Description: Luneta is tired of living in dull Orkney with her mother and father (who happens to be the most boring knight of King Arthur's Round Table). She prides herself on always getting what she wants, so when the opportunity presents itself, she jumps at the chance to stay at a family friend's castle near Camelot. Her handsome cousin, Sir Ywain - a young knight seeking adventure- arrives just in time to escort her to King Arthur's court.
Along the way they pick up a knight-turned-fool named Rhience, whose wit and audacity set many a puffed-up personality in its place. Before arriving at Lady Laudine's castle, the trio stops at Camelot, where they hear the story of the Storm Stone, a magical object deep in the forest that soon sweeps everyone into a web of love, betrayal, and more than a bit of magic.
Note: Description from the book jacket.
Review: "The Lioness and Her Knight" is a great addition to Gerald Morris's Squire's Tales series; as always, the book is laugh-out-loud hilarious with a great plot and a satisfying romance. Luneta is a little more passive than I would have liked, being dragged hither and yon by circumstances and not of her own volition, but she is still a good character, intelligent but with her own human foibles (she prizes her ability to manipulate people and loves to meddle in others' affairs). The character that really made the book for me was Rhience, whose amusing quips and sarcasm kept me giggling throughout the whole book, but whose more serious side was also apparent (but not to Luneta, unfortunately). As mentioned, I would have liked to see Luneta be more of a driving factor in the plot, but the story was decent nevertheless. One of the great things about the Squire's Tales series is that every book (except possibly the second one) can be read as a stand-alone; knowledge of the happenings of previous books is not necessary when reading a later book, though it can be amusing (for example, Luneta's parents were the stars of the third book in the series, and it was fun to see how they interact as a middle aged married couple). "The Lioness and Her Knight" is definitely worth the read, and if you like it, you'll love the rest of the series as well.
Description: "On Career Day Lily visited her dad's work with him and discovered he worked for a mad scientist who wanted to rule the earth through destruction and desolation." Lily Gefelty has always considered herself a little drab next to her friends Katie Mulligan and Jasper Dash, who each have their own adventure book series. But when Lily uncovers a plot to take over the world at her father's workplace in the clearly labeled Abandoned Warehouse, it's her turn to step into the limelight and save the planet. Cleverly masked as "a midsize company devoted to expanding cetacean pedestrian opportunities," the goings on in the Abandoned Warehouse are not what they seem (er, actually...). Lily and her friends discover that Mr. Gefelty's boss, Larry, is really a whale-human hybrid intent on destroying the world using whales, stilts, lazers, and mind control. And it's up to Lily to stop him.
Review: At first glance, you may think that "Whales on Stilts" is a silly, cheesy story geared towards ten-year-olds. You'd be right. However, "Whales on Stilts" goes so far beyond cheesy that it's positively hilarious for readers of any age, ten on up. If Douglas Adams had made a foray into juvenile fiction, this uproarious book may have been the result. Lily is so normal that she's the perfect main character to put into such a ridiculously overdone book. The other characters are uniquely strange in their own rights. The plot is straightforward and wouldn't be interesting at all in other circumstances, but the story is so stuffed with hilarity that the obvious and cliche plot is perfect. The best part of the book, in my opinion, actually occurs after the ending - an "educational" section written by one Ann Mowbray Dixon-Clarke, who seems to have a bit of trouble writing objectively ("1. How are Katie, Jasper, and Lily different? ... Do you have any friends who are different from you? What are they like? Why don't you think that Ann Mowbray Dixon-Clarke has any friends? She bought a big grill for her backyard, hoping that people would come to cook their ribs...."). "Whales on Stilts" is definitely a must read, because who knows when you'll need to know how to defeat an evil whale-human villain and his lazer-eyed whale minions?