HEATHER VOGEL FREDERICK: The Mother-Daughter Book Club 1-3

I stumbled across this series while walking the aisles at Booksamillion. I used to have to wait for my mom at work more than I do now, so I'd just go wander the bookstore. It must have been late 2013 or early 2014, since I found the entire series. I devoured the first three books, then got only a couple chapters into the fourth when I stopped. I'm not sure why I got derailed from the series. (Possibly it was when my last shitty relationship started, but I can't remember for sure.)

Anyway, last week, I went through my book bins in my storage closet, one of which contains the already-read books in series I'm in the middle of. I like to get an entire series read before I decide where it's going to be stored. I saw these three and decided it was about time I finish the series.

I reread 1-3 first and just finished #3 earlier tonight. I thought I'd write about them quick, then I'll probably put the others together, too.

SPOILER WARNING: I'M ACTUALLY TALKING ABOUT DETAILS THIS TIME.

The Mother-Daughter Book Club is set in Concord, MA, and is formed by the local mothers of four very different girls:

-Emma Hawthorne's mother is a librarian and her father is an author. She's the one who loves to read and write. She's a bit overweight at the start of the series and wears secondhand clothes. She takes up ice-skating in the second book and slims down some, although she's still mostly the same person. She's actually the first of the original 4 girls to get a boyfriend, Stewart, who just happens to be the nerdy-older-brother-turned-model of the girl who picks on her all the time.

-Jess Delaney has been given the unfortunate nickname of Goat Girl by the same girl who picks on Emma. Her parents run a goat farm/orchard and make cheeses and such. In the first book, her mom is actually away living in New York, pursuing some mid-life crisis dream of reviving her acting career. And she's doing pretty well, because she's a popular soap opera character. Jess and her father struggle to run the farm and keep an eye on Jess's young twin brothers. Jess is one of the smartest kids in their middle school and in the third book, receives a full scholarship to a local private boarding school. She wants to be a vet and loves science, nature and the Latin names for things. In the second book, the girls work together to save Half Moon Farm, which is a pretty fun storyline. Jess has a crush on Emma's older brother, Darcy.

-Megan Wong is the fashionista/part-time mean girl. Well, she mainly plays that role in the first book and things are finally mostly resolved in the second. Megan is part of the popular girl clique led by the resident mean girl, Becca Chadwick. Becca's the one who always picks on Emma and Jess. Emma and Megan used to be best friends, before Megan's dad got rich and Megan fell in with the clothes-obsessed, boy crazy girls. Megan struggles in the first book, because she likes her mean girl friends, but she also likes her book club friends. She tries to balance the two, which gets more interesting when the moms invite Becca and her mother to join book club in the second book. She also has to deal with her mom, who's determined to devote her husband's money only to worthy causes, champions the environment and organic yadda yadda and doesn't accept that Megan wants to be a fashion designer. And in the third book, Gigi, her maternal grandmother moves in and that leads to a lot of conflict because she's a lot like Megan and nothing like her daughter. Megan is an interesting character, because she's not your brainiac and/or techie Asian stereotype girl. She's like Claudia Kishi for the modern age, only focused on fashion and not all kinds of art.

-Cassidy Sloane has recently moved from California. Her mother is an ex-model named Clementine, who's pretty famous, and her older sister looks exactly like her, while red-haired Cassidy looks like her late father. She struggles the most with internal family issues throughout the three books. She misses her father, has trouble dealing with her mother dating and then getting engaged, and in the third book, her mom's pregnant. Cassidy's sports crazy. She tries out for the boys hockey team and makes it, becoming team captain and frequently MVP. She also plays baseball. She's the least interested in boys of the four.

I don't have a favorite of the four girls, although I can say Cassidy tends to be my least favorite. She's really good at getting back at mean girls, but her constant family issues and grumbling about the "girly" books they have to read for book club, even though she ends up liking them, get annoying. The parents are all pretty likeable, although Mrs. Wong and Mrs. Chadwick aren't all the time. My fave is probably Mrs. Hawthorne. And Mr. Hawthorne, except I disagree with his random hate of dogs.

The format of the books is interesting. Each is divided up by the four seasons and each season has four chapters, one from the first person PoV of each girl. Frequently, there's a good gap of time in between the girls' chapters and that can be problematic. If there's a problem in, say, Emma's chapter, and they jump to Jess's, it's often resolved with a throwaway line or two. I got seriously pissed in the third book when Emma's older brother Darcy does something extremely assholish to her and there's no resolution. They just end the chapter and move on. There's no confrontation, no much-deserved apology, nothing.

Book Club meets once a month and they only work on one book per year. PER YEAR. I can read a book in less than a day, so I can't imagine spending an entire year on one book. Or sometimes the girls don't finish their monthly assigned reading and I'm thinking "You had a MONTH. WTF have you been doing? You're like twelve!" The first book has them reading Little Women. The second is the Anne of Green Gables series, where they do actually make it to two books for the year. The third is Daddy-Long-Legs and other Jean Webster books. I've never read Jean Webster, but they explain things well enough that I got the gist of it and wasn't offput. I do have Daddy-Long-Legs coming in the mail though! I want to read it. They also provide fun (and sometimes not so fun) facts about each author and do entertaining activities based on the books.

But the book club stuff is maybe 20% of the books themselves. They're mostly about the characters and their struggles, their relationships with each other, their families, their crushes, etc. And boy, do they have some struggles! What I did actually become offput by a couple times was the mothers' reaction to their daughters being bullied. They ask the Chadwicks to join the book club. It's a disaster at first, but it does eventually work out and I think Becca starts getting chapters in the fifth book. And then there's the Savannah problem in the third book. Again, the bully is welcomed by the bullied girls parents with open arms. Both times it's worked out okay, but that's not very realistic at all and could have been really damaging to the bullied kids.

Anyway, I really enjoy this series for the most part and I recommend checking it out. I'm about to start the fourth book now.

The GLOBAL FRIENDS Series

The Global Friends series accompanied an American Girl-esque line of dolls. The dolls were smaller, cheaper and from around the world, representing girls that all were Global Friends, a type of pen pal that exchanged letters and emails. (They all spoke English, no matter where they were from, which is pretty convenient, but I suppose it could be a requirement for the program or there were other girls paired up who shared a non-English language.)

The books require a typical amount of suspension of disbelief. These girls are pretty young, mostly around 12ish, I think. I don't recall exactly. They do a ridiculous amount of traveling for children that age. Sometimes parents are along, but most of the time, these kids are left on their own in foreign countries with only a single child guide of the same age to accompany them. For some reason, this type of book tends to go for a mystery theme, like Karito Kids and the American Girl mysteries, and Global Friends is no different. The books can be read in any order. A few of the later ones have reference to past adventures, but it's along the lines of "I went to Japan last year!" and not important to the plot.

Educationally, they're okay. The visiting character learns a lot about the country in question from the resident character. There are frequent inserts of the native languages of the featured countries, but to my annoyance, no pronunciation guides. At most, there's a list of vocabulary words at the back, but how useful is it going to be if the reader or parent/teacher reading the book can't pronounce those words? Most people are not going to get Spielwarengeschäft or pretty much anything Mei Ling says without some help.

I'm not going to do separate reviews of each, but I am going to provide a quick blurb.

The Mystery of the Russian Circus School: This came out in September 1996 and was the first book. The setting is Moscow, where American Global Friends Jody (a Native American from New Mexico) and Marissa (possibly from California) are visiting their friend Katrina, who attends a circus school. The art in this one is great, but it barely focuses on the characters, which is a little annoying.

The Secret Egyptian Code: These next three are all from October 1996. This one features Marissa again, this time in Giza, visiting Aziza, who lives there. The art this time is a better blend of character-centric and educational/scenic. It's got some nice Egyptian facts included.

The Haunted English Riding Stable: This time we've got American Emily visiting Elizabeth in ruralish England. The artists of the first two books worked together on this one, but the Egyptian book artist did a much better job, simply because her characters actually are identifiable. The Russian book artist does great scenery, but I'm not sure in this one if the people in the illustrations are the characters or more of her scenic stuff.

The Lost Treasure of the Rainforest: I got this one only a few months ago. It was the hardest to find for me, although it's on Amazon right now for pretty cheap. This book has Bethany from Chicago visiting Camina in Brazil. The problem is that there is no Global Friends doll named Bethany, so I had no idea who she was until she shows up on page 40. And the artists are a mixed bag again and the Russian book artist likes to put so many random people in that you have no clue who the characters are. The Egyptian book artist is the one who drew Camina, her cousin and Bethany. Bethany apparently was the original name for Briana, the African-American doll from the Midwest.

Those first four books all have the characters reach out to other Global Friends on the internet for help in solving their mysteries. This sadly stops for most of the remaining five books, which all came out in October 1997. What begins is that the characters become more easily identifiable, because they're often pictured wearing their doll outfits. Although sometimes it's a bit strange, because I'm not sure Mariko would wear a kimono to hike to a German castle or that Jody would spend her trip to Japan in her cowgirl outfit.

The Missing Japanese Festival Dolls: This is the only book to still use the Global Friends connection in solving the mystery, so I consider it the first of the last five books. This is one of my two favorites. It's the least far-fetched when it comes to the mystery, and I love Mariko and Jody. Jody is back again and this time she's in Japan, visiting Mariko.

Discovery in a French Garden: Emily visits Clio in France.

Rescue in Kenya: Marissa is traveling again and this time she's with Briana (no longer Bethany) to visit Kenya and their Global Friend Akua.

The Ghostly German Castle: This is my other favorite of the series. The Russian book artist does the entire book and that includes gorgeous illustrations of the characters. I also love it because both Jody AND Mariko are visiting Gretchen in Germany. The travelers have always been American before, so it's nice to see Mariko out and about. I've also been to Munich, so I can enjoy the book a lot more because of that.

The Chinese New Year Dragon: This one has Emily again, but also Clio visiting Mei Ling in China. It's good because the girls visit a lot of places, but the mystery is by far the weakest.

There is another book, Secrets at California Beach Boardwalk, dated August 1997 on Amazon, but it doesn't appear to have ever been released. I find that a shame, because it likely would have had non-American Global Friends traveling to California to meet Marissa.

I enjoyed reading these the first time and they hold up to a good reread. They're fun, because the art is mostly pretty and the characters are sweet. They're not as in depth as other world series or AG, but they're still just plain fun.

RECOMMENDATION: S. E. SCHLOSSER

Not a review, but a recommendation. If you're into ghost stories, supernatural stories and folklore, check out S. E. Schlosser's Spooky series. She has some that sound like tales and others are her own true encounters. (Sometimes it's a little hard to tell when it's one of those, as she frequently uses first person narration. Sometimes it's her, sometimes it's not. Most of the ones featuring her also involve her sister and nephew, so keep an eye out for that.) This is hands down my favorite spooky stories series. I love a lot of them from childhood, but this series is not written just for children and the illustrations are awesome, so it takes first place.

There are 26 books out right now. Nineteen of them are specific to states (Spooky Florida, Spooky Maryland, etc.), one covers all of Canada, two are collections of "campfire tales," and the others are regional (South, Southwest, Yellowstone, New England). Spooky New Orleans, pictured to the left, is the upcoming book, due out in July.

THE TIME-TRAVELING FASHIONISTA Series

I discovered this series when I was looking through an ebay used bookseller's inventory, trying to find a few more books to get 4 for 3. I bought the Cleopatra one and I think this one from that seller, but had to get the Versailles one from another seller. I can't remember. It's not really relevant, except to explain that I didn't read the series in order. I read the Cleopatra one, which is #3, first. And therefore was slightly confused. Read them in order. It wasn't the most confusing thing ever, but the little details make more sense if you read them in order.

Anyway, Louise is a 12-year-old who loves vintage clothing. She gets an invite to the Time-Traveling Fashionista pop-up sale, which occurs every now and then in different locations. At her first sale, she tries on a dress and boom, she goes back in time.

The way it works is that clothing has a memory and certain people can access that and send themselves back in time. They inhabit someone else's body and look like that person unless they face a mirror. Only in the mirror do you see who's controlling the body. Louise has some hints to work with, since every time she goes back, she's been studying a bit of the history of that time period. Not that she chooses things from those eras on purpose and most of the time, she's been doing fashion sketches in class and not paying full attention anyway. So she has to quickly figure out who she is and bumble her way around, trying not to let on that something is off.

The books also have her with some random problems with family or boys or her best friend, so they're kind of book-ended that way.

In the first book, she goes back to the Titanic and freaks when she realizes what ship she's on. She tries to warn people, but quickly learns that you can't change history. (Although she still tries.) She's actually in the body of one of her ancestors and throughout the three books, you put the pieces together and see that some of her ancestors were TTFs, too.

The second book is set at Versailles, before the French Revolution. This is the weakest of the three and the one I just finished tonight. I found it frustrating, because Louise tries to get Marie-Antoinette to see the problems, but M-A basically says her life is run for her and the only decisions she's allowed to make for herself are what she wears and how she does her hair, which is why she's obsessed with those things. The timing is also off, because Louis XV is still alive, so M-A is very young, yet Louise acts like the Revolution is going to start at any time. Count Fersen seems to be making his first appearance at court, which would place this in January 1774. Yet Louise is inhabiting the body of the Duchess de Polignac, who wasn't made a duchess until 1780, and was married in 1767, yet no pesky husband popped up to cause problems. Also, she didn't meet M-A until 1775. It's kind of a mess, which I'm only learning more about as I type this, because I stopped to research. This time period is not one of my strong suits. Heh. Anyway, let's move on.

From the weakest to the strongest by far. This book is far more interesting. It even has a more interesting set-up, because Louise is originally sent back in some clothes from the set of Cleopatra, but while there, tries on a necklace that proves to be genuine and she's sent back in time to meet the REAL Cleopatra...as one of her handmaidens.

Now if you don't know anything about Ptolemaic Egypt, it was DANGEROUS. Especially during Cleopatra VII's time. Everyone was out to rule and kill anyone who stood between them and the throne. Well, Louise gets dropped right into this and that makes this easily the most thrilling of the three books. I actually read it months ago, so I can't go as in depth as I did with my critique of the Versailles book, but I don't remember having any major complaints.

I definitely recommend this series. It's a fun modern story, but with great chunks of historical fiction in between. As long as you're not super-picky about the details, you'll have fun. Also, I haven't mentioned one of the best parts. The books are loaded with Sandra Suy's beautiful illustrations of multiple characters in gorgeous clothing and of the settings Louise finds herself in.

(Seriously, no matter what I do, this post wants these illustrations to be arranged like this. Madame du Barry's just got to be difficult! Oh, well.)

ROBERT D. SAN SOUCI: Part 2

Even though I ordered Short and Shivery volumes 2, 3 and 4, when I saw my local library had 2 and 4, I couldn't resist picking them up.

I was confused at first with More Short and Shivery, because the first half of the book was tales from my copy of Short and Shivery. Turns out I have some later edition that is the original first volume plus the first half of the second volume. So 45 tales instead of the usual 30 per book.

This one has some classics like "King of the Cats" and "The Golden Arm." I enjoyed the non-American tales, like Spain's "The Serpent Woman," Italy's "The Greedy Daughter" and "The Headrest" from Papua New Guinea. The notes in the back give nice insight into how San Souci crafted the tale as well as providing references for future reading.

My library didn't have the third volume, so I skipped ahead and read A Terrifying Taste of Short and Shivery, which is the fourth. Unfortunately, the awesome illustrations of Katherine Coville aren't in this volume, but the new illustrator didn't do too badly. His pieces have a vintage feel to them. This entire volume is filled with great tales. Only two are ones I'd read before. One of those was the "attacker in the backseat of the car" urban legend, but the other I'd only read once somewhere else.

I love kids' horror anthologies. I have since I picked up my first ones through the Scholastic order forms in elementary school. These definitely continue that tradition, but they have that wide assortment of global tales instead of retold urban legends, ones that are purely made up by the author, or just plain ghost stories. That's what makes this series so good. I've been reading tales like this for decades, yet San Souci found many I've never read before.

This book is a slightly different offering. I read this almost all the way through before work today and skipped a nap to keep reading. This one isn't folklore, but pure fiction tales, each with the haunted house theme. But they're great. They remind me a bit of the Midnight Library series, only these have a better mix of "things work out okay" along with the more unhappy ending ones.

"Tea House" was by far my favorite, but "The Lodge" and "Doghouse" were up there, too. All of them are good though. "Chimera House" and "Webs," the opening two tales were my least favorites, so if you pick this up, don't judge the entire book on those two. Keep reading. It's a quick read, so there's not much time lost if you give every story a chance.

The illustrations here were excellent, too. The lady in the upper left window has another appearance in the book and she's pretty badass. I thought the style looked familiar and it's Kelly Murphy, who did the Nathaniel Fludd: Beastologist series and Elise Broach's Masterpiece.

This book came out in 2010, so I fear there won't be any more in the series, but I'd love it if there were! (Oh, man, I just hopped on Wikipedia and I'm really sad to say there definitely won't be any more. Robert D. San Souci died on December 19th of last year. He also wrote Disney's Mulan! Never would have guessed that. But how sad! I'm glad I'm getting into his books now, so at least I can have more than just one and get a better taste of this awesome author.)

I'll be back whenever my other San Souci books arrive, and I'll cover the third Short and Shivery, plus the Dare to Be Scared series.

CHARLIE HIGSON: The Fear (The Enemy Series #3)

I finished this Monday night, hoping to get 4-6 at the library on Tuesday, but only 6 was there. The online catalog says 4 and 5 are checked in, but they're not on the shelf, and I can't get my log in to work correctly, so I can't put them on hold and have someone who works there find them for me. I checked out a bunch of other stuff, so when I take it back, I'll try again.

Honestly, I could use a little break, so it's probably for the best.

The Fear is yet another prequel. This is the oddest series ever. I don't think I've ever read anything else where the first book was set in the present and the second and third both take place before that. The Dead (#2) is the earliest, followed by The Fear (#3). The events of The Fear take place right before The Enemy (#1), so I hope the fourth book finally gets us back to the present action.

I liked this one a bit more than The Dead, but not nearly as much as The Enemy. It gives a lot of background info so things in The Enemy are more fleshed out, but man, really do not get attached to anyone in this series. Seriously. Dude. I know I talk about these really vaguely, but this series is quite good and I don't want to spoil anything. You need to go read them if you're into this genre.

CHARLIE HIGSON: The Dead (The Enemy Series #2)

I finished this one today. At first, I was mildly annoyed we were doing a flashback book right after the first installment. I wanted to find out what happened to those characters, not meet new ones.

But I suppose it sets up necessary backstory for the grown-up big bad, the group at the tower and the group at the palace.

Man, I hated a lot of these characters though. Jack is annoying. Ed is weak for the first 2/3 of the book. Bam isn't characterized much. The female trio is obnoxious as fuck, and the French chick, well, you know what her deal is pretty quickly. (Trying not to do the spoiler thing, hence the vague.) The religious nut is incredibly annoying, as they tend to be. The nerds aren't characterized much. I thought Justin and Chris were the two most interesting characters. I also liked the younger nerd boys.

But the deaths weren't as moving as they were in the first book, because so many of the characters weren't presented as likeably. I'm hoping the third book is more like the first.  

CHARLIE HIGSON: The Enemy 1

One of my friends on Tumblr recommend this series, so I got the first three from the library. It definitely does not disappoint!

Hunger Games and Divergent are child's play in the post-apocalyptic game compared to this series. Those two are fucked up societies, but at least things function basically the same as what we're used to. This series? Nope. Almost everyone over 16 is dead. And the ones that remain are essentially flesh-eating zombies.

So we've got little groups of kids set around London, just trying to survive. They go scavenging and thankfully a handful of them are pretty damn smart. (The engineering "emo" pair are my faves of that set.) Then this kid comes around and tells them that everything is awesome and there are hardly any adults by Buckingham Palace. Two grocery stores fairly near each other each harbor a band of kids, so those groups join up and make for the palace. (Except for one PTSD kid who chooses to stay alone and his story is nice and depressing.) The book is about their journey to the palace and what happens there, but it also has chapters following a nine-year-old boy from one of the stores, who was captured earlier the same day the palace boy shows up. He escapes the "grown-ups" and then has plenty of adventures after. I'm skipping loads of details, because I think they need to be read to be experienced.

There are a lot of pretty scary things going on here. The kids have to band together and the older ones have to become adults to protect the youngest. They have to learn how to fight, because the adults keep coming after them, and despite the adults' illness, the kids are handicapped by their youth and weakness compared to the size and strength of the adults. Sometimes if too much time goes by, the adults "pop," which is totally gross, but that doesn't seem to have a strict time limit or anything. You'd think most of them would have popped by now if some did, since this thing hit pretty fast. But even if all the adults were dead, then the kids still have a huge problem on their hands. How in the hell are a bunch of children going to resurrect the world? The oldest are 16! The majority of 16-year-olds don't know that much about a lot of things that are important, like anything medical.

It's a very bleak story. It's like Walking Dead but bleaker, because they've at least got adults and chances are there's someone out there still alive that knows how to do important stuff.

My main struggle is trying not to get attached to anyone. Because it doesn't seem like a good idea.

Definitely a good book, but you have to be in the right mindset for it.

LIZ KESSLER: Philippa 1

I picked this up in a thrift store, because it looked cute, and it really was. It's got a very unique view of how the world works and what things are fairy godmothers. I always appreciate books that bring new ideas to the fantasy table and this sure does.

Basically, it's like what would happen if you (an 11-year-old girl) had a fairy godmother? But she was your age and a mean girl. Both main characters are a bit exasperating at times. Philippa's meekness gets old and Daisy's overblown bitchiness. Things work out in the end, of course, but it's a fun read to see how they end up that way.

It's written in the split chapter style, half Philippa's PoV and half Daisy's, which works quite well for this book.

I enjoyed it enough to pick up a couple of the author's Emily Windsnap mermaid series on ebay and I'll likely get all the books in both series. Not sure if I'll review them all here, since they're pretty basic, but I'm definitely going to read them all.

SHORT & SHIVERY Volume 1

I forget which thrift store I got this in ages ago. I put some books away today and ended up getting this out and rereading it. It's a collection of 45 short spooky tales with some awesome illustrations. I recommend it because I read a lot of these stories and there are several in here I've never read before. The Native American, Chinese and Japanese ones are my favorites. I really liked "The Cegua," which I've never heard before and one of my old faves "Tailypo" is included. There's also a story about Nuckelavee, who's one of my favorite monsters ever. (Definitely not a creature ever getting an MH doll of its kid.)

(ETA: Holy crap, there are three more of these books! And another series called "Dare to Be Scared" with four books. I just bought them all on Abebooks. Yeeha!)

By the way, this is Nuckelavee as I first saw him, via Monster in My Pocket (yes, I have the toy of him and yes, they typoed):

SIOBHAN VIVIAN: The List

I forgot to put a book in my bag on Sunday and ended up getting done at work before my mom, so I darted over to Target to get one. This is what I picked. The premise is simple. Every school year, right before homecoming, a list is posted. Two girls are selected from each grade. One is the prettiest. One is the ugliest. This book is about the eight girls on the list and how it affects them during the week. The list is posted Monday, so the book is split up into 8 chapters (1 for each girl) for Mon-Sat. None of the characters is truly likeable. You've got the pretty freshman with the frumpy junior older sister and they have a conflict. You've got the ugly freshman whose boyfriend is a piece of shit and doesn't take the news well. (She's the character I ended up liking most.) The pretty sophomore is a new girl who has been homeschooled her entire life so far, while the ugly sophomore is beautiful, but ugly on the inside. The pretty junior is the one I liked least, because I get really bored by eating disorder stories. The ugly junior is the school's rebel, who decides to truly be ugly and doesn't shower, change her clothes, wash her hair or brush her teeth for the entire school week. She ends up very unrealistically filthy. Like dirt just does not build up in layers that quickly, nor would bad acne form that quickly on a typically clear-skinned person, which it's noted she is. Her hair would be relatively nasty and her mouth would be bad, but five days without a shower is not going to turn you into a walking pile of filth. She's got a rather interesting story, but she's certainly not a likeable character. The prettiest and ugliest seniors have an old conflict to settle. It's a really fascinating premise to see how people react to this list in different ways and the author does real life credit by not everyone getting a happy ending. I wouldn't recommend it to buy, but it's library worthy.

ONCE UPON A ZOMBIE: The Color of Fear

I never thought this doll/book line would ever do anything again, but like a zombie, it's been resurrected. The original six dolls, for those that don't know, are Snow White, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Belle and the Little Mermaid. The main character in this book is a human, Caitlin Fletcher, who travels to the land of fairytales, which is powered by imagination. She's recruited by a zombified Rapunzel and only goes along because her brainiac little sister Natalie went through the portal (Lewis Carroll's grave) first. Basically, the Big Bad (called The Enchanter) tricked the Queen of Hearts into using a scepter to mind-control the populace. Their world is controlled by the color spectrum, each color providing certain aspects. The Enchanter gives the QoH a sceptre that she uses to block out the green spectrum (free will) and enhance the red (fear). This turns everyone into zombies, called the Blood-Eyed. The royals are a bit more pure of heart and heavy on courage, so while they're zombies, they maintain their own free will and just have a little craving for other things. They can be turned Blood-Eyed from a bite by a Blood-Eyed though. The princes that pair the princesses are all Blood-Eyed, because they got bitten in the original battle against them. But if the QoH waves her sceptre one more time, even the unbitten royals will turn. Caitlin somehow holds the key to saving their world. The main players are Caitlin (very fearful), Natalie (very book smart, especially about science), Rapunzel, Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. Rapunzel is the leader and the most stoic. She's got her hair powers. Snow White is predictably gentle, sweet and nature-loving, but she's got some neat nature-based abilities. Sleeping Beauty is the least characterized of the four. She has prophetic dreams when she falls asleep, which (like Briar) she does a lot, but she doesn't do much besides that. Cinderella is my favorite. She seems to have gotten some ass-kicking skills from Fables-verse Cinderella. She's the sassy, funny one. She's also not royal by birth, so she's a bit closer to giving in to the temptation of her cravings. Belle does make an appearance, but she loved her prince so much, she let him bite her, which turned her into one of the Blood-Eyed. And the Little Mermaid has a nice heroic cameo near the end. She's got healing skills. Even though she was just there for a bit, I think she's my second fave of the six. I'll leave the rest for you to learn if you want to read the book. It drags a bit in places and suffers from some overdescription. Like do we really need a list of ALL the plants the caterpillar is growing in his lair? But the characters and basic plot are fun. My biggest complaint is actually that Alice is on the cover, but doesn't show until the epilogue, which basically teases the next book. Rapunzel or Cinderella should have been on the cover instead.

SERENA VALENTINO: The Beast Within

(ETA: I'm C&Ping my November book reviews from my LJ, and man, this one is short. It worked fine as part of a multi-book entry, but as a stand alone, it's teeny. Oh, well.)

This is the second in Serena's Disney series. I didn't care for The Fairest of All, about the Evil Queen, very much, but I enjoyed this one a lot. There's a lot of good backstory. The Prince (who never is named in the book) and Gaston were originally *gasp* friends! The story moves quickly without lagging too much, unlike Fairest. And the parts with the three witches and Circe were awesome. I loved the mentions of other Disney tales. I'm looking forward to the next one, Poor Unfortunate Soul. You can guess who that's about!

GIRL TALK SERIES

Of all the 80s/early 90s girly book series I have read, and that is a large number, these have by far the most typos I have ever seen. Poor Girl Talk. I'm frankly appalled that this series based on A GAME FOR FUCK'S SAKE got more books than the fabulous Sleepover Friends. Sleepover Friends has 38 plus a Super Special, while Girl Talk clocks in with a shocking 45. Definitely the worst-written, longest-running of these series. Aside from having a shitton of typos, these books sometimes just end abruptly and there are so many new romances, it makes my head spin. Sabrina, the bubbly redhead with acting dreams, has a new crush almost every book. Sometimes they work out, but by the next book, she's on to someone else. Like in #11, she likes Michel, the new boy from Canada, and he likes her, too, but in #14, she has a crush on Arizonna (yes, really), the new boy from LA. I don't know if Michel even got mentioned in #12 or #13. I don't think so. Stuff like that makes me sad, because I really do like the characters. Each one takes a turn being the "I" character of each book, BSC-style.

Sabrina "Sabs" Wells: She's the aforementioned redhead. Very boy crazy, very dramatic, but also she's very popular. She's the nice, friendly girl that everyone in school likes, except for the stuck-up popular people. She's also a twin and has I think 3 older brothers besides? 2 or 3. Her twin, Sam, is also a fun character.

Katie Campbell: Katie's the blonde preppy one, who's a bit harder to get to know than Sabrina. She's not mean, just more reserved and studious. But she's also the only girl on the ice hockey team, so that's fun. Katie's dad died three years ago at the point I'm at in the series and her mom is beginning to date. She has a perfect older sister that she tends to feel overshadowed by.

Rowena "Randy" Zak: The girl from NYC. She's got spiky Joan Jett-esque hair, wears a lot of black, skateboards, plays drums and is really into music. Her parents divorced and she's living in Minnesota now with her mom, who's an artist and sort of scatterbrained in an artsy way. (Wants Randy's friends to call her by her name, not Ms. So-and-So, sometimes gets so into art that she forgets to eat and sleep for awhile, etc.) I love Randy, because as I've said, I've read a lot of these series and I can't think of another character that was more edgy like her. If there's a rebel character at all, they tend to stick around for one book, but not Randy.

Allison Cloud: Allison is the Jessi of Girl Talk. It's always mentioned that she's a "real" Native American. As opposed to a fake one? I dunno. She's Chippewa. Why can't they just say that? Like each girl has a little blurb on the first page before the title page and everything and this is mentioned there, so why keep repeating it in every book? (By the way, Jessi is BLACK and Mal is WHITE.) Anyway, Allison is the quiet, studious one who loves to read and write, which sounds just like Katie minus the hockey and coordinated outfits. However, Allison is more than just "exotic" Katie. When I first read BSC way, way back, I was a kid and didn't realize how bizarre the description of "exotic" really is, but now that I'm an adult, it's fucking annoying. She's not exotic. She's just not white. Yeesh. Although in terms of this type of book, she IS exotic. She is both "strikingly unusual in appearance" and "of a uniquely new and experimental nature," because she is the only Native American girly book character I can think of. ANYWAY. Allison is pretty awesome. I usually gravitate toward the brainy characters, especially if they're writers, and she's sweet and sensitive to boot. She and Randy are my faves.

So great characters, bad writing, but still plenty of light-reading fun. I don't necessarily recommend the series if you haven't read Sleepover Friends, SVT, BSC, Fabulous Five, etc., but if you have and you're looking for something similar, give it a shot. I didn't get very far. I'm at the beginning of #15. But I'm not going to cover it for a book post again unless something major happens.

ROSEMARY CLEMENT-MOORE: Prom Dates from Hell

I picked up the first two in this list at the library's used book store for 25 cents apiece. Definitely well worth it! The writing is crisp and comedic, so it kinda reminds me of mine. It doesn't drag on with side scenes or unnecessary description or monologuing. I'm not going to get too into the details because I don't want to spoil anything, but Maggie Quinn is pretty damn awesome. She's one of those atypical female leads, but not in an annoying way. You know, she's not popular, she's on the school paper and wants to do journalism, her only friend is nicknamed D&D Lisa, she doesn't care about clothes or prom, but she's also not perfect, not pretty every moment like other atypical female leads complain they're not but actually end up being, and not the love interest of some should-be-unattainable hot guy. Well, I guess she kind of is in Prom Dates, but that's one-sided on his part and he's a likeable character, if a bit spineless. My only real complaint about Prom Dates is that there's a bit of anti-goth bullshit. D&D Lisa used to be goth but it was "just a phase" and another goth character who appears briefly is stereotypically into black magic. Blech. But otherwise I really enjoyed this.

STEPHEN KING: The Bazaar of Bad Dreams

I'm a pretty big Stephen King fan, although he writes so much, sometimes I can't keep up. I'm only partway through Revival (that one may be on December's list) and I need to get the novel that came out before Bazaar after I finish that. I also never read Lisey's Story, despite having it in hardcover, and never finished Under the Dome or Joyland. And I need to buy the JFK time travel one, too. And I've wanted to reread The Dark Tower series for ages. So expect more King on these lists.

Anyway, The Stand is my favorite King novel, followed very closely by Eyes of the Dragon, but my favorite Stephen King of all time is when he releases short story anthologies. Night Shift. Skeleton Crew. Nightmares and Dreamscapes. Those contain essential King and some of my fave pieces ever. The Mist is my favorite thing he ever wrote and don't go by the movie, which has a completely different and terrible ending.

Basically, I was really excited to read this and it didn't disappoint.

The standouts here were The Dune and Ur. Batman and Robin Have an Altercation, Blockade Billy, Drunken Fireworks and Obits come next in line. The others follow together in a mishmash. I didn't like Summer Thunder. A bit too depressing and bleak for me. That's why I'm not into post-apocalyptic stuff much. I don't have much patience for bleak, especially when animals are involved. (The reason I stopped reading Under the Dome was the senseless dog death. I love you, Stephen King, but stop having people kill dogs.) Under the Weather was predictable and Afterlife was a bit dull and also predictable. But The Dune and Ur were up there with some of the greats.

AMERICAN GIRL: Josefina

Books Read:
-Josefina's collection 1-6
-Josefina's Short Stories (there are 5)
-Mystery: Secrets in the Hills

Josefina's stories are slice of life. They cover day-to-day events, not big historical things like wars, slavery or the Depression. The upside of this is that these stories are about life in 1824 New Mexico. Not something a lot of us know back and forth.

I find it very interesting how much responsibility is on the shoulders of these young girls. Flash forward to Maryellen, Molly and Julie and they barely do anything household-wise. Josefina and her sisters have the burden of keeping the rancho household running smoothly and it's not easy when they're four very different characters. Thankfully, Tia Dolores is there to guide the way.

Like Felicity's books, every single one of the characters introduced in Josefina's stories is likeable. I love her entire family, their servants, the villagers, everyone. Even her friend Mariana, who's in all of one book, made a strong impression. I would have loved a Best Friend doll of her and an accompanying book, because I'd love to know what life in the Pueblo was like. The main three sisters are excellent characters. Ana, the eldest, is so soft-spoken and busy that you don't get to know her very well, but feisty Francisca and sensible to a fault Clara are possibly my favorite AG siblings. Tia Dolores is a superb role model and Papa is kind in his quiet way.

This review is actually going to be this short, because I have nothing bad to say about these books.

AG Best to Least Best (they're too good to be called "Worst") Historical Ranking:
-Josefina
-Felicity
-Kaya
-Caroline
-Maryellen

See? Nothing bad to say.

AMERICAN GIRL: Maryellen

Maryellen Larkin is the newest American Girl historical character. A lot of people have been excited about her, because she grows up in the 50s, a time not far removed from ours. My mom is 3 years younger than Maryellen. Actually, I think Beverly, Maryellen's little sister, has that age difference. I was amused at first, because my mom related instantly to one thing: the names. Her name is Joan, just like Maryellen's oldest sister. And Beverly is Mom's cousin. Wayne is her brother.

But as I read more and more, I became less amused.

Maryellen's books are very shallow. They're slice of life style, just like Julie and Josefina. But Josefina's world is so removed from ours that it automatically feels historical. And Julie deals with very relatable things like divorce, animal activism and women's rights. Maryellen has some issues in her books, but they're often mentioned very, very briefly. The Cold War is explained and then immediately forgotten. Interest in space is hinted at with the flying machine contest. And there's a conflict when Maryellen befriends an Italian girl and her two other female friends are mad at her for it, because of WWII. Maryellen is quick to point out that Angela wasn't even born when the war ended, but that doesn't work. The conflict wraps up neatly and quickly though, because Angela helps one of the girls win a geography bee for their team. Yeah, it's fixed that easily. They tossed their friend aside because of her friendship with this girl, but oh, she helped us win, so now she's cool and Maryellen was right. SIGH.

The biggest issue dealt with is polio. I've heard people lauding Maryellen as the great disabled AG character. Yeah...not really. Maryellen had polio and her lasting disabilities are one leg being "a tiny bit" weaker than the other and her lungs being sensitive to the cold. Now this leg issue could have been a thing. Wayne, the bully-who-turns-into-a-friend, teases her about it. But does it keep Maryellen from doing anything? No. She swims. She bikes as fast as her friends. She rollerskates. Beverly teaches her how to ice skate, which she does at her grandparents' house. That would have been the perfect place for a difficulty. Beverly and Maryellen had troubles with the instruction and they could easily have worked her disability in there. Yet I don't think it got a single mention. And the lung thing? That came as a surprise to me when it was mentioned in the beginning of the second book, because it sure wasn't an issue when she went to her grandparents' place and experienced snow for the first time. Not a peep about the cold. She's almost a disabled character in name only, because it never stops her from doing a damn thing and she doesn't struggle with it at all. They could not have done a bigger cop out. Now they can say they have a disabled main character, instead of giving us one that's wheelchair-bound or deaf or blind or has a mental illness of some kind. Disabilities are far better represented by Speaking Rain from Kaya's books and Joy from Julie's.

Another issue I have with the polio thing is that when they focused on it at the beginning of the second book, poor Maryellen never stood up for herself. The vaccine comes out and a lot of people are thrilled, but Maryellen is appalled that an acquaintance's parents are against vaccinations. She decides to put on a show for her birthday party and make it about getting vaccinated against polio. It's REALLY important to her. But her friends find the show she spent hours writing too long and boring, so they railroad her into letting them perform a variety show. She's still going to give a speech about polio and the importance of the vaccination, but she never once stands up for herself and tells her friends how important this is to her and why. Her older sister Carolyn is even one of these people. That idiot bitch should KNOW her little sister could have died. Yet she seems to not get how important this is to Maryellen at all. None of them do and Maryellen never tells them. This is probably my single biggest issue with the writing. Valerie Tripp used to be good! She did Felicity, Josefina, Kit and Molly! And I think half of Samantha! I read Josefina's first book last night, starting my newest reread, and that single book is better than both of Maryellen's combined and presents us with a set of characters, every single one of which is more likeable than any character in Maryellen's books. What happened? How in the hell is she giving us this weak-ass character? It's horrible! I feel like she had to be instructed to make Maryellen as bland and shallow as possible, because that's what people want to believe the 50s were. Happy go lucky la de fucking da times. They weren't.

Got a bit sidetracked there, but yeah, none of the characters in the books are very good. Angela is probably my favorite. She's the Italian girl. Maryellen's other two female friends are both named Karen and they are hands down THE WORST "best friends" in AG history. Both of them show prejudice against Angela. Both of them get pissed at Maryellen for wanting to do Science Club instead of more girly things with them. One of them is a copycat and the other is a tactless bitch. She even brings up Maryellen's "throwing a tantrum" about her polio show, thus proving that these characters do not understand what Maryellen experienced AT ALL. Davy, Maryellen's male best friend, is pretty cool, but both of them should have tried harder to make up after a fight the first day of school. Her family is boring. Her parents are hardly there and not a big presence when they are. The two younger brothers are typical younger brothers. Beverly is a little drama queen. Carolyn doesn't do much except play piano (and obviously not respect that her sister almost died). Joan is probably the most interesting, but I relate to her because she loves to read. The grandparents are cool. It was really kitschy, but the holiday story was my favorite one of the bunch. I liked the road trip, but not enough was mentioned. That's a story that needed the old AG-style illustrations.

So yes, Maryellen is a big disappointment. She easily ranks lowest on my list.

AG Best to Least Best (they're too good to be called "Worst") Historical Ranking:
-Felicity
-Kaya
-Caroline
-Maryellen

Now I know I've sounded like I hated these books. I really didn't. But they're not up to AG's standards at all, and I really dislike that they gave us such a shallow character that we never really get to know that well. Caroline suffered from the same problem, but we get to know her WAY better than Maryellen and even Caroline pales in comparison to the older girls.

I do have one interesting thing to point out though. In the "Maryellen's World" bit at the end of the second book, Tripp mentions that life was good..."if you were in a middle-class white family." She goes on to point out the struggles of minorities, focusing on black families. She mentions Brown vs. the Board of Education. "This decision became a landmark in the civil rights movement, which gained momentum during the 1950s and would bring even bigger changes in the decades to come."

Anyone else think that's basically a big lead in to our black 60s girl coming up next year?

AMERICAN GIRL: Caroline

Books Read:
-Caroline's collection 1-6
-Mysteries: Traitor in the Shipyard, The Traveler's Tricks, The Smuggler's Secrets

I found this from my personal LJ back in May: "I just finished Caroline #3 last night and I forgot how pissed it made me. Like when Caroline says she feels left out and Lydia and Rhonda say they invite her to do things, but Caroline acts like they're silly things. So what, she has to do what you do? She's allowed to not give a shit about hairstyles. SHE'S TEN. They were forcing their pastimes on her just as much as she tried to get Rhonda to skate. And Rhonda, you don't know you hate skating if you only try it fucking TWICE and give up after falling ONCE. But no, they never admit they were wrong, too. The closest we get to it is Rhonda trying again to skate with the chair at the end. I never really liked Lydia much."

That's the lowlight of the series.

I feel like we never really get to know Caroline that well. Her series is action-packed and we get a lot of her reacting to the events around her and we don't get into her head much in terms of anything but those events.

She's unusual in that she enjoys "feminine" pursuits like sewing a lot, but she also wants to be a ship's captain. That should have been explored a lot more.

I like the action episodes in her books. Her trip to her imprisoned father, her saving her dad, the potential burning of the shipyard. There are some standout moments there, but I still just do not connect to her as a character.

The mysteries are probably the best books in the series. All three of them are quite different and very good. We've got the traitor in the shipyard one, then travelling with a thief, and a smuggler, which is sort of like the traitor one, but it takes place at the farm, so it's a different cast and setting.

Her books are enjoyable, but she pales in comparison with the earlier characters and I'd rank her almost the lowest in the entire series. I'm not sure if Marie-Grace/Cecile are lower or not. I'll know in a little bit, as I think they're next after Josefina.

Actually, I'm going to start ranking these to encourage myself to read them faster.

AG Best to Least Best (they're too good to be called "Worst") Historical Ranking:
-Felicity
-Kaya
-Caroline

AMERICAN GIRL: Felicity

Books Read:
-Felicity's collection 1-6
-Very Funny, Elizabeth
-Felicity's short story collection
-Mysteries: Peril at King's Creek, Traitor in Williamsburg, Lady Margaret's Ghost

Felicity has always been one of my faves. I was charmed by her when she first came out, but I couldn't afford another AG doll. I barely got my childhood Molly. I happily read her books though. I tend to like the "spunky" characters, so she works for me, even though her obsession with horses (much like Kaya's, so the first two chronological rereads are always HORSES HORSES HORSES) doesn't interest me.

The characters in Lissie's books have a lot of depth, which is a great improvement over Kaya. Felicity's parents and siblings, her grandfather, Elizabeth, Ben, even Annabelle. All of them are memorable and well-written. Any reader of the Felicity books is going to remember Loose Tooth Tea, Bananabelle and Jiggy Nye. The time period is important, but only a few books really focus on the whole Patriot vs. Loyalist conflict, so there's a nice balance between HISTORICAL FICTION and fiction that happens to take place in the past, which I like a lot.

I have only two issues that I can think of.

First, where the hell did Posie go? Did I miss that when I was rereading? She gets the lamb in Book 4 of her basic series and then we never see her again. Unless the mentions just didn't stick in my mind.

Second, I've always taken issue with the blonding of Elizabeth. The Elizabeth I grew up with was dark-haired. I don't think it's ever been said why they changed her. AG claims it was to distinguish between her and Felicity, but they had two brunettes and a blonde in their original lineup. If we can distinguish between Samantha and Molly, I think we can tell the difference between red hair and brown. And Elizabeth has a completely different mold! Perhaps the theory that they changed her to match the actress is true. Maybe they just wanted another blonde doll. Who knows? But Elizabeth will always be a brunette in my book.

AMERICAN GIRL: Kaya

Books Read:
-Kaya's collection 1-6
-Kaya's short story collection (5 stories)
-Mystery: The Silent Stranger

Kaya has one of the most action-packed and tragic story collections. I don't know if I've ever not cried over Swan Circling's death. This is a character we only really just meet in that same book and her loss is still painful and poignant. Kaya endures much loss in her 6-book collection. She loses her sister, her horse, her hero. She is captured and held captive, albeit briefly. She holds the effects of that capture with her from Book 2 through Book 5, when she's reunited with Speaking Rain.

Kaya is a strong character. She's dutiful and genuinely wants to be a good person. But her biggest flaw is holding onto her mistakes too firmly. Her nickname, earned in Book 1, bothers her until Book 6. I hated that aspect of her story because it's so utterly unbelievable that none of the other kids did something wrong in that entire time, so the band of bullies could switch their taunts to that person. No, they're still teasing Kaya for fucking up once. And they're really nasty about it! Like aside from Kaya and Speaking Rain, most of the younger characters are total assholes. Not Two Hawks completely, but he's still got quite a few jerk moments. Raven was okay and the guy who taught Two Hawks how to make and play a flute. But where are the adults who should be teaching their jerkface offspring to be nice to others? Where is Kautsa with a story on how not to be a douche? These brats never get reprimanded! And why are Kaya's little brothers never reprimanded for not listening? Nope, it's always just Kaya who gets in trouble. The brothers are much better in the Beaver short story, but it's pretty much too little too late. What I really wanted was another kid to fuck up and get a nickname, so Kaya could bond with him/her and actually have a friend. She would make a point never to use this kid's horrible nickname. That's something that should have happened. Like the whole lesson is basically "Yeah, names hurt, but they go away in time, so just suck it up" when it should be "Don't fucking call people names in the first place."

Aside from that annoying aspect, the main fault I have with Kaya's stories is the lack of well-developed, likeable characters. Her father is a typical Native American Dad. Her mother is a typical Native American Mom. Kautsa (Wise Grandma) spouts off story after story. Brown Deer, the older sister, is pretty cool and I enjoyed her storyline with being courted and how that works, and I love Speaking Rain, the blind adopted sister. Swan Circling was fabulous, but she's barely there, and the same goes for the good characters that appear in the short stories, like Spotted Owl. Until the Beaver short story, the little brothers are either Brats or They Want a Story. Fox Tail is a Douche always. The books are great on developing Kaya and putting her in intense emotional scenes as well as action scenes, but if you move too far away from her, the characters are all stereotypes, boring, just plain mean, or there all too briefly. Like really, her horse and dog have more personality than her parents. That's not so good.

Her mystery always annoyed, because yeah, traumatized lady, but I hate when people make kids give up things. The whole "keeping your dog would have made you a child" bullshit pisses me off. Kaya has loss after loss. Don't take yet another thing away from her. Also, the mystery should be read before the Injured Dog and Grandmothers short stories.

I'm glad they kept Kaya in the BeForever line, but I wish they'd DO something with her. I want her to go on her vision quest and meet her wyakin. I want to know what happens to her! She, Addy and Josefina have I think only one mystery each, while the others have multiples, and yet the three new mysteries were Caroline, Kit and Samantha. I can see including Sam, because she's back from retirement, but it should have been two of the three I listed in place of Caroline and Kit. Start using your non-white girls more, AG.

STAR DARLINGS 2

Libby's book has an introduction that explains some of the details on how the SD's world works. I imagine this will be in every subsequent book.

Libby rooms with Gemma. They're the other two First year Starlings, the first two (Sage and Cassie) being featured in the first book. They've been sent some pretty flowers, but can't agree what they smell like and get into an argument over it.

Let me just say that Libby has the patience of a saint. Gemma would drive me fucking nuts. I hate people that talk just to hear themselves speak and don't let others get a word in edgewise.

Libby gets a call from her parents, wanting to plan their upcoming vacation. They want to go somewhere luxurious, as they're very wealthy, while Libby wants to work with her Aunt Kit, travelling around Starland and helping in animal shelters and orphanages. (Color me surprised that this planet even has animal shelters. These books are preachy about animal rights, so why does this planet full of more advanced people need something lowly Earth has?) Her parents are a bit rude about it. "That's our Libby. Always thinking about others and never about us." Except that these two are so busy they don't exactly lavish attention on Libby, so shut the fuck up, business parents.

Scarlet pays them a visit and I love that she and Libby are friends. Unfortunately, no one else in the SD's has been willing to give her a chance apparently. Gemma doesn't believe she's as nice as Libby says and that's bitchy in so many ways. Scarlet also clashes with her roommate, Leona, who's a real handful. I'm not really thrilled that 2 of the 3 main POC girls are kind of...jerks. Scarlet notices they got the flowers, too. She and Leona did and so did Tessa and Adora. She comments that they smell like her fave flowers, so it's obvious there's something up with them. Scarlet tells the girls she found Leona wearing her grandfather's top hat AGAIN. Scarlet's grandfather is deceased and she keeps his hat in a special case. This is what made me really dislike Leona, because to disrespect the dead AND your roommate's wishes is just too fucking much. You can't write it off as being the effects of the flowers either, because Scarlet makes it clear this is not the first time. Leona's a selfish bitch. I'm quite hoping she learns a lesson in the next book, because she sorely needs one. I mean, how awful is that? Majorly awful.

The girls go to breakfast and it's clear something is up between Adora and Tessa, too. Tessa and Gemma cannot fucking shut up about the farm they're from, which wouldn't annoy me so much if it didn't strike me as preachy. The worst thing about these books is that the authors clearly have some pro-vegetarian agenda and this society is supposed to be perfect because absolutely everything is a vegetarian. It's so creepily unnatural. Without natural predation, the animals should be ruling the goddamn planet. So weird. But anyway, yeah, I'm not sure I'm going to like Tessa either. I hate those people that yammer on about fresh food and organic yadda yadda, like everyone can afford it.

At the end of the day, the girls are in their special class and they're discussing Sage's mission and where she went wrong. Lady Cordial accidentally interrupts and this poor lady. I feel so bad for her any time she's in a scene. The guide didn't make her sound so incredibly awkward. She knocks over a plant and asshole Leona laughs at her. She's the only one who does, by the way. Why are we supposed to like her? They've made her into an even more unlikable character than the original version of Sage. The professor isn't very nice either. She's so into her subject that she's being completely insensitive to Sage and she spills the beans that Sage didn't collect as much wish energy as she should have, which upsets her. Thankfully, Libby provides the bright side to her situation and that helps Sage feel better.

Leona announces she's holding Star Darlings-only tryouts for a band. She's going to be the singer, of course. Libby heads back to her room and pulls her keytar out from under her bed. Gemma gives her attitude because she's played sooooooooooooo many instruments and never seen a keytar before. Libby decides to go for it, partly because she wants to show Gemma up. And I don't blame her one bit. The brat's a know-it-all. I'll be curious to see if I like her when she's not under the effects of these flowers, but right now, she's a jerk. Not nearly as bad as Leona, but close. Unfortunately, these tryouts that were supposed to be SD-only have now become an all-school thing, complete with adult supervision and a "ranker" that makes sure the band is selected fairly. Which is completely unfair, because it was Leona's idea and she might not even make her own band. What the hell is the point? Why would a band even stay together without the person whose idea it was? Leona is suspicious that Scarlet sent out the holo-flyer advertising the tryouts, but Scarlet says it wasn't her. I find it amusing that Leona is not nearly as talented as she thinks. She's got a good voice but not a lot of range. She makes up for it in stage presence, but I always love it when cocky people don't have quite the skills they think they do.

Libby gets the notice that there's about to be a new wish mission. When she's the one selected, she's pleased but nervous. She talks to her parents before she goes to bed and says maybe they can compromise and she and Aunt Kit could do some volunteer work at the same place her parents go.

I'm not going to write a ton about her Wishworld mission. She locates the right person, but doesn't get the right wish until the last moment with a little help from Sage. It concerns a class election, which is where the title comes from. For some reason, I thought there would be an election involving Libby herself, too. I think she said in the guide something about wanting to be class president. Eh. Whatevs. My favorite moments from these chapters were her reactions to everything. She, way more than Sage, makes it clear that she's never seen a lot of Earth things before. There is a preachy section on how there's no waterlife in Starland, but instead of being really interested, she's sad the animals are contained. Everything roams free on Starland. Yeah, there's no predation either, so they're safe to roam free. Humans do plenty of dumb things concerning animals, but this whole preachy bit really needs to lay off. You're not better than anyone else if you don't eat animals. You still eat living things, after all. There's one glitchy moment, because Libby sees Sage in her Wishworld disguise. In the previous book, Sage saw Tessa as her Starland self, not the disguise.

Back at school, the band results have been posted and we know who made it. Later, Libby and Gemma have a scene where they admit they find each other really annoying. But that goes unresolved. Then Libby doesn't get her flower or power crystal, because something has happened and it seems like one of them is not a Star Darling after all. And finally, Scarlet is the one told to stay behind, most likely the one not a SD.

So that's where the book ends, with three cliffhangers, as I mentioned yesterday.

Overall, I enjoyed this one more than Sage's. Sage's was bogged down with the world-building info that was necessary, but doesn't make for the best story. I find Libby a more likable character than Sage, likely because I can relate to a lot of things she does. I would want to help so many people if I could grant wishes. I let more self-centered people like Gemma talk over me all the time, just like Libby did. And I like to mediate between people and bring up "bright side" things that make others feel better. I'm also really pleased she's friends with Scarlet, because I see a lot of me in Scarlet, too. (Others as well, but these two are sticking out the most so far.) I am greatly disappointed in Leona, because she seems way too selfish and disrespectful. The incidents with Scarlet's heirloom and Lady Cordial are pretty bad. Gemma is more annoying and rude than anything else, but she's not presented very well either. I think the rudeness is the effect of the flowers, but her yabbering would make me crazy, so she's probably going to be pretty low on my list of faves.

Definitely looking forward to the next 3 releases in January. I'm really hoping Leona's improves her character A LOT. I don't want to dislike her, but how can I not right now?

(Also pretty disappointed that Wishworld Libby is another brunette. She looks a lot like Sage's disguise. I really thought she'd be blonde and I'm sad she isn't.)

STAR DARLINGS 1

(ETA: I don't have a single review for SD #1, because I did this comparison.)

So I have both the original version of Sage's Story and now the new Sage and the Journey to Wishworld. I'm going to do a chapter-by-chapter comparison of the two, because I skimmed the first chapter and we've already got one enormous difference!

I'm only going to hit the major points. The writing has been amped up a lot. Definitely polished and given more detail in a lot of places.

PROLOGUE:

-The family characters didn't have names before.

-Swiftcar is now Starcar.

-The biggest change: Sage's mom is alive! In the original story, her mother was dead.

-The differences are mostly world-building. Lots more descriptions of the environment and interactions between characters. Sage's mom seems cool, which obviously she didn't before, because she didn't exist. And Sage's grandmother is fleshed out more.

CHAPTER 1:

-This is hugely different. The Bot-Bot wasn't in the first version and this whole tour thing is new.

-Leona makes a quickie unnamed appearance. I bet we'll see more of the other SDs than we did in the first version.

-In the new book, Sage is told not to bring anything but the "clothes on her back." In the original, she had to unpack. They describe the different sides of the room for Sage and Cassie and it's clear they were designed for the girls based on information they provided in their applications. Cassie now has lots of books instead of knick-knacks.

-Cassie has changed slightly. Her hair was silvery-white and now it's pinkish-white, which I guess might happen from the illustrations of her. It's a shame they didn't have the guts to keep her the way she was. I love white hair and there are other characters with pink hair. We didn't need another.

-Sage not having read the Student Manual is downplayed a bit, because in the new book, she only just got it when she arrived. So Cassie's saying the Star-Zaps are discussed in the manual and Sage's grandmother's tsking don't quite make sense anymore.

-There's an addition of the Welcome Procession and the girls receiving their new outfits.

CHAPTER 2:

-Most of this chapter is very different. All the procession stuff and the glimpses of Libby and Scarlet are new.

-Vivica makes an unnamed appearance in a new scene.

-All the info on Wish Orbs is new. Good world-building again.

-In the original, Scarlet is the one who sticks out her tongue at Sage. In the new version, it's a girl with orange hair. I wonder if it's Gemma.

-Vivica takes the place of the girl with "acid yellow" hair who made fun of Sage's SD message in the first version.

CHAPTER 3:

-The descriptions of the other girls have been amped some. Scarlet is once again mentioned.

-Yes, it was Gemma that stuck out her tongue. And there's an amusing scene with her and Tessa.

-The energy crisis is not mentioned. The Star Darlings project is treated more like an experiment, although I still disagree with the cover of it being that they need extra help. Vega protests that and it does seem flimsy, especially if she's one of the best students.

-There's a funny moment when Sage answers Lady Stella first and Astra is annoyed because she wanted to.

-The girls receive their Wish Pendants.

-Lady Cordial, head of admissions, is introduced. She and a few select profs will know about this.

CHAPTER 4:

-This chapter is mostly quite different. The Star Darlings meet at the beginning for breakfast, which doesn't happen in the first version. Then we've got a very expanded section on the differences between Earth and Starland, which is a general class and not just the dozen SDs. I was irritated at the description of Wishling holidays because Ursa only mentioned primarily American holidays. I was hoping the missions would be a bit more varied than going to the US over and over again. There's still a sense of superiority from the Starlings, because Earth is technologically less advanced. Someone on Tumblr complained about that, but it's a frequently used aspect of aliens vs. Earthlings. Then we move on to Professor Delphinus's class, which covers the same info on wish identification from the first book and adds a lot more. Vivica is in Professor Raye's class, which Sage has next. Then we flash-forward to the final class. Sage catches up with Cassie in the hallway and they discuss their days, although they had one shared class and it seems a bit odd they wouldn't have done this then or at lunch. Then we have the scene from the beginning of the chapter in the first version of the book, where Vivica confronts them about their SD classes. In their special SD class at the end of the day, Professor Dumarre gives a lecture on Wishling schools. Overall, this has a lot of the same info as the original Chapter 4, but the teachers are given bigger personalities and there's a lot more info presented.

CHAPTER 5:

-The major difference here is that a lot of time passes and there are no SD missions, whereas in the original, they rush right off on the first day.

-Sage has joined a couple clubs AND read the student manual. Very different.

-In a new scene, Vivica insinuates that Sage only got into the school because her mother is a well-known scientist. See, this is why the remedial cover story falls apart. No one in this school should be remedial anything. It is that competitive.

-In another new scene, Sage runs into Cassie's father. Only he's not her father, he's her uncle. Cassie made it sound like her parents were still alive, but they're not. She's lived with her uncle since she was 6. Sage manages to slip away before Cassie sees her and stays away until later that night to give her some space. (This is a nice bit of characterization for her, because the original Sage was a more negative, impulsive character and I like this new Sage a lot more.) When she returns to their room, Cassie talks about her uncle and starts to say something about her parents when Sage interrupts and says Cassie's uncle told her the truth. Things are a bit awkward and they both go to bed, but Sage wakes to a text from Cassie, who communicates her feelings better via writing. After apologizing and explaining herself, she asks never to speak of this again and Sage agrees. She does learn more about Cassie's life though. Her uncle is a best-selling author and Cassie is an occasional star in his mysteries.

-The scene in the Wish-Cavern is similar yet of course different. There are no flowers, no clue about the wish.

CHAPTER 6:

-The biggest difference here is that the Travel Star, a vehicle in the first book, is now an actual shooting star.

CHAPTER 7:

-No major differences except the elimination of a scene at the end of the chapter with the "mean girl."

CHAPTER 8:

-Mostly the same with some expansions. The missing scene from the end of 7 turned up here.

CHAPTER 9:

-Also mostly the same, minus the scene about Sage and her mother.

CHAPTER 10:

-No major changes.

CHAPTER 11:

-Tessa is the only one who comes to Earth, not Arly and Piper, too, as in the first version. Sage sees Tessa as a Starling, not in her Earth disguise.

-Sage figures out that her Wisher is Genevieve without the aid of Cassie sending her the gift clue, as in the first book.

CHAPTER 12:

-They added Tessa kinda getting drunk on lemonade.

CHAPTER 13:

-The biggest change is that in the first version, Sage's randomly appears as her Starling self to the Earth girls, but now it's a conscious decision.

EPILOGUE:

-Sage receives her wish blossom and power crystal. Only the crystal was in the first book. The flower appeared earlier.

-Sage learns that she was admitted on her own strengths. There's nothing true in Vivica's nasty rumor.

And that's that. The changes are predominantly in the first part of the book, which is where they really needed to be. Some serious world-building was needed and we got that. And we got glimpses of the other girls' personalities, which were lacking in the original. Both Sage and Cassie are much stronger characters now, though I liked Cassie from the beginning. She's more well-rounded whereas Sage has become more likeable.

No mention of the band! I wonder if that won't be until Leona's book, since she starts it.