Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Goodreads Synopsis
Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair. . . .

Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn't believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell.

Peter is unlike anyone she's ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland's inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is risking everything--her family, her future--to be with him. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she's always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter.

With enemies threatening to tear them apart, the lovers seem doomed. But it's the arrival of Wendy Darling, an English girl who's everything Tiger Lily is not, that leads Tiger Lily to discover that the most dangerous enemies can live inside even the most loyal and loving heart.

From the "New York Times" bestselling author of "Peaches" comes a magical and bewitching story of the romance between a fearless heroine and the boy who wouldn't grow up.

By Jodi Lynn Anderson

Hardcover, 292 pages

Published July 3rd 2012 by HarperTeen

4 out of 5 stars

Genre: YA Fantasy

Tiger Lily, the girl with the crow feather in her hair...

Wow...so many things to say!
I admit, I don't recall her character when I had watched Peter Pan. I had been so focused on Peter and Wendy's relationship that I didn't realize Peter might have actually had a life before Wendy ever came along. This book explores what happened to him and Tiger Lily, and their story was a heartbreaking, bittersweet love story, an adventure that changed them both in good ways, and in bad ways. Tiger Lily is narrated by the famous Tinker Bell--jealous, pestering, ubiquitous, but wholeheartedly good in her own way. Tinker has her usual antics up her sleeve, but we also get to see another side to her, the side that explains why she gets jealous, why she seems to love Tiger Lily so much, why she is attracted to Peter, and why she harbors distasteful feelings for Wendy.

This book follows the story of Tiger Lily, of course. Tiger Lily, dwelling with the tribe, the Sky Eaters, is being forced to marry Giant, a repulsive and hateful man. Because she is different from the rest of her tribe, her tribe members fear her and keep away from her. What they don't realize is that while Tiger Lily might seem fierce, confident, and stoic all the time, she is a lonely girl within herself. Tiger Lily doesn't speak much, and it's hard to connect emotionally with her. Sometimes, I found myself wondering if Tiger even cared at all about anything....but that was one of her beautiful flaws. She is a girl trying to appear brave, instead of admitting that she is just as afraid as everyone else.

When she meets Peter Pan in the forbidden woods, she opens up and explores a world she didn't think existed. She feels free, feels there is a place she might yet belong to. I felt for her. I was there with Tinker Bell, wanting to console Tiger, simply hope that she was as happy as possible. Sometimes Tiger Lily's sadness is so overwhelming, even Tink's amusing antics can't cover it up. Peter Pan was everything Tiger needed, and yet everything she needed to avoid. He offered a life away from her tribe, away from a marriage she didn't want, freedom she couldn't imagine. She liked hanging out with the Lost Boys, and during her time with them, she would laugh and smile, and have fun. Tiger Lily has responsibilities back with her tribe, though, and she isn't ready to simply give it all up for Peter just yet.

I don't know how to explain Peter. There's something innocent about him, but something mischievious. He is as playful as expected, but he is also restless and wounded emotionally. I came to realize that what Peter was missing was someone who would look after him, tell him that everything was going to be all right. I fell in love with him, and felt his pain. He was a confusing, and frustrating character because of his hot-and-cold actions. I suppose there were reasons for that, though... His and Tiger Lily's relationship was heartbreaking, to say the least. They each expected something from the other, trying to live up to those expectations. They loved each other, but each believed they weren't good enough. I wanted to shake them both, make them realize that there was no need to be the best. And when Wendy came along---well, I never thought I'd say this, but I really don't like Wendy. I guess I resent her like Tiger Lily and Tinker Bell both did, but Wendy was everything Tiger Lily wasn't, and she offered Peter something completely different from what Tiger Lily offered.

I did love this story, but I felt too saddened while reading it. I always thought of Neverland as a cheerful place where children lived and never grew up, but this book definitely ruined that image. The villain, Captain Hook, came to Neverland in hopes of finding a "greener" world, where he would stay young. But even he could see the despair in it. Neverland was a frightening world, and maybe that's where Tiger Lily belonged--to roam in this world forever, a fierce girl who didn't need to live by anyone's rules but her own. She's a strong heroine, and I admired her unfailing courage throughout the book. The ending made me cry, but I'm glad she found happiness in some way, some form. She deserved that, at least. Peter Pan is a boy I can't forget about, and just thinking about him makes me want to cry some more...

Tiger Lily did start out a little slow, but it picks up when we are introduced to the lost boys and the foreign English man. Emotions and action take over. Read it, and get compelled by a courageous, quiet, yet wonderfully fierce girl who tries to find her freedom in the complicated world of Neverland. I'll be thinking of Tiger Lily's story for a while.

From Tiger Lily:
I am only a faerie. I don't have grand ideas, or grand dreams, or long for grand freedoms like people do. But I wanted to be a part of their dream too, even if I was only a flea riding on their tails. To run and run and never worry -- that was what they wanted, and I wanted to go with them.
I could hear the quiet in Tiger Lily's heart. I had never heard it so soft, so at peace, as I did that evening, as she sat with Peter and watched those horses, and dreamed for a moment that she would never have to lose him, or herself.


Such a scene like this never happened in the book, but I thought it was an interesting scene from the movie..

Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari

Goodreads Synopsis
A thrilling tale of adventure, romance, and one girl's unyielding courage through the darkest of nightmares.
Epidemics, floods, droughts--for sixteen-year-old Lucy, the end of the world came and went, taking 99% of the population with it. As the weather continues to rage out of control, and Sweepers clean the streets of plague victims, Lucy survives alone in the wilds of Central Park. But when she's rescued from a pack of hunting dogs by a mysterious boy named Aidan, she reluctantly realizes she can't continue on her own. She joins his band of survivors, yet, a new danger awaits her: the Sweepers are looking for her. There's something special about Lucy, and they will stop at nothing to have her.

By Jo Treggiari

Hardcover, 344 pages

Published June 1st 2011 by Scholastic

3.75 out of 5 stars

Genre: YA Dystopia

 

Ashes, Ashes was a pretty quick dystopian read.
It's about a girl named Lucy Halloway who is living on her own (as in surviving on her own) after her family and anyone she knows has been killed off from a plague.

The book begins with a rather gruesome scene that had me slightly repulsed of her making herself some turtle food. Or maybe I was just repulsed because even thinking of eating turtle doesn't do anything for my stomach. But, this first scene pretty much told me how desperate Lucy was for food, how scarce food really was for her, and how difficult it was to be surviving by herself.

It's this same day that she gets chased by some wild dogs, and finds herself rescued by a boy--the first human contact she's had in over basically six months.
Aidan was charming, with a crooked smile that so many boys in young adult novels seem to have (but it's okay, because I love crooked smiles:) ).

From here, the story gets interesting, because we finally have some dialogue going on.
She learns from Aidan that he lives with a bunch of other survivors in a place called Hell's Gate.
Lucy likes living on her own, and has managed to do so for a year now, but when the tsunami comes, she has no choice but to flee her home and go find Aidan at Hell's Gate.

Now, the evil people in the book are called Sweepers. They basically come in vans and take away any survivors back with them to the doctors. The people they take with them never come back.
And we'll learn towards the end of the book that Lucy is something special, and she's wanted for it. The plot sounds formulaic--girl is unique but she doesn't know it. And it is.
I don't want to give too much away, although I felt like the book's description had spoiled the climax for me. It was kind of predictable, but that's fine. I still enjoyed the book.
And the supporting characters were enjoyable too.

I just want to give some praise for the cover, though. It's so pretty when you actually look at it up close in your hands! Aidan is standing in a posture, facing this disaster in front of him, like he's ready to battle anything that comes his way. Lucy is beside him, almost gazing in the distance like she's thinking about her future. And Aidan is right beside her. It's almost like, together, they are unstoppable, or something like that. And the buildings toppling over before them, with all that water flooding? It's really amazing, and I commend the cover artists for such an amazing cover. I really liked that little bit of sunlight in the far off distance. Like there's hope even amidst chaos and disaster.

So, the book was a nice, light read (for a dystopia, that is), nothing too much for me to ponder about. I'm not sure if there's a sequel or not, but regardless, I liked the way the book ended here.

Out of Sight, Out of Time by Ally Carter

Goodreads Synopsis
With more than a million Gallagher Girls books sold, a legion of fans have fallen in love with the New York Times best-selling spy-girl series, and the fifth book delivers the most nerve-wracking, high-stakes adventure yet.

The last thing Cammie Morgan remembers is leaving the Gallagher Academy to protect her friends and family. But when Cammie wakes up in an alpine convent and discovers months have passed, her memory is a black hole. The only traces left of Cammie’s summer vacation are the bruises on her body and dirt under her nails. All she wants is to go home. But even the Gallagher Academy now holds more questions than answers as Cammie and her friends face their most difficult challenge yet. With only their training and a few clues to guide them, the girls go in search of answers on the other side of the world. But the Circle is hot on their trail and will stop at nothing to prevent Cammie from remembering what she did last summer.

By Ally Carter

Hardcover, 294 pages

Published March 13th 2012 by Hyperion Book CH

5 out of 5 stars
Genere: YA Adventure/Mystery
Book 5 in the Gallagher Girls series

At the end of the fourth book, Only the Good Spy Young , we were left with Cammie planning on running away from the Gallagher Academy in hopes of finding answers about the Circle of Cavan, the terrorist group who wants Cammie for some desperate reason, and are willing to kill anyone in their way.

Out of Sight, Out of Time picks up four months after that. Cammie wakes up in a convent, thinking it was just last week that she was at the Gallagher Academy. But really, it's been months, and she realizes that she can't remember a single thing that happened to her over the summer, after she ran away. Cammie's mom finds Cammie at the convent, and takes her back home (Gallagher Academy), where basically everyone is angry/upset, shocked at Cammie for having run away, and at her appearance--she's bruised and dirty and much skinnier. From here, Cammie begins to think she's going crazy, that she is crazy, because she knows something important must have happened over the summer for her to have gotten her memory erased. This whole scenario created lot of questions for me--like, where did she go? Who caught her? What did she learn? What did she find? Did the Circle have her? And if so, what did they do to her? And why would they, or whoever it was, erase her memory?

I could go on and on with these questions, and thankfully they are answered by the end of this book. I'm not sure if I could have waited till next year to have them answered.

Flying Blind by Deborah Cooke

Goodreads Synopsis
The next generation of shape-shifting dragons from the popular author of the Dragonfire novels. 

 Zoë Sorensson is perfectly normal, except she's been told she's destined for great things. Zoë's the one female dragon shapeshifter of her kind. But Zoë is at the bottom of the class when it comes to being Pyr and her powers are AWOL, so she's sent to a Pyr boot camp.

Zoë quickly realizes that she has to master her powers yesterday, because the Pyr are in danger and boot camp is a trap. The Mages want to eliminate all shifters and the Pyr are next in line-unless Zoë and her friends can work together and save their own kind.

Ever since Firelight by Sophie Jordan,I've loved the idea of dragon shifters. There's something amazing and unique about them. So, of course, when I found out about this book, I was eager to read it.
By Deborah Cooke

Paperback, 308 pages

Published June 7th 2011 by New American Library

4 out of 5 stars

Genre: YA Paranormal/Fantasy

Flying Blind is about fifteen year old Zoe Sorenson, a Wyvern who is the only female dragon-shifter among the Pyr (the official name of the dragon-shifters), trying to find her powers and defeat the Mages, spell casters who want to eradicate all shifters in the world. Along the way, she gets help from her dragon-shifter friends, and a really cute boy, Jared.

Wow! So, I don't know where to start. I really liked this book. There was action, suspense, romance, betrayal--all the good makings of a book I enjoy. We go on a journey with Zoe, as she discovers more about herself and what she's really capable of. Being the Wyvern, she's got some extraordinary powers and we're given some awesome kick-butt moments by Zoe. She's a feisty character with a snarky but fun attitude. She's also stubborn, self-conscious, and resentful towards herself. She's actually very insecure, and she repeatedly thinks negatively about herself. She's also lovesick with a fellow Pyr, Nick. The first half or so, she pines for him in am almost irritating manner. She gets jealous of the human girl, Isabelle, who Zoe thinks is perfect and more gorgeous than she'll ever be. I felt for her, sort of. There were some connections I made, and then there were some thoughts and actions by Zoe that made me cringe and shake my head at her. She's immature in the beginning of the novel, but really, she did a tremendous amount of growing as I read on. It was surprising, but I did end up loving her at the end.

So, Zoe and her friends are sent to a boot camp to develop/practice their powers. This boot camp isn't what they think it is, and all the time during it, as a reader, I was filled with this impending sense of doom that was surely coming up. The other three Pyrs are Garrett, Nick, and Liam. Each guy had their own fun personality. We have Garrett, the serious and determined one. There's Nick, the aggressive and kind-of-cocky one. Then there's Liam, the playful and easygoing one. They're also joined by another Pyr Adrian, aware and observant. Isabelle is a human girl who's intertwined in all of them somehow, but Zoe doesn't know how. All five of them made an interesting dynamic, and their interactions were amusing to read. And plus, they can all shift into dragons! There was plenty of awesome dragon-fighting scenes, and I was rooting for Zoe the whole time.