The Savage Blue by Zoraida Cordova

Title: The Savage Blue (The Vicious Deep #2)

Author: Zoraida Cordova

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Release Date: May 7, 2013

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository

A storm is coming…

The ocean is a vicious place. Deeper and darker than Tristan could have imagined. Beneath its calm blue surface, an ancient battle is churning--and no one is safe.

In the quest for the Sea Throne, Tristan has already watched one good friend die. Now he must lead the rest on a dangerous voyage in search of the trident that will make him king. But while Tristan chases his destiny, the dark focus racing against him are getting strong, and the sea witch of his nightmares is getting closer.

Battling sea drains and savage creatures of the deep, Tristan needs his friends' support. But they each have their secrets, and a betrayal will force Tristan to choose between his crown and his best friend Layla--the only girl he's ever loved.

When it comes to mermaid stories I am always game. Often, all I actually need to know is that mermaids are involved for me to pick up those books. And that's how last year I found myself reading Zoraida Cordova's debut, The Vicious Deep. And though it wasn't a story I loved, it was one I enjoyed enough to pick up the sequel, The Savage Blue. And I am happy to report that I enjoyed that one even more.

Now that Tristan knows the truth about who he really is, he has to find a way to make his family proud by beating the other champions and taking his grandfather's place as king of the sea. But this whole champion thing might be a little harder than Tristan thought it was going to be. It doesn't help that Tristan has a lot of catching up on the whole merman thing. But as is often the case, there might be more going on than everyone originally thought, putting everyone Tristan cares about at risk.

While I enjoyed the first book, I had my issues with The Vicious Deep. The story was well laid out and moved along at a decent pace but I remember feeling that the action finally really started once I was about 50 pages from the end of the book. And so for that reason I decided to pick up the sequel, The Savage Blue. And it was off to a good start. Right from the first page I was thrown into the action from the end of the previous book. And for a while the action kept up. But then it slowed down until, again, it picked up close to the end of the book. But that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy the story. Because I did, maybe even more than I enjoyed the story in the first book. The way it would slow down than pick up again almost felt more natural this time around. This might be because there was less setting up that needed to be done which made the story flow more. But regardless of what it was, it has convinced me that I will be picking up the third book to find out how Tristan comes out of all of this.

Here's the thing, I love romance in the books I read. Typically I'm one of those people that thinks along the lines of the more romance the better. But the romance in The Savage Blue kinda of frustrated me. The whole time I was reading the first book, I was rooting for Tristan and Layla because he is obviously in love with her and she with him. And then at the start of The Savage Blue it seemed like progress had been made on this front until it felt like we were back to square one with Tristan and Layla both clearly aware of each other's feelings but not willing to act on them. I can appreciate the situation they find themselves in is quite unusual and that for all they know Tristan is going to have to leave to go live under the sea and Layla wants to protect herself. But still. These are two characters that I've come to genuinely like and keep rooting for, but at times I just seem to get frustrated with their relationship. Hopefully this is something that changes in future installments. Though I will say this, the other characters, in particular the mermaids and mermen currently forced to live outside of the ocean can be quite the entertaining bunch at times...that is when they are not trying to manipulate someone into doing something they shouldn't be doing.

Overall, I enjoyed The Savage Blue more than I did The Vicious Deep. Some of the problems I had with the first book were fixed, though others kept frustrating me as I was reading. But either way, it makes for a mermaid story that is different from the other ones out there. And because I still want to know how it all turns out, I will be reading the next book in this series.

Stacking the Shelves (30) - BEA Edition!

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga of Tynga's Reviews. It's a weekly post where book bloggers showcase the book they received throughout the week.

So I've kind of been a bad blogger the past couple of weeks...but I have an excuse! You see, I was in NYC for Book Expo America and that pretty much had all my attention. And then I got back this week and had to go back to work and recover so the blog was a little neglected. But on the plus side, I now have A LOT of reading material. Because not only did I come back from BEA with a lot more books than I thought I would, but there were also some waiting for me at home when I got back. Be warned, there are A LOT of books in this post.

Non-BEA books:

- Creeps by Darren Hynes

- Not Your Ordinary Wolf Girl by Emily Pohl-Weary

- Confederates Don't Wear Couture by Stephanie Kate Strohm

- The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau

- To Be Perfectly Honest by Sonya Sones

- When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney

- In Too Deep by Coert Vorhees

- Rules of Summer by Joanna Philbin

Thank you to Penguin Canada, Thomas Allen & Sons, and HBG Canada for sending me these books for review.

BEA Books

I'm not going to list all the books in this picture because that might be a little more than I can handle right now. But here are a few that I'm particularly excited about:

- How To Love by Katie Cotugno (I've read this one already and it was absolutely amazing. EVERYONE needs to read this book.)

- Wild Cards by Simone Elkeles (I've also already read this one and loved it. It was as awesome as I thought it would be.)

- The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

- Fire with Fire by Jenny Han & Siobhan Vivian

- This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales

- All the Truth That's In Me by Julie Berry

...And basically every other book in this picture. But seriously, BEA was an amazing experience beyond all the exciting books. If you ever get a chance to go, you should seriously take it.

So that's all for me this week. Hopefully I should be back to posting regularly this week, but I don't promise anything since this week is also my university graduation so it's sure to be busy. If you entered any of my Starcrossed Week giveaways, keep an eye on your e-mail in the coming days as I will be contacting the winners. 

Other than that, enjoy your week & happy reading!

Blog Tour - The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen

Title: The Moon and More

Author: Sarah Dessen

Publisher: Viking Juvenile

Release Date: June 4, 2013

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository

Luke is the perfect boyfriend: handsome, kind, fun. He and Emaline have been together all through high school in Colby, the beach town where they both grew up. But now, in the summer before college, Emaline wonders if perfect is good enough.

Enter Theo, a super-ambitious outsider, a New Yorker assisting on a documentary film about a reclusive local artist. Theo's sophisticated, exciting and, best of all, he thinks Emaline is much too smart for Colby.

Emaline's mostly-absentee father, too, thinks Emaline should have a bigger life, and he's convinced that an Ivy League education is the only route to realizing her potential. Emaline is attracted to the bright future that Theo and her father promise. But she also clings to the deep roots of her loving mother, stepfather, and sisters. Can she ignore the pull of the happily familiar world of Colby? 

Emaline wants the moon and more, but how can she balance where she comes from with where she's going?

Sarah Dessen's devoted fans will welcome this story of romance, yearning, and, finally, empowerment. It could only happen in the summer.

If you've been reading this book for any length of time, you have probably heard me say at some point just how much I love Sarah Dessen. And I was so excited at the prospect of having a new book of hers to read. Almost immediately after receiving my copy of The Moon and More, I started reading and I couldn't have been more happy to be back in the world of Colby.

Emaline thought she had a plan: she was going to go off to college with the boy she has been dating since first starting high school. Everything was all set. But the summer before all that is set to happen, things change and suddenly everything Emaline knows is falling to pieces around her. She wanted to have one of those summers where she can be someone completely different, like the people she sees renting the properties where she works. The only thing Emaline couldn't have predicted was that at the end of it all, what she so desperately wants to get away from is what will make her want to stay with everything she is familiar. 

I will apologize in advance if this seems to be turning into an ode to Sarah Dessen and her books, but here it goes anyways. Here's the thing about Sarah Dessen and her books, they make the absolutely perfect summer read. But they aren't all just fluff and fun times in the sun. Often there is something more going on with the story and the characters and that is typically what makes me love these stories so much. With The Moon and More, I felt like I could relate to the story in a way that I can't always relate to other stories. That feeling of leaving home for the first time and being excited about it, but also kind of afraid of what the unknown holds. This story was very much about that. The main character, Emaline, was really excited at the prospect of leaving home, but at the same time she wants to hold on to everything that feels familiar around her. And that aspect of her story, and the greater story, is something I could really relate too and I'm sure I wasn't the only one. What I really enjoyed about The Moon and More as well was that it didn't really follow the same pattern that typical Sarah Dessen stories do. There were those elements to the story that I have come to love, but the way it all played wasn't necessarily what I expected to happen but it was something I enjoyed seeing. I can't help but come back to the fact that Sarah Dessen knows what she is doing. She knows what works in her stories and that's what makes it so I keep loving her books, even after having read so many of them. And The Moon and More was everything I hoped it would be.

Like I've already said, I could relate to Emaline's story and for that reason I could also really relate to certain aspects of her character. When I was getting ready to leave for college, I may not have been dating the same boy since the start of high school, but I could definitely relate to the part where you are eager to move on to the next part of your life while at the same wanting to hold on to everything that is familiar. For me, that made Emaline really likeable and made it so I really liked her. She was one of those characters that I found myself taking a liking to her right from the beginning and so throughout the story I was eager to see what would happen to her, the decisions she would make about the different aspects of her life. And those aspects of her life got pretty complicated after a while. Sure, the whole Luke vs. Theo part of things was mostly her own doing, but there wasn't all that much she could do about the situation with her father. And her father kinda annoyed me. I could see why he was doing what he was doing and could understand where he was coming from, but that didn't make him any more likeable to me. But Benji I loved. In some parts of the story, it felt like he kinda stole the show. But I also loved the side of Emaline that he brought out. I think it was a side of her personality that even surprised Emaline herself at times. The other thing about Sarah Dessen books is that more often than not, I can't help but fall a little (or a lot if that person is Wes) with her love interests. But with The Moon and More, that didn't really happen on the same scale I thought it would. Sure, I liked Luke and his familiarity just like I liked Theo and his newness. But beyond that they didn't necessarily impress me that much. But that's okay because in the end, I almost wanted Emaline to end up alone, because that would mean that she would be able to actually be herself and do what she wants to do. And that's what I wanted for Emaline.

So this is my ramble-y way of saying that I absolutely love Sarah Dessen and The Moon and More. If you have loved Sarah Dessen's books in the past, you won't want to miss out on this one. It may not have been exactly like I thought it would have been, but that didn't stop me from loving it just as much as this author's other books. 

Starcrossed Week - The Characters

At this point, you've heard me rave over just about everything having to do with Josephine Angelini's Starcrossed trilogy. The story is absolutely amazing and a large part of that amazingness comes from the characters. Because even the really unlikeable characters have some sort of redeeming qualities and the more minor ones feel fully fleshed out. And some of those characters, they are completely underrated.

Hector was one of those characters I wasn't too sure what to make of when I met him in the first book. But the more I learned about him, the more I realized he was just one big teddy bear. Once the Furies let up with the whole Helen hating the Delos and vice versa, Hector became this other person. Every time he appeared in the story, it just put a smile on my face. The way he was with his family just made him that much more endearing. And that was only amplified whenever he was interacting with Helen. As hard as he could be with her, she also brought out this other side of his personality. So Hector is someone I came to love. Anytime something bad happened to him, it just hurt my heart.  And after everything that had happened to him, I just wanted him to have a happy ending. 

Matt was one of those characters that is there but spends a lot of time in the background. He's been one of Helen's best friend for as long as anyone can remember and even through all of the Scion stuff, he sticks by her side, somewhere along the way falling in love with Ariadne. But all of a sudden in Goddess, so much happens to Matt. Right from the start, so many hints were dropped and knowing what I know about the Trojan War, I could see where things were heading. And it was not heading somewhere I liked. But it was inevitable, it was where the story needed to go. Not that it was something I actually accepted. Through it all, my heart was breaking as I saw what was happening and what it was doing to all the other characters. And even after everything, I still loved Matt because there was nothing he could do about the situation he was in.

I feel like all I'm doing is talking about the boys in this trilogy, but there were so many amazing ones. Orion found himself stuck in a love triangle with Helen and Lucas. There wasn't really much eh could do about it. And in spite of everything he knew that he wouldn't come out on the winning side. But for once, a member of a love triangle stood up for himself. Orion realized that he deserved better than what Helen would ever be able to give him. And for that alone, I have so much respect for Orion. But my heart is also breaking for him. Not just because of his "position" in the love triangle, but because of everything I know about his life and how difficult his childhood must have been. I just wanted him to have someone who would be there for him, who would take care of him and who would love him even more than he deserved to be love. Because Orion seriously needed some good in his life.

I've said that even the most unlikeable characters somehow have redeeming qualities and with Daphne, it was hard to find them. For the better part of three books, I wanted nothing more than to punch Daphne and for her to just leave everyone alone because she was causing a lot more harm than good. But despite all that, I could understand where she was coming from. It wasn't a justification for what she did by any stretch of the imagination, but I could understand why did the things she did and why she wanted what she wanted. But then she had this moment of clarity in Goddess. I don't know what finally made her see everything for what they were, but she did. And in that moment, I was able to start to forgive Daphne for some of what she had done. It didn't wipe the slate completely clean, but I could begin to forgive her, all things considered.

I could go on endlessly about each and every one of the characters in this trilogy. Each of them has something that makes them completely unique and memorable. I could talk about how badass Helen is, about how much more there is to Lucas than what I originally thought, to how absolutely selfless Ariadne and Jason are, how surprising Claire can be, and the list just keep going on. If for the characters alone, you should give Josephine Angelini's books a try. And if characters aren't your thing, you can check out all my other posts about the trilogy from this past week.

Starcrossed Week - Why others love Starcrossed

I am not the only person who has read and loved Josephine Angelini's Starcrossed books. As amazing as they are, it shouldn't come as a surprise that others share my feelings. So keep reading to see what others have thought of these wonderful books.

Kathy from A Glass of Wine

As someone who has been lucky enough to read all three novels in Josephine Angelini’s trilogy, I knew immediately what I wanted to talk about when Emilie asked me to contribute a few sentences on this amazing series - the set up involved. Josephine has laid everything out in the first two novels out perfectly. The characters, their importance and the setting all lay waiting like dominoes for Josephine to move that first piece and send everything else falling into place. It’s this set up, and execution that left me awe struck when I closed the last piece. This trilogy ends the way it HAS to because any other ending wouldn't fit the carefully planned structure that cumulates in the stunning finale.

Siobhan from Conversations of a Reading Addict

The Starcrossed series has, over the years, become one of my favourites, and this is for a number of reasons. One of them being the subject matter. I am a huge fan of greek mythology and I especially like it when it is retold in novel form. The Helen of Troy myth has been done before but not like this. Set in modern times and add in superpowers and you have one supercharged series. An amazing love story doesn't hurt either. I mean the sexual tension and the forbidden aspect drives this story forward in ways you cannot even imagine. The characters and the plot line are unique and extremely well written. This is one series you should not miss, it is a must read for sure. 

Meaghan from Feeling a Little Bookish

I read Starcrossed a few years ago for review and I really enjoy reading it.  One of the things that I really enjoyed about this novel is that while it is a novel with some Greek mythology elements to it, it is not overt and in your face. Angelini doesn't bog down her story with too much background on greek mythology. She added this into her story in a way that flowed really well. I also love that Helen finds out that her life may not quite be what she has been told and she doesn't automatically change her entire life and not question things.  She does want to rebel a bit but she doesn't completely change who she is. She continues to hold her relationships dear and she makes an effort to try to fit into her new lifestyle.  Starcrossed is a great novel and if you haven't started this series yet you need to go out and pick it up ASAP.  

Ciara from Lost at Midnight Reviews

I think two of the best things in Starcrossed were the reimagined mythology and the family dynamics. I loved the way Josephine Angelini recreated these classic myths while still keeping the tradition strong. I was fascinated by the plot line and the way the Greek mythology was woven into the story. It was fresh and interesting and made me want to learn more! I also adored the Delos family! Coming from a big extended family, I could totally relate to the chaos in the house and the hilarious interactions. The clear bond the family shared warmed my heart and made for a fantastic book! I mean really, mythology and awesome characters? How could you not love it!

So there you have it: more reasons to read the Starcrossed trilogy. And if you missed it yesterday, be sure to check out all the giveaways I have to celebrate these awesome books!