All posts by Kasey

About Kasey

Reads things. Writes things. Fluent in sarcasm. Willful optimist. Cat companion, chocolate connoisseur, coffee drinker. There are some who call me Mom.

Favorite Reads from 2013

Out of just over 100 books I had the pleasure of reading last year, here are my top ten favorites:

Glass Girl by Laura Anderson Kurk

From my review: “Glass Girl is a beautiful story of a girl who has lost not only her brother but faces the terrible toll grief has taken on her family. Meg’s emotions are vivid and gripping, as are the relationships she has with each of her parents and friends. The rugged Wyoming countryside provides the perfect backdrop for both the tumultuous feel of the emotional story and the golden-hearted cowboy who teaches Meg about courage, compassion and mercy. This is a novel that demands to be finished once it is begun. Tissues are a must.”

 

City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments) by Cassandra Clare

From my review: “In a series opener that’s tough to put down, Clare introduces a hidden world within the familiar landscape of New York City. The story rockets off to a quick start, leaving readers scrambling to turn pages. Snappy dialogue and imaginative creatures spring from nearly every scene. There were a few moments in which characters’ behavior was a little incongruous with the rest of Clare’s descriptions of them, but overall, this is a high-action story of drama and heart worth the time it takes to cross from cover to cover.”

 

It’s Over by Laura L. Smith

From my review: “Smith carries readers through a rainbow of expertly rendered emotions, from happy holiday celebrations to the deepest of heartache and the purest dawning of hope. Each of the girls has a distinct voice with a different perspective. This is a great series for the reader looking for some fun, lighthearted moments and open to the deeper lessons life has to offer.”

 

 

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

From my review: “In an android-saturated futuristic world, Meyer retells the story of the little Cinder girl, her handsome prince, and the magical ball that brought them together. Her version of the story again brings to life familiar roles – the wicked stepmother, stepsisters, a carriage fastened from an unlikely source – and throws new twists into the mix. Cinder’s world is crafted from a complicated social structure in which humans have the technology to save lives of the gravely injured by implanting machinery.”

 

Starflower by Anne Elisabeth Stengl

From my review: “Fans of the Tales of Goldstone Wood will recognize Eanrin as the wise and mischievous cat who often kept company with the Princess Una in Heartless, the first novel in the series. Starflower predates Heartless and tells the tale of a much younger and more, often humorously, self-centered Eanrin and adding still more depth and breadth to the already rich and lustrous story world Stengl has created.”

 

 

The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet by Stephanie Morrill

From my review: “This is a novel that is easy to love, full of the joys and disappointments of high school and teen romance. Morrill writes witty narrative with perky humor and great emotional depth, drawing readers into the very heart of this tale about a girl who feels totally invisible and the boy who truly sees her.”

 

The Mysterious Howling (The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place) by Maryrose Wood

From my review: “Not every governess is willing to take on three children who were raised by wolves. Literally. Now that they’ve been “rescued” from the forest by Lord Ashton, the children must be civilized and educated. Penelope sets herself to the task and achieves often hilarious and endearing results in this first book in a series which has been described as a mash-up of Lemony Snicket and Jane Eyre. The Mysterious Howling is brilliant and fun.”

 

Divergent by Veronica Roth

From my review: “Roth’s debut novel packs quite a punch, drawing readers into a world in which survival depends on securing one’s place within a group and virtue is everything… Though the early chapters spend a lot of time setting up the story, the pace picks up quite a bit once Beatrice/Tris chooses her faction and the initiation rites begin. From that point on, the reader scarcely has a chance to pause for breath, and may need intervention from friends and family in order to put the book down for things like dinner and sleep.”

 

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

From my review: “John Green has proved his valor as a writer worthy of tackling the deep emotional and cosmic issues with earlier novels, but this novel may yet be his most incredible work. This novel tackles the big human questions about life, love, and loss, exploring at once what they mean and how one responds to them. All this and yet the story remains poignant and breathtaking and sometimes quite hilarious. And tragic. This is another one to read with tissues handy.”

 

Review: Primetime Charity Anthology by Curiosity Quills Authors

Primetime
Curiosity Quills
Published October 7, 2013

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A crow with a taste for blood, a computer playing a deadly game, a terrifying Mothman, and a killer refrigerator, among many other bizarre and frightening villains feature in these dark, suspenseful short stories. An unlikely team of heroes includes a zombie and son of a witch. On a devastated planet, a young princess fights for her life, seeking hope for her people. A man whose bodily functions elicit a broad range of powerful emotions begs for death before his anger-inciting burps cause the world to destroy itself. A struggling “ghost-relocation expert” makes a deal with a murder victim only to discover he’s made a deal with something else entirely.

Some of the stories are simple suspenseful fun, while others flirt with a deeper darkness, exploring the minds of murderers and sexual predators. A few feature characters from full-length novels, no doubt hoping to pique the reader’s interest. Most compelling in this vein is the story of the Beggar Princess and her desperate resistance against powerful enemies who would destroy her people and home by titled “The Last Carnivale” by Vicki Keire. “Trevor,” the story of a bored spaceship computer who wreaks havoc on its crew was another highly enjoyable tale, though a little dark.

It should also be noted that 10% of the proceeds from this collection and its sister collection titled After Dark, will be donated to selected No-Kill shelters across the USA.

Language Content
Severe; moderate frequency.

Sexual Content
In one story a man briefly confesses to abuse committed on him by his mother. He makes love to a woman he has just met. The scene is brief and includes some sensual descriptions. A woman discusses falling in love with and sharing an intimate relationship with another young woman. In another story, a terminally ill prostitute recounts his life, beginning with abuse at the hands of a church leader. Details are brief. Other stories reference sex or characters off-scene who are having sex, but do not describe the events in detail.

Spiritual Content
In one story a group of unlikely heroes must recover a stolen religious symbol which contains power of both Heaven and Hell before forces of either side can get their hands on it. A demon and angel emerge as characters but without the context of much Christian doctrine, and neither side is seen as good. Another story features characters who sense ghosts and ghostly presences. In still another story the protagonist finds himself surrounded by friends and acquaintances who’ve departed before him. He wonders, as the crowd contains those who’ve helped and who’ve hurt him, whether he is in Heaven or Hell.

Violence
Several stories feature fierce attacks against protagonists, though most are brief with regard to details and only some are deadly. One story features a computer as its mass killer. Two stories reveal the identities of serial killers and describes the death of the latest victims. In one story, the victims are mutilated (details are brief, and bodies are discovered by police, so there is no little description of what happened to the victims at the hands of the killer.) Two stories feature characters who commit suicide.

Drug Content
At least one story delves into cocaine addiction, and a character overdoses on illegal drugs in a suicide attempt.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Review: Tension of Opposites by Kristina McBride

Tension of Opposites
Kristina McBride
EgmontUSA
Available May 25, 2010

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Two years ago, Tessa’s best friend Noelle disappeared, leaving behind only her red bicycle and shattered memories. Tessa forces herself to accept the likelihood that her friend is dead. Then, in a shocking revelation from Noelle’s brother, Tessa learns that her friend is alive. That she’s been rescued from her captor. That she’ll be coming home.

Desperate to revive the kinship she once shared with Noelle, Tessa calls and visits, trying again and again to see her friend, only to be told Noelle isn’t ready. When she’s finally able to confront her, Tessa finds Noelle – who now insists on being called Elle – to be a stranger, aloof and hateful. Tessa won’t be deterred, nor will she sit idly by while Elle follows her new destructive path.

Tessa focuses so much on saving Elle that she pushes away everyone else around her, including the handsome new guy and his romantic hopes. Max challenges Tessa to reach beyond her comfort zones, to make her own needs a priority and to have confidence in her talent as a budding photographer.

While not overly graphic in its rehashing of Elle’s abduction, this isn’t a neat and tidy story, with a clear A-to-B plotline. Just as the reality of returning from horror would be twisted and messy, Elle’s re-acclimation into her family and school is raw and difficult. Her decisions reflect her turmoil. Tessa’s choices reflect her feelings of guilt and helplessness. The deep drama sucks the reader in and doesn’t let go until the last page is read. McBride strikes a good balance between darkness and hope.

Language Content
Moderate profanity, mild frequency.

Sexual Content
Brief references to what happened to Noelle after her kidnapping. No graphic details. Kissing between Tessa and her boyfriend. Elle talks frankly about planning to have sex with a boy she knows is only seeing her for the attention.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
No graphic descriptions of violence. Very brief references to things which occurred during Noelle’s captivity.

Drug Content
Teens attend parties and drink beer. Some smoke pot. Main character is seen as a “goody-goody,” though she does drink a beer at one of the parties.

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Review: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1)
Cassandra Clare
Margaret K. McElderry Books
Published March 27, 2007

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When fifteen-year-old Clary witnesses a murder, she is determined to find out what’s happening. Unfortunately, she’s the only person who can see the perpetrators and the victim literally disappeared post-mortem. As she tries to reconcile herself to the strange happenings, she encounters one of the vicious youths again, only to discover that he belongs to an elite and mysterious group called Shadowhunters who protect ordinary mortals (which they call mundies, or mundanes) from demons. What they still aren’t sure about is why Clary can see them.

Before they can figure it out, however, Clary’s mother is kidnapped, and Clary is wounded by a poisonous demon. Jace, Clary’s newfound demon-hunting friend rescues her and brings her back to the Institute. There Clary learns about the history of Shadowhunters and about the ruthless former Shadowhunter who will torture her mother until she reveals the location of the Mortal Cup. The only way to stop him is to find the Cup first, but the location is buried in memories Clary has been forced to forget. Jace and Clary set out in a race to unlock her memories and find the Cup before it’s too late.

In a series opener that’s tough to put down, Clare introduces a hidden world within the familiar landscape of New York City. The story rockets off to a quick start, leaving readers scrambling to turn pages. Snappy dialogue and imaginative creatures spring from nearly every scene. There were a few moments in which characters’ behavior was a little incongruous with the rest of Clare’s descriptions of them, but overall, this is a high-action story of drama and heart worth the time it takes to cross from cover to cover.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Moderate/infrequent.

Sexual Content
Clary battles a strong attraction to the mysterious Jace, and the two share a couple of intense lip-locked moments, but nothing beyond that physically.

Spiritual Content
Clary and Jace briefly discuss whether Jace believes in God. After all, the existence of Shadowhunters is based on a story involving an angel, and they have been tasked with killing demons. Jace doesn’t think this adds up to the existence of real angels, demons, or God.

Violence
One expects a bit of violence in a book about hunting demons, and Clare doesn’t disappoint. Clary and her newfound allies face no shortage of monsters, and a few are not so pretty, but over-all fairly brief in description of their dispatch.

Drug Content
For her birthday, Clary visits a Goth club known for access to drugs and alcohol. She and her best friend Simon do not participate in these activities. At a party filled with supernatural guests, Simon ingests a strange drink with rather catastrophic results.

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Review: Edna in the Desert by Maddy Lederman

Edna in the Desert
Maddy Lederman
eLectio Publishing
Published September 9, 2013

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Thirteen year-old Edna is out of control, and her wealthy, indulged parents are out of ideas for how to handle her. As a last-ditch effort to reform their daughter, Edna’s parents drop her off at an isolated cabin in the desert with only her stoic grandmother and Vietnam veteran grandfather for company. Furious, Edna pulls out all her most manipulative, most challenging behaviors, but this time they have no effect. She is left with no choice but to survive the next two months with her grandparents, zero technology and a never-ending chore list. Her feelings about the desert change when she meets handsome seventeen year-old Johnny Bishop. When Edna stumbles onto the idea to throw a birthday party for grandpa, who hasn’t spoken in years, what begins as a ploy to gain more time with Johnny evolves into a deeper compassion and understanding for her grandparents and their difficult lives.

Lederman creates a memorable cast of characters, each unique and fascinating. As a parent, it’s frightening to witness Edna’s cool confidence and mastery at manipulation. One wants to slap them all the way to parenting classes. Edna’s grandmother is probably the most complex and interesting character of the cast. The narrative is peppered with truly insightful moments, though frequent ricochets from one character’s deep point-of-view to another’s sometimes interrupt the flow of the story. The deepening of Edna’s character and values and the closeness she develops with her grandparents make this a sweet, moving story.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
A couple references but no explicit words used. A crude sexual comment from an inebriated adult to a teenager.

Sexual Content
Thirteen year-old Edna and a much older teenaged boy engage in some pretty frantic kissing, but the exchange stops before clothes come off. Edna references the fascination her friends have with kissing and kissing games. She thinks the games are gross, but she recounts her friends’ participation briefly.

Spiritual Content
Edna and her grandparents attend church listen to a sermon about Jesus refusing bread from the Devil after forty days without food in the desert. Edna thinks about her own life and in what ways she might be experiencing temptation she needs to resist. She spends some time each day practicing something she thinks of as a Tibetan monk way of life, in which she tries not to force time to pass but exists in the present.

Violence
A boy punches a man in the face after he says something crude about a girl.

Drug Content
At a hotel, two couples who’ve been drinking heavily invite Edna and her friend to play volleyball with them. No teenage drinking.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

 

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Review: Fall by A. K. Morgen

Fall
A. K. Morgen
Curiosity Quills Press
Published October 5, 2013

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Arionna wakes in a hospital bed, wisps of memory from a brutal attack still clinging to her mind. Her wolf form lacks the strength to emerge, and Arionna isn’t sure she, her partner Dace and his wolf form will be able to survive when their enemies, Skoll and Hati, next appear. If they should fail, Skoll and Hati will free Fenrir from his chains and send the world spiraling into destruction unto its end. They must not fail, but at every turn, it seems their enemy is one step ahead, and Arionna’s injuries leave Dace nearly paralyzed with fear that he will lose her, a fear that only adds to Skoll and Hati’s advantage.

Dace and Arionna scramble for information, knowing they fight a battle ultimately doomed. One day they will fail and Fenrir will be unleashed. But now they fight to preserve the world they know and the lives they’ve created together. If only Arionna could piece together the memories of her past lives, she might be able to understand how to free the wolf inside her and beat her enemies back for another generation.

This second book in Morgen’s Ragnarok Prophesies series is laced with Norse mythology and supernatural beings. In the wake of the vampire/werewolf fan-craze, it’s refreshing to experience werewolves explored through a different framework, pushing toward a less common goal – saving the world – rather than struggling to survive and be understood.

Like many series seconds, Fall has moments in which characters wallow in the past or over-analyze the present, wondering what to do over and over. As the story threads weave together in the last fifty or so pages, Morgen regains strength and momentum and pulls out some pretty compelling twists for the story’s climax, making it likely that readers will be eager for the next installment of Arionna and Dace’s story.

Language Content
Extreme word usage but moderate frequency.

Sexual Content
Several heavy make-out scenes and references to sex in the past.

Spiritual Content
Main characters were created by the god Odin to protect earth and its inhabitants. In order to do this, they must fight powerful enemies Hati and Skoll and keep Fenrir from escaping his chains and destroying the world. The heroine reflects briefly on spirituality and the existence of one god or many and wonders what this means to her.

Violence
Wolf attacks and battle scenes appear throughout the story, sometimes told in detail. Descriptions are not overly gory, but the scenes are important to the story, so they are not usually brief.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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