Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books: Children's Middle Grade Book Picks (9-12yrs) January 2018 - US Post Two

Michael Dante DiMartino - Warrior Genius (Rebel Geniuses) - Published by Roaring Brook Press (January 2, 2018) - ISBN-13: 978-1626723375

In Warrior Genius, author Michael Dante DiMartino delivers rich settings, memorable characters, and edge-of-your-seat action, just as he did in his hit animated show Avatar: The Last Airbender. Fans will be thrilled with this new adventure!

For years, Supreme Creator Nerezza has used fear and violence to rule her empire, seeking to eradicate anyone with a Genius. Then, twelve-year-old Giacomo emerged from hiding and joined a young generation of fellow artists paired with Geniuses. Together, they began a rebellion against her.

Now, Giacomo has something Nerezza desperately wants―the Compass, one of three powerful objects known as the Sacred Tools. Possessing all three would allow Nerezza to spread her tyranny worldwide.

After a near-fatal showdown, Giacomo and his friends escape to the empire of Rachana, a society long feared for its mighty warriors and their horse-Geniuses. But a dark and ancient force threatens the horse-Geniuses with extinction, and Giacomo discovers he is the only one who can stop it.

With the help of his Genius and great friends, Giacomo struggles to keep the Sacred Tools from falling into the wrong hands and find a way to protect the Rachanan people―before Nerezza finds him.

MarcyKate Connolly - Shadow Weaver - Published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (January 2, 2018) - ISBN-13: 978-1492649953

Fans of Serafina and the Black Cloak and The Night Gardener will devour Shadow Weaver, the first in a dark middle-grade fantasy duology that's filled with shadows, danger, magic, and has the feel of a new classic. 

Emmeline's gift of controlling shadows has isolated her from the rest of the world, but she's grown to be content, hidden away in her mansion with Dar, her own shadow, as her only company. 

Disaster strikes when a noble family visits their home and offers to take Emmeline away and cure her of magic. Desperate not to lose her shadows, she turns to Dar who proposes a deal: Dar will change the noble's mind, if Emmeline will help her become flesh as she once was. Emmeline agrees but the next morning the man in charge is in a coma and all that the witness saw was a long shadow with no one nearby to cast it. Scared to face punishment, Emmeline and Dar run away. 

With the noble's guards on her trail, Emmeline's only hope of clearing her name is to escape capture and perform the ritual that will set Dar free. But Emmeline's not sure she can trust Dar anymore, and it's hard to keep secrets from someone who can never leave your side.

Frank L. Cole - The Eternity Elixir (Potion Masters)  - Published by Shadow Mountain (January 2, 2018) -  ISBN-13: 978-1629723587

Twelve-year-old Gordy Stitser is one of the few people who knows the truth about the secret society of potion masters, because not only is Gordy's mom on the Board of Ruling Elixirists Worldwide (B.R.E.W.), but she has also been training Gordy in the art of potion-making.

Gordy is a natural, and every day he sneaks down to the basement lab to invent new potions using exotic ingredients like fire ant eggs, porcupine quills, and Bosnian tickling juice.

One afternoon, Gordy receives a mysterious package containing an extremely rare potion known as ''The Eternity Elixir.'' In the right hands, the Elixir continues to protect society. But in the wrong hands, it could destroy the world as we know it.

Now, sinister potion masters are on the hunt to steal the Eternity Elixir. It's up to Gordy, his parents, and his best friends, Max and Adeline, to prevent an all-out potion war.

Abby Rosser - Believe - Published by WordCrafts Press (January 3, 2018) - ISBN-13: 978-0999647530

Always travel SE.
Never touch the ground.
And above all,
Do Not Forget!

Dooley Creed was a nobody in Boston. He’s even more of a nobody now that his family has moved to Peacock Valley, Minnesota.

Dooley Creed is no genius. Dooley Creed is no hero. There is absolutely nothing special about Dooley Creed. At least, that’s what Dooley Creed believes.

Then he meets his next-door neighbors, the Mulligans – the weirdest family in Peacock Valley - and embarks on the strangest adventure of all time. Hybrid creatures, ancient curses, Vikings and Valkyries? It’s up to Dooley Creed to save the day!

But first Dooley must learn to...Believe.

To order a copy here is the link. 

Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books: Children's Middle Grade Book Picks (9-12yrs) January 2018 - US Post One

Paul Durham - The Last Gargoyle - Published by Crown Books for Young Readers (9 Jan. 2018) - ISBN-13: 978-1524700201

Fans of Jonathan Auxier's The Night Gardener and Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book will tremble with delight for this haunting tale about a lonely gargoyle who isn't alone at all.

Penhallow is the last of his kind. The stone gargoyle--he'd prefer you call him a grotesque--fearlessly protects his Boston building from the spirits who haunt the night. But even he is outmatched when Hetty, his newest ward, nearly falls victim to the Boneless King, the ruler of the underworld.

Then there's Viola, the mysterious girl who keeps turning up at the most unlikely times. In a world where nightmares come to life, Viola could be just the ally Penhallow needs. But can he trust her when every shadow hides another secret? Can he afford not to?

Kate Davies - The Crims - Published by HarperCollins (25 Jan. 2018) - ISBN-13: 978-0062494092

The Addams Family meets Despicable Me in the first book of this new trilogy, perfect for fans of Lemony Snicket and Pseudonymous Bosch!

The Crim family is full of notorious criminals. Notoriously inept, that is. Uncle Knuckles once tried to steal a carnival. Great-Uncle Bernard held himself hostage by accident. Aunt Drusilla died slipping on a banana peel. But Imogen is different. She was born with a skill for scandal. A knack for the nefarious. A mastery of misdemeanors.

Despite her natural talent for all things unlawful, Imogen got out of the family business years ago. But when the rest of the Crims are accused of pulling off a major heist—which seems doubtful, to say the least—Imogen is forced to step in to clear their names. Because only a truly skilled criminal can prove the bumbling family’s innocence….

Ben Guterson (Author) Chloe Bristol (Illustrator) -  Winterhouse - Published by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) (January 2, 2018) - 

• ISBN-13: 978-1250123886

Orphan Elizabeth Somers’s malevolent aunt and uncle ship her off to the ominous Winterhouse Hotel, owned by the peculiar Norbridge Falls. Upon arrival, Elizabeth quickly discovers that Winterhouse has many charms―most notably its massive library. It’s not long before she locates a magical book of puzzles that will unlock a mystery involving Norbridge and his sinister family. But the deeper she delves into the hotel’s secrets, the more Elizabeth starts to realize that she is somehow connected to Winterhouse. As fate would have it, Elizabeth is the only person who can break the hotel’s curse and solve the mystery. But will it be at the cost of losing the people she has come to car for, and even Winterhouse itself? 

Mystery, adventure, and beautiful writing combine in this exciting debut richly set in a hotel full of secrets.

Melissa Albert - The Hazel Wood: A Novel - Published by Flatiron Books (January 30, 2018) - ISBN-13: 978-1250147905

Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice’s life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice’s grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get: Her mother is stolen away―by a figure who claims to come from the Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother's stories are set. Alice's only lead is the message her mother left behind: “Stay away from the Hazel Wood.”

Alice has long steered clear of her grandmother’s cultish fans. But now she has no choice but to ally with classmate Ellery Finch, a Hinterland superfan who may have his own reasons for wanting to help her. To retrieve her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother's tales began―and where she might find out how her own story went so wrong.

Mr Ripley's Guest Post: Paul Durham - The Luck Uglies - HarperCollins - Happy Publication!

DREAMS, THICK SKIN, AND UGLY LUCK

Dreams don’t come easy. I suppose they aren’t meant to.

Since I was a child, my dream was to see my fiction published. Sometimes I wished I’d aspired to be an astronaut or professional athlete instead. That’s how difficult the road to publication seemed at times.   

I started my first novel nineteen years ago. It was heavy-fisted, testosterone-laden stuff, filled with gritty characters and grimy settings. I labored over it for seven years until finally, finished work in hand, I braved the literary agencies’ slush piles. Most agents didn’t accept e-mail queries back then and the rejections mounted as fast as the postage.

It had been months when finally, unexpectedly, an agent at a great New York agency agreed to represent me. Needless to say, this was an exciting time and soon the agent was submitting my work to publishers with much optimism. Then another unexpected thing happened. Rejections began piling up again. They came with promising words and invitations to send my next book, but the ultimate message was always “no thank you.”  Eventually, there was nowhere left to go. I joked that I had been read and rejected by every major (and not-so-major) publisher in Manhattan.  

I promised to get the agent my next novel, and over the next few years I did—in a sense.  Fifty pages of one novel, a hundred pages of another. All of them stories started but never finished. With a wife, two young daughters, and a demanding career that already kept me away from them for too long, it grew harder and harder to justify even more hours toiling alone in front of a computer with the voices in my head. Finally, after so many stops and starts, I quit writing altogether.

In the years that followed, I focused on my family and my career, but a hollow remained.  I found myself tormented by the fact that I wasn’t creating much of anything at all. Then, upon reflection, I realized that I was. Every day, with two little girls who seemed to be bitten at birth by the same creative bug that I had, I sketched and painted and told stories. Lots of stories.  Late one fall, when my oldest was six and our thoughts turned to Christmas, I asked what she might want for a gift. She asked if I would write her a story. One we could read together. And, with that one simple request, everything changed. Little did she know that she was the one who had given a gift to me.

I was writing again. A children’s story. I truly had no aspirations to seek an agent for this work, nor to have it published. My goals were far more modest but at the same time all the more important. I simply wanted to finish a story for my daughter. I met that first deadline and my family gathered around the fireplace on Christmas Day as I read what would become the first chapters of my next novel. It was called The Luck Uglies and I completed it over the next three months, one chapter per week, each read aloud by the fire to my enthusiastic audience.

When the manuscript was done, those old aspirations started to creep back into my mind.  Dreams die hard I suppose. Either that or I’m a glutton for punishment. But this time things ended differently. As I write these words, HarperCollins has published The Luck Uglies in the United States and the United Kingdom. A Norwegian language version is in the works. It’s humbling to think that families around the world may soon be reading my little story around their own fireplaces.   

I never dreamed of writing books for children. Now I can’t imagine writing books for anyone else. As strange as it sounds, I am fortunate that my first novel was never published. I’m grateful for that twist of ugly luck so many years ago.

For those of you with similar dreams and aspirations, I wish you good writing, thick skin, and your own dose of ugly luck in unexpected places.  

Please check out Mr. Ripley's book review here:  http://www.mrripleysenchantedbooks.com/2014/05/book-review-paul-durham-luck-uglies.html

Mr Ripley's New Fantasy Book Picks - July 2104 - Post One

Joe Abercrombie - Half a King ( Shattered Sea, Book One ) - Published by Harper Voyager (3 July 2014)

Prince Yarvi has vowed to regain a throne he never wanted. But first he must survive cruelty, chains and the bitter waters of the Shattered Sea itself. And he must do it all with only one good hand.

Born a weakling in the eyes of his father, Yarvi is alone in a world where a strong arm and a cold heart rule. He cannot grip a shield or swing an axe, so he must sharpen his mind to a deadly edge.

Gathering a strange fellowship of the outcast and the lost, he finds they can do more to help him become the man he needs to be than any court of nobles could.

But even with loyal friends at his side, Yarvi’s path may end as it began – in twists, and traps and tragedy…

Jon Robinson - Anywhere (Nowhere Book 2) Published by Penguin (3 July 2014

'We're miles from anywhere, and we don't have a clue where we're going' Deep in a snow-covered forest Alyn, Jes, Ryan and Elsa have escaped from prison. Now they're being hunted. They quickly realise they have a special talent - they can control the world around them.Now they must use this skill to stop themselves falling into greater danger. But can they master it before their deadly enemies close in - for good? This gripping sequel will leave you clamouring for the next instalment. Jon Robinson was born in Middlesex in 1983. When he's not writing, he works for a charity in central London.

Lindsey Barraclough - The Mark of Cain - Published by Bodley Head (3 July 2014)

1567

Aphra is not a normal child. Found abandoned as a baby among the reeds and rushes, the two outcast witches who raise her in their isolated cottage are never sure if she was born, or just pushed up through the foul, black mud for them to find. Little Aphra's gifts in the dark craft are clear, even as an infant, but soon even her guardians begin to fear her.

When a violent fire destroys their home, Aphra is left to fend for herself. Years of begging and stealing make her strong, but they also make her bitter, for she is shunned and feared by everyone she meets.

Until she reaches Bryers Guerdon and meets the man they call Long Lankin - the leper. Ostracized and tormented, he is the only person willing to help her.

And together, they plot their revenge.


1962

Four years have passed since the death of Ida Guerdon, and Cora is back in Bryers Guerdon in the manor house her aunt left to her. It is a cold, bitter winter, and the horrifying events of that sweltering summer in 1958 seem long past.

Until Cora's father arranges for some restoration work to take place at Guerdon Hall, and it seems that something hidden there long ago has been disturbed. The spirit of Aphra Rushes - intent on finishing what she began, four centuries ago.

Paul Durham - The Luck Uglies - Published by HarperCollins Children's Books (3 July 2014) - See Review.
Luck Uglies was a name whispered around the docks and darkest taverns, places the law dare not tread…
Rye has grown up hearing the legend of the Luck Uglies – notorious deadly outlaws who once stalked the streets. Now they have faded to ghosts and rumours and Rye isn’t sure they ever existed. Then on the night of the Black Moon, a mysterious stranger known only as Harmless, steps from the shadows to save Rye’s life and Rye learns that sometimes it takes a villain to save you from the monsters…
Enter a thrilling world of secrets and fantastical adventure from a phenomenal new writing talent.

Book Review: Paul Durham - The Luck Uglies

Book review: The Luck Uglies is the first book in a fantasy adventure trilogy which will be published by HarperCollins UK, this coming July. However, if you're reading this review from the US then you're very lucky as this has already been published, but with another snazzy book cover. 

From the very first page, the words conjure up a special moment in fantasy. There is a sense that something good is going to happen. That gut feeling pulls you into the author's magical world through every word that you read, and with every page that you breath. The pages are turned more quickly as the reader hurtles along the path revealing a world full of secrets, mystery and mayhem. There are sparks of very inventive imagination that really work for me. 

Written by a debut voice, this first book promises to develop into a great trilogy. It is a middle grade adventure but I feel that everyone will love this on so many different levels. Some of the great characters feel rather real - some you will easily love whilst others you'll run screaming from, especially the Bog Noblins. However the feisty female character will leave you willing and rooting for her.

The plot is dark and twisted - it will leave you sinking in the bog on a dark and shady night. Full of great places with amazing names such as The Dead Fish Inn, which is worth a lingering visit, and The Willow's Wares which is a shopping haven for the stupid or the superstitious. The world is potentially a magical and dangerous place. Action packed, full of scary monsters and unsavoury people, this story is filled with a great dollop of horror, a dash of humour and a twirl of heroic midnight adventures 

I really loved this story; I was captivated by the quirky twists and turns. It brought me back to my childhood once again and reinforced that "the bad guys sometimes can be good guys". 

"Luck Uglies was a name whispered around the docks and the darkest taverns....." In the dark alleyways, the whisper is that this book is a cracking good read. It is definitely recommended by me.

ABOUT THE LUCK UGLIES
Strange things are happening in Village Drowning. Not that there’s much eleven-year-old Rye O’Chanter hasn’t already seen. Rye has grown up on Drowning’s treacherous streets—its twisted rooftops and forgotten cemeteries are her playground. But a terrifying encounter on the night of the Black Moon has Rye half-convinced that the monstrous Bog Noblins have returned from the forest Beyond the Shale. It's the same forest that mysteriously swallowed Rye’s father soon after she was born.

Rye’s mother insists the Bog Noblins are extinct…but what if she’s wrong? There’s nobody left who can protect the village from the vile creatures. There was once—an exiled secret society so notorious that their name can’t be spoken out loud.

The Luck Uglies.

Now a stranger named Harmless has stepped from the shadows, leading Rye to question everything she’s been told as she dives into Drowning’s maze of secrets, rules, and lies. What she’ll find is the truth behind Drowning’s legend of outlaws and beasts…and realize that it may take a villain to save them from the monsters.