I love novellas. Sometimes you are just in the mood to read something cute and quick. I like them for pick me up books. When I am having a rough day, sometimes I will come home and crack open a novella to put me in a better mood. And the Balmorie series is excellent for that. Mad About Plaid made me smile and was a fun and saucy read that took me about an hour or two to read. I can't wait to read the rest of the books in this series.

This is the story of Lucy. Her cousin seems to be a hot shot travel writer for a big New York magazine, and she is supposed to go and stay at a scottish manor that is opening up to guests. Ian and his brothers inherited the family estate and have been busting their butts to get it back up and running. They need a good review to help get them some business. But Lucy's cousin can't make her trip, so she sends Lucy along instead. I liked Lucy. She is sassy and has no problem standing up for herself. She certainly managed to butt heads with Ian a lot in the start of the book. I loved watching the two of them interact. They were a riot and adorable all at the same time.

Iam and Lucy both like each other, but they know that they just met. So they each struggle with themselves over what to do. Mad About Plaid shoves the two of them together for all sorts of cute little mini excursions and adventures as they explore the manor and the surrounding town. There is a really great little romance building between the two of them and I was rooting for one of them to "man-up" and just make it happen already. I was not disappointed! They have great chemistry between the two of them. I fell in love with them, which was really impressive because of the length of the novella. You really get invested in the characters very quickly. We also got to meet Ian's two other brothers, who will take center stage in the next two books. I must say that I can't wait to read their stories. I hope that they are as addictive and cute as Ian and Lucy's.

The Grimm Diaries are a prequel to Cameron Jace’s Snow White Sorrow series. Each prequel is a quick little story from some fairy tale character or a member of the Grimm family. And each story explains the background of the some of the fairy tales that have been misrepresented by the brothers Grimm. I loved trying to guess of Cameron Jace was going to twist and manipulate the fairy tale stories to make them his own. It was really cool to read. Throughout the book, he also adds his notes, to give you some extra info to help make sense of some of the stories. I liked this, because it didn’t take away from the flow of the story at all, since the stories were just little snippets from different characters and were not a cohesive overall story yet.
We got to meet the “evil” queen from Snow White, also known as the Queen of Sorrow, Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, Little Red Riding Hood, a descendant of the Brothers Grimm, and Mary, who helped further explain the Queen of Sorrow. I loved all of the mini stories, and they did their job in getting me excited to reading the actual Grimm Diaries series. It looks like it is going to be so flippin’ cool! There is a war brimming, and it looks like all of your favorite fairy tale characters are going to be involved. They are all immortal and have been placed under a curse by the brothers Grimm to try and protect the world. Because of the curse, they are stuck in this dreamworld of eternal slumber. Not everything about the dream world and the curse was explained in the first 6 prequels, so I can’t wait to read the rest of them and the series to find out more about that.

Cameron Jace has a real talent for making new spins on old classics. And when he is done with them, he will have you asking just what the real version is. He makes his, different, darker versions seem completely plausible. I loved that. Sometimes, I guessed what the twist would be, and other times I didn’t see it coming. It was cool to just see little parts from each story, and to try and figure out how that character might fit into his overall storyline. I think Mary’s version was my least favorite of the 6 until the end. I thought that was probably the coolest tie in out of all of them. If you are interested in fairy tales, and new takes on them, then you should check out The Grimm Diaries Prequels. It is a great way to test out Cameron Jace’s Grimm Dairies series and see if it is something you would enjoy. I can already tell it is going to be right up my alley!

I love Sherlock Holmes. Always have. I've read a bunch of his original books, and I've seen all sorts of movie and tv show portrayals about him. Mastermind initially appealed to me because it was all about my favorite part about Sherlock Holmes- his thought process. Sherlock is brilliant. He seems to see everything, and Maria Konnikova claims to be able to unlock the magic of Sherlock's mind.

Mastermind: How to Think like Sherlock Holmes explores Sherlock's thought process. But it doesn't tell you how to actually think like him. It is more like a study and breakdown of how he thinks. Still a very interesting read, but only if that is what you are looking for. If you are expecting a how- to book, this is not going to turn you into a master of deduction by the time you are done reading it. It felt much more like a scholarly research thesis. She really delves pretty deeply into how Sherlock's mind works. Even though Maria clearly knows her neuroscience and psychology, she manages to keep the book very readable. She takes complicated concepts and does a good job about breaking them down and explaining them in layman's terms. I thought the book had a good flow to it. She breaks down Sherlock's thought process into 4 main parts and then explains each of them. I thought this was good, but a few points in the book it dragged on a little bit. I thought she could have been a little more concise in her explanations. A couple of times while I was reading, I caught myself thinking, "Ok, ok I get it. Let's move on." But the core concepts were so interesting that I couldn't put the book down.

I connected with the authors love of Sherlock Holmes, and I really liked how she incorporated passages from classic Mr. Holmes and then she would tie them into her own research flawlessly. I also loved how she explained how observant we are as children because everything is new and exciting to us, so we absorb everything, and then once we get older everything starts to seem more and more blase and we lose some of that overeager excitement from our surroundings.

Once Maria breaks down the though process that our brain naturally goes through, she lays out the pitfalls that we normally fall into that keep us from going from average to super human Sherlock. Basically I came away from Mastermind with the idea that if I continually practice, the steps that Sherlock goes through to create his methodical approach might become a little bit easier to do. Or at least, you will gain an appreciation for how Sherlock's mind works- theoretically. I enjoyed reading about the ideas Maria presented, and I found them to be helpful, but again I feel like I should note that you are not given ideas of how to implement them for yourself. For example, she says that you need to be able to recall information that you have gathered quickly, and if you cannot access it quickly enough, then it may not be useful to you after all. Yes, that makes a lot of sense to me, but how do you speed up sorting and recalling that information. Well, that is not something found in this book. Which is fine, I enjoyed the book for what it was, but the title can be a bit misleading. Mastermind is very interesting research on how Sherlock thinks. Fans of Sherlock Holmes and of neuroscience or psychology will probably find this book interesting. Maria Konnikova is very straightforward in her writing and presents some very interesting ideas.

As the semester goes on, my free time dwindles a lot. As a result I have barely any time to sit down and leisurely read books. Especially near exam time. When I do manage to get some reading time scheduled in, I don't want to lolly-gag. I need a book to grab my interest right away and not let go. It needs to flow right along so I can get lost in it's world for while. Lately a few books that I have been picking up have failed to do this within the first 20 pages or so. Normally, I would have no problem reading further to see if it picks up, but when I am so busy and short on time I just get discouraged and put the book down.

Then I picked up The Gaia Wars...

What a good choice! I loved it! Warren is so inquisitive and smart. A little wise beyond his 13 years but that's never a bad thing. He loves nature and he has a crush on a girl scout! I was a girl scout for 12 years, so that made me smile. Ok fine, so mentioning how cool girl scouts are was not the only reason I loved The Gaia Wars. It is just such a versatile read. There is something in it for everyone. Teens, adults, boys, and girls will all enjoy The Gaia Wars. There is action and adventure, mystery, and magic. What on earth is not to love? Which leads me to the next point, I love how much the story incorporates the earth.

Our environment is something that I think we often forget about, and I really liked how spiritual the earth is depicted in the book. Kenneth did such a great job describing everything. The imagery was so vivid. When Warren and Sean found the cave, I could picture the whole thing so easily. And I really want to see a picture of the medallion!

I loved the character of Mirra. I couldn't read the book fast enough to figure out the mystery that surrounded her. I think there is so much more to her than is revealed in the first book, and I would love for her to have her own prequel story! I think finding out how she met and fell in love would be such a nice story. ::winkwinkKenneth!::

The only think I didn't like was that the book left off at such a pivotal point! Luckily, I have the second book to pick up ASAP! Im in the middle of it right now and I am really liking it. It is even more action packed than the first one. Must get back to reading The Battle of Cascadia, I mean studying, now.

Oh wow! Seriously, that is all I have been saying since I finished the book 5 minutes ago. I keep hitting the next page button on my kindle, foolishly hoping that if I hit it just one more time another chapter will pop up and I won't be left with that crazy, CRAZY cliffhanger! What an ending. I need to know what is going to happen next!

Ok let's back up a little bit. The first book, The Gaia Wars, ended on a cliffhanger too, but I had the second book so I didn't think much about it. The second book,Battle for Cascadia, picks up right where the first one leaves off. In the midst of a battle. There are some seriously cool action sequences in this book. If you love action and fighting scenes- you need to RUN not walk and get your hands on a copy of this series. Everything is so vivid, and so awesomely detailed that it just folds out so nicely in your head. There is a lot of fighting, and I think that this is an awesome book for boys that may be reluctant to read. I know they would love it.

It's really hard to find a book with a male main character. It was really refreshing to read about Warren, and to watch him group up and mature. I cannot wait to see how his powers are going to start to develop. And also to see some of those "temptations" come into play. I can already tell the next book is going to be totally epic.

It's a little like The chronicles of narnia and thor, mythology and some futuristic sci fi all wrapped into one. The center pointe reminds me of the bridge between the worlds from Thor, which was totally awesome!

I really loved Ina and Thaddeus in this book, even more than I did from the first one. Thaddeus is just so nice and cool. Totally someone you want on your side in a fight. haha. I felt so bad for him at the end of the book, I hope he changes his mind about some things in the next book because I like him so much!

Ok I'm trying really hard not to give spoilers for this book, so I'm going to need some of you to run out and get it so we can talk about it! So many things took me by surprise, and I want to see if they caught you guys off guard too.

Great characters, cool original concept and one heck of a cliff hanger. Kenneth, you need to get to work on that 3rd book right this instant mr! I want to know what is going to happen. I have a feeling I am going to like the 3rd installment even more than the first 2 because right at the end of this book, we discovered something so cool! I swear that medallion has tons of secrets, and I want to know more more MORE about it!

Have you read books 1 or 2? let me know!

This is my first experience with a modern day fairy tale retelling, and I have to say, if the others are even half as good as Rapunzel Untangled was I need to start reading them all up. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. In fact, I loved it! I thought it was cute, clever, romantic, and so interesting, and Cindy Bennett even had a few twists up her sleeve. Rapunzel Untangled is a great book!

Rapunzel lives in a tower completely isolated and she has long flowing blonde hair. But you knew all that, right? She can't leave her tower because she has a severe immune disease and any contact with outside germs can be fatal for her. I thought it was awesome that her first introduction to the outside world was through facebook. How fitting in this technical age. She meets Fane on facebook and honestly, talking to him was just the catalyst that Rapunzel needed. She started to become more curious and interested in the world around her.

I just loved her and Fane's chats on facebook. I thought they were absolutely hilarious, and I loved all the pop culture and movie references. It kind of reminded me of the quick wit that I love so much in Meg Cabot books. (which as you all know, is HIGH praise from me) He is a great guy. He really took everything in stride. I thought the little romance between Rapunzel and Fane was adorable. Every time he got concerned with germs for her, it made me smile. There is just something about the two of them that works so well.

This book is not only the "can't-eat, can't-sleep, reach-for-the-stars, over- the-fence, World Series kind of stuff," (two points for whoever can name this movie!) but it also has a touch of magic. And we all know that magic can lead to some unexpected twists. I'm not going to ruin any surprises but I loved all of the plot lines so much that I really want you to experience it for yourself.

I loved the house. It reminded me of the house in Rose Red by Steven King. Where the lady of the house has to keep building on and "growing" the house. This book isn't a horror like that one, but the continuous construction on the house reminded me of that.

If you like sweet romances, modernization of fairy tales and just plain great stories- you NEED to check out Rapunzel Untangled. I loved this book. One of my favorites of the year so far! It is also my first book by Cindy Bennett. She has so many other books that I would like to try. Let me know which one I should check out next!