I recently reviewed Revelations, Book 3 in Melissa De La Cruz’s Blue Bloods trilogy. I finally got a chance to check out books 1 and 2 in the series and would recommend them to anyone who wishes Gossip Girl had vampires. There’s scads of name-dropping and swanky NYC night clubs along with a really well thought out mythology that goes back to Puritan New England. I’m glad I got a chance to check these books out!
We’ve all seen the lists, we’ve all thought,”I should really read that someday,” but for all of us, there are still books on The List that we haven’t actually gotten around to reading. Even though we know they’re fabulous. Even though we know that we’ll like them. Or that we’ll learn from them. Or just that they’re supposed to be worthy. We just haven’t gotten around to them yet. What’s the best book that YOU haven’t read yet? I’ve got some doozies, for as well-read…
Synopsis: Robbed of his fortune by a rival from his school days, Edward Glyver seeks vengeance and restoration under an assumed name. Review: The Meaning of Night is a cunningly plotted piece of faux-Victoriana, conjuring up Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins with a soupcon of sex that doesn’t feel anachronistic at all. Edward Glyver’s nesting-doll tale gives every character a chance to tell his or her own life story, and Cox makes each one fascinating in its own right. Despite the near-constant digressions, Cox never…
Synopsis: When wannabe journalist Dixie Nguyen stumbles into the story of a lifetime in the boys’ locker room, he risks everything, including his place on the football team, to bring down an albino drug lord–who happens to be another high school student. Review: Sophomore Undercover is written in a breezy, comic style that will definitely appeal to readers, especially boys. I wasn’t so into it myself, because I found the plot really frustrating from the get-go. Dixie makes some assumptions that send him down the…
It’s been so much fun being a part of the blog tour for Kathryn Fitzmaurice’s The Year the Swallows Came Early. All the other participants have written great stuff so I thought I’d highlight some of my favorites. Noel at Neverjamtoday names some books that reminded her of Swallows–great recommendations if you liked it as much as she did. Marie at Fireside Musings has an interview in a few parts with author Kathryn Fitzmaurice. I wish I’d had time to talk to her, because I…
Synopsis: When 13-year-old Capistrano native Groovy’s father gets arrested, she has to face the devastating truth about her family and look for the courage to forgive. Review: In The Year the Swallows Came Early, debut novelist Kathryn Fitzmaurice gives us a winning protagonist in Groovy (nee Eleanor), named by her ne’er-do-well father because as a toddler she loved to dance. Now Groovy’s beloved dad has been hauled off to prison, and her salon-owner mother won’t give her a straight answer as to why. What I…
I am very excited to be part of the blog tour for The Year the Swallows Came Early by Kathryn Fitzmaurice. This is Kathryn’s first YA book and she’s blogging all about it here. It’s so fun to see her enthusiasm for receiving her first copy of the real book–what a dream come true! Check back here tomorrow for my review, and in the meantime please visit the other bloggers on the tour: A Christian Worldview of Fiction All About Children’s Books Becky’s Book Reviews…
Synopsis: A host of missing children prompts an investigation led by Adjunct Pointsman Rathe, in a world reminiscent of 17th Century Europe where astrology is the governing religion and worldview. Review: Point of Hopes was a refreshing change of pace from the fantasy I’ve been reading lately. Instead of an epic tale spanning the whole of the human experience in the midst of catastrophic upheaval, Point of Hopes is a simple police procedural set among the ordinary middle class. Within the genre, it’s a fairly…
Rather than give you my review of Confessions of a Shopaholic, I’ll point you to my review of the movie. I read the book to prepare and quite enjoyed it. The movie? Well…
Synopsis: After the suicide of his troubled daughter, a British journalist heads out to recuperate in Mexico and flee the ghosts that still linger even after he was acquitted of the murder of his wife. Review: Everything You Know is a much better book than its title would indicate. Author Zoe Heller is well-known for Notes on a Scandal, which became a great movie with Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett. Everything You Know lacks that book’s tawdrily catchy premise, but goes much deeper into its…