13 Little Blue Envelopes

Title: 13 Little Blue Envelopes
Author: Maureen Johnson
Series: None
Genre: Young Adult



13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson (no joke) was a nice little vacation on my Spring Vacation. While sitting in my living room, I was able to visit most of Europe within a short time span.

Ginny has a bit of a crazy Aunt Peg. She lives in NYC and Ginny in the past has gotten to visit her and they always have a whirlwind of a time in the city. This is the aunt I want to be :)

However, Aunt Peg has died, and shortly thereafter Ginny gets a package in the mail. She receives 13 envelopes with very direct instructions. She is to take ONLY a backpack and book a flight to London. She is not allowed to take any kind of guide book, to have any communication with the people she is leaving in the states and no types of electronics.

Aunt Peg leads Ginny on a cross continent (Europe) trip of finding herself and what her Aunt has left behind. Ginny must complete the sometimes odd task in each envelope before she is allowed to open the next. She does encounter a lot of helpful people along the way.

A very fun coming of age type story although I think it slightly ridiculous that someone would send a 17 year old across Europe by themselves without a plan, place to stay or way to contact an adult. But hey, it was a fun story none the less.

The Scarlet Letterman

Title: The Scarlet Letterman
Author: Cara Lockwood
Series: Bard Academy (Book 2)
Genre: Young Adult



Book 2 in Cara Lockwood's Bard Academy Novels was another interesting and quick read. I'm noticing a pattern in the novels. The first one, Wuthering High, follows a story line revolving around that of Wuthering Heights. The Scarlett Letterman, follows the Scarlett Letter, at least parts of it.

We are back at Bard Academy for a second semester. We return to Miranda and friends. This time, Miranda becomes an outcast for keeping her friends and faculty members in the dark. She is required to wear a Scarlett Letterish red vest and is not allowed to interact with anyone on campus.

The third book, Moby Clique is currently the end of the series. The author says that she's up for writing another, the third was released May '08, but they haven't contracted her for one. Bard Academy, once upon a time (think about a year ago too) was toying with becoming a movie or series. I think that since it's been so long ago it's not happening.

Wuthering High

Title: Wuthering High
Author: Cara Lockwood
Series: Bard Academy (Book 1)
Genre: Young Adult


Although I enjoy adult books, every so often I like to indulge in some Young Adult reading. There are really good series there and they are quick reads.

Cara Lockwood's Wuthering High was quite an interesting read. I picked it up based on the idea behind the book, I thought it sounded intriguing

We meet Miranda, a high schooler who has problems acting out. She totals her father's car and maxes out her stepmothers credit card. Her parents decide to send her to Bard Academy.

Bard is located on an island off the coast of Maine. It is very scheduled there and the students aren't allowed to have any kind of electronics whatsoever. No laptops, no musical devices, no phones, ect.

Strange things start happening to Miranda while she's at school and eventually she learns that her teachers are dead famous authors who died before their time. Her counselor for example is Virginia Woolf.

A quick and attention holding read, looking forward to the second book.

Outlander

Title: Outlander
Author: Diana Gabaldon
Series: Outlander (Book 1)
Genre: Romance



I have been reading Outlander by Diana Gabaldon since my last post. It wasn't that I didn't like the book, or didn't have time to read it, at 850 big pages with small print it simply was a long book.

Outlander follows Claire, a woman who is living in the 1940's. She and her husband, Frank, are in Scotland on vacation. One day she takes a trip to see some stones, similar to Stonehenge. She finds herself transported to another time - the 1700's.

Here she marries another man, Jamie, to save herself from being taken by the English. She and Jamie end up with a beautiful relationship that changes and grows throughout the story. We see the two of them run into trouble after trouble, yet always they seem to come out on top.

I highly enjoyed this story and especially the relationship between Claire and Jamie. It had lots of action, movement and growth. Maybe a long read, but one I enjoyed the whole way through.

This is the beginning of a series, next inline is another huge book - Dragonfly in Amber.

Haunted

Title: Haunted
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Series: Women of the Otherworld (Book 5)
Genre: Paranormal Romance



Finally I got my hands on the next installment of the Women of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong. I was looking forward to this story because it was from the point of view of Eve, Savannah's dead mother. It provided an interesting look into the world of ghosts.

In an earlier book Paige and Lucas take an unplanned trip into the ghost world, where they are required to stay. Eve, however, makes a deal with the three Fates so Paige and Lucas can be released back into the living world to take care of Savannah. In Haunted, the Fates cash in their IOU.

They want Eve to capture the Nix, an incredibly powerful demon. Several have tried before her, and none have succeeded. Eve bounces around through different dimensions of the ghost world, angel world and living world before she has enough information to take the Nix down. Of course, like all good battles, this one takes place around the thing that Eve treasures most, Savannah.

Pendragon Before the War: Book 2 of the Travelers

Title: Pendragon Before the War
Author: D.J. MacHale
Series: Pendragon Mini Series (Book 2)
Genre: Young Adult



Book 2 follows three more Travelers: Aja, Alder and Elli. It was a really quick read and I enjoyed all of the stories in this grouping.

Aja, the Traveler of Veelox, is the first story. Veelox is an interesting world, they have something called Lifelight. It is something that in my mind makes me think programable dreams. You can pick a game, or simulation and it's like you are really there living it out. I think it sounds like fun :) Aja's conflict is that someone is trying to hurt people using Lifelight and she needs to stop them by playing a dangerous game.

Elli, comes from Quillan. Quillan is a territory that is run by a company called Blok. It has gambling that can end in gambling your life against your debts and there are also people who play the "games." Blok is very controlling, creating a very unoriginal territory where everyone wears gray and has little individual thoughts. There is also a group of people who are rebelling against this in their own way (of course) by collecting old, forbidden things from how the territory use to be. Elli accidentally stumbles across these rebels and earns their trust through keeping their hideouts clean. Eventually she become a very valuable piece in the search for relics.

Alder, Traveler from Denduron, wants to be a knight. Problem is, he's an orphan and it costs a lot to train. He is told if he works to pay his way he then can train. However, he is taken advantage of and is never given the opportunity to train, only to serve people. Then one day an odd old man comes to Denduron and will train him, really train him, for free. Of course Alder takes him up on it and ends up learning many valuable lessons and becomes a better knight then anyone who trained in the academy.

I'm anxiously awaiting the next trio, it is already released (actually just last week), I just need to get it from the library. I am most excited about Loor's story!

Pendragon Before the War: Book 1 of the Travelers

Title: Pendragon Before the War
Author: D. J. MacHale
Series: Pendragon Mini Series (Book 1)
Genre: Young Adult



One of my all time favorite series is D.J. MacHale's Pendragon series. It is currently a 9 book series, with the tenth and final book being released on May 12th. In waiting for it to come out, I've decided to read the Before the War books (there are 3) and reread the rest of the series (Once I finish the pile of library books I currently have)

Each of the Before the War books consists of 3 short stories (less than 100 pages each). Each story tells about the life of one of the Travelers before they meet Bobby or even really know about being a Traveler. Book 1 tells the story of Kasha, Vo and Gunny.

Kasha, Traveler of Eelong, has in my opinion, the worst story of the ones I read. Kasha is basically like a panther shaped human. These large cats walk on their hind legs and are basically the main runners of the world. There are real humans here, called gars, but they don't talk and are more like slaves. Kasha's story tells of her playing a dangerous game that hurts gars, and the change in the way of her thinking about them.

Gunny, Traveler of First Earth, is one of my favorite characters in the series. He exists in First Earth, which is Earth in the time of the 1930s. His story revolves around murder and gangs in the 30's, saving a friend's son and helping to prove another friend to be innocent of a murder. I like that Gunny is an older guy (60's I believe they mention in this one) yet he runs around saving lives and acting like one of the younger guys. Later he's also an awesome friend to Bobby.

Vo Spader, Travler of Cloral, definitely ranks up there as favorite character as well. Cloral is a world that is basically all water with little man made island like structures floating around. They have some awesome water items. In Spader's story we learn about his graduation to be an aquaneer and his struggle with his emotions and ego. He learns to work as part of a duo or team and not always showing off.

Initially I didn't think I was going to like the stories, since Kasha's wasn't interesting, but a friend said they got better, and indeed they did. I loved how somewhere in each person's story they either mentioned seeing a Travler ring (although they didn't know what it was) or they would meet Press. I almost wish at times they would have gone up to the point that they met Bobby, so we could see it from their side as well.