Thursday #Review - Invictus by Ryan Graudin #YALit #Science #Fiction

Series: Standalone
Format: Hardcover, 464 pages 
Release Date: September 26, 2017
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Source: Library
Genre: Young Adult \ Time Travel 

Time flies when you're plundering history.

Farway Gaius McCarthy was born outside of time. The son of a time-traveling Recorder from 2354 AD and a gladiator living in Rome in 95 AD, Far's birth defies the laws of nature. Exploring history himself is all he's ever wanted, and after failing his final time-traveling exam, Far takes a position commanding a ship with a crew of his friends as part of a black market operation to steal valuables from the past.

But during a heist on the sinking Titanic, Far meets a mysterious girl who always seems to be one step ahead of him. Armed with knowledge that will bring Far's very existence into question, she will lead Far and his team on a race through time to discover a frightening truth: History is not as steady as it seems.

Author Ryan Graudin's Invictus is a thrilling sci-fi time-traveling adventure that will have readers on the edge of their seats waiting to see what the author will come up with next. Protagonist Fairway Gaius McCarthy is the son of a legend. His mother, Empra McCarthy, disappeared ten years ago while recording events of 95 A.D. But, that didn't cool off Fair's desire to become a time recorder, or to become a captain of his own ship, or to discover what really happened to his mother.

Fair is a character who has a fairly impressive resume. He's

the only known person to ever be born outside of time. He's also at the top of his class in almost every category. But, after his final exam goes wonky, Fair finds himself kicked out of the Corps and aligned with a black market racketeer named Lux Julius. Fair becomes Captain of a fairly successful ship named Invictus that transverses time & collects valuables that would otherwise be lost in time. 

His crew includes is own cousin Imogen, a historian who changes her hair color daily. Gram, who is the brilliant engineer as well as recorder. And, Priya who is the ships

medic, and mechanic. Oh, and I should mention that Priya is also Fair's love interest. Lux sends the Invictus back in time to April 14, 1912 to retrieve a valuable book. If you don't know that date, it is the date that the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank. During the mission, things don't go as expected. But, the most unexpected thing is Fair meeting a girl named Eliot. Eliot who is as mysterious as she is dangerous. She's also keeping a major secret that sends the crew back in time in hopes of saving the universe.

So, where do I start. I loved Fairway. Yes, he's arrogant. Yes, has a huge ego. But, this is someone who lost his mother without anyone telling him exactly what happened. Even though he loses his chance at becoming a superlative recorder like his mother, becoming Captain of the Invictus is probably the best thing that could happen. He and his crew have dozens of successful missions, and they've become a family as well. His relationship with Priya is pretty special. I loved that Priya is dual talented. One minute she can be helping heal, the next she's changing a rod so that ship can jump through time. Eliot is definitely the wild card of this story. She is so mysterious, but seems to know a whole lot. Her connection to Fair is one of antagonist, which slowly becomes a necessary alliance with lots of twists and surprises.

Overall, I really enjoyed the second half of this story. I am giddy that this is a standalone and not part of a series. The ending, while leaving room for a possible future sequel, would have been better had the author explored more of a relationship between Priya and Fair. They really deserved a happy ending.

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#Tuesday Review - Blood for Blood by Ryan Graudin #YALit #Fantasy @ryangraudin @lbkids

Series: Wolf by Wolf # 2
Format: Hardcover, 481 pages
Release Date: November 1, 2016
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Source: Library 
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

There would be blood. Blood for blood. Blood to pay. An entire world of it.

For the resistance in the Third Reich, the war may be over, but the fight has just begun. Death camp survivor Yael, who has the power to skinshift, is on the run: the world has just seen her shoot and kill Hitler. But the truth of what happened is far more complicated, and its consequences are deadly. Yael and her unlikely comrades dive into enemy territory to try to turn the tide against Hitler’s army, and there is no alternative but to see their mission through to the end, whatever the cost.

But in the midst of the chaos, Yael’s past and future collide when she comes face to face with a ghost from her past, and a spark with a fellow rider begins to grow into something more. Dark secrets reveal dark truths and one question hangs over them all—how far can you go for the ones you love?

“There will be blood. There will be more than enough. The world is about to drown in it.”

Blood for Blood is the second and final installment in author Ryan Graudin's Wolf by Wolf series. Welcome to 1956 Germany, where Adolf Hitler and his Third Reich won World War II, and now control Europa, Asia, and North Africa.

Hitler has a yearly race called the Axis Tour, which travels from Germania, to Japan. It is dangerous. It is not for the faint of heart. And, people do tend to die rather gruesomely. In the end, the winner gets to meet the hated Hitler in Tokyo, and become yet another propaganda tool for the Third Reich. 

Blood for Blood picks up right where Wolf by Wolf left off. Jael Reider has done the impossible. She shot Hitler. Now, she is on the run hoping to escape those who are sure to follow her. At the same time, her resistance allies are putting into plan a brass balls mission to free people from the Third Reich's brutality. Unfortunately for her, someone saw her escape. That person is Luka Wolf. Luka ends up chasing after her, and witnessing her shocking shifting into someone else who is not Adele Wolf. The same Adele he thought he had feelings for. In a series of curiosities, Yael, and Luka are caught, and sent back to Germany along with Felix Wolfe. But, things are about ready to get very interesting so hang on tight to your seats!

In Wolf by Wolf, we met resistance fighter, and concentration camp survivor, Jael Reider. Jael is a survivor of a painful experimental procedure which gives her the ability to skinshift into other people. She can no longer separate her real face, from those she has taken up since escaping when she was 6. Jael used her ability to pose as Adele Wolf and entered the race in hopes of winning. Jael had the unfortunate bad luck of running into Adele's twin brother Felix, who refused to go home, and Luka Lowe, another previous Axis Tour winner who she couldn't shake off even with all her training, and years of preparation. 

For those of you who have not read the first book, Jael has 5 wolves tattooed on her arm. Each wolf is a representation of the person who she either lost, or who made her so much stronger. I mention this fact because these 5 wolves make her stand out from all others, even with the face of the person she is pretending to be. Which leads to another ball of wax, and a bunch of spoilers which I won't reveal. This is a tough story to rate, but I settled on what I did mainly because of Yael, and mainly because of the fact that human emotions and actions are not exactly scripted. 

Yael had to put her own heritage into hiding to ensure she wasn't taken back to the camps and killed. Her journey has been a painful one at times, especially when she is reunited with someone she truly thought was dead, and they return to the scene where Yael's life was twisted and sculptured into someone else. Yael's relationship with Luka is also an interesting one. She's a Jew who lost everything, and was saved by the resistance. He's been trying to prove to his father that he's worthy of his respect, and also has been used by Hitler's propaganda machine.

My ultimate issue lies with Felix. Poor, Felix. His actions can't be put into words. Even though I can't forgive him, I am not sure if anyone else would have managed to put on a brave face day in and day out while looking at those who respected you, and then....Graudin actually rotates her narratives between three characters. Jael, Luka, and Felix. This book is also separated by flashbacks to key moments in time for all three characters where things happen that eventually lead to all three characters to this moment in time. 

Readers can either love, or hate the ending. It is a choice of perspectives. But, I liked it because of the world these characters live in. (Don't get me wrong, there is nothing funny about how Hitler and his fanatics destroyed people's lives, and destroyed generations of families.) I liked it because Graudin doesn't hold back any punches. She puts each characters into hard situations and dares them to prove they are worthy of an encore. I liked it because even though you can most likely guess certain aspects of the story, it still kept me interested right to the very end.

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#Saturday Review - Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin (Young Adult, Alternative Fiction)

Series: Wolf by Wolf # 1
Format: E-Galley, 388 pages
Release Date: October 20, 2015
Publisher: Little, Brown Books
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Genre: YA, Historical Fiction, ALT History

Code Name Verity meets Inglourious Basterds in this fast-paced novel from the author of The Walled City.

The year is 1956, and the Axis powers of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan rule the world. To commemorate their Great Victory over Britain and Russia, Hitler and Emperor Hirohito host the Axis Tour: an annual motorcycle race across their conjoined continents. The victor is awarded an audience with the highly reclusive Adolf Hitler at the Victor's ball.

Yael, who escaped from a death camp, has one goal: Win the race and kill Hitler. A survivor of painful human experimentation, Yael has the power to skinshift and must complete her mission by impersonating last year's only female victor, Adele Wolfe. This deception becomes more difficult when Felix, Adele twin's brother, and Luka, her former love interest, enter the race and watch Yael's every move. But as Yael begins to get closer to the other competitors, can she bring herself to be as ruthless as she needs to be to avoid discovery and complete her mission?

Ryan Graudin's Wolf by Wolf is part one of a two part duology that comes on the heals of The Walled City. Wolf by Wolf is a story that is both mind blowing, and amazing in the way it mixes real life horror stories with an alternative history that asks the story, what if? Graudin's world is a place where the the Third Reich under Hitler, and Japan under Emperor Hirohito, won World War II and have claimed equal portions of the world. It is where a young Jewish survivor of a German concentration camp is experimented on to the point where she no longer recognizes her own face, nor does anyone else.

Jael (Jah-ell) is the young Jewish survivor of the doctor known as the Angel of Death's medical experiments to make her look and pass for being Aryan. After years of treatments, Yael has the ability to skinshift into any other person with just a glance at the person she is trying to impersonate. This makes her the idea candidate to take the place of Adele Wolfe, the only woman to participate and win the grueling motorcycle race from Berlin to Tokyo known as the Axis Tour. A Tour that celebrates the Axis of Horrors win over the allies.

Wolf by Wolf flip flops back and forth between Yael's experiences at the concentration camp, to her escape, and joining the resistance against Hitler's Third Reich, to her participation in the Axis Race as Adele Wolfe. You really have to give Graudin credit for doing her story this way. You get to meet the FIVE main characters who helped her, changed her life, and most likely, saved her from being gassed by the Germans. People I know have mentioned that the motorcycle race itself is not unlike the Dakar Rally. I can dig it. 

I like that this is an alternative history novel with the backdrop being Post-World War II 1946-1956. I love books and authors that ask the question What, If? What if on December 7, 1941, Japan had joined Germany in invading Russia and not bombed Pearl Harbor? What if America remained an isolationist country and never joined World War II or allied itself with Britain to defeat Germany and Japan and Italy? What if Germany had invaded England (Operation Sea Lion) in 1940 and conquered that Nation? What if Hitler was never assassinated, and still lived today?

The most enjoyable part of this book, however, is the race from Berlin to Japan. Such an entertaining and thrilling race with plenty of action, suspense, breathtaking moments, along with participants who are cutthroat and will do anything to win. I loved Jael. She's such a fierce protagonist with one goal in mind; get close to Hitler so she can kill him. She goes from being sent to a concentration camp at 6, to being a lab rat, to being a member of the resistance, and later, a doppelganger to one of the past victors of the Axis Tour.

I appreciated that Graudin never once hid the atrocities that the Germans were responsible for against the Jews and others that they thought were beneath them. I love that you can feel Jael's inner struggle with who she has become, and whether or not she can find love with someone who doesn't know the real her, just the person she is pretending to be. 

I definitely recommend this book, and will be looking forward to the final novel in this duology hopefully releasing in 2016. 

  

**I received this book for free from (Publisher) via (NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.**

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