Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

Elantris is a rich, well-plotted, wonderful fantasy. The characters are well-developed, the history of the nations and religions and characters are revealed in piecemeal throughout the book, encouraging the reader to keep reading! Like most good fantasy, it is not a fast read (at least it wasn't for me) but it was thoroughly enjoyable.
Sarene is a princess from across the sea, sent to marry the prince of Arelon, Raoden. She is 25 and edging on spinsterhood in her own country and in her own mind and feels the marriage with Raoden will not only do good for her country of Teod, but is her last chance at marriage. She arrives unexpectedly a week before the wedding in order to finally meet her future husband in person only to discover on arrival that he has died. The marriage contract was written in such a way, however, that even if one of the parites died before the wedding, the pair is considered married. So Sarene is now a widow without actually having gone through a wedding. Fortunately her uncle Kiin, his wife and children are in Kae, so she has the comfort of some family, since King Iaoden (Raoden's father) has so little patience with women in general.
Raoden is not actually dead, but has suffered the Shaod, or has been cursed with a disease that strikes the Arelish people--their hearts have stopped beating but their minds won't die. Like all people who have the Shaod, Raoden has been thrown into Elantris, the once great city that was the center of Arelon. Elantris once housed what the people called gods, people who could do magic, feed people without growing food, could heal with magic. Mysteriously 10 years ago the Elantrians began to be cursed and with the faltering of the gods of Elantris, Ioaden and the merchants seized control of Arelon.
Third in our story is Hrathen, a Derethi priest who has been sent to convert the people of Arelon to the Derethi religion within three months or Wyrn (head of the Derethi religion and king of the Derethi empire) will simply send armies to Arelon to take it by force. Hrathen is a very logical and practical man, not above bribing to get what he wants.
These three characters (and so many more!) challenge each other, make discoveries about themselves, and fight to save (in each person's opinion) Arelon and Elantris. A rich rewarding read, Elantris is a fantastic story with excellent world building, and wonderfully created characters.

Holly's Inbox: Scandal in the City by Holly Denham

I really enjoyed Holly's Inbox, published in 2009, so when I saw there was a sequel, I knew I needed to read it.
Holly's still working at DK Huerst (the bank) as a receptionist, and she's still with Toby, though it's a bit awkward as he spends a great deal of time in France for work so Holly feels like she rarely sees him. It definitely causes a strain in their relationship.
The rest of the cast of characters have returned as well: Trisha, the veteran receptionist Holly sits next to but can't speak with; Marie, the switchboard operator; Claire, the slightly ditsy upper floor receptionist; friends Jason and Aisha; and family. Holly's also faced with new challenges, including Tanya Mason, head of catering services at the company, with whom things turn ugly when Tanya shows interest in Toby.
One of Holly's biggest challenges is when she's temporarily made Front of House manager (managing the room reservations and the receptionists). She's excited and nervous about this advancement, even though it could be only temporary, but does her best to ensure it becomes a permanent position. Nothing is ever as easy as she would like it to be (and it wouldn't make for interesting reading otherwise) but Holly handles it the best she can.
Holly matures a bit in this book; her relationship with Toby makes her excited about taking on the challenge of the new job and wanting to excel at it, and other changes in her personal life cause her to rethink much of what she's done and thought before.
I really enjoy how quickly the book moves, since it's written in all emails. It's fast, it's breezy reading, it's light and enjoyable. I wanted something different to read since I've been reading so many dystopian novels lately and Holly's Inbox: Scandal in the City definitely fit that bill. I'm hoping there's another book to follow up with Holly's life because I'm really enjoying knowing her.

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

On the changed Louisiana shoreline in the perhaps not so distant future, when the ice caps have melted and weather patterns have changed significantly, Nailer works on Bright Sands Beach breaking down old ships. He's young and still scrawny enough to crawl through ducts collecting copper wire and other scavengable parts of the ship. He's hoping when he gets too big to fit into the ducts he'll be able to work on heavy crew, the teams that take apart the hulls of the ships. He's worried that he won't be strong enough or big enough but he decides not to worry about it.
After a hurricane rushes through the beach, Nailer and his best friend Pima have the day off work while the bosses try to get the beach organized enough to start again, so they decide to go in search of fresh seafood. Out on a spit of land (that becomes an island in high tide) they find a beautiful clipper ship wrecked on the beach. Pima and Nailer go inside the ship and begin to scavenge, thinking this is their ticket out of Bright Sands Beach, just one big Lucky Strike will save them a lifetime of back-breaking work. They just need to find a way to protect it.
While going through the ship, they find the dead bodies of the crew and the body of a swank girl, around their age. With gold rings on her fingers, a diamond in her nose, and gold around her neck, Pima and Nailer know they've hit the jackpot. They decide the best way to get the rings off the girl is to cut her fingers off. Much to their surprise, the girl is awake.
Nita is the daughter of one of the big global shipping agents, and she's being chased by one of her father's employees because Pyce wants to do something illegal. Pyce thinks if he holds Nita hostage, her father will let Pyce do whatever he wants with the company. When Nailer's father (a cruel drug addict) finds Nailer, Pima, and Nita, he decides he's going to make the deal with anyone who comes looking for Nita. Nailer and Nita escape towards the Orleans (the remains of New Orleans, most of which is underwater) searching for one of her father's ships that is still loyal to Nita and her father. When they finally find one, Nailer wants to make sure it's all right (his father has shown up in the city at the same time) but it ends up that Nita's taken.
Nailer finally gets his wish and gets to sail on a clipper ship while they search for the ship that has Nita prisoner. They find it, of course, and Nailer helps with a plan to trap the ship and get Nita back.
There's a lot going on in this book. I had a not so easy time going through the book. I didn't dread reading it but it didn't move quite as fast as other books I've read (like Wither by Lauren DeStefano). It's an adventure story, a dystopia story, has slight political comments, it just felt like a jumble of story lines while being not entirely certain what kind of book it wants to be. I definitely didn't dislike it, but I think if it had not been this year's Printz winner I would have been less inclined to finish it. Ship Breaker is a well-written interesting story, especially if you like adventures. It might appeal a little more to male readers than female readers, but that's not to say female readers won't like it. Definitely an adventurous story. I think my issue with it is that I wasn't expecting it to be an adventure story. But as I said, it's well-written and interesting and should appeal to readers who approach the book without any preconceived ideas of what it's about, other than an adventure.