Life as a vampire is not all it's reported to be. And that's entirely the problem. Being a vampire means dealing with constant nausea, delicate digestion, extreme sensitivity to bright lights (and don't even think about sunlight), and the fear of being found out. Because when the entire world not...
I needed this book to be a satisfying conclusion to the series, and it just wasn't. I was very bored by the plot, which seemed a rehash of the previous book - oh my! Prosper is out to get me again! Cadel's character didn't really grow much, and his supposed moral dilemmas felt false and forced. J...
so i've finally finished this series i am completely unsatisfied with the ending. Not to mention that i feel that cadel's problems have not been solved in my opinion. Though i originally began this series for the fun of it, i found my self hooked by the end of the 1st book. I loved cadels perso...
Cadel is back in another suspensful story as Prosper English returns and tries to ruin Cadel and everything he holds dear. Cadel must use his smarts, his looks, and his connections to find Prosper and his allies and put an end to them once and for all. This story is one of those stories that a...
This summer our library is doing a "Blind Date with a Book" thing, where you grab a random book wrapped in newspaper, check it out at the auto-checkout and take it home and unwrap it. This is the one I got. It earns an extra star for completely ignoring any but the barest possibility of romance. ...
I had just recently got done with reading "Team Human" by Larbalestier & Brennan, which also included the typical vampires, werewolves and zombies characters that are taking the literary world by storm so I had serious misgivings on this book. Would this book turn out to be such a dud as the last...
Good action-packed page-turner for boys and girls. Good strong central character, and I enjoyed the feel of being in that era without being overloaded with description. The relationship between Alfred and Birdie is very well done and quite touching. It is scary, but nothing too bad, not enough to...
While a bit of the climactic plot was a tad unbelievable *to me*, the rest of this book was awesome. I loved the historical fiction aspect of it, the authentic time period language used (with glossary in the back for reference) the nomenclature used for the different types of bogles (many of whic...
Pagan's Crusade by Catherine JinksANNNND I have in my hot little hands the sequel, Pagan in Exile. I was happy to find the fourth in the series ready to order for our teen collection. YIPEEE.I know, I know, the influences of caffeine are upon me. sorry.ahem(schooling my features into some sembla...
This is the fourth novel in the Pagan series, after Pagan's Crusade, Pagan in Exile, and Pagan's Vows. This one takes place about 20 years after the last book, and it's also the only one not told from Pagan's point of view, which is why it took me so long to pick it up. But when I saw Jinks had p...
After Allie's last experience with a ghost, she thought she was finally free of phantoms in her life—but that was before she went on a school trip to Hill End and found herself investigating several more of them. First there is the ghost of Granny Evans, pacing around the museum. Then she comes u...
3 1/2 stars"Pagan in Exile" is the second in a four-book series about Pagan Kidrouk, a Christian Arab from Jerusalem who joins the Order of the Temple. In this book, 17-year-old Pagan serves as the squire of Sir Roland Roucy de Bram, a Templar Knight, who has gone home to recruit men for the Seco...
School stories have been popular since at least the 19th Century when Tom Brown’s Schooldays by Thomas Hughes was published in 1857. I suppose that once school, and therefore childhood literacy, became common, young people wanted to read, and the one setting they all shared and could relate to wa...
When Allie's friend Bettina begs her to help her aunt contact a dead relative, Allie decides to join the Exorcists’ Club. Playing with ghosts can be dangerous, so Allie needs all her detective skills—and the help of her friends—to solve the creepy and compelling mystery of Eloise.
Hello? I think there's been some mistake. The life I ordered was the one with the gorgeous, helpful husband, the two well-mannered, angelic children, and the self-cleaning dream house. Here's what was delivered: Matt, the sort-of soul mate with great stories and sketchy domestic skills; Emily, a ...
Allie Gebhardt and her family have decided to move because they didn’t like their old house, but their opinion soon changes when they start to live in the newly renovated home in a small town. Allie Gebhardt also though that shared a room with her brother was bad but when she learns that her brot...
Silence reigns. “I’m here to do a survey!” Rufus yells. “I have some questions to ask the householder! I come in peace!” Still no one replies. After a brief pause, Noble raises his empty hands and clears his throat. “I am unarmed and unshod!” he booms. “I wish to negotiate a truce in good faith a...
IT HAD BEEN FITTED out with grey carpet, grey plastic seats and a drooping, greyish plant in a stainless-steel pot. The only splash of colour was a poster advertising ‘Getaway Island – the Perfect Escape’. Opposite the lift was a service window with a metal grille over it. The dark-grey door besi...
Men on horses. Run! ‘Wait.’ Isidore catches my arm. ‘You cannot outrun them,’ he says under his breath. ‘Don’t even try.’ ‘But—’ ‘Shh.’ He lifts a hand in greeting, while placing himself between me and the mounted men. There are six of them—no, eight. Their horses are big, powerful beasts, well c...
Brown; twisted; covered in lumps and knobs and patches of grass. But it doesn’t smell like ginger. Oh no. It smells like . . . it smells like . . . Augh. I think I’m going to vomit. Each toenail is like a slab of whalebone, and the soles are as hard as horn. But what’s this? What’s this? It’s com...
I knew about bridges – there was one at the Depot, connecting two gangways – and the large, white compartment on A deck didn’t resemble one at all. Only later, after studying Earth history for a while, did I begin to understand. A bridge was originally a narrow, elevated platform from which the c...
Reception was pretty good, on the whole. Cadel’s bug seemed to be working. Even so, during the first half-hour of its operation, nothing much had been gleaned from the snatches of dialogue overheard outside Jerry’s office – except that his assistant’s dog was suffering from some kind of bowel com...
‘Now I’ve come to fetch you.’ Though not exactly threatening, his tone had an edge to it. His clothes were so sodden that they looked almost black. His wet moustache drooped. Water dripped from his hat-brim. His shoulders were bent beneath the weight of his sack. All in all, he cut a gloomy, dish...