Review: Fire by Kristin Cashore

Fire is the second book Kristin Cashore wrote. It's a companion book to Graceling. I recently read both Graceling and Bitterblue, and loved the former so I decided to come back to this book. Once again, Cashore does a great job of painting a wonderful world to get lost in for a few hours.

Fire Summary:
It is not a peaceful time in the Dells. The young King Nash clings to his throne while rebel lords in the north and south build armies to unseat him. The mountains and forests are filled with spies and thieves and lawless men.

This is where Fire lives. With a wild, irresistible appearance and hair the color of flame, Fire is the last remaining human monster. Equally hated and adored, she had the unique ability to control minds, but she guards her power, unwilling to steal the secrets of innocent people. Especially when she has so many of her own.

Then Prince Brigan comes to bring her to King City, The royal family needs her help to uncover the plot against the king. Far away from home, Fire begins to realize there's more to her power than she ever dreamed. Her power could save the kingdom.

If only she weren't afraid of becoming the monster her father was.

Fire Review:
Overall I would say that this book was pretty great. It was roughly 460 pages, which was about 100 pages less than Bitterblue. It didn't feel nearly so long though. At the same time though it wasn't nearly as quick of a read as Graceling, and I would probably rank it as my second favorite of her three novels so far. I thought that Fire's character was very likeable and interesting, and each of the characters were unique in their own ways.

I really liked Prince Brigan, the romantic interest, but the two of them finally getting together was very anti-climatic. Cashore didn't even mention their first kiss. Usually authors will describe it and it's considered to be one of the more significant points in the book, but she glossed over it. Nevertheless I was rooting from them. The one thing I didn't like about the book was that at some points Fire was really strong (although nothing compared to Katsa from Graceling), and at other times she was completely helpless. I guess we all have our strong and weak moments, but this seemed to be taken to an extreme. Regardless, don't let that deter you from reading this book.

As far as Desiderium goes, I've been taking a little bit of a break from it. There are some revisions that have to be made to it, but as of yet I haven't figured out exactly how to address them. I'm still mulling them over, but I'm hoping I'll work up the gumption to take a stab at it this weekend. I don't think most people understand the amount of revision that goes into writing a book. You don't just write it and then poof it gets published. I finished my first draft almost a year ago and spent 8 months revising it on my own. Now I'm revising it with the help of some online writing groups. I guess the good news is it's always getting better. Although to be honest, I'm beginning to hate the word better. I can't wait for the day when my book is good and not just better. Cross your fingers for me.

Review: Spark by Amy Kathleen Ryan

Last year, I read Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan and thought it was so-so. There were things I didn't like about the book, but overall I liked the plot and the characters. At least enough to read the sequel that just came out. Overall, I would say that Spark was pretty good, and definitely much better than Glow.

In Glow, the Empyrean, the space station that Waverly, Kieran, and Seth live on with their family and friends, gets attacked by their sister ship, the New Horizon, and all of the girls are kidnapped and taken to the New Horizon. Through an unfortunate series of events, many of the adults end up being held captive on the New Horizon, and the girls end up escaping, unable to take the adults with them. When they return the Empyrean, they find that almost all of the adults have died, and those that did survive are in intensive care, leaving the boys to run the ship. As the book ends, the kids and teens set out to try to rescue their parents.

Spark Summary:
Waverly and Kieran are finally reunited on the Empyrean. Kieran has led the boys safely up to this point, and now that the girls are back, their mission seems slightly less impossible: to chase down the New Horizon, and save their parents from the enemy ship. But nothing is truly as it seems…Kieran’s leadership methods have raised Seth’s hackles— and Waverly’s suspicions. Is this really her fiancé? The handsome, loving boy she was torn from just a short time before? More and more, she finds her thoughts aligned with Seth’s. But if Seth is Kieran’s Enemy No. 1, what does that make her?

In one night, a strange explosion rocks the Empyrean—shooting them off course and delaying their pursuit of the New Horizon—and Seth is mysteriously released from the brig. Seth is the most obvious suspect for the explosion, and Waverly the most obvious suspect for releasing him. As the tension reaches a boiling point, will Seth be able to find the true culprit before Kieran locks them both away—or worse? Will Waverly follow her heart, even if it puts lives at risk? With the balance of power precarious and the clock ticking, every decision counts… every step brings them closer to a new beginning, or a sudden end...

Spark Review:
The action in this book was pretty good, although there were times when I found myself counting pages as I went through it. The book is told from the point of view of three different people. I don't know if he was supposed to be, but I found Kieran to be a completely unlikeable character. The book made a number of valid points about what power and the struggle to attain it can do to you, but I felt as if many of the characters' decisions were irrational. At one point, Seth, who is imprisoned by Kieran and disliked by everyone but Waverly, begs Kieran to talk to him so he can warn him that the ship will blow up, and Kieran doesn't even give him the chance to speak. He just walks away. Big mistake. I felt when I was reading it like there would be no reason for Kieran to ignore him, but to each his own I guess.

The description focuses a lot on the love triangle between Waverly, Kieran, and Seth, but the book didn't really have a lot of this. We know Seth likes Waverly, and in this book Kieran and Waverly hate each other, but throughout the entire book, we receive no mention of how Waverly feels about Seth. Kind of weird.

Then there's the end. I'll try not to spoil it, but one of the characters makes a mysterious decision at the end that I'm not too sure about. I think I know what he's planning to do, but it was purposely left open to keep readers guessing until the next book comes out next year. I guess it worked since I'll be reading the third one when it comes out. Happy reading!

Review: There is No Dog by Meg Rosoff

This blog will be short. I'm 60 pages away from being done with my current revision, so I haven't had a lot of time to read. I did, however, make the mistake of picking up the book There is No Dog by Meg Rosoff. I absolutely hated it. All too often I pick up books and stop reading them partway through because I don't care for them, so I resolved to not do that very much anymore. Needless to say I picked a bad time to start.

There is No Dog Summary:
Meet your unforgettable protagonist: God, who, as it turns out, is a 19-year-old boy living in the present-day and sharing an apartment with his long-suffering fifty-something personal assistant. Unfortunately for the planet, God is lazy and, frankly, hopeless. He created all of the world's species in six days because he couldn't summon the energy to work for longer. He gets Africa and America mixed up. And his beleagured assistant has his work cut out for him when God creates a near-apolcalyptic flood, having fallen asleep without turning the bath off. There is No Dog is a darkly funny novel from one of our most delightfully unpredictable writers.

There is No Dog Review:
I absolutely did not like one thing about this book. The main character is 19-years old, and since he's God, he's supposedly been around for millions of years, and yet he's completely selfish, self-absorbed, and lacks any sort of maturity what-so-ever. Completely unbelievable. After millions of years, wouldn't you tend to mature at least a little? Needless to say every single one of the characters was unlikeable, the writing was vulgar and just plain terrible. And the boy spends the entire book trying to woo this attractive girl he saw, and once he does he doesn't even recognize her when he sees her. Then he makes fish fly and he leaves Earth, leaving his 50-year-old immortal assistant in charge of Earth. This book has no redeeming qualities, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Review: Hallowed by Cynthia Hand

So, after finishing Unearthly, I might or might not have stayed up until 4:00 a.m. finishing the sequel a couple of days ago, so I haven't made much progress in the way of my own book, but I do intend to devote my free time tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday to editing my own book. Ideally.

Alright, without further ado, let's get down to the summary of Hallowed:

For months part-angel Clara Gardner trained to face the raging forest fire from her visions and rescue the alluring and mysterious Christian Prescott from the blaze. But nothing could prepare her for the fateful decisions she would be forced to make that day, or the startling revelation that her purpose—the task she was put on earth to accomplish—is not as straightforward as she thought.

Now, torn between her increasingly complicated feelings for Christian and her love for her boyfriend, Tucker, Clara struggles to make sense of what she was supposed to do the day of the fire. And, as she is drawn further into the world of part angels and the growing conflict between White Wings and Black Wings, Clara learns of the terrifying new reality that she must face: Someone close to her will die in a matter of months. With her future uncertain, the only thing Clara knows for sure is that the fire was just the beginning.

Hallowed Review:
I think the fact that I was up until 4:00 in the morning says a lot about what I think about the book. It's very gripping and kept me on the edge of my seat, but I would definitely read Unearthly before reading this sequel. I thoroughly enjoyed Clara's character, and she did have a legitimate love triangle decision to make. Oftentimes when a girl has two choices, one choice is either a jerk or posessive, so the decision isn't really all that hard, but at times I found myself torn between the two. I'm personally rooting for Tucker in the next installment, but I could see why she would choose Christian.

Overall I would say that this book had two big secrets, and both were fairly transparant. One of them I was able to guess halfway through Unearthly, even though it wasn't revealed until the end of this book, and the other secret started seeming obvious about 60 pages in. So in that respect it was fairly predictable, but at the same time I enjoyed the ride. This book brought tears to my eyes for completely different reasons than the first book. It had more of a sad undertone, but I'm hopeful for the third book coming out next year.

Hopefully it'll be at least another week or two until I review another book, but I'll try to keep you guys posted on my editing process. Happy Fourth!