Review: The Fantastic Family Whipple

The Fantastic Family Whipple
The Fantastic Family Whipple, Book 1

Author: Matthew Ward
Pages: 400
Publisher: Razorbill
Publication Date: August 29, 2013
Read: August 22-24, 2013
Source: ARC from BEA

Description from Goodreads:
For every child who’s ever dreamed of being in the Guinness Book of World Records comes the story of eleven-year-old Arthur Whipple and his fantastic family of world record breakers . . .

- Most Crème Brulée Eaten in One Minute
- Highest Number of Matching Outfits Worn by a Stuffed Toy and Its Owner
- Youngest Person to Summit the Third-Highest Mountain in the World

These are just three of the 49,521 records won by Arthur’s twelve brothers and sisters. Unfortunately, unlike his siblings, Arthur hasn’t broken a single, solitary world record! But when the Whipples suffer a spate of catastrophes and a curious amount of attention from a pair of irregularly sized and unusually menacing clowns, Arthur might be the only one who can save his family from losing their collective crown . . . or worse.

First Sentence: "All the members of the Whipple family had managed to be born in the same month on the same day: March the first."

Review:

Today, we open with a rant. Now, this isn't really about this book in particular or anything the author did. This rant is about publishers and how they like to sneak series into our lives. Listen, I don't mind series, though I am getting a bit tired of everything being part of a series, but what I cannot abide by is thinking a book is a standalone and it turning out to be the first book in a series. Nothing in the blurb or on Goodreads indicates that this is part of a series, but, as the last chapter makes clear, it is. HARRUMPH to this I say. I'm left feeling annoyed with the book, as though it did something to me when this is a failure of the publisher in marketing it properly as what it is: the opening to a series. Despite this, The Fantastic Family Whipple actually was a cute middle grade novel, but do be warned that it is yet another series.

Young readers are going to love The Fantastic Family Whipple, I have little doubt. World records are so compelling to children for reasons I don't quite fathom now that I'm an adult. Even so, I remember marveling over the Guinness Book of World Records just like everyone else did back in elementary school. In library's I've worked out, the Guinness Book has always been one of the most popular check outs. Kids love this stuff, and they will love this book.

Even better for young readers, the records being set in The Fantastic Family Whipple are all ridiculous, which will no doubt have the young readers chortling. For example, one of the attempted records involves a hamster-manned rocket flight and another involves hopping up and down on one leg. Even better, the Whipples participate in an Unsafe Sports competition, which I am sure will captivate young imaginations.

The cover really captures the light-hearted humor, silliness, and bombastic nature of The Fantastic Family Whipple. In addition to the hijinks, there's also a mystery for our utterly un-illustrious young hero to solve. Arthur Whipple is the only unremarkable member of the Whipple family, but it's his turn to step up and be important. Also, thanks to their new neighbors, the Goldwins, Arthur's family may be joining him in his losing streak.

I did like The Fantastic Family Whipple, but this is one of those middle grade novels that I think loses a lot of its charm for an adult audience. The jokes and the situations are perfect humor for children, but, while entertaining, didn't drive me to the heights of glee that I think they would a child. Also, I would have liked to see a bit more progress made on the mystery plot line in this book. The ending felt arbitrary and sudden.

If you know younger readers who love humor and can't stop reading the Guinness Book of World Records, they will love The Fantastic Family Whipple. As an adult, the humor wasn't quite my speed, so I probably will not be returning for the sequel.

Rating: 3/5

Favorite Quote:

"'So you've had enough of the crowd as well, eh?' she said.
     Arthur squinted. 'Um . . . yeah.'
     'Excellent,' smirked the girl, 'we can be unsociable together then.'"

Review + Giveaway: The Husband's Secret

The Husband's Secret

Author: Liane Moriarty
Pages: 416
Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books
Publication Date: July 30, 2013
Read: July 23-28, 2013
Source: ARC from publisher at BEA

Description from Goodreads:
At the heart of The Husband’s Secret is a letter that’s not meant to be read

My darling Cecilia, if you’re reading this, then I’ve died. . . .

Imagine that your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret—something with the potential to destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others as well. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive. . . . Cecilia Fitzpatrick has achieved it all—she’s an incredibly successful businesswoman, a pillar of her small community, and a devoted wife and mother. Her life is as orderly and spotless as her home. But that letter is about to change everything, and not just for her: Rachel and Tess barely know Cecilia—or each other—but they too are about to feel the earth-shattering repercussions of her husband’s secret.

Acclaimed author Liane Moriarty has written a gripping, thought-provoking novel about how well it is really possible to know our spouses—and, ultimately, ourselves.

First Sentence: "It was all because of the Berlin Wall."

Review:

To say that I was surprised by the quality and beauty of The Husband's Secret would be an understatement. In fact, I almost didn't pick Moriarty's novel up at BEA, but did so at the behest of a publicist, one whose name I wish I'd noted so that I could thank her. My hesitance to read The Husband's Secret stemmed from the cover (which bears an unfortunate resemblance to that of Black City) and the blurb (which makes the novel sound like a stereotypical novel about infidelity). If either of these reasons are holding you back, do not let them as The Husband's Secret is women's fiction at its finest.

The basic premise, the one that the blurb points to, is a sort of retelling of Pandora's box, a woman's life transfigured when she opens something she perhaps oughtn't. On a basic level, this is true. Cecilia Fitzpatrick does find a letter addressed to her to be opened on the event of her husband John-Paul's death. She calls him to ask about it, and he makes her promise not to open it. She agrees, but secrets it away curious. When John-Paul comes home early from his business trip and ventures in the middle of the night into the attic, which he avoids due to claustrophobia, to claim the letter, Cecilia pulls it from its hiding place and reads. From this moment, a certain chaos does enter the world, and lives and marriages are tested.

What the blurb only barely hints at is that this story is not just about Cecilia. Tess and Rachel are but a footnote of the blurb, but they have equal share in the story of The Husband's Secret. Though initially not tied together seemingly in any way, the lives of the three weave together inexorably as the pages pass. The story is a dark one, moving and gorgeously-written.

Though the subject matter may be a bit melodramatic, I found the story endlessly compelling and it almost made me cry, which is the equivalent of saying most readers will want to keep a box of tissues handy; I am not one who cries easily. Despite the scale of the drama within, The Husband's Secret actually feels quite down to earth, thanks to the personalities of these three women who inhabit its pages. Rachel, Tess, and Cecilia are all good women, whose lives have been thrown off kilter by personal tragedies, past or present.

Cecilia does it all. She's a brilliant wife, mother, homemaker, and brings in a hefty income doing Tupperware parties. She appears to other women, like Rachel and Tess, as one of those women who has everything together, and who has been blessed in life. Cecilia's three daughters are bright and affectionate. She and her husband love one another deeply, and have, until very recently, always had a very satisfying sex life. Opening the later, though, must change everything, one way or another. And, no, the letter's not about a secret affair.

Tess, like Cecilia, is a woman of vast achievement. She's a successful account manager for the advertising company she runs with her husband, Will, and cousin (also best friend) Felicity. Her son, Liam, is the source of some concern, as he is being bullied at school, but otherwise life is happy. One day, out of the blue, Will and Felicity sit her down to explain that they've fallen in love. Tess, questioning both of her relationships, leaves their home in Melbourne and takes Liam to Sydney, where they stay with her mother and he can attend a school his bully does not attend. In this break from her day-to-day life, Tess has space to evaluate what role Felicity has always played in her life and what she wants her life to be from here on out.

Rachel, a grandmother, has been a largely unhappy woman ever since her daughter Janie was murdered, strangled to death and left in a park, the murderer never located and brought to justice. She's always suspected Connor Whitby, but has no proof. Her one small joy in life, her grandson, will soon be wrested from her, as her son, Rob, and daughter-in-law, Lauren, are moving to New York City. With this announcement, Rachel descends even more heavily into her desire for closure in Janie's case.

All three women are likable and sympathetic, even when they make choices that aren't necessarily good ones. They face moral dilemmas with no good solution, and just try to muddle through. The Husband's Secret really considers whether choices should be made to protect the children or because they are morally right. Though I can't say that I'm necessarily in agreement with the way that each storyline wrapped up, each woman is so well-characterized that the routes they take do make sense.

Powerful, heart-wrenching literary fiction with a focus on women, The Husband's Secret is a lavish novel. Bear the warning of the Pandora comparison in mind, for the the tale is not a happy one. Liane Moriarty's writing and characterization have convinced me to add the rest of her adult novels to my to-read list. I can only hope I find them as moving and well done as this one.

Rating: 4.5/5

Favorite Quote: "Marriage was a form of insanity; love hovering on the edge of aggravation."

Giveaway:
In my continuing quest to share my very favorite reads with readers across the world, I'm offering an international giveaway for a hardback of The Husband's Secret. The book will be shipped via The Book Depository, so as long as they ship to your country, you can win!
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Sadie Hawkins Sunday Review #23: All the Truth That's in Me

All the Truth That's in Me

Author: Julie Berry
Pages: 288
Publisher: Viking Juvenile
Read: July 11
Source: ARC from publisher for review
Recommended by: Scott Pilgrim of Scott Reads It

Description from Goodreads:
Four years ago, Judith and her best friend disappeared from their small town of Roswell Station. Two years ago, only Judith returned, permanently mutilated, reviled and ignored by those who were once her friends and family. Unable to speak, Judith lives like a ghost in her own home, silently pouring out her thoughts to the boy who’s owned her heart as long as she can remember—even if he doesn’t know it—her childhood friend, Lucas. But when Roswell Station is attacked, long-buried secrets come to light, and Judith is forced to choose: continue to live in silence, or recover her voice, even if it means changing her world, and the lives around her, forever. This startlingly original novel will shock and disturb you; it will fill you with Judith’s passion and longing; and its mysteries will keep you feverishly turning the pages until the very last.

First Sentence: "We came here by ship, you and I."

Review:
As I endeavor never to lie to you kind folks who stop by and read my thoughts, I have to say I was really having second thoughts about reading All the Truth That's in Me when it was put into Sadie Hawkins. I'd heard rumors of dialect, and, though I've enjoyed a couple of books written in dialect, it's still not really my thing. The style of it generally scared me off. However, All the Truth That's in Me ended up being a really rewarding and unique literary experience.

I really do feel like All the Truth That's in Me is an excellent novel, well-written and perfectly atmospheric. The dialect really isn't strong at all, kept to a minimum and conveyed more with phrasing and the occasional word, like "hisself" for example. The language is kept pretty simple, which generally annoys me, but works well here. Judith isn't well-educated, and she was reticent even before her tongue was cut out.

Oh, right. Yeah, her tongue was cut out, so she's mute. Did I forget to mention that? Judith is, I think, unique among YA heroines in that her tongue has been cut out. How intense is that? She was kidnapped and mutilated. This aspect is what I liked best about All the Truth That's in Me. It's dark, hard, and not sugar coated in the least, yet there's still a sense of hope.

See, Judith had pretty much given up on herself, and was beginning to believe what others said: that she's dumb. With the outbreak of battle, though, Judith throws herself into action to rescue the boy she's loved since childhood. To do so, she has to confront her captor, and sets in motion events that will force her to learn to speak up for herself or else. Like Speak and The Girl in the Park, All the Truth That's in Me centers on the importance of finding your voice.

The mystery of who kidnapped Judith and what happened to her there, as well as who murdered Lottie, who disappeared just before Judith did, is really well done. The first fifty pages or so of the novel are really confusing, told in snippets of past and present all jumbled up, but it really does come together, and, once I got used to it, the jumps didn't feel unnatural at all. The way Berry wove everything together really did impress me.

There is some romance, but it does not overwhelm the larger arc. At first, I really didn't like it, because Judith is quite the little stalker. By the end, though, Berry had me sold on it. For one thing, I'm a real sucker for heroines who aren't gorgeous or who have disabilities finding love just like the model beautiful ones do. What Judith went through was not her doing and does not make her unlovable, though perhaps her own sense of being unlovable might if she gives into it. Lucas, her crush and love interest, is a really sweet guy, and hurrah for more of these sorts of guys cropping up in young adult fiction these days.

Still, though I liked the writing for the most part, second person narratives really don't work for me. The whole of All the Truth That's in Me is written this way. The you in question is Lucas. Unless a story is written in a diary format, epistolary, or breaking the fourth wall, I just do not comprehend the point of second person. For me, I'm thrown out of the text every single time I come across the word you in the narration, because I know it's not me. Plus, it has the disconcerting effect of putting me in two roles at once: looking through Judith's eyes, but also cast as Lucas, which was a bit dizzying. Presumably there was a reason for this, but, whatever it was, this is not a style that is effective for the sort of reader I happen to be.

The other aspect that left me a bit disappointed were the historical elements. Not much was really made of the history, and it all felt overly vague to me. I kept trying to place the novel in time and location, but never really got close.

All told, All the Truth That's in Me is a powerful, highly original novel and I recommend it highly, particularly to readers with more patience for second person narration.

Rating: 3.5/5

Favorite Quote: "I don't believe in miracles, but if the need is great, a girl might make her own miracle."

---

Up Next:

The next Sadie Hawkins Sunday book will be Dune by Frank Herbert, suggested by Robbie! I'm about halfway through right now and don't think I'll love it, but it's something I've always wanted to read but haven't because it's such a chunkster. Thanks for the motivation, Robbie!

Want to tell me what to read? Fill out the following form with a suggestion! For more details, check this post.

Review: Countdown City

Countdown City
The Last Policeman, Book 2

Author: Ben H. Winters
Pages: 320
Publisher: Quirk Books
Publication Date: July 16, 2013
Read: July 5-8, 2013
Source: ARC from publisher for review/BEA

Description from Goodreads:
There are just 74 days to go before a deadly asteroid collides with Earth, and Detective Hank Palace is out of a job. With the Concord police force operating under the auspices of the U.S. Justice Department, Hank's days of solving crimes are over...until a woman from his past begs for help finding her missing husband.

Brett Cavatone disappeared without a trace—an easy feat in a world with no phones, no cars, and no way to tell whether someone’s gone “bucket list” or just gone. With society falling to shambles, Hank pieces together what few clues he can, on a search that leads him from a college-campus-turned-anarchist-encampment to a crumbling coastal landscape where anti-immigrant militia fend off “impact zone” refugees.

The second novel in the critically acclaimed Last Policeman trilogy, Countdown City presents a fascinating mystery set on brink of an apocalypse--and once again, Hank Palace confronts questions way beyond "whodunit." What do we as human beings owe to one another? And what does it mean to be civilized when civilization is collapsing all around you?

Previous Book in Series:
1: The Last Policeman

First Sentence: "'It's just that he promised,' says Martha Milano, pale eyes flashing, cheeks flushed with anxiety."

Review:

Last year, I read and quite enjoyed the first book in Ben H. Winter's pre-apocalyptic trilogy, so I was looking forward to Countdown City. I was, however, also quite concerned I wouldn't like it, because my memories of The Last Policeman were sketchy at best and I had no time for a reread. While most of the plot of The Last Policeman remains a mystery, Winters' Countdown City is still enjoyable on its own right and the great world building remains consistent with the first book.

You know how some people love to work, and wouldn't know what to do with free time if they had it? The ones who are workaholics and drive their spouses up the wall when they try to retire? Well, Henry Palace is that kind of guy. Even though the world is ending, he can't bear to sit still and wait for it. Though the detective division of the precinct has been closed and he has been let go, he still needs a mystery to keep himself occupied, to help distract him from the world's impending destruction. These individual mysteries form story arcs for each novel in the series, as the end of the world ticks closer.

Why is the world ending? An asteroid. Humans will be going the way of the dinosaurs in less than three months. Most fascinating about Countdown City is the variety of human responses to impending demise. Some, like Henry, continue to go about their daily life as normally as possible. Those with means embark on their bucket lists, desperate to live their few remaining days to the fullest. Religious groups and radical organizations grow up overnight. Massive governmental changes occur, as the question of what's really worth the effort comes to the forefront.

Already from The Last Policeman, the mood has shifted. Where the bulk of life was unchanged from normal, only with additional panic, in the first book, the world is already unrecognizable. Cops no longer investigate crimes, only around to keep some semblance of order. Food is already running out or not getting distributed well. Abandoned children are everywhere, parents gone bucket list, killed, or having committed suicide. As the days pass, violence and crime increase, as society rips apart at the seems in the anticipation of the end. It's this depiction that Winters does so well, and that makes Countdown City such a compelling read.

Though not a particularly character-driven book, there's still something appealing about Henry's narration. He feels a bit remote, despite the first person narration, and yet I feel a good deal of affection for him. Perhaps the distance comes from the fact that I know he, and everyone else, will die, so I'm not all that caught up in his survival. He's also very much a detective, procedural and stern. However, there's also a humor and an honesty to Palace's narration that keeps him from feeling flat.

The weak point of Countdown City is actually the mystery arc. It's entertaining enough, but didn't really hold my interest like the broader setting. The resolution of it, too, I found a bit anticlimactic. Of course, this does dovetail with the fact that the mystery isn't the point; the mystery serves merely as a distraction for Henry from what's coming.

I highly recommend Ben H. Winters' Last Policeman trilogy to readers who appreciate excellent world building or who are intrigued by a pre-apocalyptic scenario. I look forward to finding out precisely how Winters will finish out this trilogy.

Rating: 3.5/5

Favorite Quote: "Respectfully, sir, the asteroid did not make you leave her. The asteroid is not making anyone do anything. It's just a big piece of rock floating through space. Anything anyone does remains their own decision."

Review: Moxie and the Art of Rule Breaking

Moxie and the Art of Rule Breaking

Author: Erin Dionne
Pages: 256
Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: July 11, 2013
Read: July 2-3, 2013
Source: ARC from publisher for review

Description from Goodreads:
For fans of The Westing Game and From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler comes a clever, treasure-hunt mystery based on a real-life art heist.

Moxie Fleece knows the rules and follows them--that is, until the day she opens her front door to a mysterious stranger. Suddenly Moxie is involved in Boston's biggest unsolved mystery: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art heist. Moxie has two weeks to find the art, otherwise she and the people she loves will be in big-time danger.

Her tools? Her best friend, Ollie, a geocaching addict who loves to find stuff; her Alzheimer's suffering grandfather, Grumps, who knows lots more than he lets on; and a geometry proof that she sets up to sort out the clues.

It's a race against the clock through downtown Boston as Moxie and Ollie break every rule she's ever lived by to find the art and save her family.

First Sentence: "You know that line about being 'saved by the bell'?"

Review:

Now that I've read Moxie and the Art of Rule Breaking, I can fully appreciate this adorable cover, because it fully captures this book. The only inaccurate part is that Moxie's best friend Ollie is Asian (though I guess this guy could be) and overweight, which I definitely do not think he is. However, the items in purple are part of the plot and that is exactly how Moxie dresses, crazy tights and all. If you could see her from the front, she'd be wearing a concert shirt for sure. Like the cover suggests, Moxie and the Art of Rule Breaking is a fun, action-packed middle grade novel with plenty of hijinks.

As her name suggests, Moxie has a lot of spirit, courageous and determined. The novel opens with the doorbell ringing. Though she's not supposed to open the door to strangers, she does without thinking. A redheaded woman stands on the doorstep, asking after her grandfather, who now lives in an old folks' home, as Alzheimer's slowly takes his memories. Because this woman is dressed in weather-inappropriate clothing and because of her grandpa's past, Moxie sends the woman away, nervous about the woman's declaration that Sully Cupcakes, notorious mobster wants his stuff back.

Moxie's grandfather, affectionally known as Grumps, had a bit of a shady history. He had ties with the mob and worked with the criminal underbelly of the city. His job as a carpenter gave him access to a lot of places and made him a good way to launder money. Up til now, Grumps' criminal past has been just stories, but now Moxie really has to confront who he was and the impact of his shady dealings. The relationship between Grumps and Moxie is touching, especially the way she visits him every week, even though it's painful the way he sometimes isn't there mentally.

Together with her allergy-prone friend Ollie, Moxie has to solve the mystery of an art heist that took place over 20 years ago in 1990 (wow, does that make me feel old) in two weeks. Along the way, there's some fun with geocaching, daring stunts, and parental disapproval. There are themes of family and friendship making up the backdrop, but the mystery and adventure elements take a front seat.

Though a fun read, I did have some concerns with Moxie and the Art of Rule Breaking. Mainly, the fact that it was Moxie caught up in the middle of this felt contrived. Why on earth would the redhead go to Moxie, an eighth grader, rather than her mother or grandmother, who are much more likely to know where the art is hidden? A grown woman threatening an eighth grader in this way was awkward. I could see an evildoer threatening someone so young, but more as motivation for an adult to do something, not to get the young teen to solve the decades old mystery. Plus, the redhead didn't even warn Moxie not to tell anyone, so it's not like she went to the kid because the adults would call the authorities. That just didn't make sense to me.

Those who enjoy light-hearted, action-heavy mysteries will likely enjoy Moxie and the Art of Rule Breaking, particularly if they can avoid getting caught up in some of the smaller plot details. Also of note is that there is a lot of exploration of Boston, so it'll be a great read for anyone really familiar with the city.

Rating: 3/5

Favorite Quote: "'Good music is never out of season."

Review: The Path of Names

The Path of Names

Author: Ari Goelman
Pages: 352
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine
Read: June 24-30, 2013
Source: Gifted - thanks Lindsay!

Description from Goodreads:
Mysteries, mazes, and magic combine in this smart, funny summer-camp fantasy -- like THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY for kids!

Dahlia Sherman loves magic, and Math Club, and Guitar Hero. She isn't so fond of nature walks, and Hebrew campfire songs, and mean girls her own age.

All of which makes a week at Jewish summer camp pretty much the worst idea ever.

But within minutes of arriving at camp, Dahlia realizes that it might not be as bad as she'd feared. First she sees two little girls walk right through the walls of her cabin. Then come the dreams -- frighteningly detailed visions of a young man being pursued through 1930s New York City. How are the dreams and the girls related? Why is Dahlia the only one who can see any of them? And what's up with the overgrown, strangely shaped hedge maze that none of the campers are allowed to touch? Dahlia's increasingly dangerous quest for answers will lead her right to the center of the maze -- but it will take all her courage, smarts, and sleight-of-hand skills to get her back out again.

First Sentence: "Dahlia stared out the car window and thought about Harry Houdini."

Review:

There's this old song called "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah" about a young boy whose parents force him to go to camp. It's a funny, silly song, written like a letter to his parents. At first, he hates camp and is begging them to come and get him, but, by the end, he loves it. On the simplest level, this is the plot of Ari Goelman's The Path of Names.

Dahlia differs from the usual middle grade heroine. She's grumpy and antisocial, preferring math and practicing magic tricks to spending time with people. When her parents force her to go to a Jewish camp, she's pissed. She doesn't have any interest in Judaism and would prefer to be at math camp. Her parents promise to let her leave after a week if she completely hates it and she plans to, but instead she gets caught up and the weeks pass almost without her realizing. All it takes to make a girl love summer camp and befriend people is a couple of ghosts, possession, and a mystery, no big deal.

Immediately upon Dahlia's arrival in camp, she sees two girls run through a wall. Because of her love of magic, she suspects there's another aspiring magician in camp, but her search proves fruitless. When she realizes she's been seeing ghosts, though, Dahlia's hooked. She begins researching these two girls, only to discover that they disappeared 72 years before. They're also trying to warn her about something.

Oh, also, Dahlia's been possessed by a dead man's spirit and she's dreaming his memories. The Path of Names deals heavily with Jewish mysticism and themes. I really appreciated reading a novel set in a tradition outside of the Christian. Also, though religion is obviously a huge plot element, the book did not feel preachy in the slightest. Goelman gets into kabbalah a bit, and it's all pretty fascinating.

The Path of Names is told in third person, rotating through third person limited perspectives. Though most often focused on thirteen-year-old Dahlia, the perspective also goes to her older brother (16), a camp counselor, and David Schank (19), the young man possessing Dahlia. I feel like I say this a lot in my middle grade reviews, but this is really a story that works for all ages. Goelman's writing and plotting are sophisticated, and not written down to a younger audience.

In fact, I'm not a hundred percent sure how much the average kid would enjoy The Path of Names, with the discussions of math and Hebrew. I thought it was very well done and enjoyable myself, but the pace was a bit on the slower side. I imagine it's a better book for kids on the older side of the middle grade spectrum, as the reading level is fairly high.

If you've been looking for a middle grade novel set in a different culture or a cool ghost story, The Path of Names is an excellent choice. Goelmans writes well, and I'd certainly be willing to read more of his books in the future.

Rating: 3.5/5

Favorite Quote: "'Funny thing, how much weaker boys are than girls.'"

Review: The Wig in the Window

The Wig in the Window

Author: Kristen Kittscher
Pages: 368
Publisher: Harper
Publication Date: June 18, 2013
Read: June
Source: ARC from publisher for review

Description from Goodreads:
Best friends and seventh graders Sophie Young and Grace Yang have made a game out of spying on their neighbors. On one of their midnight stakeouts, they witness a terrifying, bloody scene at the home of their bizarre middle-school counselor, Dr. Charlotte Agford (aka Dr. Awkward).

At least, they think they do. The truth is that Dr. Agford was only making her famous pickled beets! But when Dr. Agford begins acting even weirder than usual, Sophie and Grace become convinced that she’s hiding something—and they’re determined to find out what it is.

Soon the girls are breaking secret codes, being followed by a strange blue car, and tailing strangers with unibrows and Texas accents. But as their investigation heats up, Sophie and Grace start to crack under the pressure. They might solve their case, but will their friendship survive?

Perfect for fans of The Mysterious Benedict Society, The Wig in the Window is a smart, funny middle-grade mystery with a REAR WINDOW twist.

First Sentence: "I thought I'd mastered the art of escape."

Review:

Kristen Kittscher's debut caught my eye with that brilliantly adorable cover, one which perfectly captures the book itself, which makes it even better. Though mysteries aren't my genre of choice, I couldn't resist checking this one out, because of the Rear Window connection. Pop culture references are for the win always. The Wig in the Window is above all a story of friendship and courage, with plenty of humor and adventure to keep readers of all ages entertained.

The first thing I need to give Kittscher props for is how the mystery plays out. Reading mysteries intended for younger readers can be imminently frustrating for an adult, because the children often fail to note the most obvious of clues and the guilty party is clear from the first pages. This was not the case in The Wig in the Window. Kittscher adds evidence steadily, and keeps pulling the rug out from under Sophie's feet. Sophie does have a bit of a tendency to jump to conclusions, but she's never blindly oblivious to the facts in front of her.

In fact, Sophie and her friends don't do a lot of the inadvisable things kids in novels often do. When they think they've witnessed a murder by their next door neighbor, they contact the authorities. They try to rely on and trust adults with information, but receive contradictory information and end up having to do the best they can alone. In addition to snooping around, since they like to pretend they're in the FBI, they also do Google searches. Sophie and Grace approach the situation as logically as they can.

For me, the most meaningful aspect of The Wig in the Window is the friendship between amateur investigators Grace and Sophie. They've been friends since Sophie's family moved to the neighborhood, and go by Young (Sophie) and Yang (Grace). However, all is not perfect in their friendship, and the real mystery to solve brings all their issues to the surface. Sophie has always felt like the sidekick, following Grace's lead, which was fine until Sophie got in trouble for falsely reporting a murder and Grace didn't. Now Sophie feels abandoned, and has a chance to really come into her own, however painful that may be. They really have to learn to appreciate one another and not take their friendship for granted, which can happen in long term relationships of any sort.

At school, Sophie's other friends ditch her in the wake of the reporting-the-school-counselor-for-murder scandal. In this awkward time, she's befriended by Trista, overweight and picked on (called Boom-Boom-Bottoms by the school's resident bully, who calls Sophie Ay-nus, a play off her French class name Agnes). Trista's totally my favorite character. She's sassy, can out-insult the bullies, loves herself for who she is, and has her friends' backs. Plus, she's a really healthy eater, so Kittscher's conveying that it's not necessarily lifestyle alone that leads to weight gain.

The one thing that left me really uncomfortable was the portrayal of Charlotte Agford, the school counselor that Grace and Sophie think they see commit murder. Whether or not she's the villain, some of the descriptions for her made me really uncomfortable. She has this giant hair, which turns out to be a wig, and huge fake breasts, both of which are repeatedly used as evidence essentially that she's evil, and I'm just not really cool with that. There were a couple of other characters described in unsettling ways, but Agford is the best example. Whether someone's a good or bad person shouldn't be bound up in their appearance.

The Wig in the Window is a fun mystery, sure to delight middle grade readers. There's humor, action, friendship, and even a little bit of romance. I'm glad to have read it, but am left a bit unsure about the overall message.

Rating: 3/5

Favorite Quote: "It turned out the single known acceptable case of parents repeating themselves ad nauseum was when they were gushing about how wrong they were."

Review: Charm & Strange

Charm & Strange

Author: Stephanie Kuehn
Pages: 213
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Read: June 11-12, 2013
Source: Publisher for review

Description from Goodreads:
When you’ve been kept caged in the dark, it’s impossible to see the forest for the trees. It’s impossible to see anything, really. Not without bars . . .

Andrew Winston Winters is at war with himself.

He’s part Win, the lonely teenager exiled to a remote Vermont boarding school in the wake of a family tragedy. The guy who shuts all his classmates out, no matter the cost.

He’s part Drew, the angry young boy with violent impulses that control him. The boy who spent a fateful, long-ago summer with his brother and teenage cousins, only to endure a secret so monstrous it led three children to do the unthinkable.

Over the course of one night, while stuck at a party deep in the New England woods, Andrew battles both the pain of his past and the isolation of his present.

Before the sun rises, he’ll either surrender his sanity to the wild darkness inside his mind or make peace with the most elemental of truths—that choosing to live can mean so much more than not dying.

First Sentence: "I don't feel the presence of God here."

Review:

Stephanie Kuehn's debut Charm & Strange is a lot of things: confusing, frustrating, disturbing, thought-provoking, dark, and original. Starting out a career as an author with such an unusual book shows daring. Charm & Strange will not please every reader, and I myself felt largely ambivalent towards it until the very end. Those final scenes, though, helped Charm & Strange coalesce into something harsh but meaningful, something I'm glad to have read, if not understood fully.

Kuehn's writing style perfectly matches the character of Anrew/Winston (his first and middle name, which he goes by at different times of life). The narration is sort of fragmented, filled with commas and semi-colons. Punctuation breaks up the thoughts into little pieces, clearly illustrating Winston's troubled mind. He says nothing directly. For me, the writing was really tough to fathom, to piece together, which did result in a lot of confusion, but, artistically, I do think it's brilliant.

Much of what's admirable I cannot really speak to, as talking about this book to any great degree would involve spoilers. Suffice it to say that the twists are both deeply upsetting, perhaps even going marginally too far, but that the way everything ties together is impressive. From a psychological perspective, the conclusion is compelling and satisfying.

What brought things together for me were the final scenes. Kuehn imbues the ending with a bit of hope, but there's no happily ever after, and Winston's still got major issues to deal with. Rarely do endings like this show up in YA, with the hero or heroine still mostly broken and without a true love to cushion the loss of everything else. Still, there is that ray of hope, which shows through in Andrew's reversion to his first name and his much more easily parsed language.

There were three reasons I struggled so much with this book for most of its pages. The first is our narrator. Win is a brilliant teen, but a cold, aloof one. He keeps himself distant even from the reader, not just from the other kids at his boarding school. As such, he's hard to like, because he really doesn't want the reader to know anything but his worst moments, barely even explaining why he is the way he is, because he wants to wallow in the guilt.

The other two reasons are all bound up together. Win excels at science, and science terminology is dropped throughout the book. In fact, the title is a reference to something to do with quarks, and the chapter headings, alternatively Matter and Antimatter, are scientific as well. Their meaning is actually explained (see p.35-36), but it whooshed right over my head. I was able to put together that Matter was Win in the present and that Antimatter was Drew in the past, but that was it. I feel like there's so much that I'm missing from a lack of science brain. Also, I had a lot of trouble navigating between the two timelines, finding that I would have forgotten what Win was doing by the time I finished a Drew section and vice versa.

Though short, Charm & Strange is a read for a patient and well-educated reader, one with a high threshold for tough subject matter. If you're looking for an action-packed paranormal romance, you are in one hundred percent the wrong place. I will be very curious to see what Kuehn follows this up with.

Rating: 3/5

Favorite Quote: "And yes, I say, I do like girls. I don't pursue them, though, and there are a lot of reasons for that. It's gotten me in trouble before, but I also think I have ridiculously high standards because the whole dating, fooling around thing seems so complicated. And not in a good way. I hate obligations, and if you want to be with a girl, it's like you're expected to do certain things. And do them a certain way."

Guest Review: Death in the Vines

Death in the Vines
Verlaque and Bonnet, Book 3

Author: M.L. Longworth
Pages: 304
Publisher: Penguin Books
Source: Publisher for review

Description from Goodreads:
Fans of Donna Leon and Andrea Camilleri, mystery lovers, Francophiles, and foodies will adore this who-done-it with a beautiful European setting. In her riveting follow-up to Death at the Chateau Bremont and Murder in the Rue Dumas, M. L. Longworth evokes the sights and sounds of late-summer Provence, where the mistral blows and death comes in the most unexpected places. Olivier Bonnard, the owner of Domaine Beauclaire winery, is devastated when he discovers the theft of a priceless cache of rare vintages. Soon after, Monsieur Gilles d’Arras reports that his wife, Pauline, has vanished from their lavish apartment. As Judge Antoine Verlaque and Commissioner Paulik tackle the case (with a little help from Marine Bonnet), they receive an urgent call: Bonnard has just found Madame d’Arras—dead in his vineyard.

First Sentence: "Olivier Bonnard sat on the bottom stone step of his cellar, his hands gathered around his head as if he were attempting to soothe a migraine.” "

Review:
Hello again, Christina’s readers and friends. Once again Christina had too many books with a deadline to handle them all herself, so she asked me whether I would do a second guest spot since the first contribution was well-received, and readers said that they would like to hear from me again. Then she contacted the publisher to see whether that was acceptable to them, and it was. As it turns out, when the book arrived, Christina knew that she would have had a hard time picking out a more perfect book to give me as a gift. So, not surprisingly, the publisher should be happy with my review. One thing you should know about me is that I am a wine fancier as well as a reader and someone who loves puzzles and games, travel, crafts, genealogy, and good food. Can you guess how many of my favorites are covered by a book called Death in the Vines?

This is the third book in a series called “A Verlaque & Bonnet Provencal Mystery.” While I had read the second book, but not the first, I do not believe there is any reason to suppose one must have read the earlier books to enjoy this one. While some of the characters do carry over (they are investigating the crimes), and you get glimpses of their personal lives, this book can stand on its own. And I am going to include a bit of a primer on some of these characters, just in case.

First, though, as an American, used to our crime and law shows, I looked up a little about the French judicial system since that gave me some pause in both books. Rather than the prosecution and defense system that we inherited from the British, the French have the juges d’instruction, or investigating magistrate. This is Antoine Verlaque in this series. Marine Bonnet, his serious girlfriend, is a law professor at a local university in Aix, which is what the locals call Aix-en-Provence most of the time. Her parents were covered more in the second book, but do appear here. Her father is a doctor and her mother a retired professor of religion; they were far from ideal parents but are still somewhat in her life since they all live in Aix. Antoine Verlaque grew up rich in Paris, Normandy, and other parts of northern France, and he visits Paris once in each book. His family will be mentioned occasionally in his thoughts, as well as a former girlfriend named Monique, and through both of these books we know she hurt him badly; we learn about that late in this book.

To continue on: the investigating magistrate, who in this book has a staff of investigative lawyers, as well as the police commissioner and all the policemen also reporting to him, is holding much of the “trial” of evidence in secret, during the course of the investigation; confronting witnesses, recreating the crimes at the scene, developing profiles of the criminals, and ordering DNA tests as well as working with the coroner. While in real life this might take several years, this book, like our TV crime shows, compresses the time frame considerably. The investigating magistrate then prepares a report that contains both the defense and prosecution information. Trials in France and other countries that use this system are then usually short. This French system is felt to be superior in cases of corruption within political and corporate spheres, but less so for street crimes. In real life the French examining magistrate may be handling 100 cases at a time; in this book there are five mysteries, four of them official ‘crimes’ being pursued.

So for the background on supporting characters in this book, most of whom were also in the second book, the next main one after Verlaque and Bonnet is the commissioner of police. His name is Bruno Paulik. He is a native of the countryside in Provence, a rugby player, and a member of a large extended family. His wife, Helene, manages the estate of Olivier Bonnard and is his chief winemaker; she is also an up-and-coming winemaker with a growing reputation, but no hope of ever being able to buy her own vineyards, unless perhaps she were to move to Chile or some even ‘younger’ wine area. They have a ten-year-old daughter, Lea, who is a gifted singer and taking special classes. In real life the police officers generally do not like the examining magistrate and his lawyers. One side-effect of the French system is that the police are often less involved in the actual investigations, according to my research. However, in this instance, the lawyer Roussel is often held in lower regard than Alain Flamant, who does much of the computer work on the case, and two newer officers in the department: Jules Schoelcher from Alsace and Roger Caromb from Marseilles. However, it is clear at the beginning of the book that the lower-level police dislike Antoine Verlaque.

This book is set as much in the wineries and other areas outside Aix and around France as within the town (where most of the second book Murder in the Rue Dumas took place). Death in the Vines opens at the winery where the theft has just been discovered and returns there several times while investigating both this and other crimes. There is quite a bit of wine information included – from the winery owner and staff, the judge who is a gourmand, in some of the interrogations, and also in the travel descriptions. We have taken Christina to wineries around America and in Germany and France, so she knew how much all of this would thrill me. The author conveys much of the glory and heartbreak involved with this fascinating offshoot of Roman culture spread throughout Europe (the Catholics built churches with vineyards and produced wine for themselves and the Roman legions as they marched across Europe and up to Britain). That is an example of the sort of things you may learn in this book, although it was not in this volume.) But there are references to ancient Rome that you will uncover when you read this book.

This is a good who-done-it mystery; did the thief connect to the death on the property; is there a serial killer? Along the way the reader learns more about Alzheimers, historic Citroen automobiles, and prejudices the French have for others from some of the different regions of their own country, too. It amazes me how many things were assembled into this book, in just under 300 pages, and it all fits together smoothly and interestingly.

Rating: 5/5

Favorite Quotes: "It was a rugged countryside, more rugged than Aix: sparsely inhabited, its hills smaller and older, and the plants that covered them even drier and more meager than in Provence. He rolled his car windows down and let the smells waft in. It was a landscape for cloistered nuns and monks, medieval hermits, and fanatical winemakers. It couldn’t be any more different from his green Normandy, and he loved it."

Sadie Hawkins Sunday Review #15: Imaginary Girls

Imaginary Girls

Author: Nova Ren Suma
Pages: 348
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Read: May 20-June 2, 2013
Source: Library
Recommended by: Jenni of Alluring Reads

Description from Goodreads:
Chloe's older sister, Ruby, is the girl everyone looks to and longs for, who can't be captured or caged. When a night with Ruby's friends goes horribly wrong and Chloe discovers the dead body of her classmate London Hayes left floating in the reservoir, Chloe is sent away from town and away from Ruby.

But Ruby will do anything to get her sister back, and when Chloe returns to town two years later, deadly surprises await. As Chloe flirts with the truth that Ruby has hidden deeply away, the fragile line between life and death is redrawn by the complex bonds of sisterhood.

With palpable drama and delicious craft, Nova Ren Suma bursts onto the YA scene with the story that everyone will be talking about.

First Sentence: "Ruby said I'd never drown—not in deep ocean, not by shipwreck, not even by falling drunk into someone's bottomless backyard pool."

Review:
Nova Ren Suma has been on my absolutely-must-read list since her debut, but I've only just gotten around to reading one of her books. With any new author so beloved in the blogosphere, there's the fear that the books won't live up to the hype. Well, Nova Ren Suma did. Imaginary Girls wasn't what I expected, but it was so much better than that. Suma's debut is a gloriously dark magical realism mindfuck of a novel that kept me curious through every page.

On the surface, Imaginary Girls is a contemporary mystery, the story of two sisters, relatively calm and placid, like the surface of a reservoir. Underneath those waters, though, is another story, a whole town of issues, buried beneath the waters. Suma plumbs these depths, leaving the reader questioning what is real and what is insanity. Imaginary Girls walks the line between realistic fiction, magical realism and flat-out paranormal in such a way that I'm still not sure precisely how I should categorize it.

Chloe, the narrator, is hardly the heroine of her own story. She lives in the orbit of her older sister, Ruby, like everyone else in their town. Ruby is a sun, and everyone within the pull of her personality moves according to her whims. All the boys want her, all the girls want to be her, and she will never love anyone as much as she loves Chloe. Whatever Ruby wants, Ruby gets; no one can deny her anything, so long as they remain in their little town. Everything else is like our world, but Ruby exerts a pull that is truly out of this world.

When Ruby orders Chloe to swim across the reservoir and back at night, and to dive down at the center to grab a souvenir from Olive, the town underwater, Chloe does it. She believes Ruby's assertions that she can do it; Ruby will protect her from anything, absolutely anything. As she swims, cold water and fear engulf her, the sounds of the partiers watching her attempt this feat quieting behind her. Just when she feels she can't swim anymore, she encounters a boat with a dead girl inside, London, a girl from her class.

After this, her father, different from Ruby's, takes her away with him, away from Ruby's influence and their alcoholic mother, away from the reservoir, away from the tragedy. Ruby comes for her, though, finally, two years later. When Chloe arrives back in town, she learns something surprising: London's there and alive. Everyone says she swam across the reservoir that night and that London had gone away to rehab, not that she died. Needless to say, the mystery deepens.

Of course, Chloe could just be crazy, her mind splintering from the tragic events of that night. As in Ian McEwen's Atonement, this whole story could be some sort of creation of her own mind to explain what happened that night or her delusional dream in the institution where she's living out her life. In no way do I think Chloe's a reliable narrator, which adds layers to the already complicated narrative. Nothing is ever certain, which leaves the reader thinking and desperate to unravel the truth.

Suma's writing style is one that I would not ordinarily love, but it worked perfectly for this tale. There's a poetic element to it, and a sort of watery uncertainty, as through the truth is a moving target, bobbing on the ripples. The entirety of Imaginary Girls is dreamy and thought-provoking. Also, dark. Suma does not shy away from drug use, sex, violence, or other tough topics.

At its core, Imaginary Girls focuses on the relationship between Ruby and Chloe. The love between the two is powerful, but also a burden. It's so rare to find YA that focuses on sisterhood over romance, but Suma barely touches on romance. Boys matter so much less to both Ruby and Chloe than sisterhood does.

On a lot of levels, I'm still not sure what went down in this novel and that's really the beauty of it. If you liked your novels wrapped up in a bow with a moral and clear resolution, Imaginary Girls is not the read for you. However, if you love to open your mind up to new ideas and the puzzle of trying to figure out a mindfuck, go read this ASAP.

Rating: 4/5

Favorite Quote:

"She had two children who, since we had the same father, carried half my blood in their veins, just like Ruby did, the exact same amount, though I didn't feel connected to them in any real way.
     They were like any two people I might pass in the halls at school. One boy, one girl. You see them and wave. Maybe you have on the same color sweater and you're like, 'Hey. look. We're wearing the same color sweater.' But there's nothing else to be said beyond that, so you each keep moving. You know you'd barely give it a thought is you never see them again.
     This is how I know blood is meaningless; family connections are a lot like old gum—you don't have to keep chewing. You can always spit it out and stick it under the table. You can walk away.
     Ruby was my sister, but she was so much more than that."

---

Up Next:

The next Sadie Hawkins Sunday book will be The Summer Garden by Paullina Simons, after which I'll be finished with that series. Woo! Finishing a series doesn't happen every day. :) The series as a whole was suggested by Lisa V. Thanks, Lisa!

Want to tell me what to read? Fill out the following form with a suggestion! For more details, check this post.

Review: Heart of Glass

Heart of Glass
Cross My Heart, Book 2

Author: Sasha Gould
Pages: 336
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Read: April 28-May 5, 2013
Source: YA Books Central for review

Description from Goodreads:
In a society of liars, who do you trust?

It is 1585 in Venice, and three months have passed since Laura della Scala solved her sister's murder after joining the Segreta, a powerful society of women who trade protection for secrets. Now Laura is engaged to her true love, Roberto, and she has never been happier. But the night Laura is sent on her first important mission for the Segreta, Roberto is found with the body of a dead woman in his room. Halim, an irresistibly handsome Turkish prince on a diplomatic visit to the city, identifies the woman as his sister and insists that Roberto be executed for her murder, or the Ottoman Empire will attack Venice. Laura is desperate to save both her city and her fiancé. But as the evidence against Roberto builds and Laura finds herself increasingly drawn to Halim, she begins to wonder whether everything Roberto told her was a lie. What Laura discovers is a conspiracy that involves nearly everyone she knows.

Previous Book in Series:
1: Cross My Heart

First Sentence: "I gaze down the length of the narrow blade at my enemy."

Review:
There are, to my mind, two basic kinds of historical fiction: those that endeavor to be historically accurate and those that really don't, merely using the lavish historical backdrop to entertain. Personally, I like both kinds. The only time the latter's not good is when it has pretensions to being history as well as historical fiction, and teaches readers a bunch of incorrect information. Heart of Glass falls into the latter camp, and, from what I can tell, the political maneuverings of the novel have no bearing on reality. However, it's also a fun, engaging story and written to uphold the power of women, so I really don't mind that I'm not learning Venetian history from its pages.

Sasha Gould built this series around an awesome historically inaccurate idea she had:Venice run behind the scenes by a secret society of women. While there may not be a historical basis for this, I am all kinds of behind this kind of alternative history endeavor. All throughout history, there have been women behind the scenes affecting the course of history through their husbands, but, here, Gould is bringing them together and making them a more independent force.

These women endeavor to keep rocky Venetian politics more stable and less affected by the changes in power. They aim to be more fair and to help Venice, rather than an individual's political aims. I love that the Segreta are shown as powerful in many ways: physically skilled with weaponry, clever, and influential. Laura herself is a perfect example of this, determined, caring and strong. I like that's actually intelligent and puts thought into her actions, not always reacting solely with emotion.

However, much as I love this uplifting of women, I did think that Laura was a bit too powerful. She's engaged to the Doge's son, so she is very high in society, but I still doubt that the male councillors would ask her opinion on things. Certainly they would not with a bunch of other men in the room. The amount that even men respect her at her tender age seems rather out of place.

The only other drawback for me was the villains. Much of the mystery is very obvious and the villains have no real motivations other than grasping for power or unclear revenge. I prefer there to be a bit more depth to a villain. They ought to be somewhat understandable at least, if not relatable. Heart of Glass could have been more nuanced and had a better impact were that the case.

Heart of Glass is engaging from beginning to end, and I never found myself bored or my attention wandering. It's a very quick read, and those who enjoyed Cross My Heart will certainly want to read this one as well. The ending left room for another book, and I suspect I'll be reading that one too!

Rating: 3/5

Favorite Quote: "'Would you have me silenced?' I demand. 'Or Emilia? Are you saying we don't deserve a voice because we wear dresses? For shame, brother. I thought better of you.'"

Review: The Sword Dancer

The Sword Dancer

Author: Jeannie Lin
Pages: 288
Publisher: Harlequin
Publication Date: May 21, 2013
Source: Author for review

Description from Goodreads:
Sword dancer Li Feng is used to living life on the edge of the law—a woman alone in the dangerous world of the Tang Dynasty has only her whirlwind reflexes to trust. She will discover the truth about her past, even if that means outwitting the most feared thief-catcher of them all...

Relentless, handsome and determined, Han sees life—and love—as black and white. Until he finally captures the spirited, courageous Li Feng, who makes him question everything he thought he knew about right and wrong. Soon he's faced with an impossible choice: betray the elusive sword dancer he is learning to love, or trust his long-disregarded heart and follow her to dangerous, tempting rebellion...

First Sentence: "A lone reed flute sang the opening melody."

Review:

It's no secret that I'm a wee bit obsessed with Asian culture. If a book is set in Asia, whether modern or historical, I'm probably going to be intrigued. Also, I must admit a fondness for romance plots in an Asian setting, due both to my teenage love for the novel Shogun and my adoration of manga/manhwa. With my first read by Jeannie Lin, I get to travel to historical China in a read full of romance and adventure.

Jeannie Lin's The Sword Dancer surprised me in a great way. The relationship herein depicted deviates from the standard fictional romance formula in ways that make me so, so very happy. Though the arc of Han and Li Feng's relationship is rather predictable (which isn't really a bad thing, since romantic reads aren't really ones you go to for twists), the relationship dynamics are non-standard and fistbump-worthy.

Neither Li Feng nor Han is incredibly gorgeous. They're not unattractive, and they certainly find one another quite appealing, but they're not the stereotypical blemish-free, wanted-by-everyone characters found so often in fiction. At first, Han finds Li Feng a bit plain, but her beauty, as his does, comes from the person inside the body: "Her face was one that Han might never have noticed if he hadn't seen her dance. Like the rest of her, its beauty was in movement" (35). Now, obviously, that is about her physically, but beauty in movement is such a perfect descriptor for Li Feng, who never stops going. At that point he hardly knows her, but I think it encapsulates why he likes her so much and why she's so compelling to him, because of what she does and not how she looks.

Lin resists more stereotypes with the character of Li Feng. She's strong, fast, and clever. Wanted as a thief, Han, a thief-catcher, apprehends her early on, but she escapes from prison. Though Han is physically stronger than she is, she often bests him, because of her quick wits, speed, and flexibility. As he comes to care for her, Han retains this understanding of and respect for Li Feng's skills. He doesn't try to change her or make her act like a proper lady, and he trusts her to keep herself safe without him looming over her for protection.

Plus, Li Feng is no blushing virgin to be taken by the manly man, thank goodness. In fact, Li Feng is the aggressor in the physical portion of their relationship, with Han unsure if he's emotionally prepared for sex. On the other hand, Han pursues an emotional connection, and Li Feng's not so sure about that. The traditional gender roles got turned on their head, which always makes me joyous. All women don't want commitment; some men are not always emotionally prepared for sex. Seeing this reflected in fiction gives me a happy.

Li Feng and Han do also have a pretty convincing connection, what with the mutual respect and all. Their personalities and interests are similar, and they do seem like a good match. Still, I do prefer romances that take longer to grow. Most of The Sword Dancer takes place within the span of two weeks or so. I just prefer a slower burn myself.

Of course, the book also isn't all romance. In fact, I'd say that Lin's heart lies in the action scenes which pepper the book. There are sex scenes if that's what you're looking for, but they're outnumbered by scenes of daring acrobatic leaps and sword fights and so forth. There's also a murder mystery and government corruption and Li Feng's forgotten past to untangle.

If you enjoy romances in a unique, lush setting and full of exciting action scenes, Jeannie Lin's The Sword Dancer will likely tickle your fancy. I enjoyed myself and will be adding some more of Lin's books to my to-read list.

Rating: 3/5

Favorite Quote:

"'I proved to be a very poor scholar,' he concluded, cutting his explanation short.
     'How so?'
     'Well, once for my daily lessons, I wrote a single line that read, "I do not want to be a high-ranking official."'"

Review: Tuesday's Gone

Tuesday's Gone
Frieda Klein, Book 2

Author: Nicci French
Pages: 384
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books
Publication Date: April 4, 2013
Source: Publisher for review

Description from Goodreads:
Internationally bestselling authors Nicci Gerard and Sean French, writing as Nicci French, have sold more than eight million copies of their books worldwide. But nothing they’ve written written before has grabbed the attention of reviewers and readers like Blue Monday and its iconic heroine, Frieda Klein. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called it a “superb psychological thriller . . . with brooding atmosphere, sustained suspense, a last-minute plot twist, and memorable cast of characters.”

In Tuesday’s Gone, a London social worker makes a routine home visit only to discover her client, Michelle Doyce, serving afternoon tea to a naked, decomposing corpse. With no clues as to the dead man’s identity, Chief Inspector Karlsson again calls upon Frieda for help. She discovers that the body belongs to Robert Poole, con man extraordinaire. But Frieda can’t shake the feeling that the past isn’t done with her yet. Did someone kill Poole to embroil her in the investigation? And if so, is Frieda herself the next victim?

A masterpiece of paranoia, Tuesday’s Gone draws readers inexorably into a fractured and faithless world as it brilliantly confirms Frieda Klein as a quintessential heroine for our times.

Prior Book in Series:
1: Blue Monday

First Sentence: "Maggie Brennan half walked, half ran along Deptford Church Street."

Review:

Ordinarily, I'm not much for mystery novels, and I read them only infrequently, since otherwise I get really bored with the predictable plotting, though it's not like romance stories are any less predictable and I still read those by the dozens. It may not make much logical sense, but this is how I feel. Anyway, I accepted a review request for the first book in this series, Blue Monday, sort of on a whim, and was surprised to find how much I enjoyed it. Tuesday's Gone steps up the tension of the Frieda Klein series and proves a very satisfying followup.

One of the things I really liked about Blue Monday was Frieda Klein herself, and she's still awesome. Frieda's so perceptive and a bit icy on the outside. She's a great listener but loathes talking about herself, or anything getting personal. Personal relationships are hard for her, and she keeps people at a distance. What I find so delightful about Frieda is that she's not a stereotypical woman; she can't be put into a box.

The mystery elements are well done, and several plot twists actually caught me completely off guard. The murder mystery is a seriously tangled web, but French pulls them together admirably. On top of the mystery arc for this installment, the big bad of the series as a whole is revealed, a person from Frieda's past. While there's not a whole lot of development with the larger arc, oh my goodness is it creepy, and I'm excited for the direction the series is headed, using the plot structure from the first two seasons of Veronica Mars, with the full series overarching plot and individual mysteries per volume. This works so well, because it keeps the reader's interest engaged in the larger story and makes reading them as standalones less desirable.

The one thing I found odd was that Frieda, who's consulting with the police in this murder investigation, goes around telling freaking EVERYONE about the work she's doing. I mean, come on, Frieda! She's smart enough to know better than that. Sure, sometimes she's doing so to feel people out, but she also tells some friends, and that's just not done, or at least I don't think it is. Especially since Frieda's generally so resistant to sharing information, I found this out of place.

I'm going to keep this short, since there's only so much to be said about mysteries without spoiling the plot. Basically, if you like mysteries, check out the Frieda Klein series, because it's well done, has a strong heroine, and features intriguing plot twists.

Rating: 4/5

Favorite Quote:

"'How do you deal with it all?'
     'I'm not sure that I really do.' She twisted her glass round. 'It's like winter. I just trudge through, head down, and hope that spring won't be delayed.'"

Review: Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters

Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters

Author: Suzanne Weyn
Pages: 247
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Source: YA Books Central for Review

Description from Goodreads:
A new generation is creating a monster....

Giselle and Ingrid are the twin daughters of Doctor Victor Frankenstein, but they are very different people, and when they inherit his castle in the Orkney Islands, Giselle dreams of holding parties and inviting society -- but Ingrid is fascinated by her father's forbidden experiments.

First Sentence: "What unbearable guilt!"

Review:
No matter my opinions on the source material, I cannot resist retellings. I read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in high school, and I loathed pretty much every bit of it. Perhaps I might be able to appreciate its wordiness and lack of action more now, but, at the time, it was torture. Suzanne Weyn's novel picks up some time after Frankenstein concludes, following his daughters, in a very different kind of story.

Where Frankenstein consists of a lot of endless descriptions and foliage, Weyn substitutes the castle and mysterious murders to create the gothic feeling of the original. Weyn also does a good job of simulating the language of the time. It's a bit stilted occasionally, but largely well done. The narration switches between Giselle's and Ingrid's journal entries, and the two narratives are kept distinct by the entirely different interests held by the two girls.

The major theme in Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters, as with Frankenstein, is that of madness. With the two Frankenstein girls, Weyn highlights two different kinds of madness, with the most obvious being the madness of obsession in scientific discovery. The desire for knowledge, to know whether something can be done without considering whether it should be done, runs through Ingrid, the smart twin, just as it ran through Victor.

Though much of Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters moved at a pretty sedate pace, again akin to the original, the ending is quite shocking. The first half focused largely on romance, and it seemed less a retelling and more a historical romance with a needless reference to Shelley's creations. In the second half, Weyn really sells it, and the shift is startling in a good way. I did not expect her to end things quite as she did, and it's nice to be surprised by a book.

Unfortunately, the novel has a major flaw in my opinion. Though I do not think it is Weyn's intention to do so, I do not like the treatment of female characters in the novel. Besides Giselle and Ingrid, there is only one other female character who gets a line. The girls are on this isolated island, but meet multiple attractive men. Yet, somehow, they do not meet any women. I do not like the message this sends that aside from our heroines, females really are not important. Though perhaps I should be grateful that the two girls are the only ones to receive any sort of character development; all those multitudes of men are flat as pancakes.

The only other woman to have a voice is Mary Shelley. Weyn has done what so many retellers like to do: brought the author into her story. This is, actually, one of my least favorite literary devices. An author chooses to retell a story, most likely because of a great respect and admiration of the original work and its creator. Generally, the author is brought in as a character to be inspired by the scenes he/she witnesses, and to then go on and write their famous work. Am I the only one who finds this incredibly insulting to the original author, diminishing the power of their imagination to that of a chronicler?

Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters is a quick read that becomes progressively darker as the pages fly by. This will be a good read for those who appreciate gothic narratives, but don't want to wade through 400 pages of dense prose.

Rating: 2.5/5

Favorite Quote: "I read and read without ever being bored as long as there is daylight."

Review: The Kassa Gambit

The Kassa Gambit

Author: M.C. Planck
Pages: 288
Publisher: Tor Books
Source: From publisher for review

Description from Goodreads:
Centuries after the ecological collapse of Earth, humanity has spread among the stars. Under the governance of the League, our endless need for resources has driven us to colonize hundreds of planets, all of them devoid of other sentient life. Humanity is apparently alone in the universe.

Then comes the sudden, brutal decimation of Kassa, a small farming planet, by a mysterious attacker. The few survivors send out a desperate plea for aid, which is answered by two unlikely rescuers. Prudence Falling is the young captain of a tramp freighter. She and her ragtag crew have been on the run and living job to job for years, eking out a living by making cargo runs that aren’t always entirely legal. Lt. Kyle Daspar is a police officer from the wealthy planet of Altair Prime, working undercover as a double agent against the League. He’s been undercover so long he can't be trusted by anyone—even himself.

While flying rescue missions to extract survivors from the surface of devastated Kassa, they discover what could be the most important artifact in the history of man: an alien spaceship, crashed and abandoned during the attack.

But something tells them there is more to the story. Together, they discover the cruel truth about the destruction of Kassa, and that an imminent alien invasion is the least of humanity’s concerns.

First Sentence: "Dropping out of node-space, Prudence instinctively knew there was trouble."

Review:

Unsolicited review copies are always a crap-shoot. When The Kassa Gambit arrived, I did what I always do with unfamiliar books that come to my door: looked it up on GR. The reviews I saw were not particularly encouraging, but, hey, it was here, so I figured I might as well read it. Besides, I've had great experiences with Tor books, so benefit of the doubt, right? Well, I'm glad I took the time to read The Kassa Gambit, because I really liked it and I've been meaning to read more traditional science fiction.

Much as I declare myself a science fiction fan, and know that to be true, I really haven't delved into the genre as much as I should have. It's been a while since I read a book set in space and spaceships, unless you count Mothership, but that's a very different kind of book. The descriptions of space and the nodes usable for travel kept me captivated.

Even better, the heroes are a ragtag group trying to make their living in a world ruled by a questionable government. The characters are delightful, and I rooted for them throughout. First of all, I think it's awesome that the captain of the Ulysses is a woman, a young woman at that, Captain Prudence Falling. Not only that, Prudence is a good captain, her only failing being her tendency to sacrifice success to help make life better for others. Can I help but think of Mal from Firefly?

Prudence's crew is small, just her and two officers. Garcia, the communications officer, is an irascible drunk, but a hard-working, kind-hearted one beneath all his bluster. My favorite character is definitely Jorgun, slow of mind, but brilliant at navigation and jigsaw puzzles. He's so caring, funny, and accepting of himself and others.

The crew of the Ulysses meets up with the other main character, Kyle, a League officer secretly working to take the League down. His double agenting is dangerous, and he trusts no one. At the same time, Kyle and Prudence arrive at the planet of Kassa, discovering that it has been decimated by an unknown force, one they believe to be alien. Together, they work to solve the mystery of the attackers.

As much as I liked The Kassa Gambit, and I did, I have two concerns. The first is the instalove-style relationship between Kyle and Prudence. They're as bad as teenagers, and it's ridiculous. And, lordy, do they need to stop making out when they should be trying to freaking escape. The second issue is that the book feels unfinished. I suspect there may be a sequel do out, because the whole thing does not get wrapped up. The ending is epic and dramatic, but, seriously, what happened? Honestly, I hope there's more coming, because if it's just meant to be an open-ended conclusion, it was unsatisfying.

Whether Planck's next book is a continuation of The Kassa Gambit or something else entirely, I'll definitely be checking out more of this author's work. If you like exciting science fiction set in space, check out The Kassa Gambit!

Rating: 3.5/5

Favorite Quote: "Not that anybody even knew what a Tibetan monk was, really. Half the sources said they were religious zealots, and the other half said they were super-soldiers with magic powers. Whatever beliefs they had held, whatever principles they had lived and died for, were dust now. Dust on a planet no one even remembered how to find. All that was left of them was a name, a few stories, and beer."