Thursday Thoughts: Mini-Recommendations

Let's go again here...

Love in Revolution by BR Collins - If you've been following me on Twitter, you already know my thoughts on this one. If you haven't, then imagine you've read lots of incoherent tweets along the lines of "OMG this was absolutely AMAZING!" and you're in the picture. Jill Murphy reviewed this wonderful love story between two girls falling for each other during a revolution for the Bookbag, where it was one of our top ten books of the year. Her review pretty much summed my thoughts up too. (Although I'd have bolded "I loved loved loved Love in Revolution" and "this story has the best ending EVER".) Check it out here for her far more coherent write-up. Summary, though - BUY THIS NOW!

Rags and Bones edited by Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt - Slightly hit and miss collection of retellings of classic tales by some of today's top YA authors has enough really good stuff to be required reading despite a couple of flops. Highlight is Rick Yancey's sci-fi version of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birthmark - utterly incredible. Check out my full review at the Bookbag.

Hidden Gift by Ian Somers - Somers follows up the enjoyable Million Dollar Gift with an even better sequel, seeing Ross Bentley needing all of his powers to face off against a seriously dangerous antagonist who's ready to wreak havoc on Ross, and the world. With the antagonist narrating parts himself, you really get inside his head and get to see what's turned him into the monster he is, while Ross is one of my favourite lead characters for a while. The combination of the two, good world-building in terms of the powers and their history, and a strong supporting cast lifts it significantly above most action books of this type. Highly recommended.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M Danforth - Grudging recommendation here on the strength of an exquisite first half and a lyrical writing style. For me, though, this story about a girl finding she likes other girls in small-town America suffered from a second half which went massively downhill - more than anything else I've read since Daughter of Smoke and Bone. By the end, I barely liked any of the characters and thought the ending was anti-climatic. It didn't help that the blurb gives away so much I felt I'd read the first two-thirds or so already. Despite my complaints, the first half IS wonderful, but I'm struggling to see why this is getting so much hype.