Carry On

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, 522 pages

Did you ever read Harry Potter and think, "Wow, Harry's such a boring 'chosen one.' It'd be so much better if someone actually acknowledge that, as well as the way that Dumbledore seems to just use him for his 'chosen one-ness,' letting him take care of the bad guys instead of better trained adults! Oh, and this whole series would be better if someone acknowledged that there's gotta be something deeper to the mutual obsession between Harry and Draco Malfoy." If so, Rainbow Rowell has answered your call.

In Carry On, "chosen one" Simon Snow is a not-so-great hero, who only survives multiple clashes with dark beings by relying on his much smarter and more talented best friend Penelope Bunce. Snow's roommate is the snobbish, old-magic, old-money Baz Pitch-Grimm, who has sworn to destroy Snow and everything he stands for — complicated only a *little* bit by the fact that Baz is head-over-heels in love with Simon.

This is fun, funny, and refreshing, and I can't believe it's taken me almost five years to read this fantastic book. The sequel, Wayward Son, comes out this fall, and yes, I do have it on request for myself. These books are fantastic.