Inherit the Stars by Tessa Elwood

TL;DR space politics

TBR #1239, added Jun 24, 2015

finished 2/5/17

I bought a paperback copy of Inherit the Stars from Amazon for $1.89 after taxes, thanks to some lucky timing. The price has since gone up to $7 or so since I held onto my copy for like 5 months before doing anything with it.

I read most of the book in the space of an afternoon. This is definitely an easy book to get through if you're looking for something that won't take a week to finish. The narration was easy to get along with, though on the other hand I will admit that it is a little shallow with worldbuilding. Asa's narration focuses on what's necessary for the story, which is good, but I would've liked to see a little more about this world than we got.

The characters definitely made up for some of that. Nearly all the conflict within Inherit the Stars' narration is character-driven; most of the problems that Asa or her family face within the book are created or solved by the other characters, not by their environment or sheer fate. I definitely sympathized with Asa, despite the many questionable decisions she made -- I think her justification for those actions was above average for 16 year old girls in YA books. I also came to like Eagle and I liked seeing how all the adults reacted to the issues faced, even if I didn't like what most of them actually did. It was an interesting power play, you know? I think that's underutilized in YA even with all the dystopian / ~suddenly royalty~ stuff.

Honestly I wish I'd picked a different day to start this book, because I wasn't able to focus on it as much as I would've liked. Good news is, I own a copy of it, so I'm going to hold onto it for a while and hopefully come back to re-read it. I added the second book to my Amazon wishlist so hopefully I can find a good time to buy that book as well.

TL;DR I breezed through it pretty quickly but I definitely think it was worth buying and I'll most likely come back to it again in the future.

[blog post skip]

Hey guys!

I'm all caught up with my book reviews and I didn't have time the past few days to write something, sorry. Hopefully I'll be back on track for the next blog post.

I hope you have a good weekend!

Lifeboat Clique by Kathy Parks

TL;DR it takes an apocalypse to make up for a scandal

TBR #1359, added Jul 22, 2015

finished 1/30/17

I thought this book was supposed to be about the aftermath of a cruise ship wreck. (I also didn't bother to re-read the blurb before I dove into the book so I guess that's my fault.)

I read about 70% of this in my free time between work and class on a Friday, and then came back and finished the last 30% on the following Monday afternoon. I think it killed my momentum the same way it did with The Gathering Storm. I should have finished it that Friday afternoon once class was over.

Other than that, it was really nice! I was a little afraid we would be stuck entirely with the characters on the boat, but that wasn't the case at all. The narration did really well with weaving in the backstory and lead-up to the social catastrophic event during down time -- and I mean, you have a lot of downtime when you're stuck on a castaway boat.

The majority of the book is super character-driven and it was nice to follow how the dynamics changed and how they all moved forward. They all had great layering of their personalities that unfolds as the story progresses. This definitely isn't a fluffy book considering they're actively fighting to stay alive as castaways, but it's not entirely a depressing read. It's got some lighter aspects to it.

Goodreads says this is a standalone, so I think this is perfect for a sunny afternoon when you've got most of it free. It can definitely be read in a time span between lunch and dinner if you've got the time to sit still.

TL;DR it was a nice read and I definitely recommend it. I also suggest reading it all in one sitting, or at least in a few closely-timed ones.

CWs: death (from various causes), injuries / blood, largely damaging natural disaster and its repercussions

The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges

TL;DR imperial Russia but with magic

TBR #95, added Jan 12, 2013

finished 1/21/17

I had this checked out for three weeks, and I didn't get around to reading it until the library had sent me an email saying it was due in three days. In all honesty I only decided to read it to see if I could do it before the copy expired. (And I did.)

Historical fiction isn't really my thing, but let me tell you, it definitely becomes my thing when you start adding in magic and the supernatural. I've read a few books about pre-revolution Russia, but those mainly centered on the last tsar and his family. This predated my knowledge a little bit but it was a nice read for me nonetheless.

(Note: I read And I Darken by Kiersten White before I read The Gathering Storm, and that did help me in a few places. Surprisingly they do have an overlap in related history.)

Katerina was a compelling main character, although I feel like she didn't have as much agency in the second half of the book. I felt like her actions were kind of railroaded for an intended ending rather than giving her more opportunity and power to change the course of the plot.

Also, the ending was kind of ... lackluster compared to what I was hoping for. I do have to admit that I marathoned most of the book and then had to stop at 80% and wait a day before I could keep reading. I think that killed some of my own momentum. But for how much Katerina let herself be pushed around, the climax and the resulting consequences didn't seem worth it - I feel like she could've done more and not suffered like she was anticipating.

And I do feel like the romance aspects at the end weren't really earned, despite how much I was rooting for that result. Maybe it's because we didn't get to see them interacting much beforehand, mainly because of the larger plot going on, but to me it didn't feel like we got much evidence of the feelings being reciprocated before the last few chapters of the book.

Other than that, I did end up putting off my own writing and to-do list in order to read The Gathering Storm, so it was mainly a compelling read. I'm definitely interested in continuing this series but I don't know if the library will have the rest of it ...

TL;DR I enjoyed the book overall but I didn't like how the climax for this one was resolved. I'm going to continue with the series granted I can get my hands on the subsequent books.

CWs: injury / death, emotional manipulation and coercion

And I Darken by Kiersten White

TL;DR Vlad the Impaler but as a girl

TBR #1332, added Jul 18, 2015

finished 1/13/17

I ended up liking this a lot more than I expected. I'd been pretty interested in the book beforehand, but this is definitely one of the more enjoyable books I've read in a while. (For comparison: the last book I rated 5 stars on Goodreads was Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine on October 20th.)

The first thing that drew me in was definitely the narration. I think the majority of YA books have first-person narration, especially when the MC is a girl, so the third-person narration was a nice break in that. It also allowed for focusing on multiple events happening concurrently or with different characters. Radu's influence on the story was crucial to me and I definitely enjoyed being able to focus on more than one character over the course of the book.

I also liked seeing how Lada and Radu differed even though they had (mostly) the same upbringing. The book starts with Lada's birth so we get to see their character growth over the course of their lives and how they adapt to what happens. There were a lot of nuances that were interesting to think about - especially the decision to diverge from history and make Lada a girl.

I think part of the reason I enjoyed this so much is because the plot felt very character-driven even though so much was out of their control. They had to be a lot more reactive than they were proactive but I was still very invested in what was going on. I also have very little background knowledge in what historically happened (other than a quick check on Wikipedia halfway through my read) so it was more like speculative-fiction than historical-fiction. If that makes sense.

(Side note: the love triangle was also interesting. I'd like to see more of this type, of the MC(s) competing instead of being competed over.)

I read this just before I read The Gathering Storm, and surprisingly they do have a little bit of common ground in terms of history. Reading And I Darken first definitely helped me have some more background knowledge and understanding than I would've had otherwise.

TL;DR I liked this a lot even despite not usually liking historical fiction, and I'm looking forward to continuing with the series.

CWs: war / death / injuries / blood, abuse / neglect from parental figures