Posts tagged with action-and-suspense

Jan 19 2010

Obernewtyn, by Isobelle Carmody

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Isobelle Carmody wrote Obernewtyn, the first novel in her Obernewtyn Chronicles, at the ripe old age of fourteen. Admittedly, the book wasn't actually published until she was thirty, so we'r...

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Nov 18 2009

Diana Peterfreund

Diana Peterfreund is the author of both the "Secret Society Girl" series and the YA horror/fantasy novel Rampant, one of our Featured Book titles. Note: While you should, as always, check out Ms....

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Oct 12 2009

Rosemary Clement-Moore

Rosemary Clement-Moore is the author of the excellent YA novel The Splendor Falls (which we loved, and chose as one of our Featured Book titles), and the Maggie Quinn: Girl vs. Evil series (which ...

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Sep 18 2009

Rick Riordan

Rick Riordan is best known for his insanely entertaining Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, but he is also the first contributing author and outline-producing mastermind for The 39 Clues, one...

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Jul 20 2009

Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Jennifer Lynn Barnes wrote her first novel as a teenager, and she’s written five others since, including the Wordcandy Featured Book pick Fate, Tattoo, and the 'Killer Squad' series. Her far-fetc...

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Jun 8 2009

The Awakening, by Kelley Armstrong

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Kelley Armstrong’s 2008 novel The Summoning was her first attempt at writing teen fiction, and a rousing success. Set in the same world as her Women of the Underworld series, The Summoning...

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May 28 2009

Erica Kirov

Erica Kirov is a Virginia-based YA author of Russian descent. Magickeepers: The Eternal Hourglass, her debut novel, is the first book in a projected series, and one of our Featured Book picks.

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May 28 2009

The Eternal Hourglass, by Erica Kirov

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The Eternal Hourglass, the first book in Erica Kirov’s Magickeepers series, introduces readers to a tantalizing new fantasy world. Kirov’s protagonist is Nick Rostov, the teenage son of the ...

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Mar 24 2009

Why Shoot a Butler?, by Georgette Heyer

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Why Shoot a Butler? is perhaps Georgette Heyer’s most conventional detective story. Her murder weapons are unremarkable, her plot centers around a missing will, and her sleuth displays a lev...

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Mar 3 2009

Nutcase, by Charlotte Hughes

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We were pleasantly surprised by What Looks Like Crazy, the first book in Charlotte Hughes’s Dr. Kate Holly series. Our previous experience with Hughes was limited to the mediocre Full House...

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Jan 11 2009

Osamu Tezuka

Osamu Tezuka was a Japanese manga artist, animator, and producer, and is frequently referred to as the Japanese equivalent to Walt Disney. He is best remembered as the creator of Astro Boy and Ki...

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Dec 8 2008

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

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I’ve had a copy of Suzanne Collins’s novel The Hunger Games since September, but there are two reasons I’m just reviewing it now: one, I’m still recovering from the massive let-down that was ...

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Nov 12 2008

Melissa de la Cruz

Melissa de la Cruz is the author of several YA series about the lives of rich, snotty, self-indulgent teens. Normally, this style of book leaves us cold... but then she went ahead wrote a series ...

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Nov 12 2008

Revelations, by Melissa de la Cruz

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I have an intense, long-standing, slightly guilty love for vampire stories, which allows me to tolerate literature I wouldn’t otherwise touch with a ten foot pole. This love might not be powerful enough...

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Nov 1 2008

What Looks Like Crazy, by Charlotte Hughes

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Before reading What Looks Like Crazy, our exposure to Charlotte Hughes’s work was limited to the utterly forgettable Full House series she co-wrote with Janet Evanovich. As longtime fans of ...

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Sep 9 2008

David Anthony Durham

David Anthony Durham is a well-known historical novelist whose debut fantasy, 2007’s Acacia, is one of our Featured Book picks. Mr. Durham lives in California with his family, and teaches in the ...

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Sep 9 2008

Acacia, by David Anthony Durham

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As David Anthony Durham’s sprawling epic fantasy Acacia opens, Leodan Akaran, the ruler of Acacia, has begun to question the secret arrangement that ensures his empire’s prosperity: a horrify...

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Aug 20 2008

Dream Girl, by Lauren Mechling

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No sooner had we remarked on the originality of a young adult fantasy novel about a teenage girl with magical dreams... than we received another young adult fantasy novel about a teenage girl...

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Jul 4 2008

Tana French

Tana French is a Dublin-based writer and former actress, and the author of the New York Times bestseller In The Woods, one of our Featured Book picks.

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Jun 12 2008

Genius Squad, by Catherine Jinks

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I really enjoyed Catherine Jinks’s novel Evil Genius, but its little-kid-friendly cover art and gimmicky opening failed to prepare me for the story that followed—it was tough to recover from the shock of finding such hardcore creepiness in a book with a cover that looked like a Saturday morning cartoon..

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Apr 17 2008

Churchill's Triumph: A Novel of Betrayal, by Michael Dobbs

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Churchill’s Triumph, the fourth and final novel in Michael Dobbs's Churchill series, further explores the unique talents and historical legacy of Winston Churchill. The book takes place over the eight days at Yalta, as three world leaders (Churchill, Joseph Stalin, and Franklin Roosevelt) attempt to find the light at the end of the World War II tunnel...

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Nov 5 2007

Michael Dobbs

Michael Dobbs has been a corporate executive, a political adviser, an academic, and an author. His historical novel Never Surrender, a fictionalized account of Winston Churchill's experience at t...

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Oct 17 2007

John Feinstein

John Feinstein is a former Washington Post reporter, an occasional contributor to NPR, and the author of a number of best-selling sports books. He has also written a trio of well-received childre...

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Oct 17 2007

Cover-Up: Mystery at the Super Bowl, by John Feinstein

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John Feinstein’s Cover-Up: Mystery at the Super Bowl offers an appealing alternative to the majority of books aimed at preteen male readers (most of which seem to feature wizards, spies, and/or laser-toting aliens). While Cover-Up includes its fair share of armed thugs and sneering bad guys, it’s basically a thoughtful, entertaining novel about the world of sports journalism...

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Aug 26 2007

Bob Mayer

While we here at Wordcandy are only familiar with Bob Mayer's collaborations with Jennifer Crusie, he has also written over 30 novels under the names Joe Dalton, Robert Doherty, Greg Donegan, and ...

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Jul 9 2007

Avalon High Coronation: The Merlin Prophecy, by Meg Cabot

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Meg Cabot’s books are pure escapist fun. Shojo manga—well, some of it—is also pure escapist fun. So combining the two should create some kind of super pure escapist fun, right? TOKYOPOP ho...

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Jun 24 2007

Soon I Will Be Invincible, by Austin Grossman

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At first glance, Austin Grossman’s debut novel Soon I Will Be Invincible has a lot in common with Ben Edlund’s The Tick. Both are witty stories about superheroes and their villainous counterparts attempting to make a name for themselves in cities that are overrun with muscle-bound do-gooders...

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May 13 2007

Gregor and the Code of Claw, by Suzanne Collins

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Gregor and the Code of Claw, the final installment in Suzanne Collins’s Underland Chronicles, is the most unsatisfying book I have read this year. It’s not a bad book—Collins’s characters...

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May 1 2007

Evil Genius, by Catherine Jinks

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Catherine Jinks’s novel Evil Genius opens with a list of the classes offered at the Axis Institute. Students can sign up for “Applied Physics”, “Cultural Appreciation”, or “Pragmatic Philosophy”. There’s even a wholesome-sounding offering entitled “Coping Skills”. It looks a lot like any other class list... or it would, if someone hadn’t crossed out the official class names and written in more accurate descriptions...

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Apr 30 2007

Catherine Jinks

Catherine Jinks is a Very Big Deal in Australia, and Harcourt is clearly hoping that her book Evil Genius (the focus of one of our Bok of the Week reviews) will be equally successful here in the S...

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