YA Friday Book Review: War Storm

Red Queen
Victoria Aveyard
Audience: Young Adult
HarperTeen (May 15, 2018)
IndieBound | WorldCat

Description from GoodReads:

"Mare Barrow learned this all too well when Cal’s betrayal nearly destroyed her. Now determined to protect her heart—and secure freedom for Reds and newbloods like her—Mare resolves to overthrow the kingdom of Norta once and for all… starting with the crown on Maven’s head.

But no battle is won alone, and before the Reds may rise as one, Mare must side with the boy who broke her heart in order to defeat the boy who almost broke her. Cal’s powerful Silver allies, alongside Mare and the Scarlet Guard, prove a formidable force. But Maven is driven by an obsession so deep, he will stop at nothing to have Mare as his own again, even if it means demolishing everything—and everyone—in his path.

War is coming, and all Mare has fought for hangs in the balance. Will victory be enough to topple the Silver kingdoms? Or will the little lightning girl be forever silenced?

In the epic conclusion to Victoria Aveyard’s stunning series, Mare must embrace her fate and summon all her power… for all will be tested, but not all will survive."

Carolyn's thoughts on the book:

*Warning: this review contains spoilers for Red Queen, Glass Sword, King's Cage (basically the Red Queen series before War Storm) BUT does not contain any spoilers for War Storm itself. Proceed with according caution.*

Do you ever stumble across a book whilst on GoodReads or Twitter and read the description and just know, deep down, that you're going to love this book? That's how I felt when I first heard about Red Queen (way back at the end of 2014). Between the gorgeous cover design and the intriguing and original plot (well, as much as I could discern from the GoodReads description), I was absolutely convinced I would adore Red Queen—and I did. And that adoration has continued throughout the entire Red Queen series. So leading up to War Storm's release, my feelings were naturally mixed—I knew I would love it, but I also knew that having to say goodbye to the series (and quite possibly see some characters killed off) would be painful, at the very least.

As I mentioned recently, I love how different and distinct each book in the Red Queen series is;     I think speaks to how well the series was planned out. Red Queen introduces us to Norta, the social structures of Reds and Silvers (which is more like Reds vs. Silvers), the existence of the Scarlet Guard, provides backstory for Mare, reveals her powers, etc. etc. Then, after Maven's betrayal at the end of Red Queen, Glass Sword sees Mare and Cal rescued by the Scarlet Guard, and (as per most second-books-in-a-dystopian-series go) the two join the resistance and get up to typical resistance shenanigans (training, making battle plans, butting heads with the resistance leaders, etc.), but ultimately Mare ends up captured by the end of the book. King's Cage is thus easily defined by Mare's imprisonment. Notice a pattern here? Big event/cliffhanger at the end of the book (Mare + Cal getting rescued by the Scarlet Guard, Mare getting captured by Maven) sets up the focus of the next book (joining the Scarlet Guard, Mare's imprisonment).

Ergo, Cal's choice (*cough* BETRAYAL *cough*) at the end of King's Cage establishes War Storm's focus: Cal and Mare now being split between two different factions of the rebellion against Maven. Cal, with the help of his grandmother and uncle, seeks to dethrone his usurping brother to reclaim his rightful place on the throne, while Mare and the Scarlet Guard fight against the tyranny of Silver rule in any form (whether it be Maven's brutal and despotic reign or Cal's more benevolent, passive reinforcement of the oppressive status quo). While Mare and Cal being separated is nothing new (hello, Mare spends literally—okay, mostly—ALL of the previous book imprisoned by Maven), and this ship is not unfamiliar with rocky waters (re: the entire series except for like one makeout scene in the rain/mud), the two have now actively chosen opposite sides of the fight. Exploring that tension and Mare's response—finally confronting the dissonance of her love for Cal and her commitment to the Scarlet Guard—is equal parts brilliant and heartbreaking. We first saw echoes of this in Red Queen, when Mare is dancing with Cal in his bedroom and falling for him (aka the same prince who is at best complicit and at worst partially responsible for the oppression of Reds). But then Maven betrays everyone and takes the throne, and the Scarlet Guard rescues Mare and Cal so 1) Cal has to be grateful to the Scarlet Guard and at least somewhat adopt their ideology, which 2) allows Mare to push aside her cognitive dissonance over this situation for a solid two more books.

I don't see this as a failure or plot hole on the author's part, but the opposite: I see Mare's affection for Cal, despite him being politically problematic, as an incredibly thoughtful and deliberate way of humanizing and characterizing Mare. It's not until they are quite literally forced to pick sides that Mare has to face the irrationality of their relationship, which is a necessary step in her character development. Seeing the way that plays out, from the subtle and nuanced to the more conscious (like forcing herself to refer to Cal as Tiberius, both out loud and in her head) is an altogether more introspective and idealistic struggle than perhaps anything Mare has faced before. And this is not to say that Mare's most important issue is that of romantic woes; it's Mare examining the relational fallout of her ideology in the wake of her recent recommitment. And lest I forget, since War Storm continues King's Cage's tradition of multiple first-person narrators, we get a glimpse into the headspaces of so many other characters impacted by her decisions. This multi-perspective emotional struggle forms the backbone of the book, a frame into which the plot events are fitted, which makes for a rich and complex view of the events of the book.

Ultimately, War Storm is a perfectly bittersweet close to the Red Queen series. It does its predecessors justice, elegantly tying up all loose ends just enough to get a fair amount of closure without explicitly spelling out the future of the characters or Norta. Although I always want more stories and an epilogue and to find out which characters ended up together, I respect the way War Storm ended the series: it was a clean and elegant send-off, one that squarely places Mare's focus on the resistance and gives an appropriate amount of weight to her romantic situation. War Storm is a masterfully well-written and fitting finale to an excellent series. 

Carolyn is a twenty-something-year-old blogger who shares her favorite YA reads and favorite book-related finds with readers on Fridays.

YA Friday Book Review: The Secret of a Heart Note

The Secret of a Heart Note
by Stacey Lee
Audience: Young Adult
Katherine Tegen Books (January 26, 2017)
IndieBound | WorldCat

Description from GoodReads:

"Love chose me, and I tried, but I couldn’t stop the arrow in its flight.

As one of only two aromateurs left on the planet, fifteen-year-old Mimosa knows what her future holds: a lifetime of using her extraordinary sense of smell to mix base notes, top notes, and heart notes into elixirs that help others fall in love.

All while remaining incurably alone.

For Mim, the rules are clear—falling in love would render her nose useless, taking away her one great talent. Still, Mimosa doesn’t want to spend her life elbow-deep in soil and begonias. She dreams of a normal high school existence—taking up a sport and limping away flush from victory, joining the debate club and saying things like “That’s a logical fallacy!” Having a boyfriend.

When she accidentally gives an elixir to the wrong woman and has to rely on the school soccer star to help fix the situation, Mim quickly begins to realize that when it comes to falling in love, the choice isn’t always hers to make."

Carolyn's thoughts on the book:

I adored Stacey Lee's debut novel, Under a Painted Sky, as well as her second book, Outrun the Moon. Both focused on the stories of young women of color within an American historical context, so I was quite intrigued when I heard that her latest book was a contemporary YA love story (with a few twists, of course). But exactly what made Lee's historical fiction come to life - the detailed but careful contextualization and world building, the brilliantly unique characters, the smart dialogue - makes her writing sing in The Secret of a Heart Note.

The story focuses on Mim, the last aromateur left on the planet (other than her overbearing mother). These aromateurs, a mother-daughter line throughout all of history, possess magical (or perhaps evolutionarily advanced) smelling abilities that allow them to determine a person's unique mix of scents - and, once they understand that scent, mix love potions. While it ultimately leaves me unsure whether to classify it as low contemporary fantasy, speculative fiction, or sci-fi, this 'it-could-be-magic-or-science' approach allows the plot and characters, rather than the setting, to drive the book. Mim's character growth is at the center of the book; while she may possess super-smelling powers, at the end of the day, she is an over-committed and exhausted teenager in search of her own identity. Of course, when love potions are involved, nothing is simple; only one love elixir can be made for a person, and the potions are extremely difficult to undo. So when Mim accidentally doses the wrong person, it sets off a chain of wild events neither she - nor her dogmatic mother - could have ever anticipated. Complicating matters further, Mim is forbidden to fall in love herself, as she would lose her smelling abilities permanently; this is more difficult said than done. But perhaps the rules aren't as rigid as Mim has been led to believe...

The book artfully weaves together different plotlines - Mim's absent aunt (who lost her own sense of smell after falling in love) and the resulting familial drama, Mim's general high school/teenage angst, the school's resident mean girl blackmailing Mim to make her a love potion (or else she'll out Mim's best friend), and, of course, the chaotic (perhaps A Midsummer Night's Dream-esque) hijinks that ensue after Mim gives a love potion to the wrong person (involving the school librarian, her algebra teacher, and the mother of the school's soccer star) - as well as Mim's budding relationship with said soccer star. However, Mim's journey throughout the book, to find her place and identity in the world, is ultimately the heart and cornerstone of the book. This journey, in combination with Lee's beautiful descriptions of seemingly-infinite numbers of botanical scents, and other methods of contextualization (quotes from aromateurs throughout history to start every chapter, and other bits of important information from this alternative history added in as necessary), makes the book just as brilliantly vivid and character-driven as its predecessors. The Secret of a Heart Note is an achingly exquisite read, perfect for fans of contemporary fiction, fantasy, sci-fi, and Stacey Lee's other novels alike.

Carolyn is a teen blogger who shares her favorite YA reads and favorite book related finds with readers on Fridays.

YA Friday Summer update!

Having completed my first year of college, I am ready to get back into my summer reading patterns (when I spend the day doing very little besides consuming books and food). You can also look forward to a new summer reading challenge (which I'll be posting about shortly), but part of it involves reading as many books that I already own but haven't read. So, I'm focusing on reading series (so that I can finally read the last book), as well as other recent releases - but eventually, I'm planning on shifting over to the massive amounts of stand-alone ARCs I own. Here are some of the books I've been reading since I came home a week ago, as well as the rest of my massive TBR stack (or, at least, just the part of my TBR stack that fits on my nightstand):

The Embassy Row series: 

Ally Carter has long been adored for her YA series (starting with her Gallagher Girls series), but her latest series - Embassy Row - is probably my favorite yet. I reviewed the first two installments in the trilogy, All Fall Down and See How They Run, and am greatly looking forward to finishing off the series with the third and final book, Take The Key and Lock Her Up. 

The Winner's Trilogy:

The Winner's Crime is one of those rare sequels that manages to outshine its predecessor (as I noted in my review), so I'm very intrigued to finally read The Winner's Kiss. However, the complicated politics and history (all a part of Rutkoski's intense world building) are so integral to the plot that I am definitely going back to the beginning and rereading The Winner's Curse.

The Rebel Belle series:

The premise of the Rebel Belle series is pure comedic gold - a Southern debutante turned ancient guardian/warrior of an oracle (who of course is her arch nemesis) - but Rachel Hawkins manages to build a lovable cast of characters, and it is the characters and their emotional development (amidst the crazy-yet-hysterically-funny circumstances) that carries the series.

The Wrath & the Dawn series:

Easily one of my favorite fairy-tale retellings, The Wrath & the Dawn sets up a captivating and complex story that is finished in The Rose & the Dagger. I love trilogies, but I also love duologies - while I always want more books in the series, I do appreciate authors who have a specific plan for their series and stick to it (even if it means less total books). But if two books aren't enough for you, Renée Ahdieh released three different short stories: The Moth & the Flame, The Crown & the Arrow, and The Mirror & the Maze (two prequels, and one short story set in between the two main books, respectively).

The Sky Fall series:

While I do adore Shannon Messenger's Keeper of the Lost Cities series, I tend to prefer young adult books (rather than middle grade); when she released a young adult fantasy series (The Sky Fall series), I was overjoyed. While that joy is now bittersweet, knowing that the trilogy has come to a close, I am very excited to finally finish the series. 

The Metal & Lace series:

Though Arthurian legend is always popular in pop culture (*cough* Merlin *cough*), it tends to be less prevalent in the YA fairy tale retelling genre than other classic stories. So I was thrilled to dive into the first two books of the Metal & Lace Trilogy a couple of summers ago, but I haven't been able to get my hands on a copy of the third and final book, Excalibur Reigning - until now. I've been looking forward to finishing this series for a while now (I have a soft spot for steampunk, especially steampunk fairy tale retellings - you can check out more details about the series in my review of Avalon Rising).

What are you reading this summer? Let me know in the comments, or tweet me your summer reads @YALitFrenzy on Twitter.

Carolyn is a teen blogger who shares her favorite YA reads and favorite book related finds with readers on Fridays.

YA Friday - Historical Fiction roundup

As I recently referenced in my update post, there was a fabulous crop of historical fiction novels released last year, many of which I never had the chance to review. So, here are my favorite historical fiction novels from 2016:

Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina (Candlewick Press) 

Set against the backdrop of the Son of Sam serial killings in New York during the summer of 1977, Burn Baby Burn tells the story of Nora, a girl with fledgling hopes for her future despite her dysfunctional family. The book weaves together Nora's typical teenage problems - deciding whether or not to go to college, figuring out her crush on her new coworker - with the extraordinary circumstances of that summer for a compelling look into how these events affected everyday people. For me, this book was a fascinating glimpse into a small part of history I had never heard of before; as a fan of historical fiction, I always love the smaller parts of history that frequently go ignored, as they often make for the best stories. 

Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) 

When Hanneke, a smuggler of restricted goods in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, is charged with tracking down a missing Jewish girl, she plunges headfirst into the fledgeling Dutch resistance movement and becomes entangled in a quest to save just one girl. The book is a masterfully written, and hauntingly beautiful, twisting mystery that's equal parts heartbreak and plot twists. Monica Hesse's debut novel is perfect for fans of mystery and Ruta Sepetys alike.

Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee (Putnam Books for Young Readers)

I adored Stacey Lee's Under a Painted Sky, so I was delighted to learn that she was once again writing historical fiction. Outrun the Moon is the story of Mercy Wong, who dreams of escaping San Fransisco's Chinatown to one day start her own business. When she miraculously manages to be accepted at St. Clare's School for Girls, Mercy just might be able to pursue her dreams, against all odds. But disaster strikes in the form of the Great Earthquake of 1906, leveling everything and anyone in its wake. Mercy is a brilliant, charismatically headstrong young woman, which makes for not just a compelling and sympathetic protagonist, but an incredibly enjoyable narrative. As I noted in my review of her debut novel, Stacey Lee's characters are where her writing truly shines, and Outrun the Moon only further illustrates that.

The Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry (Viking Books for Young Readers)

The hauntingly beautiful tale of two young women caught up in the Catholic Church's persecution of perceived heresy in medieval France, The Passion of Dolssa is a touching and eloquent book that left me almost speechless - I'm at a loss for words to describe how well the book is written. There's a reason why it was given a Printz award honor, people.

Girl About Town by Adam Shankman and Laura L. Sullivan (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)

A tale involving 1930s gangsters, murder plots, and glamorous Hollywood, Girl About Town makes for a delightful mystery. When a washed-up playboy and a murder-witness-turned-movie-star meet, they become embroiled in a murder scheme that only gets deeper the further they look. If you're looking for a fun, glitzy mystery set in classic mid-century Hollywood, Girl About Town is the book for you.

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys (Philomel Books)

As with her debut novel Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepetys' Salt to the Sea tackles an overlooked tragedy - in this case, the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff - through an evocative and poignant narrative of four teenagers aboard. Amidst tragedy and the bitter hate of war, the beauty of kindness shines out throughout the novel, the only thing allowing the characters - and indeed, the reader - to accept and bear the atrocities they’ve borne witness to. You can check out the rest of my review here.

Love, Lies, and Spies by Cindy Anstey (Swoon Books)

Love, Lies and Spies is a captivating romance, full of action and intrigue contrasted with the historical setting. Set in Regency England, this book follows the escapades of Julliana Telford, a young women far more interested in ladybugs than lords and ladies. Alongside her cousin, she is about to enter ~the Season~, the glorified husband-hunt amongst the aristocracy, when she finds herself unwittingly drawn to Spencer Northam, a dashing gentleman who comes to her rescue when she finds herself dangling off a cliff (while pursuing ladybugs, of course - all in the name of science). Little does she know that Spencer works for the War Office and is focused on tracking down Napoleonic traitors... leading him straight to her social circle. Full of romance and action, spies and scientists, Love, Lies and Spies is perfect for fans of Austen-style romance with a side dish of espionage. You can read more of my review here.

If you think I'm missing any other great historical fiction books from 2016, comment below or tweet me @YAlitfrenzywhat one of your favorite historical fiction novels was last year!

Carolyn is a teen blogger who shares her favorite YA reads and favorite book related finds with readers on Fridays.

YA Friday - March 2017 update

Some of you may be wondering about my absence from the blog (since my last review was a month and a half ago), but I am back! In a limited capacity, but back nonetheless. My first year at college has taken up quite a bit of time, and I was sick enough in February to be briefly hospitalized (though I'm fine now, and almost caught up with all of my schoolwork); however, I still want to continue blogging.

In December, I came home for Christmas break to the giant stack of books I was supposed to review for 2016. For most of them, I'll be reviewing the next book in the series this year, but some of them are standalones (and some of them are the final book in the series). So, I'll be doing a series of posts to highlight several of those books. There was a fantastic crop of historical fiction YA novels in 2016, so I'll be doing a post just on those. Additionally, I'll be doing a series of posts on finished series, for those of you who prefer to binge-read entire series at once. Of course, I'll be resuming my regular reviews of 2017 releases as well (and hopefully avoid getting behind on my reviews the way I did last year). I also want to (eventually) finish the series of posts about my trip to England, though that may still take a while. I finish this semester in early May, so you can expect more frequent posts (and the announcement of a summer reading challenge) then. 

While I was sick, I did have the opportunity to read some books I'd been looking forward to reading for a while now:

The Keeper's Chronicles:

I reviewed The Storyspinner back in 2015, and The Skylighter proved to be an excellent sequel (and the perfect ending to the duology, although Becky Wallace has stated that she may return to back to the world of Santarem in the future). Even with a fever-addled brain, I was able to read both books in a day and eagerly follow the complexly interlaced plotlines to the very end.

The Hollow Earth series:

To be entirely honest, I only knew about the existence of the Hollow Earth series because my local independent bookstore, Once Upon A Time, hosted John Barrowman (and his sister Carole E. Barrowman) for a signing of the series, and as a huge Doctor Who fan, I immediately bought the books ahead of time to ensure my place in the signing line. The Hollow Earth books are a fun but well-plotted series following the adventures of the Calder twins, who possess the ability to magically animate themselves into any painting - or bring their own drawings to life, as they are swept up in a centuries-long battle over the imprisonment of mythical beasts. Weaving together fantasy, history, legends, and even time travel for a delightful read, the Hollow Earth series is sure to please fans of middle-grade fantasy.

The Impostor Queen series:

I haven't made it to The Cursed Queen yet, but I'm already excited to review it after rereading its predecessor (which I reviewed last year). The mix between fantasy and dystopia, as well as heavy political intrigue, makes for an intriguing read. If this series is any indication, 2017 is going to be another stellar year for YA fiction.

I also read a sizable selection of historical fiction, but am saving that for a dedicated post that you can look forward to in the coming weeks!

Carolyn is a teen blogger who shares her favorite YA reads and favorite book related finds with readers on Fridays.