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...I wrote about Jenny Han's To All the Boys I've Loved Before:

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before features the premise of a standard romantic comedy—over the course of years, a girl writes letters to her crushes once they’ve become FORMER crushes; said letters accidentally get mailed en masse—and has scenes straight out of a farce, but it features a storyline and characters that are more surprising, more interesting and more well-rounded than the majority of entrants in either genre. It’s about family, about sisters, about responsibility and independence and bravery, and about growing out of friendships and crushes and about growing back into them.

While I haven't been writing here, my columns at Kirkus have continued.

Here's a list:

• On The True Adventures of Nicolò Zen: "Some will like the throwback feel to more old school children’s adventure stories, while others will miss the immediacy, the passion and the heart of more modern fare."
• Two (count 'em!) round-ups of Valentine's recommendations. (But love stories are great regardless of the time of year.)
• On Liv, Forever: "Mystery-wise, if you’ve seen Reptile Boy from the second season of Buffy, you’ll have figured it all out before you even read the first page. (Well, minus the giant snake thing.)"
• On The Glass Casket: "The storyline was compelling, interesting and jaw-droppingly, gorily surprising—excellent enough to make the book work all on its own, what with nods to Red Riding Hood, chapter headings pulled from Tarot cards, superb atmosphere and a well-argued-on-both-sides debate about folk beliefs versus scientific inquiry—but more importantly (at least in my view), the relationships between the characters were complex, believable and emotionally honest."
• On The Falconer: "She fights alongside an emotionally aloof faery dude who is graced with Otherworldly Beauty, a Deep, Long-Held Sadness and a Bad Attitude, and she can’t decide if she wants to punch him or kiss him. Check! Check! Check! Check! Check!"
• A round-up of books set in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. (Although there is very little actual Mardi Gras action in the books!)

Phew. Looking that over, I guess I did slightly more in February than I was giving myself credit for.

...I wrote about what I've been reading to combat my winter blues.

Feel free to give me some recommendations, as I've been feeling SOMEWHAT LOW.

(Not in an unusually bad way. Just in an It's January And We Still Have February And March To Look Forward To way. In other words, BLAH AND ALSO BLERG.)

...I wrote about Ruth Warburton's Witch Finder, which apparently, I belatedly discovered, isn't going to be published in the US.

Or at least, there aren't plans currently in the works to publish it here.

Which made me think about two things:

1. I have become REALLY spoiled by how easy it is to track down books.

2. What OTHER books am I missing out on, and how do I easily keep track of their whats and their whens and their wheres?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

...I wrote about Christine Kohler's No Surrender Soldier, which worked for me really well in some ways and not so much in others, but which ALSO inspired me to start looking for other books in the same vein.

So feel free to help me out with that.

...I planned on writing about Katherine Longshore's Manor of Secrets, but found it so meh that I made a list of other Downton Abbey-ish books instead.

Please do add more in the comments, either here or at Kirkus: I'd love to find some more good ones!

...I wrote about Wolfgang Herrndorf’s Why We Took the Car:

The dialogue—and I’m sure that the translator, Tim Mohr, deserves a lot of the credit for this—is FANTASTIC. It’s so authentic that it reads like a transcription of a conversation between 14-year-old boys: They banter, they argue, they digress, they joke, they show off; they are at moments awkward, silly, serious, wise. It’s a story about a boy from a broken family that pretends everything is fine. It’s a story about loneliness and abandonment. It’s a story about friendship, about kindness, about empathy, about confidence, about trust, about hope.

...I wrote about some upcoming January and February releases that I'm especially looking forward to.

What about you? What's on your list?

...I wrote about Shadowplay, which is the sequel to my beloved Pantomime:

Even though the focus is different, fans of the first book will have MUCH to squee over, MANY surprises to…be surprised by and EVEN MORE to discuss, to debate, and to dissect. For instance? Well, the one that has me especially pleased is a rather huge spoiler. So I’ll keep it to myself for now.

I am bursting to talk about it. BURSTING. So if you haven’t read Pantomime yet, DO. Go out and read it, and then read Shadowplay when it’s released next month, and then TALK TO ME ABOUT IT. I’m dying here, guys. DYING.

...I wrote about Alison Cherry's Red, which I felt all mix-y about.

One of the major STRENGTHS, though, is that the heroine is... kind of a pain:

Felicity is extremely self-absorbed—her only real concerns are keeping her secret under wraps and her popularity intact. In the age of Hermione Granger and Katniss Everdeen, it’s unusual to find a character who is quite as disinterested in social justice as our Miss St. John. Her cluelessness and her selfishness will drive some readers bananas, but for others (like me), her voice will ring true and feel refreshingly honest.

...I wrote about Diamonds & Deceit, the second book in Leila Rasheed's At Somerton series.

If you're looking for some light, Luxe-ish fun, you can't go wrong with this one:

You get the idea. And those are only a FEW of the characters and storylines! Rasheed clearly comes from the Dickens school of literature, in that there are apparently only 43 people living in London: Every single detail—right down to the romance novel that everyone in the book is obsessed with—factors in, coincidences abound (in a generally delightful manner) and there’s a healthy dose of humor to balance out all of the soapiness.

...I wrote about Alyxandra Harvey's A Breath of Frost, which was a LITTLE bit confused and a LOT long, but overall, quite fun:

Over the course of that night, she finds out that A) magic is real, B) she’s a witch, C) she’s suspected of being a MURDEROUS witch by D) a mysterious Order that has it in for her, E) everything she knows about her mother is a lie, and F) Cormac Fairfax, the jerk of a guy who broke her heart months ago knows all about all of it.

...I wrote about Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner’s These Broken Stars, which started out as 'Titanic in space' but rapidly transformed into a survival/journey across an alien planet:

Although he’s likable enough—his Jerk Moments are far fewer than Lilac’s, and are usually fueled by necessity—Tarver isn’t a hugely interesting character, as he’s one of those super strong, super sensitive, super mature, borderline all-knowing heroes who develops a lurrrve for the heroine, but keeps it under wraps Because He’s Beneath Her, etc., etc. As he’s already pretty much “perfect” at the outset of the story, he doesn’t have much growing to do, so there’s little-to-no character development on that front. Lilac, meanwhile, does quite a bit of changing.

Even though the cover doesn't make a whole lot of sense, I continue to think it's totally gorgeous.

...I wrote about Premeditated, which bears a striking resemblance to the last book I wrote about for Kirkus:

Last week, I wrote about Poor Little Dead Girls, a thriller about a middle-class girl who is catapulted into Richie Rich territory via athletic scholarship. (The thriller part involves a secret society! And lots of other crazy stuff, like eugenics and blood diamonds and murrrrrderrrrr!) Totally coincidentally, today’s book, Josin L. McQuein’s Premeditated, is ALSO a thriller about a middle-class girl who enters the world of the very, very privileged. Unlike Sadie, though, Dinah isn’t remotely interested in using the prestige of her school’s name to make her way into the Ivy League. No, Dinah has finagled her way into the Eleanor Lowry School for one reason, and one reason alone: REVENGE.

So weird that I picked them up one right after the other like that!

...I wrote about Lizzie Friend's Poor Little Dead Girls.

My editor titled the post A Secret Society Gone Bananas, which pretty much SUMS THE WHOLE THING UP.

Short version: LOTS OF FUN.

Click on through for the longer version:

Sadie doesn’t trust people blindly, and she makes a concerted effort to avoid making stupid choices—there are a few conversations about the idiocy horror movie heroines—and Friend works to give even the most two-dimensional of her characters at least SOME depth. (The British twins, granted, don’t get much in the way of fleshing out, but they are REALLY funny, and since they created their public personas as a very deliberate caricature, I gave them a pass.)

...I wrote about a few of the many issues I had with Anna Jarzab's Tandem:

Also, the romance is problematic. First of all, it’s a captive/captor relationship, which is always particularly dicey—but CAN be effective (see Meljean Brook’s The Iron Duke for a great example)—and in this case, because of the personalities involved and the specifics of the situation, I just never bought it as viable. I didn’t feel it, I didn’t believe in it and I certainly didn’t root for it. As I’m pretty sure I’ve said before, it’s REALLY hard to root for star-crossed love when the hero is a toolbox.

I was so surprised. I really did think it was going to be a good fit for me.

...I wrote about Adele Griffin's Loud Awake and Lost:

They’re two very different books, but in Loud Awake and Lost, Adele Griffin explores some of the same territory that she did in  Tighter: lost memory and paranoia, the trustworthiness of one’s own perception, individual reality versus shared reality. The big difference, though—beyond how different the two protagonists and their support networks are—is that while Tighter is the story of a girl spiraling down and down and down until she hits bottom, Loud Awake and Lost is the story of a girl healing, rediscovering herself and coming up out of the dark.

Last week, I wrote about Sarah Zettel's Palace of Spies, which I loved so much that it prompted this tweet:

Having a lazy moment in which I don't want to WRITE ABOUT all of the reasons I loved a certain book, I just want to THROW IT at everyone.

— Leila Roy (@bkshelvesofdoom) October 31, 2013

And I wrote about Jennifer Lynn Barnes' The Naturals, which isn't particularly original, but IS loads of fun:

Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ The Naturals was a one-sitting book for me: I sat down, I started reading, and I didn’t look up again until it was all over. She doesn’t cover any new ground*, but Barnes combines a super premise—a young team of forensic X-Men spar, snipe, study and smooch—with smart, funny, easy-going narration, and unless a reader goes in looking for the next Code Name Verity, Octavian Nothing or Chime, I can’t imagine anyone walking away disappointed.

ALSO! Kirkus is giving away two tickets to Catching Fire AND a Suzanne Collins autograph, and since literally all you have to do is punch in your name and email address, you'll probs want to go ahead and do that.

OKAY, THEN. BACK TO TRYING TO MAKE MY STUPID EAR POP.

AIR TRAVEL IS FOR THE BIRDS.

AHAHAHAHAHA, I KILL ME.

(It's possible that I'm still delirious with tired from Kidlitcon.)

...I wrote about Katie Alender's Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer:

Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer is a hugely entertaining mash-up of genres: chick-lit and ghost story, mean girl drama and romance, travelogue and coming-of-age. It’s light and frothy and fun, it’s full of straight-out-of-a-teen-slasher-movie scenes, but it avoids being forgettable or vapid since it’s grounded by the following elements...

(I've featured the cover art from the ARC, rather than from the finished book. I'm still sad that they removed the blood spatter. BTW, DOESN'T THE MODEL LOOK LIKE A BLONDE LARA FLYNN BOYLE??)

...I talk about Kathryn Lasky's The Extra, which has a cool premise, but didn't do a lot for me beyond that:

Kathryn Lasky’s The Extra has a fascinating—if depressing and revolting—premise, which is made only more so by the fact that it’s based on a true story. Which makes it all the more unfortunate that the rest of the book is only semi-successful. For the first 50 pages—the pre-film segment—much of the dialogue and narration is stiff; the prose flip flops between a historical feel and a modern feel; and the historical facts and details are just plopped in, rather than worked in naturally. The last third of the book—after the film—feels rushed and uneven, just a way to wind out the war and finish Lilo’s story. That, compounded with Lilo’s Everygirl persona and other characterizations that were more tell than show, led me to wonder if Lasky was less invested in her fictional characters than in her portrayal of the very-real Leni Riefenstahl and the story of the making of Tiefland.

...I wrote about Mariah Fredericks' Season of the Witch, which I liked a whole lot:

The feminist undercurrents. This is HUGELY unusual in a Mean Girls story! While Toni’s romance with Oliver is the catalyst for her story, it’s not really a huge factor. In the past, Toni has certainly enjoyed the company of the opposite sex, but she’s never been driven by the I Need To Snag Me A Dude impulse.

All of the power—magic or otherwise—in Season of the Witch is wielded by the female characters, and it’s not about women (or girls) in relation to men (or boys): It’s about them in relation to each other.

...I wrote about two books: James Dashner's The Eye of Minds, and Eliza Crewe's Cracked.

Short version? The Dashner will definitely appeal to his fanbase, but wasn't a particular stand out for me, while Cracked is flat-out AWESOME:

I ADORED Eliza Crewe’s Cracked. It’s smart, it’s funny, it’s full of action and bare-handed decapitations. Meda’s voice is hilarious and snarky and brash and inhuman and original. She’s an art lover with a wonderfully morbid sense of humor, a monster who takes joy in brutal violence but who secretly hates herself for giving in to her mindless rage, and she’s a girl who’s all alone and just wants to know who she is. She's a quick thinker who considers every angle of a situation, and she doesn't yearn for humanity or, asBuffy’s Spike so wonderfully puts it, exhibit any of “that Anne Rice crap.” She's a mostly unrepentant killer who doesn't shy away from playing the damsel in distress card—even when she's the most dangerous thing in the room.

Thanks again for bearing with me as I recalibrate due to my new job: I'm slowly starting to regain normalcy, so I'm hoping to be posting with more regularity soon!

...I talk about Sarah Rees Brennan's Untold, but more specifically, the awesomosity of heroine Kami Glass:

She’s smart, she’s funny, she’s curious, she’s determined, she’s a girl detective with an insanely steady moral compass, she’s empathetic and stubborn and brave and resourceful and she is the personification of Never Say Die. All of her fabulous qualities make it easy to buy the fact that almost every person she comes into contact with—minus the pro-human sacrifice faction, naturally—ends up totally devoted to her, looks to her for guidance, trusts her implicitly as well as becoming fiercely protective of her.

...I strongly disagreed with Kirkus' take on Robin Wasserman's The Waking Dark:

Kirkus panned it as “skippable in the extreme”; I haven’t been able to stop raving about it since reading it. Kirkus found it “unrealistic,” “ludicrous” and “snooze-inducing”; I found it chilling, suspenseful, shocking and raw. Kirkus found it unsuccessful as an homage to Stephen King, while I felt that Wasserman shines in exactly the same way as King: in showing that true terror doesn’t stem from the paranormal, but from the normal.

...I wrote about Risa Green's Projection, which is loads of fun for a couple of reasons:

There are two distinct groups of readers who’re bound to find Risa Green’s Projection a whole lot of fun: Fans of Sara Shepard’s Pretty Little Liars and The Lying Game, and fans of the website TV Tropes. Shepard fans—especially fans of The Lying Game, which, like Projection, has paranormal elements—will love the intrigue, the mystery and the drama, while fans of TV Tropes will enjoy identifying the various genre conventions that Green weaves together into a cohesive, entertaining whole.

...I talked about Cherry Money Baby, which is somewhat bananas and quite thoughtful and, at points, really, really funny. But the best thing about it, hands down, was the heroine:

She’s 17 years old and a senior in high school. She lives in a tiny trailer with her father and her perpetually stoned younger brother in a small factory town in Massachusetts. She works at the Burrito Barn and has been dating her next-door neighbor, a boy she’s known since preschool, for years.

You totally know what’s coming next, right?

WRONG.