ya – Page 4 – Among the Authors

Off the Shelf: A Review of Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

Well, I did it. I managed to complete all three Raven Cycle books just in time for the release of the final book – The Raven King (which will be out April 26th). I thought that life might steal this book away from me, as I’ve had a lot of extra work here lately on top of dealing with some ongoing health problems, but I triumphed. Book #3 of the Raven Cycle – Blue Lily, Lily Blue – is setting up some major events for the grand finale so let’s jump right in to the good stuff…

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Synopsis (via Goodreads)

There is danger in dreaming. But there is even more danger in waking up.

Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have become theirs.

The trick with found things though, is how easily they can be lost.

Friends can betray.
Mothers can disappear.
Visions can mislead.
Certainties can unravel.

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Off the Shelf: A Review of Ink & Bone by Rachel Caine

Usually, I like to stick to posting reviews and such on Wednesday – a little pick me up for me on hump day when I’m struggling to make it to the weekend. I decided to wait an extra day this time – because I knew THIS would be hitting the newsstands this morning:

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I’m pretty excited to have another review featured in the local paper. It’s always a big deal to me when I see my name in print. Maybe one day it will actually be about one of my own books. We will see.

Anyway, here’s the full text (which was limited to around 400 words…of course I went over) of my review, and you can also check it out on the Herald-Dispatch by clicking here:

It may be hard to imagine a librarian advocating for a book that includes a library as a nefarious, corrupt entity, but I can assure you that, not since Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, has there been a book with a more powerful message about the importance of the printed word. Rachel Caine’s Ink and Bone is categorized as a Young Adult novel, but readers of all ages, adults included, will feel challenged by the heavy themes of freedom, the ties of family and friendship, and the average person’s right to knowledge.

In this alternate history, the Great Library of Alexandria has survived the test of time and become a supremely powerful presence in every major city, controlling the public’s access to its knowledge. Personal ownership of printed books is expressly forbidden, and the Great Library controls what books can be read on each person’s Codex, a device similar to the modern e-reader. In this fantasy dystopia, people are either committed to the ideals of the Library, black market book thieves, or Burners – radical extremists who would rather destroy rare books than allow the Library to control their usage.

Enter Jess Brightwell, who believes in the Library’s values but also comes from a family of book smugglers. His conflicted loyalties are put to the test when his father pushes him into training to enter the Library’s service, expecting Jess to be a spy for the family business. Jess is fascinated by printed books and feels a natural draw towards protecting and preserving them, but the friendships he has gained in Library training and all that he has been taught to believe are suddenly challenged when Jess discovers that those who control the Great Library believe knowledge to be more valuable than any human life.

Ink and Bone will have even the most avid reader questioning how far they would go to protect a book and a person’s right to read, and by the end, the reader will be clutching each page just a little bit tighter.

The complex motives of certain characters and the ominous atmosphere throughout the story will keep readers anxious for Jess, and the world that Caine has created will mystify, providing a dark and intriguing backdrop for the dangers that Jess encounters.

Ink and Bone is recommended for lovers of fantasy or dystopias, but it should definitely find its way on to the reading list of anyone who possesses a deep appreciation of books in general. Fans of this new series won’t have to wait long to find out what happens to Jess and his friends – the sequel, Paper and Fire, is due out in early July.

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Off the Shelf: A Review of The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

If you’ve been keeping up with my blog here lately, then you’ll know that a few weeks ago, I discovered Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Cycle series. Once I got hold of The Raven Boys, as I told you in my review, I COULD NOT put it down, and I immediately ordered the rest of the series and preordered the fourth book. When I started reading the second book, The Dream Thieves, I had much the same reaction as I had to the first. Homework wasn’t completed. Texts and phone calls went unanswered. Bits of conversation were entirely missed. All because I could not get my nose out of this book, and, well, sacrifices had to be made…

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Summary (via Goodreads)

If you could steal things from dreams, what would you take?

Ronan Lynch has secrets. Some he keeps from others. Some he keeps from himself.

One secret: Ronan can bring things out of his dreams.

And sometimes he’s not the only one who wants those things.

Ronan is one of the raven boys—a group of friends, practically brothers, searching for a dead king named Glendower, who they think is hidden somewhere in the hills by their elite private school, Aglionby Academy. The path to Glendower has long lived as an undercurrent beneath town. But now, like Ronan’s secrets, it is beginning to rise to the surface—changing everything in its wake.

I’m so excited to talk about this one!
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Waiting on Wednesday #5

I have some pretty exciting personal news to reveal…

Later this year, I will actually get to meet one of my idols – Cat Winters! Every other year, the library I work for hosts the Ohio River Festival of Book (ohioriverbooks.org), which is a free event that connects the public with some pretty amazing authors. In the planning stages, I had suggested Cat for the young adult audience, and you can’t even begin to imagine my excitement when this actually panned out. October 1st, I’ll actually get to meet her and see her speak, and you better believe I’m counting down the days.

Another thing I’m counting down the days till is the release of this week’s featured Waiting on Wednesday read…

The Steep and Thorny Way

By Cat Winters

Publication Date: March 8, 2016

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Synopsis (via Goodreads)
A thrilling reimagining of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, The Steep and Thorny Way tells the story of a murder most foul and the mighty power of love and acceptance in a state gone terribly rotten.

1920s Oregon is not a welcoming place for Hanalee Denney, the daughter of a white woman and an African-American man. She has almost no rights by law, and the Ku Klux Klan breeds fear and hatred in even Hanalee’s oldest friendships. Plus, her father, Hank Denney, died a year ago, hit by a drunk-driving teenager. Now her father’s killer is out of jail and back in town, and he claims that Hanalee’s father wasn’t killed by the accident at all but, instead, was poisoned by the doctor who looked after him—who happens to be Hanalee’s new stepfather.

The only way for Hanalee to get the answers she needs is to ask Hank himself, a “haint” wandering the roads at night.

Why I’m Waiting

If you’ve never read one of Cat Winters’s books before, prepare for mass amounts of mystery mixed with heaps of history and a dash of mysticism. If In the Shadow of Blackbirds and The Cure for Dreaming are any indication of just how talented Cat Winters is, The Steep and Thorny Way is going to be the one book this year that you DO NOT want to miss!
We all know I’m a sucker for retellings, and it’s been a while since I’ve seen anyone in the YA game approach Shakespeare with a new look. BUT this is exactly the kind of innovated idea that I expect from the author. I read the summary aloud, and then had to shout, “WHERE does she come up with this? I want to have such brilliant ideas!”
The Cure for Dreaming made such a lasting impression on me that, when asked to write a book review for the local newspaper last year, it was a clear choice what book I needed to tell the public all about.

It’s a fabulous book, and one all of you should check out.

Oh, and before I forget…Cat Winters currently resides in the cultural and creative epicenter of America – Portland, Oregon. Portland also happens to be home to one of the coolest book stores in the world, Powell’s, where Cat will be doing a signing on March 10th. Know what the coolest part is though? You can preorder one of her signed copies directly from Powell’s – which of course, I did.
Have I mentioned she’s really receptive to talking to fans on Twitter? Cause she is. I can’t wait to meet this incredible woman! Hopefully, she’ll have a tip or two for writing YA fiction for me.

Add The Steep and Thorny Way to your To Be Read Shelf on Goodreads
Pre-Order via Amazon
Pre-Order via Barnes & Noble

Off the Shelf: A Review of The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

701930_10208898432764109_1965720434203096203_o I have loved the Merry Fates for a long time. When Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff got together and started writing short stories together as the Merry Fates, it was like a blissful literary union that was simply meant to be. I loved their website (merryfates.com), where they each frequently posted new short stories, and I was even so inspired by it that, for a short time, I had a similar website with two close friends (spellboundscribblers.com). I’m hoping that sometime soon we can revive that site, but two of us being in grad school and the other in her senior year of undergrad while all three working full time…well, it just didn’t pan out time-wise.

But are you ready for a major confession? As much as I love the Merry Fates, and I enjoy all of the anthologies they’ve put out together, I have never read any of their individual works. Why not? I’m not really sure. I think I stumbled into loving them while I was majorly on a short story kick, and I just never pursued it past that. A ridiculously stupid excuse, I acknowledge, because I finally picked up Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys, and all I want to do is scream, “HELLO, BEAUTIFUL, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL OF MY LIFE?”

To which the book would respond, “On the shelf, you idiot. Why don’t you listen when people talk about how good I am?”

Or at least it would if books could speak. So, while it has taken me some time to come around to picking this book up, and even though it’s not a new release (not even remotely close…although book 4 soon will be), let’s go ahead and take a look at why this book is so amazing. Shall we?

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