Buy Vampire Academy on Amazon

Lissa Dragomir is a Moroi princess: a mortal vampire with a rare gift for harnessing the earth’s magic. She must be protected at all times from Strigoi; the fiercest vampires– the ones who never die. The powerful blend of human and vampire blood that flows through Rose Hathaway, Lissa’s best friend, makes her a Dhampir. Rose is dedicated to a dangerous life of protecting Lissa from the Strigoi, who are hell-bent on making Lissa one of them.

After two years of freedom, Rose and Lissa are caught and dragged back to St. Vladimir’s Academy, a school for vampire royalty and their guardians-to-be, hidden in the deep forests of Montana. But inside the iron gates, life is even more fraught with danger… and the Strigoi are always close by.

Rose and Lissa must navigate their dangerous world, confront the temptations of forbidden love, and never once let their guard down, lest the evil undead make Lissa one of them forever…

Look around you, young adults. What YA book is the biggest, hottest, top selling on the market right now? Easy. The Hunger Games.

Why do you think this series is so famous? The awesome Greek mythology inspiration? No. The oh-so-YA love triangle? Nope. The mass murder and gory graphics? Nada. It’s quite simple, actually.

Katniss is a badass.

No, really. She is master of the bow and arrow, courageous enough to volunteer for the Games, and kicks some serious behind. It’s all about the behind kicking these days, I’m telling you.

And Katniss is great at what she does.

But if you thought Katniss was badass…

You haven’t met Rose Hathaway.

Based on Romanian mythology (Romanian! Now that’s original.), Vampire Academy is an action-packed, witty, and addictive read. Mead balances serious mental health issues, vampire hierarchy and hot half-vampires with charm and sarcasm.

Here’s one anecdote that I found especially hilarious…

Lissa and I had been best friends ever since kindergarten, when our teacher had paired us together for writing lessons. Forcing five-year-olds to spell Vasilisa Dragomir and Rosemarie Hathaway was beyond cruel, and we’d– or rather, I’d— responded appropriately. I’d chucked my book at our teacher and called her a fascist bastard. I hadn’t known what those words meant, but I’d known how to hit a moving target.

Lissa and I had been inseparable ever since.

I am not ashamed to say that I laughed for, oh, about 3 minutes straight when I read this for the first time.

Next, let’s talk about the world building. Here are the basics: There are two types of vampires; Moroi and Strigoi. Moroi are mortal and the good guys. They have a hierarchy; a queen, princes, princesses. Lissa, being the eldest only member of her family, is a Moroi princess. Strigoi are almost immortal and completely evil. There are also half-vampires; Dhampirs. Rose is one of the few female Dhampirs; most half-vampire women have children and become, well… stay at home moms.

I was extremely fascinated by the world building! It was all, even the not-so-pretty aspects, utterly enchanting and well-written. Say what you’d like about Richelle Mead, but she knows how to tell a story. I particularly enjoyed the vampire hierarchy; it was just so… fresh! I’ve never read another YA book involving a catty vampire queen, an evil Moroi revolutionary, and 12 royal families. This takes high school politics to a whole new level.

I’ve read some recent reviews of Vampire Academy on Goodreads. Let me clarify some things that reviewers have to say about Rose.

Rose is not a slut. Rose is wild, reckless, girl who is attempting to become more responsible and learns from her mistakes.

Rose does not crush on a certain someone for no apparent reason. Rose crushes on a certain someone for many reasons, but mainly because he understands her sense of duty.

Rose is not abusively violent. Rose is violent while defending Lissa and when provoked.

Rose is not a shrew. Okay, she is a shrew sometimes ;)

I actually wholeheartedly enjoyed Rose as a character and am excited to be exposed to more of her wit and comebacks in the next VA book.

Other characters I absolutely love include Christian and Dimitri. Christian is overly  sarcastic and a little dark. His deceptive appearance delights me; the whole “Why do I go to church? Oh, so I don’t look dangerous.”  concept was particularly amusing. His conversations with Lissa were adorable.

Dimitri is, of course, is in a whole different league of hot. He is definitely one of my top YA crushes. I posted as to why he’s my ultimate YA crush yesterday. To resume, though, he recognize’s Rose’s strength; he knows that she can kick ass and respects that. Of course, his swoon-worthy looks do help. A little. ;)

I loved Mead’s approach to depression. She somehow manages to convey how much this illness is scary and serious, but how loyalty sometimes get in the way of realizing just how serious it is.

Just a couple of issues;

1) The swearing. Yes, there is quite a bit of cussing in VA. This is one of these deal or don’t read it in the first place situations.

2) The ending. It just seemed to come a little too quickly; the pacing changed dramatically and it put me a little off. Don’t get me wrong; the ending was action-packed and addictive, just like the rest of the book, it just had a fast onset.

So… I am going to defy all the Vampire Academy haters out there and give it 4.9/5 stars. Quite possibly one of the best YA vamp books. Go Rose!

I’ll keep you posted,

Psst! This will also be posted on Strange Chemistry’s site. Go check them out!

But onto the crush-fest…

My YA crush?

Need you even ask?

Four words: Dimitri. Belikov. Is. AMAZING!

If you’ve read Richelle Mead’s entire Vampire Academy series, you’ll know that there are dozens of reasons to crush on Dimitri—assuming you even need a reason other than his sexy, swoon-worthy appearance. He’s smart, witty, great in hand to hand combat… but, honestly, the thing that I love the most about him? He believes in Rose’s strength. In the finale Clockwork Prince Will is so heroic while saving Tessa’s behind, and it’s adorable how Patch is so protective of Nora in Hush, Hush. But the true sign of a great guy? He believes in you. You, being able to save yourself. Dimitri doesn’t save Rose’s life—though he does help her out every now and then—instead, he tells her that he believes in her, encourages her, gives her advice. Somewhere deep inside his muscular chest, Dimitri knows that his girl can kick ass. And he respects that. And this, my friends, is why he is my ultimate YA crush.

Well… assuming I need an excuse to be crushing on Dimitri ;)

I’ll keep you posted,

PS: The awesome image comes from imgfave.com.

Hi everyone YA almost-authors,

Here is your chance to be published! The Book Wish Foundation is hosting a contest, of which 6 almost-authors will win a critique by an author or a literary agent (one of these is Meg Cabot‘s agent! I’ve never read Meg Cabot, but she is pretty darn famous.) From what I hear of it, here’s what you have to do (I am also posting the original contest below) :

1) Read The Book Wish Foundation‘s newest anthologie, What You Wish For.

2) Write and submit a 500-word essay about one of the stories in the anthology before February 1st. You may write more than one essay on more than one story, and you are able to win more than one critique.

3) Be one of the 6 winners (Who will be announced March 1st).

4) Submit the first 50 pages of your YA (or middle school) manuscript for review within 6 months of March 1st.

Here is the actual contest:

Win a literary agent or acclaimed author’s feedback on your unpublished manuscript for young adult or middle grade readers. This rare opportunity is being offered to the six winners of an essay contest recently announced by the literacy charity Book wish foundation. See this site for full details. You could win a manuscript critique from:

-Laura Langlie, literary agent for Meg Cabot

-Nancy Gallt, literary agent for Jeanne DuPrau

-Brenda Bowen, literary agent and editor of Karen Hesse’s Newbery Medal winner Out of the Dust

-Ann M. Martin, winner of the Newbery Honor for A Corner of the Universe

-Fransisco X. Stork, winner of the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award for The Last Summer of the Death Warriors

-Cynthia Voigt, winner of the Newbery Medal for Dicey’s Song and the Newbery Honor for A Solitary Blue

All that separates you from this prize is a 500-word essay about a short story in Book Wish Foundation’s new anthology, What You Wish For. Essays are due February 1st, 2012, and winners will be announced March 1st, 2012. If you win, you will have six months to submit the first 50 pages of your manuscript for critique (which means you can enter the contest even if you haven’t finished, or started, your manuscript). You can even enter multiple times, with essays about more than one of the contest stories, for a chance to win up to six critiques.

If you dream of being a published author, this is an opportunity you should not miss. To enter, follow the instructions at http://bookwish.org/contest.

Good luck and best wishes,

Logan Kleinwaks
President, Book Wish Foundation

What You Wish For (ISBN 9780399254543, Putnam Juvenile, Sep. 15, 2011) is a collection of short stories and poems about wishes from 18 all-star writers: Meg Cabot, Jeanne DuPrau, Cornelia Funke, Nikki Giovanni, John Green, Karen Hesse, Ann M. Martin, Alexander McCall Smith, Marilyn Nelson, Naomi Shihab Nye, Joyce Carol Oates, Nate Powell, Sofia Quintero, Gary Soto, R.L. Stine, Francisco X. Stork, Cynthia Voigt, Jane Yolen. With a Foreword by Mia Farrow. Book Wish Foundation is donating 100% of its proceeds from the book to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, to fund the development of libraries in Darfuri refugee camps in eastern Chad.

Good luck to all you aspiring YA authors!

I’ll keep you posted,

Happy Holidays, everyone!

As you all know, Audrey Hart graciously provided us with a Kindle copy of her book, The Dig, as www.WhatYAReading.com’s first giveaway!

A week since the contest began, we have a winner! The winner of What YA Reading’s first giveaway is… drum roll, please…. Steve. T!

Congratulations, Steve! You have 48 hours to claim your prize, or I will select another winner.

Thank you all for participating!

I’ll keep you posted,

Buy Glow on Amazon

The Empyrean is the only home 15-year-old Waverly has ever known. Part of the first generation to be successfully conceived in deep space, she and her boyfriend Kieran will be pioneers of New Earth. Waverly knows she must marry young in order to have children who can carry on the mission, and Kieran, the handsome captain-to-be, has everything Waverly could want in a husband. Everyone is sure he’s the best choice. Still, there’s a part of Waverly that wants more from life than marriage, and she is secretly intrigued by the shy, darkly brilliant Seth.

Suddenly, Waverly’s dreams are interrupted by the inconceivable – a violent betrayal by the Empyrean’s sister ship, the New Horizon. The New Horizon’s leaders are desperate to populate the new planet first, and will do anything to get what they need: young girls. In one pivotal moment, Waverly and Kieran are separated, and find themselves at the helm of dangerous missions, where every move has potentially devastating consequences, and decisions of the heart may lead to disaster.

Glow is NOTHING like The Hunger Games.

I just want to get this point across before you’re all fooled by the dangerous statement on the back cover of this book, claiming that this is ‘the most riveting series debut since The Hunger Games.’

Because it’s not the most riveting series debut since The Hunger Games.

Quite frankly, it wasn’t really riveting at all.

Glow was okay.  That’s it. Nothing more.

For one thing, this book begins on a ship that has been traveling through space for thirty-some years.  Apparently, for some reason, two ships left Earth in order to populate a New Earth. One would think that Kathleen Ryan might, I don’t know, tell us why this happened in the first place. But no explanation is provided. Of course not. The very thought of acceptable world building appalls me!

Also, this debut has very strong  religious views. I’m not going to comment on this, but if you feel strongly about Christianity and/or atheism… this book is not for you.

Furthermore, this book was a little macabre, to say the least. The violations and murders mixed with the teenager-y feeling of this novel were quite unsettling. It almost felt like the author was desperately trying to incorporate morbid little twists into Glow in order to appeal to young adults’ thrill seeking. Reading others’ reviews of this book, I can tell that it worked. I usually appreciate horror sub-plots, but this… it felt fake; the characters acted completely inhumanly while going through unnamed terrors. It was as if they felt no emotion at all. It was very disconcerting.

Actually, quite a bit of this book seemed like it was only written to appeal to the masses; the love triangle, the kidnapping, the lousy world building… in a lot of ways, Glow reminded me of a sci-fi version of Wither. Great female protagonist? Check. Cool plot? Check. Dark twists? Check. Plot holes? Double check. Awful world building? Triple check. However, if you are going to read one of these two books, do me and you a favour and pick Wither. Okay?

I found Kieran, the male protagonist, to be extremely annoying. He is stuck-up, thickheaded, naive, self-pitying… don’t think I couldn’t go on. And the worst thing about him? He thinks he’s friggin’ God’s gift on Earth. And some characters agree with him! Every chapter from his point of view was like banging my head against a brick wall: stupid and painful. So. There’s half the book for you.

Waverly’s point of view was much more satisfying. She actually evolved as a character, learned from her mistakes, and *gasp* didn’t irritate me to the point of complete and utter agony! Yay for her! No, I’m serious.  I actually quite enjoyed her schemes, her willpower, and her resolve, though I did find her to be callous and unfeeling at times.  Reading from Waverly’s perspective left me feeling like I was conspiring along with her, biding my time until I could seek revenge on the New Horizon’s crew.

Another thing I liked about Glow is the imperfection of both ships’ morality. It is mentioned in the description, above, that the New Horizon betrays the Empyrean. And although this is true, Ryan manages to tell both sides of this story, until the reader questions which ship actually betrayed the other in the first place.

The villain in Glow is perfect.  She is the quintessential bad guy; two-faced, seemingly innocent, hiding her cruelties under the blanket of religion. She acts unthinkably and succeeds in justifying her actions. Her motherly demeanor is trustworthy, but behind her benevolent appearance lies a heartless, calculating, maniacal woman. Reading about characters getting sucked into her lies was captivating, intense, and absorbing.

In conclusion, Glow is more like a flickering candle flame than a supernova. Actually, I would more likely compare it to a cheap flashlight; plastic, mass-produced, but enjoyable when used for shadow puppet shows. 2.9/5 stars.

I’ll keep you posted,