The Undercurrent by Paula Weston

The Undercurrent
by Paula Weston

Read: August 26 - 31, 2017

Published: July 31, 2017 by Text Publishing

Source: Purchase

Category: YA, Aussie, Future World, Military, Corporations, 

Find: Goodreads | Book Depository (currently only available overseas)

Preorder from Amazon 

Book Description: Eighteen-year-old Julianne De Marchi is different. As in: she has an electrical undercurrent beneath her skin that stings and surges like a live wire. She can use it—to spark a fire, maybe even end a life—but she doesn’t understand what it is. And she can barely control it, especially when she’s anxious.

Ryan Walsh was on track for a stellar football career when his knee blew out. Now he’s a soldier—part of an experimental privatised military unit that has identified Jules De Marchi as a threat. Is it because of the weird undercurrent she’s tried so hard to hide? Or because of her mother Angie’s history as an activist against bio-engineering and big business?

It’s no coincidence that Ryan and Jules are in the same place at the same time—he’s under orders to follow her, after all. But then an explosive attack on a city building by an unknown enemy throws them together in the most violent and unexpected way.

Paula Weston, author of the much-admired Rephaim series, returns with a standalone work: a futuristic thriller that is only slightly futuristic—but utterly and undeniably thrilling. Great writing, heart-burning characters, probing questions about where technology is taking us—and a plot that zips and zings like an electrical current itself. This is a great young-adult writerat the peak of her powers.

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I have been a fan of Paula Weston's books since I discovered her Rephaim series. As an Aussie author, her books take longer to reach the US, and I typically order them from overseas before they are published here a year or two later. That's exactly what I did as soon as I heard she was releasing a new title. While the Rephaim series remains my favorite, I had so much reading this book and meeting Weston's new characters. 

Set in Australia several years in a future, The Undercurrent starts almost right away with action and has a lot going on all the way through. Jules has an electrical current running beneath her skin, although she doesn't understand how or why it works. Ryan is part of an experimental military group. They meet seemingly by coincidence (it's not) when Jules goes to an interview and get caught up in a building explosion. 

Big corporations with greedy agendas, government secrets, fed up protesters, and the electricity surging under Jules' skin all combine for an explosive story. This book is mostly told through Jules and Ryan's perspectives, although we get other POVs as well. Although I looked forward to Jules and Ryan's narrative the most, I like the realism in the story in Jules and her mom Angie's close relationship and the role Angie plays in the book. As I've come to expect in Weston's stories, this one features great chemistry between Jules and Ryan, and a sizzling romance. Unlike this author's previous multi-book interlocking series, this one appears to be a standalone with a solid ending. 

I definitely recommend this book. It's available from Australia now, or for preorder from Amazon for next year. In the mean time, if you haven' read Paula Weston's Rephaim series, go do that now. 

Love triangle Factor: None
Cliffhanger Scale: Standalone - as far as I know. 

Black Bird of the Gallows by Meg Kassel

Black Bird of the Gallows
by Meg Kassel
Published: September 5, 2017 by Entangled Publishing
Read: September 5 - 7, 2017
Source: Kindle purchase
Category: YA, PNR, Ravens,
Find: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Book Depository | Indiebound

Book Description: A simple but forgotten truth: Where harbingers of death appear, the morgues will soon be full.

Angie Dovage can tell there’s more to Reece Fernandez than just the tall, brooding athlete who has her classmates swooning, but she can’t imagine his presence signals a tragedy that will devastate her small town. When something supernatural tries to attack her, Angie is thrown into a battle between good and evil she never saw coming. Right in the center of it is Reece—and he’s not human.

What’s more, she knows something most don’t. That the secrets her town holds could kill them all. But that’s only half as dangerous as falling in love with a harbinger of death. 
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Black Bird of the Gallows is a classic paranormal romance, but a smart one at that. The book begins in the typical fashion, with a new student arriving at school. This time it's our love interest Reece Fernandez, who moves in next door to Angie and joins her senior class in school. Despite being adopted, his entire family shares the same black eyes, and is followed around by large crows and a weird boy in a puffy coat who smells of honey. The house Reece moves into is one where a gruesome murder took place a few years ago and his family are the first people to live there since. Angie is not a stranger to tragedy herself, having lived for a lot of her childhood in a van with her drug addicted mother. But she now lives in a stable home with her father. Who is present and doting - if health food obsessed. 

Thankfully, Angie doesn't spent time lamenting about how clumsy or "plain" she is. She is a talented musician and DJ, even if she doesn't want everyone to know that about her. Angie's character fits with who she is and what she's faced in her life, and didn't feel like it was added to fit a "PNR heroine" stereotype. What I appreciated right away about Angie is that she calls Reece out on his evasive and brooding behavior and demands answers out of him. However, this did falter and fall into some common tropes in the second half that lost some momentum in this book for me. Namely, (highlight for spoiler) Angie breaks up with Reece to protect him at one point. (end spoiler) 

I though the harbinger of death angle of the magical element was interesting and creepy, especially when you throw in the beekeeper plot line. It's nothing I've read before. Though a lot of the details do mirror other PNR books. (highlight spoiler) I'd also argue that Reece is immortal - or nearly (end spoiler). I'll lead you to discover them yourself. 

Thankfully, this book wraps itself up well, and though I could see more coming from this world, I'm hoping that the author leaves Reece and Angie alone. Their storyline completes in a way that feels settled for them. Or at least, I hope it is. I do wish we'd gotten more details about how everything happened, as much of that is glossed over and then told in hindsight from the last chapter. 

Recently, I've struggled with PNR feeling like one trope after another, and though this book does play with a lot of the standard themes, I like the way the book was executed, (highlight spoiler) minus the "I'm going to break up with you to protect you part of the story (end spoiler), and I enjoyed Angie's narrative a lot. For fans of PNR, I recommend this one. 

Love Triangle Factor: None
Cliffhanger Scale: As far as I know this is a standalone

All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater

All the Crooked Saints
by Maggie Stiefvater
Read: October 15 - 19, 2017
Published: October 10, 2017 by Scholastic Press
Source: ARC from BEA
Category: YA, Magical Realism, Fantasy, Allegory, Desert, New Mexico
Find: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Book Depository | Indiebound

Book Description: Here is a thing everyone wants: a miracle.
Here is a thing everyone fears: what it takes to get one.

Any visitor to Bicho Raro, Colorado is likely to find a landscape of dark saints, forbidden love, scientific dreams, miracle-mad owls, estranged affections, one or two orphans, and a sky full of watchful desert stars.

At the heart of this place you will find the Soria family, who all have the ability to perform unusual miracles. And at the heart of this family are three cousins longing to change its future: Beatriz, the girl without feelings, who wants only to be free to examine her thoughts; Daniel, the Saint of Bicho Raro, who performs miracles for everyone but himself; and Joaquin, who spends his nights running a renegade radio station under the name Diablo Diablo.

They are all looking for a miracle. But the miracles of Bicho Raro are never quite what you expect. 
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It’s fair to say I’m a Maggie Stiefvater devotee. I’ve read her books multiple times (except Sinner), and The Scorpio Races is one of my favorite books of all times: i.e. I was a little excited to hear about her newest release, i.e. I’m very disappointed to say this story was just ok for me. 

Oh, All The Crooked Saints was rich in imagery of light and dark and owls and family and what it is to love and be loved. It has some fun and snappy dialogue that accompanies a host of unique characters. And I liked the cleverness of the way the darkness in each person became a physical manifestation. Of all Stiefvater books, this one seems to be Imparting a Lesson the most directly, though I don't think that's what threw me off. 

In theory, I could appreciate that this was a well crafted story with a solid and thoughtful ending. And I think the message contained within was well worth hearing. But, still, I struggled so much to get into it. And though I finally felt invested enough to finish, this just never wowed me. Something about it felt flat and hollow to me. I mean, Thisby is a made up place (much to my continued sadness) but it was so much more real to me than this setting in the desert of 1962 Colorado. And I think there were just so many characters to follow in this barely 300 page book that I struggled to feel invested in any of them. I’m going to read whatever else Stiefvater writes in the future, and I don’t regret owning this as part of my overall collection, but it’s going on the shelf to stay.

Love Triangle Factor: none
Cliffhanger Scale: standalone 

Speak Easy, Speak Love by McKelle George

Speak Easy, Speak Love
by McKelle George
Read: November 15 - 19, 2017
Published: September 19, 2017 by Greenwillow Books 
Source: Purchase
Category: YA, Retelling, Shakespeare, 1920s, Prohibition, 
Find: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Book Depository | Indiebound

Book Description: Six teenagers’ lives intertwine during one thrilling summer full of romantic misunderstandings and dangerous deals in this sparkling retelling of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.

After she gets kicked out of boarding school, seventeen-year-old Beatrice goes to her uncle’s estate on Long Island. But Hey Nonny Nonny is more than just a rundown old mansion. Beatrice’s cousin, Hero, runs a struggling speakeasy out of the basement—one that might not survive the summer. Along with Prince, a poor young man determined to prove his worth; his brother John, a dark and dangerous agent of the local mob; Benedick, a handsome trust-fund kid trying to become a writer; and Maggie, a beautiful and talented singer; Beatrice and Hero throw all their efforts into planning a massive party to save the speakeasy. Despite all their worries, the summer is beautiful, love is in the air, and Beatrice and Benedick are caught up in a romantic battle of wits that their friends might be quietly orchestrating in the background.

Hilariously clever and utterly charming, McKelle George’s debut novel is full of intrigue and 1920s charm. For fans of Jenny Han, Stephanie Perkins, and Anna Godbersen.
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Speak Easy, Speak Love is a retelling of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing set in New York during the 1920s. In sum, everything about this book was fantastic. This story follows six characters during the summer of 1927 - Beatrice, Benedick, Maggie, John, Hero and Prince - as their lives converge at Hey Nonny Nonny, a Speak Easy on Long Island. 

Drama, romance and hilarity ensue as these characters navigate running a nightclub during the prohibition era. The language in this book is seriously so good, most especially the snappy dialogue between Beatrice and Benedick, neither of whom I couldn’t get enough of. 
I could roll around all day in their conversations. 

I say this all the time, but my favorite retellings are those that take a story and make it their own and George does exactly that. I felt present in this 1920s setting and invested in these characters lives. I didn’t want it to end! There’s so much more I could say about this book, I feel inadequate to describe how amazing it is. Also goodness gracious, isn’t that cover gorgeous? I can just picture Beatrice and Benedick facing off. 

This is a book that nearly fell under my radar and I'm so so happy that it did not. Definitely one of my favorite reads of 2017. Put it on your holiday book list if you haven't read it already. 

Love Triangle Factor: None for 2 of the couples (my favorites). One of them does, yes. But totally worth it.
Cliffhanger Scale: Standalone. I cannot wait to find out what else this author writes! 

Renegades by Marissa Meyer

Renegades 
by Marissa Meyer
Read: October 25 - 30, 2017
Published: November 7, 2017 by Feiwel & Friends 
Source: Galley from Publisher (TY, Macmillan!)
Category: YA, Superheroes, Secret Identities, Future world, 
Series: Duet 1/2
Find: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Book Depository | Indiebound

Book Description: Secret Identities. Extraordinary Powers. She wants vengeance. He wants justice.

The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies—humans with extraordinary abilities—who emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone...except the villains they once overthrew.

Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice—and in Nova. But Nova's allegiance is to a villain who has the power to end them both.
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Having read and loved both The Lunar Chronicles and Heartless, it's safe to say that I am a fan of Marissa Meyer. I also went into Renegades expecting some things based on my experiences with Meyer's other stories. 

(1) All of Meyer's previous stories have started slowly for me, but once they've taken off, I've been hooked. I wasn't fully invested in The Lunar Chronicles until I read Scarlet and the excitement only grew with each book after that. Though Heartless is a standalone, it also took me some time to feel invested in that story. I can safely say that the same was true for my experience reading Renegades. I expected it to take me time for me to feel invested in this story, and it did.  

However, as Renegades is the beginning of a duet (instead of a quartet) and a long book at that, not as much was accomplished in the story as I anticipated/hoped. Much of it felt like a set up, and the characters and plot still seemed to be in the beginning of their journeys when I got to the end of the book. Tied up into my expectation of a slow start, is (2) my expectation that I have to let a lot of world building questions go in Meyer's books, which also happened to me in this story. I tried not to think too hard about how the world got this way, why so many people have powers, or some of the logistics of the Anarchists vs the Renegades. Previously, I've been able to (mostly) ignore these overarching world questions because the characters and plot have been so engaging. I'm not sure I fully got to that point with all 500+ pages of Renegades. 

More specifically, (this is where things get a little spoilery. I'm not giving away huge things, but some details you might not want to know if you haven't read this. You've been warned!) Nova and Adrian still don’t know each other’s alternate identities by the end. The only thing really accomplished is that Nova has successfully infiltrated the Renegades, which happens early, and Ingrid/Detonator is determined to be Truly Bad and killed, but that’s about it. By the end of the book, I expected that Nova or Adrian’s opinions would have started changing about their 'sides,' or there’d be a big revelation about their pasts to shed things into new light. But none of that happened.

There is a big reveal in the last chapter, and while it was a surprise to me, it didn't work for me as the big "Gasp!" "AH-HA!" moment that it was supposed to be. I think that's because I was really confused about whether Nova knew about it the whole time, and what that meant for the book I just read and rest of the story to come. Why, if Nova knew about that revelation, was it not brought up sooner? Wouldn't that have been a factor/strategy in everything she did? Wrapped up in this, I'm still not sure what I think of Nova at the end of this book. She certainly is a complicated character. Also, I don't like any of the people who "raised" her and she's still so loyal to them.

I am a huge fan of the enemies to love romance. It is one of my favorite tropes and one of the reasons I was most excited to read this book. I loved Adrian a lot. He is the sweetest. But the thing is, I just can’t fathom things working between him and Nova at this point. And that's left me feeling very uneasy. There is so little romance in this story and Nova and Adrian are still very much on opposite sides - he way more in the dark about everything than she is. I don’t know if I believe everything is going to reconcile itself. I think this is part of my feeling disappointed in how much is accomplished in this story, and unsure about my feelings about this book. I don't know if I can fully ship these two yet, and I need that to feel confident about where the story is going.

All that said, one thing I do love about this book is that neither the Renegades nor the Anarchists is all good or all bad. There’s a lot of complexity in how the two sides are draw. And I like that in a tale of superheroes, there’s no black and white/ all good vs all evil. Still, I liked many of the Renegades characters, despite also seeing their faults (Adrian's parents are good dads, despite some of their decisions and leadership), but I didn't end up liking the individual Anarchist characters all that much by the end. 

Even though I spent a lot of time talking about things that disappointed me in Renegades, I still enjoyed reading the story. I also can't wait to read the next installment in the series. I just wish I'd ended this story feeling more excited about where it was going. 

Love Triangle Factor: None
Cliffhanger Scale: Medium, no immediate 'hanging off of a cliff' danger, but definitely the middle of the story. 

Mini Review: The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street
by Natasha Pulley 
Read: July 21 - 26, 2017
Published: July 14, 2015 by Bloomsbury USA 
Source: Paperback from publisher (TY!)
Category: Adult, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Clocks, Time
Find: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Book Depository | Indiebound

Book Description: 1883. Thaniel Steepleton returns home to his tiny London apartment to find a gold pocket watch on his pillow. Six months later, the mysterious timepiece saves his life, drawing him away from a blast that destroys Scotland Yard. At last, he goes in search of its maker, Keita Mori, a kind, lonely immigrant from Japan. Although Mori seems harmless, a chain of unexplainable events soon suggests he must be hiding something. When Grace Carrow, an Oxford physicist, unwittingly interferes, Thaniel is torn between opposing loyalties.

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street is a sweeping, atmospheric narrative that takes the reader on an unexpected journey through Victorian London, Japan as its civil war crumbles long-standing traditions, and beyond. Blending historical events with dazzling flights of fancy, it opens doors to a strange and magical past.
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Every time I try to write more about this book, I can't manage it. It just feels as if doing so will spoil the magic of the story. Do you ever feel like that? As if, writing out all the details of a book in a review will take away from some of the magic of why you love it so? It doesn't happen with every book I read, but because it has with this one, I'm leaving this very short review as it is. But I highly recommend The Watchmaker of Filigree Street and The Bedlam Stacks, two of my favorite - and most enchanting - reads this year. 

I loved this book so much! The entire fabric of the story is gorgeous and in its seams is the tale of two lonely people finding each other. That and a bombing and pianos and a clockwork octopus and the ability to see future possibilities. The only thing I didn't like was Grace's role in the story. Although I've come to a lot more peace about her after the end, I was definitely not a fan of how some things involving her played out. But Thaniel and Mori stole my heart for sure. I cannot wait for more of Natasha Pulley. 

Love Triangle Factor: Low - there's definitely some romantic confusion. Feelings wise there's no triangle. 
Cliffhanger Scale: Standalone companion to The Bedlam Stacks