Tag Archive | teens

Fox Forever, by Mary E. Pearson (book review) – a favor repaid, lives in danger

May10

book cover of Fox Forever by Mary E Pearson published by Henry HoltA prisoner with a secret,
A revolution waiting to explode,
A reluctant hero with a chilling secret of his own.

Uploaded into a memory cube as he lay dying, just as his two best friends were, after the car crash. Who knew so many generations would pass before Locke, Kara, and Jenna had new bodies for their minds to inhabit? Who knew that only Jenna’s parents had okayed the procedure? Who could imagine that Locke would be visiting his own grave in Boston?

Start with The Adoration of Jenna Fox  (#1) and The Fox Inheritance  (#2)  (my no-spoiler review here) at your local library or independent bookstore, then you’ll be ready for the outcome-not-guaranteed conclusion of this story spanning over 260 years.

Would you want to stay alive if it meant outliving everyone you loved?
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Book info: Fox Forever (Jenna Fox Chronicles, #3) / Mary E. Pearson. Henry Holt, 2013. [author site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer]

My recommendation: Locke owes a favor, and he’ll do whatever it takes to honor that – return to Boston where he’ll be hunted, befriend a stuck-up girl to get information, put other people in danger. And he’ll find answers to questions he didn’t ask, questions about Jenna Fox and redemption and fate.

It’s a Favor, with a capital F, someone calling in all the chips spent by others trying to get the teen safely to the West Coast after his escape from Gartsbro’s human lab, where the good doctor placed his mind into an improved body, generations after it was illegally downloaded just before Locke’s untimely death.

There’s big money at stake and the lives of thousands of people denied Citizen rights because their grandparents chose the wrong side in a political dispute, too. A leader of the Resistance in secret prison being tortured to get the account number before those billions of duros revert to whatever country the secret account is in, and the deadline is just days away.

So Locke has an impossibly short time to finagle his way into Security Secretary’s household through his teenage daughter, find secret maps to the secret prison, rescue the prisoner and get the account number to the Resistance… while not letting anyone know he was born over 270 years ago and is classified as non-human under current law because of the percentage of Bio-Gel coursing through his body.

Is the prisoner still alive and sane after 11 years in solitary?
Can Locke really infiltrate Raine’s posh inner circle without giving himself away?
How will the Resistance deal with the other information that he uncovers?

This third volume of The Jenna Fox Chronicles weaves the many threads and characters of the series into a heart-pounding conclusion as Locke discovers surprises and truths about himself, Jenna, Kara, and humankind. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Fire Horse Girl, by Kay Honeyman (book review) – from China to America, from despised daughter to freedom?

May8

book cover of Fire Horse Girl, by Kay Honeyman. Published by Scholastic | recommended on BooksYALove.comNot really believing in curses,
Curious as a good daughter never would be,
Escape to Gold Mountain would be paradise!

Jade Moon knows that her inauspicious birth sign won’t matter when she gets to America, right? But the tongs‘ control of San Francisco’s Chinatown could make it impossible for her to escape their evil clutches.

Look for this spring 2013 release at your local library  or independent bookstore to discover whether Jade Moon can truly find happiness in a new land.

What other immigrant stories would you suggest for young adults on BooksYALove World Wednesday?
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Book info:  The Fire Horse Girl / Kay Honeyman. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2013; Scholastic, paperback. [author site]  [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My recommendation: Small village, small minds, convinced that Jade Moon’s Fire Horse birth sign will curse anyone foolish enough to marry her. She will have to travel far from this small Chinese village to escape this bad luck, perhaps all the way to America, like her uncle.

But Uncle died coming back from the “Gold Mountain” says Sterling Promise, his adoptive son, Now Jade Moon’s father must pretend to be his brother, using Uncle’s identity papers so they can both enter the USA to pursue the family’s business interests, and they decide to take Jade Moon along to remove her curse from the family lands.

Up the river to the noisy bustle of Hong Kong, across the wide ocean by crowded steamship, Jade Moon and Father are coached by Sterling Promise in their ‘improved’ family history so that their answers will match when interrogated by the immigration officials. Only relatives with real business are allowed into the USA from China, though many others try to enter.

The shores of America look beautiful, but the Angel Island center is ugly. After weeks of waiting, Father fails the questioning intentionally, so Jade Moon is sure they all will be returned to China. However, clever Sterling Promise has bribed someone and will leave Angel Island on the next boat. Jade Moon’s desperation to escape the weight of village condemnation outweighs her fears as she cuts off her hair, locates Sterling Promise’s identity papers, dons his American suit and boards the boat to San Francisco.

Lost in the city, she’s almost caught up in a street fight, but is rescued by Harry Hon, whose father controls one of Chinatown’s ‘protection associations’ and is recruiting muscle and fists for the tong. She winds up staying at Mr. Hon’s home, being called Fire Horse, learning how to fight, helping Harry as numbers runner. Trying to ignore the dark sides of the Hon business becomes impossible when she discovers that a friend from Angel Island will be sold into prostitution and finds a way to help her keep her out of their reach.

Will the tong uncover her involvement in the escape?
How can she keep her identity secret when Sterling Promise appears?
Can this Fire Horse overcome old beliefs to find freedom in a new land?

Set in the waning days of the tongs’ power in Chinatown, this story of Jade Moon’s quest for a new life follows the twists and turns caused by her outspoken comments and daring choices. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

The Rithmatist, by Brandon Sanderson (book review) – chalk as weapon, geometry as war

May3

Book cover of The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson published by Tor TeenHe has the strategy, but not the power.
She has the power, but not the skills.
Their enemy has all three, and will stop at nothing to have more.

Welcome to a completely new alternate Earth of the early 1900s, filled with islands instead of our current continents, Korea as world power which has pushed out European culture, and Wild Chalkling beasts which threaten to overtake and devour all flesh-based life!

If only he was a Rithmatist, Joel could be such a strong defense against the Wild Chalklings of Nebrask (a nod to author Sanderson’s birthplace)… but the power has passed him by.

Read the Prologue and chapter one here (it’s not ch. 5 as header shows) complete with McSweeney’s illustrations , and you’ll be hooked on this quirky premise which unfolds to become much more than a novelty steampunk/alternate history tale.  Contact your local independent bookstore so you can grab it on Tuesday, May 14, 2013 in the USA (the UK release date is May 23).

Which alternate history world would you like to live in?
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Book info: The Rithmatist (Rithmatist #1) / Brandon Sanderson; illustrations by Ben McSweeney. Tor Teen, 2013.  [author site]  [publisher site]  [author video interview] (Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.)

My recommendation: n the right hands, a piece of chalk is defense against evil; in the wrong hands, it’s war on humanity; in Joel’s hands, it’s just chalk, no matter how much he longs to be a Rithmatist. When a schoolmate suggests that his dream is indeed possible, he leaps at the chance, right into a puzzle of kidnapping and conspiracy.

Joel is more interested in the Rithmatics lines that his late chalkmaker father studied than in his regular classes at Armedius Academy. Joel was sure that he’d be chosen as a Rithmatist at age 8, but events interfered with that. Who wouldn’t want to be able to defend the United Isles against the flesh-tearing Wild Chalklings with careful strategy and magic chalklines? The ability was granted to so few…

A new Rithmatist just back from the frontier of Nebrask displaces Prof. Fitch, ending the fourteen-year-old’s hopes of learning more about these arcane arts, for Prof. Nalizar is even more disdainful of ‘common’ students than the academy’s Rithmatics students (if such a thing is possible). Only Melody will speak to Joel as they spend summer term with Prof. Finch – she in remedial studies (her chalklings are stunning; her circles too wobbly to defend anything) and he as research assistant.

When an older Rithmatics student disappears, gossip says Lilly just ran away, but bloodstains and chalkling-attacked defense lines in her room tell another story. Inspector Harding of the national police arrives on campus to investigate, and Prof. Finch is given the task of uncovering any possible rogue Rithmatists.

Another advanced Rithmatics student vanishes, leaving signs of a chalk battle behind – now parents are worried, newspaper reporters clamor for details, and the investigative team at Armedius struggles to piece together the clues.

Is it mere coincidence that Prof. Nalizar arrived just before Lilly vanished?
Are the odd chalklines found at disappearance sites new Rithmatic lines of power?
Will the kidnapper strike again?

In his first novel for young adults, Brandon Sanderson unveils a brilliantly imagined alternative world where Korea’s JoSeun empire has invaded Europe and the Americas are many islands in a shallow sea, where machinery runs on clockwork instead of internal combustion and fear of the Wild Chalklings’ escape from Nebrask drives the Rithmatists’ training, where mere fragments of simple chalk stand between chaos and civilization. Ben McSweeney’s illustrations of Rithmatics lines enhance descriptions of the defenses, duels and battles, while readers can only hope that the Chalkling attackers that he draws stay firmly on the pages. First in a series that promises more adventure, magic, and treachery. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Z for zzzzz – Stung, by Bethany Wiggins (book review) – bees extinct, humanity next?

Apr30

book cover of Stung by Bethany Wiggins published by Walker BloomsburyNo bees, no pollination.
No pollination, no food.
No food, now anarchy.

Bee flu? Bioengineered bee-replacements? Vaccine-induced madness coupled with super-human strength? Not the Denver that I want to visit…

You can read an excerpt from the first chapter of Stung  here.

Will we be able to save today’s normal bees and save ourselves?
**kmm

Book info:  Stung / Bethany Wiggins. Walker & Company, 2013.  [author blog]  [publisher site]  [book trailer]

My recommendation: Fiona suddenly awakens in her bedroom, clean in a world of filth and dust, looking like she’s seventeen yet feeling thirteen. She knows she must hide the ten-legged tattoo on her hand, but can’t remember why.

Attacked by a snarling savage man who might be her brother, she flees her family’s shattered house, seeking answers, finding hostility from neighbors. Reward posters offer ounces of rarer-than-gold honey for live captives with the tattoo – she recalls something about bees dying.

Rescued from vicious men by a ragged child, Fi finds a world of refugee Fecs in the sewers. The tattooed ones turn violent as teenagers and are hunted down by the militia before they can mindlessly attack the clean citizens behind the Wall. A three can break a strong man’s arm without effort – what could a ten like Fiona do? But she still feels human…

An attempt to rescue a three from the militia goes wrong, and Fiona is sonic-shocked. She recognizes her captor as Bowen, her next-door-neighbor, the younger brother. He is stunned to hear her speak, as the violent impulses always choke out rational thought.

Eventually convinced that Fiona won’t turn violent, Bowen tells her what’s happened during her four-year memory gap. Scientists tried to rescue dwindling bee populations and created disease, tried to cure the disease and created monsters. Each leg on a tattoo means one dose received –  and one step closer to violence and madness. People with no tattoo weren’t exposed to the cure and won’t turn violent, so healthy ones can live inside the Wall – for a time.

But something is wrong with this theory – if Fiona has ten marks, why isn’t she a mindless monster by now? How did she suddenly appear in a clean dress in her old house? Why can’t she remember the past four years? Why does the Governor want her so badly that he offers full life inside the Wall for her capture, dead or alive?

Battling against more than just loss of water and resources, Fiona and Bowen work on the mystery as they try to escape from the militia, the slavetraders, the Fecs, and the Governor in a frightening future where not one bee buzzes. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

X for eXamine the evidence – Death Cloud, by Andrew Lane (book review) – young Sherlock’s first case!

Apr27

book cover of Death Cloud by Andrew Lane published by Farrar Straus GirouxSlack smoke, yellow dust, red boils,
Secretive Baron whom no one sees outside his villa,
Dead men tell no tales,
The game is afoot!

Summer holiday from school turns into a race to solve this mystery before more people die as Sherlock meets the unspoken-of Holmes side of his family, a canal-boat owning orphan, and an independent American miss.

This is the first young adult series about Sherlock Holmes authorized by the estate of the great detective’s creator.
paperback cover of Death Cloud by Andrew Lane published by Square Fish
Find Death Cloud and the following four books of the series at your local library or independent bookstore.

Which cover art do you prefer – the realistic young gent of the hardcover edition or the explosive red of the paperback?
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Book info: Death Cloud (Young Sherlock Holmes, book 1) / Andrew Lane. Farrar Straus Giroux, hardcover 2010; Square Fish Books, paperback 2011. [author site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer]

My recommendation: Shuffled off to stay during school holiday with relatives he’s never met, Sherlock is not a happy young man. However, strange occurences near his uncle’s country home soon pique his interest, and his new American tutor teaches him observation skills that bring the fourteen-year-old much closer to evildoers than any of them want.

With Father just posted to India,  Mother suddenly unwell, and older brother Mycroft working in London, it’s just not possible for Sherlock to go home over the 1868 school break as he’d so anticipated. But to be forced to stay with a pious aunt and an eccentric uncle who has hired a tutor for him when just wants to ramble the woods and think!

Luckily, Mr. Crowe is an untraditional tutor, skipping over Latin verbs to show Sherlock how to carefully observe the world around him, skills that serve him well when they find a dead man at the edge of Uncle’s land, a man with boils all over his skin. Recently, another man in town had died with such marks on him said his new pal Matty, who spoke of black smoke which went into the dead man’s room – is it the plague?

Many townspeople work making uniforms for the British Army as hostilities against the French heat up, and the mysterious Baron has arrived to inspect his warehouses in Farnham. Sherlock discovers that both dead men had worked at the factory, Mr. Crowe’s daughter Virginia decides she won’t be left out, and the three teens scout for more clues in this threatening puzzle.

Did the yellow powder found near both men cause their deaths?
Does the Baron’s visit have anything to do with this?
Why is the Holmes’ housekeeper suddenly trying to keep Sherlock indoors?

Wild inventions and political intrigue are just some of the dangers that Sherlock, Matty, and Virginia must face as they race to prevent more deaths in this first book of the Young Sherlock Holmes series, fully authorized by the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who created the original character of Sherlock Holmes.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

W for Where the Broken Heart Still Beats, by Carolyn Meyer (book review) – captured by Indians, captured by family

Apr26

book cover of Where the Broken Heart Still Beats by Carolyn Meyer published by HarcourtWho does the land belong to?
Who is closer – family of blood or family by adoption?
Who decides which child a mother must be separated from?

While kidnapping of settlers’ children and wives by Native Americans was not uncommon on the Western frontier, bringing any back to their white families certainly was. Of course, it didn’t matter to her uncle and his family that Naduah had no interest in them or their strange customs and uncomfortable shoes.

Reunited with her children after death, Cynthia Ann is now buried in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, beside her Comanche warrior son Quanah and young daughter Topsannah.

Author of many historical fiction books for young adults, Carolyn Meyer was inspired to write Cynthia Ann’s story when she moved to Texas in the early 1990s, as she notes in this interview. Recently reissued with new cover art, Where the Broken Heart Still Beats  is a timeless tale of love, family, and conflict.

Which do you prefer – historical fiction or factual biographies?
**kmm

 local library  or independent bookstore

Book info:  Where the Broken Heart Still Beats: the Story of Cynthia Ann Parker (Great Episodes series) / Carolyn Meyer. Harcourt, 1992. [author site]  [publisher site]

My recommendation: Kidnapped not once but twice, a young girl in frontier Texas becomes the mother of a great Comanche warrior, yet feels like a prisoner as she dies among her blood relatives, far from those she loves.

Captured from her uncle’s settlement by Comanche raiders who killed many of her relatives, nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker soon adapted to life with the People, moving across the land as the seasons changed, growing into a strong young woman called Naduah who married chief Peta Nocona and bore him sons and a daughter.

Her Parker relatives never stopped searching for Cynthia Ann, as rumors of a light-eyed girl in the Comanche camps reached them through traders over the course of twenty-five years. But the elder chiefs would not accept any amount of trade goods for this hard-working daughter of the People, no matter what the white men asked.

Finally, the Parker men raided the Comanche camp when the warriors were hunting buffalo, almost shooting Naduah in their quest to remove the “Indian threat” from lands they wanted to settle. When they saw her light eyes, they realized this could be their long-gone cousin, and her startled response to the name ‘Sinty Ann’ showed they were right.

Now, Naduah and baby daughter Topsannah are securely within the Parker family compound, and her 12-year-old cousin Lucy tries to reawaken her memory of the English language and ‘civilized’ behavior. All Naduah wants is to return to her husband and sons, so she tries again and again to escape, but is always thwarted.

How long can her family keep her away from her family?
Who has rights to the land which has supported the Comanche for so long?
How long can a mother live without hearing her children’s voices?

Told in the alternating voices of cousin Lucy’s journal and Naduah’s reminiscences, this true episode from history captures the uneasy ebb and flow of relations between Native Americans and settlers in north Texas as the Lone Star State is on the brink of entering the Civil War.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

T for traded – The Day Before, by Lisa Schroeder (book review) – birth-switch discovered years later; now what?

Apr23

book cover of The Day Before by Lisa Schroeder published by Simon PulseFamily is family,
there for you when you need them,
there when they drive you nuts.
But what if you’re not really their flesh and blood at all?

Babies being accidentally switched at birth can happen even in modern hospitals. Sometimes the error is discovered, other times not. Amber’s birth parents uncover the unintentional swap when the girls are young teens and will go to any lengths to be involved in the Oregon teen’s life, even if she’s not interested.

Experience her one perfect day on the beach with Cade, an amazing guy burdened by his own secrets, in this novel-in-verse that reads like the waves on the shore or the beating of an anxious heart.

It’s Novels in Verse Week – what are your favorites?
**kmm

Book info:  The Day Before / Lisa Schroeder. Simon Pulse, 2011 hardcover, 2012 paperback.   [author site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer]

My recommendation: Just one day when everything is perfect, that’s all Amber wants – before the journey, before the changes that will leave her different forever. Meeting Cade on the Oregon beach is perfect, but she worries about what he’s running from. So much can change in one day…

When her parents split up, Amber took refuge in drumming with her rock band, dissecting school rumors with best friend Madison, watching sappy late-night movies with Mom. The news took them all by surprise, three years ago. Switched at birth by mistake – sounds like something in the tabloids.

Somehow she’s really the biological daughter of a Texas couple, who discovered the mixup when their same-birthdate daughter died of a rare disorder. Bloodtypes didn’t match, records were back-traced, and suddenly Amber is someone else… and her birth parents long to meet her.

So she’s taking this last day as just Mom and Dad’s daughter to do her favorite Oregon things – walk the beach, toes in the cold Pacific, visit the aquarium. There she meets Cade, a guy her age who’s also taking a personal day off from school, revisiting favorite childhood seaside places. But he’s not just skipping school; like Amber, he’s here as if he might not ever see them again.

What’s Cade running from?
Could he see her as Amber-the-Girl instead of Amber-the-Drummer?
Why, oh why, does she have to leave tomorrow?

This novel-in-verse chronicles Amber’s perfect day with Cade, punctuated with letters from her old and new family, sprinkled with jelly beans, laced through and through with worry about her future, his future, their future. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

S for Sisters in Jane Austen Goes to Hollywood, by Abby McDonald (book review) – Sense and Sensibility and sunscreen

Apr22

book cover of Jane Austen Goes to Hollywood by Abby McDonald published by CandlewickPoor relatives can’t be picky about things,
Change can be painful…
but landing on your feet in Beverly Hills – wow!

Hallie and Grace’s very rich stepmother sells the sisters’ home so that their half-brother will “be provided for” – curses on Dad for dying without a valid will!

And Grace is attracted to stepmother’s brother (her step-uncle?) who appreciates her love of science combined with art.

You can read the first three chapters  free here, then be ready to head for your local library or independent bookstore because you’ll want to read the rest of this updated version of Sense and Sensibility ! While you’re there, look for other titles by McDonald, like Boys, Bears, and a Serious Pair of Hiking Boots  (my no-spoiler recommendation here).

What other modernized classics have you read lately?
**kmm

Book info: Jane Austen Goes to Hollywood / Abby McDonald. Candlewick Press, 2013. [author site] [publisher site]

My recommendation: Dad suddenly died and left everything to his new wife, including their childhood home. So Mom, Grace, and Hallie leave the misty cool of San Francisco and move in with Mom’s cousin – in his Beverly Hills mansion. Reinvent themselves or stay the same?

So weird to meet their stepmother’s brother at Dad’s wake – he’s just a bit older than the sisters. Theo and Grace visit all her favorite places in San Francisco one last time before she moves to L.A. and he heads back east to college. They were getting along so well…

Sometimes, Grace feels like the parent as big sister is dramatic to extremes and mom is artistic, laid-back. For them, being in Cousin Auggie’s guesthouse is starting anew; for shy Grace, it’s anguishing to change, no matter how nice their cousin’s young starlet wife is to them.

Hallie can’t wait to start her acting career, but agencies won’t even let her in the door. A chance encounter on the beach gets her into an exclusive circle of young actresses where she meets Dakota, lead singer for the hottest band, new love of her life! She’ll be his inspiration now, and life is very, very good. Never mind scarred Brandon next door, offering to photograph her for agency headshots, trying to get over his tour in Iraq.

Grace stays by the pool at Auggie’s all summer, then tries to find her place among the rich and ritzy at her new high school. Her lab partner Harry at least does his share of work and business-builder Palmer is a crazy-fun antidote to the celebrity gossip around them. Mom is so wrapped up in painting a new portrait series that she honestly has no idea what her daughters are experiencing, aside from the careful comments they make during family Sunday brunch.

Will Hallie ever get an audition? Will Dakota stay true to her?
Can Grace get over what might have been with Theo?
What happens when the in-crowd gossip hits a little too close to home?

Yes, this is Sense and Sensibility  transplanted into 92010 with all the social posturing and misunderstandings intact – and an added dose of sunscreen, rock music, and current events.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

R for Radiant Days, by Elizabeth Hand (book review) – words beyond time, art beyond sight

Apr20

book cover of Radiant Days by Elizabeth Hand published by VikingA rising sun centered with an eye,
A jawbone harp, a fishbone key,
Time-switching, century-crossing.

Who knows how a skinny white girl from rural West Virginia becomes the first urban tagger in D.C. in the late ’70s… Who knows why bitter winter and the colder bitterness of family discontent fuel a young poet during war…

And should you ever be looking for a photo of  Arthur, the one on the cover of Radiant Days  will be what you almost always find, as Rimbaud flared and flamed out as a very young man, writing all his poems by age 20, then abandoning it for a vagabond life.

“Early ripe, early rot” or my own phrase “a meteor in a world of candles” – which describes the young, soul-tortured artistic genius to you?
**kmm

Book info: Radiant Days / Elizabeth Hand. Viking, 2012.  [author site]  [publisher site]

My recommendation: Merle’s art didn’t fit into any of the neat categories her instructors required; Arthur’s poetry wasn’t pretty or uplifting. This passion for expression brings them together, the girl of 1978 and the boy of 1870, crossing the boundaries of time like a spear of light.

That her unconventional art was her ticket out of rural Appalachia surprised Merle a bit, but the Corcoran School accepted her.  During their affair, elegant instructor Clea attempts to connect her with influential gallery owners and culture beyond her ‘white trash’ origins, but Merle chafes at assignments and deadlines. The act of creating her art to be seen by passing commuter trains is far more important than passing classes, and soon her iconic Radiant Days graffiti appears all over D.C.

As the war closes his school, Arthur is out of a home, out of classmates to get money from, out of paper and ink for his poems. The brash young man heads toward Belgium when all sensible people are fleeing ahead of the Prussian Army, goes after a Paris newspaper job as discharged soldiers flood the city seeking work after the armistice. The turmoil in his spirit erupts in poems reflecting brutal post-war realities, torn relationships, bitter lovers’ quarrels with his mentor Paul.

Somehow, Merle and Arthur (in their separate centuries) meet a gruff man fishing for carp along a canal, are directed by him to an abandoned lockhouse for shelter, awaken in the same century – together! Somehow, they hear the other speak in their language, understand the vibrant images of each other’s work, are separated and reunited in one century and in the other.

How can they both know the same fisherman in different cities, different centuries?
How have they summoned one another across time and distance?
How do they share the same blazing visions, shown in her art, chronicled in his words?

As message, as weapon, as mirror of the soul, their work pleased them even if it satisfied no one else. This tale of early talent recognized by the world only in later years brings French poet Arthur Rimbaud into the life of an unheralded American artist, threaded through with music and mystery.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Q for Quest – Exile, by Rebecca Lim (book review) – amnesiac angel on a mission

Apr19

book cover of Exile by Rebecca Lim published by Hyperion TeenWaking up in a daze, again.
In someone else’s body, again.
Clinging to a thread of her own memory again.

An exiled angel, a desperate man, hints of other powers thwarting Mercy’s attempts to remember Luc or Ryan or why she cared for them – add this to a dead-end coffee shop job and a dying mother… how will Mercy resolve Lela’s situation and give the Melbourne teen her body back?

You’ll understand more of Mercy’s predicament if you read Mercy  first (see my no-spoiler recommendation) and sneak a peek at chapter 1 of Exile here. Hoping that Muse (book 3) and Fury  (book 4) get to the USA from Australia soon!

Can you truly remember love when all other memories are gone?
**kmm

Book info: Exile (Mercy, book 2) / Rebecca Lim. Hyperion, 2012. [author info]  [publisher site]

My recommendation:  Slammed awake in yet another body, Mercy now must answer to the name Lela, to care for ‘her’ mother dying of cancer, to work at ‘her’ dead-end job at the rundown café, to discover why she’s been called into this particular body at this exact time.

She has fragmentary memories of inhabiting a young singer’s body in another country, of being loved by a young man even after he realized she was not the real Carmen…why can’t she remember more of her time there? And just a flash of celestial Luc’s searing kisses in her dreams.

Poor Lela has had such a hard-luck life in this dreary Australian city, and now this, her mother withering before her very eyes. Perhaps Mercy was brought into her body to ease the pain of Mum’s passing, or she’s supposed to help Justine escape her terrible boyfriend, maybe turn co-worker Reggie into a decent human being (nah, impossible).

Mercy lets Lela’s muscle-memory take over coffee orders called to the barista, the best ways to ease around her grumpy boss and terrifying Sulaiman the cook. One man uses the café as his mid-morning office and helps her search for Carmen’s name on his computer in exchange for a dinner date. Very twitchy and OCD, this Ranald. Lela has turned him down for dates several times, it seems.

Rushing home when Lela’s mother takes a turn for the worse, Mercy is accosted by a small patch of energy, a being who’s as trapped here as she is, who gives her a tiny clue about who or what she might truly be. But there are larger problems ahead as a crazed customer threatens to kill everyone in the café, Justine’s boyfriend gets abusive, and Mercy’s online search for Carmen and Ryan is attracting unwanted attention in the city and elsewhere.

Could she really love Ryan, or is Luc right about the past she cannot remember?
Who is she? What is she? Why is Mercy right here, right now?
As Mercy journeys from body to body, can she ever find out where she truly belongs?

This second book in the Mercy series by Australian author Rebecca Lim is followed by Muse.  While Exile  can stand alone, read Mercy  first for maximum enjoyment. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher through NetGalley.