Tag Archives: Amy Engel

The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel – a Review

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The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel – a Review

 

The Roanoke GirlsAmazon / B&N / Kobo / BAM / Book Depository

Description:
“Roanoke girls never last long around here. In the end, we either run or we die.”
 
After her mother’s suicide, fifteen year-old Lane Roanoke came to live with her grandparents and fireball cousin, Allegra, on their vast estate in rural Kansas. Lane knew little of her mother’s mysterious family, but she quickly embraced life as one of the rich and beautiful Roanoke girls. But when she discovered the dark truth at the heart of the family, she ran…fast and far away.
 
Eleven years later, Lane is adrift in Los Angeles when her grandfather calls to tell her Allegra has gone missing. Did she run too? Or something worse? Unable to resist his pleas, Lane returns to help search, and to ease her guilt at having left Allegra behind. Her homecoming may mean a second chance with the boyfriend whose heart she broke that long ago summer. But it also means facing the devastating secret that made her flee, one she may not be strong enough to run from again.
 
As it weaves between Lane’s first Roanoke summer and her return, The Roanoke Girls shocks and tantalizes, twisting its way through revelation after mesmerizing revelation, exploring the secrets families keep and the fierce and terrible love that both binds them together and rips them apart.

Review:

Did you wake up screaming?…Was it a nightmare?”

 “Did you wake up screaming? Was it a nightmare?”
 I shook my head, confused and a little scared.  “No.”
“Then it was nothing like that.”

Nightmares are the least of concerns; losing sleep a luxury in comparison to the knowledge, and experience, of surviving in the house Roanoke built.  Amy Engel crafts a book equal parts compelling and disturbing.  The Roanoke Girls details a family dynamic, a cycle of abuse without limit or censure, until one resolves to face the demons and expose the plague.  This story is cringe-worthy, but so artfully written, you’ll feel its haunting beauty.   

“My head knows this place is no good for me, but my stupid, traitorous heart sings HOME.“

Lane Roanoke is going back home to Kansas.  Only, you’re not supposed to go home again, right?  Or does Oz always welcome you back?  Trust me when I say Roanoke is light years away from fantasy.  When Lane’s cousin, Allegra, goes missing, Granddad summons Lane home.  Ten years ago, Lane ran away from Roanoke, vowing to stay away from her cryptic family.  But guilt, its “dirty fingers under [her] skin” have forced Lane to return.  Only Allegra could revive Lane enough to revisit this hell.  Allegra, the rebellious, reckless, spirited cousin whose mysterious disappearance reopens wounds and shines a light on silent, insidious corruption.

Don’t think me dramatic, but I don’t think I can say much more.  Amy Engel parses out pivotal memories that stem from a malignant root, but the identity isn’t the most startling.  To quote Ms. Engel, “it’s the WHY of it” that brings the story to full culmination. You will hear varying degrees of blame, tainted versions every one, but “life picks away at all of us, backs us into corners we never anticipated.  Turns us into people we never thought we’d become.”  A riveting story of innocence lost.

The Roanoke Girls were born into an underbelly of family taboo cloaked in dark seduction and heartbreaking complacency.  Amy Engel weaves in light and hope in the most desperate of times.  I told her The Roanoke Girls was memorable, but now I can honestly add recommendable.  

Reviewed by Carmen

Copy provided by Publisher

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The Revolution of Ivy by Amy Engel – a Review

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The Revolution of Ivy by Amy Engel – a Review

 

The Revolution of IvyAmazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / BAM / The Book Depository

Description:
Beyond the fence. I am still alive. Barely.

My name is Ivy Westfall. I am sixteen years old and a traitor. Three months ago, I was forced to marry the president’s son, Bishop Lattimer-as all daughters of the losing side of the war are sold off in marriage to the sons of the winners. But I was different. I had a mission-to kill Bishop.

Instead, I fell in love with him.

Now I am an outcast, left to survive the brutal savagery of the lands outside of civilization. Yet even out here, there is hope. There is life beyond the fence. But I can’t outrun my past. For my actions have set off a treasonous chain of events in Westfall that will change all of our fates-especially Bishop’s.

And this time, it is not enough to just survive…

 

Review:

The Revolution of Ivy is all about change and breaking glass ceilings. How very fitting: Today is Election Day! A sequel is a daunting task, Amy Engel told me so, but this second book was so compelling…it was as high caliber as her debut, and I raaaved about that one (The Book of Ivy available here). I actually compare TRoI to the likes of The Empire Strikes Back! That’s rare and stellar praise coming from this reader.

Ivy is in full survival mode after [partially] completing her mission. To recap, President Lattimer ordered Ivy put out at the conclusion of book one. Ivy would have accomplished the goal, the Westfall goal, had her heart not been compromised. Falling in love with the enemy wasn’t the plan and her last minute, Hail Mary play cost her place alongside Bishop, her husband and once-intended target. Ivy is blindsided by her family, but even more bereft without Bishop.

I was both exhausted and on edge from the onset of Ivy’s exile. She’s been trained (manipulated?) in the ways of political maneuvers, but no one in the Westfall faction thought to initiate protocols for survival. Ivy’s no princess, but these odds outside the fence were unrelenting and nearly insurmountable. The isolation alone would have catapulted me back inside the safety of Westfall! This mindset is strategic in hindsight, however, as it adds more depth to an already impressive Ivy.

What once was soft has been carved away, leaving only what’s absolutely necessary behind.

The setting commenced as solitary and desperate, until Ivy aligns herself with two nomads, Ash and Caleb. A brother and sister (but not) who welcome Ivy into their group and teach her newfound, comprehensive independence. Her understanding of life outside the fence, nature versus nurture, transforms Ivy into a tour de force; her life in Westfall but a chrysalis.

It’s impossible not to reveal a spoiler as this is a sequel, but suffice it to say that Bishop lands, most unceremoniously, at Ivy’s feet, threatening to dismantle the new life she’d forged from pain and suffering. Their reunion is brutal on the heart. Ivy never expected to see Bishop again, so she began shutting down that vibrant part of her soul that his love set to life (penance for her betrayal). When Bishop arrives solely to be by her side, Ivy is inexplicably angry and terribly confused. Ms. Engel writes a magnificent storyline about reconciling emotions. My heart was lodged in my throat, fearful and mesmerized by the power of their words. To say I swooned is simply insufficient. I was overcome with feeling!

The political turmoil within Westfall reaches our H/H. The Lattimers and Westfalls are at it in veritable Hatfield and McCoy fashion. The flawed system (made up of extremes and revenge) has deprived the town for too long and it’s imploding. Ever conscientious of choice and freedom, will Ivy and Bishop return to instill peace or remain independent and outside the clutches of chaos?

What a finale! Momentous showdowns of the breath-stealing variety! WOW. Ms. Engel advised me that the series ends here. It’s not enough, *sniffs*, I could read about Ivy and Bishop for at least a trilogy! It’s better to have loved, they say? ;D

I cannot recommend The Revolution of Ivy enough! Ms. Engel writes a wonderful YA series that is meant for readers of all ages. She created an outstanding young woman who flourishes under adversity. Ivy’s journey to maturity and identity is exemplary. Bishop’s plight is symbiotic to Ivy’s and his catharsis is displayed with grace and dignity. This series captures magic. I miss them already.

Reviewed by Carmen

Copy provided by Publisher

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The Book of Ivy by Amy Engel – a Review

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The Book of Ivy by Amy Engel – a Review

 

the book of ivyAmazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / The Book Depository / BAM

Description:
After a brutal nuclear war, the United States was left decimated. A small group of survivors eventually banded together, but only after more conflict over which family would govern the new nation. The Westfalls lost. Fifty years later, peace and control are maintained by marrying the daughters of the losing side to the sons of the winning group in a yearly ritual.

This year, it is my turn.

My name is Ivy Westfall, and my mission is simple: to kill the president’s son—my soon-to-be husband—and restore the Westfall family to power.

But Bishop Lattimer is either a very skilled actor or he’s not the cruel, heartless boy my family warned me to expect. He might even be the one person in this world who truly understands me. But there is no escape from my fate. I am the only one who can restore the Westfall legacy.

Because Bishop must die. And I must be the one to kill him…

Review:

The Book of Ivy read like the Hunger Games of recompense by marriage; several young ladies vying for the chance at marrying Bishop, the prodigal son of the president himself. That honor goes to 16 year old, Ivy, only she has plans to incite a revolution by killing Bishop and revising life as they know it. Told in a fresh, energetic, thought-provoking fashion, Amy Engel not only inserts you in a divisive society plotting against and undermining the other, she immerses you in the culture of a dystopian society set in 2075 replete with impossible rules and demands.

I am different from all these girls surrounding me because marrying Bishop Lattimer has not fulfilled my destiny. My mission is not to make him happy and bear his children and be his wife. My mission is to kill him.

You hooked already?! You will be. It was fascinating to learn all the limits of this supposed utopia (formerly southern Missouri). The fallout of nuclear war dismantled society’s infrastructure (50 years later, they’re still contending with intermittent use of electricity); “traditional” female jobs (though having babies is favored) fall to those young girls who weren’t chosen in the wedding (and consequently shunned), etc…These poor kids are even discouraged to mingle with neighboring communities in an effort to prevent the awkwardness of arranged marriages. Crazy, right?! And while Ivy is willing to do her part for the movement (the rival faction), her own lines of right and wrong begin to blur. She begins to question if her family’s love depends upon the success of the mission. Bishop isn’t the calculating monster her father and sister profiled. In fact, Bishop alone would whirl any girl’s mind…

He just stares at me. In moments like this, it’s easy to see how he was born to be a leader. His is the kind of face that intimidates simply by existing, so handsome it’s almost scary.

Though born of privilege, Bishop isn’t a chip off the old block. He’s got ideas of his own with an inner core forged of steel that is set to pound and upend presumptions. Why at one point, Bishop was supposed to marry Ivy’s older sister. He sought a reprieve. Wait till you find out why (the how…wow!) Bishop’s an affable, but complex 18 year old. When all the other husbands are enjoying the “perks” of procreation, Bishop is restrained and respectful of Ivy’s innocence and anxieties about their marriage. What’s Bishop’s agenda – he’s too good to be true!? Ivy better get into his good graces to execute the plan (pun intended). She’s only got three months…and Bishop’s mesmerizing. Bishop is seriously swoon–worthy, my friends.

Romance? It’s here and it’s to die for! The building of trust, authentic interest in each other’s welfare, the attraction they can no longer deny. Ms. Engel does a brilliant job of keeping you on the edge. She tortures you with privileged Intel Ivy is collecting for her father’s cause (her own?), but simultaneously enchants with a budding, tender love story. Both compete for your complete attention and earn it gloriously.

What a finale! I was trembling with grief the second Ivy’s plan took shape (and shed more than a few tears in its wake). I inhaled this book and desperately miss the characters already. November 2015 is an inconceivable amount of time to wait for the sequel, The Revolution of Ivy, but wait (impatiently) I will.

Reviewed by Carmen

Copy provided by Publisher

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