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!!!

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.

Hello everyone!

Last week I was out of town, away from all technology, thus being unable to post. But here is Behemoth, the second in the Scott Westerfeld series. Jump in!

Behemoth: Scott Westerfeld
🙂 out of 😀
4/5

The behemoth is the fiercest creature in the British navy. It can swallow enemy battleships with one bite. The Darwinists will need it, now that they are at war with the Clanker Powers.
Deryn is a girl posing as a boy in the British Air Service, and Alek is the heir to an empire posing as a commoner. Finally together aboard the airship Leviathan, they hope to bring the war to a halt. But when disaster strikes the Leviathan’s peacekeeping mission, they find themselves alone and hunted in enemy territory.

Alek and Deryn will need great skill, new allies, and brave hearts to face what’s ahead.

Immediately after Leviathan, our story picks up. The Clankers have revealed a new Shocking weapon, one that will bring the Darwinists to their knees. However, the Darwinists have the Behemoth, their fierce new weapon. But the Ottoman Empire is one who remains neutral, and they WILL be a turning point in the war, if the Darwinists can gain their trust.

I have read a lot of series where the books run right into each other, and most of them have been either bad, or awful. This book, by those standards was amazing, not only in the fact that the two books ran right into each other, but the book itself was amazing. Next week, we have the series finale, Goliath, and then we move on to a new series. Most likely the Bartimaeus series, but if I get any other ideas, we will delve into that.

See you next week,
Your Friend at TBR

Ok, everyone. Sorry it has been so long, but I have just forgot to post, but will have posts more regularly as summer rolls in. Again, sorry. I wrote this post a while ago, but never posted it. So, I bid you best reads.

Well, It’s here.

Department 19, book TWO! The Rising. Amazing. excited. Lets get it before I can’t type.

Department 19: The Rising
😀 out of 😀 (5/5)

91 DAYS TILL ZERO HOUR.

THAT’S 91 DAYS TO RUN.

91 DAYS TO HIDE.

OR 91 DAYS TO PRAY FOR DEPARTMENT 19 TO SAVE YOU…

After the terrifying attack on Lindisfarne at the end of the first book, Jamie, Larissa and Kate are recovering at Department 19 headquarters, waiting for news of Dracula’s stolen ashes.

They won’t be waiting for long.

Vampire forces are gathering. Old enemies are getting too close. And Dracula… is rising.

12 weeks after Lindisfarne, The department has picked itself up and most who went survived. But all who went changed. And Valeri Rusmanov has been working Dracula back to life, and the vampires and becoming bolder, and they are leaving graffiti on all the walls. He Rises 91 days to slay Dracula, because after then, Dracula becomes the world’s dictator and all the humans will be non-existent. Unlikely alliances will form, all to bring down these monsters.

Holy Heck in a handbasket. To make this simple, Department 19 blew almost every other book I have read out of the water. The Rising blew the first one out of the water. Yeah. So, next week, I am trying something new. I am going to give a “Reccommended Reads/Recently Read,” and we’ll see how that goes. After that, I will do the Leviathan Trilogy BY Scott Westerfield, and Then Mortal By Phillip Reeves.

See Ya next time,

Your Friend at TBR

Hey everyone,

Today is my recommended reads post. All of these books are really good, so read some!

Artemis Fowl Series- Eoin Colfer
All Books I have reviewed, for the most part
Holes- Louis Sachar
Rick Riordan- I will not read him, but I know he is really good
Margaret Peterson Haddix, Amazing author
I, Q- Roland Smith
Jerry Spinelli
Evil Genius- Catherine Jinks
Alex Rider- Anthony Horowitz
Eragon-
Maximum Ride- James Patterson WARNING!! When Reading a James Patterson Book, look under his name. Patterson Has many people writing under his name!
Eoin Colfer in general
Dan Gutman, Sports
Jack Gantos
HIVE- Mark Walden- LOVE IT!
Rangers Apprentice- Never read it, but have heard nice things about it.
Warriors- Erin Hunter
The Mostly True Story of Jack

Thanks for reading,
Your friend at TBR

Hey, guys. Sorry I haven’t posted in such a long time, but I just have been sorta busy. Today I have a good book for you. Crater, by HOMER HICKAM as in October Sky, and Rocket Boys. This is the first in a series, and is a great mix of Sci-Fi, Action, adventure, and more.

Lets get in.

Crater, by Homer Hickam
🙂 out of 😀

It’s the 22nd Century. A tough, pioneering people mine the moon for Helium-3 to produce energy for a desperate, war-torn Earth. Sixteen-year old Crater Trueblood loves his job as a Helium-3 miner. But when he finds courage he didn’t know he had and saves a fellow miner, his life changes forever. Impressed by his heroism, the owner of the mine orders Crater to undertake a dangerous mission. Crater doubts himself, but he has no choice. He must go.

With the help of Maria, the mine owner’s frustrating but gorgeous granddaughter, and his gillie—a sentient and sometimes insubordinate clump of slime mold cells—Crater must fight both human and subhuman enemies. He’ll battle his way across a thousand miles of deadly but magnificent lunar terrain before vaulting into the far reaches of space, there to recover an astonishing object that could mean the difference between life and death for every inhabitant on the moon.

Far into the future, the moon has been colonized and helium-3 found on the moon. A few men live on the moon and mine it of it’s Helium-3 to provide to a war-ravaged Earth. One day, when he save his best friend, the mining company owner calls him in and decides to send him on a very dangerous mission.

Crater, having no choice in the matter, is switched to the convoy company and is sent across the moon to retrieve a package for the owner. On the road, he must face everything from traffic delays to the subhuman trying to stop the convoy and, most of all, kill Crater. Crater is no warrior, let alone adult. Crater must wrestle with a budding interest in Maria, the mine owner’s REALLY stubborn granddaughter, who Crater Trueblood, a sixteen-year-old miner truly is, what he really wants to be and CAN be…

Wow. Hickam hit this one out of the ballpark. It has been a while since I read this, but it is amazing. Well, the book was a non-stop kind of book, you know, those books you can’t put down. I enjoyed this book a lot, and was joyed when I was able to check out Department 19, and will be giving you that review next week.

Sorry Again for the lack of reviews these past 2 weeks.

Stay bookworming, (is that a word?) my friends,

Your friend at TBR

Hey Readers,

I recently read The White Mountains by John Christopher. It isn’t the newest book, but it was still phenomenal. So, without further ado, I will launch in. Also, please don’t rage on me because I did not do the prequel first.

The White Mountains-John Christopher
🙂 out of 😀

Long ago, the Tripods–huge, three-legged machines–descended upon Earth and took control. Now people unquestioningly accept the Tripods’ power. They have no control over their thoughts or their lives. But for a brief time in each person’s life–in childhood–he is not a slave. For Will, his time of freedom is about to end–unless he can escape to the White Mountains, where the possibility of freedom still exists. The Tripods trilogy follows the adventures of Will and his cohorts, as they try to evade the Tripods and maintian their freedom and ultimately do battle against them. The prequel, When the Tripods Came, explains how the Tripods first invaded and gained control of the planet.

Many years on the future, an alien race known only to mankind as the tripods, has invaded, destroyed, and turned the Earth back in time. Everyone lives in a permanent pre-industrial revolution era. There is no war, and at age 14, everyone is given a “cap,” a metal mesh that goes over the head and is infused into the flesh. Will, who is soon to be capped, soon meets a man known only as Ozymandias who is posing to be a Vargrant, someone whose mind was destroyed during the capping process. Ozymandias tells him to go south, to the White Mountains where he will live free for the rest of his life, or so he is told.

The book was quite good, especially since I have read a few pretty bad Sci-Fi novels. However, my librarian said that before he had read the book, he HATED Sci-Fi. But, all in all, it was a good book, fusing technology with adventure, escape, and fun. More of the trilogy coming your way!

See you later,
Your Friend at TBR

Welcome Back!

Today, we have a review on a book that I did not really like.

Well, let’s get going.

Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick
D: out of 😀 (1/5)
A LOADED GUN. STOLEN GOLD. And a menacing stranger. A taut frontier survivor story, set at the time of the Alaska gold rush.

In an isolated cabin, fourteen-year-old Sig is alone with a corpse: his father, who has fallen through the ice and frozen to death only hours earlier. Then comes a stranger claiming that Sig’s father owes him a share of a horde of stolen gold. Sig’s only protection is a loaded Colt revolver hidden in the cabin’s storeroom. The question is, will Sig use the gun, and why?

I hated this book so much, I won’t be writing my own description

This book was HORRENDOUS! I would not recommend reading this unless you like books where nothing happens! Revolver was all exposition, and the end rushed up in you. The best part was the end, because the stand-off FINALLY ends! So I was relieved to get the book away. And this is VERY unusual with me. Some like the book, but I didn’t, and Revolver bored me to death. So I do NOT recommend this book.

Well, Until I have another, better book, (which will be next week), I’ll be signing off.

Your friend at TBR

Hey everyone:

I have a pretty good not-so-new book that I read a while back.

Lets get into my review.

Montmorency by Eleanor Updale
:/ out of 😀 (3/5)
When a petty thief falls through a glass roof trying to escape from the police, what should have been the death of him marks the beginning of a whole new life. He soon becomes the most elusive burglar in Victorian London, adopting a dual existence as both a respectable, wealthy gentleman named Montmorency, and his degenerate servant Scarper.

When a unknown thief botches up a job badly, he falls through a glass roof and is unrecognizable until a young Doctor takes it as a personal challenge to fix the man, named Montmorency by the prison guards.

When Montmorency is finally let out, he is forced to lead a double life, as to avoid being caught. There is Montmorency, the gentleman; and Scarper, is low-life, thieving, lying manservant. Together, many an adventure is had, until a friend poses Scarper with his biggest challenge yet.

Montmorency was an OK book. The story sort of dwindled, as though the author lost interest, and so the book ended without an ending. It was sort of pathetic. Although, the idea was good, and the dual-life storyline great, but,the book still crashed and burned. This is the first in a series, with the full title of this book being Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman?

SO, I hereby decree that this review has been sufficiently looked into, and I now pronounce this review CLOSED!

See you next time,

Your friend at TBR

Hey everyone! First blog post, more coming your way. So let’s get started.

Wildwood
Colin Meloy
:)(4) out of 😀 (5)

Prue McKeel’s life is ordinary. At least until her brother is abducted by a murder of crows and taken to the Impassable Wilderness, a dense, tangled forest on the edge of Portland. No one’s ever gone in—or at least returned to tell of it.
So begins an adventure that will take Prue and her friend Curtis deep into the Impassable Wilderness. There they uncover a secret world in the midst of violent upheaval—a world full of warring creatures, peaceable mystics, and powerful figures with the darkest intentions. And what begins as a rescue mission becomes something much greater, as the two friends find themselves entwined in a struggle for the very freedom of this wilderness. A wilderness the locals call Wildwood.

After Prue McKeel’s baby brother Mac is abducted by a murder of crows, Prue decides to follow them into what she knows as the impassable wilderness, and she was warned NEVER to go there. After her friend Curtis tails her in, while narrowly missing a train, they are quickly split up and taken into towns with two opposing parties. After many a startling discovery is made, Prue realizes Mac and Curtis are both in a predicament that will pose a problem for them to all make it out alive.

I personally liked this book, having read it three times. The book has a great and captivating storyline, with many different twists and turns, making it necessary to read many parts again to fully grasp the depth. There are pictures in the book, but they mostly look like a pro artist just doodled whatever he thought would go well with the content. The book is suitable for all ages, but can be slightly dark at times. The sequel is out and my thoughts on that will be out soon. See you next time!

-Your Friend at TBR