Casting Call Friday — Glass Houses by Rachel Caine

I'll admit it.  Daniela's Series Showdown inspired me.  I finished both Glass Houses and Dead Girls' Dance this week and I'm completely addicted to the Morganville Vampires series.  It doesn't take itself too seriously, but still has a lot emotion and drama.  I'm already craving the third book in this fun, quirky series so I thought I'd cast them for this week's Casting Call Friday!

First, here's a summary via Goodreads:

From the author of the popular Weather Warden series comes the debut of an exciting new series set in Morganville, Texas, where you would be well advised to avoid being out after dark.

College freshman Claire Danvers has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation. When Claire heads off-campus, the imposing old house where she finds a room may not be much better. Her new roommates don't show many signs of life, but they'll have Claire's back when the town's deepest secrets come crawling out, hungry for fresh blood.

Now, on to the cast!

Claire:  At 16, Claire’s a young college freshman.  She’s small and thin, frequently compared to a mouse.  She’s quiet and studious, but fierce in standing up for what’s right and defending her friends.  She sometimes acts rashly, but her heart is always in the right place.

She’s a bit glammed up lately in Pretty Little Liars, but I think Lucy Hale could pull off the sweet, smart Claire.  She’s a tiny thing, innocent-looking, and would deliver a good balance of brashness and cleverness.  There’s an earnestness to Lucy that is very Claire.  Claire is tougher than she looks and I think Lucy could bring that strength to the role without the audience forgetting she's just 16.

Eve: Skinny, tall and very, very Goth, Eve is the more maternal figure in the house.  She quickly becomes Claire’s BFF and partner in crime.  Eve’s quick with the quips and is first to defy authority, especially if they’re vampires.  She refuses protection from the vampires, unwilling to play the games that it takes to survive Morganville.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead embodied indie/punk in Scott Pilgrim and I think she could definitely do goth.  Eve might look scary and act tough but she has a lot of heart and her journal entries at the end of each book in the series show us that she's a romantic and vulnerable which Winstead could play perfectly.  She'd  have perfect delivery on Eve’s sarcastic dialogue, too.

Michael: 'Angelic' is a word used to describe Michael many times in the books.  He’s the golden boy, a musician with tall with blond hair and calm demeanor.  Michael’s the voice of reason in the house and sometimes is a little too overprotective of the girls.  He’s also hiding a big secret from his friends.

Hunter Parrish totally has the blond, golden boy thing working for him.  He might be a little prettier than I envisioned Michael, but I think it could work.  He’s a little more composed than most teens and can totally work the angelic protective bit.   Plus, I think he can pull off the more serious character archs that come for Michael’s character in the series.

Shane:  The house hot-head, Shane is describe as a little shaggy, a little athletic, and more than a little lazy.  However, he’s incredibly loyal and quick to protect his housemates.  He seems to attract trouble (much like Claire) and has a history with Monica he’d rather forget.

Oh, Cappie.  I love Scott Michael Foster in Greek, so when I came across his picture in my search for Shane, my brain just screamed “YES!”  He looks the part, he’s got the slacker with potential thing going, and can be both silly and dramatic.  He just IS Shane to me.

Oliver:  Oliver’s an aging hippie. Tall, thin (everyone seems to be thin in this book) with longish gray hair, he runs the town coffee shop where Eve works.  His place is mysteriously a neutral zone to the vampires, where humans can come without fear that they’ll be attacked.  He’s kind and reassuring, however, there may be more to him than meets the eye...

It was between Michael Caine and Mr. Rosso from Freaks and Geeks, but I think Michael Caine can pull off the many layers that there are to Oliver.  Plus, does anything say aging hippie like this picture?

Monica:  Your typical mean girl, Monica is described as perfect looking.  She’s pretty and popular with black hair and blue eyes.  She’s also a more than a little mentally unbalanced and is hell-bent on ruining Claire’s life.

I loved Dana Davis as the slightly unhinged, Queen Bee Chastity in ABC Family’s 10 Things I Hate About You.  Monica does some horrible, crazy things to Claire in Glass Houses, but there’s still a comical, almost endearing aspect to the character.  I couldn’t believe some of the stuff she did, but, at the same time, I couldn’t totally hate Monica.  There’s a certain level of nuttiness that’s just a delight to see and I think Dana could bring that to life.

Well, that's my cast for the film version of Glass Houses.  What do you think?  Agree/Disagree?  Let's hear it!

You. Yes. You. (Should Vote)

Did I just use some Marcus Flutie to shamelessly get your attention?

Yes I did. 

I'm sure Marcus Flutie would agree (and possibly Megan McCafferty who, you know, created him, but lets not get bogged down with things like reality) that you should help us decide what book to read for the October book club.

You have five delightful books to choose from:

Ancestor by Scott Sigler

Ancestor is the world's most-popular "podcast novel." A serialized audiobook delivered in 20 weekly episodes, Ancestor's first run played to an audience of more than 30,000 die-hard fans in 31 countries. All told, fans have downloaded more than 700,000 episodes of Ancestor. En route to a rousing final episode, Ancestor was the #1 literary podcast on iTunes and every other podcast index, including Morpheus, FeedBurner, Podiobooks.com and Podcast Alley. The book's popularity caught the attention of the broadcast world, and was the first audiobook broadcast on Sirius Satellite to the company's 4.3 million subscribers.
On a remote island in Lake Superior, scientists struggle to solve the problem of xenotransplantation -- using animal tissue to replace failing human organs. Funded by the biotech firm Genada, Dr. Claus Rhumkorrf seeks to recreate the ancestor of all mammals. By getting back to the root of our creation, Rhumkorrf hopes to create an animal with human internal organs. Rhumkorrf discovers the ancestor, but it is not the small, harmless creature he envisions. His genius gives birth to a fast-growing evil that nature eradicated 250 million years ago -- an evil now on the loose, and very, very hungry.

Darling Jim by Christian Moerk

A modern gothic novel of suspense that reveals, through their diaries, the story of sisters who fall in love with a beguiling stranger, and of the town that turns a blind eye to his murderous ways
When two sisters and their aunt are found dead in their suburban Dublin home, it seems that the secret behind their untimely demise will never be known. But then Niall, a young mailman, finds a mysterious diary in the post office’s dead-letter bin. From beyond the grave, Fiona Walsh shares the most tragic love story he’s ever heard—and her tale has only just begun.
Niall soon becomes enveloped by the mystery surrounding itinerant storyteller Jim, who traveled through Ireland enrapturing audiences and wooing women with his macabre mythic narratives. Captivated by Jim, townspeople across Ireland thought it must be a sad coincidence that horrific murders trailed him wherever he went—and they failed to connect that the young female victims, who were smitten by the newest bad boy in town, bore an all too frightening similarity to the victims in Jim’s own fictional plots.
The Walsh sisters, fiercely loyal to one another, were not immune to “darling” Jim’s powers of seduction, but found themselves in harm’s way when they began to uncover his treacherous past. Niall must now continue his dangerous hunt for the truth—and for the vanished third sister—while there’s still time. And in the woods, the wolves from Jim’s stories begin to gather.

The Next Thing On My List by Jill Smolinski


Meet June Parker. She works for L.A. Rideshare, adores her rent-stabilized apartment in Santa Monica, and struggles with losing a few pesky pounds.

But June’s life is about to change.

After a dark turn of events involving Weight Watchers, a chili recipe, and a car accident in which her passenger, Marissa, dies, June finds herself in possession of a list Marissa has written, “20 Things to Do By My 25th Birthday.” Even though they barely knew each other, June is compelled by both guilt and a desire to set things right and finish the list for Marissa.

The tasks before her range from inspiring (Run a 5K), to daring (Go braless), to near-impossible (Change someone’s life), and as June races to achieve each goal before the deadline, she learns more about her own life than she ever bargained for.

Funny, engaging, and heartwarming, The Next Thing on My List features a loveable, relatable heroine and a story with plenty of humor and heart. 

On Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

My father took one hundred and thirty two minutes to die. 

‘I counted. 

‘It happened on the Jellicoe Road. The prettiest road I’d ever seen, where trees made breezy canopies like a tunnel to Shangri-La. We were going to the ocean, hundreds of kilometres away, because I wanted to see the ocean and my father said that it was about time the four of us made that journey. I remember asking, “What’s the difference between a trip and a journey?” and my father said, “Narnie, my love, when we get there, you’ll understand,” and that was the last thing he ever said. 


‘We heard her almost straight away. In the other car, wedged into ours so deep that you couldn’t tell where one began and the other ended. She told us her name was Tate and then she squeezed through the glass and the steel and climbed over her own dead – just to be with Webb and me; to give us her hand so we could clutch it with all our might. And then a kid called Fitz came riding by on a stolen bike and saved our lives. 

‘Someone asked us later, “Didn’t you wonder why no one came across you sooner?” 

‘Did I wonder? 

‘When you see your parents zipped up in black body bags on the Jellicoe Road like they’re some kind of garbage, don’t you know? 

‘Wonder dies.’

Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen

Bright Young Things is the first in an epic four-book series about three teenage girls finding their way in the glittering metropolis of New York City and the glamorous mansions of Long Island. It’s 1929 and Letty Larkspur and Cordelia Grey have escaped their small Midwestern town to chase big dreams and even bigger secrets. In New York, they meet Astrid Donal, a flapper who has everything she could ever want, except for the one thing Letty and Cordelia have to offer—true friendship. Set in the dizzying summer before the market crash, against the vast lawns of the East End and on the blindingly lit stages of Broadway, the three girls will find romance, intrigue, and adventure.

Just as The Luxe books brought the Gilded Age to readers of Gossip Girl, Bright Young Things will bring the Jazz Age to bestselling author Anna Godbersen’s devoted fans and to new readers alike. 

The poll is on the left side bar of the main page.  Cast your vote!! (You know Marcus would want you to)

Waiting on Wednesday - Daniela

All You Get Is Me by Yvonne Prinz

Release Date: January 1, 2011

Summary: What happens when a city girl is transplanted onto a ramshackle organic farm in the middle of nowhere? Everything.

Sixteen-year-old Roar has been yanked from her city life and suddenly she’s a farm girl, albeit a reluctant one, selling figs at the farmers' market and developing her photographs in a rickety shed. And then she witnesses a crime that will throw the whole community into an uproar. Caught among the lure of a troublemaking friend, her love for a brooding boy, and her complicated feelings about her father’s human rights crusade, Roar is going to have to tackle it all. And with a camera around her neck, she’s capturing it all, too. (Summary provided by Goodreads)


I’m really excited to see that Yvonne Prinz is putting out a new YA novel early next year. After reading The Vinyl Princess earlier this summer and unexpectingly loving it (click here to see my review), I’ve been setting myself up to become an Yvonne Prinz completist, which means that I’ll certainly have to check out her newest effort, All You Get Is Me.

I think everything about this book’s plot sounds like I’m going to enjoy it: the photography pastime, the brooding boy, the organic farm. I’ll also keep my fingers crossed that the protagonist in this novel (just like Allie from The Vinyl Princess) will be somewhat of a musicologist too. I must also add that Yvonne Prinz (or possibly her publisher) has a real knack for picking really lovely book covers, don’t you agree?


*Waiting on Wednesday is an ingenious idea hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine.

Series Showdown: Beautiful Creatures vs. Glass Houses vs. City of Bones

Recently, I finished the first book of three different series:
Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles, #1) by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Glass Houses (Morganville Vampires, #1) by Rachel Caine
City of Bones (Mortal Instruments, #1) by Cassandra Clare

And I thought that instead of reviewing each of them individually, it might be more fun and worthwhile to compare them to each other (showdown style), primarily because they all fall within the YA supernatural genre and are the initiating installments of their respective series.

First, let's get the story summaries of the three contenders:

Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles, #1)

Summary: (from the back cover) Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps, and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.
Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her determined to uncover the connection between them.

Glass Houses (Morganville Vampires, #1)

Summary: (from the back cover) It's a small college town filled with quirky characters. But when the sun goes down, the bad comes out. Because in Morganville, there is an evil that lurks in the darkest shadow-one that spills out in the brightest light.
Claire Danvers has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation. The popular girls never let her forget just where she ranks in the school's social scene: somewhere less than zero. And Claire doesn't really have the right connections-to the undead that run the town.When Claire heads off campus, the old house where she finds a room may not be much better. Her new roommates don't show many signs of life. But they'll have her back when the town's deepest secrets come out crawling, hungry for fresh blood.


City of Bones (Mortal Instruments, #1)

Summary: (from the back cover) When Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in NYC, she hardly expects to witness a murder, much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with odd markings. This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons-and keeping the odd werewolves and vampires in line. It's also her first meeting with gorgeous, golden-haired Jace. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in an ordinary mundane like Clary? And how did she suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know...

The Showdown

Leading Character:
Ethan Wate (Beautiful Creatures) vs.
Claire Danvers (Glass Houses) vs.
Clarissa Fray (City of Bones)

This is a tough one to call because they're all so different and awesome in their own way.

• Ethan Wate is great, he is funny and really adores Lena (his romantic interest), but falls way off the charts in terms of being a 16 year old adolescent male. For one, he is very severely deficient in the raging hormones department and is so abnormally restrained (and yes, I mean sexually) that it starts seeming a little bit weird after a while. Seriously, if you wish for your narrator to be a guy, endow him with a guy's brain! And I've read enough YA novels with male narrators to know that being honest about these things is best...if you want your reader to believe the story that is.
• Claire Danvers is a pretty awesome oddball of a girl, who always seems to piss off the wrong type of people (and also vampires). She has the Stephanie Plum feistyness about her - if Stephanie was back in high school and had to dodge fangs instead of bullets (and guys, if you don't know what i mean because you've never read the Stephanie Plum Series, you need to stop reading this and go get One for the Money, like now).
• Clarissa Fray is a decent narrator. There is some mystery to her (mystery she herself needs to uncover) and that makes her enigmatic. She is also pretty funny, which allows for some really cool dialogue sequences between her and other characters in the book (and of course, that's always a plus). Clary's only problem is that she's a bit of a wuss when it comes to the action sequences described. I just wish she would have been more involved...(Katniss is to blame for this one, I suppose).

WINNER: Claire Danvers (Glass Houses)

Romantic Chemistry:
Ethan & Lena (Beautiful Creatures) vs.
Claire & Shane (Glass Houses) vs.
Clary & Jace OR Simon (City of Bones)

• Ethan &Lena have the mortal-supernatural relationship going on. Since they come from such different worlds, they're forbidden to date each other. But they defy this, making another Romeo and Juliet of themselves. Alas not even this Shakespearean aspect can help how poorly mismatched the two of them are and I'd have to say Ethan deserves way better than what fate (in this case Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl) stuck him with. Lena is just not very likable. Even if there are some very restrained physical interactions between the two of them (strictly kissing...sometimes for an hour or more), no real romance exists.
• Claire & Shane are an awesome pair because they have such different characteristics, while Claire is a brainy klutz, Shane is all heart and valor. There aren't any romantic sparks between the two when they first meet, but the romance does build up with time. And when we finally get that one romantic scene (and yes, there is only ONE), it's pure perfection that leaves us wanting more.
• Clary, Jace & Simon are involved in a lopsided romantic triangle and Clary must choose between Jace, a half-human-half-angel shadowhunter endowed with a crooked smile and excellent eyebrow control, and good old comfortable Simon, who is her best friend. It's all fun flirtations until something quite unexpected is revealed about Clary and one of these leading men. This revelation is a real shocker, so shocking that I'm still wondering how necessary it was for this to happen (I guess the rest of the series will tell).

WINNER: Claire & Shane (Glass Houses)

Overall Plot:
Casters in the South (Beautiful Creatures) vs.
Vampires in Texas (Glass Houses) vs.
Shadowhunters in NYC (City of Bones)

• Beautiful Creatures sets up a dramatic southern goth feeling, and quite frankly Garcia and Stohl do a heck of a better job at it compared to Ms. Harris in the True Blood Series. I also liked the dichotomy of caster magic and voodoo magic that was incorporated. Some of the things these casters could do really blew me away!
• In Glass Houses, the vampires are very important to the story. The human-vampire relationship in terms of political control is also very interestingly organized in the town of Morganville. I was worried that I wouldn't like the series because of my presumed guru-ness in everything vampire related. Caine managed to prove me wrong by adding her spin on their abilities and mannerisms. What she has imagined here isn't bad at all. A small sleepy town with a deadly secret is always appealing.
• City of Bones's best part is probably the plot. There are a lot of different supernatural creatures incorporated in the book (shadowhunters, vampires, warlocks, faery, etc.) and while this could have become confusing, Clare constructs a really easy to follow hierarchy of beings that's very helpful. Very biasly, I'll also say that the fact that the story was set in NYC (which is where I live) was awesome! Essentially, I got to read about all these cool characters fighting it out in a bunch of places I'm familiar with. And really, what can beat that?

WINNER: Shadowhunters in NYC (City of Bones) —slightly biased decision

Book Cover
People who create covers for the YA sci/fi genre are really talented. All three covers here are pretty kick-ass, but sadly I can only pick one winner.

WINNER: Beautiful Creatures (I think that this cover was both most understated and most captivating and I loved looking at it).

SHOWDOWN WINNER: Glass Houses (Morganville Vampires, #1). Yup, out of the three, I am most exited to continue reading the Morganville Vampires Series.

Lit Snit Gradebook

Beautiful Creatures : C

Glass Houses : B

City of Bones : C

Review — Waking the Witch by Kelley Armstrong

Summary (via Goodreads): The orphaned daughter of a sorcerer and a half-demon, Savannah is a terrifyingly powerful young witch who has never been able to resist the chance to throw her magical weight around. But at 21 she knows she needs to grow up and prove to her guardians, Paige and Lucas, that she can be a responsible member of their supernatural detective agency. So she jumps at the chance to fly solo, investigating the mysterious deaths of three young women in a nearby factory town as a favor to one of the agency's associates. At first glance, the murders look garden-variety human, but on closer inspection signs point to otherworldly stakes.


Soon Savannah is in over her head. She's run off the road and nearly killed, haunted by a mystery stalker, and freaked out when the brother of one of the dead women is murdered when he tries to investigate the crime. To complicate things, something weird is happening to her powers. Pitted against shamans, demons, a voodoo-inflected cult and garden-variety goons, Savannah has to fight to ensure her first case isn't her last. And she also has to ask for help, perhaps the hardest lesson she's ever had to learn.

Review: As I said last week I’m a big fan of Kelley Armstrong, particularly her ability to create realistic, strong female characters. I don’t adore every single heroine she’s introduced in her Otherworld series (like I said Elena, her original protagonist of the series is still my favorite), but I know each installment will be a fun, thrilling ride.

Having first met Savannah as a pre-teen in Kelley Armstrong’s Dime Store Magic, I was surprised to see she was already 21 (and then I felt a little old because Armstrong won’t “soap opera age” her characters and it really had been that long since I’d read Dime Store Magic). I was a little hesitant because all I remembered about Savannah was that she was slightly bratty and came from quasi-evil parents.  Plus, while I enjoyed Paige's books, I always found Paige and her husband Lucas a little goody-goody and boring for me.  I never got all that attached to either of them.  I was pleasantly surprised to find grown-up Savannah a fantastic protagonist.

Having an incredibly varied cast of characters seems to allow Armstrong to tackle different genres within one series. Some deal with the underbelly of Hollywood, some with family (or werewolf pack) life, but Paige’s stories, and now Savannah’s, are hardboiled private investigator tales infused with a good dose of the supernatural.  I find myself getting bored with a lot of the books I read in mystery or suspense. I get antsy, like “get on with it already!” when the story slows and have been know to read the last page just so I know who the killer is (It's terrible, I know! Don’t judge me!). But Armstrong always keeps me engaged, caring more about the characters than the mystery so I stick with it.  Even better, Armstrong’s good at keeping the story moving. There’s never a slow moment and the twists she throws at the reader genuinely surprised me and kept me guessing until the very end.

What makes this book one of the top three in the Otherworld series though is Savannah. Smart and sassy, she’s incredibly fun and unpredictable. I liked her so much I could even deal with the motorcycle, which I found a little cliche.  I just feel like it screams "oh, look at me, I'm a badass and not a girly girl because I ride a motorcycle.  Aren't I different?," but, here, it worked.  There were a few moments that I stepped back and was like, “wait, she’s supposed to be 21?” because sometimes she seemed so much older, but there was a good balance of her vulnerability and brashness that reminded you Savannah is still young and inexperienced.  She makes mistakes a young adult would make, trying to prove that she's capable of doing it all herself.   

I was a little disappointed with her love interest(s), but I hope we’ll get more of that in Savannah’s next book. I’m not getting a whole lot of chemistry between her and Adam, who she’s supposedly in love with, but they didn’t get a whole lot of time together. This one didn’t deal much with her personal or home life, which was fine, but I wish we could see more of what happened between this book and the last time we saw Savannah.

Like most of Armstrong’s books, I’m waiting anxiously for the next installment of the series, especially since Kelley threw in a shocking twist at the very end that will definitely have some serious repercussions for Savannah.

I have to say, I may have a new favorite heroine in the Otherworld series...

Lit Snit Verdict: B+

Oh, and don't forget to vote for what book we'll be reading for the book club in October!  The poll is on the main page in the lower left-hand corner.