The Runaway Princess, Kate Coombs

From the prologue: When Meg was small, her mother used to tell her bedtime stories. Meg would sit up amid a pile of embroidered pillows, her five satin comforters already turned back by the castle maids. 


Meg is a princess. But not an ordinary princess. She prefers to play with frogs instead of embroidering and she hates frilly dresses. So when her father the king decides to give her hand in marriage to whoever can rid the kingdom of its "evils" (witches, dragons, bandits), she has no intention of going along. Meg sets out to win the contest herself, with the help of her good friend, her maid, a guardsman, a wizard, and a witch. This is a really familiar story; it has all the elements of fantasy, especially the type with untraditional princesses: annoying princes, enchanted frogs, magical items like invisibility juice. But I still enjoyed the book, with its playful writing style. This was overall a pretty fun book, with light adventure and intrigue. There is a sequel to it, entitled The Runaway Dragon.

Read The Runaway Princess:

• if you like fantasy, particularly with untraditional princesses
• if you enjoyed The Enchanted Forest Series by Patricia Wrede
• if you're looking for a light, fun, fantasy

279 pages.

Very Good! I would recommend this book!

The Riddle-Master of Hed, Patricia McKillip

Morgon of Hed met the High One's harpist one autumn day when the trade-ships docked at Tol for the season's exchange of goods. 

Thus begins a fairly interesting fantasy book. It tells of Morgon, prince of the simple farmers of Hed, who must escape evil forces and journey to the High One on the mysterious Erlenstar Mountain.With him comes Deth, the High One's harper. No one is who they seem and no one can be trusted. Typical fantasy plot, right? This book has the feel of an old fantasy tale too; there is a distinctive writing style throughout the book. Though the book was sort of confusing, for the most part it was a fairly enjoyable read. The Riddle-Master of Hed is the first of three books about the land that Morgon lives in. And the book ends on a cliff-hanger, so now I feel really compelled to read the second book, just to see what happens.

Read The Riddle-Master of Hed:

• if you like fantasy
• if you like adventure
• if you've read and liked The Forgotten Beasts of Eld (one of McKillip's other books)

222 pages.

Very Good! I would recommend this book!

White Oleander, Janet Fitch

The Santa Anas blew in hot from the desert, shriveling the last of the spring grass into whiskers of pale straw. Only the oleanders thrived, their delicate poisonous blooms, their dagger green leaves.


I really loved the wonderful imagery in this book. You can already see the landscape from the first two sentences. This book tells the story of Ingrid, a brilliant poet in prison for murder, and her daughter Astrid, who travels through a series of LA foster homes. Each of the homes is its own universe, with separate laws, separate dangers and hard lessons to be learned. But it becomes a surprising journey of self-discovery, and I really enjoyed traveling with Astrid through the various places that she lives. Astrid has happy moments and sad moments, moments when she doesn't quite know who she is or what she believes in. And I really loved that. Also, Astrid's narration is so moving, and her character is quite distinctive. It was a really great book.

Read White Oleander:

• if you like books about journeys (symbolic, metaphorical or otherwise)
• if you're looking for a great emotional novel 

446 pages, 5 stars.

The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde

My father had a face that could stop a clock. I don't mean that he was ugly or anything; it was a phrase the ChronoGuard used to describe someone who had the power to reduce time to an ultra-slow trickle. 

If you're a fan of Inkheart and of science fiction or alternate reality, this is the perfect for you. In this alternated world in 1985 in Britain, time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos have been resurrected,) and literature is taken very seriously. People can get lost in poems and stories, and first editions are forged. This is all usual for Thursday Next, a literary detective. But then someone begins kidnapping characters from stories. And when Jane Eyre is kidnapped, Thursday has to track down the villain and go into the novel herself.

This is a really great book; playful and wonderful. I loved the world-building in the book, though there were a lot of specialized terms that you had to learn to make sense of the story. Also, I really liked the character of the villain, Acheron Hades. He was so deliciously evil. And seemingly invincible. Fforde's writing style was really great too; you know, that British style. It was straightforward but also had dry humor. And action, but not too much action. Fforde is actually from Wales, I think.

I actually looked this book up on Amazon and it had mixed reviews from the customers. Some people just loved it, and some people thought that it was the stupidest thing ever. Though it was a little silly at times, it had a good premise and I think that I'm one of those people who just loved it. It had very clever moments, though at times it was a bit over-the-top. But still, a great book.

This is the first book in the Thursday Next series, which includes Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, and Something Rotten.

Read The Eyre Affair:

• if you are a fan of alternate realities
• if you enjoy fantasy, especially Inkheart
• if you like science fiction 
• if you like thrillers 
• if you like mysteries (especially with female detectives)

374 pages, 5 stars.

The Story of Beautiful Girl, Rachel Simon

At the end of the night that would change everything, the widow stood on her porch and watched as the young woman was marched down her front drive and shoved into the sedan. The girl did not fight back, bound and tied as she was, nor did she cry out into the chill autumn rain, so surely the doctor and his attendants thought they had won. They did not know, as the car doors slammed shut, the engine came on, and the driver steered them down the muddy hill toward the road, that the widow and the girl in the backseat had just defied them right under their noses.

What a compelling beginning. It just made me want to read more. This was such a great book, but also such as sad book. It deals mainly with three people: two people who try to escape from a mental asylum and the widow who helps them and takes in the woman's baby daughter. The woman can't speak and the man is deaf, but they're not "crazy" or "retarded," like the people running the asylum seem to think. They have feelings and emotions too. All three of the main characters have flashbacks, remembrances of events past. I loved the flowing style of Rachel Simon, and this was such a wonderful book. It made me want to cry at times. It was really a bit too sad. Actually, the deaf man in the story is based upon a real person who was committed to a mental asylum at the age of 15. The book did have a satisfying ending, though.

Read The Story of Beautiful Girl:

• if you enjoy sad stories
• if you are interested in stories about cruel, unjust situations, specifically about mental asylums
• if you're looking for a great emotional novel

340 pages, 4.5 stars.

Sorcery and Cecilia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot, Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer

"Dearest Kate, It is dreadfully flat here since you have been gone, and it only makes it worse to imagine all the things I shall be missing."

Thus begins an enchanting fantasy story told in letters between two cousins, Kate and Cecilia. Many strange things are happening in London. Magical things. This was a great book, especially as I love Patricia Wrede's other books. And, the two authors wrote this as letters between each other, so they didn't really know where the book was going. They find out new developments as soon as their characters do. The two girls might fear for their lives- if they weren't having such fun! This is a wonderful lighthearted fantasy with a cute title too. And it also had a really whimsical and enjoyable writing style.

Read Sorcery and Cecilia:

• if you've read and liked Wrede's Enchanted Forest chronicles
• if you enjoy light fantasy. 

316 pages, 4.25 stars.

February in Review

So, I read 28 books this month. That's pretty good; almost a book a day, which is my goal.

Here they are in order from my favorite to my least favorite:

1.Daughter of Fortune, Isabel Allende
2.A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Mark Twain
3.The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights, John Steinbeck
4.The Cat's Table, Michael Ondaatje
5.Divergent, Veronica Roth
6.The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende
7.A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers
8.Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
9.500 Great Books For Teens, Anita Silva
10.Cavedweller, Dorothy Allison
11.New York, Edward Rutherfurd
12.The Fault in Our Stars, John Green
13.The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
14.The City of the Beasts, Isabel Allende
15.Kingdom of the Golden Dragon, Isabel Allende
16.The Scorpio Races, Maggie Stievater
17.A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson
18. Notes from a Small Island, Bill Bryson
19.Cinder, Marissa Meyer
20.The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins
21.The Ropemaker, Peter Dickinson
22.Inside of a Dog, Alexandra Horowitz
23.Isolde: Queen of the Western Isle, Rosalind Miles
24.The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes
25.The Freedom Writer's Diary, Erin Gruwell and the Freedom Writers
26..Zel, Donna Jo Napoli
27.You Have to Stop This, Pseudonymous Bosch
28.Mutant Message Down Under, Marlo Morgan

Overall, I enjoyed most of the books that I read this month, except for Mutant Message Down Under. So I'm pretty satisfied with how my reading went.