Princess Academy

Hale, Shannon. Princess Academy. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005. 314 pages. (Fantasy)

The main character of the book, Princess Academy, is Miri. There are many other secondary characters that wouldn’t be the same if the story didn’t have them, but Miri is the main one. The story takes place at Mount Eskel, there is an isolated village on this mountain were mostly quarry workers and their families live. Miri’s mother died in the quarry while collecting linder to trade so Miri’s dad won’t let Miri work in the quarry. She doesn’t like being the only girl who is fourteen and not working in the quarry. Then, by surprise some lowlanders came to tell all girls under age seventeen that they have to go to an academy and that a year from then a prince would come and pick a girl to marry to live with in the lowlands. Olana, the teacher at the academy, is very strict and I mean REALLY strict but the girls still find a little hope that they might be a princess. Many bad and good things happen at the quarry and when Miri finds out a way to do quarry speech, (a way of talking to people in their minds without saying anything) some of their problems are worked out. The girls become good friends and work things out together when they need to. Many things happen in this book while Miri goes through her life. She and Peder are now acting differently around each other and Miri knows after all of her troubles that she is home and she really wants nothing more.

I would recommend this book for someone to read because there isn’t just one character in the story. Even just a small character has a big part and has to be there so the story can be told. When I read this book, I felt I was right there being one of the girls going through the same obstacles they were going through. When you start reading you think you can guess easily exactly what might happen, so it seems a little boring. You finally get to that part in the story, and it is totally different from what you suspected, but it still comes out to be a great ending. Everything in this book hits you by surprise and that is why I liked this book so much.

Reviewed by: irishdance64

Stray

Vincent, Rachel. Stray, Hortonville, WI: Mira, 2007. 624 pages. (Fantasy Series / Romance)

The main character in Stray is Faythe Sanders; Faythe is a werecat who can transform into a wild cat, something much like a panther. Faythe is the daughter of Greg Sanders, who is the leader of the Pride in the United States. Greg makes sure no one finds out about the cats, as well as making sure they’re safe. Faythe attends collage but soon has to move back to her house. At her house Faythe lives with her father, Greg Sanders, her mother, her three brothers –Ethan, Parker, and Ryan, some guards, and a few friends of the family. One of the guards who lives with Faythe is Marc; Marc is an extremely strong and fast black werecat. Another guard who lives with Faythe is a man named Jace who has always been, and always will be a flirt. The story takes place in present time in the Southern part of the United States.

One of the problems that Faythe faces is that two of her fellow tabbies, her cousin Abby and friend Sara, have been kidnapped. Faythe also faces a bigger problem, should she become the new leader of the Pride?  One type of interesting event that happens throughout the novel is the battles in human form and also in cat form. Another is the steps that the werecats go through in order to transform from human to cat. One more interesting type of event that happens throughout the novel is the romance, especially the “love triangles.”

The character that’s most like me is probably Faythe because she cares about her friends a lot, likes to help her friends, sometimes likes to take matters into her own hands, likes the same style of fashion as me, and some other small reasons. The characters I despise are the group of Strays who kidnapped Faythe, Abby, Sara, and also murdered many human women. I recommend this book for people who love action and romance books, but they should have it approved by their parents for people under the age of fourteen because there are parts that should only be read by young adults because of certain topics throughout the story. I selected this book because my eighteen year old sister was reading it and told me I would like it because it had werecats. After she was done reading the book I began to read it. I would read and look forward to reading another book by this author because I thought this book was amazing and I never wanted to put the book down because it was so great. This book is by far my all time favorite book, and I cannot wait until the sequel, Rogue, comes out.

Reviewed by: Kirby