saschadarlington's review against another edition
3.0
The rating would be 2 1/2.
Welcome to Sortilege Falls by Libby Heily tells the tale of Grape (named after grape soda because her father was sucking them down during her birth), her mother (a doctor), and her younger brother, Brad (a plant fanatic) who move to a small town in Missouri from Virginia. To clue you in to what type of novel this is, sortilege means foretelling, magic, sorcery.
Grape starts her first day of school in this new town, somewhat cocky, certain that she'll find her classes (no need of a map, says she) and equally certain that she'll make friends, because she never had a problem before. Neither of those things works out for her.
And then she meets The Models. The teachers and the entire student body (and it turns out the entire town) worship the hallowed ground that The Models walk on. Even Grape sees how beautiful they are, but they're all really unpleasant, except for Mandy who befriends Grape.
Suddenly two of The Models who were born in Sortilege Falls but who have pursued acting and modeling careers outside of Missouri fall ill and then die. Then the models in Sortilege begin to fall ill. Grape suspects that something is afoot and decides to investigate.
The premise behind Welcome to Sortilege Falls is intriguing, however, the mystery seems solved just as you are really getting into it and the abrupt ending makes you think that there are more things to come. Also, some concepts/characters that were introduced were not thoroughly treated, which means that there is a sequel or there are loose ends.
There is not much in the way of characterization. Grape comes across as rather shallow as do most of the characters with the exception of Mandy, who shows a bit more depth.
This is touted as a Young Adult novel, but I think it falls more aptly into the Teen category, which is 14 and under. Regarded from that viewpoint, I think a younger audience would appreciate this novel more than I did.
I received an arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Welcome to Sortilege Falls will be published on May 31, 2016 by Fire and Ice YA Publishing.
Welcome to Sortilege Falls by Libby Heily tells the tale of Grape (named after grape soda because her father was sucking them down during her birth), her mother (a doctor), and her younger brother, Brad (a plant fanatic) who move to a small town in Missouri from Virginia. To clue you in to what type of novel this is, sortilege means foretelling, magic, sorcery.
Grape starts her first day of school in this new town, somewhat cocky, certain that she'll find her classes (no need of a map, says she) and equally certain that she'll make friends, because she never had a problem before. Neither of those things works out for her.
And then she meets The Models. The teachers and the entire student body (and it turns out the entire town) worship the hallowed ground that The Models walk on. Even Grape sees how beautiful they are, but they're all really unpleasant, except for Mandy who befriends Grape.
Suddenly two of The Models who were born in Sortilege Falls but who have pursued acting and modeling careers outside of Missouri fall ill and then die. Then the models in Sortilege begin to fall ill. Grape suspects that something is afoot and decides to investigate.
The premise behind Welcome to Sortilege Falls is intriguing, however, the mystery seems solved just as you are really getting into it and the abrupt ending makes you think that there are more things to come. Also, some concepts/characters that were introduced were not thoroughly treated, which means that there is a sequel or there are loose ends.
There is not much in the way of characterization. Grape comes across as rather shallow as do most of the characters with the exception of Mandy, who shows a bit more depth.
This is touted as a Young Adult novel, but I think it falls more aptly into the Teen category, which is 14 and under. Regarded from that viewpoint, I think a younger audience would appreciate this novel more than I did.
I received an arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Welcome to Sortilege Falls will be published on May 31, 2016 by Fire and Ice YA Publishing.
faerietears's review against another edition
5.0
I read an unedited version of this book prior to publication
I loved this story. 16 year old Grape fit in just fine at her old school, but when she moves with her mother and brother to Sortilege Falls, she soon finds that this town is nothing like her old one. The townsfolk are obsessed with a group of teens known as The Models because they are all inhumanely beautiful. They're all real jerks, except for Mandy, who becomes Grape's only friend in school.
I think what I loved most about this book is that the author could have written this as a straight fantasy novel, but instead chose to disguise the fantasy elements in a contemporary setting. I have a feeling the sequel will have more fantasy elements.
I feel like the author portrayed her characters the way she wanted. The Models came across as stuck up and self absorbed, even Mandy was a little bitchy but not in the way the others were. Grape came across as a nice girl, but one who was used to being fairly popular, and was now out of her element.
The mystery of the models illness, once revealed, was pretty cool. The ending could have wrapped up with a big bow, but instead Heily set things up for a sequel, which will hopefully allow Grape to set things back to normal.
The only thing this book lacks is a romantic subplot for Grape, but this book honestly did not need it. In a world of books with romance, it's refreshing once in a while to find one without.
Like I said above, I love this story and I'm excited for the sequel!
Note: I do work for the publisher, however I stand by my review and rating. I really enjoyed this book.
I loved this story. 16 year old Grape fit in just fine at her old school, but when she moves with her mother and brother to Sortilege Falls, she soon finds that this town is nothing like her old one. The townsfolk are obsessed with a group of teens known as The Models because they are all inhumanely beautiful. They're all real jerks, except for Mandy, who becomes Grape's only friend in school.
I think what I loved most about this book is that the author could have written this as a straight fantasy novel, but instead chose to disguise the fantasy elements in a contemporary setting. I have a feeling the sequel will have more fantasy elements.
I feel like the author portrayed her characters the way she wanted. The Models came across as stuck up and self absorbed, even Mandy was a little bitchy but not in the way the others were. Grape came across as a nice girl, but one who was used to being fairly popular, and was now out of her element.
The mystery of the models illness, once revealed, was pretty cool. The ending could have wrapped up with a big bow, but instead Heily set things up for a sequel, which will hopefully allow Grape to set things back to normal.
The only thing this book lacks is a romantic subplot for Grape, but this book honestly did not need it. In a world of books with romance, it's refreshing once in a while to find one without.
Like I said above, I love this story and I'm excited for the sequel!
Note: I do work for the publisher, however I stand by my review and rating. I really enjoyed this book.
bookwormbunny's review against another edition
3.0
***I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review of it. The opinions and thoughts stated concerning this book are solely my own and no one else’s. ***
Welcome to Sortilege Falls by Libby Heily is a story about a girl named Grape Merriweather who has just moved to Sortilege Falls with her mom and her younger brother Brad. There is something strange about this town. Grape is starting school some place new and so she believes that her fellow students will be welcoming and nice and even helpful when needed. But what she finds instead is something else altogether. She’s completely and utterly ignored. Only when speaking to one of her fellow students does she remotely get an ounce of attention from them and even then they act as though they are being put out just to answer a single question asked. It makes her miss her old home even more. But Grape soon discovers why everyone is so…cold. She meets the Models outside in the parking lot by accident and quickly understands why everyone barely even acknowledges her. The Models are perfection…physically but their attitudes…leave much to be desired. One Model seems nicer than the others and seems to befriend Grape. But things start getting weird fast in Sortilege Falls, with the Models and even with Grape’s little brother, Brad.
This is an interesting book that combines moving to a new place and being the new girl angst with mystery and a touch of fantasy. Now I say a touch because until you get closer to the end you don’t really get a lot of the fantasy element that is lying just beneath the surface of this book. I really wanted a bit more but the writer keeps that aspect mostly on the fringes for the characters. Like they know something is going on but they just really dismiss it quickly and don’t care too much…or they just blow it off. But as you’re reading this you’ll pick up on it quickly and then question….”Why didn’t they see/notice/question?”
Me personally I had a few issues with Grape as a character. Sometimes she’d have a good personality but then other times she really needed a good shake. I guess on one hand one should find it refreshing that the author decided to give her a less than atypical healthy appetite for a teen especially for a girl but her practically being a bottomless pit? That for me was just a bit annoying about her. For me there’s a difference between hunger and just being plain greedy and Grape tended to fall into the “greedy” category for me and even edged into “taking advantage” category on her “date” with Graeson.
I’ll admit that since I managed to read this book and finish it in a couple of days that I did enjoy most of the aspects of it but I can’t say that I loved it. This book is easily categorized as YA and possibly even a bit as a YA Mystery but really classifying this as anything beyond that is a bit of a stretch until the very end of where it gets a touch of Fantasy to it. Because all in all there really isn’t that much of it in there at all so I struggle to really say this is a YA Mystery/Fantasy because it just falls short on the fantasy part for me. This book definitely has it’s elements that help separate it from others in the same category but I really wish there had been more Fantasy put into it so that it would have really gotten into the depths of the story and not just been tossed in at the end.
As much as I wanted to really like this book it falls a bit short for me in quite a few places. I give this book 3.5 out of 5 stars. I had higher expectations of this book and it just really failed to meet them this time. But I do hope to read more by this author in the future and see her improve her story telling talent because she does have that.
Welcome to Sortilege Falls by Libby Heily is a story about a girl named Grape Merriweather who has just moved to Sortilege Falls with her mom and her younger brother Brad. There is something strange about this town. Grape is starting school some place new and so she believes that her fellow students will be welcoming and nice and even helpful when needed. But what she finds instead is something else altogether. She’s completely and utterly ignored. Only when speaking to one of her fellow students does she remotely get an ounce of attention from them and even then they act as though they are being put out just to answer a single question asked. It makes her miss her old home even more. But Grape soon discovers why everyone is so…cold. She meets the Models outside in the parking lot by accident and quickly understands why everyone barely even acknowledges her. The Models are perfection…physically but their attitudes…leave much to be desired. One Model seems nicer than the others and seems to befriend Grape. But things start getting weird fast in Sortilege Falls, with the Models and even with Grape’s little brother, Brad.
This is an interesting book that combines moving to a new place and being the new girl angst with mystery and a touch of fantasy. Now I say a touch because until you get closer to the end you don’t really get a lot of the fantasy element that is lying just beneath the surface of this book. I really wanted a bit more but the writer keeps that aspect mostly on the fringes for the characters. Like they know something is going on but they just really dismiss it quickly and don’t care too much…or they just blow it off. But as you’re reading this you’ll pick up on it quickly and then question….”Why didn’t they see/notice/question?”
Me personally I had a few issues with Grape as a character. Sometimes she’d have a good personality but then other times she really needed a good shake. I guess on one hand one should find it refreshing that the author decided to give her a less than atypical healthy appetite for a teen especially for a girl but her practically being a bottomless pit? That for me was just a bit annoying about her. For me there’s a difference between hunger and just being plain greedy and Grape tended to fall into the “greedy” category for me and even edged into “taking advantage” category on her “date” with Graeson.
I’ll admit that since I managed to read this book and finish it in a couple of days that I did enjoy most of the aspects of it but I can’t say that I loved it. This book is easily categorized as YA and possibly even a bit as a YA Mystery but really classifying this as anything beyond that is a bit of a stretch until the very end of where it gets a touch of Fantasy to it. Because all in all there really isn’t that much of it in there at all so I struggle to really say this is a YA Mystery/Fantasy because it just falls short on the fantasy part for me. This book definitely has it’s elements that help separate it from others in the same category but I really wish there had been more Fantasy put into it so that it would have really gotten into the depths of the story and not just been tossed in at the end.
As much as I wanted to really like this book it falls a bit short for me in quite a few places. I give this book 3.5 out of 5 stars. I had higher expectations of this book and it just really failed to meet them this time. But I do hope to read more by this author in the future and see her improve her story telling talent because she does have that.
evelyn14's review against another edition
2.0
Welcome to Sortilege Falls is about Grape, who just moved to this town. For some reason there live a lot of beautiful humans, who are all models, in this town, and all the other inhabitants are obsessed over them. As soon as Grape moves into this town all these Models start to get sick.
And the reason why was so weird.
The beginning of the story really interested me, that was until the point were you learned why everyone was obsessed over the beautiful people. But then the book lost my interest, and started to get weird.
I think this is a nice kind of contemporary story with a twist, I just don´t enjoy those kind of books.
*Thanks to netgalley for providing this book*
And the reason why was so weird.
The beginning of the story really interested me, that was until the point were you learned why everyone was obsessed over the beautiful people. But then the book lost my interest, and started to get weird.
I think this is a nice kind of contemporary story with a twist, I just don´t enjoy those kind of books.
*Thanks to netgalley for providing this book*
undertowsoul's review
4.0
I have to admit that I quite enjoyed the start of this series and look forward to reading more. Luckily, as a teen book, it's great for kids with advanced reading levels as it's also a pretty "clean" book in terms of swearing, sex, or violence (the things I warn my readers of). The only thing I wasn't fond of is that the pacing felt a bit off. The first half of the book was fine, maybe a tiny bit on the slower side but not by much. The last bit of the book went very quickly and left me wanting more. Luckily for me, I have the next lined up to read as well but consider yourself forewarned!
I would like to thank the publisher, author, and Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
I would like to thank the publisher, author, and Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
evelyn14's review
2.0
Welcome to Sortilege Falls is about Grape, who just moved to this town. For some reason there live a lot of beautiful humans, who are all models, in this town, and all the other inhabitants are obsessed over them. As soon as Grape moves into this town all these Models start to get sick.
And the reason why was so weird.
The beginning of the story really interested me, that was until the point were you learned why everyone was obsessed over the beautiful people. But then the book lost my interest, and started to get weird.
I think this is a nice kind of contemporary story with a twist, I just don´t enjoy those kind of books.
*Thanks to netgalley for providing this book*
And the reason why was so weird.
The beginning of the story really interested me, that was until the point were you learned why everyone was obsessed over the beautiful people. But then the book lost my interest, and started to get weird.
I think this is a nice kind of contemporary story with a twist, I just don´t enjoy those kind of books.
*Thanks to netgalley for providing this book*
nocilantroextraolives's review
5.0
This review is very overdue!
I love so many things about this book - the main character who is uniquely herself and has buckets of self-possession, if not self-confidence; the unlikable-but-kinda-likable models who you sympathize with even when they're trashing your girl, Grape; the little brother who is up to some shit you don't want to look at too closely; and definitely the Twilight-inspired Romeo who is really barking up the wrong tree.
Love love love!
I am a little biased as I was a beta reader for this book, but you should read it yourself and find out how great it is!
I love so many things about this book - the main character who is uniquely herself and has buckets of self-possession, if not self-confidence; the unlikable-but-kinda-likable models who you sympathize with even when they're trashing your girl, Grape; the little brother who is up to some shit you don't want to look at too closely; and definitely the Twilight-inspired Romeo who is really barking up the wrong tree.
Love love love!
I am a little biased as I was a beta reader for this book, but you should read it yourself and find out how great it is!
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