Spoiled, by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan

On her deathbed, Molly's mom reveals the truth about Molly's father-that he's none other than Brick Berlin, the famous Hollywood actor. Suddenly, Molly is plucked from Indiana obscurity and flown off to live with her dad and sister Brooke in the land of the rich, blonde, and tan. Brooke is not happy with the arrival of the other Berlin girl. The paparazzi is more interested in Molly now than they were in Brooke as far back as she can remember, and Brooke's workaholic dad cares more about making up for lost time with Molly than he ever did for his non-absentee daughter. Brooke wants everything to go back to normal, and is willing to do anything to get it there.

I heard of this book through the authors' fashion blog, Go Fug Yourself (look it up!), and was thrilled to find out there were two entire books of their witty and hilarious writing. Ironically, that was what I disliked most about the book. While short little paragraphs on their blog are smart and funny, it didn't translate well to the book format, where their tendency to ramble got annoying rather than hysterical.

What kept bothering me throughout the novel was Brooke's mistreatment of Molly. It's bad enough that she's acting completely horrible towards her sister, but the fact that Molly's mom just died makes Brooke's actions absolutely deplorable. She couldn't care less about Molly's feelings and made it all about her own emotions, even though she's been feeling those feelings for years and years already while Molly's mother died only about a week before. I understand why Brooke is portrayed this way but her epic levels of meanness earlier in the book prevented me from buying into her repentant act later in the book.

The McCormack siblings were by far my favorite part of the book. Max provided the sarcasm that everyone reading the novel was thinking and did it with the perfect amount of snark. Teddy was, of course, the romantic part of the story and my only disappointment there was the lack of focus on it throughout the story and then an ending for him and Molly that could really go in any direction.

3.9 stars.
 
Sixteen-year-old Molly Dix has just discovered that her biological father is Brick Berlin, world-famous movie star and red-carpet regular. Intrigued (and a little) terrified by her Hollywood lineage, Molly moves to Los Angeles and plunges headfirst into the deep of Beverly Hills celebrity life. Just as Molly thinks her life couldn't get any stranger, she meets Brooke Berlin, her gorgeous, spoiled half sister, who welcomes Molly to la-la land with a smothering dose "sisterly love"...but in this town, nothing is ever what it seems.

Set against a world of Redbull-fuelled stylists, tiny tanned girls, popped-collar guys, and Blackberry-wielding publicists, Spoiled is a sparkling debut from the writers behind the viciously funny celebrity blog GoFugYourself.com.

Abandon, by Elana Johnson (Possession #3)

 Please note that this review contains spoilers for the first two books in this series, Possession and Surrender.

In the finale to one of the most confusing series ever, the rebellion is finally ready to take action and overthrow the mind-controlling government once and for all. The supernaturally gifted teenagers leading the rebellion are faced with the hardest decisions they've ever had to make, involving war, the moralities of their powers, and their hearts. Vi chose Jag already so that love triangle is over, but Zenn is still in love with Vi and has to take orders from the boy she loves. As the rebellion comes to a climax, loyalties are tested and there is too much flip-flopping between sides for me to recount it here.

This book was way too long. In some cases I'm thrilled when the final book of a series is 464 pages long, and when I'm done I'm salivating for more, but in this case it was just too much. Halfway through I was so bored but yet desperate to know the end that I read the last chapter before returning to where I was up to. The ending was just enough motivation to get me through, as it finished the series off on the right note, though I will warn prospective readers that it was bittersweet. If you're looking for rainbows and unicorns you should put this book down.

There were so many gifts and talents and combinations of them amongst the characters that I lost track of who could do what pretty quickly. The fact that nothing was ever explained did not help with this confusion, and after a while I just assumed that everyone could do everything because it was so misleading. I also didn't understand half of what was happening when each character used their powers because I was so unsure of what their powers actually were.

Before I go, I have a question to ask you which has been bothering me. If there are adults involved in the rebellion, why is Jag, a teenage boy, the leader? He's been the leader for years which means he probably took over when he was around 14 or 15, and if I was part of this rebellion there is absolutely no way I would trust a boy in the middle of puberty. Why did the adults listen to him in the first place? Did he use his voice on them? Because that's a very long ruse to keep up if he's going to keep using his voice to get them to listen to him, and they'd have probably figured it out eventually. For now I will be content that the answer is that the author wanted Vi's love interest to be the leader of the rebellion, but if anyone has a better answer please supply it.

3. 6 stars

seduced by power,
broken by control,
and consumed by love...

Vi has made her choice between Jag and Zenn, and the Resistance may have suffered for it. But with the Thinkers as strong as ever, the rebels still have a job to do. Vi knows better than anyone that there's more at stake than a few broken hearts.

But there is a traitor among them...and the choices he makes could lead to the total destruction of everything Vi has fought for.

Vi, Jag, and Zenn must set their problems aside for the Resistance to have any hope of ending the Thinkers' reign. Their success means everything...and their failure means death

Towering, by Alex Flinn

Almost as far back as she can remember, Rachel has been locked in a tower for her protection. Her Mama tells her that she must stay hidden from the bad man who killed her mother and wants to kill her as well. However, lately Rachel has been having dreams of a mysterious man and as her hair grows longer, Rachel sings out her window and longs for someone to hear her and release her from her prison. Wyatt has been shipped to a tiny town in upstate New York for the rest of the school year and is living with a little old lady whose daughter used to be his mom's best friend. As he settles in, Wyatt starts hearing a haunting voice singing that no one else can hear, and when he investigates he finds a beautiful girl who has been locked in a tower for almost her entire life. The two of them team up and hope to free Rachel from her tower once and for all.

I absolutely love Alex Flinn's other fairy tale retellings. Beastly and A Kiss in Time are two of my favorite books ever, and I was very excited to read Towering. However, Towering had a very different feel to it than the others. Perhaps it was the the plot involving drug lords rather than princesses, but the overall tone of this novel was a lot darker than the others. This is only a negative point because I expected a colorful adventure like the ones in all the other books, but instead found this one a dull gray. The story was also told a bit too slowly, and I had to push myself to get through at least half the book before I actually wanted to open it up and devour it.

***SPOILERS AHEAD***
One problem I always had with the story of Rapunzel, especially the Disney version, is the Rapunzel has no problem killing the woman who raised her. Yes, she was evil and kept her locked up for all those years, but she never did her any physical harm and Rapunzel was taken away young enough to not remember anything better. Therefore, without taking into account the moral compass of the witch, Rapunzel killing the witch is not an act of a hero conquering a villain, but of someone turning her back on the woman who rose her. Rapunzel killing the witch may have turned out okay because the witch was evil, but imagining Rapunzel as pure and good is projecting the third-person perspective of the story onto Rapunzel, who doesn't know that the witch is evil until she falls for a stranger who climbs through her window and he tells her so. This monologue brings me to my point, which is that finally the captor is not the evil one. It was a relief to have the villain be someone else entirely with Mama being entirely innocent, and it let Rachel be a true heroine. 

3.6 stars
 
At first, I merely saw his face, his hands on the window ledge. Then, his whole body as he swung himself through the window. Only I could not see what he swung on.
Until, one day, I told my dream self to look down. And it was then that I saw. He had climbed on a rope. I knew without asking that the rope had been one of my own tying.
Rachel is trapped in a tower, held hostage by a woman she’s always called Mama. Her golden hair is growing rapidly, and to pass the time, she watches the snow fall and sings songs from her childhood, hoping someone, anyone, will hear her.

Wyatt needs time to reflect or, better yet, forget about what happened to his best friend, Tyler. That’s why he’s been shipped off to the Adirondacks in the dead of winter to live with the oldest lady in town. Either that, or no one he knows ever wants to see him again.

Dani disappeared seventeen years ago without a trace, but she left behind a journal that’s never been read, not even by her overbearing mother…until now.

The Body Finder, by Kimberly Derting

Since she was little, Violet has been able to detect the corpses of murdered people and animals and connect them to their killers. This strange and disturbing talent goes much ignored for many years, until Violet finds a dead girl's body swimming with the fishes while Violet is at a beach party. Soon after, other girls start going missing, and while Violet is on the hunt for the serial killer with her police chief uncle, she knows that she herself can become a target as well. And of course, there's some romance going on between Violet and her best friend, Jay, but it's very corny and I'll get to that soon.

Even though I don't like mysteries, I did like the supernatural twist and I thought the plot was interesting. However, I also felt that the prose was a little too juvenile for me. I wasn't too impressed by the prose in The Pledge, but that book had so much plot that I wasn't disappointed by the immature prose. The sense of immaturity was only furthered by the simplicity of the romance. Violet suddenly has a crush on her best friend when he turns all hot, and when they get together (not a spoiler because totally inevitable) it happens in a snap with only a few pages of discomfort. Life doesn't happen that way, and the assumption that it does did not mesh well with the maturity of the serial killer plot.

I have no plans of reading the sequels to this book, but I will say that it is not a horrible book and I would recommend it to any young teenagers who love mysteries.

3.3 stars.

Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes that the dead leave behind in the world... and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find the dead birds her cat had tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer... and becoming his prey herself.

The Fire Rose, by Mercedes Lackey (Elemental Masters #1)

After her father loses all of their money in a Ponzi-like scheme and dies shortly after, Rose is left completely destitute with nowhere to go. So when Jason Cameron, a railroad baron and secret sorcerer, offers her a position as a governess, she has no choice but to accept. Upon arrival in his manor, she discovers that her students are not two precocious children, as she was first informed, but her new boss himself. Due to a magical mistake, Jason is half-wolf, and he has hired Rose to help him with his research. However, every powerful man has enemies, and Jason's enemy, who already has the creepy steward on his side, wants to win Rose over to aid in Jason's downfall. However, Rose is nothing like the demure insipid woman the two sexists imagine her to be and are faced with a lot more than they bargained for when Rose starts training to become an elemental master in her own right.

I found this modern telling of Beauty and the Beast a tad disturbing. The romance and plot was cute, but the fact that he was still a wolf at the end made my stomach churn a bit. I understand the whole concept of looking at the inside and not the outside, but I think this book took it a little too far.

I haven't read many of Mercedes Lackey's books, but from what I've noticed, every heroine is strong, confident, entirely too sensible, and exactly the same. They all manage to be so sure of themselves that it comes off as cocky. They all think straight in completely crazy situations that make any normal person go nuts. But what I dislike the most about them, is that they seem to split people into two categories: people they like and people they don't. This wouldn't even bother me so much if it weren't for the qualifications that they use to judge, because it seems like they deem someone unworthy if they aren't as smart or sensible as the heroine herself, and she is always very smart and very sensible. They also give me the impression that they think they're better than everyone else, and that they are the only sane people around, save for one or two specific people. Maybe I'm magnifying my own slight observations and extending them to all the other heroines, but even their most staunch supporters have to admit that these girls are a bit judgy.

3.8 stars.
 

San Francisco, 1905: Rosalind, a medieval scholar, is hired by Jason, a powerful sorcerer. Jason's enemy offers to restore Rosalind's family fortune if she will betray Jason. And then the earthquake strikes. . . .

Sweet Venom, by Tera Lynn Childs (Medusa Girls #1)

On a night out with her brother and his new (hot) friend, Grace starts seeing monsters everywhere. Then a girl who looks just like her heaves her over her shoulder and out of the club. Gretchen was shocked to find someone else who could see the monsters, and even more shocked to find her long lost sister. After joining forces, the two sisters find out that they weren't twins-they were triplets. However, Greer loves her life and has no interest in joining the monster-fighting gang with her sisters. Monsters are starting to appear in multitudes in San Francisco and the sisters need to do something about it-but will Greer step up?

My summary is nothing like the publisher's. From their summary I expected the triplets to find each other in the first 3 chapters and move on from there, but it took half the book for Grace and Gretchen to meet and Greer didn't make her entrance until almost 3/4 way through. Instead of being about descendents of Medusa fighting monsters, this book was about three sisters finding each other and living their normal lives. The events in Sweet Venom could have happened in a third of the space and words, but if I like the next book, then I'll acknowledge Sweet Venom as a good introduction.

I'm a huge fan of the Percy Jackson books, but I have one friend who refused to read them because she claimed that they would totally contradict Greek mythology. I have to say, I totally disagree with her about Rick Riordan's books because if anything, I think they extend Greek mythology into our century. However, I think what she said about those books can be perfectly applied here. Not only was there a whole thing about Medusa being good and Athena being bad, but they didn't even give the Medusa girls snake hair!! This story would have been much better had there still been long lost triplets with magical monster fighting powers, without any mention of Greek mythology.

What annoyed me about the girls was how they each took their stereotypes to the extreme. Grace was sweet and bubbly the entire time, Gretchen was strong and hard with a little bit of softie for Grace, and Greer was the snooty rich girl. They had nothing else to them and it got very irritating.

3.6 stars. Maybe the sequel will redeem it?

Grace just moved to San Francisco and is excited to start over at a new school. The change is full of fresh possibilities, but it’s also a tiny bit scary. It gets scarier when a minotaur walks in the door. And even more shocking when a girl who looks just like her shows up to fight the monster.

Gretchen is tired of monsters pulling her out into the wee hours, especially on a school night, but what can she do? Sending the minotaur back to his bleak home is just another notch on her combat belt. She never expected to run into this girl who could be her double, though.

Greer has her life pretty well put together, thank you very much. But that all tilts sideways when two girls who look eerily like her appear on her doorstep and claim they're triplets, supernatural descendants of some hideous creature from Greek myth, destined to spend their lives hunting monsters.

These three teenage descendants of Medusa, the once-beautiful gorgon maligned by myth, must reunite and embrace their fates in this unique paranormal world where monsters lurk in plain sight.

Foretold: 14 Tales of Prophecy and Prediction, edited by Carrie Ryan

The ideas connecting all the stories in this book was fascinating. Each author took the topic of prophecy and prediction and interpreted it completely differently. It was cool to read all the different takes and twists on this one topic, especially because none of them were as generic as I expected.

Gentlemen Send Phantoms, by Laini Taylor: I loved this story so much that it inspired me to read Laini Taylor's novels. It was light and sweet with hints of fantasy but with the uncertainty if whether what you're reading is fantasy at all.

Burned Bright, by Diana Peterfreund: Diana Peterfreund is one of my favorite authors and I found out about her when I read her short story in "Zombies and Unicorns". This story was absolutely fascinating. The twist at the end reminded me of the O'Henry stories I had to read in 8th grade, the ones with the shocking endings. After reading the last line of this story my jaw dropped and it took about five minutes for me to get it shut. It was totally unlike the killer unicorn or the Secret Society Girl books, which was quite unexpected and shows great talent on the author's part that she could write in such different styles.

The Angriest Man, by Lisa McMann: This story kind of scared me. I'm not sure how literally I was supposed to take it but I'm not much of a fan of symbolism so if there was any, I didn't get it. This take on prediction was one of self-fulfilled prophecy and for some reason I just thought of the movie "Megamind" in that everyone expects the main character to be bad. Don't be mistaken though-this story is NOTHING like Megamind.

Out of the Blue, by Meg Cabot: Cute, but typical Meg Cabot. One of my favorite stories in the book.

One True Love, by Malinda Lo: The only way I can describe this story is lesbian Oedipus Rex. But I think that was the point of the story.

This is a Mortal Wound, by Michael Grant: Very very interesting but I couldn't figure out how this story connected with prophecy and prediction.

Misery, by Heather Brewer: Fascinating and introspective. I didn't particularly enjoy it, but I did appreciate it.

The Mind is a Powerful Thing, by Matt de la Pena: Another story of self-fulfilled prophecy, just this time with a paranoid girl who thinks the world is out to get her.

The Chosen One, by Saundra Mitchell: Sweet and strong. A more classic take on the whole prophecy idea, but the main character was full of spunk.

Improbable Futures, by Kami Garcia: Not a particularly unique story, but definitely good. I wasn't a huge fan of Beautiful Creatures so I wasn't looking forward to reading this story or the next one, but this story was a lot darker than I realized. This story is about a fake fortune teller who realizes that everything she is predicting starts coming true.

Death for the Deathless, by Margaret Stohl: This story was the first that had a prediction loop which makes you question what comes first. I liked a few of the other stories, but this one was definitely my number one favorite. I was shocked when I looked at the author's name and realized that I thought her other books were stupid.

Fate, by Simone Elkeles: This story had no fantasy involved but was just a short contemporary romance. Another goodie.

The Killing Garden, by Carrie Ryan: This story was nasty. The concept was messed up and made me cringe multiple times. I felt bad for the main character for not realizing the truth behind her father's words until the end, but the end of the story was okay.

Homecoming, by Richelle Mead: To anyone who hasn't read the Vampire Academy books, this story will seem out of place and won't be fully understood. To anyone who has, it's nice to read about Dimitri's reunion with his family.

3.6 stars.

 Have you ever been tempted to look into the future? To challenge predictions? To question fate? It's human nature to wonder about life's twists and turns. But is the future already written—or do you have the power to alter it?

From fantastical prophecies to predictions of how the future will transpire, Foretold is a collection of stories about our universal fascination with life's unknowns and of what is yet to come as interpreted by 14 of young adult fiction's brightest stars.

Every Day, by David Levithan

A is a wandering soul, waking up every morning in a different person's body. Sometimes A tries to do right by A's host; sometimes A spends the day hiding away so as not to ruin the host's life. Then A meets Rhiannon. While spending the day in her boyfriend Justin's body, A has the time of A's life with Rhiannon and falls deeply for her immediately. Unable to let go, A spends the next couple of days doing anything A can to be close to her. Finally, after years of emotional detachment, A has something A actually wants to live for-a reason to keep on being. Can A conquer who A really is and be with Rhiannon? Or is A doomed to live the rest of A's life without the woman A loves?

The number one thing I look for in books is a concept that I've never heard of or thought of before-one that blows my mind with its originality. I found that in Mothership and I found it in an extremely different way in Every Day. At first the concept of switching bodies and taking over for a day made me extremely uncomfortable, but once I got accustomed to it it was interesting to hear the author's take on what it is like in the minds of different people. I was especially struck by the day A spent in the obese teen. A is bodiless, so to read A's perspective of what it was like in Finn's body was incredible and almost made me cry.

For anyone who wondered at my lack of pronouns in the first paragraph, it was because A doesn't have one. A's pronoun in the book depended on the body A was in for the day. It was cool to have a character who doesn't associate with a particular gender and only determines the difference between males and females as anatomy and hormones. It creeped me out at first but once I got used to it I found it almost inspiring.

The ending of this book was perfect. It didn't destroy the purposes of the characters and it left me with a satisfying feeling. However, what I really felt when I finished Every Day was the big lesson of the book: make every day count. After A leaves the body of the day's host, the host doesn't realize what had just happened to him/her. The missing day is just a blur in the host's memory. While reading about this I contemplated whether I would fall for that or not, and I sadly realized that I probably would. Every Day taught me that every single day is a gift and I should appreciate every second of it.

3.7 stars.

Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.

There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.

It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.

Midnight in Austenland, by Shannon Hale

Charlotte is in desperate need for a vacation. After her husband leaves her for a younger woman, taking some of Charlotte's self-made fortune with him, Charlotte decides she needs to leave her life for a few days. The search for the perfect getaway leads her to Austenland, a place where time is turned back a few centuries and the guests experience life Jane Austen-style. However, life in Pembrook Park is not as simple as Charlotte expected it to be. After finding a dead body in the attic Charlotte is determined to find the murderer, which is very hard to do in a place where the line between reality and make-believe is so blurred. In order to solve the mystery Charlotte must sift through the 18th century facade and find remnants of today's truths. (That last phrase doesn't quite make sense but I like it so I'm leaving it.)

I am not a fan of mysteries. I can handle many genres of fiction, but mysteries seem kind of pointless to me. What's the point of reading through an entire novel of suspense is you can just turn to the last page to find out who did it? It is this attitude that led to my disinterest in Midnight in Austenland. I was severely tempted to close the book permanently many times and I only persevered because I enjoyed Shannon Hale's young adult novels (Goose Girl, Princess Academy, and their sequels). However, after completing Midnight, I have come to the conclusion that I do not like Shannon Hale's adult books. I didn't like Austenland and I didn't like Midnight in Austenland, so from now on I am going to stick to Hale's YA novels.

Midnight started out extremely slow, and not only because of my lack of interest. I tried very hard not to skim and was somewhat successful. In my defense, I skimmed the boring parts and then skipped to the end. When I decided I liked the epilogue, I went back to where I left off and continued reading.

I liked the scenes where Charlotte showed her mom side, but what I didn't like was the impression that her kids didn't love her. She was so insecure about her children's love and that they would love their new stepmom more than they love her that it became a reality in my mind. It wasn't until the end that I saw something resembling a real relationship between her and her kids. Her insecurities were valid, but she took them a little too far.

I would recommend Midnight in Austenland to anyone who has ever wished they could stick themselves in the 18th century for a few days or someone who enjoys mysteries with a twist.

3.1 stars.

When Charlotte Kinder treats herself to a two-week vacation at Austenland, she happily leaves behind her ex-husband and his delightful new wife, her ever-grateful children, and all the rest of her real life in America. She dons a bonnet and stays at a country manor house that provides an immersive Austen experience, complete with gentleman actors who cater to the guests' Austen fantasies.

Everyone at Pembrook Park is playing a role, but increasingly, Charlotte isn't sure where roles end and reality begins. And as the parlor games turn a little bit menacing, she finds she needs more than a good corset to keep herself safe. Is the brooding Mr. Mallery as sinister as he seems? What is Miss Gardenside's mysterious ailment? Was that an actual dead body in the secret attic room? And-perhaps of the most lasting importance-could the stirrings in Charlotte's heart be a sign of real-life love?

The follow-up to reader favorite Austenland provides the same perfectly plotted pleasures, with a feisty new heroine, plenty of fresh and frightening twists, and the possibility of a romance that might just go beyond the proper bounds of Austen's world. How could it not turn out right in the end?

Beauty and the Werewolf, by Mercedes Lackey (Five Hundred Kingdoms #6)

Bella is smart, responsible, and resigned to the fact that she will end up a spinster. She has a plan-learn her herbs and stuff and open an apothecary shop. Then one day on her way to Granny's, Bella is bitten by a wolf. After getting home she is carted away by royal guards to the local Duke's manor and told that the wolf who bit her was in fact a werewolf-the duke to be exact. In order to make sure that Bella doesn't turn lupine and get loose she is required to remain at the duke's castle until they are sure she is safe and fully human. While staying there Bella gets close to the duke and his mysterious gamekeeper, and tries to solve the mystery of how the duke turned werewolf in the first place.

Overall Thoughts:
I love the concept of the Five Hundred Kingdoms novels but haven't loved all the books themselves. The story in Beauty and the Werewolf was cute, and I thought combining Little Red Riding Hood with Beauty and the Beast was clever, but I found the plot kind of messy. At any point I was either really bored with what was going on and completely lost patience with the tedious details, or jumping out of my seat with excitement, desperate to see what happens next. There was no middle ground which could have very easily dissuaded me had I not enjoyed some of the previous Five Hundred Kingdom novels. I also felt like Beauty and the Werewolf would have made a better novella or short story than full blown few hundred page novel. There were many unnecessary details that could have been left out, and I also felt that Bella's adventures with Eric were completely pointless. They accomplished very little storytelling and what they added in detail and collection of information wasn't as valuable as the patience they took away.

Characters:
Bella is similar to all the other heroines in the previous Five Hundred Kingdom novels in that she is smart and a little too sensible. But while I didn't mind that in the other books and actually enjoyed having a heroine with a brain, something about Bella struck me as stuck-up. It seemed as though she judged people and if she decided they weren't smart enough or up to her standards she would write them off as stupid or vapid and act as if she was better than them. What was especially hypocritical was that she would complain and comment about her stepfamily and their friends insisting on living up to certain social expectations while she herself is inflicting her own standards on everyone she meets. Speaking of Bella's family-where were they? They were mentioned so much in the beginning and they were introduced in a way that made me think they'd be prominent characters all the way through but instead they disappeared after a few pages and only made occasional appearances in Bella's thoughts. Either they should have been mentioned more throughout the story or they should have been mentioned minimally in the beginning. Their characters were too developed to act as a real foil to Bella.

3.7 stars.

The magic continues in "New York Times" bestselling author Mercedes Lackey's enchanting new story from the Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms series. A beauty must battle some beasts before she rescues her prince.

The eldest daughter is often doomed in fairy tales. But Bella—Isabella Beauchamps, daughter of a wealthy merchant—vows to escape the usual pitfalls.

Anxious to avoid the traditional path, Bella dons a red cloak and ventures into the forbidden forest to consult with "Granny," the local wisewoman. But on the way home she's attacked by a wolf—who turns out to be a cursed nobleman. Secluded in his castle, Bella is torn between her family and this strange man who creates marvelous inventions and makes her laugh—when he isn't howling at the moon.

Bella knows all too well that breaking spells is never easy. But a determined beauty, a wizard (after all, he's only an occasional werewolf) and a little Godmotherly interference might just be able to bring about a happy ending.

Dead Rules, by Randy Russell

Till death

Jana Webster and Michael Haynes were in love. They were destined to be together forever.

Do

But Jana's destiny was fatally flawed. And now she's in Dead School, where Mars Dreamcote lurks in the back of the classroom, with his beguiling blue eyes, mysterious smile, and irresistibly warm touch.

Us

Michael and Jana were incomplete without each other. There was no room for Mars in Jana's life--or death--story. Jana was sure Michael would rush to her side soon.

Part

But things aren't going according to Jana's plan. So Jana decides to do whatever it takes to make her dreams come true--no matter what rules she has to break.

Jane loves Michael. Jana is dead. The only way for Jana and Michael to ever be together again is if he dies. So Jana is going to kill Michael. And then they can be together forever. Helping Jana is bad boy Mars. Mars can't look away from newly dead Jana and likes her so much that he reluctantly helps her on her idiotic quest for true love. In other words, Mars has terrible taste in women. Jana is willing to break all the rules of Dead School to be together with Michael again. But does Michael want to join her? Does Michael even miss her?

This book was, in one word, creepy. It's a book about where teenagers go after they die, and it's not a pleasant place. The concept is original and is based on the idea that a teenager hasn't lived long enough to be placed in heaven or hell and needs a little more time to develop as a person. The gloominess of Dead School was fitting, as it is a school for dead teenagers, but I thought it was a little too gloomy for the story set in it. Don't get me wrong-the story was plenty gloomy, but what little humor there was fell flat because everything else about the book was so depressing and instead of being comic relief, the jokes were just sad. And the personal death stories-don't get me started on how horrid those were

One major thing that bothered me about the whole concept of Dead School were the rules. Sliders are students in Dead School who are on their way down. One becomes a Slider if they die while doing something "bad". What I hated about that was that if a good person does one thing wrong and dies while doing it then they are doomed to go to the fiery pits. Unless they undo their wrong, that is, but that's almost impossible for most of the Sliders so it's practically irrelevant. The worst part of this is that some of the Sliders are better people than Risers (the kids going in the right direction).

Jana is evil. In case you couldn't tell from the summary, she is selfish and doesn't understand what love is. To be fair, Michael doesn't get the concept of love either, but Jana is almost as horrible as Michael with her desire to kill him. While reading Dead Rules I desperately wanted to bang Jana on the head with the book and tell her that if she really loves Michael she'd set him free. But Jana doesn't care about anyone but herself so that wouldn't have achieved anything. She doesn't deserve Mars. She and Michael were perfect for each other. Both are horrible and frankly, they deserve each other.

3.0 stars

The Snow Queen, by Mercedes Lackey (Five Hundred Kingdoms #4)

  Aleksia, Queen of the Northern Lights, is mysterious, beautiful and widely known to have a heart of ice. No one would seek her wisdom except as a last resort. But when she's falsely accused of unleashing evil on nearby villages, she realizes there's an impostor out there far more heartless than she could ever be.
And when a young warrior following the Tradition disappears, leaving his sweetheart and mother to fear the worst, Aleksia's powers are needed as never before.
Now, on a journey through a realm of perpetual winter, it will take all her skills, a mother's faith and a little magic to face down an enemy more formidable than any she has ever known....


In one of Mercedes Lackey's Five Hundred Kingdoms, Aleksia, the Snow Queen, is not leased to find out that she is being blamed for murders she had nothing to do with. Determined to find the imitation Snow Queen and clear her name she sets off on an adventure. Along the way she meets up with Anukka and Kaari, who are searching for Veikko, Anukka's son and Kaari's fiance, who has been kidnapped by the evil Snow Queen, and Veikko's teachers who help them in the search.

I really enjoyed the other Five Hundred Kingdom books, but one noticeable difference between the others and this one was the average age of the characters. Aleksia's age is never actually mentioned but I inferred it to be anywhere from 35 to 45 (and she's years younger than Annuka and the two men), while the characters in the other books are either teenagers or in their twenties. This upped the maturity level a few notches and made the one young couple, Kaari and Veikko, seem extremely naive and immature in comparison. It was cool to see adults go on a fairy-tale adventure, but it just seemed a bit odd and out of place.

I am an extreme girly-girl and one of my favorite types of books are those with fairy-tale princesses, which is why I started reading the Five Hundred Kingdom books in the first place. Therefore, when I realized that this book had no princesses in poofy dresses I was severely disappointed (hence the low rating). The Sammi magic was interesting, but it didn't make up for the lack of pink fluff that I love so much. My other big complaint is about how little background information is given about Aleksia. She tells a tiny bit of her history and gives off the feeling that it's just history to her but almost nothing is told about her years as Snow Queen save her normal tasks and almost nothing is told about her predecessor besides a few details about her magic. In a book so full of extraneous details, you'd think a few more could provide some insight into the main character.

3.8 stars