Stirring Up Trouble by Juli Alexander

Zoe is a teenage witch with a few problems.  She's in love with her best friend's boyfriend.  She can't use self-serving magic, even if it would make life a lot easier.  And she really needs to find a substitute for toad slime, because it's expensive and really, really gross.  Zoe presents us with a smart, sometimes sassy, heroine who wants to make everyone happy.  It's hard to make sure she gets her own happy ending, though.  Full of humor, this is a story that will leave a reader feeling satisfied with the outcome and wondering what zany adventure Zoe has coming next. 


I didn't know until I had finished this that it is the second book featuring Zoe as a narrator.  I found myself wishing for more explanation of Zoe's magical world, and how it interacts with the realities of being a modern teen.  I'll definitely get my hands on the first book, and I eagerly await the third. 

Palace of Spies by Sarah Zettel

This is a fantastic story of intrigue, adventure, and love.  The imagery is exquisite, the writing is spot on, and the characters are so dynamic as to jump off the page.  This is perfect for a young woman who longs to know of court life in a time of uncertainty, and what it truly was to be a woman in a man's world. 

Margaret Fitzroy is a character with whom I can identify.  She is strong.  She is creative.  She doesn't know whose side is really the right one.  She takes matters into her own hands, making sure that she not only completes the assignment she's been given, but that she finds the truth at almost any cost. 

If I were a woman in the time of the Jacobite resistance, I can only hope that I would have been one as daring and resourceful as Peggy.