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Title: Trickster's Queen
Author: Tamora Pierce
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 7/10
# pages:
Date read: March, 2007

Summary: As the novel opens, the wife and children of the late Duke Mequen Balitang return to the capital city of Rajmuat from their exile on their distant estate. Aly has become a maid to Lady Dovasary, daughter of the late duke, and, more importantly, she is now the spymaster of the raka rebellion that is determined to put Dovasary's sister on the throne in place of the four-year-old luarin king. The light-skinned luarin have oppressed the dark-skinned raka for centuries, and the luarin co-regents now in charge of the Copper Isles are losing their grip on reality as well as on their kingdom. With Aly in control, the raka rebellion is able to stir up enough unrest to cause the uprising to begin. Aly, who is the daughter of Alanna the Lioness of Tortall (from the "Lioness Quartet" series), is delightful in her deviousness. The teen is exceptionally brave, sassy, and diplomatic. She is surrounded by a large supporting cast, which is well developed and necessary to the story. The plot sweeps readers along in a whirlwind of court intrigue, deception, murder, and romance. The humor is wicked, and the plot twists will keep the pages turning to the supremely satisfying end. Teens will be inspired by Aly's determination, her resourcefulness, and her heart. (From Amazon.com)

Review: I wasn't too impressed by this book. There were too many things happening in too short a time. Tamora Pierce would have benefitted from a more critical editor. Still, she is a good writer, so nothing she writes could ever be decidedly bad, and I did enjoy the story, but it's probably the weakest of her books/series.

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Title: Trickster's Choice
Author: Tamora Pierce
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Rating: 8/10
# pages: 432
Date read: March, 2007; September 2006

Summary: Alianne, or Aly, daughter of the warrior queen Alanna the Lioness, has the skills of both her mother and father as well as a delicious sense of humor, which serves her well when she is chosen by the trickster god Kyprioth to serve as his secret agent and a slave for a year in the embattled Copper Isles. There the dark-skinned natives, or raka, have been conquered and crushed by the laurin, light-skinned people from the mainland. The burning raka resentment is fueled by prophecies of a twice royal queen who will free them, aided by the "wise one, the cunning one, the strong one, the warrior, and the crows." Just how each of the colorful characters and Aly herself fit into this prophecy and Kyprioth's tricky plan keeps readers guessing. Aly plots to show her skill at spying as she flirts with the god and is courted by Nawat, a crow transformed into a handsome young man, who is puzzled when she rejects his attempts to mate-feed her with grubs and ants. (From Amazon.com)

Review: After having read "The Circle" books, it was nice to get back to Tortall, even if this book doesn't quite live up to the standards set by "Alanna" and "Protector of the Small". Aly is even more 'the hero who saves the day' in every situation than Alanna and Kell were. Of course she is the main character, but it gets old to read how she just cannot do anything wrong (almost), but comes to the rescue when everybody else is stumped again and again.

But perhaps that's just me being overly critical ;-) It is an enjoyable book and one I had no problems rereading just 6 months after my first read-through of it.

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Title: The Secret Garden
Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett
Genre: Classics
Rating: 8/10
# pages: Audiobook
Date read: March, 2007

Summary: Mistress Mary is quite contrary until she helps her garden grow. Along the way, she manages to cure her sickly cousin Colin, who is every bit as imperious as she. These two are sullen little peas in a pod, closed up in a gloomy old manor on the Yorkshire moors of England, until a locked-up garden captures their imaginations and puts the blush of a wild rose in their cheeks; "It was the sweetest, most mysterious-looking place any one could imagine. The high walls which shut it in were covered with the leafless stems of roses which were so thick, that they matted together.... 'No wonder it is still,' Mary whispered. 'I am the first person who has spoken here for ten years.'" As new life sprouts from the earth, Mary and Colin's sour natures begin to sweeten. For anyone who has ever felt afraid to live and love, The Secret Garden's portrayal of reawakening spirits will thrill and rejuvenate.

Review: A gorgeous book. I was very pleasantly surprised. It's not nearly as contrived as "A Little Princess" (which was still charming), and I loved yearing the Yorkshire accent - or as close to it as a Californian can come ;) It is cute and straight-forward; a genuine comfort book.

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Title: The Redemption of Glory
Author: Beth Hargrove
Genre: Christian fiction
Rating: 7/10
# pages: 392
Date read: March, 2007

Review: Glory is a headstrong spirit whose passage into the next world depends on her ability to set right the lives of four people who all need a gentle push in the right direction. Graham McKenzie is interrupted in his comfortable life as a country minister when a love from his past reappears, throwing into disarray all his carefully laid plans. Ruth Webster has to face a choice she made thirty years ago and decide if she still wants to follow that path. Scott is caught between what Glory wants for him, and what she knows is right for him, hurting Julie in the process as he doesn't always stop to think about the consequences of his actions.

Although implementing cliches at times, The Redemption of Glory throws enough curveballs at the reader to avoid being too predictable. I found myself totally caught up in the lives of the characters involved, rooting for them when things were going well and yelling at them when they were making fools of themselves. The main characters, as well as Scott's daughter and Julie's son all take turns in having the story told from their point of view, which adds a refreshing dimension to the book, as Beth Hargrove is able to follow the age-old commandment of story writing: Show, don't tell. Beth is just as capable of writing an eleven-year-old boy convincingly as she is of depicting an elderly great-grandmother, who's seen everything in her life, and learned from it.

Unfortunately Beth Hargrove decides to surprise the reader by at one point including details where she might better have faded to black. Even though it is tastefully done, it is jarring on the senses for being unnecessary and unexpectedly out of sync with the rest of the atmosphere. But while it puzzled me why she decided to include it at all, it didn't manage to take out the charm of an otherwise very delightful book, which I'd be happy to recommend to any fellow bookworm. (Written for Armchair Interviews)

Armchair Interviews says: Another good story that might have been much better with some wise editor's input relative to the distracting issues the reviewer mentioned.

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Title: Ya-Yas in Blom
Author: Rebecca Wells
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 5/10
# pages: 255
Date read: March, 2007

Summary: The Ya-Ya sisters shimmy on and off stage in this disjointed follow-up to Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Wells's bestselling novel about the singular friendship and escapades of four larger-than-life Southern women. The author is off to a good start with the tale of how Vivi, Teensy, Caro and Necie met as little girls in 1930, their spunk and liveliness a harbinger of things to come. But the focus on the Ya-Yas' early years soon wavers and the novel is all over the map—here a few tales about the grown-up Ya-Yas, like Vivi's run-in with her son's first-grade teacher, a pompous nun; there a story about Vivi's eldest daughter, Sidda, one of the so-called "Petites Ya-Yas," and her directorial debut at age eight at a Valentine's Day party. A chapter appears out of nowhere from the viewpoint of Myrtis Spevey, a contemporary of the original Ya-Yas, who is so excessively jealous and resentful of the friends that she comes off as a cartoon character. After a vexing 30-year leap, Myrtis's creepy, emotionally ill daughter, Edythe, takes over the narrative, kidnapping one of the Ya-Yas' grandchildren. What begins as a collection of haphazard but entertaining snippets from the Ya-Yas' lives suddenly bumps up against a sober story about a missing child and the lengths to which parents will go to protect their young. Readers may lose patience as even the loose family-album format fails to hold up, but Wells still charms when she focuses on the redemptive power of family love and the special bond that comes from genuine, long-lived friendship. (Amazon.com)

Review: This basically sums up my feelings on the book. I don't even know why I finished this one. Like "Little Altars Everywhere" it read more like a series of short stories than like a novel, and while some of them were enjoyable, most of them I just wanted to get past to get to the next one as I kept thinking "It's GOT to get better". Unfortunately it didn't. I wouldn't say I disliked it as it did have its charms, but it's certainly not a book I'd recommend or be likely to reread either.

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