INKSPELL by Cornelia Funke

"Stories never really end, even if the books like to pretend they do. Stories always go on. They don't end on the last page, any more than they begin on the first page."

As the sequel to INKHEART, I had high expectations for this book. Dustfinger finds yet another person who can read people into stories, and uses him to go back to his own land of Inkworld. But his little friend, Farid gets left behind. Meggie reads him - and herself into Inkworld to find Dustfinger. But back home, the evil Basta and Mortola want to go to the Inkworld too, and get Mo to read them in. But things are not well in Inkworld - for anybody. Mo is arrested because everyone is certain that he is the Bluejay, a renowned robber and huge annoyance to the tyrannical Adderhead. The writer Fenoglio, Meggie, Farid, Dustfinger, and a few new friends must find a way to stop the Adderhead and save Mo before it's too late.

I was hoping to find one of those books that are amazing and obscure when I read this, but I was disappointed. The trash talk is infinitely worse than in INKHEART, and they introduce an annoying, crazily silly, ridiculous romance between Meggie and Farid that made me mad and sick to the stomach. On the good side... well, it was well written and a clever story, but you can find that in many other books that are far more worth your precious time. It's just not worth digging through the dumpster to find a Hershey's Kiss. Skip it! Read something else.

Author: Cornelia Funke ~ Original title: Tintenblut ~ Translator: Anthea Bell ~ Country: Germany ~ Language: German ~ Series: Inkheart trilogy ~ Genre(s): Fantasy ~ Publisher: Meredith ~ Publication date: 2005 ~ Media type: Print (Hardback & Paperback) ~ Pages: 635 pp (first Eng. edition, hardback) ~ ISBN: ISBN 0-439-55400-4 (first Eng. edition, hardback) ~Preceded by: Inkheart ~ Followed by: Inkdeath

Check out this trailer for the upcoming INKHEART film! I'm not recommending it - of course I haven't seen it. Be sure to read up on it before you watch it. I'll try to get some info up here as soon as I can when I find out that it's worth seeing.

THE LAST SIN EATER by Francine Rivers

"The what?" you say. It's what I said when a dear friend recommended this book to me. "Never heard of it. Sounds like a Ted Dekker suspense novel or something."

"Oh it's NOT!" she says. And though we hardly EVER agree on what is a good book, I was in the agonizing state of out-of-books. So I checked it out at my wonderful library - and got completely blown away.

When Granny Forbes passes away, her granddaughter, Cadi, is devastated. But she goes to the funeral with the healer's words ringing in her ears, "Cadi, you must listen. Do not look at the sin eater. He has taken all manner of terrible things unto himself. If you look at him, he'll give you the evil eye, and some of the sin he carries might spill over onto you." The sin eater? She finds that, in order to have your sins taken away, the sin eater must come and perform the ritual to take your sins upon himself. But as Cadi keeps her eyes shut tight, his voice startles her into looking right at his eyes - and so begins her curiosity to know who he is. With the shame of a terrible sin that has stolen her mother's love away from her, she wants to find the sin eater and have her sins taken away. Maybe her mother will forgive her then. With the help of her friends Fagan Kai, Miz Elda, a strange man by the river, and an even more mysterious girl named Lilybet, she sets out to find out the truth - maybe she can be set free.

This book has a VERY strong Christian message! I was very happy to give over my utter despair of contemporary Christian novels. This book is filled with mild (but not unhealthy) suspense and Christ's teachings. There is violence from the fiery leader of the town who is completely run by his temper, who beats two people up and even kills a man. The writer did an excellent job depicting the Sin Eater: a shady, mysterious character that keeps you wondering and shivering. There are always those characters that seem as if they are behind a black sheet - you hear their voice and see their outline, but not their features; and no matter how hard you look, you can't see anymore until the end and the sheet falls. Rivers does a wonderful job with many characters such as this. The language is clean, but a woman in the story says that her drunk father, "took it in his head that it was his right to use me like a man used a woman" and her lover quickly dispatched the man in anger. But Cadi does not understand, and since we hear the story through her eyes, nothing is taken further. Cadi's brother, Iwan and a girl were described as "tangled up together in the woods". The girl's father calls her a harlot and it is implied he turns her from the house, but they are not central characters and it is not further spoken of, nor is anything described in any detail. I would recommend this book to anyone old enough to understand the consequences of sin and death, probably about ten years and up. But if you think your little ten-year-old would be afraid, maybe you should read it out loud and make explain some things, but there's no reason they should miss out. YOU NEED TO READ THIS BOOK!!!!!

INKHEART by Cornelia Funke

Yes the title says "Tintenherz". That's because this novel was written by a magnificent German author by the name of Cornelia Funke. Translated into English as "Inkheart", this book is about a man and his daughter who have a strange power. When Meggie's father Mo reads aloud, the books come to life. This power is not as wonderful as you may think, especially when he read a book called "INKHEART" that was filled with dastardly characters to his wife. Before he could blink an eye, the room was full of men in jet black clothes: Capricorn, Basta, a friendly juggler called Dustfinger - and Mo's wife was gone. Mo found that if something is read out of a book into our world, something from our world must take it's place. But it was too late. He tried for a long time to read her out of the story, but to no avail. Nine years later when Meggie is twelve, Dustfinger shows up at their door, telling Mo that Capricorn wants the books and is on his tail - again. There is an iffy part here where Meggie listens to the conversation instead of going to bed. Yet another when they go to see an aunt she's never met and Mo does not tell her why or what they are running from. She refuses to get in the car until she knows everything. This Aunt Elinor is a gruff book collector. A little grumpy, but a loveable character as the story goes on. Together they confront and escape Capricorn several times, drag the author of INKHEART into the action, and make everything right in a stunning climax. Or do they make EVERYTHING right?

This book is amazingly creative and well-written! I can't believe I didn't hear about it before I saw the preview of the upcoming movie about it. However, I've already mentioned some slight disrespect by Meggie to Mo, but everything indicates that they are best friends and very close. Also it would be nice to give this book to your mom at the precise moment you hand her a black sharpie. Elinor likes to use a naughty word, as does Basta on occaision. I HIGHLY recommend you get a reliable sharpie-user, because this one is just too good to miss! I do hate it when they ruin good books with all that cussing. Upon further research, I have just discovered that this book is only the first in a trilogy. I see very few things left unsaid, but it is an exciting find! Again, GET A SHARPIE-USER!!!!! Don't miss this one!!!!!