Audiobook Review: Level 2 by Lenore Appelhans

Posted on February 21, 2013 · 5 Comments

level2Level 2 by Lenore Appelhans
Publication Date: January 22, 2013
Format: Audio CD
Rating: 3 stars
Genre: YA Dystopian
Source: Review copy from the publisher

Amazon Synopsis

In this gripping exploration of a futuristic afterlife, a teen discovers that death is just the beginning.

Since her untimely death the day before her eighteenth birthday, Felicia Ward has been trapped in Level 2, a stark white afterlife located between our world and the next. Along with her fellow drones, Felicia passes the endless hours reliving memories of her time on Earth and mourning what she’s lost—family, friends, and Neil, the boy she loved.

Then a girl in a neighboring chamber is found dead, and nobody but Felicia recalls that she existed in the first place. When Julian—a dangerously charming guy Felicia knew in life—comes to offer Felicia a way out, Felicia learns the truth: If she joins the rebellion to overthrow the Morati, the angel guardians of Level 2, she can be with Neil again.

Suspended between Heaven and Earth, Felicia finds herself at the center of an age-old struggle between good and evil. As memories from her life come back to haunt her, and as the Morati hunt her down, Felicia will discover it’s not just her own redemption at stake… but the salvation of all mankind.

My Thoughts

The audio narration by Jenna Lamia is outstanding. She is the perfect choice to read this novel. Her voice and inflections are on point; the character voices distinct. She made listening to the book an enjoyable experience.

However, I had a very difficult time staying focused on the story itself. And, honestly, it might just be me. This is not the typical genre of book that I read. I wanted to read it only because the author is a fellow book blogger. The storyline is not one that I would normally gravitate toward, so I may have brought some preconceived biases into my reading experience that are not fair.

With that said, there were parts of it that intrigued me … but I was left wanting more. There were other parts that went on and on … that I just wanted to skip over. Felicia Ward is a seventeen-year old girl who finds herself in Level 2, the stage between life on earth and Heaven. Felicia is dead yet she is stuck in this in-between world where she relives her life through countless memories. This is how the reader is introduced to Felicia’s back story – her life on Earth, so to speak. I was intrigued by some of her memories; others did not seem to move the plot forward in any meaningful way but instead showed a part of her character or an aspect of a relationship that helps us get to know her character a little better. Her relationship with her boyfriend, Neil, was adorable – how they met, their first date, etc.

The dystopian-esque elements of the book (the Level 2 parts) were just plain confusing to me. The Morati who oversee Level 2 are in the process of rebelling because they want to go to Level 3, but are forever stuck on Level 2. Then Julian, Felicia’s maybe-but-maybe-not love interest breaks in to free her and tries to get her to join the fight against the Morati. Julian was part of Felicia’s real life and they engaged in a relationship, but as far as Felicia in Level 2, it is all about Neil. Neil is her one true love. So, the premise of there being a love triangle was a bit flawed. The Neil/Felicia relationship seemed more real and emotional than the Julian/Felicia relationship.

The ending felt a bit rushed and contained some surprises that I am not sure make sense, but I am ultimately happy about.

Overall, a mixed read for me. Enjoyed some parts; other parts were confusing, but this could be because this is not the typical genre of book that I read.

Audio clip

My audiobook review copy was provided by Random House Audio. All thoughts are my own.

 

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Book Review: The Guest Book by Marybeth Whalen

Posted on August 23, 2012 · 1 Comment

The Guest Book by Marybeth Whalen
Publication Date: July 3, 2012
Publisher: Zondervan
Genre: Christian Fiction
ISBN: 978-0310334743
*****
This book brings me back to the days I spent in our rented Carolina beach house as a child. I remember reading guest book entries and thinking about the people who passed before me – who they were, where they were from, and what adventures they went on. I do recall seeing some wacky drawings in some of those guest books over the years, too! And, even though I still regularly visit North Carolina, I haven’t looked inside a guest book in many years. I honestly just forgot about it. So, when I saw this book for review through Amazon Vine (and then the digital copy on Netgalley), I snatched it up in a heartbeat.

Macy Dillon is a single mother to a five-year-old girl and nursing a broken heart while still grieving the loss of her larger-than-life father ten years prior. As a way to help the family move on, Macy’s mother suggests that the family return to one of their favorite places – Sunset Beach, North Carolina. In the rented beach house that they regularly visited so many years ago, Macy, her daughter, her mom, and her brother, confront the past in hopes of moving to a better future.

Macy immediately becomes obsessed with locating the boy she used to exchange pictures with in the guest book of her youth. Macy would draw a picture and the next year her family visited the house, a little boy would have responded to her picture with a picture of his own. While an interesting premise, I found it a bit farfetched that a single mother would be pining after a boy who drew her pictures each year in a guest book. But, it did seem to have a significant impact on her life, so I went with it. Once Macy arrives in Sunset Beach, suddenly men come out of the woodwork and all of them could potentially be The Artist of her youth. But who is it? Or has he moved on with his life altogether and forgotten Macy, too?

In the background of Macy’s search for her Artist is her mother, Brenda’s, journey of letting go of her deceased husband and embarking on a new stage of life. Max, Macy’s brother, is battling his own personal demons. He drowns his grief at the bottom of a bottle. But with the help of a new friend, Max may learn to find his own way again.

This is a quick read and I did enjoy it. If you can get past some of the unbelievable parts (who gets three men chasing after her immediately upon landing at a beach house for vacation?!) and just take it for what it is. Recommended.

*****

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Audiobook Review: The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

Posted on August 14, 2012 · 5 Comments

The Age of Miracles
by Karen Thompson Walker
Publication Date: June 26, 2012
Publisher: Random House
Source: Library

On a seemingly ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, Julia and her family awake to discover, along with the rest of the world, that the rotation of the earth has suddenly begun to slow. The days and nights grow longer and longer, gravity is affected, the environment is thrown into disarray. Yet as she struggles to navigate an ever-shifting landscape, Julia is also coping with the normal disasters of everyday life—the fissures in her parents’ marriage, the loss of old friends, the hopeful anguish of first love, the bizarre behavior of her grandfather who, convinced of a government conspiracy, spends his days obsessively cataloging his possessions. As Julia adjusts to the new normal, the slowing inexorably continues.

My Thoughts:

In this coming-of-age (?) story by debut novelist Karen Thompson Walker, we meet our main character, 11-year-old Julia. The world in which Julia lives is about to change drastically. The earth begins to slow, creating longer days. Paranoia is heightened. People begin to think that the end of the world is near. But at the heart of this story is the changing family dynamics of Julia’s family. Her parents marriage is falling apart and Julia discovers a secret that her father is keeping. Julia is also dealing with everyday childhood woes – teasing at school, trying to get the attention of the boy she likes, and the dissolution of a friendship.

The author creates a sense of foreshadowing throughout the book  (“If we had known this then…”) and there is a subtle tension that kept me riveted to the audio narration. I was expecting a grand conclusion as to the cause of the slowing since there is so much build-up, but I was very disappointed with the ending. The reason I have coming-of-age as a question mark above is that I think that is the intent of this story, but I never truly felt like Julia’s character grew through the course of the book.

The audio narration is fantastic. I really loved the narrator. She spoke slowly enough that I could follow along and used great inflections and voices for the different characters.

So, overall this is an interesting premise, but it did not quite live up to my expectations.

*****

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Book Review and Giveaway: The Girl Below by Bianca Zander

Posted on June 20, 2012 · 4 Comments


The Girl Below: A Novel
by Bianca Zander
William Morrow Paperbacks
Publication Date: June 19, 2012
Source: Review copy from the publisher

Amazon Synopsis

Suki Piper is a stranger in her hometown. . . .

After ten years in New Zealand, Suki returns to London, to a city that won’t let her in. However, a chance visit with Peggy—an old family friend who still lives in the building where she grew up—convinces Suki that there is a way to reconnect with the life she left behind a decade earlier. But the more involved she becomes with Peggy’s dysfunctional family, including Peggy’s wayward sixteen-year-old grandson, the more Suki finds herself mysteriously slipping back in time—to the night of a party her parents threw in their garden more than twenty years ago, when something happened in an old, long-unused air-raid shelter. . . .

A breathtaking whirlwind of mystery, transgression, and self-discovery, Bianca Zander’s The Girl Below is a haunting tale of secrets, human frailty, and dark memory that heralds the arrival of an extraordinary new literary talent.

My Thoughts

I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, the author has a way with words that kept me entranced until the end. However, on the other hand, the book left me wanting. There were things that were never fully resolved and ultimately, I think I am one of the readers who just did not “get” this book.

Suki Piper is 28 years old, but she is very immature for her age. I often felt sorry for her as she never seemed to really grow up. She suffered through her parents divorce at a young age and then the death of her mother as a young adult. She never really recovered. Compounding all of these things are the mysterious occurrences that Suki reflects on from her childhood; specifically, the incident in the air raid shelter, the “hand” in the cabinet, and the issue with the statue called Madeline. As a reader, I kept looking through these supernatural-type experiences to find the real truth hidden in the author’s words. However, upon finishing the book, I never found a real conclusion to any of the events that Suki experienced, which is unfortunate. I drummed up many theories as I was reading the book, but there was no answer that left me wholly satisfied. Perhaps that was the point, but I am a reader who likes to have a definitive answer to the questions and oddities that are raised in the course of the story. I do not like to wonder at the outcome – I want to know the outcome.

The relationships Suki had with those around her were strange at best. She was a caretaker for Peggy, her old neighbor, and became reacquainted with Pippa, who is Peggy’s daughter and Suki’s old babysitter. Pippa’s 15-year-old son, Caleb, is a bit of a delinquent and Pippa thinks that Suki could have a positive influence on him given her life experiences. So, Caleb and Suki begin spending time together, but their relationship is just plain weird, awkward, and uncomfortable. I was left shaking my head on several occasions.

Overall, the author has excellent writing ability and the story kept me intrigued til the end. However, when none of my lingering questions were answered at the end of the book, I was left feeling disappointed and a bit puzzled that I completely missed something. Other readers should note that I do not typically read stories with strong supernatural elements, so this could be part of the reason that this book did not resonate with me. I was very intrigued by the synopsis, which is why I wanted to review the book. Unfortunately, this is one that just did not quite meet my expectations, which does not mean it will not meet yours!

Read 5 star reviews on Goodreads

Giveaway:
Thanks to the publisher, I have 3 copies of THE GIRL BELOW to give away to THREE readers in the USA!

Rules:
1. Enter your name and e-mail address in the ContestMachine widget below.
2. Open to residents of the USA only.
3. Contest will close on June 27 at 11:59pm EST.
4. 3 winners will be selected and contacted upon contest closure. Winners will have 48 hours to respond to notification email or another winner will be selected.
5. Winners must provide their full name and mailing address which I will send to the publisher for fulfillment of the prize.
6. Neither Crazy-for-Books nor the publisher are responsible for lost or misdirected prize shipments. Pleas ensure that you provide the correct mailing information if selected as the winner. Please allow 4-6 weeks for prize delivery.


*****

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Book Review: Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

Posted on May 8, 2012 · 18 Comments

Sarah’s Key
by Tatiana de Rosnay
Genre: Historical Fiction, World War II
Publication Date: September 2008
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
ISBN: 978-0312370848
293 pages

From Amazon:
Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family’s apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.

Paris, May 2002: On Vel’ d’Hiv’s 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France’s past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl’s ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d’Hiv’, to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah’s past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.

Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this painful episode.

My Thoughts:

I have mixed feelings about this book. It has languished on my TBR shelf for nearly 3 years. My mother and sister-in-law read it before I did and raved about it. Many others in the blogging world have given this book high praise. So, when I started it, I expected to be blown away.

But I wasn’t.

I wish the book was told entirely from young Sarah’s perspective. To be honest, I didn’t care at all about Julia and her story. There was so much drama with her husband that it really took away from the full impact that this story could have had for me. The Vel’ d’Hiv story is tragic. Tragic is even a light word for it. It’s horrifying. Thousands of Jewish families rounded up by the French police and shipped off to the Auschwitz gas chambers . . . it makes me sick to my stomach.

We meet young Sarah as her family is being rounded up by those French policeman in the middle of the night. In order to save her brother, she locks him in their secret hiding place, a cupboard in their bedroom. She thinks she will be right back to let him out; however, things do not go the way Sarah thinks they will.

Julia Jarmond is a journalist who is covering the 60 year anniversary of the Vel’ d’Hiv roundup. What she uncovers during her research will change her life forever. Her personal struggles with her husband are ever present throughout the novel and really detract from the powerful story that is Vel’ d’Hiv.

Told in alternating viewpoints, Sarah and Julia’s stories eventually merge into an unexpected conclusion.

This is a good story and tells of a time that is not well known in World War II history, so for that purpose, I would recommend it.

*****

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