fiction

Book Review: The Grey King (Dark is Rising)

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The Grey King (The Dark is Rising, #4)
by Susan Cooper

5 out of 5 stars

Will is recovering from a serious illness, and is sent for a holiday with his aunt in Wales. There he meets Bran, a mysterious albino boy with a dog who can see the Dark wind of the Grey King. Will is on a quest to find the golden harp and use its music to awaken the Sleepers to fight against the Dark. With the help of Bran and his dog, Will stands up against the menace of the Grey King and searches for the harp, but at a terrible cost.

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Book Review: Trials of Apollo The Tyrant’s Tomb

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The Tyrant’s Tomb by Rick Riordan

The Tyrant’s Tomb (The Trials of Apollo, #4)
by Rick Riordan

3 out of 5 stars

Zeus punishes Apollo by turning him into a mortal human. Apollo must complete various trials and serve a demigod named Meg, so that he can regain his godly status. In this fourth book of the series, Meg and Apollo are trying to turn back the zombie forces of the Triumvirate from attacking New Rome. A prophecy tells them that if they can capture the breath of a dying god, they could summon godly help to face Caligula’s armies.
Apollo and Meg are joined by Hazel, Frank, and Reyna in their quest. Lavinia, a lesbian with a crush on a Poison Oak dryad, breaks all the rules of the 12th Legion to help Meg and Apollo sneak in and out of New Rome on their quest.

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Book Review: The Puppets of Spelhorst

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The Puppets of Spelhorst by Kate DiCamillo

The Puppets of Spelhorst
by Kate DiCamillo (Goodreads Author), Julie Morstad (Illustrator)

5 out of 5 stars

An old sea captain purchases five puppets from a shop window (a king, an owl, a girl, a boy, and a wolf), propelling them on an adventure to find their purpose. Each puppet has their own dreams and desires. The king wishes to hear beautiful music and respected. The wolf wants to bite and chase. The boy dreams of accomplishing some great deed. The girl longs for beauty under the moonlit sky. The owl advises them with wise words.
When the puppets become the property of two little girls, they think they will find their purpose in acting out a story with the children, but the obstacles they face are greater than they can ever imagine.

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Series Review: The Princess in Black 1-3

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The Princess in Black Triple Smash!: Three Books in One

Shannon Hale, Dean Hale, LeUyen Pham (illustrator)

5 out of 5 stars

The Princess in Black (The Princess in Black, #1)

Princess Magnolia has a secret identity as the Princess in Black. At home, she wears frilly pink dresses and glass slippers, but then she changes into her monster-fighting black outfit and charges to the rescue when monsters attack the land. The monsters sneak out of the underground monster land to try to eat the goats, but the Princess in Black has the ninja skills to beat them back!

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Book Review: Burning Beauty

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Burning Beauty by Temple Bailey

Burning Beauty
by Temple Bailey

4.5 out of 5 stars

Virginia is overshadowed by her selfish brother Rickey, who is convinced that he has the genius to write a bestselling book. He potentially sells the manuscript to a famous editor, Michael McMillan, who is smitten with the lovely Virginia. But Virginia is also being wooed by rich Anthony, who impresses her with his fancy country estate. Virginia must choose if she will marry for money or for love, but her brother’s selfish concerns take precedence and Virginia runs away from both her suitors in order to take care of Rickey.
Rickey is obsessed with a wealthy socialite called Marty that he dubs his “silver witch”. She is his muse for a new book, but she is just toying with him. He barely notices the sweet Mary Lee who truly loves him.

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Book Review: The Wheel on the School

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The Wheel on the School by Meindert De Jong

The Wheel on the School
by Meindert De Jong, Maurice Sendak (Illustrator)

5 out of 5 stars

Lina is the only girl at the village school. She starts asking why storks don’t come to nest in their seaside village, and all the other schoolchildren begin to wonder why as well. They notice that other villages have old wheels on their roofs, so that the storks have a place to build their nests. They start asking around to see if they can find an old wheel to put on the roof of the schoolhouse, but it’s more difficult than they imagined to get a wheel. Most wheels are being used on wagons, not sitting around to be bird nests. As the obstacles against them continue to grow, the children refuse to give up, and soon the whole village is helping them, hoping to attract the good luck that storks bring with them.

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Book Review: Can You Forgive Her?

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Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope

Can You Forgive Her? (Palliser #1)
by Anthony Trollope

5 out of 5 stars

Alice breaks off her engagement with John Grey and considers the proposal of her cousin George Vavasor instead. She vacillates between these two men as she vacillates with her own character. She considers what her life would be like with each of them, and has to decide what kind of person she wants to be. She worries that she will be stuck in a boring country life with John Grey, and longs for more political excitement as her cousin George is up for election and hopes to gain a seat in Parliament. Alice is confused and can’t sort through her true feelings and she has no one to guide her in making these decisions.

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Book Review: The Black Market

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The Black Market by Jed Alexander

The Black Market
by Jed Alexander

3 out of 5 stars

Martin’s aunt gives him a special pair of shoes made from the leather of an extinct animal. She tells him that she got them from the Black Market, a secret place where people come to trade in magical items. It constantly changes location, and is only open on Halloween. Martin and his friend, Jess, go searching for the Black Market, and Martin exchanges the shoes for a Bag of Dirty Tricks. He loves playing innocent pranks, but some of the tricks included in the bag are downright mean and dangerous. Martin and Jess get involved in more and more deceitful lies as they start to use the dirty tricks, and they are dismayed to see that their victims are genuinely suffering because of the pranks.

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Book Review: DragonKnight

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DragonKnight by Donita K. Paul

DragonKnight (DragonKeeper Chronicles, #3)
by  Donita K. Paul (Goodreads Author)

5 out of 5 stars

In this third book of the series, the story picks up three years after the previous book. Although, Kale joins the story later on, we mostly follow Kale’s friend Bardon, as he tries to make a decision about whether he wants to become a knight of Paladin. He is sent on a sabbatical to ponder his decision, but is swept up in a quest to assist an old granny to find her missing son, a knight who has been cursed with a sleeping spell.

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Book Review: Witchlings Scepter of Memories

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Scepter of Memories by Claribel A. Ortega

Scepter of Memories
by Claribel A. Ortega

3 out of 5 stars

Seven, Thorn, and Valley are devastated when an evil warlock uses memory hexes to erase the memories of the townsfolk, even erasing the memories of their own families. They hear of a prophecy from hundreds of years ago that could lead to a magical scepter which has the power to restore memories. But the prophecy leads them out into the wastelands beyond the Twelve Towns where monsters abound.

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