Ready, Jet Set, Go!

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Jet Set by Carrie Karasyov and Jill KargmanJet Set by Carrie Karasyov and Jill Kargman
HarperCollins, 256 pages

I’m Lucy Peterson, and let me tell you—I don’t fit in at my new boarding school in Switzerland at all. Caviar at every meal, white-tie affairs (because black-tie is so last season), trips to Geneva to pick up the latest couture, and real live royals lurking around every corner? None of that is really my speed. I’m just your average American teen, here on scholarship, ready to kick some academic and tennis butt so I can have my pick of Ivy League colleges. Only now I’m falling all over myself to impress my crush, who just happens to be a prince, I’ve gotten myself tangled up in a tabloid disaster—literally—and the “It” clique on campus has decided that I am worthy of their evil scorn. What have I gotten myself into?

Whenever I read more than one book at a time, I always make sure that one of the books is fluffier than the other one. I tried reading two fantasy novels at the same time and my brain almost felt like it wanted to explode from all the information that got muddled in my mind as I switch between two books. I seem to be reading a lot of dystopian novels nowadays, so something light and fluffy to read in between and cleanse the palate is always appreciated.

Such is Jet Set by Carrie Karasyov and Jill Kargman. My friend Grace told me about this book and I thought it was just the right thing I needed to read while I go through The Hunger Games and Catching Fire to review for Pinoy Pop. Jet Set is the story of Lucy Peterson, who gets a scholarship to Van Pelt in Switzerland, the most exclusive and posh boarding school in Europe. Lucy’s dad is in the US Army, which means they get transferred a lot, so Lucy has never gained roots or made friends anywhere else. After scoring a tennis scholarship to the school, Lucy is ready to settle into her new life in one place for the rest of high school. However, being a scholar girl in a posh school is not easy, especially when Lucy is classmates with people who are royalty, and when the it crowd has it in for her, and her crush only thinks of her as a friend and the only person Lucy thinks she can trust has an even bigger secret than she does.

It’s a fluffy book alright, and it almost reminds me a bit of the Sweet Valley Twins books that I used to love, only with more Lila Fowlers. Van Pelt reminds me of Spencer Academy from Shelley Adina‘s It’s All About Us series, but with less of the academic rigor that the latter had. Strangely, even if there were a ton of name-dropping, and I can hardly believe that a school like that exists, Van Pelt didn’t feel fake or forced. The authors wrote it in such a way that I didn’t have a hard time accepting that there is a school like Van Pelt. I don’t think I’d survive in that setting, but I wanted Lucy to fit in and have a good time in that school, even if I thought the concerns of the other students were kind of ludicrous.

I liked the secondary cast in the story, though. It’s easy to fall into the trap of popular people being just mean and have no other depth in their characters, but the authors managed to veer away from those stereotypes nicely. It seemed a bit mature for all of them to act that way (come on, they were in high school), but it’s nice to read rich, “mean girl” characters who end up having a heart.

This isn’t a particularly deep read. In fact, the overall story is kind of shallow and typical, and you won’t learn any life lessons here that I don’t think people of my age already know. However, Jet Set is still a fun read, and it entertained me enough that it kept me grounded to the real world even while the other half of me is buried in all the dystopia. :)

Rating: [rating=3]

2010 Challenge Status:
* Book # 63 out of 100 for 2010

Cover and Blurb: Goodreads

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Sixteen Moons

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Beautiful CreaturesBeautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she’s struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps, and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town’s oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

I hardly ever start reading a book without first having some idea of what it is about. More often than not, the book’s cover and title do a good job of that, and if they don’t, the blurb at the back definitely will, and these factors determine whether or not I buy a book. That wasn’t the case for Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (first book of the Caster Chronicles). I’ve been seeing this book around but I didn’t pick it up because I couldn’t figure out what it was about. It was always shelved beside the other vampire young adult (YA) romance books, and I wasn’t in the mood to read another Twilight. The cover was beautiful, like its title, but neither told me what those “creatures” were. The blurb wasn’t enticing either – it still sounded too much like the other supernatural YA romances out there. I only picked it up when I heard that a sequel was coming (with an equally beautiful cover) and when I saw that almost all of the book blogs I followed were excited about it. I decided to see what all the fuss was about.

Beautiful Creatures is narrated by Ethan Wate, who hails from Gatlin, a small Southern town where everyone knows everyone. His mom’s death caused his father to become a recluse who left him under the care of their superstitious housekeeper, Amma. Unknown to Amma, Ethan had been having strange dreams about a girl he had never met, dreams which left physical evidence even when he woke up – dirt on his bed, water around him, and even a song on his iPod. When Lena Duchannes moves into town, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her, even when all his friends were ostracizing her. Despite Lena’s attempts to push him away, Ethan presses on, determined to find out the connection between him and Lena, and maybe help her blend in. But in the town of Gatlin, it’s never easy to fit in, especially if you have a secret as big as Lena’s.

Vague, I know, but after I finished reading the book, I understood why the book’s summary wasn’t any more detailed: revealing any more would spoil the story. Beautiful Creatures has an excellent plot, one that even some of the most critical book bloggers praised. At first glance, the book seems like it’s the typical boy meets girl–with an added dose of superpowers–but it’s much more than that. While the romance is an integral part of the story, it wasn’t there just for the sake of having the characters fall in love, as it connected Ethan and Lena to their pasts. Underneath the romance is an intricate web of details: the social groups and hierarchy of the town, the history of the curse that links Ethan and Lena, and most of all, the supernatural world that lies under the unsuspecting eyes of Gatlin residents. Aiding the plot significantly was the setting: Gatlin is a living, breathing setting that almost felt like another character – and perhaps it was. Garcia and Stohl definitely took time to build this small town, complete with histories, eccentricities and secrets. It was almost as if the residents of Gatlin (save for Ethan, Lena and her family) were one entity being represented by different personas, united in one purpose: to drive away anything that tries to shake things up. Click here to read the rest of the review.

Rating: [rating=3]

2010 Challenge Status:
* Book # 54 out of 100 for 2010

My copy: ebook, $9.99 from Amazon Kindle Store

Cover image & Blurb: Goodreads

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The Red Pyramid (Rick Riordan)

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Since their mother’s death, Carter and Sadie have become near strangers. While Sadie has lived with her grandparents in London, her brother has traveled the world with their father, the brilliant Egyptologist, Dr. Julius Kane.

One night, Dr. Kane brings the siblings together for a “research experiment” at the British Museum, where he hopes to set things right for his family. Instead, he unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes him to oblivion and forces the children to flee for their lives.

Soon, Sadie and Carter discover that the gods of Egypt are waking, and the worst of them–Set–has his sights on the Kanes. To stop him, the siblings embark on a dangerous journey across the globe–a quest that brings them ever closer to the truth about their family, and their links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs.

Popular young adult protagonists seem to rise in turns. In the span of a decade or so, first, there was J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, and then there was Stephenie Meyer’s Bella Swan. While both obviously retain their popularity, the next to step up to the plate was young demigod Percy Jackson. While he isn’t as popular as the first two, Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series gained enough attention to be on bestseller lists, and among YA and middle grade readers around the world. Last year it achieved that milestone that shows a literary character has “made it”: the Hollywood movie. Now that Percy’s adventures are over–at least for now–fans of Riordan ask: What’s next?

From Ancient Greece, Riordan brings us to Ancient Egypt, in a whole new fantasy adventure series for young adults entitled The Red Pyramid, the first book from his new series, The Kane Chronicles. Siblings Carter and Sadie Kane grew up barely knowing each other after they were separated when their mother passed away. While Sadie lived a normal life with their maternal grandparents, Carter tagged along with their archaeologist dad and travelled around the world. One Christmas Eve, during their yearly visit to Sadie, their father brings them to the British National Museum, to “make things right.” Something goes wrong, of course, and their dad disappears, but not before releasing five ancient Egyptian gods, including Set, the god of storms and chaos. Rescued by their magician uncle Amos, Carter and Sadie learn the truth about their identity: they come from a family of powerful Egyptian magicians, and they in particular are strong because of their combined bloodlines. This starts their journey all over the world to save their father, stop Set from destroying North America, and figure out both the extent of their powers and the mysteries of their past–all within four days.

If you think the story’s similar to Percy Jackson, well, you’re not wrong. In fact, The Red Pyramid not only reminded me of the young demigod, but also of another series by Riordan, The 39 Clues. Riordan seems to have stumbled on a very successful formula to sell children’s books: (1) take away something important from your young protagonist; (2) place them in a larger-than-life adventure; (3) have them learn something about themselves in the process. We see this formula at work again in The Red Pyramid, and while some readers were put off about this, I didn’t think it was so bad. At least Riordan wasn’t deriving from anyone else but himself – why mess with a good formula? Nevertheless, while I’m fine with thematic similarities between the books, my hope is that he doesn’t become too repetitive with his story arcs–like say, Dan Brown–to the point that I can draw upon his previous plots to solve any mysteries by the middle of the book. Click here to read the rest of the review.

Rating: [rating=3]

2010 Challenge Status:
* Book # 51 out of 100 for 2010

My copy: paperback, Php459 from National Bookstore

Cover image: Goodreads
Blurb: Back of the book

→ Rick Riordan’s website

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Dreamcatcher

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Gone by Lisa McMann

OPEN YOUR EYES.

Janie thought she knew what her future held. And she thought she’d made her peace with it. But she can’t handle dragging Cabel down with her.

She knows he will stay with her, despite what she sees in his dreams. He’s amazing. And she’s a train wreck. Janie sees only one way to give him the life he deserves: She has to disappear. And it’s going to kill them both.

Then a stranger enters her life — and everything unravels. The future Janie once faced now has an ominous twist, and her choices are more dire than she’d ever thought possible. She alone must decide between the lesser of two evils. And time is running out….

I thought I reviewed the first two books in the Dream Catcher series on my personal blog, but I was mistaken, so the review of the third book would have to have some kind of recap of the first two.

The Dream Catcher series by Lisa McMann is about Janie Hannagan, who has the strange ability to get into other people’s dreams. The series deals with Janie and dealing with her strange ability, the people around her, her relationships and the uses of her powers. In the first book, Wake, we meet Janie and we get a glimpse of how her ability is a problem for her because she can’t stop entering other people’s dreams. It’s fine if the dreams were nice, calm ones, but nightmares were a different story. Janie tries to live her life as normally as she can with her ability and her alcoholic mother, until she meets and falls for Cabel, and realizes that her ability may be used as a gift to help other people.

In Fade, Janie starts to discover more about her abilities when she finds out that one of the elderly woman she takes care of in an elderly home (where knee walkers at rentakneewalker.com were a common sight) her job has the same abilities as she does. Janie and Cabel enter a relationship and a job that would secure their future and would give Janie more reasons to practice her ability. However, Janie discovers something horrifying about her future if she keeps on doing what she was doing: a future that she doesn’t know would make Cabel stay with her.

Now with Gone, Janie still thinks of her future if she continues using her ability. She and Cabel try to treat things normally, but she’s uncertain if Cabel would stay for the long run. And as if the emotional turmoil is not enough, she gets news that her biological father is in the hospital and dying. Janie prefers not to care, but something about her father draws her to him, and what she finds out could be the key to the future she found out about in Fade, that is if Janie is willing to make a choice.

Now that we’ve gotten the recaps in order (and I tried to be as spoiler-less as possible), let’s get on to the review.

I have very mixed reactions with the last book in the series. I liked Wake, and I liked the concept that McMann introduced. Janie isn’t a particularly lovable character, but she wasn’t all annoying either. One would tend to sympathize with Janie’s situation — no one wants to see other people’s nightmares, let alone experience them. In Fade, we see Janie making use of her abilities and it was fun, although it wasn’t that impressive in terms of story. The revelations of what could happen to Janie, however, was interesting, and it provided enough suspense to the story and the characters to make me want to know what’s going to happen next.

With Gone, I’m at my own crossroads. I liked how McMann wrote Janie’s emotional turmoil about her future, and bringing in a person from the past is an effective way to face them. I also liked how the author made Janie’s heart soften towards her father, and how she faced her problems without really thinking of what other people will think. She knew she had to put herself because she was the one who’s going to deal with everything, not others. People may say that they will always support her, but she knew that they can only go so far. I also liked that McMann introduced more of Janie’s past, and how she executed the “conversation” Janie had with her father. That part teared me up, and I felt that it was fitting that I read the book during Father’s Day.

What’s really making me indecisive about how this book fared for me was the ending. I think that’s what most of the readers of this book would face. When I got to the ending, I thought there was more. I wanted to know more, I wanted to see what Janie would pick. But it ended where it did, and while it was frustrating to be left hanging like that, I also feel like the ending was just right. I mean, there is no real good choice — both of Janie’s possible choices would lead to undesirable outcomes. What she needed to choose was which was the lesser evil, which frankly, even I don’t know what.

I have always had a penchant for ending stories with a sort of cliffhanger, one that doesn’t tie up all loose ends and makes the reader wonder what happened next. I think Lisa McMann executed that beautifully here. I can’t say it’s satisfying, but I can say that it might be the proper — if not the best — ending for this series.

It’s not my favorite book or series, but I’m glad I read it.

Rating: [rating=3]

2010 Challenge Status:
* Book # 46 out of 100 for 2010

→ Get Gone by Lisa McMann from Amazon.com
→ Lisa McMann’s website

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The Song of the Lioness (Tamora Pierce)

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The Song of the Lioness

The Song of the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce

I wasn’t much of a fantasy reader when I was young. My love affair with reading started with one of the Sweet Valley Kids books. Early on, I never strayed from the Sweet Valley, Nancy Drew and Babysitters Club shelves during bookstore visits, ignoring all the other books and genres in the process. When I grew up, I was more likely to pick up “fluffy” books than fantasy or scifi. I can answer a question about high school cliques in a heartbeat, but anything about magic or supernatural creatures or lands that only exist in the imagination, and my brain shuts down. It wasn’t until last year, when I set a personal goal to read more fantasy books, that I wandered over to other shelves. However, given the great variety of fantasy titles, it’s easy for a fantasy newbie like me to be overwhelmed.

Enter Tamora Pierce and The Song of the Lioness series. Spoiler Warning from here on out.

Published from 1983 to 1988, The Song of the Lioness was originally written as a single book for adults, but was rejected by the publisher. Pierce cut up the manuscript and revised it into four books for teenagers. These four books feature Alanna of Trebond, and chronicle her journey into knighthood and her adventures as a knight. In Alanna: The First Adventure, we meet Alanna and her twin brother Thom, who switches places with her to go to the City of the Gods so Alanna could fulfill her dream to be a lady knight. She disguises herself as a boy, names herself Alan, and starts her knight training at the royal court.  Alanna makes friends along the way like Crown Prince Jonathan, King of Thieves George Cooper, and her teacher, Sir Myles of Olau, as well as enemies like Ralon of Malven and the man who becomes Alanna’s nemesis, Duke Roger of Conte. In the next book, In the Hands of the Goddess, Alanna continues her training, now as Jonathan’s squire and good friend, and adopts a strange purple-eyed cat she named Faithful. She joins her first war and tries to find proof that Roger is responsible for the mess that the kingdom finds itself in. Alanna becomes known as The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, which is also the title of the third book, where she leaves Tortall after revealing her identity, killing Roger and becoming a knight. She finds herself joining a Bahzir tribe where she becomes a shaman, and learns how to use and be less afraid of her power. The quartet ends with Lioness Rampant, where Alanna searches for the legendary Dominion Jewel, and returns home to help her friends to fight a war and protect both the soon-to-be-crowned King Jonathan and all of Tortall. Click here to read the rest of the review.

Rating:
Alanna: The First Adventure [rating=4]
In the Hand of the Goddess [rating=4]
Woman Who Rides Like a Man [rating=3]
Lioness Rampant [rating=5]

2010 Challenge Status:
* Book # 30-33 out of 100 for 2010
* Book # 14-17 out of 20 Fantasy books for 2010

→ Tamora Piece’s website

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