A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

This intriguing title weaves together the themes of romance, suspense, historical research and genetic studies into a surprisingly cohesive story. The main character is historian Diana Bishop, related to Bridget Bishop made famous by the Salem Witch Trials.  While doing research in one of the Oxford University libraries, she stumbles across an enchanted manuscript from the seventeen hundreds.  Since Diana has always avoiding learning to use her own magic, despite her very talented parents, she dismisses its quirks and has it returned to the stacks by the clerk at the end of the  day.  This simple discovery starts a series of events that will impact Diana, not just professionally but personally, too.  Suddenly, she has attracted the entree paranormal world f Great Britain, including witches, daemons and vampires.  A handsome, charming vampire named Matthew Clairmont has an interest in the manuscript, too, but seems to be just as interested in Diana, pursuing her until she finally agrees to dinner with him, even though her aunt who raised her taught her that witches (even non-practicing ones) and vampires cannot even be friends, much less date.  As you can imagine, more than dating soon develops.

Harkness’s debut novel has much to speak in its favor: it’s suspenseful, fast-paced, hard to put down and even has a forbidden romance story thrown in for good measure.  For my taste, it was a little heavy on the romance, but I’m sure that will be a positive for many readers.  I recommend this book to fans of paranormal romances, horror fans, and readers who liked the Twilight series before we all got tired of it.

Sapphique by Catherine Fisher

Sapphique by Catherine Fisher

While not as amazing as the first book in this series, Incarceron, this follow-up title picks up right where readers left Finn and Claudia in thier quest to find Sapphique and somehow balance the dark, prison world of Incarceron with the opulent kingdom Outside ruled now by the merciless Queen.  Finn and Claudia continue to try to prove that he is the true heir to the throne, but suddenly an impostor appears, who seems much more suited to life Outside, so much so that even Claudia finds herself wondering.  Inside Incarceron, Finn’s oath brother Keiro and their friend Attia are trying to find Sapphique’s glove, claimed to be magical which will help them escape the prison.  Finn has promised to come back to rescue them, but it’s been months and they are beginning to believe he is enjoying a rich and carefree life outside and has abandoned his old friends.  Lots of fast-paced adventure ensues, but I found myself not being as engaged with this book as I was the first one.

I recommend this title to readers of the first book in the series, Science Fiction fans and dystopia fans.

Wondrous strange by Lesley Livingston

Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston

Seventeen-year-old Kelley gets promoted from understudy to lead actress in a small New York City theater group when the lead actress breaks her ankle. Sitting in Central Park practicing her lines from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, she encounters Sonny, who thinks at first that she sees him and is talking to him. As a changeling, a mortal boy who was stolen from his family and raised by faeries, Sonny’s mission is to prevent evil creatures from the faerie world getting into the mortal world and hurting humans. Kelley and Sonny’s lives continue to intersect, and they discover they share some crucial connections. The author has written two sequels:  Darklight and Tempestuous. Fans of Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series will love this one!

Reviewed by Mrs. Goldstein-Erickson

         

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Like many readers, I’m predicting that this title is going to be one of the hot books of this year!  It has adventure, suspense, mystery and even some paranormal romance between a human and an angel.  Karou is an art student in Prague who lives on her own even though she is still in high school.  She goes on mysterious “errands,”  not even sharing her true self with her best friend Zuzana, who is about to disown her.  Because that’s not strange enough, she also draws strange characters in her sketchbooks that the students at her school drool over.  ”Issa, a serpent from the waist down and a woman from the waist up, with the bare, globe breast of Kama Sutra carvings, the hood and fangs of a cobra, and the face of an angel.”  There were also drawings of Twiga, Yasri, Kishmish and most importantly, Brimstone.  When her friends ask her where she got the ideas for the drawings, Karou shrugs and tells them they’re real, with a wry smile.  Of course, no one in their right mind believes her; the crazy part is that they are real and they raised Karou from a child in Brimstone’s shop where he collects teeth and does mysterious things with them.

As if Karou doesn’t have enough difficulty balancing her human art student life along with her worldwide errands for Brimstone, she starts noticing black, burned handprints on the doors which are secret portals she uses on her errands for Brimstone.  And when she runs into one of the beautiful, but frightening angels who is making these marks, sparks the size of Texas fly between them!  What follows is a search for the truth, star-crossed love and a quest for peace between two ancient peoples.

I found this book to be very engaging, although I’m usually not much of a fantasy fan.  The plot moves along quickly, and Karou is an interesting and unusual character.  She reminded me in many ways of the way all teenagers mature and come to terms with who they are and where they come from.  I highly recommend this to teen fantasy fans.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

World War Z by Max Brooks

Zombie fans will adore this book, as it’s an account of the recent fictitious  zombie war told through first-hand accounts of those who experienced it up close and personal.  Those who enjoyed Brooks’ tongue in cheek Zombie Survival Guide (2003) will find this volume a good companion to it.  The narrator works for a government commission and has collected accounts from various participants in the devastating zombie war.  Each “chapter” of the book is an interview with another person, some of whom are essential, like the Chinese doctor who treated “patient zero,” the first case of zombie infection.  Other chapter feature the stories of lesser-known people, but whose perspective fleshes (pardon the pun) out the whole picture for the readers.

Macy’s NYC Steampunk Holiday Windows

How did Macy’s know how much our readers love Steampunk?  Some examples of these titles are: Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker series, Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare, Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan series and the Airborn books by Kenneth Oppel.

Designed by Paul Olszewski, the six windows tell the story of a magical ship making a trip to the North Pole.  The theme is inspired by the “Make-A-Wish” foundation, and features the store’s celebrity ornament collection.  “You see this character on a Christmas tree kind of rocket ship that launches and goes to the North Star and decorates the tree.  So all the other windows tell you what’s happening inside the ship, where they’re collecting wishes and their essences,” said the designer to the New York Daily News.

Hunger Games Movie!!!

Since this movie will finally be released on March  23, 2012, the company is sharing posters and other tidbits with us loyal fans.  (Anyone ready to stand over night in line with me???)

Here’s the official trailer from YouTube that you can watch from home:

Here’s a LINK to the official movie website.

And, finallyere are the posters:

Princess Ben by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Princess Ben by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

When Princess Benevolence, known as Ben, loses her mother and uncle the king, to a vicious murderer and her father is missing, she immediately suspects treachery by the kingdom of Drachensbett. Her aunt Sophia, the king’s widow, makes Ben move to the castle and practice royal protocol, since Ben is now heir to the throne. Ben resents the strict behavior she has to follow, and keeps trying to rebel. Locked in a small room each night, she discovers a secret staircase to a mysterious tower, where she starts learning magic from a book left there for her. In a huge act of rebellion, she uses her few magic skills to escape from the castle by flying with a broomstick from the tower. Captured by soldiers from their neighboring country, she hides her identity and plots her escape. Back in her home in Montagne, she realizes the importance of learning to act like a princess in order to save her country and people. I loved the adventures Ben has and the many twists and turns of the plot, including the surprise ending.

Review by Ms. Goldstein-Erickson

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

The Mortal Instruments  Book 4

While this may not the strongest title in Clare’s popular Mortal Instruments series, devoted fans will still be engaged in following the continuing adventures and emotional ups and downs of Clary Fray and her friends.  This story actually belongs to her best friend Simon Lewis, the recently turned vampire, more than any other character.   Called the Daylighter vampire for his ability to go out into the sunshine and function during the day like the Shadowhunters and some of the non-vampire Downworlders,  he quickly becomes the target of an ancient vampire and as well as others who try to get him to use his unique power to their advantage.

I would recommend this book to all Cassandra Clare fans and followers of the Mortal Instruments series.

                   

City of Beasts Trilogy by Isabel Allende

                   

City of the Beasts

When his mother falls ill and has to get special treatment in Texas, 15 year old Alex leaves his home in California to stay with his no-nonsense grandmother in New York City. As soon as he arrives he is on another plane with his grandmother, on the way to Brazil, where she has a magazine assignment investigating reports of a creature like the Yeti (abominable snowman).  Their group travels inland with a local guide and his daughter Nadia, with whom Alex becomes friends. Their search involves local natives, army officers and a wealthy businessman, all of whom have motives for either finding or protecting local lands and creatures. Alex and Nadia’s adventures involve physical danger and mystical experiences. This book is the first title in a trilogy by this famous author, and meets the requirements for a World Lit book.

 Kingdom of the golden dragon

Alex Cold and his friend Nadia travel with Alex’s grandmother Kate to the Forbidden Kingdom, a country in Asia near Nepal and Tibet, when she has an assignment for a magazine story. At the same time an international criminal is plotting to steal the Kingdom’s legendary Golden Dragon, a priceless treasure. Alex, Nadia and Kate are drawn into the plot when Kate is kidnapped along with local girls as a diversion from the real objective. From the very beginning, when we meet the Kingdom’s crown prince and his lama mentor, I was hooked into this story by the exciting plot, the characters and the mystery of the criminal’s identity. Like the first book in the author’s trilogy, this meets the requirements for a World Lit book.

 Forest of the pygmies

Alex Cold, his friend Nadia and Alex’s grandmother Kate, a writer for an international magazine, are on an elephant-led safari in Africa when a Catholic missionary asks them to help him find some missing colleagues. After their plane crashes in a remote area, they travel on foot to find the place where the missionaries were last seen. They discover a village where both local Bantus and Pygmies are held as slaves to an all-powerful king, a ruling commandant and a mysterious sorcerer. Faced with the threat of being fed to a pool of crocodiles, Alex and Nadia have to find a way to free the local people and escape. The plot included exciting events and mysterious characters; I really wanted to know what would happen next! Like the first two books in the author’s trilogy, this meets the requirements for a World Lit book.

Reviews by Mrs. Goldstein-Erickson

Virals by Kathy Reichs

Virals by Kathy Reichs

Kathy Reichs, the writer of the TV show Bones, enters the YA arena with the first book in a new series.  Tory Brennan has recently moved in with the father she has never known, after her mother was killed by a drunken driver.  They live on a remote island off the South Carolina coast, which is owned by the university for which her scientist dad works.  She and her three best friends, all science geeks, are out exploring a “deserted” building in the university compound, when they discover a caged wolf-dog pup, who they learn by reading the cage’s tags has been exposed to a form of Parvovirus.  While trying to solve the mystery of the virus exposure, since the university is opposed to animal testing, they run into a cold case murder mystery, dating back from the Vietnam War era.  Although Tory knows humans are immune to the Parvovirus, their rescued pup has  been infected with an experimental strain, which they learn has very unexpected effects on the four of them—heightened senses and super human strength and speed.  The group quickly becomes the target of some killers, while their virus and murder mysteries begin to unravel themselves and make sense.

Readers looking for a fast-paced, action-packed suspense story will love this book.  Reichs brings her own knowledge of forensic science into the story, making it the perfect choice for fans of her TV show Bones, the CSI series and other police procedurals.

Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves

Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves

When Hanna hits her aunt in the head with a rolling pin and flees to Potrero, Texas, she has no idea if the mother she has no memory of will welcome her or call the police.  She’s just tired of being the crazy one, the strange one, the girl her aunt Ulla keeps putting in the asylum.  Not that Hanna doesn’t have issues–she is bipolar and is supposed to take medication for it, and also sees hallucinations on occasion, and hears her dead father talking to her all the time.  But despite all this, she doesn’t feel like she’s crazy, just misunderstood.  It turns out that Portrero is certainly not the typical small town she was expecting.  There are various types and paranormal beings that torment the population so much that they all wear black so as not to be “noticed” by the lures and other malevolent creatures.  The high school students even wear ear plugs so the lures can’t call them to the windows and turn the kids into glass statues.

Can you tell that this is not an ordinary story???  The readers definitely needs to let go of what we think of as normal, and just go with the flow of the story.  This being said, I loved this book!  Hanna is such an unusual, smart, sarcastic and funny character that it’s impossible not to adore her.  And when she gets a crush on the handsome charmer named Wyatt, who’s training to be one of the Mortmaine (a group with special powers that protects the people of Portrero from all the things the police can’t) we know that it’s going to get crazy.

I recommend this to fans of paranormal lit., like City of Bones (Casandra Clare), Fallen (Kate Lauren)and The Dark Divine (Bree Despain).

Clockwork Angel

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

This title is the prequel to Clare’s amazing Mortal Instruments series, and the first in her new Infernal Devices series.  (Do we sense a trend here???)  This story takes places in the late 1800′s, when sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray’s guardian aunt dies, and she receives a letter from her brother in London with an ocean liner ticket for her to join him.  Naturally, things are not a simple as they seem, and she is kidnapped by the Dark Sisters upon her arrival, who claim to have her brother captive who they will kill if she doesn’t cooperate with them.  They insist and training her to hone her shape-shifting skills, where she can turn into other people by holding an object that belonged to them.  When Tessa finds out that their planning to give her to the Magister to marry, she realizes she must escape and is rescued shortly thereafter by two Nephilim Shadowhunters: Will and Jem.  The plot become more complex as Tessa discovers that as a shape-shifter she is also a downworlder, moves into the London Institute,  and begins to realize that her brother may not be the person she thought he was.

Clare’s rapid-fire plot does not disappoint, moving quickly from one crisis to the next.  As in her other books, her characters are well-drawn, although we don’t learn much about Will’s mysterious past, the reader gets the sense that all will be revealed in future volumes.  As always, I highly recommend this title for all science fiction and fanstasy fans, especially readers who were enthralled by The City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass.

The Body Finder

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

Violet Ambrose has always been able to “sense” animals and people who have died violently.  It’s not a gift she’s happy to have, and in fact, no one knows about it but her immediate family and her best friend Jay.  Finding a dead girl in the woods when she was only eight years old left her with nightmares for years.  As she begins her junior year, she realizes that her feelings for her best friend Jay have transformed into something more that best buddies, but she has no clue if he feels the same way.  In addition to this, a serial killer is stalking teenage girls in her rural community, and Vi and Jay actually stumbled across one of the bodies while jet skiing at an end-0f-summer lake party.  Of course, it wasn’t actually an accident, as Violet could sense the dead girl’s echo and it led her to the body in the shallow water near the lake’s shore.  So poor Violet has two huge issues: her blinding crush on Jay, and her need to help find the serial killer, who seems to be stepping up the timing of the murders and making it even harder for Vi’s parents to let her leave the house.

This engaging thriller moves along at a brisk pace, with spine-chilling chapters from the killer’s point of  view thrown in every once in awhile for extra creepiness.  I really enjoyed this book and recommend to anyone who likes horror, mystery and suspense books.  There are  a couple twists that really make the story unique.

Fallen

Fallen by Lauren Kate

I promise that this addictive novel will keep you glued to your comfy chair until you finish it!  Lucinda Price has been sent to a super strict boarding school after a friend of her’s is killed is a fire where they were hanging out.  Somehow it’s her fault because she remembers nothing and survived the tragedy.  Sword & Cross boarding school is actually less than an hour away from her home, but feels like another planet.  No cell phones.  Security cameras everywhere.  Maximum security prison atmosphere.  And the students seem like misfits and were treated like dangerous criminals, too.  But one stood out to Luce, Daniel Grigori.  Besides being what Luce felt was “sublimely gorgeous,” he seemed so familiar to her, as if she’d known him from somewhere.  But he barely talks to her, and when the dark, evil shadows that have haunted her for her entire life start appearing at her new school, Luce is afraid to look to her new friends for help.

What follows is non-stop action and the slow revealing of who the other students at Sword & Cross might really be.  Kate does a good job with her characters, they are unique, each with their own quirks. The complex plot line brings the readers along for the ride, and you can’t wait to find out what happens next.  This is the first in a series, with the second title, Torment, coming out in the fall of 2010.

I would recommend this for fans of Shiver, Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments trilogy, and Beautiful Creatures.

Here’s a teen created book trailer video you can see from home.

Salt

Salt by Maurice Gee

In this fascinating book, the setting is almost another character.  We are in a dark, future world with two very different and distinct classes of people.  Hari and his father Tarl live in the Burrows, which are crumbling ruins of their former city called belong.  They live a cut throat existence, near starvation on a daily basis and constantly on the watch for Whips (soldiers with deadly, electrified hands) who will capture and enslave them as workers to benefit the Company.  Pearl, on the other hand, is the youngest daughter of one of the wealthy and powerful Company officials.  She is about to be forced into marriage with the disgusting Ottmar (“a man who has outlived two wives already and looks fat enough to have swallowed them whole”), in order to cement their two family’s alliance.  What Hari and Pearl have in common is that they can both communicate using their minds, a sort of telepathy.  When Hari’s father is kidnapped by the Company and sent to Deep Salt (from which no one has ever returned), he vows to save him, no matter what the cost.

Pearl and her mysteriously talented handmaid Tealeaf come across Hari as they are all trying to escape the wrath of the Company, and the two teens slowly discover that their fates are intertwined with each other and some larger purpose, involving the future of their entire world.

This book is pretty much non-stop action and will keep you in its grip from the first chapter.  The writing style is simple and spare, with the New Zealand author only giving as much detail and description as necessary to move the plot along.  I recommend this to fans of The Maze Runner and science fiction, fantasy,  and dystopia lovers.  This is the first in a trilogy, the second title Gool coming out in the fall of 2010; I can’t wait!

The Dark Divine

The Dark Divine by Bree Despain

The gorgeous cover was the first thing to attract me to this title, but when I stated reading it I was quickly swept up in this paranormal romance.  Sixteen-year-old Grace Divine has the perfect family: her dad is a  local pastor, her mom is amazing, and Grace’s brother one year older who is practically perfect in everyone’s eyes.  What’s not so great about her family is that they never talk about the big problems, like what really happened when her brother Jude ended up beat up and bloodied on their front porch three years ago.  And what that had to do with the his best friend Daniel’s disappearance right afterwards.  Her family had taken Daniel in after his abusive family had practically abandoned him, and he had become like another sibling, even though Bree had to admit she had a tiny crush on him.  His disappearing without a trace had devastated Bree, but no one in the family would even discuss him.

Now, he’s reappeared at school, trying to complete high school so he “can attend art school,” according to what he tells Bree at least.  But Jude can’t stand to even look and him, and makes Grace promise to stay away from his former best friend.  Surprisingly, Grace’s dad seems more accepting, helping Daniel find a place to stay and allowing him to do odd jobs around the church.  Grace’s problem is that her crush has turned serious, and while Daniel seems to feel the same way, Jude keeps insisting that she and her dad are  being manipulated by Daniel.  Add to this the fact that animals and people have begun to disappear and turn up looking like they’ve been attacked by dogs.

What I especially liked about this book was that although it had romance, there was a huge mystery that ends with a stupendous reveal in the last chapter.  This is perfect “escape” reading!!!

Incarceron

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

Incarceron is a huge prison, underground perhaps, built years ago by scientists as a Utopian place to send all criminals and malcontents, a safe place away from the rest of civilization.  Unfortunately, Incarceron has never been a decent place for its inhabitants -  generations of prisoners have struggled daily just to survive to horrific conditions. Seventeen-year-old Finn lives in the prison, and even though it’s common knowledge that no one ever enters or leaves Incarceron, he has this eerie feeling he was born on the outside.  In contrast, Claudia is the beautiful but arrogant daughter of the prison warden who lives in the outside world.  She is being forced to marry Prince Caspar who is not very bright, but she will eventually end up as Queen of the Realm.  Too bad for her that she can’t stand the sight of him!  As different as their situations are, Finn and Claudia’s lives intersect in strange ways when they both discover a crystal key that lets them communicate with each other.

Although this story took me awhile to get involved in, it was totally interesting and fun once I got into it.  The two parts of the world Fisher creates are extremely different, and both fascinating.  In addition to the dark and depressing atmosphere of Incarceron, the world Outside is stuck in nineteen century, ruled by the Protocol devised to protect its citizens from science gone mad.

I recommend this book to fantasy and science fiction fans, in addition to any reader who enjoys fast-paced adventures.  By the way, the sequel to this title is due out next December.

Here’s a book trailer you can see from home:

(created by Inshort1952 on YouTube)

If I Stay

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

The last thing Mia remembers after the fatal car crash is hearing  a Beethoven sonata continue to play through the old Buick’s radio, even though the car looks completely crushed.  She slowly realizes that while it feels like she’s walking around the scene of the accident, her body is actually lying in a ditch, bloodied and limp.  She quickly realizes her parents are dead, and sees the paramedics attending her little brother, Teddy.

The book details seventeen-year-old Mia’s  next twenty-four hours, as she decides if she wants to continue living, without the love and comfort of her family.  In a coma, she watches the doctors and nurses tend to her, and comes to realize that it’s up to her to decide “if I stay.”  The most important parts of her life are told in her own thoughts and flashbacks: her gifted cello playing and audition for the renowned  Juilliard School, her close-knit family which she actually enjoys spending time with, her rocker boyfriend Adam who she’d have to leave behind in Oregon if she goes to Juilliard,  and her longtime best friend Kim who begs her to hang on.  ”Please don’t die. If you die, there’s going to be one of those cheesy Princess Diana memorials at school… I know you’d hate that kind of thing.”

I have to admit that I cried A LOT while reading this book.  It touched me so much that she was so loved and faced such hard decisions as a teenager.  Be sure to have a box of tissues handy–you’ll need them.  This book will surely make my top 10 list for this year!

City of Bones

City of  Bones by Cassandra Clare

Clary never suspected she was anyone special, just a normal fifteen year old living with her artist mother in Brooklyn.  When she witnesses a murder in a local nightclub, her simple life is gone forever, leaving her more questions about herself than answers.

What she knows:

The murders she saw in the nightclub were teenagers like her, but covered with strange tatoos and markings.

No one else, even her best friend Simon, can see these three exotic looking people.

The victim disappears immediately after his murder.

She quickly discovers that Alec, Isabelle and Jace are Shadowhunters, a race of paranormal warriors whose job it is to keep Earth free of demons and safe for humans, or mundanes as they call the rest of us.  When a demon attacks Clary at her house and her mother disappears, these three seem to be the only ones who can help her, even though they sometimes get on her last nerves.  Jace, with his angelic good looks, is arrogant and loves to pick a good fight.  Isabelle sometimes seems more concerned with how she looks than taking care of business.  And her brother Alec acts like he resents Clary, and has  secrets of his own that he’s hiding.

I loved this fast-paced story!  It moves from one plot twist to another, and kept me up late at night to finish the story.  Much to my dissapointment, it was the first in a series, but we own all three books so once I got over myself, I quickly grabbed the next installment.  I’ve read the first three and was not let down at all.  The fourth and last book, City of Fallen Angels, comes out in March of 2011.  But don’t worry, if you can’t get enough of the shadowhunters, Clare has a prequel series coming out in the fall.  The first one is called The Clockwork Angel and will be out Sept. 7.

Here’s a link to her website if you want more info.