The Time Will Come #52

The Time Will Come is a weekly meme hosted by Jodie at Books For Company, where we can spotlight those books that we've had sitting on our shelves for too long. Books that we really want to read but never seem to get around to.

My pick this week is Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta. This is book 2 in the Lumatere Chronicles- a fantasy adventure series. I read Finnikin of the Rock last year and enjoyed it, and ordered this one to read as well. The reason I haven't read it yet is that it's so BIG! It seems nearly twice as tall and wide as other books, and is also about 600 pages long. I will hopefully get around to reading it one day though, before I completely forget what happened in the first in the series. It has fantastic reviews, and actually has a 4.63 star rating average on Goodreads. 

Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta (Goodreads)

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. 

Gripping and intense, complex and richly imagined, Froi of the Exiles is a dazzling sequel to Finnikin of the Rock, from the internationally best-selling and multi-award-winning author of Looking for Alibrandi, Saving Francesca, On the Jellicoe Road and The Piper's Son.

 

Review: New Girl by Paige Harbison

New Girl by Paige Harbison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Synopsis from Goodreads:
A contemporary young-adult retelling inspired by the classic 1938 romantic suspense bestseller Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. 

They call me 'New Girl'... 
Ever since I arrived at exclusive, prestigious Manderly Academy, that’s who I am. New girl. Unknown. But not unnoticed—because of her. 

Becca Normandy—that’s the name on everyone’s lips. The girl whose picture I see everywhere. The girl I can’t compare to. I mean, her going missing is the only reason a spot opened up for me at the academy. And everyone stares at me like it’s my fault. 

Except for Max Holloway—the boy whose name shouldn’t be spoken. At least, not by me. Everyone thinks of him as Becca’s boyfriend…but she’s gone, and here I am, replacing her. I wish it were that easy. Sometimes, when I think of Max, I can imagine how Becca’s life was so much better than mine could ever be. 

And maybe she’s still out there, waiting to take it back.

 


New Girl is based loosely on Daphne Du Maurier's classic tale Rebecca, but has been updated and morphed into a teenage coming of age, high school story- set in the prestigious Manderley Academy. Many of the names of the characters are the same, and they share a lot of the same characteristics, but a lot about the basic plotline has also been changed as well, so even if you know the original storyline, it won't be as you expect.

The main character transfers to a new school when a place becomes available after the disappearance of a popular student. Like in the original Rebecca story, New Girl is told in the first person and we don't find out the main character's name. This just serves to empahasise how insignificant the main character always feels, and how she feels she can never live up to her impression of the lost girl, in whose shadow she now always lives.

Becca's photos are still on the wall, her friends are still devastated and still talk about all the things they used to do, and still uphold the traditions that she started. The "New Girl", as she is known, feels like she is expected to but can never fill Becca's shoes- sharing with her hostile old rommate who resents her being there, and even starting to fall for Becca's ex-boyfriend. All the while people are telling her that she will never be Becca. I loved seeing the dual perspectives between the New Girl and the flashbacks of Becca from a year before, gradually revealing that things with Becca might not have been what they appeared on the surface.

This is a dark and gritty contemporary story, with real modern teenagers and deals with issues of depression, bullying, teenage relationships, alcohol and drug use, and suicide. There is one particularly harrowing scene (the Lulu scene) that will haunt my nightmares for a long while. But overall I liked this book. It's a well- written story and it sucked me into it, keeping up the mystery and suspense and keeping me guessing and theorising right up until the end. The intriguing mystery surrounding Becca's disappearance was a constant source of tension, and the not knowing if she was alive and coming back, or if she had been killed. If she was murdered there might have been a few different suspects. Chilling and creepy- a good contemporary story.


Thanks to Harlequin publishers and Netgalley for the review copy.

Review: Sweetly by Jackson Pearce

Sweetly by Jackson Pearce
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars


Synopsis from Goodreads:
Twelve years ago, Gretchen, her twin sister, and her brother went looking for a witch in the forest. They found something. Maybe it was a witch, maybe a monster, they aren’t sure—they were running too fast to tell. Either way, Gretchen’s twin sister was never seen again. 

Years later, after being thrown out of their house, Gretchen and Ansel find themselves in Live Oak, South Carolina, a place on the verge of becoming a ghost town. They move in with Sophia Kelly, a young and beautiful chocolatier owner who opens not only her home, but her heart to Gretchen and Ansel.  Sophia molds candied magic: coveted treats that create confidence, bravery, and passion.  

Yet the witch isn’t gone—it’s here, lurking in the forests of Live Oak, preying on Live Oak girls every year after Sophia Kelly’s infamous chocolate festival. But Gretchen is determined to stop running from witches in the forest, and start fighting back. Alongside Samuel Reynolds, a boy as quick with a gun as he is a sarcastic remark, Gretchen digs deeper into the mystery of not only what the witch is, but how it chooses its victims. Yet the further she investigates, the more she finds herself wondering who the real monster is.

 

I love modern retellings of old fairytales, and Sweetly was another gem of a book. Even though it is set in the modern day, with cars and modern technology and roadside diners, it has so many elements of an old-fashioned traditional story to make it seem timeless. We have the wicked stepmother, creepy things in the woods, and a setting that is so isolated and lonely as to make it feel like anything could happen. The writing feels dark and gritty like a back-to-basics fairytale, but it also has Jackson Pearce's stamp of originality on it- so even though it is based on the story of Hansel and Gretel, it is never what you expect.

When Ansel and Gretchen's stepmother kicks them out they decide to head south for the coast and a new life. But when their car breaks down in a remote village they find themselves stranded. They stay with Sophia, a young woman who runs a chocolatier and sweet shop out in the woods, and help her out to pay for the repairs on the car. But as one days stay turns into a week, and then a month, they start to feel at home in their new situation and find it hard to think about leaving again. Ansel starts to fall for Sophia, and Sophia claims Gretchen's help is indispensable, and their plans to head to the coast start to grow fuzzy.

But the people of the town warn them about Sophia who they say is responsible for the disappearance of several young women in previous years, and there is definitely sinister in the woods surrounding the chocolatier that reminds Gretchen of the death of her sister years before. There are so many different elements woven into the story, and there are so many different things going on that is hard to know what tale to believe. Even impossible myths seem believable and there is definitely something evil lurking in the woods around them. Should Gretchen listen to Sophia who has also lost a sister, or the cute guy in town who doesn't trust Sophia?

As the story progresses Gretchen grows to face her fears of the woods and transforms from the scared girl in the beginning, to a heroine who wants to stop running away and stay and fight. She resolves to learn to protect herself, after feeling scared for most of her life, and I really enjoyed the scenes where Samuel teaches her how to shoot. I just wish that there had been a little bit more of an emphasis on the romance between them.

I also really liked the constant sense of danger throughout the book- the feeling that something was about to happen, and the sense that Gretchen and Ansel were only seeing a part of a larger picture, so I really didn't know which character could be believed. The town that they find themselves in is so small and close-knit with it's own old traditions, and it felt isolated enough to have it's own rules. There are many twists and turns, and the mystery about the missing girls is only gradually revealed, but it had me wanting to race to the end of the book to find out what was going to happen.

Cute and creepy at the same time, with a sense of magic about it, this is a book that got under my skin and had me dreaming about these characters and this place, and will definitely stick in my mind for a long time.

Also:

Fairytale Retellings #1

Sisters Red

Based on Little Red Riding Hood

In My Mailbox 4th March 2012

In My Mailbox is a weekly event hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren where book bloggers can talk about the books they've gotten the past week- whether bought, borrowed, swapped, or given for review. This feature was started to increase interaction between bloggers and to increase our awareness of all the new books coming out.

Some good books this week. I got-


Bought:

• Arcadia Awakens by Kai Meyer. (Goodreads).  I'm completely in love with this cover. This is set in Sicily with a mafia storyline, and "ancient myths brought to life". Sounds good.

For Review:

• Starters by Lissa Price. (Goodreads). How creepy does this sound? Teenagers can rent out their bodies to seniors who want to be young again. But what happens when the chip malfunctions? 

Thanks to Random House books and Netgalley for the review copy. 

Audiobooks:

• Shift by Jeri Smith-Ready. (Goodreads). This is the sequel to Shade about ghosts and shades and a mystery about why Aura can see them at all. 

• Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers. (Goodreads). I've heard a lot of praise about this series- looking forward to seeing if the book can live up to the hype.

Those were the books I got this week. What did you get in your mailbox?

Happy reading!

The Time Will Come #51

The Time Will Come is a weekly meme hosted by Jodie at Books For Company, where we can spotlight those books that we've had sitting on our shelves for too long. Books that we really want to read but never seem to get around to.

This is a book that I bought when it first came out after seeing some really great reviews of it. I absolutely love fairytale retellings and this is a story based on Hans Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen, set in modern day Minnesota. I think it sounds a little bit magical and very sweet, and I want to read this, but I just don't know when I will find the time unfortunately. 

Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Once upon a time, Hazel and Jack were best friends. They had been best friends since they were six, spending hot Minneapolis summers and cold Minneapolis winters together, dreaming of Hogwarts and Oz, superheroes and baseball. Now that they were eleven, it was weird for a boy and a girl to be best friends. But they couldn't help it - Hazel and Jack fit, in that way you only read about in books. And they didn't fit anywhere else. 

And then, one day, it was over. Jack just stopped talking to Hazel. And while her mom tried to tell her that this sometimes happens to boys and girls at this age, Hazel had read enough stories to know that it's never that simple. And it turns out, she was right. Jack's heart had been frozen, and he was taken into the woods by a woman dressed in white to live in a palace made of ice. Now, it's up to Hazel to venture into the woods after him. Hazel finds, however, that these woods are nothing like what she's read about, and the Jack that Hazel went in to save isn't the same Jack that will emerge. Or even the same Hazel. 

Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen," Breadcrumbs is a story of the struggle to hold on, and the things we leave behind.

Some mixed reviews for this book-

Buried in Books (5 star review)
Small Review (2 star review)