Royal Bastards (Shelf Control #8)

August 21, 2018August 14, 2018 / My Childhood Bookshelf / Leave a comment

Title: Royal Bastards
By: Andrew Shvarts
Published: May 2017
Target: Young Adult

Synopsis (via Goodreads): Being a bastard blows. Tilla would know. Her father, Lord Kent of the Western Province, loved her as a child, but cast her aside as soon as he had trueborn children.

At sixteen, Tilla spends her days exploring long-forgotten tunnels beneath the castle with her stablehand half brother, Jax, and her nights drinking with the servants, passing out on Jax’s floor while her castle bedroom collects dust. Tilla secretly longs to sit by her father’s side, resplendent in a sparkling gown, enjoying feasts with the rest of the family. Instead, she sits with the other bastards, like Miles of House Hampstedt, an awkward scholar who’s been in love with Tilla since they were children.

Then, at a feast honoring the visiting princess Lyriana, the royal shocks everyone by choosing to sit at the Bastards’ Table. Before she knows it, Tilla is leading the sheltered princess on a late-night escapade. Along with Jax, Miles, and fellow bastard Zell, a Zitochi warrior from the north, they stumble upon a crime they were never meant to witness.

How I got it: Free on Bookbub! Again, maybe time to limit the Bookbub browsing.

When I got it: August 2017

Why I want to read it: I think it’s the idea of the outsiders being the heroes and the main characters in this novel are definitely outsiders. I have always cheered for the underdog and this story is about a time when birthright mattered. There’s something about marriage making things legitimate that is so foreign in our modern world that exploring the whys of it has always been fascinating to me. A child’s life was so different back then through no fault of their own. I’m also interested to read the legitimate vs. illegitimate dynamics.

Love at First Site? Sigh…

July 31, 2018July 29, 2018 / My Childhood Bookshelf / Leave a comment

Continuing to chip away at my Shelf Control pile. Read this one in a day.

See my Shelf Control post for the summary.

Why I (sort of) recommend it:

So I was quite eager to read this book as it sounded like it was along the same lines as Ready Player One and Silence of the Six, both books I enjoyed immensely. I should have approached with caution though, as Warcross features a female lead and experience has taught me that a female lead in a YA book (regardless of genre) means romance of some sort. I don’t dislike all romantic elements but they have to be well done and not gratuitous as so often happens. I find authors tend to rush any elements of romance and thus it feels forced and thrown together. That’s what happened with Warcross. I liked Emika and Hideo and given time and attention their relationship might have worked for me, but I never understood how an international Japanese billionaire would fall instantly for a street rat nobody from the US. It was never explained. Hideo was known as a very private man and one of the first rules of meeting him was not to ask about his family. Yet in no time at all he’s introducing Emika to his parents and talking about his brother. Lu also did not take the time to establish and build Emika’s connection with her teammates either. They too took instantly to Emika.

The world of the Warcross game was vivid and very enjoyable, and the imminent threat to Hideo kept me reading. I was especially curious about Zero and was sure I knew who he was. Turned out I was wrong but somehow I still think my guy is involved in the conspiracy.

This book should have been told in two or even three novels. There’s enough material there and I would love to have seen the relationships and characters more drawn out and developed. There’s nothing like a slow burn to make the out come far more satisfying.

My final beef with this book is that it ended at 89% on my Kobo. There I am, thinking I still have 10% to read and expecting a wrap up when boom, no ending at all. The final 10% of the “book” is an excerpt from Legend. Why that is needed I don’t know? I felt cheated.

Not sure if I’m going to seek out the second book or not. Seems to be a trend for me with Marie Lu books. I loved Legend but never finished the trilogy and Young Elites has been awaiting me for ages. The sequel to Warcross (Wildcard) comes out soon though, so I may give it a go.

Rating: Three stars

Suitable for teens. I would advise caution as there’s quite a bit of violence and some fade to black sex.

The Raven Boys

January 23, 2018January 13, 2018 / My Childhood Bookshelf / Leave a comment

Summary (from Goodreads): Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her. His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Gansey is different. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been told by her psychic family that she will kill her true love. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

Why I recommend it:

This book was recommended by one of my students, and as I tend to enjoy the same things she does, I dove in. Well, I finished the first three books in a week and took my time with book four because I didn’t want the series to be over.

Why do I recommend it? Character, character, character! I rarely like female leads but I really liked Blue. And the boys were individual and well-drawn. I couldn’t decide from one page to the next who I liked more. It’s fast paced and beautifully written. The first book starts slowly but stick with it; its definitely worth it.

Suitable for ages 14 and above. Ask your parents if you’re younger.

Down in Sweet Valley

January 5, 2018January 1, 2018 / My Childhood Bookshelf / Leave a comment

A little while ago I posted about my Romance phase, a time when I was reading a book every two days, Harlequin, Silouette, everything I could get my hands on. It was during this time I latched onto Jessica and Elizabeth, the Wakefield Twins of Sweet Valley fame. Jessica and Liz are the sixteen year old, blond, blue-eyed Californians at the centre of Francine Pascal’s Sweet Valley High series, a teen soap opera in the basest of terms. Now that I think back on that time, it’s not surprising that I became hooked on the twin’s story, as I was also hooked on the daytime TV soaps (Guiding Light, As the World Turns, Another World).

In typical twin fashion, Liz is the studious good girl and Jessica is the good times- bad girl. Liz is always getting Jess out of trouble as she flits from boy to boy determined to maintain her popularity. Of course I related to Liz, studious good girl who lives vicariously through her sister (in my case it was my social butterfly brother). There was the hot older brother (tall, dark and handsome of course), the mousy best friend (Enid), the rich bitch (Lila) and the sporty faithful boyfriend (Todd) going through teen angst together. So much fun.

When I started the series, I had no idea what I was in for. I bought every one that came out and devoured them the same day, but it wasn’t long before the pace of release entered what I like to call The James Patterson realm; every time I turned around there was another one. They were breeding at an alarming rate and establishing new species (aka series) as they went.

Soon there was Sweet Valley Senior Year, Sweet Valley Kids, Sweet Valley Twins, Sweet Valley Junior Year not to mention Thrillers and Special Editions. I couldn’t understand how Pascal managed to churn out so many books so quickly. Little did I know she was another Caroline Keene. Just as the Nancy Drew “author” was really a series of ghostwriters, so was Francine Pascal. I think she conceived the original ideas then turned them over to an army of writers. I couldn’t keep up and at around book 50 threw in the towel. I did keep buying the thrillers and special editions but even those got to be too much. For a while I followed Sweet Valley University because I wanted to see what they were up to as adults but lost interest around the same time I lost interest in the main series

Apparently there are a couple of books that are set when the twins are out of school (Sweet Valley Confidential and The Sweet Life) but I haven’t read them. Oh, and manga versions of course! I had no idea that the series kept going for 20 years, finally ending with a total of 603 books. (I’m not going near the four season TV show!)

Unlike most of my childhood book loves, I have never reread any of the Sweet Valley books. Might be interesting to see how well the series has held up over time. Even more interesting to see how my cynical self would find them now. Seems others had the same thought. There are many blogs out there recapping/rereading/reviewing the series. You really must check out the fantastically funny Snark Valley, and MentalFloss’ list of the most crazy plotlines, all of which happened after I stopped reading and prove that I made a good decision.

Still a big chunk of my teen years and very representative, in my humble opinion, of the American 80’s “ideal”.

So, any favourite memories of the Sweet Valley books? Favourite characters or plotlines? Who did you identify with? Leave a comment and tell me who was your guilty crush and I may just tell you mine J

First Love

August 26, 2017 / My Childhood Bookshelf / 2 Comments

So let’s see, there was my horsey phase and my search for cat books. Both of these phases were defined as me reading every book I could get my hands on with the sought after theme. As I moved into my teen years, I followed the seemingly common trend of moving into the Romance phase. I get the feeling that the phase begins much earlier chronologically now than it did when I was young, still I was about 11 or 12 when I discovered Harlequin category romances. You remember, the sweet ones. When it was all about the relationship, the “spark” and the “longing”. The heroines were always virgins, there was kissing but no sex, and always a marriage proposal/understanding at the end.

As with all my other phases, I read every Harlequin I could get my hands on. And honestly there were some great stories which still stick with me. Devil on Horseback by Elizabeth Graham The Ice Maiden by Sally Wentworth and One of the Boys by Janet Dailey to name a few. I’m curious to read them again and see if my cynical adult brain would feel differently about them – yet at the same time I don’t want to know.

Harlequin and Silhouette dominated the romance market back then and they eventually realized what a huge market they could tap into by targeting teens. In 1981 Harlequin premiered their Sweet Dream line and a few months later along came Silhouette with their First Love series. I bought every one that hit the shelves for quite a while and devoured them. Cliquey Pizza has a wonderful post about the Silhouette series on her blog that details many of the titles. Each of these books dealt with the usual high school drama of first loves, first dates, friend drama etc. These stand-alone novels were immensely popular and led to the introduction in 1983 of the mega popular continuing teen series, Sweet Valley High. But that’s a separate post all it’s own. More to come on that front.

Category romances have evolved dramatically since my childhood days and, having no interest in reading sex scenes, I stopped reading them ages ago. I did move onto regular romance like Johanna Lindsey and Julie Garwood for awhile, but eventually stopped those too as I grew more cynical about the whole idea of love.

Recent trends towards erotica are not surprising but just as all my high school trends are returning (think legwarmers and leggings) it appears the “sweet” form of romance is also making a comeback. Readers are looking for “new and different”. They’re tired of the “norm” and what could be more new and different today than no explicit sex, no kink and no sleeping around. Interesting idea. Looking forward to seeing how the trend evolves.