The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

From Goodreads:

A. J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. He lives alone, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. But when a mysterious package appears at the bookstore, its unexpected arrival gives Fikry the chance to make his life over--and see everything anew.

I can tell already that this will be a favorite from the year. This book was absurdly charming. There are sad bits but they didn't make me feel overly sad because the book is so optimistic and lovely and full of wonderful people with beautiful relationships.

It's also full of fun lines and dialog. One of my favorite bits from early on that gave me a chuckle- 

A.J. has never changed a diaper in his life, though he is a modestly skilled gift wrapper.

The exchange between A.J. Fikry and Amelia the publishing sales rep in the Moby Dick themed restaurant. Basically anything Maya says. The cop who starts a book club for cops. There is so much here to love. I grinned through most of the book and was sad when it was over.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

From Goodreads:

Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.


Neil Gaiman is hit and miss for me. I love his brand of magical realism...sometimes. Sometimes he wraps it up in a bit too much darkness and I find myself slogging rather than enjoying. Neverwhere was a slog for me while Graveyard Book was enjoyable. American Gods and this one, The Ocean at the End of the Lane are somewhere in between.

One thing I kept coming back to over and over while reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane is how much I prefer being an adult. I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again- being an adult is the best. Yeah, there's responsibility but also you can eat cake for breakfast and see a movie in the middle of the day. The boy at the center of this book mentions more than once that when you're 7 you're at the mercy of adults. You have to do what they say, go where they tell you to go, sleep when they tell you to go to bed. The narrative reminded me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's whole "high school is literal hell" analogy- having no freedom sucks. It doesn't matter whether you're at the mercy of parents and teachers or a paranormal being from "the old country" who is determined to confine you to smaller and smaller areas and make it so no one believes you when you say your babysitter is actually a monster. Kids are powerless and I think this book really nails that feeling.

So much of this book is just about childhood- the way adults will always take the known path whereas children will explore the hundred other ways from A to B. The way children imagine and fear and play. The way things shape our lives and we forget about them because we were young, even if we feel the echoes decades later. 

From Goodreads:

One snowy night Arthur Leander, a famous actor, has a heart attack onstage during a production of King Lear. Jeevan Chaudhary, a paparazzo-turned-EMT, is in the audience and leaps to his aid. A child actress named Kirsten Raymonde watches in horror as Jeevan performs CPR, pumping Arthur's chest as the curtain drops, but Arthur is dead. That same night, as Jeevan walks home from the theater, a terrible flu begins to spread. Hospitals are flooded and Jeevan and his brother barricade themselves inside an apartment, watching out the window as cars clog the highways, gunshots ring out, and life disintegrates around them.

Fifteen years later, Kirsten is an actress with the Traveling Symphony. Together, this small troupe moves between the settlements of an altered world, performing Shakespeare and music for scattered communities of survivors. Written on their caravan, and tattooed on Kirsten's arm is a line from Star Trek: "Because survival is insufficient." But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who digs graves for anyone who dares to leave.


Station Eleven is the best book I've read so far this year. As I read I thought, "This is post-apocalyptic fiction for people who are generally kind of tired of post-apocalyptic fiction."

Much of the book centers around the life and death of Arthur Leander, who had a heart attack less than 24 hours before the rest of the world came to a screeching halt thanks to a crazy flu that wiped out 99.9% of humanity. His existence should be inconsequential in the face of something much bigger but he echoes in the lives of survivors and serves as a reminder that ultimately it's the little things that matter the most.

At the Water's Edge by Sara Gruen

From Goodreads:

After embarrassing themselves at the social event of the year in high society Philadelphia on New Year’s Eve of 1942, Maddie and Ellis Hyde are cut off financially by Ellis’s father, a former army Colonel who is already embarrassed by his son’s inability to serve in WWII due to his being colorblind. 

To Maddie’s horror, Ellis decides that the only way to regain his father’s favor is to succeed in a venture his father attempted and very publicly failed at: he will hunt the famous Loch Ness monster and when he finds it he will restore his father’s name and return to his father’s good graces (and pocketbook). Joined by their friend Hank, a wealthy socialite, the three make their way to Scotland in the midst of war. 

Each day the two men go off to hunt the monster, while another monster, Hitler, is devastating Europe. And Maddie, now alone in a foreign country, must begin to figure out who she is and what she wants. 

The novel tells of Maddie’s social awakening: to the harsh realities of life, to the beauties of nature, to a connection with forces larger than herself, to female friendship, and finally, to love.


This was the first book in a LONG time that I stayed up late to finish. It wasn't amazing or particularly complex but it was thoroughly enjoyable. It's more of a fluffy beach read than it initially appears.

I read this immediately after China Dolls, in which I had to fight SO HARD to like the characters. Maddie, however, is very likeable and becomes even more so as the book goes on. One of the criticisms I've seen of this book is that the main characters are all just spoiled rich kids doing what they want but...that's kind of the point. They're absurd and eventually Maddie realizes she doesn't want to be that person anymore. 

My one big criticism is that the love story left me going, "Wait, what?" They had the odd interaction then she saw him with his shirt off and suddenly they were both goners. That could have used a bit more development. 

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

From Goodreads:

On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born, the third child of a wealthy English banker and his wife. Sadly, she dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in any number of ways. Clearly history (and Kate Atkinson) have plans for her: In Ursula rests nothing less than the fate of civilization.

Wildly inventive, darkly comic, startlingly poignant — this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best, playing with time and history, telling a story that is breathtaking for both its audacity and its endless satisfactions.

Ok, this is one I really wish I hadn't listened to. This is an extremely complex book with multiple story lines, lots of characters, endings and beginnings. I think reading it as a physical book so I could flip back to previous plot lines to remember minor characters and piece things together.

What I did manage to piece together, though, was lovely. Ursula Todd, through her various attempts at life, slowly becomes a strong, smart woman. What a gift to be able to try life over and over until you get it exactly right. Her stories are fascinating, heart-breaking, life-affirming. I'd like to come back to this one someday when the hold list at the library isn't a million people long.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

From Goodreads:

Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.

What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane.

Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that.

What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time.

I actually finished this one a while ago but then the nausea hit and I just never got around to writing about it, despite the fact that I really liked it.

This is kind of a hard read, to be honest. The story is very sweet but the ending is rough. You're pulling for the power of love and then...love isn't enough. The story made me think hard about the idea of euthanasia. Honestly I've never been opposed to it...if people want to die and their life is total crap for whatever reason, who am I to judge? But I feel like I came away from this story feeling the opposite. That idiot had something to LIVE for! Why didn't he even give it a TRY with Lou? I'm not sure becoming anti-euthanasia was the point of the book, but whatever. My change of heart is on YOU, Jojo.

Looking for Alaska by John Green

From Goodreads:

Before. Miles "Pudge" Halter's whole existence has been one big nonevent, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave the "Great Perhaps" (François Rabelais, poet) even more. Then he heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young, who is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart.

After. Nothing is ever the same.

Well that was...unexpected.

Warning: here be spoilers. 

I was more than a little flabbergasted when Green killed off the title character halfway through the book. I thought she'd run away or they'd all get expelled after a crazy prank but DEATH never even crossed my mind. 

As always, Green includes wonderfully snappy and playful dialogue. His characters are likeable and relateable. He just sort of GETS teenagers, you know? I love that he introduced some deeper thinking in this book- what IS the labyrinth? How do we get out of it? What comes after life? Can we ever really know another person? Exceptionally deep thinking considering it's a novel geared toward high schoolers.

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

From Goodreads:

Matteo Alacran was not born; he was harvested with the DNA from El Patron, lord of a country called Opium. Can a boy who was bred to guarantee another’s survival find his own purpose in life? And can he ever be free?

This one won a bunch of awards so I really expected to like it more. It's not that I didn't like it. I just felt like I'd read all of it before in varying forms. Futuristic dystopian society? Been there. Socialistic overtones? Done that. Growing people for their organs? Seen it.

Granted, I just looked it up and apparently it was published in 2004. So odds are good that it was published BEFORE all the others ones I read (except Animal Farm, which totally came to mind in the scenes with the Keepers) so it may have actually been an inspiration for a lot of the others I've read over the past 10 years. I think I just read it at the wrong time. Sorry, Nancy Farmer. I spent the whole book thinking you were derivative when in fact you are probably a pioneer. Props.

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

From Goodreads:

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, ELEANOR AND PARK is the story of two star-crossed misfits – smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love – and just how hard it pulled you under.

This book was a lot heavier than I was expecting but I also think it's an important one. Yes, it's about the beauty of first love and the sweet awkwardness of navigating a new relationship and I'll get to that in a second. But it's also about the victims of abuse and poverty. Park's family situation is loving and secure enough that he has the mental energy to spend a lot of time thinking happily of Eleanor. He can admit to being in love. Then we switch to Eleanor's point of view and she may be thinking about Park OR she may be carefully navigating family politics, trying to protect her siblings from their stepfather, or walking 40 minutes in the dead of winter o the store with her mother because they don't have a car. Park becomes her escape but then she can't trust the situation or any of the feelings involved because she knows how fleeting happiness can be. When you grow up with that kind of instability you come to expect it. Even create it. At the end of the book Eleanor has all but torpedoed her relationship with Park (though it does end on a hopeful note and Rowell has hinted that she may revisit the characters in another book). I know a lot of people disliked the ending since it wasn't hearts and rainbows but I loved it. I feel like Eleanor did the best she could with her situation.

While there is heavier stuff here, there's also a wonderfully sweet romance. It brought back some long buried memories and left me grinning like an idiot. Rowell obviously remembers what it was like to be a teenager and she captures it really well. Although, I do call shenanigans on Park's thoughts. No 16-year-old boy is that poetically romantic.

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

From Goodreads:

Under the streets of London there's a place most people could never even dream of. A city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, knights in armour and pale girls in black velvet. This is the city of the people who have fallen between the cracks.

Richard Mayhew, a young businessman, is going to find out more than enough about this other London. A single act of kindness catapults him out of his workday existence and into a world that is at once eerily familiar and utterly bizarre. And a strange destiny awaits him down here, beneath his native city: Neverwhere.

I read Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book at some point and loved it. I also read American Gods and thought it very good. He's got such a rabid cult following that I assumed I would love just about anything he wrote. But....I didn't.

Neverwhere was just a little too dark for me, I guess. The characters were plenty engaging (seeing a publicity shot for the radio broadcast really helped me envision them) and the plot was adequately twisty but I think the biggest part of the problem is that I couldn't see myself in the world of Neverwhere I wouldn't want to. It's a dark, violent, unfriendly place and apparently I like my alternative universes a little more sunshiney. Oh well.

Opal by Jennifer L. Armentrout

From Goodreads:

After everything, I’m no longer the same Katy. I’m different... And I’m not sure what that will mean in the end. When each step we take in discovering the truth puts us in the path of the secret organization responsible for torturing and testing hybrids, the more I realize there is no end to what I’m capable of. The death of someone close still lingers, help comes from the most unlikely source, and friends will become the deadliest of enemies, but we won’t turn back. Even if the outcome will shatter our worlds forever.

Ok this is still far FAR from highbrow literature. But! I really really enjoyed this one. The teenagey angst! The hilarious faux-swears! The twists that made me gasp "NO!" in my empty kitchen. I dunno, I was just really responding to this, the third book in the series. It helps that I'm 20 hours into a 27 hour nonfiction audio book so something fluffy and fun was perfect.

I totally thought this was the last in a trilogy but, judging by that ending, the adventure isn't over yet! Onward!

Fire and Thorns Novellas by Rae Carson

While I was waiting for The Bitter Kingdom to become available I realized that Rae Carson wrote 3 novellas about secondary and tertiary characters from the series. It speaks volumes about her characterization that I found then every bit as good as her full length books with Elisa at the center. Mara's story (The Shattered Mountain) in particular was fantastic, but I really enjoyed all 3. It really helped to explain why these characters became the people they are by the time The Girl of Fire and Thorns happens. If you're mildly obsessed with these books (I aaaaam) then these novellas are well worth your time.

On Goodreads:
The Shadow Cats
The Shattered Mountain
The King's Guard

The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan

From Goodreads:

There are many things that Annah would like to forget: the look on her sister's face when she and Elias left her behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, her first glimpse of the horde as they found their way to the Dark City, the sear of the barbed wire that would scar her for life. But most of all, Annah would like to forget the morning Elias left her for the Recruiters.

Annah's world stopped that day and she's been waiting for him to come home ever since. Without him, her life doesn't feel much different from that of the dead that roam the wasted city around her. Then she meets Catcher and everything feels alive again.

Except, Catcher has his own secrets -- dark, terrifying truths that link him to a past Annah's longed to forget, and to a future too deadly to consider. And now it's up to Annah -- can she continue to live in a world drenched in the blood of the living? Or is death the only escape from the Return's destruction?

About halfway through this book I thought, "WHY am I doing this to myself??" The spark of hope I felt during The Dead Tossed Waves when I thought maaaybe they'd be able to use Catcher's immunity to save people flickered out as Carrie Ryan just sort of ran roughshod all over the remainder of humanity. 

This is why I can't watch The Walking Dead and why I am Legend scarred me for life. I just can't handle how bleak zombie stuff tends to be. And this one was BLEAK. Sure, it ends on a very small note of hope but it's not what I was hoping for.

Also, something that keeps bothering me- why are they not BURNING the zombies? Like they knew there was this huge valley full of downed zombies that could all awake and overtake the ONE big city left in the entire world...and they chose not to just start dropping all kinds of burning things down there from the bridge above? That seems short-sighted. 

Anyway, I loved the characters but I'm still a little annoyed at myself that I finished the series. I feel kind of depressed now.

The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan

From Goodreads:

Gabry lives a quiet life. As safe a life as is possible in a town trapped between a forest and the ocean, in a world teeming with the dead, who constantly hunger for those still living. She’s content on her side of the Barrier, happy to let her friends dream of the Dark City up the coast while she watches from the top of her lighthouse. But there are threats the Barrier cannot hold back. Threats like the secrets Gabry’s mother thought she left behind when she escaped from the Sisterhood and the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Like the cult of religious zealots who worship the dead. Like the stranger from the forest who seems to know Gabry. And suddenly, everything is changing. One reckless moment, and half of Gabry’s generation is dead, the other half imprisoned. Now Gabry only knows one thing: she must face the forest of her mother’s past in order to save herself and the one she loves.

It's been a good long while since I read The Forest of Hands and Teeth so I struggled a bit getting back into the story. It IS a sequel but you could read it independently of the first book. I half wonder if the first book was meant to stand alone but then did so well that she decided to continue the story. However, I remember The Forest of Hands and Teeth being beautiful, almost hauntingly written. The sequel lacks some of the poetry I found in the first. 

However, The Dead Tossed Waves offers something that was seriously lacking in the first book: hope. I closed the first book feeling so dark. Everyone died except Mary, who would then have to find her way in a different town surrounded by different walls, still never escaping the Unconsecrated. The end. Things go a bit differently in the sequel. There are still devastating deaths and dark realities but that tiny spark of hope makes such a big difference in the overall feel of the book. What it lacked in poetry it made up for with faith that eventually there might be happy endings in a terribly bleak world. 

It still gave me nightmares but I think I enjoyed it a bit more than the first.

The Bitter Kingdom by Rae Carson

From Goodreads:

The epic conclusion to Rae Carson's Fire and Thorns trilogy. The seventeen-year-old sorcerer-queen will travel into the unknown realm of the enemy to win back her true love, save her country, and uncover the final secrets of her destiny.

Elisa is a fugitive in her own country. Her enemies have stolen the man she loves in order to lure her to the gate of darkness. As she and her daring companions take one last quest into unknown enemy territory to save Hector, Elisa will face hardships she's never imagined. And she will discover secrets about herself and her world that could change the course of history. She must rise up as champion-a champion to those who have hated her most.

I'm in the middle of like 4 other books right now but when I got the notification that my hold for The Bitter Kingdom had become available I pushed the others to the side and got cracking.

Yet again Rae Carson weaves a fantastic adventure tale. Each time I read one of her books I think to myself, "Now THIS is writing! And plot! And structure!" So much YA stuff is fluffy to the extreme. This is not. Girl power abounds though at one point she admits that sometimes she DOES need saving and she allows someone to come to her rescue. I think that's a powerful message to the YA crowd...you should do your own saving as much as possible but sometimes it's ok to admit defeat and accept help.

I've loved this trilogy so much I'm a little sad it's over. BUT! The end was perfect. Elisa finally comes to the conclusion that her power has always come from within. That she is beautiful to herself and that is all that matters. The guy does get the girl in the end (yay!) but it's her own realizations about herself and her ability to lead 3 nations that makes the ending so satisfying.

Also, I know I make this sound like a crazy feminist series but it's not. That's just the stuff I pick up on after reading novels like Twilight and the Lux series. It's just nice to have a book I know I can recommend to my young women without worried their takeaway will be that they need to find a boyfriend.

The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen

From Goodreads:

Jessica thinks her life is over when she loses a leg in a car accident. She's not comforted by the news that she'll be able to walk with the help of a prosthetic leg. Who cares about walking when you live to run?

As she struggles to cope with crutches and a first cyborg-like prosthetic, Jessica feels oddly both in the spotlight and invisible. People who don't know what to say, act like she's not there. Which she could handle better if she weren't now keenly aware that she'd done the same thing herself to a girl with CP named Rosa. A girl who is going to tutor her through all the math she's missed. A girl who sees right into the heart of her.

With the support of family, friends, a coach, and her track teammates, Jessica may actually be able to run again. But that's not enough for her now. She doesn't just want to cross finish lines herself—she wants to take Rosa with her.

I read Wendelin Van Draanen's Flipped last year at the recommendation of one of my young women. It was cute, fluffy and fairly quick so when Janssen recommended The Running Dream I added it to my list as well. It's another quick, snappy kind of read but it's not nearly as fluffy. This one deals with some hard things. One of Jessica's teammates dies in the accident that takes her leg. Jessica is angry and depressed at first and adjusting to life without a leg isn't easy. She pulls herself together though and quickly learns to walk and then run again. There were times when I thought that her character arc from angry amputee to inspirational story was a little too easy but then I remembered that this is a YA book and I just rolled with it. I cried more times than I care to admit. One I'd absolutely recommend.

The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson

From Goodreads:

In the sequel to the acclaimed The Girl of Fire and Thorns, a seventeen-year-old princess turned war queen faces sorcery, adventure, untold power, and romance as she fulfills her epic destiny.

Elisa is the hero of her country. She led her people to victory against a terrifying enemy, and now she is their queen. But she is only seventeen years old. Her rivals may have simply retreated, choosing stealth over battle. And no one within her court trusts her-except Hector, the commander of the royal guard, and her companions. As the country begins to crumble beneath her and her enemies emerge from the shadows, Elisa will take another journey. With a one-eyed warrior, a loyal friend, an enemy defector, and the man she is falling in love with, Elisa crosses the ocean in search of the perilous, uncharted, and mythical source of the Godstone's power. That is not all she finds. A breathtaking, romantic, and dangerous second volume in the Fire and Thorns trilogy.

So often the second book in a trilogy is the weakest link, a filler book that barely advances the story. Crown of Embers escaped that fate and, if possible, I enjoyed it even more than I did The Girl of Fire and Thorns. Elisa continues to grow, to find her own power, to take charge of her own life in the midst of her crumbling kingdom. 

While reading both books I find myself thinking, "This author is so good." The characters and conflicts are complex, with no obvious or easy out. There are sacrifices and betrayals and people who think what they are doing is for the best but is really not helping at all. This is the kind of fiction that sucks you in, beats you up and spits you out wanting more. 

I'm #5 on the list for book 3. BRING IT ON.

The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

From Goodreads:

Percy is confused. When he awoke from his long sleep, he didn't know much more than his name. His brain fuzz is lingering, even after the wolf Lupa told him he is a demigod and trained him to fight with the pen/sword in his pocket. Somehow Percy manages to make it to a camp for half-bloods, despite the fact that he has to keep killing monsters along the way. But the camp doesn't ring any bells with him. The only thing he can recall from his past is another name: Annabeth

Hazel is supposed to be dead. When she lived before, she didn't do a very good job of it. Sure, she was an obedient daughter, even when her mother was possessed by greed. But that was the problem — when the Voice took over her mother and commanded Hazel to use her "gift" for an evil purpose, Hazel couldn't say no. Now because of her mistake, the future of the world is at risk. Hazel wished she could ride away from it all on the stallion that appears in her dreams.

Frank is a klutz. His grandmother says he is descended from heroes and can be anything he wants to be, but he doesn't see it. He doesn't even know who his father is. He keeps hoping Apollo will claim him, because the only thing he is good at is archery — although not good enough to win camp war games. His bulky physique makes him feel like an ox, especially infront of Hazel, his closest friend at camp. He trusts her completely — enough to share the secret he holds close to his heart.

Beginning at the "other" camp for half-bloods and extending as far as the land beyond the gods, this breathtaking second installment of the Heroes of Olympus series introduces new demigods, revives fearsome monsters, and features other remarkable creatures, all destined to play a part in the Prophesy of Seven.

We found Percy! Something about having Percy at the center of the story brings out Riordan's sense of humor because I found myself cackling quite frequently, much more than I did in the previous book. Such a great mix of humor, history, action and adventure. The new characters that have been introduced in this series are all fantastic. They have a lot on the line and they're often the underdogs but they always come through, willing to sacrifice in order to defeat evil.

Also, I mentioned this in my last post, but the narrator is SO fantastic. He does great voices and he's so gleeful about everything that you can't help getting swept along.

Onyx (Lux #2) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

From Goodreads:

Being connected to Daemon Black sucks…

Thanks to his alien mojo, Daemon’s determined to prove what he feels for me is more than a product of our bizarro connection. So I’ve sworn him off, even though he’s running more hot than cold these days. But we’ve got bigger problems.

Something worse than the Arum has come to town…

The Department of Defense are here. If they ever find out what Daemon can do and that we're linked, I’m a goner. So is he. And there's this new boy in school who’s got a secret of his own. He knows what’s happened to me and he can help, but to do so, I have to lie to Daemon and stay away from him. Like that's possible. Against all common sense, I'm falling for Daemon. Hard.

But then everything changes…

I’ve seen someone who shouldn’t be alive. And I have to tell Daemon, even though I know he’s never going to stop searching until he gets the truth. What happened to his brother? Who betrayed him? And what does the DOD want from them—from me?
No one is who they seem. And not everyone will survive the lies…

This is the second book in the Lux series, after Obsidian, which I read last week. It still wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of passing the Bechdel test BUT I found the government conspiracy angle markedly more interesting and enjoyed this book more than the first. It helps that it pulled a Twilight move by making the girl LESS of a helpless wimp via power transference. I'll take what I can get. Also, I will admit that I love that Katy is a book blogger. Bless her heart.

I think that I will like the 3rd book even more. I suspect they'll be breaking into government buildings trying to bust people out next and that sounds like something I can get behind. I'm sticking with it.

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

From Goodreads:

Jason has a problem.
He doesn't remember anything before waking up on a school bus holding hands with a girl. Apparently he has a girlfriend named Piper. His best friend is a kid named Leo, and they're all students in the Wilderness School, a boarding school for "bad kids", as Leo puts it. What he did to end up here, Jason has no idea—except that everything seems very wrong.

Piper has a secret.
Her father, a famous actor, has been missing for three days, and her vivid nightmares reveal that he's in terrible danger. Now her boyfriend doesn't recognize her, and when a freak storm and strange creatures attack during a school field trip, she, Jason, and Leo are whisked away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood. What is going on?

Leo has a way with tools.
His new cabin at Camp Half-Blood is filled with them. Seriously, the place beats Wilderness School hands down, with its weapons training, monsters, and fine-looking girls. What's troubling is the curse everyone keeps talking about, and that a camper's gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist they are all—including Leo—related to a god.

Oh how I love Rick Riordan and his fantastic adventure filled books! Erica recommended The Lost Hero to me as a good audiobook option and she was, as usual, giving me a good suggestion. The narrator can make or break a book and this one was fantastic. Which is funny because I feel like the first time I ever felt really attached to a narrator was the guy who narrated the Percy Jackson books (another Riordan series). So whoever is in charge of picking Riordan narrators is doing an excellent job and deserves a good pat on the head.

The formula here is familiar- demigods unaware of their origins finding out who their divine parents are and getting introduce to Camp Half Blood. It's a continuation of the Percy Jackson universe (except Percy has gone missing! Gasp!) and a fine addition at that. I always start by thinking, "I can't WAIT for my boys to be old enough to read these!" and then I forget about my boys and continue onward because I'M enjoying the story so thoroughly. I do have a minor complaint with The Lost Hero- I got kind of confused about their quest. They were all over the place geographically often with only a wisp of a plan and I kind of felt like maybe Riordan didn't know the end when he started and sort of stumbled upon it halfway through and just made it work. The book feels a bit more cobbled than its predecessors. It doesn't make it significantly less enjoyable though, and I've already put a hold on book 2.