Jennifer Scales and the Messenger of Light (Jennifer Scales, Book 2) Review

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(More customer reviews)Near the end of the second, and quite wonderful Jennifer Scales book, the most perfect description appears that pretty much says everything you ever need about teenagers and reality. Don't worry, it isn't a spoiler, but could anyone possibly top "She followed him down the hallway, smelling the faint odor of unshowered boy"? It rings true, as does virtually everything having to do with growing up and dealing with relationships in this book. Yes, it is a fantasy novel, and gloriously, it is written on several levels, so that both my 12-year old and I enjoyed it equally (since I cannot let her read MJD's adult fiction yet). My daughter agreed that the teenagers were accurately depicted, the plot was filled with twists and action, and the ups and downs were all there for a reason. MaryJanice Davidson's trademark humor, a little downplayed for a younger audience, is augmented by what must be Tony Alongi's gift for narrative description. The combination pulls you into the story and does not let you go. The broad hints at a third book were greeted, in our household, by sighs of relief and irritation that the next book was not available already.
There is humor, the angst of adolescence, the importance of relationships -- all without the heavy-handedness of most "uplifting" teen fiction. All this AND a great plot, too! I cannot wait for the next installment.

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Where can you find weredragons, beaststalkers, and werachnids all in one room? Jennifer Scales's family reunion.Getting through high school is hard enough. Jennifer Scales has the added pressure of her weredragon life, taking trips to Crescent Lake to morph into a dragon under the constant threat of enemy attack. What's worse, she's also half beaststalker from her Mom's side. Beaststalkers and weredragons are mortal enemies, and tension is growing over some suspicious deaths lately. She must prove to both sides that they can live in harmony, just like her family. Well, most of the time. That is until Jennifer finds out that she has a half-brother with a few too many legs. Unfortunately he's bent on some payback for a lifetime of abandonment and Jennifer's dad is his number-one target. Her life's starting to look like a daytime talk show. Somehow she will have to convince everyone to get along, before they take matters in their own claws.

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PeaceJam: A Billion Simple Acts of Peace Review

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(More customer reviews)This book lays out amazing stories and great ideas on how to get involved and work to change the world! If you're a activist then you MUST buy this book and join the Global Call to Action!

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Jennifer Scales and the Ancient Furnace (Jennifer Scales, Book 1) Review

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(More customer reviews)I love MaryJanice Davidson and devour all of her books. I looked forward to giving Jennifer Scales and the Ancient Furnace a whirl. I loved The Adventures of the Teen Furies and looked forward to reading another one of her Young Adult efforts. This time Davidson teams up with her husband, Anthony Alongi, and creates a spanking new YA fantasy series. Even though Jennifer Scales is a sweet, fun introduction to a series, I was not as riveted with this effort as I was with Teen Furies. Jennifer Scales's growing pains are tougher than the rest of the fourteen-year-olds out there. After all, she doesn't just have to deal with puberty, boys, friends and other teen conundrums, she also has to deal with the fact that she is a weredragon who shifts to her dragon form during the crescent moon. Her parents had kept the secret until she began to feel changes within her. She developed her dragon form and other abilities at a younger age than most weredragons. Also, she looks different from other dragons. Could the fact that her mother is human be the reason for this? As her father and grandfather teach her how to hunt for prey and fly using her dragon wings, she tries to adjust with her unconventional life, but things get tougher when she learns that there are enemies who want to destroy the dragons...
I like how realistic Jennifer's reaction to being a weredragon is. She has a difficult time adjusting to her new lifestyle and is refreshing to see that she does not accept things from one chapter to the next. Her relationships with her high school friends suffer as a result and her school days could well be over. I liked the scenes centered on her interactions with her grandfather and other teen weredragons. This is an overall nicely done work that has a less abrupt ending than other Davidson efforts. I don't know if this has to do with her collaboration with her husband, but the pace of the story is far better this time around. However, I found myself struggling to finish this book. Perhaps the reason to this is due to the fact that this book is specifically written for very young readers. As an avid Davidson fan, I wanted to give the book a whirl despite knowing that it is written for very young adults. I'll be fair and review it within its genre and say that the novel is wonderful and a great reading investment for young readers. I'll give Jennifer Scales and the Ancient Furnace to my sixteen-year-old niece and hope she will continue to read the future offerings of this series.

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And you thought puberty sucked. Try morphing into a dragon.I knew that at this age I'd be going through a lot of changes-but blue scales? Claws? A snout? Come on! This is ridiculous and just so unfair. And I can't believe my parents waited until the day I turned into a dragon to tell me that I am one-thanks to my dad's side of the family. Believe me, no amount of dieting can stop how big I grow when I turn dragon-and don't get me started on the tail. This dragon thing is going to happen every crescent moon. Can I be any more of a freak? At least I have my grandfather to show me how to get by as a weredragon. It's not easy. And I can't even tell my best friends, because dragons have ancient enemies who want to destroy them. As if my parents, school and the soccer team weren't enough to deal with. Looks like it's up to me to protect the few fellow dragons that are still left or I won't see my next birthday. Forget about blowing out those candles. With this breath, I'll set the whole town on fire...

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The Three Furies (Erec Rex) Review

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(More customer reviews)In The Three Furies, the fourth book of the Erec Rex series, Bethany Cleary has been kidnapped by Thanatos Argus Baskania, the Shadow Prince who is after the Great Secret, which will lead him to the Final Magic. Now Erec has to return to the Kingdoms of the Keepers for a third time to face all sorts of new challenges, like confronting the Nightmare King, finding to missing Clown Fairy, and dealing with the all-encompassing problem of the three Furies. The Good:
-- Erec's family goes with him to the Kingdoms. His siblings get more scene time than in any previous book.
-- Erec seems just a little more observant that before. For example, he notes that it's quite jarring to use port-o-doors; you're suddenly far, far beneath the earth, but you could be back home in a flash if you wanted. It's an observation he's never made before, and it makes him a little more believable.
-- The plot feels more organic compared to The Search for Truth. Erec's new quests don't conveniently start just as he returns to the Kingdoms.
-- The plot moves forward quickly.
-- The writing and detail is better than in the previous books. The charm that was sometimes present in The Dragon's Eye is sometimes present here.
-- The Hermit is at his funniest and deconstructs Erec's role as the hero.
-- We learn a little more about Jam Crinklecut, so his awesomeness is now enough.
-- Erec learns a little more magic.
-- Mrs. Smith is back.
-- Spartacus Kilroy is back.
-- Queen Posey is back.
-- Bette Noir is back.
-- Ajax Hunter is back.
-- Baskania is seen very little.
-- Bethany's quirky side from early in the first book briefly resurfaces due to magic.
-- We get to see Aorth. The Bad:
-- Erec, Bethany, Jack, and Melody are SO boring (!).
-- Since Erec's family spends the book in the Kingdoms, the Vulcan furniture is never really seen.
-- When Erec's family leaves for the Kingdoms, apparently, the dogs Tutt and King get left behind. I'm beginning to wonder if their existence is even canon anymore, because they haven't been mentioned since the first book.
-- We get no information on Erec's past friends.
-- Characters like Jam and the Hermit get the best lines; most of the dialogue is pretty mediocre. It also flows awkwardly a lot, there were places where it seemed like there really should have been contractions.
-- Oh man, poor Danny and Sammy. Wait `till you see what happens to them. They had such potential, and they were becoming ever more important to the series. But all of that has been destroyed by a stupid plot twist that comes out of nowhere.
-- Ah, poor Oscar, his character goes through forced and ham-fisted changes. He'll never be the same.
-- What became of Spartacus Kilroy didn't make any sense and only serves to magnify the flimsiness of author Kaza Kingsley's fictional world.
-- No Damon and Dollick Stain. Not that they're good characters, but they are important, and it seems weird for them to be absent for an entire book.
-- No Balthazar Ugry.
-- No King Pluto.
-- Just when you think Wolfboy is going to get to do something important, he gets left out.
-- Melody tags along for the adventure again. It didn't feel right in The Search for Truth, it doesn't feel right in The Three Furies.

-- The plot is cluttered with what are either dues ex machinas or Chekhov's gun's gone bad, particularly with the climax/ending.
-- Why is the good side so weak? Don't they have any accomplished sorcerers on their side or...something?! I mean, you know you've hit rock-bottom when the kingdom is counting on a bunch of kids who don't know what they're doing.

-- Baskania's fortress doesn't have very good security, does it?
-- Thought the auctioning of items on the MagicNet was silly? Now Erec goes on the MagicNet to ask people for INFORMATION.

-- There's this ridiculous rip-off of the Arachne/Athena story from Greek mythology. Oh, but of course, here Athena is replaced with the jealous sorceress Minerva.
-- The twist about the Cleary family isn't a twist because it was already revealed in the epilogue of the first book.
-- None of the big questions have been answered, or even foreshadowed for that matter. What does The Three Furies accomplish anyway? Okay, there are some bits and pieces here and there, but it's meager for the half-way point of the series.
-- A lot of the stuff happening feels like it should've happened much earlier in the series rather than at the half-way point. It takes away from The Three Furies and coats it with a disagreeable feeling.
-- This time, Peter Mohrbacher does the illustrations. While he's better than Tim Jacobus was, he's not better than Melvyn Grant. I still miss Grant. My verdict is that The Three Furies is better than The Search for Truth and is enjoyable as The Monsters of Otherness. It does things I've been clamoring for, and some things that surprised me. But like the previous two books, The Three Furies doesn't live up to The Dragon's Eye.
6 out of 9

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Erec Rex continues his quest to become king in Kaza Kingsley's The Three Furies.

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Midnight Alley (Morganville Vampires, Book 3) Review

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(More customer reviews)"Midnight Alley" is the third novel in the Morganville Vampires series. While the series is written for young adults, it's a great read for older fantasy fans, too. While you can read "Midnight Alley" without reading the two prior novels, it's fascinating to see how each novel builds on each other developing complex characters and storylines.
If you've not read a "Morganville Vampires" novel yet, I'll bring you up to speed. Claire Danvers is a brilliant young woman who graduated from high school early. Instead of sending her away to faraway MIT as Claire herself had wanted, her parents sent her to Morganville, Texas and TPU--Texas Plains University.
Claire quickly learned that only the strong survive in the womens' dorm. While she's brilliant, she's not so smart in learning who not to mess with and she manages to anger Monica Morrell, who pushes her down the stairs.
Realizing she's not going to live if she stays on campus, she seeks a place to hide and finds it in the Glass House. (Also the title of the first book in the series) Three other people live there: Michael Glass, a mysterious young man, Shane Collins, a rebel, and Eve, a goth girl. They initially do not want to take Claire in since she's underage, but do so to keep her safe--and she stays.
Claire learns from them that Morganville is run by vampires. TPU is essentially a blood bank for their use and a certain number of students are 'disposable'. Claire has to walk a very thin line not to become part of that group--particularly since Monica Morrell's father is the mayor and they're one of the most influential non-vamp families in town.
In order to stay safe, humans in the know sign contracts with powerful vampires who act as their protectors in exchange for monthly donations to the town's blood bank and the vamp's control of what the person does.
So--why doesn't the town get busted? That's the question Claire asked and probably what you are wondering as well. Very few of the kids on campus actually know about the vampires. Only residents do and they generally do not leave Morganville. There's a spell on the town where people who leave forget about the vampires. If they happen to remember, the vamps send an assassination squad and eliminate the problem.
In the second book of the series, "Dead Girls Dance," Claire and her three friends end up getting in a lot of trouble when Shane Collins' father returns. Mr. Collins is one of the rare folk who can keep his memory outside of Morganville and he's bent on killing every bloodsucker in the town as well as the humans who help them. In order to keep herself and her friends safe, Claire signs a contract with Amelie, the oldest vampire and ruler of Morganville. Michael is forced to become a vampire or die. He's the first new vampire in over 50 years and quite a celebrity among them since new vamps cannot be made.
That brings us to date. Claire's not told her friends what she'd done to keep them safe. Amelie sends her the bracelet that she's required to wear as part of the deal.
What Claire didn't realize is that Amelie didn't just want a pint of blood once in a while. She wants Claire to become an apprentice to Myrnin, one of the oldest vampires around and a brilliant alchemist and scientist. At first, that seems like more of a favor to the super-studious Claire, but she quickly learns that her mentor is mentally unstable and dangerous. The research she's doing could potentially help the vampires--does she want to do that?
Does she have a choice?
Meanwhile, Captain Obvious, who runs an underground newspaper in Morganville for the humans has outed Michael as the newest vampire and slates him for execution.
Oh yes, and Eve's crazy brother Justin is out of jail and coming to exact revenge on her for turning him in. The corpse of a young girl is dumped in the trash of the Glass House, casting suspicion on Shane as the culprit.
And if that was not enough, Monica Morrell wants to at least be allies with Claire. This is a dangerous alliance indeed.
To date, "Midnight Alley" is the best of the Morganville Vampires series. It's not belabored with the setup of the two prior novels and the characters are well-established. The action is non-stop and the book is as hard to walk away from as a bowl of dark chocolate M&Ms.
One caveat: if you are a person who likes novels to have stand alone novels within a series, you may have trouble with Morganville. You'll get some answers from book to book, but the storylines continue with each of the series. Fortunately for the readers, this isn't too much of a problem since "Morganville" is coming out every few months instead of making us wait a year or more for the next addition.
And "Midnight Alley" leaves me with such a slam-dunk ending, I am going to be waiting anxiously for the next episode.

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Claire Danvers's college town may be run by vampires but a truce between the living and the dead made things relatively safe. For a while. Now people are turning up dead, a psycho is stalking her, and an ancient bloodsucker has proposed private mentoring. To what end, Claire will find out. And it's giving night school a whole new meaning.

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Glass Houses (Morganville Vampires, Book 1) Review

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(More customer reviews)Under attack by an upperclassman and her cronies, Claire Danvers, a young college freshman, moves into off campus housing with a group of teens that clue her in on the realities of life - and unlife - in Morganville.
Glass Houses had strengths and weaknesses. When a clique of psychotic popular girls is decidedly scarier and far more vicious than the vampires controlling the city, something doesn't seem right. In this, the first installment of a series, the vampires were, unfortunately, very much one dimensional, and aside from Amelie, uninteresting.
Caine did a better job with the heroes. Claire, Eve, Michael and Shane had distinct personalities, a good mixture of maturity and immaturity and enough quirks to make them seem real and likeable. I cared about them, and that drew me into the story.
This was the first book I've read by Rachel Caine, and while I had problems with a few of the characterizations, I found enough to like in this story to want to check out some of her other books.

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