A love letter to books...

Ah, love.  Not to be confused with lust (I'm talking to you 50 Shades of Gray).  For the two books I'm going to review are about love, and heartbreak.  The things that make us human, for dung beetles do not go through boxes of tissues and pints of ice cream after breaking up with the guy/ girl.

Our first book is one my dearest friend Lisa recommended.  Because she knows me so well, she knows EXACTLY the kinds of books that I fall in love with.  The books that I can't put down because I love fantasy, and strong female characters, and plot twists, and a good romance, and good endings (not happy endings, good endings).
So she suggested that I run and get Grave Mercy by R.L. LaFevers (what a great name).  So I did, and I LOVED it.  The beginning starts off strong, with our heroine Ismae trapped in a loveless marriage, arranged by a father who despises her.  She is beaten to almost death, then rescued, then sent to live and train by a convent devoted to patron saint of Death.  OK, ok, I probably lost some of you, but this book is wicked rad.  I loved the main character and her journey to becoming a strong, powerful, assassin that finds peace with herself, and finds mercy to be one of the most powerful tools in her retinue.  It is long, and not for the weak reader, but this book will take you on a adventure full of tension, intrigue and eventually love.  Oh, Lisa this book was a love letter.  (This is a mash up of Graceling and Poison Study, two more favorites).

Our second feature is Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler.  There are 2, no 3 very cool things about this book.  1) The artwork.  Maira Kalman illustrates each of the items the heartbroken Min Green returns to her ex love of her life.  And they are done so well.  They are characters of the story as much as Min and her jerk of an ex boyfriend.   They have a whimsy to them, yet are real enough to touch.  2) The author is Lemony Snicket.  What?  That's right, the guy who brought us The Unfortunate Events series wrote this love/ heartbreak story with the same grace and hilarity that he brought to the story of the Baudelaire trio.  And 3) This book is you, and me, and your best friend.  It is the story of heartbreak. Something we all went through either in school or right now.  A story of how much in LOVE we were then we weren't and this is why.  Handler and Kalman brings the reader into the story of Min and Ed with a sensibility that holds up, caresses, breaks, then heals our most tender organ.

Fall in love today...