Book Nerds Across America

**Note: Proceed with caution if you haven't yet read Unearthed.**

Book Summary
Trapped aboard the Undying's ancient spaceship and reeling from what they've learned there, scavenger Mia and academic Jules are plunged into a desperate race to warn their home planet of the danger humanity's greed has unleashed. From the mountains of Spain to the streets of Prague, the sequel to Unearthed is a white-knuckle ride that will send readers hurtling back to earth, and leave them breathless until the last page.

Flo's Review
Undying was quite different from Unearthed, but every bit as enjoyable. I really enjoyed having Neal along for the journey. He brought so much to the team in so many ways. It was a fun journey seeing several places in Europe with this duo. Their romance continued to blossom and I loved being able to know both their thoughts on the situation. (This is truly an advantage of dual narration in books.) One of the final scenes was just so artfully and beautifully written. Kudos to Amie and Meagan for deciding to present it the way they did.

I listened to this one on audiobook and thoroughly enjoyed hearing from Alex McKenna and Steve West. Both of them did a great job bringing a unique, otherworldly sound to the Undying characters. I also thought this was a fun and captivating length -- I feel like it would have started to drag if it had tried to be a trilogy, so a duology was perfect. And -- as many other people have mentioned -- the recap of Unearthed at the beginning was phenomenal! I read that one right around the time it came out, so of course there were a lot of things I had forgotten about the story.

Finally, and most importantly in my opinion, I think that Jules Addison is officially my newest Book Boyfriend. Get all starry eyed and ramble to me about academics in your British accent, Oxford. I am so here for it!

Book Summary
When Earth intercepts a message from a long-extinct alien race, it seems like the solution the planet has been waiting for. The Undying's advanced technology has the potential to undo environmental damage and turn lives around, and Gaia, their former home planet, is a treasure trove waiting to be uncovered.

For Jules Addison and his fellow scholars, the discovery of an alien culture offers unprecedented opportunity for study... as long as scavengers like Amelia Radcliffe don't loot everything first. Mia and Jules' different reasons for smuggling themselves onto Gaia put them immediately at odds, but after escaping a dangerous confrontation with other scavvers, they form a fragile alliance.

In order to penetrate the Undying temple and reach the tech and information hidden within, the two must decode the ancient race's secrets and survive their traps. But the more they learn about the Undying, the more their presence in the temple seems to be part of a grand design that could spell the end of the human race...

Flo's Review
From the moment I heard this book was a cross between Lara Croft and Indiana Jones in space, I was intrigued. What a great concept! I don't know much about Lara Croft, but the Indiana Jones movies were definitely a part of my childhood.

This book was fast-paced and a lot of fun. I enjoyed seeing how Jules and Mia figured out the various   puzzles that the Undying left behind. And I adored Mia and Jules together. I loved their relationship, from beginning to end.

Amie and Meagan came to my local bookstore, Books & Books, and I couldn't have been more excited. The two of them together are the best, and they are both so sweet, fun, and approachable.

I just love them, though!

They talked about the audiobook at the event and how they were excited to have Steve West narrating Jules. I knew him from the A Torch Against the Night audiobook and he does have a very enjoyable voice. (Seriously, though. Find a sample to listen to if you can!) Needless to say, he did a great job here as well. And so did Alex McKenna, who read Mia. But one thing I know about myself is that I have an audiobook limit. I can only do about 8 CDs max before it starts to seem too long. And this one was ten. Maybe that's why I struggled with the end. The last bit of the book seemed to drag a little bit for me? Or maybe I just enjoyed being with Jules and Mia and the puzzles and their brains better than anything else.

This is a duology, which is refreshing. I am looking forward to seeing everything wrap up in the next book.

Book Summary
New York Times bestselling author Meagan Spooner spins a thoroughly thrilling Beauty and the Beast story for the modern age, expertly woven with spellbinding romance, intrigue, and suspense that readers won’t soon be able to forget.

Beauty knows the Beast's forest in her bones—and in her blood. After all, her father is the only hunter who’s ever come close to discovering its secrets. So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters out of their comfortable home among the aristocracy and back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there’s no pressure to make idle chatter with vapid baronessas…or to submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman. But Yeva’s father’s misfortune may have cost him his mind, and when he goes missing in the woods, Yeva sets her sights on one prey: the creature he’d been obsessively tracking just before his disappearance. The Beast.

Deaf to her sisters’ protests, Yeva hunts this strange creature back into his own territory—a cursed valley, a ruined castle, and a world of magical creatures that Yeva’s only heard about in fairy tales. A world that can bring her ruin, or salvation. Who will survive: the Beauty, or the Beast?

Flo's Review
Happy book birthday to Hunted! This is going to be an interesting review to try and write without giving away any spoilers, but here goes. Hunted is a Beauty and the Beast retelling that is just so creative. Certain elements of the story were pretty much as they are in the fairy tale we all know and love, but some elements were changed to add richness and depth. Even more elements were created to wrap the story into a whole new world (see what I did there?!?) that was powerful, magical, and unique. This story had its own skin around it, and I am really impressed with how Meagan Spooner did that. It made the story more realistic, honestly. Because, as one of the characters tells Beauty towards the end, things do not just have one nature. Okay, let me pull a quote that might help that comment make more sense:

"The world of men is so strange. For you all things have one nature. Winter is cold. Death is a tragedy. But even in the world of men, this is not true. Your warmest memories are of winter, and the times spent near hearth and home. For the sick and the old death can be gift. And yet you insist on seeing only the face of things. I am a woman. I am a dragon. I am these things all the time, and I am never one but not the other."

With this story, there is always the question of Stockholm syndrome, and I love that Meagan actually addressed this question head on in the story. Because for this story to work, we need to believe that the Beauty was not struggling with this condition. Yeva was not. She sees the Beast for what he is and what he did: he treated her wrongly. But she also treated him wrongly. For this story to work, we need to believe that there is a HEA of two equals, and here there is. Yeva and the Beast are the same in a way, in an important way, that becomes clear by the end of the novel.

This was truly an enjoyable read, and I suggest you pick it up if you can!

Book Summary
With shades of The Hunger Games, Ender’s Game, and Game of Thrones, debut author Pierce Brown’s genre-defying epic Red Rising hit the ground running and wasted no time becoming a sensation.

Golden Son continues the stunning saga of Darrow, a rebel forged by tragedy, battling to lead his oppressed people to freedom from the overlords of a brutal elitist future built on lies. Now fully embedded among the Gold ruling class, Darrow continues his work to bring down Society from within.

A life-or-death tale of vengeance with an unforgettable hero at its heart,Golden Son guarantees Pierce Brown’s continuing status as one of fiction’s most exciting new voices. 

Flo's Review
Wow. What an interesting journey with this book. I literally had quite a roller coaster experience reading it. While I loved the concept of Red Rising, the first book in the trilogy, it took me awhile to get through it. I set it aside for several months, and then only picked it back up when I got Golden Son. 

The beginning of the book held my interest, but then toward the end of Part I, it was losing me again. I once again put a Pierce Brown book down and went on to other things. But I was determined to push through, so I picked it back up and read on. Then two words at the end of Part I had me excited to get to Part II. I was back to being invested in the story for awhile, but then it once again started to lose me. It went to the side again, but once again I came back. By the end of Part III and into Part IV, I was flying. And then there's the end. But we'll get to that in minute.

What I liked most about this book is the themes of trust and redemption that run through it. Darrow, though born a Red, is a natural leader. It is in his blood. But he is a leader because he makes friends, not followers. And his friends will follow him willingly and die for him. Time and time again Darrow opts to trust his friends and give them the benefit of the doubt. And the majority of the time this works. He realizes that the Golds will break because they are rigid and power hungry and always looking out for #1 above all. And the Reds can rise because they believe in brotherhood and community. I jotted down the phrase "high virtue, low color." Darrow's problems come when he goes out on a limb and trusts too much, hoping that all his friends can be human beyond just being Gold. Darrow is also bold in his strategy and that is why is so successful as a leader. He is smart -- he does his homework. He is often able to anticipate traps and what others who seek to harm him may be thinking. He uses that to come into a situation with the upper hand. 

You may be wondering why I had such trouble getting through this book. Through my experiences with sci fi, I can say that I just don't think I'm a sci fi fan. There are exceptions, of course: the Across the Universe trilogy by Beth Revis and These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner are two that come to mind immediately. But with this book, for example, there was a lot going on. Different types of people, different planets...I was often lost in all the detail. Secondly, I appreciate a good battle scene...but not a long one. I'm the same way with movies. (Don't get me started on the final Hobbit movie!) So many scenes in this book are fight scenes. And while I can appreciate that they are well done and that the characters are kicking @$$, I tend to just skim over them after awhile.

And now we can talk about the end. I won't spoil it, but I will say this. Up until then, based on my roller coaster of a journey with this book, I was looking at a 2 or 3 star rating. The ending brought it up to 4. I almost gave it 5 anyway, but I couldn't bring myself to rate it so highly based on my experience. But I almost did. The ending overshadowed everything for me. It was the kind of ending a booknerd lives for -- it's waaay past my bedtime, but I can't bloodydamn put the book down! Then, once I've finished it, I immediately had to seek out a friend to freak out with. The ending made the book for me.

Morning Star is the third and final book in the trilogy and it's not supposed to come out until 2016. How am I supposed to wait?!?!?

It's a night like any other on board the Icarus. Then, catastrophe strikes: the massive luxury spaceliner is yanked out of hyperspace and plummets into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive. And they seem to be alone. Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a young war hero who learned long ago that girls like Lilac are more trouble than they’re worth. But with only each other to rely on, Lilac and Tarver must work together, making a tortuous journey across the eerie, deserted terrain to seek help. Then, against all odds, Lilac and Tarver find a strange blessing in the tragedy that has thrown them into each other’s arms. Without the hope of a future together in their own world, they begin to wonder—would they be better off staying here forever?  Everything changes when they uncover the truth behind the chilling whispers that haunt their every step. Lilac and Tarver may find a way off this planet. But they won’t be the same people who landed on it. The first in a sweeping science fiction trilogy, These Broken Stars is a timeless love story about hope and survival in the face of unthinkable odds. (from Goodreads)

Flo's Review
Book Nerd Confession Time: I sometimes judge books by their covers. I totally did with this book. Honestly, I never read the description. I had no idea what it was about. But I have been absolutely dying to read it ever since I first saw it because of the cover. I mean, look at it:

I've fallen in Cover Love!