Review Request Backlog Update

So the bad news is that I haven’t been great at getting through my review request list again.  So I’m sorry for that.

The good news is, however, I have been working through it recently.  All reviews should show up here on The Mad Reviewer eventually.  I’m sorry I couldn’t stick to the timelines, but life got in the way again.  But the reviews will still be happening and I will be promoting them a little more heavily than I normally would to make up for the extended timeilne a little bit.

Seven Dead Pirates by Linda Bailey

Seven Dead Pirates by Linda Bailey(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

A shy boy comes to life and finds his voice when the ghosts of seven dead pirates appear in his bedroom. A humorous, inspiring adventure with poignancy and depth, destined to become a middle-grade classic!

Lewis Dearborn is a lonely, anxious, “terminally shy” boy of eleven when his great-grandfather passes away and leaves Lewis’s family with his decaying seaside mansion. Lewis is initially delighted with his new bedroom, a secluded tower in a remote part of the house. Then he discovers that it’s already occupied — by the ghosts of seven dead pirates. Worse, the ghosts expect him to help them re-take their ship, now restored and on display in a local museum, so they can make their way to Libertalia, a legendary pirate utopia. The only problem is that this motley crew hasn’t left the house in almost two hundred years and is terrified of going outside. As Lewis warily sets out to assist his new roommates — a raucous, unruly bunch who exhibit a strange delight in thrift-store fashions and a thirst for storybooks — he begins to open himself to the possibilities of friendship, passion and joie de vivre and finds the courage to speak up.

[Full disclosure: I received a free paperback copy from the publisher at Book Expo America 2015 with no expectation of a review.]

Obviously middle grade novels aren’t my specialty but I think everyone can remember when they were in this target age group.  With that said, Seven Dead Pirates is a book I would have loved when I was younger.  Even as an adult I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Our protagonist is Lewis Dearborn, a perpetually shy boy of eleven who is helicoptered by his frantic mother and father, who seem to think he’s made of glass and will break at any second.  They think he has all manner of health problems and so are completely obnoxious about it, stifling his social growth both at school (where they frequently come in and embarrass him) and at home.  In the beginning of the novel this is particularly bad and you would expect Lewis to have almost no real personality but he does.  When he’s alone you really get the feeling that he’s an intelligent, sensitive and curious young boy who wants to get out from under his parents’ stifling presence and explore a bit.  Even if it’s just in the old house his great-grandfather bequeathed to them, stipulating in his will that they had to live in it for 6 months before they were able to sell it.  Just before he dies, Lewis’ grandfather tells Lewis one thing: “Libertalia”.  What is Libertalia?  Well, when Lewis finds out he is in for quite the adventure.

What I really loved about Seven Dead Pirates is that although in the beginning all seven of the dead pirates in question are pretty stereotypical pirates but turn out to be three dimensional characters.  They’re really not all they seem to be and their real personalities shine through their rough, gruff personas that are designed to impress Lewis and maintain their reputation.  And really, all they want is to be able to go to their old ship, which is housed in a museum nearby.  The only problem?  They haven’t been out of the house in centuries and whenever they try to sneak out as invisible ghosts, cars and other strange things frighten them so they turn visible, thwarting the whole “stealth” aspect of the plan.  It’s quite funny how Lewis figures out a workaround to this and at the same time it shows his cleverness.  He even disobeys his parents in order to bring his plan to fruition, learning a lot about himself in the process.

The plot isn’t exactly fast-paced but it is funny and interesting.  The story itself is not so overly complicated that an 8 or 9 year old couldn’t follow it but there are some scenes that I personally think would be nightmare-inducing at that age.  (Or at least it would have been for 8 or 9 year old me.)  Which of course firmly sets Seven Dead Pirates in the middle grade novel range.  The really good thing about Linda Bailey’s book is that I think it can be enjoyed by anyone on very different levels.  Younger readers can enjoy the adventure aspects while more mature readers can also enjoy the moving personal journey Lewis goes on as he discovers some of his independence.  And adults can thoroughly enjoy the humour and creativity that Bailey incorporates into the novel.  Basically, you can’t go wrong with this book.  There’s truly something in it for everyone.

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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The Summer Marked by Rebekah Purdy

The Summer Marked by Rebekah Purdy(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

The sequel to the chilling Winter People returns to the world of Faerie, and is a romantic and enchanting follow-up.

Salome left humankind behind to be with her boyfriend, Gareth, in the Kingdom of Summer. But now forces of darkness are rising. Her happily-ever-after is coming apart, and the Kingdom is on the brink of war.

Newly-single Kadie Byers is on her way home for Thanksgiving, imagining a visit filled with hot chocolate, a hot guy for a little rebound action, and some girl time with her bestie, Salome. Except she receives a message from Salome with two important words: PLEASE HURRY.

When Kadie rushes to help Salome, she’s ripped from the human world and pulled into the kingdoms of Faerie, where she’s shocked to learn that Salome’s monsters are real, and that she’s now at the mercy of one extremely vengeful Winter Queen…

Now both Salome and Kadie must find a way to survive the deadly chaos…or lose themselves to Winter’s deadly, icy grasp.

[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]

While I had been initially skeptical about The Winter People, the first book in this series, I thoroughly enjoyed it in the end.  So when I got the chance to read The Summer Marked, I had absolutely no hesitation in getting started.  I couldn’t wait to find out the next chapter in Salome’s life after the supposedly completely happy fairytale ending of the first book.  Of course, not all is well in paradise.

Salome and Gareth have moved in together but Nevin (the Summer king Salome kissed in order to free him from his curse) seems to be skulking around trying to break his promise that Salome and Gareth could be together.  He seems increasingly controlling and also seems to be trying to separate the two, bringing them to court only to have Gareth sent away on mission after mission.  While all this sounds so stereotypical, I can assure you that as always, Rebekah Purdy has some tricks up her sleeve, including a massive plot twist that totally blindsided me.  It was a pleasant surprise and explained a lot in hindsight but I can’t talk much more about it without giving away massive spoilers.  Needless to say, Salome and Gareth are finally together and everyone at court including Nevin want to tear them apart.  And events throughout the novel definitely conspire to do just that.

Meanwhile, Salome’s friend Kadie is left wandering on her own.  She got dumped and wants to live closer to home so she dropped out of university to come home for Thanksgiving and re-assess her life choices.  When she gets there, of course Salome is gone and her mother and grandmother aren’t really being clear on where she is.  So when she gets a text from Salome asking her to come right away, she gets sucked into a vicious trap set up by the Winter Court and has to endure unimaginable things in the land of Faerie.  All while Salome lives an ideal life on the outside while she’s secretly barely holding things together.

While I didn’t like Kadie’s point of view at first because it sounded so much like the stereotypical ditzy best friend, she really came through as a character.  At the Winter Court she learns to keep her mouth shut and scheme in order to survive and sometimes does the unthinkable to do so.  She gains a real strength of character that is absolutely remarkable when you compare it to how she was in the beginning of The Winter People.  That’s not to say she wasn’t a strong or three dimensional character then, but she really comes into her own and controls her own story (or thinks she does) a lot more than she used to.  I really did like Kadie in this second book, despite some of the things she does.

Salome, having conquered a lot of her fears in the first book, learns that she has a long way to go if she’s going to survive alongside Gareth in Faerie now that the Winter Court is on a warpath.  She learns to play the vicious games that are characteristic of faerie politics while adding in some human compassion that the fey seem to lack.  And when faced with two horrible choices that would have been unthinkable at the beginning of the novel, her choice shows just how much she has really grown.  Essentially, Salome really comes into her own in The Summer Marked so if you loved her in the first book, you will love her even more in this one.

I found the plot was a lot faster in this book compared to the first.  There was of course plenty of character development and a lot of interpersonal/intrapersonal conflict but the plot moved along quite nicely.  There’s quite a bit more action since the threat of the Winter Court is ramped up and the whole of Summer is at stake.  And, as with the first book, Purdy throws in so many plot twists that you can’t help but read on to find out what happens next.  The Summer Marked was definitely a one-sitting book for me because of that.  Even if the plot wasn’t fast-paced, it would have still been a one-sitting book because Rebekah Purdy has a magnificent writing style.  It’s beautifully descriptive and she does both the darker Winter Court and the gorgeous Summer Court incrdibly well.  It was her writing that initially sucked me into the first book and it’s part of why I enjoy this series so much.  While The Summer Marked was far darker than The Winter People, it was still very enjoyable on many different levels.

You really can’t go wrong with The Winter People series.  If you haven’t read the first book, you absolutely should right now.  If you read the first book and loved it, then you definitely need to read this second book.  It will blow you away.

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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Lazy Sundays: Head Cold

Ugh, so much for getting back on track this week.  Normally when I suffer from a head cold I just have to blow my nose obnoxiously for a few days or weeks but this one is really taking me down.  I’m exhausted all the time and a little lightheaded when I have to climb the stairs up to my apartment.  I’m keeping hydrated and sleeping lots but this one is going to be tough.  But so far there’s no fever or any other symptoms so there’s no point in going to the doctor yet.  I foresee a lot of chicken noodle soup over the next week.

So what are you guys up to this weekend?  I’ve been in bed for most of it, reading and watching the occasional Rome episode (which is amazing so far).

The Carnelian Legacy by Cheryl Koevoet

The Carnelian Legacy by Cheryl Koevoet(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

Marisa MacCallum always believed that the man of her dreams was out there somewhere. The problem is—he’s in another dimension.

After the death of her father, eighteen-year-old Marisa’s life is on the verge of imploding. She seeks comfort on her daily ride through the woods of Gold Hill, but when a mysterious lightning storm strikes, she is hurled into the ancient, alternate dimension of Carnelia where she is discovered by the arrogant but attractive nobleman, Ambassador Darian Fiore.

Stranded in a world teeming with monsters, maniacs and medieval knights, Marisa is forced to join Darian on a dangerous mission to negotiate peace with his cousin and archenemy, Savino da Rocha. Along the way, she starts to see Darian’s softer side and finds herself falling in love. But once she learns that he is locked into an arranged marriage, her heart shatters.

When Savino falls for her charms and demands her hand in exchange for peace, Marisa is faced with an impossible choice: marry the enemy of the man she loves or betray them both and become the catalyst for a bloody war.

[Full disclosure: I requested and received an ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]

Some books you can tell right away that they’re going to be amazing.  (Or amazingly bad.)  Others it takes a little while to tell.  And still others, like The Carnelian Legacy, you really aren’t sure of until the very end.  I’ll explain.

From the first page, I loved The Carnelian Legacy.  Marisa is a young woman who has gone through the unthinkable: not only did she lose her mother at a very young age, she just lost her father in her last year of high school.  She’s grown up so quickly because her life has been shattered and then, when she seeks out a little peace in the woods of Gold Hill she’s thrust into a whole other dimension.  Not only that, she’s stumbled into the middle of a very dangerous political situation where even the slightest misstep could mean the deaths of thousands on her conscience.  When Marisa met Darian and Arrie (the prince and the diplomat, respectively) I began to have my doubts about The Carnelian Legacy.  Although I loved the beginning, I felt apprehensive about where Cheryl Koevoet was taking the story.  Was she going to turn a fairly interesting and unique premise into your typical love at first sight story?

Throughout the novel, there were times I would have answered yes and times I would have answered no because of the many, many plot twists.  Some were predictable and some weren’t.  But what really clinched it for me is in the end when I thought I had figured out everything and seen through the upcoming stereotypical plot twist, Koevoet changed the rules.  In a good way!  She defly dodged a predictable trope by combining many other older tropes to create something new and fresh.  It was such a relief.  So when you’re reading this book, you really do have to give the plot a chance right up until the end.  It might turn out the way you think, but the journey will be very, very surprising.

That said, even if the plot had fallen flat on its face, I would still have enjoyed the book.  Marisa is a character after my own heart.  She grew up way before her time and had to play the adult from a very young age.  Not only that, she had to decide whether risking everything for love was really worth it or whether she should do the responsible, practical thing that might bring about love in time.  So you could say I’m a bit biased but Cheryl Koevoet really made Marisa come to life.  She really portrays her frayed emotional state well without making her melodramatic.  Anyone who has experienced loss in their life will understand Marisa’s frequent mood swings and crying spells, believe me.  Especially since not only did she lose a parent, she lost her remaining family and was transported to another dimension where only a handful of people speak her language.

Darian is a wonderful male lead.  Some people will probably be frustrated with him and all his contradictions but I think it made him far more realistic.  He, like Marisa, has had to shoulder adult responsibilities from a young age and that has made him slightly paranoid and unwilling to trust anyone.  Just when you think he’s on the brink of opening up about his past or his feelings, he shuts down once again as he reminds himself of his duty.  His romance with Marisa is far from straightforward, just like in real life.  Confessions come from both sides at inconvenient times, feelings don’t always stay constant and both sides make enormous mistakes at one time or another.  But that’s what really clinched The Carnelian Legacy for me: it was very realistic in its depiction of a relationship with so many outside forces exerting pressure on it.

The world-building was also very good.  While this is obviously not a political thriller, Koevoet did a good job of making the politics of the kingdom believable.  Everyone had their own motivations, even the secondary characters, and nothing was as it seemed.  She also presented a very interesting view of alternate dimensions that I haven’t really seen in science fiction/fantasy before.  I can’t explain it without spoiling some of the plot points, but suffice it to say you’ll be pleasantly surprised.  There was even a realistic depiction of religion in the kingdom that I thoroughly enjoyed because Koevoet was able to create religious characters without being preachy (unlike some authors).  It was a refreshing change.

Basically, while I was very skeptical about the novel at times I am so glad that I stuck with it because it really is amazing.  It’s definitely one of my better NetGalley finds and I can’t wait to read the second book, The Carnelian Tyranny.

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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