Tag: Little Brown Books

Icons by Margaret Stohl

Dani @ Overflowing Shelf1 Comment

Icons
Margaret Stohl
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: May 7, 2013
Series or Standalone: Icons #1
ISBN: 0316205184
Format: ARC
Pages: 428
Websites:
Margaret Stohl – Website
Margaret Stohl – Facebook 
Margaret Stohl– Twitter 
Rating: 3 Stars
Icons was one of those books that I couldn’t fully get into. I didn’t hate but I didn’t love it, it was mehh. Icons had a lot of potential and I am interested to see were this series goes, but as the first book in a series it felt very jumbled and disconnected.
Icons is set in the not so distant future in a post-invasion world where aliens hold the complete control and most of the population has been killed. As the tagline says “Your heart only beats with their permission.” It is hard for me to describe what sort of world, Dol, the main character, is living in because I couldn’t really get a clear picture of what it was like. This post-invasion world didn’t seem to be fully constructed which oftentimes left me feeling confused. The politics of this world also were confusing. I did not really understand why things were happening, or why the Ambassadors were so bad or what was up with the rebellion faction. I felt I had to struggle to put together the pieces of this world, something that should be clearly developed in the first book of a series.
The characters in the book left me wanting more. I couldn’t connect to any of them. They were all so flat and emotionless, though as children of the Icon, emotionless they shouldn’t be. The romance in the book felt stale, probably because of the lack of depth in the characters. The only character I found remotely interesting was Doc, and he was an artificial intelligence.
The plot was intriguing enough that it kept me turning the pages. There was plenty of action and mystery to keep me interested in finding out more. I really enjoyed how between chapters there would be different artifacts or clips that related to the plot in a  not so clear way until the end. The biggest thing that kept me reading was the mystery of the Icons. Well, that’s not fully answered in this book, but I look forward to finding more out of them.
As a first book in a series, Icons left me feeling confused and wanting more. I expected more from this book than it gave me. I’ll be reading the sequel because the story was interesting enough to make me want to keep reading, but I hope in the next book the world and characters are more developed. I can’t help but compare this post-alien invasion book to another new alien invasion book, The 5thWave by Rick Yancey, and this just falls flat in comparison to that. Hopefully Margaret Stohl can deliver more in the next Icon series book.   

Review: Beautiful Darkness

Dani @ Overflowing ShelfLeave a comment

Beautiful Darkness

Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Publisher: Little Brown Books
Release Date: October 12, 2010
Pages: 512
Ratings: 5 Stars
Summary (from Goodreads):
Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena’s family of powerful supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.
Sometimes life-ending.
Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan’s eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there’s no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town’s tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems.
Beautiful Darkness had me under a spell that kept me up until 6am. I had to finish it once I started reading. Even after finishing it, I didn’t want to sleep, I just wanted to get up and exclaim how awesome it was, but I refrained. The second book in the Caster Chronicles surpassed my expectations. Beautiful Darkness is a stunning second book in an amazing series.
Initially, I was extremely worried that Beautiful Darkness would suffer from the second book in series syndrome, where the second book is more of a place holder and nothing happens….boy, was I wrong. If anything, Beautiful Darkness had even more going on then in Beautiful Creatures. I really enjoyed Beautiful Creatures, but I loved Beautiful Darkness. If anything, I think Beautiful Darkness was better than it’s predecessor.
Beautiful Darkness picks up were Beautiful Creaturesended. However, if you haven’t read Beautiful Creatures in a while, have no fear. As long as you can remember the major plot points, everything in Beautiful Darkness makes sense. Immediately, Beautiful Darkness picks up and places you under a spell that does not release you until the end of the book. This book is darker then Beautiful Creatures, but it makes sense after the actions in Beautiful Creatures that have stirred up more turmoil in Lena’s life. I loved the darker tone, and the turmoil and the raw, powerful emotions in this book.
Two new characters are introduced in this book who pose unknown risks to Lena and Ethan’s relationships. These new charaters were definitely intriguing and hit seamlessly into the story. I was particularly interesting in John Breed. Wait until you meet him and you will be too.
Beautiful Darkness constantly kept me on my toes. I did not see many of the twists and turns Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl decided to take us on. I frequently was shocked by what occurred that I even gasped out loud too many times to remember. This book was also an emotional rollercoaster for both the reader and the characters. I empathized so much with Ethan and the pain he was feeling when Lena was being distance. Kami and Margaret capture Ethan’s voice perfectly and have created a stunning narrator. All their characters are great and it’s really easy to sympathize for them when they are going through every thing that happens during this book. And poor Ethan. I love Ethan, and I frequently wanted to just give him a hug because everything that happened.
Beautiful Darkness surpassed my expectations. The writing was beautiful, flowing seamlessly as if it was written by one person, the plot was superb, constantly keeping the reader on edge and the characters were well develop and such loveable characters. The ending was perfect and definitely left me anxious for the next book. However, ever all the horrible things that happened in this book, I hope Ethan, Lena, Link and the whole gang would be able to catch some sort of break because I felt so bad for them after the events they had to endure in this book. I cannot wait for the next book though and am eager to see where Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl take this wonderful series next.