Posts Tagged: cedar fort

Book Review- The Rifts of Rime

21 Jun, 2012 by in Steven L Peck, sweetwater books, youth fiction 1 comment

The Rifts of Rime
by Steven L Peck
Paperback, 280 pages
Published June 12, 2012
by Sweetwater Books
ISBN: 1599559676
Book Source: Netgalley
4 stars

Book Summary from Goodreads: In a world overtaken by greed and a ruthless, power-hungry dictator, Pinecone knows he’s no warrior. But when he’s entrusted with the sacred Scroll of Quickening, an ancient record that holds great power, Pinecone must summon the courage to protect the scroll. If he doesn’t, its secrets will be lost forever.

Meanwhile, Pinecone’s friend Leafe is mounting a makeshift rebellion to fend off the Thane whose evil might grows stronger every day. But her efforts may force her into some troubling alliances.

Cathy’s Review: In the beginning of time the Wealdend gathered the animals around them at their holy tree and quickened 5 species of animals: The gray squirrels, the wolf sisters, the marmots, the ants, and the folk (squirrels with a flap of skin attaching their wrists to their ankles.) Each of these groups were given a special gift that would be very important later. The folk however are given a trial before they are able to use their special gift. They must learn to listen before it’s too late. Soon though, their world becomes corrupted. There are too many power hungry of the gray squirrels, including their leader the Thane. They are trying to destroy and get rid of the folk and trying to rule the whole of their world. Will the poet, Pinecone and paper maker, Leafe be able to stop them from taking over before it’s too late?

Honestly my first thought about this book was, squirrels, really??? But the more that I got into the book and learned about the characters the more I liked it. The book is written for a target audience of about 8 to 12 years old and I think that they will love it. It reminds me a bit of The Rats of Nimh that I read as a middle school child and loved. I love the way that good wins in the end. I really enjoyed this book! I hope that there are more adventures connected with this one.

Content: Clean

About the author: Steven L. Peck is an evolutionary ecologist and professor of the philosophy and history of science. He is the author of a previous novel, The Scholar of Moab (Torrey House Press, 2011), and a forthcoming young adult novel, Spear from the Wealdend’s Tree (Cedar Fort Press).

Find out more about author Steven L Peck: Goodreads/ Website/ facebook


The Guardians of Elijah’s Fire Blog Tour and Giveaway

07 Jun, 2012 by in Uncategorized 5 comments

Fire and Ice is pleased to announce Frank L. Cole’s newest book as part of the Cedar Fort blog tour and offer a giveaway to our readers!

by Frank L. Cole

Expected publication June 12, 2012

by Cedar Fort, Inc.

ISBN 1462110576
 
Book Summary: Just when they thought they were safe, Amber Trendon, and their classmates get yanked back into the action. With the Tebah Stick in enemy hands, Amber becomes a target, and it seems even her closest allies can’t be trusted. Now the gang will have to travel through enemy territory to protect a deadly ancient weapon that could cause the earth’s utter destruction.

This thrilling tale ups the action and doubles the danger. Bestselling author Frank L. Cole delivers an addicting read for adventurers of all ages
About this author: Frank L. Cole has lived in such exotic places as the Philippines and Kentucky, and currently lives with his wife and three children out west. While he strived for years to earn his publishing credits, Frank considers sharing his message of “Exercising Your Imagination” to over 30,000 kids across the country as his greatest accomplishment. The Guardians of Elijah’s Fire is Frank’s 5th published book and will release this June, 2012.
You can learn more about his writing at his blog.
To enter to win a copy of Guardians of Elijah’s Fire simply comment below. Must be 13 or older and have a US mailing address.


The Golden Flute: Adventures of Lilli and Zane #1

05 Jun, 2012 by in Uncategorized Leave a comment

The Golden Flute:
Adventures of Lilli and Zane #1
by Catherine Lanigan
Hardcover, 304 pages
Expected publication date, June 12th 2012
by Cedar Fort
ISBN: 1462110231
Source: Netgalley
3 Stars
Summary from Goodreads: Masterfully written by award-winning author Catherine Lanigan, this thrilling action story keeps you guessing through every twist and turn. Cross continents and connect the clues along with teen treasure hunters Lilli and Zane as they try to stay one step of ahead of danger, find the ancient artifacts, and keep them far away from their enemies. A must-read for adventurers of all ages!

Cathy’s Review: Lilli is 14 years old, her dad finds ancient artifacts and he’s gone a lot, leaving Lilli in the care of her nanny, Nancy. Lilli has been having a lot of strange dreams featuring her mother, Arlette, who died five years earlier. Arlette seems to be trying to tell Lilli something…something to do with a golden flute that Arlette sent to Lilli, ironically on the day that she was murdered. The flute came to Lilli, but it has always been broken, it doesn’t make noise. Lilli and Nancy are just getting ready to join Lilli’s father JC in England for spring break. But when Lilli’s next door neighbor’s, Zane and Teddy spot some men breaking into Lilli’s house right after they’ve left, they know that there’s going to be trouble for Lilli and Nancy and they hurriedly get tickets on the same flight to London. It’s a good thing they did, there’s no way Lilli and Nancy could be prepared for what comes next! 

This book had a lot of action and adventure in it. The plot moved maybe a bit too fast for me. It was hard to keep up with just which character was narrating the story. The story jumps from Lilli to Teddy to the criminals to her father…you get the idea. I really liked Teddy’s character, he was just a cutie. I could picture a little boy acting just like he does, trying not to show his crush on the older Lilli, but trying to be kind to her at the same time, plus he’s such a computer nerd! I didn’t really feel like the other characters were quite as well developed as Teddy. I do however think that the target audience of young adults will really enjoy the story and the characters!

Content: Clean


About the author:  I am an author of over 30 published books and am constantly researching the next 30. I love gardening, cooking, reading, loving my old friends and making new friends. 
Find out more about author Catherine Lanigan: Goodreads/ Website/ facebook

InterrobangYA Video- Heather Talks May & Summer 2012 Releases

28 Apr, 2012 by in Shadow Mountain, vlog Leave a comment

Heather talks on the InterrobangYA channel about books coming out Tuesday May 1, 2012 as well as a few more upcoming titles for summer 2012.
Featured titles are Surrender by Elana Johnson (Simon Pulse), Black Dawn by Rachel Caine (Penguin), Journey to the Fringe: Stone Mage Wars Book One by Kelli Swofford Nielsen (Shadow Mountain), Middle School Magic: The Kindling by Braden Bell (Cedar Fort), Laughing with the Moon by Shana Burg (Delcorte), Silence: Book One of the Queen of the Dead by Michele Sagara ( Daw), and A Tale of the Dragon’s Bard: Eventide by Tracy & Laura Hickman (Shadow Mountain).

Book Review- Lightning Tree

16 Apr, 2012 by in Sarah Dunster 1 comment

Lightning Tree
by Sarah Dunster
Paperback, 384 pages
Published April 10, 2012
by Cedar Fort
ISBN: 1599559595
Book Source: Netgalley
3 stars

Goodreads review: After surviving the tragic deaths of her parents and her baby sister and a harrowing trek across the plains to Utah, it s no surprise that Maggie’s nights are plagued by nightmares. But after years of harsh treatment by her foster family and memories that seem to hint at an unthinkable crime, Maggie is forced to strike out on her own to separate the facts from the lies.

Cathy’s review: It’s the 1800’s in Provo, Utah. Johnson’s Army has been pestering the LDS people, so they’ve all moved south out of their main city of Salt Lake City to wait out the soldiers. Magdalena Chabert has finally made a friend, who happens to be one of the step-daughters of Brigham Young. It’s strange to Maggie that she’s finally made a friend, she’s always been kind of the odd one out with the young people of Provo, but knowing Mariah has changed that for her. Unfortunately Mariah and her family are heading home with all the other people from Salt Lake. Maggie’s not certain what she will do without her friend around, especially with all of the bad nightmares she’s been having. She has nightmares about men with guns firing at…well at someone, Maggie’s uncertain just who. Soon though, she finds that her foster family has been lying to her about her situation. She thought that there was nothing left from the things that her family had brought with them across the plains, but she’s turning Ma Alden’s mattress one day and notices her mother’s name written on it. Maggie’s uncertain just who she can trust, she can’t trust her foster family, or her friend Henry, maybe, just maybe she can trust herself to take care of herself and her little sister Giovanna. I liked Maggie’s story and the characters in it. Provo’s really a small town where everyone knows everyone else’s business and that makes for some pretty interesting situations. Having said that the story itself felt a little disjointed, which I guess was probably how Provo was during this time of unrest for them. 

Content: Clean

About the Author:  Sarah Dunster is the mother of six young children.  Her childhood journals are littered with poems, stories, and drawings of maps, characters, and places she imagined for her stories. She wrote her first novel at age nine – a rambling combination of Little Women and Anne of Green Gables, scribbled on binder paper – and tortured her friends by making them listen to the whole thing. Sarah is an award-winning poet; her pieces have been published in Segullah Magazine and Dialogue: a Journal of Mormon Thought. In addition to writing she loves reading, singing, skiing, and educating her children at home. Sarah lived for ten years in Provo, and grew to love the places, people, and history of Utah Valley.  
Find out more about author Sarah Dunster Book Website/ Goodreads/ Personal Website


Shayla Witherwood: A Half Faerie Tale Blog Tour

10 Apr, 2012 by in Tamra Torero, young adult fiction 2 comments

Fire and Ice is today’s stop on the official blog tour for
Shayla Witherwood: A Half Faerie Tale
by Tamra Torero
Hardcover, 312 pages
Expected publication date: May 8, 2012
by Cedar Fort
ISBN: 1599559633
Book Source: Netgalley
4.5 Stars
Summary: A brief moment of disappointment washed over me as I approached Jace’s lifeless body. Here I was, about to kiss a boy on the lips for the very first time, and he was completely comatose—possibly paralyzed—and would never even know or remember the experience. This was not how I’d envisioned my first kiss—me invisible, him unconscious. 

Shayla Witherwood is not exactly normal. First of all, she’s spent her entire life being homeschooled, traveling in an RV around the country with her grandparents. And second, there’s the kind of inescapable fact that her mom was a genuine faerie. 



But now that she’s starting a real life in a regular high school, Shayla desperately needs to stay out of trouble in both worlds because even her faerie powers might not be enough to protect her from what’s coming. 


In her latest novel, Tamra Torero spins a magical tale filled with laugh-out-loud sarcasm, surprising twists, and spell-binding romance. Perfect for fairytale fans of all ages, this is one story you won’t want to miss!

Cathy’s Review: Shayla Witherwood is just a normal high school girl…okay not really! She’s a half-faerie, she’s been home-schooled for her whole school career by grandparents that she traveled the country with in an RV named Brutus. But now her grandfather has died, so her grandmother decides that it’s time to settle down in a small town and it’s time for Shayla to go to school in the public high school. This doesn’t sound like a wonderful plan to Shayla, and her first day finds her wanting to use her faerie powers to turn herself invisible so that none of the other kids see her, but Grandma has firmly told her that using her powers around others is against the rules. But will Shayla be able to keep her new friends from realizing that she’s a half-faerie? I was excited to read this book, because I really loved her Molly Mormon? series a few years ago. This was a fun story to read, and the characters were fun. Shayla gets herself into some pretty crazy situations when she uses her faerie powers to do things like turning invisible or changing her ears. I liked the ending and how Shayla figured out a bunch of stuff about herself and also her parents and extended family that she had never known. 
Content: Really nothing offensive, clean




About the Author: Tamra Torero fills her life with all things sweet— from her nine children and two grandsons, to her husband, Paco. By day she creates sweet things to eat as a bakery manager, and by night she creates sweet stories (which all-too often require “brain food,” a.k.a. Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate). She enjoys reading in the bathtub, watching movies in bed, and dancing in the kitchen. She is the author of seven novels for children and teens.
Find out more on her website/ Goodreads


Cobble Cavern Blog Tour

14 Mar, 2012 by in middle grade books Leave a comment

Fire and Ice is today’s stop on Eric Olsen’s Cobble Cavern Blog Tour. For a full ist of stops click here. Enjoy our review!

Cobble Cavern
by Erik Olsen
Hardcover, 304 pages
Expected Publication Date: April 4, 2012
by Cedar Fort
ISBN: 9781462110094
Book Source: Net Galley
3 Stars


Book Summary: What starts out to be a fun field trip to Ireland for Flin and his school debate team, turns into a life changing adventure. Flin and his teammates get swallowed by an earthquake and become trapped under the ocean inside a clear dome where they discover an unknown civilization. Join Flin and his classmates on a journey of a lifetime in this thrilling adventure story.

Cathy’s Review: Flin is just turning 13 years old as part of his family’s tradition, when they turn 13 they receive a ring made by their great-grandfather. Only you don’t pick your ring, your ring picks you. Flin was very excited to receive his ring, as his family is very poor, it’s his only birthday present. He is also really excited to go on his school field trip the very next day. His school debate team is going to Ireland to watch international debate competitions. It will be Flin’s first flight and the first flight of anyone in his immediate family. The debate team gets more than it had bargained for when their bus is swallowed up by the earth during an earthquake. They must work together to find a way out. The adventure in this story was really fun. I enjoyed the story line quite a bit. I felt like the story was a bit disjointed though. I didn’t feel like it always made a lot of sense. The characters seemed real, and I liked how they were able to deal with the challenges that came their way. I think that the target audience for this book, elementary aged boys, will really love this one!

Content: There’s some moments of peril, and some bullying, but other than that really nothing.

About the author: Jon Erik Olsen lives in Sandy, Utah, where he enjoys the mountains and is surrounded by a great family and friends that have continued to support him throughout his writing quest. After having one of the world’s craziest dreams, he has written a series of five books detailing it called Flins Destiny, which is full of continuous action and adventure deep in the earth and keeps you wanting more.

Find out more about author Erik Olsen Website/ Goodreads/ Book Poster Page/