Frost by M.P. Kozlowsky

Cinder meets The Walking Dead in a chilling futuristic fairy tale that will reboot everything you thought about family, love, and what it means to be human.

Sixteen-year-old Frost understands why she's spent her entire life in an abandoned apartment building. The ruined streets below are hunting grounds for rogue robots and Eaters.

She understands why she's never met a human besides her father. She even understands why he forbids her to look for medicine for her dying pet. But the thing is, it's not her real father giving the orders . . .

It's his memories.

Before he died, Frost's father uploaded his consciousness into their robot servant. But the technology malfunctioned, and now her father fades in and out. So when Frost learns that there might be medicine on the other side of the ravaged city, she embarks on a dangerous journey to save the only living creature she loves.

With only a robot as a companion, Frost must face terrors of all sorts, from outrunning the vicious Eaters . . . to talking to the first boy she's ever set eyes on. But can a girl who's only seen the world through books and dusty windows survive on her own? 

Goodreads Summary


I loved this book.  It definitely gave me that Walking Dead feel.  Frost is a girl who has little to no contact with the outside world besides her robot, Bunt.  Bunt is a robot that her father uploaded his conscious into with limited results.  Sometimes, Frost can talk to her father and sometimes she is talking only to Bunt.  She has a pet Broot who most people would fear and avoid, but she has tamed with kindness and humanity.  Humanity is an aspect that is lacking for most people besides Frost and Flynn.  Frost loves her pet and he provides love and affection.  Bunt cannot easily provide these things.  When Frost leaves her safe abandoned apartment building to find the Battery-a safe haven.  She runs into trouble and beasts-both of the human and eater variety-that she never expects and is unprepared for.

Frost's character was well-developed and one of the only characters the reader even reads about for quite a while.  She is brave and intelligent and not quite what she looks like.  She learns that she is multi-faceted and has different aspects of herself that she did not know she possessed.  Her father hid a few things from her.  Flynn and Frost entertain a budding though doomed romance.  Flynn was a breath of fresh air in an otherwise contaminated and corrupt world.  I loved the world-building and the feeling of despair that permeated the novel.  Frost was forever hopeful, but most of humanity had either given up or wanted to become robots.  The Eaters were downright scary.  Eating of their own tongues and eventually their arms if they can't find humans or animals to consume... It was the stuff of nightmares.  This book is highly recommended to young adult/adult readers.

5 Stars


This product or book may have been distributed for review, this in no way affects my opinions or reviews. COPYRIGHT © 2014 LIVE TO READ

Like a River From Its Course by Kelli Stuart

An epic novel exposing the ugliness of war and the beauty of hope. The city of Kiev was bombed in Hitler's blitzkrieg across the Soviet Union, but the constant siege was only the beginning for her citizens. In this sweeping historical saga, Kelli Stuart takes the reader on a captivating journey into the little--known history of Ukraine's tragedies through the eyes of four compelling characters who experience the same story from different perspectives.

Maria Ivanovna is only fourteen when the bombing begins and not much older when she is forced into work at a German labor camp. She must fight to survive and to make her way back to her beloved Ukraine.

Ivan Kyrilovich is falsely mistaken for a Jew and lined up with 34,000 other men, women, and children who are to be shot at the edge of Babi Yar, the "killing ditch." He survives, but not without devastating consequences.

Luda is sixteen when German soldiers rape her. Now pregnant with the child of the enemy, she is abandoned by her father, alone, and in pain. She must learn to trust family and friends again and find her own strength in order to discover the redemption that awaits.

Frederick Hermann is sure in his knowledge that the Fuhrer's plans for domination are right and just. He is driven to succeed by a desire to please a demanding father and by his own blind faith in the ideals of Nazism. Based on true stories gathered from fifteen years of research and interviews with Ukrainian World War II survivors, Like a River from Its Course is a story of love, war, heartache, forgiveness, and redemption. 

Goodreads Summary

Kelli Stuart crafts an intriguing historical fiction that intertwines three unusual characters in one tale.  The horror and hatred of the Holocaust and World War II is wrapped up in the compassion of strangers who did not let the Nazi dictator sway their inner compass.  The story taught me a few new historical facts such as the occupation of Ukraine by Nazi Germany.  Four perspectives come together to tell the story.  I hadn't been taught too much about the occupation of Ukraine and so many of the details were so sad and interesting all at the same time.  The four main characters are sadly based off of real lives that the author intensively researched.  The character I connected the most to was Luda.  She had such a hard life and it must be an impossible task to be pregnant with your rapist's child.  I felt horrible for her.  Anyone who reads this book will certainly have strong feelings throughout the novel. The stories within this book will not be easily forgotten and this book is aimed towards an older audience.

4 Stars





This product or book may have been distributed for review, this in no way affects my opinions or reviews. COPYRIGHT © 2014 LIVE TO READ

The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead

Big and sweeping, spanning from the refined palaces of Osfrid to the gold dust and untamed forests of Adoria, The Glittering Court tells the story of Adelaide, an Osfridian countess who poses as her servant to escape an arranged marriage and start a new life in Adoria, the New World. But to do that, she must join the Glittering Court.

Both a school and a business venture, the Glittering Court is designed to transform impoverished girls into upper-class ladies who appear destined for powerful and wealthy marriages in the New World. Adelaide naturally excels in her training, and even makes a few friends: the fiery former laundress Tamsin and the beautiful Sirminican refugee Mira. She manages to keep her true identity hidden from all but one: the intriguing Cedric Thorn, son of the wealthy proprietor of the Glittering Court.

When Adelaide discovers that Cedric is hiding a dangerous secret of his own, together they hatch a scheme to make the best of Adelaide’s deception. Complications soon arise—first as they cross the treacherous seas from Osfrid to Adoria, and then when Adelaide catches the attention of a powerful governor.

But no complication will prove quite as daunting as the potent attraction simmering between Adelaide and Cedric. An attraction that, if acted on, would scandalize the Glittering Court and make them both outcasts in wild, vastly uncharted lands… 

Goodreads Summary

Adelaide aka Elizabeth (her real name) made this entire novel for me.  She was intelligent, brave, and put others before herself.  When faced with a match made for financial reasons and security, Adelaide seizes the chance to take on her maid's name and enter the Glittering Court as her maid.  The Glittering Court helps lower-class ladies make matches with high-powered gentlemen.  When Adelaide meets Cedric, who initially chose her maid to be part of the Court, she knows that he's someone she could really like eventually.  She makes friends with Tamsin and Mira and excels in all of her courses.  Tamsin is headstrong, opinionated, and slightly controlling.  Mira is exotic, lovely, and clever.  The trio engage in fun dialogue and hilarious scenes together.

When Adelaide catches the eye of one of the wealthiest man participating in the Glittering Court, she isn't sure she wants to make the match.  After all, didn't she enter the Glittering Court to choose her own husband?  The romance between Cedric and Adelaide felt raw and real.  I loved how their affections for each other developed slowly over the course of the book and did not overtake Adelaide's character.  Adelaide's strong love for her friends and Cedric gets her into trouble more than once and causes strife between the friends, but it all works out in the end.  I was a little bit surprised by the ending, but could see it coming for the most part.  I hope there is a second in the series because I am dying to know what Tamsin confided in Adelaide at the end of the novel and what Mira was secretly leaving to do at night.  I really enjoyed this novel and finished it in one sitting.

5 Stars

This product or book may have been distributed for review, this in no way affects my opinions or reviews. COPYRIGHT © 2014 LIVE TO READ

The Woman in the Photo by Mary Hogan: Review and Giveaway!

In this compulsively readable historical novel, from the author of the critically-acclaimed Two Sisters, comes the story of two young women—one in America’s Gilded Age, one in scrappy modern-day California—whose lives are linked by a single tragic afternoon in history.

1888: Elizabeth Haberlin, of the Pittsburgh Haberlins, spends every summer with her family on a beautiful lake in an exclusive club. Nestled in the Allegheny Mountains above the working class community of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, the private retreat is patronized by society’s elite. Elizabeth summers with Carnegies, Mellons, and Fricks, following the rigid etiquette of her class. But Elizabeth is blessed (cursed) with a mind of her own. Case in point: her friendship with Eugene Eggar, a Johnstown steel mill worker. And when Elizabeth discovers that the club’s poorly maintained dam is about to burst and send 20 million tons of water careening down the mountain, she risks all to warn Eugene and the townspeople in the lake’s deadly shadow.

Present day: On her 18th birthday, genetic information from Lee Parker’s closed adoption is unlocked. She also sees an old photograph of a genetic relative—a 19th century woman with hair and eyes likes hers—standing in a pile of rubble from an ecological disaster next to none other than Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross. Determined to identify the woman in the photo and unearth the mystery of that captured moment, Lee digs into history. Her journey takes her from California to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, from her present financial woes to her past of privilege, from the daily grind to an epic disaster. Once Lee’s heroic DNA is revealed, will she decide to forge a new fate? 

Goodreads Summary

I never knew that this event occurred in history so that alone makes me glad I read this book.  I did enjoy the overlay of the past and present and thought the author did a pretty decent job of ensuring it was not confusing or contradictory.  I could sort of guess where the ending was headed, but it was a nice surprise anyway.  Lee and Elizabeth were both strong female characters who tried to do what is right.  I think Elizabeth pushed Lee in the right direction.  

I did enjoy the characters though I wish I had gotten to know them better.  I really felt "in the past" when reading from Elizabeth's point of view.  The author's attention to detail was very good and the plot moved fairly quickly after I got my footing in the beginning.  I do wish that the book paid more attention to the actual flood and the politics behind that.  Although I enjoyed the book, this felt like a quick read to me which doesn't usually happen with historically-based books.  A reader who enjoys historical fiction or someone who wants to learn about an event in their country's history they liked did not know about would enjoy this book.

3 1/2 Stars


GIVEAWAY:

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This product or book may have been distributed for review, this in no way affects my opinions or reviews. COPYRIGHT © 2014 LIVE TO READ