The Stepsister Scheme

By Jim C. Hines

The Princess series, Book One



In all the old fairy tales, after the scary things are over and the good guys have won, they always end with the words "and they lived happily ever after". You know what? That's not true, as Danielle Whiteshore, also known as Cinderella, could tell you. A few months after her "happily ever after", everything goes to pieces. Teeny, tiny, very interesting, really COOL pieces. One of her stepsisters comes to the palace to kill Danielle, somehow has magic, and before escaping reveals that Charlotte and Stacia (the stepsisters) have kidnapped Prince Armand. One of the servants, Talia, saves Danielle, and turns out to be not only Sleeping Beauty and an extremely good fighter, but one of Queen Beatrice's secret agents, the other being Snow (White, as I'm sure you guessed). Snow knows magic, although she doesn't like being called a witch, and is a incorrigible flirt. After a few more revelations (Danielle is pregnant, her mother's spirit lives in a tree, Snow calls the queen Queen Bea, Snow's real name is Princess Ermillina Curtana, and Armand is probably in Fairytown) they set off to rescue the prince. As Danielle says "Well, it was my turn."
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this book! Seriously, this is one of the most original fairy tale mash-ups I have ever read. SO INCREDIBLY AWSOME! I loved the translation of Fairytown's real name, and here I will quote Snow: "The fairies name means something like 'Home away from home, trapped between two big rocks and surrounded by tasty mushrooms that make you feel like you're turning into a puddle.' But 'Fairytown' is shorter."  LOVE SNOW LOVE TALIA LOVE DANIELLE! Do not love Charlotte or Stacia, although Queen Rose is a cool villain. Anyway, it's a really good book that you should read.

Kitty Kitty

By Michele Jaffe

Sequel to Bad Kitty



Jas Callihan is once again trying to be a Model Daughter. Remember the LAST time she tried that? Yep, nothing good can come of this. This is how it came about.
Apparently, after the whole Las Vegas episode (you know, the whole almost-getting-killed thing?), her dad (who has recently upgraded his super-villain persona in Jas's head from the Thwarter to Dadzilla, snacking on her dreams rather than just thwarting them) didn't like the idea of her roaming around LA, and decided to move. To Venice, Italy. The day before her senior year of high school started. Which is so totally unfair. I mean, she DIDN'T get killed that time, and the police departments of two states had THANKED her,  and it TOTALLY wasn't her fault, and her friends and her boyfriend are all STILL IN LA!!
So, Jas figures, if they moved because she got into the TINIEST little bit of trouble, if she proved she could stay OUT of trouble, they could go home. Simple, right? Not for Jasmine Callihan, trouble magnet and crime scene just waiting to happen!
Instead, several very strange and worrying things happen: Her only friend in Venice, Arabella, says someone is following her and is going to kill her, the Evil Hench Twins Alyson and Veronique show up and ask to be called by their faerie names, and Jas decides to turn into Bad Jas, who later breaks off into a separate personality inside Jas's head. After she informs her friends of this fact and also refuses to stop associating with Arabella (like Polly told her to), her friends..... can you guess what they do? FLY TO VENICE FOR AN INTERVENTION INVOLVING MIND CONTROL GOGGLES, JAS'S DELTA WAVES, AND TEDDY GRAHAMS!! THAT'S WHAT THEY DO!! Oh, and by that point Arabella has been murdered, but the police think it's suicide and refuse to help. Read the book to find out about the soul-stealing glass kitty, Mutant Ninja Turtles, water wings, pizza, goldfish, and fully weaponized, mangy squirrel costume. Oh, and the Hench Twins latest Crimes Against Fashion.
THIS IS SUCH A GOOD BOOK! As with the previous book, hysterically funny, well written, and super cool! SO FUNNY! Jas's friends are nuts, but considering how often she gets into really weird trouble, that's probably a good thing.