Review: Night Beach

NIGHT BEACH

Kirsty Eagar
Paranormal Young Adult
324 pages
Penguin Books Australia
Available Now (limited release)
Received from author for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)

Imagine there is someone you like so much that just thinking about them leaves you desperate and reckless. You crave them in a way that's not rational, not right, and you're becoming somebody you don't recognise, and certainly don't respect, but you don't even care.

And this person you like is unattainable. Except for one thing...

He lives downstairs.

Abbie has three obsessions. Art. The ocean. And Kane.

But since Kane's been back, he's changed. There's a darkness shadowing him that only Abbie can see. And it wants her in its world.

MY THOUGHTS

Night Beach is a story of infinite complexity – easily inviting readers into a life riddled with emotional holes in the shape of a mother and a longtime crush, and enveloping us in a world we can practically touch while captivating us with a heroine whose every emotion reverberates through us. One of the joys of reading Ms. Eagar’s work is meeting her characters, young women and men who are so gloriously real the paper pages fall away and we find ourselves watching the lives of friends unfold before us, their problems often heartbreaking in a way that doesn’t necessarily inspire tears, but rather creates a soul-deep ache we feel more completely than we do salty drops on our cheeks. Night Beach is not quite as emotional as Raw Blue, but it has the same quiet intensity to it, tendrils of supernatural activity winding their way through an otherwise contemporary tale to create a lingering sense of unease, our minds forever questioning whether or not we believe what Abbie is seeing.

One of the most intriguing aspects of Ms. Eagar’s characters is the way they’re put together – small tidbits of who they are fed to us slowly, but so often vital slivers of information are merely hinted at, allowing us the opportunity to infer certain things about them so that we feel as though we’ve earned a piece of them for ourselves to hold close and treasure. The defining attributes of Abbie as a person are never simply told to us, instead we learn about her as we see her react to specific situations and people, her thoughts and actions beginning to paint a picture while still letting us fill in some of Abbie’s blanks with colors of our own. Abbie, like the rest of us, is a myriad of strengths and flaws melded together, her obsession with Kane something she recognizes as ultimately unhealthy, but yet something she craves nonetheless. Normally, as an outside observer, it would be easy for us to want to throttle Abbie for not seeing the situation clearly, but because we feel so connected to her, the tangled emotional mess Kane creates in her echoes through us, and we struggle as she does to separate what’s real, what’s wishful thinking, and what’s outside the realm of possibility.

Kane is highly enigmatic, someone who we desperately want to be the young man Abbie sees when she looks at him, but throughout the story she and we as readers are forced to open our eyes and really look at him, watching as the shape he holds in our minds alters and shifts for reasons both normal and paranormal. It’s the combination of normal and paranormal with regard to Kane that makes this story so eerily fascinating, forcing us to wonder which parts of him are the true Kane and which parts a result of something sinister and otherworldly, and Ms. Eagar dazzles us with her ability to beautifully blur everything about him to the point we’re not sure we’ll ever be able to solve the mystery of who he is. He’s fantasy and nightmare in one, seducing and haunting us at the same time with his tortured state until we’re convinced he’s nothing more than smoke and mirrors, disappearing through our fingers the minute we reach out to grab him.

Overall, Night Beach is another strong addition to Ms. Eagar’s already impressive resume, a slow story that bends reality’s parameters and tests our ability to believe in the rational explanation.

Rating: 4/5

Guest Post: Kate Evangelista + Taste

Today I'm pleased to welcome author Kate Evangelista to the blog to talk a little bit about one of her favorite characters from her paranormal young adult novel Taste. After reading this post, I have to say I'm a fan of Luka's even though I haven't "met" him yet, and I can't wait to learn more about him in Taste!

A DATE WITH LUKA

As the title of this post already indicates, I’m here today to discuss a little bit about one of my favorite characters ever. Luka Visraya has always fascinated me from day one. During the beginnings of Taste, I wasn’t quite sure if he was the villain or not. He certainly acted like one during earlier drafts, but as I got to know him better, he became more playful. I like playful Luka more than villain Luka.

I believe that Luka is one of the more complex characters I have in my head. He grew up feeling he isn’t fit for the responsibilities given to him, as you will see a lot of when you read Taste. He has issues with his father, and I think that’s why I want to give him a hug half the time. I’m drawn to his melancholy nature. The scene where he is sitting on a bench in the dead of winter staring up at the moon is one of my favorites.

Another reason why I appreciate Luka more than any other character, especially Demitri, is because he’s more relaxed where Demitri is more controlling. Now, there’s nothing wrong with a take charge character, and Luka can certainly lead with the best of them, but he’s less rigid about taking charge. He allows situations to happen within reason and takes things in stride.

I’ve always been asked: if I were to go on a date with one of my characters from Taste, who would it be? I guess, at this point, it’s pretty obvious. Luka would be a more fun date. He can be protective the way Demitri is, but less overbearing. I love the way Luka gives Phoenix her freedom and allows her to explore and satisfy her curiosity without really putting her in any danger.

Many have been asking me if I will write a sequel to Taste. My answer to that right now is that Taste is a stand alone. But if I ever entertain thoughts of a second novel, I think I would focus more on Luka. I want to see where else his character can go.

Thank you so much for hanging out with me today. It’s been a pleasure taking the time to reveal a little bit about my favorite character with all of you. If you haven’t grabbed your copy of Taste yet, please do so. I dare you to break curfew!

Thanks so much for taking the time to be here Kate! More information on Kate and Taste can be found here:

Website
Goodreads
Twitter
Facebook
Amazon Buy Link

TASTE (from Goodreads)

At Barinkoff Academy, there's only one rule: no students on campus after curfew. Phoenix McKay soon finds out why when she is left behind at sunset. A group calling themselves night students threaten to taste her flesh until she is saved by a mysterious, alluring boy. With his pale skin, dark eyes, and mesmerizing voice, Demitri is both irresistible and impenetrable. He warns her to stay away from his dangerous world of flesh eaters. Unfortunately, the gorgeous and playful Luka has other plans. 

When Phoenix is caught between her physical and her emotional attraction, she becomes the keeper of a deadly secret that will rock the foundations of an ancient civilization living beneath Barinkoff Academy. Phoenix doesn't realize until it is too late that the closer she gets to both Demitri and Luka the more she is plunging them all into a centuries old feud.

Review: Last Rite

LAST RITE 

(Personal Demons #3)

Lisa Desrochers
Paranormal Young Adult
365 pages
Tor Teen
Available Now
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)

In this final installment of the thrilling, edgy Personal Demons series, the battle between Heaven and Hell has become critical, and Frannie Cavanaugh is right at the center of it.

With the help of the powerful angel Gabe and demon-turned-mortal Luc, Frannie has been able to stay one step ahead of the forces of Hell. But when the demons killed Frannie's best friend and destroyed her brother, they raised the stakes. If Frannie wants to keep her family and friends safe, she knows she has no choice but to go on the run.

Their best defense is the power Frannie has been struggling to master, but her attempts to hone her skill go horribly awry. If Frannie doesn't learn fast, the consequences could be devastating--even apocalyptic.

What happens when you can't outrun Hell...or trust the ones you love?

MY THOUGHTS

Last Rite picks up immediately following the events of Original Sin, sparing us barely a moment to take a deep breath before we’re launched into the middle of the ongoing battle between Heaven and Hell. Those who may be a little foggy on the details of book two may want to consider rereading the concluding chapters at the very least, as Ms. Desrochers spends very little time reintroducing characters and events, instead focusing on moving things forward at a lightning-quick speed that leaves us floundering a bit to catch up. The extremely quick pace stems not simply from physical action, but from constant emotional upheaval as well, things with both Gabe and Luc on extraordinarily unstable ground that proves only to get rockier as Frannie’s predicament becomes more dire, and though we may stumble at times when temporary confusion plagues us, we can’t deny being riveted to the pages wondering how things will play out.

Frannie has been a young woman with whom our relationship is at times strained, her extreme waffling between Luc and Gabe in book one having us questioning whether she’ll be a character we can really come to know and fully support, but throughout the series she does exhibit a gradual growth. That is not to say that her actions in this final installment are the epitome of logical and rational, because it’s often quite the opposite, however her reasoning is far less hormonal in nature and more emotional in this final installment, and we can feel how the scope of the task laid at her feet forces her into sometimes impulsive—but understandable—action.

As mentioned in previous reviews for this series, Frannie’s story has a soap-opera quality to it, events and character relationships extremely dramatic – perhaps too dramatic for some readers – but for all that we may groan at the rather epic love triangle, Ms. Desrochers does still manage to draw us deeply into this story and have us invested in its outcome. In Last Rite, all three protagonists are swaddled tightly in guilt over the events of the previous book, each of them wallowing separately in repetitive recitations of “it’s my fault” without ever giving voice to their feelings and sharing the burden with the other two. At times, the combined weight of their despair can be a bit overwhelming, but before we're able to don our festive hats at their pity party, Ms. Desrochers yanks us all from our despondent musings and forces us into action.

Last Rite is nothing short of a thrilling conclusion, life and death on the line in almost every chapter as Frannie, Luc, and Gabe frantically search for Lucifer’s weakness and a way to exploit it. Readers who have enjoyed the previous two books and enter into this one knowing the angst will be high, the logical decision making low, and the romance split between angel and demon will no doubt find themselves with nails bitten down to nubs from stress but a smile on their faces by the end.

Rating: 4/5

Review: The Last Princess

THE LAST PRINCESS

Galaxy Craze
Young Adult/Dystopian
295 pages
Poppy
Available Now
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)

Happily ever after is a thing of the past.

A series of natural disasters has decimated the earth. Cut off from the rest of the world, England is a dark place. The sun rarely shines, food is scarce, and groups of criminals roam the woods, searching for prey. The people are growing restless.

When a ruthless revolutionary sets out to overthrow the crown, he makes the royal family his first target. Blood is shed in Buckingham Palace, and only sixteen-year old Princess Eliza manages to escape. Determined to kill the man who destroyed her family, Eliza joins the enemy forces in disguise. She has nothing left to live for but revenge, until she meets someone who helps her remember how to hope-and love-once more.

Now she must risk everything to ensure that she does not become . . .

The Last Princess.

MY THOUGHTS

The Last Princess is a darker tale, presenting us with a futuristic London ravaged by seventeen days of unexplainable natural disasters to render it a barren wasteland plagued by poverty, unrest, and even cannibalism. However, in the middle of the ash and the rot stands the still beautiful Buckingham Palace, home to the Windsor royal family and symbol to those ruled by greed of what they crave most. Eliza’s story begins with tragedy, causing us to hit the ground running from the prologue and granting us not a moment’s breath until we reach the last page of the epilogue, swept up in a tidal wave of death, rebellion, and change as the royal family’s bountiful tables disappear and their beautiful fabrics turn to threadbare rags.

Eliza is a young woman who has our sympathy from the first page, watching through her eyes as her mother breathes her last breath after a successful assassination attempt, and she remains a young woman we root for throughout. Though we certainly care for her–the abrupt separation from her family bringing out our protective instincts–a connection to her remains purely superficial, our desire to see her reap her vengeance one we could attribute to any heroine experiencing the loss Eliza suffers rather than being a unique and poignant thread connecting us to Eliza herself.

Our reaction to the plot is similar to our more shallow relationship with Eliza, events extremely engaging but we seem to bounce from one situation to the next before we’ve really had time to emotionally invest and sink our fingers into the dark nuances of this story. Reading this first installment is a bit like jogging through an art museum; we’re able to cast quick, appreciative glances at the beauty or the pain depicted, but we miss out on all the exquisite intricacies we’d otherwise notice if we could take the time to stop and look. There’s so much potential in this story, the horror of Eliza’s situation right in front of us waiting to stampede across our hearts in shoes with spiked soles, but things move so quickly the grit doesn’t have time to settle, the wind caused by our rapid movement sweeping it off before that critical layer can build.

Overall, The Last Princess is an extremely quick read that’s easily consumed in a single sitting, we just can’t help but wish we were allowed to linger in a few places before we’re forced to move on with Eliza. So little information is provided with regard to the sudden rise to power of the man responsible for the queen’s death years prior, his army suddenly appearing thousands strong with little warning that trouble was even brewing to such a degree. Additionally, there are random “sun balls” that fall from the sky in this post-apocalyptic world, leftover remnants of the Seventeen Days, but they play such a minor role that we have to question the necessity of their presence at all. All the pieces that makeup The Last Princess are fascinating, and because they are so, we naturally want to know more about them only to find ourselves denied at every turn. Despite those flaws however, hope is ever present that book two will bring us the grittiness we seek, and give us those few extra moments to linger in Eliza's shoes.

Rating: 3/5

Review: Wicked Nights

WICKED NIGHTS (Angels of the Dark #1)

Gena Showalter
Adult Paranormal Romance
411 Pages
Harlequin
Available Now
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)

Leader of the most powerful army in the heavens, Zacharel has been deemed nearly too dangerous, too ruthless--and if he isn't careful, he'll lose his wings. But this warrior with a heart of ice will not be deterred from his missions at any cost...until a vulnerable human tempts him with a carnal pleasure he's never known before.

Accused of a crime she did not commit, Annabelle Miller has spent four years in an institution for the criminally insane. Demons track her every move, and their king will stop at nothing to have her. Zacharel is her only hope for survival, but is the brutal angel with a touch as hot as hell her salvation--or her ultimate damnation?

MY THOUGHTS
With Wicked Nights, Ms. Showalter introduces us to an entirely new cast of deliciously sexy and damaged souls, seamlessly transitioning us from the Lords of the Underworld and their demons to the Angels of the Dark through Zacharel, the beautifully cold angel sent to assist the Lords in their last several adventures. Though the Lords are keepers of the most challenging and problematic of demons, Zacharel and his army of angels all teetering on the brink of falling are equally tortured, the darkness forced upon them by life, fate, and circumstance a captivating contrast to their purpose in the heavens. Though some of the trademark humor so cherished in the witty banter between the both the Lords and their women is missing in this first installment between Zacharel and his men, Ms. Showalter succeeds yet again in creating characters whose lives we can’t wait to share and whose histories we’re desperate to learn.

Given the time we’ve spent with Zacharel as he’s aided the Lords, our affection for him is strong from the onset, our anticipation to discover all the secrets of this angel from whose wings snowflakes continuously fall incredibly high before we even read the first page. Though a connection to him is easily established, the connection he forms to heroine Annabelle doesn’t feel quite as strong as we'd hoped when we cracked the spine. After the tragic death of his beloved brother, Zacharel has had no interest in forming attachments to anyone else, shunning even the temporary contact of an intimate relationship with a woman so many of those under his command embrace, instead choosing to remain hard and seemingly heartless in his single-minded pursuit to destroy demons without a care for the human collateral damage he leaves in his wake.

Based on what we know of him and his emotional detachment, the speed with which he softens and thaws for Annabelle seems just a touch questionable. For a man who’s never even so much as experienced a hint of desire, it’s hard to fully believe in his sudden need to touch, taste, and fully possess Annabelle, to the extent that he can barely focus on anything else. Anna, for her part, is incredibly strong in mind and body, surviving unimaginable things during her incarceration in a mental facility with her sanity intact to emerge wounded but healing. She can at times seem very young though, some of her witty retorts slung in Zacharel’s direction just making the distance between them both in age as well species (as she’s human) feel far more significant that it might have otherwise.

While the romance between Zacharel and Annabelle is perhaps not as strong as some of the combustible partnerships we’ve been gifted with from Ms. Showalter in the past, the cast of secondary characters she brings to this new angelic table is as intriguing as ever. Sometimes, a shift in a story from one character’s journey to the next can be frustrating (particularly in a romance) as our desire to get back to the main couple outweighs our interest in following lesser characters, however, that is certainly not the case with the Lords of the Underworld or now the Angels of the Dark, the few of Zacharel’s army to whom we’re introduced in this first book laying claim to our hearts nearly instantaneously. Thane, Xerxes, and Bjorn hold particular interest, their shared brutal pasts only hinted at in between our moments with Zacharel and Anna, but though our time with them is brief, it’s more than enough to trigger a countdown to when we might finally be granted access to their full stories.

Rating: 3.5/5

Review: Team Human

TEAM HUMAN

Justine Larbalestier &
Sarah Rees Brennan
Paranormal Young Adult
344 Pages
HarperTeen
Available Now
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)

Just because Mel lives in New Whitby, a city founded by vampires, doesn't mean she knows any of the blood-drinking undead personally. They stay in their part of town; she says in hers. Until the day a vampire shows up at her high school. Worse yet, her best friend, Cathy, seems to be falling in love with him. It's up to Mel to save Cathy from a mistake she might regret for all eternity

On top of trying to help Cathy (whether she wants it or not), Mel is investigating a mysterious disappearance for another friend and discovering the attractions of a certain vampire wannabe. Combine all this with a cranky vampire cop, a number of unlikely romantic entanglements, and the occasional zombie, and soon Mel is hip-deep in an adventure that is equal parts hilarious and touching.

MY THOUGHTS

Light and laugh out loud funny, Team Human entertains with a snarky protagonist who finds it nearly impossible to keep from insinuating herself into the personal business of her closest friends. To her credit, some friends ask her to wade into the middle of their joys and troubles, needing Mel’s special brand of problem solving to get them back on track, but other times she jumps right in sans express invitation and makes a concentrated effort to ensure her opinion is heard. While we spend a great deal of time snorting at Mel’s quick wit and snappy retorts, we also quickly find ourselves embroiled in a supernatural mystery, one that nicely offsets the some of Mel’s humorous moments of ridiculousness to give us a tale that has more layers than we might have expected.

Mel will most likely not be a heroine for everyone, her sarcasm laid on thick and extremely prominent throughout, but for those who appreciate a dry sense of humor she will be a joy to spend three hundred and fifty pages with. She’s positively appalled at her best friend Cathy’s reaction to the new vampire in school, and we can’t help but appreciate that this is not a falling-in-love-with-the-hot-new-student type of story, but rather the type of story that pokes a little fun at that common trope and gives us a main character who unabashedly and bluntly says all the things that run through our minds when we stumble across a character who behaves as Cathy does. Mel is often horrified by Cathy and Francis’s relationship, their instant love connection something, much to our delight, she vehemently denounces and mocks whenever possible.

While Team Human could have easily been a campy spoof of a story, Ms. Larbalestier and Ms. Brennan rein Mel in just enough to keep her from being a caricature, and add several subtle nuances to the plot and secondary characters to elicit from us unexpected emotion. As things get more complicated for Mel and her friends, the more serious nature of the overall mystery as well as Cathy’s plans for the future slowly start to push to the forefront to remind us there’s much to anticipate beyond the next quip. The humor never completely fades however, staying strong throughout as Mel finds someone to match her sly remark for sly remark in Kit, a young man raised by vampires who knows absolutely nothing about human beings.

Beneath the humor, Team Human does a beautiful job of outlining all the pros and cons of being human and being vampire, keeping us laughing even as we’re forced to acknowledge monsters can exist in both forms. Mel’s attitude can be a bit much at times, but she often recognizes this flaw in herself–even at one point wishing she could punch herself in the face–and the pages fly by as we’re caught up in paranormal happenings and human emotion. For those interested in a slightly different vampire tale, Team Human is quick and satisfying, leaving us with a smile and a laugh as we flip back through the pages and take note of all the snarky retorts we’ve highlighted.

Rating: 4/5