Sixteen: Stories About That Sweet and Bitter Birthday edited by Megan McCafferty

From the Wayback Machine's crawl of Megan McCafferty's website: "Remember what it was like to be sixteen? Whether it was the year your teeth were finally free of braces or you were discovered by the opposite sex, that magical, mystical age is something you will never forget. Edited by Megan McCafferty, author of the runaway hit novels sloppy firsts and second helpings, SIXTEEN: Stories About That Sweet and Bitter Birthday is a compilation of short stories inspired by all the angst, melodrama, and wonderment of being sixteen.


Sarah Dessen's "Infinity" is about a girl confronting two major milestones: getting her driver's license and losing her virginity. The Dead Girls in Jacqueline Woodson's "Nebraska 99" have already done it and now must cope with being teenage mothers. And Carolyn Mackler's, "Mona Lisa, Jesus, Chad and Me" explores whether friendship can survive when prayer and partying clash. Also included is a new Jessica Darling story by Megan McCafferty about the last fifteen minutes Jessica spends--or rather, doesn't spend--with her best friend, Hope, who is leaving Pineville.


Also featuring stories by Steve Almond, M.T. Anderson, Julianna Baggott, Cat Bauer, Emma Forrest, Tanuja Desai Hidier, David Levithan, Sarah Mlynowski, Sonya Sones, Zoe Trope, Ned Vizzini and Joseph Weisberg, these hilarious, poignant and touching tales are perfect both for those who have yet to reach that milestone and those who want to reminisce about their "sweetest" year."

I spotted this sweet little polka-dotted book at the used bookstore the other day.  I noted the title, the editor (she wrote my beloved books Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings), and the copy included the words "hilarious and poignant".  What a lie.  If this book were more honest it would be "Well-written stories that will make you sad for the rest of the night and you'll lie on your bed and weep and despair through several of them."

Some of the stories, including Sarah Dessen's and Megan McCafferty's are actually quite good (and helped pulled the average of this book up from a 2).  They ring reminiscent of my sixteenth year when everything was overly melodramatic and you spent a great deal of time thinking about driving, sex, school, and friendships.  Others, like Sonya Sones's free verse story and Hidier's story of an Indian girl who falls in love with her best friend are interesting and contain both sad and happy elements.  They ring true to life for people in difficult or odd situations while containing an element of hope or love.  And, frankly, Sarah Mlynowski's "The Perfect Kiss" made me cheer for the heroine.

But, you'll notice I just listed fix stories I liked out of sixteen.  The other eleven just made me want to curl up and give up.  Woodson's story "Nebraska 99", in particular, left me feeling hopeless and out of sorts and miserable.  This does speak to the power of the writing, but it doesn't particularly leave me wanting more.

Again, I can't give this book too low a score.  It contains many well-written stories.  It contains several stories that I loved.  It dealt very well with a range of teens by including different characters of different ethnicity, genders, and sexuality.  But, and this is a big but, I just couldn't enjoy the book.  It was like kale.  I know I'm supposed to like kale because it is some kind of super food that is good for me and I admire it in principle, but I hate to actually eat it.  I know this book is good, but I hate to read it.

Verdict:  4.  I'm unspeakably depressed after having finished this collection.  Everything sucks at sixteen, everything.  I know I enjoyed that year, but clearly no one else on Earth did.

Thoughts:  The ratio of depressing to empowering was way too high for a book about sixteenth birthdays.  Seriously, the story about the girls who were pregnant teenagers made me want to lay down and weep.  Powerful, but not my cup of tea when I expect "hilarious, poignant, and touching tales".

Jenna and Jonah's Fauxmance by Brendan Halpin and Emily Franklin

From Amazon's website:  "Fans of romance don't need to look any further than the fauxmance brewing between teen idols Charlie Tracker and Fielding Withers-known on their hit TV show as Jenna and Jonah, next-door neighbors flush with the excitement of first love. But it's their off-screen relationship that has helped cement their fame, as passionate fans follow their every PDA. They grace the covers of magazines week after week. Their fan club has chapters all over the country. The only problem is their off-screen romance is one big publicity stunt, and Charlie and Fielding can't stand to be in the same room. Still, it's a great gig, so even when the cameras stop rolling, the show must go on, and on, and on. . . . Until the pesky paparazzi blow their cover, and Charlie and Fielding must disappear to weather the media storm. It's not until they're far off the grid of the Hollywood circuit that they realize that there's more to each of them than shiny hair and a winning smile."

Honestly, I've spent the last hour or so looking for an author's site that has a description of this book and trying to choose between a rating of a five or a six.  As you can probably see, I've settled on a six for now, but I'm still not sure.

One of the problems about books that are written from two points of view (like Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist or Jenna and Jonah's Fauxmance) is that I normally end up liking one character more, sympathizing with them more, and rooting for one character over another.  In this book, Jenna (or Charlie) is the definite winner to me.  Shallow, petty, ambitious, slightly vapid, she still comes across as an individual who's actively trying to find out what she's good at.  She's not content to sit idly watching life go by her.  She's grasping sadly at everything around her, trying to make herself a better or more successful actor.  Fielding (or Aaron, and let me just suggest to you that you don't throw a name change on a character who already has the feel of having two names), on the other hand, seemed to feel that his life plan would fall in his lap, and it annoyed me to no end.  Fielding seems to want to act only because other people around him keep telling him to do so but he takes no initiative to stop acting besides not correcting a rumor and lie being spread about him.

While I enjoyed several sections of the book on their own, I felt the moves in setting were a little strange and did not go smoothly for my reading.  I think the whole thing could have benefited greatly from a little more time on their original show as Jenna and Jonah and perhaps further in their fake relationship, but that is barely touched upon before the move is made to their isolation.  Just as quickly, it's moved again away from that and fully half the book takes place in a setting not even mentioned in any copy I found.  Was that a twist, or just poor copy?

Either way, I think more time spent in their fake relationship would have helped to establish a greater enmity between the two.  We're tossed one or two "I hate this other person" lines but always with an addendum of "but they're really hot" or "but I really liked them once upon a time" or "but I think we could have been something more" which doesn't make them seem like they dislike each other at all.  I think an exploration of their staged relationship would have worked better, because it would have allowed them to really give the reader a feel for the dislike they feel while highlighting the very interesting fact that the authors did bring to it -- the fact that two people who've been in a fake relationship and worked sixteen hour days together for years on end would know each other like no one else has ever known them.

So, since I'm complaining so much in this review, what did I like about Jenna and Jonah's Fauxmance?  As I mentioned, Charlie's attempts to find acting skills, fame, and her own identity make her a doer.  I almost always love doers in books.  People who do shit, whether good or bad, entertain.  I don't read books to meet good and kindly characters.  I read to be entertained.  I loved the brief mentions of scenes from their television show or their contract morality clauses, such as what flavors of ice cream Charlie can be seen consuming in public.  While the forced comparison Much Ado About Nothing bothered, the examination of a Shakespeare troupe's reaction to Disneyesque actors is pretty darned hilarious. 

Perhaps I'm just too old to enjoy this novel (which read as really young 'young adult') and the wrong target audience even outside the age issue.  I never cared about celebrities so much. This novel is much like Twizzlers to me.  It's candy that I like while I'm eating, but which I'll ultimately wonder why I ate when there is so much better candy out there.

Verdict:  6.  I would give Charlie's (Jenna's) sections a 7 generally,  and Fielding's (Jonah's) a 5.  Split the difference?

Thoughts:  What is up with my run of books recently that have no authors that want to pimp the books on their websites?  I'm pulling more than a few book descriptions from Amazon.  Yuck.

Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

From the author's website: "Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy. 

Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place—and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side. 

As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make—between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny? 

Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart."

How's this for an admission?  I went into this novel expecting the worst.  I have had no luck with the big name young adult angel novels, and this one had gotten so little press and reviews on my favorite blogs that I just assumed it was kind of not great.  And to prove my point of "Go into something with low expectations and you're sure to be pleasantly surprised", I loved this novel.  In fact, I immediately did a search on Amazon and Goodreads to see if I was going crazy and I found I wasn't alone.  The ratings for this novel were almost all good.

The story starts with a vision from Clara which leads her family to move in an attempt to make the vision come true since Clara's mother (an angelblood herself) declares that this is Clara's purpose in life.  To fulfill this vision.  Clara does not doubt her mother, so move they do.  There Clara meets several others who will either help or hinder her in her purpose and she learns more about what it means to have a purpose and to have the blood of an angel.

Clara's story is an intriguing one which explores the concepts of duty versus love, destiny versus choices, and friendship versus family.  The real winning conflict, to me, is destiny versus choices.  This is an especially fitting conflict to be explored in a novel of angels and devils since God created angels without free will.  How much do I love the author for explaining that in this novel and addressing how an angel would fall without God's express permission and orders?

I honestly never knew if Clara was making the right decisions, but it wasn't because I felt she was being dumb or vapid.  Like Clara, we are given certain input and data, and based on that, we have to guess -- is Clara making the right decision?  Does it matter if her soul gets slightly tarnished if we feel she's morally right?  Or are her decisions ones which will have longer consequences than we can guess at?

I'm very excited for the next novel now.  I want to know more about Clara's family members especially.  Why is her mother so secretive and what is the deal with her brother?  And, again, I'm so happy that I want to continue to read not based on the romance but based on the strength of the plot.

Verdict: 8.  I was surprised by how much I liked this novel, and I'll happily get the next book in the series.  It's not the best book I've ever read, but it's a quick and entertaining read.

Thoughts: Seriously, why is it so hard to find good novels about angels?  Hush, Hush was hysterically bad.  Fallen had so many problems and its sequel was worse.  I haven't heard good reviews for any other big name angel books.  Good on you, Cynthia Hand!

Also, contrary to what it might seem from the copy, Tucker is no supernatural creature.  He's human.  His sister is human.  There are humans in this story and they don't suck and they aren't unimportant side characters, which is a nice change from just about every paranormal novel I've ever read.  Sure, there aren't many, but it matters.

Breaking Up by Aimee Friedman

(A really short description of the book) From the author's website:  "What happens when your best friends hate your boyfriend?"

Since that doesn't do it justice, I'd like to add that this is an exploration of the junior year of high school for Chloe, the main character.  It explores the topics of friendship, romance, and popularity like most books aimed at teens.



I've had this book on my Amazon wish list for years, but I was recently shocked to find that my library had gotten a copy and I immediately reserved it.  I got home, and read it immediately (and quickly), and decided I had to promptly tell you that I really liked this graphic novel.

Then, I began to ponder how to describe it and it all seemed so generic.  It's about romance, and popularity, and friendship, and getting to know yourself.  Can't that describe almost any work aimed at young adults?  But, it transcends that simplistic description by being realistic, a word I find is often hard to use when it comes to describing characters in young adult novels.

Chloe, the main character, is flawed.  At times, she's cruel to Adam, though never intentionally.  She's a touch triumphant at another character's pain near the end.  She makes stupid decisions.  The thing about her is that she's also likable and human and the choices she makes are understandable.  She's a teenager and she's learning from the mistakes she makes, as well.  I never wondered where her actions came from, they all seemed so natural.

Her three closest friends also all seem very real, even Mackenzie, who quickly emerges as an antagonist to Chloe.  Mackenzie never seems to be acting maliciously just to be malicious.  She has clear reasons for the way she acts, even if those reasons might not seem good enough to a person reading from Chloe's viewpoint.

I was cheered that the ending, while happy, wasn't saccharinely so.  I can't use the word real any more in this review, so I'll simply say that it felt less like an ending and more like a simple step to the next point in Chloe's life.  By the end, Chloe seemed to better know who she was and what she had to do to make herself happy with regards to both friendship and romance.  I can't imagine a better ending than that!

Since this is a graphic novel, I feel that I must point out that the art is very good.  It's easy to separate the characters just from a glance, and every page looks polished.  It was rather neat to see the way Adam's looks evolve over the course of the book as Chloe's opinion of Adam evolves.  I'd love to check out more work by Christine Norrie, the illustrator.

Verdict:  8.  I think it's time to re-add this to my 'for keeps' wish list.

Thoughts:  Why did this never get more reviews?  It only has six reviews on Amazon!  I'm so happy that Comics Worth Reading mentioned this work years ago!  Also, it's kind of odd it is set in an artsy school, but didn't seem to capitalize on that fact.

Once Dead, Twice Shy by Kim Harrison

I could not find a blurb on the author's website, though I did find an excerpt.  I will attempt to summarize myself:  Madison Avery is a young dead teenage girl with several problems besides being dead.  While at the prom, she got killed by a reaper, and she found out that Barnabas, the angel in charge of guarding her, had failed.  However, she managed to grab her killer's magical amulet, and now she's trying to make it work and avoid getting her soul destroyed (and her unlife ended) by her killer.


Let's start with the bad and end with the good, shall we?  Harrison throws you into this story without a life vest.  She throws you in without swimmies.  You've got to fight through the first few chapters, trying to figure out what the hell is going on because you don't know the characters, the world, what's happened to the main character to get her into the situation she's in, and you probably don't care.  Perhaps she does this on purpose.

But, it's not well done. 

It's aggravating and I almost gave up reading.  Why did I continue?  The little I could understand was interesting and easy to read, so I kept going.  Around half-way through the book, I realized I was into the story.  I was into the Grace, the guardian angel who composes limericks.  I liked Madison when she wasn't vrooming wildly between goth and faux-aggressive Buffy-esque chick.  The plot, when you threw away all the overly-dramatic bits, was pretty darned good. 

By  the time I got to the end, I was happy I had stuck it out.  I liked the resolution of the action and I found the premise interesting enough that I added the sequel to my library wishlist, and I looked for the novella that probably came before! Sure, the last chapter was sort of cheesy, but the chapters that preceded it were so strong that I was willing to forgive and forget.

Verdict: 6.  I'm glad I kept reading this book, even though I struggled through the beginning chapters.  I think if I had not finished it, I would have mentally given it a 3 or 4, but the ending showed so much promise, that I ratcheted up the score.

Thoughts:  I know that Kim Harrison likes to write in anthologies, but this is ridiculous.  The beginning of this book practically required that you had pre-read Prom Nights From Hell.  And from the small excerpt I read of that short story, she greatly changed the supporting characters, such as Josh, around by the time she wrote this book.  I'm almost angered by this whole fact.

Comfort Reads: Dramacon by Svetlana Chmakova

From the author's website:  "When Christie settles in the Artist Alley of her first ever anime convention, she only sees it as an opportunity to promote the comic she had started with her boyfriend. But conventions are never what you expect and soon the whirlwind of events sweeps Christie off her feet and changes her life. Who is the mysterious cosplayer that won't even take off his sunglasses indoors? What do you do when you fall in love with a guy who is going to be miles away from you in just a couple of days?"

Fun fact:  when you get to link to a manga artist's website, it usually is a graphic beauty as opposed to the eyesore many an author's page can be.   Today, while perusing my list of read books, I decided to put up another comfort read, but a vastly different one than last time.  Instead of a much older, almost classic novel of a young woman, I wanted to tell you all about another weakness I have -- a love of mangas about teens. 

When I first picked this up, I wasn't too hopeful. It was an OEL (Original English Language) manga, and I had been biased to the Japanese mangas prior to reading Dramacon. However, Johanna at Comics Worth Reading highly recommended it and I so rarely disagree with her when it comes to manga that it seemed silly to not try it.

It was the most perfect manga I had ever read.  I hadn't even conceived of a manga possibly being as good as Dramacon.  Prior to reading it, I had decided manga was good for light reading and somewhat silly romances, but, after reading, I knew manga could tell a hell of a story if it wanted to.

Christie's adventures at an anime convention are easy to relate to even if you've never been to a con before (I never have).  Her first meetings with Matt made my stomach flutter, as it was easy to see that she could easily fall in love with this guy she had just met.  Both Christie and Matt are simply so well-realized.  Their interactions feel real and their feelings come across as legitimate.  After all, isn't it silly to get super attached to a guy you've just met, when he lives across the country?

The other people that Christie meets and befriends also come across as real people, not simply characters fulfilling needed roles. Quite truthfully, this is even better done in the second and third volume, but even in the first volume, it's obvious that Chmakova can write a believable character and their personality in just a few short panels.

To top it all off, the art is pretty good for this series too.  All the characters were easily differentiated and the scenes easy to follow.  God knows it's hard to say that about a lot of comics!  If you've never read a manga, I heartily suggest starting with this one.  Just don't fall in love too hard.  You're not going to find many of this quality.

The Boys Next Door by Jennifer Echols

From the author's website:  "Lori lives for summertime at her family's lake house. She spends all season wakeboarding, swimming, and hanging with her friends--including the two hotties in the cabin next door. With the Vader brothers, Lori's always been one of the guys.

But while Lori and the "baby" brother, Adam, are inseparable friends, she can't deny a secret crush on Sean, the older Vader boy. This year Sean's been paying Lori a lot of attention, and not in a brotherly way.

But just as Lori decides to prove to Sean she's girlfriend material, she realizes that her role as girl friend to Adam may be even more important. And by trying so hard for the perfect summer romance, she could be going way overboard..."

I started this book highly suspicious of it. I've heard numerous wonderful praise for Echols and her writing, and the covers look nice enough at the book store, but most of the summaries of her books have made me snooze or say to myself, "boring". When I read what Wondrous Reads thought of The Boys Next Door, I was intrigued. Here was a concept that I could get behind. As I told my husband later, I'm always a huge fan of friends turned romantic interests in my fiction. (Almost as much as I love hateful enemies turned epic romantic lovers, in fact!)

However, with the book in hand, with its vaguely silly cartoonish cover, I was prepare to be underwhelmed. Well, you all know what is said about judging books by their covers. I started the book with disinterest, but only a few chapters later, I was more than into the story. In fact, I read the book twice in a row because I loved it so much. What did I love? Lori, Adam, McGillicuddy, and the relationships between this long time group of friends! Lori and Adam felt real. They had real flaws, but real passions. I hate reading a book and being told what the main character is passionate about or what their flaws are but then never seeing these flaws or passions put into action in the book. Here, you get the feel for the characters' adoration of wakeboarding, Adam's ADHD, the main romance, Lori's need for female friends.

Also, this romance is smoking. I mentally cheered whenever Adam and Lori hooked up, and whenever Lori thought about the brothers. I knew I was a goner when it ended and I was like, "But I want to know more!"

The only, only, only quibble I have with the whole book is how quickly it wrapped up at the end. I think I was so angry at certain characters that Lori's willingness to forgive drove me a little mad. Perhaps I just don't want characters I find understandable to be better than me, though. (I say with a smile!)


Verdict:  9.  I am so so happy that book bloggers love Jennifer Echols because now I know about her and I've read this book.

Thoughts: This book has a sequel! I've already ordered it from my library.

Fallen by Lauren Kate

From the author's website: "There’s something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori.

Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price’s attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at the Sword & Cross boarding school in sultry Savannah, Georgia. He’s the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are all screw-ups, and security cameras watch every move.

Even though Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce–and goes out of his way to make that very clear–she can’t let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, she has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret . . . even if it kills her."

After reading a few fairly negative reviews of Fallen, including one from a blogger I trust,  I was remarkably hesitant to read this novel. I wavered back and forth, back and forth. Did I want to read a novel that was receiving good reviews from people who mostly loved fated love and Twilight? The answer was no for a long time, and then I spotted it in my library and I couldn't resist that cover. God must really love his angels because he makes sure their books look the prettiest, even if the angels are fallen!

I started the book the day I got it and finished it rather quickly, perhaps several hours later. And my immediate reaction was, "Well, besides Luce and Daniel being kind of boring, that wasn't so bad. I don't know why it got such bad reviews." Then, I took the time to think about it, and here's why I think it got bad reviews.

Let's face it, Luce and Daniel are boring and that makes their romance kind of boring too. Besides being good looking and mysterious, what does Daniel got going for him? He both growls and stares at Luce in meaningful ways. He is mean to her, but also sweet to her. He's basically Edward Cullen in angel form, and I didn't like Edward Cullen either. (To be fair to Edward, Daniel isn't half so interesting as he never, not once, plays vampiric baseball, which is my favorite WTF moment from the first Twilight novel.)

The main villain of the novel is barely fleshed out, and the motivations behind the villainy are not explained in any meaningful way. They never explain why all these angels are hanging out at a reform school since they don't appear to expect the main character to show. Do angels just like hanging at reform schools?

The climax is rather a let down, and I think I'm growing to hate badly done love triangles. (Ask me how I feel about a good love triangle in which the guy I like wins or in which I like both guys and I'll give you a completely different answer.)

So, why the verdict of a four then, I'm sure you're asking. Because it has two redeeming characters who I very very quickly grew to love. Arianne and Penn. Those two characters are the reason I'll probably read Torment. (That, and the cover. Again, pretty.) Both of these friends of Luce made me interested in what was happening and what they were doing. The moment Arianne commanded Luce to chop her hair, I think I fell a bit in love with her. Why did Luce cut her hair? Because she was forced to, due to the 'incident'. Why did Arianne? Because she's got a will of iron and a strange impulsive nature! However, even better than Arianne, was poor poor Penn.

Penn deserved to be the real star of this show. She was odd, sneaky, an interesting friend, and not very impressed with the people at the school with her. Her back story gave her an interesting reason for being at the school, unlike ANY ONE else in the book. She stole every scene she was in with Luce.

In fact, trying to remember this book that I read over three weeks ago, the scenes I remember most clearly are those with Arianne, Penn, or Cam, and that's because they were the most interesting and most memorable scenes.

I am betting I'll read the second book in the series, but I'm hoping that Daniel and Luce get personality transplants between the books.

Verdict: 4.  Thinking about it and discounting Penn and Arianne, I wanted to punch every one of the characters.  Well, and besides Cam.  I'd totally make out with him before punching him.

Thoughts: No, seriously. Angel covers? The prettiest. I have read hideous reviews of Hush, Hush, but would I turn it down if I saw it at the library?  No. In fact, I want to buy these just to have them to be pretty on my bookshelf. I have the same problem with the Luxe series (especially Rumors) that is gorgeous, but rather boring.

A Quick Review: The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

From the author's website: "Belly measures her life in summers.  Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August.  Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad.  They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer--they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between.  But one summer, one terrible and wonderful summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along."

I liked this book far more than I expected.  The main character is not exactly likable, but she's real, which makes a difference.  She doesn't make the good choices, and she doesn't see obvious connections, but that's life.  I felt most of the characters in the book were well-realized though the plot felt fairly thin.  To me, this was more of a character study than a novel with a plot.  Either way, it still read quickly.

Thoughts:  This woman knows the shore, and those who love it.  This story sometimes turns into a love letter to summering at the shore, and I'm okay with that.

Verdict:  6

Academy 7 by Anne Osterlund

"With a past too terrible to speak of, and a bleak, lonely future ahead of her, Aerin Renning is shocked to find she has earned a place at the most exclusive school in the universe. Aerin excels at Academy 7 in all but debate, where Dane Madousin - son of one of the most powerful men in the Alliance - consistently outtalks her. Fortunately Aerin consistently outwits him at sparring. They are at the top of their class until Dane jeopardizes everything and Aerin is unintentionally dragged down with him. When the pair is given a joint punishment, an unexpected friendship - and romance - begins to form. But Dane and Aerin both harbor dangerous secrets, and the two are linked in ways neither of them could ever have imagined. . . ." 

I'm going to seem like such a jerk here, because I just mocked the use of private schools within young adult novels in my last review, but here I am about to say how much I enjoyed this novel about two teenagers in a private academy.

Interestingly, I came to this novel with no preconceived notions about how good it would be, nor what it would be about. I usually read so many reviews or hear so much about a novel prior to reading it, that I've already settled in my mind whether I'm going to like it or not and how it's going to play out. I'm usually wrong, but I still go into a novel having some information about it. With Academy 7, I literally saw the cover and copy and decided to give it a try.

To me, this book was the story of Aerin and Dane and their friendship. Yes, there are dark secrets that both are hiding, and there are hidden facts they've got to find, and challenges they must overcome, but the heart of the book and the part that made me enjoy it the most and rip through it like some sort of crazy person is the friendship. Aerin and Dane both start the book in (separate) space ships, which I'm sure you probably don't expect from the cover. However, within three chapters, they're in the same school and we quickly get to the meat of the story.

You quickly learn why both students are extraordinary and why they interest each other. This first third to half of the novel is beautiful. It's easy to see why they are interested in each other since I'm interested in both of them. It's fun to see them interact. It's great to see Aerin beat the pants off of Dane in combat. By the time the 'bigger' stuff in the story starts to happen, such as exploring the secrets both characters have, I was fully invested in them and wanted them to achieve their goals.

I'm definitely happy that my whims led me to read this book and I really hope that the author gets to write the sequel that she mentions on her site.  Dane and Aerin were two of my favorite young adult characters from this year.

Verdict: 8. It was fun in a pure mind candy type of way, but I enjoyed it and wanted more and looked for more immediately.

Thoughts: Was the publisher trying to hide the fact that this book is set in space and has science fiction overtones to it? The cover, which is gorgeous, certainly does not indicate that the book is going to have space travel nor planet alliances in it. The copy reads as slightly paranormalish to me, but that's because so many young adult novels nowadays are paranormalish. When I opened the first page and got space ship talk, I made a mental sound much like "bwah?" and checked the copy once again. I guess sci fi doesn't sell to teens.

Read an excerpt from the author's site.

Evernight by Claudia Gray

From the author's website:  "When the story begins in Evernight, Bianca has just left the small town where she's spent her whole life. She's a new student at Evernight Academy, a creepily Gothic boarding school where her classmates are somehow too perfect: smart, sleek and almost predatory. Bianca knows she doesn't fit in.

Then she meets Lucas, another loner, who seems fiercely determined not to be the "Evernight type." There's a connection between Bianca and Lucas that can't be denied. She would risk anything to be with him—but dark secrets are fated to tear them apart... and to make Bianca question everything she's ever believed to be true."

Spoilers ahead. Be warned.

Another day, another book about supernaturals at a private high school academy. I'm a horrible bitch for writing that line, but I kind of feel it is true. It's a shame, because I bet when the author wrote the book, the theme wasn't so prevalent, and now when she's publishing it, it's just out there. You can't avoid vampires in high school, if you wanted to! And, unfortunately, it's not the best high school vampire book out there. Neither is Twilight.

The problems with the book starts from the very beginning. The author tiptoes around the fact that the main character is at a school full of vampires. It's hinted, but mostly not. You're reading a story of a girl who doesn't fit in at her school. Only, you know the title, I know the title, and we both know that somehow vampires are involved due to that title. Unfortunately, then you have to ask why Bianca and Lucas are so cavalier about the oddness of the student body, which leads to obvious answers. When vampires are finally introduced to the book, it is as if there is a great reveal. Only, the author's writing is not enough to allow us to forget that we are reading a vampire story. Perhaps the premise behind the book would have been more successful if the cover and summary did not scream vampire. I know that the author cannot alter a publisher's plans, so I have no idea if she knew this would happen. The follow up book, Stargazer, uses a title with more leeway in it, and I think that this would have been more fitting for the first book.

As the book progresses, it becomes clear that the most interesting characters are those shunted to the side of the story. Who are Patrice and Balthazar? What is Bianca's parents' story? Why are vampires going to school with humans, their edible despised classmates? Why does Bianca always shot gun react to things when she is so shy and quiet?

I found Bianca's character inconsistent, Lucas dull, and the story overwhelmed by the stupidity of the a romance between the two. In the background lurks a story I'd like to know, but I'm not sure I'll be bothered to read the sequels.

Verdict: 3. Not a horribly written book, but not great either and with lots of inconsistent plotting.

Thoughts: I was so excited to read this due to the Book Smuggler's review. I feel almost horrible that I didn't agree with them.

Also, if, God forbid, I'm ever turned into a vampire, or become some kind of vampire hunter, I plan on not screwing or falling in love with a member of the opposing team. It simply seems unwise. Buffy has taught me a lesson.

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

From the author's website:  "Graceling, my debut novel, is the story of Katsa, who has been able to kill people with her bare hands since she was eight. Katsa lives in the seven kingdoms, where very occasionally, a person is born with an extreme skill called a Grace. Gracelings are feared and exploited in the seven kingdoms, and none moreso than Katsa, who's expected to do the dirty work of torture and punishment for her uncle, King Randa. But then she meets a mysterious stranger named Po, who is also a Graced fighter and the first person ever to challenge her in a fight. The two form a bond, and each discovers truths they never imagined about themselves, each other, and a terrible danger that is spreading slowly through the seven kingdoms."

This is a hard review for me to write. Instinctively, I loved this book, but after I spent several days thinking about it occasionally, I was able to see that it had many flaws that ruined its perfection for me. And this book did come so close to perfection for me. This is, in fact, a good example of how I can be 'intense' in my love for something. Because it is so good, I pull it apart more than I would a mediocre book.

A Graceling is a human with a special skill or 'grace' that is superhuman. In the world that author builds, Gracelings are feared and respected servants to those in power, and world changing humans in their own rights. I felt that beyond the concept of gracelings, the world building in this book was rather poor. The author has little skill with naming people or places, and does not manage to convey how far each country is from those around it, nor does she explain how Gracelings are kept in check by those they serve. However, I barely noticed this on my first read through due to the author's skillful writing, her deft characterizations, and the strength of the initial graceling concept, which is almost like taking the idea of a superhero and inserting it into a fantasy world.

Katsa, the main character of the book, is very skillfully written. I often dislike the saintly characters that some fantasy heroines can be, and Katsa is not that. She is a confused girl, often sure of her own stupidity or ugliness. She has realistic fears, and realistic confidence in herself. It is a shame that such a well-written character has to deal with Po. Po is, unfortunately, more of a Mary Sue. He's good, thoughtful, loving, accepting, and he believes in the greater good. His grace is amazing and it can defy the ultimate evil. He loves Katsa through and through and only forgives her when she hits him! The only conflict on his part comes much later in the story and felt tacked on. I didn't notice this weakness of character on Po's part until after much thought about the book, which says something of the story.

There are a number of themes that run through this book, including Katsa's genuine dislike of marriage and motherhood (inspired by a society in which men are the kings of the castle literally and figuratively), her rejection of evil authority, the inability to fight against those who are harming that which we love, and her discovery and need to fix the fact that other girls and women are unable to cope with life as she can due to their lack of her 'grace'. And these themes worked for me, so much so that I was literally offended by reviews I saw on Amazon that warned parents that this book advocates against marriage and parenthood. This book does not advocate against marriage. It advocates against a society where women are powerless in marriage. These are greatly different arguments to make. Katsa's disdain of marriage and motherhood do not come without cost to her, and are well realized. When her lover asks about marriage and promises her every freedom within that marriage, she quickly points out that she would always know that she had been given that freedom. It's a beautiful scene due to the fact that she loves the person who has proposed, but cannot give in.

Unfortunately, for all that this theme exists, Po is the catalyst to most of Katsa's actions. Why does Katsa do what she does? Because of Po. He asks her the right questions or springs to mind at all the right times so that Katsa can do good. At one critical scene, Katsa knows that to save the world, she must leave Po, and she literally cannot do it until he forces her to. And once she does, she is always reminding herself that she left him and now she cannot fail him. This seems to weaken the themes I felt the author was trying to promote.

Ultimately, however, I still loved this book. It's an excellent young adult fantasy, and an outstanding debut. Katsa stands head and shoulders above most heroines, and, in the end, she makes a choice I respect. I can't wait to read more books by this author.

Verdict: 8. I added it to my "for keeps" wishlist right after reading the library book I got.

Thoughts: Seriously, the country and character names... they lack a certain something. Po? Bitterblue? West? East?