Defiance by C.J. Redwine

It’s been 60 days and Rachel’s father, Jared, still hasn’t returned from his latest courier mission into the Wasteland.  The Commander of the walled City-State of Baalboden declares Jared dead and announces Jared’s apprentice, Logan, as Rachel’s new Protector.  Growing up trained to fight and with a sense of independence, she is unlike any other female in Baalboden; she hardly believes she needs a Protector.  However, Rachel fully believes her father isn’t dead and sets a plan in motion to find him in the Wasteland.  Now all she must do is escape without drawing attention from the Commander. 

Rachel Cohn's Beta

Teenaged Elysia is an experimental clone, manufactured from a dead girl and predestined to be a slave for the wealthy.  After the destructive Water Wars, people (Read: the wealthy) wanted a stress-free, more luxurious life.  So they traveled to the idyllic island of Demesne (rhymes with Renesmee) where everything is controlled, including the water and air, to be euphoric.  To fill her college-aged daughter’s absence, the wife of Demesne’s Governor purchases Elysia to be a companion.  As a clone, Elysia is produced to be a soulless, emotionless being lacking in sensations in order to serve her owner better.  However, when Elysia can taste her dinner and realizes the visions she has are really her First’s memories she begins to feel frightened.  Elysia goes to great lengths to hide her emotions in fear she will be branded a Defect and sent back to the lab to be tortured.  The cliffhanger ending got me hooked but I didn’t understand or appreciate a sexually violent scene.  However, the story felt original and I’d still recommend it since I think Rachel Cohn is an amazing YA author. 

The Diviners by Libba Bray

I have been scared by a book before but never have I had a nightmare from one.  It happened within the first 100 pages of this almost 600 pager but by then I was hooked and continued on.  Evie O’Neill has a gift, although presently she only uses it to impress people at parties.  When she gets caught up in a “rumor” using her gift, she is sent off to live with her Uncle Will, curator to The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult, in New York City.  It’s 1926 and New York is filled with speakeasies and flapper girls, and Evie doesn’t really see this as quite the punishment her parents believe it to be.  The moment she steps off that train her life takes a far different path than what she had expected.  Soon after her arrival, a young woman’s body is discovered beneath the Brooklyn Bridge with mysterious brandings.  Evie’s Uncle is called to the scene to help decipher the occult symbols and Evie discovers that her party trick gift can be far more useful.  She is determined to help track down the killer before more dead bodies surface.  The story follows many others with certain gifts and by the end Bray has set the stage for far more things to come. 

Seth Casteel's Underwater Dogs

Who doesn’t love lively, up-close photographs of adorable faced dogs? Casteel takes it several steps further by photographing dogs from an uncharted and unexpected perspective: underwater.  Dogs are baited with colorful tennis balls to dive into pools headfirst and their snouts are then snapped from beneath the surface.  Underwater Dogs is a serious mood booster.  I can’t wait to chuck my dog into a pool. 

Speechless by Hannah Harrington

Popular Chelsea Knot loves to gossip.  She can never keep a secret for very long.  But when she tells a secret that almost gets a classmate killed and two others sent to jail she takes a vow of silence to avoid hurting anyone else.  Returning to school after the New Year’s holiday, Chelsea is met with zero friends and an onslaught of bullying to fight against.  She continues to stand by her silence even when it would be far easier to fight back with words.  It’s important to Chelsea to now think before she speaks and so chooses to write to communicate.  This coming-of-age, page-turner provided so many lessons but never felt preachy, it simply told Chelsea’s story as a high school student grappling with bullying and learning to stand up for herself. 

Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys

There is nothing I can write to do this book justice.  Not only that, I am also at a loss for words having just finished a book I fell so completely into.  It was tense, intricate, suspenseful, mythical, and incredibly haunting.  Excuse my lack of a proper review.  You’ll just have to trust me on this one.