The Youngest Templar - Orphan of Destiny

I have been waiting for this book, the last in the "The Youngest Templar" trilogy, for eons.

"Keeper of the Grail" the first book by Michael Spradlin was a book I very much enjoyed a while ago. Set in the Holy Lands at the time of the Crusades, the Holy Grail is placed into young Tristan's hands for safe keeping and he must deliver this most sacred of relics back to England. However, Tristan seem to be the target of another Knight Templar other than his master, one who knows who Tristan really is and also knows of his importance of his mission.

A second book, "Trail of Fate" followed where Tristan and his two friends, Robard Hode and Maryam, have managed to make it to France but the evil Sir Hugh still manages to find him and threatens once again to end his mission.

In this final book, "Orphan of Destiny", Tristan along with his two friends have made it safely back to his home in England where his beloved abbey, his home where he had been placed as a baby, has been burned to the ground. The trio makes plans to head to the safety of Sherwood Forest, an area well known to Robard, but once again Sir Hugh interferes and places everyone and everything in jeopardy.

Adventure and intrigue, suspense and secrets make this book one difficult to put down.

Dreamdark - Blackbringer

Just look at the cover of "Blackbringer", the first book of "Dreamdark" by Laini Taylor and you know this is going to be an unusual book. There is a picture of a very small fairy with tiny pointed ears, her wings aloft, holding a tiny dagger and sitting high on the back of a crow.

In fact she is scruffy, headstrong and determined. Magpie Windwitch is her name. She is not only a fairy but a very special one who, up till now, flies around the world with her band of crows, defeating devils and imprisoning them once more into bottles. But she stumbles upon evidence of a very powerful being and hurries home to Dreamdark to find out all she can in order to defeat this horror who devours all in his way.

This story is complicated at the beginning as you maneuver among the dialogue and characters who are djinns, the creators of the world and a multitude of faeries and imps, both good and bad. One particular endearing soul to both the reader and to Magpie is the warrior Talon, a Prince of Dreamdark, who is a fairy who cannot fly because of stunted wings. His determination is evident when he finds his own way of overcoming his disability.

But we finally discover who Magpie really is and why it is her birthright to overcome the Blackbringer, that creature who is about to rip open the fabric of the world.

I am amazed at the complexity of this world that the author has created where events and explanations unfold in an unexpected and detailed manner. It took me a while but I loved it. Good readers - try it.

Moon Over Manifest

This book, Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool, is the Newberry Award winner of 2011. I always know a Newberry Award winner is going to be good but will it appeal? Do judges look for things that readers may not? I picked this one up, I read, I could not put down and I loved.

Once again this is a story that entwines so many things so beautifully. Abilene is a spunky 12 year old girl who has come to live in the dusty small town of Manifest in the year 1936 when her father Gideon is supposedly off to work where she can cannot go. After a life of running the rails and not having a home Abilene is determined to find out about her father's past in this town that he has sent her to and told her about through his stories.

Abilene is staying with Shady, a preacher/bartender in his church/bar, she meets Miss Sadie, a diviner, who seems to be able to read Abilene's thoughts and wishes and who tells her stories about a time years before that are connected to a box of mementos that Abliene finds under the floorboards of her room; things like a fishing lure, a cork and a skeleton key.

And she meets a whole host of townsfolk, both in real life and through these stories that ulitimately show her what she is looking for.

I think you will love Abilene and this book.