The Selection series 1-3 by Kiera Cass

I had really, really high hopes for this series. My sister-in-law raved about how she couldn't put them down and just loved them. So I waited a couple years until the trilogy was complete, and then I found out she's working on another partner trilogy. Ugh. I checked out The Selection and The Elite to read on an 8 hour road trip followed by a week of camping, and even with their faults, they were good picks for the occasion. These books are essentially the Bachelor reality show plus royalty plus a dystopian society. Our protagonist is America, a class 5 citizen near the bottom of the ladder. Classes are ranked from 1, royalty, to 8, the homeless. The prince is looking for a bride so they throw a competition where a few dozen girls are picked from all over the country and all different classes to come to the palace to try and win the prince's heart.

My main problem with these books is their lack of content. Everything that happens in the 3 installments could have easily been consolidated into 1 story. There are 3 main conflicts in the story: 1-America holds on to feelings she used to have for her old boyfriend Aspen, who in/conveniently shows up at the palace to work as a guard, making it impossible for America to forget and move on.
2-America has a very hard time deciding how much she likes Prince Maxom, who happens to be an awesome guy, and she keeps flip flopping back and forth between wanting to go back to her old life with Aspen or become royalty with Maxom.
3-There is significant civil unrest and two different groups of rebels repeatedly attack the palace.
The first two conflicts in the stories I find highly annoying. America takes advantage of 2 good guys and leads them on for way too long. I just wanted to smack her upside the head to put some sense in her! So annoying. The third conflict with the rebels was the only thing that I felt gave the story some substance. The author could have developed this far more than she did, but instead focused on America's feelings about boys. I think she missed out on an opportunity to write a compelling story, rather than a fluff-filled teeny-bopper one.

Overall I did mostly enjoy the read, but I was also constantly annoyed at the lack of substance. Perhaps it's just my personality and taste preference; I don't watch the Bachelor and haven't much enjoyed the bits that I have seen; but I do enjoy dystopian stories and princess stories. I had hopes that this would be a truly awesome series. Sadly, it fell short.

3 out of 5

Ever After High series by Shannon Hale

 So, my favorite author, Shannon Hale, just keeps coming out with awesome stuff. I'm such a fan of fairy tales so naturally I'm going to like a whole series based off them. This is a series based off a line of Bratz dolls. Ever After High is a school where the children of fairy tale characters come to learn how to embrace their destiny. When students come of age they sign their name in the Book of Legends, which binds them to live the story of their parent. Apple White, Snow White's daughter, is eager to sign the book and fulfill her destiny. She finds comfort in knowing that she will have her happily ever after so long as she does what is expected of her. Raven Queen, the Evil Queen's daughter, on the other hand, doesn't want her destiny. She doesn't want to be evil and wants the freedom to choose her own future. When Raven doesn't sign the book, the whole school is thrown into chaos.

In book 2, Raven's best friend Maddie, daughter of the Mad Hatter, is accused of freeing, albeit accidentally, the Jabberwock from it's prison. Raven and Apple must work together to prove her innocence to keep her from being banished from Ever After.

In book 3, the Jabberwock is free and wrecking havoc on Ever After, turning things mad and trying to make it more like Wonderland. Everyone is changed except the 3 students from Wonderland (Maddie, Lizzie Hearts [Queen of Hearts' daughter], and Kittie Cheshire) and Cedar Wood (Pinnocchio's daughter). It is up to them to defeat the Jabberwock and undo the madness with which he is trying to change Ever After.

These books are like the reading equivalent of cotton candy. Light, sweet, lots of fun, but perhaps not as much content as you might imagine. I definitely enjoyed reading them. The narration is very silly and I love the interpretation of the fairy tales manifested in the characters. Maddie is so enjoyable, and really all of the characters have something interesting about them. If I were in about 6th or 7th grade these would probably be my favorite books ever. I have to admit, it was a little embarrassing reading these books on the elliptical at the gym because each page is fringed in hot pink and purple. People might wonder at my reading abilities if I keep bringing books written for children with me... Ha, stay tuned for my next Shannon Hale book; just finished it this afternoon. Only took me about 20 minutes since it's a young children's chapter book. :)

Good reads! Even for adults. Very light-hearted and fun. Especially enjoyable for fellow fairy tale enthusiasts like myself.

4 stars

(I feel like I'm giving a lot of 4 star ratings lately, but I really think it's because I'm almost exclusively reading stuff that I know I'll like. Who wants to waste time reading books they won't enjoy?? I hope it doesn't diminish the value of my 4 star rating.)

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

This was an interesting little story about 2 misfit high schoolers who find love. Eleanor comes from a broken home; her mother is in an abusive marriage, she's the oldest of several siblings, and they are extremely poor. She's overweight, her clothes are tattered and made for boys, and lacks the very basic essentials to maintain proper hygiene.

Park is the oldest of 2 children, his parents are together and his home life is stable. He is passionate about comics and music and tries to keep his head down at school so he doesn't get made fun of.

They meet on the school bus on Eleanor's first day. Park was the only kid on the bus who would let her sit with him, and he wasn't happy about it. They slowly become friends through their shared interest in the comic books Park brings to read on the way to and from school.

I enjoyed this book for the most part. It's a sweet story about first love, but I kept waiting for something to happen. There's not much of a conflict for the characters to work out, so it was a little slow and predictable for me. I liked Park a lot. Eleanor was kind of hard for me to read about, but that's probably because she had some of the same insecurities that I had when I was young, so it was like getting in my own head during my most vulnerable years (aka middle school, which pretty much sucks for everyone).

Overall, sweet little love story. Not much action, which is fine as long as you know that's what you're in for.

3 out of 5 stars

Divergent series by Veronica Roth

I've been rereading a lot of my favorites lately, hence the lack of blogging. I actually finished the first two parts of the Divergent trilogy months ago but there was a wicked-long wait for Allegiant at the library. Now that I've finished, I can't say I'm all that impressed with the series as a whole. It has a few redeeming qualities, but overall I don't think Veronica Roth distinguishes her novels to stand out among the vast collection of other dystopian trilogies out there.

Definitely my favorite book of the three is Divergent, where we are introduced to Beatrice "Tris" Prior and the world in which she lives. Each year, all 16-year-olds take an aptitude test that will tell which faction he or she is best suited for. The brave go to Dauntless, the honest to Candor, the peaceful to Amity, the smart to Erudite, and the selfless to Abnegation. Tris's results are inconclusive, revealing an aptitude for 3 different factions. Unfortunately, it's not safe to be different and Tris must hide who she is if she wants to survive. She joins Dauntless, meets Tobias and other friends who help her realize her strength and desire for justice in the world.

Insurgent is all about revolution; the people rise up against their oppressors and strive to make their city better for everyone.

Allegiant continues after the revolution reveals that nothing has truly changed because the problems run deeper than they realized. Tris and co. learn what's outside their city and continue to fight the good fight for freedom.

My primary problems with the series are mostly in book 3, Allegiant, though Insurgent isn't too fantastic either. I felt the overall story (in book 3) was really weak. Its basically book 2 plot but on a larger scale. The main characters are running around the whole book but not accomplishing anything. Their end-all solution to the "bad guys" in charge who are about to do horrible things is just as unethical and wrong as what the bad guys are doing. If I'm going to root for the underdogs, they better have the moral high ground. It's inconsistent because, in the previous books, Tris and her friends do honor ethics, so it's weird that they all of the sudden abandon right and wrong in the name of the greater good.

I also don't enjoy what Roth does to the main character in the end. I don't want to give any obvious spoilers, but I'm an advocate for happy endings and I can't think of a single character who truly got a happy ending. That's depressing. I also always liked Tris's brother, Caleb. While their relationship is rightfully strained, it annoys me how Tris never takes an opportunity to make amends with him until it's too late. What a waste.

I think the first book is probably the best because it feels new and different with lots of mysteries still to uncover. In book 3 all your questions are suddenly answered in the first several chapters, leaving no more intrigue and a weak story line. I'm disappointed in the series as a whole; it showed so much potential but lost momentum and became a trilogy that I will forget about in no time.

Divergent: 4 out of 5 stars
Insurgent: 3 out of 5 stars
Allegiant: 2 out of 5 stars

My Fairy Godmother series by Janette Rallison

 It took me a day per book to read these gems. I'm always up for a good teen-lit fairy tale and these didn't disappoint! Chrysanthemum Everstar, aka Chrissy, is a Fair Godmother, not quite good enough to be a Fairy Godmother, which is why her teacher has assigned her to do some extra credit assignments to boost her grade. In book 1, Chrissy is sent to help 16-year-old Savannah who has just been dumped by her boyfriend for her older sister. Unfortunately she's already bought the perfect dress and now needs someone to take her to the prom, only a few weeks away! Savannah gets three wishes and the first two get her sent to the middle ages to play the part of Cinderella and then Snow White. When she wishes a "prince-type guy" will take her to the prom, she learns that a cute but quiet guy from school has been sent to the middle ages by Chrissy so that he can become a prince. Savannah must go and help Tristan become a prince so they can all get home, hopefully avoiding too much trouble along the way.

Book 2, My Unfair Godmother, is much like the first but still lots of fun. Her first extra credit project wasn't enough, so Chrissy is back to help another mortal with their dreary life. When her parents got divorced when she was a kid, Tansy didn't cope very well. She wouldn't talk to her dad on the phone and stopped reading novels because it used to be something they did together. She did things with the sole purpose of annoying her father. So when she is sent to stay with her dad, stepmom, and stepbrother for the summer, she finds Bo, who she believes is just misunderstood. After an already bad date gone wrong, Tansy finds herself in the police station and in a whole lot of trouble. Chrissy comes to grant three wishes, resulting in Robin Hood and his Merry Men showing up in Tansy's town and holding up local convenience stores. Further wishing lands Tansy and her family, plus gorgeous Hudson the police chief's son, in the middle ages. Tansy is forced to spin straw into gold for the king where she meets the manipulative Rumpelstiltskin. In order to get herself and her family home, Tansy must learn the moral to her story before it's too late.

I loved these books. They were witty, fun, had cute romances, and were so enjoyable to read. I love fairy tales and these were very fulfilling. Not too serious, though book 2 had a few serious moments, and perfect for a light and entertaining read. I highly recommend!

4 out of 5 stars

Matched trilogy by Ally Condie

I've had these books on my to-read list for a long, long time. At first I waited to read them because Reached, the final installment of the trilogy, wasn't published yet. Then I waited because there were 50+ holds on Reached at the library. Once the hold list got under 30 I decided I was tired of waiting and I was going to get started.

This trilogy has a typical dystopian setting, set in the future after society has fallen and a new Society has emerged. In the Society everyone is Matched with their ideal partner, disease is a thing of the past, and everyone is a contributing member to society. In the first book, Cassia is Matched with Xander, her best friend, but she is having feelings for Ky. Shouldn't she have the right to choose who she loves? In Crossed, book 2, Cassia has joined the rebellion and is working to bring down the Society. In Reached, the Society has fallen and Cassia, Xander, and Ky all have to work together to find a cure to a mutated disease that threatens to destroy the life they've been working for.

I'm not sure exactly how I feel about these books. Considering all the hype I heard, they weren't as good as I was expecting, but they were still worth reading. Entertaining, but not great. I feel like the love triangle theme is way overused in young adult fiction so I wasn't too happy about the Cassia, Ky, Xander situation, even though it all works out in the end. I was also annoyed by how much Ky and Xander adored Cassia. She's a nice girl and all but she's kind of an idiot. It's hard to love a series when you don't respect the main character.

Overall, I think these were entertaining books and an enjoyable read, but don't expect an amazingly original storyline, because you won't get it.

3 out of 5 stars

The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare

Is it strange how you can finish a series, look at all the covers lined up in a row, and not be able to recall what the story was?? I'm experiencing this conundrum right now. I finished book 5, City of Lost Souls, just about a week ago, and for the life of me I can't remember what happened in each book. Strange...

In any case, The Mortal Instruments series, by Cassandra Clare, was a whole lot of fun. They're making a movie of the first book, City of Bones, to be released soon. It's difficult to explain what this series was about because Clare created a richly detailed world in which to tell her story, so giving a vague summary won't do it justice.

The story starts with a girl named Clary, a seemingly normal girl who is best friends with an actually normal boy named Simon. One night Clary and Simon meet some strange people--Jace, Alec, and Isabelle, shadowhunters whose duty it is to destroy demons and protect humans. When Clary's mom is kidnapped by a powerful rogue shadowhunter, Clary discovers secrets of her past and learns that she is, by blood, a shadowhunter. She and Simon are thrown into this world of demons, vampires, werewolves, faeries, and angels and join the battle to save the world.

I think the thing I liked best about this series was that I couldn't predict ANYTHING. The only clues I had to who ends up with who were from the book covers, and the story was beyond anything I could have guessed. The character development was really good--you get to know and care about each character, which I think is monumentally important to any good story. Each book had great momentum, full of adventure and excitement, with the exception of book 4 where it got a little slow. I almost think the series would have been stronger if it ended after book 3 when a major conflict that tied books 1-3 together was resolved. Instead a few threads were left hanging to propel the series to books 4-6+ (book 6 is to be published around 2014). When I picked up the first installment at the library, I figured that since there were 5 books then the series must be complete. I probably wouldn't have started these if I had known they weren't finished yet. I absolutely hate waiting for books to come out; I lose interest if I have to wait too long.

Overall I thought these were a great read and I would definitely recommend to others.

4 out of 5 stars

Wings series by Aprilynne Pike

I've gotten into the bad habit of waiting to blog until I've read several books so that by the time I get around to blogging, I can hardly remember what I read. Such is the case this time. I read this series by Aprilynne Pike, recommended by my fellow book worm friend Katie, a couple months ago.

Wings starts off with a girl named Laurel who finds out that she is a faerie, sent to live in the human world to protect the gateway to Avalon, the home of all faeries. She also finds herself in a rather complicated love triangle, torn between the enticing and passionate faerie Tam and the grounded, human best-friend Mike.

I found this series to be enjoyable and entertaining but somewhat predictable. I was never surprised by anything that happened, even her eventual resolution of the love triangle. It was fun to read about faeries; I've never read any faerie stories before. I would definitely recommend these books if you're looking for a light, pleasant set of books in which you could easily be lost.

3 out of 5 stars for the first three books
4 out of 5 for the last

The Alchemyst series by Michael Scott

Forgive the picture, it was the only one I could find that contained all 6, that's right, 6 books. You can understand why I didn't want to upload 6 individual photos, especially since the covers are all essentially the same. In fact, the similarity of the book covers could reflect the uniformity of the story as well, and not in a good way.

The Alchemyst, by Michael Scott, is about the legendary Nicholas Flamel who became immortal through is discovery of how to produce the elixir of life, found in a book called the Codex. Flamel has been the keeper of the Codex for centuries and protects it from many who desire it, especially a man named Dr. John Dee. Contained in the Codex, along with many powerful spells and enchantments, is a prophecy about powerful twins who will save and destroy the world. Flamel spent his life searching for these twins of legend and finally finds them: Josh and Sophie Newman, two ordinary teens living in San Francisco. Dee attacks Flamel in San Francisco and captures his wife Perenelle, while Flamel escapes with the twins and takes them around the world to be trained in the various magics. Josh and Sophie have to discover for themselves which is the twin that will save the world, and which is the twin who will destroy it.

My primary criticism with this series is that, while I enjoyed it, the whole story could have easily fit into 3-4 books, not 6. I found the premise of the story fascinating; it's filled with legends and magic and I love that stuff. But the story draaaagged and I found myself skimming chapters just so I could get to the good parts. Poor John Dee spends 5 (or was it all 6?? I can't remember...) books chasing Flamel and the twins and never really gets what he wants. Granted, his motives are all kinds of mixed up, but you can't help but feel bad for him. I think the series would have been a lot stronger if it were condensed, but they were probably trying to stretch it to make more money. I'm just glad I didn't spend a penny reading these, otherwise I'd be thoroughly annoyed. What I would do without a public library I can't even guess.

I would recommend these on the condition that the reader understands that they will be reading a lot of unnecessary information that sort of makes you feel like your life is draining away... Overall, mostly entertaining, interesting storyline, just TOO LONG.

The first and last book get 4 out of 5 stars -- the last book is especially good, full of action and the reader is rewarded for putting in the hours reading the previous 5 books.

The middle four get 3 out of 5 stars

Though I think one of those middle ones deserves a 2, but I can't seem to remember which one; they all start to blur together... Odd.

Angel (Maximum Ride) by James Patterson

Ok, to be perfectly honest, I'm a little tired of reviewing the Maximum Ride books. The plots are all practically the same; some combination of bad guys out to get the good guys and Max trying to save the world. "Angel" was no different. The story picks up where "Fang" (the previous book) left off--Fang has just left the flock and Max is dealing with her feelings of betrayal at being dumped. There's also this new guy, Dylan, who was created to be her perfect match, but it's hard for Max to give this guy a chance when she's pining for Fang. Amidst all the teenage angst, there is a group that is trying to take over the world. So Fang and Max try to set aside their differences and work together to stop the bad guys.

I've made comparisons of books I read to junk food before, and this one definitely fits the mold. It's a book that you only read because you've read the prequels, and once you're done, you're left not feeling very satisfied. Like eating a big bag of potato chips, you only keep eating out of habit, and upon finishing you feel kind of sick and wish you had spent your time in a more productive manner. Luckily, this book is short and a very quick read, so you don't waste too much time on it.

Overall, it was entertaining enough but not all that fulfilling. Pretty much what I expected.

2.5 out of 5 stars


Here's the link to my review of "Fang,"

http://sninny.blogspot.com/2010/08/fang-maximum-ride-novel-by-james.html

which I just read over and was surprised by how much I said I liked it. I do enjoy the Maximum Ride books, but "Angel" just wasn't as good as the others. And I really am getting a little tired of the same repeated plot in each book. And I'm getting annoyed at how short the chapters are; they're like 2-5 pages each! I heard that the series is ending soon and I think that'll be a good thing.

Something Borrowed by Catherine Hapka

Several weeks ago I was bored on a Friday morning during Sadie's nap. I was just in one of those extremely lazy moods when just the thought of doing something productive seems overwhelming. I had just checked out this book, Something Borrowed by Catherine Hapka, from the library, per my sister's recommendation. I should note that this is not the same "Something Borrowed" as the recent movie that came out with Kate Hudson and Ginnifer Goodwin.

The story revolves around a girl (I can't actually remember her name...like I said, it's been a few weeks since I read this) who breaks up with her boyfriend just a couple weeks before her sister's wedding. Horrified at the thought of going to the wedding without a date, she is determined to find someone to accompany her. She scores multiple dates, but one by one something happens that prevents them from being her wedding date. She eventually asks her best friend Teresa if she can borrow her boyfriend for the event. (Teresa was spending the summer in Europe on an internship.) She goes to the wedding with her friend's boyfriend and *surprise* finds herself falling for him.

I can't say this was a great book, but I really did enjoy it. It was very silly, very easy, and a very quick read---just what I wanted on a lazy Friday! I was able to finish it during Sadie's 3 naps that day. I would definitely recommend this one if you need something not too serious, maybe a break from other serious literature. Overall silly and fun and an indulgent read!

3 out of 5 stars

Evermore and Blue Moon by Alyson Noel

I've gotten into the bad habit of browsing the young adult section of the library and checking out books without more research than reading the summary on the back. If it looks even a little interesting I will probably check it out and read it. Unfortunately this has led to a rather developed taste for what I now call "junk food" literature: books that are stimulating while you are reading them but provide no real substance and leave you feeling empty and unfulfilled. These books, Evermore and Blue Moon, are the first two installments of what is to be (I believe) a 4-part "Immortals" series. I'll just say now that I have no desire to read the rest of the series.

Evermore is about a girl named Ever who loses her family in a car accident that leaves her with psychic powers; she can hear peoples' thoughts and can see their auras. She meets this tall, dark and handsome young man named Damen who, of course, she falls desperately in love with. It is set in a stereotypically chic southern California (Laguna Beach, actually) high school and there is the standard juvenile drama and conflict that eventually resolves itself to everyone's mutual interest. hooray.

Blue Moon picks up right where Evermore leaves off. Things are fabulous with Ever and Damen for awhile until a new kid comes to school and Damen becomes mysteriously ill and loses his memory of who he is (including his super awesome powers) and his love for Ever. It's up to Ever to figure out what's wrong with him, how the new kid is involved, and how to save her one true love. Again, things work themselves out in the end as should be predicted for this genre of junk food literature.

Fun and easy reads but they definitely left me feeling like I need to make some positive changes in my life, i.e. stop checking out books intended for 14-year-olds and read something substantial. I'm definitely on the hunt for some actually good books that are entertaining and worthwhile. I may re-read The Hunger Games if I can't find anything good. Any recommendations?

1.5 out of 5 stars

Beautiful Creatures and Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

This was another book club book. I really don't have too much to say about it because even though it was fun, it didn't have a whole lot of substance. It was a page turner and I was hooked from the beginning, but now, weeks later, I don't remember very much. I think that alone speaks volumes about the book.

This was basically a Twilight remake where the girl is a witch who is coming in to her powers and coming of age. Upon her 16th birthday she will either turn light or dark. If she goes light, all the dark members of her family will die, and if she goes dark then the light family members will die. She is tormented and searching for a way to prevent killing off half her family all while maintaining a relationship with a boy she met at school. The story is told from the boy's point of view, which I actually really liked. I thought the guy was a really good character--realistic (he definitely had his flaws), relatable, and had a good sense of morals.

The sequel was like the first in that it was a page turner and didn't have much substance. Fun, exciting, easy, very entertaining, but not much to it. It was like the authors wrote these books with the purpose of making a movie afterward. The irritating part about the first story was that it had all of this intense build up to one event and then right at the end a random, unseen conflict comes up and the build up isn't even relevant anymore. The main problem just gets postponed for the sequel and you feel like you're starting the first book over again. It was kind of annoying. The sequel is just as entertaining as the first with purposeful cliffhangers to keep you reading. I enjoyed my read and will probably (if I even remember the series) read the next 2 sequels when they come out. Or not. We'll see.

I can recommend this series if you want a quick and cheaply entertaining story. It's very Twilight-esque but (in my opinion) not as good. Fun and easy read.

3 out of 5 stars

Gone by Lisa McMann

The final installment of the "Wake" trilogy. Was horrible.

And then.

It sucked some more. I wanted to die.

Dead.

Gone.

Ok, enough imitation of Lisa McMann's writing style. If the above made you want to cry and rip your hair out, that's how I felt while reading this book. We continue on Janie's story of being a dreamcatcher (see my reviews of "Wake" and "Fade" for more info) and in this book she meets her biological dad, who turns out to be a dreamcatcher too. Surprise! There was nothing new or very interesting added to this book; it was written in the same, annoying style as the first two in the series, but by this time my patience was wearing quite thin. Sentence fragments really irritate me, especially when I think the author is writing that way just to try and sound cool and fit in with all them hip teenagers out there. I enjoyed the first book of the series, Wake, even though the broken sentences were annoying; and even Fade was interesting enough to balance out my annoyance. But there wasn't a whole lot to look forward to in Gone, and I was truly happy that it was a short and fast read and that I finished it quickly. I definitely would NOT recommend this series finale.

1.5 out of 5 stars

The Secret Circle series by L. J. Smith

The Secret Circle: The Initiation and the Captive part 1, by L. J. Smith, was another book I found off Kerry's book blog. Let me just say up front that I had EXTREME difficulties putting this book (and it's sequel) down for any length of time. When I picked up this book from the library I was expecting a vampire story, probably my first impression from the cover, but was pleasantly surprised to find that it was about witches! Good times.

So we start with our heroine Cassie who moves to New Salem, Massachusetts to live with her grandmother. She starts school and meets the Club, the hottest clique in school whose members are all very attractive and get away with anything. This part of the story tells about her initiation to the group and Cassie's discovery of her own witch heritage. The group discover a crystal skull which is the source of a strange and very evil darkness that they have to learn more about.

In The Secret Circle: The Captive Part 2 and the Power the group continues to learn about the crystal skull and it's dark energy. They believe the skull's power is responsible for a few recent deaths at their school. Cassie's powers and knowledge of who she is grows and she develops positive relationships with the other members of the group. Also introduced in the first book was Adam, the guy Cassie is in love with but who is also the boyfriend of her best friend Diana. A nice dose of relationship drama is spread throughout these stories.

Overall I really really enjoyed these books. Like I said I had a hard time putting them down even to go to bed at night. I read them on my lunch breaks at work, at the gym on the elliptical machine, and any spare few minutes I could find throughout the day. Any books that draw you in that much can be safely recommended to anyone. Fun reads! Just make sure you have book 2 handy when you start.

4 out of 5 stars

Fade by Lisa McMann

Fade by Lisa McMann, sequel to Wake. This story picks up right where Wake left off and was very similar in themes and writing style. This was a quick and fun read and got me through a few days of dreary work.

Janie and Cabel are still working for the police as undercover agents in their high school. They are put on an assignment to find a sexual predator amongst the faculty by using their unique talents. Janie used her dreamcatching ability to help solve the case. Go Janie!

Fade had a pretty simple plot with no real twists but it was still fun. Just like in Wake, the writing style bugged me after awhile. The author uses a bunch of random sentence fragments that get under my proper grammar loving skin. I'll be reading the next book in the series as soon as I get it from the library, though I'm not sure when that will happen. I currently have a few other books checked out that I'm going to work on first. Always happy reading!

3 out of 5 stars

Wake by Lisa McMann

This book was another tip off from Kerry's book blog. Thanks again Kerry!

Wake is about a girl named Janie who experiences other people's dreams when they are sleeping. She herself doesn't dream, but I guess she doesn't need to if she sees everyone else's dreams. This story is about Janie exploring her ability as a "dream catcher" and how to live with it. She also develops a relationship with Cabel, the only person who knows about her secret. This was a fun and easy read (I finished it in a day) and also inspired a pretty awesome/creepy dream of my own. In my dream I was being sucked into other people's dreams and each time I changed dreams I quasi woke up and was totally disoriented. Then I was at work (but it wasn't really my work) and then I was bitten by a vampire! It felt like when they stick the needle in your arm when you give blood only I felt it pretty vividly in my neck. I had given blood just a couple days before, but I'm not sure where the vampire came from since I haven't read a vampire book in probably 6 months or more. I don't remember anything else but it was a pretty strange dream, all (or at least mostly) inspired by this book! I definitely want to read the sequels.

There were a couple things I didn't like so much, mostly being the author's writing style. She used a lot of fragment sentences and after awhile it bugged me. I also felt like this was a book that was written too quickly and thus didn't have much depth. It was fun and easy but I wish there was a little more umph to it, a little more complicated, more meaningful. But as it was I did enjoy the read, and it did inspire a fun dream, and I do want to read the sequels.

3 out of 5 stars

Fang (A Maximum Ride Novel) by James Patterson

I just read the newest installment of the Maximum Ride books by James Patterson. For those who have not read these books, this is a Young Adult series about a group of kids who were experimented on by evil genetic engineering scientists who basically combined human DNA with bird DNA to create people with wings and some other cool stuff like super strength and speed. (whew! how's that for a run-on sentence??) Max is the leader of the family of bird-kids and throughout the series they are constantly on the run and fighting their way out of disasters. It's pretty exciting and full of action. In the last couple books there was a bit of a love connection between Max (who is in fact a girl) and Fang (the tall, dark, and handsome guy in the flock) and this book really focuses on that connection. In the beginning of the story the youngest sister Angel (she has some special powers including mind reading and some kind of future telling ability) predicts that Fang will be the first of all of them to die and he will die soon. dun dun dun... Max is really upset to say the least. She meets this crazy doctor who wants to save humanity from an upcoming apocalypse by giving people superhuman abilities with a drug that he tests on human children. He wants Max to join forces with him, which she clearly refuses. This guy has a hard time accepting 'no' for an answer so Max and the flock go into hiding for a bit. The story focuses in more on the Max and Fang relationship and the flock decides that Max should no longer be the leader because she's too distracted. She's basically banished and Fang comes with her. They go to Las Vegas together and are confronted by the evil doctor again. They hear on the tv that the rest of the flock is in trouble and they go to the rescue. I'm going to cut the details and just say that there's more fighting and trauma where Fang's life is in serious jeopardy. Even though I found this book to be fairly predictable and very similar to the other books in the series, I definitely teared up at the end. Oh I forgot to mention that the love connection between Max and Fang is strained by the addition of a new character who was genetically designed to be Max's perfect other half. He's perfectly charming and tries to win over Max. He doesn't really succeed by the end of the book but I have a feeling he'll be a consistent character in any upcoming books.

I really really enjoy the Maximum Ride books; all of them. This one followed suit with the others and was fairly predictable, but I feel like each book is a single episode of a television series that I love, like LOST or Heroes or something. I only wish that these books were a little longer, a little more complex. I read Fang in a single afternoon/evening. Started around 4 pm and finished by bedtime at 10:30 pm. Probably could have finished it sooner without dinner, bathroom, or internet breaks. My point is that I read the book quick and I wanted more. Definitely a fun read but it ended too quickly, like all the rest of the Maximum Ride books.

4 out of 5 stars