Princess of the Midnight Ball

Princess of the Midnight Ball
Author: Jessica Day George
Series: ---
Publisher: Bloomsbury
How Received: library

Because he had once been human, the King Under Stone sometimes found himself plagued by human emotions. He was experiencing one now as he faced the mortal woman before him, but it took him a moment to give it a name. After a pause, he labeled it "triumph."

It's the tale of the twelve princesses doomed to dance from dusk to dawn, told through the eyes of a young man named Galen and a princess named Rose. Galen, a young solider returning from the horrors of war; Rose, the eldest princess of those condemned to dance for the King Under Stone.

Galen arrives at the home of his aunt, having lost his family in the war, and is given a job in the King's garden. Though an under-gardener has barely any standing, he falls for Rose, and she - through sickness and dancing - falls in love with him. But no matter what the King (and Galen) do to try and help, Rose and her sisters are constantly wearing their dancing shoes out every night...

Perhaps Galen, with gifts given to him by a woman on the road, the cunning of a soldier's mind, and the love between him and Rose, can help save the twelve young princesses.

First off, how awesome are those first lines? Looooove them.

Actually, that really summarizes the entire story. I looooved it. The characters were real - each one original and flawed and beautifully written. I can't say it's a particularly deep novel (it is, after all, based on a fairy tale) but it's definitely one of the better ones I've read this year.

My only dispute with it is that the King Under Stone and the history of the curse are just briefly mentioned, and I felt that perhaps a little more detail would have made the book just as interesting, if not more so. However, shoving in that detail may have slowed down the book - and George did write the entire prologue with the beginning of the curse.

Overall Rating & Final Comments: All in all, it was a fantastic novel. I would happily buy it and read it again.
Cover Comments: I want that dress.

Happy reading!

~ Nicole

A Rant on Twilight

My friend Zack was bored one day... so he finally wrote up what he felt.

I asked if I could repost it and he agreed. Here it is - a rant on Twilight.

Twi-fans, stay away.

---
I've gotten sick and tired of Twilight so I've compiled a list of reasons on why Twilight sucks.

10. Despite her obvious efforts, Valley author Stephanie Meyer is simply an awful writer. I feel horrible saying it, but at this point it has been made clear to the entire world. Sadly, I think her overly simple and the cliché writing is what makes the book so appealing. Cracking open a thesaurus doesn't make you a novelist.

9. These are the worst vampires in history. Rarely does Edward Cullen (and his friends) eat at all, despite being "vegetarian" vampires and feeding off animals instead of humans. And where did they gain this conscience? Why do they care if people die? They're vampires!

8. I want to hit Bella. Not only is she lacking any sort of emotional depth, but she allows herself to fall into the arms of a vampire. (Note from Nicki: That's not bad...) Any sane person would be weary of the situation. Not only that, but she proceeds to continue a bizarre codependent relationship with him. This "I love you, but stay away from me... but come here anyway," crap that Edward pulls is just unhealthy. On that note...

7. I want to hit Edward. Mostly because he refuses to end Bella's life by finally feasting on the blood he's wanted for so long and thereby ending my misery. Go on! She's delicious.

6. Edward is sooooooooooooooooo hot! OMG! Edward is sooooo freakin' dreamy. You know how I know? Because Meyer makes hundreds of references to his beauty in the book. All the while, he lives up to being like most hot guys - completely vacant of personality. None of his creepy behavior (watching Bella as she sleeps, following her around so he can save her) would be tolerated if he weren't 100 percent supa-fine. Which leads to point number 5...

5. Vampires sparkle! Who knew vampires were so flamboyant? Edward leads Bella to the top of a mountain, where he proceeds to take off his shirt to show her why he can't go in the sun. He's sparkly! Do you get it now Bella!? He can't go out into the sun because people will want to make handbags out of him! (Nicole: Actually, I thought they would try to chip his skin off and sell it.) Despite that, Bella stares stupidly and tells him he's "beautiful." Surprise, surprise! Barf. (Nicole: Bella may be ADD. Distracted by sparkly things.)

4. If vampire have no bodily fluids, how can Bella get pregnant?

3. The movie ruined two of my favorite bands. Muse and Radiohead are among the likes of Linkin Park and Paramore on the soundtrack. What!? The filmmakers went so far as to edit out a potentially risky Muse lyric in the song "Supermassive Black Hole." The opening line of the song "Oh baby don't you know I suffer? Oh baby can you hear me moan?" was edited down only to the first question. Because you can only moan during sex, you know.

2. Meyer clearly thinks she's Bella. The plain, average character has five hot guys after her at any given time. Why? Because she's so virtuous and plain! Guys love that! Meyer would know.

1. Bella sucks. And she's not even a vampire. She has no problem being a "strong" little sassy pants toward her parents, but she can't walk out the door without being victimized and therefore saved by the sparkly Edward.

I've been aggravated with the whole depth of characters

Bella has no character. She is the cliched new girl in school (because we haven't read a billion books like that). She talks like an uneducated 10 year old. (Can you say moron?) This girl is beyond stupid. No thoughts travel through her head at all. She can't take five steps without tripping (Nicole: Well, neither can I.), being hit on, or almost raped. She sounds like a whiny 37 year old woman, and not a “mature” 16 year old. Edward told her he was not sure if he was going to slaughter her or not as the capper for her date, and she thinks its romantic and exciting. Serious issues? I think so. In conclusion...
She is a total Mary-Sue, an air head, boring, unbelievable, and her lack of character disturbs me.


Edward Cullen. (Yeah, I'm going to tear apart your "dreamy' sparkly vampire boy with words, go cry.) All he does is boss Bella around and sit there and look "cool". He sounds like he has been in a coma since 1911 and just woke up from it. He is angsty, boring, and unbelievable - not to mention the dozens of holes in his 'vampire appearance'. Vampires sparkle like pretty fairies in the sunlight! Yeah, uhm, no. Vampires DIE in sunlight not sparkle. (Nicole: Unless in certain circumstances. Which I have yet to find. Vampires just don't seem to like sun...) The author may have made it this way, but it is an inconsistency between the story and actual well known lore that's hard to ignore. Edward is 100 years old (Nicole: Er, 107.) but seems to have never gotten past that angsty teenager phase. 100 years is a long time - most people are at peace with their inner teenage angst by the time they are 50. Uber pedophile: 100 years old (Nicole: 107!) and hitting on having sex with 16 year old girls. Edward has beautiful amber eyes, they are gorgeous. His amber eyes are so dreamy. Did I mention that he has amber eyes? It was subtle you might not have gotten it.

Meyer is always describing some feature of Edward...

On that note. Rants on the author!

All the author does is describe Edward's appearance every other sentence, which somehow seems to make for great reading. She has a 6 word vocabulary: sparkly, sparkling, sparkle, Edward, sex and Bella. She's not a damn author; she is a lonely house wife that had a wet dream about a vampire and decided to turn it into a freaking book. Since when did werewloves become “shape shifters”? [SPOILER ALERT] In the final chapters of Breaking Dawn, Aro reveals that the werewolves are actually shape shifters. They actually just take the form of wolves and can really turn into anything else. I’m guessing Meyer did this so she could save Bella’s ass from the vampire army. She admits to not thinking about what she writes when writing these books, so she ends putting them in a situation that they can't get out of. I can imagine that her thoughts went something like this: “Shit, Edward can't fight his way out of this one. Oh well, I’ll just change some important plots in the story and it’ll be good.”

- Zack

---

Thank you, Zack.

[EDIT] Here! It's like Zack but, you know, published. [link]

Psyche In A Dress

Maybe I missed the point of this book.

But this is what
I could not give up:
I could not give up myself

Psyche has known Love—scented with jasmine and tasting of fresh oranges. Yet he is fleeting and fragile, lost to her too quickly. Punished by self-doubt, Psyche yearns to be transformed, like the beautiful and brutal figures in the myths her lover once spoke of. Attempting to uncover beauty in the darkness, she is challenged, tested, and changed by the gods and demons who tempt her. Her faith must be found again, for if she is to love, she must never look back.

I love deep books. But I couldn't get past the first ten pages. Maybe it was the fact that, though it was in prose, she never used periods. Maybe it was the fact that she skimmed over things - for instance, Psyche and her Love - that would normally have taken fifty pages in five. Maybe it was just the character.

Perhaps it was one of those things.

Either way, I couldn't read it.

Oh. Nece and Bethie, you guys won the last two books in this month's contest! Send me an email and I'll get them to you as soon as possible.

Final Fridays - Maggie Stiefvater

Everybody knows how highly I praised Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, currently contending for my favorite book of 2009.

And the lovely author was kind enough to stop by!

Maggie Stiefvater [website] has written not only the bestselling Shiver, a story on werewolves, but Lament and Ballad, stories on - you guessed it - homicidal faeries. (Okay, maybe you didn't guess it.) She's one of the Merry Sisters of Fate, runs her own kickass blog, and is just generally awesome.

And here she is.

N: It's 2012 - the zombie apocalypse. What are your weapons?

M: My sardonic wit and a Jack Russell Terrier on a double shot of espresso. In the case of a zombie threat, I have been practicing with both of these regularly. I believe I may die.

N: Or just terrify the zombies into confusion. Do your male characters wear boxers or briefs?

M: I have not asked them. For all I know, Sam wears a thong. It's one of those things that is left to the imagination, like whether they prefer raisins or chocolate chips in their cookies.

N: ... a thong? Oh dear. True, you're an awesome author - but who is your favorite author?

M: Why thanks. And I generally love books rather than authors, but I'm gonna go with three: Melina Marchetta, because she writes characters I love. Leif Enger, because he writes characters I love. And Diana Wynne Jones, because she . . . oh, you know the drill.

N: You love her because she drills? Just joking. ;] Holiday season. You walk into a store and are promptly flattened, cartoon style, by a mob of moms. What happens next?

M: I whip out my sardonic wit and Jack Russell.

N: And terrify the shoppers into confusion. They are rather like zombies. You were an artist before you were an author. What was your favorite piece of artwork?

M: Hmmmm. I was part of this movement called "Painting a Day" which means that you started and finished a painting every single day. So there is a LOT of maggieart out there. My website for it is here: www.portraitswithcharacter.com and my daily art blog was here: http://greywarenart.blogspot.com. But favorite? Hm. I loved doing horse art. (Below, one of Maggie's favorites "Gawain")



N: Those are freaking fantastic. Unique Features has the rights to Shiver - The Movie. Who would you cast?

M: I actually did a blog post about this. With photos! [link]

N: Yay photos! If you could write about anything, with full heart that you would be paid for it, people would buy it, and everybody would deem it amazing, what would write?

M: I . . . already do that. Werewolves and kissing. Also, homicidal faeries and kissing. And my next one, about blood, beaches, and kissing. I sort of just run wildly about my literary mind and do what I like and Scholastic says "That's cool! Let's publish it!" I love them.

N: Oh, Scholastic; what would we do without you? Now... why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?

M: Leprechaun magic. Also, the glue is not exposed to air so long as you keep the lid closed, so it remains a sticky liquid until you let that sucker out of the bottle.

Thanks for stopping by, Maggie!
You can pick up her books online or at most bookstores. They make fantastic presents. :)

~ N

Happy Thanksgiving

Ten things I'm thankful for - in the book world:

1. Fellow YA Bloggers
Kristi, Chelsea, Sharon, and so many more - you make the blogging community so much fun. I'd list you all, but then we'd be here a while...

2. You
If you're reading this, it means you read my blog. Which makes me a) feel slightly like a cult leader and b) very happy. I love ya all!

3. Authors Who Run Blogs
Maggie Stiefvater. (Who will be here tomorrow!) Alexa Young. Kay Cassidy. Holly Black. And so many more. Thank ya!

4. Those Of You On Twitter - Authors, Bloggers, and Readers Alike
I love following you all and reading what you're doing. Thanks for letting me into your life. (It's much more interesting than my own.)

5. The Bloody Jack series
... I can be thankful for good books, too...

6. Those Who Aren't Afraid To Say What They Think
Any blogger or person who will state their opinion without fearing the repercussions. (Donna, this particularly pertains to you.)

7. Publishers
Without you, authors wouldn't write books. Because they wouldn't get paid. And let's face it, we all need to eat.

8. Hot Cocoa
What? It's perfect for reading a book.

9. Friends
Not just the friends I've made through blogging, all of my friends - those who blog, those who lend me books, those who I lend books, those who I got into reading, those who got me into reading.

10. Unicorns
Just saying.

Happy thanksgiving, everybody!
~ Nicole

Why I Probably Won't Finish NaNoWriMo This Year II

[part I]

I officially have 58 books checked out of the library.
I think I have a problem.

Here are the ones I picked up yesterday night.



I don't think I have a problem. I know I have one.

Holy blubbernuggets. I have a lot of reading to do.

Which one from both piles should I read first?

Don't forget! Friday, Maggie Stiefvater stops by!

Why Pride and Prejudice Annoys Me

Oh, look! Long, sophisticated sentences!
Wait, there's a simple sentence, never mind.
Oooo, interesting plot...
Wait, that scene has nothing to do with the plot.

It may be a classic, but as my friend Kellyn put it, "It's the back-then brain candy."

Regardless, I'm falling for a certain Mr. Darcy.

What do you guys think of the classics?

Goddess Boot Camp

Goddess Boot Camp
Author: Tera Lynn Childs
Series: Oh. My. Gods. (Oh. My. Gods.)
Publisher: Penguin Group
How Received: school library

Like I said, I've only known about these powers for a few months and these things aren't exactly easy to control.

Phoebe has gone from being a normal, every day moral to a descendant of Nike - goddess, not shoe - with superpowers that aren't so easy to control. (It's not her fault that she made the whole house snow. Really.) Now that her stepfather's enlisted her in "Goddess Boot Camp" - Dynamotheos Development Camp - with a bunch of ten year olds, she's found out about a test from the gods, her boyfriend may or may not be cheating on her, and she has to train hard enough to qualify for the Pythian Games-

-well, it may be one busy summer.

Goddess Boot Camp went along the same lines as Oh. My. Gods. - nothing substantial, predictable, but an easy and enjoyable brain-candy read.

[SPOILER ALERT]
Oh, hello again, Griffin. What? Your descendant of Hercules-ness makes it okay for you to be overprotective? That's not annoying at all. Nope. Especially when you're running around with other girls - even if you're not doing anything with them, you're not telling Phoebe what you're doing then getting mad at her when she runs off on her own. Noooooo. That's not ridiculous at alllllll. (Though a brilliant character flaw, it was rather annoying.)

And hello, completely irrelevant camp characters! Girls who love to run and boys who date Stella - sure, they were nice additions, but the story could have done without them. Perhaps they'll play a part in the next novel. I'll wait and see.
[/SPOILER ALERT]

The best part of the novel was Phoebe's chase for finding what happened to her father, though. Mysterious notes, weird places... I loved that part.

Overall Rating & Final Comments: Same as it's original, a 6/10, with a recommendation if you're only in the mood for brain candy.

~ N

Ivy

Ivy
Author: Julie Hearn
Series: ---
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
How Received: school library

Ivy stared at the spoon standing straight up in the mess of food. She had good reasons all right, but no one ever listened to them without laughing or getting cross, so what was the point of explaining?

Flame-colored hair and odd-colored eyes caused Ivy to be declared 'useless' by her father at her birth. Ever since then, she's been overlooked by her thief & scoundrel filled family. They look at her, but they don't see.

Ivy has a quality that makes people take notice. It's more than beauty - and it draws people toward her.

Oscar Arentino Frosdick of the pre-Raphaelite school of artists has found his muse and model in her. But behind Ivy's angelic looks lurk dark secrets and a troubled past — a past that has given her an unfortunate taste for laudanum. And when treachery and jealousy surface in the Eden that is the artist's garden, Ivy must learn to be more than a pretty face if she is to survive.

I'm... not quite sure what I think of this book.

I enjoyed it, I know that much. Ivy as a character was interesting enough, and I loved the way it was written. (Not to mention the subtitles to the chapters could be awfully funny.)

But... the plot line wasn't as described. In fact, it seemed to have a lot of strings that were all just cut off at the end of the novel. The artist's mother's unrealistic jealousy, Ivy's addiction to laudanum, Carroty Kate, her relationship with her family, her family's relationships with other people-

[SPOILER ALERT]
All of the plot lines were tied up by completely removing her from the people and putting her where she was happiest. Yes, I love a happy ending as much as the next person, but to just stick her there? Not so much.
[/SPOILER ALERT]

I thought all the plots came across as only half done - things that sounded good and made the story interesting, but weren't as fully developed as they should have been.

Final Comments: I won't give it a rating, because it's very much based on how much you like Ivy as a character and how willing you are to ignore the unfleshed plots. I loved Ivy, but... ah well. I do want to read the sequel. (Hazel, about Ivy's daughter.)

Cover Whore: Do I adore the cover? Yes. Does the book have anything to do with the tag line? (Who said seduction was sweet?) Uh. No. I saw not one thing about seduction in the whole 351 pages.

~ N

Why I Probably Won't Finish NaNoWriMo This Year

I could blame my a) lack of computer time or b) lack of focus when I'm on the computer. A has a large part to do with it, but C is probably my biggest problem.

What's C?

My SUPER AMAZING LIBRARY SYSTEM, that's what's C.

Where I live, all of the libraries are connected. When they don't have a book, they can put it on hold at another library and get it shipped to them. It would be nice, right? Four or five libraries...

... or over seventy...

I love New York.

Here's the list of the books I just picked up from my holds list today, and the number one reason why I probably will spend the rest of November reading, not writing. Click on each image - it'll bring you to the B&N site with the summary of the book.



Ah, I love my library.