Review: One Past Midnight

ONE PAST MIDNIGHT
Jessica Shirvington
Paranormal-ish Young Adult
352 pages
Walker Children's/Bloomsbury
Available July 22nd
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Above all else, though I try not to think about it, I know which life I prefer. And every night when I Cinderella myself from one life to the next a very small, but definite, piece of me dies. The hardest part is that nothing about my situation has ever changed. There is no loophole.

Until now, that is...

For as long as she can remember, Sabine has lived two lives. Every 24 hours she Shifts to her ′other′ life - a life where she is exactly the same, but absolutely everything else is different: different family, different friends, different social expectations. In one life she has a sister, in the other she does not. In one life she′s a straight-A student with the perfect boyfriend, in the other she′s considered a reckless delinquent. Nothing about her situation has ever changed, until the day when she discovers a glitch: the arm she breaks in one life is perfectly fine in the other.

With this new knowledge, Sabine begins a series of increasingly risky experiments which bring her dangerously close to the life she′s always wanted... But just what - and who - is she really risking?

MY THOUGHTS
One Past Midnight is a story we enter into with not only enthusiasm but also a touch of wariness, knowing this is not the first book that features parallel lives or universes to make its way into our hands. So many times in these types of stories the focus is on the hows and whys of the world, and we ultimately spend our time trying to figure out which life the protagonist will choose for themselves in the end. While those same questions are present in One Past Midnight, they’re solidly in the periphery, the strength of Ms. Shirvington’s characters stealing all our attention from page one and holding on to it so thoroughly that we can’t worry about whether or not every aspect of our curiosity is sated by the time we reach the last page.

Sabine’s circumstances are a touch unusual in terms of parallel worlds in that she’s fully aware of both her lives; we don’t simply meet two separate versions of her and follow both of them thorough their respective days, instead she lives every single day twice – once with one family and once with another. She takes her memories from both lives with her when she shifts every night at midnight, and we meet her when she's finally reached a place where she’s figured out how to juggle the strangeness of her existence. 

What’s particularly interesting about this setup is the fact that while Sabine has two different roles to play depending on which life she’s currently living, we get to know her as both girls but yet also as neither, our relationship with her a unique one that exists in those quiet, empty spaces on either side of midnight as she reorients herself to her current world. We feel her fear; her unrelenting terror at the prospect of forever living out both of these lives while pieces of her true self are left behind in the life she’ll pick up again tomorrow, and as things progress, her desperation to find a way to exert some control over her situation becomes our own. 

Woven through her confusion and her desire to unburden the truth of her reality on a single soul is the type of romance that leaves an indelible mark, building so slowly that we thrum like live wires while reading, the anticipation of their emotional and physical intimacy a gorgeously addicting thing. Ms. Shirvington, as she proved with her Violet Eden series, has a gift for writing painful relationships; the love between her characters so beautifully visceral that it’s nearly impossible not to get caught up in them. The romance between Sabine and Ethan is absolutely no different, and when we reach the end, we find ourselves with tear tracks on our cheeks but a wobbly smile on our faces, thankful for the story we’ve just been treated to yet desperately in need of something adorably cute to help us recover. 

Overall, One Past Midnight should not be missed, the story not so much that of two parallel lives but rather of one remarkable girl and the unification of her self thanks to a split in her worlds.

Rating: 4.5/5 

Find Jessica:

Website • Blog • Facebook • Goodreads • Amazon

This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Review: Open Road Summer

OPEN ROAD SUMMER
Emery Lord
Contemporary Young Adult
342 pages
Walker Children's/Bloomsbury
Available Now
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
After breaking up with her bad-news boyfriend, Reagan O’Neill is ready to leave her rebellious ways behind. . . and her best friend, country superstar Lilah Montgomery, is nursing a broken heart of her own. Fortunately, Lilah’s 24-city tour is about to kick off, offering a perfect opportunity for a girls-only summer of break-up ballads and healing hearts. But when Matt Finch joins the tour as its opening act, his boy-next-door charm proves difficult for Reagan to resist, despite her vow to live a drama-free existence. This summer, Reagan and Lilah will navigate the ups and downs of fame and friendship as they come to see that giving your heart to the right person is always a risk worth taking.

MY THOUGHTS
Open Road Summer is a YA contemporary romance gem, putting on page characters who feel so real it seems as though if we were to reach out and run our fingers across the ink we’d find flesh instead. There’s drama and conflict to be sure, but none of it has the fabricated, over the top feel that reminds us we’re reading fiction, instead we’re given a glimpse at lives that are simultaneously similar and startlingly different from our own. Dee’s world is one of stardom and screaming fans, but with Reagan as our narrator we’re fully behind the scenes rather than in the spotlight, and in the darkness of backstage there is laughter, friendship, heartbreak and tears the limelight simply isn’t privy to.

Reagan is an extraordinarily interesting young woman in terms of the feelings she inspires, the girl she describes prior to the incident that landed her with a broken arm someone very difficult to like for her seemingly callous disregard for both herself and those around her. Old Regan (as she calls her pre-broken arm self) drank, cheated on boyfriends, and made poor decisions at every turn simply because she could, and if not for her dedication to studying hard in school and her unwavering loyalty to Dee we might not have found much of anything in Old Reagan to like. The Reagan we meet in the beginning of the story isn’t an entirely new person however, her somewhat inflated sense of self and the way she constantly draws attention to her looks aspects of her personality that try our patience, but the fact that we’re witnessing her mid-transformation makes this story all the more appealing.

Reagan’s growth is slow but sure, her road a rocky one that only smooths out after it’s been repeatedly walked, and as such we watch as Reagan stumbles along the way, making mistakes and learning from them in the most stunningly satisfying way possible. Her friendship and utter dedication to Dee are things of beauty, absent even an inkling of jealousy or resentment over her best friend’s success. Instead the two of them are simply young women learning life’s lessons the hard way, and finding in the other an immovable pillar of support when their own strength escapes them. Reagan’s friendship with Dee and her relationship with Matt are key elements to this story but they’re not the focus, rather they’re catalysts for the changes we see in Reagan as the summer progresses.

Overall, Open Road Summer is an absolute pleasure to read, the only small thing keeping it from a perfect rating being Reagan’s aforementioned high opinion of her own attractiveness, but about midway through the book the repeated emphasis on the way she looks starts to wane, allowing all her positive qualities (which are numerous) to really shine through. Ms. Lord splashes the pages of this book with the effervescent joy of young love and friendship while enriching both with the emotional turbulence that accompanies growing up, combining the various pieces into a striking whole that will be remembered long after the last page is turned.

Rating: 4.5/5

Find Emery:

Website • Twitter • Goodreads • Amazon

This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Review: The Assassin's Blade

THE ASSASSIN'S BLADE
Throne of Glass #0.1-0.5
Sarah J. Maas
Young Adult/Fantasy
448 pages
Bloomsbury
Available Now
Source: Finished copy from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Contains all five novellas.

Celaena Sardothien is Adarlan's most feared assassin. As part of the Assassin's Guild, her allegiance is to her master, Arobynn Hamel, yet Celaena listens to no one and trusts only her fellow killer-for-hire, Sam. In these action-packed novellas - together in one edition for the first time - Celaena embarks on five daring missions. They take her from remote islands to hostile deserts, where she fights to liberate slaves and seeks to avenge the tyrannous. But she is acting against Arobynn's orders and could suffer an unimaginable punishment for such treachery. Will Celaena ever be truly free? Explore the dark underworld of this kick-ass heroine to find out.

MY THOUGHTS
This review is going to be a touch different from my standard essay-style reviews (I can’t help it, the essay format was drilled into me in high school and college and it’s just how my reviews normally come out when I start typing!) because I need to preface this review with a confession. Throne of Glass, book one in this series, was a huge challenge for me. I didn’t care much for heroine and self-proclaimed badass assassin Celaena until the very end, mostly because there was a lot of talking about how amazingly deadly and how deserving of her reputation she was, but yet I saw no evidence of it on page. There were hints of past jobs done here and there, but for the most part Celaena seemed to have a high opinion of herself unsupported by action.

I was told by many that I really should have started with the prequel novellas before tackling Throne of Glass, but it seemed strange to me that I would need to start a series prior to book one in order to care for the main character. When the opportunity to review all five prequel novellas presented itself however, I thought it was more than time to give Celaena a second chance.

I couldn’t be happier I did. The young woman in the five novellas comprising The Assassin’s Blade is the Celaena I expected to find in Throne of Glass. The Celaena I'd been hoping for all along. She still has an undeniably inflated ego, but over the course of these stories it becomes clear she has a heart to match it in size, and she more than proves her ability to put her fists and her blades where her mouth is. She has moments where her young age gets the best of her and a perceived slight causes her to lash out with some unnecessarily sharp words, but she shows growth and maturity with each novella, and I repeatedly found myself with an evil grin on my face whenever someone made the mistake of underestimating her physically or mentally.

Each novella gets progressively darker, building up to something those who’ve read only the synopsis of Throne of Glass would pick up on through the notable absence of a certain character, but even knowing it was coming didn’t fully prepare me for the delivery of such a brutal blow. The cold young woman who seemed as though her ego could use a check or ten in Throne of Glass suddenly made much more sense; the loss she struggles with at the end of The Assassin’s Blade leaving her with her guilt and her former sterling reputation–dulled from its previous shine–wrapped tight around her like armor against the person who betrayed her. It’s with vengeance and a need for retribution to match Celaena’s own that I closed the back cover of The Assassin’s Blade, eagerly anticipating the moment when the man who cost her everything will inevitably find himself on the lethally right side of Celaena’s blades.

Rating: 4/5

Find Sarah:

Website • Facebook • Twitter • Goodreads • Amazon

This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

The Big Love Letter Event + Giveaway: A.C. Gaughen

It's week three of The Big Love Letter Event, a joint month-long feature hosted by Danny from Bewitched Bookworms and myself, and I hope you guys are having as much fun with these letters as we are. If you haven't yet had the chance, be sure and take a look at the letters from Wendy Higgins, Kasie West and Tiffany Schmidt posted over the past two weeks!

*A note about Danny's letter: She will be posting her letter from the amazing Gena Showalter tomorrow (Saturday, the 22nd), so be sure and check back at Bewitched Bookworms then because you won't want to miss this one!

I'm positively giddy today over the fact that I have author A.C. Gaughen stopping by the blog to share a letter between Rob and Scarlet, two of her extraordinary characters from a series that has quickly become one of my all-time favorites. I read Scarlet last year and I couldn't have loved it more if I tried, I was just in awe of Scarlet's strength and determination, and that love only deepened after reading Lady Thief.

There simply aren't enough positive things I can say about Scarlet herself, she's everything I could ever want in a heroine and I HIGHLY recommend these books to those who have yet to experience them. I'm going to keep this introduction short and sweet because the below letter from Rob truly speaks for itself, and I hope it affects all of you as profoundly as it did me! *starts sobbing*

My Scarlet—

I know the moment when I knew for sure that I loved you. 

It isn’t an easy thing, Scarlet. To know love when your heart is this untrusty object in your chest. My heart went cold and quiet when I was in the war, and I confess I didn’t care much what it had to say. My heart made everything more difficult. 

You, of course, were no exception. I shouldn’t expect anything to ever be easy with you.  My love—my hard-won love. 

It was our first winter together. We’d been living in the tree, and then it got cold, and we found the cave. Then the snow came, and the cave wasn’t warm enough. John never seemed bothered by it—why would he, he’s made in the image of a horse—but you shivered cold every night. You shivered so hard you rattled the hay, and I’d stay awake, listening to the sound, wondering what I was meant to do about it. I tried to leave warm things—cloaks, a blanket—near your pallet but you’d never touch them. I practiced, whispering to the night, what I might say to you—here, take my blanket. Here, you look cold. Or more likely, Just use the damn blanket, Scarlet. And each attempt I made in my mind you pulled away from me, horrified that I knew you were cold, mortified that somehow you’d let it slip that you might need something from anyone, and I stayed quiet, because I wanted anything but you farther away from me.

Which made me feel like a proper idiot, even in my mind.  More than that—a moony idiot. And an unchivalrous idiot, that I had no idea how to help you.  And a guilty idiot, that I’d dragged you all up to Nottinghamshire and never thought of the damn winter snows. 

But one night when the fire went out and the cold had gotten so bad your teeth were chattering, you were quiet as a mouse as you rolled out of bed and took one of your blankets with you. Silent and still like the thief you are you went over to Much—he was so small back then—and you put your blanket on him. 

And I realized he wasn’t just cold—he was so cold he wouldn’t last many more nights. And I got everyone up and took us to the monastery—thinking it would just be for the night—and they took us in for the winter. 

And I stayed up many more nights, waiting for Much to sleep better, waiting for his chest to clear of the cough he’d gotten, and hating myself with every breath. Hating you, because you’d made me blind. You had filled up so much of my heart I couldn’t see him anymore, and I hadn’t seen his suffering.

I know I was mean to you. Cruel at times—those where the times when I hated myself the most, and it was easy to tell my heart that it was only full of darkness, that any feelings it might offer would only bring pain about in the world. I didn’t know how to love you and have it mean something good. 

And now we’re back in the cave. In a few weeks you’ll begin to shiver and I’ll move us to the monastery, and instead of hating myself, I hate that gold band on your finger. I hate the man who put it there. I hate the dreams that haunt me at night, of every pain and betrayal my heart has seen, and I wonder, Scarlet, if I will ever be free to love you without hate in my heart.

I can’t promise you that. I’m too afraid I’d break that promise—but every day when your gaze catches mine and I remember that I’m the one you love, that your pure heart chose my dark one, you give me hope. 

And hope is all I need to live another day. 

- Rob

*sobbing intensifies*

Do you see why you must read this series now? YOU MUST! I think I just died a little inside reading that and knowing I have to wait a full year before I can find out how things end for the two of them.

*leaves to go eat large amounts of chocolate*

 • • • • • • • • • • 

LADY THIEF

Scarlet’s true identity has been revealed, but her future is uncertain. Her forced marriage to Lord Gisbourne threatens Robin and Scarlet’s love, and as the royal court descends upon Nottingham for the appointment of a new Sheriff, the people of Nottingham hope that Prince John will appoint their beloved Robin Hood. But Prince John has different plans for Nottingham that revolve around a fateful secret from Scarlet’s past even she isn’t yet aware of. Forced to participate at court alongside her ruthless husband, Scarlet must bide her time and act the part of a noblewoman—a worthy sacrifice if it means helping Robin’s cause and a chance at a future with the man she loves. With a fresh line of intrigue and as much passion as ever, the next chapter in Scarlet’s tale will have readers talking once again.

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N

• • • • • • • • • • • 

A.C. GAUGHEN

I’ve been madly in love with writing since I was in kindergarten. Not kidding–some of my earliest memories revolve around books and writing, like reading in front of the class, reading with my mother, and writing a story in first grade that was so funny (it dealt with a gorilla finding someone naked in the shower, and was, sadly, the culmination of my humor writing skills) it got me kicked out of class. Which was also the first and last time for that.
 

No that’s a lie. In third grade I got detention for ripping bark off a tree.
 

I know, I’m a rebel.
 

From there, it was a long road. I wrote all through middle school and starting submitting novels (I hope I still have those very kind, gentle rejection letters somewhere) when I was thirteen. ACK you have no idea how bad those novels looked. All through high school I was writing in a notebook instead of taking class notes (explaining the less than perfect GPA). It was always novels for me–the first time I seriously wrote short stories was at the end of my college career, to get into my graduate program, and it felt awkward and weird.
 

But I got in to grad school, wrote like a fiend, and when I graduated I spent three miserable years as a freelance writer while working on several different novels. I wrote them, prepped them, submitted them, and kept on working, because as far as I can tell, the actual writing is the only thing that I can control, and it’s the part that really makes me happy.

Website • Facebook • Twitter

• • • • • • • • • • • 

GIVEAWAY

Danny and I have an amazing giveaway to share with you all, one that will have 14 winners in total!

• Winners 1 and 2: Each will get a book of their choice from one of the authors featured during the event (open internationally as long as Book Depository ships to you!)
• Winner 3 : Signed Copy of Crash Into You by Katie McGarry (open US/CAN only) – Prize is provided by the author – A huge thank you to Katie!
• Winners 4- 14: Sweet Trilogy swag packs from Wendy Higgins (open internationally) - Prize is provided by the author – Thank you so much Wendy!

The giveaway will run until March 7th and you can enter via the Rafflecopter form below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to check back both here and at Bewitched Bookworms every Friday in February for more letters and a whole lot more love from these fantastic authors:

•      Wendy Higgins (Sweet Reckoning)

•      Katie McGarry (Crash Into You)

•      Kasie West (Split Second)

•      Sara B. Larson (Defy)

•      A.C. Gaughen (Lady Thief)

•      Tiffany Schmidt (Bright Before Sunrise)

•      Gena Showalter (The Queen of Zombie Hearts)

•      Nichole Chase (Recklessly Royal)

•      Lorraine Heath (When the Duke Was Wicked)

•      Lynne Matson (Nil)

•      Danielle Paige (Dorothy Must Die)

Review: Lady Thief

LADY THIEF
Scarlet #2
A.C. Gaughen
Historical Young Adult
304 pages
Bloomsbury/Walker Childrens
Available Now
Source: eARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Scarlet’s true identity has been revealed, but her future is uncertain. Her forced marriage to Lord Gisbourne threatens Robin and Scarlet’s love, and as the royal court descends upon Nottingham for the appointment of a new Sheriff, the people of Nottingham hope that Prince John will appoint their beloved Robin Hood. But Prince John has different plans for Nottingham that revolve around a fateful secret from Scarlet’s past even she isn’t yet aware of. Forced to participate at court alongside her ruthless husband, Scarlet must bide her time and act the part of a noblewoman—a worthy sacrifice if it means helping Robin’s cause and a chance at a future with the man she loves. With a fresh line of intrigue and as much passion as ever, the next chapter in Scarlet’s tale will have readers talking once again.

MY THOUGHTS
Lady Thief is a story we enter into with armor securely in place, fleeting memories of Scarlet reminding us how difficult life for our young heroine can be, but our preparation fails completely and utterly in the face of Gisbourne’s return, pain meticulously finding every crack and chink in our emotional plating to leave us bruised, battered and broken. While what Scarlet goes through is undeniably hard to read, what’s perhaps the more bitter pill to swallow is the way this story ruthlessly highlights the dichotomous nature of hope, detailing it in all its beauty as a balm on the severest of wounds while at the same time showing us again and again how it can be the most brutal tormentor of all. Scarlet’s unshakeable hope, to her credit or detriment, guides her in every avenue of this story; hope that someone’s word is their bond despite all evidence to the contrary, hope that each day is her darkest moment so the next can therefore only be better, and hope that in a world where power belongs to the cruel love can somehow find a way to flourish.

Scarlet is someone we can’t help but feel proud to know despite the fact that she’s a fictional character, her unrelenting strength of will in the face of meaty fists and dull blades something that snaps our own spines rigidly straight in solidarity. Where we would likely rage against our abusers–tears and screams escaping unbidden–she remains outwardly stoic, refusing to give those who hurt her even a moment of satisfaction. It’s not to say she doesn’t fight back physically when attacked, because she more than once proves how her time as a thief has earned her a unique set of self-defense skills, and for every knee she lands in a sensitive place and every verbal blow she delivers the smile on our faces grows wider even though we know the price for her actions will be high.

She refuses to be cowed, head always held high despite the bruises and scars that mar her features, but she thankfully never reaches that place where she goes numb–blocking out everything, including us as readers–in an attempt to protect herself the only way she knows how. Instead she fights at every turn, but we are also granted quiet moments with her where the tears flow and her strength finally wanes, and it’s these moments that are the hardest to bear because we know her loyalty and her hope that a better life simply has to be possible will send her back to those who have brought her so low. Her brief interludes with an equally tormented Rob are a beautiful kind of torture, the love the two of them share poignant and enviable, tiny pin pricks of light in an expansive sea of darkness.

Ms. Gaughen pulls absolutely no punches in this second installment, forcing us to accompany Scarlet and Rob to a place where even the staunchest of believers will have their faith shaken, but their shared inability to give up imbues us with the strength we need to carry on with them, even to a very bitter end. We’re left with the two sides of hope clearer and more distinct than they have ever been before, soothing our hurts as we find comfort in anger and the promise of retribution while at the same time taunting us with the bloody ramifications of past hope gone terribly wrong.

Rating: 4.5/5

*Be sure and check back here on Friday as Annie is part of the Big Love Letter Event and is going to share a gut-wrenching letter from Rob to Scarlet!

Find Annie:

Website • Facebook • Twitter • Goodreads • Amazon

This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Waiting on Wednesday: Lady Thief

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking The Spine and is a fun way to see what books other bloggers just can't wait to get their hands on!

LADY THIEF

Scarlet #2

A.C. Gaughen

Young Adult/Fantasy-ish

Releases February 11th from Walker Childrens

From Goodreads:

Scarlet’s true identity has been revealed, but her future is uncertain. Her forced marriage to Lord Gisbourne threatens Robin and Scarlet’s love, and as the royal court descends upon Nottingham for the appointment of a new Sheriff, the people of Nottingham hope that Prince John will appoint their beloved Robin Hood. But Prince John has different plans for Nottingham that revolve around a fateful secret from Scarlet’s past even she isn’t yet aware of. Forced to participate at court alongside her ruthless husband, Scarlet must bide her time and act the part of a noblewoman—a worthy sacrifice if it means helping Robin’s cause and a chance at a future with the man she loves. With a fresh line of intrigue and as much passion as ever, the next chapter in Scarlet’s tale will have readers talking once again.

So. I read Scarlet earlier in the year thinking it would just be a quick, fun read that played around with the Robin Hood myth and replaced the Will Scarlet character with a woman. Wrong. While it of course did do those things, it also unexpectedly–and delightfully–ended up being so much more. I fell madly in love with Scarlet and Rob (you can read my full review here), and I may or may not have done a spastic happy dance when I learned there would be more books in this series. The first book conceivably could have been left as a standalone, but these characters have legs galore and I can't wait to see where they take me in this installment!