The Kingdom by Jess Rotherberg {blog tour review}

Today I'm helping to kick off the tour for 

THE KINGDOM

by Jess Rothenberg!!

UK cover

US cover

{My Review}

Short review:    I. Loved. This. Book.

A little longer review:  The Kingdom is not to be missed.  No matter if you "don't usually like sci fi. Or you "don't normally go for dystopia". This latter one is me, actually. The Kingdom takes science fiction a little deeper in taking an imaginative look at what it means to be human. Told in a fast-paced unique format that includes, interviews, trial transcipts, security footage, and more, this mind-blowing novel is Westworld meets a crazy exaggerated DisneyWorld. 

Ana and her "sisters" are hybrid A.I. theme park princesses, called Fantasists, created to help visitors to the park fill their everywhere fantasy adventure. The story captured my attention from the very beginning by making one thing clear---Ana has been accused of murder. And as the story unfolds, it poses the questions, not only did she do it? But as an A.I., can she be held responsible if she did? In any given situation, she is programmed to react a certain way---does that make her ultimately innocent? All of this spins off in a wild tale as Ana seems to grow a consciousness that isn't in her programming, meets and is baffled by her growing fascination with Owen, a park maintenance worker, and starts to feel unrest among her sisters and in her own role as a fantacist. 

They are led to believe that they world has gotten so bad outside their gates that people flock to the park to escape their misery. Even most animal life has gone extinct so the park scientists have recreated them for the visitor's experience. The line starts to blur when other aspects of the park prove not to be all she thought they were and Ana's trust in the people closest to her starts to unravel. It smartly touches on potent subjects such as human rights, humane treatment of animals, artificial creation of life, self-harm, and most of all, the objectification of women, whether they be A.I. or not. 

Completely compelling, thought provoking, beautifully diverse, and just all-around wonderfully done. The ending manages to be just as completely jaw-dropping as it is hopeful. This is definitely one that I'll be adding to my shelf of favorites and recommending every chance I get. 

{Book details}

♦published by Henry Holt & Company

♦release date: May 28th, 2019

♦hardcover, 352 pages

♦intended audience: Young adult

♦stand-alone

{About The Author}

JESS ROTHENBERG is a writer and freelance editor who grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. A former editor of books for young readers, including the #1 International Bestselling Vampire Academy series, Jess lives in New York City with her husband, son, and cat-who-thinks-he’s-a-dog, Charlie. Her debut novel for teens, The Catastrophic History of You & Me, has been translated into more than a dozen languages. 

WEBSITE   •   TWITTER  •   INSTAGRAM

Purchase the book:  Indiebound  •  BookDepository  •  Amazon 

The Lovely War by Julie Berry {audiobook review}

The Lovely War
by Julie Berry
♦publisher: Viking Books for Your Readers
♦release date: March 5th, 2019
♦hardcover, 480 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone

A sweeping, multi-layered romance with a divine twist, by the Printz Honor-winning author of The Passion of Dolssa, set in the perilous days of World Wars I and II.

It's 1917, and World War I is at its zenith when Hazel and James first catch sight of each other at a London party. She's a shy and talented pianist; he's a newly minted soldier with dreams of becoming an architect. When they fall in love, it's immediate and deep—and cut short when James is shipped off to the killing fields.

Aubrey Edwards is also headed toward the trenches. A gifted musician who's played Carnegie Hall, he's a member of the 15th New York Infantry, an all-African-American regiment being sent to Europe to help end the Great War. Love is the last thing on his mind. But that's before he meets Colette Fournier, a Belgian chanteuse who's already survived unspeakable tragedy at the hands of the Germans.

Thirty years after these four lovers' fates collide, the Greek goddess Aphrodite tells their stories to her husband, Hephaestus, and her lover, Ares, in a luxe Manhattan hotel room at the height of World War II. She seeks to answer the age-old question: Why are Love and War eternally drawn to one another? But her quest for a conclusion that will satisfy her jealous husband uncovers a multi-threaded tale of prejudice, trauma, and music and reveals that War is no match for the power of Love.

{My thoughts}

What an outstanding reading experience! The story is lovely, to begin with, but with an excellent full cast narration on the audiobook, complete with musical interludes, this was something special.

The tale told in The Lovely War is so compelling---the goddess Aprhodite relays the love story of two couples to prove a point to her husband and her lover, Hephaestus and Aries. It's the tale of Hazel and James, and of Colette and Aubrey---four young people caught up in the Great War. It's a glaring look at the ugliness of war, the effect it can have on family and love and growing up, and a heartbreaking look at the how African American soldiers were treated, even by their own countrymen. The romance was sweet, made all the more charming by Aphrodite's telling of how she had a hand in nudging them all in the right direction and her own sheer delight at watching it all unfold.

Despite the serious subject matter and the moments it has it's readers bawling their eyes out ...The Lovely War was such a beautiful tale of bravery and kindness, music and passion, friendship and most of all, love.

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{About The Author}

Julie Berry is the author of the 2017 Printz Honor and Los Angeles Times Book Prize shortlisted novel The Passion of Dolssa, the Carnegie and Edgar shortlisted All the Truth That’s in Me, and many other acclaimed middle grade novels and picture books. She holds a BS from Rensselaer in communication and an MFA from Vermont College. She lives in Southern California with her family.

WEBSITE   •   TWITTER  •   INSTAGRAM

Purchase the book:  Indiebound  •  BookDepository  •  Amazon 

The Things She's Seen by Ambelin & Ezekiel Kwaymullina {review}

The Things She's Seen
by Ambelin & Ezekiel Kwaymullina
♦publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
♦release date: May 14th, 2019
♦hardcover, 224 pages
♦Intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone
♦arc from publisher for honest review

Nothing's been the same for Beth Teller since the day she died.

Her dad is drowning in grief. He's also the only one who has been able to see and hear her since the accident. But now she's got a mystery to solve, a mystery that will hopefully remind her detective father that he is still alive, that there is a life after Beth that is still worth living.

Who is Isobel Catching, and why is she able to see Beth, too? What is her connection to the crime Beth's father has been sent to investigate--a gruesome fire at a home for troubled youth that left an unidentifiable body behind? What happened to the people who haven't been seen since the fire?

As Beth and her father unravel the mystery, they find a shocking and heartbreaking story lurking beneath the surface of a small town, and a friendship that lasts beyond one life and into another...

{My Review}

Small but mighty! The Things She's Seen looks like a little slip of a book, but inside the story is a wondrous tale, a ghostly mystery full of scandal and sharp turns, a touching father-daughter relationship that has proven itself stronger than death, and a glimpse of aboriginal mythology and history.

The story is told in two perspectives. Beth is a recently deceased teen who hasn't left the side of her living father and now helps him in his job as a detective. He's the only one who can see her and sometimes it's just like she never left, other times he is consumed with the sadness and guilt that comes with grief.  Their path crosses with that of Isobel Catching, a supposed witness to a crime they are investigating and she lends her voice to the story with a curious tale of her capture by strange creatures told in verse.  Through it all we get a dark and magical look at both ancient and modern aboriginal culture, community, and legend. The history of the Stolen Generation is woven in in such a personal way and I love how it showed the characters finding strength in her ancestry. Meanwhile, Beth coming to terms with her ghostly existence and trying to help her father reconnect with the world was incredibly poignant. Though I do feel the darkly enchanting and courageous chapters in verse overshadowed the murder mystery plot just a bit, it all converged into a horrifying and satisfying end. I hope that this brother/sister author team write more like this. 

{ABOUT THE AUTHORS}

Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina are a brother-sister team of Aboriginal writers who come from the Palyku people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. They've worked together on a number of short novels and picture books. Catching Teller Crow (original AU title of Things She's Seen) is their first joint YA novel. They believe in the power of storytelling to create a more just world.
(source: www.curtisbrown.co.uk)

Purchase the book:  Indiebound  •  BookDepository  •  Amazon 

Spectacle by Jodie Lynn Zrdok

Spectacle 
by Jodie Lynn Zdrok
♦publisher: Tor Teen
♦release date: February 12th, 2019
♦hardcover, 368 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦standalone (currently)
♦source: received from publisher for honest review

Paris, 1887.

Sixteen-year-old Nathalie Baudin writes the daily morgue column for Le Petit Journal. Her job is to summarize each day's new arrivals, a task she finds both fascinating and routine. That is, until the day she has a vision of the newest body, a young woman, being murdered--from the perspective of the murderer himself.

When the body of another woman is retrieved from the Seine days later, Paris begins to buzz with rumors that this victim may not be the last. Nathalie's search for answers sends her down a long, twisty road involving her mentally ill aunt, a brilliant but deluded scientist, and eventually into the Parisian Catacombs. As the killer continues to haunt the streets of Paris, it becomes clear that Nathalie's strange new ability may make her the only one who can discover the killer's identity--and she'll have to do it before she becomes a target herself.

{My thoughts}

This was quite a gripping mystery! With the bleek atmosphere of Paris 1800, when folks used to consider a little morgue-visit quite the amusement, Natalie finds herself a person of interest to the Paris's newest serial killer trying to make a name for himself. I would recommend a strong stomach and a taste for the macabre to take this one on. There's twists and gruesomeness and I dare you not to gasp at least once in this dark and gritty tale.

Natalie is a smart, level-headed character. During a murderous rampage by a killer known as the Dark Artist, she's been assigned as a fill-in morgue reporter and is determined to prove herself but frustrated that the social norms require her to disguise herself as a boy to do so. She longs to make her way with her own identity. When her most recent morgue visit results in a overwhelming vision of the victim's murder, followed by a strange memory loss, she begins to dig around to find out why this could be happening---why she seems connected to these murders, and how it seems to tie in to her Aunt's mental health issues as well.

The story is expertly told, jutting off into little pockets of plot that all circle around to weave themselves together eventually. I felt a quick little disconnect somewhere in the middle, but it had me well in it's grasp again before too long. Natalie really struggles to find reason to put herself through this dangerous situation, but is pulled to find answers when it becomes personal on several levels.

It is, in turn, grotesque, intriguing, heartbreaking, and completely enthralling. Definitely worth checking out if you can take a bit of gut-churning blood and death!

{About The Author}

Jodie Lynn Zdrok holds two MAs in European History and an MBA. In addition to being an author, she's a marketing professional, a freelancer, and an unapologetic Boston sports fan. She enjoys traveling, being a foodie, doing sprint triathlons, and enabling cats. Spectacle is her debut.

WEBSITE   •   TWITTER  •   INSTAGRAM

Purchase the book:  Indiebound  •  BookDepository  •  Amazon