Adelaide and the Dragon Castle has a lot of my favorite things in YA fantasy–great characters, coming of age, dragons.I love the way Adelaide finds her own solutions in a world that glorifies violence. And I love that these solutions don’t come instantly, but take some trial and error.I’m not…
This is book 2 in The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, and it’s every bit as good as Cinder. The story continues, with great new characters taking center stage. I love Scarlet’s loyalty and tenacity and Wolf’s fight to hang onto the good parts of his humanity. Thorne is fun,…
I found this, strangely enough, when I was researching ways to format text messages in a book. (If you’re stressing about that, btw, this book does it seamlessly.)In the process of looking at the formatting, I got hooked on the story. Then I had to read the whole thing.Find Layla…
My fourteen-year old has been begging me to read this one for at least a year now–and it’s spectacular. I love the world-building. Everything from Cinder’s cyborg parts to her stall in the market is shown in beautiful detail that makes the story come alive. And, of course, fairy-tale retellings…
I enjoyed this fun, romantic YA, though it reminded me a bit more of Groundhog’s Day than I would prefer. (Yeah, I was never that fond of that movie.)Still, Jack is a great character, and I love how he grows throughout this book, figuring out what is important to him.Kate…
Charlie’s not like Coco.So, when everything seems to be going wrong, she’s determined not to be a drama queen. But keeping all her frustrations inside turns out to be a less than perfect plan.I like how Charlie insists on being herself, and love how she comes to evaluate what’s most…
In Love and Muddy Puddles, I don’t quite relate to Coco Franks’s quest to be popular, but I totally get what it’s like to have your parents tell you you’re moving away from the life you know, and your feelings about it don’t matter.Of course, my parents never moved me…
Such a good book–and if I found myself a bit disappointed in the end, it’s only because the rest of the book was so astonishingly intense. For hours, I lived in the mind of Sara Louise Bradshaw, a girl growing up in the shadow of her beautiful and talented twin–feeling…
I admit that I read this because (a) it was on lots of bestseller lists and (b) I liked the dress on the girls on the cover. I mean, I wouldn’t wear it, but it looked cool.The story was as beautiful as the dress, with a great, spunky main character…
This is a story about Deanna, a small town girl whose dad caught her in the back seat of an older boy’s car three years prior to the story’s start. Her life (mostly unfairly) has been defined by that moment ever since, but this is the summer where she begins…
This book immersed me in a world of cold and ice, where devious politics threatened to overwhelm me–and the androgyny of the people seemed among the most normal things about them.As Le Guin says in her introduction,Yes, indeed the people in it are androgynous, but that doesn’t mean that I’m…
This Cinderella retelling by Demelza Carlton has an Asian setting and a warrior-trained girl as the main character. Mai manages to be humble and confident at the same time, a difficult, but believable mix in this environment. I enjoyed her story very much.
Does my Head Look Big in This is a frequently funny, occasionally poignant story about an Arab-Australian teenager who decides she’s going to start wearing the hijab full-time (including to her private school.)It dives right into serious issues without making them seem at all heavy (faith, women’s rights, cross-cultural communication,…
Dragon of Ash and Stars was a Bookbub title I picked up for free, but it was worth so much more than the nonexistent price I paid. This is one of only a couple of ebook titles I’ve read that I may try to obtain in actual paper (the others…
I enjoyed The Mind Readers, which dips into the life of a young woman who can tell what everyone around her is thinking. I did find myself wondering why her grandma didn't prepare her better for the world she was getting into, and why she was so quick to trust…
Mandy, the heroine in this book, manages to work through an overwhelming burden of grief and guilt without that burden overwhelming the reader–or becoming trivialized. Granted, she’s got magical help, but still, it’s an impressive feat.I’ll definitely be picking up more of Shawn Mcguire’s books in the future.
Trickster's Girl was another gift from the RMFW conference. This was well written and engaging. I enjoyed Ms. Bell’s Goblin War piece more, but I suspect that has less to do with the books themselves and more to do with my own preference for straight up fantasy than for Native-American-religion-tinged…
An Acceptable Time is a nice enough story about Polly, one of Meg and Calvin's kids. But, it doesn't have quite the magic of A Wrinkle in Time or the other books in that series. I'm not entirely sure what makes the difference. It might be that the science is…
As I’ve probably mentioned before, one of the great things about RMFW conferences is the number of books we get in the swag bag. I love, love, love going home with enough to keep me busy–for a bit anyway.The Goblin War is one of these. I certainly never would have…
I thoroughly enjoyed this, though I must admit I found it less satisfying than the original seven. The story line is great; it's lovely to get to know some of these characters as adults, and I'm interested all the way through. However, I miss the inimitable style (and punny humor)…
I pre-ordered this book months ago when I first heard it was coming out in part because I’ve met Emily France, and she’s lovely, but mostly because I had seen or heard just a bit of the story at some RMFW event and was longing to read the rest. It…
My kids and I have been reading through the Harry Potters together for several months, and have just finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. We started this set because the kids are getting pressure from classmates to read and discuss the books, but I don’t want my…
Savvy is a fun little book by Ingrid Law. I enjoyed every minute--from meeting Mibs Beaumont and her unusual family all the way through to the semi-sweet (my favorite kind) finish. In the middle, I also loved seeing the crisis that befalls them and the swashbuckling adventure Mibs undertakes to…