Tagged: masq1
Stork by Wendy Delsol
(Cover picture courtesy of Wendy Delsol’s site.)
Family secrets. Lost memories. And the arrival of an ancient magical ability that will reveal everything.
Sixteen-year-old Katla LeBlanc has just moved from Los Angeles to Minnesota. As if it weren’t enough that her trendy fashion sense draws stares, Katla soon finds out that she’s a Stork, a member of a mysterious order of women tasked with a very unique duty. But Katla’s biggest challenge may be finding her flock at a new school. Between being ignored by Wade, the arrogant jock she stupidly fooled around with, and constantly arguing with gorgeous farm boy and editor-in-chief Jack, Katla is relieved when her assignment as the school paper’s fashion columnist brings with it some much-needed friendship. But as Homecoming approaches, Katla uncovers a shocking secret about her past — a secret that binds her fate to Jack’s in a way neither could have ever anticipated. With a nod to Hans Christian Andersen and inspired by Norse lore, Wendy Delsol’s debut novel introduces a hip and witty heroine who finds herself tail-feathers deep in small-town life.
It actually took me a long time to warm up to Stork. I had read up until chapter three sometime in March but was so bored with it I put it down for a while. Lately I’ve had a little bit of time to read during the day so I sat down and got down to the business of reading a significant chunk of the book at once. It’s a good thing I did too. Stork is one of those books that isn’t very fast-paced at the start but it draws you in slowly and soon enough you’re hooked.
Normally I’d hate a main character like Katla. She’s a total fashionista and despises the small town ways (I myself live in a small town and feel the same way, but it gets tiring after a while). I would have given up on this book except I reminded myself of the way she was raised. Her father is very similar to her and raised her to be this perfect little fashionista that looks down her nose at almost everyone. Eventually Katla improves and starts to realize that maybe fashion is just her way of hiding her insecurities and that maybe she should lighten up a bit. Overall she is a well-rounded character, though.
This is loosely based off of a Hans Christian Andersen tale that I’ve never read so I can’t really comment on how true it stays to the story. I think Wendy Delsol added a lot of her own flair into the myth and that’s how we get the storks: women who help bring babies to ‘troubled souls’. They’re like the storks of myth in the cartoons that drop off babies on doorsteps, except they do it on a spiritual level. It’s much more interesting than I’m making it sound and you really have to read the book to appreciate the world-building.
Stork is not the best book I’ve ever read, I’ll admit that. It does drag on in some places and there are old tropes left, right and centre but overall I was actually quite impressed. By the end of the novel I felt connected to the main characters and honestly cared about what happened to them. That’s not bad considering my low expectations from the first three chapters.
Basically, if it sounds interesting to you give it a try. It’s not the greatest book out there but it was good enough that I’m glad I bought the second book in the series to continue Katla’s story.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
(Cover picture courtesy of Gayle Forman’s site.)
On a day that started like any other…
Mia had everything: a loving family, a gorgeous, adoring boyfriend, and a bright future full of music and full of choices. Then, in an instant, almost all of that is taken from her. Caught between life and death, between a happy past and an unknowable future, Mia spends one critical day contemplating the one decision she has left—the most important decision she’ll ever make.
Simultaneously tragic and hopeful, this is a romantic, riveting and ultimately uplifting story about memory, music, living, dying, loving.
Here I am once again tackling a book that’s pretty much become a classic of modern literature. I really tried hard not to let the hype influence my opinion of it but as you guys know it’s impossible to be totally oblivious to a novel as popular as this one.
I didn’t like If I Stay. There, I said it. So you can start writing your hate mail now but at least hear me out on my reasons why.
Mia was a horrible main character, to be honest. No, she wasn’t an awful human being but she was boring. Horribly, ordinary and boring with pretty much nothing to set her apart. Sure she’s into music but her personality is about as dull as watching paint dry. The book starts out with her accident and as she’s in a coma we learn more about her life prior to the accident. And you know what? It’s too good to be true.
She has the cool parents that every stereotypical teenager supposedly wishes for. They’re cool, not uptight about anything and basically act like teenagers themselves. She never, ever has any disagreements with them. Ever. That’s just not realistic at all. And her relationship with Adam was so cheesy it almost made me gag. That scene where they’re in Mia’s room and Adam asked her to “play [him] like a cello” (page 59). And she literally played air cello on his body before he reciprocated by playing air guitar on hers. I haven’t rolled my eyes so hard since I was 13 years old and even at that age I could have told you that two teenagers alone in a bedroom together are not going to play air-whatevers on each other.
Basically, If I Stay is a bunch of memories of Mia’s where she boringly examines her perfect life before deciding if she wants to die or not. There’s no great lyricism to the writing, no real emotion in what really should be a heart-wrenching situation and I really didn’t care what happened to Mia by the end of the novel. I just wanted the novel to be over so I could do something productive with my life.
If you want to read If I Stay to see what all the hype is about, go for it. But set your expectations a little lower if you don’t want to be totally disappointed.
I give this book 1/5 stars.
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.