Rebel Angels by Libba Bray

Gemma Doyle returns in the fantastic second book of Libba Bray's trilogy. Gemma is still at Spence Academy and has her dear friends Felicity and Ann with her. In this second installment Gemma must find a way to bind the magic in the realms to keep evil from take reign over the world as we know it. She has the help of the loyal Indian boy Kartik that she is attracted to, but knows it would be forbidden in society and in her family.
During christmas break the girls must all head home for visits but that still leaves them all close enough to see each other often allowing them to journey into the realms in search of the way to bind the magic and to help their friend Pippa who is in limbo left in the realms.
Outside of the magic of the realms, Gemma has caught the eye of a very prominent young man in London society, Simon Middleton. She is quite fond of her and begins courting her right away with his mother's approval of Gemma driving him even more than his own desire. Gemma is walking a dangerous line that could leave her exposed and left cast out. The magic is making her weak and ill and she's having a hard time hiding it any longer, but she must finish the job she started, she is the Hope.

This is the first time in a LONG time that I can say with great certainty that the sequel was as good if not better than the first book! I am thoroughly enjoying this series and highly recommend it. I can't wait to start The Sweet Far Thing (book 3).

Gemma is an absolute delight to follow along through the story. She is strong when she needs to be and humble when the need calls. She is a smart and thoughtful character that makes the reader fall in love with her and her world of magical realms. This series is so creative and so well written that I can picture the realms and the creatures that live there as if I've seen the pictures on the page. The magic in the stories is not overwhelming or abused by the girls, though they are tempted a few times. They are responsible with the task they've been given.

I am usually not a fan of "magical" types of books or series but this series has really taken me in. Libba Bray has done a wonderful job with this series especially once you learn that she's a Texan and doesn't live anywhere near London! (not to mention Victorian Era London!) I'll be moving on to read the third book in the series later this week and hope to read Ms. Bray's 'Going Bovine' after that. I know it's completely different from the Gemma series, but I love Libba's writing style and hope that I will love it as much as I love Gemma!

Fallen by Lauren Kate

Lucinda, or Luce as she is referred to throughout the book, is dropped off by her parents at a reform school for teens, Sword & Cross, which is an old abandoned church that has been transformed into this school. It is filled with plenty of misguided teens that ended up there one way or another, but Luce is most concerned about one boy in particular, Daniel. He looks eerily familiar but she can't quite place him. When their eyes meet from across a cemetary during a gathering he smiles as if he knows her as well and Luce can't look away... until he "flips her the bird", gives her a nasty look and turns away. Maybe she's just crazy after all.

Next comes Cam, the extremely good looking guy that is quite taken by Luce and seems to find her no matter where she is and always has the most perfect thing to say or do. He is just too perfect and she doesn't know why she is drawn to Daniel when she has Mr. Perfect swooning over her. She feels so guilty about it, but at the same time knows she can't have a relationship with anyone right now knowing how terribly her last relationship ended. A Fire, a death and Luce with complete amnesia to anything that took place during that evening. Travis is dead and she was shipped off to Sword & Cross under suspicion of the police as being a pyromaniac. She doesn't know what happened and until she figures it out she's not taking any more chances.

There were quite a few places where I found myself skimming through paragraphs of details and descriptions that seemed a little pointless. Constantly hearing descriptions of surroundings and what Luce is seeing got a little old. I wanted to know what was going on, not what was around them.
I found it to be the cliche teenage girl story of 2 gorgeous guys both wanting her, one being the perfect good boy and one being the obvious bad boy. I found Luce to be an Okay protagonist to follow. It took me a bit to finish this book, it seemed to drag along in some points. I liked Luce and Daniel, but there was never quite enough information about Cam. He seemed to always be there, but we never really get to know him.
In all I kind of felt like it was a puzzle that was never quite fully put together. Characters introduced in the very last pages that were apparently always involved in an attempt at a twist but it sort of fell short for me.

Honey Wheat bread or Sandwich rolls

Here is the recipe I use for honey wheat bread. We love it... You can do it in your bread machine using the dough setting or do it in a kitchen aid (that's what I use). This will make one regular sized loaf.


Add to bowl...
2 3/4 cups unbleached flour (all purpose would be fine too)
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 packet of yeast
Take a minute to toss all of the dry ingredients together before adding the wet...
1/4 cup honey
1 beaten egg
1 1/4 cup warm milk (not so warm that it will cook the egg!)
2 Tbsp melted butter (butter is much better than margarine)

Turn on the bread machine to the dough setting and follow machines directions. OR
Turn on Kitchen aid to 4 and let it mix and knead the dough for about 5 minutes. It is a very sticky dough when mixing, it will not form into a ball in the machine. Once you turn it onto the flour it is very easy to handle.  (or you could leave it in the bread machine for the entire time... I just like the shape of the bread in a traditional loaf pan)

Once it's done flip onto a floured surface and lightly roll it with your hands until it's the size and shape of your bread pan. Grease the bread pan and place dough in it to rise until doubled. I find the best way to do this is in the microwave with a steamy cup of water to prevent drying out and rise faster.

Bake in 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes. You may need to cover the bread with foil after the first 20 minutes to keep it from browning too much on the top. If your bread pan is aluminum then you will want to place it on a preheated cookie sheet instead of directly on the rack to prevent the bottom from burning. After removing from the oven brush the loaf with another 2 TBsp of melted butter.

An Alternative...

When you flip it out of the mixing bowl or bread machine lightly roll it out with a rolling pin or press it out with your hands to about 3/4 inch thickness. Find a glass or circle shaped cutter about the size of a hamburger bun and cut circles out placing them on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled in size. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes until golden on top and bottom and springy when touched. These are perfect sandwich rolls. Yum.

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

Gemma Doyle is 16 and living in India with her parents. She wishes desperately that she lived in England where she could be going to a proper school like a civilized teenage girl. Her mother believes firmly that she should not go back to live there because she is against all that they stand for in preparing girls to walk the straight and narrow and answer to their husbands every whim. After a disagreement while out in a marketplace Gemma runs off angrily, during her moments apart from her mother she gets sucked into a 'dream' of some sort that takes her over. In this dream her mother is being followed and after being caught she pulls a knife from her bodice and plunges it into her chest. Gemma awakens to find herself still lying in the street with an Indian boy questioning her, but it doesn't take long before that very dream begins to unravel right in front of her, ending in her mother's death.

Gemma is shipped off to the very prep school her mother loathed and she learns all too quickly why her mother was opposed to such a situation. Young girls can be harsh and cruel, especially when there is a new girl and she's in their territory. Gemma must try to fit in as much as she can while knowing something is terribly wrong with her, how did she see her mother's death before it actually happened? If the others find out she will be ridiculed, but it happens again at school and she is starting to think she can't hide it. Then there is the young boy from the street in India, he has followed her to the school and is watching her, leaving cryptic messages and telling her to stop what she's doing but the mystery of The Order is too powerful for her to ignore. Will it also be too powerful for her to overcome?

I enjoyed this book on audio download. I cannot comment on the readability of this novel, but I can tell you that listening to it through my ipod held my attention completely. The person that told the story did a wonderful job. The spiritual nature of this book builds so gradually that by the end it truly reaches a climax and has an ending that doesn't leave you hanging. This is the first book in the Gemma Doyle series and I half expected that I would be left frustrated at the end like other YA series that don't give you a real ending between each installment. I was very pleased with this one.

I love watching the relationships build in the story and seeing how the young girls interacted. It was very real without being cruel or harsh. With this novel taking place in the victorian era there was no issue at all with language, violence or sexual situations since those are all things that were avoided by young ladies in that period. It was not written prudishly or on some moral high ground, just realistic to the period. I love reading a good YA book that is NOT centered around hormone crazy teens, sex and violence! This was just the thing for me. I'm sure that I would have loved reading a hard copy of this book just as much as I loved listening to it on my ipod.

Chasing Brooklyn by Lisa Schroeder

Chasing Brooklyn is the story of Brooklyn and Nico, two people overcoming the grief of losing a loved one. Lucca was Nico brother and Brooklyn long time boyfriend and an all around great guy that came to a sudden and early demise in a terrible car accident in which his best friend Gabe was driving and survived. In the beginning of the book it is the one year anniversary of Lucca's death, and everyone is taking it quite hard, especially Gabe who was found at home after having over-dosed and now is gone also. Brooklyn is closing down and Nico sees her but doesn't know what to do because it's even harder on him since his parents still haven't moved on with the death of their son either. Suddenly, a whole year after his death, Lucca begins to show up in the dreams of his brother and eventually makes himself present when Nico is away too. His message to Nico... "Help Brooklyn". How? What's wrong with her? She won't talk to him so how is he supposed to know how to help? Will Nico help break down Brooklyn's walls and help her to live again or will the walls that are coming down on him keep them apart?

Chasing Brooklyn is an absolutely beautiful book written in verse as a daily journal of two people dealing with grief and loss. There are so many facets to their lives and relationships with all of the people around them and Schroeder does a great job of showing the feeling and the haze that falls upon them as they are grieving and trying to break through. Living with nightmares and trying to run away from reality is pretty much defining Brooklyn and Nico, fear of living lives again because the person they each loved more than anything no longer has life.

This book is not action packed, it is just a simple and beautifully written look at human emotion and healing and Schroeder did a fantastic job at hitting those emotions straight to the readers heart with the style she writes in. I've never read a book this long written in verse and on top of that it kept me spellbound from beginning to end.

Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves

2.5 stars

Hanna loves talking to her father, they have long conversations and he is her best friend. That would be fine if her father was alive. He died over a year ago and he's been with Hanna ever since. Her Aunt has had her sent to psychiatrists and locked away in mental hospitals with multiple diagnoses finally coming to Manic Depression which puts her on medication to control her moods. She is on the road now headed to Texas toward a mother she has never met, by the guidance of her father she gets there much to the surprise of Rosalee, her mother, she just walks right into her home and makes herself comfortable.

Rosalee finds out that Hanna hit her Aunt on the head with a rolling pin in order to run away, and now she has no chance of returning which means she must stay with Rosalee, her only living relative. The very next day she is sent to school to register and finds out that in this town she is considered to be 'normal'. The strange things that happen around this place make her look like someone without a problem in the world. She meets Wyatt, the strong, handsome, brave boy that everyone in the school looks up to and he actually notices Hanna, she is beautiful but being a "transient" he shouldn't have given her a second glance. While living here she will face her inner demons as well as real live ones that try to kill the people of the town. Wyatt and Hanna must prove their strength and bravery to everyone around them but will it pay off in the end?

I'm going to start my review by saying this book, IMHO, is in no way suitable for teens to read. I can't believe it's classified as YA fiction. It is riddled with cussing, use of unknown drugs, lying, stealing and lots of sex. The sex is enough that any parent should worry about their child reading this. Rosalee and Hanna both flaunt and admire the fact that they each use sex as a tool to use and abuse men and that feelings are something that shouldn't be had. Sex is something to get what you want and nothing more. Rosalee is quite proud of her numerous affairs with married men and the fact that she 'fascinates' men enough that they fall in love with her and she throws them to the side like trash. She talks with her daughter about all of this and gives her a box of condoms so her daughter can do the same thing with Wyatt to snag him and get him to take care of Hanna.

The story itself is different, new. Something that held my interest beyond the gasps of disbelief as I read things imagining a 14 yr old reading them after checking this out from the library. It had a pretty cheesy ending and not much depth to the story that revolved around Hanna being completely crazy to begin with, then moving into "crazy-ville" itself and letting her crazy loose since it was no longer taboo. As an adult I can say read it if you like that sort of YA book because you'll probably love it, but I do caution parents to think twice about letting your teens read it.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Imagine waking up in complete darkness in a strange box and knowing nothing more than your name. Thomas awakened to that reality on page 1 of the Maze Runner. Where is he, why is this place filled with nothing but teenaged boys and why can he remember nothing specific about his life prior to the box? Once a month a new boy is sent up through the box where he is taken into the Glade and trained in several jobs to find each boys strong suit. Thomas shows up no different than any other 'Greenbean' or 'Greenie' (new kid) but less than 24 hrs later the alarm sounds again notifying the boys that another person is coming up in the box... only this time when it reaches the top, it's a teenage girl and she's in a coma. She has a message for the boys that Everything is going to change.

The days to follow the girl and the message lead to many strange occurances in a place where things are always in Order and on Schedule. They must solve the puzzle of their captivity in order to find the Creator of their locked up world and fight for their freedom. Is it worth fighting for anymore or is the world outside even worse than the maze they exist in now where you must avoid being stung by terrible animal/machine creatures that what nothing more than to steal them away and tear them apart? Without a memory of their life before the Glade, none of them truly know what they are fighting to get out to... just what they are fighting to get away from.

The Maze Runner is the first novel in what will be a trilogy written by James Dashner. It takes place in a dystopian society where teenage boys with a strange dialect seem to be in charge and running things pretty smoothly. Thomas shows up and wants to be a "Runner", the people that run the maze to find an exit. He doesn't know why he wants to do it because it's extremely dangerous, but deep in his gut he is driven to this job in particular. Thomas's character is not very well developed but since he has no memory of who he is prior to the box all we know is the integrity and strength we see as he performs his daily tasks and through his eyes we get a better glimpse of some of the other characters, like Minho, Chuck and Newt.

Unlike most YA genre books there were no romantic ties at all in this book, that was a good change for me. It moved along at an Ok pace and had enough action and drama, I suppose, but it seemed to lack something for me. I really had to force myself to finish the book so I could see how it ended and I found myself skimming the pages a lot just reading the dialogue. The story was different and new but not anywhere near the calibre of the Hunger Games trilogy, another dystopian series I very highly recommend. It was an entertaining enough read if you have nothing else on your TBR list.