Human....not human....Human...not human

You think you have it rough? Try going from hunter to hunted every other day.  Try going from bulletproof to fragile every other day.  Try going from superhuman to high school student every other day.

I started this book (Every Other Day by Jennifer Barnes) being very skeptical. I didn't want to like it. I really didn't. But I ended up liking it. I really did. The opening pages made me roll my eyes in a "here we go again" kind of way, but the book took some major turns that I was quite interested by.  Every girl in high school knows a Bethany (and some are as deep as this one but never get a chance to show it).  And Skylar is just one of those characters that I want to scoop up and carry around in my pocket. I bought into the characters, which makes it much easier to buy the ridiculously fantastic storyline.  It fits with the current paranormal craze that is overwhelming the teen fiction sections at every library, but doe have its own story to tell.  I might read it again, which, given the number of unread books I always have sitting on my Kindle at any given moment, is high praise indeed.

Spies can be GIRLS?

OK, now really, "Feminine Power!" and all that jazz, but I think I've heard this story before.
1. Sometime in the past
2. Girl is upset about being thought of as second-rate because of her gender
3. Girl transcends gender barrier to become hero
4. Girl falls back into gender stereotype by going gaga when a cute boy is around
 *Sigh*...will we never learn?

This is the common outline for Alias Dragonfly that was an entertaining, if overly fluffy and predictable, quick read in the hunting cabin.  My favorite part was that the action took place in the Civil War era - quite an interesting time. My least favorite part was that you had to slog through a lot of intro to get to any action. When I read a Civil War story, I expect my action to be there right away.

Also, the next author I read that can follow a "girl power" story without caving to pressure and throwing in a meaningless romantic side story earns a cookie.

Not your average Great Depression saga

Man, was I ever intrigued  by Dust Girl by Sarah Zettel.  Give me a good ole' Dust Bowl/Great Depression story any day. Give me a new twist on faerie lore any day. Wait...I get BOTH?!  Ms. Zettel took a unique approach with her novel that totally caught me off-guard. I am ashamed that I thought she'd "girly out" on the faerie end of things...but the first encounter of the faerie kind wiped that idea out.  There were a lot of tidbits that I wanted more information on, and I know that this book is intended to be the first of a set (trilogy, I believe), but I wish that there had been a few more answers to the many questions this story opened up. To be fair, a lot of information is given very quickly at one point, so I might have missed some of it.

The book held my interest as I read it on my way to go deer hunting, and I would be interested to see what else Ms. Zettel has in store.

Making non-fiction into...boring fiction

Oh my.  Now, I wasn't expected to be blown away by The Hangman in the Mirror by Kate Cayley, yet I was still underwhelmed.  I liked the premis; I really did. The problem, though, was that I saw the ending coming so quickly that it didn't hold my interest. I know it was based on a real event, but Ms. Cayley could have made the reveal a little sneakier, don't you think?  It is hard to be invested in the middle fluff that is draggin the story to its obvious end. My advice? Cut the fluff and keep the story moving. That way, the ending might still be obvious, but it won't be so difficult to slog through to get there.