Category: Book Review
The False Princess by Eilis O’Neal
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Princess and heir to the throne of Thorvaldor, Nalia’s led a privileged life at court. But everything changes when it’s revealed, just after her sixteenth birthday, that she is a false princess, a stand-in for the real Nalia, who has been hidden away for her protection. Cast out with little more than the clothes on her back, the girl now called Sinda must leave behind the city of Vivaskari, her best friend, Keirnan, and the only life she’s ever known.
Sinda is sent to live with her only surviving relative, an aunt who is a dyer in a distant village. She is a cold, scornful woman with little patience for her newfound niece, and Sinda proves inept at even the simplest tasks. But when Sinda discovers that magic runs through her veins – long-suppressed, dangerous magic that she must learn to control – she realizes that she can never learn to be a simple village girl.
Returning to Vivaskari for answers, Sinda finds her purpose as a wizard scribe, rediscovers the boy who saw her all along, and uncovers a secret that could change the course of Thorvaldor’s history, forever.
A dazzling first novel, The False Princess is an engrossing fantasy full of mystery, action, and romance.
This is technically YA but I’d definitely have to say it’s aimed at the younger demographic. Maybe that’s why I had a harder time connecting with the characters than I should have.
I can’t honestly fault the plot. It was fast-paced and interesting enough to keep me reading. There were lots of unexpected twists and turns and I like how Eilis O’Neal turns some old tropes on their heads. I thought The False Princess was just going to be another mash-up of fantasy tropes when I picked it up but I’m very glad I was wrong.
The only thing I was disappointed about was the characters. The main character Sinda seemed like she had everything going for her: she was fierce, determined and generally easy to relate to. Except, I had a really hard time connecting with her on an emotional level. Sure, I wanted her to succeed and unravel the mystery surrounding her role in the succession, but I really couldn’t feel her emotions. When she was sad I felt the same as when she was happy and in love. Part of it is that this is a first novel so O’Neal doesn’t quite have that ability to write emotion into the story but the other part may be the target demographic.
Basically, The False Princess is an average novel that I would recommend to teens in the 12-14 age group. O’Neal doesn’t talk down to her readers and the characters face some really terrifying obstacles on their way to uncovering the mystery. I think younger readers will find Sinda and the others far more sympathetic than I did. With all that said, this is not a bad novel and I’d even call it good. It just wasn’t for me.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
The Runaway Highlander by R. L. Syme
(Cover picture courtesy of Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours.)
Anne de Cheyne has a choice. She can play the dutiful daughter and allow her mother to sell her to a greasy English sheriff, or she can take control of her own life and find her own match. After a frightening run-in with her promised husband reveals a dark secret, she makes a desperate choice. Flight.
Aedan Donne needs easy money and no-questions-asked. When Milene de Cheyne offers him enough to pay all debts, requests complete silence, and pays half up front, just for a simple recovery, he can’t believe his luck… until he meets his mark. Anne’s beauty and passion ignite something Aedan can’t ignore, even as she leaves him in the dust. Suddenly, he finds himself wanting to capture the runaway Highland lady for himself.
[Full disclosure: I received a free paper copy of this book in conjunction with the blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]
This is actually the second book in the Highland Renegades series, but they can be read as stand-alone novels, luckily for me.
As I’ve said in the past, I know very little about Scottish history. Still, R. L. Syme managed to suck me into the period and really gave me the feeling that I was there along with the characters. The dark, unstable atmosphere of the time particularly rang true and you could feel this sense of doom throughout the whole novel. Scotland is highly unstable and in the middle of it, the main character Anne is being sold off to the highest bidder so her mother can prove her loyalty to the English overlords.
Anne is a decent enough character but I won’t say that she’s one of the most memorable heroines I’ve ever encountered. She’s feisty, determined and brave but at the same time I just had trouble connecting with her. It’s not that there wasn’t enough background information about her, but I had a hard time connecting with her emotions. I didn’t feel what she was feeling, whether she was sad, angry, happy or in love. But maybe that’s just me. Aedan I could connect with a little more but like Anne he’s not the most memorable character I’ve ever read about.
However, the plot was fast-paced and quite exciting. You can’t call The Runaway Highlander anything but a page-turner simply because of R. L. Syme’s talent with suspense. There are twists and turns everywhere and just when you think you know what’s going to happen everything changes. It definitely keeps the reader on the edge of their proverbial seat.
This was an essentially good novel. It will never be one of my favourites but it was good enough that I’d recommend it to romance lovers as well as Scottish history fans.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.
The Exiled Queen by Cinda Williams Chima
(Cover picture courtesy of Cinda Williams Chima’s site.)
Haunted by the loss of his mother and sister, Han Alister journeys south to begin his schooling at Mystwerk House in Oden’s Ford. But leaving the Fells doesn’t mean that danger isn’t far behind. Han is hunted every step of the way by the Bayars, a powerful wizarding family set on reclaiming the amulet Han stole from them. And Mystwerk House has dangers of its own. There, Han meets Crow, a mysterious wizard who agrees to tutor Han in the darker parts of sorcery—but the bargain they make is one Han may regret.
Meanwhile, Princess Raisa ana’Marianna runs from a forced marriage in the Fells, accompanied by her friend Amon and his triple of cadets. Now, the safest place for Raisa is Wein House, the military academy at Oden’s Ford. If Raisa can pass as a regular student, Wein House will offer both sanctuary and the education Raisa needs to succeed as the next Gray Wolf queen.
Everything changes when Han and Raisa’s paths cross, in this epic tale of uncertain friendships, cut-throat politics, and the irresistible power of attraction.
I felt rather ‘meh’ about the first book in this series, The Demon King and only gave it 3.5 stars. Still, I felt that I was sufficiently interested to buy the second book in the Seven Realms series. Why not give Cinda Williams Chima another try?
Good thing I did, though. It turns out that this second book in the series is actually quite a bit better than the first book. I felt that the plot was the weak point of the first novel because there were sections where it was really fast-paced and then it would drag on and on for several pages. That really wasn’t the case with The Exiled Queen, which was quite fast-paced throughout the nearly 600 pages of the story. There were places where the plot was slow, yes, but at least there was always that undercurrent of tension as both Raisa and Han were on the run.
I was really impressed with how the world-building was expanded. We learn so much more about the Demon King and his effects on the Seven Realms even a thousand years later. We also learn a lot more about magic: how it’s used, where it comes from, how flashpieces are created, etc. It’s really fascinating to see just how in depth the world-building in this story is. The first book gave me the impression it was an average fantasy world, but I’m definitely going to have to revise that opinion after reading this book.
The characters were just as good this time around. Raisa, for the first time in her life, is learning real hardship as she tries to make it as a soldier. It’s not easy for her because even though she’s not your stereotypical pampered princess, she has lived a life of luxury. Yes, she does a bit of complaining but she possesses enough self-awareness to tough it out and work just as hard as everyone else does at school. Han is definitely improving as a character as he becomes a true wizard. He’s powerful but is not above beginner mistakes and he’s well aware of his shortcomings compared to his peers at Mystwerk. I found myself liking Han more than Raisa this time around but both characters are very memorable.
Basically I’m not sure what went wrong with The Demon King, but The Exiled Queen is far better. Maybe it’s the change of scenery or the new maturity of the characters. Either way, this second book was way better and I can’t wait to read the third book.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
The Sekhmet Bed by L. M. Ironside
(Cover picture courtesy of L. M. Ironside’s website.)
Is Ahmose’s divine gift a blessing or a curse?
The second daughter of the Pharaoh, Ahmose has always dreamed of a quiet life as a priestess, serving Egypt’s gods, ministering to the people of the Two Lands. But when the Pharaoh dies without an heir, she is given instead as Great Royal Wife to the new king – a soldier of common birth. For Ahmose is god-chosen, gifted with the ability to read dreams, and it is her connection to the gods which ensures the new Pharaoh his right to rule.
Ahmose’s elder sister Mutnofret has been raised to expect the privileged station of Great Royal Wife; her rage at being displaced cannot be soothed. As Ahmose fights the currents of Egypt’s politics and Mutnofret’s vengeful anger, her youth and inexperience carry her beyond her depth and into the realm of sacrilege.
To right her wrongs and save Egypt from the gods’ wrath, Ahmose must face her most visceral fear: bearing an heir. But the gods of Egypt are exacting, and even her sacrifice may not be enough to restore the Two Lands to safety.
The Sekhmet Bed is the first volume of L. M. Ironside’s series The She-King, a family saga of the Thutmosides, one of ancient Egypt’s most fascinating royal families.
The Sekhmet Bed was actually recommended to me by an editor from another publishing house that I consider a friend. It was free on Amazon for that day so I decided to give it a try, considering that her previous recommendations had worked out very well for me. Thankfully, this one was no different.
It seems more and more people are writing about Hatshepsut these days (hallelujah!) but I’ve never, ever seen anyone write about her mother, Ahmose. And you know what? Ahmose deserves a little recognition too because while she obviously couldn’t match her daughter in some of her achievements she was a strong woman in her own way. Ironside filled in some gaps in the historical record with her own imaginings but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that things didn’t actually happen in a similar fashion.
Ahmose is just a girl when she’s married off to Thutmose, a common general who is chosen as the next Pharaoh because of the lack of male heirs in the family. This makes both of their positions extremely precarious and it’s up to Ahmose to smooth things over in the political sphere. She’s very obviously young and naive when she’s first married but I love how she really comes into her own as she grows older. Ahmose doesn’t have an easy time of it in life but she reacts realistically to a rather bad situation and eventually finds a little bit of happiness.
I wouldn’t say the plot is fast-paced by most standards, but it was very interesting. There’s not as much political intrigue as I would have liked but that’s more of a personal preference than anything else. The religious aspect of the novel was fascinating, though, and I love that Ironside went into such detail about Egyptian religion. It’s quite strange to the modern reader but she manages to explain such things to the reader in a way that makes it easy to understand for people new to ancient Egyptian history as well as fanatics like myself.
Basically, this is just an awesome self-published novel. There were barely any errors and none of them were particularly memorable (just some missed quotation marks and such). Really, this is just a good story with an amazing female lead and great historical accuracy. Where there are changes, they’re completely justified so I can’t even complain about that. The Sekhmet Bed is just a great book and I can’t wait to read more of Ironside’s work.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Curses and Smoke by Vicky Alvear Shecter
(Cover picture courtesy of Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours.)
When your world blows apart, what will you hold onto?
TAG is a medical slave, doomed to spend his life healing his master’s injured gladiators. But his warrior’s heart yearns to fight in the gladiator ring himself and earn enough money to win his freedom.
LUCIA is the daughter of Tag’s owner, doomed by her father’s greed to marry a much older Roman man. But she loves studying the natural world around her home in Pompeii, and lately she’s been noticing some odd occurrences in the landscape: small lakes disappearing; a sulfurous smell in the air. . . .
When the two childhood friends reconnect, each with their own longings, they fall passionately in love. But as they plot their escape from the city, a patrician fighter reveals his own plans for them — to Lucia’s father, who imprisons Tag as punishment. Then an earthquake shakes Pompeii, in the first sign of the chaos to come. Will they be able to find each other again before the volcano destroys their whole world?
[Full disclosure: I received a free paperback from the publisher in exchange for an honest review during the book tour.]
One of the things that struck me about Vicky Alvear Shecter’s first book, Cleopatra’s Moon was the historical accuracy. She is an excellent writer when it comes to putting little historical details into her writing to give it that authentic feel. In this novel she’s even better because there are detailed descriptions of the medical practices, gladiator training and even the current political climate. That’s not really something you expect from a book aimed at the younger YA demographic (13 to about 15) so I was quite impressed.
Her characters were good, but I didn’t take a particular shine to either of the leads. Lucia is quite naive, as would be expected from her upbringing, but she never really gets any better either. She still doesn’t know when to speak and when to keep her mouth shut, which is pretty frustrating for me. Still, she’s a well developed character and you really get the feeling that she is the product of her upbringing. Tag (short for Tages) is far more interesting with his medical knowledge and his desire to become a gladiator to buy his freedom. That could be because I’m a sucker for the underdog in stories but whatever. In the end, all of the characters Vicky Alvear Shecter writes about are well-developed and have believable motivations demonstrated through their actions.
The plot was quite well done in terms of pacing. There’s this slow build-up to the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and you can see how all of the signs of an eruption were there before from animals acting crazy to wells drying up. Of course no one knew what was going on at the time so it was quite suspenseful for Lucia to slowly discover all of the signs before reaching her ultimate, terrifying conclusion. The only thing I didn’t like about the plot was how it ended. It was a little too melodramatic and the magical curse element seemed to come practically out of nowhere. Looking back, I really think this book would have been better without the random curse that shows up about halfway into the book. It just seems random and tries to add to the overall tension but really doesn’t.
In general, I think Curses and Smoke is a pretty good novel. I don’t think it’s as good as Cleopatra’s Moon but I’d recommend it to young readers 13 to 15.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.