Winter Solstice Winter by E.J. Squires

I received this book via the Goodreads giveaways, and was very excited, as I had previously read the synopsis and was interested in the book. Boy, was I disappointed. This is a young adult novel, but the writing style lends itself to a much, much younger age. The characters are shallow and one-dimensional and nearly indistinguishable from each other. Dialogue is stiff and unnatural and many of the conversations are unrealistic for the era this is supposed to take place in (Medieval Scandinavia). The protagonist is uninteresting, the antagonist (usually the one I cheer for) is uninteresting and the story is just boring. Aside from all that, the grammatical errors and editorial errors are unforgivable.









Rated 1 star on Goodreads

Angelfall by Susan Ee

I am a sucker for angelic lore and dystopian novels, but combining the two, I was skeptical. An hour later, I was nearly halfway through the book and forcing myself to put it down and go to bed. Susan Ee has created, in her novel, a protagonist that I actually like, that, in a post-apocalyptic setting has adapted and developed a thick skin in order to survive, a thick skin that has perhaps, been developed by a mentally unstable mother whom we get glimpses of throughout the novel. Ee's characters don't linger on sentiment, they live in the here and now as they struggle to survive, and I can appreciate that so much; I have no time for characters that wax sentimental for pages about the "way things were."

There is nothing happy in this book, but it's not depressing. Instead, you're thrust into the story as the protagonist, Penryn and her companion, Raffe, make their way to San Francisco toward their individual goals in a symbiotic-- if terse--  partnership. When resolution is found, even that isn't a "happy ending" as one would expect, and leads perfectly to the next book (oh god when does the next book come out?!). Ee delivers a gritty, suspenseful novel with no fluff.

While I find most young adult novels are primarily aimed at a female audience (most of them have female protagonists, and this is no exception) Angelfall felt, as I read it, like it would appeal to a much broader audience. And frankly, it read a little older than some young adult fiction I have read before. There are some heavy science fiction elements toward the end (and I can't wait to find out more), definite horror and gore violence (which was awesome), political maneuvering (unexpected), and an overall sense of chaos amongst the various sets of characters. It was a veritable buffet of literary genre nuggets for the sampling! Honestly, I couldn't put the book down, and when I finished, I really found myself wishing the second book was out already, but sadly, I haven't seen a publication date yet. I suppose, for a book that came out this year, we shall have to be a little patient for the sequel.

Rated 5 stars on Goodreads