Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, by Beth Fantaskey- Review

From Goodreads:
The undead can really screw up your senior year ...
Marrying a vampire definitely doesn’t fit into Jessica Packwood’s senior year “get-a-life” plan. But then a bizarre (and incredibly hot) new exchange student named Lucius Vladescu shows up, claiming that Jessica is a Romanian vampire princess by birth—and he’s her long-lost fiancé. \
 
Armed with newfound confidence and a copy of Growing Up Undead: A Teen Vampire’s Guide to Dating, Health, and Emotions, Jessica makes a dramatic transition from average American teenager to glam European vampire princess. But when a devious cheerleader sets her sights on Lucius, Jess finds herself fighting to win back her wayward prince, stop a global vampire war—and save Lucius’s soul from eternal destruction.
 
This was one of those super lucky find books.  I had gotten an ARC of  Jessica Rules the Dark Side ages ago in a mixed box, it had looked interesting but when I realised it was part two of a series it got abandoned to my pile of "if I run into book the first".  Lets face it, is there anything worse then reading book the second without the ground work of book the first?  I was a bit disappointed because book the first, Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side sounded really fun.  Alas, the number of books I would like to buy often insanely outstrips how much I can afford so it got sorted to the sub-folder of my wish list and I more or less forgot about it.  UNTIL, in Chapters the other day I ran into a discount bin copy!! For the low low price of 4.99$, book the first was mine, and after last weeks long list of teary eyed reads I needed something light and fun.

This was a 100% fun read, the silliness of a high school senior finding out she was betrothed at birth to a prince, and that she herself is a princess- of vampires, was a super fun plot ploy.  I liked Jessica, a mathlete with a shortage of self confidence, and a penchant for silly t-shirts.  I loved how her reaction to the "big news", and  her disdain of the gorgeous and rude Lucius.  And I enjoyed her slow metamorphosis into a confident young woman/vampire.

Lucius was also enjoyable in an arrogant and egotistical way.  His complete disdain for Jessica's vegan parents and the "lentils and kittens" was fun, but I was more amused by how he goes along with it then anything else.  As he softens I did loose interest in him somewhat, I was rather fond of his arrogant pish poshiness it turns out.

Obviously there are some trite moments to the love story, because of course Jessica and Lucius eventually fall madly in love, and there's all sorts of self sacrificing and desperate measures;  but the story was so much fun overall that I was completely able to overlook them and just enjoy the ride.

A quick fun read with some truly quirky characters, Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side cured me (formerly) of my crying while reading.  The hubby was very thankful.

Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, by Beth Fantaskey
Published by Harcourt, January 2009
Buy Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side on Amazon for 8.99$!

The Taming, by Teresa Toten and Eric Walters- Review

From Goodreads:
Katie likes to believe she's invisible. It seems much safer than being exposed as she is--shy, poor, awkward. So getting up on stage in the school production of The Taming of the Shrew should be complete torture. But as Katie tells it, something totally unexpected happened when she stepped on stage: "My head exploded. I loved it. Acting hit me like a sucker punch and I loved, loved, loved it! . . . Invisible Katie became visible Katharina."


Evan Cooper is, as they say, another story. He knows just what it takes to get noticed, and he uses every one of the skills he's honed after years of being the new kid. Like tossing the keys to his father's high-end Audi to a kid he's never met, first day of school. "I have insurance for car theft," he explains to a shocked Danny. "And there's a full tank." An abuse of the power that comes with privilege and money? Sure.


But more dangerously, is his romance with Katie another version of the same thing? Or is it the real thing?

I wasn't totally sold on the sound of The Taming going in, but it was highly recommended by a good source so I thought it might be one of those guilty pleasure reads.  Maybe it is for some, but not for me. 

Teresa and Eric used the frame work of The Taming of the Shrew to tell an alternate story of "taming" by abuse.  Unlike the Bards original there is no humor in this telling, instead they dive into the dark waters of verbal, sexual and physical abuse from both Katie and Evans alternating view points.  They very carefully craft the slow entrapment of an abusive relationship, showing the slippery slide from one uncomfortable moment to the point of being constantly on guard.  I especially liked how they illustrated the cycle, how Katie and Evan's past experiences came to bear on their own messed up relationship, and how hard it was for either of them to fight against those experiences.

That being said, I didn't like either Katie or Evan.  Katie went from quiet and cautious to vapid and flip in a way I didn't understand.  Although she's supposedly high on her relationship with Evan and the attention he lavishes on her, many of her comments and actions just seem ridiculous to me.  Especially when she gets all doe eyed around Evan and makes comments like,

"Evan ordered for me and then showed me how to layer and properly fold a sizzling fajita.  I felt so sophisticated...And it wasn't just about fajitas.  Evan seemed to know everything about everything"

Honestly? Fajitas are sophisticated?

Evan is made somewhat unlikeable from the beginning, which didn't seem fair to me.  As a victim of abuse himself, I felt like The Taming would have been more interesting if it showed his struggle more clearly too.  Its touched upon off and on, but for the most part he's painted the villain, until the end when suddenly I'm supposed to have sympathy for him.  But by that point I was just so sick of both of them I didn't care what happened, as long as I didn't have to be subjected to it anymore.

An interesting subject matter, told in a grating way I didn't enjoy at all, The Taming missed the mark for me.

The Taming, by Teresa Toten, and Eric Walters
Published by Doubleday, January 2012
My copy kindly provided by Random House.

Fast Fresh, Simple- Donna Hay- Review

Growing up I was surrounded by good cooks.   My Grandma was amazing at traditional home cooked meals and any kind of baking, and when my mom put her mind to it she could cook the most fantastic specialty food ever.  So needless to say, I grew up cooking.  But somewhere along the way, probably in University, I got way too busy to deal with making food, forgot most of what I knew and crabbed that all I was looking for in "the perfect" guy was a great cook.  I hated the effort and the mess involved.

 Then I graduated.  I was hopelessly unemployed, and broke.  I was bored, hungry and had oodles of time on my hands to figure out cooking again.  And I was really sick of spaghetti, toast and popcorn.  So the future hubby and I went questing for the quintessential cookbook.  We wanted something with simple, basic recipes (we cooked minute rice because we had no idea how to cook the real stuff), and we wanted a picture for everything.  Sounds easy right?  Well now a days it is, but ten years ago there was almost no such thing.  Except for Donna Hay.

Which is how I became a dedicated Donna Hay fan, and eventually, a really great cook.  And *GASP* I now love cooking.  Since I'm such a die hard for the culinary arts, it stands to reason that cookery presents landed under the tree, and Donna Hay's latest (in Canada and the States, it's been out ages in Australia) Fast, Fresh, Simple was one of them.

I've tried three recipes from it so far and I'm pretty happy with both how simple and how fast they all have been.  I started out with the baked risotto with prawns.  Now I have to preface this by saying I was a doubter when it came to baked risottos.  I wasn't sure how it could possibly be the right consistency baked so I'd never tried one before, sticking instead to doing it the hardcore- stove top way.

 

The recipe was super fast, arborio rice, chicken broth, chopped leaks and some lemon rind, thrown in a pot and baked for a brief amount of time, then you throw in the prawns and parsley for the last bit of time.

 All that's needed to finish it off is a bit of salt and pepper to taste.

I had a bunch of spinach in the fridge so I mixed parsley with the spinach and omitted the salt to keep it a bit healthier.

I was really impressed with the results, it was a super simple and fast recipe that tasted every bit as delicious as risotto laboriously done on the stove top.  The main difference being I got to spend 20 minutes reading instead of stirring!

The next recipe I made was a cheats chicken schnitzel.  It was tasty but not quite as successful.  You chopped up thyme, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper and butter in a food processor, topped some flattened boneless chicken breasts with the mixture and broiled it for 7-8 minutes.  It was the broiling that wasn't really ideal for this recipe.  In the future I would pan sear the chicken, then top it with the bread crumbs and broil it a bit higher for a shorter time.  To full on broil was to get some pasty looking chicken, a bit pink anywhere it touched the other chicken breast and with an uneven crisping of the bread crumbs (burnt in places).

Since the cookbook is broken into sections with desserts at the end of each, I thought it pretty imperative I make something sugary too.  You know, in the interest of being thorough.  So yesterday I made the chocolate cherry cakes.

They were uber simple, melt the chocolate and butter together, then stir together all the ingredients and pour into greased muffin tins.  Top each one with a cherry and cook!

 The batter had almond meal, brandy, flour, a small amount of sugar, three eggs and some baking powder, and once you stirred in the chocolate mixture it had a thick almost gummy consistency to it.  Since cherries are wildly out of season I bought a mixed bag of frozen fruit and topped my cakes with blackberries and cherries.





I was leery about the texture of these little guys, but they were delicious.  Heavy, with an almost fudgy texture but not too sweet, and a nice kick from the brandy.  Plus they're a great serving size!  I served mine with vanilla ice cream instead of the whip cream suggested.

  So far I'm really happy with Fast, Fresh and Simple.  It has provided recipes that are every bit as quick and delicious as promised with only one slight hitch.  I'd highly recommend it for those of you looking for some good weekday ideas or for those who think they don't have time to cook during the week.

Fast, Fresh, Simple, By Donna Hay

Published by December 2010 by Harper Collins

Having a Foodie kind of weekend?  Think about stopping by Beth Fish Reads for more foodie posts!  Every weekend she hosts Weekend Cooking (I'm always stalking and never commenting or participating! Bad me), and it's full of lots of yummy reviews.



Saturday Link Salad

I've been a busy bee in the kitchen today, I've been so productive I almost forgot I still needed to post my copious news from the week!  So here it is, dig in and news up.

-It's been the week of cover reveals and title announcements.  First up was Kody Keplinger's newest A Midsummer's Nightmare.  You guessed it, she's playing on A Midsummer's Night Dream this time and it releases in June.  But you want to read it now right? Then head over to Kody's blog for a chance to win an ARC.

-Laini Taylor has finally released a tidbit about book two of her fabulous Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy.  It has a title!  Check out her blog for the big reveal, I have to say, I like it.

-Tessa Gratton has a new cover for her wonderful book Blood Magic.   I like it because it's less gender oriented then the original cover, and it was such a great book that I wouldn't want anyone to not read it because it looked to girly.  Sadly we still have to wait until August for the sequel!

-If you find yourself in San Marcos Texas between now and July you'll have to make sure to check out Riordan Exhibit.  Rick Riordan has been donating all his archives to them for years apparently, and now they've put the wide assortment of paraphernalia on display!  Sadly I'll be nowhere near, so if you go make sure to stop in and tell me about it!

-If you're an aspiring writer living in Ontario, Kelly Armstrong is running her Writing Dark Fantasy course again.  It's an intensive week long course aimed at those serious about getting published.  Honestly, every year I see her post about this and I heave a big sigh- I want to take this course!  It sounds like an amazing experience.

-It was announced this week that the BBC (Book Blogger Convention) was bought by Reed Exhibitions the organizers of the BEA.  An impressive achievement for Trish Collins and Michelle Franz, the creators and organizers behind BBC the first two years of its existence.  Also a huge jump in the importance of bloggers to the book industry in general.

-Finally what kind of week would it be if I didn't provide you with Cassie's tidbits for the week?
  -First up is a crazy unidentified snippet involving Jace.
  -And a totally mysterious (Jem maybe?) unidentified snippet

Alrighty, now I'm off to do some baking! Chocolate ho!

Happy Saturday all!

Keeping the kitties warm and dry this winter- Feline Fridays

Alrighty, so it's sort of winter some places, REALLY winter other places and sometimes both everywhere else (um, global warming doubters- are you still non-believers?).  Either way it's the time of year when strays die from the elements.  And outside of trying to outfit them in little parkas and boots, at grave risk to your health and safety, there is something really simple you can do to help them survive.

Now how simple is that?  

In Toronto you can even build one in a workshop at the humane society in an afternoon if you're still unsure or want to help but don't have cats to build for (generally held every second Saturday from 10-3).

However, it's a super easy do it yourself project.  The details on how to, that go with this wonderful step by step picture are over on P.A.C.T Humane Society's site (which I found thanks to Annex Cat Rescue's  Pint Interest post).  

If you opt for the parka and booties route, and survive, I would really like pictures.

I'm just saying.

Also Known as Rowan Pohi, by Ralph Fletcher- Review

From Goodreads:
Bobby Steele and his pals, Marcus and Big Poobs, all public school kids from working class backgrounds, are waiting for tenth grade to start when they come across an application form for Whitestone Academy, a prestigious and posh private school. Just for giggles, they decide that a nonexistent kid should apply—and so Rowan Pohi is born. (Named for their favorite hangout, Pohi is IHOP spelled backwards.) Amazingly enough, the phantom Rowan is accepted at Whitestone. 

Eager to escape the boredom of public school and his unhappiness at home, Bobby shows up at Whitestone’s new student orientation, reinventing himself as Rowan. He begins a  suspenseful career as an impostor, hoping that the two worlds he’s living in will stay separate forever. For a short, exhilarating time, they do. 

I love a good story about reinventing yourself, because lets face it, most of us would've loved the opportunity, especially in grade school or high school.  And Bobby's Rowan transition is pretty epic.  It was downright Ferris Bueller-esque.

I liked Bobby's character quite a bit.  He's spontaneous and doesn't really think about the consequences of what he's getting into, everything is done by the seat of his pants.  But obviously he's also smart, no dummy could pull off the scam he's setting up.  Which makes his entry into Whitestone less of a joke and more of his rightful place as a smart kid who needs to be challenged more then his sad public school can manage.  And that's the turning point from amusing scam story to actually rooting for Bobby for me.

However I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't a bit more of his friends in the story.  They're there to set things up but then become slightly dispensable which I thought was a loss to the story.  Marcus and Big Poobs had the potential to be amusing side kicks, and as a pretty short book there was room for that aspect of the story to be expanded on.  Instead the focus is more on Bobby, his dad, his brother and two girls at Whitestone.  If you think about Ferris Bueller, Sloane and Cameron really made the story, without them it's just a delinquent teen who's way too smart for his own good.  Bobby could have used a bit more rounding out through his friends, and it could have done a lot for building some of the suspense.

That being said, this was a fun light read, it required little of the reader except to come along for the ride. 

Also Known as Rowan Pohi, by Ralph Fletcher
Published by Clarion, November 2011
My copy kindly provided by the folks at Houghton Mifflin
Buy Also Known as Rowan Pohi on Amazon

The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green- Review

On January 17th my twitter feed erupted into a magnificent John Green/The Fault in Our Stars love-fest.  It was epic.  Every author, blogger, and agent that I admire was rushing out to buy it the moment it went on sale.  And I was all "Um, I've heard of this book right? What am I missing here?", and feeling very very out of the loop.

So I did a quick search and came up with the story of how The Fault in Our Stars came to be (a brief career stint John Green had, directly out of school, where he worked with terminally ill kids), how he decided he felt bad for all the kids who live somewhere he'll never do a signing- so he decided to sign the entire first print run of The Fault in Our Stars (150,000 books!), and how when he announced this it sent the book to the top of the Amazon and Barnes and Noble pre-order sales lists, and finally how all this hoopla advanced the print of the book by 5 months!

These were all decidedly impressive things.  I went out first thing Wednesday and bought myself a copy, signed of course.  Lets face it, when that many book compatriots say jump, I say when, where and how high?

Can I just say?  Where have you been all my life John Green!?  HOW have I not read any of your other books? And good lord I need to rectify that grievous bibliophile mistake. 

Hazel Grace is terminally ill.  She's been terminally ill since she was 12 and she's now 16.  She lives an in between life of not health and not death.  It's less than amusing.  But it will get decidedly better when Augustus Waters shows up at her weekly support group.

This was such an impressive book.  It was equal parts funny and heart wrenching.  Like laugh-out-loud funny and I-cried-quite-often heart wrenching.  This is not a book you read commuting to work, unless you don't mind people staring.  It was completely engrossing just on the merit of the characters, without a melodramatic plot or contrived love triangle.  But the most impressive thing by far is how well John Green seemingly captures the life of a terminally ill teen.  I say seemingly because I have not experienced it so I'm no expert, but it feels real and 100% true.  This isn't a pandering look at how sad terminally ill kids are, this is the sarcastic, charming and sometimes angsty view point of a teen who's been terminally ill for their entire teen experience, with all the requisite video games, American Next Top Model marathons and crushing breakups that normally come with the territory.

Augustus Waters drove horrifically.  Wheter stopping or starting, everything happened with a stupendous JOLT.  I flew against the seat belt of his Toyota SUV each time he braked, and my neck snapped backward each tie he hit the gas.  I might have been nervous- what with sitting in the car of a strange boy on the way to his house, keenly aware that my crap lungs complicate efforts to fend off unwanted advances- but his driving was so astonishingly poor that I could think of nothing else. 

We'd gone perhaps a mile in jagged silence before Augustus said, "I failed the driving test three tines." 

  "You don't say." 

He laughed, nodding.  "Well, I can't feel pressure in old Prosty, and I can't get the hang of driving left-footed.  My doctors say most amputees can drive with no problem, but...yeah.  Not me.  Anyway, I go in for my fourth driving test, and it goes about like this is going."  A half mile in front of us, a light turned red.  Augustus slammed on the brakes, tossing me into the triangular embrace of the seat belt.  "Sorry.  I swear to God I am trying to be gentle.  Right, so anyway, at the end of the test, I totally thought I'd failed again, but the instructor was like, 'Your driving is unpleasant, but it isn't technically unsafe."
  

"I'm not sure I agree," I said.  "I suspect Cancer Perk."

Green has managed to create some of the most enchanting characters I've ever spent time with.  Hazel and Augustus are incredible, I want to have children one day that are every bit as amusing and brilliant.  Even their names are perfect.  But Hazel's parents, and their friend in illness Isaac are equally amazing and wonderfully rounded.   Hazels mom broke my heart as she talks about what she'll do after Hazel's gone, and every time her dad cries I wanted to hug him.  They all stayed with me long after I finished reading and they've made me think a great deal about what stamp you leave on the world, whether it be during a short or a long life.

It was, without a doubt, the most affecting book I've read in a long time, it even surpasses A Monster Calls and that book made me bawl like a baby.  It's amazing how joyous a story he was able to tell with a story that's still so sad.  But I walked away with joy and hope, and very swollen eyes from crying.

Now I need to lay off the death books for awhile, obviously.

The Fault in Our Stars, By John Green
Published by Dutton Juvenile, January 2012
Buy The Fault in Our Stars on Amazon (as long as it's a first edition it should be signed)

Are you like me? Somehow completely ignorant of the John Green phenomena and want a quick run down of his career and where this book came from?  Try this awesome article in the Sydney Morning Herald.