Dreaming In Books

Title(s):  The Word on the Yard, Team Challenge, and Secret Pony Society

Author:  Janet Rising

Publisher:  Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Series:  The Pony Whisperer #1, #2, and #3

Other Reviews for This Author:  None

Ah.  This is a middle grade series that I would have never guessed I would be reading.  I have to admit that even I do have a bit of a public limit.  Mostly because it's just creepy for some people to see a male read a book for girls.  What can you do?  Sigh.  Putting all of that societal muck aside, I really was interested in the premise of this series.  Middle grade books can be fun and frothy, and I'm always on the look-out for stuff that I can recommend to people who are looking for that particular age level of book.  I loved the middle grade debut The Time Traveling Fashionista, and was thus looking for the same kind of read that uses the appealing subject to its advantage.  What I didn't expect was to find a series that did that, but also managed to put a spin on some classic middle-grade plotlines and make the characters so realistic.



The Word on the Yard:  Pia and her mother have moved into a new, smaller house and a new town.  Her father left them for a new woman, saying it caught him by surprise - yet he was madly in love.  Pia is extremely annoyed at her new position.  She now has to take her pony, Drummer, to a new stable.  Like her pony, she also has to deal with new surroundings at school.  The transition is weird, and it doesn't help that she quickly makes an enemy with Cat, the stable's self-proclaimed go-to person for horses.  When Pia finds a statue of an ancient Celtic goddess that allows her to speak to horses, her life at Laurel Stables is turned upside down.


Team Challenge:  Now the resident Horse Whisperer, Pia is starting to find friends at Laurel Stables.  She and a group of other riders - Bean, James, and Katy - decide to enter as a group in a special horse competition going on.  They'll each compete in different categories like show jumping, dressage, and a wild-card category, using their top three scores to get placements.  If they can make it to the finals and place there, the team will win clothes from one of the biggest brands in riding gear.  Pia's team also has to compete against an all-star team that Cat put together.  Her ability to talk to the team's horses promises to be a real boon, but Pia and the crew can't help but wonder if it puts them at an unfair advantage.


Secret Pony Society:  Laurel Stables gets a visiting group of travelers that make their camp up near the stables.  Pia's never had much experience with them before, but one of the local stable horses used to be a traveling horse.  Its checkered past with the group of people is just one reason that many of Pia's friends and their parents seem to be prejudiced against the gypsy-like travelers.  Pia can believe why when she sees the way they race their horses to exhaustion, but her meeting with a traveler girl named Jazz and her horse, Falling Snow, changes her perception of the travelers.  When Jazz gets in a bad situation, Pia may be the only person at Laurel Stables to offer her a helping hand.


Rising gives readers a really solid protagonist with Pia.  She is a consistent character that has some growth, but at the same time stays the same enough that she changes completely between the book.  Her personality type also works well for the books being able to stand alone.  Each time, her voice is firmly established to the reader.  She talks like a middle schooler, and there didn't feel like an ounce of fakeness in how she was presented.  If you read middle grade books, you know what I'm talking about.  Some authors write characters that feel like they parrot a message or idea, not an actual character.  Pia is not one of those people.  Middle-grade aged girls will especially take to her charms.  She speaks bluntly of her mother's experiences with dating, how her dad's younger girlfriend is probably anorexic, and other things.  She has that voice that is of a younger kid.  Very honest and forthcoming about the issues going on in her life, but with more annoyance than outright angst.  The honesty and knowledge was refreshing to read about.  Pia knows she has to do the right thing and support her mother - and is in many ways mature in that respect - but she still freely does and says things that show she has her doubts and biases.  Pia is a character that works well for this series, and she was really fun to read about.

Pia's friends and family are just as interesting, and they have the same quality of character as she does.  No one felt like they were written to preach a point or represent a character type/experience.  Pia has friends that are really friends, even if she doesn't analyze them the way a teenage main character would.  There are people like Katy and Bean that are there for her for the most part, but occasionally disagree with her on things.  Katy is respectful and just a little bit moralistic, and Bean is a smart girl who just happens to be a bit of an airhead.  Bean especially is really funny, but it never feels like it's done just for comedic effect.  James is Pia's 'love interest', although her crush on him is thankfully pretty minimal to the plot.  The second book actually saw his tendency to be controlling and a little bit haughty.  It was cool to see an author of middle grade work willing to be brave and make a character who wasn't so completely likable.  She also does a good job of making Cat a believable villain.  Cat's mean and vindictive, but she has reasons for what she does, and the reader can tell that her meanness stems from something.  The 'villain' characters in middle grade tend to feel very sporadic.  One minute real people, the next minute monsters of mean.  Cat's understandable.  You may not like her, but you get her.  Pia's parents are also really interesting.  Her father is a bit dim when it comes to his new girl-toy, and the same goes for the new girl-toy in question.  That relationship combined with her mother's new venture into the dating scheme surprisingly feel real, though.  Rising manages to capture the situation in a fairly real light, and Pia is clearly shown to admit that she has to support her parents in their decisions because she loves them.  Good message, but not a wooden one.  All of the characters just work well like this.  They are a well-oiled machine that kept me interested in the reading experience.

Rising's writing in each of the three books is quality.  She does a great job with character voice - heck, even the ponies have defined and unique personalities that don't feel tired - and she doesn't ever feel like she's dumbing down the worldview or situations for her audience.  She also avoids info-dumping about horses.  A basic knowledge of what they call things like tack and some  horse show terms may help, but it's fairly simple to pick up.  It never feels like she's force-feeding her readers information.  The Word on the Yard and Team Challenge were both equally perfect in their plotting.  Both had great senses of action, character relationships, and surprising takes on certain things.  I never would have guessed how Pia's horse whispering would be taken, and even though the stories were predictable, they didn't feel predictable.  It takes a good story to effectively say, "This is my plot, but it won't feel like you know this already."  I loved them both.  They were worthy of a perfect grade considering how much I purely enjoyed them.  Secret Pony Society had the most interesting and unique plot of the three, and it continued in the vein of taking a plot that had a bit of a lesson subtly added into it, but it was a little too involved for the limited page count.  The travelers are interesting and have their own culture.  They weren't really explained very much, though, and I thought it could have used more in terms of establishing why they traveled, what their cultural origins were, and what their culture was about.  I felt a little too clueless at the end of the book to be comfortable with the execution.

This series is highly recommended.  Each book is very good and entertaining, and I liked all of them.  The characters felt wonderful, and the plots (for the most part) felt smooth and concise.  I don't know how younger readers would take this series, but I would be majorly delighted to give them the chance to read about Pia and her adventures in pony whispering.  The horses themselves become an integral, respected, and funny part of the cast.  Horse lovers especially will gobble these books up.  I know I really look forward to continuing on with Pia's adventures.

Covers:  These covers are cute.  I enjoy the color scheme and the designs.  I think the twinkle in the horse's eye looks awkward, though.

Rating:  5.0 stars, 5.0 stars, and 4.0 stars respectively

Copy:  Received from publicist/publisher for review.  (Thanks so much, Sourcebooks!!)

Title:  Divergent

Author:  Veronica Roth

Publisher:  Katherine Teagan Books

Series:  Divergent #1

Other Reviews for This Author:  None

There are very few books anymore that strike me as being perfect in what they do.  Last year, my blogging was extremely positive, but this year I have noticed a decided picky quality to my reading that wasn't there before.  It's been much harder for books to get fives from me this year because of this new trait, and I had high hopes that Divergent would at least get a 4 or a 4.5 from me.  Ladies and gents, this book is one of my perfects.  I read it a month ago, and it blew me away. I'm still thinking about its utter awesome to this day, and am recommending it to everyone with a pulse.  Even animals.  That is just how much this book pulls you in.

Dystopian Chicago is nothing like society before.  Five factions rule:  Candor, Abnegation, Amity, Dauntless, and Erudite.  Each represent an overwhelming quality in the human being that they believe should be fostered above all others.  Candor represents honesty.  Abnegation selflessness.  Amity focuses on peace, while Dauntless focuses on bravery.  Erudite is home to those who believe in intelligence.  These factions each believe that their quality is what they are best at, and it allows for an uneasy alliance and division of abilities amongst the people.

Beatrice Prior is a teenager living in this Chicago of the future.  She was born into Abnegation, but has never been able to completely control herself.  She understands the meaning of selflessness and  how it can be good, but there times when she just can't think about the people around her over herself.  When the time comes, she'll end up taking an exam that will show where her aptitude lies.  It will be a benchmark for the ceremony later on, when she will get to choose what faction she belongs to.  The price for switching factions is steep.  Beatrice risks completely alienating her family because of it, but staying in her own faction would be just as difficult.

Her test is what sets things off.  Beatrice doesn't get a conclusive reading like other people.  She's left with three potential factions, and her results aren't normal in the slightest.  It only makes her choice harder.  Does she stay with her family, or does she go off to a different place?  It's that much more difficult with a brother that seems perfect in how he works in their home faction.  Beatrice's choice sets off an explosive chain of events that put an entirely new perspective into her life.  What kind of person is she?  Can she commit her attitudes to just one faction, or will that be impossible?

Beatrice is a protagonist that you just have to love reading about.  From the first page, she has a voice that resonates.  She starts off with talking about events that seem entirely out of our imaginations (being in groups akin to factions) and the realistic problems that go along with them (the factioned kids dividing into cliques and not mixing well despite being in a mixed school.)  Roth quickly establishes that A) this character is someone unique and B) she is living in a world that we can still highly relate to despite this.  Masterful execution on her part.  Beatrice is also a character that defines a lot of the bigger ideas of being a teenager.  She's unsure of how to define herself.  She quite literally searches for a label (one of the factions) early on, but finds soon enough that she can't push herself into representing just one doctrine or one idea.  Her choice of faction (which I will continue to leave as a mystery) is surprising and sets the stage for a great course of development for her.  You begin to see how complicated and real she is.  There is no simplicity by Beatrice - who ends up renaming herself Tris.  Tris is brash and self-sufficient.  She can be kind and thoughtful, yet she can also be self-serving and determined.  She isn't a heroine that pretends there is an easy answer.  I love kind and gentle heroines.  I love selfless heroines.  But there is a big part of me that loves Tris more because of these major faults.  They make you feel empowered to read about them.  There's something so real about a heroine who has to learn to live with guilt and her natural ability to push those who hate her out.  Tris is a girl with no easy answers, and readers will find themselves hard-pressed to find a heroine more honest about her humanity and faults.

The side characters are just as well-written as Tris.  There is a certain harshness to the world and its inhabitants that is revealed throughout the course of the story.  With every page there is more roughness.  Danger.  Deceit.  There are chameleon characters, such as Tris' brother, who can blend into their surroundings and reveal impossible things about themselves.  These characters bring in a lot of surprises and plot points that you never see coming.  Tris' friends in her faction are much like her in their vulnerabilities.  They lack a certain toughness that Tris gets, but they are also unafraid to do what they can to survive.  Survival in their world is everything.  Friendships and alliances are important, but deception is found at the drop of a hat.  Tris' love interest is just as human as these characters.  He has his own faults and insecurities.  There are moments when he acts cold enough to freeze her completely, and others were he seems far too gentle to be living in the hardcore world Roth created.  They fly off of the pages and take you up in a whirlwind of experiences.  They have the ability to frighten you and impress you at the same time - often with horrific consequences.  These are side characters that truly reflect the world they live in.

Roth's writing plays well to the dystopian genre.  She opens up the book with a simple description Beatrice is telling.  She knows how to build her world without ever directly speaking it to the reader.  In a few sentences she can reveal something about the protagonist, foreshadow a later plot-point without the reader knowing, and continue to build the rules of her world.  The action scenes take you by the cuff of your shirt and refuse to let you go.  Emotions run high, and the main character has you moving between loving and loathing her.  Roth plays with the reader's assumptions and ideas, making for an excellent plot that isn't simplistic in the slightest.  The storyline never has a dull moment.  It takes a really expert author to write a story that is so face paced yet full in its world building.  You can easily believe that people would try to specialize themselves and thus become more aggressive and intense about their personal beliefs and moralities.  Roth plays on so many thought provoking cues.  I know that rereading the book will only reward me further into questions about this society versus our own, and I like the idea of that very much.

Divergent was simply astounding.  There was nothing I disliked.  The characters, plotline, and world were complex and dirty.  It matches the feeling of the big city coupled with a dystopian outlook.  There is so much to explore in a book like Divergent.  You speed along, but you also take in a lot of the sights while you do.  Readers who were fans of series like the Uglies by Scott Westerfeld will find this the perfect read.  It carries on the tradition of a really awesome dystopian read that defies any kind of expectations you have for it.  Buy it.  Read it.  Give it to thousands of friends.  I can't wait to see how the sequel plays out, or how they adapt it for the silver screen.  My impatience is in full form with this series.  It is that good.

Cover:  The cover is eye-catching, good for both genders, and is very connected to the book.  LOVES.

Rating:  5.0 Stars

Copy:  Received from publicist/publisher for review  (Thank you so much, Heather!!!)

Title:  Walk the Wild Road

Author:  Nigel Hinton

Publisher:  Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Series:  None

Other Reviews for This Author:  None

Middle Grade fiction is becoming a genre that I'm venturing into more and more.  Historical fiction is a genre that I'm always willing to go into (save from war stories - I'm probably the only guy in the world who gets bored by war stories.)  Walk the Wild Road sounded like a piece of Middle Grade fiction that would be historical enough to turn me from a skeptic into a hopeful reader.  Hinton is an author with a good track record according to his About the Author section in the book, and I understand why after reading it.

Leo lives in the country formerly known as Poland.  Now taken over as a part of Prussia, the country is threatened with war by France, and its becoming clearer and clearer that the Prussians have no desire to let the Polish people continue to identify themselves as citizens of Poland.  Leo's life is the quiet, country life lived by many people who reside in small villages.  His family is large but able to manage itself for the most part.  Farming and living the rural life is hard work anymore, but Leo gets by.  That's the only thing he and his family can really do.

It soon becomes apparent that his family doesn't have enough money to support all of his siblings.  It isn't long before he and some of the other older siblings are taken into town to be taken on as apprentices or workers.  Going from there, Leo is also sent off to try and get a job working for the local Baron on his farm.  He doesn't meet the Baron, but he does meet the Baron's resentful and snide son.  That turns into something so negative that Leo is forced to flee his home completely, otherwise risking his family's safety and his own life.

Leo begins journeying over the land of Prussia, not realizing where he's off to.  He cannot go back home to his family, but he doesn't have anywhere to go.  Only after much thought does he realize that he could go across the sea to America.  Start a new life.  Make money.  Others have done it, and he can do it as well.  Before he even gets very far west, he soon meets up with a friendly child vagabond like him named Tomasz.  Leo and Tomasz soon become a pair, and that's where his journey really begins to take off.  Traveling the divided creature that is still Poland among all the rubble, he finds himself in a land on the brink of war and making a friend that he'll never forget.

The main character, Leo, in Walk the Wild Road is one to be admired.  He sets off on a journey inspired by the author's family history, and he's very admirable in how he survives it.  There's a burning resilience in Leo, but also a level of innocence regarding the world at large.  The simple life he lived prior to starting the journey to America wasn't one where he questioned a lot of what went on.  There was almost no knowledge of the religious prejudice going on or the soldiers heading off to war.  Leo's life is in some ways quite sheltered until he's forced to go out on his own and see the world.  After he goes to big cities like Danzig, Leo begins to change.  He's still modest and kind - there was a really heartbreaking moment where he's amazingly grateful just to get a pair of new boots (while not wanting to wear and ruin them) - despite his growing experience with the world. There's a lot about Leo that gets you to feel sympathy for him, but he's not the kind to want it.  His strength and occasional vulnerability make him a well-rounded character that should especially appeal to guy readers who want someone they can relate to. 

The side characters were equally charming.  Though, as I also found with Leo, the characters never reached a level of greatness for me.  They stayed in my heart throughout the read, but none of them made the journey past the last page.  It didn't make the book bad, but it prevented it from being a truly unforgettable experience.  Tomasz was the most present side character throughout the tale, and he is a mixture of thievery and compassion, making him a real gem.  There are times when the reader seriously questions just how believable his stories are, but there are also times when his honesty manages to shine through all of the muck.  Where Leo is sensible, Tomasz is daring.  His past is slowly revealed and surprising in how its made Tomasz who he is throughout the length of the story.  Later on, the boys also meet a kind Rabbi, his wife, and a local doctor and his daughter that show great narrative promise, but aren't around for much of the book.  The best parts were with Tomasz and his burgeoning questions regarding his religion.  He decides that he wants to discover what being Jewish is like - for he's only Jewish in heritage - when he goes to America.  The questions of religion and what it means don't feel heavy-handed.  They could have been explored more, but the basic idea that religion shouldn't be something to be prejudiced about was simple and understandable.  I also forgot to mention a lovable dog character.  There isn't much beyond the fact that it's a lovable dog character, but I'm rather fond of animal companions in books for younger readers.

Hinton writes with a clear, easy style that works well for this type of story.  It's extremely straightforward.  There aren't any hidden emotions or motives behind the characters.  It's good for a middle grade audience that want an adventurous story set in a historical time period.  While this book has its share of 'action', the history is more important, and I have to commend the author for taking that route when a lot of middle grade fiction is more focused on keeping things face-paced and plot-focused.  Hinton's approach is a little slower, and it may not hold the attention of anxious young readers, but those that want a story that will make them think and surprise them with historical information will find a good book with Walk the Wild Road.  The slower set to the story and the lack of complexity make it a fairly breezy read for older readers, but it doesn't lose a sense of enjoyment because of it.

Walk the Wild Road is probably one of my favorite Middle Grade reads so far since starting my blog.  It did the history well without sacrificing the storyline or the characters along the way.  With a sturdy main character and a more-than-intriguing sidekick, the book keeps a simple story interesting.  Older readers will find it a little to straight forward to be riveting, but they also will have no problem giving it to a younger reader who would be interested in the story type.  It lacks the spark that I look for in middle grade books - and it's safe to say that most middle grade books do not spark for me the way young adult books do - but it is one that I will readily recommend to anyone looking for a book for middle school kids that doesn't get caught up in what's popular for them.

Cover:  I adore this cover so, so much.  I love the silhouettes and how the entire thing is representative of the basic plot. 

Rating:  4.0  Stars

Copy:  Received from publicist/publisher for review  (Thank you so much, Sourcebooks!!)

Title:  A Creed in Stone Creek

Author:  Linda Lael Miller

Publisher:  Harlequin (HQN) Books

Series:  Montana Creeds #5

Other Reviews for This Author:  None

Cowboys are some of my favorite romance tropes.  A good cowboy can put me in just the right romance-reading mood.  I've tried the late and kind of scary Diana Palmer, but Linda Lael Miller wasn't yet on my radar.  I've since come to hear a lot about her, and her cowboys seem to be legendary amongst romance readers.  I was so excited to get offered a chance to read the first two books in her newest trilogy about one of  her many cowboy families - the Creeds!  A Creed in Stone Creek was a good introduction to her writing style, and it set a heartwarming and slow tone that promised a lot of comfortable reads in the future.

County prosecutor Melissa O'Ballivan lives a comfortable life in Stone Creek.  Everything is easy-going and her job is a quiet one.  The law offices as a whole don't get much attention anymore.  Criminals in Stone Creek?  A rare sight.  Melissa is content with her job despite the lack of excitement that goes on in Stone Creek.  The one thing that bothers her involves a case from a few years back.  A teenage boy who, in his anger, drove wildly and  under the influence, causing the death of a local teenage girl.  His mother constantly likes to reminder Melissa of how her son was sentenced as an adult to several years in jail.  His recent release promises to shake things up once again.  Though not in the way Melissa would like.

Steven Creed has never been married, but he's now a father.  His good friends recently passed, leaving him the godfather-now-guardian of their five year old son named Matt.  Matt is a sweet kid, and Steven loves him with all of his heart.  He just doesn't know if he can be the father that Matt needs.  Deciding that he needs a change from his previous occupation as a lawyer, Steven decides to return to the other family business:  ranching.  Taking Matt and buying a slightly dilapidated property up in Stone Creek, Steven set out to become a father and feel a little spark happen in his life.  Along with ranching, he also offers to work some with the county...and there, meets the beautiful Melissa.

The new man in town intrigues yet confuses Melissa.  She's so no-nonsense and complacent with her job, and Creed seems to just rattle her buttons when he attempts to face her in the legal field.  She has to juggle even more once she gets put in charge of handling the local parade.  Melissa still seems to be attracted to the rancher Creed and his lovable son.  There's something about Steven Creed that just sets her on fire.  The reappearance of that local teen boy continues to be a problem for both of them, especially when he seems to be one of the reasons they clash.  Will Melissa and Steven ever act on their affections, or will their job differences be enough to set them apart?

Melissa was a character that I enjoyed for the most part.  I liked that she was a day-to-day kind of worker who enjoyed her job despite the dull location.  She loves the old town she lives in, but doesn't necessarily fall under the conventions of a domestic woman who is an amazing cook and loves to do volunteer work in the community.  Her values do match the small town to some extent, but she doesn't live by the cardinal rules of her grandmother.  Miller writes with a very comfy kind of tone, and it was surprising not to have Melissa live up to the complete homebody stereotype.  Steven Creed is more of a traditional kind of character.  He's a hot-shot lawyer, but decides that he wants to live the ranch life with Matt instead.  The move from city to country would for some be a more startling experience, but Steven Creed immediately seems in his element.  He has the experiences from his childhood to go off of. His love for Matt was definitely the highlight of his character.  Steven Creed is frankly adorable with how he seems to fall so easily into his fatherly duties.  That's what attracted me as a reader to him.  He is the best with Matt, and it made for a few really good (and emotional) scenes between the two characters.

What is decidedly lacking is a romance between the two of these characters.  Miller was clearly more of a women's fiction writer from the get-go, but I thought there would be at least some idea of a romance in the mix.  A majority of the book actually fell into Steven's point of view, and only the latter half seemed to deal with his apparent interest in Melissa.  It didn't feel like a romance novel for a majority of the story.  They just seemed to be two people who suddenly decided they were in love with each other but couldn't talk about it.  There is also the use of the small child (Matt) as a matchmaker.  The one redeeming part about their romantic journey, to me, was the random sex.  Miller writes a surprisingly sensual scene that does not match the homespun feel the story has.  I also enjoyed the general subplot that involved Melissa questioning her past decisions as a prosecutor - particularly with the teen that becomes an important sub-character later on.  His relationship with her secretary was surprisingly sweet.  I almost would have preferred to read their love story and have had the Melissa/Steven as a sub-story.  The affection was there, and the characters were kind-hearted and sweet, but there wasn't much along the lines of an actual romantic development.

Miller's writing has its good and bad parts in this book.  I think the plus side is her strength in creating a scene.  She writes just the best little scenes of small-town life.  It's picturesque and cute, and her characters never remind you of the darker sides of life.  They aren't well-rounded, but they are good for a few hours of comfort.  Miller also knows how to write an interesting cowboy.  I would have liked a little more insight to the ranch work and what that entailed of Steven.  The focus on his relationship with Matt wasn't bad, but it took too much away from the rest of the story and shied away from Miller's wonderful setting.  The main issue I had was just the lack of a romantic push - which made the pace feel glacial to me - and the center on Steven's point of view.  A little niggle I had was the big deal about family despite the 'modern' sensibilities.  I just really dislike when a heroine can only talk about her need to have a child.  It's just a personal thing.  There are many readers that would identify with the want to have a child.  I just do not.  A random conflict in the last forty or so pages also foreshadow for the sequel, which I tend to dislike.  The sequels did not need the bit of backstory, and it felt like it further disjointed the story.

There was a mixed bag with A Creed in Stone Creek.  I felt like Miller did a great job with how her characters interacted with their individual problems (Matt and the issues of being a prosecutor), and the setting.  Her writing style is like drinking a mug of steaming hot cocoa.  It works.  The romance in this was just practically non-existent.  There was also a lack of plot movement.  It turned into a slightly above average read.  I did find myself a fan of Miller's style despite the book's plot, and I was all ready to start the next book, Creed's Honor.

Cover:  It's okay.  I like the brightness, and the model is pretty nice looking.

Rating:  3.5  Stars

Copy:  Received from publicist/publisher for review  (Thanks so much, Tricia!)




Title:  Creed's Honor

Author:  Linda Lael Miller

Publisher:  Harlequin (HQN) Books

Series:  Montana Creeds #6

Other Reviews for This Author:  (see above)

Reading my above review, it is safe to assume that I was fairly interested in starting this book.  I didn't like that the Creed twins - Conner and Brody - were basically ham-handed into the last forty or so pages of the first book, but they promised to have an interesting history.  Conner is the focus of this book, and I was excited to see into the twin schism.  The plotline also promised to be different from A Creed in Stone Creek.  Combined with Miller's exceptionally delightful writing, I was more than ready to give her another go with Creed's Honor.  I was rewarded with a book that took some of the bad things about its predecessor and either changed them or made them great.  Creed's Honor is the definition of a good sequel.

Smart and savvy Tricia McCall has always wanted to move to the city.  Seattle is the place for her.  It's bustling and has everything she could want.  Her on-but-off boyfriend is just one of the big reasons why she wants to go as soon as she can.  She's stuck in good old Lonesome Bend, however, until she can sell off a few old family properties.  The old drive-in and the campgrounds are the biggest physical reminders of her loving father, Joe.  Selling them is hard, but so is staying in Lonesome Bend without much motivation.  Until then, Tricia is living in her old family home with her great-grandmother, Natty, and Winston, Natty's cat. 

Conner Creed never really paid much attention to Tricia McCall when he was younger.  She was always the odd-girl-out, flitting between her divorced parents.  With a mother in Seattle and a father in Lonesome Bend, she never really felt like she belonged in the old town.  Most of the kids had old fashioned families with parents that wouldn't dream of divorce.  Now, after all these years, Conner is beginning to notice just what a beauty Tricia really is.  He also has to deal with his twin brother, Brody, who has recently come back to Lonesome Bend with claims to finally settle down.  After almost ten years of roaming the country without talking to his family.

With the hotter-than-Hell Conner Creed showing up frequently, Tricia might just be reconsidering her life in Lonesome Bend.  She still feels attached to her guy in Seattle, yet he hasn't contacted her or been with her for the longest time.  Diana, a family friend, has also asked Tricia to babysit her gifted daughter, Sasha, for a few weeks while she goes to look at homes in Paris with her husband.  The addition of Sasha and a dog she finds out in the rain lead Tricia to being tied to Lonesome Bend with more than just a great-granny and a few properties.  Her budding romance with Conner might just be the thing to make her want to stay....

Tricia was an awesome heroine.  I related to her more than I did Melissa because of her awesome presentation.  Tricia is more of a city girl, and I related a lot to how she likes things about the small town life and the city life.  Her immediate amiable qualities also include how caring and conflicted she is.  You immediately can tell just how hard it is for her to give up her father's legacy.  How much she loves her great-grandmother.  The level of simple emotion that is garnered in the first few pages with Tricia makes her resonate for me.  Conner Creed is a little more of an enigma.  I appreciated it, actually.  I knew everything about Steven Creed in A Creed in Stone Creek, and there was nothing left to the imagination.  Conner's motivations and troubles are a little bit more clouded.  He isn't always around to explain why he feels a certain way and why that's okay.  I also liked that he was an extremely loyal kind of person.  His stubbornness concerning his twin brother, and his want for Tricia's happiness as a friend - not just a love interest - were what really won me over.  A guy that would go to the lengths that Conner did for a woman he considered a friend is one that always wins in my book.

Their relationship was also (thankfully) more developed than in the last book.  Linda Lael Miller takes a slow vision of how Tricia and Conner get together.  His first appearance with her is brief, but it's clearly in the cards (or rather, in the many storyline matchmakers) that they will see each other more than once in a blue moon.  I liked that it actually kept at the pace it was going.  There wasn't any random fits of sex until close to the end.  It went with how they saw each other.  The progression was much more finely tuned, and even thought it was still a women's fiction feeling type of romance, it felt a lot more genuine.  I could accept that, even if it didn't follow the conventions of genre romance.  The incident of matchmaker characters felt cute in this installment, as opposed to the other one.  It didn't feel like any one was more overpowering than another, although the general abundance of them was a bit overboard.  I liked all of the minor characters.  Natty and Sasha were adorable, and Valentino, the dog, was probably one of my favorite animal characters in these types of comfy reads.  I just appreciated all of their homespun goodness, and it never felt like they were preaching any type of mindset or values.  These were real characters, and gosh were they fun to read about.

The writing in this installment was just as good as the first time, if not better.  Miller's style is the kind that you find in the best women's fiction.  It describes the day-to-day activities well, and it has a lot of strength in the mood and setting of the story.  The instances and events in this book played out more realistically to me.  The local events such as the rummage sale, or Tricia making a friend in the modern-day gypsy, Carolyn, felt so fun to read about.  Miller really gets the mindset of a close small town.  The way people are just naturally used to the faith around them, and the way that people just know each other.  I felt her slow pace was a good thing this time around.  She didn't make the plot feel pandering, and it was more about the emotional arc than a hybrid attempt of suspense and a not-there romance like the last one.  She firmly focused on Tricia's emotional journey, and that was what made it so successful.  The one thing I disliked was that her characters sounded out-dated when they talked about technology.  They'd say stuff like "She's talking with her dad via instant messaging on the computer."  I could see Natty saying that, but Tricia is a modern city girl.  She'd probably just say IM-ing and use the more abbreviated slang for technology.  It just sounded stilted and awkward. 

If you haven't picked up Linda Lael Miller and like a cozy read that blends women's fiction with romance, then Creed's Honor is the place to go.  It improves a lot on the first book in this new Creed trilogy, and she makes a resoundingly awesome cast of characters that play things out wonderfully.  I had some minor issues with the writing that bugged me, but I enjoyed this read so much.  It has firmly placed Linda Lael Miller on my list of authors to search for in bookstores.  I want to read her backlist more than ever after this. 

Cover:  I don't like it as much as the first one.  Still, it's pretty good.  Nice lighting.

Rating:  4.5  Stars

Copy:  Received from the publicist/publisher for review  (Thanks so much, Tricia!) 

Titles:  When You Dare

Author:  Lori Foster

Publisher:  Harlequin (HQN) Books

Series:  Men Who Walk the Edge of Honor #1

Other Reviews for This Author:  None


I don't think I've ever read a romantic suspense novel prior to this.  I've devoured historical and paranormal romance novels, but I haven't dug much into general suspense or contemporary romance.  Contemporary just isn't as common, and the suspense genre has a negative connotation from what I've seen.  There's also the fact that I just wasn't sure if I would enjoy a romance in suspenseful situations.  Reading a James Patterson-esque novel now and again is enjoyable, but I've never really been a banner-toting fan of the the thriller/suspense genre.  Lori Foster's novels sounded like a good place to start, and When You Dare got me enjoying her writing style, even though the book itself was only average.

Dare Macintosh is a professional mercenary who works for the highest level of clientele.  His work takes him into the deepest and darkest parts of the world.  His contacts are ones that would rival that of the President of the United States.  A massive and fit man, Dare is the kind of guy who enjoys getting in the thick of things and pulling off a harrowing rescue.  His latest case involves a human trafficking operation that has gone into Mexico.  Ruthless, he kills the men involved and rescues several women.  Among those women is the sister of his business partner...and a completely abnormal catch by the name of Molly Alexander.

It's very clear to Dare that Molly isn't the normal bait for human trafficking.  She's pretty enough, but she's just a little to old to be a prime target for the group.  Unlike the other girls, she was also living in worse conditions.  The traffickers beat her and bruised her, which would be counterproductive if they were trying to sell her like the other girls.  It is easily apparent to Dare that Molly is a special case, and that, more than likely, someone hired the traffickers to take her in and possibly kill her.  Dare makes it up to him to keep Molly safe and discover what person would have the balls to try and kill her.

Molly Alexander is baffled as to how she got kidnapped for nine days.  The experienced was awful and continued to stay with her, even after Dare rescued and comforted her.  Knowing it was probably caused by someone close to her is scary.  Molly can't think of anyone that would stoop to that level of insanity.  As a writer of popular romantic suspense novels, Molly does have her share of rowdy fans, and her father is a corporate giant that doesn't have much of a conscience...but it seems highly unlikely to her that anyone she knows would go to such lengths.  In the wake of all of this, Molly begins to realize just how wonderful Dare is...and how her attraction to him is more than returned.

When You Dare was probably my least favorite of the two books.  It started out with an interesting premise, and Molly and Dare really hit it off with a respectful relationship dynamic.  Dare is comforting and knows his boundaries, and Molly is strong-willed despite the nasty conditions she lived in for so long.  They work as a couple, and you can believe their attraction to each other without any problem.  My key issue was that they are just extremely perfect.  Molly holds up extremely well, and her only instances of vulnerability are small.  Dare is so understanding of Molly's space that they never get into arguments or anything.  There aren't any mistakes.  Between the two of these characters, it felt like nothing was being worked for.  They were just so gosh-darned perfect that the relationship never had any problems.  I have no issues for a slow-build, easy relationship when it's meant to be slow, but for a romantic suspense plot with all of this set-up, I was disappointed.  I expected a relationship that dealt with Dare being smart but still having to deal with Molly.  To an extent, it's understandable that one would want the heroine and the hero of a romance to be perfect, but the perfection can be just as much of a problem.

Molly and Dare's relationship just ended up being lackluster in how it was executed.  There was a fair amount of sexual tension, but there wasn't much of a struggle in terms of their general feelings.  Both felt comfortable right away in their attraction, and the initial stumbling block of actually getting physical and realizing it didn't feel very large or vital in terms of the overall relationship arc.  Despite Molly's unusually high resilience (which is possible, but didn't feel very genuine to me), I loved that Dare was so compassionate.  Yes, it felt overdone at times, but Dare is still very much a hero that feels protective yet at the same time considerate.  That was the big strength to this book.  The perfections made the romance feel less dynamic, but it sent a great message and felt like a great example of what I would like to read in an alpha-male hero.  Molly herself had the best strengths in her career.  Lori Foster is an author of romantic suspense, so she had a lot of material to bring into Molly's career that made it feel very alive.  She talks about WIPs and how a writer doesn't make a whole mess of money (until her movie deal came along, and I honestly can't say how lucrative that is for the author.)  The reality worked, and I ultimately never got annoyed with the main characters while reading the book. 

The story as a whole read pretty fluidly.  Foster writes a really good domestic scene.  She makes a lot of mundane things seem interesting.  The length of When You Dare was still too long to allow her style to be 100% effective, though.  The book was very long, and her suspense plotting did not meet the standards in this installment.  It took nearly half the book just to get a start on the attempt to discover who was plotting against Molly, and that storyline as a whole was rather unsurprising.  There are only a few suspects, and they quickly become whittled down and easy to figure out.  I would have been fine with the length if the suspense plot wasn't such a window-dressing.  There just wasn't a lot that I particularly felt excited about while reading it. 

When You Dare was my least favorite of the two.  It has its moments, and Lori Foster has great writing skills, but the length, suspense plot, and lack of romantic dynamics made it rather ho-hum.  It wasn't bad, but it wasn't amazing. 

Cover:  I love these covers.  I lust after them.  It's a problem.

Rating:  3.0  Stars

Copy:  Received from publicist/publisher for review  (Thank you, Tricia!)



Title:  Trace of Fever

Author:  Lori Foster

Publisher:  Harlequin (HQN) Books

Series:  Men Who Walk the Edge of Honor #2

Other Reviews for This Author:  (see above)

After finishing When You Dare, I wasn't sure if Trace of Fever would be for me.  The premise sounded edgier, and I recalled Trace's very (and appropriately) brief appearance in the first book as a good thing.  He promised to be a character that was more rough around the edges.  I enjoyed When You Dare enough in terms of writing and general enjoyment to at least read one other book by Foster, and I was so glad to find that the problems I had with When You Dare were not present in the second book in the series.

Trace Rivers is a hardcore mercenary who has seen some pretty dangerous things in his lifetime.  His business partner, Dare Macintosh, has settled down with the love of his life, Molly Alexander, after saving her from a human trafficking ring.  Dare also saved Trace's sister, whom he loves more than anyone else in the world.  The incident left a bad taste in Trace's mouth.  Human trafficking was always a problem, but now it's something made all the more personal to him.  It's not just about his sister, but about anyone that feels the need to emotionally destroy women and sell them like cattle.  Trace uses this motivation to try and bust a giant human trafficking ring in a big-wig corporation.  What he doesn't count on is meeting a woman just as dangerous with her motivations as he is.

Priscilla "Priss" Patterson has been burned by Murray Coburn one too many times in her life.  After he virtually destroyed any sense of trust her mother had, she was left to grow up afraid of being found out; trapped and barely able to go outside.  Her mother started up an adult video store just to further hide from any job too public.  The fear of big businessman Murray Coburn and his frightening ways was enough to keep them in hiding for a long time.  Now that her mother is gone, Priss decides that she needs revenge.  That revenge means putting on an act of cunning deception - and possibly admitting that she's Murray Coburn's daughter.

When Priss first goes into Coburn's office building, Trace immediately senses something is off.  Priss tries to pull of an act of ditzy ignorance, but he knows there's more to her.  He's also royally pissed off that she would mess up his undercover operation, risking his ability to destroy Murray's trafficking contacts and Murray himself.  All just for a personal vendetta.  Trace gets a shock when Murray doesn't completely hate the idea of Priss being his daughter.  Trace is actually assigned to keep an eye on Priss, and that assignment luckily allows him to figure out what's going on with her.  It also makes the two very close, which may bring an unexpected personal aspect into the mix. 

Trace of Fever did in fact turn out to be better than When You Dare.  The main couple is immediately more dynamic.  Trace is a hard-ass kind of guy who loves to mess with people's minds.  Right off the bat, he isn't afraid to do anything he can to keep Priss from ruining his job.  Even if it means fondling her lady parts in a 'required search' for Murray.  Granted, he probably liked that, but it was still a show of intensity that Dare never had.  Trace is also just a more sexual person in general.  Where Dare was sexual in a more average way, Trace is sexual to the nth degree.  There are several sexually charged scenes through his third person scope that scream of heat that I never imagined Foster would bring to the party.  It was close to erotic-romance in terms of just how sexually charged the storyline was.  Priss was also quite sexually charged - although it was surprising considering she is both modest a virgin prior to meeting Trace.  (Sorry, if that spoils a later part of the book, then you haven't read a romance novel.)  The extreme sexuality between the couple is probably the most problematic thing, if only because it can sometimes overshadow the emotional development.  Emotions usually connected to the sex, but there was also a lot of it in relation to the villains, making it feel a little less intimate. 

The best part of the romance was how close Priss and Trace got.  Unlike Molly and Dare, it felt like they actually had to work and realize they liked each other.  Things weren't easy for either of these two characters.  Trace had to work with realizing he liked Priss for her ability to play parts and be sneaky.  It was great to see her surprise him with how cunning and intelligent she could be.  Priss, on the other hand, had to learn to trust Trace.  This was despite the fact a lot of his operations were top secret.  The obstacle of trust was actually something present and needed in order for them to have a full-fledged relationship.  I also loved that they were genuinely attracted to each other.  Not only did I believe it, but I believed it.  That's a big thing for me in romance novels.  I also enjoyed how some of the secondary characters, such as Dare's gay assistant, were fleshed out and made extremely amusing.  It felt like they started getting personalities.  The first book felt very sterile in comparison. 

Suspense-wise, the plot was also ramped up.  Murray is an actual villain, and he manages to hit the Creeper button too many times to count.  His partner in crime, nicknamed Hell, was also a rather interesting addition.  In Trace of Fever, the suspense plot actually works in conjunction with the romantic arc, and I think it made for a read that felt more balanced than the first book.  I was more inclined to read it, and I didn't feel like I was slogging through slow sections just to get to any action (of a romantic or suspense variety.)  My one complaint was that the villainy in this one was really over-the-top.  There is a lot of sexuality presented in the villains that felt a little excessive to me due to its creepy factor, and I could deal with that in some books, but in this case it just didn't work for me.  The general behavior of Hell was also extremely dramatic and, while it served for a good plot device to get the hero and heroine together, it didn't really feel realistic.  Insane characters tend to be a hard sell for me, so this didn't come as much of a surprise. 

Trace of Fever is a more solid addition to the series.  Other than the small qualms I had with it, the only other issue was the obvious setup for the third book in the series.  It felt like it was extremely obvious, and I could have done without it.  The main couple was much more dynamic this time around, and Foster's writing is the kind that really sucks you into the storyline.  I appreciated the heat level and how it felt like the story as a whole was based around a few central ideas.  Most of the sex pertained to the character development, and the entertainment had from the read was of a really good level.  If you have to read at least one of these books, Trace of Fever would be my prime recommendation.

Cover:  Love it even more than the first one.  Drool worthy.

Rating:  4.0  Stars

Copy:  Received from publicist/publisher for review  (Thank you so much, Tricia!!)

Hi, everyone.  Sorry this is so late.  I was discussing some business stuff, and I also had marching band  today, which took up a chunk of my review time.  This book is beyond compare, though, and I just had to spotlight the review with the Rainbow Thursday deal.  It's wonderful.


Title:  With or Without You

Author:  Brian Farrey

Publisher:  Simon Pulse

Series:  None

Other Reviews for This Author:  None

It's really rare that I come across a contemporary LGBTQ book for teens where the main character is out and comfortable about it for the most part.  It's the situation I'm in, and it's a far more positive situation than the angst-ridden time period when you're not sure if you're ready to tell your friends, your family, or the entire world that you want to go to town with someone of the same sex (or both, or if you're transgendered, ect.) Not many contemporary novels deal with life after coming out, though.  It's like a taboo subject, and it's ridiculous on how little the relieving, post-coming out time period is shown in YA fiction.  With or Without You is one of the few contemporary LGBTQ books I've read recently that does deal with a character post-coming out, and it's probably one of the best contemporary novels I've read this year period.

Evan and Davis have been best friends for a long time.  It's been a long road for the two of them, but they are finally about to graduate high school and move on from their home.  Evan's had an ideal University picked out for the two of them, and he and Davis plan on continuing their friendship well into college.  One of their deepest bonds is that both of them are gay.  They've never been interested in each other in a romantic sense, but they've always bonded over the fact that they share that reason for being outcasts.  Their social status is what binds them together, though, and Evan wouldn't change it for anything.

A long chain of events comes into play when Evan and Davis get beaten up by bullies because of their sexuality.  They're so close to graduating, but it's a harsh reminder of how cruel some people can be due to their ignorance.  Davis in particular is extremely depressed because of the scenario.  It also reminds him of his father, who is kicking him out of the house as soon as he can.  He'll have to stay at the local gay youth center, and going to college doesn't seem to be something he's excited about.  Evan continually tries to cheer his friend up, but he has other things to deal with as well.  Mainly, his secret boyfriend, Erik.

Keeping Erik a secret from his parents and Davis has been a problem.  Evan just doesn't want to think about how his family would react.  His parents had a rather lukewarm to reaction to him coming out, but he's not sure if having an actual boyfriend - especially one in college already - would upset the balance in his family.  He's just as nervous to tell Davis because of how dependent Davis is on him.  The chance of him taking offense or getting jealous would always be there.  Things all begin to go insane when Davis meets a shady character at the youth center named Sable.  Sable runs a meeting of a gay youth group known as the Chasers, and it isn't long before Davis gets enamored with the dark, older guy who seems to be unstable.  With Davis threatening to go off the edge and Erik wanting to feel like he's actually in Evan's life, Evan has more problems than he can hope to handle, and it isn't long before they begin to fall to pieces.

The main character of Evan is one that a lot of gay teenagers will relate to.  I don't mean in his sexuality, but in his simple life struggles.  It was so nice to read about a character who was dealing with relationship problems - and that relationship just so happened to be a gay one.  Evan is just a really brilliant character.  He is an extremely talented artist and does wonderful work, but he has an underlying level of insecurity about his talents and his life that he never really acknowledges.  His insecurities about how is family and Davis will react to him are very deep.  They match up with his relationship with his parents and their martyr-like view of his sister.  They also come from Davis and his fleeting and dramatic personality.  There was so much there to his character in the beginning that could have overpowered the reading experience with negativity, but his relationships with Erik and his sister were extremely positive.  Evan is really and truly in love with his boyfriend, and he speaks about him in a subtly intimate way that most authors could never pull off.  He thinks so much about how Erik acts when he's in certain moods, and the way he talks about it him suggests a really mature level of intimacy.  There's obviously some backlash to Evan's character because of his insecurities and the secrets he keeps because of them, and I did find his character's problem of not being able to find himself artistically to be predictable, but the overall execution of his character and the reasoning behind it was excellent.

The other characters in Evan's life were equally well-formed.  Davis was probably one of the most disturbed best friend character's I've read in a while, and I loved it.  He flits from obsession to obsession without any real direction, and he almost always gets bored because the excited high he gets from the mindset doesn't last.  His lack of grounding also seems to go back to his parenting.  His mother is in a permanent rehab center, and his dad could care less about him.  Even with Evan's friendship, Davis is a friend that is underhandedly needy and perpetually looking for a quick-fix for his feelings.  Latching onto guys he finds attractive like Sable is just a dangerous after-effect of his behavior.  It was so interesting to see how his best-friendship with Evan was almost a parasitic type of relationship.  Erik was probably one of the best love interests I've read in a long time.  He has his brooding moments of depression, but for the most part was so happy and enjoyable.  It really felt like he understood and respected who Evan was as a person.  He gave him space and only seemed to be full of love and compassion when with him.  It was also nice to see him painted as a nursing student with an eye for sculpture.  Erik doesn't fit under one particular category or stereotype, which is also awesome.  His sex with Evan was also deftly handled.  Again, it managed to be extremely intimate without being explicit, and it was a wonderful example of how two teenagers can practice safe sex when they themselves are ready for it.

Farrey's writing was just the awesome glue holding all of this together.  It was fluid and wonderful, and he got the voice of a mature but still self-unaware teenager down pat.  There were wonderfully descriptive passages in his writing, and he made the most mundane moments seem full of importance for his characters.  I did find the pacing in the first third of the book to be rather slow going, but there was a good pay off for it.  With or Without You starts of as a group of problems; a bundle of marionette strings.  As you start turning the pages and begin reading the text, you notice that the strings begin to unravel from their knot.  The end of the book results in the strings being used to move the puppet effortlessly, and you, as the reader, suddenly realize how the strings affect each other and the story as a whole.  The read was wonderful, and I felt like it got a lot of depth into the storyline that most reads don't.  He also touches on the subject of AIDs in the second half effectively, and it didn't feel like a cliche rehash of the basics and worries that have already been discussed in LGBTQ YA novels that used it as a plot point.

With or Without You is one of my new top contemporary YA reads.  It has so much heart and intelligence behind it, and is one of the best LGBTQ YA love stories I've read since The Vast Fields of Ordinary.  Evan is an effective narrator, and his friends and family are detailed and fleshed out.  The writing and presentation of the book made it an extremely rewarding read.  This is a book that I have heard next to nothing about, and it is an incredible shame that it's been passed up by the marketing community.  Brian Farrey is a new voice in YA fiction, and he has won me over heart and soul with his portrayal of an LGBTQ teen trying to find his way through love and friendship.  This book is worth buying for a school library - or just for yourself - a hundred times over.  I cannot recommend it enough.

Cover:  The cover deals in part with Evan's window paintings, and I like the overall feel of it, but it lacks a decided wow factor that will cause readers to pull it from the shelves.

Rating:  5.0  Stars

Copy:  Received from author for review  (Thank you so much, Brian!!)

Title:  Happyface

Author:  Stephen Emond

Publisher:  Little, Brown

Series:  None

Other Reviews for This Author:  None

Novels with a graphic twist to them such as Diary of a Wimpy Kid have become a huge thing for the middle grade market.  The Dork Diaries and Wimpy Kid are probably some of the most prominent examples of how this format can engage young readers despite a reluctance to read an actual book.  Pictures are a great incentive like that.  Happyface fills this Wimpy Kid void for the YA audience.  It offers a detailed story with a male protagonist and tells it through his sketchbook.  There are countless sketches in this book of various types and meanings, and it was just clever enough to get me interested in picking it up.  A few hours later, I was satiated and satisfied with it.  People looking for a great book that will hook reluctant readers, non-romance focused readers, and boy readers will find something worth looking at in Happyface.

Happyface has finally decided to use the sketchbook his father got him for Christmas.  After having it sit around for a year, he's finally ready to crack it open and write (but mostly sketch) out what's going on his life.  He talks about his family - the embarrassing collegiate older brother of his, his equally embarrassing paralegal of a mother and his dad, who is a famous author.  And Chloe.  The girl is everything he wants.  She's cute and funny and pays attention to his sketching.  His parents may always be arguing, and Chloe may not return his more-than-friends affections, but he's got something good going.  Happyface is genuinely happy.

Then things aren't so happy.  Happyface moves out of his home and into an apartment with his mother.  His parents are going through a rough divorce, and he feels like his father has been completely smacked by what his mom is doing.  The only plus side is that she's quit drinking - even though his father didn't.  Happyface now has to go to a new school and live in a crummy, small apartment while trying not to think of what happened before.  The decision to be someone else seems to be the best one.  He can put on a smile wherever he goes and be someone else.  Someone whose family life doesn't suck so much.  Someone who didn't have to deal with what happened with Chloe.

He soon finds a group of new friends to hang out with.  Cool ones that dub him the moniker Happyface.  Happyface is leading a new life, and that starts with attempting to get to know one particularly quiet girl who sends his heart aflutter.  His interest in Gretchen only begins the changes in his life.  Suddenly, Happyface smiles at everything.  He makes jokes in class and never has a care in the world.  He gets in tight with Gretchen's friends Misty and Karma, and has to battle Gretchen's attached ex-boyfriend to keep her attention.  Through it all, Happyface rarely seems to realize that for being Happyface....he isn't very happy.

The main character of Happyface is probably one of the most interesting main characters I have read about recently.  His name (at least to my knowledge) was never revealed in the text.  Neither was his actual face.  On each of his cartoons, he draws himself as a simple smiley face.  This shows a lot about how astute Emond is in terms of characterization.  Right from the beginning - before the reader even realizes it - they're seeing just how skewed the first person perspective can be.  Especially when relating to a journal-type experience.  Happyface, from the get-go, hides things about himself.  The fact that it's so intense in a personal journal just proves how much he's trying to hold inside.  The repressed feelings continue to expand and show themselves throughout the narrative, and the final reveal shakes you.  It comes up like an earthquake and you are completely thrown off guard about it - much like the characters in the scene.  Happyface is a clown, but he's also serious and romantic.  He's a guy but he isn't overly concerned about his masculinity.  He's the type of character that a lot of people would come to like by the end of the book, even if they didn't necessarily like him from the beginning.  His narration will especially appeal to guys, because his situations are more guy oriented.  They do not, however, feel like an overdone attempt at making this book appeal to a specific gender audience.  Happyface got big points for its well-crafted first person narrator and his skewed way of telling his story.

The many companions of Happyface are somewhat less complex, but still surprisingly deep considering the story format and type.  Happyface plays out as an sketchbook version of Boy Meets Girl, but with more reality, angst, and cartoonings.  Gretchen is an interesting main love interest.  I loved that she was bookish but not stereotypically so.  She has her own group of friends that are 'popular' but not by any one particular standard.  Their popularity is actually more of a perception of Happyface's than an actual popularity, which makes them all the more interesting.  Gretchen herself has a lot of boy problems, and I like that both her past relationships and Happyface's past relationships cause them to make mistakes.  The narrative seemed to pin more of the blame on Gretchen, which was a rather not-nice side effect of the deep first person aspect.  His best friend Mike was pretty cool as well.  He was the classic nerd who befriends the outcast, but it was still nice to see him get redemption and be able to function in a social setting despite how much Happyface puts him down.  Happyface tends to do this a lot to protect his own insecurities.  The slighted version of reality is interesting, but the side characters feel a little bit overblown as a result.  I liked them, but for their humanity...not because they are all likable people. 


Emond's writing is a really interesting beast to tackle in a review.  In a book like Happyface, it is important to understand that the illustrations are as much of the writing as the text.  Emond's textual offerings in this book are certainly strong, and they have a certain personality that lends well to the narrator and his story.  It's humor, but one can tell the actual voice is a lot more serious about his story than his drawings dictate on their surface.  The drawings themselves are fabulous.  Emond uses a variety of styles.  From cartoons to more flowing sketches.  He also uses things such as an occasional 'webcomic' of Happyface that's humorous.  The drawings make you want to keep turning pages, and thus the book goes extremely fast.  You can't even tell that you're reading so fast, and it makes the reading experience exhilarating.  My only complaint was that there were times where it felt like the storyline lagged because of unnecessary conflicts/scenes that didn't add much to the overall story arc. 


Happyface was a book that had me excited from page one, and on finishing it, I couldn't wait to recommend it to readers.  It has so much going for it.  It has aspects that will attract those into graphic novels, boys, and reluctant readers of many types.  There is humor, yet still a fair amount of angst and reality in the read.  The main character is very well-thought out, and his friends are real, if at times frustrating.  The book moves along well despite some small, slogging scenes, and the artwork is extraordinary.  If you are a librarian or a teacher especially - buy this book!  It will be well worth the money. 


Cover:  It's very simple, and I think it'll attract a lot of readers.  I liked the hardcover where it was a frowny face underneath, though.  That had a little more depth in relation to the story.


Rating:  4.5 Stars  (very close to a 5.0)


Copy:  Received from publicist/publisher for review  (Thank you so much Faye, Sara, and Little, Brown!!)

You have heard right, peeps!  Today I have a book trailer and a giveaway for The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making!  This book is one of my most highly anticipated reads of the year...and it promises to be breathtakingly awesome.  Here's the trailer...




Now, a little bit more about the book (thanks to the publisher/publicist):


Twelve-year-old September lives in Omaha, and used to have an ordinary life, until her father went to war and her mother went to work. One day, September is met at her kitchen window by a Green Wind (taking the form of a gentleman in a green jacket), who invites her on an adventure, implying that her help is needed in Fairyland. The new Marquess is unpredictable and fickle, and also not much older than September. Only September can retrieve a talisman the Marquess wants from the enchanted woods, and if she doesn?t . . . then the Marquess will make life impossible for the inhabitants of Fairyland. September is already making new friends, including a book-loving Wyvern and a mysterious boy named Saturday.

With exquisite illustrations by acclaimed artist Ana Juan, Fairyland lives up to the sensation it created when the author first posted it online. For readers of all ages who love the charm of Alice in Wonderland and the soul of The Golden Compass, here is a reading experience unto itself: unforgettable, and so very beautiful.


Does it look like something you want to win?


Fill Out This Form for a chance to win a finished copy of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making.

It's open to those in the US or Canada only (sorry folks - publisher rules) and the contest will close at the end of the day on June 30th.  Please enter if you're interested!  :)

Title:  The Eternal Sea

Author:  Angie Frazier

Publisher:  Scholastic Press

Series:  Everlasting #2

Other Reviews for This Author:  Everlasting and Suzanna Snow and the Midnight Tunnel

So I'm an Angie Frazier fanboy right now.  Lock me up for months and I will still freely admit to loving her writing with a fierce passion that can rival little else.  Aside from Colin Firth.  Everlasting and the first Suzanna Snow book both had some flaws, but Angie Frazier's writing has captured me from page one of her debut novel (Everlasting), and I was beyond excited to read the continuation of Camille and Oscar's story in The Eternal Sea.  This review is thus the mark of almost a year's worth of anticipation and worry.  How would the story stand up to a legitimate love triangle?  Could Angie's writing chops handle it?  Would I lose love for a series that I fiercely enjoy for being historical-romance-adventure-paranormal-ya?  Well, I didn't.  I love it even more.  So that should tell you where this review is going.

*Note: If you haven't read Everlasting, this will probably spoil you for it.  So don't read it.  You don't want to be spoiled for it.  I promise, it's worth reading the actual book completely unawares.*

Camille thought her journey would be done after recovering the legendary stone of Umandu.  She trekked the treacherous climate of Australia with Oscar, the low-ranked boy she came to love, and a lovable drunk and card shark named Ira.  After losing her father, a ship captain, to a violent storm, Camille was determined to find the secret of the stone and perhaps use its mystical powers to bring her father back from the dead.  She didn't realize that when Oscar died protecting her, her heart would use the stone to bring back him instead.  It seemed like the ultimate act of love.  It was an impossible choice, but Camille thought she and Oscar would be together forever because of it.

It appears to Camille that she was mistaken.  Ever since she and Oscar began working to buy tickets to return to San Francisco, he's been distant.  What's worse is that he won't mention why.  Camille's heart chose him to return, yet he seems to be very eager to send her off without him.  He even insists that she marry Randall - the very man her father engaged her to before he died - when she has no want to.  Randall's appearance in Australia soon after only seems to complicate things even more.  Now, Camille has to try to explain the reasoning behind the legendary Umandu, and try and keep Randall from realizing that her heart brought back Oscar from the dead.

The stone of Umandu also begins to react to Oscar and Camille.  The corresponding map also shifts, leading them on to a new location:  Egypt.  Strange heiroglyphics also appear on the map's face, and it seems to be pointing to the location of Umandu's sister stone, which promises to complete the process that Umandu began.  Camille and her companions will find themselves on a journey more deadly and life-threatening than the first.  They battle shadowy creatures bent on taking Oscar back down to the Underworld, discover a new piece to the Umandu legend, and find more betrayal than ever before.  Camille still loves Oscar, but with Randall around, her journey only gets tougher.  The Eternal Sea is a breathtaking sequel that takes everything great about Everlasting and expands upon it to a new level of detail that is the work of a very skilled writer.

Camille is a really complex main character, especially considering we do not see things through her first person perspective.  Angie Frazier is one of the best YA authors to use third person, and Camille is a great example of why it can work so well.  Camille is considerably more mature since Everlasting, but she still remains the same character I fell in love with.  She's stubborn and strong.  She doesn't succumb to society's general ideas of what girls should do, and she doesn't have a care about what others think of her.  Headstrong and intelligent, she makes up all of the best traits.  I also love how she deals with falling in love with two guys.  She notices both of their faults and acknowledges them, but also is willing to see the good side to both of them.  There's also the fact that, while she laments it, it isn't the main focus of her life.  She loves one, but she loves the other more.  It doesn't feel like a half-assed love triangle where one person is an obvious choice and the other is just a background player that is only loved for the sake of creating conflict.  It also helped that the plot was a part of the reason the love triangle existed.  It was thus a byproduct of the main conflict.  Not the main conflict itself.  Camille handled her adventure with realism and strength, and she remained an awesome character in this installment of the series.

Frazier also does really well with the other characters surrounding Camille.  Randall is fully fleshed out in this installment, and Frazier makes it very clear that he's a hard character to pin down morally.  On one hand, he has class beliefs that make him act prejudiced towards Oscar and, at times, Camille.  There is a nicer side to him, too.  He gives Camille the time of day, is protective, kind, and begins to loosen up as to her unbecoming actions.  Randall became a serious contender for her heart, and I loved that he wanted to earn her love the right way.  Randall is a gentleman at the end of the day, and it makes him become a lot more appealing.  Oscar becomes colder and distant because of some serious plot events that occur, and this situation makes the love triangle that much more real.  Oscar was still my favorite, but it ruined me emotionally to see his emotions go through such hard times.  Ira was absent for most of the book, but he remained his lovable self.  Camille's brother got some new depths as a character, too, and I loved the well-developed (but predictable for me) plot twist that he was involved in.  There were also some new characters that really threw me for a few loops.  Angie Frazier makes the sea voyage take a reasonable amount of page time, and she utilizes it perfectly by making it a hotbed for character development.  You will trust no one, and the motivations behind Umandu and its abilities are complex and crazy.  She only reveals a part of what the final book will most likely discuss, but the characters make some bold decisions that make them human and foreshadow some possible conflicts that had me itching to find out more.

The writing in this series is just amazing.  I equate it with the best of the adventure movies.  Angie Frazier really surprised me with how fast her book moved, and that was with great description and historical detail added in the mix.  Her characterization was only a part of the greatness of the writing.  The plotting was equally well-crafted.  I couldn't get enough of just how many surprising twists and turns the mythology took.  It was insane and shocking but never felt fake or forced.  The Underworld became a whole new player in the ballgame, and it really made for an external adventure that sang with excitement and betrayal.  The way the characters move along with the plot is just awesome, and it made so happy.  It's rare anymore that I read a book that has me hyperventilating and wanting to shout because of how exciting and crazy everything is.  I got intensely emotional during this read, and it was an experience I can't wait to have again for the final book. 

Overall - The Eternal Sea is just great.  It's one of the best sequels I've read in a long time, and it shows just how much Angie Frazier has grown with time.  Everything is tighter and her prose is lush and moves fast.  Her characters are so well done, and the mythology is beyond great.  It will remind you of the epic journeys from adventure movies coupled with an equally epic romance.  This series is probably one of my favorite YA series of all time, and I can't wait for the final installment.  Can.  Not.  Wait.

Cover:  I love the cover for this so much.  It's creepy and just looks really skilled. 

Rating:  5.0  Stars

Copy:  Received from the publisher for review  (Thank you SO MUCH Jen and Scholastic!!) 

Title:  The Dead

Author:  Charlie Higson

Publisher:  Disney/Hyperion

Series:  The Enemy #2

Other Reviews for This Author:  None

While my main experience with YA zombies has come from Carrie Ryan and the Zombies Vs. Unicorns anthology, I like to think I know a little bit about them in general.  I'd seen the first book (technically the sequel of the two) in Higson's series, The Enemy, in my library, but I hadn't picked it up because of the rather large size.  I figured I would pick up the sequel for a blog tour since zombies are interesting and summer allows me more time to enjoy doorstop books.  The Dead turned out to be an enjoyable book despite the overall length, and it will certainly appeal to teenagers (especially guys) who want a gory read akin to the Dawn of the Dead movie.

The disease is upon anyone sixteen or over.  They break out in puss-filled boils and scratch their skin like its unfit for them.  Sunlight is painful.  A massive headache that causes their brain to buzz jumps on them...and their hunger for regular food goes away.  It feels like eating ash.  Those who contract the disease go from people with minor colds to those who hunger for human flesh.  Particularly the flesh of young people.  The disease is unrelenting to those who contract it, and it only is a matter of time before they go from being mildly afflicted to acting like zombies.

When the disease begins to seriously change England, a group of students sets out to try and survive.  It hits Rowhurst School with a bang, and within a few days a group of school boys are fighting for survival and trying to get away from their school full of flesh-eating teachers.  Best friends Ed and Jack are heading the group of boys as they battle their way out into the streets.  The rag-tag group includes a kid who immerses himself in books, a fashion nut, rugby players, nerds, and many other types of people.  They also pick up Frederique, the daughter of one of their French professors, and her very frightened tabby cat.

Getting out of Rowhurst practically takes an army, and the lives of the kids are easily picked off if they let down their guard among the diseased.  Hiding in one of the churches leads a boy and a few others to found a new religion of sorts based on The Lamb.  Eventually, the group tries to leave town.  Some to the country, and some to London, in the hopes of finding a better place to survive.  What comes involves a large bus, the only adult that seems to not have contracted the disease, and a slow realization that the surviving kids are going to have to rebuild civilization while facing the threat of the diseased. 

The Dead is, like many zombie movies, a type of storyline that requires a lot of characters.  These characters are usually the type to die before the story concludes.  It is just the nature of the zombie novel.  However, this requirement of a large ensemble usually means that the main character remains unclear or less focused-on.  It also causes a lot of the cast to be stereotyped or flat compared to a novel with a tighter cast that doesn't get periodically eaten off by flesh-eating adults.  Ed would be The Dead's main character - if it had a particular main character - and his personality was surprising for character to focus on in a zombie book.  Ed is in many ways a leader by accident, and his judgement is strong.  This strong judgement is paralleled by a huge inability to kill or harm one of the diseased adults (aka 'Sickos'.)  Later on in the book he begins to come out of his shell for survival, but it comes about in a scary, feral way triggered by the trauma he's experiencing.  It had the rumblings of a plot device because of his sudden need to be a physically strong group member, but at the same time it made sense in the grand scheme of things because of the inner need to survive.  Jack was also heavily focused on, and he, unlike Ed, was very intent on surviving by using violence.  Jack also had simpler goals that didn't necessarily reflect survival, which I thought was really interesting. 

Since the other characters were present in equal measure, I can't say much more or less about them than the 'main' characters.  Frederique was a cliche French character that got on my nerves.  Why must every character from another country speak in halting English?  That just gets old.  She was also very emotionally distraught and slightly a part of a romance.  Brooke is the other female character that gets the most attention, and she's much tougher than Frederique.  She also has two other friends with her - Aleisha and Courtney - and their group is probably the biggest stereotype that bothered me.  Brooke is a tough bitch in the beginning, and eventually loses the second part of her descriptor (for the most part.)  Throughout the book, though, she is put into a gender position that I thought was really unneeded.  During the zombie/whatever apocalypse, she and her friends are still taking the time to put on make-up and gossip before going out to scavenge for food.  Really?  Really?  Do we really live in a world where every teenage girl would do that?  No.  It didn't need to be mentioned, and I really would have liked to see the group of girls be like anyone else and more focused on survival than looking pretty.  The other characters all had personalities that caught my interest, but a lot of it was very flat and gimmicky feeling.  The frequent deaths didn't really tug at my heart strings since most of them didn't feel developed enough.

Higson's writing was very engaging despite the characterization I had with the novel.  While at times slow (at nearly 600 pages, it's really hard not to have a slow spot), the book moved at a surprisingly brisk pace.  The narration is third person with head hopping every few chapters, which got a bit annoying at times, but managed to provide an adequate viewpoint at the varying levels of sanity amongst the characters.  It read a lot like Dawn of the Dead combined with Michael Grant's Gone.  I'm not a big fan of the latter, but it managed to feel a lot more cohesive with its plotting than Gone did.  The downside is that the ultimate goal of survival leads the characters to some basic situations several times.  Fighting Sickos.  Trying to survive.  Something bad happening to upset the slight balance managed from the previous two things.  This is in general, and naturally not all of the events followed this pattern.  It did feel like that, though, and it fit the pattern of zombie movies pretty well.  Higson is a popular television writer.  It shows through how his work reads.  It could easily be a television series or a movie series, and its strengths would probably work much more efficiently in that medium with the way he wrote The Dead.

I certainly enjoyed The Dead, and will probably read The Enemy from my library at some point in time.  Higson knows how to write a zombie book that keeps you entertained.  The characters disappointed me, but the writing was brisk and interesting enough to keep me going.  The Dead is the kind of book that will appeal most to people who enjoy zombie movies.  It's a series that I think could easily attract teenage boys because of the grotesque zombie appeal.  It's nothing very new, but it was worth a look for the entertainment. 

Cover:  I really like all of the fire and the silhouettes...it looks very creepy.

Rating:  3.5 Stars

Copy:  Received from publicist for review  (Thanks Wiley and Disney/Hyperion!)