Cover Love #4 - Wanted

Here's the cover for the eight and final Pretty Little Liar's novel, Wanted (to be released on June 8, 2010).

I sort of think it's my least favorite.

What say you?

Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta

Finnikin of the Rock, son of the head of the King's Guard, has been living in exile since he was nine years old, thanks to a curse placed on his birthplace following the murder of the royal family of Lumatere. The curse prevents those inside to leave the kingdom, and those who left the kingdom before the curse was placed, to get back in.

Ten years later, Finn and his mentor Sir Topher find a young woman named Evanjalin who makes quite a few unbelievable claims: One that the true heir to Lumatere's crown - Finnikin's childhood friend Prince Balthazar - might still be alive. And two, that she can walk the sleep of those trapped inside Lumatere. With said claims, Evanjalin sets in motion a series of complex events that will force Finnikin to face his destiny.

It's so hard for me to review a book from an author I love, and I certainly love Melina Marchetta. Now, Finnikin of the Rock is very different from Ms Marchetta's other books yet it's also quite wonderful.

The book starts a bit slow and there is so much information to take in (with a few complicated names thrown in). I found the pace to be a bit uneven, sometimes it seems like everything is happening at once and some others it's like all you do is wait, that being said the storytelling is engaging. Sometimes I grew annoyed at Finnikin and Evanjalin but they also felt like friends, so it was all good.

Finnikin of the Rock is an epic and I do think that it has to be your kind of book, you either like it or you don't.

I did.

Grade:
1/3

Books Read in March

Here is an update of the 100+ Reading Challenge and the 2010 YA Reading Challenge. The books read for the YA challenge are in cursive and have their corresponding number next to the review link.

21. The Boy Book by E. Lockhart (review) *YA12*
22. Heartless by Sara Shepard (review) *YA13*
23. In the Cards: Life by Mariah Fredericks (review) *YA14*
24. Wicked All Day by Liz Carlyle
25. Forget Me Not (From the Life of Willa Havisham) by Coleen Paratore (review)*YA15*
26. Harbor Nights by Marcia Evanick.
27. With Seduction in Mind by Laura Lee Guhrke (re-read) (review)
28. Too Good to Be True by Kristan Higgins (review)
29. Blue Eyed-Devil by Lisa Kleypas (re-read) (review)
30. The Cupcake Queen by Heather Hepler (review) *YA16*
31. Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta. (review) *YA17*
32. Girl's Diner's Club by Jessie Elliot *YA18*

I kind of feel I'm going well! Slow but steady!

See you next month!

The Cupcake Queen by Heather Hepler

Moving from New York City to the small town of Hog's Hollow - where her Mom grew up - is a big and difficult change for Penny Lane, especially because her Dad stayed behind in the city, and at Hog's Hollow her mother seems unable to talk to her and spends most of her time working at the bakery she just opened, The Cupcake Queen.

Since she has no friends and doesn't feel like she fits in, Penny is mostly happy to spend her summer days in the bakery, designing decorations for the cupcakes.

However, when school starts and it begins to sink in that they might not be moving back anytime soon, and that her parents might not get back together, well, things get a little more complicated. Add to that the fact that the school's mean queen has Penny in her most hated list and she and her clique keep trying to make her life miserable.

There are some bright spots too, like the friendship Penny forges with Tally -a city girl transplant just like herself - and Blake (both Rock Paper Scissors aficionados), Marcus (whose family's getting back on it's feet after a tragic event) and his dog. And cupcakes, of course, lots of cupcakes.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, I loved the cover and I love cupcakes so I figured I would give it a go. Well, let me tell you, it was lovely. A sweet concoction of a book, even though it deals with a couple of topics that aren't light and fluffy at all, but deals with them in ways that ring true. There were also a couple of twists I loved, like the way Tally and Penny deal with Charity and her cronies. Over all, an interesting and sweet story.

Grade
1/3

PS - Before reading, I recommend having some cupcakes close at hand. Trust me, it's for the best.

Cover Love #3 - Misguided Angel

Here's the cover for the Fifth book in the Blue Bloods series, Misguided Angel, coming out October 5, 2010. And also the final cover for Keys of the Repository, coming out June 29th, 2010. I love both covers, and I'm SO glad that the the publisher is keeping the theme of the covers so they all fit nicely together, even the Keys one, with the silhouetted keys at the bottom.

As for the one for Misguided Angel, if my obsessive watching of Engineering an Empire doesn't fail me, I think that the city in silhouette is Florence. Will we go back to Italy in this book? I hope so. What is there not to love about Italy?