PrincessReviews

            During winter break, my cousins and I took a trip into New York City, at the La MaMa Ellen Stewart Theatre, to watch the Yara Arts Group perform Midwinter Night, an Ukrainian concert.  Mostly preformed in Ukrainian, with some English translations throughout and a scene or two in Spanish, it really helped to show the diversities and similarities of different cultures that I am familiar with.              Being a Ukrainian group, going into the theatre I expected to not understand anything they were singing or saying and simply absorbing the traditions of the culture, such as I had done in St. Petersburg when we saw the Russian group give a concert.  It was nice that they translated some of their songs into English and sang part English, part Ukrainian throughout the songs.              The costumes also defi...

A City Infected by N.F. David Kyle Runner is a cop for the sole reason of supporting his daughter even though they have a strained relationship because of his separation from his adulterous wife. Kyle lives in New York City years after it is infected with a virus that produces a variety of zombies. Instead of running and hiding like in typical zombie movies and books, the humans have adjusted. They are armed and most times more dangerous than the infected. A corporate giant, Crest Hominal, has emerged and the government is a joke. Kyle is infected in the first chapter. He hopes to be gunned down by the chief of police thereby securing the pension that would take care of his daughter after his death. But Kyle doesn't get gunned down and he doesn't become a zombie. (There is a great surprise here.) He instead enters the twisted world of Crest Hominal. I really liked the world building. This is a very creative New York City. I liked that the peopl...

The Summer of Brian by Kenechi Udogu is a good YA read. After the first chapter my first impression was "cute." Of course, I'm old and anything to do with teenagers and their first loves and crushes will be cute to me. I could easily see a couple of teenagers finding Charlene's predicament with Brian important enough to consume their summer. It is a quick, light read with normal characters in situations that seemed only slightly over done especially with Nathan's past and how it comes out. Of course, the best friend Orla is more entertaining than Charlene. But that's what secondary characters are for, relief from the more "serious" matter facing the heroine.   Brian's character is kind of flat, which is surprising because he's in the title. Nathan is "cute." My favorite part is the scene where Nathan takes Charlene, Orla and Brian to the fair to see his friend play guitar. Too cute! OK, enough of the cutes. You...

Aversion, Book One in The Mentalist Series by Kenechi Udogu is a novella following the first Aversion performed by Gemma Green and how it goes oh so wrong. Fifteen-year-old Gemma is the only female Averter in a long history of Averters, an anomaly. Nonetheless, she has been taught from a very young age the responsibilities, honor and rules of Aversion. Averters use their minds to deter others (without the person realizing it) from decisions that will keep them from their life path. When Gemma gets her first "jolt" from Russ Tanner, she is confident and a little nervous. But this is what she is born to do. Everything seems to have gone well with Russ--disaster averted. That is until Russ approaches her at school the next day. She has never talked to him before and has kept a low profile at school, but now she can't shake Russ. He doesn't remember the Aversion, but for some reason he feels drawn to her. What else can go wrong? Gemma is a down-to-earth character ...

I have been watching all this gun control talk on the TV, it's dumb. All we need is pictured IDs that will identify a person. If a person has been convicted of a violent crime, they can't possess a firearm. If a person has a mental condition, they can't possess a firearm, unless they have a permit. People that have mentally handy cap persons in their house should be required to have a gun safe or secure zone for their firearms. (keyed closet, keyed trigger lock, etc.) Lower the age of juveniles to the age of twelve, and put their record as public. We have to have a pictured ID on our driving license, they give you a SS number when you are born. Everyone in our state carries a pictured ID or we go to jail until you prove who you are. And driving without a license gets you jail time. Here if you got a red line on your ID, you can't buy booze, because you've been in too much trouble because of it. This would solve a lot of problems, the ID would tell the...

This book opens in a small town in Michigan where fifteen-year-old Sarah Cole is stuck spending the summer at her Aunt and Uncle’s with her sister, Lacey. She’s not happy with the situation until she befriends a girl named Jackie. The three girls stumble upon the ruthless murder of a reclusive neighborhood woman. One of the officers investigating the crime believes the girls are responsible for her death. Fearing that this officer will frame them for the murder, the girls organize their own detective squad. They become the Super Spies and start their own fact-finding mission.  The Super Spies can’t understand why anyone would want to murder the “Cat Lady” until they start digging into her past and discover a horrible crime that happened thirty years ago. They uncover a connection between the two crimes and attempt to bring this information to the police, only to be reprimanded for meddling in the inquest. Not only are the girls upset by the admonition, but they also struggle ...

Guest post brought to you by Lisa Orchard and Astraea Press! Hello Everyone! I hope all is well with you! I’m Lisa Orchard and I’m a guest here at Princess Reviews today. I’m the Young Adult Author of the Super Spies series and I’ve got my main character, Sarah Cole, here to explain the ten things you need to know in order to be a spy. Take it away Sarah! Hello! My name is Sarah Cole and I’ve written down the ten traits a spy/detective needs in order to be successful. Let me know if you agree, I’d love to hear from you. 1)     The first thing you need to know is detectives/spies need to keep a low profile. They must blend in…they can’t stand out or draw attention to themselves. That means we don’t wear flashy clothes or gaudy jewelry. I have to explain this to my best friend Jackie all the time (eye roll) and she still doesn’t get it. She firmly believes a detective can be fashionable. J As if! 2)     The next thing you need to know is dete...

Enter Goodreads Giveaway Here through January 15, 2013 *** SPOILER ALERT *** Wish Again: Dreams Truth, Book Two of the WISH Trilogy by Deby Adair is the sequel to Wish. There are many returning characters and several new ones. In this sequel Rielle and Pud are searching for Rielle's dream with the help of a butterfly called Far. But a mysteriously strong wind whisks Far away. Feeling responsible, Rielle makes the decision to return to Wish to tell Hope that she lost his butterfly. Along the way Rielle meets Old, a unique creature person, who knows of Wish and Hope and immediately befriends and accompanies her on her journey back to Wish. Meanwhile, Willful James (Will) awakens as a human and no longer a bush after thousands of years in Wish. After such a long time he is ready to return to the real world, but the sorcerer that caused trouble in the first Wish book will not let him go so easily. I enjoyed this sequel. Rielle and Pud are still adorable, bu...