Review of Glimpse by Stacey Wallace Benefiel

Glimpse 

Zellie Wells, #1 

Stacey Wallace Benefiel 

2010 

Amazon/ Goodreads

FREE ON AMAZON KINDLE (as of 7/12)

SPARKLES!

Reasons for reading:

Again, when I got my Kindle, I went a little bit crazy buying books. This book happened to be free and was highlighted on a Kindle-blog, so I downloaded it based on reading the summary.

Basic plot:

At Zellie’s 16th birthday party, she dances with her crush and has a vision of the future: they are both older, she is pregnant, and he is bleeding profusely, clearly dying. Insta-love ensues and she starts sneaking out the window at night to snog him, but there are lots of Secrets that Zellie’s mother and great-aunt have yet to tell her, and these Secrets will change everything…

Curiosities:

The book is mainly in 1st person with Zellie as the narrator, but throughout the book it switches randomly into 3rd person omniscient with Zellie’s crush, Avery, as the narrator. The first couple of times this happens it’s really distracting, but after a while I got used to it.

The weirdest thing about this book was the ridiculous way in which the characters talked. Zellie is a 16 yr old preacher’s daughter, and she has a younger sister named Melody. Zellie’s BFF is named Claire, and she’s virtually identical to Helen’s BFF, also named Claire, in Starcrossed (AKA realllly annoying.) Zellie, despite living in the middle of nowhere and having all of her social events centered around the church, used so much crude phrasing and ridiculous sounding one-liners that it pretty much killed the book for me. Non-spoilery examples:

Location 607: “…kinda didn’t care if the whole room was scoping my nips at this point; I was filled with reckless sixteen-year-old abandon.” --SCOPING MY NIPS???? EW.

Location 780: “…buried his face in my hair and took a big whiff. It was so good to know we were the same kind of perv.”—How does smelling someone’s hair while making out make you a perv? Again, ew…

There is also a weird jail-bait kind of thing going on… At one point, Zellie narrates that her friend Claire’s “red miniskirt rode up, only just covering her thighs” (Loc 546), and Zellie enjoys the summer weather because “even pastor’s daughters could get away with wearing less clothing.” (Location 1091) This reminds me of the writing middle schoolers who are just starting to explore their sexuality come up with, when appearing sexy involves baring their midriffs and body glitter.

The actual paranormal premise of the story is pretty cool, which is why I persisted in reading the book despite the weird characters. I can’t really explain it without giving away the whole plot, but basically Zellie is part of a line of women who have psychic powers- powerful ones! I wish the story gave us even more psychic scenes instead of the struggling banter between horny adolescents.

Final thoughts:

I wish this book had gone through quality editing, because the premise could really be something great! It’s worth reading if you are curious- it’s short and moves quickly, and I’m glad I read it because it was fun and weirdly fascinating. The awkward dialogue really made it difficult to enjoy the book, which is unfortunate.  I won't be reading the sequels.  Two stars.

Love Potions, Librarians, and a Tiny Hispanic Boy: Review of Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz

Witches of East End

#1, The Beauchamp Family

Melissa de la Cruz

Adult, 272 pages

I like the cover, but I'm not too sure
why there are pretty red leaves.

This is Melissa de la Cruz's first adult novel, and I LOVED it.  It was fun, but not ridiculous (some of the Blue Bloods kind of weirded me out), it read smoothly, and basically, it was like the perfect truffle- rich but not too big of a serving.  I also liked that although there will be more books about the Beauchamps, this book could be a stand-alone novel.  As in, it's a complete story in one book!  Imagine that!

North Hampton is an old-fashioned coastal town in New York, and three witches live there.  Joanna Beauchamp lives there with her two adult daughters, Ingrid and Freya, and their familiars: a griffin, a raven, and a cat.  Joanna's gift is wisdom, Ingrid's is Hearth, and Freya's gift is love.  Unfortunately, back in the 1600's, the three were told that they could no longer practice magic- they had to live as humans...  So Joanna is a lonely woman, Ingrid works at the local library as an architectural archivist, and Freya is a bartender, engaged to be married to wealthy Bran Gardiner.  Things are going well for the family until Freya's eye is caught by Bran's younger brother at their engagement party.  When Ingrid decides to secretly practice a little magic to help a fellow librarian conceive, things really start to spin out of control, and the events that follow start to look pretty bad for the family.

As I said, this was an excellent novel.  It's advertised as a summer read, and it's really perfect for reading right now, with the end of summer mentality going around.  For me, it's cooler nights, stormy weather, and an air of nostalgia.  Some Blue Bloods characters show up, which is fun, and there is a heavy infusion of Norse mythology, particularly at the end.  It's also refreshing to read the first book in a paranormal series where the paranormal beings already know about their powers!  All three main characters are engaging and likeable.  Joanna is a very motherly figure, and her affection for her housekeeper's young son is endearing.  Ingrid, who might have an unrequited crush, has a sincere desire to help others, and Freya's passion for love and life is energizing and sexy.  My favorite part is when Freya starts to mix up love potions at her bar- I love fancy drinks, and magical ones sound even better!

I'd recommend this to older fans of Blue Bloods- I like this book better, and it's got a positive energy flowing through it. I'm looking forward to the next book!

Review of Who What Wear (Allegra Biscotti #2) by Olivia Bennett

This book probably looks familiar to those of you who attended BBC, because that's where I picked it up!

Who What Wear

Allegra Biscotti Series #2

Olivia Bennett

231 pages

June 2011

Ages 9 and up

Allegra Biscotti, groundbreaking new fashion designer, has a secret.  She is actually a 14 year old girl named Emma Rose living in Manhattan.  In book 1, The Allegra Biscotti Collection, she is accidentally discovered and asked to keep silent about her real identity.  After all, who would take a 14 year old fashion designer seriously?  In this installment, Emma is asked to design a collection for an exciting display AND a dress for a swanky Sweet Sixteen Party for a student at her school.  With a bumbling new Italian assistant, a best friend who doesn't understand why Emma is so busy all of a sudden, and the mother running the Sweet Sixteen Party all trying to make Emma's life more difficult, how is she ever supposed to get the new collection designed in time?

Obviously this book is written for younger than YA.  The back of the book labels it as Juvenile Fiction/Independent Reader, and the content is certainly appropriate for young children.  I picked up the book mostly because of the ADORABLE cover and cute sketches throughout, as well as the catchy name.  I have not read book 1, but I plan to at some point!

I enjoyed this book because it was so fun, and Emma's best guy friend, Charlie, is hilarious.  I would love to be friends with him even now.  The descriptions of the clothes are also really fun- I wish there really was an Allegra Biscotti!

One thing that I would change about the book is that I was totally convinced that there was a sinister sub-plot brewing, but the climax was actually a bit of a let down.  The "action" ended too soon, in my opinion, but the ending was also really sweet.  Sometimes it is nice when everything works out smoothly in the end, and perhaps it has been too long since I've read juvenile fiction of this type.

I would recommend this as juvenile chick lit, and girls around the 3rd-6th grades would probably enjoy it.  It was very easy to read, and it might be a good "book club" type book for girl scouts or something- there is definitely a positive girl power message.  It could also be a great book to read to kids before bed. Super cute and very fun.

Review- Radiance by Alyson Noel

Copyright 2010

When I grabbed this book from the library, I didn't know that it was a spin off from another series.  I haven't read the other series, so I can't say how they compare, but I enjoyed this book despite lacking whatever background I missed.

Riley has died and is now learning about life in the Here & Now (author's idea of afterlife, kind of reminded me of how JK Rowling represents the afterlife).  She is assigned to go back to earth to collect a soul that has refused to cross over.

This book features beautiful descriptions- not so much description that I got bored, but enough that it was easy to picture the setting in my mind.  The story is good, but it could be better.  I thought that the book was too short- maybe I have just read too many long books lately, but I like for there to be a well-developed storyline.  This book seemed like a dream, where you get a blurred view of the whole picture.  I'd love for there to be more exploration of the Here & Now.  This book does have a sequel, which will come out in March of 2011.

I give this book 3 stars- I don't think that I will pick up the sequel, and I just don't think that it was in depth enough for me to really get into it.  The cover is certainly beautiful, so if you are intrigued, give it a shot.  The book is short and thought provoking about death and the afterlife.

Review- The Skein and the Pair by Kathy Flanary Nelson

Thanks to the author, Kathy F. Nelson, for sending me this book to review!

The Skein and the Pair, published in 2010

This book is a cute story about a family of geese who pair up and fly across country to raise families.  It's very short, only 92 pages, and a great read for fall.  I can imagine really enjoying reading it to kids on a camping trip.  It's definitely appropriate for families, and I think I might read parts of it to my students some time.

Pros:  informative, cute, and original.  The geese are personified, but it is obvious that the author spent a lot of time observing the geese to understand their behaviors.  It was fun to read about what geese might be thinking when they do the silly things that we observe them doing!  Some of the imagery was amazing without being burdeningly descriptive.

Cons:  The punctuation is really messed up, and this was distracting to me.  Some of the dialogue also seemed very forced.  I also wished the story was longer with a more developed plot.  That said, this was the perfect length for a family read.

3 stars.  :D