The Diamond Thief Review

Rating (out of 5):5
Genre:Young Adult
Release Date: October 1, 2014
Series: Diamond Thief
Series Volume: 1
Profanity: very mild
Violence: very mild
Sexual Content:Very Mild
Age Recommendation: 14+
Author Website: http://sharongosling.wordpress.com/  

Summary:

No one performs on the circus trapeze like 16-year-old Rémy Brunel. But Rémy also leads another life, prowling through the backstreets of Victorian London as a jewel thief. When she is forced to steal one of the world’s most valuable diamonds, she uncovers a world of treachery and fiendish plots.

Meanwhile, young detective Thaddeus Rec is determined to find the jewel and clear his name. Will Thaddeus manage to rescue the jewel? Or is it really Rémy that he needs to save?

Review:

I’ve said before that I have a weakness for a good thief story and so it comes as no surprise that I was immediately attracted to The Diamond Thief. The fact that it was also set in Victorian London with a steam punk/fantasy twist had me hooked almost before I began reading it. And after I finished it I loved it even more.

Storm Siren Book Review

Rating (out of 5):5
Genre:Young Adult
Release Date: August 19, 2014
Series: No Series title yet
Series Volume: 1
Profanity: none
Violence: None
Sexual Content: None
Age Recommendation: 12+
Author Website: http://mchristineweber.com/

Summary:

“I raise my chin as the buyers stare. Yes. Look. You don’t want me. Because, eventually, accidentally, I will destroy you.”

In a world at war, a slave girl’s lethal curse could become one kingdom’s weapon of salvation. If the curse – and the girl – can be controlled.

As a slave in the war-weary kingdom of Faelen, seventeen-year-old Nym isn’t merely devoid of rights, her Elemental kind are only born male and always killed at birth – meaning, she shouldn’t even exist.

Standing on the auction block beneath smoke-drenched mountains, Nym faces her fifteenth sell. But when her hood is removed and her storm-summoning killing curse revealed, Nym is snatched up by a court advisor and given a choice: be trained as the weapon Faelen needs to win the war, or be killed.

Choosing the former, Nym is unleashed into a world of politics, bizarre parties, and rumors of an evil more sinister than she’s being prepared to fight . . . not to mention the handsome trainer whose dark secrets lie behind a mysterious ability to calm every lightning strike she summons.

But what if she doesn’t want to be the weapon they’ve all been waiting for?

Set in a beautifully eclectic world of suspicion, super abilities, and monsters, Storm Siren is a story of power. And whoever controls that power will win.

Full Steam Ahead Book Review

Rating (out of 5): 5

Genre: Inspirational Historical Romance
Release Date: June 3, 2014
Series: N/A
Series Volume: N/A
Profanity: None
Violence: Mild
Sexual Content: None
Age Recommendation: 13+
Author Website:http://www.karenwitemeyer.com/

Summary (found on Author’s Website): Nicole Renard returns home to Galveston and finds her father deathly ill. Though she loves him, he’s only ever focused on what she’s not. Not male. Not married. Not able to run Renard Shipping.

Vowing to secure a suitable husband to give her father the heir he desires before it’s too late, Nicole sets out with the Renard family’s greatest treasure as her dowry: the highly coveted Lafitte Dagger. But when her father’s rivals come after the dagger, she’s forced to change her destination.

Darius Thornton has been a man obsessed since the fatal boiler explosion aboard the Louisiana that nearly took his life. He will do anything to stop such disasters. Even hire a female secretary. Sure he can ignore the distraction of her pretty face, he’s not sure how to proceed when drawn to her clever mind.

Nicole is determined not to let her odd employer scare her off with his explosive experiments, yet when respect and mutual attraction grows between them, a new fear arises. How can she acquire an heir for her father when her heart belongs to an unsuitable candidate? And worse, when her father’s rivals discover her hiding place, she will have to choose between that love and her family’s legacy.

Review:

Karen Witemeyer does it again with Full Steam Ahead. This is her newest book and I’ve found it to be her best so far. The writing is quick and witty and the story is very well rounded out and put together.

The Girl with the Blood Red Lips Book Review

Rating (out of 5): 3.5

Genre: Young Adult Romance

Release Date: April 23, 2014
Series: Curses in Crimson
Series Volume: 1
Profanity: Mild
Violence: Mild
Sexual Content:
Age Recommendation: 13+
Author Website: N/A

Summary (found on Amazon):

Neva is different. Aside from having a phobia of mirrors and an unquenchable desire for apples, she harbors a dark secret. She’s been cursed to repeat the same three years of her life over and over again. Unfortunately, these three years happen to be Neva’s sophomore, junior, and senior years of high school, and high school’s not that easy when everyone considers you a freak. To break her curse, Neva must accomplish a grisly task that she can’t bring herself to complete. Will Neva break her curse in time, or will she be bound by it forever?

Review:

I am an avid reader of anything to do with fairy tales, especially if it is a retelling. Needless to say this book caught my eye from the start. I could tell from the summary that it was going to have to do with Snow White. I don’t care for the original tale but I’ve really enjoyed some of it’s retellings so I was hoping this would be another to add to my list of retellings.

John Dreamer Book Review

Rating (out of 5): 3.5
Genre: Young Adult Romance
Release Date: February 12, 2014
Series: John Dreamer
Series Volume: 1
Profanity: Mild
Violence: Mild
Sexual Content: None
Age Recommendation: 10+
Author Website: http://www.eliseceline.com/

Summary:

Andy wasn’t usually sure about much, but she was absolutely certain this was the weirdest day of her life as she stood stranded in the middle of a great white room with six strangers. Well, they were mostly strangers. She could have sworn she’d seen the guy with the green eyes before, and maybe that was why he kept staring at her. When a man calling himself the Guardian appeared and said they had come to make their deepest dreams come true, they embark on an adventure none of them ever imagined, and the consequences of their actions would change them forever.

Review:

Allow me to start off by saying that I really did enjoy this book. Despite the areas that needed cleaning and tightening I thought the plot and story were very good. John Dreamer is a book that along with a gorgeous cover has a great premise. Andy and another 6 people end up in a white room that spurns them into an adventure where all of their dreams can come true and they can change and grow themselves. My expectations were high going in, and after the first few pages I felt like I was really going to enjoy the book. I had a few problems with it though.

Stravaganza: City of Masks Book Review

Rating (out of 5): 5
Genre: Young Adult Historical Fiction/Fantasy
Release Date: February 1, 2011
Series: Stravaganza
Series Volume: 1
Profanity: None
Violence: Mild
Sexual Content: None
Age Recommendation: 8+
Author Website: http://www.maryhoffman.co.uk/

Summary (found on Amazon):

Lucien is very sick with cancer and struggles with his parents’ worry every day. But each night, through a magical gift from his father, his mind is transported to an enchanting city, Bellezza, a parallel city to Venice of our world. In Bellezza, Lucien discovers that he is a Stravagante, a rare person able to travel through worlds while sleeping.Befriended by a local girl and protected by an older Stravagante, Lucien uncovers a plot to murder the city’s beloved ruler, the Duchessa. But to save the Duchessa and the city Lucien risks his only chance to return home to family and his real life. The well-paced, thick-with-plot story will hook the reader immediately and not let go until the superb, unexpected end. City of Masks is the first in the acclaimed Stravaganza series from the gifted Mary Hoffman.

Review:

This is my second time reading this book, and I enjoyed it just as much this time as I did the last time I read it. This is one of my favorite Historical Fiction/Fantasy series and for good reason. Mary Hoffman does an excellent job of reproducing the feel of a historical Italy while at the same time not having to be completely accurate, since it is in an alternate form.

The School for Good and Evil Book Review

Rating (out of 5): 3.5
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: May 14, 2013
Series:  The School for Good and Evil
Series Volume: 1
Profanity: None
Violence: Mild
Sexual Content: None
Age Recommendation: 8+
Author Website:
http://somanchainani.net/
http://iacopobruno.blogspot.com/

Summary:

At the School for Good and Evil, failing your fairy tale is not an option.

Welcome to the School for Good and Evil, where best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime.

With her glass slippers and devotion to good deeds, Sophie knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and join the ranks of past students like Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Snow White. Meanwhile, Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks and wicked black cat, seems a natural fit for the villains in the School for Evil.

The two girls soon find their fortunes reversed—Sophie’s dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School for Good, thrust among handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication.
But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are . . . ?

The School for Good and Evil is an epic journey into a dazzling new world, where the only way out of a fairy tale is to live through one.
Review:
The School for Good and Evil looked to be a very promising read, and turned out to, just not in the way I had expected it to. I wasn’t quite sure what I was expecting when I began reading the book, maybe a short term at the school then the two girls being sent off into their own fairy tales or something but whatever it was the book threw me for a loop within the first chapter. This story was far darker than I had imagined it being, told more in the style of a Grimm fairytale than most that we see today. By the time I had finished the book I had enjoyed it but I also had some issues with it.

Alcatraz Verses the Evil Librarians Book Review

Rating (out of 5): 5
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: October 1, 2007
Series: Alcatraz
Series Volume: 1
Profanity: None
Violence: Mild
Sexual Content: None
Age Recommendation: 8+
Author Website: http://brandonsanderson.com/

Summary (found on Amazon):

The evil Librarians are coming!

A hero with an incredible talent…for breaking things. A life-or-death mission…to rescue a bag of sand. A fearsome threat from a powerful secret network…the evil Librarians.

Alcatraz Smedry doesn’t seem destined for anything but disaster. On his 13th birthday he receives a bag of sand, which is quickly stolen by the cult of evil Librarians plotting to take over the world. The sand will give the Librarians the edge they need to achieve world domination. Alcatraz must stop them!…by infiltrating the local library, armed with nothing but eyeglasses and a talent for klutziness.
Review:

My brother is in love with this author, but I haven’t read him until now. On a recommendation from not one but two librarians (GASP I know) I decided to read this book. And I must say I was not displeased with how it turned out.

I started Alcatraz knowing only the title, but with a title like Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians who really needs a summary? And if the title doesn’t hook you I guarantee the first chapter will. This book is really unlike anything I’ve read in a long time, and I’m hard pressed to find anything to compare it to.

Stealing the Preacher Review

Rating (out of 5): 5

Genre: Christian Fiction
Release Date: Jun 1, 2013
Series: None, but one related book: Short Straw Bride
Violence: very mild
Profanity: none
Sexual Content: None
Age: Young Adult +
Author’s Website: http://www.karenwitemeyer.com/

 

Book Summary (from author’s website):

On his way to interview for a position at a church in the Piney Woods of Texas, Crockett Archer can scarcely believe it when he’s forced off the train by a retired outlaw and presented to the man’s daughter as the minister she requested for her birthday. Worried this unfortunate detour will ruin his chances of finally serving a congregation of his own, Crockett is determined to escape. But when he finally gets away, he’s haunted by the memory of the young woman he left behind—a woman whose dreams now hinge on him.

For months, Joanna Robbins prayed for a preacher. A man to breathe life back into the abandoned church at the heart of her community. A man to assist her in fulfilling a promise to her dying mother. A man to help her discover answers to the questions that have been on her heart for so long. But just when it seems God has answered her prayers, it turns out the parson is there against his will and has dreams of his own calling him elsewhere. Is there any way she can convince Crockett to stay in her little backwoods community? And does the attraction between them have any chance of blossoming when Joanna’s outlaw father is dead-set against his daughter courting a preacher?

 

Review:

This is the third book by Karen Witemeyer that I’ve read and I must say that she hasn’t let me down yet. Stealing the preacher is a delightful read that captivates you (literally) from the very first chapter.

It doesn’t take long to see where the title comes in to play in this book as Crockett Archer, on his way to a new preaching position, finds himself kidnapped from the train and hauled off as a birthday present for the outlaw’s daughter. Joanna Robbins has been praying for a preacher to come and is more than a little surprised when one shows up in the most unconventional of ways. The two of them end up working together to both unite their community and lead Joanna’s father into the faith.