Off the Bookshelf: HEARTLESS,by Marissa Meyer

Everybody knows Marissa Meyer for her Lunar Chronicles. I first heard about them -- at least where the title and the concept of the stories stuck in my head -- at the Realm Makers conference when Kathy Tyers (Firebird series) gave the opening lines of CINDER as an example of a great hook, to pull readers into the story and the story world.

CINDER, SCARLET, CRESS and the other books in the Lunar Chronicles retell classic faerie tales in an SF setting. For instance, CINDER is the story of Cinderella, but the heroine is a cyborg and the glass slipper is her mechanical foot ... go read it for yourself. I'm still waiting to read the first 3 books in the Lunar Chronicles. Yeah, I keep saying I'm not going to buy more new books until I've made a massive dent -- more like a crater -- in my to-be-read pile/bookshelves.

So why HEARTLESS? The Cuyahoga County Public Library regularly brings in authors to speak about their books and sign autographs -- and oh, yeah, get copies of their brand new books. So less than a week after this book was released, I was sitting in a jam-packed auditorium with a copy in my hands, listening to Meyers talk about the Lunar Chronicles, about HEARTLESS, about her writing process, and writing in general. Pretty cool.

HEARTLESS is a pre-history of ALICE IN WONDERLAND, where the Queen of Hearts is still a young girl, the daughter of nobility, whose dream is to have her own bakery, rather than become queen of the land of Hearts. You really can't blame her, after you've met the king. He is no prize. Cath is a great baker, and she is never so happy as when she's in the kitchen, covered in flour or dreaming up recipes. Unfortunately, her parents are determined she make a good match.

Hearts is a magical kingdom, populated by Humans as well as magical talking animals, just like in Lewis  Carroll's books, with playing cards and the Cheshire Cat, food that is somewhat dangerous to eat, and plants that invade Cath's bedroom as a result of her dreams. Which is convenient when she dreams up lemons and key limes, to go in her baking. Plus there's the Jabberwock. There is also warfare going on, in the neighboring kingdom of Chess, between the red and white queendoms. Cath gets tangled up with and thoroughly messed over by some spies who come through the Looking Glass from Chess to Hearts to obtain something to save the White Queen.

There were times I found it hard to keep reading because I liked Cath a lot, and if you've read the books and seen any of the movies, you know what the Queen of Hearts is like. So HOW did Cath get this way? Well, duh, look at the title. If you're looking for a happy ending and for true love to triumph ... *sigh* ... you should still read this intriguing, imaginative book that had me muttering a few times, "Wish I'd thought of that."

From the Bookshelf: GAME OF THRONES, by George R.R. Martin

Yeah, I know what you're thinking. The book has been around for years, the series has been around for years, millions of people are anxiously waiting for the next book, there's a hit HBO series -- and I'm only reading it NOW for the first time?

Well, I've been busy.

Found an excuse. I'm working on a big sprawling ancient civilization fantasy series, putting everything together, designing different countries and prophecies and maps and such, and I'm trying to think ahead about pitching the whole idea to my agent and to various publishers. I came up with the brilliant idea: It's like Game of Thrones!

Yeah, well, I can't say that, and know what what I've picked up about the books and TV series is true, until I've read at least one book, right? Not honestly. Not without shooting myself in the foot if I'm wrong.

WOW. The copy I got from the library was 700 pages. To get the thing read in time for another book report, some nights I had to read more than 100 pages. But once I got into it, it was enthralling. And grim. And bloody. And sometimes I just wanted to reach through the pages and slap some sense into some people. And slap more than sense into other people. And then the author goes and he KILLS Sean Bean -- sorry, he kills one of the main point-of-view characters, who is played by Sean Bean in the HBO series. Seriously? Please tell me it's a lie, and they put someone else's head on the pike, someone who only looked like Lord Stark, that he's languishing in a dungeon somewhere, and it's all a nasty trick to discourage the rebel forces.

Whew! I don't know when I'll be able to pick up the next book in the series, but I know I gotta. Despite the grimness and the cruelty and the filth and desperation and good people turning utterly nasty for survival and stupid simpering girls who betray their families and woman who have to send their sons into battle and all the wretched politics (I loathe politics) and the scheming and lying and ... yeah, it's addicting.

Have I mentioned what the book/series is about? This fantasy world has years-long seasons. The long summer is ending, winter is coming, and legendary creatures who thrive in the cold are stirring in the north. The heroic king has grown fat and too concerned with his pleasure and comfort, so he turns to his war buddy to support him, because his own family is against him -- in fact, the queen's family has been scheming from the beginning to steal the throne out from underneath him. Well, our hero, Lord Stark, would rather stay in the north, where he knows he can do some good, because he knows winter is coming, but he has to obey the king. His family is splintered, half staying in the north, half going south with the king, and rebels are raised up and psychotics are given too much power and good people trust the wrong people and ... Wow.

Off the Bookshelf: SABOTAGED CHRISTMAS, by Carole Brown

Life is way too hectic nowadays.
That's a complaint and an excuse.
This book, by a friend and fellow member of ACFW Ohio, has been on my to-be-read bookshelf, then on the table next to my bed, and in my to-be-read list on Goodreads -- and even marked as "currently reading" -- for far too long.

Aaahhhhh! The glorious feeling when you snag a couple solid hours to just lie back and read straight through, instead of just nibbling at the book, a scene here, a scene there, in between chores and obligations and activities.

SABOTAGED CHRISTMAS is set in Carole's fictional, charming, small town of Appleton, WV. Our heroine is Toni DeLuca, a young woman who has inherited her father's construction business, and learns she has inherited a whole lot more. The only problem is that it's all wrapped up in secrets and schemes and old grudges, and people blaming Toni and her father for things they never did, making untrue accusations, and resorting to sabotage and intimidation to stop her from doing something she doesn't even know she's supposed to do.

Confused? Just imagine how Toni feels. Add to the mix college professor Perrin Douglas, who has come to Appleton with his pre-teen son, Blake, to get some writing done and get some peace from the ghosts and guilt of his past. When he reluctantly gets involved in Toni's problems, neither one of them is sure what they're feeling, what's smart, or who to trust.

I've had the privilege to hear Carole talk about further books planned in this series, and I suggest you plan on taking a trip to Appleton on of these days.

Off the Bookshelf: MIDNIGHT FOR CHARLIE BONE, by Jenny Nimmo

This is one of YA books I picked up at the Half Price Books blowout sale at the fairgrounds. I had actually been looking at the series whenever I visited the store, because there were so many of them. I figured, a series that kept going like that ... well, it must mean it's good.

Warning. There are 7 of these books (so far, could be more) about Charlie Bone and his friends with strange talents and destinies and mysterious, creepy opponents. The series is called Children of the Red King, and we're told right from the beginning that some are good, some are bad, and just because the parents are good (or evil) doesn't guarantee the children are good (or evil). They keep switching places.

Don't worry. I won't read all of the books in a row. I have to read A GAME OF THRONES and get it back to the library. Weird, huh, reading a popular book for homework? Well, I'm laying the groundwork for a fantasy series and I thought I'd pitch it as, "Like Game of Thrones," but I can't say that until I've read at least the first book and maybe watched the first season on DVD, right? But if you want to see some of the images I'm gathering for the books, it's on my Pinterest boards under "Tapestry: Servants of the Unseen." Gonna be fun!

Anyway, back to MIDNIGHT FOR CHARLIE BONE. Charlie is a little boy who thinks he's pretty ordinary. He lives with his widowed mother and two grandmothers, and his eccentric great-uncle who never comes out during the day and keeps to himself. Then one day he realizes that he can look at pictures and hear what the people in the pictures were thinking and saying. Grandmother Bone is delighted -- or not -- and she and her arrogant, nasty sisters insist Charlie has to go to Bloor's Academy for gifted children. Warning: it is not a nice place. Lots of creepiness, starting with the head of the school and his bully son. Charlie falls into a mystery, and makes friends, and learns to stand up for himself. He solves one mystery, dealing with a kidnapped little girl, but many more are ahead of him. Including evidence that his father isn't dead after all.

Seven books. I'm going to try for one each month, to kind of savor them. If you're thinking Harry Potter with this series, there are some similarities, but this story and hero stand on their own very well.

Spotlight Saturday: FINDERS KEEPERS, The Hunt Book 4

This month starts another giveaway -- that means you have a chance to win a FREE BOOK from Goodreads -- and from me, of course.

Go to Goodreads and click on the information for giveaways, and look for FINDERS KEEPERS, the 4th book in the YA fantasy series, THE HUNT.

Who are the Hunt? Children sent from an endangered world in another universe/dimension of reality, to protect them from a despot who wants to command their Talents. Given into the keeping of the Hounds of Hamin, the members of the Hunt have been separated by time as well as distance. They know each other by the scars--rows of teeth marks--on their wrists. Some have been in our world for decades, others have only been here for a few years. They have to find each other--and soon, before more enemies show up to destroy them--and find a way back home to save their world.

Finders Keepers

Iris Davenport hated the memories that came with world-shaking thunderstorms -- because she didn't want to remember she was a member of the Hunt. She was perfectly happy with her adopted parents, helping run the lodge on Smokeytop Mountain, exploring the mountainside, and doing search-and-rescue. The last thing she wanted was to face one of the Hunt and be reminded of the vows her parents had made when they gave her to the guardianship of the Hounds of Hamin.

But when a plane taking a sick boy to a a life-saving operation crash-landed on Smokeytop in a thunderstorm, Iris had to help. Even when one of the searchers turned out to be a member of the Hunt, who reminded her of everything she hoped to forget. She had her own life now -- a home, friends, parents, and a boyfriend. None of which she was willing to give up for a world she barely remembered.

Until the past caught up with them in the form of a traitor to the Hunt, and pieces of an old puzzle that could get her and her boyfriend killed if they didn't find all the clues in time.

ISBN/EAN13: 1922066656 / 9781922066657