Shade (The Shade #1) by Marilyn Peake

Finalist in the 2015 National Indie Excellence Book Awards, Young Adult Fiction category. 

 Thanks to her offbeat mother, Shade's full name is Galactic Shade Griffin. Having a name like that while being the new girl in school is pretty much catnip for bullies. The summer before Shade's junior year of high school, her mother breaks up with yet another boyfriend and moves them once again to a new town.

This time, they move into a dilapidated old house where Shade has an entire attic bedroom to herself-at least until she discovers it's haunted by the ghost of a teenaged boy named Brando Yates. When Shade's best friend goes missing, her life becomes even more complicated. With the help of Brandon who's struggling with his own issues in the world beyond, Shade faces the question of whether or not she has what it takes to become a true hero.

Although this novel deals with a number of serious issues - drug and alcohol abuse, cutting, and disturbing world events - it's primarily a novel about a teenaged girl finding out who she really is and that she's capable of so much more than she ever thought possible. 

Shade is a Young Adult Paranormal Mystery novel. 

Review

I've been getting Marilyn Peake's emails for a while but had never read any of her books, so when I got an email about joining her ARC team, I jumped on the opportunity to check out some of her work.

This book is about Galactic Shade Griffin, aka Shade, a teenager with a drug and alcohol addicted mother who has just broken up with yet another boyfriend and moved her and her daughter yet again. This time, her mother moves them into a haunted house. When girls start going missing from Shade's school, the ghosts help solve the case.  

The amount of mature, potentially triggering topics in what I assumed was a light-hearted YA fantasy book was really surprising. Pretty quickly into the book, Shade starts cutting herself. She then sees a ghost, and the knife is flung from her hand and her arms are healed. The ghost tells her that she should do art instead of cutting herself. 

In some ways, I would think this book should be considered Middle Grade, because of the writing and the maturity of some of the characters. However, there were many topics that were completely inappropriate for MG books, like human trafficking and abortion.

I'm not sure what else to say about this book. It was kind of over the place, I am interested in checking out some of the author's other work, though. Next, I am going to try The Other, which is supposed to be a sci-fi book that features aliens. The reviews on GoodReads are much more positive than they are for this book, so I'm hopeful. I'll let you know what I think! 

I received a copy of this book from the author, in exchange for an honest review. 

Numers Game by Rebecca Rode

Treena is nervous for Rating Day. A single number will brand her forever - a valuable citizen, or a pathetic waste of space. Her top-Rated boyfriend is confident their scores will coincide so they can attend academy together. But when the big day arrives, her true number shocks everyone. 

To get her life and boyfriend, she must go undercover and expose a military spy. Doesn't sound too hard, except that someone wants her dead. And then there's Vance, the mysterious soldier with a haunted past and beautiful brown eyes. Together, they discover a dark numbers conspiracy, one that shatters the nation's future. Treena must join up with Vance if she is to survive the dangerous game of numbers - and the terrible war that rages within her heart.

About the Author:

Rebecca Rode is the international bestselling author of the Numbers Game trilogy and Love Right, a sweet romance. Her published works also include the inspirational book for mothers, How to Have Peace When You're Falling to Pieces, and various freelance articles in the Deseret News, Provo Daily Herald, KSL.com, Family Share, and Schooled Magazine. She loves cheesy martial arts movies, chocolate-banana shakes, and good old fashioned romance. Rebecca lives with her husband and four children.

Check her out on Twitter and Facebook!

Review:

This book was excellent! I wasn't quite sure what to expect, with this being my first book from The Review Chain, and not being familiar with the author. I was super impressed! I'm dying to read the sequel! 

Although there was a bit of a love triangle included in the story, I was happy with how the author incorporated it. Although she did have the all too common, two completely opposite love interests, the main character remained strong and independent, and most importantly, did not turn into a mush-brained idiot that could only focus on her love interests and competing feelings for them. If you've read any of my other reviews, you probably realized that this is my pet peeve.

I really think that this author was able to find a perfect balance of romance. It is rare to find a YA fantasy book without some type of romantic interest, and too many authors just tend to take the cliche love triangle and insert it into the middle of the book, impacting everything else. I think the author found a great way to incorporate the love triangle aspect, without making that the main aspect and taking over the whole story, which is done way too often. 

I am super excited to read more by Rebecca Rode and can't wait to see what happens next in the Numbers Game series!

I received a copy of this book for free, in exchange for an honest review. 

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

I was born for killing - the gods made me to ruin.

At the Convent of Sweet Mercy, young girls are raised to be killers. In a few, the old bloods show, gifting talents rarely seen since the tribes beached their ships on Abeth. Sweet Mercy hones its novices skills to deadly effect: it takes ten years to educate a Red Sister in ways of blade and fist.

But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don't truly understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls as a bloodstained child of eight, falsely accused of murder: guilty of worse.

Stolen from the shadow of the noose, Nona is sought by powerful enemies, and for good reason. Despite the security and isolation of the convent, her secret and violent past will find her out. Beneath a dying sun that shines upon a crumbling empire, Nona Grey must come to terms with her demons and learn to become a deadly assassin, if she is to survive...

If you read any of my other reviews, you might notice a trend... I have so many books on my TBR list, and there may be a good bit of time between when I request a book and when I actually get to read it. So, I have a tendency to request books after reading their description or reading good reviews, then not exactly remembering what they're about or why I requested them when it comes time to read them. 

This was was the case with Red Sister. I didn't remember what it was about, and the short description I read on NetGalley before downloading it only talked about the author's previous best-selling series and how this is the start to his new series. So, that's all I had to go on when I started reading the first line:

It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size. For Sister Thorn of the Sweet Mercy Convent and Lano Tacsis brought 200 men.

I've found that going into books you know you requested but don't know what they are about can be pretty exciting. It's not like just picking up any book at random and starting to read. That could spell disaster. Imagine instead, going through a bunch of books and reading descriptions and reviews, picking out 20 or so that you think you will like, then forgetting about them for six months. Then, randomly picking up one of those books and start reading, without looking at anything else about it.

I doubt the description said anything about armies killing nuns, but starting out a book with that first sentence, gave me an awesome first impression, and the rest of the book followed suit.

I absolutely loved everything about this book! The main character is strong and independent, and the author never takes away from that at all by adding a cliche love interest. The story doesn't call for it, and trying to add it in there would have ruined the story IMHO. The heroine is perfectly capable of rescuing her self, and she does (sometimes with a little help from her friends)!

After reading this book, I did a little more research and found out that it isn't going to be released until April, meaning that I could be waiting a long time for a sequel. :( While I might not be waiting patiently, I will be waiting anxiously awaiting more about Nona the nun! 

I received a copy of this book from the publishers, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

The Reader by MK Harkins

Hunted, shot and without her memory, eighteen-year-old Ann Baker wakes in a shallow water on a deserted Pacific Northwest island. She is soon approached by two young men claiming to be her friends. Something isn't right, but when gunshots sound, Ann is left with little choice but to allow Devon and Archer to help her escape. Soon she finds herself in their North Bend mountain compound, where the higher evolved humans claim to be mind-readers. While Ann heals, she realizes that they believe her to be one of the last and most powerful of all - The Lost One.

She's welcomed by most with opened arms, but  not everyone is happy about her arrival. A jealous adversary has plans for Ann, which spirals the entire Reader community into chaos.

As lies, murder and betrayal threaten to rip apart the once harmonious mountain dwellers, Ann is thrust into making a decision that could save or devastate not only The Readers, but all of mankind. But there is just one glitch: by doing so it may require her to make the ultimate sacrifice.

I really enjoyed this book, but it seemed a little obvious what was going to happen at some points. Sometimes, I was worried that it wouldn't be very suspenseful and it was going to be predictable.

However, I was very pleasantly surprised! There were twists and turns that I could never have predicted! It turned out to be a great book!

With the way it ended, I am hoping that the author writes a sequel. I felt like this one could have been longer and could have benefited from some extra details in some places and elaboration on some parts of the story, but overall, it was a great concept. I look forward to reading more from MK Hawkins!

I received a copy of this book from the publishers, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest opinion.