Ah, June. When my reading totals start going up. When the fluff comes out. And, I’m cheating a little, and choosing four. It was a difficult month to get down to even these four, too. Either I’m getting less picky, or the copy is getting better…. Oh, and I mostly read middle grade books this month, and most of the copy choices are YA books. Interesting.

Enchanted Glass (Greenwillow Books): “Aidan Cain has had the worst week of his life. His gran died, he was sent to a foster home, and now malicious beings are stalking him. There is one person Gran told Aidan to go to if he ever got into trouble—a powerful sorcerer who lives at Melstone House. But when Aidan arrives on the doorstep, he finds that the sorcerer’s grandson, Andrew, has inherited the house. The good news is that Aidan can tell immediately that Andrew’s brimming with magic, too—and so is everyone else at Melstone. The bad news is that Andrew doesn’t remember anything his grandfather taught him. Chaos is swiftly rising, and he has no idea how to control it. A sinister neighbor is stealing power from the land, magic is leaking between realms . . . and it’s only a matter of time before the Stalkers find Aidan. If Aidan and Andrew can harness their own magics, they may be able to help each other. But can they do it before the entire countryside comes apart at the seams?”
Fun, clever, doesn’t give hardly anything away, and yet it makes you want to know: can they harness the magic?

Ash (Little, Brown): “In the wake of her father’s death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted. The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King’s Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash’s capacity for love-and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love. Entrancing, empowering, and romantic, Ash is about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.”
I liked this one solely because it avoided mentioning the Cinderella story at all. It would have been SO easy for the copywriter to throw in a line about a “retelling of Cinderella with a twist” and they didn’t. Kudos to them.

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice (Bantam Books): “In 1915, long since retired from his observations of criminal humanity, Sherlock Holmes is engaged in a reclusive study of honeybee behavior on the Sussex Downs. Never did he think to meet an intellect to match his own- until his acquaintance with Miss Mary Russell, a very modern fifteen-year-old whose mental acuity is equaled only by her audacity, tenacity, and penchant for trousers and cloth caps. Under Holmes’ s tutelage, Russell hones her talent for deduction, disguises, and danger: in the chilling case of a landowner’ s mysterious fever and in a kidnapping in the wilds of Wales. But her ultimate challenge is yet to come. Soon the two sleuths are on the trail of a murderer whose machinations scatter meaningless clues… but whose objective is quite unequivocal: to end Russell and Holmes’ s partnership- and their lives. “

It’s very rare that I like the copy of an adult book. But this one is intriguing, capturing the essence of the book, without giving away too much. It also name-drops and yet doesn’t play up either: it’s Sherlock Holmes, that’s a fact, get over it. Quite good.
Skunk Girl (Farrar, Straus and Giroux): “If Nina Khan were to rate herself on the unofficial Pakistani prestige point system – the one she’s sure all the aunties and uncles use to determine the most attractive marriage prospects for their children – her scoring might go something like this:

+2 points for getting excellent grades
–3 points for failing to live up to expectations set by genius older sister
+4 points for dutifully obeying parents and never, ever going to parties, no matter how antisocial that makes her seem to everyone at Deer Hook High
–1 point for harboring secret jealousy of her best friends, who are allowed to date like normal teenagers
+2 points for never drinking an alcoholic beverage
–10 points for obsessing about Asher Richelli, who talks to Nina like she’s not a freak at all, even though he knows that she has a disturbing line of hair running down her back

In this wryly funny debut novel, the smart, sassy, and utterly lovable Nina Khan tackles friends, family, and love, and learns that it’s possible to embrace two very different cultures – even if things can get a little bit, well, hairy.”
I didn’t particularly like the book in the end, but one of the reasons I picked it up was because this flap copy was so entertaining.

Other books read this month:
Harriet the Spy
Eat, Pray, Love
Wintergirls
Blubber
The School of Essential Ingredients
Wolves of Willoughby Chase
Princess of Glass
Greenwitch
The Grey King
Silver on the Tree
Manga Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Where the Red Fern Grows
Much Ado About Nothing
Two Moon Princess
A Song for Summer
Finally
Cosmic (DNF)
Finnikin of the Rock
The Frog Scientist

Running Total: 94 books
Adult fiction: 21
YA: 32
MG: 23
Non-fiction: 9
Graphic Novel: 10
Didn’t Finish: 6