Wings

Laurel has always been a little strange...all she really likes to drink is Sprite, she is never hot or cold, and she can't ever remember bleeding. Her parents had always homeschooled her until, at fifteen, Laurel starts going to high school. Then things get really weird. She meets David, a sweet guy who she begins to be interested in but then she sprouts a flower from her back, meets handsome Tamani who tells her that she's actually a fairy, and finds out that her DNA shows that she's actually a plant.

I listened to this on my Ipod (by Aprilynne Pike) and I liked it well enough. A different fairy mythology than any I have read about before. The typical but sweet love triangle between Laurel and her two suitors was satisfying. Sort of very tame urban fantasy. I think it was just good. Not fabulous, but enough to keep me occupied when driving between Maryland and New York.

Cybele's Secret (YA Romance Challenge #6 of 6, Once Upon a Time III #4 of 5)

I listened to Juliet Marillier's sequel to Wildwood Dancing and really quite liked it. Cybele's Secret features Paula (pronounced paola), the third of the five Transylvanian sisters featured in Wildwood Dancing, who is the scholar of the family. She accompanies her merchant father to Istanbul to do business there, particularly to acquire an ancient artifact known as Cybele's Gift. No one is sure exactly what it is, but there are several buyers including Duarte, the quite intersting Portugese ex-pirate. One of Paula's father's first tasks was to provide Paula with a bodyguard as the stakes of his interest in Cybele's Gift rise. Paula choses Stoyan, an apparently quite fine looking Bulgarian whose interest in protecting Paula quickly changes from duty to something more.

Paula was an interesting character. She repeatedly referred to herself as a scholar, and at seventeen this is a great aspiration. She also wanted to be a business woman and had to cope with being a woman in Istanbul which is truly a man's world. She is befriended by Irene who seems to have carved a niche for herself as a semi-independant (though married) woman who has a library and a life of her own. Paula was good mix of determination, resourcefulness, and bravery while at the same time being a bit too prudish for my liking. Along with the quest to find Cybele's gift, the supernatural came into play (continued from Wildwood Dancing) which spiced things up a bit. I have to say though, I had hoped the romance would heat up faster than it did. I mean, there was some good stuff in there and Paula having both the intellectual and wealthy Duarte and the protective Stoyan compete for her attention was fun. Still, I remember looking at my Ipod and thinking, if these two (I won't tell you which two!) don't get together in the next five minutes I'm gonna be irritated. And it turns out I was. Still, it was a fun listen.

Abhorsen

Tim Curry, thank you for reading these books! I listened to the third and final of the Abhorsen trilogy and he carried me through. This installment of the story of the necromancer/free magic workers in the Kingdom finished with a bang. Lirael and Prince Sameth, Sabriel and Touchstone, and Moggett and the Disreputable Dog fight to destroy Orranis before he destroys the world. There is no point really listening to or reading this without the first two, it won't make any sense. But I will just say that I was a bit sad when it ended...I wanted a more of the story than Nix gave. Sort of that last chapter of Harry Potter where you find out where everyone ends up. But alas, nothing like that happened. Still, it was full of action, horrible and disgusting and wonderful descriptions of what half-decayed flesh sounds like when it is blown apart by machine guns or sliced through with a sword. Ew. But so good when it comes out of Tim Curry's mouth! Good times.

A Company of Swans

Harriet Morton was quite an ordinary person...at least it seemed so. Raised by her crabby father, a professor of the classics at Cambridge, the one joy she has in her life is dancing. Harriet loves the ballet and is quite talented though her father is convinced that it is not truly a ladylike pursuit. Set in 1912, there are lots of issues of propriety and proper behavior and Harriet is a good girl. But one day a Russian ballet master comes to her class and invites her to join his troupe on a trip to Brazil to dance in the corps for wealthy Europeans living along the Amazon river. For some reason, this sparks Harriet's imagination and in a mad moment of true individualism she tricks her father and heads off to South America. She's only eighteen so this is quite a big deal because legally her father could have her returned to him and really do whatever he wanted to punish her. In the Amazon she meets Rom, a wealthy Englishman who is quite different from her father's preferred suitor, Edward.

I listened to this on my Ipod and liked it. The romance was very sweet. The only thing that I wasn't sure about was Harriet herself. I liked how she came out of her shell and was able to be her own girl, but sometimes I couldn't reconcile how "good" her character was with some of the things she did. Like she was made out by the author to really be above fault which she wasn't. I liked her, but wanted her little bit darker side to be acknowleged for what it was.

Brisingr

Ah Mr. Paolini, why oh why does there have to be a fourth book. Don't get me wrong, I love the Inheritance Cycle, but I don't want to wait years to hear the end of the story. So I will have to content myself for now with what I've got.

**If you haven't read the first two just be warned that there are spoilers here...there is just no other way to review this book than to discuss things that have happened in previous books.

After the massive battle on the Burning Plains at the end of Book 2, Eragon promises Roran to rescue Katrina, his fiance from the Ra'zac. Not only that, but now that he knows that Murtagh has a dragon and is sworn to King Galbatorix, he wants to return to Ellsemere to talk to Oromis and he has to make sure that Orik manages to be crowned King of the Dwarves so that the Varden doesn't crumble. Yeah, lots happening. But some of the scenes truly drag on. The part where the Dwarves counsel meets to elect a king takes forever. But some good ends were tied up in book 3. Now the wait for book 4.

One of the things that doesn't quite fly with me in Paolini's books is the dialogue. I mean, it's very beautiful and sounds lovely but it is not the kind of language that anyone actually uses. Especially not a teenage farmboy with practically no education. I mean Eragon spends some time with the elves, but some of it was a bit over the top.

**Just so you know, I had to look up the spelling of all these crazy names because I listened to the audiobook. Sigh.**

Born Confused

I have to admit, I was disappointed by this book. I actually listened to it on CD. Mostly. After 8 of the 12 CDs I actually started skipping tracks, and then I actually skipped an entire CD. And the truth was, I hadn't really missed anything.

Tanuja Desai Hidier's novel began great. Dimple Lala, an Indian teenager living in New Jersey, is just about to turn 17 and has always been in the shadow of her beautiful, skinny blond best friend Gwyn. Not that Dimple usually seems to mind. She worships Gwyn and sees all of her wonderful characteristics. But then of course, boys get involved. Dimple's parents try to set her up with a "suitable Indian boy," Karsh, and in an act of teen rebellion against her parents, she tells Gwyn she would never date him. So when Gwyn meets him and thinks Dimple doesn't like him, she turns on her charm. When Dimple starts to see Karsh in a new light, it throws off her relationship with Gwyn and all sorts of drama ensues.

Here is my problem with this story. Dimple was not wholly real for me. She has some spot on reactions and emotions and mistakes and realizations. But she would go off on these crazy full-of-imagry tangents that were so not like a seventeen year old that I just couldn't believe her. She was a little too insightful...her search for identity seemed a little too focused. I related to Dimple so much during some scenes that I thought, "wow, the author could have taken her thoughts right out of my teenage brain." And other times I thought Dimple sounded like a 35 year old psychologist. I liked her, but I didn't believe her. She did have a love of photography which was fun to read about. I skipped most of the disks 10 and 11 of 12 but like how the story ended. Predictable but a good ending. Maybe it would have been better to read than listen to.

Skullduggery Pleasant

If you like Irish accents, for sure listen to this audiobook...fantastic reading. I actually picked this up on a whim, really really needing something to read on a thirteen plus hour drive from Maryland to Chicago. Stephanie is a twelve year old girl bored with her life when her uncle dies unexpectedly leaving her the majority of his fortune. At the reading of the will, a strange man completely covered in overcoat, scarf, hat, and sunglasses is there and receives a piece of advice from Uncle Gordon's will. It turns out that this strange man is actually a living skeleton named Skulduggery who manages to save Stephanie's life several times in one evening.

Stephanie is drawn into an underworld of magic in which Skulduggery is a detective and an evil man named Serpine is out to destroy the world. Skulduggery is an egotistical but incredibly witty character and Stephanie is a rather independant girl whose desire for a break from the monotony is at first her driving force. However, the deeper she delves into crazy magical happenings with Skulduggery, she grows up and finds better motivations for putting herself in mortal danger.