Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston

 Amari's brother, Quinton disappeared after he started working for a mysterious secret agency after graduating from college.  Since his disappearance, Amari has had trouble controlling her temper at the private school where she attends as a scholarship student.  Then Amari gets a mysterious invitation to go to the same "leadership summer camp" her brother attended when he was her age.  Both Amari and her mother are excited about this new opportunity, and Amari hopes at the camp she will discover more about her brother's disappearance. When she arrives at camp, she discovers that her brother had been part of a Bureau of Magic that moderates the interaction between magical beings and humans and that the summer camp is a training camp for future Bureau agents.  She also discovers the same kind of prejudice that she experienced at school.  As she looks for clues about her brother's disappearance, she has to fight hard to stay in the program while other students and teachers try to drive her away.

The temptation to write about a magic school is just too good to pass up for many middle grade authors.  That being said, this was a better than average magic school book.  The magic system is interesting, and the author does a good job with both plot and characterization. I admit I wasn't sure who the bad guy was until the very end. I put the second book on hold right away.  (2021, 416 p)

P.S. I was amused that the author used his initials.  Usually, a woman author uses her initials instead of her given name for a middle grade novel when the main character of her book is male. The assumption is that some boys won't read a book with a female author. The opposite happened here. The author is male but has a female main character.  It is less common, and it made me smile. 

The Opera Sisters by Marianne Monson

 Two women, Ida and Louise Cook work as secretaries on a minimum wage in England in 1929.  One day, on a whim, Louise buys a phonograph with some records of opera. They love the music and start saving money to attend a live opera. Soon they are hooked and start saving to travel to Vienna to see the most famous musicians of their time.  The ardency of their appreciation comes to the attention of some of the performers, and they get to meet some of the greats. Then Hitler starts to move against other countries.  On one of the Cook's trips to Austria, one of their opera friends asks them if they will smuggle out some valuables and hold them for them in England.  The friends are Jewish and are trying to get out of Austria but are afraid all of their belongings will be seized. The sisters agree to help and that is the beginning of their efforts to help dozens of German Jews escape Germany and Austria before and during the Nazi occupation. Their efforts come to a halt when Hitler starts bombing London, but each finds other ways to serve. 

This is a great fictionalized account based on a true story.  In the end the two women end up helping 29 families and individuals escape from occupied territories. The story is interesting and the woman are portrayed very sympathetically.  They grow in confidence in their efforts, while at the same time being worn down emotionally by all they cannot save. The writing is good and their are some really lovely descriptions of both the beauty of Germany and Austria, and the horrors of war.  The only fault is that the book is paced a little bit slowly and could have used some editing.  There are chapters that recount important events of the war without reference to Ida and Louise.  I think the author should have assumed the reader knew what happened, for example, at Dunkirk. If the author had left out those historical chapters,(there were maybe eight or ten of them) the book would have been better paced and easier to get through. Still, it is a really good book that I recommend to people who like WWII fiction and nonfiction. (2022, 352 p.)

Beauty by Robin McKinley

 Beauty's family falls on hard times when her father's ships are lost at sea.  They move to a small village on the edge of an enchanted wood, where Beauty's brother-in-law works as a blacksmith. When news comes that one of Beauty's father's ships has arrived at last, he goes to see what of their fortune might be recovered.  When he returns he tells a fantastic tale of an enchanted castle and a horrible beast.  Beauty, the youngest of her sisters, agrees to return to the castle with her father. There she finds strange invisible servants, changing castle halls, and a beast that is nothing like she would have expected. 

This is probably my favorite retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story.  It is actually very similar to the original story, just fleshed out and gentled.  It was written written in 1993 and would never have been published if it was written today.  It is too straight forward and devoid of controversy or social commentary.  There is no attempt to be PC or inclusive. I know it is very entitled of me, but I really enjoyed it.  The writing is good and the relationship between Beauty and the Beast is sweet.  I always thought the Disney company drew on it heavily when they made their animated version. This is a good choice if you want to curl up on a cold night with a classic fairytale. (256, 1993)

Untamed by Glennon Doyle

 This is the latest book from a popular blogger and best selling author about finding power within yourself to make your life awesome. The author became a bulimic and alcoholic as a teen but was able to overcome her addictions when she found out she was pregnant.  She married and expanded her family and seemed to be living the American dream until her husband confessed he was cheating on her. She tried to hang on to her marriage for the sake of her children, but then fell in love with a female soccer player. Her marriage ended and she established a new life with her new love, Abby, but still sharing parenting responsibilities with her ex-husband. This book chronicles the emotional process she went through to accept herself and her new life. She also gives advice and encouragement to other women to throw off the confines of the modern misogynistic society and societal institutions, like organized religion, and seek self gratification above all else. 

This book was very popular when it was released in 2020. It is a collection of short anecdotes and reflections on life. Doyle writes honestly and passionately, and is willing to show her own vulnerabilities and weakness. I agreed with some of the things she said, but a lot of it went very counter to my view of life. As I read I kept thinking to myself, I wonder what kind of book she will be writing in five years. Will her new life style and philosophy still hold of will something else have happened to make her do another drastic turn around in her beliefs? The philosophy she advocates sounds really appealing and even seductive and I can see how a lot of women could feel temporarily gratified by the kind of life style this book advocates, but is what she saying really true? I don't think so.  I don't agree with about 70% of the ideas she promotes and about 10% even offensive to me.  It was hard to keep reading the book for that reason, but I decided it was a good exercise of trying to see another's point of view. It did give me some new perspectives and caused me to do some introspection. I don't think, however, I will be recommending it to anyone else. (352 p. 2020)

Northwind By Gary Paulsen

 Leif was orphaned very young in a small Viking port town.  He was raised by various townspeople until he was old enough to work on a ship and then went to sea. His ship is stranded in a 

northern village where the crew got along alright catching and smoking salmon and eating local berries and plants.  Then one day a ghost ship comes, bringing death and plague.  Leif and another boy escape the village in a canoe but fall ill as well.  Finally, Leif finds himself alone in the northern wilds and has to figure out how to feed himself and avoid being killed by the fierce nature around him. As he does, he discovers unspeakable beauty and peace, and the strength that lives within himself. 

I am a huge Gary Paulsen fan and with this short survival story he did not disappoint.  The writing is so good!  Is it narrative or free verse poetry?  I would say poetry. The descriptions of nature are transcendent and I just know, having met Gary Paulsen and knowing a little about him, that he personally experienced all the things that Leif experienced. That is why he can write them so well. I know a couple of years ago he was doing a long stint living on a boat and traveling around the world. I am guessing this story arose out of experiences he had on that trip. I think that Leif's description of writing on the piece of bark also explains why Paulsen, himself, writes. I am just glad he has an agent that keeps bugging him to turn in his writing so that he can get it published so the rest of us can see the world through the author's eyes. I am eager to give this book to teen boys who like Hatchet but also the Ranger's Apprentice series. (256, 2022)

Grace by Beverly Watts

Nicholas Sinclair, the new Duke of Shackleton, was wounded in the battle of Trafalga in both body and spirit.  The Duke understands he has a responsibility to marry and produce an heir, but has no emotional energy to conduct a courtship. He approaches the local reverend and asks if he can have one of his eight daughters to marry by the end of the week. The reverend, understanding how such a marriage will elevate his family's prospects, agrees and offers Grace, his oldest daughter, to the Duke. Grace is independent and headstrong but smart enough to know how much her marriage will help her family.  She is determined to be a good wife to the Duke, but her efforts to get to know him are met with icy indifference. Nicholas is surprised by how much he is drawn to his new wife, but is determined to keep her at a distance. A battle of will and wits ensues, as both struggle to make their marriage of convenience a marriage of love.

I don't remember why I put this one on hold.  I think my idea was to try a new historical romance writer.  I ended up enjoying 98% of the book. The plot is not super original, but the characters fine and there are some truly amusing scenes with Grace's father who acts in the book as a kind of comic relief. So what of the other 2%? (spoiler alert) About half way through the book the couple decide to consummate their marriage and the author goes into way too much detail about that event. Why? I ask myself. The scene only lasts a few pages, which I skipped over, buy why add it in at all?  Why not just have him carry her into the room, and then skip to the morning when they wake up smiling in each other's arms?  I guess Ms Watts is not going on my clean romance writer's list. I need to start a new list.  An "uhhh, no" list of historical romance writers. (184 p, 2020)

The Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry

 In the 12th century in France, Dolssa is the teenage daughter of a devout mother and a wealthy father.  Her father wants her to marry well, but her mother hopes she will join a nunnery and devout herself to God.  Then, one day she has a spiritual experience and is converted to Christ.  She sees him as her "beloved" and begins teaching others of his love. Wind of her teaching reaches the ears of the local inquisitors and she is accused of heresy. Her mother defends her and is executed, but Dolssa miraculously escapes and goes on the run.  She is taken in by three sisters, young women of dubious background who run a tavern and public house. The contrast between the four young women couldn't be greater, but they come to love and care for each other.  The officers of the Inquisition are searching for Dolssa, however, and the sisters need to be ever more creative to try to keep her safe.

I put this book on hold because it was a Printz award winner.  It was very different and I didn't love it. I had a couple of problems with it.  One is that the book is set in France, but the narrators are British and I am pretty sure they were slaughtering all the French words in the book. The second is that the book was so serious the whole time I wasn't sure if it would have a happy ending or not. It certainly wasn't one of my fluffy historical romances.  With a title containing the word, "passion" which, in this context, means "suffering death," I suspected it wouldn't end well for poor Dolssa.  The fact that I was concerned, shows that the writing was very good, and the characters were well drawn and sympathetic. It was also interesting to get of taste of what life was like under the shadow of the Inquisition. At the end of the book is an author's note that explains which parts of the book are based on real events and which are fiction.  Sometimes I am put off when someone calls the middle ages, the Dark Ages, but this book rather confirms that title.  It is amazing the atrocities humanity has committed in the name of Christianity. (512 p. 2017)

Voice of Dominion by Melanie Cellier

 Elena is starting her third year at the mage academy with a determination to avoid Prince Lucas and master the intricacies of Mage life. All of her plans are disrupted when a new threat is detected on the border, and her class is called there to "observe" the fighting.  Elena knows they are really going so that the troops will see her, the spoken mage, and get a boost in morale they dearly need. A brush with death bring Elena and Lucas back together but Elena is more sure than ever that there is a traitor in the highest levels of the government. Lucas is not convinced and that and other obstacles still stand in the way of their Happily Ever After.

I started a book this week that I have been waiting for on hold for a couple of months, but by a 1/4 of the way through it I realized it had more adult content than I wanted to deal with. So I returned it and turned back to Melanie Cellier once more, for a book I knew would be clean and entertaining.  It was, until right near the end when (spoiler alert) Elena makes a hasty and, I believe, stupid decision.  There was literally 15 minutes left in the book, and I almost turned it off right there, determined to be finished with the book and the series.  I hate it when otherwise smart characters make stupid decisions.  I did listen on, and Cellier recovered a little.  Still, I am not sure I will finish the series.... Who am I kidding, I probably will, but I will probably wait a while before I do. (316 p. 2019)