Book Banter -- The Enforcers

Title: The Enforcers (ARC)
Author: Joshua Grover David Patterson
Genre: urban fantasy
Length: ~300 pages (ebook ARC)
Where Word Nerd's Copy came from: @Groverdavid (AKA, the author)
Plot Basics: Spoiler Alerts...



Still newly-minted vampire Lucy Leary and her scooby gang (Emma, Wash, Charisma and Alex) are on the run from the Enforcers, the self-policing vampire hit squad. They've successful taken down two vampire baddies, but in this age of the Internet, their escapades are all over YouTube. Of course, the existence of vampires is a secret, and David, the head of the Enforcers, is determined to keep it that way. Lucy continues to wrestle with her new undead identity and how to protect her family. She's got a radical and dangerous idea, but if one domino in a chain of events falls wrong, it could spell her permanent death

Banter Points: This is the final book in Patterson's YA vampire trilogy (Blood Calling, The Misfits, The Enforcers) and it's a fairly satisfying conclusion to what he's set up throughout the books. The story arcs get bigger every time (personal problem, group problem, national problem) which provide nice rising action to make each book build in the series.

Bummer Points: The best book in the group is Blood Calling, but that doesn't mean it's not worth reading this one. The action is great in this one, but I was bummed to see that it didn't push the characters as far as they could have gone personally.

Word Nerd Recommendation: The trilogy is a nice and different entry into the vampire genre. Check out my review of Blood Calling to see why you should pick it up and why it's not the kind of vampire story you expect.

Book Banter: Dreamfever

Title: Dream fever
Author: Karen Moning
Genre: Fantasty
Length: 512 pages
Where Stacie's Copy Came From: Oshkosh Public Library

Plot Basics: Mac has become what every sidhe-seer fears: pri-ya. Forced into sexual relations with Fae Princes should be enough to kill her. Only Mac survives, with help from Barrons.

Finding and containing the Book continues to be the focus and the obstacles and stakes are higher than ever.

Banter Points: I love how Moning puts her characters through the ringer. She really makes them work for every bit of what they do, what they earn, and what they achieve.

There's a side character in this installation in the series that I love. Dani is a feisty teen who is the sister that Mac wishes she had, that she wishes she could have had.

At the end, there's a massive cliff hanger. One that makes me thankful that the series is complete and I didn't have to wait the 18 or so months inbetween this title and the next!

Bummer Points: This is the second to the last story in the series. As great as it is to see the complexity, I know it's going to end with the next title. And this one went way too fast.

Stacie's Recommendation: Start with the first book, Dark Fever. Leave yourself plenty of time to devour the series quickly.

Book Banter: Shades of Milk and Honey

Title: Shades of Milk and Honey
Author: Mary Robinette Kowal
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 320
Where Stacie's Copy Came From: Oshkosh Public Library

Plot Basics: Jane and Melody are young ladies from a distinguished family without a fortune to attract a suitor. Instead they must rely on their best features; for Melody it is her looks, for Jane, her skills with magic.

Banter Points: The intro sounded like it could have been for a Jane Austen novel until the magic part. The charm of this story is how magic used as a household art. Like an Austen story, the characters are delightful in their own way. Jane is plain, and frets over her nose, but is determined that a suitor should be true and accept her for who she is. Melody is obessessed with looks, and reminds me of one of Austen's flighty characters.

The novel captures the world of Austen well.

Bummer Points: The novel captures the world of Austen well enough.

The characters are very reminiscent of several of Austen's, with minimal originality. The execution was good until the end of the novel when several story lines are dropped instead of answered.

I liked the idea of the novel very much. The closely modeled characters would have been delightful if the execution had carries through the second half of the novel as well as it did in the first.

Instead it felt hurried.

Stacie's Recommendation: Skip it. There's a sequel that I have trouble seeing how it fits in. Maybe start there? It could be a better book.

Book Banter -- Blood on the Bayou

Title: Blood on the Bayou (Annabelle Lee, bk. 2) (ARC)
Author: Stacey Jay
Genre: Urban fantasy
Length: 413 pages
Where Word Nerd's Copy Came From: ARC from Simon and Schuster
Plot Basics: Hard-drinking Annabelle Lee is barely recovered from her first big encounter with faeries and is called once again with her immunity to their venom and her magic to pursue truths she'd rather leave alone. This time, it's an ex-boyfriend doing the asking. Annabelle knows helping could bring relationship disasters -- especially when the gorgeous and sometimes-invisible-man Tucker keeps popping in and out of her life -- but friends are hard to turn down. But lies, she learns, can run far deeper than the swampy water of the delta...

Banter Points: Work recently sent me to the City by the Bay  for a conference and with a long plane ride ahead of me, I settled in with this ARC. I normally don't like jumping into a sequel, but the characters and the setting was so vivid that it didn't matter. While I missed some references, sure, the story of this book was intriguing on its own to keep me turning pages. Annabelle was a great new entry in the heavily populated world of urban fantasy heroines, her hard-drinking tendencies were a new twist on the girl-not-having-her-life-together trope.

And -- it was a new urban fantasy world! While others have done fairies (I'm thinking Laurell Hamilton's Merry Gentry series here) they were again, the objects of the romance, a human equivalent. But Jay's fairies are scary, swarming things that have had a real impact on the world since they appeared.

Bummer Points: At the beginning (or maybe from the first book), I missed character descriptions, so I spent a good deal of the book wondering what people looked like and then being surprised by the descriptions when they were finally referenced again.

Word Nerd Recommendation: I've gone back to find book 1 (Dead on the Delta) and I'm a fan of this urban fantasy series and pushing it on unsuspecting friends. You've been warned.

Bonus: Check back on Wednesday, when Stacey Jay will be "here" for a Q&A.

Book Banter: Afterlight

Title: Afterlife
Author: Elle Jasper
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 336
Where Stacie's Copy Came From: Oshkosh Public Library

Plot Basics: Riley used to be part of the party scene in Savannah. Now she is a successful business owner (Inksomnia) and raising her 15 year old brother, saving him from the life she once lived.

So far she had been successful at that too. Until a prank unleashing an evil that had been entombed by the very people that helped save Riley from her destructive path.

Banter Points: Combining goth and vampires is nothing new. However adding in some Gullah magic and the tattoo world adds some new twists. Riley is the take charge heroine who refuses to be a victim and doesn't let much of anything stop her.

And while she should be a cliche overwritten character, she isn't. I can't quite put my finger on what keeps her from being a cliche. Maybe it is her sassy conversation. Maybe it's her determination to not let anything get to her. Whatever it is, I liked it.

Bummer Points: At what point should Riley have questioned the whole idea of using vampires to keep her brother from becoming a vampire? True, she was trying to wrap her head around the idea that vampires exist. True, she was pretty focused on rescuing her brother, no matter what. But really, what happens to her at the end wasn't really a surprise (no, she doesn't become a vamp. That would be a little too obvious.)

Stacie's Recommendation: Definitely worth the time spent reading it. Book Two is on hold.

Book Banter -- Joe the Barbarian

Title: Joe the Barbarian
Author: Grant Morrison and Sean Murphy
Genre: graphic novel (deluxe edition)
Length: 246 pages
Where Word Nerd's Copy Came From: IMCPL
Plot Basics: Joe is a loner middle-school student, picked on at school, and always needing to keep a can of soda in reach to keep his hypoglycemia at bay. His father lost in the war, he and his mom are in danger of losing their house. One rainy afternoon, Joe's disease (or is it?) sends him on a wild quest in a magical land where he's lauded as the promised Dying Boy who will save them all.

Banter Points: I found this title through Wowbrary and it's one of the best finds I've had through that service. Combining amazing art and an equally amazing story, Joe the Barbarian is the kind of graphic novel for people who don't think they read "comic books." The idea that Joe's quest may really be low-blood-sugar hallucinations feels like an idea that could get old after a few pages, but Morrison and Murphy make it work for page after page, bringing the reader back to one "reality" and then sending them crashing back into another till it's unclear which is really true.

Bummer Points: The story actually smooths out after the first couple chapters, if you can hang on through some choppy character transitions at the beginning.

Word Nerd Recommendation: I had to quick read this before it was due at the library and then, as I was dropping it in the book drop, I thought Whoever gets this next is one lucky person. Read it.

Book Banter -- Saint City Sinners

Title: Saint City Sinners (Dante Valentine, bk. 4)
Author: Lilith Saintcrow
Genre: urban fantasy
Length: 362 pages
Where Word Nerd's Copy Came From: IMCPL e-book collection, Kindle version
Plot Basics: Dante Valentine is still on contract with Lucifer himself, but when her old Saint City friend Gabriele Spocarelli calls and is in trouble, Danny drops everything to help her. Only, she's too late, so sets herself on a course of investigation and vengeance for her lost friend. She pushes away Japhrimel -- her Fallen demon -- worried that he is not acting in the same interests she is regarding Lucifer's true plan. But what she finds in investigating for Gabe has the potential to change her whole world.

Banter Points: It's been a while since I read book 3 in this series, so it took me a while to get back into Dante's world. I love, love, love Saintcrow's world building, how Danny tosses around the new names for things and she never really stops to define them as a writer. It can be great fun as a reader to just have to learn the new lingo as you go and hang on and Saintcrow's pacing keeps the books moving like the slicboards Danny favors.

Bummer Points: Dante is rather whiny in this book. Several times (were she real and not infused with demon Power that could allow her to rip my arms off) I sort of wanted to slap her. Also, cliffhanger of the most serious kind.

Word Nerd Recommendation: It's a solid entry in the urban fantasy genre, but not a place where you can just enter into Saintcrow's world. Start at the beginning.

Book Banter: Fae Fever

Title: Fae Fever
Author: Karen Moning
Genre: Fantasy
Length: approx. 350
Where Stacie's Copy Came From: A friend's library

Plot Basics: Samhain is drawing near. Mac finally has figured out the motives of three of the parties involved in the search for the Book, including a sisterhood of sidhe-seers like herself. Now, she needs to figure out how to help keep the Unseelie behind the Wall that is crumbling.

Banter Points: The sakes are rising. Mac is growing up and away from the naive southern bell she started as. I really like how she even starts to stand up for herself in this one, refusing to let Barrons be her only allegiance. She develops some other plans and plots, which raises her in my esteem and into the category of kicking ass heroines.

Bummer Points: None really. Completely enjoying this series. And I cannot wait to see the MacHalo in use against the Shades.

Stacie's Recommendation: In case you haven't figured it out, start reading this one!

Book Banter -- One Shot

Title: One Shot (Jack Reacher series)
Author: Lee Child
Genre: thriller
Length: 462 pages
Where Word Nerd's Copy Came From: IMCPL Friends of the Library book sale
Plot Basics: In a small Indiana town, six shots ring out at the end of the work day, killing five passersby. The prime suspect -- an ex-Army sniper -- seems to have a slam-dunk case against him, all the forensic evidence the prosecutor could want pointing at him. But in his only jailhouse interview with a lawyer, he insists he's innocent and to find Jack Reacher.

Hundreds of miles away, Reacher sees the news and the suspect on TV and begins independently making his way to Indiana. When he arrives, he's convinced the evidence is too perfect, and believes that the former sniper may indeed be telling the truth. Teamed up with a young defense attorney and a Brigadier General from his past, Reacher begins pulling the threads of evidence apart and following them into corruption.

Banter Points: This Reacher book was about the only redeeming part of a recent flight home from a work trip (save for the fact that eventually, I did get home) but it's just proof as to why Reacher books are such great reading. Despite being stuck in airports, the story line was captivating enough to help pass the time and make it actually entertaining.

The Reacher series is flat-out fun, a taut combination of brains and brawn. It's great to know that Reacher will figure out who did it and then hang on through the generally violent end.

Bummer Points: I'm trying not to take it personally that Child set this murderous rampage in my state. I'm sure other readers in other places would have had the same thought if he'd set the violence there. Truth is, he kind of got Indiana right.

Word Nerd Recommendation: Great beach reads, airplane books, wherever you want pure escapist reading. And, supposedly there's a movie in the works for this book -- do yourself a favor and get to know Reacher on paper first.

Book Banter: Blood Fever

Title: Blood Fever
Author: Karen Moning
Genre: Fantasy
Length: approx. 350
Where Stacie's Copy Came From: A friend's library

Plot Basics: Mac was thrust into a war between Dark and Light. The Lord Master knows she exists and has the same sidhe-seer powers as her deceased sister Alina. Now Mac wants to learn more about her bloodlines. Her life, and that of humankind, depends on it.

Banter Points: I really am getting a kick out if this series. It has a great balance between light and dark, between Seelie and Unseelie. The good guys cannot always be distinguished from the bad guys. The tensions between Mac and Jericho Z. Barrons (or at least that's his name this time) are more than the sexual tensions typically found in novels. Mac knows that there is a very real possibility that Barrons is one of the bad guys. But he is a connection to her sister's killer. Barrons views Mac as a means to finding the Fae Objects of Power, specifically the Book known as the Sinsar Dubh.

And Mac has to wonder which side she is on.

Bummer Points: The story speed picks up in this book. The writing is good. The one thing that is distracting me from the story and throwing me out of it are the out of date references. Not a big thing, but it can be jarring. And since the rest of the story is somewhat timeless, it makes me wish the editors had thought of it. The story is dependent on the setting; I cannot imagine it taking place anywhere other than Dublin. The rest of it is not dependent on a specific time.

Stacie's Recommendation: Definitely an entertaining story and while turning off the television for.

Book Banter -- Queen of Swords

Title: Queen of Swords (Wilderness series bk. 5)
Author: Sara Donati
Length: 546 pages (ebook version)
Genre: historical fiction
Plot Basics: The adventures of the the Bonner family continue, picking up right where Fire Along the Sky ended. Hannah Bonner and her half-brother, Luke Scott, are pursuit of Jennet who has been captured by pirates. In a desperate trade, Jennet has given her and Luke's new baby boy to a seemingly-prominent New Orleans family to care for, hoping it will keep the boy safe. Reunited with Luke and Hannah after a rescue attempt, the three go to New Orleans to get the boy back. But, the city is on the cusp of war and racial tensions also run high. It will take all the cunning the family and their allies posses to keep together, stay safe and hope of returning to their beloved New York Lake in the Clouds home.

Banter Points: Finishing this series is one of my reading goals for the year and I decided to get with it right away. The book, like the others in the series, is sweeping in scope, bringing life to what could otherwise be a dusty history lesson about the War of 1812. Coming back to the characters is a bit like seeing distant family, people you are glad to reconnect with once a year or so and everybody's got great stories to tell of everything that's happened in the interim.

Bummer Points: Several times in the narrative, Donati broke away from the main characters and wrote whole chapters in italics from the points of view of minor characters or people who can witness the action when the protagonists couldn't. While once might have been effective, the multiple uses of this device just felt cheap and like the author got stuck in how to move the plot forward any other way. The whole book seemed to be a lot more "showing" instead of "telling." I don't think I envy historical authors, because this has to be a hard pitfall to overcome when there's so much about the activities and actions that are foreign to modern readers.

Word Nerd Recommendation: I still like the series and fans of big history series books should pick this up. It's also nice to see the setting in a different period (not Revolutionary or Civil Wars.)

Book Banter: Dark Fever

Title: Dark Fever
Author: Karen Moning
Genre: Fantasy
Length: approx. 350
Where Stacie's Copy Came From: A friend's library

Plot Basics: Fun, pretty, MacKalya has life brutally thrust upon her when her sister, Alina, is murdered while study in Dublin. Alina's final message reveals that her death is more than what the Garda believes it to be. Mac is determined to figure out what the cyrptic message means and heads to Ireland to investigate.

Banter Points: I actually picked up this title several years ago when it was first released in paperback. I thought it was weird and didn't finish it. Fast forward to 2012 (and several fantasy novels later) and I really liked it. It does require some knowledge of fantasy, even though Mac does not actually have any either. For example, one of the Fae she meets during the course of her investigation is gorgeous and the sort of Fae that a woman will die to have sex with. Literally die. In most novels with Fae, this is a normal convention and part of their story. To someone who hadn't read any Fae based novels, it seemed weird.

Amazing how knowledge changes perception.

Bummer Points: The story is a little slow and has a cliff-hanger ending. Thankfully, the series is complete and I have novel number two in my possession.

Stacie's Recommendation: Try it out. It reminds me of Laura K. Hamilton's series Merry Gentry Series.

Book Banter -- A Visit From the Goon Squad

Title: A Visit from the Goon Squad
Author: Jennifer Egan
Length: 275 pages
Genre: literary fiction
Plot Basics: Egan takes the reader on a journey through time in this collection of loosely-associated chapters, rife with music and the forward progression of time.
Banter Points: Reading this knocks off one of my "important" books for 2012 since it won the Pulitzer Prize.

The best part of the book, which I was expecting to be highly pretentiousness, was the section written as a PowerPoint presentation. While ostentatious, to be sure, the content was some of the most poignant in the book, as a young girl tried to use the medium to order her feelings and her world. 

Bummer Points: This book was more a collection of somewhat interwoven short stories than a real novel and as such, left the reader with no character to really care about. The plot -- while all dealing with the passage of time -- were disparate and hard to get excited about. The characters were often over-the-top and inaccessible to me as a reader, as very little in my life related to theirs.

Word Nerd Recommendation: It seems like this is one of those books that people either love or really disliked. Unfortunately, I'm in the latter category and just don't get why it won a Pulitzer. Read at your own risk.

Book Banter -- The Drop

Title: The Drop (Harry Bosch #17)
Author: Michael Connelly
Length: 388 pages
Genre: mystery
Plot Basics: LAPD Detective Harry Bosch is back working in the Open-Unsolved Unit when a case gets a hit on old DNA. The problem is, while the DNA belongs to a sexual predator, he would have been a child when the crime happens. Meanwhile, Bosch is also assigned to investigate the apparent suicide of Councilman Irvin Irving's son, even though Irving and Bosch are old rivals. Both cases have the potential to be laden with political ramifications. As Bosch works to close them both, he wrestles with how much longer he can keep doing this job.

Banter Points: The latest addition to the Harry Bosch series just continues to prove what a master at this genre Michael Connelly is. Weaving two disparate crimes throughout the story, Harry's tense relationship with his newest partner and his own decisions about if and when to retire from the department, keeps the police procedural format fresh and engaging. When I heard Connelly speak at the 2009 Bouchercon, he mentioned the fact that at some point, Bosch may be too old for the job and it's interesting to see how he's setting up a possible end to the series and having Harry deal with his age.

Bummer Points: I was really hoping that this book would pick up more of the crime that seemingly went unsolved at the end of The Reversal, but it wasn't really that.

Word Nerd Recommendation: For the umpteenth time, even if you think you don't like mysteries, the Harry Bosch series is a great read. Take the time, go back to the beginning of the series and read your whole way through. It's a terrific journey with an iconic character.

Book Banter -- Circle of Enemies

Title: Circle of Enemies (Twenty Palaces bk. 3)
Author: Harry Connolly
Length: ~350 pages
Genre: urban fantasy
Plot Basics: Car thief turned Twenty Palaces Society henchman Ray Lilly gets a visit from one of his old crew, telling him he is responsible for her death. He goes back to his old world -- trying to figure out what's going on and trying, in a way, to escape what he's done with the Society in Washaway and the auction in the Cascades. All of his old gang seems to have become entangled with sorcery and predators and Ray must hunt them down along with a potential copy of one of the's Society's original and thought-to-be-lost spell books before the gang unleashes magical terror on the world.

Banter Points: This book was fantastic, explaining lots about Ray, the society, how magic works. It was great to see how much Ray has been changed as a character. Even though we aren't familiar with his life before becoming part of the Twenty Palace Society (on a very, very low rung), putting him back in that setting helped show how he truly is different.

Bummer Points: So, in case you haven't read my other posts on this series, the publishers yanked it and so there are no more. Ok, not entirely true, there's an ebook prequel that fills in the backstory now available through Harry Connolly's website. Still, a huge bummer that the series isn't progressing. As another friend said, "This is why we can't have nice things" because they get taken away.

Word Nerd Recommendation: Even knowing the series goes no further as I did when I started in on it, anybody who likes fantasy like the Dresden Files should read these. The publishers got this one all wrong. This Connolly one Best Discovered Author for me from the Word Nerds this year, the series is that good. Check it out.

Book Banter -- Zone One

Title: Zone One
Author: Colson Whitehead
Length: ~250 pages
Genre: literary/zombie apocalypse
Plot Basics: Much of the world's population is dead in a zombie apocalypse and the survivors are engaged in the grisly task of taking back civilization. One survivor -- named Mark Spitz after the Olympic swimmer -- is part of one of the teams clearing Zone One, an eerily empty New York City. As Mark Spitz and his team look for skels, the hardier zombies not cleared out in the initial sweep of the city, his story ranges back to his childhood, his time spent running for the zombies in the initial outbreak and his wrestling with PASD (Post-apocalyptics stress disorder).

Banter Points: I was intrigued by the idea of a literary zombie novel, and that's exactly what this book is. Zone One still delivers the guts and gunfire you would expect in a zombie-pocalypse novel, but with the deft and dashing prose of a literary novel. Whitehead ranges through the books true themes of loneliness and loss and mediocrity while forcing his protagonist into a pop culture setting.

Bummer Points: This book is wordy. It's not all that long, but you can't just read the sentences to understand what's going on. You have to read the sentences and digest them and chew on the symbolism and the narrative. In places, it feels like the action completely dies down and there's little propelling the reader forward (except, in my case, the OCD need to finish just about every book I start). There were also some weird real life things about loss going on for me while I read, making the book harder.

Word Nerd Recommendation: Only serious readers and serious zombies fans need apply themselves to this book. It really is a great read, but for the average zombie fan, this book isn't accessible. Whether or not it shows up in my top ten for the year is still undecided.

Book Banter -- The Surgeon

Title: The Surgeon (Rizzoli & Isles no. 1)
Author: Tess Gerritsen
Length: 400 pages
Genre: thriller
Where Word Nerd's Copy Came From: Indianapolis Marion County Public Library
Plot Basics: Women in Boston are becoming victims of a terrible serial killer, one who works with medical precision to torture and then kill his victims. Detectives Jane Rizzoli and her partner Thomas Moore work the case, finding one woman in Boston who knows exactly how this killer operates -- because years earlier she escaped his clutches. As the killer closes in on his one missing victim, Rizzoli and Moore must fight against the department and against cop stereotypes to catch this brutal killer.

Banter Points: The Rizzoli and Isles series won out in my poll of what series to read with a female sleuth protagonist. While Isles isn't in this book, I think the series feels like it has some potential. During this book, I really liked Rizzoli's partner, Moore. It was a great thriller novel that kept me turning pages.

Bummer Points: As far as series investment, I'm still very undecided. I'm going to stick with it through at least the next two titles (The Apprentice  and The Sinner) so I can meet Isles and put them together in a book. When I started the Harry Bosch books, I was pretty sold on the series after the first book. Looking for a new series after that one, I'm not sure R&I will be the answer. But... stay tuned.

Word Nerd Recommendation: Undecided. If I wasn't looking for a series I could sink in to, I think I'd give this a pretty good thumbs-up as a thriller novel. Since I'm looking for something with longevity, I can't say for sure yet.

Book Banter: Y The Last Man (vol. 1 & 2)

Title: Y The Last Man (Vols. 1 & 2)
Author: Brian Vaughn et al.
Length: approx. 120 pages each
Genre: graphic novel
Plot Basics: A mysterious virus kills every male on the planet -- human and animal -- except two: Yorick Brown and his pet monkey, Ampersand. Civilization is crumbling and all Yorick wants is to somehow make his way to Australia where his girlfriend Beth is on the verge of accepting his proposal of marriage. But others -- including Yorick's Congresswoman mom -- have other plans for the last man. Top of the list is setting out to find a leading genetic/cloning scientist to see why Yorick survived. But getting there, around the motorcycle-gang women the Amazons, and others just curious about Yorick's existence won't be easy.

Banter Points: Got a recommendation for these through a post a few weeks ago on webcomics, I believe and have thoroughly enjoyed the first two in the series. The world is complex, but the characters stand out as well. Early on, they are all forced to make moral decisions about their roles in this new world which is nice instead of it being one giant string of action sequences.

Bummer Points: My only real bummer right now is a spoiler, so I can't tell you, other than that a plot twist makes me wonder about the title.

Word Nerd Recommendation: Highly recommend this for people who like graphic novels and this could also be an easy entry point for those who haven't read any graphic novels but think they might like to try them out.

Book Banter: The Royal Treatment

Title: The Royal Treatment
Author: MaryJanice Davidson
Genre: Romance, ChickLit
Length: 256 pages
Where Stacie's Copy Came From: Oshkosh Public Library
Plot Basics: In a world where the US decided not to purchase Alaska, it became it's own country after a civil war with Russia. Fast forward to the 2080s and the Royal Family needs a queen. Through an odd set of circumstances, Christina Krabbe (the e is silent and don't you forget it) becomes the queen. Mostly.

Banter Points: This was a really fun, fast book to read, and just what I needed after four solid weeks of homework. It's cute, full of sex, and has a murder plot.

Bummer Points: The language. I'm willing to bet that if all of the f-bombs were cut out, it would be at least five pages shorter. I am by no means a prude, and have been known to use the f-bomb here and there, but it was a bit over the top and didn't always add to the plot. It would have been better to show the rough edges through alternate means instead of relying on one trite technique.

Stacie's Recommendation: Check it out, but don't plan to take it seriously.

Book Banter -- Before I Fall

Title: Before I Fall
Author: Lauren Oliver
Genre: YA
Length: 470 pages
Where Word Nerd's Copy Came From: Planned Television Arts
Plot Basics: High school senior Samantha Kingston seems to have it all -- popularity, good looks, a great group of friends, a hot boyfriend. But her life changes when she dies on Friday, February 12th coming home from a party. She awakes the next morning, living the day over a number of times and coming to terms with her actions and how the choices she makes affects the people around her.

Banter Points: This book completely surprised me and I'm happy to give it a big thumbs up now because of it. At the beginning of the story, Sam and her friends are horrible people and as the reader, I really hated them. They epitomize mean girls and the agonizing culture of putting others down and just general reckless behavior. But, as the story progressed, I really found myself rooting for Sam and her efforts to put things to rights, restore relationships with those she hurt, and try to make sense of what kept happening to her. By the end, I nearly made myself late to an early morning meeting to spend a few more minutes reading to finish the book before work.

Bummer Points: I firmly believe in ending stories at the right point and Oliver did that, but I would have happily read another 300 pages to get to know Sam better.

Word Nerd Recommendation: If you've got teens interested in things like Gossip Girl (sheesh, is that even popular anymore?), pluck those out of their hands and put "Before I Fall" in its place for better writing and better outcomes and better (eventually) role models of how we want to girls to act.