Scarlet (Lunar Chronicles 2) by Marissa Meyer

Hardcover, 454 pages

Published February 5th 2013 by Feiwel and Friends

Genre: Young Adult, Fairy Tales, Science Fiction, Fantasy

Synopsis: Cinder, the cyborg mechanic from book 1, is trying to break out of prison so she can save the world from the Lunar People. If she succeeds, she'll be the most wanted fugitive in all of the Commonwealth.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Scarlet's grandmother is mission. She runs into a streetfight named Wolf who offers to help her find her grandmother. Scarlet quickly learns there was much she didn't know about her grandmother and everything she discovers only leaves to more questions. They run into the cyborg fugitive and together they must find a way to save the world from the lunar queen before Prince Kai becomes her husband and her prisoner and she gains power over the entire Commonwealth.

This book was just as good as the first one. LOVED it!! I was sad Cinder wasn't in it as much but as I got to know Scarlet, I was no longer disappointed. I enjoyed following both their story lines and going back and forth between them in the book. So fun and such an addictive book! I didn't want to put it down. :)

Author: To learn more about Marissa Meyer, check out her website here http://www.marissameyer.com/.  

Rating: **** Five Stars

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Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Hardcover, 1st Edition, 387 pages

Published January 3rd 2012 by Feiwel & Friends

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Romance

Synopsis: In a futuristic Earth, a plague ravages the people. The Lunar people watch from the moon for their chance to take over the people of earth with their powers of the mind. There is one hope of a lunar princess who may still be alive to stop the lunar queen. Of course, the odds of that are very small. Meanwhile, on earth, is a young girl named Cinder who is a Cyborg, a second class citizen who meets Prince Kai when she, being one of the best mechanics of New Beijing, repairs his robot and learns of something she should not be privy to. Soon, she finds herself in an impossible situation as she discovers information about her past and must made decisions about her future that could affect the rest of the world.

Who doesn't love a good fairy tale....er.... a good sci -fi.... er.... a good romance.... er... this book!  I seriously LOVED this book. It's the first of a series and I cannot wait to get my hands on the rest of it. It's based off the story of Cinderella only it's much more gritty and intense than the fairy tale we are all used to. I love reading stories that are based off fairy tales, I love sci-fi and fantasy and love a clean romance. This had all of them rolled up into one book. My perfect dream book! haha! I totally recommend this book.

Author: This is Marissa Meyer's debut novel. She lives in Washington with her fiance and cats. To learn more about her, visit her website here http://www.marissameyer.com/

Rating: ***** FIVE STARS

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Kids Korner: Alcatraz Versus The Evil Librarians

Genre: Auto-Biography, Children's Chapter Books, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Adventure

Synopsis: Warning: Librarians do NOT want you to read this book. By reading this book you will be open to a world the Librarians do not want you to discover. This is the actual, factual narrative of a young hero named Alcatraz Smedry who receives a bag of sand for his 13th birthday. (Insert "I've got a jar of dirt" jokes here.) However, this is no ordinary sand but a very rare type that is valued above all else. Alcatraz, like any Smedry would, lets it get stolen by the Evil Librarians. Adventure ensues, thrusting young Alcatraz into the world of the free kingdoms, becoming a hero, and trying to find out for himself just who he is. (This is the secret that the Librarians are trying to keep from us the Hushlanders. Our world, The Hushlands, is filled with lies and is controlled by the librarians. Just FYI. Keep it to yourself, trust me you don't want Librarians to know that you know.)

Review: This book had my kids, my husband and me laughing out loud constantly. Of course, none of us should be surprised that Sanderson once again did an amazing job in writing a book. My entire family loved this book and we were sad to return it to the library. So sad, actually, that as soon as we got home we ordered the entire set from Amazon. Go get this book now; really, go get it. If you don't you should be flogged with a large fish by a Canadian Moose.

Author: To the right is a picture of Alcatraz Smedry. (from book flap) "Brandon Sanderson is the pen name of Alcatraz Smedry. His Hushlander editor forced him to use a pseudonym, since these memoirs are being published as fiction.
"Alcatraz actually knows a person named Brandon Sanderson. That man, however, is a fantasy writer- and is therefore prone to useless bouts of delusion in literary form. Alcatraz has it on good authority that Brandon is actually illiterate and dictates his thick, overly long fantasy tomes to his potted plant. Count Duku.
"It is widely assumed that Brandon went mad several years ago, but few people can tell because his writing is so strange anyway. He spends his time going to science fiction movies, eating popcorn and goat cheese (separately), and trying to warn people about the dangers of the Great Kitten Conspiracy.
"He has had his library card revoked on seventeen different occasions."

Rating: FIVE STARS ***** (This was, of course, unanimous because this is one of the best written and entertaining books any of us have read in a long time.)

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Matched by Ally Condi

Good news!! My semester is over and I get to read fun books again!! Hooray!! Bad news is that my new semester starts in a week so I'm trying to read as many books as I can. hehe! ;)

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Dystopia

Synopsis/Review: The society in this book reminds me a lot of The Giver by Lois Lowry. The society has completely taken away all types of agency and independence. No one has a chance to learn who they are by breaking out of the "norm" because there is nothing but "norm". If you don't fit in then you are transferred somewhere else. They watch everything you do, even monitor your dreams. At the age of 17 you are matched with the person you are going to marry. Matched begins on the night of Cassia's matching. She is surprisingly matched with her best friend (most are matched with people from other cities whom they have never met) Xander. She is given the microcard with the dating rules and info on Xander but when it displays the face of her match she sees a different face. Not Xander's, but Ky's! Another young man from her area who has been marked for a crime his father committed and is banned from ever being married or having any type of fulfilling life. Even his career the society has chosen for him is basically a dishwasher. That is all he will be. As Cassia begins to pay attention to Ky and the way his life is handled because of decisions of other people, she begins questioning the society and the importance of having a choice.

This is another love triangle young adult novel. It is fun though because of the society. It adds a new depth to it that most of the other young adult love triangle novels lack. The author uses a lot of description in her writing as well which is really fun. It is written in first person, present tense. Anytime a book is written in present tense instead of past tense it takes me a couple of chapters to get used to. I'm not really sure why. Overall, this was a fun book!! The ending bugged me because it didn't end how I wanted it to but thankfully, I waited long enough to start it that the second book is out and the third one will be out in November. Woot!! I'll have to get my hands on the next one soon. ;)

Rating: **** Four Stars

Author: Ally Condie received a degree in English Teaching from Brigham Young University and spent a number of years teaching high school English in Utah and in upstate New York. She lives with her husband and three sons outside of Salt Lake City, Utah.

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The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

Genre: Dystopian/Young Adult/Post Apocalyptic

Review: This is the story of Katniss Everdeen. It's time for the reaping again where two children, boy and girl, are chosen from each of the 12 districts of Panem to fight to the death in the Hunger Games. 24 children go in and only one survives. Katniss and Peeta are chosen from district 12. They don't want to kill anyone, only survive. In the arena Katniss and Peeta make some decisions to save each other which begin a rebellion in the country of Panem. This causes a full on war between the Capitol and the other districts.

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Invasion (C.H.A.O.S. #1) by Jon S. Lewis

Genre: Young Adult/Sci-Fi

Review: Colt is just a regular kid in a regular world. After a great day of surfing and an encounter with some unknown creature under the water, Colt returns to an empty home. A little while later a police man shows up to inform Colt that his parents were killed in a car crash. He moves to Arizona with his grandfather and suspicion arises that perhaps his parents were murdered. Suddenly, Colt's life isn't what it used to be. Things he thought were make believe are suddenly real. His stories in his comic books suddenly seem like history and Colt has to uncover the truth as the invasion begins.

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Flashback Friday: The Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Genre: Young Adult/Sci-fi

Review: Tally is getting ready to turn sixteen and she cannot wait. She will no longer be ugly and have the facial features and imperfections she was born with that make her unique. Instead, she will be surgically altered to "perfection" and look like everyone else. In her world, this is normal. This is what everyone does. Her best friend is only a few months older than her and turned into a Pretty already and this left her in search of a new friend to hang out with and she finds Shay. But, Shay doesn't want to be a Pretty, she just wants to be herself. She runs away and leaves Tally in a difficult situation. She must either find Shay and tell the authorities where she is or never become a Pretty herself. In her search for Shay she learns the secrets behind her home and society. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss.

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The Skin Map (Bright Empire Series Bk 1) by Stephen R. Lawhead

Genre: Science Fiction/Adventure

Review: Kit is an average Londoner who has average problems. He isn't really happy with anything in his life but nothing is horrible either. Then, after a series of very bad luck on the metro system or "tube" he bumps into someone he never expected to see -- his great grandfather. Of course, after doing the math the man should have been over 125 years old. Suddenly, Kit finds himself with his grandfather in another world in another time using the ley lines (dimension and time jumps). Together, they go on an adventure to find the skin map that is a map of the ley lines that has been tattooed to the skin of a fellow "Questor".

This was a fun read. The only problem that I had with it was the fact that I kept getting confused. There are quite a few characters and a lot of jumping in time and locations and I tended to get confused. I am also sometimes a bit ditzy so that could have something to do with it as well. Overall, this was a great adventure with plenty of suspense and humor mingled in it as well. To see the review on The Bone House (the sequel) click here.

Author:  Lawhead was born in Nebraska in 1950. His childhood was spent around the U.S. and then he later earned his degree in Fine Arts and spent two years in school for theology. He started full time writing in 1981 and has since written many books. He and his wife, Alice, live in Oxford England and he is father of two boys.

Rating:  **** Four Stars

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Trapped by James Alan Gardner

Genre: Umm... Sci-fi/ Fantasy?

Review: Despite the incredibly boring and WAY too common title, I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Sorry about the confusing genre description. Trapped feels like a fantasy book. The main characters are four average teachers from a second-rate privacy school who go on a quest after finding the ghost of one of their students. One of the teachers is a sorceress, one is a psyonic (meaning telekinetic). Everyone carries swords and cutlasses and other fantasy-ish weapons. Except that the story setting is somewhere in the future where alien beings have invaded, messed around with and then been kicked out of planet Earth by other aliens to "protect" the human population that is left. Yup, that is completely sci-fi. I love Sci-fi. I love fantasy. But I have always been offended that these two get lumped together in book stores. Until now. The author does an excellent job of blending two very distinctly different genres in a very natural and unforced manner. The characters are flawed, yet engaging. The creation of this alternate future reality is amazing. It was wonderful!

Author: James Alan Gardner has a Bachelor's and Masters degree in Applied Mathematics and works as an educator. He published his first book in 1997 and has had a total of nine books published in that time. Trapped was his sixth book. He has also published about two dozen short stories. All of his work is listed as sci-fi, yet on his website he often lists multiple genres. (I love that! I do the same thing!!). He is a resident of Canada and married to Linda Carson.


Rating **** Four Stars

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Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Genre: Young Adult/Sci-fi

Author: Neal Shusterman grew up in Brooklyn, NY. Just after he graduated college he got a book deal and was hired to write a movie script. He is a man of many talents from directing to writing music and stage plays, to movies, tv shows and, of course, novels. He currently resides in Southern California with his four children. For more information on him click here.

Synopsis: The book starts off stating the "The Bill of Life" which was passed after "The Heartland War".The Heartland War started b/c the pro-lifers and the pro-choicers couldn't agree and a second civil war started over the single issue of abortion. Finally, a decision was made that satisfied both sides of the conflict. In The Bill of Life it "states that human life may not be touched from the moment of conception until a child reaches the age of thirteen. However, between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, a parent may choose to retroactively 'abort' a child... on the condition that the child's life doesn't 'technically' end." (pg 10) The process they do this is by 'unwinding'. This is when the child is taken apart and every body part is reused in another as transplants/transfusions...etc. Anything! This story follows a few children who's parents or the state have decided should be unwound. However, they run!

Review: The whole concept of this futuristic story I found extremely disturbing yet I couldn't seem to stop reading it. I found myself completely sucked into Shusterman's futuristic world. It has drama, romance, and plenty of fighting and even some explosions. :) It was a fun read and 'realistic' in that everything doesn't end "happily ever after". However, it is the first of a series so I'm excitedly waiting for the next installment and maybe it will end somewhat happy. On the bright side, the ending of this book does have a finality so the reader isn't left with a cliff-hanger. (I hate those! ;) Parts of this book are a bit disturbing for obvious reasons. There is very little bad language in it and absolutely no sex scenes (a small amount of kissing is all). There are real life situations in it though and the reader goes through the process of unwinding through an unwound's point of view. It was interesting to read that part, and I went to bed after reading it and it led to very interesting dreams. If you are sensitive to things like that you may not want to read this book but if you're not then I highly recommend it! I thought it was a great read - controversial and thought-provoking.


Rating: **** Four Stars

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The Girl Who Was Plugged In by James Tiptree, Jr

Genre: Novella, Science Fiction

Author: "'James Tiptree, Jr.' was born Alice Bradley in Chicago in 1915. Her mother was the writer Mary Hastings Bradley; her father, Herbert, was a lawyer and explorer. Throughout her childhood she travelled with her parents, mostly to Africa, but also to India and Southeast Asia. Her early work was as an artist and art critic. During World War II she enlisted in the Army and became the first American female photointelligence officer. In Germany after the war, she met and married her commanding officer, Huntington D. Sheldon. In the early 1950s, both Sheldons joined the then-new CIA; he made it his career, but she resigned in 1955, went back to college, and earned a Ph.D. in experimental psychology.

"At about this same time, Alli Sheldon started writing science fiction. She wrote four stories and sent them off to four different science fiction magazines. She did not want to publish under her real name, because of her CIA and academic ties, and she intended to use a new pseudonym for each group of stories until some sold. They started selling immediately, and only the first pseudonym—"Tiptree" from a jar of jelly, "James" because she felt editors would be more receptive to a male writer, and "Jr." for fun—was needed. (A second pseudonym, "Raccoona Sheldon," came along later, so she could have a female persona.)

"Tiptree quickly became one of the most-respected writers in the field, winning the Hugo Award for "The Girl Who was Plugged In" and "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?," and the Nebula Award for "Love is the Plan, the Plan is Death" and "Houston, Houston." Raccoona won the Nebula for "The Screwfly Solution," and Tiptree won the World Fantasy Award for the collection Tales from the Quintana Roo.

"The Tiptree fiction reflects Alli Sheldon's interests and concerns throughout her life: the alien among us (a role she portrayed in her childhood travels), the health of the planet, the quality of perception, the role of women, love, death, and humanity's place in a vast, cold universe. An award in Tiptree's name has celebrated science fiction that "expands and explores gender roles" for ten years now." This info came from here.


I just wanted to add that I found that very interesting. The whole time I was reading the story I was surprised that a man wrote so much about how a woman thinks but it's b/c James was really a female. Interesting!! :)


Synopsis: This is set in a futuristic world. It's about a young woman named Philadelphia Burke who. Philadelphia tries to kill herself and it is discovered that she has no family or friends so she is invited to work with a team of doctors and scientists where she's plugged into a machine and controls the body of a young, beautiful 15 yo girl they name Delphi. Soon, Philadelphia learns that she'll sacrifice everything for Delphi. How far will she actually go?

Review: I liked this story. There were parts where I had to read a few times to get. The narrator sounds like (s)he is telling the story to someone and occasionally that someone asks questions or comments and the narrator responds but the reader only sees one side of the conversation. Also, the someone the narrator is talking to knows a bit more about this futuristic world than me, as the reader, knows so I felt a bit out of it for parts of it but overall, I really liked the story.

Rating: **** Four Stars

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