Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted for us book blogger types by the Broke and the Bookish. They provide a topic, and all of us participants post our answers on our blogs and we hop around checking out one another’s answers! This week’s topic is: 

Top Ten Books On My Winter TBR

1. Uninvited by Sophie Jordan

2. The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson

3. Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

4. Into the Still Blue by Veronica Rossi

5. Unhinged by A.G. Howard

6. Fire & Flood by Victoria Scott

7. White Space by Ilsa J. Bick

8. Avalon by Mindee Arnett

9. Darkest Fear by Cate Tiernan

10. A Mad, Wicked Folly by Sharon Biggs Waller

Be sure to click on the titles to check out the books so you can add them to your list as well!  

What are some of your Winter Want-To-Reads? 

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted for us book blogger types by the Broke and the Bookish. They provide a topic, and all of us participants post our answers on our blogs and we hop around checking out one another’s answers! This week’s topic is: 

Top Ten Sequels I can’t Wait to get my Hands On

1. The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey

2. City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

3. Ruins by Dan Wells
4. Hollow City by Ransom Riggs
5. The Forever Song by Julie Kagawa

6. Rebel Spring by Morgan Rhodes

7. Unhinged by A.G. Howard

8. Passionaries by Tonya Hurley

9. Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor

10. Strange and Ever After by Susan Dennard

What are some sequels you are looking forward to? 

Waiting on Wednesday

Every week Breaking the Spine hosts the bookish meme for book bloggers to share what books they are waiting on to be released!  This week I’m waiting on: 

Release Date: January 7, 2014

Alyssa Gardner has been down the rabbit hole and faced the bandersnatch. She saved the life of Jeb, the guy she loves, and escaped the machinations of the disturbingly seductive Morpheus and the vindictive Queen Red. Now all she has to do is graduate high school and make it through prom so she can attend the prestigious art school in London she’s always dreamed of. 

That would be easier without her mother, freshly released from an asylum, acting overly protective and suspicious. And it would be much simpler if the mysterious Morpheus didn’t show up for school one day to tempt her with another dangerous quest in the dark, challenging Wonderland—where she (partly) belongs. 

As prom and graduation creep closer, Alyssa juggles Morpheus’s unsettling presence in her real world with trying to tell Jeb the truth about a past he’s forgotten. Glimpses of Wonderland start to bleed through her art and into her world in very disturbing ways, and Morpheus warns that Queen Red won’t be far behind. 

If Alyssa stays in the human realm, she could endanger Jeb, her parents, and everyone she loves. But if she steps through the rabbit hole again, she’ll face a deadly battle that could cost more than just her head.

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted for us book blogger types by the Broke and the Bookish. They provide a topic, and all of us participants post our answers on our blogs and we hop around checking out one another’s answers! This week’s topic is: 

Top Ten Authors Who Deserve More Recognition

1. Karen Amanda Hooper
I’ve loved her books Tangled Tides and Grasping at Eternity, and I am currently in the middle of reading Taking Back Forever.  She has flown somewhat under the radar, but her writing is clear, creative, and one of a kind. If you haven’t read any of her work, then you are definitely missing out. 

2. Susan Ee

If you haven’t read Angelfall yet, then go and download a copy as soon as possible because it was one of the best ebooks I had read in a long time.  It was well plotted and the pacing was excellent.

3. Melina Marchetta
I’m fairly certain that Marchetta is outrageously popular, but I still find that a majority of average readers don’t know her name or any of her titles.  Therefore, she needs more recognition! 

4. Jennifer Echols
I came across Echols in my reading last summer, and her novel Such A Rush quickly made the climb into my list of favorite books.  Did I mention that the setting of that novel is actually the beach I go to with my family each summer?  Either way, I have been anxiously waiting for her next novel since! 

5. Rainbow Rowell
Eleanor & Park was one of the best books I’ve read this year, and I have a copy of Fangirl burning a hole in my book stack.  She deserves all of the recognition as possible. 

6. A.G. Howard
A paranormal novel with a twist on Alice in Wonderland? Not only did Howard use excellent world building but her word choice was beautiful and the story world wonderful. I look forward to more novels by her!

7. Sarah J. Maas
Throne of Glass was brilliant, and I cannot begin to say how excited I am for Crown of Midnight.  If you haven’t found a fantasy world that you love, then pick up Maas’ novels. 

8. Kady Cross
She is definitely famous under other pen names, but Cross’ Steampunk YA novels are such fun reads and I really think they are not as popular as they should be.  So go buy some of her Steampunk Chronicles!  3 of them are currently published, and (I hope!) there will be more to come.

9. Kristin Cashore
Bitterblue was published and then it seems that Cashore kind of fell off the scene. I still constantly recommend Graceling to people looking for a good Fantasy read, and I really am looking forward to anything else Cashore publishes! 

10. Cora Carmack
I totally just discovered her, but I think that she is a rising star and I think she deserves even more recognition than she is getting so far! 

What are some authors you recommend?

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted for us book blogger types by the Broke and the Bookish. They provide a topic, and all of us participants post our answers on our blogs and we hop around checking out one another’s answers! This week’s topic is: 

Top Ten Books I’ve Read in 2013

1. Splintered by AG Howard
A modern take on the Alice in Wonderland story with a hot romance? Yes, please. Definitely my favorite read of the year so far. 

2. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

 A classic boy meets girl story with lots of individuality. I love it. So excited to read Rowell’s sophomore novel, Fangirl! 

3. The Sweetest Dark by Shana Abe

Thanks to no one it took me forever to discover this paranormal world that Abe has built through her adult series, but the first in the young adult series is just as thrilling. 

4. The Girl with the Iron Touch by Kady Cross

If you have been following my blog for any amount of time, then you definitely know how much I love this steampunk series from Kady Cross.  I’ve reviewed the first three so far, The Girl in the Steel Corset and The Girl in the Clockwork Collar. 

5. If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch
This book was most definitely one of the best realistic fiction novels that I have read in a long time.  The writing was poignant and the issues completely developed. Go get a copy if you haven’t read it yet!

6. Mystic by Alyson Noel

After the twist ending in Echo, I wasn’t sure how Noel was going to keep the story going…and she did so VERY well.  I actually think that Mystic ended up being my favorite in the Soul Seekers series, and I am anxiously awaiting the fourth installment!  Check out my reviews of Fated and Echo as well! 

7. Chosen at Nightfall by C.C. Hunter
The Shadow Falls series final installment really did end on a high note, and I am a bit sad that I won’t get to live in Hunter’s enigmatic world anymore. 

8. Secrets by Lauren Kunze

I think I’d consider this series more New Adult than YA, but I can’t help how addicting it is.  I still haven’t read the final installment, because I just don’t want it to be over! 

9. Don’t Worry, it Gets Worse by Alida Nugent
You’ll see my post about this on Friday! 

10. Legacy by Molly Cochrane
My review of this hasn’t gone up yet, but it was such an entertaining read and I thank Simon & Schuster for bringing it to my attention!

What were some of your favorite reads from this year? 

Book Review: Splintered by A.G. Howard

This stunning debut captures the grotesque madness of a mystical under-land, as well as a girl’s pangs of first love and independence. Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers—precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. 

This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now. When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. 

The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family. 

She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own.

I feel like I should preface this with the tweet that I posted as soon as I finished the book: 

That’s right.  To be honest, I was extremely skeptical of this book when I first read the synopsis due to the dark description of Wonderland and how much I’ve loved the original two books with all my heart. However, I finally gave in to my curiosity (tee hee) and immediately fell in love. 

Not only is Howard’s prose indicative of serious writing prowess, but the word choice and diction is perfect to fit such a magical story and the brilliantly written characters. Oh, and the plot?  Genius. Not only does it involve a fair amount of specific details from Carroll’s original story, but they are distorted just enough to fit with the theme and the idea that a little girl could have gotten some of the details incorrect (fitting with the idea that Alice shared her experience with Carroll upon her return from Wonderland).

Specific things I really enjoyed about the manuscript.  The character of Morpheus, because it seemed very much like an homage to The Matrix’s Morpheus (see the gif): 

The description of the card soldiers immediately made me think of the soldiers in Alice: Madness Returns.  Their metal husks, etc. And it really helped me visualize the fight scene.  Another detail that really stuck out to me was the use of the Vorpal Sword on the bandersnatch and the description of it as more of a hand-held knife (something else that reminded me of the amazing Alice: Madness Returns game):

Overall, I think that Howard has provided readers with a unique outlook on a classic story, a creative plot with room for expansion and additional tales (oh, I mean there WILL be another installment: titled Unhinged), and characters so believable and relatable that you will be so invested in their stories.  Don’t forget that there is a love story. 

So please, for me, for yourself, and for the love of Alice, go pick up a copy of Splintered by A.G. Howard. I don’t want to say too much else, or summarize too much because I’d much rather you read it and then gush about it to your friends as well. 

5 Bards for ingenuity, prose, entertainment value, and sheer awesomeness. 

A few of my favorite quotes:  

“I scroll past images every bit as violent and beautiful as Jeb’s paintings: luminious, rainbow-skinned creatures with bulbous eyes and sparkly, silken wings who carry knives and swords; hideous, naked hobgoblins in chains who crawl on all fours and have corkscrew tails and cloven feet like pigs; silvery pixielike beings trapped in cages and crying oily black tears.” 

“He’s a contradiction: taut magic coiled to strike, gentleness at war with severity, a tongue as sharp as a whip’s edge, yet skin so soft he could be swathed in clouds.” 

Now go pick up a copy!