romance — Page 49

Book Review: Camelot Lost by Jessica Bonito

June 10, 2011 1 Comment

Title: Camelot Lost
Author: Jessica Bonito
Genre: Medieval Fiction, Fantasy, Arthurian Legend
Publisher: PublishAmerica
Publication Date: July 28th 2008
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository | Author Website
Rating: 5 stars
Review copy provided by the author.

Arthur Pendragon’s ascension to High King of Britain lays a doting world at his feet, but when the death of his sister, Morgaine, sends him into a downward spiral of destruction, his sons, Mordred and Amr, emerge from the shadows to assume control of his mind and, eventually, his throne. Camelot Lost delves deeper into the legend of Camelot than ever before, pitting father against son, husband against wife, and brother against sister. The raw qualities of love, war, and the passionate deceptions that inspire them are thoroughly explored through the relationships of the chosen, and for the first time ever, the story of Arthur’s lesser-known son, Amr Pendragon, is finally revealed. Spellbinding in its sensuality and vehemence, Camelot Lost passionately explores a timeless tale and introduces a vivid array of characters and conflicts that are sure to captivate readers and challenge all preconceived notions of the Arthurian legend.

I already read and reviewed one book by Jessica McHugh before, a psychological horror novel called Rabbits in the Garden, and I loved it. After finishing reading that, I immediately asked her if I could read another one of her novels, namely Camelot Lost, because I love Arthurian Legend, and I loved Jessica’s work, so I thought: those two things mixed together? That can’t possibly go wrong. Turns out I was absolutely right. In all honesty, this book was probably even better than I initially expected. Because I thought it was so incredibly good, I had a difficult time writing this review. It’s a lot easier to write reviews about books you don’t like than about books you think are absolutely fabulous. There are only so many words in the English language to say something is amazing. Well, I think Camelot Lost really is amazing. Jessica McHugh isn’t just an extraordinary talented psychological horror author, she’s also pretty brilliant at writing medieval fiction. I, for one, am very impressed.

Read my review for Rabbits in the Garden.

Camelot Lost begins by retelling us the Arthurian Legend we’ve come to know and love, but from a very original point of view, and a unique narrator’s voice. And then, just when you begin to think that you know which direction this book is headed, it starts its own spin-off, puts the spotlight on characters all too often over-looked in other books and television series, and brings a refreshing, exciting and at times utmost surprising take on the story of Camelot, King Arthur and the Isle of Avalon.

With Britain lying in ruins, the old wizard Merlyn pays a visit to Uther, the brother of the current king, and predicts to him that he is the future savior of Camelot. Urged by the words of the wise man, Uther claims the throne and reunites all the banners of Britain under one man: Uther Pendragon. Overwhelmed with ambition and confident that he is the sole savior of Britain, Uther is a ruthless and troublesome man, who only really loved one person: his wife, Igraine. He feels little for his daughter Morgaine, safely hidden away on the Isle of Avalon to learn the ways of becoming a priestess, or for his younger son, Arthur, destined to be king one day. Little does the Pendragon know however that Merlyn has started to train Arthur, and has told the young boy that Uther’s days of power will soon be over. After Uther dies, it is Arthur who becomes the new savior of Britain. While taking up Camelot as his main residence, and being a strong promotor of justice and equality, Arthur’s future is looking bright.

That is, if he ever gets over the feelings he has for a certain priestess from Avalon who brought him the magical sword of Excalibur. Totally and completely in love with this peculiar woman, Arthur barely even notices his own wife, Guinivere. Little does he know that this strange priestess from Avalon is in fact his very own sister, Morgaine. When they finally found out, many years later, the damage is collosal. Morgaine has already given birth to her and Arthur’s child, Amr. And then she tricks him into her bed once more, causing Arthur to banish her from court, and Morgaine returning back to Avalon, where she gives birth to Mordred, her second son. Then she succums to an illness so grave that it keeps her in a delusional state for plenty of years.

Mordred, a grown man now, returns to Camelot to set things straight. He reconciles with his father, King Arthur, and tells him the devastating news of Morgaine’s death. Arthur is prone to an overwhelming sadness and locks himself up day and night, feeling the guilt of his actions as he turned against the only woman he ever truly loved. With the true king going mad, Mordred has every opportunity to do what he was ordered to: to put Arthur out of the way, and to become the true savior of Britain. Aided by his brother Amr, Mordred is determined to take the titel of the Pendragon and to destroy his very own father. But will he succeed?

As you might have gathered from my small (but rather descriptive, although it barely mentions half of the book) synopsis above, Camelot Lost starts with the Arthurian Legend we’re all pretty familiar with. King Uther Pendragon falls madly in love with a woman called Igraine, a love so pure and so utterly overwhelming that he devotes his entire life to her, and is unable to care even about his own children. Then we see Arthur’s rise to kingsip with the help of Merlyn, and how he gets hold of the most powerful sword in the history of powerful swords: Excalibur. He meets his sister Morgaine but, unaware that she’s actually his sister, he falls utterly and completely in love with her. Then babies get born, and Morgaine gets banished. Although that’s the familiar part, Jessica McHugh has such an authentic and original writing voice, that it doesn’t sound familiar at all. Sure, you might know the basic plotline, but the author manages to put some very surprising twists and turns here and there. Plus, the way she sketches her characters make this book feel very innovative and refreshing as well. But more about that later.

Let me first talk about the second part of the novel, where Jessica McHugh goes into an entirely new direction, and creates her own spin-off for how the story of Camelot should have ended. We see mystery and intrigue, revenge and ambition, loyalty and suffering; all these raw and honest emotions, passing by as the story continues. Focusing on Mordred as a nice primary character and shedding a new light on the characters of King Arthur and Queen Guinivere, the author manages to give her own original view on how King Arthur and his beloved Camelot eventually perished. It is innovative, refreshing and highly entertaining. I find that it’s sometimes even more difficult to take a story everyone knows and turn it into your own, adding your own unique voice to it and your own little plot twists, than to make an entire story from scratch. Jessica McHugh really does succeed in turning the well-known Arthurian Legend into her own story. It feels familiar and new at the same time, and that is exactly what I was hoping for.

My all-time favorite character in the Arthurian Legend, from the first time I read it as a child (in one of those dusty old classic looking books my father used to collect, filled with difficult worlds, but luckily for me, some pictures as well) is Morgaine of the Lady. When I read Mists of Avalon about four years ago, I learnt a different side of Lady Morgaine, a less darker side (she was portrayed as quite the villain in the first Arthurian books I read) and I loved her all the more for it. Now, while reading Camelot Lost, I was actually confronted with a side of Morgaine that is not dark, evil or vindictive at all. We don’t meet her as the scary and powerful Lady of the Lake here, although that is her title still, but we see her as a star-crossed lover, as a loving and caring woman towards her children, as the tragic priestess who died from lovesickness, as the girl who happened to fall in love with her own brother. I didn’t think that I could like this character even more than I already did, but Jessica McHugh proved me wrong.

That said, the other characters are sublime as well. I wasn’t fond of Guinivere while she was with Arthur – but then again, I’ve never really liked her. I have to be honest and say that I did start to like her by the time the second half of the book began, and Arthur had begun his descent into madness. I prefer her as a real, intelligent and strong person she is in Camelot Lost rather than the whiny version I’ve come across way too many times before. And King Arthur…thank god that he’s finally lost his one-dimensional personality! One of the many complains I had about Arthurian stories before, was the fact that King Arthur, albeit being the main character, was always portrayed as a one-dimensional character, without a lot of emotions. Yes, he’s honest and just, but that’s basically all there was to him. In Camelot Lost, I met a King Arthur who was driven by a lot of emotions, and not just the desire to do the right thing. He was straight-forward, passionate, ambitious, righteous, doubtful at times and confident at others, and an actual, genuine person with actual, genuine emotions. It makes him all the more interesting.

I could go on and describe all the other characters in detail, but that would make this review far too long and way too detailed. Let me conclude by saying that Jessica McHugh manages to turn all her characters into multi-facetted human beings rather than simply names on paper. The most intriguing, original and interesting thing about her characterization though is that no character she mentions is one hundred percent good or one hundred percent bad, and that’s what I think is the strongest point in this book. No one is ever really good or really evil. We’re all made of Yin and Yang, of good things and bad things, and book characters should make no exceptions of that. We can be caring and loving, but ruthless and reckless at the same time. We can be headstrong and determined one day, but weak and humble the next. We are made of contradictions, as are the characters we are introduced to in this book, and it makes them all the more entertaining, and all the more loveable.

The writing style is fabulous. I’m intrigued by how authentic the narrator’s voice in, and by how easy it was for me to be completely overwhelmed by this story. The descriptions are beautiful, the dailogue witty and inventive. The story kept me glued to my chair from page one, and left me breathless by the end of it. The plot is fast-paced, action-packed and surprisingly original. Can I make it anymore obvious to all of you that I absolutely, undeniably loved this book?

If you’re a fan of the Arthurian Legend or medieval fiction in general, than you definetly should get yourself a copy of Camelot Lost. With its intriguing setting, original plotline, beautiful narrative and outstanding characterization, it is certainly a must-read.

Filed Under: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Reviews, Romance Tagged With: arthurian legend, book reviews, fantasy, medieval fiction, romance

Book Review: Wither by Lauren DeStefano

May 26, 2011 3 Comments

Title: Wither (Chemical Garden #1)
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Genre: Dystopian, Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: March 22nd 2011
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository | Author Website
Rating: 4,5 stars
Review copy purchased by yours truly.

What if you knew exactly when you would die?

Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.

When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden’s genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home.

But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden’s eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limited time she has left.

Ever since Wither was first released on March 22nd, I’ve been dying to read it. With dying I mean, literally suffocating under the aomunt of sadness I had to cope with thanks to the fact it seemed almost impossible for me to get my hands on this book. Problem number one: I was as broke as people can get, thanks to my latest contest – an Iron Fey giveaway – and I had barely enough money to buy food (I’m slightly exaggerating to get my point across). Problem number two: my Mom was fed up with me ravishing through my cash account to buy books from Book Depository, and she threatened to put me in a mental asylum if I ordered one more book. Thankfully the problem solved itself, because last week I magically stumbled across a dutch version of Wither in the local book store. Coincedence? I think not, I believe God has finally answered my prayers. I didn’t necessarily want a dutch version, but hey, one cannot complain about Godly interferences. So I managed to buy the book without my Mom’s knowledge and I have devoured it in one day. Was it everything I hoped? Certainly.

Wither is set in a dystopian world much alike our own, but in the future. Humans have experimented with immortality and not-aging and eugenetica and cloning people. And not only have they experimented with that – they’ve actually succeeded. Now the problem is that while the first generation suffers from nothing and manages to live extraordinary long lives, that the second generation does not. They are prone to a virus so devestating that it kills all men at age twenty-five and all women at age twenty. With so little left to live for, and only roughly twenty years to spend on this earth, Rhine really doesn’t want to spend what little time she has left locked up in a mansion with a husband she cannot trust nor love, and without her twin brother and only living relative, Rowan. After her capture, Rhine solemly vows to escape, a vow that might be hard for her to maintain, as her new husband’s father, Master Vaughn, turns out to be a far more dangerous person than at first expected, and he is not inclined to let his son’s new wife leave that easily…

The premise is extraordinary, as we are once again faced with humanity’s greatest flaw: our desire to play God, although we are well aware from history and logical reasoning, that this can only lead to our own destruction. The fact that Lauren DeStefano does not only focus on Rhine, our protagonist, or on the other girl’s nearing death – like Rose”s, a minor character and Linden’s (Rhine’s husband) first wife – but actually expands the topic is highly intriguing. She lays the focus not on one individual’s perish, but on the end of an entire world, the self-destructive nature of humanity led to the point where our entire world is dying. It is a fact almost too large to grasp. Secondly, the title of the trilogy, Chemical Garden, is most fitting. As we learn from the novel, most of nature has already perished on this strange dystopian world that seems so close to heart. Underwater, we see holograms of fish and sealife, but in reality, all of that is gone. Chemicals substitute for flowers and trees, simple ways of procreating have been replaced by cloning and other scientific methods. Nothing is natural anymore, everything is fake, false, delusional. We see that monstrosity portrayed in all its rawness as we take a look at Linden’s mansion – there is beauty in it, but it is a deformed, fake beauty, horrible in all its monstrosity. Rhine and her sisterwives laugh, play and enjoy themselves occasionally here: pathetic attempts of happiness in the midst of events that can only be described as horrifying. Vaughn’s basement, and the terrible things he does in there, from mutilating corpses and possibly even killing infants, hidden behind the charade of finding a cure and a beautifully-looking mansion, is probably the most significant example of the twisted beauty this world holds.

Rhine is a charming heroine, but not an easy one to understand. While her choices always appear to be rational, they also come off as cold and distant. When she hears a girl being shot, she flinches and feels anger towards the people who did it, but otherwise her reaction is quite unemotional. She feels sick and disgusted when finding out what Master Vaughn has done to Rose’s body, but hardly enough to take any measures against Master Vaughn, or to confront him on the matter. She is a passive, practically dispassionate character. It is believable that she acts this way because the circumstances she lives in do not leave a lot of room for choice, but still, I would have liked her to stand up for herself once. At the beginning, I thought her behavior to be smart and calculated: in a situation where others would have pleaded, run, screamed or tried to escape right away, she adapts to the situation, manipulates Linden from day one, and awaits the right moment to escape. But somewhere along the way, any normal person would just freak, or scream or rage, or let go of that calm, passive behavior at least once. Rhine doesn’t, which is unfortunate, because it would have made her more believable as a character.

The most intriguing thing about the story, despite from the imaginative dystopian world Lauren DeStefano created and the highly original plot, is the relationship between Rhine and her sisterwives. That’s really the heart of the story. As Rhine is forced to marry Linden, a wealthy twenty-year-old man, she is not the only forced to do so. On the one hand, you have quiet and detached Jenna, who cares deeply for Rhine and Cecily, but hates Linden with a passion, blaming him for the murder of her sisters, who happened to be some of the girls who were shot earlier on in the book. On the other hand, there’s Cecily, who is young and hopeful enough to live in the fantasy created at Linden’s mansion, who does not see through the beauty and luxury to notice the harshness and coldness lying underneath. She is, by all accounts, a child, innocent and trusting, and she is eager to please Linden in every way, willing to do whatever it takes to make this fantasy reality. Although all three of them are different, they learn to trust each other and count on each other, and what starts off as a fragile and rocky friendship soon turns in true sisterhood, love and care. It is beautiful and heart-warming to see them interact. All of their personalities are well-developed, distinct and fitting, and together they make a team truly worth rooting for.

On the other hand, I do have to mention that the male characters unfortunately lack personality. Linden is a presence, not a real character. He appears to be stupid, eager to trust people who hardly deserve his trust, and way too easy to manipulate. It got to the point where I felt like slapping him occassionally. Gabriel on the other hand, proves to be no better than Linden. He is dispassionate, emotionless and unwilling to fight even for the things he supposedly cares about. He needs Rhine to drag him along, because he himself will not do anything. He seems to have accepted his fate, as one of the other wordless, unknown servants in the mansion, whereas he could be so much more. I would have liked to see more of his inner struggle, especially when he suddenly vanishes for about one hundred pages.

And then the bad guy in the book, Master Vaughn. Whereas he is portrayed as being a vile criminal who cannot even leave the dead be, I would have liked it more if he had been sketched as a tragical villain instead. Because if you think about it, there is something tragic about him anyway. He has already lost one son due to that wrecked virus, and he is going to lose another in four years time. He is supposedly working on a cure against the virus, which would naturally put him in the good guys category. On the other hand, he kidnaps brides for his son, does things with Rose’s body after her death, and there are some other horrible things later on in the book that can be accounted to him. But then my question is: why? Never once in the book do we see an explenation as to why Master Vaughn is making these choices. I refuse to believe it’s simply because he’s evil. He needs to have other motives. I would have loved to see his inner struggle as to what things have to be done and whether or not he should go through with that. I would have liked the villain to have a human side, rather than just being portrayed as ‘the monster’.

That said, Wither had a lot of potential, and lives up to it in most of the occassions. The plot is solid, fast-paced and highly original. The world-building is exquisite. The main characters are well-developed and have interesting personalities, which become even more interesting in their interactions with each other. Unfortunately, the supporting characters have no personality whatsoever, and are merely ‘there’ without actually contributing anything. The villain is flat and shallow, and could have been better developed. Luckily for the reader, those flaws go unnoticed as the story unfolds and you feel yourself more and more drawn into the highly disturbing but endlessly intriguing world Lauren DeStefano created in this book. I would recommend it to all fans of dystopian and/or young adult novels.

Filed Under: Dystopian, Fantasy, Reviews, Romance, Young Adult Tagged With: book reviews, dystopian, fantasy, romance, ya, young adult

Book Review: The Alchemist’s Daughter by Katharine McMahon

May 16, 2011 1 Comment

Title: The Alchemist’s Daughter
Author: Katharine McMahon
Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance, Drama
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Publication Date: January 31st 2006
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository
Rating: 3,5 stars
Review copy purchased by yours truly.

There are long-held secrets at the manor house in Buckinghamshire, England, where Emilie Selden has been raised in near isolation by her father. A student of Isaac Newton, John Selden believes he can turn his daughter into a brilliant natural philosopher and alchemist. Secluded in their ancient house, with only two servants for company, he fills Emilie with knowledge and records her progress obsessively.

In the spring of 1725, father and daughter begin their most daring alchemical experiment to date – they will attempt to breathe life into dead matter. But their work is interrupted by the arrival of two strangers: one a researcher, the other a dazzling young merchant. During the course of a sultry August, while her father is away, Emilie experiences the passion of first love. Listening to her heart rather than her head, she makes a choice.

Banished to London and plunged headlong into a society that is both glamorous and ruthless, Emilie discovers that for all her extraordinary education she has no insight into the workings of the human heart. When she tries to return to the world of books and study, she instead unravels a shocking secret that sets her on her true journey to enlightenment.

Emilie Selden is the sheltered, mysterious daughter of John Selden, natural philosopher and student of none other than the great Isaac Newton himself. Although Emilie is a girl, John decided to enlighten his daughter about the mysteries and wonders of natural philosophy, mathematics and alchemy anyway. But whereas John definately succeeded to give Emilie the necessary knowledge about the sciences to get through life, he failed to provide her with all the rest, ranging from social insight to the way relationships and love work. Her incapability to live and function in the real world makes her ill-prepared for the lies and half-truths Aislabie, the first man who ever showed her any interest and breaches the solitude of her home, told her. She marries him in a whim, and makes the gravest mistake of her life. Because Aislabie is about to take everything away from her, everything she ever loved. Her father, alchemy, and maybe even her own home.

The Alchemist’s Daughter gave me plenty of mixed feelings. The setting is wonderful, 18th century England with The Enlightenment on its way and Isaac Newton and other famous scientists changing the way everyone looked upon the world. The author describes this world most beautifully, in vivid, lifelike colors and sounds, like you just stumbled upon a portrait or even in the middle of a genuine scene from the 18th century. These descriptions happen in a most humble, natural-sounding way and made me fall in love with this book from the first few lines. They’re what really made the book, and they really made it come alive in my opinion. But it has to be said that all the rest wasn’t all that good.

Emilie started out as a very promising character. She was an intelligent young woman, practically brilliant for her era, and although she never challenged her father in terms of upbringing and personal choices, she did challenge him on an intellectual level. I genuinely thought that this was the beginning of her own rebellion, her own dive into alchemy and Emilie actually taking a stand against her father. Reverend Shales, the first man who appears in Emilie’s life, is a natural philosopher as well, and seemed like a very good companion for her. I was hoping that she would eventually build up enough courage to confront her father about her feeilngs for Shales, and then maybe even get the ol’ man’s permission to marry the reverend. Emilie and Shales would have been a good team of natural philosophers, each with their own distinct area of interest, but capable of working together as well. The premise certainly did sound promising.

In comes Aislabie. He offers nothing really to Emilie, because he is a bit of a con-artist and hardly knows anything about real natural philosophy, let alone alchemy. He’s more interested in Selden estate than he is in the Selden daughter, in my opinion. Although he fails to challenge her intellectually, or even meet her half-way, Emilie is immediately swept away by Aislabie’s appearance. He’s very good-looking and he manages to act like he’s a smart duck – which he isn’t. I have to grant him the fact that he knows his way in the world, and he knows how to persuade people how to do his bidding, but that’s it. Against all reason, Emilie falls madly in love with Aislabie. One day, in the garden, the fellow practically rapes her. Yet she still loves him! And when he asks her father for her hand, she is happy, releived and glad to marry Aislabie. How sheltered can one be to go marry a guy who just raped you? Although I felt more than enough anger towards both Aislabie – for doing it – and Emilie – for allowing it – for these actions, I felt that maybe I couldn’t really blame Emilie for anything. After all, she was pretty sheltered, so I gave her the shadow of the doubt. But it got only worse.

By the time Aislabie turns out to be a cheating bastard – sorry for the word choice, but he really is – and has destroyed half of Selden Manor, Emilie still can’t figure out the fact that he’s an absolute idiot, a joker, and that she should get rid of him as soon as possible. Now I know Emilie hardly ever rebelled against her father either, and took everything with a nod and a half-hearted smile, but that’s no longer an excuse. If my husband went to tear down my house, especially my labatory and the room my own mother died in, I would shout, scream, hit, bite, fight…in other words, do whatever I possibly could to stop him from doing it. Emilie just stands there, like a rag doll, and although she complains about it towards Aislabie, she is totally not convincing, and she doesn’t even treaten him. For god’s sake. She’s the daughter of an alchemist, a man who studies not only the natural philosophy, but also the “forbidden” science, a man whose ideas are very modern for the era, revolutionary even. And there she stands, like a statue, letting herself getting bullied by her own husband. I was constantly urging Emilie to get up and do something. And with that I don’t mind trying to kill herself and burn her own god-damned legs. I meant actually doing something against the monster that is Aislabie. Hit him, slap him, kill him for all I care. Make a poisonous drink and feed it to him while he sleeps. Lock him up in a room and make something go boom. Make him stumble down the stairs and claim that it’s an accident. Anything. But don’t let him get away with it!

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Emilie does. Her failure to react very emotionally towards anything, except than the emotion of self-destruction and self-pity, makes her distant and cold as a character. I lost every ability to relate to her. I know that women were supposed to be weak little lambs in that era, but I don’t buy it that a person as rational and intelligent as Emilie would just shrug it off if a fellow as stupid and ignorant as Aislabie were to tear down her entire home, simply because he sleeps with her at night or kisses her passionately. If my husband were to come to me after tearing half my house down, he would certainly NOT be getting any sex, and he wouldn’t get kisses either. That she disregards her own feeilngs simply because he sleeps with her, is unimaginable and sounds just plain stupid. Either Aislabie gives the most amazing sex ever – which still wouldn’t explain things – or Katharine McMahon’s characters’ credibility really takes a turn for the worst here. I’m putting my money on the latter.

Emilie starts out as a promising character, but fails to deliver. Her own history, her love for alchemy and natural philosophy and her initial ambitions make her appear interesting at first. Her interests in the young men who walk into her life, first Shales and then Aislabie, are understandable, and I would let McMahon get away with marrying Emilie off to Aislabie as well. But then, when the latter starts with Selden Manor Demolition Day, all Emilie’s credibility as a genuine person melts away. She reacts in a shallow, emotionless, and just plain stupid way. Aislabie is a more realistic character – that’s not to say I like him, I’ve probably haven’t felt as enraged towards a character as I feel towards him in a long time – with his lies, half-truths and incredibly ambitious and greedy personality. He is portrayed as a villain, and he plays that role well, because I actually hate him. Shales is the good choice, the choice Emilie should have made from the start, and I instantly liked him. I would have liked it if I had gotten to know him better, because he is so much more interesting than Aislabie could ever be.

I was really impressed with Katharine McMahon’s research in the world of natural philosophy and alchemy. She describes the experiments of John and Emilie Selden to the utmost detail, the language she uses feels genuine for the era and the profession, and the experiments sound real enough. That alone was enough to keep me reading. I would have liked it if Emilie managed some interesting, life-changing break-through in either natural philosophy or alchemy, and was deeply dissapointed that this didn’t happen. I fail to see the point of adding in any science at all if it’s not plot-altering or at least very appropriate. The way the story works now, they could have easily called it The Hermit’s Daughter and just focused on the daughter of a guy whose only particular personality traits is that he enjoys seclusion from society.

When Selden was demolished by Aislabie and his crew of airheads, I was practically crying. I felt more attachment towards the beautiful hallways of Selden Manor, the secret passageways, the laboratory, the library and the several sitting rooms, than I felt towards the characters. I felt like wringing Aislabie’s neck when he tore down what seemed like one of the most beautiful houses ever.

I know that my review is a very mixed one. On the one hand, I’ve gone on and on about why the character of Emilie lacks credibility, and why Aislabie is my new number one enemy, but on the other hand, I do enjoy the alchemy-aspect of the novel, the beautiful setting of Selden Manor and London, the descriptive and era-appropriate narrator’s voice that really sketched the scenes and era for me in a most intriguing way and the over-all storyline. The story wasn’t really unpredictable, but there were some surprises along the way. If you enjoy historical fiction, this book really is a nice choice. It offers genuine scientific research and a well-defined and realistic setting. Just don’t hit me when you are as furious with the characters as I am, or when you find yourself plotting schemes to murder Aislabie by the end of this novel. The Alchemist’s Daughter has a promising premise, but it fails to deliver completely. It is interesting and entertaining and an emotional rollercoaster, but it is neither outstanding nor brilliant.

Filed Under: Drama, Historical Fiction, Reviews Tagged With: book reviews, drama, historical fiction, romance

Book Review: Rook by J.C. Andrijeski

May 12, 2011 Leave a Comment

Title: Rook (Allie’s War, Book One)
Author: J.C. Andrijeski
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Science Fiction, Contemporary Fantasy, Romance
Publisher: White Sun Press
Date of Publication: January 9th 2011
Goodreads | Amazon | Smashwords
Rating: 4 stars
Review copy provided by the author.

“You are the Bridge…”

Twenty-eight-year-old San Francisco native, Allie Taylor, knew she had issues…but she at least thought she was human. In her version of modern day Earth, a second race of human-like beings called seers were discovered in Asia in the early 1900s. Since then, they have fought in two world wars and live alongside humans as second-class citizens.

So when Allie meets her first, real, flesh-and-blood seer, she’s not exactly thrilled when he tells her that she’s a seer like him. Not only that, but according to him, all the other seers believe she’s going to end the world.

Worse, no matter what she does, everything that happens after that only seems to prove him right.

Allie Taylor has spent her entire life thinking she was human, but she’s about to find out that she’s not. In a world where Seers, human-like creatures with amazing abilities and the power to communicate with each other on a different level called The Barrier, are sold as slaves and forced to work for humans or are part of one of the few Seer Clans still existing, that’s terrible news to deal with. And like that isn’t worse enough, she also learns that she’s The Bridge, and according to what all other seers believe, she’s going to destroy the world. Allie realizes that her life, and the life of her new love interest Revik, might be in danger as she is now the number one target of the Rooks – a rogue seer group refusing to blend in with the seers working for humans – and of the human authorities, who want nothing more than to get their hands on one of the most powerful seers currently alive.

Rook, the first novel in the Allie’s War series, is quite the adventure to read. At first, the new world J.C. Andrijeski creates seems very unfamiliar, and it takes some getting used to, but once you get past that, you know that you’re in one of the most memorable, astonishing and original books currently out there. The world we are introduced to in this novel, is very much alike our own, but with the addition of a new race of creatures called seers, who were discovered in Asia in the early 1900s. Although the seers are far more powerful than humans, since they can communicate on a different thought-level called The Barrier, and some of them possess even more impressive qualities – like telekinesis or the ability to influence other people’s thoughts – they are treated like second-rate citizens. Some of them are sold as sex-slaves to expensive whorehouses, while others work for wealthy families who can afford their own seer, and thus gain even more power for themselves. The ones who are not bound by the rules of human society, are organised in the few remaining clans. But there is also a significant group of seers who are not pleased with the current world order, and who have gone rogue, calling themselves Rooks and operating in a pyramid-like structure on The Barrier.

As you may have noticed from my short introduction, Rook is nothing like other science-fiction/alternative universe novels out there. The world J.C. Andrijeski creates is original, entertaining and quite complicated – it took me a while to actually grasp the entire concept of it. The complexity of this world might scare potential readers, but once everything clicks into place, the amount of world-building done in this novel and the originality of the concepts introduced are really amazing and impressive, and it should not scare you away from reading this novel.

Allie is an interesting character, with a lot of depth and personality. In the beginning of this novel, she is still convinced of her own humanity, although there were some events during her childhood that occasionally made her question that. But when she is being stalked by Revik, a fellow seer, and he tells her of her own seer-heritage, everything seemingly clicks into place – but that doesn’t mean that it still doesn’t scare Allile tremendously. She is forced to leave her entire life behind, and to run away from Terrian, a seer who wants to make her become part of the Rook organisation. J.C. Andrijeski describes Allie’s growth as a character, from a person in the dark about her own history, heritage to a person trying to find out what this seer-thing actually means to The Bridge, the person capable of destroying the world. The evolution in her personality happens slowly and gradually, and is remarkably well written to say the least. I liked Allie’s personality. She is determined, strong, intelligent and willing to acknowledge her own failures and flaws, and to deal with them. I could easily relate to her and found that I really enjoyed reading her thoughts and opinions.

The other main characters, Revik – the good guy, the love interest – and Terrian – the bad guy – are equally as interesting and entertaining, although they both have very distinct personalities. It’s obvious from the start that the two of them have some history together, and I thought their interactions with each other were some of the most interesting scenes in this novel. Terrian makes an excellent bad guy as he is practically the representation of all the things we deem evil in this world. The fact that he has multiple bodies he can operate, makes him a very interesting opponent as well. I also liked Revik’s personality, with his moods switching quickly between happy, relaxed and cheerful and angry, confused and sad. Whereas Allie is more of a balanced person, I thought Revik’s moody personality made an excellent addition to that. I also liked the two of them together, as an item, since it somehow seemed very fitting.

But more even than the impressive world-building and the interesting, well-thought-through characters, I thorougly enjoyed the storyline. Starting off right in the middle of the action, only to bounce back to explain a couple of things and then right away get into the action again. The storyline is very original, as in the entire concept of the novel, and it’s filled with more backstabbing betrayal, twist and turns than I even thought possible. By the end, Allie hardly knows who to trust anymore besides herself – if she can even trust herself, being The Bridge and destroying the world and all – and she even questions the loyalty of the people she loves most: Revik, her own brother and her closest friend. While the world around them seems to be crashing down, the characters are forced to find strength and courage within themselves to do the impossible. The contrast between Allie’s relatively safe, human environment we meet her in at first, and the dire circumstances she finds herself in by the end of Rook is enormous. The storyline never gets predictable, and always mantains the fast pace and level of intensity we see from the start, and even when it slows down for a minute to explain something about Allie’s world, or to create some romance between characters, it never loses that intensity.

Another strong point of this novel was that Allie, although she is The Bridge and supposedly the destroyer of the world, doesn’t seem like an overpowered character at all. A lot of authors fall into the trap that they want their main character to be a part of a prophecy, or to have some amazing purpose in this life, and end up making them overpowered compared to the other characters, which makes them unbelievable, people can no longer relate to them and they become boring. Luckily for us readers, J.C. Andrijeski does not fall for that trap, which makes Rook an even more impressive book to read.

If I had to say one bad thing about Rook, then it would be its complexity. That’s the only reason why I rated this book a 4 and not a 5, and also the reason why I think the other novels in the series might be even better than this one – less explaining to do, more action and adventures. As I already stated, the world the author creates is very complex, multi-layered, and it takes a lot of explaining before the reader actually gets used to it, or grasps the concept. That might scare off potential readers, but I personally believe that the action-packed adventure and the entertaining characters this novel provides, more than make up for that. And after all, everyone knows that if you want an original storyline with an original setting, that it’s obvious there will be some explenation needed. It’s a sacrifice we have to make for originality, and it’s one I gladly make.

Rook is an excellent science-fiction/fantasy novel with an amazing storyline, strong characters and the most impressive display of world-building I have seen in a while. If you’re tired of reading fantasy novels with the same old concept over and over again, then you will definately find Rook innovating, remarkable and highly entertaining. And even if you’re happy with the way most contemporary fantasy novels work nowadays, then I think you’ll still find Rook to be a very entertaining novel in the genre, and one of the most well-written ones. Don’t hesitate to read this book: it will definately NOT dissapoint you.

Rook is the first book in the Allie’s War series, the second book being Shield, and the third Sword. I cannot wait to read the second part of this series, and to read more about Allie’s adventures.

Filed Under: Fantasy, Reviews, Romance, Science Fiction Tagged With: book reviews, contemporary fantasy, fantasy, romance, science fiction, urban fantasy

Series Review: The Iron Fey Series

April 23, 2011 11 Comments

The Iron Fey Series is a young adult fantasy series focusing on faeries, the realm of the Nevernever, and the adventures and trials of half-human, half-Summer Princess Meghan Chase. The series is written by Julie Kagawa and published by HarlequinTEEN.

Along with her best friend Puck, who is actually none other than the mythical Robin Goodfellow, whimsical and wicked faery mentioned in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the dark and icy Winter Prince Ash, Meghan must retreive her younger brother from the NeverNever in the first book in the series, The Iron King. What she doesn’t know, is that her brother’s kidnapper is none other than the Iron King, leader of the Iron Fey. Considering that all normal faeries are allergic to iron, and being submitted for a long time to said material weakens them a lot, and Meghan’s half-human side protects her from that disease, she is the only person who can travel to the Iron Fey Kingdom and save her brother.

In The Iron Daughter, Meghan is submitted to the whims and wishes of Mab, the Queen of Winter, at the Unseelie Court. Things get worse when Ash, the Winter Prince she fell in love with, is treating her indifferently or cruel. But the war with the Iron fey isn’t over yet. When Rowan, Crown Prince of Winter, gets murdered, the Scepter of Seasons is stolen and Ash betrays his own kingdom, it’s up to the Winter Prince and Meghan to retreive the Scepter, and hopefully prevent a war between Summer and Winter, as both kingdoms blame each other for its dissapearance. As they travel to the home of Leanansidhe, a very powerful faery, they get accompanied by old friends Puck and the cait sith Grimalkin. But now they still have to get the Scepter back from the Iron King’s former second in command, Virus.

Although they have convinced Summer and Winter to stop battling each other, that doesn’t stop the army of the Iron fey to come marching into the Nevernever in The Iron Queen. The fate of Tir Na Nog now rests on the shoulders of our heroes; and especially Meghan. She might be the only one capable of stopping the new Iron King, but at what cost? As love grows, friendships are shattered and renewed, and Grimalkin keeps on being his own sarcastic and humorous self, our heroes are crafting their own destiny.

Title: The Iron King (The Iron Fey #1)
Review: Read my review for The Iron King
Rating: 5 stars

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny—one she could never have imagined…
Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan’s life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school…or at home.
When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she’s known is about to change.
But she could never have guessed the truth—that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she’ll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face…and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

Review Excerpt: From the moment Puck and Meghan step into the Never Never, I was hooked. The first hundred pages may not have totally convinced me, but the story afterwards did. I loved the way Julie Kagawa described both kingdoms, how she potrayed Lord Oberon and Queen Titania, how she made the throne room come to life on those very pages of this book. I was amazed, enthralled, paralyzed and of course, forced to continue reading. Then, as Meghan’s adventures begin, and she’s being chased by all sorts of magical creatures as she tries to find her brother, I was thoroughly amused. It felt sort of like those classic quest storylines, but with new and original ideas woven into it. Read more?

Title: Winter’s Passage (Iron Fey #1.5)
Review: Read my review for Winter’s Passage
Rating: 3 stars

Meghan Chase used to be an ordinary girl…until she discovered that she is really a faery princess. After escaping from the clutches of the deadly Iron fey, Meghan must follow through on her promise to return to the equally dangerous Winter Court with her forbidden love, Prince Ash. But first, Meghan has one request: that they visit Puck–Meghan’s best friend and servant of her father, King Oberon–who was gravely injured defending Meghan from the Iron Fey.

Yet Meghan and Ash’s detour does not go unnoticed. They have caught the attention of an ancient, powerful hunter–a foe that even Ash may not be able to defeat….

An eBook exclusive story from Julie Kagawa’s Iron Fey series.

Review Excerpt: I did enjoy reading Winter’s Passage, although I thought it was a bit short (probably got something to do with the fact it’s an ebook novella :P) and I probably finished reading it in fifteen or so minutes. It was fun to travel back to the briefly familiar territory covered in The Iron King, to catch up with Meghan and Ash, and to take another look on dear old Puck. The adventure with The Hunter chasing Ash and Meghan was entertaining as well, although I must admit I’ve grown a bit tired with the loop those two seem to be stuck in. Either it’s chasing something or someone – from a missing brother to a scepter to each other – or being chased by something rather dangerous. With The Iron Fey novels, I constantly have the feeling that I’m running along with the characters, and there’s never time to sit back and relax, or to talk about funny things like feelings, emotions and heartbreak. It’s a bit exhausting to read really. Read more?

Title: The Iron Daughter (Iron Fey #2)
Review: Read my review for The Iron Daughter.
Rating: 4 stars

Half Summer faery princess, half human, Meghan has never fit in anywhere. Deserted by the Winter prince she thought loved her, she is prisoner to the Winter faery queen. As war looms between Summer and Winter, Meghan knows that the real danger comes from the Iron fey—ironbound faeries that only she and her absent prince have seen. But no one believes her.

Worse, Meghan’s own fey powers have been cut off. She’s stuck in Faery with only her wits for help. Trusting anyone would be foolish. Trusting a seeming traitor could be deadly. But even as she grows a backbone of iron, Meghan can’t help but hear the whispers of longing in her all-too-human heart.

Review excerpt: Thank god and all the saints in heaven, that Grimalkin is back. Always ready to make a sly remark, or to humor us with his witty sarcasm towards feeble humans and love-struck faerieis. Without Grimalkin, The Iron Fey series would definately be a lot less interesting. If Grimalkin was a human, Puck and Ash wouldn’t stand a chance, and I’d be Team Grimalkin all the way. Too bad cats cannot miraculously change into human shape, or aren’t disguises for ordinary, but very powerful faeries. Oh well, I guess we’ll have to find a very nice-looking, equally charming female cat to accompany our beloved Grimalkin. I can only hope that he makes an appearance in The Iron Queen as well. Read more?

Title: The Iron Queen (Iron Fey #3)
Review: Read my review for The Iron Queen.
Rating: 5 stars

My name is Meghan Chase.

I thought it was over. That my time with the fey, the impossible choices I had to make, the sacrifices of those I loved, was behind me. But a storm is approaching, an army of Iron fey that will drag me back, kicking and screaming. Drag me away from the banished prince who’s sworn to stand by my side. Drag me into the core of conflict so powerful, I’m not sure anyone can survive it.

This time, there will be no turning back.

Review Excerpt: As of now, I’m officially not Team Ash or Team Puck anymore. I’m Team Meghan ftw! The way that girl has grown from a regular, somewhat shy and insecure teenage girl into the single most courageous, determined, intelligent and honest creature walking the Nevernever, is simply amazing. Gone is the love-struck half-faery we see at the beginning of The Iron Daughter, long forgotten is the girl who had no money to buy decent clothes and was the laughing stock of high school. Meet Meghan Chase – daughter of King Oberon, Princess to the Nevernever, and the most dangerous opponent the Iron Fey could possibly face. She is willful, strong, independent, but without ever losing her charming personality, and all the reasons why she’s still human and only a teenage girl. She literally and figuratively kicks ass in this novel, and it was a pleasure to witness. Read more?

Filed Under: Series Reviews, The Iron Fey Week Tagged With: faeries, fantasy, iron fey week, romance, series reviews, young adult

Book Review: The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa

April 23, 2011 13 Comments

Title: The Iron Queen (Iron Fey #3)
Author: Julie Kagawa
Genre: Fantasy, Faeries, Young Adult, Iron Fey
Publisher: HarlequinTEEN
Rating: 5 stars
Review copy purchased through Book Depository.

My name is Meghan Chase.

I thought it was over. That my time with the fey, the impossible choices I had to make, the sacrifices of those I loved, was behind me. But a storm is approaching, an army of Iron fey that will drag me back, kicking and screaming. Drag me away from the banished prince who’s sworn to stand by my side. Drag me into the core of conflict so powerful, I’m not sure anyone can survive it.

This time, there will be no turning back.

Read my reviews for The Iron King, Winter’s Passage and The Iron Daughter.

At the beginning of The Iron Queen, we find Meghan and the love of her life, Prince Ash, both exiled from the Nevernever for following their hearts and falling in love with each other. Unfortunately for Meghan and Ash, their trials are not yet over, as the Iron Fey attack them even while on earth. Oberon and Mab – King of Summer and Queen of Winter, former enemies, and now forced allies, see no other choice but to pardon their wayward children and to request for them to save the Nevernever one more time. When Ash and Meghan agree, they do not realise that the perils that await them in the land of the Iron fey will be even greater than they have anticipated, and the disaster they will encounter will be something even they might not overcome. With the army of the Iron fey marching towards the territories of Summer and Winter, and the fate of the entire Nevernever on the line, Meghan must find a strength within herself she hardly knew she had.

As of now, I’m officially not Team Ash or Team Puck anymore. I’m Team Meghan ftw! The way that girl has grown from a regular, somewhat shy and insecure teenage girl into the single most courageous, determined, intelligent and honest creature walking the Nevernever, is simply amazing. Gone is the love-struck half-faery we see at the beginning of The Iron Daughter, long forgotten is the girl who had no money to buy decent clothes and was the laughing stock of high school. Meet Meghan Chase – daughter of King Oberon, Princess to the Nevernever, and the most dangerous opponent the Iron Fey could possibly face. She is willful, strong, independent, but without ever losing her charming personality, and all the reasons why she’s still human and only a teenage girl. She literally and figuratively kicks ass in this novel, and it was a pleasure to witness.

But Ash, my poor little Ash, what the heck happened to you? You just went from being one of the most interesting, charming, distant and icey Princes of the Faerie Realm and then you turned into a…love-struck teenager? I don’t know exactly why – I mean, I do support Meghan/Ash – but the latter just can’t play the role of Meghan’s boyfriend and still be an interesting character with a dark edge. Gone, dark edge. And that leaves him rather one-dimensional, flat, and not all that interesting. With the dissapearance of the love triangle, and Meghan’s firm choice for Ash, there was a huge romance plot missing in this novel. Ash and Meghan were interesting…until they started dating. Now I’m wondering whether or not they’ll watch a movie together sometime, snuggling in front of a TV screen and perhaps worrying about daily chores or homework. WRONG. That’s not what I want to think about when I imagine a Summer Princess and a Winter Prince! And yet, somehow I did…it’s like Meghan/Ash lost all their magic once they actually got together.

Once again, Julie Kagawa’s world-building is exquisite, her characterization brilliant, her writing style excellent. The Iron Queen pulled me in from page one, and left me breathless till I turned the last page and read the ending. Spellbinding, fascinating, amazing, and the best ending to one of the most magnificent, original and well-written young adult fantasy series currently available. Here I was, thinking it couldn’t get any better, and then it did.

Filed Under: Fantasy, Reviews, Romance, The Iron Fey Week, Young Adult Tagged With: book reviews, faeries, fantasy, iron fey week, romance, young adult

Book Review: The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa

April 20, 2011 13 Comments

Title: The Iron Daughter (Iron Fey #2)
Author: Julie Kagawa
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal, Faeries, Young Adult
Publisher: HarlequinTEEN
Review copy purchased in through BookDepository.
Rating: 4 stars

Half Summer faery princess, half human, Meghan has never fit in anywhere. Deserted by the Winter prince she thought loved her, she is prisoner to the Winter faery queen. As war looms between Summer and Winter, Meghan knows that the real danger comes from the Iron fey—ironbound faeries that only she and her absent prince have seen. But no one believes her.

Worse, Meghan’s own fey powers have been cut off. She’s stuck in Faery with only her wits for help. Trusting anyone would be foolish. Trusting a seeming traitor could be deadly. But even as she grows a backbone of iron, Meghan can’t help but hear the whispers of longing in her all-too-human heart.

The Iron Daughter continues the story where The Iron King left off (or Winter’s Passage if you will), with Meghan being forced to go to the Unseelie Court of the Winter Queen Mab, and possibly suffer horrendeous torture at the hands of her father’s enemy. However, Meghan soon finds out that the vengeance of Queen Mab is the least of her worries, as one of the Unseelie Princes betrays his own kingdom, kills the heir to the Winter Throne, and reveals to be working for the Iron King. On top of all that, it appears that the Iron fey have got their hands on the Scepter of Seasons. Naturally, Mab believes Oberon has stolen the scepter, and decides to full-on attack him rather than believe her youngest son’s theory about the existence of Iron fey. Now Summer and Winter are at war, and it’s up to Ash and Meghan – again – to retreive the Scepter from the Iron fey, to settle the peace between the two Courts and to prevent an upcoming attack from the Iron fey.

The Iron Daughter is a solid, fast-paced adventure which, once again, showcases Julie Kagawa’s phenomenal world-building skills and her ability to make likeable, funny characters with distinct qualities and interesting personalities. I have to say that, after reading The Iron Daughter, I am even more impressed by Julie’s world-building skills. She crafts the Nevernever out of basically nothing (although slightly based on century-old stories about the faerie world like Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, or based on well-known faerie lore) and she does so in a most amazing fashion. The world she creates is interesting, innovative, vast and at all times surprising. From the gorgeous palace of Summer Court to the icy fields of Winter and the iron dominating the Iron Kingdom, her world is ever-changing and evolving, growing if you may, much like a real world. As as the world she describes expands and grows, so do her characters.

Whereas in The Iron King I thought Puck was often portrayed as being a one-dimensional character with an uncomprehendable interest in Meghan’s welfare (he loves her…but why?), the habit of causing trouble to the point of his occassional duels with Icey Boy, we now see a whole new side of him. We discover why Puck loves Meghan, and how far he is willing to go to prove that point, and to protect her. He grows from a rather one-dimensional character to a three-dimensional person with his own fair share of fears, emotions and hopes. There’s a scene with Puck and Meghan in this book, that nearly made me jump over from Team Ash to Team Puck. I think it’s safe to say though that Julie Kagawa prefers Ash, since he gets more pages, and a lot more love through-out the series than Puck ever does. However, although I do root for Ash and Meghan to be the ‘endgame’ couple, as you may call it, I would like to see Puck and Meghan happen sometime, and I would like Puck to have a fair chance. It’s about time that Meghan seems him for who he really is – he is, after all, the one who betrayed his Kingdom for her, whereas Ash is still obeying Mab’s orders like a sad little puppy in the beginning of this novel.

Thank god and all the saints in heaven, that Grimalkin is back. Always ready to make a sly remark, or to humor us with his witty sarcasm towards feeble humans and love-struck faerieis. Without Grimalkin, The Iron Fey series would definately be a lot less interesting. If Grimalkin was a human, Puck and Ash wouldn’t stand a chance, and I’d be Team Grimalkin all the way. Too bad cats cannot miraculously change into human shape, or aren’t disguises for ordinary, but very powerful faeries. Oh well, I guess we’ll have to find a very nice-looking, equally charming female cat to accompany our beloved Grimalkin. I can only hope that he makes an appearance in The Iron Queen as well.

Prince Ash was trying so hard to be as icey and cold as always through-out the first part of this novel, and failed miserably every time. As I already stated in my review of The Iron King, I would have liked it if the relationship between Meghan and Ash had not blossomed so soon, and if they had gotten a bit more time to get to trust each other first. Kisses, embraces and other snuggling could have waited till this novel, in my opinion – and to be honest, for a Winter Prince, Ash really isn’t all that icey, hard-to-get or distant. I thought the visit to the Winter Prom at Meghan’s old school was particularly hilarious, especially with all the human girls swooning over Ash, and Meghan’s old crush inviting her to a party – for the first time in her life! However, I thought it was quite ridiculous as well. Really? Prince Ash needs a lot of glamour and suddenly everyone thinks about the Winter Prom? Why not just go to a club, or something? And why those ridiculous costumes? When the book mentioned that Ash was dressed in white – yes, white, oh the horror – with a coloured tie (I forgot the color, but it seemed insanely ugly at the moment) I thought I was either quite disturbed to imagine such things, or I had been transported to a very horrible alternate reality. Unfortunately for me, neither of these assumptions were true and indeed, Julie Kagawa, makes Ash look like the mere representation of everything a Winter Prince is NOT supposed to be. Thank god my imagination skills were powerful enough to imagine Ash in something else – a black suit, for instance.

I disliked Meghan in this novel. I liked her throughout Iron King, I liked her progress, how she gradually changed from an insecure and scared teenage girl into a real Summer Princess, filled with enough courage and determination to withstand even the Iron King. However, she seemed to have temporarily lost all her wit, charm, intelligence and courage in the first hundred-or-so pages of this book. Rather than worrying about her own well-being, or about finding a way out of the Winter Court – or anything to escape, for that matter – she is constantly weeping over the fact that Ash is treating her badly. What do you want the guy to do? Admit to the entire Court that he’s in love with a half Summer Princess, half human, most probably making both himself and Meghan the subject of Mab’s wrath by doing so? Although it sounds ridiculous, that appears to be exactly what Meghan wants. She’s even surprised when he calls her the ‘half blood’ or ‘human’ or says he doesn’t want anything to do with her, although he warned her time and time again in the Iron King and Winter’s Passage that he would have no choice but to treat her this way. Really Meghan, are you dense? Or have you watched too much Twilight, and decided to take on the role of Bella Swan for a change?

Luckily for us, Meghan loses her Bella Swan attitude gradually throughout the second part of the novel. The suspense rises as the trio (yes, of course Puck is back) and charming Grimalkin go on another journey to retreive the Scepter of Seasons. From that point on, the pace picks up, the chase is back on, and Meghan slowly becomes an interesting, relatable and intelligent heroine again. As she did in her previous novel, Julie Kagawa once again ends in style, leaving her readers to anxiously anticipate her next novel in the series. The Iron Daughter is a worthy successor to The Iron King, although I must admit I liked the latter more.

Filed Under: Fantasy, Reviews, Romance, The Iron Fey Week, Young Adult Tagged With: book reviews, faeries, fantasy, iron fey week, romance, young adult

Book Review: Winter’s Passage by Julie Kagawa

April 19, 2011 12 Comments

Title: Winter’s Passage (Iron Fey #1.5)
Author: Julie Kagawa
Genre: Young Adult, Faeries, Fantasy
Publisher: HarlequinTEEN
Rating: 3 stars
Review copy downloaded for free from the Harlequin website.
Goodreads

Meghan Chase used to be an ordinary girl…until she discovered that she is really a faery princess. After escaping from the clutches of the deadly Iron fey, Meghan must follow through on her promise to return to the equally dangerous Winter Court with her forbidden love, Prince Ash. But first, Meghan has one request: that they visit Puck–Meghan’s best friend and servant of her father, King Oberon–who was gravely injured defending Meghan from the Iron Fey.

Yet Meghan and Ash’s detour does not go unnoticed. They have caught the attention of an ancient, powerful hunter–a foe that even Ash may not be able to defeat….

An eBook exclusive story from Julie Kagawa’s Iron Fey series.

Read my review of The Iron King, the previous book in the series.

Winter’s Passage picks up exactly where The Iron King left off, with the handsome and darkly charming Prince Ash escorting the Half-Summer Princess Meghan Chase through the realm of the Nevernever and into the lair of Queen Mab, the Unseelie Court. However, before they begin their journey back to the freakingly cold winter-world, Meghan forces Prince Ash to do one last thing, namely pay a visit to her best friend, Puck (aka Robin Goodfellow) who got seriously injured during their previous fight with the Iron Fey. Although a detour wasn’t exactly what the chilly prince had planned, he does give his consent. That was before he knew the thing that was chasing them though, The Hunter, a century-old creature so powerful even Ash might be unable to defeat it. And amidst of all this running away from scary creatures, sword-wielding heroes and practically immortal foes, Meghan and Ash still have to admit they have feelings for each other.

I did enjoy reading Winter’s Passage, although I thought it was a bit short (probably got something to do with the fact it’s an ebook novella :P) and I probably finished reading it in fifteen or so minutes. It was fun to travel back to the briefly familiar territory covered in The Iron King, to catch up with Meghan and Ash, and to take another look on dear old Puck. The adventure with The Hunter chasing Ash and Meghan was entertaining as well, although I must admit I’ve grown a bit tired with the loop those two seem to be stuck in. Either it’s chasing something or someone – from a missing brother to a scepter to each other – or being chased by something rather dangerous. With The Iron Fey novels, I constantly have the feeling that I’m running along with the characters, and there’s never time to sit back and relax, or to talk about funny things like feelings, emotions and heartbreak. It’s a bit exhausting to read really.

I liked it that Winter’s Passage does stop on emotions for once, and gives us a greater insight in what the characters are thinking. Ash because an even more complex and multifaceted characters as he is faced with the conflicting desires of love and loyalty. We also see a greater glimpse of Meghan’s feelings, and learn that this might not simply be a teenage crush on a handsome faery prince. I’ve always liked the dynamics of Meghan/Ash (although I have to admit I’m not entirely opposed against Puck as well) and I’m glad the veil got lifted, albeit only a little bit, and I got a better understanding of both of these characters.

Don’t read Winter’s Passage unless you read The Iron King, or if you feel like taking a glimpse of Julie Kagawa’s writing style first before focusing on the trilogy itself. Personally, I don’t think it’s Julie’s best writing – she has a lot more skill producing a novel than a novella, in my opinion – but it’s a nice bridge between The Iron King and The Iron Daughter, it’s a very fast read, and you’ll see some more of the characters you’ve grown to love. Plus, you know, there’s Ash, and he’s always a bonus.

Filed Under: Fantasy, Reviews, Romance, The Iron Fey Week, Young Adult Tagged With: book reviews, faeries, fantasy, iron fey week, novella, romance, young adult

Book Review: The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

April 18, 2011 20 Comments

Title: The Iron King (The Iron Fey #1)
Author: Julie Kagawa
Genre: Fantasy, Faeries, Young Adult, Supernatural
Buy this novel: Book Depository.
Rating: 5 stars

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny—one she could never have imagined…
Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan’s life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school…or at home.
When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she’s known is about to change.
But she could never have guessed the truth—that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she’ll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face…and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

The Iron King focuses on the persona of Meghan Chase, a sixteen-year-old girl whose father dissapeared years ago, and who now lives in the country with her Mom, stepfather and little brother Ethan. With her ragged clothes and her parent’s pigfarm business, Meghan is the laughing stock of the entire school. Fortunately, she has one friend who supports her through all of this: Robbie Goodfell. On her sixteenth birthday however, weird things are starting to happen. For instance, Robbie is behaving strangely, her younger brother Ethan seems possessed by some alien creature, and she sees images of a tall and handsome boy on a horse. It is only when Robbie explains to her, that Meghan realises what has truly happened. Her younger brother was kidnapped by the faeries, and they put a changeling in her home instead. And her best friend since forever, Robbie Goodfell, is in fact no one other than Robin Goodfellow aka Puck, the famous and mischevious fairy from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Determined to find Ethan and return him home safely, Meghan and Puck travel to the Never Never. But like travelling to the wildfey area isn’t hard enough, they are being chased by the tall and handsome stranger, who turns out to be none other than the Winter Prince, Ash. He and Puck have an old feud going on, and unfortunately for her, Meghan is stuck in the middle of all of it.

Like that isn’t bad enough, something else is threatening the Never Never as well. Something dark, powerful and destructive. Something that took her brother. And it will take all of their combined forces to find out what, and to defeat it.

I have to admit that I’m not usually one to jump on the big-hype-bandwagon. I’m not the kind of person who likes something simply because everyone and their pet chihuahua likes it. If anything, the more hype there is about something, the more reluctant I am to join in and add my own fangirlness as well. I felt the same way with the Harry Potter books, until I read them and fell in love. I also felt the exact same way about the whole Twilight issue, until I read the novels and made my own opinion – I’m still not very fond of them, but I can see their appeal – and I had the exact same problem with The Iron Fey Series. I was curious to read the series because everyone talked about it, the covers looked gorgeous, and faeries were a new and foreign supernatural species to me. I wasn’t all that much into faeries when I was younger, and even in my teenage years I couldn’t possibly imagine anyone could write a novel aimed at a young adult audience themed around fairyworld. Apparently it can be done, and it can be done in such a fashion that I’m totally swept off my feet and impressed beyond belief.

To my utmost shame, I must admit that I’ve never read Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream before. I did watch a TV movie based on it once, but that’s a far distant memory as well. Had I perhaps read faerielore before indulging into this novel, I would have realised that there’s a great difference between Tinkerbell, Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother and the actual fairyworld of the Never Never and The Seelie and Unseelie Courts. In all honesty, I was even more intrigued by the lore behind the story, and the use of ancient tales about the Summer and Winter Courts, Queen Titania and Queen Mab, and King Oberon, than I was with the actual storyline and characters. I felt like this whole new world had opened to me, and it was all the more real because it hadn’t entirely sprung from the imagination of the author herself, but was based on several legends regarding supernatural beings, and a centuries-old but still very famous poem by none other than the great Shakespeare himself. If that isn’t impressive, then I don’t know what it is anymore.

I loved all of the characters. But literally, all of them. I loved Meghan’s personality, strong and determined albeit a bit naive and often finding herself in need of assistance. She is, after all, only sixteen years old, and not a trained swordfighter or accomplished trickster, so naturally she often needs others to help her acheive her goals. Of course I fell in love with the Winter Prince, Ash, as well. Handsome and stunning, cold and distant yet passionate and caring. How one person can hold so many emotions, is still a big question mark for me, but I loved him for every single emotion he had. As far as Prince Charmings go, he really is an exceptional one. I liked Puck as a character as well, although I have to admit that having him transferred from this sort of mythical hero to a teenage boy in love with our heroine, was a bit much to take in at first. On the other hand, it was quite the original thought, and I thoroughly enjoyed his jokes, pranks and protectiveness over Meghan.

On the downside: I knew from the start that there was going to be a love triangle, but I felt dissapointed when it didn’t really evolve in this book. We see glimpses of Puck expressiing his love for Meghan, or showing it in extremely obvious ways, but we never get an idea of how she feels about him. Are they just friends, or is there something more? Also, I thought that the love affair between Meghan and Ash developed a bit too fasty for my liking, and I wouldn’t have shed a tear had they waiting with their mutual lovey-dovey confessions until book two in the series. It even seemed a bit out of character to me. I can perfectly understand why Meghan would take a fancy to Ash – I would have done exactly the same, without a shadow of a doubt – but I couldn’t quite grasp the fact that he is interested in her too, right from the start. I mean, he IS the Winter Prince, cold and distant by nature, and she IS the Summer Princess, half-human on top of that, and best friends with his nemesis. It doesn’t exactly make her the most desirable person in the world, now does it? I can’t imagine him giving in to his feelings for her just like that, and I was a bit dissapointed that he did.

Do you want to know who my favorite character is? Grimalkin, of course. Funny, witty, sarcastic, cynical, answering all questions with “I’m a cat” and striking deals whenever he sees an advantage, what’s not to like? I also couldn’t help but feel like behind that non-caring attitude, there was a very caring, friendly and charming…cat.

From the moment Puck and Meghan step into the Never Never, I was hooked. The first hundred pages may not have totally convinced me, but the story afterwards did. I loved the way Julie Kagawa described both kingdoms, how she potrayed Lord Oberon and Queen Titania, how she made the throne room come to life on those very pages of this book. I was amazed, enthralled, paralyzed and of course, forced to continue reading. Then, as Meghan’s adventures begin, and she’s being chased by all sorts of magical creatures as she tries to find her brother, I was thoroughly amused. It felt sort of like those classic quest storylines, but with new and original ideas woven into it.

Something that annoyed me though, was the similarity between both courts. I was given to understand that The Summer Court, albeit michevious and not-all-that-good-hearted towards humans, was the ‘good’ court, whereas The Winter Court is seen as malevolent and wicked. I didn’t get that impression while reading this novel, especially because the personalities of Queen Titania and Queen Mob are very much alike. Both are cruel, hot-headed and egocentric. I would have liked to see a clearer distinction between the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ court.

In short, The Iron King is everything I couldn’t have dreamed it would be: fast-paced, original, imaginative, creative, with interesting and lovable characters, a plotline that keeps you glued to your seat, and most impressive world-building. Julie Kagawa is a true artist at crafting and creating scenery for her characters to play in, from enchanted forests to gigantic throne rooms to cozy cottages and icey fields. I can’t wait to read The Iron Daughter – literallly, I have it here with me right now, and I feel like dropping everything, including work for university, to start reading! – and find out what happens to Meghan next. If you haven’t read The Iron King yet, then it’s about time. You’re missing out on the faerie book of the century.

Filed Under: Fantasy, Reviews, Romance, The Iron Fey Week, Young Adult Tagged With: book reviews, faeries, fantasy, iron fey week, romance, young adult

Book Review: Bella Maura by Dawn Dyson

April 16, 2011 Leave a Comment

Title: Bella Maura (Beautiful Justice #1)
Author: Dawn Dyson
Genre: Spiritual, Christian Fiction, Romance, Suspense
Publisher: Creation House
Rating: 4,5 stars
Review copy provided by the author.
Goodreads | Author’s Website

How far would you go to protect the ones you love?
When novelist Sienna Emory decides to come to the aid of an old college friend, she finds more than she bargained for. Not only does her friend Cheney have a full-blown drug addiction, she also has an endearing ex-husband who is still trying to help her. An unlikely match, Sienna and Jonathan soon become close. Jonathan’s five-year-old daughter seems to be the answer to Sienna’s prayers. Never able to have children of her own, Sienna is overjoyed at the prospect of finding a mate in Jonathan and a daughter in little Bella. But Cheney is not a typical friend and Bella is not a typical little girl.
Join Sienna and Jonathan on the discovery of Bella Maura’s sprirtual gift. It will lead them, and you, from America to Jonathan’s hometown in Ireland, where the gift is perceived as a curse that has tormented the Driscoll clan for centuries. Will Sienna and Jonathan help Bella use it for the good?

I have to admit that I’ve hardly read any Christian Fiction, and that I usually shy away from the genre. Bella Maura is the exception to the rule, the novel I simply couldn’t resist even if it wasn’t in a genre I usually read or am very fond of. I’m glad I made the exception, I’m glad I gave Bella Maura a chance, because it certainly does not dissapoint.

Sienna is a renowed novelist, and ‘foster parent’ for ‘her girls’, homeless or abused young women she takes into her home and makes a part of her family. Since she’s a very generous, compassionate and loving person, she naturally comes to the aid of her old college friend, Cheney, when the latter calls and asks for her help. But Sienna has no idea of the mess she’s gotten into. Cheney has no intention of really recovering whatsoever, and like her drug addiction and alcoholism isn’t bad enough, Sienna also discovers that she has a daughter she’s been avoiding for years. When Sienna gets to know Cheney’s neighbour and friend, Jonathan, it doesn’t take her long to figure out that Jonathan is the father of the daughter Cheney abandoned: Bella Maura.

Unable to have children herself, Sienna immediately feels a strong connection to the young girl. And when Sienna and Jonathan’s relationship blossoms, she ‘adopts’ Bella Maura as her own daughter. But unfortunately, there are still some troubles ahead. Cheney is struggling her addiction in a rehabilitation centre, someone is leaving weird notes for Sienna, and Bella has a special talent to connect with God that could end in disaster.

Dawn Dyson has an amazing writing voice. She writes descriptions with such delicate care, each word of the sentence holding a special meaning, and each sentence as mesmerizing as the one before. She is truly a master of words, and the way she crafts her words, sentences and paragraphs into this great, meaningful and amazing story, is nothing short but a miracle. Her writing style totally charmed me, overwhelmed me even, and left me very impressed. She puts grave thoughts, and life-altering questions in her novel with such ease that I, as a reader, was hardly surprised by all the questions this book kept asking me.

Bella Maura asks questions about the meaning of life, about the existence of evil, about the goodness of another person’s heart, about spirituality, God, and more things that we hardly stand still to think about, but are important parts of our day-to-day life. We deal with good and evil on a daily basis, yet we never stop to think about the very nature of good and evil. And the thing with Bella Maura is that, where in other novels I might be repulsed by such questions, and disregard the novel as being either too spiritual or too difficult and nerve-wrecking to continue, now I didn’t. The beautiful narrator’s voice, the distinctive and recognisable characters, the undeniable sense of love that this novel radiates, is more than enough to keep on reading, to ask yourself the questions this book challenges you to ask, and to do all of that without even a hint of annoyance. Bella Maura doesn’t just force its readers to continue reading, to turn page after page after page eagerly anticipating what’s coming next – it also challenges its readers, dares them to think out of the box, to think about their own part in life, their own connection to God, to define what is good and what is evil. That’s pretty much what all great books do, and Bella Maura truly is a great book.

The main characters, Sienna and Jonathan, share this amazing love connection that makes me believe there’s still hope for all of us. Their love is strong, both on an emotional and day-to-day level and on a higher, spiritual level. From the first moment they meet, they are drawn to each other with a force that cannot be explained any other way then that they’re soulmates. Both are charming, loving, caring, compassionate and giving so much for others that they often forget all about themselves. They are both very inspiring, and although their romance might start off a bit like a whirlwind, and I’ve always had some trouble grasping the whole ‘falling in love with each other in a day or two’ issue, but nevertheless, Dawn Dyson succeeds in making their relationship convincing, heartfelt and adorable.

I also really loved the other characters: Bella Maura, Jonathan’s little girl with a special talent and a deep connection with God and the world around her, the girls Sienna took into her home and looked after, and even Cheney, Sienna’s old college-friend who is now a drug-addict and alcoholist. The personalities of all characters were very well described throughout the novel, and I had the feeling I got to know all of them by the end of it. My heart went out to Sienna, and to ‘her girls’ for overcoming abuse, and for still being able to live, laugh, care and love. They were really a family, despite all their different backgrounds, thoughts and opinions, and it was really heartwarming to see their interactions.

From the suburbs of America to the shores of Ireland, this novel offers a plotline that is as divers and intense as its characters, a fast-paced adventure and a journey of self-discovery, and acceptance that there is something greater than us all.

As I already said, Dawn Dyson is not afraid to touch some sensitive topics, and to ask her readers some valuable questions, but she does so with the support of an amazing cast of characters, and a strong and suspenseful plot. Bella Maura will both amaze and surprise you.

Filed Under: Christian, Metaphysical / Inspirational, Mystery and Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: book reviews, christian fiction, romance, spiritual fiction, suspense

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