Review: Free to Fall by Lauren Miller

Title: Free to Fall
Author: Lauren Miller
Genre: YA, sci-fi
Publisher/Publication Date: HarperTeen / May 13, 2014
How Did I Get It? Bought it
Format? Hardback

Synopsis from Goodreads: What if there was an app that told you what song to listen to, what coffee to order, who to date, even what to do with your life—an app that could ensure your complete and utter happiness? What if you never had to fail or make a wrong choice?

What if you never had to fall?

Fast-forward to a time when Apple and Google have been replaced by Gnosis, a monolith corporation that has developed the most life-changing technology to ever hit the market: Lux, an app that flawlessly optimizes decision making for the best personal results. Just like everyone else, sixteen-year-old Rory Vaughn knows the key to a happy, healthy life is following what Lux recommends. When she’s accepted to the elite boarding school Theden Academy, her future happiness seems all the more assured. But once on campus, something feels wrong beneath the polished surface of her prestigious dream school. Then she meets North, a handsome townie who doesn’t use Lux, and begins to fall for him and his outsider way of life. Soon, Rory is going against Lux’s recommendations, listening instead to the inner voice that everyone has been taught to ignore — a choice that leads her to uncover a truth neither she nor the world ever saw coming.

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Okay, so I’m pretty sure I can put my sci-fi likings into two piles. One would be the space and hyperdrives and aliens a la Ender’s Game and Avalon, and the other would be the really-close-to-our-society-but-really-effed-up-in-a-dystopian-sort-of-way a la Fahrenheit 451 and 1984. Free to Fall would be of the latter variety. Seriously, I haven’t been this astounded and had my view of life challenged since I reread F451. It was like…

The entire concept brought me right back to 9th grade, when I was sitting in American Lit class and we were discussing Thoreau’s Walden. My teacher was trying to argue that technology is evil and it’s turning the human race into mindless creatures who disrespect everything, etc., etc. Cue 13-year old me having a mini-meltdown because I couldn’t find the words to say NO TECHNOLOGY IS AN INANIMATE OBJECT WITH ZERO POWER AND IT’S HUMANS WHO MAKE THE CHOICE TO BECOME IDIOTS WITH OUR TECH in a classroom appropriate way. But thank god Miller could. That was the moment I pretty much went full fangirl mode because one of the big points in the book is that technology is simply a tool for us to use; it all depends on how we use it that determines the detriment or benefit. So huge kudos right there for that incredible plot point/theme.

I’ve made it known that I’m not a huge mystery fan, yes? Well, now you know: Kayla and the mystery genre are mortal enemies. No Nancy Drew or Boxcar Kids for this girl. And the Westing Game? Pshaw. HOWEVER! The twists and turns and the slight “whodunnit” aspect of this novel didn’t bother me at all. It was more of a thriller like – oh my god I figured out who it is but OH MY GOD THEY’RE THE GOOD GUY but then who is the bad guy. <— My thought process. You’re welcome. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, finishing all 400+ pages within a few hours. I may have gotten to the point where my mom called my name several times and I still didn’t hear her. I mean… I never get that invested in a book. Ever 😉

And okay, I have to give a paragraph to the characters and romance. I loved how Rory was just a girl – she wasn’t any archetype. She was strong, brave, girly, weak, grumpy, sometimes mopey, distracted by a hot guy – all of that and more. She was just trying to get through life in the best way possible, and in that she was a strong character. I mean just slow clap it out *again*. Because WOW we need more girls like Rory in YA fiction! And then there’s North – who relies slightly more on the freedom-fighting hacker trope, but still stands on his own nevertheless. I should also admit right now that I fell in love with him the moment forearm tattoos taken from literary sources were mentioned. If I had to pick a body part, it’d be forearms, and when you put tattoos on them oh my word I just melt into a puddle.

I hope that wasn’t TMI, but it’s the truth

As far as the romance – I thought it was a wee bit insta-lovey, but it was a slow burn. So I guess maybe insta-attraction? Okay, I lied. I totally loved the romance. There is seriously nothing I can complain about here! Every single word was just flawless. Sue me if I fell for a trope – I still love it!

Long story short – y’all need to read it. If you love sci-fi that’s really close to our society, but just a bit more creepy *shudder*, then Free to Fall may be for you. Aimee @ Deadly Darlings and I read this together, and she ended up giving it 3 (2.5?) stars, so you can check out her review here to see her side of the story. But as for me – FULL STEAM AHEAD! Now I just need to hunt down a copy of Miller’s first book, Parallel. Also: I’m so glad my professors had me read Dante’s Divine Comedy, because I actually caught a few of the references. And how the title relates to the theme and poem? Oh lordy it’s just like *mind blown* again.

My Final Rating:

Review: Plus One by Elizabeth Fama

Title: Plus One
Author: Elizabeth Fama
Genre: YA, alternate reality, romance
Publisher/Publication Date: FSG / April 8, 2014
How Did I Get It? Gifted
Format? Hardcover

Synopsis from Goodreads: It takes guts to deliberately mutilate your hand while operating a blister-pack sealing machine, but all I had going for me was guts.

Sol Le Coeur is a Smudge—a night dweller in an America rigidly divided between people who wake, live, and work during the hours of darkness and those known as Rays who live and work during daylight. Impulsive, passionate, and brave, Sol deliberately injures herself in order to gain admission to a hospital, where she plans to kidnap her newborn niece—a Ray—in order to bring the baby to visit her dying grandfather. By violating the day-night curfew, Sol is committing a serious crime, and when the kidnap attempt goes awry it starts a chain of events that will put Sol in mortal danger, uncover a government conspiracy to manipulate the Smudge population, and throw her together with D’Arcy Benoît, the Ray medical apprentice who first treats her, then helps her outrun the authorities—and with whom she is fated to fall impossibly and irrevocably in love.

Set in a vivid alternate reality and peopled with complex, deeply human characters on both sides of the day-night divide, Plus One is a brilliantly imagined drama of individual liberty and civil rights—and a compelling, rapid-fire romantic adventure story.

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After months of wanting and hoping to get my hands on this book, it finally happened! I was eager to get started, to see if it would measure up to 1) my expectations, and 2) that gorgeous, drool worthy cover. And… I’d have to say yes and no to those questions. Judging by the first half of the book, it’s a definite no. But the second half is really where the magic happens, and it made my forcing myself to read the first 150 pages all worth it. So in the end, I give this book a 3.5 – not quite the mediocrity of a 3, but not quite the “ooohhh that was fab” of a 4.

I have one big issue with the book that lowered the rating so much: the pacing. I’m sorry I keep using this quote in my reviews, but IT APPLIES EVERYWHERE OKAY?? I felt like I was “on a roller coaster that only goes up.” That tension and waiting of “what’s going to happen” just took forever, and it really started to drag after a while. I couldn’t find myself to care about Sol just yet, and the whole baby thing was a wee bit far-fetched for me. Normally I’d forgive it, but with the suspension of belief AND the slow plot put together, I got a bit grumpy after a while.

But! After I got over my griping and pushed past the halfway mark, that’s when things really picked up. I’d say I started to settle in and truly enjoy it once they got out of the city – that’s when it all started heating up. Gone was the senseless arguing (for pages upon pages) about WHAT to do with the baby, and in moved the tension and politics and romance-on-the-run. It sucked me right in and the last half flew by without me even noticing that I had reached the end of the book. AND THAT END. DAMMIT. I WAS NOT PREPARED. The high-brow reader in me was cheering for the realism and logic of the entire ending, but the sappy reader in me was shouting NO STAHP IT’S NOT MEANT TO END THIS WAY.

But the logic in me is winning out and so I say: well done with that ending! It was hard, but it was real, and it was bitterly hopeful at the end. I think it’s honestly the best way it could have ended, and I’m almost wishing there was just one more book – just a duology – so I can see what happened maybe a few years in the future. Maybe just a novella?? SOMETHING. And I think that shows how much I grew on these characters – by the end I was latched on to their fates, and couldn’t handle it if something went wrong. *shout out here to D’Arcy – nerdy dude who saves the day through intelligence and scheming rather than suddenly growing a set of biceps*

So while I’m glad that I was gifted this book, since I’m not over my head in love with it, I still think it was worth a read. I may even read it again someday, when I’m feeling really patient and can focus on unravelling the slow build of the explosiveness. If you’re on the fence about it, I’d say wait for an ebook deal or a few months for the paperback. In the end, my thoughts can be summed up in this way:

UNEXPECTED FEELS

My Final Rating:

Weekly Recap 34 (July 6) – The Birthday Book Haul

Well hello Sunday my old friend. I can’t believe another week has passed again! I was working a lot this week before the 4th of July, but I have a three day weekend so that’s nice. Last Sunday (my birthday) was really laid back and fun – my best guy friend ended up convincing me to go get fireworks with him, and then I made him take me to two different Barnes and Nobles so I could spend some of my birthday money. Then on the 4th we ended up shooting off about $200 worth of sparklers and fountains – and annoying the neighbors. Their next door neighbor is crazy sauce, and he lit three strings of firecrackers and chucked them over the fence at us. One fell right at my feet and snapped on my ankles before I could run away. All good fun 😛

Stacking the Shelves

To put it simply: the book ban is broken. And I think I did a spectacular job of breaking it! I was so blessed by my family and friends with gift cards and whatnot, and I had a blast picking up all these pretties:

Excuse me while I drool over them all again *heart eyes* Allow me to list them all and provide links so you can get these pretties too:

• Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour
• Love and Other Foreign Words by Erin McCahan (because Lisa was fangirling so hard!)
• Uninvited by Sophie Jordan
• Graduation Day by Joelle Charbonneau
• Free to Fall by Lauren Miller (Aimee and I will be tandem reading it next weekend!)
• Elusion by Claudia Gabel and Cheryl Klam
• The Treatment by Suzanne Young (I was going back and forth, but Andi said it was good, and I trust her)
• Scan by Sarah Fine (Cait calls it a “guy flick” in her review – aliens and explosions – perfect for me!)
• The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski (from my mom – already read it and LOVED it!)
• Plus One by Elizabeth Fama (currently reading – it’s interesting so far)
• Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken (I haven’t even read book 1 but it was super cheap)
• Eon and Eona by Alison Goodman (DRAGONS)
• Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge (I had an ARC, but never read it because I knew I wanted a finished copy. And now here it is!)

I also have a few books coming in next week that I ordered, so I’m anxiously awaiting those as well. When they come in, I think I’ll be set for my reading for at least two months! Probably three 😀 Honestly, I don’t even have a burning desire to read any specific one, because I want to read them all equally! So I’ve got plenty to choose from, whether I’m in a contemporary, sci-fi, or fantasy mood.

My mom also surprised me with the TFiOS soundtrack – *melts again*. It’s so perfect for the entire mood of the book; I still haven’t seen the movie, but I’m sure it’s perfect too. SO. MANY. FEELS. Especially track 5 (I don’t even know the names yet), and I love Boom Clap. I turn it way up when I’m driving to work every morning.

I also splurged and bought the disc (I had rented it from iTunes before) of Ten Inch Hero. I first watched it for Jensen Ackles, but it’s actually a really good movie! If you love cheesy, indie-ish, goofbally feel-good sorts of movies. It gives me the warm fuzzies ❤

In other news…

• I love all of you. Seriously ❤ All my birthday wishes on twitter and on my blog were the sweetest things to read all that day!
• It’s blazing hot here in California – it’s been a solid 100F all week, and nastily humid on top of that. I’ve resigned myself to being what I call “permanently damp” for the next three months – I’ve just not stopped sweating. Thank God for air conditioning and fans!

In case you missed it, last week I…

• Reviewed My Best Friend Death by Michael Anthony (RANTTTT)
• Shared my top ten classics that I love or want to read
• Saturated The Museum of Intangible Things (and made the cover 10x creepier)
• Listed my most owned authors that are also on my auto buy list (tagged by Veronica)
• Reviewed The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas (hooray for high fantasy!)

What’s coming up this week?

• Monday – Review: Some Quiet Place by Kelsey Sutton (reread review)
• Tuesday – First blogoversary celebration and international giveaway!
• Wednesday – Saturated Reads: Ronan and Kavinsky from The Dream Thieves
• Thursday – 30 YA Books that Changed My World
• Friday – Review: The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski

Hope you all have a good week!

Review: Alienated by Melissa Landers

Title: Alienated
Author: Melissa Landers
Pages: 344
Genre: YA, romance, sci-fi
Series? Yes, Alienated #1
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Publication Date: February 4, 2013

Synopsis from Goodreads: Two years ago, the aliens made contact. Now Cara Sweeney is going to be sharing a bathroom with one of them.

Handpicked to host the first-ever L’eihr exchange student, Cara thinks her future is set. Not only does she get a free ride to her dream college, she’ll have inside information about the mysterious L’eihrs that every journalist would kill for. Cara’s blog following is about to skyrocket.

Still, Cara isn’t sure what to think when she meets Aelyx. Humans and L’eihrs have nearly identical DNA, but cold, infuriatingly brilliant Aelyx couldn’t seem more alien. She’s certain about one thing, though: no human boy is this good-looking.

But when Cara’s classmates get swept up by anti-L’eihr paranoia, Midtown High School suddenly isn’t safe anymore. Threatening notes appear in Cara’s locker, and a police officer has to escort her and Aelyx to class.

Cara finds support in the last person she expected. She realizes that Aelyx isn’t just her only friend; she’s fallen hard for him. But Aelyx has been hiding the truth about the purpose of his exchange, and its potentially deadly consequences. Soon Cara will be in for the fight of her life—not just for herself and the boy she loves, but for the future of her planet.

Amazon |  Barnes and Noble | Book Depository | Goodreads

While Alienated turned out to be a sci-fi with a lot of contemporary roots, and not what I was expecting at all, I still really enjoyed reading it. The beginning had a lot of exposition and explanation, which tended to drag at times, but by the second half, Landers catches her pace and improves 100% in writing. The romance was totally swoon-worthy, and the characters were very well developed. Even the L’eihr were easy to connect to, despite their oddities. Overall, it had less sci-fi than I was expecting, but a great book all the same.

Lately, I’ve been on a huge sci-fi kick (cannot get enough of space and starships and aliens – any more recommendations PLEASE send them over because I’m running out!). So when Alienated was finally released on the 4th, I just had to read it! Not to mention the gorgeous cover – my shelves look so dressed up now. But I’m going to be honest here: Alienated didn’t turn out as I expected it. In fact, I wasn’t even sure I liked it until the second half. But I stuck through it, and I’m so glad I did, because this book ended up grabbing me and I hated it when it ended.

The first thing you should know (which I didn’t) before reading Alienated: it feels a lot like a contemporary in the first half except for the fact that Aelyx was an exchange student from L’eihr. The tech is mostly the same (except there’s a cure for cancer thanks to the L’eihr), and other than a few world-building references (like a woman president), it’s pretty much set in the same world as today. Once you get to the second half, though, the sci-fi elements really start showing up, and it turns into a mystery/adventure that is one heck of a thrill ride.

Like I said: the first half was rough to get through for me. There was a lot of exposition, but not a lot of world building, and a million hints at some shady business that isn’t revealed till later on. I’m not a huge fan of mystery and not knowing, but I can handle it. Alienated just reached a bit too far for me as far as the balance between excited and annoyed. HOWEVER! Once the exposition finally turned into moving plot and action, I couldn’t put the book down. There were so many twists and turns, and I really loved how everything turned out.

Now of course I have to address the romance. Because it was this beautiful mixture of sweetness and steamy. Now when I say steamy – there was nothing more than a kiss or two. But Aelyx has that exotic thing going on and… well… you’ll just have to read the book. Who knew that taking a pulse could be romantic? And then there’s the sweetness because Cara was totally committed to trying to help Aelyx assimilate to Earth; painting his room to imitate his own home, cooking a million different things till she found the recipe that mimicked his favorite L’eihr dish, and actually trying to get to know him and treat him as a human being instead of the weird alien in her house.

On top of the swoon-worthy romance, both characters can stand on their own as amazingly well developed people. Like I said: Cara tried so hard – there wasn’t even a moment of brattiness. She just accepted the life change and took Aelyx under her wing without a second thought. Aelyx was the perfect mixture of alien and human – I could understand him well enough to empathize, and at the same time he was inherently distinct as “not human.”

Despite my grumblings at the beginning of the book, at that last page I screamed at my copy – WHY ARE YOU OVER. There are so many unanswered questions and open ends that I NEED to have figured out. The sequel should be out, like, yesterday. I highly recommend this book as a intro into science fiction, or just a lighter version of sci-fi if you’re not feeling up to super techy terms. Or if you just want some epic romance. Either way, this book has it all.

Side note: Disney-Hyperion is quickly becoming a favorite publisher of mine. I’ve loved every single book I read from them so far!

Favorite Quotes/Moments:

When Cara’s mom is having troubles with her book club due to xenophobia towards her family after they took in Aelyx: (hilarious 50 Shades reference)

Mom tucked a black curl behind one ear and made a sour face. “And they keep pushing to read that unedited fan-fiction book with all the spanking. They know how I feel about it.” – pg. 130

When a mob of sorts comes to Cara’s house to protest Aelyx’s presence, and Cara’s dad steps in to take care of it:

Her dad’s voice boomed from inside the house. “I’ve got a Glock, a shovel, and five acres of woods, Johnson!” – pg. 134

When discussing religion on L’eihr, and Cara’s being a Catholic:

“I don’t mind. I don’t go to mass that often, but I believe in God. A lot of people quit believing when your Voyagers showed up, because aliens aren’t mentioned in the Bible. But that kind of thinking doesn’t make sense to me. If you believe God’s powerful enough to create the Earth in seven days, then why can’t He create other worlds, too?” – pg. 137

Aelyx trying to comfort Cara:

He . . . prepared the richest, most indulgent, and disgusting dish imaginable – a bowl of fudge ripple ice cream topped with chocolate syrup, semi-sweet chocolate morsels, chocolate sprinkles, and, for good measure, a chocolate brownie from the pantry. He even garnished it with a handful of M&M’s. . . . Tugging on her shoulder, he encouraged her to sit up while waving the bowl beneath her nose. “Look what I made for you. A bowl of diabetes.” – pg. 180

My Final Rating: