Posts Tagged 'destiny'

Parallel by Lauren Miller

Published January 4, 2017 Realistic Fiction , Romance Leave a Comment
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parallel

Genre:  Realistic Fiction/Romance

# of Pages:  423

Abby Barnes wakes up one day to find that everything she thought was true about the last year of her life had been changed dramatically.  Instead of taking a drama class and eventually earning a role in a movie, she ended up taking an astronomy class and ended up attending Yale.  Her relationships with her best friend and two possible boyfriends were also affected with this switch.  Her best friend, who’s also a science genius, traces the change to the day that a major worldwide earthquake occurred and believes her life has been blurred with that of a parallel life.  Abby struggles to learn what that in fact means and if this disturbance  can keep affecting her life.  Every morning she wakes up to assess if her parallel has done anything to change her current present.   Meanwhile, she tries to keep her “double life” a secret so that no one knows just how crazy she believes she is.  Will this ever get fixed or will she be doomed to live this challenging life forever?

The idea of parallel lives is complicated and challenging, but Lauren Miller writes the story in a way that is absolutely understandable and even intriguing without being confusing.  There are many characters and while some feature more heavily than others they all impact Abby’s overall story.  The story gains momentum near the end and readers will want to see what ultimately happens to Abby and if she ever gains control of her life back.

Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier

Published March 25, 2013 Fantasy , RAC , Romance Leave a Comment
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ruby red

Genre:  Fantasy

# of Pages:  322

RAC Book:  Yes

Gwyneth lives in a large house with her extended family who are anxiously awaiting the first time travel episode by her cousin, Charlotte.  Their family has a long history of time traveling and it was predicted that Charlotte would be the next in the line so she has spent much of her childhood getting prepared.  Gwyneth is therefore very surprised when she is transported into an unknown time period instead.  This causes quite a bit of turmoil in the household as they scramble to help Gwyneth in her new mission and understand how the mistake came to be.  With each time travel, Gwyneth comes to find more questions than answers about the true mission of her and her cousin, Gideon, who is also a time traveler.  Whom should they trust?  Who wants to help them and who is merely selfishly using them for their own personal gain?

This book has been on my “to read” list for awhile and I wish I would have read it sooner.  It was exciting, charming, mysterious, and entertaining.  Despite having quite a few characters they are all easily identified due to their detailed characterization.  The mystery behind the mission is somewhat discussed, but it’s obvious there is much more for Gwyneth to learn.  Fans of romantic fantasy will absolutely love this and move on to the sequel quickly.

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

Published July 8, 2008 Fantasy , RAC Leave a Comment
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Genre: Fantasy

Age Level: 14 and up

# of Pages: 328 p.

RAC Book: Yes

Aislinn has a secret that only her grandmother knows and that is that she is able to see faeries. All of the women in her family have always been able to do this and so Aislinn was trained at a young age to pretend like she cannot see them, because if the faeires know they are seen they will torment the human who has that gift. Unfortunately, one day Aislinn notices that two faeries keep following her and becomes alarmed enough to tell her best friend, Seth. Seth tries to help her figure out what the faeries want and how to get them to leave, but of course the problem is much more complicated than they anticipate.

Keenan is the Summer King, but his power has been bound for many, many years. Unless he can fulfill his mission and find the girl destined to rule alongside him he will never get his power back and catastrophic things will happen to everyone in the world, faeries and mortals alike. Standing in his way,is his mother, Beira, who is the Winter Queen. She is a cunning and deceitful villain who will stop at nothing to win.

Fans of any fantasy series such as Twilight will enjoy this book. The plot is unique and original and contains a lot of mystery, action, and adventure. There are many rules in place that the characters have to abide by in order to win, which makes the plot complicated and unpredictable. So far it has already caught the attention of many students and I think will continue to pull in readers as word spreads. A must read for fantasy lovers.

Firestorm by David Klass

Published May 22, 2008 Adventure , Award Winners , Fantasy , RAC 12 Comments
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Genre: Fantasy

Age Level: 14 and up

# of Pages: 289 p.

RAC Book: Yes

2008 Iowa Teen Award Winner

Jack lives with his parents in a normal town, where he excels in football and other sports as well as academics. For Jack life comes pretty easy, which is why he can never understand why his parents never want him to shine like he knows he can. They are always encouraging him to let others win and try to blend in more. One night after a particularly great football performance, he notices a strange man following him. When he tells his parents his dad immediately takes him as far away as he can while explaining that they are not his real parents. He does not tell him why they have lied to him all these years or who his real parents are before they are ambushed and Jack is forced to flee for his life.

As Jack tries to figure out why he is special and what his task is, he comes across many different types of characters. Some are more helpful than others at helping him find his destiny. He soon learns that he was sent back from the future in order to stop the world from making terrible environmental mistakes that humans will pay for dearly in the future. Those who come to help him tell him he must find the firestorm in order to preserve the earth from the evils of humans, but he has no idea what firestorm is and no matter how hard he tries there is always someone trying to hurt him.

The idea of a young man being chosen for something great without him knowing it has been used many times in young adult books, but the idea of Jack having to save the world from humans destroying it through different types of pollution is a new twist. Obviously, it’s hard to understand how he can possibly save the world from all humans, but it is obvious that this is one of a trilogy so he will have many battles to fight in order to save the earth. There is a lot of action and fighting sequences that fans of action movies will enjoy. Most of the story is well-described, but the ending happens pretty fast so readers will have to read very closely in order to find out how everything is resolved for the time being. The ending is a little unsatisfying, but part of that is probably due to the fact that there are two more in the series.

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