Lois Lane: Triple Threat

Since seeing Gwenda Bond at ReadUp Greenville in October, I’ve read all three of her Lois Lane books.  She’s taken the iconic Lois Lane character and given her a spunky, sassy personality.  This third book in the series is no different.

Teenage investigative reporter Lois Lane has seen some weird things since moving to Metropolis:  cloning, mind-melding experiments, and cyber bullying.  Through it all, Lois has found a set of in real life friends (something she’s never had before because of moving around for her dad’s army job) and online friends (like her mysterious SmallvilleGuy).  In this book, Metropolis is full of weird sightings of silver-tinged teens doing superhuman things, like lifting cars and flying.  Lois decides to start investigating for her newest Scoop article but soon realizes that these teens have an odd fascination with her.  To make things more complicated, her cyber-maybe-more-than-a-friend SmallvilleGuy is coming to Metropolis for a birthday trip which means they will finally get to meet in real life.  Lois is also still trying to figure out if another online acquaintance TheInventor is a friend or foe, especially when he leaks a list of usernames to the government to retaliate for Lois’s snooping.

This book focuses more on Lois’s personal life than her news story this time, which is fine, but it makes the news story seem like an add-on story. She does (finally) figure out why these silver kids are trying to recruit her, but it wasn’t because of her investigative skills.  She found out more because she lied to her friends and charged into trouble without thinking things through.  

Overall, it was good book, especially since you’re already invested in the characters and their outcomes from the previous books.

Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe

I love Pride and Prejudice.  It’s my favorite classic novel for many reasons that I will not go into here (see this post for all my P&P love).  And because I love the original story so much, I’ve read lots of retellings and modern adaptations, like Eligible and Jane in Austin.  Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe tops that list.  

I know, I know…it’s written as a fluffy Christmas story, and it is.  But it’s also more than that.  The author captured the original angst of the story and the misconstrued intentions perfectly, even if the setting is modern.  There are also a few other changes I enjoyed, like the role reversals.  In this story Darcy Fitzwilliam is an independent, self-made woman who has a fantastically lucrative career in New York City.  But when her mother has a heart attack, she must go back to Pemberly, PA, her hometown that she hasn’t been to in eight years.  There she reconnects with her best friend Bingley Charles and her neighbors, the Bennett boys.  

Another change I liked was the story being told from Darcy’s point of view.  Most retellings stick with Jane and the Bennett sisters, since they are the main focus of the original novel, but I enjoyed being in Darcy’s head throughout all the confusing, conflicting feelings she’s having for Luke Bennett, her old high school rival.  I was expecting the novel to flip back and forth between the two points of view, but by sticking with Darcy, the story seemed more honest and truthful.  

Could I have used a few more details throughout the story?  Sure, being only 225 pages.

Did I read this practically in one sitting?  Why yes, I did.

Did I throughly enjoy it?  Most definitely.

You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas

The thing I love about my book club is the fact that it gets me out of my reading comfort zone.  When you’re in a group with a dozen other people, there’s a very diverse pull for what books to read.  Some I’ve been pleasantly surprised with, but sometimes you come up with a dud, like this month’s book.

Augusten Burroughs is a nonfiction writer who writes about his life in a very satirical way, much in the same writing style as David Sedaris.  From what I gathered from our book discussion, this book is in the same vein as his other books.  Burroughs wrote seven short stories about different Christmases he’s experienced over the years.  Some parts are slightly humorous, like when he tricks his parents into buying all the presents on his list by demanding a horse or when his newly renovated house floods.  But mostly it just made me depressed and feel sorry for him, like the Christmas he didn’t remember because he was blackout drunk or the last Christmas he spent with his AIDS-infected boyfriend.

What I really wanted to read was a hilariously funny set of Christmas stories, but instead what I got was story after story of hardships and confusion and struggles, like a tasteless cookie with some sprinkles on top to try and make it look better.

Love a la Mode

This book is pure sugar and spice.  Rosie and Henry meet on the airplane to Paris, and soon realize they are both heading to the same place, an exclusive cooking school founded by Chef Laurent.  They are both excited and overwhelmed with their experience—Rosie with her lackluster cooking skills since she’s a pastry chef and Henry with keeping up with his academics and the pressure by his overbearing mother—but as the semester continues on, they realize that their connection is more than just as friends.

Honestly, this book was predictable.  The cooking school part was interesting, along with the diverse mix of characters from all over the world—30 kids from America to Sweden to Germany to England—but the whole story seemed very fluffy.  I kept mentally yelling at the book, “Why don’t you just talk to him/her instead of saying it in your head?  Then all the tension and drama would be resolved.”  

Did I enjoy reading it?  Sure.  Would I be okay handing this off to a high schooler, or even a middle schooler?  Sure.  I just felt like the characters could have been developed more and the teen hormonal drama toned down a smidge.  

**This book was just published!  Thanks to Net Galley and Disney-Hyperion for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.**

Grim Lovelies

Fairy tale stories have always intrigued me, so the premise of Megan Shepherd's new book Grim Lovelies hooked me.  The question:  what happens to the animals in fairy tales that get turned into humans?  And how hard would they fight to stay human?

In the story, Anouk is a beastie, meaning she was created from an animal by a witch.  She's spent her year of life cooking and cleaning for Mada Vittora, the witch who created her, but after a tense night meeting, Anouk finds Mada Vittora dead.  In fear, Anouk and the other beasties--Cricket and Beau--flee for their lives and try to find a way to remain human forever before Mada Vittora's spell fades away.

This book is pure fantasy.  Yes, it's set in modern day Paris, but the magic, witches, royals, and goblins dominate the story.  The first half is straightforward--introductions and survival.  However, the second half of the novel gets a little crazy, in my opinion.  There’s an Ocean’s 11-esque heist and a goblin party in the subway tunnels.  There are living topiaries and love interests.  And, of course, there’s deception and trickery while Anouk figures out who she can trust.  

In my opinion, it was laid on a little thick, but it does set up for the next book in the series.

**Thank you, Net Galley, for this free book in exchange for an honest review.**

The Glass Ocean

If you know me, you know I love history, especially the opulent time of the Gilded Age.  Although technically the Gilded Age stopped around 1900, the wealth and extravagance lasted into the 1910s and 1920s.  The Glass Ocean is a historical fiction book chronicling the final passage of the Lusitania, an ocean liner that was sunk by a German U-boat in 1915 during WWI.  

The Glass Ocean is written by three authors—Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White—and the story is told from three women’s perspectives.  Two of the women lived in 1915, Caroline a wealthy socialite and Tess a con woman, who were both on the Lusitania.  The third is Sarah, a historical writer in the modern day who is investigating a mysterious note left by her great-grandfather, a steward who died on the Lusitania.  Her research lead her to England and John Langford, a descendant of another Lusitania passenger who was the supposed sender of the mysterious snippet.  While John and Sarah try to piece together how their ancestors connect and why a coded message was safely sealed in a waterproof bag for a century, the reader is pushed back in time to see the events play out in real time.

If I had to classify this book, it’s historical fiction but also a mystery.  I liked figuring out the new pieces and realizing who people were in relation to the modern day research Sarah was doing, but the beginning and the end of the story was uneventfully slow.  It took me a while to swap to the different character’s perspectives and to be invested in their outcomes.  Once they made it onto the boat, the action and suspicions started picking up and made the book better.  But the ending seemed a little…up in the air?  Anticlimactic?  It was just missing something.

Overall, I’m glad I read it.  I’m also glad that I checked it out from the library instead of buying it.

Love, Life, & the List

Kasie West currently reigns over sappy chick-lit stories in the middle school world.  Others have cycled through, but what I love about West’s writing is that it sets up love triangles and situations that relate to middle and high schoolers without all the unnecessary sex scenes.  My (current) favorite of hers is PS: I Like You, mainly because of the quirky characters and their banter.  Love, Life, & the List was good, just not my favorite.

This story is about Abby and Cooper, two best friends since 8th grade.  It’s their first summer together without their other two friends—Rachel’s touring Europe with her family and Justin’s on a church mission trip all summer—and Abby’s realizing that her unrequited love for Cooper may be one of the things holding her and her art back, along with her fear of change and her agoraphobic mother.  With the help of her mother and her grandfather, Abby makes a list of things to do over the summer—from trying something new to facing a fear to finding out a stranger’s story—to try and help her expand her world for herself and for her art.

Like I said, this book was just okay.  I guess I was frustrated at Abby most of the book because she knew Cooper didn’t like her back the same way, but she still enabled him to have a hold over her.  I know it’s harder to do than to just say “let him go” but her own personal happiness was so caught up in this one person that I just felt it to be unhealthy.  I do like how it shows that having more than one friend group is okay.  Each friend you have can bring something new out of you, and that’s what I feel Abby finally realized.  She’d been a four-some with her friends for so long, she didn’t have any other close friends to confide it.  So when two of the four were away for the summer, it forced her to make some new friends.  I’m not saying you need to be friends with everyone but having diverse friend groups you’re a part of is a good place to be.

Lois Lane: Double Down

We all know who Lois Lane is, but what about her life before meeting the infamous Clark Kent?  That is what this series focuses on.  

The first book, Fallout, introduced us to Lois (and her thick permanent record that follows her from school to school) and her first few weeks in Metropolis.  This is the second book in the series and picks up soon after the first book leaves off.  Lois and her friends from the Daily Planet offshoot The Scoop are looking for new investigative stories, not just feature pieces, when one bumps into Lois on the street…literally.  Melody—twin sister to Matty, one of Lois’s friends and Scoop colleagues—is in trouble and reluctantly decides to let Lois help find out what’s causing her dizzy spells.  At the same time, James—another Scoop colleague—asks for Lois’s help to figure out if his political father was falsely charged with embezzlement, causing him to go to jail.  As the two stories unfold, they start to seem like there’s more than coincidental timing linking them together.  During all this, Lois is also still messaging with SmallvilleGuy, a secretive teen she met online who’s quickly becoming one of her best friends and potential crush.

This book, in my opinion, did a lot better job keeping the reader hooked into the story.  I don’t know if the whole “get to know you” part of the first book just seemed forced or if I was really just in the mood to jump in without all the background stories, but this one was fast paced and had just enough quirky to make it a really enthralling read.  Lois and her take charge personality really do come through (and I really like how one promo blurb likened her to Veronica Mars, which is totally true).  You get to see her soften up a little bit, since she’s trying to figure out how to be a good friend while also sticking to the truth of her investigative stories.  Yes, there are some plot points that seem far-fetched, but the story is in the comic book world where there are alien superheroes living normal, teenage lives, so does it really matter?

I’m excited to see what Gwenda Bond’s newest installment, Triple Threat, will bring to the table…

Nyxia

I (obviously) went to ReadUp Greenville this year, a young adult author’s conference where you basically spend the day getting to listen to authors talk about their books, processes, and motivations.  It was (obviously) phenomenal, like I knew it would be.  Usually going in I have read some of the author’s books, so I have my list of ones that I want to buy or are interested in hearing about.  Scott Reintgen’s novel Nyxia wasn’t even on my radar, but after hearing him talk about it, I knew I had to get it.

If I had to describe Nyxia in one phrase, it would be “Hunger Games in space.”  It’s set in the future when a new Earth-like planet has been discovered along with a new element called nyxia.  The problem is the indigenous people of the planet don’t like humans, but they’re peaceful with children.  The solution:  assemble a team of teens, promise them a whole lot of money for participating, train them to be soldiers and miners, and send them to the new planet to mine the nyxia.  Ten kids are chosen to go, but they soon find out that not everything is as it seems and everything is part of the game of survival.

First, I loved the diversity.  Everyone can find someone they relate to.  Elliott, the main character, is a black teen from Detroit.  There are also teens from Pakistan, Japan, China, Switzerland, Nigeria…and the list goes on.  The author also did a good job with making the characters each have their own personalities while making them not seem stale.  Another aspect I liked was the quick action.  The storyline picks up quickly from the start, and the science fiction aspect isn’t completely weird.  Since it’s set in the future (around 2050-ish) the tech they have seems plausible and the element nyxia gives it just enough mystery to make it intriguing.

This is the first in a trilogy, so hold on tight!

The Hollow of Fear: A Lady Sherlock Mystery

I’m a sucker for a good old fashioned “who done it” mystery, and the latest Lady Sherlock book did not disappoint.  It’s written in the same style as a classic Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie, which just makes the language feel so much richer than some modern day books.  I also enjoy how they’ve taken Sherlock Holmes and reimagined “him” as a woman.

You’ll have to start with the first book in the series, A Study in Scarlet Women, to get the full background, but the basic premise is Charlotte Holmes is a beautiful young woman with an even more brilliant mind.  To prevent her parents from marrying her off against her will, she decides to purposefully get caught in a compromising position (to put it lightly) so she will be ineligible for marriage.  Now she must find a way to make money so she can live on her own, hence the creation of the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes.  Along with her sister Olivia, her benefactor Mrs. Watson, and her long-time friend Lord Ingram, she successfully creates and maintains the persona of Sherlock.  But now in the third book, Lord Ingram is under scrutiny for his wife’s murder, and only Charlotte’s quick mind can try to extricate him from blame.

This novel, much like the last, cannot be predicted.  There are too many pieces all floating together and they don’t match up until the last 50 pages.  All the seemingly minor loose ends have a purpose, even though the reader may not be able to see how they all fit together as the story progresses.  That’s what I love about a good mystery.  I’m great at predicting motives and murderers, so it takes a lot to stump me, and when it’s done is such a way that keeps you interested the entire book, well, that’s even better.

If you enjoyed the first two books in this series, then you’ll be just as enthralled with this third installment.  

Lois Lane: Fallout

Superheroes are big right now, raking in millions of dollars in movie and merchandise sales (I should know…my son was Spiderman this year for Halloween).  But what about the sidekicks?  Don’t they get a story too?  This book is the first in a YA series that revolves around Lois Lane, pre-Superman.

In Fallout, Lois is a high school student who just moved to Metropolis because of her military general father.  She doesn’t have the best track record with her old schools, but she’s determined to make a new start at her high school.  Meaning she’s going to keep her head down and stay out of trouble.  It works for about five minutes, until she sees another student being bullied by a group of kids who are eerily connected.  She quickly finds out through her new job at the teen Scoop newspaper, a small off-shoot of The Daily Planet, that this same group is targeting kids in a virtual reality game called World Wars Three.  Lois, with the help of her online friend SmallvilleGuy and her new Scoop buddies, soon realizes how far this group is willing to go to get what they want.

This book was a splurge buy at ReadUp Greenville after hearing the author talk about it on the Girl Power panel.  I enjoy superhero books and finding one that I think my kids would enjoy with a strong female lead sounded interesting.  However, this book was slow to start.  Maybe it’s because I’m nothing like Lois?  Maybe it’s because her constant need to snoop around was slightly annoying?  Maybe it was just getting a feel for the story and the whole virtual game aspect of it?  I don’t know what it was, but I had to read half-way into the book to fully get invested in the storyline and characters.  They grow on you the more you read, and by the end, I really liked the development of her friendships with her Scoop teammates.  

If you have a teen into the DC comics world, this book would be an appropriate one to pick up for your middle or high schooler.  And the story continues into two more books! 

The Darkdeep

So this middle grades read was an appropriate way to end by October reading.  Scary, horror reads aren’t really my thing (I have an overactive imagination, according to my mom), but I know lots of my kids really like the spooky, thriller stories.  This book is appropriately done with suspense without all the blood and gore that may scare off upper elementary kids.

After a bullying mishap, Nico, Emma, Tyler, and Opal find a hidden island in the middle of Still Cove, the eerie mist covered cove near their northwestern coastal town.  But the weirdest thing is the old houseboat floating on a lake with a swirling whirlpool under it.  They soon realize that this isn’t any ordinary island, and the secrets of the Darkdeep are more sinister than they first thought.

This is was a quick read for me, mostly because the authors pushed the action along as a fast pace without being confusing.  I also enjoyed the character dynamics, although Tyler and Emma seemed a little one-dimensional.  

I had the pleasure of hearing Brendan Reichs and Ally Condie speak about this novel at ReadUp Greenville this year, which was the main reason why I wanted to read it.  Their camaraderie and candidness was refreshing, and their playfulness does come through the characters as well.  Overall, it fits squarely into the “friends adventuring a secret while trying to outsmart their parents” genre of books.  This book seems to be geared more towards the tween crowd, as I could see my 8th graders scoffing at a few parts, but overall a solid start to the series (this is going to be a trilogy, so just be prepared for a little cliffhanger).  

What If It's Us

Books are a gateway into different stories.  One trend in books, especially YA books, recently is modeling diversity.  An author at ReadUp Greenville put it best…in the past, author’s writing YA books were writing about when they were young, basing their stories on their own personal experiences.  Now the YA genre has expanded greatly, and stories have infinite possibilities.  You can read about fantasy time traveling stories or creepy monsters or just everyday personal conflicts. Allowing students the ability to see themselves in books is a great encourager, especially as a teacher who sees many kids who are reluctant about reading.  I always try to find books that not only their interested in, but also ones they can learn something from, and What If It’s Us would fit this criteria (one of the co-authors, Becky Albertelli, also wrote Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda and Leah on the Off Beat and The Upside of Unrequited).

The story is set in New York City, where Arthur Seuss is living this summer while interning at his mother’s law firm.  Originally from Georgia, he feels out of place, without any friends, and lonely…until he randomly meets a guy at the post office.  He feels they had a connection, but without a name, phone number, or social media handle, he’s at a loss at what to do next.  With some help from his friends—and the universe—he realizes that some people are meant to be in your life.  

This YA rom-com does feature a boy-boy romance, but it’s more than that.  It shows that no relationship is perfect—with friends or significant others—and hiding your true self is exhausting and emotionally complicated.  Both the main characters admit their faults.  They are honest with each other when one makes a mistake.  They fight with their friends and learn how to apologize.  Overall, it’s a very good lesson on friendships and how to maintain them when dynamics change.  

As with my YA books, parents may want to read up on the content before blindly handing it over.  There is lots of cursing, some underage drinking references, and some romantic encounters.  This book, in my opinion, is definitely more of a high school book but still has merit nonetheless.

The Proposal

Sometimes after a long difficult book all you need is a light read that will make you laugh.  That’s why The Proposal was such a good relaxer for me.

The Proposal is a companion book to The Wedding Date, which means it has some of the same characters in it, like Drew and Alexa, but the main characters are different.  This time around, it’s Drew’s friend Carlos turn to accidentally find love.  While at a Dodgers baseball game, Nikole’s actor boyfriend decides to propose…during the game…on the JumboTron.  The problem (one of many) is that they’ve only been dating for five months, and Nik knows it won’t last, so she turns him down.  Now she’s the villain, stuck in a stadium full of people with camera crews closing in when in swoops Carlos and his sister.  Feigning recognition, they save Nik from the crowds, and a friendship starts to form.  Neither Carlos, a busy doctor with extended family to take care of, nor Nik, a writer with many failed relationships under her belt, want anything serious, but their natural chemistry is hard to deny.

There are many striking similarities between this book and The Wedding Date (which I—of course—had to go back and read after finishing this book).  First, they both go into the relationships with the “I’m never going to fall in love” mantra.  The Wedding Date meet cute was funnier—getting stuck in an elevator then becoming the guy’s fake girlfriend for a wedding—but The Proposal’s felt more real, mainly because Carlos and Nik started off as friends before getting physical.  Another similarity is the interracial relationship.  Alexa and Nik are both black, so there are a few cases (especially in The Wedding Date) where race is brought up because people said utterly inappropriate things.  Finally, they both also focus on current struggles.  Alexa in The Wedding Date is working to implement a youth outreach program for troubled teens, while Nik is learning self-defense to protect herself from her threatening ex-boyfriend.  I felt like the issues brought up in The Proposal were good and valid, but it did seem to take away from the ending because the explanation for it was very lengthy.

Overall, it was a cute, predictable story, but if you liked first one, you’ll enjoy this second book as well.

Outlander

After watching the Great American Reads on PBS this summer, I decided to choose a few books from the list to read.  One of my choices was Outlander.  

I honestly didn’t know a lot about the plot other than a woman time travels back into time.  Being a fan of history and time travel, I thought this book would be right up my alley…and it was.  I really enjoyed the characters, learning about 1700s Scottish/English history, and the storyline in general.  In the book, Claire and her husband Frank travel to the Scottish Highlands for a second honeymoon since WWII has now ended and they have been separated for eight years.  While there researching her husband’s genealogy, Claire finds herself accidentally propelled 200 years in the past, into 1700s Scotland full of clans and English redcoats.  Seen as a spy, she’s now caught in a whirlwind of events that imbed her in the past with little hope to return to 1945 again. 

As much as I loved the story, however, there were a few drawbacks to this book that will turn off non-bibilophiles.  

First, it’s L-O-N-G, over 600 pages of tiny print.  I’ve read a few books that length before, but I’m pretty sure they were YA books and the writing style is completely different.  Which brings me to my second frustration, the writing itself.  I loved it and hated it at the same time (if that makes sense).  Typically I’m a fast reader, but with this book I could not read as fast as I wanted because of all the details.  Most were interesting additions and plot driven, but others plodded along ponderously (I don’t really care to read about English botany or the intricacies of Catholic monasteries).  But I also loved the details.  It created a memorable story that made you feel like you are in 1742 Scotland and made you invest fully and wholeheartedly in the characters.  The last drawback was the sex and violence.  This book has very mature content, like multiple attempted rapes, many consensual romantic encounters, and violence (partly due to the Scottish skirmishes with the English and partly because the main character is a fugitive). It did feel very over the top at times, which probably plays into the TV show content.

This is the first in a series, so if you want to read it, prepare in advance.  You’ll need all your extra time for reading.  

Noodle Shop Mystery Series

This cozy little mystery series has been a nice change of pace for me.  Sometimes books really shake you up, make you upset, and just make your heart hurt.  That’s fine; books are supposed to broaden our horizons and expand our empathy.  But sometimes you just want something predictably fun, and that’s what this series is.

In Death by Dumpling, Lana works at her parents noodle shop in Asia Village, a pagoda-inspired mall full of Asian shops.  She’s between jobs, disgruntled at working back with her family, and just off a bad break-up.  What better way to shake her out of her misery than a good, old murder mystery!  The director of the Village is found dead in his office from an allergic reaction to shellfish, and everyone’s pointing the finger at Lana (who delivered his last meal) and Peter (the cook for the restaurant).  After meeting the police detectives—including dreamy Detective Trudeau—and deciding they cannot solve this problem alone, Lana and her roommate, Meghan, decide to dig up the dirt themselves.

Dim Sum of All Fears picks up a month after the first book ends.  Lana is still reeling from her findings surrounding Mr. Feng’s murder, but she doesn’t have time to mope.  Her parents are taking a surprise trip to Taiwan to visit her grandmother, and they’re leaving the restaurant management to Lana—much to her older sister’s chagrin.  While her parents are away, there’s another grizzly murder at Asia Village.  This time Lana’s close friend Isabelle and her husband Brandon are found murdered in their small souvenir shop.  What first seems like a murder/suicide turns out to be much more than that.  Detective Trudeau is back on the case and this time is determined to keep Lana out of trouble.

If there is such a genre as a mystery-rom-com, this would be in it.  It’s got the will-they-won’t-they love interest, the roommate side-kick, and spurned ex-lovers.  Oh, and murder mysteries!  I enjoyed these books because they read similar to YA books:  they aren’t difficult, the action in the story is spaced so you won’t have any long lulls, and I read each book in about two days.  Like I’ve said before, sometimes you need the Hallmark channel movie instead of an Oscar nominated film, and this is the literary equivalent.  

The Dry

So, I have a confession to make…I read this series out of order.  It has happened in the past (thanks, sister, for hogging Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) and will probably happen again in the future.  However, this time, I think it was for the best.

The Dry is the first in the Aaron Faulk series by Australian author Jane Harper.  I read the sequel, Forces of Nature, earlier this summer and really liked it!  Women lost in the woods…a mysterious serial killer…unknown motives…money laundering…it was a complex story but well told.  The Dry has many of those same literary characteristics, but it seemed to drag a little slower and not capture my attention as easily.  

Aaron Faulk is a federal agent in Australia, but he returns to his small southern town when he finds out his childhood friend murdered his family and then shot himself.  Since the town’s going through an epic drought, people assume it was motivated by money problems.  Even though the town hates him (due to past secrets revolving another dead friend), Aaron stays to try and clear his friend’s name.

Like the first, this story is told in the present with flashbacks interspersed to help fill in the blanks of what happened.  This was a good way to tell the story and to add some foreshadowing and suspense.  What I wasn’t too keen on were the people in the town.  For the most part they were so mean and petty, acting before thinking.  It’s nothing that takes away from the storyline, but it just rubbed me the wrong way.  The story is also two mysteries in one:  what happened to the recently murdered family and what happened to Aaron’s other friend twenty years ago to make the town hate him.  Both stories do get wrapped up, but by the time I hit the resolution of the first murder, I was on information overload and really didn’t care about tying up the second murder.

All in all, it was a fine detective novel…just not one I’ll be picking up again anytime soon.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

Y’all.  This book was crazy…but in a good way.

Each morning, Aiden wakes up at Blackheath, an estate owned by the Hardcastle family.  Every night, Evelyn Hardcastle is murdered at 11:00 pm.  Aiden’s job is to find out who killed her…but if he doesn’t, he wakes up and repeats the day in another guest’s body.  He has eight days to figure out her murder and eight different bodies to inhabit.  To make matters worse, there are others stuck at Blackheath like him who are searching for the murderer, but they are also coming after Aiden.

I knew going into this book it was a mystery, but even then I was totally twisted the first dozen chapters and had no clue what was going on.  I think there were a few things that contributed to this confusion:

First, the book’s in first person point of view.  This means we see the entire story from Aiden’s eyes but during the story he’s jumping his personality into another person’s body, with very limited memory of that person’s immediate life.  This means until Aiden figures out what’s going on, you are just as in the dark as he is.

Secondly, the book isn’t linear.  It will tell you when it moves on to a new day with a new body, but sometimes it will jump back into a previous body.  That means you’re not meeting characters in chronological order, which makes it sometimes confusing.

Besides these challenges, the book grows on you.  By the time Aiden realizes that he’s in a murder investigation, he’s able to adapt quickly.  This book has a lot of classic mystery elements:  red herrings, double-crossing, murders, hidden family secrets…you name it!  It reminded me very much of Agatha Christie’s works, where there were so many different pieces to the puzzle, you won’t be able to figure it out until the big reveal. 

Overall, it’s a well-done mystery novel, even with the shaky start.

**Thank you Net Galley and Sourcebooks for this free book in exchange for an honest review!**

**The book is out now (also under the title The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle) so enjoy!**

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper

There’s a hidden fiction sub-genre that you may not know about:  the quirky old man books.  This sub-genre has books like A Man Called Ove, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, and Out of Sorts.  These stories revolve around men in their later years where some shocking event has made them realize that their small, orderly, predictable lives aren’t enough.  Maybe their spouse dies or moves out, or they are forced to retire earlier than expected.  Whatever the case may be, these men realize that you’re never too old to start afresh and have an adventure.

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper falls solidly in this category.  Arthur Pepper’s wife died a year ago, and since then he’s become a recluse who’s chained to his daily routines.  That is until he cleans out his wife’s closet and finds a gold charm bracelet.  He’s never seen it before and has no idea what the eight charms mean.  So he sets off to figure out where the charms came from.  From elephants in India to tigers in England, Arthur realizes that looking back into the past is fine but living in the past isn’t.

This was overall just a cute story.  You’ll enjoy Arthur and his changing midst throughout the book.  Yes, there are a few plot lines that I wish were more resolved or went by too quickly, but that could just be me.  For the most part, this book will just make you chuckle with all the crazy situations Arthur finds himself in and wonder what will happen next.

This Is My Brain On Boys

This was a cute read by Sarah Stromhmeyer, who I already like because of her book Smart Girls Get What They Want.  Both books feature smart teen girls (yay for good role models) who are also trying to navigate the dating world.  

In This Is My Brain On Boys, Addie is smart…like genius smart (they never said it, but it seems like she has high-functioning Asperger’s).  She goes to a special boarding school where she’s trying to the Athenian Award, a full-ride scholarship awarded to a high school student who has made a breakthrough in the field of neuroscience.  Addie’s project, the Brain Adrenaline, Dopamine, and Amine Synthesis System (or B.A.D.A.S.S.), focuses on manufacturing the feelings of love through stressful situations.  Her life in on track, but there’s one minor problem…she’s starting to have feelings towards one of her test subjects who just happens to be the person behind a vandalism and bullying situation surrounding Addie the year before.

It’s just a fun, rom-com read for teens.  There’s nothing really objectionable (no language, no romantic situations beyond kissing), but it just felt like an okay read.  I really liked the characters and thought that they were very believable.  Some of the situations felt like a stretch (like the fake shark in the water gag or the fact that they have a fully funded research lab at a high school) but it didn’t take away from the story.  The story swaps from Addie’s point of view to Kris, her love interest, so we get to see both sides of the story and what they are thinking.  This does add to some background but takes away some of the “will they, won’t they” romantic tension.

For any girls who love Kassie West, this may be a good book to pick up next.

Last Man Out

Mike Lupica is a popular sports author for kids, and it seems like his books have been on awards lists since I started teaching eleven years ago.  I’ve read a few of his books and have enjoyed them (even if sports books aren’t usually my go-to genre).  However, this book just missed the mark.

Tommy is all about football:  playing defense with his team, watching it on TV, or just talking about strategy with his father.  But when his firefighter father is killed while on a call, Tommy’s world is twisted.  He’s sad and angry and the only way he’s getting out his feelings is aggressively on the football field.  With a little sister who won’t come out of her room and a mom who expects him to be the “man of the house,” the only freedom Tommy finds is through a new sport:  skateboarding.

So, I get Tommy’s feelings, but they just seem slightly unbelievable.  Maybe because he’s supposed to be twelve, but he’s acting like an eighteen year old.  I work daily around twelve to fourteen year old boys, and they don't act this mature and think this rationally.  Yes, that means that they could learn something from Tommy's behavior, but I feel like they just would become uninterested in the book instead.

Another problem is the book is supposed to be a football book, but the most exciting thing that happens is Tommy learning to skateboard.  All the football games are quick, and they all come down to tied with four minutes to go in the game…which gets boring after you’ve read about it four times already.

I can see my middle school boys liking this book, but in my opinion, it’s not nearly as strong as his other books.

Ban This Book

Ban This Book is not your typical Alan Gratz novel.  The books I’ve read by him have been action-adventure (like Code of Honor, the SCJBA winner last year) or historical fiction stories (like Projekt 1065).  

This realistic fiction story is about Amy Anne, a fourth grader whose favorite book has just been banned from the library.  The library is her safe haven, the place where she can go for peace and quiet (unlike her hectic house and loud little sisters), but more and more books are being taken out for being “inappropriate for elementary schoolers.”  While Mrs. Jones, the librarian, is tied by law and must remove the books, that doesn’t mean Amy Anne can’t start her own banned book library out of her locker.  “Good books shouldn’t be hidden away.  They should be read by as many people as many times as possible.”

I throughly enjoyed reading this one!  It’s an easy read and appropriate for elementary and middle schoolers.  We talk about banned and challenged books at my school, but this puts it in a way that I feel kids can relate to easily.  It also shows what’s the right and the wrong way of doing things.  Amy Anne does get in trouble with the school and her parents for some of her actions (like taking books out of the library without permission), but I like her parents’ response.  They’re not angry she’s trying to speak up, “but there’s a right and a wrong way to voice your objections.”  And as an added bonus, all the books listed in the book are banned or challenged book titles.  This book is a win all around!

Heart of Iron

I had the pleasure of hearing Ashley Poston speak at my school right after her first novel, Geekerella, was published.  Her love for fandoms and all things geeky was really endearing to hear, along with her writing process.  Her second book is nothing like her first (a modern day retelling of Cinderella set at a comic-con convention).  Poston’s description of Heart of Iron is “Anastasia in space,” and she’s totally right.

In this YA fantasy novel, Ana is a part of Captain Siege’s pirate crew and has been since she and her Metal humanoid companion, Di, were rescued from an escape pod.  Ana has scars on her face from a fire she doesn’t remember and a melted medallion around her neck which she doesn’t remember receiving.  When Di’s memory core starts to glitch, Ana is desperate to save him and will do anything…even stealing coordinates to a lost ship that supposedly has unused android parts on it.  With Captain Siege, her group of outlaws that are her only family, and a tag-along rich boy, Ana ends up finding out her past and a hidden secret the top royal advisors don’t want leaked.

It’s a little bit like Star Wars, with space fights and quick flying.  There are droids (called Metals) who are HIVED (connected together to a single mindless server) so they won’t rebel against the royal family.  I admit, there’s a lot going on in this story, but it does all come together eventually.  Yes, parts were predictable and a few of the “relationships” seemed forced (you know I don’t do “love at first sight” with no plausible reason for it) but it was an enjoyable fantasy read.

Reader warning:  it does set itself up for a sequel, so be prepared for a cliffhanger!

Six of Crows Duology

One thing I love about reading is the ability to escape into a new world, a historical, place, an alternate reality…and this week I’ve been running around Ketterdam with Kaz and is gang of criminals.

My first Leigh Bardugo book was Shadow and Bone, a fantasy story about Grisha, people with magical powers.  For some reason I really didn’t connect with the story…too much fantasy language to learn, too much twisting alliances, and just not what I was in the mood for at the time.  But when I picked up Six of Crows, I didn’t even know it was in the same fantasy realm as her previous books.  I remember a friend calling it “a fantasy Ocean’s 11 heist story” and I was hooked.

Ketterdam, the capital city of Kerch, is run by crooked politicians, organized street gangs, and money (I always imagined it as an early industrial-age England).  No one understands the city’s underbelly more than Kaz, a seventeen year old ruthless lieutenant in the Dregs street gang.  His reputation as “Dirtyhands” has created a mythological air around him…and gotten him many enemies.  When a wealthy merchant approaches Kaz with the deal of a lifetime, he can’t refuse.  He only has to find a crazy crew, infiltrate another country’s capital, and break out a scientist who has created a drug that causes superhuman feats of strength.  No small task, but if anyone can do it, Kaz and his scheming friends can:  Inej’s acrobatic ability to go anywhere undetected, Jesper’s sharpshooter status, Nina’s heartrendering magic, Wylan’s pyrotechnics, and Mattias’ strength and inside knowledge.

The second book, Crooked Kingdom, picks up right where the first book leaves off (I dare you to just read one and not the other…), with Van Eck, the wealthy merchant, turning on Kaz.  Now Kaz and his crew are trapped in Ketterdam with the the police, multiple countries, and all the street gangs after them.  Like the first one, this well-thought out fantasy drama will keep you on your toes wondering how they will get out of trouble.

I think what I love best about this series is the author’s ability to make you feel like you know the city and the characters.  Even though Kaz is cold and calculating, you can’t help but admire his persistence and underlaying good deeds.  His gang is supposed to be the criminals of the story, but the way Bardugo writes it, you are rooting for them to win.  It’s like the Harry Potter series; you get so invested in the story and the characters that you ache when the story is through because you know there’s no more.

This book is a YA book, but I’d say it has more high school content to it.  There is (obviously) lots of violence, but there’s also multiple sexual innuendos along with one character being kidnapped and forced into prostitution.  It’s not so much a major part of the major storyline, but just wanted you to know what you’re getting into before you pass it on to your favorite fantasy lover.

The School for Good and Evil

Soman Chainani, the author of The School of Good and Evil, is coming to Read Up Greenville this year, so I was excited to read the first book in this series.  I’m always up for a twisted fairy tale (see my review on As Old As Time), however, this one fell a little flat for me.

Sophie and Agatha live in the tiny town of Gavaldon where all kids are obsessed with reading fairy tales…because every four years two children are kidnapped and then later appear INSIDE the fairy tale stories.  Sophie is sure she will be kidnapped because she’s been meticulously planning her good deeds to show she’s the best choice.  Her sullen and reclusive friend Agatha thinks Sophie’s crazy, but when the girls are kidnapped, they are dropped into their fates…Agatha’s dropped into the School of Good and Sophie’s dropped into the School of Evil.  Sure there’s been a mistake, the two friends try to figure out a way to change places and find their Happily Ever After.  Easier said than done since they are up against a mysterious School Master, wolf and fairy guards (more vicious than they sound), and stereotypical classmates who want them to fail.

What originally got me to pick this one up was the premise:  what happens when good and evil are switched?  What if both sides claim to be good?  I found the concept interesting, but the execution, for me, was off.  First, I really didn’t like the characters.  Their classmates were so stereotypical (the villains were all ugly, glowering, and bent on beating Good; the princesses were all beautiful but vapid and shallow and the princes were even worse).  Sophie and Agatha had some character development, but it was slow and repetitive and unbelievable by the end.  The other thing that bothered me was the plot.  The story is 488 pages…and it feels like it.  Some of the plot seems to be added just because they wanted the story to be longer instead of driving and adding to the central story.  It was just frustrating because I had such high hopes for this novel, and it didn’t meet my expectations.

Teens may still enjoy this book (and all the drama involved), but for me, it didn’t live up to the hype.