Review: The Secret Box by Whitaker Ringwald

Title: The Secret Box
Author: Whitaker Ringwald
Publisher: HarperCollins BFYR
Pub. Date: February 25, 2014
Genre: Middle Grade
Rec. Age Level: 8-12

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Jax and Ethan are more than just cousins, they're best friends and partners-in-crime. Well, to be honest, it's more like Ethan is a partner to Jax's crimes. Jax is impulsive and always ready for an adventure, while Ethan is cautious and always armed with plenty of facts and interesting trivia. When Jax receives a mysterious package on her twelfth birthday from a great-aunt she never knew existed, a gift quickly and mysteriously confiscated by her mother, Jax is even more determined than ever to figure out why no one has ever mentioned Great-Aunt Juniper and what is inside the curious box she's given Jax for her birthday. Jax and Ethan team up with Tyler, Ethan's older computer-genius older brother, who happens to possess something the duo desperately needs: a driver's license. As the trio embarks on a road trip to figure out what secrets the box contains, they find themselves tangled in potentially dangerous adventure where their courage, wits, and teamwork might be the only things that can save them from the dark powers at play.

THE SECRET BOX is the first installment in a new middle grade adventure trilogy by author Whitaker Ringwald. Readers will surely fall for the heroes of this story - Jax and Ethan - who, though very different, compliment one another perfectly. Jax's impulsiveness and irrepressible excitement moves the story along at a quick pace, while Ethan's attention to detail and penchant for reciting facts and figures grounds the story and gives readers time to process important details.

I'm very curious about the Greek mythology elements of THE SECRET BOX and the secrets regarding Jax's father. In this first book, readers are only given small amounts of information about who Jax's father is and how he ties into the big mystery surrounding Juniper and the curious artifact gifted to Jax. I'm anxiously awaiting the answers I hope to find in the second book! THE SECRET BOX is a great beginning to what promises to be a fantastic new trilogy.

Review: The Eye of Minds (The Mortality Doctrine #1) by James Dashner

An all-new, edge-of-your seat adventure from James Dashner, the author of the New York Times bestselling Maze Runner series, The Eye of Minds is the first book in The Mortality Doctrine, a series set in a world of hyperadvanced technology, cyberterrorists, and gaming beyond your wildest dreams . . . and your worst nightmares.

Michael is a gamer. And like most gamers, he almost spends more time on the VirtNet than in the actual world. The VirtNet offers total mind and body immersion, and it’s addictive. Thanks to technology, anyone with enough money can experience fantasy worlds, risk their life without the chance of death, or just hang around with Virt-friends. And the more hacking skills you have, the more fun. Why bother following the rules when most of them are dumb, anyway?

But some rules were made for a reason. Some technology is too dangerous to fool with. And recent reports claim that one gamer is going beyond what any gamer has done before: he’s holding players hostage inside the VirtNet. The effects are horrific—the hostages have all been declared brain-dead. Yet the gamer’s motives are a mystery.

The government knows that to catch a hacker, you need a hacker.
And they’ve been watching Michael. They want him on their team.
But the risk is enormous. If he accepts their challenge, Michael will need to go off the VirtNet grid. There are back alleys and corners in the system human eyes have never seen and predators he can’t even fathom—and there’s the possibility that the line between game and reality will be blurred forever.

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I wasn't sure what to expect from James Dashner's The Eye of Minds. After all, I liked The Maze Runner well enough after listening to it on audio, but I was hazy on the details and never felt especially compelled to read the next two books in the trilogy. Now, after getting sucked into and genuinely enjoying this first book in The Morality Doctrine, I'm wondering if his first trilogy doesn't deserve another try.

The Eye of Minds is set primarily in a virtual world called VirtNet, a world much preferred over the boring reality of most peoples' normal, everyday lives. Daily, people slog through their necessary jobs and responsibilities with the promise of slipping into their virtual lives at the end of the day. The main character, Michael, is one of these people. He's one of the best, a talented hacker, and determined to make it the next coveted level in the game. Michael's normal, laid-back life of exploring and having fun in VirtNet with is best friends, Bryson and Sarah, is thrown off-kilter when Michael witnesses a suicide within the game - a true suicide, not a simple thrown-back-into-reality-to-begin-again death, a normal occurrence. Reports of suicide and other malfunctions are becoming more and more common and the cause of it all seems to be a mysterious and deadly hacker named Kaine. After witnessing the suicide, Michael and his friends are recruited to track down Kaine, before he's able to strike again. The stakes are high and the lines between the game and reality are becoming dangerously blurred.

The Eye of Minds starts with a bang and never truly slows. From one thrilling situation to the next, the pressure is on for Michael, Bryson, and Sarah and, when I reached the final chapter, I was a bit in awe of how much happened in just over 300 pages. If readers appreciated the action in The Maze Runner, they'll be happy to see that Dashner doesn't drop the ball in this new trilogy - in fact, he stepped it up.

I really liked Michael, Bryson, and Sarah as a team. In my opinion, there aren't enough examples of true, supportive friendships in YA literature, especially between guys and girls. While I could see some type of romantic relationship developing later in the series, there was nothing to hint at it in this first book and I really appreciated that. I liked that the three were just friends with similar interests who trusted and relied upon one another. The banter between them felt genuine and I quickly became invested in their friendship.

I'm by no means a gamer, but I soon became immersed in the world and concept of VirtNet. I could definitely understand how a person could feel the urge to spend large amounts of time in something like VirtNet, where they could look any way they wanted and experience virtually anything. For kids like Michael, who are skilled hackers, it'd be even harder to stay away. Imagine a world you can change in substantial ways at your whim. Being able to eat anything you want and never gaining a pound. Doing crazy and dangerous stunts without any fear of dying. That kind of experience could be addicting and drawing the line between what's real and not could become increasingly difficult. 

This first installment of The Mortality Doctrine is delightfully twisty. I was never sure what would happen next because the characters were never sure. Normal rules don't apply within VirtNet, so Dashner was able to throw some crazy twists and turns in and all I could do was try to brace myself for the next surprise.

I'll definitely be reading the next Mortality Doctrine book, especially after the cliffhanger of an ending in The Eye of Minds. The last few pages of the book left me spinning and anxious to know what happens next.

Delacorte BFYR, October 2013, Hardcover, ISBN:  9780385741392, 320 pgs.

Review: The Lost Sun by Tessa Gratton

Fans of Neil Gaiman's American Gods and Holly Black's The Curse Workers will embrace this richly drawn, Norse-mythology-infused alternate world: the United States of Asgard. 

Seventeen-year-old Soren Bearskin is trying to escape the past. His father, a famed warrior, lost himself to the battle-frenzy and killed thirteen innocent people. Soren cannot deny that berserking is in his blood--the fevers, insomnia, and occasional feelings of uncontrollable rage haunt him. So he tries to remain calm and detached from everyone at Sanctus Sigurd's Academy. But that's hard to do when a popular, beautiful girl like Astrid Glyn tells Soren she dreams of him. That's not all Astrid dreams of--the daughter of a renowned prophetess, Astrid is coming into her own inherited abilities.

When Baldur, son of Odin and one of the most popular gods in the country, goes missing, Astrid sees where he is and convinces Soren to join her on a road trip that will take them to find not only a lost god, but also who they are beyond the legacy of their parents and everything they've been told they have to be.

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Tessa Gratton's The Lost Sun is a beautifully written and imagined introduction to The United States of Asgard series. This tale of two teens with interwoven destinies unfolds with an insistent pull from Gratton's steady hand and, before the reader realizes what's happened, they're completely under the spell of this alternate universe and the characters they've come to love.

The Lost Sun follows Soren, a born with the gift, or curse, of berserking in this blood, and Astrid, a gifted prophetess like her mother before her. The country is thrown in chaos when the Sun God, Baldur, goes missing. When Astrid tells Soren that she's believes she knows where to find Baldur, they set out on a cross-country road trip to save him. However, what begins as a simple recovery mission turns into something much more complex than either anticipated. Along the way, they discover truths about themselves, form bonds and relationships that can never be broken, and, ultimately, embrace destinies that will define the courses if their lives.

The alternate world in Gratton's novel incorporates many of the key players in Norse mythology. Though I know very little about Norse mythology, I recognized all of the borrowed characters and Gratton clearly defined the personalities and dominions of each so I never felt that I was missing any important details. In comparison to Roman and Greek mythology, there is a wildness and obvious danger to Norse mythological figures. I really, really loved what this brought to the otherwise contemporary setting in the novel. Having this mix of contemporary and aged, or, perhaps, ageless in the case of gods and goddesses, created a world that was both nostalgically familiar and entirely new. 

While I have heard complaints of an insta-romance in The Lost Sun, I have to say that I completely disagree with this claim. From the start, Soren has strong feelings toward Astrid, but he never once falls into being some type of lovesick, sappy character. Soren and Astrid's journeys are tied together and they both carry gifts from the gods, as a berserker and a prophetess, so they have a bond forged of unique understanding that adds a deeper layer to the relationship. 

I didn't expect to have the added pull of a roadtrip to contribute to the charm and magic of this novel, but that's exactly what I found. There's just something about a roadtrip that bonds characters (and readers to those characters) that simply can't be forged any by any other method. I am so thankful that The Lost Sun is the first in a series because I am entirely too attached to the four main characters in this novel; I'm just not ready to let them go.

Read The Lost Sun. Whether you loved, liked, disliked, or never read Gratton's first books is irrelevant: The Lost Sun will enchant you and leave you wanting more.

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Random House, June 2013, Hardcover, ISBN:9780307977465, 368 pgs.

Review: Born of Illusion by Teri Brown

ANNA VAN HOUSEN HAS A SECRET.

A gifted illusionist, Anna assists her mother, the renowned medium Marguerite Van Housen, in her stage shows and seances, easily navigating the underground world of magicians and mentalists in 1920s New York. For Anna, the illegitimate daughter of Harry Houdini - or so Marguerite claims - handcuffs and sleight-of-hand illusions have never been much of a challenge. The real trick is keeping her own gifts secret from her mother: because while Marguerite's power may be a sham, Anna possesses a true ability to sense people's feelings and foretell the future.

But as Anna's powers intensify, she experiences frightening visions of her mother in peril, which lead her to explore the abilities she's tried so long to hide. And when a mysterious young man named Cole moves into the flat downstairs, introducing Anna to a society that studies people with gifts like hers, she begins to wonder if there's more to life than keeping secrets.

As her visions become darker and her powers spin out of her control, Anna is forced to rethink all she's ever known. Is her mother truly in danger, or are Anna's visions merely illusions? And could the great Houdini really be her father, or is it just another of Marguerite's tricks?

From Teri Brown comes a world bursting with magic, with romance, with the temptations of Jazz Age New York --- and the story of a girl about to become the mistress of her own destiny.

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Teri Brown's Born of Illusion transports readers to 1920s New York into a world of magic, lies, secrets, and the paranormal. 

The novel follows Anna, the daughter of a renowned medium and the rumored illegitimate daughter of the great Harry Houdini. Anna and her mother have spent their lives living show to show and evading the law, which they've been on the wrong side of a time or two. Finally, Anna's life has taken a turn for the better and she and her mother seem to be standing on solid ground as their new show gains success and popularity. Together, they transfix their audience; Anna performing magical illusion and her mother showcasing her psychic abilities. Of course, the audience doesn't know that, in truth, Anna's mother is no more psychic than they are, though she is  gifted actress. In fact, it's Anna that possesses psychic abilities. She can sense feelings, foretell the future, and talk to the dead. However, the stable existence Anna yearns for is still just out of reach as she begins having horrifying visions of her mother in peril and her own safety is threatened.

For me, one of the most compelling aspects of Born of Illusion was Anna's relationship with her mother. Their relationship is a complicated one... Sometimes it feels as if their roles of mother and daughter have reversed, other times they appear to be nothing more than competitors. It was interesting to see how Anna reacted to her mother's often immature and petty actions that seemed motivated by jealousy and her fear of her daughter besting her. Still, as soon as Anna (and the reader) thinks her mother's motivations are clear, she seems protective and motherly, as if she only has Anna's best interests in mind. 

It's clear that much of Anna's independence is born from necessity. Her mother, no matter her motivations, could never be called reliable. This independence serves her character and the book well. Anna is a capable and strong character, but not without weaknesses. She has a tendency to run from her things that overwhelm her and sometimes has irrational reactions to deep emotion, but she isn't afraid to own up to her shortcomings and she always gathers the strength to do what needs to be done.

The novel features a bit of a love triangle, but it's always clear who's truly in Anna's heart. Still, I liked that she considered both love interests. In some ways, Anna has lived a very adventuresome life (after all, she did travel with a circus troupe for some time), but, in what one may consider the "normal" life of a teenaged girl, she's a bit inexperienced. The two boys, who are very, very different from one another, show Anna different sides of New York... and of herself. Also, I liked that fact that Anna is the one who makes a misguided mistake and has to apologize, not the boy involved int he situation. It often feels like the situation is always reversed and it was good to see something different.

I'll definitely be reading the next book featuring Anna, Born of Deception, which is due out sometime in 2014. I don't know anything about it except the fact that it features Rasputin, but that's enough!

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Balzer+Bray, June 2013, Hardcover, ISBN: 9780062187543, 373 pgs.

Review: Antigoddess by Kendare Blake

The Goddess War begins in Antigoddess, the first installment of the new series by acclaimed author of Anna Dressed in Blood, Kendare Blake.

Old Gods never die…

Or so Athena thought. But then the feathers started sprouting beneath her skin, invading her lungs like a strange cancer, and Hermes showed up with a fever eating away his flesh. So much for living a quiet eternity in perpetual health.

Desperately seeking the cause of their slow, miserable deaths, Athena and Hermes travel the world, gathering allies and discovering enemies both new and old. Their search leads them to Cassandra—an ordinary girl who was once an extraordinary prophetess, protected and loved by a god. 

These days, Cassandra doesn’t involve herself in the business of gods—in fact, she doesn’t even know they exist. But she could be the key in a war that is only just beginning. 

Because Hera, the queen of the gods, has aligned herself with other of the ancient Olympians, who are killing off rivals in an attempt to prolong their own lives. But these anti-gods have become corrupted in their desperation to survive, horrific caricatures of their former glory. Athena will need every advantage she can get, because immortals don’t just flicker out. 

Every one of them dies in their own way. Some choke on feathers. Others become monsters. All of them rage against their last breath.

The Goddess War is about to begin.

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Antigoddess is unlike anything I've read before. A fresh, creative, and engaging take on mythological gods and goddesses in the modern world, this third novel from Kendare Blake is sure to both wow current fans and earn her many more.

It's normal and completely expected to see novels and films that feature mythology, gods, and goddesses set in places and time periods that fit the stories and legends on which they are assumed to have taken place. Blake departs from this expected and well-established pattern, instead putting the gods and goddesses of myth into the modern world. A world in which they clearly do not fit in and where their meddling and use of humans garners very different reactions than during the historical periods in which they flourished. In one passage, Hera wreaks destruction on Chicago. The attack is speculated to be terrorist related; there isn't even the smallest mention of the wrath of a goddess as a potential cause of leveled buildings and multiple deaths.

I've always had an interest in mythology, but, at the same time, gods and goddesses have always seemed rather one-dimensional. They were motivated by simple desires and their personalities were very straight forward. They didn't have the complexity of, for example, human heroes featured in their stories. In Antigoddess, Blake gives these characters more malleable shapes and complex personalities, in a way, humanizing them. They are still very much set apart from humans, having living countless years and experiencing the invincibility of eternal life, but Blake creates a situation in which they are brought down from the throne of godliness. Suddenly, these timeless beings are forced to face the possibility of an end... of death. Death not only humanizes them, it makes them feel small... vulnerable... emotional... accountable. Through this unique premise, Blake's novel says something very important about the nature of humanity.

Even a reader who knows very little about mythology will enjoy and be able to understand the importance of the gods and goddesses featured in Antigoddess. Blake weaves a significant amount of detail, leading the reader to bits of information and background deatil without becoming overwhelming or falling into the habit of dropping large amounts of overwhelming information on the reader.

I highly recommend this first installment in The Goddess War series. With Antigoddess, Blake sets the scene for the series to reach epic proportions and I can't wait to see where she takes readers next.

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Tor Teen, September 2013, Hardcover, ISBN:9780765334435, 336 pgs.

1st in a Series Challenge!

Royal Reviews is hosting the 1st in a Series Challenge for 2010! I'm really excited about this challenge, as I love finding new series to read! Below are the Challenge details.

Challenge Guidelines:

1. Anyone can join. You don't need a blog to participate.
--Non-Bloggers: Include your information in the comment section.


2. There are four levels:


-- Curious– Read 3 novels that are first in a series.
-- Fascinated – Read 6 novels that are first in a series.
-- Addicted – Read 12 novels that are first in a series.
-- Obsessed – Read 20 novels that are first in a series.


3. Any genre counts.


4. You can list your books in advance or just put them in a wrap up post. If you list them, feel free to change them as the mood takes you.


5. Challenge begins January 1st thru December, 2010.


6. When you sign up under Mr. Linky, put the direct link to the post about the 1st in a Series Challenge. Include the URL so that other participants can find join in and read your reviews and post.

Go HERE to join the challenge!

I'm going to participate at the ADDICTED level and aim to read 12 books that are 1st in a series.

1. The Rise of Renegade X by Chelsea Campbell
2. Siren by Tricia Rayburn
3. Mona Lisa Awakening by Sunny
4. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
5. The Naughty List by Suzanne Young
6. Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready
7. She's So Dead to Us by Kieran Scott
8. A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee
9. The Eternal Ones by Kristen Miller
10. Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
11. Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel
12. The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade
13. Matched by Ally Condie
14. Tyger Tyger by Kersten Hamilton
15. Nevermore by Kelly Creagh