The winners of my Dragon Keeper Giveaway are Sheila and Amanda! Use the contact form below to send me your mailing address and your copies will be on their way!

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Synopsis:
As Alvin Maker heads out for his apprenticeship, the French conspire to rouse the Reds against the Whites for a war that will win all of an alternate America for Napoleon.

Review:
I am a big fan of how Orson Scott Card has created an American history that encompasses just enough of our reality to feel authentic, but then skewed to include magic and mysticism. In Red Prophet, Card turns Tecumseh into Ta-Kumsaw, and gives him a brother named Lolla-Wossiky whose transformation will affect young Alvin Maker’s life and destiny.

If my computer weren’t jumping my cursor around inexplicably, I’d write more, but I don’t have the patience. Further explication will be forthcoming when I read book three.

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Synopsis:
An unwed mother tries working in an impoverished boarding school and finds herself yearning for the nurse she fell in love with back when both were working in a military hospital in England during WWII.

Review:
My Father’s Moon is the first of three books in The Vera Wright Trilogy, an autobiographical series that has long been out-of-print. Highly praised in its time, Elizabeth Jolley’s work wasn’t widely known outside of her native Australia until now.

Based on My Father’s Moon, I daresay Ms. Jolley’s reputation at home deserves to be expanded abroad. Her writing combines an elliptically modernist structure with classically rigorous character work, and I suppose she bears comparison to Virginia Woolf in that regard.

Vera is an oddly slippery character, in that it’s hard to understand her motivations and choices. I’m not saying this as a criticism; rather, it’s a result of the way that Jolley has chosen to tell the story, using flashbacks that are sometimes indistinguishable from the main action. She links the different times together using Vera’s invocation of the name Ramsden, the last name of the woman she loved. It’s a powerful technique, evoking longing and regret in equal measure.

I was quite impressed by Jolley and glad for the opportunity to be exposed to her work.

Many thanks to Persea for the review copy.

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Synopsis:
In the near future, a high-functioning autistic man is presented with the opportunity to be “fixed,” causing him to wonder if he was ever really broken.

Review:
I first read Speed of Dark a few years ago, on the recommendation of a friend. I really enjoyed revisiting it, especially now that I’m a mom and have friends who have kids on the autism spectrum.

I really loved how Elizabeth Moon made Leo a real, relatable character, to the point where I really wanted him to stay just as he was. I grew to love him, including his autism, because she made him a person to me. She skillfully integrated the futuristic elements with a really compelling emotional journey. Definitely recommended!

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I’m so grateful to the kind folks at Point who have given my site 3 copies of Wherever Nina Liesby Lynn Weingarten!

To enter, leave a comment on this post by 11:59pm EST on Monday, March 1st. You can earn extra entries by blogging about this contest or posting it on Twitter, and leaving a trackback.

About Wherever Nina Lies:

Nina was beautiful, wild, and adored by her younger sister, Ellie. But, one day, Nina disappeared. Two years later, everyone has given up home that Nina will return, but Ellie knows her sister is out there. If only Ellie had a clue where to look. Then she gets one, in the form of a mysterious drawing. Determined to find Nina, Ellie takes off on a crazy, sexy, cross-country road trip with the only person who believes she’s got a chance—her hot, adventurous new crush. Along the way, Ellie finds a few things she wasn’t planning on. Like love. Lies. And the most shocking thing of all: the truth.

You can download the first chapter here.

Books are valued at $8.99 each.

Shipping Guidelines: This book giveaway is open to participants with a United States mailing address only (international readers can enter if they have a friend in the States who can accept their prizes by mail.)

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Thanks to random.org and the kind folks at Harlequin Teen, the 3 winners of My Soul to Save are:

1–Sandy Jay
3–Carol M
2–Nancye Davis

Please send me your mailing address (be sure to note which book you have won) using the form below:

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The kind folks at Eos want to give 2 readers of my blog a copy of Robin Hobb’s newest book, Dragon Keeper! I loved it loved it loved it and am excited to share the love with you all.

To enter, leave a comment below by 11:59 EST on Thursday, February 26th. Earn additional entries by blogging or tweeting this contest, or posting to Facebook. Just leave a link or a trackback.

I’ll choose 2 winners via random.org. Open to US residents only, sorry. Good luck!!

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Synopsis:
Faced with a marriage proposal on the one side and the chance to travel around the world on the other, Hallie Palmer chooses the unfamiliar, hoping to find herself in the process.

Review:
While I admired Laura Pederson’s strong prose skills, I was not drawn in by the story at the center of Best Bet. I lost interest after about 100 pages.

Many thanks to iUniverse for the review copy.

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Synopsis:
An amnesiac high school boy is on the run from both the US government and fundamentalist Islamic extremists.

Review:
I couldn’t get into The Long Way Home, despite Andrew Klavan’s stellar reputation. It had a lot of action but the plot and characters seemed too simply drawn.

Many thanks to Thomas Nelson for the review copy.

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Synopsis:
Four kids with immobilizing phobias are sent to a very special boarding school to cure them of their fears–if it doesn’t kill them first.

Review:
I really enjoyed Gitty Daneshvari’s wit in School of Fear. She has a dry sense of humor that really animates all the characters and elevates the book beyond what could have been just a by-the-numbers genre read. You can tell that she really cares about language and wants to put something original into the world, which is not something you can say about some of the YA authors I’ve come across.

School of Fear has a sense of gothic adventure that reminded me of John Bellairs crossed with EL Konigsburg–in other words, it’s great fun for middle grade readers.

Many thanks to Little, Brown for the review copy.

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