Book Review: Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier

Wildwood Dancing is a stunning, entertaining book chock full of fairy-tale prettyness and multi-dimmensional characters galore.

The story is based primarily upon The Twelve Dancing Princesses (though you can see traces of other fairytales as well) and based in my favorite foreign country--Romania--in my favorite province--Transylvania.

There are five daughters who live at Piscul Dracului. Every Full Moon they open the portal and travel to the Other Kingdom. For that night, they dance at the revels in the wildwood with the otherworldy creatures , and, thanks to Jenica's watching eyes, they have not had any trouble until three new arrivals are introduced at the revels--Night People. Otherwise known as vampires. Suddenly, Jenica and her sisters' lives are turned upside down. And it won't be easy getting everything back to normal. After all--everything comes with a price.

This is definitely one of my new favorites--I love the blend of vampires and Fey, the Romanian terms and names, not to mention Gogu--he is such an awesome frog! (I totally wish I had a frog to carry around on my shoulder!)

Anyway, I would definitely recommend this to anyone who reads the YA fantasy genre.

~Sookie

yay!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Top Eight ARCs I'd like to have in my stocking

In no particular order.....

1. Hallowmere, By Venom's Sweet Sting--Faeries. Boarding school. Witches. The Reformation Period. I fell in love right away with Hallowmere 1, can't wait to read book 2. It comes out in several days!

2. The Sweet Far Thing (book 3 in Gemma Doyle series)--check! Recieved this one in the mail quite awhile ago (note: I will post my review of this in a few days when it comes out!!!!). Still, it was only a borrow, and I'd like to have this in my stocking to keep forever ^_^

3. The Host by Stephenie Meyer--I'll read anything by this author, including a sci-fi book about body-snatching aliens.

4. Cybele's Secret--I ordered the first in the series a couple of days ago, and I hate waiting on sequels.....Even when I haven't read book 1 yet (though I've been guaranteed I'll love it by several people)

5. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer--the fourth book in the Twilight series. 'Nuff said.

6. Princess Mia--the last book in the Princess Diaries (*tear* I'm going to miss that feeling of reading the next book in the series for the very first time)

7. Bayern 4--hasn't really been written yet. But still, I'd love to have it.....

8. A Curse Dark as Gold--this looks like a really good book!!!!!


Anywho.....
Finals are brutal. *Shivers* I have my first at 8 tomorrow morning.....cross your fingers! Knock on wood! With hope and prayer and studying and massive amounts of chocolate I might just pass it....

Author Interview: Kaza Kingsley

Kaza Kingsley, the author of Erec Rex: The Dragons Eye and Erec Rex: Mosters of Otherness, otherwise known as Queen of Fabulosity, has allowed me to interview her about writing, future projects, and among other things--favorite websites.....





When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?

I was one of those kids whose nose was always buried in a book. So
authors were like rock stars to me. As a kid I was always playing around
with words, and writing short stories. I remember writing one with my
brother that turned out incredibly gory and silly all at the same time. It
was fun, though! So - I guess I've always wanted to be an author!

Can you tell us a little bit about your writing process? Do you
outline? Spontaneously make things up as you go? Or have some special
methods?

Before I wrote a word of Book One in the Erec Rex series I plotted out
the first book in detail as well as the rest of the series - for five
months! I wrote detailed plot on loose leaf paper and put it in a binder
so I could add into any section as I went. Then, even when I was
writing the rough draft, I would still add plot ideas for later in the book
or in future books. Sometimes I get hit with a great idea, but know it
won't fit in until, say, Book Four. But the good thing about planning
it in advance is that it lets me drop hints in earlier books, and set
things up well!

Do you have any other projects in mind besides Erec Rex?

Oh, yes. That's the problem with having maybe too much creativity - you
get hit over the head with all kinds of great ideas when you need to
get something else finished. I just write down the ideas and make myself
wait. I am planning a cookbook tied to the Erec Rex series, full of
fun-to-make, completely unique goofy but good foods. I'm also writing a
side book to the series. And I have some great ideas about a younger
kids series, too!

What were some of your favorite books as a kid?

I loved the Wizard of Oz series (about 14 books) by L. Frank Baum.
Those, and pretty much everything I could get my hands on! But I still love
"kids/YA" books. I read them more than adult books. Inkheart is next
on my list.

Can you tell us anything about the next Erec Rex book : The Search
for Truth?

You bad girl!! Well ... I guess I can tell you a bit. Erec finds out a
lot more about his past. And here is an aside you might find
interesting: Do you remember the contests in Book One? The first one was called
the MONSTER. Book two is called The Monsters of Otherness. The second
contest was the Pro and Contest (about finding out the truth...) Book
three is The Search for Truth....

What do you like to do when you're not writing?

I love to hang out with friends and watch movies. I love to read, which
I don't let myself do too much when I'm writing. I'm on MySpace and
Facebook, which take more of my time than I want. Facebook is more fun, I
think. I like to cook - deserts especially. Lots of things.

Random question: What's your favorite website?
Hmmm... In about a month it will be my website, hands down,
http://www.erecrex.com I'm getting it totally redone and it will be awesome. But for now ... that's a toughie. I use Wikipedia all the time -
that might have to win.


Thank you so much for your time, Kaza Kingsley!

Book Wish List

I'm sorry for yet another mini hiatus! Final reviews are brutal--as are wrap-up-the-quarter tests and COLLEGE APPLICATIONS!!!! (Still haven't successfuly gotten one in the mail yet).
All right, enough of that babble. Here is my current book wish list for the holidays.

1.

Leap of Faith--Erin reviewed this one, and I find the differences in denominations to be fascinating for some reason. So it's a must-read.

2.

Tantalize: A werewolf, a vampire-chef-in-training, and one very unique girl all combine to make this story seem tempting to read. plus its set in the Texas capital--Austin!!! I personally give cudos to any author who writes about vampires in Austin...

3.

Princess Mia: this is the last installment of the Princess Diaries series. It won't be out for awhile.

4.

Spiderwick Chronicles: I really, really want to buy these but they're so expensive!!

5.


Out of the Wild: I can't wait for this one! As always, Sarah Beth Durst's books promise adventure and fun.


6.

Wildwood Dancing: I've heard many, many great reviews of this book. Plus--it combines fairies with Romania! Yay!

7.

Breaking Dawn: the fourth installment of the Twilight series. I seriously CANNOT WAIT!!!!!



Anyway, I haven't been posting enough in this blog. Sorry I've been neglecting for so long. Senior year is by far the busiest! ^_^

Manga anyone?

When I first heard about Manga specifically (I already knew about Graphic Novels--but these are a bit different), my friend asked me if I had read any. I thought she was joking so I laughed.
She looked at me like I had a third eye on top of my forehead.
"What's Manga?"
I asked.
Now I had an addition of tentacles to go with my third eye. Apparently I was supposed to know what this "Manga" was.
She told me.
I bought some.
I got a headache from trying to read a book backwards.
I threw them out.
Now, awhile later, after another friend of mine read Twilight, she recommended this Manga series to me: Millenium Snow. At first I was like "I am NOT reading any type of book by a guy named 'Biscuit Hatred'" (It's actually Bisco Hatori, and she's a she). Then my friend forced me to borrow her copy, and I'm in the middle of reading it now. I really like it, even though the backwards-reading and almost no text thing and sketchy drawings thing still kind of bugs me.
All I want to know is--what do ya'll think of Manga? Do ya'll know any good Manga series besides Millenium Snow?