Uglies

By: Scott Westerfeld

This was an excellent book written by Scott Westerfeld. At first glance people who are not into physical attractions might groan and drop the book right on the spot but it really is appealing to everyone. Well at least I thought it was. When I first saw it, I thought, “Ugh, another book filled with girls obsessed with how they look” but now I can see I was wrong. Uglies deserves a rating of five stars and is filled with betrayals and suspense.

Tally Youngblood is finally about to leave her ugly world behind and become pretty, where your only job is to have a great time. Just six days before Tally’s operation, her friend, Shay, is not sure if she wants to change. She would rather live on the outskirts of town and take the chances. Tally tried her best to keep Shay but to no avail, Shay runs away. On the day of Tally’s operation, someone tells her that there is something wrong and gets faced with the worst dilemma a sixteen year old girl can have: either find Shay and bring her back, or stay ugly forever and never turn pretty. The fate of everyone may lie in Tally’s hands.

Princess Academy

By: Shannon Hale
My Feelings:
Princess Academy, written by Shannon Hale, is a great book. I would give it a rating of five stars even though there are places where the book gets boring to me. It begins to pick up the pace and gets more exciting towards the end with a twist that readers will not have expected, other then jumping ahead and reading it. :P The poems at the beginning of each chapter were really creative and I thought the idea of it is really cool. Overall, it deserves its Newbery Award and I would recommend it to everyone who loves reading.
Summary:
Miri is a girl whose family has always lived on Mount Eskel. She has longed to work with the other villagers in a quarry, mining linder from the mountain they live on. Her father does not allow Miri to even step one foot in the quarry because she thinks she is too small. Soon, word comes from the lowlands that the prince is looking for a bride and the king's priests have said that the bride-to-be would come from Mount Eskel. In one year's time, the prince will come up the mountain to choose his bride and until then all eligible girls have to attend a makeshift academy to prepare them for a royal lowlander life. In the academy, the competition is bitter, but when the academy is in danger, it is Miri who has to think of a way to save her classmates and teacher.

Dragon Flight

By: Jessica Day George

An awesome book that even the word awesome does not describe how great this book is. Dragon Flight deserves a rating much higher than five stars. Just like its prequel, once I started to read it, I could not put it down. Jessica Day George knows how to weave a humorous and suspenseful fantasy story and fill it with excitement and the thirst for more. I really wish that there would be a third book following the first two books.

The Dragon War has long ended and so there should be no more trouble with the dragons anymore, right? Not the case. Creel is back to work as a seamstress but even if you are doing something that you love, life can also get a bit boring. Soon, a letter from Prince Luka, who is currently in a country named Citatie, says that Citatie has an army of dragons with soldiers riding on them. The king of Citatie plans to send the army of dragons and soldiers to destroy Feravel. The king of Feravel will not do anything so its up to Creel and her friends to figure out what is happening and to prevent a Second Dragon War.

I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’ll Have to Kill You

By: Ally Carter

This was a pretty good book and I would give in four and a half stars for a rating. I think it would be really cool if you could speak fourteen different languages and know how to kill a man in seven different ways. The knowing and speaking of fourteen different languages sounds unrealistic but I guess it can be true. It was very entertaining and suspenseful in many ways. Pretty much like everyone else who have read this book, I really want to go to the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women when I finished the story.

Cameron Morgan, nicknamed Cammie, is a fifteen year old girl and a sophomore in the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women. This is where exceptional young ladies are spies-in-training. They learn to master fourteen different languages, how to kill a man in seven ways, and many more spy-relating skills. All of this training and you think nothing can prevent her from falling. Think again. Soon, she falls in love with an ordinary boy named Josh Abrams. She is now on her most dangerous mission ever: Falling in love. Now she has to face extremely difficult dilemma. She can either risk the chance of Josh can find out that she is a spy-in-training or ignore Josh and go back to her normal life. But is it possible for Cammie to ignore her soul mate?

Rivers of Zadaa

By: D.J. MacHale

A very excellent book by D.J. MacHale. The sixth book of the Pendragon series has not disappointed its readers. It is filled with action and suspense until the very last page. I must say that once I started reading, I could not stop and it took a lot of self-disipline to put the book down.

After the Traveler's victory in Eelong, Saint Dane has chosen Zadaa as his next victim territory. This is also where Loor resides as a Batu and Bobby Pendragon has feelings for her. Saint Dane's influence has put the already weak treaties between the two tribes of Xhaxhu into a verge of war. The rivers of Zadaa have dried up and it was everyone's lifeline. Without the rivers, everything would perish and leave the city in the mercy of the other cannibol tribes of Zadaa. Problem is no one knows where the water went and it might just be some natural disaster but it can not be that simple. Pendragon and Loor, with the help of a few trusted friends need to figure out where did all the water go before the Batu and the Rokador go to war.

**Spoiler Warning**

At the end, when "Andy Mitchell" came into Courtney's room, was it actually Saint Dane? I'm a little confused about it.

Dragon Slippers

By: Jessica Day George

Oh my gosh! This was an awesome book to read and I would give it a rating of five stars. Once I started to read it, I just could not put it down. I even tried to since it was getting really late but I could not do it. Jessica Day George’s writing is filled with excitement and suspense that anyone, young or old, would enjoy. The sequel to this book is called Dragon Flight and I can not wait to get to read it.

Creel is a ordinary peasant girl who live with her aunt and uncle because her mother and father are dead. Thanks to a fever. They did not have a lot of money. In fact, they were actually pretty poor. One day, her aunt came up with an outrageous idea of sacrificing Creel to a dragon, hoping that a knight in shining armor would come rescue her and later on marrying her so she and her family would get rich. Now that was not the case. It was Creel who wheedled her way out of getting eaten and it is she who has the power to save her kingdom or destroy it because the country is on the verge of war.

A Curse Dark as Gold

by Elizabeth C. Bunce

This was a very good read and I recommend it to anyone who likes the fairy tale of Rumpelstiltskin. I would give it four stars if I had to rate it because it sort of got pretty boring in the middle. By the ending though, things got more suspenseful until it actually got scary because I just could not predict on what was going to happen.

Charlotte Miller’s father as just died, leaving Charlotte in charge to her family’s beloved mill, Stirwaters, and a younger sister, Rosie. Even though the Miller family has worked very hard and made fine cloth with some exceptions, they seem to always run into a lot of bad luck. No son has ever managed to inherit the mill or even live to adulthood. The mill has been inherited in a rather zigzag way from uncle to nephew, long-lost brothers to cousins, etc. Now, Charlotte and Rosie Miller are the last of the family with no one to pass it on to, but they are determined to keep the mill. Not very easy to do. There has been a stack of debts and her uncle is not making anything easier. Soon, Charlotte is in a swarm of debts, superstitions, and curses. She must battle her way to the bottom of it and soon before someone comes and seizes the mill from her hands.