by Claudia Gray
ages: 13+
First sentence: “The burning arrow thudded into the wall.”

The basic story: Bianca is a new student at Evernight Academy, which is not something she’s terribly excited about. But then she meets Lucas (cue dreamy music) and all of a sudden it’s not such a terrible place. Except terrible things seem to happen. And it turns out that although Lucas and Bianca looove each other, they are probably the least compatible people on the face of the earth, for reasons which will eventually all be revealed.

Things I liked about the novel:

• I found it was far more engaging than I will admit in public. (Except I just did, didn’t I?)
• I liked how Gray played with the vampire lore. It was a bit Twilight-y (especially the beginning; if you miss it, you’re clueless, or haven’t read Twilight yet), but for the most part it worked.
• I liked Balthazar. He was cool.
• The action was pretty good.
• The Romeo and Juliet aspect of the story; I don’t do starcrossed lovers, but this was a very well done extreme case of two people who really shouldn’t fall in love.
• The second plot twist. It didn’t catch me off guard, but I thought it worked well, and made the ending that more dramatic.

Things I didn’t like:

• The first plot twist. It really, really, really, really bothered me, primarily because I thought it nullified the first third of the book. I was really annoyed at the author, and I almost gave the book up at that point.
• Bianca was whiny and annoying (like Bella), though she redeems herself in the end.
• The first plot twist. Really. She completely had me misdirected, and I hate misdirection.
• The snotty rich kids. So stereotypical. So done.
• The first plot twist. I mean withholding information is okay, but in the first third Bianca’s afraid, running scared, worried she won’t fit in… and it’s all for naught.
• All the lying and betraying and trying to figure out who is what and why. It got old.
• Have I mentioned the first plot twist?

In the end, the book was just okay. Which isn’t a bad way to spend a day. Especially one where you’ve had little sleep and you don’t feel like doing a whole heck of a lot. But if you don’t have one of those (or you’re not a die-hard Twilight fan, who needs something else to read, but can’t stand to branch out of the vampire-romance genre), then you might want to find something else to read.

by Janette Rallison
ages: 12+
First sentence: “I would have expected to see this sort of line if, say, Elvis had returned from the dead to give a concert.”
Review copy received from the publisher.

Annika Truman is not used to losing and, generally, will stop at nothing to get what she wants. Her little brother, Jeremy has been diagnosed with cancer and is going to undergo surgery in a week. She wants — desperately — for him to come through okay, so she invents a “genie” that will grant three wishes. She expects him to ask for an action figure from his favorite TV show, Teen Robin Hood (that’s what the line was for in the opening sentences), but (surprise!) he wishes for Robin Hood to come and spend a day teaching him archery.

Well, Annika decides that Jeremy must have his wish. So, off she goes to Burbank (and living in Henderson, Nevada, makes it a convenient four hours away) to find the actor, the uber-dreamy Steve Raleigh, and convince him to come spend time with her little brother before he goes into surgery. She has two days. Impossible? Of course not.

Actually, the whole book is impossible. Implausible. Unrealistic. Not-happing-in-anyone’s-lifetime. Real people don’t just drive to California, cleverly weasel their way into basketball stadiums and TV sound lots, happen to run into TV stars (who are all generally nice people… man, I need a sarcasm font), and have everything work out in a nice little package tied up with a green and red plaid bow.

That’s not to say I didn’t love the book. I did. A lot. An absurdly enormous amount, in fact. (Especially absurd considering my age, and the fact that I’m married and have four girls and shouldn’t be fantasizing about running off to California to chase actors. Okay. That was probably more than you needed to know…)

No, I didn’t buy into the fantasy — I knew it was totally unreal — but I bought into the book. There’s enough depth there — Annika’s love for and devotion to her little brother, as well as her struggles with mortality and infinity, for example — to make it less fluffy than it could have been. And it’s quite funny (the part where Annika and Steve were jumping from trailer roof to trailer roof? Hilarious.) And the romance is, well, dreamy. What teenage girl doesn’t dream about being swept off their feet by a movie (okay, TV, star)? Um… I’m sure they’re out there, but I wasn’t one of them. Granted, it all doesn’t wrap up quite so neatly, something which I really appreciated.

And even though it’s a fantasy (realistic fantasy though; there’s no fairy godmothers here), reality did kick in, in the end, just to make sure Annika — and the reader — is still grounded. There’s no happily-ever-afters, no riding off into the sunsets, no perfect sweep us off our feet moments.

Even with all that — the implausibility, the over-the-topness of it all — it was totally and completely worth reading.

by Kristin Cashore
ages: 13+
First sentence: “In these dungeons the darkness was complete, but Katsa had a map in her mind.”

When Abby commented on the Library Loot post that she loved Graceling, I knew it was good. It was a Cybil’s fantasy finalist, and practically everyone who has gotten their hands on it loved it. The question was (after I pried it out of M’s hands… she kept picking it up every time I put it down, and she’s already read it twice!): does it live up to the hype.

Well. Yes. It does.

First, let me say that reading this book was a test of my self control. I started it Saturday night after I got the kids in bed, and I stayed up until after midnight reading. I was only halfway done. Sunday is normally crazy for me, and I didn’t get a chance to get back to it until evening. I can’t tell you how torturous this was. All I wanted to do was play hookey, shut myself in my room and finish the dang book. And then, today… it was calling… it was pleading… and so I finally caved, put on a movie, and read it to it’s very satisfying conclusion.

Oh, do you want to know the story?

I’ll give you the basics (trust me: the less you know, the better the book). Kasta is our heroine, and she is Graced — a magical ability that sets her apart from other people; Gracelings are recognized for their different color eyes — with the ability to kill. She’s her uncle, King Randa’s, strong-arm, performing executions, beatings, whatever he needs. On the side, she’s part of a Council, a secret movement to help citizens in the seven kingdoms. She rescues the Liendan king’s father from the dungeons of another king, which sets off a chain of events that will not only change her life, but change the fate of several kingdoms.

I loved the action — M asked me what my favorite part was, and I had to admit that I loved the fighting scenes. Cashore has a way with words that vividly portrays action, and I was on the edge of my seat most of the time. Which brings me to point number two: I loved the tension, the twists and turns. The “bad guy” is truly horrible, evil, and malicious, and even though he only shows up a couple of times, both times I was biting my nails with the tension of it all. And I loved the romance. Not since Crown Duel have I read a fantasy romance that was as intriguing and satisfying as this one is.

All of this is a very rounabout way of saying what M announced the first time she finished the book: it’s awesome and we have to own it.

by Robin McKinley
ages: 12+
First sentence: “Because she was Chalice she stood at the front door with the Grand Seneschal, the Overlord’s agent and the Prelate, all of whom were carefully ignoring her.”

I’ve tried to type a summary of the book, but I’m not getting very far. Part of that is because it’s a Robin McKinley book; none of which are really easy to describe. She doesn’t write in a way that’s easy to sum up, or even to describe: lyrical, circular, dense, narration-heavy, internal… yet totally captivating.

I liked this one less than I thought I would. Perhaps it was because I wanted something lighter, something with more romance, something that would take less brain energy. But, that said, I liked it a lot. I especially liked the world that McKinley created: the heirarchy of magic from the (power-hungry) Overlord to the Master and the Circle. I liked how the magic was heavily entertwined with nature, how the whole purpose of the magic was to hold nature together; without it, or without it being used responsibly, the natural world would rend and fall apart. I liked the use of honey and bees; I’m not an insect person, but I liked the way McKinley gave the bees a personality in this book. I did like Marisol, the main character, the Chalice of the title (and the first sentence). I liked how she struggled, but was willing to make a go of it, to find her own way, not willing to be cowed into following tradition. And I liked the Master — the younger brother of the Master that caused havoc and disharmony and perished with the Chalice in a horrific fire — and how he, too, had to make a go of it, coming back from seven years training to become a priest of Fire. I admired their partnership, their trust, and while the romance was kind of ho-hum, it fit.

What I’d really like, though, is to spend more time in this world that McKinley created. So, I can only hope (and hope it is, since she rarely does this) that she is willing to revisit this world another time or two. And maybe I will find myself enjoying the stories even more.

by Suzanne Collins
ages: 12+
First sentence: “When I woke up, the other side of the bed was cold.”

If you’ve been living in a cave (or at least not hanging out on the book blogs), then you haven’t heard the buzz about this one. The buzz that’s been growing — steadily — over the past six or so months. It started out as a trickle; one person here, another there… but by now it’s a flood. This is only a sampling of the reviews I’ve read of the book:

Cybils Science Fiction/Fantasy shortlist
Abby (the) Librarian
Fuse #8
The Reading Zone
Becky’s Book Reviews
Sarah Miller
Library Queue
My Thoughts Exactly
Shelf Elf
It’s All About Books
Squeetus

And it’s unanimous: this is an awesome book. (Of course I agree. I couldn’t put it down. In fact, I had to read it fast, because M was dying to snatch it away, especially after she learned that Collins wrote the Underland Chronicles, which is one of M’s favorites.) Click through if you want plot summaries or details.

Three things you need to know about this book.
1) You will not be able to put it down. If you do, in the event that you’re a nail-biting type of person, you will not be able to stop thinking about the main characters, or the events of the games, or whether or not they will make it out alive. And sooner rather than later, you will find yourself picking the book up again.

2) It’s graphic, but not gruesome. Collins is masterful at balancing brutality and humanity, and making us care for characters in the face of awful situations. It’s a dystopian novel after all, a cross between Scott Westerfield’s Uglies and Survivor gone horribly wrong.

3) You will finish it wanting more… and yet be completely satisfied with the current story. I was totally captivated with the plot, completely buying the ending, and then it ended. AH! Not since a Percy Jackson or Harry Potter book have I finished it and then immediately thought, “How long until I can read the next one?”

So go get it already and see for yourself what the fuss is about!

This is another one of those my-gosh-I-can’t-believe-my-library-FINALLY-has-it-in books. I know I’ve seen reviews of this one popping up around; though for the life of me, besides Sarah Miller, Em, and Abby, I can’t think of where I found them…. at any rate, I heard about it, I wanted it, and I was super happy to get it.

It’s a great princess book. I loved Catherine Gilbert Murdock’s other books (Dairy Queen and Off Season), but this one is nothing like her other books. It’s deliciously different. Benevolence (that’s Ben for short, thank you very much), is a princess who doesn’t want to be one. She’s raised by a loving mother and a prince father, but they mostly let her do what she wants. Until one day, Ben’s left an orphan. She’s taken in by Queen Sophia, who tries, mostly against Ben’s will, to change Ben into a princess. It’s not pretty. Accidentally, Ben discovers a wizard room, with a book of spells, and sets to learning them. And, because she finds it unbearable, she ends up escaping the castle and Sophia’s regiment. Unfortunately, that only gets Ben into more trouble. Then again, that may not have been an unfortunate thing.

I really liked this book, as princess tales go. I liked that Ben’s not your typical princess, not just being a fiesty, head-strong (though spoiled) girl, but in other ways. She’s not thin. She has issues with food and comfort. She’s not perfect; her imperfections aren’t even remotely endearing. She has to endure (grumpily) trials in order to learn. In short, she’s a heck of a lot like me. I liked that. M said that she didn’t like that Murdock made a big deal about Ben being fat, but I think it was a necessary element to the story… it was something that Ben had to learn to deal with and accept, and it didn’t define who she was.

I also liked the world building, and use of magic. I liked that I felt the world supported the characters, rather than overwhelming them, as it can do in fantasy novels. I liked Queen Sophia; sure she was supposed to be mean and evil, but I felt more that she was overwhelmed and inexperienced (at being a parent, mostly), and I empathized with her, even while I was rooting for the grumpy and stubborn Ben.

However, I do think that Murdock slighted her other ones, Prince Florian and his father especially. Actually, the romance in the book was a bit uneven… it putters along at a 3 and then rockets to a 10 in the last chapter. (I liked the rocketing; I just wish there was more build-up.) I wanted to know more about Prince Florian than his glower. (Granted, it’s written from Ben’s point of view, so that may not have been possible…)

Most of all, though, I liked that what I liked outweighed what I didn’t like. It’s always nice when that happens.

If you haven’t noticed yet, I have a (rather large) soft spot for YA romances. Good — by that I mean satisfying, swooning, take-you-away — ones anyway. And this one is a good, thoroughly satisfying, definitely swooning, often amusing book. I loved it. (That’s an understatement: it’s one of those books where I put the rest of my life on hold and let the kids watch more TV than is good for them and stayed up late so I could finish it. That’s how much I loved it.)

It picks up where Crown Duel left off… I had to buy a copy of the two of them together (which is the only way you can get it these days) because my library only has the first half of the story. While the first have was great, I needed to know what happens to Melaria and Vidanric, mostly because the seeds of romance were planted in the first half, and I wanted to know how (or if) they end up together.

Melaria, who is slowly educating herself banishing the ignorance that haunted her in Crown Duel, is avoiding going to Remalna city and to Court, even though she should (she’s a countess after all). It’s only when her brother, Branaric, shows back up in Tlanth with his fiance (and Vidanric) that Mel finally consents to go see what Court is about. There, she learns to navigate the intricacies of flirting and courtship, of politics, and eventually learns not only about a plot to undo all that she’s worked for, but also her own heart.

(And that doesn’t nearly do the book justice.)

I liked this book immediately because I recognized that it’s a similar story to Pride and Prejudice. Mel and Danric spent much of their time arguing, and it’s he who first realizes what their relationship could be. She, of course, throws it back in his face (though it’s not as bad as what Lizzy did to Darcy), and so he resorts to, um, other methods (mostly leaving her alone). The whole middle section of the book, where Mel’s trying to figure things out, and she takes up writing letters with an “unknown” (at least to her) suitor, I found to be wonderful reading. And it all builds to one of the most perfect first-kiss scenes that I’ve read. (I could go on about how it’s much more satisfying to me to read a romance where the characters are at odds with each other than ones who have True Love from first sight, but I’ll spare you.) I could go on with my gushing, too, but I’ll spare you that, too. It’s still a fantasy book, still light on the magic, and yeah, I suppose if I were nit-picking, there are one-dimensional characters, and the bad guy really does come out of nowhere and the climax of the book really wasn’t all that climatic, but hey: it’s a great romance.

And I didn’t really care about the rest.

Melaria is a Countess who doesn’t act like one. Not only does she run around barefoot wearing old horse blankets, but she loathes everything about court: from the clothes and the people and the intrigue to the tyrannical King Galdran. So, after her father’s death, when she and her brother Branaric decide to go to war against the king — for various offenses, not the least of which was intending to break the Covenant with the Hill People not to chop down the colorwood trees — she’s all for it. In fact, Mel’s in the thick of it. That is, until she gets her foot caught in a trap, and ends up in enemy hands. From there, her life becomes more interesting and more complicated, especially after she’s thrown into the hands of the Marquis of Shevraeth, who keeps popping into her life at the most inconvenient (well, not always) of times.

This was an absolute blast to read. A terrific fantasy (light on the magic, heavy on the world-building, but not so much that the characters were slighted), and a terrific adventure. M read this one before I got to it, and her comment was that “Mel has anger management issues. But then, she’s a red head.” I didn’t quite agree: up until near the end, I thought her rage and anger were pretty much justified. Close to the end of the story, you kind of want to smack her upside the head, but she does figure things out. Thankfully. I do like how she becomes bookish at the end, too. That was a nice touch.

I’m also glad I liked it enough to actually buy it and the second one, Court Duel, because the library doesn’t have that one, and I don’t think I could live without knowing the rest of Mel’s story…

Well. I got around to reading this over the weekend. I’m not going to weigh in on the controversies. (Though I do have to say that people who get all worked up over a work of fiction are a bit uptight. And, yes, I know I get lumped in that. I got all upset about Eclipse, after all.) I’m also not even going to try for a spoiler-free review. You’ve been warned.

Initially, I wasn’t excited about reading the book, but I actually became curious about it after Andi’s review . I kept reading reviews though, and I have to admit that I knew more than my fair share going in. So, I can’t say if my reading experience is entirely fair: I was bored. Honestly. For about 3/4 of the novel. I think part of is that Meyer needs a long break from writing. This horrid writing schedule Little, Brown — at least one book a year! — is keeping her on is showing. The stories are lame, the writing is bad, the editors are lazy. Either that, or intimidated. Because there was an awful lot of unnecessary passages in here. Did we really have to have all that leading up to the wedding? Did we really have to have all that with the pregnancy? Did we really really have to have all that waiting?? It seemed so pointless. Cut a good two to four hundred pages out and this might — MIGHT! — have been a decent novel.

I complained about this in the Host, and it fits here: Meyer has pacing problems. Just when the book starts to pick up, she grinds it to a halt with pages and pages of description (really? Khakis and a sweater pullover? How quaint!) that do nothing for the plot. It was frustrating.

Speaking of the plot, I didn’t think it was all that great, either. I kept rolling my eyes. It just felt so over the top. From the super vampire sperm (okay, I can accept that; Meyer is inventing her own vampire lore, after all) to the super half-vampire baby (and I agree: the name is horrible) , to Jacob imprinting on the baby (oh, puh-lease. What a consolation prize. Can’t have Bella? Here, have her baby instead. Ugh.), to Alice conveniently arranging the entire ending. Bah.

I liked it better than Eclipse, but that’s not saying much. I think Twilight’s the best, though, and I have to say that I’ll keep recommending that one. But with one caveat: don’t bother reading the rest. They’re not nearly as good.

The reviews that I read:
Heather’s review
Corinne’s review
Tricia’s review
Becky’s review
Leila’s review
Julie at Best Books’ review