Review: The Girl at Midnight (WHY, ROMANCE? WHY?!)

The Girl at Midnight
Author: Melissa Grey
Publisher: April 28th 2015 
Publication Date: Delacorte Press
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

For readers of Cassandra Clare's City of Bones and Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone, The Girl at Midnight is the story of a modern girl caught in an ancient war.

Beneath the streets of New York City live the Avicen, an ancient race of people with feathers for hair and magic running through their veins. Age-old enchantments keep them hidden from humans. All but one. Echo is a runaway pickpocket who survives by selling stolen treasures on the black market, and the Avicen are the only family she's ever known.

Echo is clever and daring, and at times she can be brash, but above all else she's fiercely loyal. So when a centuries-old war crests on the borders of her home, she decides it's time to act.

Legend has it that there is a way to end the conflict once and for all: find the Firebird, a mythical entity believed to possess power the likes of which the world has never seen. It will be no easy task, but if life as a thief has taught Echo anything, it's how to hunt down what she wants . . . and how to take it.

But some jobs aren't as straightforward as they seem. And this one might just set the world on fire.

How could it have gone so wrong? It's funny how you can go from really liking a book to really hating it within 30%. The first 10% of The Girl at Midnight was iffy for me, but then I really got into it, but somewhere between 50% and 80% things went downhill fast.

There are a few reasons why, the main reason being the dreaded obligatory love triangle, but I'll get to that in a minute. First, the good things about The Girl at Midnight.

Bad Bones Blog Tour: Extract!

Bad Bones (Red Eye)
Author: Graham Marks
Publication Date: May 4th 2015
Publisher: Stripes Publishing
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~
 

Some things are best left buried. Gabe is feeling the pressure. His family has money troubles, he's hardly talking to his dad, plus lowlife Benny is on his case. Needing some space to think, he heads off into the hills surrounding LA. And he suddenly stumbles across a secret that will change everything. A shallow grave. Gabe doesn't think twice about taking the gold bracelet he finds buried there. Even from the clutches of skeletal hands. But he has no idea what he's awakening...A chilling new story in the Red Eye series

I've been loving the Red Eye series so far, if you want to check out what I've thought about them, Frozen Charlotte, Sleepless, Flesh and Blood and Bad Bones. Today we have an extract from Bad Bones.

Overhead the owl flew up to the small window set into the back wall, near the roof. It landed and sat, head on one side, observing. Gabe glanced over his

shoulder and saw the coyotes, inside now and on the prowl, eyes fixed on him, their prey.

There was something almost human about the way these animals acted. He hadn’t noticed before, but they appeared to have no fear at all. Instead there

was a feeling of recognition, like they were saying, ‘We know who you are, we know all about you.’
            Animals didn’t do that, tame or wild. It was the stuff of bad dreams. Like the ones he’d been having ever since he’d found the gold. But this – here, now – this was not anything he was going to wake up from.

            Gabe tried and failed to swallow. He wiped away the sweat that ran down from his forehead and looked at Father Simon. It was all down to him that the man had come here to deal with Rafael, exorcise him or whatever it was good priests did to evil priests. The Father was grimacing, like he was in a great deal of pain, and that had to be his fault too.

            Cecil LeBarron and his client had died because of him. Stella was… He didn’t want to think where Stella might be, but she was there because of him.

            He, Gabe Mason, had to answer for all of it. If he had never found the gold, none of this would have occurred, no one would have had their throats ripped out, the world wouldn’t be going crazy and he and the Father would not be about to die.

            “You, boy!”

            Gabe turned his attention back to Rafael, astonished at the number of different thoughts a brain could process in such a short space of time, wondering when the torture would begin.

            “Where is it – where is what belongs to me? What was taken from me should be returned!” Rafael, his head at a strange angle like he had a really bad crick in his neck, stared at Gabe, anger stoking the mad fire in his eyes.
            “You are my chosen one. I recognized you, that is why I spared you, boy! You were sent, you came to find me again … and you wished and prayed so hard. I knew you would come. You were born for these majestic days. Through you I have been reborn – you who will be anointed again, you who will now walk in my shadow forever, drink the blood of life with me and feel the last beat of

a thousand thousand hearts! Why have you let me down?”

            “I don’t know you!” Gabe couldn’t make any sense of what Rafael was saying – why was he making it sound like they’d met before? “I never wanted to be chosen, I never did!”

            “Be very careful what you wish for, boy. A question cannot be unasked. A wish, once granted, can never be revoked.” Rafael smiled. “And now I have you

back, you are mine.”

            Rafael’s mood seemed to change in the blink of an eye, one moment fired up with uncontained anger, the next placid and calm. It occurred to Gabe that

maybe being brought back to life did that to a person.

            “I told you!” Gabe screamed. “I told you I don’t believe in you!”

“Did you not listen? Are you an imbecile – so stupid you cannot understand?” Rafael reared back. “I warned you, boy. I showed you what would happen if you do not do what I say… If I do not have what is mine returned to me. Yet still you came here empty-handed. Where is what is mine, boy? Where is it?”

Review: Bad Bones

Bad Bones (Red Eye)
Author: Graham Marks
Publication Date: May 4th 2015
Publisher: Stripes Publishing
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~
 

Some things are best left buried. Gabe is feeling the pressure. His family has money troubles, he's hardly talking to his dad, plus lowlife Benny is on his case. Needing some space to think, he heads off into the hills surrounding LA. And he suddenly stumbles across a secret that will change everything. A shallow grave. Gabe doesn't think twice about taking the gold bracelet he finds buried there. Even from the clutches of skeletal hands. But he has no idea what he's awakening...A chilling new story in the Red Eye series

I've been loving the Red Eye series so far, though my favourites have been Frozen Charlotte and Flesh and Blood, Bad Bones is still a good addition to it. I did, however, have a few issues with it, but I'll start with the good.

Waiting on Wednesday (#95)

"Waiting on" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases.

The Winner's Kiss by Marie Rutkoski

Expected publication: March 1st 2016 by Farrar Straus & Giroux

War has begun. Arin is in the thick of it, with the East as his ally and the empire as his enemy. He’s finally managed to dismiss the memory of Kestrel, even if he can’t quite forget her. Kestrel turned into someone he could no longer recognize: someone who cared more for the empire than for the lives of innocent people—and certainly more than she cared for him. At least, that’s what he thinks.

But far north lies a work camp where Kestrel is a prisoner. Can she manage to escape before she loses herself? As the war intensifies, both Kestrel and Arin discover unexpected roles in battle, terrible secrets, and a fragile hope. The world is changing. The East is pitted against the West, and Kestrel and Arin are caught between. In a game like this, can anybody really win?

I am going to cry. I will cry. I will fucking cry, because 1) 2016. 2) The Winner's Crime and 3) Kestrel & Arin.

What're you waiting on?

Review: Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke

Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke
Author: Anne Blankman
Publication Date: April 21st 2015
Publisher: Headline
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

The girl known as Gretchen Whitestone has a secret: She used to be part of Adolf Hitler’s inner circle. More than a year after she made an enemy of her old family friend and fled Munich, she lives with a kindly English family, posing as an ordinary German immigrant, and is preparing to graduate from high school. Her love, Daniel Cohen, is a reporter in town. For the first time in her life, Gretchen is content.

But then, Daniel gets a telegram that sends him back to Germany, and Gretchen’s world turns upside-down. And when she receives word that Daniel is wanted for murder, she has to face the danger she thought she’d escaped-and return to her homeland.

Gretchen must do everything she can to avoid capture and recognition, even though saving Daniel will mean consorting with her former friends, the Nazi elite. And as they work to clear Daniel’s name, Gretchen and Daniel discover a deadly conspiracy stretching from the slums of Berlin to the Reichstag itself. Can they dig up the explosive truth and get out in time-or will Hitler discover them first?

The first 70% of Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke can be summed up like this. Daniel and Gretchen go here, then they go there, then they go there and then they go here. They fester on their feelings for one another, if love is enough when they both want different things for their lives, and if one wins out, the other will be unhappy. More festering. Back and forth, back and forth. Oh, then there's this little murder Daniels been accused of that set the domino's to fall. Basically, I was bored. We got the same thing over and over, the same thoughts, the same emotions. And if I read 'Daniels good hand' or 'Daniels good arm' one more time I'll scream. We know early on the outcome of what happened to Daniel in Prisoner of Night and Fog, the desperation of getting to England eclipsed seeking help for Daniels arm, and because of that, that it's damaged beyond repair.

Review: The Rise and Fall of the Gallivanters

The Rise and Fall of the Gallivanters 
Author: M. J. Beaufrand
Publication Date: May 12th 2015
Publisher: Amulet
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~ 

In Portland in 1983, girls are disappearing. Noah, a teen punk with a dark past, becomes obsessed with finding out where they've gone—and he's convinced their disappearance has something to do with the creepy German owners of a local brewery, the PfefferBrau Haus. Noah worries about the missing girls as a way of avoiding the fact that something's seriously wrong with his best friend, Evan. Could it be the same dark force that's pulling them all down?

When the PfefferBrau Haus opens its doors for a battle of the bands, Noah pulls his band, the Gallivanters, back together in order to get to the bottom of the mystery. But there's a new addition to the band: an enigmatic David Bowie look-alike named Ziggy. And secrets other than where the bodies are buried will be revealed. From Edgar-nominated author M. J. Beaufrand, this is a story that gets to the heart of grief and loss while also being hilarious, fast paced, and heartbreaking

One more add to The Strangest Books I've Read in 2015 list.

It makes a lot more sense once you read it, obviously, but still, the lead up, was so well done, and I surprisingly got rather attached to the characters,  and I say surprisingly, because...