Four Girl is unwanted and unloved by her family. Seen as a demon-child, her family practically gives her up as a lost cause. Four girl, searching for acceptance discovers catholic missionaries near her small Chinese village. After one exceptionally harsh experience with her grandfather, Four runs into the forest and sees a vision of Jeanne D'Arc. As Four distances herself from her family, and grows closer to the missionaries visions of Jeanne come more often, offering peace and guidance.
After famed dragon slayer, Lottie Thorskard, is injured on the job she takes early retirement and moves to the small town of Trondheim to escape her notoriety and the big city. She brings her partner Hannah, and nephew Owen, whose father is out fighting the carbon eating dragons that have plagued Canada since the dawn of time.
This sequel to Shadow and Bone takes all of the high adventure and dark drama of the first book and cranks it up to 11. The story starts off quietly for a chapter or two and then suddenly kicks the reader into a fast-paced, slam-bang, snarktastic rollercoaster ride that doesn't let up until the end of the novel. And the end...my heart was pounding and I was left breathless by the end of the book.
Charlie, a modern-day Holden Caulfield, reminds me of myself when I was an uber-angsty adolescent. That’s the good thing about reading Young Adult Fiction as a middle aged adult: you have a broader worldview which allows you to appreciate teenage angst in a deeper way. You’ve been there and back. You’ve lived through it. You know there’s a way out. You understand.
The day after Liyana experiences her first kiss, her father announces that he is moving the family from St. Louis, to his birthplace, Jerusalem. Liyana leaves everything she knows behind, and everything that won't fit in a few boxes and embarks on an adventure to experience a different kind of life.
This story starts with a bang! Wil Jamieson is grabbed by two guys in an airport bathroom. They stick a needle in his eye, ask him a bunch of questions and tell him if he wants to live he has to come with them. Wil gathers from their conversation that he in an important piece in a war they are fighting. Wars have casualties, and before they escape the airport one kidnapper and Wil's girlfriend are dead. Barely trusting Eliot, Wil takes off cross country as a fugitive, trying to discover what makes him so special.
Adam scores the ultimate tickets to the last concert of rock star Jimmy Earle. How does he know that it is Jimmy's last concert? Because Jimmy has taken Death, the latest and greatest drug on the street. Live one glorious week on the high of your life...then die. Adam and his girlfriend Lizzie are there to see Earle give the performance of a lifetime, then die on stage. As the crowd goes wild, the two escape the area to find masked members of the Zealots handing out Death capsules on the street.
Ananna is the only daughter of the leaders of the Tanarau pirate clan. When her parents try to marry her off to the son of the Hariri clan, Ananna chooses to flee both families and the arranged marriage. The Hariri are so angered, they send a magic-using assassin after her. But when the assassin, Naji, confronts Ananna and she accidentally saves his life, he becomes bound to her through a powerful, magical curse. They set out on a quest to break this "impossible curse," all the while fleeing the angry Hariri clan and strange, otherwordly beings with a mysterious agenda.
I love a good fantasy story, full of high adventure, mystery, intrigue, romance, and strange magic. For a long time, a lot of fantasy worlds, influenced by Tolkien's Middle-earth, have been based on a romanticized version of medieval Western Europe. Which is fine, I love me some Tolkien, but I've been wanting to branch out to other fantasy lately, fantasy that's less Tolkienesque.
The kingdom of Carthya is in trouble. The royal family is dead, the neighboring kingdoms are starting to whittle away at its borders, and a civil war is brewing between nobles. To prevent chaos from descending upon Carthya, Conner, an unscrupulous nobleman, devises a desperate plan. What if the king's youngest son, who has been lost at sea, suddenly returns to save the kingdom and stop the invasion of its neighbors? All he needs is someone to act the part. Enter Sage, orphan, impertinent thief, and general pain in Conner's side.
