The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull

I finished reading The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull (author of Fablehaven) yesterday and am not feeling jazzed to write about it like I usually am when I finish a book. I found The Candy Shop War to be a fun and easy read but overall it lacked that special something to keep me fully engaged in the entire story.

The story starts by introducing the reader to four 10-year-old kids: Nate, Trevor, Summer, and Pigeon. They go by a new candy shop in town and become acquainted with the owner, Mrs White, who begins to solicit their help in doing odd jobs in exchange for magic candy that gives you special powers while eating it. The kids love this new candy and agree to do some jobs for her, but eventually Mrs White asks them to do things that become increasingly more sketchy all in the name of trying to find a certain treasure. The kids realize that she's dangerous and get help from another candy man in town, who turns out is also magical and also after this treasure. The kids are caught in the middle of this race to find a treasure and are forced to be rather creative in how they get out of trouble. Things all work themselves out in the end.

I guess technically there wasn't anything wrong with the book, I just had a hard time sticking with it because I felt it was geared toward a very young age group. With the Fablehaven books, even though they were written for kids, as an adult they gripped my attention from the very beginning. The Candy Shop War was a little too simplistic and predictable, but still a fun and easy read. My 9-year-old nephew Tyson enjoyed the book, if that's any indication. Overall, a light and easy read with some clever conflict-resolution scenarios dispersed throughout the story. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone under the age of 14 but not necessarily to other adults.

2.5 out of 5 stars

The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber

This book was recommended to me by an old friend from high school. I have never heard of this book before but was feeling in desperate need (a result of finishing Fablehaven and being left wanting more) to read something with a really good and satisfying love interest in it. I'll say now that this book left my need for a tender and TASTEFUL love story satisfied.

So the story is set in the late 1800's in London and we follow a group of 6 people who have been given the task to protect the city from evil spirits and demons. Upon being given abilities to help them protect the city they were also given a prophecy telling of a seventh person who will join them and be a totally awesome and powerful member of their group. They are told to watch for specific signs in order to know who the right 7th person is because if they choose wrong then bad stuff will happen. The quasi leader of the group is named Alexi and when he's not protecting the city he is a professor of alchemy at a private school. At this school Alexi meets Percy, a 19-year old albino girl who can see and talk to ghosts, has visions, speaks tons of languages, and is terrible at alchemy. Percy has to take individual tutoring lessons with her professor to improve her abysmal math and science skills and the two begin to develop a relationship. In time Alexi becomes convinced that Percy is the prophesied 7th, even though she has no idea that she is special or why she can communicate with ghosts and has visions. The two fall in love (yay!) and it's all very sweet and tasteful. Only problem is that the rest of the group thinks they've found the real 7th and make Alexi sever all ties with Percy (shoot!). Well when they try to initiate this other girl (Lucy) into the group they find out that she's an evil form of Medusa (at least I think she was supposed to be Medusa, I was a little confused with the particulars) who tries to let loose a bunch of evil creatures from the Underworld into London. Percy shows up in the nick of time and has sweet powers that baffle even her and saves the day! Alexi convinces Percy that he loved her all along and knew she was the real 7th and they live happily ever after for all I know at this point since I haven't read the sequel.

This book was definitely not something I would have picked out for myself had it not been recommended to me. It was a different kind of story for me, gothic style with lots of chanting and praying and demons and spirits, but I really liked it. The beginning is kinda confusing because she (the author) just starts the story so fast with no explanation as to what's going on, but after getting through the first couple chapters I was completely hooked. I started the book on Saturday reading the first few chapters and then I couldn't put it down all day Sunday after church at noon until bedtime at 10:30 and then I finished it after work today. Chris even mentioned that he hasn't seen me so engrossed in a book like that since the first time I read Twilight, which I beg any of you who read this to not judge me too harshly by: I really do enjoy reading Twilight! It's a fun story. And you know, I don't think I'd have to defend my liking those books if the movie madness didn't get so out of hand. In fact, I think it'd be better if they'd never made the books into movies. The books are so much fun and the movies are stupid. Plus the fact that now everybody is obsessed with vampires makes those of us who are normal and like the books look bad.

Hmmm...where was I??? Well to sum up, I really enjoyed this strangely beautiful tale. The love interest Alexi reminds me of Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre, whom I have always had a secret crush on, and Percy is a sweet and gentle character that any girl who has ever felt shy can relate with in some way. Plus reading this book gave me strange/cool dreams both nights I read it; the first night I dreamed of dragons! even though there are no dragons in the book... but it was still pretty cool.

Final consensus: good book! Refreshingly different and a satisfying love story intertwined with ghost stories and inexplicable phenomena. Definitely recommended!

4 out of 5 stars

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull

I've been putting off this post for a little while because I wanted to write about all of the books together, but then I realized that this might mean a really long post and I've never been particularly long winded, so I'll do my best. These books were recommended to me by several people, the latest being my sister Teresa and brother-in-law Frank. The author, Brandon Mull, was actually on of Frank's roommates at BYU, which I think is funny because he also knows Stephenie Meyer from his home ward in Arizona. I guess Frank just has awesome connections to people who write books that I really like! Moving right along, the Fablehaven series was SOOOO GOOD!!!! I recommend it to everyone; I absolutely loved it.

Book 1: Fablehaven

Fablehaven sucked me in right away and I quickly fell in love with the two main characters, 14-year-old Kendra and 12?-year-old Seth. They are fun, real kids who actually act like siblings. Their banter is very entertaining. The world that is set up in such a beautiful way and I was so quickly drawn in. In this story Kendra and Seth discover the secret world of magical creatures that live around them during their visit to their grandparents, who happen to be caretakers of the magical preserve Fablehaven. Fun first story!




Book 2: Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star

This was a step above the first book on the "exciting" scale. I feel like the first book could have stood on it's own as a single, fun book without any sequels. So I enjoyed how Book 2 brought you back into the story at the end of their school year to spend their summer break at Fablehaven. We start to experience what betrayal feels like by characters you think you can trust, which becomes a theme that the author tends to touch on quite a bit. Kendra and Seth do make some lasting relationships and encounter some creative difficulties in this second book, including surviving being eaten by a huge demon, finding an artifact, and destroying an evil revenent. Always good times!


Book 3: Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague

In this book the adventure and trials get stepped up again in intensity and excitement. The preserve is being taken over by a plague that is turning all the creatures dark/evil. In this book we get to know a greater variety of the kinds of creatures that live on the preserve. And just so we're all clear, the centaurs are total jerks! I would not want to have anything to do with them. The satyrs are fun; highly immature and add a lot of spunk to the story. They help lighten the mood when things get too serious. Seth and a character named Warren also have fabulous senses of humor. Throughout their adventuring in the last couple books Kendra and Seth have acquired some new and useful abilities that help them save the preserve from the source of evil that is threatening to take over. Of course they save the day while meeting more fun and exciting characters along the way. Fun story! Oh, and Kendra totally meets a cute boy in this book who we quickly fall in love with. At least I did, but then I'm a total sucker for adolescent romance.

Book 4: Fablehaven: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary

Again, a large step up in excitement from the last story. You can feel the tension growing as you get a feel of what they need to accomplish before the end of the series in Book 5. Getting an idea of the overall purpose behind the adventuring made it more intense for me. This book was definitely the most....I don't wanna say emotional but I guess it was in the sense that it toyed big time with your connections with the characters. Brandon Mull was very successful in making you fall in love with several particular characters so that you really come to care about their well being and how they relate to other characters. Because he was so successful in creating meaningful characters, the ending in this book REALLY pissed me off!!! I haven't been so angry from reading anything in years. In fact, it's possible that I have never been as angry as what happened at the end of this story. I'm still fuming, even though I know everything works itself out by the end of Book 5. But holy cow! I don't want to put in too many details here in case anyone who might happen to read this blog actually reads these books, but man, it was intense. So even though it made me really mad, there were some seriously creative and fun adventures in this story, including being kidnapped, escaping from vampires, and breaking into a dragon sanctuary to steal an artifact. Brandon Mull created such a crazy twist ending and again visited his theme of serious betrayal, which I suppose is safe to say what caused the emotional roller coaster I went through in the last couple chapters. I hope I'm not giving away too many details; I'd really hate to spoil the story for anyone...maybe if you read this and want to read Fablehaven take a break before reading so you can forget everything I wrote about the story.

Book 5: Fablehaven: Keys to the Demon Prison

So in all the previous books Kendra and Seth and a bunch of others have been trying to collect 5 artifacts that serve as keys to the demon prison Zzyxz. A bad guy is trying to open the demon prison which would basically mean the end of the world cuz the demons would get out and slaughter everyone. So the good guys are trying to get the artifacts and make them safe to save the world from the demons. Basically in this book they fail to keep the artifacts safe and so now have to prepare for how to keep the world safe from the demons. There is an epic battle at the end, very exciting as should be expected. And there is also a new love interest in this story for Kendra! which I was very happy about. This guy is really cool and we like him a lot. The sap in me wishes that there had been more details about their budding romance, but I have to remind myself that these books were written for 10 to 12-year-old kids who have no desire to read about how Kendra and (I won't ruin the story for anyone by saying his name here) hold hands or how he puts his arm around her. But the story ends very well and the world doesn't get destroyed by demons. I definitely read this book in 3 days while simultaneously hanging out with my family. I had a really hard time putting it down at all. Captivating read!

Overall summary: Fablehaven is fabulous! I'm already considering buying all the books because I think I'll want to read them again. Plus I think Chris should read them and someday I'll read them to my kids. I think they're just as fun as Harry Potter and I have all of those books. I love adding to my library when I find truly entertaining (and clean!) literature. Everyone needs to read these stories!


Rating: 5 stars! (I rarely give 5 stars, so this must be big.)