Melissa De La Cruz. BLOODY VALENTINE

BLOODY VALENTINE is a Blue Bloods book. It's not a new chapter in the saga, but more of an extra special set of stories about some of the characters. As the title suggests, all three stories are love stories.

We get to spend some time with Schuyler's mom, Allegra, to see how she fell in love with a human. Oliver is featured in his own story about meeting an intriguing woman, who may help him get over Schuyler. Lastly, we have a story about Schuyler and Jack's upcoming bonding that leaves me wanting more. In fact, the whole book leaves me wanting more! (Pausing to check with the next novel is coming out...looks like it may be a while, so enjoy this!).

I just adore this series! As I've said before in my many reviews past, this series gets better with each installment. I loved TWILIGHT, don't get me wrong, but this is the smarter, deeper, more fascinating vampire series, for sure.

If you haven't read them yet, go out & get them!

By the way, I scored an interview with the author a while back, check it out here.

Feast your eyes on the gorgeous trailer:

Jordan Sonnenblick. AFTER EVER AFTER

Jeffrey isn't a little boy with cancer anymore. He's past all the treatments, the hospital stays, and the community support. He's in the next stage now, which he considers a life-sentence all on its own. Kids aren't sure how to treat him. The one lingering aspect of his cancer is his trouble with math. The chemicals messed with his brain and his ability to work with numbers. His dad is frustrated with Jeffrey, because he's a math whiz himself, so surely his son must be a disappointment. His best friend, Tad, is also a cancer survivor, although he was left with physical damage, rather than mental. He's in a wheelchair. His sharp wit and loyalty is just what Jeffrey needs.

Now in eighth grade, both boys wonder about having a normal life. When Lyndsay, from California, transfers to the school and befriends Jeffrey, he begins to think that maybe he will expeience some normalcy. Then a letter arrives in the mail explaining that all students must pass the state exam in eighth grade, before moving on to high school. It crushes him, until Tad comes up with a plan.

This book balances heavy issues with laughter and lighthearted typical middle school worries better than I've ever seen. During one moment, you're laughing hysterically, then the next moment, you're feeling the weight of events in Jeffrey's life.  But even with two kids and cancer, there is not one single depressing moment. You will be left feeling moved and uplifted. I really love it!

By the way, I listened to the audio version and it was spectacular! Nick Podehl is perfect at altering the voices for the character! At one point, I laughed so hard while on a run that I had to stop and catch my breath! I know I would've enjoyed reading the book also, but it would've been a way different experience.

Also, this book is sort of a sequel to DRUMS, GIRLS & DANGEROUS PIE, but not really. DRUMS features Jeffrey's older brother, Steven, while he was in eighth grade. This one is several years later when Jeffrey is in eighth grade. I did not read DRUMS (yet), and I didn't feel I was missing anything at all. In fact, I didn't even know this tidbit until after I read it.

Click here for more on Jordan Sonnenblick and his fabulous books.

John Green. PAPER TOWNS

What a novel! There is so much to say, I'm not sure where to start. How about a quick summary.

Quentin Jacobsen has been in love with his neighbor Margo Roth Spiegelman pretty much all of his life. When they were young they spent a lot of time together, but now as seniors in high school - not so much. Margo is queen of the cool and beautiful. Quentin (people call him Q) and his friends Ben and Radar aren't exactly friends with her crowd. They do admire her from afar. Until one night when Margo shows up at Quentin's window in the middle of the night to telling him that he's in for the night of his life. She coerces him to drive her around to complete a mission. Begrudgingly, Q agrees to "borrow" his mom's van and drive her around on her mission, even though it is a school night. This is definitely the most action packed portion of the book. Q drives Margo to various houses, downtown high rises and a theme park to complete a task at each location.

Q ends up having a blast and figures that he and Margo have gotten close enough that perhaps things will be different at school the next day. But Margo throws a wrench in that plan by disappearing. No one knows where she went. She's gone for several days when Q begins to worry. He ponders some of the things she said that night, and he really begins to question her motives. Is she just playing the disappearing act she's done so many times in the past or is there something serious going on with Margo? Q, Radar and Ben begin to dissect some clues that were left for Q, and the mystery of locating Margo begins.

My summary here cannot even begin to describe how much more there is to this novel. The witty dialogue between Q and his friends and the array of unique characters alone make this a must read. But there is so much more. It's thoughtful, smart and just epic!

By the way, I listened to the audio version and it's fantastic! In fact, it turns out that the reader is Dan John Miller and he's won an award for this audio book. I'm not surprised at all!

I've read two others by Jon Green LOOKING FOR ALASKA and LET IT SNOW. I probably don't need to tell you how awesome he is. But in case you've been living under a rock, check him and his Nerdfighting crew out here.

Ellen Booraem. SMALL PERSONS WITH WINGS

This book is SO MUCH FUN!! I really adore it! It's creative and truly one of a kind.

Mellie Turpin spends her early years with a fairy named Fidius. She enjoyed Fidius, especially when he turned her squash into candy corn and flicked his wrist to clean up her room. She thought her friends in Kindergarten would enjoy him too, but when she shared her idea to bring him to school, Fidius disappeared. The only thing she had to remember him by was a porcelain look-alike fairy. Unfortunately, Mellie had already promised to bring Fidius to school, so reneging caused a lot of name-calling from the kids at school. They dreamed up the nickname "Fairy Fat."

After hours with the school counselor and her parents convincing Mellie that there really is no such thing as fairies, Mellie finally went on with her life. She convinced herself that Fidius must have been in her imagination.

Years later, when Mellie's grandfather dies, they inherit his small inn and pub. The family decides to move there and fix it up. Mellie is glad to start over in a new town and lose the "Fairy Fat" moniker. However, when investigating the basement pub, she discovers something that she though she left in her crazy past for good. Small persons with wings (don't call them fairies). A bunch of them. They are real and her parents knew it! Not only are they real, but her family has a complicated relationship with them. Furthermore, they have some tough decisions to make about their future.

I loved this for so many reasons. First of all the characters are wonderful! The fairies (I'm just going to call them that here because it's quicker to type & easier to use in sentences than small persons with wings, although after typing all of this, I guess it would've been quicker to just..) anyway, the fairies have such great personalities. Durindana is a riot with her attitude coupled with her sweetness underneath. OMG, I love when she yells "Ai-yi-yi!" Maybe I can start using that on the kids at school. The fairies really are entertaining. They are obsessed with fine things, fancy clothing and high drama. Since they are about 1300 years old, their speech is part English, with Latin and French intermingled.

Melllie is witty and smart, yet still self conscious and afraid to make friends. It's believable that she would resist her neighbor Timmo's friendship. I love the way Mellie's mom tells her that she will "grow into her grandeur." That is one line I will always remember. It's beautiful. Mellie's parents, her grandfather and her friend Timmo are all original, interesting characters that you will adore. (That grandfather - what a sharp tongue. And so funny!)

The plot is unexpected, suspenseful and fast paced. Overall, this is clever and brilliantly executed. I was so sad it was over. I enjoyed spending time in Mellie's world.

Check out the author here - she must be so much fun, since she's written such an entertaining book!

Author Interview: Jennifer Trafton

Hooray! I was given the honor of interviewing the author of THE RISE AND FALL OF MOUNT MAJESTIC, Jennifer Trafton. The book is delightful! You must read it. 

First of all, I am blown away that this is your first novel. It’s really brilliant! How long have you been writing?

Thank you so much! I started really thinking about writing—doing it deliberately—when I was ten years old. I took a creative writing class and discovered how much I liked writing poetry. (I also have a vivid memory from that class of listening to a recording of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Telltale Heart”!) My parents bought me a journal, and I filled those pages with very goofy and melodramatic poems for the next decade. When I was in high school, I started writing stories that I thought could be children’s picture books, and I sent them to agents and publishers and got many, many rejections. But I learned a lot about the publishing industry that way.

Did it take long to get this book published?

Six years from first draft to publication. So the answer is “yes!”

There are so many imaginative creatures in this book, where did the ideas come from?

Oh my, from everywhere. I can’t explain why my brain works the way it does. I remember that I imagined most of them from the inside out. In other words, I knew about their inner characters and personalities first, and then their external characteristics grew out of those internal ones. For example, the Leafeaters’ concern for courtesy, beauty, and correct grammar and their sense of superiority to others shaped the way I imagined their appearance, their way of talking, and the culture of their city.

Did you have any input in the selection of the illustrator? I think Brett Helquist was the perfect match!

I think so too! I’m not sure I can say that I had “input”—it’s ultimately the publisher’s decision—but when I heard Brett was being considered, I certainly expressed my enthusiasm! Brett’s style perfectly combined the fairy tale feeling and the quirky humor of the book.

I love the ending, but it leaves me with a question or two. Are you thinking about a sequel or do you think that’s the perfect way to end our time with Persimmony?

I had always intended there to be more to this story than just the first book. However, once I finished the final revision I realized that I also really like the openness of the ending. It’s a story about “mights and possibilities,” after all—there’s something appropriate about the fact that the reader wonders “what might be?” at the end. I enjoy leaving the reader with a bit of a mystery. Will there be a sequel? That’s another mystery—to me as well as to you.

I love to ask children’s authors what they read while growing up. What did you read? Did you have any favorite authors as a child?

Like many kids, I got hooked on certain series. C. S. Lewis’s Narnia books, L. Frank Baum’s Oz books, Noel Streatfeild’s Shoes books, Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books, and L.M. Montgomery’s Anne and Emily books were all favorites. I also read a lot of Beverly Cleary, E. Nesbit, Judy Blume, E. B. White, Louisa May Alcott, Roald Dahl, Joan Aiken, and Shel Silverstein.

What about now? Who are your favorite authors now?

I love Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Dorothy Sayers, George MacDonald, Annie Dillard, Wendell Berry, W.B. Yeats, Billy Collins . . . . I like Lewis Carroll even better now than when I was a kid. Some all-time favorite “adult” novels include Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok, Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis, and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

Can you give us a sneak peak at what you’re writing right now?

Yes, as a matter of fact, it will be an extraordinarily exciting story with a hero, a villain or two, an utterly unique setting, a nail-biting climax, and possibly a few giraffes.

Giraffes - well now I really can't wait! 

Finally, if you could have dinner with any other author (alive or dead), who would it be? And more importantly, what would you talk about?

“‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said, ‘to talk of many things . . .’” I would love to spend an entire evening with Charles Dodgson (a.k.a. Lewis Carroll) making up nonsense words and discussing sealing wax and the correct way to swing a vorpal sword. We would, of course, sit on a briny beach and eat oysters and mock turtle soup. 

Sounds like fun!

My readers and I thank you very much for your time! We know you’re busy crafting your next brilliant novel – and we can’t wait to read it!

Thank you! It’s been a pleasure. 

If you'd like to read more about Jennifer Trafton or her new book, check out her website here.