Steel

Jill competes in the sport of fencing, and she misses going to the next level of competition by half a second when her opponent hits her first. A few months after that disappointment, Jill goes on vacation with her parents and 2 younger siblings, where she's supposed to relax and enjoy the time off from practice and working out to be better in fencing.

On the beach at their vacation site, Jill finds a tip of a rapier sword, all rusted and unused. She then goes on a tour boat for one of the features during her vacation and falls off of the boat, with the rapier tip in her pocket! When she is fished out of the water, she's surrounded by real life pirates, hundreds of years in the past!

Jill is trying to survive day by day with the pirates, following Captain Cooper's order, who thankfully is a female pirate. While scrubbing the deck and getting a horrible sunburn, and dry skin on her hands, Jill tries to find ways to go back home to her family and her time, many years in the future.

Throughout the entire time she's on the ship with her new "crew", Jill learns to fight with a rapier instead of the padded swords she used in her fencing competition, and she learns to take care of herself more and more among the unpredictable pirates that surround her.

I liked this book. I thought it was going to be different, but it turned out to be an alright book. I really liked reading and understanding more about how fencing works since I've never seen or done fencing before. This book had a little bit of a slow start, but I liked the ending and the action that took place.

Samurai Girl

A series that was written years ago called Samurai Girl by Carrie Asai, was one of my favorites. It's about a girl named Heaven who was the only survivor from a plane crash when she was only 6 months old. Now, years later, she is being hunted by men who want to marry her for her fortune now that she is of age to be married.

Throughout these 6 novels, we follow Heaven on her journey to learning how to protect herself not only from her want to be suitors but also from people who want her dead because of the image that she presents to her heritage. She learns how to be a Samurai warrior and how to use the elements that are in the title of the books to help protect herself.

I really loved these books and I'm thinking about going back and rereading them, once I figure out where I put them a long time ago!

The Opposite of Invisible

Alice is a typical 15 year old girl. She's not too popular at school, has a best friend named Jewel who is very artistic and his photos are liked by many at her school, and she tries to find her place throughout the many different cliques at school. So when popular, football boy Simon starts to pay attention to Alice, she's both flattered and stunned, thinking that no one ever saw her except Jewel (and they've been friends since they were 3).

At the same time Alice and Simon started to talk to one another, Jewel kissed Alice, showing her that he wants to be more than friends. Alice has to decide if she wants her old friend as more than a friend or if she wants the popularity that comes with being with Simon.

Along with that mess, Alice goes to a glassmaking class and is surprised to see a popular cheerleader from her school there, giving her an incentive to talk to another person she thought was out of her reach in the social ladder. Throughout this novel, Alice learns that just because some are labeled in certain cliques, doesn't always mean that the clique has to define the person.

This was a nice little read, only 151 pages and it showed the inner struggles Alice went through with all of her decisions. Many high school students will like this story because it will probably reflect some part of their lives in high school and they questions they come up with based on their friends, boyfriends, and enemies.

Tiger's Quest

The second book in Colleen Houck's series was amazing! Kelsey is yet again going off to get another item to save Ren and Kishan from their curse of being a tiger, but this time she's going with Kishan because Ren was stolen by Lokesh. Lokesh is the evil king from 350 years ago that put the curse on Kishan, and now he wants Kelsey because of the amulet and the power that she is receiving from the Indian Goddess.

From my review of Tiger's Curse, you could tell that I was team Ren. I didn't know any better though. Houck has put me in a situation: now that I know how Kishan is and his personality a little bit better, I'm at a loss. Both boys are amazingly handsome, determined, and put Kelsey before anything in their lives.

Also, I have to say that this series gets better and better. At first I was irritated with Kelsey's character, thinking she thought too much and over analyzed everything before she took one step. She has developed into a stronger character and I felt that she has grown more. I can't wait for the next book to come out and see what happens in November 2011 (I'm not going into too much detail because I'll certainly give spoilers from the 1st and 2nd book)

Two upcoming series

I got the first book of 2 series that I bought for very cheap at Goodwill and Borders, since they are going out of business soon.

The first one is The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han and The Luxe by Anna Godbersen. Once I get to the library to order the rest of the books in the series (3 total for Jenny Han's books and 4 total for Anna Godberson's books) I'll probably zip right through them and not have to wait for a new one to come out, since the series are already completed :-D

To Be Read Very Soon!

I'm right in the middle of Tiger's Quest by Colleen Houck but I got great books from the library in the past 2 days that I'm very excited to start reading! Here's the list of the upcoming reads/reviews I'll have throughout the next few days.

Steel by Carrie Vaughn. This is the one that I've been waiting to read! I'm so excited to see how the main female character gets sucked back into time on a pirate ship!

The Opposite of Invisible by Liz Gallagher. I can't wait to read this, it's been on my "to read" list on Goodreads for awhile so now that I have it, it looks like it will be a fast read for how small it is.

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale. I'm not sure if I've read this before, but it's a nice, easy read and something a little bit different than I've been reading lately so it will be a nice change of pace.

Wild Ride by Jacqueline Guest. The cover really got my attention on this book and even though it's a sequel to another book I hope that I enjoy the story line.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. I've been wanting to read this book for awhile, especially because everyone in my YA class brings it up, so now I'm officially going to read it!

So there ya have it! What are you wanting to read this weekend, upcoming week?

Tiger's Curse

I've had this book for over 6 months now, just putting it off because I didn't think that I would like it. How wrong was I!!! This is a "retelling" of Beauty and the Beast but with a twist: the beast is an Indian prince, 350 years old, who was turned into a beautiful white and black striped tiger with amazing blue eyes and the Beauty thinks that she is no beauty but just a normal, American 18 year old.

Peak your interest yet?

Kelsey started to work at a circus near her hometown in Oregon, just for a summer job so she can save some money before she goes to a local community college. She didn't include a beautiful tiger that she was always drawn to as part of the circus routine. Whenever Kelsey had any free time (she was staying on the circus grounds for 2 weeks while she worked there) she would always go near the tiger's cage and read from her books, sketch, or just talk to the tiger in a normal discussion.

Kelsey felt sorry for the tiger one day and wished that he was free to roam the wild, like most tigers do. When she said that, it freed Ren, the tiger, somewhat from his curse. He's been forced to be a tiger for 300 years but when Kelsey said that he was able to turn into a man again for 24 minutes every day.

After that, Kelsey went to India to try and help Ren out of the curse he's been forced to live with for so many years and she is also struggling to keep her feelings in that she's starting to feel for Ren. Kelsey definitely wasn't expecting to find magic and mystery during the summer of her 18th birthday, and neither was she expecting to fall in love.

I liked this book. It definitely caught me by surprise - I really didn't think I was going to be too interested in the story and now I just went and bought the second book Tiger's Quest today so I wouldn't have to wait too long to continue Kelsey and Ren's story.

The one thing that annoyed me to no end was Kelsey's reaction to falling for Ren. She lost her parents when she was 15, so she's built a wall around her heart and is unsure if she should let Ren in. But it's sooo obvious that Ren has fallen head over heels in love with her! He's amazingly attractive, royal, and sensitive - she's missing out! If she doesn't want him, I'll certain trade her places :-)

I'm excited to read the next story, even though I'll have to wait for the next 2 books in the series to come out to find out if Kelsey can break the curse that Ren and his brother were trapped in all those years ago.