Saturday, October 31, 2009

The Dragon Princess


Title: The Dragon Princess
Author: E.D. Baker
Series: The Tales of the Frog Princess (Book 6)
Genre: Juvenile Fiction



Before I ever started this blog I read the first 5 books from the Tales of the Frog Princess. In those we followed a frog princess on her quest for her prince. Later in the books we followed the Frog Princess's aunt and saw her find her man as well. Now things have gone along some and we meet Millie, the Frog Princess's daughter.

Millie has a bit of a problem whenever she gets angry she turns into a Dragon. She then needs to calm down before she can return back to human. Everyone in her kingdom knows about this, but outside of her kingdom less people know. One set of her grandparents who live to the north invite the family to their kingdom for Millie's Birthday. They don't know about Millie turning into a dragon until she gets angry at her grandmother and does so right in front of her.

This upsets Millie and makes her think harder about learning to control it then ever before. She asks advice of another witch that is at her party and is given the name of the Blue Witch who lives in the way North. So starts Millie's journey with her friends to meet the Blue Witch and learn to control her strange power.

I don't remember if I thought this about all of the books, but I did find them to drag a little. There seemed to be many small things happening, but the plot didn't really catch me until the last few chapters when they had almost found the Blue Witch. Could be because it's Juvenile Fiction and just written at a different level then I anticipated and expect from all books even juvenile fiction.

That said, I have every intention of reading the next book, Dragon's Kiss.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Frostbitten


Title: Frostbitten
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Series: Women of the Otherworld (Book 10)
Genre: Paranormal



We again are following Clay and Elena, this time out into the Alaskan Wilderness where they are dealing with some new Mutt problems. Surprisingly, there seems to be more to it then they imagined.

We meet a new type of shifter, that for some reason has me imagining the Wild Things from the new Where the Wild Things Are move. Not that I've seen anything more than the commercials, but they still were what I imagined.

We learn more about Elena and her past. She was raped as a foster child and that played a fairly big part in the story, which I wasn't too much of a fan of.

Overall, another good addition to the Women of the Otherworld Series. In my opinion, however, this one had the least amount of other supernaturals in it and could probably be read as a stand alone book.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Tempt Me At Twilight


Title: Tempt Me At Twilight
Author: Lisa Kleypas
Series: Hathaway Series (Book 3)
Genre: Romance



I was mistaken. I thought that the third book of the series was going to be about Leo and Catherine Marks. However, it was about Poppy one of the younger sisters.

Poppy has set her sights on Michael and Michael also appears to love Poppy. The two are having somewhat of a secret courtship because Michael's father would not approve. Michael's father does indeed find out and Michael drops Poppy as fast as he possibly can. While she is sad other prospects quickly come about.

Harry is a wealthy hotel owner who wants Poppy no matter the cost. They get married quickly without the two even feeling much affection for each other. Harry must learn to love.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

The Girl Who Owned a City


Title: The Girl Who Owned a City
Author: O.T. Nelson
Series: None
Genre: Juvenile Fiction



A plague has hit the earth and killed everyone over the age of 12. This leaves all the children of the world to fend for themselves. With the extinction of adults, comes the loss of power and just about every convenience we take for granted. This includes knowledge. The knowledge of how to make things work, how to fly an airplane, how to be a doctor and so much more. Gangs have formed and many children are going hungry.

Lisa decides that she's not going to let that happen to her and her younger brother. She thinks of new places to get food that others haven't, and eventually has her big idea. She wants to gather all the children from her street and move into a high school. One they can turn into their castle, their fortress.

As expected all of the other gangs want to defeat them and take the things that they have. A lot of thought has to go into keeping them away from them and they don't always win.

I thought this was a fun scientific read, although I was slightly disappointed with the ending. I don't know what I expected, all of the adults died and it's not like they're going to magically come alive at the end of the book. I did feel, however, that I could have used a little more closure.

I had originally found this book in a middle school classroom and the title jumped out at me. Although it's a tad bit violent with five year olds both driving cars and wielding guns, I think that kids who are 12 and under would enjoy the story and thinking about putting themselves temporarily into that situation.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Black Water


Title: Black Water
Author: D.J. MacHale
Series: Pendragon (Book 5)
Series: Young Adult



I think of this book as the beginning of something different for the Pendragon Series. I feel like all the books leading up to this one are fun and pretty self contained. This book change the series and what comes next.

Eelong is a different sort of territory. For one, the quigs are humans and the Traveler is basically a Panther. All humans, gars, are repressed and basically treated worse then animals. Bobby has a hard time fitting in with this of course. There is the ever popular turning point that can throw the territory into chaos. I think this book was the most filled with surprises.

As Saint Dane says, "The rules have changed."

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The Reality Bug


Title: The Reality Bug
Author: D.J. MacHale
Series: Pendragon (Book 4)
Genre: Young Adult



Veelox!

Veelox reminds me of a thought I use to have when I was younger. I use to wish that you could have a contraption at the end of your bed where you could both program what you would dream about and record what you dream. Sometime I have such wonderful dreams that I wish to go back relive them or check for more detail. This is almost what Veelox is like.

On Veelox there LifeLight. This is an area where people get hooked up to machines and can actually "live" what they are thinking about. The problem with this is no one wants to live real life anymore. Bobby meets Aja the Traveler from Veelox and her acolyte. Bobby gets to learn first hand what LifeLight is like. Aja thinks she has the perfect solution - a bug/virus that will make everyone's jump (dream) less perfect and more realistic. Her hope is that people will start to come out of LifeLight when the perfection is gone.

Unfortunately, Saint Dane has his hands in things and not everything goes to plan...

The Never War


Title: The Never War
Author: D.J. MacHale
Series: Pendragon (Book 3)
Genre: Young Adult



The third installment of the Pendragon series has us taking the flume to First Earth. First Earth is Earth in the 1930s. We meet Gunny, the First Earth traveler while Bobby and Spader get acquainted with First Earth. Gunny works at the Manhattan Tower Hotel - so Bobby and Spader are staying there and pretending to be Bell Boys while checking out Max Rose - the Top Gangster.

The three Travelers are toying with the time right before WWII breaks out. There are Nazis and many other historically relevant items/people/happenings. The three need to quickly determine what the turning point is (as usual) and stop Saint Dane!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

The Lost City of Faar


Title: The Lost City of Faar
Author: D.J. MacHale
Series: Pendragon (Book 2)
Genre: Young Adult



At the end of The Merchant of Death Saint Dane took the flume off to Cloral. Uncle Press and Bobby had no choice but to follow him, while Loor went off to her own territory.

Cloral is my personal favorite territory and with it one of my favorite Travelers, Spader. I think that this may also be D.J. MacHale's favorite territory because when I met him and he signed my book, he signed it Hobey Ho! Which is a phrase that is used often by Spader and in Cloral. It's also Uncle Press's favorite territory.

Cloral is a world that has no dry land. It is all water and the different cities and whatnot are created on floating barges. They have the most advanced and awesome technologies that revolve around water. I just love this place :)

Of course Saint Dane is trying to tip Cloral during it's time of chaos. He is helping to poison the underwater crops that the world depends on for food. To stop him Uncle Press, Bobby and Spader follow clues left by Spader's Dad to find an ancient city that is thought to only be a myth.

Monday, October 5, 2009

The Merchant of Death


Title: The Merchant of Death
Author: D.J. MacHale
Series: Pendragon (Book 1)
Genre: Young Adult



The Pendragon series is another of my ultimate favorite book series. If you haven't read it - you should. It's a fantasy series that in my mind surpasses even Harry Potter...by a lot.

Bobby Pendragon is going about his normal 14 year old business, getting ready to win the championship at his basketball team, having a first kiss with a girl he's had a crush on forever and then his Uncle Press shows up.

Uncle Press convinces Bobby that he needs his help, for what he doesn't say. The two take off and jump into a flume because they are Travelers. They take off to a Territory with scary Bear like quigs. Bobby needs help to save the Milago from the Bedoowan. Sound confusing?

A whole world (well several) come alive in D.J. MacHales writing. Each of the 10 books visits a different Territory where Bobby had to save it at it's critical turning point. I waited and waited for the 10th book to come out and bought it the morning it did. Of course at that point I was reading so many different series that I had gotten from the library that I didn't have time to read it properly. Now that I do, I'm starting with Book 1 and reading through to the end. I read the books several years ago and I want to be fresh when I read 10. It's always interesting to go back and read books that are early on in a series. I keep picking up new information or innuendos that I never did the first time around.

Next up, one of my favorite territories, Cloral!

The Darkest Whisper


Title: The Darkest Whisper
Author: Gena Showalter
Series: Lords of the Underworld (Book 4)
Genre: Paranormal Romance




I read the first 3 books in the series about a year ago, and they blew me away. There are very few books that as soon as I finish reading at the library I feel the need to drive to the bookstore and buy. This series was one of them, possibly the only one I've ever felt that way towards.

Darkest Whisper was the first book that we got the chance to follow one of the Lords of the Underworld who was part of the second group of them. They had split at one time into two groups because of a difference in beliefs, they are now back together.

Sabin is the keeper of Doubt. His demon, obviously, plants doubt into people's minds until they just can't handle it anymore. This leads him to having a hard time holding onto a girlfriend. They eventually all kill themselves because they're so full of doubt. But Sabin has met his match!

Gwendolyn the Timid, whose is part Harpy. The two make an interesting match as they learn each other's quirks and following on the path to finding the relics to lead them to Pandora's box.

Usually when I read a series I feel super connected to the first book's characters and the rest are okay, but not as wonderful. I cannot stress enough how much I've enjoyed every book in this series. I'm anxious to read book 5 - Aeron, the Keeper of Wrath.