Paperquake by Kathyrn Reiss 05/26/08

Violet is the youngest of triplets, nearly an hour younger than the oldest, as she’s reminded at one point.  The other two are identical, Violet a fraternal who looks nothing like her sisters, Jasmine and Rose.  Violet wants nothing more than to fit in with her sisters but she doesn’t.  She was sickly at birth and has been babied all of her life.

Violet decides to make herself more like her sisters.  Their parents, Lily and Greg, are florists who are opening a new shop.  The triplets go to the new building to do some cleaning and Violet finds a letter addressed to “V” and it bears surprising resemblance to her own life.  She gets caught up in solving the mystery of what happened to the mysterious “V” and, in the process, learns that she doesn’t need to be just like her sisters.

Paperquake is a children’s book and that is evident in the writing, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.  The plot wasn’t as predictable as most children’s books are and chances are good that I’ll read others of Ms. Reiss’ books.

Avalon High by Meg Cabot 12/9/07

I’m a fan of books about the Arthurian legend.  I’ve read tons of them.  I’m a fan of Meg Cabot and have read many of her books. This book by Meg Cabot about the Arthurian legend ought to be perfect, right? Yeah, not so much.  Mildly entertaining but didn’t do a good job at getting the reader to suspend disbelief.  I just didn’t buy it.  And since I also read fantasy books, it has nothing to do with the story being implausible as much as it has to do with Cabot not writing a plausible implausible story.