The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

Emily Benedict came to Mullaby, North Carolina, hoping to solve at least some of the riddles surrounding her mother’s life. For instance, why did Dulcie Shelby leave her hometown so suddenly? Why did she vow never to return? But the moment Emily enters the house where her mother grew up and meets the grandfather she never knew—a reclusive, real-life gentle giant—she realizes that mysteries aren’t solved in Mullaby, they’re a way of life.

Here are rooms where the wallpaper changes to suit your mood. Unexplained lights skip across the yard at midnight. And a neighbor bakes hope in the form of cakes.
Everyone in Mullaby adores Julia Winterson’s cakes. She offers them to satisfy the town’s sweet tooth and in the hope of bringing back the love she fears she’s lost forever. In Julia, Emily may have found a link to her mother’s past. But why is everyone trying to discourage Emily’s growing relationship with the handsome and mysterious son of Mullaby’s most prominent family? Emily came to Mullaby to get answers, but all she’s found so far are more questions.

Is there really a ghost dancing in her backyard? Can a cake really bring back a lost love? In this town of lovable misfits, maybe the right answer is the one that just feels…different.

I am a huge fan of Sarah Addison Allen's first two books. I am from the south, and her books are set in North Carolina small towns. Her descriptors make me nostalgic, and the magic in her books is a soft, domestic sort of magic. My favorite is still The Sugar Queen.

This book just didn't have that magic touch, I thought. It seems more like a YA book, so it may be exactly what some people like. Those amazing descriptors are still in this book, but it seems a more shallow story, and it just didn't touch my heart like the previous two did.

If you like southern fiction with a touch of down home magic, I definitely recommend Sarah Addison Allen's books. However, I would also recommend starting out with one of the others first, unless you're a fan of YA fiction also.

Bottom Line

 To sum it up: A magical southern to the core story about family and getting back to your roots.

Overall Rating: 3 / 5

Buy or Try? Try

More? Standalone

Content

Plot: 3 / 5

Setting: 4 / 5

Characters: 3 / 5

Style
Pace: Slow
Descriptiveness: Poetry

Fantasy factor: Magical Realism

Amazon.com link

Blackveil by Kristen Britain

WARNING: I try to avoid spoilers, but they are possible (even probable), since this is the fourth book of the Green Rider series. Green Rider (review here) is the first. I recommend reading them in order.

This review actually has some spoilers (clearly marked). I appreciated the warning on the crazy shit that goes on in this book, so I imagine there are some others out there too that prefer to know what they're getting into before taking on a book like this.
Once a simple student, Karigan G'ladheon finds herself in a world of deadly danger and complex magic, compelled by forces she cannot understand when she becomes a legendary Green Rider-one of the magical messengers of the king. Forced by magic to accept a dangerous fate she would never have chosen, headstrong Karigan has become completely devoted to the king and her fellow Riders.

But now, an insurrection led by dark magicians threatens to break the boundaries of ancient, evil Blackveil Forest-releasing powerful dark magics that have been shut away for a millennium. 

I think the subtext "long-awaited sequel" has been on every Kristen Britain book since Green Rider. Here are the respective publication dates of each Green Rider book:

Green Rider (1998)
First Rider's Call (2003)
The High King's Tomb (2007)
Blackveil (2011)

To be a Kristen Britain fan, one must be very patient to wait 4-5 years between books. That said, though, it's easy to be patient generally. Britain has always made an effort to wrap up at least some plotlines and let the reader have a sense of closure, even if the story is still ongoing. No such luck with Blackveil. Ginormous cliffhanger at the end, so if you have a problem with that I'd hold out for the next one to come out first.

This book was a lot darker and more mature than previous books as well. Be prepared for travel into "ookey" territory more than the other books. Still on the PG-13 side though, imo. All in all, I enjoyed it immensely, more than the third book that's for sure. Aside from tying up some messy, random plotlines from #3, it was a cleanly written and a fast read (for such a long book that is.) I couldn't put it down. Very refreshing after #3.

Once again, the romance aspects and character interactions make the book feel sort of light, but the rest of the plot is very dark and lends some depth to the book.

THAR BE SPOILERS AHEAD

So there are some odd things about this book. First, Zachary gets shot in an assassination attempt, and for the good of the country (mostly), his advisers decide to conduct a sham marriage between him and Estora, with Colin saying "I do" for the king, since he's out cold. There's some sort of ritual where some people have to watch the king and queen do it for the first time, and this ritual still occurs even though Zachary is delerious. Estora and Zachary are both drugged, and they have sex...Zachary thinking Estora is Karigan, and Estora being blackmailed by her cousin. It's really weird, and I think that surely there was some way for the story to go the same general way that didn't involve this weirdness.

END SPOILERS

So other than some strange twists in the story, I really liked Blackveil a lot. It brought me back to the first two books, and there was never a dull moment, that's for sure. I could see hints of how the book series might end too, which was nice. I am hoping that the fifth will be the last. As much as I will miss new books, I think it's time for the series to conclude. Blackveil feels like the beginning of the end, and I hope not to get another "let's drag this out and make more money" book after this one being so much better than The High King's Tomb.

Bottom Line

 To sum it up: Exciting, dark, and memorable.

Overall Rating: 4 / 5

Buy or Try? Buy

More? 4 / 4 so far. Unsure of how many there will be total...it was initially to be a trilogy.

Content

Plot: 4 / 5

Setting: 4 / 5

Characters: 3.5 / 5

Style
Pace: Fast
Descriptiveness: Prose

Fantasy factor: High Fantasy

Amazon.com link

Challenges: 2011 Fantasy Reading Challenge

High King's Tomb by Kristen Britain

WARNING: I try to avoid spoilers, but they are possible (even probable), since this is the third book of the Green Rider series. Green Rider (review here) is the first. I recommend reading them in order.

A thousand years ago the armies of the Arcosian Empire, led by Mornhavon the Black, crossed the great sea and tried to conquer the land of Sacoridia —and during Karigan G'ladheon's early years as a Green Rider, Mornhavon's spirit, sensing weakness in his prison walls and seeking vengeance, began to wake. With the ghostly help of the First Rider, Karigan had managed to drive off the spirit of Mornhavon—but for how long, no one could know. And now, the descendants of those Arcosians are ready to strike, reaching out to claim the land their forebears had tried to conquer. Worse, these vengeful enemies had spent generations honing their powers of dark magic—a force against which the Sacoridians had no defense…

I love this series. Really. I do. But it should have been a trilogy. I think someone was trying to get their money's worth out of this author, so she was signed up for a 90 bazillion book deal instead of what she had originally planned to do, which simply wasn't making them enough money.  

The Green Rider series was supposed to be a trilogy, as far as I know, up until the second book. In my opinion it shows. First Rider's Call reads like a good second book...things are coming together, almost ready to be tied up and brought together in the final volume. 

However, The High King's Tomb takes all of that and spins off in another direction. I felt like the plot of this one was kind of out of left field, and now that I've read the fourth (review forthcoming), I think this book was just a way to extend the series. It didn't really move the plot along, and more served to introduce more characters and plotlines that couldn't be resolved in just one more book.

Godbeings were introduced as well, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. Again, it just did not seem like it went along with where the second book was going. That said, with the fourth book now out, the third book is a nice tie-in to the series, although it seemed to have more "filler" than the rest. Filler for this author, though, still makes for an entertaining read.

Bottom Line

 To sum it up: If you like this series so far, don't stop now. :)

Overall Rating: 3.5 / 5

Buy or Try? Buy

More? 3 / 4 so far. Unsure of how many there will be total...it was initially to be a trilogy.

Content

Plot: 2.5 / 5

Setting: 4 / 5

Characters: 3 / 5

Style
Pace: Middlin'
Descriptiveness: Prose

Fantasy factor: High Fantasy

Amazon.com link 

Challenges: 2011 Fantasy Reading Challenge, Read Me Baby One More Time

First Rider's Call by Kristen Britain

WARNING: I try to avoid spoilers, but they are possible (even probable), since this is the second book of the Green Rider series. Green Rider (review here) is the first. I recommend reading them in order.

Karigan is a Green Rider, one of the king's elite troop of messengers, each of whom is called as magic in the blood answers an ancient summons. Since the breaching of the D'Yer Wall, which protects Sacoridia from the malignant forces of the Blackveil Forest, however, all the magic in the land has become unpredictable, including that of the Riders. With tainted magic escaping into the world, and Karigan herself poisoned by it, the last thing she needs is to start having visions and hearing voices--visions of the First Rider, Lil Ambriodhe, long-dead founder of the troop, and voices whispering of an age-old, unbreakable link between Lil and Karigan. Lil has seen Karigan's future and that of Sacoridia, and the land will come to no good end if Karigan and Lil together are unable to overcome the great evil that is about to enter the world.

This book picks up about a year after the events of Green Rider. This book has always been my favorite of the first three (I'm working on the 4th now) because you find out so much about Sacordia. I love learning about the first rider and the history of Mornhavon the Black. The historical background helps the reader understand the "current" events better.

Once again, the relationships are sort of weird and sometimes feel contrived. Generally, I don't notice, but there are some conversations, especially between Karigan and Zachary that left me wondering how their relationship got to where it is in this book. Perhaps we missed something in that year that is in between the first and second books. There is an awkwardness in the romantic portion of this book, and indeed in the friendships sometimes, that is certainly not evident in the rest of it.

It's ok though. Really. This is one of my favorite books, and the plot is even better than the first Green Rider book was. As much as the characters stayed at their status quo for the most part, the plot became more intricate and the Green Rider universe became far more multidimensional.

Bottom Line

 To sum it up: More of the same, but in a really interesting un-put-down-able way.

Overall Rating: 4 / 5

Buy or Try? Buy

More? 2 / 4 so far. Unsure of how many there will be total...it was initially to be a trilogy.

Content

Plot: 4 / 5

Setting: 4 / 5

Characters: 3 / 5

Style
Pace: Fast
Descriptiveness: Prose

Fantasy factor: High Fantasy

Amazon.com link 

Challenges: 2011 Fantasy Reading Challenge, Read Me Baby One More Time