Novels Now

As faithful followers of my blog, you all know my love of both YA and Vampires. So it will come as no surprise that the next book I review is Hunted: A House of Night Novel (Book 5) by PC Cast and Kristin Cast (336 pgs, St. Martin’s Press, 2009). Not only is it a selection [...]

For as long as I can remember, I have loved reading the Ziggy cartoons. He’s such an inspirational little guy that always seems to see the bright side of every bad thing that happens to him.
Zig-Zagging: A Memoir, Loving Madly, Losing Badly….How Ziggy Saved my Life is written by Tom Wilson Jr. He is the [...]

When I was contacted by a publicist to receive an ARC of North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley (384 pgs, Little, Brown Young Readers, 2009), I was really excited. I love a good YA book, and this one was extremely good.

Not to brag or anything, but if you saw me from behind, you’d probably think [...]

I first saw a review of The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart (Hyperion Books, 352 pgs. 2008) over a year ago and thought that it looked great. I’m a big fan of YA books, as you well know. Not sure what took me so long to read it, but once I decided to join [...]

I’m not really sure why the choice of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book (320 pgs, Harper Collins, 2008) as a Newberry Winner surprised me so much. As a true fan-girl, I know the supreme awesomeness that IS Neil Gaiman. I just didn’t realize that others, most notably the CRITICS and NEWBERY judges, knew it too. Read for [...]

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (384 pgs, Scholastic Press, 2008) is a fantastic dystopian novel that I’m using not only as a selection for the YA Reading Challenge, but also for the End of the World Reading Challenge!! Me loves a good dystopian novel!!     
When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. [...]

When I was contacted by author Diana Spechler to review her book Who By Fire (368 pgs, Harper Perennial, 2008), I was flattered. I was also a little hesitant. I always feel a certain amount of pressure to like a book, knowing it was sent by the author, herself. But there was no need to [...]

Eclipse by Richard North Patterson (384 pgs, Henry Holt & Co, 2009) is a book I selected through the Amazon Vine program. I choose this book because I’ve read a lot of Patterson’s thrillers and have always liked them. This one is no exception. I am using this as a selection for the 2009 ARC [...]

Forest Park was pretty in the summer. Portland’s ash sky was barely visible behind a canopy of aspens, hemlock, cedars, and maples that filtered the light to a shimmering pale green. A light breeze tickled the leaves. Morning glories and ivy crept up the mossy tree trunks and strangled the blackberry bushes and ferns, a [...]

This is the story of Ren. He is a 12-year-old boy living in the St. Anthony’s Orphanage somewhere in the woods of New England in the 19th Century. Ren is at that age where it’s unlikely he will be adopted by a family, even the ones that are looking for a little bit of cheap [...]

The caw! caw! cawing! of one stupid crow kept me up all night. (Well, more accurately all day — ’cause , you know, I’m a vampyre fledgling and we have that whole issue of day and night being turned around.) Anyway, I got zero sleep last night/day. But my crappy nonsleep is currently the easiest [...]

WARNING: There may be spoilers of previous books, especially Betrayed in this review. If you haven’t read it yet, you might want to skip to the last 2 paragraphs!!

“Yep, I have a seriously sucky birthday,” I told my cat, Nala. And Zoey Redbird couldn’t be more accurate with that statement!! First of all her birthday [...]

There are some girls that have everything. And not just the ones who are born with silver spoons in their mouths. Some girls are born with an intangible, magnetic aura: something that radiates beneath their flawless skin. You know who they are: the Cleopatras, the Marilyn Monroes. They are the present day sirens — girls [...]

As I said earlier, this RIP season seems to be the season of the Vampire. Ever book I’ve read so far for this challenge seems to involve vampires!! That includes the latest installment of the Gardella Vampire Chronicles, When Twilight Burns by Colleen Gleason (368 pgs, Signet, 2008). While not my favorite book in the [...]

Note: There are spoilers in this review for Rises the Night.
The lair of the Queen of the Vampires was tucked away in the snowy mountain range of Muntii Fagaras. The only reason Maximilian Pesaro had been able to find the hideaway was because of the two bite marks on his neck. Permanent ones left [...]

Even today, if you asked my father who his favorite actress is, he would answer Adrienne Barbeau. Since the days of Maude, he’s had a wild crush on her. Me, I never watched it. But The Fog, Escape from New York, and the excellent HBO series Carnivale would rank me pretty high on the Fan-Girl [...]

Book number two from the Amazon Vine program is yet another (gasp!) Young Adult book. It is Evernight by Claudia Gray (336 pgs, Harper Teen, 2008), and this is the latest offering in the burgeoning world of Teen Paranormal/Vampire books.
It was the first day of school, which meant it was my last chance [...]

Fiona and Patricia have been friends since the First grade. Growing up in Lake Charles, Louisiana they were inseparable. Fiona grew up in a large house with her parents and housekeeper. Far from perfect, Fiona’s parents were cold and strict. Patricia lived with her twice-divorced mother and half-brother in an apartment. Patricia’s mom was never [...]

Not having read any of the Twilight Series (yes, I heard the collective gasp from the crowd!), I didn’t have any expectations coming into reading The Host by Stephenie Meyer (624 pgs, Little, Brown and Company). I don’t have any of the bias that a lot of readers will have. I didn’t expect to find [...]

A Tale of Lifelong Friendship
Tully and Katie. Katie and Tully. The two girls met in the summer of 1974, when they were both in 8th grade. Katie was from a normal, middle-class family. She wore glasses and braces and was basically a nobody at school. Her mom was constantly trying to get in her business [...]