The Doublecross: And Other Skills I Learned as a Superspy

Title: The Doublecross: And Other Skills I Learned as a Superspy

Author: Jackson Pearce

Publication House: Bloomsbury USA Childrens

Publication Date in US: July 14, 2015

Date Started: March 21, 2015

Date Finished: March 29, 2015

Format: E-Book

Medium: Kindle Keyboard

Review:

No, but how cute, right?!

Let me first start off by saying that it took me a while to read this book.  And it had nothing to do with the book itself.  It was life situations such as work drama, moving, and I GOT TO SEE RUPAUL'S CONDRAGULATIONS TOUR WITH BIANCA DEL RIO LAST NIGHT (a little excited about it, yes) so it took a lot longer than it would have normally taken me to get through it.

But...OH MAN HOW ADORABLE WAS THIS BOOK.  Yes, I thought it was so adorable (especially Clatterbuck, I just fell for him) and I cannot wait for it to be published so I can purchase it for my library collection.

I grew up in the heyday of the Spy Kids movies and this brought me straight back to sitting in my younger brothers room, learning each of our piece for Carmen and Junie.  It was so much fun to follow Hale and Kennedy around and learn about their world, about SRS and The League, and about what it takes to be a spy!

For some reason I quite enjoy when female author write in a male protagonist  viewpoint *cough cough* Rowling *cough cough*, it always turns out great.

Pearce does a fantastic job in creating a world that, I feel, many of my patrons would love to visit.  There are many groups in a library patron setting that are missed and middle grade boys are definitely at top contender.  Most novels or series written for young dudes end up falling flat or don't even take off but Pearce does a fantastic job at overstepping those boundaries.  Kids will love to follow Hale, Kennedy, Ben (and his AWESOME-TASTIC designs), and Beatrix (awesome girl hacker BTW) from breaking into The League to eventually breaking into some place a little more close to home.

Pearce also does a fantastic job in the funny department.  I had quite a few "tee-hee" moments, some "aww how cute" moments, and some "WHA...how could he/she!" moments that granted some looks from outsiders but did I care? NOT A CARE WAS GIVEN!  Why?  Because I was having fun.  And that is exactly what this book is about...fun...and a little bit of spying :)

Shadow Shadow Review

Title: Shadow Shadow

Author: VB Marlowe

Publication House: CreateSpace Ind. Publishing

Publication Date in US: February 16, 2015

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Date Started: March 18, 2015

Date Finished: March 21, 2015

Format: E-Book

Medium: Kindle Keyboard

Review:

"Shadow, shadow void of light.  Accept this offering tonight".

Soooo, what's the first thing that came to mind when I was done reading Shadow Shadow you ask? Why, how soon can this book be released so I can put it in my library system, of course.

I actually had a lot of fun reading this book and I even got kinda creeped out at some parts, which is a good thing. Of course, with all books comes pro's and con's and with the first book in the Shadow Pines Trilogy my con's are pretty much all personal preference rather than anything substantial that would take away from enjoying the storyline.

There were only a couple of inconsistencies throughout the novel.  One of them catching my attention right after I read this part:
   
 "Teaghan, you don't have to leave.  We're friends now, and just because we don't agree on something doesn't mean we can't hang out."

..........exceeeeeeept for the fact that Teaghan just basically banished/killed/murdered someone.  I don't think that someone I just started being friends with would be this understanding.  While Harley may feel bad for Teaghan, I really don't think she would just be so nonchalant about Teaghan killing someone especially since this was the first time someone in their group used the boxes that Ava-Kaya gave them.

That little section towards the middle of the book is really the only odd thing that stood out to me.

Everything else...OH MY CRIPES.  I flew through this book and cannot stop telling my girlfriend that I want to get this book for my library because I just know it would be a hit.  The story progression is just so smooth that there was not a bump in any of my reading and not once did I second guess if I wanted to actually be reading this.

The best thing about the characters in this book is that the reader has a chance to connect with at least one of them.  There is the outcast, the nerd, the jock, the smart one, and the cheerleader and then you have many different types of family statuses throughout the story.  While most people enjoy reading things that are completely opposite from their own life, sometimes it is nice to experience and kind of understand what other people may be going through.

All-in-all I enjoyed this story so much and I cannot wait until the rest of the trilogy is written and released!

The Room Review

Title: The Room

Author: Jonas Karlsson

Publication House: Hogarth

Publication Date in US: February 17, 2015

Date Started: March 14, 2015

Date Finished: March 15, 2015

Format: Hard Copy

Medium: Paperback

Review:

Picture courtesy of Goodreads

(Recieved this copy of "The Room" from Blogging with Books for a review)

Well, well, well.  This book actually took me by surprise.  At first glance, I fell in love with the cover art.  Minimalistic has always, and will always, be one of my favorite types of art work for just about anything that includes art.  The cover art is what drew me to getting the book from Blogging with Books and the story is what will have me cataloging this book in my library.

While reading this book, I never once was confused about what was going on. Which is odd for me seeing as I get confused very easily when it comes to reading, seeing, listening...or anything that involves my attention for a long time (I normally fall asleep doing anything that's not walking or working).

I enjoyed learning about Bjorn even if he is a little self-centered and conceited and thinks that he is above anyone else in his workplace.  I even felt a little bad for him at a point in time because it did seem like this colleagues were ganging up on him before they even knew about him.  I would consider Bjorn to be a work-a-holic and not someone who has much time for humor in his life.  I guess I find this book interesting because I am neither of those people described above so it is interesting to me to be in someone's head who thinks completely opposite of myself.

The book mainly takes place at Bjorn's work which is called "The Authority".  The Authority is almost an Orwellian type of government that doesn't really get any kind of explanation of what they actually do except something with numbers and transcribing those numbers out of case files into something that can be presented to the company.  The Authority head is called DG (which I read as Dollar General...hello America) Director General who is never seen in the book, almost like Big Brother, but has a big hand in the way the story ends.

The story is about Bjorn's time at his work where he drinks coffee, works for 55 minute intervals and then breaks for 5 minutes, and kisses a colleague in a room at the Christmas party.  Basically, any office you walk into is what this book is describing.  I read it as a generalization of any office space and almost a parable of what goes on in office life.  While this may seem boring, it is most definitely not.  The Room is a part psychological thriller.

Bjorn finds this pretty plain room that has a desk, filing cabinet, a little desk fan, and a chair.  Pretty much what you would expect to find in an office but no one else can see it...or they pretend not to.  Throughout the entire book, Bjorn's colleagues are trying to get him fired.  Whether it be because of his attitude towards them or because he is just better at his job, we don't actually find out.  What we do find out is that everyone but Bjorn cannot see the room.  When he points it out to them, they say they only see a wall.  When he brings them into the room, they claim to follow him to the wall where Bjork proceeds to stand as still as a statue staring at the wall in question.

The end of the story is not surprising but very satisfying.  I won't go into detail, you'll just have to read it but it is very satisfying indeed.

As far as the writing, it was to my taste.  The writing and the cover art go hand in hand; concise, beautiful, and a little harsh.  I enjoyed the slow pace of the storytelling, even though this was a novella, and I enjoyed how not jam-packed the story was.  It was a refreshing story to read compared to the romance and 50-books-long mysteries that are taking over my bookshelves now a days.  I will be proud to shelve this little novella into my stacks and recommend this book to anyone who wants a refresher in what it means to be a writer.

The Astrologer's Daughter Review

Title: The Astrologer's Daughter

Author: Rebecca Lim

Publication Date in US: June 9, 2015

Date Started: February 25, 2015

Date Finished: March 14, 2015

Format: E-Book

Medium: Kindle Keyboard

Review:

Courtesy of NetGalley

Alright, so I just finished this book after a looooooong time spent reading it and I will admit I had a little struggle to get through this book because I kept having to start and stop with my reading.  As background, I read this book in the middle low points of my moving situation (I'm moving across the state so I can be closer the the library I work in).

"The Astrologer's Daughter" is a story about a young girl, Avicenna, whose mother is MIA.  Her mother, Joanne, was an astrologist (NOT PSYCHIC OR PALM READER, thank you very much) and would receive payment in form of many different kinds in exchange for a horary reading.  She would take the time to use her compass(es) and chart out people's lives using the stars and a graph and would answer their questions whether it be "When will I die?" or "When will my cat die from diabetes?" (the last question is not asked but I'm sure she received questions like that from time to time).

The beginning of the book starts out with the main character Avicenna worrying about her mother's disappearance.  Avicenna has a different background which makes her different from most teenage girls her age.  She was raised by a single mother who was an astrologist, she was caught in a fire that killed her father and left her with bad scar on one side of her face, and she was moved around a lot with her mother.  Avicenna is used to her mother not coming home for days on end but she is not used to her mother not letting her know when she would be home.  This is where the story begins.

I enjoyed the story as a whole and there were some very memorable characters in the story.  I got a little lost throughout the story because there were some parts that were not explained very well.  For example, when Hugh's father is seen by Avicenna for the first time near the end of the book he is introduced as Hugh 30 years in the future.  Not as a Hugh look-alike but Hugh himself.  It took me a minute to realize that no the author didn't just change this into a time traveling book and yes she did just abruptly introduce a character that was not talked a whole lot about.  Most things I did not like about the book had some semblance of being terribly confused about characters and what was actually going on in an instance but for the most part I followed the story line alright and did not struggle too much with identifying characters as they were introduced.

For the other characters, the younger ones can be put in a group of solemn and desolate and the older ones really did not have that much personality with the exception of Boon.  Kircher was a money hungry passing character that played a part in his own death (which I still don't understand why he blew himself up with those pyrotechnics), "homicide" was I feel a ploy to relate to the Asian culture in that people who aren't Asian tend to put Asians together so they feel more at "home", and Avicenna's liaison was a pretty important character who just kinda disappeared in the middle of the book.  

I quite enjoyed Boon.  He was by far my favorite character in the whole book.  Book reminds me of any older gentleman who is able to be a father figure when my daddy is not around.  He cares about Avicenna more than she will ever know and Lim makes that very clear through Boon's body movement in conjunction with how he speaks with Avicenna.  I just found him to be quite an enjoyable character and I wish dearly he was included more in this book.

I feel like this book had it's strong points (nice plot, enjoyable theme, angsty characters teens can relate to) but I also feel like this could have been an incredible book if only some strong elements were added (stronger characters especially Simon and Hugh, better flow of story progression, and a wrap of of the ending).  The ending is what bugged me the most.  The author kind of just stops writing almost.  Like she was done with the story and wrote an "After" part that tells you nothing was really resolved.  Avicenna doesn't find her mother, Eleanor will still be depressed, Hugh will never get closure from him father, and what really happened to Simon's mom?  Did she die?  Is she still in the hospital?  If she lived, has she given up on life?  Where the hell is Avicenna's mom and why is she still playing that dumb word game and not contacting her daughter?!

Rating: 5/10