37. Zenn Diagram by Wendy Brant

read on my iPhone
2017 Kids Can Press
328 pgs.
YA CRF w/a touch of fantasy....and a little sex....
Finished Monday, 7/3/17
Goodreads rating:  3.73 - 1033 ratings
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Contemporary ...ummm....Wisconsin?  Midwest, I'm pretty sure
Very cool cover.

First line/s:  "I hold Josh's TI-84 in my left hand, press a few buttons just for show and wait for the vision to come."

My comments:  3.5 Every now and then you MUST read something light and fun and eye-rolling.  That was Zenn Diagram for me.  Yes, there were some (very) irritating things about Eva, but most of the story was fresh and cute and ... innocent.  I'm getting caught up on my YA reading, yippee!

Goodreads synopsis  The more I touch someone, the more I can see and understand, and the more I think I can help. But that’s my mistake. I can’t help. You can’t fix people like you can solve a math problem.
          Math genius. Freak of nature. Loner.     Eva Walker has literally one friend—if you don’t count her quadruplet three-year-old-siblings—and it’s not even because she’s a math nerd. No, Eva is a loner out of necessity, because everyone and everything around her is an emotional minefield. All she has to do is touch someone, or their shirt, or their cell phone, and she can read all their secrets, their insecurities, their fears.
          Sure, Eva’s “gift” comes in handy when she’s tutoring math and she can learn where people are struggling just by touching their calculators. For the most part, though, it’s safer to keep her hands to herself. Until she meets six-foot-three, cute-without-trying Zenn Bennett, who makes that nearly impossible.
          Zenn’s jacket gives Eva such a dark and violent vision that you’d think not touching him would be easy. But sometimes you have to take a risk…

46. Graceling - Kristin Cashore

audio read by a full cast
Graceling Realm Book #1
11 unabridged cds (12:30)
Full Cast Audio, 2009
Graceling copyright 2008
471 pages
There's a map of the seven kingdoms on the enpapers
Goodreads rated 4.13
I rated this 4 stars, I liked it a lot.
for: YA (there is a very small amount of older-kid antics which would make me a tiny bit reluctant to give to anyone younger than middle school)

I listened to this, it was a "full cast" recording, and very good. Kristin Cashore has a new one out that is supposed to be excellent, and it was strongly suggested to read this one first. I'm glad I did, am on the waiting list for Bitterblue, which takes place 8 years later.

Katsa, the protagonist, wasn't one of my favorite characters.  She's pretty self-absorbed, headstrong, and has little care for those she doesn't like or agree with.  She's smart and brave, but extremely cocky.  Her "love interest," Po, and the 10 year -old girl they save, Bitterblue, are much more likable.

When someone in the Seven Kingdoms is born with two different-colored eyes, that means they are born with some kind of "grace," something they can do remarkably well.  Katsa's grace is as a killer, although the actual more accurate title she discovers later in the book.  Po has to hide his grace (SPOILER: he can read the minds of or sense the thoughts and feelings of anyone that's thinking of him)  by calling himself a great fighter.  People with grace's are given wide berth.

Katsa has always been used by her uncle, King Randa, to punish his enemies.  She hates this.  But she must to what he bids to survive.  She and a few loyal friends create a "counsel," and they try to right some of the Seven Kingdoms' wrongs.  That is how she first meets Po, from the Island Kingdom of Leonid.

This was a good adventure, had a little ya boy-girl you-know-what going on, though nothing graphic.  She is indeed a feisty, strong female role-model and i will encourage middle schoolers to try this one out.

Notes to remember before reading a sequel:  King Randa, her uncle, is not a really nice guy.  However, his son Prince Raffin, is 3 years older than Katsa and her best friend.  He is a scientist/chemist who makes all the helpful drugs the council needs in its good-doings.  Oll is Randa's underlord, a spymaster (a "graying captain") and helped raise Katsa.  Giddon, another sidekick, has been very protective and asked her to marry him.  So he's now a bit jealous.

kristincashore.blogspot.com
www.gracelingrealm.com