The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

Brought to you by OBS Staff Member Sophie

“You think you know the true story of Alice in Wonderland? Well think again…Alyss is destined to become Queen of Wonderland, until her parents are murdered. She flees to the safety in our world. Years pass, now it is time to return.”

When my friend handed me this book and told me I would love it, I was not 100% sure if it was my thing. I am a huge fan of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and I did not know if this story would be my cup of tea but oh how I was wrong. From the moment I started to read this novel I was hooked.

Where the story came from: Frank Beddor wrote at the beginning of the novel that he wrote the true story of Alyss after seeing an incomplete deck of cards at a display at the British Museum. The images on the cards resembled Wonderland characters and the cards them self seem to have a glow about them, Frank later went to a playing card collector who had the missing cards from the deck and told him the story of the Looking Glass Wars.

The Looking Glass Wars tells the true story of Princess Alyss Heart of Wonderland. Her seventh birthday ends in blood and tears and Princess Alyss Heart is forced to leave her best friend (the love of her life) Dodge Anders, her tutor Bibwit Harte, her recently murdered parents and the person who killed them, Alyss’s aunt Redd behind in her Queendom and flees to our world with her bodyguard Hatter Madigan by jumping though the pool of tears not knowing where it leads. Hatter Madigan and Alyss get pulled apart, Hatter Madigan popped up though a puddle in Pairs, France and Alyss popped up though a muddy puddle in Victorian London.

Alyss struggles in our world to keep her imagination alive and to prove she is from Wonderland but after being adopted by the Liddell family and meeting Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a family friend becomes the only person who has ever believed Alyss about Wonderland, he changes his name (enter Lewis Carroll) and wrote two books about Alyss even if they were very unlike her Wonderland andseems like lies. This upsets Alyss so much she puts her past behind her and grows up as Alice Liddell a proper young lady who later becomes engaged to England’s, Prince Leopold.

While Alyss has moved on from Wonderland and knows there is no way back, Hatter Madigan searches all around the world hoping to find Alyss and after thirteen years of hunting for the princess he finds out how to get back to Wonderland and finds Alyss on the night before her wedding to Prince Leopold. Mean while back in Wonderland, Alyss aunt Red has taken over the Queendom, all of the Wonderland people have been living in fear since the takeover or they have become a Alyssians, the resistance against Redd, Dodge is all grown up and still alive and fighting to get pay back.

Will Hatter Madigan get to Princess Alyss before she is married? Will they ever get back to Wonderland and back to Dodge? Or will Alyss chose to stay in our world? Will she ever become Queen and defeat Redd?

Anyone who loves Alice in Wonderland will love this even more, it puts a stop to all the nonsense. At the end you really do feel like Alyss is real and this is her true story…

Linden’s home and safety have been compromised. Her Queen can no longer keep her safe and her Foster mother is powerless to help. So what can she do?

She must rely on Timothy, a teen-aged boy who has been suspended from school for fighting, to guide her through the dangerous streets of London and help her to find someone to restore magic to her tribe.

Timothy is the son of Christian Missionaries who are living in Uganda. He has been sent back to London to attend school, but he misses his family. His cousin and his cousin’s wife are the only family he has nearby, so when he’s suspended he must stay with them. While there he discovers the secret of the Oak in the yard. It is home to Linden and her tribe of Faeries.

Together Timothy and Linden face challenges, fears, and enemies that attempt to stop them from achieving their goal. Whether it’s talent stealing “evil” faeries or self-righteous “good” faeries They must learn to trust each other and strangers in order to save Linden’s home and family.

Throughout the story, Christian symbolism is present either in obvious form such as seeking refuge in a church and being taken home by the preacher and his wife or in subtle ways such as the plight of the two travelers that must pass a test of honor in order to be safe from pursuit.

We have many opportunities to witness selfless acts of kindness, decisions based on faith, and the battle of good versus evil. However in this story you see that in some situations neither good nor evil wins, rather there is a delicate dance in which one can not exist without the other and both must be present to appreciate and understand the other.

This book was written to be read by any age for enjoyment, but there is enough inspiration to speak to those that need an uplifting message that lies between the lines.

Richelle Mead
Vampire Academy – Book 5 – Spirit Bound

Brought to you by OBS Staff Member Deannerenee

Summary:

Dimitri gave Rose the ultimate choice. But she chose wrong…
After a long and heartbreaking journey to Dimitri’s birthplace in Siberia, Rose Hathaway has finally returned to St. Vladimir’s—and to her best friend, Lissa. It is nearly graduation, and the girls can’t wait for their real lives beyond the Academy’s iron gates to begin. But Rose’s heart still aches for Dimitri, and he’s out there, somewhere.
She failed to kill him when she had the chance. And now her worst fears are about to come true. Dimitri has tasted her blood, and she knows in her heart that he is hunting her. And if Rose won’t join him, he won’t rest until he’s silenced her…forever
Source:

Review:
HOLY CRAP!!!! I am in love with this series. I finished this book last night and I am still sitting here going over everything in my head. Rose is Rose , tough, smart and fierce. She and Adrian are together and I was surprised that I liked it.
As sweet and funny as Adrian is, there is no comparison to Dimitri, the Russian god! As I was reading this book it took everything in me not to skip ahead and see what was going to happen.
I love that Dimitri was changed back, of course there are consequences with every action so this should be no different. Lissa is not bonded to him( thank god) but she does feel compelled to help him, He wants nothing to do with Rose, which to be truthful I was not surprised, She of course does not give up, which turns Adrian off. Can we say love Triangle. Adrian does not want to give Rose up. Dimitri tells her he no longer has feelings for her, and you almost believe him. When The Queen is murdered and Rose is suspect number 1, the Guardians come to take her away while she is the middle of a conversation with Dimitri. He cannot stand the idea and pushes her behind him and starts fighting to protect her, and then you know and hope that they will be together.
The book was what it should be, freaking awesome! I have no idea what is going to happen in 6th and last book of this series, but what I do know is that it is going to one outstanding read with a lot of oohs and aahs along the way.
I think it should go on forever, but hey you can’t always get what you want.

As a child, Toni Fraser has chillingly accurate dreams of murders about to be committed, a psychic gift she suppresses. Years later, Toni and five friends follow a real-life dream: they procure a ruined Scottish castle and turn it into a tourist attraction, highlighted by a faux historical show Toni scripts about a murderously passionate Cromwellian-period laird, Bruce MacNiall. Of course, the laird is fictional, as is Toni’s terrifying tale of his wife’s strangling. Or so it seems—until an angry kilted hunk thunders onstage one night atop a black stallion, claiming to be the castle’s absentee owner, Bruce MacNiall. Ghost? Not likely. But when several missing girls are found strangled to death in the surrounding forest, it certainly appears that some murderous spirit is very much alive.

Review:

After reading this book I absolutely loved it. I thought it was the best Heather Graham book that I had read so far, but now that I’ve had a day or two think it over, I’m not sure that it was as good as I first thought. Oh but don’t make that line seem like I didn’t like it, because I do still think it is my favorite. I just think it may have some flaws. Which what book doesn’t?

You get really drawn in at the beginning of the book, This little girl is ‘dreaming’ of horrible gruesome deaths and they turn out to be real events happening. So it leaves you thinking that your going to be reading all about these crazy premonitions, to bad it’s lacking them. I’m mean through out the book you get some, but they just weren’t what I expected. Towards the end they got pretty good, but they felt more like flash backs.

I loved the initial plot though, these group of friends buying a castle in Scotland. And running ghost tours, that they made up but turn out to be real. Being in Scotland made it fun, I loved the accents used with the different characters, it made it very funny to read. But not only where the accents fun to read, the book it self had some very funny lines, a few times I was in tears from laughing so hard.

I did suspect who the serial killer was from the beginning, although my mind did bounce back and forth between a few people. I always knew that this man had something off about him. What I didn’t like is the reason for his killing. I guess someone doesn’t really have to have a reason to kill, but when the killer revealed why he was killing, I was just like WHAT?! that’s it. That is hardly a reason to kill people. I think that could have been worked out better.

Over all I still think this was a very good read. I will probably read it again one day.

Nalini Singh
Angel’s Blood – Book 1

Brought to you by OBS Staff Member Deannerenee

Summary:

Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux knows she’s the best—but she doesn’t know if she’s good enough for this job. Hired by the dangerously beautiful Archangel Raphael, a being so lethal that no mortal wants his attention, only one thing is clear—failure is not an option…even if the task is impossible.

Because this time, it’s not a wayward vamp she has to track. It’s an archangel gone bad.

The job will put Elena in the midst of a killing spree like no other…and pull her to the razor’s edge of passion. Even if the hunt doesn’t destroy her, succumbing to Raphael’s seductive touch just may. For when archangels play, mortals break…

Source:

Review:

This Book had me from the beginning. I am surprised by this writer, her characters are amazing and her story leaves you begging for more.
Elena is a tough, intelligent, smart mouthed vampire hunter who is the best at what she does. Enter the very overly confident, dangerous, short tempered and very good looking Archangel, mix them together and …………fireworks. The sexual tension between these two is something fierce.

With mimal information, a gag order in place and a feeling that if she fails her death may me just around the corner…….It seems impossible to do the job she is hired to do for Archangel. This is a non stop action with romance thrown in.

Richelle Mead ‘Vampire Academy’ – Book 1

Summary: Lissa Dragomir is a Moroi princess: a mortal vampire with an unbreakable bond to the earth’s magic. She must be protected at all times from Strigoi; the fiercest and most dangerous vampires–the ones who never die.

The powerful blend of human and vampire blood that flows through Rose Hathaway, Lissa’s best friend, makes her a Dhampir; she is dedicated to a dangerous life of protecting Lissa from the Strigoi, who are hell-bent on making her one of them.

After two years of illicit freedom, Rose and Lissa are caught and dragged back to St. Vladimir’s Academy, hidden in the deep forests of Montana. Rose will continue her Dhampir education. Lissa will go back to being Queen of the elite Moroi social scene. And both girls will resume breaking hearts.

Fear made Lissa and Rose run away from St. Vladimir’s–but their world is fraught with danger both inside and out of the Academy’s iron gates. Here, the cutthroat ranks of the Moroi perform unspeakable rituals and their secretive nature and love of the night creates an enigmatic world full of social complexities. Rose and Lissa must navigate through this dangerous world, confront the temptation of forbidden romance, and never once let their guard down, lest the Strigoi make Lissa one of them forever…

Review:

This was a great opener! I loved the story and all of the characters. It was set up so that you were hooked instantly.

Rose is outstanding: she is smart, beautiful, strong and clever. Rose and Lissa, her best friend and the girl she has sworn to protect, have ran way from their school they are captured and returned to school, by the very capable Dimitri.

Someone is trying to hurt Lissa and we are not sure why, but Rose will not rest until she gets to the bottom of it. She feels there is no one to trust except for her friend Lissa. While trying to protect her, Rose has to catch up on her training and Dimitri.

Dimitri has selflessly volunteered to help her, which leads to a very palpable attraction.

This book is great it has everything that a book should have, betrayal, mystery, friendship and the most important forbidden love!

The only thing, that bothered me, was that Lissa, as well as all the other vampires, never used their power to protect themselves, and they relied on the Dhampirs to them safe. That being said, this is still one of my favorite series and authors. And if they did protect themselves then I guess we would have no need for Rose or the super hot Dimitri!