Alanna of Trebond isn’t happy. Her father is sending her off to learn how to train her Gift, while her twin, Thom, gets to go be a knight at the castle of Tortallen. When Alanna and Thom switch places, Alanna is thrilled at the thought of being a knight. What isn’t so thrilling is all the work of 7-8 years of training. And the part of hiding the fact that she’s a girl. Join Alanna in her training to be a true knight in Tamora Pierce’s new quartet, The Song of the Lioness: Alanna; The First Adventure.

I think that this book, like all of Pierce’s books, is just amazing. It’s the perfect mix of adventure and life at court. All the scenes flow seamlessly, and the storyline is fascinating.

If you like my review, read Alanna; The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce!!!

So the Teen Girl continues to read voraciously and has discovered a new love: The late Tudor period, extending into the Stewart period, says my good friend Marie Burton at Burton Book Review. Of all the bloggers and readers I know, Marie knows historical fiction the best, so when I told her what The Teen Girl was reading, she helped me hone in on that period.

But … Marie’s an adult and the Teen Girl is… well, she’s not officially a teen yet. She’s still a pre-teen.

That means Marie doesn’t know the YA historical fiction world as well as the Teen Girl would like her to. Meaning: intimately, inside-out, AND completely, all rolled into one ball of knowledge.

Have you read anything from this time period? Got any titles to recommend? Written any?

Bring ’em on.

And yes, I hope to encourage Teen Girl and Teen Boy to get off the Minecraft and get back to blogging. I miss them around these parts. Hope you do, too.

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. I’m going to take a break from Goddess Girls, and doing some other great books. So here’s Princess of the Midnight Ball.

Rose and her sisters are cursed. All 12 of Westfalin’s princesses’ dancing shoes mysteriously wear out every three nights; even when the girls are all sick. All princes from surrounding kingdoms have come to try to solve the mystery, with a prize of marrying one of the princesses. After princes from all the surrounding kingdoms have failed, King Gregor turns to Galen Werner, a soldier who returned from war and became a gardener at the castle. At this time, the royal governess was accused of teaching the princesses witchcraft, and the state was placed in an Interdict.Under a lot of pressure during the riot for the king to abdicate, Galen spends his nights following the princesses. Join Galen as he tries to solve the mystery of the Midnight Ball.

I liked this book because it took you back in time to when the monarchs would have parties and dinners filled with beautiful clothes, swirling ball gowns, and dainty little dancing slippers. I enjoyed how all the princes failed, yet a commoner from nearby managed to save all 12 princesses.

If you liked my review, read Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George!!

Book five of the goddess girls series starts with Athena being called down to Zeus’s office. Zeus asks Athena to keep an eye on the new mortal, Heracles. Although Athena likes Heracles, he does some kind of bold things, and can be rash at times, Athena finds herself helping him with the 12 tasks he was given to try to earn a place at MOA, and a chance at immortality. Unfortunately, he only has a few days left to complete 11 of the tasks. With Athena’s help, he is able to complete some of the task. Along with this, the mortal Arachne seems to think she is better then a goddess!!!!

I like this book because it’s an interesting way to tell the story of Heracles, although it’s closer to the myths than the other books in the series. It also has an interesting spin on the myth of Arachne’s challenge.

If you like my review, read Goddess Girls Athena the Wise!!!

Aphrodite has a problem. She’s failing Hero-ology, in a major way. As extra credit work, she starts a club called Lonely Hearts to help mortals find love. when she receives a letter scroll that was split in half, addressed to the goddess of love, she travels to Cairo, Egypt, with her friends, she finds out that there is another goddess of love in the world; Isis, the Egyptian goddess of love has the other half of the letter scroll, so together they find the sender of the letter and compete to help him, along with competing to determine the true goddess of love.

I like this book because it shows that even though they share the same title, they are still different goddesses from different places. If you like my review, read Goddess Girls Aphrodite the Diva!

Goddess Girls book 4 starts with the four Goddess Girls, Persephone, Athena, Aphrodite, and Artemis, in Beastology class taking an extremely difficult test; defeat three monsters for an A. After class, Artemis runs into the new boy, Orion. He’s a mortal transfer student trying out for the school play Eros and Psyche. Soon she finds herself spending all her time with him, much to her friends disappointment. When a turn of events hurts Artemis, she must choose between Orion and her friends.

I like this book because it’s also an excellent example of boy/girl troubles. Although I do have to admit that, personally, this is my least favorite from the series.
If you like my review, read Goddess Girls Artemis the Brave!

Aphrodite is the goddess of love and beauty, and loves helping mortals find their match. So, she decides to give her friend Athena a makeover. Hair, clothes, makeup, the works. When the 4 goddesses go to a party on the godboys’ floor, Aphrodite starts to get a little jealous when her crush, Ares, takes an interest in Athena. On top of that, she has to deal with one of her dozens of admirers, Hephaestus, and a strange request for help from a mortal named Hippomenes.

I think that this book represents many teen girl problems: BOYS!!!!!!!! The authors make the characters seem like real teens; dealing with difficult crushes, and jealousy when your friend attracts the boy you like.
If you like my review, read Goddess Girls: Aphrodite the Beauty!!!

The second book in the Goddess Girls series is about Persephone, goddess of flowers. Persephone’s mom, Demeter, goddess of the harvest, is always telling her to ‘go along to get along,’ and Persephone is feeling like she’s phony; it’s even in her name, PersePHONY. when Persephone meets the ‘bad boy’ of the school, Hades, she finally has someone she can be herself with. One annoying problem. Wait make that two. The first one is her mom. Demeter is extremely overprotective of her only daughter, and won’t let her do anything with the godboys of MOA except be in the same classes with them. The other problem is her friends, Athena, Artemis, and Aphrodite. There are rumors going around about Hades that her friends believe. And they are not good ones. Join Persephone while she tries to determine if the rumors are right, and as she tries to break free of PersePHONY. I like the book because it shows a different version of the Persephone myth where Hades doesn’t kidnap Persephone, but instead she falls in love with him, despite all the bad things being said about him.

If you liked my review, read Goddess Girls: Persephone the Phony.

I forgot to add a cover picture for Goddess Girls: Athena the Brain, and here it is.

This is the first book in the Goddess Girls series by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams. The series is a twist on the Greek Gods and Goddesses where many of them go to a school on Mount Olympus called Mount Olympus Academy; also known as MOA. Book 1 starts down in a village in Greece in a house where Athena lives with her best friend, Pallas. As the book continues, Athena is taken away to Mount Olympus, starts school, and becomes friends with the three most popular goddesses at the academy: Aphrodite, Artemis, and Persephone. But in her first class, she is called down to the office by the principle: Zeus!! But once one of her inventions goes horribly wrong, Athena must find a way to save all the mortals down on Earth.I like this book because it’s showing Athena in a way most myths don’t: as a kid. In most myths, Athena springs from Zeus’s head, fully grown, in full greek battle armor. The authors have made the characters seem real, not just mythical.
If you like my review, read Goddess Girls book 1: Athena the Brain!!