I would like to thank all the readers for stopping by the blog and entering the Boy Nobody giveaway. I would also like to thank Little, Brown's generosity in providing an ARC of Boy Nobody for me to review and to offer to one of my readers. According to Random.org, the winner of this giveaway is Abbe Klebanoff! Congrats! I already sent you an email regarding the giveaway.

  Stacia Kane's Downside series has been recommended so many times to me. Many declared that it is in their top favorite urban fantasy series. I was warned that the series is dark and gritty, but I was not really prepared how dark and gritty it came across. Although I did hit some major stumbling blocks and a difficult reading experience with this book, I do see what attracts this series to readers.

Description (from the Publisher): THE DEPARTED HAVE ARRIVED.

The world is not the way it was. The dead have risen, and the living are under attack. The powerful Church of Real Truth, in charge since the government fell, has sworn to reimburse citizens being harassed by the deceased. Enter Chess Putnam, a fully tattooed witch and freewheeling ghost hunter. She’s got a real talent for banishing the wicked dead. But Chess is keeping a dark secret: She owes a lot of money to a murderous drug lord named Bump, who wants immediate payback in the form of a dangerous job that involves black magic, human sacrifice, a nefarious demonic creature, and enough wicked energy to wipe out a city of souls. Toss in lust for a rival gang leader and a dangerous attraction to Bump’s ruthless enforcer, and Chess begins to wonder if the rush is really worth it. Hell, yeah.

Review: Unholy Ghosts was a difficult read. Unlike the other books I've read in the urban fantasy genre, Unholy Ghosts is steeped into darkness and the seedy side of societies where drug lords, prostitutes, and the destitute are our main characters. There not many light moments that helped diffuse the serious and ominous tone. It me a while to get into the story, but I did see the appeal of a promising concept. Our protagonist, Chess Puntnam, lives in a world where the boundaries between the living and the dead blur. Chess works for the world-ruling Church of Real Truth, debunking false claims of hauntings and banishing the occasional real ghost. The Church is a fascinating and complex concept, one that you're not really sure how to decipher whether it's good or evil.
  Like the institution that she is working for, Chess is a very flawed character who doesn't always make the right choices. Along with being a powerful ghost hunter, Chess is hiding a huge secret: she is a drug addict, waiting for a solitary moment to get her next high. She makes decisions and finds work to get enough money to buy drugs so when a powerful drug dealer calls on her services to erase her debt to him, Chess finds herself investigating an abandoned airfield, a horrible human sacrifice, an ominous apparition, and a conspiracy against the church itself. I'm a bit conflicted about Chess. I wanted to know her a bit better outside of following her on the job, but she's either too broken to be sympathetic or too stoned to be coherent.
   Another a character that caught my eye is Terrible, a pimp working for the drug lord Bump that has witnessed too many horrors than you can count. Though Terrible is described to be what many would call ugly with his deformities and scars, there is something magnetic and appealing about him. He seems to steal the show every time he appears. I would definitely would like to find out more about him.
  In addition to Chess's drug addiction, another hurdle that I had to get over is the book's local dialect. The book is also written in the third person perspective, which I thought was an interesting choice by the author. Though I didn't give this book a high rating, I'm willing it to give the series another try as I definitely see potential of enjoying the story despite its darkness. If you do decide to pick up the book, I would suggest trying the audiobook. 

Rating: 2 stars

Words of Caution: There is strong language, violence, scenes of drug usage, and sexual situations. Recommended for adults only.

If you like this book try: Unholy Magic by Stacia Kane (Downside #2), Mind Games by Carolyn Cane, Kindling the Moon by Jenn Bennett

  It's been a while since I reviewed picture books on the blog. Today I'm here to share with you two picture books that are featured on this year's Illinois Monarch Awards: This is not my hat by Jon Klassen and Perfect Square by Michael Hall. You find out more information on the Monarch Award here.


Description: A tiny minnow wearing a pale blue bowler hat has a thing or two up his fins in this underwater light-on-dark chase scene.

Review: This Is Not My Hat was the recipient of last year's Caldecott award. The book is very funny and narrated by a small gray fish who has stolen a tiny bowler hat from a much larger fish. Instead of sticking to our narrator's story, Klassen does a great job in using pictures to give us the real and entire story that our unreliable narrator tends to omit. Readers will hope the best for small thief, but we know danger looms when a big fish comes darting in on the page. It's no surprise that the dominant color of the spreads is black. A thoroughly enjoyable picture book and it reminds me to pick up Klassen's first book titled I Want My Hat Back.

Rating: 4 stars

Words of Caution: There is a subtle darkness of what happens to the small gray fish thief at the end of the book. Recommended for ages 4 and up.

If you like this book try: Beware of the Frog by William Bee, Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems, Oh, No!
by Candice Fleming


Description: A perfect square that is perfectly happy is torn into pieces, punched with holes, crumpled, and otherwise changed but finds in each transformation that it can be something new, and just as happy.

Review: Happiness is a topic that we seem to be consistently trying to discover. We believe it requires specific steps such as those mentioned in several self-help books. Perfect Square is a very simple picture book that doesn't have lots of bells and whistles, but it presents a basic message that we sometimes forget. Contentment is a happy, perfect square with matching corners and equal length sides. It even smiles at us. Even when punched, torn, shredded, shattered, snipped, crumpled, ripped, and wrinkled, it finds a new shape and purpose. I loved how each page contains a rainbow of boldly colored pages that shows what has happened to the square at the particular day and displays it's new transformation. Each day brings it's own challenges, but square always finds a way to make itself feel good. 
    The art is very simple; minimal manipulation of the square into six new incarnations of brightly colored acrylic ink prints presents shape, color, and time in the context of a story, but it makes you stop and think how powerful a positive attitude toward change may lead to success (and even joy). I found this picture book highly enjoyable and think it would be a great book for all younger readers and maybe even for adults who need a friendly reminder now and then.

Rating: 4 stars

Words of Caution: None. Recommended for ages 4 and up.

If you like this book try: Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni, Dot by Patricia Intriago, The Missing Piece by Shel Silverstein

  Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if you participated in the Witness Protection Program. For Meg Jones, a new process everyday: learning and becoming a new person. It's lonely, frustrating, and unnerving. Many thanks to Disney Hyperion and Netgalley for allowing me to read and review an advanced reader's copy of Ashley Elston's debut novel.

Description (from the Publisher): Shes been six different people in six different places: Madeline in Ohio, Isabelle in Missouri, Olivia in Kentucky . . . But now that shes been transplanted to rural Louisiana, she has decided that this fake identity will be her last. Witness Protection has taken nearly everything from her. But for now, they've given her a new name, Megan Rose Jones, and a horrible hair color. For the past eight months, Meg has begged her father to answer one question: What on earth did he do-or see-that landed them in this god-awful mess? Meg has just about had it with all of the Suits rules-and her dads silence. If he wont help, its time she got some answers for herself. But Meg isn't counting on Ethan Landry, an adorable Louisiana farm boy who's too smart for his own good. He knows Meg is hiding something big. And it just might get both of them killed. As they embark on a perilous journey to free her family once and for all, Meg discovers that there's only one rule that really matters-survival.

Review: Like most readers, I was initially drawn to The Rules for Disappearing because it featured a main character in a Witness Protection Program. Meg Jones and her family have been under Witness Protection for eight months and have been relocated six times. Any day the U.S. Marshals can come to their door to tell them to pack up their things and transfer them to a brand new location. The family will be given new personal histories to memorize, new names, and new appearances. They must never make a mistake. They must always stay in character.
  I had mixed feelings towards Meg. I felt terribly that she had nightmares and was always on edge and uneasy. I loved how Meg took care of her little sister who barely speaks, but her incessant blaming her father for their current situation irritated me. Whatever he's done or seen to land them in this predicament has destroyed the family forever, Mr. Jones has become the scapegoat for the family's frustration and anger. Mr. Jones didn't help the situation either by being so incredibly secretive and not really stepping in when Mrs. Jones drank. I was hoping that the author would focus a bit more on Meg's parents, but the mother is pretty much drunk whenever she appears on the page and the father appears to really try and be their for his family, but ultimately I didn't really think they were three dimensional characters.
  The novel's first half is tense and captivating, as the Jones family tries to adapt to a new home in rural Louisiana. The characters struggle under severe uncertainty and dysfunction. Their new home is dreary, they have very little money, and every bump in the night could mean trouble. Meg has set up some of her own rules that she must follow to keep her profile low: Don't make friends, don't trust anybody, don't use the Internet. Again and again, she tries to discover who is after her family and what happened last June that started this whole mess, but her father won't discuss it. Soon she starts to break her own rules when she gets closer to the truth.
  Elston then breaks the tension when Meg falls in love with a charming boy named Ethan. Their romance was sweet and slowly build throughout the book. Ethan didn't really stand out for me as a character, but he was nice and helped Meg though he had figured out that Meg was lying about her identity pretty quickly. He does help Meg confront a repressed memory, and hits the road with her to free her family for good.
  I have to say that I was disappointed when we learned why the Jones family is in the Witness Protection Program. I thought the answer was too convenient and for me, the plot loses its emotional resonance and becomes implausible, I think some readers will likely enjoy the action. Though we get answers by the end of the book, the author leaves a single unfinished story line for a very likely forthcoming sequel. While I enjoyed this book for the most part and it reminded me a lot of Lois Duncan's books that I read in junior high, I'm not entirely sure if I'll pick up the next book.

Rating: 3 stars

Words of Caution: There is some language, underage drinking, and strong violence. Recommended for Grades 8 and up.

If you like this book try: Shadowlands by Kate Brian, Don't Look Behind You by Lois Duncan

Just a quick note: I'm attending my last day of the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago and will be on vacation when this review posts. I may not or may not have internet access during vacation, but I will play catch-up with your blogs and comments when I get back. 

 Manga Mondays is a meme hosted by Alison at Alison Can Read where bloggers can share their passion for reading mangas. It's a great place to get new manga titles to try and to meet new bloggers. The Boys over Flowers manga series has been highly recommended to readers who would like to read a manga that falls in the romantic comedy genre. This series has been a bestselling manga series and is extremely successful with many TV adaptations in Japan as well as in Korea.

Description: Tsukushi realizes that she would have Rui to herself if Shizuka left for France as planned, but she doesn't want to be like the other scheming girls at her school. So she begs Shizuka to stay in Japan for Rui's sake. Domyoji asks Tsukushi for a date at the airport that Shizuka is leaving from, but his sweet words are drowned out by the sound of jets passing by.

Review: As I mentioned in my earlier reviews of this manga series, Boys Over Flowers walks the line between serious and silly. Though it is marketed as a romantic comedy, it does give you food for thought in regards as how cruel we treat one another. 
  Volume 4 picks up right where we left off in volume 3 where Shizuka has made a huge announcement of leaving Japan in pursuit of a modeling career in France and demonstrated how serious she is by chopping off her gorgeous hair in front of a crowd. While her news may not be as much of a shock to us as readers, it opens a big opportunity for our heroine, Tsukushi, who has a huge crush on Rui. Rui hasn't given much attention to Tsukushi because he has been openly shown his interest in Shizuka ever since they were young children. One has to wonder if Shizuka's sudden movement to an entirely different continent is due to Rui's ardent affection for her. Shizuka obviously has feelings for Rui but more in a fraternal kind of way, which is of course what any guy does not want to hear. 
  I really like Shizuka as she doesn't fit into the caricature of a popular, rich, mean girl. She treats Tsukushi very kindly, which is why Tsukushi feels a bit guilty about feeling happy that Shizuka will no longer be competing with her to get Rui. Unlike Shizuka, I couldn't really get a good read on Rui as his personality is a bit standoffish. He is obviously hurt by Shizuka's sudden departure since she is really the only person he truly opened up to.
  What I found to be very interesting is Doyoji's quiet transformation from a rich, dumb, bully to a person who is insecure, vulnerable, and maybe a little bit likable. Though I hate how harshly he treats Tsukushi in the previous volumes, he does have some good moments that make me hesitate in completely writing him off as evil. Unbeknownst to Tsukushi, she does have a big influence on Doyoji's growth as Doyoji tries to understand her in order to win her affections. 

Rating: 4 stars

Words of Caution: There is some language and sexual innuendo in this volume. Recommended for teens and up.

If you like this book try: Boys Over Flowers Vol. 5 by Yoko Kamio, Ouran High School Host Club by Bistco Hatori, Kodocha by Miho Obana, Kare Kano: His and Her Circumstances by Masami Tsuda