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The Case of the Baker Street Irregular (Andrew Tillet, Sara Wiggins & Inspector Wyatt #1)
Author: Robert Newman
Publication Date: 1978
Publisher: Aladdin

Blurb (GR):Andrew found London terrifying, especially after his guardian, sour old Mr. Dennison, was mysteriously abducted. Suddenly, Andrew was plunged into a series of bizarre, bombings, blackmail and murder. Then, when he met the incomparable detective Sherlock Holmes, Andrew's plight took a thoroughly remarkable turn...


Review:
Sherlock Holmes is basically a literary superhero to me. Sure his weaknesses are a little more interesting than most but he holds the same appeal to me as comic books do to fanboys. (or girls!) I am just one huge grin at all of the quick conversations, random factoids and asides, and during the eventual wrap-up when the billions of threads get sewn up tightly in a way that only Sherlock Holmes would ever be able to figure. A Goodreads friend sent me a copy of this book because she knows how much I love Sherlock and I’d never read any of the more juvenile stories. How well could the dynamic duo translate to a younger audience? The answer to that question, at least in terms of this book, is two-pronged. Robert Newman was absolutely successful in creating believable dialogue and multiple interwoven mysteries involving a few younger characters. However, I’m still not sure how large of an audience would enjoy a younger-YA/middle grade Victorian multi-layered mystery. My heart hopes that there are quite a few precocious mystery-lovers out there. As an adult, I flew through The Case of the Baker Street Irregular in an hour or two and I’m not at all ashamed to say that I was legitimately surprised at some of the connections. Some other reviews have mentioned the transparency of the mystery but I found it to be entertaining til the last and honestly, I thought it better done than many adult murder mysteries I’ve read in the past.

This series is based on the mention of “Baker Street Irregulars”(221B Baker Street being the address of Holmes’ abode), various local children who would aid Holmes and Watson in their investigations in the original stories. The Case of the Baker Street Irregular opens with Andrew Craigie, a young boy from Cornwall moving into a boarding house with his former tutor who is temporarily his guardian after his aunt passes away. Almost as soon as they arrive, Andrew’s guardian disappears. A prominent lord dies, his son has hallucinations, a woman visits Holmes and Watson to help her find her missing daughter, and someone is trying to fence stolen goods in a store on Baker Street. Are any or all of these things connected? If you’ve read any Holmes at all, you already know the answer to this question. I suppose one of my favorite things about Holmes stories is the multiple storylines. When so much is happening, I forget bits of information and when they come round again later in the story, I have those “A-ha!” moments. I’d much rather have loads of red herrings and random facts tossed out in order to make the eventual unraveling a surprise than removing all that extraneous detail and reading a murder mystery paint-by-number. (which I sometimes feel is what I’m reading)

I totally loved it and if you are a Sherlock fan and are looking for some entertainment without a lot of mental work, I think you’ll find this book an hour or two well spent. The only potential negative about the book was that I thought the author made Holmes a bit too sentimental and empathetic. I enjoy the little glimpses of humanity we get and I understand the reasons that it works in this particular story. For me, it wasn’t really a negative at all. I’m sorry this series wasn’t on my radar as a young girl but I’ll be finishing the series as an adult and that’s just fine with me.

5/5 stars

Blurb (GR): Evie’s always thought of herself as a normal teenager, even though she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she’s falling for a shape-shifter, and she’s the only person who can see through paranormals’ glamours.

But Evie’s about to realize that she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.

So much for normal.

Review: When you look at the cover of this book, what do you think it is about? A blond teenage girl is wearing a prom dress in a field of pussy willows or wheat or something equally nonsensical. Here's a new cover that crushes the actual book cover on the relevancy front (though regrettably not in terms of artistic merit):

I mean, I went into this thinking it was going to be another YA paranormal romance and IT ISN'T. It is decidedly fun YA urban fantasy book. (jacket copy reading is for losers) It has a pretty kickass heroine, mermaids, werewolves (that may or MAY look like an Ewok in my picture), people made of water, people made of fire, vampires, trolls, nymphs, faeries, and everything else you can think of. Why would you trick your audience with the wheat field?

I digress. Evie has lived in the Center for as long as she can remember. She was picked up at the age of three and put through the foster system until the IPCA (Int'l Paranormal Containment Agency) realizes that she can see through glamours produced by all paranormals. As a vital asset, she goes out to bag-and-tag all sorts of beings for the agency. Things get a little dicey when all sorts of paranormals are being killed, the Center is invaded, and some faeries are being total douchebags. Speaking of faeries, Reth sounds like a noise someone makes when they are choking on something. Reeeth...Reeeeth...I'm retching here, it's too bad you can't hear it.

I felt like the last third or so wasn't as strong as the rest of the book. The story moved at a relaxed but appealing pace until a total break occurred and then it was out of whack.  Fun, sure, but I was perfectly happy with the natural pacing of the relationship--I was glad it wasn't going into trite YA foreverlove territory, and it still didn't...but it did get a little cheesified.

Kiersten White has a great sense of humor. Her characters were funny and fans of Buffy will definitely find something appealing about the friendships and storyline. I'm excited to see where it goes in the second book--Supernaturally.(which, incidentally, has Evie in a red dress and with some red (and probably completely irrelevant) flowers on the cover)

4/5 stars

The Delta Anomaly (Starfleet Academy)
Author: Rick Barba
Publication Date: 10/28/10
Publisher: Simon Spotlight

Review: This series is like reading a YA Star Trek soap opera. The first book in the series,The Edge, got me used to jumping back and forth between characters and I felt better about in this second installment.  Though the author is different (and better), the tone felt similarly campy and fun. Kirk is still obviously a ladies’ man, and I still wish I was reading Spock/Uhura erotica. Wait, what? Did I just say that? Anyway, these books are a breeze to get through and full of action.  For those unfamiliar with this set of Star Trek books, they are set in the alternate timeline of the most recent Star Trek movie and take place with most of our favorite characters while they are still at Starfleet. This one follows McCoy, Kirk, and Uhura as they help their superiors and the San Francisco PD solve the mystery of The Doctor, a killer who somehow manages to remove internal organs from his victims with no incisions. (I can’t wait for the future!)  I’m a little iffy on whether Starfleet would actually have these cadets helping out to such an extent…as in, doing almost the entire investigation and crime-solving.  That makes perfect sense…not.

I suppose this series is just “Life at Starfleet Academy” and that’s why we are reading about Kirk’s attempts to hit on girls and his progress through school exams, but those plot points just did not add too much to the primary storyline.  The scientific explanation of The Doctor was rather interesting, though my eyes tend to glaze over anytime any word starts with “nano.” Whatever science dudes, I’ll take your word for it. And WTF was up with the ending? Talk about a tease.  This isn’t even a review, it is just my random thoughts choppily strewn into paragraphs that have no common thread.

This series is an absolute guilty pleasure of mine.  I honestly doubt whether any of my GR friends would enjoy it as much as I do but it definitely has a market.  I’ll continue reading them in my quest to find space school stories, especially because it is so easy to pick familiar characters back up. And, of course, I want to see Spock and Uhura develop their relationship to the point it was at in the most recent movie. That’s logical, right?

3/5 stars

Fury
Author: Shirley Marr
Publication Date: 5/1/10
Publisher: Black Dog Books (no US date yet)

Blurb (GR): Let me tell you my story.
Not just the facts I know you want to hear.
If I’m going to tell you my story,
I’m telling it my way.

Strap yourself in...

Eliza Boans has everything.
A big house.
A great education.
A bright future.

So why is she sitting in a police station confessing to murder?

ETA: (This blurb seriously rocks)

Review:
I was hooked on this from the first page-- It was like reading about The Heathers murdering someone. A bunch of rich, spoiled high school girls are picked up for murder and the entire book flits back and forth between the main character, Eliza, harassing a psychologist who is attempting to elicit her story and flashbacks to the days leading up to the crime as Eliza actually shares the backstory. It was interesting to read a book in which we already know the killer from page one, nay, from the back cover. It did not ruin the excitement of the unraveling and I actually began to feel sympathy for Eliza despite her heinous personality. (okay, maybe only an inkling of sympathy but still…) Most of the characters in Fury are rather unlikeable but I still found a relationship to enjoy throughout the entire book—that of Eliza and Neil, childhood friends whose snarky but endearing friendship might not be as strong as it once was but the foundation is still there and I loved when Neil showed up in the storyline. I don't want to spoil anything but I just need to say that the ending was a little emotional for me...

The high school scenes in this book felt like a combination of Rushmore and Courtney Summers’s Some Girls Are and Cracked Up To Be—in that they seemed to live in Stepford and everyone was a bitch.  Even the guys, who had names like Alistair Aardent.  Speaking of names, what the heck was up with the plethora of Jane Austen names up in here? Eliza, Marianne, Ellanoir Dashwood (that is not a misspelling on my part)? Obviously Jane Eyre wasn’t Austen but Eliza’s nemesis is named Jane Ayres. Maybe I’m just being nitpicky but I would’ve enjoyed this book even more if everyone had original names and I didn’t get the feeling that Shirley Marr has a hard on for Jane Austen. (because seriously, a lot of us do)

The ending of this book is absolutely unsatisfying. And I can’t write about it without spoilers so I’m just not going to. Just know going into this one that some threads will be left hanging. Recently, Kat started a discussion about the differences between the Aussie and US legal systems when it comes to the treatment of minors. I was at a complete loss about a lot of what was going on—why did she have no advocate? Why was she being questioned without a parent or lawyer present? What are the procedural due process rights for Australians? I’m pulling out my hair here! Do they have a bail system? Too.many.legal.questions.

Anyway, I found this book entertaining. It is somewhere between 6 and 7 stars. I feel like this review bites the big one but whatever, you can’t win them all. (unless you are in Pleasantville before it turned to color…because everyone knows they DID win them all before Reese Witherspoon gave Paul Walker a BJ)

P.S. This cover rocks. Three cheers for relevancy!
P.P.S. Thanks to Missie at The Unread Reader for putting this unobtainable Aussie book on tour in the US.

3.75/5 stars

Supernaturally
Author: Kiersten White
Publication Date: 7/26/11
Publisher: HarperTeen

Blurb (GR): Evie finally has the normal life she’s always longed for. But she’s shocked to discover that being ordinary can be . . . kind of boring. Just when Evie starts to long for her days at the International Paranormal Containment Agency, she’s given a chance to work for them again. Desperate for a break from all the normalcy, she agrees. But as one disastrous mission leads to another, Evie starts to wonder if she made the right choice. And when Evie’s faerie ex-boyfriend Reth appears with devastating revelations about her past, she discovers that there’s a battle brewing between the faerie courts that could throw the whole supernatural world into chaos. The prize in question? Evie herself.

So much for normal.

Review: 
Hello, and welcome to Irrelevant Book Cover Redo, Part Deux! (Part Un was  my Paranormalcy review) In this second installment of the Paranormalcy series, Kiersten White picks back up with Evie and the gang after the gaggle of events that occurred at the end of book one. Look at the cover. Okay, now read this the following paragraph where I set up the plot for you…

Evie is living out in the real world after Lend’s father falsifies papers for her. She is living the dream—er, well her dream, to attend a real high school while her boyfriend is away at college. But things are not fine and dandy in the paranormal world (are they ever?) and there is an unexplained influx of paranormals in town, some of the elementals are disappearing, Evie’s sister is appearing in her dreams, and a weird boy who can navigate the Faerie Paths shows up out of seemingly nowhere. What’s a girl to do?

Alright, so it makes perfect sense to have a girl in a red dress  prancing in some poppies (or daisies), right? NOT. To the left, you'll see my cover redo of questionable quality.

I mean, right? I didn’t even include everything! (in answers to your already budding questions: the guy is doing a flip off the bed, the gnome is a chef, Evie is wearing her gym suit because she seems to always be in gym class, the cloud is alive, the vampire is on her laptop, and the doorway is open to Faerie) Phew!  The plot of this edition is just as fun and full of interesting events as the last one, but I felt like it was not as successfully sewn up.  So many storylines and characters are added in and I do not feel like I got to spend enough time with any of them. The Lend/Evie relationship fell flat to me, which was a huge disappointment as I was rooting for them in Paranormalcy. Several of their problems were Evie’s fault (well, all of them) and those of you who are worried about her becoming TSTL—it’s not a complete transition but she certainly makes several ridiculous decisions in this installment. (almost all of them involve not communicating effectively with those she is closest to. Frustration City, population ME.)

My other largest gripe came from Jack’s character. He is the flipping boy in the new cover. He seems to always be effing flipping all over the place and frankly, if I was Evie, I would’ve done a super dramatic eyeroll at him. (at the very least) He was beyond immature, which was weird considering the writing was leading him to be Lend’s competition and Evie’s friends found him attractive. Um, not really.  I keep thinking to myself that I might not be the target audience for this book but the thing is—I kind of am. I read buttloads of YA books.  Kiersten White impressed me with her sense of humor, fun storyline, and consistent writing in Paranormalcy. She still entertained me in this one but just not to the same extent.
 
I will definitely continue to read this series.  Several new storylines and characters are introduced in this one and the anticipation builds throughout the narrative. I am really excited to see where the plot threads that felt irrelevant to THIS book will lead in the NEXT book—because obviously that is why they are there. A few people have given this 5 stars so maybe you’ll fall on that side. But if any of the same things that bother me irk you, you’ll probably fall with me around  6-7 out of 10.

3/5 stars