Book Battle: Round 2 Series 1 Winners (Part 1)

So despite a little delay, here's the winners for Series 1 of our Round 2 brackets!  I'm going to be splitting these up over the next few days so no one gets overwhelmed by all 12 on one day.  There were some excellent brackets this time around, so without further ado, here we go!

Bracket 2:
Keturah And Lord Death by Martine Leavitt VS. The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman
Judged by Lieder Madchen from Songs and Stories

A bracket with a fairytale flair!  I've been meaning to read Keturah for ages now, and managed to get my hands on The Grimm Legacy last October and really enjoyed it.  This is one of those brackets that was hard for me to watch since I badly wanted both books to move on.  A difficult decision for our judge!

Here's what our judge had to say about both books:

"The plot [of one book] was good if a little confusing at times with twists and turns but nothing truly surprising, but mostly it was the characters and setting that made the book so much fun. I have handed this book off to both of my sisters and I am sure they will enjoy it as much as I did."
"[The other book] was an interesting read and I really enjoyed it, but I don't think it would be for everyone. It is frankly rather strange."

So which book won?

The winner for this bracket is...The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman! It will be moving on to Series 2, where it will come up against



Bracket 3:
Kathleen's Story (Angels in Pink) by Lurlene McDaniel VS. Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper
Judged by Rachel from Jacob's Beloved's Books and Chloe from YA Booklover Blog

Just like our last bracket had a fairytale flair, this one seems to be all about contemporary books. Both were books I'd never heard before, and Kathleen's Story came highly recommended by our Round 1 Judges.  So an easy decision, or maybe a hard one?

Here's what Judge Chloe had to say about the two titles:

"While [the first book] was fun, romantic, and simple, it was nothing that special, and I know both myself and Rachel felt let down by the ending. Either way, I still enjoyed the book... But then I picked up [the other title], and it completely blew me away!"

And Judge Rachel adds:

"While the [winning] book does technically fit into the genre of YA, I really believe that everyone should read this book. I have never read anything like this, and hopefully I will remember to encourage my children to read this when they are old enough!"

So which book came out on top? Was it the Round 1 judges' favorite? Or the underdog?  Well, the winner for this bracket is...Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper!



Bracket 4:
The Devil's Kiss by Sarwat Chadda VS. Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress by Tina Ferraro
Judged by Bookworm1858 from A subjective journal of what I've read and seen

You may have notice that Bookworm1858 sounds a little familiar.  She was one of our fastest readers for judging in Round 1, and kindly agreed to help judge Round 2 as well.  When her partner had to withdraw from judging, she shouldered even more of the judging burden.  So she's a judging superstar!

But what about the books?

"This was a tough bracket to judge because on the one hand, we have British, dark, action, paranormal, intersections of history and religion; on the other hand, there is American, light, comedy, romance, teenage angst. Totally different, right? But what it came down to was how connected I felt to the characters, which only happened in [the winning book]."

Which book has more connecting characters? The winner is...Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress by Tina Ferraro Whoa, that was a bit of an upset I think! I certainly didn't see it coming! This book will be moving on to Bracket 14 in Series 2, where it will be going up against Bracket 2's winner, Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper.

That's it for this first roundup.  Keep an eye out in the next few days for the rest of the decisions.  And don't forget to click through on the links to all the judges' blogs to read their full posts.  There's a lot of great discussions out there!