She Was a Cyborg, and She Would Never Go to a Ball

~Cinder~
The Lunar Chronicles
Book 1
By Marissa Meyer
Amazon ~ Powell's

Even in the future, the story begins with
Once Upon a Time...

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Sixteen-year-old Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future. Because there is something unusual about Cinder, something that others would kill for.

While technically I read this as part of the Chez Apocalypse book club, I can also 'blame' my purchase of it on Emi of Oktopus Ink for her review of the third book, Cress. But that's more than enough name-drops and links for one intro, what about the book itself? Well, with a cover like that, you can bet seeing this on shelves definitely piqued my interest. Add in the mash-up element of Cyborgs and Cinderella, and I was more than ready to be whisked away into a weird and wonderful SciFi Fairytale.

All Eleanor Could Think About Was Seeing Park

~Eleanor & Park~
By Rainbow Rowell
Amazon ~ Powell's

Two misfits.
One extraordinary love.

Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor.

Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park.

Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.

Another 'contemporary' YA romance set in the mid-1980's, another book that took me forever to review. As I said with my last contemporary romance, I feel very out of my element here. This book in particular left me rather raw, making my thoughts even more jumbled than usual. Add in a straightforward plotline full of spoiler-bait, and I'm left will fairly little to say.

But here goes nothing.

Sing For Me, and Make It a Glorious Song

SPOILER ALERT
This review is for those who have read or are familiar with the previous books, The Immortal Rules and The Eternity Cure, or don't mind knowing some major spoilers for them. The Forever Song, however, will remain spoiler-free.
SPOILER ALERT

~The Forever Song~
Blood of Eden
Book 3
By Julie Kagawa
Amazon ~ Powell's
Allison Sekemoto once struggled with the question: human or monster?
With the death of her love, Zeke, she has her answer.

MONSTER

Allie will embrace her cold vampire side to hunt down and end Sarren, the psychopathic vampire who murdered Zeke. But the trail is bloody and long, and Sarren has left many surprises for Allie and her companions—her creator, Kanin, and her blood brother, Jackal. The trail is leading straight to the one place they must protect at any cost—the last vampire-free zone on Earth, Eden. And Sarren has one final, brutal shock in store for Allie.

In a ruined world where no life is sacred and former allies can turn on you in one heartbeat, Allie will face her darkest days. And if she succeeds, triumph is short-lived in the face of surviving forever alone.


It's all come down to this. I loved the last book, but hated the first book. Would Allie's final quest be enough to win me over, or would I return to the disinterest I felt in the beginning? Only time and 416 electronic pages would tell.

The Kind of Sky That Begs, Fly With Me

~Let the Sky Fall~
Sky Fall
Book 1
By Shannon Messenger
Amazon ~ Powell's

Vane Weston should have died in the category-five tornado that killed his parents. Instead, he woke up in a pile of rubble with no memories of his past—except one: a beautiful, dark-haired girl standing in the winds. She swept through his dreams ever since, and he clings to the hope that she's real.

Audra is real, but she isn't human. She's a sylph, an air elemental who can walk on the wind, translate its alluring songs, even twist it into a weapon. She's also a guardian—Vane's guardian—and has sworn an oath to protect him at all costs.

When a hasty mistake reveals their location to the enemy who murdered both their families, Audra has just days to help Vane unlock his memories. And as the storm winds gather, Audra and Vane start to realize that the greatest danger might not be the warriors coming to destroy them, but the forbidden romance growing between them.

Once you get the inevitable tune of the Oscar-winning James Bond song out of your head, this book is actually a really sweet paranormal romance. Actually that song is a good theme for this book's couple. Yeah, no clue if the song influenced the book at all (I doubt it, based on the publication date), but it really does work well. Huh, go figure.

Shorn of Mystery and Shadow, This Was the Truth

~Shadow and Bone~
Grisha Trilogy
Book 1
By Leigh Bardugo
Amazon ~ Powell's

Alina Starkov doesn't expect much from life. Orphaned by the Border Wars, the one thing she could rely on was her best friend and fellow refugee, Mal. And lately not even that seems certain. Drafted into the army of their war-torn homeland, they're sent on a dangerous mission into the Fold, a swath of unnatural darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh.

When their convoy is attacked, all seems lost until Alina reveals a dormant power that not even she knew existed. Ripped from everything she knows, she is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling. He believes she is the answer the people have been waiting for: the one person with the power to destroy the Fold.

Swept up in a world of luxury and illusion, envied as the Darkling's favorite, Alina struggles to fit into her new life without Mal by her side. But as the threat to the kingdom mounts, Alina discovers a secret that sets her on a collision course with the most powerful forces in the kingdom. Now only her past can save her...and only she can save the future.

This story had a lot of familiar elements. A girl who doesn't know her own powers, a magical school, a villain out for world domination, a romance between childhood friends... But for every similar element, I kept thinking of another story which had done it better. I'm not saying I'm against authors using similar elements and reinventing stories, but it would be nice if I got something new out of the story...