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 Caitrin arrives at Whistling Tor having fled her entire life. After her father’s death, she was abused by her distant cousins to the point where she runs away with only her writing box, for she is a scribe by trade. Whistling Tor is not the average Irish town. The lord is reclusive, bound to the hilltop, and the villagers are frightened to go away and fear he does not care for them. Throwing caution to the wind, Caitrin travels up the hill when she hears that the lord is in need of a capable scribe that can read Latin and Irish.
I adore Juliet Marillier’s work. I won this book in a giveaway before its release and I can’t express how excited I was to read it. I have huge expectations for this author and the best part is that she hasn’t let me down yet. Her fantasy world, with strong characters and often a large romantic sideplot, simply appeal to me in every way. Heart’s Blood was no exception and I loved it. This book is all about moving beyond the past and forging a new future.
Caitrin is interesting because she is a very damaged heroine. She’s been abused and lied to by people who claim they are her family. Her sister married and left her, not realizing what would happen. She flinches every time a man gestures in her presence. At the same time, she has a core of steel that hasn’t been beaten down, and a very large part of this book is her recovering her strength, her ambition, and her determination to live her life. I loved Caitrin’s character development. I felt like her struggle was very realistic; even when she knows, realistically, a man isn’t going to strike her, she’s been beaten into submission and it takes a long time for her to stop reacting in fear. Her struggles and her move towards becoming a courageous new woman makes her a character to cheer for. Besides this, she is a scribe and she’s often busy researching, an activity close to my heart.
Anluan, the lord of Whistling Tor, has been convinced of his own inferiority for a long time. He’s disabled from an illness, and moreover is bound to the hilltop because of his ancestor’s dark sorcery. That is due to the host – a hoard of ghostly figures brought back from the dead by accident who are only kept in control by the lord’s presence. They need to prove themselves, too. Every character, except for ultimately the villain, has something to grow beyond.
I loved both the story with the host, which has several members we get to know, and Nechtan’s sorcery, and the romance between Anluan and Caitrin. It takes true courage and strength for them to get past their individual handicaps and grow into loving one another, not to mention believing that they love each other. It’s beautifully done and this book is amazing. I grew to realize the ending of the host story before Caitrin did, but that didn’t make her revelations any less fascinating and compelling. Besides that, I love Marillier’s writing. I was doing nanowrimo while reading this and realized that I was actually imitating her writing, which is embarrassing, because I just love it so much.
Had it been Anluan whose presence I had sensed before, standing in the doorway watching me without a word? He was seated on the bench now … White face, red hair; snow and fire, like something from an old tale … I found it difficult to take my eyes from him. There was an odd beauty in his isolation and his sadness, like that of a forlorn prince ensorcelled by a wicked enchantress, or a traveller lost forever in a world far from home.
I loved Heart’s Blood. This is quite simply a perfect book for someone who enjoys fantasy and romance, and perhaps a little poking about in old books.
I am an Amazon Associate. I won this book in a giveaway.
 Other than the fact that he is brilliant and never grew out of a series of children’s fantasy novels, Quentin Coldwater is a fairly ordinary teenager in his last year of high school. When his interview to Princeton goes horribly wrong, Quentin finds himself in what seems like another world, where magic is real and he’s going to learn to be a magician. At his new magical college, Quentin meets extraordinary friends and learns that some of his favorite myths are more of a reality than he had ever dreamed.
I’m torn in writing this review. I think the concept behind this book is very clever. It’s billed as an adult Harry Potter, but it also draws on lots of children’s fantasy, most of which I recognized. The biggest sources are Harry Potter and the Chronicles of Narnia, and as I was reading, I could easily appreciate the slight mockery and satire that Lev Grossman uses to show how improbable such stories would be in “real life” and how adults would react to them. I loved these books as a child, so I did pick up on his cleverness. As I started it, I genuinely was enjoying it, especially during the early school years. I love boarding school stories, so I was immediately absorbed, but that regrettably didn’t last.
This is because I had a real problem with the main character, Quentin, and the behavior of some characters in general. I’m sure some people my age do behave the way these characters did, drinking and doing drugs on a daily basis and essentially throwing away their potential, but I’m not friends with them, and haven’t been, for a reason. Even in college, my friends and I largely avoided the drinking culture, so I had a serious problem relating to any of these characters except Alice, easily my favorite. The way Quentin then treats her appalled me and set me even further against the book. These characters do not live in my real world, and thus the book’s concept essentially failed for me. Not only is their behavior unfamiliar, Quentin is distinctly not a hero and is constantly determined to be unhappy with everything he has. He screws up over and over again, and neither his dissolute lifestyle nor his incredible achievements satisfy him. It frustrated him and it frustrated me, which is not something I want to feel while I’m reading. Maybe this was the point, but if so, no thanks.
I read this for an online book club and most of the members felt similarly about it. It’s a shame because I really wanted to love it. I adore Harry Potter and putting that on there was an instant attraction. I feel that it would have been better marketed as a satire on children’s fantasy. I can’t really recommend The Magicians. It’s interesting, but not enjoyable.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.
 First, if you haven’t read The Thief, stay away from this review to avoid spoilers. Second, I like the back cover summary, it reveals very little but hints at so much, so I’m going to be a little lazy and just use it here:
“When his small mountainous country goes to war with the powerful nation of Attolia, Eugenides the thief is faced with his greatest challenge. He must steal a man, he must steal a queen, and he must steal peace.
But his greatest triumph – as well as his greatest loss – can only come if he succeeds in capturing something the Queen of Attolia may have sacrificed long ago.”
Thinking about this book now, I believe I may love it even more than I did when I’d finished it. It just feels so well done, so well put together, that I’m still thinking about it days later, and I read it during the read-a-thon, when I couldn’t really give it as much attention as if I’d been well rested and had no other books on my mind.
The first thing that I noticed was a shift to third person narration, which was a little odd after being in Gen’s head for the entirety of the first book. When the view switched around, though, I realized how important this was, because Eugenides is not entirely the central character here. There is now a war brewing between his country, which is Eddis, Attolia, and Sounis, but Eugenides is out of commission for a while and instead we get the viewpoints of the queens as they manuever in this new war. There are politics involved and lives are at stake. The queens are strong, powerful women in their own rights and it was really wonderful to have a focus on women after the male-centered first book.
The world has expanded; this is no longer a boy’s journey, and Eugenides is definitely no longer a boy. He’s lost that playful thieving edge, but to be honest I loved him even more, for his suffering and the man he became because of it. There are a few gods in this book and they do manipulate events to suit themselves; it’s so fascinating to see the results and how they had a purpose in the way everything turned out. Gen is the clever one, of course, without or without the help of the gods, and his plotting is startling; all the plot threads come together in an astonishing way. It leaves the reader marveling at his strength, self-possession, mind, and remarkable ability to cope with adversity.
Then of course, there is the love story. I didn’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t what I got; what I got was beautiful and almost hard to believe, but somehow credible. An author who can convince you that something you’d never normally believe is possible and downright wonderful is an author to watch, and Megan Whalen Turner is definitely that.
I hope I haven’t spoiled anything in this wonderful book. I’ve done my best. I do hope that I’ve encouraged you to seek it out. Set aside a few hours and spend some time with The Queen of Attolia. You won’t regret it.
 After bragging that he could steal anything, and promptly laying his hands on the king’s seal, Gen finds himself in prison for that very theft. That is, until the king’s magus recruits him for the ultimate theft in another country, a treasure that no one has ever managed to steal. Of course Gen accepts, but he has ideas of his own, and he knows that once he gets out into the open, nothing is going to hold him back from freedom.
I’ve widely heard that this is the least of all the books of the series but I loved it. I adored the characters. Gen is a trickster and a liar, but he is just so clever. I really wanted him to succeed in his mission, whatever it finally turned out to be. I enjoyed the conflicts between all the travelers as they went along and the realistic way their relationships changed and grew. The magus genuinely learned who Gen was and what he was capable of and it was remarkable to watch his respect for Gen grow as the journey continued. In the beginning, Gen was marginalized, a prisoner and a thief, but as his companions got to know him, they considered him a person. I love books that do this and show how people are forced to reconsider those they classify as “other”.
The book is written in first person, which really works, but its difference lies in the fact that we still don’t know all about Gen. He doesn’t reveal who he really is or his past until the end. We’re given little tantalizing glimpses, like when he talks about his family and lets us know that it’s a big one, but his secrets for me kept the whole book very interesting. I wanted to know more about him. It was also a good choice for a read-a-thon book, as it’s very short and extremely absorbing.
I thought overall that this was a great little adventure story about identity. It’s well-written, with nice imagery, but the characters really stole the show for me. There was a reason I immediately picked up The Queen of Attolia and just writing this review has made me really long to read The King of Attolia as soon as possible. If you enjoy YA fantasy and haven’t read The Thief yet, I highly, highly recommend it.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased all books mentioned in this post.
 Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson has always had issues in school. He’s been diagnosed with attention disorders but still ends up failing out of school every time. In his latest boarding school, Percy has a peculiar encounter with one of his teachers, after which no one seems to remember the teacher! Perplexed, Percy starts listening in on conversations and begins to realize that his life is not at all what he’d thought. Things get even stranger when mythological creatures appear in his life and Percy is sent to a summer camp for half-bloods; children descended from one god and one human. When Zeus’s lightning bolt is stolen and Percy is the prime suspect, he must get it back before the mythological world erupts into war.
While this was certainly a fun book, it was definitely a children’s book. Let me clarify. Percy is 12, so the book doesn’t exactly count for young adult literature because I believe that means a teenage protagonist is necessary. Yet with some kid’s books, I can still enjoy the intricacies of plot and character, so I don’t even notice that they’re written for children. I noticed here, and while the book was a lot of fun, there were times when I rolled my eyes. Others have agreed with me, so at least I’m not alone.
That said, I read this during the Read-a-Thon and it was a perfect choice. It’s fast-paced, there is a lot of action, there was some humor that I still found funny, and the book sped by very quickly. For a light read, if you’re not expecting much, this is perfect. I think this would be a brilliant read for a kid. It has a lot of tame humor and situations that a kid who hadn’t gone through puberty yet would probably enjoy. And with all the mythology, it’s educational as well, in a way that kids could perfectly understand because the gods are all described in familiar terms. Percy doesn’t know who they are at first, so each of them is described fully in his own words, giving kids an easy introduction to exactly who these gods are before they’re presented with an unfamiliar name to remember. It’s easy to see why Rick Riordan is so very popular. This is clean, adventurous fun that would probably appeal to both boys and girls of that age.
So, The Lightning Thief does what it’s meant to do for kids, it’s just a shame I didn’t love it as an adult. I do intend to continue with the series, though, because I liked Percy and I’m intrigued enough to see what happens next.
You guessed it, I’m an Amazon Associate.
 Todd Hewitt is nearly thirteen years old and has never seen a woman. He knows what women look like, though, because he can see them in other men’s thoughts. The ability to see thoughts – words and images – is called Noise, and all the men in his town have the same ability. The Noise, a disease passed on by the Spackle, aliens who previously inhabited Todd’s world, isn’t just limited to men, as all animals can talk, including Todd’s slightly stupid dog, Manchee. On Todd’s thirteenth birthday, he will become a man, the last boy in his town to do so, but before that can happen, Todd encounters a pocket of silence that leads to his expulsion from Prentisstown and causes him to question everything he’s ever known.
This is a book that has been hyped throughout the blogosphere endlessly. I know I bought it because so many book bloggers I trust had read and loved it. I think my expectations made the book less of an experience for me. I simply knew it was meant to be amazing, so perhaps it’s not a surprise that it wasn’t. That isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy it, because I did, but it hasn’t immediately catapulted itself onto my list of all-time favorite books. The rest of this review might contain slight spoilers, so I wouldn’t suggest reading it unless you’ve completed the book.
The best and the worst thing about this book is the pace. It’s Todd’s frantic flight from his entire life, a girl and a dog in tow, with terrifyingly bad men behind them. The sense of urgency is overwhelming and is constantly pushing the reader to read on, to read faster, to find out what happens next. While this ability to absorb me is a great thing in a new era of books that only half-heartedly interest me, it also harmed the book’s impact, perhaps because I did read it so quickly. I did get attached to Todd and Viola and Manchee, but all of the tragedy within the book simply did not have the time to emotionally hit me. Something else happened so quickly that the characters couldn’t dwell on their losses or problems, so I didn’t really feel them the way I was supposed to. In addition, the many tragedies made the book feel somewhat emotionally manipulative. There is no respite from it at all.
There is still a lot to love here, though. The concept of the Noise is just fascinating and while the men of Prentisstown can’t be excused for what they did, it’s so easy to see how this could drive someone mad. Todd is an incredibly loveable character despite what he’s driven to do over the course of the novel. I even enjoyed the deliberate misspellings because I felt they revealed a lot of his childishness and innocence; they gave him part of his voice and I honestly don’t think the book would be the same without it. Best of all, I think, was his relationship with Viola, even though he’s obstinate as only a boy could be at the beginning. At first he sees Viola as a foreign object, then as a woman, and finally as a person, just like him, and I think the transformation of his thinking and their interactions was my favorite part of the entire book. If you read this blog you know I’m all about the relationships between characters and this is a great one.
So, in short, The Knife of Never Letting Go* didn’t totally blow me away and it’s not my favorite book of the year, but I seriously enjoyed it and I’m anxiously awaiting the return of The Ask and the Answer* to the library so I can continue the story.
*I am an Amazon Associate and earn a small referral fee if you purchase through these links. I purchased this book.
 Anna and Charles Cornick are just settling in to their new life together when Charles’s father, Bran, the Marrok of all the werewolves, sets up a meeting with all the European werewolves to discuss revealing their existence. Charles finally convinces Bran to send him in his father’s place, so Charles and Anna head to Seattle, prepared for a confrontation. The other werewolves are not going to be pleased with Bran’s plans, particularly not the Beast of Gevaudan, Jean Chastel, who used to openly kill and eat human beings, and rules France to some extent after killing all the other Alphas, or the British werewolf Arthur who believes he really is King Arthur. When a pack of vampires attack Anna on a shopping excursion, the risks escalate and Charles must find the culprit before Anna dies and the Marrok’s plans for peace are ruined.
This is another enjoyable urban fantasy from Patricia Briggs. I felt that this was an improvement over Cry Wolf. There is a lot going on with the plot that is really interesting in context of the universe. Revealing the werewolves’ presence could have a huge impact on all the characters in both this series and the Mercy Thompson series, so it was very interesting to see what happened there. And of course that is certainly not enough, there are also death threats, mysteries, and murders sprinkled throughout the book, leading to one very intriguing and totally unexpected conclusion. If not brilliantly written, Hunting Ground is definitely well-plotted. The villains are all suspicious in their own way, but the overarching deal and the meanings of some of the events early on do not become clear until the end. There is also a nice tie-in with everyone’s favorite Arthurian legend since the British werewolf believes he is actually King Arthur reincarnated. This is a neat addition to an already complex world, but it doesn’t feel too out of place.
The relationship between Anna and Charles continues to develop in a lovely and believable way. They have learned to trust one another, mainly, but there are still small pockets of tension, just like any other real relationship. Anna continues to come into her own, realizing her strengths and beginning to break out of the super-submissive mode by recategorizing just what she is. Meeting her first fellow Omega wolf helps her a lot in this respect and I really look forward to seeing what she does next.
I definitely am enjoying this series. It may still take a backseat to Mercy, but it is another urban fantasy series to watch from Patricia Briggs.
I am an Amazon Associate.
 Rose and Lissa are best friends. Lissa is one of the Moroi vampires, while Rose is a dhampir, learning to become a guardian and protect Lissa from the Strigoi, the evil vampires. Convinced that someone was out to get Lissa, the two fled St. Vladimir’s Academy, living on their own and evading capture. That only lasted so long, however, and now the girls are back at school. Sexy dhampir guardian Dimitri found the girls and while acting as guardian for Lissa, begins to train Rose to become a far better guardian than she was before. In the face of a new danger, can Rose keep Lissa safe while denying her newfound attraction for the older Dimitri?
Vampire Academy is a fun start to what appears to be a promising YA series. For once, it isn’t particularly Twilight-esque and I appreciated its originality with the two different kinds of vampires and the dhampirs as the guardians of the Moroi vampires. It’s a well done world. I always enjoy books set in boarding schools. They provide such a terrific setting with all the characters in one place, with a reason for them to be parentless, and I find that I often wish I could go there myself (Hogwarts is the best example of this). While I don’t think I want to attend St. Vladimir’s Academy, the setting worked perfectly and allowed all of the young drama to take a strong hold on the characters and their actions.
Rose is by far the strongest character in the book. She is a vibrant teenager that visibly grows over the course of the book. She is a bit promiscuous, but I like that she learned over the course of the novel how to be a better guardian and became much more of an adult. Her priorities straightened out and her development was impressive and fluid. I really liked her crush on Dimitri. I think most teenage girls have an older man that they decide they love, so it humanizes her and gives the story an interesting direction to take for the next few books. I’m really looking forward to seeing where it goes. Lissa is a weaker heroine, in part because we see her only through Rose’s eyes. She seems to be loyal and kind, but it’s harder to get a grasp on her personality, although I loved her scenes with Christian when Rose was spying on them.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It’s great YA urban fantasy and I’m looking forward to continuing the series.
I purchased this book. I’m an Amazon Associate.
 Living in seventeenth-century China, Peony has never left her family’s home. Her mother has kept her inside to maintain her virtue and modesty as she prepares to marry out to a stranger. Peony is nearly sixteen, and on her birthday, her father has planned a performance of her favorite play, The Peony Pavilion. As the only child, Peony has been educated beyond what her mother deems appropriate, and as a result has a great appreciation for literature. On the night of the play, Peony accidentally meets a handsome young poet, immediately falling in love with him. In despair over her approaching marriage to a stranger and consumed by obsession for the play and her poet, Peony’s life spirals into a haunting struggle through the nebulous underworld and culminates with her quest to give Chinese women a voice.
I’ve been looking forward to this novel since it came out and was pleased to finally have the opportunity to read it. Lisa See didn’t let me down; while not as masterful as Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, which I read before blogging, Peony in Love* is a romantic story about the struggles of women in China with an abundance of fascinating historical detail and a healthy dose of fantasy. Peony dies in the first third of the novel (this is revealed on the back cover, so I don’t consider it a spoiler) and enters a world of Chinese mythology, where Lisa See uses her research on those beliefs to elaborate on how Peony can still communicate and influence those she loves. We know her ending cannot be totally happy, but her story is still compelling and absorbing.
My favorite aspect of the book was how it mirrored The Peony Pavilion in many ways but also reflected real historical events. I have never read the play, but enough is described in this novel to make it clear that Peony is essentially trying to become Liniang and get her Mengmei to bring her back to life. It was fascinating and maddening to realize that many young women did actually die of “lovesickness” in this way. Basically, it’s believed that they became anorexic, which is horrifying, to both gain control over their lives and because they supposedly believed that true love would save them. Even though this sounds a little far-fetched, it’s easy to relate to Peony and sympathize with her. She’s fallen in love and believes that now she is forced to marry a stranger. I loved the details of her preparations for marriage (except the repeat footbinding!) and the ceremonies enacted before and after her death. This is a part of the world and a period in history I just don’t read enough about.
Better yet, I liked how the novel emphasized the role of women in China and how it has been eroded throughout the centuries. The Three Wives’ Commentary on the play actually exists, as did the writing groups and female poets in the novel, and I’m incredibly intrigued by them and want to learn more about the movement. This is why I love historical fiction! Not only did I get a great story, but I also got a peek into unfamiliar history and a strong desire to learn what’s true and what’s fiction. Peony in Love is definitely recommended.
*I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased all books mentioned in this post.
 Anna Latham, an Omega werewolf still adjusting to her status and history of abuse, has arrived in Montana with her would-be mate, Charles. Charles’ pack is controlled by his father, Bran, the Marrok, or basically the alpha of all the werewolves. As Anna is adjusting to life in a new pack, with new trust issues, and a new mate that she has to get to know, trouble crops up in a nearby forest. Somehow, it’s related to an extremely old werewolf in Bran’s pack who believes he is going a little insane and needs to be put out of his misery. Charles and Anna must do their part to sort out the trouble before the public catches on to the werewolves’ presence while adjusting to new life together.
I can’t really imagine reading this book without having read the short story “Alpha and Omega” in the On the Prowl anthology (my review). It picks up directly afterwards and I can imagine the reader feeling lost without having already been acquainted with Anna and Charles and all that had happened. Similarly, someone who hadn’t read the Mercy Thompson series would have missed out on the connections between books. I don’t know how well this stands alone, but as someone who is a fan, this is a great start to a spin-off series.
It’s not quite as engrossing; Anna is not nearly as compelling as Mercy, for one thing, and Charles still feels a bit stiff. But it’s easy to warm to these characters as they warm to one another, and Anna’s ongoing struggle with her past is handled in what I considered a believable way. Anna has to learn to trust Charles and he has to learn not to do anything to betray that trust. I really felt that they both grew in this novel, so even though they’re not my favorites, they are still likeable and convincing.
The plot itself is a bit of a race to the finish; there is hardly a dull moment and a lot is packed in here with the mystery, resolution, and the relationship drama. The story itself is not really much of a mystery, but more as a way for Anna to develop while providing a bit of suspense outside of love. A lot of the book also fills in pack dynamics which are missing more from the Mercy Thompson series; for example, the concept that the inner wolves mate choose mates without the human side’s consent. This is what happened with Bran and his mate Leah, something I had wondered about, and happens with Anna and Charles almost instantly. Luckily for the latter, their human sides fall in love too, but it’s interesting that this isn’t always the case.
Anyway, I really enjoyed Cry Wolf .* Perhaps not great literature and I wasn’t immediately racing to read the next one, but I’m looking forward to it.
*If you buy through this Amazon link, I will earn a small commission fee.
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