The Alchemy of Forever (Incarnation, #1), by Avery Williams

Release Date: January 3rd, 2012

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Age Group: Young Adult

Overall: 5 out of 5 Stars 

Categories: Paranormal, Drama, Romance, Reincarnation 
Goodreads Page - Buy The Book

Read in January 2012

Summary:

After spending six hundred years on Earth, Seraphina Ames has seen it all. Eternal life provides her with the world's riches but at a very high price: innocent lives. Centuries ago, her boyfriend, Cyrus, discovered a method of alchemy that allows them to take the bodies of other humans from jumping from one vessel to the next, ending the human's life in the process. No longer able to bear the guilt of what she's done, Sera escapes from Cyrus and vows to never kill again.

Then sixteen-year old Kailey Morgan gets into a horrific car accident right in front of her, and Sera accidentally takes over her body while trying to save her. For the first time, Sera finds herself enjoying the life of the person she's inhabiting--and falling in love with the boy who lives next door. But Cyrus will stop at nothing until she's his again, and every moment she stays, she's putting herself and the people she's grown to care about in danger. Will Sera have to give up the one thing that's eluded her for centuries: true love?

My Opinion:

A great, fast-paced debut from new author Avery Williams! It seems reincarnation is the topic that's "in", what with Jodi Meadows's upcoming Incarnate.

I read this last week, in a few hours split into two days. I hadn't read a book that fast in a while! 

Since this is the first in a series, I'll forgive Avery for not giving us as much backstory as I would have liked. But I'm guessing she's saving the best for later. 


The book opens with Seraphina going to a ball in Victorian Era's London, and right after that we meet Cyrus, the boy who will change Sera's life forever. She's badly injured, but instead of watching her die, he gives her the life elixir, turning her into an Incarnate. From then on, she'll have to steal other people's lives to stay living. 


What I loved about this book, was Sera's voice. The way she narrated her story was unique, and I can't wait to read more. 


Also, Avery's use of alchemy for something other than gold-making was really surprising! I'd love to see what's in Cyrus's book on the subject. The idea of body-hopping to stay alive was great, it gave the MC something to think about: does she want to keep living like this, killing others for her own benefit; or is she ready to let go, and go into the unknown? 


All in all, I found Sera to be a really strong character, and I can't wait to see what happens to "the boy next door"! That ending was terrible, in a great way! 

The Way We Fall, by Megan Crewe

Release Date: January 24th, 2012

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Age Group: Young Adult

Overall: 1 out of 5 Stars 

Categories: Drama, Dystopia, NetGalley, Did Not Finish*

Goodreads Page

Read in January 2012

Summary:

It starts with an itch you just can't shake. Then comes a fever and a tickle in your throat. A few days later, you'll be blabbing your secrets and chatting with strangers like they’re old friends. Three more, and the paranoid hallucinations kick in.

And then you're dead.
When a deadly virus begins to sweep through sixteen-year-old Kaelyn’s community, the government quarantines her island—no one can leave, and no one can come back.
Those still healthy must fight for dwindling supplies, or lose all chance of survival. As everything familiar comes crashing down, Kaelyn joins forces with a former rival and discovers a new love in the midst of heartbreak. When the virus starts to rob her of friends and family, she clings to the belief that there must be a way to save the people she holds dearest.
Because how will she go on if there isn't?

My Opinion:

I was expecting to love this book -the premise is good and it's categorised as a dystopia, which is a genre I love- but alas, I did not. A lot of other people seem to have liked it, and maybe that's why I was expecting too much from this novel. I'd seen a lot of 5 stars reviews on GR.

The novel's protagonist, Kaelyn, begins writing a diary for her ex-bestfriend, Leo. It starts out slow, but that's understandable, because that's how you're supposed to write a diary, little by little, not like a normal prose narrative book. But further on, that's exactly what it becomes; the diary transforms into something else, where Kaelyn narrates everything, but still in a slow pace.

I could not for the life of me relate to any of these characters: Kaelyn, her brother Drew, her cousin Meredith, her father... they were all there, but none (it seemed to me) had enough depth, they didn't seem real to me.

The way Kaelyn retells the events happening in her island are dull and unsufficient for my reader curiosity. Nothing interesting happened, and I found myself (after reading 157 pages) skipping chapters, that didn't show much promise either. The ending was predictable, too.

Needless to say is, I was very disappointed. I was truly expecting something different from what I got. I do want to keep reading what Megan writes, though. Maybe I'll like Give Up The Ghost, people say it's funny. 

*It wasn't that I didn't finish it, more like -like I said above-, I skipped chapters after reaching the middle, only to see how it ended and move on to my next read.

Firelight (Firelight, #1), by Sophie Jordan

Release Date: September 7th, 2010

Publisher: HarperTeen

Age Group: Young Adult

Overall: 4 Stars 

Categories: Fantasy, Paranormal, Dragons, Romance

Goodreads Page
Other books in the series: Vanish (Firelight, #2) 

Read in January 2012

Summary:

A hidden truth. Mortal enemies. Doomed love.
Marked as special at an early age, Jacinda knows her every move is watched. But she longs for freedom to make her own choices. When she breaks the most sacred tenet among her kind, she nearly pays with her life. Until a beautiful stranger saves her. A stranger who was sent to hunt those like her. For Jacinda is a draki—a descendant of dragons whose greatest defense is her secret ability to shift into human form.
Forced to flee into the mortal world with her family, Jacinda struggles to adapt to her new surroundings. The only bright light is Will. Gorgeous, elusive Will who stirs her inner draki to life. Although she is irresistibly drawn to him, Jacinda knows Will's dark secret: He and his family are hunters. She should avoid him at all costs. But her inner draki is slowly slipping away—if it dies she will be left as a human forever. She'll do anything to prevent that. Even if it means getting closer to her most dangerous enemy.
Mythical powers and breathtaking romance ignite in this story of a girl who defies all expectations and whose love crosses an ancient divide.

My Opinion:

Firelight drew me in and didn't let go until I was done! What a good read! It took me a while to read this, but that was because I waited until it was published in Arg, instead of buying it through the internet. But now, I don't know if I'll be able to wait until Vanish is published here, I want to read it now!

Although I really enjoyed this book, I was a little annoyed at the plot: girl's family has to move for whatever reason (in Firelight it was to save Jacinda from a terrible fate), girl starts new school, doesn't make many friends, and the cutest guy -the one all the girls drool about- notices her among the throng.

But I get it: sometimes these things -writing about new kids in school and falling for the boy/girl you've dreamed about/seen in your mind/are destined to meet/etc.- are inevitable if we want to make the story work. I know this from experience, I'm writing a book where my female character dreams about a boy whom she later meets, and oh, what a surprise, she meets him because he's new in school. But I've learnt it doesn't matter what others write, it's what you make of your story. Honestly, I don't see any other way for neither mine nor Sophie's story to work: Jacinda's in danger and they have to move. She's the new kid in school -along with her sister, Tamra- and it's there where she meets Will, the hunter who refused to kill her.

And it's because of that that she wants to be around him (why did he spare her, when he kills her kind for a living?), and also, because without him, her draki (her dragon spirit) will certainly die in the hot desert where her mother took her.

I love dragons, and this story did not disappoint. Their history was explained very well through Jacinda's voice, which I thought was unique. I loved that the draki have all different abilities, like Jacinda being a fire draki, the last of her kind, and that they live in closed communities. And I also can't wait to learn more about the enkros and the hunters, and Will's story.

I only wish the love triangle wasn't so strong and present in the book. Sophie created wonderful characters, and while I can tolerate the new girl syndrome, I really dislike a bad love triangle.

I'd recommend this to Inheritance's fans: while this is nothing like Paolini's series, a) it's got dragons, and b) we've got no more Inheritance books, so we might as well move on to the next series.