Last week my Book Riot YA Quarterly Boxcame in the mail ! This is a quarterly bookish subscription box from Bookriot.com. Each box comes with two YA books and some book-related items. Let’s open up and see what’s inside.
Spoilers Ahoy !…
Audiobook Review : Reboot by Amy Tintera
- Release Date: May 7th, 2013
- Pages: 365
- Genre: Dystopian/Thriller
- Publisher: HarperTeen
I’ve been in a bit of a fictional hangover. Which is to say I binged watched Nickelodeon’s The Legend of Korra series and was searching for a book to fill this void. I wanted adventure, world-building and action girls so I immediately started browsing YA dystopians. I settled on Reboot after getting a rec from a regular reader….
If These Books Were Judged By Their Covers Vol. 2
One of the best parts of books are the covers ! Each week we’ll look at the recent cover reveals and give some judgement. . . even though we have no qualifications whatsoever.
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Cruel Beauty By Rosamund Hodge
“You’re just as foolish as the others. You think you are clever, strong, special. You think you’re going to win.”
Hodge, Rosamund (2014-01-28). Cruel Beauty
- Release Date: January 28th 2014
- Genre: Fantasy/Fairytale
- Pages : 342
- Publisher: Balzer & Bray
Cruel Beauty is a fantasy retelling of Beauty and The Best, where beauty is an angry and selfish (read: cruel) young woman named Nyx. Out of desperation Nyx’s father made a bargain that would result in Nyx being married off to the Gentle Lord, a powerful demon who has ruled over Nyx’s people for 900 years. Nyx mission isn’t just to marry the Gentle Lord, but she has been trained to take him down, but could there more inside this beast than darkness ?
Cruel Beauty is sold as a Beauty and the Beast retelling
but the story feels more like the tale of Bluebeard. A man whose young innocent wife discovers the benevolent Bluebeard keeps the bodies of his previous wives who disobeyed him. There is this sense of isolation and dread in the original tale that we see a bit of in Cruel Beauty. Nyx is also one of many of wives who have joined the Gentle Lord and, like in the original tale, he allows Nyx to roam the rooms of his magical house—expect for the locked ones. The Gentle Lord also keeps the dead bodies of his previous wives in one of said rooms, so I was really getting Bluebeard vibes
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Book Review : Suddenly Royal by Nichole Chase
- Release Date: April 23rd 2013
- Genre: New Adult/ Women’s Fiction
- Pages : 464
- Publisher: Avon
The story of an American woman who discovers she is a duchess sounded a lot more interesting when I started this book than when I finished. This concept of normal women finding themselves mixed up with royalty is nothing new with movies like The Princess Diaries and The Prince and Me but I couldn’t find the same charm in Suddenly Royal.
Samantha Rousseau is a graduate student working towards her PhD and taking care of her cancer stricken stepfather. Her life is turned upside down when it’s discovered she is a long lost duchess from the France-expy country Lilaria. Suddenly this American girl is plucked from obscurity and into the world of royalty, paparazzi and fame all while keeping her eyes out for Prince Alex aka Prince Yummy.
Chase executed the premise well, explaining how the families are being brought together but there wasn’t much of a follow through as far as plot was concerned.
I don’t know if it was the cookie cutterhero or the low ball conflict but the more I thought about it the more I realized this wasn’t the kind of story I expected. We get a lot of Sam going to Lilaria and about her responsibilities, but honestly it wasn’t that interesting. . . just a lot of people telling her things. I wanted something more akin to the first season of Downton Abbey. I wanted more awkward dinner parties, culture shock, witty banter and actual tension between the leads.
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Kat Joins Bout of Books (Better Late Than Never ! )
The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 5th and runs through Sunday, January 11th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 12 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team
Wow, I didn’t realize Bout of Books was this week ! This year the hosts of Bout of Books are doing no goals, which I think is great ! But I do want to list which books I’m going to be reading. It turned into a lot of contemporary YA, so I thew in some sci-fi adult titles. I’ll be updating on Twitter and Goodreads!
