Review: Misguided Angel

Title: Misguided Angel
Author: Melissa de la Cruz
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Pages: 265
Series: Blue Bloods #5
Rating: 4/5
**WARNING: Spoilers from earlier books (not this one)**
From the book jacket: 
After inheriting the dark Van Alen Legacy, Schuyler fled to Florence with her forbidden love, Jack. Now the two of them must embark on the mission Schuyler was destined to complete: to find and protect the five remaining gates that guard the earth from Lucifer, lord of the Silver Bloods.

Back in New York, Mimi has been elected Regent of a crumbling coven. Struggling with her heartache over the loss of Kingsley and with her overwhelming desire to destroy Jack, she must focus all her energy on a perilous new threat. Vampires are being abducted and their captors are planning to burn them alive online... for all the world to see. Help arrives in the form of Deming Chen, a Venator from Shanghai, who must untangle the web of deceptions before the killers strike again.

As the young vampires struggle for the survival of the coven, they uncover a deadly secret, a truth first discovered by Schuyler's mother during the Renaissance but kept buried for centuries. And as the Blue Blood enclave weakens yet further, fate leads Schuyler to a terrible choice that will ultimately map the destiny of her heart.

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A warning before you read this book: Make sure you've read the previous books in the series, and recently. I've read all the other Blue Bloods books, but apparently not recently enough, because I spent the first sixty pages of Misguided Angel being seriously confused. I couldn't remember why Schuyler and Jack were in Italy or where Oliver was.

At first, I was prepared to give this book a "meh" rating or maybe not even finish it -- I thought maybe I'd go back and reread it once I had refreshed my memory of the earlier books. But Melissa de la Cruz sucked me in with her writing and I couldn't put it down. It almost didn't matter that I'd forgotten a lot of what happened: this novel tells a story in and of itself. (Of course, it also helps a ton that I did eventually remember most of the earlier books...side note: I really do love these books, I just haven't read them recently enough. I did not forget them because they are bad; they're awesome.)

Anyway. Before I go on getting distracted, the book: Schuyler and Jack are in Italy looking for the Gate of Promise. Mimi wants revenge on Jack and she's torn apart by her love for Kingsley, but as the Regent, she can hardly spend her time on that. Not when Blue Blood lives are in danger -- which they are. A new threat has arisen... well, sort of new. The Silver Bloods are very much involved.

Instead of switching between characters frequently, Misguided Angel is divided into thirds. The first third is told from Schuyler's perspective, the second from Mimi's, and the third from Deming's. I thought Deming was an interesting addition to the cast of the series, and even though I'm not a fan of her name ("Schuyler" I just love, "Deming" not so much), I loved her character. Mimi...I just don't like her very much. Schuyler didn't seem very real to me, but I wished there had been more to her part of the story.

What I loved was that even though the three sections of the book are told from very different perspectives and one takes place on the other side of the globe from the others, they still worked together to explore ultimately the same mystery. Obviously, I don't think you should read this if you haven't read the earlier ones in the series...but if you have, read this one! (Before you forget!)

One thing is for sure, Melissa de la Cruz can write. I will be eagerly awaiting the next installment of the series...

Links:
Melissa de la Cruz's website
Blue Bloods website

Review: Countdown

Title: Countdown

Author: Deborah Wiles

Publisher: Scholastic

Pages: 377

Series: Sixties Trilogy #1

Rating: 4.5 stars

From the book jacket:

A time that changed the world. A time that changed Franny’s life.

Franny Chapman just wants some peace. But that’s hard to get when her best friend is feuding with her, her sister has disappeared, and her uncle is fighting an old war in his head. Her saintly younger brother is no help, and the cute boy across the street only complicates things. Worst of all, everyone is walking around just waiting for a bomb to fall.

It’s 1962, and it seems that the whole country is living in fear. When President Kennedy goes on television to say that Russia is sending nuclear missiles to Cuba, it only gets worse. Franny doesn’t know how to deal with what’s going on in the world – no more than she knows how to deal with what’s going on with her family and friends. But somehow she’s got to make it through.

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Countdown is a little outside the genres I usually read – it’s historical middle-grade, rather than contemporary/paranormal YA – but I loved it. Franny, who is eleven years old, is a wonderful narrator: the perfect blend of humor and seriousness, completely believable, and Deborah Wiles captured the voice of a child perfectly. The other characters are just as good: Franny’s parents, her brother and sister and crazy uncle, her friends, the boy across the street…this could very easily be a totally true story.

It gets even easier to believe when you consider the documentary part of the novel. The whole book is full of actual footage from the 1960s – photographs, quotes, ads, political cartoons, reminders to stay safe in the bomb shelters if the air raid siren goes off…it’s all there, in between chapters. Seriously the coolest way to set up a historical book that I have ever seen. The book would be worth reading just for that. But there’s more to it than that.

The story is great too. Reading about an eleven-year-old protagonist was kind of different for me, but Franny is great and the story is amazing. I think it’s easy to forget that while the Cold War was going on, life was still going on like normal – for those of us who have never lived through something like that, it’s just history book stuff. Countdown takes those events that we read about in history class and makes them real, which is really awesome. Historical events aren’t the focus of this novel; they’re the setting. The story is about Franny and how she comes to terms with what it means to be afraid and, more importantly, what it means to be a friend.

Countdown is such a sweet, fun, and interesting book. I know those aren’t particularly original adjectives, but they certainly apply. It’s also very much a stay-up-until-you-finish-it kind of book. Definitely, definitely read it if you get the chance!

Review: Prophecy of the Sisters

Title: Prophecy of the Sisters
Author: Michelle Zink
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers
Pages: 343
Series: Prophecy of the Sisters #1
Rating: 4 stars
Description from Goodreads: 
Sixteen-year-old Lia Milthorpe and her twin sister Alice have just become orphans, and, as Lia discovers, they have also become enemies. The twins are part of an ancient prophecy that has turned generations of sisters against each other. To escape from a dark fate and to remain in the arms of her beloved boyfriend James, Lia must end the prophecy before her sister does. Only then will she understand the mysterious circumstances of her parents' deaths, the true meaning of the strange mark branded on her wrist, and the lengths to which her sister will go to defeat her.

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I've had a copy of Prophecy of the Sisters on my bookshelf for ages now and just hadn't picked it up. All the hype for the second book made me think that maybe I should read it, and I think on the whole, I'm glad I did.


I didn't realize when I started that this novel is actually set in the year 1890. I'd been expecting something a bit more modern, so that was kind of a surprise, but a pleasant surprise, because it worked perfectly. The novel opens with Lia and her family at her father's funeral. The circumstances of his death were strange, and the night he died, a strange circular mark appeared on Lia's wrist. Not long after, her boyfriend James shows her a book he found in her father's library: a book with all the pages missing except one. This page contains a prophecy about Lia and her twin sister Alice. Her father and the mark on her wrist have more to do with it than Lia understands, but she's determined to find out.


I love the premise of this book. The idea of the prophecy of the sisters is really awesome, and putting it in a historical setting just makes it better. I like the characters, too - I wish we had gotten to see more of James, and I love Luisa and Sonia's characters too. I wish there had been more Henry, too!


I will admit that for a lot of the book, I was really annoyed by how predictable it was. I figured out what the keys were (part of the prophecy mentions keys) within a few pages of the first mention of them, but it took Lia a good fifty or a hundred pages after that, which is never a good sign. I like reading to discover new things, and if I know what's going to happen within fifty pages, then why read past that? But there were still a few questions that I hadn't guessed the answers to, so I kept reading, and I'm so glad I did.


By the end of the novel, I was blatantly ignoring everything else I needed to be doing (such as feeding the cat. He was not pleased) so I could finish. I didn't realize until the last few chapters how much of an emotional connection I'd made with Lia! Oh, and another random thing that I really loved about this: it was not all about boys! Lia already has a boyfriend who she loves, and the focus of the story is not on that romance, it's on the plot. Hooray for plot variation!


Long story short: I do recommend this, with a warning attached: It's a little slow and predictable in places. Still, though, I did enjoy it, especially in the second half once it really got going. And definitely check it out if you like paranormal in a historical setting.


Links: 
Michelle Zink's new website (which you should definitely visit, as it's awesome)
Michelle Zink's old website (also awesome, although her new posts are on her new site)
Prophecy of the Sisters series website

Review: The Wednesday Wars

Title: The Wednesday Wars
Author: Gary D. Schmidt
Publisher: Clarion Books
Pages: 264
Rating: 5 stars
From the book jacket: 
Holling Hoodhood is really in for it. He's just started seventh grade with Mrs. Baker, a teacher he knows is out to get him. Why else would she make him read Shakespeare...outside class?

The year is 1967, and everyone has bigger things to worry about, especially Vietnam. Then there's the family business. As far as Holling's father is concerned, the Hoodhoods need to be on their best behavior: the success of Hoodhood and Associates depends on it. But how can Holling stay out of trouble when he has so much to contend with? Rats, for one thing; cream puffs, for another. Then there's Doug Swieteck's brother. And Ariel's costume: tights. That's just for starters. In a series of mishaps and adventures over the course of the school year, fate sneaks up on Holling again and again.

Gary D. Schmidt has written a novel that is at turns comic and compelling, down-to-earth and over-the-top. In The Wednesday Wars, he offers an unforgettable antihero in Holling Hoodhood, a kid from the suburbs who embraces his destiny in spite of himself.

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The Wednesday Wars is written for a little bit younger audience than most of the books I read - it's set in seventh grade, not in high school. The only reason I picked it up was that my Dad, who read it for a YA Lit class he teaches, insisted that I would love it, and I agreed to give it a try. Turns out Dad was right - The Wednesday Wars was fantastic. I adored it.

Holling Hoodhood (which, by the way, I think is a completely ridiculous name) is convinced that his English teacher, Mrs. Baker, hates him. He's the only person in his class who isn't Jewish or Catholic - which means that instead of going to Hebrew School or Catechism on Wednesday afternoons, he has to stay with Mrs. Baker. And she has a nefarious plot in mind: she's going to bore him to death with Shakespeare. Or so Holling thinks, anyway. But her plan backfires, because it turns out Shakespeare isn't so bad after all.

There is so much about this book that is just delightfully funny and adorable, from the escape of pet rats Sycorax and Caliban to Ariel's bright yellow tights (you'll understand if you read it). But there's a whole other level, too - Holling's family issues and the Vietnam War. Parts of The Wednesday Wars had me laughing hysterically and parts of it were heartbreaking. The characters are just wonderful - Holling is a fantastic narrator and I want Mrs. Baker to be my English teacher. I loved this book so much.

If you're a fan of Shakespeare, read this! If you're not a fan of Shakespeare...read this anyway! The Wednesday Wars is an adorable, wonderful book and I absolutely loved it. Even if you don't normally read more-like-MG stuff and prefer to stay in the realm of older-YA, I think it would be pretty impossible to dislike this one.

Review: Clockwork Angel

Title: Clockwork Angel
Author: Cassandra Clare
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Pages: 476
Series: The Infernal Devices #1
Rating: 4.5 stars
From the book jacket: 
Magic is dangerous -- but love is more dangerous still.

When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London's Downworld, where vampires, warlocks, and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.

Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, who are members of a secret organization called the Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What's more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa's power for his own.

Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by - and torn between - two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and vlatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm's length...everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world...and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.

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I think I would have loved Clockwork Angel a lot more if I hadn't been very busy noticing all the similarities to the Mortal Instruments series (which I absolutely adored). That said, I still thought Clockwork Angel was pretty freaking awesome.

Tessa makes an excellent protagonist - her feelings about/relationship with her brother are awesome, especially later on in the novel - and I adored Charlotte, but I think my favorite characters are the boys. Henry is adorable and reminded me of a cross between Beetee from the Hunger Games series and Luna Lovegood...but Will and Jem were the best. I would love to be friends with Jem in real life, and Will... oh, Will. I can't decide whether I love him or want to strangle him - which means that I agree with just about everyone else in the novel. I kept comparing him to Jace from TMI, but fortunately it's been long enough since I read those that I was able to (mostly) come at this as an independent story, and I loved it.

I'd offer you some quotes, but a) I'd have to pick just a few favorites, and b) they'll be so much better if you find out for yourself.

The plot was awesome too. I kept wanting to find out what happens - I've gotten pretty good at figuring out endings long before I get there lately, but Clockwork Angel had some major twists that genuinely surprised me and were executed very well. I'm really not sure how much I can say without being too spoilery, but I do think the jacket description plays up romance too much. It's definitely there but it takes a backseat to the mystery and suspense, which was good. Once I started reading Clockwork Angel I did not want to put it down (I had to at times, but I'd have loved to read it straight through). It kept me turning the pages and I am so sad that I have to wait until next September for the second one!

Also I love the cover. The cover is awesome and 1800s-England-y (which is fitting) and Shadowhunter-y (also fitting) and I just think it's lovely. And the setting! England in 1878 is a delightful setting. And my friends can attest to the fact that I slipped into old-fashioned British English for a bit while I was reading it. Oops. Oh, and the literary references! *happy sigh*

Definitely, definitely read this one if you get the chance and like supernatural things. I simply loved it! I do think, though, that City of Bones and the rest of the Mortal Instruments series were better. So read those too!

Links: 
Cassandra Clare's website
And her blog
And her Facebook page