Review: Seeing Redd by Frank Beddor

Title: Seeing Redd
Hardcover, 371 pages
Author: Frank Beddor
Publisher: Dial
Publication Date: August 21, 2007


From Goodreads.com:
Wonderland finally seems as if it's getting back to normal. Queen Alyss is back on the throne, and reunited with her childhood sweetheart, Dodge. But the fight for Wonderland is far from over. King Arch, in nearby Boarderland, is conniving to overthrow everything for which Alyss and her friends have fought so hard. Even worse, King Arch has found an ally in the recently returned Redd, who has been biding her time and gathering new and evil assassins in the Catacombs of Paris. With enemies circling and danger looming, someone close to Alyss lets her down-and threatens the future of Wonderland forever.

Steve Review:

And here we are again. Do you guys get tired of me reviewing series'? Or is it cool as long as you guys are interested in that series also? I'm just curious because many of my reviews are about various series and sometimes the books are similar.

Like, for instance, I could say that I liked this novel as much as the first one, and that it had a tad more angst, more action, a darker plot-line, but maybe a touch of the novelty had worn off. Then I would be done and just give you guys a point scale like this:

Book Cover: 5/5 - Yay redheads!
Book Title: 5/5 - Very fitting and clever.
Plot: 8/10 - Darker, very quick pace, and a hint of sadness sometimes.
Characters: 8/10 - Not many new characters, still quite good and fun to learn the backgrounds of others.
Writing: 7/10 - Still good, not lacking anything, just a touch of the novelty is gone in this sequel.
Ending: 7/10 - Way more cliffhanger than the 1st book.

Total: 40/50 - A total quite similar to the first book in the series, just as enjoyable, and a must read if you want to read the whole series (lol).

Then the review would be over? But then it would be so short I'd have to give you some bonus content of some sort I think.

BONUS BONUS BONUS:
Fun facts about Shanyn you may not have know before right now (haha, she is going to love this bonus content!):
1) Her favorite animal is a giraffe.
2) Her social security # is 341-58-6910. (lol not really, but it is probably somebody's)
3) She was born in Oklahoma.
4) She doesn't like dried blueberries.
5) She scored higher on the ACT's than Steve did (and Steve was no slouch). :p Hey wtf, I didn't put this fun fact here!
6) She has played many video games in the past and present including but not limited to the Sims franchise, Halo, Shadowbane, and Planetarion.

Yay for bonus content.

Enjoyed this (mini)review and bonus content? Check out more of Steve's posts here! Don't know who Steve is? Check out the "Get to know Steve" post here! Haven't seen Steve and Shanyn's only joint review? Don't miss that here! Think there are too many hyperlinks in this post? But olive you :( .

Review: Holly's Inbox: Scandal in the City by Holly Denham

Title: Holly's Inbox: Scandal in the City
Paperback, 552 pages
Author: Holly Denham
Publisher: Sourcebooks

From Book Synopsis:

Things are finally going Holly Denham's way: She's in love, she's getting the recognition she deserves at work, and her friends and family have graciously opted to avoid disaster for the moment.

Just when Holly is starting to settle into her new life, scandal erupts and Holly finds herself - and her inbox - at the center of a gossip whirlwind that threatens everything she's worked so hard for.

Holly's Inbox: Scandal in the City is written in e-mail correspondence, just like the first book, Holly's Inbox. Those that enjoyed the first book will fall right back into the quick pace of these e-mails between Holly and her co-workers and friends. They are all still full of quips and fun, and the e-mail format makes the pages go by quickly. The book looks huge on your shelf - 552 pages is about twice the size of a typical book - but since it's not written in a normal narrative this is not something you should worry about.

I did enjoy Scandal in the City, but may have enjoyed it more if it had done something a little different from the original Holly's Inbox. The first book ended happily for Holly, so Scandal in the City kind of repeated the same flow as the first. This did mean that the same characters we knew came back, and they are all very funny in their short e-mails with Holly, so I did enjoy that quite a bit.

I would recommend Scandal in the City if you are looking for a beach or vacation read - it is very easy to put down and pick back up an hour later, since the e-mail conversations are all formatted the same and reference each other (to remind you what is going on).

These books were released in both the UK and the US, so I have included both covers for you - I prefer the UK cover (top) :)

A fun, quirky, light read, Holly's Inbox: Scandal in the City is great for the beach.

Review: Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken

Title: Brightly Woven
Hardcover, 368 pages
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Publication Date: March 23, 2010

From Goodreads.com:

Sydelle Mirabil is living proof that, with a single drop of rain, a life can be changed forever. Tucked away in the farthest reaches of the kingdom, her dusty village has suffered under the weight of a strangely persistent drought. That is, of course, until a wizard wanders into town and brings the rain with him.

In return for this gift, Wayland North is offered any reward he desires—and no one is more surprised than Sydelle when, without any explanation, he chooses her. Taken from her home, Sydelle hardly needs encouragement to find reasons to dislike North. He drinks too much and bathes too little, and if that isn’t enough to drive her to madness, North rarely even uses the magic he takes such pride in possessing. Yet, it’s not long before she realizes there’s something strange about the wizard, who is as fiercely protective of her as he is secretive about a curse that turns his limbs a sinister shade of black and leaves him breathless with agony. Unfortunately, there is never a chance for her to seek answers.

Along with the strangely powerful quakes and storms that trace their path across the kingdom, other wizards begin to take an inexplicable interest in her as well, resulting in a series of deadly duels. Against a backdrop of war and uncertainty, Sydelle is faced with the growing awareness that these events aren’t as random as she had believed—that no curse, not even that of Wayland North, is quite as terrible as the one she herself may carry.

I will be the first to admit that I am generally not a person who enjoys fantasy books (I leave that up to my husband). I don't mind a bit of creativity or a fantasy based object, but when the whole book is fantasy I usually have a hard time getting into it and keeping all of the characters/powers/other fantasy-y things straight.

Let me tell you - Brightly Woven did not fall into the no Shanyn category! Well, let me back up a bit - for the first chapter, I was asking myself what I was thinking by trying another fantasy novel so soon after Incarceron (which had me so confused I had to stop reading). But, I let it wash over me and kept going to where I could get a grasp on the story - and what do you know, 50 or 100 pages later I'm wondering how I got so many pages into the book so quickly.

While I did still occasionally get confused, I mostly just loved North and Syd. Characters came and went, but as long as I was reading about those two and their adventure, I was good to go - and believe me, there is quite a bit of adventure and action in this novel.

While Brightly Woven did not change my overall view of fantasy novels (I doubt this will happen in my lifetime, to be honest), I did really enjoy myself reading this book. You know a book is good when you are reading in huge chunks, turning the pages as fast as you can - this is how it was for Brightly Woven, and I am very happy to have read it.


Book Cover: 3/5
Book Title: 4/5
Plot: 7/10
Characters: 8/10
Writing: 9/10
Ending: 8/10

Overall: 39/50

Review: Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin

Title: Extraordinary
Hardcover, 400 pages
Author: Nancy Werlin
Publisher: Dial (Penguin)
Publication Date: September 7, 2010
This copy was received from the publisher.

From Goodreads.com:

Phoebe finds herself drawn to Mallory, the strange and secretive new kid in school, and the two girls become as close as sisters . . . until Mallory's magnetic older brother, Ryland, shows up during their junior year. Ryland has an immediate, exciting hold on Phoebe, but a dangerous hold, for she begins to question her feelings about her best friend and, worse, about herself. Soon she'll discover the shocking truth about Ryland and Mallory: that these two are visitors from the faerie realm who have come to collect on an age-old debt. Generations ago, the faerie queen promised Pheobe's ancestor five extraordinary sons in exchange for the sacrifice of one ordinary female heir. But in hundreds of years there hasn't been a single ordinary girl in the family, and now the faeries are dying. Could Phoebe be the first ordinary one? Could she save the faeries, or is she special enough to save herself?

This beautiful cover is what first drew me in - in person, it is even more green and vivid that you can tell on your computer screen. I also had not read a Nancy Werlin book and felt it was time, so I decided to start with Extraordinary.

In the beginning I was skeptical, because sometimes fantasy type books don't sit with me well - but five chapters in, I was entranced (and I couldn't even really tell why).

Soon the story starts to unfold, and I had a desperate need to know what was going on, why Phoebe was involved, and what the deal was with Mallory and Ryland. This is where the story takes a high action turn (which I was not expecting) - Nancy Werlin throws in a few kickers and you're wondering where the last two hours went as you're turning the last page.

Extraordinary will entrance you and have you solving mysteries right along with Phoebe. I'm looking forward to my next Werlin book. 

Book Cover: 5/5
Book Title: 5/5
Plot: 8/10
Characters: 8/10
Writing: 9/10
Ending: 8/10

Overall: 43/50