The Vicious Deep

You’ll have to forgive me for this review; it’s been almost 3 months since I’ve written my last review. Hopefully it’ll be like riding a bike….

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The Vicious Deep by Zoraida Córdova
Grade: 3.8 stars out of 5
Published: May 1st, 2012; harcover
Source: ARC from Sourcebooks for blog tour

You thought your family had secrets. For Tristan Hart, his family’s secret goes deep…deep into the ocean.

For 3 days, Tristan has been swept way in the sea by a crash. He was the only survivor. The big question on everyone’s mind is how? Someone has some explaining to do especially when a goldfish turned merperson comes popping out of the facet.

The first thing that was the most surprising was the fact that The Vicious Deep was written through a male’s POV via first person. Zoraida Cordova pulled it off well. Tristan Hart is one of those guys who is part jerk who knows that he’s hot and part sensitive guy that not many people know about. The first person POV helped immensely when drawing some the more subtle traits of Tristan: protective, loving, word-vomiting guy. But he’s still part jerk. There were moments in the book where I wanted to slap him upside the head, stomp on his toes hard, and say really mean things.

Tristan’s reactions to everything were realistic. The underwater kingdom that Cordova built was crafted amazingly. I enjoy the slight politics and balance between brutish and sophisticated lifestyle that the merfolk cultivated.

For me, I had trouble mostly with the pacing of the story and Layla, Tristan’s best friend and crush. I’m all for independent women, but I hated how she took every “no, don’t do it” as a challenge. There’s a difference between confident and reckless and Layla managed to cross that line for me many times. Tristan wasn’t the only thing I wanted to slap.

I loved the other characters. Love, love, love some of the secondary characters. Would a fifth “love” be excessive? No? Okay, I loovvveee some of them. The dad, mom, friends, and “cousins” brought so much to the book.

The second problem was that the pacing was rather slow for me. There were some scenes that I felt could have been cut out like the mall scene. The excess magical creatures, I hope would play a bigger role later on. Right now, it’s a little too heavy and too much of a wasted chapter. Perhaps I’m just impatient for the big showdown. (I’ve been told I’m quite impatient.)

In all, The Vicious Deep was a great adventure with its own great tale. I won’t look at mermaids/mermen the same way. With splashes of humor, action scenes that I can instantly visualize, and a great set of hero and heroines I look forward to the next installment.

did not like

Cover A

I prefer this cover a lot more. There's a greater appeal to the male readers than the older cover (which featured a girl on the cover), while still having appeal to the female readers. I absolutely love the eye-popping colors and how much it relates to the book. It's freaking awesome.

Catching Jordan Review & Catching Up with Miranda

Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally

Grade: 3.5 stars out of 5

“What girl doesn't want to be surrounded by gorgeous jocks day in and day out? Jordan Woods isn't just surrounded by hot guys, though - she leads them as the captain and quarterback on her high school football team. They all see her as one of the guys, and that's just fine. As long as she gets her athletic scholarship to a powerhouse university. But now there's a new guy in town who threatens her starring position on the team... and has her suddenly wishing to be seen as more than just a teammate.”

Who says girls aren’t athletic? This book says that girls can and are just as athletic as boys in a male-dominated sport. Jordan is an athlete that many can aspire to be: focus, determined, with a good head on her shoulder. And just as some women athletes are concerned about appealing to the opposite sex, Jordan goes through the same thing. Sometimes it’s easy to be one of the guys and harder to be a “girl”. When hot stuff comes up and messes with Jordan’s mojo, you can’t help but experience the same fluttering anxiety that she does. Because many of us have gone through that.

Catching Jordan extends its reaches from just sports fans, but to everyone who has experienced crushes…sometimes all consuming ones.

That’s not to say that football doesn’t play a big role. Expect detailed games and rules on how to play from Catching Jordan.

Characters I liked: Jordan’s dad. He may seem like a jerk but he has good intentions. Sports are dangerous; I understand his reluctance to let Jordan play football. Jordan is his “little girl” in a heavily dominated male sport that will treat her differently even if she is better than most guys.

Jordan’s mom: really encouraging and a great solid parent figure.

Characters I’m iffy on: Jordan and JJ. JJ is very crash and much like a stereotypical male who’s looking to get laid. He’s very protective of Jordan and does crossword puzzles.

Jordan, separate from what she stands her, I found very frustrating. Like most YA books it seems that as soon as hot new guy comes along, they lose most of their brain cells and common sense. She’s very ambitious and head-strong that fails to see what’s right in front of her. Instead she likes to live her own little world at times.

Characters I can learn to like: Tyler and Henry and Carter. Scratch the surfaces and these characters can offer so much more.

Catching Jordan’s potential far exceeds than what the novel offered. I could have loved the book so much more.

Cover B

Source: Sourcebooks Fire

Published: 2011 December 1; paperback

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And an interview with the lovely author!:

can totally see them in Superbowl

Do you think sports promote a healthy lifestyle or can it become an unhealthy obsession?

I think anything in life can become an unhealthy obsession - from video games to spending too much money to working out too hard. Any activity in life should be done in moderation. But overall - yes, sports and being active are very important to healthy living.

Do sports promote teamwork and companionship or does it promote aggression and competition?

I think it all goes back to the coach and/or captain. If the leader promotes teamwork and companionship, then the team is more likely to pick up those qualities as a whole. Likewise, the same goes for aggression and competition. But if a person ever feels like his or her coach or captain isn't doing right by the team, then it's that person's responsibility to step up and act in a responsible manner.

Curling = exciting!

What is fantasy football and how do you play?

Fantasy football is when you choose a team, using players from all of the different teams in the NFL. I am pretty lazy, so in the past when I've done fantasy football leagues, I usually just use an online site to manage the team and players, etc. But you can plan using regular ole paper and pen too.

Which teams do you think will make it to the Super Bowl? Who will win?

Green Bay will play either the Patriots or Baltimore. But I bet Green Bay will win.

What other male dominated sports do you think would benefit from a little female competition?

I'd love to see a female pitcher or outfielder in Major League Baseball. 

What is the most obscure sport you can think of?

Curling! Oh how I want to be on the U.S. Olympic Curling Team. Literary Agent Michelle Wolfson would be my curling partner.

What is your favorite sport and why?

Softball. It's my favorite because it's the only sport I'm truly good at!

Favorite mascot?

Wally, the Red Sox mascot, who is named after the Green Monster outfield wall in Boston. He's so green and cute.

What are some foods you enjoy after a good game/workout?

Whole wheat bagels with peanut butter or creme cheese. And pizza!

If I Tell

If I Tell by Janet Gurtler

Grade: 3 / 5

Jasmine “Jaz” Evans is witness to something that could be the title of a Jerry Springer Show—her best friend Lacey making out with her mom’s boyfriend, Simon. Jaz wants to tell her mother, but finds out that she’s pregnant with Simon’s child. Keeping this secret inside her, Jaz goes about her life trying to deal with school, work, and trying to fit in as a biracial teenage girl. Even when hot Jackson Morgan insists she open up, Jaz doesn’t quite know how to let her barriers down.

As I was reading, I put little notes, a little less than 40. 3 of them were actually bookmarks. 4 more were typographical errors that my inner grammar freak found in the text (it’s an eBook, so it’s forgiven). All the others were me criticizing the characters or mentioning how creepy the love interest is or just asking myself why I thought this would be good. Good news: the majority of these notes were written during the first hundred pages of the book. More good news: they were “replied” to in the last half of the book. When I went back through to check my notes for the review, I realized I judged prematurely, which for me was an appreciated slap in the face.

Things I liked: the writing style (Jaz sounded like a seventeen year old), the plotline (no dull moments), some of the characters (favorite: Ashley the lesbian swimmer with dyed hair), and the characters’ hobbies (swimming, guitar playing, volunteering, etc).

Things I loved: the biracial-girl-trying-to-fit-in concept and the almost-rape scene. [Commence attempt to not spoil too much.] First, I think it’s important to know how a biracial person like Jaz feels about herself. When she argues with Tina, when she accidently explodes at Jackson, when she talks back to the nurse, even though she’s not necessarily doing the right thing, she is honest with herself for the first time. And maybe people like Tina and the nurse will read this novel and learn something and say “I really shouldn’t judge too quickly”. The second point I want to make is there’s a scene in this book that’s really important for teenage girls to understand. A boy can tell you he loves you, that you’re special and beautiful and the one for him, but that doesn’t mean you must open your legs. And if you don’t open your legs, and the boy gets mad and calls you a tease or whatever, do NOT blame yourself. It’s a piece of self-respect everyone should have.

Things I didn’t like: the main character, the love interest, the best friend and the believe-ablity. Jaz can’t handle her problems in a healthy way. The way Jaz avoided Lacey made me think she never liked her in the first place. Lacey, the BFF, just seems flat. When she tells Jaz her secret, I really think she could have mentioned that earlier. When Jaz asks Lacey why she didn’t tell her sooner, she says something like “I don’t talk about details” which is complete crap. I’m pretty sure if I had that secret, I’d tell someone like my best friend. But because Jaz doesn’t actually love her, they don’t have a true best friend relationship and the credibility of the story goes down the drain. I also dislike Jackson with a passion. Within days of meeting he’s super nice to Jaz, rescues her, pays attention only to her, gives her money for her guitar playing, drives her everywhere, and asks her to talk about feelings with him. He’s perfect. You know which other love interests are perfect? Twilight’s Edward, Fallen’s Daniel, and Hush Hush’s Patch. Perfect and not interesting. Also, like Lacey, Jackson has a secret that when he shares with Jaz and she asks him why he didn’t say something sooner, he says “I never got a chance to” or something. I went back to the beginning of the novel, pointed, and said “Here is where you mention it.”

The first half of the book bothered me, such that I wanted to give it 2 stars, but the second half was adventurous! So it gets a little extra overall. However, I won’t be recommending it to any one any time soon, and I’m probably not going to read anything else of Gurtler's.


Source: NetGalley, Sourcebooks eBook

Instructions for a Broken Heart + Interview!

Instructions for a Broken Heart by Kim Culbertson

Grade: 2.8 stars out of 5

Jessa is a busy girl with a plan, but does that plan include a boyfriend? When boyfriend Sean cheats on Jessa, best friend Carissa is there to cheer her up. Sorta. Perhaps the trip to Italy and a cute boy will help Jessa.

In many ways I’m torn on Instructions for a Broken Heart. With its many praises and awards I’ve set the bar high for Culbertson. This is the second novel I’ve read by Culbertson and while Instructions for a Broken Heart was better than the first, it still lacked substance for me. It was still quite good with so much room for potential. Instructions for a Broken Heart could have been a favorite summer contemporary read: redemption and personal growth, bittersweet romance, and a gorgeous setting.

Instructions for a Broken Heart was too short of a novel for me for all the subjects it touched. There were too many unfinished businesses for many of the characters for me to be left satisfied. I loved the beginning and the middle and the climaxing explosive Jessa had, but I was uninspired by the ending. Coming out of it I felt that Culbertson should have left the romance alone and focused on Jessa just healing.

When I first read the synopsis for Instruction for a Broken Heart, I immediately thought of 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson. Seeing as how I never read the book (lightly skimmed then passed it on), this plot was still very new to me. I found the idea to be endearing and motivating where the best friend can uplift the main character’s mood even across the ocean. And with another best friend to help guide the main character and to explain the reasoning behind each instructions, it was to a fool-proof plan. That was until I read the book. Culbertson juggled too many things.

SPOILER: The confession of the best friend, the kiss with the teacher; the break up and hook up of Natalie (the girl who Jessa’s boyfriend cheated with); the nasty wife of the other school’s chaperone; the dashing boy who had trouble in school; the other boy who sort of hovered in the background only to come in the last minute, etc. The list goes on and on about what the novel touched on. It was too much for this little book since all these characters were so one-dimensional. I could only imagine reasons/motives/the emotional guilt each one of the side characters held, but I was never shown aside from a sentence or two. By the time I started to connect to them they were gone.

It’s so frustrating when the author has so many great ideas but then I’m not connecting. Less, in this case, is more. Sticking with just one or two problems for an almost 300 page novel and focusing on that to flesh everything out would have been better.

Cover C+/B-

Published: 2011 May 1; paperback

Source: review from Sourcebooks

Amazon

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Why did you chose Italy for the backdrop of the story instead of, say, France or England?

In my second year of teaching, I took 16 students to Italy with another teacher friend of mine.  We had an amazing trip.  I’ve always wanted to go back to Italy and when I thought about writing a book set in another country, I immediately went to my journal from Italy and started flipping through it.  Something about the colors of Italy, the light there – it’s different.  It’s transformative.  I just knew it would make the right backdrop for Jessa’s own artistic and personal awakening.

Were you part of a drama club when you were in school?

I was a big drama nerd in high school.  And I taught high school theatre for eight years. There is something about the community of a theatre group – I just love how close everyone becomes working together on weekends, after school, long evenings.  It does become a big family…often a big, dysfunctional family, but a family.  I miss it sometimes.

What's your favorite part of a play? The acting, the costumes, the mechanics of a play, etc.?

I’m a writer so the script is always really important to me.  I have to love the pacing of a play, the energy of the words.  But I also really, really liked being a director.  I directed a lot of shows those years I was teaching drama and there was something quite magical about the page to stage process…taking the words on a page and ending up with a finished, polished play at the end.  Writing a novel has a bit of the same energy – taking a thread of an idea and fleshing it out until it becomes its own entity.

And because I'm reading classics this semester, what is your favorite classic?

Classics…hmmm.  Well, I’m a big Shakespeare girl.  I absolutely love Hamlet (it always seems to make its way into my novels).  Obviously, I love A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce which is featured in Instructions for a Broken Heart.  I love his language in that book, the way his character just splays his heart out on the page and all that conflict between the “right” thing to do and what he truly wants to do as an artist.  I love that book.  

Spring is almost here! Any plans for spring cleaning or gardening?

My six year old daughter is redoing her room into the colors she wants (as opposed to what we painted it before she was born).  We’re having fun sorting through her stuff and letting her get rid of the things that she’s outgrown and make room for her “big girl” things.  I’m loving working with her on that project (even if it’s pulling on my heart a bit to bid farewell to the butter yellow walls).  

Thanks so much for having me on your blog!

Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings + Interview

Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings by Helene Boudreau

Grade: 3.5 stars out of 5

What’s more embarrassing: pimple of day; bathing suit with nothing flattering the body; getting your first period while bathing suit shopping; running into a hot boy on your way to buy pads; run into your dad literally and buys you pads. Well, that’s not as bad compared to finding yourself having fins instead of feet. Some girls have all the luck.

Real Mermaids Don’t Wear Toe Rings is like no other coming-of-age story that I have read yet. It’s charming yet exciting with an adventure of lives at stake. The battle to save her family was impressive for a middle grade novel with such a cute cover.

Jade is a well-spoken narrator with enough spunk to keep the readers’ interest. Jade has a lot of her plate, but she is far from being that whiny tween a reader would hate to read about. I love Jade because even when she’s down, she’s not down for the count. Her best friend, Cori, helped with the character development of Jade as well as being a relatively, how do you say, a good friend! With so many things going wrong, Jade has at least one good positive thing in her life.

My only problem was with the male interest Luke. I found the ending to be too pitched perfect and a bit hard to swallow in terms of believable. It’s the happily ever after many of the readers’ want, but if were hinted more and his past clarified I would have bought the situation.

Cover B+

Source: Sourcebook Fire

Published: 1 December 2010; paperback

Amazon

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1. Was Real Mermaids Don’t Wear Toe Rings based on a life experience? 

Well, I’ve never spotted a real mermaid in the wild (yet!) but the backdrop for the story was definitely inspired by childhood boat trips from when I was a girl. My dad is a lobster fisherman and he’d take us from our little island off the coast of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia to the mainland where we’d sail through a canal and a boat lock to get to a fresh-water lake. I was always amazed by the purple jellyfish I saw on the ocean side, compared to the white jellyfish on the lake side of the boat lock. I often wondered; did the purple jellyfish know about the white ones and vice versa? That was the inspiration from my mer-world in Real Mermaids Don’t Wear Toe Rings. 

2. I noticed that the synopsis included Jade's father Googling on his Blackberry, do you think the advancement of technology only give more options to humiliate kids? Or does technology make things more private rather that say, his father asking a sales assistant in the store? 

Moms and dads have been embarrassing teens since the beginning of time. Jade’s dad, however, ramps up ‘mortification’ to a whole new level, one Google-search at a time. But Dad is just trying his best to navigate his young daughter through the hormone-charged trials of puberty so it’s all with the best of intentions; making it (almost) forgivable.

Many people have negative opinions on technology; how the twitter/ facebook/ texting culture seems to alienate people in their own little multi-media bubbles. I, on the other hand, think technology has helped bring people together in really neat ways.  Sure, some people take it too far—believing everything they read on Wikipedia, texting at the dinner table or talking loudly on cell phones in public places—but for the most part, I love having so much information and connections at my fingertips. 

3. Why mermaids? Why not vampires, angels, demons, werewolves?

I have two daughters and one day we were talking about phobias. I have a fear of heights so we were laughing about how funny an acrophobic bird would be, or an arachnophobic spider, or an aquaphobic fish…which led to a silly discussion about aquaphobic mermaids. That was it! The idea stuck. Hemaphobic vampires just didn’t seem as funny. 

You can find more about Helene at her website.

The Secret Society of the Pink Crystal Ball

The Secret Society of the Pink Crystal Ball by Risa Green

Grade: 4 stars out of 5

The Secret Society of the Pink Crystal Ball was adorable, adorable, adorable. It is a quintessential middle grade novel that deals with friends, nemeses, and cute boys that never really ventures down from the surface level. As a side plot Erin deals with her favorite aunt’s death and what she left behind: A group of friends that Erin is slightly afraid of and a disorientated sister who wants her sister’s ashes. But the most important of all is the pink crystal ball that may have the ability to alter the future.

Erin calls herself boring, but the magic ball will definitely spice up her life especially when she’s partnered with Jesse in her AP Art project. Erin is definitely the voice of reason in the story, but I feel like she’s trying to grasp those last few strings that tie her friends together by going along with their plan. As the reader we obviously know that nothing good will come out of the ball so all I think of when reading the novel was “NO!—no, don’t listen to them! No don’t ask for that!” Sadly Erin does and the story starts to spiral as nothing goes right. But like any fun, flirty book Erin manages to pull her life together piece by piece. She starts to loosen up from the structured life that she’s so used to. She listens to advice, takes it, molds it and takes action. The Secret Society of the Pink Crystal Ball was a progression of a girl living her life to the fullest.

The Secret Society of the Pink Crystal Ball was a well-paced, simple book that will take readers’ less than a day to finish. It’s such a sweet little book because of the romance with Jesse. It wasn’t the high level of adrenaline and OMG, he’s soooo hawt and we must kiss and we’re so perfect for each other *sparkle, sparkle, glitter, fireworks*. This was a much simpler, hand holding that makes the day with a chaste kiss.

Cover B-

Source: Sourcebooks Fire

Published: 1 September 2010; paperback

Amazon