Retro Friday: The Angels Trilogy

Angie, over at Angieville, does something really fun called Retro-Friday. I think it's a really great idea and a really neat way to relive some books that aren't just published but deserve a little recognition. I asked, and Angie said it was fine if I took her idea. So here goes the first Retro Friday! Button courtesy of Angie.


The Angels Triology by Lurlene McDaniel

(Amazon) (Author Website)

Compiles indivisual titles:
Angels Watching Over Me
Lifted Up By Angels
Until Angels Close My Eyes

Leah is not happy about being stuck in the hospital for the holidays while her mother is thousands of miles away on a honeymoon with husband number five. Until she meets her hospital roommate, Rebekah, and her big family. Cynical 16-year-old Leah has never known people like this before. From Rebekah’s handsome brother, Ethan, who can barely look Leah in the eye, to her kind older sister, Charity, the Amish family captivates Leah with its simple, loving ways. When Leah receives frightening information about her condition, her new friends show her that miracles can happen. And that sometimes angels appear in the most unexpected places.

This trilogy was one that I loved way back in high school when they were originally released sometime in the 90's. One day a few years ago I found the compilation and had to buy it, and re-read it. I loved the love story between Leah and Ethan. Somehow McDaniel found a way to write two characters so in love, and yet so far apart from each other that I am still invested in them to this day. The way that Leah would describe Ethan as smelling like cinnamon, and how she grew to love both his sisters Charity and Rebekah. The whole family dynamic between all of them really made you want Leah and Ethan to have a happily ever after.

McDaniel's books really struck a chord with me when I was a teenager. (Man, that makes me old. Snicker.) I guess I always loved to read the sometimes sadder love stories along with all those horror novels. You know to balance the scales a bit between the two. Once I really think about it Lurlene McDaniel is like the Nicolas Sparks of the teen girl crowds. Strange, sometimes tragic love stories that make you want to cry. When I was reading the Angels Trilogy it was as each book came out so each year I had something to look forward to, and out of all McDaniel's books that I read (And I read a LOT.) this book is the one that sticks with me the most.

I'm not gonna say whether Leah and Ethan did get their happily ever after either. You'll have to read the novels to learn that. But if you want to dip your toe into this book then check out a limited preview on Google books. Which is what I do for a lot of books. Especially when I have a hard time finding a book in a library or book store.

Prada and Prejudice

Prada and Prejudice By Mandy Hubbard

(Amazon) (Author Page)

Callie finds herself on a class trip to London alone and feeling ostracized by her fellow classmates. One night Callie overhears classmates of hers, the popular girls, plan to sneak into a nightclub. Callie decides that she must be one of those girls, and decides that she needs real Prada heels to do so. After spending more then a small fortune on Prada heels and clothes Callie leaves the Prada store feeling empowered. Until she falls head over heels and cracks her head on the pavement.

Callie wakes up in 1815 London, lost, bewildered, and out of her element. She happens across a duke's house, becomes mistaken for a girl named Rebecca, and finds herself a fake guest in their house. Now Callie must not only try to find her way back, but not out herself as a girl from the 21st century.

This book is not a book that should be taken seriously. If I sat here and wrote all the time travel problems this book has I'd kill the book. If I thought about it too much I'd have nit-picked the book to death. This is both good and bad, and for me I enjoyed the book enough to let my nit-picks go. I believe that everyone will like or hate the book because of this though. So I will understand if people will pick out problems with this book and dislike it.

This book is more a long the lines of a fluffy teen read. If you liked books like The Princess Diaries or just in general a romance teen read you will like this book. When Callie starts off hating Alex, the Duke, you know what that hatred really means. While so much of this book predictable, and questionable it is still a good book. It is still a lot of fun to read, and that is why I was willing to over look some things.

I found that Callie was very relate-able. She was a real, normal teenaged girl who cares about what she looks like, and what other people think of her. She cares about other people and she finds her own voice when it comes to defending what she thinks is right. I found Mandy Hubbard's writing fun and light, and I can definitely see this book become a favorite for teenaged girls. I can't compare it to Pride and Prejudice, however, since I've never read it. Still you don't have to be a Jane Austin fan to enjoy this book.

If you like romance, and you like historical settings then this book is for you.

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Amazon Page-Author Page

Katsa was born with a special ability and is known as a Graceling. Others in Katsa's world have Graces that are different for each person, and each Grace is defined as a superhuman ability to do a task- swimming, fighting, archery, and mind-reading to name a few. Katsa's Grace is deadly. When she was just a child she killed a man quickly, and without truly meaning to do it. Her uncle, King Randa, decided then to allow Katsa to hone her Grace, and then tasked her with the duty to bully or kill anyone that defied his authority.

Katsa's life continues this way until she meets Prince Po who is searching for his kidnapped grandfather. Katsa befriends Po because she able to fight him, and he is able to stand up to her beatings. Their relationship quickly turns into friendship. Po gives Katsa the ability to look at her Grace, and herself in ways she could never have imagined before.

I can't really summarize this story anymore without giving away too many plot points.

Cashore is a wonderful world-builder. She has a way of creating such vivid and wonderful history and scenery that the reader will be submersed in the novel completely. Katsa, although stubbron and angry, is easily relateable as a character and main voice of this novel. Katsa is used to being defined by her ability as a bully for her uncle King. She may find ways to work outside her uncle's notice, but she still feels defined by what he asks her to do. Her world view is thoroughly challenged by Po who is Graced as well. The progression of the novel shows a great progression of Katsa not only in her life, but how she perceives herself as well.

Although there were a couple predictable story lines in Graceling none of them felt forced. Instead they progressed naturally, and comfortably. Cashore took her time to allow events and changes to happen in a way that mimicked life. In this way Cashore has shown a real ability to allow natural growth occur in her novels without losing her readers. Although I felt that this method of story telling did cause the novel to drag at times over all the effect causes the readers to really know and understand the characters. Graceling is a perfect example of a character driven story that really succeeds.

The only real problems I saw with Graceling, beyond the points where the novel dragged, was the closeness that Katsa and Fire had to each other. (For more about Fire read my review on that book.) Like Fire, Katsa refuses marriage or children although the purposes of this are not fully fleshed out. Fire refuses children or marriage because she wants her monster genes to die off with her. Katsa simply refuses marriage or children because she wants to be completely independent. She doesn't want to have to report herself to anyone but herself. Her motives for choosing a marriage-less and child-less life are completely selfish and not to keep her future children from becoming Gracelings. There are no genetic co-relations between Graced people having only Graced children. Quite the contrary, non-Graced people have Graced children. It isn't quite explained how or why Gracelings are born, but this simply strikes me as odd. One would think that eventually this selfish motivation would change, but it does not.

Like Fire, Katsa is constantly the center of attention because of her differently colored eyes, and is constantly and easily recognized. However I truly wonder how easy it would be to really notice that a person has differently colored eyes. Whenever I see someone with heterochromia it takes me a while to actually catch it. And, if Gracelings are so abundant, why would anyone really take notice of her immediately. Variations in eye color for Katsa, one green eye and one blue eye, aren't as fantastic as Po's, one gold eye and one silver eye. Yes, she is famous as her Uncle King's henchmen, but I had to wonder how people could really distinguish her so easily when all her fame was word of mouth.

Over all though Graceling is a book that deserves it's popularity. Cashore is such a talented writer and story teller I can't wait to see her third book, Bitterblue, which she is currently writing. If it is anything like Fire or Graceling I'm sure readers will be in for a treat.

Edit: Read an amendment to this review posted 01/19/10.

Bestseller Readers Habits

From Macro.org:

A lot of the people who read a bestselling novel, for example, do not read much other fiction. By contrast, the audience for an obscure novel is largely composed of people who read a lot. That means the least popular books are judged by people who have the highest standards, while the most popular are judged by people who literally do not know any better. An American who read just one book this year was disproportionately likely to have read ‘The Lost Symbol’, by Dan Brown. He almost certainly liked it.

— The Economist (via mudd up, peterwknox)

What is very true of published authors is this: Not all published books are good, and not all good books are highly recognized. If the person that backs you up is highly recognizable and has tremendous pull then your books will most likely hit high in ratings. This review pretty much sums up how I felt about the bestseller Wings by Aprilynne Pike. Although I don't have an MFA and I did not go into the book deciding to despise it. I went into reading the book hoping to love it. When authors recommend books, and if these are authors I like, I'll more then likely want to read their recommendations.

First off Wings is not YA. Wings more then hits the Middle Grade much better. The way the story is written, the morals implicated, the whole way that the trolls were handled as cookie cutter villains made me think over and over again "After School Special". Just because Laurel is in high school, and, I'm guessing, once Stephenie Meyer was willing to give a blurb, the publishers knew they could push this book into YA territory. Because of Twilight the publishers knew that this book would appeal to teens. Thankfully I wasn't on the 2008 Cybils panel because I would have pushed for the book to be moved to MG because that is how strongly I feel that this book is being marketed to the wrong group of readers. Still, like I said, Stephenie Meyer gave the book a blurb so in marketing that equals YA.

This book was so heavily publicized that in it's first week in print it hit the bestseller list. The bestseller list doesn't mean that the book is just that great. The bestseller list just means that it sold the most copies. I wonder how this book would have done if it hadn't received the kind of publicity it did. I wonder just how much people would have liked this book if Stephenie Meyer hadn't been the one endorsing it. This is also true for bestsellers, because people like to know what to do. Librarians love knowing what will possibly appeal to their readers, and as much as we'd love to we can't read all the books.

But be aware guys, lists are just a starting point. Avid readers are avid because they want to gobble up books, and the only way to find books that you might like is to do a little research on what is out there in your range of interest. Every fantasy book out there is being compared to Twilight because that is what is selling! Book sellers want to sell books, and marketing a book plays heavily into how appealing a book may be.

I'm not trying to disparage Aprilynne Pike. If my hypothetical debut book sold this well I would be just as thrilled and happy as she is, because everyone wants to make a living off their writing. Everyone. I'm happy that she hit the market running. Let's just hope that she continues to find this kind of appeal in her next three books in this series.

Fire by Kristin Cashore

Fire by Kristin Cashore

Author Webpage

Amazon Page

Fire is a prequel to Cashore's debut novel Graceling. You don't need to have read Graceling to understand this novel.

Fire was born beautiful and marvelous. Her fire red hair and exceptional beauty make her not only something to be admired but also a target. She is a monster by nature born to a monster father who almost single-handedly destroyed the kingdom of the Dells, and that kingdom is now being ruled by the previous king's son, Nash.

King Nash is doing his best to keep his kingdom from falling apart, and is trying to repair what his father and Fire's father did to almost destroy it. There is an impending war that could either dethrone King Nash or bring the kingdom together. King Nash seeks out Fire for her ability to read people's minds, and to have her as an ally in his quest to unite his kingdom. Fire must not only work towards understanding herself and her abilities, but also decide on how these abilities will be used or not used.

As said before I'd never read Graceling before reading Fire. With so much fantasy being set in modern times lately it is a breath of fresh air to read a book set in a more traditional fantasy setting. Fire is a fragile women who feels the scars of her father's past are her own to bear. Fire is, at first, someone who only wishes to be normal. She hides from her beauty and from her mind reading abilities. She is ashamed of them because of how her father used to and taught Fire how to use them. To Fire's father their exceptional beauty made humans their play things not their equals. To her father they are the superior beings, and should use their powers to their greatest advantage.

Fire is different. Fire wishes only to be seen as someone beyond her exceptional abilities. When King Nash asks Fire to use these abilities to his advantage Fire must decide for herself if using her abilities in this way is immoral. Cashore is an exceptional writer with an ability to make her readers think about the consequences behind Fire's actions as well as the actions that others ask of her. Fire also encompasses questions of gender, violence, family, friendship and race that all of the characters must face and react to individually giving Fire a highly engrossing cast of characters as diverse and intriguing as the main character.

Cashore delivers an amazingly realistic fantasy world. Her writing is understated and beautiful which can only lend to it's readability for its readers. Fire is at a mature teen reader level as it deals adult situations. The book will definitely rate high on any fantasy lovers list. Fire has also been nominated as a CYBILS finalist for 2009.