Happy Birthday, Klutzface by Foxglove Lee

September 25, 2013 By Leave a Comment

HAPPY
Happy Birthday, Klutzface by Foxglove Lee
Publisher: Prizm Books
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (19 pages)
Age Recommendation: 14+
Heat Level: Sweet
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

It’s a comedy of errors when Laura prepares a romantic dinner for Mila’s birthday. Laura isn’t the world’s best cook to begin with, but when everything goes wrong in the immaculate home Mila’s supposed to be house sitting, the trouble’s only just begun. Laura and Mila wanted an evening of domestic bliss. Will their glimpse at adult life drive them into each other’s arms or drive them apart completely?

All Mila and Laura want is to share a romantic birthday dinner. Surely there are only so many accidents that can befall them while they’re cooking!
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This is the funniest thing I’ve read in 2013. Mila is so worried about accidentally damaging her aunt’s property that every time something unfortunate happens she panics and overreacts. Of course panicking doesn’t do anything to clean up any of the messes that happen, but her over the top reactions were the best part of this tale. My favourite gag involves everything Mila and Laura attempt to do to turn off a fire alarm that keeps shrieking at the worst possible moments.

There are some issues in these character’s relationship that are brought up but never really resolved. While I certainly wouldn’t expect them to fix all of their problems in a short story, I would have liked to see Mila apologize for some of the comments she blurts out when Laura is injured early on in the plot. Mila’s comments felt out of place in an otherwise lighthearted and playful peek into their lives.

With that being said, Laura and Mila clearly have a warm and loving relationship. Their senses of humor are so well matched that they know when the other one is blowing off steam, and I truly don’t believe either one was offended by her girlfriend’s temporary bad mood.

Happy Birthday, Klutzface is an unforgettably hilarious tale about what happens when one tries to hard to impress a new girlfriend. I highly recommend it to anyone who has ever awkwardly stumbled through an experience that should have been much less complicated than it actually turns out to be.

Filed Under: Reviews, YA/Middle Grade/Children's Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Just for Kicks by Racheal Renwick

September 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment

KICKS
Just for Kicks by Racheal Renwick
Publisher: Prizm Books
Genre: Contemporary, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Young Adult
Length: Full Length (225 pgs)
Age Recommendation: 14+
Rating: 4.5 stars
Reviewed by Orchid

Meriwether Brookes is doomed to be an orphan forever. Fate has other plans for her, however, when she’s swept away in the middle of the night by a girl who can fly. Pulled along on an impossible adventure, Meri soars into the world of superheroes, discovering her own Super genes along the way.

After a magic ritual transforms her into a Super, Meri learns that her parents’ murderer is planning to bring Doomsday about, and the Supers need her to help stop him. Spurred forward by an all-consuming need for vengeance, Meri ditches her selfish ways to become the one thing she loathes most: a hero.

With the help of her Super friends, Meri tries to figure out how her ability to see spirits can help defeat the soul-sucking villain. But when she comes face to face with him, a grave secret is revealed, and she must decide which is more important: revenge for her parents’ death, or saving the human race.

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Troubled teen Meri is always in trouble for the pranks she plays, but the Jell-O incident is one step too far and she is expelled from school and moved from the foster home she has come to love.

Her move to a new home coincides with a visit from a girl hovering outside her window. Meri is afraid of heights so flying through the air to an unknown destination is not how she intended to spend her evening. Apparently there are others like Kesi, the flying girl, and Meri is told they are superheroes. Much to her disbelief they tell her she is one of the Supers’ Elite Force, as were her parents. There are two factions, the goodies and the baddies. Meri is needed to help the Supers win but nobody tells her how she’s supposed to do this.

This is a unique way of looking at superheroes and on the whole I enjoyed the book. Meri continues as her rebellious self, wondering if she’ll ever find a home and people to love her. The others of her group try to help her but she has a knack for getting people in trouble, although they assure her it’s as much their fault as hers.

Meri is a very strong character but some of the other people are weak. Kesi for instance is pale in comparison to Meri and Eli and yet she takes a big part in the story. I loved that this was written in the first person as this meant Meri was definitely in charge of how the story developed.

Good book and I enjoyed reading it.

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The Strings of the Violin by Alisse Lee Goldenberg

August 6, 2013 By Leave a Comment

STRINGS
The Strings of the Violin by Alisse Lee Goldenberg
Publisher: Prizm Books
Genre: Contemporary, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, YA
Length: Full Length (192 Pages)
Age Recommendation: 12+
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Cyclamen

Seventeen-year-old Carrie is lying in her backyard ignoring all the looming responsibilities in her life, when a fox makes a mad dash across the grass in front of her. After she manages to keep her dog from attacking the frightened animal, the fox turns to Carrie and seems to bow in gratitude before he disappears into the bushes. All Carrie knows in that moment is that something has unexpectedly changed in her life.

Carrie has been best friends with Lindsay Smith and Rebecca Campbell for years. During a summer when they should focus on choosing colleges, the girls suddenly find themselves swept away on the adventure of their lives. The fox reappears three days later and reveals to Carrie that he is Adom, emissary to the king of Hadariah. With his land of music and magic in peril, Adom has been sent to seek help from Carrie and her friends. In the blink of an eye, the three teenage girls go from living an average suburban life to being the champions of a world where they must contend with giants, witches, and magical beings. Will they ever make it home once more?

Carrie dreads her upcoming senior year in high school when she will have to “make decisions about her future, decide a path, and begin to grow up—something she dreaded with all her heart and soul. She wished she could just run away and have an adventure like the characters in the books she loved.” But beware what you wish for as you may just get it! Carrie and her friends Lindsay and Rebecca follow a talking fox named Adom through a gap in a bush in Carrie’s backyard and end up on a quest to save Adom’s world, the world of magic where all the stories the girl’s grandmothers told them when they were small actually happened.

Then, this article will work like your guide and will http://www.slovak-republic.org/trnava/ viagra cialis prix define all the necessary details of these libido boosters that act like male erection pills. The causes may be pituitary gland tumours, kidney and liver disorder, depression and hormone treatment of prostate cancer. buy generic viagra slovak-republic.org as a treatment for jet lag:Not only traveller but pilots and other individuals have to combat Jet lag that can last for several days after the journey. Tadalista is not an aphrodisiac so it will not cause an cialis buy on line erection if there is no proper and hard erection but a flaccid one to support the presence of manhood. Both these medicines contain sildenafil citrate, which is an FDA-approved oral prescription medication for the levitra prices canada treatment of erectile dysfunction has been taken care off. Alisse Lee Goldenberg has written a charming magical story showing the importance of trusting in things which cannot be seen and believing in the magic surrounding each and every one of us. The girls run into many adventures as they work to fulfill their quest, and they meet various beings along the way who are not always trustworthy. Carrie, Lindsay, and Rebecca have been best friends since pre-school in spite of their very different personalities. I liked all three of the girls, especially Carrie. They did seem younger than seniors in high school, but possibly that is because they live rather sheltered and protected lives. They have to grow up fast, though, as the obstacles in their quest become harder and harder.

King Asmodeus has stolen the strings from a magical violin and in so doing, removed all the music from the land, dooming his world to a slow and painful death as the sun no longer shines. He is doing this because he is horrified by the human world where, as he says, “You people do not believe in anything you cannot see, touch, or spend. You are a self-serving, selfish lot. If we all disappear, dissolve into nothingness, no one from your world would notice or even care. No one would mourn us. No one would even remember we existed at all. Your world already exists in darkness.” Is Asmodeus right? He is certainly very powerful and deceitful, but will Carrie and her friends be able to defeat him?

This novel is written as an exposition on the world of fairy tales, explaining the actual events that underpin many of the tales the girls heard as children. However, Carrie and her friends are getting the real story, not watered down simplified tales. They make friends in this magical world and they certainly believe that our world needs the magical world. This belief fuels their determination to succeed, but is this determination enough? The plot moves quickly and Adom’s world is fully and richly described. There are mysteries and puzzles to solve and tough decisions to make, and Goldenberg brings her readers right into the story so they feel as if they too are on the quest.

Can three teenage suburban girls save this world? Will they succeed on their quest? The Strings of the Violin will touch its readers’ hearts with magic and wonder, something our world truly needs. If you enjoy fantasy, especially the world of fairy tales, be sure not to miss out on this wonderful adventure.

Filed Under: Reviews, YA/Middle Grade/Children's Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Dreamcatcher by Iyana Jenna

July 31, 2013 By Leave a Comment

DREAM
Dreamcatcher by Iyana Jenna
Publisher: Prizm Books
Genre: Contemporary, Historical, Paranormal, YA
Length: Short Story (16 pgs)
Age Recommendation: 12+
Rating: 4.5 stars
Reviewed by Fern

When kids at his school begin to fall asleep and never wake up, Jordan Sullivan remembers the story his parents told him when he was a kid, a story involving his great-great grandfather, a certain warlock, and a dreamcatcher.

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Back in 1873 Zachary Sullivan was cursed by a warlock. And not just he was cursed but also his sons and great great grandsons in the future, as well as all the local children in the town.

In the present day, Jordan’s head is mostly full of basketball, but when a girl from school dies mysteriously quickly followed by another boy dying, Jordan and his friend Jamie can’t help but pay attention. Jordan and Jamie have to act quickly to unravel the mystery and solve the ancient curse.

This is a fast paced short story. I really enjoyed the two main characters Jamie and Jordan. Jordan is the descendant of a teenager who defeated the warlock. Despite the length, this book has plenty of action packed into it. Magic and mystery, curses and wizards. Even though Jordan and Jamie only appear to be in their teens it’s their belief in magical things like the dream-catcher that is the driving force behind the mystery being solved. The story jumps a little bit between the far past, the present, the near-past (2003) and back to the present again. This gave the flow of the story a bit of a jolt to me, but certainly nothing disruptive enough to confuse me. The overall plot had a great coherence and I found myself reading quickly by the end to see the resolution for myself.

A fast story, this is an excellent story and I think this would be a great short piece to re-introduce teenagers to reading. There’s a little bit of many genres I believe will appeal to a wide range of tastes, and the fact the two main characters are men makes me think this will appeal to boys as well as girls. Finally, I feel this story has a plot that’s interesting enough to capture the attention of parents too, making this a well-rounded story. There’s no swearing, no romance as such and is a clean, wholesome adventure that should be well-received by many readers.

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Bittersweet by Dallas Coleman

June 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment

BITTERSWEET
Bittersweet by Dallas Coleman
Publisher: Prizm Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Paranormal, YA
Length: Short Story (140 pages)
Age Recommendation: 16+
Rating: 3.5 stars
Reviewed by Orchid

Twins Marcus and Micah have moved all over the country, trying to find a place to run their favorite business. They love their coffee shop, but there’s always something, some sort of malevolent presence always ruins it for them. They don’t know who or what it is that haunts them, only that they can’t seem to escape it.

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A dark shadow follows twins Marcus and Micah from place to place. At last they believe they have found a place to hide and open a coffee shop. Spook enters their coffee shop just as they realize the shadow is still with them. Absolute chaos explodes from this point onwards.

Set in the present day, vampires, werewolves, fae, demons, witches and empaths can all be found in this book.

I have to admit I found this book hard going. There were so many characters, some of them only making a brief appearance, and I wasn’t sure what the actual plot was until I had reached the half way mark. Even then I found it hard to keep track. The idea behind this story is good, but maybe if it had been told from one or two points of view it would have been clearer what was happening. By the end of the book I had worked out the main plot of the story, but believe I’d need to read it a second time to be sure.

Despite my previous comments the writing is good and the author must be congratulated for keeping the thread going throughout the book. The scene descriptions are well done as are the conversations between the major characters, plus the author obviously knew her genre as this book is definitely paranormal.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Shel’s Moor by Jessica Ennis

May 31, 2013 By Leave a Comment

SHEL
Shel’s Moor by Jessica Ennis
Publisher: Prizm Books
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Contemporary, Action/Adventure
Length: Short Story (25 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Age Recommendation: 12+
Reviewed by Astilbe

Cedric and his best friend and schoolmate Brigham can’t resist the mysteries of the Moor near Cedric’s house, especially after hearing tales of a monster. The monster they seek turns out to be a young werewolf living in isolation — who cannot risk word of his existence getting to the superstitious townsfolk. In order to assure his continued safety, the werewolf takes Brigham as a hostage. While Brigham faces confinement with a monster, he will soon discover the young man underneath the legend.

Brigham and Cedric walked into the woods hoping to meet a real life monster, but little did they know how well their wish would be granted.
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Cedric and Brigham’s sense of adventure endeared me to this story immediately. Both boys are convinced that there is such a thing as monster, and they would do anything to meet one in person. Little is revealed about their childhoods, but I could tell they’d been fast friends for a long time based on how well these characters knew one another.

As the plot progressed I wondered why no one seemed to be looking for Brigham when it became obvious that he wasn’t coming home for dinner. The reason we’re given for the lack of interest in Brigham’s well-being makes sense over a shorter time period, but eventually the authorities would become involved if someone this age suddenly stopped attending school.

I had some difficulty determining the appropriate age recommendation for this book. Some parents might find the mild cursing inappropriate for younger kids. There were also kissing scenes that, while quite innocent, once again might not appeal to readers who haven’t hit puberty yet. Other than these concerns I would have no qualms recommending it for readers 10 and older. The plot and the author’s sense of humor would definitely appeal to this age group. Perhaps one day it will even become a series! I don’t know if Ms. Ennis is interested in writing more about Cedric and Brigham’s adventures, but I do see potential for such a thing to be developed.

Shel’s Moor is a great recommendation for reluctant readers. The action-driven plot and subtle humor compelled me to keep reading until I knew how it all ended, and when it was finished I wished I could spend just a few more pages with these characters!

Filed Under: Reviews, YA/Middle Grade/Children's Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

I Kiss Girls by Gina Harris

March 25, 2013 By Leave a Comment

KISS
I Kiss Girls by Gina Harris
Publisher: Prizm Books
Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult
Length: Full Length (196 pages)
Age Recommendation: 16+
Heat Level: Sweet
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Lotus

Joanie’s got all of the problems of an almost seventeen year old girl. She’s trying to get her driver’s license, her mom and dad are pressuring her about going to prom, and she never can seem to make it to the bus on time.

Even worse, Joanie likes girls, not boys, and all of the girls in her hometown are pretty darned straight. Her best friend, Zane, can attest to that, considering that he never has trouble getting a girl, even if he’s not interested in the freshmen who swarm around him. When new girl Kate shows up, needing tutoring in math and chemistry, Joanie figures Zane will get the date, like he always does, and that makes life even more difficult.

Joanie’s in for a surprise, though, because Kate doesn’t fall for her good-looking best friend. In fact, Kate seems to like girls, too, and things get a little scary when Kate asks Joanie out on a date.

Somehow Joanie knows if she says yes to Kate, things will change forever. Can she manage to pass her driving test, get to prom, and come out to her parents the way Kate wants her to? Or will Joanie’s seventeenth birthday be the worst day in history?

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Joanie and Zane, who are both juniors in high school, have been best friends for a long time. They know each other very well and spend lots of time together. In fact, Joanie’s parents are under the impression that they are more than best friends and are assuming that they would be going to the prom together despite Joanie’s repeated protests that they are not more than friends.

Joanie is 16 and has a great family with parents and a sister who all love her. She does well in school and has a best friend to hang out with, so she seems to have the perfect life. However, she is afraid of what her family and her classmates’ reactions would be if they found out she is gay. Would she lose them as family and friends?

Kate, a new girl in school, is about to shake things up for Joanie. Not only is she pretty and smart, but she also likes girls. When she asks Joanie out on a date, Joanie begins to worry that even though this is what she has been waiting for, could she handle the consequences if someone found out???

I Kiss Girls is a sweet story that is a bit predictable, but nevertheless satisfying and reassuring for teenagers who are in similar circumstances. While I was reading it, I felt as though it were similar to an episode of my favorite family TV series in which things got resolved neatly, which is not a bad thing since I always want to watch reruns of it.

I Kiss Girls does have a couple of very interesting twists to the story which I really enjoyed. For a great young adult story that has a LGBT theme, be sure check out I Kiss Girls to find out how Joanie figures out how to live her life and be true to herself.

Filed Under: Reviews, YA/Middle Grade/Children's Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Secret to a Perfect Latke by Foxglove Lee

January 17, 2013 By Leave a Comment

PINCH

The Secret to a Perfect Latke by Foxglove Lee
Publisher: Prizm Books
Genre: Young Adult, Holiday, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (19 pages)
Age Recommendation: 12+
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Noah has never been on TV before, but he dreams of having his own cooking show one day. When he’s asked to help a gourmet chef prepare latkes for a Hanukkah segment on the Sunny and The Bear show, his family is proud but suspicious. Sunny and The Bear is a “lifestyle” show that’s popular among straight women, but it’s hosted by gay men. What’s more, the guests on this show have an uncanny tendency to come out of the closet live on national television…

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Poor Noah is so deeply connected to his family, girlfriend and Jewish heritage that sometimes he can’t see where they end and he begins. Loyalty is a great character trait but the chasm between the man Noah pretends to be and who he actually is such a source of anxiety that I’d like nothing more than to give him a hug. Of course not everyone will be kind or understanding when they realize the truth about you but more often than not I’ve been pleasantly surprised by whole-hearted acceptance when I come out to new people. This doesn’t make Noah’s concerns any less valid, of course. There are families and communities out there that react quite negatively upon learning that their child, sibling, neighbor or coworker is queer but I still wish I could have stepped into this story and reassured Noah on his journey.

One of the most powerful gifts a young person can be given is the knowledge that they are not alone. One needs not identify as LGBT in order to know what it feels like to be out of step with the rest of humanity for any number of reasons. The strength of this story lies in Noah’s transformation and his realization that the world is a far bigger place than he ever could have imagined.

The Secret to a Perfect Latke is actually quite simple. The answer lies not the quality of the ingredients, the temperature of your oven, the strength of your frying pan or how quickly the results are gobbled up. It is simultaneously the simplest and most complex thing that exists. Are you wondering what the secret is yet? Why not pick up this book and find out!

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Water Seekers by Michelle Rode

January 14, 2013 By Leave a Comment

WATER

Water Seekers by Michelle Rode
Publisher: Prizm Books
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Length: Full Length (159 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Age Recommendation: 14+
Reviewed by Astilbe

Nuclear devastation is the past. The need for water is the present. Can they survive to find a future?

I watch the sun coming up on my right as I walk. We’ve only got about three hours now before it gets too hot and we have to stop. We’ve learned not to leave it too long, learned not to wait until the last minute to put up our tents and hide within their dubious shelter. The sun will kill you if you let it.

Better to lose daylight, lose marching time, than to get stuck in the full sun. Of course it’s not much better in the middle of the night either. We have to stop and get set up before it gets too cold. The night will kill you if you let it.

Zara talks about what it was like before — how their days used to be based on being up when the sun was up and sleeping during the night when it was dark. It’s just another one of the differences between then and now. She’s the oldest of us, she tells us about the differences, about how they used to do stuff. A lot of it is really crazy, but I guess that’s natural. I guess that’s why it happened.

Imagine a world in which most adults die young from radiation poisoning, disease or accidents. What kind of society would children and teenagers create in their absence?
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The scenes in this book shift between what happens to Zara as a little girl just after the nuclear bombs go off and a quest she participates in many years later to find the Great Lakes. The narrator for this quest is an unnamed seventeen-year-old who has known Zara for years and considers her one of the Old Ones. That is, Zara is one of the few people left who remembers what life was like before the bombs.

At first I found the transitions between scenes to be a little jarring but they quickly grew on me. It was interesting to see the similarities between Zara’s childhood and what happens to similarly-aged kids and teenagers on the quest. There are certain cultural differences between the two time periods that I will discuss a little later on in this review but many of their experiences remain the same. More than anything these kids want to survive in an environment in which food and water are hard to come by on a regular basis.

It was frustrating to know so little about the narrator. Because she was orphaned or abandoned at such a young age we know nothing about the people who brought her into the world. While many children would end up alone in a world ravaged by nuclear war I wanted to know more about how she survived in such a harsh environment without any consistent adult guidance. A three or four-year-old child does not have enough life experience to keep herself safe. This is even more true in a society in which food and water are scarce, there is no medical care and even sand can kill you. Surely someone must have looked after this little girl in for at least a few years and the story would have been richer had we learned something about the person or people who kept her alive.

With that being said I was impressed with the character development of the unnamed narrator. Her early abandonment clearly had an affect on her ability to bond with or trust other people and the author’s descriptions of a young woman struggling with what sounds like a mild attachment disorder were eerily accurate. As much as she longs to love and be loved the narrator has trouble allowing anyone to get too close to her. She’s been hurt so many times before that she assumes anyone she loves will either abandon her or die. Of course a deep-seated fear like this cannot be vanquished in 159 pages but it was rewarding to see her ever so slowly begin to bond with Zara in particular. Despite her gruff demeanor the narrator is at heart a lonely teenager and while I don’t ever see her becoming a warm, cuddly soul I can imagine a future for her in which she eventually learns to trust a small group of adopted family members. If Ms. Rode ever chooses to continue this story I would be quite interested to see how this transformation takes place and how the narrator’s name or original identity may influence this change .

While sex was only mentioned in passing in this book the younger characters are comfortable engaging in it with almost any willing partner. Non-monogamous relationships are the norm and no one who grew up during or was born after the nuclear attack is concerned with what happens in someone else’s tent as long as it’s consensual. I found this acceptance of a wide variety of sexual orientations and relationship styles to be incredibly refreshing but I recognize that some parents may prefer more traditional gender and sexual roles for younger readers even if nothing was described in explicit detail. If this is not an issue for you family, though, Water Seekers is otherwise completely appropriate for the 12+ crowd.

Water Seekers creates a world that is as harsh as it is beautiful. I’d recommend this book for anyone in the mood for a post-apocalyptic story that assumes that humans are naturally good and would go out of their way to look after the young and weak in a worst case scenario.

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Alabaster by Nick Hirsch

December 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

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Alabaster by Nick Hirsch
Publisher: Prizm Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (15 pages)
Age Recommendation: 12+
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewe by Astilbe

Alan turned to stone as a boy, and now he’s started cracking. His father left when he was a kid, his mother is impossible to talk to, and he’s always been bullied at school. One day he meets a boy on the bus named Luke, and things start to change. Will his feelings for Luke finally cure him, or will he simply fall to pieces?

For some people the passage of time does not heal all wounds. If anything it makes them worse!

The idea of love transforming us into better versions of ourselves has long been a cliche. By pushing this concept from metaphor to a literal act Mr. Hirsch breathed new life into this concept. Alan’s emotional trauma is evident in every inch of his cold, grey skin and he has lived with the effects of it for so long that he’s forgotten what life is like for people without his affliction.

Magical realism is a slippery genre. Inject too much magic into an otherwise ordinary setting and one risks distracting the characters (and audience) from what might happen by the peculiar things going on right now. If too little time is spent on the mystical elements, though, the reader will be left wondering if the narrator is a reliable witness to what is happening. Happily Alabaster strikes a good balance between these two extremes. While I wondered why no one in Alan’s life comments on the condition of his skin this can easily be explained away by the long period of time that elapsed between him turning to stone and the beginning of his relationship with Luke.

I had some trouble determining an appropriate age recommendation for this story. It contains offensive language and includes a briefly violent scene. Although the altercation is not described in great detail and the slurs were necessary in order to explain why Alan finds certain memories so painful they do make this selection inappropriate for younger or sensitive readers.

Repeated punctuation errors were only reason why this book didn’t receive a much higher rating. So many sentences included misplaced commas and spelling and grammar errors that I had trouble understanding the meaning of some of them.

Alabaster has a heart of gold, though. I’d highly recommend it to anyone interested in a sweet tale of a boy’s first taste of love.

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