Viral Nation - Shaunta Grimes

Well, you may have been wondering where A Bookworm's World resident teen blogger Ella has been hiding. She had to take care of some pesky schoolwork and university applications, so we haven't seen her in a while. But the summer is here and she's been accepted to Uni, so she has some free reading and reviewing time for us!

Ella has just finished reading the newly released Viral Nation by Shaunta Grimes.

Here's Ella's review.....

"I was lucky enough to receive a copy of Shaunta Grimes’newest novel, Viral Nation, to review. It turned out to be the perfect book for a start-of-summer road trip! It’s a YA dystopia, with several unique twists.

The story starts out with an amalgamation of every bad thing that might happen at some point to the US: a civil war, several natural disasters, an energy crisis, and finally, at the point where the narrative begins, a horrific virus that causes most of the population to rot to death. It initially requires a bit of suspension of disbelief, but I quickly became invested in the fate of the characters, in particular because of a heart-wrenching introduction. Luckily, the breakdown of society isn’t really the focus of the book. Instead, it focuses on the way the world is reshaped: 16 years after a cure is found, the Company, which provides the suppressants to the virus, as good as controls the 50 walled cities that the few survivors call home. As well, it has virtually eliminated violent crime by being able to travel 2 years into the future and back through a portal at the bottom of a lake (just go with it), letting the Company catch criminals before they have the chance to break the law. Unexpectedly scifi for the average YA dystopia, and very cool.

Clover, the book’s heroine, is 16 years old, brilliant and autistic. Her life-long dream of attending the Academy, the only place any sort of higher education is possible, is crushed when her service-dog is not allowed to go with her - a deal-breaker for Clover. She is then drafted to become a Time Mariner, one of the select few allowed to travel through the portal. Things start to fall apart when (Minority Reportstyle), her beloved brother and life-long guardian, West, is identified as a future murderer.

I loved Clover, and I found her autism to be interesting and respectfully written. It was an important plot point, and it definitely affected her life, but it wasn’t her defining characteristic. Her blunt and pragmatic personality made for a refreshing break from the “Sickeningly Perfect Except for a Few Endearing Flaws” stock heroine that can be all too common in YA books. A main character with actual new ground to cover was a fabulous treat. Her brother West was also great, as was the cast of other supporting characters. Half of them were introduced suddenly halfway through the novel, which was a little confusing, but otherwise it was smooth sailing, character-wise. The urgency of needing a daily dose of virus suppressant was a very fun way to make every risky thing they did even more exciting and kind of tense. Everything is more dramatic when there’s a danger someone could start turning into a living corpse if they don’t get the medicine in time.

With its unique collection of bits and pieces from other types of scifi, Viral Nation is not your standard take on YA dystopia. I sincerely hope there will be a sequel, because there was too much going on in this story to stop after only one novel. With Viral Nation, Shaunta Grimes is not pulling any punches, and the sky is the limit when it comes to unexpected plot twists. Danger! Excitement! Lots of surprises! A dash of non-stifling romance! People actually talking about and dealing with time travel paradoxes! Viral Nation has all of these and more for the scifi/fantasy fan. Thanks Shaunta!" Read an excerpt of Viral Nation.

Ella - your reviews are always wonderful! Thank you! Hopefully you'll be able to fit a few more in before school starts! And check out Shaunta's guest post as well - about her path to becoming an author.

Guest Post - Shaunta Grimes - Viral Nation

Resident teen blogger Ella has just reviewed Shaunta Grimes' new young adult novel Viral Nation. (Check out her review)

She also asked Shaunta about her path to becoming a published author.....

"I've known forever that I wanted to be a writer. It took a while for me to take the leap between wanting to be a writer and doing something about it. In between, I had several interesting jobs that could have become careers if my heart had been in it.

 My first real grown-up job was as a newspaper reporter. I was 24-years-old, suddenly a single mom with two tiny kids, and I answered a job-wanted ad looking for a reporter in a tiny Northern Nevada town called Battle Mountain. My first day on the job, I was sent to the court house to start covering a the trial of two teenage boys who murdered one of their entire families. Later I worked at both major newspapers in Las Vegas. I loved being a journalist, but it was too hard for me to do any other kind of writing after a full day writing news.

I've worked as a substitute teacher, and for a long time thought I wanted to teach high school English. I've tutored kids in reading and writing, taught creative writing through my local community college. I love teaching, and I hope that I always find ways to do it. In the end, though, my heart wasn't in being a classroom teacher.

I've also worked as a drug court counselor. That was the hardest, most stressful job I've ever had. I learned a lot at that job though. I learned that I don't have the fortitude to be a social worker. I learned important lessons about people and compassion that have definitely informed my writing.

I think the one big take away from my wide variety of jobs is this: follow your heart, but be open to learning from where ever you find yourself at the moment."

Thanks for stopping by Shaunta! You can find Shaunta on Facebook, on Twitter and at her website.

A Girl Called Digit - Annabel Monaghan

And here's a midweek review from our resident teen blogger Ella!

A Girl Named Digit by Annabel Monaghan.

"This is another light read. Farrah Higgins was nicknamed Digit because of her genius-level talent at numbers and math, but switched schools in order to blend in and actually enjoy high school, away from the pressure of her gift. She's outwardly average, until the day she spots a code during the opening of her friends' favourite teen soap opera. Unluckily for her plan to blend in, cracking codes is a hobby she shares with her professor dad. Soon after reporting her findings to the FBI, she's on the run from a terrorist group, being protected by a young (handsome) agent named John and helping investigate the case. Adorable romance and hijinks ensue.  I really liked Digit as a character, and enjoyed her smartness. Despite some identity issues and a few other flaws, the author managed to write a believable and likable main character. I hope there's a sequel!"

As always, thanks for sharing your thoughts Ella - see you at work!

Resident Teen Blogger Ella is back....

....with more of her great YA recommendations!

First up is The Selection by Kiera Cass.

"Part post-apocalyptic, part Cinderella, part The Bachelor (the TV show), this book was a serious mash-up. After a catastrophic war, Illea rose from the ashes of the USA. Society is divided into a caste system, and the kingdom is ruled by a royal family. The time has come for the Crown Prince to choose his bride, and all single girls who are of age are invited to compete for his hand. America Singer throws her hat into the ring to please her family, but all she really wants is to be with her lower-caste and secret love. She's shocked when she is chosen to go to the castle, one of 35 girls participating in the life-changing Selection. Once she gets there, though, things are different than she had imagined. Prince Maxon isn't as terrible as she had imagined, and castle life is constantly under the shadow of the threat of rebel attack...
This book was fabulous, from the gorgeous cover to the end. I enjoyed it in a way few recent post-apocalypse romance have managed. Can't wait for the sequel!" Read an excerpt of The Selection.

Up next is Ghost Flower by Michelle Jaffe.

"Michele's new thing seems to be writing crazy somewhat-psychological thrillers. If you read Rose Bush, another awesome book by her, you know what I'm talking about. Eve, a runaway,  has been hired by siblings Bain and Bridgett to impersonate their cousin Aurora, who ran away three years before, and get the fortune Aurora was set to inherit. As she slips into the role , Eve begins to wonder why Aurora ran away, especially when the ghost of Liza, who died the same night Aurora ran away, insists there is more to the story of her death than a simple accident. Despite very little actual action, the suspense in Ghost Flower was intense, and the reader is kept guessing until the very last page. Everyone is a suspect, and no one is telling the whole truth. Layers and layers of mystery to absolutely everything, and more than a touch of danger. Loved it!" Read an excerpt of Ghost Flower.

As alway, excellent recommendations and reviews Ella!

Reviews by Teen Blogger Ella!

Resident teen blogger Ella stops by today to offer her thoughts on some recent reads!

Fair Game, by Patricia Briggs

"Not a YA series, but TOO FABULOUS not to mention. Patricia has me eating out of her hand at this point. If she writes it, I will read it. Fair Game does not disappoint!!!!! The ending was AMAZING. I have not shrieked that loudly at a surprise twist for many moons. It's the 3rd instalment in her Alpha and Omega series, which happens side-by-side her Mercy Thompson series (also amazing). Werewolves and kin are the main protagonists, but fae, vampires, witches, etc also feature. Too big a universe to go into more detail: suffice to say it's a staple of the urban fantasy genre for a reason. YA authors should take note of the graceful way Patricia Briggs writes excellent, believable romances for her characters without stooping to overly angsty, drawn-out love triangles. Monogamy is okay, guys! Just because it worked for Stephenie Meyer does not mean One True Love is out." Read an excerpt of Fair Game.

The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

"To be honest, I pretty much skipped the middle of this book. I wasn't overly attached to this series for the first 3, so my attempt for number 4 was half-hearted. Spoilers for the first 3: Megan Chase, Prince Ash's true love, has become the Queen of the Iron Kingdom, restoring the balance of the fairy world. Iron is deadly to all fairies, though, which throws a wrench in their happy ending (Ash is a fairy). Basically, this is the story of Ash's quest to find a way to be with Megan.

If you were a fan of The Iron King, The Iron Daughter and The Iron Queen, then you'll probably really like it. I'm actually okay with Ultimate Noble Sacrifice endings, as Julie calls them in the Q&A, so I was satisfied with the ending in The Iron Queen. I just couldn't really care about Ash's quest. Most of the same characters were in it, so it felt kind of overdone. On the plus side, my copy had a sneak peek to her next series in it, Blood of Eden, which is apparently coming out April 24th: looks like evil vampires, nice and gory. Yay vampire apocalypse!" Read an excerpt of The Iron Knight.

As always Ella, thank you - your reviews are always entertaining!

Pandemonium - Lauren Oliver

Resident teen blogger Ella is back to school after March Break, but she got in a lot of 'not school related' reading last week! Here's one of her picks....

"Pandemonium is the sequel to Delirium, a dystopian novel about a girl falling in illicit love with a hot guy who's of limits because the Man's iron, dictatorial fist and wacky rules are keeping them down. If this sounds familiar, you've either read Delirium or one of the multitude of other dystopian books with the same essential plot. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Delirium: the idea of treating love like a disease to be hated, feared and operated away is pretty cool. Still, I wasn't particularly blown away by it. When I picked up Pandemonium, I was expecting your typical middle-of-a-trilogy YA book: as good as or worse than the first one, mostly filler, love triangle, blah, blah, blah. I was very pleasantly surprised to find myself really liking it.

The book picks up really randomly, with Lena (the heroine) pretending to be a cured girl in a New York City school. The next chapter is a flashback to immediately after Delirium, with Lena joining the resistance in the Wilds, the unregulated country between the cities where people who oppose the cure have escaped to. The story continues like that, Lena's present with the past six months explained every other chapter. All lot of others have tried this in books I've been reading recently, but Oliver pulled it off really well. Amazing pacing and character development. I was really impressed with the way she dealt with the growth of Lena's character. In Delirium, she felt kind of average, but she gets really cool in Pandemonium. Grief can be a tough one to write in a dystopian YA book, but Lena's was flawless, as was her healing process. As she grows stronger, both physically and emotionally, it never stopped being believable. There's a new male protagonist, Julian, and her feelings for him were spot on, as was her loyalty and love for Alex, her first love, who is presumed dead. He's on the enemy's side, but their relationship never enters the irritating realm of star-crossed-lover cliches. My favourite part, though, was that Lena gets tough. She's strong physically, but more than that she's self-contained, independent. She can think for and take care of herself, but knows when to accept help. A lot of heroines try for this, but don't quite meet the mark. Yay Lena!

The requisite shocking-twist-ending/hook-to-leave-you-with-bated-breath was predictable, but shocking enough to Lena that I gasped along with her. All in all, a solid read.

I would definitely suggest it to any dystopian fan! I think you could probably read it as a stand alone, but reading Delirium first might be a good idea. Nice job Lauren Oliver!"

And nice job to you too Ella! I always enjoy your refreshing take on books.

Read an excerpt of Pandemonium. You can find Lauren Oliver on Facebook and on Twitter and at her blog.

Embrace - Jessica Shirvington - Review AND Giveaway

Resident teen blogger Ella is back with her review of Embrace, the first book in a trilogy by Jessica Shirvington.

"I’m not actually sure how to summarize without giving anything away. Let’s see: Violet Eden is about to turn 17, but she’s not excited, because it’s also the 17th anniversary of her mother’s death (grim stuff, I know).  Luckily, she has her (hot,older) friend Lincoln, to distract her. Not long after though, weird changes start occurring within her, and things get a little more interesting…

I liked it, and not just because it has the coolest cover since The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer. A nice addition to the angel mythology, and, I was happy to see, the Lilith lore. It was action-packed without going too fast, and the characters were nicely fleshed out. I personally think it stands out among the many angel books that are currently floating around. Violet, the main character, is pretty cool, despite a series of terrible errors in judgement, and has huge potential to become a bad-ass, enchantingly lacking in the whining and Mary-Sue-ishness than can be found in way too many fantasy heroines. Case in point: she’s been unwittingly being trained by her friend Lincoln to be a warrior for several months, which means we get to skip the annoying ‘OMG, I wish the boys would stop protecting me, even though I have absolutely no self-defense skills of my own’ stage of the game, without an upsetting deus-ex-machina burst of magical power from the middle of nowhere.  On top of that, Lincoln is a total babe, and Phoenix is the original bad-boy (literally?). I love that Jessica managed to make this book fairly self-contained, but still leave enough loose-ends that I won’t forget to look for the sequel. So glad Australia decided to share!"

As always Ella, thanks for a great review! And if Ella has whetted your appetite, we have a copy of Embrace to giveaway! Simply leave a comment to be entered. Open to US and Canada. A winner will be randomly chosen March 31st. Or get a head start - read an excerpt of Embrace. You can find Embrace on Facebook as well.

Clockwork Prince - Cassandra Clare

New Year and new reviews from our resident teen blogger Ella.  Guess what she got for Christmas? Yep, a Kobo. And Clockwork Prince, by Cassandra Clare is the first book she's read on her new ereader.

"Clockwork Prince is the second book in the Infernal Devices trilogy by Cassandra Clare. It's a spin-off of her first series, Mortal Instruments, set in Victorian England, telling the story of the ancestors of the Mortal Instruments characters. It's one of approximately 4 steampunk series that don't make me want to poke my own eyes out with the corner of a paperback, probably because it's more fantasy than steampunk. She's one of those authors that I have never heard of someone disliking. I'm sure haters are out there, but I can't imagine why.

 There are too many spoilers from the 1st book if I give a synopsis of Clockwork Prince. Suffice to say, Tessa is a cool heroine, torn between 2 attractive guys, fighting a frighteningly sneaky bad guy, with a fabulous cast of supporting characters. Excellent worldbuilding, witty repartee, demons, descendants of angels, robots etc, etc. I almost woke my family up in the middle of the night finishing it, because it's so SHOCKING.

Definitely read them in order, though. It's worth it when you notice they have the same last names in both series. Read an excerpt of Clockwork Prince. If you don't have a kobo/kindle, whatever, I would strongly advise buying one.  I LOVE IT!!! Santa rocks! Hope you had a good Christmas!!!"

Thanks Ella - I know we're looking forward to more of your reviews in 2012!

Legacy - Cayla Kluver

Ella is back with her latest YA review - Legacy, by Cayla Kluver.

"I'll be honest, I picked up this book cause it has a cool cover. It also appealed because princesses in medieval-style realms were some of my first forays into the fantasy genre as a kid. I got hooked pretty quickly, though. It was clearly a first novel (the whole thing is written in quasi-almost-Hollywood-medieval speech, full of obnoxious thou's,  shant's and twas's,  but you only really pick up on it at first, while the author is hitting her stride) but it was still pretty captivating. The story is told by Alera, a princess who will be married on her next birthday. Whoever marries her will be king, and her father has pretty good idea who he wants. Of course, Alera loathes him (stay with me, it was a decent book). Where it gets interesting is that Alera's kingdom has an ancient enemy that they just finished a war with. 49 baby boys were kidnapped, and only 48 bodies where left to be found. Smack in the middle of Alera's marriage drama, baby 49 comes home, all grown up, raised by the enemy. Why did they take him? Why is he back? Why is he so cute? All questions Alera struggles with. Casual read, not earth-shattering, but definitely a sign to check in with Kluver as she gets more sophisticated as an author. I liked it!" Read an excerpt of Legacy.

You can find Kluver on Facebook and on Twitter.

As always Ella, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I'm so glad to have you on board as the resident teen blogger and can't wait to hear about your reads in 2012!