Review: Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Title: Under the Never Sky
Author: Veronica Rossi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: January 3, 2012
Series: Under the Never Sky #1
Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Source: NetGalley

Since she’d been on the outside, she’d survived an Aether storm, she’d had a knife held to her throat, and she’d seen men murdered. This was worse.

Exiled from her home, the enclosed city of Reverie, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland—known as The Death Shop—are slim. If the cannibals don’t get her, the violent, electrified energy storms will. She’s been taught that the very air she breathes can kill her. Then Aria meets an Outsider named Perry. He’s wild—a savage—and her only hope of staying alive.

A hunter for his tribe in a merciless landscape, Perry views Aria as sheltered and fragile—everything he would expect from a Dweller. But he needs Aria’s help too; she alone holds the key to his redemption. Opposites in nearly every way, Aria and Perry must accept each other to survive. Their unlikely alliance forges a bond that will determine the fate of all who live under the never sky.

Under the Never Sky is a seriously fun little science fiction book. I wasn't really sure what to expect from it, but I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I like it.

Aria is a pretty awesome chick. She's not a waif or a whiner. She is smart and does not complain overmuch and keeps pushing herself to be stronger. She goes through something of an ordeal at the beginning of the book, and ends up in a pretty sucky predicament as a result. But she handles it all with courage and an inner strength that kinda surprised me. Perry is a warrior and a survivor. He can be vicious when he has to, but is ultimately a caring individual with a strong character. His savagery comes from a need to survive and protect within a harsh environment filled with dangerous things and people.

Aria and Perry experience a heck load of tension in their initial interactions. Aria is frightened of Perry and his capability to kill. Perry is frustrated by Aria's talkativeness and questions. They come from different places and do not understand each other. They hold resentment and contempt toward each other until they get to know one another better. Once they get over their initial dislike, they're better able to acknowledge each other's strengths. I can appreciate the way that they slowly come to respect one another and the way in which their relationship develops.

The settings in Under the Never Sky are pretty crazy. It's like part dystopia, part post-apocalyptic survival. Aria and the Dwellers reside in biodomes built to protect people from the harsh environment. The society within the domes has become a bit dystopic. The people wear devices called smart eyes and use them to experience a virtual existence within the biodomes. As a result, she hasn't experienced very many things in real life, or "in the real" as she calls it. Smells and textures are all a little bit different once she's outside. While the domes are fascinating, only a small portion of the story takes place within them. The world outside the domes is wild, unsafe, and electric. Some of the Outsiders like Perry have developed enhanced senses. The sky is filled with Aether, which is some sort of flowing, fiery lightning that comes down from the sky in funnels and storms, wreaking havoc and destruction on everything in its path.

The plot moves quickly as Aria and Perry navigate this Aether infested world in search of a way to find/save/communicate with those who are loved but lost to them. The story is told in the alternating points of view of Aria and Perry. It's awesome to get both of their perspectives and to see how differently they view things. If I had to make one complaint, it would be that some of the stuff with the enhanced senses pushes into a territory that is almost paranormal, where I would've preferred that it were a little more subtle. But it's nothing too major and doesn't do much to affect my enjoyment of the novel.

I enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it to fans of stories with a bit of science fiction, dystopia, post-apocalyptic environment, and survival elements.

Review: Love & Leftovers by Sarah Tregay

Title: Love & Leftovers
Author: Sarah Tregay
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Publication Date: December 27, 2011
Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Source: ARC Tour

My wish
is to fall
cranium over Converse
in dizzy, daydream-worthy
love.

When her parents split, Marcie is dragged from Idaho to a family summerhouse in New Hampshire. She leaves behind her friends, a group of freaks and geeks called the Leftovers, including her emo-rocker boyfriend, and her father.

By the time Labor Day rolls around, Marcie suspects this "vacation" has become permanent. She starts at a new school where a cute boy brings her breakfast and a new romance heats up. But understanding love, especially when you've watched your parents' affections end, is elusive. What does it feel like, really? Can you even know it until you've lost it?

Marcie's story is told via a notebook that she fills with poetry - a novel in verse. The style is easy to read and does a great job of letting the reader into Marcie's thoughts.

Marcie is a character that I both liked and disliked at varying intervals, and that, I think, is a good thing. She has a quirky voice that is tempered with angst. Some of her actions irritate me, but the verse still makes me sympathetic to the reasons behind those actions so that understanding and forgiveness come easily. For a while, I was worried that her confused behavior would be condoned or that she wouldn't suffer any sort of repercussions for her choices so that it would look as though one can act however one feels like it with little to no consequences, but I am pleased by the way that she is made to work through her situation and I am also happy with the way that things turn out for her in the end.

The story is told through Marcie's poetry, but it is still easy to get a good feel for the other characters based upon Marcie's feelings and thoughts regarding each one of them. Those feelings are made clear: frustration and pity for her mother, confusion regarding her father, longing for her friends back home, and the loneliness that evaporates when a boy at her new school starts paying attention to her. The plot focuses on these feelings that Marcie is going through as her parents split apart, and the ways in which she reacts and adjusts to these changes happening in her life.

I enjoyed Love & Leftovers. It is a quick read with delightful verse. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a fast, cute story and to lovers of novels in verse.

In My Mailbox (41)

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.

Hey there, my bookish people! It's that time of the week for the sharing of the spoils! I snagged some awesome goodies this week. Here are the books that I've gotten since last time:

For Review via NetGalley:
Goddess Interrupted by Aimée Carter
Spellcaster by Cara Lynn Shultz
Fallen in Love by Lauren Kate
Jersey Angel by Beth Ann Bauman
Partials by Dan Wells

Bought:
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (signed, of course!)

Gifted:
Vesper by Jeff Sampson (RAK from Jennifer at Waiting on Sunday to Drown - Thanks!)
Withering Tights by Louise Rennison (RAK from Jennifer at Waiting on Sunday to Drown - Thanks!)
Geektastic: Stories From the Nerd Herd

Extra:
Don't Breathe a Word by Holly Cupala swag (to be included in giveaways)

That's it for me! What books did you get this week? Let me know in the comments!

Favorite Covers: January 2012

Here are some of my favorite covers for January 2012: The Skies Edition

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
Lights in the sky! I love it. It gives off this almost Aurora Borealis effect, which is something that has always fascinated me. I also like it that the girl is not wearing a dress and is walking like she's in a movie and there's something exploding behind her. The brambles make it look wild. And I love it that the font has that same lit up sky effect that I adore about the background.
Amazon | Goodreads

A Million Suns by Beth Revis
Space! I could look at space images all day long. They're beautiful and shiny and sparkly and amazing. Just like all the shiny, sparkly, spacey goodness happening on this cover.
Amazon | Goodreads

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
There are plenty of people who don't like this cover. And I get that. It's kinda randomly plain. But I love the bright blue color that reminds me of the sky on a pretty day, and the graphic simplicity of it has grown on me. The contrasting graphics and text have this yin and yang thing going that I can appreciate on the cover of a novel that is sure to be bittersweet. I like the idea of this book sitting there, among hundreds of girls in dresses, and looking different.
Amazon | Goodreads


Do you also like any of these covers, or am I alone in this? There are a lot of books with gorgeous covers this month. Are there any that you're tempted to buy for the cover alone? What new little works of art will you be picking up for your shelves this month? Let me know in the comments!

Review: Don't Breathe a Word by Holly Cupala

Title: Don't Breathe a Word
Author: Holly Cupala
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: January 3, 2012
Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Source: ARC Tour

Joy Delamere is suffocating...

From asthma, which nearly claimed her life. From her parents, who will do anything to keep that from happening. From delectably dangerous Asher, who is smothering her from the inside out.

Joy can take his words - tender words, cruel words - until the night they go too far.

Now, Joy will leave everything behind to find the one who has offered his help, a homeless boy called Creed. She will become someone else. She will learn to survive. She will breathe...if only she can get to Creed before it's too late.

Don't Breathe a Word is a beautifully written book that deals with some tough issues. It covers abusive, controlling relationships, resentment, homelessness, drugs, prostitution.

Joy is a character who is afraid and desperate to get away from the controlling people in her life. She needs an escape. So she runs away to live on the streets and find a boy named Creed who had once offered to help her. She tries to be smart about it and quickly realizes that maybe she's in over her head. She seems almost helpless at times, and her vulnerability is a big part of what she has to grow out of. Asher is so slimy and vile. I can understand how Joy could become desperate to escape him. Creed and his friends have their issues, but are really just pretty amazing kids in need of some help.

The plot moves along pretty quickly as Joy learns the ways of the street and comes to witness some of the depressing horror of it that she didn't think through fully before she ran off to become a part of that world. It does contain some gritty stuff, mostly through dialogue and suggestion rather than being up front and graphic. Joy is protected by Creed from the worst of it. Some might think the story loses a bit of its edge because the main character doesn't get low enough to destroy herself, but I like that she and Creed try to keep themselves separate from some of that stuff the best that they can. And it gives Joy a chance to show the others that maybe they can find other ways to survive.

Don't Breathe a Word is a powerful read that touches on topics that are sometimes ignored or purposefully overlooked. I'd recommend it to fans of contemporary realistic fiction and issue books, particularly those dealing with emotional abuse or life on the streets.

Excerpt & Behind the Scenes of Don't Breathe a Word by Holly Cupala

Today I am pleased to welcome Holly Cupala to the blog to share an excerpt of her upcoming novel, Don't Breathe a Word, as well as some behind the scenes information with us!

Excerpt from Don’t Breathe a Word, Chapter 3—Joy, a sheltered girl with life-threatening asthma, goes to a zoo fundraiser with her dad and is walking around by herself in the silent auction tent when everything changes…

I skimmed along past the manicure packages, the clay elephant sculpture, dinner for two at Coastal Kitchen. If I had someone to take there, I might have bid. It was still well under a hundred dollars for a night of regional food and mystique. The Cranium games caught my attention. Jesse and I would play Hoopla before he took off for Western, and I could play Hullabaloo with Jonah, who was about to turn four. I put my number down, 235, and wished I wasn’t lost in the three or the five for just one moment.

I sensed a warm presence, and not from the space heater I passed. More like heat mixed with a chill.

His eyes were the first thing that hit me: intense and pale grey, watching me. A dangerous power crackled around him, the force of it nearly burning my skin.

He was trim and rough somehow, though impeccably dressed in a button-down shirt and light pants. His eyes skimmed my body down to the hem of the sari, silky and red around my legs, and I felt the chill again. His hand rested on the Nirvana T-shirt like he already owned it. Then he slipped back into the stream of bodies jostling for space in the tent.

I moved to the other side of the table, feeling those eyes follow me as I went. I stopped at a bracelet with hand-painted saints and looked up. The boy was across the table at the Cranium package, writing down his number. He looked up at me—not quite smile, not quite smirk. I wrote my number down on the saints bracelet. Take that.

Moving on to the next row, I couldn’t help but peek back. There he was, at the saints bracelet. Memorizing my number? Trying to steal my bid? Well, I wasn’t about to lose. I looked around wildly while his back was turned and hit upon—an evening of drinks and music at The Cloud Room. No matter if it was twenty-one and over, somehow I would sneak in with Neeta and a couple of others, and we’d have a wild night on top of the Camlin Hotel. 235.

If I was going to lose the Cranium package, I would have to find something for Jonah. A party at Bouncing Castles. Of course. 235. The boy gave me a dark look while everyone else seemed to be blurring around us.

My knees were shivery where the silk touched them. Every thread seemed to cup my body in the strangest cool-hot way. He wrote his number after mine in a move both infuriating…and totally sexy. 101. One him and one me.

Finally, I bid on a set of handmade tea cozies. That would be the test to separate coincidence from stalker. Worst case scenario, I would present them to my mom as a gift for coming to the zoo party in her place. The question now: Would he bid?

I turned the corner on the last row of tables. More art. More dinners. More jewelry than could be worn by a tentful of zoo ladies. He was moving toward the tea cozies, glancing at me and then coolly looking over his shoulder at the hoi polloi, eating, drinking, and being merry. My dress was sticking to me in places where silk should never stick. He reached the tea cozies and squinted at them.

He mulled them over. Flowered. Hand-sewn. Flattering for even the fattest tea pot. Machine washable. Really, the ideal gift. He looked up at me, reading the question on my face. By choosing the tea cozies, was he choosing me?

And then, it was over. He dropped the pen. Wrote nothing at the tea cozy stop. He turned and strode out of the tent without a word. I stood alone, only a few feet away from the heater. But I didn’t seem to need it anymore as I burned with wonder and humiliation. Was it the tea cozies? Did I make a bad choice? Was I just imagining him following me and maybe even flirting with me? Did I offend him?

I took a gulp of my inhaler.

Someone on a loudspeaker announced the upcoming animal encounter tours, and I broke out of my cocoon of rejection. Dad would be waiting for me, and the only thing I’d managed to place a bid on was a trio of tea cozies. He would not only question my taste, but also my sanity.

Our group gathered around the zoo woman holding up a GIRAFFE sign. Each of the wives had a Yellow Bird drink in hand, and they giggled like they may have already had two or three. If my mom were here, I couldn’t imagine her joining in. When she wasn’t obsessed with the minutiae of meds and refills, she managed accounts for some of the biggest funds in Seattle—she couldn’t afford to giggle. I set my Yellow Bird on one of the empty tables.

We were about to head off when he appeared—crisp in his white shirt and linen pants but still looking somehow dark, like these clothes weren’t the real him any more than my silky red sari was the real me. He spoke to the zoo woman: Could he join our group?

“Asher. Oh, yes. Of course.”

Asher. A fitting name. He stood close to me, like we were together. I could smell the faint scent of cigarettes on him. He was giving me that intense look again—palpable, as if his eyes were somehow capable of sending waves of adrenaline through my body. Fight. Flight. Melt, right there on the zoo path. My dad looked up.

“Asher,” he said brightly. “You know my daughter, Joy?”

My dad knew him?

“Actually, yes. We met in the tent a few minutes ago, but I wanted to continue our conversation.”

I didn’t realize we’d been having one.

*****

Want to know a few behind-the-scenes secrets? Here are just a few about this excerpt:

• I went to that zoo party! A friend got a table and invited us to join, and there really was a “For the Birds” party. All other events are entirely made up… 
• That scene came as a bit of a surprise—I was just getting to know the mysterious Asher, so it was like I met him at the same time Joy did. 
• Asher is the kind of guy who likes to control—his environment, his relationships, his effect on people. I once had a guy give me a similar treatment, and it was both intimidating and alluring. I think that was the idea (it certainly was with Asher). I wrote about that relationship in Dear Bully. 
• My friend Martha Brockenbrough (her debut YA novel, 10 Commandments for the Dead, is coming soon!) wrote the questions for the Cranium Hoopla game, so that’s a secret wave to her. 
• Earlier in that scene she sees “A spice collection from Café Shiraz,” which is the restaurant Kamran’s parents own in Tell Me a Secret. And I happened to be married to an adorable guy named Shiraz. :) 

Thank you, Jenny, for inviting me to your blog, and I hope you all enjoy Don’t Breathe a Word!

Thanks, Holly, for stopping by today and sharing an excerpt and some behind the scenes tidbits with us!

You can find Don't Breathe a Word on: Website | Amazon | Goodreads
You can find Holly on: Website | Twitter

Thanks to The {Teen} Book Scene for hosting the tour. Be sure to check out the other stops on the tour for more fun & info, as well as more chances to win.

If you would like to win your own copy of Don't Breathe a Word, then fill out the form:

• Must be 13 years or older to enter
• See contest & privacy policy for more info
• Everyone gets one automatic entry. You may fill out the form again to get extra entries for commenting on DBAW tour blog posts as well as sharing the giveaway through social media or on your blog. See form for details.

Blog Tour: Love & Leftovers by Sarah Tregay

Today we've got some this or that with Marcie, the main character in Love & Leftovers by Sarah Tregay:


Books or Movies: Books.

New or Vintage: Anything. I only have one suitcase of clothes and I am really tired of wearing the same things.

Inside or Outside: Outside. Being stuck in the same house with my mother is driving me crazy.

Hamburger or Hotdog: Hamburger. I think I know what part of the cow they came from.

Quiet or Loud: Quiet. I’ll leave the loud for Katie, my best friend. She plays the bass guitar.

Sneakers or Flip Flops: Sneakers. I just started running and I like it.

Hot Chocolate or Coffee: Coffee. Because that’s what J.D. brings me—and that has more to do with J.D.’s dimples than the beverage itself.

Truth or Dare: Dare. Because if anyone finds out what I did, I’ll die.

Cake or Pie: Cake. I really need that birthday wish to come true.

Hurricane or Earthquake: Earthquake. My great-grandfather built this summerhouse and I think he used two nails wherever a normal person would put one. It’s not going to fall down.

Geeks or Nerds: Geeks. They’re cuter.

Sweet or Sour: Sweet. Donuts. Marshmallows. Chocolate. Kisses.

Night or Day: Night. I feel free to write in my journal when I’m the only one awake.

Action or Adventure: Action. This little driving-across-the-country adventure Mom and I started back in June is getting old.

Standing Out or Blending In: Blending in. When you’re on the outside, you just want in.

I'd like to thank Marcie for stopping by the blog and sharing some of her opinions with us!

You can find Love & Leftovers on: Amazon | Goodreads
You can find Sarah Tregay on: Website | Goodreads

Enter to win a Love & Leftovers prize pack including a bookmark with a guitar pick charm and post cards!

• U.S. Only
• Must be 13 years or older to enter
• Contest Ends January 7 at 11:59PM CST
• Please see Contest & Privacy Policy for details
• One entry per person
• Fill out the form to enter:

This contest has ended.

The winner is Tandra S. Congrats!

Thanks to The {Teen} Book Scene for hosting the tour. Be sure to check out all of the other tour stops for more fun and info!