by Veronica Roth
ages: 14+
First sentence: “There is one mirror in my house.”
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In what used to be known as Chicago in this post-apocalyptic world, humanity is divided into four factions, each devoted to developing a particular virtue: Candor, the honest; Erudite, the intelligent; Amity, the peaceful; Dauntless, the brave; and Abnegation, the selfless.

Beatrice has grown up in Abnegation, but doesn’t quite feel she fits. She’s not as selfless as her parents and brother, she’s always questioning her own inner motives. She sees kids from the other factions and wonders if she wouldn’t fit in better there. Then, at age 16, she is given a test and the opportunity to stay with her faction or choose another one. And she discovers that she’s Divergent.

We spend most of the book wondering, along with Beatrice — who christens herself Tris after she joins Dauntless — what the heck Divergent is. On one level, this is annoying; but by the end, when it all makes sense and you realize that the timing was perfectly right for it, all is forgiven. It’s an intense book and a violent one, as we follow Tris through her brutal training to join the Dauntless faction. As she goes through the training, Tris discovers two things: that the people in the factions — including her birth faction — aren’t nearly as altruistic as they proposed to be. And that romance can blossom in the oddest places.

There will be inevitable comparisons to The Hunger Games (it’s really a good book for those who love Hunger Games and are wondering what to read next): there’s a society that’s become corrupt, and a girl who doesn’t fit the norm who has the potential (yes, there is a sequel, at least) to change that society for the better. Though Tris is a more active and less selfish heroine than Katsa was, which makes her more interesting in my book. It’s less black-and-white, and more complex; Roth does an excellent job balancing the good and bad in every faction, providing us with not only the worst, but also both the best and the human in human beings.

It’s compelling and engrossing storytelling as well, with a little bit of everything — romance, politics, action, tension — for everyone. An excellent start to a good new series.

by Joanne Harris
ages: 14+
First sentence: “Seven o’clock on a Monday morning, five hundred years after the End of the World, and goblins had been at the cellar again.”
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Maddy Smith is basically a nondescript resident of the small village of Malbry in the Middle Worlds. Except for the runemark on her hand, which brands her a bit of an outcast, but she doesn’t pay that much attention. She has no friends, except for a wandering traveler that goes by the name of One-Eye whom she only sees once a year at Harvest time.

Then, one day when she’s fourteen, her world shifts: all the things she’s been taught to believe about the Order and the Word — the religious organization that rules the Middle World — are put into question. The End of the World was just a new beginning, and there are powers she has that she never knew. One-Eye sends Maddy on an adventure that will lead to a new end and a new beginning for everyone.

If that sounds really confusing, don’t worry: it is really confusing to summarize this huge, 521 page, fantasy. It’s based on Norse mythology, something which I found fascinating, and is quite impossible to summarize. It’s a sprawling fantasy, in the Grand High Fantasy style: adventure, twists, turns, multi-perspectives, and even a somewhat confusing ending. It’s got it all. Maddy is an interesting main character to follow through the world; she ends up being a very powerful character, but because of her age and innocence, she’s not quite in tune with all the subtleties of the world. It helps guide the reader through some complex mythology and relationships between the old gods which helps with the flow of the book. It takes a while to sink into the rhythm of the world, and the pacing of the novel, but once the adventure truly gets underway it’s enough to keep you involved and interested.

It also felt very Neil Gaiman-esque. I can’t quite pinpoint why: perhaps it’s because it’s so sprawling, or perhaps because it’s just got that dark, gritty undertone that Gaiman is known far. Whatever the reason, it reminded me of Gaiman’s work, which is never a bad thing.

That said, I don’t think I truly loved it. It was interesting, and I’m glad I read it, but it was lacking that spark to make it truly great.

by Julia Golding
ages: 12+
First sentence: “The Fourth Crown Princess of the Blue Crescent Islands had sixteen rituals to observe from the moment of waking to when she broke her fast.”
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Review copy provided by the publisher.

This book has a lot going on; I’m going to do my best to summarize it without giving too much away. A lot of the enjoyment I had with this book was because I didn’t know where it was going next.

Taoshiri was just a goat girl in the furthest reaches of the Blue Crescent Islands until, one day four years ago, she was chosen to be the fourth of the Four Crown Princesses. She was surprised, of course, but accepted the Mother Goddess’s will, trying to be the best princess she could. Then, because of impending war with a bloodthirsty emperor, she’s sent to Gerfal to marry the crown prince Ramil. Not exactly something Taoshiri wants to do, especially when, once she gets there, she finds Ramil to be uncouth, rude, and plain unattractive.

Then — because you know these sorts of things have to happen — they were kidnapped, thrown into all sorts of unpleasant situations, forced to fight for their lives and their countries.

I won’t give away much more than that, because the twists and turns are quite delightful. As is the relationship between Taoshiri and Ramil. But, I think what really made this novel (which I’m still trying to decide whether it was too wordy or just right, and probably wasn’t all that well-written, but I really didn’t care), was the layers of political positioning and religious discussion that went on. It was never spelled out, exactly, but Golding spent a lot of time with religious tolerance and prejudices, with an underlying heartfelt plea for understanding. Much of the conflict in the novel comes from the snap judgements people make about different cultures, in this case the Goddess-worshiping Western culture of the Islands (as opposed to the God-worshiping Eastern cultures). Golding also flips the racial divide: the strangers are the fair-haired, fair-skinned ones, standing out in a darker culture. Though there is some brutality in the Eastern religions, one is never led to believe that worshiping one God (or Goddess) is better than the other, something which I found refreshing.

As for the politics, Golding spent time balancing the love story with the duties a ruler has to make for the good of the state. It was an interesting balance, and I think she managed to play it all out quite well.

One final note: this is a fantasy only because it’s set in the past, in a made-up land. There’s no magic, just adventure, wits, and some grand action. Which made it a lot more fun that I was expecting.

by Sarah Beth Durst
ages: 13+
First sentence: “‘Almost there,’ Grandpa said.”
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Lily has lived her whole life with her Grandpa and her mom in Philadelphia. Never gone anywhere, never done much, mostly because her mom isn’t quite, well, completely all there. She’s artistic and fun and interesting, but is also subject to brain hiccups.

Grandpa, on the other hand, is a graduate of Princeton, and goes to the reunions every year. And this year, the spring of Lily’s junior year, he’s decided to take both Lily and her mom along, much to Lily’s excitement: Princeton is exactly where she wants to go to school.

But once she gets there, she discovers that not everything is exactly as it seems. The gargoyles talk. Her father is a Knight. There’s a boy with black and orange hair. And there’s a whole alternative Princeton, full of magical creatures. And Lily’s been given a test to find the Key. Little does she know how deeply her family is involved in all this.

It’s a clever premise, making an old institution like Princeton magical, creating a whole alternate universe that’s connected through the Princeton gate. Durst plays with ideas of unity and cooperation as well as touching on fear of the unknown and how that tends to make groups overly cautious. She also addresses the idea of doing wrong for the right reasons. There’s adventure and romance (a bit of a love triangle) as well.

But, even with all that, it didn’t quite work for me. I usually love Durst’s stuff, but this one felt off. The romance didn’t quite work, even though the boys were more than awesome. The bad guy wasn’t evil enough for me. And then there’s the whole fact that she introduced a whole new character two-thirds of the way through the book. Generally, that doesn’t bother me, but it was enough of a plot twist that it threw me for a loop. It changed the game, and it made things a lot darker than they were initially setting out to be. And while I liked the dark element, the timing felt off to me.

That said, it really made me want to visit Princeton.

by Janette Rallison
ages: 10-14
First sentence: “Dear Professor Goldengill, Thank you for another opportunity to raise my semester grade with an extra credit project.”
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Review copy provided by the publisher

I read the first book in this series, My Fair Godmother, out loud to C about two years ago. In going back and looking at what I wrote, this jumped out at me: “I’m not sure how well this would stand up if I had read it by myself, but I really enjoyed reading it aloud.”

It stood out because I didn’t read this one out loud to C, and found that it worked just as well as a read as it did as a read-aloud.

My Unfair Godmother is the second book, and while it helps if you’ve read the first, it’s not necessary. The only returning people are Chrissy — the very lackadaisical, and somewhat incompetent fairy godmother, who has just picked up moonlighting as the tooth fairy since she can’t seem to get into the Fairy Godmother University — and her erstwhile (and somewhat grumpy) assistant Clover, the leprechaun. Everything else is new, though the premise plays out in much the same way.

Tansy Miller has been angry at her father since he and his mother divorced. He’s been too busy for her, what with a new family and moving to Arizona from New York and all. So, the fall that she’s sent to live with them — because her mom and younger sister are on tour with a Broadway touring company — she is not the happiest person around. Of course, that means she falls in with the wrong crowd, mostly to make her dad angry (it works), which culminates with her getting caught red-handed with a can of spray paint and thrown into jail.

The last thing she needs is a fairy godmother. And she really doesn’t get one; Chrissy’s only a fair godmother, and even though she grants Tansy three wishes, she doesn’t exactly deliver them the way Tansy thinks they should be delivered. After bring Robin Hood and the Merry Men forward to our time, Chrissy sends Tansy — and her father, mother, step-brother, and the police chief’s (cute) son — back to the Middle Ages, where they need to play out the fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin.

Rallison puts a twist on the fairy tale by combining it with Robin Hood, and spins them both delightfully. Tansy is a interesting combination of anger and loneliness, a heroine who doesn’t want to save the day (or even herself). Underneath all the humor, adventure and, yes, romance, it’s really a story about family and loss: learning to forgive and accept the family you’ve got,even when they disappoint you. And learning to understand, accept and forgive yourself for the bad things that happen in life.

It’s fluff, sure, but it’s good, enjoyable fluff.