It's Monday: What Are You Reading?

Okay so I did not stick to my previous said reading schedule as strictly as I wanted but her was my week in a nutshell. 

Last week Jenn read:

Last Week Jenn Listened too: 

Jenn's Current Reads:



Jenn's Current Audio

This week coming up Jenn has planned to Read 




Jenn's Audio:

What have been your great reads the week?

     

     

Review: Dark Energy by Robinson Wells

Title: Dark Energy 

Author:  Robinson Wells
Publisher: Harper Teen 

Publishing Date: March 29th 216

Pages: 288
Genre: YA Science Fiction Thriller

Series:  I think So???
Source: ARC

 

We are not alone. They are here. And there’s no going back. Perfect for fans of The Fifth Wave and the I Am Number Four series, Dark Energy is a thrilling stand-alone science fiction adventure from Robison Wells, critically acclaimed author of Variant and Blackout.

Five days ago, a massive UFO crashed in the Midwest. Since then, nothing—or no one—has come out.

If it were up to Alice, she’d be watching the fallout on the news. But her dad is director of special projects at NASA, so she’s been forced to enroll in a boarding school not far from the crash site. Alice is right in the middle of the action, but even she isn’t sure what to expect when the aliens finally emerge. Only one thing is clear: everything has changed.

I have read Robisnon Wells books and quite enjoyed them. So when I saw this one coming out, I got a little excited. I like his writing and I like stories about aliens. This book was short, bu it was a good solid read. I liked the characters, I liked the story, I liked the paced, I just wished there had been more at the end. 

Aliens have landed. In the processing crushing houses and farms and people but once they come out of their ship.... we can attack or negotiate or whatever the presidents wants to do. This is what Alice knows. Her father works for NASA... and shes knows they have done nothing yet with this spacehip... Are aliens even on there. Well Alice and her father have moved to the town of the crash so he can investigate and she can make new friends at a boarding school. They are in town just a day and the ship doors open. What comes out is not what they expect and it changes everything. Alice, her friends, and her family.... right in the middle of it all. 

So with alien books you never know what to expect other than spaceships and aliens. Really you can do anything you want go in any direction with aliens. I believe that Wells took a pretty cool route and I quite enjoyed it. 

This book was done very well for quite a short book. Anything I needed to know seemed to come out at the right moment and had all the important ohs and aws and huhs in the right places. The story of the aliens and was original, at least for me, and I really liked the direction it took. There was enough explanation to get me through and not leave me clueless and not too much to bombard me and make me bored. It was really fast paced, really easy read. 

I enjoyed the characters a bunch. The main character, Alice, is sassy but nice. She had enough snark in her to make me giggle but really she was just a caring sweetheart who wanted to take care of everybody. She was also very smart and very inquisitive...so as you can imagine this landed her into some trouble. There was a scooby gang quality that I always like in my books. I love it when a group of teenagers get together to get something resolved. Maybe its my age showing... but I do quite love it. 

There is a romance in the book. Its slow and of course it can been seen coming a mile away... but no insta love just a hey there is a boy.... hey I think he is flirting with me but time will tell.... I don't have time for this... oh I think I do because you know he is kind of cute... oh i guess he does really like me.... okay so maybe I can handle a boyfriend.... we will see where this goes... kind of romance. It was not swoony or mushy... just cute and just enough for what the book needed. 

I really hope there is another book coming out. The ending was not left wide open but it was left with a little suggestion of an opening. So I really hope there is more. I would love to read more. 

It was good. A little short but really good. A great sci fi book for those who haven't tried and want to or for anyone who already loves a good alien book. 

Robison Wells is the author of Blackout, Deadzone, Variant, Feedback, Dark Energy, and Airships of Camelot. Variant was a Publishers Weekly Best Book, a YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers and a Bestseller. Robison lives in the Rocky Mountains in a house not too far from elk pastures. His wife, Erin, is a better person than he will ever be, and their three kids cause mischief and/or joy.
Robison has an MBA in Marketing, and a BS in Political Science, with an emphasis in International Relations of the Middle East.
Robison suffers from five mental illnesses (panic disorder, OCD, agoraphobia, depression and dermatillomania) and is an outspoken advocate for those with mental illnesses.
His books have been published in nine different languages, and he is the winner of many awards both in and out of the United States.

Delightful Discoveries: Historical Fiction

Delightful Discoveries are books that I have discovered recently... old, new, just released... from blogs, Goodreads, libraries, friends, or bookstores. 

Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee 

San Francisco, 1906: Fifteen-year-old Mercy Wong is determined to break from the poverty in Chinatown, and an education at St. Clare’s School for Girls is her best hope. Although St. Clare’s is off-limits to all but the wealthiest white girls, Mercy gains admittance through a mix of cunning and a little bribery, only to discover that getting in was the easiest part. Not to be undone by a bunch of spoiled heiresses, Mercy stands strong—until disaster strikes.

On April 18, an historic earthquake rocks San Francisco, destroying Mercy’s home and school. With martial law in effect, she is forced to wait with her classmates for their families in a temporary park encampment. Mercy can't sit by while they wait for the Army to bring help. Fires might rage, and the city may be in shambles, yet Mercy still has the 'bossy' cheeks that mark her as someone who gets things done. But what can one teenaged girl do to heal so many suffering in her broken city?

Love Lies and Spies by Cindy Antsey 

Juliana Telford is not your average nineteenth-century young lady. She’s much more interested in researching ladybugs than marriage, fashionable dresses, or dances. So when her father sends her to London for a season, she’s determined not to form any attachments. Instead, she plans to secretly publish their research.

Spencer Northam is not the average young gentleman of leisure he appears. He is actually a spy for the War Office, and is more focused on acing his first mission than meeting eligible ladies. Fortunately, Juliana feels the same, and they agree to pretend to fall for each other. Spencer can finally focus, until he is tasked with observing Juliana’s traveling companions . . . and Juliana herself.

Traitor Angels by Anne Blankman 

Six years have passed since England’s King Charles II returned from exile to reclaim the throne, ushering in a new era of stability for his subjects.

Except for Elizabeth Milton. The daughter of notorious poet John Milton, Elizabeth has never known her place in this shifting world—except by her father’s side. By day she helps transcribe his latest masterpiece, the epic poem Paradise Lost, and by night she learns languages and sword fighting. Although she does not dare object, she suspects that he’s training her for a mission whose purpose she cannot fathom.

Until one night the reason becomes clear: the king’s man arrive at her family’s country home to arrest her father. Determined to save him, Elizabeth follows his one cryptic clue and journeys to Oxford, accompanied by her father’s mysterious young houseguest, Antonio Vivani, a darkly handsome Italian scientist who surprises her at every turn. Funny, brilliant, and passionate, Antonio seems just as determined to protect her father as she is—but can she trust him with her heart?

When the two discover that Milton has planted an explosive secret in the half-finished Paradise Lost—a secret the king and his aristocratic supporters are desperate to conceal—Elizabeth is faced with a devastating choice: cling to the shelter of her old life or risk cracking the code, unleashing a secret that could save her father…and tear apart the very fabric of society.

Gilded Cage by Lucinda Gray 

After growing up on a farm in Virginia, Walthingham Hall in England seems like another world to sixteen-year-old Katherine Randolph. Her new life, filled with the splendor of upper-class England in the 1820s, is shattered when her brother mysteriously drowns. Katherine is expected to observe the mourning customs and get on with her life, but she can't accept that her brother's death was an accident. 

A bitter poacher prowls the estate, and strange visitors threaten the occupants of the house. There's a rumor, too, that a wild animal stalks the woods of Walthingham. Can Katherine retain her sanity long enough to find out the truth? Or will her brother's killer claim her life, too?

The Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry 

I must write this account, and when I have finished, I will burn it. 

Buried deep within the archives of a convent in medieval France is an untold story of love, loss, and wonder and the two girls at the heart of it all. 

Dolssa is an upper-crust city girl with a secret lover and an uncanny gift. Branded a heretic, she’s on the run from the friar who condemned her mother to death by fire, and wants Dolssa executed, too.

Botille is a matchmaker and a tavern-keeper, struggling to keep herself and her sisters on the right side of the law in their seaside town of Bajas.

When their lives collide by a dark riverside, Botille rescues a dying Dolssa and conceals her in the tavern, where an unlikely friendship blooms. Aided by her sisters and Symo, her surly but loyal neighbor, Botille nurses Dolssa back to health and hides her from her pursuers. But all of Botille’s tricks, tales, and cleverness can’t protect them forever, and when the full wrath of the Church bears down upon Bajas, Dolssa’s passion and Botille’s good intentions could destroy the entire village.

Review: A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

Title:  A Study in Charlotte

Author: Brittany Cavallaro
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Publishing Date: March 1st 2016

Pages: 336
Genre: Mystery Thriller/Retelling

Series:  Charlotte Holmes #1
Source: Audio

 

The last thing Jamie Watson wants is a rugby scholarship to Sherringford, a Connecticut prep school just an hour away from his estranged father. But that’s not the only complication: Sherringford is also home to Charlotte Holmes, the famous detective’s great-great-great-granddaughter, who has inherited not only Sherlock’s genius but also his volatile temperament. From everything Jamie has heard about Charlotte, it seems safer to admire her from afar.

From the moment they meet, there’s a tense energy between them, and they seem more destined to be rivals than anything else. But when a Sherringford student dies under suspicious circumstances, ripped straight from the most terrifying of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Jamie can no longer afford to keep his distance. Jamie and Charlotte are being framed for murder, and only Charlotte can clear their names. But danger is mounting and nowhere is safe—and the only people they can trust are each other.

I have just recently read my first Sherlock Holmes book, A Study in Scarlet, and was quite impressed. I heard its not his best so I am excited that I liked it and the rest will get even better. I have noticed a ton of Holmes retellings coming out and I was very excited about this one. I love the title... Great play on the first Homes book, I love the cover. Simple but beautiful. I love the idea that its not a modern retelling but the story of descendants. I was super excited. Oh then it came out on audio. YAY. So I started it on the ARC and finished it on the audio. Loved the audio, loved the story, loved the characters, loved the mystery. It was pretty fantastic. 

James Watson is sent to a boarding school in america, Charlotte Holmes is sent to the same boarding school in America. They have never met but they are aware of each other their family's history. They meet. Watson is intrigued by Holmes, Holmes is not intrigued by Watson. They have some words and sort of hang out then they are framed for a murder. So they investigate said murder together to clear their names and find the real killer. The real killer is using the original Holmes and Watson cases as groundwork and of course this makes it all the more interesting. Of course they put themselves in mortal danger along the way, form a strong friendship, and solve the mystery. 

I really really liked this book. I have a few things negative but really not really. The pace was a bit off at times.... but it could have been me being distracted. The characters were a bit difficult in the very beginning to get attached too. Especially Charlotte Holmes... but once I knew them better I loved them. So those are my only negatives. So on to the good stuff. 

So the murder was fascinating. The clues were cool. The entire dectecive aspect was really awesome. I was way into and I had my suspicions but really I didn't think on it too hard because I wanted to just enjoy the story. I didn't want to figure it out until I was supposed to and that is how it happened for me. Generally I am itching to figure it out but I just didn't want to in this story. I wanted to follow their line of thoughts. It was fun really. Like I said fascinating. The writing was pretty awesome. It felt like modern but also had a hint of old school detective writing in the style. I enjoyed that element very much. 

The characters were something else. I really liked James. He was pretty laid back... sometimes a bit whiny for a guy but I forgave him. He had this made up world in his head where he and Charlotte would be like the first Watson and Holmes. He seemed pretty delusional but really that is how it happened to work out. Despite what Charlotte wanted. In the end Holmes needed Watson like always and that is what turned Charlotte from not wanting anything to do with James to really just wanting him around as a true friend. This is quite unusual for her too. She doesn't like people. 

James was a nice guy, trusting, willing to help. Charlotte was so the opposite. Screwed up, addicted to drugs, really uncaring and selfish. Sounds familiar right. Well she had a pretty hard time in life at home and at this school. It all comes out and I really just felt bad for. It was great that James and his father really showed her what friendship, trust, loyalty was all about. 

The story behind the story. The friendship and how it started and grew. The inside out of each character. Their flaws and strengths and lives is what brought the book to life for me. The mystrery was good for sure. Just how I like my mysteries to be... this one was... but the other parts of the story made it more real for me.... emotional and real. 

The narrator of this book made the audio so much fun too. I liked him and I think I will enjoy more from him.

I loved it and can't wait for the next book. 

Brittany Cavallaro is a poet, fiction writer, and old school Sherlockian. She is the author of the poetry collection Girl-King (University of Akron) and is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. She earned her BA in literature from Middlebury College and her MFA in poetry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Currently, she's a PhD candidate in English literature at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she teaches creative writing, detective fiction, and lots of other things. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband, cat, and collection of deerstalker caps. Find her at her website, brittanycavallaro.com, or on Twitter @skippingstones.