Kimberly's Review of Deluge by Lisa Tawn Bergren

Book: Deluge (River of Time #5)

Author: Lisa Tawn Bergren

Why I read it: Because it's a brilliant series.

Rating 5+ Stars

It's always very difficult to write a review for the final book in a series. I want to share how much I loved it, and tell everyone about it, but I don't want to spoil anything! So I will do my best to tell you about my reading experience without spoiling anything from the earlier books.

Here is the description from the first book in the series...

Gabriella has never spent a summer in Italy like this one.
Remaining means giving up all she’s known and loved … and leaving means forfeiting what she’s come to know—and love itself.

Most American teenagers want a vacation in Italy, but the Bentarrini sisters have spent every summer of their lives with their parents, famed Etruscan scholars, among the romantic hills. In Book One of the River of Time series, Gabi and Lia are stuck among the rubble of medieval castles in rural Tuscany on yet another hot, boring, and dusty archeological site … until Gabi places her hand atop a handprint in an ancient tomb and finds herself in fourteenth-century Italy. And worse yet, in the middle of a fierce battle between knights of two opposing forces.

And thus she comes to be rescued by the knight-prince Marcello Forelli, who takes her back to his father’s castle—a castle Gabi has seen in ruins in another life. Suddenly Gabi’s summer in Italy is much, much more interesting. But what do you do when your knight in shining armor lives, literally, in a different world?

An exciting premise, right? Let me also mention the extensive research the author has done to ensure that historical details are accurate. Right down to clothing, the way the country would have looked at that time, how they moved and spoke.

Not only that, the characters are wonderful. They are interesting, have unique strengths, distinct personalities and feel like people you know “in real life”. They also have flaws. But their flaws are real, and make sense. Their flaw isn't that they are clumsy. They also acknowledge their flaws and work through them.

Also, the relationships? Friendship, romance, family? You know when you read a book and you'd like to just smack one of the characters because they won't COMMUNICATE? These characters do! It is SO refreshing!

The entire series is that good. Five books can sound like a lot, but it's actually perfect. Each book is perfectly paced. It never drags, never feels rushed.

This last book.... Oh boy. I did NOT want this series to end. I knew I would miss the characters. I laughed with them, and cried tears of joy and grief with them. I felt proud of the characters by the end. My only “complaint”? I wanted more. But I felt satisfied with the ending as well, I didn't feel like things were left sloppily unresolved. It's not the perfect ending with a nice shiny bow on top (which I will admit, I love those as well). But this ending felt like the RIGHT ending.

Okay, I'll stop babbling about this so that you can go right now and get it! Check your library, the local bookstore. If you're having trouble finding it locally, check a Christen bookstore, the author is Christen and her novels are often sold there. (The books are not really “religious books”)

Has anyone else read this series? OR. What was your favorite conclusion to a book series?

Kimberly's Review of 'Nolichuck' by Jackson Keene

Nolichuck

A copy of this book was sent to me by the author for an honest review. I have tried and failed many times to write a proper review for this novel. I'm going to simplify this a bit.

Story:

TJ’s just an ordinary fourteen year old kid with extraordinary problems at home and school: A broken up family from his parents’ bitter divorce, evil bullies almost every afternoon, failing grades, boring classes, snobby girls, mean teachers, cut from basketball tryouts, few friends. Life is rough for TJ Cockrell.

And then that mysterious little green book had to go and throw him into the past. And not just any past, but into the untamed forbidding forests of 1802 eastern Tennessee along with the savage Indians, wild beasts, bloodthirsty robbers, backwoods ruffians, and log cabin living! Yup, it’s definitely not 2011 Knoxville anymore.

And he thought his present life was bad news! But TJ’s adventures are only beginning. Along the way, he fights off killer beasts and bandits and braves, gains a world of confidence in himself, finds his first real love, and meets a fantastic frontier family who really has it together. When he returns to the present, he’s a brand new person––ready to defeat deadly robbers in his own home, beat the bullies at school, win the girl, gain friends, and make great grades. He even gets his family back together again. Sort of. In the end, the little green book is really cool. And TJ can’t wait to go on another action-packed adventure into the perilous past!

What I didn't like:

I feel like this floats between two genre/age groups. TJ thinks like a character from a MG novel would, yet at the same time the violence and language as well as his relationship with his crush are more YA. A novel that bridges the slight gap between MG and YA would be great, but I feel like Nolichuck fell a bit short.

I'm in my 20's and female, so some of my issue's with TJ may be unfounded, I can't relate to this teenage boy as well. I still felt like TJ was immature for his age. He DID grow as the novel progressed, I still felt frustrated with him.

I'm being nit picky here, but some of the writing felt... odd. Let me see if I can describe it. It's as if someone were describing him, but he is thinking that himself. It felt like parts of the book were written in first person, and some parts in third.

What I liked:

Time travel. I especially liked that it all took place in Tennessee. So many authors feel the need to make the story more exotic by placing it in a far away country. There is SO much history right here in the US, I enjoyed reading that.

The rules. The way he travels in time, and the rules that apply, are unique and I liked them. I've read so many time travel books, and watched Doctor Who far too much, but you never want to mess with the past. Bad things can happen. In Nolichuck however, it works a bit differently.

Conclusion:

Overall, I wasn't thrilled with this book. The characters frustrated me, the narration was difficult to read... However, there were a few ideas I did like, and I think that if future books in this series expand on those, they will be interesting.

1.5 Stars 

Kimberly's review of Travel to Tomorrow: Fifties Chix + Author Interview

Book: Travel to Tomorrow: A Fifties Chix book

Author: Angela Sage Larsen

How I got it: The publishers sent it to me

This is a bit of a... shameful thing. You see, I was sent this book ages ago. I mean, FOREVER. It's just a few months shy of a year ago that I received this book. I read it, and loved it. (As you will see in my review following.) I even got to interview the author! They gave me a number to call, and a time and I dialed into a conference call (I felt very spoiled, let me tell you that). I got to ask Angela questions about the book, herself and we ended up chatting about various other things, not just the book. It wasn't until after I hung up the phone I remember the other group of people that were listening to the conversation as well...

I had a review, as well as the interview all typed up. And then one of the worst things that can happen to a student and/or blogger happened. My computer died. It took weeks to fix, when I finally got it back I was scrambling to find all of my assignments that were due. It was several more weeks before I realized just how much I'd lost when my computer died. Including the author interview. I finally recovered it, and promptly forgot about it. (I'm sorry Angela, Sara and everyone else!) Then about 3 months ago I remembered (because I got an email from them...) and realized I needed to get it cleaned and ready to post to the blog. Then it happened again. My computer died. This time it took an even harder hit. I lost pretty much everything I had on my computer. It's a fixed and lovely now, working well with one of the best anti-virus systems my computer guy could find. Two weeks ago I was looking for an old paper I'd written that I wanted to reuse for another class, I found it along with (drum roll please) THE AUTHOR INTERVIEW! Unfortunately, it had been corrupted when the virus hit my computer, so I only have bits and pieces. What was an amazing interview, has turned into fragmented notes here and there left for me to interpret, trying to remember what it was I was talking about when I typed it. Kinda like going back and studying notes for an exam.

However, the book and being able to talk to Angela was just too much fun not to share, so here is the interview along with my review. Scrambled as it might be.

Review:

I've always been a sucker for time travel stories (hello Doctor Who). As I am sitting here typing this review I'm looking at my bookshelves and I can spot at least six of them that involve time travel. So when this book was offered to me, I was ecstatic. It was also the first time I'd been offered a book to review as a blogger that wasn't self published (nothing wrong with a self published book, of course). I got the book and my first impression? The cover was beautiful. I later found out why.

Here is the description of the book I stole from the website:

“n 1955 in the heartland of America, mismatched high school classmates Mary, Judy, Maxine, Beverly and Ann are assigned an intriguing social studies project by their eccentric teacher, Miss Boggs: they must predict what life will be like fifty-five years into the future. Little do they know that their grade is more than pass or fail; what they present to their teacher will turn their lives upside down. The day after the assignment, the girls mysteriously wake up in the very era they attempted to predict…and discover just how off-base they were. While venturing to solve the puzzle of their time travel predicament, they learn more about themselves and each other than they bargained for! Each Fifties Chix has a talisman that symbolizes a special talent that each one needs to navigate her new world and help them find the way back “home” to 1955.

Through diary entries and extraordinary story text, this book series unfolds the Fifties Chix, their hopes, dreams, secret crushes, friendships, mysteries, and families as they time travel and explore parallel worlds in time that prove to be both different and similar. The scenes are set and enriched with fascinating historical references, young love, adventure, intrigue, and lots of 1950s slang, facts, and culture.”

The characters are so very likeable. Some of them took me a chapter or two to really love, but all of them stole my heart by the time I was very far into the story. Each of them have unique personalities and traits about them that set them apart and give the reader more reasons to love them.

Then there is the mystery. Why did they travel in time? How? Some things haven't changed... But everything else is so very different from the world they knew. The characters grow and change living in this new world, and it was so fun to watch them adapt, but never abandon their true selves. It is interesting to see their time period compared with our own. It highlights just how much has changed, the good and the bad.

I feel like this is a rather vague review, but one of the delights of reading this book is I had no prior knowledge of the book. I didn't know what to expect.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys time travel, friendship stories, or just a flat out fun read. It's classified as a Middle to YA level, so it's suitable for about any age. Although some of the references to the 50's might be lost on younger readers. There is a lovely section in the back of the book that defines some of the slang and cultural references used.

I give this book 5 well deserved stars

Author Interview:

As if I didn't gush about it enough above, I had a BLAST getting to talk to the author. Angela was a delight to talk to. I loved getting to hear about the writing process, we also had a few things in common and drifted off topic a few times, it was fantastic.

I've been glancing through the notes and realized that some of the stuff could be spoilers, so I leave that stuff out but there is still some fun stuff to talk about.

I first asked when the next book would be out, because I was dying to know what was going to happen next after the BIG SPOILER happened at the end of the book. The next book is supposed to be out this year. (Yay for a sequel I don't have to wait 3+years for!)

I also asked why she had picked the 50's, it's one of my favorite time periods so I was curious what inspired her to write about it.

She said (and I'm having to paraphrase because of the fragmented remains of a document I'm pulling this from) That it was the Golden Era. It was a peaceful time... and yet there were so many things brewing under the surface. Civil Rights, Women's Rights...

Angela did a lot of research for the book, there was so much detail in the story that it was obvious. When I asked she said it took an entire summer just for the research, she wanted it to be as authentic as possible.

I asked if she had any favorite scenes, particular parts that she had enjoyed writing the most. She mentioned a few parts (that I can't say because it would be a spoiler, but they're wonderful moments) The scenes she mentioned are very character defining moments, as well as one rather powerful moment that happens early in the story.

Another question I had was about the cover. Like I said before, I loved it. I would have bought the book just for the cover. She told me that an artist, and forgive me, I can't remember who it is, did the cover for her. He actually found girls that looked like the characters and used them as models for the cover. For the first time I read a book with the characters on the front and they actually looked like they were supposed to.

I've lost most of the rest of the interview, but one last interesting thing. She and I were reading the same book at the same time. Actually, both of us have book ADD, in that we can't read just one book at a time. So while we were both reading multiple books at the time, we were both reading 'Shiver'. I was ridiculously pleased about that.

Okay, here are some fun links for you sent to me by the lovely publishing company.

This one is a fun, intereactive site:

http://www.thefiftieschix.com

This one has more information of what is to come:

http://premiere.fastpencil.com/angela-sage-larsen