One day, Eragon finds a polished blue stone when he is hunting in the forest. He thinks only that it might be able to help feed his family during the winter. But when a baby dragon hatches out of it, he realizes he has accidentally stumbled upon an ancient legacy as old as the Empire itself. Overnight, his life is shattered and he is forced to embark on a dangerous journey through the Empire that is ruled by an evil king who wants to kill him. With only the help of a powerful sword and an old storyteller, will he be able to take on the duties of a dragon rider and save the Empire?
Kyra is a highly skilled potions master, but she is a fugitive hiding in a deadly game of hide and seek with the king’s army and her ex-boyfriend. She alone knows the kingdom is on the verge of destruction so she is the only one who can save it. She must do what she does best, poison the future ruler and her very best friend. She is not alone, together, teamed with her potions, a pig, and a charming adventurer she can’t stop thinking about, she needs to find a way to defeat the princess before she is discovered.
At the funeral of her brother, Liesel steals her first book. When she arrives at her foster home, freshly separated from her mother, she is terrified. But she does not expect the incredible kindness shown by her eccentric accordion foster father and begrudging love by her foster mother. With their help, she slowly learns to read, and shares the books she steals from book burnings and the mayor’s library to her terrified neighbors during bombing raids, as well as to the Jewish man hiding in her basement.
Four different people, four separate stories, and four unique perspectives are all tied together by fear. As the school-wide assembly ends, the entire school discovers that all the doors are locked as a student starts shooting. In this fast paced read, which only spans the course of fifty minutes, the reader gets the perspective of four students, who all have reasons to fear the boy holding the gun. Each character reflects on how they are tied to the shooter, decisions they have made, and how they got to this point all while testing their strength in this nerve-wracking, suspenseful book.
Liyana has trained her entire life to be the vessel of the goddess of her village. She must dance to summon the deity who will then inhabit her body and use magic to bring water to the desert. But at the end of the dance, she is still there. She is blamed by her tribe and abandoned in the desert. She thinks all is lost until she meets, Korbyn, a god inside his vessel. He tells her that the other tribal gods are missing and they set off across the desert in search of the other vessels. The desert tribes cannot survive without their gods’ magic.
When Tamar’s grandfather dies, she finds out he left her a box containing a series of clues and coded messages. These lead her to discover another Tamar from the past, a resistance fighter in Nazi-occupied Holland a century before. His story is one of passionate love, betrayal, jealousy, and tragedy against the backdrop of the daily fear during the second World War, and unraveling it is about to change her life forever.
I thought this was a very well written book. I enjoyed it because it is about a side of World War II that I haven't often read about-the Dutch resistance efforts.
Illuminae is one of the most enjoyable books I’ve come across recently. I don’t know what it would be like to read the book, but the audio was marvelous to listen to. The different voices encapsulate the personalities and essences of the different characters, making the story richer and adding depth.
Absolutely compelling action and suspense in a wonderfully unusual package. I never wanted to set it down, and now that I'm done I want to keep reliving it.
Cleopatra De Nile is like the queen of the school but then Frankie and Melody come along and now to her it’s all “Frankie this” and “Melody that”. She was determined to make school hard for the normies which is pretty much any one not like her or doesn’t come from a royal line. Becca and Brett are together and Frankie (a normie) lost her head for him. Becca was sworn to get revenge over Frankie and she wasn’t the nicest ghoul on the school. Now Melody on the other hand was trying to keep her boyfriend Jackson from being exposed.
All American Boys is a big-issue book that also makes an excellent character study. Rashad, a sixteen-year-old African-American boy, is the victim of police brutality. Quinn, a sixteen-year-old white boy, is a witness to Rashad's beating. These two guys live in the same city and go to the same school. Quinn plays on the same basketball team as some of Rashad's friends. And yet they barely know each other.
