2 great reads!!

After a slew of mediocre books, I hit the bullseye (twice!) with Graceling by Kristin Cashore and Stolen by Lucy Christopher. Both are award winning books. A good friend of mine has been recommending Graceling for some time, and I am kicking myself for not reading it sooner! It was excellent: medieval fantasy with a strong, kick-butt heroine with supernatural powers (a killing grace) and a dream-come-true, supportive hero. Lots of action, but the key is the characters and the beautiful writing. I especially appreciated that it didn't drag the story out into a love triangle and make it a trilogy. Sure, there's room for sequels, but it can stand on its own and the ending is satisfying, even if it's not exactly what I wished for.

Much as I loved Graceling, though, I read the book Stolen in one day and it's the one I can't get out of my head. It was a Printz honor book for 2011, and has captivated me with its premise of a 16-year-old girl who is abducted from a Bangkok airport. I had read the reviews and knew the kidnapper was a sympathetic character and quite unlike the evil abductor in Living Dead Girl (an absolutely devastating book that is the antithesis of Stolen). I thought of Ty as somewhat similar to Boo Radley from To Kill a Mockingbird, I guess. I think that's why he didn't scare me, though some of his actions and plotting were creepy and left me thinking about what freedom, captivity, love and protection really mean. I would love to see how Gemma and Ty's lives end up in a sequel, but I think that would probably never live up to what Lucy Christopher did with this beautiful and heartwrenching novel.