What's your Grace?

Katsa is a young lady with an interesting Grace. She has the ability to kill people. This makes her a skilled assassin and an important person in her uncle, King Randa’s court. Throughout the story Katsa starts to question her life and if she is doing the right thing. Enter Po, a mysterious Prince from another kingdom who trains with Katsa and also questions her path in life. He finally convinces her to rebel against her uncle and together the two go on a rescue mission.

The premise of the story sounds a lot better than what I actually read. The idea of Graces was very interesting. For instance the Grace could be killing or it could be as lame as talking backwards. But the whole adventure fell flat to me. It wasn’t very exciting. I just didn’t care, and the author seemed to focus more on the lame relationship between Po and Katsa. The characters were decent enough, although I was hoping that Katsa would embrace her darkside instead of whimping out. The ending may also have some readers a little annoyed.

Don't get me wrong, some teens may find this book interesting, but I just couldn't enjoy it. I like fantasy novels with strong female characters but not this one. I'm pleased that the author wrote about a young, strong female. There needs to be more fantasy novels for women, in my opinion.

The author has another book coming out entitled Fire, which is a prequel to Graceling. It comes out in October. I may give this one a go.

I'm not sure if this is the offical cover or not..but take a look...

Anna's World / Let's go Orange!

A review on Anna's World will be coming soon. I promise. I've slacked a little bit in my duties and I take full responsibility in that.


Also tonight at 7:25 pm my beloved Orangemen are going to take on Oklahoma. "Let's go Orange!"

News n' Stuff

I received some good news today at work. YAY! So I decided to treat myself and I bought a book. I was taken by Laurie Halse Anderson’s new book, Wintergirls (It had a shinny cover). Plus it sounded interesting. Once I am finished with the novel I will be offering it up to one of my lucky readers. Please keep an eye out. The giveaway should happen in a few weeks.

In addition, Cindy Pon, the author of Silver Phoenix, has kindly agreed to let me interview her. She rocks! I’m a little nervous because it's my first one. I hope I don’t screw it up!

After much thought and debate, I decided that History Rocks (my other blog dedicated to YA historical fiction) will be closed. It doesn’t receive a lot of traffic and it’s hard to keep two blogs up at once. So I will dedicate one day of the month to historical fictions novel. It will called Historical Fiction Fridays. Every third Friday of the month is when I will post a review on a historical fiction novel.

That's all for now. There will be a review upcoming.

Oh no! Not another Homeless teen book!

Joon-Mee is a 12-year-old Korean-American who runs away from her trouble home. She, like so many teens out there, has had it with her family. Joon wants to be free and she ends up on the mean streets of New York City in the 1980s.

The novel was good, but I have read three other novels about the same subject and I see a lot of overlapping in them. The book was good, but it didn't stand out among the crowd as the best of the best. I mean common, how much more is there to write about when it comes to this subject? Bad home life. Kid can't take it anymore. Kid runs away. Kid meets older street kids. Kid does naughty things in order to survive(drugs, prostitution, stealing etc. etc.) Kid sees the error of their ways and becomes good again. YAWN.

Despite the fact that I'm a little sarcastic here (could you tell?) the book has its merits. I think students will enjoy this book. It touches on some subjects that teens love to read about, such as drug abuse, prostitution, and racism. The characters are interesting and realistic. The language is gritty and could scare off a few parents or school librarians.

Yet with all the gritty realism aside I just couldn't enjoy this book. Maybe I have had my fill of teen runaway novels.

For students looking for a book about runaways then this is for them. However if you have read two or more books about teen runaways then I would steer clear of this one. It feels like the same ol' same ol'.

NF: Are you Inked?

I have always been interested in tattoos ever since I was a kid. I remember looking at my father’s tattoos and thinking they were cool. No other adult figure in my childhood had a tattoo; but that never stopped me from asking if they had one, much to the dismay of my mother.

When I became an adult it seemed as if everyone and their brother had a tattoo. My brother started his collection and now has seven! Tattoos had made it into the mainstream and it wasn’t just for biker or sailors (like my father) anymore. Shows started to pop up around that tattoo industry. The first was Inked on A&E, then Miami Ink hit on TLC which then spawned LA Ink with Kat Von D.

While Inked was dull as tombs, Miami Ink rocked because of all the great tattoo artists. It was different than Inked. It was better.

Kat was an outsider on Miami Ink. She hated Miami and longed to be home in L.A. where things were different. She stood out being the only female in the shop, and one of the only ones who did portraits. The powers that be decided to give Kat her very own show. She was interesting and her art rocked, so why not? Kat moved back to L.A and started her own show L.A. Ink.

People loved watching her show and seeing her great art. She was able to create a legion of fans, and yes I am one of them. You have to give kudos to a woman who was able to enter a male dominated field and make a name for herself.

When I heard that Kat was writing a book I was interested to read it. The first thing I noticed when I got it was that it was flashy (would you expect anything else?) It had glossy pictures of her tattoos, tattoos she had done, sketches and some childhood photographs. She informs the reader about her childhood, her first love, and how she got into the industry. No topic is left untouched in this book. Kat explained how things were difficult on the set of Miami Ink, and how her first marriage fell apart. She also gives helpful hints on tattoos and what people should be looking for and thinking about if they want to get inked.

The book was a fun read, a little slim on details, but then again the woman is only twenty something. I hope Kat writes another book in twenty years. It will be interesting to see what she does with the rest of her life.

So, I have a question for my readers. Are you inked? If so, what do you have and what's the story behind your piece?