Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson

Maximum Ride Book One, The Angel Experiment
By James Patterson

Max isn't normal. Not even close.
In fact, she's only 98% human. What's the other percent, you may be asking?
Avian, aka bird.
But, you might also be asking, what difference does 2% birdy DNA make?
A stinking lot, let me tell you.
Max and her friends, her Flock, as they call themselves, all have wings. All six of them.
The rest of Max's Flock (Gazzy, Angel, Iggy, Nudge, and Fang) mean everything to Max, because they're all she's ever had. After all, it's probably pretty hard to make friends when you're a bird-freak.
Anyways, Max's Flock means everything to her, and when one of them gets captured by the evil School, the lab where they were created, she's going to save them. No matter what.
Even if she has to fight the 'Erasers', a wacked-out form of werewolves also created by and run by the School, and risk her own life on the line.

Review | The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Hey everyone!  Cassia here!  I saw Beautiful Creatures!  It was good, but the book's better.  That's usually how it works anyway.  So if you've read the book...in the movie Ethan is cooking his own breakfast. *shudders*  That's just weird.  So, I was playing around with Blogger, seeing what it can do.  I made us a button!  All you have to do is copy and paste the code below it onto your website!  Thanks to eHow for the article of how to do it!  Here's another review for you all!

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Meghan’s life has always been a bit...odd.  It all started when she was six--and her own father disappeared before her eyes.  Now, everything she’s known is slowly spiraling away.  There are things in the shadows, and she can never quite see them clearly when she looks.  Her joker best friend Robbie has also been acting strange.  Suddenly, he’s overprotective.  Is it her?


Okay, sorry the summary is so short.  It’s hard to do it without spoiling anything, so that’s as much as I can give you.  I will give you something else, though: it’s about faeries.  Woo!  My favorite fantasy creature is faeries, so of course I loved this.  I was telling my friend about Wicked Lovely (she never heard of it!), and she handed me this and told me to read it.

I really like the world Kagawa has created in this series.  It has a lot of folk lore, including legends, and of course my favorite part, the Seelie and Unseelie Faery courts.  If you’re new to faeries and are wondering what the heck those are, the fey are organized into two courts: Seelie and Unseelie.  The Seelie Court is also known as the Summer Court, and is the...tamer of the two courts.  In the Nevernever (aka Faeryland), the Seelie court is in a section called Arcadia, if you’ve ever heard of it.  The Unseelie Court is the polar opposite of the Seelie Court: it’s also known as the Winter Court, and backstabbing--literally sometimes--is commonplace.  Now, you might have heard of the section of the Nevernever it’s in: Tir Na Nog.  As for characters, Meghan struck me as not the smartest person on Earth, but she got better over the course of the book.  And then there’s Ash...*swoon*  No, I’m not telling you who he is, either.  I really really liked Robbie!

In the first book of The Iron Fey, Kagawa builds a world that is easy to get lost in with all of the action, folk lore, and of course, romance.
Five stars!
Goodbye for now,
Cassia

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

Hey everybody!  Cassia here!  So, sometimes two out of the three of us will do a review together.  Here's a review of The Hobbit by Max and I.

Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit.  What is a hobbit, you might ask?   A hobbit, according to dictionary.com, is a ‘member of the race of imaginary creatures related to and resembling humans, living in underground holes and characterized by their good nature, shortness, and hairy feet.’  So I guess you could say Bilbo is pretty special.  His perfect life is disrupted, however, when the wizard Gandalf and Thorin and Company ask him to come with them and reclaim their treasure and their kingdom from the evil dragon Smaug.  Here, Bilbo survives trolls, crazy elves, and he discovers the ring.

    He’s even more special now that he has the ring.   And it’s not just any ring, let me tell you.  This ring turns the wearer invisible.    Finally, Bilbo and his companions arrive at the evil mountain , where Smaug, and finally, the treasure awaits him.  With his strange magical ring, what could go wrong?
    The Hobbit is an adventure book.  So, if you like that, you might like it.  I say might because it really was not good.  When I read, I need imagery to get the picture in my head, and this book had none.  Also, I love good foreshadowing.  In my book, the foreshadowing should be very subtle so that you hardly even know it’s there unless you’re looking.  This book had a lot of foreshadowing, and it was bad, obvious, and made the whole thing predictable.  It was also kind of confusing.  It explains what a hobbit is, but it doesn’t really tell you exactly what world you’re in.  Usually, you can identify what world a book is in by what some people--including me--like to call ‘world-building’.  This book did not explain any of it at all.  Basically you had to know what a troll, elf, and dragon is.  You’re just kind of thrown in without any explanation at all.
    One star.

Goodbye for now and fly on,
Cassia and Max

Modelland by Tyra Banks

Picture courtesy of Goodreads

Modelland

Author: Tyra Banks
Series: Modelland #1
Release Date: September 13, 2011 
Pages: 576
Review by: Tessa

       Every year, thousands of girls everywhere in the world strut their stuff for a chance to go to Modelland. Modelland is a model boarding school build on top of a HUGE mountain. Tookie never wanted to go to Modelland--she didn't even enter the contest-- but she miraculously got chosen by the most famous Intoxibella, one of the few who graduated from Modelland. Tookie, with her afro hair, mismatched eyes, and massive forehead, will travel to Modelland with three other girls, who like Tookie don't seem to be cut out for Modelland. Dark rumors are starting about why Tookie and her new friends got into Modelland. None of them are pleasant. Modelland is ready for them...but are they ready for Modelland?

Forever by Maggie Stiefvater

Hey everybody!  Cassia here!  Ahhh, Saturday.  It's nice not having to do anything.  Anyway, here's another review: Forever by Maggie Stiefvater.

WARNING: If you have not read the first two books in the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater, I highly suggest you stop reading NOW.  Thank you!

Forever by Maggie Stiefvater

Now Sam is human...and Grace is the wolf.  They want to be together forever, but how can they when one of them is a wolf?  Now, Sam and Grace must fight harder than ever to be together...and their only hope of salvation may just come in the form of Cole St. Clair.   Now, Culpeper wants to have a legal hunt on the wolves.  Can Sam, Grace, Cole, and Isabel save themselves and the Wolves of Mercy Falls?


I hate irony.  And this book is definitely ironic.  Oh, wait, I did not mean that I hated the book!  I absolutely loved the book, and it's a lot better than the first two books.  (If that's possible ;)). Anyway, remember way back in Shiver when Sam was the wolf and Grace was human?  Yeah, well, now it's backwards.  Which absolutely drove me nuts!  The title is so fitting: Sam and Grace want to be together forever...literally.

Agh this is hard without spoiling anything.  I love it when characters change.  Cole did change a lot since the beginning of Linger.  Then, he was suicidal, and didn't want anything to do with himself; basically, he hated himself, couldn't figure out how to live with himself.  By the end of Linger, he's found his purpose, and he's a lot happier.  (When Tessa was reading this series, I kept telling her how awesome Cole is and she kept giving me this weird look that said, "Why?  He's the exact opposite of you!  How could you like him?" And after she finished it she admitted I was right.) I think all the characters changed throughout the series at some point.  Grace did a little bit, Sam did a lot, and even Isabel did.  Again, there's music.  There's one particular scene with Sam and Cole in this book that I absolutely love, and it's just so tender and they're actually getting along.

In the final Wolves of Mercy Falls book, Stiefvater explores having a purpose in life, sacrifice, and once again, love.  The ending will not disappoint.  (Oh, and I'm going to warn you right now: on her website, Stiefvater said that no matter what, she is never going to write short stories or sequels to go with the trilogy. *sob*)
Five stars!
Goodbye for now,
Cassia

Favorites Friday 2/15/13

Hey everybody!  I know I'm a day late, but...happy Valentine's Day!  Sorry I forgot last week, so this week you'll know our favorites from the past three weeks.  Beautiful Creatures came out yesterday!  And Tessa needs to hurry up and read it or I'm going without her.  (Hear that Tessa???) Anyway, here's our favorites from the past three weeks.

Max:
Max's favorite from the past three weeks is The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken.  She gives it four and a half stars!

Tessa:
Tessa's favorite from the past three weeks is The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, which is one of my favorites, and you know how much I love Maggie Stiefvater.  She gives it four stars and can't wait for the sequel that comes out this year! (Me too!!!)

Cassia:
My favorite from the past three weeks is My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult.  I think it might be classified as adult fiction, but...oh my gosh it was amazing!  Definitely five stars.  It's about a girl that has leukemia, and it is kinda sad, but really good.

So, those are our favorites from the past three weeks!  I'll do another review soon!
Goodbye for now,
Cassia

Whatcha Reading Wednesday 2/13/13

Hiya guysies! It's Max, and I'm back! Sorry I haven't updated in forever. I feel terrible. Feel free to look down upon me forever. Well, not forever since today's Wednesday, and *drumroll, please!* here's what we're reading!

Cassia
The Magician by Michael Scott, the second in a great and very historically magical series that I enjoyed a ton.

Tessa
Hidden, by Sophie Jordan, the third in a series that I also enjoyed. Here's her review of the first book, in case y'all want to check it out.

Max
And I'm reading Sweep Volume One, by Cate Tiernan, about witches and love and all that jazz.

I suppose that's it. Have a great week, guysies!
Fly on,
          Max

Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier

Ruby Red

Author: Kerstin Gier
Series: Precious Stone Trilogy #1
Release Date: May 10, 2011
Pages: 336
Review by: Tessa

       Gwyneth is just an ordinary schoolgirl. Or so she thought.
       Gwyneth has grown up with the idea of time travel, but she knows she will never get to experience it. Her "perfect" cousin, Charlotte, has inherited her family's time-traveling gene. Charlotte is constantly pampered with private lessons, and her every whim is obeyed. She is a pain to Gwen, who has to live with Charlotte and the rest of her crazy family. 
       But, everything changes when Gwyneth travels in time instead of Charlotte. Gwyneth, not the perfect and prepared Charlotte, is blessed (or cursed) with the gene. Then, it was prophesied that Gwen has "the magic of the Raven"-- whatever that is supposed to mean.
       Gwen is the key to completing the time-travelers quest, but will she want to live up to her destiny?

Review | Darkest Mercy by Melissa Marr

Hey everybody!  Cassia here!  Finally, here's my review of the last Wicked Lovely book, Darkest Mercy.  I love all the covers--they're so pretty!  I also like the titles--they all contradict themselves, except for Ink Exchange.  I'm a fan of short, catchy titles, so I really like all the titles.  Anyway, here's my review of Darkest Mercy by Melissa Marr:

WARNING: Darkest Mercy is the fifth and final book in the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr.  If you have not read the first four books, I highly suggest you stop reading NOW.  Thank you!

Darkest Mercy by Melissa Marr

Bananach is gaining power by the day.
Aislinn is learning to rule the Summer court alone.
Keenan is who-knows-where.
Donia wants to do something, but no one will help her, and she still longs for Keenan.
Seth is ready to fight, and wants to kill Bananach, but Sorcha wants to keep him with her in Faery, where she can protect him and keep him safe.
Irial is on his deathbed, and Niall is losing it, unable to do anything but destroy in a blind rage.

Bananach is ready to take over the mortal world, and nobody can see a solution.  Can Aislinn, Keenan, Donia, Niall, and Seth find a way to control her before she kills them all?


Favorite.  Book.  Ever.  Now, that’s a bold statement.  There are so many YA books out there, so me saying that this is my favorite book...well, you get the idea.  Anywho, so do you remember who my favorite character is?  Of all time?  Yeah, Irial.  Look at the summary again.  I was bawling.  (I don’t waste tears on books at all, so when I say bawling, I mean on the inside, not the outside.)  I was not happy.  This book was very emotion-centered, rather than action-centered, except for maybe the last 15 chapters.  Just a warning, but trust me, it’s still good.  Also, when I picked this book up, I was sad and happy at the same time.  I was happy because I finally got to know what happened, and I was sad because it was the last book, and I wouldn’t get any more.

So, things have gotten pretty bad.  Keenan is MIA, and once again, I wanted to slap him.  You, as a reader, know where he is, but none of the other characters do.  Later, after he finally came up with a solution, I wanted to slap him again.  Mostly because I saw it from the first book, but I was happy with it.  Donia was the same as always: she wants Keenan, but won’t go after him because of her court.  Niall is literally losing his mind, going mad, however you want to put it.  What do I mean by destroy everything in a blind rage?  I mean run around his house like a crazy man, grabbing everything and throwing it into a wall, slashing the couches, etc.  Yes, I know, his lover is on his deathbed, you have to give him some leeway, but I thought his reaction was a little extreme.

In the final book in the Wicked Lovely series, Marr exhibits sacrifice, pushing through all the bad things for others, and, once again, love.
Five stars!
Goodbye for now,
Cassia