Review written by Jonathan Lavallee. In the novel Black Maria (also published as Aunt Maria), Naomi and Chris’ father died while visiting his Aunt Maria. She lives in a place called Cranbury, and Naomi has tried her best to make sure that they never visit Aunt Maria. She has given Aunt Maria explanation after explanation as […]
The Shadow Throne
March 6, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The Shadow Throne brings The Ascendance Trilogy to a close, and I have to say it’s one of the best final books I’ve ever read. This whole trilogy is so tightly written—it ends up exactly as it needs to without any aimless wandering along the way. You absolutely have to have read The False Prince […]
Forge
February 18, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Forge picks up immediately where Chains left off, although the point of view has changed from Isabel to Curzon. Then it leaps ahead a few months. Isabel and Curzon have parted ways on less than ideal terms because he wouldn’t go to South Carolina with her to search for Ruth. Curzon ends up in the […]
Cress
February 11, 2014 by Leave a Comment
I was very eager to read Cress, the sequel to Cinder and Scarlet, and it didn’t disappoint. You definitely need to read the series in order or you won’t have any idea who anyone is. Like the others, a new fairy tale is wound into the story in innovative ways. In this book, it’s the […]
Chains
February 5, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Like many Laurie Halse Anderson books, Chains often feels like a punch to the gut, but you also just can’t put the book down until you get to the end. This historical novel tells the story of Isabel, a young slave from Rhode Island in 1776. When her relatively kind mistress dies, Isabel knows that […]
Undercaffeinated and Overexposed: The Tale of a Coffee Shop Princess
February 1, 2014 by 1 Comment
In Undercaffeinated and Overexposed: The Tale of a Coffee Shop Princess, we meet Beauty—the princess from every fairy tale—who is currently living in Washington DC and working at a coffee shop. It turns out that the characters of fairy tales and myths are eternal. They relive variations on their stories, never truly changing, and are […]
Miri Attwater and All That Glitters
January 29, 2014 by 1 Comment
The adventures of Miri Attwater continue in Miri Attwater and All That Glitters. It’s very much a sequel, picking up where Miri Attwater and the Ocean’s Secret left off (in fact, I kind of wished I’d taken the time to reread the first book) and I’ll assume you’re familiar with my previous review. Miri continues […]
The Thief
January 24, 2014 by 3 Comments
Review written by Jonathan Lavallee. It’s always interesting when someone takes a fantasy novel and kind of moves it away from the Tolkien England/Norse “standard” fantasy you’ll find in a lot of books. In The Thief, Megan Whalen Turner gives the place far more of a Mediterranean feel. On an island next to a big continent […]
The Whipping Boy
January 15, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The Whipping Boy tells the story of, well, a whipping boy and the prince whose punishments he gets. The whipping boy hopes to be dismissed from the castle so he can go back to the sewers to work as a rat catcher like his father did. He fondly remembers the freedom of that life. The […]
Harry Potter, books 3 & 4
January 6, 2014 by 1 Comment
Review written by Clark Valentine. (This gleefully spoiler-filled review focuses on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (PoA), and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (GoF). I also assume you’re read my review of Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets. If you haven’t, go do that. It’s OK, I’ll wait. Go on. Shoo. […]
