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An eternity of reflecting one’s misery back on oneself, as it turns out, gets quite dull. Really, it’s torturous. You can’t change anything at this point, it’s all been said and done. And the thanklessness of it…well. It’s just more than Kiriel can deal with. So what if he’s breaking all the rules? He deserves a vacation. And the body he slipped into…well, it was about to die anyway.
After eternity as a spirit, the physical realm is quite something. In fact, Kiriel is giving the Creator props at every turn. Color! Wind! It’s all just incredible. Of course, learning to be human whilst being supervised is more than a little awkward, so his first order of business is to remove himself from the company of Shaun’s best friend and head home for some solitude.
After getting caught essentially making out with a t-shirt, spending a couple of hours in the bathroom, and overhauling Shaun’s appearance, Kiriel thinks he’s getting the hang of this physical thing. Each new experience is incredible. Like ketchup. Oh does he love ketchup! Ingenious.
But he has bigger issues at hand. Better experiences he wants to try to get to before someone notices and his trip comes to an end. Only at this point does he realize his choice of someone generally unnoticed may not have been the best. These are not the boys who…get on well with girls. But he can try!
Speaking is his biggest issue really. It’s a bit hard to remember to try to talk like an uninterested, unenlightened teenage boy when you know pretty much everything. Eager to try to make an impact while he can, Kiriel decides to give some advice to a bully, who he knows he’ll see in Hell if things don’t change. But apparently attempting to counsel a bully on his fears of inadequacy in public is not the best idea.
After a few days as Shaun, Kiriel’s curiosity is starting to wear off. The novelty is wearing off. Being human is hopelessly futile. Shaun has disappeared, and no one has noticed, aside from his cat. It’s horribly depressing. And the changes he’s begun, being nicer to Jason, well, he won’t be here to carry through on that. So what’s the point, really?
Still. It’s been fun. And you can learn things while physical that you just wouldn’t otherwise. So it wasn’t all pointless. And maybe he will leave a mark after he’s gone. Maybe it’s not all futile.
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Rating: 
For Alex, the fun ended when his brilliant plan went awry and landed him on a neighbor’s lawn, crushed lawn gnome under tire, puking his guts out on an officer’s shoes. Though if you asked him, it’s nothing to get in a tizzy over. Just a lawn gnome. So what if he intended to drive across down and didn’t make it to the end of the road? No way does he need to pay for it by spending his time with someone as old, unpleasant, and abusive as Sol Lewis. No way. Too bad Judge Trent and his mother don’t agree.
With no choice but to persist, Alex does eventually learn to handle Sol, eventually developing a rapport with him, if an uneasy one. Not until he arrives late one day, an occupies himself with guitar, thus accidentally discovering Sol’s love for music, do they really begin to bond. And at this point, Alex has another brilliant idea. But this time it really is good. He’s going to hold a concert at the home, with two of his insanely musically talented classmates, who he likes to call the Cha-KINGS.
Soon Alex is in it deep. After school practicing, trying to learn to keep up with two musical gods. Off-days, visiting Sol, trying to make the most of their time together, hard as that may sometimes be. In fact, he’s begun thinking of staying on after his time is up. Even after Sol finds out he’s not been there of his own accord and they have a falling out on New Year’s Eve. Even after Sol shows him up at his own gig.
With the arrival of Valentine’s Day, the situation gets more dire. Sol, who has emphysema, has been hospitalized with pneumonia. Alex gets the news as he’s about to leave, and has no option but to go pick up his date, explain the situation, and head to the hospital. After enduring the visit, during which Sol does nothing but call her Laurie, Alex sets his date up with Laurie’s date at the dance, after arriving, filling her in, and being directed to take her to the hospital right now.
By his return visit, Sol is looking better, but Alex is beginning to be forced to face the hard truth. He won’t be around forever.
Back at the home, Sol and Alex continue their lessons, and Alex learns that Sol and the Cha-KING’s have scheduled another show for April. Alex isn’t entirely interested, but agrees on the condition that Sol will take part.
Though she didn’t attend the first time, Alex takes the chance to invite Judge Trent to the concert, and this time she accepts. A fact that is even more surprising than Alex knows.
This was a really, really fun read, and exceptionally quick. You could add it to your pile and it would be gone again before you knew it.
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Rating:
Zoe Elias has grand dreams of being a pianist. For her, there is nothing better to be. She imagines evening gowns, audiences awaiting in anticipation, beautiful recitals, much adoration. So you can understand how, when her father comes home with a Perfectone D60 Organ, instead of her lovely piano, why she’s a little upset. In fact, she’s fairly sure this might be unforgivable.
But the organ came with free lessons, which she reluctantly agrees to take. Miss Person (read: Persaaahn) is not the world’s most enthusiastic teacher. In fact, during lessons, Zoe doesn’t get into much of her instrument’s capabilities. But when Miss Person isn’t around, she likes to kick things up a little. Which is how, after a lesson one day, upon forgetting her purse, Miss Person comes to realize Zoe has talent, and decides she ought to enter the Perform-O-Rama.
And so Zoe spends the next few weeks practicing and practicing the same song: “Forever in Blue Jeans”. Not knowing the words, she’ll often make up her own. In the Kitchen, baking up a storm, her father, and schoolmate turned constant house-guest enjoy the show.
With the competition nearly upon them, Zoe’s mother not only misses her birthday, but has an emergency at work, which means she won’t be able to take her to the Perform-O-Rama after all. Disaster. Mr. Elias is not exactly known for his worldly skills. In fact nearly every time he goes out, he has to be guided home by a local mechanic. But he knows how important this is to Zoe. Armed with pre-programmed cell phone, ready for any disaster, they set off.
And he does get her there. But doesn’t make it to her first performance, which she would tell you, was not all that bad, since she was not all that good.
This was a very cute and extremely quick-reading story. Through her music, and her enthusiasm, Zoe manages to bring her family together, help a schoolmate, and inspire her dad. So maybe the Perfectone wasn’t such an unforgivable gift after all.
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Rating:
Our story picks up not that long after Lulu’s first adventures into girl detectivism, which I haven’t read, at the beginning of summer, which Lulu is really hoping will be just plain fun. It doesn’t take very long for her wishes to prove futile.
While out with best pal Daisy, they stumble upon some surprising, and not quite welcome, news in their favorite gossip column. Lulu’s mother is in town shooting a movie. Their relationship, as you may have guessed, is strained at best. Lulu’s parents got divorced when she was young, as her dad, it so happened, was gay. Lulu now lives with he and his partner, Theo. Her mother left Halo City and was essentially never heard from again. So naturally heads right off for the shoot to find out why Isabelle hadn’t told her she was in town. Which meant she was standing up her best friend turned boyfriend, Charlie.
After gaining access to the set, then finding her way to her mother’s trailer with the help of none other than the famous Lisa Lincoln, Lulu concludes that Isabelle seems a little off. But she still invites her for pastries later that night, half expecting her not show. If only that made it easier when she really didn’t.
The expected turns mystery rather quickly, however, when Isabelle’s agent tells her Isabelle is on vacation and Lisa Lincoln shows up at her apartment to tell her her mother is, in fact, missing. Lulu is sure there’s something amiss, after checking out Isabelle’s now vacant room, and seeing the two imposter maids who arrive while she and Lisa are inside, but her mind takes a different turn from most. Lulu is sure her mother is the bad guy.
The police aren’t interested, seeing as there’s that whole “vacation” deal. But after Isabelle shows her face on national television during the Halo Awards, where she and group of blondes in masks accost Lisa Lincoln as she’s about to give an acceptance speech, they get interested. I should also note, Lisa Lincoln was on national tv with Lulu’s boyfriend, and she doesn’t know how to take that one at all.
Lulu’s next order of business after this ordeal is to talk to Lisa. She thinks she might know something about Isabelle that the rest of them don’t and can’t figure out. Lisa’s bodyguard has different ideas, which leads to Lulu taking a tumble and Daisy pulling out the Icelandic Kickboxing. And Charlie opening the door to see what’s going on. For Lulu, this is going exactly how she wouldn’t want it. But she does get some information.
She also gets a frantic call from her mother, as they’re leaving, about a kidnapping. Realizing the same horn she heard over the phone is now coming closer, she hops onto her borrowed Vespa, Daisy in town, and takes off after the SUV that comes speeding around the corner. Sadly, she doesn’t actually know how to drive a Vespa, and their pursuit ends with a crash in the park.
And the fun doesn’t end there. Lulu has a few more fiery hoops to jump through before all is said and done.
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Rating:
Ingrid Levin-Hill’s life has taken a turn for the dreary. Her brother, Ty, has started bulking up for the football team, and his attitude has taken a turn for the worse. After being called to help him spot one day (not a fun deal–he was lifting way too much weight for Ingrid to actually assist with), Ingrid also notices his back is covered in acne–not usual for him–but doesn’t know what to make of it.
Her father, the handsomest dad in Echo Falls, has changed into a shadow of himself. Working all the time, never really hearing what she says, dark around the eyes, cranky. She’s sure it has something to do with the paper that was hidden in the trash–the one announcing a new hire at the Ferrand Group, where he works, but since she’s not supposed to know about that she can’t bring it up.
Meanwhile, their assistant soccer coach has taken off to Europe and has been replaced by the rather sinister Julia LeCaine, who nails Coach Ringer in the head with a ball and afterwards feigns innocence. As Ingrid was the only girl to see her hit said ball, she keeps her mouth shut. Her mind is silently putting together pieces.
Add in a mysterious Mexican pill bottle found in her childhood treehouse, a missing DVD player in Ty’s room and new one at Sean Rubino’s, a shifty orderly at the hospital, and a kidnapping Ingrid can find no proof for though she knows it happened to her, and you’ve got more than enough for anyone to handle, let along a middle school sleuth. But Ingrid calls on her mind, and her memory of The Complete Sherlock Holmes, and slowly but surely puts it all together.
A really fun read. Any mystery/detective story fan should definitely pick this up.
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Rating:
Now living at Awful End with his Mad Uncle Max and Even Madder Aunt Maud, Eddie’s life continues right on with the crazy. Awoken early one morning by his uncle to come down and see the driver-less hearse in the driveway, Eddie has no idea what to think. And before he can decide, an even bigger catastrophe happens.
While recovering from that, Eddie and not-Mr. Collins are nearly hit by a crashing hot air balloon, which does in fact hit his Mad aunt Maud, who labels it quite an exciting experience.
From there things just get crazier, as Eddie is arrested, set free, gets lost on the moors, falls in with some convicts and wonders how anything will get set right again.
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As stated by the author, this book came about because rather than write his nephew boring letters while he was at boarding school, his Uncle chose to write him stories instead. Eddie’s stories.
When Eddie Dickens’ parents take ill with an odd disease, they send him off with his Great-Uncle, who happens to be mad. Much to Eddie’s chagrin, upon arriving in the carriage, his Great-aunt is even madder. Naturally, many mishaps ensue. From sleeping in a trunk to rescuing an orphanage full of kids, Eddie is kept on his toes.
Fun, playful, zany little book. Can’t wait to see what happens in his next episode!
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I ran into this book while setting up one of the lists on the Read Something New page and the title cracked me up, so I went out front and picked it up.
Jess Jordan seems pretty sure of her station in life: she’s got a big bum, and no boy will ever notice her because her best friend, Flora, looks like a blonde goddess. Two goddesses, in fact. Venus and Flora. But this is alright by Jess, as she wants nothing to do with boys in that fashion anyway.
She’s rather fond of daydreaming away, instead of completing in-class assignments, and has a very vivid and active imagination. She also has quite the crush on Ben Jones. Only when he starts talking to her, she has no idea what to do with herself. In fact, she eventually comes to the conclusion that he’s not interested in her at all, and only talks to her in order to get information on his true interest. Flora.
Amidst all this confusion, over some miscommunication, Jess has also had a falling-out with her other best friend, Fred. Every time she wants to make it right, back circumstance intervenes, generally in the form of Ben. When Fred is asked to edit a school newspaper and doesn’t ask her to participate it seems things can’t get any lower. Until Flora confesses she’s left the boy she’d been seeing because she’s crazy for someone else. That someone being, not Ben, but Fred.
Suffice it to say Jess has quite the end of a year. And though the task of being the one to feel Fred out for Flora is harsh and unwelcome, she meets it head on. The outcome is most unexpected.
Quick read, full of British humor, good for a lot of laughs.
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