On sale next month, my new Annja Creed novel has a beautiful cover. I think it’s one of my more humorous pieces. I had a lot of fun with the characters in this one.

 Jordan Dane hits a solid homerun with her debut novel, No One Heard Her Scream. The book is marked as romantic suspense, but the accent is on suspense, with clearly defined characters, a taut plot, and forensic and police terminology that will satisfy the armchair crime scene investigators looking for a new buzz.

The novel’s pacing is frantic, the prose pared down and swift, the love scenes torrid, and the bad guys as creepy and evil as anyone would ever want. I had a good time blazing through this book. It offers a lot of excitement and twists, as well as the San Antonio background that I’d recently visited. The scenes along the historic riverwalk really jumped out at me.

I liked Detective Rebecca “Becca” Montgomery right out of the blocks. She’s cut from the same larger-than-life cloth that a lot of action/suspense heroes are cut from, but she wears it well. I liked the fact that she was tough, independent, and good in a fight, though that isn’t what most romance heroines are noted for. However, more and more young women in our world are getting that way – including familiarity with the martial arts – and I think Becca presents a good role model in several respects.

Dane grabs our attention immediately in the beginning with the short action piece, then segues smoothly into Becca’s story. Still reeling with the guilt and pain from her younger sister’s disappearance months ago, Becca is pulled off Dani’s investigation and placed on a cold case assignment. Along the way she’s hauled into an investigation involving the body of a young woman that was bricked up in a recently burned-down movie theater.

While at the theater crime scene, Becca crosses paths with Diego Galvan, who quickly proves he’s more than he seems. Diego is a strong lead that easily holds his own with Becca, and he’s a man hiding a lot of secrets.

Real life has to be squashed almost into sound bytes in a novel to keep the pacing up, and Dane masters that art easily. Her strength lies in the plotting, which has enough twists and turns to keep most readers guessing or second-guessing which path she’s going to take.

With the meteoric pacing of Becca’s investigation, the budding relationship with Diego sometimes gets overshadowed, but I found myself accepting the fact that the author would handle it. My main attention focused on Becca’s pursuit of the bad guys and who everyone really was. The headlong storyline made it almost impossible to let the relationship breathe, but I think it’ll be satisfying to romance fans.

However, the suspense, action, and detailed police knowledge should have fans of Tami Hoag and Lisa Jackson picking up Dane’s books as well.

Dane scored a great deal with her publisher. Over the next three months, three of her novels will be released. No One Left To Tell comes out next, followed by No One Lives Forever. Although they sound like a series, all of them feature different heroines and heroes.

Pick up Jordan Dane’s novels even if you don’t have time to read them now. They’re perfect beach books, though you may be more tense lying in the sun and lawn chair than you’d planned on being!

My new book is out in stores now.  I welcome reviews.

These days I find it easier and easier to sink into a fantasy novel written for juvenile readers. I don’t know if it’s the worlds I enjoy, or if it’s the break from “adult” problems and issues. After giving the matter considerable attention, I’ve decided that part of what draws me to fiction for 9-12 year olds is that sense of wonder and fun that is lacking in many of the adult books. They just take themselves too seriously. Or maybe I want to take myself less so.

Whichever is the case, I sat down with Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo and found myself whizzing right along in no time because the book offers tons of wonder and fun. Admittedly, I stumbled over the first chapter or two because they are a little dense and weird. But the story straightens itself right out and pounds to the finish line – which is really only the start of a series that currently includes three novels.

When I first saw the character’s name, Leven Thumps, I have to say that I wasn’t interested in reading the book at all. It was just too strange, and the back cover copy didn’t promise me enough to make me purchase the book. But I’m glad I read it.

Where else are you going to find a book chock full of action and adventure, and with candy that will – temporarily – rearrange your body parts? Particularly your eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. When Leven ate some of the candy that Clover, his sycophant – magical protector — gave him, he ended up with his nose between his toes.

The book takes place in Oklahoma, which is where I’m from. However, other than a few superficial details, it doesn’t really feel like Oklahoma. Granted, the book isn’t about Oklahoma, so that shouldn’t matter.

Leven has a hard life (it seems like all the kids heroes these days do) and isn’t loved by anyone (another common problem), but is destined to do great things because he’s an offing. Although it takes a while to get to the part where Leven gets his powers, waiting is worth it. His powers are cool and kids will love them. Heck, even I would like to be able to see into the future and control weather. However, I’d really like to have Winter’s power to turn everything to ice too.

Winter is a young girl whose own life has been horrible. She was raised by her mean mother. In reality, though, Winter is a nit, a citizen of Foo who came to our world to help Leven find the Gateway, find out what his real identity is, and keep safe from Sabine, the villain that has escaped from Foo and means to kill Leven.

One of the funniest bits in the book is what happens to Geth. He was the king of Foo and ended up getting trapped in a tree seed that’s planted on earth. He grows into a huge tree that can move independently, till the day he decides it’s time to find Leven and get to Foo. Then he causes problems, gets chopped into firewood, and eventually ends up as a toothpick throughout the rest of the book. I ended up chuckling out loud at his antics and my wife had to ask me what was so funny. It was too hard to explain. Even after I tried, I knew that the only way to truly get it was to read the book.

I have to admit that I was disappointed about reading 360 pages and not quite getting to journey around in Foo. Of course, there are two other books in the series that seem to offer exactly that.

Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo focuses on the journey Leven has to take in order to get to that magical world. The writing is fast-paced and action-packed. The characters are neat and imaginative. And there are parts of the story that are so far over the top I could feel my jaw drop. Like when Winter freezes the ocean so Leven can drive their “borrowed” car across it to escape pursuers. I was really amazed at how quickly I read the book.

With short, punchy sentences and a rapid pace, this book is a great one for reading aloud to kids that might seem daunted by the book’s length. The action and adventure will pull them right in. But they will probably pull you in too, and you may find yourself reading long after you’ve tucked the kids in.

In his latest book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, Jeff Kinney nearly put me into the hospital. That man is going to have serious medical bills to pay if this keeps up. I almost busted a gut laughing out loud and almost aspirated my Diet Dr Pepper on a few occasions. And, yes, I hold him completely responsible.

If not for Kinney’s dry wit, keen insight into the lives of elementary school boys (especially their rationalization for EVERYTHING), and fantastic line drawing on nearly every page, I wouldn’t have had so many close brushes with death in his latest book. But he put me there time and time again. Even when I thought I had things figured out (because I was once an elementary school boy with a wild imagination without a governor), Jeff would throw a wrinkle at me that I didn’t see coming. He ambushed me with regularity throughout the pages.

But it’s not just me that Jeff has his merciless sights on. He’s taking out EVERYBODY. My wife teaches elementary school and Jeff’s books are all the rage among the students. I have to admit to adding to that bonfire because I talk about his books all the time (and I have to admit that I haven’t quite become the responsible adult either, because I’ll rile my wife’s fourth grade class up and take my leave—taking her out to dinner usually gets me off the hook and my cool points go up with the kids).

Parents have become interested in the books and I’ve told them they need to keep up with what their kids are reading. After all, they’re supposed to be responsible parents. (I, myself, have been known to buy extra copies of Jeff’s books and give out as gifts – some parents have accused me of inciting subversion, but I point out that Jeff’s first book was a New York Times bestseller and that is a far better recommendation than I could ever make. Except the Times doesn’t give away Jeff’s books as gifts that I know of. That’s why they hold me more accountable.)

But when I recommend the books to parents, I issue a stern warning. I call it the PYP warning. I especially give it to pregnant mothers and people with weak bladders who read in public places. PYP is Pee Your Pants. The books are just that funny. You’re reading along, and the next thing you know, WHAM! — you’re laughing so hard you’re peeing your pants.

The funniest thing about Jeff’s humor, and the life of his main character, Greg Heffley, is that everything in the book COULD BE COMPLETELY TRUE. Speaking from experience, a lot of what’s between those pages has been true. But I’m not going to incriminate myself now when I got away with those things all those years ago. And there should be some kind of time statute on most of them. I still don’t want my mom to know, however.

Greg is THE man when it comes to taking a boring day and turning it upside down. People who underestimate the creativity of a bored child are simply asking for trouble. Nuclear war pales by comparison.

And Greg has an excuse – or a rationalization – for everything he does. Worse than that, half the time I get sucked in and totally buy into his point of view. Because, upon occasion, that point of view has been mine as well (or at least my defense). That’s where Jeff’s magic truly lies: he’s never lost touch with his inner child. And boy, his wife must be mad and his kids must be terrified!

In this second book, I was totally blown away yet again. Greg is a middle kid, which means that his life is made miserable from both ends of the spectrum – from his older brother Rodrick and his younger brother Manny. Rodrick is the sulky teen with a band called Loded Diper. And their music stinks, so they’re appropriately named. Manny is three and gets into all of Greg’s stuff.

I love how Jeff sets something up in the books and continues to play off of it at appropriate times. His sense of pacing is fantastic. The work of “art” Manny creates out of toothpicks and aluminum foil is great, and I’ve seen that done, actually. Greg’s mom tells Greg he should keep it around and he does – until it impales Greg’s semi-best friend Rowley.

Another sequence in the book focuses on Greg’s ringleader abilities. Kids will follow anyone with a semi-great idea. Or at least one that will bring pain or embarrassment to another kid. See, Greg is NOT hero material. At least, not yet. He does show some potential, but it’s really far into the future.

One of those ideas involved making believe one of the other kids didn’t exist. Following Greg’s lead, the rest of the class pretends the kid doesn’t exist so much that Greg gets called into the principal’s office, then gets read the riot act by his parents.

I loved when Greg gets involved in the role-playing game Magic and Monsters and his mom becomes concerned. She decides to show up and play with them. And her rules don’t involve all the violence and bloodshed all the kids are used to enjoying. Worst of all, some of Greg’s friends start liking the way his mom plays!

Another instance is when the parents leave for a weekend trip and put Rodrick in charge. They’re no sooner gone than Rodrick is on the phone calling people over for a party. Madness ensues. A door gets painted with permanent marker. Rodrick gets Greg to help him change out doors so the parents don’t find out. Later, when they’re punished, Rodrick says he’s going to study the effects of decompression of the spine suffered by astronauts during prolonged weightlessness. He does this by sacking out on the couch and sleeping all the time while he’s grounded.

If you want, you can even read the books for free on the internet. Just go to Funbrain-dot-com to read them. One of the most interesting things about Jeff’s books is that they’re given away for free and STILL sold enough to make it to the top of the New York Times bestseller list.

You see, Jeff wants everyone to read his books that wants to. However, kids want books they can hold in their hands, share with friends, and put on a shelf. Plus, it’s kind of hard to take your computer and internet along when you’re stuck in the car on a family trip or out with a parent at a doctor’s appointment or a shopping spree.

One of the best features about Jeff’s books after you put them in your kids’ hands is that you don’t have to worry about batteries going dead. They’re kid powered: fueled by imagination and driven by humor. They’re good for the environment. Except for that whole PYP warning.

Jeff’s books are hilarious. I just can’t recommend them enough. Call me subversive if you want.

Billed as the first in the Cape Weathers, PI series, Stealing the Dragon starts out with a bang. A cargo ship filled with knock-off designer jeans ends up wrecked. But the ship wasn’t just carrying clothing. It was also filled with illegal Chinese immigrants who had paid large amounts of money or had agreed to become slaves of “snakeheads” (the men who arranged for the illegal immigration to the United States) in order to get the chance to improve their lives.Those illegal aliens aren’t the only secret, though. The ship carries a young woman aboard it that is one of very few. Trained as an assassin, the woman slips through the ship and kills the snakehead’s group as well as the crew.Looking at the plot, you’d expect to find something like this on one of those direct-to-DVD actioners starring Lorenzo Lamas. When I read the cover copy on it, I dismissed it, thinking I’d probably saved myself some money.

But that beautiful cover with the intriguing tattooed woman lurked – ninja-like – in the back of my mind. Then I saw a few generous reviews and thought, Well, the author has a few friends. Finally, I looked at the price and thought, the cost isn’t so much, and that cover is outta sight.

When I got the book and opened it to the first page, I became a believer. I didn’t put it down for almost a hundred pages. Granted, you’re not going to find anything new here. Cape Weathers is the obnoxious, laconic private eye that gets stamped out by a lot of writers. And, interesting though she is, Sally Mei isn’t exactly original either.

So you’re getting what you expect, which isn’t a bad thing.

The thing that came as a complete surprise, especially in a first-time novelist, is just how easy the novel is to read. Stealing the Dragon is simply the fastest reading detective novel I’ve perused outside of Robert B. Parker. Come to think of it, I enjoy a lot of the same qualities about the Spenser novels that I liked in this one.

Tough guy private eye? Check. (Although Spenser could take Weathers with one arm tied behind his back.)

Really deadly partner? Check. (It would be interesting to see Hawk matched up against Sally Mei. She comes with a lot more deadly accessories and looks great in a dress.)

Witty repartee? Check.

Running his own game against cops, feds, and criminals alike? Check.

The book is very familiar in a lot of ways, but it’s just so enjoyable it really shouldn’t be a first novel. I can’t wait to see what a few more years and a few more books under his belt do for Tim Maleeny.

One of the major contributors to the pacing is the incredibly shortness of the chapters. They hurtle along filled with action or dialogue, both of which are easy to read.

The book is for the most part divided between Cape’s search for his missing partner and Sally’s backstory of how she came to be an assassin trained by the Chinese Triads (organized crime). San Francisco, particularly Chinatown, comes to life on the pages.

I really enjoyed the writing, even though it was like a lot of other tough guy stuff I’ve read. Then again, I’ve read a lot of other tough guy stuff. There’s no harm in knowing what you want and how to get it.

The story is pretty straightforward. Cape goes around bumping into cops and criminals alike and pretty much becomes a lodestone for trouble and violence. The trick soon becomes staying out of jail while at the same time staying alive.

Sally, other than the revealing flashbacks, is offstage till nearly the end of the book. But I really liked her history and her story.

I’ve read few books this year that move with the same kind of rapid-fire pacing and yet manage to convey a fairly intricate and complex plot. I never once stumbled or got lost along the way. And even though the novel is nearly 370 pages long, I read it in four sittings over the Christmas holidays.

I’ve already ordered the second book in the series and am looking forward to reading it. Hopefully this is just the start of a long career for the author and the detectives.

Brandon Mull quietly invaded the juvenile fantasy scene in 2006 with his excellent first novel, Fablehaven, and now seems determined to stake out a large section of the reading real estate for himself. A second Fablehaven novel was published in 2007 and a third is forthcoming. In the meantime, he’s started another fantasy series with the publication of The Candy Shop War.

The conceit of Fablehaven is simple and elegant. There are sections of land that have been set aside for the preservation of mythological creatures, and caretakers have been appointed to manage them and see to their needs (as well as keep some of them from doing evil, but we’ll get to that).Thirteen year old Kendra and eleven year old Seth Sorenson don’t know much about their dad’s parents. They’ve rarely seen them because they’ve never been to visit their grandparents and their grandparents always seem too busy to come see them.

But when their mom’s parents die in a tragic accident, they’re suddenly off to their grandparents’ farm for an extended stay during the summer. Of course, while they’re there, Kendra and Seth find out what the Big Secret is.

The first part of the book is interesting and keeps readers turning the pages, but with the secret given away so readily by the intriguing cover and the back cover copy, it’s hard to not want to push through to the magical sequences. Still, the characterization and set up of Grandpa and Grandma Sorenson and the other household staff (including Lena – the housekeeper what used to be a naiad, Dale the farmhand, and Hugo the golem) are necessary.

The scene where Seth discovers the witch tied up with the knotted rope and playing with her limberjack is especially creepy. There were a lot of chills throughout the novel, and I have to admit that the Midsummer’s Eve assault on the farmhouse by the wicked fantasy creatures kept me glued. My son constantly asked, “What’s going to happen?” over and over through out that encounter, and he was only giving voice to what I wanted to know as well.

Once Grandpa disappeared and Dale was turned into a metal statue, things got really interesting. Seth and Kendra were on their own, and things didn’t seem like they were going to get a lot better. Seth had screwed up nearly everything he’d touched, and Kendra was hesitant about a lot of things. My son, wife, and I waited breathlessly to see what was going to happen next, and that’s the best mindset that a writer can ever evoke in a reader.

Mull does an excellent job of bringing the characters to life and he sets a crackerjack pace once he gets all the pieces laid out. Kendra and Seth’s adventures are compelling, entertaining, and imaginative. They don’t quite blow you away, but they kept my family and I on the edges of our seats.

There are puzzles and mysteries throughout the book. My wife guessed where Grandma Sorenson was, and my son and I jumped in at different clues. We all loved the ogre (imagining getting an ogre getting a massage was just hilarious, as was Grandma Sorenson’s bargaining) and the satyrs, and were put off by the imps and the witch.

This is one of those books that you just can’t put down unless you have to. Even after the book had to be put away for the evening, Fablehaven stayed in my mind and in my son’s. He got up every morning with fresh questions about the story and the characters. I didn’t blame him because I had most of the same questions dancing through my thoughts.

For those of you looking for a new series to read, or to give to your kids or young readers that you know, Fablehaven is a great series to get started on. It’s still early in the series to jump aboard and still be kept waiting for each new installment. And even with one novel done, there are still a ton of questions we have about Fablehaven. We can’t wait to go exploring there again.
 

There must be something about brothers that really interest readers and television fans. Supernatural is big on television, and Rob Thurman’s new series about Caliban and Niko are becoming big hits in the paperback arena. The first two books, Nightlife and Moonshine are out now, and Madhouse is coming out in February of 2008.

On the surface, the series looks like one of the many entries into the urban fantasy arena, but the books come with a twist. Caliban, or Cal, as he prefers to be called, is half-Dark Elf (Auphe) and has some kind of dark destiny that the brothers are only now starting to get a handle on. Cal’s mother had an affair – for money – with his Auphe father and he was born, a hybrid unlike anything that had ever been birthed before. Suffice to say that Cal wasn’t born into a nurturing home.

However, what Cal did have was his older brother, Niko, who is a self-styled samurai warrior and Renaissance man. Since Day One, Niko has been Cal’s protector and mentor, a super-parent that has more or less given up his life in order to make sure Cal grew up. Cal feels tremendous amounts of guilt over this, but there’s nothing he can do about it. His life has been entirely too strange – and that’s before you take into account the two years the Grendels (Dark Elves) kidnapped him to their world and did unspeakable things to him that he still can’t remember.

The relationship between the brothers is the foundation that makes everything else work. I could constantly see them around each other and in each other’s lives. Even those times when Niko wasn’t on stage with Cal, I was constantly aware of him.

The first-person narrative Cal treats us to is often sarcastic, but also touching. He is mocking and self-deprecating, but at the same time accessibly human and easy to feel sympathy for. He’s a loner, and he’s so much an outcast that he’s dragged his brother off into the same kind of horrible existence.

The plot of the first novel is loose. All Cal and Niko are trying to do is survive one more day. We get to see them doing that, and the peek into their lives and their world is a lot of fun. Author Rob Thurman has a lot to work with, given the creations she’s thrown at her readers so far. There’s a lot of backstory that hasn’t yet been explored.

Nightlife is a whirlwind adventure that doesn’t focus on the fate of the world, just the fates of the two main characters, which should be enough for any novel, though too many authors these days forget that. I also liked the addition of Robin Goodfellow, and I hope he hangs around as a series regular.

This book is pure pulp of the best kind. It offers no apologies or excuses for what it is. I enjoyed it from the first page to the last, and had very few places where I could rest comfortably. The story and the questions it launched kept pulling me back in time and again. That’s what the best ones do. Now I’m going to read Moonshine and anxiously await Madhouse.

If you haven’t discovered this series yet, you should. There’s no overarching romance story that keeps hitting you between the eyes. This is adventure on the purest level, and adrenaline will keep you turning the pages.

Minnesota-native Gary Paulsen has been one of my favorite middle-grade and YA authors for years. I can’t really remember which of his books I first read, but he’s written a lot of awfully good ones. His characters are always understandable, real, and – mostly – tied to nature in some ways.His most iconic figure is Brian Robeson, the star of Hatchet. In that book, Brian was a city kid who ended up crashing into the brush when the pilot of the plane he was in had a heart attack and died suddenly. With only a hatchet – no matches, no sleeping bag, and no supplies, Brian taught himself how to live in the wilderness. His personal growth spread over 54 days, and the book become one of the best-received middle-grade novels ever. If you haven’t read it, or your child hasn’t read it, you should.

Brian’s Hunt is the newest book in the five-volume series. Brian is 16 at the time of this novel, and he’s become more certain of himself. He’s out on the lakes in Canada, taking his time to get to the Cree American Indian tribe he became friends with during the course of his adventures. He’s very much a loner, and has even talked his parents and school into letting him try his hand at home schooling himself.

Paulsen’s attention to detail and the ways of nature may prove slow-going to most of today’s young readers (unless they’re already in love with the series), but you can feel the love the author has for such things. I learned a lot about fishing and hunting during the course of the book, though I intend to do neither, and I could tell my ten year old was filing away details while I read the novel to him.

However, Paulsen always delivers on the action in one of his books, and Brian’s Hunt is no exception. Before long, Brian wakes up to find a wounded dog looking for food and for help. Brian gives both, though those scenes are somewhat intense and carry a gross-out factor with them. The scenes are realistic, though, and very well written.

As Brian puts the puzzle of the dog’s mysterious wounds together with her behavior as he hunts, it doesn’t take him long to realize that the dog was mauled by a bear. Once that discovery is made, Brian learns bad news that sets him into the woods after the bear.

The details of how Brian tracks the bear, the skills and the observation necessary, are great. My son and I stayed glued to the pages, though we couldn’t help taking a break every now and again to discuss some facet of hunting lore we hadn’t been aware of. Although the material is mature, it’s written on a level kids can easily understand it, and it’s very honest. But if you have a youngster and you’re thinking about letting him or her read this one, you might want to read it yourself first to make sure it meets with your approval and that it won’t panic or bother your child.

I’m a big fan of Gary Paulsen’s, and this book really hit the spot. At 99 pages long, it’s a quick, intense read. Although Paulsen said he’d ended the Hatchet adventures after the publication of the last book, I can’t help but be hopeful there will be more. Brian is starting to get interested in a girl, and I want to see how that works out for him.