Friday Face Off Cover Reveal: Splintered

Friday Face Off is a meme hosted by one of my favorite book bloggers Misty over at The Book Rat.  Usually this meme focuses on different cover designs for the same book and decides which is better for the story.  I wanted to take this meme and add a little twist to it today by discussing a cover reveal! 

 

Splintered by A.G. Howard is a debut that isn't set to come out until 2013, but it already is one of my most anticipated debuts for the year.  Splintered is a re-imagining of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and it sounds totally awesome.  It's about a girl named Alyssa, the great-great-great-granddaughter of Alice Liddell, who goes into Wonderland to try and save the realm. 

 

 

And look at this cover!  It is so beautiful :).  I love the vibrant colors and all of the little bugs and flowers.  The only thing I don't like about the cover is how her hair covers one of her eyes.  Is that eye even there?  It's a bit freaky.

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

#1 in the Across the Universe series
Published January 11, 2011 by Razorbill
2 Stars

Goodreads Review
A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder.

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming. 

Review:  Look at this cover.  Look at it.  It is phenomenal.  Seriously, take off the words and I'd hang that on my wall.  But sadly I cannot say the story inside the book was as wildly exciting as the cover.  I rarely think that books are overwritten, but There were so many plot twists it got to be too much and I found myself figuring out everything long before they were revealed and rolling my eyes. 

The biggest problem in Across the Universe is world building, as is often the case with lack luster science fiction.  I did not understand why there needed to be a society of people to maintain the ship in the first place.  Couldn't there be a group of frozen technicians who are awaken at certain intervals?  Couldn't most of the ship's functions be run by computers?  Also, what was the point in the mission at all?  I don't remember if that was explained but I never really knew why Amy and her parents were frozen in the first place. 

I found myself really disliking Elder and Amy, the two main characters.  I felt like there wasn't anything special enough about either of them to make them stand out and I couldn't relate.  Amy was particularly bland.  I came away from the novel knowing she was different because she had red hair, liked track and field, and spent a lot of time whining about her parents, her ex-boyfriend, and how different life on the ship is.  I got a bit of a better feeling for Elder, mostly because he had the opportunity to develop as he learns more about Eldest and the deceptions of the ship's government.  What really bothered me about these characters was how terrible things could happen to them but then they'd get over it in a matter of minutes.  Amy, in particular, had some very unbelievable reactions.  The romance between these two was boring and poorly paced.  By the time they finally meet we're a third of the way through the book and I found it very difficult to care. 

There were some good themes in Across the Universe, namely does quality of life matter if something can survive?  It questions government control through various means: medicinal, class structure, and religion.  It was like Revis had these great ethical themes that were bogged down with poorly built science fiction and tiresome romance. 

Across the Universe looks like a beautiful romance set in outer space, but don't let that cover fool you.  The book plods along with a clunky and more than slightly creepy romance and while there are some huge plot twists, they're hinted at with extremely obvious clues and then solved with extremely convenient solutions.  This would have been a one star read, but that stunning cover is worth a star all on it's own.

Top Ten Tuesday 4/10/2012: Top Ten Books That Were Totally Deceiving

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.  This meme was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish.  We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new top ten list complete with one of our bloggers' answers.  Everyone is welcome to join.  All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND post a comment on our post with a link to your Top Ten Tuesday post to share with us and all those who are participating.  If you don't have a blog, just post your answers in the comments.

Long time no see huh?  I haven't done a Top Ten Tuesday since January!  But this week's topic was too good to pass up.

TOP TEN BOOKS THAT WERE TOTALLY DECEIVING (AKA COVER FRAUD)

1.  Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon - I love this cover, it is just beautiful.  Sadly the story inside is not so much.

2.  Across the Universe by Beth Revis  - This cover is GORGEOUS!  I seriously love it so much.  But that's about where the love of this book ends sadly.

3.  Wither by Lauren DeStefano - Sometimes I feel alone in this, but I didn't really like Wither.  The cover is amazingly beautiful, but the book fell completely flat.

4.  The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin - This book had SO MUCH HYPE.  Seriously, I was quivering with anticipation once this cover was revealed.  Too bad I didn't really like the book :(

5.  Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead - It's no secret that I HATE this cover with a burning passion.  I didn't read this series for the longest time because of the terrible covers.  But once I got over my prejudice and actually read the book I fell in literary love.

6.  Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick - I love the sexy man cover of Hush, Hush, but the book?  Not so much.

7.  Divergent by Veronica Roth - I have to be honest, I really don't like the cover of Divergent.  If there hadn't been a lot of hype I'm not sure I would have picked it up.  Now that I know more about the story I like the cover a lot more, but if I were coming to it knowing nothing?  I would pass it by.

 8.  Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor - I really dislike this cover, it does nothing for me.  However, I really freaking loved this book!  Daughter of Smoke and Bone is the best paranormal romance I've ever read.

 9.  Tris & Izzie by Bette Ive Harrison - This cover is stunning, but Tris & Izzie may be the worst book I've ever read.  Ever.

10.  The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa - I loved the covers of the first three books in the Iron Fey series, but The Iron Knight cover is nowhere near as good (though I do like the fact that Puck is on the back).  However, The Iron Knight is my favorite book of the series! 

The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith

#1 in the Marbury Lens series
Published November 9, 2010 by Feiwel and Friends
4 Stars

Goodreads Review
Sixteen-year-old Jack gets drunk and is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is kidnapped. He escapes, narrowly. The only person he tells is his best friend, Conner. When they arrive in London as planned for summer break, a stranger hands Jack a pair of glasses. Through the lenses, he sees another world called Marbury.  There is war in Marbury. It is a desolate and murderous place where Jack is responsible for the survival of two younger boys. Conner is there, too. But he’s trying to kill them.  Meanwhile, Jack is falling in love with an English girl, and afraid he’s losing his mind.  Conner tells Jack it’s going to be okay. But it’s not.  Andrew Smith has written his most beautiful and personal novel yet, as he explores the nightmarish outer limits of what trauma can do to our bodies and our minds.


Review:  The Marbury Lens is, well, weird.  Good weird, but weird all the same.  The best way I can describe it is half The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson and half the movie The Road Warrior.  The Marbury Lens is an experiential book.  It doesn't bother to give you a lot of background.  You don't learn how the lens work or why Marbury is the way it is, you're just thrown into the world and are forced to sink or swim much like the main character Jack.  And you're not just swimming in water,  you're wading through blood and fear, sweat and pain.  The Marbury Lens is violent, intense, agonizing, and completely engrossing.

What I really loved about The Marbury Lens was how it didn't hold back.  I am a huge horror fan and this book did not skimp on the gory details.  I felt everything in this book as if I was in Marbury too.  When Jack saw a dismembered body and gagged my stomach roiled.  When Jack began to question his sanity, I felt the same anxiety.  In much the same way as how Jack cannot resist the pull of The Marbury Lens, I too found myself consumed by this book, despite the horror contained within it's pages. 

I loved the ambiguity of The Marbury Lens.  We never really figure out if Marbury is real, a symptom of post traumatic stress or worse, an imagined escape.  And that's what makes it so awesome.  I love it when a book is completely not the normal YA fare and I think "What is this thing I'm reading!?".  The Marbury Lens delivers, and the ending?  Had my mouth hanging open in disbelief.  I cannot wait for the second book, Passenger, due sometime in 2012.

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Friday Face Off Cover Reveal: Reached

Friday Face Off is a meme hosted by one of my favorite book bloggers Misty over at The Book Rat.  Usually this meme focuses on different cover designs for the same book and decides which is better for the story.  I wanted to take this meme and add a little twist to it today by discussing a cover reveal!  

 

Now I haven't read the Matched series by Ally Condie, but I do think they have some of the most compelling cover designs.  With the final book in the trilogy, Reached set to come out in November, we can see the overall effect of the series. 

 

 

I love the covers for this series.  I like how they tell a story about the development of the main character.  In Matched she is a prisoner, in Crossed she begins to fight back, and in Reached she is free.  The covers make me interested in the story to find out what the main character is esacping from and how she will be changed over the course of the series.  I also like the title convention used where the second letter in each title is different, either missing a line or is backwards.  This also intrigues me and makes me wonder if that has some significance to the story.  With Reached coming out in the fall I know I will be starting this series soon.

 

The Iron Thorn by Caitlin Kittredge

#1 in the Iron Codex series
Published February 22, 2011 by Delacorte Books
4 Stars


Goodreads Review
In the city of Lovecraft, the Proctors rule and a great Engine turns below the streets, grinding any resistance to their order to dust. The necrovirus is blamed for Lovecraft's epidemic of madness, for the strange and eldritch creatures that roam the streets after dark, and for everything that the city leaders deem Heretical—born of the belief in magic and witchcraft. And for Aoife Grayson, her time is growing shorter by the day.
Aoife Grayson's family is unique, in the worst way—every one of them, including her mother and her elder brother Conrad, has gone mad on their 16th birthday. And now, a ward of the state, and one of the only female students at the School of Engines, she is trying to pretend that her fate can be different.

Review:  The Iron Thorn was my first jump into a real Steampunk novel, and I loved the world it created.  I honestly wish it was a movie because I wanted to see Lovecraft and how the city worked as well as the fashions of the people living in it.  This is definitely the strongest part of the book for me.  The fantastic world building which includes one of my favorite settings, mansions with hidden passages and rooms!  It's totally awesome.

I also really enjoyed the characters.  First off, Aoife (pronounced EE-fa) is a fantastic name for a fantastic character. Lets just hold up for a minute and recognize that this girl is an ENGINEER!  HOLLA!  Being an engineer myself, it was absolutely awesome to read a character like me!  We aren't just told that Aoife is smart, we see her intelligence when she creates solutions to problems like a lady Macgyver.  There's a lot of sexism in Lovecraft's society, and I like how Aoife starts to stand up for herself and is all "You know what?  Women can be smart AND hot and STILL save the day!"  I also loved the swoon worthy Dean.  Like for serious, he is a fantastic hottie bad boy.  Their romance developed at a good pace and, yes I'll say it, smoldered all over the place. 

Now onto what disappointed me a bit.  If you took out the fantastic steampunk elements, I would have to say this story is not very imaginative.  It's got a very generic adventure story plot.  Girl and friend and hot boy go off to save something, run into problems, discover a much greater problem, go on mission to solve it, almost get thwarted by bad guy, beat the bad guy at the last minute, but then something totally unexpected happens and cliffhanger ending.  I really enjoyed the story up until the fey were introduced.  I just don't see why they had to be in the story.  I would have been down for the "weird" magic, but I didn't want it to go that far into fairytale, I wanted it to stay more science fiction.  I also didn't really like what happened to Cal, it felt too convenient of a twist that was too forced.

Overall The Iron Thorn is a great introduction to the steampunk genre, but still has a bit of magical fun for people who like a little fantasy.  While the story can be paced a little slow and some of the magic lore a bit confusing, I would recommend this book to anyone who likes alternative histories with beautiful imagery. 

April 2012 New Reads

Here are some of the YA books and debuts set for April of 2012.  This isn't a complete list, just some of the ones I'm interested in.  I hope you enjoy!

April 1

  The List by Siobhan Vivian

Why I'm Excited:  This concept sounds sooo cool!  I love the idea of multiple perspectives and I can't wait to read everyone's story and see how they're connected.  The List is highly anticipated!

Above by Leah Bobet (DAC)


Why I'm Excited:  I have to admit, the first things that drew me to Above was the cover.  But the story also sounds like a really cool mystery.  It looks like Above will have equal parts action and romance which is awesome in my book.







April 3

 Black Heart by Holly Black
#3 in the Curse Workers Series

Why I'm Excited:  I've heard lots of great things about this series and the dark nature of Holly Black's writing in general.  I really love the new covers too, so I'll have to read this series soon.

Fear by Michael Grant
#5 in the Gone series

Why I'm Excited:  I've hear so much about this series, I need to start it soon!  I can't believe it's on the 5th book and I haven't even read the first one.

Pure by Jennifer L. Armentrout
#2 in the Covenant series

Why I'm Excited:  I've heard a lot of really good things about this series.  It sounds complex and action packed, with a little romance thrown in there two.  I own the first book on my kindle, so I know I'll be reading this one soon.

Grave Mercy by R.L. LaFevers (DAC)
#1 in the His Fair Assassin series


Why I'm Excited:  Destined to become an assassin by death himself?  sweet.








April 8

 Ripper by Amy Carol Reeves (DAC)

Why I'm Excited:  I love stories about Jack the Ripper, and this one sounds like a total winner.  I hope it's as gruesome as my imagination. :)







April 10

 The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman

Why I'm Excited:  This sounds like Dan Brown for teens.  Murder, secret societies, and communicating with God?  Awesome!  I'm really hoping it takes a religious twist, I love stories that question popular opinions.

The Calling by Kelly Armstrong
#2 in the Darkness Rising series

Why I'm Excited:  I've heard a lot of praise for Kelly Armstrong, and I've been in the market for a good werewolf story.  I think this series might fit the bill.

The Last Echo by Kimberly Derting
#3 in The Body Finder series

Why I'm Excited:  I've been wanting to read this series for a long time, largely due to the cover I will admit, but also to the intriguing story.  Now with the final book coming out, I think I'll have to start this one.

The Wicked and the Just by J. Anderson Coats (DAC)

Why I'm Excited:  This is a historical book that has an interesting prince and pauper feel to it.  I really enjoy class war stories, so I'm excited to see where this one goes!

The Springsweet by Saundra Mitchell
#2 in The Vespertine series

Why I'm Excited:  The Vespertine sounded like a very cool book, and the second book in the series is no exception.  These books seem like they'll be interesting takes on paranormal books, ones that don't get too caught up in the mystery of supernatural powers.

Gone, Gone, Gone by Hannah Moskowitz

Why I'm Excited:  I've never read anything by Hannah Moskowitz, but I really enjoy her youtube videos with the YARebels.  I am very interested in reading some of her work, and I like the post 9/11 premise of GGG.













April 24

Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin

Why I'm Excited:  Um, is there a reason not to be excited?  I love Edgar Allan Poe, and I'll basically read anything that has to do with him.  I have a particular fondness for Masque of the Read Death.  I blame The Phantom of the Opera.

Social Suicide by Gemma Halliday
#2 in the Deadly Cool series

Why I'm Excited:  I only want to read this book because of the cover.  I LOVE this series's covers, they are so pretty!  Ok well, maybe the murder mysteries centered around social media is a factor too.

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
#1 in the Blood of Eden series

Why I'm Excited:  I LOVED the Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa, so of course I'm excited for her vampire series!  It sounds so cool and creepy, and I know I can expect lots of action and some really fun characters.

Purity by Jackson Pearce

Why I'm Excited:  I read Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce and the entire time I thought, she would be an excellent contemporary writer.  Well now my wish has been granted.  I'm really excited for this book and I can't wait to see what direction Pearce takes this story.

Breaking Beautiful by Jennifer Shaw Wolf (DAC)

Why I'm Excited:  I really enjoy amnesia stories, and I think revealing an abusive relationship and how it affects someone who cannot remember it will be really interesting.  Plus I think the cover is pretty clever.

The Selection by Kiera Cass (DAC)
#1 in The Selection series

Why I'm Excited:  I have a morbid curosity with this one.  There was a lot of drama surrounding reviews for this book and some negative attention, but I like the cover and the bachelor meets survivor premise, so I think I'll give it a go and decide for myself.

Thumped by Megan McCafferty
#2 in the Bumped series

Why I'm Excited:  I won this from goodreads!!!!  This is the first time I've won a giveaway and I am so pumped!  I own Bumped on my kindle, so I'll have to read that first then check out Thumped.  Thanks goodreads!