I hadn’t realised how quiet things have been around here lately — I’ve had a lot of prob­lems with com­put­ers these past few weeks, lap­tops dying, inter­net con­nec­tion prob­lems, uploaded images issues etc. The good news is that I have got­ten back into my read­ing groove so expect to see some (long over­due!) reviews appear­ing soon.

Tal­ent illus­tra­tor Neil Swabb, whose work I’m sure many of you will recognise, kindly took part in Cover Cor­ner this month. I also hit 100 books this morn­ing, so I’m halfway through my Goodreads read­ing chal­lenge for 2012  and May also saw me reach my One Year Blo­gov­er­sary! Check out my post about this past year as a book reviewer and make sure to stop by the give­away that is still going on as well.

Best of the Bunch in May

Body and Soul by Stacey Kade

[box] The Ghost
I’ve been trapped in the body of Lily “Ally” Turner for a month now. Talk about a fash­ion cri­sis on an epic scale. What wor­ries me more, though, is some­times I catch Will look­ing at me like he thinks I’m Lily…or that he wishes I were. With­out the good looks of my for­mer self, I don’t know who I am, or if who that is is good enough. I need out of this mess. Now.

Will and I have been look­ing for a solu­tion, one that would sep­a­rate me from Lily with­out killing her. But it’s not going well. Then, when it seems like things couldn’t get any worse, we run into Misty, my for­mer best friend and boyfriend-stealer extra­or­di­naire, who claims she’s being haunted…by me. Seriously?

I’m deter­mined to get to the bot­tom of who’s pre­tend­ing to be the spirit of Alona Dare (while I’m pre­tend­ing to be some­one else) and then get the heck out of this body. Or die trying…

The Goth
I’ll admit it. It’s really weird to look at Alona but see Lily. I do know the dif­fer­ence, though, con­trary to what Alona might be say­ing. And Alona is more than a pretty face to me, not that she would believe that.

Our one lead for some help in this messed up sit­u­a­tion might be a page torn from the yel­low pages-—the “Psy­chics” section-—I found in my dad’s stuff. One of the “fakes” seems a bit more real-—and odd-—than the oth­ers. Before I can inves­ti­gate fur­ther, though, Alona is off and chas­ing a ghost that’s prob­a­bly noth­ing more than a fig­ment of Misty’s guilty imag­i­na­tion. Now Lily’s fam­ily is freak­ing out because she didn’t come home, my mom is order­ing me to stay out of it, and some­thing is def­i­nitely wrong with the per­son for­merly known as Lily “Ally” Turner…[/box]

I’m a huge, huge fan of this fun, quick-witted and siz­zling series by Stacey Kade and the final book in the tril­ogy didn’t dis­ap­point. I lit­er­ally devoured it in three hours and sat there grin­ning stu­pidly to myself for the rest of the day. It’s been a while since I enjoyed and loved a book so much.

Close Sec­ond

Princess Acad­emy by Shan­non Hale

[box]Miri lives on a moun­tain where, for gen­er­a­tions, her ances­tors have quar­ried stone and lived a sim­ple life. Then word comes that the king’s priests have divined her small vil­lage the home of the future princess. In a year’s time, the prince him­self will come and choose his bride from among the girls of the vil­lage. The king’s min­is­ters set up an acad­emy on the moun­tain, and every teenage girl must attend and learn how to become a princess.

Miri soon finds her­self con­fronted with a harsh acad­emy mis­tress, bit­ter com­pe­ti­tion among the girls, and her own con­flict­ing desires to be cho­sen and win the heart of her child­hood best friend. But when ban­dits seek out the acad­emy to kid­nap the future princess, Miri must rally the girls together and use a power unique to the moun­tain dwellers to save her­self and her classmates.[/box]

Princess Acad­emy was a sur­prise — despite the many pos­i­tive reviews on Goodreads, I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. It’s def­i­nitely become one of my favourites and I pre-ordered the next book as soon as I put this one down. A fan­tas­tic mod­ern fairy­tale for young kids and adults.

You can read my review here.

Best of the Bunch is a great end of the month orig­i­nally cre­ated by Lyri­cal Reviews and now hosted by Sally at Always Lost in Stories

Books Read in May

86. The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw

87. Shoot­ing Stars by Ali­son Rushby

89. New Girl by Paige Har­bi­son

90. Where She Went by Gayle Fore­man

91. Cracked Up To Be by Court­ney Sum­mers

92. Body and Soul by Stacey Kade

93. Arca­dia Awak­ens by Kai Meyer

94. Fins Are For­ever by Tera Lynn Childs

95. Princess Acad­emy by Shan­non Hale

96. The False Prince by Jen­nifer A. Niel­son

97. A Lady Awak­ened by Cecilia Grant

98. A Week to be Wicked by Tessa Dare

99. Eon by Ali­son Goodman

100. Poi­son Study by Maria V. Snyder

As always, click to read reviews

Other Reviews

Struck by Jen­nifer Bosworth

French Pic­ture Books: Il Neige des Couleurs

Cover Cor­ner

Neil Swabb