Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard

Release Date: March 13, 2012
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Pages: 352
Series: n/a
Review Source: Netgalley

Synopsis: (from Goodreads)
It all begins with a stupid question:

Are you a Global Vagabond?

No, but 18-year-old Bria Sandoval wants to be. In a quest for independence, her neglected art, and no-strings-attached hookups, she signs up for a guided tour of Central America—the wrong one. Middle-aged tourists with fanny packs are hardly the key to self-rediscovery. When Bria meets Rowan, devoted backpacker and dive instructor, and his outspokenly humanitarian sister Starling, she seizes the chance to ditch her group and join them off the beaten path.

Bria's a good girl trying to go bad. Rowan's a bad boy trying to stay good. As they travel across a panorama of Mayan villages, remote Belizean islands, and hostels plagued with jungle beasties, they discover what they've got in common: both seek to leave behind the old versions of themselves. And the secret to escaping the past, Rowan’s found, is to keep moving forward.

But Bria comes to realize she can't run forever, no matter what Rowan says. If she ever wants the courage to fall for someone worthwhile, she has to start looking back.

Kirsten Hubbard lends her artistry to this ultimate backpacker novel, weaving her drawings into the text. Her career as a travel writer and her experiences as a real-life vagabond backpacking Central America are deeply seeded in this inspiring story.

My Thoughts:
You know when you love a book and you’re not sure how to express that love? Yah, this is one of those times. But hear me out, because I’m going to attempt to express how great ‘Wanderlove’ is and why you should pick up a copy of it as soon as you can. ‘Wanderlove’ is like being wrapped up in a warm tropical breeze. It’s like cheesecake [or insert your favourite dessert here]. Like hugging a soft kitten. Like a caramel frappuccino on a hot day. Okay I have no idea where I’m going with this or what those comparisons mean, except that they’re all amazing and comforting, and that’s what ‘Wanderlove’ was to me. It was comforting somehow, despite it containing two searching souls, heartache, and lots of uncomfortable travel.

I completely fell in love with this book from the very first chapter. As I got to know Bria, Rowan, Starling, and the other characters I fell even deeper. I love it when characters feel real, and that’s what I experienced here. These characters were good people: people who I would want to know, but they were also flawed, making them all the more real. I also fell in love with the romance because it was subtle and slow burning. The book is more about Bria and Rowan’s personal journeys than it is about their romance, but when everything came together it was all butterflies in my stomach. I would also be remiss not to mention the gorgeous drawings that accompany the book, which are all the more interesting and amazing because they were drawn by the author herself.

What else can I say? This book was fabulous, smart, and real. I can easily place it within my favourite reads of 2011, and I can't wait to read it again once I have my own copy. Highly recommended to YA contemp fans.

The Cover:
Love it!

Rating:
[5/5]

Find Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard on Goodreads, Book Depository, & Amazon.

Guest Review: The Book Of Blood And Shadow by Robin Wasserman

Today I have a verrrrrry special treat for you guys. Making her reviewing debut on Book Labyrinth today is none other than... my Mom (!!!) aka Wilma. I've been bugging her to do a guest review for forever, and she finally agreed. =D

Release Date: April 10, 2012
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Pages: 432
Series: n/a
Review Source: Netgalley

Synopsis: (from Goodreads)
It was like a nightmare, but there was no waking up. When the night began, Nora had two best friends and an embarrassingly storybook one true love. When it ended, she had nothing but blood on her hands and an echoing scream that stopped only when the tranquilizers pierced her veins and left her in the merciful dark.

But the next morning, it was all still true: Chris was dead. His girlfriend Adriane, Nora's best friend, was catatonic. And Max, Nora's sweet, smart, soft-spoken Prince Charming, was gone. He was also—according to the police, according to her parents, according to everyone—a murderer.

Desperate to prove his innocence, Nora follows the trail of blood, no matter where it leads. It ultimately brings her to the ancient streets of Prague, where she is drawn into a dark web of secret societies and shadowy conspirators, all driven by a mad desire to possess something that might not even exist. For buried in a centuries-old manuscript is the secret to ultimate knowledge and communion with the divine; it is said that he who controls the Lumen Dei controls the world. Unbeknownst to her, Nora now holds the crucial key to unlocking its secrets. Her night of blood is just one piece in a puzzle that spans continents and centuries. Solving it may be the only way she can save her own life.

Wilma's Thoughts:
I liked this book very much. It was definitely worth the time it took to read it. Because of the recommendation from Ashley I had high expectations and this book (and Ashley’s advice) did not let me down.

I very quickly took to Nora, the main character and narrator of the book. The need she felt to prove things was a good storyline. Her inability to automatically accept things as they are and her need to question made her very genuine and believable. I found myself warming to her and being frustrated at times at some of the things she did. Because of this, her character was very realistic and easy to understand. She dealt with situations in a matter of fact manner without any histrionics or whining. Even when she was faced with the pain of losing her best friend, she never gave up and moved forward in a pragmatic way at a reasonable pace. She is very level headed and takes time to rationalize and assess each situation as it comes up.

There are other great characters in this story as well. Chris was just an all around lovable guy and (spoiler alert) when he is killed, I felt very sad that he would no longer be part of the story. Eli is a character in the book that intrigued me. You are never sure if you should trust him or not but because of his endearing nature you hope he is a good guy. This definitely added to the intrigue of the story.

Two of the other characters, Max and Adriane, I never really cared for. As Nora’s girl friend and boy friend, they did some terrible things. This also, however, added to the believability of the story. It made it more credible since the things they did you could imagine it happening in real life.

'The Book of Blood and Shadow' is a bit reminiscent of The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. This story also has long buried secrets, coded messages, historical searches that span continents, sinister organizations, and a quest for something of the utmost religious and scientific significance that the aforementioned book has. Robin Wasserman pulls this off remarkably well. The beginning was a bit confusing but I quickly found myself completely enthralled with the story and completely reluctant to set it aside. The plot has a great balance of action sequences, peeks into history via translated notes and letters, as well as more internal struggles with grief and trust that make the entire story so suspenseful. The transition between these different sections is very smooth. This helped to make the story as a whole feel more coherent. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and even though it may be long, I ask reader to not let this deter you from reading and finishing it. You will not be disappointed.

My Thoughts:
Umm yes, I totally agree! I made some notes when I was reading this book and the first point reads "Enthralling, intriguing, devastating, wonderful". And really? That totally sums up the book. I also wrote this on Goodreads when I first finished the book: "If you enjoy foreign locations, treasure hunts, history, and relationships that will leave you reeling (and who doesn't?!), then this is definitely a book for you." So yes, pretty freaking awesome. I totally agree with my Mom that this is like the YA Da Vinci Code, because that's definitely the best surface description for it. However that doesn't fully explain the emotional intensity and character depth. I just love how this book discusses and questions truth, religion, faith, honesty, deception, love, and trust. I definitely couldn't set this one down either. It was so exciting, and it really did keep me guessing until the end.

The Cover:
I do like it, but how much prettier is the UK one?!

Rating:
[5/5]

Find The Book Of Blood And Shadow by Robin Wasserman on Goodreads, Book Depository, & Amazon.

Blue Sky Days by Marie Landry + Guest Post

Release Date: January 17, 2012
Publisher: Self-published
Pages: 207
Series: n/a
Review Source: eBook from author for review

Synopsis: (from Amazon)
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.

My Thoughts:
When I think about 'Blue Sky Days' I think about embracing all of life -- all of its heartache as well as its joy. I also think about discovery: figuring out who you are, and being free to be yourself. These are some pretty awesome themes, so it's no surprise that I generally really liked this book.

Nicholas was a litttttle too perfect for my liking. He was lovely, but almost too much so that it became a bit unbelievable in certain parts. I also would have liked to have experienced more of the relationship between Emma and Nicholas at the beginning, rather than hearing about it second hand. Still, those two make a very sweet couple, and especially in the second half of the book you can really feel how much they love one another.

'Blue Sky Days' is very quiet and atmospheric. I loved the town, with the diner and Daisy's house. The book also features some really strong secondary characters. Even the ones you didn't get to know that well, you could still really feel the emotions behind their relationships with the main characters. This is a book that is about family, friends, and love, and it really does remind you of what's important, and to appreciate the good things you have.

The Cover:
Generally pretty. =)

Rating:
[3.5/5]

Find Blue Sky Days by Marie Landry on Goodreads, Smashwords, B&N, & Amazon.

Marie... On Being Canadian

I’d like to thank Ashley, a fellow Canadian, for having me here at Book Labyrinth today! Because we are both Canadian, Ashley and I thought maybe I could talk a bit about Canadian authors and how they’ve influenced my writing, or how being Canadian has influenced my writing.

I love Canadian authors. It feels like we’re almost the underdogs in a way because so many well-known authors are American or British. I love them, too, don’t get me wrong, but it always excites me to find out an author is Canadian, or to come across a book that’s set in Canada.

Why? Well, patriotism aside, it seems to me that a lot of people know absolutely nothing about Canada, or what they do know is based on stereotypes. When I first got the internet after high school, I joined quite a few chat rooms and it amazed me how ignorant people were about Canada. I actually had people ask me if I lived in an igloo, had electricity, or owned a dog sled. I thought they were kidding, and was pretty shocked to discover they weren’t. I laughed, of course - I still laugh when I think about it - but at the same time it makes me sad that people know so little about this beautiful country.

That’s part of the reason I set my stories in Canada. In Blue Sky Days, Riverview is a fictional place in Ontario that’s three hours away from Toronto. I wanted to throw Toronto in there so people who were familiar with Canadian geography would have a general idea of where Riverview was supposed to be, and so that people who didn’t know much about Canada would be able to look it up and maybe learn a bit about Toronto, which is an amazing city.

There are many extremely talented and well-known Canadian authors, like Lucy Maude Montgomery (author of Anne of Green Gables and many other incredible books, all set in Canada), Margaret Atwood, and O.R. Melling, just to name a few. A lot of very popular YA authors are also Canadian: Lesley Livingston (the Wondrous Strange series), Alyxandra Harvey (the Drake Chronicles), Sarah Mlynowski (the Magic in Manhattan series, plus many others), and Jessica Martinez (Virtuosity), again just to name a few.

Unfortunately, most of these YA books/series aren’t actually set in Canada, but it gives me a thrill to see these authors doing so well. It makes me proud. And other authors do make up for it by mentioning Canada or setting books in Canada. For example, one of my favorite parts of Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins was when Etienne gave Anna a Canadian pin so she would fit in better when she felt like she stuck out as an American and was worried she’d be judged. And, in my current read, Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake, Cas goes after Anna in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Pretty cool if you ask me!

As a Canadian author, I want to bring positive attention to the country I love so much. I hope some of you who aren’t familiar with Canada will make an effort to learn more about it, and also to support some of the many incredible Canadian authors out there.

About Marie:

Marie Landry has always been a daydreamer. She has created imaginary worlds for as long as she can remember, so it only seemed natural that she would become a writer. With a passion for words that started in early childhood, Marie has written a varied range of works, and has been freelance writing since 2009. She resides in Ontario, Canada, and most days you can find her writing, reading, blogging about writing and reading, listening to U2, or having grand adventures with her two precious nephews.

Where you can find Marie:

• Ramblings of a Daydreamer
• Marie Landry, Author
• Twitter.com/sweetmarie83
• Facebook: Fan page & Book page

Thanks so much for that post, Marie! Yay for all things Canadian!! =D