Will Golden Son (by Pierce Brown) live up to its predecessor, our favorite book of 2015? Robert and Bryan may be a little SPLIT on that...

In the Training Institute, Darrow vanquished his opponents using his street-smart tactics and by being the compassionate leader that no Gold would even dream of becoming ... but now, as the Golden Son, he is in the Academy, and this is no student battleground. It’s training for war.

With the balance of power delicately held, and backstabbing among the ruling classes a daily occurrence, Darrow must also walk a thin line: between building his growing band of supporters; playing the Gold politics (of which he has zero experience), and never for one moment, giving away the fact that he is not – and has never been – a Gold.

For underneath all the genetic surgery and bio-implants, unbeknownst to almost all, Darrow is the Gold’s most despised creature ... a Red.

A Red hell-bent on vengeance.

Let's light a fire under Bryan and Robert's behinds as they talk about the sequel to Steelheart! Check out their thoughts on Brandon Sanderson's superhero sequel: Firefight.

David Charleston returns in Firefight, this time as the point man in Prof’s top Reckoner team, along with a new mission: to stop Regalia recruiting more high epics and taking over the world ... at the expense of every human being.

Although David has already avenged his father's death and dispatched Steelheart, it's left him with a dilemma. Is his job with the Reckoners over, or has it only just begun?

But it seems he won't have to make that decision, as Prof has made it for him. Join the clan and head to Babylon Restored with the team to take down the high epic, Regalia, or clear out and don't bother the Reckoners again.

David, of course, is not a quitter.

Where did she go? Bryan and Robert have the answer with their review of Gayle Forman's sequel Where She Went.

Bryan’s quick summary:

Mia Hall only woke from a coma because Adam Wilde – her fast-becoming-rock-star-boyfriend – told her he’d do anything as long as she “stayed.”

So Mia did what Adam asked, and used one of his offered options: Leave him. And go to Juillard. And break his heart.

Following on from three years after If I Stay ended, Where She Went follows Adam’s descent into depression and drug-dependency, in parallel with the megasuccess of his band, Shooting Star and his relationship with one of Hollywood’s rising stars.

He’s never been unhappier.

Bryan is back and so is Celaena Sardothien! The first in our four sequel episodes, check out Sarah J. Maas' second book in the Throne of Glass series. 

Celaena is now the King’s Champion ... or in other words: his top assassin. Having been pulled from the salt mines and pitted against all the others in a cruel contest, when Celaena won, she knew she’d be required to do the King’s bidding.

Which really means killing all his potential opponents.

While the work is distasteful, Celaena carries it out with cold precision, raising the eyebrows of her two previous suitors, Chaol, the Captain of the Royal Guard, and Dorian, the King’s son.

But unbeknown to anyone, Celaena is playing a deadly game. One that would be fatal for her if the King were to know.

And now the King has given her a killing spree task that will prove to be her undoing unless she can stay one step ahead of the intense political posturing and the hidden power the King seems to command.

Hayley Lawson is once again filling in for Bryan. Will this be the ember in the ashes of another fiery episode? You betcha! 

An Ember in the Ashes is by Sabaa Tahir. 

Laia, 17, discovers her brother, Darin is working for The Resistance, when a raid of Martials - the Scholar's enemy and oppressor - sees her grandmother and grandfather brutally slaughtered in front of her and her brother. Scared for her life, she runs at her brother's insistence, only to be caught by a dreaded Mask, one of Blackcliff's elite trained warriors.

But the Mask lets her go, leaving his chilling words etched in her mind: "Run, little girl."

With Darin her only family, Laia resolves to find him and free him.

But how can she do that when everything and everyone is against her?

Fly into our latest review with The Angel Experiment by James Patterson. Featuring guest co-host Trudi Jaye! 

Max (full name: Maximum Ride) is 14 and can fly. Part of a secret group of six kids bred to be genetically altered, complete with avian DNA and big wings. Max is the oldest, and after their surrogate “dad,” Jeb, smuggled them out of the horrible cages they were forced to endure; taught them how to fight and look after themselves, then left them a couple of years ago (presumed dead), Max has had to look after the “Flock” as best as she could.

But the “School” that created them wants them back, and keeps sending other genetic mutations (“Erasers”), horrible human kids who morph into wolves, to try to capture them.

When Angel, the youngest of the Flock, is taken by Erasers, Max vows to find her and to finally find out the truth about why the School made them in the first place ... and discover the answer to everyone’s bringing questions: do they have real parents? If so, why did they give them up to the School?

Bryan took the week off, because he hates rainbows. In his stead, Trudi Jaye visited the show as a guest co-host with Robert! Check out their take on Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. 

Park Sheridan is sitting on the school bus when he first meets Eleanor, the new girl. She's not just any old new sixteen-year-old though, Eleanor is .... quirky.

Red haired, stockily-built ("fat" according to Eleanor), wearing eclectic men's clothing ... and very self-conscious ... Eleanor is a perfect target for all the school bullies, in fact maybe everyone in The Flats.

Out of pity, Park - the nerdy Asian kid who no one touches - makes room for Eleanor to sit next to him, when everyone else on the bus makes it clear she's unwanted.
Little does he realize how much that one action will change his life.

Eleanor & Park is by Rainbow Rowell

Bryan and Robert have been podcasting for nearly a year together! Time to recap what we've read and learned!

So What Have We Learned In One Year Of Reviewing YA (Young Adult) Books?

We'll lead with our top 3 books, then various thoughts and prompts (it's better if you watch or listen to the show below!):

Bryan's top books and notes

1. Red Rising - Pierce Brown
2. Steelhart - Brandon Sanderson
3. Before I Fall - Lauren Oliver

Books we can learn a lot from:

1. Shatter Me
- We need a protagonist with consistency, redeeming traits, and some like ability
2. The Prince
- A story needs a purpose, it can't just skirt around the edges of another tale, there needs to be a conflict and there needs to be something new readers can sink their teeth into
3. Never Let Me Go
- Bring readers closer, don't push them away. Pace for young readers. Give your main character something to do that doesn't require a romantic entanglement or another relationship. What's their deal?

Top 3 things a YA book needs

1. Mystery
2. Compelling, snarky main character
3. Transport to another place
(Bonus - Training montage scenes)

Robert's top books and notes

1. Red Rising – Pierce Brown
2. The Scorpio Races – Maggie Stiefvater
3. All the Bright Places – Jennifer Niven
(and all recommended by listeners – you rock!)

Runner ups: 13 Reasons Why; TFIOS; Beautiful Creatures; Poison Princess, Grasshopper Jungle; Legend; Anna Dressed in Blood; Steelheart; Blood Red Road; Before I Fall; Ready Player One

Worst books? (Not necessarily the bottom 3)

• The Prince – Kiera Cass
• The Selection – Kiera Cass
• Shatter Me – Tahereh Mafi or Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro

What makes a great premise for a YA book?

Eg Coming of age (The Testing, I am Number Four, The Paper Magician, Paper Towns);

Dystopia (Divergent, The Maze Runner, Cinder, Delirium , Legend, Blood Red Road, The Knife of Never Letting Go);

Apocalypse (Monument 14, Poison Princess, Angelfall, Meta, Mockinjay, The 5th Wave);

Personal and intense relationships (TFIOS, Paper Towns, All The Bright Places, Before I Fall, Delirium, 13 Reasons Why, The Scorpio Races);

Illness, desperation & depression (TFIOS, All The Bright Places, Before I Fall, If I Stay, 13 Reasons Why)

Unusual settings (Grasshopper Jungle, Red Rising, Ready Player One, The Night Circus, Steelheart);

Superpowers (Steelheart, Meta, I am Number Four, Shatter Me);

Magical powers (The Paper Magician, City of Bones, Beautiful Creatures, Poison Princess, Daughter of Smoke and Bone);

Fighting prowess (Graceling, Throne of Glass, Divergent, Phoenix Island, Red Rising);

Arena battles (gladiator-style): Hunger Games obviously led the way, Red Rising, An Ember in the Ashes, The Testing;

Smart/clever protagonists (The Screaming Staircase, Heist Society, Red Rising Grasshopper Jungle, Anna Dressed in Blood, Artemis Fowl);

Sci-Fi (Molly Fyde, Red Rising, Matched, The Knife of Never Letting Go);

Plots and twists; suspense and mystery eg The Paper Magician, Red Rising (the best intrigue!);

Great characters. Puck and Sean. Darrow and Mustang. Theodore Finch and Violet Markey. David (Steelheart). Saba.

Conflict – do the characters have things “too easy,” or does almost every plan go wrong (David in Steelheart, the inner selfish conflict of Austin in Grasshopper Jungle, the relationship conflict of Evie and Jack in Poison Princess, the war conflict in Red Rising);

Dialog – misdirection, snarkiness factor, realism of teen world-view;

Setting eg Red Rising, The Scorpio Races, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, The Night Circus;

Writing style – pace, detail, dialog, ability to transport to “another place” perhaps “where I fit in better”?

POV and tenses. Alternating POVs eg All The Bright Places. Single POV eg The Knife of Never Letting Go. First person present tense, 3rd person past ...

YA “suitability” eg language (if Harry Potter used the F-bomb), age (if Harry Potter first book had been a 19-yr old), sexual content (if Harry Potter had sexual relations in the last two books), gore and violence (okay, Harry Potter did this!). Something slightly forbidden or normally out of reach?

The “Theme” – the underdog rises; the plain girl goes to the palace; the rebel spy; the oppression by elite society (Red Queen, An Ember in the Ashes, Hunger Games, Divergent); Having to “choose” (Red Rising, Mockinjay, The Selection, If I Stay, All The Bright Places);

Genre eg Fantasy, Paranormal, Sci-Fi, School, Superpower, Dystopian Government;

Bonus Review: Counting By 7s

Robert’s quick summary:

(From Amazon) Willow Chance is a twelve-year-old genius, obsessed with nature and diagnosing medical conditions, who finds it comforting to count by 7s. It has never been easy for her to connect with anyone other than her adoptive parents, but that hasn’t kept her from leading a quietly happy life . . . until now.

Suddenly Willow’s world is tragically changed when her parents both die in a car crash, leaving her alone in a baffling world. The triumph of this book is that it is not a tragedy. This extraordinarily odd, but extraordinarily endearing, girl manages to push through her grief. Her journey to find a fascinatingly diverse and fully believable surrogate family is a joy and a revelation to read.
Counting By 7s is by Holly Goldberg Sloan

So what did we think? (From a reader’s perspective)

1. (Robert) Beautifully written and heartwarming story – if you liked Rain Reign, you’d like this for sure. Willow’s obsession with numbers (especially “7”s of course!) and her precision zooming in on the things about our fellow human beings no one else really likes to do – make great reading.

2. (Robert) She is a great narrator: Goldberg Sloan endows Willow with a detached, completely logical view of the world – but in all of its detailed pieces. She is well-informed and doesn’t make mistakes. You like Willow right from the get go!

3. (Robert) Then there is an inciting incident (no spoiler – it’s in the book description), both her parents are killed in a tragic road accident, and Willow must find her way in a new life that makes sense to her, but confuses the adults around her – especially Dell, her school counsellor, who has a lovely redemption arc.

What did we think from a writer’s perspective?

1. (Robert) ALL the side characters are brilliant, as is the mish-mash of cultures (the lazy counsellor, the Vietnamese family).

2. (Robert) Some of the dialog interchanges, underlined by Willow’s thought processes are hilarious. What could be a tragic and sad story is uplifting and spiritual because of her (sometimes unwitting) influence on all those around her, and her unerring logic.

3. (Robert) The separate POV (of Willow, Dell, Mai) are very different, which is always tough to achieve, and especially Willow HAS to be different, of course.

Robert and Robert’s Famous Takeaways:

1. It’s a short read (like Rain Reign), but there’s a LOT to learn about sparse writing techniques and the interplay between characters.

2. This is a relationship and family dynamics story – no grand dystopian worlds, no post-apocalypse, no angsty-teen bad-boy romance. Just pure story about a young girl making her way in a world that wasn’t built for her.

3. Adult readers would appreciate the book, and the underlying elements of what it means to be human that arise from Willow’s ability to pull those around her into her life and unknowingly healing them. Beautiful.

Prompt of the Week:

Your protagonist suddenly finds herself alone in a strange world, and must befriend the most unlikely companions if she is to survive. What qualities does she unknowingly possess that others are attracted to? How does she stop those who would profit from her abilities from taking advantage of her?

Write your response to the prompt or the show in the comments!

Click here to check out Counting By 7s on Amazon

Listen to the podcast:

Watch on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-fntGGu9II

Can Bryan and Robert rise like a Phoenix after reading the book Phoenix Island by John Dixon? Only listening to this episode will give you the answer!

At 16, Carl Freeman is already a state and national boxing champion. But his penchant for stepping in and punching out anyone victimizing or bullying anyone else has got him into big trouble, over and over.

So much so that Carl has had to move around the country, as institution after institution can't handle his fits of rage against the underdog anymore, as well as the trail of bloodied noses and broken jaws.

But Carl is doing his best to live up to his deceased father's expectations of doing good. Badly wounded in a domestic violence investigation, his father retired from the police force a broken man, his mind destroyed from his injuries. At a very early age, Carl was left to defend his traumatized father from neighborhood taunts ... until a judge suggested he join a boxing club, and he met his mentor.

Then Carl's father passed away, and his mother committed suicide.

Now ... with no place left willing to take him, one judge sends Carl to Phoenix Island, to be held captive until he reforms and he is eighteen. Or face life in prison.

Carl accepts his fate ... but has no idea of the hell he is about to face.

On the road again with Bryan and Robert as they review... Blood Red Road by Moira Young! 

Saba and Lugh are twins, but they couldn't be more different. In the parched dry lands left after The Wreckers ruined it, the two eighteen year-olds scavenge for scarce food, eking out an existence to support Pa and their nine year-old sister, Emmi. Pa ain't been too good since Ma died, starin at the skies and muttering about everythin all bein in the stars an all.

Unlike her slightly older brother (always first, then me behind), Saba is prickly and morose, often mean to Emmi. She dotes on Lugh though, and relies on his instinct and kindness to keep them all sane.

Until the Tonton arrive and kidnap Lugh, proclaiming him to be "the one, born at midsummer."

Pa is killed in the kidnapping, and Saba is beside herself, angry and grieving all at once, and she resolves to pursue their attackers and free Lugh.

First she must ditch Emmi, who would only be a hindrance, and make her way across the dangerous Sandsea.

Emmi, of course, has other ideas ... and so begins a pacey, twisting, dark tale of revenge.