The Princess in Black by Shannon and Dean Hale

5 stars
JF

This is a MUST READ.  Seriously.  For everyone.

An adorable chapter book, it's a great choice for reading aloud or for a new reader just transitioning to chapter books, because it's kind of a picture book set up as a chapter book. lol

Simple text, great pictures, short chapters.  What more could you want?

Oh yeah, and DELIGHTFUL story.

I am desperately hoping there are more of these to come.

I read it aloud to MeiMei and she loved it.  Really, MeiMei kind of lives her life as if she were a princess super hero (she wore a Spiderman costume with a tutu for Halloween), so how could she not?

Possibly we need to own this one. :)

Princess Academy [and] Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale

5 stars each
YF

Princess Academy:
I read this years ago and thought I'd reviewed it, but apparently I read it before starting this blog!
Anyway, I reread it to remind myself about the characters before reading the sequel.
And once again I quite liked it.  It's a great story with fun characters.
It's cute.
I wish Boo would stop being a booger about things that I recommend and just read it, but whatever.
Highly recommended.

Palace of Stone:
This one I struggled with at the beginning.  I wasn't feeling it.  I didn't know that I wanted to deal with the political aspect.
My friend promised it got better.
And it did.
In fact, I almost think this one was a stronger novel.  A stronger story.
I really enjoyed it.

Overall- BOTH are totally recommended.  Read them in order though. :)

Forest Born by Shannon Hale

5 stars
R-0
YF/YA

Still 5 stars... but this one is a little harder to read.  Rin is a complicated character and sometimes you just want to shake her.  :D

Rin is Razo's little sister.... You read my post about River Secrets, right?  I love Razo.  Really really.  He's adorable.  And I love how Shannon Hale says that he wasn't going to be a big part of Forest Born, but he snuck or forced his way in.... :D

Anyway, Rin.  Rin has issues.  But I don't want to give anything away, so just go read it.  :D

New attacks on Bayern, this time from Kel, have prompted the "Fire Sisters" as Rin calls them (Isi, Enna and Dasha-- you MUST read River Secrets first for this to make sense) to set off on yet another adventure.  So Rin follows them, feeling desperately that she must keep moving.  That maybe being with Isi and the others will fix what's wrong with her.

Interesting story.  Pulls interesting threads from previous books.  Threads we didn't realize were loose.  :D

Now I'm just really really hoping there's a 5th book coming.....

This book counts for the Support Your Local Authors Challenge!

River Secrets by Shannon Hale

5 stars
R-0
YF/YA
Reread

I love this book.  I think it's quite possibly my favorite of the Bayern books.  Don't get me wrong, I love Isi and Enna and I enjoyed Forest Born (review soon), but I LOVE this one.

Why?

Razo.

I love Razo.  He's adorable.  He's hilarious.  From his hair that sticks straight up (on purpose... he's short) to his amazing denseness, he's just cute.

Speaking of hair sticking up.....

We've been calling this "Memo Hair" for Mehmet Okur (and you should really click that link... the photo's great) but now I may have to call it "Razo Hair".  :D

Anyway, what was I talking about?  Oh right, the book.

The war with Tira is over and Bayern sends an ambassador to help mantain the fledgeling peace.  But many Tirans aren't happy about the peace to begin with, let alone being happy about a whole crew of Bayern showing up in the capital.  As time runs out before the assembly votes on returning to war, Razo must figure out what's going on and who's behind it all... or their peace delegation will become the first prisoners, if not casualties, of war.

If you can, get the paperback with the extra stuff at the end.  The note from Shannon Hale about Razo is great.  She loves him too.  :D

This book counts for both the Support Your Local Library Challenge AND the Support Your Local Authors Challenge!!

Goose Girl and Enna Burning by Shannon Hale

5 stars
R-0
YF/YA
Reread

I love this book.  I really do.  I loved it when I first read it and I loved it again this time around.

I'm not familiar with the tale it's based on, but Shannon Hale does a fabulous job in her rendering.  As Isi grows and becomes more confident, you can't help but root for her.



5 Stars
R-0
YF/YA
Reread

And can I tell you how much I love that Shannon Hale added to the story?  Enna's story is a wonderful addition to Isi's.

Just as Isi learned to communicate with the wind, Enna learns fire, which is at once beautiful and destructive.

I really love Enna.  Even if there is that annoying bit where she doesn't see through what's his nose.  She makes up for it later.  :D

Both of these books count for Support Your Local Authors and Support Your Local Library.

Support Your Local Authors!

Yeah, I know. What am I thinking? Another challenge? I'm crazy.

Actually, not so much.

You see, this great challenge from Suey at It's All About Books is all about reading local authors. Which is perfect for me.

I have 4 Shannon Hale's sitting right here waiting for me.... plus The Maze Runner.

AND The Dark Divine comes out next week.

AND I haven't read the next 13th Reality book yet.

Besides, let's face it. There's a bloody ton of AWESOME authors in Utah. I mean a TON.
So really, I've got it easy.
:D

You can see my list of books read here!

The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale

You thought I'd forgotten, didn't you?

But I hadn't.

But I almost wish I had.

You'll note this review has no ratings. Because I don't know. I didn't finish it.

I wanted this to be a light, happy, funny tale. And in some ways it was... and then it also wasn't.

(And can I just say, the cover is really bugging me. Their heads are all cut off. Grr.)

Maybe I'm a shallow reader, but I didn't want to deal with the tensions in her marriage (which she was causing, though she didn't mean to) or the Bishop who just didn't come across as all that caring, or any of the rest of it.

***SPOILER ALERT***

And I sure as stinkin' heck didn't want to deal with her husband dying of cancer. (And yes, I actually wrote yesterday's post BEFORE reading this, but hello, way to illustrate my point.)

It's contrived. First his marriage breaks up then her husband dies, clearing the way for them to fall into each other's arms. (I did read the last chapter.)

Now, before I get flamed into obscurity, I'm sure it's not that simple. There were a good 150 pages I didn't really read, so clearly something else happened, but still.

And, frankly, it makes their whole friendship a bit... suspect.

I have mixed feelings on the subject of having close close friends of the opposite gender other than your spouse. I have always been one of those girls who gets along better with guys, and yes, there are still a couple I'm fairly close to, but not so close that it would threaten my husband or infringe upon our marriage in any way. As time passes, we talk less. Not because there's anything wrong with our friendships, but just because that's the way life is.

But at what point does a friendship become an emotional affair? Can you really have THAT much invested in another man emotionally? (I'm feeling flashbacks to the Jayson Wolfe books..... similar problem, but not quite the same. It's a little different if you were like siblings before your marriage. Heck, it's a little different if you KNEW each other before.)

Anyway, I'm bugged. And yes, I absolutely acknowledge that a) the dialogue was great and b) if I were in a different mood or had known it was more serious, I may have had a completely different opinion.

I'm sure this book totally works for a lot of people. If it sounds like your thing-- check it out. There are lots of laugh out loud moments. Overall, though... not working for me.

Something I never do... and overdue books

Note that the overdue books are NOT the something I never do. :D
So, the something I NEVER do is take time out from something I'm reading to read something else. Seriously, never.
But, here's where the overdue books come in-- I had TWO books due yesterday that I totally could not renew! Now- as my husband had already left for work and I really did want to read them, I didn't have him take them back. AND the roads out there are SCARY! AND I have a snot encrusted, coughing child (oh the joys of motherhood). So really, it was worth the 30 cents to stay home all day and read them.
The first was--

Chalice by Robin McKinley
4.5 stars
R-1 maybe

I love Robin McKinley. Her books are excellent and this was no exception. My only problem with it was that it was one of those books where you are thrown into the culture/land/whatever of the story with no background, so you have to figure out as things develop (that really looks like it's spelled wrong.... weird) who people are and why they're there. I still don't know what some of the characters titles meant, but oh well. It doesn't actually interfere with the story, it's just me being CDO (that's obsessive/compulsive disorder, but alphabetically as it should be).
Chalice is, of course, extremely well written with fabulous character development. The passage of time is a little jerky, but it works for the story.
Really an excellent read.

The other book was--

Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon and Dean Hale
5 stars
graphic novel- totally fine for kids

Now, when I say totally fine for kids, I don't necessarily mean my own. My older one's friend LOVED it, but I can't see mine sitting through the whole thing. You never know, though. I'll have to check it out again to try it.
I LOVE the storyline. Oh my word, it was funny! Rapunzel kicks butt, which is way more my kind of fairy tale. I am not that fond of damsels in distress. (Not to be confused with Damsel In This Dress which I am totally a fan of-- http://damseldress.com/.)
Anyhow-- awesome tale! And since it's a graphic novel it's a quick read. Also, it's illustrated by Nathan Hale (no relation to the other Hales) who has a great blog-- http://spacestationnathan.blogspot.com/ and there's a link there for Rapunzel paper dolls! (Thanks to my friends at http://bookscoops.wordpress.com/ for posting the link!)

Okay, so now those two overdue books are back at the library where they belong....

And I'll go back to reading Magic Lost, Trouble Found.....

:D:D