The Rule of Three Eric Walters

In a world rife with Young Adult dystopic novels (The Hunger Games, Divergent etc.) this one easily sets itself apart.

Eric Walters is a former school teacher from Canada. Unlike so many teachers turned authors who turn out more of the same barf they taught in schools. I was NOT a fan of the required reading most schools use to promote literature but that's another blog post. After I finished this I read multiple other books by Walters and enjoyed every single one.

Adam Daley is an excellent example of a teenage boy thrust into a world where everything he thought was important is suddenly gone. When all computers and electricity fail his classic beater car is one of only a few that still run. His father, a pilot, was scheduled to return home the same night the power failed. With no phones and no news his family has no way of knowing if he's even still alive, but he has the ultralight they were building, and the help of Herb the neighbor of questionable morals but incredibly knowledgeable about how to handle an apocalypse.

As they turn their little area of town into a self-sustaining community in the heart of a world where the civilized veneer has been removed from everyone revealing the true animal nature of many, Adam somehow manages to stay true to the decent person he is.

Unlike so many dystopic novels that end up with people sharing memes about the rest of the world continuing as if nothing is wrong and ignoring the problems centered in the North American continent this book deals with that with one statement from Herb. If our allies knew and they were able they'd be helping. If our enemies knew and they could they'd destroy us. They aren't here. It's everywhere.

I can usually tell when I'm not the only one who will like a book if Mom, who's fairly picky about what Young Adult stuff she likes raves about something. She raved about this series. So far Books one and two are out. The Rule of Three is the first and it's followed by The Fight for Power. Both follow the same little community through the unspeakable danger of a post-apocalyptic world.

The Rule of Three: Will to Survive comes out on January 19, 2016, I'm looking forward to it.

The Darkest Part of the Forest Holly Black

Holly Black writes some of the best Young Adult "fairy" stories available. Over the years I've read a large number of her books and loved nearly all of them. So when this one showed up on the library shelves I snagged it. It more than lived up to her previous work.

Hazel and her brother are the children of artists who sometimes forget they have children leaving them to wander the forest surrounding their home town of Fairview. Unfortunately Faeries also wander those same woods. And Hazel and Ben don't necessarily get along with them.

Ben is, depending on your view, blessed or cursed by a fae as a young child to be drawn to music even if he doesn't like it. It gives him a certain power over them, to control them with music. It allows him to help Hazel save herself from a hag as a small child. And as small imaginative children are inclined to do they decide this means they were destined to fight the ones that capture and slaughter a few of the wayward tourists drawn to town by the prince asleep in a glass coffin. The bard and the knight. The fact that Hazel found an enchanted sword didn't hurt either.

Add in a changeling best friend and a quest to save a prince... Ends up being one of the best fantasy-based Young Adult books I've read in years. It took me less than four hours to finish. I've already turned it over to mom to read and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good fast paced read.

Unearthly Cynthia Hand

I let my mom read this book before I did because I was reading a few others first and really not in the mood for a young adult books that I was a tad... skeptical... about. She finished it before bed the night I got it out of the library. Then proceeded to tell me the next morning that I HAD to read it, it was just that good

So I sat down to force my way into a book I wasn't in the mood for. Took all of about 10 pages before I was hooked.

Clara is a wonderful character you can't help but like. Her younger brother is just irritating enough to be a realistic younger brother without the feeling of just stereotypical cliched book brother-itis. The same is true for all the characters. You just can't help but feel like they could have been your friends/enemies in high school.

As for the quarter angel basis for the story? It works. I've read books about teenage angels, which ranged from terrific to mediocre. (I haven't read more than 10 because it's not that popular of a entity to write about, there was a series about a half angel boy and his dog and then one about a group of girls who died and became angels that I could only ever find one of despite the fact that I desperately wanted more. I unfortunately since I now know my way around Amazon, no longer remember the titles of the books in question, I was around 15 when I read them.) This one is one of the best I've ever read.

Clara begins to have visions of a boy in a burning forest. Her mother (a half angel) tells her that this must be her purpose. So they move. From California to Wyoming. Sending her brother into the depths of teenage angst, which doesn't last long once he gets there.

Thus ensues the typical new girl issues of any YA book, done in such an enjoyable way. It's not new but it's done well enough that you enjoy it.

One of my favorite subplots was the cowboy Tucker as an "enemy". Very well done. I loved the subtle ways they got to each other..

Parts had me literally laughing out loud, which is good in a book that very easily could have come off as a little too serious.

The only thing that really could have been an issue for me was that I was sad when it ended. Not that it had a bad ending just that, well, it had to END at some point. Luckily it's got a sequel... That comes out next Tuesday.... That a certain person *me* pre-ordered.

I'm greatly looking forward to Hallowed.

A Little Late but...

I am as ever sorry about how long it has been since I last posted. It has been a difficult thing writing a post. What with working two jobs, two months or so of a shared computer with my mother, no big deal I love having something to hold over her head for hugs (bwahahahaha), negotiating the possibility of a puppy in my future (been waiting since I was around 9 for the okay on that one) and the lack of heat from November until just recently, I have not felt like posting much. I hope to be able to remedy that post haste!

This year I have set out to track the books I read. And yes I have set number goals. 600 books read through once. Rereads of previously read books acceptable, otherwise I would have great difficulty completing the goal as I need to read around 2 books most days to make it. And a goal of 1100 books total, rereads from this year acceptable. I tend to read books 4-5 times so this should not be a problem.

As far as how I'm coming I'm focusing on goal one for now. It's the ninth of January and I have already finished 17 books. I need to read one more today to be on track. I have no doubt that I will fall behind again and play catch up this weekend when I am off from work. This experiment should prove interesting I find that I really don't have too much trouble remembering to write down what books I finished over night. And of course I do LOVE to read!

As far as what books I've read recently that I am looking forward to doing posts on I must say Cynthia Hand's debut Unearthly was an instant hit for both my mother and myself. I am greatly looking forward to book 2 Hallowed, to be released the 17th of this month. I am pre-ordering it. I look forward to devouring it as quickly as I did the first.

Thirteenth Child Patricia C Wrede

This book was not only great it was EPIC.

The story of a girl names Eff, in an alternate US, circa the late 1860's or so. After their version of the Civil War. A world of magic and really cool mythic animals.

Her father is the seventh son of his father. Her twin brother, Lan, is a double seventh son. One of the most powerful magical occurrences possible. The only problem? To get a seventh son... Their parents had 14 children. Eff is the unlucky 13th. So much unlucky that at the age of 5 her uncle tries to have her arrested for "cursing" his family and house. This causes her father and mother to make the decision to move out west so her father can help fun a college right on the Great Barrier (the spell that keeps the wild animals beyond it from over running the country.)

The story follows Eff, and her family and friends through years of their lives. And many wonderful adventures.

This is one of the few young adult books starring a female that I think both teenage boys and girls would enjoy, I can't say for sure I haven't gotten my male sibling to read it yet. But I do believe he would enjoy it! Eff is strong but insecure enough about herself to make her a very sympathtic caracter and there is enough magic and such to keep everyone interested. Also it is one of the few YA books that focuses on a girl that doesn't also focus on her falling in love. At least now with anything except the far west.

I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!

Also it's sequel, which I will do a post on later. I fully intend to look for further books, I

Buffalo Gal Bill Wallace

This is one of my long time favorite books. As one of the first YA books I read it has a very special place in my heart. Also it is one of the few Bill Wallace books that makes me cry in a good way not an OMG I hate this author for killing off this animal way. For instance I hated Beauty and A Dog Called Kitty, which I read in Mr Murray's 5th grade English class. About the only book I did like from his class was Danger on Panther Peak, also written by Bill Wallace. We read A LOT of his books that year! And I can still remember getting extra points for having two introductions in my presentation for Danger on Panther Peak, which made up for the fact that I forgot to put in the setting! Yeah I remember home work from that long ago.. (over 10 years ago!)

Any way back to Buffalo Gal. It's about a girl whose mother decides to take her to save one of the remaining buffalo herds in Texas. Once there Amanda, the main character meets an Indian boy, David Talltree and sets off on a journey that ends up being one of the best books I've ever read.

From learning to camp out and women wearing Levi jeans for the first times in their lives, and the grass toothbrush Charlie the Mexican cook shows Amanda how to make...

This is without a doubt my favorite Bill Wallace. So much so in fact that a decade after I first read it (stole my sister's copy) I bought myself a hard cover so that I would no longer need to beg my sister to borrow hers... Yes the one who only buys the best books in hard cover... Bought this one. And a right lucky find that was! Spent a total of 4.64 on it! and 3.99 of that was shipping!

For anyone who likes historical YA books, or just great YA books this should be on your reading lists! I love it! And it's out of print which is just devastatingly sad to me.

A Friend At Midnight Caroline B Cooney

I loved Cooney's Face on the Milk Carton series as well as most of her other stand alone books.

So when I found A Friend At Midnight in the MVLS shipment at my library, that would be the books that run in cycles through the local library system, I figured I couldn't go wrong?

However me being me I wanted to know just what had happened to make Lily HATE her estranged father. So I read the ending which kind of spoiled bits of the story when I finally read it because having read ahead i felt eh it can't be that good I won't bother. So my mom read it first. And could not stop teling me how great she thought it was.

So a couple weekends ago I sat down and read it cover to cover. And loved it.
Lily's younger brother decides to live with their father after their parents divorce and her mom's remarriage and the birth of their half brother, whom of course shares a room with Michael, the younger brother.

A few weeks later as Mom and new hubby are taking older sister to college and not home Michael calls to tell Lily that Dad dumped him at the airport without any of his stuff, including his beloved stuffed bear, which you later find out he forced Michael to throw in the trash his first night with him and then to watch the bear be taken to the dump the next day.

What ensues is a 15 year old girl using credit card fraud and identity theft to rescue her little brother trapped in an airport and harassed by security.
Lily struggles over the next year to keep a promise made to Michael not to tell their mother and step father about what happened to him. She struggles to understand why her God never sends someone to help her.

I loved this book. It was sad, terrifying and enlightening by turns. You can't help but love Lily, mourn for Michael and kind of dislike their older sister. I recommend this book to any fan of young adult books!