Waterfall by Lisa T. Bergren

Rating: **
Genre: Historical fiction, sci fi, romance
Series: First of a trilogy
Pages: 369
For Gabi and Lia, it's shaping up to be yet another boring of summer of uncovering artifacts in ancient Italian burial mounds. Their mother is an archaeologist. They do that every summer. But when they decide to explore the tomb for themselves instead of watching their mom do it from afar, Gabi is swept back seven hundred years to medieval battlefield. Lia is nowhere to be found.
Waterfall avoided some of the more annoying quirks of time travel romances. Gabi is fluent in both Italian and Latin, so there's no need for everybody in Medieval Italy to magically and conveniently start speaking twenty-first century English. She doesn't cower behind knight in shining armor whenever the Bad Guys come out to play. Half the time she's the one wielding the sword.
Waterfall is a very good time travel novel, but a deplorable romance. It's obvious why Marcello (aka Sir Shiny Armor) likes Gabi. How many fourteenth century woman have the spunk to repel down a castle wall with a sword in hand, pretend to be nobility, and back-talk a man, all in effort to find and save her little sister?
But I can't see why Gabi would be willing to spend fifteen seconds of her life fantasizing over this guy. He's described as being hot and treats her with all the courtesy that befits the lady she's pretending to be. But that means nothing to me. I have to see heroic feats of bravery or heartmelting acts of kindness before I bat an eyelash.
The climax happens about a hundred pages before the end of the book. Twenty of those are necessary. The rest is an extended victory party.
Then there's the title. There is no waterfall or even a waterfall metaphor in the entire story.
Waterfall is a good read for anybody who enjoys strong protagonists, action, historical detail, and hot guys on horses (with a disappointing lack of other positive qualities).

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Crimson Thread by Suzanne Weyn

 
Rating: *** 1/2
Genre: Romance, historical fiction
Pages: 207
Series: Crimson Thread is part of a multipe author series of fairytale retellings
     This retelling of the fairytale Rumplestiltskin is set New York, 1880. Bridget O'Malley has just arrived from Ireland with her family. All of them are struggling to find and keep jobs when Bridget lands a position as a seamstress in a rich Wellington household. That's not even the best part-she finds herself falling love with James, heir to the Wellington fortune. When the Wellington family business is in jeopardy, she manages to save it with a lot of help of Ray Stalls, her neighbor. But is it right to love James when Ray has done so much for her?
     This isn't a serious, dramatic, life changing book. It's one of the nice, happy ending paperbacks you read to escape from everyday life. And it fulfilled that purpose perfectly.

The Lady Grace Mysteries by Grace Cavendish

 
 

Rating of series as a whole: ****
Genre: Mystery, historical fiction, action
Average number of pages: Around 200
Series: There are currently twelve books, but it's an alphabetical series so there will eventually be twenty-six. Hmm...what will they do for x and z?
     Lady Grace Cavendish is Maid of Honor to Queen Elizabeth I, but she doesn't always act like a proper lady. She has little interest in finding a husband, makes friends with a laundry maid and an acrobat, climbs trees when nobody is looking, and occasionally shoots flaming arrows at pirate ships. It's all part of her job as Lady Pursuivant, aka the queen's personal detective.
     What I like most about these books is Grace's personality. She's not a typical lady or a stereotypical tomboy. She's comfortable living in a world of needlepoint projects, but she would rather be writing in her journal (Oh, yes, the books are written in diary format). And then there's her attitude towards boys. She has a guy friend and is actually engaged in the first book (though it obviously doesn't work out) but she doesn't really care about boys-even the handsome actor she meets in book six.
     The Lady Grace Mysteries are short, captivating books I'd suggest for fans of historical fiction, mystery, action, people who don't like complicated books, and avid readers who want a light read between reading more complex books.
   
     

We Were There, Too!: Young People in U.S. History by Phillip Hoose

Rating: ****** (No, that's not a mistake)
Genre: Historical nonfiction
Pages: 264
     Every day of the school year, teenagers sit through history classes, learning about adults who shaped history. Sure, they might throw in the story of a young person here and there, when the story fits the topic. They might mention a few teenaged soldiers or the girls who went on strike for better working conditions in factories. In America, they'll certainly mention Sacagawea, who met Lewis and Clark when she was only sixteen. But for the most part, the younger side of history is nonexistent. When I ask my friends what they think about this, they respond, "Well, teenagers haven't done anything important."
     We Were There, Too!: Young People in U.S. History, written by Phillip Hoose, proves them wrong. The book starts of with the story of Columbus' cabin boy and finishes with the young activists of the nineties. Every single story is true. Some of these youth, like Frederick Douglas and John Quincy Adams, became famous as adults. Some, such as Jennie Curtis, a young strike leader, vanished into history. Still others died as teenagers, like Samuel Maverick, a seventeen-year-old killed in the Boston Massacre.
     I like this book because it's the only one I've seen that talks about young people in history. And since the stories are real, it makes more of an impact on the reader than the average novel.

Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix

   
Rating: ****
Genre: Historical fiction
Pages: 346
Bella is an Italian immigrant, confused by the noisy, jostling streets of New York, trying to make enough money in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory to bring her family over the Atlantic.
Yetta is a Russian Jewish immigrant, angered by the horrible working conditions in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, trying to get the other girls to join the labor union.
Jane is the daughter of a rich American businessman, living a pointless existence of tea parties and dress fittings, wishing for a freer, more meaningful life.
Soon the three will meet. They find friendship and a cause to fight for. But as the cover hints, they'll also be caught in a deadly fire that changes the course of history, both their own and that of America.
Uprising keeps the reader in constant suspense through fire metaphors, foreshadowing, and shifting points of view. It's told from three perspectives with a slight emphasis on Bella, though I found myself liking Yetta the most. But playing favorites is a risky game when you know only one can live to become the "Mrs. Livingston" in the prologue, relating the tragic tale of her friend's deaths to another mysterious woman named Harriet. That gave me something to torture myself over.
"It has to be Yetta, she has the most reason to live with the strike and all."
"But Bella is the most sympathetic, they can't kill her off."
"I could spare Jane, nothing really happens in her life, Bella and Yetta tell most of the story. But she's the logical choice since she doesn't even work in the factory, she works with Harriet. Never mind that she's the one to talk with a Mr. Livingston when he finally decides to grace us with a cameo appearance, just enough to taunt us, and she's not in a relationship."
"But than again, neither is Yetta, not really, they could make it work. And Bella's crush isn't that serious. It's actually the strongest relationship in the book, not that there's a lot of competition, but that makes us more attached to her, so she can't die."
Or can she?
Bella...Jane...Yetta...Livingston...Harriet....Bella. Yetta. Jane. Aaaargh! I can't take it anymore! Just bring it to an end already, give me a reason the dislike whoever dies, just make it stop. Maybe I'll take a little peak at the last chapter just to see the name...crap. Mrs. Livingston again? What happens to the rest of them?
Ahem. Anyways, Uprising surges with fire, rebellion, and injustice. The injustice with the stark contrast of wealth and poverty in 1911, I mean. Not the fact that good people sometimes die, though that's in there too. Story's nicely woven with chilling foreshadowing and metaphors comparing the labor unions to tinder-wait, haven't I already mentioned this? Oh, yes, right before the prolouge. Great. Now I'm back in that mindset.
Just read the book. I know it sounds horrible, but that just means it's well written. Besides, you can't go wrong with Margaret Peterson Haddix.

The Invisible Detective: The Paranormal Puppet Show by Justin Richards

         
     Rating: ****
     Genre: Mystery, historical fiction, sci fi, paranormal
     Series: There are eight books. This is the first one
      Also published as Double Life.
     London, 1930's: The Invisible Detective is brilliant at locating missing children and pets, but nobody knows who he is...except for the four children who solve crimes in his name. But Arthur "Art" Drake, Meg, Johnny, and Flinch are facing their strangest case yet. A magician, two assistants, and an eerie collection of "paranormal puppets" move into town around the time an important politician goes missing. And could the puppets possibly be moving around in the night?
     London, Today: Arthur Drake ducks into an antique shop to get away from the rain and finds the Invisible  Detective's casebook. Strangely, his name and address are written in the book-and in his own handwriting. And why does he find he can remember things about the Invisible Detective that the casebook doesn't mention?

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Distant Waves: A Novel of the Titanic by Suzanne Weyn

                      

Rating: *****
Genre: ghosts, romance, historical fiction, sci fi
Pages: 330
     Jane, an aspiring newspaper writer, lives in a boring small town with her mother and four sisters. Sure, it's a small town populated almost entirely by supposed psychics and mediums, but a small town nonetheless. When her oldest sister, Mimi, decides to take a "short trip" to New York City, Jane is more than happy to join her. There Jane encounters two very interesting people: Tesla, a mad scientist working on a time machine, and Thad, his cute assistant.
    As the title suggests, Jane, her sisters, Tesla, and Thad all end up on the Titanic. Jane is trying to enjoy luxurious ship with Thad and ignore her psychic sister Amelie's prediction that the Titanic won't complete the voyage. But when tragedy strikes, more than one of Jane's loved ones will be out of time.
    This is one of my all time favorite books. I love how the author was able to mix so many genres and make it work. I also like the amount of historical details. Jane's small town is based on a real community and many of the details about Tesla are true. I would recommend this book to almost everybody, as it has something everyone can enjoy.

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