Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce

Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce
(Author Page) (Sisters Red Series)

Scarlett March lives to hunt the Fenris-- the werewolves that took her eye when she was defending her sister Rosie from a brutal attack. Armed with a razor-sharp hatchet and blood-red cloak, Scarlett is an expert at luring and slaying the wolves. She's determined to protect other young girls from a grisly death, and her raging heart will not rest until every single wolf is dead.

Rosie March once felt her bond with her sister was unbreakable. Owing Scarlett her life, Rosie hunts fiercely alongside her. Now Rosie dreams of a life beyond the wolves and finds herself drawn to Silas, a young woodsman who is deadly with an ax-- but loving him means betraying her sister and has the potential to destroy all they've worked for.

Sisters Red was a book I didn't want to finish reading, which is really good! I didn't want it to end and I wanted to spend some more time with Silas, Scarlett, and Rosie. I enjoyed Jackson's storytelling, and the world that she created for her retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. She implemented a lot of the fairy tale while also making the story original and hers. Where there was myth she found the ability to modernize the story without straight out retelling it, and simply expanding on the original story.

Scarlett and Rosie are both sisters who witnessed their grandmother dying at the hands of a Fenri, and as a result Scarlett is left scarred and changed. She vows to hunt the Fenri with every last breath in her body, and Rosie follows her sisters passion. Now both girls are teenagers fighting and killing the Fenri with the hope that with each Fenri they manage to destroy one more girl won't die. The only real difference between Scarlett and Rosie is that while both are hunters, Rosie feels the need to walk away from the hunt, if only for a couple of hours, to be part of the normal human crowd, and longs to find love.

When the Fenris begin to hunt for the Potential, a human male that can be turned into a Fenri, Scarlett, Rosie and their friend and woodsmen Silas decide to move to Atlanta to hunt the Fenri. Many packs are appearing to search, and where there are many Fenri there are also deaths. The Fenri hunt and eat humans. In particular, human females of the beautiful and young variety.  Where Rosie is noticing how very handsome Silas is Scarlett is obsessed with the need to hunt.

On the surface Sisters Red is a fairy tale retold, but it is also a tale of love. Scarlett's love for her sister is unending. The spark of romance that Rosie feels for her long-time friend Silas is sweet. Over all the story was really sweet when love was the focus, and passionately fierce when the three fight the Fenri. They are united in the common cause of killing the wolves and keeping the Dragonflies blissfully unaware, but it is also this knowledge and cause that could threaten their relationship.

If you haven't read this book I'm about to talk about a couple spoiler-y parts. You may want to just stop reading here, and skip to the end. Highlight the text to read what I have to say.

I wasn't completely thrilled with Sisters Red only in that I found parts of it expected. I figured out who the Potential was halfway through, and was just waiting for the main characters to figure it out too. I don't know if it's just because I'm an older reader or if it was because of the storytelling, but when I heard the wolf say; "We've got what we need." Who the Potential was clicked in my head, and I'd hoped that the same was true for the girls. Reading a little further I could see exactly why the main characters wouldn't have immediately suspected, but when it turned out I was right...well I just wish I hadn't. Again it's a tricky area that I don't like or dislike, but it was predictable.

I was sad for Scarlett who chose to live for the hunt rather then for herself. Or perhaps the hunt really was for herself? Anyway I really felt hat Scarlett only saw her scars, and those scars seemed to define her in a negative way. She seemed to feel like those scars were all she had, and I was sad for her. I wanted her to find love and happiness and learn to accept her scars. She must be beautiful if she can lead in Fenri and be the bait. Why Scarlett couldn't allow herself to find and fall in love was beyond me. I was happy for Rosie who found her love, and I could completely understand her needing to live in that love rather than pain. Perhaps there will be a point in the series where this will be resolved? Hum.

Over all though this book was a fun read. I enjoyed the fight scenes and how well both girls took to defending themselves. I loved the romance, and the sisters. If they made me feel the need to hate or love them I think Jackson has done her job beautifully. I put the book down several times, but this was because I didn't want to finish it. I didn't want to stop being in Rosie and Scarlett's world, and that is awesome.

I can't wait for the next companion books in this series, Sweetly and Fathomless. Both are retellings, but if they are anything like Sisters Red I'm sure we'll be in for a marvelous surprise.

eta: Read Jackson Pearce's guest post on  Book Chick City.

My Fake Boyfriend is Better Than Yours

My Fake Boyfriend is Better Than Yours by Kristina Springer

(Author) (Amazon)

This ARC was received as a part of Around the World Tours.
My Fake Boyfriend will be out August 1, 2010!

Seventh grade was supposed to be fun, but Tori is having major drama with her BFF, Sienna. Sienna changed a lot over the summer—on the first day of school she’s tan, confident, and full of stories about her new dreamy boyfriend. Tori knows that she’s totally making this guy up. So Tori invents her own fake boyfriend, who is better than Sienna’s in every way. Things are going great—unless you count the whole lying-to-your-best-friend thing—until everyone insists Tori and Sienna bring their boyfriends to the back-to-school dance.

Would you look at that! My first Middle Grade fiction, AND it's funny! The story begins with Tori getting ready for her first day of school. For the the very first time since kinder Tori is getting ready alone. In fact for months Tori hasn't heard from or received an email from her best friend Sienna, because Sea was away on a family vacation. The start of the school year just isn't the same without Sienna, and Tori feels a bit lost. Until she realizes that the reason she hasn't heard from Sienna is because she has a new tan and a new boyfriend. A boyfriend Sienna is pretty sure is fake!

What is a girl to do? Make up her own fake boyfriend who is better in every way then her best friends fake boyfriend.

Oh, middle school (and high school for that matter!) how interesting fights and competitions can become between the best of friends. I remember quite vividly the big blow-outs that I had with my own friends. My father called it a Love/Hate relationship, and as an older reader this book really reminded me about that time in my life. For younger readers this book may come at a time where fights have a occurred and it seems like they will never be friends again. Or they will have not yet experienced what a big fight between friends can be. Either way this book can really resonate with tween girls feeling their way through tween social dynamics while making you laugh at all the ways Tori and Sienna find to one-up each others fake boyfriends. When Sienna and Tori are asked to bring their boyfriends to the school dance both girls have to scramble to cover up their lies.

This was a funny, quick read definitely suitable for pre-teens who love to laugh. Or, you know, adults.

Retro Friday: Rats of NIMH

Retro Friday is a weekly meme hosted here at Angieville and focuses on reviewing books from the past. This can be an old favorite, an under-the-radar book you think deserves more attention, something woefully out of print, etc. Everyone is welcome to join in at any time! I include roundups from participating bloggers in my post every week. - From Angieville

There's something very strange about the rats living under the rosebush at the Fitzgibbon farm. But Mrs. Frisby, a widowed mouse with a sick child, is in dire straits and must turn to these exceptional creatures for assistance. Soon she finds herself flying on the back of a crow, slipping sleeping powder into a ferocious cat's dinner dish, and helping 108 brilliant, laboratory-enhanced rats escape to a utopian civilization of their own design, no longer to live "on the edge of somebody else's, like fleas on a dog's back."

This unusual novel, winner of the Newbery Medal (among a host of other accolades) snags the reader on page one and reels in steadily all the way through to the exhilarating conclusion. Robert O'Brien has created a small but complete world in which a mother's concern for her son overpowers her fear of all her natural enemies and allows her to make some extraordinary discoveries along the way. O'Brien's incredible tale, along with Zena Bernstein's appealing ink drawings, ensures that readers will never again look at alley rats and field mice in the same way. Synopsis from GoodReads.

I have to admit that I was a huge fan (and still am!) of the 1982 movie based on this children's novel, The Secret of NIMH which played up a magical element of the story not seen in the original novel. I didn't even know it was a book until I was around 10 or 12, and found it among some old novels left in my older cousins room. I loved this story, and I loved Mrs. Frisby who if you didn't notice, is an adult protagonist in a children's fiction. Yet, I love that Mrs. Frisby worries about her children, and talks about her husband whose intelligence she mentions was passed on her children.

When the farmer's plow threatens the safety of her sick son, Timothy, Mrs. Frisby turns to her husbands friend, Mr. Ages, for help. She is told to visit the Great Owl for advice, and does so despite danger to her life for her son. (She is a field mouse after all!) Mrs. Frisby may not have a genetically altered ability to learn, like Justin or Mr. Ages, but she's a smart and fearless character despite her timid nature. I'm not sure if I love this book because I loved the movie so much or not. I just don't have that kind of perspective on the book away from the movie. I watched it so many times I'm pretty stuck on it, but this is definitely one of those books I want to read to my children one day and pass it on.

Despite it's fantasy elements in the movie, and the fact that there are talking mice and rats, this really is more of a science fiction book.

A Season of Eden by J. M. Warwick

A Season of Eden by J. M. Warwick

(Author Page) (Amazon)

Book received from Around the World Tours

He's my teacher. I shouldn't be alone with him. But I can't help that he's irresistible. I let the door silently close at my back. He stared at me, and a taut quiet stretched between us.

"I like hearing you play," I said, moving toward him. He turned, in sync with my slow approach. He looked up at me but didn't say anything. I rested my clammy hand on the cold, slick body of the baby grand.

"May I?" The muscles in his throat shifted, then he swallowed.

"Eden." My knees weakened, like a soft tickling kiss had just been blown
against the backs of them.

"Is it okay?" I asked. His gaze held mine like two hands joined. He
understood what I was really asking.

"Let me stay," I said. "Please."

"You're going to get me in trouble," he said.

This book has a topic that is a little hard for me to like. Romantic teacher-student relationships are simply wrong in my book no matter what the age. These are my personal feelings about them.

What makes Eden and her teacher, Mr. Christian, so different from teacher-student relationship portrayed in books like Prey and Boy Toy is that Eden is 18 and Mr. Christian (James) is 22. The relationship is skirting a fine line between what is appropriate and what isn't. For me, it is inappropriate for any teacher to have a relationship with his or her students. Even university professors are, in most cases, not allowed to have a relationship with their students even if they are legally adults. I don't think that Warwick is trying to say that Eden and Mr. Christian's relationship is any better or less sketchy, but I do feel that Warwick has found a new way to write about this kind of relationship.

Eden is teenager who lost her mother years ago, and who watched her father jump into a new marriage just months later. Now, Eden feels forgotten by her father, and hates being around her stepmother. She listens to them fighting and you can tell how badly she wants to escape her home life. Perhaps it's this family life that causes Eden to fall for an inappropriate man, and quickly leave her high school boyfriend without much of a thought. Or perhaps it's the fact that Mr. Christian is only four years older then Eden that they try to convince each other they aren't doing anything wrong. Whatever their insecurities are with this relationship they both can't seem to stop each other from doing it.

This was a well-written, lyrical book. The romance between Eden and Mr. Christian is so tantalizing it's hard not to want things to work out for them. You can really see how Eden falls for Mr. Christian and how he reluctantly falls for her. More of this book is played towards how this relationship helps Eden grow as a person rather then the fact that his is her teacher. Whatever your own feelings are on student-teacher relationships I urge you to give this book a try. I really believe it will have readers talking, and as a comparative piece to YA books like Boy Toy and Prey it has the potential to really spark a discussion. This book was first released in 2008, and is available in paperback.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer

Available in full online at BreeTanner.com

In order to read this book and have it make sense you have to have read Twilight at least up to Eclipse. If you're like me and you read Eclipse once oh so long ago that you can't remember who Bree was I'll remind you.

Bree shows up at the end of Eclipse, and has surrendered to the Cullens. She says she doesn't feel the need to fight, and since she is not motivated the Cullens grant her shaky reprieve from dying a second time. Once the Volturi arrive, however, they take Bree and kill her, permanently.

The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner tells of Bree's experiences before the final confrontation between the newborns and the Cullens, and gives an insiders look into what happened in Seattle while the Cullens were preparing for the fight.

Over all it was intriguing to read a perspective in Twilight that wasn't fawning over another character. Bree does feel a kinship and even a spark of a romance with her fellow newborn Diego. She even grows to love him even though she never says so. The tale of newborn Bree, who hungers for human blood and believes that the sun will kill her, is a refreshing take on being a vampire. Although Bree doesn't love being a vampire the abilities and strength that the newborns display are amazing. The effect that this power has on them is human. While Bree will stand back and keep out of the many fights and power plays that run rampant in the Seattle coven she witnesses on a daily basis just how precarious their immortality really is. She fights for her survival, and is clever in so many ways outside her survival.

It was good to see consequences for their behavior, but I felt bad for Bree. Knowing her fate and getting to know her as a character make you want her to live even though you know she won't. She would of been a great character to get to know more of. She was realistic, unsheltered, and smart. She was many things I wanted in a main character, but she wasn't a flawless character. I think she took a little too long contemplating things and was not catching on quick enough for me. There were times when I wanted to her figure certain things out quicker then she was, but hey that was just me.

Like others I was annoyed at the lack of chapter breaks. I didn't sit down and read the whole book in one sitting, and not having chapters breaks was annoying. The book was a pretty decent length as well. It wasn't too long that you got bored, and it wasn't so short that you wanted or need more. It was a really good balance, and easy to read. I know Twilhards will love this book, and if you are like me and are annoyed by Bella's Mary Sue you will be pleased to read a book were consequences exist. And, a little sad at getting what you want.

Personally I'd love to read something new from Stephenie that isn't vampire related. The Host was pretty good, and I heard long ago there was going to be a second book. But something entirely new would be great to. I know I complain about Bella, but honestly I do enjoy reading Stephenie's books. If I didn't I wouldn't keep picking them up.

Faithful by Janet Fox

Faithful by Janet Fox
(Author Page) (Amazon)
This ARC was received from Around the World Tours.

Sixteen-year-old Maggie Bennet’s life is in tatters. Her mother has disappeared, and is presumed dead. The next thing she knows, her father has dragged Maggie away from their elegant Newport home, off on some mad excursion to Yellowstone in Montana. Torn from the only life she’s ever known, away from her friends, from society, and verging on no prospects, Maggie is furious and devastated by her father’s betrayal. But when she arrives, she finds herself drawn to the frustratingly stubborn, handsome Tom Rowland, the son of a park geologist, and to the wild romantic beauty of Yellowstone itself. And as Tom and the promise of freedom capture Maggie’s heart, Maggie is forced to choose between who she is and who she wants to be.

I, like everyone else apparently, didn't realize this was a Historical novel. Because that summary in the back is a little misleading in not telling you the book is set in the early 1900s. I really enjoy Historical novels, and especially turn-of-the-century novels set in some place beautiful like Yellowstone National Park. I found all this intriguing and lovely, having never been to Yellowstone myself. I also found Maggie's dilemma entirely understandable. To her, the rest of her life hinges on her debut into proper society and finding a husband. Her mother has always been so eccentric and off that her place in society is already dangling by a thread.

When her father receives letters from Maggie's Uncle John he rushes Maggie off to find his missing wife, whom many have presumed dead. Maggie is a captor of society rules and her very gender. She must do what her father says, and when he betrays her trust in him it is heartbreaking. I can't imagine someone, especially my own father, being so blithe about my feelings. I can understand Maggie's situation, and I found Fox's writing to be so beautiful and moving that I was immediately sucked into that time period. I truly enjoy that aspect of this novel.

However...

I have to say that this book could of used a lot less flashbacks. Seriously, authors, if you're going to spend the first 40-50 pages of a book in flashbacks telling the history behind the story I will really, really dislike your book. I don't care how well written or how beautiful your main characters voice is you will loose me as a reader very, very quickly. I will put down your book and not feel badly about it. I was so very close to doing that with this novel. I got tired of those flashbacks so fast that every time one popped up I could only think, "Oh man another flashback?"

Overall though, this was a beautiful book in many other ways. It's out now in paperback.