The Sweet Dead Life Author: Joy Preble Category: Young Adult Format: eGalley Publisher: SoHo Teen Release Date: 5-14-13 Jenna Samuels is having a very bad eighth-grade year. Her single mother spends all day in bed. Dad vanished when she was eight. Her 16-year-old brother, Casey, tries to hold together what’s left of the family by working two after-school jobs— difficult, as he’s stoned all the time. To make matters worse, Jenna is sick. When she collapses one day, Casey tries to race her to the hospital in their beat-up Prius and crashes instead. Jenna wakes up in the ER to find Casey beside her. Beatified. Literally. The flab and zits? Gone. Before long, Jenna figures out that Casey didn’t survive the accident at all. He’s an “A-word.” (She can’t bring herself to utter the truth.) Soon they discover that Jenna isn’t just dying: she’s being poisoned. And Casey has been sent back to help solve the mystery that not only holds the key to her survival, but also to their mother’s mysterious depression and father’s disappearance. – Goodreads

The first thing I noticed about this book was how smart and hilarious Jenna’s narrative voice is.  Her observations about her stoner brother and life as an 8th grader made me laugh out loud more than once.  Those funny moments were balanced very well with the more serious themes regarding Jenna’s mom and Jenna’s feelings of having to try to take care of the family since her dad disappeared.  I loved Casey’s transformation from “loser” to “A-word”.  Through Jenna’s somewhat cynical view, it was both touching and funny to read.  I loved their sibling relationship because it seemed very real to me.  There was a lot of love there as well as the normal frustrations that anyone with a brother will be able to relate to.  It was nice to read a book where the sibling relationship was the main focus.

On top of the family drama, there was a good old fashioned mystery that needed to be solved.  I thought this plot line was really fun and I had a good time trying to figure out what was going on.  The pacing was great and the mystery elements were very well structured and seemed to flow seamlessly within all of the other elements in the story.  Casey was meant to help solve this problem, of course, but he was still flawed and that brought out the realism in the mystery plot.  I know that sounds a bit silly since this book does deal with people turning in to angels, but Casey’s struggle with his new status could be compared to any adolescent life change.  It was still hard for him to deal with and I’m glad that it wasn’t all golden wings and harp music.  Overall, this book was a smart and fun read with a main character that will appeal to both tweens, teens, and adults.

This book earned 4 birds:

I received this ARC in exchanged for my honest review.

Find Joy Preble online:
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• Tags: Review, Young Adult•

A Spear Of Summer Grass Author: Deanna Raybourn Category: Fiction Format: ARC Publisher: Harlequin/Mira Release Date: 4-30-13 The daughter of a scandalous mother, Delilah Drummond is already notorious, even amongst Paris society. But her latest scandal is big enough to make even her oft-married mother blanch. Delilah is exiled to Kenya and her favorite stepfather’s savannah manor house until gossip subsides. Fairlight is the crumbling, sun-bleached skeleton of a faded African dream, a world where dissolute expats are bolstered by gin and jazz records, cigarettes and safaris. As mistress of this wasted estate, Delilah falls into the decadent pleasures of society. Against the frivolity of her peers, Ryder White stands in sharp contrast. As foreign to Delilah as Africa, Ryder becomes her guide to the complex beauty of this unknown world. Giraffes, buffalo, lions and elephants roam the shores of Lake Wanyama amid swirls of red dust. Here, life is lush and teeming-yet fleeting and often cheap.  Amidst the wonders-and dangers-of Africa, Delilah awakes to a land out of all proportion: extremes of heat, darkness, beauty and joy that cut to her very heart. Only when this sacred place is profaned by bloodshed does Delilah discover what is truly worth fighting for-and what she can no longer live without. – Goodreads

As a fan of historical romance, I was very excited about getting a chance to review this book.  Set in the post-WWI, pre-depression era, A Summer Spear Of Grass follows the journey of Delilah who appears to be a frivolous, often married socialite.  However, the story slowly reveals Delilah to much more than that.  While she escapes to Africa to avoid a scandal, she becomes more and more involved in the wildness and fierce landscape around her.  She notices the societal tensions that existed between the native population and the imperial British in power.  She experiences the dangers that people face every day in a land that is largely untamed.  As she grows and gets in touch with who she used to be, her relationship with Ryder completes her transformation from party girl to the person she truly is inside.  I loved the rich descriptions of Africa, the stories of the people she encountered, and the complex and bittersweet romance.  I think that anyone who loves historicals will enjoy this story.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Find Deanna Raybourn online:
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A sixth-generation native Texan, Deanna Raybourn graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio with a double major in English and history and an emphasis on Shakespearean studies. She taught high school English for three years in San Antonio before leaving education to pursue a career as a novelist.

Harlequin has very generously offered up two copies of this book to give away!  Two winners will receive a gorgeous finished copy of A Spear of Summer Grass.  you must be 13+ to enter. This giveaway is open to residents of the US and Canada.

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Welcome to my stop on the Love In Bloom Giveaway Hop hosted by I Am A Reader Not A Writer and Portrait of a Book.  I’ve picked a list of giveaway books that have a great romantic element to them.  Two winners will get to pick a book from the list

Nantucket Blue by Leila Howard
How Zoe Made Her Dreams (Mostly) Come True by Sarah Strohmeyer
Forget You by Jennifer Echols
Going Vintage by Lindsay Leavitt
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

I have recently moved to WordPress, so if you were following via GFC, please consider following using another method, like email, RSS, Bloglovin’ or Networked Blogs.  I would greatly appreciate it!

This giveaway is open internationally. You must be 13+ to enter.

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• Tags: Giveaway, Young Adult•

Welcome to the OF TRITON blog tour!  Check out all of the other stops here!

I am very honored to have everyone’s favorite Syrena brother/sister duo, Galen and Rayna, on the blog today!  I thought it would be interesting to get a little insight into their thoughts about relationships, humans, and living on land.

So, Rayna, what do you think about your brother dating a half-human girl?
I’m not surprised at all. He’s always been a weirdo. And that’s what he gets for making fun of how much I love collecting human stuff. At least I didn’t haul off and fall in love with one! Well, half of one, anyway. Actually to me, Emma is more human than Syrena. She’ll never fit in with us. Unless she does something with that creepy blonde hair, at least.

This one is for both of you – what is your general opinion about interacting with humans?  Pro or con?
RAYNA: You have to admit, humans are kind of dumb. I mean, we can pop right out of the ocean and go walk among them and they have no idea. There are humans out there more clueless than any Syrena would be fresh out of the water. How did your species even survive this long?

GALEN: Some humans are dumb, but there are some very smart ones out there too. Those are the ones that scare me. We’ve had some good experiences with them so far, but we’ve also had some bad ones, too. And more and more of them are finding out about us. I’m not ready to trust them just yet.

Galen and Rayna, what is your favorite and least favorite thing about living on land?
RAYNA: I love staying in Galen’s land house. I have my own room and it’s full of human clothes and nail paint and there are cookies hidden all over the place like under my pillow and in the drawers. One thing I HATE is that you get so dirty on land. The air is full of dust and the flowers seem to vomit this yellow stuff that gets on everything. Why do you love flowers so much? They’re filthy.

GALEN: My favorite thing about land is Emma. My least favorite thing about land is Emma—when she’s mad at me.

Galen, when you were kids, did you ever play pranks on Rayna? What was the best one?
Toraf and I brought her one of her favorite fish to eat. We’d filled it with squid ink so when she bit down on it…Well, it stained her teeth of course, but there was so much ink that it got into her nose too, and turned the inside of it pure black. We called her Cave Nostrils for almost an entire season after that.

Thanks for doing this, you guys!  Good luck with, um……..everything.

Find Anna online:  Website     Twitter
Find Anna on tour:  Fierce Reads Events
Grew up in a town called Niceville. No, seriously. I graduated from Niceville High School. So did J Lo’s second husband. And the guy that plays Aqua Man on Smallville dated my best friend.
Now I indulge my tendency to lie by writing the lies down and selling them to publishers. Well actually my agent does that. One of my lies is called OF POSEIDON. The sequel is called OF TRITON.

Oh, and if you haven’t heard, if you pre-order a copy of OF TRITON, you will get access to exclusive bonus content that includes the first chapter of OF TRITON (you get a little sneak peek ahead of time) and a scene from OF POSEIDON told from Toraf’s POV.  I’ve read this scene and you do not want to miss it. Find out more about it here!

The good people at Macmillan are letting me offer up a very generous giveaway!  One lucky winner will get a paperback copy of OF POSEIDON and a finished hardcover of OF TRITON, as well as a book mark.  Just fill out the rafflecopter below to enter. (You must be 13+. Open to residents of the US and Canada only)

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• Tags: Anna Banks, Giveaway, Macmillan, Young Adult•

Of Triton
Author: Anna Banks
Category: Young Adult
Format: ARC
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Release Date: 5-28-13
In this sequel to OF POSEIDON, Emma has just learned that her mother is a long-lost Poseidon princess, and now struggles with an identity crisis: As a Half-Breed, she’s a freak in the human world and an abomination in the Syrena realm below. Syrena law states that all Half- Breeds should be put to death.  As if that’s not bad enough, her mother’s reappearance among the Syrena turns the two kingdoms—Poseidon and Triton—against one another. Which leaves Emma with a decision to make: Should she comply with Galen’s request to keep herself safe and just hope for the best? Or should she risk it all and reveal herself—and her Gift—to save a people she’s never known?

Full confession:  I had a note on my calendar to request this ARC because I could not wait to read OF TRITON!  OF POSEIDON was one of my favorite “mermaid” books of 2012 and OF TRITON did not disappoint!  The cliff hangar at the end of OF POSEIDON was cruel and unusual punishment for readers and you will be glad to know that the story picks up right where it left off.  The twist that Anna Banks threw at us was brilliant and I loved getting the back story about Emma’s mom.  It was so different than the mom we met in book one and I loved that everyone changed so much.  (Anyone who looks for good character development in second books will be very pleased.)  OF TRITON had some extremely clever and funny writing that had me laughing out loud more than once.

Along with the very funny writing, there are moments of darkness that provides depth and contrast to the story.  Galen and Emma are in real danger and I promise that you will be laughing one moment and then finding yourself biting your nails the next.  The action sequences in and out of the water were nothing less than heart-pounding.  Be prepared, though, because there was one twist that I did not see coming and I’m still in denial that it’s true!  I love recommending this series to people because I really think that it holds a lot of surprises.  It’s a mermaid story with hot merguys and snappy dialogue, yes, but it’s also a well-paced action/adventure with plenty of one liners and plot twists to keep everyone happy.  I think that fans of this series will be very satisfied with this sequel and I am waiting impatiently for book three!!

This book earned 4 birds:

I received this ARC from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Find Anna Banks online:
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• Tags: Anna Banks, Feiwel and Friends, Review, Young Adult•

I am very happy to have Joy Preble on the blog today answering questions about her new book, The Sweet Dead Life, which is  being released on May 14th!  Today, I’m asking Joy a few questions about her new book, but don’t forget to visit the other tour stops and enter their giveaways, as well!  My review will be posted tomorrow and you won’t want to miss reading about this hilarious and fun book!

Here’s a little bit about The Sweet Dead Life:

Jenna Samuels is having a very bad eighth-grade year. Her single mother spends all day in bed. Dad vanished when she was eight. Her 16-year-old brother, Casey, tries to hold together what’s left of the family by working two after-school jobs— difficult, as he’s stoned all the time. To make matters worse, Jenna is sick. When she collapses one day, Casey tries to race her to the hospital in their beat-up Prius and crashes instead. Jenna wakes up in the ER to find Casey beside her. Beatified. Literally. The flab and zits? Gone. Before long, Jenna figures out that Casey didn’t survive the accident at all. He’s an “A-word.” (She can’t bring herself to utter the truth.) Soon they discover that Jenna isn’t just dying: she’s being poisoned. And Casey has been sent back to help solve the mystery that not only holds the key to her survival, but also to their mother’s mysterious depression and father’s disappearance. – Goodreads

1. How did you come up with the idea for THE SWEET DEAD LIFE?
The idea came from a discussion with my editor at Soho Press. Basically, he was beginning a new imprint and wanted to work with me. He had this two line idea about a stoner dude whose family life sucks for mysterious reasons and who’s working two jobs to take care of sister. One day the sister gets really sick and he crashes their car taking her to the hospital and dies and comes back as her guardian angel. For a variety of reasons, these two sentences really resonated with me. And I said, “I think it should be set in Texas.” I wrote some sample pages and eventually this became THE SWEET DEAD LIFE, a much larger story about family and love and the healing power of kolaches. Basically an angel book with a Texas makeover and a narrator with a voice that is in turns sassy and sarcastic, loving, bitter and insightful.

2. THE SWEET DEAD LIFE has a heroine who’s 14, which is a bit younger than many YA books.  What made you write Jenna as slightly younger than the typical YA age of 16 or 17?
Well, the simple answer is that’s how editor Dan initially envisioned her. But the more complex answer is that I really wanted Jenna to have a certain level of innocence in relation to her brother. She needed to be young enough that he felt truly responsible for her well-being. And young enough that their story would resonate more because she was young. We had a sense that this would turn into at least a two book series, so it’s been great fun to age her up a year in the sequel, which starts the night before her 15th birthday. She gets her first ever love interest in the sequel so pay attention in TSDL and you might be able to figure out who it’s going to be!

3. How does it feel to end one series and begin talking about and writing a new one? 
Scary. Fun. Thrilling. It’s nice that Jenna’s voice is a real departure from what I’ve written before, but there’s still a paranormal element so my fan base can come right along with me. Like you!

4. If you could pick any celebrity to be your guardian “A-word”, who would it be and why? 
Well, that would mean I’d have to kill them off first! But if you don’t tell him that part, my immediate answer is Robert Downey, Jr. Cause seriously, who wouldn’t want RDJ/Ironman saving her butt from danger? I forgive him almost all his excesses. I just do.

5. What are you working on right now? 
At the moment I’m doing the final big push of revisions for THE A WORD, which is the TSDL sequel and comes out next May, 2014. We just finalized the first 45 pages for a Soho Spring 2014 Sampler. And of course SWEET DEAD LIFE releases on 5/14, so I’ll be busy promoting. After that, I’ll be working on new projects for awhile. I hope to tell you more about that soon!

Joy Preble is the author of the popular and highly acclaimed Dreaming Anastasia series. A former English teacher, Joy grew up in Chicago and is a graduate of Northwestern University. She is now a full time writer and lives with her family in Texas, where she has learned to say “y’all” without any hint of irony. A tireless advocate for literacy and great books, she is at the center of the all-important Texas YA scene. Find Joy online:  Website     Twitter

Thank you, Joy!

Thanks to the good people at SoHo press, I have one finished copy of The Sweet Dead Life to give away to you!  You must be 13+ to enter.  This is open to residents in the US and Canada.  Good luck!

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This review is spoiler free if you have read The Immortal Rules

The Eternity Cure Author: Julie Kagawa Category: Young Adult Format: eGalley Publisher: Harlequin Teen Release Date: 4-30-13 Allison Sekemoto has vowed to rescue her creator, Kanin, who is being held hostage and tortured by the psychotic vampire Sarren. The call of blood leads her back to the beginning—New Covington and the Fringe, and a vampire prince who wants her dead yet may become her wary ally. Even as Allie faces shocking revelations and heartbreak like she’s never known, a new strain of the Red Lung virus that decimated humanity is rising to threaten human and vampire alike. – Goodreads

The Eternity Cure picks up as Allison is searching for her sire, Kanin, and still thinking about those she left behind in Eden.  The beginning of this book was not the fast-paced ramp up that The Immortal Rules was.  Rather, it’s a slow burn that builds to an inferno by the end.  I was a little frustrated with this at first, but I soon realized that the slightly more leisurely storytelling allowed us to know Allison as a vampire who is more comfortable with her condition and it allows us to get to know our new friend, Jackal.  Now, I was not a fan of Jackal in book one, but I must admit that he threw some interesting flavor into the cast of characters and I am looking forward to seeing where the series takes him.  His sarcastic humor and flashes of goodness made him a very interesting addition.  For all of you Zeke fans, never fear.  You will see him again, but no one is the same person we left in the first book, but that’s a good thing, I think.  The character development was spot on and I really felt that everyone involved showed growth, for better or for worse.

This series remains one of the few books involving vampires that I will read.  Kagawa once again does an excellent job of combining dystopian/post-apocalyptic elements with the vampire mythos.  I enjoy the way that Allison has grown and become harder, but without giving up her desire to keep the parts of her humanity that make her feel like she’s still alive.  You should definitely be prepared for a very emotional ending.  Allison has to make some heart breaking choices and I was not ready for the gut wrenching plot twist at the.  If the author wanted to make sure I was anxious for book 3, she has certainly done her job.  I think that The Eternity Cure was a solid middle book and I know that I am not the only one that will be keeping an eye out for the conclusion to this dark and twisted take on post-apocalyptic vampires.

This book earned 4 birds:

I received this galley in exchange fr my honest review.

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• Tags: Review, Young Adult•

Winger Author: Andrew Smith Category: Young Adult Format: eGalley Publisher: Simon and Schuster Release Date: 5-17-13 Ryan Dean West is a fourteen-year-old junior at a boarding school for rich kids. He’s living in Opportunity Hall, the dorm for troublemakers, and rooming with the biggest bully on the rugby team. And he’s madly in love with his best friend Annie, who thinks of him as a little boy. With the help of his sense of humor, rugby buddies, and his penchant for doodling comics, Ryan Dean manages to survive life’s complications and even find some happiness along the way. But when the unthinkable happens, he has to figure out how to hold on to what’s important, even when it feels like everything has fallen apart. – Goodreads

This was my first Andrew Smith book and after reading it I finally realized why he has so many devoted fans.  Winger was heartbreaking, honest, and  hilarious.  I don’t mean smile while you’re reading funny, I mean that I laughed so hard at parts of this book that I woke up my husband because my laughter was shaking the whole bed.  (Any book that has a haiku about getting kicked in the balls will always be number one in my heart, ok?)  The hilarity is artfully combined with moments of painful honesty that go perfectly with Ryan Dean’s raw and unapologetically hormonal narrative voice. The book is also filled with the cartoons and infographics that Ryan Dean creates, which adds to the humor and overall experience of reading this book.  For me, it brought me even further into the story because I wasn’t just reading about the cartoons that Ryan Dean was drawing for his friends, I was getting to see them, as well.  (I would like a graphic novel that tells Screaming Ned’s back story, please.)

The thing about Ryan Dean that I loved was that even though he is riddled with a lot of self-doubt, he really doesn’t let it hold him back.  He’s younger and smaller than all of the guys, but he plays rugby with everything he’s got, anyway.  He’s rooming with the biggest bully on the team, but that doesn’t stop him from crushing on said bully’s girlfriend. The girl he loves thinks of  him as a “little boy” but he never gives up.  Although some of his decisions made me cringe, I could not help but fall in love with the way he just decided to go big or go home.  Although Ryan Dean alone was entertaining enough, the people he interacts with at school were a big part of the reason why I loved this book so much.  Every relationship in this book was a treasure.  Even the most unsympathetic residents of Opportunity Hall eventually found a place in my heart, which I think is a testament to Andrew Smith’s writing and his ability to flesh-out the characters.  That ability to make you care about everyone is the reason why, more than halfway through the book, you will find yourself going from laughing to crying.  I wasn’t prepared for that and it made the book a very intense read, but if anything, I think it made me love it even more.  In my mind, Winger was ultimately a story about love and acceptance that was framed within the context of the complicated and confusing feelings of a hyper-intelligent teenage boy.  There are very few books that get it right the way that Winger does.  I am so glad that I read this story.  Read this book and you won’t be sorry.  Trust me on this one, folks.

This book earned 5 birds:

I received this galley in exchange for my honest review.

Find Andrew Smith online:
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• Tags: Review, Young Adult•

Invisibility Authors: Andrea Cremer and David Levithan Category: Young Adult Format: ARC (gifted) Publisher: Philomel Release Date: 5-7-13 Stephen has been invisible for practically his whole life — because of a curse his grandfather, a powerful cursecaster, bestowed on Stephen’s mother before Stephen was born. So when Elizabeth moves to Stephen’s NYC apartment building from Minnesota, no one is more surprised than he is that she can see him. A budding romance ensues, and when Stephen confides in Elizabeth about his predicament, the two of them decide to dive headfirst into the secret world of cursecasters and spellseekers to figure out a way to break the curse. But things don’t go as planned, especially when Stephen’s grandfather arrives in town, taking his anger out on everyone he sees. In the end, Elizabeth and Stephen must decide how big of a sacrifice they’re willing to make for Stephen to become visible — because the answer could mean the difference between life and death. At least for Elizabeth. – Goodreads

I think when I saw Davis Levithan’s name n this book I expected I lyrical and philosophical examination of identity with perhaps some unusual elements.  While the writing did show moments of great beauty, it wasn’t what I expected, but that ended up being a good thing.  Stephan was a fascinating character to me, being born invisible (yes, that will be explained in the story) and living a life where he has never even seen himself, much less had the people he loves see him.  This set the groundwork for some very touching scenes as Elizabeth is able to offer him something he has never really experienced; a chance to see himself.  After I finished this book I realized that the story operated on two levels.  Level one was the central paranormal plot that involved curses, newly discovered abilities, and a good old fashioned battle between good and evil.  The second, and perhaps more subtle level, was a story about a relationship that is usual, yes, but still had the elements that every intense teenage relationship has.  Yes, Stephen and Elizabeth fall in love very quickly.  I understood this more from Stephan’s point of view since he has been invisible his whole life and *BAM* a pretty girl is the only person who sees him. Of course he would fall in love with her.  However, their relationship carries all of the uncertainty and self-doubt that you might find in any contemporary novel.  Although Stephan is invisible to everyone else, he is seen by Elizabeth, so in that respect, there is a sort of internal normalcy to their interactions.  This is something at which Stephan appreciates more than the average teen would, I think.  I found that 2nd level of the story to be very interesting.  It was like a contemporary island in a sea of paranormal elements.

I think it’s fair to say that the language of a contemporary paired with the structure and story of a paranormal has thrown some people.  I admit that somewhere in the middle of the story, I was skeptical of how the whole thing would play out.  However, at some point I started to appreciate the way that the two very different elements blended together and I ended up enjoying this book.  It did have two very distinctive narrative voices, which I attribute to the two authors.  If you have read books by David Levithan and Andrea Cremer, you will definitely be able to tell who wrote what.  It worked for me because Stephen and Elizabeth are two very different people with very different life experiences.  It made sense to me that Stephen’s voice would be more contemplative because I think growing up in such an isolated way would make you more introspective.  Elizabeth’s voice was a little more bitter and jaded, but not hopeless, which fit well with her experiences.  I found Elizabeth’s brother to be a bit superfluous at times, although he was the reason they moved to New York, but his place in the story felt more like comic relief than a developed character. I wouldn’t say that it took away from my enjoyment of the story, though.  Overall, I gave this a higher rating because I thought the central idea was very different and the blending of the two genres really worked for me.  I genuinely liked both Stephan and Elizabeth and I appreciated an ending that was neither devastatingly sad nor totally happy which, despite a paranormal premise, seemed very relatable to me.

This book earned 4 birds:

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• Tags: Review, Young Adult•

Find out more information about this feature and my ratings here.

Partials Author: Dan Wells Narrator: Julia Whelan Performance: Excellent Available Now The human race is all but extinct after a war with Partials–engineered organic beings identical to humans–has decimated the population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by RM, a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island while the Partials have mysteriously retreated. The threat of the Partials is still imminent, but, worse, no baby has been born immune to RM in more than a decade. Our time is running out. Kira, a sixteen-year-old medic-in-training, is on the front lines of this battle, seeing RM ravage the community while mandatory pregnancy laws have pushed what’s left of humanity to the brink of civil war, and she’s not content to stand by and watch. But as she makes a desperate decision to save the last of her race, she will find that the survival of humans and Partials alike rests in her attempts to uncover the connections between them–connections that humanity has forgotten, or perhaps never even knew were there. – Goodreads

I actually started listening to this book while I was having a round of pretty unpleasant dental work and I have to say that it was still quite enjoyable! (The book, not the dental work.)  Partials is a long and slow build up which was nice because I really felt like the author took time to build this world.  The details about life after a total breakdown of society and its rebuilding was very interesting.  The combination of things we know now, things that would be lost in this situation, and advancements that were made created a place that felt very real to me as a reader.  The pandemic that caused the societal breakdown has had a devastating effect on infants and childbirth. (Please note that the first scene in this book involves the death of a baby.) It reminded me a little bit of Children of Man in that the survival of humans is in peril because of a lack of children. Everything  hangs on the cure for RM.  Kira is a smart and capable heroine who I really grew to like.  Her bravery did not seem over the top, which I think helped me relate to her.  The characters were all well formed and the very subtle romance added to the story without overwhelming it. As the plot slowly reveals itself, the story becomes more and more engrossing.  For a book that was very long, it was paced in a way that never seemed to drag.

The performance was part of the reason why I liked this book so much.  The narrator did a good job of voice differentiation and tone so that I always knew who was talking.  The emotion with which it was read helped keep the story going.  Overall, I thought that Partials was an excellent story with great world building and a riveting plot.  If you are like me and have been putting off reading this book, you might want to try experiencing this book through audio.

• Tags: Audiobook, Review, Young Adult•