The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rowling really tapped into personal types of experience in this novel, whether they belonged to her or not, they were vivid and completely believable. I think her ability to create such credible points of view is what made the Harry Potter series so very good, her characters a very close to real, in that we might all know someone like them.

While I enjoyed reading this book, I can understand how slower readers might never gather any momentum with it. I do think it is worthwhile. It is very slice-of-life (chunk, more like). Very human. I can’t wait to see what she does next.

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The Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ve been waiting a long time to read Sarah Rees Brennan’s Demon’s Lexicon, and I’m happy to report it greatly surpassed all expectations. Which, to be fair, were fairly few.

Nick is a tough guy with a tough past, yadda yadda, but he reads so unlike a tired cliche. In fact, half the fun of the book is trying to figure out just what his deal is, exactly. He’s a survivor, callous, unemotional, but with a fierce loyalty to his older brother, Alan. My theories ranged far, from a budding psychopath to high functioning autistic. I’m good at guessing, but I didn’t actually clue into the real twist until about halfway through.

Alan is a tough nut to crack, too. He’s a charming con, behind a facade of nerd and harmlessness. It took a long time for him to grow on me, probably until the end of the book, maybe even the first part of the second book. Which is also good.

I just realized I am not coherently reviewing this book because I liked it so much I can’t, and also because even though I only started this one last night, I’m smack in the middle of the third and my attention can’t be divided. That good.

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Eona by Alison Goodman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I wrote a glowing review for Eon, and I’m sad to say I can’t do the same for Eona. It just wasn’t as good, in my opinion, and I think that opinion largely comes from the flaws and weaknesses of the characters in this book: the second and final part of the story.

I know that’s nonsensical, because who wants to read about perfect flawless characters who never make mistakes and aren’t very realistic? Nobody, I suppose, but that didn’t stop me from despising every single character by the end of the book. Except maybe Dela, and the minor characters like Rilla, Vida and Tozay.

I honestly cannot understand the romance in the book either, because though Kygo/Eona is clearly set out to be the OTP, Kygo is a selfish asshat with serious rage issues, not to mention being controlling in a very scary way. But he’s *pretty* and a prince, so, you know, he’s AMAZING.

Sadly, I thought Ido was much better constructed, and I understood the relationship Goodman created between him and Eona, I was just disappointed to see he was really as villainous as when he was introduced.

Don’t even get me STARTED on Eona, who was utterly surrendered to the mercy of misogyny the minute she embraced her femininity. She was so strong as a boy, why couldn’t she be AS strong as a female character? It drove me nuts! Here I was thinking THIS woman was meant to begin to shift her society’s perceptions of women based on her high profile, dire responsibilities, and power, and she ended up just being a wishy-washy liar. If it can be said that she had strengths, they all fell into the set of “womanly” characteristics which I am so, so tired of seeing praised in “strong” female characters.

Let’s not even mention the irony of the fact that the Mirror Dragon is the keeper of Truth, and Eona consistently lies to every single person she comes in contact with, regardless of the fact that over and over again it proves to screw her over. I understood that in the context of her life, trust was difficult or impossible for her, but I still think a more perceptive character would have realized that lying is her undoing.

I guess if anything, she is written very convincingly as an incredibly naive 16 year old.

Despite ALL OF THAT, it was still a pretty engrossing read. Irritating at times, sure, but still well written.

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The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’m not sure I have it in me to go into a really descriptive review of this novel. But I will say a few things about my response to it.

1) It made me sad. Well, sadder. I was already pretty sad for a number of reasons and this book did not help. It’s about a girl who is a victim to all of the emotions in the world. Her brother is mentally and later physically absent from her life, her dad gives up, and her mother is an incredibly selfish, self-absorbed woman, and Rose suffers a lot of disappointment.

2) It did not give me any closure. There is not a single event in Rose’s life (including her discovery of the French cafe with lovingly made food), that gives her any (seemingly) real happiness, nor does it give the reader fulfillment or catharsis.

3) I was totally engrossed. This book is really very well written. Just don’t read it when you’re down in the dumps.

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Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Stephanie Perkins is amazing. Her characters are better developed than I am as a living human being, and the way she traverses her settings makes you feel like you’ve known the place your whole life.

I read Anna and the French Kiss two and half times consequtively when it first came out, and I don’t like romance centered fiction! SHE’S THAT GOOD.

Lola and the Boy Next Door is wonderful, though not quite as good as her debut, but the elements of teenager-hood and heartbreak and romance are all there, in such a realistic way it’s astounding they read like fiction. The character of Cricket Bell didn’t intrigue me the same way Etienne St. Clair did in A&tFK (truthfully I was more into Max, woof) but I will rave about Stephanie Perkins anyway. She can do whatever the hell she wants and I will eat that shit up because she holds the key to the pathetic, sappy, forever-sixteen-year-old inside of me.

Okay now I’m kind of mind-boggled by how long it’s been since I was sixteen.

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The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love Sarah Addison Allen, and I loved The Sugar Queen almost as much as I loved Garden Spells and much more than what I’ve read of her other novels, even though I managed to figure out a major plot twist pretty early in. Despite the minor element of predictability the rest of the book was excellent.

One thing I DIDN’T like is how Josey Cirrini is described as being unattractive so much early on, but after she starts dressing better and wearing makeup the other characters consider her pretty. This sets up a number of assumptions about standards of beauty that I don’t quite care to address, since there is a character limit for these reviews that I could EASILY exceed.

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Sunshine by Robin McKinley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I finished this book a few weeks ago and have pretty mixed (but mostly positive) feelings about it. I certainly liked it a great deal, but I did have trouble with the idea of Robin McKinley writing a book about a human who ultimately has some sort of physical or romantic attachment to a vampire. Even though she started out amazingly by portraying Sunshine’s fear and disgust of the inhuman and repulsive vampires, in the end it kind of warped into the same old over-done thing.

I wasn’t as shocked by the language as a lot of other readers seemed to have been, probably because I’ve read much, much, more gratuitous language in urban fantasy and been summarily disgusted with it. I was surprised, but since it was brief I didn’t think it was so bad. This is definitely McKinley writing for a more mature audience, which is good because there is no shortage of darkness in Sunshine.

Nor is there a shortage of baking. If you don’t want to go mad from sugar cravings, be prepared with cinnamon rolls beforehand. I have become quite the aficionado for homemade cinnamon rolls from scratch since reading this book. After spooning honey out of a jar while reading Chalice I should have known to be prepared.

In short, Sunshine was a nice, solid read, as long as I like books to be (since I read through them so quickly) with tons of imagination and very little for me to criticize. I’ll look forward to a sequel, if it ever materializes.

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