ACROSS THE UNIVERSE by Beth Revis

Title:   ACROSS THE UNIVERSE by Beth Revis 

Info: YA Science Fiction/Fantasy

Published by:  Razorbill / Penguin

In Stores:  Today  1.11.11

Description:

A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder.

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awake on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into a brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone—one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship—tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn’t do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now, Amy must race to unlock Godspeed’s hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there’s only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

Cover: Pretty Cool, it is reversible and on the back has a map/blueprint of Godspeed, the ship. Although (I hate to say this) it looks better on-line than in person. I think because of it being a double cover, it doesn't stay on well at all. Definitely easier to read without the cover. Not that that's a bad thing, I often take the cover off when reading a hardcover ;-)


Review:  
I really enjoyed this book, read through it in about 2 days.  The story/point of view alternates between Elder and Amy.   And, even though at first I was unsure about the way it jumped back and forth,  I ended up really liking that.  The switching of who is telling the story allows the reader to 'see' things from 2 very different points of view.  I was able to feel the emotions of both characters.  And trust me, there's lots of stuff worth feeling here.  I like the chemistry between Elder & Amy from the beginning, through Elder's awkwardness at something so very new to him and Amy's hesitance to accept her fate.

I just found out that this is the first book in a trilogy.  I was pretty satisfied with the ending, but can definitely see that there is much more story to be told and I look forward to seeing how things develop.

New favorite words:  chutz, brilly and frex :-) Absolutely loved the way Revis used those words in the book!! I think I'll start to slip them into my everyday life, as in... Don't be a frexing Chutz, read ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, it's really Brilly!  

Thanks to my super sister, Rebecca (Sometimes NonSense) I read Beth Revis' ACROSS THE UNIVERSE last week, before it officially released. But you can get it today as it hits stores everywhere!!

FANG by James Patterson

Review: FANG, A Maximum Ride Novel by James Patterson
(Aka Maximum Ride Book 6)

Description (from the official Maximum Ride website, Max-danwiz.com):
FANG WILL BE THE FIRST TO DIE!
For years, Max has been desperately on the run from evil forces trying to prevent her from her destiny to save the world – but nothing has ever rocked her world like this horrifying prophetic message. Fang is Max’s best friend, her soul mate, her partner in leading her flock of winged children. A life without Fang is a life unimaginable.

Max’s desperate desire to protect Fang brings the two closer than ever. But their world is turned upside down yet again when another winged boy, the beautiful Dylan, is introduced into the flock. Raised in a lab, like the flock, he exists only for one reason: He was created to be Max’s perfect other half. Now a battle of science against soul and perfection versus passion unfolds, twists, and turns…and meanwhile, the apocalypse is coming.

Info:Juvenile Fiction
Published by Little Brown & Company
In Stores Now

Review (Note this is a discussion we had about the book):
Jess and I recently read Fang, the 6th book in the Maximum Ride series. We are big fans of the Maximum Ride books and recommend them for all ages.
Jess finished this book last week and I found her curled up in a ball crying when she was done…

Not really Mom I was walking around crying. It was sad.

Falling In by Frances O'Roark Dowell

(This book was given to us, for review, by Simon & Schuster.)

Description:

Middle-schooler Isabelle Bean follows a mouse's squeak into a closet and falls into a parallel universe where the children believe she is the witch they have feared for years finally come to devour them.

Info:
Middle Grade, Fantasy
Published by Simon & Schuster
In Stores Now

Review (Note this is a discussion we had about the book):
Hey Jess, thanks for doing this with me. I think it’s great when Moms or Dads read with their kids. Let’s tell everyone how we did this.

I think it’s great too when parents spend bonding time with their kids, I was excited to read this with you. We each got a copy of this and read it, although….you took a very long time reading it.

Yeah, well sorry about that, I’ve been pretty busy the last few weeks lol

Uhhhh huhhhhh, ok.

Hey it’s not fair, you get to read at school and after homework and I have to work you know :-) Let’s talk a little about the story. What did you think about it?

I thought it was a really good book, once I started reading it I couldn’t stop reading it. What did you think of it?

Mother Daughter Fun!!

Let's start by ignoring the fact that I did the worst really quick cut and paste on this picture, don't judge me.

My almost 10 year old daughter is a voracious reader, reads just about every spare minute of every day. Some days when she has trouble getting up for school I sneak into her room and find a flashlight and book stowed away under her pillow from the night before. She frequently asks if she can read what I am reading. Now obviously that's not going to happen, some of the books just have way too much mature content. Let's be honest, I really don't want to answer some of the questions they might bring about :-) Sooo I thought maybe she and I could read some Middle Grade together. I asked her if she'd like to read some of the same books and blog about them. Guess what? She sure does!

The first book we are reading is called Falling In by Frances O'Roark Dowell (we received our copies from Simon & Schuster, for review).

Watch for our review to come in the next few days, and maybe we'll even give a copy away to celebrate our first review together.

Book Reviews

I spend a great deal of time reading and, thanks to my youngest sister, most of my reading has been Young Adult. She turned me onto the genre, but I have stuck to it because I love it!

I've decided to put this hobby to good use by doing some book reviews. I'll start with some of the books I have read this summer and we'll see how it goes. Here are a few of my recent reads which I may (or may not) review.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Kissed by an Angel (Power of Love/Soulmates) by Elizabeth Chandler

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Maximum Ride (series) by James Patterson

The Dangerous Days of Daniel X by James Patterson

The Uglies, The Pretties, The Specials by Scott Westerfeld

The Forest of Hands & Teeth by Carrie Ryan

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer