Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Maddie and Julie's lives would never have intersected without a war.  But wars bring people together, and together this is their story....

Maddie has longed to make something of herself. She is mechanically minded having lived around motorbikes all her life. When the war comes her potential is spotted and her dreams are realized when she becomes an Auxiliary RAF pilot. She ferries planes, pilots and others from place to place.

Julie is of noble heritage; she is petite, blond and totally assured; she also speaks three languages.  Working in the same place as Maddie, they become unlikely friends after they use their combined skills to help the RAF take in a Luftwaffe pilot.  Maddie never thought a friendship would blossom, until they started spending more time together, telling each other their top ten fears, going on adventures, and realizing that cultural differences only make them more interesting.

But one night will change that....one airplane crash into Nazi-riddled France.  One girl caught as a supposed spy, the other one trapped until she can find her way back to England.
This is a book of a story within a story....two tales told and seen from two different perspectives.

Through the layers of story, characters spring to life. There is more to this tale than is immediately apparent. It is engaging and full of unexpected twists. understood did I fly through the novel.


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The Waiting Sky by Lara Zielin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you and your mom were caught up in a twister and only one could survive, who would it be?

This question may be a game to most but to Jane McAllister this is a real life dilemma.

Compared to the turmoil in her personal life, chasing tornadoes doesn’t seem so crazy to Jane. Jane is spending the summer working with her brother’s storm-chasing team away from her manipulating alcoholic mother.
Guilt at leaving her mom alone in Minnesota follows Jane as she photographs the physical destruction caused by tornadoes.
Despite her friends’ and brother’s attempts, Jane fails to see the parallel between a storm’s chaos and her own chaotic life with her mother.
Zielin does an excellent job of describing the reversal of roles between a daughter and her parent, and her portrayal of the mother's ability to manipulate her daughter is spot-on.

Distance doesn’t stop her mother’s emotional manipulation, and Jane is faced with some major decisions.



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The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Because I do love a good mystery, I really enjoyed the portion of the book where Blue and the Raven Boys were looking for their energy lines and making new discoveries in their search for King Glendower. There were layers to the mystery, enough to keep you guessing but not so much that I felt overwhelmed with confusion. The author does a great job of revealing just the right amount of information at just the right time, and there are some big surprises as the book progresses.

What really appealed to me most about this book was its ambiance. The story takes place in Virginia, and the setting really becomes a character in its own right. Additionally, each character has a distinct personality that’s just a little bit fantastic. They’re realistic characters, but slightly exaggerated. The story is contemporary and told without a lot of supernatural hoopla – certainly there are a lot of supernatural elements, but they’re presented within the realm of reality. It ends up coming together to create a specific kind of realistic-fantasy world; for me it was a perfect balance.


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