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Geeks and the Holy Grail (Camelot Code #2), by Mari Mancusi, for Timeslip Tuesday

The first book in the Camelot Code series, The Once and Future Geek , mixed time travel between the medieval world of King Arthur and our own, and it is a very entertaining book.  The second book in the series, Geeks and Holy Grail (Hyperion, October 2019), is also entertaining (though not quite as funny; King Arthur as a modern day high school student is hard to beat....). When Morgana, sworn enemy of King Arthur, attacks the druids of Avalon, Nimue, the youngest of them, takes the Holy Grail and runs with it.  King Arthur is dying, and only the Grail can save him.  Desperate to keep it from falling into Morgana's hands, she stumbles into Merlin's Crystal Cave.  But instead of Merlin there to help her (he's on vacation in Los Vegas, in our time), there's only his very inexperienced apprentice, Emrys.  His attempt to hide the grail works, in a sense--as a small, flatulent dragon, it sure doesn't look much like a grail.  But it isn't much use to Arthur as a...
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The Secret

The Secret

The Red Queen Series

The Red Queen Series

Red Queen (book 1), Glass Sword (book 2), King's Cage (book 3)

by Victoria Aveyard

This series is FANTASTIC! One of the tricks that many author take a long time to master is the ability to surprise the reader. In teen novels, this is especially apparent in mysteries; you can usually see whoever "did it" before the author actually has the reveal. Victoria Aveyard has managed the unlikely... and not only does she surprise the reader, she does so many times in one novel. Victoria Aveyard also begins to experiment with changing points of view later in the series, which shows the benefits of using changing POV to show different sides to a story.

I picked up the first novel in this series, Red Queen, a while ago and postponed reading it until about a week before I would be at a signing event that Victoria Aveyard was attending. My goal was to read all three of the current books before I met the author. The first book was really good. It paints a dystopian society in which the government is run by silver bloods- people with silver blood who wield special powers. These people use the red bloods- people like you and me with no special powers- are disadvantaged in society, acting as slaves to the silvers or being forced to die in war against another society. The book really starts a few chapters in when the main character, Mare, finds out that she is not exactly a red blood- she is something new altogether. So marks the turning point in the novel and in society; how can a society stand when the oppressed begin to rebel, and when all they consider to be true is discovered to be incomplete? Without giving too many spoilers, all I can really say is that this series is really good and well worth the read; especially for fans of novels like The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Cinder by Marissa Meyer.

The next two novels continue from this point; what is happening to society, what does Mare do to help the reds and the silvers, will she survive, and who might betray her? The novels work their way towards either the downfall of a nation or a change in how it is run... we still don't know what will happen!

To give this series a rating (for the three books that are out so far), I have to give the series a solid 4.5. The series is really good and keeps you involved in the action, however after a certain point the reader just starts to get mad at all of the plot twists. Another point of detraction is that the books suddenly switched points of view halfway through the series. Although I understand why the author decided to start using this device to show what was happening when characters were no longer in the same place as each other, I still felt that it was sudden and kind of annoying. Other than that, you have to love dystopian books- especially those with unforeseen plot twists!

I had a really hard time deciding what kind of food I was going to relate this book to- but, with the help of another Victoria Aveyard fan, we decided that the best food metaphor would be a box of assorted truffles from a really good brand, like Godiva. Every truffle you bite into is different and you don't know what kind of filling it will have; the one box of chocolates will just keep surprising you, like how this series keeps surprising the reader. The high quality of the book would put it on par with higher- but not really high - quality chocolates, because it is really good but not quite good enough that it has all-organic ingredients and came from another country. In general, it is the kind of gift that keeps on giving and can be truly enjoyable- just like a box of chocolates.

If you want to read this book series (trust me, you do!) then you can check out the author at https://www.victoriaaveyard.com/. This series is so good that I actually ended up driving through a rainstorm just to get the third book!!!

     ~Lucy

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This week's round-up of middle grade science fiction and fantasy from around the blogs (10/13/19)

Here's what I found in my blog reading this week; please let me know if I missed your post! The Reviews The Bootlace Magician (Cicus Mirandus #2), by Cassie Beasley, at Randomly Reading The Boy Who Was Fire, by Marcus Kahle McCann, at The Children's Book Review City of Bones, by Victoria Schwab, at Pages Unbound The Dark Lord Clementine, by Sarah Jean Howitz, at Sally's Bookshelf Dead Voices, by Katherine Arden, at Charlotte's Library Dragon Pearl, by Yoon Ha Lee, at Imaginary Friends The Dragon Warrior, by Katie Zhao, at Log Cabin Library , Forever and Everly , and Lost In Storyland Ember: the Secret Book, by Jamie Smart, at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books The Hippo at the End of the Hall, by Helen Cooper, at Charlotte's Library Homerooms and Hall Passes, by Tom O'Donnell, at Ms. Yingling Reads The International Yeti Collective, by Paul Mason, at Book Craic The Little Broomstick, by Mary Stewart, at Fantasy Literature Mightier than the Sword, by Drew Callander and ...
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Stolen Time, by Danielle Rollins, for Timeslip Tuesday

If you are in the mood for a real page turner of a YA time travel story (it only took me two and a bit hours to read 400 pages), with lots of twists, lots of great characters, and lots of action, look no further than Stolen Time, by Danielle Rollins (Febraury 2019, HarperTeen). It begins in Seattle, in 1913, when Dorothy runs away from the marriage her con-artist mother has inveigled her into.  Her flight leads her to a time traveler, from New Seattle, 2077.  Ash is on a mission to find his mentor, the professor who figured out time travel technology, and who disappeared. leaving his team of young people gathered from different times without guidance and purpose.  Dorothy stows away in his ship, and Ash inadvertently takes her back to his own time, to a city devastated by earthquakes and inundated by tidal waves. It's a city living in fear of a vicious gang, whose co-leader, Roman, was once one of the professor's brightest students.  But Roman wanted time travel to ...
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The Clockwork Scarab

By: Coleen Gleason Two girls are dead and one has gone missing in 1889 London.  The only clues are an Egyptian Scarabs that were found at both the murder scenes. Well, not exactly murder, both deaths were made out to look like suicides.  Mina Holmes, as in Sherlock Holmes's niece, and Evaline Stoker, sister of Bram Stoker (author of Dracula), are called to a secret meeting at the British Museum by Irene Adler.  Stoker and Holmes are called to investigate these series of murders by the Princess of Wales.  Along the way Holmes makes friends with Dylan Eckhert.  Dylan was at the museum looking at the statue of Sekhmet,  and Egyptian  Goddess, when he touched a scarab on the statue.  Next thing he knew, he woke up in 1889 London.  His problems come from the fact that he's from 2016 London.  Miss Holmes also has a rivalry with Lieutenant Grayling, of Scotland Yard.  Miss Stoker runs into a mysterious pick-pocket, Pix (meaning Pixie), a c...
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