Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Simon Snow is the worst chosen one who’s ever been chosen.

That’s what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he’s probably right.

Half the time, Simon can’t even make his wand work, and the other half, he sets something on fire. His mentor’s avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there’s a magic-eating monster running around wearing Simon’s face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here—it’s their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon’s infuriating nemesis didn’t even bother to show up.

Carry On is a ghost story, a love story, a mystery and a melodrama. It has just as much kissing and talking as you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell story—but far, far more monsters.

As much as I love Rainbow Rowell and her books, I wasn't sure if I was going to read this one. I loved Fangirl but was less interested in the fanfic that Cath writes than in the story itself. But since I've loved every other Rowell book I thought, why not? It's a fairly meta book. Meta meta even. Because it's a fanfic of a fanfic of fictional book in another story entirely. But you don't need to have read Fangirl to love this book. It probably helps but it stands on its own too. 

I loved this book. I loved Simon and Baz and Penelope and even Agatha. I think most of the backstory was there. You really don't need to have read the "Simon Snow" books to know what is going on. Because in the end this is a love story. It's not actually about the villain and the hero. It's about two boys who fall in love despite having not having reason to. It's about destiny and how it is not always what you think is. It's about friendship and loyalty. It's about love.

The Snow Queen's Shadow by Jim C. Hines (Princess #4)

From Goodreads:
A broken mirror. A stolen child. A final mission to try to stop an enemy they never dreamed they would face.

When a spell gone wrong shatters Snow White's enchanted mirror, a demon escapes into the world. The demon's magic distorts the vision of all it touches, showing them only ugliness and hate. It is a power that turns even friends and lovers into mortal foes, one that will threaten humans and fairies alike.

And the first to fall under the demon's power is the princess, Snow White..

The last of the Princess series! I am sad about that. It was an excellent book and a great ending to the series. It really explores and twists the story of the Snow Queen.  All the elements are there from the story by Hans Christian Andersen, just remade to fit the story of Snow's possession of the demon who inhabited her mother's magic mirror and that demon's quest for power and Snow's desire for revenge. It was really well done how Hines managed to have the Snow Queen's story and yet make it about Snow White and fit the narrative of the series as a whole. I enjoyed how Talia and Danielle fit into the story and the exploration of Snow's past. She was the only princess prior to this book whose back story hadn't been fleshed out more and this book filled in that gap. There was a lot of action and definitely a lot of emotion. It was a good read and I am going to miss this series.

Princess
The Stepsister Scheme (#1)
The Mermaid's Madness (#2)
 Red Hood's Revenge (#3)

Huntress by Malinda Lo

Goodreads:

Nature is out of balance in the human world. The sun hasn't shone in years, and crops are failing. Worse yet, strange and hostile creatures have begun to appear. The people's survival hangs in the balance.
To solve the crisis, the oracle stones are cast, and Kaede and Taisin, two seventeen-year-old girls, are picked to go on a dangerous and unheard-of journey to Tanlili, the city of the Fairy Queen. Taisin is a sage, thrumming with magic, and Kaede is of the earth, without a speck of the otherworldly. And yet the two girls' destinies are drawn together during the mission. As members of their party succumb to unearthly attacks and fairy tricks, the two come to rely on each other and even begin to fall in love. But the Kingdom needs only one huntress to save it, and what it takes could tear Kaede and Taisin apart forever.

She was here because the Council of Sage believed the Fairy Queen knew something about why their kingdom was turning into a wasteland - place where crops spoiled overnight, where farmers couldn't replant because there was no sunlight.  Where monsters crawled out of their dark places and were found dead in northern villages, or were somehow reborn in the soft little bodies of human babies.  p. 103

I loved Kaede and Taisin.  They were a beautiful couple and their relationship develops at a sweet and slow pace allowing them to really think of about how they feel about each other.  Each girl has her own strengths and places to them very well.  Taisin is a gifted sage and Kaede is very strong and determined and become quite a good hunter.  It's those qualities that get them through their long adventure, allowing to them to carry out the tasks set before them.  They set out at the invitation of the Fairy Queen to find out what is happening in their kingdom and find many fantastic and sometimes horrific creatures waiting for them.  Yet they manage to persevere and complete their quest.

Where Ash was a retelling of the Cinderella story, Huntress has its own unique story to tell.  I loved it and thought was a truly lovely book, though a bit sad.  It is set a couple of hundred years before Ash and really tells the tale of how the Huntress position came to be. It moved along at nice pace though it did seem to take a long time for them to get to the Fairy Queen and it moved even quicker after that.  But I guess the background was necessary for what they found with the fey.  It is beautifully written and the imagery is amazing.   

Sister Mischief by Laura Goode

From Goodreads: 
Listen up: You’re about to get rocked by the fiercest, baddest all-girl hip-hop crew in the Twin Cities - or at least in the wealthy, white, Bible-thumping suburb of Holyhill, Minnesota. Our heroine, Esme Rockett (aka MC Ferocious) is a Jewish lesbian lyricist. In her crew, Esme’s got her BFFs Marcy (aka DJ SheStorm, the butchest straight girl in town) and Tess (aka The ConTessa, the pretty, popular powerhouse of a vocalist). But Esme’s feelings for her co-MC, Rowie (MC Rohini), a beautiful, brilliant, beguiling desi chick, are bound to get complicated. And before they know it, the queer hip-hop revolution Esme and her girls have exploded in Holyhill is on the line.

Plot: I could see this as movie.  It would be a great Disney type movie except for the cursing and lesbians.  And, while you might be able to lose the cursing, the lesbian part is a big part of why this book works in a different way from the standard YA love story.  Music is hard to read on paper and rarely comes through so while I could picture the girls rapping and singing I couldn't really "hear" it.  But the message comes across pretty well despite the discrepancies of medium.

Writing: There is a lot of slang, but it was fairly easy to follow. My main obstacle was the grocery list of musical artist and songs that occur with some frequency in the story.  I wanted to say "YAY! I'm glad that you know your artists and musical genre, but moving on." I was glad when that lessened as the story became more established.  That is my main gripe.  Other than that the prose flowed nicely and it had a bit of a poetic flavor to it. 

Characters: I loved Esme.  I just want to hug her and maybe mother her a little bit because she really needs a mother.  Her father does his best and he is a very open and emotional father and I loved that about him.  His willingness to give her freedom and not hold her back was so awesome in a parental figure.  But her yearning for her wayward mother is deeply apparent.  Esme is such a tough talking chick, but she is so vulnerable and willing to love.  She and her friends are so amazing together and their dynamic alone made the book worth reading.  They were each so distinct but all bought something to the table. They like to discuss deep and meaningful things like religion and sexual language and misogamy in rap music.  They are a awesome group of heavy thinking, heaving rhyming girls and I thought they were great.

Love Story: Esme, who knows for sure that she is a lesbian, starts a little something with Rowie, who is unsure of her sexual orientation.  This leads down an interesting road that is probably pretty obvious.  I think that it is a huge growing part for Esme, even though I want nothing but everlasting love for her.

Overall: Worth reading.  If you love hip-hop, then this is the story for you.  If you love LGBT stories, then this is the story for you.  If you like high school empowerment , then this is the story for you.  If you don't like any of the above, well, then I don't know what to tell you.

Provided by NetGalley
Alphabet Challenge
GLBT
350 Page

Shine by Lauren Myracle

Set in a small, rural poor Southern town, Shine tells the story of Cat.  After her best friend from childhood is the victim of a horrific crime because of his sexuality, Cat decides to come out of her shell and find out who would harm her friend.

This was a beautiful and heart-wrenching book.  Cat's voice comes through loud and clear though she is a introverted character.  It is interesting to watch her progress from self-inflicted outcast to a strong young woman through her investigation of the crime against her friend.  Cat has a good reason for her introversion and that is tragedy itself.  While I wanted more resolution for that, I also feel like sometimes, in real life, there is no resolution when bad things happen to people.  So it was fitting.

As for the mystery aspect of the story, well, we all know I like a good mystery.  Cat does the mystery proper, interviewing people, trying to figure out the timeline and exactly what went down the night that Patrick was attacked.  Through the investigation, we learn a lot about the small town Cat and Patrick have grown up in and to anyone who has experienced tiny rural towns, it felt very real.  It was pretty dead on in its exploration of the mindset and the social structure of a small town. Also through the investigation we see how Cat became current day Cat and what happened to end her friendship with Patrick and all of her childhood friends.  Patrick seems like a great guy and what happened to him was horrifying.  The resolution of the mystery was bittersweet, but the book ended on a good note and I walked away from it glad that I had read it and sorry to see Cat go.  But I think she will be alright.

Provided by NetGalley
Hogwarts: Defence Against the Dark Arts
GLBT Challenge
350 Page

No Going Back (e-book) by Jonathan Langford

Teenagers found out all the time that someone they liked didn't like them back.  The fact that he and Paul were both boys didn't really have anything to do with it.  Yay for equal-opportunity disappointment.  Somehow it didn't make him feel any better.  p.145 e-book

As a whole, I enjoyed this book.  It was an interesting story and one I have never read before.  I really don't know much about the Mormon church so I was hoping to learn a little about it.  I think I did.  I definitely learned how they feel about homosexuality.  Apparently it is ok to be "same sex attracted" as long as you never act on those feelings.  Interesting.  The main character, Paul, figures out he is gay in the eight grade and finally tells his best friend, Chad, in the ninth grade.  The book picks up from there and explores every single reaction that someone could possibly have to finding out about Paul.  It was interesting to see how the church and the bishop handled it.  He and Paul's mother were the most understanding of the adult characters and Chad was the best teenager character aside from Paul.  I liked how Paul struggled with the idea of his homosexuality as well as the idea of living up to his church's standards.  I am, of course, much more liberal in my views but I also understand that my views are mine alone and I shouldn't force them onto anyone else like quite a few characters try to do to Paul.

As for the writing, I found that some of the dialogue and thoughts felt stilted, like someone writing them on a page rather than actually being thought.  And the handling of the passage of time was awkward.  And the subplot with Chad's mother was wholly unnecessary and bogged the book down in places.  Without it this would have been a much better place.  I would be interested in that storyline in another book about the adults, but it felt out of place here.  But even given all of that, I still enjoyed this book.  The characters and storyline was interesting enough to overcome it and I found myself impatient to find out what happens next.  I became invested in Paul's situation and I wanted him to come out fine in the end.  The resolution was satisfying

Sent by the author for review
Another review on Confessions of a Book Habitué

Hogwarts: Charms

The Kid Table by Andrea Seigel

Despite being close to high school graduation, Ingrid is still assigned to the kid table with her cousins all about her age except for her four year cousin.  When one of the cousins is suddenly assigned to the adult table, Ingrid and the other cousins try to figure out where the status of kid ends and adult begins.

And was it really possible for anyone to ever know you better than you knew yourself, or (as I looked around my Kid Table comrades) should we all just be thankful for the rare true glimpses we actually get of each other?   p.123

I believe I am indebted to Amanda at the Zen Leaf for bringing this absolutely amazing book to my attention. And to the author, Andrea Seigel, for sending me a copy.  I'm not sure how to express my love for this book.  Because I really and truly loved it.  There was just so much I related to and so much realness in this book.

I have a large family on both my parents' sides.  But the side we spend the most time with is my father's.  I have 10 cousins on my dad's side, making 12 with me and my sister.  We are divided up into the Older Six and the Younger Six.  The older ones are the ones who are much older than me; whose kids are closer to my age than my actual cousins.  The younger ones are the ones closer in age to me.  My best friend is my youngest first cousin.  We are the ones who sat together all the time, who hung out on vacations.  There was nothing so dramatic as what happens in this book, but I can completely relate to the whole idea of the Kid Table.  I have my very own.

That being said,  I completely loved Ingrid.  Her wittiness, her need to make everyone love her, she is so great.  She was so funny and there were quite a very laugh out loud moments in this book.  I loved Cricket and even Brianne, the annoying cousin who I have a feeling that I am a lot like sometimes (B.S. in Psychology over here).  The whole storyline about Brianne's boyfriend and Ingrid flirting felt very real.  I liked the resolution for that and thought it was appropriate and hopeful though very dramatic which was fun. 

I'm not sure I can express everything that this book said to me, especially without giving a lot of myself away.  But it meant a lot to me and I think that might be enough.

Hogwarts: Muggle Studies
Take Another Chance

Red Hood's Revenge by Jim C. Hines

The Princesses are back!  This time they must battle the notorious assassin The Lady of the Red Hood, whose story you might know as Little Red Riding Hood.  The Princesses are lead to Talia's home country after an assassination attempt fails and it seems that someone is out to get Sleeping Beauty.

     "She's known as the Lady of the Red Hood," said Talia.  "Having failed to kill Beatrice, it looks as though she's coming for you."
     Danielle stared.  "You're telling me Little Red Riding Hood want to kill me?"
     Asked Cinderella of Sleeping Beauty," Snow added with a smile.  p.24

I love these books!  By the third book of any series, especially a longer one than a trilogy, I begin to feel wary.  But Hines seriously delivers.  I think this one is even better than The Mermaid's Madness and I was happy to get more on Talia and to see the repercussions of her actions and explore more of her background.  It was nice to see more of the "Sleeping Beauty" story explored and built on.  I enjoyed the resolution for Talia and thought it was well done. 

I loved the theme of Red Riding Hood and how that story was twisted so that the Lady of the Red Hood, Roudette, becomes someone both villainous and sympathetic at the same time.  So well done.  It was nice to see a match for Talia, but, of course, I always wanted Talia to win.  I liked the whole straying from the path and how is was taken from a literal idea to a religious one.  Roudette was a great villain and a great character.

I was also glad to see Danielle have a little more to do in this book.  She is becoming a really awesome character and living up to the greatness of Talia and Snow.  I can't wait for the next book since it seems to promise a bit more on Snow though I hear that it is the last book and that makes me sad.  But still a great series so far on the whole.

Hogwarts: History of Magic
Library

My Invented Life by Lauren Bjorkman

Convinced that her older sister is a lesbian, Roz "comes out" at school to try and force Eva out too.  But her plan backfires and now Roz must deal with the consequences as she tries to figure out what sexuality really is and what it means.

I won this from the GLBT Challenge back in May and finally decided to read it.  I really enjoyed it.  It was a quick read and I liked the questions that Bjorkman brought up regarding the nature and fluidity of sexuality.  That Roz came out on a dare, but learned the hard way that it is ok to be gay or bi-sexual and that you can still identify as a heterosexual and be attracted to another girl or you can just be homosexual and have no feelings about the opposite sex.

I wasn't that fond of Roz.  I found her to be a bit grating, but that was the point of her character.  To be too obtuse to understand about her sister and not understand that is the exact reason why her sister won't open up to her.  I was glad to see her character grow and change.  And, of course, I love the happy ending that everyone gets.

Hogwarts: Muggle Studies
GLBT

A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend

What do you do after the loss of your best friend?  It's a hard thing to deal with and Cass is having a difficult time.  Compounding her grief over Julia is having to deal with the grief of her friend's boyfriend and her struggle with her own sexuality.  She embarks on a trip from Illinois to California on her bike with her friend's ashes.  Meanwhile, back home Julia's other drama friends struggle to put on her super secret project she was writing before her death, Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad.  And the mean girl who tormented Cass in middle school is back and playing the lead.  She and Cass begin to forgive and become friends and maybe become something more, Cass learns the meaning of friendship and love.

To risk what I'd come all the way here to risk and let things get more complicated, if they had to.  To be able to say, if only to myself, what I really had inside me.  p.128 Uncorrected Galley

This was such a sweet story.  Cass is so sad and just doesn't know what to do with herself.  She feels like she doesn't belong, that her friends are only her friends because of Julia, that she is an outsider.  And it doesn't help that Julia's boyfriend is a jackass to her sometimes as he struggles to deal with his own grief and guilt.  I love how the characters are so real and make mistakes.  They react to situations in a very real way.  And Julia's struggle to understand how she stands sexually is so very touching, but it is friendship with Julia that I found most moving.  Several times I had tears in my eyes.  To lose someone who means that much to you, especially at 16 is a terrible thing.

 The relationship between Heather and Cass progressed at a very nice pace, nothing happened to fast and each girl had reason enough to take it slow.  There was nothing surprising about it though.  There were no twists or anything, but it had enough drama to make it work without being boring.  I expected more of the relationship with Cass and Julia, like there was some twist, but it was a wonderful friendship.

All in all, it was a very sweet and moving book.  I really enjoyed it and found it to be a very easy read.  Oh and the Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad sounds awesome!

ARC from Traveling ARC Tours
Hogwarts: Muggle Studies
GLBT
YA

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Provided by Traveling ARC Tours

Meet Will Grayson.  He's a quiet, introverted guy who has two rules: 1. Don't care too much and 2. Shut up.
Meet Will Grayson.  He's a quiet, introverted guy with chronic depression and a secret.
Soon these two Wills will meet in a very odd place and, as their lives begin to intersect, things will change for both of them.

"i want to tell him i should be out killing some people now, not taking a stroll with him.  but he takes a little of the murder off my mind.  it's not like it won't be there later. p.145 ARC

And the following makes me actually love John Green a little

"You're amazing, and I so want to be your boyfriend, because of what you just said, and also because that shirt makes me want to take you home now and do unspeakable things while we watch live-action Sailor Moon videos." p.257 ARC

I could actually quote the whole book, I think it is that good.  I was enthralled and saddened and overjoyed by this book.  I actually laughed out loud many many times.  The phrasing, the situations, Tiny, all very very good to me.  Tiny, you might be asking, who is that?  Well, Tiny is a 6'6" 300 pound gay football player/musical writer, and it is the main catalyst behind the changes to both Will Graysons.  Tiny was so great, both very real and a caricature of himself at the same time.  I've meet guys like Tiny before.  Not as over the top, but still very big personality, very generous heart, very selfish at times.

The Wills were both a little annoying, especially Levithan's Will (2) who was very moody.  But he was dealing with chronic depression so that was an interesting part of his character.  He was also so real.  They both were.  I found myself hoping that when my son is a teenager, we have a better relationship than the Wills do with their moms.  But it was very realistic.

I was little meh on Will's (1) relationship with Jane and didn't care much for Will's (2) problems with Maura.  They both felt in addition to, not reason why.  But I loved Tiny's role.  And it was nice to see them looked beyond themselves because of him.


Hogwarts: Muggle Studies
GLBT
YA
Take Another Chance

Bloodchild (GLBT February Mini-Challenge)

On an alien planet there is a colony of humans who have developed an alliance with the insect-like Tlic, the native inhabitants of the planet.  The humans have to give one of their family to the Tlic to carry their young.  Gan is one of the young humans who has been selected and he is honored by this choice.  But after witnessing one of these "births," he is unsure about what he has to do.  He loves T'Gotoi, the one whose eggs he will carry, but he experiences doubt about what must be done.

This was an interesting and creepy short story.  The idea of carrying and hatching insects inside a human grosses me out.  In fact, Butler says in the afterword that she wrote it partly out of fear of the botfly who lays eggs in tissue and her fear of this.  I've read one other book by her, Clay's Ark, which I really enjoyed and when I was searching for an author for this mini-challenge, I found out she was a lesbian.  So knowing that I liked her writing, this was so great.  And this is a disturbing little story, but at the same time, sweet and caring.  T'Gotoi loves Gan and he loves her, but he is unaware of the exact repercussions of is going to happen.  And when he finds out he must decide what to do about it.  The choice he makes is a hard one, but probably the right one.

Octavia Butler is a female African-American science fiction who won numerous awards for her work.  The story "Bloodchild" won the following awards:

• 1985: Hugo Award for Best Novelette - Bloodchild
• 1985: Locus Award for Best Novelette - "Bloodchild"
• 1985: Science Fiction Chronicle Award for Best Novelette - "Bloodchild"
• 1984: Nebula Award for Best Novelette - Bloodchild

Something interesting is the foreword included where Butler talks about writing short stories and getting rejected by publishers.  She says she hates writing short stories because she finds it frustrating to try and contain her ideas in a smaller format.  But the stories included in this book are truly short stories for her.

Very LeFreak (ebook)

Very is just so very.  She is very free, very fun, very irresponsible, very addicted.  She is addicted to all her technological gadgets, but she can't see the danger in allowing herself to become wrapped up in an online world while shutting down any real connections in real life.  After an altercation with one of her so-called friends, Very is sent to technology rehab.  But can Very stop being Very LeFreak and become just Veronica?

Who could sleep when a heart longed so badly and only ABBA understood? p.13 (ish on ebook)

There is a little bit of irony, I think, in reading Very LeFreak on an e-reader.  I realized it when I downloaded it and started reading it.  But anyway, I'm a big fan of Rachel Cohn and so I just had to read her new book.  I liked it a lot.  Like Gingerbread and the like, Cohn doesn't shy away from gritty details so Very LeFreak has a lot of sexual details, nothing pornographic or anything though.  But these details are important as they reflect how Very feels about herself and why she behaves the way she does.  I have had friends similar to Very; ones who want to be protected, want to be the fun ones, and who self-destruct so very fast.  So I identified a lot with her friends and I felt like I knew who Very really was.  I've heard her story before in other different ways.  And sometimes they turn out happy and sometimes not.  Very lives on the surface so she doesn't have to see what is underneath.  But I was pleased by her transition through the book.

I truly believe that there is such a thing as a technology addict.  I've borderlined on it myself until I realized what I was doing.  Compulsively checking Twitter or Facebook or my e-mail,  I've done that before.  But I have things in my life that are worth looking up from a computer screen for and so did Very though she didn't realize it at the time.  And I can believe in her breakdown because what her friend did so intrusive and wrong. I also believed in her rehabilitation.  It was good to have a young adult book about a girl not be so much about a relationship, but about the girl herself.

And for the people who said they would be bothered by her name being Very, you get use to it and it makes sense for the character.

*highlight for spoiler*

I was glad that she got together with Lavinia(Jennifer).  I was afraid that Brian, the boy she sleeps with at the beginning, would turn out to be who she ends up with and after he invaded her privacy like that, I would have been disgusted.  But the relationship between the girls seemed very organic and so surprising while not being shocking since there were a lot of hints thrown around.

*end spoiler*

Nothing Pink

Vincent knows he is gay and as hard as he prays he cannot get God to fix him.  He knows his minister father and his mother would not understand so he trys as hard as possible not to be gay.  But when his father moves to a new church Vincent meets Robert and he begins to think maybe he doesn't need to be fix after all.

It won't be hard for them to see how gay I am.  They'll know right off what my sin is. p.8

This is a very short book, only a little over 100 pages, but the message is amazing.  It is set in the 1970's and so the attitudes and language reflect that. Vincent believes that he is a sinner and is going to Hell because he is gay.  He's never even kissed another boy but he just knows.  His parents believe that homosexuality is a sin and one that cannot be forgiven and so Vincent believes it too.  His parents also ignore the signs that Vincent is gay so he tries to ignore them too.  But one day at the new church Vincent meets Robert and develops a crush on him.  And as their relationship grows Vincent begins to understand that there is nothing wrong with him. 

It was interesting to see the subject of faith and homosexuality explored.  Vincent is bought up to think one way and so cannot fanthom any other ideas about what he is.  He is afraid of what his parents will think and what God thinks and tries over and over to repent but cannot understand why God won't take the gay out of him.  Vincent's faith is a huge part of this book.  And I liked the fact that he never loses that faith even when he accepts his homosexuality is not sinful; that he never feels like God has abandoned him, that He is on his side.  In a way, Vincent's relationship with Robert is almost secondary.  But Robert is a good guy and they are so wonderful together.  It is a very sweet.  And I love the story that goes with the very pretty cover.

Ash

In a modern telling of Cinderella, Ash is subjected to the humiliations of becoming a servant to her stepmother when her father dies.  In her grief and desolation she wishes to be taken away by the fairies, but when she meets the King's Huntress, her wishes begin to change.

"As the people swayed and stamped and sung their way around the bonfire, Ash knew that this was what the fairies were always hunting for: a circle of joy, hot and brilliant, the scent of love in the deepest winter...How it must disappoint them; that they would never be human." p.247

Honestly, you know, the Cinderella tale has never been one of my favorites¹.  She is usually so weak and pathetic, very accepting and tra la la about her situation, just putting up with her stepfamily's abuse.  But Ash gave me a different insight.  It is about an abused girl who can't just walk away.  She has no one else and is usually young when her father dies so there is no where to go.  Abused children are helpless because they have no idea how to save themselves.   While Ash is not physically abused (well, not really) she is definitely mentally abused by her stepmother once her father dies.  Made to work in the kitchens and become their servant to pay off her father's debts, Ash has no way to escape this situation.  So she wishes and prays for the fairies in the forest to take her away where it would be better to serve them for many lifetimes than to serve her stepmother for one human lifetime.  So she actively seeks out the fairies, when conventional wisdom tell her that it is a dangerous thing to do and meets Sidhean, a beautiful fairy who befriends but does not take her into his world.  It is when she meets Kaisa, the King's Huntress, that she begins to change her world for herself. 

The Straight Road to Kylie

Jonathan is living the good life.  He's out and proud with three of the best girlfriends and having a fine time.  But during a drunken night, he accidentally has sex with a girl and now everyone is after him for something and wondering if he is actually straight.  When one of the popular girls in school offers him a bargain: act like her boyfriend and she'll take him to see his favorite pop star, Kylie Minogue.  But the straight road to Kylie leads to much drama.

Favorite quote: "She's even turning her back on me via Chick-fil-A! I'm gonna de-friend her on MySpace."  Carrie and Juan gasped.


I wasn't quite sure what I was getting into before I picked up this book.  The description sounded fun.  And this was, hands-down, a fun book.  It was very pink and frilly and frantic.  It was also just a tad too long.  I really felt sorry for Jonathan.  He just starts digging a hole after he sleeps with this girl and just digs and digs and digs.  And every time he tries to get out, he falls right back in.  All he wants to do is go see Kylie Minogue, his pop hero, but he makes a deal with the devil and drags all his friends along with him.  I saw a couple of his problems coming before he did with a couple of his friends.  Also he yells a lot.  I knew that is strange, but he was yelling or screaming on like every page.  I don't think the author knew how to convey excitement without making someone yell.  So that was weird.

Jonathan's friends were pretty awesome too and very well defined.  I've had friends like these in the my life especially the Carrie character.  They were well written and the drama was so very high school.  I will mention that there is a lot of cursing, sex (nothing explicit though), talk about sex, drinking and drugs.  Normally I don't mention stuff like that, but I feel like I have to on this one.  It's not quite adult, but it's a little more than YA.  I would say about on par with the Gossip Girl series.  So if you don't want your kid reading those, then this isn't going to work for them either.

Something that wasn't really touched on or said explicitly, but I think Jonathan had to use his "straight" self to figure out his gay self.  He knew he was gay, but had never kissed a boy or dated one really.  So in the course of pretending to be straight, he found what he was looking for, the life he was looking for as a gay male.  I don't really recommend this route, but it made for an good book.

Between Mom and Jo

Nicholas has two moms, his biological mother and his other mom, Jo. He is happy having two mothers although he has to put up with teasing and bullying at school. But while his Mom is strict and high-strung, Jo is fun and willing to teach him all the life skills he needs. Then one day the unthinkable happens and his Mom and Jo break up. With his Mom angry at Jo, she won't let Nicholas see her. What happens to the child when a relationship goes sour and the other parent has no legal rights? Nicholas finds out with sad results.

THIS right here is how a book is written. I'm not kidding. This was one of the best books I've read in a very long time. I need to thank Amanda for the GLBT Challenge just so I could find and read this book. The characters were amazingly written and so three-dimensional. They were so real and Nick's sorrow and confusion were exactly right. I wanted to shake his Mom because she refused to see that Jo was important to him. They decided to have a baby together and went to a sperm bank. So Mom was legally tied to him but Jo never adopted him assuming that they would always be together. But when they broke up, his bio mom wouldn't let him see his other mom which is completely insane. If you raise a kid as your own then he is yours which is one of the topics that this book addresses. It's told in "highlights" of moments that explain Nick's life with his mothers so it addresses other issues that would come from a lesbian couple raising a child together.

Another Kind of Cowboy

Alex is gay and he knows this but no one else does. Alex loves horses and he is good with them and has a lot of natural talent. He rides Western-style to please his father but really wants to ride dressage, loving the precision and style of it. Alex is afraid to tell his father about both his sexuality and the dressage. He is a very introverted boy, afraid of doing the wrong thing, that people will think the wrong thing about him. His family is very dysfunctional. His mother left their family and his father lives in an RV in the driveway and is drunk about 95% of the time. His aunt lives in the house with him and his twin ninja-wannabe sisters. Finally when Alex meet Cleo O'Shea he is able to come out of his shell (pun intended) and realize that life is not about hiding what you are.

Cleo O'Shea accidentally let her parent's house get robbed. Since they are never around, they send to an equestrienne boarding school. She is a spoiled rich girl who is one of those girls that just assumes people like her or want to hang out with her. She has no concept of earning anything. But she has parents that don't pay any attention to her unless she is doing something negative. Without any direction in life, she falls easilty into the party girl mode. But when she meets Alex Ford, she realizes that sometimes you have to work for the good things in life.

I've had this book for a long time. I just had it. I didn't really know what it was about. It was by Susan Juby and so I figured it had to be good. (Read Alice, I Think) But when I was looking up books for the GLBT Challenge, this one was recommended and I was like Hey I own that, etc.

It was really good. So good that I wished I had read it earlier good but then I couldn't have used it for this challenge good. So good that I was a little teary (in a good way) at the end good. It was told from first person perspective on Cleo's part and third person on Alex's part. I'm not sure why. But it worked. Alex and Cleo are an odd pairing but in the end they help each other realize what is missing from their lives. There's a lot of horse talk but it's not overwhelming. If nothing else, it makes you want to look up dressage. That is some amazing stuff.

Boy Meets Boy

Paul lives in a town where being gay or a drag-queen quarterback is not given a second thought. He has a core group of friends some of whom are really outrageous (see aforementioned drag-queen quarterback). One night he meets Noah and he just knows that this is the right boy for him. But ex-boyfriends and best friends get in his way and Paul has to figure out how to make all his relationships work.

This is one of those books I've meaning to read for a long time, but the GLBT challenge made it the perfect time to pick it up. In a way this book reads like wish fulfillment. It is a simplified world that Paul lives in. He announced when he was 5 that he was gay after seeing it on his kindergarten teacher's report and he knew it to be true. His parents seem to have adjusted to it well and his life is not challenged in anyway. His whole town is accepting of the GLBT lifestyle. The school quarterback is a drag-queen. On the other hand, Paul's friend Tony lives in a different town with very religious families who don't approve of his lifestyle and won't let him hang out unless there are girls there. It's an interesting contrast between the two guys and provides Paul with some insight later in the book.

I liked the relationship between Noah and Paul. It was sweet and a typical "chic lit" plot except with two boys. Boy finds boy, boy likes boy, something comes between boys, well you know the rest. But the relationship I liked best was Paul and Tony's. It was so real and so right. That is probably what I'll remember most. Well, that and Infinite Darlene cause who can forget her.

Kissing Kate

One night at a party, Lissa's best friend leans in for a kiss and Lissa kisses her back. Now Kate is ignoring Lissa and pretending nothing happened while Lissa is angry and confused. The two friends use to mean everything to each other and one kiss is getting in the way. But Lissa knows it must mean something. As she experiments with lucid dreaming, Lissa tries to come to terms with what kissing Kate means.

I've only read a couple of things by Lauren Myracle, but I've enjoyed them and when I set about looking for books for the GLBT Challenge, I found this book so it seemed a good match for me. And it was! I really enjoyed this book. No matter if you are gay or not, Lissa's struggle with liking someone who doesn't like you (or won't admit it) is easily relatable. She struggles with the aftermath of kissing her best friend and does not try to write it off. Kate was also interesting. There is a lot of foreshadowing of the kiss, mainly lead by Kate, and even if she doesn't admit it, I think I know what road Kate is going to go down.

ETA:
Check out Amanda at The Zen Leaf's take on this book