The House of Hades Review!

Note: This review is a little (lot) late because it was saved as a draft for a few months. Oops. -Hannah
Hannah: Because Natalie is no fun and hasn't ready any of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus books, Emma and I are going to review The House of Hades!

At the conclusion of The Mark of Athena, Annabeth and Percy tumble into a pit leading straight to the Underworld. The other five demigods have to put aside their grief and follow Percy’s instructions to find the mortal side of the Doors of Death. If they can fight their way through the Gaea’s forces, and Percy and Annabeth can survive the House of Hades, then the Seven will be able to seal the Doors both sides and prevent the giants from raising Gaea. But, Leo wonders, if the Doors are sealed, how will Percy and Annabeth be able to escape? They have no choice. If the demigods don’t succeed, Gaea’s armies will never die. They have no time. In about a month, the Romans will march on Camp Half-Blood. The stakes are higher than ever in this adventure that dives into the depths of Tartarus.

We are going to spoil the Hades out of this book! Skip to the end if you don't want to be spoiled.

Emma: so here we go! Starting with the dedication--GARR!!!

Hannah: the cliffhanger from Mark of Athena was worse than the cliffhanger in Catching Fire, which was previously my standard for evil cliffhangers.

Emma: I was very happy that it only took five chapters to get to Annabeth's pov because knowing
 Rick Riordan I thought we weren't going to get to them till halfway through the book.

Hannah: It was also nice to have all seven of the prophecized (?) about narrate HoH, but the chapter division wasn't as even as in the previous books, and it seemed like we hardly ever heard from Jason and Piper.

Emma: Also, I would have liked a chapter from Nico's point of view.

Hannah: I get that he wasn't one of the seven in the prophecy, but his freaking character development!

Emma: Yeah! I totally saw the whole Percy crush coming, but I think I was the only person who did.

Hannah: Yay for Nico! YA & middle grade needs more characters like him.

Emma: I was very happy, but one of my friends was devastated only because now she can't marry him.

Hannah: So the only reason she can't marry him is because he's gay, not because he's a fictional character.

Emma: Just a technicality :)

Hannah: Next character--Bob. Best reformed Titan ever. A chapter from Bob's P.O.V. would have been pretty cool too.

Emma: I also loved Small Bob the saber tooth kitty. He was definitely the smartest cat in Tartarus. Side note: Bob the Titan is the antithesis of Angel Bob from Doctor Who.

Hannah: One more Underworld thing and we'll move on. I can't believe Annabeth lost Daedalus's laptop, her invisibility hat, and her dagger!

Emma: I did enjoy Annabeth's new sword though. And now we finish up in Tartarus with the best quote "Another cosmic joke for Gaea to laugh at: Annabeth dies trying to keep her boyfriend, son of Poseidon, from drowning."

Hannah: How about Leo and Calypso? They were so cute together, and now Leo can stop being a seventh wheel to the rest of the couples.

Emma: I thought their fighting was hilarious and can't wait to see how their relationship plays out.

Hannah: Also, yay for Leo getting Frank that fireproof bag. Speaking of Frank, he and Hazel are probably  my favorite couple.

Emma: I think Percabeth still wins but it was really great that Frank got to have his awesome hero moment and is now praetor even if Hazel didn't get to see it.

Hannah: Hazel and Frank still had great storylines and lots of growth.

Emma; Speaking of awesome couples--I can't believe Coach Hedge is a father!

Hannah: There was enough other couple stuff happening with Coach Hedge, Percabeth, Hank (Frankzel?) that it wasn't so bad that Jason and Piper weren't really important in HoH. 

Emma: Yeah, although Piper saved the day from Khione with her awesome charmspeak, Jason didn't do much.

Hannah: Oh, well. The whole Percy and Annabeth in Tartarus plot was a bit more exciting.

End Spoilers

Emma: I thought that while the book was pretty good, it wasn't quite as ingenious as his other books.

Hannah: HoH was definitely up to the Rick Riordan standard. Not my favorite, but the plot was still fast paced and engaging--it didn't feel like 600 pages and the characters are awesome as always. 

Emma's Rating: ✭✭✭✭1/2
Hannah's Rating: ✭✭✭✭1/2

Love is Love Double Discussion!!!

*blog makes cricket noises from lack of posting*
*Hannah smashes crickets*

Natalie: Blame school.
Hannah: Seriously. And blame college applications.
Natalie: Basically, we have a lot of excuses.
Hannah: We're bad bloggers.
Natalie: Sorry about that. You can hate us if you want to.
Hannah: But to make up for it (and hopefully make you hate us less), we have a double book discussion today!
Natalie: On to the discussions!

Natalie: One of the panels we really enjoyed at the Decatur Book Festival was the Love is Love Panel. This panel discussed LGBT in YA books.
Hannah: There were two authors, Sara Farizan and David Levithan. They both discussed their latest books (until it started storming).
Natalie: If You Could Be Mine is Sara's fantastic debut novel:

In this stunning debut, a young Iranian American writer pulls back the curtain on one of the most hidden corners of a much-talked-about culture. Seventeen-year-old Sahar has been in love with her best friend, Nasrin, since they were six. They’ve shared stolen kisses and romantic promises. But Iran is a dangerous place for two girls in love—Sahar and Nasrin could be beaten, imprisoned, even executed if their relationship came to light. So they carry on in secret—until Nasrin’s parents announce that they’ve arranged for her marriage. Nasrin tries to persuade Sahar that they can go on as they have been, only now with new comforts provided by the decent, well-to-do doctor Nasrin will marry. But Sahar dreams of loving Nasrin exclusively—and openly. Then Sahar discovers what seems like the perfect solution. In Iran, homosexuality may be a crime, but to be a man trapped in a woman’s body is seen as nature’s mistake, and sex reassignment is legal and accessible. As a man, Sahar could be the one to marry Nasrin. Sahar will never be able to love the one she wants, in the body she wants to be loved in, without risking her life. Is saving her love worth sacrificing her true self?
(Cover and synopsis from Goodreads)

Hannah: This book was really unique.
Natalie: We've never read anything like it before.
Hannah: It was cool that it was set in a different country and we got to learn about their culture.
Natalie: The book deals with two lesbian best friends and it was interesting to see how a different culture handled it.
Hannah: The characters were my favorite part of the book. They were very  likable.
*Hannah takes a break to play FreeFlow*
Natalie: Apparently it's my turn to talk...
I really liked the characters too. They were very real and convincing. I felt bad for them and their situation, but they were also able to lighten the mood through humor.
Hannah: It was great to have characters that made you laugh with them and then made your heart break a little bit for them.
Natalie: We don't want to say too much about the plot because we don't want to spoil it, but it was a beautiful story with amazing writing that captured our attention and emotions. 
Hannah: We were so glad to be able to meet Sara and we highly highly recommend her book.

New York Times  bestselling author David Levithan tells the based-on-true-events story of Harry and Craig, two 17-year-olds who are about to take part in a 32-hour marathon of kissing to set a new Guinness World Record—all of which is narrated by a Greek Chorus of the generation of gay men lost to AIDS.
While the two increasingly dehydrated and sleep-deprived boys are locking lips, they become a focal point in the lives of other teen boys dealing with languishing long-term relationships, coming out, navigating gender identity, and falling deeper into the digital rabbit hole of gay hookup sites—all while the kissing former couple tries to figure out their own feelings for each other.

(Cover and synopsis from Goodreads)





Hannah: At the Love is Love panel, David Levithan said that he tried to write the stereotypical David Levithan novel, or something like that. It's been a while since that panel, so excuse our memories. Anyway, it totally worked. Two Boys Kissing was absolutely amazing.
Natalie: We both read it during the car ride home from Decatur. And we both loved it.
Hannah: It was short and sweet, like all David Levithan books. This one is tied with Love is the Higher Law for my favorite of his books.
Natalie: It tackles many social issues in a raw, open way.
Hannah: The best part was the omniscient narrator. I love books with omniscient narrators and it seems like there aren't enough.
Natalie: All of the characters are real, flawed, and believable. 
Hannah: Basically, go read this book now. Or else...

Sooooooooo..........

Natalie: Soooooo, things have been a little quiet around here lately. We apologize for that. Life has been a little crazy lately. With college applications (Hannah) and NaNoWriMo (Natalie), we haven't had a ton of free time to write blog posts. We're super sorry and we hope that you guys stick with us because we have some awesome things planned for later this month! Sorry again and I promise we will be back soon!

Decatur Book Festival 2013!!!!

Hannah: Over Labor Day weekend we got to take a road trip to Decatur, Georgia for the Decatur Book Festival!
Natalie: It was super fun!

With Myra McEntire

*Emma pops in*

Emma: Hello! *waves*
Hannah: Emma is going to help us recap the festival since she was along for the (nine hour) ride.
Natalie: And she was our sherpa!
Emma: That basically meant that I held umbrellas and saved seats.
Hannah: Have Natalie and I told you how awesome you are lately, Emma?
Emma: Not particularly.
Natalie: Well, you're awesome!!!

Part One: It's a Party in the Min-i-van

Hannah: We started our car ride with the playlist that Natalie and I specially made for DBF. That didn't annoy our mothers at all.
Natalie: Especially when we turned "Party in the U.S.A." into Party in the Minivan.
Emma: We did actually pass a Hollywood sign somewhere in the middle of Illinois. Though it was on our left, not on our right.
Hannah: Then I started reading Wuthering Heights, which I had to finish for school.

Natalie: We stopped at the Metropolis rest stop, where Hannah and Emma's mom got us Great River Road in Illinois National Scenic Byway coloring books! Then I told Hannah to "finish your book for AP Lit so we can be like five year olds!"
Hannah: Then we colored in a picture of "dear" and then corrected all of the spelling and grammar mistakes in the GRRiINSB coloring books. And then commented on how nerdy we are.

We only had orange, purple, and red Sharpies

Emma: After the coloring got boring, I started knitting a veryvery long Doctor Who scarf.

Hannah & Natalie: We don't understand this.
Hannah: Then Emma taught us to knit pygmy puffs (and we again commented on our nerdiness) and Natalie got mad at her knitting needles. A lot.
Natalie: I can now say from experience that knitting sucks. Unless you're good at it. Which I am not.
Emma: Then Lee, our Australian GPS, told us we were almost at the hotel, so we bounced around excitedly.
Natalie: Until we saw the hotel.

Part Two: Alarm goes "whoop, whoop"

Hannah: The hotel we stayed at will forever be referred to as the hotel from hell.
Emma: They lost our reservation.
Hannah: Our room was on a partially smoking floor.
Natalie: There was a hair in our coffee pot.
Emma: The floors were so gross that our mom didn't even let us put our suitcases on the floor.
Hannah: The lampshade had holes in it.
Natalie: And the ceiling had a . . . bladder.

We were afraid the ceiling would leak

Hannah: We gave up on the hotel and left for dinner.
Emma: The elevator apparently was the Great Glass Elevator from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Hannah: And we saw these signs. . .

Natalie: So then we went out to dinner with Hannah and Emma's cousins. We started to get lost and eventually figured out that we needed to go in a "Waffle-Housery direction".
Emma: When we finally got there, we told our cousins all about our lovely hotel.
Hannah: They told us to leave the ceiling bladder at the hotel and let us stay in their apartment.
Natalie: By the way, thankyouthankyouthankyou!

Part Three: "It's like the South is french kissing me all over!"--Robyn Schneider

Emma: We got there super-early and staked out some nice shady seats because it was like a billion and three degrees out.
Natalie: We're St. Louis girls, who are used to humidity but not the hot Georgia sun.

Hannah: The first panel was the Sci-Fi Panel with D.J. MacHale and Rick Yancey.

D.J. MacHale

Rick Yancey

Natalie: This was the first panel, so we didn't know how the signing line worked. So we ended up at the end of a very long line.
Hannah: Next was the Zombies and Others Who Are Not Quite Dead Yet Panel with Amy Tintera and Jonathan Maberry.
Natalie: Which I missed because I was still in the signing line from the previous panel.

With Amy Tintera

Emma: Well, How Did I Get Here? with Myra McEntire, Lauren Miller, and Michelle Hodkin was the next panel. The authors were all very funny, as was the moderator.
Natalie: We didn't understand how all of them had jeans on. Myra and Michelle even had black jackets! We were grossly hot in shorts and t-shirts.

Moderator, Lauren Miller, Myra McEntire, Michelle Hodkin

Natalie: Next was Francesca Lia Block. I got her new book, Love in the Time of Global Warming, which is really really pretty.
Hannah: Natalie stroked the cover for about ten minutes after she bought it.
Natalie: It's pretty!
Emma: Robyn Schneider, Lauren Morrill, and Bridie Clark were on the Love and Romance Panel. We all enjoyed the panel, as all the authors were hilarious.

Terra McVoy (moderator), Bridie Clark, Lauren Morrill

Natalie: We took a picture with Robyn Schneider during the signing line, and she tried to crawl under the table because she was afraid the picture would look bad. Unfortunately, there was a table cloth in the way.

With Robyn Schneider

Hannah: Lauren Morrill was also awesome! We talked Gilmore Girls couples (Rory and Jess are the best) and lamented Bunheads.

With Lauren Morrill

Emma: The last panel we went to was the More Sci-Fi Thrills and Chills, with Robin Wasserman and Geoffrey Girard.
Hannah: When Robin Wasserman signed her alibi in Who Done It?, she said that she still had not gotten a copy of the book.

With Robin Wasserman

Part Four: "This is the most biblical reading I've ever given"--David Levithan

Natalie: The weather was perfect when we arrived at the Fierce Reads Panel. Leigh Bardugo, Gennifer Albin, Anna Banks, and Marie Rutkoski were all hilarious.
Emma: The q&a started off with Leigh Bardugo's twitter dance. That video is floating around on instagram if you want to see it.
Natalie: The best quotes of the panel were courtesy of Anna Banks.
"Everything I say is under the influence of Benadryl."
"That's how I felt about outlines: bra in the shower"
"I thought I could write a book when I first read Twilight"
"I set out to be really charming and that didn't work out" (on what she wanted to be when she grows up)
Emma: Leigh Bardugo was a close second in hilarity
"I have metaphorical allergies so I want to go to a metaphorical spa"
"And I occasionally have broccoli in my hair"
"I don't agree!!! Thank you."
"It's like you have taken a giant pile of crap and spread it on the screen and said I wrote that!" (on first drafts)
"He asked me if I had minions, which I don't, but then he introduced me to his." (On talking to George R. R. Martin)

With Leigh Bardugo

Leigh Bardugo, Marie Rutkoski

Leigh Bardugo, Marie Rutkoski, Gennifer Albin, Anna Banks (who has a pole covering her face. Sorry!)

Hannah: Next was one of the panels we were most looking forward too, the Love is Love Panel with David Levithan and Sara Farizan!
Emma: We missed the first few minutes of Sara's reading because the Fierce Reads signing line was kinda long. :(
Natalie: Then David Levithan started reading from Two Boys Kissing and it started to thunder ominously. Hence the quote used for the title of this section.

"It's always the lesbians who fall for me. That's why I'm single."--David Levithan

Hannah: The weather got bad and we were all ushered under the signing line tent, with its metal poles, because apparently it is magical and will protect us all from the ominous weather. 

*Not trusting the magical metal tent*

Natalie: Then we finally got our books signed by David Levithan and Sara Farizan, and we only got a little bit wet. (Thanks to our sherpa holding an umbrella over us)
Hannah: Actually, I think the umbrella was over the books, not us. Because they are more important. 

With David Levithan

Emma, Hannah, & Natalie: Next we got to meet SUSAN BETH PFEFFER!!!!!
Emma: And we learned that the P is silent in Pfeffer.
Natalie: But it's still more fun to pronounce the P and say P-feffer.
Hannah:  She went on the stage early so people could ask questions, so we got a picture with her!

With Susan Pfeffer

Natalie: She was super nice and funny. And we only fangirled a little. Fine, a lot.
Emma: Hannah and I share a lot of books, including the whole Life as We Knew It Series. Susan Beth Pfeffer alternated signing them Hannah & Emma and Emma & Hannah, which was funny and nice of her.

Susan Pfeffer

Natalie: We had a break in between panels, so we wandered about the wet square. And we met Mirabelle, an adorable dog, who has her own book series.

Doesn't Mirabelle look thrilled to be posing with us?

Natalie: Next was the blogger panel, which was interesting and made us realize that we have no idea what we are doing.
Hannah: Then we got to eat dinner with Sara Farizan!
Emma: !!!!!
Hannah: Turns out Sara knew our cousins from college.

With Sara Farizan

Natalie: Anyway, dinner was awesome. We talked writing and book nerdiness with Sara, and ate yummy potato rounds.
Emma: They reminded us of Trader Joe's popped potato chips, which we ate a ton of in the car, so we decided they were the official food of our trip.

So good!

Part Five: The End (plus random pictures)

We had such a fun trip and we hope we can go back next year!

Emma wore these earrings on the first day and got tons of compliments! We think she should open an Etsy store.

Little Shop of Stories

We saw these in Little Shop of Stories and flipped out! We love the new covers!

All of our books! (And some slightly crappy lighting)

We got a some cool swag. The "Let's all privateer" button is Natalie's favorite

The song that was stuck in our heads for the majority of the trip: No One Knows by The Section Quartet

Disclaimer: We cannot guarantee the accuracy of any quotes. We only paraphrased from our memories. Or something. So they could be wrong, but they should be mostly right.

Emma and her pygmy puff say thanks for reading!

One last note: We have some extra swag from this and the RT Booklover's Convention that we went to last May. Would any of you be interested in a giveaway? Let us know in the comments!

Decatur Book Festival!!!

This post is brought to you by exclamation points, SENTENCES IN ALL CAPS, and the word 'excited'.

Natalie: FIVE DAYS!!!
Hannah: Maybe you should clarify.
Natalie: The title clarifies it.
Hannah: I guess I'll clarify it then. We're going to the Decatur Book Festival!
Natalie: WE'RE SO EXCITED!
Hannah: We plan on getting a lot of books to review-
Natalie: -and meeting lots of awesome authors-
Hannah: -like...
Natalie and Hannah: SUSAN BETH PFEFFER!!!!!!!!
Hannah: You might have heard of her. She wrote that little book called LIFE AS WE KNEW IT!!!
Natalie:We aren't excited about that at all...
Hannah:We're so excited to meet authors, fellow book lovers, and fellow bloggers!
Natalie: We plan on writing a full recap of the festival so we can tell you about all the awesomeness that went down!
Hannah: You know it hasn't actually happened yet, right? How do you know that any awesomeness went down?
Natalie: AWESOMENESS WILL GO DOWN!!!
Hannah: If you say so.
Natalie: Anyway, be prepared for wacky pictures, funny stories-
Hannah: -and book-squealing, of course!
Natalie: There's so much to do and we probably won't post another review until after the festival, so we'll see you guys after we get back from Georgia!

Tiger Lily Review!

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair. Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn't believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell. Peter is unlike anyone she's ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland's inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is risking everything—her family, her future—to be with him. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she's always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter. With enemies threatening to tear them apart, the lovers seem doomed. But it's the arrival of Wendy Darling, an English girl who's everything Tiger Lily is not, that leads Tiger Lily to discover that the most dangerous enemies can live inside even the most loyal and loving heart.

(Picture and synopsis from Goodreads)

Natalie: As you may have guessed, we really like pretty covers. 

Hannah: And the cover of Tiger Lily is another cover that we really like. So that means we are going to squeal about it, and Natalie is going to stroke the book. Because Natalie tends to stroke books with pretty covers.

Natalie: I can't help it! They're pretty!

*insert squealing here*

Hannah: Moving on to the words in the book.

Natalie: So this book was a retelling of Peter Pan. It was told from Tinker Bell's point of view, which I thought with really cool and interesting.

Hannah: I liked how the Tink started out narrating pretty objectively, but then she because more biased as the story went on and she became more involved with Tiger Lily and Peter Pan and everything.

Natalie: The story took popular characters and gave them more depth than the animated Disney versions. 

Hannah: A character that wasn't my favorite was Tiger Lily. She could be so mean to poor Pine Sap. I mean, hasn't Pine Sap suffered enough with a name like Pine Sap?

Natalie: I felt like she was trying so hard to be strong and tough that she came across as detached at some points.

Hannah: This is an awkward transition, but it's next chronologically in our post it note markings... So I liked how Peter Pan's spelling was very Winnie-the-Pooh. For example: "IN MEMRY OF THE STRANJER". 

Natalie: Going back to characters, it was cool to learn the story of how Hook got his hook.

Hannah: The backstories to Hook's hook and the alligator's clock and the Lost Boys and stuff were really neat. It was one of my favorite parts of the retelling.

Another random aside--the evil mermaids were totally like the merpeople in Harry Potter. (Natalie and I are obsessed with Harry Potter).

Natalie: I liked the romance between Peter Pan and Tiger Lily, but in the beginning it was rushed and kind of came out of nowhere. (And this isn't a spoiler--the back of the book says that PP is a match for TL and they have a bond.)

But this part is a spoiler so if you don't want to be spoiled...

The part when Peter killed one of the pirates was kind of a reality check. This book isn't the rainbows and unicorns tale that the Disney movie told. It's dark and gritty, but that's what makes it so good.

...skip to here!

Hannah: I liked reading about the Sky Eaters, Tiger Lily's tribe. The details about their life were really interesting. My favorite part was how they watched every sunset and remembered them all. 

Natalie: Another annoyance I had with Tiger Lily was that she wasn't very logical sometimes. She was unhappy with the Sky Eaters, but when opportunities arose for her to change her situation, she didn't take them.

Hannah: (and Natalie, too) We kinda hate Wendy. That's all.

Natalie: The ending was so powerful for me (I can't say anything else about it because that would spoil it and apparently we're not spoiling anything now). The last page literally had me in tears, which hasn't happened since I read The Fault in Our Stars.

Overall Impressions:

Hannah: Tiger Lily was really good. I liked the backstories and Tink's narration, but Tiger Lily was kind of an annoying character. Tiger Lily also could have been a bit more interesting, especially since the book was called Tiger Lily.

Natalie: I absolutely loved Tiger Lily. It was such a lush, dark retelling of one of my favorite "fairy tales." The writing was outstanding and so interesting to read. There was such a great cast of characters that were developed through out the story. And I think Hannah is crazy for only giving it 3 stars.

Ratings:

Hannah: ✭✭✭

Natalie: ✭✭✭✭✭

Random Side Note: Jodi Lynn Anderson also wrote May Bird and the Ever After, which Natalie reviewed six-ish years ago for summer newspaper writing camp that we both went to. (Hannah wrote about the possible-planet-object that caused Pluto to be, in Natalie's words, kicked out of the solar system.)

Oath of Servitude Review!

Oath of Servitude by C.E. Wilson

This is the story of Teague and Cailin, two teenagers who have been brought together by fate. Teague, a human, struggles to come to terms with the consequences of a recent accident that has destroyed the happy life that he had once enjoyed. Cailin, a pixi, is trying to stay true to herself while fighting against forces beyond her control that have exiled her from her home into this strange world of humans. She fears the darkness. He cannot escape it. But when the two of them are thrown together, they begin to discover the light inside of themselves.

(Cover and synopsis from Goodreads.)







Note: We were given this book by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Natalie: Today we're going to try review the book conversationally, but not spoil anything. Tell us what you think. Hannah, what did you think of the book?
Hannah: This book had a very interesting concept. I really like fantasy books, so I was excited to read a book about pixis.
Natalie: The concept was very original, which I liked.
Hannah: I also liked the humor in Cailin and Teague's exchanges.
Natalie: I liked the way the story was told from many different characters' points of view.
Hannah: Yeah, it was cool how you still could learn about the pixi-world even after the main character had left it.
Natalie: So this was the first book that I've read that was not on paper.
Hannah: And that is the last book I will ever read not made of paper. I can't stand not holding an actual book. (By the way, neither of us have e-readers, so we read this book on computers.) It is just not the same.
Natalie: This was also the first self-published book I've ever read, so I don't have anything else to compare it to, but in my opinion, this book could have used more editing. I know it probably takes a lot of work to self publish, and it's awesome that the author did that, but there were some grammatical, punctuation, and repetition errors that could have been easily fixed.
Hannah: I agree. Whenever I have to write a paper or something for school, I always have a friend look over it because they can always catch those little errors that I skip over because I'm still seeing what I thought I wrote. This book could have benefited from another set of eyes before it was published.
Natalie: Now onto the plot.
Hannah: I really enjoyed the initial plot of the-pixi-in-a-human-world. However, the pixi-politics plot just wasn't my favorite. The pixi government just seemed mean, and I didn't care for any of the politicians enough to get into that particular plotline. There was also a plotline about Cailin's sisters, a plotline about Owen and Nolkrin, a backstory for Owen, and the relationships between the pixis.
Natalie: I think there were too many plotlines being crammed into such a short novel. It was too much to keep straight, and it made it harder to get into the story.
Hannah's sister Emma said that this part won't spoil anything, but it does mention something that happens towards the end of the book. If you think that this might spoil the book for you, skip this part.
Hannah: I was confused by the love triangle at the end. It didn't make any sense to me.
Natalie: It was too out of the blue. You didn't know much about Cailin's relationships with the other pixis before going to the human world, so it was a random guy just proclaiming his love for Cailin.
Hannah: Love triangles have been overdone in lots of YA lately, so they really have to be good for me to get behind them, and, unfortunately, this one just didn't work for me.
Natalie: I thought it was really weird.
End sort-of spoilers.
Hannah: I thought this book had a very intriguing concept, but the execution could have been a bit better. There were funny moments and good characters, just a few too many of them.
Natalie: It was an interesting take on supernatural elements in a realistic setting, but there were too many plotlines and it wasn't as well-woven as it could have been.

Ratings:
Hannah: ✭✭
Natalie: ✭✭

Hannah: Now we're off to go feed a turtle named Lloyd.
Natalie: Yay!!!