Mini Reviews: The Death is Terrifyingly Close Edition

Lair of the Serpent
by T. Lynn Adams
Tombs of Terror, book three

Book Description:

A humanitarian trip to Cambodia turns deadly when Delilah, a young medical volunteer, is kidnapped. When Jonathon arrives in the jungle and discovers that his friend is missing, he recruits the locals to search for her. Every clue points to the followers of the Naga Mani--- a sacred stone with legendary powers that only work with a human sacrifice. With time running out, it's up to Jonathon to rescue Delilah.

Review:

While the premise for this book was very exciting, I found it didn't really capture my attention all that well. It wasn't until Jonathan reached the Naga Mani that I found myself unable to put the book down, and that was pretty much at the end... I think some readers would be totally into it, but it just wasn't the book for me.




Rootless 
by Chris Howard

Book Description:

17-year-old Banyan is a tree builder. Using salvaged scrap metal, he creates forests for rich patrons who seek a reprieve from the desolate landscape. Although Banyan's never seen a real tree--they were destroyed more than a century ago--his missing father used to tell him stories about the Old World. Everything changes when Banyan meets a mysterious woman with a strange tattoo--a map to the last living trees on earth, and he sets off across a wasteland from which few return. Those who make it past the pirates and poachers can't escape the locusts . . . the locusts that now feed on human flesh. But Banyan isn't the only one looking for the trees, and he's running out of time. Unsure of whom to trust, he's forced to make an alliance with Alpha, an alluring, dangerous pirate with an agenda of her own. As they race towards a promised land that might only be a myth, Banyan makes shocking discoveries about his family, his past, and how far people will go to bring back the trees.

Review:

This book drew me in from the first pages. In Banyan's world the sea has overtaken us, the only food is popcorn, and death lurks around every corner. I found it utterly dark and captivating. I look forward to the next book!




Trapped
by Michael Northrop

Book Description:

The day the blizzard started, no one knew that it was going to keep snowing for a week. That for those in its path, it would become not just a matter of keeping warm, but of staying alive. . . . Scotty and his friends Pete and Jason are among the last seven kids at their high school waiting to get picked up that day, and they soon realize that no one is coming for them. Still, it doesn't seem so bad to spend the night at school, especially when distractingly hot Krista and Julie are sleeping just down the hall. But then the power goes out, then the heat. The pipes freeze, and the roof shudders. As the days add up, the snow piles higher, and the empty halls grow colder and darker, the mounting pressure forces a devastating decision. . . .

Review:

In the same way that I reacted to Pfeffer's Life as We Knew It, this book made me shiver and curl up tight against my doggies. I found myself so sucked into this book that I read it all at once, unable to turn the pages fast enough. I cried and I honestly worried about how many of the kids would actually survive... utterly compelling.

What's On My Hold List?

 

Welcome back to

"What's on My Hold List?"

This is the January 2013 edition!

 

One of the most beautiful things about working at our Library is that I know what's coming out and what we'll be getting and I can put the books on hold right away!



 

Rise

by Andrea Cremer

Nightshade prequels, book two

 

TeenBoat!

by Dave Roman, illus. by John Green

 

The Cadet of Tildor

by Alex Lidell

 

 

*If you click on each title, it will take you to the book on

Amazon.com for more information. :)*

 

So, these are the books I'm waiting anxiously to get my hands on...

what are YOU waiting for??

Review: Tiger Lily

Tiger Lily

by Jodi Lynn Anderson

 

Book Description:
Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair. . . .

 

Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn't believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell.

 

Peter is unlike anyone she's ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland's inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is risking everything—her family, her future—to be with him. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she's always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter.

 

With enemies threatening to tear them apart, the lovers seem doomed. But it's the arrival of Wendy Darling, an English girl who's everything Tiger Lily is not, that leads Tiger Lily to discover that the most dangerous enemies can live inside even the most loyal and loving heart. 

Review:
Though I LOVED the concept for this book and found the way that Anderson twisted the story to be really interesting, I had a really hard time connecting to the characters.  This story is actually told by Tinker Bell and so you are watching Tiger Lily, Peter Pan, and the lost boys from a distance. It makes it easy to see everything that's happening, but it made it hard to really understand everything that Tiger Lily was feeling. 

If you are a Peter Pan fan, I would recommend giving this a try.  See if it works for you, or if you have the same problem I did... This reimagining of Neverland is worth reading anyway.

What's On My Hold List?

Welcome back to

"What's on My Hold List?"

This is the September 2012 edition!

One of the most beautiful things about working at our Library is that I know what's coming out and what we'll be getting and I can put the books on hold right away!

 

Blackwood

by Gwenda Bond

The Crown of Embers

by Rae Carson

sequel to The Girl of Fire and Thorns

 

Fever Moon: the graphic novel

by Karen Marie Moning

Hidden

by Sophie Jordan

Firelight, book three





The Mark of Athena

by Rick Riordan

The Heroes of Olympus, book three

 

 

*If you click on each title, it will take you to the book on

Amazon.com for more information. :)*

So, these are the books I'm waiting anxiously to get my hands on...

what are YOU waiting for??



Review: Struck

Struck

by Jennifer Bosworth

 

Book Description:

Mia Price is a lightning addict. She’s survived countless strikes, but her craving to connect to the energy in storms endangers her life and the lives of those around her.

Los Angeles, where lightning rarely strikes, is one of the few places Mia feels safe from her addiction. But when an earthquake devastates the city, her haven is transformed into a minefield of chaos and danger. The beaches become massive tent cities. Downtown is a crumbling wasteland, where a traveling party moves to a different empty building each night, the revelers drawn to the destruction by a force they cannot deny. Two warring cults rise to power, and both see Mia as the key to their opposing doomsday prophecies. They believe she has a connection to the freak electrical storm that caused the quake, and to the far more devastating storm that is yet to come.

Mia wants to trust the enigmatic and alluring Jeremy when he promises to protect her, but she fears he isn’t who he claims to be. In the end, the passion and power that brought them together could be their downfall. When the final disaster strikes, Mia must risk unleashing the full horror of her strength to save the people she loves, or lose everything.

 

Review:

This was a cool book. The way that Mia was addicted to being struck by lightning was original, creepy, and totally compelling to read about.

This is a post-apocalyptic book...sort-of...at the beginning, only Los Angeles is really affected. Well, decimated in reality. However, the leaders of two different and warring cults are both claiming that another storm is coming...one that will cause an earthquake that will devestate the entire world!

Mia was a very intriguing main character. She was tough, used to having to provide for her brother and somewhat catatonic mother... but she also had hints of vulnerability. She admits to her addiction and tries to fight it.

I also really liked some of the secondary characters. I felt like they were very defined. You knew who they were. That also became a fault of the book in one sense... there was a revelation about the real identity of one character that was not surprising, at all. I still very much enjoyed the twist, but it wasn't really that shocking.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one and look forward to more from this author. Though not the best in the genre recently, this had a refreshing new twist that made it stand out for me! 

Review: The Death-Defying Pepper Roux

The Death-Defying Pepper Roux
by Geraldine McCaughrean

Book Description:

Pepper's fourteenth birthday is a momentous one.

It's the day he's supposed to die.

Everyone seems resigned to it—even Pepper, although he would much prefer to live. But can you sidestep Fate? Jump sideways into a different life? NaÏve and trusting, Pepper sets a course through dangerous waters, inviting disaster and mayhem at every turn, one eye on the sky for fear of angels, one on the magnificent possibilities of being alive.

Review:
I really enjoyed this book. I felt so bad for Pepper, growing up convinced by the grown-ups around him that he was going to die at fourteen...good for him, taking his fate into his own hands! What follows is a mad-cap adventure, a-la cheesy adventure movie style, with lots of twists, coincidences, and finally a happy ending.

I thought Pepper was a great character...charming, polite, well-intentioned, and fortunate in his friends. I was very happy to see the way things turned out for him. I thought the author did a really great job at keeping the tone of this book light and fun, because poor Pepper's life just starts out so sad...