My book bag this week....

1)

  Princess Academy by Shannon Hale / YA / ****

From Amazon: 

"Miri lives on a mountain where, for generations, her ancestors have quarried stone and lived a simple life. Then word comes that the king's priests have divined her small village the home of the future princess. In a year's time, the prince himself will come and choose his bride from among the girls of the village. The king's ministers set up an academy on the mountain, and every teenage girl must attend and learn how to become a princess.

Miri soon finds herself confronted with a harsh academy mistress, bitter competition among the girls, and her own conflicting desires to be chosen and win the heart of her childhood best friend. But when bandits seek out the academy to kidnap the future princess, Miri must rally the girls together and use a power unique to the mountain dwellers to save herself and her classmates."

 

This is a second read for me as I wanted to read it again before reading the sequel that was recently released.  I enjoyed it the second time as well.   I like that Miri used what she was learning in the academy to better her situation and those of her village. 

2)

 Princess Academy: Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale / YA / ***

The story of the  Princess Academy continues when Miri leaves her mountain for the capital city.  She is given the opportunity to attend school in hopes of being able to return to the mountain someday as a teacher.  She gets caught up in the revolution overtaking the Kingdom as the people are groaning under the tyranny of the king.  Miri is torn as her best friend is marrying the son of this King.

The story was a little far fetched. It had French revolutionary undertones.  It just seems so unlikely that the girl would be in the situations she was in and that the ending would be so neat and tidy.

 

3) - 6)

Wool 2 by Hugh Howey

Wool 3 by Hugh Howey

Wool 4: The Unraveling by Hugh Howey

Wool 5 - The Stranded by Hugh Howey

/ A / ****1/2

WOOL 1 was only like sixty pages, so I don't know if it qualifies as a "book".  It was sold for free on Amazon. Each of the subsequent "books" was longer, with the final one being several hundred pages long.  I'm reviewing them together but each is meant to be read separately.

It continues the story of a group of people that live in a bug silo in the ground in a post-apocalyptic world.  Their people have lived there hundreds of years, and expect to live there hundreds more as the planet is destroyed.  As the story unfolds you discover how they got there, why they got there, and that just maybe they are not alone.

This is the best Science Fiction I've read in a long time.  The characters were in-depth, the world-building was awesome, the twists and turns of the story kept me engaged the entire time.  I wanted this story to go on and on.  It was awesome writing

7)

The False Prince: Book 1 of the Ascendance Trilogy by Jennifer A. Nielsen / YA / ***

Sage is one of four orphans snatched off the streets because each looks like the long-missing prince of the Kingdom.  He must compete with the other boys for the chance to try to act the part of the prince and claim the throne, as those not chosen will be killed in order to keep the plan secret.

The story line has been done by others many times and the twist in this story was completely obvious, but I like the character of Sage so much that is was an enjoyable story anyway.   I plan to read the rest of the trilogy.

 

8)

 The Book of Three (The Chronicles of Prydain Book 1) by Lloyd Alexander / YA / ***

Isn't it great that we have our old classics to fall back on when we need a good read? The kids plan to read this one together so I hurried and snuck in a reading before they got started.  It has been years since I read it and it's funny how Gurgi reminds me of Golum from "Lord of the Rings, Eilonwy reminds me of Hermione in the "Harry Potter" books, and Taran of Wart in "The Sword in the Stone".