Between the Sea and Sky by Jaclyn Dolamore {24th]

Title: Between the Sea and Sky
Author: Jaclyn Dolamore
Pages: 229
Format: Kindle
Publish Date: October 25th, 2011 ; Bloomsbury USA Children's Books
Source: Bought
Synopsis:

For as long as Esmerine can remember, she has longed to join her older sister, Dosinia, as a siren--the highest calling a mermaid can have. When Dosinia runs away to the mainland, Esmerine is sent to retrieve her. Using magic to transform her tail into legs, she makes her way unsteadily to the capital city. There she comes upon a friend she hasn't seen since childhood--a dashing young man named Alander, who belongs to a winged race of people. As Esmerine and Alander band together to search for Dosinia, they rekindle a friendship . . . and ignite the emotions for a love so great, it cannot be bound by sea, land, or air.

 Between the Sea and Sky is a cute and short read. This is the first mermaid book I have read since . . Little Mermaid. So, no high expectations were made. I just wanted to see how well an author can portray a mermaid story. Jaclyn Dolamore did a great job with that.

This story follows a mermaid that goes to search for her runaway sister. Esmerine, the main character, has just become a siren. Her and her sister, Dosia (Dosinia), are the only sirens in her family. Esmerine and Dosia are really close, so when Dosia just runs away, Esmerine is shocked and determined to find her. Sirens are allowed to change into humans, by growing legs, but whenever the walk, their feet will burn with an agonizing pain. But Esmerine is dead-set on finding her sister. Esmerine manages to get a ride into town, hoping to find an old friend of hers. A winged man, Faransee, named Alander. He used to come to the sea and read books to Esmerine. It's been years since Esmerine has last saw him, from him saying he can't come back to see her and the disapproval from the mermaid community. After some catching up and figuring out where exactly Dosia is located, Alander and Esmerine set out to go find her. Which ends in expecting twists and turns.

Between the Sea and Sky wasn't a cliched book. The plotline didn't remind me of another book. Actually, there is no other book that I can related this book to. It has a story of it's own. The romance, thankfully, wasn't instant. It developed over the whole book. Different than those books that romance happens over just one chapter. I love the foreign names that I ran across in the book. Esmerine, Alander, Dosinia, Karinda, Swift, etc. It was fun to read this book; I really enjoyed it. Jacyln's writing style was very easy to follow along with.

I recommend this book to fantasy lovers(:

Esmerine swallowed, remembering the day when the elder sirens explained how to wreck a fishing boat that took more than its share of fish and how to drown a human swiftly.

Between Shades of Gray By Ruta Sepetys {23rd]

-This has been in my drafts for a long time-

Title: Between Shades of Gray
Author: Ruta Sepetys
Pages: 344
Format: Hardcover
Publish Date: March 22nd, 2011 ; Philomel Books
Source: School Library
Synopsis:

Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.

Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously - and at great risk - documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives.Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.

Wow. What a read. From the plotline to Ruta Sepetys writing, I honestly didn't expect it to be so . . great! Not that I thought it'd be bad, but just something I didn't like. First off, it was like a nonfiction-type read. It's not, but it felt like it. It's filled with a bunch of events happening. A whirl of feelings and emotions. Such a raw novel, behind the scenes of people that were taken away because of the faith they believed in. Very similar, almost exact, to the Jews and what happened to them. When I read the first page, I was kind of effy about it. I heard such raving reviews, but I never stopped and took the time to read them. I thought it was normal YA romance. You can image my surprise when I realized it was definitely not. More like historical friction. The ending made me sad;l I didn't want it to end. It was way too many things happening at the time for it to just end. I had gotten attached to a book I thought I would hate, how ironic.

In other words, great book, great writing, great story-line, and great informational story. I'd read it over again if I got the chance.

"He was so clumsy, but he was so sincere. Sometimes there is such beauty in awkwardness. There's love and emotion trying to express itself, but at the time, it just ends up being awkward. Does that make sense?"