Sometimes after I read a book, I'm in the middle of an event or have a bunch of blog commitments or have no time or...something. For some reason or another, many deserving books don't get reviewed. And then I forget the smaller details that flesh out a review and so...it never happens. Or I can't connect well enough for a full, meaningful review, even though you might.
Here are a few books worth reading that escaped a full review in 2014 for various reasons!
Here are a few books worth reading that escaped a full review in 2014 for various reasons!
Author: Joy N. Hensley
Release Date: Sept. 9, 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen
Received: For Review
SUMMARY:
Sam McKenna’s never turned down a dare. And she's not going to start with the last one her brother gave her before he died.
So Sam joins the first-ever class of girls at the prestigious Denmark Military Academy. She’s expecting push-ups and long runs, rope climbing and mud-crawling. As a military brat, she can handle an obstacle course just as well as the boys. She's even expecting the hostility she gets from some of the cadets who don’t think girls belong there. What she’s not expecting is her fiery attraction to her drill sergeant. But dating is strictly forbidden and Sam won't risk her future, or the dare, on something so petty...no matter how much she wants him.
As Sam struggles to prove herself, she discovers that some of the boys don’t just want her gone—they will stop at nothing to drive her out. When their petty threats turn to brutal hazing, bleeding into every corner of her life, she realizes they are not acting alone. A decades-old secret society is alive and active… and determined to force her out.At any cost.
Now time's running short. Sam must decide who she can trust...and choosing the wrong person could have deadly consequences.
If you want a book where you can root for the underdog, RITES OF PASSAGE is perfect. Sam never wanted to go to the Military Academy despite the fact that her father works there and her brothers have all gone. Yet, on a dare, she becomes one of Denmark Military's first female cadets. The hazing and hell that Sam goes to throughout the novel is extreme and readers will truly feel for her. Hensley pulls from her own experiences to create a vibrant environment that feels real and causes readers to be emotionally invested.
There's also a great mystery involved that will keep readers on their toes and never know who to trust. Plus, the romance? Talk about slow-burn! It's just right without being a romancey book. That's not what it's about at all, and the focus is elsewhere. The elements involved are just right.
AND... I really want Hensley to write a sequel because I'm not done reading about Sam yet!
COVER FLASH:
I would have passed this one by on the shelf, mostly because it's not my genre. It explains what it is well, however, and I like the flash of pink in the title going against the grain of the rest of the cover!
TITLE: SHE IS NOT INVISIBLE
Author: Marcus Sedgwick
Release Date: April 22, 2014
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan
Received: For Review
SUMMARY:
Her secret: she is blind.
But when her father goes missing, Laureth and her 7-year-old brother Benjamin are thrust into a mystery that takes them to New York City where surviving will take all her skill at spotting the amazing, shocking, and sometimes dangerous connections in a world full of darkness.
SHE IS NOT INVISIBLE is an intricate puzzle of a novel that sheds a light on the delicate ties that bind people to each other.
I was so excited to have a book to read by Marcus Sedgwick, who has won so many awards. I truly thought this was going to be one of my favorite books of 2014, one I could savor. Instead, I only liked it. I was expecting something beautiful about adapting around a disability to embrace life and learn new things. Instead, the book is more of a straight-forward adventure that asks readers to suspend a lot of belief. If I had known that going in, I would have read the book completely differently.
I really liked how brave Laureth was to go across the world to a foreign country in order to help her father. At the same time, she's very reckless, especially since she brings her young brother to be her "eyes." She puts both of them in a lot of danger. She has a lot of guts, and I respect that and admire her ability to do these things despite being blind. At the same time, she's a little too rash.
There were some really fun quirky elements I enjoyed as well, such as the fact that Laureth and her brother's pet raven are both named after chemicals. So random and cool! Her father's research on coincidences is also really interesting, though I always struggle to read epistolary passages in novels.
COVER FLASH:
I like the way you can't see her eyes. I also like the way the model is superimposed over the city and that streams of light are coming from her and blanketing the world below!
But at the same time, it's not my favorite cover ever; it's a little busy for me! But the elements that bring it together are intriguing.
But at the same time, it's not my favorite cover ever; it's a little busy for me! But the elements that bring it together are intriguing.
Author: Ryan Graudin
Release Date: Nov. 4, 2014
Publisher: Little, Brown
Received: For Review (BEA Copy)
SUMMARY:
730. That's how many days I've been trapped.
18. That's how many days I have left to find a way out.
DAI, trying to escape a haunting past, traffics drugs for the most ruthless kingpin in the Walled City. But in order to find the key to his freedom, he needs help from someone with the power to be invisible....
JIN hides under the radar, afraid the wild street gangs will discover her biggest secret: Jin passes as a boy to stay safe. Still, every chance she gets, she searches for her lost sister....
MEI YEE has been trapped in a brothel for the past two years, dreaming of getting out while watching the girls who try fail one by one. She's about to give up, when one day she sees an unexpected face at her window.....
In this innovative and adrenaline-fueled novel, they all come together in a desperate attempt to escape a lawless labyrinth before the clock runs out.
It is amazing that this is based on real-life events in Kowloon Walled City, located in Hong Kong. I didn't initially know that, and when I read it, I thought the events must have taken place so much longer ago than they actually did. There' a lot of action and cause-and-effect fueling this book along. Readers will see things from the perspectives of a few different characters, who each bring a unique voice and view of all that is happening in the city, from the penniless to the "pampered." Everyone has their own goals and wishes that motivate them to get through the day, and characters find and interact with one another in intriguing ways that detail the way we randomly meet one another in life. "It's a small world after all," if you will.
I was lucky enough to meet the author this year at BEA and get a signed ARC, and have really looked forward to reading it. Yet I wasn't in the greatest reading mood when I read this and the book moves slowly, so it was easy for me to pick up and put down, but reflecting now on all the themes and interactions, I can see why so many people have loved and embraced the novel this year and would like to try my hand at it again in the future.
COVER FLASH:
This cover has undergone a few revisions. I really like the final cover and how it manages to convey action and suspense through words. It sums up the city very well! I also like the way it swoops sideways and upwards, rather than in straight horizontal lines. It's eye-catching!
TITLE: A THOUSAND PIECES OF YOU
Author: Claudia Gray
Release Date: Nov. 4, 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen
Received: For Review
SUMMARY:
Marguerite Caine’s physicist parents are known for their radical scientific achievements. Their most astonishing invention: the Firebird, which allows users to jump into parallel universes, some vastly altered from our own. But when Marguerite’s father is murdered, the killer—her parent’s handsome and enigmatic assistant Paul—escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him.
Marguerite can’t let the man who destroyed her family go free, and she races after Paul through different universes, where their lives entangle in increasingly familiar ways. With each encounter she begins to question Paul’s guilt—and her own heart. Soon she discovers the truth behind her father’s death is more sinister than she ever could have imagined.
A THOUSAND PIECES OF YOU explores a reality where we witness the countless other lives we might lead in an amazingly intricate multiverse, and ask whether, amid infinite possibilities, one love can endure.
I struggled with this one, but I knew I would going into it. Sci-fi isn't for me. A blogging friend who has very similar tastes encouraged me to read it because it was one of her 2014 favorites. I think part of the problem, for me, was that I read it too close to TANDEM and TETHER by Anna Jarzab, and both have similar concepts.
If you're looking for something with a lot of sci-fi, you'll like this, but it wasn't for me despite all the cool Russian elements! A lot of people really did love it, so I wanted to include it!
COVER FLASH:
So gorgeous! One of my favorite covers of 2014. So many visually pretty things, and I love the watercolor effect! It's a very artistic cover.
SUMMARY:
A brilliant, luminous story of first love, family, loss, and betrayal for fans of John Green, David Levithan, and Rainbow Rowell
Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways . . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as someone else—an even more unpredictable new force in her life. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are Jude's. What the twins don't realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.
This radiant novel from the acclaimed, award-winning author of THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE will leave you breathless and teary and laughing—often all at once.
Contemporary fiction isn't always for me, but this one had been lauded as one of the years best. I've been wanting to read THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE for a while, so I was excited to snag this at BEA!
I really like where the title of this book came from, and I won't spoil that revelation for you. The novel explores themes of loss and of fitting in, of first love, of family, of a special bond between twins. There are so many beautiful themes-- and writing -- in this book. If you're a fan of contemporary novels with the ability to move you, look into this one!
Very colorful! I like the way the cover is a sun, and both illustrated and meaningful! It catches my eye!
TITLE: I'LL GIVE YOU THE SUN
Author: Jandy Nelson
Release Date: Nov. 4, 2014
Publisher: Dial/Penguin
Received: For Review (BEA Copy)
SUMMARY:
A brilliant, luminous story of first love, family, loss, and betrayal for fans of John Green, David Levithan, and Rainbow Rowell
Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways . . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as someone else—an even more unpredictable new force in her life. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are Jude's. What the twins don't realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.
This radiant novel from the acclaimed, award-winning author of THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE will leave you breathless and teary and laughing—often all at once.
Contemporary fiction isn't always for me, but this one had been lauded as one of the years best. I've been wanting to read THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE for a while, so I was excited to snag this at BEA!
I really like where the title of this book came from, and I won't spoil that revelation for you. The novel explores themes of loss and of fitting in, of first love, of family, of a special bond between twins. There are so many beautiful themes-- and writing -- in this book. If you're a fan of contemporary novels with the ability to move you, look into this one!
COVER FLASH:
I'll Give You the Sun is a book my sister and I really want to own. We hopefully will buy it sometime in 2015.
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