Review: Radiate

By Marley Gibson
Available April 3 from Graphia (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Review copy

I feel sorry for Marley Gibson. She's written a wonderful, uplifting teen novel based on her personal battle with cancer - and it comes out shortly after John Green's The Fault in Our StarsTHE FAULT IN OUR STARS. The two novels have little in common aside from being young adult novels involving cancer, but it's enough to create a comparison between the two.

Radiate is the story of Hayley Matthews, beginning the summer before her senior year of high school. She's just become a varsity cheerleader, giving up band in the process of doing so. I found Hayley to be extremely grating in the first chapter, since she kept putting band down in order to show how great cheerleading is. As a former band geek, I found it insulting. But Hayley truly does care about cheerleading, to the point you wonder why she just started.

Fortunately, her increased physical activity leads her to find a lump on her leg. Unfortunately, it's cancer - and the doctor wants to amputate. Hayley's mother refuses to consider taking such drastic action without a second opinion and soon Hayley is at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital to fight the cancer. There are interesting passages during this part of the novel, but it drags until Hayley returns to school as the-girl-who-had-cancer.

The romantic shenanigans are fairly predictable. Girl falls for popular, shallow guy; great, supportive guy is under her nose all along. Luckily RADIATE doesn't dwell to much on the romance. Hayley's belief in herself are more important, as are her friendships.

There are some sad parts, but I was happy this wasn't a weepy cancer book a la Lurlene McDaniel. There are a few times when Hayley is more of an inspirational role model than a character in her own right, but it's forgivable since most of the novel gets under her skin.

Interview with M. J. Rose

Now for a short Q&A with M. J. Rose, the author of THE BOOK OF LOST FRAGRANCES! Don't forget to read the excerpt and enter the contest posted earlier.

1. What are you currently reading?

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

2. Are any of the characters in the book inspired by people you know in real life?

The perfumer in the book, Robbie L’Etoile was inspired by a perfumer I met in Paris, Olivier Durbano.

3. As a pioneer of the e-book industry, what do you think about the explosion in popularity of Kindles, Nooks, etc.?

It's exciting that readers have so many choices of ways to read - it doesn't matter to many writers how readers read us, as long as they read us.

4. Where do you normally write?

Wherever my laptop is.

5. What would be your favorite meal?

Lobster and champagne.

The Book of Lost Fragrances: Excerpt and Contest

THE BOOK OF LOST FRAGRANCES is the newest release from bestselling author M. J. Rose. Paranormal suspense isn't the most common genre, so I can see why her fans are excited by each new release. Later today I will post a short Q&A as well as a review.

Now, this is just a short excerpt. You can find more tomorrow at Kelly's Lucky You.

Now, here, he was afraid for himself and for his commander and for the men in this room. Had they all been poisoned by some ancient noxious scent?

He had to help. Grabbing a small gold box from a pile of treasures against the far wall, he opened it, dumped its contents—gold and colored glass—onto the floor, and then hastily thrust the still-intact clay pot inside. Scooping up the shards of the pot that the general had dropped, L’Etoile added them and slammed the lid shut.

The scent was still conspicuous, but now that the perfume containers were enclosed, the air slowly began to clear. L’Etoile watched as first one man and then another stood and looked around, each trying to get his bearings.

THE BOOK OF LOST FRAGRANCES revolves around (no surprise) a lost book of fragrances. In this case, it is a text catalouging perfumes from Cleopatra's time, supposedly found by an L'Etoile ancestor. Jac, the co-heir to the House of L’Etoile, becomes obsessed with her family's legend while trying to find her missing brother. To promote the novel samples of the perfume Âmes Soeurs were created. You could win one by filling out the form below. Contest ends 4/4.

"Waiting On" Wednesday: A Couple of Fairytale Titles

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a meme hosted by Jill of Breaking the Spine.

I love fairytales, so I'd like to highlight a few fairytale-inspired novels being released soon.

ENCHANTED by Alethea Kontis will be released May 8 by Harcourt Children's Books. Summary from Amazon:

It isn’t easy being the rather overlooked and unhappy youngest sibling to sisters named for the other six days of the week. Sunday’s only comfort is writing stories, although what she writes has a terrible tendency to come true.

When Sunday meets an enchanted frog who asks about her stories, the two become friends. Soon that friendship deepens into something magical. One night Sunday kisses her frog goodbye and leaves, not realizing that her love has transformed him back into Rumbold, the crown prince of Arilland—and a man Sunday’s family despises.

The prince returns to his castle, intent on making Sunday fall in love with him as the man he is, not the frog he was. But Sunday is not so easy to woo. How can she feel such a strange, strong attraction for this prince she barely knows? And what twisted secrets lie hidden in his past—and hers?

THE TREACHERY OF BEAUTIFUL THINGS by Ruth Long releases August 16 from Dial. Summary from Amazon:

A darkly compelling mix of romance, fairy tale, and suspense from a new voice in teen fiction

The trees swallowed her brother whole, and Jenny was there to see it. Now seventeen, she revisits the woods where Tom was taken, resolving to say good-bye at last. Instead, she's lured into the trees, where she finds strange and dangerous creatures who seem to consider her the threat. Among them is Jack, mercurial and magnetic, with secrets of his own. Determined to find her brother, with or without Jack's help, Jenny struggles to navigate a faerie world where stunning beauty masks some of the most treacherous evils, and she's faced with a choice between salvation or sacrifice--and not just her own.

Any books I should add to my list?

Movie Monday: The Hunger Games

Verdict: The odds were in their favor.