Review: Splintered by A.G. Howard

Splintered (Splintered, #1)
by A.G. Howard
Published: January 1, 2013
Publisher: Amulet Books
Available: Amazon

Synopsis:
This stunning debut captures the grotesque madness of a mystical under-land, as well as a girl’s pangs of first love and independence. Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers—precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now.

When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family. She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own.

Review:
Wow!! That about sums it up for me. For some reason after I received a galley copy of Splintered I stalled on reading this book, but once I started I couldn't put it down.

Howard has an amazing way with words, that pulled me into the story immediately. The characters, the setting, the romance, and the adventure were all exquisitely done. Am I gushing? I think so, but I also think it is deserved.

Alyssa is a skater girl with a crush on the boy next door, who just happens to be dating her nemesis. But Howard doesn't fall into the easy trap of stereotypes. Alyssa is weird, artsy, and likeable. Jeb is hot, nice, and the kind of guy I would have crushed on when I was younger. The connection between the two of them is evident immediately and there were so many points during the book where the interactions between them were heart wrenching. When Morpheus is added to the mix, Howard managed to create an intriguing love triangle that contributed to the story instead of taking over.

I read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland a few years ago and it didn't capture my interest. I had a hard time visualizing a lot of what the world looked like. Maybe that's why it took me so long to read this. Having seen the movie after as well as a theater production of it after I did at least appreciate the finer points. While reading Splintered a lot of little pieces clicked with me and I loved how I was able to connect it back to Lewis's work. Do you need to read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to follow Splintered? No. But it wouldn't hurt.

As of right now this is my top read this year. I absolutely can't wait to read the next book in the series!

Summer Giveaway Hop!

Happy Summer! Thanks to I Am A Reader and BookHounds for hosting this giveaway hop! For this hop I've decided to giveaway copies of Songbird, Lie to Me, and Heal Me. 2 winners will receive copies of Songbird, while another 2 winners will receive copies of both Lie to Me and Heal Me. After entering don't forget to check out all of the other blogs participating in the hop for more chances to win great prizes!

Songbird
There are defining moments in life when everything changes. For Dani Mays, it was the day she witnessed her father kill her brother. Now seventeen years-old, she still hasn't put it behind her. After Jace's death, she bounced between her alcoholic mother and foster homes, until she found a permanent place. And a reason to want to stay: Reece Tyler. He's her best friend, yet Dani wants more from Reece. Faced with losing Reece, Dani struggles to define his place in her life and escape the influence her memories of her brother's death have over her choices. Even as she weaves the pieces of her heart back together, the past becomes more than a memory when a former foster brother reappears and Dani begins receiving threatening phone calls.
 

Lie to Me
With a Truth Telling gift that has never worked, Phoebe Matlin accepted long ago that she was broken. Then one simple lie changes everything and suddenly the whisper of liar is ripping through her. Some lies, though, cover darker truths than Phoebe ever imagined. But knowing when someone is lying is the easy part. It's convincing everyone else that's the problem.

Heal Me
Her sisters think Lily has the easy gift. Who wouldn't love to heal people with a touch? But all that pain has to go somewhere and Lily's the one taking it all in. Then someone close to her dies and Lily's life spins out of control. Desperate to feel something, she clings to her friend Micah. When she begins falling for him, she realizes healing others is easy. It's healing herself that is much harder.



 
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Multipart Story Frustrations

I love reading series. There's something comforting about closing a book and knowing that there's a continuation of the characters' lives. I especially love picking up a book and already being invested in the characters before even turning the first page.

There are so many great YA series; Significance by Shelly Crane, The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I could go on for an amazing long time, those just happen to be three of my favs. The key with each series is that they stand alone, although not in a traditional sense of a stand alone novel. What I mean is that each book in the series is a complete book. They consist of a beginning, middle, and end. There is a problem and resolution, even if there is a bit of a cliffhanger at the end.

So what's my point? Well, it has to do with the huge number of indie and self-published books I've been getting from Amazon. I love going on to the Amazon best seller list and finding interesting free best sellers. It's a great way to find new authors and read books that I may not otherwise have considered. But lately I've seen a tendency for multipart stories. Meaning that the book I download and invest three hours of reading into ends before the ending.

I hate teaser novels. I hate how authors are trying to trick me into purchasing the other three novels in the series just to finish one story. It doesn't encourage me to buy the next part, it just makes me mad enough that I will never buy another of your books. If you want me to buy more of your work, then show me you know how to write a complete story, and hook me with your writing skills and character development.

As an author, I can understand this phenomena. It's an easy way to get your writing out there quickly, and a way to build up your log of published works. And I suspect it's a way to increase book sales and thus income. But I have to question if it really works. Do authors who do this really make more money by publishing incomplete works? I would suspect not.

While I can understand it, I don't like it. I truly think that it only perpetuates the bad rep indie and self-published authors already have of putting out poor quality work. And as a consumer it has made me more cautious. I now look at the estimated page count or file size and if it doesn't seem realistic for a full length novel I don't purchase it and that makes me sad. How many good short stories have I missed out on because I am suspicious of it being incomplete?

Maybe I am completely alone in feeling like this. This week I even spent a lot of time debating if this type of storytelling was something I wanted to do. Now I can't even figure out why I would consider it. I don't write to make money. That is simply a nice side effect. I write because I enjoy writing. I love knowing that I have done my absolute best work and that other people can enjoy my storytelling.

I'm not condemning authors who do this. I get it. And I'm sure somewhere out there are readers who love it. I'm just not one of them.

(Please note that I have absolutely no data to back up my assumptions. This rant is simply based on my personal opinion and experiences as an author and reader.)

Review: Kissing Tennessee by Kathi Appelt

Kissing Tenessee: and Other Stories from the Stardust Dance
by Kathi Appelt
Published: April 1, 2004
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Available: Amazon

Synopsis:
Mason and Carrie Marie can't get up the courage to ask each other to dance. Russ's girlfriend has died, and now he's just trying to live without her. Peggy Lee has grown up with Tennessee--how can she ever think of him as more than a friend?

In these moving tales and others, Kathi Appelt captures the sometimes amusing, sometimes touching missteps of some unforgettable students, who come together one last time for the most memorable night of their young lives.

Review:
I picked this up because really who can resist a bunch of stories centered on a dance? Okay, so lots of people. I however am not one of them. I was lucky enough that my junior high had dances every month in addition to the lunch time sock-hops the last Friday of every month (No, I didn't grow up in the 50's!).

I loved the idea of this book, and some of the story blurbs were exactly what I was looking for. That said, it just didn't deliver. I wanted drama, romance, fun, and a few tears. What I got was vague emotions from the characters, little to no character development, and a tiny little book with a large number of stories. I really feel that Appelt should have just focused on a few of the short stories and built them up enough to get the reader to actually care about what is happening. I can understand not wanting to turn everything into a novel, but even short stories need to have some character depth.

This would be a book I'd recommend for a tween with a short attention span.

Book Blitz: Wicked Hunger by DelSheree Gladden

Wicked Hunger (SomeOne Wicked This Way Comes, #1)
by DelSheree Gladden
Published: July 9, 2013
Publisher: GMTA Publishing

Synopsis:
Vanessa and Zander Roth are good at lying. They have to be when they are hiding a deadly secret. Day after day, they struggle to rein in their uncontrollable hunger for pain and suffering in order to live normal lives. Things only get worse when Ivy Guerra appears with her pink-striped hair and secrets. The vicious hunger Ivy inspires is frightening, not to mention suspicious.

Vanessa’s instincts are rarely wrong, so when they tell her that Ivy’s appearance is a sign of bad things to come, she listens. She becomes determined to expose Ivy’s secrets. Vanessa tries to warn her brother, but Zander is too enamored with Ivy to pay attention to her conspiracy theories.

One of them is right about Ivy … but if they lose control of their hunger, it won’t matter who is right and who is wrong. One little slip, and they’ll all be dead.

 

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wicked Hunger

by DelSheree Gladden

Giveaway ends July 31, 2013.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Excerpt:
Chapter 3: No Happy Endings

"I want you to stay away from that girl,” I say.

“But she’s Laney’s cousin. I can’t avoid her without doing the same to Laney.”

“Maybe that’s just how it has to be, then.” Giving up friends, it’s something Van should get used to, now, because it isn’t going to stop any time soon.

Van shakes her head. “No, Zander. She’s my best friend. I’m not going to bail on Laney like that.”

“You think she’ll be happy you stayed friends with her when you kill her pretty little cousin?” I snap.

Her head drops down, but I can still see the corner of her mouth twitching. “I can control it. I won’t hurt her.”

“You can’t guarantee that.”

“I won’t live like you,” she says quietly. “I won’t live alone for the rest of my life because I’m scared of hurting people.”

I sigh and close my eyes. “It’s not about being scared, Van. It’s about being smart. Stay away from her.”

For a long moment, she doesn’t say anything. Deep down, I’m hoping with everything I have that she’ll listen to me. I can’t go through it again. Oscar nearly broke me. She can’t expect me to go through that with her. I won’t make it. Please just listen to me, I beg.

When she finally speaks, her voice startles me. “She knows something.”

It’s just a simple sentence, but it ignites my anger like a match to a fuse. “She doesn’t know anything! Nobody does. Get that through your head and quit looking for answers, Van!”

My sister’s head snaps up and my hands tighten into fists at the determination in her eyes. “She knows something, and I’m going to find out what it is.”

Then she throws open the door of the truck and runs away.

About the Author:
I live in New Mexico with my husband and two children. I love expressing my creativity through writing and painting and I get a lot of my inspiration from my family and from the culture and beauty of New Mexico. I write mainly Young Adult urban fantasy, but my writing interests are ever expanding. I am also currently in the Dental Hygiene Program at San Juan College, so 90% of my waking hours are devoted to thinking about teeth for the time being!

Author Links:
Website / Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads / Amazon