Steel Review

Author: Carrie Vaughn
Release Date: March 15, 2011
Pages: 304 (ARC)
Publisher: HarperTeen
Most Appropriate For Ages: 14+
Where I Got It: For review from ATWT

Sixteen-year-old Jill has fought in dozens of fencing tournaments, but she has never held a sharpened blade. When she finds a corroded sword piece on a Caribbean beach, she is instantly intrigued and pockets it as her own personal treasure.

The broken tip holds secrets, though, and it transports Jill through time to the deck of a pirate ship. Stranded in the past and surrounded by strangers, she is forced to sign on as crew. But a pirate's life is bloody and brief, and as Jill learns about the dark magic that brought her there, she forms a desperate scheme to get home—one that risks everything in a duel to the death with a villainous pirate captain.

Time travel, swordplay, and romance combine in an original high-seas adventure from New York Times bestseller Carrie Vaughn.

I enjoyed Steel. It could've been better, but it was by no means bad either.

These ain't your movie pirates. Vaughn's pirates are much more realistic...and I liked that. Don't get me wrong, I like movie pirates too, but one can only hear the cheesy phrase, "shiver me timbers!" so many times before eyes roll, so it was nice to get a glimpse of something that's closer to the real deal.

Jill was a decent protagonist and she grew a decent amount. But she was just that: decent. Not great. I never really felt like I knew her as well as I'd like, and occasionally she would just do some Random Act of Stupid that I didn't get. Her love interest was Henry, and I really liked his character. He was fun, but he could also be serious when needed. But I found his and Jill's romance to be lacking. There really wasn't much romance at all, honestly. It was probably my biggest complaint about the novel.

Overall, Vaughn delivered a well-paced adventure, full of pirate-y goodness. It wasn't a memorable read, but it was entertaining.

Book Report:

Plot: Unique and well-paced.

Characters: Jill was OK, but the rest were good.

Writing: Took me some time to get into it, but it was good.

Ending: Very good. Wrapped everything up really nicely.

Kid friendly? There's a little swearing, and some piracy (duh), but it was a pretty safe read.

Should I read it? Yeah, especially if you like pirates.

Overall:

The Dust of 100 Dogs Review

Author: A.S. King

Release Date: January 13, 2009

Pages: 336 (Paperback)

Publisher: Flux

Most Appropriate For Ages: 16 and up- depending on the teen.

In the late seventeenth century, famed teenage pirate Emer Morrisey was on the cusp of escaping the pirate life with her one true love and unfathomable riches when she was slain and cursed with the "dust of one hundred dogs" dooming her to one hundred lives as a dog before returning to a human body-with her memories intact. Now she's a contemporary American teenager and all she needs is a shovel and a ride to Jamaica.

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This was probably one of the most original, interesting plots I've read in quite a while.

Although lower on adventure and twists, I still managed to thoroughly enjoy The Dust of 100 Dogs. The Dust of 100 Dogs pushes the boundaries of the young adult genre- probably one for more mature teens. I originally had thought that this would be more of a paranormal book, but it wasn't at all. In fact, at times it was closer to a contemporary novel. It also had a little history thrown in, and of course some pirate goodness.

The Dust of 100 Dogs had some great characters, as well. It has 3 different points of view, one from Saffron, Emer's first human life after living the lives of 100 dogs, Emer, and Fred Livingstone. I dreaded the chapters from Fred Livingstone's point of view- he was easy to hate, which is obviously what the author wanted. Emer was my favorite, I think. I loved her. Saffron was a very interesting character as well. Emer has two love interests, David and Seanie. I have to say that this was one of the cases where I loved them both. In the end, I think David might've been the better choice for Emer, though.

The writing was really good. You need more than that? OK, well I thought that A.S. King's descriptions of piracy, love, fear, and a desire for more were great. There were times where the description was so vivid and real that I felt like I could've been there watching it myself. She's also a great storyteller.

The ending was perfect. I actually wasn't able to predict what was going to happen, which is always nice. When you pick this up, and I hope you do, please- for your own good- don't expect a paranormal pirate tale. Expect a really good, mature, gripping book that will be extremely hard for you to forget. I'm glad this is what I was told, otherwise I'm not sure how much I would've liked it. But, overall, it was great!