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Whitman, Emily. 2009. Radiant Darkness. HarperCollins.

"Persephone, Daughter of Demeter, the harvest goddess. Kidnapped and forced to--"
Wrong! In every book of myths, the same; in every book, wrong!
Oh, I know it all got complicated because of the choices I made. I'm not trying to pretend I'm blameless. Still, after thousands of years, I wish people knew what really happened when I walked in my mother's flowering vale and the black horses landed, crushing flowers and filling the air with heady perfume. Just once I'd like to set the record straight.

Persephone narrates Radiant Darkness telling her version of how events went down. How she came to be the Queen of the Underworld. What can I say about this one? If you like Greek mythology--novelizations and retellings of mythology--then I think you'll enjoy this one. It's a tell of rebellion and frustration. Perspephone is the daughter of a goddess. And she's tired of it. Tired of her mother alternating between being domineering and controlling and being neglectful. Her mother is always off being worshipped. Off to this or that festival. Persephone feels the time has come. She's ready to be a woman. Ready to be accepted as one. The problem? Her mother treats her like she's six.

So when Persephone meets a tall, dark, handsome stranger, she's all for love. True, she doesn't know his name. True, he's mysterious. But he represents everything that is missing in her life. So she continues meeting him. Again and again. Until one day she learns the truth. He's a god. (Not a big surprise there, after all, her mother is a goddess.) But he's the god of the underworld. If she chooses him, she'll be leaving everything behind. Is she ready to make that choice? To live with her consequences?

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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Bryant, Jen. 2008. Ringside, 1925: Views from the Scopes Trial.

I'll keep this one short. And I mean it. Something about this one just didn't work for me. Maybe it was the fact that it was in verse. (Verse novels sometimes exist when they should just be prose. And nobody--but the author perhaps--know why they're in verse in the first place.) Maybe it had too many narrators to suit me. (I liked one or two of the narrators, but there were just too many in this case. All the shifting P.O.V's annoyed me. Maybe if it had been told in two--or just one for that matter--I would have liked it better.) The title says it all: Views From the Scopes Trial. It's historical fiction. It's based on fact. It's got multiple voices represented. If you're interested in the Scopes Trial and/or you're interested in American history in general, then you might want to seek it out. It may work for other readers. It may even work well for others. But not for me. Reading is subjective after all. So still give this one a chance if you come across it. You could end up liking it much more than I did.

Read Sarah Miller's review for a really positive spin on the novel that will completely balance mine out.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Heyer, Georgette. 1935. Regency Buck.

"Newark was left behind and the post-chaise-and-four entered on a stretch of flat country which offered little to attract the eye, or occasion remark."

Georgette Heyer was a wonderful writer. A beloved writer, in fact, known for her regency romances in particular. Her books are rich in detail--but not in a burdening, cumbersome way. And her characters are always nicely drawn from human nature--flaws abound, but that's always a good thing. Vices and temptations abound in her works--drinking, gambling (be it at the gaming table or in a sporting arena), keeping bad company, and fashion to name just a few examples. (How is fashion a vice? Well, if you're too vain or selfish and spend too much time primping in front of a mirror, then chances are you're in for a comeuppance. Also, spending too much money on fashion--clothes, hats, gloves, jewelry, etc.--is just one way it can be a vice.)

In Regency Buck, we've got the story of a brother and sister newly arrived in London. Peregrine Tavener, the brother, and his older sister, Judith Tavener. They are coming to set up house, and perhaps even more importantly to meet their guardian. (Both of their parents have died. And the father's will left them under the care of Lord Worth.) They are expecting an older gentleman. A man that would have been the contemporary of their father. Someone with gout presumably. What they find is that Lord Worth is a young man--just a handful of years older. He isn't particularly pleased with this added responsibility, and he's not shy admitting this to his wards. But for one year at least--until Judith's birthday--Lord Worth is their official guardian.

The Taveners do set up their own house. Mrs. Scattergood, a relation (cousin???) of Lord Worth, is Judith's companion. Needed during that time to protect young women and provide them with counsel on how to behave in society. An older woman to act as chaperone. Of course, Peregrine, offers protection to his sister as well. But who's protecting him? Peregrine being prone to gambling and partying. When Peregrine becomes engaged to a young woman, Harriet, then a few strange coicidences occur to threaten his life which convinces Worth that someone is out to kill his ward.

The two stand to inherit much money when they come of age. And for this reason, suitors abound for Judith's hand. One of her most persistent suitors is her cousin, Bernard Tavener. But Lord Worth turns them all away. Saying that no man will marry her while he is still her guardian. Something that both repulses and pleases her. She's known some of the men are completely unsuitable--some as old as her father, all looking for a wealthy wife--but the idea of being controlled by a man irritates her at the same time.

Worth (Julian) and Judith (whom he persists in calling Clorinda) are always bickering. The banter flows easily between these two. While both tend to be a bit cranky around the other, the reader knows without any doubts that these two secretly feel very differently about each other.

I love Worth and Judith. I love the rich-layers of Regency Buck as well. For example, Judith's reading of Sense and Sensibility. And the presence of Lord Byron and the discussion of his poetry. There are a dozen or so other things I could point out, but those are just two examples of bits that made me smile.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Antieau, Kim. 2008. Ruby's Imagine. September 2008 release.

First sentence: A Butterfly the color of my name did tell me that a Big Spin was coming our way.

Ruby, our narrator, is a teen girl with a unique way of seeing the world, a unique way of talking. Let's just say--long story short--that she likes Capital Letters. (I can imagine that this will irritate some readers.) Her own way of speaking does set her apart from others in her New Orleans community, and it irritates the dickens out of the woman who is raising her, Mammaloose, her grandmother. "Mammaloose never hears my words as glad tidings. She says I is constantly putting a target on myself by using my Ruby words." (2) But her best friend, a young guy named Jacob Lazarus, JayEl sees it differently. He appreciates her in a way only a best friend can. One other thing I should mention, Ruby speaks with "Flying People" and "Rooted People." She has a very hands-on approach to nature, and loves to converse with the trees and plants and insects and birds.

Here's just a snippet so you'll see what I mean about Ruby's voice:

I walked the place where I lives--I calls it my Garden of Neighbors--down toward JayEl's Daddy's Corner of Happiness Store. Some people talks about what ward they lives in. I don't do that. I heard Mammaloose once say that calling where you lives a ward make you sound like you living in some kind of institution. I can only be agreeing with her. I says I is a citizen of the Earth and right now I be living in a place somewheres between the old oak next to the yellow-two-story and the gum tree out front of the pale green double shotgun. I lives in the place where the wisteria dips over the fence to hold hands with the magnolia that dips down to say hello to the Place Where My Vegetables Grow. That's where I lives. (11)

Ruby likes to give unique names to all the people and places in her life. In a limited way, I suppose, you could call Ruby a modern-day Anne of Green Gables.

When the book opens, Ruby has just been warned--by a butterfly, though later warnings come from other animals--that a "Big Spin" is on its way. That danger is coming. Danger with a capital D. And Ruby does warn a few folks as the days pass, but it isn't until the radio and TV start talking about a hurricane--a big hurricane--Hurricane Katrina--that folks really start listening. But listening doesn't mean acting, not necessarily. Ruby and her friends--some by choice, some not so much--do end up braving the storm right where they are, in their own homes.

And it is when the storm hits that Ruby's Imagine transitions from a slightly-irritating, slightly jarring book to a true page-turner. The more intense the action--the storm and its aftermath--the more "normal" Ruby becomes. Her speech, her thoughts, change and shift. In the heat of the moment at least, Ruby is too focused on surviving, on clinging to her friends and family, to "bless" the readers with her uniquely capitalized take on the world around her.

The second half of the book is a page-turner. It is here that the action begins to happen. Here where characters begin to develop, begin to matter. Here where family secrets get thrown to the surface. The book loses some of its foolishness and gets down to business.

The book--especially the second-half--is interesting and worth reading. It's not flawless. I can imagine some readers will feel *elements* of the story to be a bit unbelievable, a bit too coincidental. But at the same time, those elements feel good even if they're not quite credible. I can't go into details of exactly what I mean because it would spoil the story. But if you've read it, you'll probably be able to guess what I'm referring to.

I really really enjoyed Mercy, Unbound.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Rinaldi, Ann. 2008. The Redheaded Princess.

The Redheaded Princess. What can I say about this one? It's a fictional novel--for teens--about Princess Elizabeth. The novel opens when she's a child and she's still estranged from her father, King Henry VIII. The novel closes with the death of her sister, Queen Mary, a.k.a Bloody Mary. In between, there are many ups and downs along the way. Her semi-reconciliation with her father and his newest and latest wife, Katharine. Her relationship with her half-brother, Edward, the boy who would become King (and did in fact become King) yet who never really "reigned" on his own. Too young. Too sickly. Her very, very strange relationship with Thomas Seymour. Her turbulent relationship with her older half-sister, Mary.

Elizabeth's life was strange. No doubt about it. Never knowing her mother, only really hearing about how she had "bewitched" the King into divorcing his wife. She was presented to the girl as a whore and a witch. Someone dangerous to imitate. She had a distant relationship with her father. Sometimes in favor and in court, other times forgotten and left to fend for herself in the country. Not that she was alone. She had her servants, her friends, her tutors. But still. Without parental guidance let's say. And she didn't have normal family relationships with her brother and sister either. When one sibling has the power of life and death over the others, the power to imprison, things can get messy very very quickly.

The plotting. Oh the plotting. The scheming. It seems that there was never an end to the number of people who wanted to use these three children as pawns to gain favor, esteem, wealth, and power. Manipulations. Trying to turn the family against one another time and time again.

The religion. I wonder if readers grasp just how big this Catholic versus Protestant issue was back in the day. Where being one or the other could cost you your life. To realize just how opposing and judgmental they were of one another. It is hard, I think, for readers to grasp until they've studied the era, studied the writers of that time period. This was really and truly life and death stuff. And believers had to be ready to die for how they chose to worship. For how they viewed the sacraments.

Anyway, if you're already familiar with the Tudors, with Henry VIII and his children (Mary, Elizabeth, Edward), then you won't learn much more than you already know. If you're not that familiar, this would be a nice place to start.

This novel would be a good companion to Rinaldi's previous novel, Nine Days A Queen: The Short Life and Reign of Lady Jane Grey.

The real question may be how does this one compare to Carolyn Meyer's series on the Young Tudor women.
Mary, Bloody Mary. Doomed Queen Anne. Patience, Princess Catherine. Beware Princess Elizabeth. And the answer to that would be purely subjective.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Malley, Gemma. 2008. The Resistance. (September 2008 Release) This book is the sequel to The Declaration.

Overhead lighting, harsh, bleak and uncompromising, shone from the ceiling down into the small room like a prison guard's searchlight, picking out every speck of dust, every mark on the cheap carpet, every smudged finger on the window sill. It was a room which, Peter suspected, had been used for many purposes; the ghosts of its former inhabitants clung to it like cobwebs.
'Tell me how Peter is. Tell me what he's been thinking about lately.'
Peter looked into the eyes of the woman sitting in front of him and sat back in his chair, circling his ring around his finger, the only possession he'd been found with as a baby.
The chair was padded, obviously intended to make him feel comfortable, to put him at ease, but it wasn't working. He rarely felt comfortable; Anna said it was because he liked to make things difficult for himself, but he wasn't sure. He figured that it just wasn't in his nature to feel too comfortable. Comfort made you lazy. Comfort was the easy option. (1)

Peter, Anna, and Ben are all technically legal now. All technically allowed to exist in society. All potentially eligible to sign The Declaration and begin taking the wonder-drug Longevity when they come of age. But will they? Could they? Ben is just a baby. His thoughts don't enter into the book at all. But for Anna and Peter there is a great dilemma. Do they become part of the society they hate? Do they assimilate with their former enemies? Do they turn their back on who they once were? Forget all they know about what it is really and truly like to be illegal, to be "a burden." To be a Surplus.

Peter and Anna are living as a couple. Young as they are, they seem to be more than just playing house with one another. There's Ben to look out for. And children of their own to start planning for. This need to procreate, to produce offspring of their own, is fundamental to who they are, to their cause. At least to Anna's cause. (If having a baby is a slap in the face to the powers-that-be, then Anna wants a dozen.) Each want to resist. Each want to play a role in the ongoing struggle between the current authority and the underground resistance movement.

Peter is getting ready to try something risky. Very risky. He's going to join the workforce, join the enemy--Pincent Pharma. He's going to accept the job his grandfather offered him. His goal is to learn how things work and leak that information back to the Underground.

We meet new characters in The Resistance. And we learn more about this world and how it operates. We learn more secrets. I won't go into all that here. It's best not to know too much going into it after all. What fun would it be to have the mystery out in the open too soon?

Anna's character seems a bit unbelievable to me. She seems a bit too certain, a bit too mature. A bit too comfortable at her new role. She's young--fifteen maybe sixteen--and she has the responsibilities of keeping her own house (cleaning, cooking, washing, etc), of having a husband (relationship issues, sex), and of being a mother to her brother who is only a year old. That plus the emotional/mental baggage she should be carrying around from her days as a Surplus. Anna seems a bit too put together to come from this reality. Granted, all of this know-how could have been drilled into her at Grange Hall so that it is in fact easy for her to manage it all and then some. Maybe this no-stress, no-pressure, no-complaining has been a part of her brain's programming. Could be. But there is no whining about how hard life is. How difficult it is to do it all...and on her own for most of the time since Peter is at work so much. Ben must be the best behaved baby in the world not to cause any stress or worry or frustration.

320 pages.

The quote is from the ARC, so there might be some differences between this and the final edition.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Godbersen, Anna. 2008. Rumors: A Luxe Novel.

It's sad (but in this case sad-but-true) when the best thing about a novel is the cover. Releasing (according to Amazon) on June 3, 2008, Rumors is the sequel to the largely delightful but lusty teen novel Luxe. (Read my review here.) The first novel I found to be a guilty but highly enjoyable indulgence. A soap opera in historical costumes if you will. But this second one was a huge disappointment. Don't hate me. I'm just being honest. I found it boring. Really really boring. The characters seem lifeless. It's one thing for characters to be fleshed-out stereotypes. It's quite another when even the superficialness of the stereotypes lack the appearance of the appearance of life. Penelope. Diana. Lina. They all lacked the spark of life, of interest. Never have I been so bored with a novel. That along with the ending, killed any pleasure I might have gotten from reading this one.

Rumors, for me, is such a contrast to the first novel, Luxe. Luxe had life. It sparkled with interest. I cared about the characters--for the most part--and I wanted to know what happened next. Unfortunately that interest didn't transfer over to the sequel. The characters that before I had found so interesting, so fun...now were as dull and lifeless and as pointless as could be.

Penelope wants Henry. Diana wants Henry. Henry wants Diana but won't go after her because of Elizabeth's so-called "death." Henry's friends tell him NOT to go after Diana. No one is happy. Everyone is manipulative or calculating. There are a few new characters introduced, but it wasn't enough to keep me interested in this mindless entertainment.


© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Mini-interview with Tony Abbott!

Why do you think it's cool for boys to read?

There is so much world out there, and none of us has the time or opportunity to know more than our own little space of it, unless we read. <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Reading opens our minds, and our experience becomes greater. The really important thing about reading is that – unlike movies or television – the reader has to work to uncode the words. Words on the page are just smudges of ink unless the reader brings them into his head. Once he does, he begins to see the scenes, hear the characters, and feel what they are feeling.

Is it cool for boys to write/draw? Why?<?xml:namespace prefix = o />

Absolutely! Boys are often shy or awkward socially (I sure was!), and writing and drawing can help them to express themselves. They can be a sort of open window for them. I also think it’s one of the most amazing powers to go through your life being open to what you see and feel and imagine and then using your creativity, your art, to make something, a story, a poem, a picture, a sculpture, a film.

Who was your favorite comic book character when you were a boy? Do you have a favorite character now?

I actually didn’t have a good time with comics. Something about the business on the page kept me from really getting into comics in a big way. However, there was never any question with me. Batman was and is the greatest hero. He doesn’t have powers. He is just a guy who wants to do the right thing. The thing I loved and love about Batman is that I could be him. I could do that. The only thing separating me (or anyone!) from being a “Batman” is that we are afraid. Batman all the way.

What is your favorite sport?

I like watching football and tennis, and playing tennis. I am not good at all, but it’s a great sport, and can be played by someone who is not super strong or big or hugely muscled. I played golf for a while, but it’s very slow; too slow for me.

What do you like to do for fun?

I read, but that’s probably part of my writing life. I love to mow the lawn. Does that sound silly? Other parts of yardwork are okay, but cutting the grass is the best. I like seeing the increasing progress of my work, and the fragrance of newly mown grass is one of the best smells ever.

What is the favorite book you have written?

Hard question. I love FIREGIRL because it’s very personal and may be my best book so far. I love KRINGLE because of its theme, combining Christmas with a fully imagined fantasy. I suppose these days, I’m in love with my upcoming novel, THE POSTCARD. It’s a comedy/mystery set in Florida, has two timelines, and is a bit complicated, but so much fun. I really came to think of the two characters, Jason and Dia, as part of my family. I can’t wait for it to come out!

Which do you like better--cheeseburgers or pizza? What do you like on them?

Again, hard question to answer. I don’t eat cheeseburgers as much as I eat pizza – I suppose because of the cholesterol in beef, so I’ll have to say pizza. I like plain cheese, but I also like margarita pizzas, with basil, and mozzerella. Mmm. Now you’ve made me hungry.

Thanks, Tony! Sorry I don't have a pepperoni--ground beef--mushroom--black olive one on me. Hmmm---now I want one! Well, I'm reading Kringle and will post about it when I'm finished. I'll tell you what--I can't wait to finish it! It's great! If you'd like to visit Tony's website, click here.

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