Violet is your everyday teenager. She is insecure with her body and unsure of the person she is. But all that changes when she is “discovered” working at the local movie theater. Angela her modeling agent is sure Violet is the next big thing!

Modeling comes easily for Violet, she simply can’t help being herself, and the designers love it. The other models however don’t particularly like being shown up by a newbie. When Violet takes the big step and moves to New York, she finds out modeling is more that walking around with pretty clothes. Violet tries to resist being swallowed whole by this new world, but in response she has turned into someone else. Will the new Violet win out, or will the old shine through?

When I started reading Violet on the Runway, I was hesitant. I didn’t want another one of those books where the girl goes from zero to IT and all her dreams come true. I was for certain I had the storyline pegged, and I wasn’t thrilled. Luckily for me I kept reading, because I didn’t have this story pegged after all! Sure Violet gets the modeling gig, but it isn’t a walk in the park. I know how she felt in the beginning, when she had to have people like her, because I was the same way. I was so happy to see her grow! She did make me mad when she ditched her true friends, but she made it up to them in the end. I actually enjoyed reading this book and I am totally looking forward to reading Violet by Design. I just hope I see some more Violet and Roger action!

Add Violet on the Runway to your book pool!

Ironside is the third novel of A Modern Faery’s Tale. It had been a faerly fairly long amount of time between reading the first two books, but I didn’t have a problem picking up where everything left off. It even helped me understand why Valiant was in the middle of these two books!

Kaye is unsure where she belongs in the world. She doesn’t know anything about the world she belongs to as a faery, yet she can’t get comfortable in the human world, even though she was raised there, because she isn’t human. Feeling sorry for herself she lets herself become drunk on faery wine at her boyfriend’s, Roiben’s, coronation. Since she is feeling so good she lets Roiben know how she really feels. In her deceleration Roiben sends her on a quest to prove her love, but the quest he requests is impossible to attain. (the quest he requests, say that five times fast) Kaye has to find a faery that can lie.

In the midst of it all Kaye tells her mother, the truth, that she is a faery, and of course that doesn’t go over well. Then there is the whole thing about the two faery courts being at war to deal with, Oh! And Kaye can’t see Roiben again until she has conquered her little quest. With the help of her friend Corny and a reappearance of Luis from Valiant, Kaye must detangle herself from the Seelie Queens web, and save herself and Roiben.

Whew! This is my favorite book of the three. Tithe was the first faery novel I read, well dark faery novel, so I had to figure out some of the faery terminology, like the whole glamour thing. Then being one of those people that love the likes of Meg Cabot and Sarah Dessen’s wholesome, leading ladies, I wasn’t used to seeing young characters drinking, doing drugs, just being so unwholesome! I mean whoa! But then that is what made these novels so cool and different and refreshing! I love the darkness and the edginess! I’m totally faery-punkified!

Add Ironside to your book pool!

Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder

I finally got my hands on a copy of this book! I’ve heard so many good things about it, I couldn’t wait to read it for myself. I was a little worried about how it would work out telling a story in verse, but I loved it! Even without using a lot of words you were still able to feel the intense emotions Ave was having.

If you haven’t heard what this story is about yet, I’ll give you a brief overview. The story starts as Jackson’s funeral. Jackson was is Ava’s boyfriend. Throughout the story Ava is dealing with the loss, and she isn’t dealing with it well. Then she feels his presence and realizes he hasn’t left her at all. But when she is finally starting to move on with her life, she can’t help but feel guilty knowing that Jackson is still with her.

If you haven’t read this book yet, I recommend that you get a copy. It is a quick read, but the story is intense. I was hooked from the first line.

Add I Heart You, You Haunt Me to your book pool!

In the first Midnighters book, Jessica, along with the reader, was just discovering Midnight and her own special Midnight talent. In the second book, Jessica has come into her own. She is comfortable and confident in Midnight and in her relationship with Jonathon. This makes the second Midnighters book even more captivating than the first.

Jessica might feel safe at the start of this book, but it doesn’t last long. With the appearance of a human stalker, Jessica finds herself and her friends in danger by the end of the first chapter. The action keeps going from there. The introduction of human danger as well as darkling danger is an interesting twist that keeps the reader guessing.

Jessica and her friends make some interesting discoveries that are both enlightening and mystifying. They realize there is still a lot about midnight they don’t know, leaving the reader ready to continue on to the third book in the series to find out more.

Touching Darkness was fast moving and action packed with enough mystery to keep it intriguing. Scott Westerfeld knows how to write a finely crafted science-fiction novel, and his Midnighters series doesn’t disappoint.

Rent Touching Darkness at BookSwim.

This was my first experience with W. Somerset Maugham and I can definitely say I will add more of his books to my rental pool. I was enthralled with “The Painted Veil” from the moment I picked it up. I chose it because I was interested in seeing the 2006 movie of the same name and I really like to read the book before seeing the movie. (Or Boovie as Steve Leveen, CEO of Levenger likes to call them.)

The preface was especially insightful as it opened your eyes to what was going on in Maugham’s head as he developed this story. We learn that the inspiration for “The Painted Veil” came from a line of Dante. The preface also gave an interesting history of the serialized magazine publication for the novel.
The story centers around Kitty Fane and her husband Walter. Walter is a biologist in the Foreign Service for Great Britain pre-WW2. Kitty has followed Walter to Hong Kong and has embarked on an adulterous affair to assuage her boredom. Kitty married Walter in a fit of rage when her younger sister became engaged. She has led a very shallow life up until this point of which the main goal was to marry up and achieve a higher social status.
When Walter discovered her affair, he reacts very unpredictably. He brings (forces) Kitty along on an expedition into Central China to study a cholera epidemic. Kitty’s despair at being dragged away from her love affair combined with a healthy fear of cholera begin her rising self-awareness regarding her marriage and the value of her life up until this point.
This story is essentially about Kitty’s awakening and her true growth into adulthood. Maugham’s tense language and short chapters lead you quickly through the story. But no matter how quickly you can read the story, you should slow down and actually listen to the story. In “The Painted Veil”, sometimes it’s what isn’t written but what’s left unwritten that has the most impact.

Rent “The Painted Veil” at BookSwim

The graduate students at New York College are striking, the trash cans are overflowing and Heather Wells’ new boss has just been murdered. The only good thing is that the cafeteria workers are part of a different union, so the caf will remain open… oh, and that little thing of Tad popping THE question.

The third book in the Heather Wells mysteries falls right in line with the first two… excellent. The first two books are must reads and will lead you up to this moment nicely. Heather Wells is the pop princess who, after her mom ran away with all her money, is now living with her ex-boyfriend’s brother, working for next-to-nothing at the “Death Dorm” and trying to get her undergraduate degree. As usual, the police are not heading in the right direction to find Dr. Veatch’s murder, so Heather must step in and pick up the pieces, solve the mystery and almost get killed in the process. Heather spends most the time trying to figure out how she will answer Tad’s question and avoiding him until she decides what the answer should be. In the end, the big question is who pops THE big question. Will Heather end up with Tad, her cute, vegetarian, exercise obsessed remedial math prof, Jordan her ex-boyfriend, married, father-to-be, or Cooper her PI landlord? The excitement is killing me!

Meg Cabot is awesome, bringing back all the characters we have loved from the first two Heather Wells novels. I was hoping that the Heather Wells mysteries were going to be a multi-book series, but with Big Boned, it seems that it will only be a trilogy. At the end of this novel Heather does agree to marry one of the men in her life, so, no matter who she chooses, the sexual tension is gone. We will have to wait until the next installment (if there will be one), to see if Heather choosing a suitor will cause the series to jump the shark.

Heather is a great role model, showing that even if you once had it all, you can live a down to earth life, where you work for your rent and have a real job. Maybe, Brittany Spears should read this book to see how a washed up pop princess should run her life. It’s also good to see that those of us who were once a size 6 can grow to a size 12 and still have a meaningful, fulfilling life, with friends and love. Lots of women will relate to Heather’s constant struggle between losing weight and giving up the food she loves.

A wonderfully entertaining book, combining the three things I love: murder, humor and little romance.

Rent Big Boned at BookSwim