Novella reviews: Fairy Tale Fail & Love Your Frenemies by Mina V. Esguerra

Posted on January 17, 2012 by janicu

I first heard of Mina V. Esguerra on Chachic’s blog when she reviewed Fairy Tale Fail. This is a Filipino author who writes chick lit set in Manila. I always love a book NOT set in the usual places, and filed it away for future reference. At 99 cents each, I didn’t think I could go wrong with either Fairy Tale Fail or Love Your Frenemies, the two options I found at the Barnes & Noble ebookstore. Of course, I went with the one with “Fairy Tale” in the title first. 🙂 Since these are each about 200 pages, I thought I would review both of them in the same post.

Fairy Tale Fail

Mina V. Esguerra

The Premise: Ellie Manuel is a young twenty-something working girl and free spirit. She enjoys her job in Marketing, but work is not the end-all and be-all of her life. Travel is her real passion, and can spend hours constructing her next vacation. From what to eat to where to stay, the options are limitless. Ellie is a dreamer for sure, and she is convinced that life is like a fairytale. There are only seven types of stories, but in Ellie’s life, she is the Hero, and eventually, she will get her happily ever after. That is why, when her boyfriend Don dumps her because they aren’t “in sync”, Ellie is sure it’s all just a part of her Hero’s Journey. Don will come back if she stays true. Then months pass, and Ellie isn’t so sure. She gets promoted, makes friends with the cute guy of the office, and begins to feel happy, without Don. Wasn’t Don her True Love? Or was she mistaken?

My Thoughts: It was very interesting to read about life in the corporate world that’s so different from mine. Not only do I know nothing about Marketing or Client Services, but the corporate culture in Ellie’s life sounds so different. Just the fact that there were a lot of young people in Ellie’s office blew me away (there is a serious dearth of people my age where I work), but that there is a social life among them? I’m jealous. I loved the concept of the barkadas – circles of friends and how they tied into the story. How social the work culture seems! I also enjoyed the glimpses of life in Manila like the food and the torrential rain that are a part of life there. Peppered throughout the story are Filipino words that I usually could guess the meanings of within the context. I wish there was a glossary, but I didn’t *need* it.

Ellie and Don belonged to the same barkada at work before they started dating. When Don breaks up with Ellie, it’s very painful for her, and it’s made more so because Don is still within her circle of friends, and he was there first. With Ellie’s feelings on her sleeve, things are very awkward with Don, Ellie, and their work barkada. I really felt for Ellie during the breakup and it’s aftermath. I think most people have experience with a bad break up. The fallout amongst friends and the little dramas that play out afterwards felt very realistic (the dialogue felt particularly spot on as well). Ellie’s situation conjures up those feelings of denial, depression, and bargaining that are part of the grief process, although I wondered and worried about Ellie. She just wouldn’t get angry at Don nor would she accept her relationship with him was completely over, but this is obviously the crux of the story.

Ellie has to get herself out of her post-breakup rut and regain control. So she makes some changes like moving to a job in Client Services. She takes some trips alone, and makes friends with Lucas, the cute guy with Rock Star hair. Lucas at first doesn’t seem like Ellie’s type. He’s tattooed, a smoker, and agnostic, and office gossip has him dating one pretty girl after another and fathering a lovechild. For a nice Catholic girl, he hits everything on Ellie’s no-no list, but the more she gets to know Lucas, the more she realizes that her first impressions were wrong. They have a charming relationship with the sort of easy conversations you only have with your very best friends. A year later and Ellie is more like her original self:

“Ellie the Free Spirit was the girl [Don] fell in love with, the kind of person he kept comparing Ellie the Girlfriend to, and apparently by being away from him I was restoring myself to that state.”

It isn’t exactly a surprise where the story goes from here, but it is nice and satisfying the way it does.

Overall: This was a short and sweet chick lit that charmed me with it’s whimsical main character, easy dialogue, and feel-good romance. As a bonus, the Manila setting gave me a glimpse of another culture, and I’m always hungry to learn about places I haven’t been.

Buy: Amazon (kindle) | B&N (eBook)

*****

Love Your Frenemies

Mina V. Esguerra

The Premise: Kimberly Domingo grew up in privilege. A fixture of the Country Club, she was raised alongside two daughters of her mother’s college circle, Chesca and Isabel, who became her closest friends. In high school, she got what she wanted by being direct (and intimidating), and at work, she got ahead easily with the same directness and ambition. She was the girl people loved to hate. The only person that can trip up Kimmy is Manolo, an on-again, off-again fling she’s had since she was fifteen. Unfortunately, Manolo’s M.O. seems to be: make Kimmy melt, then disappear. Then Kimmy met Zack. They were supposed to get married, but Zack broke off the engagement, leaving Kimmy the object of scorn and rumor. Unable to deal with it anymore, Kimmy left the country. Now, many months later, she’s back for her her best friend’s wedding. This time though, Kimmy thinks she knows how to get her life back in order – by cutting off the toxic friends that put her in the position she found herself in months ago.

My Thoughts: This story is told in alternating chapters that tell the story of what’s going on now that Kimmy is home, and what happened months ago, before her failed wedding. There were times, reading about Kimmy’s past, that I just didn’t understand her, particularly at the start this story. Compared to the dreamer main character Fairy Tale Fail, Kimmy was a much harder character to love. She’s a girl who is incredibly confident that what she thinks is how things are, who doesn’t seem to have any regrets being a Mean Girl growing up.

“If you went to school with us, you would think that Chesca and I had a lot of friends — but really, it was just us. We let one girl join our “group” because she had a driver and her own car. Another because she was good at math and she let Chesca copy off her once. We also kicked people out of our group fairly regularly, if and when they stopped being useful, so yeah, we weren’t very nice.
And this is how we did it: Chesca invited the girl into the group, and I eventually did something to kick her out. But we made decisions together, and just played different roles. She was always the angel, and I was always the witch.”

Kimmy is self-aware about who she is. This is the story about the not-nice girl – the girl who is actually the villain from the point of view of another Esguerra book (My Imaginary Ex), much like Darcy of Something Blue by Emily Giffin. She’s not so nice, but at the same time, it’s obvious that she’s still going through something and she hasn’t figured out her life yet. It takes some time, but slowly the reader begins to realize that Kimmy could be harder on herself and her friends than they all deserve. How she sees things colors what really happened, and people change as they grow up. I really liked the way Kimmy’s relationships were portrayed in this book. They were a little dysfunctional but realistic. It was refreshing to have a story with the dramatic best friend that demonstrates her love in a different way.

Love Your Frenemies felt like an internal story. We’re in Kimmy’s head a lot, and a lot of history and back story is implied. She grew up with Isabel and Chesca and Manolo and they are such a huge part of her life she will always feel their impact. It takes a little time to get into that part of the story, but it feels very organic the way Kimmy narrates as things happen and as she remembers the past. I really enjoyed the perspective from a more messed up, less happy heroine. If I were to have a complaint, it would be that I wanted more of a connection to the romance. I could tell that it was the kind of romance that devastates a person, but I felt like I was seeing it through the lens of time, and I wanted to understand Manolo’s perspective better.

Overall: The trials and tribulations of the not-nice girl was a refreshing perspective in this chick lit novella and I liked the depth and development that went into the story in such small space.

Buy: Amazon (kindle) | B&N (eBook)

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Posted on January 14, 2012 by janicu

Cinder

Marissa Meyer

As a fairytale retelling with a cyborg Cinderella, and set in “New Beijing”, Cinderpromised to deliver a story containing some of my favorite themes. I’ve had high hopes for this one so when I saw a contest for an ARC, I made sure I signed up. This review is based on an ARC copy I won from the publisher.

The Premise: It’s now 126 T.E. and in the teeming city of New Beijing, Linh Cinder is a talented mechanic who works out of her stall at the Weekly Market. While she’s a teen-aged girl, not your typical store owner, she’s also a cyborg, and thus the property of her stepmother Adri, who uses Cinder’s income to run the household and keep her two daughter’s Pearl and Peony in relative comfort. Adri has no love for Cinder, and the feeling is mutual. Cinder’s life is not easy, but even the limited peace she has is gone when the plague comes to her home. While things are at their lowest point with her step-family, Cinder finds herself entangled in international politics and in the life of Prince Kai, heir to the Eastern Commonwealth. Somehow this is all tied to her own past and the ruthless Lunarians poised to take over the planet.

Download the first 5 chapters in Kindle format here
Download the first 5 chapters in eBook (nook) format here

My Thoughts: This story starts off very well. It begins with Cinder at her usual stall in the market, a space that is obviously her own. I loved the way Cinder’s skill as a mechanic and her ostracization as a cyborg are incorporated with the sights and sounds of the New Beijing marketplace. When Prince Kai arrives, incognito and carrying an android for Cinder to work on, he has no idea that Cinder is part machine. Cinder, faced with a cute boy that every girl in the city has a crush on, isn’t eager to reveal something that she’s vilified for on a constant basis. It was a great opening scene and the tension of secrets between the two characters added something to the whole meeting. Another great dose of drama is added when there is an outbreak of letumosis nearby, and the reader is made aware of this deadly and horrifying disease and how its victims are treated.

That was all on the first chapter. I was happy with just the thought of a story that contained Cinder, the prince, and letumosis, but the story becomes much larger in scope. Beyond Cinder and her step-family (whom we are introduced to soon after Cinder and the prince), are world-wide machinations. It isn’t long before Cinder’s world is upended and she is involved in a frantic see-saw between trying to save a loved one from letumosis and trips to the palace where she continues to run into Prince Kai and discovers surprising things about both herself and the Lunarians. All the while, Kai has his own problems. His father has the plague too, and the diabolically evil Queen Levana wants the seize power through marriage to an inexperienced young monarch.

I really liked Cinder’s character. She is a girl who doesn’t have many supporters but she makes the best of what she has. She knows how to fix things, she has a realistic attitude, and she’s rather scrappy when things go south. I adored all the little reminders of her cyborg status like readouts and her leg compartment that liberally peppered the story. Kai struck me as a generally nice guy trying to do the right thing under trying circumstances. There are brief sections of this book told from his point of view. Overall, he’s not as well fleshed out as Cinder, but his frustration at his father’s sickness and the way the Lunarians are exploiting the situation is palpable.

There’s an obvious intent for there to be a romance between the two characters but the romance is not quite there yet. I had the impression that there was an instant like between Kai and Cinder, but that’s as far as it goes. With the weight of the world on their shoulders and with moments in each other’s company, it was a stretch to believe Kai would have any interest in Cinder being at his ball. Thankfully, the book didn’t try to sell me on a full-blown love between the two, which saves things somewhat, but it does skirt on the edges of disbelief without really going over. I think that the real romantic development is being saved for later books. I hope that the characters can spend more time with each other before the romance really happens.

Actually, a lot of this story felt like it was set up for later books. There are several ongoing threads that deal with Cinder’s past and her true identity which obviously won’t be resolved in this book. Unfortunately, there was a bit of frustration with having Cinder kept ignorant until the book’s climax. I could see where the story was manipulated there. I think that with the intent for this to be the series, it also necessitated that the Cinderella formula wasn’t adhered to in Cinder and the introduction of the ultimate bad guys – the Lunarians, in particular their evil queen. As bad guys go, I much preferred Cinder’s stepmother, who misdirects her anger and grief at her losses toward Cinder. Andi was a villainess with a motivation I understood. The Lunarian queen is just felt evil for no reason. Yes, fairy-tale bad guys are usually like that, and taken from that perspective, she is typical, but I wish Cinder could have stuck more to the original than it did.

I also was hoping to have a better sense of place in this story than I did. Other than the marketplace introduced all the way at the start of the book, there was little to show that the story was set in New Beijing. The only thing to indicate where everyone lived was their names. Even while preparing for the ball, the ballgowns sounded western: satin and tulle, big and fluffy, rather than silk and embroidered. I felt like the author had a missed opportunity in not making New Beijing a presence in the narrative.

Okay, so I have my complaints about this story, but none of them were deal breakers. There were things that I think affected my enjoyment of the middle part of the story, even though Cinder is well written and flowed well. I just found the middle part of the story not as compelling as the beginning and the end. There were parts that dragged because I felt like I could see what was going on behind the curtain. The ending was a good one though – it sealed my like of Cinder’s character and I enjoyed how the fairytale elements showed up. We’re left with plenty to look forward to in the sequels. Cinder continues with Scarlet (inspired by Little Red Riding Hood), Cress (Rapunzel), and Winter (Snow White). I will be interesting to see how the series plans to keep Cinder’s story within the frame of stories meant to be about other characters.

Overall: I loved the premise of a cyborg Cinderella so much that I wanted this story to really wow and excite me the way the premise did. The execution was good, but it didn’t thrill me like I wanted to be thrilled. The beginning and the end were great, but the middle suffered under the weight of being set up for a series and I had several qualms with the setting, romance, and antagonists. In the end, I liked Cinder, but it wasn’t a home run. I’d recommend this with reservations.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
The Book Smugglers – 6 (Good, recommended with reservations)
Good Books and Good Wine – loved it
Books and Things – 3 and a half stars (out of 5)
Pirate Penguin reads – positive
Giraffe Days – 4 giraffes (out of 5)
The Cozy Reader – a perfect score
On the Nightstand – “highly readable blend of science fiction and fairytales”
The Canary Review – 3 canaries (out of 5)
The Book Pushers – C+
Inkcrush – “It would have sucked me in big time when I was a teenager. I liked it as an adult.”

Other links:
“Glitches” — a short story that prequels Merissa Meyer’s CINDER

Embers by Laura Bickle

Posted on January 9, 2012 by janicu

Embers

Laura Bickle

The Premise: Anya Kalinczyk is a Lantern, a special type of Elemental with an affinity for fire and the ability to consume spirits. Her day job is as an arson investigator for the Detroit Fire Department, but on occasion Anya gets a call from DAGR (the Detroit Area Ghost Researchers) and uses her abilities to help people with their ghost problems. Detroit is a place of unrest. Low employment and crime drives more people out of the city every day while ghosts seem to overrun it. Keeping up with a rash of arson as well as with driving out malicious spirits is wearying work, and other than her fire salamander sidekick, Anya is very alone. Now, a serial arsonist is leaving mysterious symbols with his work, and the spirits have begun to talk of something big coming. Something big and associated with fire, and with Anya’s special abilities, she may be the only one able to stop it.

My Thoughts: I’ve been interested in Embers for a very long time, but it’s been one of those books that I’d planned to read if I ever ran into a copy and it took a while for that to happen. When I finally had a copy in my hands, I fell easily into its pages. Anya’s life is a fascinating one. An ex-firefighter, Anya now spends her days in the charred hulks of buildings investigating whether or not a fire was actually arson. Every so often she gets a call from DAGR, a ragtag group of mediums and ghost hunters when there is a particularly stubborn spirit that needs removing. By her side is Sparky, a fire salamander that only she can see (who stole the show every page he was on).

Unfortunately for Anya, her life is a weary one, especially lately. The calls for DAGR are becoming more frequent as their usual methods aren’t working like they used to. Every spirit she consumes takes it’s toll on her, but this isn’t something DAGR’s leader Jules seems to grasp. And while Sparky is a lovable and rambunctious supernatural pet, Anya is isolated from human connection. Her abilities and Sparky aren’t things Anya can exactly explain to a your Everyday Joe, and letting people near her always seems to end in someone getting hurt. The closest thing she has to a friend is Katie, the DAGR witch (and baker by day) that Anya sees only occasionally, and then there is Brian, a sweet and geeky guy who Anya always pushes away.

Sparky is the only constant companion Anya has ever had, but her loneliness is just one facet that makes Anya human. She’s not your kick-ass urban fantasy heroine, she’s just a tired woman trying to make things right. Right now, making things right looks like finding and stopping the supernatural arsonist terrorizing Detroit. But with Anya lonely and tired, she is also vulnerable, and the lines get a little blurry. I felt like Anya wandered into a gray area in a way that I found surprising and yet so-human, and this was a strong point of the book – the meeting of opposing sides that were fascinated with each other. I don’t think I can recall the last time I read a book with such a sympathetic bad guy. I liked it! The only wish I had was that Brian, Anya’s possible romantic interest, could have had as much character development as the arsonist.

Overall: In the end, I was pretty satisfied with this urban fantasy. The investigation parts were straightforward but Anya and her opponent had a deliciously conflicting relationship that upped my enjoyment. It’s obvious too that Anya has a lot to learn about who she is as a Lantern and that she needs to drop her walls when it comes DAGR, so I expect more character development and world building to come. This is a promising start to a series and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

I have also been informed that the author has an alter-ego: Alayna Williams. More books for me to check out.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
Tez Says (a bit spoilery) – positive
Scooper Speaks – positive
Angieville – “exactly what I was hoping it would be”

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Posted on January 7, 2012 by janicu

The Scorpio Races

Maggie Stiefvater

So I have never read Maggie Stiefvater before. Despite the lovely trailers and generally good reviews, I just haven’t been interested in the teenagers and werewolves or the teenagers and the faerie. But, killer seahorses? I am interested in that. I picked up a copy of The Scorpio Races as BEA, and still, for some reason or another, I held off on reading the book until the reviews started to trickle in and everyone whose taste I trust loved this book. Finally, finally, I started to read it, and was so happy to find that it lived up to all the hype. I loved this one.

The Premise: Every November on the wild and remote island of Thisby, there is a race. Every year, tourists and locals watch riders race deadly water horses known as the capaill uisce on a small strip of beach. And every year, someone dies. The Scorpio Races can mean a lot of money if you are lucky and skilled enough to win, but injury, or more likely, death, occurs for the not-so-blessed. For three of the last four years, Sean Kendrick has won the race for his employer, Benjamin Malvern, the most wealthy man on the island. Sean’s father died at the races, but Sean has worked at the stables since he was ten and is the island expert when it comes to the capaill uisce. This year, Puck Connolly has also decided to join the race, even though she never had an interest in the races nor any love for the creatures responsible for her parents’ deaths. No interest until her brother Gabe announced his intention to leave the island, making Puck desperate for any excuse to keep him around. Puck has no experience, no capall uisce, and no idea what she is in for.

My Thoughts: The Scorpio Races begins with a prologue where Sean Kendrick is a ten year old boy who watches as his father is trampled in the annual races. The images of crowds of men and flesh-eating capaill uisce, then his father’s body lying on the beach are violent and memorable. Sean’s reaction, that fear was his father’s mistake, lingered in my mind long afterward. Clearly, Thisby is not a place for the weak of heart.

The island is a harsh and unyielding locale, and those who live on Thisby are no strangers to death and heartache. People often move to the mainland, where work is safer and more profitable. Sean lost his mother to the mainland, and his father to the Races, and has been working at the Malvern stables ever since. A man of little words, Sean keeps to himself but is respected for his way with the uisce and for being the returning champion. There is only one living thing he really loves: Corr, the water horse that he rides for his employer. On another part of the island, Puck Connolly elks out a meager living with her older brother Gabe and younger brother Finn. Her story has a similar tale of loss – both her parents were out fishing when they were killed by the uisce. Puck just wants to keep what’s left of her family together, but making a decent living is hard, and Gabe wants to leave. That’s when desperation takes over and Puck announces she’ll be riding in the Races.

The story takes its time, alternating viewpoints between Sean and Puck. Usually, I am not a great fan of alternating viewpoints but in The Scorpio Races it was done very well. I loved how this place is reflected in Sean and Puck’s characters and in so many people in Thisby. This wasn’t a story where I’m told something is dangerous but nothing dangerous ever happened. No, here, people die, bad things happen, and you hold your breath while reading because the story is often a hairbreadth away from something awful. The capaill uisce are the real deal. Yet, these terrifying creatures are a part of Thisby – the only place in the world where these creatures come to shore. Sean muses that it is because this is the only place where they are loved. I think that Stiefvater succeeds in creating an atmospheric setting, one that feels magical but also very real and dangerous, but also made me believe people would pick the island and flesh-eating water horses over safety.

As Sean and Puck prepare for the races, their reasons for wanting to win become more serious, and both have big obstacles in their way. I won’t get into these reasons or obstacles, but let me say: I couldn’t decide who I wanted to win more. And as they meet and get to know each other, I don’t think Sean and Puck know who they want to win either. Along the way, they’ve begun an attachment that is of the quiet but deep variety. Theirs is a romance of little words but their gestures speak volumes. A single touch or a family dinner carries great meaning and had me swept up in their relationship. When Sean does speak and make his move, it hits you like a ton of bricks.

All of this atmosphere and quiet romance and struggle culminates in one thing: the Scorpio Races themselves. This is the part of the story where I was feverishly flipping the pages, and it is over quickly, but oh, is it awesome. I finished off this story with a mix of elation and contentment.

Overall: The Scorpio Races is quiet perfection. It was one of my top reads of last year (honestly, it ties for number one). This is an incredibly well-crafted tale set in a fierce and beautiful island, with just the right touch of the otherworldly and steadfast characters that persevere. It’s a story that is thoughtful and gradually builds up it’s characters and relationships, and it’s not for those that require instant gratification. My kind of story.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
Angieville – “perfect”
Chachic’s Book Nook – “One of my favorite books read this year”
The Book Smugglers – 8- Excellent and leaning toward 9
Escape In a Book – 4 (out of 5)
Jane of All Reads – positive
Book Harbinger – “in the running for my favorite book of the year”

Book Trailer:

Faves of TwentyEleven: The Books

Posted on December 27, 2011 by janicu

Hope that people are having a nice holiday season. I’m over in AZ as usual, spending time with the family (Christmas with my dad’s family, Hannukah with my husband’s) and eating lots and reading a bit too.

I’m not sure I’m going to have much time this week to work on reviews, so this is a good week to join the Faves of TwentyEleven that inkcrush is hosting.

OK, here are the rules basically: choose what books that you’ve read this year that fits each of the categories that Nomes has created. And do what you want (make new categories, answer just the ones you want to.. etc)

Here I go:

1. favourite book read in 2011

Unsticky by Sarra Manning! I wonder if people are sick of me talking about this book? Because I sure feel like I am repeating myself over how great it is. I was obsessed over it after I read it. Obsessed. So it also gets the always recommending this book award too.

2. most powerful book

Raw Blue by Kirsty Eager – Did I cry a little bit reading this? Maybe. That ending makes you feel reborn.

3. brilliantly funny

Six Impossible Things by Fiona Wood. I think this book was so great because its funny while Dan, its protagonist, is going through a bad time. The ability to laugh when times aren’t so hot..I like.

4. best ache-y, heart-breaking, tear-jerker read

Flat-Out Love by Jessica Park: since I’m quite the softy, I avoid those books where I know I’ll be crying like a baby. Therefore, so not many books I read this year were vying for the award in this category. This won easily because there’s one bit in this book that just GUTTED me. Just thinking of one particular line makes me feel a bit misty. But things got better, which is good for my heart. This is also my vote for best under-appreciated, hidden gem book.

5. delicious rainy day comfort read

Julie James is my comfort food, so A Lot Like Love was my comfort read of the year (although Sarah Addison Allen’s The Sugar Queen was also a contender).

6. the beautiful prose award

There was something so lovely and poetic about the prose in Robin McKinley’s Chalice. Like being transported into a hazy dream place where you have bees as best friends.

7. most atmospheric and vivid setting

I just finished reading The Scorpio Races this weekend, and @#*$&!!! Amazing. I think it actually be my second favorite book of the year. Depending on my mood, it might be my favorite. A review will come. In the meantime. Thisby! What a place. What people. Most atmospheric and vivid setting, yes, it wins it.

8. i-so-want-to-go-there award

After reading Daughter of Smoke and Bone, I wanted to go to Prague immediately. This is what I said in my review: “Prague is described wonderfully. I’ve never been there, but I want to see its old streets that are “a fantasia scarcely touched by the twenty-first century […] it’s medieval cobbles once trod by golems, mystics, invading armies”. ” Would love to go there, sit in a cafe, and have some good goulash.

9. most original and imaginative

This is a very easy category to decide which book I’d nominate. Chime reminds me of how I felt reading Alice in Wonderland for the first time. There’s a little bit of disorientation when you first go in, but figuring out the rules is a lot of fun.

OK, now my brother’s dog has decided my hand needs to be petting him, and not typing, so I’m stopping at 9 books (typing one-handed is slow going but Milo keeps looking up soulfully when I stop). To check out the books I chose midway through the year, check out my Sharing The Awesome post.

Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken

Posted on December 23, 2011 by janicu

Brightly Woven

Alexandra Bracken

The Premise: All Sydelle Mirabel has known her entire life is her village, a place far from the beaten path and suffering under ten years of drought. Then one day a rogue wizard named Wayland North arrives in her desert, bringing with him rain and warnings. Sydelle’s village is caught on the cusp of a war, and Wayland has to return to the capital to prevent their country being drawn into needless fighting. When asked for what he wants in return for ending their drought, Wayland chooses Sydelle. Before she knows it, Sydelle is traversing the country with the somewhat disreputable and secretive wizard and trying to dodge the efforts of Wayland’s enemy. Despite a rocky start, Sydelle begins to discover all of Wayland’s secrets, including the ones about herself, and she’s not just the simple weaver she thought she was.

My Thoughts: I went into this book expecting a fantasy story with adventure and perhaps romance and while this is enjoyable and has these elements, it doesn’t quite meet my expectations. But before I go into what didn’t work for me, let me go into what did. The world building was of your typical fantasy fare (and a very wholesome one at that), but the magic systems and beliefs of Palmarta and its neighbors were nice ideas. It liked discovering how magic worked alongside Sydelle as Wayland use his different colored capes to cast spells. It was interesting to have Sydelle’s perspective – that magic is a gift from their goddess, clash with Wayland’s, who doesn’t pray or think that his gift is for defeating wicked things. I also liked the idea of ranking amongst wizards and how the wizards they met upon their journey would more often than not pompously declare their ranking number. The non-ranked, hedge witches who came into existence because women were not allowed to be ranked was another thoughtful detail, as was Sydelle’s own connection with magic.

The big problem was that although I found the story enjoyable, it always felt a little superficial – like I was catching glimpses of what the story could be, but wasn’t. It just didn’t feel like the execution matched the promise. Maybe part of that is the pacing of the story – Wayland and Sydelle are on a journey and have little time on their pit stops to their final destination. Instead we get a blurry impression of places before their goal or their pursuer pushes them to rush to the next place. Still, I should expect to feel a connection to Wayland and Sydelle from following them on their journey, and I don’t. I got the impression that Wayland is supposed to be something of a mischievous charmer, but instead he came off as just young and irresponsible. Yes he can do magic and is trying to prevent a war, but he also gets drunk at the drop of a hat (in the middle of his mission), can’t be straight with Sydelle about what’s going on, gets sullen when confronted with his mother and goes off to sulk when Sydelle hugs another man. When Wayland’s secrets are revealed in the story, for me, they didn’t quite explain away his behavior. For her part, Sydelle tries to be Wayland’s conscience and proves to be a heroine who acts bravely in bad situations, but she also get upset in ways that felt more than the situation warranted. She got annoyed at Wayland at one point and ran into the rain by herself in a strange town. I should understand why she is so upset and feel a connection to her feelings when she is going through this, but I don’t. Instead I feel like she’s overreacting because it seems to happen out of the blue. Maybe she’s only sixteen and Wayland is just eighteen and it shows, but I don’t think that it’s just that I’m too old to relate to them. I think there just isn’t enough there to relate to.

While I found Wayland and Sydelle difficult to connect to, the secondary characters were just one dimensional. There’s the jolly friend, the evil (and physically scarred) bad guy, the young queen, some throw-away side characters. I felt like they were mostly there for convenience to carry to story forward and none left me with much of an impression. I wanted more there, especially Wayland’s mother, who I think could have an interesting back story is just as cardboard – horrible one minute, then having a convenient change of attitude the next.

The romance felt like it lacked that initial spark. I think that I’m supposed to infer some attraction when Wayland swoops into Sydelle’s life and whisks her away within his cape, but it felt like his magic was magical to her, not his presence. When Sydelle gets angry at Wayland, it is not the banter of two people falling in love. It is a scared, half-hysterical girl redirecting her anger at only person she can. Still not romantic. Then suddenly, Sydelle likes Wayland, and Wayland is touching her hair and getting possessive. I wished I could have seen more behind this relationship, but if I put that aside, there are sweet moments, and the story does end on a nice romantic note. I just (again) wished for more there.

Typing out this review, I feel more critical of the book now than when I was actually reading it. While I was in the middle of Brightly Woven, I found it a pleasant read even though I wasn’t connecting to the characters. The writing is good and there’s a lot of promise. It’s not there yet, but the bones are. I liked the concepts and what there was, I just wanted more.

Overall: This is a young adult fantasy that is a light and a pleasant diversion, but it didn’t fully meet my expectations. While enjoyable, it felt underdeveloped in many ways and I felt a lack of connection to the main characters. That said, there are a lot of people that loved this one, and I do see enough in this book that I liked to understand why.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
Karissa’s Reading Review – 4/5 stars
The Crooked Shelf – loved it
Sophistikatied – positive
christina_reads – “not bad, but it’s not great either”
The Allure of Books – loved it
Debbie’s World of Books – “disappointed”
SFF chat – “a disappointment”
The Hiding Spot – B
Books and Other Thoughts – “enchanting”
Chachic’s Book Nook – “satisfying fantasy read”
The Book Harbinger – “a fun and light YA fantasy”
Brooke Reviews – “really fun read”
Angieville – “a lovely surprise of a story”

Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta

Posted on December 21, 2011 by janicu

Froi of the Exiles

Melina Marchetta

It was a few weeks ago that I read Finnikin of the Rock, and although I found the book dark, there was enough light bits in the story for me to finish without trouble and overall would say I enjoyed it. Since Froi of the Exiles was up on Netgalley, I decided to request it to see how the story would continue. Since I’d already known the second book would be about Froi, I paid attention to his character in Finnikin and I was curious if I would like a story about a character I found darker than Finnikin or Evanjalin.

This review will have minor spoilers for the first book, so if you are interested in this series, I suggest you start there (

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). I also warn you that this is an advance review for a book that doesn’t come out till March 2012.

The Premise: A few years have passed since Finnikin lead his people back to their beloved homeland, but Lumatere is still struggling with the horrors its people have seen.The new King and Queen focus on rebuilding and starting afresh, but have a desire for justice still burning in their hearts. They know that the ones behind their country’s ‘five days of the unspeakable’ and the ten year aftermath is the kingdom of Chayrn. So when Charynite refugees and resistence fighters say they have a plan to kill their despot king, Lumatere sends in one of their favorite sons – Froi, to do the job. It seems that Lumatere is not the only country with a curse, for Charyn is suffering its own form of hell which may or may not be broken by its loony princess Quintana. Not quite understanding this curse, but seeing an opportunity, Froi impersonates a Last Born and infiltrates the palace. In the meantime, there is unease in Lumatere as those closest to the border, the Monts, deal with a slow and steady influx of refugees from Charyn and must battle with their own latent hatreds.

My Thoughts: In this second book, things are somewhat different from the first. It’s much longer (a little over 600 pages on my nook) and wider in its scope.The main character is Froi, but the book constantly switches its focus from him back to individual Lumaterians in Lumatere – mostly Lady Beatrice, Lucian of the Monts, and Phaedra, Lucian’s Charynite wife. This is a book that’s about Charyn and Lumatere.

But since the book begins with Froi, I’ll start with him. His character is that of a unlikeable boy-thief rescued from the streets who has now grown into an accomplished young man. He still has trouble with his temper, but he is loved by those who raised him and eager to prove his loyalty to his Queen. When the opportunity to kill the Charyn king who was behind Lumatere’s years of grief presents itself, Froi is the one to go.

It’s from Froi’s point of view that we are introduced to Charyn, and it is a dark place. The people are desperate, the king is a tyrant, and it has a recent history of a terrible genocide. When I read Finnikin of the Rock, rape was alluded to, but not directly shown. Here, rape and sex with questionable consent is a common trope. In order to alleviate Charyn’s curse, princess Quintana, an obviously mentally ill girl must have sex with the last born sons of Charyn. I was pretty disturbed by this. I continued to be disturbed when I read the description of Quintana’s lack of care (unwashed hair, often wearing the same dress), coupled with her childlike airs and the voices she hears. The prologue described in heartbreaking detail her penchant for disconnecting during the sex act by making shadow figures on the wall. To warn those who avoid rape in the books they read: Quintana is raped in a scene that squicked the heck out of me, and she is of course, hated and called a whore by her whole country. I don’t think I can begin to describe the way reading this affected me.

While Quintana is introduced as a character who is abused, she is also clearly set up to be Froi’s love interest. This is a very difficult thing to achieve, because on her side, we have an abused, mad child, and on his side, Froi is the person who in the last book tried to rape Evanjalin/Isaboe. Part of me has a very, very hard time rooting for Froi after this act, but this story does not try to rewrite history or deny that Froi is a dark character. He is a person tainted with the darkness of his past, and in many ways his darkness makes him a match for Quintana’s own demons. But it was very difficult for me to connect personally to these characters and their romance. I think that while I rooted for their happiness, I could never really love them. They were too alien for me. Quintana is too shifting in her moods and manner, and Froi too self-serving. I did believe Froi’s attraction to a dirty, mad princess with dark calling to dark, but on a logical, not visceral level.

I also think that the romance was difficult to get lost in with all that happens in the story. This was an incredibly heavy book. A sense of either shocked horror or utter despair pervaded my whole experience. As the story continued, I hoped for better things to come, but one calamity seemed to follow the next. When innocents are not being killed in Charyn, we’re treated to the problems in Lumatere and its border. This includes the drama of unfinished business between Beatrice and Trevanion, who are letting their pain stand between them, and the constant friction between Monts and the Charyn refugees. Lucian of the Monts struggle as a leader and husband through an arranged marriage was particularly compelling and at times heartbreaking. I think that there is room here for things to eventually turn out right, but as a reader I felt the balance of this installment of the story slide more towards hopeless over hopeful. When things started on an upward swing, it wasn’t for long. And if you are someone sensitive to rape, this book is a hard hitter. While Quintana’s rape is on the page, she is not the only one. There are at least 4 other characters that have had this experience, and it is common for the females to be labeled as sluts and whores. This left me full of anger, which I think is the point. I don’t think that Marchetta wants to keep the reader cocooned from the horrors of war and strife, but I was pretty worn out emotionally. There ARE bright spots in the story (like when Finnikin and Isaboe make cameo appearances), but overall, I found this to be a grim book.

As with Finnikin of the Rock there are revelations in Froi of the Exiles which are alluded to by prophecy. Again, these secrets weren’t too difficult to guess, but I did have fun being right. The truth of what brought about Charyn’s curse wasn’t as much fun though. More horror and needless killing by the corrupt, basically. It got to the point where I was numb and unsurprised by the evil of those behind the curse, but it was disheartening to read about the past pains of the characters who lived through Charyn’s dark history.

OK, so I’ve talked a lot about how dark this book was. Is this a dealbreaker? I think it depends on the reader. Froi of the Exiles ends on an unfinished note, but I am glad I have a year to recover for the next one. I do plan to read it. I wouldn’t have found this story so dark if I wasn’t so caught up by these people and their struggles, and I really want to see all of this end in something good. I’m not eager to reread this book, but I am eager for a happy ending. I hope to see one in the next book, Quintana of Charyn.

Froi of the Exiles comes out in March 2012

Overall: Compelling but not for the faint of heart. Froi of the Exiles continues where Finnikin of the Rock left off but brings more heartache and strife to the tale, making this story more painful than enjoyable. It widens the scope to focus not just Froi and the kingdom of Charyn, but also on multiple characters still coping in Lumatere. Now the story is no longer standalone and the darkness will hopefully make way for better times, but we’ll have to wait for the next installment to get to them.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
No one in my circles have reviewed this yet. Let me know if you have and I’ll link to your review.

Who’s Afraid of Mr Wolfe? by Hazel Osmond

Posted on December 17, 2011 by janicu

Who’s Afraid of Mr Wolfe?

Hazel Osmond

I’ve been dying to read Who’s Afraid of Mr. Wolfe ever since Sabrina reviewed it at About Happy Books and gave it a very positive review. I’ve been dipping my toes into British Chick Lit more lately after Sarra Manning’s Unsticky just bowled me over this year, and Sabrina is my go-to girl on all that is Chick Lit-y (without being too Chick Lit-y). The only thing holding me back from hitting that buy button was the Ol’ TBR pile, but I eventually gave in (as I inevitably do).

The Premise: Ellie Somerset is a copywriter in a London advertising agency where the big bad Mr. Wolfe has just arrived to shake up and streamline the company. There isn’t a woman at the agency immune to Jack Wolfe’s broody Healthcliff aura, but Ellie is convinced that under it all, Mr. Wolfe doesn’t deserve all the fuss. She’s determined to stay above the fray but can’t seem to help using her sharp tongue to make little jabs at the boss. As for Jack, he doesn’t know why he’s noticing Ellie, who has a problem with authority and dresses like she’s still in college (nothing like the usual elegant women he dates). As time goes on these two people, each with their own relationship baggage find themselves drawn to one another despite their best efforts. Jack is in panic mode because Ellie brings up feelings he doesn’t want to deal with, but he can’t seem to stay away.

Read an excerpt of Who’s Afraid of Mr. Wolfe? here

My Thoughts: Ellie is half of a two woman creative team. She brings the words and her partner, Leslie brings the art, and together they produce fresh new ideas. Unfortunately, if they think out of the box too much, they’re usually shut down by higher ups afraid of pushing the envelope. At home, Ellie’s life has similarly stagnated with her long time boyfriend, Sam, who is often too busy entertaining clients to spend time with her. The only unexpected element in Ellie’s life is her great aunt Edith, who lives life loud and to the fullest, and has eccentric habits like playing scrabble with dirty words. While Ellie has a great relationship with her aunt and with Leslie (who has become her best friend), all in all, Ellie is in a very “comfortable” but unexciting place in her love-life and work.

Then Jack Wolfe arrives and shakes up her life.

Jack is basically what you’d expect from his name – the wolf of the office. Everyone is abuzz when he arrives and in short order begins to cut out all the laziness and uninspired thinking that kept the agency back. His tall frame, dark broody looks and Yorkshire accent paired with his confidence has colleagues swooning and calling him Heathcliff. Ellie is the only hold out. She’s convinced the culling will soon stop the silliness over “a guy who looks like a six-foot-three, permanently scowling, sharp-nosed wolf.” When they interact, it’s a battle of wills as Ellie feels compelled to take Jack down a peg, and Jack enjoys deliberately unsettling her. Jack recognizes Ellie and Leslie’s ideas as good ones and challenges Ellie to do more for her career, but Ellie only ends up feeling defensive and picked on. Their attraction (which both try to deny) only muddies the waters further.

Even though this plot is one that is fairly typical (contentious coworkers who really are attracted to one another, the gay best friend, an obstacle to their happiness), it was still so delicious to read and see how Ellie and Jack would succumb to the inevitable. While I wasn’t surprised by how the story unfurled (for example, I fully expected Ellie’s boyfriend to go and was not surprised when he did – I doubt this is a spoiler to anyone), it managed to feel unpredictable and nuanced. Osmond added just the right touch of emotion and seriousness to the story to keep it from being just another frothy read, and I liked that while this was mostly a heady, romantic story, there’s pain and loss in here. I frowned over Jack’s track record, or how he acted when things got more serious than he could handle, but the story peels back his granite facade to reveal what is really going on there. So Ellie and Jack both have their emotional moments that trigger erratic behavior, but I understood why, and got to see what happened as a result.

I loved the glimpses into what made the characters tick, and boy, I could really feel their emotions and got caught up in their every drama. I loved Ellie’s quick and sharp sense of humor and her kindness and love for her aunt. And Jack’s presence just stole the show any time he was on the page. I think if I understood exactly what a Yorkshire accent was, I would be even more under his spell (I used youtube to figure it out, but I don’t think it’s the same). For North & South fans, if you need an excuse to read this one, the author gives Richard Armitage a nod: “because without his cravat and scowls there would be no Jack Wolfe”. Just sayin’.

I also quite liked the colorful secondary characters of Who’s Afraid of Mr. Wolfe, particularly great-aunt Edith and her naughty Scrabble. I got a chuckle at imagining this diminutive lady doing what she wanted and looking how she wanted. I think she got a kick out of surprising her niece, just a little. Leslie, the once intimidating, edgy artist that’s now Ellie’s best friend and creative partner was another character I enjoyed. Leslie and Ellie’s easy banter, their perfectly in sync partnership, and the sweet way Leslie acts around the girl that is her One made their friendship a lovely one to read.

Overall: Despite the 490 pages, I think I read this one in about a night and a day. I was looking for a feel good romance and this delivered just that. The plot is familiar – two contentious coworkers falling for each other despite themselves, but Who’s Afraid of Mr. Wolfe expands it so it feels like the book equivalent of the extended version with deleted scenes. So if you like the Alpha male of the office falling for the plucky young up-and-comer storyline, this book delivers a generous serving peppered with humor and emotion.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
About Happy Books – “one of my favourite contemporary romances of the last months and maybe even of my whole life” (this review kicked off the Want for this book)
Chachic’s Book Nook – positive (her opinion matches mine with this one. Spot on)

Other links:
Interview with Hazel Osmond @ Chachic’s Book Nook

Wolves, Boys, & Other Things That Might Kill Me by Kristen Chandler

Posted on December 13, 2011 by janicu

Wolves, Boys, & Other Things That Might Kill Me

Kristen Chandler

I’ve been interested in reading Wolves, Boys, & Other Things That Might Kill Me ever since I read Holly’s review where she said her “expectations held up from the first page until the last”. Yup, it was grabbed on an impulse at this bookstore when I was in Southern New England, and I settled into it quite happily when I got home.

The Premise: When the wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National park, it was to put the park’s ecosystem back into balance, but for the locals that live around the park, many of them farmers with herds of animals to keep safe, the wolves are a threat to their livelihood. KJ grew up in West End, Montana, and has always been the gawky girl who kept her head down, but lately that has changed. KJ is suddenly getting noticed – both for growing out of her awkwardness, and for speaking out about the wolves. Everyone has an opinion on this hot topic, and not everyone is happy with KJ’s involvement. Even KJ’s taciturn father, and Virgil, the boy she has a crush on, don’t always see eye to eye with her on the wolves. The more KJ tries to make things better, the worse it seems to get.

My Thoughts: Wolves, Boys & Other Things That Might Kill Me is a YA that stands out from the pack. Yes, it is a coming of age story like a lot of YA out there is, but I felt like there was a different air to KJ’s character than your typical teen-aged girl. Maybe it was her upbringing in Montana with a gruff and outdoorsy father, or maybe it’s the many embarrassing experiences already under her belt, but in this story KJ has a quiet assurance that she never seems to lose. For example, when she comes back to school her junior year looking less “like a Peppermint Patty” and gets comments from friends, she may be perturbed at first, but soon moves on. It was so nice NOT to read about a teen girl who sweats over what other people think or want. That’s not to say that KJ doesn’t come across as the young and inexperienced kid she is – she does that plenty. It’s just that being self-sufficient and following her own council are not things she needs to work on.

Instead, for KJ, growing up involves discovering her passion for the wolves reintroduced into Yellowstone. It’s not really KJ’s intention to be associated with the debate, but she has no choice on the matter when she’s assigned to write a column about the wolves for her school’s newspaper. Her innocuous article that doesn’t condemn the wolves’ presence (and may instead romanticize them), creates a stir from the local farmers. As more livestock is killed, the anger and frustration increases. Wolf-friendly overtures are met with violence. It’s easy to paint the farmers as narrow-minded hicks, and that’s something KJ thinks at first, but the more she gets involved the more she has to look at the story from the other side and understand where the anger is coming from. KJ’s straight-talking voice captures the complexity of the whole situation. A cast of characters from Virgil’s wolf researcher mother to the class jerk whose family owns a farm bring perspectives from all sides. There’s even some friction between KJ, Virgil, and her own father over the whole thing

Wolves, Boys & Other Things That Might Kill Me doesn’t have pat and perfect answers. It simply shows the muddle that is human life. Even KJ’s romance with the zen new kid, is not immune. It was nice to see KJ and Virgil’s relationship blossom amongst the wolves and controversy, but they’re also two kids in high school. Like all things in this story, their interactions manage to be special and yet grounded in the real world.

I also have to make a mention of the special relationship KJ had with her dad. I loved all the shades of their relationship. He’s tough on KJ and is difficult to have a conversation with (KJ has learned to read her father based on body language and the occasional monosyllable), but he’s also protective. I adored their unique partnership, and for me one of the strongest father-daughter relationships I’ve read in YA. I actually wished there were more scenes with them alone.

I’d say that this book was one that quietly laid out the situation and left it at that. Much like KJ, it has no big flashy agenda, it just tells it like it is. I liked this, but it is a subtle sort of strength, not one that makes a obvious impression. For that reason, I feel that not everyone is going to be affected by this story. The other minor criticism I had is that KJ read much younger to me than sixteen. I had her pegged as a pretty independent twelve or thirteen until I was corrected by the jacket copy which says she’s a junior in high school. I think I would have liked this book a tad more if KJ felt more like a sixteen-year old to me while I read it.

Overall: You know the saying “still waters run deep”? I feel like if you take that and apply it to a teenage girl, you have KJ, and that is funneled into the story told in Wolves, Boys, & Other Things That Might Kill Me. I was charmed by the unassuming style of this one, and I liked that it told a self-discovery story that felt real and nuanced. But I also feel that its strength is subtle, easing back from rather than lingering on the dramatic and emotional scenes.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
Book Harbinger – positive
Book Fare Delights – 5 out of 5

Sword of Fire and Sea by Erin Hoffman

Posted on December 5, 2011 by janicu

Sword of Fire and Sea

Erin Hoffman

I was sold on this one by the promise of fantasy with a touch of romance in it. Also – look at the cover. A guy. A girl. A griffin. It looks a little like a video game poster, but it’s pretty. Sadly, my expectations of romance and a swash-buckling adventure fantasy were not met with this one. Let me tell you why.

The Premise: Captain Vidarian Rulorat, scion of a well-known sea-faring family, is asked by the fire priestesses to transport one of their member, Ariadel Windhammer, to a water temple far away. A trip through dangerous waters is made more perilous by those pursuing Ariadel for what she knows. Vidarian would love nothing more than to decline and be on his way, but because of an agreement his grandfather years ago, Vidarian is forced to take Ariadel where the priestesses want. Of course, things do not go well, and before long Vidarian finds himself embroiled in world-changing events. Events that involve the Goddesses and their elements and could change the way magic in the world works.

My Thoughts: This book begins in fairly typical fantasy style with the start of a journey. Vidarian meets with fire priestess Endera, who offers him two sun emeralds, nearly priceless stones, in return for passage for someone on his ship. Vidarian would be set for life, but he says no when he realizes the passenger would be a fire priestess. That’s when Endera reminds him of the pact his grandfather made many years ago, and Vidarian has no choice but adhere to it.

Sun emeralds. Fire priestesses. Perilous sea journeys. All by maybe page five. Great in theory, but unfortunately, I was already confused. I found it difficult to grasp Endera’s status amongst the priesthood (leader? spokeswoman?), why Vidarian would say no to allowing a fire priestess on his ship (superstition? politics? actual danger?), or what exactly his grandfather’s pact was (????). And I’m afraid those details aren’t really directly explained ever (unless I count the back blurb which explains more than the story did). This is a repeated pattern for the rest of the book. Maybe I missed it or I’m supposed to make some educated guesses (which I did), but the story just swooped off to the next scene, making my questions moot.

Without much transition, the story moves to the sea, and Ariadel is on the ship. I was hoping that during the time at sea we would get to know Ariadel and Vidarian’s characters, but there is no time for any character development. Weeks go by in a blink and then the ship is attacked. Vidarian and Ariadel are forced to travel by land. There were a lot of details about Vidarian’s ship and crew that we learn along the way, but much of it ended up being irrelevant to the plot because we hardly see them ever again. After that, I wasn’t sure what to pay attention to and what not to. I tried to orient myself by looking at the map provided in the book, but the locations mentioned in the story were more often than not, not on the map. This isn’t very far into the book so I am using it to give you an example of the general trend of the story. Variations of “journeying”, “interrupted by outside forces”, “reacting”, “change journey plans” are repeated over and over until the book ends.

When I look at other reviews of this book, people say that it is fast moving. I would say that this is true, except that it felt to me that the only thing that kept the story moving was that the characters were always reacting to something which kept them doing something. But the plot had no clear direction to the reader until we get to the end of the story. Because the goal of the characters was abstract (their plans were undecided before they got to their destination), I had trouble caring. And speaking of uncaring, I have never felt so much apathy towards characters as I did with this book. Vidarian is a ship’s captain, who loves his ship and the sea. That is pretty much his character. Ariadel was a young, relatively inexperienced, fire priestess. They seemed like nice people, but I never got a chance to get to know their personalities. When they start a relationship, it felt like it came out of left field. I had no idea either was even interested in one another because there was zero build-up.

What actually kept me interested is that there are a lot of great ideas and pieces of world building in here that I really liked. The griffins and their accoutrements were fascinating. And because the book was short (277 pages) and I had read 100 pages already, I stubbornly shouldered on hoping the story would become more clear. Unfortunately, so many ideas were tossed into the pot I felt like I was reading the fantasy equivalent of everything and the kitchen sink. New and pivotal characters and concepts are introduced late into the book, and older ones are discarded. Things changed at breakneck speed. Fierce editing and focusing more on character growth would have helped this story a lot.

Overall: Almost a DNF. I wanted to like this one, but I just couldn’t get into it. The characters had no development and I was always confused by what their goals were. I didn’t like how the story’s momentum was all forced and that so much was thrown in there with little pause. That just got boring after a while. With little to keep me connected to the story, I struggled to keep reading past the midway point. What kept me from disliking the book completely was a detailed and imaginative world, but I wish that the world building didn’t compete so much with the plot that it was hard to tell the difference between a plot point and backdrop.

Buy: Amazon | Powell’s | The Book Depository

Other reviews:
Calico_reaction – 6 (worth reading, with reservations)
Fantasy Literature – DNF
Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell – “Surprised me in the end, in a good way”
My world.. in words and pages – ” I think this could be a good series, but a shaky start for me.”