100 Follower Giveaway!

When I started this blog, I couldn't imagine that over a hundred people would want to read my ponderings about the books I read!  It's totally amazing, and I'm seriously touched that you guys choose to check in and see what's going on over here in my bookish life.

So I wanted to host a giveaway to thank you guys for your support!  Last week I went to Lisa McMann's signing of her new book The Unwanteds and got a book signed to give away to one of you.  It also comes with a nifty postcard and Unwanteds silly band that Lisa gave away at the signing!

Let's say I'll announce the winner on October 25th.  US and international people are more than welcome. Any questions or stuff I didn't make clear or anything else, do leave a comment below...  Oh yeah, and I won't use your information for any purpose beyond sending you a book if you're the winner!

Review: Prized by Caragh O'Brien

Prized
by Caragh O’Brien
November 8, 2011
Received Arc from NetGalley
Goodreads Page
Amazon Page
Grade: A-

Striking out into the wasteland with nothing but her baby sister, a handful of supplies, and a rumor to guide her, sixteen-year-old midwife Gaia Stone survives only to be captured by the people of Sylum, a dystopian society where women rule the men who drastically outnumber them, and a kiss is a crime.  In order to see her sister again, Gaia must submit to their strict social code, but how can she deny her sense of justice, her curiosity, and everything in her heart that makes her whole?

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I reviewed the first book in this trilogy a week ago.  If you haven't read Birthmarked yet, this review contains spoilers for the outcome of that book but not for particulars.

My favourite thing about Caragh O’Brien’s dystopian societies is that they make so much sense.  Slyum, the main society in Prized is completely different from the Enclave that Gaia escaped in Birthmarked, but the reader can clearly see how both societies developed in reaction to their particular circumstances.  As I said at the end of my review of Birthmarked, O’Brien threw all the pieces up in the air at the end of that book, and as the sequel begins, those pieces are still falling back to the ground.

After a horrific journey and almost losing her baby sister to starvation, Gaia Stone is rescued by the people of Slyum and given an immediate choice.  If she chooses to stay, she must allow her sister to be raised by a ‘more fit’ mother, but she and her sister can stay in this veritable paradise of lakes and greenery unknown to the drought-stricken Enclave.  There are, however, two other conditions.  If they stay, they can never leave because everyone who leaves the area dies, and they must obey the Matrach.  On the other hand, Gaia and her sister are free to continue traveling into the wilderness, leaving the place her mother told her to find.

The repercussions of Gaia’s choice resonate through the rest of the book.  I really enjoy this type of catch-22 especially when the consequences are so dire.  Slyum has very few women, and the percentage of baby girls born has been falling every year so their society has developed to value being female above anything else.  Only women – and only women who agree to follow the Matrach’s dictates and bear at least ten children - are allowed a voice in society decisions.  Men compete to gain a woman’s attention and perhaps her hand in marriage, but touching a woman without being engaged to her is viewed as the crime attempted rape.

Gaia continues to be a fascinating character, and I appreciate how the author allows her to be flat out wrong at times and be judged by the other characters for it.  She never falls into that trap where the main character appears to be wrong, but at the end she’s shown to have been right all along and just misunderstood.  Gaia makes terrible choices, and she and her friends sometimes suffer from them.  She’s still the stubborn and intelligent girl that she was in Birthmarked, but it’s clear that Maya near brush with death as a result of Gaia’s actions along with the events of Birthmarked have changed her.  She’s almost grateful at first to accept the Matrach’s authority over her – anything to prevent all responsibility from falling on her shoulders.  It’s frustrating as a reader to watch her allow herself be led so obviously, and it’s an utter relief to see her finally accept the inherent injustice in Slyum’s society and start to rebel against it.

I complained a little in my review of Birthmarked that Gaia swung too quickly from accepting the Enclave’s system to rebelling against it, but after reading Prized, I feel quite a bit differently.  She almost takes too long to act against Slyum’s injustice, and the difference makes an interesting study of how power affects actions.  In Slyum, for the first time, Gaia is a highly valued and potentially powerful member of the society as midwife but more importantly as a potentially fertile woman.  Her acceptance of this position makes it more difficult for her to support reforms against the establishment even when she notices and knows that the society is far from just.

As I touched on earlier, the author’s worldbuilding is absolutely fantastic.  She obviously has a firm grounding (no pun intended) in the geographic reality of her story, but also the way her society is structured, the firm internal rules of the world and characters, and the effects of the environment on both personal and societal development.  That last is something that often seems negligible, but I believe it’s one of the most important factors in making a society feel real to the reader instead of just dreamed up and plopped anywhere convenient.

There’s much more romance in this book than in the first, and it’s here that O’Brien seems most uncertain.  The love quadrangle that develops makes sense within the society – when there are so few women, of course men are going to compete for a viable mate, but the reasons why two brothers choose to focus their attention on Gaia seem less clear.  William’s interest makes more sense to me – Gaia’s the only person in the society with the same insatiable curiosity for figuring out why their society is, but Peter’s seems tacked on.  Perhaps the societal impulse is all there needs to be, but I kept hoping for more.

Leon was a character I loved in Birthmarked, and I was so happy to see him reappear.  He rejected his privilege in the Enclave, but his adjustment to the true loss of it in Sylum was an interesting character arc.  Again, that theme of power affecting actions came into play, and in Prized, it’s Leon who instantly wants to rebel against the system and make changes to the way things are done.  The swap in roles between him and Gaia affect their relationship dramatically, and while I didn’t always agree with Leon’s handling of the situation, here too, I appreciated that the author let the character be absolutely wrong at times.

By completely changing the surroundings and forcing Gaia and Leon to adapt to a new society, O’Brien managed to avoid the typical second installment letdown.  Prized is built upon the reader’s previous knowledge of the characters, but it allows itself the freedom to tell a different though complementary story to the first book.  I enjoyed Prized even more than I did Birthmarked, and I absolutely look forward to seeing where the third book in this trilogy leads us.

Thank you to NetGalley and Roaring Book Press for allowing me to read this arc!

In My Mailbox: Sunday October 16

The calendar says it's Sunday....which means it's time for The Story Siren's In My Mailbox meme!  Now we all get to talk about the books we picked up over the past week!

Purchased:
The Unwanteds by Lisa McMann
The Predicteds by Christine Seifert
Bunheads by Sophie Flack (for Kindle)

From the Library:
Cleopatra's Moon by Vicky Alvear Shecter
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John
The FitzOsbournes in Exile by Michelle Cooper
I Know It's Over by C.K. Kelly Martin
Tangled by Carolyn Mackler

From Netgalley:
Dearly, Departed by Lisa Habel
Life Eternal by Yvonne Woon
The Traitor's Daughter by Paula Brandon

What books did you guys get this week?  Leave me a link so I can check your IMM posts out!

Review: Dreaming Anastasia by Joy Preble

Dreaming Anastasia
by Joy Preble
September 1, 2009
Borrowed from Library
Amazon Page
Goodreads Page
Grade: B-

What really happened to Anastasia Romanov?

Anastasia Romanov thought she would never feel more alone than when the gunfire started and her family began to fall around her. Surely the bullets would come for her next. But they didn't. Instead, two gnarled old hands reached for her. When she wakes up she discovers that she is in the ancient hut of the witch Baba Yaga, and that some things are worse than being dead.

In modern-day Chicago, Anne doesn't know much about Russian history. She is more concerned about getting into a good college—until the dreams start. She is somewhere else. She is someone else. And she is sharing a small room with a very old woman. The vivid dreams startle her, but not until a handsome stranger offers to explain them does she realize her life is going to change forever. She is the only one who can save Anastasia. But, Anastasia is having her own dreams…

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This was an odd little book that, despite the subject of Anastasia Romanov, really felt completely original as I read it.  Perhaps it’s in part because there are so few retellings of Russian fairy tales – or Russian influence on typical young adult paranormal books, but while some of the elements were familiar, the story as a whole was incredibly fresh.

We start with Anna, a modern Chicagoland teenager, who’s having weird dreams of another teen girl trapped in a little cottage on chicken legs.  Anna tries to brush the dreams off – as well as the odd sightings of a boy who seems to be following her – in order to focus on her schoolwork and ballet, but nothing seems to work. 

The author quickly introduces two other points of view – that of the boy, Ethan, who’s been looking for Anna for one hundred years and the other girl, Anastasia Romanov.  When the Romanov family was killing that day in Ekaterinaburg, Anastasia was saved by the hands of Baba Yaga and taken to live with her in her hut for eternity.

From the beginning, there are many mysteries to simultaneously unravel.  Who’s Ethan and what does he want with Anna?  Why is Anna dreaming about Anastasia and conversely why is Anastasia dreaming about Anna?  How was Anastasia saved from death, and can she be rescued from Baba Yaga’s hands?  What does Anna have to do with any of this?  Maybe there are almost too many threads for them all to be handled well because the characterization of most of the characters suffers as a result.

Anna seemed the typical teenage girl – almost too typical at times.  Her side comments and attempts to be snarky took the place of a developed personality.  And while she certainly was brave and I cheered her on, I also wanted to see a more of a three-dimensional character emerge from the demands of the plot.

Surprisingly, Ethan was much more developed as a character.  Other than his (sigh) instant love for Anna, his motivations and goals were both clear and reasonable.  I loved the idea of an order of eternal Brothers searching for the girl who possesses the power to free the Last Romanov from her prison.  I rarely believed that Ethan was actually over a hundred years old – he read mostly as a teenager, but there was a definite weight to him and his actions that felt appropriate.

My favourite character of the trio definitely was Anastasia.  All her scenes had a dreamlike quality that really intrigued me.  Perhaps I expected less because she truly was a fairytale character, but she jumped off the page even though she’s trapped within a tiny hut for the majority of the book.  And – without spoilers – her actions at the end of the books felt entirely true both to her character and to her role as a Romanov princess.

The ‘letters’ Anastasia writes to her family were the worst part of her storyline.  I love the idea of letters written by Anastasia from her prison, but from a purely superficial view, the handwriting font used is incredibly difficult to read, and while I completely can believe this great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria would write in English, the English she uses is colloquial and full of late twentieth and twenty-first century slang to the point of being jarring.  The letters also spent a lot of time discussing Romanov history sometimes to the point of an infodump.  From an alternate point of view, I couldn’t help wondering why Anastasia would write to her family about history they already would know or why she’d do it so awkwardly “…as you probably remember, dear papa,” etc…  Perhaps a diary or letters to an unknown recipient would have served this aim better.

The dream sequences set in Baba Yaga’s hut are handled much, much more skillfully, and at times, I almost wanted to have the entire book set there in the odd fairytale world of talking matryoshka dolls and magic.  The fairytale atmosphere really takes over here, and the dreamlike quality I mentioned before is very, very well done.

This is definitely a plot driven story as opposed to a character driven one.  The plot is both intriguing and ambitious, but it would have been better served by more completely drawn characters and more of a focus on making sure the characters would feasibly perform the actions the plot requires.  I’m not entirely sure this book had gelled completely in the author’s head, and I think it could have withstood another draft or two to really develop into a worthy vehicle for these interesting and original plot ideas.

I didn’t realize this was the first in a trilogy until I just looked the book up on Goodreads this moment.  It felt like a standalone novel, and while I can see the hooks into a second book, the second book also doesn’t feel necessary.  However I’ve requested it from my library, and we’ll see how it goes.

Follow Friday and TGIF!

Friday's meme day in the blogosphere, and I love getting to visit with new and old people every week to see their answers to the questions posed.

TGIF is a weekly feature created and hosted by GReads!

This week at Books and Threads

Sunday: In My Mailbox

Wednesday: Waiting on Wednesday

Thursday: Literary Adventures 

Reviews
The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan
Birthmarked by Caragh O'Brien
Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
Spoiled by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan

Show & Tell: Where do you grab a book and get lost in it? Show us your favorite spot you like to read at.

I really should have looked at this question before it was dark and rainy outside because my favourite reading place is on the porch or down the road on the beach!  I live in a really small space so most of what I do is on my bed.  It's my reading spot, but also my computer spot and watching Netflix spot and everything else. 

So that's my bed complete with books, Kindle and my kitty Chavez.  She's not nearly as huge as that shadow there makes her look, but she's pretty big, yeah.  She also hates me reading, typing, or doing anything that involves 'not petting her.'

Also, yes, that's a baseball bat between the side table and the bed.  Don't you guys keep weapons against monsters near by at all times?

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Follow My Book Blog Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and Alison Can Read to feature a different blogger every week and let all of us stop by to say hi! 



This week's featured blogger is Sophie at Life Between Pages.

Q.If you could have characters from a particular book meet and form an epic storyline with characters from a particular TV series, which would you choose and why? 

....it's a terrible answer, I know, but I want the Scooby Gang from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to meet the Cullen family from Twilight.

On a less obvious note, how about Kat and her friends from Heist Society hanging out with the crew of Serenity from Firefly?  I think Kat could give Mal and his crew a few tips on successful stealing!

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Book Blogger Hop is a weekly meme hosted by Crazy for Books that allows us to connect with and support other book bloggers who love books just as much as we do!

“What is your favorite spooky book (i.e. mystery/suspense, thriller, ghost story, etc.)?”

Well, the most recent ghost story that I absolutely loved is Maureen Johnson's The Name of the Star.  Spookiness and hilarity.  What could be bad?

My other two favourite spooky books are ones I mention all the dang time so I feel badly, but hey, people should read and know about them!  So they are Pamela Dean's Tam Lin and Mira Grant's Feed.  They're completely different types of creepyness.  Tam Lin is all about faeries and Halloween! and seeing what you shouldn't and trying to deal with the supernatural while Feed is a zombie thriller that you probably shouldn't read in the dark. 

I look forward to seeing your answers!  Be sure to link me to your Follow Friday posts so I can see.  :D

A Literary Adventure!

I had such a bookish day yesterday!  First I was lucky enough to attend an Ebook Summit while at work and listen to a bunch of really smart people talk about how ebooks are changing the publishing industry and the future of libraries and how libraries can/should adapt for the future.  It is something seriously interesting to think about, and I think it’s going to be a really exciting and interesting next few decades.  Also probably scary.

M.T. Anderson

One of the coolest things was getting to hear M.T. Anderson as the keynote speaker.  I loved Feed and have had the Octavian Nothing books on my TBR list for a good long while.  Let me tell you, the man is a fabulous speaker.  If you ever get a chance to go to an event with him or hear him speak?  Do it.  I laughed, I nodded vehemently, and I really, really wished I could possibly speak even half as articulately as the man. 

He talked about how the changes in the publishing industry affects authors.  I knew that ebook numbers don’t count for the New York Times bestseller lists (which is one of the reasons I try to buy new releases in hardcover), but I’d never really made the connection between a greater proportion of new releases being sold as an ebook at $9.99 (or $10.99 whatever) lowers the author’s 15% (or so) commission compared to the same number sold at the hardcover price.  I mean, duh, it’s obvious when you think of it that way, but I’d never put the two things together.  So if ebooks take over a large market share, authors lose quite a bit of their possible commissions and (especially for mid-market or genre authors) may either earn out their advance much more slowly or possibly not at all.  Which could lead to advances getting smaller or the only people writing books full-time are ones who already have money or are the massively popular authors.  It’s an interesting thought and possible conundrum for authors choosing traditional publishing. 

He also talked for a long time about changes in storytelling and long form narrative driven by things like ebooks, iPads and the internet, all of which was really interesting - and funny! - but nothing I can even begin to summarize.  Here - go check out the man’s website and definitely take a look at the Tourists’ Guide to Deepest, Darkest Delaware.  Because it is hilarious. 

Lisa McMann

After leaving the library, I drove down to Holland to see the fabulous Lisa McMann speak and do a signing on her The Unwanteds book tour.  I really enjoyed her Gone trilogy, but I haven't had a chance to pick up The Unwanteds yet so I leaped at the chance to both meet her and get a signed copy!  She visited a Barnes and Noble, and I SO wish I’d brought a camera, because that store was packed - and mostly with preteens!  It was so cool seeing all the kids gripping their books and totally geeked out about seeing an author.  I sat next to a 12 year old boy who couldn’t stop telling me about how he’d only read a little of The Unwanteds but how he really loved it and he especially liked Ms. McMann because she’d come to his school!  People talk a lot about what it takes to get boys to read - apparently Ms McMann’s got it!

She gave a short talk about her writing background and how she’d thought of the idea for The Unwanteds after her kids’ school system cut money for the arts.  Ms. McMann’s a funny and engaging speaker.  She absolutely held all the kids’ attention as she talked about how she and her kids brainstormed for magic spells and the books.

And the best part!  I got a signed book and prize pack for me and one to giveaway here!  I figure it’ll be a 100 follower giveaway unless I decide to be a hockey dork and make it for 96 followers.   ...because that’s Tomas Holmstrom’s number.  Shhh, I admitted I was a dork.

So yes!  That was my awesome book-filled day.  Today I have the library and get to work with a class of kindergartners.  I love class visits so much.

Waiting on Wednesday: A Million Suns by Beth Revis

 Waiting on Wednesday is the awesome meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine to highlight exciting upcoming books.  This week, I'm excited for:

 A Million Suns
by Beth Revis
January 10, 2012

Godspeed was fueled by lies. Now it is ruled by chaos. 


It's been three months since Amy was unplugged. The life she always knew is over. And everywhere she looks, she sees the walls of the spaceship Godspeed. But there may just be hope: Elder has assumed leadership of the ship. He's finally free to enact his vision - no more Phydus, no more lies.

But when Elder discovers shocking news about the ship, he and Amy race to discover the truth behind life on Godspeed. They must work together to unlock a puzzle that was set in motion hundreds of years earlier, unable to fight the romance that's growing between them and the chaos that threatens to tear them apart.

In book two of the Across the Universe trilogy, New York Times bestselling author Beth Revis mesmerizes us again with a brilliantly crafted mystery filled with action, suspense, romance, and deep philosophical questions. And this time it all builds to one mind-bending conclusion: They have to get off this ship.

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I was completely disappointed the ending of Across the Universe But most of those concerns were related to it wrapping too quickly without any resolution, and now that I realise this is a trilogy, the concerns are almost totally gone.  Which means now I'm free to be completely excited about the next book in the trilogy and more Elder and Amy!  And I totally am.  The entire set up is amazing, and I love all the care Beth Revis took in designing Godspeed.

Plus I totally adore books about giant spaceships.  I don't know why, but it's a thing.

Review: Spoiled by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan

Spoiled
by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
June 1, 2011
Borrowed from Library
Goodreads Page
Amazon Page
Grade: B

16-year-old Molly Dix loves her ordinary life in suburban Indiana, so when her single mother passes away, she is shocked to discover that her biological father is Brick Berlin, world famous movie star and red carpet regular.

Equally intrigued and terrified by her Hollywood lineage, Molly moves to Southern California and plunges head-first into the deep end of Beverly Hills celebrity life. Just as Molly thinks her new life and family couldn't get any stranger, she meets Brooke Berlin, her gorgeous and spoiled half-sister whom welcomes Molly to la-la land with a healthy dose of passive-aggressive "sisterly love."

Set against the backdrop of a sparkling and fashion-filled Los Angeles, this deliciously dysfunctional family soap opera will satisfy every reader looking for their next lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-famous beach read.

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There’s no doubt that Spoiled is a really, really fun book.  I’ve enjoyed the Fug Girls’ snarky fashion and celebrity blog for years, and Spoiled is written in the same breezy and hilarious style.  The plot isn’t as fantastic as the writing style, but I wanted to forgive the book anything just because the ride was a blast.

As mentioned in the synopsis, our co-heroines are half-sisters suddenly introduced to each other after the death of Molly’s mother.  And their father just happens to be one of the biggest movie stars on the planet.  Very often Molly comes across as just too sweet to be real.  She forgives insult after insult and even when she decides to fight back, she instantly feels terribly about it.  Her naivety is also played up a little too much especially when she first meets Brooke.  Brooke’s insincerity and sabotage of Molly nearly drips off the page, but Molly doesn’t even suspect anything until she’s been publicly ridiculed for the results of Brooke’s actions.

Brooke, on the other hand, is delightfully mean though she doesn’t quite reach the heights of her hero, Blair Waldorf.  Her nastiness is a lot more interesting than Molly’s sweetness, and as badly as I felt for Molly, I tended to root for her mean girl sister.  Brooke’s dark secret is also maybe a little too easily revealed.  Once she’s hugged, she lets go of that mean girl image almost instantly to try to form a sisterly bond with Molly.

My absolute favourite character was the movie star father, Brick Berlin.  Every time he appeared, I couldn’t help laughing at the perfect satire the authors created.  He was hilariously over sincere, and his ever-present iPhone with its note taking app provided more than a few laughs even as the reader felt badly for any child of this self-absorbed man.

I definitely want to read the upcoming sequel to Spoiled.  None of the plot devices or characterizations (other than maybe the father Berlin) were terribly original, but the writing more than made up for it.  Also the authors really seemed to enjoy themselves.  You know how sometimes you read a book by established authors just entering the YA field, and it feels like they figured it’d be easy money so no need to actually write well?  The Fug Girls are the complete opposite.  The authorial voice is obviously having a great time, and it pulls the reader along for the ride.

Review: The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

The Girl of Fire and Thorns
by Rae Carson
September 20, 2011
Bought in Hardcover
Amazon Page
Goodreads Page
Grade: B+

Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness.

Elisa is the chosen one.

But she is also the younger of two princesses, the one who has never done anything remarkable. She can’t see how she ever will.

Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king—a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who needs the chosen one, not a failure of a princess.

And he’s not the only one who needs her. Savage enemies seething with dark magic are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary thinks she could be his people’s savior. And he looks at her in a way that no man has ever looked at her before. Soon it is not just her life, but her very heart that is at stake.

Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If she doesn’t die young.

Most of the chosen do.

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This is one of those books where there are problems and frustrations you note as you read it, but then when you close the book after the last page, sigh happily, and say ‘that was a good story.’  Carson wrote a very satisfying type of traditional fantasy that I, an inveterate fantasy reader, couldn’t help but gobble up in one sitting.  And yet there are many of the flaws of a traditional high fantasy book as well.

Elisa is an interesting heroine who makes me oh-so-conflicted.  She hates herself so very much at the beginning of the book that it’s difficult to get much of a read on her personality.  Always shadowed by talented older sister, Elisa’s never had much asked of her, and even if she’s the bearer of the Godstone, she’s pretty certain that standing up for herself is something she’ll never be able to do.  Yet when she’s married off to a neighboring monarch, she manages incredible bravery under very difficult circumstances. That contradiction between her bravery and sense of duty and self-loathing provides much of the internal conflict throughout the book.

My problem here is one that has been mentioned many times, and that’s the issue of Elisa’s weight.  I absolutely love seeing a heroine who’s both a POC and not perfectly fit, but so much of her self-hatred is based in her weight, and much of it - both self-hatred and weight - disappears once she experiences near literal starvation in the desert.  I always enjoy seeing a character come into her own, but I would have loved it so much more if Elisa came to love herself and respect herself as she was at the beginning of the story.  She’s brave before she loses weight, but she becomes a respected leader afterwards.  I think the entire character journey could have been so much more powerful done differently.

But for the parts of Elisa that I loved, I loved her booksmarts and ability to think completely tactically when needed.  There are several times where very difficult decisions had to be made, and I admire the character for being able to make those unflinchingly.  I loved watching her attempt to adapt to different cultures.  I really liked how she apologises when she’s in the wrong, and how she’s determined to fulfill her duty as the bearer of the Godstone.  The character rarely felt sixteen to me.  Often she seemed much older, but I can find that believable as a simple function of having been raised a princess.

Carson’s world-building is consistently well done from the Spanish influence of Elisa’s home kingdom of Orovalle to the hill people to the mix of cultures in Brisadulce.  And the fact that the desert wasn’t immediately home to a fantasy version of Bedouins was fantastic.  As much as I like gorgeous horses, that particular stereotype is overdone, and it’s neat to see the idea of a nearly unlivable desert play out.  The city of Brisadulce confused me a little bit in that it seemed a desert city but then at one point was mentioned to be on the ocean.  For this reasons and others, I’d have loved if the author had included a map of her world.  Some of the routes traveled from city to city got confusing especially towards the end of the book when the speed required didn’t seem to match with earlier information, and it would have been really nice to be able to look at a map and trace the journeys!

Throughout the book, there seemed to be some pacing issues.  I completely am fine with the slow set up as Carson built her world and provided the reader with enough information to understand the plot, but after that, the pace seemed to be a little bit jerky.  One hopes to have a plot build, reach a minor conflict, build some more, reach another conflict, build again to the climax, but The Girl of Fire and Thorns never really settled into a rhythm for me.

I hope in the final two books of this trilogy, we get to see more of the Perditos and Inviernos, and hopefully see both cultures as more than the godless savages of this first book.  I appreciate the book for embracing religion as a major part of the characters’ lives - it’s high medieval fantasy, some type of religion is definitely appropriate, but I’ll be less comfortable if the cultures apart from the religion continue to be portrayed as little more than animals.

In a lot of ways, I’m hard on high fantasy because I’ve read so much of it over the years making me less of tolerant of some of the tropes of the genre.  I truly don’t mean to pick The Girl of Fire and Thorns to pieces because it was a satisfying and enjoyable read, and I do look forward to next two books in the trilogy.  (And I very much appreciated that this book had a definite ending instead of a cliffhanger.)  But there were issues that niggle and that are possibly a function of this being the author’s debut novel. 

If Carson continues writing in this tradition of Tamora Pierce and Kristin Cashore with strong female heroines and well developed worlds, I think she’ll be a force to be reckoned with in the young adult arena.  I’d recommend The Girl of Fire and Thorns to anyone looking for an enjoyable high fantasy read featuring a strong heroine - and strong supporting female characters, and I very much look forward to what Carson comes up with next.

Review: Birthmarked by Caragh O'Brien

Birthmarked
by Caragh O’Brien
March 30, 2010
Borrowed from Library
Goodreads Page
Amazon Page
Grade: B+

IN THE ENCLAVE, YOUR SCARS SET YOU APART, and the newly born will change the future.

Sixteen-year-old Gaia Stone and her mother faithfully deliver their quota of three infants every month. But when Gaia’s mother is brutally taken away by the very people she serves, Gaia must question whether the Enclave deserves such loyalty. A stunning adventure brought to life by a memorable heroine, this dystopian debut will have readers racing all the way to the dramatic finish.

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I wanted to reread Birthmarked before reading its sequel Prized, and since I never reviewed it, I’m going to do so now.  Of course, I’m not totally comfortable reviewing rereads so we’ll see how this goes.  On the second read, this book still makes me love it and shudder at the thought of my beloved Great Lakes going dry and becoming desert-dry valleys or ‘unlakes’ in the parlance of the book. 

Gaia is an interesting heroine.  She’s a midwife instead of the ass-kicker more common to young adult fiction.  She’s also incredibly stubborn, not terribly quick on her verbal feet, and has built rarely-breached walls around herself.  Gaia believes she fell into a pot of hot melted beeswax when she was a baby, causing a massive scar across her left cheek.  The scar and the stares caused by it have caused her to pull into herself, pushing away anyone who tries to become anything closer than an acquaintance.  I seriously enjoyed watching her grow from a reticent village midwife into someone who could very easily be called a freedom fighter. 

On the other hand, her about face from dutifully taking newborn babies from their mothers to deliver to the walled Enclave to thinking that the Enclave’s system was evil happened almost too quickly - within just a matter of pages.  But once Gaia decides something, she decides it with her entire heart and judges all those around her accordingly.  It’s a trait I enjoy in main characters even when it makes me want to repeatedly beat them over the head for being a judgemental ass.  Her utter loyalty to those she loves - her parents who she runs into danger for, the babies she delivers, her friend Emily who she’d protect at all costs - dovetails nicely with the decisiveness.  They combine to effect most of the action in the book.

The overarching world-building in Birthmarked isn’t always of the highest caliber.  It’s understandable that the characters wouldn’t wander around talking about whatever happened 300 years ago to cause the climate to change and the lakes to dry up.  But some additional information about the current society, how the Enclave and Wharfton developed and how they currently function would have been interesting. My biggest issue here is the use of hemophilia.  Those who live in the Enclave (inside the wall) are suffering from inbreeding, and one of the results in this society is ever more common occurrences of hemophilia.  Except that it seems to be used incorrectly.  Hemophilia is a recessive trait carried on the X chromosome which makes boys more likely to inherit the disease while girls tend to be carriers.  So why then does O’Brien have a family with a healthy son and a daughter who died of hemophilia?  If both parents have the gene, than both the father and the son should also have the disease.  It’s a frustrating problem because hemophilia is such a well-known disease.  A rare disease could have gotten away with some errors, and I wish O’Brien had chosen to go in that direction.

This bugs me even more because so much of O’Brien’s other worldbuilding is incredible.  Her details about midwivery and herbs are obviously well-researched and considered.  The description of Gaia’s rundown village of Wharfton as teeming with life contrasting with the literal and figurative sterility of the Enclave was very well done.  The comparison managed to be subtle and slowly grow throughout the story instead of hitting the reader over the head with its obviousness.

There’s very little romance so if that’s what you’re looking for, I’d probably advise another book, but Gaia and her potential love interest have a well-developed relationship that moves from antagonism to uneasy allies to antagonism again to potential friends or more.  I was pleasantly surprised that the interactions managed to avoid all the cliches from hate-at-first-sight to insta-love or starcrossed lovers.

The end of Birthmarked throws everything completely up in the air, and I don’t expect Prized to cover any of the same ground (literally or figuratively) as the first book in the trilogy.  It should be an interesting ride!  I’d definitely recommend Birthmarked to anyone looking for a character-driven dystopian novel with a stubbornly determined heroine at the heart.

Review: Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

Son of Neptune (Heroes of Olympus Book 2)

by Rick Riordan

October 4, 2011

Bought in Hardcover

Goodreads Link

Amazon Link

Grade: B

In the first pages of this standalone sequel to The Lost Hero, Percy Jackson remembers only his name and the name of Annabeth, a mysterious woman he associates somehow with the city of San Francisco. From those sparse clues, he must somehow complete a mission for the leader of the Roman camp even as he is being pursued by the two sisters of Medusa, who possess an apparently unquenchable thirst for vengeance: Even when killed, they spring back to life. Rick Riordan's second Heroes of Olympus promises even more excitement than the first.

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Rick Riordan has a very simple formula for his books.  There’s some camp life, a demigod receives a quest, the chosen teen and his friends go off into Incredible Danger. run into gods and monsters to help or hinder them, complete the quest against all odds, and come back to camp victorious.  Knowing that, I probably shouldn’t enjoy them as much as I do, but the books are also a great example of ‘it’s not the destination; it’s the journey.’

Son of Neptune is no different, but I still waited breathlessly for a year after reading The Lost Hero, and I totally expect to wait on the edge of my seat for the next twelve months until The Mark of Athena is released.  Actually I’m pretty sure I’m going to be even more desperate to read book 3 because the set up for it at the end of this book is so incredibly cool!

The eponymous Son of Neptune is, of course, everyone’s favourite Son of Poseidon Percy Jackson (well, okay, if Tyson’s your favourite, I can get behind that).  He begins the book remembering nothing about his past except a name – Annabeth.  Even though Percy only slowly regains his memory, he’s still the badass but dorky guy who’s completely and inexorably loyal to his friends.  The mystery that made Jason so intriguing in The Lost Hero is nowhere to be found since the reader already knows the truth about Percy, but it’s still interesting to watch the character we know so well interact with a entirely new society in the Roman demigod camp.

And the Roman camp is very cool.  The contrast with Camp Half-Blood is instant and major as the Romans run their camp as (what else) a Roman legion.  Each demigod serves 10 years in the Legion before being released with an option to live in the small city protected by the legion.  While Greek demigods assume they’ll die young, the Romans have figured out a way for generations of demigods to exist.  I loved the legion and cohorts and Reyna as the ultimate badass Praetor.  The Romans have the same rivalries and politics as the Greek camp; they’re just oriented differently - between cohorts rather than between children of different gods.  And like the ancient Romans, the Roman establishment is aware of - and completely distrusting of - the Greeks.  I completely cracked up at one point when a Roman demigod busts out the old “don’t trust Greeks bearing gifts!”

The two demigods who accompany Percy on the inevitable quest both have the typical Riordan ‘horrible secret’ that must never be told to their friends.  I was happy that that particular plot point was resolved earlier than the similar one in The Lost Hero, and both demigods - Hazel, daughter of Pluto and Frank, son of ...well, that’s a bit of a plot point - are interesting and endearing.  I especially enjoyed Hazel who’s the complete opposite of what one would expect from a child of Pluto/Hades.  She’s a little bit younger than the other demigods but probably way more responsible than most, and she’s the excellent contradiction of a sweet badass.  I loved Frank in all his ineptness and growing confidence, but he was on the more typical ‘I need to learn to trust myself’ journey, and while the specifics of the journey were interesting, it mostly felt like we’d already traveled that road more than a few times in this series.

So yeah, I enjoyed Son of Neptune, but the seams of Riordan’s writing show more in this book.  Much of it felt like action that simply had to be slogged through before the possible (hopeful!) gamechanging of the third book.  I liked Percy, Hazel, and the Roman camp, but the specifics of the quest weren’t entirely enjoyable this time.  I’ll definitely stick with the series because book 3 looks really cool, but if I were trying to get people to read the books, I wouldn’t start with this one!  (Other than, you know, it’s book two.)

In My Mailbox: Sunday October 9

First of all, how is it October 9th already?  It still barely feels like September let alone nearly mid-October!  But since the calendar (and the newly started hockey season!) says so, it's time for another installment of The Story Siren's In My Mailbox meme where we get to talk about the books we got our hands on this past week.

This week was a much quieter one for me, but it meant I got to read a lot of the books I've picked up over the past few weeks.

Bought:
The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan
Experienced by Lucy Silag (for Kindle)

Borrowed from Library
Spoiled by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
The Total Tragedy of a Girl Named Hamlet by Erin Dionne


What books did you guys get this week?  Leave me a link to your mailbox so I can see!

Review: The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

The Name of the Star
by Maureen Johnson
September 29, 2011
Bought in Hardcover
Goodreads Page
Amazon Page
Grade: A+

The day Louisiana teenager Rory Deveaux arrives in London marks a memorable occasion. For Rory, it's the start of a new life at a London boarding school. But for many, this will be remembered as the day a series of brutal murders broke out across the city, gruesome crimes mimicking the horrific Jack the Ripper events of more than a century ago.

Soon “Rippermania” takes hold of modern-day London, and the police are left with few leads and no witnesses. Except one. Rory spotted the man police believe to be the prime suspect. But she is the only one who saw him. Even her roommate, who was walking with her at the time, didn't notice the mysterious man. So why can only Rory see him? And more urgently, why has Rory become his next target? In this edge-of-your-seat thriller, full of suspense, humor, and romance, Rory will learn the truth about the secret ghost police of London and discover her own shocking abilities.

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The only book of Maureen Johnson’s that I read before this was 13 Little Blue Envelopes, and my attention wasn’t really caught by that one. But between the London setting and the boarding school and the main character’s awesome name, I had to pick up The Name of the Star.  I’m so happy I did.  This book was atmospheric, suspenseful, spooky, and downright hilarious.  It’s an odd combination if you look at it that way, but trust me, it worked. 

I seriously enjoyed how Johnson began the book in a completely normal world.  Rory was concerned about moving to London, adjusting to boarding school and her roommate, dealing with classes, differing expectations, and the cold for the first third of the book with only the slightest hints of the paranormal oddness to come.  I could see where some could be annoyed by the long introduction, but I thought it did an amazing job in both setting the scene and introducing us to Rory as she is before her life is turned about.  Also it gave the author the opportunity to write some absolutely hilarious narrative sequences.  I don’t usually laugh out loud during a book, but The Name of the Star had me absolutely cackling in places.

The hints of the paranormal were introduced subtly and could easily go unnoticed, but slowly they begin to pile up until neither Rory nor the reader can ignore the evidence in front of them.  I don’t mean to imply that Rory was unobservant because I felt her slow realization was a nice touch as the completely normal girl was introduced to a world beyond the obvious.

As the ghostly storyline began to take over, we see less and less of Wexford School and the friends Rory made there.  It certainly makes sense since Rory’s focus is anywhere but on schoolwork, but I did miss the school details and Rory’s interactions with her friends and classmates.  A fair amount of the action here begins to seem implausible.  Not the actual ghost plot because that was both well-done and an interesting take on the idea.  Instead I mean the fact that the housemistress and headmaster of Wexford seem to not mind at all as Rory is taken in and out of their locked down school or that Rory’s (or the other students’) parents are completely pacified by reassurances and don’t immediately pull their children from school after a murder occurs on school grounds.

Rory was an intriguing and endearing heroine.  Her reactions to all things British were absolutely hilarious without ever crossing the fine line of mocking either Rory or British customs.  Rory’s stories about her family and life back in Louisiana also stayed on the good side of that line.  In the hands of another author, the stories could have turned into mere stereotypes or picked up a nasty or derisive quality.  Instead each of them was hilarious, gently mocking and loving. I liked that Johnson allowed her main character to be smart and resourceful enough to figure things out instead of always needing to get explanations or spoonfeeding the information to either Rory or the readers.  Managing to avoid the cliche of rushing into everything, Rory absorbs every single bit of information and then sits down to put it all together later.  The conclusions she comes to aren’t always correct but at least she thinks about her observations!

Despite not having a huge amount of face time, Rory’s classmates mostly managed to be three-dimensional characters who one could really believe lived a whole life apart from their interactions with the main character.  Jazza especially was fantastic, and every scene she appeared in made me smile or want to reassure her or just be her friend myself.  I also enjoyed Alistair in all his sullen snarkyness, Jerome and his attempted muckraking, and Charlotte the officious Head Girl.  In the interest of keeping this review as spoiler free as possible (and not violating the Official Secrets Act), I’m not going to really get into the members of the Ghost Squad, but suffice it to say that they were also fully defined and interesting characters.  I’d read a full novel about any of the secondary characters in this book - they all intrigued me that much.

I knew going in that The Name of the Star was the first book in a new series so I was pleasantly surprised to find an actual conclusion to this volume.  There’s still a hook which would make it clear another installment was coming, but the so-called A plot of the book was happily resolved.  Thankfully because I can’t take another series of cliffhangers!  I'm a little sad this book is going to be billed as a ‘paranormal romance' because the romance part is much smaller than one might expect given that description.  It's much more of a contemporary ghost story! I really was pleased that the main focus was not on what guy Rory was or wasn’t in love with though some readers may definitely prefer more swoonage in their paranormal read!

From the length of my review, you can tell how much I enjoyed this book!  It’s a talky enjoyment as opposed to utter flaily ‘I have nothing to say except squee!’ enjoyment, but I love it all the same.  I’d definitely recommend The Name of the Star to anyone looking for a new take on a ghost story, an amazing atmospheric setting, and really great characters to fall in love with.  ...now does anyone know when the second book will be coming out?

Follow Friday and TGIF!

Friday's meme day in the blogosphere, and I love getting to visit with new and old people every week to see their answers to the questions posed.

TGIF is a weekly feature created and hosted by GReads!

 This week at Books and Threads

Sunday: In My Mailbox

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Book Endings that Left Me Agape 

Waiting on Wednesday: Mastiff by Tamora Pierce

Review: A Brief History of Montmaray by Michelle Cooper

Review: The Education of Bet by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

Review: Little Blog on the Prairie by Cathleen Davitt Bell

Review: Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Review: Beautiful Americans Trilogy by Lucy Silag

This Week's Question:

To-Be-Read's: How big is your pile? Which book keeps getting pushed down the stack, but you keep meaning to read it? 

...this is a scary question!  I have 10 books out of the library, 5 dead tree books that I've bought but not read and...a whole bunch on my Kindle that's not near enough to me for me to count right now.  But there's probably 6 or 10 normal books and another good chunk of Netgalley books.  In other words, I'm pretty content not to get up and grab the Kindle and have to count.  Then there's my to-be-read list on Goodreads which is over 100, but that's partially books that haven't come out yet.  So yeah, it's a little bit intimidating to think about like that!  Probably the number one book that I've been meaning to reading since summer and just haven't opened it is my friend Janine Spendlove's War of the Seasons.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Follow My Book Blog Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and Alison Can Read to feature a different blogger every week and let all of us stop by to say hi! 

This week's featured blogger is Gee at A Neverending Fantasy!


You should go check her site out!  She's got a lot of cool reviews and a gorgeous blog design.
  
Q.If you could pick one character in a book, movie or television show to swap places with, who would it be? 

Such a hard question!  I'm sure my answer depends on my mood and the phase of the moon and every other possible factor.  So with that caveat...

Right now, I'd love to be Annabeth from Percy Jackson and the Olympians - the books.  Definitely the books and not the movie!  Or Hermione (obvious answer!) from the Harry Potter books...but I'd really be more into Harry.   Sorry, Ron.

Oooh, what about Kat from Heist Society or Mrs. Coach from Friday Night Lights (because mmm, Coach, hi).  Or Josh Lyman from The West Wing or Willow from  Buffy ...though minus the dark veiny stuff.  Cause...no.  I would totally love to be Rose Hathaway from Vampire Academy, but I'm pretty sure I'm not that badass.  Maybe I'd be better as Lissa Dragomir.  I'd so be a good Queen, I swear.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Book Blogger Hop is a weekly meme hosted by Crazy for Books that allows us to connect with and support other book bloggers who love books just as much as we do!

“It’s time to spread some love beyond the borders of the Book Blogger Hop! This week, we aren’t answering a question. We are spotlighting our fellow bloggers. Find your favorite(s) author interview(s), guest post(s), book review(s), or bookish article(s) that ANOTHER BOOK BLOGGER featured on their site recently and tell us why you love it/them! As an additional challenge, find your favorite one of EACH of the categories above and spotlight all 4 (interview, guest post, review, article).”

One of my favourite blogging features each week is YA Highway's Road Trip Friday.  It's a collection of links about writing, reading, publishing, and crazy other stuff that's gone on during the past week, and it's always both hilarious and interesting.  YA Highway itself is a neat blog written by a lot of young adult authors to talk about YA and the world.  I pretty much love it for the amusement and sometimes even serious posts.

Also I can't link to all of them, but I admire so much all of you who do author interviews!  I always read them with great interest, and I love seeing all your brilliant and incisive questions and the author's answers.  It gives such a neat insight into the mind of authors and bloggers, and you guys who do it are so incredibly awesome!

Review: Beautiful Americans Trilogy by Lucy Silag

Beautiful Americans Trilogy
by Lucy Silag
January 8, 2009
Borrowed from Library (1st and 2nd)
Bought on Kindle (3rd)
Amazon Page
Goodreads Page
Grade: B

Pretty Little Liars meets My So-Called Life in this story of four American teens in Paris and the scandals that haunt each of them.

There's rich New York girl Alex; Cali-born dancer Olivia; closeted Memphis boy Zack; and finally PJ, an elusive beauty from Vermont who's hiding a dark past.

Studying abroad for their junior year of high school, they run wild in the Tuileries, hold clandestine parties in their host families' luxe apartments, take over tiny crowded cafes and generally live the glamorous life.

But in the end they all must face the lies they've told and secrets they've kept when the unthinkable happens.

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I wasn’t expecting much at all from these books.  I requested them from my library because I wanted a book-set-in-Paris fix, but the Pretty Little Liars reference in the synopsis made me wary.  So I was pleasantly surprised by this trilogy - and even purchased the third book on my Kindle because I didn’t want to wait for the interlibrary loan to come in.

The books focus on the junior (of high school) year abroad of four Americans in an exclusive Lycee in Paris.  They play, flirt with other American students - and sometimes even the French ones!, work, and experience Paris as they all grow up over the course of the year.

My major issue with the books was that none of the students seemed like 16 year olds.  I hate when people make that comment about YA books so let me explain.  All the students live with French host families, but apparently none of the families have any compunction about letting their wards run around Paris at all hours of the night, none of them worry when the students come home drunk, and none of them even question the constant coming and going of new friends and acquaintances. A few times, the characters refer to their host parents, and two even mention that they share rooms with younger French ‘siblings,’ but still there’s no worry about going home drunk.  It bothered me.  I think the author could have made the students college age without much difference in the stories and avoided a lot of my qualms.

I haven’t been shy about the fact that I often dislike multiple narrators in books, but that was my absolute favourite part of Beautiful Americans.  The points of view spiral between our four main characters in almost a cinematic fashion.  This allows the reader to both see what the characters are thinking and feeling but also how that character comes across to others, and, as often with people though maybe teenagers especially, contradictions abound.  It was seriously well done.   Each of the characters' voices was easily distinguishable, and each was very flawed but still immensely likable.  I enjoyed each of them which makes the 'picking my favourite' game hard.  Alex, Zack, Olivia, and PJ all had their moments of brilliance.

Paris, as it often is, was basically a fifth main character, and as the students roamed through arrondissements, the reader gets to see Paris in all its glory, beauty, and filth.  Each of the scenes are framed by a vibrant Parisian setting whether it’s Alex and Zack shopping at Galeries Lafeyette, Olivia dancing with an underground ballet company, or PJ finding herself in a seedy club in Pigalle.  The reader can definitely tell that the author is very familiar with - and in love with - that city.  The second book is noticeably the weakest of the trilogy, and I believe that’s partially to due with the fact that Paris is left for other parts of France including Rouen and the Riviera plus a sequence set in Amsterdam.  The life of Paris pulses through the story, making outrageous adventures more believable and providing more than a backdrop for the four narrators’ coming of age story.

This isn’t a great trilogy, but it’s a fun and light read with four engaging and interesting main characters.  If you’re looking for some good brain candy with a glorious setting, it's definitely here.

Review: Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Lola and the Boy Next Door
by Stephanie Perkins
September 29, 2011
Bought from Amazon
Goodreads Page
Amazon Page
Grade: A

Synopsis (from Publisher):  Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion . . . she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit -- more sparkly, more fun, more wild -- the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood.

When Cricket -- a gifted inventor -- steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.

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I feel as though everyone’s already said all there is to say about Lola and the Boy Next Door, but when has that stopped me from rambling on?  (Answer: Never)

I started Lola with a bit of trepidation.  After all, I’d loved Anna and the French Kiss so much – was the new book going to measure up?  What if I didn’t love it?  I didn’t want the pressure of the disappointment!  To my relief, after an uncertain first thirty or so pages, I fell completely in love with Lola in all her quirky and costumed glory.

I feel like Lola experiences more of an internal journey than Anna did (and, yes, I’m going to have to compare the two a bit because between the fact that they’re companion novels and the fact that Anna and St. Clair are secondary characters, the comparison is just so immediate!).  Anna’s journey was one of trying to figure out who she was after being ripped away from everything familiar while Lola had to determine if her need to stand out was her real self or some sort of disguise surrounded by helpful (and not so helpful) family members and friends, all with opinions of their own.

I really loved her quirky and hilarious voice even when (especially when) it turned bittersweet as she tried to muddle through the boy and family troubles, many of which really seemed universal.  We don’t all have an older rocker boyfriend or a homeless mother showing up on our doorstep, but we all have probably had the boyfriend (or girlfriend) that our friends hated or parents who don’t quite see where we’re trying to go.

And then there was Cricket.  Sigh, Cricket with his awkward limbs and great sense of style and total adorableness.  I was half in love after his first introduction and totally head over heels as the book continued.  I really liked seeing the tension as he was pulled between his twin sister Calliope and his crush in Lola.  He so badly wanted to be there for both of them, and neither made it all that easy on him.  Speaking of which, I loved Calliope in all her prickly, perfectionist glory.  If book 3 could be Calliope and Her Quest for Olympic Gold, I would be all over that.  Because seriously, how awesome is she?

As long as we’re on the secondary characters, I was so excited to get the glimpse into Anna and St. Clair’s lives!  Other blog reviews had mentioned that they play a big role of course, but I was thrilled to see them interact with Lola, Cricket and her other friends and just to see how they’re doing a bit down the line.  Especially I liked how their complete connection and little jokes still were at the point where people outside of their little circle of two were slightly excluded.  …okay, not that that’s a good thing, but it seemed so relevant to their relationship that I loved seeing it continue.

So yes, I ended up loving Lola and thinking myself totally silly for ever worrying about it.  Now…can I have Isla’s book please?  Maybe right after I reread Anna?

Waiting on Wednesday: Mastiff by Tamora Pierce

Waiting on Wednesday’s a feature hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine to highlight the books we just can’t wait to get our hands on.

 This week, I can't wait to get my hands on:

Mastiff
by Tamora Pierce
October 25, 2011

The Legend of Beka Cooper gives Tamora Pierce's fans exactly what they want—a smart and savvy heroine making a name for herself on the mean streets of Tortall's Lower City—while offering plenty of appeal for new readers as well.

Beka and her friends will face their greatest and most important challenge ever when the young heir to the kingdom vanishes. They will be sent out of Corus on a trail that appears and disappears, following a twisting road throughout Tortall. It will be her greatest Hunt—if she can survive the very powerful people who do not want her to succeed in her goal.

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 I have to admit that I'm pretty disappointed that the book doesn't seem to focus on the Lower City and the Rogues so much.  One of my favourite parts of Beka's story is her dealing with the Rogues' Court and trying to protect her Lower City and the people within.  



But still, I totally trust Tamora Pierce, and Beka's my second favourite of her heroines so I'm really excited to see the final part of her story.  (And I'm hoping to see her finally get with Rosto the Piper. *cough*)

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Book Endings that Left My Mouth Hanging Open

When I first saw the prompt from this week's Top Ten meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, I thought 'huh, I can't think of that many.'  And then I started listing off book after book so apparently I was just totally wrong.


Since the focus this week is on the ending, I'm not going to talk about these a lot, but mindblowing endings kill me!  And I love them.  It's a conundrum.

1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling - The veil.  Oh Lord, the veil. I had nightmares about that. 
2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling - Avada Kedavra take two. 
3. Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead - I still haven't gotten over this one, and the six month wait to the next book made me want to build a time machine.  
4. Bloodlines by Richelle Mead - That last line of narrative.  Just - dude. 
5. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins - It's never fun to realise at 4am that you have to wait until August to find out what happens. 
6. The Giver by Lois Lowry - I still haven't read the sequels.  They don't exist.  Therefore the ending is all Schrodinger's Cat.
7. The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien - this probably doesn't really count since Lord of the Rings is technically one big book, but when I first read them, I was on a plane and didn't have Return of the King with me!  It was terrible! 
8. Every Morganville Vampire book ever by Rachel Caine - I swear, I read way more of these than I really wanted to because the endings made me have to know what came next! 

9. The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan - Son of Neptune is coming out today!  I'm so excited!  I keep telling myself no new books, but I can't get a hold on it at the library so I may have to. 
10. Deadline by Mira Grant - This one absolutely screwed with my head.  And then I started wondering if I could become BFFs with the author so I could read Blackout before anyone else.  But I realised that was slightly creepy so...

Okay, and this one isn't a book, but it's possibly the worst cliffhanger ever.  The last episode of Angel.  Holy crap, forever unresolved cliffhanger!  And no, the comics don't count.

What endings are on all of your lists?  Link me up so I can visit!

Review: Little Blog on the Prairie by Cathleen Davitt Bell

Little Blog on the Prairie
by Cathleen Davitt Bell
May 11, 2010
Borrowed from Library
Goodreads Page
Amazon Page
Grade: A

Synopsis (from Publisher): Gen's family is more comfortable spending time apart than together. Then Gen's mom signs them up for Camp Frontier--a vacation that promises the "thrill" of living like 1890s pioneers. Forced to give up all of her modern possessions, Gen nevertheless manages to email her friends back home about life at "Little Hell on the Prairie," as she's renamed the camp. It turns out frontier life isn't without its good points--like the cute boy who lives in the next clearing. And when her friends turn her emails into a blog, Gen is happily surprised by the fanbase that springs up. But just when it seems Gen and family might pull through the summer, disaster strikes as a TV crew descends on the camp, intent on discovering the girl behind the nationwide blogging sensation--and perhaps ruining the best vacation Gen has ever had.

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So this book?  Totally adorable.  I don’t usually stay up past my bedtime to read a middle grade book, but that’s what happened the other night as I raced to finish and see what the ending was going to be.  If you ever watched Frontier House or just dreamed about what living on the prairie like Laura Ingalls might be like, you’d probably enjoy this one.

I really liked Gen as our narrator.  She moaned and complained like any thirteen year old girl, but her complaining never slipped into ‘just grow up already’ territory or got on my nerves.  It probably helped that she had a lot to complain about - I’d complain too if I were dragged to a summer long farming experience without being able to brush my teeth or check my email, and I’m into historical interpretation!  She’s smart and observant and manages to find the humour and absurdity in her own situation - trying to pump herself up by singing Beat It to the corn or accidentally peeing on her stocking because she can’t make herself use the outhouse.  Which is where the blog comes in, of course, as Gen texts her observations to her friends back home using a smuggled in cell phone and one of them (they never appear except by text so I can barely distinguish between them) posts her texts on a blog for her computer science summer school class.

Gen’s family is also a well-developed combination of characters.  At first I was a little concerned because her father’s defining characteristic seemed to be being afraid of bears and her mother’s was a determined cheerfulness in spite of all reality.  But as the book continued - and Gen matured a little and began to see more clearly - her parents emerged as three-dimensional characters in their own right.  Gavin, her ten year old little brother, became one of my absolute favourite characters with his epic fishing prowess and attachment to the family chickens.  I really enjoyed watching Gen and Gavin’s relationship develop from one of benign neglect into a real partnership and friendship between the siblings.

Camp Frontier itself made me stare and mutter things like “there is NO WAY their insurance company would allow this.”  When the campers arrive, they’re fed a communal supper by the camp owners and then bundled off to their separate farm plots with no training, no instructions, just a “go to, cook on the wood stove, farm that corn, and kill those chickens!  Here’s some cornmeal and possibly rancid salt pork!  And, oh, by the way, you’re being graded!”  Obviously the book’s scope wasn’t to question the insane decisions (or insurance premiums) of the insane owners, but I kept wanting to tell them that if they attached a week of instructions on how to actually perform the tasks being asked, the families would probably have a much better time of it! 

The other camp families (there are four total) were an amusing combination of survivalists, a newly blended family trying to coalesce, and parents trying to give their little girl the vacation of her dreams.  We don’t get to know the other families as well as Gen’s of course so they’re mainly sketched in, but the narrative manages to make them all seem real as they struggle with similar issues of farming and feeding their families with limited provisions and a woodburning stove.  The other children become more major as Gen and Gavin bond with them over the insanity of the camp and their attempts to perform 19th century chores.  I also enjoyed the sweet developing relationship between Gen and Caleb, the hot felt hat-wearing neighbor boy.

This review sounds overly gushing, and I suppose that it is, but it was a very cute book that never pretended to be more than what it is while portraying a very different type of summer vacation from the more normal beach reads.  Gen grows up a lot over the course of the book, and the reader gets the pleasure of seeing how this changes her and her relationships to her family and community.  I’d definitely recommend Little Blog on the Prairie.