Waiting on The Girl with all the Gifts by M. J. Carey

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that I can't wait for.

This week I'm waiting on:

The Girl with all the Gifts

by M. J. Carey

Publishing Date: March 27th, 2014

From Goodreads:

Melanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her 'our little genius'. Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh. Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children's cells. She tells her favourite teacher all the things she'll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn't know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad.

Unraveling: Kinslayer by Jay Kristoff

Title: Kinslayer

Series: The Lotus War Book Two

Author: Jay Kristoff

Publication Date: Sept. 17, 2013

A SHATTERED EMPIRE
The mad Shōgun Yoritomo has been assassinated by the Stormdancer Yukiko, and the threat of civil war looms over the Shima Imperium. The Lotus Guild conspires to renew the nation’s broken dynasty and crush the growing rebellion simultaneously – by endorsing a new Shōgun who desires nothing more than to see Yukiko dead.

A DARK LEGACY
Yukiko and the mighty thunder tiger Buruu have been cast in the role of heroes by the Kagé rebellion. But Yukiko herself is blinded by rage over her father’s death, and her ability to hear the thoughts of beasts is swelling beyond her power to control. Along with Buruu, Yukiko’s anchor is Kin, the rebel Guildsman who helped her escape from Yoritomo’s clutches. But Kin has his own secrets, and is haunted by visions of a future he’d rather die than see realized.

A GATHERING STORM
Kagé assassins lurk within the Shōgun’s palace, plotting to end the new dynasty before it begins. A waif from Kigen’s gutters begins a friendship that could undo the entire empire. A new enemy gathers its strength, readying to push the fracturing Shima imperium into a war it cannot hope to survive. And across raging oceans, amongst islands of black glass, Yukiko and Buruu will face foes no katana or talon can defeat.

The ghosts of a blood-stained past.

  

***

My Thoughts

I think Kristoff is trying to kill us through his books. I had so many conflicting emotions while reading Kinslayer I'm surprised I didn't have a heart attack.

We start right of with a bang or more precisely, three bangs. Yukiko is now official a badass, and Kin is on the run. The first half of Kinslayer pissed me off. A lot. The way the book is written, every chapter is someone else's point of view, to get a feel for all the plot threads going on. This was both good and bad. While I'm usually all for this kind of presentation, for the first half of Kinslayer it made me want to throw the kindle at the wall in frustration. You are given enough for you to know that something else is going on but not enough for any actual answers, and at that point you don't know how all these plot threads are going to be tying in. This, plus what was actually happening made for an incredibly frustrating first half of the book.

We had the Kage off in the Iishi mountains 'trying' to plot some kind of movement against Kigen. We have some random girl who works at the palace who can use the Kenning as well. Then we have the Guildsmen plotting against the Kage to keep Kigen and Shima the way it is. We have Yukiko who is drowning in grief for her father and suffering from something that we don't know yet till about 70% of the book. We have Kin and a runaway guildswoman who are in the Kage HQ while Yukiko is off trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with her and while she is off a whole other issue comes up. Now Buruu has his own problems and there were zombie-like priests and it was all just SO MUCH STUFF! My brain couldn't take it!

What pissed me off the most was actually the Kage's attitude towards Kin and the guildswoman. I understand they would have trust issues obviously but dude! Kin is helping them! He saved their asses! He saved Yukiko and Buruu's asses in Stormdancer and the Kage are flat out assholes towards Kin. It made me want to kill someone or for an unexpected Guild attack to happen and for them to burn! I was just that pissed off. 

Then after like 60% mark, the bombs start dropping. I don't mean that literally mind you. I mean the twists start coming one right after the other and the next thing you know it's the end of the book and your just left holding your Kindle staring off into space and wondering what the fuck just happened. IT WAS AWESOME. 

I can't go into much of any kind of specifics because I don't want to ruin any of the surprises for you. I hope my review was coherent enough for you to get the gist of what I was trying to convey xD If you liked Stormdancer then don't worry this won't be a disappointment at all. Because even after that incredibly frustrating first half there is no way I can give this book any less of a wonderful recom :)


So...

Would I Recommend it?

***

Other books in the The Lotus War Trilogy:

1. Stormdancer
2. Kinslayer
3. Untitled

Other Novellas:

1. Praying for Rain
2. The Last Stormdancer
3. The Little Stormdancer

Unraveling: BZRK by Michael Grant

Title: BZRK

Series: BZRK Book One

Author: Michael Grant

Publication Date: January 1, 2012

Set in the near future, BZRK is the story of a war for control of the human mind. Charles and Benjamin Armstrong, conjoined twins and owners of the Armstrong Fancy Gifts Corporation, have a goal: to turn the world into their vision of utopia. No wars, no conflict, no hunger. And no free will. Opposing them is a guerrilla group of teens, code name BZRK, who are fighting to protect the right to be messed up, to be human. This is no ordinary war, though. Weapons are deployed on the nano-level. The battleground is the human brain. And there are no stalemates here: It’s victory . . . or madness.

BZRK unfolds with hurricane force around core themes of conspiracy and mystery, insanity and changing realities, engagement and empowerment, and the larger impact of personal choice. Which side would you choose? How far would you go to win?

  

***

My Thoughts

I am a total sucker for books about hacking/hackers, specially with sci-fi elements. I was all good and ready to suspend by sense of belief for the nanobots, since it's not that huge of a stretch now a days. My problem came in (and this was like 20% in) when they started talking about the biots. My suspension of belief did not reach that far.

I'm supposed to buy that these biots which are the size of nanobots are made entirely with pieces of other animal DNAs, but not only are we talking animal splicing, we are talking human splicing, because to create a biot that you can control it requires that human's DNA that is going to be controlling it and that right there is where it went all out the window for me.

I tried ignoring it, not thinking about it too much, just go with the flow and try to not think too much about the specifics of biots, but it was impossible. Every time their connection to the human was mentioned or how they looked I was immediately thrown. It just wasn't happening.

I'd like to say that was my only issue, but I'd be lying. My other issue was the writing style. It made it really hard to get into the story as well. So not only was I fighting the idea of biots the whole time, but also the writing style. It made for a very hard read.

You maybe wondering why I'm still going to give it the recom that I am and it's because even with all my issues the book is well written and very thorough. The plot and characters are quite engaging, they were what kept me reading the whole way through even with my issues with the writing style.

If you don't have a problem suspending your disbelief about the biots then you should give this one a try. If anything it was an entertaining read.


So...

Would I Recommend it?

***

Other books in the BZRK Series:

1. BZRK
2. BZRK Reloaded

Unraveling Sundays

I'll be posting about what happened last week and what you might expect this week and anything else that has caught my attention. I'm linking up to the Sunday Post, a meme by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

What happened last week on Unraveling Words...

Reviewed

• [ARC] Charming (Pax Arcana #1) by Elliott James - Definitely Worth A Read.
• [DNF] The Light Bearers by Nora M. Garcia - Too impatient to finish this one
• The Burning Sky (Elemental Trilogy #1) by Sherry Thomas - 1 word. Awesome.

Memes

• Waiting on Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
• Feature & Follow #31
• Upcoming New Releases for the week of Sept. 23

Featured Posts

• None :o

What you can expect this week...

Reviews:

• BZRK by Michael Grant
• Kinslayer by Jay Kristoff
• The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas

Memes

• Waiting on Wednesday
• Feature & Follow #32
• Upcoming New Releases for the week of Sept. 16

Featured Posts

• Book Blitz for Kinetic by S.K. Anthony
• Book Blitz for Deadly To Love by Mia Hodell

Ramblings

• Super late on this post since we've been having internet issues. Keeps disconnecting every few minutes >.<
• If you guys like YA Fantasy should totally read The Burning Sky. Loved it!
• Happy to report I won the battle against the cold xD
• Started watching Sleepy Hollow this monday. Off to a good start.

Hope everyone has a great week!

*Don't forget to check out the giveaways!*

Upcoming New Releases - Week of Sept. 23

Here are the releases for the up coming week of September 23 - Sept. 29, 2013

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Feature & Follow #31

This is a meme hosted every Friday by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, where book bloggers answer a question each week and check out how others answered it. It's a cool way for bloggers and viewers to connect and learn more about each other!

Follow by Email, RSS or Bloglovin' is preferred :)

Q: What were some of your favorite picture books as a kid? If you have kids what are your favorites to read to them?

Um. This is a really hard question for me. I don't actually have any favorite ones, mostly cause I just didn't read them? I vaguely remember randomly reading Clifford the Big Red Dog, and maybe some Arthur, but it wasn't favorites or anything. Keep in mind I was in the middle of learning 2 languages and I wasn't exactly a reader when I was that young anyway.

What are your favorite picture books?

Unraveling: The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas

Title: The Burning Sky

Series: Elemental Trilogy Book One

Author: Sherry Thomas

Publication Date: September 17, 2013

It all began with a ruined elixir and an accidental bolt of lightning…

Iolanthe Seabourne is the greatest elemental mage of her generation—or so she's being told. The one prophesied for years to be the savior of The Realm. It is her duty and destiny to face and defeat the Bane, the greatest mage tyrant the world has ever known. A suicide task for anyone let alone a sixteen-year-old girl with no training, facing a prophecy that foretells a fiery clash to the death.

Prince Titus of Elberon has sworn to protect Iolanthe at all costs but he's also a powerful mage committed to obliterating the Bane to avenge the death of his family—even if he must sacrifice both Iolanthe and himself to achieve his goal.

But Titus makes the terrifying mistake of falling in love with the girl who should have been only a means to an end. Now, with the servants of the Bane closing in, he must choose between his mission and her life.

 

***

My Thoughts

I adored this book! It was everything I was looking for in a YA fantasy and I'm a sucker for books that are centered around boarding schools, even if in this case instead of the school being magical it was a normal human school.

Plotwise this wasn't exactly mind-blowing. There was nothing truly unpredictable about it and it was just nice and steady. One of the many aspects that made this book so good for me was the slightly different dynamics to the whole thing. Iolanthe may have the war power but she kinda sucks at wand magic, so she really isn't much a mage as is right now, but she is supposed to be killing a guy that is a unkillable, yet the guy who is sworn to protect her and actually wants to kill Bane is kickass at magic, but he won't be doing the actual killing. So even though this could have been a book centered on how much of a special snowflake Iolanthe is, it was instead about both of them, Iolanthe and Titus. Sure we get to see how awesome Iolanthe is, but not because she is such a special snowflake with her powers, but because she is resourceful and quick.

At first I was iffy with their budding relationship and I thought Iolanthe was going to end up being another silly YA heroine with her going gaga all over Titus and not realizing that he was just manipulating her. But she does realize this soon after and their 'romance' cools off quite a bit, to the point were it really takes a back seat and resurfaces every now and then. Oh, but when it does it was lovely!

"He kissed the shell of he ear. "Then let me tell you this: I live for you, and you alone"

I loved the characters. All of them. From the teachers, to the crazy lady, to the inquisitor type person, and obviously Titus and Iolanthe. They were all beautifully written, solid, and real. Another thing going for this book was the humor that was peppered around. 

"Baslan held up the Citadel's copy of the Crucible. "What do you know about this book?" "Oh, that. I play Big Bad Wolf to Little Red Riding Hood. She likes it rough, did you know? I did not." "I beg your pardon?" "What else are you going to do with such a contraption? Of course Sleeping Beauty is probably prettier, but I am not going to fight dragons for any girl. And the chit who lives in the woods is agreeable enough, but those dwarfs in her cottage are perverts. They always want to watch."

And of course the selling point of The Burning Sky for me was the world building. It was phenomenal. Yes it borrows some concepts from HP but honestly at this point is pretty impossible to write something completely original, so I forgive it. There was all kinds of magic, elemental, wand magic, potions, magicla objects, like the Crucible, which btw I want one! The world it self and how it came about and why it is the way it is now. I loved all of it!

Everyone should give this book a try. Some people had an issue with the writing style. I didn't even notice it to be honest, but even with that problem you will still like this, that's just how good it is ;)

So...

Would I Recommend it?

***

Other books in the Elemental Trilogy:

1. The Burning Sky
2. Untitled
3. Untitled