Permanent Record - Mary H.K. Choi

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"After a year of college, Pablo is working at his local twenty-four-hour deli, selling overpriced snacks to brownstone yuppies. He’s dodging calls from the student loan office and he has no idea what his next move is.

Leanna Smart’s life so far has been nothing but success. Age eight: Disney Mouseketeer; Age fifteen: first #1 single on the US pop chart; Age seventeen, *tenth* #1 single; and now, at age nineteen…life is a queasy blur of private planes, weird hotel rooms, and strangers asking for selfies on the street.

When Leanna and Pab randomly meet at 4:00 a.m. in the middle of a snowstorm in Brooklyn, they both know they can’t be together forever. So, they keep things on the down-low and off Instagram for as long as they can. But it takes about three seconds before the world finds out…"

Pre-read thoughts: I loved Emergency Contact so much that, although after I read it I promised a review would come after a second read, I have no read it four times and still can't find the words to explain how beautiful and perfect it is, so I never delivered on that review promise. All of this to say...I was pretty thrilled to get an ARC of Mary H.K. Choi's second book. My fingers are crossed that I love it as much as even more than I loved Emergency Contact.

Alright. I loved this book, but I do have to clarify one thing before we get into things. If you read Emergency Contact and were expecting another dual-narrator story, delete that preconceived notion from your head. Kinda seems from the description like we'll be rotating back and forth between Pablo and Leanna, but nope. It's all Pab. Nothing wrong with that, just putting it out there for anyone who shared my expectations.

Now, on to actual review-y things! The cover blurb makes it sound like Pablo and Leanna start dating, their spot gets blown, and then the book is about them navigating the fallout. Not the case, and honestly I think what actually happens is so much better than what I expected based on the description. Pablo is working nights at a bodega health food store after taking out a bunch of student loans, signing up for multiple credit cards, and then flunking out of NYU. In the middle of what promised to be an uneventful shift, Leanna stumbles in, severely under-dressed for the sub-zero weather and looking for a middle-of-the-night snowstorm snack. The two fall into an easy exchange, and shortly after realizing that he kind of has a thing for this mysterious, clearly half-frozen stranger, he also realizes that holy shit...she's a super famous pop star. And there goes that starry-eyed dream.

Until she comes back. It's obvious that they have a connection, but it's also immediately apparent that the two lead very different lives. Leanna jets from place to place, chauffeured in private cars, flying in private plans, to manage her vast media empire. Pablo is actively dodging calls from collection agencies and refuses to open his mail to avoid confronting the massive mountain of debt he is being buried under. Leanna knows exactly what she wants from life and is hustling to get it. Pablo hesitates to make firm plans with his little brother, let alone come up with a longterm plan for his life. Can their burgeoning relationship survive their differences? And is this new relationship even what Pablo should focus on when, if it isn't to answer a phone call or respond to a text from Lee, he can't even find a reason to get out of bed most mornings?

At first blush, this seems like a sweet doomed-romance novel about an A-lister and a kid just scraping by, which I was into because in case it wasn't clear, I love Mary H.K. Choi. If she hadn't written this, though, being honest? I probably would have passed this up. Been there, done that. Nothing new. And that's why I had to point out earlier that this book is so much better than the description makes it sound! There's so much happening here. It isn't just Pablo falling in deep with Lee and trying to avoid public scrutiny, it's Pablo struggling to manage his relationships with his roommates, his parents, and his younger brother. Drowning in the expectations of others while feeling too frozen and buried to do anything or even begin to evaluate his own expectations. It's such a frank look at the weight and expectations put on young people, on the massive hole you can wake up one day and find yourself dug into because you were expected to make all these huge decisions and you didn't know what to do. This review is getting wordy as hell, but I swear it isn't enough to convey my love of this book and the perfection Mary Choi has created. I honestly don't know how she managed to build so many vibrant characters up in so short a time, but if you don't immediately fall in love with Rain, Tice, the Kims, and everyone else I don't know what's wrong with you. Permanent Record is perfection, from the first page to the last.

The Girl the Sea Gave Back - Adrienne Young

My rating: ⭐⭐

From the cover:

"For as long as she can remember, Tova has lived among the Svell, the people who found her washed ashore as a child and use her for her gift as a Truthtongue. Her own home and clan are long-faded memories, but the sacred symbols and staves inked over every inch of her skin mark her as one who can cast the rune stones and see into the future. She has found a fragile place among those who fear her, but when two clans to the east bury their age-old blood feud and join together as one, her world is dangerously close to collapse.

For the first time in generations, the leaders of the Svell are divided. Should they maintain peace or go to war with the allied clans to protect their newfound power? And when their chieftain looks to Tova to cast the stones, she sets into motion a series of events that will not only change the landscape of the mainland forever but will give her something she believed she could never have again—a home. "

This is a companion novel to Sky in the Deep, which I loved, so when I saw that there would be a second novel set in Eelyn's world, I was instantly on board. Give me all the Viking stuff, the fierce women, the intricate characters. Where could you go wrong?

This cover gives me heart eyes.

Tova, a Truthtongue and member of the mysterious Kyrr clan, dies as a child and her people set her adrift on a funeral boat. The boat drifts, half-burned, to the shores of the Svell, where their Tala, the interpreter of their God's will, finds Tova...alive. The Svell, believing her presence to be an ill omen, nevertheless unwillingly agree to let her stay in the village as their Truthtongue, casting the stones and predicting the future for them. Everyone in the village fears her, though, and she lives among them, but apart, always treated as Other, with some members of the clan even making attempts to kill her. Years later, pressed to cast the stones after an attack by the Svell on a rival clan, Tova unwittingly sets in motion a bloody series of events that, despite her gift to see the path of fate, she may be powerless to stop.

Halvard, a young member of the Nadhir clan who is being groomed as the future village leader, doesn't know what he is getting his people into when he talks their current leader into meeting with the Svell after a brutal attack by the rival clan on one of their villages. Bekan, the Svell leader, promises reparations, but what happens instead is a bloodbath, with only Halvard left alive. He escapes, but barely, and with their village leader dead he must make it back to his village in time to take on the mantle of leadership, warn his people that a massive army of Svell is coming to destroy them all, and find a way to save his clan. The mysterious Kyrr woman he spotted at the ill-fated meeting with the Svell keeps appearing to him in visions, but what does her presence mean? Is she, along with her clan, working with the Svell? Or will she be an ally in the coming war?

As noted, this book had me pumped. Everything about it sounds awesome, and in fairness, a couple parts of it were! Adrienne Young can write a great battle scene. The majority, unfortunately, was a struggle to get through. The writing is incredibly repetitive: Tova cast the stones and the Svell reacted in a way she didn't expect! She wishes she could take it back, but now there is blood on her hands. Halvard isn't sure if he can lead his people, but now he has to or his entire clan will be wiped out, their blood on his hands. Wait, did you forget? Tova cast the stones and the Svell reacted in a way she didn't expect! She wishes she could take it back, but now there is blood on her hands. Halvard isn't sure if he can lead his people, but now he has to or his entire clan will be wiped out, their blood on his hands. Hold on, I'm not sure it was clear enough. Tova cast the stones and the Svell reacted in a way she didn't expect! She wishes she could take it back, but now there is blood on her hands. Halvard isn't sure if he can lead his people, but now he has to or his entire clan will be wiped out, their blood on his hands.

I persevered, because it was obvious from pretty early on that Tova and Halvard will end up together, and I am always here for a good romance. Sadly, the fated-ness of their relationship is incredibly heavy-handed, and although for 90% of the book they are apart, they are still, inexplicably, drawn to each other. Even after they join forces, you wouldn't need more than ten fingers to count the number of sentences they exchange. Literally, it goes from Halvard trying to kill her in their first interaction to, like three conversations later, him kissing her and the two being destined for each other? I wish their relationship had been developed in a better way than their eyes meeting across a soon-to-be-bloodsoaked forest and both of them feeling an undeniable connection. That's not exciting for anyone.

Ultimately, it felt like there wasn't enough to this story and instead of developing more, what little there was ended up rehashed again and again. It breaks my heart to say this, but The Girl the Sea Gave Back is best skipped. If you want some rad viking action with badass lady warriors, go back and read Sky in the Deep again. Maybe catch this one when they make it into a movie.