Book Review: Camanchaca - Diego Zuniga

Camanchaca - Diego Zuniga

A long drive across Chile's Atacama desert, traversing "the worn-out puzzle" of a broken family--a young man's corrosive intimacy with his mother, the obstructive cheer of his absentee father, his uncle's unexplained death--occupies the heart of this novel, Camanchaca is a low fog pushing in form the sea, its moisture sustaining a near-barren landscape, Camanchaca is the discretion that makes a lifelong grief possible.  Sometimes, the silences are what bind us.

2/5 stars (it was ok)

I couldn't really get into it.  Each page contained little snippets of thought and sometimes they really didn't mean much.  I think this would have been more enjoyable as a full novel.  I would have liked to have gotten more from the main character instead we don't get much.  

Book Review: Another Day - David Levithan

Another Day - David Levithan

Every day is the same for Rhiannon.  She has accepted her life, convinced herself that she deserves her distant, temperamental boyfriend, Justin, even established guidelines by which to live: Don't be too needy.  Avoid upsetting him.  Never get your hopes up.

Until the morning everything changes.  Justin seems to see her, to want to be with her for the first time, and they share a perfect day--a perfect day Justin doesn't remember the next morning.  Confused, depressed, and desperate for another day as great as that one, Rhiannon starts questioning everything.  Then, one day, a stranger tells her that the Justin she spent that day with, the one who made her feel like a real person...wasn't Justin at all.

In this enthralling companion to his New York Times bestseller Every Day, David Levithan tells Rhiannon's side of the story as she seeks to discover the truth about love and how it can change you.

3/5 stars (liked it)

This book is the same book but different than the first book.  This book takes place in the same amount of time as Every Day except in Rhiannon's point of view.  I loved reading about how she views A and all that he reveals to her.  So sad how she had basically given up and was in a verbally and emotionally abusive relationship and she never questioned it until A came around.  I can't wait to find out what happens in the next book, especially with how things in the first two books ended.

Book Review: Royal Wedding - Meg Cabot

Royal Wedding - Meg Cabot

For Princess Mia, the past five years since college graduation have been a whirlwind of activity: living in New York City, running her new teen community center, being madly in love, and attending royal engagements.  And speaking of engagements, Mia's gorgeous longtime boyfriend, Michael, manged to clear both their schedules just long enough for an exotic (and very private) Caribbean island interlude where he popped the question!  Of course, Mia didn't need to consult her diary to know that her answer was a royal "oui."

But now Mia has a scandal of majestic proportions to contend with: her grandmother has leaked "fake" wedding plans to the press that could cause even normally calm Michael to become a runaway groom.  Worse, a scheming politico is trying to force Mia's father from the throne, all because of a royal secret that could leave Genovia without a stomach.  Can Mia prove to everyone--especially herself--that she's not only ready to wed, but ready to rule as well?

3/5 stars (liked it)

It was nice to read about Mia again.  Unfortunately it seems Mia still has not grown up.  She complains about being a Princess, her Grandmere and basically everything.  It feels like it took a long time to get to the proposal and then it was a wedding and over just like that.  I did enjoy reading about the characters and where they were in their grown up lives.  I feel like it was left open to another book.

Book Review: Symptoms of Being Human - Jeff Garvin

Symptoms of Being Human - Jeff Garvin

Riley Cavanaugh is many things: Punk rock.  Snarky.  Rebellious.  And gender fluid.  Some days Riley identifies as a boy, and others as a girl.  The thing is...Riley isn't exactly out yet.  And between starting a new school and having a congressman father running for reelection is uber-conservative Orange County, the pressure--media and otherwise--is building up in Riley's so-called "normal" life.

On the advice of a therapist, Riley starts an anonymous blog to vent those pent-up feelings and tell the truth of what it's REALLY like to be gender fluid teenager.  But just as Riley's starting to settle in at school--even developing feelings for a mysterious outcast--the blog goes viral, and an unnamed commenter discovers Riley's real identity, threatening exposure.  Riley must make a choice: walk away from what the blog has created--a lifeline, new friends, a cause to believe in--or stand up, come out, and risk everything.

3/5 stars (liked it)

This story is just thought and events that happen to Riley in a period of a few months.  Although we don't find out if Riley was biologically born as a boy or a girl I feel like it really didn't matter and I like that we never find out.  Riley starts a new school and hasn't come out yet.  Throughout the books traumatic events happen and I love the ending.

Book Review: Labyrinth Lost - Zoraida Córdova

Labyrinth Lost - Zoraida Córdova 

Nothing says Happy Birthday like summoning the spirits of your dead relatives.

Alex is a bruja, the most powerful witch in a generation...and she hates magic.  At her Deathday celebration, Alex performs a spell to rid herself of her power.  But it backfires.  Her whole family vanishes into thin air, leaving her alone with Nova, a brujo boy she can't trust.  A boy whose intentions are as dark as the strange marks on his skin.

The only way to get her family back is to travel with Nova to Los Lagos, a land in-between, as dark as Limbo and as strange as Wonderland...

3/5 stars (like it)

I didn't really feel that Alex really disliked magic.  Sure she seemed like she wanted a normal teenage life but I didn't feel she hated magic so much she wanted to get rid of it.  I knew Nova was trouble the moment she met him.  She has a best friend, Rishi who doesn't know anything about Alex's family or the fact that she's a Bruja.  Most of the time is spent getting to know Alex and Novo as they travel through Los Lagos to save her family from the Devourer.  The Devourer was once a witch who was banished to Los Lagos and decided to take it over and make the place a horrible place.  The love interest for Alex was not who I was expecting and the ending left things open but gave closure.

Book Review: The Magician's Land - Lev Grossman

The Magician's Land - Lev Grossman

Quentin Coldwater has been cast out of Fillory, the secret magical land of his childhood dreams.  With nothing left to lose, he returns to where his story began, the Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic, but he can't hide from his past, and it's not long before it comes looking for him.

Along with Plum, a brilliant young undergraduate with a dark secret of her own, Quentin sets out on a crooked path through a magical demimonde of gray magic and desperate characters.  But all roads lead back to Fillory, and his new life takes him to old haunts, like Antarctica, to to buried secrets and old friends he thought were lost forever.  He uncovers the key to a sorcery masterwork, a spell that could create magical utopia, and a new Fillory--but casting it will set in motion a chain of events that will bring Earth and Fillory together.  To save them he will have to risk sacrificing everything.

3/5 stars (liked it)

I thought it was a little slow at the beginning.  We find out what Quentin has been up to and it's really not much.  He becomes a professor at Brakebills.  We also find out what has been going on in Fillory.  Overall I thought it was a good wrap up to Quentin's story and Fillory's story.  We got to reunite with some old characters and we got to say goodbye to some characters.

Book Review: Thorn Queen - Richelle Mead

Thorn Queen - Richelle Mead

Eugenie Markham is a shaman for hire.  She's paid to bind and banish creatures from the Otherworld.

But something happened after her last battle.  She became queen of the Thorn Land.  With her kingdom in tatters, her love life in chaos, and eager to avoid the prophecy about her firstborn destroying mankind, the job's really not all it's cracked up to be.

Now young girls are disappearing from the Otherworld, and no one seems willing to find out why.  Or to put an end to it.  Not that Eugenie's fazed by spilling fey blood, but this enemy is shrewd, subtle, and dangerous--and nursing a very personal grudge.

Eugenie must venture deep into the Otherworld and trust in a power she can barely control.  She may be a reluctant queen, but she's vowed to do her duty, even if it means facing the darkest and deadliest side of her nature.

4/5 stars (really like it)

This book continues right where the other one left off.  Eugenie has become the new queen even though she doesn't want it.  Throughout this book she is dealing with a double life, one in the human world and one in the Thorn Land.  She is trying to keep them separate and even doesn't tell her parents about being queen.  There is also her love life, which is with Kiyo.  He is having a baby with his ex-girlfriend who is a queen in the Otherworld.  Then there is Dorian, a king int he Otherworld.  I loved the ending of this book and how Eugenie has changed so much since the first book.

Book Review: Storm Born - Richelle Mead

Storm Born - Richelle Mead

Just typical.  No love life to speak of for months, then all at once, every horny creature in the Otherworld wants to get your pants...

Eugenie Markham is a powerful shaman who does a brisk trade banishing spirits and fey who cross into the mortal world.  Mercenary, yes, but a girl's got to eat.  Her most recent case, however, is enough to ruin her appetite.  Hired to find a teenager who has been taken to the Otherworld, Eugenie comes face to face with a startling prophecy--on that uncovers dark secrets about her past and claims that Eugenie's' first-born will threaten the future of the world as she knows it.

Now Eugenie is a hot target for every ambitious demon and Otherworldy ne'er-do-well, and the ones who don't want to knock her up want her dead.  Eugenie handles a Glock as smoothly as she wields a wand, but she need some formidable allies for a job like this.  She finds them in Dorian, a seductive fairy king with a taste for bondage, and Kiyo, a gorgeous shape-shifter who redefines animal attraction.  But with enemies growing bolder and time running out, Eugenie realizes that the greatest danger is yet to come, and it lies in the dark powers that are stirring to life within her...

4/5 stars (really like it)

I LOVE Richelle Mead and have pretty much read all her books.  I had been holding off on this series until it was done and then I forgot about it and then remembered it.  So glad I read it.  I though Eugenie was okay and grew to like her more as the book progressed.  I absolutely love Dorian and Kiyo and not sure which guy is hotter.  I love how the story goes from Eugenie just being a great shaman and having a day job to where she ends up by the end of the book.  Definitely will read the second book.