So, I’ve actually gotten some reading done this week! Yay!

I had to read Shift, by Rachel Vincent, as soon as I had it in my hot little hands. All of it. That day. Another dose of non-stop action, romantic angst, and cool shapeshifters. I was a little anxious going into this book, considering what happened in the last book, but… Can I say that the thunderbirds are way cool? I’d love to see more of them. The baby thunderbirds made me laugh, bursting into feather at the slightest provocation.

The war between the prides is on the verge of blatant hostilities (a.k.a. all-out battle) when the mythical thunderbirds attack, and all sorts of havoc ensues. Like it’s not bad enough that Faythe is the first female enforcer AND heir to the pride, now she has to worry about who set the thunderbirds to attack her pride, not to mention how she’s going to stop them. And then there’s her other little problem: Marc or Jace? Jace or Marc? (Gee, we should ALL have such problems!) The last and final book in the Shifters series, Alpha, will be out October 1st.

I also read The Iron King, by Julie Kagawa. YA fantasy about the fey? I was all over that! Meghan Chase is a 15-year-old misfit with only one friend, Robbie. On her sixteenth birthday, her younger brother is kidnapped, and she discovers she’s really a half-faery princess and she has to venture into the Nevernever (Great name, isn’t it?), and risk herself and everything she holds dear, to rescue her brother, and the rest of Faery, from a deadly new evil. With the help of Robbie, who turns out to be her guardian, the faery prince Ash, and Grimalkin the cait sithe, she sets off on her journey, into the land of dreams–and nightmares.

This was a pretty good read. I enjoyed it a lot, and I’ll be picking up the next book in the series–The Iron Daughter–just as soon as it comes out.

I finally finished reading A Game of Thrones, by George R. R. Martin. If I had to sum it up in one word, that word would be “Wow.” It took me several weeks to read it. Not because it’s a BFF (big, fat, fantasy), which I love. And not because I didn’t enjoy it, either. No, it took me so long to read because I just didn’t have time to read! So far, that’s the only book I’ve read this month. Shocking, I know, but I’m hoping to remedy it soon.

This book has been on my TBR pile for a while (a LONG while, sadly), and I just hadn’t had time. But when Holly Lisle assigned it in the HTRYN class, I knew I had to make time. I’m glad I did. I’ve seen this book mentioned in several places as an example of how to do wonderful things with characters. I’ll be honest. I was so into the book, I’m not sure I retained anything of a How-To nature. Several nights, I was up WAY too late saying “Okay, one more chapter. One more chapter. One more…”

Some of the characters I loved(Bran, Arya, Jon, Tyrion, Dany, Khal), some of them I hated (the queen, Joffrey, Viserys, Petyr). I wanted to shake Sansa frequently. But I’m pretty sure every character drew SOME sort of respone from me, and most of them were strong responses. So, yeah, wow. If you haven’t read this, you should. Even if you don’t like BFFs.

I finally got to read a book I’ve been waiting for for at least a couple of years: Committed, by Elizabeth Gilbert. It’s the follow-up to Eat, Pray, Love; which, if you haven’t read it, you SHOULD. It’s how she got through a horrible divorce and discovered just what matters to her in life while she healed from the experience. I loved that book. A lot. Read it twice in the same year, actually. It just made me feel so much better about certain things going on in my life. Ms. Gilbert put into words exactly how I felt at a couple of times, and sort of validated the whole experience for me. (And also, I was a little jealous of her packing up and traveling for a whole year. I’ve always longed to do that, but have been too chicken to actually consider it.)

So, anyway, Committed is the follow-up. It… wasn’t the same as Eat, Pray, Love, which was what I was hoping for. This time, Ms. Gilbert explores the history of marriage and different marriage customs around the world as she tries to come to terms with marriage after her bad first experience, in preparation for her… rather unplanned… second venture into wedded bliss.

However, it did make for some interesting reading. I enjoyed it, actually, and it’s probably something I needed to read, to maybe help me over some of my own skepticism concerning marriage (My divorce was nowhere near as bad as hers, but I still have issues, okay?). A worthwhile book, as long as you don’t go into it expecting it to be a repeat of Eat, Pray, Love.

Okay, so about a year and a half ago, at the Conestoga writers’ conference, I sat in on a panel with Rachel Vincent and her agent, Miriam Kriss. Rachel mentioned she was writing a book about a girl who finds out she’s a banshee. I thought Wow. What a cool idea. I HAVE to read that. So, when the first one, My Soul To Take, came out, I was all over it. Now, I love the Shifters books. A LOT. (Although I was not so happy with a couple of things that happened in the last one. I do have faith though, and am eagerly awaiting the next one in March.) I think Ms. Vincent is a talented writer, and she tells a dang good story, so her YA story about banshees was kind of a must-read for me.

If you haven’t read My Soul to Take, you should. Seriously. Teenager Kaylee thinks she’s going crazy when she starts having an uncontrollable urge to scream, and people drop dead around her. The second book, My Soul to Save, has Kaylee trying to figure out why teenage pop stars die in front of her, and she has no desire to wail. This means the dead girls don’t have a soul, and of course, Kaylee is determined to find out why these girls are trading their souls, which involves sneaking around and trips to the dangerous Netherworld.

There’s a lot of the typical teen angst in the books (Apparently, banshees aren’t exempt from this.), overbearing parents, and school drama. But Ms. Vincent captures these things so well you really feel like you’re the one going through it all. Since a lot of my writing is YA, I’m truly amazed by this (and hopeful that one day I might manage to capture some small part of it in my own work). If you like fast-paced YA books set in a truly original world (Or, in this case, the DFW area, which made me a tiny bit homesick.), you should definitely read both of these books.