The Peculiars, by Maureen Doyle McQuerry

I dislike writing reviews on books I didn't like almost as much as actually reading the books. This book was one that I thought I'd enjoy, and I had every intention of finishing it until I realized that I had to drag myself to pick it up and that I had plenty of other books waiting in my bedroom that I was a lot more interested in.

Lena always knew she was different, and not only from a gut feeling but from actual physical proof: she has abnormally large hands and feet. Her father disappeared years before and there were rumors that he was a goblin from the mysterious land of Scree. When Lena turns 18 and receives money her father left for her, she decides to journey to Scree to discover the truth (or something like that). She ends up in a small town on the coast and meets a bunch of not so interesting people and stays there for as long as I had the book open.

I was excited when I started the book because unlike many others with similar plots, this one actually moved at the beginning. The problem wasn't the beginning though. Because the momentum started so early in the novel, I expected the entire book to run at a high pace but was dismayed to discover that most of the rest of the book was dreadfully dull. At some point I flipped to the end to see if that interested me at all but even though the ending did look interesting, I realized that the author's writing style didn't appeal to me and despite the intriguing ending, I did not get the extra push from it that I needed in order to finish the book.

One major contributor to the intense boringness (is that a word?) of this book was the author's attention to detail. As an extremely curious person, I sometimes get annoyed by lack of detail and explanation but McQuerry explained way more than necessary and provided enough details that not only could I imagine Lena's world, I was also bored by it.

2.0 stars

On her 18th birthday, Lena Mattacascar decides to search for her father, who disappeared into the northern wilderness of Scree when Lena was young. Scree is inhabited by Peculiars, people whose unusual characteristics make them unacceptable to modern society. Lena wonders if her father is the source of her own extraordinary characteristics and if she, too, is Peculiar. On the train she meets a young librarian, Jimson Quiggley, who is traveling to a town on the edge of Scree to work in the home and library of the inventor Mr. Beasley. The train is stopped by men being chased by the handsome young marshal Thomas Saltre. When Saltre learns who Lena’s father is, he convinces her to spy on Mr. Beasley and the strange folk who disappear into his home, Zephyr House. A daring escape in an aerocopter leads Lena into the wilds of Scree to confront her deepest fears.

Towering, by Alex Flinn

Almost as far back as she can remember, Rachel has been locked in a tower for her protection. Her Mama tells her that she must stay hidden from the bad man who killed her mother and wants to kill her as well. However, lately Rachel has been having dreams of a mysterious man and as her hair grows longer, Rachel sings out her window and longs for someone to hear her and release her from her prison. Wyatt has been shipped to a tiny town in upstate New York for the rest of the school year and is living with a little old lady whose daughter used to be his mom's best friend. As he settles in, Wyatt starts hearing a haunting voice singing that no one else can hear, and when he investigates he finds a beautiful girl who has been locked in a tower for almost her entire life. The two of them team up and hope to free Rachel from her tower once and for all.

I absolutely love Alex Flinn's other fairy tale retellings. Beastly and A Kiss in Time are two of my favorite books ever, and I was very excited to read Towering. However, Towering had a very different feel to it than the others. Perhaps it was the the plot involving drug lords rather than princesses, but the overall tone of this novel was a lot darker than the others. This is only a negative point because I expected a colorful adventure like the ones in all the other books, but instead found this one a dull gray. The story was also told a bit too slowly, and I had to push myself to get through at least half the book before I actually wanted to open it up and devour it.

***SPOILERS AHEAD***
One problem I always had with the story of Rapunzel, especially the Disney version, is the Rapunzel has no problem killing the woman who raised her. Yes, she was evil and kept her locked up for all those years, but she never did her any physical harm and Rapunzel was taken away young enough to not remember anything better. Therefore, without taking into account the moral compass of the witch, Rapunzel killing the witch is not an act of a hero conquering a villain, but of someone turning her back on the woman who rose her. Rapunzel killing the witch may have turned out okay because the witch was evil, but imagining Rapunzel as pure and good is projecting the third-person perspective of the story onto Rapunzel, who doesn't know that the witch is evil until she falls for a stranger who climbs through her window and he tells her so. This monologue brings me to my point, which is that finally the captor is not the evil one. It was a relief to have the villain be someone else entirely with Mama being entirely innocent, and it let Rachel be a true heroine. 

3.6 stars
 
At first, I merely saw his face, his hands on the window ledge. Then, his whole body as he swung himself through the window. Only I could not see what he swung on.
Until, one day, I told my dream self to look down. And it was then that I saw. He had climbed on a rope. I knew without asking that the rope had been one of my own tying.
Rachel is trapped in a tower, held hostage by a woman she’s always called Mama. Her golden hair is growing rapidly, and to pass the time, she watches the snow fall and sings songs from her childhood, hoping someone, anyone, will hear her.

Wyatt needs time to reflect or, better yet, forget about what happened to his best friend, Tyler. That’s why he’s been shipped off to the Adirondacks in the dead of winter to live with the oldest lady in town. Either that, or no one he knows ever wants to see him again.

Dani disappeared seventeen years ago without a trace, but she left behind a journal that’s never been read, not even by her overbearing mother…until now.

The Locket, by Stacey Jay

On the worst night of her life, after her boyfriend finds out that she cheated on him and leaves her on the side of the road in the pouring rain, Katie wishes she had never kissed her best friend Mitch. When she opens her eyes, the locket she borrowed from her grandmother has transported her to an alternate universe, one where she has the chance to redo that fateful moment of betrayal. However, the magical world of redo isn't exactly like the world that Katie came from. There are some subtle and some not-so-subtle differences in this redone world, as well as consequences that Katie never counted on. At some point Katie has to ask herself, is it really worth turning back the clock?

The concept of turning back the clock and going to an alternate universe is not a new one for Stacey Jay, and kind of seemed like a book-long version of the end of Juliet Immortal. However, I did think that unlike Juliet Immortal, it was done incredibly well here, with all the tiny details lining up (or rather, not lining up) and the complicated topic not being squished into ten pages. I especially liked how she made the plot develop, with the events of the alternate universes getting progressively worse and worse. It kept the story moving, and was sufficient background for Katie to determine which boy she loved, as she was put into odder and odder situations with them.

I have only one complaint about this book. Katie got the locket from her grandmother, and based on the pictures in the locket it is assumed that Katie's grandmother used the locket to make everything turn out as they did in the universe Katie originated in. I just want to know what happened. I think that would make an amazing prequel, and it would provide a lot more insight into the mysterious titular villain of The Locket.

4.5 stars.

On her seventeenth birthday, Katie discovers a locket and decides to wear it for good luck. But when her boyfriend Isaac finds out she cheated on him - with their mutual best friend Mitch, no less - he dumps her, leaving her devastated.

And then a miracle happens. The locket burns on Katie's chest and she feels herself going back two weeks in time, to the night she cheated with Mitch. At first, Kate is delighted to be a better girlfriend to Isaac this time around. But as other aspects of her life become inexplicably altered, she realizes that changing the past may have had a dangerous effect on her present.

Can she make things right before the locket destroys everything - and everyone - she loves?

The Body Finder, by Kimberly Derting

Since she was little, Violet has been able to detect the corpses of murdered people and animals and connect them to their killers. This strange and disturbing talent goes much ignored for many years, until Violet finds a dead girl's body swimming with the fishes while Violet is at a beach party. Soon after, other girls start going missing, and while Violet is on the hunt for the serial killer with her police chief uncle, she knows that she herself can become a target as well. And of course, there's some romance going on between Violet and her best friend, Jay, but it's very corny and I'll get to that soon.

Even though I don't like mysteries, I did like the supernatural twist and I thought the plot was interesting. However, I also felt that the prose was a little too juvenile for me. I wasn't too impressed by the prose in The Pledge, but that book had so much plot that I wasn't disappointed by the immature prose. The sense of immaturity was only furthered by the simplicity of the romance. Violet suddenly has a crush on her best friend when he turns all hot, and when they get together (not a spoiler because totally inevitable) it happens in a snap with only a few pages of discomfort. Life doesn't happen that way, and the assumption that it does did not mesh well with the maturity of the serial killer plot.

I have no plans of reading the sequels to this book, but I will say that it is not a horrible book and I would recommend it to any young teenagers who love mysteries.

3.3 stars.

Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes that the dead leave behind in the world... and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find the dead birds her cat had tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer... and becoming his prey herself.

The Iron King, by Julie Kagawa (The Iron Fey #1)

When Meghan's little brother is kidnapped and replaced with an evil fairy child thingy, Meghan sets off to fairyland, called NeverNever, to rescue him. Upon arrival Meghan discovers that she is the long lost child of one of the rulers, and that finding her brother will be a lot more complicated than she expected. With the help of the mischievous Puck and the handsome prince Ash, Meghan faces an enemy unlike one that anyone in NeverNever had ever heard of before.

For some reason, I don't find YA fantasy about fairies nearly as satisfying as any about other sorts of fantastical creatures. This book didn't defy that expectation, but it was one of the better fairy books that I've read. It did have all the same annoying markings-a half mortal/half fairy main character, dark brooding handsome prince love interest, her long-lost father is king, rescuing a mortal loved one-but it didn't feel as overdone as most other fairy novels. Perhaps because in this book the fairy world had rules that made sense and were easy to follow, as opposed to the ones where random things happen and are explained afterwards.

Was it just me, or did the Ash romance happen too fast? One second they're mortal enemies, and the next they're true love. It happened so quickly that my initial thought was that he was pranking her or part of some elaborate scheme on his mother's part. He may very well might be though, because there are still more books left to the series.

4.0 stars

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined.

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth - that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

Sweet Peril, by Wendy Higgins (Sweet Evil #2)

After the tragic events of the Summit at the end of Sweet Evil, Anna Whitt knows that the Dukes mean business, and she also knows that they must be stopped once and for all. Together with her father, Belial, the duke of substance abuse (I know, it's a little far-fetched, but just go with it), who is not quite as evil as his fellow dukey counterparts, Anna is trying to recruit other Nephilim to her cause. Throughout Anna's junior and senior years of high school, Belial is doing research on which Neph are likely to betray their fathers, and sending Anna and Kopano, son of the duke of wrath (a lot more typical, thank goodness), to go fetch potential allies to their cause. As Anna and Kope start getting closer, Anna can't stop thinking about Kaiden (stupid name, but again, just go with it), son of the duke of lust, but Kaiden has been impossible to reach since the Summit in New York. Anna has to decide whether to settle with the good guy or hold out for the bad guy with the potential to make her heart explode. Gee, I wonder who she chooses.

Sweet Evil sucked me in with the idea of a good girl stuck on the bad side, but in Sweet Peril that idea seemed kind of old. I found it a lot more cliche and emotional than Sweet Evil, with a little too much complaining about Kaiden, but still very good. I got so annoyed with her pining for Kaiden that at some point I was transferred to Team Kope. Despite my complaints about Anna's lovesickness, the way that all the Neph's emotions were being toyed with and how they all twisted up into a giant spiderweb was very cool. A little overdone, but cool nonetheless. It made certain parts that would have been a lot more boring intriguing.

My last note will seem sort of odd, but I still think it's valid. The dukes are just too nasty. I know they are supposed to be demons/devils/really really bad fallen angels, but the nastiness of the evil ones is so extreme that it takes away any character from them and makes them simply bad things. The supreme level of evilness that they have risen to has taken away any semblance of personality they may have had and makes them characters who can solidly be relied on to be cruel and bad. I would have loved to see a soft side to several of the dukes who have been declared as purely evil, but I doubt that will happen.

4.2 stars

Anna Whitt, the daughter of a guardian angel and a demon, promised herself she’d never do the work of her father—polluting souls. She’d been naive to make such a vow. She’d been naive about a lot of things.

Haunted by demon whisperers, Anna does whatever she can to survive, even if it means embracing her dark side and earning an unwanted reputation as her school’s party girl. Her life has never looked more bleak. And all the while there’s Kaidan Rowe, son of the Duke of Lust, plaguing her heart and mind.

When an unexpected lost message from the angels surfaces, Anna finds herself traveling the globe with Kopano, son of Wrath, in an attempt to gain support of fellow Nephilim and give them hope for the first time. It soon becomes clear that whatever freedoms Anna and the rest of the Neph are hoping to win will not be gained without a fight. Until then, Anna and Kaidan must put aside the issues between them, overcome the steamiest of temptations yet, and face the ultimate question: is loving someone worth risking their life?

The Elite, by Kiera Cass (The Selection #2)

 America is faced with a choice. She can accept her prince's proposal and end the Selection, becoming princess of the realm, or she can run off with her first love Aspen and live the rest of her life away from all the political drama. As America is pulled in both directions, the Selection continues and Prince Maxon starts getting close to another one of his chosen few. When rebels attack repeatedly, America must look inside herself and determine what she really wants-why is she still here, and what is her destiny?

This book only took me 2 hours to read. I don't know if it was an easy read, or if I was so desperate to know what will happen next that I half-skimmed it, but I was done in 2 hours. I enjoyed learning the history of how the castes were formed and why they still exist because it gave the series more depth and explained some things I'd been wondering about, namely why there are castes at all. I have just realized the obvious redundancy in the previous sentence, but I refuse to change it, so I am very sorry if it bothers you.


SPOILERS AHEAD

I am 100% Team Maxon, and I was thrilled when America made her choice. I figured she would choose Maxon in the end, just because she didn't run off with Aspen as soon as he asked her to, but it was still nice to have confirmation. Not only do we know now who America will end up with (because there's going to be a happy ending after the third book, no doubt about it), we also know who the real villains are, which is a relief. The first book was wishy-washy about the rebels and who they are and what they want, but finally the truth has been revealed, that the antagonist of the novels are not the rebels, but the king himself. I should have predicted it, but his lack of presence in the first book just made me think that he would be killed off soon. Oh, well. I was wrong. Now we can move on to the third book with all the facts laid out-we know who America will end up with, and who they will have to defeat.
  
Also, I compared this book to The Hunger Games, and like Katniss, America chose her Peeta.

4.8 stars.

 
Thirty-five girls came to the palace to compete in the Selection. All but six have been sent home. And only one will get to marry Prince Maxon and be crowned princess of Illea.

America still isn’t sure where her heart lies. When she’s with Maxon, she’s swept up in their new and breathless romance, and can’t dream of being with anyone else. But whenever she sees Aspen standing guard around the palace, and is overcome with memories of the life they planned to share. With the group narrowed down to the Elite, the other girls are even more determined to win Maxon over—and time is running out for America to decide.

Just when America is sure she’s made her choice, a devastating loss makes her question everything again. And while she’s struggling to imagine her future, the violent rebels that are determined to overthrow the monarchy are growing stronger and their plans could destroy her chance at any kind of happy ending.