie for the month of May. I will be focusing on reviewing, discussing and posting about indie novels and even have a few guest posts along the way. 

  • Release Date: November 12th 2012
  • Pages: 340 pages
  • Genre: Science Fiction Romance
  • Price: $3.99 ebook; 13.99 paperback

Synopsis: Ariel
Richmond’s everyday life consists of wrangling in her crazy best
friend, Piper avoiding her enemy Lila Hicks and finding salvation in her art, and the peanut butter brownie at her favorite cafe Demitasse.
But, the day Ariel makes eyes with Luca Grinaldi, murder and death begin to surround her. Ariel soon learns that people aren’t just dying–they are being hunted. And she and Luca’s meeting is a not just a coincidence, but destiny.

I’ve been following the publication of this novel since I happened upon Victoria’s blog for a contest. At the time she was being repped by Curiosity Quills, but deferred to self publish. It’s been interesting reading her blog and seeing the journey she has taken to self publication.

The Crimson Hunt is my first voyage into the New Adult category and I can definitely see the appeal. Being in their early 20’s New Adult characters are slightly more mature than YA characters, but still in the “I’m invincible” stage common to YA. While some Big Six publishers are dipping their toes in to the NA water, indie authors are heading in full force.


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Strictly Indie: Callum and Harper by Fisher Amelie

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 Books and Sensibility’s month long dedication to indie ! 

It’s hard to be in the YA book blogging world without noticing all the upcoming indie novels and novelists. So, to open myself up to  more independent and self published authors, I am   going Strictly Indie for the month of May. I will be focusing on reviewing, discussing and posting about indie novels and even have a few guest posts along the way. 

 

  • Release Date: December 24th 2011
  • Pages: 256 pages
  • Genre: Contemporary Romance
  • Price: $2.99 ebook; 8.99 paperback

Callum and Harper is my first real look into the world of self-published novels. Now, to be honest, I am writing this review 6 months after reading this book and I don’t have many notes, so this review will focus more on my experience with the novel.

The titular Callum Tate and Harper Bailey are a pair of teens who recently aged out of the foster care system. They meet at the Social Services office and told their only option for housing is in one of New York City’s homeless shelters. The story follows the couple as they work, study and struggle to  make a better life for themselves together.

Being my first indie, the writing in this book was better than I expected. Fisher seems to really know ins and outs of New York City and the music scene the characters spend a lot of time in.

The story is told in alternating first person POVs and as I was reading them I would often forget which POV I was reading. Callum and Harper didn’t have the voice distinction. The characters were strong as a couple, but couldn’t hold their own as individuals.

One of the plots in this novel involves a boy from Harper’s past who is a a psychotic killer and starts hunting her down. This plot line felt a little melodramatic at times and  took the focus away from the main story. I wish Amelie had stuck to keeping the story based on the growth of a relationship, the plot that worked great for the first half of the book.

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Book Review : Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld and Illustrated by Keith Thompson (Leviathan #2)

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“Gravity was something you could beat; all it took was hydrogen, hot air or even a bit of rope. But being a girl was a miserable never-ending struggle.”

                                                  -Scott Westerfeld, Behemoth

  • Release Date: October 5th 2010                                                                 
  • Genre: Fantasy/ Alternate History
  • Publisher: Simon Pulse
  • Pages: 485

Synopsis: The behemoth is the fiercest creature in the British navy. It can swallow enemy battleships with one bite. The Darwinists will need it, now that they are at war with the Clanker powers. Deryn is a girl posing as a boy in the British Air Service, and Alek is the heir to an empire posing as a commoner. Finally together aboard the airship Leviathan, they hope to bring the war to a halt. But when disaster strikes the Leviathan’s peacekeeping mission, they find themselves alone and hunted in enemy territory.

  The second book in the Leviathan series picks up where Leviathan left off. Together our protagonists; the exiled Austrain Prince Alek and the Scottish midshipman Deryn Sharp masquerading as a boy, land in Istanbul. This melting pot city steeped in tradition is about to get rocked at its center.

Here the two get wrapped up in secret military missions, a revolution and a conspiracy. This novel focuses on the growth of the friendship between Alek and Dylan/Deryn. Deryn now has to deal with figuring out how much longer she can lie to Alek and how her lies are impacting their friendship.

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