White Cat by Holly Black

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books (Simon and Schuster)
Pages: 310
Series or Stand Alone: Book One in Holly Black’s FABULOUS Curseworkers Series
Summary: (from goodreads.com) The first in a trilogy, this gritty, fast-paced fantasy is rife with the unexpected. Cassel comes from a shady, magical family of con artists and grifters. He doesn’t fit in at home or at school, so he’s used to feeling like an outsider. He’s also used to feeling guilty—he killed his best friend, Lila, years ago.
But when Cassel begins to have strange dreams about a white cat, and people around him are losing their memories, he starts to wonder what really happened to Lila. In his search for answers, he discovers a wicked plot for power that seems certain to succeed. But Cassel has other ideas—and a plan to con the conmen.

Review:
I re-read White Cat so that all the details were fresh in my mind so I could properly enjoy the third book, Black Heart, when it was released. Also, I loved this book so much that I really couldn’t wait to re-read it. I have it on my kindle (thanks to its $2.99 sale price) and I recently bought a copy in a store at a low bargain price in the event that I need to lend it to someone.
In a world in which working magic is known and outlawed, Cassel Sharpe is a liar and a con artist. Skills like his were learned from childhood while surrounded by magical organized crime and his emotion-manipulating con artist of a mother. Cassel’s entire life is spent pretending to be something he’s not--pretending it doesn’t matter that he’s not a curseworker like the rest of his family, pretending he’s a normal teenager at his boarding school, pretending not to be bothered by the memory of the last time he saw his childhood friend and love Lila--dead, with him standing above her, holding a knife. Cassel starts sleepwalking and having dreams about a white cat. Once he notices that people around him are being memory-worked. Cassel knows he must find out the truth about what happened to Lila--and what’s been happening to him before more people get hurt.
We all know I adore this book, so I’ll just cut to the chase. The storyline is fantastic. I’m a fan of urban fantasy. I love seeing the world we know tweaked by magic and supernatural beings. In Cassel’s world, curseworking is outlawed. Everyone, worker or not, must wear gloves in order to prevent bare hand contact. Organized crime plays a major role in this book, with many of the characters involved with the Zacharov family. The government is attempting to make it so that everyone must be tested for abilities, causing worker rights advocacy groups to fight for privacy. Holly Black’s worldbuilding, though built into a recognizable reality for us, is fantastic. Politics and crime are just like they are in our world--except that magic plays a major role.
I know I’ve spoken about my love for Cassel in Top Ten All Time Favorite Characters and Top Ten Favorite Narrators, but I can’t let this review go without shouting it from the rooftops again: I LOVE CASSEL SHARPE’S CHARACTER. Holly Black created an incredibly believable male voice and a perfect unreliable narrator to boot. Cassel lies and cons people, all while carrying a huge burden and a tangle of internal conflicts. All he wants is to be a normal teenage guy, not just act like one. Oh, Cassel. Good luck with that one.
Even though I had already read this book, I had to race through the end to find out what happened again (and maybe I finished it while I was supposed to be working, what of it?). Holly Black’s White Cat is a great start to the Curseworkers trilogy and a brilliant urban fantasy novel. I’d recommend it to anyone who might listen to me. Now, ON TO Red Glove!

Rating: 5 - whoever thought this didn’t end up on my shelf of favorites clearly hasn’t listened to me speak


NOTE: I was able to meet Holly Black at BEA yesterday and it was the BEST THING EVER!!! She was absolutely fantastic and I was able to talk to her about how much I adore these books. Woo!

Waiting on Wednesday (18)

Burn for Burn by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian

(from goodreads.com)

BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY...
THEY GET EVEN.
Lillia has never had any problems dealing with boys who like her. Not until this summer, when one went too far. No way will she let the same thing happen to her little sister.
Kat is tired of the rumours, the insults, the cruel jokes. It all goes back to one person– her ex-best friend– and she's ready to make her pay.
Four years ago, Mary left Jar Island because of a boy. But she's not the same girl anymore. And she's ready to prove it to him.
Three very different girls who want the same thing: sweet, sweet revenge. And they won't stop until they each had a taste.

Release date: September 18, 2012

This one looks so great! I hope I can snag a copy tomorrow :) BEA IS THE GREATEST.

Top Ten Tuesday (21)

Top Ten Rebels in YA Literature:
Oh hey, the BAMF-iest of the BAMF characters around. Let’s go!


1. Harry Potter from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
The Boy Who Lived to Break Rules. I love that Harry Potter and his friends broke so many school rules in order to save the world. Favorite rebellious moments: any time he stood up to Dolores Umbridge; saying there was no need for Snape to call him “Sir” after Snape had demanded the epithet.
2. Lilly Moscovitz from The Princess Diaries series by Meg Cabot
Princess Mia’s best friend, social activist, and resident riot girl, Lilly is the ultimate high school rebel. Favorite rebellious moments: organizing a citywide busboy boycott for Jangbu Panasa; anything featured on her cable access show Lilly Tells It Like It Is.
3. Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins
The Girl Who Was on Fire sparked the revolution that completely altered Panem. Favorite rebellious moments: hanging the Seneca Crane dummy during training; shooting Coin at Snow’s execution.
4. Clary Fray from The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare
Having not grown up as a Shadowhunter, Clary isn’t all about following the Clave’s orders. She often bucks the rules to save her mother or Jace. Favorite rebellious moment: creating a portal to Idris when she was left behind, landing herself in a poisonous lake.
5. Suze Simon from The Mediator series by Meg Cabot
Kicking ghost ass requires a whole lot more breaking and entering than I would have thought. Suze does what she needs to help friendly ghosts and get rid of angry ones, including damage to her social standing at a new school. Favorite rebellious moment: breaking into the mission at her school and battling a ghost that leads to a cave-in.
6. Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Starting out as the girl who says, “You’re going to get us killed, or worse, expelled,” Hermione ends up being one of the biggest badass rulebreakers at Hogwarts. Favorite rebellious moments: slapping Malfoy across the face, cursing the DA paper so that whoever ratted them out had “SNEAK” written across their forehead.
7. Cammie Morgan from The Gallagher Girls books by Ally Carter
Breaks a zillion spy school rules just to sneak out and see her civilian boyfriend. Favorite rebellious moment: going against the school staff in order to determine whether or not her teacher was actually a double agent.
8. Cassel Sharpe from the Curseworkers series by Holly Black
Raised as a con artist and pursued by both organized crime and the Feds, Cassel rebels against everyone in order to do what he thinks is right. Favorite rebellious moments: giving his sister-in-law memory charms to stop his brother from working her; transforming into a political figure to stop the government’s campaign for required worker testing.
9. Cinder from the Lunar Chronicles by Melissa Meyer
Cinder is nothing like the boring Cinderella of fairy tales (sorry, she’s a tad bland for my taste). This cyborg mechanic is sassy and goes against her stepmother AND the ruler of the Lunar Empire. Favorite rebellious moment: telling her stepmother off for “donating” her for research that was supposed to get her killed.
10. Jessica Darling from the Jessica Darling books by Megan McCafferty
Jessica Darling is snarky and unapologetically intelligent. She is who she is, not holding her personality and intelligence back for anything. Favorite rebellious moment:
Call Me Chantalle: “Maybe we could be roommates again!”
Jessica Darling: “So it’s true.”
Call me Chantalle: “What’s true?”
Jessica Darling: “That psychosis is a sypmtom of advanced-stage syphilis.”
Call Me Chantalle: “What do you mean?”
Jessica Darling: “Because you’ve got to have a sexually transmitted brain-eating virus to think I’d ever live with you again.”

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

In My Mailbox (22)

BOUGHT:

The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan
I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore


LIBRARY:

See You at Harry's by Jo Knowles

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

The Selection by Kiera Cass

KINDLE:

Stravaganza: City of Masks by Mary Hoffman

Dead Girl in Love by Linda Joy Singleton

IMM is hosted by The Story Siren

Cover Reveals!

Last week (and maybe the week before, everything has been a bit hectic) was a big week for YA covers! Here are two that I'm looking forward to getting sometime in the next 5-7 months!

Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

(From goodreads.com) In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed "Daughter of Smoke and Bone," Karou must come to terms with who and what she is, and how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, mysteries and secrets, new characters and old favorites, Days of Blood and Starlight brings the richness, color and intensity of the first book to a brand new canvas.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone was declared a "must read" by Entertainment Weekly, was named a Best Book of the Year by Amazon.com, and The New York Times called it "a breath-catching romantic fantasy."

Release date: November 6, 2012

The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson

No summary yet! Blast.

Release date: January 2, 2013

The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman

Publisher: Random House Children’s Books
Pages: 448
Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone
Summary: It was like a nightmare, but there was no waking up. When the night began, Nora had two best friends and an embarrassingly storybook one true love. When it ended, she had nothing but blood on her hands and an echoing scream that stopped only when the tranquilizers pierced her veins and left her in the merciful dark.
But the next morning, it was all still true: Chris was dead. His girlfriend Adriane, Nora’s best friend, was catatonic. And Max, Nora’s sweet, smart, soft-spoken Prince Charming, was gone. He was also—according to the police, according to her parents, according to everyone—a murderer.
Desperate to prove his innocence, Nora follows the trail of blood, no matter where it leads. It ultimately brings her to the ancient streets of Prague, where she is drawn into a dark web of secret societies and shadowy conspirators, all driven by a mad desire to possess something that might not even exist. For buried in a centuries-old manuscript is the secret to ultimate knowledge and communion with the divine; it is said that he who controls the Lumen Dei controls the world. Unbeknownst to her, Nora now holds the crucial key to unlocking its secrets. Her night of blood is just one piece in a puzzle that spans continents and centuries. Solving it may be the only way she can save her own life.

Review:
I read the description for this book MONTHS ago, which of course means that by the time the book came out, I ordered it from the library, and held the copy in my hand, I had no idea as to what I was getting into. And this one was certainly a more complicated story than I was expecting (in a good way)!
Nora’s part of a group of students working to translate Latin documents with her best friend Chris and boyfriend Max. Their activities are horrifically disrupted when she finds Chris brutally murdered, his girlfriend Adriane alive but entirely devoid of life, and Max missing. When the police turn to Max as their principal suspect and Nora begins receiving mysterious notes from him, she and Adriane end up in Prague, chasing any clues that could lead them to Max. They end up finding a world of secret religious societies, death, and a Divine machine that could end up costing them their lives.
Robin Wasserman seriously did the damn thing when it came to The Book of Blood and Shadow. This book was incredibly written--I can’t even imagine the amount of research that must have gone into writing this book. I definitely sensed a more literary vibe from it. I’m not sure if that was due to the complexity of the story or Nora’s maturity, but regardless this book demands respect.
I felt that the characters in the story were unlike anything I’ve seen in young adult fiction to date. Nora was an incredibly mature protagonist without having to constantly tell us that she was mature. She keeps everyone, including the reader, at a distance--while reading I was privy to her thoughts (the book is in first person), but I felt like she wasn’t a total open book. To create a more closed off character without actually alienating the reader is quite impressive.
I think one of the reasons that The Book of Blood and Shadow is so utterly different from other books out there is the fact that Nora and Adriane end up on an epic quest that isn’t spurred by their discovery of supernatural abilities (unless you count Nora’s Latin-to-English translating, that is) or any sort of paranormal activity. I found that the entire plot was made scarier by the fact that every character, being wholly human, was incredibly vulnerable to the very real danger surrounding them.
Robin Wasserman’s The Book of Blood and Shadow was a fantastically complicated, dangerous mystery with a historical background story woven in through translated letters. Who killed Chris? Why is there a secret society gunning for a bunch of teenage Latin translators? Can Nora trust anyone around her? The mysteries are all unraveled in this awesome book.

Rating: 5 - absolutely fantastic

Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Carter

Publisher: Disney*Hyperion
Pages: 294
Series or Stand Alone: Book 5 in the Gallagher Girls Series
Summary: The last thing Cammie Morgan remembers is leaving the Gallagher Academy to protect her friends and family from the Circle of Cavan--an ancient terrorist organization that has been hunting her for over a year. But when Cammie wakes up in an alpine convent and discovers months have passed, she must face the fact that her memory is now a black hole. The only traces left of Cammie’s summer vacation are the bruises on her body and the dirt under her nails, and all she wants is to go home.
Once she returns to school, however, Cammie realizes that even the Gallagher Academy now holds more questions than answers. Cammie, her friends, and mysterious spy-guy Zach must face their most difficult challenge yet as they travel to the other side of the world, hoping to piece together the clues that Cammie left behind. It’s a race against time. The Circle is hot on their trail and willing stop at nothing to prevent Cammie from remembering what she did last summer.

Review:
Book five! Book five! You know what that means, right? It means that there will probably be something like a year and a half to two years before book six. Meh.
Cammie Morgan has no idea regarding what’s happened to her for the past few months. The last thing she remembers is leaving school in June to search for the truth. She certainly doesn’t know why she woke up in the Alps with a battered body, being cared for by nuns. When she finally returns to school, it becomes obvious that someone has seriously messed with her mind. Cammie and her friends must go off to Rome in search of Cammie’s stolen memories--before anyone else is seriously hurt.
This was the most mystery-driven Gallagher Girl book yet. Finding out what Cammie was doing abroad for six months and why she had no memory of it was worth reading the book in one sitting.
This book proved that the Gallagher Girl books are getting darker. Death and torture were a feature and this one (not graphically, more talking about them). I would consider this trend to be a little like Harry Potter--as the students grow older, the content gets darker. Considering the girls are training to be spies, I think this makes perfect sense. I would actually prefer it if these books went a little darker even.
Out of Sight, Out of Time was a great installment in the Gallagher Girls series! The overarching mystery in this one kept me reading straight through one night until the last page was turned.

Rating: 4 - good.