Festering Romance by Renee Lott

Janet is a bit socially adrift. She's not really close to anyone and doesn't choose to engage with anything around her. And really why should she? Her best friend Paul lives with her and is always there to make sure she has all the company she needs. The only problem is that Paul is a ghost, he died when they were eight and he hasn't moved on. It isn't until Janet is forced on a blind date with Derek that her perception of how she lives changes. All of a sudden she wants to connect with another person that's alive! The only problem? Derek has a ghost of his own, Carol, and Janet is having a problem confessing that Paul's still hanging around.

This story was rather sweet. I was truly drawn in to the relationship between Janet and Derek and Janet and Paul. I didn't much care for Carol, but I don't think I was intended to so that's fine. Generally this was a rather cute romance, with some actual emotional depth (shocking!) in regards to relationships romantic and platonic and how we deal with death. This could have been a rather simplistic and boring story, but it had some great little character traits, Derek is a guide on a night-time ghost tour, and the ghosts were pretty wonderful. Quick and adorable.

Waiting On Wednesday: The Lovely Shoes

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine to spotlight an upcoming release that we're excited about.  This week I'm waiting on The Lovely Shoes by Susan Shreve.

Franny is constantly embarrassed by two things in her life. One is her right foot, which curls in from a birth defect, so she has to wear ugly, heavy orthopedic shoes. And the other is her mother Margaret: beautiful, extravagant, flamboyant -- *mortifying*, in their small Ohio town.

Franny's first school dance is a disaster, so Margaret announces her latest crazy plan: They will travel to Italy to meet Salvatore Ferragamo, who will sculpt a pair of slippers especially for Franny. The idea is outrageous. The trip is expensive.

And the experience changes Franny's life forever.  

This sounds like it will be very sweet.  The main character also has a physical disability, something that is underrepresented in middle grade and YA literature.

The Lovely Shoes will be available in June.

Fray by Joss Whedon

This stand-alone story takes place in the same setting as Joss Whedon's well known series Buffy. Mel Fray has grown up in a dystopian world where social outcasts and anomalies live on the outskirts of society. Mel makes her way through life as an accomplished thief for the amphibious Gunther. It is only after the demon Urkon explains to Mel that the 'lurks' that are becoming more dangerous that Mel comes to realize her background as the Slayer. There's a problem though, Mel doesn't have the psychological characteristics that Slayers usually grow up with because Mel had a twin, a brother that was killed by vampire.

As a unapologetic Buffy and Joss Whedon fan, I really loved this. It was kind of great to see what Mr. Whedon would dream up next for the universe that he created. If you've watched any of the television series that Joss Whedon has directed/written/produced you'll recognize some of the plot and character devices that he has used in the past. Good action, great dialogue, excellent secondary characters. I also appreciated the fact that Joss Whedon requested that the main female character wasn't overly-sexualized. Good choice.

The Time-Traveling Fashionista by Bianca Turetsky

Louise Lambert loves vintage clothes.  When she gets a personal invitation to a traveling vintage fashion show, she's thrilled.  It will be the perfect place to get a dress for the 7th grade dance!  Much to Louise's surprise, when she tries on a beautiful pink dress she finds herself back in the time-period of the original dress owner.  Now Louise is on board a ship in 1912, and everyone thinks she's a movie star.  Louise is having a great time, until she discovers she's on board the Titanic...

This was very cute.  At first, I thought it was going to be another book about a tween or teenager yearning after expensive clothing and lots of brand name dropping.  It wasn't though.  Louise like vintage clothing because of the uniqueness of each individual piece.  She doesn't want to shop at the mall and buy a dress that hundreds of other people could also get.  She wants to search and find something special and think about what went in to making it and who the person was who wore it first.  So it was kind of nice.  She wasn't after what was the fanciest of most expensive.  Louise cared about the individuality and the story.

We do get some vintage clothing history, and learn some names of designers.  On board the Titanic (actually, she was really there) was designer Lady Cosmo Duff Gordon.  Louise gets to meet her and is very excited since she's read about her.  Lady Cosmo Duff Gordon is famous for saying to her secretary, as she watched the boat sink from a lifeboat, "There is your beautiful nightdress gone."

Louise has fun wearing beautiful clothing and hats from the early 1900s and having people think she's a movie star, but she learns that really she just wants to be herself.  Louise gets off the Titanic safely, don't worry.

This is going to be a series.  In the next book Louise will be going back to the French Revolution.  How far back does "vintage" go?  Louise taught me that it starts in 1980, but didn't say where it ended.  Aren't we getting into "antique" by the time we hit the French Revolution? *

The Time-Traveling Fashionista will be available April 5th.

*Fashion-Era.com tells me that "vintage" is anything that is between 20 years to 100 years old.  Anything older than that is "antique."  If it's more recent than 20 years, it's not vintage yet. 

Nerds Heart YA Nominations Close Today!

Today is your last chance to nominate a book for Nerds heart YA 2011.  It must be punished between January 1 - December 31, 2010 and be written by or include a character that falls into one of the following categories:  person of color, GLBTQ, disability, mental illness, religious lifestyle, lower socioeconomic statues, or plus size.  So nominate those awesome books that don't get the attention they deserve!

Huntress by Malinda Lo

In this prequel, we return to the world Ash took place in, but many, many years before.  The world is out of balance.  Winter will not change to spring, and people are beginning to starve.  The King receives an invitation from the fairy Queen to go and speak with her. The King sends his son, Con, sage-in-training, Taisin, and the chancellor's daughter, Kaede on the journey.  Kaede isn't sure she belongs on this journey, as the only reason she is going is that Taisin had a vision that Kaede was there.  Taisin will not elaborate on her vision, and acts very strangely toward Kaede.  There seems to be something she's holding back.

I read Ash when it first came out, and it was fine but I wasn't blown away or anything.  It was interesting.  It was loosely a Cinderella story, but not completely.  Malinda Lo's worlds are full of Chinese influences and draw on the I Ching, The Book of Changes, which is a classic Chinese text.

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Julia and Valentina Poole are twins and completely inseparable.  Their lives are forever changed when they receive a letter from their mother's twin, Elsepth, who they've never met.  Elsepth has died, and has left her London apartment to the twins, under the conditions that they live in it for a year before they sell it, and that their parents never set foot inside it.  Julia and Valentina settle into the apartment, and find that Elsepth is perhaps not as gone as they thought. 

This was way weird.  I didn't realize it was going to be a ghost story, so when Elsepth finds herself as a ghost floating around her flat I was surprised.  I was interested though, I wanted to know what the secret Elsepth was keeping and what the Poole twins' deal was.

Those girls were odd.  They're 21, and they still sleep in the same bed and dress alike.  They do everything together and have never been apart.  They went off to college, but Julia didn't like it and dropped out, so Valentina did too.  And then this happens twice more until Julia decided that they just weren't right for college.  Valentina clearly wanted to finish school, but she couldn't say no to Julia.

They had an interesting dynamic.  Julia was the physically stronger of the two.  She was bossy and commanding and never got sick.  Valentina was delicate and didn't like to fight and let Julia make all the decisions.  However, it was really Julia who couldn't bare to think of being apart from Valentina.  Valentina comes to realize she wants to go do her own thing; she wants to go back to school.  She wants to be a fashion designer.  But she can't figure out how to leave Julia.

Spoilers ahead.