DECEMBER

It's late and I really should be going to bed, so I'll make this a short one
(funny how that started out more like an ending than a beginning....)

But I digress; my point is that NOVEMBER IS OVER! I have time to update this blog again. Yeah alright writing my NaNo isn't exactly a great excuse, but it should at least be a moderately good excuse. I mean, come on. NaNo is stressful, especially when you're a teen. When am I supposed to find time to write 1667 words every day along with school, family, friends, and extracurricular activities? It's a bit of a toughie.
My other excuse is... well, also blamed on NaNo. I didn't have any time to read. Yeah, I know, I'm ashamed. I read like 2 books over the month. SHAME. But I'm fixing that now! Less time writing and more time... well...worrying about school, but also more time to edit! Wait, no I meant to say draw! Oh no not that either... more time to sleep! Jeez. "More time to read" just doesn't seem to want to appear on this scree-- hey look at that.

I'd better head out. I already stayed up past my norm. brainstorming ideas for a paper I'm writing for graduation. :-/
Later!
-MJ

Alanna: The First Adventure

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

Summary: Alanna never was much one for magic, so it's a problem when her father sends her to a covenant to learn magic. Her twin look-alike brother, Thom, isn't exactly pleased either. He's being sent to Court to learn how to be a knight when he'd much rather be taught magic.

So the two twins come to the obvious solution.

Switch places.

This is a little more complicated than the initial idea. With the help of Thom's forgery skills and two of the household servants however, the two manage to work things out. Thom leaves with Maude, the village healing woman, for the covenant with his own name in the letter in place of Alanna's. He has no problem, as the covenant accepts males as well as females.

Alanna doesn't get off so easily.

She disguises herself as a boy and with the help of Coram, her manservant, she begins life in the Castle as a page. Alanna quickly learns that life in the Castle is hard, what with wrestling practice, chores, and studies, not to mention there's a bit of a bully problem. Even though she has Prince Jonathan, Raoul, Gary, Alex, and several other pages/squires on her side she refuses to accept their help in fighting the page, Ralon. She makes herself work hard, practicing with a heavy sword late into the night and going to her friends in the city for fighting tricks.

Alanna braves the Castle life, but is she able to keep her identity hidden? Does Ralon get the best of her? Will she be able to keep up with the other boys? Even Alanna isn't sure of the answers.

Opinion: This book doesn't waste time. The very first line introduces us to the problem that our characters are faced with. We meet Alanna and Thom right off the bat and get a feel for their personalities and current lives. Descriptions are short and to the point, a strong contrast to Pierce's later books such as the Trickster stories. At first I was annoyed by the short, choppy sentences and quick transitions, but after a little while I became comfortable with the style and even liked it. There was no waiting for action. There was little to no filler. The plot was quick paced and exciting.

It did take me a little while to sort out what name went with what character for a little while. All of the pages were introduced in the same page or so and descriptions got mashed up in my head, but as the book progressed they became more defined. They became easy to identify with and I began to care about what they did and what happened to them. Alanna herself is very easy to like. She's the underdog striving to be on top, doing everything within her power to get there. She never loses sight of her goal and manages to keep up with the boys, despite being smaller and in some cases, weaker.

Title: Like with Percy Jackson and Artemis Fowl: Not very creative, but descriptive and simple enough.

Cover: I'd expect nothing less from a fantasy book out of the 80s. Okay its not bad but it wouldn't stand out very much.

Series: I high recommend reading the remaining 4 books if you liked this one. The others are just as spectacular. :)

Recommendation: If you like medieval stories, magic, fantasy, and/or strong female protagonists you'd enjoy this. The word choice is a bit strange at first, but eventually you get used to the flow and can immerse yourself in the story. I'd say grades 5+

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PS
Here's me with my Wednesday costume ;)

(Thanks to my friend Miranda for taking the top 2 pics, and my brother for the bottom!)
MJ

Haunt

Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat

I have a legitimate excuse for not posting on Wednesday this time! Honestly!
There's this halloween haunt thing that I volunteer for.... I'd call it a haunted house, but it's more than that. It's this trail that goes through a park in my area and they've set up sheds for sets and props everywhere and stuff like that. Anywho.
So I volunteer to act along this trail. And to say it's a time-sucker would be an understatement. If you want to get a good part you show up at 4 or so. School ends at roughly 2:30. I get home and can do my homework at like 3. 3-4. That's not a lot of time to do much of anything, even homework. By the time you're out of set and get home it's like, 11 or later. It's HARD WORK. But so much fun.

The first night that I worked was Monday, the 18th. This was 'press night', where they allow the cameras and reporters and families of actors to come through. I arrived with my good buddy Lauren and my brother. There was a bit of a mix up with paperwork so I requested that Lauren stand in line while I figure things out with my brother. I asked her to get us a part in the pavilion which meant we would be inmates in a prison. As I'm signing some papers she comes up to me and says, "I'm sorry, MJ, I had to." And I was all, "what?" So she tells me, "The chesire cat was open...." (oh yeah, forgot to mention that the theme for this year is Alice in Wonderland) and I know how much she loves Ches, and I don't really mind all that much so I'm like, that's cool. I'll go sign up as the Caterpillar (cuz he's in the same set.) When I go up to the casting person I ask for the Caterpillar, but he's taken, so I go with the next best thing: The March Hare. Not in the same set as Ches, but I figured it'd work out anyway.

http://ursulav.deviantart.com/art/March-Hare-and-Dormouse-57971384

So as you've probably worked out already, I can be a bit of a nut ball some of the time.... all of the time. This really helped me with the March Hare roll. That, and I've seen both the Disney version and Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland, multiple times. So the Hatter and I played off of each other's acts and had an awesome time with our tea set and crazy techno music.
I guess I must've done pretty well because one of the casting crew (they came through to give us candy for our throats [lots of yelling] and make sure our set was okay) requested I take up the roll for the remainder of my nights at the Haunt! Delighted, I naturally agreed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio1movies/2010/01/

So far I have worked as the Hare 2 nights. Press Night (which was Monday) and Wednesday the 20th. On Weds I actually received a different costume than the one in the pic you see above, and slightly different makeup. If I can ever get my phone to sync with my computer, I'll post it. Basically there was more black than red... my eyes and lips were painted red in the above pic, and the new one I've black lips and dark streaks around my eyes. The hat-ears were the same, but the jacket was different. They gave me a red shirt with a vest. By far the coolest piece of my costume were my glasses. Yellow lenses and bedazzles, round, black rims. THEY'RE FREAKING AWESOME. More need not be said.

Because it's my birthday today, I won't be working tonight. It's closed tomorrow and Monday. I am, however, working next Tues. Weds. (maybe) Thurs. Fri. and Sun/Halloween. Lauren hopes to be the Hatter on Halloween and I hope my position as the March Hare will help convince the casters to let her have it. My brother would also like to be the Hatter, but we don't know what day. I think both of them would make awesome Hatter's, plus it would be so much fun to be in set with them.

...the latex for my nose makes my face itch.
I love my March Hare role. :)

Beautiful Creatures

Overall Rating: 6.5/10

Summary: Gatlin County is the epitome of your stereotypical southern no-where town. Ethan Wate's parents lived in Gatlin, as did his grand parents, and his great grand parents, and... you get the idea. Ethan is determined to be the one to break the cycle, but he's got another 2 years of school before he can go anywhere. And being on the Jackson High basketball team, popular, and living with a single father he never sees, it seems Ethan is too immersed with the middle of nowhere to ever leave. He doesn't want to be one of them, but he is.

At least, until the day Lena Duchanness shows up. She changes everything for him. So completely different from everyone in the cookie-cutter town, Ethan is drawn to her like a moth to a light. Everyone thinks this attraction is unhealthy. No one should be so close to the niece of the town's shut-in, Macon Ravenwood. The guys on the basketball team disapprove. The DAR (a proud women's group of patriot blood) disapproves.  Amma, the woman who has looked after Ethan as she might her own son, disapproves. Even Lena herself doesn't like the attention.

At first.

Ethan and Lena deal with the cruel stereotypes of the small town as they discover things about themselves and their own pasts that may have been better to have kept undiscovered.

Opinion: This book wasn't a disaster, but it did fail to leave a real impression on me. That might be because it follows the typical paranormal book these days, or that I'm not big on books placed in the Southern States (or at least ones that go over the top with embracing their southern heritage... bleh, Civil War!) or it may simply have not been very impressing.

This a pretty typical boy-meets girl sort of story. Ethan is a basketball jock whose mother has passed away. He hates the town he lives in and wants to break free of the cycle that is Gatlin. When a mysterious girl shows up, he's drawn to her. Insert some paranormal stuff here. Then they learn the town is much more than they'd ever thought it could be. It's really more of a mystery than it is my typical fantasy/action/adventure book. Stories about high school tend to bore me, however, as I already have to deal with all of the high school drama. 

It isn't necessarily that Beautiful Creatures is a boring or bad book, it's just... too long. There's too much time between one plot point and the next. The scenes with the other high schoolers involved were depressing and, more importantly, unproductive. By the time the climax came I was so ready for the book to be over I skipped every other line. 

The one thing this book really has going for it is that it's told in Ethan's perspective. It was refreshing to read a paranormal/romance type story from the guy's perspective. (although if I think about it I haven't really read that many paranormal/romance stories period...)

Title: I really liked this title. It seems rather vague for most of the story, but there is a scene in which Macon sort of explains it, and after that I appreciated it even more.

Cover: I also thought that this cover was eye-catching, but I didn't really understand how it related to the book. I've a couple of ideas, but the picture is too vague to really refer to anything, in my opinion. 

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I guess my mind took a break from reality last week, because not only did I fail to post last Sunday, I neglected Wednesday as well. Gahhh! It's hard to keep things straight in my head sometimes. I just need to get in the habit of it, I think. If I remember I'll try and post tomorrow to make up for last week.

We'll see if my blender of a mind will manage to remember.

MJ

Wax Wings

As promised, I'm (finally) getting around to posting a blog about my own writing project! Just took me a couple of weeks to remember, haha. Although I only remembered last minute so this post won't be as well prepared as my future ones will (hopefully) be. But none the less, I forge on ahead!

Recently I have been contemplating the name of my story. Well okay, I was actually thinking about my band. In the past week or so I've grown tired of my band sitting around and doing nothing, so I mailed them all (originials and our newest member- a singer) and figured out a good time for us to meet. Except in doing so we learned that one of our members couldn't come. Ever. Fortunately our new singer is also a fantastic piano player, so she can fill the shoes of our lost pianist. That means we have a drummer, a pianist/singer, and a guitar player. Always working to bring things to their full potential, I am now considering stepping down from my guitar position to maybe play some simple bass. I'm not exactly julliyard material or anything. I know a decent guitar player who might be willing to take over. My main job would be to find/provide music and organize things.

Yes I know I said this would be about my writing project. But I think I also mentioned it would be about my life. Either way it shouldn't matter much, since this whole band story ties into what I planned on making this blogpost about.

Names.

The original trio (myself, the drummer and pianist) named ourselves Clockwork. But now that we've had so much switching around I'm thinking, isn't that too... mechanical? If it was all created on the computer, maybe. But it's not. I want us to have a creative name with some p-zaz in it, you know what I mean?

My current project is called Spindles. I've been writing a little more recently as it's just passed the 60,000 (word) marker. I never really intended for it to be officially named Spindles, and I still don't. I want something interesting, eye catching, short and memorable. Something that related to myths/legends/fairytales. One name I came up with was Wax Wings, referring to the story of Icarus and Daedelus. But then I realized, what does that have to do with my story? Salem isn't particularly arrogant. In fact he's rather cold and calculating. So maybe instead that would work for a band name.
But I'm still without a story name. I think I'll have to research more into greek myths and see if there's anything that catches my eye.

All of this mythology talk... I'm kind of hooked on myths right now. I blame my english teacher. She has us studying them. But I love myths, so it's okay.

Time to go research!
MJ

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

Overall Rating: 9.0/10

Summary: It's tough living with ADD, let alone dyslexia, but when you put that on top of the fact that your mother remarried to a jerk, you never met your real father, and you've been to at least 6 different schoolssince you began your education, things begin to get unbearable. Just imagine the trouble that Percy Jackson must get into to be kicked out of 6 schools. It also doesn't help when your math teacher tries to kill you.

There is, however, a logical explanation to all of Percy's troubles.

Greek Gods.

Although an explanation doesn't make it any easier that the strongest god, Zeus, holds a grudge against Percy because he's not supposed to exist. He also blames Percy for stealing his Master Bolt and demands to have it returned by the Summer Solstice.

So with the help of two new friends Percy goes out on a quest that takes him across the United States (as well as above and below!) to meet interesting (and life threatening) people, see fun (and life threatening) sights, and do exciting (and life threatening!) activites. In the process he discovers a twisted plot and a darkness that runs much further than anyone ever thought.

Opinion: I first read this book a few years ago and looooved it. I'm a sucker for greek mythology. The idea of this book is just totally awesome. Rick Riordan does a fantastic job with this story, and it remains my favorite of the entire series. The characters are genuine, the humor chuckle-worthy and the plot well thought out.

Reccomendation: Grades 4-8. You could read it in later grades, but I think PJATO sort of lost some of it's glamor after 8th grade. This might be because the following books were a let down, but it might also be because I outgrew them. Maybe both? Younger teens with some knowledge of Greek Mythology and a love for fantasy and action will think this book is the coolest thing since peanut butter. (and let me tell you, PB is pretty cool.)

Title: Uncreative, but descriptive.

Cover: I love this cover. It's eye-catching, and if I hadn't first read this as a class in school I probably would've picked it up at the store.

Series: I actually wouldn't reccomend reading books 2-5. They just weren't worth it.

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Probably my shortest review of all cuz I'm in a bit of a time crunch! Plus I didn't finish the book I planned to review (beautiful Creatures) in time for this so I had to pull an old one out of my hat. Sorry guys. I also missed Weds. again. Bad MJ! Ahg. I'll try and post then to make up for my lame review today.

-MJ

Trickster's Choice

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

Summary: It's always difficult when your parents prevent you from doing something because it's dangerous. Alliane of Pirate's Swoop knows this all too well as she tries to make her way in the world. Since she was little she learned how to be a spy and absolutely loves the work. Because her mother (Allanna the Lioness) and father (George Cooper) don't believe Spy work should be a girl's work, Aly spends a great amount of her time partying and having fun.

All of this changes when a god decides to put Aly's talents to use. She leaves the Swoop so her parents (who were separted for a year because of a war) may have some time together. This results in her capture by a group of pirates who are determined to sell her off as a slave.

Aly plans to escape from the people who purchase her at the slave market, but her mind is changed when a god appears to strike a wager with her. The remainder of the book is Aly keeping her end of the wager by protecting two noble half-raka (Raka are brown skinned people who are treated very poorly in the Isles) girls. The more time she spends with them, the further Aly finds herself wanting to stay not because of Kyprioth's wager, but because of the girls themselves. Will she be able to win her wager? Will her parents ever know what happened to her? What are Kyprioth's motives for keeping these two girls alive? So many questions and only one summer to solve them.

Opinion: When I first read this book I thought it was one of the best things ever. Now that I've re-read I've realized that, while the plot is detailed and the characters charming, it can be a bit of a drag. Things don't get moving until quite a bit of time has passed and there's more than one session of long, unbroken boring day-by-day filler. If you can bear with those, though, this novel is amazing. I still love it, but I don't think I consider it a favorite anymore.

A large part of what keeps this story going are the characters. Aly herself is sly and fun. Reading her dialogue with other characters always made me smile. She's not perfect, and that makes her even better. The other characters are fun and realistic, from quiet Dove to robust Sarai. I've also always loved Nawat's crow habits, and the way he would always offer Aly bugs to eat and how unoffended he seemed when she turned him down.

I'm unsure if it's because I already knew what was going to happen, but a few things I saw from a mile away. Others I was pleasantly (re) surprised by. Reading about Aly's spy work always fascinated me because Pierce seemed to cover every angle and always come up with a new trick.

This book is a delightfully enjoyable read.

Reccomendation: For patient people who enjoy fantasy. There's a little edge on mystery because of the spy work, but not much. If you aren't willing to wait through until the action, this isn't really a book you'd enjoy.

Title: I really like this title. It's original, creative, and it makes sense!

Cover: There are so many versions of this it's a bit unfair to judge the one above. The cover never really drew my attention, though. I probably wouldn't have even picked up this book if it hadn't been a Christmas gift from my mother.

Series: Trickster's Queen is just as good if not better than Trickster's Choice. If you liked this one, you definitely have to read the second half.

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This review was a bit shorter, but I couldn't think of much to say. And I guess I failed to post on Wednesdsay. Woops. Let's see if I have better luck this week.

-MJ

Mockingjay- Suzanne Collins

Overall Rating: 6.5/10

((Caution: Spoilers for Hunger Games and Catching Fire))

Summary: We interrupt my unimportant spanish homework to bring you another exciting book review from MJ! Okay, okay, some would argue that book reviews can't exactly be 'exciting', but they're definitely interesting. Unfortunately it's hard to say the same for Mockingjay.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The third and final installment in the Hunger Games trilogy brings back all of our favorite characters. Well, the ones that weren't killed. Katniss is shuffling through the ruins of Distrcit 12, reminiscing about the past.Make no mistake, her times in the arena were trying, and she's feeling the effects of them while she stays at 13 with the survivors from 12, citizens of 13, old friends and fellow rebels. With painful memories, stress of the present and fear of the future claw at her mind Katniss is forced to work with 13's harsh president Coin to maintain the face of the rebellion. Even with Gale around to comfort her she cannot get over the loss of Peeta or the harshness of their new environment. Indeed, the people of 13 uphold a diligence that has kept them alive all these years every single day. The only reason she is exempt from the harsh punishments inflicted upon rule-breakers is because she is the Mockingjay. But how will she take seeing her friends beaten for taking an extra slice of bread? Can she save Peeta from the clutches of the Capitol? Katniss is finished with the official games, but will she make it past the Capitol's final level?

Opinion: For all of my eagerness when I opened this book I was remarkably disappointed at the end. Unlike the previous two books there is relatively little physical action. While I believe this book may be on par with Catching Fire, it wasn't really in the same realm that Hunger Games was. As with CF, the story was out of Katniss's hands, something I found more frustrating and annoying than anything. She is no longer the hero, but a figurehead. She was the spark that started the rebellion, but nothing more. Half of this book she's being sedated or on some form of medication. Not exactly the strong hero-type we saw in HG. During Peeta's rescue she is told to 'sit back and wait'. Would Katniss from the first book do that? I don't think so. But Katniss from book 3 pretty much does. There were a few fun surprises thrown in there which I appreciated, but overall the plotline had me groaning. Even the end was unusual. The book did not end with fighting. Instead we continued on with more internal grief and confusion on Katniss's part. A few more twists here and there, and then the Mockingjay is all but stuffed in a confined, observed room. There were a number of unnecessary character deaths. Conversely I thought there were a few characters who should have died and didn't. Yes, I like Collins's writing style. Yes I like Hunger Games. Yes I liked the series. But Mockingjay... just wasn't the ending I had hoped for.

Reccomendation: I'd say read it, if only so you know how Hunger Games ends. For all of its flaws it was worth the read; I just wouldn't suggest you buy it for yourself. Borrow it from a friend. I doubt I'll re-read this one.

Title: I love the title. My favorite of the three in the series. Mockingjay flows well and it's creative. If only such were true for the book itself.

Cover: It follows the theme, it's creative, eye-catching. I like it.

Series: I LOVE Hunger Games. One of my favorite books. Catching Fire is about as good as Mockingjay, but in a way this one is more depressing because its the end of the series and Collins doesn't have another chance to redeem herself. Depressingly mediocre for a series that started with such a bang.

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On a more blog-centric note, I might update more like twice a week. Say personal writing on Wednesdays and then Book reviews on Sundays. Or I might alternate on Sundays. We'll find out what school allows.

~MJ

Consistency

It's been a while, huh? I could say a whole bunch of things to explain my absence, but they'd all just sound like excuses. So rather I'll start off by saying that I plan to update this blog once a week on Sundays. Most likely afternoons. Kind of perfect, don't you think? Fits with the theme.
Anyway.
Due to a suggestion from my friend, M. S. Steed, I'm going to use this blog to post a little more than just book reviews. Maybe a snippet of writing here or there, a little about my day, more of an all purpose blog I suppose. A little like hers. (If you haven't alread, go check hers out!) But mainly I think I'll stick to books. At least if I can manage to read a book a week... which generally isn't a problem for me, but you can imagine I'm a little tighter for time what with school having started and me being a student.
Now that I've dedicated myself to updating once a week, I'll spare some time to mention my current project. It's been on a small hiatus because it's been wearing me down a little and I refuse to write something I'm sick of/don't enjoy writing. I expect to pick it up tomorrow or the next day. But I digress. Currently it is going under the name of 'Spindles', although is very susceptible to change. It's a Steampunk/Fairytale mix, and my quick pitch for it is: "Two unlikely people must bond together to save the Steampunk city of Blackpool from a dark conspiracy. Will this fairytale have a happily ever after?" As with the classical fairytales, there is a princess, prince charming, 'magic', strange creatures and a castle. The steampunk comes in when we bring up the setting. It's some 300 years after the world has ended and the remains of humanity are figuring out how to function as the society they once were.
I know the latest thing in fiction is 'angels' and while I've always been in love with the idea, it's not something I've really acted on. Mostly because I don't want to betray my 54,000+ word story. With any luck I'll manage to finish Spindles off before NaNoWriMo, and then use that month to do something with Angels... I don't know. To qoute NCIS, my 'mind is like a pachinko machine.' There are so many ideas clamoring for attention it's crazy.
In general I tend to write what I want. I figure if I'm not having fun, why bother? This of course leads to dozens of half-finished projects or random sentences or partly developed characters and relationships I never plan to revisit. I just hope to keep my attention focused on Spindles long enough to finish it, as it means a lot to me.
So much to write...
so little time.

I'll update next week with a review on Mockingjay.
Until next time,
MJ

Artemis Fowl- Eoin Colfer

Overall Rating: 9.5/10

Summary: When you pit a boy genius with seemingly unlimited resources against an underground, high-tech civilization of fairies, who is going to win? Who even should win? Artemis Fowl may be 12, he may be brilliant, he may be Irish, but he's a criminal. His only interest in the People is for their gold. And hotshot Holly Short of the LEPrecon (Lower Elements Police) is determined to prevent this from happening... despite the fact that she's the first female officer and the tough commander Root pushes her for any reason at all, no matter how insignificant. 

Artemis, after acquiring a Book begins his onslaught on the fairies. It's easier to get away with toppling civilizations when your father is missing and your mother is bedridden, of course. Your life-long, expertly trained Butler can also be of use.

But will he be able to separate the advanced society from their money, or will this be Aretmis's undoing?

Opinion: I love this book. I just finished reading it for the 7th time (I kid you not) and I still love this book, despite the fact that the main character is younger than I and I originally read this book back in 6th grade. Eoin Colfer is brilliant. He laces in background details while keeping the action going, he is excellent at setting the mood and is wonderful with the 'show, don't tell' rule. His characters are witty, charming, and fascinating. I absolutely love Colfer's sense of humor.

Artemis is dark, creative, cunning and deviant. These traits are highlighted very well in the book. Holly is refreshing, impulsive, witty, and strong. It's a bit difficult to decide who's side to be on. This story is told in the alternating POVs. Sometimes Holly, sometimes Artemis. It makes it hard to decide whose side to be rooting for. I'm still not sure if I find this annoying or if it just adds more to the story.

I may not read it again, but that's only because I can recite the plot (and even some specific lines) from memory. This is a book you should definitely go out and buy; not just borrow from the library.

Recommendation: For those who enjoy supernatural crime, Irish boy genii, and hotshot fairy police. There's relatively little violence/gore, the poor language is mostly disguised in fairy tongue, and there's no romance. Quite a 'family friendly' book, you might say. Grades 5-9 (or maybe even older than that)

Title: Not very original, but hey. It'll work.

Cover: Pretty plain and simple, not very attracting, but hey, it caught my attention when I was a 6th grader.

Series: If you liked book 1, you should definitely, absolutely, without a doubt read the next in the series. There are currently 6 (soon to be 7) Artemis and Holly (and others, even) develop greatly as characters. A very excellent series.

Shiver - Maggie Stiefvater

Overall Rating: 7.5/10

Summary: Shiver is a book about a girl and her dog. Well, more like a wolf than dog, really. He saved her from an attack when she was younger and ever since then has been watching her from a distance in the woods that are his home. Grace, now 17, sits in her backyard during the long winter months and watches her yellow-eyed wolf. Then one day a boy is killed by the wolves and a hunting party goes out to eradicate the wolf population. Grace, fearing for her wolf, tries to stop them. In doing so she ends up back at her house, staring at the bleeding boy on her porch.

So begins the tale of Grace and Sam. Together they must deal with the disease Sam is plagued with and the consequences of the others like him. They have a limited amount of time and a lot to deal with.

Opinion: Shiver, while initially appealing, lost me a little as the story went on. I found the plot to be vague and scattered. There were some events that I wasn't sure tied into the main plot at all, or what their relevance was. I wasn't sure what the end goal of the story was supposed to be. Despite my confusion over this, I found that I quite enjoyed this story. Unlike certain romance novels that are currently out (*cough*Twilight*cough*) I could sese the chemistry between Sam and Grace. Stiefvater did a stunning job of describing how the wolf senses work and incorporating those into the story. The plot and action are come-and-go, but the moments between Sam and Grace are cute and meaningful. I liked the characters, I liked the backstory, I liked the concept of the wolves. I liked reading something that was supernatural and not slathered in 'vampire'. I probably won't read it again, but I had fun reading it the first time through.

Recommendation: For those looking for a supernatural romance novel and don't mind a bit of gore. I'd say Grades 9+ 

Title: Creative and hooking

Cover: Original and appropriate for the story. The cover was always a source of fascination for me even before I knew anything about the book itself. I love the use of colors and how the wolf is just hidden behind the branches.

Has anyone else read it? Anyone planning to? Thoughts, opinions?

Sunday Afternoons

Greetings to y'all!

I guess I should start off by saying this is a blog for book reviews. I read to what other consider an excessive degree. Apparently some people think reading hinders my social life. (*cough*myfriends*cough*) I however, disagree. You can never read enough books! I've been in love with stories for as long as I can remember. Before I could read books myself my father read to me. But enough about that.

In honor of my obsession I have decided to start a blog! Well, my obsession along with the fact that a fellow writer (M. S. Steed) began a blog and inspired me to start my own. I suppose this could be used as a platform for my writing career, but at the moment I just think it would be fun to share my love for books with others.

The sort of books I'll review will include: The Night Angel Trilogy, Valiant, the Chronicles of Vladimir Todd, Wake/Fade/Gone, Trickster's Choice/Queen, Hunger Games/Catching Fire/Mockingjay, Incarceron, and others. I'm a fan of fantasy, sci-fi and paranormal. I read YA fiction stretching from grades 7-12, although will throw in the occasional adult book. (Such as the Night Angel Trilogy) If anyone has a book they'd like me to read/review just say so now.

Here's my current reading list (These are in no particular order):

Shadow's Edge

Beyond the Shadows

Trickster's Choice/Queen (even though I've already read them twice)

Blue is for Nightmares (series: 5 books)

Abhorsen Trilogy

Lord Sunday

Resurrection of Magic Trilogy

Incarceron

Shiver & Linger

Fade & Gone

Carbon Diaries 2015 & 2017

Spindle's End

Mockingjay

I hope you all enjoy the blog! Leave a comment; I love hearing opinions about as much as I love giving my own.

Thanks!

-M.J.