Bliss by Kathryn Littlewood

Bliss was a semi-predictable but nonetheless lovely fantasy story. Rose Bliss, the most responsible of the four Bliss children, is left with the task of running the family bakery while her parents are out of town. While this would normally be an overwhelming job, it's made even more so since this is no ordinary bakery. It's a magical bakery whose confections seem to clear up everything from heartbreak to the flu. But not while the 'rents are away! For now, the magical cookbook is locked away and only Rose has the key. However, no sooner have Mr. and Mrs. Bliss driven away than mysterious Aunt Lily arrives on her motorcycle, claiming to be a long-lost relation and vowing to help lift the burden of running the bakery from Rose's shoulders while her parents are gone. There's something odd about Aunt Lily, though, if only Rose could figure out before it's too late...

Tween readers will enjoy this tale of a girl who's burdened with more than her share of responsibility and has a few insecurities about her appearance and self-worth. Mayhem and mischief abound, and many of the recipes reminded me of Mrs. Piggle Wiggle's "cures" from Betty MacDonald's classic tales. I enjoyed this book, and the cliffhanger ending was just enough to peak my interest in a sequel.

Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross

After soundly trouncing the son of her employer Finley Jayne is once again jobless. Running from the scene of the beating she crashes into Griffin King, who feels obliged to take the unconscious young woman to his home while she heals from her injuries.  His unconventional friends and employees, brainy engineer Emily and the hulking metaloid Sam, as well as his psychic aunt, Cordelia are all wary of the Finley, who seems to house two personalities in her fragile human body. But before Griffin can assist Finley in uniting her two selves, the group must uncover a plot by an evil mastermind known as The Machinist. The dastardly devil is somehow reprogramming robots to wreck havoc in the streets of London. Griff and his friends must sift through the random pieces of information they've found to uncover The Machinist's true intent and stop whatever devious scheme he has planned.

This novel is great fun. It successfully combines Steampunk and plot elements from several classic novels (I can't reveal which ones or I might spoil the plot) to form a very readable teen novel with memorable characters. I highly recommend this novel to fans of adventures, thrillers, historical fiction and fantasy.

The Iron Thorn by Caitlin Kittredge

Aoife (pronounced Eefa) is just a few weeks shy of her sixteenth birthday. Unlike most teens, this is an event she’s dreading. At age sixteen Aoife’s mother, Nerissa, and her brother, Conrad, went mad, and the necrovirus that ate away at their logic and reason lies dormant in Aoife’s blood. Aoife, now a ward of the city of Lovecraft, expects that she, too, will go mad on her birthday. Until then she applies herself to the thing she loves – engineering. She’s always had a knack for working with machines, and she studies hard at the School of Engines. Perhaps the numbers, figures and pure science running through her mind will keep the madness at bay.

Then Conrad makes contact via a stained letter slipped under Aoife’s dormroom door. The ghost ink yields a strange and frightening message:

“The ink of the HELP lifted off the page, suspended in the smoke, corpse-pale. As the smoke dissipated, the ink stretched and re-formed, spelling a new phrase in its ghostly hand, the encoded message the ghost ink had kept hidden.

Go to Graystone

Find the witch’s alphabet

Save yourself”

With these words Aoife’s life changes and expands in ways she could never have imagined. Along with her best friend, Cal, Aoife hires the handsome guide Dean Harrison to sneak them out of the city to her father’s house in Arkham. Aoife thought that getting out of Lovecraft would be the difficult part, but more hazards lie ahead than behind. Once at Arkham the trio will find long-buried family secrets, dangerous creatures and maybe even romance…if they survive.

This novel was simply amazing. The author has invented an alternate reality where logic and reason dictate social norms, and those who believe otherwise, the heretics, are hunted down and punished by cowled, over-lording proctors. In the midst of this closed environment Aoife shines in her determination and stubborn refusal to be anything other than herself. Her personality is deftly drawn by Kittredge, and readers will find themselves cheering for her as she risks everything to find her brother. Personally, I can't wait for the second book in this new, exciting series, and I highly recommend it to fans of steampunk, fantasy and adventure.

The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima (A Seven Realms Novel)

The destinies of four teens begin to intertwine in this intriguing fantasy. Raisa, princess heir of the Fells, feels restricted, trapped in her royal duties. Amon, her childhood friend, has returned from Warrior school a different, more soldierly, man. Han "Cuffs" Alister is a street rat and former thief struggling to lead life on the straight and narrow. And Dancer, son of the clan and Han's friend, has become secretive and moody, prone to long silences and snappish remarks. Secrets, both those they keep and those kept from them, drive these teens inexorably toward their destinies.

This first book in a trilogy has a slow start, but the author takes that time to really develop the characters. About a hundred pages in the book really grabbed my interest, and by the end I was totally riveted. I can't wait to get my hands on book two!

The Percy Jackson Countdown: Day Ten: Beka Cooper

16-year-old Beka Cooper is a product of the rough-and-tumble Lower City. Having spent the first half of her life in the slums, she is driven by the need to do what is right and see justice done. To that end, she has become a "Puppy," or trainee, in the Provost’s Guard, commonly known as the Provost’s Dogs. These guards serve the King as protectors of the city of Corus. Beka requests an assignment in the notoriously dangerous Lower City, her former home, and becomes the puppy of guards Matthias Tunstall and Clara Goodwin. These teachers are two of the best and toughest "Dogs" in the guard, and they set Beka straight to work, cracking heads and enforcing the law. As a puppy, Beka’s job is to chase down criminals and help bring them to justice; her only weapons are her wooden baton, her wits, and her ability to listen. This latter skill is helped by her magical ability to hear the ghostly whispers of the dead, carried by pigeons and dust spinners. She is also befriended by a supernatural cat named Pounce, and has a few loyal human friends to make life more bearable. As Beka settles into the routine of work in the Provost’s guard she begins to hear rumors of a nefarious criminal called the Shadow Snake.

The Snake kidnaps young children of the Lower City and holds them ransom for unique trinkets and family heirlooms. If the ransom is not paid, the children are either returned dead or are simply never seen again. Beka is outraged that the Shadow Snake has been preying on the city’s poor and unnoticed. And there’s something else. Among the spirits Beka hears are those of adults killed by poison and buried in the basements where they fell. Even though the old neighborhood has always been troublesome, this increase in crime is intolerable to Beka, and she aims to protect it against all odds. As she and her Dogs keep getting stymied in their pursuit of the killers, it is Beka who refuses to give up, pursuing even the smallest clue with the tenacity of a terrier, from which she gets her nickname.


Beka Cooper by Tamora Pierce
Book 1: Terrier
Book 2: Bloodhound
Book 3: Mastiff (due to be published sometime this year)

Ms. Heather's Note: Though Beka Cooper is my favorite, I really enjoyed all of Tamora Pierce's books. Her heroines are strong and courageous and all of her characters are very real. Though the different series' relate to each other, they don't have to be read in order...but it is more fun that way! For a list of all of the books in all of the series, check out her website: http://www.tamora-pierce.com/books.html

The Percy Jackson Countdown: Day Eight: Artemis Fowl

Twelve-year-old Artemis Fowl took over his family's evil criminal empire after his father's disappearance and his mother's nervous breakdown. The family’s fortunes are dwindling, though, following a bad business deal by Artemis’ now missing father. What does a millionaire boy genius do when the family is teetering on the brink of destruction? Hatch an evil plan, of course. And since Artemis is no ordinary boy, it’s no ordinary evil plan.

Having obtained the Book, a volume containing all of the fairies' secrets, he cracks the coded text and acquaints himself with fairy magic and technology. With the knowledge of the true existence of fairies and their magic, Artemis hatches a wicked scheme to steal their gold. Using the knowledge from the Book, he locates and kidnaps an elf, Capt. Holly Short, intending to hold her ransom. Capt. Short, however, is not the old-fashioned kind of fairy, but a member of the Lower Elements Police (or LEP). As a result, Artemis finds himself up against the thoroughly modern LEPrecon, an armed and dangerous branch of the LEP. This wisecracking team of satyrs, trolls, dwarfs and fellow fairies, led by Commander Root, will do anything to ensure Capt. Short's safe return. This story has lots of action, interesting gadgets and nefarious plots. More than a fantasy, it is the story that might result if James Bond were mixed with legends and the folklore of fairies, trolls, and goblins.

The Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer
Book 1: Artemis Fowl
Book 2: The Arctic Incident
Book 3: The Eternity Code
Book 4: The Opal Deception
Book 5: The Lost Colony
Book 6: The Time Paradox
Book 7: The Atlantis Complex (not out yet – due to be published July 2010)

The Percy Jackson Countdown: Day Seven: The Gods of Manhattan

Look.

Now, look again.

What do you see?

Layered over our modern day New York is a spirit city, called Mannahatta, home to Munsee Native Americans, warrior cockroaches riding rat steeds, a papier-mache child. Built by history and legend, it's ruled by the Gods of Manhattan, famous men and women of New York like Zelda Fitzgerald, Alexander Hamilton and Babe Ruth. These gods amuse themselves by playing dangerous power games, including wrongfully imprisoning the Munsees's spirits in Central Park. And now someone is assassinating these immortal gods, which should be impossible.

13-year-old Rory and his 9-year-old sister Bridget live in present-day New York City unaware that these ghosts, monsters and oddities coexist alongside them. Rory has a gift for seeing this other world, Mannahatta, but has repressed this ability until the day he wakes up and notices things which should not exist in the middle of a metropolis…or anywhere else, for that matter. Rory learns that he is the Light, the only one able to see past reality into this spirit world. Unfortunately for Rory, a Light also is the only one who can defeat the forces of evil at work in Mannahatta, which is why all the others have been killed. With the help of his little sister and a small but fearless Battle Roach named Fritz, Rory begins an exciting, occasionally terrifying journey through this intriguing world. His quest will be both difficult and dangerous, because while he’s searching for a way to free the Munsees, evil assassins are racing to find him-the boy who can change the destiny of New York.

The Gods of Manhattan by Scott Mebus

Book 1: The Gods of Manhattan

Book 2: Spirits in the Park

The Percy Jackson Countdown: Day Six: The Looking Glass Wars

You know the myth...
A little girl named Alice tumbled down a rabbit hole and proceeded to have a charming adventure in the delightful, made-up world of Wonderland...

Now discover the truth!
Alyss Heart is heir to the throne of Wonderland, just beginning her training under her albino tutor Bibwit Harte when her evil aunt Redd, long ago banished to the Chessboard Desert, leads a violent coup that kills King Nolan, Alyss's father. Alyss narrowly escapes through the Pool of Tears and ends up in London. After weeks begging and stealing with a band of street urchins, Alyss is sent to an orphanage and subsequently adopted by the Liddells. Alyss is befriended by an aspiring author to whom she tells the bizarre, violent, heartbreaking story of her young life. Alyss trusted Lewis Carroll to tell the truth so that someone, somewhere would find her and bring her home. But she is devastated when she discovers that Carroll’s book, Alice's Adventures Underground, is full of make-believe, and not her story or even her real name. She sadly resigns herself to a life in exile in her new world. Years later, as she is preparing to marry Prince Leopold, Alyss’s dedicated bodyguard, Hatter Madigan, finally finds her. Dragged back to the home she feared she had only imagined, it is now up to Alyss to rally her troops, drive out her evil aunt Redd and claim her throne. Can she survive assassination attempts by the vicious Cat with nine lives, a spy amongst her faithful followers, brutal battles involving card soldiers who transform into warriors, chessmen, blades that whirl and slash, vicious Jabberwocks, and even carnivorous roses?

The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor
Book 1: The Looking Glass Wars
Book 2: Seeing Redd
Book 3: Archenemy