Book Review #1

Jefferson and I have been reading stories to each other since Christmas, so almost a year now, and we've gone through quite a few books at this point.

I'm huge into reading, always have been. As a matter of fact, when I was in the fifth grade, my teacher was having us do a reading fund raiser.

We were to get our parents/friends/neighbors to donate money based on the number of books we read, so a certain amount per book. I remember being so mad because the rich girls had parents who could afford to give them $20.00 per book, so all they had to read was one book and they were set (as I remember, there was a minimum amount of money that had to be raised per child to be able to go on a field trip of some kind, but I'm a little fuzzy on the details).

My folks have nine kids. There was no way they could spare twenty some odd dollars, so I think I was getting $0.25-0.50 per book (also, the books had to be over a certain number of pages, etc.) Well, I got disqaulified. No, I didn't cheat. I stayed up all night the night before (all night as in past midnight, remember, fifth grade here) trying to get a couple more books read before the due date. I read five books that night. Mrs Meyers thought I was lying.

Anywho, I digress. *ahem* I thought I'd take a minute and go over two books that I've read recently, one with Jefferson, and one that I read all by my little lonesome.

This first book I'm talking about is one that Jefferson and I started in Montana, part of  the Ranger's Apprentice Series, the first book, The Ruins of Gorlan. It totally sucked Jefferson into the plot. After that, I caught him reading it without me, and before I knew it, he was on the second book in the series. Now he's on the seventh. It hasn't even been a month yet.

The story's about an orphan, named Will, who lives at the castle of his fief with all the other wards of the state (aka orphans).

 In their society, when kids reach a certain age, they're apprenticed to Craftmasters based on their skills, etc.

There's a Battleschool that Will really wants to get into because he's heard rumors that his dad was a Knight and he wants to follow in his footsteps. There's only one problem: Will is puny. The Battleschool Master doesn't even give him a second thought. Well, if you don't get chosen to be an apprentice, you're given to local farmers to be a farmhand.

As this thought is going through Will's head, Halt, the fief's Ranger, enters the room and hands the Baron of the fief a note. The Baron dismisses everyone, and Will waits his fate. By the next day, Will is Halt's apprentice.

The rest of the story is Will and Halt bonding, Will learning the skills and trades of a Ranger and it also follows the life of Horace, once Will's bully turned friend. It's a really fun and fast read, which is good because there are ten books in the series. Yeah...I'm on book two, but I would definitely recommend these books to anyone ( I mean, my dad loves 'em. He asked me for a Ranger's Cloak for Halloween one year! Even my 24 year old brother read them and enjoyed the story line and they're great for young teenage boys, too, but I think girls can read them as well!)

Book two is more along the lines of Pride and Prejudice lovers: The Grand Sophy by Georgette Hyer is one of my all time favorite books.

The Grand Sophy was my very first Georgette Heyer book. Since then, I think I've read over thirty of her novels. She is just so witty and clever and I get a kick out of her every single time, which Jefferson doesn't understand. You've read one regency romance, you've read them all, right?

Wrong! Wrong I say!

The Grand Sophy follows the Ombersley family, particularly Charles and Cecillia Rivenhall, a brother and sister who don't see eye to eye.

You see, Cecy fancies herself in love with an aspiring poet named Augustus, whereas her brother Charles insists upon her marrying a very respectable, if not quite as handsome gentleman named Charlbury. (Confused yet?)

Enter Sophy stage right. Sophy is their cousin, whose father is called out of the country on matters of state. Sophy, motherless from a young age, is quite used to handling and managing things on her own. Thrown into the mess at the Ombersley house in Berkley Square and the rest of the novel consists of her setting things all to rights in such a clever way, and with laughs throughout!

I don't think I could emphasize enough times how much I love this book! It's not one of those cheesy cliche romances, and the ending is adorable. I've read it more than I can count, and I'm already planning a re-read soon!

The only thing that makes me sad when I think about The Grand Sophy is that I leant my paperback copy to my sister for a little while when I first got married and she leant it to her friend. Yeah...haven't seen it since, and whenever Bonni asks about it, her friend says she's writing a book report on it. It takes you a year to write a book report?!? I had to buy the digital copy on my kindle, which is fine, but my collection is sadly missing its center piece!

(Looking in retrospect, though, I should never have let my sister borrow my book in the first place, because the very first time I let her borrow a book from me, not only did she drop a wet swimming suit on it and therefore warped all the pages, but she also had to go and get a bloody nose on page 180. Hmmm....yep, I should've known better.)