I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

Title: I am Number Four
Author: Pittacus Lore
ISBN: 9780061996795
Publisher: HarperCollins Audio
Released: August 17, 2010
Series: The Lorien Legacies #1
Duration: 11 hours, 32 minutes
Source: Audiobook from my public library

Summary:
"Nine of us came here. We look like you. We talk like you. We live among you. But we are not you. We can do things you dream of doing. We have powers you dream of having. We are stronger and faster than anything you have ever seen. We are the superheroes you worship in movies and comic books—but we are real.

Our plan was to grow, and train, and become strong, and become one, and fight them. But they found us and started hunting us first. Now all of us are running. Spending our lives in shadows, in places where no one would look, blending in. we have lived among you without you knowing.

But they know.
They caught Number One in Malaysia.
Number Two in England.
And Number Three in Kenya.
They killed them all.
I am Number Four.
I am next."
________________________________________________
First Lines:

"The door starts shaking. It's a flimsy thing made of bamboo shoots held together with tattered lengths of twine. The shake is subtle and stops almost immediately."
Page 7
________________________________________________
Review:

I have been keeping an eye on this series for years. But when I was in need of an audiobook and it was available at my library, I decided to finally give it a shot.

Four came to Earth ten years ago with his guardian. They have to keep themselves hidden from a race of aliens that is trying to kill them. Because they have to move around so much, Four has never really stayed at a school long enough to make friends and have a normal life. Now they've moved to Ohio and his new name is John Smith. He starts to actually make a name for himself there - until they realize they may have been found out.

Overall, this is a solid science fiction story. When their planet is being attacked, a ship of some children is sent to another planet to keep the race intact. They have to split up on the new planet because the evil race of aliens is still after them. And now they are all constantly on the move in order to keep themselves safe. It's a cool premise. I'm just not sure about the implementation.

Part of this might be on my reason for putting off this book. I recall there being some controversy about the way this series has been written. The author is, of course, a pseudonym. But the person behind the book is James Fray - the guy who wrote Million Little Pieces. And there seem to be some ghost writers who actually came up with the idea... I don't fully remember. But I was sort of put off by the whole thing and worried that it was just someone else trying to break into YA publishing because it's the hot place to be.

Because that was my mindset, I really tried to put that aside while listening to this story. But then I realized there was something about the way it was being read that put me off as well. The reader used all of these different voices - and most of the time very necessary. But the voices he chose were very cartoon-y. It made it hard to take some of the characters seriously - especially when there were serious things happening. The girls voices were the worst, really. Some of the inflections used weren't how teens really speak... so it took me out of the story a lot.

While I really do think that the premise is totally solid, I feel like the full effect was very Disney. Things wrapped up very comfortably, some of the reactions to things were predictable, and the relationships are a little too cute. I will admit that part of this might be on the fault of the audio reader. But listening to this book has let me know that I don't need to continue this series.

I know there are some science fiction lovers who have really gotten into this series. And more power to them! I know that exciting things happen and I imagine that they are relieved to have a modern scifi option (so much of it is for adults). So I know this will find its audience, but that's just not going to be me. I do feel like I need to see the movie - it seems like that might have worked out better for me. We'll see. :)
________________________________________________
Other Blog Reviews:

Justin's Book Blog
Girl!Reporter
Blog of a Bookaholic
The Bawdy Book Blog
Helen's Book Blog
Darkest Addictions
For What It's Worth
Book, Interrupted
Lucybird's Book Blog
Scarrlet Reader

The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider

Title: The Beginning of Everything
Author: Robyn Schneider
ISBN: 9780062217134
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Released: August 27, 2013
Page #: 335
Source: ARC from the publisher

Summary:
"Varsity Tennis captain Ezra Faulkner was supposed to be homecoming king, but that was before—before his girlfriend cheated on him, before a car accident shattered his leg, and before he fell in love with unpredictable new girl Cassidy Thorpe."
__________________________________________________
First Lines: (Quote from the ARC, subject to change)

"Sometimes I think that everyone has a tragedy waiting for them, that the people buying milk in their pajamas or picking their noses at stoplights could only be moments away from disaster. That everyone's life, no matter how unremarkable, has a moment when it will become extraordinary - a single encounter after which everything that really matters will happen."
Page 1
__________________________________________________
Review:

Y'all, I really loved this book. It is laugh-out-loud hilarious, so very sweet, and definitely heartbreaking. I'm going to try not to gush during this review... we'll see if that works out.

Ezra has a horrible accident that keeps him from doing what he loves - playing tennis. His whole life is flipped upside down. His friends aren't who he thought they were, old friends resurface, and others prove themselves to be interesting allies. And there's a girl who comes along and changes his outlook on everything - Cassidy. She is nothing like any of the girls he has known before and he realizes quickly how special she is. But there are secrets and tragedies that will try to pull them apart.

Can I just emphasize how clever and hilarious this book is? Seriously. I ended up reading out loud more quotes from this book to my unsuspecting coworkers than they probably wanted. You know, even when it was dealing with heavy issues, there was still a lighter tone that made sense. It was just a lighthearted, fantastic story.

There is something so awesome to me about a romantic story written from the guy's perspective. I mean, girl romance stories are good and everything - I'm definitely into those, too. But when you're reading from a guy's perspective, there is something more genuine and sweet about it. Especially when the girl is someone so awesome and unexpected. It's that discovery and understanding that really comes across well with this sort of book.

It was sort of awesome that many of the main characters are part of the debate team. They were the coolest people in the story, for sure. And I kind of hope that will translate for many teens who think those kids are uber dorks. Their conversations were so smart and clever that I almost couldn't handle it. And I loved the whole time that they were at a weekend debate contest. It really took me back to my days of traveling with hs groups. 

I'm pretty much going to recommend this book to anyone who loves YA realistic lit. It's a really solid book that made me remember why I have loved realistic stories in the past. It just felt real and genuine... ugh, so good! I cannot wait to see what else this author comes up with. I'm definitely a fan as of right now. 
__________________________________________________
Other Blog Reviews:

Lily's Book Blog
Cuddlebuggery Book Blog
Alluring Reads
The Flyleaf Review
Rather Be Reading
Annette's Book Spot
The Midnight Garden
Book Fixation
Bookish Comforts
The Eater of Books!

Sara Squared Blog Tour - Guest Post and Giveaway

 

I am so excited to be a part of the Sara Squared Blog Tour! Both of these books look fabulous and I am pumped to have signed copies to give away! Below you'll find a guest post from the authors about the parents in their books. And at the bottom, you'll find the rafflecopter for the signed book giveaway! Check out the full blog tour info here. Enjoy. :)

________________________________________________________

Title: Chatting About Parents in YA Novels 

By Sara Kocek and Sara Polsky

In 10 days on the (virtual) road for our books, Promise Me Something and This Is How I Find Her, we haven’t yet talked about one of the biggest subjects our books share: parents. In Promise Me Something, Reyna’s dad is recovering from an accident and Reyna is struggling to adjust to his new girlfriend, Lucy. In This Is How I Find Her, Sophie’s mom’s suicide attempt changes everything in Sophie’s life.

 

Sara Polsky: My main character, Sophie, has been taking care of her mother for several years already when the book opens. How does Reyna’s father’s accident change their relationship?

Sara Kocek: After the accident, Reyna’s dad is on crutches, with several broken bones and a neck brace. While he heals, he needs a lot of help to do basic things like cooking, cleaning, and taking care of himself. Reyna sometimes feels like she has to “babysit” him, which she resents because it prevents her from hanging out with her friends. At the same time, she would rather it be her than Lucy. Lucy--her dad’s girlfriend--is the one who was driving when they got into the accident, and Reyna can’t fathom why her dad still wants to be with someone who almost (accidentally) killed him. When I first wrote the book, Lucy was the classic “evil stepmother” figure, but as I revised the book it became important to me to make her more sympathetic. I think fiction is more interesting when all the characters have good intentions; they just don’t always agree on what’s best.

The adults in your book are fairly sympathetic too. Even Aunt Cynthia--who is somewhat of a cypher--ultimately shows a softer side toward the end of the book. I really admire how you have crafted them as real, three-dimensional characters, not just figureheads. How was writing the adult characters in your book different from writing the teenage characters?

Sara Polsky: I saw Sophie’s mom as a three-dimensional character, and knew what her relationship with Sophie would be like -- loving, but complicated by Sophie’s experience taking care of her -- from the beginning. But the other adult characters, Sophie’s aunt and uncle, were among the hardest characters to get to know, much more so than the teens. Initially, I thought of Aunt Cynthia and Uncle John from Sophie’s perspective, and her frustration with them for not helping her care for her mother seeped into every scene and made them flat and, like your early version of Lucy, not particularly sympathetic. They evolved in later drafts -- I gave Sophie a job in her uncle’s office, which allowed them some opportunities to talk about things other than Sophie’s mom, and I tried to highlight the ways Sophie and her aunt were alike, to give them some common ground. Sophie’s flashbacks and memories also show the adults in her family in a more positive light.

Aside from Reyna’s dad and Lucy, one of the other memorable adult characters in your novel is Olive’s mother, Mrs. Barton. I loved the scene where Reyna meets her for the first time and doesn’t quite realize what’s going on -- Olive has to spell out the fact that her mom drinks. How does her drinking affect Olive’s life?

Sara Kocek: Olive not only worries that something will happen to her mom--namely drunk driving or hurting herself at the house while drunk--she also feels responsible for trying to hide the alcohol so her mom can’t find it. In this way, she’s like Sophie--the child assuming the role of the parent. Except Olive is also incredibly embarrassed by the whole situation, and she takes it out on her mother in the form of anger and sarcasm. Olive is one of those people who feels more comfortable expressing anger than she does sadness, but I see a lot of sadness and pain underneath that anger.

In your novel, Sophie has good reason to be angry with the adults in her life, especially her own mother. But instead of being angry, she seems to understand that her mother’s behavior is because of the illness, and that the illness is separate from her as a person. That strikes me as very mature of her. Was Sophie’s character always like this, or did you have drafts where she directed more anger at her mother?

Sara Polsky: Sophie actually got angrier from draft to draft. At first, she was more resigned to her situation, but an early reader pointed out that as Sophie made new friends and encountered their families, she would start to realize just how unusual her own experience was and might become resentful about having been deprived of a “normal” relationship with her mom. I added some of those feelings in revisions.

Changing gears a bit, who are your favorite parents (or adults in general) in YA? Any who served as inspirations for the adult characters in Promise Me Something?

Sara Kocek: I love the parents in Rebecca Stead’s books When You Reach Me and Liar and Spy. Those are middle grade novels, not YA, but I think she’s done a fantastic job of giving them funny quirks while also keeping them realistic. These quirks--like the father who is obsessed with making new houses look old, or the mom who spells out notes using scrabble tiles--give them a young and playful vibe, nothing like the strict, authoritarian parents that I encountered in books when I was young. Along these lines, I tried to give Reyna’s Dad a playful side, like when he and Lucy eat ice cream for breakfast, straight from the carton. I wanted it to be clear that even though he’s the authority figure in the family, he doesn’t have all the answers. He’s figuring things out as he goes along, just like Reyna.

To wrap things up, do you have any advice for teens who have to take care of their parents? What about teens who feel misunderstood by the adults in their life?

Sara Polsky: I don’t have any easy answers -- I don’t think there are any, and This Is How I Find Her was an attempt to answer these questions for Sophie. But I would say, if you can, to ask for help, to try to find at least one adult who will be in your corner, help you, and advocate for you.

Thanks for following along on our blog tour, and thanks for reading!

Title: Promise Me Something
Author: Sara Kocek
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Co.
       

Title: This is How I Find Her
Author: Sara Polsky
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Co.

________________________________________________________

Enter the Giveaway here!! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Check out the next steps on the blog tour: 

Wednesday, September 4
Moonlight Gleam
http://moonlightgleam.com/
Sara Polsky Guest Post

The Writing Barn
http://www.thewritingbarn.com/
Sara Kocek Guest Post

Fire with Fire by Jenny Han and Sibhan Vivian

Title: Fire with Fire
Author: Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian
ISBN: 9781442440784
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Released: August 13, 2013
Series: Burn for Burn #2
Page: 518
Source: eARC from Edelweiss

Summary:
Lillia, Kat, and Mary had the perfect plan. Work together in secret to take down the people who wronged them. But things didn't exactly go the way they'd hoped at the Homecoming Dance.

Not even close.
For now, it looks like they got away with it. All they have to do is move on and pick up the pieces, forget there ever was a pact. But it's not easy, not when Reeve is still a total jerk and Rennie's meaner than she ever was before.

And then there's sweet little Mary…she knows there's something seriously wrong with her. If she can't control her anger, she's sure that someone will get hurt even worse than Reeve was. Mary understands now that it's not just that Reeve bullied her-it's that he made her love him.

Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, burn for a burn. A broken heart for a broken heart. The girls are up to the task. They'll make Reeve fall in love with Lillia and then they will crush him. It's the only way he'll learn.
It seems once a fire is lit, the only thing you can do is let it burn..."
_______________________________________________
First Lines: (Quote from the ARC, subject to change)


"I couldn't decide what to wear. At first I thought casual, like jeans and a button-down; then I thought no, in case his parents are there I should wear a dress, something somber like my gray scoop neck with the skinny belt."
Page 1
_______________________________________________
Review:

So, that quote up there really doesn't give this book justice. It may have changed in the final version... but it sounds sort of vapid. Which is not at all what this book is. In fact, I loved this book. It was a great follow up to an amazing story of revenge.

The plan that Lillia, Mary, and Kat concocted sort of blew up in their faces. They ended up hurting people more than they intended to. They wanted to give them a taste of their own medicine... but ended up physically hurting some people. There is some definite guilt, but then opportunities present themselves to continue the revenge scheme. It's too good to pass up, but will it go too far again?

I really loved this book. It's such a fast paced story that I hardly noticed that it's 500+ pages. You spend the first book getting to know these three girls - and how different they are. They are in totally different cliques in school, but they have grudges against the same people. And this second book, you see how their friendship grows even more. And see how their lives start to really intertwine.

At the end of the first book, you get a hint about the supernatural aspect of Mary's involvement. She is the one that caused the accidental injuries. And you get a lot more of that in this book - and you start to really wonder about her Aunt. She's sort of New Age-y and Mary starts to notice how different she is being treated and starts to become almost scared of her.

I was a little worried about this second book - because of the whole sophomore slump. But really this book is just as good, maybe better, than the first one. There's more romance. More scheming. More drama. More mystery. Just MORE! And it's awesome. There is a huge twist at the end of this book... Obviously I'm not going to talk about it, but it's major. And it makes you rethink the entire course of the story. I really look forward to seeing how it is treated in the next book.

If you're a fan of YA chick lit with an edge, this is definitely the series for you. I love each and every one of our main girls. They are so different, but you really understand where each one is coming from. Which is one of the things that makes this book good for so many different readers. They can see themselves in any of the characters. Anyway. So good. Definitely give this series a try.
_______________________________________________
Other Blog Reviews:

Rather Be Reading
Itching for Books
Lose Time Reading
Novel Sounds
The Quiet Concert
I Eat Words
The Social Potato Reviews
Maji Bookshelf
Sarah Elizabeth's Bookshelf
Page Turners Blog

Out This Week (September 1-7)

Again, there are tons of awesome YA books coming out this week! Here are a few of the group...

•  9.3.13 The Memory of After by Lenore Appelhans
• 9.3.13 The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

•  9.3.13 Two Lies and a Spy by Kat Carlton
• 9.3.13 Eternal (Haven #3) by Kristi Cook

•  9.3.13 Conjured by Sarah Beth Durst
• 9.3.13 The Lord of Opium by Nancy Farmer

•  9.3.13 Projection by Risa Green
• 9.3.13 The Social Code by Sadie Hayes

•  9.1.13 Promise Me Something by Sara Kocek
• 9.3.13 Eternity (The Fury #3) by Elizabeth Miles

•  9.3.13 The 100 by Kass Morgan
• 9.1.13 This is How I Find Her by Sara Polsky

• 9.3.13 All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill
• 9.3.13 Starry Nights by Daisy Whitney