Quest for Books is a journey in imagination. Welcome to the adventure.

Let’s Talk About Sex

May 24, 2012 By 2 Comments

Shut Out by Kody Keplinger. Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary. Published by Poppy September 5th, 2011.

Most high school sports teams have rivalries with other schools. At Hamilton High, it’s a civil war: the football team versus the soccer team. And for her part,Lissa is sick of it. Her quarterback boyfriend, Randy, is always ditching her to go pick a fight with the soccer team or to prank their locker room. And on three separate occasions Randy’s car has been egged while he and Lissa were inside, making out. She is done competing with a bunch of sweaty boys for her own boyfriend’s attention

Then Lissa decides to end the rivalry once and for all: She and the other players’ girlfriends go on a hookup strike. The boys won’t get any action from them until the football and soccer teams make peace. What they don’t count on is a new sort of rivalry: an impossible girls-against-boys showdown that hinges on who will cave to their libidos first. But what Lissa never sees coming is her own sexual tension with the leader of the boys, Cash Sterling..

This book is not exactly what I thought it would be. Not that that’s a bad thing. But when I first saw the cover I thought it would be about a girl who plays sports. Then when I got the book from a friend and really read the cover, I found out I was wrong. Turns out, it’s about a girl who plays the players of these sports. Sort of.

So what does sports and sex have to do with a young adult novel? In this one, a lot.

Lissa grows sick and tired of the rivalry between her high school’s football and soccer team. That’s right, one school, two teams, at odds. Who ever heard of such craziness? And though Lissa knows the reason behind the war that began ten years ago, most of the guys on the teams couldn’t tell you what they fought over. Even if their life depended on it. So what’s the point of fighting? That’s what Lissa thinks and wants to put a stop to it once and for all. She’s been left high and dry by her boyfriend one too many times thanks to this rivalry and she won’t stand for it anymore. With the help of the other players’ girlfriends, she’s finding a way to stop it.

I know what you’re thinking. “What could a bunch of teenage girls do to get their boyfriends attention and get them to stop this war?” Get them where it counts, of course. Working together, the girls figured out what the best way to get what they want. So what is the best way to get a teenage boys attention besides food and fast cars? Sex. Or rather, a lack of it. That’s right, these girls form a hookup strike. No guy on either team will get any until this war is ended.

And this is how Shut Out brings different views on sex into account. Because not everyone is having it. You get insight from all aspects—girls who have sex and like it, girls who do and don’t like it, girls who aren’t and lie about it, and those who are just aren’t ready and aren’t afraid to admit it. You get it all. And I think it’s fantastic. It’s a great book for a young adult reader, girls and guy. For some girls, it’s hard to talk about this subject matter, and this book is perfect to get the conversation started. For guys it’s a great way to see how girls think.

Through the book we see the characters learn about themselves and each other. Why the girls put labels on one another like slut or prude. Why their afraid not to have sex with their boyfriends. And what they’re willing to give up in order to make themselves happy.

In the end, Shut Out is an incredible story about finding yourself and being around people you respect and that respect you. I can’t wait to read another book by Kody Keplinger.

Filed Under: Contemporary, Young Adult Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Teaser Tuesday – Glamour by Penelope Fletcher

May 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This teaser is from Glamour (formerly Demon Girl) by Penelope Fletcher at ~83% into the story:

Hearts can change, and hers is already split in two. How do you know she will choose you?

Have a teaser? Share it below in the comments!

Filed Under: Blog Events Tagged With: , , , , ,

Slaying Blood Suckers with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

May 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith. Genre: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Horror (?). Published 2010 by Grand Central Publishing.

Indiana, 1818. Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin, where a nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his suffering mother’s bedside. She’s been stricken with something the old-timers call “Milk Sickness.”

“My baby boy…” she whispers before dying.

Only later will the grieving Abe learn that his mother’s fatal affliction was actually the work of a vampire.

Say what?!

When I read the summary on Goodreads, I was a little excited about the strange convergence of Abe Lincoln and vampires. But then I wondered if it might be a corny parody. Luckily, it was not.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is a serious story.

The story is based on secret journals that Abraham Lincoln kept during his life. How that story is then told to us, the reader, is rather clever…but I’m not going to ruin it by telling you here.

For the most part, we all know the general arc of Lincoln’s life and career. What we didn’t know, until now, is that Abraham Lincoln hunted vampires. He was quite good too. Abe’s vampire obsession is a deep and emotional attachment which makes it feel real. Without that deep seated hatred, I don’t think the story would have come off as authentic.

The characters, both real and fictional, in this story really shine. My favorite was the role that the mysterious Henry Sturges, a vampire, played as he helped Lincoln over the decades. Henry was like the IMF sending Lincoln little Mission: Impossible messages.

The way the author, Seth Grahame-Smith, puts forth the paranormal aspect makes it feel believable. Also, considering the historical significance of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, the vampire angle is an interesting twist on Civil War history. It helped that the gravity of the historical facts are not lost in the web of fiction.

I definitely recommend this book to fans of serious vampire stories. (No sparkles, no womb-chewing.)

Filed Under: Fantasy, Historical Fiction Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Something Like Normal

May 10, 2012 By 2 Comments

Something Like Normal by Trish Doller. Genres: YA Contemporary. Published by Bloomsbury USA Childrens June 19th 2012.

 When Travis returns home from a stint in Afghanistan, his parents are splitting up, his brother’s stolen his girlfriend and his car, and he’s haunted by nightmares of his best friend’s death. It’s not until Travis runs into Harper, a girl he’s had a rocky relationship with since middle school, that life actually starts looking up. And as he and Harper see more of each other, he begins to pick his way through the minefield of family problems and post-traumatic stress to the possibility of a life that might resemble normal again. Travis’s dry sense of humor, and incredible sense of honor, make him an irresistible and eminently lovable hero.

“It’s the perfect mix of happy and sad and real life and romance.” That’s how I described this book to a dear friend as soon as I was done reading it. I had no other words. It was that powerful. By reading the summary you can tell that this book is going to break you into a million pieces. But Trish Doller did something incredible with it. She laced it with amazing characters we want to love and care about. The humor was well placed and perfectly timed. The dialogue is realistic and intriguing. I can’t pick one thing about this book that I loved more than another. Except maybe the baby turtles. I mean, who doesn’t love baby turtles?

Something Like Normal is about a boy who comes home from Afghanistan broken. Broken more than maybe he even realizes. This is something I’ve never experienced. My dad had been over in “the dessert” a number of times (four to be exact. They called it Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Desert Calm, and Desert Vacation…that was on the back of a Calvin and Hobbs shirt he got after his last time over there). One or two times was during the war, but I was too young to remember any of the bad things, just that he was home, safe with us. So to see it first hand through Travis was a real eye opener. And then when we meet his friends—his fellow squad members—we get to see how they handle life after Afghanistan. All bonded through horror and each coming out different, leaving small pieces of themselves behind.

Within the first two chapters Travis had my heart. I wanted to reach in and hold him tight. Make all the nightmares go away. Now this boy is not perfect, far from it, but really, what teenage boy is? But the thing is, he never makes excuses, he owns up to his flaws. And that’s what makes him so loveable. That, and he tries. Every time he screws up, he learns—sometimes quicker than others—and does what he can to fix his messes. Then we have Harper. This girl, she’s awesome. I loved her the moment we’re introduced. She packs that big of a punch—literally. You can tell there’s history between these two characters and it’s magical watching them work around it. They are one of my favorite book couples.

And the background characters. None of them stood behind another. Trish has a way of making them each unique in their own way. Memorable. Each with an incredible back story that’s craftily woven into the book.

Then there’s the setting. Man does it make me long to be back home along the beach in Florida. And though I’ve driven through this part of Florida a few times before, it’s been awhile and not for an extended amount of time. But her descriptions bring it to life. I can picture the characters driving down the road, eating in the Waffle House, standing on the beach.

Trish, my hats off to you. And I can’t wait to read what you write next.

Filed Under: Contemporary, Young Adult Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Teaser Tuesday – Fireseed One by Catherine Stine

May 8, 2012 By 1 Comment

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This teaser is from Fireseed One by Catherine Stine (review ebook) at ~9% into the story:

I can’t exactly blame it on Audun telling me not to sweat it – I can only blame myself.

Grabbing a harpoon from the wall mount, I try to calm my fear that the worst of this is coming over the next crashing wave.

So far, I’m 14% in and it’s going well. I’m still getting a hang of the lingo and layout of the Dominions but I can appreciate the creativity. The author, Catherine Stine, also illustrated the pictures in the book which is pretty cool.

Happy Tuesday!

Please take a moment to Like Quest for Books on Facebook.

Filed Under: Blog Events Tagged With: , , , ,

Changelings and Trolls: Switched by Amanda Hocking

May 7, 2012 By 2 Comments

Switched by Amanda Hocking. Genre: Paranormal Romance, Fantasy, Young Adult. Published January 2012 (Paperback) by St. Martin’s Griffin.

When Wendy Everly was six-years-old, her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her. It isn’t until eleven years later that Wendy finds out her mother might’ve been telling the truth. With the help of Finn Holmes, Wendy finds herself in a world she never knew existed – and it’s one she’s not sure if she wants to be a part of. (Goodreads)

Ever dream about being a princess? Me either. But dreaming about being pulled from reality into an alternate reality where you are really special, find out you have cool powers, and live in a mansion, surrounded by gifted and attractive people is something I think we can all relate to. In this case, finding out she’s really a princess is exactly what happens to Wendy Everly (plus all that other stuff).

Ok, let’s back up a bit.

Wendy is a socially awkward, troubled girl who lives with her aunt and a very caring and overbearing protective brother named Matt. She’s pretty much bumbling through life, barely getting by.

One day she begins to notice a weird guy, Finn, always staring at her. She thinks he’s cute but also weird. He stares. A lot. Like Edward Cullen staring.

Luckily, Finn turns out to be pretty cool.

Finn is what’s known as a tracker. His job in the Trylle world is to hunt down changelings, babies switched at birth, and bring them back to Förening which is their compound/community. Finn’s character is semi-tragic though because his job places him low in Trylle society, making him the forbidden would-be lover. Nevertheless, Wendy has feelings for him and wishes he’d stop being so stubborn about her new found responsibility.

Wendy takes the whole change really well because deep down she knows she’s never fit in well with humans.

Fun Story, Cool Powers

There are a lot of reasons to like Switched (and Torn, too, but I’ll review that later) even for non-target audience readers like me. There’s romance, sure, but Amanda has written it in a way that didn’t make me feel weird for reading it.

There’s also action, mutant-like powers (wind control, precognition, mind control, telekinesis, etc.), and some politicking. I like Amanda’s take on trolls, which is derived from Norwegian lore. They’re different enough culturally to be interesting but similar enough to humans that their existence feels much more believable.

Amanda always has solid pacing in her books and Switched is no different. One thing that helps is that the Trylle compound, while unique, is similar enough that Amanda doesn’t have to spend a lot of time on world-building details. Switched is focused more on emotion, relationships, and character growth. If you enjoy detailed world building then you might be disappointed by this.

Hmm, Two Things

One thing I didn’t like much was the rather abrupt ending which simply begs for the sequel to be on hand so you can keep going. The only real “mission” for Wendy in Switched was to learn about her ethnicity and get through the christening ball. All the other stuff is left for the next two books.

Another thing that bugs me is a character who is a victim, a pawn that everyone moves around. Finn, Tove and others do the fighting, Rhys helps her feel welcome, Matt loves and protects her and Wendy just kind of fumbles around not really being good at anything. Granted, she’s in a new situation but I like a hero I can root for not just a main character that narrates all the cool stuff everyone else is doing. (Note: Torn fixes this. Yay!)

Bonus Story!

I never read the ebook version so I really enjoyed how the book segued into the bonus short story at the end. This helped to take the edge off of being left hanging. The bonus story at the end of Switched is called The Vittra Attacks. It provides a wonderful look at how the Vittra operate. Being a first person POV from Wendy’s perspective, it’s nice to see a different side of things.

I was initially drawn to Amanda’s work out of curiosity after hearing about her success. Since then I’ve evolved from mild interest after reading My Blood Approves (#1), joyful surprise upon reading Hollowland and now solid appreciation of her work with the Trylle Trilogy. Keep on writing ’cause I’m gonna keep on reading!

Thanks for visiting Quest for Books!

Filed Under: Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Young Adult Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,