Another Chance to Dream- Lynn Kurland

This was not my first introduction to Lynn Kurland’s writing and the love stories of the de Piaget family, but this was my first time reading the first novel of the series. Kurland typically writes in the vein of historical romance with a twist of fantasy thrown into the later books of the series. Having read one of the son’s stories first, I was expecting a little more romance and courtship of the two characters in the book. Although there was romance between the two main characters, Rhys de Piaget and Gwennelyn of Segrave, starting at an early age for them both, the realization of that romance took almost the entire book to come about. The novel was more of a journey and the obstacles that kept Rhys and Gwen from being together. I was rather impressed by the surprise twists that I was not expecting. Usually, romance novels are easy to predict but I must admit, Kurland kept me on my toes; every time I thought I had a character and his or her back-story figured out, she would surprise me.

The love story of Rhys de Piaget and Gwennelyn of Segrave is somewhat frustrating. Although it is obvious from the omniscient perspective, Rhys and Gwennelyn can’t seem to find the right moment to be together. Rhys is five years Gwennelyn’s senior and knighted at the tender age of fourteen is overcome by her beauty but because of his stoic nature could never presume to tell her how he feels, he being only a knight and she the daughter of a lord with two keeps to her name. When Gwennelyn is married to Alain of Ayre, it seems that Rhys and Gwennelyn will never be together, but when the scheming of Alain’s brother Rollan goes awry, Rhys is able to secure his dream of having Gwennelyn. The tender moments shared between Gwennelyn and Rhys, although too few and far between for my taste, were worth all of the frustrating obstacles that they had to overcome during the course of the novel.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and the surprises that Kurland threw at me. If you are going to read about the love stories of the de Piaget family, read the parent’s story first.

-Anne

The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To - DC Pierson

I hate that my first post is covering a book I didn’t particularly like, but I would be negating the purpose of the blog if I didn’t comment on everything I read. This book was recommended to me by a Barnes and Noble team member one day as I was perusing the new fiction section of the store. She was adamant about how fantastic the story was and how real the situations were (that should have tipped me off immediately considering this book totters on the brink of science fiction). But, the back cover was amusing, the plot seemed interesting and, to be quite honest, the cover reminded me of something that would conceal some great indie tale in the vein of Juno. I am ashamed to say I judged this book by its cover.

Narrated by Darren, a sophomore at a Valley high school, the story begins with the internal monologue of a deeply cynical and seemingly apathetic teenage boy who likes to draw. He is befriended by Eric, a boy who does not have to sleep and couldn’t if he wanted to. Together, they begin to create TimeBlaze, a mystical mash up of epic movies, comic book series and an RPG to fill in any missing segments of the story. Through a twist of fate, Darren begins dating Christine, who later cheats on him with Eric, who dumps Christine in order to salvage the only friendship he has ever known. During his “I hate Eric” period, Darren shares Eric’s secret about not being able to sleep (dubbed “Eric’s thing” in the novel) leading to Eric being hunted by the police and some otherworldly source, which turns out is a figment of Eric’s imagination from TimeBlaze come to life. Sound like a telenovela? Yeah. That’s what I thought too.

The action doesn’t really kick in until the last four chapters, which feel rushed and underdeveloped. As I was reading, I continually told myself that the next page would be better, which ended up not being the case. I wanted the chase scenes, the action, but all I was given was a 20 page resolution that brought the main character back to the exact place he started ala Napoleon Dynamite. Darren’s final thought left to the reader is his remorse for tattling on Eric, who is captured and never heard from again.

Regardless of how I personally felt about the novel, I found the point-of-view interesting and maybe a little informative, if nothing else. I have spent the past few years working at a local high school. As I was reading, I could pinpoint certain characters as students and other people I attended high school with. The perspective was one that I could have never experienced, being female. This book provided insight to the teenage boy’s mind, and while I know not all teenage boys think or act in the way the two main characters do, it would be remiss of me to imagine that NONE do.

Overall, the book has a few sex scenes that don’t seem to have any purpose, multiple instances of drug use and justification for drug use, underage drinking, and it seems the author was trying to find a way to fit in as many F-words as possible. Maybe this was intentional to enhance the tone, but I think it just reflects a total lack of proper word choice. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

-Harper

Thank You Mr. Gutenberg

How should we start? Were it not for the brilliant invention of the printing press of Mr. Gutenberg, we would not have the hundreds of celebrated (and by that we mean, used and well-worn) novels that line our shelves and really any horizontal surface in our homes. We have set out to share our joy of reading with the masses through our blog that perhaps is a tiny blip in the universe known as the World Wide Web. No matter how miniscule, we know that our thoughts and opinions are important and we feel that it is our duty to those authors both living and deceased to shed a light on their lives' works.

We all have come in contact with books that have changed our perspectives-perspectives about life and how we live it, or books that simply inspired us to accomplish a goal that had been sitting, gathering dust. The inspirational novel, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, became the basis for creating this blog. A post-WWII novel written in letter format, this captivating story is about an author who becomes pen pals with a man from Guernsey, and through their corespondence, begins to write to other members of the Guernsey Literary Society. The piece was SO riveting, we both struggled with the thought of putting the book down. The characters were extremely life-like, personified in a way that made us want to visit them ourselves! Overall, the book was a pleasant, light read that just left us feeling good in the end.

We were inspired by the honesty and commraderie of the group, and although our little literary society (or blog, in this case) is just an outlet for a couple of friends who both love to read, we hope that what you find here is honesty about the books we have read that will cause you to pick up a book and start reading!

Mr. Gutenberg thanks you,

~Anne & Harper