I was curious to read Jessica Park's YA romance, Flat Out Love, as it's published by Amazon Children's Publishing and I've been interested in how their publishing arm would work out and what they're focusing on. I wasn't prepared to enjoy the book as much as I did. It was billed as a teen romance so I was expecting it to be fairly formulaic, and in fact there was less romance and more about dealing with growing up, coping with love, trust and loss. So overall there was much more meat to the story than I was expecting. There were some interesting twists and turns although I guessed the main one well before the end of the book. That didn't matter, though, because what was important was the way Park developed the characters and situations and the touching ways they all ended up resolving their issues. Park uses settings very effectively and the city of Boston itself plays a major role in the story. So going back to my comments on Truby's book yesterday, this book is a great example of using secondary characters and settings to augment the protagonist's main journey. Don't write this book off as a fluffy summer romance. It's anything but. It's not too heavy, but rather is an accessible way for young readers to think about how to cope with change and growing up under often difficult circumstances. It's also a quick read. You can get through it in a day or two and it kept my interest throughout.

While I'm not planning on attempting to write a screenplay anytime soon, I really enjoyed John Truby's The Anatomy of a Story. Its lessons on story-structure are great for those who write any form of narrative, including fiction, although they're focused more on screenwriting and his examples are taken from the screenwriting world. I read this book originally as a "craft" book so I could think about narrative story structure, but in the end I came away with a new appreciation for a good film script. And I'll never look at Tootsie the same way again after reading the way Truby analyzes the script. (And I mean that in a good way.)

While Truby is famous for his 22-step structure for story-construction, what I found particularly useful in the book was the way he looked at character webs and story worlds. The insights he brings about using each character to illustrate the protagonist's main conflict and using the world of the story (settings, props etc) to back that up, is so helpful both in thinking about writing, as well as in simply reading/analyzing a book or movie. Reading Truby has helped me see how creators achieve or fail to achieve levels of meaning in their work through elements of character, plot and setting external to the main protagonist. While it's obviously a "craft book", it's also of general interest to readers and movie-goers who may be interested in how creators of these works enrich our experiences through careful design of all the story elements.

I've been reading a lot about self-publishing lately, as well as talking to friends who have gone the self-publishing route with their own books, and am intrigued by some of the differences between this form of publishing and more "traditional" publishing. A lot has been shared by authors about the advantages and disadvantages of self-publishing in terms of artistic and editorial control, responsibility for marketing and social media etc. But less has been written about the relationship between the authors and their readers in terms of self-published authors versus traditionally published authors. I've become aware that as a reader I have a different relationship with an author who self-publishes than one who is traditionally published. While I can enjoy the works and write reviews to share my thoughts either way, I've noticed that self-published authors will often re-brand (change cover designs etc and even change the text of a book) without my realizing it so I become more easily confused about whether they have a new book out or it's a repackaging of an existing book. It's hard to keep on top of this unless I avidly follow the author's Facebook page or Twitter feed. The Eden series by Keary Taylor is a good example here. Eden was originally a stand-alone dystopian YA book which I loved. It has recently been re-released (and re-written) as The Bane, the first in a trilogy. I had to do some detective work on Keary Taylor's website to work out whether I needed to purchase and read The Bane to follow the next in the series i.e. I didn't know whether it was simply a repackaging of Eden or it had been rewritten. On perusing the first chapter of the new version, it looked exactly the same as the first chapter of the original book. (BTW, it has been rewritten for anyone interested and I have yet to read the new version.)

Part of the problem here for self-published authors is that they don't have the marketing dollars and  platforms of traditionally published authors available to them. It's hard for me to work out when new releases by these authors are coming out at all if I don't subscribe to their Twitter feeds and even then I miss a lot if I'm not following religiously. Amazon isn't much help because it seems to be hit and miss whether they pick up that you bought a self-published author's first book when they make recommendations on what you might like to read next.

I suppose these are kinks in a newish system and readers who are devoted to particular self-published authors will make it a point to seek out their new works and know when they are repackaging old works. But it is definitely more work for the reader to follow a self-published author than a traditionally published author whose new book will appear on library shelves and on the bookstores' new release shelves more automatically. So this is yet one more challenge for self-published authors - and their fans - in the digital publishing era.

Just finished listening to Partials by Dan Wells on audiobook. First thing I want to say is that the narrator Julia Whelan did a great job and this is an enjoyable listen. She also narrates the second book - which I haven't listened to yet but am looking forward to it.

Yes, this is another teen dystopia involving a virus destroying the human race and the few stragglers that remain are fighting to find a way for the species to survive. New babies can't be born that are resistant to the virus so the humans are dying out. Meanwhile, they are fighting against two sets of enemies - the Voice (humans who disagree with the government on how to fight the virus) and the Partials (humanlike androids engineered for war who fought the humans almost to the brink of extinction 11 years previously).

Our heroine, Kira, is training as a medic and is desperate to find a way to cure the virus and save the human race. Her journey leads her to discover all kinds of dastardly secrets about what really happened in the past. We learn more about human history, Partial history, and the genetic problems faced by both races. There is a low key love triangle that doesn't overwhelm the narrative. Of course, Kira is torn between feelings for her human boyfriend and a Partial who happens to be engineered as a cute young soldier. But the settings, plot and action are the star players in this story. I enjoyed Wells' writing and will tune in for the next installment, although I felt that sometimes the descriptions were too lengthy and detracted from the pace, and there was a LOT of internal monologue from Kira's point of view which became repetitive after a while. Overall, great dystopian series. It's nothing really  new and exciting but it is engaging and I want to know what happens next.

There's probably not much I can say about the first two books in Marie Lu's Legend trilogy that hasn't been said before (the third book - Champion - is forthcoming). But I've read some disappointing books lately and started thinking back over YA books I've really enjoyed and these are at the top of the list for many reasons. I read the first one in text format and listened to the second as an audiobook and it was one of those situations where the narrators really added to the drama and power of the text so I highly recommend it.

When I read the first book, I remember hearing that Lu had originally planned to re-write the Les Miserables story as a YA dystopia, and someone had suggested she change the gender of one of the main characters, allowing a romance to develop. So June is effectively the Javert character and Day is Valjean in the first book, Legend. Lu does a masterful job of contrasting philosophical positions on the best ways to run a dysfunctional society that has been decimated by war and plague - where geographical boundaries have been moved around and it's difficult to know who to trust. The two leads become unlikely allies and move on to the second part of their adventure in the second book.

I was prepared for Prodigy to be a let-down as it didn't have the skeleton of the Victor Hugo classic to give it shape. I was pleasantly surprised that I liked it possibly more than the first book. The characters' struggles are deeper in the second book and their alliances are tested almost to breaking point. The ending also seriously brought tears to my eyes. Both books have a lovely sense of closure although it's clear at the end of each that there are more issues to be resolved for the characters and their world, so plenty of space for the next book in line (but without making the reader feel like the author has left us hanging!)

I've said it before and I'll say it again, but one thing that separates a good book from a really great book is the development of the secondary characters. When the secondary characters are more than just props, but are real people whose issues shadow and contrast those of the main players, bringing their struggles into sharper relief, you have the makings of a really special story. And Lu is a master of making all her characters ring true and each of them contribute to the story in his or her own way. So for me the thing that makes this series a standout is not just that it's a clever dystopia with an unusual genesis, but the characters are so strong that they feel almost like real people that I can care about, down to the lowliest of minor players. I can't wait to read Champion.

Zach is going through a Bad Kitty phase. Here are his thoughts on Bad Kitty Meets the Baby ...

[SPOILER ALERT]

"Bad Kitty is alone at first and then the dog comes, but kitty thinks life becomes good again and then kitty thinks the baby is a dog and then kitty fights with the dog so much that they get a refrigerator stuck up in the tree [rambunctious giggling ensues]. And then strange kitty with all the other kitties do the cat Olympics and the baby is the winner and they all think that the baby is a cat, but bad kitty thinks that the baby is a dog. I like the book because I don't understand how they got a 200 pound refrigerator stuck up in the tree. Uncle Murray takes care of bad kitty and puppy and Uncle Murray gets stuck in the tree."

[OKAY - so all in all a lot of things getting stuck in a tree. What's not to like???]

I'm taking a jaunt into new adult romance today because I had long wanted to read Jamie McGuire's self-published Providence trilogy which she wrote before the Beautiful Disaster duology that raced up all the bestseller lists. What is SO interesting to me about comparing Providence to Beautiful Disaster is just how much McGuire has grown as an author between these projects. Even if new adult romance isn't your cup of tea, reading the two books back to back is a great exercise in watching the development of a new writer. Beautiful Disaster (and its companion novel Walking Disaster) have much more well-rounded characters, detailed conflict and higher stakes for the characters - and that's kind of a pun given what the two main characters do in their spare time. Providence is much flatter in those respects.

Providence is also new adult romance with a hint of angelology thrown in. But other than the paranormal elements in the early work, there are a lot of similarities between McGuire's two series. They are each aimed at the new adult market and involve characters who are starting college and trying to grow into their own identities and find love in the process. Providence, however, doesn't give us the same high stakes as the later work. While we are told by the characters that there's a lot at stake for them, we hardly ever see it rendered on the page except for in the very final section of the book. We also never feel that the heroes are really going to fail - they just seem too infallible.

In the Beautiful Disaster books, on the other hand, there is a very real sense of loss and conflict and the heroine and hero having to overcome obstacles in their past and their present to make a future together that works for them. In Providence, the hero is also kind of two dimensional even though he is obviously "other" and that should add a dimension. But he seems kind of one note - good looking, strong, and the heroine's protector, but there's not much else to him. Other than that he's a replacement father figure for her, it's hard to understand what there is to the relationship. Again, this is a sharp contrast to Beautiful Disaster, where both the hero and heroine are multi-layered and have somewhere to grow into their relationship. It's obvious that McGuire is a good writer and she's deservedly hit the big time in the new adult romance genre with her later work. So it's extremely interesting to contrast how she writes now with how she wrote a few years back. Not that her earlier work isn't good, but that her later work is so much stronger. Watching her development might give heart to those aspiring young adult and new adult authors out there that even if the first project isn't the best book ever written, it's possible to grow quickly and move on to new strengths as a writer if you stick with it and follow your dream. (And I am finishing the Providence trilogy at the moment - but so far am only half way through book 2.)

I downloaded the first Mythos Academy book - Touch of Frost - onto my Kindle a while back but didn't get around to reading it until this week. As a fan of Jennifer Estep's "Spider" assassin series (for grown-ups), I didn't know how I felt about her writing YA. A number of authors have transitioned very well from adult writing to YA. I mentioned previously I thought Kresley Cole did a particularly good job with Poison Princess. Estep, however, didn't quite hit the mark with this book, although I have to admit I haven't read anything else in this series and it might improve. The main problem for me was that this book was too derivative of other books. Estep draws from the current fascination with Greek mythology in YA (like the Percy Jackson series) as well as from her own "spider" series in recreating settings and character webs (no pun intended ... well, maybe). So in many ways the book isn't really "new". It's also a little repetitive in its themes. The lead character (Gwen Frost) has a mysterious gypsy background and is a bit of an outcast in her new school - the Mythos Academy, which is populated with descendants of Greek gods. She has to work out what her special powers are, solve mysteries and cope with her growing feelings for a Spartan descdant who seems to have the hots for her, but something is keeping him at a distance. It's a fun conceit, but the plot is pretty thin and there's a lot of going back and forth ruminating about how lonely it can be to be an outcast, how lonely it can be to be an orphan, how lonely it can be to be in the "in crowd" etc. And the mystery here isn't much of a mystery. It's a little "Scooby Doo" for my tastes. It does hint and more dramatic mysteries to come in later books, but it wasn't enough to really sustain my interest and the big reveal of the bad guy at the end wasn't much of a shock. As with all of Estep's work, the writing is smooth and easy to follow and the characters are relatable (if a little labored in this book), but I still prefer her writing for adults over this series so far.

In full disclosure, this is a kind of "half" review in the sense that I have read The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda, but have not yet read the second book in the series, The Prey. And it may be unfair to comment on the first book without having read the second. I'm going to get around to it but it's not on the top of my list at the moment. Not because The Hunt wasn't a good book. It was. It was fast-paced and eminently readable. It simply didn't grab me the same way as some other recent sci-fi dystopias for the YA audience have.

The Hunt might be described - and probably already has been - as a cross between Twilight (or at least some vampire story with evil vampires) and The Hunger Games. The twist is that the main society in this dystopia is comprised of vampires and they have a ritual hunt to kill a bunch of what they call hepers, but you can probably already guess what hepers really are. A group of young folks are selected to participate in the titular hunt and to kill or maim each other and all of the hepers who have been raised in captivity for the purposes of the event. Our hero - Gene - is a heper disguised as a vampire in order to survive in the society. His challenge is to make sure he hides the fact that he doesn't have super-strength, and that he does have body hair and body odor amongst other things. This is a great example of an author putting his hero up in a tree and throwing more and more rocks at him until the reader almost can't bear it. Gene is put into situations where it's increasingly difficult to hide what he is, and consistently comes up with clever ways around the problem. During the preparations for the hunt, the reader discovers a lot of mysterious things about the society itself and about Gene and his background in particular. The ending is satisfying enough in and of itself, although it is clearly a set-up for the sequel. And at least one poor character is left in an unenviable position which hopefully gets resolved in the next installment. So, yes, the book is well-written, fast paced with characters I can care about. But it's a little derivative and didn't excite me quite as much as some other YA dystopias in recent years.

I'm switching gears today from reviewing books to talking about the craft of writing, having read a bunch of craft books in the last few weeks. One of the standouts was Lisa Cron's Wired for Story. Cron has impeccable credentials and voluminous experience in the literary fiction field having worked as a writing teacher and an agent as well as a script consultant. She really knows what she is talking about and what will turn an agent off a manuscript within the first few pages.

I was a little concerned about this book at first because there have been a few attempts to apply "brain chemistry" theories to various activities, including teaching. I have been underwhelmed in the past by books about learning to be a better teacher through understanding how the brain works. Not that it's not a worthy pursuit, but a lot of the books on the topic are badly written. Not so with Cron's book on writing. While I could have done without the explanations of what the human brain responds to, and focused purely on Cron's specific advice to writers, the brain-theory stuff is not overdone. There's enough information about how humans process information to be useful without being overwhelming.

Cron writes with wit and humor so reading the book is a pleasure. It feels like being in a class where she is speaking directly to you. There are plenty of amusing anecdotes and asides that make you feel like she's right there in your living room - or wherever you happen to be reading. While the book isn't all that long (just over 200 pages), you should take your time reading it and focus on the information she's giving because each page is dripping with pearls of wisdom (I know, mixed metaphor and all that). Some craft books can be devoured in a single sitting but I would recommend taking time over this one and thinking about applying Cron's thoughts and techniques to your own writing. Maybe reading a chapter a day and mulling over it would be a good approach. There's not a lot of craft books that I go back to again and again, but I think this will be one of the ones I do.

This is What Happy Looks Like, Jennifer E. Smith's follow-up novel (completely unrelated storyline, just written later in time) to the wildly successful The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight takes as its focus a young man (Graham Larkin) who has become a famous L.A. actor but is seeking something much simpler and more "real" from his life. Through an accidental email exchange with a girl in a small town on the other side of the country (Ellie), he starts an online relationship that soon leads to a desire to meet her and see if he can find happiness in a simpler place. Smith handles the email beginnings to this relationship with wit and intrigue and makes this unlikely story seem rather more believable than it should. She employs lots of familiar tricks like mistaken identity but in fresh new ways with cute relatable characters, so it's a pleasure to read.

As with a number of recent novels (both Y.A. and adult books) exploring the nature and downsides of fame, Graham is confronted in Ellie with his polar opposite, someone who wants to avoid the spotlight at all costs. The book deals with the difficulties they face in getting to know each other and avoiding the press for reasons relating to the need for Ellie to keep her own life out of the media. While there are no deep and meaningful answers here, and the relationship is left somewhat ambiguous (at least for my liking) at the end of the story, it's a cute and fun summer read with witty and genuinely likeable teen characters. This book is not as strong in its narrative and depth as The Statistical Probability of Love at First sight, which also dealt with falling in love under extremely improbably circumstances (hey, it's right there in the title), but still a fun read.

I wanted to like Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes more than I did. I liked it, but didn't love it. Some reviewers on Goodreads have suggested that maybe it was a problem with using the high fantasy genre for a YA book. And I have to say I'm not a high fantasy fan, although I have finally downloaded the first Game of Thrones book as an audiobook and will give it a try. And I don't want to overstate the negative because this was a masterfully written book brimming with terrific characterization and intrigue. But for me the entire book seemed like back-story for the second (forthcoming) book, Rebel Spring. It looked very much like Rhodes felt she needed (and maybe she did) an entire book to get her chess pieces into place for what is sure to be a detailed action/adventure/intrigue-ridden second book. So in many ways there was a lot of explanation and throat-clearing in this first installment even though it was unquestionably beautifully written.

The book follows the stories of four main characters - a prince, two princesses, and a commoner - spread amongst three kingdoms. And let's face it - it's there in the title. One or more kingdoms WILL fall. But most of this is set-up for the next part of the story where the search for magical items and witchcraft is on. The creation of the mythical lands, their politics and the concerns of their royalty and citizens is beautifully crafted here. But in some cases to the detriment of the characterization. Magnus, in particular (the prince who carries one of the main storylines) is an incredibly complex character fighting to find his true nature and torn between idealism and love on the one hand and his father's penchant for hate and naked ambition on the other. I would have liked to see more depth in this character as I felt the issues he dealt with were somewhat repetitious. I had a similar criticism, although to a slightly lesser extent, with one of the princesses (Cleo). She gets away with being the bratty second daughter of the king (so not quite heir-to-the-throne) at the beginning of the story and has to grow into herself by the end of the story so she will definitely be a character to be reckoned with in the next book. But again I would have liked to see more depth in her character in this book. She goes through a LOT of anguish in this book but I never felt it as deeply as I would have liked to. And my hat is off to Rhodes for not being afraid to kill of her characters. There's certainly a lot of coping with death in this book.

One word about the audiobook - because I did cheat and listen to this one on audiobook - the narration here by Fred Berman is very strong. He creates the different characters and voices beautifully although sometimes he made the royals sound a little too "common". But he slipped between accents and made the dialogue come alive very expertly.

Overall despite my nitpickiness over character and genre I would recommend this book and will read the next book (or at least listen to it on audiobook). It's definitely a series to watch out for.

Here's one I picked up from a bookstore, having never read any of the author's (Cat Patrick) other books. It was the back cover of Revived that sold me on reading it. Who could resist a story about a girl with a fake identity who has died and been revived five times already using an experimental drug as part of a secret program. She moves from town to town and school to school with two adults who play the part of her parents, but are really in the program with her.

All is well and good until she gets to a town where she starts making friends she doesn't want to have to give up, and of course here's where the romantic interest comes into play as well. It's hard to describe what happens next without giving away the plot, but this move to a place where Daisy does want to establish real relationships forces her to confront questions about the people she's been working for, and about the risks of taking the idea of dying too lightly. The idea that humans can become blase about everything, even death, is a great one to explore in a YA sci-fi book like this one. It's not a deep investigation of the nature of life and death ... and love (both familial and romantic), but it does raise all of those concepts in the context of an engaging narrative. And for a book that deals with death as its prime focus, it's very fast-paced and action-packed. A pretty good holiday read all in all.

I have no idea how to classify this book if all books need a classification. It feels like historical fiction, but it's fiction times two because it's fiction based on fiction - i.e. characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet. Ophelia, by Lisa Klein, puts Hamlet's betrothed into the driver's seat for a first person foray into life through Ophelia's eyes. It starts with a clever prologue - a letter addressed to Ophelia from Hamlet's best buddy, Horatio, after Hamlet's death followed by Ophelia's reaction to said letter. Anyone who knows the play knows that Ophelia is supposed to be dead at this point in the narrative. So the reader is immediately left wondering whether she's a ghost, living in some alternate reality, or something else is going on. The story then swings back to the past, back before Ophelia ever meets Hamlet so we can see the whole sad story unfolding through her eyes.

I've always been intrigued by the character Ophelia in the Shakespeare play because she's such a significant part of the action but she's actually in relatively few scenes and doesn't have that many lines. This gives the actors who play her some leeway in deciding whether she's going to be a wilting flower, a conspirator with her father, or a potentially true match for Hamlet. I saw the role performed beautifully in this latter iteration many years ago on the stage by Cate Blanchett - and Geoffrey Rush was Horatio in that production. But I digress ...

Where this novel really sings is in the parts where Klein cleverly matches her narrative to the action in the play - which is the middle section of her book. The story Klein tells starts before the events of the play and ends afterwards (as is apparent from the Prologue). It's such clever and terrific writing when she interweaves Ophelia's story through what's going on with Hamlet and his plot to avenge his dear departed dad. After Hamlet's death (and even in the parts preceding Ophelia's first meeting with Hamlet), the story is a bit strained in comparison with the alacrity and wit with which Klein handles the main body of the narrative. That's really the only minor negative of the book - it's a little uneven in tone in places where the story isn't actually being matched with Shakespeare's plot. But Ophelia's voice is proud and true and Klein imbues her with real character, nobility and motivation. And she keeps us guessing for the entire book as to how to explain the prologue. I highly recommend this story and make sure you brush up on Hamlet before you read it so you don't miss anything. (Or at least read the Cliff Notes if you don't have the time or stomach for the play.)

Switching gears today to talk about writing, rather than reading, I recently came across this 2007 publication by Judge Richard Posner who sits on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and teaches at the University of Chicago School of Law - The Little Book of Plagiarism. True to its name, this is a VERY little book - only around 100 very small pocket-sized pages. This makes it a fast and easy read for anyone who has ever been confused about distinctions between plagiarism, copyright infringement, and fraud. It also attempts to define plagiarism which is a surprisingly slippery concept. Although written by an expert in intellectual property law and the economics of intellectual property law, it is readily accessible to non-law audiences and can be read in a couple of hours. Beware that it raises more questions about the definition and nature of plagiarism in the modern digital world than it answers, but at least it evidences that these are difficult problems for everyone, including legal experts. It's no wonder that many writers are confused about what is legally and ethically acceptable in terms of borrowing from others' work. There are plenty of examples from commercial fiction, academic and the art world and, again, while none of them gives definitive answers about acceptable conduct they are great food for thought. So for any aspiring writers out there, it's worth taking a look at this book.

I listened to most of this trilogy on audiobook, although I read the first one in text format. And I kind of wish I'd read the third one as text because, as some Audible reviewers had pointed out, some of the accents used in the third book (Bitterblue) seemed unnecessary and annoying.  This trilogy has an interesting structure in that it jumps around in time and place in unusual ways. The first book is a standard fantasy book that weaves around a number of kingdoms in a mythical land. The second book then goes back in time and shifts place to another set of kingdoms near the lands from the first trilogy but separate from them. The people and animals in this new setting are very different to those in the original book. The third book returns to the settings from the first book but has some crossover with second. It also goes forward in time from the first book. So as a whole the series does a lot of jumping around but it works very effectively. Cashore never loses track of her characters or main storyline. Each book stands alone as an independent story with an independent main character. Some of the characters appear in multiple books to tie them together. Thus, Cashore also manages to tie up storylines from earlier books when we find out what happened to some of our favorite characters. The third book gives us a lot of "endings" for characters that we met in books 1 and 2.

In terms of content, these are really original fantasy stories with characters we can care about undertaking risky missions and developing their personal strengths along the way. While the main characters from each book - Katsa, Fire, and Bitterblue - are very different heroines, they are all characters I could relate to and easily became invested in. The books do stand alone and don't have to be read in order or together at all, but I enjoyed reading them in the order in which they were published. There's action, adventure, nobility, loss and romance but in very original settings that kept me captivated throughout.

The final book - Bitterblue - loses a little bit of the action of the first two and concentrates a little more on the politics of Bitterblue's kingdom than on action and adventure, but there's still a sufficiently interesting plot, romance, adventure and wrapping up of character's stories from the other books. So if you bear in mind before you read it that it's a little more cerebral and political than the other books before you start reading it, you shouldn't be disappointed.

I had been meaning to review this for a while as I read it a few months ago and then it kind of slid off my radar which is somewhat apt given the premise of the book. And you gotta love this premise, particularly if you have any experience dealing with teenagers. Sixteen year old Claire has a feeling she's invisible. She's always overlooked even by her parents and no one seems to want to be her friend. In fact, no one ever really notices her. While you might think this is just typical teen angst, the fact is that Claire is a Nobody - someone who almost doesn't exist in the real world and is very difficult to see if she's not right in front of you. Seventeen year old Nix is an assassin whose mission is to kill Claire. He is also someone who can barely be seen which is what makes him so good at what he does. The problem is that when he tries to carry out his mission, she can see him - and he can see her. They realize that there's more at stake than what either of them had believed. They are both different and they need to find out more. There's intrigue and danger and a little romance in this action-packed story to find out what Nobodies really are, and how and why they are being trained as assassins. During the course of the action, Claire and Nix discover additional powers and problems as they continue on their adventures. Without giving anything away, the resolution is quite satisfying even though there is no apparent cure for being a Nobody. Nice, fast-paced, action-packed summer read.

Despite the unlikely premise, I enjoyed Dualed, the debut novel - and I think first in a series - by Elsie Chapman. In this dystopian world, two versions of each child/teenager exist and only one can survive. The two genetic twins are raised separately and pitted against each other in a battle to the death to ensure that only the strongest of the species gets to carry on into adulthood. The story focuses on West Grayer who has spent her life preparing to kill her "Alt" when the time comes, but events shake her faith in herself and make her question whether she deserves to be the surviving twin. There's a bit of romance, a lot of adventure, and a lot of questioning the value of life and survival and comparing one's own worth against other possible alternate versions of oneself (or metaphorically of what one could have been if circumstances had been different).

The story is well-written and the character of West is relatable although at times I wanted to shake her out of her misery and get her to make a decision one way or the other about her future. This is also not a dystopia for the faint-hearted. There's lots of child-on-child fighting and gore, a little reminiscent of the Hunger Games although the plot is very different. The one thing that weakens this story for me - which is paradoxically also its strength or at least its selling point - is the premise. It's simply hard to buy into a world where the society creates two versions of each person with the aim that one of them will be killed. If genetic engineering is that sophisticated, surely the society could simply engineer strong-minded children or at least put them in more likely situations to make them want to fight and survive than wasting resources on killing "Alts". It may be that the premise is explained in more plausible detail later in the series, but I found myself struggling to suspend my disbelief so I could immerse myself in West's story. There is also not much in the way of the characters questioning why the society developed in this way and what might be done to change it. It seems that for a group of powerful blood-thirsty kids, there would at least be a possibility that some of them might attack the system rather than each other. So, yes, I was able to suspend my disbelief enough to enjoy the story, but the premise did get in the way of fully immersing myself in the characters and the society because I had too many questions about how this society came into being and why no one tried to stop it.

The best thing about Of Poseidon, the first in Anna Banks new mermaid (oops, sorry Syrena) series, has to be the snappy dialogue. Some of my favorite lines of dialogue since the Cassandra Clare mortal instruments series were in this book. Although not technically dialogue, I loved: "If stupid were a disease, I'd have died of it by now." The lines are witty and snarky and fun, particularly after our heroine (Emma) discovers that the boy she has befriended comes from one of the royal lines of the Syrena. Lots of royal-man-fish jokes ensue. The characters are also a breath of fresh air. They're lighthearted and fun for the most part even though they're dealing with some serious situations.

If I would criticize anything, it's perhaps that the story is too light-hearted and while we know what's at stake for the characters, there never really seems to be a sense of doom or danger. We know that they'll all be alright in the end. That's not a major problem because the fun and action keep the pace moving and the reader turning pages. But I'm curious to see if the sequels go any deeper (no pun intended ... well, maybe) into the seriousness of what's at stake for the Syrena royal lines. There's a big reveal at the end of book 1 which was kind of predictable but will lead in nicely to the next installment. It was also nice that the paranormal characters were not immediately comfortable in the human world and tended to make lots of mistakes with human words and concepts. I particularly liked one of the characters referring to a "convertible" as a "combustible". Good fun summer read here overall.

I must be one of the few YA readers who hadn't read any of the Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner, so I decided to remedy that over the weekend, reading the first book yesterday. In good time too because there is apparently a movie of the first book coming out next year which I didn't even know about. Yes, I enjoyed the book and can see why it it's a best-seller. It came out relatively early in the YA-dystopia revolution (around 2009) and is an original, action-packed, mystery story. The premise is derivative of ideas that have been around in adult literature - main characters who've had their memories wiped and who find themselves in unfamiliar surroundings, having to solve mysteries to move forward. But it's done with a bunch of young boys (and one young girl) and the setting is very original. The idea of a maze has been done before - but the kind of maze Dashner creates and the creatures he populates with it are creepy and scary and generally pretty cool. I did have a couple of bones to pick with it, however. I thought the story started too slowly and I was annoyed with the repetition of the main character (Thomas) constantly asking the others what was going on and constantly being rebuffed and told they'd explain later. The pace certainly picked up about halfway through the book as Thomas found his footing so to speak. The other issue I had - and this is probably because the book was conceived as the first in a series - is that there are too many questions raised but left unanswered for the book to feel "complete" as a story to me. Dashner could probably have answered some of the unanswered questions - or at least hinted at answers to them more strongly than he did - and still preserved enough suspense for the next books. So overall a great read and I'll probably get to the next book eventually, but it's not at the top of my list right now. At least I've read enough to understand the movie when it comes out!

This is my week of reading "boy books", starting with Allen Zadoff's Boy Nobody and moving into James Dashner's Maze Runner trilogy. What can I say about Boy Nobody? Well ... reading this new YA thriller is like watching a movie. It's a completely cinematographic experience and I can see why there are talks about making a movie out of it. The lead character is an agent who assumes false identities to execute missions where he, well, executes people. While the story does raise some questions about patriotism, ignorance and what's "right" and "wrong" in international politics and espionage, it doesn't delve too deeply into those debates, focusing instead on action, adventure and suspense. The book is written in the first person from the teen assassin's point of view and the dialogue is really slick and witty. This book is pure entertainment value from beginning to end. So it's a great summer read. For those who want a deeper sense of setting, character development and moral issues, this is not the book for you. But for those looking for a day of escapism into a world of the spy thriller aimed at a young audience, pick this up and read it. You won't be disappointed.

The third and final installment of Rebecca Donovan's "Breathing" series came out this week and I had it pre-ordered on Kindle, ready and waiting for the July 4th weekend. I really loved the first two books and I wanted to like Out of Breath more than I did. It was a good book that held my interest and it was great to find out what happened to all the characters because there was a bit of a cliffhanger at the end of book 2. The writing was probably even more confident and polished than the earlier installments of the trilogy. But I felt something was missing. It might have been because this book takes place two years after the end of the previous book and I felt a little cheated because I wanted to SEE what happened right after the events of book 2 and not have it recounted in flashback. It might also be because I wanted the characters to be younger ie similar ages to the first two books. It's great to see them in college getting on with their lives as best they can, but I was so attached to the characters in high school that the jump in time period was a little jarring. I understand why Donovan did this. She couldn't really tell the story she needed to tell about the characters' futures without jumping forward in time. But I would have liked a few chapters at the beginning that served as more of a bridge between the two books. She also introduces a heck of a lot of new characters in the final book and it's hard to get a handle on all of them while still focusing on the main story between Emma and Evan. I also felt that the pace was a little bit off in this book. There seemed to be a lot of lengthy build-up to a rather quick resolution in the final few chapters and some of the resolution was kind of predictable.

I don't mean to be overly negative because I love this trilogy and I love the characters. I think Donovan was extremely brave to tackle the issue of domestic abuse and what it does to a person's self-worth and ability to go on with their life and form meaningful relationships. And I continue to adore the complexity of the relationship between Evan and Emma. The supporting characters from the original books were also as strong as ever in this final installment. I guess I just felt that the scope of this story was perhaps too ambitious and there was too much going on. Perhaps it should have been a quadrology rather than a trilogy? Anyway, I do recommend this final installment and it will keep readers turning pages, and I'll surely read whatever Donovan writes next. But there's a very special spark in books 1 and 2 that wasn't quite recaptured here.

This is an older book - well earlier in the millennium anyway and not necessarily YA (there's a little more s-e-x than is theoretically suitable for younger readers), BUT I just had to go back to some of Ann Aguirre's earlier work while I'm waiting for the third installment in the Enclave trilogy. I really like Ann Aguirre's writing. It's smart, funny and always includes kick-ass heroines. Grimspace is the first of the Sirantha Jax series which is pure sci-fi escapist space opera. It reminded me a little of what you might get if you mixed Star Wars with Raiders of the Lost Ark and used a female lead. I loved the characters and situations - a rag tag band of misfits flying a spaceship into adventures all over the galaxy. It was very cinematographic. And even though lots of the space opera stuff has been done before, this book had some original touches in terms of the species of alien included and the relationships between the main characters. There were lots of twists and turns in the plot and no one ended up being what they initially appeared to be. The ending here was a little "convenient" - wrapped up the storyline a little quickly after a lengthy buildup. But at least the story was wrapped up despite the book being a lead-in to the next in the series (which I haven't read yet but probably will). So if anyone needs a dose of Ann Aguirre in between the Enclave books, I would recommend checking out the Sirantha Jax books - at least the first one is pretty good and easy to devour in a day.

I'm probably the only person who hasn't read the Persephone myth in college - probably because I didn't go to college in the U.S. - so I'm sure I missed many of the nuances of the first installment in the Everneath trilogy by Brodi Ashton. But I still enjoyed the book immensely and, like the Sweet Evil books, I have to admit to this series as a guilty pleasure. Like Sweet Evil, this series deals with demons in the underworld and of course the "bad boy" with demonic powers is in a rock band. He's a guitarist, rather than a drummer. But unlike the other trilogy, this one has a clear romantic triangle between the bad boy and the good guy - Jack. Yes, our heroine (Nikki) is torn between her love for her human boyfriend and her attraction to Cole, the immortal who has tempted her toward a life in the underworld. She's made a deal with Cole that puts her own future, and the future of those she loves, in danger. So there's a lot of romance as well as action and adventure and a modern-day re-imagining of the underworld. I read both books back-to-back and even though each contain cliffhangers, they do stand on their own. I'm looking forward to the third book but I don't feel like there was insufficient closure in the second - just some questions left to be resolved later. The first book focuses on Jack's attempts to save Nikki from her fate and the second reverses this dynamic. And Cole is always around to throw a wrench into the works. There's also a pretty cool short story that comes in between the two books called Neverfall which focuses on Cole and gives a little more insight into his character. Generally I'm skeptical of these short stories in between books in trilogies, but I quite enjoyed this one. So, yes this trilogy is a guilty pleasure but it's also a lot of fun and a good summer read.

This is the second book in Michelle Hodkin's Mara Dyer trilogy and I liked it SO much better than the first. While the first book seemed to take a long time to warm up and find its stride, this one gallops out of the gate. It combines paranormal horror with action/adventure and romance from the first page. While it does contain some of my pet peeves - psychiatric hospitals with drug treatments so the characters don't know what's real and what isn't - that's only a small part of the story, and the characters and plot more than make up for it. While the hero and heroine (Mara and Noah) were kind of tentative with each other and still feeling each other out as partners in book one, they are totally together in book two trying to figure out the mystery of what's happening to them. The more united front between the main characters allows Hodkin to delve deeper into the really interesting mysteries of their apparently supernatural powers and their mysterious pasts. The supporting characters are also very strong in this book, notably Mara's big brother Daniel who was one of the best things about the first book and doesn't disappoint in this installment. He's the big brother I wish I  had, and I'm not offending any family members by saying that because I don't actually have any older sibs. The adult characters also seem to have a more minor role in this book - although they're still important - and I think that strengthens the narrative and allows the pace to amp up because the reader can be more or less completely focused on the adventures of the teen characters. I tore through this book in one sitting and am eagerly awaiting the third book. I'm glad I stuck with the series even though I wasn't completely sold on the first one.