Rivals in the City by Y.S. Lee

Rivals in the City by Y.S. Lee
Release Date: March 10, 2015
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Pages: 304
Series: The Agency #4
Review Source: Netgalley

Synopsis: (from Goodreads)

In a tale steeped in action, romance, and the gaslit intrigue of Victorian London, Mary Quinn’s detective skills are pitted against a cunning and desperate opponent.

Mary Quinn has a lot on her mind. James Easton, her longtime love interest, wants to marry her; but despite her feelings, independent-minded Mary hesitates. Meanwhile, the Agency has asked Mary to take on a dangerous case: convicted fraudster Henry Thorold is dying in prison, and Mary must watch for the return of his estranged wife, an accomplished criminal herself who has a potentially deadly grudge against James. Finally, a Chinese prizefighter has arrived in town, and Mary can’t shake a feeling that he is somehow familiar. With the stakes higher than ever, can Mary balance family secrets, conflicting loyalties, and professional expertise to bring a criminal to justice and find her own happiness?

My Thoughts:
Reading this book was like coming back to an old friend: it was so good to hear from Mary again. I love James/Mary and how they interacted in this book. I would have loved even more of them together, but I like how the circumstances allowed us to hear a bit from James' POV for the first time. Rivals in the City is about the return of a familiar villain, which brings Mary back into the Agency's fold.

This is much less a mystery than the previous books in the series, as it’s about catching a specific person they already know has committed a crime. The plot allows for some interesting involvement of Mary's heritage and getting some answers about her father's missing years. The book is also about Mary facing her past and considering her future with James. Considering the book description I expected this to be a bigger conflict, but it really only came up a few times.

One thing I found missing in the book was Octavius Jones. I so expected this character to make a return, and I was very disappointed when he didn’t have a presence in the book. I also found the ending to be a little bit abrupt, though it was still a good one.

I was a little disappointed in this book, probably only because I had such high expectations for it after the long wait and after I loved Book 3, The Traitor in the Tunnel, so much. Nevertheless it was still a very decent read, and I think fans of the series will find something to enjoy in it. Mary is an amazing character, and overall I highly recommend this series. It offers a different side of Victorian London than we see in a lot of books, and stars an incredibly intelligent and tough POC lead.

The Cover:
Gorgeous!

Rating:
[3.5/5]

Purchase Links:
Kobo | Amazon.ca | Amazon.com | Chapters-Indigo | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository

Take Them By Storm by Marie Landry

Take Them By Storm by Marie Landry
Release Date: January 6, 2015
Publisher: Self-Published
Pages: 211
Series: Angel Island #3
Review Source: eARC for review from author

Synopsis: (from Goodreads)

This book is a standalone companion novel to Waiting for the Storm and After the Storm.

Sadie Fitzgerald has always been different, and not just because she makes her own clothes and would rather stay home watching Doctor Who than party with kids her age. When it’s time to leave Angel Island for college, Sadie is eager to put her old life behind her. Small-minded people and rumors have plagued her for years, but with the love of her adoptive family, the O’Dells, Sadie has learned to embrace who she is. Now she’s not afraid to admit the rumors about her are true: she’s gay.

For the first time in her life, Sadie feels free to be herself. She dives into college life and begins volunteering at the local LGBT center, where she discovers her small-town upbringing left holes in her education about life outside Angel Island.

The world is a bigger and more accepting place than Sadie ever imagined. She’s finally found where she belongs, but with the reappearance of someone from her past, an unexpected new friendship, and a chance at love, Sadie soon realizes she still has a lot to learn about life, friendship, and love.

My Thoughts:
In full disclosure, Marie Landry is a Canadian blogger who I consider a friend. But you guys know that I am all about YA contemp books, and I don’t say it lightly that her Angel Island series is one of my favourites. So needless to say I was eager for more of these characters, but mostly just excited for another book from Marie.

This book is about Sadie, who we first met in After the Storm. I was really excited to hear her story, especially knowing what a tough time she had growing up. I think Marie did a great job of introducing Sadie to new readers, recapping enough that you can definitely read Take Them By Storm as a standalone, but without making it too repetitive for readers of the series.

I didn’t connect with the romance quite as much as I did for the first two books. It’s hard to talk about why, because it would completely spoil the book, but what I can say is that the romance felt like much more of a side plot. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially when the book has so many other things going for it, but it did stand out to me, mostly because I know how awesome Marie is at writing epically romantic scenes and I wanted more of them!

While there are some sadder parts to this novel, I loved how joyful it was for the most part. I loved seeing Sadie discover even more about herself, owning who she is as a lesbian and as a person. It was so amazing to see her thriving at her college placement and at her design hobby (which led to fun cameos by characters from The Game Changer). I also enjoyed seeing Sadie explore being in love and having a real relationship.

I loved the spirit of the book, and the fact that friendship plays such a huge part in it. There were such fun nods to the couples from the previous two books. I loved seeing how the couples were doing, as well as the five of them being such close friends. Overall, this is such a great book. I know a lot of people are looking for LGBTQ NA, and this is a fabulous example of one. More than that, this is a great book which shares the journey of one brave, awesome girl.

The Cover:
So, so cute! Perfect image for Sadie.

Rating:
[4/5]

Purchase Links:
Kobo | Amazon.ca | Amazon.com | Barnes & Noble

Foreign Exchange by Denise Jaden

Foreign Exchange by Denise Jaden
Release Date: October 10, 2014
Publisher: Evernight Teen
Pages: 326
Series: n/a
Review Source: eBook from author for review

Synopsis: (from Goodreads)

Jamie Monroe has always played it safe. That is, until her live-for-the-moment best friend, Tristan, jets off to Italy on a student exchange program. Left alone with her part-time mother and her disabled brother, Jamie discovers that she is quite capable of taking her own risks, starting with her best friend’s hotter-than-hot older brother, Sawyer. Sawyer and Tristan have been neighbors for years, but as Jamie grows closer to the family she thought she knew, she discovers some pretty big secrets.

As she sinks deeper into their web of pretense, she suspects that her best friend may not be on a safe exchange program at all. Jamie sets off to Europe on a class trip with plans to meet up with Tristan, but when Tristan stops all communication, suddenly no one seems trustworthy, least of all the one person she was starting to trust—Sawyer.

My Thoughts:
Probably my favourite thing about this book is the characters and how they interacted. I thought Denise Jaden did a good job of creating layered characters who had shades of grey to them, just like real people. Our main character is Jamie, an all around girl next door type. However Jamie has had a pretty tough life, having to look after her little brother constantly and having a mom who doesn’t make it easy on her.

The secondary characters in Foreign Exchange were also very interesting. I liked that Sawyer had hidden depths and he wasn't what people thought he was. There’s this idea we have, both in fiction and real life, that if you're a Popular Beautiful Person then you must automatically be a completely horrible person too. Of course this isn’t true, and this stereotype is completely proven false by his character. Tristan, Jamie’s best friend and Sawyer’s sister, is definitely capital-T Trouble. She’s a total control freak and is seemingly a compulsive liar, something which Jamie is just figuring out. Things are never what you think they are with Tristan, and it makes for an interesting mystery to unravel.

This book has a lot of good elements, but I think what I enjoyed most was seeing Jamie coming into her own and out of Tristan's shadow, making her own decisions and getting away from that toxic friendship. Jamie does make some pretty sketchy decisions, but I didn’t find them entirely unbelievable. I could see someone who's a little desperate and naive going along that same path. On the romance side of things, I definitely dug Jamie/Sawyer. Romance isn’t the primary focus of the story, but it does make up a nice part of it. I liked seeing these two truly get to know one another.

Overall I definitely liked this book. I didn’t completely fall into the story, but it did provide an enjoyable reading experience, and I’d recommend it.

The Cover:
Not my favourite.

Rating:
[Strong 3/5]

Purchase Links:
Kobo | Amazon.ca | Amazon.com | Barnes & Noble

Kiss Kill Vanish by Jessica Martinez

Kiss Kill Vanish by Jessica Martinez
Release Date: October 7, 2014
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Pages: 432
Series: n/a
Review Source: Edelweiss

Synopsis: (from Goodreads)

Valentina Cruz no longer exists.

One moment, she was wrapped in Emilio’s arms, melting into his kiss. The next, she was witnessing the unthinkable: a murder in cold blood, ordered by her father and carried out by her boyfriend. When Emilio pulled the trigger, Valentina disappeared. She made a split-second decision to shed her identity and flee her life of privilege, leaving the glittering parties and sultry nightlife of Miami far behind.

She doesn’t know how to explain to herself what she saw. All she knows now is that nothing she believed about her family, her heart, or Emilio’s love, was real.

She can change her name and deny her past, but Valentina can’t run from the truth. The lines between right and wrong, and trust and betrayal, will be blurred beyond recognition as she untangles the deceptions of the two men she once loved and races to find her own truth.

My Thoughts:
What is there to say about Kiss Kill Vanish? This book is amazing! It’s exciting, romantic, and thrilling; it kept me at the edge of my seat.

It's hard to talk specifics without giving away details because this is a very twisty book, one where you're never sure who to trust. Valentina, or Jane as she’s going by in Montreal, is hiding from her boyfriend and her father. There’s this whole dichotomy between V’s quiet life in Montreal, practicing her mandolin, and the life she’s left behind in Miami -- a life that she’s reminded of through her involvement with two rich boys.

There’s definitely a slow reveal structure to the book, where for a lot of the time you’re guessing about what exactly happened back in Miami. As you figure out some of what's going on it's very intense and emotional. There’s also a very romantic feel to the book, both with how Valentina got involved in this situation, and in another aspect which I can’t even really allude to. Let’s just say that there’s one character who is so different from who he starts as and I really loved him, even in his first couple of scenes.

I really believe that Kiss Kill Vanish is the strongest of Jessica Martinez’s books so far. It’s been months since I read this novel, but I still remember how it felt to read it. It’s an amazing, thrilling book that I would recommend to everyone.

The Cover:
Adore!!

Rating:
[5/5]

Purchase Links:
Kobo | Amazon.ca | Amazon.com | Chapters-Indigo | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository

Blue Sky Days by Marie Landry: Relaunch Blitz!

Welcome to the Blue Sky Days Relaunch Blitz!

Blue Sky Days by Marie Landry
A Contemporary New Adult novel

A year after graduating from high school, nineteen-year-old Emma Ward feels lost. She has spent most of her life trying to please her frigid, miserable mother - studying hard, getting good grades, avoiding the whole teenage rebellion thing - and now she feels she has no identity beyond that. Because she spent so many years working hard and planning every moment of her life, she doesn't have any friends, has never had a boyfriend, and basically doesn't know who she is or what she really wants from life. Working two part-time jobs to save money for college hasn't helped her make decisions about her future, so she decides it's time for a change. She leaves home to live with her free-spirited, slightly eccentric Aunt Daisy in a small town that makes Emma feel like she's stepped back in time.

When Emma meets Nicholas Shaw, everything changes - he's unlike anyone she's ever met before, the kind of man she didn't even know existed in the 21st century. Carefree and spirited like Daisy, Nicholas teaches Emma to appreciate life, the beauty around her, and to just let go and live. Between Daisy and Nicholas, Emma feels like she belongs somewhere for the first time in her life, and realizes that you don't always need a plan - sometimes life steers you where you're meant to be.

Life is wonderful, an endless string of blue sky days, until Nicholas is diagnosed with cancer, and life changes once again for Emma in ways she never thought possible. Now it's time for her to help Nicholas the way he's helped her. Emma will have to use her new-found strength, and discover along the way if love really is enough to get you through.

June 27th is the 20th anniversary of my dad’s death from leukemia. For a long time I’ve wanted to honour him in some way, and I thought having the relaunch of Blue Sky Days, a book that was partly inspired by him, would be the perfect tribute. My dad was a wonderful man—smart, funny, kind, and loyal. He was an amazing father, husband, brother, and friend. Even before he died, I knew I wanted to be a writer, and he would listen to my crazy made-up stories with the patience of a saint.

From the 27th-30th of June, half the proceeds from all sales of Blue Sky Days will be donated to the Canadian Cancer Society. If you already own a copy, maybe you’d consider buying the book for a friend or family member? Or buying another copy from a different retailer (like Smashwords, which offers the book in every format)?

I greatly appreciate the support of the online reading/writing community for helping me honour my dad.

Amazon US || Amazon CAN || Amazon UK || Barnes & Noble || Smashwords || Kobo || iBooks

Thanks to eight incredible sponsors, there's a huge blitz-wide giveaway! There will be three (3) $20 PayPal cash prizes. Three chances to win - not too shabby, huh? This giveaway is open internationally to people aged 18+ who can accept PayPal cash.

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Marie has always been a daydreamer; since early childhood she's had a passion for words and a desire to create imaginary worlds, so it only seemed natural for her to become a writer. She resides in Ontario, Canada, and most days you can find her writing, reading, blogging about writing and reading, listening to U2, watching copious amounts of TV on DVD, or having grand adventures with her nephews and niece. She's a hopeless romantic, an unapologetic eavesdropper (occupational hazard), an equally unapologetic squeeing fangirl, and a lover of swoonworthy book and TV characters. For more on Marie and her books please visit http://sweetmarie-83.blogspot.ca. She also loves to chat with fellow book lovers, so feel free to tweet her @SweetMarie83 any time.

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Event Recap: Moira Young in Brampton

Last Monday (the 12th) I had the great pleasure of attending the launch event for Moira Young's North American tour, celebrating the finale to her Dust Lands trilogy. I'm such a huge fan of Blood Red Road and Rebel Heart, and I can't wait to dig in to Raging Star.

I went to the signing with my Mom, as per usual. We got there plenty early, since we never know what traffic is going to be like on the highway. I purchased my copy of Raging Star and we looked around the whole Chapters store before they even put chairs out. ;) Once they did set up, we grabbed some front row seats. By the time the event rolled around there wasn't quite a full house, but definitely an enthusiastic grouping of fans.

Moira came out and did a talk about her publishing journey and the growth of Blood Red Road from the conception of the idea to what it became. After her talk she answered questions from the audience before beginning to sign books.

I was a speedy typist and I believe I managed to get just about everything down that Moira spoke about. Here's a recap, in point form...

• She started writing Blood Red Road in 2006; it started off as a very different book: she had a 1 book plan and it took place in an ice world
• She worked for 3.5 years on the first drafts of Blood Red Road, and it ended up being unusable
• Was discouraged and got advice from her friend Julia Green; Julia told Moira that she was now ready for revision, that she could start over; with encouragement from her husband, she began to do so
• At first there were discouraging voices saying she was a failure etc, but then Saba's voice appeared
• With Saba's voice everything changed: the landscape and everything fell into place
• When she wrote Blood Red Road she had two ideas for how it would end. The first closed things off, and the second brought about a larger plot, an overall arc -- she chose that second option because she thought there would be enough for trilogy, even though she didn't know where it would be going
• The biggest influence for her storytelling was probably the movies and books that she grew up with; her father always showed her "big, adult movies" -- epic stories like Gone With the Wind and westerns; there were no limits on what she read and watched -- all these stories went into her "imaginative well"
• As mentioned, she didn't plan a trilogy, and writing one was difficult because she was a very inexperienced writer: she had to learn how to structure a big story
• The whole plot of the trilogy grows from Saba: her choices, who she becomes, how she changes
• Rebel Heart was, again, re-written and she used almost nothing from the first draft
• Because she's a self-proclaimed slow writer she was coming up against deadlines, so she decided she needed a new way to write Raging Star; she began to taking 2 months to plot & structure, which she hadn't done before
• At 10,000 words into Raging Star she reached a point where it would have fallen apart if she kept going
• She stopped and began writing character studies; the book is so much about what each of the characters want; they each have their own agendas and goals, and the story comes from their interactions
• Moira was able to hand in a first draft of Raging Star to publishers, even though she missed deadlines; when the page proofs came along, she was still making a lot of changes to language and poetry, which usually isn't done; it came pretty close, as by the time the book was completely final it went to the printers 3 or 4 weeks later
• An audience member asked about Cormac McCarthy and whether No Country for Old Men was an influence; it wasn't, but The Road was a huge influence: the bare bones, stripped down style of it taught her that she could do a lot with a little; that you can leave space for the reader to fill in
• Saba is the reader's camera; we only ever see what she experiences, and know what she knows: therefore we don't have details (about things like larger world building) until Saba knows something; the POV is very biased from her experiences
• The setting of the book was influenced by the prairie views from Winnipeg and the mountains and rivers from the West Coast; she took places that she knows and transformed them a bit
• She uses dialogue to move things along: this writing style comes very natural to her, probably coming from her life as an actor; it's the descriptions that she struggles with, and she always has to go back and fill out more details (just because she sees it, doesn't mean the reader can)
• What's going on with the movie: they're in the 3rd round of script development right now; Moira has a lot of input on how the characters are portrayed and she'll have input into lead casting if it gets to that stage (they're looking for unknowns, really want to "break out" an actress)
• She's learned that movies aren't books, and what works well on page doesn't always work on film
• Belives that it's almost better not to have huge input on the movie process, because she's not a movie expert: thinks that it would be silly to control a process she doesn't know much about
• Was asked a question about why the book is about Saba going after Lugh; Moira responded that you have to make stakes very high for your character if it's going to power a whole book; it has to be something that if your main character can't fix it, it would be a disaster -- therefore, the plot is based around Saba losing the person who means the most to her, who she sees as the best part of herself
• Was asked about why she doesn't use quotes for dialogue; basically the answer was that when you insert dialogue tags it's an automatic step back from Saba's POV; for that particular character it would be an artificial construct to do that

Thanks to Moira and Chapters Brampton for a great event!

Unspeakable by Caroline Pignat (Guest Post)

Unspeakable by Caroline Pignat
Release Date: May 6, 2014
Publisher: Razorbill Canada
Pages: 288
Series: n/a

Synopsis: (from Goodreads)

On her first voyage as a stewardess aboard the Empress of Ireland, Ellie is drawn to the solitary fire stoker who stands by the ship’s rail late at night, often writing in a journal.

Jim. Ellie finds it hard to think of his name now. After their wonderful time in Quebec City, that awful night happened. The screams, the bodies, the frigid waters … she tries hard to tell herself that he survived, but it’s hard to believe when so many didn’t. So when Wyatt Steele, journalist at The New York Times asks her for her story, Ellie refuses. But when he shows her Jim’s journal, she jumps at the chance to be able to read it herself, to find some trace of the man she had fallen in love with, or perhaps a clue to what happened to him. There’s only one catch: she will have to tell her story to Steele and he’ll “pay” her by giving her the journal, one page at a time.

Buy the book:

Amazon.ca | Amazon.com | Chapters-Indigo | Kobo

I'll have a review of Unspeakable coming up on the blog, but for today I'm thrilled to present a guest post from Caroline. I asked Caroline about her historical research, and here's what she had to say...

Question:
What are some of the challenges and rewards of writing historical fiction? Do you have a preferred research strategy?

Caroline's answer:
The reward of writing historical is the sense of digging up a time long forgotten and polishing it so others can enjoy it, too. It’s kind of like archaeology and a bit like detective work. I find it so fascinating and exciting. Sometimes the facts are hard to unearth and I have to keep at it until I feel I know enough to infer or imagine the rest. The challenge for me is knowing when enough is enough. I can get a bit obsessed with the details. :)

I usually start with kids’ non-fiction books, actually. They give me a quick overview of the subject area before I start really getting in it. I review as many novels/movies as I can that are also set in the period to help me get a feel for the time. Then the real work begins. I usually spend about six months to a year researching before I feel confident enough to create that time and place in my story. I keep LOTS of notes because I can’t remember things. Every novel I’ve done has a huge binder of research and sometimes, like with UNSPEAKABLE, I make a visual board: http://www.carolinepignat.com/unspeakable-research.html

Thanks so much for stopping by, Caroline! I totally love that you use kids books. It's so true how they can give you a great overview of the facts.

Everyone, be sure to check out these tour stops which have already been posted:

• Lost at Midnight
• Book Nerd Canada
• Me on Books
• A Glass of Wine
• Emilie’s Book World