Okay, so I'm going to look at this from two perspectives. First I want to look at this book as a librarian, and then as a reader.
First as a librarian: I could easily see many of the kids at my school loving this book. I can particularly picture some of my 6-10th grade girls adoring it. It has everything they like, strong heroines, magic powers and dreamy (and evil) boys. And therein lies the the problem. While I can easily see these girls loving this book, I'm not sure how comfortable I would feel recommending it to anyone below 10th grade, as there are several rather explicit sex scenes. I know that many of books that my students read and watch contain such scenes but I never feel fully comfortable recommending them.
That being said, since I know that many students would enjoy it, I will be recommending that it be purchased, but also that it be marked as KS4+ (9th grade and up only).
Second as a reader: I both liked and disliked this book. It was a fairly engrossing read, so I wasn't to tempted to put it aside in favor of another book. However, I did feel that the book was rather disjointed. The two parallel plotlines did not weave together particularly well, and at times it felt like two different books instead of one book. There were some intriguing plot points touched on in both stories, but I felt like very little of it was truly fleshed out. Still, it piqued my interest enough that I'll definitely pick up the next book when it comes out.
First as a librarian: I could easily see many of the kids at my school loving this book. I can particularly picture some of my 6-10th grade girls adoring it. It has everything they like, strong heroines, magic powers and dreamy (and evil) boys. And therein lies the the problem. While I can easily see these girls loving this book, I'm not sure how comfortable I would feel recommending it to anyone below 10th grade, as there are several rather explicit sex scenes. I know that many of books that my students read and watch contain such scenes but I never feel fully comfortable recommending them.
That being said, since I know that many students would enjoy it, I will be recommending that it be purchased, but also that it be marked as KS4+ (9th grade and up only).
Second as a reader: I both liked and disliked this book. It was a fairly engrossing read, so I wasn't to tempted to put it aside in favor of another book. However, I did feel that the book was rather disjointed. The two parallel plotlines did not weave together particularly well, and at times it felt like two different books instead of one book. There were some intriguing plot points touched on in both stories, but I felt like very little of it was truly fleshed out. Still, it piqued my interest enough that I'll definitely pick up the next book when it comes out.