Books Archives - Page 63 of 71

Yzabel / March 22, 2013

Review: Something Strange and Deadly

Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

There’s something strange and deadly loose in Philadelphia…

Eleanor Fitt has a lot to worry about.
Her brother has gone missing, her family has fallen on hard times, and her mother is determined to marry her off to any rich young man who walks by. But this is nothing compared to what she’s just read in the newspaper:
The Dead are rising in Philadelphia.
And then, in a frightening attack, a zombie delivers a letter to Eleanor… from her brother.

Review:

Balancing between 3 and 4 stars here.

I found the book fast-paced enough to my liking, as well as convincing in terms of mores: Elanor’s mother is concerned about keeping up appearances, about her daughter snagging off a rich husband to save the family from ruin… all things that fit, in my opinion, with matters related to societies with a strong bent on social classes. The book reads fast, too, and I regularly wanted to pick it up again. Not to mention that necromancy is one of those kinds of magic that I always enjoy reading about.

On the other hand, and while I consider myself a pretty clueless reader whose disbelief is easily suspended, I found that too many things were predictable early in the story. Well-tied together, granted, but predictable, to the point that sometimes I just wanted to tell the character what an idiot she was for not understanding the clues left everywhere. Also, this book falls in my own personal catgegory of “how is it steampunk?”. Steampunk is easy to render in illustrations, but not so much in words, and slapping off a few contraptions, goggles and some engine in an exhibition isn’t enough for me to justify the label. This may be merely a personal pet peeve, but I still believe that too many authors, publishers and readers don’t understand what exactly lies behind “steampunk”. It’s much more complex than that.

However, I’ll probably still pick the next installment. Eleanor as a character wasn’t of the wimpy kind, showed willpower and abilities to think and act for herself, and to uphold her decisions, no matter the outcome. The ending left me wanting to know what’s going to happen next.

Yzabel / March 19, 2013

Review: Dearly, Departed

Dearly, Departed: A Zombie Novel by Lia Habel

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

CAN A PROPER YOUNG VICTORIAN LADY FIND TRUE LOVE IN THE ARMS OF A DASHING ZOMBIE?

The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria—a high-tech nation modeled on the mores of an antique era. Sixteen-year-old Nora Dearly is far more interested in her country’s political unrest than in silly debutante balls. But the death of her beloved parents leaves Nora at the mercy of a social-climbing aunt who plans to marry off her niece for money. To Nora, no fate could be more horrible—until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses. Now she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting a fatal virus that raises the dead. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble . . . and thoroughly deceased. But like the rest of his special undead unit, Bram has been enabled by luck and modern science to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire.

Review:

This is one of those books I’m having a hard time rating.

On the plus side:
– Zombies. A couple of years ago, I wasn’t really interested in those, but other stories I read since then made this theme more interesting. Here, I liked that some of them were given a chance, and were able to prove that they could still remain “humane” in many ways (sometimes even more than some of the living).
– Girls take matters into hands. Not always from the beginning, but they quickly learn to. Nora could’ve been much more of a crybaby, given her circumstances, yet she didn’t let herself sink. Pamela, too, grew to be more likeable. And Chas. How I loved spunky, mouth-running Chas.
– World-building. Granted, if we dig deeper into it, its bases are probably flawed, but no more than those of a lot of other dystopian/sci-fi stories. I’d say they’re more believale than in, say, the Hunger Games, because the rest of the world is at least mentioned.
– There’s an airship. ‘Nuff said. A certain scene involving it and a church holds a special value to me, due to personal reasons.
– Quirky and crazy engineers, whose names I quite liked, by the way.
– Neo-victorian society, with reasons for customs to revert to those of what was perceived as a “Golden Age”—and said customs indeed correspond the Victorian ones (courtship, dress code, and a lot of tiny details too).
– There’s a parasol involved in killing a zombie.
– Actually, parasols come with different lights to indicate the status of a lady: married, unmarried… and those who prefer women to men, too. Now that’s one of those tiny little ideas I like.

On the minus side:
– Once again, the “steampunk” label is applied to a world that in my opinion is not so much steampunk in the end. Sure, they use coal, but reconciliating this with more modern technology (the local equivalent of iPads, holograms, data chips…) was a little hard. Too often I feel that books get labelled as “steampunk” because it’s a fad, and this is getting annoying.
– The villains felt too cartoonesque at times.
– Some of the point of views weren’t so useful. I don’t mind juggling five POVs—I can juggle 20 if they’re properly written. But at least two of them weren’t justified. I’m not sure about the third one, since it also gives us on what’s happening meanwhile, in the city. Also, at some point the POVs tended to become hard to distinguish from each other. I’d be reading Pamela’s, and then suddenly I wouldn’t know anymore whose “voice” it was, if it was Pam’s or Nora’s.
– Not enough of New London to my taste.

Probably a 3.5 stars on my scale, but I’m not sure I should up it to 4. So 3 it’ll be for the time being. I will probably pick up the next volume, though.

Yzabel / February 6, 2013

Review: The Timekeeper’s Son

The Timekeeper’s Son by Mike E. Miller

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

What would you do if you could start your life over again? What if you didn’t have a choice?

That’s what happens to Andy Meyers. He has all the normal trappings of life: a beautiful wife, a nice house, and a good job. But all that vanishes when he wakes to find himself reliving his own childhood. He is suddenly nine-years-old again, and he is poised to reenact a terrible chain of events that altered his life forever.

But that’s just the beginning. Things get even more complicated when Andy discovers an impossible note. Someone knows he has come back. Someone who doesn’t want him to change anything. And they will stop at nothing to keep him from it.

As Andy starts to unravel his own past, he begins to find that things are much different than he ever imagined. His family has a secret. A secret so big that it could change everything.

Review:

(Book provided by the author through ARR #590 in the Making Connections group, in exchange for an honest review.)

Overall an interesting book, along the idea of “what would you do if you could go back to the past and change something.” It avoided falling into a lot of clichés I expect of such a genre (for instance, “let’s go back in 1938 and kill Hitler”), while also addressing the matter of time paradox, in that, of course, whatever gets changed in the past will affect the future, and so the ‘old’ life the character would like to go back to wouldn’t exist anymore, not per se, at least.

The backdrop provided, that of the Timekeepers’ organization, was interesting, and I liked the trigger to time-travel that was revealed later on in the book. It was shocking, yet also logical in a way.

I was less thrilled at the second part of the book, though. I found the Timekeepers to be perhaps a little too… naive?… in their dealings. As if they should’ve been able to expect and do more, but didn’t. Instead, Andy was the one who seemed to understand the most, when he was actually the one who should’ve been the most clueless. (Granted, he was the main character, and a main character who doesn’t *do* anything and only lets things happen would be boring. It’s just the behaviour of other characters that seemed somewhat contradictory to me.)

No matter what, I do think there’s potential to the world created here. I would probably be interested in reading the next installment, especially if it were to reveal more about the Timekeepers and how they work exactly.

Yzabel / February 4, 2013

Review: Kindling the Moon

Kindling the Moon by Jenn Bennett

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

Meet Arcadia Bell: bartender, renegade magician, fugitive from the law. . . .

Being the spawn of two infamous occultists (and alleged murderers) isn’t easy, but freewheeling magician Arcadia “Cady” Bell knows how to make the best of a crummy situation. After hiding out for seven years, she’s carved an incognito niche for herself slinging drinks at the demon-friendly Tambuku Tiki Lounge.

But she receives an ultimatum when unexpected surveillance footage of her notorious parents surfaces: either prove their innocence or surrender herself. Unfortunately, the only witness to the crimes was an elusive Æthyric demon, and Cady has no idea how to find it. She teams up with Lon Butler, an enigmatic demonologist with a special talent for sexual spells and an arcane library of priceless stolen grimoires. Their research soon escalates into a storm of conflict involving missing police evidence, the decadent Hellfire Club, a ruthless bounty hunter, and a powerful occult society that operates way outside the law. If Cady can’t clear her family name soon, she’ll be forced to sacrifice her own life . . . and no amount of running will save her this time.

Review:

More like 2.5 stars, but I’m upping it to 3, because I feel there’s potential in the world developed here.

My main beef with this book is that the heroine, Arcadia, appears as strong and independent, but when taking a closer look, doesn’t exactly *do* that much by herself: sure, she takes the matter into her own hands and enlists help to solve it, but once this is done, in my opinion, said help does more than her. Also, for someone who’s supposed to be in hiding because of her serial killer parents, and does have quite recognizable features (=her halo—not a spoiler, we learn that in chapter 1), I didn’t find her particularly stealth-savvy, nor in a hurry either. She’s supposed to have only two weeks to solve her problem, yet there were several chapters in which I couldn’t feel any urgency, and wanted to tell the characters “uh, guys, the clock’s ticking.” Finally, I found the romance bit a little too present; it may have been better to develop it more slowly, over the course of two books, maybe.

On the other hand, I liked the supernatural world developed by the author, with different categories of ‘demons’ (not all necessarily ‘bad’, but more on the side of ‘spirits’, in fact), and how some of them mixed with humans, as beings trapped into human bodies. The bar was a cool place, too, and I hope that it’s not going to be dropped in the next books. Some of the characters I enjoyed a lot: Lon, for starters, had unexpected sides, his having a son and loving him fiercely not being the least. As for hyperactive Jupe, he was just so lovable from the start, and not the piece of heavy baggage such a ward may be seen as in a lot of novels.

I’m still not sure I’ll read the next book in the series, because although I enjoyed this one, I also expected more of it, and therefore was a bit disappointed. But then, who knows, I might.

Yzabel / January 29, 2013

Review: The Greyfriar

The Greyfriar by Clay Griffith

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

Vampire predators run wild in this exciting steampunk adventure, the first in an alternate history trilogy that is already attracting attention. In 1870, monsters rise up and conquer the northern lands, As great cities are swallowed up by carnage and disease, landowners and other elite flee south to escape their blood-thirsty wrath.

One hundred fifty years later, the great divide still exists; fangs on one side of the border, worried defenders on the other. This fragile equilibrium is threatened, then crumbles after a single young princess becomes almost hopelessly lost in the hostile territory. At first, she has only one defender—a mysterious Greyfriar who roams freely in dangerous vampire regions.

Review:

I found it hard at first to get into the story, because I couldn’t properly wrap my mind about the geography and politics of the world described in this book—it’s nothing complicated, though, so I guess it was just me, probably reading too late at night as usual, in a language that remains not my own. The problem didn’t last for long anyway, and then I got sucked in.

I want to mention that for once, too, the label ‘steampunk’ is better applied than it usually is to a lot of novels lumped in this genre. I love the steampunk aesthetics, I love in in art and clothing, but I find that too often, an author will slap a few cogs and a dirigible and call it ‘steampunk’. The keyword being ‘steam’. Here, though, we are given a world where such technology is the norm; while it’s not the core of the story, it’s still present enough to be felt throughout the novel.

The vampires are ruthless and inhuman, yet cunning in their own ways. Having the point of view of both humans and vampires throughout the narrative allows the reader to see how each species perceive each other like nothing more than animals, especially since the vampires don’t seem to care about fine clothing, architecture, arts, poetry, and so on, thus making them ‘inferior’ in the eyes of humans. I liked that take, because if we reverse it, it’s also logical: why would immortal creatures bother with the very means through which the short-lived humans strive to make themselves ‘immortal’?

The real identity of the mysterious Greyfriar was easy enough to guess, but that was alright, because the author didn’t try to actually hide it from the reader (if he had tried to do so, on the other hand, it would have fallen flat, for sure). For me, it actually tied quite well with the use of certain clichés that, in retrospect, also make a lot of sense. Greyfriar: a mysterious man who never shows his face and hides his eyes behind smoked glasses; fights like a hero of legend; fights ‘the good fight’, alone, in dangerous territories, isolated from all other humans. Greyfriar was from the beginning an image, a symbol, and I found the reason behind that image somewhat touching, even.

One thing I regularly had problems with, though, was the shift in points of view. It switches between characters several times in a same chapter, sometimes even from one paragraph to the other, yet it’s not an exact omniscient third person POV either. This tends to make me lose focus, and wonder “Wait, what? It was about Flay, and now we’re in Cesare’s thoughts? Huh?”

This put aside, I enjoyed the story, and the gritty side there was to it.

Yzabel / January 19, 2013

Cover project: Was

This isn’t exactly a true “cover reveal”, as in I’m not doing it to announce an upcoming book (well, not so soon, at any rate). But I’ve had a lot of fun and excitement working on a cover project for the first part of my story “Was”, and of course I’m eager to share it.

Paris, February 1989. With the help of his deadly minion, the cunning Necromancer Louis Valdemar is well on his way to awake dark forces no human being should ever play with. Abiding by treaties held up for centuries, the Anima Mundi, an organisation of mages, sends a team of hunters to put an end to this madness, and prevent the French capital from being destroyed.

Bristol, May 2008. A-level student Louisa Keynes wakes up in a white hospital room, after a car crash that left her in a coma for ten months, only to find out that everything has changed, that her nights are now plagued by weird dreams, and that magic does exist. She has become a Technomancer, one of those mages who can bend Reality to their will using modern devices; and she’s decided to walk that path as far as she needs to in order to learn more about herself.

London, December 2009. Near the oily waters of the river Thames, sys-op Echoes and Blood Witch Ring investigate a series of gruesome murders whose victims had their souls devoured. At St Pancras railway station, Marek Van Cartier is about to wreak havoc, a sweet smile on his lips. Standing on the platform at Tottenham Court Road tube station, Lyle Karlowitz is staring at a heartless woman in a colourless world. From beyond a wall of thorns, the hand of death is about to curb the fates of thousands of people. And Louisa is riding the Northern Line, unknowingly rushing towards the encounter that will once again turn her life to shambles.

What was and what is shall now meet.

Yzabel / January 13, 2013

Review: Who is Audrey Wickersham?

Who is Audrey Wickersham? by Sara Shrieves

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

I know everything that’s happened is my fault. I try to tell myself that it’s okay, I never wanted a normal life to begin with. But then I think about who’s been hurt, and I wish that I could go back to the beginning. Back to when I was just a nobody wandering the halls of my high school, alone and unnoticed. Back to when I was completely oblivious to what killing somebody felt like.

You have to understand though, I had no choice.

Review:

(Book provided by the author through ARR #63 in the We ♥ YA Books! group, in exchange for an honest review.)

This novel was a fast and funny read as far as I’m concerned; I wouldn’t put it in my all-time favourites, but it definitely made me smile more than once, for its main character and her quirks first. Audrey’s misfortune is absolutely appaling, yet she has somewhat of a humorous way of telling about it, when her attitude could’ve been much more angst-ridden (and thus probably more difficult to stand in the long run—that may be because I’m myself the kinf of person who’s cry for five minutes, then throw in bad jokes all the time just to deflect the fear and pain). She’s also determined to take things into her own hands (even though this leads her to other mishaps), and not to let other people only try to figure out a solution.

Another thing I appreciated is the role played by her father: in a lot of novels, the protagonist’s parents often get shoved out of the way very quickly, and the teenagers left to their own devices. Here, her father is clearly part of the plot, with a fierce desire to help and protect, proving his love for his daughter by the simple fact that, for starters, he’s not rejecting her. And let’s not forget Bruce, who I absolutely loved for his own quirks.

What may or may not undo this book for a lot of readers, I think, is its ‘over the top/cheesy slash movie’ feeling—in that either you like such tropes, or you don’t. I’m usually at ease with those, especially when they’re used on purpose, which seems to be the case here; but I suppose this would deter other people from enjoying this story. There was also Kirk’s matter: the characters suffers, in my opinion, from being introduced too fast for who he is, and he would be more enjoyable if the reader could get to know him better before that.

I originally gave 3 stars to this novel, but truly, it was more like 3.5, and now that I’m writing this review, I’ve decided to up it to 4. It *was* a very entertaining story, and I like the author’s take on zombies and on how they come to be created.

Yzabel / January 11, 2013

Review: The Time Traveler’s Wife

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

This is the extraordinary love story of Clare and Henry who met when Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-two and Henry was thirty. Impossible but true, because Henry suffers from a rare condition where his genetic clock periodically resets and he finds himself pulled suddenly into his past or future. In the face of this force they can neither prevent nor control, Henry and Clare’s struggle to lead normal lives is both intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.

Review:

This book is pretty difficult to rate; I’m not even sure if I want to give it 2 stars or 3, because there are quite a few things in it I liked, and quite a few things I found hard to stand.

Like with some other books I read in the past months, I think I was expecting something else—something shorter, too: some parts I could have done without, because they didn’t bring much to the story as a whole, and felt like they were just delaying the unavoidable. Conversely, I wish the author had spent more time tackling a few problems that should have arisen regarding Henry, especially since she described other issues that came with his chrono-deficiency.

Those very issues were something I appreciated reading about, even though they made Henry hard to like in parts, because they raised interesting questions. For instance, Henry’s coldness at having to regularly steal, pick locks, mug other people, and so on; however, if one had had to do that for his/her whole life, wouldn’t s/he have ended up distancing him/herself the same way? (That, or ending up dying young because of too many scruples.) So, it didn’t make the character very likeable, but it was still a logical development for me. On the other hand, I felt like too many other problems were left aside, such as “how did he manage to hold a steady job like he did?” Also, the setting seemed a little too one-sided (middle-class people, with some annoying clichés).

I’m also shared regarding relationships in this book, more specifically Henry’s and Clare’s. While Clare’s love for him is logical enough, considering she’s known him all her life, Henry’s develops a little too fast (“it’s OK because she’s seen my future self, so I suppose it’s going to happen anyway” is just a tad bit far-fetched). And I found Clare too passive and dependent.

Truth be told, I’m not sure what exactly I was expecting from this novel. It wasn’t bad, but it left me with a lingering feeling of frustration.

Yzabel / January 2, 2013

Review: Incarnate

Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

New soul

Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.

No soul

Even Ana’s own mother thinks she’s a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she’ll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?

Heart

Sam believes Ana’s new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana’s enemies—human and creature alike—let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else’s life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?

Review:

I tend to get attracted to themes such as reincarnation, and I was interested in the idea of a finite amount of souls coming back year after year, knowing each other, and how one of them disappearing/being ‘replaced’ could throw off the balance… or bring something new to an old world that may have ended up stalling.

I liked the story quite enough; its prose was easy and flowing, and I had no difficulty picturing the world it was set in. It’s a world with a lot of secrets, some of which are only brushed on and leave the reader with the certainty that there’s much more to it than just ‘souls being recincarnated’. What about the walls with a heartbeat, how come Ana’s the only one who feels at unease with that? What about that freaky temple? Why’s the center called ‘Heart’ and the country ‘Range’ (now there *must* be a meaning behind that… I’d be disappointed if there wasn’t). Although we don’t get all the answers, it’s one of those stories that prompt me to think, try to anticipate, to imagine, and I liked this; it doesn’t happen to me with all books.

Including sylph and dragons, and potentially other mysterious creatures, adds a different, fantasy-like touch that was quite pleasant, even though it made me wonder why people in Heart, with lifetimes of experience and experimenting, hadn’t found a way yet to fight them more efficiently (lack of urgency? of interest? something else?). Also, Sam’s various encounters with dragons were definitely intriguing. Here’s to hope that there’ll be more about those aspects in the next book, because it seems too strange to be just some random coincidences. In any case, I liked how the attacks were described; those creatures seemed really impressive.

There are a few character-related things, too, I can’t wrap my mind around, or am not sure I liked or disliked. It’s a weird feeling. Ana’s reactions, for one, make sense given how she was raised, but grew old after a while. I’m thinking of her tendency to go into “everyone hates me” mode when quite a few people, actually, held out a hand to her and welcomed her into their world. It was like their efforts and presence over the weeks amounted to nothing, but one wrong comment from some random person would trigger an angsty episode. So, yes, understandable in the beginning, yet quickly tiring after that, especially with Ana flaring at the nice ones and keeping meek in front of those who despised her. The same way, Li’s cruelty seemed gratuitous (and if it was a way for her to make Ana pay for ‘stealing’ Ciana’s soul or whatever, then everyone and their dog seemed totally oblivious to it, and totally gullible, which was weird).

I’m not sure what to make of the romance either. It didn’t feel that useful to me, and there were moments, especially in the middle, where the dialogue/scenes about it dragged on and on and became a little boring. There was too much of it, which detracted from time spent on advancing the plot, and developing other characters (I’d have wanted to know more about Stef, Whit and the others, for instance). On the other hand, there was no love triangle, and since the latter has become such a crutch of YA novels in general, not having one was definitely refreshing.

I wasn’t too thrilled about the ending, which felt rushed–in part, maybe, because so much time had been devoted to the romance, and the rest had to be wrapped up faster? And the reason (and person) behind the newsoul(s) was kind of a letdown.

I’d rate this book a 2.5 stars. It has too many annoying aspects for me to give it a high mark. However, since I liked its world and atmosphere, and it made me spend an enjoyable moment nevertheless, I’m upping it to 3 all the same.

Yzabel / December 30, 2012

Review: Becoming

Becoming by Raine Thomas

My rating: [rating=1]

Summary:

Every three years, Amber Hopkins explodes. Okay, not a blown-to-smithereens explosion, but whatever it is always hurts like hell and leaves her life a shambles. She’s already worked her way through five foster placements, and she’s doing whatever she can to avoid getting blasted into a sixth.

As her eighteenth birthday approaches and she feels the strange and powerful energy building, disaster looms. When the inevitable explosion occurs, her life gets its biggest shakeup yet. She’ll not only learn how her fellow foster and best friend, Gabriel, really feels about her, but she’ll discover that she isn’t really without family.

To top it all off, she’ll finally find out why she’s having the power surges: she isn’t entirely human.

Amber must Become, transitioning to another plane of existence and risking the loss of the most important relationship she’s ever had. Her choice will impact the future of an entire race of beings, and will pit her against an enemy that will prey upon her doubt to try and take her very life.

Kind of makes the explosions now seem like a cakewalk.

Review:

I first picked this book because of its cover and somewhat intriguing blurb, not to mention that I’m always up for discovering new authors (published or indie–there are real gems in indie too); but now I’m not so sure what to make of it. I can’t exactly say that I didn’t like it at all, only it doesn’t completely reach the “it was OK” mark for me either.

I think I would have liked it if the story had been closer to what the blurb got me to think. “Every three years, Amber Hopkins explode” would have made up for an excellent in medias res beginning, something that would have prompted the action and then the revelations in an interesting way. Unfortunately, things dragged for too long. Although the romance between Amber and Gabriel was sweet and beautiful, there was too much time wasted in everyday little things, what each character is wearing, and this goes on until the end of the book. The ‘bad guys’ really started intervening some 30 pages before the end, which came too late to my tastes–I’d have appreciated seeing more action from them, especially since the girls were told they were in danger in the human world too. I never really felt the pressure they were supposed to enact.

I found most of the characters hard to relate to, and rather cliché too. Some were just too perfect (Amber, Gabriel), some too detached (granted, it’s a cultural trait), and mostly who they are was told rather than shown (there’s actually a chapter in which the girls’ strong points and shortcomings are described in front of a crowd…). The villains looked cardboard-like, maybe because they didn’t get much screen time, so to speak, which doesn’t usually make for strong development. Add to this a definite feeling of mary-sueness: everyone gets eyes that change colours, wings, super long hair for some, powers, strength… and accepts all of this a tad bit too quickly. By that point, I was rolling my eyes, I admit.

The Estilorian society had its interesting sides, and I liked the idea of how they developed parallel to humans, offering another explanation to the ‘gods’ and ‘demi-gods’ that were said to walk the Earth in times of old. I only regret that their tribal/caste/groups organization was a little too complicated to grasp all in one go, and might have been better kept to 3 or 4 groups only. Even by the end, I couldn’t tell who was supposed to do what and why they were in that specific group. Unfortunately, some things here also added inconsistencies to the book. For instance, the Mercesti were mentioned, they seemed to be a class of their own; then they were simply those who wanted the sisters killed; and then they wanted to recruit them (so what happened to the “kill the half-bloods because our blood must remain pure”?). There were also a few instances where I wasn’t sure where the whole Estilorian society was supposed to stand: though they had many angel-like traits, what I appreciated was that they *weren’t* angels, yet later there’s mention of a sword cursed in Hell, which throws an angels/demons manichean veil over the whole thing.

As for the ending, it didn’t do for me. Too cheesy and cliché to my tastes.