Time of the Fireflies

 Kimberley Griffiths Little's Time of the Fireflies is a charming middle grade story that combines creepy (a weird voodoo doll) with a lovely family saga.

Twelve year old Larissa is struggling with life in the town where her family lived for generations, but where she is a relative newcomer. Sensitive about the scar on her face and worried about her mother's pregnancy (past ones haven't gone well), Larissa is just trying to get through the summer, spending her days helping her parents at the family antique shop. But then a strange girl calls on one of the antique phones in the store (one without a functional wire), and tells her to follow the fireflies.

When a swarm of fireflies surrounds her near the bayou, Larissa follows them across the broken bridge where she got her scar and finds herself miraculously transported into the past, to a time when her great-grandmother was a girl.

But there's a reason she's been drawn to the past, and a family secret that Larissa will have to uncover and heal to save herself, her mother, and her unborn baby sister.

Although I guessed the identity of the unknown caller pretty early on, other elements of the story surprised and charmed me. I particularly liked the glimpses of the past and the way they helped inform Larissa's growing understanding of herself and her place in the world.

Now I need to go check out the companion novels to this!

Rebel Belle

 Rachel Hawkins does fun and lighthearted YA with a kick so well sometimes--the first book in Hex Hall was a delight from beginning to end. And a lot of that fun and delight comes through in Rebel Belle, just not quite as much.

For starters, there's the premise, which Hawkins herself described as Terminator meets Legally Blonde. Prom-queen hopeful Harper Price has everything together: her prom-queen nomination locked in, the perfect boyfriend, perfect grades. (Just don't ask her why she's so determined to hold it all together, or anything about her dead sister). But when a quick detour to the bathroom to reapply her lip gloss leads instead to a surprise liplock with the school janitor, who then dies in her arms, Harper's perfect life crumbles into chaos.

Suddenly, she's a Paladin, a super-powerful creature charged with protecting none other than her arch-nemesis, David Stark. Of course, this isn't part of Harper's plan, and it certainly doesn't make her boyfriend happy. So now she has to not only rock Cotillion, she has to save the world while she's at it.

As I mentioned, there was a lot to like here. Hawkins never lets her books get too dark, even when dealing with serious things (like the death of Harper's sister). And sometimes, when I just want to escape, I appreciate that. Harper and David had some great banter and good chemistry, and I thought it was to Hawkins' credit that she made me like David without making me hate Harper's current boyfriend. There were some fun twists in the story--but also some moments that didn't quite make sense to me.

Ultimately, a book I enjoyed reading, but not one that stayed with me long after the reading. But there's something about a heroine who can kill a bad guy with her stiletto . . .

House at Rose Creek

Jenny Proctor, The House at Rose Creek (Whitney finalist, General)

When aspiring young marketer Kate inherits her late aunt’s house in Rose Creek, she’s touched but also astounded. Though her aunt’s funeral has brought her a little closer to the cousins she was raised with, Kate still feels the effects of their recent estrangement, and she knows her cousins resent their mother’s bequest. And Kate isn’t sure what to do with the house—she has a busy job in Atlanta and can see no life for herself in the sleepy town. But she takes a couple of weeks off work to put her affairs and the house in order, and makes a few discoveries that unsettle her world. First, she meets Andrew, a handsome young architect. Second, she discovers an old journal left by an ancestor in the attic of the house that raises all kinds of religious questions for Kate. And finally, she discovers a legal action against the property that might cost her the house she’s coming increasingly to love.

Proctor does a great job establishing the southern setting of this novel, and I thought she did a great job characterizing Kate. I do agree, though, with the question Shelah raised about the book’s audience. For a primarily Mormon audience, some of the long explanations of the faith Kate begins investigating seem unnecessary; for a non-Mormon audience, they might seem a little didactic. Personally, I enjoyed the other plotlines (particularly the complex relations with her extended family) more than the faith substory.