Keturah and Lord Death

Title: Keturah And Lord Death

Auhor: Martine Leaveitt

Genre: YA Historical Fiction/Romance

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Keturah is her village's best storyteller. One day when she wanders into the woods to follow the great hart, she meets with Lord Death and makes a bargain: she will tell him the end of her story if she gets one more day (and then another, and another) to find her true love. Death agrees, and Keturah is launched on a desperate mission to find the one man who will be her love.

Keturah and Lord Death is beautifully told. It also surprised me. I was sure until the end that her true love was one person - and it wasn't. I was sure until the end that one thing was going to happen - and it didn't. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is a fan of young adult books, especially young adult historical fiction (as it does take place in medieval England).

Matilda Bone

Title: Matilda Bone

Author: Karen Cushman

Genre: Children's/Young Adult Historical Fiction

Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5

Matilda, an orphaned teenager, has been left at the door of a bonesetter by the priest who has practically raised her to stay, work, and learn while he goes to London to return who-knows-when. Matilda thinks herself far above Red Peg, the bonesetter she is left to help, because she, unlike Peg or most people in Peg's town, can read and write Latin, French, and a little Greek, knows all the saints and most of the demons of Hell and knows her numbers.

Little does Matilda know that the life she has found herself dropped into has much to teach her, both in temporal and in spiritual matters: Life is not meant to be dour and "holy"-fied; sometimes folk wisdom is better than empty book learning; good friends are better than dead saints.

Although Matilda starts the book off very annoying in her sanctimonious self-righteousness, she drops the attitude as she begins to learn the value of street-smarts and folk wisdom. Matilda Bone is similar to Cushman's other books, "Catherine, Called Birdy" and "The Midwife's Apprentice" - even to the point where I could predict several plot points from knowing those books. It's not as good as "Catherine" and is probably on par with "Apprentice."

2.5 stars: I would have liked it so-so as a kid, but it's not something which would have stuck with me like good childrens' books have.

Eyeliner of the Gods

Title: Eyeliner of the Gods

Author: Katie Maxwell

Genre: YA romance?

Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Jan is on an archaeological dig in Egypt. Deprived of air conditioning, makeup, and decent clothes (but wonderfully away from her family!), Jan has one thing to look forward to each day: the hottie working next to her, Seth.

However, people think Seth is the reincarnation of the evil god Set - and thus he gets blamed for everything that goes wrong on the dig, including the theft of several artifacts!

Jan, Seth, and his brother Cy race against time to figure out what is going on - and Jan and Seth try to figure out their relationship through teenage hormones and misunderstandings (oy!).

Eyeliner of the Gods is cute. Jan can be annoying, but in the way of sixteen-year-old girls with (slight) self-esteem issues. If you like Katie Maxwell's (aka Katie MacAlister) other books, you'll probably like this one.

Wicked Lovely

Title: Wicked Lovely
Author: Melissa Marr
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Aislinn sees faeries. She has always been able to see them - and she's always kept this fact a secret, especially from the faeries. But now two of them are stalking her - and one is the Summer King! Suddenly Aislinn's rules for keeping safe from the faeries are failing her, and she wants out. Keenan, the Summer King, is not about to let that happen.

I loved this book! It had me reading until I was too tired to keep my eyes open, then as soon as I woke up again I was back reading the book. It is phenomenal. Goodness. I'm trying to write an actual review here, and not just gush, but it is very hard to do.

Part of what kept me reading was the conflict not only over Aislinn's life - mortal? Summer girl? Winter girl? Summer Queen? - but over her love life as well. I loved Seth, as we as readers are supposed to (after all, we see him through Aislinn's eyes) and wanted to see Aislinn end up with him, but I felt for Keenan as well. The boy (can you really call him a boy if he is hundreds of years old? Yes.) deserved someone to love him and be with him, too. And poor Donia!

I will agree with many of the reviews which peg the Winter Queen as a little too campy. She was over the top, yes. BUT. Faeries are not exactly creatures of half-measures. So, yes, the Winter Queen was your typical "evil" villain, but for a reason. She had a desire - to stay Winter Queen - and her own nature would not let her slide even the slightest bit in pursuit of that goal, even though it meant (figuratively) sacrificing her child, her lover, etc.

One of the things I definitely appreciate is the ending ringing true - no "happily ever after" extreme, but no "things went to hell after that and nothing could bring it back" extreme, either.

Wicked Lovely is a beautiful book, perfect for lovers of YA fantasy, of urban fantasy, or even simply YA lit. It has inspired me not only to write again (not waiting for NaNoWriMo), but to explore the realm of urban fantasy. Can you imagine a shopping mall-sized faerie-owned nightclub? Yeah, me too.

Tess and the Highlander

Title: Tess and the Highlander
Author: May McGoldrick
Genre: Historical Romance
Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Tess is alone. For eleven years, an elderly couple raised her after finding her at six, alone and frightened, amongst the rocks on the shoreline of the island they keep. Now, though, Tess' guardians have died, leaving Tess to tend to the island and, as per their orders, hide whenever someone new comes there. When she finds a handsome young Highlander washed up on the shores of her island, she knows she must help him or he will die.

As Tess and the handsome Highlander, Colin, spend time together waiting for a ship to come take him home, they form a friendship and discover that Tess is not so alone in the world as she thinks.

This was a cute story, and definitely better than the last Avon True Romance (for teens) I picked up. It's the type of thing I would have swooned over as a teenager, had I deigned to read romances at that age (I admit, I had a bit of book snobbery going on, though I secretly loved any romance I could find in books I read). As an adult, now, I read the book and think it's cute. I would have loved to have seen how Tess and Colin's relationship matures as they do, but that is beyond the scope of this book and the age range it is intended for. I will probably be searching out McGoldrick's adult romance novels, though, given the promise this one held.

The Journal of Curious Letters

Title: The Journal of Curious Letters
Author: James Dashner
Genre: Fantasy/Sci-fi
Source: Library Thing's Early Reviewers
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

Tick is a nearly normal 13-year old. He's a bit nerdy and loves solving puzzles, and never takes off the scarf which covers his birthmark (even in the summer).

Then one day he receives a mysterious letter in the mail which changes his life forever.

"The Journal of Curious Letter" is amusing, and I think I will be reading the rest of the series as it is released in paperback, but I did have some issues with it.

I know that my copy was an unproofed ARC, but there were several typos and/or omitted words. The author also tries too hard in places to be funny, and has an unnatural obsession (it seems) with the number 3.

Specials

Title: Specials
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Tally is now a Cutter, a special Special - designed to hunt down and take out the New Smoke, wherever it may be. However, she still has some troubles. She needs Zane, her old boyfriend, to be Special like the Cutters (so named because they cut themselves to retain "icy" clarity from the overwhelming input their new bodies and senses give them). In order to convince Special Circumstances to turn Zane Special, she and Shay devise a plan, a tricky plan, one that will change not only their lives but the entire world.

I loved this book! It went along at the same fast-paced speed as Uglies: as fast as Tally's new hoverboard or as her reflexes as a Special. I couldn't put it down except when I was too tired to keep my eyes open. I wanted to know what was going to happen - was Zane going to be alright? Were Shay and Tally ever going to be reconciled? Were David and Tally ever going to be reconciled? What was going to happen to the New Smoke, to Tally's city, and to Diego (the city Tally eventually tracks old friends to)?

I highly recommend this series! It has so much going on - sci-fi, dystopian fiction, a social commentary, an environmental commentary, and the list goes on. And it does it all flawlessly, in a fast-paced, high-adrenaline story you can't stop until the last page is done. I've got the next book, Extras, on hold at the library and am eagerly waiting my turn with it.

Pretties

Title: Pretties
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Tally Youngblood, now pretty, is having the time of her life - or so she thinks. She's beautiful, healthy, and completely spoiled. Encouraged to party and "surge" (surgically alter herself) and be generally vapid, Tally gets twinges that she's not happy like she's supposed to be. Then she gets a message from her old, ugly self. She knows what's wrong. She and her clique, the "Crims," attempt to keep their heads clear - to keep "bubbly" instead of "pretty-headed" and to escape from the clutches of the city authorities known as Special Circumstances.

Pretties was a good follow-up to Uglies, though not quite as gripping. True, it was still fast-paced and when I picked it up I didn't want to put it down, but I didn't have the driving urge to pick it back up once I'd put it down that I had when I read Uglies. That could have been because Tally was already pretty and was constantly fighting the pretty-headed fog surgically altered into her brain, and that fog certainly comes across in the prose of the book.

In all, I liked the book, and want to know what happens in Specials and then in Extras.

Miranda and the Warrior

Title: Miranda and the Warrior
Author: Elaine Barbieri
Source: San Jose Public Library
Rating: 2 stars out of 5


Miranda, a painfully proud young woman (who happens to be the daughter of the commanding officer of the local fort) finds herself in a sticky situation: she has been captured by the local Cheyenne, and given as a gift to Rattling Blanket, an old woman who has trouble caring for herself. Her pride refuses to let Miranda do anything except sit and pout, and demand to be taken back to the fort. However, the girl has eyes and slowly falls for Shadow Walker, the young warrior who captured her in the first place and who takes it on himself to show her the Cheyenne way.

Honestly, this book was not that great. It was fun, but not at all believable. Apparently all it takes for Miranda and her captor to fall in love is a week-long trip in which Shadow Walker swings between trying to show tough love (for which Miranda resents him), and showing outright compassion (which just plain confuses the girl). Stockholm syndrome much?

Teens - especially young teens - may like this book; anyone with a little more sense than hormones will find it to be, again, unbelievable. It had potential if it were a full-length romance novel, but as it is, it falls far short of the mark. I can only hope the rest of the line makes up for what this offering lacks.

Beka Cooper: Terrier

Title: Beka Cooper: Terrier
Author: Tamora Pierce
Source: Border's
Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Beka Cooper: Terrier marks Tamora Pierce's venture into the history of Tortall, and her first book written from a first-person point of view. Terrier is written as Cooper's diary (though there are entries from the journals of several other characters, Cooper's journal makes up the vast majority of the book).

Cooper is a puppy - a trainee ofthe Provost's guard - in the Lower City at a time when people are disappearing without a trace, the King of the Thieves is lazy and has stopped really doing his duties, and children are disappearing - including the grandchild of the most powerful (and corrupt) landlord ofthe Lower City. Beka, through her ability to hear the ghosts that pigeons carry, becomes involved in the disappearances, and through her friends reports to us the intrigues in the Court of the Rogue.

This is a great start to a new series of Tortall, and I cannot wait to read the next book, to see what happens to this ancestor of the Rogue cum Spymaster, George Cooper.

Ella Enchanted

Title: Ella Enchanted
Author: Gail Carson Levine
Source: unknown
Rating: (no star rating)

"Ella Enchanted" caught my attention from the moment it came out, and it's had a special place on my bookshelf ever since. I've always been interested in Cinderella stories, so when I saw "Ella Enchanted" in the store, I knew I had to buy it. And buy it I did. I read through it in a matter of hours.

"Ella Enchanted" is a re-telling of the Cinderella story set in a fantasy world of trolls and ogres and fairies that can do magic (but usually they don't). It follows the basic plotline of Cinderella: a girl is forced to do what her stepmother and stepsisters say until she can marry her prince. But from there out, Levine takes the story into her own world and puts her own spin on things.

If you've seen the move but haven't read this book, be warned: the scriptwriters for the movie drastically changed things.They kept the same basic principle, but changed the story almost entirely, and made the movie much more frivolous than the book. I encourage you to read this book, but don't start it expecting it to mirror the movie, or vice-versa.

Uglies

Title: Uglies
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Source: Border's
Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Uglies takes place in a utopian/dystopian (yes, it can be both) America several hundred years in the future. In this future, everyone turns "pretty" (ie, has a surgery to bring one's body and face to a physical point which is very close to average, and biologically pleasing) on their sixteenth birthday - and pretties are not only beautiful, but vapid, vain, and entirely focused on having fun.

Tally is looking forward to the operation and being able to rejoin her friend Peris, until her friend Shay shows her a different option: run away to the wilderness and the Smoke, never turn pretty but keep your own choices. When Shay herself runs away to the Smoke, leaving Tally behind to have the operation she is so looking forward to, the authorities (Special Circumstances) offer Tally a terrible choice: go after Shay and turn her and the Smoke in, or never. Ever. Have the operation and turn pretty. The choices she makes and the information she discovers changes her life forever.

I found it hard to get through the first few chapters. Until Tally meets Shay, she is as vapid as the pretties she is eager to join. However, once the two girls meet, the book just FLIES. The only reason it took me two days to finish it instead of one is because I started it very late in the night and didn't want to stay up until dawn.

This is truly a book I would recommend to any fan of young adult fiction and/or sci-fi.