Isn't this the most fabulous cover?

Just wait 'til you read the first chapter.

Beth Revis and her debut novel ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (which launched this week) have been getting a lot of buzz.  And for good reason.  I have yet to crack open the novel (yes, I regret this, but it's a carrot for when I finish my revisions), but I love what Beth has to say.

In her blog
On her Twitter
On her website
And if that's not enough for you, check out the website for Across the Universe

On March 25, 1911, New York City saw the deadliest industrial disaster in its history.

THREADS AND FLAMES, by Esther Friesner, is the fictional story of one of its survivors.

Raisa is a thirteen-year-old orphan, raised by a family friend in a shtetl in Poland.  In 1910, she makes her own way to America, to New York City, to find her older sister in a land where the streets are paved in gold.  Along the way, she acquires friends and a five-year-old ward, and arrives in New York, where the streets are not paved with gold, but with garbage, and her sister is nowhere to be found.  But luck is with her and she gets lodging with a sweet family and a job at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.

As the tagline of Friesner’s book says, The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire changed the country – and Raisa’s world – forever.

This novel is rich with cultural details of life in Poland and New York at the turn of the last century.  It describes well the struggle of anonymity and other-ness Raisa faces on her own at a young age.  And the vivid images Friesner conjures of the horror of the fire itself recount that tragedy with grace and assurance and great consideration of the victims.

I read this book with great interest, already knowing a little of the history behind it.  That the fire led to the creation of labor unions and the improvement of safety standards.  That it led women to fight for themselves and for their rights, not to be treated as thieves or cattle locked on the 9^th floor of a garment factory.

What makes me sad is that history repeats itself, as it did in Dhaka, Bangladesh a few weeks ago.

The Triangle tragedy is a timely story.  A thought-provoking one.  And Raisa’s background adds depth and humanity to it one hundred years later.

DARK GODDESS by Sarwat Chadda is the second book featuring kick-ass heroine Billi SanGreal, a sword wielding member of the Knights Templar, a group charged with protecting the world from supernatural forces, and whose numbers are dwindling.  Billi's story started with DEVIL'S KISS, where Billi chafed against duty, but ultimately was forced to sacrifice her own needs (and the one she loved) the greater good.  


In DARK GODDESS, Billi seems to have come to terms with the great responsibility entrusted to her, at least until her duties put the fate of a nine year old girl, and perhaps the entire world, in her hands.  Billi must once again decide whether to sacrifice someone she cares about or risk everything to find another way.  


This book is fast paced, thrilling and full of twists and turns that will keep you turning the pages long into the night.  Billi's story takes her to Russia, and it is rich with Russian mythology and history.  Billi must confront the Baba Yaga, an ancient and powerful goddess, protected by a colony of powerful shape-shifting women warriors in the dark forests surrounding Chernobyl, the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history.  This setting is a powerful backdrop for a story that explores the capacity of both man and nature for destruction.  While I tend to enjoy the thrill of life or death consequences in paranormal fiction, it's usually tempered by the fact that I can always step back and know that its fiction.  It was much harder to suspend my disbelief with DARK GODDESS.  The scariest part of the story wasn't the evil goddess or her army of warriors.  It wasn't even Billi's conflicted feelings over whether to kill a nine year old girl who might someday destroy the world.  For me, the scariest parts of DARK GODDESS were the stark and powerful images of Chernobyl, and the very real tension between modern civilization and the environment.  In recent years we've had ample reminders of the earth's ability to destroy; tsunami's, earthquakes and floods.  The gulf oil spill is a very recent example of the damage that we can do to the environment.  And of course there's Chernobyl:

"They walked past the nurses office, still filled with first-aid posters and old cots, and found the steps that led upstairs.  Billi stopped dead as a shadow marked the wall. [...] The silhouette of a small girl with pigtails had been blasted on the wall by the atomic explosion.  She had been caught forever reaching up to the light switch."  DARK GODDESS, Advanced Reading Copy, page 331 (text and pages may change upon final publication).


DARK GODDESS is one of those rare books that will entertain you with its action-packed plot, but leave you thinking about its themes and images for days after.  There are no easy answers for Billi.  There are no easy answers period. 

And the WINNER of last week's giveaway of the ARC of DARK GODDESS is: STASIA!!


Stasia, please send the address where you would like the ARC mailed to yamuses at aol.com


*I received this ARC at a conference with no expectation of a review, positive or otherwise.  

I've got the perfect YA Romance for you: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins.

Guys, this book has, like, gobs of charm. It is suffused with charm. It is, in fact, charm infested.

The story follows Anna Oliphant, a seventeen year old who is shipped off to France against her will for her senior year of high school.

I'm going to go ahead and tell you she falls in love.... but you'll have to read it to see if I mean with Paris or with a boy. Or both.... (mwah ha ha!)

The characters are superbly drawn, particularly Anna and St. Clair, her love interest. The voice is fresh and engaging, and the plot moves at a great clip. And Paris! Ahhh... I felt like I was climbing the narrow stone steps of Notre Dame with Anna.

This was a perfect light romance that is such fun to read. It's the kind of book you pass on to friends and say, "You've got to read this. It's a blast."

I've already handed my copy off, but I can still tell you, "You've got to read it. It's a blast!

I was told recently there wasn't much demand for "sweet family stories" in publishing today. THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE blows that theory out of the water. Of course there is a catch. The story has to be written in such achingly beautiful prose that you pause after almost every paragraph in awe of what you just read. I typically read fast, especially when reading for enjoyment, but this book made me slow down and savor the language on each page. The descriptions and quirky characters resonated and stayed with me long after I finished the book.

The Sky Is Everywhere is Jandy's first novel, but her MFA in poetry from Brown is put to wonderful use in this venue. The Los Angeles Times calls it: "unusually rich with both insight and breathless romance," The Denver Post: "a brilliant piercing story," and The Daily Beast says: "Those who think young-adult books can't be as literary, rich and mature as their adult counterparts will be disabused of that notion after reading The Sky Is Everywhere."

According to the website:
"Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker, bookworm and band geek, plays second clarinet and spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to center stage of her own life—and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two. Toby was Bailey's boyfriend; his grief mirrors Lennie's own. Joe is the new boy in town, a transplant from Paris whose nearly magical grin is matched only by his musical talent. For Lennie, they're the sun and the moon; one boy takes her out of her sorrow, the other comforts her in it. But just like their celestial counterparts, they can't collide without the whole wide world exploding."

This isn't a book about vampires or aliens. There isn't a complicated, high concept plot. It's just an incredibly written family story about dealing with grief and I highly recommend it.