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Readers of both fantasy and adventure will likely label Garth Nix’s recent release, Frogkisser, an enjoyable read.  The book’s main character, thirteen-year-old Princess Anya, takes the spotlight with her plucky and occasionally petulant attitude.  Unaware of her privilege, Anya is content in the library with Gotfried, a librarian who has had some magical education and is a useful resource for Anya, who has a strong interest in magic.  However, when her evil stepstepfather, Duke Rikard starts transforming people, Anya’s conscience and her sister promise to Morven to find Prince Denholm, who is now a frog, alter the course of her life. Allied with other sorcerers,Read More →

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Maximum racing is dangerous; one out of ten cars doesn’t make it to the finish line.  But race car driver Cassica Hayle is fast, flighty, and full of fierce life.  Possessing an addictive, restle ss energy and delighted by chaos and speed, Cassica craves life in the fast lane and wants to escape Coppermouth,  a barely surviving, backwater town where the stars at night are actually “restless orbital weapons moving steadily, left over from the Omniwar”(30) when death machines  “destroyed whole cities with lances of fire from space” (31). Now, in Coppermouth ,  people die from dust lung, a respiratory affliction resulting from dust blowingRead More →

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With pollutants and poisons pouring into the earth and air, the humans aren’t so easy to befriend by the faery folk whose hesitation is warranted since their very existence depends on clean air, soil, and water.  Still, LilyDark, who will be crowned the new heir to the throne, is determined to proclaim peace.  In One Blood Ruby, a sequel to Seven Black Diamonds, Melissa Marr continues the saga of the seven half-fae, half-human beings, that the Queen of Blood and Rage has converted into weapons to advance her cause. But the cessation of war turns out to be far more dangerous than any of theRead More →

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Two young people, one twelve and the other only thirteen, aspire to change the world. Hobson Smythe is muir, an ordinary human from a remote settlement called Dusk where everything is “cold and dull, a tiny outpost smothered in snow and pine needles” (106).  Hazel Faeregine is mehrùn, a magical being who has lived her entire life sheltered from hardship in Impyria, where everything is “an explosion of colors and sound, swift riptides of people and money” (106).   Despite their different backgrounds, both Hob and Hazel wish to matter, to make a difference, and to fight the injustices they see. Hazel’s family has ruled theRead More →

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Like all good dystopian fiction, Frost by M. P. Kozlowsky begins with a social question that has currency and relevance and then exaggerates the answer to warn society of what could happen if we don’t take the appropriate actions or proceed with caution.  Kozlowsky’s plot revolves around wishes for everlasting life–for human immortality–and Dr. Alex Simmelfore has found an answer: Create a robot and download human consciousness to a chip that can be planted into the robot.  These improved robot beings will have human instinct, human thought, and human complexity combined with a body that won’t age, wear down, or succumb to illness. As readers will suspect,Read More →

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What if there was an invention that could create ANYTHING you could imagine? For ten year old Tim, this invention is not only real, it is life changing! Tim was recently adopted by Elisa and Chris Green, owners of the Dawn Store Hotel. Tim’s adoption was finalized just two weeks before the hotel opened, which means Elisa and Chris have been very busy working. This gives Tim plenty of time to roam the hotel and even run into trouble at times. One day, Tim stumbles across a peculiar hotel guest, Professor Eisenstone. The professor’s hotel room happens to be across the hall from Tim’s, and afterRead More →

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In this final installment of Kelley Armstrong’s the Age of Legends trilogy, Forest of Ruin features twin sisters Moria and Ashyn as they face complications, conflicts, and epic decisions with the potential to save or imperil the empire. This book picks up the trilogy plot after Shadow Stalkers have massacred the village that Moria and Ashyn called home.   As a result, Moria’s sister and the children of her village are missing, her father has been murdered, her emperor is handing her over as a traitor, and two of her friends may not be the people she thought.  The thoughtful and subdued Gavril Kitsune and theRead More →

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Book Two in the Mark of the Thief series by Jennifer A. Nielsen, Rise of the Wolf carries forward the story of Nicolas Calva who continues to feel like a pawn.  In this sequel, Nic continues to crave freedom, but he finds adversaries at every turn.  His grandfather General Radulf wants the gods to bow to him, even if that means he has to neutralize his grandson.  Atroxia, a vestalis who continues in her allegiance to the goddess Diana, will torture him unless he relinquishes the Malice of Mars and creates a Jupiter Stone. Decimas Brutus will go to any length to rob Nic ofRead More →

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Nervy but not nuts, Buck Anderson craves adventure.  Most comfortable surrounded by rock and roots and earth, Buck’s passion is caving.  And living in southwest Virginia in the Appalachian foothills, this stubborn, risk-taker has many opportunities for discovering, exploring, and hoping to make history.  When his best friend David Weinstein moves away, thirteen-year-old Buck loses his cautious cave-exploring partner, and “the first rule of caving is never—not ever—do it alone” (2). Although Buck disobeys this rule more than once, his fascination with caves and their potential danger is only one strand of the plot in Going Where It’s Dark by Newbery Award-winning author Phyllis ReynoldsRead More →