Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys // A WWII Historical Action Tale

Salt to the Sea, by Ruta Sepetys
Publication: February 2, 2016, by Philomel Books
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Historical
Pages: 391
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Rating: ½

Winter, 1945. Four teenagers. Four secrets.
Each one born of a different homeland; each one hunted, and haunted, by tragedy, lies…and war.
As thousands of desperate refugees flock to the coast in the midst of a Soviet advance, four paths converge, vying for passage aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that promises safety and freedom.
Yet not all promises can be kept.
Inspired by the single greatest tragedy in maritime history, bestselling and award-winning author Ruta Sepetys (Between Shades of Gray) lifts the veil on a shockingly little-known casualty of World War II. An illuminating and life-affirming tale of heart and hope.

My Thoughts:

Sometimes, I agree with other people that books could seriously be remedies. Whether it is a remedy for a broken heart, for a bad day, for a good day, for a snowy day, for a sunny day, I believe that every book contains some kind of magic that could make a person feel great/horrible but still always enjoying it in one way or another. For me, and for the past few years where I have been experiencing Ruta Sepetys' writing, I found that her writing provided me with some kind of happiness/sadness—more of a depressing feeling, but that was ought to happen anyways. Historical fiction novels always seem to hit the heart, but Ruta's writing causes me to become (a) more obsessed, (b) a person with higher expectations and (c) want to become a cover designer. Because damn, THAT COVER IS SPECTACULAR.

"For the first time in years, people cared for me. Protected me. I looked down at Halinka. I could actually feel her. She was mine. I was hers. Her perfect cheeks and fingers were pink, just like my hat. What the knight said was true. She was part of me, my family, and Poland." (301)

Salt to the Sea caused my heart to go on a literal roller coaster ride. We readers get to know four teenagers with four different hometowns/countries, four different secrets and roles that carry out throughout this thrilling novel. Florian, Alfred, Joana and Emilia. My heart goes out to them. As always, Ruta Sepetys somehow causes readers to create a bond with each of this character that extends beyond the actual story and its pages. I still am thinking about the "ever after" of these characters. That must tell you something. Something exquisite. Something marvellous. Something that a positive adjective can describe. As always, Ruta's words combine with her dramatic settings and message, throwing in a great read for any reader. 

I have always been a fan of World War Two action novels that are simply YA. I like the emotions and romance, and one of those stories that seems so real that readers feel like the author must have heard the story somewhere and wrote it down. Those experiences can make a girl feel so happy. When I heard that the author was releasing a new book after the astonishing Between the Shades of Gray, I became more obsessed than I ever had been to get my hands on this story. Each character is somehow placed into each other's lives and the magic has really spun to create something memorable.

"Fate is a hunter. Its barrel pressed against my forehead." (347)

The only thing I could complain about is the plot. I loved the idea of creating a story that provided readers an action story that is taking place in a time era that had so many mixes of situations that affected everyone differently. This was an utterly long novel, and I wish more came out of the middle portion where I was bored. For a wartime novel where things go boom, boom, boom quickly, I certainly was surprised, though this had not caused my reading experience to be horrible in any way whatsoever.

Get ready for the ships. And by ships, I literally mean actual boats and relationships. The four teenagers who are mentioned here actually all do have their own special quirk that made me love each of them separately for separate reasons. My favourite character, you ask? Alfred. DUH. You'll see why, my friends.

Salt to the Sea is a book for any lover of any genre. There are real historical facts in the story that made me want to head on to the internet and read for hours about what Ruta wrote about. Although slow at times, the characters and setting picked it up and made it a beautiful experience. If you do not know much about the war, read this. If you know tons, still read it. Anyone could find a part they adore.

*A review copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much!*

Do you think YA-historical books have the ability to become a great movie? What have you heard about Ruta's books?

The Wicked Will Rise by Danielle Paige Review

The Wicked Will Rise (Dorothy Must Die #2), by Danielle Paige
Publication: March 31, 2015, by HarperCollins
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Fantasy, Adventure
Pages: 293
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased
Rating: ½

In this dark, high-octane sequel to the New York Times bestselling Dorothy Must Die, Amy Gumm must do everything in her power to kill Dorothy and free Oz.
To make Oz a free land again, Amy Gumm was given a mission: remove the Tin Woodman’s heart, steal the Scarecrow’s brain, take the Lion’s courage, and then Dorothy must die....
But Dorothy still lives. Now the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked has vanished, and mysterious Princess Ozma might be Amy’s only ally. As Amy learns the truth about her mission, she realizes that she’s only just scratched the surface of Oz’s past—and that Kansas, the home she couldn't wait to leave behind, may also be in danger. In a place where the line between good and evil shifts with just a strong gust of wind, who can Amy trust—and who is really Wicked?

After reading the utterly raved about Dorothy Must Die back in 2014 and enjoyed it to the fullest circumstances, I've felt that I've been sitting here at the front of the line, waiting for this sequel to be released. Now that it's over and done with, I must say that this was every bit just as spectacular as the first one. Action, killing, assassinations, some unexpected romance, witches, magic, and the evil Dorothy, Danielle Paige has given readers every bit of awesomeness and continues to.

I can't even explain to a reader how much this series means to me. I've gone through reading hundreds of retellings (I'm obviously over exaggerating here, by the way) before this series came into my heart, and I haven't been impressed. No series or book can possibly justify and prove that the real thing is just as good or amazing. And although I haven't read the actual book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, I know the story pretty thoroughly, inside and out, and Danielle Paige just redid it perfectly, although this story comes with its own consequences and twists. There wasn't much evil in the actual movie/book except for The Wicked Witch of the West, but here, this is like the apocalypse of Oz and we certainly find out more from where the fictional place came from in this filler read.

"Just as I was wondering if I would ever see her again, I heard her funny, foolish cartoon voice echoing down from somewhere high above us: "Remember—don't be wicked. Unless you really have to!"

This beauty takes place right from where the first novel left us off with: Amy's struggle and hunger for revenge on Dorothy. Since she had just made the attempt to stab that bit-- alive and kill her, it hadn't worked and she missed. Now, although Amy isn't wicked (at least, not yet) she wants to help the people and friends that she made in Oz and capture the Tin Man's heart, the Lion's courage and the Scarecrow's brain. Things are about to get wicked and crazy, my friends. Here comes an overpowering sequel that's full of action, adventure, plot twists, and mouth-opening moments where you will not believe what's happening before your eyes. This is the novel of truth, where the characters discover the meaning of Oz and what it really is, and Amy discovers her role, as well.

I feel that Danielle Paige gets me. Her writing is soothing, unique, and she writes the story with pride, and in a good way. Her characters are born/made to be confident and likeable, heroic in a way. I could honestly read anything that she writes and I'll be impressed. Her books deserve the highest award of any award of gratitude and achievement since I cannot simply compare these books to anything else. I won't say that there are books even better than these ones since they're so difficult to find in the YA world. I don't know what's with the people who are arguing and debating whether to read this or not because the author supports the stuff with the "Full Fathom Five." What does that have to do with this spectacular writing? Put yourself in her shoes, people.

Now that I've got a little rant out of the way, I can now slowly mature through this review like a normal person would see from a likeable book like this one. Oz has just gotten wickeder, and the writing has, too. Day by day, at least in this fictional world, I feel that the world setting is getting darker and darker, which gets me to my point where I'm telling Amy to hurry the hell up and save everyone or else Dorothy will kill them all with a snap of her well-polished red fingernails. It's as easy as that, and thankfully throughout this novel Amy has developed the magic and wickedness in her which will help the plot in the next and final novel. *cries* This has gone way too fast. 

"The tail. It wasn't glowing, exactly, but it had something like a halo around it. A jittery, golden aura so pale that it barely registered."

What does that quotation tell you? Beauty? Beauty. Moving on, I can seriously talk about the author's writing forever. I'll just repeat the same things over and over again and feel like it's the first time where I'm saying it because for a debut, I feel that she's written 50 novels with this much practice it feels like. This was fast-paced and full of just the right amount of action for a sequel. There wasn't so much info-dumping and dialogue that readers' brains would just mush up, just like the Scarecrow's did. *SPOILER* Everything was perfect, and it feels that the amount of wickedness inserted was measured on the dot. From beginning to end, I couldn't even blink an eye because I didn't want myself to miss a moment.

I started reading this with a dumb impression given on my face—I forgot what the book was about. Okay, I hadn't forgotten a lot of it, but the names of characters and their roles seemed a bit fuzzy. I had been afraid that there would be no recap of the previous novel and I would walk around like a living zombie, searching through summaries and reviews and scurrying, trying to regain my brain development back to the way it ended off in April 2014. We didn't need NO regaining. Ms. Paige delivered a fast-paced beginning, and into the second chapter, readers already had a recap and sensed some foreshadowing which brought us to wonder and think about what will happen next. 

Amy Gumm is as fast and as furious (yes, movie reference, hah hah *sarcasm*) than ever. Looking at her development from the first book to now was a huge jump, although I've always seen that cool streak in her. I feel that since this novel and sequence of events gave her the ability to understand more about Oz and her past life in Kansas, she now feels that she understands and has no questions, which leads her to want to help her friends even more. She never stopped fighting, and her kick-assness was so drastic that I felt that she slept with one eye open, watching her surroundings 24/7. See what I mean? She never stopped fighting, and although the magic made her a little messed up (Nox even saw that as well), she was as hard as a brick. 

WHERE THE HELL WAS THE ROMANCE? That's my only complaint. Yeah, there were about three kisses throughout the novel, and one was a complete misunderstanding which then brought Amy into guilt for even taking that chance. Anyways, you'll find that out when you read it and you'll see what I mean with that aspect. It felt that the first novel had more emotions and feelings involved in terms of the romance, and I think that having some love in this book is essential. Readers would like to see a development, something new and great coming to the protagonist who has been faced with cruelty for most of her time in this new world, and she barely got anything. And what the hell is up with Nox lately? Where's my fictional crush?

"Just being able to stand outside like this and breathe the air. You should remember it, too. Think of all the things you've already gotten to do; all the things you'll still get to do. Okay, so maybe things could be better. But you have this life that's just sitting there, waiting for you to take it. It could be worse."

What's going on with Pete? THAT ENDING JUST BROUGHT ME TO SHREDS AS WE SAW WHO HE BECAME. Anyways, I'm curious to see what Paige will continue to do with his character, since he plays a pretty large role in Amy's life, and he was the first one to ever save her and help her see the true meaning of Oz. *shrugs* Hmmph.

So now, we're brought on to the 50-paged action ending. I mean, the development took about 50 pages to get to its main point, and let me just say that there were deaths and lies involved. I just couldn't believe that the author ADDED IN ANOTHER SUSPENSEFUL ENDING AND WE HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE FINALE FOR MORE. Amy went crazy, PETE WENT CRAZY, and Nox helped Amy out, and Dorothy still fought for her fucking throne. It's the usual, but the unusual thing as well. I couldn't stop and when it was over, I felt that the book broke up with me, like a relationship.

Well, this was one drastically gorgeous novel. It took a stand in YA SEQUELS, MY FRIENDS. Most sequels don't go well for me, but this one went in a whole new direction and was almost AS PERFECT as the first book. That's a rare event—and I won't ever forget the feels that came upon me when the action was present. That, and the needs of romance, but the rest of this was fabulous. With the inspiration of Amy, I feel that I'm turning wicked myself. Jeez, what's coming upon this world, and Oz? A RECTANGLE WITH A PIECE CUT OFF IN THE UPRIGHT CORNER? DUDE. DUDE. DUDE. You'll have to see that for yourself, my friends. *waves* What the hell is with this release date for 2017? *looks onto the future years* Until I'm 17, Danielle Paige's books. 

What's your favourite fairy-tale retelling? THIS IS MINE, EVERYONE.

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld Review

Afterworlds, by Scott Westerfeld

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Dystopia, Contemporary, Fantasy

Rating: 4/5 stars

Publication: September 23, 2014, by Simon Pulse

Format: ARC 




Goodreads Summary: Darcy Patel has put college and everything else on hold to publish her teen novel, Afterworlds. Arriving in New York with no apartment or friends she wonders whether she's made the right decision until she falls in with a crowd of other seasoned and fledgling writers who take her under their wings… 

Told in alternating chapters is Darcy's novel, a suspenseful thriller about Lizzie, a teen who slips into the 'Afterworld' to survive a terrorist attack. But the Afterworld is a place between the living and the dead and as Lizzie drifts between our world and that of the Afterworld, she discovers that many unsolved - and terrifying - stories need to be reconciled. And when a new threat resurfaces, Lizzie learns her special gifts may not be enough to protect those she loves and cares about most.

Review:

Thank you so much to Simon & Schuster for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review!

SCOTT WESTERFIELD IS GENIUS—if you didn’t know that already. Afterworlds was fantastic. Scott Westerfield truly captured the image of two point of views; what it’s like to be a writer and what it’s like to be written about. What YA book can you think of that brings you through a young author’s experience of writing a YA novel? It’s basically a book inside a book, and by the end, I was truly mind-blown with the stellar ending.

Darcy Patel is a young aspiring author who deferred college for a year and moved to New York City to broadcast and change her entire life to something new. Her novel that she wrote in a month, Afterworlds, is soon to be published and as it’s becoming edited and all, she’s spending her time meeting new people and learning the ways of authors and the whole lifestyle. As soon as she’s got everything figured out, other feelings such as her sexuality and confidence begin to come out..

At the same time, we’re reading another point-of-view of Lizzie—the protagonist in Darcy’s novel. Lizzie survived a terrorist attack in an airport, and is brought into the ‘Afterworld.’ The Afterworld is a world between the living and the dead, and Lizzie soon finds out that she can switch between worlds whenever she’d like. All it takes is a calling, and she’ll end up in a world where aging is not possible. Of course, she meets new people and everything changes as she begins to find more about the unbelievable world that she’s caught in.

As this book was basically split into two, I preferred reading from Darcy’s POV. Since Westerfeld is the master of publicity and being popular, he really provided some awesome insight on how everything works and the datelines. It was more fascinating than Lizzie’s POV, probably because of even her character. He just did it perfectly. DARCY EVEN WENT TO BEA!

But there were some things that I didn’t catch well. The overall beginning was fantastic, but as I surpassed page 100, the story got slow and I was wanting something that didn’t look like it was going to happen.

I guess it was mainly Lizzie’s story’s fault. The actual story of Afterworlds wasn’t everything that I hoped it’d be. Tweaks were missing and as a whole, compared to Darcy’s, it was lacking of. The idea was unique (I’ve never read about a terrorist attack before), and it seemed inspirational coming from the reason Darcy wrote it and all.

THIS BOOK WAS DIVERSE, which was another reason why this book was so unique and consisting of everything I want in a contemporary-dystopia. This man totally knows how to mix it up for readers. ;)

And the romance? SQUEEE. It was amazing and totally surprising—in both POVs. Darcy and Imogen had such an amazing chemistry and had so much alike—I love the same-sex romance, because Westerfeld just creates it on-point.

Now that I think about it, I wish there were some quotes I can share with you… The writing was believable and alluring. I was captivated from page 1.

Darn it. THIS IS A STANDALONE! *cries to self* Although this was a chunky book of 600 pages, I WANTED MORE. That’s how I felt with Uglies by Westerfield, and now that the time is here, I’m grieving. If you love contemporary, fantasy, and a little sci-fi mixed together with diversity and uniqueness (really, who doesn’t?) then this book will come to you like a literature masterpiece. There were a few tweaks needed here and there, but it overall was very enjoyable and recommended to others!