Stealing Heaven (Elizabeth Scott)

Stealing Heaven (Elizabeth Scott)My name is Danielle. I’m eighteen. I’ve been stealing things for as long as I can remember.

Dani has been trained as a thief by the best–her mother. Together, they move from town to town, targeting wealthy homes and making a living by stealing antique silver. They never stay in one place long enough to make real connections, real friends–a real life

In the beach town of Heaven, though, everything changes. For the first time, Dani starts to feel at home. She’s making friends and has even met a guy. But these people can never know the real Dani–because of who she is. When it turns out that her new friend lives in the house they’ve targeted for their next job and the cute guy is a cop, Dani must question where her loyalties lie: with the life she’s always known–or the one she’s always wanted.

I am not exactly an Elizabeth Scott fan. I bought two of her books on an impulse sometime last year (Bloom and Perfect You) and I didn’t like them. Since then, I wasn’t really keen on reading another Elizabeth Scott book, fearing that it might just end up like the ones I read.

I don’t know what made me give her another chance in this book — maybe it was the cover, maybe I was just bored so I picked this up.

I’m glad I did.

If I was disappointed with the first two Elizabeth Scott books I read, Stealing Heaven changes all those first and second impressions. The premise alone was interesting: here was Danielle, who has been stealing things since she could remember, and she felt that it would be what she’d be doing all the rest of her life. She’s never had a real ID in her life and she has a lot of fake names for as long as she could remember. Danielle has no friends, knows more about houses and security systems and getting information, even if she didn’t go to school. She’s loyal to her mom and she loves her, even if she seems to be the adult one in the family. However, when Danielle and her mom get to a small town named Heaven, things change for her.

Stealing Heaven was way different from Bloom and Perfect You. Somehow I felt it was more serious, and the story flow was smoother and somehow easier to read. It reminded me a lot of a Dessen book, which is probably one of the reasons why I liked it so much. There were strong characters all over — characters I can’t help but like. One such character is Greg, the cop who befriends Danielle and cared more about her than his being a cop. I thought Greg was a very nice contrast to Danielle — Danielle is a crook, to put it simply, while Greg is the one who puts crooks to jail. He had a very interesting back story, and he felt genuine enough for me to believe that he did care for the protagonist. He was witty, and he didn’t give up on being nice to Danielle even if she was always putting him off. In a way, Greg reminded me of Dexter from This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen, but less of a goof (and that reminds me — I want to re-read that book).

What I also really liked about this book is how everything wasn’t really wrapped up nicely in the end. I mean, there was a proper ending, but the author didn’t fix everything in favor of the protagonist so everyone’s happy. With Danielle’s situation, there were some things that she could not undo which made her lose a friend she could have had, there’s her mom who she knew will go back to their old lifestyle, and there’s her, standing up and living the life she always wanted on her own. This is the type of ending where you know that the protagonist grew/will grow into a better person, and somehow that leaves me, the reader, with some kind of hope, and know that things will be okay for this fictional character that I’ve learned to love while reading the book. :)

I liked this book so much that I’m willing to give the first two Elizabeth Scott books I read another chance and read them again. Maybe this time, I’ll learn to like her books better. But even if I don’t, I still think that Stealing Heaven is one gem of a book. :)

And before I end, here’s a little line in the book that I really liked:

The sculpture I saw looked like nothing from far away, just a lump of rock, but up close you could see it was a figure pushing up out of the ground and reaching toward the sky. There was a little plaque under it. It said “Stealing Heaven.” …

My mother taught me to believe in silver, to believe in things, but I think it’s more important to believe in me.

Rating: [rating=4]
→ The first Elizabeth Scott book that I liked! If you would read Scott, this is a good place to start.

2010 Challenge Status:

* Book # 15 out of 100 for 2010

→ Get Stealing Heaven by Elizabeth Scott on Amazon.com

→ Elizabeth Scott’s website

Little Red Cowboy Hat

Little Miss Red by Robin Palmer

Little Miss Red by Robin Palmer

Sophie Greene gets good grades, does the right thing, and has a boyfriend that her parents — and her younger brother –just love. (Too bad she doesn’t love him.)

Sophie dreams of being more like Devon Deveraux, star of her favorite romance novels, but, in reality, Sophie isn’t even daring enough to change her nail polish.

All of that changes when Sophie goes to Florida to visit her grandma Roz, and she finds herself seated next to a wolfishly good looking guy on the plane. The two hit it off, and before she knows it, Sophie’s living on the edge. But is the drama all it’s cracked up to be?

I think I mentioned it before — I love re-tellings. When I found Robin Palmer’s books one random day at National Bookstore, I knew I had to read them.

Little Miss Red is Robin Palmer’s third fairy tale based novel, and this time, she took the story of Little Red Riding Hood and turned it into a fun and wild and surprising story about love and drama.

Sophie’s tired of her life. She wants to have a more exciting life — something that her favorite novel character Devon Deveraux has. She’s tired of not being able to do what she wants to do because it doesn’t “fit” her, and she wants a more exciting life than she has. When her trip to Mexico with her friends got canceled, Sophie gets sent to Florida to bring a family heirloom to her grandmother. Because of a case of chicken pox caught by her boyfriend, who has pushed the “pause” button in their relationship, Sophie meets Jack, a daring, good looking guy and thinks that finally, she’s getting the adventure she deserves.

Little Miss Red is a fun read, and I really found myself rooting for Sophie all the way. Somehow, I found myself relating to her struggle about drama — I’ve always had a time when I wish that something exciting would happen to my life, but when it finally does happen, I find myself wishing for my life to be boring all over again.

There were times I wanted to slap Sophie silly when she kept on falling for Jack’s charm, even if it was already obvious that he’s just mooching money from her. I knew I would not be surprised if Jack turns out to be a crook all along, but Robin Palmer surprised me with the ending, which just made me feel, well, a bit sorry for someone like Jack.

No more spoilers here now, but I can say that Robin made the story of Little Red Riding Hood a bit more interesting than the old fairy tale, and ended it with a sort of unexpected twist. :) It’s a fun, entertaining read, something I’d recommend to YA and fairy tale lovers out there. And one last thing: I like the overall lesson of Little Miss Red: sometimes, drama is really unnecessary in life. And in love, it’s the boring things that really count in the end.

Oh, and good news to all Robin Palmer fans: she’s going to write another fairy tale retelling, this time, it’s Snow White. Now that is something to look forward to. :D

Rating: [rating=3]

2010 Challenge Status:
* Book # 14 out of 100 for 2010

→ Get Little Miss Red by Robin Palmer on Amazon.com
→ Robin Palmer’s website

The Cop and the Blue-Haired Chick

Going Too Far by Jennifer EcholsGoing Too Far by Jennifer Echols
Publisher: MTV Books
Number of pages:  245
My copy: paperback, bought from National Bookstore

How far would you go?

All Meg has ever wanted is to get away. Away from high school. Away from her backwater town. Away from her parents who seem determined to keep her imprisoned in their dead-end lives. But one crazy evening involving a dare and forbidden railroad tracks, she goes way too far… and almost doesn’t make it back.

John made a choice to stay. To enforce the rules. To serve and protect. He has nothing but contempt for what he sees as childish rebellion, and he wants to teach Meg a lesson she won’t soon forget. But Meg pushes him to the limit by questioning everything he learned at the police academy. And when he pushes back, demanding to know why she won’t be tied down, they will drive each other to the edge – and over…

* * *

I’ve read glowing reviews about this book from different book blogs I frequent. Again, I’m sort of kind of hesitant with getting impulse buy books because I’ve had a bit of bad experiences with them. But when I saw this book, I decided to get it. I thought, “Why not?”

I’m just really glad the impulse buy was worth it. :)

Going Too Far is about Meg the rebel and John the cop, who get to spend time together as a punishment to Meg for going to the forbidden railroad tracks. Meg just wants to have fun, and to make the last of her weeks in the small town go by fast, while John is serious about his responsibilities as a cop and has a huge fixation on the railroad tracks. As the two of them spend time together, they get to know more about each other, and yeah, eventually fall in love.

But it’s not a typical boy-meets-girl, Stockholm Syndrome type of story. I’d have to agree with the other reviews I read about this book: it’s a novel full of issues. It’s not really dark/deep issues — they’re real life issues that could happen to anyone, and that explains why Meg and John are doing what they were doing. These issues were slowly fleshed out, in a way that I didn’t see them coming. I had to back up a few lines to make sure I read them right, and then went back to the story, wanting to know more.

While I didn’t stay up late to finish this book in one sitting, I was hooked in the story. I wanted to know what happened, I want to know how they’d end up together, and how they would settle the leaving thing. The ending was satisfying, and hopeful, and you know things will somehow work out for the both of them.

Oh, and even if this is an “issue book”, it was refreshing to read that it didn’t have too dark/issue-dwelling tones. I’m not sure how to describe it, but the storytelling did not depress me even as I found out the characters’ issues.  There were certain dialogues in the novel that reminded me that it’s a young adult novel, and it somehow lightened the overall mood.

Going Too Far is a good book — it’s not exactly a favorite, but I do recommend this book for those who want good, realistic teen fiction.

Rating: [rating=3]

Wedding Bells in Vegas

Vince's Life: The Wedding by Vince TevesVince’s Life: The Wedding by Vince Teves

Vince thinks his life is over when he loses Cat – the girl who turned his life around after Andrea broke his heart. Then his friend Connie drops the bomb on him telling him she’s pregnant and that she wants him to come to her wedding in America – where Andrea is. His first love. Does this mean Vince and Andrea finally get another chance? Or does Vince land an ending that he never expected?

I never really caught Vince’s Life in Cosmo when it was first published there because I never read Cosmo. Or wait, was it Seventeen? I can’t remember. But I do remember contemplating if I will get the first book of the series a few years back. Back then it was a curious thing for me to read a story with a guy narrator, when almost all the books I read have female narrators.

When a friend told me that the first book was good, I picked it up and read it and liked it. I liked it because Vince was such a character. I don’t know if this is a true story, but I thought Vince was once of the most sensitive guys I’ve ever read about. A sequel came out and I read it immediately, too, and was satisfied with who Vince ended up with (even if I kind of wished otherwise).

I’m the type of person who reads through an entire series, so when a third book came out, I knew I had to read it. It was a quick read — I was done in a couple of hours (and I read it at work, too). Did I squeal in delight in the ending? Did I feel tingles inside me as Vince pursued his girl — again?

Sadly…no.

I don’t really have any expectations for this book, except for a possible surprise in the end as was stated in the blurb. I guess I was hoping for some kind of a twist, something that would not necessarily make me feel excited, but be surprised at the end and say, “Okay, I didn’t see that coming.”

But I didn’t. Don’t get me wrong — it’s a good story, yes, but I felt like it was a typical story — almost like I was reading a teleserye script. I don’t really know what kind of twist I was looking for, but I didn’t exactly jump for joy when I finished reading. Do you get what I mean?

Maybe I had too high expectations with the “ending he never expected”. I still had to hand it to Vince — he really is a sensitive guy. I mean, just read this part:

When it’s right, love isn’t difficult. It’s the easiest thing in the world. All the differences and hardships don’t matter, and there’s only one answer to every question. (p 90-91)

Or how about:

But there was also something else, something so beautiful and so fragile that I almost didn’t dare think about it. (p 129)

Yep, super sensitive guy right there. I think.

But you know what? High expectations aside, this book shows some kind of reality in live overall — life isn’t always exciting, and there aren’t always unexpected endings. Most of the time, life can be boring, and things don’t always happen the way we want them to. We can dream of surprises and twists and turns and stuff, but in the end, life will just give us what is best for us, and we wouldn’t ask for any other ending other than what we have. :)

I guess this is the end of Vince’s Life for us readers, unless a new book comes out with their kids who need to drink their vitamins? I don’t know…but I don’t think that would sell anymore. ;)

Rating: [rating=2]
→ Slightly disappointing, but then again I wasn’t really the biggest fan anyway. Personally, I liked the first two books better.

2010 Challenge Status:

* Book # 12 out of 100 for 2010

* Book # 2 out of 20 for Project 20:10

Graced

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Graceling Realm # 1
Publisher: Harcourt

Number of pages:  471
My copy: paperback, bought from National Bookstore

Deadly Grace

Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight—she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug.

When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change. She never expects to become Po’s friend. She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace—or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away . . . a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.

* * *

I am in awe of authors like Kristin Cashore who could think of things like this. I am sorely deficient (at least, I think I am) in the supernatural/fantasy realm, so I am always in awe of people who can think of awesome story concepts like these. Don’t you think?

To those unfamiliar, here’s the basic premise of Graceling: Gracelings are humans who are born with an extraordinary skill. These skills don’t manifest until sometime later in the human’s life, and the clue to see if a human is a Graced is if they have two different colored eyes. Graces can range from the most useless — like reciting things backward or staying underwater for a long time — or useful, like sensing storms or like Katsa’s Grace, killing.

If a Grace is found useful, the Graceling will be acquired by the King to serve his court. This is what Katsa grew up in ever since she accidentally killed her cousin who tried to touch her during a party when she was young. Convinced that her Grace was killing, Katsa was trained to be a killer so she can serve her uncle, King Randa’s court. Simply put, Katsa was a thug, who threatens and kills people who the King of Middluns feel like punishing.

But Katsa soon grew tired of this life, and she secretly started a Council. Together with some of her closest companions — they weren’t friends because Katsa never considered them friends — they helped other people secretly. They arrested bandits, protected people and saved Prince Tealiff of Lienid, who was kidnapped and hidden in Murgon.

On the rescue mission, Katsa meets Po, another seemingly Graced fighter. Pretty soon, Po becomes a part of Katsa’s life, and thus started Katsa’s personal struggles. She soon learns to face her rage, stand up for herself, find love and realize an important thing about her Grace that she never thought was even possible.

If you think the summary I posted there was already good, well I tell you, the book is really way better than that. I loved every bit of the book. I thought I’d find some parts of it slow, like what a friend told me, but I never thought it was slow at any part. I was surprised with the discoveries that Katsa made about Po and herself. I felt that I was really in the story, like I was with Katsa and Po in their travels and fights to find out who was behind Po’s grandfather’s kidnapping.

Now, I don’t know if I would have had an entirely different reading experience with Graceling if I didn’t read Fire first. I was slightly spoiled about who King Leck really was and what he can do because of what I read in Fire. There were no other mentions of Gracelings in Fire so I don’t think it’s a really big effect in my reading experience, but I wonder if I would have been more surprised with what Leck could do in the novel.

Oh, but just thinking of Leck makes me think of a creepy man. Ugh.

Kristin Cashore is writing a third book, which is Bitterblue, who also appeared in this novel. I wonder if Kristin will somehow bring back the monsters from The Dells in this third book — that would be really interesting, I think.

Graceling is definitely one of the best YA fantasy books that I read this year. Awesome story, strong characters and a very satisfying ending. :)

Rating: [rating=5]