Trailer Tuesday: Boundless by Cynthia Hand

Boundless by Cynthia Hand



Paranormal romance, anyone?

Just last week I introduced a seventh grader to Cynthia Hand's Unearthly.  She devoured it and took the second book, Hallowed, home with her for MLK weekend.  And what perfect timing, because the third book in the trilogy releases today!



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Trailer Tuesday: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Aw yeah!  It's time for a little Southern Gothic Paranormal Romance!  Enter: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl's Beautiful Creatures.



I'm pretty sure that I received an ARC of this title from ALA or BEA several years ago.  And I loved it.    The setting is all dark and moody and mysterious.  And any time that the setting is a character in itself (like Manhattan in The Diviners), you can be pretty sure I'm going to yammer on about how I couldn't put the book down and loved it so much.  Such is the case with this one.

Ooooh!  And now it's being made into a movie!  If you haven't read it yet, you'll probably want to make sure you do before February 13th.



The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Review in a Few: The Tear Collector by Patrick Jones

Teen librarian, turned young adult author Patrick Jones returns with a supernatural romance with a twist on vampire lore: The Tear Collector.

For Cass and her family, there's no blood sucking. Instead, they thrive off human tears and emotion. The leader of the school's peer counseling group, varsity swimmer and one of the popular girls, Cass is always there if you need a shoulder to cry on. But no one ever gets too close, and no one really knows who - or what - Cass really is.

As Cass journeys through high school breaking hearts, going as far as a Catholic girl can go (read: this book is NOT for middle school), and planting herself in the middle of any scenario that just might devolve into tears, she maintains an unquestioning loyalty to her family. Then tragedy strikes and a new boy enters the picture. Suddenly, she doubts her family's way of life and starts looking for an escape. At just about the same time, another student begins picking up on clues to Cass' real identity.

An interesting new take on the succubus, which really seems to work. Lots of details remain to be filled in about the family and their way of life. A secondary storyline develops speed throughout the novel and builds to the climax while providing the setup for a sequel. Check it out.

The Tear Collector

by Patrick Jones

Walker Books for Young Readers

Release Date: September 1, 2009

Recommended for: High schoolers into supernatural romance

Review copy received from publisher at BEA.

Twilight Zone?: Shiver Me Timbers

Back at ALA one of the publisher booths was handing out ARCs of an upcoming title. I wasn't really in the mood to carry more stuff around, but the woman at the booth was practically forcing everyone who walked by to get a copy. So I took one, feeling no sense of urgency to read it until it got a mention at Early Word...and then it made it to the top of my TBR list.

The book: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

The story: As a child, Grace was attacked by wolves. She miraculously made it out alive, and ever since has had a fascination with the wolves in the woods behind her house. Now a teenager, Grace is particularly captivated by one wolf in particular - the one with the yellow eyes. When another student at her school turns up dead, the wolves are fingered, and a hunt ensues. Grace runs into the woods in an attempt to stop the hunt and comes face to face with those yellow eyes - on an injured human.

The verdict: Twilight, but with a werewolf and better writing. Absent parents and unimportant friends? Check! Teen inexplicably in love with supernatural being? Check! Changing the rules everyone knows about said supernatural being? Check! Teen girl anxious to "just do it" while supernatural would-be mate hesitates? Check!

But...but...but...Stiefvater's writing makes the difference. Both writers know how to tell a good story that grabs readers and doesn't let go, but Stiefvater finds a way to convey the story with more "show" and less "tell." Alternating narration between Grace (human) and Sam (wolf/human) is amazingly effective at telling the story without it getting too sappy or overwrought. While Grace is fairly two-dimensional, Sam is more than just a shape-shifter, he's a musician, and music helps him make sense of the world.

P.S. I love that Maggie's last name means "stepfather" in German and that she includes a passage in German in the novel!