Cinder

Cinder.... does this sound at all familiar? Yes.. Cinderella. This is a Cinderella story......but hold onto your hats. This story by Marissa Meyer is the most imaginative Cinderella story I have read!

This is a futuristic Cinderella where Cinder is a cyborg, part human, part machine. Of course there is a wonderful, handsome and kind prince who needs Cinder's expertise in fixing things like his robot,  and an evil stepmother and stepsisters....but there is also Queen Levana who lives on the moon colony of Luna  and who is determined to marry the Prince so she can become the next Empress. She will stop at nothing in order to achieve this, even to the point where she has orchestrated a plague that is killing millions of people and only she has the cure.


The first sequel of many is Scarlett, another very wonderfully creative retelling, followed by Cress next spring and then Winter, but not till 2015.

Read these!

The Royal Ranger

I know I am a fantasy fan. And I know I am a huge fan of "The Ranger's Apprentice" series by John Flanagan. But I did wonder if perhaps the series had run its course with the newest and 12th book
 "The Royal Ranger".

Well....not.

These books have just gotten better over time. They still have the ability to keep you riveted and anxiously turning its pages deep into the night to see what would happen to our illustrious main characters. It is going to be so hard to say goodbye to Will and Halt as this is their final book.

 However, this book has set up a whole new series and a new main character. Her, yes her,
 name is Maddie. Princess Maddie to be exact, the daughter of Cassandra and Horace. When we first meet her, Maddie is spoiled and selfish and very headstrong, thinking only of herself as many young teens do. The answer is to send her to Will to be trained as a Ranger's Apprentice, the first female apprentice, where she will learn discipline and skills befitting a Crown Princess and a Ranger.

Will, however, is needing Maddie as much as she is needing him. He is lost after the devastating death of his wife Alyss. He refuses assignments and plots revenge on the man who was responsible.

The majority of this book shows the growth of Maddie as she learns from Will just like he learned from Halt. They have a special bond and their love and respect for each other grows over the next few months.

When an assignment comes Will accepts as he knows this is an important step in Maddie's training. However the assignment turns out to be much more than Will expects and puts Maddie in danger.

After Ever After

I finished "After Ever After" by Jordan Sonnenblick late this morning with tears rolling down my face. Such an emotional ride..... for a book that made me laugh throughout!

It was not the subject that was funny....after all there is nothing funny about a young Eighth grade boy who is a cancer survivor. But it was the way Jeffrey thinks and talks and tries to deal with his feelings about his family, especially his adored older brother who has abandoned him for the wilds of Africa, his best friend Tad, another "cancer kid", and this new girl Lyndsay, who unbelievably seems to like him handicaps, both physical (a limp) and mental (thinking and memory deficits) and all!

It seems like Jeffrey's school district has decided to fail any student who does not pass State wide exams. This is a huge problem for Jeff who has serious attention and memory problems because of the chemo he has taken. Tad has decided it is up to him to tutor Jeffrey so he will pass, a seemingly impossible feat, but in return Jeff is going to help Tad gain the strength to walk again at their graduation after being in a wheel chair for years. Whew .... Are we having fun yet?

Through this all are two kids trying to have a normal life but always with the threat of "what if".

I think this is a new favourite of mine

The Runaway King

"I had arrived early for my own assassination" begins the sequel to one of my favourite books "The False Prince" by Jennifer A. Nielsen. What a wonderful first sentence!

  "The Runaway King" begins with the above quote that demonstrates the daily challenges for Jaron  now that he is king; assassination attempts, bickering advisors, threats of war......This might be overwhelming for any other 14 year old king but Jaron  has already had to deal with the death of his family and outsmarting an evil courtier so he does what he has to do - he runs.

Only when Jaron runs he is not running away but running to....more danger. He tracks down the very threat to his kingdom and his life. Once again Jaron is playing a part that is half lie and half truth and the two are always intermingled.

"Above all else I think you are a compulsive liar.
My laughter was tense, but sincere. Hardly. In fact, I consider myself to be a compulsive truth teller. It's only that everyone else seems compelled to misunderstand me."

An exciting, wonderfully written story and an entertaining yet caring character of the highest moral integrity combine to make this a new favourite. Like The False Prince I will read this again and again.

Icefall

"Icefall", by Matthew J. Kirby, is one of those books I thoroughly enjoyed reading and could not put down this past weekend.  I knew it has numerous awards attached to it, Winner of the 2012 Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery among others, which was the main reason I was enticed to read.

But it was the writing that first got me quickly hooked.  I appreciate a story that carries you along and fills your mind clearly with details that become etched into your brain.

" The fjord is freezing over. I watch it from the edge of the cliff near our hall, and each day the ice claims more of the narrow winding of ocean. It squeezes out the waves and the blue-black water, while it squeezes us in."

It is set in historical times, a time where vikings are a warring people.

But this story is about a viking king's children who are sent to an isolated and desolate area to keep them safe during turbulent times.  There is a small contingent of helpers who are there to look after and protect Asa, the king's beautiful oldest daughter, Harald, the youngest child and heir, and Solveig, the middle sister, and keep them safe.

Another of the dangers is the extreme weather. At the beginning of this story we find the household waiting anxiously for supplies from their father that will keep them throughout the winter as the fjord is quickly freezing over and soon no ships will be able to get through to them.

A ship finally appears but with it are the king's most fierce and respected viking warriors called beserkers, those usually assigned to protect the king. Why have they come?

The story that pulls you in, though, is that of Solveig, that middle child, who does not know her place and feels unwanted.  As this story unfolds it is the skald or storyteller, Alric, who sees in her the power of her observations and her way with words and encourages her to become her father's skald.

But as the story progresses it becomes evident that someone amongst them is a traitor.  Their chief supply of food, their animals, have been let out and killed, and then many of the beserkers mysteriously die.

Desperation and suspicion sets in and the quesions are answered when the unthinkable happens.