Book Club

We have a book club starting July 17th from 5:00 to 6:30. Discussions will be On "The Disagreement" by Nick Taylor

Fallen by Lauren Kate

Age: Teen

Recommended Age: 13 and up

Mild language, no sexual content.

Genre: Paranormal Romance , Human vs Fallen Angels

Themes: Reincarnation and Immortality, Love that spans ages, the war of the Angels, Love Triangles

Girl sent to a correctional school after a mysterious fire kills a boy she was getting close to. And despite a boys best efforts to try to make her hate him for no reason, she finds herself inexplicably attracted to him. While I was not especially keen on the whole 'wait for you forever' theme in a juvenile correction facility/troubled youth boarding school, it did have enough distractions to keep it interesting. The story flowed well, the characters were endearing or appropriately detestable, and the mysteries were just enough to hold your attention without completely bogging down the story's pace.

Cons: My only complaint over the book was the setting/environment. It was not especially realistic in my mind to have an almost co-ed college dorm-like freedom to move around the school, nor their ability to tape up or kill batteries in the security cameras, after parties at night, skipping class for picnics, a vast assortments of smuggled luxury goods (like perfect HOT Starbucks brand lattes), or other such small details right under the noses of their teachers/ overseers. Had the setting been anything but a place where half the youths walked around with tracker bracelets and shocks on them, it would have made more sense altogether.

Raised By Wolves by Jennifer Barnes

Published Age range: Teens
Recommended Age: 13 and up

Mild language and moderate violence. No sexual scenes, a soul-mates style romance.

Themes: Bonds of Kinship and the power of choices one makes. Resilience in the face of danger.

Positive: Good plot line and a convincing back story as to why werewolves are scarce and how they are made. Unlike many paranormal books, they tied the paranormal to the mundane world in a way that 'adventures' did not throw off the sense of reality. Characters were diverse and believable. The structure of plot and theme was familiar enough for the reader to follow without being predictable, with just enough refreshing twists to make it a new experience.

Cons: Found a bit of dissonance in the concept that females and young were especially cherished vs some of the scenarios that came up (like Lake and her situation). But was not a major issue in enjoying the story. While there was a diverse range of characters, males were portrayed as for the most part possessive and dominant or willful, and the females were all generally expected to submit and are rebellious against this domination in some form. But to be fair in the context of the story , it did fit this particular book. I fear on the other hand it will become old if it is an on-going trend throughout rest of series.

About us

After being introduced to this blog area, we thought we would use it as an opportunity to introduce ourselves to our community and better spread the word of our existence. I'll also be personally using this spot to review books I've read, and note our special events with book clubs or new releases.

We are a family owned and operated bookstore in Leesville, Louisiana. August 1st will mark our 2nd year open and w are very excited about planning out that weekend. It is run by myself (Shandee) and my brother Christopher. We are an "everything' bookstore, and we are constantly changing and customizing to best suit the literary tastes of our regulars. If it has pages, we can find it, quote a price, and order it for no additional shipping.

We stock textbooks for NSU of Fort Polk, and order non-custom textbooks for all other schools upon request. We excel, however, in providing access to a large assortment of fiction and nonfiction books of all genres and age ranges to our customers. We have access to all books from out of prints to the latest releases.