Fluttering Butterflies

The Dragon's Price by Bethany Wiggins This book is a good choice for anyone out there who are fans of Julie Kagawa  and her novels. This book starts off sounding like your typical, every-day "I don't want to be forced into marriage so I'm going to do whatever I can to save my individuality" quest-type story. The main character comes from royal blood (also a common book character trait) and has a long-standing peace treaty with another kingdom (again, as per usual). This, however, is where the similarities end. For one, this novel has DRAGONS. I love dragons (as I suspect some of you do as well). Dragons are something that has an allure to readers- if a book is about dragons, I will pick it up. If there is a dragon on the cover, I will pick it up. There is some kind of special draw to the magic of them, to their mystery and mythology. However, in The Dragon's Price , the first book in the new Transference  trilogy, there is a bit of a twist. When you kill a dra...

Written by: Marie Rutkoski This book is like a tootsie roll lolly pop. You have to get through the boring outside before the delicious center, but the wait is definitely worth it. Fair haired Valorian Kestrel is the daughter of a famous general who’s expectation of her is to join the military or marry. Kestrel is not encouraged to play her beloved piano, so when she accidentally overhears the auctioning of a Herrani slave who is a fellow musician, she uncharacteristically buys him from the market. She soon finds that he is a proud and unbeaten man, and she asks him for his complete honesty in all things. Kestrel learns from Arin many things about herself and his past, and she realizes that the conquered Herrani are not the helpless people she may have thought them to be. From their conversations, Kestrel begins to see the true nature of her society, her family, and of course, herself. To be completely honest, the minute I opened this book I was ready to write a completely sub-par revie...

By: Nicky Singer This book was like one scoop of vanilla ice cream.  It was simple, smooth, cold, and delicious.  The coolness of the ice cream penetrates more than the simple flavor which only adds to the experience. Under Shifting Glass  was about Jess.  Her mother is having babies that are conjoined, a word Jess prefers to Siamese twins.  However, the father is Jess's step father Si.  At about the same time her mother has these babies her Great Aunt Edie dies.  On top of that, Jess also feels like she is losing her best friend Zoe.  Jess always played piano at Aunt Edie's house and her grand piano is really the only thing that Jess want's of Edie's.  However, Jess receives a bureau instead.  In the bureau she finds a flask with something that creates light, a beautiful, natural, iridescent, breathing light that only Jess sees.  Jess is haunted by the statistics the Si gives her about the number of twins that die when they are bei...

Jasper Fforde      This is the second book of the Chronicles of Kazam.  Jennifer Strange is acting manager of Kazam Magical Arts Management, which is a company that provides magical services for its customers and manages general magic usage.  The main character, Jennifer Strange, is acting manager of Kazam while the real manager, the Great Zambini, is stuck in some sort of teleporting limbo.      In this book, Conrad Blix, head of Kazam’s rival iMagic, hatches a plot to gain complete control over general magic management.  Although this is the main storyline, there’s still a lot of other stuff going on, mostly whimsical sorts of things.  There are all sorts of fun little things popping around, like the Transient Moose or the light ball that runs on sarcasm.  The ending ties everything up nicely, and Jennifer manages to pull things together in clever ways. This is a 4 and like Funfetti cake.  It was fun to read, and there were ...

Written by: Georgia Clark Gulp down a tall glass of H2O and some water crackers for this one! Yay for sci-fi/adventure/romance/dystopian original novels! Seriously, I really liked this book. Clark is a charismatic writer, and her characters are complex and fun to get to know. Tessendra Rockwood is a spoiled rich girl who (for reasons initially unknown) leaves the protective dome of her city, Eden, to camp out in the Badlands. The contrast is horrifying; people in Eden live clean, happy lives and have an abundance of precious water, while in the Badlands children fight over the smallest sip of muddy liquid. Tessendra is eventually found by a member of the rebel group Kudzu, who are intent on ending the growing inequality. She returns home and lives with her uncle, who she thinks may be helping Eden keep the water in and the Badlanders out. She works undercover with the Kudzu, and eventually hatches a plan to help free the water, all while balancing her time studying at home with her Unc...

By: D.J. MacHale When I was reading SYLO I decided it would make a terrific movie.  It is action packed, captivating, and well paced -- for the most part.  The beginning was well written and introduced an island off the coast of Maine, Pemberwick Island.  The town is very close and everyone knows just about everyone else.  Autumn is coming on but the warmth of winter is still holding on.  One evening during an intense football game the team's best player, Marty Wiggins, drops dead.  Tucker, a bench player on the football team, witnessed the whole thing and even heard Marty's last words.  To clear his mind he went on a midnight bike ride with his best friend Quinn.  On this bike ride a mysterious shadow flying over the water makes an elongated sound before exploding knocking both Tucker and Quinn off their bikes as well as someone else off their bike.  The only other witness was someone sitting in a pickup truck that disappeared before the pol...

by Julie Hunt I'm surprised no one else has reviewed a picture book yet. I can't be the only one following the new publications of children's books, right? 'Take the Hope or the Dream or the Song or the Dance. You might choose the Joke. You might take the Chance. Take the Risk or the Scare or the Stunt or the Rip. What prize will you pick from today's lucky dip?' Precious Little is a circus hand who wishes to be a trapeze artists. She usually sits "backstage" and sews spangled stars and roses on the leotards. She takes the circus's famous Lucky Dip - and it appears that she is shot off into the universe. It's hard to tell. The summary calls it a " heart-stirring story about the rewards of perseverance, friendship and taking a chance." I saw no such thing while reading. I must make clear that this is not a children's book, by no means. This is certainly a young adult to adult book, cleverly disguised beneath fanciful illustrations...

This book is already published, and is pretty popular, but I read it as a galley. So it counts as a galley. 'The Night Circus' came off to a fantastic first impression. Kudos to you, Ms. Morgenstern! It's an enchanting book, dark and beautiful. It plays with words as an illusionist does: It's a dream-like book, full of metaphors and magic. It begins with a scene, describing the arrival of Le Cirque des Rêves - the Circus of Dreams. It is mysterious, and it is only open at night. The crowd builds over the day, and when it finally opens, the circus turns out to be a world of its own. There is the tattooed contortionist, the acrobats that fly without a net underneath, a Garden of Ice, and, the female protagonist, an illusionist that works without props. I quote, “You think, as you walk away from Le Cirque des Reves and into the creeping dawn, that you felt more awake within the confines of the circus. You are no longer quite certain which side of the fence is the dream.” T...

By Laini Taylor       Karou is a girl with blue hair. Unusual in itself, but she didn't dye it that color; she wished  it. Raised by demons, Karou has no family that she can remember other than Brimstone, the Wishmonger, Issa, Twiga, and Yasri, helpers in Brimstone's wish shop. She lives in Prague, a 17-year-old art student with her friend Zuzana and ex-boyfriend Kaz, while sometimes running off to run errands for Brimstone: to collect teeth. What started as a normal week quickly descended into chaos.      Attacked by an angel, or a seraph, in Morocco, Karou went inside the shop, something permitted only because she was wounded badly. Once there, she went through the other door in Brimstone's shop, the one that has always been closed in her presence, never open, until now.  Once through, she found another world, one of constant war, of constant fear and fighting. The world of her family and the seraph that had attacked her.   ...