Never, Never (Part 1) by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher / Hoover Ink
I stumbled across this series of novellas on Amazon. Of the three parts, I’ve only read Part 1. It basically seems like a novel broken into three pieces. The whole series is available as a bundle for $2.99, which is a pretty great deal.
In terms of the story, it was definitely a wild ride. There’s a lot of romantic tension and some sexual content (main characters watch a video that includes a sex scene, thought it’s dark and only sounds are described) and brief violence. I was really hooked by the idea that both characters have lost their memories and are scrambling both to pretend they’ve got things under control/run their lives as if nothing’s wrong but also figure out what made them lose their memories. It’s clear something sinister happened, and we don’t know if our protags are good guys or bad guys. Will I read part 2? Possibly. I’m definitely curious about the story. Not curious enough to bump it ahead of the rest of my TBR list, though, so for now it’ll have to wait.
Inherit the Stars: Reprieve by Tessa Elwood/Running Press
After falling face-first in love with Inherit the Stars (read my review), I HAD to read this short story featuring Asa and her sister Wren (who is unconscious in Inherit the Stars.) I’ve read short stories by authors whose novels I love and been disappointed by the lack of structure (short fiction is not as easy as you think), but this was not the case with Elwood’s tale. The writing was powerful and the characters really moving. I loved having that chance to see Wren and Asa interact with one another, to have that real-time look at how their relationship worked. It only strengthened my understanding of Asa’s motives in Inherit the Stars. If you liked the novel, I recommend the short story. If you haven’t read the novel, check out the short story. It’s free, and you’ll get a really good feel for the narrative in the full-length novel. Update: I can’t seem to find a good link for the short story online. I think I got it on Amazon, but I don’t see it there now. Check out the Goodreads page and see if maybe it gets updated to show it posted somewhere else?
The last thing Asher Haynes expects is to be drawn into another battle for his life. But when servants of the Dark Prince show up in Charleston looking for a powerful artifact, Asher finds himself caught in the center of the conflict. If the Dark Prince finds the artifact and his servants use it, they will unlock terrible power. Asher and the Seer Team are the only ones who can stop them.
I think my favorite thing about this story was the way Tubbiolo set up the story framework—the Seer Team and Dark Prince and the whole conflict that translated really well in terms of being a Christian parallel. I liked that it felt paranormal but true to its roots at the same time, if that makes sense. I’ve read Christian fantasy that somehow felt contrived or like the Christian elements were just laid on top of an existing fantasy landscape. In this story, the elements felt really well integrated with each other.
One thing that I struggled with was that the narrative sometimes switched from present to past tense and back. It didn’t seem consistent, and my internal editor kept wanting to flag each change, so it really disrupted my ability to stay in the story.
I enjoyed Asher as a narrator and liked the rest of the cast of characters. The story felt like its own complete tale while also raising enough unanswered question to create some curiosity about the other books in the series. Fans of Lisa Bergren and Lynn Rush will probably find Jennifer Tubbiolo to their liking.
Language Content
No profanity or crude language.
Sexual Content None.
Spiritual Content The story centers around an artifact called the matteh, or “rod of Moshe.” (From the Biblical story of Moses, the staff he used to challenge Pharoah and lead the Israelites to freedom.) Men who represent an ancient Egyptian god want the staff as part of a ritual that will grant them great power from the Dark Prince (Satan). Asher and his friends are part of the Seer Team, a group who believe in Elohim (God) and are aided by God-given supernatural gifts (prophecy, dreams, etc) as well as angelic warriors.
Violence Some battle violence. Nothing gory.
Drug Content
None.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
After the car accident that takes her mother’s life, Sovern stops talking. She tries to lose herself in dating the boy she shouldn’t, in the rush of speeding downhill on a snowboard. But when another accident disconnects Sovern from even more of her life, she embarks on a quest outside time with only a strangely familiar boy who doesn’t speak her language as a guide.
There were things about this book that I liked. I thought it was cool that Sappenfield used Sovern’s dyslexia throughout the story. She really hammered home the idea that just because Sovern didn’t recognize letters as they were written did not mean she was by any means less intelligent. I liked the scenes in the Ute tribe.
In the scene where Sovern leaves the tribe behind to go home, I had a really hard time following what happened. It’s possible that it’s an issue resolved between the galley version that I read and the final published version. Sometimes I had a hard time connecting with Sovern’s character. The bad boy boyfriend thing seemed a little cliché. I liked that he turned out to be more than that, but I wanted the revelation of who he really is to involve him more, to give me reasons to invest in him more.
I’m going to break a cardinal rule and make a comparison between this book and a BIG book, which I really cringe to do, but hear me out. I think if you like the type of story that is Slaughterhouse Five, you might enjoy this book. I’m not comparing the quality of the writing in one versus the other, but more the somewhat disjointed, go where the story goes feeling that I had in reading Vonnegut’s novel. If you liked I Crawl Through It for the story, not the writing style, you might also enjoy this book.
The style of the narrative is a lot more straightforward and simple than the books I listed.
Language Content
Extreme profanity used moderately.
Sexual Content Sovern and her boyfriend Gage share cigarettes and kisses together, but she doesn’t have sex with him. Sovern and a boy from the Ute tribe are treated as a married couple after rumors that they’ve slept together. She holds back from giving herself to him, though, unsure whether they can remain together.
Spiritual Content The Ute believe that a bear chooses someone who is gifted with an ability to travel to other places. Sovern becomes interested in the ideas about the multiverse and theorizes ways to reach other universes.
Violence Soldiers come to destroy the Ute village. Two tribe members fight them, one is fatally injured. Sovern is injured in a snowboarding accident and then speared by porcupine quills.
Drug Content
Sovern mentions that she and Gage smoke marijuana together.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
After Caitlyn’s mom dies, she moves in with her aunt and uncle to a rural mountainside far from home. Discouraged and alone, Caitlyn wanders in the woods. Then a supernatural tornado-like thing nearly swallows her up. The boy who saves her turns out to be much more than the dark and swoony neighbor all the local girls wish they could get to know better.
But Adrian knows he’s placed Caitlyn in mortal danger. He is a vampire and his father, a demon (no, seriously,) wants to kill her. So the only way to protect her is to pretty much be with her constantly and, well, pose as her boyfriend, of course. Soon Caitlyn is the envy of every girl in school. But being Adrian’s pseudo-girlfriend comes with a high price. And the last thing she should do is fall in love with him.
When I picked up this book, I worried it would be sort of like a weird Twilight retelling. It is in the sense that he’s a vampire, she’s just a girl, and their star-crossed love would be frowned on by all if the truth came out. But West takes a different spin on vampire lore. Rather than vampires being created by bites from other vampires, they are the children of demons and human women. Yeah, it’s dark.
While I liked the twist on the vampire parts, other parts of the story were really a stretch to me, especially where it came to the romance. Things happened more than once that seemed contrived or almost silly rather than romantic. For the most part, I liked Adrian’s character. I felt like Caitlyn was a little tough to get into. She’s angry and distant in the wake of her mom’s death, but it was hard to really see past those feelings into the hurt and loneliness that would have made her easier to connect with.
The ending also felt like it went beyond setting a hook for the next story into introducing several ideas that didn’t connect with the current tale. I like having something to look forward to, but it felt like a lot of things just got thrown in there at the end that could have maybe been foreshadowed earlier in the story or just left out until book two.
Language Content
Extreme profanity used moderately.
Sexual Content Caitlin’s girl friends tease her about whether or not she’s having sex with her boyfriend. They conspire to purchase lingerie for her as a Christmas present. Caitlin is embarrassed and conflicted about whether or not to show off her gift to her man. She and Adrian begin spending nights together after her nightmares grow worse. In pajamas, they nestle together in her tiny single bed. In one scene they strip to underwear and shower together. Afterward, they kiss and tumble around in his bed together (still in shower-soaked underpants) before falling asleep.
Adrian worries that his father may try to kill or impregnate Caitlyn and warns her to be on the lookout for strange men who may harm or attempt to seduce her. She gets in a dangerous situation with one man who tries to seduce her, but he doesn’t succeed.
Spiritual Content Adrian is a vampire. Unlike other traditional tales of vampires, in this story, vampires are created when a demon and a human woman have a child together. The woman is killed at the birth of the child. The demon may try to take the child back to Hell or the vampire culture, who oppose demons, may try to raise the child among their numbers. There’s some hint that Caitlin may have some larger role to play in the battle between demons and vampires.
Violence Caitlin suffers from violent nightmares. They get pretty gory. Adrian fights a demon in a battle that gets pretty intense. Caitlyn and Adrian also discuss how vampires keep “fed” using bags of human blood.
Drug Content
Caitlyn and her friends go to a party at which they drink alcohol.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Forbidden Wish (Sneak Peak) Jessica Khoury
Penguin Young Readers Group/Razorbill
When a young thief summons Zahra from her lamp, she must grant him three wishes. But the world in which he lives forbids her presence, and her unwilling allegiance to her jinni kin means she may have to betray him at any moment. Nevertheless, she can’t help falling for the charming, fearless boy named Aladdin.
This sneak peek contains the first few chapters of this novel. If you’ve been lurking around The Story Sanctuary long, you’ll already know I’m a total sucker for fairytale retellings. So this was one I couldn’t resist checking out in advance.
I love that the story is told from the jinni’s perspective and that the love angle comes into play between the jinni and Aladdin. Aladdin is a bit of a player—which my little fairytale romance heart wasn’t too crazy about—so it seems all the girls know him and have experienced falling in a dead faint at his feet. He’s still the clever, quick little thief. The streets of his city really came to life in this tale. It felt like something between the underbelly of old London and a Middle Eastern town. Very fantasy, very believably gritty and dirty and dangerous.
This is definitely a book I’ll keep on my watch list to read when it comes out next February.
Language Content (Chapters 1-8)
Mild profanity used infrequently.
Sexual Content (Chapters 1-8) None.
Spiritual Content (Chapters 1-8) The story is told from the point-of-view of Aladdin’s genie. Other genies exist, and there is a lot of animosity between them and humans.
Violence (Chapters 1-8) A boy is beaten by soldiers. A burly man and a young woman face off in a fight (for money.) Brief descriptions of a battle that led to the fall of a kingdom.
Drug Content (Chapters 1-8)
Aladdin goes to a bar to drink wine and gets a bit drunk.
When Lo-Melkhiin comes to her village looking for his next wife, she knows he will choose her beautiful sister. She knows, too, that her sister would then be next in the long line of girls who meet death soon after becoming his bride. She vows to take her sister’s place.
In the palace, Lo-Melkhiin comes to her every night. She spins stories for him, grand tales about her home. Each morning she wakes. Each night he comes again. Strange things begin to happen. Power flows through her hands at weaving. Rumors surface of the good, kind man Lo-Melkhiin once was. She vows to weave power strong enough to free him from whatever curse has made him cruel. But she must do it before he destroys the kingdom and her.
Because the story is told through a lilting first-person narrative, I was so captured by the tale I didn’t realize the main character isn’t named. Normally that would really bother me, but as I said, I was sucked right into the plight of this brave girl who expected every night to be murdered by her husband.
As the story went on, I had more of a love-hate experience regarding her relationship with Lo-Melkhiin. I wanted there to be flashes of his former self behind his eyes or something, and it really wasn’t that kind of story. She believes wholly on faith that a good man exists, imprisoned inside him. I think that worked, I just had to adjust my expectations a bit.
I also kept having to resist the urge to compare this story to a recent favorite, Book of a Thousand Days. The narrative flow is a little similar, in that it has this poetic feel. It’s not really the same, and I think the two can’t really be compared. Book of a Thousand Days felt denser (in a good way) to me. This story felt simpler, not necessarily in a bad way.
That said, I’m generally a huge fan of fairytale retellings, and this, based on the stories of Scheherazade, did not leave me feeling disappointed.
The one note I’ll add about content is that I grew up in a church which condemned watching or playing Pokemon because it bore too close a parallel to trying to control spiritual creatures (too much like demons), and from that perspective, I’m not sure I would have been allowed to read this book as a younger teen. Certainly my parents and spiritual leaders would have been concerned with the demon-possession aspect and with her own power coming from worship and prayer given to her by the people.
At this point for me personally, it’s not always easy to decide where to draw the line on spiritual matters emerging in books, movies, and video games. My daughter’s father and I don’t always share the same values on these issues. In fact, we don’t always even land on the same (conservative vs liberal) side of the scale depending on the issue. So co-parenting across those lines can also be challenging. Because it is important to both of us to foster respect for our decisions in our daughter, I think we tend to try to err on choosing the more conservative side of the spectrum. It’s often about waiting rather than forbidding. At ten, the answer is no, but at fourteen, it might be yes. I suspect this book might fall into that category in my own judgment.
Language Content
None.
Sexual Content She understands that she’ll be expected to have sex with her husband, and worries about it. No details given.
Spiritual Content The people pray to smallgods. Each family has a shrine set up, often to a family member who who has died. Everyone prays to the person and leaves relics and offerings at the shrine. These give the smallgods power. When she leaves her family to become Lo-Melkhiin’s wife, her family sets up a shrine to her and her sister prays and keeps it. Over time, others pray to her as well, and her power grows.
Lo-Melkhiin returned from a hunting trip possessed by a demon. It controls him, keeps him caged within a small part of his brain. It also uses his power as king to control the people. It kills his wives to strengthen itself. It’s a pretty dark concept.
The demon’s power is pitted against her growing power as a smallgod. Each tries to destroy the other: she wants to free Lo-Melkhiin. He wants to kill her and take her power for his own.
Some spiritual power and authority also goes to the Skeptics, learned men who study the universe and its often unanswerable questions.
Violence References to wives being murdered. He sort of draws out their life force and leaves them withered and dead husks. It’s briefly described.
