The Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

As you may already know, I judge a book by its cover, and I must admit that I really was interested by the cover. I do enjoy historical fiction and this book does have this element. It also has a twist of fantasy, a twist of adventure, and a very weak twist of romance.

The story begins in India, in 1895, where our protagonist, Gemma, is arguing with her mother. Pretty normal for a 16 year old girl and her mother... time and place don't matter. Mothers and daughters have moments when they don't see eye to eye. What happens next in the story is unexpected, through a vision, Gemma sees the death of her mother and awakens to find that it really happened. This changes her world...

The story then transports itself to England where Gemma is set to a girls finishing school named Spence. From here the fantasy/ gothic elements are developed as these visions continue for Gemma. Eventually she confides in her friends Felicity, Pippa, and Ann about the visions and together they learn about the Order, an ancient group of women who maintained the magical realms and regulated their power. They also learn that there were two students in the past at their schools that also possessed this ability, but somehow it went wrong when the girls turned to evil. Gemma must decided what she is going to do with this power, how can she help others, and what role did her mother play in all of this.

I must admit that I enjoyed this book. While it was over 400 pages, I found that I kept wanting to go back and read more. I will say that the book it not without its flaws. There are parts that I felt where not always clear when you are first learning about the magic, but if you keep reading, it becomes more clear. At some points in the book, I wished that it moved a little faster, but it wasn't so bad that I wanted to skip pages. I also have to say that I felt the ending was a little lame, but I was happy to learn that there is a sequel, so perhaps that is why it ends the way it does.

The book is rich in its layers... discussing multiple social issues, art, music, the Victorian time period and social customs, magic, romance, culture, and the list goes on... If you like female main characters that go against societital norma, that develop unsuspecting friends, that take on adventure and danger, this might be the book for you. I noticed that many people that liked/ read Twilight also read this series, and while they are not the same, there are similar qualities.

Plus it has a movie coming out...

Have you read this book? Leave us a comment as to what you thought!

Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant by Darren Shan

This is book 2 in the The Sage of Darren Shan series of Cirque Du Freak. One of my friends said that lots of her students really liked this series. I have kind of come to the conclusion that it is the next step after RL Stine/ Fear Street. Kind of scary... but no too much... easy to read.

This particular book picks up the story after Darren was turned into a half vampire. Evidently he did it to save a friend, but you will have to read book 1 to get the full details of the story. :) With that said, this book does give enough information that you can read it without reading the first one.

Darren is struggling with the fact that he must drink human blood to live. As this book progresses he gets weaker and weaker because drinking the blood of animals is just not enough. In addition to this plot line, is the one in which Darren is searching for some aspects of a normal teenage life while facing that fact that he is half vampire. In an attempt to achieve this, Darren and his vampire mentor Mr. Crepsley join up with the Cirque du Freak again so that Darren can have friends his age while still respecting, and accepting, that he is half vampire. Being a part of this group and learning to have "human" friends brings its own challenges for Darren. This leads to the climax of the story that involves Darren trying to save his new human friend of a horrifying death.

If you like mild vampire stories where they contain traditional vampire qualities, but are not evil, this might be something you would want to read. You may want to think about reading the entire series. Also, if you like horror without tons of blood and guts, but enough to make it interesting, this might be for you, too.

Again, if you loved Goosebumps, RL Stine, and Fear Street, this might be the next horror series for you.

Have you read this book or any other Cirque du Freak books? If so please leave a comment.

angus, thongs, and full-frontal snogging by Louise Rennison

This book was amusing, and I thought it was a pretty quick read. I think one of the reasons why is because it is written as diary entries of a 14 year old girl that lives in England. The entries are short (some are even one sentence or two words!) as she records many of the problems that most 14 years face: boy problems, friend problems, family problems, and self-esteem problems. She does it in a really sarcastic, funny, realistic way that I think is appealing. It even has a glossary in the back, so the American readers can understand her British slang. For the most part I thought that was pretty cool, but after awhile I got tired of looking things up, so I just relied on figuring out meaning from the context of the sentence. Pretty much like you should do any time you come across a word you don't know, and you do not have a dictionary handy.

Some of her situations are so right on... for example, she is daydreaming about her current semi-boyfriend. He plays soccer (football in the book), and she begins to fantasize about him becoming famous. How she would be in all the papers with her big nose, and how she would have to worry about the paparazzi. Eventually, she comes to this conclusion...

5:15 p.m.

I can't marry him, the pressure is just too much. I am losing my own self-esteem while he gets all the attention. I'll have to explain to him tonight that it is all over.

The really funny part is at this point, they are not really dating. He had just asked her to attend a dance with him, but who hasn't let their imagination take over when daydream about a boyfriend?

This book is part of the Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series which as of right now has 8 books in the series. They all have equally compelling titles, and all have a picture of the crazy cat on the cover somewhere.

These are good books to read for fun. To be honest, there really isn't a lot of academic value to them. They are funny stories about being a girl and facing what life gives you. So if you are looking for something to read for fun over break or summer vacation, this book and the rest in the series might be worth a look.

Have you read any of them? What did you think?