Book Review: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
9780375866593, Knopf (Random House), $16.99, Pub. Date: October 2010

This was my first foray into the brilliant David Levithan/Rachel Cohn author combo. Yes, I admit it, I never picked up Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (9780375835339) or Naomi & Ely's No Kiss List (9780375844416). Clearly now I'll have to, because I unabashedly LOVED Dash & Lily.

Maybe it's because this is one of the bookiest romances I've ever read. Maybe it's because a lot of the story takes place in The Strand. Maybe it's because you get to experience all the good and all the bad of the holiday (Christmas) season, which is coming up shortly and yes, I've already listened to Christmas carols, so all you purists waiting until December 1st can just ignore that last part. Maybe it's because David Levithan and Rachel Cohn have the incredible talent of making the everyday profound and of showcasing the idealism versus reality that [should] lives in all of us.

Dash is exploring his favorite haunt, The Strand, when he spies a red moleskin notebook on a shelf. He picks it up, opens it, and reads these words:

I've left some clues for you.

If you want them, turn the page.

If you don't, put the book back on the shelf, please.

How many times have I wished for that very thing to happen to me? Haven't we all? To find mystery and adventure and possibly love hidden away in a place that is meaningful to only us (and the 50 million other people who feel the same way, but we won't think about them right now).

Dash follows the clues, and so begins an epistolary adventure in which he and Lily communicate solely by clues in a notebook they hide all over New York, from the madhouse of Macy's and F.A.O. Schwartz in the days leading up to Christmas, to Madame Trousseau's Wax Museum, to the most well-known houses that showcase Christmas lights.

Romantic, yes? But what happens when they meet up? Will they live up to each others' expectations? Or will the person they've created in their heads be too strong for them to allow for the imperfections of the very real human standing in front of them?

Written in alternating chapters between characters & their authors, this is the perfect book to hand to any teen or tween or hell, adult, who needs a little shot of belief in the spirit of love.

Book Review: Matched

Matched 
by Ally Condie
9780525423645, $17.99, Dutton Books (Penguin), Pub. Date: November 2010 

Matched was fascinating. It had a slow start, but kept me intrigued, and gathered momentum until I was reading at full gallop toward the end of the first book of what is obviously a new series.

Cassia Maria Reyes lives in the Society: a perfect futuristic society created out of the ashes of a society much like ours today. Food is prepared in individually-specific packages, jobs are carefully assigned to those for whom they would best suit, and at 17-years-old, Matches are selected for romantic partnership. During Cassia's Match Banquet, she is unexpectedly Matched with someone she already knows - her best friend, Xander. Highly unusual, yet not unwelcome, Cassia is pleased to be Matched with someone she feels so comfortable with.

Even though she already knows everything about him, a few days after the banquet, Cassia puts the information data stick given to her into the home computer to learn all about Xander. After she scrolls through all of his information, another screen pops up. This screen holds a second match for Cassia. It is also a boy she knows. A boy named Ky.

The Officials have caught the mistake and they attempt to do damage control. Cassia can tell no one. The faulty data stick is destroyed. But that glance at a second face has Cassia imagining a different life than the one she is living every day. She feels a connection to Ky now, and though Ky has no idea she saw his face, he seems to feel a connection for her too.

In a perfectly controlled Society, emotions such as love are not allowed to enter into any equation, as they rarely determine what is best for anybody. But Cassia has something inside her, a feeling, a spirit, an emotion, of independence, of rebellion, of fighting for her right to choose her Match for love. But the Society sees all. It knows all. And it orchestrates all. How can one 17-year-old girl take on the whole Society and win?

Cassia's story is well-told, with layers carefully built upon each other. By the end of the book, my interest in these characters was complete. The beginning only seemed sluggish because I didn't understand why all the elements were important to mention, but Condie does a great job of picking up those snippets and tying them together at the end. I'm excited to read more of Cassia & Ky's story.

Book Review: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Hardcover: 9780316042673, Hachette, $17.99

Lena Duchannes is forever the new girl in town, jumping from place to place to conceal her power and the curse on her family. Ethan Wate is forever a townie, determined to leave yet fated to always be a part of Gatlin, South Carolina. 

Lena longs for normalcy, friends, a chance to go to the prom, and an answer as to how to control her powers. Ethan longs for something different than the bleached, tanned, vapid cheerleaders and dead-end feeling he has for this town. 

Seeing each other in dreams weeks before actually meeting, when they finally are face to face, it's the showdown of the century as history repeats itself, when once again a Wate and a Duchannes fall in love and are determined to beat the odds keeping them apart.

Lots of supernatural stuff meets high school stuff in this book - stuff being the catch-all term for magic, witches, telepathy, vampires, dogs who see all, secret libraries, full-moon ceremonies, voodoo, cheerleaders with attitude, nosy neighbors, best friends with crappy cars, and the Daughters of the American Revolution. 

Pretty funny, witty internal monologues and external dialogues keep this chunky book from getting too long, and the tension built up during the countdown to Lena's birthday is sure to keep you reading to the exciting conclusion on the final page.

Book Review: Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Jellicoe Road

by Melina Marchetta

Hardcover: 9780061431838, HarperTeen, $17.99

Paperback: 9780061431852, HarperTeen, $8.99

This post was originally published here in August 2008. A few alterations have been made to the version posted on Afterthoughts...

Every time I read this book, I cry. I am not generally a crier. Yes, tears welled at the news of Walter in Rilla of Ingleside (by L.M. Montgomery, and if you don't know the news, I'm not telling), and okay, I admit it, I am a HUGE movie crier (I swear I shed a tear at something in almost every movie), but about books, and most importantly, in real life? Not a weeper. Have you ever seen The Holiday with Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Jack Black, and Cameron Diaz? Jude Law has a funny bit in it about being a major weeper. Not. Me.

I digress. The point is, not every book reaches in and pulls at my heartstrings, so I wanted to tell you about one that has. Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta. Amazing.

The main character, Taylor Markham, is 17 and lives at the boarding school on Jellicoe Road. Her mother abandoned her when she was 7. She doesn't know anything about her father. 

Taylor has just become the new leader of her House at school, and the unwillingly chosen leader of all of the House leaders. The leaders don't believe in her. Her House barely knows her. Though Taylor doesn't want the responsibility, she has no choice but to shoulder it.

There's a war, you see. A war that began almost 20 years ago and is faithfully carried out while school is in session. Townies vs. Cadets. vs. the Houses of the school on Jellicoe Road. The Townies are kids who live in the town nearby. The Cadets are boys from the military academy that comes to the area for training ever year. There are property boundary lines, invasions, retaliations and retributions, fist fights, broken bones, treaties, and maybe a hidden tunnel.

There's Taylor's closest-thing-to-family, Hannah, who has just disappeared. There's Raffy, Talor's BFF, who tells her the truth and keeps it from her when necessary. There's Santangelo, leader of the Townies, with his sidekicks, The Mullets, and his history with Raffy. Lastly, there's Jonah Griggs - betrayer, former run-away mate, who knows too much about Taylor for his own good, and is currently the leader of the Cadets.

Betrayed numerous times beyond measure, hurt, afraid to hope for love, and reluctant leader, Taylor can't keep it together. She falls apart. The surprise is who is there to help put her back together when she does. 

Who is Taylor? Where is Hannah? Where is her mother? Who will win the war? And in the end, does it matter? 

If all that isn't enough, here's a taste of the book - just the first two lines should do it:

"My father took one hundred and thirty-two minutes to die. I counted."

Read it. With a box of tissues.

If you like Melina Marchetta's writing, also check out Finnikin of the Rock.

Book Review: The Curse Workers: White Cat by Holly Black

White Cat (The Curse Workers #01)
by Holly Black
9781416963967, $17.99, Pub. Date: May 2010

Introducing the beginning of a new Holly Black series! So dark, so complicated, so witty - so wonderful.

How to explain this book to without giving a page-by-page detailed explanation? Okay, let's begin with setting. The time is now, or sometime mirroring now, with the cars, phones, technology, etc. that we have. The difference is the existence of curse work. Some people have the ability to work curses, magic, by touching other people with their bare hands. There are different types of curse work - memory curses, emotion curses, and transmutation curses. Curse working has been outlawed and everyone wears gloves to avoid touching each other with bare hands.

Enter Cassel Sharpe. He was born into a family of curse workers, and though he's an excellent con artist, he's not actually a curse worker. That doesn't mean there isn't something a little magical going on. Cassel keeps dreaming of a white cat, and waking up not in his boarding school dormitory bed. His dreams tend to center around one event he'd like to forget: the night he killed the girl he loved, Lila Zacharov. She was the daughter of the powerful head of the Zacharov crime family. The only reason Cassel is still alive is that his older brothers, all powerful curse workers, covered up for him.

While this all sounds strange in its own right, the part that's more bizarre is that Lila's curse magic was an ability to turn into other animals, and a white cat was her favorite. How is Lila controlling Cassel's dreams if she's supposedly dead? As the complex plot unfolds, Cassel begins to realize he can't trust anyone or anything - not his own family, and worst of all, not even his own memory. Someone has been curse working him. Now if only he could figure out who and why...

Throw in a dysfunctional family, a girlfriend who just dumped him, the beginnings of actual friends for the first time in his life, and you've got one heck of a teenage life to get through.

The Odyssey Bookshop welcomes 

Holly Black & Cassandra Clare 

in a duo-author event on 

May 11th at 7 p.m.!

Book Review: The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller

The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller

9781595143082, Penguin, $18.99, Pub. Date: August 2010

I admit I don't tend to like lovey-dovey YA, but Haven's voice, and that of her gay best friend Beau, kept me hanging in there. As did the unique premise –love as the cause for reincarnation.

Haven Moore lives in Tennessee but can describe New York City without having been there. She's seen it in visions since she was a child; visions of the city and a time when Haven was known as Constance and she was in love with a man named Ethan. Haven's grandmother thinks she's possessed by the Devil. Haven knows she's not possessed, but then how to explain these visions? How to explain the feeling that she must go to New York, and how to explain she thinks famous playboy Iain Morrow might be Ethan?

Going to New York provides her with some answers but more questions as she gets caught up in a web of lies involving the Ouroboros Society, a society begun to help people who remember their past lives, but which now is a den of corruption that has spread around the world from the highest to the lowest classes of people. Haven doesn't know whom to trust as she gets more involved with Iain - who feels like he's her soul mate, but then blatantly lies to her.

Events are brought to a head when Iain gets accused of kidnapping and murder. Not knowing who to trust, being chased by the "grey men" (the henchmen of the Ouroboros Society), Haven runs around New York City picking up tidbits of information here and there, having visions and flashbacks that allow her to piece together how her past is affecting her present and future.

With help from her gay best friend Beau (her brother in a previous life), Haven escapes from being kidnapped by the evil Adam Rosier, the man who was Haven's husband in her very first life. In her first life, Haven was kept cloistered in her husband's home because he was a possessive and jealous man. When she fell in love with a servant (the man who would later become Ethan/Iain), Adam killed them both. All three have been reincarnated again and again, destined to replay the same love triangle until true love conquers all.

Though Haven makes some dumb decisions at times (really, you're 18, never left TN, but go to NYC and allow some guy you've just met – yes he may be your soul mate, but still – to fly you to Rome in his private jet and then not let you call home for 3 days?), she has a strong character and personality, trying to make sense of what her brain and her heart and everyone else is telling her. Romantics will love this because of the resolved ending, and it's a new twist in the "love conquers all paranormal adventure story" genre.

Book Review: You by Charles Benoit

You
by Charles Benoit
9780061947049, $16.99, Harper, Pub. Date: August 2010

You is a powerful, searing work of realistic teen fiction. The title comes from its second-person point-of-view narrator; a voice that makes the work immediately accessible by encouraging the reader to become the main character.

The main character is sophomore Kyle Chase. He's smart, but took a wrong turn at some point in junior high. He didn't turn in a few tests, and starting hanging out with a slacker crowd known as the Hoodies, due to the black hooded sweatshirts they wear every day. This landed him at Midlands High, one of two town high schools. His old friends went to Odyssey, the high school that caters to overachievers with good GPAs. That's what he tells himself. He could be there if he wanted to. But what's the point? His mother nags him to get a job, his teachers nag him to get homework done, and the only bright spot to his day is his friend Ashley who he wishes was more than a friend and who he gets to spend time with by courting after-school detention so he can stay late to nonchalantly see her. Each day is the same as the next until a new kid, Zack McDade, transfers to Midlands.

The raw voice of You is reminiscent of the writing of Ellen Hopkins; a voice that will tell you the truth, no matter how hopeless or disheartening. This is the story of millions of American teenagers from middle-class backgrounds: smart, promising youth who slip through the cracks, get overlooked, become disenchanted with their overstimulated, over-informed lives. You is an exposé and a call-to-arms. Drugs, gangs, teen pregnancy - these issues all have concrete roots and identifiable plans of action to combat. Juvenile apathy? Ten times harder to identify and counter.

This could have been my story. I'm so lucky it wasn't. But I cried for that possibility, for the friends I lost to this malaise, for my brother still in high school battling this every day, and for the children I hope to have and the future I imagine for them.

Every teenager, teacher, and parent, anyone who works with children and teens, should read this book to understand the spreading lassitude of America's youth.

Book Review: Raised by Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Raised By Wolves
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
9781606840597, $16.99, Egmont (Random House), Pub. Date: June 2010

Exciting, sexy, funny, strong, adventure, danger, love. Those are the top words that come to mind when thinking of this novel. I was shocked at the depth of the story and the pull of the writing. Admittedly, there comes a point when you say to yourself, How many more werewolf books can I really read? If you're reached that point, I want to say, read one more. This one.

Bryn was four when a rabid werewolf murdered her parents. Saved by Callum, the Alpha of his pack, Bryn is human, but has been raised among werewolves. She is not fully pack, nor does she feel fully human, and at age 15, Bryn has seen and experienced more dangerous things that most other humans.

Then she meets Chase, a teenager, recently turned werewolf. He is dangerous, turned against his will, but has an instant connection with Bryn. Though Callum forbids Bryn from seeing Chase, Bryn needs Chase's help. The pack is hiding a secret. The rabid werewolf who attacked Bryn and her parents is not dead. The attack wasn't random. There's a bigger plot afoot than Bryn can even imagine, and she needs Chase's help to figure it out before it's too late. It's Bryn and Chase and Bryn's other teenage werewolf friends against a rabid werewolf and the rest of the werewolf community.

The good guys win, of course, but with a twist that very pleasantly surprising. Bryn has great inner strength, more than she knows, and she'll need every ounce of it to get through everything and stay alive.

This was my first Jennifer Lynn Barnes novel; I'm looking forward to going back and reading her others. Read her livejournal blog, and check out this interview about a past book.

Book Review: The False Princess by Eilis O'Neal

The False Princess
by Eilis O'Neal
9781606840795, $16.99, Egmont (Random House), Pub. Date: July 2010

This debut novel was a delight! Very strong writing, a satisfactory conclusion, love, danger, intrigue, magic, a prophecy, and three princesses.

After turning sixteen, Princess Nalia of Thorvaldor learns she is not the true heir. A prophecy made before her birth foretold the princess would die before her sixteenth birthday, and so the real princess has been hidden in a convent for sixteen years while she, the false princess, was raised in the castle. A spell had been cast over both the real princess and the false one, disguising them both. Now known as Sinda, the former princess is forced to leave the only home she has ever known and travel to her aunt's house in a little village far from the city life. Not only is she leaving her home, she is leaving the people she thought of as her parents and Keirnan, the boy she knew to be her best friend.

Struggling in her new life as a peasant - not that she's not willing, she just doesn't know how - Sinda discovers she has the ability to do magic. Returning to the city, she is taken in as an apprentice by Philantha, a somewhat eccentric master sorceress. Sinda is told that the spell she was under to make her look like the princess, also kept her magic from showing itself. While Sinda has an almost overwhelming amount of magic inside her, controlling that magic proves to be difficult.

Reuniting with Keirnan in the city brings Sinda great joy, but also puts her into contact with the real princess, Nalia. Or is it the real princess? Sinda discovers Nalia is under a spell, too. So, where, then is the real princess? What sort of conspiracy is going on, that there should be two false princesses? Sinda and Keirnan must retrace the steps of the princess's life, all the way back to the prophecy, in order to find out who is the evil behind this plot.

Sinda feels compelled to find the real princess and set things right, in order to be able to focus on who she, herself, is. If she can't figure that out, she'll never be able to control her magic or return the love Keirnan has for her.

A great YA fantasy read, I was most definitely not disappointed with the ending. The true princess is the best woman for the job, I think, and Sinda's future looks nothing but promising.

Book Review: Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta

Finnikin of the Rock
by Melina Marchetta
9780763643614, $18.99, Candlewick

I love Melina Marchetta's writing. As proof, I offer up my former post concerning (also by her) at my bookstore's blog here, as well as the fact that I read Jellicoe Road a couple of times a year and sob my way through it each time, in the best possible way.

Finnikin of the Rock is an epic fantasy that is just as compelling as her fiction. I was almost scared it wouldn't be, in that way that something is almost too good to be true, but I gathered up my courage, began reading it, and wasn't a bit disappointed. Now, granted, it's a 400-page book, but I was amazed at how it flew by! So much is packed into that 400 pages, a complete story (as in, not the beginning of a series), and still I could barely believe it when it was done. Where to even begin in telling you about it? Okay, I'll begin with the title character: Finnikin of the Rock.

In this fantasy world, there are different lands, and different groups of people within those lands. Finnikin is of the Rock people from the kingdom of Lumatere. Another kingdom has taken control of Lumatere during the five days of the unspeakable, and due to dark sorcery, the kingdom is impenetrable, surrounded by a thick mist. No one can go in; no one can come out. Finnikin is the son of the former captain of the guard. His best friends were Prince Balthazar and Balthazar's cousin, Lucian. As children, Finnikin, Balthazar, and Lucian mixed their blood and made a pact to protect Lumatere. The time has come for them to keep their promise.

Believing both his father and his father's wife, the Lady Beatriss, to be dead, Finnikin has spent the last ten years outside Lumatere, an apprentice to Sir Topher, the King's First Man. Finnikin has a dream that leads them to a convent on the top of a mountain where they meet with a novice, Evanjalin. Evanjalin has the power of the sight, but only when she bleeds can she have visions. One vision has told her Balthazar, the heir to Lumatere, is still alive. Finnikin, Sir Topher, and Evanjalin must travel the land far and wide, finding their scattered peoples, and bringing them home under the hope that Balthazar can break the curse hanging over Lumatere. In their travels, they will cross paths with the holy man of Lumatere, the Captain of the King's Guard, a slave child from another land, and they will begin to unravel the plots, myths, and legends that have sprung up regarding the five days of the unspeakable.

Since meeting Evanjalin, Finnikin has felt a loss of control as he is buffeted about by voices of fate, Evanjalin's plans and prophecies, and his struggle with his guilt and fear about a prophecy concerning his own future. Who is Evanjalin really? Where is Balthazar if he is still alive? And if they manage to get inside Lumatere, what will they find there when they arrive?

I don't want to give too many spoilers, but Melina Marchetta brilliantly weaves an ending that captures the heartbreak and hope a story like this would really entail, and which is also characteristic of her award-winning contemporary fiction. I am awed by her ability to blend that quality with an entirely new genre. Congratulations, Ms. Marchetta. I can hardly wait to see what you will give us next.

Book Review: Mistwood by Leah Cypess

Mistwood
by Leah Cypess
9780061956997, $16.99, Greenwillow Books (Harper), Pub. Date: May 2010

Isabel doesn't remember her life before they came for her. She was living in the forest, that much she knows, and apparently, not as a human. The new king (Rokan) and his brother (Will) found her there. The king's sister (Clarisse) does not approve. The king's high sorcerer (Albin) does not approve. Rokan brings her back to the castle anyway.

Isabel is a shape-shifter. THE Shifter sworn to protect the king. She should not have emotions. She should be cold, calculating, and exist only to save the king from danger.
Except Isabel does have emotions. She does have feelings. She does form attachments and opinions about who and what she likes. So how can this be?

Similar to the tale of self-discovery told in Kristen Cashore's Graceling and Fire, Isabel will have to unravel the tales of her own existence, the secret history of the new king, and her own forgotten past lives in order to find out who and what she has the power to be.

A strong debut novel for Leah Cypess. This is a teen read, ideal for ages 12 through 15.

Three Short Book Reviews

Here are three short book reviews I've been meaning to get to.
All three books are teen reads. Two are sci-fi/fantasy, one is action-adventure. All three books have strong male and female characters. Though I hate to "gender" books, I will say that the third book, The Devil's Breath, is great for teenage guys, in particular. Though, as you've probably guessed, I'm not a teenage guy, and I LOVE this book. All of these books are out already, none of this teaser stuff I've been throwing at you. Enjoy!

Incarceron
by Catherine Fisher
Hardcover: 9780803733961, Dial - Penguin, $17.99

Immediately gripping, Incarceron offers a great new cast of characters, with Claudia and Finn as leads. Finn is inside Incarceron – a former utopian community, turned hellish prison. Finn has brains, guts, and flashbacks from the time he KNOWS he spent "outside". Unfortunately for him, coming from "outside" is virtually impossible, which makes him, and his strange flashbacks, a bit of a nut case. Claudia lives "outside"; in fact, she's been trying to find her way inside for years. When Claudia realizes the extent to which she's been a pawn in her father, the Warden of Incarceron's, political schemes, she breaks free from the constraints of her pseudo-perfect society. Despite her pampered upbringing, Claudia has brains and guts to equal Finn's, and the two of them find themselves relying on each other for the information each desperately seeks.
An exciting first book in a new series, I can hardly wait for the next one! I've been told the sequel is scheduled for sometime in Spring 2011.

The Maze Runner
by James Dashner
Hardcover: 9780385737944, Delacorte - Random House, $16.99

(I'm going to refrain from making bad jokes about "Dash-ner" and "Runner".)

Thomas wakes up in an industrial elevator shaft. A crowd of boys pull him out and he finds himself in the Glade. He doesn’t know where he came from, he doesn’t know why he’s here, and worse, neither do any of the other boys. The walls around them close each night, keeping them trapped in, but safe from the creatures roaming the maze outside the Glade. During the day, the maze runners run as fast and as far as they can, returning each night just before the doors close. They add their paths through the maze to the stacks of maps they’ve been making for years. Thomas knows he must become a maze runner. He knows he can help find answers. And when, for the first time ever, a GIRL is discovered in the elevator shaft, he knows he knows her from somewhere before. Soon the Gladers will have to make a choice—take their chances in the maze or die in the Glade.
Book one in the Maze Runner Trilogy. Watch out for The Scorch Trials, book two in the trilogy, out October 2010.

The Devil's Breath
by David Gilman
Hardcover: 9780385735605, Delacorte - Random House, $16.99

Max Gordon’s father has gone missing, and now someone just tried to kill Max. He has one clue, and must use all the resources and training his secret agent father taught him to save himself and find his father before it’s too late. His journey will take him from England to Africa, where he gets help from Kallie, a bushpilot with experience beyond her years, and !Koga, a Kalahari Bushman who must help Max in order to become a man in the eyes of his tribe. Can these three teens stop an evil man named Shaka Chang who is trying to control all the water on the African plains, save Max’s father, and fulfill a Bushmen prophecy? This is real James Bond-type stuff, (minus the sex), with plenty of action/adventure.
First in the "Danger Zone" series, and one of my all-time favorites. Don't miss Ice Claw, the second "Danger Zone" book, coming out April 2010.

Book Review: Worldshaker by Richard Harland

Worldshaker
by Richard Harland
Hardcover: 9781416995524, Simon & Schuster, $16.99, Pub. Date: May 2010
Tween read: Ages 10-14

More steam-punk to add to your list!

Worldshaker is a constantly traveling machine known as a juggernaut, the size of a small city. Classes exist within a rigid hierarchy complete with regal figureheads Queen Victoria and her consort Prince Albert. Col Porpentine is a child at the top of the Upper Class. He has just been named his grandfather's successor as Supreme Commander of the juggernaut. But with this responsibility comes startling revelations about exactly what the ship is, who the "Filthies" and "Menials" (the lowest of the low classes) really are, and just what his family's role is in all of it. When Col meets Riff, a Filthy girl who turns out to be the Filthy revolution leader, his entire world begins unraveling. Col is forced to make a choice between duty to his family, and his own morality.

At almost 400 pages, Worldshaker is meaty but reads quickly. I would have loved to have heard more about Riff herself, what her history was, how and why she became the leader of the Filthy revolution at 14-years-old, etc. Also, Col's sister could have been a bit more flushed out, and Col's younger brother could have been cut as a character entirely. A couple of plot points were left unresolved, such as what happened to Col's wife (read to find out where that fits in!), and what happens romantically between Col and Riff could have had a bit more punch to it as well. I felt like there was some good material here for a sequel, or it could stand on its own as an enjoyable tween read in the steam-punk genre.

Richard Harland is an Australian author - this book was published in Australia, and now will be in the U.S., and the U.K. I seem to enjoy Australian authors. See my post about Melina Marchetta's Jellicoe Road, one of my all-time favorites, here at my bookstore's blog. All these great Australian authors make me want to visit there one day even more.

Book Review: Hearts at Stake & Blood Feud by Alyxandra Harvey, The Drake Chronicles, Books 1 & 2

Hearts at Stake & Blood Feud, The Drake Chronicles Books 1 & 2 by Alyxandra Harvey

These are the first two novels in a new vampire series. I know, I know, how many more do we need? But this one is worth it, and I'll tell you why. To begin with, they are the perfect mix of character-driven and plot-driven narratives. By this I mean you care about the characters and get to hear their stories, but instead of pages and pages written from inside their heads, Alyxandra Harvey has remembered to add the plot, too! Lots of action in both these novels - mostly the fighting kind. Both novels have romance in them, but that aspect is tame enough that the 10-to-12-year-old crowd who shouldn't have read Twilight in the first place, but did, and now want more, well, this is perfectly appropriate for them, too, as well as the older teens it's meant for.

The series centers around the Drake family - mother, father, 7 sons, 1 daughter, and the daughter's best friend, Lucy.

Hearts at Stake, Drake Chronicles #1
Paperback: 9780802720740,Walker & Company, $9.99

This first novel is about Solange (kudos to Alyxandra Harvey for starting off with the girl!). Solange is the only female vampire to be born - the rest have been made, or "turned" - and this means she is destined to become a vampire queen. In the Drake family, when you reach the age of 16, that is when you "change," or officially become a vampire. As the clock counts down to Solange's 16th birthday, the vampire world begins to explode politically: Leander Montemartre, an evil vampire, pits factions against each other in an effort to kidnap Solange to gain political power. Add to this a human best friend who may or may not be falling in love with Solange's vampire brother Nicholas, a member of the anti-vampire league named Kieran Black who Solange may or may not be falling for herself, and the tiny, insignificant fact that Solange may not even survive the "change". This is the deadliest sweet sixteen you'll ever read about!

Blood Feud, The Drake Chronicles #2
Paperback: 9780802720962, Walker & Co., $9.99, Pub. Date: August 2010

The second novel in the Drake Chronicles features Solange's brother, Logan. Without giving too much away, the vampire clans are gathering for the royal coronation of the next vampire queen (you think you know who it is, but it's not!). The Hounds are a vampire clan who practice magic and have a deep connection to wolves and dogs (though they're not werewolves). Isabeau St. Croix has been sent to lead the delegation from the Hounds. Turned by Greyhaven in the early 1800s, Isabeau is still hunting for this evil vampire who bit her and left her locked in a coffin for 200 years. As the Drakes and the Hounds try to work together toward fighting a common enemy - Leander Montmartre - Greyhaven has a plot of his own in the works. There may come a time when Isabeau is forced to choose between revenge and Logan Drake.

If I was a bettin' sort of woman - oh, who am I kidding, I totally am - I'd make a bet that the rest of the Drake Chronicles will simultaneously solve the vampire political problems while pairing off the rest of the Drake clan (by my calculations there are 5 brothers left after Logan). The only downside is we have to wait until January 2011 for Drake Chronicles #3.

Book Review: Delcroix Academy, Book 1: The Candidates by Inara Scott

Delcroix Academy, Book One: The Candidates by Inara Scott
Hardcover: 9781423116363, $16.99, Harper, Pub. Date: August 2010

Another perpetual search: teen reads suitable for non-teen readers (and teen readers as well). Here's a new one to add to that list, and you know what I like best about it? The paranormal powers discussed in this book have nothing to do with vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, necromancers, ghosts, angels, or fallen angels. Don't get me wrong, I like me a good vampire/werewolf novel just like almost everyone else. But it's nice to break away from that every now and again, with your good, old-fashioned, unexplainable paranormal ability.

Danica Lewis tries her best to be the most mediocre person around. She dresses in neutral colors so she can literally blend into the background. Her desire to go unnoticed doesn't stem from a place of hostility – rather, she's afraid to care about people too much. When she does care, and she sees someone she likes being threatened in some way, bad things happen to those doing the threatening. Bullies have tree branches suddenly dropped on their heads. A man threatening her grandmother "slips" and ends up in a coma.

As inconspicuous as Danny wishes to be, certain people are watching. Two recruiters for Delcroix Academy, the prestigious private academy on the other side of town, show up on Danica's grandmother's doorstep, offering Danica a full scholarship for all four years of high school. Danica knows she would be crazy not to accept, but why would Delcroix – the school that collects the best of the best – want ordinary her (well, ordinary minus that special power she's not thinking about)?

Danica's freshman year begins, and against her better judgment, she begins to make friends. Maybe this is a place where anything's possible. But just as she's beginning to let down her guard, her new friend Jack reveals Danica's not the only one with a power, and they both may have been specially chosen to attend this school. Delcroix's students excel at gymnastics and are computer whizzes, but what if some of them have special powers too? Danica doesn't want to believe it but what other explanation could there be for receiving a full scholarship and for Cam, the hottest guy in school, to hang around her a lot? He must be part of the group of Watchers, evaluating her on the power she struggles to keep hidden. It can't possibly be that he likes her. Could it?

Now I have to be honest. I know most girls out there will probably be drawn to Cam, the perfect, charming, handsome older man, but I can't help but hope that Danica's friend Jack, the pierced, tattooed, misunderstood classmate of hers, gets the girl in the end. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Book 2.

Book Review: Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Greene & David Levithan

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan
Hardcover: 9780525421580, $17.99, Penguin, Pub Date: April 2010

In my continued search for YA (and other) books that deal with sexuality issues in a positive light, I'm pleased as punch to now share with you my GBLTQQA pick for 2010.

For a teen audience, 14-18 year-olds, Will Grayson, Will Grayson embodies some prime characteristics for earning this title from me: notably, it's funny, full of teen snarky brilliance, with accessible gay characters who aren't necessarily depressed about that fact. Not everything is (excuse me) rainbows, but the drama comes not through struggles with depression, eating disorders, dysfunctional families, death, suicide, hate crimes, etc. etc., but from the rest of everyday teen interaction.

Told in alternating storylines, this novel is about the lives of two teenage guys, both named Will Grayson. One gay, one straight, both are struggling with their own issues in their own little universes. Little do they know, about halfway through this book, their worlds will collide, intersect, and bounce away again, having been irrevocably, permanently, and ultimately
positively altered. Both voices are unique and full of teenage snarky wisdom, with running commentaries on everything from male enhancement internet ads, parents, obscure bands, and the benefits (and detriments) of shutting up and speaking out. A perfect follow-up for audiences clamoring for books similar to My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger; while a very different story, the best similarity between the two books is the brilliant portrayal of the normalized
intersection of gay and straight teenage lifestyles, friendships, and relationships.

Need I mention that with the dynamic-duo co-authors of this book, it's no surprise this novel has made the top of my list? Both Greene & Levithan have the superior ability to write about teens in a way that respects them, and the beautiful, crazy, inside-their-own-heads world they often live in, and enjoys discussing big and little life issues that pays equal homage to both. Longest run-on sentence of my life, but hopefully you get the point: these guys are good. Read 'em. And read Will Grayson, Will Grayson.