Sleeping Beauty by Jenni James

Genre: Fantasy, fairy tale retellings
Series: Part of a collection that will ultimately include 25 books. However, they don't seem to be connected and can be read alone or together.
Pages: 231
Rating: **
Queen Aleyna is the sole survivor of the fairy Villeria's massacre. She watched, helpless, as her family was slaughtered before her eyes. For the past thirty years she's been kept in an enchanted sleep by her faithful unicorn, Ezralon. The horrors of memory can't harm her as she roams her perfect dreamworld.
Prince Darien isn't one to back down from a dare. When his friends goad him into searching for the lost queen, he agrees only to save face. He didn't expect to fall in love.
When Aleyna wakens, they'll be forced to confront Villeria together. The fairy lost the princess once, and now, she won't let any sword or spell stop her from claiming her prize.
This book's main weakness is its length. Had it been a hundred pages longer, we could've gotten to know the main characters and develop the minor ones. Darien's three friends-George, Michael, and Humphrey-are virtually indistinguishable. Towards the beginning Humphrey's set apart from the others by his dialogue. He uses words like 'doth' in a few lines. However, these disappear as the story progresses, so maybe those lines were said in sarcasm. The other characters regularly toss around words like 'zing' and 'poof' that clash with the pre-industrial setting. Occasional typos also pull the reader out of the story.
Most of the Sleeping Beauty retellings I've seen have the bulk of the story take place after the heroine awakes. After all, you can't do much with a sleeping character. And since the story itself is short and uncomplicated, most writers find it necessary to go in a completely new direction to find a tale worth telling. James' creativity managed to find a way around both of these roadblocks. While Aleyna sleeps, her ghostlike spirit roams the halls of her ruined castle. This allows her to form a relationship with Darien instead of waking up to some creeper's kiss. Aleyna still sees her castle as it was with beautiful decorations and live servants. Meanwhile, Darien's stepping over bones and cobwebs. The story's told through shifting third person. The best scenes are the ones that contrast what she's seeing with what he knows.
For me, this wasn't a book I could sit down and devour from beginning to end. It's the book I pulled out to pass the time while waiting for my brother to finish up lacrosse practice. Not captivating, but certainly creative. Jenni James' retelling of Sleeping Beauty manages to twist the tale in new directions without losing the beauty of the original story.

Full Ride by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Genre: Contemporary
Rating: *****
Pages: 352
Becca Jones has spent the last four years keeping her head down. The summer before she started high school, Becca's dad was caught embezzling and used her as an excuse. "How is a guy like me supposed to put his kid through college?" Becca knows the only way to get into college is hard work. Now she's a senior with a 4.0 and no close friends. But that might not be enough. Once she was a millionaire's daughter. Now she's "at risk"-the daughter of a single mom living below the poverty in a dusty apartment.
Her only chance may be the Whitney Court Scholarship. Write an essay about a student who graduated from her school the same year as Whitney Court and win a full ride. But what happened to Whitney after graduation, and why won't anyone in town talk about it?
As Becca's deadlines creep closer her chance at college grows dimmer. Loneliness, stress, and haunting memories of her father tear her life apart. But her father might be the only person who can show her how to move forward in life-and what happened to Whitney.
It's always bothered me when characters casually describe themselves as straight-A students. If you have a 4.0,  you suffer for it. You don't have time for wild parties, hilarious dates, and quirky friendships. Your life is school. That's why it's so hard for me to take contemporary novels seriously. Full Ride is the first novel I've found that provides a rare, realistic view into high school life.
Some readers may be turned off by the lack of action in this story. Or romance. It's the story of a girl who struggles with the pressures of academics and shuts out her friends. But for other readers, it will ring true. This is a book for anyone who has curled up sobbing under a computer desk at 3:00 A.M. because they've got a report due in four hours. This is a book for the AP student, the honors student, the just-scraping-by-with-a-C+ student. Some may call Becca weak or whiny because the biggest challenge in her life is school. But to the readers who have never slayed a dragon or saved a planet, that's challenge enough. It's hard not to feel for her.

Top Quote: "Most people couldn't be rich if they wanted to be honest; most people couldn't be honest if they wanted to be rich.” 

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

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Rating: ****
Genre: Historical fiction
Pages: 343
Series: Stand alone
Before the war, Lina Vilkas dreamed of art school and cute boys. Now she just wants to survive. When the Soviets come for them in the middle of the night, Lina's ripped from her home with little more than her mother, brother, and beloved sketchbook. They're packed into cattle cars and shipped to Siberia.
 In the concentration camp she learns to live off smuggled beets, rotten potatoes, and hope.
So what is this, you ask? Another grim, tragic tale of the Jewish holocaust? Nope. Lina's a Lithuanian Christian deported to Siberia because her dad helped a family cross the border into Germany. For that, the entire Vilkas family gets twenty five years of hard labor in the middle of nowhere.
I think we've all read a concentration book or two. We know about the six million Jews who died in gas chambers. But the Lithuanian side of the story is rarely told. Before this book, I had no idea it happened. That's where most of the suspense lies. When Lina's family is uprooted from their Siberian labor camp you have no idea where they're going. Hint: it's the one place on Earth more bleak and miserable than Siberia.
This isn't a cheery book and at times it's hard to get into Lina's head. She's not one of those characters with such a powerful voice that you feel like you've crawled inside her body and stepped into her world. At times I had to look up from the book and think, "Now how would I feel in this situation?" rather than just letting her emotions seep in. But the writing is so beautiful in places like this-
I clung to my rusted dreams during the times of silence. It was at gunpoint that I fell into every hope and allowed myself to wish from the deepest part of my heart. Komorov thought he was torturing us. But we were escaping into a stillness within ourselves. We found strength there. 
-so I'll overlook that.
Like I said, Between Shades of Gray isn't a cheery book. It's a thinking book. It's the story of people making the most out of their misfortune and sacrificing themselves to help each other. Scenes and characters will stay in my mind for a long time, I'm sure.

Also, please note that this is not the same book as that sexed up lemon fic that somehow managed to sleep its way to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. Between Shades of Grey just has the misfortune of sharing a similar title. This video should help clear up any confusion. 

Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Patillo Beals

 
Genre: Nonfiction, memoir
Rating: *****
Pages: 290
The year is 1957. The place: Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas, the Jim Crow South. Melba Patillo is one of the first nine black students to enter the school. While the white kids are trying to pass math, she's just trying to walk from one class to another without getting killed.
Though I never knew much about Central's integration, I somehow assumed that the first day was the worst. Things got better as the year went on. The white students would get used to having black people in their classes. That's not at all how it went. The attacks only got worse as time went on.
At the beginning of the year, the governor's tactics to keep them out are so ridiculous, I almost felt like I was reading a dystopian novel. Thousands of civilians turn up to form a mob in front of the school. Then the Arkansas National Guard gets called in. President Eisenhower has to bring in reinforcements. No one should need a jeep convoy, a helicopter, and a thousand trained soldiers to escort them to school.
But it's not an adventure. This was more trial than triumph for the Little Rock Nine. Melba has nails, rocks, rotten eggs, flaming paper, acid, and dynamite thrown at her in the halls. The teachers are worse than useless. When a boy pulls a knife on her during an assembly, the teacher tells Melba to sit down and stop disturbing the other students.
By the end of the book, I was tired. I just wanted Melba's year to be over. And all I did was read about it. This was her life. You have to admire her courage. I know people who switch schools because first graders taunted them on the playground. Melba had death threats. Halfway through the year she considers suicide-until her grandma points out all the white kids would throw a party. That's the point when Melba decides to stop being a victim and become a warrior.
The most interesting thing: Melba never paints herself as a hero. She may be a 'warrior on God's battlefield', but she's the wounded, muddy, battle-weary kind. The people she does heroize are the ones who helped her out. Danny, her bodyguard, who helped her wash acid out of her eyes. Link, a white student who loaned her his car to escape attackers. Marissa, a mentally handicapped girl who saved her from rape. By clubbing her would-be rapist with a metal lunchbox.
Warriors Don't Cry is a searing memoir that will strike anyone who's suffered racism, bullying, or loneliness. It's a book for our generation to learn about the past. It's a book for older people to see what they never could before. It's not a pretty story. But it's one that needs to be read.

Ever After High: The Storybook of Legends by Shannon Hale

Genre: Fantasy
Rating: ****
Pages: 304
Series: First of a trilogy
Raven Queen's Legacy Year is not going well. Classmates flee from her presence, her counselor signed her up for Kingdom Mismanagement, and all the teachers want her to murder her roommate. At Ever After High, the children of fairy tale characters are groomed to follow their parent's destinies. For Apple White that means dwarves and a daring prince. And Raven? She's supposed to poison Apple.
Raven doesn't want to be evil. But if she doesn't sign the Storybook of Legends on Legacy Day the Snow White tale will be wiped from existence. Poof. Apple can't let that happen.
Then Raven discovers a secret. Long ago, two sisters rebelled against their destiny. They vanished along with their story. What if they didn't go 'poof?' What if there's another option? With Apple's reluctant help, Raven sets off to uncover the sisters' fate and rewrite her own story.
This novel is meant to support Mattel's new Ever After High doll franchise. Expect a description of Apple's outfit every time she walks into a scene. Gotta sell those accessories. The book's loaded with groan-inducing puns. Students eat in the Castleria, read hextbooks, and take Chemythstry class. But never fear, this writer is witty. There are bonuses for those of you who know your stories (Raven has a pet dragon named Nevermore) and pop culture references (students rock out to Tailor Quick and One Reflection). Plus, you'll find lots of sarcastic commentary on the fairy tale genre.

     Princess Darling Charming fainted and was caught by no fewer than twelve boys, who began to kick one another's shins to try to get the others to let go.
     "I've got her!"
     "No, I've got her!"

My favorite character is Raven's friend Maddie Hatter. At first I was reluctant to find Alice in Wonderland included as a fairy tale. It's a novel, people. We know the author. It's not some old story jotted down by a nameless, wandering bard. In Ever After High we meet Maddie, Lizzie Hearts, and Kitty Cheshire, but no Alice, oddly enough. The most intriguing thing about Maddie is her ability to hear the narrator.

     Maddie trolled through her hat, pulling out a pink vial of Embiggen Potion. She cocked her ear. "Yep, the Narrator said this pink vial is Embiggen Potion, so it must be. Thank you, Narrator!"
     Aargh! I did it again!

The Narrator follows both Apple and Raven though this is obviously Raven's tale. Apple strikes me as a very intentional Mary Sue. The girl keeps candy on her balcony in case an adoring crowd happens to wander by. It's easier to root for the Rebels-Raven and Maddie's crew-than the Royals, Apple's band of not-that-heroic princes.
Despite its lighthearted tone, The Storybook of Legends is a spellbinding tale of friendship with a powerful message at its core. What would you risk to take control of your own destiny?

Raven Queen

Apple White

Left to right: Briar Beauty, Ashlynn Ella, Lizzie Hearts, Blondie Locks, Cedar Wood, C.A. Cupid, Maddie Hatter, and Cerise Hood.

The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White

Genre: Fantasy, mythology
Rating: ****
Pages: 279
Isadora is mortal. As the daughter of Egyptian gods, that means most of her relatives can't be bothered to remember her name. After all, she'll only be around for a few more decades. Gods are eternal. She escapes by moving to her brother's in San Diego, where she meets Ry, a boy with the most annoyingly blue eyes she's ever seen. But how can she fall in love when she knows it can't last?
Then Isadora begins having dreams of darkness. Her eternal family is in danger, and she's the only one who can save them.
The great struggle in the book is Isadora coming to accept her mortality. If you weren't raised by Egyptian gods, this can be hard to relate to. I wish The Chaos of Stars went deeper into the mythology. Aside from Isis, most of the gods are background characters. They pop up in Isadora's thoughts and the first and last couple chapters. Mostly, this is the story of Isadora and her friends. Isadora's descriptions of Ry's blue-blue eyes and Greek god bod would be over the top in any other book. The type of mushy books you love to mock. But you don't need to mock them now, because Kiersten White went ahead and did it for you.

     He's in a deep-blue dress shirt, top button undone, and black pin-striped slacks. No one should be able to look equally good in jeans and a tee as they do dressed up.
     "You look," he says, his eyes drinking me in the way I want to drink him in, "absolutely amazing."
     I smirk. "You look rather pretty yourself."
     "And Tyler looks devastatingly gorgeous," Tyler says. "Why, thank you, Tyler!"

Then there's the banter between her and Ry.

     Ry: "What is wrong with being attracted to someone? It's a natural thing."
     Isadora: "Yes, well, cancer is a natural thing, and we try out best to kill it."

While not rich in magic or mystery, The Chaos of Stars is a hilarious, fun-filled tale of one girl's journey to live the normal life she's never dared to dream of.

The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen

 
Genre: Fantasy...ish. We get fictional kingdoms and princes, but aside from an offhand mention of elves, there's no magic here.
Rating: *****
Series: First of a trilogy
Pages: 342
Life as an orphan isn't easy for Sage, but he's learned to deal with it. Then he meets a scheming nobleman named Conner. Three orphan boys have been selected for his plot: Impersonate the long lost Prince Jaron and save the kingdom of Cartyha from civil war. After two weeks, one boy will be chosen. The rest will be killed.
But Sage doesn't want to be a prince. He has his own agenda, one that remains a mystery even to the reader. First, he needs to escape Conner's manor alive. That's no easy feat when Sage's sharp tongue keeps landing him in trouble. Can he trust his opponents? Will they murder him in the night? What is Imogen, the quiet kitchen maid, hiding from them all?
And what really happened to Prince Jaron?
The first thing that drew me to this book was the title. The False Prince. Usually when you read about fantasy royalty, it's all queens and princesses. The guys are lowly warriors or adventurers. I wanted to see what boys would do if they got a chance at the crown.
From the very first page, I cared about Sage and wanted to see what happened next. Who's going to win? Who's going to die? Who's going to cheat? Who else is hiding a secret? The writing isn't brilliant, but it is filled with Sage's snarky comebacks. The characters surprise you just as you think you've figured them out. Especially Sage, who happens to be an unreliable narrator. Usually I don't like those. They lead you in the wrong direction for hundreds of pages, then, BAM, twist ending. Sage isn't like that. He drops hints and skips over blocks of time, leaving you to speculate on what he's really up to. I did predict the twist, but I also predicted several other twists. Sage, you've made me paranoid!
The False Prince is Nielsen's YA debut.