Book Review: Sea of Shadows (Age of Legends #1)

Title: Sea of Shadows (Age of Legends #1)
Author: Kelly Armstrong
Genre: High Fantasy, Paranomal/Magic, Adventure, Romance (Young Adult)
Rating: 5/5
Page Count: 416 (hardcover)
Publication Date: April 8th, 2014

Plot: (from Goodreads)
Twin sisters Moria and Ashyn were marked at birth to become the Keeper and the Seeker of Edgewood, beginning with their sixteenth birthday. Trained in fighting and in the secret rites of the spirits, they lead an annual trip into the Forest of the Dead. There, the veil between the living world and the beyond is thinnest, and the girls pay respect to the spirits who have passed.

But this year, their trip goes dreadfully wrong.

With all the heart-stopping romance and action that have made her a #1 New York Times bestselling author, and set in an unforgettably rich and dangerous world, this first epic book in the Age of Legends trilogy will appeal to Kelley Armstrong's legions of fans around the world and win her many new ones.

Review:
I've never read anything by Kelly Armstrong before, but I'm definitely going to end up picking up some more of her books in the future (if you've read hers - let me know which I should read next). This was a fantastic high fantasy, young adult novel that had duel points of view (POVs), which can be hit or miss with a lot of people. I felt like it really worked for this, you get these two girls, who are twins, and their points of view and I think the reason it works is because their voices were completely different.

This book had me sucked in, wanting to find out what happened next to these characters that I had already fallen in love with before page 50. I read it in one sitting and just loved it: the characters, the plots, the twists - and how everything unfolded. The romance aspect felt a little cheesy at points, but it wasn't really in a bad way, if that makes sense, I don't tend to mind cheesy if it's done well.

I'd definitely recommend this book, and to wrap up why: a fun, high fantasy, with adventure, strange creatures, and romance.

Book Review: Open Road Summer

Title: Open Road Summer
Author: Emery Lord
Genre: Contemporary Romance (Young Adult)
Rating: 5/5
Page Count: 352 (hardcover)
Publication Date: April 15th, 2014

Plot: (from Goodreads)
After breaking up with her bad-news boyfriend, Reagan O’Neill is ready to leave her rebellious ways behind. . . and her best friend, country superstar Lilah Montgomery, is nursing a broken heart of her own. Fortunately, Lilah’s 24-city tour is about to kick off, offering a perfect opportunity for a girls-only summer of break-up ballads and healing hearts. But when Matt Finch joins the tour as its opening act, his boy-next-door charm proves difficult for Reagan to resist, despite her vow to live a drama-free existence.

This summer, Reagan and Lilah will navigate the ups and downs of fame and friendship as they come to see that giving your heart to the right person is always a risk worth taking. A fresh new voice in contemporary romance, Emery Lord’s gorgeous writing hits all the right notes.

Review:
I haven't heard a lot of talk about this book besides someone recommending it to me (by the way, thank you so much). This is a book about two best friends and a country road trip that is also a tour, a 24-city tour. And it was so good.

I don't know if I could put a finger on why this book was so enjoyable then the other things I've read that are similar to it. However, I'm almost positive it had to do with the fact that this book wasn't just about the romance. It was also about these two girls, Reagan and Dee, and their friendship and their recent problems. Reagan is also into photography, which is one of my many loves, even though I don't do much of it, and I enjoyed reading the small tidbits of what she was doing.

Not to say that the romance isn't completely adorable or that the guy isn't swoon worthy (he is, I'm not normally swoon-y over these book guys, but he's pretty great), and it was cheesy at points but it was so good for that. And it introduced me to the beginning of a problem, a weakness, I discovered recently: the normal person dating a famous person and the drama that entails trope. It's a great trope (feel free to recommend me books, I love that, any kind - especially that trope, though).

To wrap this up: a fantastic book, that I would definitely recommend, about two best friends, a tour/road trip, and boys.

Book Review: Everything Leads to You

Title: Everything Leads to You
Author: Nina LaCour
Genre: Contemporary, Romance (LGBT) - young adult
Rating: 5/5
Page Count: 307 (hardcover)
Publication Date: May 15th, 2014

Plot: (from Goodreads)

A love letter to the craft and romance of film and fate in front of—and behind—the camera from the award-winning author of Hold Still.

A wunderkind young set designer, Emi has already started to find her way in the competitive Hollywood film world.

Emi is a film buff and a true romantic, but her real-life relationships are a mess. She has desperately gone back to the same girl too many times to mention. But then a mysterious letter from a silver screen legend leads Emi to Ava. Ava is unlike anyone Emi has ever met. She has a tumultuous, not-so-glamorous past, and lives an unconventional life. She’s enigmatic…. She’s beautiful. And she is about to expand Emi’s understanding of family, acceptance, and true romance.

Review:

I don't know if I can be articulate and intelligent about this book, I've been rolling in my head around how to review this book since I finished it. And I just keep coming back to these same words to describe it:

gorgeous, beautiful, breathtaking, awe inspiring, fantastic

And I think that says a lot, if not everything, but I want to try and be more specific then just a few words. Though they are very good words, I feel like they might not be considered a full review.

We're going to start with the characters, because characters are most important to me. The characters felt very real to me, and I think my favorite part about this was Emi's job. I mean they were more mature then most teenagers are, but that doesn't make it unrealistic, and they weren't perfect and were very much still teenagers, they didn't make perfect decisions and while it's a little infuriating, as the one reading it, it makes them more real.

That another point - the writing. I don't know what I can say about the writing, besides that it was lyrical and beautiful and made everything seem brighter somehow, more important and more beautiful. I'm just going to get to the end of this review, it's going to be short and sweet because I start to fangirl about words.

Basically: read it.

This book made me cry at a few points, and then made me laugh while I was crying. The writing, the characters, the plot - the last paragraph or two of this book is my favorite and I wish I could share it with you without spoiling the whole story. 

Book Review: The Martian

Title: The Martian
Author: Andy Weir
Genre: Science Fiction, Adventure, Humor
Rating: 5/5
Page Count: 369 (Hardcover)
Publication Date: February 11th, 2014

Plot: (from Goodreads)
Apollo 13 meets Cast Away in this grippingly detailed, brilliantly ingenious man-vs-nature survival thriller, set on the surface of Mars.

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first men to walk on the surface of Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first man to die there.

It started with the dust storm that holed his suit and nearly killed him, and that forced his crew to leave him behind, sure he was already dead. Now he's stranded millions of miles from the nearest human being, with no way to even signal Earth that he's alive--and even if he could get word out, his food would be gone years before a rescue mission could arrive. Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to get him first.

But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills--and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit--he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. But will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

Review:
This book was a fantastic read. This book has some really interesting science in it, that's all rooted in fact and I found fun to try and mentally work out if it could (theoretically, at least) work. Is that too nerdy? Well - physics has become kind of my guilty pleasure. What I'm trying to say, talking about the science, is that it made it feel very real and down to Earth (well, down to Mars, anyway).

The beginning was a bit of a trek, I was still enjoying it, it was just taking me forever. And then as soon as it picked up, it didn't really slow down to take a breathe. I don't want to give too much, if anything, away, because I feel like going in only knowing the premise or general idea and just being swept up by it, was the perfect way to read this book.

I'm going to back up here, the first time I saw this book was, actually, someone complaining about it. However, they said that was too much like MacGyver in space for them. And I just stopped and my thought process was basically: MacGyver. In Space. Yes, I need that.

And I'm still convinced it's a pretty good comparison, though a tad more modern. And in space. I think what sold this book the most, when I was reading it, was the main narrators voice. He felt very real and very down to earth and he was hilarious, I loved how he phrased things or talked about them.

To wrap up this review before I ramble more, I'd highly recommend this book. It's fantastic, my only problem was it was a  very slight one (was how the beginning was a tad slow). Either way - highly recommended.

Added thing, and tell me if you like this idea/feature or not. These are some of my favorite quotes from The Martian:

"Yes, of course duct tape works in near-vacuum. Duct tape works anywhere. Duct tape is magic and should be worshipped.""As with most of life's problems, this one can be solved with a box of pure radiation."

"If ruining the only religious icon I have leaves me open to Martian vampires, I'll have to risk it." 

“As with most of life's problems, this one can be solved by a box of pure radiation.” 

“Once I got home, I sulked for a while. All my brilliant plans foiled by thermodynamics. Damn you, Entropy!”