grateful
Gotta love the cover of the newest offering from Cynthia Leitich Smith, ETERNAL (Candlewick Press, February 2009), keeper of the bestest blog and web site ever. In her spare time, Cyn writes tantalizing books. Her foray into YA lit began with TANTALIZE (Candlewick) and now its companion, ETERNAL offers the story of Miranda and her (fallen) guardian angel, Zachary. When Zachary tries to keep Miranda from the clutches of a vampire, he violates the rules of his job. Miranda becomes the princess of the ruling King of the Dracul, and Zachary is given a final chance to redeem himself. Can he possibly save Miranda and defeat the most powerful of vamps?
Action, bloodlusting, angels, and quite a bit of dark humor will make this one a winner among the evergrowing crowd of fans of the dark tales of the vampires. This second book (there is a third one which will tie all the stories together, BLESSED) is a stand alone, so there is no need for kids to read TANTALIZE first. This one will definitely lead them to the other, though. Leitich Smith weaves lore from Draculian legend and story along with some other familiar cultural and literary references. Astute readers will delight in finding references to James Howe's BUNNICULA and others ranging from Johnny Cash to Joss Whedon and CS Lewis among others.
Thanks for all the well wishes and vibes and thoughts and prayers and joju and all that jazz in your comments on the previous posting. I actually do feel better now that the stabbing pain is just a dull throb. I would nap but that seems to bother Scout for some reason. I guess he is afraid I might miss a snack time. Back to some reading and more cranberry juice.