Eight Keys by Suzanne LaFleur BOOK REVIEW

Eight Keys by Suzanne LaFleur
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I picked this book up at the Book Fair thinking it would be good for my daughter, and of course that means that I need to read it first. I like to know what they are reading so that if they ask me something I can talk with them about it.

This is a coming of age story about a girl, Elsie, who is entering middle school and turning 12, and all the horrors that come with that. My daughter entered the junior high school last year, and this book captures some of that girl drama perfectly, although there is so much more in real life.

It is also about her finding herself, and who she is in a unique way since her parents are not around and she lives with her aunt and uncle. It is a really well written story. I enjoyed it even as an adult. I have passed it on to my daughter and I look forward to discussing it with her. I am hoping that the story will help her to deal with some of the girl drama at school that she has had to deal with this year.

I would recommend it to any girl to read the summer before they move up to the middle school or junior high school. Not to scare them, but to let them know, if this happens, it's ok. This is what you do, not this. I think it is the perfect book to help get parents and girls talking about the troubles and bullying at school and issues of who am I and what is my purpose that this age brings.

Well done!

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The Roar (The Roar #1) by Emma Clayton BOOK REVIEW

The Roar by Emma Clayton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I picked this book up at the Bookfair thinking it would be something my kids would like, and of course that means that I am going to read it before I pass it on to them. I like to know what they are reading and to be able to discuss it with them.

The Roar takes place on Earth in a future time when all the people on Earth live on 1/3rd of the planet behind a huge wall because of something called the Animal Plague. The world is all concrete and buildings and depressing really, and this is just the way it has to be, or so they think.

Ellie, Mika's twin sister disappears one night, and the family is told she died, while being her twin Mika refuses to believe that. We follow Mika as he tries to carry on, and we learn that he is right, Ellie is alive, but life isn't any more fun for her.

It's a young adult, teen book in that the main characters are 12 to 13 year olds. They are dealing with issues of life that are probably older than they should be dealing with, but they have grown up in a strange world. It is well written for that age group, and I definitely think anywhere from the 8 to 15 age range can read this and enjoy it.

As a parent reading it, I was able to understand it, I also was able to remember my childhood and the distrust of adults that lead to some of the issues that we see in the book, but I think everyone has done that at some point in life, and I think it makes the book real and believable. I got the story and understood it.

It has a message beyond the story about life and character and what we do with what we have, morals and values and friendships. And I thought it was kind of a bummer of an ending until I got on to do the review and found there is a second book. I think it is well worth letting your child read.

I have already passed it on to my kids.

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The Magic Knot (The Magic Knot #1) by Helen Scott Taylor BOOK REVIEW

The Magic Knot by Helen Scott Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I grabbed this book through a swap on a whim, without really reading much about it except the Irish of it, so I wasn't sure what to expect, or if it would be good. I was pleasantly surprised.

The book is well written, and somewhat believable in the mixing of human life with folklore and legends in the tales of pixies and fairies, and even leprechauns in the book.  It makes for a good read, and for me it was a quick read, which is what I was looking for at the moment I sat down with this book.

We are introduced to Naill and his twin Michael O'Conner. Very Irish, very traditional and steeped in legend and lore. They are half fairy we learn later. They both talk with an Irish accent and speech pattern that feels right in this book. It's not too heavy and I don't think the characters would have been as believable without it. Well done on the author's parts because the accent and speech pattern can easily overwhelm a book.

The trouble comes in the form of Rose Tremain, who thinks she is a human woman about a normal job. All is not as it would seem.  Through out the book, we learn of the truth of Rose's mother, and the betrayal of her father and what he really is, and the truth as to what she is and what her birthright is.

It's a clever and fun story, and I enjoyed it.  It stands quite well on its own, and I feel complete having read it. Only just realized this is  a series and it continues. Not sure if I will search it out or not, but I have a number of books in my to-read pile right now, maybe later.



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Insurgent (Divergent #2) by Veronica Roth BOOK REVIEW

Insurgent by Veronica Roth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Insurgent is the follow-up to Divergent, and I am ever so happy that I picked both up at the store the day I got Divergent. I finished Divergent in one day and was ready to move on and see what happened next.

Insurgent follows Tris and Tobias, along with some others as they continue the fight between the factions, trying to figure out what is really going on and why the fighting is occurring. What is the real truth. There are hints at more than what meats the eye to their lives as they know them, but this book is a little slower and harder to read than the first. I was so into the first, but there is so much misunderstanding and mistrust between Tris and Tobias that the relationship is really fractured and it is hard to read at times. Other relationships all seem to be fracturing as well, because of the fighting or the unknown, but it really slowed the book and made it move less.

The factions are fighting, at least three are and the factionless are in the battle, but they have their own motive, they want to take over and make a completely new government. There is still the underlying cause, why was the fighting started in the first place, and why the mystery of the Divergents anyway. Why do the Eurdites dislike them and think they are something to be afraid of?

As this book moves along, things have a way of working themselves out, answers are found and the fighting ends, but the answers are not what anyone in the society would have ever thought they would have been. This book ends on a cliffhanger, in that the truth is revealed, but how will everyone react to that truth is another story, and I am eager to find out in the third book. Luckily I started this series late, so I don't have long to wait for the last book.



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Divergent by Veronica Roth BOOK REVIEW

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Divergent by Veronica Roth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was walking through the store looking for a book to read while I was waiting on my daughters to get out of theater practice, and I had a book in mind, but of course they didn't have it, when I spotted this book. It sounded interesting, so I picked it up, and I am ever so glad I did.

In Divergent, the world is basically the city of Chicago with a huge fence around it. Everyone, for the most part except the farmer, or the faction called Amity, live inside the fence. Society is broken into factions, and based on how you perceive and process information you are placed in one of the factions to live. The placement happens at age sixteen, and this is where the book begins, as Beatrice Prior is about to go through the testing to determine what faction she is best suited to live in.

The book follows her journey as she changes factions, from the faction of her birth to the faction she feels is most like her. As she undergoes the initiation process and learns startling information. There is unease among the factions, or at least among two of the five factions, and it seems to be building, but why and what does it have to do with her and her life and future.

Beatrice makes friends and enemies in her new faction, starts a life and then has to deal with the changing world they live in. It is part coming of age novel, part alternative society novel, and altogether exciting and enjoyable to read. It was well written and I could hardly put the book down until I finished it.

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City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments #2) by Cassandra Clare BOOK REVIEW

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


City of Ashes is the follow-up to City of Bones, which has just been released as a movie called The Mortal Instruments, which is what the whole series is titled. I am a book person, so I have no desire to see the movie, and I not comment on it further.

City of Bones left us all at a loss for words after finding that all time bad guy Valentine, unlike the holiday of the same name, is still alive and that he is not only Clarey's father, but wait for it, yes Jace's father too. Shock or all shocks, horror of all horrors, and after they had their first kiss too. Hate that. Worst of all their mother, Jocelyn is in a trace, coma like but other-worldly induced and no-one and nothing seems to be able to bring her out of it.

Jocelyn is put in a mundane hospital, oh yeah, that is the name for ordinary  humans, mundane's. It actually fit's, and I find the humor in it quite pleasing. So she is at the hospital and Luke, poor Luke, so in love with her, but never telling her, is holding watch at her side hoping beyond hope that something will happen.

All the while, Jace and Clarey have to figure out how to act like brother and sister, when they were feeling alot more than that just a few minutes earlier. Simon still wants a relationship with Clarey, even if he is only a mundane, and then Isabella and Alex's parents are home and that brings a whole new can of worms, because it seems like "someone" has decided they don't believe the kids!

The last book, I felt a lot of de ja vue, but not in this book, in fact I found this book much easier and faster to read, and I am even more excited to move on to the next book. I felt the storyline flowed a little better, less of the backstory and history, and more of the teens trying to figure things out, but a lot, and I do mean a lot of unanswered questions in this book, so the next book has a lot to answer and tell the readers.



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City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments) by Cassandra Clare

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a href="http://www.goodreads.com
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


City of Bones is the first book in the Mortal Instruments Series and involves another world of Downworlders, demons, half-humans, witches and warlocks, vampires and werewolves, Shadowhunters and more all trying to co-exsist in a human world, the treaties and accords and uprisings and overthrows and defeats.  But the main characters are teenagers trying to understand adults and themselves in the midst of all this, with each adult twists the truth of the history to fit themselves, making things only muddy for the the teens to figure out.

For parts of the book, I could swear I had read it before, or read something almost the same, but for most of it. it seemed like a new book.  The beginning and the, here before thought to be a normal human girl Clarey is able to "see" the ShadowHunters at a club seems so familiar, and the interest between Cleary and Jace, and the dislike that Isabelle and Alec feel toward her seems over the top teenage angst, but it so much feels like I have been there before.

I guess that the Shadowhunters and their marks might remind of Lara Adrian and the Breed, or many of the novels I have read, but it is more of a feeling, that although I know I have never seen this book before it feels familiar.

The twists and turns, the bits of History that Cleary learns from each adult she meets, and how each adult twists the history and their owe involvement in it to make them look less bad, and more a victim of place or timing, than really planning to do bad, is thoughtful and well laidout. The Ultimate twist that turns Jace and Cleary's world on it's head is kinda expected and I really hate that card played in the story, but I still want to continue reading and hearing more.

I am intrigued by the world, I want to read more and see how they figure out their struggles, how they decide who and what needs to be protected and what needs to be allowed to life free and left alone. Just keep a clean mind that you are going to be dealing with teenagers throughout and sometimes the throught processes and thinking aren't what you would expect from adults.



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