Synopsis: At night, the demons rise, terrorizing humanity for centuries until three grown orphans dare to fight back. Review: Warning: freak-out coming… THE WARDED MAN ROCKED ROCKED ROCKED. I mean, seriously. I am losing my mind over how good this book was. Why oh why oh why am I going to have to wait all the way until the end of the year to read the next book? I haven’t been this insane about a book since I read Assassin’s Apprentice. I was so sucked…
Synopsis: After the sudden death of her daughter, a farmer’s wife finds herself raising her teenage grandchildren, who are used to urban life. Review: I don’t ordinarily read books like Before the Dawn, but a good friend of mine recommended it, and I always check out recommendations. The setup of the book is quite simple, nothing very innovative, but I did find Charlotte’s dilemma affecting. Perhaps it’s because I’m a mom, and anticipating the kinds of struggles Charlotte is facing, that I was intrigued by…
Synopsis: In a world where the price of magic is human life, one woman dares transgress against the prevailing power structures even as an ancient enemy threatens humankind. Review: Man, I hate synopsizing epic fantasy. The premises always end up sounding so silly. That’s a shame, because Feast of Souls actually really intrigued me with its central idea. Basically, there can be no magic without a human life force as fuel. Women who can control the life force become witches, but every act of magic…
Synopsis: Orphaned Kira is tapped to continue her mother’s work as a weaver with mystical powers, but her glimpses into the world lead her to question everything she’s ever known. Review: Gathering Blue is Lois Lowry’s follow-up to The Giver, her dystopian look at a world without pain. Gathering Blue is a much lighter work, and feels like a bridge to the next book in the trilogy, Messenger. I wasn’t really blown away by this book so I’m not going to say much, other than…
Synopsis: Scholarship student Carly bonds with her titled new roommate when Lady Lindsay starts receiving emails from a stalker. Review: Be Strong and Curvaceous didn’t really do it for me. I have read a lot of series Christian YA and this didn’t do anything new. It’s not bad, I just need more from my reading these days.
Synopsis: An account of the years between child admiral Ender Wiggins’ defeat of the formics and his career as Speaker for the Dead. Review: I have only read Ender’s Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind–and honestly only the first two stuck with me–so I was largely unfamiliar with the backstory featuring Bean and Petra Arkanian that figures largely in Ender in Exile. Still, it was a welcome pleasure to re-immerse myself in the world of Andrew “Ender” Wiggin, who was…
Synopsis: New girl Ana struggles with overprotective parents who push her to succeed, but when she winds up in detention she discovers she is not the only girl in school who has survived a near-fatal incident. Review: I bigtime heart Anne and May, the Good Girls, so I was thrilled to read The Miracle Girls, the first in their new young adult series. Anne and May write Christian fiction that isn’t preachy, and The Miracle Girls makes Ana’s Christianity just part of her life, not…
Synopsis: The concluding adventures of Gemma Doyle, proper Victorian debutante and keeper of the magic of a mystical world called the realms, which is threatened by intruders from the ominous Winterlands. Review: The Sweet Far Thing ends the trilogy that began with A Great and Terrible Beauty, followed by Rebel Angels. Gemma Doyle and her friends are boarding school girls in Victorian England. They should be focusing on their upcoming debuts, but instead their attentions are captured by a war brewing in the realms, the…
Synopsis: Soldier Son Nevare’s adventures culminate in a battle within his divided self for mastery of his body in defiance of the magic. Review: When last we saw Nevare, he was grossly fat and resigned to a life on the outside. A Soldier Son of modest ambition, Nevare’s soul was cleft in two during a battle with the tree goddess Lisana. Now, in Renegade’s Magic, the trilogy’s conclusion, Nevare finds himself trapped, with his Speck alter-ego having taken control of his body in order to…
Synopsis: In a world characterized by politics and intrigue, a sorceror unites a legendary rogue, a dandyish fighter, and an outlaw woman in the fight to… oh, I’m not really sure what, honestly. Review: Seriously, what is The Blade Itself about? I was lost from really early on. The characters were interesting, but there didn’t seem to be much of a story, just a bunch of incidents loosely threaded together. I never got the connections or what the stakes were, or what anyone’s goals were.…