Yeah, while Teen Boy is on self-imposed hiatus (his new thing is “I’m working on the blog” but when I look over his shoulder, my blog looks suspiciously like Minecraft), the Teen Girl has decided to bring you some Rockin’ Reads. Her choice of name, not mine!

Please welcome her and make her as comfortable as you’ve made the Teen Boy.

When he gets back from National Jamboree, I’ll see if I can get him reading AND blogging again.

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

Proving once again that West of Mars is about more than just a simple author’s site, I’m introducing a new blogger here at the Meet and Greet. You guys are going to LOVE him, I know.

But, then, I’m biased. Our new blogging voice belongs to my one and only son, The Boy Band, as I’ve called him around here since I began blogging. He’s renamed himself, though, and while I’ll still call him The Boy Band, when he’s in blogger mode, he’s got a new persona: Teen Boy.

That’s because when he’s in the spotlight, his feature will be called Teen Boy Reads.

It was a simple thing, really: the kid reads more than I do. He devours books. And when I saw a call, be it on Twitter, Facebook, or a blog, for people who were curious to know what teen boys are reading, I asked if he wanted to blog. He could be a voice for teen boys.

Starting next week, and hopefully running every Tuesday, the Teen Boy will drop in to tell us all about what he’s reading. We’ll be working up a book review policy and all that fun stuff, but for now, he’s said he prefers not to be solicited to write reviews. He wants to read what he wants to read, when he wants to read it.

He’s a teen boy. I don’t blame him.

If you’ve got a book that you think will appeal to him, please keep that in mind. You’re better off to contact me, Susan, for a Featured New Book spotlight and get your exposure at West of Mars that way.