Review: The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls

The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls

by Claire Legrand

 

Book Description:
Victoria hates nonsense. There is no need for it when your life is perfect. The only smudge on her pristine life is her best friend Lawrence. He is a disaster—lazy and dreamy, shirt always untucked, obsessed with his silly piano. Victoria often wonders why she ever bothered being his friend. (Lawrence does too.)

But then Lawrence goes missing. And he’s not the only one. Victoria soon discovers that The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls is not what it appears to be. Kids go in but come out…different. Or they don’t come out at all.

If anyone can sort this out, it’s Victoria—even if it means getting a little messy.

Review:
Did you love Coraline?  Are you a Lemony Snicket fan? If so, this is a GREAT book for you...

Everything in Victoria's town has gone just a little bit twisty. Kids are disappearing, adults are ignoring things, and no one is willing to talk to Victoria about it.  She, however, is the last person to give up when she knows she is right...and she knows that something is wrong and the Cavendish Home has something to do with it. 

Once Victoria starts asking questions, though, she attracts the wrong kind of attention, and once she's been taken to the Cavendish Home, there may be no escaping.

Suspenseful and creepy.

Review: Innocent Darkness

Innocent Darkness
by Suzanne Lazear
The Aether Chronicles, book one

Book Description:

Noli Braddock and her best friend V’s incident with a flying auto have landed them in a heap of trouble. And when Noli is sent to a spirit-squelching reform school in San Francisco, she’s sure that her rebellious adventures are over.

Meanwhile, Kevighn Silver has been ordered by the Faerie Queen to bring a mortal girl back to the Otherworld. The magic requires a blood sacrifice every seven years, and only a mortal girl who shines with the Spark—a girl like Noli—will keep the Otherworld from complete destruction.

When an ill-timed wish sends Noli tumbling into the Otherworld, she’s more homesick than ever . . . until V arrives to save her from an untimely demise. But who exactly is V? And if he helps Noli escape, who will save the realm of Faerie from utter annihilation? 

Review:

I LOVED this book. Seriously. I love steampunk. I love faeries. To find an author that had the vision to combine the two?? Awesome!

Okay, let me try to talk myself down a little bit here...become a little more coherent. LOL. Let's see. Why did I LOVE this book? Well it starts out with a girl who refuses to become the perfect little society Lady taking a flying car for an illegal joyride...awesome. Then she gets sent to a reform school (read punishments and pretty much prison with tea time, here) and finds a faery garden in the backyard.

When the High Queen's faerie Huntsman, (who is the perfect version of a Huntsman, BTW, relying on charm and good looks to lure the ultimate prey, humans) finds Noli there, he ends up sweeping her off to the Otherworld to turn her into the sacrifice that can save all Fae. Unbeknownst to Noli, her best friend and next-door neighbor, Steven...aka V, has a few secrets of his own and when Noli disappears, he sets out to find her.

So, without giving *everything* away, here are things that kept me smiling all the way through the book:

*Romance
*Faeries
*Amazing Gardens
*Silly garden games reminiscent of the croquet in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
*Danger
*Sacrifice
*Swordplay
*Mechanical Hair Accessories
*Fantastic and Impractical Clothing

...and much more! I cannot wait to see what Lazear gives us in book two. So far, she's hinted that there will be air pirates. AIR PIRATES, people!! *fans self* Sorry, got a little overexcited there, again. :D