The Back Door of Midnight, by Elizabeth Chandler

I am not a fan of ghost stories but I manage to make exceptions when it comes to Elizabeth Chandler's books. Don't ask me why though; I'm still in the middle of figuring that out. This book followed the mold that Elizabeth Chandler's books usually fit into but knowing the mold is there gives me faith that I won't have nightmares that night. I don't make sense. Anyway, the mold that I'm talking about is how in the ghosts' lifetimes there was some scandal or tragedy and now they want revenge and the main character, a girl who is put into a situation she isn't accustomed to (usually she's visiting) must figure it all out, the boy next door who knows something, the mean girl who also knows something and either is suspected the whole time only to come out innocent or vice versa, the crazy person, the old person who knows all the secrets. Now that I think about it, Elizabeth Chandler is very predictable. And when it comes to scary stuff, I like predictable.

In this story, Anna is returning to her birth great aunt and uncle's home. When she arrives, she finds out that her great uncle is dead and now she must live with her crazy aunt while she figures out who murdered him. The boy next door is Zack who doesn't have much of a personality. Anna has clues flying at her from every direction pointing at a whole bunch of different suspects and thinks someone else is guilty on every other page.

All in all, it was a pretty good book. The story tied together nicely with all the loose ends tied together in neat little bows. Some of the bows were sad but after all, this is a ghost story. I'm getting bored so I'm going to stop now.

4 stars. I go with my gut.

I love the colors.

A Matter of Magic, by Patricia C. Wrede

One of the most ingenious authors ever, Patricia C. Wrede never ceases to dazzle me with her wild imagination that somehow makes sense. A Matter of Magic is two books put together: Mairelon the Magician, and its sequel, The Magician's Ward. In these two books, Wrede manages to stick magic into Regency England in such a natural way that in history class you might comment about the magicians' effect on the government. That would actually be quite funny. For everyone else, that is.

In Mairelon the Magician, Kim, a pickpocket on the streets of London, is taken in by Mairelon, a traveling magician who is a lot more than just a traveling magician. They go on an adventure to find a special magic dish. Sorry, but I can't describe it any better without giving something vital away. The Magician's Ward is the sequel which I also obviously can't talk about without ruining. But if you think a little you might be able to figure out what it's about.

Even if I tried, I couldn't describe to you just how delightful this book was. I read it a month ago (I didn't blog about it for a month because I was in a land far far far away from computers, internet, good showers, and working toilets although I don't know what the last two had to do with anything) and am still smiling when I think about it even though I only remember the basic plotline. The beginning is a little bit boring but I am recommending that you stick to it like I did. Trust me. It'll be worth it.

4.8 stars. As I mentioned before, the beginning was a bit boring.

Gorgeous dress, isn't it?

The Vampire Is Just Not That Into You, by Vlad Mezrich

This is an entire book making fun of Twilight and the entire vampire-human romance genre. At the end Vlad is basically telling you not to go for a relationship with the undead because he'll probably kill you. It was short, but I was laughing at every line. Nothing much else to say but I loved it.

5 stars



My Unfair Godmother, by Janette Rallison

There should be a law that everyone has to read this book. That is how good this book was. It was funny, fantasy, romantic, witty, and even a little sad which rounded out the book very nicely. And let me say-I am ready to jump into the Hudson River.

This is a kinda sequel to My Fair Godmother, but you don't have to read that first. Chrissy is in both books but the actual stories have nothing to do with each other. The beginning of the book is depressing, talking about Tansy's parents' divorce and how everyone abandoned her and they ship her around as if she's a burden. Seriously, give the girl some love!! So, you're sitting there and thinking "poor Tansy-her situation couldn't be any worse" and then her idiot bad boy boyfriend graffitis and has Tansy take the blame. At the precinct she meets the annoying-yet-hot police chief's son, Hudson. (Now you get what I was saying before.) Then she goes home and her fairy godmother shows up. Chrysanthemum Everstar is a very good fairy godmother name, don't you think? Well, she's actually only a fair godmother because she hasn't gone to Fairy Godmother University and she has a talent for messing up wishes. Tansy (who doesn't read novels, in order to annoy her librarian father) wishes Robin Hood were there because he always fixed things. Then he's there and causes trouble. Then Tansy and her family are transported into the Middle Ages to the Rumpelstilskin story. Everything is flying and together with all that are all these funny references to our time. I love Tansy. I love Hudson. And my favorite character is Stetson. But I'm not telling you who Stetson is, ha ha ha ha ha.

5 stars. Read it. Or else

love the cover, don't you?

City of Fallen Angels, by Cassandra Clare

Really I shouldn't be commenting on this book because I didn't finish it but this is a warning to all you out there. Don't read it. If you read the 3 books before it, great. If you didn't you should check them out-they're pretty good. But when you write a trilogy you can't just stick on another book after the happily ever after. That defeats the point of the happily ever after. Which is why I stopped after 20 pages of the perfect ending being ruined. I liked this series. Now I don't.

Just Listen, by Sarah Dessen

I am not a Sarah Dessen person. I have friends who practically swear by her books but after getting majorly turned off by a pregnant teenager and her morbid (or is she boring? I don't remember.) best friend I didn't read any more of her books. This is the 3rd one I've read recently and I cannot explain why I keep coming back. The books are all identical. All of them have a main character with no personality, a boy who is either bad or has a damaged past or both, at least one, usually two or three, life altering things in the past and present, and a mundane everyday object given way too much significance. Here it was music. And modeling.

All I knew about the book before I started was that Annabel and her best friend are in a fight and Annabel isn't saying what happened and is ostracizing herself instead. She's a model; her sister has an eating disorder; she becomes friends with a guy named Owen who is music obsessed. He's not even obsessed with good music--no, he listens to obscure stuff that can't even be called music over all the noise. And he's a snob about it too, thinking that he is "enlightened" (her word, not mine) and so is anyone who agrees with him. Annabel is also infuriating because whenever someone is upset with her or she gets in a fight she runs away and ignores that person. So they're mad at her for the fight and get even madder because she hates confrontation and never approaches them again and they see her avoiding them as a mean, purposeful thing. I want to shake her really hard. I like Owen better. He knows how to get angry. Angry people are a lot more interesting than people who literally run away. The book should have been about him.

I can't say anything else without giving it away so I'll say what I can. I don't like Sophie. I like Emily. I like Clarke. Rolly and Mallory are comic relief. Don't underestimate Kirsten and Whitney. As a sister, I sympathized with all the sister problem and was very proud of them at the end of the book.

4 stars. For some reason, I couldn't put it down.



Skinned, by Robin Wasserman

This book looked awesomely fantastically cool. Then I read it. The front flap said it was about some girl, Lia, who practically dies so then her brain is transplanted into a robot body and now she is going to live forever as a robot. But all the robot people are shunned by society because they're kind of creepy so now Lia loses her perfect life (boo hoo) and must learn to live on the fringes of society. Sounds cool, doesn't it? I was expecting some sort of evil scientist, or a plot somewhat resembling Meg Cabot's Airhead series (where a girl has a brain transplant into a supermodel's body). But nope-it was nothing like that.

Lia has a perfect life. She's rich, gorgeous, popular, and has a hot boyfriend. Then she's in a car accident and becomes a robot. I wanted, as mentioned above, a few conspirators to be the perpitrators (I spelled that wrong) but alas (I use that word a lot. I also use parentheses a lot.), instead of being a cool scifi thriller, it's about a girl finding out who she really is. The book is actually pretty deep when it comes to that. Lia has to discover who she really is once she loses everything: she can't define herself by her looks because they aren't really hers anymore, she can't define herself by her family or friends or boyfriend because no one likes her anymore. So who is Lia? (I love that name. Sorry, had to let it out. But now I will try to not use any more parentheses on this post.)

This book contained one of my favorite and least favorite qualities that can be found in a book. It made me think. One thing that bothered me and made me laugh was how the book takes place at least 100 years in the future. {People aren't really becoming robots nowadays. And these technically aren't parentheses.} What is even funnier is how the author talks about how we destroyed the world. Scott Westerfeld also talked about that in his Uglies series. So all my millions of readers, remember our destiny. We must not destroy the world so that the perverted societies of Skinned and Uglies never exist. It's also entertaining when you realize that the parts talking about us are a plea from the author to be green.

Another thought provoking topic was the whole genetics thing. In the future, when having a child, there is some screening process which tests for just about every disease and if the parents pay extra they can also have a kid with higher IQ or specific looks. For example, Lia's parents paid extra for Lia and her sister to both be smarter with blond hair and blue eyes. Robin Wasserman manages to make this an integral part of society without giving many details about it so I don't even know if this is done before the child is conceived or while the mom is pregnant. All you know is that parents can make their kids.

A third thing is that the robot people, called skinners, live forever. The robot body lasts around 50 years, then they just get a new one. Everyone is jealous that these kids-because only teenagers become skinners-will live forever and never age. What they don't realize is that these kids don't live amazing lives. They are shunned by society, don't have normal senses and feeling in their bodies, and will watch all their loved ones die. So tell me now-do you really want to live forever?

Another thing-yes, another-is about the skinners being considered not human. They aren't full citizens with full rights and some of them would die if given the choice. Many are forced into that state, including Lia, and now must suffer for their parents' selfish choice. The parents couldn't bear to lose their child so instead gave the kid a miserable eternal life. Selfish, purely selfish.

3.2 stars. Did anyone notice that I used ---- instead of parentheses? There is no way to defeat the little parentheses monster in my head. Mwa ha ha ha ha.

Confession: I didn't read it because I liked the inside cover. I read it because I like the picture on the front.