Winner of Easy by Tammara Webber

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks to all who entered and to the lovely Penguin people who made this giveaway possible!

LiLi

Giveaway: Easy by Tammara Webber

A girl who believes trust can be misplaced, promises are made to be broken, and loyalty is an illusion. A boy who believes truth is relative, lies can mask unbearable pain, and guilt is eternal. Will what they find in each other validate their conclusions, or disprove them all?

When Jacqueline follows her longtime boyfriend to the college of his choice, the last thing she expects is a breakup two months into sophomore year. After two weeks in shock, she wakes up to her new reality: she's single, attending a state university instead of a music conservatory, ignored by her former circle of friends, and failing a class for the first time in her life.

Leaving a party alone, Jacqueline is assaulted by her ex's frat brother. Rescued by a stranger who seems to be in the right place at the right time, she wants nothing more than to forget the attack and that night--but her savior, Lucas, sits on the back row of her econ class, sketching in a notebook and staring at her. Her friends nominate him to be the perfect rebound.

When her attacker turns stalker, Jacqueline has a choice: crumple in defeat or learn to fight back. Lucas remains protective, but he's hiding secrets of his own. Suddenly appearances are everything, and knowing who to trust is anything but easy.

Thanks to the awesome people at Penguin, I am able to giveaway a copy of EASY by Tammara Webber. Setting off the trend of the "new adult" genre, Easy is geared toward a more mature young adult audience. This giveaway is open to US residents only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for entering!

LiLi

Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst

Title: Vessel
Author: Sarah Beth Durst

Hardcover: 432 pages
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
(September 11, 2012)
ISBN-10: 1442423765
ISBN-13: 978-1442423763

In a desert world of sandstorms and sand-wolves, a teen girl must defy the gods to save her tribe in this mystical, atmospheric tale from the author of Drink, Slay, Love.Liyana has trained her entire life to be the vessel of a goddess. The goddess will inhabit Liyana’s body and use magic to bring rain to the desert. But Liyana’s goddess never comes. Abandoned by her angry tribe, Liyana expects to die in the desert. Until a boy walks out of the dust in search of her.

Korbyn is a god inside his vessel, and a trickster god at that. He tells Liyana that five other gods are missing, and they set off across the desert in search of the other vessels. For the desert tribes cannot survive without the magic of their gods. But the journey is dangerous, even with a god’s help. And not everyone is willing to believe the trickster god’s tale.

The closer she grows to Korbyn, the less Liyana wants to disappear to make way for her goddess. But she has no choice: She must die for her tribe to live. Unless a trickster god can help her to trick fate—or a human girl can muster some magic of her own.

Review:

So in order to immerse myself into a novel with self-sacrificing characters, I knew I had to come to terms that it was the desert's people's way of life and they only way they knew how to survive for the next hundred-year cycle. I had to look at it this way or I would have gone mad thinking that all these crazy people  were in accord with human sacrifice for the greater good. Which, I suppose, they are. What I enjoyed so much about this book was the fact that this little nugget of disturbance did not go unnoticed throughout the whole, and was addressed accordingly.

Liyana saw early on that in order for the children of her clan, the Goat Clan, to have a prosperous future, she had to sacrifice her body as vessel for their goddess, Bayla. After performing the summoning ceremony, having exhausted herself dancing for the goddess, she realizes that Bayla isn't coming. That begins the domino effect that keeps the ball rolling throughout the rest of the plot of the novel. Because of Bayla's nonattendance, Liyana's clan exiles her and soon after she encounters the trickster god of the Raven Clan, Korbyn. Between the two of them they must find the other unsuccessful vessels of the starving clans, figure out who is stealing the gods and goddesses from their clans, and how to get them back. The only lead they have is the direction of their enemy and that it leads them away from the desert.

My favorite aspect of this novel was not only the creativity behind the unique world building but also the focus that was put into the journey that the travelers faced and not the destination. The vessel characters that traveled across the desert to save their respective deities included serene Pia of the Silk Clan, bombastic Fennik of the Horse Clan and flighty Raan of the Scorpion Clan. These characters had as much a significant role to play as did Korbyn. I don't mention Liyana in that list because she plays a more important role later on in the novel when she becomes more the heroine of the story than just another vessel seeking her deity. Overall, it's astounding how much each character that this motley crew of vessels encounters influences the story line. 

The maneuvering of obstacles and challenges presented in the plot was very evenly paced in Vessel, and I must credit Ms. Durst for accomplishing the installment of gods and goddesses roaming among humans. Another likable aspect I found when reading Vessel was the multitude of stories that were told about the history of the desert people. They gave the novel more of an established setting. Almost all of them depicted how something began or came to be in their world. And the stories weren't just read as tools to "fill in the blanks" about how the desert came to be, they were more of a traditional norm in how history was passed down from generation to generation. It also distinguished the "traditional" versus "modern" juxtaposition that occurs later on in the story when the "enemy" is introduced.

Finally, I have to mention how incredible the ending was for me because it included a little of "the circle of life" theme that most fantasy fiction novels don't tend to end with. When some of you read Vessel, you may not like it but I can see the hope and the second chance behind that little pool of water. (Plus, who doesn't like The Lion King?)

A

Source: Publisher

LiLi

Winner: Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you to all the participants and Media Masters Publicity!

LiLi

Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1) by Sarah J. Maas

Throne of Glass
(Throne of Glass, #1)
Sarah J. Maas

Hardcover: 416 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
(August 7, 2012)
ISBN-10: 1599906953
ISBN-13: 978-1599906959

After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.

Her opponents are men—thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the kings council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she’ll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom.

Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilirating. But she’s bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her... but it’s the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.

Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

Review:

Adarlan's Assassin was never supposed to be more than that. The Crown Prince saw her as an escape from the routine life of royalty, the Captain of the Guard saw her as nothing more than a killer for hire, and the King has nothing but a means to an end. Nobody expected her to be their savior, but that's exactly what she was.

After suffering through Endovier's torture of a jail, after being betrayed by someone she thought was the most loyal, Celaena Sardothien has to agree to win the fight to be the King of Adarlan's Champion. She knows she has what it takes to put up with four years of following the King's orders to get her freedom, but the challenges soon become nothing to worry about when Champion candidates start turning up mauled to death.

I liked the fact that Throne of Glass was told through third-person perspective as well as from multiple points of view because it gave this mythical yet medieval world more depth. The love triangle could be spotted a mile away in this book, but I do have to give it points for originality. However, with all the little hints made that Celaena came from Terrasen's royal family, I got the vibe that the Crown Prince and Celaena would do better as siblings than love interests. I was probably far off in that assumption but I can't really say that they go well together, romantically speaking. I guess this puts me in a more Team Captain Chaol than Team Prince Dorian. Chaol was more of a repressed character in this book and I would like to see him subtly get closer to Celaena, as well as both of them getting to know each other better.

As far as the writing goes, I had no problem with the flow of the novel, and have to say that the descriptive portions with the creatures and otherworldly power was honestly spot on and thrilling. I know this has to do more with the plot than with the writing, but I liked that Ms. Maas was able to incoporate the gruesome scenes and Celaena's fighting scenes so flawlessly into the story line. The true problem that I had with the plot was that there were so many hints and clues that there was more going on with the kingdom, the castle, and its King, but there were very little answers. I understand that there's going to be more installments but I would have appreciated a more concrete standing in this world that these amazingly dynamic characters live in.

Overall I think it was a decent start to a series with a haunted assassin with too many demons and only freedom in mind. Though there were too many questions about her past that were not addressed in this installment and perhaps a bit too many secret plots, there's hope for Celaena and her mismatched crew that consists of a besotted Crown Prince, a no-nonsense foreign Princess, and the hardy Captain of the King's Guard.

Also, for those who really liked this book I would highly recommend reading Maria V. Snyder's works, especially Poison Study, the first in the Study series.

C+

Source: Publisher via Netgalley

LiLi