DNF Review: Long May She Reign by Rhiannon Thomas

Release Date: February 21st, 2017
Read: August 12th-20th, 2018
Publisher: HarperTeen
Series: Standalone
Format: ARC, 422 pages
Source: Borrowed

Description from GoodReads:

   Freya was never meant be queen. Twenty third in line to the throne, she never dreamed of a life in the palace, and would much rather research in her laboratory than participate in the intrigues of court. However, when an extravagant banquet turns deadly and the king and those closest to him are poisoned, Freya suddenly finds herself on the throne.

   Freya may have escaped the massacre, but she is far from safe. The nobles don’t respect her, her councillors want to control her, and with the mystery of who killed the king still unsolved, Freya knows that a single mistake could cost her the kingdom – and her life.

   Freya is determined to survive, and that means uncovering the murderers herself. Until then, she can’t trust anyone. Not her advisors. Not the king’s dashing and enigmatic illegitimate son. Not even her own father, who always wanted the best for her, but also wanted more power for himself.

   As Freya’s enemies close in and her loyalties are tested, she must decide if she is ready to rule and, if so, how far she is willing to go to keep the crown. 

DNF Review: The Swan Riders by Erin Bow

Release Date: September 20th, 2016
Read: September 11th- 26th, 2016
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Series: Prisoners of Peace, #2
Format: ARC, 384 pages
Source: Publisher in exchange for an honest review

Description from GoodReads:

   Greta Stuart has become AI. New transmitters have silvered her fingerprints. New receptors have transformed her vision. And the whole of her memory has become one book in a vast library of instant knowledge. Greta is ready to rule the world.

   But the new technology is also killing her.

   Greta is only sixteen years old, but her new enhancements are burning through her mortal body at an alarming rate. Of course the leader of the AIs, an ancient and compelling artificial intelligence named Talis, has a plan. Greta can simply do what he’s done when the time comes, and take over the body of one of the Swan Riders, the utterly loyal humans who serve the AIs as part army, part cult.

   First though, Greta will have to find a way to stay sane inside her new self. Talis’s plan for that involves a road trip. Escorted by Swan Riders, Greta and Talis set out on a horseback journey across the strange and not-quite-deserted landscape of Saskatchewan. But there are other people interested in Greta, people who want to change the world…and the Swan Riders might not be as loyal as they appear…

Review:

   Piece by piece..
   I had received The Scorpion Rules from the publisher as a surprise, last year before it's release. Before I started it, I thought the premise to be a new and exciting idea. Then there was also the promise of it taking place in Canada, stories that take place in Canada don't happen quite often, so I was really excited to read it. In the end The Scorpion Rules ended up being a little too political for my taste. There are sometimes cases where the second book outshines the first, I had hoped that that would be the case with The Swan Riders. I can't always be right.
   I DNF'd The Swan Riders when I was perhaps 100 pages in, it took me 15 days to get to that point. Nothing about the story was grabbing my attention, and after 15 days I knew it was time to finally put  it down and pick something else up.
   I had gone into The Swan Riders hoping for a bit of a change, considering our main character was now an AI. It felt like the little times I got to see her embrace her new form, Talis would interrupt.
   This series has turned out to just not be for me, I'm glad that I tried to give the series another try, but I probably won't be picking up the rest of the series in the future.(If it does continue, with a third book.)

Rating:

Favourite Quote:

"He was losing her. He was losing them all."

Recommend to People Who Enjoy:

Young Adult, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Dystopian, LGBTQ, Robots, Canada

DNF Book Review: This is the Story of You by Beth Kephart

Release Date: April 12th, 2016
Read: April 11th-14th, 2016
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Series: N/A
Format: ARC, 264 pages
Source: McNally Robinson/ Be First Book Club

Description from GoodReads:

   On Haven, a six-mile long, half-mile-wide stretch of barrier island, Mira Banul and her Year-Rounder friends have proudly risen to every challenge. But when a superstorm defies all predictions and devastates the island, when it strands Mira’s mother and brother on the mainland and upends all logic, nothing will ever be as it was. A stranger appears in the wreck of Mira’s home. A friend obsessed with vanishing is gone. As the mysteries deepen, Mira must find the strength to carry on—to somehow hold her memories in place while learning to trust a radically reinvented future.


   Gripping and poetic, This Is the Story of You is about the beauty of nature and the power of family, about finding hope in the wake of tragedy and recovery in the face of overwhelming loss.

Review:

   The sea comes and the sea goes.
   After reading the description for This is The Story of You I can honestly say that I wasn't all that interested. Because it was April's Be First Book Club book, I decided to give it a try. My first instinct was correct.
   The idea of a hurricane story was interesting, so I held onto that going through the novel. But within the first few pages, I noticed a few things. Kephert likes to describe things by just listing multiple things, over and over. First you'd be talking about bird watching then it would list things until you ended up in a basement. I found this particular descriptive style to be odd, and annoying. But continued on.
   I continued on to about 130 pages, where the story had just started to pick up. Thinking it would get better from there, I continued on once more. 20 pages more and I was still annoyed by Kepharts writing style, and the fact that nothing had really happened yet.
   I DNF'd This is the Story of You at roughly 56%, and will probably not be picking it up again in the future.

Rating:

Favourite Quote:

"Only thing in this world isn't replaceable is people."

Recommend to People Who Enjoy:

Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery, Survival, Islands, Hurricanes