The Girl Who Played Chess with an Angel Tessa Apa
Big Planet Corporation
Published June 8, 2012
Currently Out of Print
Thirteen year old Florence doesn’t want reasons; she needs answers. About her father’s death. About her mother’s fierce anger. But Florence knows answers change things, and everything is about to change.
Things have been changing ever since the day she played chess with an Angel. One might think meeting a real live angel answers a lot of life’s questions, but Florence is taking things slowly. One answer at a time.
As she wrestles with her father’s sudden death and her mother’s bitterness, Florence begins to see life beyond her own needs. In her tenuous friendship with Max, she finds the courage to ask an even bigger question: is God real? Both Max and her mother are quick to provide their own answers to this deep question, but that’s not enough for Florence. She needs to discover the answer for herself, and that journey will test everything she’s ever thought to be true.
Filled with yearning and honesty, Florence’s journey is as captivating as she is. Apa dares to dive deep, to genuinely question, and to allow her characters that which makes them so human: permission to doubt. She brings an authenticity to her debut novel that few authors are able to show in stories of spiritual journeys. This is a very worthy read.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Sexual Content None.
Spiritual Content Florence wrestles with whether or not to believe in God.
Violence None.
Drug Content
None.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
When a mysterious peasant bests him at swordplay, Ransom can’t help but wonder if the disguise conceals the elusive girl he seeks. Once he tracks her down, Ransom finds convincing Annabeth to accept his help is no easy task. As she slips away again and again, always warning him she acts for his own safety, Ransom begins to question his orders to subdue and kidnap the girl.
Annabeth can’t stop running. With a price on her head and her prince’s life hanging in the balance, she must stay one step ahead of Lord Raburn and his men, those who would seek to kill her. Yet fleeing is not so simple. She cannot abandon the prince and her own father, who are both locked in Raburn’s clutches.
Desperation forces Annabeth to accept Ransom’s aid in a plot to rescue the prince and escape across the border. But even if the plan succeeds, Annabeth would have to leave her father behind. As she struggles to find a way to rescue him, Ransom is faced with his own choice: if he lets Annabeth return to the castle, he will not be able to complete his orders, and she may find herself at the mercy of a vicious enemy.
Annabeth is a deeply compassionate and fiercely independent girl. Independent almost to her own destruction. As she learns to trust Ransom and work together with others, she will have to relinquish some of the self-sufficiency she holds most dear. Though at first he is bent on following his orders, Ransom is captivated by the strange girl and her quest. He struggles to balance his commitment to his king and his growing love for Annabeth.
Greyson’s writing is simple and her story uncomplicated, but her characters are compelling and interesting. Annabeth’s War is a short, but entertaining read. The cover art is really beautiful as well.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Sexual Content None.
Spiritual Content Annabeth questions Ransom’s motives, wondering how he can do good things for others without any faith in God. She tells him of her own beliefs.
Violence There are some scenes of battle violence and brief scenes of torture, but no few graphic details are given throughout these scenes.
Drug Content
None.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Fourteen year-old Nicki Haddon arrives in Canada, ready to begin her training at the Fire Dragon Academy. But when she reports to the academy to meet kung fu master David Kahana, Nicki finds him lying in a pool of blood. He is only able to slur out a few words and begs Nicki to find a priceless vase and return it to its owner.
The search for the Chinese vase causes Nicki to question her past. She wrestles with the absence of her wealthy adopted parents as they manage their hotel chain, and her origin as an abandoned baby from a Chinese orphanage. Are her real parents still out there? Do they think of her at all?
Bravely facing danger and following sharp instincts, Nicki pursues Kahana’s attacker and the Ming vase. She gives her Chinese name so that her adopted name is not recognized. She lies in order to get a job and gain access to restricted files. She doesn’t appear to have any qualms about these actions. Along the way, she receives help from the butler, another Chinese family and the generous owners of a small deli. Together, they plan to find the vase and return it to its owner, as Master Kahana has asked.
I liked Nicki’s spunk and her independence. The characters kept my interest and proved memorable. This is a nice series for middle grade readers with a short attention span for reading, as it moves quickly and, at 164 pages, isn’t a long book.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Sexual Content None.
Spiritual Content None.
Violence Nicki is the first to find her teacher after he has been stabbed. In several altercations, Nicki uses martial arts to disable her attackers. She handles a gun that a kidnapper produces, but does not fire. No gory details are given.
Drug Content
None.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Hidden in a valley north of her homeland, Charynite princess Quintana waits for the birth of her son. Only in her dreams does she sense Froi, her love and the father of the child she carries. Even there, she is not certain if he survived the attack she barely escaped. Another person haunts her dreams as well, one she can’t place at first. She fights the woman’s presence, certain she is an enemy.
Queen Isaboe of Lumatere wakes with Froi’s name on her lips, an occurrence she can’t explain to her husband satisfactorily. Frustrated and feeling betrayed, Finnikin leaves her and their unborn child behind to join the men who seek Froi and the truth behind rumors about why he hasn’t returned from his mission to enemy Charyn.
Following the death of the Charynite King, Quintana’s father, Lord Bestiano has seized control of the palace. He bribes filthy street lords to bring him the dead body of the princess, along with her living son, the first child born to Charyn in nearly twenty years. Froi, his father, and uncle journey to the last Provincaros to rally support for an army to protect Quintana and return her safely to the castle. The only problem is, no one seems to know where the princess has gone. With the city leaders squabbling over rights and power and Bestiano’s men scouring the countryside, Froi must find her before anyone else.
Queen Isaboe, whose entire family were slaughtered by Charyn warriors when she was only a child, refuses to offer refuge to the daughter of her enemy. Though Quintana’s child will break the curse which has made her people barren, her unborn son may not be enough to heal the hate between the nations of Lumatere and Charyn.
In the last book in the Lumatere Chronicles, Marchetta delivers a powerful tale of two nations still reeling from deep wounds of war, and the few brave souls who will dare to pay the price of forgiveness. Packed with high emotion and witty dialogue, this is a fantasy series which does not disappoint. Though it does contain some brief but explicit romance, Quintana of Charyn eloquently explores themes of forgiveness in the wake of horrible crimes.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild.
Sexual Content Several brief scenes of sex or reference to sex.
Spiritual Content Some characters worship a goddess. Many believe the land of Charyn was cursed.
Violent Content References to miscarriages. Scenes of brief warfare and injuries from swords or arrows.
Drug Content
None.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
She heard the sound of the black helicopters approaching the day Mabby died. Since then, Valley and her big brother Bo have been hiding and waiting for their Da to come home. Staying out of sight because you never know when Those People will show up again. Valley wants to help. Da sends messages to Those People, ones they will not forget. Ticking packages that make Them listen.
But Da is gone now, and it is only Valley and Bo. Bo is forgetting. Only Valley remembers what Da said. Only Valley sees the bigger game. She will make Those People listen to her message. With one flick of her finger, they will feel her pain, her terror and never forget.
Indoctrinated from her youth, all Valley knows of the world is that it’s not safe. Life is carefully controlled by an elusive group who will shoot down anyone who tries to live outside their ways. The black helicopters will come. She marches along a dark path, fraught with poverty and abuse, determined to continue in her father’s footsteps. To destroy the world her enemies have created and make her voice and her story heard. Woolston creates a haunting tale of misery and paints the humanizing but tragic story of a girl whose life prepares her for only one fate: to become a suicide bomber. Readers who enjoyed Impulse by Ellen Hopkins or Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher will enjoy this novel.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
A small handful of heavy curses.
Sexual Content
Valley is abused by a man who is supposed to care for her and her brother. One scene briefly but graphically describes the abuse.
Spiritual Content
None.
Violence
This is the story of a suicide bomber, so it’s heavy material. However, there is little violence described. Valley threatens a boy and his dog. Her mother dies standing outside in a garden, but there is no gore.
Drug Content
Valley’s brother Bo drinks beer. Valley sips mead and elderberry wine.
Reviewer’s Note: A Deeper Look at Black Helicopters
I finished reading Black Helicopters as news of the attack in Boston began to break. Suddenly I felt like Valley stepped off the pages of the story and into our lives.
As headlines poured in, like most of America, I felt angry. Such senseless violence. What’s the gain here? What is an event like this supposed to accomplish?
The truth: Valley’s story awakened in me a grudging sense of compassion. Talk about a kid who never had a chance at normal. She was her own first casualty.
Tragic.
Yet this isn’t the word I think of when I see the images of the men who stowed bombs that injured and killed innocent people. And yet the choices made that led to the April 15 attack by the Tsarnaev brothers are tragic.
Innocents lost their lives. Survivors were forever changed. But before April 15, 2013, hatred devoured two brothers.
Please understand: I believe what happened was inexcusable and wrong. But the tragedy began long before those bombs exploded, and for Ms. Woolston, Valley’s story began in the wake of another tragedy: September 11, 2001. On April 17, 2013 she posted a blog detailing her response to the Boston bombing and the release of Black Helicopters. Like her novel, it’s brief but powerful.
Book Giveaway!
Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win a FREE copy of Black Helicopters by Blythe Woolston. (Winner must have US address for shipping.) Contest ends Monday May 13, 2013 11:59 pm Eastern Time.
Maya and her friends have been on the run since they discovered their roles as test subjects in an experiment to resurrect supernatural abilities. Worse than that, they’ve now become mixed up in a war between rival groups, both of whom want the supernatural teens for their own use. With nowhere to go and only one possible contact left, Maya seeks a meeting with someone who might help. Turns out his help means putting up with an awful lot of attitude and a part of Maya’s past she’s not ready to face. More than that, as Maya and her friend Corey’s abilities continue to develop, so do the frightening side effects. Experiment leaders, the St. Cloud and Nast Cabals may be able to counter the side effects with medication, but access to the treatment means surrender and a life in a gilded cage for Maya’s team. Protecting her freedom means Maya has to discover a way to negotiate with the Cabals.
Fraught with angst and romantic tension, The Rising delivers a story of desperate teens battling for independence, desperately trying to sort out who they can trust and addresses issues of adoption, abandonment and what it takes to make a family. While Armstrong nails some of the tense moments with keen dialogue, she often summarizes scenes which would have deepened the story and more fully developed its characters. Nonetheless, readers who enjoyed Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver will likely enjoy this paranormal novel as well.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Moderate language.
Sexual Content Kissing/ “making out.” When Maya shifts from her cougar form, she is naked, but the others are respectful and protect her privacy.
Spiritual Content
None.
Violence An accident is referenced in which a character was hit by a car. One character is shot, but not fatally. Maya slashes an enemy with her claws. A girl attempts to suffocate Maya. No graphic details to any of these events.
Drug Content
Maya’s parents are very permissive about alcohol and allow underage drinking, though no one consumes alcohol during the story.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
