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 Eve Brown had always said that she wanted to go into the Peace Corps. Two years out of college, she figured it was time to take the plunge. With a boyfriend, she hardly expected to fall for her Peace Corps recruiter, but fall she did, and spent most of the months before her assignment trying to get him to love her so much that he begged her to stay. Of course, he did not, and off Eve went, if only to satisfy John’s expectations of her. She fled a year later, unable to cope with Ecuador, only to find herself heading to Uganda as John’s bride before very long, set on changing the world just a little bit.
This memoir is basically a joy to read. Eve’s life is spectacularly eventful and she writes about it with the proper touch of humor while somehow still conveying how different and difficult life in third-world countries is. In Ecuador, for example, Eve lives in the city and manages to see her friends quite frequently and gets luxuries sent from her family at home. Her life seems almost normal, until she interacts with the little lost boys, taking them home and giving them toothbrushes, or travels to one of the villages and sees all the rundown shacks without running water or toilets. Until the event which leads to her departure, Eve writes about everything with a light-hearted voice which makes her experience simultaneously scary and entertaining.
Similarly, her love story with John is serious but also hilarious. There is very little as funny as her Jewish mother asking her newly minted boyfriend if he’d shtupped her daughter yet, or Eve’s determination to get him to marry her. Somehow she even makes the stupidly hard separation of long distance relationships entertaining, which impressed me because I know how terrible it is and I could never write about it with any sort of humor.
I loved the book even more when Eve and John got to Uganda. I really felt like they were making some sort of little difference in those people’s lives and it was fascinating to read about a totally foreign culture; even more so to learn how they became completely accustomed to it and realized they couldn’t really feel at home again in the United States. It’s just so outside my experience but this memoir made me feel as though I could have been there too.
In short, I really loved First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria. I love reading about women who are changing the world and accomplishing goals in their own ways, no matter how big or small the goals are. Eve tries to educate people about AIDS and even though she doesn’t always succeed, she does achieve many of her other goals throughout the book, as does her husband. It’s inspiring to read about them and I really recommend this to everyone.
 After eleven years, Helen Carter is sick and tired of being the ignored mistress of the Duke of Lister. Worse, she knows that if she leaves him, he’ll take her children, Jamie and Abigail, away from her. So she flees, with the help of a friend, to a dirty castle in Scotland inhabited only by a taciturn, scarred war veteran. Sir Alistair Monroe is used to children screaming at the sight of his twisted face and can’t imagine venturing outside his castle any time soon, preferring to write his books about nature in solitude. When Helen and her children arrive in his life and embrace him despite his appearance, Alistair realizes that his world isn’t confined to his castle tower, but that he will indeed have to fight for what he loves.
I have been feeling a little bit burned out on romance novels lately. I read a whole lot of them because I was stressed and eventually they all started to feel the same. You’ll see this if you stick around to read more reviews later this month and next month. This book, however, I loved, despite the fact that I felt weary of the genre. In fact, it totally revolutionized my boredom with the formula because I felt it was good enough that I cared how the couple got to their happy ending. It ceased to be a formula and became a wonderful love story, which is exactly what I look for in my romance.
I probably can’t even tell you why this is different. I loved both characters; at first I didn’t think I was going to like Alistair, but once we learn a little bit about who he is and how he’s changed because of the war and his scars, it’s impossible not to feel for him. Watching him resist his growing feelings for Helen just because she’s beautiful and he’s not, even though she clearly returns his affections, is heartwrenching and definitely had me rooting for their happily ever after. Helen was a similarly interesting character, having been a mistress for years because it was easy for her and easy for her family once the Duke of Lister had got the idea in mind. I liked her experience, it made her a little different from the blushing virgins who never have any idea what to do. Surprisingly, I even loved Helen’s children. I must be growing to like romances with children because I definitely felt they added to this story. They were sweet and loveable and, most importantly, integral to the plot.
The fairy tale at the beginning of each chapter added to the story’s ethereal feel. I like how each excerpt applied beautifully to the chapter it headed and I loved the fairy tale’s ending as much as I loved that of the actual book. There is a bit of a mystery involved with regards to Alistair’s injury in the Colonies, but it isn’t completely resolved. Since I jumped in with the third book of a series, I can only imagine that this is a continuous plotline and will be wrapped up in the fourth book.
To Beguile A Beast revived my flagging interest in romance with a wonderful story, great characters, and touching moments. There is definitely a reason Hoyt has received so much praise in the romance community. I’m thrilled that I have another of her books waiting for me. If you enjoy the genre, this is a book worth reading!
 From the back cover:
On an otherwise ordinary day, in a small shrimping village off the coast of South Carolina, a boat goes missing. The entire town rallies as all are mobilized to find the lost vessel. Throughout the course of one day, flashbacks of Bud Morrison, the captain on board, and Carolina, his wife, reveal the happier days of a once-thriving shrimping industry juxtaposed with the memories of their long term marriage.
Bud and Carolina fell in love at first sight, but that doesn’t mean their life together has been an easy one. Their marriage has hugely deteriorated in recent years not only because of the decline of the shrimping industry but also because of a lack of communication and an unwillingness to forgive each other for sins committed in the past. Over the course of this novel, they realize how much they need to find their way back to each other properly, not just go through the motions.
Even though these two main characters are in a completely different stage of life than I am, I still enjoyed this book and appreciated their bond. This was made somewhat easier by the fact that their flashbacks encompassed all of their history, from the moment they met to their happiest moments to the mistakes they made. The story was told in such a way that even though tension was building in the present day because of Bud’s accident, the flashbacks were still important and appropriate as both characters endure a particularly difficult day.
At the core, this is very much a book about relationships. The novel takes us through the entirety of Bud’s and Carolina’s short courtship and marriage and we can see how they’ve changed and grown, for good or for bad, and eventually shows how they got to where they are in the present day scenes. It isn’t just about them, though, it’s also their daughter Lizzy and her ex-husband Josh, their relationship with Carolina’s parents, developments between the friends that they made as youths, and among other shrimpers on the ocean. It’s in a sense about the entire community and how it has changed right along with them in the thirty years since Bud and Carolina met and fell in love.
Last Light over Carolina feels very Southern. The characters’ accents aren’t spelled out phonetically, but the way they speak and their mannerisms more than make it clear. I loved the descriptions of life on the shrimping boat, the difficulties of working such long hours, the pain from hard labor, but with the beauty of watching the early morning sunrise and feeling free on the open ocean. It’s easy to see how the various characters are drawn to this life even as the supply of shrimp begins to let them down. The scenery is evoked wonderfully and places us right in South Carolina, in the Atlantic Ocean, and at times in Florida. One of the blurbs on the cover says that this book brings the South to life and that feels true throughout the narrative.
I definitely enjoyed my time with this novel. I came to appreciate the characters as I went on and to care about their plights. I would love to go on a shrimper and see what they experienced for real. Last Light over Carolina is a wonderful book and it’s well worth reading these carefully crafted pages.
Check out some of the other fantastic blogs on today’s tour:
All About {n}: www.bookwormygirl.blogspot.com
Bookin’ with “BINGO”: http://bookinwithbingo.blogspot.com/
My Guilty Pleasures: http://www.mgpblog.com/
Just Jennifer Reading: http://www.justjenniferreading.blogspot.com/
Chick With Books: http://www.chickwithbooks.blogspot.com/
Bella’s Novella: http://www.bellasnovella.com/
Books and Needlepoint: http://booksandneedlepoint.blogspot.com/
Booksie’s Blog: http://booksiesblog.blogspot.com/
Beth Fish Reads: http://bfishreads.blogspot.com/
Living Life and Reading Books: http://ilovelovebooks.blogspot.com/
Book N Around: http://booknaround.blogspot.com/
The Eclectic Book Hoarder: http://eclecticbookhoarder.blogspot.com/
Pick of the Literate: http://bookrevues.blogspot.com/
A Book Bloggers Diary: http://abookbloggersdiary.blogspot.com/
My Friend Amy: http://www.myfriendamysblog.com/
The Tome Traveller’s Weblog: http://thetometraveller.blogspot.com/
Gaijin Mama: http://gaijinmama.wordpress.com/
Blog Business World: http://blogbusinessworld.blogspot.com/
ScarpettaJunkie’s Blog: http://scarpettajunkie.wordpress.com/
Frugal Plus: http://frugalplus.com/
Carolina Gal’s Literary Café: http://susansliterarycafe.blogspot.com/
This Book For Free: www.thisbookforfree.com
Marta’s Meanderings: http://martasmeanderings.blogspot.com/
 From the back cover:
When mapmakers of the distant past came to the end of the known world, they would inscribe “Here There Be Sea Monsters.” When Tori Murden McClure attempted to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean in a 23 foot plywood boat with no motor or sail, she had no idea what kind of monsters she would find. Despite deep solitude and perilous conditions, McClure was a loner determined to prove what one person with a mission can do. But when she is brought to her knees by the worst hurricane season in the history of the North Atlantic, she must signal for help and go home in what she thinks is disgrace.
Back in Kentucky, her life begins to change in unexpected ways. She falls in love and learns to embrace her own vulnerability. So with her friends and her lover, she devises a strategy that will carry her to the opposite shore. With a wry sense of humor and a strong voice, McClure gives readers a true memoir of an explorer who maps her world with rare emotional honesty.
As with most memoirs, this one doesn’t just cover Tori’s journey across the Atlantic but flashes back through her life and her motivations for embarking on such a difficult and dangerous trip. She writes about her brother, mentally disabled and abused, the fights that she got into as a child, her entry into a more prestigious academic world and her successful attempt to embrace her own talents. Tori is a remarkable woman and in the pages of this memoir, she explains in clear, compelling language both her life and her journeys across the Atlantic Ocean.
I was fascinated by all the boat details mentioned in this book. The book has a diagram of Tori’s boat at the front and throughout she explains just what she’s doing when she rows, where her stuff is, how she feels in her tiny cabin, and so on. Every gory detail about the blisters on her hands, on her feet, her various aches and pains, and so on are included to really make us feel the pain she’s in. This is especially so during the hurricane; we don’t find out what’s causing all the problems at the time, but it seemed fairly obvious to me. The boat capsizes a ridiculous number of times and Tori is thrown about her little cabin. At one point, she thinks about ending it because she is in so much pain, very alone, and her demons have come out to get her. Luckily, she doesn’t, and the next day calls for rescue. I was actually relieved for her.
Tori’s emotional development is quite moving as well. Between stories of her difficult childhood and independent adolescence and early adulthood, it’s hard to believe that she opens herself up to others as much as she does by the end of her memoir. Her personal growth while she’s out alone on the boat is valuable not only to her but to us as well. She faces down her demons and wins; I would hope that most of us need not end up in a hurricane in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean to do the same ourselves!
I enjoyed this memoir far more than I was expecting to. It’s well written, compelling, and packs a punch for a book that’s about a woman rowing alone across the ocean. Tori has lived an exciting and eventful life and it’s extremely encouraging to read about a woman who achieves her dreams through hard work and determination. In a world consumed with celebrity memoirs, this is a breath of fresh air and certainly worth your time.
IndieBound | Powell’s | Amazon | Amazon UK
 When we first heard about Beach Trip, my mom knew she wanted to read it right away. So she had the first crack at the review copy and here are Carolyn’s thoughts!
Beach Trip is a story of four girls: Mel, a mystery writer living in New York, Sara, an Atlanta attorney, Annie, a successful Nashville businesswoman, and Lola, sweet-tempered and absentminded, who all went to college together. After 23 years they agree to go on a week vacation to Lola’s lavish North Carolina beach house. They go here in an attempt to relive the carefree days of their college years. But as the week wears on and each woman’s hidden story is gradually revealed, these four friends learn that they must inevitably confront their shared past: a failed love affair, a discarded suitor, a betrayal, and a secret that threatens to change their bond, and their lives, forever.
I found Beach Trip to be the kind of book that once you start reading it you don’t want to put it down. All the characters in the book are so real and likeable. I would like to be friends with these woman. Mel, with her strength and her inability to have a lasting relationship probably caused by her dysfunctional childhood. Sara, who is struggling with her son’s autism. Annie, who is struggling with her inappropriate affair with a professor in her college years. Lola, whose her sad life has led to her being kept away from her true love and being controlled by her mother and husband. That’s just to name a few of the many things that happen in these woman’s lives told to us by this wonderful author.
Cathy Holton wrote a terrific book. She gives us so much information about each of these woman. She tells us about them from their childhood up to present time. They all have very complicated and very real lives. In so many books you read, everyone is beautiful and has perfect lives. These women could be any one of us. Their parents weren’t perfect and they themselves all made plenty of mistakes. The all survived through the good and the bad.
The only part I didn’t like about this book was I felt that there was excessive drinking of alcohol. I don’t think you need to get drunk to have a good time or to reconnect with your friends.
I would recommend this book, it is a wonderful read. It is a book about real woman and real lives. Read it with a friend because you will want to discuss it with someone as you’re reading it. It also had a shocking ending, which I loved and never saw coming.
IndieBound | Powell’s | Amazon
 With his mother dead, Arda can finally relax and look back on his life. When he was fourteen, his father was assassinated, but Arda doesn’t seem to regret this very much at first, too busy relaxing in the lap of wealth and luxury. Meanwhile, the assassin Bedirhan, living in the same city, has decided to give up his job. As the story unfolds, we learn that Bedirhan was the man who murdered Arda’s father, but that they have a surprising amount in common. When Arda’s life is in danger, only the clues provided by his parents’ friend Selcuk Altun will lead him to his father’s killer and the answers that he desperately craves.
I’m afraid this book gets a solid “meh” from me. Quotes on the back of the book promise “a brilliantly edgy, witty thriller” and a deep insight into life in Istanbul. I didn’t feel that I got either of those things; certainly the book was not very exciting until the very end. At one point, Arda is nearly raped and murdered, saved by a mysterious gunman, but I wasn’t particularly worried about him. I was, rather, annoyed at his musings regarding his youthful crush and probably wouldn’t have minded if he’d kicked the bucket in such a violent way. This is even more the case when we learn that his father actually slept with said youthful crush. Color me disgusted with the book; not even a compelling narrative and I have to read about pedophilia?
That isn’t to say I felt more sympathy for the other narrator, Bedirhan, because I didn’t. I actually had a hard time distinguishing between the two. The prose isn’t exactly distinct, which may be either the author or the translator’s fault, or my own for not reading carefully enough, and the only signal of the change is an A or a B as a chapter heading. I did not get this at first, I thought that the chapters might be lettered rather than numbered. Silly me, yes, but also confusing when I finally realized someone else was talking!
Were I interested in this book in a literary sense, I think I could have pulled a lot out of it. There is, for one thing, the contrast between the character of Selcuk Altun and the author of the book Selcuk Altun. What is his motive in putting himself here, especially given that the book is written in first person? Secondly, there is a frequent mention of a book entitled Songs My Mother Taught Me. Clearly, given Arda’s abrasive relationship with his mother, this one is easily explained with regards to the title. I’m not, however, very interested in a book that is hard to enjoy without picking it apart. I do enjoy literary fiction with a deeper meaning, but not if the book is impenetrable otherwise, and for me, this one was a very difficult read.
I would like to conclude this review, however, with the last line of the book. Don’t worry, it gives nothing away:
I thought that only film stars shed tears with their eyes shut.
I don’t know why that line caught me, but it did, and so I thought I’d share.
Available via IndieBound, Powell’s, Amazon, and Amazon UK.
 It’s 1914. Tensions are about to erupt in Europe. John Somerville, however, has problems of his own to worry about. He’s excavating what he believes to be a forgotten Assyrian palace in Mesopotamia, part of the gigantic Ottoman Empire. Unluckily for him, the Germans are coming with a railroad that will go right through Tell Erdek, his precious site, the excavation of which he has self-financed for three years in a desperate bid to make a name for himself. Along with him is his younger colleague, Palmer, who has a passion for ancient writing; his wife Christine, who thrives on Somerville’s enthusiasm and purity of passion; Patricia, a grad student who is at the forefront of the feminist movement and very outspoken; and Jehar, an Arab man who feeds Somerville information in exchange for the gold to win him the love of his life. Into this mess arrives Elliott, an American geologist masquerading as an archaeologist to gain information about oil. Every character’s loyalties are tested as tensions escalate not only between European powers but at the excavation site itself.
I’d heard, before starting this book, that others really struggled with it, abandoning it and giving it away. I thought it was going to be terrible. Once again, I put it off. When I finally did read it, I could see in some cases what those who disliked this book thought about it. For one thing, it’s quite political. A lot of time is spent discussing the importance of the oil and the conflicts between the countries who are racing to get it. Nor are all the characters likeable. Christine spends time feeling disdainful towards Patricia because she is too outspoken. The mere idea that women could vote shocks Christine, who desires nothing more than to spend her life supporting a powerful and influential man. Can you tell that Christine made me gag a little? Okay, a lot.
On the bright side, though, despite its faults I found myself loving the book. I have to say being an aspiring historian and secret fan of the exciting part of archaeology really helped me in that. If I didn’t feel as excited about Somerville’s discovery as he did, the book would have totally fallen flat for me. There is something fascinating about pulling history out of the ground and this is just what Somerville is doing and what he’s passionate about. How could I not love a guy like him? This is even if he is a bit uncertain about himself, especially given that it’s hard to blame him. As soon as he realized that there was something amazing down there, I was hooked.
I also found this book incredibly politically relevant. I’m often irritated that so many of the problems in the Middle East have to do with European powers stepping in and carving up arbitrary countries for their own benefit. Here we have a novel that is set just as this is happening; we have a character who is unearthing the enthralling past of these areas which are now war-torn from intervention and internal turmoil and conflict. And hardly for the last time, it is all about oil. While set firmly in the past, this book also sheds light on how we got to this point in history ourselves. I think it also shows how our disregard for history leads us to repeat the mistakes we have made over and over again.
In conclusion, this is definitely a book worth reading. I highly recommend it, especially to those who love history and/or secretly wish they could be on Time Team. While I wait for that day to come, I’ll be seeking out more of Barry Unsworth’s works.
IndieBound | Powell’s | Amazon
 Thanks to the flood of illegal immigrants into the US, small towns in Mexico are left with a lack of young men. For Nayeli and her friends Yolo and Vampi, this is a serious problem, especially when banditos arrive in the town to scare the women. After watching the film The Magnificent Seven, Nayeli decides that she is going to go to the US, into the beautiful north, to find seven men to protect her town and revitalize the lives of the women therein. Armed with cash, a pretty smile, and three friends, Nayeli heads off on a bus into a journey neither she nor I would have imagined.
With a few notable exceptions, novels set in Latin America tend to frustrate me. Largely, this is because of the magical realism that many of those authors employ. In general, I prefer novels to be either all fantasy or all real, but magical realism treads an uneasy line between the two, and for some reason I just don’t like it. So when my online book club chose this novel for June, I wasn’t really sure what I was going to think of it. In the end, I ended up on the edge myself between enjoying it and finding myself dissatisfied with it.
There are many things to enjoy in this novel. Urrea’s writing is beautiful and evoked perfectly for me small-town Mexico, a garbage dump on the edge of the border, and American cities that I’ve never been to. I was really moved by how difficult life is for illegal immigrants and how cruel the Border Patrol is towards them. I’m not very comfortable with our stance towards illegal immigrants, although I don’t know how to fix it, so the struggles portrayed in the book really made me think about the problem. It was interesting to see how in different locations, Mexicans are treated differently. Lastly, there isn’t really much of that magical realism in this book. Slightly unrealistic situations are portrayed but nothing that is actually impossible. It still has a bit of that feel to it, but overall I was happy about this absence.
On the other hand, certain things bothered me about the book. Nayeli’s journey seemed a little outrageous, especially given that the only threat was two men who refused to pay for their food. We know that they are banditos because we are told, but they did not seem to be terrifying. Other events in this book follow a similar unlikely pattern. Some of the passages in the book are in Spanish, which I don’t speak, although I mostly skimmed them and tried to get the jist of the conversation. Perhaps more fatally, I didn’t really understand or like many of the characters or their motivations. I came closest to liking Nayeli, but then towards the end of the book she has an experience and reacts in a way that saddened me; I felt that for her, the journey was not fulfilling. The secondary characters often irritated me; Nayeli’s friends are largely caricatures and it’s hard to feel that we know anything about them outside of their shell. Even the missionary, Matt, was unappealing once we met him and seemed at total odds with the man all the girls had fallen in love with.
Despite all that, I did enjoy it. I read it in a few hours between errands and never felt bored or that I wished I’d brought another book. It was only afterwards that I began to feel uncertain about it and think through everything that I have mentioned. I would still recommend it, especially if you like novels by other Latin American writers like Gabriel García Márquez.
Our book club discussion was really interesting. More of us than I had expected felt lukewarm about the book; they didn’t like it, or they were like me and liked it but had some problems with it overall. We were all most moved by the issue of illegal immigrants as portrayed by the book; some of us had heard about the garbage dumps and some of us had not. A few of us were stymied by the way that people were able to recognize them as illegals; there are plenty of Latin Americans here legally and there is no real way to tell the difference. We had a great discussion about it and I suspect other book clubs would too.
IndieBound | Powell’s | Amazon
 From the back cover:
John, Duke of Bedford, grew to manhood fighting for his father, King Henry IV of England, on the wild and lawless Northern Marches. He was a prince of the royal blood, loyal, strong, and the greatest ally that his brother – the future Henry V – was to have. Filled with the clash of bitter rivalries and deadly power struggles, this is Georgette Heyer’s last and most ambitious novel, bringing to life a character and a period she found irresistibly attractive.
I really wanted to like this novel. I went into it expecting to like it. I have really enjoyed the other works that I’ve read by Georgette Heyer and as you all know, I love historical fiction. I just could not love this book, though, much as I tried.
First there is the language. Heyer appears to have really tried to write this novel in the language of the fifteenth century. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work the way she intended. Instead, it feels stilted and unfamiliar, even to one who has spent hours trying to figure out what fifteenth century people meant when they used all these words that have fallen out of the language or when they used words which don’t mean what they now mean. I think the fifty to seventy-five years in between my work and this book make a difference because these are unquestionably proper words, but I was unfamiliar with them and they make the book a slow, slow read.
If a reader of this book has no knowledge of the history or people involved, it will constitute even more of a struggle. Even though I have a fairly comprehensive knowledge of Henry IV’s reign, I had to refer to the family tree several times and even wished I’d taken notes so I could keep track of the various names used to refer to one person. This is the first instance that I’ve wished for a character list, which I’ve seen in a few fantasy novels, just so I could remember who people were.
Those two problems combined with the fact that this book has no real plot and is merely a meandering through history, which isn’t even complete, made this book a slow one for me. In the end, I didn’t see the point. I didn’t find it enjoyable and I wasn’t searching for a resolution to a story because I knew there wasn’t one. I think that if someone was extremely interested in the reign of Henry IV’s reign and wanted to read this alongside some comprehensive history over a lengthy period of time, it would work better. It is historically accurate to the best of my knowledge, but I guess this just goes to show that it also takes a well told story for a compelling work of historical fiction. I wish Heyer had applied her considerable talents, so clearly on display in her Regencies, to this novel as well. I would recommend those instead.
IndieBound | Powell’s | Amazon
 The orphan Moth has grown up in Calio, a city so high up on the mountains that it’s nearly in the clouds, watching Skyknights and dreaming of flying in a dragonfly of his own. As a peasant orphan, though, all Moth can do is work at the aerodrome and dream while he lives with his elderly friend Leroux and Leroux’s pet kestrel Lady Esme. Leroux often tells tales about the land beyond the Reach, an sea of fog nearby that never seems to end, which only grow more fantastical as the old man gets sicker. Moth’s friend Fiona is also an orphan but lives with her rich grandfather, the Governor of Calio. Neither are content with their lives, but are soon to find that the tales Leroux told are much closer to the truth than either of them would have imagined.
This book took a few pages to absorb me, but once I was hooked, I was really hooked and the pages flew by. This is certainly a hallmark of YA fiction; kids have limited attention spans, so the story has to be great and fast-moving to compel them to keep reading. Once Moth and Fiona go through the Reach, this is certainly the case with this book. We don’t know much about anyone who is helping them or anyone who is chasing them, so there is a lot of mystery surrounding their journey, especially given that they are hardly sure of what they are going to find.
The characters were also very sweet. Both of them are young teenagers. Fiona is an uncertain girl who, with unconventional red hair, believes that not only is she ugly, but that everyone in her life will leave her. Her parents’ death left her with deep scars. Moth is still a child at heart, which plays a big part in his actions in this book, convinced that everything can work out and even though he knows he isn’t going to be a Skyknight, his head is full of dreams. Both of them are orphans, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have people who love them. I think Fiona’s grandfather turned out to be one of the surprise great supporting characters in this book. Most of the rest are similarly noble, kind, and care for Moth and Fiona, willing to put their lives on the line for these two. Even the evil characters, for the most part, are ambiguous and not purely evil. Moth is particularly talented in bringing out the good in people with his innocence and his soaring ambition.
I thought the world was well done as well. While not terribly different, in that there are regular fantasy beings like dragons, mermaids, and centaurs, Marco adds some clever new ideas into the mix and I never felt like I was reading something that has already been done. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, so I can’t give too many details away, but I did like the world and I hope that we will see more of it in the rest of the series.
I definitely enjoyed this YA fantasy novel. It was a touching journey for me as well as the two main characters. I would recommend it to both adults who might be in the mood for something fast-paced and exciting as well as for young adults.
Starfinder is available from Amazon, Powell’s, and Amazon UK.
Thanks to TLC book tours and author John Marco for sending me a copy of this book.
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