Tag: life drama

YA

Review: Midnight at the Electric by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

midnight at the electric -jodi lynn andersonKansas, 2065 Adri has been handpicked to live on Mars. But weeks before Launch, she discovers the journal of a girl who lived in her house over a hundred years ago, and is immediately drawn into the mystery surrounding her fate. While Adri knows she must focus on the mission ahead, she becomes captivated by a life that’s been lost in time…and how it might be inextricably tied to her own.

Oklahoma, 1934 Amidst the fear and uncertainty of the Dust Bowl, Catherine longs for the immortality promised by a professor at a traveling show called The Electric. But as her family’s situation becomes more dire — and the suffocating dust threatens her sister’s life — Catherine must find the courage to sacrifice everything she loves in order to save the one person she loves most.

England, 1919 In the recovery following World War One, Lenore tries to come to terms with her grief for her brother, a fallen British soldier, and plans to sail to America in pursuit of a childhood friend. But even if she makes it that far, will her friend be the person she remembers, and the one who can bring her back to herself?

While their stories spans thousands of miles and multiple generations, Lenore, Catherine, and Adri’s fates are entwined in ways both heartbreaking and hopeful.

 

4.5 Drink Me Potions

Thank you Edelweiss and HarperCollins for this copy in exchange for an honest review

**Midnight at the Electric comes out June 13, 2017**

Going into this novel, I barely knew what I was getting into. Sure, the synopsis suggests that it’s like a 3-in-1 kinda book, right? 3 girls living at different times with their own set of problems.

But what I hadn’t anticipated? The amazing way that Anderson connected and intertwined the girls’ stories together in a way that was just so beautifully done.

There’s a little something for everyone in this novel. The futuristic side takes place with Adri’s story, living in 2065 where people can actually fly off to Mars to hopefully start over again as Earth has been ravaged with natural disasters and parts of cities have fallen. She’s not a very nice or social person, but her story really sets the foundation of this whole book. Coming to live with the only relative she’s got left in this world, Lily, as she’s about to embark on the opportunity (and journey) of a lifetime to Mars gets her reflecting about family. Enters the gorgeous introduction of the next girl’s story, Catherine, as Adri finds her journal.

Catherine’s story turns this book into a historical plot. With the horrible setting of the Dust Bowl that terrorized the farmlands in the ’30s, her story brought out the true struggles such families faced to even physically survive the amount of dust blowing into their lungs. With a tragic love story at the heart of Catherine’s plot, it kept me greatly entertained and as intrigued as Adri was in figuring out who this family was that used to live on Lily’s farm, and how they may possibly connect to them.

But WITHIN Catherine’s story was a link to Lenore’s story, our final protagonist. As Catherine’s mother’s best friend before she moved away, Lenore’s letters to her childhood bestie made me reminisce about my own childhood friends and the pain of wondering if time changed us no matter how we may’ve wished we stayed the same. Set in the aftermath of WWI, I really enjoyed Lenore’s story too, in a different way from the others. First, I adore letter formats for stories, but Lenore’s voice was so relatable. She wasn’t perfect and she felt far from it many times. There was a bit of romance in there, but it wasn’t essential to have her falling in love with someone for her story to be amazing the way it was. Figuring out how to move on from the pain of losing her brother to the war and feeling the closeness of her relationship with Catherine’s mother no matter how many years it’s been since they were physically together was more than enough. And some mysterious components that were present in Adri’s time could only unfold from as far back as Lenore’s time, which really excited me at the prospect of linking everything together.

But what did I love the most?

We have to go back to Adri’s story. As a person who didn’t know how to get along with others very well, it was how she grew from this experience of connecting to these people who had departed so long ago that touched my heart. She took what Catherine’s journal and Lenore’s letters gave her to realize more about herself and where she was at the moment with Lily. That family was important. And so is what we leave behind that stays beyond the finite length of our lives. It was so profound. And I may have even teared up a bit at the end.

I shall end off with some of Adri’s insights that resonated with me, as I hope they too will also resonate with you (especially after you read it in context of the full novel when it comes out).

“I’m not much on writing, and I always wondered why some people are so drawn to it. But now as I sit here trying to think of what to say, I think I understand. No one wants to disappear. Words pin things down and make them real, and they last so much longer than we do…

I wanted to tell you most of all that I think it’s our love that gets passed along. Onward and forward.”


Overall Recommendation:
Midnight at the Electric connects 3 girls and their stories together in a such a poignant way, touching on various matters from loss of a family member to struggling to save a loved one. Despite the time difference between the stories, they’re all connected somehow, and figuring out the links between them slowly was half the fun of this novel. For such a short length, Anderson really packed it in with just the right amount for each girl. I truly recommend reading it, no matter if you don’t like historicals or futuristic novels. It’s a book that weaves together what’s truly important to people despite the cultural context, and I guarantee this would be a read that keeps you guessing and an ending that leaves some parts up for the imagination.

YA

Review: Crash into You by Katie McGarry

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Pushing the Limits #3

crash into you -katie mcgarryFrom acclaimed author Katie McGarry comes an explosive new tale of a romance forged in the fast lane.

The girl with straight A’s and the perfect life—that’s who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy family…and she’s just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker—a guy she has no business even talking to. But after the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can’t get him out of her mind.

The last thing Isaiah needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks. But when their shared love of street racing puts their lives in jeopardy, Isaiah and Rachel will have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they’ll go to save each other.

 

4.5 Drink Me Potions

Crash into You has that same Katie McGarry spark but has its own unique love story that is sweet and so, so very tangible. I fell in love as soon as I opened it.

I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to read Isaiah’s story. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I loved Dare You To and he was just so sad as the girl he thought he was in love with, Beth, fell for another guy (who was so much better for her, to be honest). I always felt sad for him. His home life is awful, with foster parents that just didn’t care about his well-being so long as they got the money for taking him in.

And here’s the girl who was supposed to be good for him. A rich girl who loved cars. Now, I’m not a huge car lover – and frankly, I know crap about cars or their parts. I may admire a fast car but I’m no speed or adrenaline junkie. So I wasn’t sure if I could get into this book since it seems to centre on this connection Isaiah and Rachel had.

But I was so, SO wrong. And thank God for that. Their chemistry was so right and so present from the moment they both eyed each other.

Rachel was such an easy girl to love and understand. She has extreme anxiety and panic attacks, which makes her think that she’s weak. When you’re the youngest of 5 children, all of the rest being boys, and she being the replacement daughter for the one her parents lost to leukemia earlier, it’s a lot of pressure and stress to be “perfect”. That’s no good with anxiety. I understand anxiety and am so glad it doesn’t get as bad as hers did. But she tried. Honestly wanted to make her whole family happy, yet none of them seemed to realize just how hard it was to be this girl they all wanted her to be to make their mom happy and proud. The brothers called themselves protective but all I saw sometimes was a selfish yearning for her to continue pleasing their mom so that she didn’t sink into any depressive funk and forget about all of her remaining children. It goes to show that having money doesn’t equate to a lower probability on family dysfunction.

And Isaiah was equally likable. He had so much heart but he was so afraid of letting people in ’cause they only seem to leave and disappoint him. He had to face the mother who left him and got thrown into jail, letting him suffer in the system. But he found it in himself to still love Rachel, and he honestly would’ve done anything for her even if she didn’t ask. For a guy who wanted to scare the world and give them an impression that says “KEEP AWAY”, his heart had so much room for love if only the girl he cared for realized just how lucky she was to receive board in his heart. No matter how difficult life was for him at the moment, and most of these stem from financial problems and the unpredictable nature of his future after aging out of the system, he had somehow found Rachel and he didn’t ever want to let go, no matter what it cost.

These two broken individuals were so much stronger together than apart. They both developed so much in the course of the story as they conquered their individual demons together. Katie McGarry is just so good at giving her characters such strong voices and depicting the depth of their situations as if we were facing them along with them. I loved how these two came together, and fought alongside each other. I loved their first kiss and how they made up when they miscommunicated with each other. I just loved them.

And of course, there was the tense main story arc they both had to face: paying off a debt to some guy who was like a king of many different underground operations, including illegal drag racing. I read this in one go as I was desperate to see how it would all end, all the while drawing out the Isaiah and Rachel’s insecurities. I was never disappointed and coming up for air after finishing this book has left me in a little funk.

Honestly, I can’t really piece together the right words to describe the beauty of a story like this. McGarry is honestly a queen of contemporary YA. The ending wasn’t very predicable but it ended on a hopeful and happy note. And along the way, there were just so many feels for our protagonists. After falling so in love with Beth’s story previously, I have to say that I’m surprised Isaiah’s story has captured my heart just as much as hers did.

Overall Recommendation:
Filled with heart and emotions as it typical for Katie McGarry’s books, Crash into You was one speedy ride that tore at my heart for the pain our two protagonists faced in their very different lives. However, McGarry was able to craft together a wonderful connection between Isaiah and Rachel as they bonded over a common goal and enemy. And as they learned to let down their walls for each, the delicious chemistry between them from the start took over and another different kind of thrill took my heart on a ride. I honestly can’t think she could’ve done this book any better than it is. It’s a definite recommendation.

YA

Review: Like a River Glorious by Rae Carson

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: The Gold Seer Trilogy #2

like-a-river-glorious-rae-carsonAfter a harrowing journey across the country, Leah Westfall and her friends have finally arrived in California and are ready to make their fortunes in the Gold Rush. Lee has a special advantage over the other new arrivals in California—she has the ability to sense gold, a secret known only by her handsome best friend Jefferson and her murdering uncle Hiram.

Lee and her friends have the chance to be the most prosperous settlers in California, but Hiram hasn’t given up trying to control Lee and her power. Sabotage and kidnapping are the least of what he’ll do to make sure Lee is his own. His mine is the deepest and darkest in the territory, and there Lee learns the full extent of her magical gift, the worst of her uncle, and the true strength of her friendships. To save everyone, she vows to destroy her uncle and the empire he is building—even at the cost of her own freedom.

The second epic historical fantasy in the Gold Seer trilogy by Rae Carson, the acclaimed author of The Girl of Fire and Thorns.

3 Drink Me Potions

Like its predecessor, Walk on Earth a Stranger, the sequel is very similar in the fact that it is more of a historical fiction piece than historical fantasy.

Like a River Glorious did uphold the promise of more action and excitement. Lee Westfall, no longer hiding who she is and her special ability to sense gold in the depths of the earth, has found herself finally in California where she had hopes of starting a new life away from the troubles back home in Georgia. Alongside her is her best friend, Jefferson, with whom a relationship beyond mere friendship may be something on the horizon.

Once again, Rae Carson has done her homework because this novel was not easy to write accurately either. The unfair treatment of the indigenous people known simply as “Indians”, the African-American slaves that were seen as mere property, and the Chinese laborers that were coming over from China were awful. Words could not describe how awful the racism was in the frontiersmen settling California. Carson did a great job of depicting the horrors these people truly faced in the past, with “well-meaning, religious white men” thinking they knew what was best. That they were the best, and on top of the world.

The truly sickening descriptions that filled these pages kept me turning faster than the first book. It made me feel awful, but at the same time, it did the trick of showing how people aren’t all that much better nowadays. I’m glad Lee did not feel the same way or else I might not have been able to finish the story.

Like a River Glorious deals mostly with Lee’s uncle, the root of all her troubles and the reason for her escape out West. It also described the beauty of the untouched lands of California when it was still mostly trees, mountains and lakes. The journey may have been difficult, but it was only the beginning. Claiming land and settling down more permanently wasn’t all that much easier. I liked these parts of the story, as long as they didn’t take up the whole length of it and consumed all my patience.

All in all, it was a nicer sequel but it still lagged in the middle. The pacing wasn’t fast enough to get my blood pumping. There was a little more info about Lee’s special abilities and how they may not be as simple as she had originally thought they were all this time. Other than that, events in this story were far from “heartstoppingly exciting”.

Overall Recommendation:
Like a River Glorious gave me more feelings beyond apathy, getting my heart pumping with anger at the descriptions of unfair racial prejudices back in this time. Of course, the rest of the story was picking up the pace too. Lee was facing her problematic uncle head-to-head while trying to settle her band of friends in their new lands in California. With admiration for the evidence of strong historical research, Rae Carson has done her best to make this new trilogy accurate and fun. I can see the first, but the latter I’m still waiting for.