The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall

 The four Penderwick sisters are spending 3 weeks of their summer vacation at a cottage on the estate of Arundel.  There they find adventure and new friendship with, Jeffery, the son of Arundel's owner, Mrs. Tifton.  But Mrs. Tifton does not approve of the Penderwicks and their tendencies to get into trouble.  

This was an adorable book.  I love the Penderwicks and thought they were a delightful group of girls, from Rosalind, the oldest to Batty, the youngest.  All the girls had very distinct personalities.  Rosalind, 12, is the caring oldest sister who is beginning to like boys. Ferocious and smart Skye, 11, is next followed by aspiring author Jane, 10. And last is Batty, 4, the sweet and adorable yet trouble prone youngest.  They were all great characters and I was happy to go along with them on their summer vacation.  I also like Jeffery and thought he was a sweet boy who really needed his mother to listen to him.  Mrs. Tifton is not a likeable character but I think there might have been more dept to her character than could really be explored in a short childrens book.  That was the great thing about this book.  Even the characters who were not fully explored, i.e. most of the adults, seem to have hidden depths and a real back story. That is is so rare to find and is, I believe, the hallmark of a well written book.

 

 

6 hours, 44 minutes

 

Susan Denaker is the narrator and she does a delightful job of bringing the Penderwicks to life. I liked all her voices for the characters and the book was really fun to listen to on my daily commute.

Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma

From Goodreads:
Chloe's older sister, Ruby, is the girl everyone looks to and longs for, who can't be captured or caged. When a night with Ruby's friends goes horribly wrong and Chloe discovers the dead body of her classmate London Hayes left floating in the reservoir, Chloe is sent away from town and away from Ruby.

But Ruby will do anything to get her sister back, and when Chloe returns to town two years later, deadly surprises await. As Chloe flirts with the truth that Ruby has hidden deeply away, the fragile line between life and death is redrawn by the complex bonds of sisterhood.

I'm pretty excited about this book.  It was different from a lot of the books that are out there right now.  Going in, I wasn't sure about it and I put it on hold right after starting it to finish the Betsy-Tacy series.  Picking it up, I was resigned to another "sisters' book.  And there is a lot of that in this book.  There is a whole lot more though. Ruby and Chloe are all each other has with Ruby acting as the mother figure to Chloe.  When Chloe comes back from her father's and begins living with Ruby again, they try to take up where they left off.  But Ruby's determination to get Chloe back results in her making a deal to return everything back the way it was, exactly and that leads down a strange and mysterious road, one I was happy to journey down.  The way the story unfolded and the mystery in the town was ah-mazing. 

I don't want to give too much away so that makes this harder to review.  Needless to say that I simultaneously wish I knew more and am happy with what I know.  There is a very large element to the story that is something that always intrigues me* and I was happy to see it explored in the story.  Excellently and beautifully written, I have to say that Imaginary Girls is in my top 5 of summer books.

* SPOILERS (highlight) ** I am always intrigued by god-like characters who control small towns.  I know that might be weird.  So, much like the Mayor in Bleeding Violet (Reeves), Ruby hit the right button to interested me.  What is she?  I know what her mother said about her and how the town people feel about her.  They seem afraid and disgusted by her, being made to love her and do what she says.  I love the idea of her and her need to keep the town the same as something both for amusement and her security.  I love that Chloe is really not afraid of her and is barely disturbed by her sister's abilities.  It was interesting that Ruby needed Chloe to adore her and wanted Chloe to really love only her.  There were a lot of elements that really worked including the town of Olive.  I'm still a bit confused on that point but, in the end, I was just like Chloe, waiting for Ruby to resurface.  **

From LibraryThing
What's in a Name

Spoiled by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan

Molly Dix is in shock.  Her mother revealed to her that her father is Brick Berlin, famous movie star, right before she died.  Now Molly is moving to L.A. to get to know her father at last.  But Brick's other daughter, Brooke, is none too happy and out to make Molly's life miserable.

I'll try not to let my love of Go Fug Yourself get in my way of any objective review, but it's hard since the authors of Spoiled are the authors of that website.  I love those ladies and that is one of the funniest websites I've ever read.  Seriously check it out.  The best thing is that they have taken that same sense of humor and written a YA book so score for me!  It is definitely an over-the-top, fluffy, hilarious beach read.  The plot is a little predicable.  Good girl finds out about famous dad, half-sister is not happy, makes her miserable, etc.  There wasn't anything really surprising about it.  But the fun is in the details.  And the details were fun!  So many pop culture jokes and fashion statements in one book.  I adored this book. 

Brooke and Molly were everything you'd expect, though there were a few surprises here and there.  I love a mean girl in a story and Brooke was definitely all mean girl.  But Molly had some backbone in her too and that was great to see.  I hate it when the nice girl just lays down and takes it.  And Brick was crazy over-the-top with his random sayings and his trying to parent trap the girls into being friends.  The rest of the characters were funny too and there was a nice little romance in the story to spice it up.  It concluded hilariously and there will be a second book next summer.

Hogwarts: Muggle Studies

Slice of Cherry (Portero #2) (e-book) by Dia Reeves

Fancy and Kit Cordelle are the daughters of the Bonesaw Killer and are ostracized by their town because of their serial killer dad.  But the girls have inherited their dad's love of murder though they try to suppress it.  Until Fancy opens a door into another world, that is.  With a place to hide the bodies, the girls begin giving into their desires though they try to only hurt those who hurt others.  But once the Turner boys, whose dad was the Bonesaw Killer's last victim, take an interest in the Cordelle sisters things begin to change.  And Fancy does not like change...

Kit settled against the building opposite the side door of the dress shop, her cap pulled low over her eyes so that her poison mouth was the most visible part of her, the same shade of red as the brick in her fist. (e-book)

Well, this was....er...different.  For me, anyway.  I don't usually read horror since I like to sleep at night but I was drawn to this book, initially, because of the super amazing cover.  And then I read the description and thought well, okay, I'll give it a shot.  Then I download it onto the Nook and got scared.  What was I thinking?  I thought.  I'll wait. But I peeked at the beginning and decide to read the first chapter, then a chapter after that.  And wouldn't you know it?  I read the whole thing.  But only during the day.  I'm serious about sleeping.  And it was a good thing I did.  Because this is some disturbing stuff.  Girls who like to murder people, yeah.  Disturbing.  But strangely compelling too.  I honestly could not figure out where this story was headed especially with the introduction of the two guys.  And so I kept reading because I was invested in Fancy and Kit and could not tell where this was going and where they were going to end up.

There is a whole fantasy element to the story that is rare in a horror novel. At the first appearance of the monsters, I was surprised (I haven't read Bleeding Violet which is set in the same town), but once I went with the whole concept, it blended horror and fantasy perfectly.  The town is interesting with the way they have developed coping mechanisms for the appearance of real life monsters and their reaction to the girls' "solving" of their problems is different.  It defies expectations which is something that can be said for the whole book.

Fancy and Kit do not invite sympathy.  At all.  But the character growth in both of them is done with such style. And the love interest part of the story was very mysterious.  I really couldn't figure out what angle the Turner boys were coming from until it was spelled out for me.  I liked that.  I hate guessing the ending before the story is over. 

Despite the fact that I liked it and that I'm praising it, I must say that this book isn't for everyone.  It has some really gory elements and is disturbing.  The fantasy elements might be off-putting for straight horror fans and the horror elements might be too much for fantasy fans.  But if you can put up with fairly graphic scenes of murder and mayhem, then I suggest you read it.  Just don't read it before bed.


Hogwarts: Defence Against the Dark Arts
E-book Challenge

Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters by Natalie Standiford

The Sullivans are a rich and quirky family almost entirely dependent on the matriarch of the family who they, and everyone else, call Almighty.  Someone in the family offends Almighty and so it is up to the offender to write a letter of apology or the whole family will lose their inheritance.

I'd just read that even, regular features are universally recognized as beautiful.  So no matter what I think of Brooks as a person, I'm genetically programmed to find him attractive.  I resent that. --Norrie p.35 

Maybe it was a result of having read nothing but Nancy Drew for two months, but I really enjoyed this.  It provided a refreshing and sweet change from the mysteries of the girl detective and I liked the whole concept of the book.  Each section is a letter to their grandmother from one of the girls and then an explanation of the offense.  My favorite girl was Norrie, the oldest.  Maybe that is because her part felt the longest and provided most of the background for the book.  She was mature and sweet and I liked how she finally realizes that it is less about Almighty and other people's opinions and more about what she wants.  Jane is the middle girl and is the rebellious-because-someone-has-to-be child. She was a bit harder to take and she just made me roll my eyes a lot.  I think that is because I am an adult.  And Sassy, the youngest girl, was very sweet but her section seemed short and I never got into her character.  Still over all, I liked it and thought it was super fun and very well done.

We were trying to turn it into a bad girls' bathroom that nice girls would be afraid to use, but so far we kept getting interrupted by ninth graders whose idea of bad was chewing gum. --Jane p.145

He didn't take my confession seriously.  And the proof was in the penance: only one Hail Mary.  For the sin of pride, not for murder.  --Sassy p.285

Hogwarts: Muggle Studies
Off the Shelf

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