Bibliophile Support Group

Don’t Expect Magic is a YA urban fantasy novel by Kathy McCullough. A dead mom, a move that takes her across the country – away from her lifelong hometown of New Jersey and her best friend that still resides there – and a new guardian in her absentee father. That’s fifteen-year-old Delaney Collins’ new life. If you asked Delaney if she believed in fairy tales she would laugh. Probably something close to a cackle. Problem is, soon after moving in with Dr. Hank (the name her life-coach/author dad is famous under), this comes under question. Her world is turned upside down when she realizes that “life-coach” actually means “fairy godmother”. And, okay, her dad is a guy – so maybe the technical term might be “godfather”, though she quickly christens the ridiculousness as simply “f.g.” – but apparently that doesn’t matter. He’s got the magic, the wand, etc. Plus, the f.g. gene? Apparently it’s hereditary. Delaney, the girl with an anti-social personality, is supposed to make wishes come tr...

Queen Hereafter is a historical fiction novel by Susan Fraser King. Margaret is a young Saxon princess that longs to be a nun. A secret from her father’s death long ago still lies heavy in her heart, and her loyalty and steadfastness to the Church is strong ever since. But when her brother Edgar wages a rebellion against the king of England, a war for the crown he believes is rightfully his, Margaret, her mother, and her sister get caught up in it. The warrior-king of Scotland, Malcolm Canmore, has agreed to aid Edgar in his fight in exchange for Margaret’s hand in marriage. Distraught at losing her primary focus on the Church, Margaret decides to throw herself into being the perfect wife and queen of Scotland. But it is a strange land filled with unfamiliar customs and wildness she is not accustomed to. When a talented Celtic bard named Eva, around Margaret’s age, is brought to court, she finds an unlikely friend – yet Eva has ties to Lady Macbeth, whom is none too friendly with Malc...

Darkness Falls is a YA urban fantasy/paranormal and the second book in the Immortal Beloved trilogy by Cate Tiernan. As Darkness Falls is the second book in a trilogy, it’s obvious this review will contain spoilers of the first book, Immortal Beloved . So, if you haven’t yet read Immortal Beloved (and you really should, it was great), you should instead read my review of Immortal Beloved, which I posted on Friday. If like me, however, you have read Immortal Beloved – read on… Y’all should remember what Immortal Beloved was about (unless you’ve ignored my previous warning about spoilers – if that’s you, what are you doing still reading this???). Nastasya Crowe is over 450 years old and still looks about seventeen. She’s an immortal. And only recently did she realize how utterly pointless and empty her long life has been. Taking up an offer from almost a century ago, she showed up at River’s Edge – a farm/rehab for wayward immortals. She met the gorgeous, golden Reyn who was strangely f...

Immortal Beloved is a YA paranormal fantasy novel in modern times and the first in a trilogy of the same name by Cate Tiernan. Nastasya is immortal. No, really. She’s over four-hundred-years-old. There’s a bunch of immortals out there. The good part of that? She still looks about seventeen-years-old and has all the time in the world to party and see the world. The bad part of it? Eventually it all gets old. Too much pain, too much horror, too many memories to try and forget. But it’s when she sees her best friend for a century commit an atrocious act on a human without blinking an eye and see her other so-called friends either laugh or shrug it off that she realizes she can’t deal with this life anymore. Remembering a moment back in the 1920s when an immortal named River told her to come to her place if she ever wanted to leave her way of life behind, Nastasya finds herself in small town Massachusetts at a safe haven for messed up immortals called River’s Edge. It’s a huge adjustment....

The Vespertine is a YA historical paranormal novel by Saundra Mitchell. Sixteen-year-old Amelia van den Broek has been sent to stay with her cousins in Baltimore by her brother who wants her to have her time in society and find a good, appropriate husband – of which there aren’t many in their small town of Broken Tooth, Maine. It’s 1889 in the summertime and all the pleasantries the city has to offer amaze Amelia and make her feel more like a naïve country girl than ever. But her cousin and companion Zora helps to introduce her to new friends as she begins to enjoy the new gowns, the parties, and the joviality. Though the one young man she feels inexplicably drawn to is not at all acceptable. Then Amelia starts to have visions, amber-colored yet forceful and illusory, at sunset – and what she sees comes true. She’s seeing glimpses of the future. She can’t explain it and she’s doesn’t know why – but once words gets out about it she finds herself more popular than ever. Acquaintances an...

The Fire King is a YA/middlegrade fantasy adventure and the second book in Paul Crilley’s The Invisible Order trilogy. WARNING: If you have not yet read the first Invisible Order novel, Rise of the Darklings , you should avoid this review like the plague. It’s way too awesome to sour with inescapable spoilers, in my opinion. Instead you can read my review of Rise of the Darklings here and go get yourself a copy. Then you can return. I really, really loved Rise of the Darklings – the flavor of Victorian England mixed with a brand new mythology of faeries (most of which were creepy and deceptive) and an epic storyline featuring a smart, resourceful young 12-year-old girl named Emily Snow that really just wanted to make sure she and her brother could eat every night. Excellent plot, characters, etc., and a fantastic cliffhanger end that had The Fire King being one of my most anticipated books on my shelf. And The Fire King met all my expectations! I don’t want to give away too many det...

The Queen of Kentucky is a YA contemporary novel by Alecia Whitaker. Ricki Jo Winstead is entering her freshman year of high school and she’s ready to make some big changes. First to go will be her farm girl name. It’s now the more sophisticated sounding Ericka. Next, she’s focusing on using all the tips from Seventeen magazine to do an overhaul on her look. Nicer, newer clothes and hip hairstyles. Especially if she doesn’t want to keep looking like a young boy – since puberty has (sadly) yet to hit. Finally, Ricki Jo is determined to get herself involved with the “right” friends. This puts her in a good position to flirt with the resident freshman bad boy and start her high school life off right. But along the way, will she overlook her lifelong best friend Luke? Or maybe lose the parts of her she never really meant to change? Ricki Jo Winstead is changing all right… The Queen of Kentucky features a ton of charming personalities (especially that of Ricki Jo and Luke) that jump off t...