Kat thought she was out of the family business after pulling one last con, getting herself accepted to Colgan School, one of the most prestigious boarding schools in North America, but she’s wrong.  When you descend from a long line of thieves, it’s hard to stay away for long.  Someone has stolen some very precious paintings from a very pissed off, very deadly Italian gentleman named Arturo Taccone.  Taccone is convinced that Kat’s father is responsible for the heist since her father is one of the only thieves skilled enough and crazy enough to steal from Taccone.  Kat believes her father when he says he didn’t do it; he couldn’t have been stealing Taccone’s paintings in Italy when he was stealing a statue from a gallery in Paris the same night.  Taccone is not as convinced of Kat’s father’s innocence and demands that the paintings be returned in two weeks time.  Kat’s father doesn’t take the threat seriously, but Kat has met Taccone and knows he means business.  Determined to save her father, Kat assembles a crack team of teen thieves to help her find and steal back Taccone’s paintings, but things are never as they seem and Kat will have to call upon everything she’s ever learned about thieving to get those paintings back without getting caught.

Reaction: I was previously unaware of the awesomeness of Ally Carter but I have now been thoroughly schooled.  Heist Society was exciting and fast-paced.  It had many of the elements I love in a teen book: travel, interesting character relationships, strong family bonds (however weird), a bit of mystery, and a few wild card elements.  I really enjoyed the relationship between Kat and Hale, a billionaire’s son turned thief.  Both try to pretend to be indifferent to each other but it is obvious there is real affection, friendship, and possibly more between them.  Hale seems to realize it but Kat is slow on the uptake when it comes to her feelings for Hale.  I loved the interplay between the family.  While they all obviously still love each other, Kat is seen as a traitor and no longer completely accepted into the fold because she’s left the family business.  I love that while Kat is determined to no longer be a thief she is mad at herself when some of her thieving skills are rusty and her accents detectable.  I also really enjoyed the historical twist with the artwork.  It turns out that Taccone’s paintings were actually stolen from their original owners by the Nazi’s during WWII and haven’t been seen since.  Kat’s situation with Taccone is further complicated when she realizes he is not the rightful owner of the paintings that were stolen from him.  A great combo of mystery, intrigue, action, adventure, and attraction, Heist Society is a winner.

Some facts about When You Reach Me:

• The main character’s name is Miranda.
• She is in 6th grade.
• The story takes place in 1978 and 1979.
• Miranda’s favorite book is A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle.
• Miranda’s mother is selected to be a contestant on The $20,000 Pyramid with Dick Clark.
• Miranda’s friend Sal got punched for no reason by a boy they didn’t know.
• The boy who punched Sal is named Marcus; he is socially awkward, super smart, and believes time travel is possible.
• Sal decides he doesn’t want to hang out with Miranda anymore.
• Miranda becomes friends with Annemarie and Colin.
• A crazy man lives on Miranda’s corner; he sleeps with his head under the mailbox and practices high kicks during the day.
• Miranda begins receiving mysterious notes by an anonymous writer predicting things that happen in the near future, asking her favors, and proclaiming he is here to save one of her friend’s lives.

When You Reach Me is a realistic story about a girl living her realistic and complicated life but with a fantastical twist.

Reaction: Pretty amazing.  Its mystery elements reminded me of one of my favorite books, The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin, though I can’t explain to you exactly why–just a feeling.  When you hear about the book you probably most often hear about the mysterious notes Miranda receives and the mystery she has to solve because of them, but about 85% of the book is nothing mysterious at all, though relevant to the mystery, it is simply Miranda living her life: Miranda trying to recover from her best friend’s rejection; Miranda making new friends; Miranda feeling jealous or petty then feeling bad for feeling that way; Miranda upset with her mother because her mother doesn’t cook or clean or act like her friends’ parents; Miranda helping her mother prepare for her game show.  Every snippet of Miranda’s life is precise, concise, and relevant, and brings the reader one step closer to solving the mystery but it is also dead on accurate of the trials and emotions of a 6th grade girl.  One passage particularly struck me, mostly because it is something that I still struggle with:

Sometimes you never feel meaner than the moment you stop being mean.  It’s like how turning on a light makes you realize how dark the room had gotten.  And the way you usually act, the things you would have normally done, are like these ghosts that everyone can see but pretends not to.  It was like that when I asked Alice Evans to be my bathroom partner.  I wasn’t one of the girls who tortured her on purpose, but I had never lifted a finger go help her before, or even spent one minute being nice. (144)

Miranda learns the being mean is not simply acting against someone but can also be simply not doing anything at all.

When You Reach Me is one that I’m planning on rereading, not right away because I want to forget a little, but I think that I will definitely get more out of it the second time around.  Oh, and I really need to read A Wrinkle in Time!  I’m sad to say I never have and I think it would give me an even better appreciation for this wonderful book.

Lady Alexandra, or Alex for short, is destined to have her first London season, to see and be seen, and to catch an eligible and wealthy husband.  Unfortunately, Alex is not interested in the least in having a season or a husband.  Alex is independent-minded, strong-willed, and not afraid to say what she thinks — nothing any suitable bachelor is looking for.  She is sure the season will be a complete waste of time, that is until she stumbles upon a bit of a mystery.  The father of her longtime friend Gavin, now Earl of Blackmoor, died recently when he fell from his horse while riding at his country estate.  Despite the fact that his death looked very much like an accident, Gavin can’t seem to shake the feeling that there might have been something more sinister behind it.  Gavin is constantly on the lookout for clues that might lead to the truth behind his father’s death.  Alex and her friends Ella and Vivi begin their own search for clues after Alex overhears a conversation between two mysterious and dangerous-sounding men.  As both Alex and Gavin search for answers and as the season launches into full swing, Alex and Gavin begin to see each other in a new light.  Will Alex have found herself a husband after all?

Reaction: From the reviews I had read (and my summary even kind of makes it sound like this), I thought there was going to be more of a mystery element.  Really, the mystery was very secondary and pretty easy to figure out, but that’s ok because it served very nicely as a foil between Alex and Gavin — a way to connect them but also to keep them apart.  The center of the story, if you hadn’t guessed already, is the growing relationship between Alex and Gavin, and it was done very well.  I often gripe about how quickly characters fall for one another and the lack of development between romantic characters but I have no complaints in that regard here.  The whole story was crafted in a way that allowed these two characters, friends since childhood, to realize their feelings for one another had grown into something more, something special.  My only (very minor) complaint would be that I felt there may have been one too many times when Alex and Gavin waffled between their feelings or what to do about their feelings.  In the overall scheme of things, this complaint doesn’t even really register.  The Season was a fun and very well done historical romance.

Dooley’s life is lived in a fishbowl.  Everyone — his uncle with whom he lives, his manager at the video store, the vice-principal at his school — is watching him, waiting for him to mess up again.  Dooley has a past with alcohol, drugs, and something even more serious, but he’s done his time and he’s trying his best to stay clean.  One night he gets off work early and decides to go for a walk instead of going straight home.  He doesn’t tell his uncle because he knows his uncle would tell him to get his butt home, but he just needs a little time to himself without the watchful eyes of everyone expecting him to fail.  Little does he know that his innocent walk would set off a chain of events that would threaten to take away everything he’s worked for.  Alone in the ravine, Dooley sees somebody fall off the bridge and land splat on the ground.  The guy is dead.  The problem, it’s a guy Dooley knows and a guy he doesn’t particularly like, so when the police realize who Dooley is, what he did in the past, and his connection to the dead guy, they start to get mighty suspicious about whether the guy’s fall off the bridge was accidental or not.  When another boy with a connection to Dooley ends up dead, the police’s investigation of Dooley heats up.  Will all of Dooley’s hard work at his second chance be for nothing?

Reaction: I really, really, really liked this book.  Mainly, it was because of Dooley.  I loved Dooley.  Dooley has gone through so much already in his 17 years and, what I think is so awesome, is truly trying to do better things with his life.  While he has a great support system, of sorts, in his uncle, all of his uncle’s monitoring wouldn’t do a lick of good if Dooley wasn’t willing to play along.  All Dooley wants is to get through school, maybe go on a date or two with his crush, graduate, and get out of town.  I guess you can’t blame people for being tough on Dooley because of his past but I wanted to yell at them sometimes and tell them to give him a bit of slack, he’s doing the best he can.  Dooley makes some dumb choices but it’s hard to blame him for them and none of them would be all that bad if it wasn’t for the cloud that already hangs over him. I found it fascinating to read about Dooley, figuring out who he is now and seeing glimpses of who he was before.  I liked watching him build tentative relationships with others after being so alone, like with his uncle, Warren, and even Beth.  I figured out the who of the mystery by about half-way through but I had no idea about the why or the how so knowing didn’t ruin the mystery at all.  Plus, the story was more about Dooley and his transformation than the mystery.  The mystery added tests and hurdles for Dooley on his reformation, I guess you would call it.  Did I mention I love Dooley, well, I love Dooley.

What’s Next: Apparently more Dooley books.  Yeah!  Norah McClintock’s website talks about another book soon, I couldn’t find any information on title or exact release (just Spring 2009 and I’m thinking this might be for Canada not US).

Thanks: To Leila from Bookshelves of Doom.  Her review of Dooley Takes the Fall is probably the only reason I chose to pick up this book and I’m very glad that I did.

If you have not yet read Silent in the Grave and Silent in the Sanctuary you might want to skip this review until you do.

Lady Julia is at it again.  This time she is accompanying her sister Portia uninvited on a visit to Grimsgrave, the property that is now owned by Brisbane.  When Julia and Portia arrive, they are greeted not by Brisbane but by the impoverished ladies of the family that formally owned Grimsgrave.  At first, Julia does not know what to make of Lady Allenby or her daughters Ailith and Hilda, but soon warms to them determined to make the best out of an unexpected situation.  In befriending the Allenbys, Julia offers to catalogue the late Lord Allenby’s Egyptology collection and, in doing so, she begins to uncover some puzzling and even sinister secrets about the Allenby family.  Julia also learns that Brisbane’s past and many of his own secrets are tied to Grimsgrave and the moors surrounding it.  Julia is once again determined to get to the bottom of all the mysteries, even as it puts her and the ones she loves in peril.

Reaction: <Contented Sigh> So satisfying.  Not perfect but satisfying.  I liked Julia more in this one.  I’m not sure if she’s growing or becoming flat, but she wasn’t as haughty and seemed more comfortable in her own skin, being who she wanted to be despite social mores.  Also, she wasn’t as dumb as she was in the second one.  There were certainly mysteries that I figured out before her, but I attribute the major one to the fact that I just read The Thirteenth Tale and it had a similar subplot line.  And Julia did not have all the information because Brisbane, very annoyingly, kept a lot of things from her.  In this one, I really could have strangled him sometimes.  I think he kept information from her just so they could have a fight about it.  The end is definitely squee worthy but leaves me concerned for future installments.  While I’m all for resolution, I could have done with a bit slower buildup.  It seemed a bit abrupt to me.  Though, again, I was very happy so maybe I shouldn’t complain!

What’s next: A fourth, yet to be named Lady Julia Grey in October 2010.  Also, Deanna Raybourn has another book, not in the series, called The Dead Travel Fast that will be out in March 2010.  All this from her new blog.

Cover: I am thoroughly annoyed with this cover.  It makes it seem like a romance novel which would not be a bad thing if it was a romance novel but it’s not.  It is a historical mystery with an awesome romantic plot.  And I actually really liked the other covers.  Why did they have to change?  I know that it won a RITA for Best Novel with Strong Romantic Elements, so are they trying to attract romance readers with a more romancy cover?  I don’t know but I just don’t like it.  And I really don’t like that dress.

Aphra and her father own an exclusive, secluded island resort.  While Aphra loves the beauty of the island and the beaches, she misses civilization — friends, malls, fast food, movies, in general, being a teenager.  She also misses her mom who did not move with Aphra and her father when they bought the island, instead opting to “find herself”.  What Aphra doesn’t know is that her stagnant life is about to get very interesting.  It starts with the arrival of unexpected guests, a family that includes a hot guy about Aphra’s age.  Remote island resorts just do not get unexpected guests.  Then there is the agitated and secretive way that Aphra’s father is acting, the arrival of another mysterious guest who wears a gun, and a murder, a young woman found on the beach strangled by her bikini straps.  Aphra is determined to find out what is going on but little does she know what she discovers could change her entire life.

Reaction: Very cute, very fast, fun mystery.  This is another one I breezed through in less than a day.  I figured out who the bad guy was from almost the beginning, or at least I was pretty sure and what I thought was confirmed, but knowing didn’t really diminish the story because I hadn’t figured out the whys only the who.  While Seth and Aphra are cute, I’m hoping they get a bit more time to develop their relationship in future stories.  I’m really looking forward to reading the next installments because the end of Death by Bikini was really just the beginning of a new adventure, and I liked that.

What’s next: Death by Latte and Death by Denim

Cover, etc.: I forgot to mention, the packaging is also really cool.  The front has a cut-out showing the page behind, which has pictures of skulls, palms, guns, and other assorted, very appropriate pictures.  The chapter numbers have their own pages with a skull and crossbones and an optical illusiony check pattern.  I just overall really liked the set-up of the book.

Camelia’s life is pretty ordinary until the day she almost dies.  Walking across the school parking lot, she is barely missed by a careening, out-of-control car.  The car only missed her because a young man saved her, pushed her out of the way in the nick of time then left before she could learn who he was.  Now, it’s the beginning of a new school year and guess who’s a new student at her school?  Her savior.  His name is Ben Carter.  She’s happy to finally have a name to the face and to be able to say thank you but things aren’t exactly as they seem with Ben.  He is sullen, withdrawn, a loner.  He looks like he has a secret.  Rumor around school is that he killed his last girlfriend.  Is it true?  Is Ben dangerous?  Camelia is determined to find out.  Camelia begins to get strange phone calls and gifts left for her inside her locked house.  At first, the messages are just creepy but soon they become threatening and even deadly.  Who is stalking Camelia?  Could it be Ben?  Could it be anyone else?

Reaction: Meh.  I just wasn’t that into this one.  It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t that great either.  While I have a laundry list of minor complaints, my main ones were that I felt as though the author was throwing suspects at me by telling me about all of the guys that seemed to be into this plain, otherwise nondescript girl.  Ex-bf Matt, hunk John, boss Spencer, and, of course, probably killed his ex-girlfriend Ben.  When each guy is introduced Camelia’s best friend is there telling Camelia how they are all into her and staring at her.  It was a bit over the top.  Speaking of over the top, Camelia’s two best friends, Kimmie and Wes, seemed like outrageous caricatures, not real people.  Finally, I just didn’t get the relationship between Camelia and Ben.  I really couldn’t figure out the attraction between the two.  I think that I will be in the minority with my average feelings of this one.  While I’m not sure that anyone is going to be wowed by it, I believe there will be many that will thoroughly enjoy it and not really share my complaints.  I was pretty spooked out by some of the stalker parts and I did enjoy that horror-movie feel to it but I think I may just skim the sequel.

Btw, doesn’t the saving-girl-from-car scene sound a little familiar?  Hello, Bella and Edward.  And then Ben’s presence and ability to save Camelia is never really explained.  Hm.

Next: Deadly Little Lies (Dec. 2009?)

Reaction: I gobbled this one up.  Started it last night, slept, then read from the time I woke up until the time I had to go to work.  Done.  With varying chapter lengths and interspersed sketches, the story is told in the present and in memory flashbacks.  Ellie clings to the memories of her sister and regrets how they had grown apart right before Nina’s disappearance.  Her need to know — what happened, why Nina left — drives her in everything.  While on the surface she seems to be living a normal life, underneath there is always this constant searching for Nina.  Her instant connect to Sean through there bond of sibling loss made me truly believe in their roadtrip.  I thought the author did a great job of making it very believable that a 16 and 17 year old who barely know each other would just take off on a cross country road trip together.  My only regret is that I spoiled the ending for myself.  I have a compulsion where I need to read the last pages or chapters while I’m reading.  Normally this doesn’t ruin any big surprises, but for this book it did.  Once I knew, I easily picked up on all the clues strewn about the novel.  I don’t know if I would have noticed those otherwise.  My advice: DON’T DO WHAT I DID!  I found this book very satisfying.  I think it fills a gap in the teen lit genre, this great movie-like mystery thriller.

P.S. Hate the cover.  The girl on the front looks nothing like I would picture either girl.  The lettering makes it seem like there’s some sort of kidnap plot and randsom note, which there’s not.  The only thing about the cover remotely relevant is the map because of the roadtrip, though Sean’s well-traveled and seems to know his way around.

Jas is back (Bad Kitty) and trying not to be up to her same old tricks.  She has vowed to be the model daughter so her father (Dadzilla) will allow her to leave her Venice prison and go back to California to be with her super-awesome friends, Polly, Roxy, and Tom, and her super-kissable boyfriend, Jack.  But when all her efforts at being a model daughter don’t get her a trip to California but instead brings the Evil Hench Twins, Jas’ cousin Alyson and her best friend Veronique, to Venice, Jas decides to bag the good girl persona and instead try to be BadJas.  Now that BadJas is in charge, Jas decides to help her one and only friend in Venice, Arabella, figure out who’s following her.  Jas is not sure that Arabella isn’t making up her stalker, but then Arabella is found dead in an apparent suicide.  Jas knows Arabella would not have killed herself and vows to find out who murdered her.  And so Jas once again embarks on a dangerous and exciting adventure trying to solve not one but two murders, both Arabella’s and Arabella’s father’s, with the help of her super-awesome friends, who of course show up for moral support, the Evil Hench Twins (now known by their faerie names — Sapphyre with a “y” and Tiger’s*Eye, the star is silent), a charming gondolier, but not her super-kissable boyfriend who isn’t calling or emailing nearly enough to satisfy Jas.

Reaction: I love Jas.  At times she is a bit much (for example, I can’t stand when she says things like “ASA and P” for ASAP) but most of the time she and her friends and her enemies are simply hilarious.  Here are some examples:

She waved a business card in my face and said, “I’m a reporter.  You are going to be famous.  Tell me how to spell your name.  Is it Jane?”

“Yes,” I agreed, practically running now.  Model Daughters are allergic to fame.  “It’s Jane.”

“Jane what?”

I said, “Jane Doe.”  And then the monkeys in my head who always like to help me out added, “–nut.”

“Jane Doughnut?” the blond reporter lady repeated, giving me a look filled with pity and scorn … “What is your name, really?”

“Jane Doughnut,” the monkeys affirmed. (pg 45-6)

And, when Arabella is running for her life and pulling Jas along behind her, Jas observes:

What was pleasant about this was it allowed me to experience several of the rules of physics firsthand.  For example, the faster you are going when you bash into a man with a hard-sided briefcase, the more it will hurt.  (Force = Mass x Acceleration).  And that being pulled between two women chatting and carrying shopping bags will result in them screaming not-very-nice things at you.  (For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.)  And my favorite: A Jas in motion — such as one who sidesteps to avoid running into a stroller and instead finds herself tripping over a small dog and launching into the air as though she’s a trouble-seeking missile — will stay in motion unless acted upon by an equal but opposite force. (pg 36-7)

Kitty Kitty is just plain fun.  The characters and the mystery are not exactly realistic but this does not detract from the greatness that is Kitty Kitty.  The book is just hilarious (the only word that can truly describe this book) and I cannot wait for more from Jas and her crew, even the faerie Evil Hench Twins.

Plus, as an aside, I think that the teen lit genre needs more mysteries.

Previously: Bad Kitty

Read-a-like: The over-the-topness reminds me of the sarcasm of Maggie Quinn in Prom Dates from Hell and Hell Week.

…

I can’t believe I forgot to write about this.  Jas, when trying to channel her badness, came up with a saying to help her follow the bad path — WWMrTD or what would Mr. T do.  I LOVED Mr. T and the A-Team when I was growing up.  Now, whenever I can’t figure out what to do I am going to ask myself WWMrTD.  Love It!

First, I know that I’ve posted about how uber-excited I was to read Hunger Games and now here I am obviously having read something instead of Hunger Games. I’ve had a very stressful last couple of weeks and needed something lighter to read. I want to be in a fully engaged frame of mind when I read Hunger Games. Hopefully that will be soon! Now on to the review…

When we last saw Maggie Quinn (Prom Dates from Hell) things were looking up. She had just defeated an evil demon and had a promise of a date with cutie college-guy Justin. Well, things have changed a bit. Maggie has graduated from high school and is now in college. She is participating in sorority recruitment (aka rush) in hopes of landing a big behind-the-scenes story, but has no guaranteed spot with either the local or school newspapers. According to the school newspaper adviser, he does not accept freshman on staff. Also, Maggie and her best friend Lisa are fighting because Lisa is dabbling in witchcraft, especially since last time Lisa dabbled she resurrected a demon from hell. And Justin, who spent his summer in Ireland researching for his thesis, has been home for at least a week and has yet to contact her. Things begin to look a little better when the editor of the school newspaper offers to anonymously publish her sorority expose, but it means that Maggie must continue with the inanity of rush. Once Maggie actually pledges a sorority, Sigma Alpha Xi, she begins to notice some stranger-than-normal things about her new sisters. For one, everyone in SAXi is abnormally successful, even alumnae. Second, the rituals seem a bit more intense than the average sorority ritual; in fact, they seem more like spells and raise the hairs on the back of Maggie’s neck, a sure sign of foul play. Then there is the fact that ever since pledging SAXi, Maggie’s ever-present intuition dreams have been stolen. She knows she’s dreaming but there is always a hole in her memory where the dream was when she wakes up in the morning. Also, time has flown so fast for Maggie she barely knows what day it is. She forgets things she wants to research, especially things regarding her sorority. Maggie has also become incredibly lucky, with larger and larger roles with the school newspaper and a hot fraternity boy chasing after her. What is going on with the SAXis and will Maggie be able to figure it out before she is permanently caught in the web of sorority sisterhood?

Reaction: Thoroughly enjoyable supernatural mystery. While Maggie remains caustically sarcastic, it is not quite so over-the-top as in Prom Dates from Hell. For me, this was neither good nor bad. I loved the crazy Maggieisms from the first novel but the toned down Maggie was a bit more realistic. I enjoyed Maggie’s supernatural abilities more in Hell Week. In Prom Dates from Hell, I was not completely sold on Maggie’s supernatural powers. I thought they were ancillary and distracted from the rest of the story. In Hell Week, Maggie’s supernatural talent makes much more sense and is a more integral and important part of the story. Other than that, I don’t have too much to say about Hell Week. It was a fun, light read, fairly well-written, and exactly what my poor, over-taxed brain needed. Wow, what a short review for me!

Previously: (Obviously, since I’ve mentioned it a bunch) Prom Dates from Hell.

Next: Highway to Hell out 3/09