In My Mailbox: 32

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. In this meme, we share the books we received for review, purchased, got from the library, traded/swapped, etc. For more details, check out Kristi's site.


This week, I checked out four eBooks from my library.

The Dead Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan
Gabry lives a quiet life. As safe a life as is possible in a town trapped between a forest and the ocean, in a world teeming with the dead, who constantly hunger for those still living. She’s content on her side of the Barrier, happy to let her friends dream of the Dark City up the coast while she watches from the top of her lighthouse. But there are threats the Barrier cannot hold back. Threats like the secrets Gabry’s mother thought she left behind when she escaped from the Sisterhood and the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Like the cult of religious zealots who worship the dead. Like the stranger from the forest who seems to know Gabry. And suddenly, everything is changing. One reckless moment, and half of Gabry’s generation is dead, the other half imprisoned. Now Gabry only knows one thing: she must face the forest of her mother’s past in order to save herself and the one she loves.


I read The Forest of Hands and Teeth months ago, and I didn't like it too much. But I'm still hearing so many good things about this series, and someone recommended that I keep reading it because it gets better, so I thought I'd give The Dead Tossed Waves a chance. Plus, I just really like the cover.

The Luxe by Anna Godbersen
In the self-contained world of young Gilded Age Manhattan socialites, Elizabeth and Diana Holland reign supreme. Or so it seems. Scratch the surface, though, and you can detect festering jealousies that threaten to topple them. Elizabeth suffers a more literal fall when her carriage overturns and she is carried away by the swift East River current. That's only the beginning of the action and suspense in The Luxe, the launch volume in a teen series by Anna Godbersen.


The Luxe is another series that I tried reading and couldn't get into it. I never even finished reading The Luxe. But I adore the covers, and I read Bright Young Things, which I loved, so I really want to give The Luxe another chance.

Rumors by Anna Godbersen
I'm not posting a summary, because I assume it will have spoilers for The Luxe.

Splendor by Anna Godbersen
Again, not posting a summary because of spoilers.


I couldn't get Envy this week because it's not available as an eBook through my library--only as an audiobook or as the print copy. I can't listen to audiobooks, and I had to put the print copy on hold, so I'm hoping I'll get it sometime this week.


So that's it for me this week. What was in your mailbox? Happy reading!

The Hunger Games casting

I was checking out the casting for The Hunger Games on IMDB, since the only casting choices I've really heard about are for Katniss and Gale. I have to say, I don't like most of the choices. I think Donald Sutherland is a fantastic choice for President Snow, and Josh Hutcherson for Peete is probably a good choice. But Lenny Kravitz for Cinna? And Woody Harrelson for Haymitch Abernathy? Really?

And then I checked out the choice for Prim. I think Willow Shields is the perfect choice for Prim. She's the right age, and she looks exactly how I pictured Prim to look.

Then again, I might be biased. Willow Shields was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is my hometown. I've lived here my whole life, and I'm really excited that someone from New Mexico was cast in The Hunger Games. Now I'm even more excited to see this movie. I can't wait to see how Willow does.

What do you think about the casting choices for The Hunger Games? Do you like it? Do you not like it? Or do you have mixed feelings about it, the way I do?

Review: Moonglass

Moonglass by Jessi Kirby
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 240
Release date: May 3, 2011
Format: Hardcover
Website
Summary (from Good Reads): I read once that water is a symbol for emotions. And for a while now, I've thought maybe my mother drowned in both. 

Anna's life is upended when her father accepts a job transfer the summer before her junior year. It's bad enough that she has to leave her friends and her life behind, but her dad is moving them to the beach where her parents first met and fell in love- a place awash in memories that Anna would just as soon leave under the surface. 

While life on the beach is pretty great, with ocean views and one adorable lifeguard in particular, there are also family secrets that were buried along the shore years ago. And the ebb and flow of the ocean's tide means that nothing- not the sea glass that she collects on the sand and not the truths behind Anna's mother's death- stays buried forever.

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Moonglass is an incredible debut. From the moment I started reading it, I was completely absorbed in Anna's story. I didn't want to put it down.

The setting is amazing. Jessi Kirby describes everything beautifully; I had a perfect picture in my mind of the beach Anna lived on, of the cliff she jumped off during the bonfire, of her school. I didn't realize that the setting was a real place until after I had finished the book, and now, I really, really want to go there.

I loved the characters. Anna is definitely my favorite. She's the kind of character that I think I would be friends with if she were a real person. I loved it that she was her own person, not following what other people did, like wear designer clothes and drive a fancy car. Even though she had a few brief moments where she was judgmental of her former and new classmates who were like that, Anna was overall a very accepting person, and I really enjoyed that. And I adored Ashley. Even though she was the type to be interested in designer clothes and nice cars, I liked it that she wasn't a stuck up mean girl. At her core, she was kind and always meant well. She's the type of character who doesn't get enough credit, I think. Others saw her as just ditsy, and she may have been a little air-headed in ways, but that was just her surface. There was one moment in the novel where Ashley talks about Disney princesses, and what she said blew me away. Up until that moment, it's entirely possible that I, like many of her classmates, didn't give her enough credit. I love the layers to her, and to the other characters, because it's realistic. What we show some people isn't what we show other people, and there can be a big difference between what people see and who we really are. I love it that Jessi Kirby recognizes that with her characters.

I love novels that take place on or near the beach. I love reading them at any time of the year, but they're always the most fun to read during the summer. Moonglass is the perfect summer read.

Overall rating: 5/5

Cover rating: 5/5

In My Mailbox: 31

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. In this meme, we share what books we received for review, got at the library, bought, traded/swapped, etc. For more information, head over to Kristi's blog.


Links are for Amazon; summaries come from Good Reads.


I received three books from the library this week:

Dirty Little Secrets by C.J.Omololu
Everyone has a secret. But Lucy's is bigger and dirtier than most. It's one she's been hiding for years—that her mom's out-of-control hoarding has turned their lives into a world of garbage and shame. Tackling an increasingly discussed topic that is both fascinating and disturbing, C. J. Omololu weaves an hour-by-hour account of Lucy's desperate attempt to save her family. Readers join Lucy on a path from which there is no return, and the impact of hoarding on one teen's life will have them completely hooked.

Across the Universe by Beth Revis
Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules. Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone - one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship - tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next. Now, Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves
Read my review
Hanna simply wants to be loved. With a head plagued by hallucinations, a medicine cabinet full of pills, and a closet stuffed with frilly, violet dresses, Hanna's tired of being the outcast, the weird girl, the freak. So she runs away to Portero, Texas in search of a new home.
But Portero is a stranger town than Hanna expects. As she tries to make a place for herself, she discovers dark secrets that would terrify any normal soul. Good thing for Hanna, she's far from normal. As this crazy girl meets an even crazier town, only two things are certain: Anything can happen and no one is safe.








I'm leaving for grad school next month, and my last day at work is in about three weeks, so one of my co-workers bought me a book as going away gift. I love sharks, especially great whites, and I'm so excited about this book that I wanted to share it, even though it's not YA.

Demon Fish: Travels Through the Hidden World of Sharks by Juliet Eilperin
When we think of sharks, most of us revert to the raw terror of Jaws; but the ocean's dominant predator is far more mysterious and potent than suggested by those unexpected onslaughts of horror. Washington Post environmental reporter Juliet Eilperin traveled the world to gain insights into the importance and mythological aura of fish among seafaring people. Combining science, folklore, and on-the-spot reportage, her Demon Fish invites us to observe the strange, sometimes destructive interactions of humankind and shark off the coasts of Florida, Japan, Mexico, New Guinea, Indonesia, China, and elsewhere.


That's it for me this week. What did you get? Happy reading!

Review: Bleeding Violet

Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Pages: 480
Release date: December 7, 2010
Format: Trade paperback
Website
Summary (from Good Reads): Hanna simply wants to be loved. With a head plagued by hallucinations, a medicine cabinet full of pills, and a closet stuffed with frilly, violet dresses, Hanna's tired of being the outcast, the weird girl, the freak. So she runs away to Portero, Texas in search of a new home.


But Portero is a stranger town than Hanna expects. As she tries to make a place for herself, she discovers dark secrets that would terrify any normal soul. Good thing for Hanna, she's far from normal. As this crazy girl meets an even crazier town, only two things are certain: Anything can happen and no one is safe.

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Bleeding Violet was just weird. And not weird in a good way. Not weird in a Stephen King kind of way. If it had been weird in a Stephen King kind of way, I would have loved it.

The premise of the novel is interesting, but it wasn't executed very well. I never felt like things were fully explained. Sometimes, with novels like Bleeding Violet, or Stephen King novels, there's not always a complete explanation for why things are the way they are. That, I'm okay with. What I'm  not okay with is not really having any kind of explanation at all, and I felt like that was the case with Bleeding Violet. I really had no idea why all the monsters that were in the town were there. I know and understand the story behind one of the characters, Runyon, who ended up playing a somewhat significant role. But all the monsters that were there were pretty much beyond my understanding. I really would have preferred it if the novel had been a ghost story instead of a monster story. Ghost stories I can like. Monster stories, not so much, especially if I don't really know why they're there.

Other than that, I really didn't like the characters, either. Hanna and Wyatt especially just really rubbed me the wrong way. There were times when I felt like Hanna was being really immature for a sixteen year old, and those were the times when I wanted to tell her to shut up and grow up. Wyatt was a little immature at times, too, but more than that, there were times when I just felt like he wasn't very smart. It bugged me, because sometimes he talked like he was intelligent, but then he would randomly say "gone" instead of "going" (and don't get me started on the editing; "gone" was not the appropriate word to use when writing the dialect--it should have been "goan"), and I hated it when he (or any) of the characters said that, because they came off as uneducated. I understand that in certain places, especially in Texas, might have that kind of dialect. I think the biggest problem for me was that the dialect wasn't consistent throughout the novel.

Overall, I didn't enjoy this novel as much as I had hoped I would. I finished reading it, but I didn't really have a reason to. I wasn't emotionally invested in the characters, I didn't care about the monsters, and I wasn't eager to keep reading to find out what would happen.

Overall rating: 2/5

Cover rating: 3/5

Hunger Games teaser movie poster

I came across this at Empire of Books and decided I had to share it, too, because it is made of complete awesome.

Review: The Iron Queen

The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Pages: 368
Release date: January 25, 2011
Format: OverDrive eBook
Website
Summary (from Good Reads): My name is Meghan Chase. I thought it was over. That my time with the fey, the impossible choices I had to make, the sacrifices of those I loved, was behind me. But a storm is approaching, an army of Iron fey that will drag me back, kicking and screaming. Drag me away from the banished prince who's sworn to stand by my side. Drag me into the core of conflict so powerful, I'm not sure anyone can survive it. This time, there will be no turning back.

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I don't know where to begin with how much I love this series. I actually had a difficult time getting into the first novel, The Iron King--I got a little bored with it, but overall, I fell in love with and picked up a copy of The Iron Daughter as soon as I could. And when I got to the end of The Iron Daughter, I couldn't wait to get my hands on The Iron Queen and see what would happen with Meghan next.

I was not disappointed.

There is never a dull moment in The Iron Queen. Meghan faces complication after complication, and in other novels, it might seem like too much, but in The Iron Queen, Julie Kagawa makes each complication interesting and different. There were some scenes that had me on the edge of my seat, holding my breath in anticipation. I loved every second of it.

The characters, as always, are fabulous. I have to admit that I am absolutely, 100 percent team Puck. I just can't get behind Ash. I don't hate him, but for me, he's the kind of character who is not easily accessible. He's cold, doesn't always show much emotion (at least, not in the way Puck does), and I think sometimes he's less-than-likeable. Overall, Ash is an awesome character, and I would definitely want him on my side, but when it comes to the romance aspect of the novels, I am Team Puck. Puck is fun. He knows when to be serious, but he's playful. He has a sense of humor. I like that. It's definitely necessary to have in these novels; Puck's lightheartedness adds a lot to the novels when the majority of the time, the characters are more serious. Puck is perfect when it comes to comedic relief.

I also love Razor, the gremlin, in this novel. He is adorable, and had me giggling during his few scenes. I really hope we get to see more of him in The Iron Knight, because I adore him.

I can't wait to read The Iron Knight. If this is a series you haven't picked up yet, you definitely should. The hype is justified.

Overall rating: 5/5

Cover rating: 3.5/5

Review: Imaginary Girls

Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Pages: 352
Release date: June 14, 2011
Format: Hardcover
Website
Summary (from Good Reads): Chloe's older sister, Ruby, is the girl everyone looks to and longs for, who can't be captured or caged. When a night with Ruby's friends goes horribly wrong and Chloe discovers the dead body of her classmate London Hayes left floating in the reservoir, Chloe is sent away from town and away from Ruby.

But Ruby will do anything to get her sister back, and when Chloe returns to town two years later, deadly surprises await. As Chloe flirts with the truth that Ruby has hidden deeply away, the fragile line between life and death is redrawn by the complex bonds of sisterhood.

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Imaginary Girls is incredible. The novel is primarily narration; dialog accounts for about 40 percent of the novel. That surprised me, but it didn't turn me off. I actually really enjoyed it that the dialog was kept to a minimum, because it made what dialog was there that much more important.

The characters, especially Ruby, are so vivid. I felt like I got to know them really well--Ruby through her actions and the few things she said, but more so through Chloe's perspective of her. And going through the novel with Chloe, experiencing things as she did, gave me a great, if one-sided, idea of who she is.

The thing that stood out to me the most, and really defined who Ruby is for me, was the scene where she releases her balloons--balloons that she's written instructions on, things like "Call me at midnight and tell me you love me" and "Don't wear that dress again, I want it." Ruby had nine balloons, each with some kind of instruction on it, and the instructions she choose, plus the way she choose to release them, was the perfect way to characterize her. It showed another dimension of her character, and whenever I think about Ruby now, that is the moment I think of, above anything else she does in the novel.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about Imaginary Girls since I finished reading it. I don't normally like magical realism, but Imaginary Girls really blew me away, and changed my ideas of what magical realism can be. It's a haunting story, and I admit it's creepy at times, especially toward the end, but it's also beautiful. Imaginary Girls is one of the best novels I've read this year, and quite possibly my favorite novel that I've read so far this year.

Overall rating: 5/5

Cover rating: 5/5

In My Mailbox: 30

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. For more details on this meme, check out her blog.


My links are for Amazon, and summaries come from Good Reads.


I received some awesome things this week. For review, from Quirk Books, I received:

Broety by Brian McGackin
Read my review
As contemporary poets deliver entire volumes on subjects like incest, menstruation, and pine cones, regular guys are left scratching their heads. Who will speak for Everyman? Who will articulate his love for Xbox 360, for Mama Celeste’s Frozen Pizza, for any movie starring Bruce Willis? Enter Broetry—a stunning debut from a dazzling new literary voice. “Broet Laureate” Brian McGackin goes where no poet has gone before—to Star Wars conventions, to frat parties, to video game tournaments, and beyond. With poems like “Ode to That Girl I Dated for, Like, Two Months Sophomore Year” and “My Friends Who Don’t Have Student Loans,” we follow the Bro from his high school graduation and college experience through a “quarter-life crisis” and beyond. Packaged in a small gifty hardcover and illustrated with tasteful black and white illustrations, Broetry is a funny and sly look at modern masculinity.


Thank you to Quirk Books for sending this to me!


From the library:

Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma
Chloe's older sister, Ruby, is the girl everyone looks to and longs for, who can't be captured or caged. When a night with Ruby's friends goes horribly wrong and Chloe discovers the dead body of her classmate London Hayes left floating in the reservoir, Chloe is sent away from town and away from Ruby. But Ruby will do anything to get her sister back, and when Chloe returns to town two years later, deadly surprises await. As Chloe flirts with the truth that Ruby has hidden deeply away, the fragile line between life and death is redrawn by the complex bonds of sisterhood.

Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares
Read my review
SUMMARY CONTAINS SLIGHT SPOILERS From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ann Brashares comes the welcome return of the characters whose friendship became a touchstone for a generation. Now Tibby, Lena, Carmen, and Bridget have grown up, starting their lives on their own. And though the jeans they shared are long gone, the sisterhood is everlasting. Despite having jobs and men that they love, each knows that something is missing: the closeness that once sustained them. Carmen is a successful actress in New York, engaged to be married, but misses her friends. Lena finds solace in her art, teaching in Rhode Island, but still thinks of Kostos and the road she didn’t take. Bridget lives with her longtime boyfriend, Eric, in San Francisco, and though a part of her wants to settle down, a bigger part can’t seem to shed her old restlessness. Then Tibby reaches out to bridge the distance, sending the others plane tickets for a reunion that they all breathlessly await. And indeed, it will change their lives forever—but in ways that none of them could ever have expected. As moving and life-changing as an encounter with long-lost best friends, Sisterhood Everlasting is a powerful story about growing up, losing your way, and finding the courage to create a new one.

What Can't Wait by Ashley Hope Perez
Seventeen-year-old Marisa's mother has been saying this for as long as Marisa can remember. Her parents came to Houston from Mexico. They work hard, and they expect Marisa to help her familia. And they expect her to marry a boy from the neighborhood, to settle down, and to have grandbabies. If she wants a job, she could always be an assistant manager at the local grocery store. At school, it's another story. Marisa's calc teacher expects her to ace the AP test and to get into an engineering program in Austin—a city that seems unimaginably far away. When her home life becomes unbearable, Marisa seeks comfort elsewhere—and suddenly neither her best friend nor boyfriend can get through to her. Caught between the expectations of two different worlds, Marisa isn't sure what she wants—other than a life where she doesn't end each day thanking God it's over. 
What Can't Wait—the gripping debut novel from Ashley Hope Pérez—tells the story of one girl's survival in a world in which family needs trump individual success, and self-reliance the only key that can unlock the door to the future.

The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa

My name is Meghan Chase. I thought it was over. That my time with the fey, the impossible choices I had to make, the sacrifices of those I loved, was behind me. But a storm is approaching, an army of Iron fey that will drag me back, kicking and screaming. Drag me away from the banished prince who's sworn to stand by my side. Drag me into the core of conflict so powerful, I'm not sure anyone can survive it. This time, there will be no turning back.

The Mermaid's Mirror by L.K. Madigan
Lena has lived her whole life near the beach — walking for miles up and down the shore and breathing the salty air, swimming in the cold water, and watching the surfers rule the waves — the problem is, she’s spent her whole life just watching. As her sixteenth birthday approaches, Lena vows she will no longer watch from the sand: she will learn to surf. But her father — a former surfer himself — refuses to allow her to take lessons. After his near drowning years ago, he can’t bear to let Lena take up the risky sport. Yet something keeps drawing Lena to the water . . . an ancient, powerful magic. And one morning Lena catches sight of this magic: a beautiful woman — with a silvery tail. Now nothing can stop Lena from seeking the mermaid, not even the dangerous waves at Magic Crescent Cove. And soon . . . what she sees in the mermaid’s mirror will change her life forever.


That's all I got this week. What did you get? Happy reading!

Review: Broetry

Broetry by Brian McGackin
Publisher: Quirk Books
Pages: 128
Release date: July 5, 2011
Format: Hardcover
Website
Summary (from Good Reads): As contemporary poets deliver entire volumes on subjects like incest, menstruation, and pine cones, regular guys are left scratching their heads. Who will speak for Everyman? Who will articulate his love for Xbox 360, for Mama Celeste’s Frozen Pizza, for any movie starring Bruce Willis?

Enter Broetry—a stunning debut from a dazzling new literary voice. “Broet Laureate” Brian McGackin goes where no poet has gone before—to Star Wars conventions, to frat parties, to video game tournaments, and beyond. With poems like “Ode to That Girl I Dated for, Like, Two Months Sophomore Year” and “My Friends Who Don’t Have Student Loans,” we follow the Bro from his high school graduation and college experience through a “quarter-life crisis” and beyond. Packaged in a small gifty hardcover and illustrated with tasteful black and white illustrations, Broetry is a funny and sly look at modern masculinity.

-----

Brilliant. That's the best word I can come up with to describe Broetry.

I majored in creative writing in college, and my emphasis was on poetry. I love Ted Kooser, Yusef Komunyakaa, Robert Frost, Poe, Diane Thiel, and, of course, Jimmy Santiago Baca (it would almost be a crime not to look him, considering he's also from New Mexico). I have a huge poetry anthology that has hundreds of sticky notes marking my favorite poems. I have books by my favorite poets that also have sticky notes marking my favorite poems.

And now, I have added Broetry to that collection. Broetry had me laughing, reminiscing, thinking back on my high school years. I loved the references to things I grew up with, like Nickelodeon's Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Rugrats, and the big orange couch (which I had forgotten about until I read this book). I loved the poems about more modern celebrities, like Taylor Swift. I thought it was awesome when, in those poems about Taylor Swift and Nicole Scherzinger, McGackin included references to their songs.

I loved the plays on famous poems, like William Carlos Williams' This Is Just To Say, which is one of my favorite poems, Walt Whitman's O Captain! My Captain! and two Robert Frost poems (The Road Not Taken and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening).

I love it that McGackin writes about every day things, things we can all relate to in some way. It's been a long time since I've written any poetry, as I've been focusing on fiction lately, but Broetry makes me want to start writing poetry again. It's inspiring. I want more from Brian McGackin, and since I'm feeling slightly greedy today, I want it now.

This is a great book for anyone who's never really read poetry and is hesitant to start. Broetry contains some seriously awesome poems, and I think (and hope) it's the type of book that will make more people want to read poetry. 

Overall rating: 5/5

Cover rating: 5/5

Review: Sisterhood Everlasting

Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares
Publisher: Random House
Pages: 368
Release date: June 14, 2011
Format: Hardcover
Website
Summary (from Good Reads) CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS: From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ann Brashares comes the welcome return of the characters whose friendship became a touchstone for a generation. Now Tibby, Lena, Carmen, and Bridget have grown up, starting their lives on their own. And though the jeans they shared are long gone, the sisterhood is everlasting. 
Despite having jobs and men that they love, each knows that something is missing: the closeness that once sustained them. Carmen is a successful actress in New York, engaged to be married, but misses her friends. Lena finds solace in her art, teaching in Rhode Island, but still thinks of Kostos and the road she didn’t take. Bridget lives with her longtime boyfriend, Eric, in San Francisco, and though a part of her wants to settle down, a bigger part can’t seem to shed her old restlessness. 
Then Tibby reaches out to bridge the distance, sending the others plane tickets for a reunion that they all breathlessly await. And indeed, it will change their lives forever—but in ways that none of them could ever have expected. As moving and life-changing as an encounter with long-lost best friends, Sisterhood Everlasting is a powerful story about growing up, losing your way, and finding the courage to create a new one.

-----

I was not prepared for such an emotionally intense novel. I love the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, so I was really excited for Sisterhood Everlasting, but I have to admit, I was wary. After reading Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later, I worried that Sisterhood Everlasting would be just as disappointed as Sweet Valley Confidential was.

Fortunately, I was wrong. Sisterhood Everlasting is not disappointing in any way. I was in the mood for a good contemporary novel, and boy, did I get it.

Once again, I was thrown into Bee's, Lena's, Tibby's, and Carmen's lives, completely and willingly. Bee and Lena have always been my favorite characters in the series, especially Lena. The girls are just who I expected them to be, and just what I wanted them to be. I loved them just as much in this novel as I did in the first four novels.

It's hard to say much about this novel without giving things away. I will say that Ann Brashares is a beautiful novelist. I read every word, reveling in them. I felt every disappointment, every moment of hope, sadness, anger, happiness, longing, desire, that the characters felt. By the time I was finished with the novel, I felt like my emotions had been taken in so many different directions, sometimes suddenly, sometimes after spending time with one particular emotion. I love it when novels do that to me.

Sisterhood Everlasting is the perfect ending to a perfect series.

Overall rating: 5/5

Cover rating: 4/5

Review: Stupid Fast

Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Pages: 320
Release date: June 1, 2011
Format: Paperback
Website
Summary (from Good Reads): Fifteen-year-old Felton Reinstein has always been on the smallish side, but in his sophomore year he starts growing...and growing. During gym one day he smokes the football jocks in a 600-yard race. Felton has never been interested in sports, but there's no doubt-he is "stupid fast." As he juggles his newfound athletic prowess, his mom's sudden depression, an annoying little brother, and his first love, he discovers a shocking secret about his past which explains why he's turning out the way he is.

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There were some really good things about Stupid Fast, and there were some things that I thought weren't so good. I'll start with what I really liked:

• Felton's voice. As the narrator, Felton had a really strong, distinct voice, and I loved that. It's not easy to create a narrator with such a strong voice, and I think Geoff Herbach did an excellent job. It's so easy for narrators of different books by different authors to sound very similar, but Felton had a unique voice. At this point, I could read something written in Felton's voice, not knowing that it's supposed be Felton, and I think I would be able to tell immediately that it's him.
• The humor. It's there, in bits and pieces. There are a few laugh out loud moments (but not laugh so hard my stomach hurts moments). Any time a book has humor, I'm happy.
• The story. It was interesting, especially when it comes to Felton's mom, Jerri. Felton's family life and their relationships was the most interesting aspect of the story for me--more interesting than his becoming an athlete and making new friends.

All that said, there was one thing I really disliked about this novel, and that was Felton. Despite his strong voice, which I liked, I didn't actually like Felton. He annoyed me. He as immature. I understand that perhaps he was a bit slow, but there was never really a reason that explained why. His sudden growth spurt is explained, but I thought that the concept of Felton having some kind of mental disability was never fully explored. I'm not even convinced if he had a mental disability, or if he just never really learned good social skills. At any rate, I thought Felton was immature and annoying, and that made it hard for me to finish the book. I didn't really like any of the characters very much, but Felton was definitely the worst. I am fully open to the idea that not every character or narrator is going to be likeable. I don't necessarily want to like all the characters in a novel. But I do want to feel sympathy for at least one character, and it would be nice if I liked the narrator enough to connect with him or her. Unfortunately, that just wasn't the case for Felton.

All that said, I think Geoff Herbach is only going to get better as a writer, and I think a lot of people will love Stupid Fast.

Overall rating: 3/5

Cover rating: 2/5

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children hits the New York Times bestseller list!

I am so excited to announce that Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is now a New York Times bestseller! I reviewed this book in May, and it was a book I completely fell in love with. Shortly after I read and reviewed the book, I came across it in my library system's catalog--and I was surprised (and happy) to see that it already had 25 holds on it. It's still being processed for our system, but looking at the catalog again right now, it now has 47 holds on it. I am incredibly happy for Ransom Riggs and this huge accomplishment. I'm thrilled that so many people are interested in this book, because I really love it--it might even be one of my favorites so far this year. If you haven't read it, be sure to check it out. And check out the book trailer, too--it's super awesome.

Congratulations, Ransom and the publisher, Quirk, for an awesome accomplishment!!!!!

Review: Entwined

Entwined by Heather Dixon
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Pages: 480
Release date: March 29, 2011
Format: Hardcover
Publisher's Website
Summary (from Good Reads): Azalea is trapped. Just when she should feel that everything is before her . . . beautiful gowns, dashing suitors, balls filled with dancing . . . it's taken away. All of it. The Keeper understands. He's trapped, too, held for centuries within the walls of the palace. And so he extends an invitation. Every night, Azalea and her eleven sisters may step through the enchanted passage in their room to dance in his silver forest. But there is a cost. The Keeper likes to keep things. Azalea may not realize how tangled she is in his web until it is too late.

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Entwined blew me away. I was enchanted from the first page. It's the type of book I love to get sucked into and not come out of it until I'm done--and that's pretty much what I did.

Heather Dixon is an amazing writer. Her descriptions throughout the novel are so beautiful. My favorite was when Azalea and her sisters first went to the Keeper's forest. The descriptions of the forest, of the dancers, of the Keeper. . . . It's the kind of writing that doesn't just let me see the setting and characters--it makes me feel like I'm actually there. When Dixon described the Keeper's clothes as a shade of black "so smooth that stars would have gotten lost in it" (pages 92-93), I was delighted. The inner me squealed with happiness at that point. I still can't get over how much I love it.

And Azalea. Oh, how I adored her. She was a wonderful older sister to her siblings. I loved how she did everything she could to keep her promise to take care of them. I loved it that she was friends with them most of the time, but that she could act as a mother figure to them when needed. But mostly, I loved it that she taught her sisters how to dance. Dance was such a huge aspect of this book, and I loved reading about it, from the descriptions of the dancers and their clothes to the descriptions of the dances themselves. I loved being able to experience going to a ball and seeing different kinds of dances, many of which I'd never heard of, through this novel.

Another great thing about Alzalea are her flaws. I love her strengths, but she also has weaknesses. There were moments in the book where I was actually yelling at her, because she wasn't seeing what I thought was so obvious. If she would have just stopped to think about some of the things that were happening, instead of panicking, she might have realized what was happening with the Keeper sooner. Her determination, though, to do what the Keeper wanted her to do, was a flaw that prevented her from figuring out the situation. I like that, because even though Azalea was completely freaking awesome, part of her awesomeness came from her weaknesses. I like it when characters aren't portrayed as perfect, because no one's perfect, and our weaknesses are just as important as our strengths.

I don't normally talk about book covers in my reviews, but this time, I have to. I love, love, love the cover for Entwined. It's so gorgeous. Pictures of it don't do it justice. I love seeing part of the gardens, I love the castle in the distance, I love the girl in the dress. But most of all, I love the silver leaves edging the side and bottom of the cover. It's hard to see from the picture how pretty it is. It's shiny and silver and the perfect touch to an already-gorgeous cover. The cover was the main reason I decided to read Entwined.

I am in love with this book. It's one big, delicious fairy tale, and I can't get enough of it.

Overall rating: 5

Cover rating: 5