Enchanted by Alethea Kontis

Enchanted was interesting take on many different fairytale themes.  If you enjoy retold fairy tales, then you will enjoy this book.  Normally, I love this type of book, but I thought that there were parts where this story had a tendency to drag on.  Furthermore, I felt that the author tried to incorporate too many fairy tale elements into the story.  We had pieces from the story of The Frog Prince, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, The Princess and the Pea, the story of the Red Shoes, where the girl dies after being forced to dance continuously, and many others.  I would have liked to have seen the author focus on a couple of these elements more, rather than just throwing them all together.  However, I did enjoy the main story.  The seven woodcutter sisters are all named after the days of the week. The Woodcutter family has a lot of fairy blood, and each member of the family has his or her own special abilities.  Since Sunday is the the seventh daughter of a seventh son, she is very powerful.  Anything she writes will become true, and she can create magic through storytelling.  When she meets an enchanted frog at the well, she begins to tell him the story of her life with her siblings.  Through their time together, they fall in love.  One day as she is leaving the well, she kisses the frog.  Her kiss transforms him back into a man after she has already left.  Unfortunately, he is the price whom her family hates.  He knows that he must win her love in his new form, so he goes back to his castle and declares that there will be three balls.  Prince Rumbold then tries to capture Sunday's heart in his own form.

My Favorite Books of Summer 2014

 

I tried to branch out and read more books geared towards adults this summer.  However, that does not mean that I didn't read any young adult literature.  I've ranked my summer YA reads from least favorite to favorite!

 

  #8 Zombie Baseball Beatdown by Paolo Bacigalupi  - This book is geared more towards middle school aged boys.  Since I don't fall into that category, it wasn't my favorite read of the summer.  However, there are parts that are extremely funny and entertaining.  Rabi, Miguel and Joe are on their own when the zombie apocalypse hits their hometown. 

  #7 Liv, Forever by Amy Talkington  - I enjoyed this book, but I thought some of it was predictable.  Liv thinks things are finally going her way.  She has just been accepted into a prestigious school on an art scholarship, and Malcolm, one of the popular
  #6 Hollow City by Ransom Riggs - This is the second book in the Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children series.  I enjoyed this installment, but not as much as the first book in the trilogy.  Jacob and his peculiar friends must try to find someone who can help Miss Peregrine, who is stuck in her bird form, while eluding their enemies.

  #5 Unforgotten by Jessica Brody - This is the second book in the Unremembered trilogy.  I thought this was a good second book to the series, and I am looking forward to the next book.  Unfortunately, this book leaves the reader with a cliffhanger.

  #4 Half Bad by Sally Green - Some people have compared this book to Harry Potter, but other than the fact that it is about witches, there are few similarities.  This book focuses more on the main character, Nathaniel.  Nathaniel is a "half code" (half white witch, half black witch), in a world where white and black witches try to destroy each other. While he has been raised by his white witch relatives, most white witches have treated him terribly.  He sets out to find his father and find out more about the black witches.  It is a story about good versus evil, but Nathaniel has seen both good and evil on both sides.

  #3 Raging Star by Moira Young - I have been waiting for this book for so long!  This is the final book in the Dustlands trilogy.  I have thoroughly enjoyed this series, but parts of the ending of this book were disappointing.  Saba, her brother Lugh, sister Emmi, and Jack set out to destroy DeMalo and the Tonton before they enslave the people of New Eden.


  #1 & #2 - Splintered and Unhinged by A.G. Howard are the first two books in a trilogy, and I cannot wait for the final book! Alyssa has always known that insanity runs in her family.  Her mother is in a mental institution and bugs and plants have always talked to her.  What she didn't know is that her mother isn't crazy.  Her family really is cursed by what Alice did in Wonderland.  Alyssa goes down the rabbit hole with her neighbor and crush, Jeb, to save her mother's sanity, along with her own.  Along the way, she meets Morpheus, a handsome Netherling who visited Alyssa in her dreams as a child. 
  I loved both of these books, but I think the second one was my favorite.  Morpheus is a great character, and Alyssa is a strong character.  My only complaint is Jeb.  He stands in Alyssa's way too often.  I'm curious to see how everything turns out in the final book!

The Caged Graves by Dianne K. Salerni

Okay, so I know I am way, way, way behind on my blogs lately.  I was shocked to realize that I haven't blogged since January!  I've been pretty busy, but still!  Anyway, I'm glad to start back with this book.  I can't recommend it enough!

The Caged Graves is a great historical fiction, mystery novel.  I could hardly bring myself to put it down!  The story is set in 1867, but is connected to events that occurred in 1778.  In 1778, Silas Clayton, a deserter from the Continental army, escaped the British with the payroll  for the Continentals.  Silas was later captured and executed in the town of Catawissa, but the gold was never found.  People in and around Catawissa have been searching for the gold ever since. 

In 1867, Verity Boone returns to Catawissa to live with her father and meet Nathaniel McClure, a boy she has been corresponding with and intends to marry.  Verity was sent away to live with her aunt when she was two, because her mother died.  On her arrival, she sees that she may have been hasty accepting a proposal from a Nathaniel, who she has never met in person.  Her doubts are further realized when she meets a handsome, young doctor's apprentice by the name of Hadley Jones.  Beyond Verity's confusion over which man to choose, she also is shocked to find that her mother's and her aunt's graves are located outside of the church cemetery and are enclosed in cages.  She is told varying stories as to why the graves are caged.  Some claim it is protection from grave robbers, others accuse her mother and aunt of being witches, she hears of curses, and also the belief by many that they were buried with the missing gold.  As Verity tries to unravel these mysteries and find the truth, she also must find her place in her father's life again, and make the decision of who she should marry.

Final Counts

For the 2013 Good Reads Reading Challenge, I challenged myself to 65 books.  My final total turned out to be 92.  Of those 92 books, 23 were audiobooks.  I was a little surprised to realize that 63 of the books I read were in the genre of young adult literature, and most of those are available in the BHS library.  I read a lot of great books in 2013, and I hope to read even more in 2014.  I am challenging myself to 100 books for 2014.  I hope that I will be able to reach this goal.  I'm off to a good start so far, as I've read 4 books since January 1.  I also hope to read more books in the high school library, so it will be easier to help kids find books that they will enjoy. 

My Top 13 Books of 2013

Top 13 of 2013

For today's Holiday Break Reading Challenge, I will rank my top 13 books that I've read this year.  This was extremely difficult for me.  I've read a total of 87 books so far this year, and many of them were really great books, so I narrowed my list down as much as possible!

I've decided to only include young adult books on this list, but I wanted to mention a few adult books that were great too:

My top (more than) 13 YA Books of 2013:

#13 Monsters by Ilsa Bick

This is the final book in the Ashes trilogy.  I hate to see this series end.  Even though this was not nearly as good as the first book of the series, it was still a good read.

#12 Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

I read this series back to back, but I really loved the first installment the best.

#11 Eve Series by Anna Carey

                               

I really enjoyed this trilogy, but Eve is the best of the three.

#10 Unsouled by Neal Shusterman

I was so excited to get the next book in this series this year!!!\

\

#9 Game by Barry Lyga

I loved I Hunt Killers, but I thought that Game was even better.  It had me on the edge of my seat, and I can't wait for the next installment.

#8 Blood Red Road  by Moira Young

I absolutely loved Blood Red Road.  The second book, Rebel Heart, was also very good, but it made me very mad in some places!

#7 Allegiant by Veronica Roth

I almost left this book off my list, because I'm still sad about the turn it took, but I love this series, and just couldn't bring myself to leave it out.  

#6 Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

I loved the unique take on zombies in this book.

#5 Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

I really enjoyed this entire series, especially the first two books.

#4 The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

I'm usually not into alien invasion stories, but this book kept me guessing.  I never knew what was going to happen next and it was always interesting and surprising.

#3 The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle

 

I love vampire books, and this series was so interesting and creepy.  I loved the unique mixture of the Amish setting and the terrifying vampires.

#2 The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black 

This was another great, unique vampire book.  I really hope that there will be a sequel to this one!

#1 A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson 

 I had to rank this as my top book of 2013, because I have been reading this series for about 15 years.  I thought this was a great ending to the series, and I think that Robert Jordan would have been proud of the way Sanderson finished it out for him.  I'm just so glad that Jordan left all so much stuff behind so that the series could be finished in a manner that did justice to the earlier books.  I will miss waiting on the next installment, but I'm considering reading this series from start to finish sometime in the future.

Holiday Break Reading Challenge

Once again, I've joined the Holiday Break Reading Challenge this year.  This year is a little different from past years, but still fun.  Each day, we post the number of pages we've read and the person with the most pages at the end wins.  Unfortunately, I am not in the lead, but I'm trying to catch up!  You can see our progress here and join us if you would like!  Sometimes, we also have activities to complete for the challenge.  The first activity was to create a word cloud using a review of a book I've read.  I used my review for The Coldest Girl in Coldtown.  Let me know what you think about my word cloud!

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/7410437/The_Coldest_Girl_In_Coldtown

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

I have to admit, that I put off reading this book because of the title.  It just didn't intrigue me.  However, after seeing so many people talking about this book, I decided to pick it up.  Plus, I'm going to a library conference in the spring and Holly Black will be there.  I wanted to have read something by her before I go.  I am so glad that I read this book!  It was excellent and kept me turning the pages.  Yes, it's a vampire book, and yes, they seem to be overdone these days.  However, Black takes a different approach to vampires.  For one thing, these vampires are dangerous, brutal and blood thirsty.

Our main character wakes up the morning after a party to find that everyone in the house, except for her and her ex-boyfriend Aidan, have been drained by vampires.  She finds Aidan tied to a bed, but he has already been infected.  She also finds a vampire chained up in the same room.  She helps Aidan and the vampire Gavriel escape their captives, but since Aidan is infected, she has to take him to Coldtown.  Apparently, vampires have always been among us, but they kept themselves a secret.  However, in recent times, a mistake was created who traveled and infected as many people as he could.  Now the world is overrun by newly made vampires.  Once a person is bitten, they turn cold.  If they can be locked up for 88 days without drinking vampire blood, then the infection runs its course and they are fine.  If not, and they drink human blood, then they die and come back as a vampire.  America's solution for this problem was to quarantine all infected people and as many vampires as they could capture in walled cities called Coldtowns.  Once a person is within the walls of a Coldtown, it is almost impossible to leave.  

I am really hoping that this is not a stand alone novel and the Holly Black intends to make it a series.  The book leaves us with a satisfying conclusion, but there are a lot of unanswered questions too.  Yes, Tanna does end up with a vampire love interest, but I want to point out that the romance is a very minor part of a much bigger story.  Tanna is not a lovestruck damsel in distress.  She can take care of herself and often relies on her own strength and intelligence to do so.  I definitely recommend this book!