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Showing posts from December, 2017

Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth

Yes, THAT Veronica Roth (Divergent Series) Brief synopsis (no spoilers): Two nations inhabit one planet, but they're constantly at war, and constantly creating their own version of history to put themselves in the best light. Only one nation is recognized by the rest of the galaxy as owning the planet. The other nation is treated like squatters of the planet. Ryzek and Cyra are siblings in the Noavek family, of the Shotet (squatters). There was a prediction that their family will fall to the Benesit family, of the Thuvhe. Akos and Eijeh Kereseth are Thuvhe, but have their own prediction that they will spend their days serving the Noavek family. The story happens in between all these predictions of fate. Category : YA, Sci-Fi Why I chose this book : Because it's by Veronica Roth! My personal opinion : This book was excellent! No bad language, no sexuality, the fighting wasn't gory or bloody, and the story line was captivating. I plan to buy the next book as soon as it comes

Shakespeare's Spy (The Shakespeare Stealer #3) by Gary L. Blackwood

Brief synopsis (no spoilers): Things are disappearing from the theater and the company must discover who the culprit is.  Category: Juvenile/Middle School Why I chose this book:  Third in the trilogy My personal opinion: I only forced myself to finish because it was the end of the series. I didn't really have my heart into it though. The story just seemed stale.  Warnings Language:  None Violence: Minor/non descriptive fights between characters "Adult" situations: None  Death:  Those occurring in previous books mentioned Movie rating equivalent: PG Protagonist description:  Widge does grow up a bit in this book - he helps take care of some of the children at the orphanage, he worries about the things the heads of the troupe are worried about, he develops a crush on a girl, and he tries to write his own play.  Point of view of story:   Widge Book length:  Short Story flow:  Fluid Grammar and spelling issues: Several European slang words. Widge speaks with a

Never Have I Ever by Sara Shepard

Brief synopsis (no spoilers): Emma continues pretending to be Sutton, in hopes of identifying her killer. She has assimilated herself well, but she's struggling with the fact that her twin was, quite often, not very nice. Category : YA Fiction Why I chose this book : Next in the series My personal opinion : Warning: this book is a total cliffhanger! It also skirted very close to a higher movie rating. Twice, I felt like things were going to become inappropriate in the "adult situations" category. And twice it felt like the language was going to go in a bad direction. But the Warnings Language: One big one, a couple minor bad words Violence: Fairly frequent, but not gory or graphic "Adult" situations: One romantic situation that gets close to a kiss Death: Not in this part of the series Movie rating equivalent : PG-16 (not R, but I won't let my 13-year-old read it) Protagonist description : Emma is conflicted. She's trying to be normal Emma, but she

Ocean of Storms by Christopher Mari and Jeremy K. Brown

Brief synopsis (no spoilers): An explosion on the moon causes massive power outages and chaos on Earth. Scientists interpreted a signal from the explosion site, and believe some entity wants humans to investigate the site in person. Only the United States and China have funding and space exploration programs advanced enough to make it. The US is back in the space race! Category : Sci-fi Why I chose this book : Previous purchase My personal opinion : I enjoyed the story line, and found the plot credible. It leaned more toward the evolution talking points than I prefer, but it's fiction- don't take it too seriously. The romance was quite clean. Only one scene of minor characters had bad language, so I found it easy to ignore. They were more like "extras" than characters, really. My only real complaint is that the main characters were too lucky. Things almost magically worked out in their favor too many times. Yes, there was tragedy when it was necessary. B