audio review: Stolen: a Letter to my Capture by Lucy Christopher

pub date: May 4, 2009
publisher: Chicken House
pages: 301
source: library
audiobook reader: Emily Gray
appeals: kidnapping, Australia, England, letter
content: there is swearing, including the f-bomb. Besides that, it's been so long, I don't really remember. But it is about a girl who is kidnapped by an older man, and it is emotionally brutal

thoughts:
It is now May, and I listened to this book back at the beginning of March. A loooong time ago, so my thoughts on the book are a little fuzzy. I debated about writing a review on the book since it's been so long, but decided I really wanted to. This book left me dazed and confused and a tad upset. It packed an emotional punch that lasted a few days. I wasn't lying when I said it was emotionally brutal.

I listened to the audio of this book. I like to listen to audio books in my car, and usually when I select audio books I just browse the shelves for what's checked in. Which means the audios I listen to are ones that I normally wouldn't read. If there is a book I really want to read, I read it in days. Audio books take me a few weeks to listen to, and I'm usually too impatient for that when it's a book I'm excited about. Sometimes the audios I pick up are duds, but sometimes it's a serendipitous find, like Stolen.

The day I picked this book off the shelf, it was the only teen novel that wasn't too long (I try to stick with audio books that are only 6-7 discs), and I knew it was a Printz honor. 

It grabbed me from the get-go. I loved the premise, that this was a letter written by Gemma, to her kidnapper, Ty. She wrote as if she was speaking to him face-to-face and it made it more personable, more real. Though there were times Gemma really got on my nerves, I understood her motivation for everything she did/didn't do.

Ty takes Gemma to Australia. Christopher does such a wonderful job at describing the landscape, the life led on the outback. It was so rich and real. It build a world for this story that was truly remarkable.

The ending sort of traumatized me. It ended the way I thought it needed to, but the way I didn't want it to. Gemma and Ty felt so real to me that I wanted their stories to be different, to end different. I had to remind myself that it was fiction, not nonfiction. It was just a story.

Emily Gray, the reader for the audio, was also fantastic. She had a voice that sounded young and innocent and angry and scared and lost, but not all at the same time. It added to the story.

A really superb book.

summary:

It happened like this.

I was stolen from an airport.

Taken from everything I knew,

everything I was used to.

Taken to sand and heat, dirt

and danger. And he expected

me to love him. This is my story.

A letter from nowhere.

review: The FitzOsbornes in Exile by Michelle Cooper

pub date: April 5, 2011
publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
pages: 464
format: audio
appeals: historical fiction, realistic fiction, WWII, family, humor
content: a few scattered swear words, some interesting topics of conversation that aren't horrible, but that make me not classify this book as 'clean'

thoughts:
I listened to this book in my car, right on the heels of listening to the first of the Montmaray Journals, A Brief History of Montmaray. So for over a month I listened to Sophie's diary and lived in her world. And then it was over and I was so very SAD. I loved both books, but now have to wait for the third in the series, however long that takes. I wasn't ready to say goodbye to Toby and Simon and Veronica, and especially Sophie.

And I must say that the audio version was FANTASTIC. The reader added so much to the story.

What I loved about the book:

1--I loved the humor in these books. Obviously the author was making it funny, but Sophie wasn't trying to be funny. She just wrotes what she saw in her diary and it came across as so humorous because she was so serious. I laughed so much while listening to this book.

2--I loved the characters, especially the four main characters, Veronica, Sophie, Simon, and Toby. Their aunt was pretty great, too.

3--I loved the history in these books. This one ended just as WW2 is beginning. So there has been 4 years of build up to this point. There were a lot of 1930s politics in this novel, which I was surprised I didn't get bored with. But I didn't. Now the war had come, and I'm am so worried for these characters that I love! What will happen to them!?!? 

Fantastic books. And I'm saying that when there isn't any romance in the book. That says a lot about how wonderful these books are.

summary:
Michelle Cooper combines the drama of pre-War Europe with the romance of debutante balls and gives us another compelling historical page turner.Sophia FitzOsborne and the royal family of Montmaray escaped their remote island home when the Germans attacked, and now find themselves in the lap of luxury. Sophie's journal fills us in on the social whirl of London's 1937 season, but even a princess in lovely new gowns finds it hard to fit in. Is there no other debutante who reads?!And while the balls and house parties go on, newspaper headlines scream of war in Spain and threats from Germany. No one wants a second world war. Especially not the Montmaravians—with all Europe under attack, who will care about the fate of their tiny island kingdom? Will the FitzOsbornes ever be able to go home again? Could Montmaray be lost forever?

review: Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier

pub date: May 10, 2011
publisher: Henry Holt and Co
pages: 336
source: ALA Midwinter
appeals: time travel, humor, romance, England, mystery, contemporary
content: clean



thoughts:
I loved this book! It was wonderful! It was adventurous, really quick to read, with never a dull moment. I really enjoyed the time travel. The translator did an excellent job.

The characters were great. I liked Gwen an awful lot. She had such an endearing personality and attitude. Her family members were quirky and very entertaining. Though some were more likable than others. I especially loved Gwen's friend Lesley. Their movie addiction was great. It kept me smiling.

There was a little romance in her relationship with Gideon, though it was very abrupt, I'm glad something romantic happened before the end. Because end was rather abrupt, too. The last page was the middle of a scene.  Which made me really want to read the next book in the series. But sadly, I don't read German.

I actually like the German covers much better than the US. Aren't they wonderful?

I love how Gwen and Gideon are arguing in the first, flirting and in the second, and dancing and smiling in the third. There's their relationship illustrated with shadow puppets! (or so I assume since I've only actually read the first). I think the US cover doesn't really reflect the story inside, which is quirky and fun. Though it is pretty, the US cover looks too serious to me.

blurb:
Gwyneth Shepherd's sophisticated, beautiful cousin Charlotte has been prepared her entire life for traveling through time. But unexpectedly, it is Gwyneth, who in the middle of class takes a sudden spin to a different era! Gwyneth must now unearth the mystery of why her mother would lie about her birth date to ward off suspicion about her ability, brush up on her history, and work with Gideon, the time traveler from a similarly gifted family that passes the gene through its male line, and whose presence becomes, in time, less insufferable and more essential. Together, Gwyneth and Gideon journey through time to discover who, in the 18th century and in contemporary London, they can trust.