Proxy by Alex London

The United States has completely changed.  In the future, rich Patrons can live however they want pretty much free of the fear of punishment, because they all own a Proxy; someone who is punished in the Patron's place.  For some people this arrangement works out wonderfully especially for playboy Knox.  Then Knox takes a date on a joyride and crashes the car they are riding in, killing his date.  Then Syd (Know's Proxy) is sentenced to a life sentence and branded.  This is more than Syd can take, so he runs away hoping to find a better life on the outskirts of civilization.  What Syd and Knox don't realize is that they are both part of a larger than either of them had imagined.

This is the first in a planned series (on Goodreads it is listed as Proxy #1) and the ending is great, but also leaves the story open to continue. The action is fast, and the sci-fi tech and speak remind me a lot of the Uglies series by Westerfeld.  Syd is a likable character who also happens to be non-white and gay which is refreshing to see in a story where neither his race, nor his sexual orientation is the focus of the story.  I will definitely be recommending this to library patrons who like sci-fi and action.

School Spirits by Rachel Hawkins

Izzy Brannick is a monster hunter, in fact she is the last in a long line of monster hunters.  When Izzy can't hold it together after her sister disappears, and almost gets killed hunting a vampire, her mother decides that it is time to take a break and face something less scary....high-school.
While Izzy is enrolled at Mary Evans High she is supposed to be looking around for the ghost that almost killed a teacher, but she's also trying to navigate the ins and outs regular high school life, and deal with her first crush.  When the haunting escalates, Izzy must find a balance between trusting her new friends and being a Brannick which means stopping the spirit no matter the cost.

This book is the love-child of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the TV show Supernatural.  Izzy's fish out of water reaction to normal teenage life, and her friends willingness to accept her flimsy cover stories sometimes are a little hard to buy, but aside from that the characters were all enjoyable.  This book had action, romance, and a lot of humor.  I laughed out loud, and enjoyed the book so much I had to read passages out loud to my fiance.  The book does read a little young, but Izzy is a sheltered (in her own way) 15 year old girl, so that is understandable.  I can't wait for the next book in the series, and now I want to go back and read all the other Hex Hall books.

Spellbinding by Maya Gold

Abby is invisible, or so it seems.  She only has one friend, and the guy she has had a crush on forever barely knows who she is.  She also suffers from horrible headaches, and reoccurring nightmares about drowning in a past life.  The only good thing about these dreams is the guy she keeps seeing, the guy she knows she is connected to, the buy with the blue slash through his green eyes.

Then, during a history project, Abby learns that she is related to one of the women convicted of Witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials, and after further investigation she starts to wonder if she herself has witchy powers.  And, when she meets the boy with the blue glint in his eye while researching in Salem...things start to change rapidly.

It's hard to describe this book, because a lot went on without that much happening.  There were times were Abby was not a very likable main character, and some of the descriptions in the book were awkward.  One girl is described as looking like a ham in a dress, but I am not sure if that was supposed to be a good or a bad thing.  Also, the sense of time in the book is off.   The school Abby attends doesn't have prom until the end of June, and she says in August that she hopes she will "get a tan over the summer".  That said, I enjoyed the first 2/3 of this book as a fun and breezy beach read with a touch of history, but by the end I was really frustrated.  Teens may well sympathize with Abby more than I did though, and if a library has a large supernatural following this would be a clean addition to those that want magic with romance.

A Corner of White: Bk 1 of the Colors of Madeline by Jaclyn Moriarty

Madeline and her mother have run away from her father.  They now live in England, where her mother is a seamstress who dreams of making it big on quiz shows.  During the day Madeline and two other students learn through a homeschooling set up that Madeline's mother worked out with a group of adults.  Madeline lives in our world.

Eliot's father is missing, and he is on a mission to find him.  There are rumors that Eliot's took off with a local Physics teacher, and killed his own brother, but Eliot is sure this is not true.  Eliot is searching his world (the kingdom of Cello) to find his father.

Then,through a crack in the worlds that has not appeared for a long long time, Eliot and Madeline begin to communicate.

Right around the time Eliot and Madeline began to communicate is about where I totally lost interest.  I was pretty interested in Eliot's side of the story, but Madeline was just such a bland character.  The two worlds didn't seem to meld together very well, and while I like to think I'd go back and finish this book one day, I just couldn't hold off reading something I'd enjoy more.



I received an e-ARC of this book from Netgalley.

The Rose Throne by Mette Ivie Harrison

This is the story of two princesses, two kingdoms, and the magic that divides them, but could also bring them together.  Ailsbet is a tall red headed princess whose father is manipulative and who relies only on the masculine magic to rule his kingdom.  Her father has all but exiled the feminine magic that helps plants grow and encourages the calm and living aspect of nature.

Marissa is from a kingdom completely unlike Ailsbet.  Marissa's father encourages Marissa's feminine magic, and the kingdom is full and in bloom, although it lacks the masculine strength that Ailsbet's kingdom has in abundance.

These two princesses both want to serve their kingdoms, be who they are, and be loved for their individual selves.  And can either of them make the prophecy come true and reunite these two feuding kingdoms?

This description is a bit vague, and that's because the book's plot itself is kind of muddled.  Honestly, the description of the book and what really happens in the book are rather different.  Apparently Ailsbet is on the cover of the book, although the story certainly holds Marissa up as the "better" princess.  The world created by Harrison is beautiful, if claustrophobic (it seems like the two kingdoms are at the center of the world with very few others around them), but the story was a jumble.  I honestly thought for awhile this was going to be an LGBT story because it didn't seem like the princesses were really in love with anyone in particular that they wanted to marry, so I figured maybe men weren't really what they were interested in.

There isn't much resolution, which makes me wonder if there are supposed to be more books in this series, or if this is just the end and we are supposed to decide what happens next.  I've really enjoyed some of Harrison's other work, but this one was just OK for me.  I did want to find out what happened, but once I got to the end I was kind of left feeling "meh".

This review is based off an e-ARC I was allowed to read.

The Tell Tale Start by Gordon McAlpine

Edgar and Allen Poe are the great great great great (not sure if there are more there) grand nephews of the famous writer Edgar Allen Poe. They are also twin boys who share a love of their best friend Roderick Usher (their cat), and oh yeah...they pretty much share a brain too.  Edgar and Allen live with their aunt and uncle due to their parents dying in an unfortunate space-related accident.

An evil genius decides to use the boys' amazing power of communications for his own gain, so he kidnaps their beloved Roderick Usher and sets Edgar and Allen on an adventure to rescue their kitty napped friend.  Along the way Edgar and Allen are helped along by their famous dead great uncle (through mysterious communications from the great beyond), and their incredible shared intellect.

This is obviously the first in a series, and while the plot was a little thin (I did get somewhat bored at times) I very much enjoyed the characters.  I like that Edgar and Allen obviously love their family, and their cat, and they love their friends at school without being  condescending to people who are obviously of inferior intellect.

Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality by Elizabeth Eulberg

Lexi is stuck being a part of Team Mackenzie, a back up player to her 7 year old beauty pageant sister.  Pretty much every weekend Lexi is dragged off by her mom to help out Mac in a crazy pursuit of beauty filled with fake eyelashes, tans, and teeth, and Lexi is getting sick of it.  Lexi is also sick of not being noticed by her long-time crush Logan, so, with the encouragement (and well dares) from her best friend Benny, Lexi decides to try something new and take queues from the "pretty people".  Lexi starts doing her hair, her make up, and changing what she wears, but then she starts to wonder if the positive attention she is getting is for the right reasons, or if maybe she'd rather be liked for her great personality than her great new sense of style.

There are a lot of things going on in this book, even though the premise may seem kind of superficial at first.  Lexi's mom is so involved with the pageant world that she is bankrupting the family, and Lexi's relationship with her sister is complex and realistic.  Lexi is 11 years older than her beauty queen sister, and somewhat jealous of the attention lavished on Mac.  But, Lexi also loves her sister and wants to protect her and be there for her.  I had a hard time putting the book down because I wanted to know what was going to happen with Lexi and her family.  While I was a little disappointed in the ending, I do think that it fit with the tone and the message of this book and I will be buying this for my library.

This review is based on an e-ARC I was allowed to read.  I received no money or free swag for this review, although I did get to tweet @ the author for her #GreatPersonality Day event, she used my tweet in her blog.