Princess of the Midnight Ball

Princess of the Midnight Ball is a great story. Based off the Brother Grimm tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses. I really like how she retold the tale. In the Brother Grimm's tale the girls seem more arrogant. But, in the Princess of the Midnight Ball the girls seem to have more compassion and I like reading the way Jessica Day George wrote them.

The story is about twelve princesses. Ever morning when they wake their dancing shoes are found worn out. No one can figure out why this is happening. And the twelve princesses will not tell anyone. So, the king makes a reward: The prince who figures out the secret can marry the daughter of their choosing. But, all the princes fail. Then, the solider turned under gardener tries. And, he has some tricks under his sleeves.

The story follows Galen the solider/under gardener and Rose the eldest princess most of the time. Rose has eleven other sisters all named after a flower that grows in the late Queen's garden. One of the sisters who stand out the most besides Rose is Poppy, which the next book in the series Princess of Glass is about. I haven't read it yet, but I really enjoyed this books so I am going to read that one next!

Shiver - Maggie Stiefvater

Grace and Sam have been watching each other for years. Ever since Sam saved Grace. Grace watched Sam in the winter and fell in love with his yellow eyes. But Grace was human and in her eyes, Sam was just a wolf. But, Sam is more than just a wolf, he is a werewolf but Grace doesn't find out until it is almost too late. Sam was running out of summers. And, now that Grace knows Sam as a human, it might be too late for the two of them.

Shiver is a great love story, a bit reminiscent of Twilight in some ways. So, if you like Twilight you will like this book. But, unlike Bella, I feel Grace is more relatable and not as crazy love stricken as Bella in Twilight. Grace knows she only has a little bit of time to spend with Sam so she absorbs everything she can but is still smart about it.

This book, I believe, is a great page turner. I wanted to know what would happen with Grace and Sam. What would happen to Jake and what would happen to all the other wolves. The story does get sad at the end and I almost had some tears. I don't want to give to much away but this is a really good book. Bunch of people recommended this book to me and I would recommend this book as well.

Burned, House of Night

The book starts out with Zoey in the otherworld not sure if she wants to put her soul back together and return to her body or stay in the other world forever with Heath. At the same time, Aphrodite and Stark are in Venice with the High Council trying to figure out away to get Zoey back in her body. Stark will do anything to save Zoey, but he must confront the demons inside of himself in order to find a way to Zoey. Also, back in Tulsa, Stevie Rae is fighting her own problems along with trying to find away to get Zoey back as well. Stevie Rae tries to fight Darkness in many different forms and also at the same time trying to figure out her 'boy' problems.

After this book, I am starting to not like Stevie Rae as much as I use to. She seems to be turning into a second Zoey with always using her gift to save her, lying to everyone, and having all her boy problems get in her way. But, like Zoey, Stevie Rae is now a High Priestess. I am starting to think one of the requirements of being a high priestess is to become a whore, as Dallas puts it. Plus, the amount of times Stevie Rae uses the Earth energy she is soon going to kill it, it is ridiculous.

This book seems much more vulgar than the previous books. Aphrodite and Stark seem more vulgar in there attitudes. I thought this was a book for young adults? Seem to be way too raunchy and vulgar. There are no really lessons in this book unless you want to teach someone how to go from one guy to another in a blink of the eye. Like Stevie Rae pretty much did in this book, and Zoey has done in the past.

It seems like the authors try so hard to give each character their own voice in which it borders on the point of being really annoying. For example, Dallas saying 'girl' a million times, I started to wince whenever I read him saying girl. And the Scottish guy Seoras, I couldn't understand anything he was saying.

It was typical that Dallas changed and how he all of a sudden has an affinity right before he changes, even though affinities are supposed to be really rare. What is rare, is fledglings with out an affinity in this series. And of course he has to become the new villain because only a day or two has gone by since a new villain came into play.

Some other stuff that bothered me was the quotes that some of these characters said. Stevie Rae comments at one point: "I have to deal with the shitstorm Dallas is brewin' up" These girls can never take blame on themselves. If she was only honest in the beginning none of that would have happened. But then there wouldn't have really been much of a book. Another quote is when Stark comes to the realization that "Zoey loved Heath, maybe even more than she loved him" you think? Zoey has know Heath for years. And, what...she has known Stark for like five days? But yet they are pretty inseparable at the end of the book.

And, what was with the ghost kid talking to Rephaim? Was it just way to use up more page space to fill even more of the book with nonsense. Hopefully more will be in the next book about that. I just can't stop reading, hoping the authors will redeem themselves and actually put in lessons for there young adults that are good instead of..it is okay to sleep with your teacher, it is okay to sleep with a guy you have only known for a matter of days, it is okay to do whatever you like because you think you are better than everyone else, and it is okay to treat people like crap..etc.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella

Bree's point of view was way different than Bellas. In a way I felt like the narrative was closer to how Stephanie Meyers narrated Host instead of the Twilight Saga, but I liked it regardless. It was a new take on young vampires, I like how the author played off of how we the audience portrayed vampires before we even started to read the Twilight Saga.

Even though, I knew the outcome of Bree's story before I even read it because of Eclipse I was hoping it would be different. I became so attached to Bree and her short story. Stephanie did a great job of giving a story to the character Bree who only had a small roll in Eclipse. You feel for Bree in this story. It was very well done. The only thing I wished was that Stephanie started from the very beginning of Bree's second life and not 3 months in. But she does in away take you back to see how Bree was changed at the beginning, but I would of liked to see more.

This book made me see Riley in a different light as well. And I liked the other characters that never were in the Twilight Saga but made into this book like Freaky Fred and Diego.

I look forward to Stephanie Meyer portraying other characters that we barely know, she does a great job at it.

The Red Pyramid

I have been waiting for this book since I saw Rick Riordan was doing another series. Sadie and Carter are a brother and sister who barely know each but must come together when their father blows up the British museum. The story is narrated in a way like you are listening to a recording from Carter and Sadie. Even though, at each chapter it tells you who is narrating, as I got into the reading I began to get confused of who was actually narrating Sadie or Carter. That is the only thing that bother me in the book.

The book in general was a great adventure. Sadie and Carter trying to find their father and beat the evil Set. They come in contact with a bunch of Egyptian gods: Anubis, Horus, Isis, Serket, Thoth, Sekhmet, Bast and many more. Not only was it a great adventure novel but I got to learn about Egyptian mythology that I didn't know about to begin with. It was fun to learn along with Sadie and Carter as they learned about there heritage.

There were a couple loose ends at the end of the novel which makes me wanting more. Not to give anything away but Sadie and Carter are still missing someone that they must find and they still have alot to accomplish. So I can't wait for the next one!

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Since I was going to go see the musical Wicked, I thought I would read the book before I went to watch it. I knew in advance that the musical was way different than the book, but I still wanted to read the book.

The book follows the life of the Wicked witch of the West also known as Elphaba. Elphaba is born green which her father sees as disgrace towards him in away. Elphaba had a hard childhood, growing up green with a mother who wasn't all there and a father who would leave for long periods of time, then when her sister was born she had to take care of her because she was armless.

Elphaba grows up and goes to school at Shiz and a little while later she is joined by her sister Nessarose. Shiz is where Elphaba meets Galinda. Reading through the part where she is in Shiz, and before that with her childhood were my favorite parts of the book. After that, the book begins to get a little darker and harder for me to understand exactly what is going on.

Although, after the Mauntery time and the trip to Kiamo Ko, I start enjoy it again with Liir involved. I really liked the character Liir, which is one of the reasons I am excited to read the next book in the series.

I don't think I would give this five stars because it wasn't as good as I was expecting it to be. There were some confusing parts that I thought were left unanswered. Like, how did Elphaba become all bloody and messed up when she arrived at the mauntery. What really happened to Fiyero. What happened with Nor (I think this one is answered in the second book). I did enjoy the musical and even though it was very different to the book I felt like it went better along with the Wizard of Oz and explained things better than this book.

The Vanishing of Katharina Linden

First off, it took me about a quarter of the book to realize that there was a glossary at the back of the book with German terms in it. The book is riddled with German words and at first I thought I was going to have to guess my way through the German words, as only a couple of them had the definition of the word in the text. But, I was happy to find the glossary, and I was repeatedly flipping back that for the definitions of certain words.

The book is about Pia who wants to be the girl who solves the Katharina Linden case, no the girl whose grandmother had exploded. This book is not particularly about the disappearance of Katharina Linden but of a chain of events that has changed Pia's life in the span of a year.

Everything takes place in a small town, in which everyone knows everyone business. And, they think they know everything that is happening in there town, except for one small thing the disappearance of young girls in the town.

Pia, is a normal ten year old girl in this town, that is until Pia's grandmother dies an unexpected death, death by explosion. With everyone knowing everyones business this piece of news spread like wild fire and now Pia is the girl whose grandmother exploded. Then, girls start to go missing, and to try to wipe her name clean as the girl whose grandmother exploded Pia goes on the hunt for the missing girls with her sidekick StinkStephen.

I really enjoyed the book, it is all in Pia's point of view. Although, at the end, I felt as though maybe everything didn't all go together as nicely as it should have. Not, to give anything away, I will just say I wanted more explanations at the end.