Fiction Addiction’s Blog

Sarah Beth Durst’s debut novel, Into the Wild by (Razorbill, papberback, $7.99), is a delightful fractured fairy tale for young adults.

Before she was born, Julie’s mother, Rapunzel, and other fairy-tale characters escaped their stories and entered the real world. The enchanted forest they fled, known as The Wild, is currently stored under 12-year-old Julie’s bed.

But then someone wishes The Wild free and it soon subsumes the town, trapping Julie’s mom and grandmother. Will Julie be able to survive the Wild and rescue her family?

Check availability of Sarah Beth Durst books at Fiction Addiction.

Draw One in the Dark by Sarah A. Hoyt (Baen, paperback, $7.99) is a welcome addition to the field of urban fantasy. Hoyt’s first novel introduces us to Kyrie Smith and Tom Ormson, nightshift co-workers at a Colorado diner who are both shapeshifters.

Kyrie was convinced that her jaguar shape was simply a hallucination or symptom of schizophrenia, but when she goes out the back door of the diner and encounters a blood-spattered dragon who shifts back into a dazed and confused Tom, she can no longer deny the truth.

In order to keep Tom alive long enough to learn more about shifters, Kylie must help him deal with a Chinese triad of shapeshifting dragons desperate to recover the relic he has stolen.

Fans of Wen Spencer’s Tinker and Emma Bull’s Finder should enjoy this urban coming-of-age tale.

Check availability of Sarah Hoyt books at Fiction Addiction.

Fiction Addiction’s business book club met last night to discuss the modern business classic The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. The club unanimously liked the book and found it’s theories on social epidemics fascinating.

The one downside to the book from our point of view is that it is mainly a theory book, with some fascinating examples, but not very much practical advice as to how to apply the lessons learned. However, many of the business books written since The Tipping Point was published, including our March pick Made to Stick, have made it their mission to take up where Gladwell left off and provide concrete steps for implementing his theories.

Our mext meeting will be on June 26th at 6:30 pm at Thai Top Restaurant. We will be discussing Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping by Paco Underhill. Receive a 15% discount off this title if purchased from us prior to the meeting.

Mary Alice Monroe leaves the beach and heads for the mountains in her new novel, Time Is a River. Charleston native Mia Landan, 38,  decides to spend the summer in a mountain cabin near Asheville and re-evaluate her life after her desperate struggle with breast cancer. Mia discovers the journal of Kate Watkins, a female fly fisher from the 1920s, and adopts Kate as her mentor. As Mia’s fly-fishing skills improve so does her interest in Kate and she begins an investigation into Kate’s notorious past.

Savvy by Ingrid Law (Dial, hardcover, $16.99) is an enjoyable fantasy novel for preteens.

Our heroine, Mibs Beaumont comes from a family where each child discovers her “savvy” (magical ability) on her 13th birthday. But just before her big day, Mibs father is in a terrible accident. Mibs is convinced that her new savvy will allow her to heal her father so she sneaks a ride to the hospital on a rickety bus, but things soon go astray: her siblings and two of their preacher’s kids insist on going along, the bus starts heading in the wrong direction, and her savvy isn’t turning out like she hoped.

Check the availability of Savvy at Fiction Addiction.

Fans of Holly Black’s teen urban fantasies should enjoy Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr (HarperCollins, paperback, $8.99).

High school junior Aislinn lives with her grandmother in Huntsville, PA, just south of Pittsburgh. Like her grandmother and her mother before her, Aislinn has the sight and can see faeries. Following the rules her grandmother has drilled into her (don’t stare at invisible faeries, don’t speak to invisible faeries, don’t attrack the attention of faeires) has kept Aislinn safe so far, but all that changes when she attracts the interest of Keenan, the Summer King.

With the rules not helping her any longer, Aislinn confides in her friend Seth and together they work to withstand Keenan and the machinations of the Faerie court.

Check availability of Melissa Mar books at Fiction Addiction.