I should not exist. But I do.

Eva and Addie started out the same way as everyone else—two souls woven together in one body, taking turns controlling their movements as they learned how to walk, how to sing, how to dance. But as they grew, so did the worried whispers. Why aren’t they settling? Why isn’t one of them fading? The doctors ran tests, the ushied away, and their parents begged for more time. Finally Addie was pronounced healthy and Eva was declared gone. Except, she wasn’t . . .

For the past three years, Eva has clung to the remnants of her life. Only Addie knows she’s still there, trapped inside their body. Then one day, they discover there may be a way for Eva to move again. The risks are unimaginable-hybrids are considered a threat to society, so if they are caught, Addie and Eva will be locked away with the others. And yet . . . for a chance to smile, to twirl, to speak, Eva will do anything.

Hardcover, US Edition, 343 pages Published September 18th 2012 by HarperCollins ISBN 0062114875 (ISBN13: 9780062114877)

After the Hybrid War, hybrids are considered the enemy. Each body is born with 2 separate souls. Each body’s souls have different personalities, likes, dislikes, talents and variations of how they look. When one soul is the more prominent soul using the body, you can tell by the quirks they have. For instance, they could use the other hand when they write. But they are both different people, just occupying the same body.

When you reach abound the age of five, your less dominant soul is supposed to disappear, suppressed to the point of non-existence. But not with Eva and Addie. Addie never fully pushes Eva away. Eva stays hidden in the depths of Addie’s mind and continues living along with her until they meet others that help Eva decide that she does want to live. She wants a chance to have a body and experience things on her own. But what would that mean for Addie? Too bad they don’t get a chance to find out. The group is found out and they get taken off to the hospital where people are likely not to return from. It’s a death sentence, at least for one of them, or both.

The story was borderline Sybil for teens, except we only have 2 personalities with which to contend. It makes it easier to follow, and really unique to read a story in which your main character keeps referring to herself as “we”.  The reader will really empathise with Addie and Eve. They have very conflicting feelings when it comes to ownership of the one body. To lose either one of them would literally be losing part of yourself, your other half.

Although the story had sections of anticipation and danger, there is not necessarily a lot of action to the plot. The majority of the book takes place in the hospital. We get to meet a lot of other minor characters and staff members and find out about the hospital procedures and danger in the experiments they are running. It is a more atmospheric novel with the constant feeling of danger and paranoia.

It’s an interesting start to a new series. One that I was nervous to pick up, but sure glad I did. The ending is perfect and you will want to pick up the next book.

Summer is the best part of the year in Winston, California, and the Fourth of July is the highlight of the season. But the perfect town Clare remembers has changed, and everyone is praying that this summer will be different from the last two—that this year’s Fourth of July festival won’t see one of their own vanish without a trace, leaving no leads and no suspects. The media are in a frenzy predicting a third disappearance, but the town depends on tourist dollars, so the residents of Winston are trying desperately to pretend nothing’s wrong.

And they’re not the only ones hiding something.

Clare, a seamstress who redesigns vintage clothing, has been blessed—or perhaps cursed—with a gift: she can see people’s pasts when she touches their clothes. When she stumbles across a denim jacket that once belonged to Amanda Stavros, last year’s Fourth of July victim, Clare sees her perfect town begin to come apart at the seams.

In a town where appearance means everything, how deep beneath the surface will Clare dig to uncover a murderer?

Hardcover, 288 pages

Expected publication: September 11th 2012 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers

ISBN 0385741049 (ISBN13: 9780385741040)

Clare loves to design her own clothing, sometimes even sell her designs. Her main passion in life is shopping for vintage items at charity shops to redesign into an outfit of her own style and making.

Clare also happens to have visions. When she touches fabric she has visions from the lives of those that wore them. As she loves to design her own clothes and shop at used stores she has these visions often. But when she happens upon one particular girl’s jacket, visions pulls her into the mystery of what really happened that night the girl went missing a year ago. Clare is torn over how deeply she should get into investigating the visions that the jacket is causing. It scares her how vivid they have become. But when Clare’s friend receives a threat, the mystery of what the jacket is trying to tell her about the murders becomes a priority. It may just be a matter of life and death.

Clare is an eclectic character. She has a few but dedicated friends, she has a passion for clothing and designs and style. The family dynamics and relationship between herself, her mother and her grandmother was my favorite part of the story. They struggle to put together lost relationships and work through their past disagreements.

At first Clare, like a lot of others, suspects it is the boyfriend who caused the girl’s disappearance. But upon making friends with him, she can see that he would not have done it. She continues to ask questions and has several visions that pull her deeper into the mystery.

She is a very caring person and even though her visions are scary and most would not get involved, she reaches out and in the end we have a story of loss, mystery, family and friends. Through Clare’s investigations and visions we get to see how close the people in the town are to each other.

Hello Fellow Bookworms!

I’m back, yet with another review, this time on The Peculiars by Maureen Doyle. Before I get started I wanted to say a huge thank you to Krista for sending me her extra ARC! Thank you! Truth be told, I read and finished this book at the beginning of the summer, and have pushed off writing the review until now (the end of summer). Not because I didn’t enjoy or like it, but more because I needed to give the story, the characters and the ending time to sink it.

The Peculiars follows the main character Lena Mattacascar on the journey to finding her father, and the reason behind her elongated fingers and toes (she’s always wondered if they were signs of Goblinism). Days before her eighteenth birthday, Lena receives a hand-written letter from her father, explaining why he left and where he’d gone. Deciding to set out to search for him, Lena leaves for Scree.

In the society Lena lives in, folktales and myths have been passed down from generation to generation about a race of people called Peculiars. The word itself means strange, odd, uncommon and unusual. Many people don’t (or at least try not to) believe in them. Peculiars are people with defects, and rumors say, if someone is accused of being a Peculiar, they are sent to Scree to work in the coal mines.

Throughout her adventure Lena learns a lot about herself, and her family. She meets a few interesting people such as Jimson (who sat with her on the train, when her bag with important papers and money was stolen), Mr. Quiggley (who she starts to work for), and Thomas Saltre (a marshall who’s father was murdered by Lena’s).

What attracted me to this book so much was the cover, not the one of the ARC I received, but the actual thing. The summary seemed pretty interesting as well, so I went in with a open mind, ready for anything. But within the first few chapters, I was already bored and uninterested. Getting to learn about Lena and her hands and feet was intriguing, but the beginning dragged on. The train ride was maybe four of five chapters long, and boring. Nothing interesting happened and when it did (when her bag with papers and her money was stolen), everyone acted like everything was okay.

But being who I am, I pushed through and continued reading. The middle of the book had a few good parts, but again nothing too exciting happened. At this point, I was constantly thinking, “Do something! Don’t just sit around!”. But man, did the ending slap me in the face! It was like no other! Even though Lena didn’t meet the person she was looking for, she did meet someone else…who is very close to her (well..biologically)!

In The Peculiars I loved the concept, the ending, the characters, and that the characters loved books! But on the other hand, I do the think the beginning and middle of the book can be a bit dry and drag on at times. The ending is what makes the book good! If you get the chance to read The Peculiars, I recommend being patient and pushing through, because the ending is amazing, and will leave you wanting more!

Don’t Sweat. Don’t Laugh. Don’t draw attention to yourself. And most of all, whatever you do, do not fall in love with one of them. Gene is different from everyone else around him. He can’t run with lightning speed, sunlight doesn’t hurt him and he doesn’t have an unquenchable lust for blood.

Gene is a human, and he knows the rules. Keep the truth a secret. It’s the only way to stay alive in a world of night – a world where humans are considered a delicacy and hunted for their blood. When he’s chosen for a once in a lifetime opportunity to hunt the last remaining humans, Gene’s carefully constructed life begins to crumble around him. He’s thrust into the path of a girl who makes him feel things he never thought possible – and into a ruthless pack of hunters whose suspicions about his true nature are growing. Now that Gene has finally found something worth fighting for, his need to survive is stronger than ever – but is it worth the cost of his humanity?

©2012 Andrew Fukuda (P)2012 Macmillan Audio

The Hunt is about to begin. There is a lottery that will take place to choose the lucky winners – Vampires who have not tasted real human blood, since humans are almost extinct and a rare delicacy only tasted by the very few. Gene is one of the lottery winners and is whisked away to the hunting grounds, with no time to prepare. The Vampires are housed in close quarters preparing for their hunt only days before the humans will be released from the dome they now live under.

Gene is hiding his true identity. Living in close quarters with vampires is very dangerous. He may be considered one of the lucky ones by winning a place in the lottery but that is not how he sees it. Each day spent at the headquarters preparing for the hunt is another day Gene has to be on constant guard. Every glance, smell, look is noticed by the ever vigilant vampires. They are all on edge, ready to taste human blood, ready to hunt.

The Hunt is an intense read, the growing stress that every day brings upon Gene, who’s secret must not be revealed.  The story has its bursts of action, which is overlaid with fear, paranoia and curiosity. I enjoyed reading a book that takes on the view of a socialized vampire,  living in cities and attending school. Though very few of them have experienced human blood, it is still a constant desire. Gene’s character brings emotion into an otherwise cold, dispassionate world. The one thing that makes Gene different, his secret makes for an entertaining twist to the vampire stories today.

Sean Runnette is an award-winning audiobook producer, director and narrator. As a narrator he has a gripping tone that brings out the danger and the careful and unambiguous way the vampires speak and represent themselves. He makes it a very memorable story. The anxiety that Gene feels and the intimidation of the vampire elders are what stood out to me while listening. It must be hard to imagine a world in which vampires rule, human’s are farmed. You would do just about anything to live…wouldn’t you?

“The Hunt” audio clip

How do you judge a really good book? Is it the way it resonates with you and changes you in some way come the last word on the final page? Is it the way the world falls away while you’re reading it and nothing can stop you from turning the pages? Is it when you lovingly add it to the pile of books you WILL reread until the book falls apart?

For me Throne of Glass is all of the above and more. My hubby was incredibly embarrassed when I refused to leave the book at home and was reading while we were grocery shopping. (Sorry to the people I accidentally ran into in the store that night.)

I was reading the uncorrected proof of this epically engaging tale of strength, so the cover art isn’t the finished version, but it is pretty close. On the proof, we have an icy blue backdrop and the shadow of Celaena stalking toward us. On the finished paperback book we have the artist’s rendering of Celaena in some seriously awesome clothes and deadly looking weapons out the wazoo.

I’ll grab the blurb from goodreads.com, so I don’t give away anything the publishers don’t want you to know until you pick up the book… and you know, I think you should.

Celaena Sardothien is a daredevil assassin with unrivalled fighting skills. After a year’s hard labour in the salt mines of the kingdom of Adarlan, Celaena is offered her freedom on one condition—she must fight as handsome Prince Dorian’s champion in a contest sponsored by the king, facing the deadliest thieves and assassins in the land in a series of set-piece battles in the country’s stunning glass palace. But there is more at stake than even her life—for Celaena is destined for a remarkable future…

I was in awe of the world building Sarah has worked so hard on; I was enchanted with thoughts of entire castles made from glass and the gentle way the seasons turned. The clock tower sounds rather foreboding, and who doesn’t love the thought of exploring a long forgotten part of a castle?

The characters were well developed and I think Celeana will become one of the best heroines of 2012.

The theme of the book is strength. You don’t have to have rippling muscles to be the strongest person. There is strength of morals, strength of will, courage is a type of strength and so is making the difficult decisions even if they go against every fiber of your being. All Celaena wants is her freedom, but is she strong enough?

If you like Jaqueline Carey’s Kushiel series, Rowena Cory Daniell’s King Rowland’s Kin and the T’en series, then you will seriously love this book.  I recommend reading it while the weather is cooler so you feel even more a part of the story, not that you won’t get sucked in even in the repressive heat of summer.

This will definitely be on my top 5 list of best books of the year.

Will it make your top 5?

http://sarahjmaas.com/

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Paperback, 404 pages

Expected publication: August 2nd 2012 by Bloomsbury

ISBN 140883233X (ISBN13: 9781408832332)