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I had heard that the sequel to The Hunger Games (which I read last month) wasn't quite as good or as enthralling as the first book in the trilogy-- but I found this book quite engaging and easy to read, and almost as hard to put down. We find Katniss and her family more or less settled into her posh house in the nearly unoccupied Victor's Village of District 12, with running water and a telephone but no one to call; she still hunts with Gale, but not because she or her family need it, but his does-- and she needs something to do, to keep herself busy. We pick up the story just before Katniss and Peeta go on the road to visit all of the districts, in a terrible victory tour that reminds all the other districts and families and parents what they lost-- but Katniss gets a secret, threatening visit from President Snow to tell her, she'd better continue pretending to be crazy in love with Peeta, because otherwise... Katniss' clever solution to keeping both herself and Peeta alive at the end of the last book has become a symbol of rebellion, of out-witting the all-powerful Capitol; Snow threatens her family and friends if she doesn't do everything she can to discourage that view of things, but as they make their way through the districts, Katniss begins to realize maybe it doesn't matter what she does or says, she can't convince anyone or change anyone's mind...

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This story begins with a wizard being killed, which apparently is quite difficult to do safely. In this case, the people were given very specific instructions: don't spill his life-blood, don't let him speak a curse, don't let him use his hands to work magic. However, there was one thing they didn't account for: as he is bound and dying, the sun comes out and this wizard casts some unspoken spell to free his shadow. Some time later (years, perhaps), a traveling peddler named Crocken passes near the spot where the wizard dies, and he is persuaded/coerced/bargained/threatened into taking on this shadow and carrying it with him to the far-off country of Armyn.

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Shortly after I started reading this book, I thought I recognized the standard hero and heroine of a Grace Livingston Hill novel-- the beautiful, angelic, unspoiled but well-educated and refined Minister's daughter, Lynn; the tough but sweet, good-looking neighbor boy, Mark Carter, who grew up with her but is now in some kind of trouble and estranged for her (of course they must be meant for each other); the spoiled rich boy, Laurence Shafton, who may be a slight distraction for the good girl-- she won't care for his money or fine things, but he will be drawn to this beautiful, religious girl and maybe it will change him for the better. That story does play out rather like I expected (although the characters have more depth than the caricatures I've suggested), but I was pleasantly surprised by this story: as much as it is about Lynn and Mark and Laurence, it is really Billy's story-- the young, tough neighborhood kid who looks up to Carter (or "Cart", as Billy calls him) and loves Miss Lynn's Sunday School lessons. In trying to earn some extra cash, Billy gets tangled up in some bad business and messes things up for others around him-- and as he tries to make things right, he seems to learn and finally understand true grace.

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It's a little hard to believe that this intense, violent story set in an oppressive, dystopic world was written for young adults, but now that I've read it I can understand why the series is so popular. The story is narrated by Katniss, a teenager who's provided for her family (mostly by illegal hunting) ever since her dad was killed in a mine explosion. They live in District 12, one of the poorest districts of the nation of Panem, in what used to be North America. Out west beyond the Rockies is the luxurious, wealthy Capitol city-- but the people of the districts are oppressed and kept poor even as they work for all the goods that supply the Capitol. As punishment for an old rebellion that left a thirteenth district completely destroyed and as a reminder of who has the power, every year each district must send two of their children-- a boy and a girl-- as "tributes" to participate in the Hunger Games, something like a reality TV show in a huge (but controlled) outdoor setting where the children must fight to the death. Katniss's little sister, Prim's (the only person Katniss is sure she loves) name is the one that is drawn-- so Katniss volunteers to take her place. Of course, that's only the beginning of what is quite an engaging, page-turning, compelling story.

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When Sunshine is getting ready to go into battle with Con, and expecting to die (for about the third time in this book), she thinks about what to do with the two days she has left-- and one of the options that crosses her mind is reading:

Reread your favorite novel, the one you only let yourself anymore when you're sick in bed. I might have enjoyed this more, since I'm never sick, if death didn't seem like a very bad trade-off.

This caught my eye because I was actually sick in bed re-reading Sunshine. I don't know if that makes it my favorite book (it is definitely up there), but this book was such a wonderful, complete distraction from my own misery to escape into Sunshine's crazy world (and in particular her humorous, self-deprecating attitude that comes through in the narrative as she provides commentary). It feels like such a full, real world too-- populated with fascinating characters, and details of slang and history and myths, and since we get everything filtered through Sunshine's perspective, we don't know which myths are true and which aren't. Sunshine lives in a dangerous world that I'm not sure I'd want to visit-- I'd love to sample her cinnamon rolls and crazy decadent desserts at Charlie's coffeehouse, but I'm not sure I'd want to navigate the dangers of Old Town to get there.

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Prudence and Robin Tremaine are a brother and sister fleeing to London, and because Robin was involved in the Jacobite rebellion on the wrong side, they disguise themselves-- the tall Prudence pretends to be a young man, and the slight, elegant, talented actor Robin pretends to be the sister. On their way to London, they run into flighty young Letitia, who is eloping with a man because she thought it would be quite an adventure, but he turns out to be rather a brute and after her money. Robin and Prudence manage to rescue her shortly before Letitia's family friend, Anthony Fanshawe comes to help her-- a man so large that Robin teasingly calls him "the mountain" to his sister (a man large enough for so tall a girl). Anthony takes the young lad (Prudence) under his wing when they go to London, introducing him around and sponsoring him at the gentleman's club; meanwhile, Robin and Letitia become rather intimate friends (Robin has fallen in love with the silly girl, so on a few occasions-- like a masked ball-- he manages to be her mysterious, romantic hero). Eventually, Prudence and Robin's father comes to town-- he's an adventurer and master of disguise, and perhaps a bit of a con man, so even they aren't sure whether or not they can believe him when he claims to be the long lost son and heir to a nearby estate.

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This book is somewhat of a sequel to These Old Shades (which I read recently), as it follows Dominic Alastair, Marquis of Vidal. The "cub" of the title, he is the son of the Duke of Avon (who was known as "Satanas" to some, hence the title) and the fiery Leonie, and Heyer presents Vidal as a pretty believable mixture of his parents. He has his father's lack of morals and devil-may-care attitude, but he has his mother's quick temper instead of his father's subtlety and deviousness. He gets in a bit of trouble because he wounds someone in a duel-- and, what apparently makes it worse, he didn't even bother to go through the proper forms, but had the duel right then and there in the house where they were gambling. His father is quite angry with him and decides to send him to France, but this is mostly because Leonie is upset rather than that Vidal may have killed a man. Since Vidal is used to having pretty much whatever he wants, he decides to take along with him the pretty bourgeoisie girl who he has been flirting with-- but, of course, things don't go exactly as planned.

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One night as Justin Alastair, Duke of Avon is walking through the streets of Paris, he collides with a poor young red-headed boy running from his rough older brother. On a bit of a whim, because something about the child's Titian hair and blue eyes reminds him of an enemy, Alastair buys the lad from the older brother and makes the child, Léon, his page. Alastair has quite the reputation for his cunning and lack of morals, such that he is known by some as "Satanas", and his good friend Hugh Davenant disapproves of Alastair taking this child with him everywhere, even serving him at gambling houses and other places of ill-repute. Of course, there is a great mystery about Léon, and it turns out to be quite an interesting story-- and the audience gets to be at least partly in on Alastair's knowledge and plans long before the other characters in the book.

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