The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

Alyss Heart can't stand that "master of fantasy" bunk; she knows that Lewis Carroll was nothing more than an incompetent reporter. After she generously shared her Wonderland experiences with this fledgling author, he totally botched the retelling, even mangling her name. Alyss, however, refuses to merely grouse; she and royal bodyguard Hatter Madigan decide to make another emergency excursion down the rabbit hole, opening our eyes to parallel realms that prim Rev. Dodgson never imagined. A refreshing take on a Victorian classic.

Summary from www.goodreads.com

I have to say that when I first looked at this book I wasn't sure If I was going to like it. My first thought was that the Alice in Wonderland story has been told and retold so many times that I didn't know how someone was going to make it new and interesting. 


I could not have been more wrong. Beddor does a fantastic job of painting a wonderland that is new and different from anything you have ever read about. The characters are the same, but he does a great job of tweaking them just enough as well. For instance, instead of having the "Mad Hatter" you have "Hatter Madigan". Not only is the name different but he also plays a much different role from his counterpart in the Carrol classic. 


The idea of a war for wonderland is fantastic and Beddor does a wonderful job of painting you into that war with the way that he writes. This book moves at a great pace. I never found myself having to fight through certain chapters or parts of the book to get to the next interesting section. 


I very much enjoyed this book and am looking forward to the next installment in the trilogy. I hope it meets the high expectations that the first book has set in my mind. 


Overall rating: 5/5

The Warrior Heir by Cinda Chima

Before he knew about the Roses, 16-year-old Jack lived an unremarkable life in the small Ohio town of Trinity. Only the medicine he has to take daily and the thick scar above his heart set him apart from the other high-schoolers. Then one day Jack skips his medicine. Suddenly, he is stronger, fiercer, and more confident than ever before. And it feels great until he loses control of his own strength and nearly kills another player during soccer team tryouts. Soon, Jack learns the startling truth about himself: He is Weirlind; part of an underground society of magical people who live among us. At the head of this magical society sit the feuding houses of the Red Rose and the White Rose, whose power is determined by playing The Game a magical tournament in which each house sponsors a warrior to fight to the death. The winning house rules the Weir. As if his bizarre magical heritage isn t enough, Jack finds out that he s not just another member of Weirlind he s one of the last of the warriors at a time when both houses are scouting for a player. Jack s performance on the soccer field has alerted the entire magical community to the fact that he s in Trinity. And until one of the houses is declared Jack s official sponsor, they ll stop at nothing to get Jack to fight for them.

Summary from Goodreads.com

The Warrior Heir is one of the best books I've read in at least the last 6 months. I'm glad about that because I was kind of on a string of mediocre books and it was getting frustrating. Chima does a fantastic job of getting you hooked from the first page. The book starts out kind of mysteriously and keeps you turning pages to see what's going to happen and how it is all going to tie together in the end. 


The main character, Jack, is a fantastic "hero". He's likable and you always find yourself pulling for him in whatever situation he finds himself in. He is very unassuming and kind of wants to stay out of the limelight. As the book moves along he doesn't have much of a choice in the matter so it's fun to see how he's going to handle himself. 

The storyline of the book is wonderful. It's very intriguing and fun to follow. The book has a great blend of "predictable" stuff and "twists". Just when you think you are honed in on what is going to happen at the end there is a new tweak added in that makes you rethink where the book might end up. There are also points in the book were I laughed out loud because some of the story is told in a small town in Ohio and there are some very typical small town things at play. 

If you are looking for a light read that will keep you entertained then this is the book for you. I can't wait to get into the second and third book in this series. 


My Rating: 5/5

This is a challenge being hosted by Book Chick City at: www.bookchickcity.com
I will be starting out at level 1 which is 6 Steven King books. If I get through that then I will shoot for the 12 books that are a requirement for level 2.

Book Review: Jesus Manifesto by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola

"So that in everything He might have the supremacy."
-Colossians 1:18
Christians have made the gospel about so many things-things other than Christ. Religious concepts, ideas, doctrines, strategies, methods, techniques, formulas, "its" and "things" have all eclipsed the beauty, the glory, and the reality of the Lord Jesus Himself. On the whole, Christians today are starved for a real experience of the living Christ. We know a lot about our Lord, but we don't know Him very well. We know a lot about trying to be like Jesus, but very little about living by His indwelling life.

JESUS MANIFESTO presents a fresh unveiling of Jesus as not only Savior and Lord, but as so much more. It is a prophetic call to restore the supremacy and sovereignty of Christ in a world-and a church-that has lost sight of Him.
Every revival and restoration in the church has been a rediscovery of some aspect of Christ in the process of answering the ultimate question that Jesus put to His disciples: "Who do you say that I am?"

Read this book and see your Lord like you've never seen Him before.

Summary from Goodreads.com

I just finished up this book and I have to say it is one of the best Religion based books I have read in a long time. I read a lot of books in this genre because I work at a church so I like to keep up with what's coming out.

I think the greatest thing about this book is the simplicity of it. The message, at least as I read it, was short and sweet: keep Christ as the center of your life and let Him live through you and in you. Now, that may sound stupid to many of you because we know that that is what we are supposed to be doing with our lives. But, how many of us are actually doing it. This book is a great wakeup call for Christians to examine their lives and take stock as to whether or not they are truly doing this.

The authors do a great job of keeping it moving and not trying to over explain everything. They pull in great quotes from some really well known sources and also from some obscure and surprising sources. There is not an overwhelming amount of deep theological discussion either. You can run into that sometimes in this genre.

This book was a homerun in my opinion. It is written well, gets to the point, and keeps you engaged. Plus, it has a great subject matter...Christ. This book is easily in my top 3 of this genre.

I would give this book a 5/5.

Book Review: Brisingr

OATHS SWORN . . . loyalties tested . . . forces collide.
Following the colossal battle against the Empire’s warriors on the Burning Plains, Eragon and his dragon, Saphira, have narrowly escaped with their lives. Still there is more at hand for the Rider and his dragon, as Eragon finds himself bound by a tangle of promises he may not be able to keep.
First is Eragon’s oath to his cousin Roran: to help rescue Roran’s beloved, Katrina, from King Galbatorix’s clutches. But Eragon owes his loyalty to others, too. The Varden are in desperate need of his talents and strength—as are the elves and dwarves. When unrest claims the rebels and danger strikes from every corner, Eragon must make choices— choices that take him across the Empire and beyond, choices that may lead to unimagined sacrifice.
Eragon is the greatest hope to rid the land of tyranny. Can this once-simple farm boy unite the rebel forces and defeat the king?

Excerpt from Goodreads


I would have to say that I give this book 3.5/5 stars. I have the same issues with this book as I did with the first two in the series. The book starts out really fast paced and ends in a flurry of action. The problem is that all of this action at the start and the finish comes at a price in the middle. The book is so slow through the middle that it is almost unbearable.

I appreciate good character and world development as much as any reader does, but there comes a point when you go too far with it. Paolini reaches that point and perhaps goes over it. I'm not an author, far from it in fact, but I feel like he could have accomplished the same effect he got with about 100-200 less pages. Don't get me wrong, it's a great story but it takes him too long to tell it.

I will get off of my soapbox now. He does a great job of storytelling at the end and completely makes up for the dragging through the middle. So, I will get the 4th book when it comes out. As far as I know he hasn't set a release date yet for the last book. I hope it's not too far off because I don't want to have to read through all of these books again to remember what happened and why. I guess we'll just have to see how it goes.

Rating: 3.5/5

Book Review: Eldest by Christopher Paolini

I just finished up reading the second book in the Inheritance Cycle. I found Eldest to be a lot like Eragon in that it was a very long book that too a very long time to get exciting. I was so bored with the book that I put it down for about 3 months and picked it back up a few weeks ago to finish it.

I am glad that I took a chance on picking it back up. The book dragged terribly for the first 500 pages (I guess I'm a stubborn reader for sticking with it that long) but the last 150ish pages made up for how slow it was.

Paolini does a great job of character and scene development. In fact, he almost does too good of a job on it as it takes up a majority of the book. He also does an amazing job of creating a vivid scene. There is a war at the end of the book and the imagery is so good that you feel like you are standing there on the field with everyone else during the war.

I would have to say that overall I am satisfied with this book. I wasn't blown out of the water by any stretch of the imagination but I was not overly disappointed in the book either.

My rating: 3.5/5

Recommendation: If you are a die hard fantasy novel reader it is worth the read. If you are just looking to start your journey in the fantasy realm I would say that there are better options out there for you to dabble with.

Book Review: The Brethren by John Grisham

They call themselves the Brethren: three disgraced former judges doing time in a Florida federal prison.

One was sent up for tax evasion. Another, for skimming bingo profits. And the third, for a career-ending drunken joyride.

Meeting daily in the prison law library, taking exercise walks in their boxer shorts, these judges-turned-felons can reminisce about old court cases, dispense a little jailhouse justice, and contemplate where their lives went wrong.

Or they can use their time in prison to get very rich -- very fast. And so they sit, sprawled in the prison library, furiously writing letters, fine-tuning a wickedly brilliant extortion scam ... while events outside their prison walls begin to erupt.

A bizarre presidential election is holding the nation in its grips -- and a powerful government figure is pulling some very hidden strings. For the Brethren, the timing couldn't be better. Because they've just found the perfect victim...

Excerpt from Amazon.com

This is probably the 5th or 6th Grisham book that I have read and I would have to say that it is a middle of the pack book for him. It's isn't great but it also wasn't terrible. Most of the time when I pick up a Grisham book I have a hard time putting it down and will read it until it's finished. That was not the case with this book.

The plot took a very long time to develop and once it did you could see the ending coming for about 100 pages. Usually with his books there is a surprise at the end but when this one ended it just left me feeling kind of slighted. It ended quickly and without much resolution. He kind of left it open for a follow up book but I don't know how he would do that. So in my mind the book just didn't seem complete which is a shame because the idea behind the plot is very good and very intriguing. I feel like so much more could have been done that wasn't.

If you are a die hard Grisham fan and haven't read this book I would put it closer to the bottom of the list then the top of books that you still need to read of his.

I give this book a 3/5

If you have read this book and disagree with me I am always open to hearing comments about what others think.