The CHAOS Trilogy: Alienation

"Earth's Last Line of Defense Against the Coming Alien Invasion is 16-Year-Old Surfer Colt McAlister.
But Before He Can Save the World,
He Has to Survive the Day."

Bookworm's Ranking - 4 Worms

Storyline - Colt is getting ready to attend CHAOS but, soon, things start to come up that disrupt more of his life; a virus is spreading, an assassin is trying to kill him, and a family secret has just been discovered. As he attends CHAOS, Colt has to discover who he can trust and survive the assassination attempts. The risk of his family secret being discovered is on the rise, which could be deadly.

Author - Jon S. Lewis

Publisher - Thomas Nelson

Age Group - 13 or 14 and up

Content - Colt believes in God but his faith is not mentioned very much. His grandfather supports and protects him. Colt's friends stand by him and vise versa. Danielle is a computer hacker. Some criminals got accused of a crime they didn't commit and it sounds like the good guys planted the evidence.

Personal Opinion - This book was really good. The story moved nicely and the action and adventure was enticing. I was brought into the story quite well and was interested the whole time (I even understood what was going on without reading the first book [it might have helped that I read a bunch of reviews] but I still don't recommend doing that). I liked the short comic book to catch the reader up on what was happening before going into the first chapter. The story could have gone deeper in spots and expanded more on both of the two main plots of the story. In fact, I think this book would have been great if it had been split into two and the main plots separated. Other than that, it was a good book and I'm looking forward to the next one.

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Disclaimer - In exchange for an honest review, I received this book for free from the publisher through Booksneeze.com.

Links - Learn more about the series and the author here.

Special Notes - Read Bookworm's review of book 1, Invasion, which came out last year, 2010.

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Sages of Darkness: HowlSage

"I Saw Things, Things of Pure Evil."

Bookworm's Ranking - 3 Worms

Storyline - Taylor defends the world from demons, like his father before him. It is a dangerous job, to be sure, even for someone who isn't 14 years old. But things get hairy when a HowlSage (kinda like a werewolf) lives past its first day. Taylor and his friend, Ike, and McGarret, his mentor, is having trouble finding out why that is, what is going on with their technology, and what happens if a HowlSage reaches maturity, which hasn't happened in so long it makes it hard to find out. Soon Taylor has to find a way to destroy the demon and find God in the process, or potentially have something worse happen that facing a mature HowlSage.

Author - Brock Eastman

Publisher - Destiny Image

Age Group - 13 and up

Content - Taylor is frustrated with God but learns how to trust and rely on Him again. The demons prepare for a ritual to call forth another demon (I found this a little creepy).

Personal Opinion - This was an interesting read but I think there was too much telling. I felt apart from the book through most of the beginning but it got better in certain parts towards the end. I thought the mixing of old legends, like using garlic or salt against a vampire and others legendary creatures, with the demon aspect was creative. Also, I found the new names for the demons creatures (HowlSage for werewolf) was very cool. I thought the book had good potential in story and characters but the straight-out telling that the story did to inform me, which was most of the beginning, kept me from really entering the story. I think it could have been better but I do want to see where the series goes so I will be reading the rest of the books.

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Disclaimer - In exchange for an honest review, I received this book for free from Destiny Image.

Links - Learn more about this book and the author at: http://www.brockeastman.com/main/

Special Notes - Book 2, BlizzardSage, comes out next year. I don't know exact date.

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The Things a Brother Knows

"Boaz is Back."

Bookworm's Ranking - 2 Worms

Storyline - When Levi's brother, Boaz, returns from his time with the Marines, he hopes everything will be fine again. But his brother locking himself in his room isn't what he expected or the strange sounds coming from the other side of the door. When Bo starts borrowing Levi's computer, he wonders what his older brother is up to. Then Boaz leaves again and Levi decides to follow even though he has no idea where they are going or why.

Author - Dana Reinhardt

Publisher - Wendy Lamb Books (part of Random House, Inc)

Age Group - 17 and up

Content - Levi doesn't know where he stands but he eventually makes a decision and does something about it. He tries to be there for his brother but it is very difficult. For more than the first half of the book, each chapter had some sort of inappropriate stuff (boy/girl thing) or just plain mention of privet parts at least once but usually more (not all of them were mentioned in that way but it wasn't necessary). Levi almost spent the night with a girl but she says doesn't want to (but why she let her shirt come off first is beyond me). Levi also get drunk once and one of his friends goes to a Catholic school but is one of the worst behaving characters.

 Personal Opinion - Would have liked it more had it not taken so long to get to the main story (over half the book) and excessively toned back the inappropriate (hinting at teens having been together and stuff like that) junk and privet part mentioning. It was so much, something was brought up after going a few pages. I don't get what all that had to do with the story other than trying to make it realistic to teens but it didn't have to be that much or was necessary to the story or anything else for that matter. I found it just disturbing. When Levi was finally on the trip with his brother, it really toned back allot and I started to enjoy it. I even liked Levi's beginning romance until we got to the part where they almost slept together (was tempted to stop reading the book all together after that). But, the ending was really good and so beautiful. I would have loved the book for the ending and the growth of Levi in understanding his brother but I will never recommend this book for everything else that it contained.

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Links - Learn more about the book and author at: http://www.danareinhardt.net/things.html

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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Bookworm's Ranking - 3.5 Worms

Storyline - Harry always thought he was just a regular kid with an aunt and uncle and cousin who didn't like him. But, when a letter arives to Hogwarts, the truth comes out that he is really a wizard. As he makes friends for the first time, he has to deal with teachers who don't like him and getting use to the magic. When mysterious things start happening and the potential of his parents' murderer of coming back, Harry Potter will have do what he can to stop him.

Author - J. K. Rowling

Publisher - Scholastic

Age Group - 13 and up

Content - Harry and his friends stood up for each other and others how needed help but broke rules several times with no consequence (okay, there some consequences). Dumbldore, the wizard in charge of the school, had lots of good advice for Harry. Some adults where portarayed pretty dumb and Harry often wanted revenge on his cousin and other relatives.

Personal Opinion - I never read Harry Potter when I was young so this was my first exposer to the books (I've seen a few of the movies) and I thought it wasn't bad. Yes, Harry wants revenge and disobeys the rules a bunch but I have read worse. Yes, there is also magic but it isn't that bad either. The author told you much the info, which I find irritating usually, but I was pulled into the story well. I have this book at 3 Worms because I'm not sure I can make a complete decision on the book unless I read the others.

Awards - New York Times Best Seller,

Links - Learn more about the books and author at: http://www.jkrowling.com/

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