Reading: NIGHT OF THE LIVING TED - Barry Hutchison (writer), Lee Cosgrove (illustrator)

Lisa-Marie and her older bully of a stepbrother Vernon are small-town suburban kids who don't really get along; Lisa-Marie being too smart for her own good, and Vernon resenting being saddled with a kid sister. When each is given cash to buy Lisa-Marie's dad/Vernon's stepdad a birthday gift, the kids end up at the local build-a-bear type store, where they discover a special is going on: any customer can make themselves a teddy bear in honor of the upcoming Halloween holiday to keep, free! Her dad being an Elvis fanatic makes Lisa-Marie's choice easy, but with no interest in the freebie and only wanting to add his name to Lisa-Marie's gift so he can keep the money, Vernon slaps together a mish-mash of Halloween costumes and accessories and body parts to form a monster bear he doesn't even have an interest in taking home. It's a decision both kids will come to regret however, when soon afterward all the Halloween bears come to life all over town, turning on their makers/owners, robbing and hurting them, and before long the streets are filled with (among others) witch teddies that can fly and do magic ... zombie teddy bears seeking brains alongside vampire bears seeking a meal ... alien teddies in space suits complete with death rays ... all forms of monsters, and all making their way back to the teddy bear store and their leader - none other than the evil, sadistic, biggest and baddest teddy bear of all: Vernon's hybrid monster-bear! Can a smart little girl, her doofus of a stepbrother, and one lone, goodhearted teddy bear in  a white-sequined jumpsuit and black pompadour - complete with Memphis accent - thwart out an entire horde of evil teddies determined to take over their town, if not the world? Night of the Living Ted is part of a newer, funny, very well-written middle-grade series featuring equally-funny illustrations by Lee Cosgrove that hint the books would make a good animated series. And this one, complete with stalwart heroes, formidable villains, and kid-friendly Halloween spookiness, will leave readers anxious for the next in the series,Revenge of the Living Ted, due in September. I know I am! (Available May 19)  4.5/5 stars

NOTE: I received a free ARC of this title from NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review. 

Reading: THE ACCURSED INHERITANCE OF HENRIETTA ACHILLES: BOOK 1 (A HOUSE DIVIDED) - Haiko Hörnig (writer), Marius Pawlitza (illustrator)

After losing her parents in the great war, young Henrietta Achilles tries adjusting to life in an orphanage when she suddenly finds herself, instead, shipped off to the small, very very odd village of Malrenard, as the only living relative to a recently-deceased uncle she never knew named Ornun Zol. Malrenard is a bizarre place, to say the least, full of angry and bitter people with a lot of that negatively seemingly directed toward Ornun Zol and his tower-like castle, which now belongs to Henrietta. When a shady lawyer rushes Henrietta into taking ownership of the castle and accepting her inheritance, the girl's signature barely dry on the legal form, the girl is immediately and unceremoniously dropped off at her new home, where she quickly learns why all that resentment from the local towns people probably exists; not only was her Uncle Ornun a notorious wizard, but his home is full of thieves and soldiers and a bizarre variety of creatures that have turned the castle into a battleground, everyone fighting with each other to find a secret vault, hidden somewhere on the premises, that supposedly holds the source of all of the great wizard's power. I expected to enjoy this graphic novel - the first in a series - but what I didn't expect was to completely fall in love with the Looney Tunes-like artwork, action and story of this funny, snarky, addicting and yes even intriguing romp; an over-the-top page-turner that should leave you - like me - smiling and flipping back for a re-read immediately, already hungry (HINT!) for volume two. (Available April 7)  5/5 stars

NOTE: I received a free ARC of this title from NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.

Reading: ONLY MOSTLY DEVASTATED - Sophie Gonzales

California teen Ollie is spending his pre-senior-year summer in North Carolina, where his family has temporarily relocated to help Ollie's Aunt Linda - who is fighting cancer - and her family. What Ollie didn't expect, beyond babysitting his aunt's kids, was a summer fling, which comes in the form of fellow high schooler Will Tavares, a hunky basketball player whom Ollie shares a blissful romance with. The end-of-summer goodbyes are painful, but even more painful is when Ollie learns his parents have rented a home in Aunt Linda's town indefinitely, and he will be spending his senior year in North Carolina away from his friends and having to adjust to a brand-new school, due to Aunt Linda's condition becoming worse. Biting the bullet, Ollie - openly-gay but with no idea how that may roll in NC - arrives guarded and edgy his first day for classes, but quickly meets a trio of girls who befriend him; so much so, he comes out to them and even shyly tells them about his summer romance (well, he was dying to tell someone!). One of the girls, Lara, invites Ollie to go with them to a back-to-school party that night at a friend's house ... where Ollie is shocked to find that Lara has actually set him up, for who else should be at that same party but Will! Will, along with a gaggle of Will's very hetero basketball team buddies, and when his summer love gives Ollie the cold shoulder it becomes obvious that Will is freaked (not happily so) by Ollie's presence as the newest kid in school ... and even more obvious that this year just might be more torturous for the broken-hearted Ollie than even he had ever dreamed. Only Mostly Devastated is a loose retelling of Grease that works very well on the page, largely due to its wonderful, endearing lead character; we've all felt Ollie's confusion and pain of first love, and writer Sophie Gonzales keeps his fresh, funny voice one that always (thankfully) falls short of becoming annoying or whiny. Openly-out Ollie's ups and downs with a closeted Will come across very authentic on the page, as does Will and the engaging supporting cast of characters that make up the boys's friends and family. The subplot of Aunt Linda's cancer plight and how Ollie deals with that as well pulls at the heartstrings without ever becoming maudlin or melodramatic. Best yet, when you think you know how and when things will develop with Ollie and Will, the book still manages a wholly believable, touching finale that may seem too pat for some but brought a tear to this jaded reader's eye. Wonderfully done, my only (very minor) complaint being the author's use of the occasional British word or phrase, in Ollie's voice (the book is told from his POV), that would throw me right out of the story by not sounding like a typical California/American teen's verbiage. That's a small bump-in-the-road, though, to a wonderful, humorous, and romantic love story whose main characters leap from the page to find a place in your heart.  4.5/5 stars

NOTE: I received a free ARC of this title from NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.

Reading: NATSUMI'S SONG OF SUMMER - Robert Paul Weston (writer), Misa Saburi (illustrator)

This sweet, charming picture book set in Japan follows a little girl named Natsumi - born in summer and with a love or the season beyond all the others - who is nervous about the arrival of her visiting cousin from America, a girl her own age, who may or may not share Natsumi's love for summer and the various beautiful and multi-colored insects that brighten and enliven the season. Thankfully, when Jill arrives Natsumi learns the two little girls have a lot in common - a love for the warm summer weather, the beach, fireworks - and Natsumi is even delighted to introduce her cousin to the music of the cicadas, which Jill has never known before but to Natsumi symbolizes the entire season. The gentleness of the story - told in a series of traditional Japanese tanka poems (similar to haiku) - is married beautifully to the watercolor-toned artwork that reflects the book's Japanese themes and location, and is as warm and inviting to experience as summer itself. (Available May 12)  4/5 stars

NOTE: I received a free ARC of this title from NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.

Reading: WONDER WOMAN VOLUME 1: BLOOD - Brian Azzarello (writer), Cliff Chiang & Tony Akins (illustrators)

Though normally I would definitely not be one to argue for messing around with the back/origin story of a major character - especially one as major, and beloved, as Diana Prince, aka Wonder Woman - but admittedly,  this graphic novel (a collection of the first six issues of the 'New 52' DC/Wonder Woman series) treads some new and genuinely intriguing ground when Diana learns that her mother, Queen Hippolyta, lied many years ago about the origin of Diana's birth, revealing who Diana's father really is with news that literally rattles the gods. And it actually works here, somehow adding more depth to Wonder Woman's background as well as intelligently tying her story into Greek mythology. It's news that shatters Diana, of course, setting her to rethinking her whole life as well as her place in this world, and combined with the exceptional - even brilliant - and beautiful artwork of Cliff Chiang and Tony Akins, it's a book you can't take your eyes from even as you find yourself enmeshed with its story as well. While unsure of how hardcore, life-long DC/WW fans would accept this revamping of the iconic character's origins, I genuinely loved reading this book, my only complaint being that it ended with a serious cliffhanger and I had no volume two ready to continue on.  4.5/5 stars

Reading: EGG DROP DEAD - Vivien Chien

Book five in the Noodle Shop mystery series finds Lana Lee's first foray into catering hindered by the death of her client's young nanny, found drowned in a pool. Donna Feng is a family friend who's somehow already survived one scandal with her high society standing intact, but feels the fallout of suspicion again as it was she who'd verbally chewed out her nanny earlier that evening, in the middle of the party and her guests, not long before the young woman was found dead. Entrusting Lana with a mysterious flash drive full of Donna's deepest secrets the society matron is potentially being blackmailed with, Lana agrees to help and begins an investigation that will lead back to Donna's hidden roots in China, and put her own life in danger as she edges ever closer to unmasking a killer with enough to hide to kill again. Author Vivien Chien's skills at characterization made getting back to Lana, her family, and even the Mah-Jong Matrons feel like going home from page one. The mystery is developed nicely, as is Lana's growing/evolving relationship with her detective boyfriend, her interviews with suspects and deductions organically growing from the story as Lana follows one lead to the next up to a truly suspenseful finale that will having you racing through the final pages. Another winning entry in the series that even finds Lana teaming up with a hard-boiled private eye, who promises to reappear in future installments and also provides a bit of comic relief as well as diversity for the investigation. If anything, my only two caveats here are minor - the first being my own fault, which was that I began reading this series mid-run, without realizing when starting book five that this novel is a sort of follow-up to the events of the first book in the series, where we are introduced to Donna Feng ... and therefore is a complete spoiler-smasher for the first book, so if you don't want to know the details and "whodunnit" of book one, definitely do NOT read this one first! My only other hiccup in the book was even more minor: I simply would have liked to have more of Lana's family and friends appear in this one. That may be just a personal thing; I really love Lana's parents (especially mom) and sister, as well as Peter and other workers/friends from the Asia Village shopping plaza, all of whom do appear here but just not as prominently as in, say, the previous book in the series. Caveats aside, Chien's plotting, writing, and characters, as well as the growth of Lana as both a character and investigator, are more than ever solidified for this fan with book five, making the Ho-Lee Noodle Shop still one of my favorite places to visit - and the Noodle Shop Mysteries still one of my top five cozy mystery series being written today. 4/5 stars

February Wrap-Up: Fab Feb/Back on Track?

Spring is coming! Wow, February was quite the month; relocated back cross-country to be closer to my amazing baby sister and other family (met my 3-year-old great-nephew, Andrei, for the first time!) - and thanks to the move even have a Greyhound bus ride story to tell that I may try selling to Stephen King for his newest novel. The hard part, so far, has been working on adjusting to being back to true winter-like temperatures/weather for the first time in several years, but it's already March so here's hoping ...

But amidst all that? Fourteen books and two films in February! And, as usual with me, talk about variety! But the variety turned out particularly nice for leap year month: adult novels, graphic novels, some awesome picture and kid books celebrating Black History Month; even a brilliant historical novel showcasing none other than Abraham Lincoln that I loved so, so much. Even more shocking - many reviews from February's reads are already up! Please scroll down from this post to find them, and come back as I get the rest posted, as well. Also, as always, clicking on any image here will enlarge it, if you want to better see what I read - and please, especially check out my review of Courting Mr. Lincoln; I was especially honored to be a part of that blog tour!

Even managed to sneak in an Oscar-winning "tie-in" read for February, per Matthew A. Cherry's Hair Love! Though I do believe the book came first, the story and artwork here are both beautiful, in a picture book celebrating dads and daughters that went on to become the Oscar-winning short film of the same name just weeks ago! 

But February was a great month for reading, period; Dover Two is one of the most enjoyable mysteries I've read in years, The Women in Black transported me right back to the more innocent 1950's, and even reading about a grumpy wolf who wears only underpants in the middle of winter was a standout. OH, and yes, this was my first time watching The Exorcist, like EVER, so made sure to catch the "extended director's cut" (review to come)!

Hope your reading and film viewing February is only surpassed by an even better March, as well; one that sees happy, healthy and warm - and reading, especially with spring about to ... well, spring. Check back often for reviews/posts, and happy reading/viewing!