Showing posts with label
Walker Books for Young Readers.
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Showing posts with label
Walker Books for Young Readers.
Show all posts
Being permanently based in a local New York City high school as an undercover operative has its moments, good and bad,
for 16-year-old safecracker Maggie Silver. Pros: More quality time with
her former mark-turned-boyfriend Jesse Oliver and insanely cool best
friend, Roux. Getting to spend quality time with her semi-retired and
international spy honorary uncle, Angelo. Cons: High school and the
accompanying cliques, bad lunches, and frustratingly simple locker
combinations. But when Maggie's parents are falsely accused of stealing
priceless gold coins, Maggie uses her safecracking skills to try and
clear their names. Too bad it only serves to put her and everyone she
loves in danger. Maggie and her "new team" flee to Paris where they must
come up with a plan to defeat their former allies.
Best Bits: Diving into Going Rogue was a bit like visiting family. It was fabulous to read about all the characters, and see what had been going on since the events in the first book, Also Known As. Despite that feeling of familiarity, I really enjoyed how this book felt different than the first. Yes, there is some chasing, some escaping, but the formula felt a bit different this time. Perhaps that's because Maggie doesn't have to hide who she is from her best friend, Roux, or her boyfriend. Sure, she may not always divulge exactly what's going on, but they know that she's a safe-cracking prodigy. Of course, it might have something to do with the fact that The Collective has turned against her family...or that there's a change of scenery toward the end of the book....All of these changes gave the book a fresh feel, while still maintaining the humor and suspense of the first.
Can I just take a second here to gush about my favorite character, Angelo? He is a fabulous yoda-like person filled with wise words. In the first book he's put on a pedestal. For good reason, he's awesome. In this book, however, Benway chooses to show that he isn't infallible. It made him a bit more human, and I love that. I'm also hoping that he becomes a surrogate parent to Roux.
Nit Picks: I wish that we had spent a bit more time in Paris, if I'm completely honest. This portion of the book was quite quick, and if the book had been even a couple chapters longer I would have loved it. Of course, that's probably because I haven't visited it yet and have unrealistic ideas about what it's actually like. Still, I'm going to romanticize it until I actually get there.
Going Rogue
By Robin Benway
Published by Walker Children's
320 Pages
Received for Review (thanks Bridget!)
The published has been kind enough to offer a US resident the chance to win a copy of both books! I'm also throwing in a gift of my own (a necklace):
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga at Tynga's Reviews! It's a way to highlight the books that everyone got throughout the week.
It's been a quiet month, mostly because I've been doing well not buying books on a whim! Hurrah, I'm actually following through with a book-buying ban.
For Review:
Going Rogue (Also Known As 2) by Robin Benway
Being permanently based in a local New York City high school as an undercover operative has its moments, good and bad,
for 16-year-old safecracker Maggie Silver. Pros: More quality time with
her former mark-turned-boyfriend Jesse Oliver and insanely cool best
friend, Roux. Getting to spend quality time with her semi-retired and
international spy honorary uncle, Angelo. Cons: High school and the
accompanying cliques, bad lunches, and frustratingly simple locker
combinations. But when Maggie's parents are falsely accused of stealing
priceless gold coins, Maggie uses her safecracking skills to try and
clear their names. Too bad it only serves to put her and everyone she
loves in danger. Maggie and her "new team" flee to Paris where they must
come up with a plan to defeat their former allies.
Published by Walker Children's Books
Release Date: January 14, 2014
Third Lie's the Charm (The Liar Society 3) by Lisa & Laura Roecker
New friend into old, the bond of the Sisterhood will never grow cold.
Life
at Pemberly Brown is a whirlwind for Kate Lowry. Determined to finally
destroy the secret society responsible for her best friend Grace’s
death, Kate joins the Sisterhood hoping to go all Trojan Horse on their
asses. But the night of her initiation another student at Pemberly Brown
dies in what looks like tragic accident.
Kate knows better.
Kate
and her faithful ginger, Seth Allen, immediately uncover a connection
to the boy’s death and the secret societies that rule Pemberly Brown.
But it’s not until Kate begins receiving pages from Grace’s old journal
that she begins to piece together what really happened the night she
died and how it connects to Pemberly Brown’s most recent tragedy.
Meanwhile,
Kate’s ex-boyfriend Liam is following her around like an angry guard
dog and she’s falling hard for the mysterious Bradley Farrow. Both boys
are tied up in the mystery that surrounds Pemberly Brown, but only one
of them can truly be trusted.
In this chilling conclusion to The
Liar Society series Kate will fight to save her school from the evil
that lurks beneath its hallowed halls. But will her quest destroy her or
finally lead her to true love? She can only hope her third lie’s the
charm.
Published by Sourcebooks Fire
Release Date: December 3, 2014
Waiting on Wednesday was started by Jill at Breaking the Spine. This weekly meme shares the upcoming books that I'm most excited about.
Going Rogue (Also Known As #2) by Robin Benway
Being permanently based in a local New York City high school as an undercover operative has its moments, good and bad,
for 16-year-old safecracker Maggie Silver. Pros: More quality time with
her former mark-turned-boyfriend Jesse Oliver and insanely cool best
friend, Roux. Getting to spend quality time with her semi-retired and
international spy honorary uncle, Angelo. Cons: High school and the
accompanying cliques, bad lunches, and frustratingly simple locker
combinations. But when Maggie's parents are falsely accused of stealing
priceless gold coins, Maggie uses her safecracking skills to try and
clear their names. Too bad it only serves to put her and everyone she
loves in danger. Maggie and her "new team" flee to Paris where they must
come up with a plan to defeat their former allies.
Published by Walker Childrens
Release Date: January 14, 2014
*I won't let myself read the synopsis just in case there are spoilers. I'm currently reading the first book and it's got me laughing hysterically. Can't wait for this one!
Rachel died at two
a.m . . . Three hours after Skyler kissed me for the first time.
Forty-five minutes after she sent me her last text.
Jaycee and
Rachel were best friends. But that was before. . .before that terrible
night at the old house. Before Rachel shut Jaycee out. Before Jaycee
chose Skyler over Rachel. Then Rachel is found dead. The police blame a
growing gang problem in their small town, but Jaycee is sure it has to
do with that night at the old house. Rachel’s text is the first
clue—starting Jaycee on a search that leads to a shocking secret.
Rachel’s death was no random crime, and Jaycee must figure out who to
trust before she can expose the truth.
In the follow-up to her
powerful debut, Jennifer Shaw Wolf keeps readers on their toes in
another dark, romantic story of murder and secrets.
Best Bits: Jennifer Shaw Wolf is the master of misdirection. I suspected who the killer was more than once, but I kept second-guessing myself because all of the potential killers are so interesting. No one is grinning menacingly or anything, and each time a character shows a dark side, they soon display kindness. Characters who have moments of goodness can't be murderers...right? So, when the killer was finally revealed I had an "OMG WHAAAAT" moment, and then went back and connected the dots. Jaycee weren't speaking when Rachel died, but little things trigger memories and guilt. I appreciated that it was a complicated situation, and that despite what had happened to their friendship, Jaycee was still determined to get some closure for someone who had a big impact on what kind of person she was.
Nit Picks: Much like my experience with another Netgalley read, this one had random letters throughout the book. It meant that I had to guess at what characters were saying, and occasionally what was happening. I can't fault the author's writing for this, but it's really hard to be engaged in a mystery and know exactly what's going on when you can't read all portions of the book. So, it gets calculated into the overall experience. I also would have liked some of the background characters to share a bit more of their histories in the story (assuming that wasn't in some of those sentences that I missed).
Dead Girls Don't Lie
By Jennifer Shaw Wolf
Published by Walker Childrens
352 Pages
Received via Netgalley
Waiting on Wednesday was started by Jill at Breaking the Spine. This weekly meme shares the upcoming books that I'm most excited about.
Relativity by Cristin Bishara
If Ruby Wright could
have her way, her dad would never have met and married her stepmother
Willow, her best friend George would be more than a friend, and her mom
would still be alive. Ruby knows wishes can't come true; some things
just can't be undone. Then she discovers a tree in the middle of an Ohio
cornfield with a wormhole to nine alternative realities.
Suddenly,
Ruby can access completely different realities, each containing
variations of her life—if things had gone differently at key moments.
The windshield wiper missing her mother’s throat…her big brother
surviving his ill-fated birth…her father never having met Willow. Her
ideal world—one with everything and everyone she wants most—could be
within reach. But is there such a thing as a perfect world? What is Ruby
willing to give up to find out?
Published by Walker Books
Release Date: September 10, 2013
Beat the game. Save the world.
Pandora’s just your average teen, glued to her cell phone and laptop, surfing Facebook and e-mailing with her friends, until the day her long-lost father sends her a link to a mysterious site featuring twelve photos of her as a child. Unable to contain her curiosity, Pandora enters the site, where she is prompted to play her favorite virtual-reality game, Zero Day. This unleashes a global computer virus that plunges the whole world into panic: suddenly, there is no Internet. No cell phones. No utilities, traffic lights, hospitals, law enforcement. Pandora teams up with handsome stepbrothers Eli and Theo to enter the virtual world of Zero Day. Simultaneously, she continues to follow the photographs from her childhood in an attempt to beat the game and track down her father, her one key to saving the world as we know it. Part The Matrix, part retelling of the Pandora myth, Doomed has something for gaming fans, dystopian fans, and romance fans alike. (From Goodreads)
Best Bits: This book was a thriller! The book begins on Pandora's birthday, and the rest of the story spans the country, and two realities (the second being the virtual world of Zero Day). I wasn't sure whether it was going to work to have a portion of the story take place in-game, but it did. Not only did the game emphasize the ultimate message behind the virus, but it also helps her understand exactly who is behind it. Although I knew there would be some tension regarding a love triangle, I was glad that it wasn't too long into the book where the reader is clear on who Pandora will choose (see my nit pick below). As many readers of this blog know, I'm a bit tired with this trope. It was nice to have a simple, non-dramatic conclusion to it. The end of the world does take precedence over dating, after all. Deebs also does a good job showing the severity of the worm. Sure, at first it didn't seem like much was wrong. As chaos and fear begin to take over, so does violence and crime. It put urgency behind Pandora's quest, and that kept me flipping pages.
Nit Picks: My nit pick for Doomed is related to one of the stepbrothers who end up helping Pandora navigate Zero Day (called Pandora's Box in my galley edition). Eli, although very useful throughout the story, also seemed to invade Pandora's personal space. Now, this doesn't happen all the time, and Pandora does struggle at the beginning of the book about whether she's attracted to him...but in one scene at a motel he is supposed to be keeping watch and ends up falling asleep in bed with her.
Doomed
By Walker Books
Published by Bloomsbury USA
480 Pages
Received for review
Rating: A
Mia is always looking for signs. A sign that she should get serious with her soccer-captain boyfriend. A sign that she’ll get the grades to make it into an Ivy-league school. One sign she didn’t expect to look for was: “Will I survive cancer?” It’s a question her friends would never understand, prompting Mia to keep her illness a secret. The only one who knows is her lifelong best friend, Gyver, who is poised to be so much more. Mia is determined to survive, but when you have so much going your way, there is so much more to lose. From debut author Tiffany Schmidt comes a heart-wrenching and ultimately uplifting story of one girl’s search for signs of life in the face of death. (From Goodreads)
Best Bits: This book was phenomenal. I tend to read books fairly quickly, but this one I finished within a couple of hours. I couldn't focus on anything else, I had to know what would happen to Mia. I'm happy to say that the book doesn't waste any time before Mia finds out that she has cancer (honestly, I'd rather not wait 50 pages when I already know it's going to happen). Watching how her family reacted was really interesting, too. They each attempted to cope in their own way and it directly impacts Mia. There was quite a bit of drama at the end, but the love triangle (yes, there is one) is done well. Of course, it made me cry. I think that most readers have known someone who has been diagnosed with some form of cancer, and for me this book book gave me a look at what it's like to be on the other side. A fabulous, and emotional read.
Nit Picks: I wanted a bit more time with her friends after they realize what's happening to her. Mia makes the choice to keep it a secret from her friends...so obviously it's going to be revealed. I understood why her friends reacted the way that they did, I just think that it would have been a bit more believable to have more time between the anger and the understanding.
Send Me a Sign
By Tiffany Schmidt
Published by Walker Books for Young Readers
384 Pages
Received for Review
Rating: A
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