What I've Read Lately - (Or Actually Quite Awhile Ago)

Remember when I said that I was doing a better job finding time to read more?  Well, as it turns out, that came at the expense of writing about what I've read.  I have gotten so far behind, I've gone through like 15 books that I haven't told you about yet!  I'm going to cover the first half today, and then I'll get busy writing about the other ones.  I'm giving you fair warning, though - it's been more than three months (!) since I've read some of these, so I might be getting a bit hazy on the details by now!

I didn't get very far into Illusive by Emily Lloyd-Jones.  I was so unimpressed with the book that when I found its title on my library receipt a couple of weeks after I had returned it, I couldn't even remember what it had been about!  I actually had to go to Google Books and read the first page of the preview before I recognized it.  I think I made it through about one chapter, and after discovering that it was another book about teenagers with powers, and not a particularly well-written one at that, I decided I wasn't going to waste my time on it.

When I first started reading Wicked Saints, by Emily A. Duncan, I was like, well, not the best, but it might be okay.  It was about a girl who had been hidden and raised in a mountain temple because she could talk to the gods (who gave her some powers), and everyone else even remotely similar to her had been killed by the neighboring kingdom that they had been at war with for like, 100 years.  So, the first chapter began with the temple under attack, and we saw the invaders being led by the enemy prince, who just so happened to be a 'blood magician,' and I was like, oh no she didn't.  To make it worse, the blood magicians practiced their magic by - get this - cutting themselves, ripping a page from the spell book they always carried, and crumpling the spell up in their bloody hand.  And I thought, this is the stupidest thing I have ever heard of.  I would have quit right then and there, but I had already abandoned the previous two books I had attempted to read, so I stuck with it.  Which was a pretty good thing, because I mostly liked it from there on out.  I say mostly, because there were actually quite a few times when there seemed to be sentences or even paragraphs missing - like things just wouldn't make sense and I'd be like what just happened?  But what really sucked me in is the fact that this book had not one, but two broken boys, so I pretty much couldn't help but love it.  Add to that the incredibly dark and bizarre and totally original concepts presented, and I was willing to forgive the haphazard writing.  Unfortunately, this is the first book in a series, so I am going to have to wait for the ending.  But after reading the author's preview (scroll down to the reviews) of the next book, I've got some serious ants in my pants!   (Reading Level: ? / Upper Grades)

I was pleasantly surprised by The Lovely & the Lost, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes.  I had read a couple of books by the author before and liked them, but this one had a lot to do with dogs, and I am absolutely not a big fan of animals in stories.  The book is a psychological thriller about a girl and her adoptive family who train search and rescue dogs and become involved in the search for a missing girl.  Along with the mystery and intrigue, there are family secrets and flashbacks, and fantastic characters.  Especially the adoptive brother, who is possible the most optimistic character ever written, making him so quirky and loveable that nobody could hate this book.  So whether you are an animal lover or not, you won't want to skip this one.  (Reading Level: ? / Upper Grades)

I got one chapter into Other Words for Smoke.  That's it.  I didn't like the concept, I didn't like the characters, I didn't like the writing.  And that's all I have to say about it.

As you might remember, I am a big fan of Neal Shusterman.  Apparently, I am not a big fan of his son.  Dry was written in the trademark style of Shusterman's most recent series, but it was pretty much a propaganda piece about global warming and the disaster awaiting us all.  Not only that, but the characters were annoying, as was the dialogue, now that I think about it.  I strongly suggest that you skip this one and pick up something else by the author instead.

The Missing Season, by Gillian French, started off pretty bad.  The characters, though supposedly juniors in high school, acted more like seventh graders.  Really annoying seventh graders.  I was just about to give up on it, but then the mystery started to get going, so I ended up sticking with it.  It still wasn't a great book, (okay, it still was barely a mediocre book), but I've read worse for sure.   (Reading Level: 5.4 / Upper Grades)

Teeth in the Mist, by Dawn Kurtagich, started off great, and then went downhill.  Really, really downhill.  Although there were some chapters with a modern character interspersed throughout, the first half of the story was primarily a really good historical fiction/gothic story with occasional flashbacks to an even earlier time.  It was creepy and mysterious, and had great characters, and a sort of romance.  But by the time I got to, oh, maybe the last third of the book, the story mainly followed the modern character, who was really really really annoying.  I mean, I didn't like a single thing about her.  Not anything.   And to make matters worse, the author decided to take a perfectly good historical fiction/gothic story and turn it into a lesbian romance that was super unbelievable and - you guessed it - really really really annoying.  So if you take the 4 star material from the first two-thirds and the (barely) 1 star material from the final third, you get something around a low 3 star book.  The ending sounded like there was going to be a sequel - I won't be reading it.   (Reading Level: ? / Upper Grades)

I really enjoyed I, Claudia by Mary McCoy.  I'm guessing it is supposed to be modeled after the book I, Claudius, which I haven't read but am pretty sure is supposed to be a fictional autobiography of a Roman emperor (maybe?).   The story follows a girl at a prestigious prep school, who gets involved in the student government/honor council, only to discover that it is very, very corrupt and the student leaders wield a frightening amount of power over everyone's lives.  So, basically, it is all about what can happen when wealthy, power-hungry teenagers are allowed to run amok. The writing was great, the characters were great, the concept was very well done - definitely a keeper.   (Reading Level: 6.6 / Upper Grades)



And that's it for the first set.  I'll try to get the next batch of reviews out sooner rather than later, because I think I am back up to like 15 books that I've read and still (even after this post) haven't reviewed!