The Messenger (Mortal Beloved #1) Tour by Pamela DuMond

Parallel Words YA is delighted to participate in the The Messenger book tour, sponsored by AToMR tours! Check out the gorgeous cover and description. We can't wait to give it a read! There's even a giveaway at the bottom of the page.

Book Description: 

Infinity. Life. Death. Rebirth. Some souls are meant to be together, but pursuing true love can be dangerous and often deadly. When sixteen-year-old Madeline falls in love with Samuel, a boy who lives hundreds of years before she is even born, she will risk her very existence to be with him.

Madeline’s from present day Chicago when she is pushed onto the train tracks, and accidentally time travels to a bloody war between the Natives and the colonists. She falls in love with a Native boy, Samuel. But, she’s living in the body of a colonial girl and their romance is a crime that carries harsh punishments.

Madeline discovers that she is meant to be a Messenger, a traveler who if properly trained, can slip through time's fabric at will. The Medicine Woman mentors her. But Madeline doesn't fit in this world. She’s different from the other colonists. Rumors of witchcraft and spying arise. Deadly Hunters, dark-souled predators as well as skilled time travelers, crave Madeline's powers. Can Madeline find the way back to her future? And will that future include her one true love, Samuel?

Excerpt:

A low-pitched droning penetrated my ears and rattled my bones. Being a city girl, I usually didn’t care about a little noise. Could be an el train whistling nearby outside my bedroom window, a bus chugging down the street, or a garbage truck picking up trash on any normal day. But it wasn’t any of those, ’cause this day definitely wasn’t normal.  

I tore through a thick wood, my breath ragged, as skinny tree branches whipped across my face and body. One slapped my forehead and something warm trickled into my eye. I wiped it away and saw that my hand was bloody. I should be used to that by now.  

But I flinched, and tried not to cry out in pain because he was hunting me. If he heard he would calculate how far away from him I was. Then he would know how quickly and easily he could catch me. And if he caught me, he would kill me.

But I didn’t want to die, yet. Not here, not now. I had to find a way to be with my Samuel.
I started running again but this time shielded my face with my arms. My feet kicked up some dirt as well as a few yellow and orange leaves blanketing the ground.

I fled past ancient pine trees with thick round trunks and branches covered with needles that towered over me like a canopy when I tripped on the hem of my skirt. I heard a loud rip as I fell toward the forest floor. My arms pin wheeled and momentum, possibly the only thing on my side right now, jerked me upright.  

I stopped for a few seconds to catch my breath. The droning had grown louder. Good. I was closer to that place where desire, action, a little bit of luck and magic would join forces. I’d find that moment to slip through time’s fabric, travel hundreds of years back to present day and warn or even save people. Especially my Samuel. 

Then I heard his voice, muffled, but close by. And his words chilled my soul. “Stop running, Messenger,” he said. “You cannot save him or yourself. You cannot save anybody.”  

I’m sixteen years old and cop to the fact that in terms of life wisdom, people think teenagers have been through next to nothing. But I’ve recently learned the hard way that I’m not your average teenager, and wisdom cannot be measured in birthdays.

Buy the book here:

• Create Space
• Kindle
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Facebook page:   https://www.facebook.com/TheMessengersHandbook?fref=ts

Pamela Dumond's Facebook page:   https://www.facebook.com/pamela.dumond

Twitter:  Pamela DuMond  @CupcakesNovel

Website:  www.pameladumond.com

Giveaway - US

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Giveaway - International

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Review: The Maze Runner by James Dashner (Maze Runner #1)

Story Synopsis:

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank. But he’s not alone. When the lift’s doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade—a large, open expanse surrounded by stone walls.

Just like Thomas, the Gladers don’t know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night they’ve closed tight. And every 30 days a new boy has been delivered in the lift.

Thomas was expected. But the next day, a girl is sent up—the first girl to ever arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers.

Thomas might be more important than he could ever guess. If only he could unlock the dark secrets buried within his mind.

My Review:

Do you ever read a book, and you know it isn't great literature, or even great writing, but you're willing to overlook the technical faults because it's a fast-paced mystery that's easy to get in to and fun to read? That's what I felt when I read The Maze Runner.

This book follows a group of boys, and one girl, who are trapped in a maze with no memory of how they got there. Escape attempts are often deadly. The mystery behind the maze got me into the book; tiny hints of a broken outside world kept me gripped. I was drawn into the story and the action, and dying to know what happened. The pages flew beneath my fingers, but not so fast that I didn't find faults.

The writing is cliche-ridden and choppy, with some weird phrasings that made me go, "huh??" I'm not as anti-adverb as some people, but this text is drenched in -ly to the point where even I noticed. On the plus side, the description of the memory loss was not outside the realm of scientific plausibility, and I appreciate that. Another plus is a story and writing style appropriate for both older middle grade readers as well as teens, so there's a wider range of appeal.

If you like strong female characters, this probably isn't the book for you. It features one single female character, and she is, for one reason or another, absent for most of the book. Once she does start taking part, she mostly limits her interactions to the main character. They question of why there was only one girl bothered me a lot, especially once I reached the ending. There's two more books in the series, so maybe that question will get answered. But I tend to be less fond of books that don't provide a strong female character in at least a secondary role, so for me this one one of the book's more glaring issues. How you respond to it will likely depend on your own personal tastes.

The Maze Runner is a fast-paced, action-packed mystery. It's not fantastic prose, but that's okay. It's the sort of book you read when you want fun and entertainment; the quick pleasure of a good summer read. And who doesn't need that sort of book from time to time? I certainly do.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Rated by: Blair

Review: Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Story Synopsis:

In America after the Second Civil War, the Pro-Choice and Pro-Life armies came to an agreement: The Bill of Life states that human life may not be touched from the moment of conception until a child reaches the age of thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, a parent may choose to retroactively get rid of a child through a process called "unwinding." Unwinding ensures that the child's life doesn’t “technically” end by transplanting all the organs in the child's body to various recipients. Now a common and accepted practice in society, troublesome or unwanted teens are able to easily be unwound.

With breath-taking suspense, this book follows three teens who all become runaway Unwinds: Connor, a rebel whose parents have ordered his unwinding; Risa, a ward of the state who is to be unwound due to cost-cutting; and Lev, his parents' tenth child whose unwinding has been planned since birth as a religious tithing. As their paths intersect and lives hang in the balance, Shusterman examines serious moral issues in a way that will keep readers turning the pages to see if Connor, Risa, and Lev avoid meeting their untimely ends. (from Amazon.com)

My Review:

Oh.

My.

God.

This book is AMAZING.

I need to stop and breathe for a second if I'm going to do any sort of logical review. Otherwise you're just going to get 300 words of fan-girl squealing. No one wants that.

<breathing>

Okay.

In Unwind, Neal Schusterman takes the abortion debate to a  horrifying conclusion: Abortions are outlawed, and instead, teenagers can be "unwound". All their organs are donated, so that no part of them technically dies. The story follows three teens scheduled for unwinding.

It's gripping, it's breathtaking, its brain-blowingly amazing. Shusterman handles a complex and emotionally charged debate with deft skill, creating a book that will leave your fingers clutching the pages and your brain whirring as it tries to sort through all the implications. The characters are more than just stand-ins for the author to preach (as so often happens with morally charged books), but full-fledged entities with story arcs that will leave your heart pounding. I got choked up a couple of times. I really did. There's one scene in particular - one horrifying, gut-wrenching, eye-tearing scene - which I don't think will ever leave me. It's going into my personal list of "Top Ten Most Haunting Scenes". I'm still shuddering.

Even while creating believable characters and weighty storylines, Schusterman managed to do his science homework. In my non-blog life, I'm a neuroscientist. Speculative neuroscience in fiction tends to make me facepalm. It's ridiculous. Writers (screenwriters included) blather on and on without actually knowing any more about the brain than what can be read in the first sentence of a Wikipedia article. But Schusterman managed the neuro sci-fi bits excellently. Okay, there was one slight speed bump, but the story was good enough that I didn't care. Disbelief suspended, I totally bought into it. This book gets my Neuro Seal of Approval.

I started pulling out quotes that I wanted to put in the blog. I even went to far as to dog-ear a couple pages - a practice which normally makes me cringe. But in the end I dropped them all. The issues raised by this book go far beyond the abortion debate, and their weight is too much to get across in a few cherry-picked quotes. This is a book you need to discover for yourself. I don't care what side of the debate you're on, this book is a must-read.

My Rating: 5 stars

Rated by: Blair

Review: Skyship Academy: The Pearl Wars by Nick James

Story Synopsis:

A devastated Earth's last hope is found in Pearls: small, mysterious orbs that fall from space and are capable of supplying enough energy to power entire cities. Battling to control the Pearls are the Skyship dwellers—political dissidents who live in massive ships in the Earth's stratosphere—and the corrupt Surface government.

Jesse Fisher, a Skyship slacker, and Cassius Stevenson, a young Surface operative, cross paths when they both venture into forbidden territory in pursuit of Pearls. Their chance encounter triggers an unexpected reaction, endowing each boy with remarkable—and dangerous—abilities that their respective governments would stop at nothing to possess.

Enemies thrust together with a common goal, Jesse and Cassius make their way to the ruins of Seattle to uncover the truth about their new powers, the past they didn't know they shared, and a shocking secret about the Pearls. (from Amazon.com)

My Review:

I love a good sci-fi. Give me a book brimming with crazy technology, imaginative ideas about outer space, wild physics, and spaceships. Tie it together with a compelling message about the real world, and you won't see me again until the book is done. But sci-fi has always been underrepresented in the YA market. With Curiosity landing and Kepler on overdrive, the time is ripe for some crazy sci-fi. So along comes Skyship Academy, blasting into the YA world like one of its own ubiquitous Pearls. It's a breath of fresh air. Which is ironic, since I don't think the characters get a single breath of fresh air over course of the entire book. Recirculated and processed air, if they're lucky.

Set 83 years in the future, James' comic-book inspired story envisions a world made bleak by terrorism and counter-terrorism. Earth is scorched beyond recognition. The only sanctuaries are the Chosen Cities on land or the Skyships above the clouds. It's a compelling yet terrifying vision of our future; one that makes you think twice about the paths we have chosen, or may very likely choose.

The story is told from two points of view - one in first-person present-tense, the other in third-person past-tense. Whether or not you like this will probably depend on your own personal taste. I admit I was a little disoriented by the first switch. But James' ability to write engagingly from both POVs is impressive. The style grew on me, likely in part because it's so unique. A side-effect was that I felt less connected to Cassius (3rd person) than to Jesse (1st person). Despite, or perhaps because of this, I ultimately found Cassius to be the more compelling character, and the one whose arc I'm most looking forward to reading in the sequel. Regardless of the POV, James' casual, engaging style pulls the reader in, and provides more than a few laughs - especially when we're seeing through the eyes of the quirky, relatable Jesse.

This book is thought-provoking and fun, packed with action and excellent world-building and complete with an ending I didn't see coming. The second book comes out on September 8th, so I only have to wait a month before finding out what happens next. It's going to be a long month.

My Rating: 4.5 stars

Rated by: Blair