In this modern-day retelling of Jane Eyre, Jane Moore is a penniless student who’s just had to drop out of college and take a job as a nanny working for rock star Nico Rathburn. I love Jane Eyre. I love Mr. Rochester. The idea of this book intrigued me. How exactly would all that Gothic […]
The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson: Book Review
Elisa is a Bearer of the Godstone. Born to the royal family, a bright light engulfed her on her Name Day and left her with a Godstone in her navel. Bearers are marked to carry out a special act of service and they’re only born about every hundred years. Unfortunately, they don’t tend to live […]
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman: Book Review
Seraphina is working at the royal court when a prince is murdered. Even though her country has been at peace with the dragons for decades, many people believe a dragon killed the prince. Tensions start rising in the city just as the dragon ruler is due for a state visit to celebrate the signing of […]
I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak: Book Review
Ed Kennedy is an underage cab driver with no prospects. He’s the very picture of your average young man. But someone has chosen him to carry out some tasks that require him to be anything but average. I was incredibly nervous about reading this book after reading The Book Thief. That book immediately became my […]
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer: Book Review
4 Stars. I didn’t like this quite as much as Cinder but I definitely still enjoyed it. By introducing Scarlet, Marissa Meyer managed to avoid my common complaint that the second book in a series is just filler. Had she stayed exclusively with Cinder’s story, I’d probably be complaining. By shifting the focus, she fills in a lot […]
Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison: Book Review
Georgia Nicolson is fourteen and full of typical fourteen-year-old girl drama. Through her hilarious diary entries, we learn about her disastrous attempt at plucking her eyebrows, her fantasies about a guy she calls the Sex God (even though she doesn’t seem very clear about what sex actually involves), her fights with friends, and her triumphs […]
Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman: Book Review
Synopsis from GoodReads: Steel Magnolias meets The Help in Beth Hoffman’s New York Times bestselling Southern debut novel, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt Twelve-year-old CeeCee Honeycutt is in trouble. For years, she has been the caretaker of her mother, Camille, the town’s tiara-wearing, lipstick-smeared laughingstock, a woman who is trapped in her long-ago moment of glory as […]
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs: Book Review
Jacob Portman grew up believing every word of his beloved grandfather’s fantastic stories–the levitating girl, the invisible boy, the strong children. Grandpa Portman claimed to have grown up with them all in a special orphanage in Wales. As Jake grows older though, he realizes that the stories can’t possibly be true. After Grandpa’s shocking death, […]
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray: Book Review
Gemma Doyle is living in India, but she desperately wants to move back to England. As 16-year-old girls will do, she’s bickering constantly with her mother over it. One day, in the midst of an Indian market, tragedy strikes and Gemma gets sent back to England. But she also starts having strange visions. Can the […]
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith: Book Review
Cassandra Mortmain lives in a castle. Don’t let that fool you–the castle is crumbling around her family’s ears. Her father had the (mis)fortune to publish an incredible book early in his career and he hasn’t been able to write another word since. In other words, the family is practically destitute. But then the owner of […]
Under the Jolly Roger by L. A. Meyer: Review
Jacky Faber finds herself working for the Royal Navy again after being mistakenly pressed into service. The ship she finds herself on is in bad shape, with a sick, evil captain who reigns with an iron fist and who has let his boat and his crew get into bad shape. Nothing can keep Jacky down […]