Future Reads #14: Existence by Abbi Glines

Here's where I babble about a book yet-to-be-released, but is about to be, that I want to read very badly. This one comes out in a week, so I'm just barely doing this post in time!

Existence (Existence, #1)
by Abbi Glines

Publication Date: December 13, 2011

What happens when you are stalked by Death? You fall in
love with him of course. Pagan Moore doesn’t cheat Death, instead, she falls in love with him.

Seventeen year old Pagan Moore, has seen souls her entire life. Once she realized the strangers she often saw walking through walls were not visible to anyone else, she started ignoring them. If she didn’t let them know she could see them, they left her alone. Until she steps out of her car on the first day of school and sees an incredibly sexy guy lounging on a picnic table, watching her with an amused smirk on his face. Problem is, she knows he's dead. Not only does he not go away, when she ignores him he does something none of the others have ever done; he speaks. Pagan is fascinated by the soul. What Pagan doesn’t realize is that her appointed time to die is drawing near and the wickedly beautiful soul she is falling in love with is not a soul. He is Death and he is about to break all the rules.

Okay, that cover.... <falls down dead> Some covers just make you stop breathing, and this is one of them. Yikes! But, even so, this books sounds totally amazing, if the early reviews are any indication. The main hero character may be one of those dangerous bad boy types, but I don't mind them if they are written right. I loves me some anti-heroes with big hearts. I'm just assuming he'll be like this since this guy Pagan, the main character, falls for is Death. Or, Dank. Something like that...

Who else is excited about this one coming out?

Review: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1)

by Maggie Stiefvater

Genre: Paranormal Romance/Werewolf

Reading Grade: Young Adult

Publishing Type: traditional

Publication Date: August 1, 2009

Source: AudiobookSync.com

Rated: Teen (13+)

Amazon.com

Grace and Sam share a kinship so close they could be lovers or siblings. But they also share a problem. When the temperature slips towards freezing, Sam reverts to his wolf identity and must retreat into the woods to protect his pack. He worries that eventually his human side will fade away and he will left howling alone at the lonely moon. A stirring supernatural teen romance.

My Review

I downloaded the audiobook version of this novel from AudiobookSync.com and couldn't wait to listen to it. Glad I didn't hesitate. I was kind of leary about whether or not I'd like it, since I could tell the writing was sort of “flowery”, and I'm not a big fan of that. But, this book turned out to be fan-freaking-tastic! I fell into the story so quickly and easily, as if I were right there experiencing the entire saga with the characters. Everything came to life in my mind. I love when I have that type of experience with a story.

I also feel the shifting first-person POV between the two main characters, Grace and Sam, worked very well. I realize now that I like books that do this, although I haven't read very many that do. You get to see the story through both their eyes all along the way, and they are very convincingly different from each other—another reason this worked so well. The voice actors were magnificent and sounded exactly like how the characters should sound, age-wise and personality-wise.

I ended up falling in love with the premise of this book after getting into it because of how cleverly it deals with what is so seemingly cliché: teen girl falls in love with paranormal teen boy. That general idea sounds super boring and overdone nowadays, but this book makes it so new and fresh again, unlike any other take on it before. It's the natural way the characters come to know each other and fall in love that makes it work. The author mentions in a Q&A at the end of the audiobook that she wrote these two characters doing and saying what came naturally for them, not forcibly writing them into a set plot. It shows, and it's just brilliant.

Grace and Sam are wonderful characters, neither quirky nor unusual, but very realistic. That realism is what grabbed me because that's what I feel is necessary for a paranormal novel to succeed—the paranormal invades the real world in some small or large way, but it always seems as realistic as possible. Shiver succeeds wildly at this and I'm sure that had mostly to do with why I loved it so much. So glad there's two more books in this series to read...

My score: 5 out of 5 stars

The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa

The Iron Queen (Iron Fey, #3)

by Julie Kagawa

Genre: Fantasy/Faerie

Reading Grade: Young Adult

Publication Date: January 25, 2011

Source: local library

Rated: Teen (13+)

Amazon.com

My name is Meghan Chase. 

I thought it was over. That my time with the fey, the impossible choices I had to make, the sacrifices of those I loved, was behind me. But a storm is approaching, an army of Iron fey that will drag me back, kicking and screaming. Drag me away from the banished prince who's sworn to stand by my side. Drag me into the core of conflict so powerful, I'm not sure anyone can survive it. 

This time, there will be no turning back.

My Review

These books just keep getting better and better! This volume of The Iron Fey series is the BEST so far. Julie Kagawa's writing improves with each new book, as does her story-telling, both of which are fantastic. This book blends the best of action and violence with lots of romance. Lots! This is why I LOVE this book (and the entire series). And—oh my—how it ends … o_o No Mary-Sues here, no way.

The main characters are more interesting, more fleshed out in this volume. They've been able to develop as characters more than ever. Their relationships with each other become so real, so tangible. I admit, I ship Ash with Meghan, but it's not like I have a problem with Puck and Meghan together. That's what is so great about these two leading men. I love them both! They are great foils to each other—great contrasts—and both have different things to offer that make them so fun. I could go either way, really (but, I'm rooting for Ash).

I won't mince words and just say that I fell in love with Ash so much more in this volume. We get to see a side of him that has never been revealed in any of the previous books. He really does have a warm, sweet side to him (for Meghan!). Okay, he's not a perfect guy, but he doesn't need to be. He has a very flawed past, but that's the way I like my leading male characters. They seem more human, easy to relate to that way. He is simply one of my favorite fictional characters now, along with Meghan and Puck, of course.

I cannot wait for The Iron Knight to come out! Cannot wait at all. The Ice-Boy cometh. (That might make a good tag-line for it.) It's a book all about Ashy-poo... Are you kiddin' me? I'm going into a self-induced coma until October just so I don't have to suffer so much while waiting…. *konk*

My score: 5 out of 5 stars (Obviously!) 

 

Future Reads #4

In which I blog about a book coming out soon that I'm looking forward to reading before I get old(er) and die...

Ripple 
by Mandy Hubbard

Release Date: July 21, 2011

Amazon.com

Lexi is cursed with a dark secret. Each day she goes to school like a normal teenager, and each night she must swim, or the pain will be unbearable. She is a siren - a deadly mermaid destined to lure men to their watery deaths. After a terrible tragedy, Lexi shut herself off from the world, vowing to protect the ones she loves. But she soon finds herself caught between a new boy at school who may have the power to melt her icy exterior, and a handsome water spirit who says he can break Lexi's curse if she gives up everything else. Lexi is faced with the hardest decision she's ever had to make: the life she's always longed for - or the love she can't live without?

Mermaid fiction! I've yet to read any and this one sounds really, really cool. Really intense. Maybe I just like deadly sirens and the fact that she's forced into being one. Can't wait to read this...

My Boyfriend Is a Monster #1 by Evonne Tsang

My Boyfriend Is a Monster #1: I Love Him to Pieces

by Evonne Tsang; Janina Gorrissen (Illustrator)

Genre: Paranormal Graphic Novel

Reading Grade: YA

Publishing Type: traditional

Publication Date: April 2011

Source: public library

Rated: Teen (13+)

Amazon.com

Can love survive the zombie apocalypse? Maybe Dicey's first chance at a real relationship was dead from the start. She's the star of her high school baseball team, and Jack's the star of the science program. Her idea of a study session includes sleeping in the sun, and his idea of a good game involves dungeons and dice. But opposites start attracting when they're assigned to be partners in a class project. Now an outbreak of a weird infection—it eats your brains and leaves you hungry for more—might not mean just the end of their first date. It might mean the end of everything. Will their relationship fall apart faster than zombies in the Florida sun, or can Dicey and Jack beat the odds and find a happy ending?

My Review 

I Love Him to Pieces (the first book in a series) takes place in Florida where baseball star Dicey Bell is paired up with her fellow high school student, Jack Chen, for a Health Ed project. She is a jock and he is a nerd. Somehow they end up liking each other and Jack Chen asks her out on a date that turns into the worst date imaginable because the zombie apocalypse breaks-out in their area during their date. 

This is my first review of a true graphic novel (not a manga), which I love to read along with regular ol' fiction. Nice thing is, NO superheros in tights. Thus, I Love Him to Pieces is a very cute little romantic zombie apocalypse story that could easily function as paranormal romance fiction. 

There was nothing particularly earth-shattering about the story-telling, nor the characterization (but, what happens is earth-shattering to the characters' lives, of course). There's nothing here that I haven't seen done before somewhere else, but it is a nice way to turn off your brain and read a brain-eating zombie story before you turn in for the night, assuming that sort of thing relaxes you. 

I will say that it is very sweet and romantic, but I just didn't buy Dicey's and Jack Chen's very quickly burgeoning love for each other. Seriously, it was way too fast to make such confessions to each other, since they barely knew each other before being paired up for their Health Ed project. But, I did like Dicey as a character. She was lively and tough enough to be the only girl on the boy's high school baseball team. Jack Chen was cute in a geeky sort of way. 

The art is very good, although I usually prefer manga-style art. But, the art in this volume is very professional-looking and pleasing to the eye. It's worth reading if you already like zombie fiction with a side of romance, or already like reading graphic novels. 

My score: 3 out of 5 stars