Wednesday, March 30, 2011

The Princess of Las Pulgas by C. Lee McKenzie

Reading Level: Young Adult

Hardcover: 334 Pages

Publisher: WestSide Books

ISBN: 978-1-934813-44-7

My Rating: 5/5
After her father's slow death from cancer, Carlie's mother is forced to sell their cherished oceanfront home and move the family to the other side of the tracks-to dreaded Las Pulgas. At her tough new urban high school, Carlie is nicknamed "Princess" because of her aloof attitude. But what her classmates don't know is that Carlie isn't aloff; she's in mourning for her father and almost everything else that mattered to her. Meanwhile, her younger brother Keith becomes angrier and more sullen by the day, and even their cat Wuicken goes missing, sending Carlie and Keith on a search for her in the hidden orchard beside their seedy garden apartment complex. They're met by a rifle-toting cowboy who ejects them at gunpoint from his property. But when Carlie finds him in the kitchen having coffee with their mom the next day, having found and returned the cat, she begins to realize that in Las Pulgas, nothing is what it seems.

'The Princess of Las Pulgas' isn't my normal type of read. I usually stick to reading fantasy YA books. Books full of supernatural, fairies, dragons, witches and all that stuff. It's good to step out of your shell every once in a while. This book is incredibly powerful. It's such an emotional roller coaster! And I think it's an excellent read for someone dealing with loss and grievance.

The story is told through Carlie Edmund. Her dad dies from cancer, her mom can't afford to keep up the mortgage payments and they are forced to move to Las Pulgas. There she discovers a whole different world from her own. She's used to having life served up on a silver platter-at least when her dad was alive. Now her, her brother Keith and their mom have to cope with their terrible loss and struggle to survive. Carlie has a very hard time accepting her life. She doesn't want anyone to know what she's been degraded to. She wants everyone to think she's just moved somewhere else and she gives her mom a hard time about it every step of the way.

'The Princess of Las Pulgas' is an amazing read and I can definitely see myself reading it again and again. I hadn't even heard of it before I got it but I'm glad I read it and gave it a chance. It's simply incredible. I definitely recommend it for....everyone. It's great and you'll love it!

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