Bibliophile Support Group

Juliet Immortal is a YA supernatural fantasy by Stacey Jay. Plus – it’s awesome. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, shall we? The story we all know of Romeo & Juliet is a lie. Juliet did not take her own life. She was murdered by the one person she loved and trusted most in her young fourteen years – Romeo. He sacrificed her for his own chance at immortality. Romantic, right? Yeah, not so much. What Romeo didn’t know is that the dark forces that encouraged him to make that decision and granted him his immortal status had a counterpart force called the Ambassadors of Light. And as Juliet lay dying they offered her the same shot at eternal life, working against him. Now for seven hundred years, Juliet wanders in mist until every fifty years or so she is yanked back to earth and pulled into the mind and body of a Soul Mate that is on the edge of securing their love with another. Essentially, her job is to insure that Romeo and the forces he works for don’t swoop in and destroy the...

Daughter of the Centaurs is a YA futuristic fantasy by Kate Klimo. Malora has always wanted to be a master horseman like her father, despite it being traditional that she follow in her mother’s steps instead and pursue healing. Yet nothing could keep her from the horses. But at the very young age of twelve Malora watches as a horrid species called Leatherwings attacks her small settlement of People and kills both horses and People. Her mother encourages Malora to flee on the horse Sky and never return. With time, Malora learns to survive on the land and begins to gather around her a large family of horses. She rescues some, she raises some, and she names them all. They are her boys and girls. Yet she longs for conversation, for the small talk she had with her mother, for human companionship. She hopes that somewhere, someplace there are more People that she can find. Instead, her path crosses a group of centaurs – the very beings that were the humans’ downfall many years ago. To them ...

The Death Cure is a YA sci-fi dystopia by James Dashner and the third novel in The Maze Runner trilogy. As always in a series of any sort, a synopsis will give away hefty spoilers of the previous books, so if you have not yet read The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials (books one and two), you should avoid this review. Don’t make me the cause of the ruination of your reading experience!!! Now, I am trusting, bibliophile to bibliophile, that you who are still reading have been following the James Dashner trilogy and will not be spoiled by anything below. Okay then… The Death Cure opens where The Scorch Trials left off. After trekking through the charred, dead lands of the Scorch in search of the “safe haven” WICKED promised, the Gladers are exhausted. They’ve lost more friends to the cruel trials and tests these mad scientists have put them through and are certainly not going to trust their assurances the testing is over. Yet Thomas has now seen firsthand the virus called the Flare...

The Scorch Trials is a YA sci-fi novel by James Dashner and the second book in The Maze Runner trilogy. If you haven’t read The Maze Runner , I suggest reading yesterday’s review of the novel and avoiding this synopsis, since it will obviously contain spoilers of the first book. The Maze Runner was awesome, so don’t ruin it!!! Otherwise, for all of you who have read The Maze Runner , proceed: The Scorch Trials takes off right where we left our characters in The Maze Runner . Thomas, Teresa, Minho, Newt and all the other surviving Gladers have just been rescued from WICKED, the Creators of the enormous maze they were trapped in and, apparently, being observed in. They’ve just had a good meal, a shower, and are laying down for a solid night’s sleep after days of awfulness and death – but Thomas’ dreams are cut short by a telepathic scream from Teresa. When Thomas and the other Gladers wake up, nothing is what it was when they went to bed. None of their rescuers are around. They can’t...

The Maze Runner is a YA sci-fi novel by James Dashner. Thomas wakes up confused and disoriented in a big metal box that is slowly, agonizingly lifting up to somewhere. He has no memory of anything – though he can remember movies, cities, etc., nothing is concrete, nothing is personal, there are no faces in his memory. It feels like an unnatural wipe has been done to his mind. He only knows one thing: his name is Thomas. When the box opens, he finds himself in the midst of a colossal maze with unbelievably high walls where a large society of other boys, who arrived the same way, have created a semblance of community and stability among the craziness. They’ve been trying to escape the maze for two years – but they have yet to find an exit. They’re trapped, and they have no idea why. Nobody knows much more than Thomas, though they do know the massive stone walls to the maze close every night – and nobody wants to be left out there. They know that every thirty days another boy arrives, ex...

Why We Broke Up is a YA contemporary novel by Daniel Holder with art by Maira Kalman. Sixteen-year-old Min has broken up with her boyfriend, Ed. This book is her letter to him as she returns a box of items and mementos that she has come to collect over the course of their relationship. Each item, from a box of matches to a movie ticket, foretells the end of their time together and Min explains how in this letter to him. This is the story of why they broke up. Okay, Why We Broke Up seems to be quite the polarizing novel. I’ve seen people who absolutely love it, and then… there are people like me… who didn’t. At all. I know I’ve said this a gazillion times, but I once again want to reiterate: This only my opinion. Please never not read a book because I say I don’t care for it. The Bibliophile Support Group is a place where I honestly discuss my thoughts on novels and try to help and bring them to your attention – never to dissuade you from trying them yourself. Okay?! Okay. Now, cont...

Once a Witch is a YA urban fantasy by Carolyn MacCullough. Seventeen-year-old Tamsin Greene was born to her family of witches to a proclamation of greatness from their matriarch, her grandmother. Yet when her eighth birthday came around, the age that everybody in the family shows their Talents if they haven’t already, she was still as ordinary as ever. The only non-Talented person in their family ever. As she grew up, this strained her relationships. It was hard for her to see her cousins, or anyone else, use their powers. The look they’d give Tamsin when they did – a mixture of guilt and pity – was too much for her. She never fit in. Tamsin even forwent writing back to her best childhood friend Gabriel that moved away because his Talent for finding things made him just another person that reminded her she had no Talent and was just a huge disappointment. By seventeen Tamsin has generally gotten over it, but not so much that she likes spending time at home – a place where everybody in...

The Game of Triumphs is a YA urban fantasy by Laura Powell. Fifteen-year-old Cat is on her way home, doing her best to avoid human contact as always, when she can’t help but notice a man being chased – a man that asks for her help. But Cat sees the gleam of excitement in his eyes, along with the fear, and figures he’s just a weirdo. Yet something about it all sparks her curiosity, and Cat can’t seem to help pursuing the situation. Doing so brings her to an extravagant party that introduces her to the Game of Triumphs. It’s a centuries-old game played between modern-day London and an alternate, unexplainable reality called the Arcanum where game players embark on challenges having to do with the tarot cards they are dealt, or the card they are trying to win. It’s all a bit confusing to Cat at first, but the intrigue is undeniable. Not long after becoming involved in this enigmatic game, though, Cat finds out just how dangerous and potent the information you can learn in Arcanum can be....

Wildcat Fireflies is a YA paranormal fantasy by Amber Kizer, and the sequel to Meridian . If you not yet read Meridian , this review with its brief synopsis will inevitable include spoilers of the first book. I recommend you don’t read today’s post until you read Meridian – from one bibliophile to another. Final warning… Meridian and Tens are still on the road after Auntie’s death and all the craziness that happened at the end of their time in Revelation, Colorado. They’re still mourning, and hoping that Auntie taught them enough to complete their goal. Meridian is getting better at helping souls pass over, and she and Tens are trying their best to find more Fenestra. What they find is a corrupt and cruel facility called Dunklebarger that houses foster children and dying elderly. A girl named Juliet, who is reaching her sixteenth birthday, has no memory before her time there. She does her best to provide some semblance of love and happiness to the other kids there, as most of their d...

Meridian is a YA paranormal novel by Amber Kizer. Since Meridian was very, very young she’s attracted dead and dying creatures. It would be a horror waking up in the morning to a bed full of lifeless insects, frogs, rabbits, etc. Her parents never said a word about it, but Meridian could see the disgust and revulsion in their eyes as they silently cleaned it up. Even when she was at school creatures would find their way to her, just to die at her feet. She became an outcast from the get-go, other students and even teachers seeing her as a freak – probably even wondering if she was doing something to the animals to cause them to die. Then on Meridian’s sixteenth birthday there is a car crash right outside her house and her body explodes with pain – she can hardly walk, hardly move. Her mother drags her away from the accident, quickly packs her in the car, hands her a stuffed backpack, and directs Meridian’s dad to get her to the bus terminal as fast as possible. Meridian’s pain lessens...

Numbers is a YA sci-fi-ish novel by Rachel Ward. Jem has seen the numbers since she can remember. Like any child, she just accepted it and didn’t wonder what it was. But when her drug-addict mother died, Jem got her first idea of what the numbers meant. Because the number she always saw when she looked at her mom? 10102001. The day her mom died? 10/10/2001. Over the years she’s been shuttled from one foster home to another, always seeing the numbers – never sure if she caused their death or could just see it. But there was nothing more haunting than seeing the number of a toddler, seeing the inevitable end of every single person she came in contact with. Now fifteen, Jem has succeeded in having not one friendship or relationship of any kind. But then she meets Spider. He’s another outsider – goofy and good-natured. Somehow she finds her guard melting just a tad around him, until she becomes almost-friends with him. Only problem? According to his number, she doesn’t have much time left...

Fallen in Love is a YA paranormal fantasy novel, and part of the Fallen series by Lauren Kate. First of all – Happy Valentine’s Day, Bibliophiles! I wanted to review a Valentine-centric book for y’all today – and what do you know, the entire story takes place on Valentine’s Day! Fallen in Love is a short novel (202 pages to be exact) that interconnects four love stories featuring characters from the Fallen series. You’ve got Miles, Shelby, Roland, Arriane, and of course our leads Luce and Daniel. This story takes place during the third book in the series, Passion , when Luce goes through the Announcers to learn more about her past lives and the other characters are desperately trying to find her to get her back to her present-day life. We are brought to Miles and Shelby’s tale first. When they decide to go ahead and let the angels deal with the issue and go home, they find it’s not so easy. Ends up they’re in yet another one of Luce’s past lives – this time in medieval times. And g...

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight is a YA contemporary novel by Jennifer E. Smith. Seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan really doesn’t want to go to London. In her suitcase is a bridesmaid dress that she doesn’t want to wear for a wedding she doesn’t want to go to. It’s her dad’s wedding. To the woman he left her mom for. To the woman that made him stay in London instead of return home to Massachusetts after a four month professor gig at Oxford. This is the end of any hope of Hadley’s life ever returning to normal. She hasn’t even seen her dad for a year out of protest. Never even met this woman. But everyone, including Hadley’s mom, thinks she needs to go to the wedding – that she might regret it later if she doesn’t. Well, that’s a laugh. Then Hadley misses her JFK flight by four minutes and has to wait for the next one. Yet it’s this very annoying bump in an annoying trip that leads to her meeting him. Oliver. He’s about her age, British, and sitting in her row. She ...

Real Live Boyfriends is a YA contemporary novel by E. Lockhart, and the fourth novel in the Ruby Oliver quartet. Here we are on the last day of “Ruby Oliver Week” and if you aren’t already reading these books – well, why not? But I’m more than sure most of you are – and hopefully you’re all caught up, and therefore not at risk of being spoiled by my review of Real Live Boyfriends . You’ve been warned! Ruby Oliver is beginning her senior year of high school with a real live boyfriend: Noel. At least she thought she was. After having spent the rest of junior year and the beginning of summer being fully in love (okay, they never actually said the word, but the vibes were strongly in that direction), Ruby is now confused. Again. When Noel went to visit his brother in New York for a while, almost every day they talked on the phone and exchanged funny emails. She never once felt insecure. Until all of a sudden – communication stopped. Ruby would call and he wouldn’t answer. She’d leave a vo...

The Treasure Map of Boys is a YA contemporary novel by E. Lockhart, and the third of the Ruby Oliver books. Just like I said yesterday, the Ruby Oliver books would be easy to jump into as stand-alone titles, but to get the full impact you should read them in order. If you haven’t yet read The Boyfriend List and The Boy Book , you’ll spoil yourself by reading this review. Be careful! Now in the second term of junior year, Ruby is finally starting to feel like her therapy is working. Maybe. Well, actually things might not be too great. Her panic attacks are getting worse again – maybe because she’s in the thirty-seventh week of being in the state of Noboyfriend , maybe because she has pretty strong feelings for her friend Noel (and knows that he has feelings for her too – or at least did last term) but is trying hard to resist them since her friend Nora likes him, or maybe it’s because her ex-boyfriend Jackson dumped her ex-best friend Kim and is now hanging around Ruby at her bake sale...

The Boy Book is a YA contemporary novel by E. Lockhart, and the second of the Ruby Oliver books. Here we are in the second installment of “Ruby Oliver Week” and despite the fact that each of these books probably has great stand-alone potential, I do warn you that these books are meant to be read in order if you want the full power of a continuing storyline! So – you have been warned. Ruby Oliver has survived the dilemmas of the end of her sophomore year and is now a junior – so she’s totally over everything that happened right? Right. But of course things get all wonky when Ruby starts getting mysterious notes from Jackson, her ex-boyfriend who is now dating her ex-best-friend. Not to mention becoming privy to a secret about Noel and dealing with her friendship/maybe-more-than-friendship feelings for him. Plus, she’s feeling guilt over an attraction-only relationship that might be developing with yet another boy. Oh dear. Why can’t life be uncomplicated? Ruby would rather just hang ou...

The Boyfriend List is a YA contemporary novel by E. Lockhart, and the first of the Ruby Oliver books. Fifteen-year-old Ruby Oliver has had a traumatic last few days. Her boyfriend, Jackson, of six months dumped her. Her best friend dropped her. The whole school, including her other friends, hate her. She had her first ever panic attack. And all of the events are related, in ways we’re not elaborating on here. Ruby’s whole life is shattering around her – and she doesn’t know what to do. So what do Ruby’s parents do? Send her to therapy! The Boyfriend List is one of those books that you don’t want to give too much more than necessary away in the premise. I’m a bit late jumping on the bandwagon with this series, but I got the opportunity to read the latest Ruby Oliver book – Real Live Boyfriends – and knew I would not dive into it until I read the first three. I’m a stickler that way. So the rest of the week will be dubbed “Ruby Oliver Week”. I have to say The Boyfriend List exceeded m...

Eyes to See is an adult urban paranormal novel by Joseph Nassise. Jeremiah Hunt was once a father and a husband – an ordinary man living an ordinary life, with a decent career as a professor of classics and dead languages at Harvard. But then his little girl, Elizabeth, disappeared from their house while he was studying. Jeremiah heard nothing suspicious. He was working. Last he saw her she was playing quietly – then she was simply gone. The police have nothing to go on and the investigation goes nowhere. And the normal life Jeremiah had been enjoying begins to crumble. It only takes months for his obsession with finding Elizabeth on his own costs him his job, his wife… all that he has. He tries everything. Desperate, Jeremiah turns to a bizarre ritual in a book that promises to allow him to “see what is unseen” – he hopes this will lead him to Elizabeth. Yet the ritual is more than he bargains for. Jeremiah is now mostly blind – except for the ability to see ghosts and other non-mort...

Summer of Promise is an inspirational historical romance by Amanda Cabot. It’s June 1885 and Abigail Harding is concerned about her sister, Charlotte. Charlotte’s letters have grown increasingly downhearted and Abigail is sure there’s something wrong – though Charlotte never mentions anything. Not that she would. Since Abigail has the summer off from the girl’s school she teaches at in her beloved Vermont, she decides to travel to Fort Laramie, Wyoming where her sister lives with her enlisted husband to spend some time with her and get to the bottom of whatever’s going on. On the monotonous travel by stagecoach to the fort, their stagecoach is attacked by armed robbers – which is how Abigail meets Lieutenant Ethan Bowles, a fellow passenger. He quite easily diffuses the situation with a well-placed bullet and back to traveling they go. Despite being rattled by the incident, Abigail is even more disturbed when she reaches her sister and finds her thinner and in ill health. She knows sh...

Every Other Day is a YA paranormal novel by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Okay. I’m a super-fan of Raised by Wolves and Trial by Fire , both by this author. To me, they are brilliant, original, and absolute must-reads. So, despite my disappointment that the third novel isn’t out yet, I was more than ready to read this new stand-alone by Barnes – I had a feeling it would be squeeze-your-eyes-closed-with-glee good. But before I get ahead of myself – what is it about? Well, Kali D’Angelo is an average sixteen-year-old girl that stays out of the limelight, tolerates the pep rallies at school, and has a strained relationship with her absent-minded-professor-type dad. She’s human. She’s normal. That is – every other 24 hours. The other 24 hours? She’s not quite sure what she is. But it she isn’t normal. Her strength increases by leaps and bounds, she has a special affection for weapons, and longs to hunt. Hunt what? Why supernatural (or as they call them in the scientific world of this book: prete...

The Bad Queen: Rules and Instructions for Marie-Antoinette is a YA historical fiction novel in the Young Royals series by Carolyn Meyer. Marie-Antoinette has long been hated and scorned as being a superficial, partying, uncaring queen – but here we get her story. At only fourteen she is betrothed to the dauphin of France and presented as a future queen. Rules and etiquette are poured upon her in a foreign country where there are many already wishing for her to fail. She is under the pressure of perfection from the get-go – but often falls short. What springs forth from the years of stress and scrutiny is a spirit desperate for love, attention, and fun. Yet she doesn’t fully comprehend what is going on beyond the palace walls – the anger, starvation, and increasing rage of the peasants. She doesn’t know yet that she will pay with her life. This is her story, from her point of view. I am a huge fan of Carolyn Meyer and all the other books in the Young Royals series. I have read them a...