The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry

Title: The Amaranth Enchantment
Author: Julie Berry
Reviewer: Stephanie
Genre: YA Fantasy
Rating: Worship
Alerts/Warnings: None
Premise: Orphaned at age five, Lucinda, now fifteen, stands with courage against the man who took everything from her, aided by a thief, a clever goat, and a mysterious woman called the Witch of Amaranth, while the prince she knew as a child prepares to marry, unaware that he, too, is in danger.(King County Library)

Opinions:This is one of the best books I've read this year! I was hooked from the very first page. The flow of the writing is very smooth and seamless. The characters are well developed and you care about them. Even the characters that you feel certain you will despise the whole time, some of them you grow to love or at least sympathize with. I especially loved Lucinda. I thought she was a wonderfully developed and complex character. Though I have to admit my favorite character in the book was Dog. :)

I was uncertain about this book. I thought it looked interesting when I requested that my library purchase it, but sometimes books look interesting to me when I first see them and then the interest fades. (I have dozens of books on my shelves to prove it.) However, I couldn't put this book down.

I am excited to find a new author to follow. This is Juli Berry's first novel and I hope she writes many, many more! Read it. I'm absolutely sure you will love it!

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Title: The Book Thief
Author: Markus Zusak
Reviewer: Karen
Genre: Teen/Adult Historical Fiction
Rating: Love
Alerts/Warnings: Some disturbing images and thoughts related to WWII and its impact on individuals.
Premise: Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel--a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors. (King County Library)

Opinions: Reading this book was an intriguing, emotional experience. This story is narrated by Death as he watches over a teenage girl experiencing life in WWII Germany. The point of view is fantastic and provides a fresh and interesting look at a story. Zusak does an incredible job making you fall in love with the characters of his story. The one difficulty that I had with this book was the time line - there was no straight line through the story. Death jumps around events as he recalls them - providing you a glimpse of something down the road and then backtracking to lead you to that point.

I would highly recommend this for adults. If your teenager wants to read this, or it is assigned in school, then I would recommend reading it with them so that you can talk through what happens in the story and discussing what happened to everyone involved with WWII to work through the disturbing incidents that did occur. This a fantastic read, just be prepared for the emotional tug that will happen as you read it.

Just One Wish by Janette Rallison

So I just finished "Just One Wish" by Janette Rallison. This was by far my favorite book that she has written. It was wonderfully tender and sweet.

Annika is a seventeen year old girl who has a six year old brother who has a tumor growing on his brain. Annika is determined that he will survive the surgery and comes up with an idea to make go into the surgery with determination that all will come out alright. But her plan backfires and she then feels compelled to drive to Hollywood to try and get Steve Raleigh to come to her home town (four hours away) to meet with her brother. A highly entertaining series of events then occurs that left me laughing so hard I had to stop reading.

I thought this very sweet and tender book was wonderful. It explores kindness, determination and the purpose of life. It is perfectly clean and a wonderfully written. I highly recommend it to anyone. (Okay, so maybe boys wouldn't like it as much as girls would.)

4 of 5 stars

Janette Rallison

Reviewer: Stephanie
Genre: Teen Chick Lit

Okay, so last post was a little departure. This one is a HUGE ONE!!

I recently had a baby and I like to read nice happy books right after I have a baby. I think that is has something to do with the hormones, but whatever. So I went to my library and started looking for some fluffy, happy books to read. That was when I discovered Janette Rallison. I adore her! Her books are light and fun and SO FUNNY!!!

I am going to be getting "Just One Wish" in at the library this week, and will probably post a reveiw of it once I get it. I also and hoping my library will buy "My Fair Godmother" but we'll see.

So I am a lazy bum and don't want to do individual posts for all of the books of hers that I've read, so here is a list with their premises. They are all clean and all wonderful. I'm listing them in the order that I liked them the most. Starting with the most awesome.

It's a Mall World After All- While working at the mall, organizing a school fundraiser, and trying to prove that her best friend's boyfriend is seeing another girl, high-school student Charlotte's best intentions always seem to backfire

All's Fair in Love, War and High School-When head cheerleader Samantha Taylor does poorly on the SAT exam, she determines that her only hope for college admission is to win the election for student body president, but her razor wit and acid tongue make her better suited to dishing out insults than winning votes.

Life, Love and the Pursuit of Free Throws-High school freshmen Josie and Cami try to remain best friends as they compete for basketball awards and boys.

How to Take the Ex- out of Ex-Boyfriend-Giovanna rashly breaks up with her boyfriend Jesse when he refuses to help her twin brother with his campaign for Student Council president, but fixing her mistake may be more difficult for her than she realizes.

Revenge of the Cheerleaders-High school cheerleader Chelsea seeks revenge against her younger sister's rock-and-roller boyfriend after he embarrasses her once too often, but when she falls for his older brother, things become really complicated.

Fame, Glory and Other Things on My To Do List-High school junior Jessica uses the arrival of a new boy to further her schemes of winning her ex-boyfriend back and becoming the next big Hollywood movie star.

Playing the Field-Thirteen-year-old McKay tries to keep up his algebra grade to stay on the baseball team, while dealing with his attraction to a girl named Serena

Things Trilogy by Andrew Clements

Titles: Things Not Seen, Things Hoped For, Things That Are

Author: Andrew Clements

Reviewer: Stephanie

Genre: Teen Science Fiction

Rating: Love

Alerts/Warnings: Things Hoped For is a little creepy.

Premise: Things Not Seen-When fifteen-year-old Bobby wakes up and finds himself invisible, he and his parents and his new blind friend Alicia try to find out what caused his condition and how to reverse it.

Opinions: In a departure from our normal format, I decided to review an entire series. I read the first book "Things Not Seen" several years ago (2005), and loved it. Then in 2006 I read "Things Hoped For" and thought it was wonderful though creepy. Today I read "Things That Are" and felt satisfied.

The Things Trilogy (for lack of better terminology) is a wonderful series about Bobby, a boy who one day wakes up and is invisible. He can't explain it or figure out how this has occured or how to fix it. The first book is from Bobby's perspective. The second is from a girl (seemingly unrelated though SPOILER they are connected.) The third is from Bobby's friend who is blind.

I LOVE this series. I find the ideas behind invisibility interesting and the reprecushions of making someone invisible and then visible repeatedly highly fascinating and a interesting dilemna. I also love that Bobby meets Alicia, a blind girl. The connection of a boy who can see but can't be seen with a girl who can be seen but can't see is wonderful and meaningful to both of these characters.

I would say that the second book did creep me out. Not a little bit, but a lot. (Take it for what you will, I get creeped out easily and with my hyper-active imagination logic sometimes goes out the window.) However, now that I've read the last book, I would be completely willing to read the second one again, and i don't think that I would be as creeped out. (You never know though.)

The third book was wonderfully satisfying. All my questions and unresolved issues from the first two books were answered and resolved by the end of this book. It wasn't a nice neat package, but I like books that don't end in a nice neat package. I am very content with the ending.

This is a great series, and I highly recomend it to anyone that has ever thought about being invisible or thought they were being followed by an invisible person. (But I could be the only one that has ever been so freaked out that I was certain that an invisible person was after me. No, I'm not crazy (well maybe a little bit) I just was dreaming.)

How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier

Title: How to Ditch Your Fairy

Author: Justine Larbalestier

Reviewer: Stephanie

Genre: Teen Fantasy

Rating: Love

Alerts/Warnings: None

Premise: In a world in which everyone has a personal fairy who tends to one aspect of daily life, fourteen-year-old Charlie decides she does not want hers--a parking fairy--and embarks on a series of misadventures designed to rid herself of the invisible sprite and replace it with a better one, like her friend Rochelle's shopping fairy. (King County Library System)

Opinions: I thought that this book was so funny. This is a world where almost everyone has a fairy that helps them with some aspect of life. (A loose-change fairy, a never-be-late fairy, a clothes-shopping fairy). Charlie has a parking fairy. Now if you are an adult, this sounds pretty awesome. But to 14 year old Charlie, it is the worst fairy ever. She is constantly being used so people can get good parking spots. Even to the point of kidnapping her.

I thought that it was delightful to read and I really enjoyed the characters and the premise. It also made me think about what type of fairy I would want. (Some of them sound great, others sound pretty obnoxious!) It wasn't super deep, but it was highly entertaining and I definitely recommend it.

Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George

Title: Dragon Slippers

Author: Jessica Day George

Reviewer: Karen

Genre: Teen Fantasy

Rating: Fabulous

Alerts/Warnings: None

Premise: Orphaned after a fever epidemic, Creel befriends a dragon and unknowingly inherits an object that can either save or destroy her kingdom.(Pleasant Grove Library)

Opinions: This book was a fantastic read. I found the story fascinating. It takes on the whole "damsel in distress" idea and twists it to show a main character that is strong and willing do what needs to be done (not matter how silly or evil others around her may be). I highly recommend this for any teenager who needs to learn that girls/women do not have to sit by why someone else decides what road their life should take. I also fell absolutely in love with the dragons in this story. The descriptions of their characters and personalities really brought them to life to me and made me care what happened to them. Overall, I came away feeling that this was one of the best fantasy books I have read in a while. Jessica Day George did a FANTASTIC job and I look forward to reading more of her other works.