Review: Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles #2) by Marissa Meyer

Marissa Meyers. New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2013. 454 pp.
Rating: Striking + 🌙🌙🌙🌙🌙

Note: I started writing this review as soon as I finished reading the book on December 7, 2013; however, I never finished writing it. Last month I decided to reread Scarlet, my favorite book of TLC, because I needed something familiar, something I liked, something that wouldn't take up more space than the already jumbled thoughts currently swirling in my mind. I needed a good friend. Not only did this rereading bring me peace, but it also prompted me to finish the review I started seven years earlier. Although many years have passed, I'm leaving the review as I started it. 

In Scarlet, the second installment of The Lunar Chronicles Series, Cinder's story surges forward. Readers sojourn from New Beijing to Rieux, a small province in the French countryside, and there are introduced to Scarlet Benoit, the fiery, red-haired granddaughter of a former European Union pilot. Scarlet is unconvinced that her grandmother's disappearance is intentional though the police and townspeople believe otherwise. While Scarlet grapples with her grandmother's disappearance, Cinder is attempting to break out of prison to elude extradition back to Luna and Queen Levana's malicious plans.

Review: The Christmas Dolls by Carol Beach York

Carol Beach York. Scholastic: New York. 1967. 96 pp.
Rating: Striking + 5 Scoops

Book Blurb: Florabelle is an old rag doll without shoes. Lily doesn't have any shoes either, and her head is on backward. A little girl, who can talk to dolls, sets out on a dark, snowy night to find a way to make them beautiful again. 

Like any child, I looked forward to the Fall/Winter holiday season. For me it signified big family dinners, approaching birthdays for my siblings and I, colorful lights, homemade decorations, presents, and Claymation cartoons. More than anything else, it signaled time to snuggle up with my two favorite Christmas stories, The Christmas Dolls and The Nutcracker. 

Review: I Shall Be Near to You by Erin Lindsay McCabe

Erin Lindsay McCabe. New York: Crown Publishers, 2014. 304 pp.
Rating: Striking + 🌙🌙🌙🌙🌙

In an era devoid of modern day technology, you are newly married and a war is raging. The trickle flow of information sets all on edge. Hoping for news from loved ones, each mail delivery breeds both fear and anticipation.

Spirited, hand-on-hip Rosetta Edwards refuses to become a spinster. Persuading her sweetheart, Jeremiah Wakefield, to marry her before he joins the Army, Rosetta enjoys two weeks of marital bliss. Unable to bear a year without Jeremiah, Rosetta secretly follows him; temporarily shedding her identity for that of Private Joss Stone, soldier of Company H of the Ninety-Seventh Volunteers. Recovering from the shock of Rosetta’s audacious presence, Jeremiah, failing to convince Rosetta to return home allows her to stay. What follows is a poignant story of love, friendship, and war.