The Immortals by Tamora Pierce

Mar20

My first introduction to Tamora Pierce was in her Beka Cooper series. (You can read a review/movie rant here where I sort of talk about Terrier.) I was hooked and then delighted to discover another two dozen books by the same author, many set in the same world. I had reading to do!

Last year I binge read The Song of the Lioness Quartet and thoroughly enjoyed it. Then, last week, feeling under the weather, I got all four of The Immortals books from the library and promptly devoured them.

The Beka Cooper books (Terrier, Bloodhound and Mastiff) are, so far, still my favorite – as an adult. The Song of the Lioness quartet I enjoyed, but would have loved as a kid. The Immortals? The Immortals main character can talk to animals. I’d have been over the moon to have discovered this when it was written!

Would I recommend it? These are the kind of fun, strong, female character books that I can’t wait to introduce my own girls to. When I hand the first of these to them I’ll be crossing my fingers that at least one of my girls will like it as much as I do!

The Highlander by Zoe Saadia

Mar11

Can you say… Tenochtitlan, Tepanecs, Tlaxcala and Nezahualcoyotl three times fast?

Yeah, me neither.

But at least now I know what they are! (An Aztec capital, a mesoamerican tribe, a town, and an heir to Texcoco, in case you were wondering.)

The Highlander jumps right to the story, immerses it in history and never pauses to lecture on the subject. This can be a bit confusing when mesoamerica circa 1400’s is completely new to you (as it was to me) but worth it. If given the choice between initial confusion and interrupting the flow of a story to give a history lesson, I’ll choose initial confusion every time. And, as happens in well done historical fiction, by the end of this fairly short book I had many of the unfamiliar terms, towns and people sorted out in my brain – even if I still can’t pronounce a single one of them.

Saadia is also great at writing adolescent boys. The trouble is adolescent boys are not my favorite. Teenage boys were annoying when I was a teenager, and they haven’t gotten less so just because they are fictional. And, yes, because my husband asked, I didn’t even like Harry Potter that much during his teenage years. And, no, in case you are wondering I didn’t know my husband when he was that age. And, no, I will not speculate on what I might have thought of him then. The two main characters in this story are boys brimming with adolescent, angst-ey, angry, hormonal, warrior energy. All their boy shenanigans are a great way to tell the story, immerse the reader in history and keep it exciting. It’s just that all those warrior hormones seem to get in the way of other things – like brains. I found myself yelling at them, “Seriously boys, what are you doing? Just think!” Initially I thought perhaps they could have been written differently but then I remembered back to when I spent time with fifteen year old boys – and figured she was writing them just right.

Would I recommend it? I loved learning some of the history of a place and time entirely new to me and the book does have a pretty fantastic female character hiding in the wings but those boys… I just don’t love those boys…

This honest review was given in return for a free copy of the book from its author.

Brave Chicken Little by Robert Byrd

Feb25

Unlike one of my favorite childrens’ book recommenders over at What Is ML Reading?, I have never liked Chicken Little.

Chicken Little is, and I say this with years of chicken husbandry experience, an idiot – even for a chicken. Don’t even get me started on the rest of his feathered friends, the terrible repetition in the story and the way he (at least in modern versions) gets randomly saved from his stupidity by the king.

But, ML’s choices haven’t steered us wrong yet and before long my skeptical self had procured the book. I gathered the kids, braced myself and dove in.

Would I recommend it? Surprisingly, I would! I was very worried when the story opened the same way it always does but it got better, much better. If you are a fellow Chicken Little hater and need more convincing, give it a try for the illustrations, they are amazing!

Playing House by Donna Brown

Feb18

I can be a bit of a Goldilocks when faced with a new romance novel.

I held this new book in my hand hoping it would strike just the right balance…

That it would be a love story that wasn’t too sappy, but yet not too uptight.

I wished for romantic interludes that kept the bodice ripping to a minimum, but not so much as to be puritanical.

I looked at the cute cover hoping the plot would be realistic, but not to the point of boredom.

I wanted to fall in love with the characters, yet hoped those characters would have plenty of annoying, humanizing faults.

I longed for those characters to grow through painful experiences, but not so much trauma that it becomes hard to read.

And finally, I hoped that this book would know its own length. A story should never stretch itself too long or cut things off short.

Would I recommend it? Yes. This sweetly painful, refreshingly real, novella was, decidedly, just right!

This honest review was given in return for a free copy of the book from its author.

Minnie and Moo Will You Be My Valentine by Denys Cazet

Feb14

“Love is a Wool Sweater

No need for a zipper,

No need for a button,

When you sprout your own sweater

Around your own mutton. “

Happy Valentines Day!

P.S. If you haven’t checked out Minnie and Moo books you should they are our favorite of the ” I Can Read” type books!

Akarnae by Lynette Noni

Feb11

The evening I finished Akarnae I sat down in front of the fire to write, unordered thoughts swirling in my head.

Do I go with the, “It’s like Harry Potter mixed with X-Men and The Chronicles of Narnia” quote? Can I describe the pure awesomeness of Alex without giving things away? Characters, focus on characters. No friendships? The ways it’s better than typical young adult fantasy? The fun alternate world? The fantasticness that it is the first of a series…

Stymied by my enthusiasm, I decided to start at the beginning – the title.

People are going to need to know how to pronounce the title so they can find it and then tell all their friends about it.

I pulled the book out and started skimming through the first chapter knowing the phonetic spelling was hiding in it somewhere. Soon the skimming turned to reading, the pronunciation forgotten, and before I knew it I’d read the first quarter of the book again.

Would I recommend it? Just in case that wasn’t clear, let me tell you again. The evening I finished the book I sat down and accidentally re-read the first quarter of the book- after reading the entire thing in less than two days.

I really liked this book and, because I know you’re still wondering, it’s pronounced Ah-kar-nay.

Now you can go find it, tell your friends about it and then, this is the really important part, after you read it tell me so we can sit down and talk about all the things that make it awesome!

The Devil in Montmartre by Gary Inbinder (& Pinterest)

Feb4

For years I’ve kept an ongoing lists of books to read on numerous pieces of scrap paper tucked into the pages of a journal of books I have read.

It was a semi-functional system.

Recently I decided to embrace both technology and organization and upgraded to Pinterest.

I’m loving it.

It’s often just as easy to pin a book as it is to jot it down on a piece of paper and it’s much harder to lose. Then, when I’m in need of a new book, I scan through my “books to read” board, hop on my favorite inter-library loan system and request a few books.

It’s a significant upgrade from lost scraps of paper and I love that my new “list” shows me the collection of covers rather than just titles. books to read Since my upgrade I have been known to hone in on a book cover that looks familiar at book stores, libraries and friends bookshelves, finding what I would never have remembered had I relied on my list of titles. And when the miracles of inter-library loan puts a copy in my hand, the title may still be unfamiliar but the cover will often remind me why I wanted to read it in the first place.

Often, but not always…

Sometimes I get a book I have requested from the library and wonder things like, ” Why on earth was I planning on reading a book titled The Devil in Montmartre?”

But I read it anyway because I wouldn’t have pinned it and then requested it from the library without reason, even if I couldn’t for the life of me remember why I would have wanted to read such a terrifying sounding and looking book.

Which was good because once I read it I discovered that the reason I must have requested it was that it was focused on the 1889 forensic techniques used to solve a murder in Montmartre Paris, and that was pretty darn cool.

Would I recommend it? This is set in Montmartre at the time of the Moulin Rouge. And yes, everything illicit that comes to mind is in here, plus a bit more, as well as a really irritating doormat of a wife and a rather gruesome murder. So it’s not for the feminist, squeamish, prudish or my mother because sometimes there are books that you’d rather your mother didn’t also read no matter how old you are.

But the forensic stuff was good…

The Skeletons of Birkbury by Diana J. Febry

Jan28

A few weeks ago I posted a review of Bells on her Toes where I stated that my only disappointment was that I hadn’t read The Skeletons of Birkbury first. And Voila! Due to the wonders of the internet and kind authors, I have a new review for you…

This is one of those times where I’m just going to say we really shouldn’t judge the book by it’s cover. I mean look at the skeleton hand tree- that’s creepy and weird right? I didn’t even notice it at first glance. I just thought it was a really weird tree, but no, it’s a creepy weird tree. But I have great news for those of us who spend the Halloween season looking at our toes to avoid having to look at creepy weird decorations.

This book is neither creepy or weird.

In fact because it was so non-creepy, and quite the opposite of weird, I would say that you really should read it.

Once again Febry has written a story with enough suspense and drama that it will cause you to hold up your hand to your husband saying “Shhh- just hold on a second” while you finish a section. And, once again, she has done it with fascinating characters and investigations rather than insane murderers and gory scenes.

Would I recommend it? Yes, the book is completely lacking in skeleton hand trees and instead packed with a web of fantastic people and what makes them tick. Once again- my kind of mystery!

(If we are going to be all technical about things this book comes before Bells on her Toes so my “Once again…”‘s should have said something like, “Before she wrote that other really great book that I read first, she wrote this one which I should have read first and…” But that was too wordy – even for me. )

This honest review was given in return for a free copy of the book from its author.

The Divergent Series by Veronica Roth

Jan22

When I read Divergent I could understand why the books have gained such a following. But I also knew that while I enjoyed both the characters and the writing, I didn’t love the plot. No, actually it wasn’t the plot, it was the gimmick that was the crux of the plot. No… Awww heck. I try not to ever give much for details on a book but I give up. It was the serum induced sleepwalking, zombie soldier thing. I’m just not into mass serum induced invasions. There wasn’t necessarily anything wrong with it, it’s just not my thing. Maybe you’re cool with sleepwalking soldiers, and in that case I think you’ll probably really enjoy the book.

When I read Insurgent I had come to terms with the whole, we inject people with serums to get them to do crazy stuff, thing and thoroughly enjoyed the story.

Then I read Allegiant and found I was wearing cranky pants.

Because, suddenly, in the third book, we’ve introduced chapters from a second point of view. So, already I feel like perhaps this is a precursor to a plot twist that wasn’t thought out very well. Why now? Why wasn’t this alternate view scattered throughout the series? Then I read more and became glad it was contained in the last book. Because adding it in was irritating and odd but what was awful was that the two characters didn’t have distinct “voices.”

I love switching between points of view in a novel. I love “hearing” the inner workings of a new mind, getting new views, more insights. This was more like getting new eyes on the same mind. To the point where if there wasn’t enough character dialogue with names involved, I’d have to recheck who was narrating. After flying through the first two books in days, I found this maddening to the point that it took me over a week to read the third book!

And the plot, which I had respected but hadn’t loved (it’s just that serum thing…), got… loose? Thin? Stretched? Simplified?

The world blossomed in Allegiant! The last book opened up back stories, future possibilities, more characters and character insights, it pushed characters to their limits and it filled in blanks from the first books but, judging by the first two books, I don’t think the author did it the justice that she could have.

It was disappointing.

Would I recommend it? No! Because the last one was so annoying it ruined everything!

Wait.

Hold on.

Let me just give these cranky pants back to my brother (they are obviously his) and think on this some more.

…

I think that if you’re ok with serum induced, sleepwalking, zombie soldiers you should for sure read the first two. I really liked the characters and watching what happened to them as their world pushed them. And then, because you can’t just leave it hanging, you should take a big breath, brace yourself, focus on the people and how they react under pressure and read the last one.

But don’t say I didn’t warn you.