Keeping the Castle (Patrice Kindl)

Title: Keeping the Castle

Author: Patrice Kindl

Publisher: Viking (Penguin)

Length: 261 pages

Rating: 3/5

Althea is only seventeen, but she needs to marry well to keep up the decrepit castle built by her great-grandfather, and to support her widowed mother, young brother, and two step-sisters. Luckily, Lord Boring and his annoying cousin and business manager Mr. Fredericks come to Althea’s town of Lesser Hoo and make things interesting.

The flap copy promised this book would be “I Capture the Castle meets Pride and Prejudice” (both wonderful books). While I saw traces of these books in Keeping the Castle, mostly it was Emma, Cinderella, and more Emma (that’s Clueless for my readers who grew up in the 90s). While Althea is scheming to find herself a rich husband, there’s a lot going on around her that she doesn’t notice, and the schemer gets schemed, but with a happy ending of course!

My biggest complaint is that Althea is so concerned with keeping the castle for the sake of her younger brother, who rarely appears in the novel. He’s constantly overshadowed by a cute puppy, leaving Althea’s motives a bit in question.

Ms. Kindl is no Jane Austen, but her writing is fun and light, and she mixes in modern ideas for her old-time characters to consider for the benefit of her contemporary readers. As Mr. Darcy would say, it’s tolerable. No, that’s too harsh. I did enjoy reading this book, it was easy to pick up and put down and read while I had time. 

Changeling (Philippa Gregory)

Title: Changeling

Author: Philippa Gregory

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Length: 256 pages

Rating: 2/5

Seventeen year old Luca is recruited by the Order of Darkness to record the end of times in fifteenth century Europe. His mission brings him to the monastery of seventeen year old Isolde, who is trapped there so she can’t inherit her fortune and accused of witchcraft as her fellow nuns seem driven to madness. Luca must determine the truth behind these rumors, and in doing so, embarks on quite the journey against evil.

The worst part is that I really expected to like this book. It’s historical fiction from Philippa Gregory who my “adult reading” friends swear by. And while I kept reading to see Luca triumph over misguided medieval nuns and villagers, there was very little else to keep my interest.

The narrative was all over the place as it switched viewpoints, and I never really discovered who the main character was, or what the title had to do with anything. The book wanted to cover too many things at once: Christian superstition, forbidden romance, the place of foreigners and underlings to name a few. And Philippa kept dumbing things down for me that didn’t need to be dumbed down and not explaining things that needed to be explains. Perhaps my problem, in the end, is that I’m a History and English major with pretty high expectations when it comes to my historical fiction. And sadly, this didn’t live up to them. 

The Host (Stephanie Meyer)

Title: The Host

Author: Stephanie Meyer

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Length: 864 pages

Rating: 4/5

Aliens have taken over earth. A parasitic race called “Souls” now inhabit almost all human bodies. The rebel Mel is captured, and Wanderer, an experienced soul, is inserted into her body. But instead of erasing Mel’s consciousness to find out where the remaining rebels are hiding, Wanderer finds herself sharing a body with its original inhabitant. Mel refuses to fade away, and bombards Wanderer with memories until she becomes emotionally attached to the people Mel once knew. Instead of leading the Seekers to the rebel hideout, Wanderer and Mel become allies to find Mel’s brother and boyfriend.

It’s a really weird premise. Two girls in one body? That’s a lot of emotion. Throw in a couple guys and it gets messy (weirdest love triangle yet, Stephanie!). Plus it’s a really long book, but maybe that’s because it takes so long to get past the confusing concept at first.

But there are some great themes running throughout: motherhood, altruism, hope for humanity, and the strength of a change of heart. Deep stuff.

And because it’s the author of Twilight, of course there’s going to be a movie (March 2013). There’s also the rumor of sequels, but that seems unnecessary.

Is this even YA? Who knows. Let’s just say, if you liked Twlight, you’ll probably like this one too, and leave it at that. 

Dairy Queen (Catherine Gilbert Murdock)

Title: Dairy Queen

Author: Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Publisher: Houghtong Mifflin Harcourt

Length: 274 pages

Rating: 4.5/5

Fifteen-year-old D.J. spends most of her time running the family milk farm. When Brian Nelson, quarterback for her school's rival football is sent by his coach to improve his work ethic at her farm, she ends up spending a good part of her summer training him. When school starts, D.J. decides to try out for the football team, which makes her life, already complicated by a family that doesn’t communicate and a best friend who has been acting strange, even more complicated.

Cows and football are two of my favorite things, so of course I loved this book.

D.J.’s voice is honest, fresh, and hilarious, and you can’t do anything but root for her when she decides to do what makes her happy instead of being just another cow in the pasture. Plus she’s going through a lot of issues that most people can relate with: falling for a guy who is not only out of your league, but also your arch-rival; brothers who are bad a communicating; high family expectations; and changing friendships to name a few.

And in true YA-style, D.J. doesn’t just learn to be a great runningback/line(wo)man, but through the course of the novel, finds her own voice, and learns to stand up for herself. 

Written to be a stand-alone book, Dairy Queen is now the first in a trilogy. The series is completed by Off Season and Front and Center.

Such a Rush (Jennifer Echols)

Title: Such a Rush

Author: Jennifer Echols

Publisher: MTV Books

Length: 325 pages

Rating: 4.5/5

Leah has lived in trailer parks near airports all her life, taking care of her irresponsible mother. When they move to yet another trailer park in Heaven Beach, South Carolina, Leah gets a job at the local airstrip and finally finds a way to escape. She saves up enough money to buy a flight lesson from Hall Aviation, and the rush of her first trip up changes her life. By her senior year, she’s been offered a job flying advertising banner planes for Mr. Hall. But when he dies suddenly, Leah’s future as a pilot is put into the hands of his teenage twin sons who have inherited the company. Adrenaline junkie Grayson not only blackmails Leah into continuing to work for a seemly-doomed company, but he also has her pretend to date his brother. Leah may resent people calling her trash, but she can’t deny that her life has gotten rather messy.

You guys all know my love for Jennifer Echols by this point. And honestly, my biggest critique about this book is that I’ve read it and now have to wait a while for the next Echols book to come out. I’m not sure I can handle that kind of wait again! Alright, enough with the melodramatics; let me tell you why I loved this book.

Leah is a disaster. The story starts when she’s 14, already adult enough to take care of all the finances and decide that she doesn’t want to turn out like her mother. Leah needs to figure herself out, and this story is in a lot of ways about how she saves herself. The novel starts a little slow, explaining all this, but it’s necessary to get a good feel for Leah before the boys show up in their delicious story-dominating ways.

Oh the boys, swoony as always. And twins, my favorite kind! Both Grayson and Alec have hidden motives in their return to run Hall Aviation. While Leah has seen them from afar the last three years, they’ve never really interacted. But now that their dad is gone, the boys are forced to be the adults, just like Leah. So they’re figuring out their lives as well. Of course it gets complicated, and of course Echols knows how to write wonderful romance.

The book itself is quite a rush. Leah wants to be a pilot; it’s her escape and her chance to get that adrenaline rush. I learned a lot about flying and planes, and loved the way they worked metaphorically throughout the story.

The only thing I would change about this book? The girl on the cover’s hair is straight, whereas Leah’s is decidedly curly. But I’ll excuse this slight change because I love that on the back of the book, book bloggers, just like me, are quoted for reviews. It’s clear I should use words like “captivating” and “mesmerizing” more often in my review. This I will work on!

Check out this fun interview with Jennifer Echols!

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chobosky)

Title: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Author: Stephen Chbosky

Publisher: MTV Book

Length: 213 pages

Rating: 5/5

“Dear friend” the book begins, as Charlie writes down his fears and feelings about starting freshman year of high school. These letters take us all the way through Charlie’s year as he embraces his wallflower status but also learns how to participate in life, with new friends, first dates, and family drama.

This is one of those “how has this book not been in my life before this moment??” kind of books that so perfectly sums up the feelings of growing up. It’s epic and thoughtful and nostalgic and touching and oh so wonderful. Originally published in 1999 (with its events taking place in 1991 and 1992), its references to mixed tapes and home phones don’t seem outdated, but instead add to the nostalgic feeling from your childhood that you’re (as Charlie puts it) INFINITE as a teen. It’s just you, your friends, and endless possibilities.

This book is perfect for anyone who has felt alone, only to find friends that make them feel alive. Unlike most the YA of our day that focuses on personal self-discovery, Charlie’s self-discovery is communal. Yes, he finds himself, but only though the encouragement of his friends, family, and a very special English teacher. It’s easy to connect to Charlie as a character because he is so open and honest about his emotions through his letters.

I really can’t gush about this book enough, but I must stop and warn you that there are definite PG-13 moments, including drugs, sex, and alcohol. But accepting those things with maturity is part of growing up.

Now I’m terribly excited for the movie (directed by the author himself). It comes out in selected cities TODAY!! Here is the trailer:

Meeting the Merry Sisters of Fate

The Merry Sisters of Fate: Maggie Stiefvayer, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff. YA authors, critique partners, and now co-authors of the new book, The Curiosities.

I was lucky enough to meet these three lovely ladies at an event hosted by the Lawrence Public Library on August 25th. Here's what I learned:

Maggie, searching for critique partners (authors who will read your work and provide helpful suggestions before your editor does), turned to the internet, and after a little critique partner dating, found Tessa and Brenna. After a short time, she introduced them to each other, saying, "you will be friends!" Soon, Maggie had an idea that they should each write a short story a week to improve their writing and have a chance to take new risks. And the Merry Sisters of Fate website was born. Tessa calls them "speculative fiction writers" and their website describes itself as "the dark, the weird, and the strangely beautiful." In The Curiosities, they hope to show their variety and growth from their experiments on the Merry Sisters website. It's an especially fun book because it doesn't just contain stories, it also includes comments on their own work, hand-written in through magical computer software.

Through the event, Maggie, Tessa, and Brenna contrasted their very different writing styles, but agreed on some helpful writing tips. Maggie described books as mixed tapes; they have individually important aspects, but must be cohesive. Tessa suggested that to write a character, you must know one true thing about them. Once you've found the one core value that makes them real, you work from there. All agreed that knowing too much about a character is unhelpful. Brenna helpfully reminded us that something you get your ideas from the most bizarre things. Their advice for writing a good query letter to a publisher? "Just be sexy."

Here they are signing books:
(Maggie on the left, Brenna in the middle, and Tessa on the right)

Look for a review of the book, coming soon.