By These Ten Bones by Clare B. Dunkle (3/5 stars)

This is the first book I have read by Dunkle. Her Hollow Kingdom series is supposed to be really popular, but not wanting to start a new series I thought I would check out this stand alone book first. It was an okay book, but nothing spectacular.

Maddie lives in a small Scottish town. When a Traveler, Ned, shows up with a mute boy who is a woodcarver strange things start to happen. The mute boy (who ends up not being all that mute) Paul is found with his chest shredded and following that other bad things start happening in town. Paul has secrets and Maddie wants to learn them; she hopes they might help explain the horrible nightmares she's been having and solve the mystery of what's plaguing their small town.

This book was part fantasy, part horror story. It takes place in this sleepy Scottish town in a time where people still have strong beliefs in things that go bump in the night. The mood of the book is mysterious and vague like a foggy Scottish bog. Unfortunately this vagueness permeates all parts of the book including the characters. I had trouble liking any of the characters or really engaging with them. The plot itself is fairly predictable and not really all that scary; the story line didn't build much suspense or momentum as it went on.

Dunkle's take on werewolves is very interesting and different from anything else I have read out there; but the mythos behind the werewolf is another thing handled in a vague and unsatifying way. Dunkle does do a good job of creating a mysterious atmosphere and really makes the reader visualize the setting well.

The writing style was a bit in consistent. At points Dunkle described things with great care (like the surroundings and the people's clothing) and at other points things were glossed over quickly leaving the reader to struggle to form a visual image of what was being described.

It is a short book and is very appropriate for the young adult crowd in terms of content. Overall, I thought it was an okay read. It is definitely nothing special though considering all the material available in this genre now. This book didn't really make me want to read anymore of Dunkle's writings. People who are interested in werewolves and a brooding atmosphere would be better off checking out Shiver or Blood and Chocolate.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- The Young Adult Reading Challenge
- The 100+ Book Reading Challenge
- Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge

Waiting on Wednesday - 1/13

Okay "Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine.

This week my WoW book is "Perchance to Dream" (Theatre' Illuminata, Book 2) by Lisa Mantchev. This is the second book in the Theatre' Illluminata Trilogy by Lisa Mantchev.  The first book was a fun and intriguing read.  The series is based on an interesting premise and I recommend checking it out it you get the chance!  The cover art below was released by LIsa Mantchev on her livejournal page; it is the cover art for the ARC and may not be the final art.

"Perchance to Dream" (Theatre' Illuminata, Book 2) by Lisa Mantchev
Pages:352 pages
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Release Date: May 25th, 2010

Synopsis:
We are such stuff as dreams are made on.

Act Two, Scene One
Growing up in the enchanted Thèâtre Illuminata, Beatrice Shakespeare Smith learned everything about every play ever written. She knew the Players and their parts, but she didn’t know that she, too, had magic. Now, she is the Mistress of Revels, the Teller of Tales, and determined to follow her stars. She is ready for the outside world.
Enter BERTIE AND COMPANY
But the outside world soon proves more topsy-turvy than any stage production. Bertie can make things happen by writing them, but outside the protective walls of the Thèâtre, nothing goes as planned. And her magic cannot help her make a decision between—
 Nate: Her suave and swashbuckling pirate, now in mortal peril.
 Ariel: A brooding, yet seductive, air spirit whose true motives remain unclear.
When Nate is kidnapped and taken prisoner by the Sea Goddess, only Bertie can free him. She and her fairy sidekicks embark on a journey aboard the Thèâtre’s caravan, using Bertie’s word magic to guide them. Along the way, they collect a sneak-thief, who has in his possession something most valuable, and meet The Mysterious Stranger, Bertie’s father—and the creator of the scrimshaw medallion. Bertie’s dreams are haunted by Nate, whose love for Bertie is keeping him alive, but in the daytime, it’s Ariel who is tantalizingly close, and the one she is falling for. Who does Bertie love the most? And will her magic be powerful enough to save her once she enters the Sea Goddess’s lair?

Once again, LISA MANTCHEV has spun a tale like no other—full of romance, magic, adventure, and fairies, too—that readers won’t want to put down, even after the curtain has closed. 

Scones and Sensibility by Lindsay Eland (4/5 stars)

To be perfectly honest, I picked up this book because I loved the cover...that and I like Jane Austen. It was a cute, fun, silly, and quick read. I enjoyed it.

12 year old Polly Madessa has just finished reading "Pride and Prejudice" and has decided that she has a new goal for the summer...to make people fall in love. In between delivering pastries for her parents' bakery she works to push people together and pull people apart (when she doesn't think they are well suited). In general she makes one heck of a mess out of people's lives with her good intentions. In the end she learns that maybe love in real life is different from a book.

The story is delivered from the viewpoint of Polly. Polly delivers the whole story in "Pride and Prejudice" like flowery language. Polly also speaks to everyone one in this descriptive, beautiful, and yet out-dated way. Her parents take it in stride, as does her best friend, and it drives her older sister crazy. I thought the way the book was written was okay. At points Polly's language is beautiful and her descriptions of walks on the beach really made me yearn for summer; at other points Polly is just plain silly.

Polly's silliness is part of the charm of the book. I can see where some people might find her annoying, yet, if you approach the story with a sense of whimsy and humor...Polly is just a silly and cute twelve year old girl that is trying to match people's lives to the romantic fantasy she has pictured in her head.

Neither the writing style nor the content of this book is ground-breaking or amazing; at times the writing style is a bit immature (remember it is supposed to be a 12 year old writing it). Yet, the book has a certain charm to it and makes for a fun quick, light read. This is definitely a girly book and is cutesy and funny. Not something I would read all the time, but it was a fun bit of fluff to break up more serious reads. This book is suited for a younger female audience; older teens and adults might also enjoy it.

If you are looking for something a bit silly, kind of cute, sugary and fun this book meets all those requirements and has a sort of charm to it that makes it a fun read. If you are looking for something of Jane Austen proportions, then this book might be a bit immature for you. Still it is a quick read and is a bit of girly fun, so check it out if that appeals to you.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- The Debut Author Challenge
- The Young Adult Reading Challenge
- The 100+ Book Reading Challenge

Ariel by Steven R. Boyett (4/5 stars)

This book looked really interesting and I have read good things about it so I decided to give it a go. It was an enjoyable read, although there are a few things in the book which irked me a bit. This book was originally released in the early 80's and this is a re-release of it.

This story takes place in the post-Change world of the United States. The Change happened one day and suddenly all electricity/technology stopped working and magical creatures began roaming the earth. Humanity was left to survive in any manner possible in this post-apocalyptic type of world. Pete is living day to day when he stumbles upon a unicorn with a broken leg. He takes the time to fix her leg and dubs her Ariel. A year later Pete and Ariel are still traveling together; only someone is after Ariel's power and Pete and Ariel only have one choice...to destroy the necromancer that wants to hold Ariel captive.

This book moves at a fairly brisk and kept my interest. The relationship Pete and Ariel have, as well as the relationship of other characters with their familiars, is very interesting and much of the story pays attention to this. I also found it interesting that there is so much focus on Pete struggling with keeping his virginity, if he loses it then him and Ariel can no longer be companions. Enter a young woman (Saughnessy) who tempts Pete more than she should.

While Pete and Ariel are very well-developed characters, the characters surrounding them could use some work. The evil necromancer is fairly faceless and we never get to learn his thoughts on anything. Even the young woman that travels with Pete is rather 2-dimensional; you never get to understand her or hear why she wants to travel with Pete or Ariel.

There is a lot of unfettered violence and a lot of action in this book. Those with a weak stomach might want to skip it; to be far I don't think that the violence was made unreasonably gory...Boyett tries to stay true to what the resulting gore would actually be given that people's limbs are removed with swords quite often. I enjoyed the inclusion of the Japanese mentality to fighting with all the samurai sword action, those scenes were a lot of fun.

The ending of the book left me disappointed. I thought the choices that Pete made were kind of sudden and un-called for; but I will not mention any more to prevent spoilers.

There were a few things that bothered me about this book. The first was Pete's use of a blowgun to drop enemies immediately; it just isn't very realistic. In the Afterward Boyett says that he now realizes this. The second thing that bothered me was the lack of people. Pete travels through vast quantities of land without barely seeing anyone, which could happen. But then he goes through big cities without seeing many people. I realize if electricity/technology stopped some people would be killed in car accidents, plane crashes, etc...but a vast majority of humanity would probably be okay. I am wondering were they all went. Also since it has been six years since the Change, wouldn't you think humanity would be re-forming organizations and communities? There is a small community (300 people) talked about in New York, but other than that there doesn't seem to be much organization at all. I just found these aspects to very unbelievable and this lowered my opinion of the story, because it was so fundamental to the story.

Overall I enjoyed the story. It is a bit long and some parts are hard to find believable, but it is well written with some awesome action scenes. Boyett's idea of a post-apocalyptic world forced by a fundamental change in the laws of physics is interesting, but flawed at points. Will I be reading "Elergy Beach", the sequel to Ariel? Probably not. I just didn't love the world enough to continue reading about it.

This book goes towards the following challenges:
- 100+ Book Reading Challenge
- Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge

Teaser Tuesday - 1/12

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

- Grab your current read
- Open to a random page
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week my teaser is from "Ariel" by Steven R. Boyett.

 

Here it is: "I cast a spell and it works, whether you call it supernatural or different operant physics.  I conjure a demon and it appears." pg. 47

Blood Cross (Jane Yellowrock, Book 2) by Faith Hunter (5/5 stars)

This is the second book in the Jane Yellowrock series by Faith Hunter and it was just as awesome as the first book.  It is a fast-paced book with wonderful action scenes and wonderful characters.  I would definitely recommend reading the first book first, if you liked the first book you should like this one.

This book picks up where the last left off.  Jane is still in New Orleans and is still on contract to hunt down the maker of the rogue vampires.  She is joined by the witch Molly and her children.  As Jane tries desperately to track down the rogue maker, she finds out that somehow the witches of New Orleans are involved.  Can Jane track down the rogue maker before Molly and her children are forced into the witchy problems of New Orleans?

Like the first book this book is very densely written and full of action.  Jane very rarely stops to catch her breath, yet despite of all the action the characters are intriguing, are well-developed and have a lot of depth to them.  In this book we finally learn more about Jane's personal history and we also learn a lot more about the Vampires' Curse and their origins. 

Also as in the first book there is a little chemistry going on between some of the characters.  Jane/Beast continue to find Bruiser intriguing, and undercover cop Rick is also after Jane for at least one date.  Jane and Leo, the Master Vampire, of New Orleans have very strained relations as Leo deals with his depression over the death of his son.  Molly and her kids bring a nice element to the story and force Jane to show her soft side some of the time too.  This helps to make Jane a very believable character.

The world Hunter has created is very interesting and different from many of the paranormal worlds out there.  She really broadens the world in this book and gives us insight into how the Vampires tick.  She does a great job at writing a tight plot without a lot of excess fluff.  Jane knows what she wants to do and gets there, most of the time, dealing with the unexpected in unique and interesting ways.

If I have one gripe about this story it would be that Jane almost dies a number of times, sometimes I was left wondering if Jane was such a fabulous vampire slayer how did she get herself almost killed a number of times in less than a couple days?  That being said Jane has the wonderful ability to survive the impossible and it makes for a heroine that is interesting, yet believable.

I am eagerly awaiting the next Jane Yellowstone book.  Originally Hunter was contracted for three Jane Yellowstone book and I hope that she writes a couple more after that (not sixteen more mind you, but a few more would be nice)!

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- 100+ Book Reading Challenge
- Thriller and Suspense Reading Challenge

Mailbox Monday - 1/11

 Mailbox Monday can be found at: The Printed Page

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week (checked out library books don’t count, eBooks & audio books do). Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

This week I got a lot of books.  Some of it is due to the after Christmas book splurging I end up doing every year.  But most of them are through paperbackswap.com.  


I broke down and finally bought "Into the Woods" and "The Book of Ballads"  I have been wanting these forever and got them really cheap on Amazon.  I also pre-ordered and just got "Blood Cross" because the first Jane Yellowstone book was one of my favorites of last year; so I figured I can pay full price for this series if I enjoy it sooo much.

The rest of the books I got off of my wishlist through paperbackswap.com.  Quite the haul!  Most of them will support my reading challenges in one way or another.  Check out the list and details below.  Hope you all have a happy week!  And I wish you excellent reading :-)

"Silk" by Caitlin R. Kiernan

First Sentence: "Two nights before Halloween, as if it matters to anyone in the house, as if every day in this house isn't Halloween."
From Amazon.com: "To the residents of her small southern city, second-hand store owner Spyder Baxter is crazy. But her friends and followers know better. Something lives within Spyder's brain. Something powerful. Something wonderful. Something dangerous. Pray it never escapes."

"Blood Cross" (Jane Yellowrock, Book 2) by Faith Hunter

First Sentence: "Molly and the kids and I were eating lunch when the lightening hit."
From Amazon.com: "Jane Yellowrock is back on the prowl against the children of the night...
The vampire council has hired skinwalker Jane Yellowrock to hunt and kill one of their own who has broken sacred ancient rules-but Jane quickly realizes that in a community that is thousands of years old, loyalties run deep... "

The Book of Ballads by Charles Vess

First Sentence: "I'm of to school, ma.  You don't go near the well, our boy."
From Amazon.com: "Illustrated and presented by one of the leading artists in modern fantasy, The Book of Ballads gives us some of the great songs and folktales of the English, Irish, and Scottish traditions, re-imagined in sequential-art form, in collaboration with some of today+s strongest fantasy writers.Here is New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman retelling -The False Knight on the Road+; popular mystery author Sharyn McCrumb reimagining -Thomas the Rhymer+; acclaimed children+s writer Jane Yolen with -King Henry+ and -The Great Selchie of Sule Skerrie+; popular novelist Charles de Lint+s contemporary reworking of -Twa Corbies+; comics superstar Jeff Smith with -The Galtee Farmer+; Emma Bull+s version of -The Black Fox,+ and much, much more. A finalist for 2005+s Eisner Award, Ballads is an event in the worlds of fantasy and graphic storytelling alike."

Into the Woods by Lyn Gardner

First Sentence: "Storm Eden was forbidden to put a foot outside the high walls that surrounded the park at Eden End."
From Amazon.com: "Storm, Aurora, and Anything Eden live in a decaying mansion on the edge of the wilds with their erstwhile father and indolent mother. When an accident leaves them orphaned and at the mercy of the sinister Dr. DeWilde, these three courageous and eccentric sisters are forced to flee into the woods, where they encounter kidnappers, sweets-filled orphanages, mountains of ice, diamond mines, and some ravenously hungry wolves.

Taking inspiration from numerous fairy tales and weaving them into a wholly original story, Into the Woods is a whirlwind of a novel, full of imaginative happenings and dastardly deeds."

Devoured by Amanda Marrone

First Sentence: "Helena," the large mirror beckoned from the east wall, "I have something fo the utmost importance to show you."
From Amazon.com: "Megan’s twin sister Remy died in an accident nine years ago, and she's been haunting her ever since. Knowing how crazy that sounds, Megan keeps this secret to herself and tries to lead a normal life. But when she takes a summer job at Land of Enchantment to keep an eye on her new boyfriend and his lovesick best friend, Samantha, she meets fellow employee Luke who can see Remy, too. Things get even twistier because Megan's new friend Ari is sporting a massive crush on Luke, who seems to be developing a massive crush on Megan... making for a love triangle that’s positively possessed.
Megan wants to keep her distance from Luke, but when Remy’s visions get crazy violent, she knows she needs his help. Because someone's definitely in danger... the only question is who?"

Scones and Sensitbility by Lindsay Eland

First Sentence: "It was upon turning the last delicate pages of my leather-bound copy of Pride and Prejudice" that my transformation into a delicate lady of quality was complete.
From Amazon.com: "Seek tirelessly and you shall not find a contemporary heroine of middle-grade literature as refined and romantic as Miss Polly Madassa. Still swooning over the romantic conclusions of Pride & Prejudice and Anne of Green Gables, twelve-year-old Polly decides her purpose in life: helping along lonely hearts in search of love. Polly's only task this summer is to make deliveries for her parents' bakery, leaving ample time for this young cupid to find hearts to mend--beginning with the kite-store owner, Mr. Nightquist, who will pair perfectly with Miss Wiskerton (the unfairly labeled town curmudgeon). Polly's best friend Fran Fisk is in desperate need of a mother ever since hers ran off with a man she met on the Internet; Polly must find a match for Mr. Fisk. And while she's at it, it wouldn't hurt to find Clementine, Polly's teenaged sister, a beau worthy of her (so she can shed that brute, Clint). Polly's plans are in full swing, so she definitely cannot be bothered by the advances of classmate Brad Barker.

But maybe Polly should have turned her attention to Miss Austen's Emma next, because she quickly learns the pitfalls of playing matchmaker. How will Polly patch up her own relationships, while ensuring that destined love can take its course?"

Darklight (Wondrous Strange, Book 2) by Lesley Livingston

First Sentence: "The old man lay crumpled on the flagstones in front of a Park Avenue brownstone, his lifeblood oozing from five small holes in his neatly buttoned tweed vest like sap from a maple tree tapped in spring."
From Amazon.com: "Faerie can't lie . . . or can they?
Much has changed since autumn, when Kelley Winslow learned she was a Faerie princess, fell in love with changeling guard Sonny Flannery, and saved the mortal realm from the ravages of the Wild Hunt. Now Kelley is stuck in New York City, rehearsing Romeo and Juliet and missing Sonny more with every stage kiss, while Sonny has been forced back to the Otherworld and into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the remaining Hunters and Queen Mabh herself.
When a terrifying encounter sends Kelley tumbling into the Otherworld, her reunion with Sonny is joyful but destined to be cut short. An ancient, hidden magick is stirring, and a dangerous new enemy is willing to risk everything to claim that power. Caught in a web of Faerie deception and shifting allegiances, Kelley and Sonny must tread carefully, for each next step could topple a kingdom . . . or tear them apart.
With breathtakingly high stakes, the talented Lesley Livingston delivers soaring romance and vividly magical characters in Darklight, the second novel in the trilogy that began with wondrous strange."