Book Review: Cinderskella

Title: Cinderskella (Scarily Ever After #1)
Author: Amie Borst & Bethanie Borst
Genre/s: Middle Grade, Fantasy, Fairy Tale Retelling
Released Date: October 26, 2013
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Synopsis:

Cindy is just a normal eleven and three-quarter year-old. At least until she wakes up one night and finds out she’s dead. Well, she isn’t technically dead—she just doesn’t have any hair . . . or a nose . . . or skin. Yep—all bones, no body.

Human by day and skeleton by night, Cindy is definitely cursed. And because her mother recently died, Cindy has no one to turn to except a father who’s now scared of her and an evil stepmother who makes her do the housecleaning with a toothbrush. To make matters worse, the Spring Fling dance is approaching, and Ethan, the cutest boy in sixth grade, doesn’t seem to know Cindy exists. Of course, Cindy doesn’t think letting Ethan find out she’s part skeleton is the best way to introduce herself.

While facing such perils as pickled pig’s feet, a wacky fortune teller, and a few quick trips to the Underworld, Cindy’s determined to break the curse—even for a single night.

ARC Review: A World Without Princes (School for Good and Evil #2)

Title: A World Without Princes (School for Good and Evil #2)
Author: Soman Chainani
Genre/s:  Young Adult, Middle Grade, Fantasy, Magic, Fairytale, Friendship,
Released Date: April 15, 2014
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Synopsis:

In the epic sequel to the New York Times bestselling novel, The School for Good and Evil, Sophie and Agatha are home, living out their Ever After. But life isn’t quite the fairy tale they expected.

When Agatha secretly wishes she’d chosen a different happy ending, she reopens the gates to the School for Good and Evil. But the world she and Sophie once knew has changed.

Witches and princesses, warlocks and princes are no longer enemies. New bonds are forming; old bonds are being shattered. But underneath this uneasy arrangement, a war is brewing and a dangerous enemy rises. As Agatha and Sophie battle to restore peace, an unexpected threat could destroy everything, and everyone, they love—and this time, it comes from within.

ARC Review: Seven Wonders Journal: The Select + The Orphan

Title: Seven Wonders Journal: The Select + The Orphan
Author: Peter Lerangis
Genre/s: Middle Grade, Young Adult, Action, Adventure, Novella
Released Date: April 22, 2014
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Synopsis:

The Seven Wonders adventures continue in this print bind-up of The Select and The Orphan. The Select tells the story of thirteen-year-old Burt Wenders, the first documented carrier of the G7W gene, and his fated voyage to the island that would eventually come to house the Karai Institute. In The Orphan, learn the story of Daria, orphaned at a young age and enslaved by the Babylonians, and her valiant battle to escape the only city she's ever called home. These titles are together in print for the first time ever.

With key historical details and plenty of backstory surprises, this is a perfect addition to the library of new and continuing fans of the New York Times Seven Wonders series by Peter Lerangis, author of three stories in The 39 Clues series.

ARC Review: The Forbidden Stone (The Copernicus Legacy #1)

Title: The Forbidden Stone (The Copernicus Legacy #1)
Author: Tony Abbott
Genre/s: Middle Grade, Action-Adventure, Fantasy
Released Date: January 7, 2014
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Synopsis:

Rick Riordan meets Dan Brown in this exhilarating and adventurous new tween series from beloved and bestselling author Tony Abbott.

The Copernicus Legacy has everything middle-grade readers love-an international adventure, a compelling friendship story, and a mission that draws on history and astronomy. Readers who loved Percy Jackson will be eager to follow our heroes on this six-book, six-novella journey and excited to enter a sweepstakes to participate in a real-life scavenger hunt hosted by Tony Abbott that lets the reader become part of the story.

It all began when four friends-Wade, Lily, Darrel, and Becca-received a strange, coded email from Wade's uncle Henry shortly before the old man's sudden death. They set off for Germany to attend the funeral with Wade's father, Roald, and discover that Uncle Henry left them yet another baffling message that they suspect is the key to figuring out how and why he died.

The message leads to a clue, and the more clues they discover, the farther they travel down a treacherous path toward an ancient, guarded secret. Soon they are in a breathless race across the globe, running for their lives as a dangerous shadow organization chases them around every corner. Their only hope of saving themselves-and the world that they know-is to find twelve magical relics from a hidden past that will unlock the Copernicus Legacy.

ARC Review: Lost in Babylon (Seven Wonders #2)

Title: Lost in Babylon (Seven Wonders #2)
Author: Peter Lerangis
Genre/s: Middle Grade, Action-Adventure, Fantasy,
Released Date: October 29, 2013
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Synopsis:

The adventure continues as Jack and his friends travel to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in the pulse-pounding second title in the Seven Wonders series.

With Marco gone and the first Loculus lost, Jack, Cass, and Ally are no closer to saving themselves (or the world) than when they first arrived at the Karai Institute. But when Bhegad tracks down Marco deep in the desert, the kids are off on the next leg of their quest-to the ancient city of Babylon. There the kids find themselves faced with a daunting choice that makes them question everything they've learned so far. It's a gut wrenching decision, but what the kids don't realize is that it's also a trap. Surprises pile on surprises until a long-lost figure from Jack's past returns, and the kids find themselves forced to engineer an escape that might just turn out to be a different kind of trap altogether....

Book Review: The Colossus Rises (Seven Wonders #1)

Title: The Colossus Rises (Seven Wonders #1)
Author: Peter Lerangis
Genre/s: Middle Grade, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mythology, Action Adventure
Released Date: February 5, 2013
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Synopsis:

One Boy

Jack McKinley is an ordinary kid with an extraordinary problem. In a few months, he’s going to die.

One Mission

Jack needs to find seven magic loculi that, when combined, have the power to cure him.

One Problem

The loculi are the relics of a lost civilization and haven’t been seen in thousands of years.

Seven Wonders

Because they’re hidden in the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

ARC Review: The School for Good and Evil

Title: The School for Good and Evil
Author: Soman Chainani
Publication Date: May 14, 2013
Genre/s: Young Adult, Middle Grade, Fantasy

Synopsis:

At the School for Good and Evil, failing your fairy tale is not an option.

Welcome to the School for Good and Evil, where best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime.

With her glass slippers and devotion to good deeds, Sophie knows she'll earn top marks at the School for Good and join the ranks of past students like Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Snow White. Meanwhile, Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks and wicked black cat, seems a natural fit for the villains in the School for Evil.

The two girls soon find their fortunes reversed—Sophie's dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School for Good, thrust among handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication.

But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are . . . ?

The School for Good and Evil is an epic journey into a dazzling new world, where the only way out of a fairy tale is to live through one.

Book Review: If I Know Its Coming

Title: If I Know Its Coming
Author: Nick Hupton
Genre/s: Middle Grade/ Young Adult, Contemporary

Synopsis:

Thirteen-year-old Tim Hansen lives in a quaint little neighborhood in South Minneapolis. For the most part, he leads a normal, preteen existence. He is concerned about friendships, girls, sports and even schoolwork from time to time. But when his mother who is a nurse in the United States Army Reserve, is deployed to Iraq, Tim's relatively normal and happy existence gets flipped upside down. How will Tim cope without his mother? Will his family ever be the same? Middle school was unpredictable enough, but when Tim faces this sudden dose for mortality, the adventure is just beginning.

Six Weeks to Yehidah Blog Tour: Review

Title: Six Weeks to Yehidah
Author: Melissa Studdard
Genre/s: Young Adult/Middle Grade, Fantasy

Synopsis:

"The thing you would notice most was the rain, how the rain fell and fell and never seemed to stop. The sky was constantly swollen with it, then birthing it, swollen, then birthing again, and the hills, like greedy babies, suckled up all that rain. They shone and glistened green as the backs of frogs on bright green lily pads.

Annalise was ten then, old enough that she’d begun thinking about grown up things, like picking her own clothes out for school, yet young enough, still, to indulge in fanciful imaginings of enchanted trees and talking hills. Her best friends were the clouds that canopied her village and the verdant hills that hosted her most precious and outrageous dreams."

As spunky young Annalise travels from one adventure to another, she learns ancient wisdom traditions and gains deeper and deeper insight into herself and her world. Eventually she must make the most important decision she's ever faced -- whether or not to return to the self she has always known.