Book Review: Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
// By Jessica 4 Comments
29 Apr
2013

Book Review: Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Tiger Lily Tiger Lily by
Published On: July 3, 2012
Genres: , ,
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The Short, Sweet, and Spoiler-Free Blurb:

Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn’t believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell…

2 Stars

Take the beautiful, imaginary world of Neverland and make it a literal place where everything is messy and covered in dirt and that is the uninteresting world where Tiger Lily is set.  I didn’t think it was possible to make Neverland so completely boring.  A few magical elements remain like fairies and mermaids but they felt very flat and unoriginal. There’s also a poorly explained excuse for why some people get old and some people don’t.  If you’re curious the reason some people don’t get old is because it just happens when something important happens in your life for no logical reason whatsoever.

The plot felt very been there done that in the way that Avatar was.  It’s kind of a tired plot line to have new people come and mess everything up for the indigenous people. I also felt like there was nothing new or interesting added to this retelling of Peter Pan.  I personally like my retellings to have new twists otherwise what is the point of the retelling?  I’m not really sure what the overall conflict even was.  It felt like the plot just kind of dragged along with an ending that kind of baffled me.  Honestly, the whole book felt a little preachy.  There were a few cute scenes between Peter Pan and Tiger Lily but not enough to make me really love this book.

The writing was good though it wasn’t my favorite.  The word choice stood out to me sometimes and felt a little awkward here and there like it was trying too hard to be poetic or something, but there were a few quotes I really liked.  Like this one:

“I’m not myself,” [Tiger Lily] offered, guilty.  . . .

“You can never say that. You’re just a piece of yourself right now that you don’t like.”

-Jodi Lynn Anderson, Tiger Lily (p. 69)

My favorite character by far was Smee who sadly shows up in the book only a few times.  The rest of the characters I had a hard time connecting with, especially Tiger Lily and the very strange decision she makes at the end of the book.  I honestly found it hard to tell some of the characters apart.

Overall, I did not enjoy the world building in this book at all. It had a tired plot line with a cast of characters that I ended up not caring much about.

Content Rating: Medium, for some violence and non-graphic instances of rape and abuse.

About Jodi Lynn Anderson

Jodi Lynn Anderson

Jodi Lynn Anderson is the New York Times bestselling author of Peaches, The Secrets of Peaches, Love and Peaches, the popular May Bird trilogy, and Tiger Lily. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and an endless parade of stray pets.

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Posted on: April 29, 2013 1:00 am By Jessica Filed Under: Book Review Tagged With: , , , 4 Comments
// By Jessica Leave a Comment
17 Sep
2012

Book Review: Fables of the Flag by Ethan Coffee

Fables of the Flag (Fables of the Flag #1) Fables of the Flag (Fables of the Flag #1) by
Series: Fables of the Flag #1
Published On: February 24, 2012
Genres: ,
Source:

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The Short, Sweet, and Spoiler-Free Blurb:

Jack Preston, an ordinary kid on his 8th grade trip to Washington DC, finds himself mysteriously transported back in time to 1720 Massachusetts. Finding a world without cars, phones and other conveniences of modern life takes some getting used to, but he’s even more surprised to meet a young Founding Father, Ben Franklin.

2 Stars

Fables of the Flag is about a boy, Jack, who travels back in time and meets a young Benjamin Franklin.  The story was cute, but I was not a big fan of the writing.  It felt like too much telling and not enough showing.  Some things weren’t fleshed out like they could of been like why Ralphie is even friends with Jack if he is always getting him in trouble.  The dialogue felt awkward and the plot was a little too convenient sometimes.  There wasn’t a ton of historical facts in this book, but I did like that the story kind of sets up how Benjamin Franklin got the idea for his famous kite experiment.  Overall, I think kids might like this book as a way to learn more about American history and become more interested in it.

Content Rating: Everyone

I received this book for review from the author, Ethan Coffee, in exchange for an honest review. I was not told what to say, I was not paid to write this review and all the opinions expressed are my own. 

About Ethan Coffee

A graduate of Purdue University, Ethan Coffee has always enjoyed entertaining others with tales of adventure and suspense. When he’s not writing, you can find him jamming on the guitar. The Fables of the Flag series chronicles Jack Preston’s adventures with significant figures throughout American history.

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Posted on: September 17, 2012 11:59 pm By Jessica Filed Under: Book Review Tagged With: , , , , Leave a Comment
Book Review: The Vicious Deep by Zoraida Cordova
// By Jessica 3 Comments
1 May
2012

Book Review: The Vicious Deep by Zoraida Cordova

The Vicious Deep (The Vicious Deep #1) The Vicious Deep (The Vicious Deep #1) by
Series: The Vicious Deep #1
Published On: May 1, 2012
Genres: ,
Source:

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The Short, Sweet, and Spoiler-Free Blurb:

For Tristan Hart, everything changes with one crashing wave. He was gone for three days. Sucked out to sea in a tidal wave and spit back ashore at Coney Island with no memory of what happened. Now his dreams are haunted by a terrifying silver mermaid with razor-sharp teeth. Something happened to him in those three days. He was claimed by the sea…and now it wants him back.

2 Stars

The Vicious Deep starts out with a guy narrating for a change, which was nice. Not only that, but the voice was amazingly well done – it felt authentic and like what an average teenage boy would really think and say (as far as I know….I am a girl). This debut novel had a lot of great funny, sarcastic moments and lines. I could really visualize all the characters and feel their personalities. But, as I was reading, I felt like the plot was very jumpy. It went from one thing to the next to the next to the next and I didn’t feel like I knew why things were happening or why I should care. I didn’t feel a strong overall conflict that the main character, Tristan, was trying to overcome. I started out loving the voice, the characters, the setting at Coney Island, and the interesting take on mermaids but the plot felt contrived and it just ruined it for me. I found myself forcing myself to finish it by the end. A lot happens in the story as far as events go, but the pace felt slow because I didn’t understand why things were happening. Why does he go to the island??? WHY does he even want to participate in all these events?? I really just didn’t get it. And the content of crude sexual references and lots of strong language was a big turn off for me.

Content Rating: High, for some mentions of teen drinking/smoking, several crude sexual references, and strong language (I stopped counting f*** bombs after 10 or so).

I received this book for review from the publisher, Sourcebooks, through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I was not told what to say, I was not paid to write this review and all the opinions expressed are my own. 

About Zoraida Cordova

Zoraida Cordova

Zoraida Córdova was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, where she learned to speak English by watching Disney’s The Little Mermaid and Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker on repeat. Her favorite things are sparkly like merdudes, Christmas, and New York City at night.

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Posted on: May 1, 2012 1:03 am By Jessica Filed Under: Book Review Tagged With: , , , , 3 Comments
Book Review: Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George
// By Jessica 5 Comments
22 Nov
2011

Book Review: Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George

Princess of the Midnight Ball (Princess #1) Princess of the Midnight Ball (Princess #1) by
Series: Princess #1
Published On: January 20, 2009
Genres: , ,
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The Short, Sweet, and Spoiler-Free Blurb:

Captivating from start to finish, Jessica Day George’s take on the Grimms’ tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses demonstrates yet again her mastery at spinning something entirely fresh out of a story you thought you knew.

2 Stars

I went into this book expecting a new and interesting take on The Twelve Dancing Princess’ fairy tale.  What I got was a re-telling.  I didn’t find anything new or original added to the story.  That being said, it was still a decent fairy tale re-telling.  The narration was a little stiff like I was listening to some old person tell it in a dry, 3rd-person manner.  The narration made it hard to care much for the characters. I wasn’t emotionally invested in the story at all. Her writing was good and now that I know this series is strictly a re-telling I will still pick up the second book, Princess of Glass. The main reason I didn’t like this book much was how predictable it was.  I knew from chapter 2 what the characters should do and they actually got around to doing it 100 pages later.  I walked away from this book feeling like it had so much potential that it didn’t quite live up to.  If she had changed the narration so I could get in the character’s heads a little bit and care about them, it would have made a world of difference.

Content Rating: Everyone.  It was a fairly clean read.

About Jessica Day George

Jessica Day George

Jessica Day George earned a BA in Humanities/Comparative Literature from Brigham Young University, where she enjoyed classes in Pottery and Old Norse, and dutifully forced herself to take Algebra and Biology. Originally from Idaho, she now resides in Salt Lake City, Utah, with her husband and three young children.

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Posted on: November 22, 2011 4:55 am By Jessica Filed Under: Book Review Tagged With: , , , , 5 Comments
Book Review: Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse by Kaleb Nation
// By Jessica Leave a Comment
19 Jul
2011

Book Review: Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse by Kaleb Nation

Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse (Bran Hambric #1) Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse (Bran Hambric #1) by
Series: Bran Hambric #1
Published On: September 9, 2009
Genres: ,
Source:

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The Short, Sweet, and Spoiler-Free Blurb:

In a bustling metropolis where magic is outlawed, a six-year-old child is found inside a locked bank vault. A scrap of paper reveals his name: Bran Hambric. The child remembers nothing of his life before the vault. Only magic could have done this. But why would any mage risk breaking the law to place a child in a bank vault?

2 Stars

This book has so many similarities to Harry Potter that it felt like poorly written rip off.  As an adult, I found it too immature for my taste.  Kaleb Nation wrote this book when he was a teenager and I could tell. Young boys would probably like this book better than I did.  I decided to read this book after I found his blog Twilight Guy.  His writing there is very funny.  Hopefully his next stories will be more original.

Content Rating: Everyone (I read it a while ago and I can’t say for sure, but it’s a middle school book and fairly clean).

About Kaleb Nation

Kaleb Nation

KALEB NATION is an author and online personality. His blogs and videos have received over 50 million hits online, and he has been featured on NPR, Entertainment Weekly, The Huffington Post and more.
While writing Harken, Kaleb documented his progress through video blogs at Youtube.com/KalebNation. A black belt in taekwondo, Kaleb lives in California with his chinchilla, Chilla. Harken is his first novel for teens.

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Posted on: July 19, 2011 9:06 pm By Jessica Filed Under: Book Review Tagged With: , , , , , Leave a Comment
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