Synopsis: Seraphina is mistress of music at the royal court, but when dragon/human relations become strained, she fears that someone will discover her secret–that she is half dragon herself. Review: Seraphina was an absolutely delicious read. Fabulous world, great political intrigue, and a winning love story all centered around a fierce, strong, vulnerable, complicated protagonist. I am only sad that this is just Rachel Hartman‘s debut because I want to read more!
Synopsis: When the annual list of prettiest and ugliest girls in each grade is posted, the named girls face their demons and find out who they really are. Review: The List is my favorite kind of YA–edgy, sharp, and deeply human. I loved the backstories created for all the characters and how it all came together.
Synopsis: Book two. Read Divergent first. Review: I give up trying to review the middle book in any trilogy. I read Insurgent, I am still hooked, need book three as fast as Veronica Roth can write it.
Synopsis: In a world divided into five factions ruled by a defining character trait, a young woman risks excommunication if anyone discovers that she is Divergent–showing tendencies to more than one character trait. Review: I initially dismissed Divergent as part of the post-Hunger Games dystopian frenzy and assumed it wouldn’t grip me and enthrall me in quite the same way. I was dead wrong–I actually think Divergent is a better story than HG–at least so far. I felt way more invested in Tris’s dilemma because…
Synopsis: Subtitled “How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband ‘Master’.” Review: I didn’t think I wanted to read A Year of Biblical Womanhood because it seemed gimmicky and I assumed that the writer was going for snark. But I gradually became turned on to the beautiful, incisive, perceptive, and deeply Christian writings of author Rachel Held Evans and realized I had to make this my next read. I want all of my friends to read…
Synopsis: When her plane goes down in Nazi occupied France, a teenage Scottish spy known only as Verity has just one chance to write her confession before her captors send her off to a concentration camp. Review: Code Name Verity was the best read I have had all year. No contest. (Well, maybe The Devil in Silver.) I seriously just want everyone to feel how I feel when I think about “FLY THE PLANE MADDIE.” I am about to cry and I might just have…
Synopsis: When troubled siblings head into the wilderness with their aging father, their hopes to secure their inheritance lead them to make unfathomable choices, even as their guide succumbs to alcoholism. Review: I really try to avoid posting negative reviews–when I don’t like a book, I just won’t finish reading it. But for some reason I kept reading The Serpent’s Bite even though I wasn’t really enjoying it, and since author Warren Adler has written a ton of books I think he can probably weather…
Synopsis: A single mother of a troubled pre-teen takes in a 17-year-old girl with a history of arson, and finds her image of herself as a mother challenged and strengthened. Review: I loved Rosy Thornton’s Tapesty of Love so I leapt at the chance to review Ninepins. Thornton is a gorgeous writer and in Ninepins she offers a compelling situation that reads like a thriller. Laura is an academic living in the fens outside of Cambridge. Her asthmatic daughter Beth is 12 and just starting…
Synopsis: In 4th Century Ireland, Robyn yearns to become a bronze caster, but family pressures and outside forces threaten to keep her from achieving her dream. Review: The Casting was a well-written story with a strong female protagonist that will definitely appeal to middle grade readers. My inner 12-year-old kind of fell in love with her. I wished that the secondary characters had had just a little more depth to them, but I don’t think it’s anything that the target audience for this book would…
Synopsis: A princess of Atlantis flees to ancient England where her paths cross with a mage-in-training whose parentage is unknown. Review: I was drawn to Taliesin (which I desperately want to be an anagram of Atlantis, but it’s not) because it’s a retelling of the King Arthur legend with historically accurate place names and details, and with the Christianity an important, unoppressive element. Several major characters are converted to Christianity in episodes that are emotionally and spiritually powerful, but Lawhead doesn’t make that the happy…