Review: Flame of Surrender by Rhiannon Paille

Flame of Surrender by Rhiannon Paille

Goodreads | Amazon

Publisher: Coscom Entertainment (November 1, 2011)
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages (ebook): 280
Series: The Ferryman & The Flame (Book 1)
Source: Author
ISBN-13: 9781927339022
Genre: Fantasy
Author: Website

Bloom the weed of temptation and expire the great garden of life. Bloom the flower of sacrifice and sustain the great garden in strife.

The boy who follows death meets the girl who could cause the apocalypse.

Krishani thinks he’s doomed until he meets Kaliel, the one girl on the island of Avristar who isn’t afraid of him. She’s unlike the other girls, she swims with merfolk, talks to trees and blooms flowers with her touch. What he doesn’t know is that she’s a flame, one of nine individually hand crafted weapons, hidden in the body of a seemingly harmless girl.

__________________________________________________________________

Rhiannon Paille has created a wonderful and solid world of fantasy in her debut Young Adult novel Flame of Surrender. This book features two established characters Krishani and Kaliel as they are coming of age and facing the prophecies they are predisposed to fulfill.

It is easy to find yourself immersed in this tale of triumph, sacrifice, and love. At the moment, I regrettably have had to abandon our heroes in their journey for this book requires full attention and isn't meant to be read in simplicity. It is in the author's description and introduction to the world, that exist a lot of high intensity vocabulary worlds, as with any self created world, and a lot of concepts to absorb. This type of reading is akin to the same intensity that can be found wtih reading epic fantasies from authors like Tolkien or George R. R. Martin.

This book is not for the faint of heart or the light reader. Immediately, you are thrown into the lives of established characters in an established world and you should expect to have to catch up on your own. If you have the opportunity to tackle this selection, it could open up a world of fantastic wonder for you, but for some others, you may find yourself irrevocably lost which is where I found myself.

Review: Summer and the City by Candace Bushnell

Summer and the City by Candace Bushnell

Goodreads | Amazon

Publisher: HarperCollins (April 26, 2010)

Age Group: Young Adult (17+)

Pages (Hardback): 409

Series: Carrie Diaries (Book 2)

Source: Goodreads First Reads

ISBN-13: 9780061728938

Genre: Chick Lit

Summer is a magical time in New York City and Carrie is in love with all of it—the crazy characters in her neighborhood, the vintage-clothing boutiques, the wild parties, and the glamorous man who has swept her off her feet. Best of all, she's finally in a real writing class, taking her first steps toward fulfilling her dream.

This sequel to The Carrie Diaries brings surprising revelations as Carrie learns to navigate her way around the Big Apple, going from being a country "sparrow"—as Samantha Jones dubs her—to the person she always wanted to be. But as it becomes increasingly difficult to reconcile her past with her future, Carrie realizes that making it in New York is much more complicated than she ever imagined.

__________________________________________________________________

If you are a fan of Sex and the City (the show this series prequels) then I feel that you would absolutely love this book; if you are a big fan of Chick Lit, you could enjoy this book. I however, am not a particular fan of either of those two and abandoned this book half-way through the book.

I chose not to give this book a rating because it doesn't deserve a low rating but I didn't enjoy it either. This book has been on the bestseller list for three weeks and is written very well; the content is what I found not gripping.

In the beginning, I thought I had taken an appropriate risk because it started being about Carrie Bradshaw and about her struggling beginning as a writer...then we were introduced to boys. And drinking. And boys. I am not against sex in YA literature, but this book was over-the-top in sex and underage drinking and it quickly became the only focus and it was very distracting.

As I mentioned, this could be your cup of tea, it is very inline with the voice and style of the favorited show, but it doesn't shed an appeal to me and I had been so excited to read it.

Review: XVI by Julia Karr

XVI by Julia Karr

Goodreads | Amazon

Publisher: Puffin/Speak (January 6, 2011)
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages (Paperback): 325
Series: XVI (Book 1)
Source: Library
ISBN-13: 9780142417713
Genre: Dystopia

Nina Oberon's life is pretty normal: she hangs out with her best friend, Sandy, and their crew, goes to school, plays with her little sister, Dee. But Nina is 15. And like all girls, she'll receive a Governing Council-ordered tattoo on her 16th birthday. XVI. Those three letters will be branded on her wrist, announcing to all the world-even the most predatory of men-that she is ready for sex. Considered easy prey by some, portrayed by the Media as sluts who ask for attacks, becoming a "sex-teen" is Nina's worst fear. That is, until right before her birthday, when Nina's mom is brutally attacked. With her dying breaths, she reveals to Nina a shocking truth about her past-one that destroys everything Nina thought she knew. Now, alone but for her sister, Nina must try to discover who she really is, all the while staying one step ahead of her mother's killer.

_______________________________________________________________

Overview:

After spending some time reading this book, I was disappointed in the writing style and abandoned the selection. As a dystopian world, I didn't feel like I was being introduced into the world at all and there was a LOT of jargon and situations that left me confused and upset. There are simple things about this world that shouldn't be left to be explained later like the explanation on acronyms like FELS, PAV, AV, or terms like NonCon and verts and why they are so pivotal. I also didn't feel like the book was taking one the unique theme that I was expecting given the concept of XVI and the sex-teen.

Review:

This book is the first in a long time that left me disappointed. The first impression that I got was overwhelming; the world, I assume, had been like this for a while and for Nina to understand everything that was going on, I as a reader had no clue. There was so much that was thrown at me in the very beginning that I didn't understand that I didn't really even feel connected to the world or the characters.

This book had a unique concept and the idea of the exploitation of women is real; it was for this reason that I even picked up the book to begin with. But within the first 60 pages the concept wasn't appropriately executed and was nearly irrevelant to the story. Nina is seemingly afraid of sex, boys, and being a sex-teen. The impression I got from her friend is the opposite; at the mention of a boy, she gets overly excited and can't get sex off the brain.

I understand that each character is an individual but the extremities here made it hard to like either of the girls. The immediate introduction to them puts them at the forefront and to dislike Nina from the beginning means the book have to work even harder.

There may have been a deeper connection to the idea of the sex-teen and the exploitation that was revealed later in the book, but I couldn't sift through the jargon, the unexplained, and the characters to finish. I have chosen to supply this book with a rating because of the reasons I did not finish. It is in the interest of balance that readers get all opinions.

Rating out of 5: