romance

Review: Keeping the Castle by Patrice Kindl

| Tasha

keeping the castle

Keeping the Castle by Patrice Kindl

Althea has grown up in a castle built by her great-grandfather who was much more about appearances than about functionality.  Now the castle is falling apart and repairs are too expensive for Althea and her mother to bear.  Her stepsisters could give them some of their money, or at least pay to cover their own costs, but instead they live in the castle too, for free.  There is eventual hope when Althea’s small brother grows up and can take charge, but she has to figure out how to get them to survive to that point.  All of her hopes lie in finding a wealthy young man to marry.  However, she lives in Lesser Hoo in Yorkshire, which makes eligible men unlikely and those who have ventured near have been turned off by her sharp tongue.  So when a young, handsome Baron moves in nearby, Althea is ready.  She’ll have to figure out how to pull together outfits that are fashionable but infinitely cheap, how to keep her mouth in check, and how to outmaneuver her stepsisters too.  This delight of a romantic book pays homage to Austen yet is entirely fresh and funny.

Kindl captured my attention immediately with the wry tone of her heroine.  Althea is what makes this book really work.  She is intelligent, slightly modern, resilient, and ultimately logical.  The romantic part of the book also works well, though lovers of Austen will immediately recognize the man who is her real match.

The setting is also a very compelling one with the castle itself playing a major role in the development of the story.  Just the frantic search for enough sturdy chairs to seat visitors and the desperate rummaging for food for them adds so much to the story.  This is not a family of genteel poverty, but one that is on the threshold of ruin.  That added to the need to keep the front in place while participating in a whirlwind of activities make for a book that is vibrant, romantic and great fun to read.

Perfectly timed for the fans of Downton Abbey, this book is the ideal combination of historical fiction and humor, making it a delight of a confection.  Appropriate for ages 13-15.

Reviewed from copy received from Viking.

Review: Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony

| Tasha

chopsticks

Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony, illustrated by Rodrigo Corral

Told only in photographs, this book is the story of Glory, a piano prodigy.  After her mother dies, Glory’s music continues to soar, leading her to play sold out programs at places like Carnegie Hall.  Her father is a large force behind her success, driving her forward with his high expectations for her future in music.  Then Glory meets Frank, a neighbor, and falls in love.  As her connection with Frank grows and she immerses herself in his art, things begin to change.  Soon the young prodigy becomes obsessed with the song “Chopsticks” and is unable to play anything else.  Now it is up to the reader to piece together the truth of Glory’s life as the frightening picture comes together into something entirely different than it first appeared.

I was unable to put down this book and devoured it in a single sitting.  The intriguing use of full-page photographs alone and then the wild twists of the story make it compulsively readable.  Anthony’s story reads like a movie, in pictures.  The building tension of the story, the budding romance, and then the truth that hits like a cold wave of ice water, all combine to form a riveting read. 

The photographs work to add to the story.   They use intriguing angles, photos of documents, different amounts of light and dark, different focus amounts, and play with a combination of home photographs and professional feel.  You never know what you will see on the next page. 

I immediately thought of reluctant readers, especially those interested in art or music as a perfect audience for this book.   It will appeal to many teen readers.  There is one caution for librarians to be aware of and that is that there are some female nudes in the book.  This moves it from being a book for younger teens into one for a slightly older audience, so I’d say the book is appropriate for ages 16-18.

Reviewed from copy received from Razorbill.

Review: The Difference Between You and Me by Madeleine George

| Tasha

difference between you and me

The Difference Between You and Me by Madeleine George

Released March 15, 2012.

Jesse wears fishing boots every day.  She cuts her hair short and rough with a Swiss Army knife.  She spends her time writing manifestos for her National Organization to Liberate All Weirdos and then papering the high school with them.  Emily is one of the popular girls and vice president of the student council.  She wears her hair in a ponytail, likes sweaters with buttons, and has a boyfriend.  So what in the world could Jesse and Emily have in common?  Just that they like to make out in the bathroom of the library once a week.  Jesse yearns to have a more open relationship with Emily, but Emily is very comfortable in the closet and in denial.   When Jesse gets in trouble at school, she meets Esther, a girl who is also a weirdo and has a lot in common with Jesse.  The two of them start working against a corporation trying to come into their community and school.  Unfortunately, Emily is helping that corporation sponsor the school dance.  Both girls have to decide what is most important to them: principles or love.

George has written a courageous book here.  The characters are deeply felt, beautifully rendered and gorgeously human.  Jesse is a strong lesbian character who also makes mistakes and is caught in a situation where she has to keep someone else’s secret.  The tension that creates tests her relationship with her parents, her best friend, and herself.  Emily is a study in contradictions that she speaks aloud, lives and breathes.  She is a complicated character, awash in a mix of confidence in public and self-doubt in private.  Esther is a surprising character, added after the reader thinks the book is going to focus on two girls only.  She and Jesse have much in common, including mothers who had breast cancer.  That piece of information notches neatly into the two girls’ characters, offering further depth.

Intriguingly, George has chosen to write Emily and Esther’s sections of the book in first person.  Jesse is seen in third person, something that is distancing.  I found the switch from one tense to another disconcerting at times, and wished that I could have known Jesse from inside as well as the other girls.

The world that George has created is populated with unique characters, adults and teens alike.  It is a celebration of people who are different, living lives that are complicated, filled with emotion, and grounded in principles.  I saw people I knew, people like myself, and people I wanted to meet and befriend. 

Perhaps what I loved most about this book is its sensibilities.  The characters are who they are, struggling with issues larger than themselves, but not deterred at all.  It is a book that encourages teens to take action, change their communities, and speak up for what they believe in.  Appropriate for ages 15-18.

Reviewed from ARC received from Viking Books.

Review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

| Tasha

fault in our stars

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Hazel has known she is terminal since she was diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at age 12.  But then a drug that worked on only a small percentage of the population actually worked on her and her tumors shrunk.  At age 16, she’s still not healthy: her lungs need to be drained regularly and she has to cart around an oxygen tank.  She also doesn’t attend high school, having gotten her GED.  Hazel spends her days watching trashy TV and reading books, forced out of the house only to go to a support group for teens with cancer.  It’s there that she meets Augustus Waters, a boy whose leg was lost to cancer.  The two form a bond almost immediately, but Hazel doesn’t want to get close to anyone who could be hurt by her death.  However, Augustus is not the type of person to be ignored easily and Hazel may just have a lot more life to lead than she ever imagined.

Green manages to write a book with characters who have cancer that is not a “cancer book.”  It bears absolutely no resemblance to those teary paperbacks filled with maudlin sentimentality.  Instead it is a purely John Green book, filled with witty remarks, complex characters, and a vast intelligence.  Both Hazel and Augustus are characters who are breathtakingly rendered, whole people, who just happen to come fully to life when together.

Green’s writing is incredible here.  His phrasing is beautiful and inventive, creating new imagery as he builds this amazing romance and human story.  One of my favorite sentences in the book comes on page 25, “I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.”  Throughout the book, there are profound moments of insight, things that give pause, make you think, and create beauty from the ordinary.

Intensely personal, vibrantly romantic, and wildly successful, this book may just be the best that John Green has written.  Get this into the hands of teens and adults, perhaps with a tissue or two.  It is simply incredible.  Appropriate for ages 15-18.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: A Million Suns by Beth Revis

| Tasha

million suns

A Million Suns by Beth Revis

The second book in the Across the Universe series takes up the story three months after Amy was awoken from her cryosleep.  Elder has become Eldest and has taken control of the ship.  The population has stopped being drugged by Phydus but that has created new problems of controlling the suddenly unruly population.  Amy gets a clue that starts both her and Elder on a quest to figure out the truth behind the ship no longer moving through space.  It quickly becomes a race against time as killings start with the ominous phrase “Follow the leader” on each body.  The truth may set you free, but getting to it can be deadly.

I was thrilled to get my hands on this second book, because I found the first so fresh and fascinating.  The story continues with the same claustrophobic feeling aboard the ship, where readers will think that they know the truth of the situation but will quickly realize that there is much more to the story of their journey into space.  I did find the book hard to get into at first because the beginning was slow moving.  That is quickly remedied and the pacing of the rest of the book is very successful.

The setting of Godspeed is a compelling one that Revis uses to great effect throughout the story.  The ship itself holds many of the secrets, making it a vital part of the tale.  The characters are equally complex.  Elder and Amy have a relationship that is romantic yet troubled.  Combined with the tight setting, the desperation of their quest, and the killings, it makes for a riveting read of mystery, science fiction and romance.

This complex and engaging science fiction novel will be embraced by fans of the series, who will immediately start thinking about what will happen in book three.  Appropriate for ages 14-17.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by:

Review: Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler

| Tasha

why we broke up

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler, illustrated by Maira Kalman

Released December 27, 2011.

Min and Ed have broken up, that’s why she thunks down a box full of things on his doorstep.  Inside the box are the small mementos of a relationship and the answers to what is behind their break up.  The box also contains a long letter to Ed that Min has written, explaining fully both the growth of their relationship and her feelings for him, but even more so the reasons that they can never be together.  The box holds memories and mementos: a toy truck, a movie ticket, a protractor, a note, and rose petals.  Each item is tied to a part of the story, a moment in their time together, times when there were warnings of how it would end but Min ignored all of them until that last one.  The one that brings us back to this box and that doorstep.

Handler’s writing here is striking.  He moves from a more normal syntax and structure into rushes of stream of conscious writing that is breathless and dazzling and bitter.  These are the moments where the pain of the breakup is right there, a heartbeat away.  It is a book filled with surprising moments, aching with importance and equally part of normal life. 

This is a relationship laid bare and honest, searingly truthful at times.  At the same time, distrust and foreboding is always right there since the reader knows from the first page that the relationship is doomed.  It is this rich mix of the delight of new love and the awareness that it ended badly that makes the book compulsively readable. 

Dazzling and honest, this book will speak to any teen who has been dumped, any teen in a relationship, and any teen looking for one.  Appropriate for ages 15-17.

Reviewed from ARC received from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Check out the Why We Broke Up Project website too.

Review: The Probability of Miracles by Wendy Wunder

| Tasha

probability of miracles

The Probability of Miracles by Wendy Wunder

Cam has been battling cancer for the last seven years.  At age 16, she has reached a point where nothing more can be done.  All she has left is acceptance and a lot of attitude.  But Cam’s mother and sister are not ready to give up hope, so they move the family north from their lives at Disney World in Florida to Promise, Maine.  Promise is a small community where miracles happen.  Cam certainly doesn’t believe in miracles or religion for that matter, but Cam feels the magic of Promise too.  Her blemishes from the disease fade, her hair grows long, and she feels better than ever.  Then there is her Flamingo List that she created at summer camp.  It’s a list of things that she wants to do before she dies.  Many of them seem very unlikely at first, but as the summer goes on, she ticks them off the list.  Cam has one final summer to reach her goals and even to exceed her own expectations.

This is not a weepy cancer book at all.  Rather it is the story of a sarcastic, brilliant girl battling a disease and finding a place to be herself and create the best days ever.  In Cam, Wunder has given us much more than a tragic story of the last days of a life.  Instead Cam seems more filled with life than the rest of us.  She shines, entrances and lives with abandon.  It is like watching a shooting star race past.

Wunder also creates an entire cast of impressive supporting characters.  They are often introduced as stereotypes, but then they become more fully realized as the reader gets to know and understand them.  We as readers get to discover the characters alongside Cam.  The setting of Promise, Maine is also beautifully rendered with the magical parts interwoven to create a dance of magical realism and realistic fiction.

Gorgeously written and realized, this is a powerful read with a great, flawed heroine.  Appropriate for ages 15-17.

Reviewed from copy received from Razor Bill.

Check out the book trailer:

Also reviewed by:

Review: Secrets at Sea by Richard Peck

| Tasha

secrets at sea

Secrets at Sea by Richard Peck

A wonderful mix of Upstairs Downstairs and The Borrowers, this is the first animal story from the incredible Peck.  Helena is the eldest of the Cranston family of mice.  Her parents are both dead as are her older sisters.  It is 1887 and the human Cranston family is planning a trip to England to get their eldest daughter wed.  So the mouse family also has to decide.  Do they travel across the dangerous and deadly water with the family or stay behind in an empty house.  Helena hopes that the trip will help with some of the problems she has been fretting about.  Her younger brother is always getting into scrapes and needs some direction.  One of her younger sisters is far too attached to one of the human daughters.  So the family embarks on a trip where they discover the large impact a family of mice can have on their humans.

Peck writes with a sly humor here that takes on the establishment and the constraints of society in the late 1800s.  The same sort of tiers that make up the human society are found reflected with the mouse society as well.  It makes for a delight of a novel that has depth and a lot of heart.  Peck’s young heroine, Helena, is a mouse burdened with many cares but who also starts to see herself differently as her travels continue.  She is an engaging and richly drawn character.

Peck has also vividly created the setting of a Victorian ship at sea.  From the lavish parties to the lifeboat drills, the mice are involved throughout.  This is a world of privilege that is gloriously redrawn mouse sized complete with royalty and romance.

Highly recommended, this is a dazzling book that will find a place among other great animal stories.  Peck has amazed me once again.  Appropriate for ages 8-11.

Reviewed from ARC received from Penguin Young Readers Group.

Also reviewed by:

Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

| Tasha

daughter of smoke and bone

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Karou is a blue-haired art student in Prague who lives a double life.  She has her small flat where she sleeps under the spread of a pair of huge wings she created.  She attends class, tangles with her ex-boyfriend, and hangs out with her best friend.  Her sketchbooks are filled with strange creatures, so she is known to have a great imagination.  No one knows that these are not creatures she has made up, but rather some of her closest family.  Because she also has her secret life where she runs errands for Brimstone who is a wishmaker.  Her errands take her across the world through magical doorways and what sounds amazing actually results in hauling elephant tusks on Paris subways or bargaining for the teeth of the dead in Morocco.  Brimstone needs teeth to do his job, and it’s Karou’s job to bring them to him.   Her life is complicated and busy, but filled with questions that are never answered.  Karou has always felt something is missing, she’s just not sure what it could be.

Taylor has created a stunning novel here.  Her heroine is complicated, vibrant, amazing and conflicted.  She is strong, vulnerable, beautiful, and mesmerizing.   She is also tough as nails when pushed, raised by monsters, and at the same time big-hearted and kind.  She is a study in contrasts that really works, each piece making sense and creating a believable whole.

The writing is equally spectacular.  Taylor’s descriptions of places is filled with beauty.  She describes Prague as “a city of alchemists and dreamers, its medieval cobbles once trod by golems, mystics, invading armies.”  Contrast that with Marrakesh “a mad, teeming carnival of humanity: snake charmers and dancers, dusty barefoot boys, pickpockets, hapless tourists, and food stalls selling everything from orange juice to roasted sheep’s heads.”

The entire book is filled with richness.  Her descriptions are deep and meaningful.  The relationships between characters are strong and true.  And when she writes a love story, you’d better be ready for your own stomach butterflies to awaken and flutter.  It is honey-sweet, hot and shining.  She has created a world that you will not want to ever leave.

This is one ravishing read that breaks away from the paranormal romance label that could have bound it.  Whether you are a paranormal romance fan or not, this is a book worth reading.  Appropriate for ages 15-18.

Reviewed from ARC received from Little, Brown and Company.

Check out the trailer for the book:

Also reviewed by: