Review: The Girl Who Never Was by Skylar Dorset

I got a copy of this book through the YA Book Exchange. through a trade with Stephanie from A Dream Within a Dream.  It was definitely a good read. I enjoyed the different things that went with the faerie mythology in this world.  But at the beginning it was a little slow, and a little confusing kind of.  Overall I did enjoy it and I need to read on in the next book to find out what will become of Selkie and Ben, as well as the prophecy about Selkie and four other faeries. 

Selkie is a girl who has always felt a little strange.  She lives with her weird aunts because her father is in a mental hospital.  Her mother she never knew.  Ben is a cute guy that she sees down at the park, and that she has a bit of a crush on, but he's also a bit odd as well. 

When it is her birthday she is really feeling off, but she tells Ben, and she and her friend also decide to start looking into who her mother was and where she might be.  But because of the questions she is asking, things start going wrong.  It turns out she has broken the enchantment that Ben had put on her and the city of Boston to keep the other faeries, including her own mother, from finding her.  It seems there is a prophecy about her helping to defeat the Seelie Court, the ones that are terrorizing everyone else.  And because of this her mother and all the other Seelies would want to kill her.  But now Selkie must go and figure out how to keep herself safe.  And before she can even think about confronting her mother, Ben is taken instead of her, and she must go to save him.

In the world it turns out that Selkie's mother doesn't want to kill her. Because she has come to the world it seems the prophecy won't turn out the way that would destroy them.  In fact, it also says that one day Ben will betray Selkie.  But Selkie won't believe it, they've made promises to each other, ones that she believes can't be destroyed by anything.  In the end Selkie will risk her own life to save Ben, and Ben, along with Selkie's aunts and friends will risk themselves to save her as well.

Definitely we are left a bit hanging at the end, needing to know what will happen between Ben and Selkie after a big secret is revealed. And that is why I will need to go on.  If you enjoy fae stories, this will be one you should read, just know that at times it is a bit slow.

The Iron Daughter (The Iron Fey #2) by Julie Kagawa

This is another book I got from my bookstore, and I enjoyed it as well.  Now, while it wasn't as good to me as the first in the series, it still had some parts that I did like even better than the first one.  If you haven't read the first one, there might be some spoilers, so be careful reading on.
Meghan was our main character from the first book, and she found out she was half faery, daughter of the Summer Faery King.  She also made a promise to the handsome Winter prince, Ash, that if he helped her find and save her brother, then she would let him take her back to the Winter court as he was supposed to.  So she goes back with him, but finds that he no longer seems to want to be with her, or as he tells her, there can never be a match between a Summer and Winter in their land. So she truly becomes a prisoner in the Winter palace.  And there are many dangers there, even from the fey that is supposed to be keeping her safe or guarding her.  Soon it comes time for the Summer fey to pass the season scepter to the Winter fey.  Of course this leads to a big celebration at the Winter palace.  During the celebration the Iron fey come and steal the scepter.  So now of course Meghan actually gets accused of it, or the Summer court does anyway, and Ash even gets considered a traitor because he sides with Meghan.  So now they run to try to find the scepter and save their world from war.  The Iron Horse from the last book is back, and he will help out this time, because since his Iron King is gone, he does not support the usurper for the throne.  Even if it is the Iron King's daughter.  Along the journey we meet some more great fey characters, and even learn more about Meghan's past life, the man she'd thought was her father to be exact.  She even gets a visit with her brother and mother and step-father, although not the type of visit she'd hoped for.  And with Ash seemingly gone as a possibility, Puck is still there, a loyal friend, who wants more, and Meghan isn't sure if maybe she feels that way about him too, although she does love him.
So we still have a bit of the love triangle here.  And we learn more about what caused Ash and Puck to no longer be friends.  We get a close look into the Winter court, and see that maybe Ash does really care for Meghan, even if it could ruin his life and relations with his family.
A great story, lots of suspense, it isn't a problem that is solved really quickly, and easily.  So great story!  Now I must get a copy of the 3rd book, because I've got the 4th one sitting on my shelf.

Oh yeah, don't forget to go enter into my Fierce Reads Giveaway and have the chance to be one of FIVE winners!!

Wings by Aprilynne Pike

This is the first book by Aprilynne Pike that I have read, and I must say I wasn't disappointed at all!  I got a copy of this at the RT Convention back in May of this year.  I've actually not really been a fan of fairy or fae stories.  Not that I mind when they are in other stories, but I haven't actively sought out those types of stories.  I'm finding more and more that maybe it is time to give them more of a chance.  I gave this book a pretty high rating, 5 stars, on Goodreads because I picked it up this morning, and pretty much barely stopped until I was done late this afternoon.  It was that good.  I read one comment that said it was a very simple story, and I guess it was.  But, as a former science teacher, I loved how this put science into the mythology behind fairies.  Very unique to me, but again, as I haven't read a lot of this type of creature, maybe it's not.
So, the main character is Laurel, and she has just moved to a new town with her mom and dad, actually her adoptive parents.  Up until this year she has been home-schooled by her mother.  But now that she's in high school, her mom doesn't feel like she can teach as much that Laurel needs as if she goes to a real school.  At first Laurel really isn't happy about it.  But what is nice is that she makes a friend right away.  A very nice boy at school named David.  David is in her Biology class, which Laurel can tell from just opening the book and paging through it that she is going to be struggling.  But David doesn't seem to mind her strange habits, the fact that she only eats vegetables and fruits and drinks Sprite.  That she wants to eat outside instead of in the cafeteria because it is too loud and she just feels that she gets refreshed with the time outside.  He even gets his group of friends, some of them at least, to eat outside with her.  Things seem to be going well, she's making friends, kind of fitting in.  Then one day she gets a zit or some kind of bump on her back.  This is weird, as even though her body has developed, hips, etc., she's not really gone through puberty, never had a period, acne, etc.  But she decides this is normal, and decides not to worry about it.  Until it gets bigger.  And then one morning she wakes up, and the bump is gone, but now she has petals, actually a flower, growing out of her back.  Now, here is where I'm not quite sure I'd have done the same, but instead of talking to her parents about it, she talks to David.  And David is pretty intrigued.  The science geek in him wants to look at it under a microscope.  And he does, and it is a plant.  Soon, he begins to wonder other things about Laurel, even as she does herself.  When Laurel and her parents go back to the old house, she runs into a really interesting boy in the forest behind the house, named Tamani.  He tells her some more stuff about herself, tells her she is a plant, that she is a fairy.  When she shares with David, they begin to do more research into it.  You'd think maybe this is the big deal of the story, but no, Laurel also learns that she needs to keep her parents from selling the land, that it needs to remain her property to protect something.  But when her dad gets sick, and the hospital bills begin adding up, her mother has to sell just to get the money.  But this leads to a dangerous situation.  Life and death, and also to Laurel learning even more about her past and what may be in store for the rest of her life.
Like I said, I loved the science and mythology in this story.  It was a quick, easy read.  One that grabbed me and made it hard to put it down.  I know I'm a bit behind on this series, and if you are as well, you need to grab it and check it out!

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I had wavered on whether to read this book for awhile. I usually have trouble with books of associations that fight paranormals, or groups like the IPCA. Especially when teenagers work for them. I know, I can accept the paranormal creatures as realistic, but not an organization having teens work for them? I'm weird I guess. :-) But this book is one of the nominees for our state middle school book award, the Truman award. And since last year I helped read for Gateway instead of Truman, I hadn't read it yet, and have decided I need to try to read as many of the books I can. Plus, I checked it out from my school library at the beginning of the summer.
Well, I finally picked it up, since I need to return it to the library for the kids to read during the school year. And it was a good book. I enjoyed the story, and the characters. The humor was good, and I liked the re-imagining of some of the paranormal creatures. People always make fun of the vampires sparkling in the Twilight books. But really, anyone who reads paranormal/supernatural type books, almost every author makes "their" monster different in some way, a way that fits their story usually. And depending on the story, and the writing, and all that, I sometimes really enjoy the differences, it makes things less predictable in that regard when you read the stories.  In this book, I like the Faeries new/different characteristics.
Once I started reading I was definitely pulled in, and kept thinking about it when I wasn't reading. So it was definitely a good book. And at some point I do intend to read on in the series.
In this story our main character is Evie, she lives and works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, or IPCA.  The reason they have her working for them is that she can see when something or someone is a paranormal creature, she can "see" behind their glamours to the creature behind.  But she's never had a normal teenage life.  She doesn't know who her parents were, and she does live at the center, and takes classes there, etc.  Her best friend is a mermaid.  And the mermaid must talk through a language translator for people to understand her.  One thing I really liked in the book, is that the computer censors the bad language when the mermaid uses it, so we pretty much only get to hear the word "bleep" or "bleeping" when there is cursing in the book because Evie has that as an inside joke.  I kind of like that for a YA book. It's not glossing over the fact that teens do use bad language, but it's also nice not to have to always read it.  I know, sometimes I'm a little bit of a square I guess.
One day a shape shifter shows up at the Agency, only whatever kind of creature he is, well, no one knows.  But Evie can see underneath, and what she sees is cute.  His name is Lend, and Evie sneaks around to see him and get to know him, and soon realizes the Agency might need his help to solve the rash of paranormal creatures being killed.  You see, the IPCA doesn't kill them, they bag them and tag them.  :-)  That's why they are called a "containment" agency.  But through Lend, Evie will earn of another way to deal with paranormals, and she will have to decide if the way she's always known is right, or if she needs to move on with her life and thinking.
Have you read it?  What did you think?


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