Dragon's Keep

Dragon’s Keep

Janet Lee Carey

Rosalind, princess of Wilde Island, is almost perfectly beautiful. She has a lovely face and will have a beautiful shape when she is a woman. But she is not perfect. The ring finger of her left hand – the finger on which she should wear her wedding ring – is not a finger at all but a claw, a dragon’s claw. Nobody but Rosalind and her mother are aware of her deformity – she always wears golden gloves to hide it. If anyone finds out, she will no longer be a princess – will perhaps be thought of as a witch and killed. It was prophesied by none other than Merlin that she will be the one to bring peace to the island – but how can that happen.

To make matters worse, the island is under periodic attacks by a dragon, who has no compunction about eating humans. When Rosalind is captured by the dragon, there is no real hope that she can survive. But there is that prophesy – and can Merlin be wrong?

I really enjoyed Dragon’s Keep. Janet Lee Carey is a wonderful writer and this novel has a lot of depth to it. I did find that I did have to pay attention to what I was reading – I couldn’t simply fly through the novel because I got lost a couple of times. I read the book during a read-a-thon at school and it was easy to get distracted by people who came into the media center needing my help. I don’t think this is necessarily a good book for people who don’t like fantasy, but if you do love fantasy novels, this would be a good choice.

The copy of Dragon's Keep that I used for this review was checked out from my media center.

Sisters Grimm: The Everafter War

The Everafter War

Michael Buckley

I thought this was supposed to be the last of the Sisters Grimm series, and as much as I've enjoyed the series, I've been ready for it to end. Now it looks as though there will be at least 2 additional books. In this one, we find out who the Master is. Sabrina's and Daphne's parents are awakened but all in all this is a darker book than some of the others.

I purchased the copy of the book that I reviewed.

Whether to blog

I've really been struggling with blogging recently. Our county, like many counties in North Carolina, is in a severe budget crunch. One of the cuts they made was the media assistants' positions. I now have my full-time job to do, and my assistant's full-time job to do. It's been hard, and I know that I need to cut some of the things I do because I simply don't have time to do it all.

I have been reading much less than usual -- I'm exhausted by the time I get home each day and right now the tv is more appealing. I thought I'd put the blog on hold until summer when I have a break from school. But today at lunch I was reading some of the blogs I used to have time to read daily and I realized how much I love being a part of this community. I think book bloggers serve an important role -- I have certainly learned about books I would have never heard of without them, books that I've passed on to teachers and students at my school.

So I think I'll continue to try. I may only talk about a couple of books a month (hopefully I won't skip any more months the way I skipped September).