GoodRead - Adaptation

I was trying to do a NetGalley ban on myself. I seem to be one of those bloggers than requests books that sound interesting, then get surprised when I'm approved then I NEVER GET ROUND TO READING THEM! I know. I am a bad blogger. According to NetGalley, you should have a "Recommended Feedback to Approval Ratio is at least 80%". When I started reading this, mine was 28.1% (just check it now - 27.3%). Ooops!!!

I blame LukeLaneReads for reminding that this was on NetGalley! CURSE YOU!!! (If you want, go check his YouTube out. He always seems to know/discovers books that I go "Ooooh!" over.)

When birds start suddenly dying, causing flights to be grounded, Reese and David decide to drive back home. But when a bird flies into the car, Reese loses control and the car flips. Almost a month later, she and David wake up in a military hospital from their comas, and the doctors refuse to tell them what happens...

But that's only the start, when she gets home, Reese realises that something has changed within her. As she's trying to figure out what happened to her that can't be humanly possible, she finds herself torn between David, a longterm crush, and Amber, a whirlwind of a girl that crashed into her life.

But what is going on? And who can she trust?

Ok, I am going to admit this. This is one of those books that, when I first heard of it, I was hugely excited over. So to hear that Hodder Children's was publishing it in the UK, made me very happy. We don't have any bisexual characters in YA/New Adult so this would be a breath of fresh air. I mean, we always seem to have gay or lesbian characters but when it comes to the LGBT community, the rest seem to be ignored or they are the sidekicks or background character.

And it was. Up to a point. But more on this later.

I am going to be honest with you. I was a little disappointed over this book. There was good points to this, but there was several bad points. A mixed bag.

Ok, the good. I couldn't stop reading it. Even when I was frustrated with it, I had to know what was going to happen next. Malinda's writing made it effortless and I just kept clicking my kindle, wanting to know what happened next.

And the last 20-odd percentage made me read very late into the night!

But, this book isn't perfect. I have two real issues. Characters and genre.

With the three main characters (Reese, David and Amber), I never felt like I "clicked" or connected to them. These are our main leads so we should be rooting for them, but I felt very detached from them. Maybe this is Malinda's point because of what they went through, but still... I want to connect to these characters on some level.

My second issue was a huge problem and it's genre. The book couldn't decide what it wanted to be. Was it a sci-fi novel? Was it is a love triangle story? Was it a conspiracy theory story? It kept changing every other chapter. It only felt like Adaptation only figured it out in the last 20-odd percentage, but seeing as this is a duology (with an eNovella), I fear that it will fall back into this "What am I?".

Also, the twists in this book, I kinda saw coming. A few felt very obvious to me. I was expecting a lot of moments where I was genuinely shocked. Maybe I did have my expectations over this book too high...

While I'm not 100% certain if I will read the sequel, Inheritance, I am quite happy that, finally, there seems to be a book out there that has a bi love triangle and that YA readers are treated with respect over how it was written. We YA readers are smarter than most people give us credit for.

GoodRead - Huntress

I'm not sure how I got on to reading this book, but after Atom Books got excited about this book deal on Twitter and after getting some info on it, I got excited. It was such a different read for me that it held my attention. So, when I got a copy from the lovely peeps of Atom Books, I decided I had to read it.

The Kingdom is in crisis. The sun hasn't shone in years, the crops are failing and strange and terrible creatures have begun to appear. Do the mysertious fairy people, the Xi, know something?

To solve to crisis, the King sends a small group to the City of the Fairy Queen. Within this small band is Kaede and Taisin. Taisin is a Sage-in-Training and Kaede is of the Earth, with no magic within her.

As they go on their jounrey, emotions run high and things happen that might not last happen...

Now, for those of you that have read Malindo Lo's debut novel, Ash, this is a loose prequel, set several centries before Ash. So, you can read Huntress if you have or haven't read Ash.

The story was a pure fantasy, which makes a nice change for me as I always read books that are set in the real world. What was more interesting that there were times that I read this that it felt like I was reading a Chinese myth.

Another thing that makes this story different from the others I've read it that there is a same sex relationship. And it was written in such a sweet way, that it felt normal. And, in the world that Huntress, having a same sex relationship is normal and not frowned upon. Within the first three chapters, we realise that same sex marriages happen and are recongized as accepted.

I really like Huntress and I quite happy that I've read it. I seem to have had a good run of books that I've liked recently, haven't I? Here's hoping I find more and I enjoy Malinda Lo's next novel.




(This was always the book's theme song, even before I started reading the book. It's one of those times that the book and music join beautifully together and this makes me happy)

And for those of you who want to see what ASH's trailer...