Booking through Thursday: O tamanho importa

E o "Booking Through Thursday" reaparece, aleatoriamente, esta semana! Desculpem a tradução mal feita da pergunta, mas não me lembrei de mais nenhumas palavras (ainda é cedo). :P Enfim.

Quão vasta é a tua biblioteca pessoal? Qual o maior número de livros que já tiveste (podes fazer uma estimativa)?
É neste momento que a tua colecção está maior ou já tiveste mais livros do que tens agora?
E qual foi o menor número de livros que já tiveste (sem contar com a altura em que ainda não lias)?

Tenho mesmo de fazer uma estimativa porque não faço ideia de quantos livros estão nas minhas estantes. Segundo a minha conta no Library Thing tenho cerca de 923 livros em inglês (digo cerca, porque posso ter dado alguns e me ter esquecido de os tirar de lá). E devo ter mais de cem livros em português, por isso... mais de mil livros, para aí. Deve ser o tamanho da minha biblioteca pessoal, actualmente.

E é definitivamente neste momento que a minha biblioteca está maior, apesar de dar muitos dos livros que já não penso ler uma segunda vez.

O menor número de livros... hmm... não sei. Quando eu era pequena já tinha livros, mas se não contam os anos em que não sabia ler, então acho que mesmo assim nunca tive menos de cinquenta a cem livros (entre "Uma Aventura" e "Triângulo Jota" e "Os Cinco").

Review: Haunting Violet (Alyxandra Harvey)

Haunting Violet by Alyxandra Harvey

Publisher:  Walker Childrens (2011)

Format:  Hardcover | 344 pages

Genre(s): Young Adult, Historical Fantasy, Paranormal Romance
Synopsis.

I'd never read anything by Alyxandra Harvey before this book but I am certainly curious now (even if her other series features vampires, ugh). :)

Violet doesn't really like conning the lords of the realm, but that's how she and her mother survive. Taking advantage of the high society's interest with the occult and mediums Violet's mother pretends to the the latter and has earned herself quite a reputation in the field. Violet and their sort-of-servant, Colin are left with the task of providing sound and wind effects to make the experience all the more exciting.

When Violet's mother is invited to Lord Jasper's country Manor to display her talents, weird things begin to happen. As strange as it seems Violet seems to actually be seeing... ghosts?

"Haunting Violet" is a Victorian-themed paranormal mystery. I liked how the author explored the Victorian fascination with mediums and the supernatural and linked her main characters to that world.

The book reads mostly like an historical romance. The whole 'Manor House party' has that feel and the relationship between Violet and her love interest is also reminiscent of an historical romance in the way it develops (thankfully it's not insta-romance!). It's only the supernatural elements of the story that add a certain Gothic, dark edge to the book, especially when it comes to certain interactions between Violet and the ghosts.

I didn't much care for the way Violet suddenly started seeing ghosts. One day she didn't and the next she did and the author provided little to no explanation for the abrupt change. On the other hand I really liked Violet's first reactions to the ghosts (the ague, lol).

The mystery was a bit simplistic and quite easy to figure out and that would be perfectly okay if this was an introductory book to a series, for example - which it doesn't seem to be. As it was, I thought the character interactions were more interesting than the story itself. Violet and Colin were cute, Violet's mother was intriguing (even if she was mean and all that) and Elizabeth was just so good-humored it was a delight to read about her. Unfortunately although they were fun characters they weren't particularly deep or well developed.

Overall, "Haunting Violet" is a nice and quick read for it's likable characters, cute romance, simple story and engaging writing style. Recommended for historical fantasy fans.

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Esperando por... (7)

Uma das desvantagens de ler um livro pouco depois dele ser publicado é termos de ficar imenso tempo à espera da sequela! Gostei bastante de "Angelfire" de Courtney Allison Moulton, pelo que tenho imensa curiosidade em ler a sequela, até porque a sinopse parece interessante.

Wings of the Wicked - Courtney Allison Moulton

Editora:  HarperCollins / Katherine Tegen Books

Data de Publicação: 2012

Páginas: 516

Idioma: Inglês

Descrição (Goodreads): "Life as the Preliator is harder than Ellie ever imagined.
Balancing real life with the responsibility of being Heaven’s warrior is a challenge for Ellie. Her relationship with Will has become all business, though they both long for each other. And now that the secret of who she really is has come out, so have Hell’s strongest reapers. Grown bold and more vicious, the demonic threaten her in the light of day and stalk her in the night.

She’s been warned.
Cadan, a demonic reaper, comes to her with information about Bastian’s new plan to destroy Ellie’s soul and use an ancient relic to wake all the souls of the damned and unleash them upon humanity. As she fights to stay ahead of Bastian’s schemes , the revelations about those closest to her awaken a dark power within Ellie that threatens to destroy everything—including herself.

She’ll be betrayed.
Treachery comes even from those whom she loves, and Ellie is broken by the deaths of those who stood beside her in this Heavenly war. Still, she must find a way to save the world, herself, and her love for Will. If she fails, there will be hell to pay."

Opinião: A Luz do Fogo (Sophie Jordan)

A Luz do Fogo de Sophie Jordan

Editora: Livros D'Hoje (2011)
Formato: Capa Mole | 296 páginas
Géneros: Romance Paranormal, Lit. Juvenil/YA
Sinopse.

(A edição lida está no inglês original, mas os dados bibliográficos apresentados são da versão portuguesa para tornar mais fácil a identificação da obra)

Não é segredo para nenhum leitor (mesmo que casual) deste blogue que gosto de ler livros direccionados para jovens adultos. Apesar de muitos terem uma boa dose de cenas dramáticas típicas dos adolescentes, consigo geralmente encontrar conceitos e ideias muito originais e apelativas na literatura "YA" (Young Adult). Penso que isso se deve, em grande parte, ao público a que se destinam; os autores têm forçosamente de ser o mais criativos possível para chamarem a atenção de um público que só muito dificilmente lê algo, num mercado já saturado.

Infelizmente, de vez em quando apanho um livro que quase me faz perder a vontade de voltar a ler seja o que for dentro do género. "A Luz do Fogo" (Firelight no original) de Sophie Jordan é um exemplo.

A ideia do livro é bastante apelativa, pois mistura dragões com o mundo contemporâneo. Jacinda faz parte de um grupo especial de metamorfos, os "draki". Descendentes dos dragões, estas criaturas adaptaram-se, no entanto, às crescentes exigências de secretismo tendo para isso desenvolvido elaborados métodos de camuflagem (podem transformar-se em humanos) e sofrido certas mutações (por exemplo, a sua forma é mais pequena e humanóide). Jacinda é especial mesmo entre a sua espécie pois consegue expelir fogo, característica rara e muito prezada entre os "draki".

Como podem ver a premissa parece interessante. Mas uma coisa é a ideia e outra diferente a execução e este livro falha terrivelmente nesta última. Em vez de levar o leitor numa fascinante viagem ao mundo dos draki, Jordan decide afastar a protagonista da sua "colónia", deixando-nos assim na obscuridade (apenas com a informação mais básica) acerca desta raça tão intrigante.

A maior parte do livro (que nem é muito grande) é composto pela exploração de um romance "tipo Crepúsculo" (marca registada) entre Jacinda e um humano (o Will). Melodrama, monólogos interiores e declarações irrealistas de amor (para já não falar de actos obsessivos por parte do rapaz... à la Edward Cullen) abundam. Dos draki pouco mais ouvimos falar. Mas a "conexão" especial entre os dois protagonistas está escarrapachada em todas as páginas, repetida vezes sem conta e comprovada por actos desprovidos de qualquer sentido e muitos diálogos interiores contraditórios por parte da heroína. 

Basicamente temos em "A Luz do Fogo" mais um romance "à primeira vista" irrealista e exagerado, que não convence e chega a irritar de tão melodramático. O foco excessivo nesta parte do enredo impede que outras vertentes sejam exploradas pelo que pouco mais temos em termos de história.

Quanto às personagens, não houve nenhuma que se destacasse. Jacinda e Will bem podiam ser Bella e Edward e todos os outros intervenientes têm pouca ou nenhuma personalidade.

No geral: mais um romance paranormal juvenil direccionado para a massiva "fanbase" de livros como "Crepúsculo", "Anjo Caído", "Eternidade" e "Hush, Hush". Acumulando estereotipo em cima de estereotipo Jordan constrói uma história de amor com pouco brilho e ainda menos interesse.

Review: Lost Voices

Lost Voices by Sarah Porter

Publisher:  Harcourt Children's Books (2011)
Format:  Hardcover | 291 pages
Genre(s): Young Adult, Urban Fantasy

Description (Goodreads): "Fourteen-year-old Luce has had a tough life, but she reaches the depths of despair when she is assaulted and left on the cliffs outside of a grim, gray Alaskan fishing village. She expects to die when she tumbles into the icy waves below, but instead undergoes an astonishing transformation and becomes a mermaid. A tribe of mermaids finds Luce and welcomes her in—all of them, like her, lost girls who surrendered their humanity in the darkest moments of their lives. Luce is thrilled with her new life until she discovers the catch: the mermaids feel an uncontrollable desire to drown seafarers, using their enchanted voices to lure ships into the rocks. Luce possesses an extraordinary singing talent, which makes her important to the tribe—she may even have a shot at becoming their queen. However her struggle to retain her humanity puts her at odds with her new friends. Will Luce be pressured into committing mass murder? The first book in a trilogy, Lost Voices is a captivating and wildly original tale about finding a voice, the healing power of friendship, and the strength it takes to forgive."

WARNING: Contains some Spoilers!

Mermaids are not natural beings. They are made when girls are mistreated or abused; these same girls are reborn as mermaids with powerful tails and otherworldly voices. With their new power and full of resentment and anger towards the humans who made them miserable, the mermaids lure ships to their destruction and the passengers to their deaths.

After almost being abused by her drunk uncle, Luce, a 14-year-old girl living in Alaska feels herself slip away and when she wakes up, she is changed. Will Luce adapt to her new life as a mermaid? Will she finally have the good life she always craved?

Here's another book about which I have mixed feelings. I liked the concept a lot. The portrayal of mermaids as cruel, vindictive beings born from the cruelty of humans appealed to me. They were given enough power to exact revenge and were even compelled to use it, but in the end it was their choice. These mermaids felt 'real' to me. Like the vain, unfeeling and capricious creatures they are supposed to be (according to some mythology). I think the author really researched mermaids and used bits and pieces of folklore to construct her world. I loved that, her world-building.

The rest... not so much. First the age of most mermaids, especially the protagonist bothered me. Not that it bothers me to read about teenagers or anything; but the author created this obscure world and these terrible but beautiful creatures (lol) and then they are all tweens. So basically they just snipe at each other and are mean and... that's about as 'dark' as they get. If the mermaids were a little older it would have been more interesting as their actions would still be teen-ish but a bit more mature.

Then there was the story. I guess the author intended it to be a sort-of self-discovery journey for Luce, the main character but it just wasn't developed properly. Most of the book is just about how the mermaids treat each other, as if we're reading about some teen school drama. Luce's thoughts and actions very seldom make sense and I didn't feel like she grew that much during the book (I mean she didn't learn any valuable lesson or had a deep soul-search or anything. She ended up the same way she started). For a book that opened with such serious themes as child abuse it got shallow pretty quickly. I thought the author could have done much more with the plot.

As for the characters... well, like I said, I thought them too young. And most of them lacked any personality whatsoever and weren't that interesting. Anais, the element of discord introduced halfway through the book was probably one of the more intriguing; we really want to know why she became a mermaid, but it's never explained properly.

Overall: "Lost Voices" is an impressive book in terms of world building and it presents a different (and interesting) view on mermaids, but it lacks focus. It could have been a great novel with some real impact if the author pursued the themes introduced at the beginning of the book and developed her characters. As it was, the plot was shallow and was more about girls being their mean teen selfs (imagine "Mean Girls" with tails and fins) than anything else.

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In my Mailbox (18)

Apesar de estar a descurar algumas das rubricas do blogue, se há uma que é sempre regular é a da Mailbox... isto porque todas as semanas chega qualquer coisa (e eu sou 'louca por compras' para além de bibliófila). Bem, aqui está a "In my Mailbox" desta semana...

EDIT: afinal o carteiro 'normal' (e não o das encomendas que veio de manhã) também tinha um livro para mim. E como hoje saí mais cedo do estágio andei a ver as vistas na Tema dos Restauradores e encontrei um paperback da Senhora de Shalador. Eu ando com bastante vontade de ler o livro, mas o preço da versão portuguesa assusta-me um pouco para ser sincera. :)

Shalador's Lady - Anne Bishop [Fantasia]
Amber and Ashes (Dark Disciple, vol. 1) - Margaret Weis [Fantasia]
Just Like Heaven - Julia Quinn [HR]

Ten Ways to be Adored when Landing a Lord - Sarah MacLean [HR]

Eleven Scandals to start to win a Duke's Heart - Sarah MacLean [HR]

Lost Voices - Sarah Porter [YA, UF]

Haunting Violet - Alexandra Harvey [YA, UF, HF]

Ashes, Ashes - Jo Treggiari [YA, Sci-Fi]

E vocês o que receberam na vossa Caixa de Correio (What did you get in your mailbox this week?)?

"In my Mailbox" is hosted by The Story Siren.

Review: Hourglass (Myra McEntire)

Hourglass by Myra McEntire

Publisher: Egmont USA (2011)
Format:  Hardcover | 397 pages
Genre(s): Young Adult, Urban Fantasy, Science-Fiction

Description (Goodreads): "For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn’t there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents’ death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She’s tried everything, but the visions keep coming back.So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson’s willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may change her past.
Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he’s around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should have happened?

Full of atmosphere, mystery, and romance, Hourglass merges the very best of the paranormal and science-fiction genres in a seductive, remarkable young adult debut."

Warning: Contains SPOILERS!

I recently said in my Goodreads status that I should stop buying books just because people all around the internet say the book is "so good" and that everyone should "go read it now!". This applies very much to Hourglass. This book has been praised again and again since months before it's release and everyone loved it so much and fangirled so much I thought it had to be good. If only.

It's not that it was very bad (I've read worse books this year) it's that it was... well, not that good and mind-blowing like all the praise suggested. Hourglass is basically... a paranormal romance. And a very stereotyped one as well, as the author manages to condense every cliche ever found in YA romance in this book; we have insta-romance, a hot guy that every girl drools over but ignores beautiful girls in favor of the pretty but not as much heroine, the cold guy who wants no relationship but then sends mixed signals to our heroine, the guy who seems to be keeping secrets and be somewhat evil but doesn't drive the heroine away (she is persistent - or dumb, depending on your point of view) and last but not least... a love triangle!

As you can already guess most of the book focuses on these tropes and there are pages and pages of descriptions about how hot Michael is, how short Emerson is, how mysterious everything is (and bad Michael seems to be keeping secrets) and how light bulbs go out when they touch. Oh and how Kaleb (guy number two in the love triangle) is fit. And let's not forget that Emerson's and Michael's connection is "special" and they are in love because of it (instead of in spite of it... I could have stomached that better).

And now you ask if there is another story besides the romantic one. There is, of course. None of the protagonists is "normal" so to speak. Actually the basic story for Hourglass is pretty interesting, but as if it weren't enough to dedicate most of the book to teens swooning because of love, McEntire wasn't able to make her premise feel realistic to the reader (or at least to me, one reader). Time-Travel is all well and good, but the explanations fell short and didn't convince. Some parts aren't even explained. And after all the amazing concepts about genes and time-travel, they can't do it without a third person?

So I'll give points to the author for originality, but why she chose to not use her amazing concept to it's full potential I don't know. The book would have been so much more interesting if it focused on the time-travel element and the Hourglass organization and even of the abilities of other, minor, characters (which are never satisfactorily explained either).

Speaking of characters I wasn't very fond of any of them really. Emerson was 'okay' but unremarkable (seems common fare for heroines these days... to be lacking personality and still being able to attract older, gorgeous guys) and Michael is a walking stereotype of dark, dangerous and a bit tortured (not much though... in this case the heroine is the the one tortured by the past). I was curious about some of the minor characters like Lily, Nate and Duna but they were pretty much the equivalent of background figures and/or drones. Still thought them more interesting than the main characters. Oh and Landers... wanted to know more about him, but the author didn't want to explain his motivations (although it seemed he had some throughout the book) and made him a regular villain in the end.

Overall: I was very disappointed with Hourglass. It's so much less than what I expected (silly me for reading raving reviews, or reviews at all) perhaps because I had high expectations. But it could have been much more than just another paranormal teen romance. The concept, if well explored, would have birthed a great (and pretty original) story. I'm sorry it didn't and that it ended up being such a stereotyped YA book.

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