romance Archives - Page 7 of 14

Yzabel / October 6, 2015

Review: The Dead House

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

Three students: dead.
Carly Johnson: vanished without a trace.

Two decades have passed since an inferno swept through Elmbridge High, claiming the lives of three teenagers and causing one student, Carly Johnson, to disappear. The main suspect: Kaitlyn, “the girl of nowhere.”

Kaitlyn’s diary, discovered in the ruins of Elmbridge High, reveals the thoughts of a disturbed mind. Its charred pages tell a sinister version of events that took place that tragic night, and the girl of nowhere is caught in the center of it all. But many claim Kaitlyn doesn’t exist, and in a way, she doesn’t – because she is the alter ego of Carly Johnson.

Carly gets the day. Kaitlyn has the night. It’s during the night that a mystery surrounding the Dead House unravels and a dark, twisted magic ruins the lives of each student that dares touch it.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

The kind of format I like (and I probably missed on a lot more, considering I had a digital copy, not a paper one), mixing extracts from diaries, interviews and camera clips, as well as a non-chronological narrative and an unreliable narrator.

The story mostly revolves around Carly and Kaitlyn, twin sisters of sorts, or perhaps not? They’re two minds in one body, and who can tell whether one is crazy and the other just a mere symptom, or whether they’re actually two souls who just happen to coexist in an unusual way—Carly during the day, and Kaitlyn at night? After their parents’ death, the “sisters” are sent to Elmbridge, a boarding school in Somerset, but their stay there is chaotic, as they’re regularly sent back to Claydon, a psychiatric facility for teens. Under the guidance of Dr. Lansing, Carly has to accept that Kaitlyn is only an alter, meant to hold the painful memory of the night when her family was torn asunder. And yet… Doesn’t Kaitlyn exist in her own way, too? Is she a construct, or a real person? Doesn’t her diary reflect how real she is, just as real as Carly?

“The Dead House” explores this idea, mainly from Kaitlyn’s point of view, but also through Naida’s camera footage and through the group of friends gathered around her: Naida, Carly’s best friend during daytime; Scott, Naida’s boyfriend; and Brett and Ari. Naida’s peculiar in her own way, in that she comes from a family of priests, brought up within the faith of “Mala”, an Scottish mix of traditional witchcraft and voodoo (it doesn’t actually exist, and was created specifically for this story). And she may be the only one to accept that Kaitlyn/Carly is something special, something unique.

However, there’s something rotten in the Dead House: the sisters grow estranged, pills may do more harm than good, the doctor may not be so competent as she thinks she is, and Kaitlyn’s losing herself more and more in the maze of her own mind. Fascinating elements here, that I really liked reading about. Creept imagery, too, even though I’ve read more gory and morbid.

I’m torn when it comes to other aspects of this book, though. First, the Mala part, which sometimes felt strange and… “not Scottish”? There was something unsettling about the names, whether the spirits’ or even the people’s (“Naida” and “Haji” definitely don’t sound Scottish, and their French family-name hints more at New Orleans/voodoo surroundings than British ones). It would also have been interesting to see a real set of beliefs used here, rather than an imaginary one.

Then the romance, which I didn’t particularly care about, as the story could likely have stood on its own just as well with pure friendship and similar relationships. (But I’m very nitpicky when it comes to romance, so don’t mind me here.) The love interests looked really flat compared to Kaitlyn. In fact, most characters seemed flat, including Carly. Perhaps more insights into her own diary, into the post-its the sisters left for each other, would have helped to get to know here better. As it was, I didn’t really care about her either.

I was also confused about the actual time when the story was set: the diary and footage were recovered more than 20 years later, yet there’s no real sense of “the future”. It could’ve been 2015, and it would’ve been just the same. As for the ending, it felt incomplete, and I couldn’t decide whether the supernatural element was a good thing, or if I would’ve enjoyed the novel more if it had been purely a matter of psychological disorders.

As it was, I did enjoy “The Dead House”, and I give it 3.5 stars out of 5. On the other hand, I can’t help but think that something was missing—perhaps several things, even.

Yzabel / October 3, 2015

Review: The Heartless City

The Heartless City by Andrea Berthot

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

Henry Jekyll was a brilliant doctor, a passionate idealist who aimed to free mankind of selfishness and vice. He’s also the man who carelessly created a race of monsters.

Once shared secretly among the good doctor’s inner circle, the Hyde drug was smuggled into mass-production – but in pill form, it corrupted its users at the genetic level, leaving them liable to transform without warning. A quarter of the population are now clandestine killers – ticking bombs that could detonate at any given moment.

It’s 1903, and London has been quarantined for thirteen years.

Son of the city’s most prominent physician and cure-seeker, seventeen-year-old Elliot Morrissey has had his own devastating brush with science, downing a potion meant to remove his human weaknesses and strengthen him against the Hydes – and finding instead he’s become an empath, leveled by the emotions of a dying city.

He finds an unlikely ally in Iris Faye, a waitress at one of the city’s rowdier music halls, whose emotions nearly blind him; her fearlessness is a beacon in a city rife with terror. Iris, however, is more than what she seems, and reveals a mission to bring down the establishment that has crippled the people of London.

Together, they aim to discover who’s really pulling the strings in Jekyll’s wake, and why citizens are waking up in the street infected, with no memory of ever having taken the Hyde drug…

Heart-eating monsters, it turns out, are not the greatest evil they must face.

Review:

[I received a copy from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.]

First thing first: gorgeous cover is gorgeous.

I liked the characters in general. Elliot who was a good soul from the beginning, and had to understand that what he perceived as a “weakness” was in fact his greatest strength, all the more after he became an empath. Iris whose mind was open to knowledge and revelations, who accepted people as they were, whose emotions were strong and pure even though she always had to keep them hidden behind her mask.

And some of the secondary characters were pretty good, too. Cam, who couldn’t be himself and whose soul was slowly being snuffed out by his father’s desires and blows. I especially liked Philomena, who could so easily have been a snotty brat, yet turned out to be a strong person, aware that the life her parents had decided for her may actually kill her (married and pregnant at 15, when her body’s still almost that of a child’s), and making plans to have a life of her own instead.

The setting was interesting: a dark, dangerous, quarantined London, 13 years after Dr. Jekyll’s drug changed the face of the city by filling it with monsters derived from the original Mr. Hyde. Only men can be infected (the drug always kills women immediately), and they never know when they’re going to change and rip some poor sod’s heart. Either people go out with guns and machetes, or they’d better run very, very fast. And the poorer people, of course, don’t have any choice in the matter, as they can’t shelter themselves in some mansion or palace, living off what’s left of past fortunes.

The depiction of society here, of what people believed and considered as “proper”, was partly revolting, yet at the same time extremely fitting, in a “people reverted to even older Victorian values” ways. Relationships considered as unnatural. The upper class viewing the working class as faulty and even “deserving” of being killed by Hydes. The budding suffragettes movement crushed because there was no royalty nor parliament left to bring those ideas to. Women being victims in many ways (subverted in that those potential victims were also sturdy pioneers: Virginia, Iris, Philomena, Lady Cullum). Preaching the greatest values, while practicing hypocrisy on a daily basis. This was quite close to the dichotomy I’ve always found fascinating in Victorian mores, full of nobility, but also straying due to associating poverty with vice and laziness, for instance.

The romance: closer to the insta-love type (Iris and Elliot), but bearable. Elliot could fill emotions, after all, so obviously the attraction couldn’t just be physical only: it had to be everything at once on his part. Iris’s side of the romance may have evolved too fast, though. I don’t know. As for Cam… that was beautiful. Sad, too. But beautiful.

Where the book was wanting for me was paradoxically in this setting as well, and in the plot itself: basically, I just wished for more. I would’ve liked to see more of those dark streets, more of the Hydes murdering people, so that what happened in the story would have had even more of an impact. Many plot points were also fairly predictable. It didn’t bother me that much, because this was a case of “even though I know what’s going to happen, I’m still excited and I’m thrilled when it does happen”, but it could easily become a downfall: had I been in a different state of mind when I read the book, it may have dampened my experience.

I was also torn about a specific decision Iris made: incredibly dangerous and bordering on stupid, although at that moment she probably wouldn’t have had many other options, and at least it allowed her to stay at the palace, something she had been meaning to do anyway.

Finally, I’m holding a grudge against the blurb, because it was misleading: I thought the characters would discover the plot’s secrets together, but as it turned out, some of them knew a lot from the beginning—and at the same time, the blurb revealed a coupld ot things that, in my opinion, should’ve best been left for the reader to discover later.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed “The Heartless City”, even though I keep thinking it could’ve been more than what it is. 3.5 stars for a pleasant read no matter what.

Yzabel / August 30, 2015

Review: Mechanica

Mechanica by Betsy Cornwell

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

Nicolette’s awful stepsisters call her “Mechanica” to demean her, but the nickname fits: she learned to be an inventor at her mother’s knee. Her mom is gone now, though, and the Steps have turned her into a servant in her own home.

But on her sixteenth birthday, Nicolette discovers a secret workshop in the cellar and begins to dare to imagine a new life for herself. Could the mysterious books and tools hidden there—and the mechanical menagerie, led by a tiny metal horse named Jules—be the key to escaping her dreary existence? With a technological exposition and royal ball on the horizon, the timing might just be perfect for Nicolette to earn her freedom at last.

Gorgeous prose and themes of social justice and family shine in this richly imagined Cinderella retelling about an indomitable inventor who finds her prince . . . but realizes she doesn’t want a fairy tale happy ending after all.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley and Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.]

An interesting retelling of “Cinderella”, in that it veers away from the traditional Happy Ever After being brough by Finding True Love. Not that love isn’t nice, but I’ve always found it a bit… lackluster, in that it feels like a deus ex machina—why would there be any need for resourceful, smart, brave characters, right, since Love is meant to care of everything in the end! So this novel was a definite good change of pace, with Nick/Nicolette/Mechanica basically doing things herself, laying down her own plans and acting on them to get her own workshop. She was determined to reclaim her own life, without waiting on Prince Charming to come to the rescue, and I particularly liked that she realised this and chose her own path when other characters tried to force her into that particular mould.

Last but not least, the story focuses on friendship as a possible form of “love”, which isn’t something that I’ve seen that often in YA books, which too often only consider the couple aspect. Yet love has so many variations, offers so many possibilities…

The world itself was also intriguing, with its mix of steampunk-ish science and faerie wares, with the Fae getting the short end of the stick after having seen their lands conquered by the humans. It was a shame these two civilisations couldn’t coexist peacefully, and it raises the question of whether this could’ve been possible or not, or maybe if one of the sides (or both?) deliberately tried to sabotage relationships. Nick’s recollection of her childhood, of the family’s housekeeper, of her mother’s works—mixing technology and possibly a bit of magic—gave quite a few insights into how things degraded.

However, while the ideas carried through this retelling are excellent, I couldn’t help but be bored at times, as the story progressed rather slowly without exactly more than the basic original plot. Nicolette’s thoughts were not always the most interesting, and even though a Cinderella is supposed to be a solitary creature, so to speak, isolated from the world because of her step family, this resulted in maybe just a little too much beating around the bush. I think more interactions with Caro and Fin would have spiced up things a little, especially considering the relationship that developed between these three characters. Genuine female friendship, and none of the insta-dislike of the other girl because here’s a rival? Hell yeah. On the other hand, the lack of interactions in general made a certain love story border more on insta-love than anything else (not to mention that it developed in Nick’s fantasies more than “in real life”).

The other major “negative” point for me was how so many threads were left dangling. I’m not sure at all if this book is supposed to be a standalone or not. If it isn’t, it wasn’t made clear enough. If it is, then these plot points should’ve been resolved. The Ashes, more specifically, remain a mystery. What about the king’s latest decision regarding Faerie? And while the latter was a good element to include, somehow more details about the Fey themselves would’ve been a nice addition (and nice opportunities for twists and turns): revolution, trying to break the embargo, whatever… Only it didn’t happen. Here’s to hope it will happen in a next volume…

3 stars for the empowering message delivered throughout (make your own life, love yourself, don’t wait on a man to save you), and because I like machines and trinkets. Nevertheless, as it was rather uneventful, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I would’ve otherwise.

Yzabel / August 27, 2015

Review: The Veil

The Veil by Chloe Neill

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

Seven years ago, the Veil that separates humanity from what lies beyond was torn apart, and New Orleans was engulfed in a supernatural war. Now, those with paranormal powers have been confined in a walled community that humans call the District. Those who live there call it Devil’s Isle.

Claire Connolly is a good girl with a dangerous secret: she’s a Sensitive, a human endowed with magic that seeped through the Veil. Claire knows that revealing her skills would mean being confined to Devil’s Isle. Unfortunately, hiding her power has left her untrained and unfocused.

Liam Quinn knows from experience that magic makes monsters of the weak, and he has no time for a Sensitive with no control of her own strength. But when he sees Claire using her powers to save a human under attack—in full view of the French Quarter—Liam decides to bring her to Devil’s Isle and the teacher she needs, even though getting her out of his way isn’t the same as keeping her out of his head.

But when the Veil threatens to shatter completely, Claire and Liam must work together to stop it, or else New Orleans will burn…

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

I’ve only read the beginning of Neill’s Chicagoland Vampires series, so I’m far from beginning an expert when it comes to her writing. Nevertheless, I definitely wanted to lay my hand on the beginning of this new series, as the premise clearly looked interesting.

And it is, both when it comes to what’s going on in New Orleans itself as to what’s happening behind, let’s say, other scenes as well. On the one side, the humans, trying to eke out a living in a city they don’t want to give up on and leave because, well, it’s *their* city, Veil or not. Containment as well as a couple of private contractors and other bounty hunters do their best to keep in check the resident Paranormals, stranded here after the Veil between their respective worlds closed during the war a few years ago. But are the “Paras”, as they’re nicknamed, so evil and threatening, or simply beings who mourn the loss of their own home?

I liked that things weren’t so black and white as they seemed at first. The Devil’s Isle is both a prison and a refuge, a temporary (or maybe not so much temporary) home, where angels, demons, fae and other creatures have to remain, cut from their magic and forbidden to use what’s left of it. As for Containment, it’s a very ambiguous organisation in its own rights: protecting humans, sure, but perhaps not doing as much as they could and should do regarding certain things. These things being notably the wraiths, humans sensitive to magic, whose powers were awakened by the ripping of the Veil, and who turn into mindless killing monsters after a while because of that very energy they were never supposed to touch in the first place. So once captured, they get locked up in Devil’s Isle… just as normal, still-human Sensitives are as well. And since they’re not allowed to do magic, they can’t expel what’s in them, and so they turn to wraiths, and… Not good, not good.

Pretty interesting for me, with the promise of hidden agendas, potential turncoats, unveiling of secrets, more knowledge about what’s going on behind the Veil, and so on.

However, what didn’t make this a better read for me were the characters: they’re merely “OK”, with a budding romance between Liam and Claire that felt somehow… typical of a lot of urban fantasy novels, without the added chemistry that would make it more palatable. These characters in general aren’t bad, just mostly sketched out rather than filled in, and as a result, I didn’t care that much about them. No special repartee and witty dialogue, no one particularly rising above the lot, so to speak.

The novel also felt more like an introduction than a real story, with a lot of it devoted to setting up the backdrop. It was good for world-building, but less good when it came to the plot itself, whose resolution came too fast after a few chapters I generally found less interesting.

I rate this book between “it’s OK” and “I like it”. I’d kind of like to know what happens next, yet more because of what briefly appeared behind the Veil, of what’s going to happen with Containment, than because of the characters themselves. 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 for now.

Yzabel / July 27, 2015

Review: The Floating City

The Floating City by Craig Cormick

My rating: [rating=4]

Blurb:

The Floating City is in turmoil. The magical seers who protect it are being killed by fearsome Djinn that rise out of the canals at night. Members of the city’s Council of Ten are being assassinated by masked fanatics. Refugee ships are arriving, bringing plague. Othmen spies are infiltrating everywhere. New power blocks are battling for control of the city.

And the three Montecchi daughters, Giuliette, Disdemona and Isabella, are struggling with love and loss – and trying to write their own destinies. And moving amongst them all is the mysterious and deadly Shadow Master, who seems to be directing everyone like players in a game. But some things in this game may be beyond even his control.

Review:

[I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

Last year, I read the first installment of this series, The Shadow Master. I liked it and found it really confusing at the same time. I’d say that things are a little similar here, but that knowing the works that the author plays with (Romeo & Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Othello…) helps in guessing a few things… and being misled when it comes to others, in a good way. I could both anticipate and still be surprised in the end.

This novel is more intricate than the first one, since it weaves the stories of the three Montecchi sisters along with those of the Shadow Master and Vincenzo, a young scribe with a strange power of making events happen differently by (re)writing them, a really powerful ability in its own right. These retellings from Shakespeare’s plays—and from the tales that inspired them—were fairly interesting: close enough, yet also subtly different, with a dash of humour as well. Mostly it worked for me, although there were a few instances in which the dialogues were, oddly enough, “too” Shakespearian, and clashed slightly with the way the characters spoke in general.

The city itself felt very present, much like in the first book. The atmosphere was more magical and poetic this time, through the depiction of a Venice-like city kept afloat by the powers of four couple of mages called the Seers, facing strange creatures in its waters, a plague, the looming threat of the Ottomans (Othmen), and a shady group of assassins taking down the Council members one by one. This is mostly where things felt confusing sometimes, because a lot was at stake, and the explanation at the end behind those events was too hasty, too convenient, perhaps. This is also where I would’ve liked the novel to be longer, to expand more on the Seers, on how their magic worked (pretty shady as well in its own way!), and on some of the “background characters”, so to speak.

However, paradoxically, the events surrounding the Shadow Master and Vincenzo, as confusing as they may seem, started shedding some light on events and characters from the first novel—especially when a certain couple was concerned. Though I may be mistaken, I have a gut feeling that the author is building something here, something far bigger than I had suspected at first: a sort of network of plots meant to collide at the very end, with the Shadow Master acting both as a hero/assassin and a storyteller, gifted with abilities that go deeper than suspected at first. I cannot deny, too, that the Shadow Master sometimes had a Fool’s flavour to him (as in a Shakespearian Fool), which I don’t doubt was totally on purpose. If only for that, combined to how I enjoyed the story, I shall make it a 3.5 stars, bumped to 4. I definitely hope my hunches are correct.

Note: I found some typos here and there; however, the copy I got was an ARC, therefore not the final one, and I’ll assume those few defects will have been ironed out by now.

Yzabel / July 12, 2015

Review: Darkness Brutal

Darkness Brutal by Rachel A. Marks

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

Aidan O’Linn’s childhood ended the night he saw a demon kill his mother and mark his sister, Ava, with Darkness. Since then, every three years the demons have returned to try to claim her. Living in the gritty, forgotten corners of Los Angeles, Aidan has managed to protect his sister, but he knows that even his powers to fight demons and speak dead languages won’t keep her safe for much longer.

In desperation, Aidan seeks out the help of Sid, the enigmatic leader of a group of teens who run LA Paranormal, an Internet reality show that fights demons and ghosts. In their company, Aidan believes he’s finally found a haven for Ava. But when he meets Kara, a broken girl who can spin a hypnotic web of passionate energy, he awakens powers he didn’t know he had―and unleashes a new era of war between the forces of Light and the forces of Darkness.

With the fate of humanity in his hands, can Aidan keep the Darkness at bay and accept his brilliant, terrifying destiny?

Review:

[I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

The beginning of this novel was interesting and full of promises, combining Aidan and his sister Ava being targetted by demons to a mysterious man, Sid, gathering gifted youth with abilities to see and/or touch the supernatural. Yet a few things definitely rubbed me the wrong way after a while.

Aidan as a character was fairly enjoyable. He’s had a hard life, but doesn’t spend his time whining about it, instead doing what he can to ensure his little sister, at least, gets something better (not just a foster family: also avoiding the death of said family). He’s a decent person all around, the kind of guy who’ll help a girl in danger and not take advantage of her in any way, or who’ll recognise that someone alluring and sexy may not necessarily mean “I want to have sex with you”. He perceived the frailty within Rebecca and Kara, that what they were doing was not necessarily their choice or to their liking, and openly stated that he didn’t want Kara to do something she wasn’t convinced of, all the more after what she had been through.

Kara had a somewhat annoying, twitchy side—going from one reaction to the complete opposite. On the other hand, she also used what she had been dealt in order to try and make things better. Scarred and tough at the same time, in the spirit of survival and of refusing to let her former life crush her.

I still don’t know what to think about the “romance”. There was attraction and manipulation, and I didn’t really feel much chemistry, considering that one girl was basically attracted because of supernatural reasons, and the other… as well?

A more prominent issue for me was how the story suffered of regular cases of ain’t-telling-you-nothing-itis. It’s not the first nor the last time I notice that in novels. Sure, some information needs to be kept hidden, because disclosing everything at once is a) overwhelming and b) not really interesting. However, I don’t like it when it feels that the revealing of said information is artificially pushed back as far as possible in order to create confusion as a plot device. The “I’m not telling you in order to protect you” and “I’m keeping this secret, surely it won’t cause trouble for everyone later” kind. Aidan demanded information, while withdrawing important info of his own. Ava kept to herself and did things behind her brother’s back, instead of talking to him and maybe, just maybe, trying to find a third way to solve their issues. Sid was annoying as well in that regard, as he knew or at least suspected a lot of important stuff about Aidan, yet postponed its revealing, only to act later along the lines of “you have to listen to me because it’s absolutely crucial you act accordingly, wait, why don’t you want to listen to me now, is it maybe because you’ve become fed up with waiting?”

Granted, Aidan not wanting to tell the truth about Ava, nor about his reasons to bring her with him, was understandable. But other happenings could’ve been avoided if only the characters in general had been more open about some things. All those hidden agendas didn’t make for a good ground for budding trust, and in turn, it made things go the wrong way. A wrong way which was easy to foresee as a device.

I wasn’t sold either on the biblical/Babylonian/seers stuff. It seemed to pop out of nowhere, and not to be very well integrated within the general “mythology” of the urban fantasy world developed here. While reading, I had a feeling that its purpose was to make the usual angels/demons backdrop different, without really succeeding.

2.5 stars. Overall, there were good ideas in here, but all the beating around the bush was a little too much for me to stomach.

Yzabel / June 23, 2015

Review: Grunge Gods and Graveyards

Grunge Gods and Graveyards by Kimberly G. Giarratano

My rating: [rating=4]

Blurb:

Parted by death. Tethered by love.

Lainey Bloom’s high school senior year is a complete disaster. The popular clique, led by mean girl Wynter Woods, bullies her constantly. The principal threatens not to let her graduate with the class of 1997 unless she completes a major research project. And everyone blames her for the death of Wynter’s boyfriend, Danny Obregon.

Danny, a gorgeous musician, stole Lainey’s heart when he stole a kiss at a concert. But a week later, he was run down on a dangerous stretch of road. When he dies in her arms, she fears she’ll never know if he really would have broken up with Wynter to be with her.

Then his ghost shows up, begging her to solve his murder. Horrified by the dismal fate that awaits him if he never crosses over, Lainey seeks the dark truth amidst small town secrets, family strife, and divided loyalties. But every step she takes toward discovering what really happened the night Danny died pulls her further away from the beautiful boy she can never touch again.

Review:

(I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

The title is a bit misleading, as there are indeed ghosts and graveyards, but don’t expect literal gods to appear, and take those (as well their songs, linked to each chapter) for what they are: a tribute of an era gone by, as short as it was intense. I think this is the kind of story whose appeal will definitely vary *a lot* depending on the people: if you were a teenager in the 90s, it will resonate a lot differently than if you were born earlier or later, and didn’t approach that period the same way that we did, or didn’t live through it at all. (And I say “we” because the characters in this book, should they be alive in our world right now, would be a couple of years younger than I, not more. I will confess to being highly biased, due to my own memories of those years and the bands I used to listen to as well.)

In other words, amidst the teenage angst and drama, lies nostalgia, which fits very well with how Lainey will never get back what she had with Danny—just like the Lady in Blue will never get what other younger women had, stuck in time, doomed to become more and more transparent, then vanish.

There’s romance, but not too much, and it doesn’t trample the actual plot: good.
There’s music and a lot of name-dropping, but I thought it was well-integrated enough, and didn’t feel awkward: good.
The small town setting: stifling, difficult to hide anything for long, family secrets… Good.
Strong 90s vibes (no cell phones, bands and brands from that time…): check.
The law-related side of the story: I don’t know enough to US law to tell whether that part was true to actual laws or not. It seemed believable, so… good enough for me. Also, corrupt officials aren’t so often a theme in YA novels: nice change.

This novel had an intense side to it, sometimes too much, in that what happened to Lainey, the way she was treated, bordered on too unbelievable to be true. It’s hard to reconcile the idea of such a mean environment (not only the high school one) to what I knew when I was 17. We had cliques, and people who were more popular than others, but never did things stoop down to such a level. Maybe it does in some places, and I just happened to be in a normal enough high school? Maybe it’s the way schools are shown in novels and series, because otherwise it’d just be too boring to read about and watch. There were a few moments when all the angst and drama felt like too much to bear… yet it was precisely also what elicited my reactions, even though they kept going from notsalgic to annoyed, from glad to angry. Had this story left me indifferent, it would’ve been something else.

There were some stereotypes: the mean queen bee, rebellious teenagers, and Lainey came off as a little dull and too tempted to easily give up at times. However, she didn’t do it in the end, learnt to stick to her guns, went on when even the people closest to her seemed to have deserted her… and the clichés weren’t as annoying as they are in other stories, because several characters were actually deeper than they appeared at first, and had more to their personal stories than met the eye.

Conclusion: 3.5 to 4 stars. Not exactly the novel I expected, as there were less ghosts and a more complex plot anchored in very real matters. I think that was better, all in all: it avoided veering too much into paranormal romance-only territory, which wouldn’t have been as satifying for me.

Yzabel / June 21, 2015

Review: The Ugly Stepsister

The Ugly Stepsister by Aya Ling

My rating: [rating=5]

Blurb:

A Cinderella retelling with a twist.

When Kat accidentally rips apart an old childhood picturebook, she’s magically transported into the world of Cinderella–as Katriona, one of the ugly stepsisters! To get back, she’ll have to complete the story, right to the end of happily ever after. But the odds are huge: the other stepsister is movie-star gorgeous, the fairy godmother is nowhere to be found, and the prince isn’t interested in marrying any time soon. Can she ever return to the real world?

Review:

(I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

3.5/4 stars. At first, the opening chapter made me think “is this a joke?” Cliché high school with shy, clumsy, average-looking girl who’s actually probably beautiful enough, gorgeous new student in front of whom she ends up tripping, beautiful rival with a queen bee attitude…

But then, it became fairly obvious that this was completely in jest, a wink to the usual stereotypical introductions of the kind, and it set the tone for the rest of the story. Sure, Kat/Katriona remained “clumsy”, due to having to suddenly walk around in long dresses and shoes she wasn’t used to, not to mention curtsying and waltzing… However, that was normal in the circumstances.

In general, I liked her character, first of all because she was a good person: acting for selfish motives (going back home), yet not ready to resort to the more drastic methods. When she realised that making Cinderella and the prince of Atheria fall in love may not be such a good idea, she felt guilty about it, and started questioning the whole point: is a “happy ever after” worth it, if it means forcing two people into a mold? She was presented with difficult choices to make, and had to find the strength to quash her own feelings in the process.

The author played with a lot of tropes, sometimes coming close to leaning on the fourth wall. The elements of Cinderella’s story were often subverted: Elle = Cinderella, but how could she be the neglected sister, when she already had a family in town? The prince who appeared as an aloof, brooding guy had his own goals and didn’t want to be seen exactly as a pretty wallflowers… much like Kat didn’t want to be told “go home and be a lady instead of using your brains.” Kat even went as far as to remark that she wasn’t a “special snowflake”: the prince and other people noticed her and found her remarkable only because she had been bringing contemporary values into a Victorian-like society, values and ideas that were just normal to her—in her eyes, this didn’t make her special in any way. This was a nice change from all those “I’m different” girls in a lot of YA stories (if only because she *was* different… and wasn’t at the same time).

I also liked that the romance wasn’t of the insta-love variety. Kat remained focused on her mission, as well as on the “subplots” she developed on her own (humanitarian ones, such as reducing children labour time and bettering their work conditions, for want of being able to completely reform Atherian society). She was too busy working on those, on finding the truth about Elle and figuring out how to help her (the fairy godmother was nowhere in sight at all, after all), that there wouldn’t have been time for her to gush and swoon over a prince, and that was definitely believable.

The goblins were funny, with their constant betting on the outcome of Kat’s efforts. I wish we had nown more about them and about the enchanted books.

The writing style sometimes grated on my nerves, as its “childish” flavour clashed with the more adult themes (child labour, servants being treated like dirt…). There were also a few parts where the story jumped from one place to the other, making me think “wait, when did Kat go back home?” I’m not sure if this was a problem of editing, though, or of formatting.

Conclusion: Thoroughly enjoyable, if somewhat predictable when it came to a few events. But fairy tales are predictable anyway, and for a retelling, this one managed to veer off the usual Cinderella story enough to be a very satisfying one.

Yzabel / June 14, 2015

Review: The Mirror

The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

The night before her wedding, Shay Garrett has no idea that a glimpse into her grandmother’s antique Chinese mirror will completely transform her seemingly ordinary life. But after a bizarre blackout, she wakes up to find herself in the same house—in the year 1900. Even stranger, she realizes she is now living in the body of her grandmother, Brandy McCabe, as a young woman. Meanwhile, Brandy, having looked into the same mirror, awakens in Shay’s body in the present day to discover herself pregnant. Did Shay die and get reincarnated as young Brandy, who is about to get married herself? The answer is far more complex and bizarre than either woman can imagine.

Shay’s mother, Rachael, weaves back and forth between the two time periods in this riveting story of three headstrong women grappling with identity, love, and family drama. From courageous, compassionate Shay, who suddenly finds herself fighting against the confines of a society decades away from women’s liberation, to Brandy, struggling to adapt to a more modern world, Millhiser’s strong characters are up to the task presented by this imaginative yet humorous adventure.

Review:

(I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

This reprint (manner of speaking) of a 1978 novel was definitely interesting to read, although I confess not having paid enough attention at first when it came to the original publishing date… and was confused in the beginning. But that’s not fault of the book’s, only mine.

The story weaves the lives of Shay and Brandy, the first being the latter’s granddaughter. A mysterious mirrors switches their minds in time, forcing Shay to live as Brandy in 1900, and Brandy as Shay in 1978. Of course, each of them has to face a world they don’t understand: Shay as a “proper” bride-to-be whose mind and manners are way too open for the people around her, and Brandy as a young woman in a society way too liberated, compared to what she used to know. As daily challenges pile one after the other, managing their families not being the least of them, both react and adapt differently.

I admit I was more interested in Shay’s role, narrated in parts 1 and 2. Brandy seemed more passive—in keeping with her education, probably, but it made her walk in Shay’s shadow almost all the time, so to speak. Compared to her granddaughter, she had more trouble adjusting. On the other hand, Shay had history to rely on, to help prove the people around her that she wasn’t just crazy and indeed knew of some future events. I wasn’t convinced the first time she admitted being another person in Brandy’s body, thinking “is she stupid? She’s going to get committed in no time!” However, it also made me wonder how would anyone react in such a situation. Trying to act the part can only take you so far, after all.

Other ideas are explored as well, especially the chicken-and-egg matter of not knowing if you have to simply reenact a past already “written” in order to end up existing, or if your very presence if this past is now threatening everything, and you don’t know what actions are going to make it work, or on the other hand destroy everything. Shay had to use the little knowledge she had of her family (her parents had her a little late in life, and she hadn’t known some of the characters she then encounters as Brandy) in order to piece everything together—and it wasn’t always easy, for instance when she realised the guy she had to marry wasn’t her grandfather, thus wondering what it’d lead to, and how/if history would right itself.

Another point raised here: Shay’s control over her family’s life. It made her appear as overbearing, always knowing what would happen, who the children would marry, etc., prompting them in turn to do things differently just to prove her wrong… yet history still righted itself at some point. It was hard to tell whether Shay was trying to control everything, or saying what she knew because, well, she knew it, and it escaped her lips from time to time. Keeping such a secret for so long sure must be hard.

It’s a bit too bad that Brandy’s part felt definitely weaker. From the way young Brandy was presented at first, in the accounts of the McCabes, she seemed more resourceful and rebellious (for a 1900 girl, that is); but the Brandy shown in the third part of the novel was too often silent, retreating into herself, and I couldn’t find here the person who was supposed to be curious. Although that was the culture shock speaking, I thought she could’ve made more of an effort, instead of waiting on Shay to solve the problem on her end. Her story was also more removed from that of her family’s, so while Shay’s part appeared as more involved, Brandy’s left less room to focus on the dynamics among the Garretts. Too bad, as the novel explores parents/children relationships as well as time travel.

Another thing I regretted not reading more about: the mirror itself. Part 3 of the novel introduces a theft, yet nothing was really resolved there. For the whole book, it’s presented as some kind of cursed artifact, and it would’ve been nice

I liked the depictions of daily life in 1900, as Shay tries to adapt. However, the writing itself was too often descriptive as well, telling more than showing what happened.

Overall, a good enough time travel story (that didn’t forget to play on the theme of paradox in its own way, a.k.a. the stroke and death), yet one that seemed to lose interest for itself towards the end (Brandy’s part). 3.5 stars.

Yzabel / June 7, 2015

Review: The Witch Hunter

The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker

My rating: [rating=1]

Blurb:

The magic and suspense of Graceling meet the political intrigue and unrest of Game of Thrones in this riveting fantasy debut.

Elizabeth Grey is one of the king’s best witch hunters, devoted to rooting out witchcraft and doling out justice. When she’s accused of being a witch herself, Elizabeth is arrested and sentenced to die at the stake. Salvation comes from a man she thought was her enemy. Nicholas Perevil, the most powerful wizard in the kingdom, offers her a deal: he will save her from execution if she can track down the person who laid a deadly curse on him.

As she’s thrust into the world of witches, ghosts, pirates, and all-too-handsome healers, Elizabeth is forced to redefine her ideas of right and wrong, of friends and enemies, and of love and hate.

Review:

(I was given a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

Somewhat OK, but too full of holes (in terms of world-building) and too flat when it came to the characters. I had a hard time reconciling the setting to a parallel Tudor England (minus the Tudors), as some elements were similar, but others were too confusing to make much sense—including language, too modern at times. For instance, no witch hunter seemed to ever question the origin of their stigmas, how they came to be, when it was actually a pretty obvious question to ask (especially in a world that wasn’t heavy on religion, so “it comes from God” wouldn’t have made a satisfying answer).

Elizabeth in general was of the too stupid to live variety. Supposedly strong, supposedly a well-trained prodigy witch hunter, but piling up mistake upon mistake, for a reason that felt a little too weak to be believable (the way she mentioned it, it didn’t seem like she was going through hell, more that it was an inconvenience to her). The reason why she was caught was stupid, a mix of bad decisions (getting drunk because her friend who may or may not be her love interest was seeing someone else) and other bad decisions (what on Earth was she doing with those herbs in her pocket.

The romance I’ll put in the “inserted here for marketing reasons” category. Bland, not useful—becoming friends would have been enough—, a vague triangle that wasn’t really one because it was fairly predictable, and

Also, probably a minor quibble on my part, but this just happened to irk me: “Then I get an idea.” I counted at least four occurrences of it, all as one sentence that was a paragraph of its own, and it just struck me as repetitive and annoying.

There were interesting ideas and themes in the novel, and hooks that could’ve been so much more, when it came to politics and hypocrisy—laws defied by the ones making them, plotting in the shadows… However, I wouldn’t put this on a Game of Thrones level as the blurb claims it is, and it was too muddled overall to make for a terrific plot. Some fantasy books take too long and are too slow-paced to carry their plots properly; here, it would’ve been a good thing, as it would’ve given more meat to the story, and more room for the world-building to unfold.

1.5 stars, close to “it’s OK”, only I realise that I’m already not caring about it anymore barely half an hour after having finished it. I admit I just got to the end so that I could write my review and switch to another book.