Review of The Subtle Beauty by Ann Hunter

The Subtle Beauty

Crowns of Twelve Book 1
By Ann Hunter

Star Rating: 

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Number of Pages: 170

Season Read: Summer


Synopsis:(From Amazon)
A cursed prince. A vain beauty. Glory is the seventh daughter of Balthazar, High King of the Twelve Kingdoms. Glory hopes that - of all her sisters - she can escape the fate of a loveless marriage. But on the night she plans to elope with the royal falconer, her world comes crashing down: Her father announces Glory's betrothal to Eoghan of the Blood Realm - a prince no one has ever seen. The prince is said to be a recluse, cursed and deformed by the gods for the sins of his power-hungry father. Yet when Glory is trapped in Blackthorn Keep she discovers that not everything is what she expected. An insulting gryphon, a persistent ghost, and a secret plan to usurp the prince keep Glory reeling. Can she overcome her vanity to learn that what you want isn’t necessarily what you need—and save the cursed prince?


Review:
The very beginning of the novel was hard to grasp, seeming unimportant and hard to get through.  Although the setting is done quite well, it seems that the Celtic vibe Hunter is aiming for is lost the further in one reads.  Once the fairy tale characters begin to appear, it becomes a bit easier to understand, and to empathize with Xander.  I actually really enjoyed our "bad guy", Sylus, because although warned, Xander does decide to visit him anyway.  Is Sylus really the bad guy, or does he simply let others find the darkness in themselves?

Once deeper into the story, it's hard not to care for Glory's attempted suitor, Colin.  Poor Colin leaves his job and ventures to save Glory, so that they can live out a life they had planned, but he shifts and changes throughout the way.  When Glory is brought to Blackthorn Keep she realizes that although she wanted desperately for Colin, in the end, perhaps she is better off there.  Despite Colin's actions in trying to save Glory, it's hard to forget just how cruel she had originally been to him when he faces horrible consequences.  The relationship between Colin and Glory is an excellent representation of infatuation, where looks provide the sole basis of love.

I like that Glory isn't a like-able character, but most will be able to relate to her.  She has personality, and she grows throughout the book, much like many of us do in life.  Glory learns that her father has more of an understanding and reasoning for what he does than she is aware of, and that getting everything you want isn't the answer to happiness.

There are lots of fun fairy tale retellings hiding throughout this book, and while I don't want to say exactly what, I will say that oh, Beauty and the Beast, but perhaps reversed.  There are more ways to be a beast than merely appearances.

If you love fairy tales, fantasy, intrigue and surprises, you definitely need to find a copy of this book!



Author Bio: (from Amazon)
Multi-award winning author, Ann Hunter, is the creator of the young adult fantasy series Crowns of the Twelve (including the novels The Subtle Beauty, Moonlight, Fallen, with A Piece of Sky, Ashes, and The Rose In The Briar to follow). She likes cherry so
da with chocolate ice cream, is a mom first and a writer second, has a secret identity, and thinks the Twilight movies are cheesier than cheez whiz (which is why they are her guilty pleasure!)

She lives in a cozy Utah home with her two awesome kids and epic husband.

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT HER HOMEPAGE:
https://www.facebook.com/authorannhunter

AND MAILING LIST:
http://eepurl.com/VZsFn




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Review of 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

13 Little Blue Envelopes

By Maureen Johnson

Star Rating: 

Genre: Young Adult
Number of Pages: 368

Season: Summer

Synopsis:(From Amazon)
When Ginny receives thirteen little blue envelopes a
nd instructions to buy a plane ticket to London, she knows something exciting is going to happen. What Ginny doesn't know is that she will have the adventure of her life and it will change her in more ways than one. Life and love are waiting for her across the Atlantic, and the thirteen little blue envelopes are the key to finding them in this funny, romantic, heartbreaking novel.

Review:
This is a typical coming of age story, with a twist.  Not only does Ginny have to deal with a hole in her heart, but she learns what type of person she wants to be in the future.  This novel is full of good advice, and showcases how one person alone can easily be taken advantage of, and things that young ladies need to be cautious of.  Ginny also learns that people come from very different walks of life, with different backgrounds and morals, but that doesn't mean they can't all turn out good in the end.  Ginny also comes to realize that everyone has their own secrets.

This book was a quick read and hard to put down, and seemed quite realistic.  This is a great, quick summer read, and I'd recommend it as a nice quick read to anyone getting ready to go out into the world as a young adult.

13 Little Blue Envelopes also has a sequel, which you can find out about on the amazon page for The Last Little Blue Envelope.


Bio: (from Amazon)
Maureen Johnson is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of several YA novels, including 13 Little Blue Envelopes, Suite Scarlett, and The Name of the Star. She has also done collaborative works, such as Let It Snow (with John Green and Lauren Myracle), and The Bane Chronicles (with Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan). Maureen has an MFA in Writing from Columbia University. She has been nominated for an Edgar Award and the Andre Norton Award, and her books appear frequently on YALSA and state awards lists. Time Magazine has named her one of the top 140 people to follow on Twitter (@maureenjohnson). Maureen lives in New York, and online on Twitter (or at www.maureenjohnsonbooks.com).




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Review of The Hidden by Jessica Verday

The Hidden

Book 3 in The Hollow Trilogy

By Jessica Verday

Star Rating: 

Genre: Young Adult
Number of Pages: 400

Time Spent Reading: Two Days

Synopsis:(From Amazon)
Abbey knows that Caspian is her destiny. Theirs is a bond that transcends even death. But as Abbey finally learns the full truth about the dark fate that links her to Caspian and ties them both to the town of Sleepy Hollow, she suddenly has some very hard choices to make. Caspian may be the love of her life, but is that love worth dying for?

Review:
After having spent so much time in Abbey's world, I must say I was completely disappointed in the end of her story.  The villain was predictable yet odd, and her parents were far too oblivious.  Although in the end she finally confronted her feelings about Kristen, her chosen path to correct everything was demented, with no thought how such an "accident" would influence others she knew.  I think she could have had another future, despite the ties in to the legend of Sleepy Hollow that Verday tried to use to justify her awkward choices.  In the end, this is not something I would want to see others emulate in life.  Though I appreciate the sentiment that you shouldn't give up or have to stop doing things you love when you're in a relationship, I don't think that lesson shines through strong enough to redeem the awkward ending of this otherwise promising trilogy.





Author Information: (From Amazon)
Jessica Verday is the New York Times best-selling author of The Hollow trilogy, The Beautiful and the Damned, and Of Monsters & Madness. She believes a shoe isn't a shoe unless it has a three-inch heel, and nothing beats a great pair of boots. When not daydreaming about moving into a library of her own, she can be found working on her next story, stalking antique stores, or buying vintage furniture.

You can learn more about Jessica at http://www.jessicaverday.com










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Review of The Haunted by Jessica Verday

The Haunted

Book 2 in The Hollow Trilogy

By Jessica Verday

Star Rating: 

Genre: Young Adult
Number of Pages: 496

Time Spent Reading: Two Days

Synopsis:(From Amazon)
An impossible truth. An impossible love. 

 After a summer spent reclaiming her sanity and trying to forget the boy she fell in love with--the boy who must not exist, cannot exist, because she knows that he is dead--Abbey returns to Sleepy Hollow, ready to leave the ghosts of her past behind. She throws herself into her schoolwork, her perfume-making, and her friendship with Ben, her cute and funny lab partner, who just might be her ticket to getting over Caspian once and for all.

 But Abbey can never get over Caspian, and Caspian has no choice but to return to her side, for Caspian is a Shade, and Abbey is his destiny. They are tied not only to each other, but also to the town of Sleepy Hollow, and to the famous legend that binds their fates--a legend whose dark truths they are only beginning to guess....


Review:
What I love about this book is that it shows that sometimes, you need to ask for help.  Sometimes you need to be able to tell someone what is going on with your life, and have them really listen.  And sometimes, even though you know you should be happy and content with someone showing interest in you, you just aren't.

Unfortunately, there are also some very questionable parts in the book, both with Abbey's character and the way she still thinks about her mother.  Abbey wants a Mr. Rochester, which, we all know I'd be more of a Mr. Darcy type girl myself.  Abbey states, in chapter seven, that sometimes her mom was a very good mom, but in that same chapter she laments how her birthday sucks and her food sucks because of her mom.  At one point, while at a family reunion, Abbey states "I didn't want to sit close enough so that she could talk my ear off, but I didn't want her to think I was rude, either.  Being a teenager is a tricky balance."  It makes Abbey seem much more standoffish and impolite than the majority of the series, thus far, has indicated, not to mention most teenagers do not think in such terms about being a teenager.

I was really looking forward to this sequel after having read the first book, and I was definitely not disappointed.  I really enjoyed seeing more of Abbey, more of Caspian, and getting to hear more of the retelling of Sleepy Hollow, as seen through Verday.  Stay tuned for a review of the third book to follow.




Author Information: (From Amazon)
Jessica Verday is the New York Times best-selling author of The Hollow trilogy, The Beautiful and the Damned, and Of Monsters & Madness. She believes a shoe isn't a shoe unless it has a three-inch heel, and nothing beats a great pair of boots. When not daydreaming about moving into a library of her own, she can be found working on her next story, stalking antique stores, or buying vintage furniture.

You can learn more about Jessica at http://www.jessicaverday.com










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Review of The Hollow by Jessica Verday

The Hollow

Book 1 in The Hollow Trilogy

By Jessica Verday

Star Rating: 

Genre: Young Adult
Number of Pages: 528

Time Spent Reading: Two Days

Synopsis:(From Amazon)
When Abbey's best friend, Kristen, vanishes at the bridge near Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, everyone else is too quick to accept that Kristen is dead... and rumors fly that her death was no accident.  Abbey goes through the motions of mourning her best friend, but privately, she refuses to believe that Kristen is really gone.  Then she meets Caspian, the gorgeous and mysterious boy who shows up out of nowhere at Kristen's funeral, and keeps reappearing in Abbey's life.  Caspian clearly has secrets of his own, but he's the only person who makes Abbey feel normal again... but also special.

Just when Abbey starts to feel that she might survive all this, she learns a secret that makes her question everything she thought she knew about her best friend.  How could Kristen have kept silent about so much?  And could this secret have led to her death?  As Abbey struggles to understand Kristen's betrayal, she uncovers a frightening truth that nearly unravels her--one that will challenge her emerging love for Caspian, as well as her own sanity.


"A death could change so many things for so many people.  It was heartbreaking." -The Hollow by Jessica Verday

Review:
This book is one of the most realistic and gripping stories about grieving a sudden death.  Despite what Abbey says and does, it is obvious that her head is full of her best friend all the time.  Like many dealing with death, Abbey can't seem to come to terms with the fact that Kristen is actually gone, and she isn't coming back.  She tries to continue on like everything is normal, but in many ways she feels guilty for continuing life while her friend is gone.  Having a book show how much death can tear a person apart is amazing, and I think that this book needed to be written.  While this book isn't a guide for what to do when grieving, it shows that slowly things change, and you have to try to move on, even though it seems impossible.

Unfortunately, there are multiple times that the promise of the book is disrupted by either badly turned phrases, unimportant details, and a level of immaturity one doesn't expect from a sixteen year old.  Abbey, despite being completely capable of mixing and creating her own perfumes, does not do her own laundry, instead relying on her working mother to do it.  Sometimes one wonders how incapable a sixteen year old can be, given this excerpt from chapter 15, "All I came across were leftovers and lunch meat.  Why couldn't I find anything to eat?  We never had any food in the house."  The way Abbey acts around her mother, expecting to have her mood catered to with every turn, also seems pretty unrealistic.  Even though Abbey has gone through the loss of her best friend, that doesn't mean that she shouldn't be able to do anything on her own.


I did really enjoy this story, as it does a very good job of showing that dealing with death is really hard, and not everyone takes it the right way.  Another book that does really well with death, with a hint of supernatural (like this one), is Annette Curtis Klause's The Silver Kiss, which I would especially recommend to anyone who is experiencing a loved one pass away from illness.





Author Information: (From Amazon)
Jessica Verday is the New York Times best-selling author of The Hollow trilogy, The Beautiful and the Damned, and Of Monsters & Madness. She believes a shoe isn't a shoe unless it has a three-inch heel, and nothing beats a great pair of boots. When not daydreaming about moving into a library of her own, she can be found working on her next story, stalking antique stores, or buying vintage furniture.

You can learn more about Jessica at http://www.jessicaverday.com










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Review of The Dream Keeper by Mikey Brooks

The Dream Keeper

The Dream Keeper Chronicles: Book I

By Mikey Brooks

Star Rating: 

Date/Time Started: May
Date/Time Finished: June

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy/Young People Fantasy
Number of Pages: 302

Synopsis:(From Amazon)
Dreams: Dorothy called it Oz, Alice called it Wonderland, but Nightmares call it HOME.

When an evil shifter takes over the gateway to the realm of Dreams, it falls to 14-year-olds Parker and Kaelyn to stop him.  Their only hope lies in Gladamyr, the Dream Keeper, but can they trust a nightmare to save their world?


The Amazon synopsis misses so very much of what makes this book so amazing!  Since I'm not 100% behind the amazon part, I'm going to give a bit of my own synopsis before going on to the review.

My synposis:
Kaelyn is the new girl in town.  It's pretty rough, but she loves her zany aunt who took her in.  The kids in school won't even give her a chance because they assume she's a loser, because her aunt is so weird.  Parker Bennett is popular, and considered one of the best gamers in his grade.  His mom doesn't understand, and thinks he should spend more time on his studies and less on video games.

Meanwhile, in another world, parallel to our own, the creatures of our Dreams are waging a war.  We may have created them, but some are not happy with how balanced things are in Dreams.  The Nightmares want to take over, and only Dream Keepers can keep everything from shifting.  But what will happen when the only Nightmare who became a Dream Keeper is the only one left?


Review:
This book is an example of a perfect modern fantasy book.  Not only are there issues in Dreams, but Kaelyn and Parker face obstacles in the world of a teenager.  Parker has to learn how to balance his time so he gets to have both his homework done and an opportunity for gaming.  Kaelyn learns that while you can say you don't care about how mean people are, that doesn't mean you should let people be cruel to you.

In the world of Dreams both Kaelyn and Parker have the opportunity of seeing how their interests and hobbies can potentially help them in the real world and in potentially dangerous situations.  While the book doesn't outright advocate playing video games, it shows that doing so can help with your critical thinking skills.  The book also shows that you can get power from reading, and that if you retain the knowledge, you can get far.

Another major problem that The Dream Keeper faces is that of divorcee parents.  Parker finds himself almost always left alone, to his own devices, or sent to a psychiatrist.  While Parker's mom is trying to do what she thinks is best for him, it's made very clear that both his parents are off in a faraway world of business, leaving little time and attention for him in their lives.  Upon reflection, one could realize that living with people that are glued to technology and electronics such as their cell phones and laptops, it is only logical that Parker would find solace in electronic stimulation in the form of video games, while Kaelyn, whose aunt lives simply, seems to adore reading.

The only questionable thing, in my opinion, is where the last name Bennett comes from.  I know it's a Pride and Prejudice reference, but I do not feel it is completely necessary or warranted.  Does it resonate with young people and young adults today, that may not yet have been exposed to the novel?  What makes the Bennett reference confusing, is that Parker's last name is Bennett, and he at one point explains that his mother kept her last name, Bennett-- but there are also a few references, including in Dreams, of her being Lizzy Gonzalez.  This may be on purpose, to draw the reader in.  I hope to learn more about this from reading the rest of the series.  Kudos to Mikey Brooks for actually using the proper spelling from the book of Elizabeth's nickname, "Lizzy", and not the current commonly used "Lizzie" (As seen in the YouTube Sensations The Lizzie Bennett Diaries- a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice that is AMAZING).


Author Information:
Mikey Brooks is a small child masquerading as an adult.  On occasion you'll catch him dancing the funky chicken, singing like a banshee, and pretending to have never grown up.  He is an award winning author of the middle grade fantasy adventure series The Dream Keeper Chronicles.  His other middle-grade books include: The Gates of Atlantis: Battle for Acropolis and The Stone of Valhalla.  His picture books include the best selling ABC Adventures: Magical Creatures, Trouble with Bernie, and Bean's Dragons.

Mikey has a BS degree in English from Utah State University and works full time as a freelance illustrator, cover designer, and author.  His art can be seen in many forms from picture books to full room murlas.  He loves to daydream with his three daughters and explore the worlds that only the imagination of children can create.  As a member of the Emblazoners, he is one of many authors devoted to 'writing stories on the hearts of children' (emblazoners.com).  You can find more about him and his books at www.insidemikeysworld.com.



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Review of Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen by Garth Nix

Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen

Old Kingdom (Prequel to Sabriel)

By Garth Nix

Star Rating: 

Date/Time Started: 5/10/2015
Date/Time Finished: 5/11/2015

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Number of Pages: 400

Synopsis:(From Amazon)
Clariel is the daughter of one of the most notable families in the Old Kingdom, with blood relations to the Abhorsen, and most important, to the King.  She dreams of living a simple life but discovers that this is hard to achieve when a dangerous Free Magic creature is loose in the city, her parents want to marry her off to a killer, and there is a plot brewing against the old and withdrawn King Orrikan.  When Clariel is drawn into the efforts to find and capture the creature, she finds hidden sorcery within herself, yet it is magic that carries great dangers.  Can she rise above the temptation of power, escape the unwanted marriage, and save the King?

Review:
I remember, when I was younger, that Garth Nix's Abhorsen series was one of my absolute favourites.  This hasn't changed.  In fact, Clariel also is on the book shelf of my favourite novels.  While Clariel may not be quite as dramatic or empathetic as Sabriel, one cannot help but feel for the girl, who wants something simple, and who is always told no.  When someone is given a good reason for their desires being squashed, it often helps sooth the ache, but what if your only available options become things you never, ever want to become?

What romance is within the novel isn't really that of the main protagonist, but the typical old view of strengthening ties through matrimony.  Clariel won't let anyone stand in her way, especially when she has nothing to lose, though she realizes that perhaps she has more allies than she originally thought.


Author Information:

Garth Nix has worked as a bookseller, book sales representative, publicist, editor, marketing consultant, and literary agent.  He spent five years in the Australian Army Reserve.  He became a full time writer in 2001, and more than five million copies of his books have been sold around the world.  His works have been translated into 40 languages.  His books have appeared on the bestseller lists of The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, The Bookseller, The Australian, and The Sunday Times.  He lives in Sydney, Australia with his wife and two children.

To fine more of Garth Nix' books, please feel free to go to his amazon page.




It's hard to go from a book you love so very much, to anything else.  Which is why it took me until now, almost a full month later, to write this review.  And it took me until last week, to finally start something new.  While I did start another book soon after Clariel, which I will finish at some point, it is written for a slightly younger audience than I generally read for.  



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