{Audiobook} Review: Burying Water by K.A. Tucker

Title: Burying Water
Author: K.A. Tucker
Narrator(s): Josh Goodman, Elizabeth Louise
Series: n/a
Length: 11 hrs 0 mins
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Publication Date: October 7, 2014
Source: audiobook received from publisher
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible

The top-selling, beloved indie author of Ten Tiny Breaths returns with a new romance about a young woman who loses her memory—and the man who knows that the only way to protect her is to stay away.

Left for dead in the fields of rural Oregon, a young woman defies all odds and survives—but she awakens with no idea who she is, or what happened to her. Refusing to answer to “Jane Doe” for another day, the woman renames herself “Water” for the tiny, hidden marking on her body—the only clue to her past. Taken in by old Ginny Fitzgerald, a crotchety but kind lady living on a nearby horse farm, Water slowly begins building a new life. But as she attempts to piece together the fleeting slivers of her memory, more questions emerge: Who is the next-door neighbor, quietly toiling under the hood of his Barracuda? Why won’t Ginny let him step foot on her property? And why does Water feel she recognizes him?

Twenty-four-year-old Jesse Welles doesn’t know how long it will be before Water gets her memory back. For her sake, Jesse hopes the answer is never. He knows that she’ll stay so much safer—and happier—that way. And that’s why, as hard as it is, he needs to keep his distance. Because getting too close could flood her with realities better left buried.

The trouble is, water always seems to find its way to the surface.

I've really enjoyed all of the K.A. Tucker book's I've read, but I have to say, I think I loved this one best of all. I thought I'd miss all of those Ten Tiny Breaths characters, but Tucker did what she does best here and told a story of love and loss and finding your way back, and I was completely absorbed in listening as these two characters experienced it all.

I love a good amnesia storyline because it means that I'm less likely to figure out what the ending holds before I've barely even gotten started. However, with Burying Water, the story is told from two perspectives, one from the past and one from the present, meaning that because of the way one character narrates the past as it unfolded, we can see how the other character got to the point that they're at. Rather than making the novel predictable, this method of storytelling is captivating, divulging details only as needed until the story comes full-circle. Still, it wasn't difficult to determine what had occurred between and to the characters, but that didn't make the story any less satisfying. I've read a couple of other books this year told in this way, and it's quickly becoming a trend I love.

As always, Tucker has created characters with such depth, with such complexity that I couldn't help but connect with them on some level. Even old Ginny Fitzgerald, the resident crazy lady in town, was well-fleshed out with a back-story of her own that immediately lent an air of kinship between her and her new tenant. At times, Ginny even acts as the Dr. Stainer-type figure for Water, making her see what's happened to her in a new light and pressing her to move past it. (Dr. Stainer was a major presence -- a psychologist with an unusual bedside manner -- in the first two books of the Ten Tiny Breaths series.)

Water, for her part, is just a young woman, trying to make the best of a bad situation. There's really not much more she can do than that, not until her memories resurface.She wants to remember what happened, but she also heeds Ginny's warnings that sometimes it's truly better not being able to remember. After all, what happened to Ginny has haunted her for years, leaving her overly cautious of strangers and secluded on her family's ranch. The thing is, even barely knowing the girl and knowing very little of her situation, you can tell that she wants better for Water, that she doesn't want Water to end up like her. I really, truly loved that feisty old woman and everything she did for Water.

The chapters told from Jesse's perspective were harder on me. As the past unfolds, you get a sense of the direction this story is going in, and it's obvious that it's not going to/didn't end well for those involved. The dread at uncovering just what had transpired nearly consumed me at times, but having Water's chapters there, too, meant that all hope was not lost. Also, the underlying theme that the truth will out led me to believe that some good would have to come of this tragic story, that the truth of who Water was and what had happened to her had to come to the surface eventually.

I think Elizabeth Louise has narrated every single audiobook for the Tucker books I've listened to, and yet, she always becomes the character. I could never confuse her Kacey for her Livie or her Livie for Water. It's not that she changes her voice for each new role, but she just has a manner about her that makes the character's whole demeanor more evident, whether they be snarky or reserved or just confused. I can't even think about those other characters she's voiced previously because in the here and now, she is Water and I couldn't forget that for a moment. I don't believe I've ever heard anything narrated by Josh Goodman, but he was a great choice to portray Jesse. He didn't sound like any of the previous romantic leads in the TTB series. But he still sounded the part of the hunky mechanic with an obvious death wish.

For a love story about two people who met by chance and forged an immediate connection, this story really took a dark and twisty turn. But for a change, I knew what was coming and I enjoyed the story even more because of the journey it took to get there. For that and because she writes with such depth of emotion, I think I love this author's work just a little more each time I hear it.

GIF it to me straight:

About the author:

Born in small-town Ontario, Kathleen published her first book at the age of six with the help of her elementary school librarian and a box of crayons. She is a voracious reader and the farthest thing from a genre-snob, loving everything from High Fantasy to Chick Lit. Kathleen currently resides in a quaint small town outside of Toronto with her husband, two beautiful girls, and an exhausting brood of four-legged creatures.

Find Kathleen:

Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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Labels: amnesia, audiobooks, burying water, contemporary, k.a. tucker, new adult, reviews, simon schuster, tough subject

Review: The Shadow Society by Marie Rutkoski

Title: The Shadow Society
Author: Marie Rutkoski
Series: stand-alone
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux BYR
Publication Date: October 16, 2012
Source: won a signed copy from publisher
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Darcy Jones doesn’t remember anything before the day she was abandoned as a child outside a Chicago firehouse. She has never really belonged anywhere—but she couldn’t have guessed that she comes from an alternate world where the Great Chicago Fire didn’t happen and deadly creatures called Shades terrorize the human population.

Memories begin to haunt Darcy when a new boy arrives at her high school, and he makes her feel both desire and desired in a way she hadn’t thought possible. But Conn’s interest in her is confusing. It doesn’t line up with the way he first looked at her.

As if she were his enemy.

When Conn betrays Darcy, she realizes that she can’t rely on anything—not herself, not the laws of nature, and certainly not him. Darcy decides to infiltrate the Shadow Society and uncover the Shades’ latest terrorist plot. What she finds out will change her world forever . . .

In this smart, compulsively readable novel, master storyteller Marie Rutkoski has crafted an utterly original world, characters you won’t soon forget, and a tale full of intrigue and suspense.

After reading The Winner's Curse at the first of the year and falling head-over-heels for Marie Rutkoski's beautiful writing style and the beginning of what is sure to be a truly stunning trilogy, I knew I had to make time in my reading schedule for The Shadow Society.  I have a signed copy after all.  And then I saw that Kristen from My Friends Are Fiction was just starting it, and we decided to do a buddy read.  (You can check out her review here.)  This turned out to be a great decision because there was soooo much I wanted to discuss while reading, and Kristen was a fantastic buddy-reader. Probably doesn't hurt that we hardcore bonded over our love of this author's writing style, either.

To kick things off, I think I'd have to say that this novel has one of the best, most enticing prologues I've ever had the pleasure of reading.  I couldn't not read the book after that!  It packs a real punch, but it's the rest of the book that delivers.  The Shadow Society is this really awesome alternate history/multiverse story, but that's not even the half of it. That aspect comes in to play over the course of the novel, but I wouldn't say it's the focal point of the story.  No, that would probably be the war brewing between the Shades and humans in an alternate world where the Great Chicago Fire never happened.  But I'll get to that.

     "You stole it," I finally choked out. I felt as if Conn had seen me in nothing but my oldest, ugliest underwear.

I was a little worried about the amnesia plot in this story because those are always so hit or miss.  But Darcy's memory loss is due to some traumatic event in her childhood, and I can get on board with PTSD-related amnesia. Especially when the memories return in the fashion that they do for Darcy:  little by little, triggered by familiar faces and familiar places.  And then those pieces start to add up, and everything falls into place for the reader at the same time it does for Darcy.  I had my theories, of course, but considering the Shades are a completely new brand of paranormal creature, I was just as shocked as Darcy to learn the truth.

Darcy was a bit of an enigma at first.  She doesn't fit in anywhere, but she has this really tight-knit group of friends. She's been passed from foster home to foster home since she was first found outside a fire station at the tender age of five, but now she's got a loving foster mother by way of Marsha.  It seems that Darcy has finally found her place in this world...just in time to have it all taken away from her by a past -- another world -- she can't remember.  All things considered, I think she handles the fall-out rather admirably.

The Shades are, essentially, children of the shadows.  In their corporeal form, they look human, but they have the ability to make themselves invisible.  And they use this ability to hide among the humans in their world, following them around like shadows and spying on them.  For this reason, Darcy is valuable to both the Shades and the humans of that world. But she's especially important to Conn.

I don't know if you can call it a pattern when it only exists in two instances, but at the very least, the theme of betrayal is a commonality between both of the books I've read by Rutkoski.  I'm equally drawn to storylines involving betrayal, so I get it.  And I don't mind...I just think it's interesting how two stories can have the same basic premise but still be completely different and also captivating in their own rights.  And as Kristen stated in our discussion over this book during our buddy read, I'd much rather the tension in the story come from some type of betrayal, as opposed to a misbegotten love triangle.

     He grinned the first time I said it.  "Pleasure later, then," he replied. But later was always later than that for me, and he grew sullen. I knew that I could change that, could heal the insecurity that shape-shifted Orion from a sly jester into someone who pouted. He pouted sexily and looked very kissable. Really, he was very everything. But he wasn't for me. In the midst of the lies I had to tell and secrets I had to keep and secrets I had to unearth, it felt important to be true to myself.

I guess I should mention that there are two interested parties, but this is clearly an instance of the love T, which I don't mind.  Conn, despite his betrayal, is where Darcy's heart lies.  Orion was simply a friend who tried to force more from the relationship than Darcy was prepared to give.  Conn uses Darcy, but in the process -- and over weeks, while spending time together working on a school project in the Alter (their name for our world) -- they become something more to each other.  Neither is really sure what to make of the other, but it's clear (at least to the reader) that Darcy's feelings are reciprocated by Conn, before and after the betrayal.

     He slouched at his desk, but there was something a little calculated in his slumped shoulders and stretched out legs. I got the impression that he had riffled through his closet, found his Typical Teenager costume, and was trying it on.
     And now we come down to it. My suspicion: Conn McCrea wasn't exactly normal.
     My reasons? Let's just say it takes one to know one.

Conn was intriguing and confusing for a majority of the story, but he wasn't the only stand-out character aside from Darcy.  There were members of The Shadow Society that seemed to share Darcy's concerns for the welfare of humans, especially Savannah and Zephyr, but hardly any of the Shades could really be deemed trustworthy. But after reading Jacks and Queens at the Green Mill, I feel like I understand Zephyr a little better, anyway.  Then there were Darcy's friends from the Alter.  They were true friends, caring and funny and loyal to the end.  And they really shocked me at times, which endeared them to me further.

I think I should just go ahead and admit that I'm kind of in love with Rutkoski's gorgeous prose.  It was an entirely different experience reading this novel as compared to The Winner's Curse, especially knowing that The Shadow Society is a stand-alone, but I enjoyed this story immensely.  I cannot fathom that I have to wait over a year to get my hands on another Marie Rutkoski novel.  If you've already read and enjoyed The Winner's Curse, or if you fancy stories featuring themes of rebellion, love across dividing lines, or characters discovering that much of what they know is a lie, then I think you'll find something to appreciate in this novel.

GIF it to me straight:

This woman can write!

About the author:

Marie Rutkoski is the author of the YA novel The Shadow Society and the children's fantasy series The Kronos Chronicles, including The Cabinet of Wonders, The Celestial Globe and The Jewel of the Kalderash. Her next project is a YA trilogy that begins with The Winner's Curse, which is scheduled to be published in March 2014.

Marie grew up in Bolingbrook, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago), as the oldest of four children. She holds a BA from the University of Iowa and a PhD from Harvard University. Marie is currently a professor at Brooklyn College, where she teaches Renaissance Drama, children's literature and fiction writing. She usually lives in New York City with her husband and two sons, but she and her family are living in Paris for the 2012-2013 academic year.

Find Marie:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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Labels: amnesia, favorites, macmillan, marie rutkoski, multiverse, reviews, sci-fi, signed books, the shadow society

{Promo Event} Wide Awake by Shelly Crane - Excerpt + Giveaway

Title: Wide Awake
Author: Shelly Crane
Series: The Wide Awake Series, book #1
Publisher: indie/self-pubbed
Publication Date: March 22, 2013
Genre: YA contemporary
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords

A girl.
A coma.
A life she can't remember.

When Emma Walker wakes up in the hospital with no knowledge of how she got there, she learns that she's been in a coma for six months. Strangers show up and claim to be her parents, but she can't remember them. She can't remember anyone. Not her friends, not even her boyfriend. Even though she can't remember, everyone wants her to just pick up where she left off, but what she learns about the 'old her' makes her start to wish she'd never woken up. Her boyfriend breaks up with the new girl he's dating to be with her, her parents want her to start planning for college, her friends want their leader back, and her physical therapist with the hazel eyes keeps his distance to save his position at the hospital.

Will she ever feel like she recognizes the girl in the mirror?

            The next couple of weeks brought plenty of action and events. I focused harder on the therapy and tried to focus less on Mason. He seemed to be doing the same. I had renewed vigor, which led to stamina, which led to more workouts, which led to exhaustion, which led to tons of sleep, which led to healing, which led to me walking.

          All.

          By.

          Myself.

          This simple task, this simple thing that we all take for granted, that's so cute and monumental when a baby takes his first steps, but these first steps were so much more than that. Though I cried like a baby, I wasn't one. And though my mother cooed and fawned over me (because I had invited them that day to come because I just knew that day was going to be the day) I wasn't a toddler. I was me. I was finally getting a little piece of myself back. And though I tried so hard not to, my eyes drifted to the one person in the room that I knew would understand all this better than anyone else.

          Mason's eyes were already on me from across the parallel walking bars. This time, I didn't shy away from his gaze. I knew that our terms were shaky, but so was I, and I needed the stability of my lifeline. As our gazes collided, I expected a smile and happiness, but I didn't expect the level of pride and utter joy to be so prominent. The man was bursting at the seams with it. It filled his face and the smile he wore was the beautiful one that made me feel like everything was going to be OK.

          His lips parted and even in the loud room, I could still hear his breath. He said quietly, "You did it, Em." He moved forward and touched my arm. It was the first time he had touched me in weeks that had nothing to do with therapy. "I'm so proud of you."

          As his fingers circled my elbow, and I tried not to shiver in his grasp, I asked softly, knowing the answer, "You didn't believe that I was going to walk again some day?"

          "Of course I did." He smiled wider. "But today was the first time that you've ever believed it."

          He was right. Having faith and having hope were not the same thing, and I was just now understanding that.

About the Author:

YA author from a small town in Georgia and loves everything about the south. She is wife to a fantastical husband and stay at home mom to two boisterous and mischievous boys who keep her on her toes. They currently reside in everywhere USA as they happily travel all over with her husband's job. She loves to spend time with her family, binge on candy corn, go out to eat at new restaurants, buy paperbacks at little bookstores, site see in the new areas they travel to, listen to music everywhere and also LOVES to read.

Her own books happen by accident and she revels in the writing and imagination process. She doesn't go anywhere without her notepad for fear of an idea creeping up and not being able to write it down immediately, even in the middle of the night, where her best ideas are born.

Find Shelly Crane:

Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Rules:

• This giveaway is international, as long as you can receive ebooks.
• One entry per household.
• All entries will be verified.  Any entry found to be falsified will result in disqualification of all entries for that participant.
• Winner will be notified via email.  Winner will then have 48 hours to respond before another winner will be selected.  Please check your SPAM folder!!!

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Labels: amnesia, contemporary, excerpts, giveaways, indies, promotions, shelly crane, tough subject, wide awake