Whoops. Missed posting Thursday. I’ll try (no promises) to get two up today.
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The Girl with the Iron Touch by Kady Cross
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Another fun installment in Cross’ Steampunk Chronicles. As silly as I feel reading a book with the Harlequin Teen logo on it, I really enjoy this series (‘tho maybe I should switch to the ebook edition to protect my rep). Once again, Cross balances a steampunk-y adventure story with strong emotional plotlines, with some fun banter between her characters, making for an addictive read.
This time out the primary focus is on Emily — the technomancer, and on both her personal and professional crisis. Just as it seems she’s making some progress on getting Sam to say how he feels about her, as well as to accept what she did to save his life, she’s kidnapped by a bunch of automatons so she can perform a brain transplant from a very injured scoundrel into a semi-organic android. No really, that makes sense in context.
Everyone else, in one way or another, is dealing with the fallout from their trip to the U.S. (and from the events in the first book), while also trying to find Emily and bring her home safely. Obviously, it’s worst for Jasper, more withdrawn from both his friends and the events in the book as a whole.
Griffin and Finley are also dealing with their relationship’s progress — with all the complications, ups adn downs that such entails. Griffin started dealing with something relating to his power in the States and it’s having a devastating impact on him back home (and in turn, that’s impacting everyone around him), causing Finlay to fret over him. My biggest beef with this book comes from the Finlay/Griffin interactions, which are far too similar to the Emily/Sam interactions, covering nearly the same grounds with both couples.
There’s a new character introduced that should provide a good deal of fodder for storylines in the future, and I eagerly await more of her. Really can’t say more without entering Spoiler City, so, I’ll just limit myself to saying that Cross’ creativity and inventiveness is on full display with her creation, and she’s already one of my favorites in the series.
One other note, one of the automatons we spend the most time with was described as a spider with a doll’s head. I certainly hope Cross was trying to get her readers to envision that creepy doll from Toy Story — because every one I know whose read this is seeing that.* Griffin and his team find her just as unnerving as Woody and Buzz did (don’t blame them), either.
Things are getting harder, and stakes are getting higher for our intrepid adventurers — whatever’s next will likely push them further yet.
This was a fun, quick read and I’m already impatiently waiting for the next installment.
*That’d be my wife and I.
Victoria Jurgen is an honor student, a budding photographer with a heck of an eye, a social misfit, a movie geek (there’s a correlation of the two), who’s nicknamed herself after a SciFi movie character. All this makes her (a goal for her, a criticism for her mother) “boy proof.” 
Whyfore the difference? The rest of us read the book last year before it opened in theaters, (one of our nigh unto unbreakable House Rules is “read the book first”) and the experience coupled with the trailers we’d been enjoying switched it from the “Get thee to a Multiplex” list to “Eh, maybe on video.” And we almost didn’t do that, but in the end, Frodo’s desire to compare the two and the Princess’ curiosity overcame Sam’s apathy.
– I’ve read all but one or two of Buckley’s novels, and it’s fair to say he’s my favorite satirist. In 
– The latest (last?) installment in the Leo Waterman series, is definitely the darkest. About half-way through this novel Leo stops going about this the way he normally does and instead assembles a team of criminals to start a major sting/blackmail operation. It bugged me while reading it, and by the time it was over, it bugged me a lot. I can’t really put my finger on it, but it didn’t feel like Leo, more like one of Spenser’s weaker escapades. The romantic subplot really worked for me, as did the b-plot with the runaway, but the A-plot…eh. I really hope that Ford gets back to this series so I can see how he’s going to take things with Leo’s love life–part of me is glad to see him risking the status quo; but the other part of me really likes Rebecca as a character, and I’d rather see more of her than less. But mostly I want to see if Ford continues to take this series in the darker direction this novel heads down (and his newer series seems to take), or if he lets Leo return to being Leo. Personally, I hope he takes the latter route–I miss the fun Elvis Cole (not that I totally mind the darker Elvis), don’t want to lose the fun Leo, too.
– I really wanted to like this book–DeLillo’s one of my favorites. But this thing? Blah. This is DeLillo’s take on 9/11 and the aftermath. The scenes about the protagonist leaving the scene of the WTC attacks, and those showing how his son and his friends are reatcing to the attacks–those are really well done. And there were sentences, or paragraphs, that were great to read. But on the whole, this was a dreary novel, about dreary people reacting to horror in a dreary way. Worst thing I’ve read by him–which is strange, as many critics hail it as one of his best–who knows, maybe bluewoad’s rubbing off on me.
– Tropper delivers yet another fun novel about a young man dealing with death (and how often can you say that?). This time, Tropper’s protag married an older woman with a teenage son. A plane crash cuts short their life together and now the widower has to put his life without her together. Of course, the teenage son is a complication that he’s not ready for. Tropper’s characters frequently have a strong woman character as friend/love interest (no matter how taboo). This time a twin sister takes care of the friend part of the equation–and is one of the more interesting characters he’s created. The quirky disfunctional family is along for the ride–the father, of course, being the most screwed up (not that mom is that together). Tropper doesn’t miss a beat, hit a wrong note, or flub the rhythm once in this book. Charming, funny, bleak, and hopeful. Probably his best work to date.
– Wilson proves that you don’t have to be named J. K. Rowling to write children’s fiction that’s worth reading if you’re over 13. Good, imaginative, adventure story. Wilson’s got a natural (genetic?) way with words, that he’s honed well–would likely be a pleasure to read even if the plot and characters were weak.
– This one’s a “Young Adult” novel, which again, puts me out of the target audience. Ooops. Actually, I think the target is teenage girls, so I’m really out of the target. Really don’t care. Meyer can tell a story. Even if the story is an implausible love story about a loner teen girl and a vampire whose Byronic personality is on loan from a Bronte novel. Probably one of the better vampire novels I’ve read (and I seem to be reading a lot of them lately for no apparent reason).