School starts in a week and a half, and I didn’t even put a dent in my Summer Reading, but this week I did but in some good effort, finishing three books, all YA, because this has become my Summer of YA I guess :P

Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner

(4.0) Solid YA fantasy, with all the right elements to make  a young adult fantasy lover happy (danger! forbidden magic! cute boy with dark side! trees that can kill you! hints of romance and star-crossed love!) Liza, the main character, lives in a town run by her father’s strong fist, a fist that has come down on Liza many times along with his belt. The story is set after the great way between the Faerie people and Americans (? the world?) Liza is taught by her father that all magic is evil, and must be purged from society but when her own sister is born with Fae characteristics and Liza herself begins to experience magical abilities her father’s view of the world begins to make less and less sense.

As she travels in search of her missing mother, she must try to unravel terrifying visions, and learn to trust in what she was taught to fear and hate.”The War is Over” is a line repeated throughout the book, Liza, her father, and their town, live as if they are still on the front lines of war, where only the strong deserve to survive, and magic=evil. Because Janni Lee Simner is trying to focus on the aftermath of the war, and how it impacted both worlds (people and nature wise) she does not focus on the specifics of the Faerie War. I understand why she made this choice, it fits, but I’m curious and would have loved to read more about the history from when the BEFORE became the NOW. I’m just nosy like that. The author wrote in a casual, matter of the fact, this is life now, way, which worked well for this story.

The concept of this book was inventive, and enjoyable and the plot moved along quickly, giving you enough time to get a sense of something, or someone new, before they were off moving again, or attacked by something else. The author seemed to make a specific choice to focus on the characters’ reaction to what was happening around them, and not on the past, which worked well for the book… I am a HOW and WHY person so that briefly distracted me, and those questions were glossed over purposefully to show how pointlessly destructive War can be, especially when 20 years later the main character (and her town members) can’t even tell you what the War was about or what the “bad guys” looked like for sure.

Recommended to those teens who love their fairy stories just a little dark.

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Also finished two other Library Books this week, so it’s Mini Review time, basically quick thoughts I jotted down right after reading these two:

. 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

(4.5 )-Usually I hide from realistic YA fiction, especially the one with random faceless girls on the cover, I’m not a girlie book lets talk about boys and our period type of reader. If I did not already know Maureen Johnson is freakin’ hilarious I might have passed on this book. Glad I didn’t. Okay, so there is some talking about boys, one in particular, but he’s got an accent, so I’m good! haha I love mysteries, and this one kept me thinking “Okay what random and insanely funny thing will happen next?” Loved it. :D

27. The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry

(2.5 )-Oh how I wanted to love this book, It had all the classic Melissa Elements…magic, pretty dresses, thieves, pretending to be what you aren’t and having it nip you in the bud, cinderella-like qualities, a donkey that acts like a dog. It wasn’t even the HUH? origin of the “witch” (because I already knew that from an amazon review, I don’t mind spoilers really) It just fell flat for me, not enough characterization, or really details. It was a quick little thing, and Okay book but nothing to write home about sadly. Someone compared it to things by Gail Carson Levine, and while it’s probably a good fit from those readers Middle School and my late elementary princess book crowd, Gail Carson Levine’s works seem much stronger. This left me with a okay, that was….cute and all but I need some Robin McKinley to remind myself how real YA fantasy feels.