2012 is almost over, and we're all still here! I've been enjoying a relaxing week with my family leading up to Christmas. I've baked. I've written. I've read. A Lord of the Rings movie marathon followed our family reading and trip to see the Hobbit on the big screen. It's been a good week, and it's been a good year.

 

I am so glad to have spent another year blogging with you all in this fantastic community. Many thanks are due to Brenda Drake for all the work she does for fellow writers, and I am so excited to say that the awesome, startacular, brilliant Deana Barnhart, chose me as her teammate and mentee for Brenda's Pitch Wars, a pitchfest involving 37 teams and 16 agents, continuing to the final round on January 23-24. For more information about Brenda and Pitch Wars, click here. And please check out my mentor Deana here!

 

In writing, I've sailed my YA fantasy Trespassers through more revisions than I can count, and I've nearly finished the first draft of my NaNoWriMo magical realism project.

 

In reading, the bookshelves keep overflowing. My TBR list continues to grow, and there are never enough hours in the day to read. I wanted to wrap-up with some of my top reads of the year.

 

Best New Voice:

The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke

Best Contemporary:

Counting Backwards by Laura Lascarso

 

Best Fantasy World Building:

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

 

Best SciFi /Adventure:

Midnight City by J. Baron Mitchell 

 

Best Adult Read:

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

 

Best Conclusion to a Series:

Black Heart by Holly Black

 

 

 

And for my music of the day, I picked my favorite new album of 2012:

Synthetica by Metric

 

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year everyone! May your stockings be filled with books, and your homes filled loved ones!

 



 

Book Review: Midnight City

Today I'm reviewing Midnight City by J. Baron Mitchell, another book I read courtesy of the Southern Book Bloggers ARC tours.

The Summary, adapted from Goodreads:

Earth has been conquered by an alien race known as the Assembly. Holt Hawkins is a bounty hunter, and his current target is Mira Toombs, an infamous treasure seeker with a price on her head. It’s not long before Holt bags his prey, but their instant connection isn’t something he bargained for. Neither is the Assembly ship that crash-lands near them shortly after. Venturing inside, Holt finds a young girl who remembers nothing except her name: Zoey.

As the three make their way to the cavernous metropolis of Midnight City, they encounter young freedom fighters, mutants, otherworldly artifacts, pirates, feuding alien armies, and the amazing powers that Zoey is beginning to exhibit. Powers that suggest she may be the key to stopping the Assembly once and for all.

The teaser for this book bills it as War of the Worlds meets Lord of the Flies. I'd take it a step further to say it has the world-building of War of the Worlds meets the theme of Lord of the Flies meets the tone and character development of Joss Whedon's Firefly. Now I'm a big fan of Joss, so that likely went a long way in fueling my love for this book. (If you're a fan, too, let me entice you by saying Holt is undeniably a teen version of Captain Mal.) But that's not the only reason I loved it.

Mitchell has created a post-apocalyptic world so rich and diverse that you'll forget you're tired of dystopian. The characters are intensely likable and flawed, with a building attraction that fits the time and space perfectly. I also really appreciated the pacing, tension, and the style of writing, all of which I think would appeal to both reluctant, young male readers and anyone looking for a quirky but expansive story. (I don't usually recommend my YA reads to my husband, but I'm going to buy this one just so he can read it. That's how much I loved it.) The only negative? Waiting for part two in the series.

5 out of 5 stars.

Music for today: Well, of course, Midnight City by M83.

Book Review: Beta by Rachel Cohn

Happy December! First for a NaNoWriMo update, in case you were curious: I won! (Sort of.) I wrote eighteen chapters and a little over 50,000 words in the month of November on my YA magical realism manuscript codenamed Serenity. (A little Joss Whedon homage, which has nothing to do with the book at all, but it makes me smile to see that title in my file folder.) I can't quite say that I'm finished, though. I've got about five chapters and about 15,000 words to go, with a goal of finishing before Christmas. Anyhoo...

Today I'm reviewing Beta by Rachel Cohn, which I read through an ARC tour by the Southern Book Bloggers.

The Summary, adapted from Goodreads:

Elysia is a Beta, an experimental model of a teenage clone, created in a laboratory and born as a sixteen-year-old girl. Elysia's purpose is to serve the inhabitants of Demesne, an island paradise for the wealthiest people on earth. Beneath the island's flawless exterior, an undercurrent of discontent exists among Demesne's worker clones. Elysia knows she is soulless and cannot feel and should not care--so why are overpowering sensations clouding Elysia's mind?

If anyone discovers that Elysia isn't the unfeeling clone she must pretend to be, she will suffer a fate too terrible to imagine. When her one chance at happiness is ripped away, rage, terror, and desire threaten to overwhelm her. Elysia must find the will to survive before it's too late. 


Cohn transports the reader to Demesne, a perfect world where clones are slaves and the humans are still not satisfied, even when they have everything. She even does an excellent job of incorporating the outside world and political complications through the supporting characters. Elysia's voice rings true from the opening chapter, and my connection to her kept me turning the pages, even when I questioned some of the plot development.

In the interest of staying spoiler-free, I'll just say that one of the major plot propellants shocked me, and not in a good way. This is definitely an upper-YA book, with sexual situations and a violent turn. I read a wide range in MG, YA, and adult fiction, and these kinds of situations don't bother me when they're an authentic development of the story. In Beta, though, I felt a disconnect when the tone shifted dramatically in the last quarter of the book. I respect Rachel Cohn immensely as a story-teller, but Beta just wasn't my cup of tea.

3 out of 5 stars.
Music for today: Bring on the Night by The Police