Bibliophile Support Group

Sacrifices is the third book in the YA paranormal series called Shadow Grail by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill. To avoid spoilers check out my review of book one, Legacies , here and/or my review of book two, Conspiracies , here . Since Spirit White’s family died and she was whisked away to the magical school of Oakhurst Academy, her life has become increasingly in danger. Students vanishing, supernatural forces taking sacrifices, school dances that go horribly wrong – but until now Spirit and her friends have managed, they thought, to hold back the worst of it. Yet now the enemy, Shadow Knights under the guise of a company called Breakthrough Adventure Systems, is inside the school – supposedly protecting it. Their regime is cruel with harsh classes that are designed to bend students to their agenda – or make them disappear. Trying to fight back, Spirit and her friends decide to have Muirin go undercover in Breakthrough. But her act is so good that they’re beginni...

The Field of Wacky Inventions is the third and final book in Patrick Carman’s humorous middle grade series Floors . To read them in proper order, you would read Floors first (review here ), 3 Below second (review here ) and then finally The Field of Wacky Inventions . To avoid any (light) spoilers, you might want to avoid this review until you’ve enjoyed those first two books. Leo and Remi know the wealthy, eccentric, brilliant Mr. Whippet well enough to know that when hoists the entirety of the Whippet Hotel roof off of its attached building (with all three humans and a variety of ducks still upon in) to know that they are in for an adventure. The true extent of their escapade does not become clear, however, until the roof settles down in the field of wacky inventions – a super-secret location that Merganzer D. Whippet spends his time inventing ridiculously amazing feats of cleverness. It is here that Mr. Whippet introduces Leo and Remi to the leaders of other hotels he has...

The Rising is a YA supernatural contemporary novel and the FINAL book in an AWESOME dual trilogy; this one entitled Darkness Rising , by Kelley Armstrong. Okay, since back from the moment I read The Summoning , the first book in the Darkest Powers trilogy, I have LOVED this series, these characters, and this world of supernaturals-within-our-world-being-experiments!!! So, obviously I don’t want you spoiling the entire experience for yourself by jumping right into this last book! The Rising gives an end to the Darkest Powers series and the Darkness Rising series by uniting the sets of characters. For your reading pleasure, here is the order to read the novels in and links to my reviews (where applicable, as my old computer ate my review of The Reckoning ). Darkest Powers : Book One: The Summoning Book Two: The Awakening Book Three: The Reckoning Darkness Rising : Book One: The Gathering Book Two: The Calling Book Three: The Rising I recommend only reading revie...

Dare to Love Again is a Christian historical romance, and the second book in Julie Lessman’s The Heart of San Francisco series. Though each book focuses on different characters, and therefore can stand alone, I’d still recommend reading Love at Any Cost first (book one, review here ) to avoid spoilers on Cassie and Jamie’s story in Dare to Love Again . This review will contain nothing about them, though, so you’re safe to read this! In the summer of 1903, wealthy socialite Allison McClare knows exactly what she wants to be: independent. After bad engagements that ended in misery and being faced with the fact that men can be terrible liars, Allison doesn’t want to have to rely on them. Yet, volunteering as a teacher at her mother’s girls’ school on the Barbary Coast stilts this desire a bit. Though she still wants to decline their chauffeured ride home and instead take the cable car alone, Allison begins to realize that there may be true danger in this part of town. Detect...

Strands of Bronze and Gold is a YA retelling of the Bluebeard fairy tale by Jane Nickerson. As seventeen year old Sophie enters Wyndriven Abbey in 1855 Mississippi, she is awestruck. Throughout her life she has always received expensive, special trinkets from her godfather Monsieur Bernard de Cressac, but for the first time she has now become his ward – now that her father has died. It’s an opportunity for her to hopefully help provide for her brothers and sisters, who are at home struggling to look for work and livelihood. Adjusting to the new lavish lifestyle at Wyndriven Abbey is not so much difficult as hard to believe. Her enigmatic, handsome godfather is generous with his affection and his wealth – when it comes to her. She cannot deny she is charmed by his charismatic personality and admiration for her. Yet as time passes… she begins to feel as though the mysteries of the past, the whispers of stories of her godfather and his numerous former wives – all with red ha...

The Eyre Affair is the first novel in the adult whimsical fantasy mystery Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. Oh my gosh! Have you read this? As a bibliophile it is a MUST! Picture this: a bizarre alternate version of 1985 Great Britain when the Crimean War is ongoing, time-travel is ordinary, dodo birds are the most popular pet, and literature is taken very seriously. Thursday Next is a Special Operative in Literary Detection, keeping an eye on counterfeit novels and the like. England believes that falsifying a Byronic verse is punishable by law and brawls are started over whether or not Shakespeare actually wrote all those plays. But when an original manuscript of a Charles Dickens book is stolen without any kind of video or camera image, Thursday has started her most dangerous investigation yet. Bloodthirsty and loving the horror he causes, this new villain is beginning to commit literary murder! And now, somehow, he has pulled Jane right out of Jane Eyre and Thursda...

Curtsies & Conspiracies is the second book in the Finishing School novels, a YA alternate Victorian era steampunk series, by Gail Carriger. Gail Carriger, I think I may be in love with you. Okay, wait, too fast? Too much? My bibliophile buddies, believe you me that this book will probably make you feel the same way. Because of that, you better read the first book, Etiquette & Espionage , before you read a single line of this review!!! Check out my review of Etiquette & Espionage here . I’m trusting that those of you continuing have read that first splendid novel and are now ready to be titillated on the second! (Notice the overuse of exclamation points.) Sophronia’s first year a Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality has been far more exhilarating than she had anticipated. Instead of only learning how to properly curtsy, she is also studying the best ways to poison someone. In other words, espionage – which appears to be ...

Howl’s Moving Castle is a YA fantasy novel by Diana Wynne Jones, appropriate for all ages – young and old! Many of you have probably already read Howl’s Moving Castle , as apparently it is a classic I’d never heard of until a new bookish friend clued me in. As the eldest of three sisters in the land of Ingary, Sophie knows she’ll never amount to anything. That is just the way it is. Her lot in life. If she were ever to try at anything, she would surely fail. That’s why when her stepmother sends her second eldest sister to study at a pastry shop and her youngest, the one destined to be the most beautiful and successful per tradition, to apprentice under a female wizard whilst Sophie simply stays in the hat stop they own – she doesn’t mind. Maybe it’s a bit solitary, but she has one-sided conversations with the hats all day long as she embellishes them in the she believes their personality deserves. One day, though, her quiet life is disrupted when the feared Witch of the Was...

Charlie Bone and the Time Twister is a middle grade fantasy novel and the second book in the Children of the Red King series. To be honest, I do not think this review will hold many, if any, spoilers of the first book Midnight for Charlie Bone – but even so I recommend reading the book and/or review before this review. Here’s a link to my review of Midnight for Charlie Bone . It’s time for a new term at Bloor’s Academy, the private school Charlie must now attend – because he is Endowed with the ability to hear the conversations of those in photos. He doesn’t want to go, but he knows his paternal grandmother and frightening aunts won’t let home get away with not going. Not long after arriving in school, a distant relative of Charlie’s – literally distant - named Henry Yewbeam suddenly appears. From 1916. The nasty trick is rooted in Ezekiel Bloor, in Charlie’s time a mean old man that has not gotten over his hatred of Henry over the years. Realizing he must keep his ance...

Storm Front is the first book in the adult urban fantasy series The Dresden Files by bestselling author Jim Butcher. Harry Dresden is a wizard. He’s in the book. No, he’s not advertising to entertain at parties or read your future. Instead, he offers to use his powers and training to find lost items, investigate paranormal activity, and give advice. After all, the “everyday” world is actually populated with many magical, supernatural things and beings – and they don’t tend to play well with humans. Dresden helps to bridge that gap. When the Chicago P. D. asks for his assistance with a particularly gruesome case involving what seems to be otherworldly powers – really no other explanation for it – Harry’s first thought is that this is a chance to pay his rent. Business hasn’t been so good lately. So, he agrees. Yet this case involves some heavy black magic – and that means there’s one nasty, ballsy black mage behind it. One that apparently knows Harry’s after him – and now Har...