“It's been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.” | I had seen this series on various must-read lists, but had never read it. I found the entire series with gorgeous covers at an unbeatable price at Ollie's (and I had a coupon too!). To my great delight, I found myself immersed in the picturesque world of Avonlea on Prince Edward Island, Canada. Anne is a character that you cannot help but fall in love with. She is kind, generous, devoted, imaginative and has an impressive vocabulary. The first book follows the orphan Anne as she is accidentally delivered to Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, siblings of some advanced age who had requested an orphan boy to help around the farm, but end up with an imaginative and idealistic redhead. Their quiet, settled lives are turned upside by the little girl. The first volume recounts Anne's many blunders and triumphs as she settles in Avonlea and finds her family at Green Gables. This is an absolutely delightful story as a girl grows into a young lady. Anne is full of quirks, but her joy and optimism fill the story with whimsy and charm. |
"Please tell me you can see me," he whispers. Camryn's anxiety may have saved her life - while she was finding it in her to pick her mother up at her military job, a blast leveled the base, leaving Camryn the sole survivor. However, she woke up with a new companion, a transparent boy without memories and no knowledge of how he came to be as he is. Camryn falls under suspicion for her presence at the blast site and with her ghostly companion, Quint, and an unknown blackmailer trailing her, she goes on the run to clear her name as well as uncover the mystery of Quint's condition. “The only way out is through.” Etta is a talented violinist on the brink of making her debut when she is abruptly pulled through time and ends up on a ship in early American history. Nicholas is a former slave, trying to distance himself from his dictatorial grandfather, by earning his own ship to make his way in the world, when Etta shows up on his deck. Nicholas' grandfather is the head of a powerful Traveling family and Etta's mother has hidden something that he wants back. He sent his granddaughter Sophia to bring Etta to him and in exchange for Etta locating the object, which upon delivery he will return her mother to her. Etta and Nicholas set out through time to find the object using the clues Etta's mother put in a letter to her, but they find more than what they are looking for. This book starts out a little slow, but once Etta and Nicholas begin their adventures, the story becomes rather engaging and you wonder just how could things possibly work out. We will just have to find in the next book, Wayfarer. “It's always you ladybird," he says softly "don't you know?” Four years ago, Judith and Lottie disappeared. Two years ago, Judith returned and has not spoken since. People do not realize that because Judith does not speak does not mean that she sees. When the village is threatened by outsiders, Judith must enlist the help of someone everyone thought dead. The sudden reappearance of the supposed dead man has devastating consequences on the community, especially for the man she loves. This is a beautifully haunting story of a girl in love with someone she thinks she can never have. This is a highly engaging story, wonderfully told by a young woman who didn't think she had a voice. “Over everything, I choose you” Cath could spend the rest of her life baking in a little bakery with her best friend, Mary Ann, but as the daughter of a marquess, but Cath's mother wants to see her married to the king. However, at a ball thrown by the king, Cath becomes acquainted with the new court joker, Jest and becomes rather enthralled with him. Cath does all she can to put off the interest of the king and make plans to live her life her own way, but life just gets more and more complicated. This is the delightful and heartbreaking story of the Queen of Hearts before she became the queen that Alice encounters in her adventures. “I love you, a thousand times over. And I will never apologize for it.” Every night the boy-king of Khorasan takes a new wife and in the morning she is dead. Shahrzhad does the unthinkable - she volunteers to be the caliph's next wife. However, she vows that she will put an end to his murderous reign by killing him. Shahrzad enchants Khalid with stories that cannot be completed in one night, thus preventing her execution. During her nights with Khalid, Shahrzad discovers that he might not be the monster he is thought to be. Meanwhile, Shahrzad's father is meddling with something dangerous to get her back and her former sweetheart, Tariq is getting ready to wage war on Khalid to get Shahrzad back. Inspired by A Thousand and One Nights, this is a love story tangled up in magic. While it seems that nearly everyone has read The Giver, does anyone realize there are three more books? Quick summation: Jonas lives in a community in which everything is regulated and when he is chosen to be the next giver he comes to see that there are some serious wrongs being committed in the community. In Gathering Blue, Kira has a crippled foot and after her mother dies, is taken in by community leader and mends the story weavers robe, but discovers something sinister about her community. Messenger follows Matty, who has an important role to play and unites characters from the two previous novels. The final novel, Son, is on my to-be-read-someday list but follows the story of a young birthmother who forms an attachment with her child (a big no-no) “She looked up. “A world of nevers under a never sky.” In the future the earth had been decimated by aether storms. The population has been drastically reduced and split between "Dwellers" and "Savages". Aria lives in comfort in the domes and life is lived in a virtual state. Perry lives outside the dome in a hostile landscape. After an escapade in an area off-limits in the dome, Aria is expelled from the community. Perry comes across Aria on his way to get his nephew back from the dwellers who took him. While there is immediate dislike for the other, Aria and Perry strike a deal to help each other achieve their goals: Aria find her mother and Perry his nephew. I purchased this book from Amazon's bargain books and I was actually quite impressed by it. I enjoyed the story and had to go get the sequel after I finished. The pacing is swift and smooth with some good twists. Highly recommended. "I'm such a mess," I said. "We're almost off the island and I didn't even ask you where you were going." Emaline's has just graduated from college. She is working at her family's rental company and hangs out with the best friend and boyfriend. It is smooth sailing until she goes off to college. So she thinks until her biological father drops into her life and Theo, the assistant to the director doing a documentary in her town. Emaline's life turns upside down and now she really has to think about what she wants in life instead of trying to please everyone. This novel follows Dessen's usual style and is enjoyable. It felt a bit on the longish side, but gave a satisfactory ending. I have discovered something totally impossible. I will be rich. Celebrated. A hero of science. And yet in truth I am so bewildered that I can only sit for hours in this room and gaze out at the rain. What can I do with such terrifying knowledge? How can I ever dare use it? Jake's father has gone missing and Jake blames his godfather, Oberon Venn. Venn is obsessed with going back in time to prevent his wife's death. Sarah has a mysterious motive for being at the manor. Rebecca appears to be overly helpful. Gideon, Wharton and Piers are all caught up in the drama that is unfolding. All of which surrounds a mirror. Venn is in possession of an obsidian mirror that allows a person to travel in time, but returning isn't a simple matter. Jake's dad had been working closely with Venn to discover how the mirror works when he disappeared. Jake has forced his expulsion from boarding school so that Venn would then be forced to deal with him. Venn has been falling deeper into despair now that it seems impossible for him to go back and prevent the accident that caused his wife's death and now he has lost his best friend in the mirror. Sarah is an escaped patient from a mental hospital and has begged to be allowed to stay as a servant, but seems to have an interest in the mirror. Rebecca was just a friendly local driver, but keeps showing up at just the right moment to help in some way. In addition to time traveling mirrors and excerpts from old diaries there are the fairies and the Forest which once you enter, you may not return. Though there are a variety of characters at play in this novel, they are all tied together very well. This is the first book in the series, so there should be a lot more development and I'm sure more mysteries before being tied together in the end. |
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