My New Pastime - Audiobooks

My life is so different now than when I started blogging. In the past four years I've become a mom, moved into a bigger house, switched jobs, and, most recently, started commuting by public transportation. I like my life a lot more now than I did four years ago but one thing kind of sucks - I don't read books anymore. I still read magazines, websites and some blogs, but I hardly ever sit down and read for an extended period of time. And I get terribly car sick, even on the train, so that's out. Happily, I recently found a solution - audiobooks!

This may be an incredibly obvious solution to you, but it took me a while to warm up to the idea. "Listening to a book doesn't count," I thought. And I think being read to is terribly boring (I even hated it when I was a kid in school). But my husband loves audiobooks and when a friend lent me her old iPod, filled with good books, and I decided to give them a try. I love it.

The caveat, of course, is finding the right audiobook. It's important to find a good book from a good writer and it may be even more important to find a good narrator. The best audiobooks aren't like being read to at all - they are more like listening to old radio plays. Two of my favorite books I've listened to so far are The Graveyard Book and Neverwhere, both written by and read by Neil Gaiman. Gaiman does voices and just imbues the story with so much charm - I loved them. On the other hand, I tried listening to Gaiman's Good Omens (co-written with Terry Pratchett and reviewed by me here). No offense to the narrator, but he just left me cold and I found my mind wandering from the story. I stopped after just a few chapters.

By the way, I highly recommend using an audiobook app, like Audible, to listen, rather than just playing the book via your regular music player. The ability to just back a few seconds and to place bookmarks is key - it got rather frustrating when I was listening to my books on the iPod.

Review: The God Engines

This book - The God Engines by John Scalzi - was intense. Normally, half of my review of a novella or short story is kvetching that the story was too short, the author should have delved deeper, etc, etc. Sure, Scalzi probably could have gone more in depth and revealed more about the world he's built here but I'm not sure I'd want to go any deeper. This is a book about unpleasant people doing unpleasant things. It was intriguing and a good read, but not something I think I'll read again.

Review: Rampant

I loved unicorns when I was a little girl. I was convinced - 100% convinced - that somewhere out there, unicorns were real. I remember going to see the circus one year when they were showing a unicorn. Despite the skepticism around me (from my older, wiser sister), I was sure that this was proof that unicorns were real. I don't know when I finally grew out of this belief, but I was probably much older than I should have been.*


Given this, it's actually surprising to me that it took me this long to get around to reading Rampant by Diana Peterfreund.

Astrid Llewelyn has always scoffed at her eccentric mother's stories about killer unicorns. But when one attacks her boyfriend — ruining any chance of him taking her to prom — Astrid finds herself headed to Rome to train as a unicorn hunter at the ancient Cloisters the hunters have used for centuries. However, all is not what it seems at the Cloisters. Outside, unicorns wait to attack. And within, Astrid faces other, unexpected threats: from bone-covered walls that vibrate with terrible power to the hidden agendas of her fellow hunters to her growing attraction to a handsome art student ... an attraction that could jeopardize everything.

Did I like it? Absolutely! The book was much darker than I expected - the unicorns were really bloodthirsty, the battles with the girls were high-stakes, and the threats from outside were disturbing. But Astrid and the other girls were take-no-prisoner heroines and I loved reading their story. I can't wait for the sequel.

Buy Rampant by Diana Peterfreund on Amazon.

* So, obviously, Team Unicorn, people. Team Unicorn all the way. And in case you have no idea what I'm talking about: Zombies vs. Unicorns.

Review: The Magicians

Right off the bat, I'll say that I really liked The Magicians. Yes, it feels a little like the author, Lev Grossman, took a dozen popular books and mashed them together. But, at least for me, I thought it came out delicious and not derivative.

The Magicians is the story of an ordinary high school student, Quentin, who finds out he has magical abilities and goes to a school for magic (see: Harry Potter, et al). Once there, Quentin meets up with a group of like-minded students, all equally interested in magic and fun. They learn that there are other worlds (hints of The Chronicles of Chrestomanci by Diana Wynne Jones, perhaps?) and, after some aimless young adult wandering, decide to find out if the magic land of their favorite childhood books (clearly The Chronicles of Narnia) is real.

Unlike these books, however, The Magicians is decidedly written for an adult audience. For one thing, the group of friends reminded me more of the murderous Bacchanalians in The Secret History by Donna Tartt than Harry and his buddies. For another, there is a distinct pathos about all of them. What's the point in trying when everything can be gotten by lifting a finger?

I think that anyone who read the Narnia books as voraciously as I (and Quentin, under another name) did will really enjoy this book. Or you might find it to be derivative garbage and hate it. But it's worth the read to find out.

Buy The Magicians: A Novel by Lev Grossman on Amazon.

Review: Melting Stones

I'll confess that I read Melting Stones several weeks ago and then returned it to the library, so my review may be a little non-specific.

Residents on one of the islands south of Emelan have sent a call for help to Winding Circle temple: Their plants and trees and the animals that live around them are mysteriously dying. From Winding Circle come two familiar figures: prickly green mage Rosethorn, whose plant magic will help her decipher what's ailing the plant life, and Briar's former student, the stone mage Evvy. With them comes the eager, nervous Dedicate Initiate Myrrhflower and Luvo, a being best described as a walking, intelligent rock. All are pulled into the island's mystery when Evvy is caught up by the wild spirits loose in an immense bubble of molten rock. Can they evacuate the island in time--or will they try to shift a volcano?

A housekeeping note to begin with: when I wrote my Tamora Pierce wrap-up I thought that Melting Stones was a stand-alone book in Pierce's Circle universe. I think it may actually be a sequel to Street Magic (The Circle Opens, Book 2) or Will Of The Empress, neither of which I've read. So there were a fair number of references to people and events I knew nothing about. I didn't have any trouble following along, though.

While I found Melting Stones to be an enjoyable book, I did find it to be a little young - while it is classified as Young Adult, I think that Middle Grade readers may enjoy it more than a teenager used to the advanced themes present in much of today's YA. Part of that is that Evvy, the main character, felt very young to me, despite the awful circumstances she's lived through.

In general, I think that fans of Pierce's previous Circle books will enjoy Melting Stones, but that it probably isn't strong enough to pull new readers (particularly new older and adult readers) into the series.

Buy Melting Stones in paperback on Amazon now.

Review: Shadow Bound

I figuratively picked up Shadow Bound by Erin Kellison when it was offered as a free download for my Nook from Barnes & Noble.

Adam Thorne's brother traded in his humanity to gain power and immortality. He became a wraith, one of a growing number menacing the country, and in doing so killed everyone Adam loved. Adam is determined to get his revenge and to take out the wraiths. Talia O'Brien is on the run from the wraiths, against whom she has a mysterious power, the gift of her Fae father. When Adam finds Talia, he rescues her (or was that kidnaps her?) and enlists her in his fight against the wraiths. Sexy times bound, good and bad guys get killed, and it was altogether a fun book to read for summer. I thought the prologue was unnecessary but otherwise enjoyed reading this light book.

Buy Shadow Bound on Amazon.

Review: Something Rotten

Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde on is the fourth book in the Thursday Next series. If you haven't already read The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book and The Well of Lost Plots, don't even attempt to start with this one.

In Something Rotten, Thursday Next returns to the real world (well, as reall as it gets in these books) with her son and Hamlet in tow. She learns that bad guy Yorrick Kaine has joined forces with the omnipresent Goliath Corporation to oust the aging English President. As Prime Minister, Kaine wields has used his mysterious influence to pass bizarre laws and stir up hatred of Denmark. Thursday gets her job back at SpecOps to try to defeat Kaine, get her husband Landen back, and try to prevent the end of the world.

It's all very complicated, as I think all the Thursday Next books seem to be, but this one did feel a little more rushed than the first two. But I liked this one more than The Well of Lost Plots (#3).

Buy Something Rotten (a Thursday Next Novel) by Jasper Fforde on Amazon.

Review: Charmed Life

Charmed Life is the first book in Diana Wynne Jones's Chrestomanci series and the first book I have ever read by her.

Orphans Cat and his sister Gwendolen, a young witch, are summoned to live with at Chrestomanci Castle, home of the powerful enchanter who regulates the use of magic in the parallel worlds and his family. When the Chrestomanci doesn't acknowledge ambitious Gwendolen's talent, she decides to wreck havoc on the castle to make him pay attention. Poor Cat is haplessly dragged alone for the ride.

I know DWJ has legions of fans, but I wasn't really impressed by this book. There were basically no sympathetic characters - Gwendolen is clearly just a shrew, Cat is a patsy, we hardly know Chrestomanci and his wife, their daughter is obnoxious, and their son barely registered as a person. The only person I liked in the book was Janet, and she's not in most of the book. Does Wynn Jones have something against kids? For a kids book, I found the children characters to be really poorly developed. I resented that the female characters were either harpies or doormats, but the male characters didn't fare much better.

As I said, I know this author has a lot of fans. I loved the movie Howl's Moving Castle, so maybe I will seek out the book, but otherwise, I doubt I will pick up another one of Wynn Jones's books again.

Buy Charmed Life on Amazon.

Review: Chalice

There's no wind up to reading Chalice by Robin McKinley. No soft start, no easing into the world. McKinley just starts.

Beekeeper Marisol has been chosen as the new Chalice, destined to stand beside the Master and mix the ceremonial brews that hold the Willowlands together. But the relationship between Chalice and Master has always been tumultuous, and the new Master is unlike any before him.

There's not much action to this book. There's more atmosphere than anything else. It was good, but something about it left me cold.

Maybe, and it pains me to say this, maybe I just don't know about Robin McKinley anymore. Her books are all different - different worlds, characters, plots - so why do I sometimes I feel like I've just read the same book again? I think it's McKinley's voice. She has a really strong voice, clear and concise, that carries through everything I've read by her. I've written about this before, actually, but I don't know why it bugged me reading Chalice.

Other bloggers (including Presenting Lenore and bookshelves of doom) really enjoyed this book. Maybe its all about having the right frame of mind.

Buy Chalice on Amazon.

Review: The Lightning Thief

I had never heard of the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan before the first book in the series, The Lightning Thief was made into a movie earlier this year. I didn't see the movie but I heard good things about the book at the time, so when I saw it on sale on my Nook, I bought it.

This is a really fun middle grade book. I enjoyed reading it - no surprise since I have loved reading myths and legends since I was in middle school myself. Percy is a fun character to spend time with and Riordan does a great job of making the world he inhabits seem believable.

My only quibble with the book is the relationship between Percy's mom and her husband and how that is wrapped up at the end. But otherwise, I though this was a fun book that any young reader would enjoy.

Buy The Lightning Thief: Percy Jackson and the Olympians on Amazon.

Review: The Onion Girl

At my last Book Club, we discussed The Onion Girl by Charles deLint. According to Wikipedia, The Onion Girl is the 12th (of 24) book in de Lint's Newford collection - all books set in an imaginary city where the boundary line between magic and reality is blurred, and generally centered around a large group of friends/acquaintences. At the heart of this group is Jilly Coppercorn and The Onion Girl is her story.

For the most part, my book club all agreed it was an interesting book but not what we expected. Personally, I expected the magic and real life to be more integrated. Other than reading Tarot Cards or catching something strange out of the corner of your eye, magic doesn't happen in the real world. There is a Dream World and the World As It Is and they were very different.

Many characters show up in The Onion Girl from deLint's other Newford books, but it was easy to keep track as he reintroduced them each time. In fact, it got a little repetitive.

I can't say I loved this book, but there was one thing that kept me (and several other members of my book club) riveted to the very end: the character of Raylene. Raylene is Jilly's sister and suffered through much of the same abuse as a child. But where Jilly was rescued from the streets by caring people, Raylene joined forces with her friend Pinky and started on a life of petty crime. She's not a sympathetic character in the normal sense, but she's fascinating and strong-willed.

Buy The Onion Girl on Amazon.

Teaser Tuesday: 7/13

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
• Share the title & author, too, so that others can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!

My teaser today is from Something Rotten (a Thursday Next Novel) by Jasper Fforde. This is way more than two sentences, I know, but this this not the kind of book you can pull two random sentences out of and expect it to make sense. It barely makes sense when you're reading it cover to cover!

Mrs. Tiggy-winkle looked miserable.

"Well, you know there has been much grumbling within Hamlet ever since Rosencrantz and Guildernstern got their own play?"

"Yes?"

"Well, just after you left, Ophelia attempted a coup d'état in Hamlet's absence. She imported a B-6 Hamlet from Lamb's Shakespeare and convinced him to reenact some of the key scenes with a pro-Ophelia bias."

Tamora Pierce for Adult YA Fans (Series Review)

I started reading Tamora Pierce's work when I was in middle school, when my sister suggested I might enjoy Alanna: The First Adventure. She was right and I quickly read the next two books in the series (all that was available at our library), then stalked bookstores for more by her. I was rewarded years later when the final book in the quartet, Lioness Rampant, appeared at a bookstore in Dublin when I was there as a summer student.

In the meantime, though, I had to sate my need for strong female characters in fantasy books some other way. My teachers and family helped - I remember it was my 8th grade teacher who introduced me to Robin McKinley and someone else suggested I read Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

I was an adult by the time I re-discovered Tamora Pierce. Once I did, I made up for lost time and read just about everything else she's ever written. Below are mini-reviews of her series, with my advice on which ones might be of the most interest to adult readers.

The Circle Universe
As I have said before, I haven't read most of these books. I read the first two from the first series and found them to be too young for me, so I never bothered to check out the rest. Currently, there are three series and one stand alone book set in this universe:

• Circle of Magic (Sandry's Book, Tris's Book, Daja's Book, and Briar's Book)
• The Circle Opens (Book 1: Magic Steps, etc)
• The Circle Reforged (Currently the only book in this series is Will Of The Empress)
• Melting Stones (Written initially as an audiobook, the paperback will be issued in August.) Update: I reviewed Melting Stones 8/26.

If any of my readers have advice on these books, please feel free to weigh in. But generally, I think adult readers wouldn't be too interested in the Circle books.

The Tortall Universe
This is the real meat and potatoes of Pierce's work for me and, as a whole, is my favorite group of YA fantasy books.

• The Song of the Lioness quartet is made up of Alanna: The First Adventure, In the Hand of the Goddess, The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, and Lioness Rampant. This series is really basis on which all the other Tortall series are written. Compared to the other books, and to YA books published these days, the books are pretty short and the writing can be a little simple, especially in Alanna. This is less the case in Lioness Rampant, as Pierce, I think, had gotten more liberty to write the book she wanted to write by then.
• The Immortals: This was the next series set in Tortall, consisting of Wild Magic, Wolf-Speaker, Emperor Mage, and The Realms of the Gods. Tortall literally changes in this series, as more more magic enters that world. That's why there are griffins and dragons in these books and the subsequent chronological series, but none in the The Song of the Lioness or Beka Cooper. I don't love this series as much as the others, probably because I just didn't click as well with Daine, but the books are still fun to read.
• Protector of the Small: This is the series that brings me back to unadulterated fangirl love. The series is about a noble girl who decides to become the first female to become a knight after Alanna (now that it is legal in Tortall to do so). And, Kel! You're awesome! The books in this series are First Test, Page, Squire, and Lady Knight. Interestingly, in her Lady Knight acknowledgments, Pierce thanks JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, for proving to publishers that YA books could be longer and more complicated, dealing with subject matters previously considered taboo. I always thought that Pierce was unafraid to deal with "adult" subjects in her books (for example, the frank talks about birth control in the early Alanna books) but, certainly, her books got longer at this point and less likely to break a story up into multiple volumes.
• Tricksters (aka Daughter of the Lioness): These two books, Trickster's Choice and Trickster's Queen, are about Alanna's daughter Alianne (Aly) and her adventures when she is kidnapped and taken, as a slave, to the Copper Isles. Like Pierce's other heroines, Aly is a strong feisty female. But while she can handle herself in a fight, she is more her father's daughter than her mother's, and is more likely to use cunning and trickery to win her battles than out and out force. These books are quite fun and, while they are sequels to the other Tortall series, are different enough that I don't think they need to be read in order. Please note that finding out who Aly's father is, though, will spoil a few things in the The Song of the Lioness quartet.
• Beka Cooper: These books are prequels (of a sort) to The Song of the Lioness quartet, in that they take place centuries before, in the same world. There's really no character overlap, though, so these books can be read at any point, without fear of spoiling anything in the other books. Please read my reviews of Terrier and Bloodhound for my take on the two books (so far) in Pierce's latest Tortall series.

Pierce, I know, is currently working on a prequel to The Immortals, this one about the mage Numair in his youth. (Timeline-wise, I imagine it will take place about the same time as Alanna's books or maybe just after.) I look forward to reading and reviewing it when it comes out!

I hope this post has inspired anyone curious about Tamora Pierce's work to pick up one of her books. And if there are any young readers in your life, especially girls who enjoyed Graceling or some of the other YA fantasy coming out these days, please put one of these books in her hands. I think she'll love it.

Author photo courtesy Tamora Pierce

Review: Glimmerglass

Glimmerglass by Jenna Black is the first book in a new young adult fantasy series.


After her alcoholic mother embarrasses her one last time, Dana Hathaway runs away to Avalon to meet the father she's never met. Avalon is the only city on Earth that exists in both the human world and the magical world of Faerie. Dana's dad is a big deal Fae there and is in the running to be part of the city council. But Dana has no idea that in Avalon, she's not just some teenager - she's a powerful being in her own right, a Faeriewalker, and possibly the key to anyone hoping to gain power in Avalon.

I really loved the world Black has created in this book. Who wouldn't want to visit Avalon? The idea that there is just one place in the world where magic and technology overlap is really quite delicious.

Dana was a bit of difficult character to click with, but I can't fault her for that. She's going through a lot and I think she's doing her best to handle it all. She certainly notices the cute boys, though, even in the middle of a bad situation.

At the end of the book, though, I was just left with such an "oh, that was it?" feeling. The whole book really just felt like the lead up to something else, presumably the next book in the series. This isn't too say that there's no action in the book. A lot happened, actually, but it just didn't seem to go anywhere.

In the end, I'll just say that Glimmerglass was a fun book, but it could have been much more. I look forward to the next book in the series, though and hope that it lives up to the promise of the setting.

Glimmerglass was released yesterday (5/25).

Buy Glimmerglass (Faeriewalker, Book 1)

Review: Bloodhound

Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce is the sequel to Terrier, part of the newest series set in Pierce's fantasy world of Tortall. Like Terrier, Bloodhound is written as the journal of Beka Cooper, now a first-year Dog in the Provost's Guards (basically, a police officer). In this story, she and her partner have been sent from Corus to Port Caynn to try to discover the source of the counterfeit money flooding their city.


Just as I thought after reading the first book, I liked spending time with Beka. She is a sweet person, though maybe a little dense when it comes to matters of the heart. She's not, I think, a terribly complicated person. Beka is happy when her friends are happy, her family is safe, and she is working very, very hard. It shows in her journal - there are a lot of details about her work and a genuine concern for the well being of everyone around her. Luckily for Beka, there's a bit of fun, too, some of it with a handsome gambler who agrees to show her around town.

Younger readers (say, sixth grade and up) and longtime fans of Pierce's (like me) will definitely enjoy Bloodhound. And for those of us who have read the Song of the Lioness quartet, there are some interesting snippets of information that make me very curious about how we get from Beka's world to Alanna's.

Bloodhound is out tomorrow 5/25 in paperback.

Bloodhound: The Legend of Beka Cooper #2 on Amazon.

Review: Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits

Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits is a book of short stories, half by Robin McKinley (author of The Hero and The Crown, etc) and half by Peter Dickinson (author of Eva). The stories are linked in that they are all about water and about fantastical creatures that live in water. The stories were otherwise, though, not related to one another and were stylistically different. I could tell without even looking, though, which ones were McKinley's, as I think she has a very strong voice (I've mentioned this before, in my review of Sunshine).

Mermaid Song by Peter Dickinson: Great little story about a Puritanical village whose women have been keeping a secret for generations. Sad, but has an ultimately hopeful ending.

The Sea-King's Son by Robin McKinley: A fairy tale about a young woman who falls in love.

Sea Serpent by Peter Dickinson: My least favorite of the stories, as I just didn't quite get what was going on, to be honest.

Water Horse by Robin McKinley: A girl is apprenticed to learn how to be Guardian, one who keeps her island home from being taken back by the water. Reminded me, for some reason, of Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea books.

Kraken by Peter Dickinson: Loved the dual nature of this story, about young lovers and the mermaid who helps them.

A Pool in the Desert by Robin McKinley: Fans will be pleased to note that this story takes place in Damar, home of Aerin and Harry (although neither of them appear).

Buy Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits on Amazon.

DNF's: Books Not Finished

Here's my first foray into The DNFiles (as Raych calls it). I tried and I tried, but I just couldn't finish the following books. And I never give up on books! Maybe someday I will, but for now, I need the room on my bedside table.

The Sunne In Splendour: A Novel of Richard III by Sharon Kay Penman: I read almost half of this book while we were away last Christmas. But, guys! Its 879 pages long! Its huge! And every other character is, I swear, named Henry or Richard or Edward/Edmund. And then half the time, they were just referred to by their title - except that since the book spans just years and years, everyone's title changes a dozen times. I got so lost. And then I just stopped caring. I'm sorry, Ms. Penman. I know you're one of the grande dames of historical fiction and I really did like the historical mystery of yours I read (The Queen's Man). But I think your straight historical fiction may just be too much for me.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke: This is another chunkster that I just couldn't finish. I only made it about a quarter of the way through this one - but that means almost 200 pages, as this thing clocks in at way over 800. Maybe it was the style - sort of a Victorian farce meets historical document - or maybe it was just too slow for me, but I just could not get into it.

Feel free to argue in the comments why I should give these books another chance.

Review: Terrier

I recently realized that I've never reviewed a Tamora Pierce book on arch thinking before. I find this so surprising, as I have been a big fan of hers since I was a kid. I think I first read Alanna when I was 11 or so (it was published in 1983, but I'm not so old that I read it when it first came out!) and I have faithfully read all of her Tortall books* in the years since, most of them multiple times. Does this make me a big geek? Oh, probably. =)


Terrier is the first book in Pierce's newest series set in Tortall, set about 200 years before the events in Alanna. Told in journal form, its the story of Beka Cooper, training to be one of the Provost's Guards.

In 246 H.E., the Provost's Dogs guard Tortall's capital city. Beka Cooper is one of the newest trainees - a Puppy wet behind the ears but eager to learn. But Beka will have to learn faster than she bargained for because she's assigned to the Lower City, Corus's toughest district. It's filled with pickpockets who are fast as lightening, rogues who will knock your teeth out with a smile, and murderers with hidden plans. In the constant battle for the Lower City's streets, Beka will have to use her smarts and her own eerie brand of magic if she hopes to survive.

I first read Terrier when it came out in paperback originally and I read it again recently. I needed a little comfort food reading and I grabbed this one off the shelf.

I really like Beka. She's a good character to spend time with and, especially since it is told in the form of her journal, the reader gets to feel very close with her.

Some aspects of Terrier didn't really ring true for me, though. I'm pretty critical of journal-style or epistolary novels - its very hard to authentically be in that voice and yet tell the story as it needs to be told. Pierce does a great job, but there's a little more dialogue than I think would actually be in a journal. And the snippet of Beka's mother's journal at the beginning felt very inauthentic (I just can't really see a barely literate, impoverished woman keeping a journal).

Complaints aside, I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading the next book in the series, Bloodhound (which comes out in paperback in May!).

Buy Terrier (The Legend of Beka Cooper, Book 1) on Amazon.

* I don't read her Circle books - they're a little young, even for me.

Review: Graceling

After hearing so much praise for Graceling by Kristin Cashore ever since it was published, I was thrilled to finally start reading it. I tore through this book in just a few days, eager to know what would happen.

From the back of the book:

Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight - she's a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graces as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king's thug.

When she first meets Prince Po, who is Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change.

She never expects to become Po's friend.

She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace - or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away...

Graceling was really fun to read! The characters are interesting and well-fleshed out and the plot was riveting.

But - and I hate that there's a but - it left me feeling a like something was lacking. My expectations for Graceling were, I'll admit, a bit high. So maybe its not a surprise that the book didn't quite live up to my expectations. Don't get me wrong, I liked the book. But I kept thinking about how much Katsa reminded me other YA heroines (Katniss from The Hunger Games, in particular) and how much the story reminded me of other books (like the works of my girl Tamora Pierce or JRR Tolkien).

Let me be clear, I'm not saying that it felt like Cashore ripped anything off from these authors. It's just that Graceling didn't feel as fresh to me as I'd been hoping. Again, I think its more just a matter of how high my expectations were, not of any fault of the book.

In the end, Graceling is well worth the read. I don't think it really broke new ground in YA fantasy, but it was really entertaining. Fantasy fans of all ages will enjoy it.

Buy Graceling on Amazon.

Review: Wake

Wake by Lisa McMann is about seventeen-year-old Janie who gets sucked into other people's dreams - and nightmares. She knows more about her friends and classmates secrets and fantasies than anyone would ever want to know. Then she starts getting sucked into someone's terrible nightmares but for the first time, she's more than an observer, she's a participant.

I found Wake to be interesting with an unusual premise. The writing just did not click with me, though. The writing style seemed somewhat disjointed to me. And unfortunately, for me, the plot wasn't strong enough to overcome my problems with the writing.

As I said, I thought the premise was very interesting, so I'm sure other readers will enjoy this book much more than I did. Wake just wasn't for me.

Buy Wake (Wake Series, Book 1) on Amazon.