When The World Went Cold

Hello all, how was your weekend?  Mine was exhaustingly busy and awesome and crazy...so about the norm.  I promised you all some Halloween style ramblings this week, so let us start of with The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black.  I got this book on a total whim one day.  I was just sitting on my couch and out of the blue I decided that this was a book I need to get and read for the October season (I love ebooks sometimes, really feeds into my impulse buying/reading habit) and so I did.  Was my impulse decision good or bad?  Lets find out, as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Tana wakes up in the bathroom after a wild highschool party completely alone and having a hard time remembering what happened.  As she makes her way through the house she realizes that every person at the party is dead, killed in a horrific manner, with all the requisite blood and gore.  The only survivor other then herself is her ex-boyfriend Aidan and a crazy (seriously deranged) vampire that goes by Gavriel.  Yep this is a vampire book...but it's ok...it's a good vampire book.  In flashbacks through out the book we learn that vampires have been around forever, but one by the name of Casper Morales bought into the whole human romanticizing of the undead (see what happens when you make your vampires glitter) and decided to go on a turning rampage.  In this world when you get bitten by a vampire you go Cold, which means you are infected, but not turned.  To turn you need to drink human blood, then you die and come back immortal, pointy toothed and thirsty.  If you don't drink human blood within about 88 days then the infection goes away and you remain human.  Cool beans, you think, if I want to stay human I'll just refrain from drinking blood.  Unfortunately it is not so easy, when you go Cold, you get progressively thirstier and thirstier until you turn into a super strong lunatic who would do anything to get blood.  So the vampire Casper goes around infecting as many people as he can sink his teeth into (previously the old vampires would carefully regulate the turning of new vampires to keep their existence a secret and also to keep the food supply plentiful) and all these new crazy insatiable vampires go around infecting more people...lather, rinse, repeat.  The governments doing what governments do, eventually get a bit of a handle on the situation and quarantine off a bunch of the cities, sending any vampires and infected to them. Back to Tana.  Hmmm if I write this all out the post is going to be 100 pages long...I'll do my best.  Tana takes both boys on a freaky road trip where they meet up with Midnight and Winter, a brother and sister duo with a death wish.  They make it to Coldtown where the infected Aiden and the mad Gavriel must live out the rest of their lives and Tana gets a marker to get out later as long as she remains human.  The twins also head in, hoping to convince on of their coveted undead to bite them...without killing them.  Gavriel leaves the group after a parting gift from Tana and the rest of the group head to a house of Midnights friends.  All kinds of absolute horrific, yet entertaining insaneness ensue with truly tragic results.  Tana gets caught up in an ancient feud between Gavriel and Lucien, the vampire who reigns over Coldtown as it's beautiful, untouchable star.  More madness and mayhem, more death and Tana gets bitten for real.  Tana's little sister Pearl comes looking for her adding even more chaos to the mess.  After approximately 2/3 of the characters die we finally end with Tana determined to defeat the infection and remain human.  Gavriel offers to stay with her, as he can easily over power her even in her infected state and in his madness her pleas mean nothing.  Tana asks why he would do this and he tells her she is the only person to ever try and save him.  We end with the two of them holed up for the fight of Tana's life.

Argh!  I hate trying to summarize books like this because it is so chock full of awesomeness and things and stuff that directly pertain to all my myriads of feelings on this book, but if I try and get it all in I'll just rewrite the book. I guess you'll just have to trust me on the stuff I didn't get in.  So I started reading this not knowing what to expect and I think that greatly added to my enjoyment of the book.  Like I said before it was a completely out of the blue, random buy and read.  Ok let's start with the good, and I will try and be coherent.  First of all, I love vampires.  They may be my favorite type of monster 'cause they are usually intelligent and can make choices.  I like the idea of immortality playing a role in their decisions and their weird mix of inclusion and aloofness in the human race. The vampires in this book made me happy because of the variety and realisticness of their attitudes.  You have your ancient and elite guys who have remained hidden for thousands of years, keeping tight control.  You have your young guns who want a change, you have your pathetic, your haughty, and your bat sh*t crazy, all with their own unique perspective.  I liked how the author had a fairly well thought out society and progression of history when it came to her vampires and their history with the rest of the world.  Next on the list surprised me.  I loved all the teenagers.  Yep, I usually am not a fan of modern YA books 'cause teenage angst drives me bananas, but in this book you could tell the author remembered what being a teen felt like without the over the topness you get in a lot of books.  The heroine Tana was tough, but not necessary kick-ass.  She had a history that would justify major drama, but she kept it to a mix of pragmaticness and an impulse control issue.  Tana was scared, confused, angry, tired, and a little bit in love...just like any human would be in her situation.  Aidan was a great character because he started out a bit twisted and messed up and getting infected and the way he acted after all seemed in-line with the character.  He is a character that a lot of writers try to include to show how "progressive" and "modern" they are, but it usually feels like a token piece.  Ms. Black however managed to make Aidan a real person, somebody who I swear I've met before, really well written.  Midnight, Winter and Pearl all show a fascination with the "stars" of Coldtown that mirrors our own societies obsession with a lifestyle they can't have, and they show us all facets of it.  A lot of bad stuff happens in this book, I mean a lot, like Game of Thrones style bad, but all of it is necessary and not only furthers the story, but adds consequences to decisions and actions. I love this because while there are some good outcomes in the book, not everything ended happily and wonderfully.  Choices were made, and sometimes it was the wrong choice and people suffered greatly for it.  There is romance in the book, and the main one is between the heroine and the vampire, but it is actually a decent romance.  Tana realizes that her attraction to Gavriel is in part an instinctive reaction to his looks and she tries to temper it.  The author also lets Gavriel be truly crazy, mad as a hatter and that adds an awesome dimension to a YA romance plot.  Really the only things that got to me were sometimes it felt like the vampires, especially Lucien and his cohorts were directly lifted from an Anne Rice novel.  I sometimes would automatically substitute the name Lestat for the various vampires. The author stated that this book was in part a tribute to the various vampire writers...but it felt a tad bit derivative at times (yay I got to use one of my big girl words).  I could probably go on for pages about the subtleties and nuances and social commentary, but I will let you go read it so you can come back here and discuss it with me. I recommend it to all my reading buddies (you know who you are), anybody who wanted Twilight to be better, or just wants a really nuanced YA book with action and awesome.  I give this book 8 out of 10 garnet necklaces and I hope they never try and turn it into a movie 'cause they will just ruin it.   Happy Reading Everybody!

Woman And Warrior

I MADE IT!!!!!  Sorry it's my first real day off in a couple weeks and I am so so so deliriously happy...also I get the whole weekend off!  To celebrate let's ramble shall we?  I'm gonna go ahead and finish up the Song of the Lioness by talking about Lioness Rampant by Tamora  Pierce.  It is the final book in the quartet and wraps most things up quit nicely, but first as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

After her falling out with the Prince Jonathan, Alanna and her man Corum head to other lands to try and figure out what the map she received at the end of the last book means.  Along the way they meet up Liam Ironarm the Shang Dragon.  The Shang are legendary fighters, trained from a very very young age and the Shang Dragon is the best of them all.  He and Alanna start a relationship (you go girl).  They discover that their map leads them to the fabled Dominion Jewel, that when used by a just ruler can prosper any country that possess it.  Alanna decides that if she can bring this artifact back, she will be able to prove her worth as a knight.  As they are traveling through Sairan, a country torn apart by a very bloody civil war, they happen upon the dead warlords daughter, the Princess Thayet and her K'miri bodyguard Buri.  Both women belay any royal prissyness by being pretty bad ass (YAY!).  Alanna instantly realizes that Thayet, aside from being the most beautiful person she has ever seen, is also one of the only people who could match Jonathan and keep him in check.  She starts aking plans to introduce them, and if they like each other, get them to marry.  They add the girls to their group and head up to the roof of the world to get the jewel.  Alanna discovers that Liam is deathly afraid of all magic, and that includes her Gift.  The group stops at an inn and Alanna can feel the jewel calling her.  She uses her gift to keep everybody asleep and heads out into the blizzard.  Alanna battles the elemental protecting the Dominion Jewel and after some fighting and

conversation obtains the fabled treasure.  She wakes up days later, being rescued by her group to find she is pretty battered, but has secured her jewel.  Liam is upset about her using magic on him and the two end their romantic relationship, but remain friends.  They head home to find that both the Queen and King have died, leaving Prince Jonathan as the new king.  They also discover that Alanna's twin brother Thom has brought back Duke Roger from the grave.  George finally agrees to become a respectable spy master for Jonathan after the infamous Claw (who turns out to be the noble Ralon of Malvon from the first book) continues to kill innocents in his quest for...well who knows what.  Stuff happens and the group uncover a plot to kill Jonathan.  Duke Roger has been sapping magic from Thom and intends to pretty much destroy the who country.  With the help of the jewel Jonathan holds the earth together while the rest of the group battle the traitors.  Alanna kills the Duke and all is ended.  In the aftermath it is discovered that Thom, Liam and Alanna's cat Faithful have all been killed.  Alanna goes to the Bloody Hawk tribe to grieve and recoup.  Thayet comes to get her friends ok to marry Jonathan, which Alanna happily gives.  George comes down to make an honest woman out of her.  That ends the Song of the Lioness Quartet.

This last book is the fattest of all four of the books, and contains the most story of all the books as well.  There is a lot of things I like about this book.  Let's start with the adding of a couple of kick ass women shall we?  The addition of Thayet and Buri do a lot for this book and the story in general.  They show us that Alanna is not the only brave, physical, warrior woman.  They show us that there can be more then one kind of kick ass woman.  Thayet is beautiful, but it is not something she is ashamed of, nor does she use it as a crutch.  For Thayet she is what she is.  She is not afraid to be a woman, a ruler, a mother figure, or a warrior.  All that being said, she has her soft side, her fears and her flaws.  Buri on the other hand, along with reminding Alanna of what she used to be like and giving some great perspective, comes from a different background then the other two women.  She is a commoner, born and bred to serve.  She has no interest in anything other then fighting and protecting her charge.  She has a great outlook on life, giving us another many layered woman

character.  I love that Alanna almost instantly recognizes in Thayet a good partner for Jonathan.  She is able to get past her hurt, and history and help find her friend a good match that will not only make him happy, but be good for the kingdom as well.  I found Alanna and Liam's relationship to be interesting.  I like that she goes for a variety of guys, not always falling for the same type every time.  I also like that even as a warrior who doesn't want to be tied down, that she is not cold and closed off, but open and even eager to explore new relationships (which in my opinion can be even scarier then fighting a monster).  Liam was good for Alanna in some ways, being a bit older and more mature, he was able to allow her to be the "kitten" as he called her.  He taught her a lot of fighting and of the world.  I also liked how they both acknowledged that due to his inability to ever accept her Gift, that their relationship was probably doomed from the start, but both of them agreed to give it a shot anyways.  There was one part when Alanna dresses up for fun that Liam seemed to have an uncharacteristic about face on his ability to view Alanna as a real woman...but it was brief so I guess I can overlook it.  The second have of the book got a bit complicated as the author was trying to tie everything together.  The plot got a bit overly complicated with to many players trying for to many things and we never really got what Roger the Duke of Conte was trying to accomplish...other then mass destruction.  I did appreciate that the author killed of some key people, reminding us that even in stories, battles and violence have its cost.  I also appreciated that Alanna did not just get over the deaths of her loved ones, but needed to take time to grieve.  As far as George and Alanna are concerned...I'm pretty sure they are gonna be ok, but her acquiescence to his desire to have a true wife, mother and Lady as his partner seems to be kind of sudden and uncharacteristic.  I have read more books in this world that give me more insight into George and Alanna's life, but without that it seems a bit...I don't know...trite maybe.  Anyways, the country is saved, the survivors are happily paired off and the realm is on the way to recovery.  Alanna is the King's Champion, finally realizing her dream of knighthood, adventure and glory all while discovering who she really is.  A good ending to a good series and a great set up for further books set in this world.  I give this book 7 out of 10 black pearl earbobs and recommend it everybody who has been following the series.
How do you feel about characters that change their minds about fundamental things?    How many characters are to many?  How much do I love me a strong female character?

The Holy Feast Of I Swear Daddy I Will Kiss The Next Man Who Walks In The Door

We all know that I usually have multiple books going at the same time, this week two of them have been Deadline and Discount Armageddon two very different books, but I noticed they seemed very similar in style.  Ha then I realized they are by the same author Seanan McGuire and her pen name Mira Grant, apparently I like her writing :-) Discount Armageddon was a really fun read, I enjoyed it thoroughly and laughed out loud at several parts.  It is in the dreaded first person narrative, but not a whole lot of angst so it worked. As always SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!

Verity Price is the middle daughter in the infamous Price family...well infamous if you run in cryptid circles.  What is a cryptid?  I'm glad you asked, because it is crucial to the story.  Cryptids are what we humans would consider creatures from fantasy, everything from the bogeyman to the tooth fairy.  There are also less well known creatures such as the religious Aeslin mice that have been known to make a Holy Feast out of just about anything.  Anyways the sheer variety of cryptids of every shape and size keep our intrepid heroine busy.  Verity is part of group/family that does there best to protect the balance of cryptids/humans.  She protects humans from the nastier cryptids who prey on them, and also protects the more vulnerable of the harmless cryptids from discovery and harm.  She also helps protect them from the Covenant, an organization that shows no mercy when it comes to cryptids, pretty much using the line of thinking that no cryptid is a good cryptid.  Her family is considered traitors for not only leaving the Covenant when they discovered that most cryptids were not only sentient, but harmless as well; but for also intermarrying with the occasional
incubus. Verity lives in New York City with her own little colony of Aeslin mice, keeping the humor factor at a maximum.  She is trying to become a professional ball room dancer and in between keeps an eye on the resident cryptid population.  To help her attempts at keeping the cryptid balance, she works as a waitress and Dave's Fish and Strips.  Yep our girl works at a strip joint, but not just any strip joint, a cryptid strip joint.  The place is owned by Dave the bogeyman and he employs mostly cryptids such as Candy the dragon princess who is impervious to fire, Carol the lesser gorgon who has to wear a wig so her snakes don't bite customers and Ryan a smoking hot Tanuki who can become quit animalistic when the need arises.  Going about her business of Tangoing, waitressing, and patrolling Verity runs into Dominic De Luca a Covenant member who has been sent to the New York area to see if they need to do a purge.  After a bit of a fight Verity escapes to inform her family of his very unwelcome presence in her city.  Later at a ballroom competition she runs into Dominic again, this time he asks her if she has been helping cryptids leave, as he has noticed a marked drop in the population. Verity is confused as she attributed the disappearances to Dominic's Covenant cleansing.  Together, along with Verity's psychic cuckoo of a cousin discover a sleeping dragon.  This is exciting and a wee bit terrifying as dragons were thought to be extinct, long ago exterminated by the Covenant.  Verity uses her contacts in the cryptid community to find out more information. Dominic tags along, shocked to find out that most cryptids are not only sentient, but posses personalities, feelings, and other traits only attributed to humans.  Apparently in their quest to exterminate all non-humans the Covenant keeps up a pretty hard line of propaganda dwelling only on the potential cryptid danger to humans.  After a narrow escape from a new type of lizard man monster that neither of the two had seen before, Verity and Dominic get it on.  Afterwords they get into a huge argument, both of them realizing they will never agree on the way cryptid/human interactions should be dealt with.  Verity tells Candy, the dragon princess about the

sleeping dragon, causing Verity to be "invited" to the Nest. There Verity discovers the dragon princesses are actually the female of the dragon species, evolved and adapted to fit in with humans.  The supposedly extinct dragons were only the male of the species.  The females have been able to reproduce and keep at least the female side of the species alive by parthenogenesis, but they can't keep it up forever.  They eventually figure out that it is all unmarried females disappearing and that a snake cult is trying to wake and control the dragon through virgin sacrifices (note that this is not the way to wake a dragon up, but silly stupid humans don't know that).  When one of the cryptid girls that Verity and Dominic had talked to goes missing Verity takes to the sewers to find her.  Unfortunately the girl is dead, and Verity herself makes a very narrow escape.  She runs into Dominic who takes the death of the cryptid girl to heart, realizing that he cannot just blindly kill all cryptids he offers to go get the body while Verity goes to work to warn the other girls.  At the club Verity, Candy and Istas a Waheela get ambushed by the lizard men.  Candy gets away but Istas and Verity are taken to become virgin sacra fices to the sleeping dragon.  After a bloody battle won with the help of Dominic and Sarah (Verity's cousin) who had been summoned by Candy the dragon wakes up.  He and Candy have a moment and the dragon turns out to be very nice.  Dominic and the dragon make a deal that as long as they leave each other alone, one will not hunt the other.  Dominic agrees to keep Verity's presence in New York a secret and not hunt harmless cryptids.  Verity goes back to dancing, waitressing and cryptid keeping and the start of a new series is born.

I really enjoyed this book, it was funny, the pacing was good, the characters were all well written, just a good book overall.  Verity is how you write a kick-ass girl.  I know sometimes I complain about the trope of a kick-ass girl, but that is because that seems to be all there is to them.  With Verity it works for a couple of reasons a) She was raised to be a kick-ass girl, so she has a reason to be, it's what keeps her alive. b) She is not a perfect kick-ass girl, she has her believable weaknesses, the biggest being that sometimes she believes to much in her own kick-assness and forgets that other people/cryptids are capable of kicking her ass. c) There is a lot more to her then just her kick-assness. I like how this is written in a kind of classic, almost comic book style, there is fighting, supernatural creatures, and even the occasional skimpy clothing...ok there is a lot of skimpy clothing, but even that serves a purpose.  I think one of my favorite things in the whole book (besides the Aeslin mice), which I have noticed in the authors other books as well is that there is a good bit of actual science in the story.  Now a lot of books would either skip this part, or get really bogged

down in the details, but Ms. McGuire manages to stuff a lot of it in without once slowing down the pace of the book.  I also liked how she used science to point out some of the problems with the hard line Covenant thinking.  In science what makes a gorilla a protected animal, but a Sasquatch a cryptid in need of extermination?  A Madhura who for all intents and purposes is a sweet loving human who just happens to be able to slow decay and bleed sweet smelling blood needs to be killed, but a homicidal human is to be protected?  I also like how Dominic does not have an instant change of heart...not even after he sleeps with Verity.  His change is gradual and comes about as he learns about real life away from the sheltered, propaganda ridden walls of the Covenant.  He also does not come all the way around to Verity's way of thinking, just becomes a bit more tolerant of it, also he call her insufferable woman a lot, which for some reason reminds me of Pride and Prejudice, which is always a good thing. The only things I didn't like are super nit picky.  I wanted to see more of Verity's dancing, she talks about it a lot, but we only really get to see her do it twice.  I want to know more about Verity's family, they seem fascinating, but I think that we will get more of that in later books.  I am definitely looking forward to reading the next books in the series!
Why do tropes sometimes work and sometimes suck patootie?  What cryptid most intrigues you?  What do you think defines a cryptid versus "normal" nature?  Do you sometimes just love a kick-ass book?  Do you think that I really like to type kick-ass?

Starry Blue Apocolypse

Spoiler Alert Spoiler Alert Spoiler Alert Spoiler Alert Spoiler Alert
Just had to put that out there 'cause I'm pretty sure the spoilers will be coming fast and fierce with this rambling of And All the Stars by Andrea Host.  I actually decided to do something different and try and write down all my reactions to the book, so here they are in the order that they were written.
Starry blue apocalypse (what a great post title), Apple green cavalry teeheehee, Noi, not the main girl character yet by far the strongest and yet most caring girl in the book, Fisher-Science Boy YAY!, Pan is a theatre guy and not gay, Nash is the hot athletic one and is gay, yay for stereo-type reversals, Tyler?, AHHHHH Alien boyfriend, ....ew?!?, Theodin :-)  Shakespeare and Peter Pan I may die happy, Oh...gees, Never knew the boy, The Host, Why are Aussie teens more mature?  No crushing Angst, eh happy/pat ending.

That my friends was pretty much word for word in order the thoughts I had time to jot down while reading this book...but what is it about you ask, well I will tell you. Be prepared for an epically long post!
Madeline wakes up in the rubble of St. James station, confused and hurt.  It takes a couple chapters but we learn that huge Spires of something have risen out of the earth at Earth's most populated cities spewing a cloud of glittering dust that may turn everybody into Edward Cullen...wait I mean we don't know what is going to happen with the dust.  Sydney Australia is one of those cities and this is just the beginning.  Madeline makes her way to her cousins (the androgynous cross-dressing, movie star Tyler) apartment and starts putting together what happened.  People are warned to stay indoors and try not to be exposed to the dust as they are not sure what it does yet.  Madeline gets a hold of her family and lets them know that she is safe.  Meanwhile her body starts to to weird things, like ache all over, giver a hunger like she has never

experienced, allows her to project and "shape" energy, and oh yeah it covers most of her body in a deep blue starry like substance.  After eating all the food in the apt.  Madeline goes in search of food and meets Noi, a baker who survived the initial dust dispersion.  She informs Madeline that the dust does one of three things, kills you, makes you Green, or makes you Blue, Noi is Blue like Madeline.  The girls run into a boy who appears to have fallen down the stairs and meet his friends, the beautiful Nash, the impish Pan, and Gav who drives and apple green Bug.  All of the boys are Blues and come from a boarding school where they are trying to help their fellow school mates recover.  After some practical other things being done, the boys and girls decide to band together, along with a young girl named Emily that they pick up along the way.  They start doing experiments, trying to figure out how to use their new found powers and keep enough food in the house to feed their new ravousness appetites.  Madeline, who is an introvert by nature, finds the best way to stay calm is to sketch and paint her new friends.  She is also attracted to the driven, calm and intelligent Fisher, who is doing everything he can to find out about the dust and the Spires.  Madeline and Noi become inseparable as friends, depending on each other far more then anyone else.  One day while experimenting with a large group of Blues at a local beach, huge white "kites" of energy start swooping in and possessing the Blues.  The group try and get away, but Gav is taken.

They acquire a new companion in the form of Min, a sarcastic, yet practical boy. They get away and move into an apartment with a secret office and rig up early warning devices.  Madeline finally acts on her feelings for Fish in an awkward but very sweet way, but they are interrupted by the Spire "singing".  By watching the news they find out that the possessed Blues are aliens called the En-Mott and that they are here for two years to settle primacy...whatever that means.  The humans are to turn over anybody who is Blue, and if they are not sufficient more dust will be released until they have enough.  The Green's it turns out are susceptible to the Spires and are essentially mind controlled by it.  This triggers a cycle of trying to figure out what to do, hiding and practicing.  It is discovered that some of the Blues (like Nash) instead of expelling energy actually need to absorb it from other Blues, these are called leech-Blues. Turns out that settling primacy means having several types of challenges, destroying buildings and humans in the process.  When one of the challengers turns out to be hunting Madeline down for being the strongest Blue, the group decides to head out.  They end up in a newly build hotel, and Madeline and Fish do the deed...several times (yay for teenage sex).  Madeline tells Noi that she has fallen in love with Fish.  The next day they are all captured and separated.  Madeline wakes up to an empty building and minimal food.  The En-Mott are trying to weaken her so that they can possess her.
 She runs into Fisher who informs her that he has actually been possessed the whole time and that she has never actually met the human half.  Understandably this devastates Madeline, but she keeps her head as the alien who now calls himself Theodin (yep after the king in Lord of the Rings) tells her that he has a plan to help her rid her world of aliens as he has come to love their group and want to protect them.  He makes her angry enough to "soul punch" the alien out of the body, killing the alien in the process.  She learns how to transfer energy into the human host so that he survives the transition and discovers that the host knows and remembers everything that happened while possessed (as my brother would say Awkward).  Putting aside her teen angst for later, Madeline and the newly released Fisher go and free the others, finding out the alien plans in the process.  I'm still not 100% sure what everything meant, but I did get that the aliens would come back every eight years, so just trying to wait out the promised two years wasn't going to help anything.  Using there new found fighting techniques the group (who have been calling themselves The Blue Musketeers) teaches the world how to fight of the aliens.  At the end Fisher tells Madeline that he does have feelings for her, and point blank tells her the difference between himself and the alien.  He gives Madeline the choice to come with him, or go with the other group.  Madeline chooses to see what happens with him.  The epilogue shows the group five years later, all with happy endings and a free if slightly torn up planet.

Whew, that was honestly just a bare bones plot synopsis, this book is so so so much more.  I loved this book, I couldn't put this book down, much work was not completed because of this book.  I think I liked this book so much because it was so gosh darn practical, especially for a young adult scifi book.  Let's start with the writing.  The first chapter of two totally confused me, it dumps you right into this confused, painful, wait did I just miss something moment.  At first I thought I had missed something because it was just like..what the hell?  This ended up working really well because that is exactly what our main character was feeling and right of the bat you had some insight into her new life.  I loved that other than glimpses here and there this story was mostly about the here and now, and a possible future.  The pacing of this book was really great, a mix between action, dialogue, humor, introspection and a lot of food. The author makes use of Shakespeare, Tolkien, Dumas, and Barrie in a way that fits beautifully into the story (I'm a sucker for an author who loves and respects other authors), and turning the group into The Blue Musketeers gave the reader a sense that the group found a way to be
cohesive. The words of course were vastly important, and this author does not shy away from words, but on the whole she is not overly flowery either, a very good balance.  On to the characters.  The characters were my favorite part of this book, the author did an amazing job making them seem authentic, everything they did or said seemed to make sense and have a real life motive.  Nobody was given words or actions just to further the plot.  The underlying feel of the group was that they were all friends, there was no unnecessary drama, no pointless misunderstandings, just a group of people who were trying to survive and along the way formed unbreakable bonds.  Even the romances were low key and plausible.  The main romance between Madeline and Fisher was even discussed as being the result of the situation, more than a long term development.  Madeline was a great main character (though I use that term loosely as almost all the characters were very well developed).  She was never the leader, never the most beautiful, her talent, while amazing, was not one that necessarily saved lives, she had a hard time not withdrawing and her tightest relationship was not with the boy she fell in love with, but the discovery of a best friend in Noi.  Noi was awesome, that is all I can say.  She is my favorite type of character, capable but willing to ask for help, strong and caring, bossy and able to bake.  She is the type that reminds you that you can be more then the strong, sexy shooter girl, or the quiet shy, yet oh-so-good girl.  Noi is as human as they come and I love her for it. Emily the young girl, full of young anger, this character really showed the difference a few years and some maturity can make. She was portrayed as 12/13 year old girl, not in the sense that she was whiny, but that her emotions would swing from clingy and scared, to unreasonably angry over the slightest thing.  I liked this contrast to the older more mature members of the team.  Fisher was a good character, possessed or not I loved the idea of the main romantic interest being a smarty mcsmarty pants.  Again he never belittled people for not knowing as much as him, and his joy came from learning, not so much knowing.  Nash was the perfect mix of strong and sweet, somebody who should

be around in any crisis.  Min...well we all know a Min, a guy who covers everything up with a sarcastic joke, but will be the first one to defend you when it comes down to it.  Gav was about as boy next-door as you can get, probably the most laid back character, willing to do what needed to be done. Then there is Pan, he is my other favorite character in the book.  He is constantly "performing" always quoting lines from plays and keeping the groups spirit up.  Tyler is the other character that is used in this book, though we don't get to know him very well as he is off-stage most of the time, but he is the epitome of staying true to oneself in the most extreme of ways, I'm not sure how effective this was in this type of story, but I'm glad he was in there anyways.  Overall the author figured out how to put in a ton of diversity, ethnic,
sexual orientation/identification, personality, gender, location in a manner that did not seemed forced.  The concept of the aliens was pretty cool, for some reason though, they kept reminding me of the book The Host (but that may be because of all the trailers that are out) I like that most of them had a complete disregard for human life, it made the killing of them easier to stomach.  I wish the history and current events of there race was a little clearer, but I don't think it mattered in the end.  I do however want my own dandelion dragon. The ending was a bit to pat and happy, but not implausible and after everything that had happened to these poor kids I guess they deserved a happy ending.  In case you couldn't tell, I loved this book and would recommend it to almost anyone.  I give it 9 out of 10 dandelion dragons.
What makes a book unputdownable for you?  How would you survive an alien invasion?  Why are Aussie teens so much more mature then American teens?

Mismatched Eyes

Just finished rereading Graceling by Kristin Cashore in preparation for reading Bitterblue.  This was and interesting reread because my feelings for the book actually changed with a second reread, but I'll get to that in a second.  First a quick synopsis (Warning Spoilers as Usual)

Katsa is a Graceling, which is a person who possess a very specific skill and is set apart physically by mismatched eyes (in Katsa's case she has one brilliant blue eye and one green eye).  The skill vary by person, some are amazing cooks, some are brilliant gardeners, some read minds, Katsa kills.  Ever since she was little she has been able to defend herself in the most definitive of ways.  In her kingdom the Middluns any person that is Graced belongs to the King.  Katsa is King Randa's niece and also his enforcer, he sends her to hurt or kill anyone whom he deems in
need of punishment.  To counterbalance these heinous acts she is forced to do Katsa along with her cousin the Prince Raffin,  Lord Giddon and Oll captain of the Kings spies form the Counsel, which tries to right the wrongs and protect the people, all in secret of course.  One of these Counsel missions leads Katsa to rescue Grandfather Tealiff the father of the current king of Lienid of of the seven kingdoms that makes up our little world.  All of this leads to Katsa meeting the youngest son of the king of Lienid, Prince Po who is Graced with fighting (his eyes are gold and silver).  The two start to regularly spar, Katsa enjoying the ability to use her full force without killing her opponent.  Po tells the Council that he is trying to figure out who ordered the kidnapping of his grandfather and why.  Katsa gets sent to force a lords daughter to marry for the benefit of the King and finds she can no longer make her self do the King's dirty work.  Katsa runs away with Po to Monsea, a little kingdom separated from the rest by high mountains.  They finally figure out that the King Leck of Monsea, who has a reputation of being extremely kind is actually a monster who can control peoples minds with a suggestion.  They continue on their journey, falling in love in the process and Po reveals that his true Grace is his ability to sense everything and everybody around him.  He has kept it a secret to keep himself from becoming a pawn to any king.  They also discover Katsa does not have a killing Grace, but a survival Grace and that killing and hurting people is just one manifestation of it, she can also heal quickly, go on very little sleep, always catch or find food, and always get a fire lit. This makes Katsa feel more like a person and less like a monster.  They eventually run into King Leck and his army and watch him murder his own wife in front of them (who just happens to be Po's aunt).  King Leck uses his Grace to convince people that it was an accident, including
Katsa, Po's Grace however keeps him safe from Lecks mind numbery (that is really a word...I swear) and grabs Katsa and gets her out of there.  They find the child Bitterblue (King Leck's daughter) who King Leck is hunting and promise to gt her to safety.  Po is injured pretty severely when he goes after Leck on his own and Katsa and Bitterblue must leave him in a cabin hidden in the woods.  Katsa takes Bitterblue (who is one of the best characters in this book) and heads over the impassable mountain pass.  This is one of the most effectively described scenes I have ever read, I actually get cold and tired whenever I read it.  They finally make it over the pass and onto a Lienid ship.  They are taken to Po's castle to try and get help from his family, but it is to late Leck has already beaten them there.  King Leck bends everybodies mind to his will, but when he threatens to expose Po, Katsa's mind clears enough for her to kill him.  Bitterblue is now the queen of Monsea and they take her back to claim her throne and to find Po.  Po however has another secret, the injuries he sustained while fighting Leck have left him blind.  This causes him to be depressed for a while, but then he learns to use his Grace to "see" things with his senses.  The story ends with Katsa setting up training camps for girls to learn self-defense, Bitterblue starting to help her kingdom recover, and Po off to settle things in Lienid with a promise to meet up with Katsa later.
The first time I read this book a couple of years ago, I remember loving everything about it, a kick-ass heroine, a crazy King, a journey across the continent all my favorites.  Reading it a second time I still really like it, but for some reason not as much as the first time.  I'm not sure if I have lost all patience with teenage angst, or if rereading it I picked up on things I did not the first time, not really sure.
Things I loved.  I love the concept of the Graces, I love stories that have a special something that comes in a variety (does that make sense?). The Tamora Pierce series Circle of Magic does this really well too.  I love all the different ways a person could be Graced and the different ways people choose to utilize that Grace.  I like the idea of the seven Kingdoms, each with it's own people and customs, but still all close enough to have an effect on each other.  I like that the main character goes on a personal journey, starting as a pawn of her king with seemingly few options, to putting together the Council, to leaving the king's service all together.  I love, love, love the character of Bitterblue.  She starts as an understandably terrified small 10 year old child, who has witnessed horrible things including the murder of her mother at the hand of her father.  Eventually as she begins to trust people she turns into this snarky, smart, intelligent young lady.  She is nowhere near as physically dominating as Katsa and Po, which is great.  I think the character of Bitterblue shows that there is more than one way to be a kick-ass girl.
Things I did not love quit so much.  The execution of the Graces was a little spotty to me, the few people we meet with Graces seem to have no parameters placed on their skills, it seemed that especially for Po and Katsa a new aspect of their Grace would appear anytime the story needed it to overcome some obstacle.  I'm not 100% sure how hurting other people on the orders of the king is part of survival.  Po seemed a little to perfect at times, always open when Katsa was closed off, skilled, sensitive, even able to overcome his blindness fairly quickly (seriously he went from struggling and depressed over his blindness to the simple "oh I just accept my Grace and now I can sense and make sense of everything" all in one sentence).  The love story was pretty run of the mill, the author tried to make it different by throwing the whole "I will love you, but I won't marry you and I can leave at any time" stuff in there, but as soon as Katsa acknowledged her feelings, it seemed that she fell right into the "oh Po you are the love of my life and all I can think about is you and if you are unhappy so am I and since you are not here your all I can think about sad face" (holy run on sentence batman).  This is all personal dislikes and really most people dig this kind of story so it is not a deal breaker.  I am still not 100% sure the reasoning Leck had for kidnapping Grandfather Tealiff, other than to make his wife miserable.

Overall I am excited to read Bitterblue, I hope the author keeps a lot of the same sass the character had in this book.  I read Fire a companion book to this one and loved it even more than this book so this author has a pretty good track record with me so far.  Also these books have the best covers ever! (well except for Zombies vs Unicorns cause I don't think anything can top that cover).  I would recommend this book to almost any reader, especially people who like fantasy, fighting, kick-ass girls and an interesting fairly well executed premise.
Have you ever been disappointed in a reread?  How many ways are there to actually write a love story?  Do you love secondary characters as much as I do?