Tris's Book

 The second book in Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic series is verse pirates. 

Sandry, Tris, Briar, and Daja, after surviving an earthquakes weeks ago have discovered that their magics have weaved themselves with one another. they can now talk to each other in their minds and do more powerful spells. None of them has much control to their powers, but they are slowly studying  and trying to discover it. After the earthquake, some of the physical and magical barriers that kept their Temple home and the surrounding villages safe are in disrepair or in shambles all together, which makes it perfect time for pirates to try to make their way in and plunder the surrounding areas. These aren't normal pirates either. They have more mages and new technology that none of the Temple mages have seen before. These four may only be kids, but they are growing fast and their magics are growing faster. 

I enjoyed this one. It was high action and adventure with those subtle moments of teaching of the kids. Like Sandry's Book it seemed to go by very quickly where it probably would have been okay to join it with the first book in the series, but there was enough of a plot and story arch to make it okay at standing on it's own as part of the series. I suppose I just want more than these, seemingly, brief snippets that we get from the pages of this book. 

I've liked the growth that these characters are going through and how they are becoming their own people while still joining together to go great things. I like how they are willing to bend some of the adult rules as they try to help with these major problems that are affecting everyone. 

I am also very much ready for the next book. Bring it on. 

Sandry's Book

I very much enjoy Tamora Pierce's books. I have read many over the years and her books were one of the very large reasons I got into reading the first place.

I had read Sandry's Book a long time ago and actually didn't get very far into the Circle of Magic series. So I figured I'd give the short audiobook read BY TAMORA PIERCE along with a full cast of other readers for the different characters. I figured this would be pretty awesome. 

The story is about these four very different, social reject kids. A street rat, a traitor, a dejected noble, and a magnet for trouble. With the help and foresight of a Mage named Niko finds them and brings these strange children to a place of learning called the Winding Circle Temple. They find out that they have their own varied types of magic that can cause trouble as well as help, if they can learn to control it. 

It is a very short story. As it is seen through the eyes of four young teens it can take a while for the story to actually progress. The plot is very, very simple and but sets it up for later books in the series. This is a heavily character driven book. Most of it was their backstories and finding out that they are mages then super basics of control. 

One of the big things that is different from other fantasy series (though this is an one of the first YA fantasy books as far as I know) is the variety and cultural differences. The characters are all from different cultures and have different magics and then then them learning to help each other. 

I think this would have been better if she had compiled the books into a longer one with different "parts" separating these books. But I feel the same way about her Song of the Lioness series. They are almost too short to get into deeply without binging through all four books at one time. But they are "older" books when the YA market was "young" so I guess we let it slide. 

I'll be listening to the rest of the books eventually and hopefully enjoying them. I did really enjoy Tamora Pierce actually reading the narrator bits throughout the story. I didn't actually think it was her though because she sounded so young, but it really is here--probably done year ago too. 

So I'll read on, and hopefully there will be more a story and deeper plot than this present one. 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Number 7! Ah, the tears. Only good writing works this way. 

Harry, Hermione, and Ron aren't going back to school... at the beginning of the year anyway. They are on orders from Dumbledore to find Voldemort's Horcrux's and destroy them. Harder said than done. Between running away from Death Eaters, searching, not knowing where to go, infiltrating the Ministry while Harry is the most wanted man in the country, and then realizing that the Deathly Hallows are important too... they've got their hands full. 

This one is my first legit read though of the book. I've seen the movies a bunch of times and listened to the other books on audio, but this is a first. I very much enjoyed it. 

I think one of my favorite parts was Kreacher's Tale. You really feel for him and are reminded that every nasty person has a back story and often times if you take the time to get to know them or their story, they'll turn out to be a decent person. Not all the time, if they choose to be that way, but there is potential for everyone and that most of the time all they want to be is understood. Kreacher is awesome and I love how he ends up leading the House Elves at the end. 

I do wish though that we had been able to spread the narrative a little. Instead of solely watching it through Harry's eyes, to have gotten  other's points of view. Especially during the Battle of Hogwarts. Throughout the series we've loved everyone that is in Hogwarts at the end--the good guys anyway. I wish we'd gotten more of the individual battles for Lupin and Tonks, of Kingsley, Hagrid, Molly and Arthur, and all the others. Obviously Harry can't be everywhere, but I'd have loved to get POV changes. Even POV changes when we weren't at Hogwarts at the end. To know more about what the Weasley's were doing, what the DA did in an attempt to steal the sword, Fred and George when they were still manning their shop. And most definitely more at the end. To see how everyone coped or didn't with the losses they received. Even if it was just bit and snippets of weddings, of internal changes, of grief... A page. Three paragraphs. A small bit of dialog. Something just a bit more so then we can close with them and have a more finite resolve. 

But boy was it a great book. Before reading the series, I knew that there was a giant fandom for the Wizarding World. I know some fandoms can go crazy (I'm looking at you Supernatural) but now I understand why. The books were great, well done, and well made. In my opinion, there is very little lacking in the series. No, Harry Potter is not a happy book, but it is one that discusses many things that touch many people in many ways and hopefully helps us to grow. Those books are the best ones to read. 

It will probably be a series I'll reread like so many before me. Enjoy. 

Tuck Everlasting

Tuck Everlasting was a book I originally read in my 5th grade class and in all actuality is probably the first chapter book to read in class that I actually enjoyed. I haven't read it for years but I found that I still loved it.

Winnie Foster is a girl who is stuck in the moment of sameness. Nothing changes for her in her life, with no friends because she is to proper, to clean, and practically confined to her yard. The only conversation she gets is from a toad that sticks around her yard. So not much conversation, until a man in a yellow suit comes by and asks about a peculiar family that she doesn't know. One day at the top of summer where it is the most hot and nature stands still from heat exhaustion, she decides to run away. She gains the courage to step outside her fenced yard and starts traveling through the woods her family owns when she stumbles upon a boy drinking from spring near the base of a tree. What she is about to find out is that he's part of a family who can't die. She gets taken away to have the situation explained to her, but wait... did she just get kidnapped.

It's a sweet book about kind people who have found the meaning of death, in a not gory or creepy way. I very much enjoyed the book, even as an adult.

I love the way Natalie Babbitt used cycles and circles to convey the metaphors, morals, and themes throughout her story. They were well done and well thought out. I also very much love the characters and they are all so human. Setting was well done especially for the fact that this books takes place, for the most part, in two days. It was set up well.

I honestly don't have any faults in this story. Any major disheartening or dislikes or major troubles.

It's a good book that deserved its rewards. It also has two movie adaptations (one in 1981 and the other in 2002). I very much enjoyed the portrayal of the book done in 2002, though there are differences for exaggeration, but they were fun concepts that were played with. I'm gonna be watchin' it soon.

Please, read it. Enjoy it. You could probably finish it in a day.

Castle of Wizardry

The fourth instalment of the Belgariad by David Eddings is a longer one. It is not my favorite one, but it is still good.

Garion and the rest of his traveling companions have retrieved the Orb of Alder and venture back to safe territory. Killing Murgos and finding armies along the way. They make stops at remembered placed, but as they enter farms and caves, Garion finds that they are different. More like they are the same and he is different. He has grown in the year he's been gone traveling with Aunt Pol and Belgarath. Suddenly he also finds himself a King to a country he doesn't know and people trying to murder him on a supposedly safe island away from those who'd do him harm. Ce'Nedra isn't being helpful either. But then bigger decisions have to be made and prophecies must be fulfilled.

As I said, it's not my favorite. There seems to be a lot more traveling happening and not as much storytelling going on. Events happen, but they have more of a diplomatic feel to them instead of action adventure. This series is written differently than most, especially nowadays, and goes slower. These events, diplomatic though they may be, needed to happen in order to further the story on. Slow going, but push through it and enjoy the last book.

As always the development of the characters is what holds me on, although I've become more and more intrigued by the final battle with Torak and what will happen in the future.

The Moon And More

Sarah Deaden is really good at writing young adult romances while also hosting life on the page.

The Moon And More is about Emaline and her romantics summer on a beach. Unlike most vacationers, Emaline works at the beach in Colby at her families business renting beach houses for the typical vacationer. New people come in and out of the renting houses all the time, but one house is being rented for two straight months--a very odd occurrence--while they work on a documentary about a man who is just a regular laundromat business man,  right?

Not only are these new people but Emaline's father is making a visit for the summer. He relations wither father have always been strained with his life being so very different than her and her mother's and the rest of her blended family. Her summer is full of boys, family, film, and work to, hopefully, the Best Summer Ever.

I like the way Sarah Dessen writes her books. It is fun to see hints of previous characters from previous books, familiar places, as well as life--not only romances that bloom throughout its pages. There is romance through all of her books,  but there are also bigger questions being asked as well. Bigger situations that exist around her characters more than just, "Does that guy like me?"

Here dealing with a flaky father, disloyalty from a boyfriend, leaving for college, work, a new guy who knows she's too good for her little town, and finding time to watch out for her half brother, Emaline has a lot on her plate. Like real life. I very much enjoy that. And what is great is that Sarah Dessen makes it flow. She makes the chaos of life flow in her stories so then we don't get lost as readers.

There was some language and there was talk of sex though nothing graphic (in the end, I don't really know if it was all that needed. There didn't seem to be much of a purpose to it, which I feel there needs to be in it is put in there).

I was a good book and well done. 

*Spoilers from here on*

The characters here, though there are many, are developed and all have their own story,  their own reasons for being themselves. Benji and Morris are probably my favorite characters. Mainly Morris because of how much growth and development he has throughout the story and how much he is willing to change. He is willing to put Daisy's good ahead of what he wants even though she is very much willing to keep things going. The fact that he made assistant instead of Theo made my day (literally, though it's kind been a bad day). Going from lackless and pretty much unmoving on the job to scrambling for an art show was awesome. He had a very good story arc. He was also pretty cool with Benji, who was probably the real man (at age 10) of the story. 

I also really liked that Emaline doesn't "end up" with any of the guys. She left Luke for good cheating  on her and didn't go back to him by the end of the story, which was a big relief to me. Then there is Theo. He was new and invited her to push herself and try new things, he wasn't a prince charming character either (which Sarah Dessen doesn't really write, no one is perfect in her books). He definitely had his flaws and in the end they overcame how "good of a pick" he was for her. His Best Ever's would probably get on my nerve along especially when making a spectacle in front of people in public places. She felt very much embarrassed as would almost any girl. He also seemed far more excited to for work and hanging out with Clyde (his interviewee) more than he actually did with her unless it was his Best Ever events. That is no kind of thriving relationship. 

I guess Emaline kind of chose Benji at the end of it. If you had to pick one. 

Snow Like Ashes

Snow Like Ashes was a great book. I was able to bing the audio book on a road trip and because and the intrigue I was didn't stop to rest as much as I should have. It was so engaging I couldn't stop.

Sixteen years ago, Spring destroyed Winter and many Winterians were enslaved. Now, Meira, and orphan and one of seven refuges after Winter's Fall, never seems to be able to help. With Mather's help she is finally able to go and hopefully do something to help her people. They are forced to flee Summer, again, to the capital of another country where she is suddenly pawned off in hopes that she can "help her country" that way. This isn't what she wants to do. She wants to fight and defend her people. Free them from the enslavement camps that Spring has them in, not prance around in dresses. Things obviously go more and more wrong and it is delicious.

I really enjoyed this book bing and am sad I hadn't read it earlier. I cannot wait for the next book.

Meira is a headstrong girl who just wants to help. She grows in this coming of age novel. Her internal adventure is to find her place in this world where she seems to constantly be on the run. Her tone made this book. She had so many internal jabs at the people around her that I laughed hard enough at to wake my son while we were on our trip. I loved it. I love her.

The world that Sara Raasch created here is great too. She's given attitude and personality to all of the seasons and other countries. Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and the other four countries are all vastly different places with an interweaving history. This obviously makes prejudices and hate as well as friendly-ish allies. Her background and world building was very well done. The setting was well enough done to leave me satisfied.

The magic system was fun too, though I do want more. There wasn't a whole lot of magic, but I can see it being far more prominent in the coming books of the series. What I liked most about the magic is that Sara Raasch gave us a reason and history behind the magic. How it was discovered and whatnot. Not many people do that.

I also have to say that Kate Rudd, the reader for Snow Like Ashes did a phenomenal job and made the book sooooo entertaining. Great job, I'll be looking for other books that you've done.

I don't think I have anything really negative to say about the book. This will be one that I suggest alongside Cinder, Six of Crows, Brandon Sanderson, the Manga I've read, and the other 5 Star books I've enjoyed.

Enjoy it. It was a great read.