Book: The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa

Published October 2012 by Harlequin Teen

How I Got It: Purchased for my Nook (400 pages)

Genre: YA/Paranormal: Fairies

Find out more: Goodreads|Barnes And Noble|Amazon|Julie Kagawa

Goodreads.com Summary: Don’t look at Them. Never let Them know you can see Them.

That is Ethan Chase’s unbreakable rule. Until the fey he avoids at all costs—including his reputation—begin to disappear, and Ethan is attacked. Now he must change the rules to protect his family. To save a girl he never thought he’d dare to fall for.

Ethan thought he had protected himself from his older sister’s world—the land of Faery. His previous time in the Iron Realm left him with nothing but fear and disgust for the world Meghan Chase has made her home, a land of myth and talking cats, of magic and seductive enemies. But when destiny comes for Ethan, there is no escape from a danger long, long forgotten.

I totally wasn’t sure what to expect with The Lost Prince.  I mean, I loved The Iron Fey series, and I was hoping that The Lost Prince would meet the high expectations that Kagawa set with The Iron Fey.

I really liked The Lost Prince.  We see Ethan again, since The Iron Fey was more of Meghan’s story.  It’s nice to see his story, and what his life was like after being taken into the Iron Realm years earlier.

He is one bitter, angry guy, and I don’t really blame him.  He basically gets kidnapped, and then goes on to lose his sister, who becomes the Iron Queen.  Him pushing people away- which is understandable- got somewhat irritating.  He’s not the cute 4-year-old we saw in The Iron Fey, and has become all moody.  I’m not completely sure how I feel about Ethan yet.  How he acts makes so much sense, and it’s nice to see a character that I wondered about when reading TIF.  But…there’s something about him that seemed off.

As for other characters, we have the usual characters- Ash, Meghan, Puck and Grimalkin all makes appearances.  We meet Kenzie, a girl from Ethan’s new school, and Kierran, who is Ethan’s nephew (and the son of Ash and Meghan).  Kenzie’s desire to get Ethan out of his shell was slightly irritating, but Kenzie’s character also made a lot of sense at the end of the book.

And Kierran.  I have the feeling that Kierran and Ethan are going to remind me of Puck and Ash.  There is something similar about the two relationships.  Kierran’s interesting, because he can use magic from all three courts.

In The Iron Fey, we had iron faeries.  But in The Lose Prince, we have The Forgotten, and we have a war coming.  It’ll be interesting to see what Kagawa does with them, especially since Kagawa mentioned them a few times in The Iron Fey.  How Kagawa comes up with the characters and world she does, I don’t know.  But I love that she’s now focusing on the Forgotten, because their mention in The Iron Fey was really interesting.

Final thoughts: I really liked The Lost Prince.  In all honesty, it just felt like something was missing, and I can’t quite put my finger on it.  Still, it’s a pretty solid book, and I wasn’t disappointed by it.  It gets a 4 out of 5.

Book: The DUFF by Kody Keplinger

Published September 2010 by Poppy

How I Got It: Purchased for my Nook (224 pages)

Genre: YA: Contemporary

Find out more: Goodreads|Barnes And Noble|Amazon|Kody Keplinger

Goodreads.com Summary: Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn’t think she’s the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She’s also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her “Duffy,” she throws her Coke in his face.

But things aren’t so great at home right now. Desperate for a distraction, Bianca ends up kissing Wesley. And likes it. Eager for escape, she throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with Wesley.

Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out that Wesley isn’t such a bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she’s falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone.

I so wanted to like The DUFF.  I just couldn’t like it.

I could relate to Bianca.  I mean, who hasn’t felt like the ugly fat friend?  Her insecurities and wanting to distract herself are things I can relate to.  I couldn’t relate to how she distracted herself, but I feel like there are people out there who can.

I just found myself getting annoyed at how she hated Wesley and yet finds herself falling for him.  I suppose it happens, but it felt so cliche.  She’s just so cynical, and a lot of the time, it was hard to root for her.  And to a certain extent, it was hard to believe that she’d sleep with Toby after throwing soda in his face.  She just seemed super inconsistent.  Teenage girls can be all over the place, but Bianca just seemed excessively inconsistent and all over the place, and it was kind of frustrating to read.  Her friends were pretty standard, as was Toby.  As for Wesley…I don’t even know what to think about him.  His transformation seemed really sudden, and it wasn’t completely believable.

Things definitely ended on a happy note, but Keplinger wrapped things up a little too nicely.  I kind of wish Bianca’s insecurities and her issues with her parents were explored a little more.  And does her relationship with Jake several years earlier have anything to do with her cynicism?  Because I felt like that wasn’t explored very much either.

I get why people love this book- it felt very authentic, and very real, even though parts of it were a little hard to believe.  Keplinger wrote this when she was in high school, which does lend to the authenticity of it.

Final thoughts: The concept was intriguing, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea.  It gets a 1 out of 5.

Book: Princess In Love by Meg Cabot

Published December 2001 by HarperCollins Publishers

How I Got It: Purchased for my Nook (256 pages)

Genre: YA- Contemporary

Find out more: Goodreads|Barnes And Noble|Amazon|Meg Cabot

Goodreads.com Summary: She’s just a New York City girl living with her artist mom…

News Flash: Dad is prince of Genovia. (So that’s why a limo meets her at the airport )

Downer: Dad can’t have any more kids. (So no heir to the throne.)

Shock of the Century: Like it or not, Mia Thermopolis is prime princess material.

Mia must take princess lessons from her dreaded grandmere, the dowager princess of Genovia, who thinks Mia has a thing or two to learn before she steps up to the throne.

Well, her father can lecture her until he’s royal-blue in the face about her princessly duty–no way is she moving to Genovia and leaving Manhattan behind. But what’s a girl to do when her name is “Princess Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo”?

I just love The Princess Diaries.  Princess In The Spotlight was so fun to read, and we see Mia with her very first boyfriend!

Mia, of course, isn’t into Kenny, because she likes Michael.  Michael likes her too, so in the end, they end up together!  It really is cute, and I’m sure all sorts of things will get in their way.  It wouldn’t be Mia’s life if things didn’t get in the way.  And after seeing how much she really likes him, it’s nice to see he feels the same way about her.

I still love that things aren’t perfect for Mia, and that she’s still struggling with algebra and has boy problems.  Mia’s definitely growing as a character, which you see when she stands up to Lana.  Mia has her awkward moments, and she really is easy to relate to.  She’s such a great character, and she’s just so funny. And Lilly is just as outrageous as you’d expect, including planning a protest because she didn’t get to write about the topic she wanted to for English.  I just like that the characters are consistent, but still grow.

Final Thoughts: Princess In Love is a great continuation of the Princess Diaries.  Mia’s story is so fun to read, and it’s so real.  I didn’t love it, but it’s still a great read.  It gets a 4 out of 5.

Book: The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray

Published: December 2012 by Delacorte Books For Young Readers

How I Got It: Purchased for my Nook

Genre: YA: Historical-Fiction/Fantasy

Find out more: Goodreads|Barnes And Noble|Amazon|Libba Bray

Goodreads.com Summary: IT HAS BEEN A YEAR OF CHANGE since Gemma Doyle arrived at the foreboding Spence Academy. Her mother murdered, her father a laudanum addict, Gemma has relied on an unsuspected strength and has discovered an ability to travel to an enchanted world called the realms, where dark magic runs wild. Despite certain peril, Gemma has bound the magic to herself and forged unlikely new alliances. Now, as Gemma approaches her London debut, the time has come to test these bonds. The Order – the mysterious group her mother was once part of – is grappling for control of the realms, as is the Rakshana. Spence’s burned East Wing is being rebuilt, but why now? Gemma and her friends see Pippa, but she is not the same. And their friendship faces its gravest trial as Gemma must decide once and for all what role she is meant for.

I loved The Sweet Far Thing.  I think it’s my favorite book in the series, and Bray did a great job with wrapping up the series. I really liked seeing Gemma struggle with having the magic bound to her, and struggling with making alliances.  While the series is somewhat dark, The Sweet Far Thing is the darkest of the three.

I love what Bray did with all the characters, especially Pippa.  I loved how she took a few factory girls under her wing because she wasn’t able to make her debut to society, and how she wanted more magic and loved having girls under her wing.

Gemma, by far, is my favorite character.  She had so many decisions to make, and it’s nice to see her want to include all of the creatures in the Realms.  What’s so interesting about Gemma in this novel is that you really see her unhappiness with the constraints placed on women during that time.  In particular, Gemma and Felicity don’t want the life that is expected of them.  In the end, they make their own way, which I thought was interesting.  It’s much more prominent in this novel, and you really do see that there was a time when women had to make their debut to society and find a good husband…and that it only started to really change in the last 100 years or so.  Women’s rights fit really well with the the magical parts of the book, and I didn’t really mind it that much…but there were times when it was a little too much.

The novel did start off slow, but once things started happening, it was a hard book to put down.  I was so surprised by a lot of things that happened in the book.  I wasn’t expecting Pippa and Felicity to be more than friends, especially given that the series takes place in Victorian England.  But thinking back to the other books, and even this one to a certain extent, there are definitely hints.  I wasn’t expecting Eugenia Spence to be behind everything, nor was I expecting Mrs. Nightwing to know of the Order.

There were times when it felt like things came out of nowhere, but I like that things I wasn’t expecting to happen, did happen.  I love the world Bray created with the realms, and how well it worked with the real world.  There wasn’t as much closure as I expected, but I did like that the book ended with their lives full of possibilities.

Final thoughts: A great ending to the series.  I loved the parallels between the Realms and the real world, and how everything fit together.  It gets a 5 out of 5.

Book: And The Band Played On by Randy Shilts

Published November 1987 by St. Martin’s Press

How I Got It: Purchased the paperback, 630 pages

Genre: Non-fiction: GLBT/Medicine/Sociology/Politics

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Goodreads.com Summary: Upon it’s first publication twenty years ago, And The Band Played on was quickly recognized as a masterpiece of investigatve reporting. An international bestseller, a nominee for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and made into a critically acclaimed movie, Shilts’ expose revealed why AIDS was allowed to spread unchecked during the early 80’s while the most trusted institutions ignored or denied the threat.  One of the few true modern classics, it changed and framed how AIDS was discussed in the following years. Now republished in a special 20th Anniversary edition, And the Band Played On remains one of the essential books of our time.

I am so glad I read And The Band Played On!  I watched the movie in health class in high school, and completely forgot about it until it showed up as a recommendation through Goodreads.

It’s was a great read, especially because most of the events in the book took place before I was born.  I know what AIDS is like now, but I had no idea what it was like when AIDS first started showing up in people.  Reading

One thing I really liked was the day-to-day unfolding of AIDS.  You see what it was like for so many people- the people who had AIDS, their friends and family and the doctors and scientists.  It worked especially well at the beginning, when everyone was trying to figure out what AIDS was.  It did get a little tiresome at times and sometimes, it was hard getting through some of the sections that dealt with funding and some of the more political aspects of the AIDS epidemic.  While we see Reagan, Congress, and whatever agency is in charge of the budget, it’s always through the eyes of researchers, doctors and AIDS patients.  So while it was to follow and a little overwhelming, you see so many different sides to the early years of AIDS.

Shilts’ interest in AIDS really comes through, and what I found fascinating was that he was tested for HIV/AIDS while working on the book.  He waited until it was finished before learning the results and would later die of AIDS.  He didn’t want the results to get in the way with his objectivity.  I felt like there was a little bit of bias, but for the most part, I did feel like it was pretty objective.

It does make you think about why some diseases get more funding and attention then others.  I know we can’t devote equal time and funding to every single disease out there, and that the ones that affect millions of people get more attention/funding than ones that affect hundreds or thousands of people.  It is sad that it took years for anyone to care about AIDS, and I loved the statistics about how many people had AIDS and how many had died from it.

There are definitely a lot of people to keep track of, and while the list of important players was pretty helpful, there were times where I couldn’t remember who was who.  Still, you get pretty invested in their stories, even though a lot of people don’t come off well at times.  That being said, he does hold everyone accountable, and doesn’t place the blame on just one group of people.

You really see the stigma that was attached to the early victims of AIDS, especially because of the heavy toll it took on gay men.  It is sad that it took years for anyone to care, and you have to hope that we’ve learned our lesson.  There are so many what-ifs that you think about.  You can’t help but wonder if doing things differently might have changed how AIDS played out.

I have the 20th anniversary edition, and I thought it was interesting that there wasn’t some kind of update about what AIDS is like now.  I’m not sure if it’s because the author has since passed away, or if there’s some other reason, but considering life before AIDS and life after it, and AIDS before Rock Hudson and AIDS after Rock Hudson was a huge theme in the book, you’d think there’d be something about how far we’ve come with AIDS (and how far we have to go).

Final thoughts: I didn’t love And The Band Played On, but it’s a great read.  Reading it was a little strange, knowing what AIDS is like know, and really seeing how much it’s changed over the last 30 or so years.  It gets a 4 out of 5.