Wolf-Speaker (Immortals, #2)
Author: Tamora Pierce
Publication Date: 1994
Publisher: Simon Pulse

Blurb (GR): When humans start cutting down trees and digging holes in peaceful Dunlath Valley, the wolves know that something is wrong. They send a messenger to the only human who will listen -- Daine, a fourteen-year-old girl with the unpredictable power of wild magic. Daine and her closest companions heed the wolves' cry for help. But the challenge they are about to face in the valley is greater than they can possibly imagine...

Review:
This didn't excite me as much as its predecessor, Wild Magic, primarily for the following reason:

Daine and Numair are in the forest then
Daine enters into the mind of an animal.
Daine and Numair and some wolves are in the forest then
Daine enters into the mind of an animal.
Daine and Numair go to a castle then
Daine enters into the mind of an animal.
Daine hangs out with wolves and then
Daine enters into the mind of an animal.
Daine meets some immortals, good and bad, and then
Daine enters into the mind of an animal.
Daine enters into the mind of an animal to talk to Numair through a barrier.
Daine is always tired because it takes a lot of energy when
Daine enters into the mind of an animal.
Daine enters into the mind of an animals to go everywhere, all the time, forever and ever amen.

Okay, that's it, you get the point. I still love Tamora Pierce and I'll still keep going with the series because I like the world.

3/5 stars

Forbidden
Author: Tabitha Suzuma
Publication Date: 6/28/11
Publisher: Simon Pulse

Blurb (GR):  Seventeen-year-old Lochan and sixteen-year-old Maya have always felt more like friends than siblings. Together they have stepped in for their alcoholic, wayward mother to take care of their three younger siblings. As defacto parents to the little ones, Lochan and Maya have had to grow up fast. And the stress of their lives—and the way they understand each other so completely—has also also brought them closer than two siblings would ordinarily be. So close, in fact, that they have fallen in love. Their clandestine romance quickly blooms into deep, desperate love. They know their relationship is wrong and cannot possibly continue. And yet, they cannot stop what feels so incredibly right. As the novel careens toward an explosive and shocking finale, only one thing is certain: a love this devastating has no happy ending.

Review:
I was talking to Lyndsey about how it feels to have a brother and the best example I could come up with is this: It feels like that force when you try to put two similar magnetic poles together, but right at that moment when it starts to push away. The love I have for my brother is so strong but he repulses me at the same time. I mean, he’s great as an adult but he is the same kid who once filled his Skeletor action figure with urine and sprayed all 3 of his sisters with it. He is the same brother who once fed 4-year old Flann a concoction of mostly Tabasco sauce while we were being babysat. (My mother made him drink it when she came home, FYI) He is the same brother who used to put his stuffed Hulk Hogan resting above his doorframe so if we tried to come in, it’d fall on us. And he is the same kid that said, “Polly want a cracker?” like a parrot all the way from Texas to Seattle on a road trip. (according to my mother) How anyone could ever be attracted to their sibling is beyond me. I do understand that it happens, usually in highly stressful family situations, but I just couldn’t get over my repulsion while I was reading Forbidden. I wonder what the correlation is between people who enjoyed this book and whether or not they have brothers. Oh, I guess I was assuming that everyone who would read this review would already know what this book is about. If you don’t, SURPRISE! It’s about incest. (well, really it is about being in a terrible family situation)

This is written in first-person present, which really isn’t my favorite style, but I couldn’t get over the following:

“Summer gives way to autumn. The air turns sharper, the days grow shorter, gray clouds and persistent drizzle alternating with cold blue skies and bracing winds. Willa loses her third tooth, Tiffin attempts to cut his own hair when a supply teacher mistakes him for a girl…”
What is this? Most of the book reads like personal journal entries from Lochan and Maya’s present alternating perspectives but every once in a while there would be sections of text that were reflections on long periods of time. Overall, I thought the dual perspectives were successful but who writes their present thoughts like this?

Dear diary,
Winter approaches faster than usual this year. Crisp, frigid air creeps into town with snowstorms right behind it. I made chicken casserole for dinner tonight. I cooked the chicken too long so it was a bit dry.

A bit jarring, eh? That’s an extreme example of what I am talking about but you get the point.

I want to make a comment on the names in this book but can someone named Flannery actually do that with a straight face? I’m not even going to tell you my other family members’ names—let’s just say it would be the pot calling the kettle black on this one. (though we DO all have Irish names so at least there’s a theme!) Willa, Tiffin, Kit, Maya, and Lochan? It reminded me of that quote from Baby Mama when the one mother reminds her kids that they have a playdate later with Wingspan and Banjo.

I found the whole story a bit predictable but was it entertaining? Definitely. And the sex scenes were really well-done, even though it makes me feel really creepy and dirty to say so. I have absolutely no idea what makes people love or hate this—my Goodreads friends are all over the spectrum and not in a predictable way. If you can stomach reading about an incestuous relationship, give it a go. It is worth the read but it was just a 2.5-3 for me.

Thanks for sending me a copy, Arlene:)

3.5/5 stars

Gone (Dream Catcher, #3)
Author: Lisa McMann
Publication Date: 2/9/10
Publisher: Simon Pulse (audio publisher: Brilliance Audio)

Blurb (GR): Janie thought she knew what her future held. And she thought she’d made her peace with it. But she can’t handle dragging Cabel down with her. She knows he will stay with her, despite what she sees in his dreams. He’s amazing. And she’s a train wreck. Janie sees only one way to give him the life he deserves: She has to disappear. And it’s going to kill them both.

Then a stranger enters her life — and everything unravels. The future Janie once faced now has an ominous twist, and her choices are more dire than she’d ever thought possible. She alone must decide between the lesser of two evils. And time is running out. . . .

Review:

Now, I'm not saying that length and quality are completely connected. (they're definitely not) All I am saying here is that the entire Dream Catcher series is shorter than many adult novels and is half the length of some middle grade series. There just isn't much going on--and there wasn't enough substance for me. Sure, I enjoyed the writing. Sure, I thought the story was interesting. But when it came to writing a review, I felt like there just wasn't enough. This series is the first where I just do not understand the 5-star reviews. The gushing love out of every bodily crevice. (I take it back. I also don't really understand Mortal Instruments, Twilight, and a few others) Perhaps people just fell in love with the writing style and I missed out on it with the audiobooks. However, I read the last section of the first book (Wake) and didn't love that.

I doubt anyone will be reading this review that hasn't read the preceding two books but here is a recap of the series in three sentences: In book one, Janey, who lives with her alcoholic mother, figures out that she falls into people's dreams and falls for a neighbor boy who is actually (SPOILERa narc for the copsEND SPOILER) and she helps solve a drug ring. In book two, Janey and Cabel help figure out which teacher at school is sleeping with students and Janey comes to know more about the ramifications of her "gift." Book three just wraps things up...I guess. I just finished it yesterday and I had to actually think hard about what actually happened plot-wise. Not much. I feel like a total jerk. The second book definitely has the most going for it--substance and story-wise.

Anyway, if you are at all curious about the series, I'd recommend it. It takes a nanosecond to read all three and they are enjoyable. Just don't be expecting anything earth-shattering.

3/5 stars

Mostly Good Girls
Author: Leila Sales
Publication Date: 10/5/10
Publisher: Simon Pulse

Blurb (GR): The higher you aim, the farther you fall…. It’s Violet’s junior year at the Westfield School. She thought she’d be focusing on getting straight As, editing the lit mag, and figuring out how to talk to boys without choking on her own saliva. Instead, she’s just trying to hold it together in the face of cutthroat academics, her crush’s new girlfriend, and the sense that things are going irreversibly wrong with her best friend, Katie.

When Katie starts making choices that Violet can’t even begin to fathom, Violet has no idea how to set things right between them. Westfield girls are trained for success—but how can Violet keep her junior year from being one huge, epic failure?

Review: I once got in a fight with a friend about Roseanne. Like an actual anger, didn’t talk to each other for an hour afterwards fight. We were having a discussion about what shows are funny and what shows are funny.  Obviously, Roseanne is just kind of funny, but she was (and still is) adamant that that show is  hilarious. Now, this friend is one of my favorite people ever. She is the same person that once found rollerblades in our garage and had our friend Dan pull her up the main drag in her pajamas on Alumni weekend while she smoked a cigarette. She is the same friend that wore a green sequined jacket out to the bars after another friend found it in her grandmother’s attic on vacation. I love her to death, but Roseanne is NOT funny. I don’t care how many times my friend tries to scat to cheer me up, Roseanne will never be funny. Spaceballs is funny. Arrested Development is funny. Two and a Half Men is NOT even amusing.  Leila Sales is funny, at least when it comes to YA books. I’ve only read the two books she’s published thus far, but I will read everything she writes from now on because I know she’ll be good for the laughs.

I picked this one up at the library after loving Sales’ sense of humor in Past Perfect, and Mostly Good Girls, her debut novel, didn’t let me down. Violet Tunis and Katie Putnam have been best friends since the 7th grade and are now juniors at an all-girls prep school in Boston.  Now, maybe I thought so much of this was hilarious because I went to an all-girls high school, but I think most readers would think it was funny.  It’s a story about two best friends who are trying to do well in school, find a boyfriend when there are no boys around, and figure out who they are and what they want. The pacing is fantastically quick because the story is told in short vignettes rather than longer chapters. I read it in one sitting despite its 340 or so page length.

I was totally charmed by Katie and Violet’s friendship and the cast of characters in their social circle was hilariously spot-on.  A plot roundup really isn’t in order because this is truly a story of a friendship. This book made me miss my high school friends like the desert misses the rain. Then again, I’m pretty sure approximately 27% of my body is made up of nostalgia.

3.75/5 stars

Past Perfect
Author: Leila Sales
Publication Date: 10/4/11
Publisher: Simon Pulse

Blurb(GR):All Chelsea wants to do this summer is hang out with her best friend, hone her talents as an ice cream connoisseur, and finally get over Ezra, the boy who broke her heart. But when Chelsea shows up for her summer job at Essex Historical Colonial Village (yes, really), it turns out Ezra’s working there too. Which makes moving on and forgetting Ezra a lot more complicated…even when Chelsea starts falling for someone new. Maybe Chelsea should have known better than to think that a historical reenactment village could help her escape her past. But with Ezra all too present, and her new crush seeming all too off limits, all Chelsea knows is that she’s got a lot to figure out about love. Because those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it….


Review:
True confession: I love reenactors. People who wear oldey-timey outfits for work? You’re awesome. Does your job require you to shun modern technology and to feign ignorance when someone asks you where the bathroom is? You deserve a medal. This is the first YA book I’ve ever read in which the main character works at a colonial village. (My only other experience with reenactors in a book is from Chuck Pahlaniuk's Choke) There’s just something about how people having jobs at places like Sturbridge Village and Colonial Williamsburg that entertains me. They have to act oldey-timey all day, but you know that at the end of the day they are getting in their Toyota Corollas, lighting up a cigarette, and blasting Journey on their ride home to a house with indoor plumbing and an icemaker. (or whatever modern cars, music, technology, and vices they enjoy) This author is hilarious.  Seriously. And snarky. I had a love connection with this book from page one.

Chelsea Glaser, or “Elizabeth Connelly” when she is working, has been employed practically from the womb at Essex, a colonial village. Both of her parents (the silversmith and the silversmith’s wife) work there and she’s grown up knowing the life of a reenactor.  Every summer, the middle school/high school employees at Essex have a war with the employees at the Civil War ReenactmentLand that is conveniently (or not?) located across the street.  In addition to the drama of the war, Chelsea’s ex-boyfriend Ezra is also working at Essex for the summer and the boy she finds herself attracted to is a *gasp* Civil Warrior. (I loved that term, by the by) It’s funny to me that a relationship that is not the only focus of a novel can be more riveting than many contemporary YA romances where the whole plot revolves around the two lovebirds. I actually enjoyed the progression of Dan and Chelsea’s relationship—it felt natural and their conversations felt real…and hilarious.

This book somewhat obviously talks a lot about history and how we interpret events of the past. I was just talking to a friend the other day about this. It’s like we have our own memory erasers that just remove all the horrid bits and we just prance around on merry go rounds and sing Kumbaya together in the fields full of puppies in our memories. For example, I once drove from New Orleans to Sacramento in a 15-passenger van with 11 other people. Did it suck a lot of the time? Definitely. But I remember it with a grin on my face because I collected bandannas with my friend Josh at every roadside stop, we listened to some great tunes, and they let me plan the route so we stopped at ridiculous places like a deserted ghost town and to see the huge dinosaurs from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. I love all those people like family even though I definitely wanted to murder each of them at some point during our year of living and working together. I do have a point here—I loved Chelsea’s reevaluation of her relationship with Ezra. Her box of happy relationship memories wasn't what she thought it was upon closer examination. We remember things the way we want to remember them, and when we reinsert the intentionally forgotten parts, people, places, memories might not wow us as much.  I went on loads of car trips with my family as a kid and I got carsick every time. You know what I remember most though? Sitting backwards in our Volvo station wagon and listening to Cat Stevens’ greatest hits CD.  I think I wouldn’t look at my childhood so fondly if I had to remember all the places I’d yakked over the years.

In the same vein, I also loved how Leila Sales talked about how we are living in the past and the present at the same time.  We are still every version of ourselves that we have ever been in the past; all it takes is one sensory experience to take us back. Like when you think you are over someone and then you walk by a random person on the street wearing their cologne. Or when you remember a joke that you shared with someone but you are 3000 miles away from them and haven’t seen them in 5 years. As a total history nerd, I also enjoyed the random historical facts that were interspersed in the text and the discussion of one-sided history textbooks and the countless jokes about historical anachronisms in reenactions.

If you have a snarky sense of humor, enjoy reenactors (or reading about them), were a theater geek, or are just looking for a fun/ny read, I’d totally recommend this. I keep thinking that I should caveat it as not being especially thought-provoking but I actually thought about a lot of things while I read it. (It was, like, totally deep, maaaan) It is somewhere above 4 stars but below 5 stars for me but my eyes are shutting with exhaustion and I liked it enough to round up. Oh man, I need to go to bed.

Thanks S & S Galley Grab for satiating my need for hilarity and fun times in colonial America

4/5 stars