Review and Giveaway: The Long Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

The Long Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository
Series: #2 in the The Fixer series
Release date: June 7th, 2016
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Length: 368 pages
Source: ARC from the publisher
Rating:  *sucker punch gasp* *PROLONGED SOBSCREAM*



Tess Kendrick, teen fixer extraordinaire, returns in a pulse-pounding thriller about a deadly conspiracy at the heart of Washington.

For Tess Kendrick, a junior at the elite Hardwicke School in Washington D.C., fixing runs in the family. But Tess has another legacy, too, one that involves power and the making of political dynasties. When Tess is asked to run a classmate's campaign for student council, she agrees. But when the candidates are children of politicians, even a high school election can involve life-shattering secrets.

Meanwhile, Tess's guardian has also taken on an impossible case, as a terrorist attack calls into doubt who can--and cannot--be trusted on Capitol Hill. Tess knows better than most that power is currency in D.C., but she's about to discover first-hand that power always comes with a price.

Perfect for fans of Harlan Coben and Ally Carter, the second book in this thrilling series will leave readers breathless.

Fun bonus: today's visual entertainment will be provided by screenshots of my reading liveblog to Lizzy and Shae, aka the evil people who told me to read this book and then laughed at me while I sobbed over it. Spoilers redacted.

Ho. Ly. Shit.

Blog Tour + Giveaway: The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

I'm SO pleased to be part of the blog tour for The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, a twisty, witty (twitty?) Washington, D.C. tale of intrigue, politics, scandal, mystery, and the most intriguingly political scandalous mystery of all--family. It's the perfect blend of Veronica Mars and Scandal, and I adored reading it heaps and bunches. I'm honored to have the author herself, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, on the blog today to talk of a time when SHE would have loved to have had a fixer in high school.

And now, Jennifer!

The FIXER Challenge

“You’re telling me that my sister is a professional problem solver?” I asked tightly. “She just goes around, solving other people’s problems? How is that even an occupation?” 

“Supply and demand?” Vivvie suggested. “Around here, we call them fixers.”

When my protagonist, Tess Kendrick, moves to Washington DC, she has no idea that her older sister is the person to go to in Washington if you have a fire that needs to be put out or a secret that needs to be buried. The famed Ivy Kendrick can fix any problem for a price. And, due to an unfortunate incident on her first day of school, Tess inadvertently develops a reputation for being a chip off of the old block. Soon, students at her elite private school are coming to her for help.

In honor of THE FIXER’s release, I’m challenging readers try their hands at being a fixer. And I thought it would be doubly fun (and also: personally embarrassing) if the problems you guys had the opportunity to suggest fixes for really happened to me in high school.

So, without further ado, I present to you…

THE CASE OF THE WHITE-BOARD SCRIBBLES

Double Review: Kalahari and The Hidden Prince

I AM SO BEHIND ON REVIEWS OKAY HERE WE GO

Kalahari by Jessica Khoury
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository
Release date: February 24th, 2015
Publisher: Razorbill (Penguin)
Length: 368 pages
Source: ARC from the publisher
Rating: Pretty entertaining adventure thriller-ma-bob

Deep in the Kalahari Desert, a Corpus lab protects a dangerous secret…
But what happens when that secret takes on a life of its own?

When an educational safari goes wrong, five teens find themselves stranded in the Kalahari Desert without a guide. It’s up to Sarah, the daughter of zoologists, to keep them alive and lead them to safety, calling on survival know-how from years of growing up in remote and exotic locales. Battling dehydration, starvation and the pangs of first love, she does her best to hold it together, even as their circumstances grow increasingly desperate.

But soon a terrifying encounter makes Sarah question everything she’s ever known about the natural world. A silver lion, as though made of mercury, makes a vicious, unprovoked attack on the group. After a narrow escape, they uncover the chilling truth behind the lion’s silver sheen: a highly contagious and deadly virus that threatens to ravage the entire area—and eliminate life as they know it.

In this breathtaking new novel by the acclaimed author of Origin and Vitro, Sarah and the others must not only outrun the virus, but its creators, who will stop at nothing to wipe every trace of it.

So part of why I was really excited to read this book is twofold. One, I was actually IN Botswana last summer, so I was anxious to read about a part of the world I'm visually familiar with (Khoury def didn't disappoint in that regard). Two, I have DEEP, DEEP LOVE for stories in which people are stranded in nature and must BATTLE THE ELEMENTS and PERSEVERE against SUPREME ODDS. I've seen practically every episode of the truly gruesome I Shouldn't Be Alive, God knows why, but this shiz is my jam.

Mini DNF Reviews: It's Not You, It's Me

Mini DNF reviews for Woven by Michael Jensen and David Powers King, The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall, and The Boy Next Door by Katie Van Ark. Two I'll pick up again sometime in the future, and one has had its LAST CHANCE WITH ME. Dun dun dunnnnn

Review: All Fall Down by Ally Carter

Review: All Fall Down by Ally Carter
Goodreads
Release date: January 27th, 2014
Publisher: Scholastic
Series: Yes, #1 in the Embassy Row series
Source: ARC
Length: 320 pages
Rating:While I get the feeling this won't be my fave Ally Carter book (it's surprisingly heavy), it's a start to what could be a great series



Grace can best be described as a daredevil, an Army brat, and a rebel. She is also the only granddaughter of perhaps the most powerful ambassador in the world and Grace has spent every summer of her childhood running across the roofs of Embassy Row.

Now, at age sixteen, she's come back to stay - in order to solve the mystery of her mother's death. In the process, she uncovers an international conspiracy of unsettling proportions, and must choose her friends and watch her foes carefully if she and the world are to be saved.



This is my first Ally Carter book, and while I can tell it's probably not as fun as her usual books, I also know that I very much want to read the others. Her style is really fun and funny full of intrigue. This wasn't a standout to me, but I'm definitely a Carter fan in the making. (Also... WHOA does the book end right before all the answers and just when things are getting super twisty! NO FAIR.)

I was expecting lightness and fun-ness and spy-ness from this book, going off what I know about her others. This probably colored my expectations (I wasn't really in the mood for trauma and darkness and psychological thrillery bits), so while I was surprised by how dark this book was, I do think Carter pulled it off. Was it my favorite ever thing? No. Does the (way too short!) book leave off in a place that is oh-so-very intriguing? Yes!

Review: Made for You by Melissa Marr

Review: Made for You by Melissa Marr
Goodreads 
Release date: September 16th, 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen
Series: No
Source: e-ARC via Edelweiss/print ARC from BEA14
Length: 368 pages
Rating: An enjoyable, quite creepy thriller that could have been more impactful.



Bestselling author of the Wicked Lovely books Melissa Marr’s first contemporary YA novel is a twisted southern gothic tale of obsession, romance, and murder. A killer is obsessed with Eva Tilling. Can she stop him, or will he claim her?

When Eva Tilling wakes up in the hospital, she’s confused—who in her sleepy little North Carolina town could have hit her with their car? And why? But before she can consider the question, she finds that she’s awoken with a strange new skill: the ability to foresee people’s deaths when they touch her. While she is recovering from the hit-and-run, Nate, an old flame, reappears, and the two must traverse their rocky past as they figure out how to use Eva’s power to keep her friends—and themselves—alive. But while Eva and Nate grow closer, the killer grows increasingly frantic in his attempt to get to Eva.

For the first time, New York Times bestselling author Melissa Marr has applied her extraordinary talent to contemporary realism. Chilling twists, unrequited obsession, and high-stakes romance drive this Gothic, racy thriller—a story of small-town oppression and salvation. Melissa’s fans, and every YA reader, will find its wild ride enthralling.

I'm not sure what to make of this one. Overall, I definitely liked it. Is it a Gothic, racy thriller? No. Is it creepy as all hell and a pretty engrossing read? Yep. In the end, I definitely liked Made for You, but it had a few hiccups that kept it from being as truly wow-worthy as it could have been.

DNF You

Things have been suuuuuper busy (which is code for, um... I've read eight Richelle Mead books in the past week and a half? Sorry not sorry? VAMPIRE ACADEMY TOOK OVER MY LIFE OKAY) so not much blogging has occured. I've been too distracted by the Adrian fictional. Plus I moderated my first author event on Saturday! It was Sarah J Maas' last stop on her tour, and I got to chat and hang out with her, Robin Benway, and Nina Berry. It was all different kinds of awesome, and I'll do a post about it hopefully tomorrow.

In the meantime... let's talk about the unfortunate books that fell victim to my VA and Bloodlines binge read/mania/blind addiction! Poor unfortunate books. Perhaps in another point in my life, I could have finished you.

Review: Premeditated by Josin L. McQuein

Review: Premeditated by Josin L. McQuein
Goodreads 
Release date: October 8th, 2013
Publisher: Delacorte
Series: No
Source: copy from the publisher
Rating: SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER awesome thriller with SPOILER SPOILER kickass heroine SPOILER SPOILER lots of feels and especially SPOILER SPOILER.

 

 A week ago, Dinah’s cousin Claire cut her wrists.

Five days ago, Dinah found Claire’s diary and discovered why.

Three days ago, Dinah stopped crying and came up with a plan.

Two days ago, she ditched her piercings and bleached the black dye from her hair.

Yesterday, knee socks and uniform plaid became a predator’s camouflage.

Today, she’ll find the boy who broke Claire.

By tomorrow, he’ll wish he were dead.


The cover: Yessss. So much mystery, and lurking, and watching. She's totally biding her time before she strikes.

The story:  I've been waiting for this book a long, long, long time. I first heard about it on the website Query Shark, where aspiring writers post their queries for critique by agent Janet Reid (Fun Gillian Momet: Ms. Reid once published a fake query I wrote for giggles. Go forth if you dare.) Anyway, sometime in, I think, 2011, McQuein posted her query for premeditated--and it was completely identical to the above synopsis. Seriously, it was such a freaking good query that clearly it got her a book deal and even made it onto the jacket flap, which never happens, I'm sure. But come on. How much do you want to read that story? SO MUCH.

I will say that the synopsis is a touch misleading. Dinah does start out massively Veronica-Mars-hardcore, steely-eyed and cold-hearted and thirsting for revenge. But obviously, she softens, and while normally I like my badass heroines to stay badass, I also enjoyed watching Dinah question everything about herself and her mission. It's so easy to get lost in a revenge plan, especially one as diabolical as the one Dinah sets up, so I was glad to see her falter in her surety and have some real conflicted moments and doubt. But when Dinah is badass... SHE IS BADASS.

 

I love this girl. She's sharp, she's angry, and she's fiercely protective of Claire, her little cousin, who's currently comatose after slashing her own wrists. In a haze of grief, Dinah starts to read Claire's journal, trying to find out what happened to her happy and bubbly cousin--and she discovers that a boy named Brooks Walden is to blame. So she transfers to the elite Lowry School, where Brooks attends and Claire was supposed to go, with the so aim to destroy Brooks Walden, no matter what it takes. Dinah, essentially, plays a part. She bleaches the black dye from her hair, takes out her piercings, and pretends to be any old Lowry girl so she can get close to Brooks and find out what it takes to break him.



Obviously, things get complicaaaaated. Is Brooks the jackass as much of a jackass as she thought? How much is she lying when she pretends to be this Lowry girl with a crush on Brooks? Is there more to all of these Lowry kids than she thought? And just how far is she willing to go? It's not easy destroying someone else's life, even if they've already done the same.

UGH, this book is so hard to write about. Anything else, and we're getting into major spoiler territory. I will say i totally saw the ending twist coming, as it's pretty well telegraphed, but that didn't make it any less satisfying. THis is a feels-heavy book, to be sure, and it's not nearly as action-packed as I expected. McQuein's prose is clear and sharp, and while I loved Dinah's relationships with her two best friends, they are EXCEPTIONALLY quippy. I mean, you know me. I love a good quip. I talk very quippily, often to the point where people never know if I'm serious or not. And their joking is hilarious, and I always enjoy reading about smart and sarcastic teens. But their quirkiness might have gone one notch too far.

Dinah is a wonderful character, though. She's got layers and very strong feelings and she's a strange and relatable mix of confident and confused. I literally can't discuss ANY of the other characters, though, except to say I did NOT see the twist with Chandi coming, but it made me cheer, and that I love the way McQuein handles a certain risky topic. She's firmly on the side of the victims and portrays how unfairly stacked the deck almost always is. Dinah has a hideously self-centered mother and a father who's finally learning to stand his ground against her, as is Dinah. It's a treat to watch all these story lines and character arcs unfold.

GET YOUR HANDS ON THIS BOOK, FOOLS, SO WE CAN TALK ABOUT IT. I'M HOLDING BACK SO MUCH. I got so many feels from this book, awe and grief and humor and anger. It hit on all the points a good thriller should. (Seriously, I cackled aloud at some of the dialogue. I would totally be friends with Dinah). And I would totally be in love with SPOILER. McQuein has found herself on my list of automatic-TBR-authors.