Winter's Passage by Julie Kagawa

Title: Winter's Passage
Author: Julie Kagawa
ebook, 59 pages

Published June 1st 2010 by Harlequin
Special Note: NetGalley

Plot:
Meghan Chase used to be an ordinary girl...until she discovered that she is really a faery princess. After escaping from the clutches of the deadly Iron fey, Meghan must follow through on her promise to return to the equally dangerous Winter Court with her forbidden love, Prince Ash. But first, Meghan has one request: that they visit Puck--Meghan's best friend and servant of her father, King Oberon--who was gravely injured defending Meghan from the Iron Fey.




Yet Meghan and Ash's detour does not go unnoticed. They have caught the attention of an ancient, powerful hunter--a foe that even Ash may not be able to defeat....

My Thoughts:

I am truly in love with this series! Winter's Passage is a great short story that bridges the gap from when Meghan leaves her house in book one and sets out for the Winter Court in book two. Ash is my favorite guy in the series and this novella has Ash in every page, so I loooooved it. This story also shows the feelings Ash and Meghan have for each other.

Read this one if you loved The Iron King and before moving on to The Iron Daughter.

Adios Nirvana by Conrad Wesselhoeft --Review

Title: Adios, Nirvana

Author: Wesselhoeft, Conrad
Length: 235 pages
Genre: Fiction, Young Adult
Publisher / Year: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt / 2010
Released: October 25th, 2010
Special Note: Recieved from Publisher through NetGalley

Plot:


When you piss off a bridge into a snowstorm, it feels like you're connecting with eternal things. Paying homage to something or someone. But who? The Druids? Walt Whitman? No, I pay homage to one person only, my brother, my twin.



In life. In death.

Telemachus.



Since the death of his brother, Jonathan's been losing his grip on reality. Last year's Best Young Poet and gifted guitarist is now Taft High School's resident tortured artist, when he bothers to show up. He's on track to repeat eleventh grade, but his English teacher, his principal, and his crew of Thicks (who refuse to be seniors without him) won't sit back and let him fail.

My Thoughts:

I really loved Jonathan's voice. It was believable. A great voice is what pulls me into the story and then keeps me hooked. The struggle Jonathan goes through to grief is brother is touching, along with the scenes when he visits hospice and goes over WWII with David, the army vet who he has to write a story about for school. I know a death of a loved one can haunt people for years, and Jonathan shows his grief in a realistic ways. The book was wrapped up neatly at the end, so I felt content as I closed the book.

So read this one if you like boy narrated stories, and characters that struggle with their grief.

Also I think if you liked The Sky is Everywhere, you may like this one.

Beautiful Dead: Jonas (Book One) by Eden Maguire

Title: Beautiful Dead : Jonas (Book 1)
Author: Eden Maguire
Paperback, 288 pages

Published: Sourcefire Books March 2010 (Orginally-April 2nd 2009 by Hodder Children's Books)
more details...
Series-Beautiful Dead #1 .

PLOT:

Something strange is happening in Ellerton High. Phoenix is the fourth teenager to die within a year. His street fight stabbing follows the deaths of Jonas, Summer and Arizona in equally strange and sudden circumstances.


Rumours of ghosts and strange happenings rip through the small community as it comes to terms with shock and loss. Darina,Phoenix's grief-stricken girlfriend, is on the verge. She can't escape her intense heartache, or the impossible apparitions of those that are meant to be dead. And all the while the sound of beating wings echo inside her head! And then one day Phoenix appears to Darina.

Ecstatic to be reunited, he tells her about the Beautiful Dead. Souls in limbo, they have been chosen to return to the world to set right a wrong linked to their deaths and bring about justice. Beautiful, superhuman and powerful, they are marked by a 'death mark' - a small tattoo of angel's wings. Phoenix tells her that the sound of invisible wings beating are the millions of souls in limbo, desperate to return to earth.Darina's mission is clear: she must help Jonas, Summer, Arizona, and impossibly, her beloved Phoenix, right the wrong linked to their deaths to set them free from limbo so that they can finally rest in peace. Will love conquer death? And if it does, can Darina set it free?

My Thoughts:

I loved the spin on 'zombies' in this novel and how they can't move on into the afterlife until they find closure. All of the Beautiful Dead have weird circumstances surrounding their death, and Darina gets roped into helping the dead kids from her school move on.

While it is written that Darina and Phoenix had a tight relationship, I never really got a good feel of how they were before Phoenix died. The opening of the novel just kind of throws you in and sometimes it feels like your missing parts of the story. However, the mystery and the whole 'I gotta figure this out thing' kept me hooked. Book one focuses on Jonas, and I wanted to get to the bottom of Jonas's death just as much as Darina did.


Darina is very likable, but I felt her dialog, along with the secondary characters weren't quite up to todays teen standards. That was the only thing that held me back from totally loving this story, because the plot is quite good.
I did enjoy this one, though. I found myself invested into the story and just had to find out how it ended and what happened to Jonas. Looking forward to book two!

The Frenzy by Francesca Lia Block --Review

Title: The Frenzy
Author: Francesca Lia Block
Hardcover, 272 pages
Publisher: Harper Teen

Plot:

Love is a werewolf, influenced by the moon and terror, and always about to change. Liv has a secret. Something happened to her when she was thirteen. Something that changed everything. Liv knows she doesn't belong anymore-not in her own skin, not in her family . . . not anywhere. The only time she truly feels like herself is when she's with her boyfriend, Corey, and in the woods that surround her town. But in the woods, a mysterious woman watches Liv. In the woods, a pack of wild boys lurks. In the woods, Liv learns about the curse that will haunt her forever. The curse that caused the frenzy four years ago. And that may cause it again, all too soon.While Corey and Liv's love binds them together, Liv's dark secret threatens to tear them apart as she struggles to understand who-or what-she really is. And by the light of the full moon, the most dangerous secrets bare their claws. . . .

My Thoughts:

This book was a toughie for me. While I loved the concept of this book, I found I couldn't relate enough to the characters to really invest in them. The idea that Liv is a werewolf and doesn't know it, is exactly the kind of concept I usually go crazy for, but not with this one so much. I did, however, love the idea that her mother is a wolf hunter and there was crazy tension between Liv and her parents.

There were some other interesting things about this book that added a nice spin on the traditional YA friend/relationship dynamics. Liv has a gay best friend, whom she pretends is her boyfriend sometimes so his parents won't find out he's gay and hers won't discover she's dating a black guy. You rarely see interracial relationships in YA books for whatever reason, so it was a nice change of pace.

All in all, I have to say this one just wasn't for me. It could just be me. If you like werewolf stories give it a try and let me know what you think.

Pony Whisperer by Janet Rising --Review

Title: Word on the Yard: v. 1 (Pony Whisperer).

Author: Janet Rising
Paperback, 192 pages

Published June 1st 2010 by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (first published June 4th 2009)


The Word on the Yard by Janet Rising


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Pia has always told her pony everything...only now he’s talking back!!


When Pia’s parents divorce, both Pia and her pony Drummer have to start life in new homes. In this smash hit series from the UK, Pia Edwards finds herself in a new town, new school and new stable. Thanks to a mystical statuette that allows her to talk to horses, she discovers that she isn’t the only one having trouble fitting in and making new friends – ponies have problems, too!

Pia immediately gets off on the wrong foot with Cat, ‘queen’ of the stables, but starts to make friends when her newly-discovered talent helps save a pony from colic. Word spreads about Pia’s pony-whispering powers – then it all goes wrong when she gets her own TV show.

Pia suddenly receives more attention than she ever dreamed – from humans and horses alike. But can her dream last forever? When Pia’s invited on national television to help problem horses by talking to them, she’s mortified to discover she forgot her statue.

Pia is convinced the jig is up when James, a fellow horse lover and total hottie, gallops up with the statue and saves the day. She’s afraid he’ll reveal her secret, but James assures Pia the Pony Whisperer that her secret is safe with him. Maybe this new town isn’t so bad after all.

My Thoughts:

The voice of this Middle Grade(MG) book really grabbed me. Most times I find MG books a little stiff in the beginning, but this one hooked me right in. I really liked Pia, she really opens up and you can almost hear her voice. Her pony on the other hand was very sarcastic, which added a lot of humor to the book. Drum was totally opposite of what I thought a talking horses attitude would be like.




The good thing about Middle Grade novels is you don't have to wait long for the action to get started. The horse starts talking pretty close to the beginning of the book.




I think anyone who likes MG books will love this story about Pia and Drum.




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