Uglies

by Scott Westerfeld

Grade: All right

I could like the characters more, but Scott Westerfeld is always good at creating an interesting and unique world. I almost got stuck in the middle, but once I finished, I did want to read the sequels.

Soul Music

by Terry Pratchett

Grade: Good/Unfinished

I had to put in the Unfinished part, because I skipped so much of it because it was boring. But the parts I read were really good! Death is awsome. Susan was pretty cool too. The Death plot seemed somehow a bit too similar to Mort, however. But it was still cool.

Sunlight and Shadow

by Cameron Dokey

Grade: All right

I quite liked it, actually. And although I didn't like it as much as Beauty Sleep, I still want to read all the other Cameron Dokey's that the library has.
It got a little bit confusing and strange with five different view points. Maybe in a longer book it would have worked better.

The Uncommon Reader

by Alan Bennett

Grade: Good

Almost "To Own", because it's such a cute little book. In fact, I think really it is "To Own", just down the road a fair ways. For the purposes of this blog, I will rate it "Good".
I liked the first three quarters better than the last bit, I think. I didn't quite like it that the Queen abdicated at the end.
I wonder how many of the characters were real?

Verdigris Deep

by Frances Hardinge

Grade: Good

Excellent. Wonderfully creepy, with at least two interesting characters! The creepiness is what I liked the best. A couple things, like the coins for eyes, reminded me of Neil Gaiman's book Coraline.

The Year of the Secret Assignments

by Jaclyn Moriarty

Grade: All right

I liked Bindy Mackenzie much better. Partly because I like Bindy way better than these people, partly because there was a cool mystery sub-plot in Bindy, and partly because there was way less about boys and stuff.
But the opener of this book was awesome! Jaclyn Moriarty has the best beginnings ever. She always makes me read the whole book in one afternoon, even if I don't like it much, as in this one.

The Time Traveler's Wife

by Audrey Niffenegger

Grade: Unfinished
Read: To page 7, plus tiny random bits

It seemed too Romantic. Maybe if someone I trust says it's really good, I'll read it. But otherwise, no.

Wintersmith

by Terry Pratchett

Grade: Unfinished
Read: Most of it.

I loved the Wintersmith and the girl...Tiffany was her name, I think. But the little blue guys were a bit annoying and there was a lot of boring stuff. I think I've just about had enough of Terry Pratchett. He always has certain parts that I adore, but too much of it I don't. So I'll read the Death books, and nothing else, I think.

EDIT: Um, yeah. Turned out that was totally untrue. I discovered Going Postal, and Terry Pratchett is now one of my favourite authors.

Snow

by Tracy Lynn

Grade: Unfinished
Read: To page 18, plus big chunks in the middle.

I'm not going to read the rest of the "Once Upon a Time" series. The only well-written one so far was the one by Cameron Dokey, so I'll read hers, but nothing else.
I liked the animal people, but Snow herself was extremely boring, and there was a bunch of irritating pun-like phrases, like these ones:

"'No worries,' the boy answered quickly, but looked like--Oh goodness, it looks like he got his feathers ruffled."

"...running his fingers quickly thourhg his short brown hair like a --like a rat."

An Eye on the Hebrides

by Mairi Hedderwick

Grade: All right

Good. I liked the illustrations, although they weren't quite strong enough for me. It could have been a bit more interesting, although it didn't make me not want to go to the Hebrides anymore.

The Convenient Marriage

by Georgette Heyer

Grade: All right

At least I finished it. And I did like Horry as a heroine. Lord Rule was a bit too much like most of her other heros, and she didn't pay enough attention to many of her side characters. She set them up nicely, but then didn't do a single thing with them. It was rather annoying.

All right, she did do stuff with Pel and Pom and Captain Heron. That was all rather amusing. But what about Rule's secretary? Or Miss Charlotte? Or even Miss Elizabeth? She married Heron and then went completely out of the picture.

I did really quite like Lord Lethbridge, however. An excellent villain. I especially loved the duel, and right after the duel. He was almost sympathetic, which is what I like best in villains.

The Crimson Thread

by Suzanne Wyn

Grade: Unfinished
Read: To somewhere in the middle that I'm not even going to bother figuring out where it was.

In other words, I didn't like it much. I don't think it was very well written. However, there was a snippet for another in the series, but this time by Cameron Dokey, and it looked like it might be just as good as the other Dokey, Beauty Sleep.

The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie

by Jaclyn Moriarty

Grade: Good

It was fabulous; it sucked me in totally for a whole day. But somehow it wasn't "To Own". I'm not sure why. Maybe I'll find out why as I write this.

So...Bindy herself. One of my favourite heroines ever, especially at first. At first, she reminded me of a female Psmith, and then a little bit of Cadel from Evil Genius.

The mystery. It actually surprised me, even though it was rather obvious. I was kind of hoping it would be Finnegan. Which brings me to...

...the other characters. All smashing, except for Finnnegan. And he was the "love interest"! If you could call it that; he wasn't really, but he was enough that he made me not want to own this book. But I really liked Toby, Briony, Ernst, and Astrid. Elizabeth and Emily shouldn't have had such similar names. I got mixed up between them quite a lot.

If I ever do buy this, it will go with Evil Genius. The parts I liked really reminded me of Cadel and his problems.

EDIT: I want to own the book now. I changed my mind. What do you know. Bindy is just so bloomin' awesome that I don't care if I don't like Finnegan at all.

The Rose Bride

by Nancy Holder

Grade: All right

It was almost Good, just because I read it very quickly and was never tempted to stop. However, I didn't like it nearly as much as Beauty Sleep. I kept on wishing Desiree would turn out good. It probably wasn't like the fairy tale, but then Beauty Sleep didn't follow the fairy tale very much. And I didn't like Jean-Marc as much as Oswald or What's-his-face: the other prince.

They were French too! Why are they all French? Is it just a coincidence? I like it, but it seems a bit strange.

Blue Noon

by Scott Westerfeld

Grade: Good

This will have to be the last one in the series. There just isn't nearly enough tension without the Darklings. Thank goodness they weren't all gone until near the end. Also, Jessica's plight doesn't quite make sense to me.
But very readable, good sequal to the other two. I will read more Scott Westerfeld. These books have caught my fancy more than the other one by him--I can't remember what it was called.