The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

4 stars -- I liked it

By the same author of The Gates comes The Book of Lost Things. I'm having trouble classifying this book for adults or young adults (or in this case, juvenile), just as I did The Gates. I'm not sure that having a young main character, in this case 12 years old, determine whether a book is YA or not is necessarily the best way of sorting books, especially since this book definitely has some dark happenings completely unsuitable for 12-year-olds to read about.

Though not as clever and wittily written as The Gates, The Book of Lost Things is still a fascinating read. Reminiscent of the Narnia series, young David travels to another world from World War II-ravaged London. Once there, the portal closes up, and David has to travel across the countryside to meet the apathetic king of this new and foreign land. The king has a "Book of Lost Things" that David has been told will enable him to return home.

Chased by a type of werewolves and their packs, haunted by a crooked man, and meeting various allies that teach David how to be strong and courageous on his own, David's journey is wrought with peril and enchantment, new-found friends and loss, and is broken occasionally by re-imagined (and less happy) versions of commonly known fairy tales.

In the end (as with most journey stories), David learns a lot about himself, his family, and his feelings, which actually impacts the entire kingdom that David has found himself thrust into.

While not necessarily packed with action and adventure (though there is a somewhat-decent amount), I think it's the ending of this story that really pulls the book together. It's a very sweet and appropriate conclusion. Though the majority of the story is to point out that not everything in life will turn out "happily ever after," the end of this story is a happy, sort-of-realistic one (realistic in the sense that the moral seems to be "just because things don't always go your way doesn't mean you can't live happily).

I'm really beginning to like John Connolly as an author, and I'll keep an eye out for other books of his that are in this same type of genre.

Soulless by Gail Carriger

4 fluffy bunnies

Soulless makes me giggle when I think about it. I really have no way to categorize this book, because it's nearly a smut book but just doesn't quite reach that level. I suspect that the lack of heaving bosoms and pulsing members is what prevents it from being what I consider straight-out smut.

The premise of the book is quite interesting, though just another drop in the well of books about vampires and werewolves. The added twist to this particular story is that in addition to the supernatural, there is also the preternatural, ie, those without souls.

The main character, Alexia Tarabotti, just happens to be such a preternatural. While perfectly normal looking (well, unattractive, according to standards of the day), the 26-year-old spinster (this is 19th-century London, after all) can negate the supernatural powers of werewolves and vampires with a single touch. Her inquisitive, obstinate nature and preternatural status constantly put Alexia in compromising and potentially dangerous situations, which tend to lead to Lord Conall Maccon, alpha werewolf of the local pack and head of BUR (a government agency that supervises the supernaturals) being called in.

Alexia and Conall irritate each other to no end, so there's the sexual tension...

With a little steampunk thrown in for fun, Soulless is a fun, guilty-pleasure type of novel. You read it not for any type of edification, but because you like vampires, werewolves, and a little bit of pinch and tickle and don't mind wasting a few hours of your day.

The Dark Divine by Bree Despain

3.5 stars -- It's okay.

A Christian werewolf story!?! Remember how well I liked the Christian vampire story? Well, this one worked much better.

In fact, I'm not completely sure that The Dark Divine is technically supposed to be Christian, and that may be why it worked better.

Grace Divine is the daughter of a pastor. She has a seemingly idyllic life... except for one thing from her past. A while back, Grace's family took in the neighbor boy, her brother Jude's best friend, because his father was abusive. A few years later, Daniel disappeared and Jude came home covered in blood. And no one would tell Grace what happened.

But now Daniel has returned... in worse shape than he left certainly, and Grace, always attracted to him before, still can't resist him today--despite her brother's warnings to leave Daniel alone.

Turns out (to the surprise of no one) that Daniel is a werewolf. And Grace's entire family, excepting herself, knows. In fact, Grace's father, the pastor, is trying to help Daniel find a cure.

See, in this storyline, werewolves were a creation of God, perverted by Satan. Strong and superhero-like human if they manage to remain pure, they turn into the wolf after their first kill.

This was a pretty solid YA book. I liked it for what it was. It's not superfabulous, but it's certainly not terrible. Also, it wasn't as completely predictable as most of the books I've been reading lately have been, which was a nice change of pace.

So if you want to see how to do Christianity and werewolves, take a look here. It can also help if you want to Christianity and vampires, zombies, or sea creatures.

BUT you don't have to be a Christian to read this, and it certainly isn't trying to convert you. It's just a fun read.

Captivate by Carrie Jones

3.5 stars -- I like it.

The sequel to Need, Captivate picks up shortly after Need left off. The author and publisher did very well carrying the themes through. The covers fit together well, and they're both beautiful and haunting. The storyline follows well (as far as I can recall). There are enough clues in Captivate for me to recall what the first book was about without having it regurgitated in its entirety.

I have to admit, I don't really remember the first book at all. I rated it 4 stars, so I must have liked it fairly well, but it didn't stick in my head as anything amazing.

Thus, I don't know if how the characters acted in this book fits well with what happened in the first book, but they fit well for this book. This book feels a bit more "needy" than the first book. More gasping teen hormones than I recalled, but since I didn't recall Nick, the love interest, at all...

All of that to say: take this review as being about a stand-alone novel rather than a sequel, even though it is a sequel and you should definitely read the first book if you're going to read this one.

Captivate has a somewhat unusual plot line. There are fairies and were-things (not merely werewolves, though Nick is that), and in this book we've added some Norse mythology and mythological creatures. Surprisingly, there are no vampires, though they could appear in future books, I'm sure.

Zara, the main character, a half-fairy/half-human hybrid and, conveniently, daughter of the local fairy king, has trapped (with the help of her boyfriend and friends) the local fairy population in a glamour-hidden house (the plot of Need there).

Now Zara, Nick, and her friends patrol the area for pixies that come into the area and drag them to the house to be trapped as well. Except... with the fairy king weak and incapacitated in the house, new fairy kings will try to take over. And that's what this book is about.

I have to say I was quite disappointed by the happenings in this book, though I still liked the storyline well enough and it was a fun read (probably more fun if you can remember the first book). I think the third book will probably make me feel better about this book and its ending, although with the unflattering description of pixies, I'm not sure I could ever like one... although, as happens in fiction, all things are reversible given the right magic.

I don't want to give too much away, because (although you'll figure things out quickly enough if you read the book) I don't want to give so much away that you don't have to read the books at all.

This is a typical YA fantasy book, so if that's your thing, I say go ahead and pick up this series. It's on par with Twilight as far as depth, although it never reaches the same emotional level (which, admittedly, is the main draw to Twilight, but you can still read this for a fun, quick, fantasy escape).

Betrayals by Lili St. Crow

3.5 stars -- It's ok, but I don't know if I like it :)

The sequel to Strange Angels, Betrayals picks up exactly where the first book left off and does plenty of flashbacks, in italics, to bring you up to speed if you don't quite remember what the first book was about. Surprisingly enough, I did. Usually I don't. I read so many books that details tend to fade and blend together. That Strange Angels didn't should show that it's a worthwhile book. I rated Strange Angels 4 stars on Amazon. I remember being slightly put-off by the whole "She's a unique and special girl with a werewolf for a best friend and a potential vampire crush," but I liked the story line enough that I was looking forward to the sequel.

I thought that this book had a lot of potential, but in reading it, I realized that it didn't quite hit the target. On the other hand, it's possible that it could redeemed by further books in the series... of course, it could continue going downhill.

The majority of Betrayals flies by in a blur... literally for the main character. Dru spends the book--which covers, I believe, about a total of two or three weeks--in constant pain, frequently unconscious, and always completely unsure of what's going on and whom she can trust. She gets in battles every day, and she never comes out on top. That's not to say she doesn't win any, but there's always some caveat--she starts bleeding so the other character wants to eat her; the other character starts bleeding so suddenly she wants to eat him, etc.

I was a bit disappointed in the battle scenes. At one point, Dru runs away from the school she's been at for about a week and winds up entangled in a thorn bush. She hears screaming and sees a werewolf, and at one point (after running from the bush and slamming into a tree) sees the wolf tear apart a vampire. I left the scene believing Dru had been outside for, at the most, an hour, and that she had seen what was going on. But in the next chapter, it turns out that she had been outside most of the night, and there were three dead vampires, not just the one. Dru is described as shuddering and in shock and practically catatonic, though she had seemed fine in the descriptions of the actual battle. This left me saying, "Wait... what??"

Overall, this book wasn't as strong as the first book. Dru seems weak and stupid, whereas in the first book, she was the one who knew what was going on. She didn't necessarily know all of the pieces, but she was still able to defend and protect herself. Now she has to be protected by both of her "guardian angels" time and time again. In the climax, she is literally carried and dragged through the battle while she fades in and out of consciousness by one "angel," while the other is kicking ass for her.

I'm not going to say I didn't like it, but I can't really say that I did either. I guess I'm just waiting for third book to see if this is series is worth following any further.