Illusions of Fate by Kiersten White {review}

Illusion of Fate
by Kiersten White
♦publisher: HarperTeen
♦release date: September 9, 2014
♦hardcover, 288 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone
♦source: from publisher for honest review

“I did my best to keep you from crossing paths with this world. And I shall do my best to protect you now that you have.”

Jessamin has been an outcast since she moved from her island home of Melei to the dreary country of Albion. Everything changes when she meets Finn, a gorgeous, enigmatic young lord who introduces her to the secret world of Albion’s nobility, a world that has everything Jessamin doesn’t—power, money, status…and magic. But Finn has secrets of his own, dangerous secrets that the vicious Lord Downpike will do anything to possess. Unless Jessamin, armed only with her wits and her determination, can stop him.

Review: From page one of Illusions of Fate, I realized I’d forgotten how much I enjoy Kiersten White’s fun-spirited writing style from my experiences reading her Paranormalcy series.  The wit and humor immediately pulls me in and gives the heroine a voice that is entertaining and likeable.  We first meet Jessamin through a letter she is composing to her mother, and from this clever beginning, we get a first taste of her snarky humor, learn that she is from the island of Melei, and attending school on the main land of Albion, and that her estranged father is one of her professors.  

Further in, we learn exactly what she thinks of her school, her father and this new dreary sunless land.  She'd a very head-strong, determined girl, if her tactics for gaining entrance into the school is any indication.  Then she meets the strangely mesmerizing and mysterious Finn, and suddenly finds herself a pawn in the middle of a two-man war over magical power and political control.   

I liked the many facets of Jessamin’s character, her strong will and stubbornness garnering both respect and frustration from me. I’m all for a won’t-back-down attitude, and loved her determination not to let a strange man take care of things for her.  But it did get to the point where I was getting frustrated with her character when she put herself and everyone in danger in the name of doing things how she wanted to do them. Sometimes it came off as strong, sometimes it just seemed plain pig-headed. But it made for a great fleshed-out and complicated character. 

For the most part it was a fun story to read, but once the villain made himself known, I couldn’t help but feel the plot fell into a bit of a repetitive loop.  They’d venture out, Jessamin or one of her friends would be put in danger, they’d make a quick fix of it, and then go into hiding for a bit---and then start that cycle all over again.  Still, the lively characters, the fated romance, the mystique and magic, and a pretty shocking twist at the end all added up to a story that kept me glued to the pages until the end.  I truly waffled between a 3.5 or 4 rating for this one, but I think White's fun writing flare tips it toward the latter.  

Find Kiersten White online:  Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase Illusions of Fate:  Indiebound  •  BookDepository  •  BN.com

Old Books, New Looks {12}

Time again for another round of Old Books, New Looks, where I feature the covers of books that have already been released and their redesigned paperback counterpart! :) Sometimes I like the new better, sometimes I like the old. Here's a few that I've come across lately:

The OLDIES  vs.  The NEWBIES

I like them both, actually. Love the simple original, but the hug and flowery paper is so sweet on the new one! To those who read it, does it fit the story?

I enjoyed the book, but I kind of thought the original cover was a bit cheesy. I like the simple, slightly retro feel of the new one, but I don't actually love either.

 LOL, her face makes me laugh and kind of sets a quirky feel for the story.  The original has a young, almost MG feel to it, so the new one wins for me. 

You definitely get a clearer idea about the story from the original, but the pasted on feel of the girl over the illustration and the sky never quite worked for me. Hm...undecided.

They definitely went with a cool retro feel for the new one, but I really like the girl's profile and the shiny headphones with the bold font over it. 

The original portrayed the kind of sterile, sci-fi chilling story I expect from this one,...the new one is pretty but makes it look more like a beach romance. 

The new cover isn't that different, but why change what was already perfect??


What are your thoughts?? If you've read any of these, do you feel like one cover fits better than the other?

Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini {review}

Trial by Fire
by Josephine Angelini
♦publisher: Fiewel & Friends
♦release date: September 2nd, 2014
♦hardcover, 374 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: The Worldwalker Trilogy, book 1
♦source: from publisher for honest review

This world is trying to kill Lily Proctor. Her life-threatening allergies keep her from enjoying experiences that others in her hometown of Salem take for granted, which is why she is determined to enjoy her first high school party with her best friend and longtime crush, Tristan. But after a humiliating incident in front of half her graduating class, Lily wishes she could just disappear.

Suddenly, Lily is in a different Salem—one overrun with horrifying creatures and ruled by powerful women called Crucibles. Strongest and cruelest of them all is Lillian . . . Lily's other self in this alternate universe.

What makes Lily weak at home is what makes her extraordinary in New Salem. In this confusing world, Lily is torn between responsibilities she can't hope to shoulder alone and a love she never expected.

Review: Trial by Fire is an ingenious blend of Salem witch lore, alternate universes, high fantasy, and heart-stopping romance.  The world building is incredibly strong as Lily goes from our modern world and finds herself drawn into an alternate version of Salem, where witches power entire cities and tribes of outlanders struggle for survival. 

The heroine, Lily, is a girl weak in body but strong in ideals. In her own world, she is constantly sick and struck down by allergic reactions to pretty much everything. Tristan, her long-time best friend, has always been there to help her with whatever she needs. But when he starts to toy with her heart, she doesn’t hesitate to make it clear that she won’t put up with it, and she finds out just what kind of friend he is. In her distress and heartbreak, she gives in to the beckoning of a mysterious voice in her head, giving an alternate version of herself the permission she needs to pull Lily into another world.  It doesn’t take long for her to realized that this other her, who goes by Lillian, is not a good person to be mistaken for in this new world, nor does she have any intention of helping Lily get back home until her own agenda is finished. 

Lillian is definitely one evil witch, but I really enjoyed how complex the character turned out to be, as was the case with many of the characters here.   Juliet was another favorite character of mine, with her constant struggle between love, loyalty, and what she knew in her heart was right. 

The romance nudges close to a love triangle and then very solidly turns toward one and only one romantic angle before the book is even halfway in. Lily goes through some major emotional hurdles when faced with the alternate of Tristan. He holds the same cockiness but quite a bit more heart, but I like that as much as she sometimes wishes she could, she doesn’t let herself fall into his arms just to fulfill what she'd hoped would happen with “her Tristan”.   Rowan and Lily have a great mix of conflict and romance going on as they slowly get to know and trust each other.  Lily herself grows in strength of head, heart, and body throughout her adventure while still showing some very realistic flaws and vulnerabilities. 

Trial by Fire is a fantastic start to this series, with one exhilarating scene after the next throwing the story along at an incredibly fast pace.  There are moments of danger and fear and romance… and one scene that had me laughing harder than I have in a long time at a book.  Multiple interesting characters, a well-orchestrated battle between magic and science, and the possibility of endless worlds to come will have me counting down to the next book in this imaginative fantasy. 

Find Josephine Angelini online:  Website  •  Twitter  • Facebook

Purchase Trial by Fire: BN.com  •  Indiebound  •  BookDepository

Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It lets us all gush about what soon-to-be released books we are jumping-up-and-down excited for.  Though someday I need to change the title that I post this under---I almost never post it on Wednesday! :D

 

The Creeping
by Alexandra Sirowy

hitting shelves August 2015 from Simon & Schuster

description: Stella Cambren is the lucky one. When she was a kid, Stella and her friend Jeanie vanished while picking strawberries. Stella came back without any memory of what happened. Jeanie never did.

Eleven years later, Stella is over it—mostly. She can’t remember a time when people didn’t look at her with a question in their eyes. But she has a summer full of cove days ahead of her, a best friend with a devil-may-care attitude, and a maybe-crush on a gorgeous, popular guy. All Stella wants is to have the best summer of her life. Jeanie’s fate is lost in the black hole of her mind. It’s nothing but the past.

That is, until the fresh corpse of a little girl is found, one with eerie similarities to Jeanie, and Stella’s memories start coming back in fits and starts. As Stella begins to uncover the truth about the day Jeanie vanished, she discovers a bread crumb trail of disappearances going back generations.

Stella thinks remembering what happened to Jeanie will save her. It won’t.
She used to know better than to believe in what slinks through the shadows. Not anymore.
And before the summer is over, Stella will learn that if you hunt for monsters, you’ll find them.

My thoughts:  Okay, I know it's incredibly early to be featuring this one, its a REALLY long wait until August, but this book has such a perfectly spooky cover, I had to show it off during the month of October!  The description gives me the creeps.

New Shelf Goodies & The Weekly Nutshell {105}

For New Shelf Goodies, I'll be showing you what lovely books I acquired this week, whether from publishers, or the library, or from whatever half-crazed book-buying binge I happened to go on. :D (Inspired by Tynga's Stacking the Shelves) The Weekly Nutshell will be just that...my week here at Stories & Sweeties, in a nutshell. (inspired by Ginger @ GReads and her recaps at the end of the TGIF posts)

 Lots of fun surprises on my doorstep this week!

Purchased:

Storm Siren by Mary Weber

I've been dying to get my hands on this one!

From publishers: 

The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things by Ann Aguirre

Dream a Little Dream by Kristin Gier

Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick

The Fall by Bethany Griffin (my review)

The Invisible by Amelia Kahaney

Stray by Elissa Sussman  (my review)

Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis

In a Handful of Dust by Mindy McGinnis

Many thanks to Macmillian for the review copies and to Simon & Schuster and Harper Collins for the gorgeous finished copies!!  

The weekly nutshell:
{Tuesday} What's New October YA Releases & Giveaway
{Wednesday} The Fall Blog Tour Review + Giveaway 
{Friday} Review: Gates of Thread and Stone

LOL, this post was suppose to be up way earlier. I got distracted looking at Gail Carriger's site and twitter and her awesome vintage fashion. And then I had to preorder her new Finishing School book---totally forgot I was in the middle of writing this post! :D  Darn internet---so distracting. 
So this week was so blessedly calm. Yay again for October at last. ;) I finished reading Illusions of Fate, breezed through Chasing Power (loved it, Sarah Beth Durst never lets me down! :D) and I'm deciding between starting The Opal Crown, Blackfin Sky, Winterspell, or Cure for Dreaming.  Any votes??  


 Have a great week, everyone!

Gates of Thread and Stone by Lori M. Lee {review}

Gates of Thread and Stone
by Lori M. Lee
♦publisher: Skyscape
♦release date: August 5th, 2014
♦hardcover, 335 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: Gates of Thread and Stone, book 1
♦source: from publisher for honest review

In the Labyrinth, we had a saying: keep silent, keep still, keep safe.

In a city of walls and secrets, where only one man is supposed to possess magic, seventeen-year-old Kai struggles to keep hidden her own secret—she can manipulate the threads of time. When Kai was eight, she was found by Reev on the riverbank, and her “brother” has taken care of her ever since. Kai doesn’t know where her ability comes from—or where she came from. All that matters is that she and Reev stay together, and maybe one day move out of the freight container they call home, away from the metal walls of the Labyrinth. Kai’s only friend is Avan, the shopkeeper’s son with the scandalous reputation that both frightens and intrigues her.

Then Reev disappears. When keeping silent and safe means losing him forever, Kai vows to do whatever it takes to find him. She will leave the only home she’s ever known and risk getting caught up in a revolution centuries in the making. But to save Reev, Kai must unravel the threads of her past and face shocking truths about her brother, her friendship with Avan, and her unique power.

Review: Gates of Thread and Stone is a true high fantasy, with a detailed world built from the ground up. There are hints that it is a futuristic society, with mentions of “how things used to be” that sound like the world of today, but the world that this story plays out in is definitely unique. I found it worked both for this story and against it, as it takes a while to really get into the thick of the story and get really immersed in the world, but once it takes hold, it’s really quite fascinating and immensely creative.  

I loved Kia's determination and her close relationship with her adoptive brother who raised her.  She never stops trusting in their bond, and that is what drives the story and her quest to find him after he suddenly disappears.  She is never deterred from saving him, and can never be convinced that he is lost to her, even when things look pretty grim.  The love interest, Avan even mentions feeling like there may be no room in her heart for anything else.  I did like the romance in this one especially with Kai and Avan’s long history together. There is a tiny bit of a love triangle---not sure if we’ll see more of that develop in the future of this series, especially with the way this one ended!

The description of her power to hold the threads of time was also really good and a unique gift to have, especially in a perilous moment!  Plus I love how it tied in to the mythology of the tale, a really well-thought out heirarchy of immortals that control death, famine, time, etc.

The pace of the story is up and down.  It's compelling and exciting as they set off on their journey, but after they get where they are going and make a few interesting discoveries, there is a bit of a long lull.  I find this often happens in stories where the hero has to go through some sort of training and then they are just waiting around for the next phase while picking up bits of backstory. It picks up again as they set their plan of attack into motion and barrels into an action-packed, suspenseful, and surprising ending.  As a matter of fact, it was just enough of a lift in the last third of the book to convince me to continue with this series!  I recommend giving this one a try---it's a solid start for this high fantasy series.

Find Lori M. Lee online:  Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase Gates of Thread and Stone:  Indiebound  •  Bookdepository  •  BN.com 

THE FALL Blog Tour Review & Giveaway

 

Today I am super excited to be part of the Rock Star blog tour for THE FALL by Bethany Griffin!  First off, I'll be sharing what I thought of this super creepy book, and then you'll have a chance to win a hardcover copy and a gorgeous prize pack!

Here we go!

The Fall
by Bethany Griffin
♦publisher: Greenwillow Books
♦release date: October 7, 2014
♦hardcover, 437 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone
♦source: from publisher for honest review

Madeline Usher is doomed.

She has spent her life fighting fate, and she thought she was succeeding. Until she woke up in a coffin.

Ushers die young. Ushers are cursed. Ushers can never leave their house, a house that haunts and is haunted, a house that almost seems to have a mind of its own. Madeline’s life—revealed through short bursts of memory—has hinged around her desperate plan to escape,  to save herself and her brother. Her only chance lies in destroying the house.

In the end, can Madeline keep her own sanity and bring the house down? The Fall is a literary psychological thriller, reimagining Edgar Allan Poe’s classic The Fall of the House of Usher.

Review:  In Bethany Griffin’s second foray into reimagining the works of Poe, she stays respectfully close to the bare bones of The Fall of the House of Usher, but cleverly turns the storytelling voice over to Madeline, the young woman of the house who eventually finds herself buried alive. In short and wildly intense chapters, she alternates between Madeline at different ages to perfectly show both how the house possesses her, tries to appease her,  and how she must fight against it to stay in control of her sanity.

I quickly found myself immersed in the haunting atmosphere and eerie occurrences of The Fall. Griffin’s writing is full of beautiful descriptions and hypnotic prose, and from the first chapter, it successfully makes the reader’s blood run cold with her absolutely phobia-triggering description of being buried alive.  The story builds in intensity in a way that feels like the tightening of a screw, with each brief chapter flipping back and forth in time and giving us another small glimpse at the whole picture.  In fact, the only thing that might have improved this book for me would have been to see a tiny bit more of a distinction between Madeline's younger voice and her older teen voice.  At either age, it’s easy to feel for Madeline’s plight as her every attempt to outwit the house is foiled and everyone around her falls into either madness or peril.

Intermixed with Madeline’s point of view are journal entries from Lisbeth Usher who, like Madeline, was trying to escape. I loved this addition and though it cleverly added some great depth and backstory.    This bleak, horrific tale will make the perfect Halloween read.  This may even be one that I reread every October to set the mood for spookiness!

Find it online: Amazon • Barnes & Noble  • Goodreads

About Bethany:
Bethany Griffin is a high school English teacher who prides herself on attracting creative misfits to elective classes like Young Adult Literature, Creative Writing, and Speculative Literature. She is the author of HANDCUFFS, MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, DANCE OF THE RED DEATH, GLITTER AND DOOM, and THE FALL. She lives with her family in Kentucky.
Website • Twitter • Facebook • Goodreads

And now for the Tour Giveaway!! 

 Prizes:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to visit the rest of the stops on the tour!

Check out the full schedule HERE!