July 29th, 2010 — 4.5-5 Treasure Chests, Book Review, Fantasy, G-I, Romance, School Situations
by First Mate Keira
Title: Hex Hall
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Format: Kindle ebook
Page Count: 336 pages (Hardback)
Grade Reading Level: Grade 8+
Summary: Sophie has known for a couple of years that she’s a witch. She loves the way magic feels tingling up from her soles to her fingertips. It’s a rush. Unfortunately for Sophie a love spell gone horribly wrong gets her sentenced to Hecate (affectionately Hex Hall) the reform school for irresponsible Prodigium (witches, faeries, and shapeshifters). There she meets 3 beautiful mean Dark Witches who want her to join their coven, makes friends with the school pariah, makes enemies of the Vandy, and crushes on the most popular if annoying boy in the whole school all the while dark and scary things are taking place up in the girl’s dormitory.
Why I started this book:
Read the summary – it looked cute. I’ve also seen the title around a lot in the YA blogosphere.
Likes:
- Hawkins is absolutely hysterical. In my Kindle version I must have highlighted three or four phrases and considered doing so to another six. I especially liked: “I don’t need eyes to see you. I see you with the eyes of my heart! Felicia! My heart!” (That’s just remembering though I think it’s pretty accurate.)
- Sophie Mercer is a huge dork and the source of most of the humor in the story as it’s told in first person. She’s great and her sarcastic and witty barbs will leave you in stitches.
- Archer Cross is a yummy hero. Of course he’s the popular unattainable guy who is dating Elodie who is out to get Sophie, but hey you can only fault his taste in women not the guy himself. There’s definitely more to him than what meets the eye and that includes the big shocker at the end.
- Jenna the 15 year old vampire girl who loves pink.
Dislikes:
- It was done so cutely it’s hard to really put this as a dislike, but Sophie is a potty mouth and cursed a lot.
- Classes weren’t done in any real detail except the first Defense class.
- Of the 3 Dark Witch popular girls only Elodie was truly fleshed out. I thought some of the faeries were crueler and could have been used to create more drama.
Favorite Quote: “I don’t need eyes to see you! I see you with the eyes of my heart, Felicia! My HEART!”
Last Minute Thoughts: Looking forward to book two, which is maybe, possibly, titled Demonglass. It's hard to tell the author's blog is a little disorganized and a quick look at her website code doesn't open some of the links.
Buy: Hex Hall (Book 1) (Hardback)
, Hex Hall (Book One) (Kindle)
Rating: 4.5 Treasure Chests
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July 28th, 2010 — News and Site Updates
July 27th, 2010 — 4.5-5 Treasure Chests, Advance Reader Copy Review, Fantasy, J-L, Romance
by First Mate Keira
Title: Winter’s Passage (Book 1.5 in Iron Fey Series)
Author: Julie Kagawa
Format: Kindle ebook
File Size: 211 KB
Grade Reading Level: Grade 7+
Summary: Winter’s Passage explores the gap of time between Iron King and Iron Daughter. If you remember, Meghan Chase made a deal with Ash, prince of the Winter court, to go with him willingly back with him to the heart of Unseelie territory and into Queen Mab. Winter’s Passage starts when Ash comes to collect on this promise. The journey is not without its challenges. On the way to Tir na nog an ancient rarely seen enemy begins to hunt them…and according to Ash nobody ever wins against it.
Why I started this book:
I just finished reading Iron King and wanted to know what happened next and didn’t want to wait for the release of Iron Daughter. I got a copy from the publisher. It's a free ebook for a limited time online and might still be—you will have to check it out.
Likes:
- The ancient scary enemy is the Big Bad Wolf. Kagawa writes deliciously thrilling fight scenes between the Big Bad Wolf, Ash, and Meghan.
- That Meghan isn’t a complete dead weight in a fight. Yay girl power!
- When Meghan doesn’t abandon Ash during a golden opportunity, it confuses him and yet shows him just how human she is… which frightens him because he knows this loyalty of hers will get her hurt in his home court. Poor faery boy.
- The continuance of Meg and Ash’s relationship. He drops his icy demeanor around her and they get very close. You can’t question his love for her even if his loyalties must go to his mother, Queen Mab.
- I think fans of the series should read this before starting Iron Daughter because it’s very illuminating, and while portions of it are found in reminisce on Meghan’s part in the second book, they have a stronger punch set within the novella.
Buy: Winter's Passage (Kindle)
Rating: 5 Treasure Chests
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July 25th, 2010 — 3.5-4 Treasure Chests, Action & Adventure, Book Review, Fantasy, P-R
by First Mate Keira
Title: The Red Pyramid (Kane Chronicles, Book 1)
Author: Rick Riordan
Format: Kindle ebook
Page Count: 528 pages (Hardcover version)
Grade Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Summary: When Carter and Sadie’s father, Dr. Julius Kane, accidentally destroys the Rosetta Stone and sets five Egyptian gods loose their whole life changes as secrets begin to unravel. They almost immediately come into magical powers and have to run from forces of evil. Together they have to learn how to cope, rescue their father, and save the world all with just the help from their uncle, Sadie’s cat, and a few other misfits.
Why I started this book:
I have read the Percy Jackson series by Riordan and was interested in seeing what he did next.
Likes:
- Riordan combined both worlds – Kane Chronicles and Percy Jackson with a few vague references that tickled me pink. One mention was by Uncle Amos referred to the gods on the other side of Manhattan (he was looking at the Empire State Building when he said it.) The second was by Thoth and referred to Hermes.
- The multicultural aspect: the interracial parents and the siblings looking different from each other with Carter being dark like their father and Sadie being light like their mother. Riordan’s definition of fairness and equality was highlighted by several Kindle users both in its original location and when he echoed it later in the novel.
- The Egyptian god setup was as carefully explained by Riordan as the Greek gods in Percy Jackson. He goes over the two different sets, how they combine, and explained inconsistencies using a well thought out bit of imagination. They are Set, Osiris, Isis, Horus, and Nephthys to name the big five.
- I liked the form of long distance travel – how Egyptian and Egyptian style monuments were turned into places of power and portals.
- Anubis is hot!
Dislikes:
- Carter was not as strong a hero as I am used to for a protagonist. It was odd for me to read again and again proof that his younger sister was stronger.
- Sadie is far, far, far too young for Anubis. Twelve and boy crazy? I guess if he’s Justin Bieber.
- Sadie and Carter’s grandparents. Ugh.
Buy: The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles, Book 1)
The Red Pyramid (Kindle Version)
Rating: 4 Treasure Chests
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July 23rd, 2010 — Buried Treasure
by First Mate Keira
Once I was in an English class where the teacher brought out a list of books – thirty some titles long – one for each class member. We were to do a 10 page report on our selected book and had a month and a half to complete it.
He went over all the books and I made a list of ones I thought I’d like to read. When he called my name (I’m in the middle of the alphabet) all my books had been taken already by other students. Total bummer.
I couldn’t remember anything about the other books on the list so when he suggested a classic “romance” and said I’d really enjoy it because I was always reading romance novels in class, I took the book.
Big mistake.
Big. Huge. Mistake.
Suffice it to say he was dead wrong. This classic romance is still in my top 3 worst books ever read. As it was for a class assignment there was no way I could get out of reading the book (and because of this book I’m a firm believer in quitting while you’re ahead if you hate a book).
The teacher set up the assignment so that we had to read most of our chosen book in class. I couldn’t fake reading the book and grab the CliffNotes. (Which really sucked, because CliffNotes would have made it so much easier.) No. I had to read it in front of him.
To get through that really bad terrible awful horrible stinky book I had to learn a few tricks. Here’s how you too can get through a really bad book:
- Force Yourself to Read a Little Every Day. I didn’t and had to cram about 400 pages (and that was less than half of the book by the way) in two days and still write the 10 page report. Yikes. Never do that. It makes the whole experience worse. Trust me.
- Learn to Skim. Best practice I ever found was to read the first sentence of every paragraph. If it looked important I would read the whole paragraph. If it didn’t I moved on to the next one.
- Keep the CliffNotes Handy. Your teacher may let you use CliffNotes and if that’s the case, do so. If not, it still doesn’t hurt to have them close by to save time. Use the CliffNotes to stop yourself from doing any cumbrous rereading. They have already figured out the book and will help explain passages to you that get tricky.
- For Reports – Take Notes. Use notecards. They make good bookmarks too.
- 1 notecard for each chapter. Try to explain what happened in a few sentences. Note any major themes, plots, events.
- 1 notecard for every major character. Write a short bio, note the strengths and weaknesses, the motivation, and mark down any development that occurs.
- 1 notecard for all minor characters. Make it easy on yourself and put them all together and explain in a sentence who they are and why they’re important.
What tips and tricks do you have for getting through a bad book?
You might also be interested in 6 Reasons to Love and Hate Required School Reading.
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