Eschewed Obfuscation

I had a veritable reading marathon this weekend! Two whole books. I actually wrote up three, but one of them isn't fit for posting... ahem.


I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter (284 pages, hardcover): B+
A YA novel, but one that came highly recommended by an adult acquantaince. The story concerns a girl named Cammie Morgan, sophomore at the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women--a spy school. Nothing exceptional as far as plot/character/setting, but for the YA genre it works. At what looks like 12-point 1.5-spaced serif font and under 300 pages, it's also a fast read. Recommended for readers of all ages who ever wanted to be a spy.

The Mislaid Magician, or Ten Years After by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer (328 pages, hardcover): A
This is the third book in a series of epistolary novels about Cecy and Kate. I can't quite classify the genre--the themes are YA, library catagorizes as SF, I personally like the elements of historical fiction with fantasy (magic). I tend to confuse it with A College of Magics (or maybe the sequel to that). Anyway, this collaborative work was written through the Letter Game, and as a result, the voices of Kate and Cecy couldn't be more different. I love the letter format and the period touches like the creative and varied closings. Cover design is also excellent, and I've always held Patricia Wrede in high regard for her Enchanted Forest Chronicles. As a super-special bonus, I totally understood the talk about Faraday and magnetism! But not the laid couching, alas. So to conclude my ramblings, The Mislaid Magician earns the same rating as Ysabel, for very different reasons.