J. B. Cheaney

Fourteen-year-old Richard Malory has come to London as a last resort. After the death of his mother his only choice is to seek the father who left them so many years ago. But his inquiries in the city involve Richard in a series of intrigues that leave him fearing for his life.

In an attempt to disappear, Richard apprentices as an actor - ironically the one place no one would think to look for him despite his high visibility. Now Richard must balance the demands of his new life, new show more friendships, and his desire to unravel the treasonous plot that is playing out all around him.

This novel was an interesting twist on the usual Shakespearean theater stories. The main character has potential in the acting field, but he has both moral objections and very real limitations that keep him from fulfilling it. And because of the focus of the protagonist on finding out what happened to his father and unmasking a plot, the theater aspects, while interesting and consuming, are more secondary. The plays are used as a means of exploring Richard's emotions.

This wasn't at all what I had expected, but I found it quite engaging and even riveting at times. This is a definite young adult novel - the focus is on Richard coming into his own and coming to terms with his father's desertion - but it appealed to me. Richard makes mistakes and flies into rages, but he remains a likeable character dedicated to what is right. A good story where the growth of the main character isn't shoved down your throat. show less

Lovely. Just lovely.

Earlier I was in the middle of a streak of novels set around WWII; now I've moved back in time to WWI. In I Don't Know How the Story Ends, thirteen-year-old Isobel, with her hellion little sister Sylvie, is dragged by their mother to California. Their father is in France, having felt driven to volunteer as a field surgeon, and their home in Seattle was beset by rain until their mother couldn't take it any more and fled South to sunshine and her sister.

And Isobel is not show more happy. She's miserable without her father, and now … fine, it's sunny, but with the sun comes her aunt's stepson Ranger, and no one will allow her to just be miserable alone as she wants. Because Hollywood is being born, and Ranger, she discovers, has caught the fever and is making a film – and he wants her in it.

I liked it. I liked it a great deal. There was a bit of a level of complexity I didn't expect in Isobel's relationship with her parents. I liked the children's love-hate relationship with each other. I loved the setting. I wish this book had been around when I was thirteen – I might have gone into film-making.

The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review. show less

Ronnie and her hyperactive brother are pawned off on their grandfather while their mother recuperates from an injury incurred from chasing a squirrel. Their grandfather, Pop, is off on an adventure in a camper, seeking a way to get rich using the wind. Ronnie’s brother, Gee, is a handful and Ronnie spends most of her time keeping him from killing himself or destroying the world. Just when Pop is ready to turn around and return the two kids to their mother, Gee disappears and the search for show more Gee helps Pop and Ronnie become friends. show less

This book may have had the weirdest ending to a book that I've ever read. The story starts out with a bus accident. Then the story flashes back to several weeks before the wreck. A large group of characters who ride the bus is introduced, and then each chapter that follows explains why each one of the characters might become famous. I did like each character and the problems that are introduced about each one, but just as I would get interested in that character and his or her problems, the show more chapter would end and we would move on to another character.
Without giving too much away, I will say that the ending was a bit of a let down, especially when we find out that there is another chapter of the book that has to be read online. The last chapter does sum up what happens to each character, and the ending has a nice twist, but still pretty odd. show less