Flame of Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier

Maeve, daughter of Lord Sean of Sevenwaters, was badly burned as a child and carries the legacy of that fire in her crippled hands. After ten years she’s returning home as a courageous, forthright woman with a special gift for taming difficult animals. But while her body’s scars have healed, her spirit remains fragile, as she fears the shadows of her past.

Sevenwaters is in turmoil. The fey prince Mac Dara has become desperate to see his only son, who is married to Maeve’s sister, return to the Otherworld. To force Lord Sean’s hand, Mac Dara has caused a party of innocent travelers on the Sevenwaters border to vanish.

When Maeve finds one of the missing travelers murdered in the woods, she and her brother Finbar embark on a journey that may bring about the end of Mac Dara’s reign — or lead to a hideous death. But if she is successful, Maeve may open a door to a future she has not dared to believe possible...

Flame of Sevenwaters is the 6th (!) book in the Sevenwaters series. I must say the magic has somewhat worn off in the last few books. Not that they're not charming, enjoyable reads, but they're not mind-blowing, gut-wrenching love stories anymore like the first one was. There's been a clear formula for at least the last 2 or so books now. Girl has given up on men. Mystical hilarity ensues. Girl finds shmexy leading man after all.

I think what really got me was the abruptness of Maeve's love interest. Out of the blue...and they just KNOW and then they're engaged. And that's not really how love works...and those aren't the love stories I like to read.

All in all, as I said, this book was charming, but fluffy and read like YA. It was a quick, enjoyable, light read. While I probably won't read this one up again, I will pick up the next Sevenwaters book (if there is one).

Bottom Line

 To sum it up: The Sevenwaters legacy continues.

Overall Rating: 3 / 5

Buy or Try? Try

More? Standalone but 6 / 6 in series

Content

Plot: 3 / 5

Setting: 4 / 5

Characters: 2 / 5 (somewhat flat and cookie cutter compared to Marillier's other works)

Style
Pace: Fast
Descriptiveness: Prose

Fantasy factor: Magical Realism

Amazon.com link

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

Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble by HP Mallory

Since I have spent the last few weeks studying for the test that decided the course of the rest of my life (no pressure), I really needed something light and fun to read. Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble by HP Mallory was just perfect for this purpose.

Life isn’t bad for psychic Jolie Wilkins. True, she doesn’t have a love life to speak of, but she has a cute house in the suburbs of Los Angeles, a cat and a quirky best friend.

Enter Rand Balfour, a sinfully attractive warlock who insists she’s a witch and who just might turn her life upside down. Rand hires her to help him solve a mystery regarding the death of his client who also happens to be a ghost. Jolie not only uncovers the cause of the ghost’s demise but, in the process, she brings him back to life!

Word of Jolie’s incredible ability to bring back the dead spreads like wildfire, putting her at the top of the Underworld’s most wanted list. Consequently, she finds herself at the center of a custody battle between a villainous witch, a dangerous but oh-so-sexy vampire, and her warlock boss, Rand. 

I don't really read paranormal romance very often, if ever, and definitely not one that clearly states on the front cover that it is a paranormal romance, but I read an excerpt and just had to read more. Even better, this is another book that was only $0.99 at Amazon for the Kindle...I didn't figure I had much to lose.

It was fun, fast-paced, and surprisingly complex. I was not expecting a romance novel to have the depth of world-building that this one has. The underground, secretive world of vampires, werewolves, fairies and witches have their own society. I found each of the species to be quite well developed.

The characters are somewhat flat and predictable, especially the men, but I found I didn't mind all that much. You don't go into a rom com expecting Citizen Kane. Every woman hopes for a Rand to waltz into her life, and I enjoyed the relationship between Rand and Jolie for the most part.

That said, I found Jolie to be somewhat inconsistent. I felt that she became whatever the author needed her to be at the time. At the middle of the book, she's trying to convince Rand to have sex with her spur of the moment in the woods. Then later, she turns down her new boyfriend citing the fact she's only done this once before, and she's just not ready. This same woman, who earlier in the book said she had no discernible sex drive and dressed conservatively is suddenly a provocatively dressing sex kitten who has at least four men who are trying to seduce her. This sexual tension between Jolie and...well...everyone was very sudden.

As previously mentioned, I do not read paranormal romance so perhaps this is a genre style, but at times, the sensual scenes, although they were widely spaced, seemed somewhat heavy-handed and artificial. It was especially noticeable toward the end. I felt the author couldn't decide between a trashy romance novel and a light fantasy read, so everything was just jumbled in together. Or an editor said "Hey. There's not enough smut in this, and that's what sells books. So fix it."

All in all, it was fun and entertaining. As far as paranormal romances go, it was very good in my opinion. I will definitely buy the next one because I really enjoyed the book, despite its flaws, and it was exactly what I needed: light and fun. HP Mallory has one other series started that I have my eye on as well. However, I think for my next book, though, I need something with a bit more depth.

Bottom Line

 To sum it up: A light and fun read for a rainy day.

Overall Rating: 3.5 / 5

Buy or Try? Buy. Can't beat $0.99

More? 1 / 2 so far. I anticipate at least one more book

Content

Plot: 4 / 5
Setting: 4 / 5
Characters: 3 / 5

Style
Pace: Fast
Descriptiveness: Prose

Fantasy factor: Magical Realism

Amazon.com link

Challenges: 2011 Fantasy Reading Challenge

Hush Money by Susan Bischoff

As soon as I knew I was getting a Kindle for Christmas, I started looking at cheap and free ebooks. This one is $0.99 at Amazon...not quite free, but as far as I'm concerned, well worth the money. 

They call their abilities Talents, and that’s what they call themselves as well. Talents are people born with supernatural powers, feared by the population at large. Possession of an “unregistered ability” has become illegal, and those who are discovered are forcibly removed to government-run research facilities. They do not return.

And so the Talents try, as best they can, to keep their abilities secret–some more successfully than others. For some, keeping that secret begins to define who they are. That’s where Hush Money begins…

Be normal, invisible. Don’t get close to anyone.

All in all, this book was fairly enjoyable. It was a light, fun read. The characters are entertaining, and the plot moves quickly. The narration is easy to read, and Joss is sassy and fun.

However, it is very obviously a YA novel. The scope of the novel is very small, taking place in a fairly small town. We don't really find out much about the Talents on a national or global scale, which I would have found interesting. Also, the climax of the book was not so climactic...I expected a bit more after the build up of the rest of the novel.

Was it worth 99 cents? Yes. The time I put into reading it? Yes. Will I buy sequels? Yes. However, I would not recommend expecting too much out of this book...it was fun but not revolutionary. I think this would make a good beach read, or would be a nice way to relax when you're horribly busy or stressed out.

Bottom Line

Overall Rating: 3 / 5

Buy or Try? Buy...it's only 99 cents
More? 1 / ?   Heroes Til Curfew being released 2011

Content

Plot: 3 / 5
Setting: 2 / 5
Characters: 3 / 5

Style
Pace: Fast
Descriptiveness: Prose

Fantasy factor: Magical Realism

Amazon.com link

Seer of Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier

Before I review this, I just want to clarify that the Sevenwaters series is one of my favorites, and Juliet Marillier is one of my favorite authors. I've had this on my wishlist since I heard there was another Sevenwaters book coming out.

The young seer Sibeal is visiting an island of elite warriors, prior to making her final pledge as a druid. It's there she finds Felix, a survivor of a Viking shipwreck, who's lost his memory. The scholarly Felix and Sibeal form a natural bond. He could even be her soul mate, but Sibeal's vocation is her true calling, and her heart must answer.

As Felix fully regains his memory, Sibeal has a runic divination showing her that Felix must go on a perilous mission-and that she will join him. The rough waters and the sea creatures they will face are no match for Sibeal's own inner turmoil. She must choose between the two things that tug at her soul-her spirituality and a chance at love...

As I said, I'm a huge fan of Juliet Marillier, but I felt like this book was fairly different from the previous Sevenwaters books. It was a lighter read, for one thing. Where the other books seemed to have an element of peril and danger, and no shortage of dark themes, Seer of Sevenwaters seemed to meander in safety for most of the novel. There is a lot of conversation. I know this sounds bad, but I got bogged down in all the philosophical discussion.

I did find myself becoming very nostalgic at the beginning and end of the book. It was like a Sevenwaters novel at those points: there was danger, romance, and the family from Sevenwaters that fans of Marillier will find familiar. I will say that it was nice seeing what happened to many characters from the other books, and visiting the island of Inis Eala.

However, I found the new main characters Sibeal and Felix to be bland and rather uninteresting, and the plot was formulaic. Boy meets girl, they fall in love but don't say anything, supernatural drama ensues, insert dramatic confession of love here. I had the entire course of the story figured out after meeting the shipwrecked characters, even the grand mystery of Svala and Knut (a couple from the Viking shipwreck), while the rest of the island was blissfully ignorant. I found that somewhat implausible as well, that an entire island of warriors and people with plenty of intuition couldn't figure out who the bad guy was and what was going on with these new people.

All in all, this was a book that could have been chopped in half...there was a lot of filler in between a relatively solid first and last few chapters. Marillier is an amazing author, so I admit this book came as quite a surprise to me. It made me long for Marillier's first few books, so maybe I'll reread those.

Bottom Line

Overall Rating: 2.5 / 5

Buy or Try? Try
More? Standalone, but of a series of 5 books so far

Content

Plot: 2 / 5

Setting: 4 / 5 (still love the setting, even through 5 books)

Characters: 2 / 5

Style 
Pace: Slow
Descriptiveness: Middlin'
Fantasy factor: Magical Realism

Amazon.com link

The Child Thief by Brom

This may be stereotypical of me, but I love fairy tales, and I especially love new twists on fairy tales. This particular novel is a much darker version of Peter Pan than the one you see in Disney movies, although the original tale hints at some darkness as well.

Peter is quick, daring, and full of mischief—and like all boys, he loves to play, though his games often end in blood. His eyes are sparkling gold, and when he graces you with his smile you are his friend for life, but his promised land is not Neverland.

Fourteen-year-old Nick would have been murdered by the drug dealers preying on his family had Peter not saved him. Now the irresistibly charismatic wild boy wants Nick to follow him to a secret place of great adventure, where magic is alive and you never grow old. Even though he is wary of Peter's crazy talk of faeries and monsters, Nick agrees. After all, New York City is no longer safe for him, and what more could he possibly lose? 

There is always more to lose. 

Accompanying Peter to a gray and ravished island that was once a lush, enchanted paradise, Nick finds himself unwittingly recruited for a war that has raged for centuries—one where he must learn to fight or die among the "Devils," Peter's savage tribe of lost and stolen children. 

There, Peter's dark past is revealed: left to wolves as an infant, despised and hunted, Peter moves restlessly between the worlds of faerie and man. The Child Thief is a leader of bloodthirsty children, a brave friend, and a creature driven to do whatever he must to stop the "Flesh-eaters" and save the last, wild magic in this dying land.

I don't think I've ever read a book written by an illustrator before, and The Child Thief has several of Brom's illustrations throughout the book, including the cover art. They're beautiful, and really help the reader picture the characters.

That said, the prose does not suffer at all. When I first heard that Brom was an artist first, I was somewhat skeptical about his writing ability. Oh how wrong I was. This book was a page-turner without having a simplistic writing style, and moved along without skimping on description. Without the illustrations, I still had a good idea what characters and places looked like and I was never bored.

The characters and the plot were where Brom shone, I think. The plot twisted and turned until I wasn't sure who to cheer for. By the end, it's unclear who is the "good guy" and who is the "bad guy." Everyone (for the most part) thinks they're doing the right thing...but who really is? I love authors that are unafraid to deal with the sometimes ambiguous nature of morality. 

The world Brom opens up to the reader is dark, there's no question about that. From the beginning, the dregs of society are the center of our outside world. Peter brings children into Avalon from horrible situations, but that's not even the worst, most graphic part of the book. People are flayed alive, intestines are eaten out of live people, there are horrible descriptions of rape, torture, and one character is crucified. This book is not for the faint of heart, and this is not an uplifting book for the most part. Be prepared for main characters to be killed.

The book ends on a relatively good note though, though it may not be a happily ever after ending. I didn't walk away feeling depressed though...that's a pet peeve of mine with novels.

While the book was dark and gruesome, to the point where I thought about throwing in the towel a few times, it is definitely worth the read. I am so glad I kept reading. Brom's exploration of a tale that was already sort of creepy was amazing. I enjoyed the fact that I had to think about the subjective nature of right and wrong.

Bottom Line

Overall Rating: 4 / 5

Buy or Try? Try, merely because of the violence
More? Standalone

Content

Plot: 5 / 5

Setting: 4 / 5

Characters: 4 / 5

Style 
Pace: Fast 
Descriptiveness: Middlin'
Fantasy factor: Magical Realism to Low Fantasy

Amazon.com link

Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

I feel like I'm supremely late on the uptake with this series. Originally, I was going to read this book for a challenge, but I didn't finish it in time. I had bought it forever ago from a used book store and I was happy to finally read one of the books I already own. 

Ever since her parents were killed in a car accident when she was five, Elena Michaels has longed for a normal family life. Smart, beautiful, and engaged to be married, Elena hopes to fulfill that dream when disaster strikes. Not only has her fiancé lied about his secret life as a werewolf, but he's made her one, too. She has no choice but to join him at Stonehaven, the upstate New York home of an elite pack of werewolves.

In an attempt to break away, she moves to Toronto to lead a normal life. Working as a journalist, Elena now lives with her new architect boyfriend, works out in the basement gym of their high-rise apartment, lunches with girlfriends from the office, and once a week, at four in the morning runs naked and furred through a downtown Toronto ravine, ripping out the throats of her animal prey. But when a band of outlaw werewolves threatens the Stonehaven pack, Elena's feral instincts drive her back there to join the defense. What follows is a war for territory, for pride, and ultimately for Elena herself.

I'm afraid this review will be awfully short. Despite sleeping until 10am this morning, I am still exhausted from the last few weeks...and I've taken Benedryl which knocks me for a bloody loop.

In any case, this book wasn't bad. I haven't read many vampire or werewolf books, so I can't say that I know how it rates next to other books of the same variety. I'll be honest, there was a little too much description of wolf fighting and playing for my tastes. It just got sort of dull after awhile. I understand the author was probably trying to build a relationship between the characters, but the fact remains that wolves don't have the depth of expression that humans have and it got rather routine.

I liked Elena all right. The first half of the book I wasn't crazy about any of the characters. They just seemed too smug and cookie cutter. At the end, when worlds collide, as it were, I found myself finding Clay far more endearing. It was like a switch turned on and all of a sudden he was trying to be likable or something. Still, the characters lacked soul for the most part. I felt like half the book was spent explaining stuff.

Also, the explaining got old after awhile. I felt like there was lost of background information, but not much reason for it. Pointless stories. I guess it was to flesh out the characters, but I would have preferred current actions to speak for themselves.

Overall, the book was sort of choppy and generic. I liked it, and there was lots of promise in this book... but I'm not in a hurry to read the next.

Bottom Line

Overall Rating: 3 / 5

Buy or Try? Try
More? 1 / 12 in the Women of the Otherworld series...different characters

Content

Plot: 2 / 5

Setting: 3 / 5

Characters: 3 / 5

Style 
Pace: Middlin' to Fast 
Descriptiveness: Prose
Fantasy factor: Magical Realism

Amazon.com link

Elfland by Freda Warrington

WARNING: Some spoilers, merely because to illustrate why I didn't like this book, I have to spoil some plot points. Nothing that will ruin the book for a potential reader, though.

Had a hard time getting into this book. Was about to give up several times...

Elfland is an intimate, sensual novel of people—both human and Aetherial—caught between duty and desire. It’s a story of families, and of Rose Fox, a woman born to magic but tormented by her place in her adopted world.

Led by Auberon Fox, a group of Aetherials—call them the Fair Folk, if you will—live among us, indistinguishable from humans. Every seven years, on the Night of the Summer Stars, Lawrence Wilder, the Gatekeeper, throws open all gates to the Other World. But this time, something has gone wrong. Wilder has sealed the gates, warning of a great danger lurking in the realm beyond them. The Aetherial community is outraged. What will become of them, deprived of the home realm from which their essential life force flows?

Rose Fox and Sam Wilder are drawn to the lands beyond the gates, even as their families feud over Lawrence’s refusal to do his duty. Struggling with their own too-human urges, they discover hidden truths that draw them together in a forbidden alliance. Only by breaching the dreaded gates and daring the danger beyond can they confront that which they fear most— their otherness—and claim their birthright.

...and then I finally did. The writing in Elfland is sound, though I admit I picked this up mostly for the cover. I love Kinuko Craft. This book was not what I was expecting to be at all.

If anything it was a soap opera, with vaguely magical beings. But the 12 chapters I read had very little magic. It was mostly about flat, ridiculous, trashy characters that I worked very hard to try and like and failed miserably.

Rosie, who is the main narrator, is stupid. Just plain stupid. Naive to a level not attributable to her age. When she decides to have sex with another character (not her husband) in her wedding dress, I was done. Compound this with the fact that she's obsessed with Jon, who is quite self absorbed, a druggie, and has no idea she (or anyone else really) exists. And she whines a lot...like...man.

Matthew, Rosie's brother, seems nice in the beginning. Turns out he wants to be "normal" so badly, he doesn't care who he hurts to get there. So he knocks up one of Rosie's friends and marries her, even though he doesn't love her. The reader gets the impression he is a very controlling person, and his wife is doltish and is happy just to be with him. Honestly, for her part, I sort of understand, because she came from a pretty terrible background herself.

The only semi-likable main character is Sam. He's a bad boy, but underneath he seems like a decent guy. However, the only reason he's a decent guy is because he's obsessed with Rosie, for no reason I could discern other than she has a nice rack and pretty hair.

Lawrence is another character that has potential. He seems like a jerk in the beginning but you find out (spoiler) that his life force, his soul essentially, was stolen by his father for disobedience. That explains the statue demeanor I suppose. (end spoiler)

Either way, call me shallow, but I have a hard time spending hours on a book where I just can't stand the characters. I found I really couldn't care less what happened to any of them. The world and Aetherials were intriguing, but definitely not intriguing enough to wade through the muck of the Wilders' and Foxes' lives.

Overall, I'll give this at least a 2 / 5. I may give this one another try. It wasn't totally irredeemable. The story was slow but I did want to know more, and the writing was very good. I guess I just wasn't in the mood for unlikeable, ridiculous, pretentious characters.

Prospero in Hell by L Jagi Lamplighter

WARNING: I try to avoid spoilers, but they are possible (even probable), since this is the second book of the Prospero's Daughter Trilogy. Prospero Lost is the first. I recommend reading them in order.

I don't think I've ever read a series that so seamlessly mixes history in with high magic. While many describe this as urban fantasy, I feel like it is more akin to a modern fairy tale than anything else.

Book description from goodreads.com: The search of a daughter for her father is but the beginning of this robust fantasy adventure. For five hundred years since the events of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Miranda has run Prospero, Inc., protecting an unknowing world from disasters both natural and man-made. Now her father has been taken prisoner of dark spirits in a place she could only guess. Piecing together clues about her father’s whereabouts and discovering secrets of her shrouded past, she comes to an inescapable conclusion she has dreaded since Prospero was lost.

Prospero has been imprisoned in Hell, kept there by demons who wish to extract a terrible price in exchange for his freedom. As the time of reckoning for Miranda draws near, she realizes that hundreds of years of their family’s magic may not be enough to free her once-powerful father from the curse that could destroy them...and the world.

It's pretty hard to review Prospero in Hell without major spoilers, because the plot twists are such a great part of this novel, I think. There are some fairly enormous, integral pieces of information you receive in this book. Nonetheless, the plot is exciting and I felt like it moved faster than the previous novel did.

I found this story to be darker than the first. The first half of the novel feels like a continuation of Prospero Lost: a fairly lighthearted exploration of Miranda's world and history. We finally meet the rest of Miranda's siblings, and we are given more information about their extensive lives. I can only imagine the historical research Lamplighter must have done for this book to fill in 500+ years of the siblings' lives, not to mention all the mystical creatures and classic literature references.

Some not so great things happen, though, and the last half takes a darker turn. The Prospero siblings, as hinted at in the book description, finally make it into hell. It isn't fire and guys with pitchforks. It's a dark, horrible, twisted, sickening place, modeled after Dante's Inferno for the most part. The bad guys present in this book are truly evil, something which isn't really elaborated on in Prospero Lost. The portrait Lamplighter paints of hell is disturbing, putting it mildly.

Generally, I don't particularly like sequel baiting, and this book has a big one at the end. Things are going great, you think you've got it all figured out, and then literally in the last two pages or so everything goes bad. I'm not looking forward to having to wait for the next one at all.

There is a fair amount of character development in this book. You find out more about Miranda, who finds her own very steady personality and temperament changing after 500 years. As you meet her family, Miranda shares her memories of her siblings, giving you a better idea of what they are like. However, we still do not know much about Cornelius and Ulysses. I'm hoping we will find out more about them in the next book.

As previously mentioned in my Prospero Lost review, while the cosmology is distinctly Christian, there is a smattering of other religions thrown in. However, there is more talk of salvation in this novel, and we encounter more angels and demons. It is gnostic and mystic enough, though, that I did not feel I was being preached at. It doesn't read like Christian fiction, which I appreciate.

All in all, Prospero in Hell is a very enjoyable read, and left me wanting more. I'm so excited that a writer like Lamplighter is on the scene. These books deserve far more publicity than they receive. I can't wait to read the concluding novel of the series, Prospero Regained. No firm publication date is set yet, just sometime in 2011, but I very much hope it comes out soon!

Bottom Line

Overall Rating: 4 / 5

Buy or Try? Buy
More? 2 / 3 in projected trilogy. All are written, 2 are published

Content

Plot: 4 / 5

Setting: 5 / 5 (wowsers.)

Characters: 4 / 5

Style 
Pace: Middlin' to Fast (while only over a few days, LOTS happens to move the story forward)
Descriptiveness: Prose
Fantasy factor: Magical Realism (most of the book still takes place on earth)



Amazon.com link

Prospero Lost by L Jagi Lamplighter

Prospero Lost was an impulse pick-up for me at the library when it came out in 2009. I love being the very first person to read a new release, and this one has stayed fairly obscure.

I picked it up again when I received Prospero in Hell, the sequel, from the library. It was rather confusing since it had been awhile since I read the first, but it was doable. Nonetheless, I decided to reread the first and review it because I just love this series.

More than four hundred years after the events of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the sorcerer Prospero, his daughter Miranda, and his other children have attained everlasting life. Miranda is the head of her family’s business, Prospero Inc., which secretly has used its magic for good around the world. One day, Miranda receives a warning from her father: "Beware of the Three Shadowed Ones."

When Miranda goes to her father for an explanation, he is nowhere to be found.

Miranda sets out to find her father and reunite with her estranged siblings, each of which holds a staff of power and secrets about Miranda’s sometimes-foggy past. Her journey through the past, present and future will take her to Venice, Chicago, the Caribbean, Washington, D.C., and the North Pole. To aid her, Miranda brings along Mab, an aerie being who acts like a hard-boiled detective, and Mephistopheles, her mentally-unbalanced brother. Together, they must ward off the Shadowed Ones and other ancient demons who want Prospero’s power for their own.

I think my favorite part of the Prospero's Daughter trilogy (so far anyway) is that it weaves history and legend in with magic and the modern world. Prospero and Miranda, at least, have been around for about 500 years and in the modern world they run a company which controls magical forces so humanity's technology can exist. Lamplighter seamlessly works these characters into the last half-millennium of human history. Miranda was almost burned as a witch. One of her brothers was a Pope. The Prosperos were involved in Milanese politics.

The way Lamplighter writes makes this a fairly easy read, I think. The descriptions are vivid but I feel as if I'm looking through a soft focus. We also find out more about Miranda and her family slowly as the book goes on. Little hints and pieces of her past are spread throughout Prospero Lost. It's one of those books that I just enjoy reading from start to finish.

One critique that I saw made on another review was that there was an anti-Catholic sentiment. I found that amusing, considering I, as a non-religious person, found it almost a little too Christian for me. Miranda and her family, with the exception of two, are all protestants. As previously mentioned, one of her brothers was the pope, and although I don't know much about papal history, I got the impression he was one of the better ones. There is a very Greco-Roman description of hell, but I found the cosmology to be mostly Christian. "The Almighty" is mentioned, along with his angels. There exist other gods, but they are weaker. There's a half-page where Mab, the Northeast wind, talks about the origins and nature of Jesus which I found interesting.

I find that people who read fantasy, however, by the nature of the books need to be rather open about god/s so I imagine this won't even register for most people who would read this book anyway.

My only other critique (tiny one) of the book is it seems to be very much a "quest" book. There is a definite goal, and it's not a broad sweeping exploration where you have no idea what will happen. Miranda wants to save her family before 12th Night. S'it. A simple plot, but I must say I don't find I have an issue with it. Perhaps if the world travel, history, religion, and magic weren't so intriguing, it might be problematic. As it is, I only really notice if I sit here and contemplate the book.

Prospero Lost is probably one of my favorite books. It's one of those that makes you want to curl up by a fire with some hot chocolate and just read on a chilly day. I guess it's a comfort book for me. Simple story, but intricate exploration of a world that "exists" within our own. I have the next one in hand and am already enjoying it.

Bottom Line

Overall Rating: 4.5 / 5

Buy or Try? Buy
More? 1 / 3 in projected trilogy. All are written, 2 are published

Content

Plot: 4 / 5 (a little weak, see above for explanation)

Setting: 5 / 5  (love love love)

Characters: 4 / 5 (soft focus, but well-written)

Style 
Pace: Slow (over the course of only a few days)
Descriptiveness: Prose
Fantasy factor: Magical Realism

Amazon.com link

The Red Tree by Caitlin R Kiernan - RIP V Review V

I picked up The Red Tree for the RIP V Challenge. I had gotten it from the library because it was recommended by amazon, but never got around to reading it. It was a perfect Halloween season book for sure. From the back cover:

Sarah Crowe left Atlanta, and the remnants of a tumultuous relationship, to live alone in an old house in rural Rhode Island. Within its walls she discovers an unfinished manuscript written by the house’s former tenant—a parapsychologist obsessed with the ancient oak growing on a desolate corner of the property. And as the gnarled tree takes root in her imagination, Sarah risks her health and her sanity to unearth a revelation planted centuries ago…

At the beginning of the novel, you are immediately told on the first page that Sarah Crowe is dead, and she has left behind this diary which was later apparently published. The editor makes some notes, but for the most part the novel is all snippets of Sarah's journal.

I don't really know what I was expecting from this book, honestly. I don't generally read horror books, but this sounded almost...noir. Gothic. Overall, I really enjoyed it. At first, the writing style grated on my nerves. It's a very informal narrative, as you'd expect a journal to be. Also, Sarah goes off on tangents like you wouldn't believe. It makes the narrative confusing, and after awhile I started to skim.

You slowly get impressions of something...wrong. Snippets. A lot of the creepyness comes from legends that the previous tennant had collected. There are weird things that happen actually in the narrative, but alone they really aren't all that scary. The prose that Kiernan uses is original and elegantly done.

There's never really any explanation of anything. I kept waiting for it, because I wanted to know more about why these things were happening, not just that they were. The reasons never came. I sort of feel that that was done on purpose, and that Kiernan was relying on the anticipation of being scared shitless rather than actual events.

Something that is worth mentioning is some explicit content in this book. Sarah is a lesbian, and that plays a fair role in this book. She thinks about sex a lot, there are some fairly graphic descriptions of some really...strange sexual practices. Putting it mildly. It seemed like they were just tossed in there for shock value. I consider myself fairly worldly and a few pages had me a little squicked. Sarah also curses like a sailor, so if that bothers you I'd recommend steering clear.

I'm glad I gave this a try, but I'm also glad to be moving onto another book. It gave me the willies but it won't keep me up tonight. There were a couple of scenes that had me on the edge of my seat, but for the most part this wasn't un-put-down-able. I'll probably pick up another Kiernan book at some point, but I'm not in a hurry.

Bottom Line

Overall Rating: 3 / 5

Buy or Try? Try
More? Standalone

Content

Plot: 3 / 5 (pretty predictable, really)

Setting: 4 / 5  (creepy, and beautifully "illustrated")

Characters: 3.5 / 5 (I really didn't like her, but Sarah was well-written)

Style 
Pace: Slow
Descriptiveness: Mix of poetry and prose
Fantasy factor: Magical Realism

Amazon.com link

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

I have to say, I just love Sarah Addison Allen's books. I think it's safe to say I'm a fan now. I will be picking up her latest book, The Girl Who Chased the Moon and then The Peach Keeper which is going to be released March 22, 2011. But first thing's first, my review of Garden Spells. This is part of the book flap description:

In a garden surrounded by a tall fence, tucked away behind a small, quiet house in an even smaller town, is an apple tree that is rumored to bear a very special sort of fruit. In this luminous debut novel, Sarah Addison Allen tells the story of that enchanted tree, and the extraordinary people who tend it.…

The Waverleys have always been a curious family, endowed with peculiar gifts that make them outsiders even in their hometown of Bascom, North Carolina. Even their garden has a reputation, famous for its feisty apple tree that bears prophetic fruit, and its edible flowers, imbued with special powers. Generations of Waverleys tended this garden. Their history was in the soil. But so were their futures.

As I mentioned in my review of The Sugar Queen, I picked this up in the Barnes and Noble online bargain bin. It caught my eye because of the cover, and then I kept researching it because it was a southern fiction novel. Sarah Addison Allen has quickly become one of my favorite authors, and one that I'd actually keep track of new book releases.

I love the way she writes her characters. Sometimes I can't picture a character, can't fathom their motivation. Her characters are diverse and fleshed out. I have to admit, I'm a sucker for the abilities she gives them too. In this one, passion causes one character's skin to burn things she touches. In one family, the women are amazing at sex and never have trouble holding onto a man. An older lady is seized with a compulsion to give people items that they always end up needing later. A hairstylist can cut hair to give people confidence and other qualities. It's truly amazing and original. As a chronic fantasy reader, it is very rare that I find any kind of original magic.

I don't really have anything negative to say about this book except I didn't enjoy the story in this one as much as I enjoyed The Sugar Queen. I really couldn't tell you why. I don't think I could relate to the characters as much, and the author really honed her style in The Sugar Queen. Other than that it was very enjoyable, and I'm looking forward to tackling the next two.

Bottom Line

Overall Rating: 4 / 5 

Buy or Try? Buy
More? Stand-alone

Content

Plot: 3.5 / 5
Setting: 4.5 / 5 

Characters: 4 / 5

Style
Pace: Middlin' to Fast
Descriptiveness: Prose
Fantasy factor: Magical Realism

Amazon.com link

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

I guess I'm stuck in a magical realism phase, because this book isn't my usual fare either, just like The Last Will of Moira Leahy. It's set in a realistic place but with some not so realistic elements thrown in. Excerpt from the book flap:

Twenty-seven-year-old Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter in her North Carolina hometown is her favorite season, she’s a sorry excuse for a Southern belle, and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her hidden closet. For while Josey has settled into an uneventful life in her mother’s house, her one consolation is the stockpile of sugary treats and paperback romances she escapes to each night…. Until she finds it harboring none other than local waitress Della Lee Baker, a tough-talking, tenderhearted woman who is one part nemesis—and two parts fairy godmother...

There's a girl in this book who is "followed" by books that appear just when she needs them, whether she realizes it or not. What a problem to have. Another character cannot go back on a promise, regardless of how much he may want to.

Each chapter is titled after a favorite sweet, the first being Everlasting Gobstoppers, and the last appropriately titled Now and Later, which I thought was absolutely charming. It also made me hungry.

This book is an easy read. I finished it in an afternoon, and it took me about 4 hours. I have mentioned over and over again that I have trouble getting into books. The opening sequence often gives me trouble, and sometimes I even put a book back on the TBR pile. However, with this book, Allen jumps right into Della Lee showing up in Josey's closet.

Overall, it was very enjoyable. I picked up this book because it was recommended to me due to my interest in The Thirteenth Tale, along with one of Allen's other books, Garden Spells. They were in an online bargain bin for 5 dollars, so I figured what could I lose? Plus, the author is from Asheville, NC. It seems like I never see a southern author writing fantasy, so I was interested to see how she combined fairy tale with the southern setting. Suffice it to say one of my next book will be Garden Spells.

Bottom Line

Overall Rating: 4 / 5 

Buy or Try? Buy
More? Stand-alone

Content

Plot: 4 / 5
Setting: 4 / 5 (I would have preferred more setting description, just because I adore the NC mountains)
Characters: 4 / 5

Style
Pace: Middlin' to Fast
Descriptiveness: Prose
Fantasy factor: Magical Realism

Amazon.com link

The Last Will of Moira Leahy by Therese Walsh

This book is certainly outside of the genre I usually read. Granted, there are some mystical elements in The Last Will of Moira Leahy, but I don't think I would classify it as a fantasy novel. The description on the hardcover edition is long, so I'll only post part of the shorter version from Publisher's Weekly:

Walsh's satisfying novel follows Maeve Leahy, a brilliant young professor, in her pursuit for answers about her family and herself. When she impulsively bids on a keris—an ancient Javanese dagger—at an auction house, Maeve's orderly life spins out of control. Anonymous notes appear on her office door, with provocative hints about the origins of the keris, unleashing memories of Maeve's onetime musical ambitions and the loss of her twin, Moira. When a note urges Maeve to visit Rome, her best friend, Kit, persuades her to go. There she finds Noel, her rakish love interest, who is trying to solve his own family's mysteries. He helps Maeve navigate the bewildering questions and characters in Rome while making his romantic ambitions clear, much to Maeve's indignation and secret fascination. Walsh ably shifts between Maeve's current quest and flashbacks showing the twins as children, revealing little by little the story behind Maeve's grief.

One of my favorite books, and indeed one of the few I have read outside of the fantasy genre, is The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. This book was recommended to me by Amazon and LibraryThing due to my interest in The Thirteenth Tale, and so I put it on my wishlist.

I'm so glad I did. The novel started out sort of slow and confusing, but I always have trouble beginning a book. After the flashbacks of the twins' life together though, I started to get into the story a little more. About halfway through, I couldn't put it down. This book reads somewhat like a mystery, because you really have absolutely no idea what's going on or what happened between the twins probably 3/4 of the way through. The author slowly drops breadcrumbs until you're sure you know what's going on.

When the twist finally came though, and the entire history was revealed, I must admit I thought I had everything figured out. I definitely did not.

While this book is easy to read and I didn't get lost in big words and pretentious descriptions, there is an exactness to the writing. It was very obvious that I was not reading a silly or fluffy book. If more authors wrote stories like Therese Walsh (and Diane Setterfield) I might branch out into non-fantasy novels more often.

Bottom Line

Overall Rating: 4.5 / 5 

Buy or Try? Buy
More? Stand-alone

Content

Plot: 4.5 / 5
Setting: 4.5 / 5
Characters: 4.5 / 5

Style
Pace: Middlin'
Descriptiveness: Poetry
Fantasy factor: Magical Realism

Amazon.com link