Reckless Reading

I'm a one book kind of girl. So the fact that, up until last night, I was reading three books at the same time had been making me a little twitchy.

The stories are just as different as the cover art. As are my reasons for reading them all at once. (If you have time and haven't already read any of these books, please check out the summaries at the bottom. I highly recommend them all!)

1. Dragonfly in Amber is an adult book. I very rarely read adult books but I'm hopelessly addicted to the Outlander series so there wasn't a choice on finishing this one. Even though this book is a beast at over 900 pages it still took my longer to finish it then normal. I'm currently writing a book for ages 9 and  up so to go from reading a book like this that is R rated to writing a book that's PG rated can be difficult.

2. The Lost Hero had been sitting on my bookshelf for months, patiently waiting to be read. I planned on finishing the Percy Jackson books first since this is a spinoff series. Then I decided to change my MG adventure book from first person to third person. And The Lost Hero, with its male third person POV, was the perfect example. This one really gets my head in the game.

3. Wonderstruck is an ARC I received at BEA. It's super heavy and full of fascinating illustrations so I've been dying to read it since I brought it home...in May. As usual, too many books and too little time. The other day I asked for suggestions of great MG books and someone suggested this title.  How could I not pick it up?!

And this is why I've become a totally reckless reader lately. Now that I've finished the one very adult book I can focus on the two MG books, perfect for what I'm working on. As long as I can avoid the temptation of the last two Vampire Academy books staring at me from across the room...

DRAGONFLY IN AMBER by Diana Gabaldon

From the author of Outlander... a magnificent epic that once again sweeps us back in time to the drama and passion of 18th-century Scotland...


For twenty years Claire Randall has kept her secrets. But now she is returning with her grown daughter to Scotland's majestic mist-shrouded hills. Here Claire plans to reveal a truth as stunning as the events that gave it birth: about the mystery of an ancient circle of standing stones ...about a love that transcends the boundaries of time ...and about James Fraser, a Scottish warrior whose gallantry once drew a young Claire from the security of her century to the dangers of his.


Now a legacy of blood and desire will test her beautiful copper-haired daughter, Brianna, as Claire's spellbinding journey of self-discovery continues in the intrigue-ridden Paris court of Charles Stuart ...in a race to thwart a doomed Highlands uprising ...and in a desperate fight to save both the child and the man she loves....

THE LOST HERO by Rick Riordan

Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up on a school bus holding hands with a girl. Apparently she’s his girlfriend Piper, his best friend is a kid named Leo, and they’re all students in the Wilderness School, a boarding school for “bad kids.” What he did to end up here, Jason has no idea—except that everything seems very wrong.                                        

Piper has a secret. Her father has been missing for three days, and her vivid nightmares reveal that he’s in terrible danger. Now her boyfriend doesn’t recognize her, and when a freak storm and strange creatures attack during a school field trip, she, Jason, and Leo are whisked away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood. What is going on?

Leo has a way with tools. His new cabin at Camp Half-Blood is filled with them. Seriously, the place beats Wilderness School hands down, with its weapons training, monsters, and fine-looking girls. What’s troubling is the curse everyone keeps talking about, and that a camper’s gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist they are all—including Leo—related to a god.

WONDERSTRUCK by Brian Sellznick

A boy named Ben longs for the father he has never known. A girl named Rose dreams of a mysterious actress whose life she chronicles in a scrapbook. When Ben discovers a puzzling clue in his mother's room, and Rose reads an enticing headline in the newspaper, both children set out alone on desperate quests to find what they are missing.

Ben's story, set in 1977, is told entirely with words, while Rose's story, set fifty years earlier, is told entirely with pictures. The two stories weave back and forth before ultimately coming together. Rich, complex, affecting, and beautiful—with over 460 pages of original artwork—Wonderstruck is a stunning achievement from a uniquely gifted artist and visionary.