Books I finished this week

Sorry I haven’t written recently, I’ve been very busy with life and reading.  Here are the books I finished this week.

Pax by Sara Pennypacker with illustrations by Jon Klassen.

This is a beautiful story about a boy and his pet fox.  Peter is forced by his father to release Pax, his pet fox that he has raised since he was a kit, back into the wild.  Peter decides to journey on his own to go and find Pax and save him.  Peter endures many hardships on his

journey, as does Pax while he is waiting for his boy to return.  In the background there is a war brewing or starting, it isn’t really clear which because in the end it doesn’t matter to the story, although that did bother me a bit.  As did the setting of the story.  At first I thought that it was an historical piece set before the Second World War, but by the end I wasn’t so sure. The setting wasn’t important either, but it did bother me, and I kept thinking about it. The end also bothered me a bit, it was a little too open ended for my taste.  I really wanted to know what happened to Peter and Pax in the future. Overall, it is a wonderful, timeless story of love and friendship, not just between a boy and his pet, but between humans.  This is great story for any age.

 

Into the Dim by Janet Taylor

This is a time travel book, and as time travel goes this is a pretty good one.  I like that the author has used many elements into how the characters travel through time, such as the Ley lines, Tesla’s alternate current theories and then needing to have opals with them

to help them survive the journey.  The characters are also well versed in the time period that they are going to and are careful (sort of) not to get involved in the lives of the people they meet, so as not to alter the time line or history.  Hope Walton, our heroine, has to travel back in time to the reign of King Henry II, to rescue her mom who has been trapped their by their time travel rivals.  Ms. Taylor does a good job describing the sights, smells and sounds of medieval London, although I think at times she may have imbued our social morals on that society a bit too much.  It is still a very good adventure story, that hopefully will be continuing in another book soon.  (copy received by netgalley.com)

 

In Real Life by Jessica Love

I read this book practically in one day.  It very much reminded me of a John Hughes movie from the 80’s but with a very modern twist.  Nick and Hannah have been friends for four

years, but only online.  They both consider each other  their best friend.  But they have never met.  Hannah lives in Orange County and Nick in Las Vegas.  During her Spring break  Hannah decides that it is time for them to meet, so with her best friend Lo and her older sister Grace in tow, they head to Las Vegas to find Nick.  Many adventures await them in Sin City.  Ms. Love deftly uses the technology that kids are so in tune with these days to help her tell the story of these two friends who maybe have other feelings for each other too.  I really loved this book and had a hard time putting it down. (copy received from netgalley.com)

 

The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig

I just finished this one today.  This is technically an adult novel, but it should appeal to teens too. This novel is set in a post apocalyptic world, 400 years after the blast (nuclear?) pretty much wipes out humanity.  Humans have survived, but they are now born only as twins.  One twin is always whole, the other deformed in some way (missing or extra limbs, eyes, you get the idea), but they are linked in one very important way, if one twin dies so

does the other.  They can also feel each other’s pain and sickness.  Very rarely,  twins are born and both look perfect, but one is usually a seer, someone who can see into the future or into other’s minds.  Two societies have emerged from this difference in twins, one the Alphas (healthy and whole twins) and the other the Omegas (deformed).  The Alphas rule over the Omegas and although they can’t kill the Omegas without killing themselves, they are not treated with any kindness either.  All sorts of political intrigue and hardships follow our heroine who is an Omega running from her twin who is a powerful Alpha.  This is a planned trilogy with the next one coming out in May 2016.  It will be interesting to see where the story goes from here.

Ice Like Fire by Sara Raasch

I finished the second book in this series on audio.  I talked about it in my last post, so I won’t say much here, except that I really have been enjoying this series and am very much looking forward to the next one coming out in the fall.

Wow that is a lot of books for one week!  I will try to write as I finish them from now on. Till next time,  keep reading.