Review: The Promise of Amazing by Robin Constantine

The Promise of Amazing by Robin Constantine 
Series: Standalone
Published: December 31st, 2013
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
250 pages (e-ARC)
Genre: Contemporary young adult
Acquired this book: From the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review
Warning: May contain spoilers

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Wren Caswell is average. Ranked in the middle of her class at Sacred Heart, she’s not popular, but not a social misfit. Wren is the quiet, “good” girl who's always done what she's supposed to—only now in her junior year, this passive strategy is backfiring. She wants to change, but doesn’t know how.

Grayson Barrett was the king of St. Gabe’s. Star of the lacrosse team, top of his class, on a fast track to a brilliant future—until he was expelled for being a “term paper pimp.” Now Gray is in a downward spiral and needs to change, but doesn’t know how.

One fateful night their paths cross when Wren, working at her family’s Arthurian-themed catering hall, performs the Heimlich on Gray as he chokes on a cocktail weenie, saving his life literally and figuratively. What follows is the complicated, awkward, hilarious, and tender tale of two teens shedding their pasts, figuring out who they are—and falling in love.

The moment I saw The Promise of Amazing appear on Edelweiss, I knew I had to read it. As a contemporary YA junkie, it sounded like just the kind of book I would love. But as time went on and friends/fellow bloggers started reading and reviewing it, I became wary based on what they were saying. Within the first few pages of The Promise of Amazing, I felt a huge sense of relief - I knew I was going to like it.

Robin Constantine has a great writing style; one of the best I’ve read all year, in fact. The story was told in dual POV, and I found both Wren’s and Grayson’s voices to be very authentic. I was able to get into both of their heads and see things from their perspectives. Some of the things they said or thought were a bit shocking, but I liked that. Constantine didn’t shy away from things teenagers would actually say and do, and I found that refreshing. It made the book feel real.

Did I always like Wren and Grayson? Not necessarily. I thought some of the things Grayson did were kind of crummy, and his choice in friends was definitely questionable, but since a lot of the things he did were in his past, I tried to accept it. He was clearly trying to change, and Wren’s presence in his life made him want to be a better person. And that brings me to what seems to be other people’s main issue with the book: instalove. I’ve seen people all over Twitter, GoodReads, and the blogosphere talking about how they hated this book because of the instalove. As I got further and further into the book, all I could think was 'Huh? What instalove?' Did the romance move kind of fast? I guess…maybe. But no faster than a lot of other YA romances. I felt like Wren and Grayson got to know each other, and that their feelings took time and weren’t just BAM ‘I love you’. Clearly I’m in the minority here, but I enjoyed the romance and thought it was done well.

“Four weeks ago I couldn’t have imagined having this kind of relationship. But that’s how love happens, isn’t it? You’re just minding your own business, tossing hot dogs in your mouth, and bam—you cross paths with a beautiful girl you can’t stop thinking about.” ~ Grayson

~Quote taken from ARC of The Promise of Amazing - final draft might be different~

Besides the authentic voices of the characters, I also really liked how well fleshed-out the characters were, and not just Wren and Grayson. I felt like we got a good sense of who their family and friends were, and what kind of roles they played in their lives - support, instigator, cheerleader, moral compass, etc. I enjoyed all the subplots, and found myself engaged from beginning to end. 

The Promise of Amazing is a story about friendship, family, and love. It’s about second chances, learning from your mistakes, and holding onto the things that really matter in life. I thought it was funny, sweet, and unique, with great characters who felt very real. If you like contemporary YA (and don’t mind what most people apparently consider instalove), I’d definitely recommend The Promise of Amazing.

 

Have you read The Promise of Amazing? What did you think? If you haven't read it does it sound like something you'd be interested in? How do you feel about instalove?

 

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Review: Leap of Faith by Jamie Blair

Leap of Faith by Jamie Blair

Series: Standalone

Published: September 3rd, 2013

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

240 pages (eARC)

Genre: Contemporary young adult

Acquired this book: From the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review

Warning: May contain spoilers

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Leah Kurtz has finally found a place to call home, a town where she and baby Addy can live in peace, far from the drug-infested place she grew up. Chris is one of the best parts of her new life, the only person who’s ever made her feel safe. And now that she’s found him, there’s no way she can tell the truth:

Her real name is Faith, not Leah. She’s seventeen, not nineteen. And the baby isn’t hers—Faith kidnapped her.

Faith’s history catches up with her when a cop starts asking questions and Chris’s aunt spots her picture in the newspaper. She knows it’s time to run again, but if Faith leaves, she’ll lose Chris. If Chris is in love with a lie, though, did Faith ever really have him in the first place?

I went into Leap of Faith without any expectations. It sounded completely different from other contemporary YA books, which I liked, but those books that seem ‘unique’ often fall short because people build them up so much. So I was pleasantly surprised when I found myself not only connecting with Faith, but genuinely enjoying her story.

I’ll be honest: I didn’t think I was going to like Faith at first. I felt sorry for her in the beginning because of her horrible life and the fact she was stuck with a cruel drug addict mother who neglected her and had a revolving door policy when it came to men. I thought Faith was just going to be a smartass troublemaker, and knowing what was coming from the synopsis, I figured she’d be one of those characters that you end up yelling at through the book for being so stupid and impetuous.

But then I slowly started connecting with her. I loved her voice, and I felt like I was really able to get inside her head and see her thought process and feel her emotions. She was impetuous, and her decisions weren’t necessarily the smartest, but I could understand her reasoning. I wanted her to get away, start fresh, and more than anything be happy and live the life she never would have if she’d remained stuck at home.

There were so many great secondary characters in this book. Chris especially really shone for me. The way he and Faith connected instantly in a strange, unspoken way made me curious to see where things would lead. I loved the way he fell head over heels for Addy; the scenes where he was taking care of her completely melted my heart. Then the way he took care of Faith and genuinely cared about her. Chris and Faith both had secrets, they both had haunted pasts, and even though neither knew the full details of the other’s life, they knew their connection had a lot to do with needing someone and needing something real and solid.

My only real issue with Leap of Faith was how convenient a lot of things were. There’d be this sense of urgency and fear, but then an easy, all-too-convenient solution. It happened time and time again, but I found myself being rather forgiving about it because I was enjoying the story so much and I wanted things to work out for Faith and Addy and Chris. I liked that Faith remained strong, and even when I didn’t agree with what she was doing, I still appreciated that she was doing what she thought was best. She was so young and had been through so much, and where a lot of other characters in a book like this would have fallen apart and taken the easy road, Faith toughed it out and made things work.

While the romance moved a bit fast, and I’m sure a lot of people will have a problem with it, it felt right to me. Faith and Chris weren’t typical teenagers and they weren’t under typical circumstances. Things moved fast, but it felt genuine to me.

Even though there were parts of Leap of Faith that were dark and a bit depressing, it had an overall feeling of hope. It was about second chances, love, acceptance, and having faith in people. I loved Faith’s strength and her voice, and I thought the characters were well fleshed out and memorable. While it had a few small issues, I think Leap of Faith is a strong debut from Jamie Blair, and I’m looking forward to more from her in the future.

 3.75 stars

Have you read Leap of Faith? What did you think? If you haven't, does it sound like something you'd be interested in?

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Review: Linked by Imogen Howson

Linked by Imogen Howson

Series: Linked #1

Published: June 11th, 2013

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

368 pages (ARC)

Genre: Young adult science fiction

Acquired this book: From Simon & Schuster Canada in exchange for an honest review

Warning: May contain spoilers

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Elissa used to have it all: looks, popularity, and a bright future. But for the last three years, she’s been struggling with terrifying visions, phantom pains, and mysterious bruises that appear out of nowhere.

Finally, she’s promised a cure: minor surgery to burn out the overactive area of her brain. But on the eve of the procedure, she discovers the shocking truth behind her hallucinations: she’s been seeing the world through another girl’s eyes.

Elissa follows her visions, and finds a battered, broken girl on the run. A girl—Lin—who looks exactly like Elissa, down to the matching bruises. The twin sister she never knew existed.

Now, Elissa and Lin are on the run from a government who will stop at nothing to reclaim Lin and protect the dangerous secrets she could expose—secrets that would shake the very foundation of their world.

Riveting, thought-provoking and utterly compelling, Linked will make you question what it really means to be human.

 

Linked was one of those books that had an interesting premise and great potential, but unfortunately, for me, it failed to fulfill its potential.

It started out well. We were thrown right in, and as we got to know Elissa and her problems, my interest was piqued. I basically only glanced at the synopsis (I rarely read them), so I was curious to find out what was happening. Why was Lissa having these hallucinations? How did she end up with the bruises and marks all over her? Why hadn’t the doctors ever been able to help her? I wanted to know, and I thought the beginning had a lot of promise.

But then Lissa met Lin. Even that bit on its own was interesting - Lin’s existence explained so much about Lissa’s life. Everything fell into place when she met her twin and realized there wasn’t really anything wrong with her, she’d just been linking to her sister’s horrible, frightening life. What followed, however - basically the two of them on the run the entire rest of the story - got to be tedious.

The pacing was really slow. Stuff would be happening, and I’d feel this imminent sense of danger and then nothing would happen for a long time. It felt like a series of highs and lows, but with more lows. The action was well done, there just wasn’t enough of it. I hate saying this, but I was really bored most of the time. If Linked hadn’t been a review book, I would have DNF’d it before I got halfway through. I’m getting pickier about finishing books I’m not enjoying, but I really hoped Linked would get better and I’d end up loving it. It makes me sad that I was wrong.

With that being said, it wasn’t all bad. I liked Howson’s writing style. It flowed well and was easy to follow. I was able to picture all the places Lissa was talking about, which isn’t always easy with science fiction. The dialogue was mostly natural, and it was interesting to get Lissa’s first person thoughts once in awhile, since the book was told in the third person.

I had mixed feelings about Lissa and Lin’s relationship. I liked it for the most part and thought it was the most interesting aspect of the book, but it was all over the place. Lissa went from feeling sorry for Lin to telling her what she could and couldn’t do to being afraid of her, then back again. Lather, rinse, repeat, through the entire story. I was pleased to see some character growth on both girls’ parts, though. Being taken out of her safe little world opened up Lissa’s eyes, and with Lin, she didn’t always know the difference between right and wrong because of the way she’d been raised and the horrors she’d experienced, but she slowly learned with Lissa’s help. I also liked that the book touched on a very real subject - prejudice. I won’t go into that too much because it could get a bit spoiler-y, but I did appreciate that in a book with planets and space ships and flying cars and other out-of-this-world elements, that the author dealt with a subject that’s very human.

I think what made Elissa likeable was that she was pretty average (except for the whole debilitating headaches, strange hallucinations, and bruises thing). She went to school, she dealt with the girls who used to be her friends when she was popular, she handled the high expectations and restrictions from her mother, and she tolerated an older brother who was an obnoxious overachiever. She wasn’t extraordinary in any way except for, again, the hallucinations et al - she just wanted to be normal. While I don’t think she was all that memorable as a character, she was at least easy to understand and mostly enjoyable to read about.

Another element I enjoyed was the world building. Lissa lived on a planet that was really technologically advanced, and it was interesting to picture it all. She mentioned how the planet got its start and talked about the other planets, but I’d kind of like to know what happened to Earth and how and why the other planets were discovered. I accepted that it wasn’t part of the story, and it didn’t affect my overall feelings toward the book, but it would have been nice to have had it explained a bit more.

My final issue with the book was the romance. I didn’t really understand why Lissa and Cadan even liked each other, so it seemed a bit off to me. For the most part, they didn’t get along (I understood the why there), and Cadan was often rude and cold to her, so I just found it odd and kind of hard to believe when all of a sudden they expressed their feelings for each other. I’m a romance junkie and I love romantic elements in stories regardless of the genre but with a book like Linked, it felt out of place and forced.

Overall, this book wasn’t for me. It was too slow, the characters were a bit dull, and the action, while well done, was too sporadic. I’m not sure if I’ll read the next book in the series, but if Howson goes on to write something else in the future, I wouldn’t hesitate to try it. I enjoyed her writing and can see that it has potential, it’s just a shame that potential wasn’t reached in Linked. However, I seem to be in the minority on my feelings towards this book, so by all means, if you’re curious and think it might be something you’d enjoy, I encourage you to give it a try!

 

 

Have you read Linked? What did you think? Do you like science fiction?

 

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Review: Born of Illusion by Teri Brown

Born of Illusion by Teri Brown

Series: Born of Illusion, Book #1

Published: June 11th, 2013

Publisher: Balzer & Bray

384 pages (e-ARC)

Genre: Young adult historic fiction/paranormal

Acquired this book: From the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review

Warning: May contain spoilers

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Anna Van Housen is thirteen the first time she breaks her mother out of jail. By sixteen she’s street smart and savvy, assisting her mother, the renowned medium Marguerite Van Housen, in her stage show and séances, and easily navigating the underground world of magicians, mediums and mentalists in 1920’s New York City. Handcuffs and sleight of hand illusions have never been much of a challenge for Anna. The real trick is keeping her true gifts secret from her opportunistic mother, who will stop at nothing to gain her ambition of becoming the most famous medium who ever lived. But when a strange, serious young man moves into the flat downstairs, introducing her to a secret society that studies people with gifts like hers, he threatens to reveal the secrets Anna has fought so hard to keep, forcing her to face the truth about her past. Could the stories her mother has told her really be true? Could she really be the illegitimate daughter of the greatest magician of all?

I’ve always had a fascination with magic and the 1920s, so Born of Illusion was one of my most anticipated books of 2013. I’m happy to say it didn’t disappoint. While I didn’t love it the way I expected to, I still really enjoyed it, and thought it was a solid debut from Teri Brown.

I liked Anna instantly. She was a strong main character with a distinctive voice. Having grown up in show business, she’d seen and done a lot more than the typical teenage girl of the 1920s. Her mother dragged her around from city to city to perform shows, so Anna never really had much of a home or a chance to lead a normal life. I sympathized with her desire to have a normal life, be loved, and find a real home. Her mother was selfish and entitled, and her refusal to let Anna have any of the spotlight or recognition made me so mad! Their bizarre relationship added great tension throughout the story, and I was always wondering what her mother would say or do next. 

"Gone is her mournful voice, replaced with a commandeering tone worthy of a queen. Mother is the master of a thousand voices and she uses each one with the skill of a butcher wielding a knife." 

~Taken from page 37 of the ARC of Born of Illusion by Teri Brown~

For me, the story started out strong and I had really high hopes. I liked Anna and connected with her, and I was curious about her life. Her mother seriously pissed me off, and I liked the potential romance that started to blossom. While the story held my interest throughout, parts of it felt a bit slow, and there was a lot of Anna’s inner dialogue, which tended to get a bit repetitive.

The writing in Born of Illusion was fantastic. Brown did a great job of describing both people and places, and I always felt like I was able to see and feel what Anna saw and felt. The first person present tense made everything feel that much more real, and made the underlying tension more pronounced. I really enjoyed that tension, as well as the mystery; even though I was pretty sure I had it figured out, I liked that it wasn’t easy to tell who to trust, and that each new character added a new dimension to the story.

Well written with dynamic characters, a fascinating setting, a hint of romance, wonderfully woven elements of the paranormal, and plenty of mystery and action, Born of Illusion has something for everyone, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.

*By the way, the next book in the series, Born of Deception, is apparently about Rasputin, which made me squee with barely contained glee. I’ve had this bizarre fascination with him since high school and I don’t think I’ve read any fiction involving him, so I’m really excited!

 

3.75 stars

 

 

Have you read Born of Illusion? What did you think? Do you like books set in the 1920s?

 

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Book Review: Splintered by AG Howard

Splintered by AG Howard

Series: Standalone

Published: January 1st, 2013

Publisher: Amulet Books

384 pages (ebook)

Genre: Young adult fantasy

Acquired this book: From NetGalley

Warning: May contain spoilers

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This stunning debut captures the grotesque madness of a mystical under-land, as well as a girl’s pangs of first love and independence. Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers—precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now.

When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family. She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own.

 

I read Splintered several weeks ago, and I’ve been writing bits and pieces of my review without being able to complete it because I didn’t feel like I could do the book justice, no matter what I said. Quite simply, Splintered was brilliant. It’s not often that I call a book brilliant, but Splintered was brilliant. Not only was this one of my favourite books of 2012, it was one of my favourite books ever. It was enchanting, mesmerizing, sexy, disturbing, creepy, absorbing, twisted, funny, and beautiful.

This book made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me fall in love, it made me gasp out loud. It made me feel so many things, and often all at once. I absolutely loved Alyssa. It was her job to untangle the secrets of her family and its ties to Wonderland, and I thought she was strong, brave, genuine, independent, and relateable. Her actions and reactions were genuine, her voice authentic, and I absolutely adored her.

I also loved the interactions between both Alyssa and Jeb and Alyssa and Morpheus. This was one love triangle I had absolutely no problem with, and while I thought both boys were super sexy, I was Team Jeb all the way. He was loyal, steady, and protective - everything Alyssa needed in her crazy, messed-up life - while Morpheus was dark and mysterious, seductive and dangerous. Alyssa shared a history with both of them, but she and Jeb shared more than that; they understood each other's emotional and physical scars.

I’ve always been a fan of Wonderland in its many incarnations, but this could possibly be my favourite. Howard’s version of Wonderland is lush and vivid. I was right there with Alyssa, seeing it all, feeling it, tasting it, experiencing it. The way Howard took the well-known Alice story and turned it on its head, playing with little details to make them fit into the story was absolute genius, and made me more and more excited with each new revelation.

Full of twists and turns, action, romance, and beautiful writing, Splintered is an unforgettable story that will grab you and never let go.

Disclaimer

In accordance with FTC guidelines, I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. No money or compensation of any sort exchanged hands. I review books to share my love of reading, and I'm always completely honest in my reviews, good or bad.

*Thank you to Amulet Books and NetGalley for sending me an ARC of this book for review.*

Have you read Splintered? What did you think? Are you a fan of Alice in Wonderland?

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