Max

Max

by Sarah Cohen-Scali

Ok. No book talk on this one. According to my Kindle, I made it to 36% (finished chapter 13). I'm not even sure why I pushed that far. I just can't seem to care about this. Max is unsympathetic and just not relatable to me. Maybe some people love this, but I'm not one of them.

The Empath

The Empath

by Erica Crouch

Odessa's mother is a grifter who pretends to be a spiritualist in order to get all the fame and money that she can. Odessa is the real talent who feeds her mother the true information that is given to the customers.

Odessa can read palms, read cards, and see the dead, while her mother only acts like she can.

Despite Odessa's misgivings, her mother decides to conduct a seance on Samhain, It has the potential to be her biggest score yet.

It turns out to be her biggest mistake.

Now Odessa must step forward and take over the business with only her cards, her wits, and her grandmother's magical locket to protect her.

Because Odessa's mother let out a dangerous spirit and that spirit wants Odessa for himself.

Final thoughts: Quick read with very little detail. It's difficult to understand why Odessa stays after the attack, but it doesn't detract too much from the story. Everything happens so quickly that it's hard to pin down what's missing. Essentially, the story isn't really about Odessa as much as it is about the locket and that locket has more stories after this one. OK, but not great.

Rating: 3/5

Hush

Hush : An Irish Princess' Tale

by Donna Jo Napoli

Melkorka has been raised to be a princess of Eire. She has always believed that her father is a good king. When she convinces her father to let her go to the Viking town for her birthday, she has no idea that she's starting a chain of events that will lead to her own capture.

Mel had always believed that slaves deserved to be slaves. 

Now she is one. Now she knows that her father was wrong.

She's trapped and her only weapon against her captors is her silence. By not talking, Mel gets a small amount of control. But will the control be enough to get her any sort of freedom?

Final thoughts: This book is written for a young audience, but its themes are not that young. The language is stilted and broken. The plot plods a bit and there is relatively no action. Mel is realistically written, but still kind of dull. Additionally, near the end, Mel is raped repeatedly, which isn't written with much detail, but still may not be appropriate for younger readers. Decent read, but not strong.

Rating: 2/5

Out of the Easy

Out of the Easy

by Ruth Sepetys

Josie Moraine was named after a famous whore by her whore of a mother; but Josie is no whore.  And while she does work as a housemaid at a brothel, she doesn't want to be one of the girls who works in the upstairs rooms.

Josie's got plans.

If she can save up enough, she can get out of New Orleans and up to a private college where she'll finally get away from her mother's reputation.

But things are never easy in the Big Easy and Josie's got more trouble than she can handle.

Final thoughts: Historical fiction set in 1950's New Orleans, but that was sometimes hard to remember.  The tone and language often felt much older, as if it was set a hundred years before.  Josie is an interesting character who has read much, but is still a little naïve. I loved Willie, the madam of the brothel Josie cleans.  Cokie and Jesse are pretty great, too.  Some of the story felt a little forced, as if designed to create conflict, but not really desired as part of the overall by the author.  A good story with some well-written "real" moments.

Rating: 4/5

All the Truth That's in Me

All the Truth That's in Me

by Julie Berry

Four years ago, two teen girls disappeared.  Days afterwards, the body of one of them was found.  Two years after that, Judith finally came home, though she wasn't whole.

For two years, Judith lived with her captor, unable to escape until he set her free after cutting off most of her tongue to make sure she couldn't talk.

Now Judith is more reviled than pitied.  Her mother has forbidden her to even attempt to speak, even to tell her own story. So people assume that she was raped and that her maidenhood has been taken, making her a burden on society because no one would ever want to marry someone who was impure. 

But there is one person who inspires Judith and makes her want to share her story.  He's the boy she's known all her life.  He's the one she watches.  And he watches her.

When their small town is attacked, Judith must seek out the one person she should avoid and she must either learn to speak or watch everything be destroyed.

Final thoughts: OK.  Let's start off with the cover, because this is what is messing with how I feel about the entire book.  The cover is amazing, but it has pretty much NOTHING to do with the story.  The cover shows a girl with a modern hairstyle and a TON of eyeliner.  The book is about a Puritan girl and an early settlement.  She wouldn't have shown her hair, let alone had that style, nor would she have worn make-up.  So the reader opens this book expecting one story and ends up in a completely different time period, which made it a shock to read and distracted during much of the first part of the book.  HOWEVER, the book is amazing!  Written in first person and addressed entirely as if she was speaking to the boy she loves, the initial few pages take some getting used to, but are completely worthwhile to read.  Judith is well-written, caring, selfless, and honest.  Her story is compelling and her love feels real.  A beautiful tale.

Rating: 5/5

In the Shadow of Blackbirds

In the Shadow of Blackbirds

by Cat Winters

It's 1918 and the world has gone insane.

Mary Shelley Black's father has just been beaten and arrested for treason.  Mary Shelley escaped out the back just in time and ran to the train station, as her father had ordered, only to end up living with her aunt in San Diego.

And it's not just World War I, the War to End All Wars, that's got the country on edge; it's the Spanish Influenza.

Just about everyone thinks they know a way to ward off the terrible symptoms.  From salt in the nose, to burning sulfur, to keeping a potato in the pocket, everyone has tried everything, and nothing has stopped it.  

Everyone wears masks to try and prevent breathing in the disease.  

It's like walking through Death's playground.

When Mary Shelley arrived at her aunt's, she had hoped to meet up with a childhood friend (and recent romantic interest), only to find out that he has died in battle.

But his soul hasn't left yet.  And in a world where everyone is clinging to life so much that they believe certain people can take pictures capturing the images of the souls of loved ones, even the very practical and scientific Mary Shelley isn't able to remain a skeptic. 

Final thoughts:  I liked this one, but I fought it the whole way.  The real problem was that I kept trying to predict what was going to happen, only to find half of my predictions fly out the window throughout the book.  It was frustrating to think the book would zig when it actually zagged (more than once).  I also got a little tired reading about onions, since that seemed to be the only thing people ate (and that just started me thinking about the horrid smells and awful breath of the people back then).  In the end, when I just relaxed and stopped trying to predict everything about it, it became pretty good.

Rating: 4/5

 Even Mary Todd Lincoln (Abraham Lincoln's wife) believed in spirit photography.

Grave Mercy

Grave Mercy

by Robin LaFevers

Ismae wasn't meant to be born.

She was meant to be murdered in utero by the poisons forced by her father on her mother.

Poisons he purchased because Ismae wasn't his daughter; she was the daughter of death... literally.

Years later, after a failed attempt to marry her off to a violent man, Ismae is taken to the convent that worships the God/Saint Mortain: the god of Death.

For years, she is trained in the art of assassination.  She learned every possible way to kill a person from daggers, to garrotes, to poison (the poison one being her specialty, since she is completely immune to all of them).

Once trained, she begins the final steps to becoming a sister of the Order and assassinates the first two of the three she must kill as part of her initiation.  Unfortunately, the men she killed were on someone else's list, and now she must work with that someone to get to the bottom of a plot to destroy the very country Ismae lives in and loves.

But leaving the convent to save the country could mean ending all Ismae has ever thought she new about her world.

Final thoughts: This was OK, but I don't think I'll seek out the next one, especially since it seems to be following a different character who was mentioned a few times in this book, but not really discussed in depth.  Ismae and Duval's relationship felt a little forced.  However, my main issue comes from the author trying to explain, in detail, both the religious world and political world of her characters.  People keep referring to this as "historical fiction" and that's only true in a very broad sense.  Don't expect any real accuracy to time, people, and events here.  There were lloooonnngggg discussions about politics here that maybe needed some trimming.  And LaFevers' religious world seems to rely a LOT on Greek mythology with Mortain's story of love mirroring Hades and Persephone. 

And one more issue I have... why is Duval constantly grabbing Ismae's arm and dragging her from place to place?  It is mentioned at least once every few pages once they meet.

Rating: 2/5

Distant Waves : A Novel of the Titanic

Distant Waves : A Novel of the Titanic

by Suzanne Weyn

Jane Taylor was never in what might be called a "normal" family.  Her mother is a professed medium whom many believe can contact the dead and let them speak through her.  Her older sister, Mimi, is an non-believer who can't be in the same room during séances because she's always rolling her eyes.  Her younger twin sisters have a strange bond in which one seems to have the predictions, but can't talk, and the other talks for both.  And her youngest sister just wants to get out of their crazy town and live the high life.

Of course, it's not really a normal time.  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle writes about Sherlock Holmes and believes that all spiritualists are real.  Harry Houdini works to demonstrate that all spiritualists are frauds.  And Nikola Tesla is running around experimenting with electricity, vibrations, and time travel.

Unfortunately, all the spirits in the universe can't stop events from leading to one of the biggest maritime disasters in history.  And nothing can stop Jane and her sisters from being there to witness it all first-hand.

Final thoughts:  This is a poorly written piece of historical fiction.  The pacing keeps changing from slow to rushed to slow again and it often feels like a high school research paper gone horribly wrong.  Reading it is like witnessing Weyn's personal discoveries.  Ooh!  Tesla did this cool stuff, let's make him central.  Here's some interesting things about spiritualists of the day; I'll mix those in.  Houdini and Doyle would be great to have as cameos and it will prove I've done tons of research!  

Only read if you can read it for free.  (Though I will admit that the cover is hauntingly beautiful.)

Rating: 2/5

The Red Necklace : A Story of the French Revolution

The Red Necklace : 

A Story of the French Revolution

by Sally Gardner

Yann Margoza is a magician's assistant.  He also happens to be a Gypsy, and just happens to be able to throw his voice, read minds, and predict the future.

Unfortunately, one night, while giving a performance for an aristocrat and his guests, Yann sees a vision of blood and death.  The magician he works for also happens to make the mistake of recognizing one of the most dangerous men in France.  That recognition earns him his own death and forces Yann and his friend to go on the run.

That fateful night, Yann also meets Sido, the daughter of the aristocrat and a prisoner of her father's hatred of her.  Even years after they meet, Yann and Sido cannot forget each other or the love that was created after only speaking for a few minutes.

Now, the winds of change are turning in France and there is talk of revolution.  Yann must return from England to rescue Sido and his old friend from that most dangerous man, while also avoiding the guillotine.

Final thoughts:  The premise is interesting and there could have been something great here.  Unfortunately, the author's writing is stilted and strange.  It often felt like watching television while someone else controls the remote.  The point of view and location could change in an instant.  Also, it often felt like the author wrote as if the reader could see what she saw.  She wrote lines that seemed to come out of nowhere about nothing else that had been seen, and then she would skip writing descriptions completely, so the reader has to go back and re-read that one line hidden in a paragraph that explains the whole next chapter.

Rating: 2/5 - good premise, bad execution (pardon the pun)