Tempest by Julie Cross

Okay, so it's true. I can time-travel. But it's not as exciting as it sounds. I can't go back in time and kill Hitler. I can't go to the future and see who wins the World Series in 2038. So far, the most I've ever jumped is about six hours in the past. Some superhero, right?

I first heard about Tempest when I was preparing for LeakyCon 2012 and I was researching the different LeakyCon Lit panels I wanted to attend. Julie Cross was supposed to be a part of a discussion about how she was a female writer who chose to have her book told through the eyes of a male. (I could be wrong, but I'm about 99% sure that's what it was for.) I thought it sounded good then, but didn't get the chance to read it before I went. After that, I forgot about it until I spotted it on the library shelves a few weeks ago.

Jackson is a college sophomore who also happens to be a time-traveler. He can jump back in time, but not for very long or very far back, and nothing he does can change what has already happened. So far the power has proven useless except for gathering tidbits of information, until the day that armed men crash into his girlfriend's dorm room. It's on that day that he watches as his girlfriend takes a bullet to the chest and, involuntarily, he jumps back in time a full two years.

Unable to get back 2009, where Holly (his girlfriend) lays dying on her dorm room floor, Jackson feels like he is going to lose his mind. Not only is he wracked by guilt about leaving her behind, but he's also  managed to uncover certain information that points toward his father being a government agent. Unsure of who to trust or how to proceed, he seeks out the 2007 versions of his best friend and girlfriend, hoping they will somehow point him in the right direction.

However, as Jackson manages to uncover more information about who he is and who those men were that shot 2009 Holly, he realizes that he doesn't know who to trust. And worse, he learns he is putting everyone around him in grave danger simply by association. If he doesn't find a way to protect the people he loves, he could lose them all.

Time travel is a common theme in science fiction, but one that still manages to be difficult to pull off. Perhaps it's because the theme is so over-done that it can be hard to make it original. Perhaps it's because it has a tendency to err on the side of cheesy or un-realistic. However, Julie Cross somehow manages to pull off Jackson's version of time traveling with a level of originality and believability that definitely surprised me.

I would absolutely suggest this to science fiction fans who are looking for a new and complex take on a typically worn-out theme. And if you're not a sci-fi junkie? Well, there's still plenty of appeal in the rest of the story and Jackson is a wonderful protagonist that makes you want to learn more about who he is and how he manages to make it through all of the crazy that has somehow made its way into his life.

Rating:♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Holly fell to the ground and I wanted to shout, to drop down beside her, but the second the seeping red blood started to show through her robe, I jumped. This time I couldn't seem to control it. 
But right before everything turned black, I saw it. Her chest rose and then fell again. She was alive and I just left her there.

A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner

I would not stand by and let them be lost to the Mede or to Melenze or to an endless civil war where they would never be free of bloodshed until the whole country was stripped to the bare bones. If I couldn't be Eddis, I would be Attolia.

[Click here to see my review of book 1: The Thief, book 2: The Queen of Attolia, and book 3: The King of Attolia.]

Though finishing a series tends to be a tad bittersweet, one must admit that it brings a lovely feeling of accomplishment when you sit back, happily aware that you've read all there is to read when it comes to this particular storyline and these particular characters.

I deeply enjoyed the entire Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner and I finally brought myself around to reading the conclusion. For all my talk of the greatness of finishing a series, there's also a finality that makes me realize how much I'll miss these characters and these stories. I tend to put as much space between the second to last book and the final one as I can plausibly get away with.

When Sophos, heir to the throne of Sounis, and friend of both the queen of Eddis and the king of Attolia, is attacked in his own village and whisked away to an unknown destination, he manages to weasel his way out of the hands of his captors. However, he soon finds himself a slave on the lands of the very man who ordered his kidnapping. Rendered unrecognizable, he settles into this life, believing it would be best for him to leave the running of Sounis to his uncle. After all, Sophos had never been a very promising heir. He cared too much for his poetry and too little for strategy or battle.

Still, Sophos left much unfinished when he was taken from his home. His sisters and mother may have died in the attack, but there were others who held his heart and a rebellion rising that threatens to overthrow Sounis and leave it vulnerable to the Medes, a country that's been trying to get a foothold in Sounis (along with its neighboring countries) for a time now and is still licking its wounds from being so heartily deterred by Attolia.

When his father comes under attack in the very home that Sophos has been laboring under, Sophos brings himself out of obscurity to save his father and his men. But much has changed since the day that Sophos was taken and he is no longer heir to the throne, but is now king himself. It is his task to save his country and he's going to have to turn to an old friend if he will ever manage to accomplish it. But will the king of Attolia aid him in his quest to save his people, or will Gen prove to be more difficult than he's ever been before?

The most recent installment in what fans of the series are calling "The Queen's Thief" series, A Conspiracy of Kings was (as you can probably see from the summary) told from the perspective of Sophos. It's fun seeing the kid grow up and become and entity and a threat in his own right. Sophos is a fun character and one that the reader can really identify with. While Gen, the subject of the first three books, was always a joy to read, I loved how different Sophos was from him. He was much more afraid, less cunning, but just as clever. I really enjoyed getting to see Megan Whalen Turner write such a different character in this series while still making us love both of our main protagonists.

All of that said, I didn't enjoy this book nearly as much as I did the first three. Perhaps it was simply the way the tale played out. Most of this book was a sort of "leading up to" the main event, while in Gen's stories, they tended to be lots of little main events that led up to a big main event.

I greatly enjoyed the book, I just didn't enjoy it as much as its predecessors, I suppose. It's just not my favorite book in the series. I greatly look forward to the next book in this series. I want to know what happens to the dear friends we've been introduced to throughout these books. I have no doubts that Turner will blow us out of the water with the fifth installment (though we have no idea when it's coming out yet).

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

"He proved me wrong. Either because he can see what we can't or just because he demands the world conform to his own desires. I am never sure which it is that he does." 

Fathomless by Jackson Pearce

Maybe you have to know about your past to look to your future, to make a decision about it.

[Click here to see my review of book 1: Sisters Red and book 2: Sweetly.]

After absolutely falling in love with the first two books in Jackson Pearce's Fairytale Retellings series, I was admittedly a little scared to read the third. What if I didn't like it? What if it didn't live up to the greatness of the first two? I had the utmost faith in the fact that she could make this one just as good as her first two, but what if she hadn't?

Well, my fears were totally unfounded. Fathomless turned out to be just as beautifully written and compelling as its counterparts. I'm already itching to get my hands on Cold Spell, the fourth book, which doesn't come out until November of this year. How will I ever manage to wait that long?

Celia, Anne, and Jane Reynolds are a set of triplets with surprising powers. Anne can see the future, Jane can see the present, and Celia sees only the past. The youngest in their family, they were sent off to boarding school after the death of their mother. Since then, they've really only had each other, having lost contact with each of their brothers and the father who no longer remembers them (due to his Alzheimer's). They've always known that they're stronger together, but lately Celia has been feeling more and more like she is the odd one out. It's Jane and Anne who are the identical ones. She's just the one that somehow got thrown into the mix to complete the set. She believes that her power is useless, that her siblings received the ones that they could do something with whiles she only gets memories, but that's before she meets Lo.

Lo is an ocean girl. She used to be human, but now she lives under the water with her sisters, other ocean girls who have forgotten their pasts and bide their time until the day the angels who brought them here pluck them out of the sea and take them away to be with them. When they first arrive, though, many of the girls just want to go back. They want to be human again. According to the legends of the old ones, there's only one way to do that: they must get a human to love them and then drown them, taking the human's soul for their own.

When Jude, a hapless musician falls into the ocean one night, Lo decides that she doesn't want him to drown. She has tried drowning a boy to restore her soul and knows it won't work. Instead, she fights her sisters to save him, bringing him back to the shore with Celia's help. Celia touches Lo and discovers her real name, the one she forgot. This awakens a longing within Lo to remember what she was before she was an ocean girl.

Celia agrees to help her recover her memories and suddenly feels like her power has a purpose--that it can finally help someone. But this tentative friendship she's made is fraught with dangers and Jude may not be the only one in danger of drowning now.

In Fathomless, Pearce once again proves that she has an imagination of gold. And she has certainly struck gold with this series of retellings. I cannot express enough how much I adore this beautiful series and everything in it. Filled to the brim with the same strong bonds I have admired in the beginning, as well as another great dose of the magical and mythical beings we've seen in the first two novels, these books are positively addicting and the kind you'll want to pester everyone you know to read so they can enjoy it just as much as you did.

What are you waiting for? Go get this book immediately! Get the whole series! And pray the Jackson Pearce never ever stops writing.

Rating: ~ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ~

"Because there's nothing there. There's no future between you and the girl--the water girl. Naida. Whatever she is."
"We stop being friends-" 
"You're not listening," Anne snaps, and there's so much worry in her voice that I feel cold. "There's nothing there, Celia. There's no future because there's no 'you and her.' It's blank."
"What does that mean?" 
Anne sighs, shakes her head. "What have you gotten yourself into?" she mutters before looking me in the eye. "It means," she says, voice serious, "either she dies or you do." 

Blaze by Laurie Boyle Crompton

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I'm almost happy to have a target for my misery. "You think girls can't enjoy comics?"
"Fine, then. Who's your favorite superhero?"
"Jean Grey," I counter quickly.
"Okay. So what's your favorite issue?"
I meet his gaze. "The Uncanny X-Men number one-three-eight, from October of 1980."
His forehead jumps, so I go ahead and seal his admiration by quoting, "Hear me X-Men! No longer am I the woman you knew! I am FIRE! And LIFE INCARNATE! Now and forever . . . I am PHOENIX!"

There were two reasons I decided to pick up this book. The first was the cover. I mean, look at it! The cover is simply gorgeous. The title includes the word "supervillians," which automatically makes me assume it's something I would like, and the picture features a girl with gorgeous pink hair. (I used to have purple hair and am a huge fan of the dye-your-hairy-crazy-colors philosophy.) I was even more sold when I read the back and saw it was about a girl who loves comic books and is a pretty great artist herself. Blaze (or Love in the Time of Supervillians) by Laurie Boyle Crompton looked like exactly the type of book I would deeply enjoy. Turns out, I was right.

When Blaze's dad left for New York to pursue his acting career, he didn't just leave his family behind, he left his old-school Marvel comic book stash. In his absence, Blaze found herself drawn to the old comics, poring over them and falling in love with each one. It wasn't long before she began drawing up her own superheroes and giving them origin stories like the ones she had grown so attached to. Her love for the characters and her improvement in her art not only fed her soul, but the ever-present hope that her dad might just return if he saw how much they had in common and how good she was at creating the sort of thing he had once been so attached to as well.

Now at seventeen, Blaze spends most of her free time chauffeuring her brother and his friends to and from soccer games in Superturd (her poop-brown minivan), spending most of the game time drawing and reading her comics. She spends the rest of that time during the games watching Mark, the boys' coach, and daydreaming about what it would be like if she could manage to snag him as a boyfriend.

It's not long before Blaze's wildest dreams seem to come true and Mark is not only giving her the time of day, but even seems to find her tendency to go off on fangirl rants about particular Marvel characters cute. He may not pay too much attention to what she's saying, after all, he's more of a soccer fan, but she knows she can make it work.

Blaze's younger brother sees what's happening between them and immediately tries to convince his sister it's a bad idea to get tangled up with his coach, but she's not listening. He's thirteen. He couldn't possibly understand. Josh knows something about Mark that Blaze doesn't and her refusal to listen to her brother's protests will leave her with humiliating consequences. Then again, Blaze may not be as mild-mannered as everyone seems to think and geek girls are pretty creative when it comes to taking revenge.

I could have read this entire book in one sitting if I didn't have to go to work on a pretty regular basis. It was one of those books where I woke up and read for hours, right up until I was going to be late if I didn't put the book down and speed my way to work. I absolutely adored it. Everything about this book appealed to me and, like I already mentioned, I could hardly persuade myself to put it down.

Blaze is a fun and believable protagonist. She's insecure about the way others perceive her and her inability to catch the attention of the guy she's somehow fallen in love with, but she's also passionate about the comics she adores and the art she creates. She's not afraid to be herself, even if she sometimes hands her heart to the wrong people.

I also have to give a little shout-out to two of my favorite supporting characters in this book: her little brother, Josh, and Quentin, the Comic Book Store Guy. (I shouldn't forget Andrew, one of her brother's friends. What a little gentleman!) They are magnificent and provide such lovely interactions throughout the novel. I found myself begging to see more of them every time they were gone.

I really enjoyed this book and I would especially suggest it to like-minded individuals who also happen to be great comic book fans. Whether you're a Marvel-lover (like Blaze) or a DC junkie (like Quentin), you'll love every bit of this story. And let's not forget the gorgeous artwork peppered throughout, compliments of Anne Cain. Even after finishing, I keep finding myself flipping through the book just to catch a glimpse of those lovely illustrations.

Rating: ~ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ~

"It comes from Greek mythology," she says, "but I've given the symbol my own twist. In my experience, sometimes the only way folks can manage to become the person they're meant, is to have destiny fling them straight into the fire."

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

I lift my arm out of the water. It's a log. Put it back under and it blows up even bigger. People see the log and call it a twig. They yell at me because I can't see what they see. Nobody can explain to me why my eyes work different than theirs. Nobody can make it stop.
The merry-go-round spins again. To get off this thing I think I have to scream. But I can't. My bone corset is laced so tight, I can barely breathe.

I have recently become a pretty big fan of Laurie Halse Anderson. As you may remember (if you've been following this blog of mine), I read her book, Speak, a few months ago and immediately added it to my list of favorite books. It's the most popular of her books and for good reason. It was amazing.

I picked up Wintergirls because she was the author and because it looked like it would be quite interesting. I saw that it was about a girl who was struggling with anorexia and, after watching our society's skinny obsession pick off my friends one by one over the last few years, I knew it would be something I wanted to read. And I was absolutely right.

Cassie had been Lia's best friends since the two of them were in kindergarten. They lived across the street from one another and were practically attached at the hip for most of their lives. In fact, it was with Cassie that Lia made the oath that they would be the thinnest girls in school. Only Cassie and Lia stopped being friends a few months ago, after Lia's second stay in New Seasons: a home for girls battling eating disorder, and her parents had her cut off all communication with Lia. And now Cassie is dead.

Alone and still battling demons of her own, Lia continues to shed weight, refusing to believe she is anything other than huge, refusing to admit that what she's doing to herself may cost her her own life-- and irreparably damage those around her.

I deeply enjoyed Wintergirls. Though it's one of those books that makes you want to cry through half of the story and keeps your stomach churning through the rest, it's the type of story our generation (and the generations coming after us) sorely needs.

Anderson handled the material extremely itself extremely well, but she also managed to create a novel whose poetic language draws the reader in more deeply than anything else ever could. Wintergirls is deeply beautiful book, even as the story itself plunges into a darkness that feels tangible at times. (Yet it is that tangibility of the emotions and the darkness surrounding Lia that makes this book so very good.)

I honestly didn't think Anderson could match the fabulous job she did with Speak, but it appears that I was wrong. This is just as good and just as relevant. It's definitely written better than the other novel. (Though I'm quite certain Speak will still continue to be my favorite of the two books, it's at least a close competition.) Also, Anderson herself is quickly climbing her way up the list of my favorite authors. She's just too amazing to not be one of my favorites!

I purchased the book immediately after having finished it and will most assuredly be singing its praises to everyone I come in contact with for months to come.

Rating: ~ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ~

We held hands when we walked down the gingerbread path into the forest, blood dripping from our fingers. We danced with witches and kissed monsters. We turned us into winter girls, and when she tried to leave, I pulled her back into the snow because I was afraid to be alone.

Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles

"Here's the deal," I say low and harsh as I grab his shirt and twist it up close to his throat. "You stop bringing up Maggie or jail or the accident. Got it? If you want to keep running your mouth off, that's fine, but next time you do it you'll find my fist in it. Guarunteed." 
"I was just kidding," Drew chokes out, a faint thread of hysteria in his voice. "Jeez, Caleb, lighten up."
I let go of his shirt, but give him one last warning. "Up until two weeks ago I was living with a bunch of gang members. Don't tell me to lighten up."

It's pretty rare that I find myself in between books for more than a few minutes. Usually the moment I finish one book, I write my review and grab the next one. However, work has decided to wedge itself so deeply into my life that my free time comes in weird spurts now, thus the reason I found myself at library yesterday whilst still in-between books.

I was wandering through the YA Lit section when I found this little beauty on one of those stands where it's the only one in the row facing outward. Being a bit of a tattoo fangirl, I immediately focused in on guy's tattoo and picked up the book. After reading the back, I was interested and decided to take it home with me, starting it as soon as I got in the house.

One year ago, a single action changed Maggie and Caleb's lives forever. That action caused Maggie to spend a good portion of the next twelve months in the hospital and battling through physical therapy. It sent Caleb to jail. Now he's out and coming back to the small town of Paradise. Not only that, but he's coming back to being Maggie's next door neighbor again.

Neither have been back to their school since the incident, but now senior year is starting and both must face the stares, the questions, the overall gawking of their fellow students. At the same time, they try to give each other a wide berth, but fate throws them together when Caleb's community service and her job force them unexpectedly together. It isn't long before the two find themselves unable to resist the other. They soon begin to grow closer to one another, even as the people around them try to force them apart. Can a real relationship be formed from the shattered pieces of their lives? And can either of them ever fully trust the other?

This book was surprisingly good. I was a little worried it would end up being awkward or forced, but everything came together seamlessly and left me wanting more. I was surprised and happy, though admittedly skeptical, when I realized there was a sequel. Definitely going to get my hands on that one in the near future.

There were quite a few scenes I went back and read after I finished the book because of how much I enjoyed them. Not to mention, I couldn't help admiring the way Elkeles found a plausible way to thrust the two protagonists together without making it entirely unrealistic.

All in all, I would suggest this book for a good, easy read. It's not anything award-winning, but it's a fun read that will keep the reader happily entertained for a few hours. More of a vacation read, but one I really enjoyed.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

"I wasn't going to kiss you." 
"You weren't?" I look up at him. Well of course he wasn't, stupid. Why would he hook up with me when he can be with someone who actually knew what they were doing, someone who isn't responsible for sending him to jail, my brain tells me.
"Nope. The next time I kiss you, I'm gonna take my time, and you said your mom's coming home any minute."
I check the clock on my nightstand and nod.
He bites his bottom lip, deep in thought. "No, the next time I kiss you it'll last a long, long time. And when we're done you're gonna realize being turned on is not about experience."
While I'm still awestruck, Caleb heads out of the house.

Speechless by Hannah Harrington

I'm not crazy; I'm perceptive. What comes out of my mouth is the root of my problems, so the solution is for nothing to come out.

I picked up Speechless by Hannah Harrington while visiting my brother in Lubbock a few months ago (the same day I purchased Bitter End). The gorgeous pearl colored cover, with no other decoration other than the raised letters that make up the title. It's beautiful cover immediately had my attention and, once I read the synopsis, I was sold.

When sophomore Chelsea Knot in on two guys making out at her best friend's New Years Eve bash, she can't help but make it public almost as soon as she has the chance. After all, she's known for not being able to keep a secret and she isn't exactly sober at this point in the night. She assumes it's harmless, just a bit of juicy gossip, but then two boys from her class decide they're going to teach the two "a lesson" and leave the party, she realizes that it might not have been as harmless as she thought. The next day, she learns that Noah, one of the boys she had walked in on, is in the hospital in a coma caused by a beating he received the night before. Her best friend swears her to secrecy, but Chelsea's conscience compels her to speak and the two boys who left the party are arrested on assault charges.

Disgusted by the way her own mouth has caused so much pain and suffering, Chelsea decides to take a vow of silence. If what she's said has caused this much damage, she decides she won't say anything at all. Upon her return to school, not only is her vow tested by teachers who believe she's only finding a new way to slack off, but by the harassment of classmates. Not only has she been pegged as the girl who caused Noah's beating via her loose tongue, but she has also been outcasted and harassed by those who used to be her friends for turning in the attackers.

Refusing to back down in her decision, she keeps her mouth shut in the face of this, even as she begins fear for her own safety in the face of the growing harassment. It isn't long before she makes some unlikely friends in the face of all the drama and, slowly, Chelsea learns that sometimes it's better to speak up than to stay silent after all.

I really enjoyed this book. Each of the characters was well-rounded and believable; the pacing was perfect and the plot itself carried out impeccably. It's very important, when dealing with such important content as Speechless did, that everything be as realistic and believable as possible and I really think Harrington cleared that hurdle with flying colors.

I would absolutely recommend this to anyone looking for a good read with an interesting topic and characters that feel like they could walk right out of the pages. It's quite the page-turner and I honestly would have read the entire book in one sitting if sleep hadn't been absolutely necessary. I will definitely be keeping my eye out for more of her works, because Hannah Harrington definitely knows what she's doing.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

"I just think she could really use a friend right now."
"And you're volunteering for the position," he says skeptically.
"I don't think she has anyone else," she tells him. "Everyone is mad at her."
"I'm not saying we should be gathering the pitchforks or anything, but come on. Did it ever occur to you maybe she deserves it?"
"You don't know, Sam. It's not just about Noah . . . it's about her ratting out those basketball players."

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it's tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.

"The Little Prince" is a well-known French children's classic. The moment I caught sight of it in the English bookstore I frequent here in Paris, it was in my arms ready to be purchased.

When a pilot is forced to land in the middle of the Sahara due to problems with his plane, he finds himself face to face with the Little Prince, a small boy who has travelled from a far distant planet to get away from a haughty flower that has made him upset. It has been over a year since he arrived on Earth and, as the pilot soon discovers, he has learned much in his time away from home. And his wisdom, straight from the mouth of such an innocent little prince, is invaluable.

But the Little Prince longs for home, for he has been gone long enough. Yet how can the pilot bear to let go of such a precious treasure as the boy has proven to be?

I can definitely see why this is a classic. It was such a joy to read! It was heartwarming and altogether sweet, though I must warn you that it's conclusion is a bit sad. The artwork, done by the author himself, is as superb as the writing. It truly rounds out the story perfectly.

There's not really much more to say about it other than the fact that I absolutely adored it. It's short and a quick read, but perfect for reading time and again to younger children just as it is perfect for a quick read for those of us grown-ups who still love a good story. I'll definitely be reading this to all the little kids in my life very soon. I can't wait to share "The Little Prince" with them.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

Revived by Cat Patrick

"At some point, you have to admit that death is coming and be grateful for what you've had instead of pissed that it's going away."

I picked up Revived the other day while Christmas shopping after spotting it on the shelf and recognizing the author's name. I had read her debut novel, Forgotten, in late 2011 and really enjoyed it. I was excited to read her second novel and see if it was as good as the first. It was even better.

Daisy Appleby is stung by a bee, which she's deathly allergic to, and dies on the track field at her school in Michigan. She wakes up eight hours later as Daisy West and is forced to relocate to Omaha, Nebraska with her handlers. This is the fifth time Daisy has died.

After dying at the age in a school bus packed with children that swerved off a cliff, Daisy, along with most of the other children involved in the crash, was brought back to life by an experimental drug called "Revive."

Now fifteen and starting her sophomore year in high school, Daisy has officially died five times. Each time has resulted in she and her handlers being uprooted from whatever suburban area they had most recently made their home, changing their last names, and finding a new place in which they can start a new life. An orphan at the time of the crash, Daisy is taken care of by two agents in the system (called Disciples) and it's they who revive her, take care of her on a daily basis, and pose as her parents when in public.

Upon getting settled in, Daisy starts at a new school and soon finds that she's getting more attached than she's ever been before. Before now, she's always been isolated, fully aware that any friends she made would never truly know her, that she would never truly be able to confide in anyone the dark secrets that set her apart. Yet, here she finds herself not only making a best friend, but falling in love with a wonderful boy in her English class.

In the midst of this, she begins to discover that something's happening in the program that could put her and everyone she cares about in danger. Even Mason, her handler, is concerned. And when she discovers a new case, one outside of the group of test subjects that are meant to be the only ones receiving the drug, Daisy realizes that the creator of the drug is up to something and no one is safe.

I really enjoyed Cat Patrick's debut novel, but Revive absolutely topped it. The science fiction aspect of the novel was totally grounded and fascinating, but instead of focusing on that part of the story, most of it pivots on Daisy and how she grapples with life and the concept of death. Patrick found the perfect balance for her story, positioning it so that the reader bites their nails about what's going on in Daisy's secret world of agents and people who have been brought back from the dead as well as the world in which she deals with the terminal illness of a friend that can't be cured by the serum.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a pretty easy read, yet really interesting. Everything was brought around full circle and no loose strings were left dangling. It was perfectly fascinating and a great read for these winter months in which we're all tempted to stay indoors with our coffee cups and our fleece blankets.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

But I can't. I can't speak. And I can't take Matt's pain, because I have too much of my own, and I have no place to put his.

Little Red Riding Hood and Other Classic French Tales by Jack Zipes

"But, Mother," Lirette pursued, "why does this beautiful flower that pleases me so much have so many thorns?"
"To show you that we must distrust the greater part of those things that please our eyes, and that most pleasant objects hide snares that may be most deadly to us."

I picked up this lovely little book at Half Price Books a few weeks ago when I spotted it in the fairytale section. I'm a huge sucker for fairytales and even more so for books with covers as lovely as this one. I set it on my "to be read" shelf and waited a bit, since some others took priority, but figured it was necessary that I read it while I'm in Paris visiting my family, seeing as it's a collection of French fairytales.

Packed with lovely little stories filled with fairies, magic, forbidden loves, and little lessons to be gleaned from each tale, I was quite happy with this book upon finishing it. It not only told different versions of classic fairytales I had heard as a child, but bore plenty more that I thoroughly enjoyed as well.

Overall, this book was a lovely read and I'm glad to have acquired it. I know I'll be reading it to my children one day, filling their heads with visions of magical creatures and exciting adventures in the same way they filled my mind upon reading this.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Alas for those girls who've refused the truth:
The sweetest tongue has the sharpest tooth.

Bitter End by Jennifer Brown

He let go of my neck and I crumpled to the floor, holding my face and sobbing. Too afraid to run. Too surprised to stand. Too hurt to be brave or indignant or anything other than broken.

I picked up Bitter End at the Barnes & Noble next to my brother's college, the one I always seem to find myself at when I go visit him, and knew I had to get it. It looked both interesting and heartbreaking and exactly the type of book I would want to read. The kind that would affect me. The kind that would make me think. One of the things I love most about reading is getting the chance to be someone else and see through their eyes for a while. And getting the chance to see how someone could fall into and stay in an abusive relationship was something I was very interested in understanding.

When Cole, a gorgeous transfer from a nearby school, makes his way into Alex Bedford's life, she immediately falls head over heels for his charming manner and his sweet ways. Cole is the perfect boyfriend, always ready to assure her of his love and affection, giving her that tenderness she's always wanted . . . until she makes him angry one day and he gives her the first bruise.

Apologizing profusely, Cole makes it up to her, promising to be a better person. He swears it will never happen again, but already Alex is cautious around him. If she can just keep herself from setting him off, everything will go back to normal. But even during this time of tentative peace, she is pulling away from the friends and family that once meant so much from her. Her friends' dislike of her new boyfriend isolates her from them and she quickly finds herself unable to speak and unsure if she even ought to.

Bitter End is a realistic look at the problem of abuse and how easy it is to find oneself in a place where there seems to be no way out. Love truly is blind and the heart is deceptive. It's easy to follow your heart in one direction even when your mind is screaming for you to run in the opposite direction.

Brown does a wonderful job in portraying the mindset of someone going through this very ordeal in a manner that is entirely realistic and heartbreaking. In particular, I love the way she creates the dynamic between Alex and her best friends slowly shift and decay even as they grow more and more concerned about her, creating the very distance between them that makes our protagonist feel even more alone and confused.

I really enjoyed this book and it is absolutely worth picking up next time you're in the bookstore. It is the perfect read for young adults who don't necessarily understand the complexities of abuse and anyone who wants to further comprehend what it's like to be on the receiving end of abuse and why they can't always "just get out of it."

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

"Yeah. But he's going to kill somebody someday, and if I can stop it from happening to you, then maybe I didn't live through the most horrible time of my life for nothing."

The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour

We all want to feel something, we want to be someone to one another.

When I read Nina LaCour's debut novel, Hold Still, I immediately fell in love with her writing and her ability to capture the complex emotions that make up humanity. After hearing about the fact that her second novel was due out soon, I kept my eyes peeled and finally spotted The Disenchantments at my library.

The Disenchantments is told from the perspective of Colby, a newly graduated teenager in love with his best friend and overwhelmingly excited about the opportunity to go traveling around Europe with her in only a few weeks.

You see, Colby and Bev have had a plan prepared for years now. They made a pact that when they graduated, they would take that first year off and go traveling together in Europe. Graduation finally rolls around and now they're going to go on a quick tour with Bev's band, then set off for Paris.

But when Bev throws a wrench in Colby's plans on the first day of the tour by telling him she's changed her mind, he feels like everything has shattered. Apparently, Bev has been accepted to an art school on the east coast, which means she has been intending to bail on him for months now, but just now decided to tell him.

Because the band is on such a tight schedule and because one part of the trip is taking Meg (the bassist) to college, Colby can't back out of it, though he is incredibly angry and hurt by his best friend keeping this secret from him. Instead, he joins them on the tour through small towns where their gigs are set, the types of places that will book a band that's really not very good but has incredible stage presence and passion in spite of it.

The Disenchantments is, in its essence, a book about growing up and dealing with the heartbreaks and disappointments that come with that. It's about being disenchanted with life and realizing that sometimes it's okay if everything doesn't go as planned. And sometimes the hurt is worth the lesson you learn from it.

Written just as beautifully as her first book, LaCour does a fabulous job at creating memorable characters as well as a book that makes you feel like you can accomplish anything when you finish it. It's one of those stories that, when you walk away from it, you can still feel its encouragement and it brings back that excitement about life and what's in store for you in the future.

I would definitely suggest this one to any and all. It's a wonderful book and definitely a new favorite of mine. I will be shoving this into the hands of every one of my friends as soon as I have the funds to purchase it.

Rating: ~ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ~
"It's incredible," she says, "how much damage everyone does to everybody else."
I don't really know where she's going with this, but then she says, "I didn't ever want to break anyone's heart."
I look away from her hands. I focus on keeping my own still.
"I don't ever want to be accountable to anyone for anything again," she says. "I will never make another pact and I will never get married and I will never let anyone think that I am theirs forever." 

Sweetly by Jackson Pearce

She dared to glance back. 

Yellow, sick-looking eyes found hers. 

She turned forward and sped up, faster than the others, driven by the yellow eyes that overpowered the sharp aches in her chest, her legs begging for rest. There was light ahead, shapes that weren't trees. Their house, their house was close--the candy trail had worked. She couldn't feel her feet anymore, her lungs were bursting, eyes watering, cheeks scratched, but there was the house.

They burst from the woods onto their cool lawn. Get inside, get inside. Ansel flung the back door open and they stumbled in, slamming the door shut. Their father and mother ran down the stairs, saw their children sweaty and panting and quivering, and asked in panicky, perfect unison:

"Where's your sister?"

[Click here for my review of book 1: Sisters Red]

The sequel to Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce, Sweetly is the story of Gretchen and Ansel,  a brother and sister duo who leave their home in Washington to find a new one where they no longer live under the shadow of the sister they lost, Gretchen's twin. Still feeling the ache of her disappearance and the deaths of their parents, they are driven out by their surviving stepmother and drive straight to North Carolina. Gretchen hopes to escape the fear of vanishing the way her sister did by going to live on the beach, far away from the trees and forests that have surrounded her since she was a child, a constant reminder of what she lost and how she lost her to the witch in the woods.

Before they can make it to the beach, though, their car breaks down  and they are forced to seek help in the the small town of Live Oak. They take refuge in the home of Sofia Kelly, a chocolatier living just outside town. The twins and Sofia hit it off immediately, but most people in Live Oak hate Sofia just as much as they hate strangers, if not more. Most are either convinced she's an angel or a devil in disguise. Immediately, Gretchen and Ansel stand beside Sofia's claim of innocence in the part of the girls who have gone missing in from the town, both knowing first-hand what it's like to be blamed for the disappearance of another. But when Gretchen meets Samuel, she begins to question Sofia's side of the story as well as the secrets that seem to surround her.

As she learns more about the town's past and the witch who took her sister, Gretchen learns that the witch is back . . . and this time, it's after her.

I didn't think it was possible for Pearce to make a book that was just as good as the first in the Fairytale Retellings series, but she has definitely managed to pull that off without a hitch. Sweetly is filled with just as memorable characters and strong bonds as the first book and a plot that keeps you guessing until the end. As I've mentioned before, I'm a major sucker for loyalty and relationships where every person would be willing to lay down their life fore the next at a moment's notice and this book had both of those; not to mention, incredible fight scenes. All that, and the more intense scenes still had me biting my nails and even actually yelling during one particularly frightening bit.

This series is looking like it will turn out to be an all-time favorite of mine and I can't wait to see where it goes next, as well as where it will culminate in the end. It's going to be an epic collection and you absolutely don't want to miss it. I suggest you get started reading it right away. In the meantime, I'll be scouring the internet for book three.

Rating: ~ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ~

"Poor Sophia," Ansel says, shaking his head. I can hear it in his voice--he wants to save Sophia. That's how Ansel works. Someone is in pain, and he wants to save her--he ran back into the woods after our sister, he became my rock. He didn't give up on our father, even when Dad became someone Ansel and I barely knew--it wasn't long after Mom's death that he started drinking, and once he remarried it got worse. He couldn't escape the guilt--over my sister, over my mother. . . Guilt ate him through the mouth of the bottle. 

Lovely, Dark and Deep by Amy McNamara

Wish, wish I were back at the house. Or running. Anywhere but here, feeling like this. And that's just it. This is how it is. Always. To pay attention to things. People. It's too easy to fail other people. And the good-byes. You never have the time you think.

I picked up Lovely, Dark and Deep after hearing an interview with the author, Amy McNamara, on the podcast "Authors are ROCKSTARS!" On the podcast, McNamara shared about the loss that inspired her book and how different it was to move from poetry to writing Young Adult Fiction. I was immediately interested and went out to buy the book a few days later.

And of course, when I saw that gorgeous cover, there was no talking me out of it.

When Wren wakes up after the car crash that killed her boyfriend, she knows immediately that her entire life has shattered before her eyes. She retreats inside herself--the only way she knows how to cope--and pulls away from everyone. Unable to sleep soundly and prone to frequent anxiety attacks, Wren deems herself ruined. How can she ever recover from the pain inside her?

She moves in with her father in order to get away from it all and ends up meeting Cal, a sweet guy who has troubles of his own, yet can't help reaching out to her in the midst of it. She begins to have feelings for him and starts to feel happy again, but she still can't manage to shake that feeling of being trapped--like she's still stuck upside down in her seatbelt. Wren wants to learn how to deal with what has happened to her and learn to deal with other people again without hurting them. She wants to be normal again, but maybe there's no going back to normal. Maybe she has changed for good.

Written more beautifully than probably any other book I've ever read, Lovely, Dark and Deep is stunning in every detail. I couldn't help but shake my head and wish that more authors would sprinkle poetry throughout their work in the same manner as McNamara.

Everything about this book is beautiful. The title is very apt, as it perfectly fits the contents of this novel. McNamara used her own grief and her own struggle to deal with the loss of a close friend to feed the emotions portrayed within Wren's story and she does it so perfectly one can hardly remember that this is a work of fiction. I very much hope to see more YA Fiction from her in the future.

I honestly can't sing the praises of Lovely, Dark and Deep enough to do it justice. My suggestion?: Pick it up immediately!

Rating: ~ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ~

"The thing about grief is that you have to let yourself feel it. Even the worst parts. Especially the worst parts. Pass through it. Let it pass through you. It's our strength--your humanity-- your openness to your feelings. Even when you think you might not come through."

Dovey Coe by Frances O'Roark Dowell

My name is Dovey Coe and I reckon it don't matter if you like me or not. I'm here to lay the record straight, to let you know them folks saying I done a terrible thing are liars. I aim to prove it, too. I hated Parnell Caraway as much as the next person, but I didn't kill him.


When eleven-year-old Dovey Coe is found holding a knife and standing over the body of Parnell Caraway, the very man she has adamantly claimed to hate for years, she is charged with his murder. But Dovey is innocent of those charges. When she was knocked out, Parnell was standing over her, not the other way around. She has hated Parnell for as long as she can remember, but that doesn't mean she killed him.

Now Dovey is being defended by a lawyer who has never worked a case before and having to deal with the distaste of the entire community where she was raised. She knows she didn't do it, but who is going to believe her? And if she didn't kill Parnell, who did?

I read Dovey Coe for the first time in late elementary school and immediately loved it. Going back to it now, I see why it was such a favorite. Dovey is a strong character who is known for not being afraid to speak her mind. She's protective of her brother, who is deaf and therefore treated cautiously by the rest of the community, and she isn't afraid to bloody her knuckles to defend him.

One of the things I really appreciate about this book upon rereading it was the dialect in which the entire narrative is written. Dovey's accent bleeds through the pages as if she were speaking it aloud to reader. This minor touch goes the extra mile in pulling one into the story and immersing them in it.

This was definitely worth it and I would wholeheartedly suggest it to preteens and young teenagers especially--particularly those girls who need a strong role model their age that they can look up to.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

"How'd you get in here?" I asked Huck, who'd gone over and laid next to Tom, little whimpers coming out of his mouth. I looked about the room, wondering how long I'd been knocked out.
That's when I seen Parnell.
He was lying on the floor as stiff as Tom, one of them metal canisters a few feet away from his head. I crawled over to him and passed my hand over his mouth. There weren't a breath left in him.
"Oh, Lord," I said out loud. "Oh, my Lord."

Paper Towns by John Green

Margo always loved mysteries. And in everything that came afterward, I could never stop thinking that maybe she loved mysteries so much that she became one.

I first read Paper Towns last year. I had decided to read John Green's books after already having been a fan of the vlogbrothers for a while. Looking for Alaska had been my first attempt, and while I wasn't much a fan of that particular book, I had recognized his style of writing to be particularly beautiful and something of which I wanted to read more. Paper Towns immediately became a favorite and retains that distinction even now. In fact, my second reading of this fabulous story only cemented that fact.

Quentin Jacobson is your average teenage boy. He's not popular or unpopular, but somewhere in the middle with his two best friends and the other kids he's friends with in the band. Plus he has a huge crush on the most popular girl in school and his next door neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman.

So when Margo sticks her head in his window and requests his help on a "mission" of hers, it doesn't take all that much coaxing before he's driving her all around Orlando, aiding her in all manner of odd pranks. She's known for this sort of thing, for being something akin to a force of nature.

Quentin can't help but hope that this late night gallivant means things will change between them, but she doesn't show up at school the next day, or the day after that. No one seems to know where she has gone. This in itself surprises no one, it isn't the first time Margo has run off for a couple of days. But when a couple of days turns into a couple of weeks, Quentin can't help getting worried.

Just like the previous times she's run off, Margo has left clues to her whereabouts. Now it's up to Quentin to decipher them and find her before it's too late . . . if it isn't already too late.

A brilliant work through and through, Paper Towns is the story of Quentin's journey to find Margo and discover himself along the way. It's about friendship and loyalty, but it's mostly about the way we perceive others and how dangerous it is to see others as what you think they ought to be instead of who they are.

Once again, John Green has undeniably proved that he can create memorable characters and a compelling story, all while continuing to wow his readers with his mastery of the English language and his ability to weave it into something beautiful.

Rating: ~ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ~

There are so many people. It is easy to forget how full the world is of people, full to bursting, and each of them imaginable and consistently misimagined.

Girl in a Cage by Jane Yolen & Robert J. Harris

"If my father's kingdom is a cage, then my cage will be a kingdom," I declare. "It is not I who am locked in, but you who are locked out."

The first book I decided to crack open for Reread November was Girl in a Cage. I can't remember exactly how old I was when I bought this book at a school book fair, but I believe I was in late elementary school (proved true by the fact that the few "bad" words in the book, such as bastard and damn, have been scratched out by my preadolescent self).

I was quite a sucker for historical fiction in my late elementary and middle school years, particularly when it came to European history, so this was right up my alley then. Now, as you can probably tell, I've expanded my reading a bit, though I still stick mostly to YA fiction, but I still carry that fondness for stories that can be woven around truth, giving the reader a new perspective on events that once took place. There's something truly fascinating about being able to give a story that extra substance through the sharing of true events.

In Girl in a Cage, we are introduced to Marjorie, daughter to Robert the Bruce and eleven year-old princess of Scotland. When Majorie first learned that she was to become a princess, she could think only of the splendor of living in a castle and being arrayed in finery. Now she sits in a cage in the middle of an English town, exposed to the elements and the jeers of the townspeople, visited almost daily by King Edward Longshanks, whose sole purpose in life seems to be tormenting her. A few months ago, she would have never seen this coming.

England, who has long been in control of Scotland, wages battle against Robert the Bruce and his followers in Scotland. Marjorie is a hostage in this war, as are many of the female members of her family, including the new queen of Scotland, Marjorie's stepmother.

In her captivity, Marjorie must leave childhood behind and seek the strength and bravery that her father has taught her to possess. She must draw on her belief in who she is and the love of her country to preserve her, even as the English king seeks to test her loyalty to the father she so dearly loves. Marjorie clings to her hope of rescue, her hope of seeing her father and her beloved country once more. But the will of Longshanks has taken the life of more than one person she holds dear, will it claim hers as well?

I really enjoyed getting the chance to revisit a book I so enjoyed in my childhood and was glad to see I hadn't been deceived in its virtue. It's quite a good book and it isn't just sentimentality that leads me to that conclusion. Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris do a lovely job at filling the story with convincing details, touching moments, and creating a princess worthy of the title that inspires the reader through every page, even in her faults.

This book has a lot to teach young teens and children about bravery and the act of loyalty without being preachy or uninteresting. It's an enthralling story with a good deal of merit. I would especially suggest it for those children just entering the YA world and need something of substance, but whose contents aren't overly mature for their understanding. Yet I would still venture to suggest it to older teens and adults, because there's always plenty for us to learn, particularly when it comes to courage and loyalty.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ 

"Oh, feeling has nothing to do with it, Marjorie. It is not a feeling hot or cold, dry or wet. Brave is how you behave."
"Then I did not behave bravely, Father," I admitted. "it was Elizabeth who--"
He stopped me with a finger on his lips. "Elizabeth told how brave you were," he said.
I yawned. "I just did what I was told."
"Sometimes that is all that courage is," he said. "Just doing what you know you have to do."

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

"You watch yourself. One day you're gonna pick a hole in the sky and the universe is gonna fall right through. Then we'll all be in a fix."

I've been interested in reading Beautiful Creatures ever since I saw Margaret Stohl at LeakyCon, thought she was pretty cool, and started following her on Twitter. The last action further encouraged me to read the book after constantly being bombarded by news about the book and its movie adaptation that will be hitting theaters in February.

So I finally got around to picking the book up at the library and started reading it as soon as I got the chance. It was wonderful. A rich and well-written story, Beautiful Creatures is more than worthy of all the attention it's getting right about now. In fact, I think it deserves a little more.

Nearly every night, Ethan Wate has the same nightmare. The particulars may be different, but each one involves him doing everything in his power to save a girl he deeply loves and each ends with her slipping through his fingers as his heart shatters. He does his best to convince himself that these dreams are of no consequence, even as he wakes up covered in mud or dripping from water and with the smell of rosemary and lemons in his nostrils. When the girl from his dreams ends up being in his class on the first day of school, though, Ethan is no longer able to fool himself.

Lena Duchanne (pronounced doo-cain) immediately attracts the attention of the entire town of Gatlin. The small, southern town is wary of outsiders and those who are different. Not only does Lena look and act different than any of the other girls in Jackson High School, but strange things keep happening around her and it's not long before it is discovered that she's also the niece of Macon Ravenwood, the town's local shut-in.

But Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her. She's different and that's intoxicating to him, but it's more than that. They share a connection that no one, not even she, can explain and Ethan soon finds himself willing to put everything on the line to protect and love this strange girl.

However, things are more complicated than they seem. A heavy cloud hangs over Lena and it takes more than a little coaxing before he learns why. Lena is a Caster (generally considered a sort of witch, though most Casters hate being called such) and her sixteenth birthday is rapidly approaching. For most Casters, their sixteenth birthday is the day they choose whether to be a Dark or Light Caster, but in the Duchanne/Ravenwood family, a curse takes the choice out of their hands. They don't get to choose. A path is decided for them.

Lena, fearful of what she may become, does her best to push Ethan away, but he might be just what she needs to keep her from losing everything she is. One way or another, each new day brings her birthday closer and Ethan is determined to do whatever it takes to keep Lena from slipping through his fingers.

With masterful dialogue and memorable characters, Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia spin an excellent tale filled with love, magic, fear, and darkness. The pages are rich with wonderful storytelling and keeps the reader hooked from beginning to end and longing for more even after one has reached the final page. Each character was well-rounded and interesting, each scene executed with precision and finesse.

This book was excellent and I cannot wait to read it's three successors. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good read that's dark and beautiful all at once, filled with fantasy and eerie delight. It was just spooky enough to keep me enthralled without discouraging my interest. I can't wait to see what these lovely ladies come up with next.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I don't know what I was expecting, but if I had learned anything about Lena by now, it was to expect the unexpected and proceed with caution.

As You Wish by Jackson Pearce

All I've learned in Shakespeare class is: Sometimes you fall in love with the wrong person just so you can find the right person. A more useful lesson would've been: Sometimes the right person doesn't love you back. Or sometimes the right person is gay. Or sometimes you just aren't the right person.
Thanks for nothing, Shakespeare.

After falling in love with Jackson Pearce's sophomore novel, Sisters Red, she became one of those authors whose section in the library I check nearly every time I visit. Thus I found her debut novel a few weeks ago and immediately checked it out. I just now managed to get around to reading it, but I am immensely glad I did. I read it all on one sitting that lasted about five or six hours. My day off couldn't have been better spent.

Viola Cohen's whole world felt like it had been ripped apart when her best friend and boyfriend, Lawrence, admitted to her that he was gay. Months later, they're still best friends, but Viola feels invisible and alone, as if a part of her has been broken.

Her greatest desire is to feel like she's a part of something again, the way she felt when she was with Lawrence. She doesn't want to feel invisible anymore. She wants to love someone and know that they love her too. It's the strength of this inner wish that summons the jinn.

When the jinn appears, he informs her that she has been granted three wishes. He expects it to be a routine venture to the world of humans, but Viola isn't like any of the other masters he's come in contact with up to this point. She speaks to him like a person, not just a wish-granter, and she evokes something in him that he's never experienced before--a longing for the friendship both she and Lawrence extend to him and, even more consuming, a longing for her. These are unprecedented and entirely unusual for a jinn. They aren't meant to get attached. They're meant to grant their wishes and go, but Jinn's not so sure he wants to go home anymore.

Viola gets three wishes. Three wishes and Jinn will be gone from her life forever. She won't remember him and he'll go back to his world, Caliban, until he is summoned by another human with a wish. It's not until after she has made her first wish that they begin to realize that they're feelings toward each other are more than anything they could have expected. Will Jinn help heal the brokenness in Viola's heart, only to have it broken once more and break his own heart in the process?

Once again, Jackson Pearce has created a fantastic story based on a classic fairytale. Technically, it isn't a part of her series of fairytale adaptations, but I still think it fits in that category regardless. I don't think I've ever read an adaptation of any stories involving genies before. In fact, it took me a few pages to get the image of the Aladdin genie voiced by Robin Williams out of my head. But it wasn't that difficult. After all, Jinn is a whole other species of genie than the crazy blue one I'm thinking of.

I particularly liked her description of Jinn's home world of Caliban, where the jinn have been banished. It's a beautiful place filled with beautiful people, but because of its lack of flaws is subpar in a way that makes complete sense, yet is kind of mind-blowing. It's our flaws and differences that make the human race so different and, eventually, so appealing to Jinn.

One of the things I really enjoyed about Pearce's other book was the creation of characters that were believable, well-rounded, and that carried strong emotional bonds for each other. Though these relationships were inherently quite different than the ones portrayed in Sisters Red, they still bore that essential loyalty to the people that were most important in the main characters' lives. Each cared deeply for the others and wanted most of all for the ones they loved to be truly happy. They wanted them to be happy being themselves, not trying to be copies of anyone else or copying what others were doing. Being happy with oneself and being happy with that was a major theme throughout the book that I deeply appreciated.

Jackson Pearce is clearly a fabulous storyteller. I cannot wait to read more of her work and it certainly won't be long before I'm scrambling for the next of her books I can get my hands on.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I'm . . . jealous.
Wait. No. I can't be jealous. My fingers tense and I can feel my pulse throbbing under my skin. My heart pounds in my chest and my mind races. The image of Viola and Aaron collides with the realization that I'm jealous. Jealousy is a mortal emotion. One that means I have something to lose--something that, if gone, will tear away a part of me. Jealousy is not for my kind. And yet there it is: I'm jealous.