The Eternal Ones, Kirsten Miller

Reading Level:         Young Adult

Paperback:              416 Pages

Publisher:                Razorbill 8/10/10

Bookmarks:            3.5

This is the type of book that when executed correctly can be absolutely terrific.  It's a hard story to tell.  Haven Moore has dreams that she's lived several past lives and that something so great.  A love so great is missing from her small-town world.  She has these attacks that bring the past lives so vividly to the forefront that her high school friends have ostracized her.  Her grandmother has vilified her and her best-friend is trying to help her recover whatever memories she has.

This story really takes off once Haven flees to NY to find answers from the Ouroboros Society.  A place that tracks reincarnation.  In NYC, Haven meets Iain Morrow and feels a deep and soulful connection to him.  Could he be the secret man in her dreams?

I liked this story and found it to be very romantic.  Some people might take issue with Haven and her character, but I definitely found her the product of her environment.  She had just an awful grandmother, and a pastor who was hindering any development that could potentially  help her realize her past lives and move on.  I appreciate Kirsten Miller's vision of reincarnation and we all want that deep, soulful love that lasts through life and death and we can find out true partner to spend the rest of our days with.

I enjoyed this story.

I need a reading challenge...

I've actually been reading a lot, but I've been terrible at keeping track of what I've read.  I've been trying to read the library books I have:

Soulless, Gail Carriger (finished)

Boneshaker, Cherie Priest (started)

Succubus Dreams, Richelle Mead

Changeless, Gail Carriger

However, after I finish these books, I really need to get onto my ARCs I have here.  Anyone here willing to participate in a September reading challenge?  (I know it's a sucky time of year to start one, what with school starting and such).  I just need someone to push me to read the books I have here.  (I must stay out of library!)

So if your interested how about you sign up here?

Lies, Michael Grant

Reading Level:       Young Adult

Paperback:              447 Pages

Publisher:                Harper Teen 5/4/10

Bookmarks:            4

I am a addicted to this series.  And this one, just pushes me over the edge.  I want to know what the FAYZ is now!  I want to know if everything that happened in LIES, is the truth or just LIES??? This book doesn't answer any questions you might have.  It just makes you ask more.  I don't even know when the next book is coming out so I'm going to be jonesing fairly soon.  I've been spoiled with being able to read the first three fairly regularly in a row.

In LIES, we are probably seven/eight months into the FAYZ.  Drake is dead.  Things are peaceful in Perdito Beach, but Sam Temple knows that up at Coates Academy, Caine is plotting and planning something.  Sam also has to deal with the Human Crew.   A gang of people who want the mutants (or people with special powers) eliminated.  A council has been formed, but nothing is being worked on.  No laws have been formed and Sam isn't able to do what he wants without the approval of the council.  Which his girlfriend, Astrid is the leader.

Sam and Astrid both feel the tension of the FAYZ and when Sam is told that a dead girl has been seen walking around the beach, well he doesn't know what to do.

Honestly, these books just keep me hanging on to the edge of my seat.  This book wasn't quite as long as the first two, but I have a feeling the next one will be a backbreaker.  So much information to get in.  Was the Prophetess telling the truth and talking to the people outside of the FAYZ?  

I want to know NOW! :)

The Agency: The Body at the Tower, Y.S. Lee

Reading Level:             Young Adult

Hardcover:                     335 pages

Publisher:                       Candlewick 8/10/10

Bookmarks:                   4.5

I absolutely adore this series.  Mary Quinn (Lang) is a compelling character and the situations she gets into are fascinating for the time the story takes place (late 1800s Victorian Era).   This could definitely be an opened-ended series, but as we know, those tend to get tired and tiring.

It's been nearly a year since Mary was asked to work for the Agency and her training has been ongoing.  When Mary is asked to dress as a young boy for her next assignment, she takes it one step further.  She cuts off her hair, dresses in boy's clothes and tries to impress herself to Felicity Frame and Anne Treleaven.  Which for all intents and purposes works.  However, Anne thinks the new case is a bit out of the Agency's league and doesn't feel that it is safe for Mary to mask herself as 'Mark Quinn' boy apprentice on a building site (House of Commons, Parliament and Big Ben!) where a bricklayer has died from falling from what is to be Big Ben.

As Mary gets deeper involved in mystery, new dangers appear and her identity may not be as secret as everyone thinks.  Especially when a newly invalid James Easton appears at the site.

This is an extremely well-told story.  The plot with this one had me guessing and I'm generally good with picking out scenarios, but not this one.  I was completely enthralled with this story.  Of course when James Easton enters, I'm all a-swooning!  The banter between Mary and James is pure romance and heaven.  They are the Darcy/Elizabeth of the Aughts! (well I think so!).

I was lucky enough to receive and arc of this from Candlewick through Traveling to Teens.  I promised to have this review up on Thursday of last week and I failed.  I cannot say enough about this series, but just buy the book and read it.  Curl up on the couch, have some tea (you'll want LOTS of tea or rum:)) and just be transported to Victorian London, England!

Winner of the HOW ABOUT YOU REVIEW A BOOK

This is a long time in coming and I'm really sorry!  I've had very precious computer time with my computer dead, alive and dead again.  Right now it's alive, but for how long, that remains to be seen!

So via Random.org I give you the winner of Return to Paradise!!!


MORGAN!!!

Morgan, if you can send me your address I will get this book out to you sometime this week.  After you read the book, I would love you to e-mail me your review and we'll post it here!

Please note that I will pick a new winner if Morgan does not respond by Tuesday, August 17 by 8pm EDT.

The Body at the Tower Blog Tour!

I'd like to personally thank YS Lee for stopping at the Review Bookshelf and talking to us about Notorious Victorians (sounds dirty, no?).  I completely adore this series and my review will be up sometime later today.  But for now, here is Ms. Lee!


Welcome to the Body at the Tower blog tour, the theme of which is Notorious Victorians. Today and tomorrow I’ll be talking about rebels – women who flouted conventions of gender and class to make a lasting impact on our daily lives. Today’s rebel is Florence Nightingale – yes, the pioneer of nursing.

It may be difficult to imagine anything radical or rebellious about nursing: it’s a caring profession, a primarily female one nowadays, and a sensible, traditional choice. But in 1844, when Nightingale announced that she wanted to become a nurse, her mother and sister were distraught. It simply wasn’t done. Her family was too rich, too respectable, and Nightingale hadn’t been raised for this. (The Nightingales weren’t entirely dreary: Florence was born in Italy and named for the city of her birth – a very unusual choice for the time. The same principle applied to Nightingale’s sister, Parthenope!) Nightingale encountered huge resistance as she studied to become a nurse. She even rejected marriage proposals, for fear that marriage would hinder her work.

The Crimean War was the first war to be covered by journalists and photographers in anything like a modern style. When reports made their way to London about the appalling conditions under which wounded soldiers suffered, Nightingale found her focus. In 1854, she led a group of volunteer nurses to Turkey. They began by giving sufficient food and medicine to the wounded, and introduced adequate sanitation in the field hospitals. The effect was remarkable.

Some conservative elements disapproved of Nightingale’s presence: it was unladylike to work, and immodest to treatment to injured males. But public opinion was generally positive, and many generous donations enabled Nightingale to establish the first professional school of nursing. Nightingale’s long and exceptionally productive professional life stands as a vindication of her calling; a justification of her startling and rebellious early decision to get her hands dirty and challenge the typical pattern of the rich young lady.

Check out the next installment of the tour at The Book Smugglers. 

Below you can check out former tour stops as well.

Tour stops:

Mon. 8/2 - Kristi (The Story Siren)
Tues. 8/3 - Kristen (Bookworming in the 21st Century)
Wed. 8/4 - Sarah GreenBeanTeenQueen
Thurs. 8/5 - Lizzy (Cornucopia of Reviews)
Fri. 8/6 - Ari (Reading in Color)
Mon. 8/9 - Mariah L
Tues. 8/10 - Steph Su (Steph Su Reads)
Wed. 8/11 - Cecilia (The Epic Rat)
Thurs. 8/12 - Laura (Laura’s Review Bookshelf)
Fri. 8/13 - The Book Smugglers

Author Info:
Website: http://www.yslee.com
Twitter: @yinglee

Halo, Alexandra Adornetto

Reading Level:       Young Adult

Paperback:              496 Pages

Publisher:               Feiwel & Friends 8/31/10

Bookmarks:            5






Um, WOW!  I absolutely adored this strange coming of age story, by the very talented 17 year old Alexandra Adornetto.  Three Angels come to earth to help rid the world of the evil influences in every day lives.  There are Gabriel, Ivy and Bethany.  Gabriel is the archangel also a warrior; Ivy is the healer of the bunch and sits on God's right side.  Bethany is the newest angel.  She isn't quite catergorized yet.


They move into house that has been set up for them without any of the conveniences of normal life in the 21st century.  Bethany is for all intents and purposes a normal teenage girl, who will have to go to high school and live life like a normal.  But it is there that she meets the captain of the Rugby team, the school captain, Xavier Woods.  Bethany finds herself of acting more human and being more teenagerish than Gabe or Ivy would wish.  No one can know their secret.


Bethany pushes the boundaries with heaven and falls for the inimitable Xavier and he falls for her.  The Angels sing, the heavens open and life is good. (I jest, that did not happen!).  Bethany is about to be tested.


And her test comes in the form of a bad boy who does everything he can to tempt her to fall from grace.


As you can tell I really enjoyed this story and it is definitely one series that I will be reading til the end.  The author can write and her storytelling flows so well that you forget you're even reading a teen author.  I can just imagine how excited Jane Feiwel is to have the brilliant young author on their radar screens!  I definitely recommend this book to someone who loves a romantic setting with a paranormal twist.

Hunger, Michael Grant

Reading Level:       Young Adult

Paperback:              590 Pages

Publisher:                Harper Teen 5/26/09

Bookmarks:            4


It's been three months since the final battle with the Coates kids and all the people over the age of 15 have inexplicably disappeared.  Sam Temple is trying to be mayor of the FAYZ (aka Perdito Beach), but it turns out that he's expected to parent as well.  His relationship with Astrid is going well, but it's strained.  The Coates kids have been non existant since the final battle, but Sam knows that it's just a matter of time before Caine and his cronies start plotting.

But things in the FAYZ are dire.  Food is running out, animals are mutating at an enormously fast pace and people are fighting each other and friends.  Sam is at a loss as to help the non-special kids accept the ones that have a special power.

This series is not for the faint of heart.  Talk of cannibalism and eating pets is prevalent as these kids realize that for the first three months they wasted opportunities to save food.  They are given rations and even then that is not enough.  With hunger and tiredness and just being scared.

The one thing that Sam doesn't realize is that at the center of all this, the power plant is exposed and if he loses that, he loses the fight.  With Astrid, Quinn, Albert and Edilio, they aim to save the Power plant and Perdido Beach.

I really enjoy this series.  It took me no time to read it and it's a huge book!  Definitely put this one on your TBR list!