Sunday Woodcutter is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter and is in love with an enchanted frog prince. His curse ends abruptly and painfully. He makes his way back to his father’s kingdom and calls for a series of balls so that he can meet Sunday now that he is a man. This novel is a joyful rollup in fairy tales! Everyone in Sunday’s family has a story to tell. It is cleverly written and chock full of delightful characters dealing with the dangers of magic and curses. This is a must read for fans of fairy tales and just might urge readers to pick up a book of fairy tales to get reacquainted. Highly recommend.
Enchanted – Alethea Kontis
The Runaway King – Jennifer A. Nielsen
This sequel to The False Prince is every bit as fantastic as the first book. Prince Jaron’s newly found role as ruler of Carthya is slipping from his grasp when his regents feel he is not ready to be king. Violent threats are made against him and Carthya and it is up to Jaron to usurp his foes before damage can be caused in his kingdom and to those he cares about. Those dratted pirates are out for revenge when they failed to kill him those many years ago. Rather than running from the pirates, he seeks them out. The pirates have an interesting system and a code that they honor above all else.
The pages seem to turn by themselves with never a dull moment. Jaron can take a heck of a beating as he demonstrated in the first book and still maintain a sense of humor. Honor and integrity are his backbone and he brings out the good in those around him. Smart, faithful Imogen is back. Jaron gathers a new group of followers that will help him in the next book in the Ascendence Trilogy. Highly Recommend!
NetGalley Review Publication date 3.1.13
Posted in adventure, fantasy, highly recommend
Tagged political fantasy
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Mind Games – Kiersten White
Seems like the trend in YA lit is super mind abilities. Two orphaned sisters are enrolled in a boarding school that covertly develops girls’ abilities. For younger sister, Fia, they use her intuition to pick stocks and hone her street fighting skills to involve her in evil, covert operations. Older sister, Annie, is blind yet has visions of the future. If Fia does not do what they say, they will kill Annie. The story unfolds piecemeal. Chapters are told in either Fia’s or Annie’s voice. It is most important toread the chapter headings to know where you are in the story. Is it the present day or 5 years ago or 3 months ago? This jumping back and forth in the story is mildly irritating. However, that writing device seems the best way to tell the story and explain how the sisters got into the no-win predicament they are in. The reader just has to be on their toes. The ending indicates more to come. I’m just not certain that I care enough about either sister to read more. I loved White’s Paranormalcy series and enjoyed those characters very much so I wanted to be just as thrilled with her latest book. I think teens will enjoy the book. There is plenty of action and suspense but something is missing . . .
eGalley review Publication date 2.19.13
Posted in paranormal, suspense
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Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World – Matthew Goodman
Nellie Bly was a daring undercover reporter for Joseph Pulitzer’s New York newspaper, The World. She had exposed the dreadful treatment in an insane asylum, worked in a paperbox factory, sought treatment in a medical clinic for the poor, trained with boxing champion, John L. Sullivan, and sung with the chorus of The Academy of Music. Her columns, sometimes exposing the shabby treatment of the poor, sometimes fun and entertaining, were never boring. Having read Around the World in Eighty Days she proposed the idea that she could beat Phineas Fogg’s record. She could do it in seventy-five. So on November 14, 1889, she was aboard the Augusta Victoria when it left the pier in Hoboken, New Jersey.
That morning, John Brisben Walker, publisher of the monthly magazine Cosmopolitan read the headlines about Nellie Bly and realized the publicity value of the trip. Deciding that heading west was a better idea, he quickly contacted his literary editor, Elizabeth Bisland, about racing Bly around the world. At first she adamantly refused, but was finally persuaded and at 6:00 in the evening was on a train bound for Chicago, eight and a half hours behind Nellie Bly.
This is a fascinating account of two young women traveling alone during the Victorian age, filled with wonderful details about modes of travel, strange countries and exotic people. These two very different women saw the same things through very different eyes, and came away with very different opinions about the world they had circumnavigated.
eGalley review Publication date 2.26.13
Posted in adult, adventure, nonfiction
Tagged Elizabeth Bisland, Nellie Bly
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Etiquette & Espionage – Gail Carriger
T
he first book of what I hope will be a successful series is set in an odd world of vampires, werewolves, spies and dirigibles to make for a fun steampunk adventure. Sophronia’s natural inquisitiveness keeps her in bad graces with her aristocratic mother. Something must be done to tame her daughter. Sophronia is sent off to a finishing school to teach her manners like curtsying, dancing, conversation, etc. But on the way, their carriage is attacked and the adventure begins. It seems that the flywaymen want a prototype of an object that one of the school girls has hidden. It turns out this is not a conventional finishing school, but a school that trains women to spy and scheme and mastermind, using their womanly wiles. The school floats here and there suspended by hot air balloons. Sophronia is comfortable in the boiler room with the working class boys and also brings out the best in her classmates, drawing them into her adventures. This clever first book in the Finishing School series focuses on building the world that the author’s adult readers have come to enjoy in her Parasol Protectorate series, and introducing the primary characters that I hope will continue to be included in the rest of the books. The setting felt like a blend of Oppel’s Airborn series and Westerfeld’s Leviathan series. Clever, engaging, and fun!
eGalley review Publication date 2.5.13
The Lady and her Monsters: A Tale of Dissections, Frankensteins, and the Creation of Mary Shelley’s Masterpiece – Roseanne Montillo
The night of August 30, 1797, was stormy, with a dramatic display of thunder and lightning. It is fitting, then, that this night also saw the birth of Mary Godwin, for Mary Godwin Shelley led a stormy and unconventional life. Hers was a life filled with drama. There was the elopement with Percy Shelley and their trek across Europe with her stepsister tagging along. Never mind that he was married at the time and had a child. Then there was the visit with Lord Byron on the shores of Lake Geneva that led to the birth of Frankenstein’s monster. And by the time she was 25 she had suffered the deaths of three of her four children and the senseless drowning of her husband.
This biography of Mary Shelley is punctuated with accounts of eighteenth and nineteenth century scientists. Their fascination with electricity and their hope that this marvel could be used to reanimate the dead led to bizarre experiments. And of course there are stories of the grave robbers who supplied the necessary corpses. All of this prodded Mary Shelley’s imagination and led to Victor Frankenstein’s success where others had failed.
I enjoyed the book and felt that the background information about the interest in reanimation helped to explain the intellectual climate of the era. Sometimes, though, it was bit disquieting when the scene shifted abruptly from the affairs of the Shelleys to murders, dissections and body-snatchers.
eGalley review Publication date 2.5.13
Posted in adult, nonfiction
Tagged Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
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Pivot Point – Kasie West
Apparently there are those with super power mental abilities who have built a large society hidden from view in central Texas. Mood control, memory erasure, mass manipulation, and clairvoyance are examples of skills. When Addie’s parents announce they are divorcing and her father has decided to live among the Norms (that’d be us) Addie has to choose which parent she will live with. As something of a clairvoyant, Addie can see her own future. So she takes a moment to search the different paths her life will take based on her parental unit choice. It is as if she lives months in a matter of minutes. The chapters alternate between her two paths. Bad things happen in both futures and her best friend’s life is in danger. The
teen dialogue almost got a bit tiring, then again, this is a book targeted to
teens. However, the pace is brisk and soon we were involved with dastardly deeds, mind control, and several mysteries. I’m reminded a bit of X-Men and the TV show, Heroes. It is a good premise and has the same conundrums as time travel – if you know the future, then can you change the future and if you change the future then the path that is searched will truly be ever changing so it really is impossible to see the future. The writer has hit the target audience with a story they will enjoy.
eGalley review Publication date 2.12.13
Hysteria – Megan Miranda
Mallory killed her boyfriend, Brian. Stabbed him with a knife and he bled to death on her kitchen floor. The law said it was self-defense. They’ve had to get a restraining order against Brian’s mother who is grief stricken and stalking Mallory. Mallory is taking sleeping pills trying to get past what happened. Her parents decide to ship her off to boarding school, weeks after the death. (Seriously? No counseling for their daughter, just a bottle of sleeping pills?) At the school, she knows someone is after her or haunting her . . . or is she succumbing to hysteria?
This suspense/thriller was tedious. There was far too much about the social goings-on at the boarding school that let the story drag. The flashback telling of Brian’s death is given in bits and pieces throughout the story. This technique is frequently done in this genre, but this time, the little teases of information were more annoying. I fought the urge to just skim ahead and only read the italics of the flashback.
eGalley review Publication date 2.5.13
Posted in suspense
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A Week in Winter – Maeve Binchy
No one had ever called her Geraldine. She had always been Chicky. The youngest of a large brood of Ryans, her job had been to care for the hens. Stoneybridge, on the Atlantic coast of Ireland, was a wonderful place for children to grow up. Chicky thought she’d never leave. But leave she did, falling in love with a handsome American boy and greatly upsetting her family. After living in America for five years she got up her courage and returned for a visit, which turned out to be not so bad. So every summer she returned in July to the place she loved. Chicky worked hard to save her money and returned for good after years in New York. She bought the large stone house on the cliff and turned it into a lovely bed and breakfast. After working on the project for what seemed to be an eternity, the house was ready for it’s opening week. The guests for that opening week are a wonderful collection, each with a background story. And here is where Maeve Binchy shines, quickly bringing us into these lives, making us feel that we know these people well. I always feel warm and comforted while reading Maeve Binchy. This book, her last, may be her best.
eGalley review Publication date 2.12.13
Posted in adult
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Rushing to Paradise – J. G. Ballard
The French are considering a nuclear test on Saint-Esprit Island. In order to facilitate the building of a runway, albatross nests have been destroyed and birds were killed by the hundreds. Dr. Barbara’s mission in life, at least for now, is to save the albatross. So this slightly eccentric (ok . . .very eccentric) woman has gathered a few like-minded people to help accomplish her mission. The group sails to the island where they are met by a flotilla of hundreds of people attracted to the cause. Television cameras beam the action around the world. The French decide that the island isn’t worth the bad press and quietly leave. The publicity dies down, sightseers leave, TV crews leave, and finally Dr. Barbara and her followers are left to themselves. They settle down to make things safe for the albatross and to build a nature sanctuary for endangered species. So far, so good.
As the months creep by and food becomes hard to get, things begin to change. Dr. Barbara’s mission also begins to change. This tongue-in-cheek send-off of environmentalists and protesters gradually morphs into a dark, disturbing tale of a charismatic leader whose followers are unable to resist her bizarre plans. I can’t say I enjoyed the book . . . it was too unsettling. But like all of Ballard’s novels, it provided much food for thought.
eGalley review Publication date 2.4.13
The Cadet of Tildor – Alex Liddell
This fast-paced political fantasy centers on teens coming into their abilities: magical, physical, or mental. At the elite training academy of Tildor, the senior year is full of challenges for Renee who MUST succeed particularly since her father has disowned her. She desperately wants to be a fighting Servant for the new king. The king is full of promise when he vows to fight the corruption of mafia-like families that control the country but his actions lead to disappearances and death. Renee decides to chuck her career when her young friend is captured. Things go from bad to worse. Fighting, from the training spars to the gladiator fights, punctuates the storyline that features a strong cast of characters. Even though the story line and characters really are nothing new when it comes to YA political fantasy, this book succeeds.
It seems like I’ve read so many books where page after page of character introspection drag things down, but this author shows, explains, and moves on. Great! Throughout the day (school holiday) I kept being drawn back to the story and put off other chores so I could see what happens next. When I have a problem putting a book down, that’s the mark of a book my students will enjoy. The main protagonist is female and it is so difficult to get boys to read books with a female protagonist, but this doesn’t drag the reader into chic lit so I hope boys will pick it up. The majority of the characters are male and Servant Commander Savoy is a heck of a role model. If Renee can be accepted into the Academy of Tildor by her male classmates, I hope young teen boys can accept reading about their battles. Very good!
NetGalley review Publication date 1.10.12
Posted in adventure, fantasy
Tagged political fantasy
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Through the Ever Night – Veronica Rossi
Picking up where Under the Never Sky left off, we are once again on a future Earth where solar flares destroyed the protective atmospheric layer so the Earth is now plagued with aether storms of violent destructive energy. Perry brings Aria into his tribe, mistakenly thinking the tribe will welcome a Dweller into their midst, much less united with their leader. The only hope for mankind, both Dwellers and Tribes is in finding a better living environment. They seek the Still Blue, a rumored region without aether storms. So Aria and Roar (Perry’s loyal and lovable friend) set out on a dangerous journey hoping to find the Still Blue and Roar’s true love, Liv.
This second book picks right up where the first one stopped. The author fills in with backstory throughout the book, but it is best to refresh memory of characters before starting this second book. The excellent writing continues and leaves the reader eager for the next installment, hoping for a better life for Cinder . . . Highly recommend
eGalley review Publication date 1.8.13
Posted in adventure, dystopian, highly recommend, science fiction
Tagged future earth, series
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The False Princess – Eilis O’Neal
Years ago, when the king and queen heard the prophesy that their daughter would be murdered by her 16th birthday, they sent their infant daughter away to live in safety while an unwanted infant was brought to the castle to be raised as the princess. This substitute princess was raised to believe she truly was the king and queen’s daughter and sole heir. When the murderous year came and went, it was time to bring the royal daughter back and push out the substitute daughter. This is the story of Sinda, raised to be a princess but in reality is a very poor commoner. It turns out that Sinda is not quite so common and has come into her own magical powers to discover that something is amuck with plotting to overturn the crown. How can she bring herself to help the people that turned her out, that she thought loved her? Quite a bit of twisting in this devious plot will keep readers involved in the story. Very good.
Navigating Early – Clare Vanderpool
This story within a story is set in Maine at the close of World War II. Jack was raised in Kansas by a loving mother while his military father was away from home serving in the war. His mother dies suddenly and his father relocates Jack to a boarding school in Maine where Jack meets Early who has also suffered the loss of his family, specifically is older brother. Early is unique, a genius, and has traits of Asperger’s Syndrome. He sees stories in numbers and tells the story of Pi. During a school holiday, Early leads Jack on a quest through the wilds of Maine, seeking to find his supposedly dead brother.
This is a magical book that weaves the story of the number Pi with the adventures that Jack and Early experience. Brilliant, enchanting and lyrical. I’m in awe of writers who can weave such a tale. Every character is rich and deeply drawn from the pirates to lonely woodsman, Gunner, to Jack’s father to Jack and Early. The author has proven once again why she deserves the accolades of being a Newbery author. I hope this wins awards and praise and finds readers young and old. Highly recommend.
NetGalley review Publication date 1.8.13
Posted in 8/13 Staff Dev, adventure, highly recommend, realistic fiction
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Shades of Earth – Beth Revis
This third book that began with Across the Universe, wraps up the story of Ender and Amy, with brilliant, flawless finesse. Many of the Godspeed’s crew and the Earth-born frozen have crash landed on Centauri-Earth. The colony is immediately attacked. The survivors fight the enemy along with many deceptions. There is no way I will spoil this story for readers by giving away more. This is a trilogy that triumphs with each book and never disappoints. There are no plot sags or frivolous side stories. The characters are real. They make mistakes but they learn and overcome tremendous challenges. Characters triumph, characters die. An awful lot of them die. This is sci-fi planet colonization lit at its best. Highly recommend!
eGalley review Publication date 1.15.13
Posted in adventure, highly recommend, science fiction
Tagged planet colonization, series
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