The Dark Artifices, Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare, a book review

The Dark Artifices, Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare is an interesting book. I did like a lot about it, but only recommend it with many reservations.

First, sex is represented in such a way as to suggest most, if not all, of the characters have loose morals where it is concerned, and low regard for the sanctity of it. This along is troubling enough for me to set this one in a pile of books my girls will not be allowed to read until much older. Because of other subjects and the manner in which they are handled, it is a story I will not really encourage my children to read. Any topics covered in a good way aren't worth the problems.

Another problem is the representation of sexuality… although I recognize that bisexuality and homosexuality are becoming more socially acceptable and are often visible, I find it troubling to find it represented as completely acceptable in youth literature. I know I'm on a very unpopular side of this subject.

There are a couple homosexual couples and one of the more major characters is bisexual.

Also, for many fundamentalist Christians (and some others), the amount of and representation of magic would be problematic. This is a lesser issue in my mind, honestly. Definitely something to be aware of, though!

So, the romance part of the story… basically, this girl and this guy are linked magically and forbidden by law to fall in love. They do anyway and are planning to just hide their relationship. But then the girl finds out why the law forbids it and takes matters into her own hands.

The rest of the story is all about how these two figure out who is behind a series of murders, including the girl's parents, and stopping the murderer from fulfilling an evil plan.

It is an interesting premise and story. I did like it. I do not think it is appropriately shelved in the area for teens and YA, though. I guess I'm a bit more conservative than many these days.

Have you read The Dark Artifices, Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare? What did you think of it?

The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill, a book review

The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill is a good one. My two eldest daughters enjoyed it thoroughly as well. Definitely appropriate for readers from 10 (possibly younger if they read and comprehend well) and up.

Basically, this story is about a witch who saves babies because of a city that believes they must sacrifice them in order to stay safe as a result of lies they've been told by another powerful person who desires to maintain power. Normally, she saves them and feeds them magically as she brings them to their new home. Inadvertently, though, she feeds the main character with the light of the moon instead of the stars and the result is a magical little girl that the witch decides to raise since she, herself, knows that it's like to be magical and can teach the girl how to use the power she has. I want to share more, but it would be a bit of a spoiler to do so as far as the premise is concerned.

I appreciate how the main character is basically kept from self-knowledge until she's a teen and then begins to learn in a very fast and uncomfortable way who she really is. All set in a fantastic sort of reality with magic and dragons and other fantastic sorts of things.

This was an enjoyable read for me as well as my daughters. I do highly recommend it for any reader. Very good conversation starters herein as well.

Have you read The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill? What did you think?

Happily Ever After by Kiera Cass, a book review

Happily Ever After by Kiera Cass is not what I was expecting. I thought I'd checked out the story about the daughter of the couple who got together in The One, but it is not.  If you'd like to read my book reviews of that series, you can find them here, HERE, and here.

This is a compilation of stories from the perspective of others who were not really a focal point in the main series. Once I realized what it was (and wasn't), I really enjoyed it for what it was. Definitely interesting to see some of the same things from different characters' perspectives!

I particularly enjoyed knowing more about the thoughts, feelings, and interactions of those lesser characters represented in these short stories.

I do recommend this book, but really only for older teens and adults... and probably ladies.  I mean, if a guy likes romance, then he'll love this too!

Have you read Happily Ever After by Kiera Cass? What did you think of it?

Lyonesse, Dark Solstice by Sam Llewelllyn, a book review

Lyonesse, Dark Solstice by Sam Llewellyn is the continuation and conclusion of Idris Limpet's story, which is also loosely based on the King Arthur legend. In this book Idris gathers his knights of the table round. It's interesting to see a way that this iconic table may have come to be among the Arthurian knights.

Idris travels with his companions, his knights, to find and rescue his sister Morgan and bring her back to prove to other kings that they should help him reclaim his throne. He accomplishes his goal. His reclamation isn't quite what he had in mind, though. Saying more would really give away too much. It's a good enough story that you really should just read it yourself!

So, obviously, I recommend this book. My two eldest daughters read (at least once) it and love it!

Have you read Lyonesse, Dark Solstice by Sam Llewellyn? What did you think of it?

Lyonesse, Well Between The Worlds by Sam Llewellyn, a book review

Lyonesse, Well Between The Worlds by Sam Llewellyn is not what you may go in expecting if you knew this is loosely based on the King Arthur story. In fact, though, it is!

Idris Limpet is just a poor boy from a poor family in a city near the shore. He has grown up the son of a fisherwoman and a soldier. Nothing spectacular. Until you realize he has a pet seagull. And then you learn that he can see what the gull can see. Cool, right?

But completely unacceptable, in general, in his culture. Thankfully, right before he was killed for being different, he was saved and rushed away from everything and everyone he knew to begin a new life among complete strangers and learn new skills… to become a monstergroom.

Monsters are the fuel of the day and monstergrooms tend the monsters which move the gears of this world's machines. That's just the way it is.

Idris learns to question the way things are and begins to imagine a better way.

Thankfully, by nature of his true parentage, he may just be in a position to do something about it!

I enjoyed and recommend Lyonesse, Well Between the Worlds. It caught my attention and held it, even though at times it felt very much like I was in a dream world while reading. I enjoyed it. My two eldest daughters really love it, too. My second daughter said she liked it as much as another series that has been her favorite for a while now.

Have you read Lyonesse, Well Between the Worlds by Sam Llewellyn? What did you think of it?

Thrice Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris, a book review

Thrice Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris… Edric, how we love to laugh at your silly sayings! And Marigold… stop it with the elephant jokes! Please! Seriously, though, we love Thrice Upon a Marigold as much as Once Upon a Marigold and wish our library had the middle book in this series!  (I haven't read or reviewed that one because our library doesn't have it yet and I don't have a budget for buying fluff as yet.)  You can read my review of Once Upon a Marigold HERE.

Marigold has a baby. Baby is stolen. Mama and Daddy and some new characters team up to retrieve baby. This is the story!

It's a good one. My two eldest daughters and I thoroughly enjoyed it and I highly recommend it. If you can, I'm sure reading the one that comes right before it would also be totally enjoyable based on our enjoyment of first and third. I'll make sure to share once I'm able to read it myself!

Have you read Thrice Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris? What did you think about it?

The Thirteenth Reality, The Void of Mist and Thunder by James Dashner, a book review

The Thirteenth Reality, The Void of Mist and Thunder by James Dashner is the final book the Tick's saga, to the best of my knowledge (though no the end of his story).

Tick must escape the nowhere land he has found himself in with Mistress Jane and Chu. It's really up to him. They can't get themselves out.

He manages it somehow. In the doing, though, a part of the fourth dimension squeaks into their own multiverse and begins to wreak havoc. Again, though there are many forces working to assist, it falls to Tick to fix everything. He sorta manages to…

I do recommend this book and series for middle grade readers. Since the main character is a guy, young guys may especially enjoy it. My daughters love it and they are the reason I read the whole series even though it was a bit of a chore to push through each day. It's got lots of fodder for conversation with my daughters, so definitely not wasted time!

Have you read The Thirteenth Reality, The Void of Mist and Thunder by James Dashner? What did you think of it?

The Thirteenth Reality, The Blade of Shattered Hope by James Dashner, a book review

The Thirteenth Reality, The Blade of Shattered Hope by James Dashner is the third book in the saga of Tick and his friends striving to save the world from the evil geniuses in the realities. This series rests on the premise that there are many realities, with 13 of them being prime. Each reality has some of the same people, but not all do the same things. One's alterant might be very tall or very fat, depending on which reality s/he was from..

In this step in Tick's journey as a realitant, he is pitted against Mistress Jane who has pretty much completely lost all her sense. She's batty as a result of her interactions and experiences with Tick in the first book. She has set out to fulfill her goal of a utopia for all the realities… by doing evil. What's a little sacrifice of 6 billion lives if it saves more than 18 billion? This is how she thinks.

My daughters love this series. I read it because they wanted me to read it. It is good. It definitely did not have me in thrall. I had to push myself to finish it, quite frankly. I'm glad I did because I'm able to talk to my daughters about it. There are lots of great conversation starters, both of the fluff kind as well as many of deeper nature. I think this series is solidly written for middle grade readers. Boys in that age group, often considered the most difficult to hook on books, would probably love it! I definitely recommend it for those age readers.

Have you read The Thirteenth Reality, The Blade of Shattered Hope by James Dashner? What did you think of it?

The Thirteenth Reality, The Hunt For Dark Infinity by James Dashner, a book review

The Thirteenth Reality, The Hunt for Dark Infinity, by James Dashner, is the second book in Tick's saga. I shared my thoughts about the beginning of Tick's adventures HERE, so if you're trying to decide if this series is a go, make sure to check there first!

In this book, Tick continues to grow in new power through the tests Chu puts him through, unbeknownst to him.

Mistress Jane, in this book, seems to be turning over a new leaf. No longer the evil villain, she is trying to behave differently and be kinder, it seems.

She eventually learns that she is meant to do something that would have been easy for her to do in the first book, but she questions whether she should do it at all in this one. By the end, she makes her decision.

Tick and his friends move through various devious tests orchestrated by Chu, who is really just trying to find someone to help him rule the multiverse. He is an evil genius and Tick is determined to foil his plans and bring only actual good (not the twisted power-hungry version Chu has in mind) to the multiverse.

I had a tough time pushing through this book, to tell ya the truth. I did it, and will read the rest of the series, because my daughters want me to. It's good. But definitely didn't have me on the edge of my seat by any means. I definitely recommend it for middle grade readers, perhaps especially boys (though my daughters love it).

Have you read The Thirteenth Reality, the Hunt for Dark Infinity, by James Dashner? What did you think of it?

Treasure of Khan, a Dirk Pitt Novel by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler, a book review

Treasure of Khan by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler is another of the stack of books we received from a coworker of my husband's. It is an action packed story which ties a possible event in history to a fictional series of events set in the present day.

History made pertinent to hair raising modern day events is an interesting theme that seems to be common in Cussler's stories. I like it. The descriptions of guns and detail about fight scenes (when they get bloody), not so much. He definitely writes for a male audience!

This story involves the children of the main character, which I found a really interesting plot twist. Especially because the main character, Dirk Pitt, didn't know about them until they were basically adults and their mother was dead (which we learn in this book).

Action and mystery weave together throughout this story. It's interesting how Cussler alludes to some things and allows others to be complete surprises.

I did like this novel. It is definitely for an adult audience, primarily because of the nature of the action scene as well as some of the interactions between characters. My children will not read it any time soon, though I'm sure my eldest would enjoy it because she loves mysteries and actions packed scenes.

Have you read Treasure of Khan by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler? What did you think of it?