14/40: Underworld by Meg Cabot
Rating: 5/5
Note: This is an abridged version of a lengthier review which can be found here (warning: mild spoilers)
As much as I loved Abandon when I first read it, Underworld blew the first book out of the water. Part of this was because the narrative was much clearer. Anyone reading Abandon for the first time probably felt pretty confused for the majority of the book, because the narrative skips around so much and there are so many flashbacks. Underworld, on the other hand, was a much easier read; with all the backstory taken care of, Underworld was able to become more linear, and it was very plot- and character-driven. We learned a lot about Pierce in book one but not much about John and the other characters; this book was their time to shine. I really loved the development we got out of John in this book. He's very different than most of Meg Cabot's other heroes, and he's also different from a lot of the heroes we've been given in other YA books of this genre recently, which is refreshing. But the thing I loved the most about Underworld is the new characters we meet. When they were first introduced, I wasn't sure how I'd feel about them, but I was surprised by how quickly I fell in love with them. Between the new friends we meet and the development of old friends like Kayla and Pierce's cousin, Alex, Underworld built on and fleshed out the world of Abandon wonderfully, and I can't wait to see how the adventure will end when the third book, Awaken, comes out next year.

Contrary to what you may have thought, I'm not dead. I just have been going through a phase where I don't really feel like reading new stuff; I'm more in the mood to re-explore old worlds (well, when I'm not playing video games, which I've also been really back into recently). It's not that the stuff I was reading wasn't good, it all was, I just... wasn't feeling it. XD

Anyway, about a month ago I was suddenly overcome with the urge to reread the Howl books. After I read the it the first time, I bought the whole series but, at the time, the only way to get Howl's Moving Castle and Castle in the Air on Amazon was to get them with library binding. I didn't really know what that meant at the time, and what I wound up with were these really tiny copies—think mass market paperbacks with hard covers on them. They were really awkward and uncomfortable to read, so I decided to look again, now that almost a year had passed.

This time, they had the paperback re-releases that went along with House of Many Ways. I'm kind of a nitpicker about my sets matching, so I wound up buying all three books, lol. I was quite pleased; paperbacks can be really chintzy but these ones are very nice quality and also nice and big, so they were easy to hold and look nice together on the shelf. I also really love the new covers, especially the cover for Castle in the Air. I feel like that cover captures the spirit of the book perfectly, and looks pretty, too. I also like the new typesetting, so overall I was quite happy that I decided to buy new copies of the set. ♥

I wound up enjoying Castle in the Air a lot more this time through (I think knowing what happens and who is who helps you appreciate it more), but I have to say, after a second read-through, I think House of Many Ways may be my favorite book of the series—even more than the first Howl book. Obviously I love HMC because it introduces us to Howl, Sophie, and Calcifer, and Howl and Sophie's rocky road to love fills me with squeals and giggles; but there's just something about House of Many Ways. I felt that way when I read the series the first time, but the re-read kind of cemented it for me.

Obviously, I love Howl, Sophie and Calcifer; and, unlike in Castle in the Air, they play a major part in the story so we see a lot of them. But I love Charmain, Peter and Waif so much, Howl and Sophie's presence is just kind of an added bonus. Maybe it's because Michael was my favorite character in HMC, and Peter reminds me a lot of him.* I just love to see Peter and Charmain bumbling their way along, trying to survive together in that house, constantly at each other's throats. They're hilarious, they're a perfect complement to each other, I love it. I also love the kingdom of High Norland and the house itself, even more than I loved Ingary and the Moving Castle. When I read House of Many Ways, I just feel so enchanted the whole time, and my imagination just wants to move right in and never leave.

Added bonus: as much as I loved HoMW the first time, I didn't remember a lot of details about it. So I was as surprised about some certain surprise revelations as I was the first time (maybe even moreso, as I feel like I may have looked at the ending the first time and known what was coming; whereas I didn't this time, and wound up being surprised by everything).

Anyway, now that I'm done with that, I have had a really overpowering urge the past few weeks to re-read the Mediator series. The only thing is, Meg Cabot's new book, Underworld, just came out, and I do want to read that, too. Infuriatingly, I preordered it off Amazon and it still hasn't come yet. They didn't even ship it until Friday, estimated delivery Monday. It is kind of perfect timing, though; it gave me just enough time to finish reading House of Many Ways and then re-read Abandon (I can usually polish off a Meg Cabot book in a day, so I should be done re-reading it by the time Underworld comes on Monday).

So, those are my tentative reading plans for the next few weeks. I'm behind on my book club reading; I never got around to reading last month's book (I checked it out from the library and it's sitting on my nightstand still, lol), and now I have another book for this month. Not to mention that I got about 2/3 of the way through Promises, Promises and 100 pages into the second Kane Chronicles book before wandering off to Howl (and I do want to finish both those books, I was enjoying them both, especially The Throne of Fire). Sigh. So much catch-up work to do.

*P.S., my only complaint about the Howl series is that we never get to see Michael and Martha again after the first book. Michael is mentioned in one sentence in Castle in the Air and neither is mentioned at all in House of Many Ways. Since, like I said, Michael was my favorite character in HMC, I was sad not to see more of him/them.

13/40: Braided by Elora Bishop
Rating: 5/5
It seems like the best fairytale adaptations are the ones based on Rapunzel. Well, maybe that's just my opinion. XD That said, I really enjoyed this installment of Sappho's Fables. I thought the way the tower from the fairytale became a magical tree in this version was very clever. The imagery was also gorgeous, probably my favorite thing about the novella. I haven't drawn much recently, but I'm really aching to draw a picture of Zelda in that tree, with her hair going all over the place. It looks gorgeous in my mind, but would probably come out looking like crap if I drew it. I also thought the dreamworld of Chimera was very cool, as well as the Not-There Fair and all the interesting creatures they met there. For some reason, this story put me in mind of House of Many Ways, which is never a bad thing. (Now I want to re-read the Howl series.) It really seemed to capture the "fairytale" feel that made those books so great, so I would really recommend this one to fans of Diana Wynne Jones, it has a very similar flavor. ♥

12/40: Boook of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
Rating: 4.5/5
This book was recommended to me by a friend, but I wasn't sure how much I was going to like it when I first started reading it. It's based on the fairytale "Maid Maleen" by the Brothers Grimm, which starts with a princess and her handmaid locked away in a tower for seven years. Needless to say, being locked in a tower is not particularly pleasant, so although the book was quite well written, it started off feeling dark, stifling, and desperate (the usual feelings being locked in a tower would entail). However, the book really picked up in the second half, and it just got better and better until the end, when I was like, *____* At first I was going to give this one a 4, but then as it got further into the story I wound up getting so into it that I bumped it up to a 4.5. This book definitely includes the darker side of fairytales, but it was exciting and the love story was wonderful, and it felt like the characters really earned their happy ending.

11/40: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
Rating: 5/5
There is only one word that can be used to describe this book: magical. This book was flawless, it was perfection. I cannot even begin to describe how much I enjoyed this book. I have not loved a book this much since I read Howl's Moving Castle. I had a smile on my face as I read every single page, and there were multiple times when I felt tears (of joy!) stinging my eyes throughout the book. This was a wonderful fairytale. The writing was beautiful and the illustrations throughout were a fantastic touch. I loved Minli and the Dragon and all the characters they encountered throughout the story so much; and I loved how everything connected together, and all the "mini-stories" throughout the book wound up connecting to the overall plot. This book was an absolute joy to read. ♥