Courtship & Curses by Marissa Doyle

 It's 1815, and Sophie should be excited about her coming out to London society, but illness has made her walk with a limp, and she knows the only match she'll make for herself is one that's after her money.  Finding a husband loses its importance when Sophie realizes someone is using magic to attack the members of the War Cabinet, including her father!  It's up to Sophie to figure out who's behind it, all the while trying to keep her own magic a secret.

A delightful romp!  I thoroughly enjoyed this.  It was light and quick and pleasure to read.  Sophie and her friend Parthenope (name of a siren in Greek mythology, I knew it had to come from somewhere) were absolutely delightful, especially Parthenope who acted completely out of character for a English lady in 1815, what with her mouthing off and punching a rakish young man in the nose (he deserved it).  Parthenope was completely over the top, yet a very sweet, caring character and I loved reading her.

Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness

In this sequel to A Discovery of Witches, Diana and Matthew have travelled back to the Elizabethan Age in order to find someone to teach Diana about her powers and find the complete Ashmole 782. While Matthew and Diana have rather naive visions of being able to participate in the past without affecting it, as soon as the step into the past they realize that neither one of them is prepared. Matthew's former choices and secrets become a heavier burden than he foresaw, and Diana's modern day independence and historian's eye is a huge hindrance when trying to go unnoticed. As their goals become more hazy and their seemingly small choices make huge changes in the future, one thing remains certain: Diana's abilities and the Ashmole's insight to the genesis of witches, vampires, and daemons, are intrinsically bound together.

If you read my review of A Discovery of Witches, you know that I really enjoyed it: Deborah Harkness creates an amazing secondary cast and really develops a sense of place in her books. You also know I was rather put off by Diana and Matthew's relationship and how it didn't seem to have any foundation to develop. Shadow of Night does an excellent job of quelling those niggles I had about the series. As this book focuses in on their time in the Elizabethan Age, most of the book delves into their own relationship when they don't have to interact with the strong secondary cast that I love. Not to say that this book doesn't have a great cast, but I'll get to that later. At the beginning of the book Diana becomes rather frustrated by the secrets that Matthew has kept from her and his need to protect her by keeping relevant information from her. All the things that annoyed me about Matthew in the first book now annoy Diana too and shockingly they actually discuss them! Like adults! Who knew that could happen in a book with vampires in it? Yes, there is still some whitewashing done to create more depth in their relationship but it's not heavy-handed and it helps the overall storytelling. So thank you Deborah Harkness for nipping all two of my dissatisfactions in the bud.

The Magician's Apprentice by Kate Banks, pictures by Peter Sis

Like his older brothers before him, Baz leaves home to become a weaver's apprentice.  His master is a cruel man, and all the apprentices suffer under him terribly.  Then Baz is sold to a magician for a sword, and his journey truly begins.

This was a quiet and beautiful story.  The language was lovely, weaving beautiful pictures with words.  While it wasn't in verse, it had a rhythmic, poetic feel to it.  Peter Sis' deceptively simple drawings fit perfectly.

This is a learning-a-lesson about life book, so if you don't like those you won't like this.  If you're willing to just let the language and the imagery wash over you, and take whatever you can out of it, you're in for a treat.

Spoilers

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Celaena was an assassin, the best the kingdom had ever known, but then she was betrayed and sentenced to hard labor.  Now she's been removed from the salt mines to take part in a competition as the Crown Prince's champion.  Twenty-three will compete for the chance to be the king's champion - and the chance to win their freedom.  Celaena has no love for the king, but she will do whatever ever it takes to be free again.

This is Sarah J. Maas' first novel, although she has been publishing work at FictionPress.com since 2002.  She has a large online fan base.  The book was a fun and action-packed read, but it also read like a fanfic writer writing her first book.  By that I mean that it went on far longer than it needed to, there was an excessive amount of descriptive passages, a lack of character development, and the events of the books were drawn out far longer than they needed to be.  Hopefully in future books, things will be cleaner and tighter.

For example, the finally fight scene just went on and on.  It was just her getting thrown about for pages and pages.  And it wasn't like there was spectacular dialogue or exciting action sequences being described.  It just kept going.  I started skimming to get to the end.

What I felt the most was the lack of character development.  I know that there were four novellas that were released online that gave some background information on Celaena and how she ended up in the salt mines (which whenever I read I thought of the Spice Mines of Kessel), but I don't think having more background on her would have helped.  She's supposedly having a growing relationship with Dorian, the crown prince, and Chaol the captain of the guards, but we were mostly told and not shown that her feelings toward them were changing.  Especially in regards to Chaol, there wasn't any reason I could see that she would warm up to him.

Chaol pissed me off to no end.  Chaol was in charge of making sure Celaena didn't kill anyone, and he was always yanking her around by a chain, or pinching or poking her.  He was rather abusive, really.  He was so distressed by being attracted to her, it made him physically violent against her?  That's...super disturbing.  Why did she end up trusting him?  I just couldn't see it.  It made no sense.  He was nothing but rude and disrespectful of her from the very beginning.  The relationship with Dorian was better done, and we actually got to see their relationship changing and why.

Celaena has the potential to be an interesting, powerful character.  I'd like to see where Sarah J. Maas takes her, as well as where she goes with the world building.  We know very little about the world, but that there used to be magic, but the king has banished all things magic.  Doing this caused all magical creatures to disappear, and all magical books to be burned.  There were some sort of Fae people before, who seem to be powerful, and there are some people left who can call on these ancient powers, but they are very secretive about it.  It's not clear where this will go.

And may I just ask why the UK gets a way better cover than we do?

Am I right?  This cover: kick ass and powerful.  Cover above: generic pretty girl who isn't even making a fist right.

Throne of Glass comes out August 7, 2012.

Waiting on Wednesday: A World Away by Nancy Grossman

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine to spotlight an upcoming release that we're excited about. This week I'm waiting on A World Away by Nancy Grossman.

 A summer of firsts 
Sixteen-year-old Eliza Miller has never made a phone call, never tried on a pair of jeans, never sat in a darkened theater waiting for a movie to start. She's never even talked to someone her age who isn't Amish, like her. 

A summer of good-byes 
When she leaves her close-knit family to spend the summer as a nanny in suburban Chicago, a part of her can't wait to leave behind everything she knows. She can't imagine the secrets she will uncover, the friends she will make, the surprises and temptations of a way of life so different from her own. 

A summer of impossible choice 
Every minute Eliza spends with her new friend Josh feels as good as listening to music for the first time, and she wonders whether there might be a place for her in his world. But as summer wanes, she misses the people she has left behind, and the plain life she once took for granted. Eliza will have to decide for herself where she belongs. Whichever choice she makes, she knows she will lose someone she loves.

A World Away comes out July 17, 2012.

The Spindlers by Lauren Oliver

Liza wakes up one more and realizes her little brother, Patrick, has been taken by the Spindlers.  Her parents think Patrick is the same as he always way, but Liza knows that his soul has been taken away.  Liza must journey under the ground and confront the Spindlers to try and win back Patrick's soul.

It fell flat.  I could definitely feel the Coraline vibe going on.  I could tell that's what the intention was.  The world of adults doesn't understand Liza.  They are disconnected from the real world and are far to worried about things like bills and where they put their glasses to see what's right in front of them or give their child the attention she deserves.

Liza travels to a scary place which she must travel through alone, with only her wits (and a large rat) to help her.  The world is frightening and grotesque, and often times violent.

Unlike Coraline, the horror just wasn't really there.  I mean it was written there, it just didn't work very well.  It wasn't horrifying, because everything felt flat and forced.  I wasn't able to feel anything in particular for Liza.  She wasn't much of a character, and she didn't really have a whole lot of growth throughout the book.  She wasn't able to articulate why she was willing to go through all this for her brother at the beginning, or at the end (I assume it was because she loved him, but she never actually verbalized that she loved him).

A giant rat that acted like a human named Mirabella helps Liza through most of her journey.  Liza is disgusted by Mirabella though most of the book, and then is shocked when Mirabella betrays her.   Somewhere along the way they became friends, I guess, but I didn't really see that moment happen.  They just suddenly wear.

It lacked a vividness and a sense of place.  Without that, the element of the grotesque and horror just doesn't come through very well, and so it wasn't a very interesting read.

If a kid I knew liked this genre came looking for a book, I would definitely point them to Coraline or The Graveyard Book first.

The Spindlers comes out October 2, 2012.

Dust Girl by Sarah Zettel

Callie is living in Kansas during the Dust Bowl.  She and her mother run a hotel.  Her mother refuses to leave, even though almost everyone else has.  Callie's mother swears that some day, Callie's father will come back for them, so they're staying right there.  Then one day, during a terrible dust storm, Callie's mother disappears, and Callie learns who her father really is.

I'm not ruining anything but saying that Callie realizes she's half fairy.  You learn it pretty quickly.  Her father never came back because he's a fairy prince being held captive because he wants to return to his mortal wife but his family wants him to marry some princess.  As always, there are the good fairies and the bad faeries, but even the good faeries aren't all that good, and everyone speaks in riddles and it's hard to get a straight answer out of anyone. 

Callie sets off to find her mother, and she's joined by Jack, a hobo, and we later learn, a Jew, which gets you kicked out of just as many places as being Black does.

It was draggy.  There was a lot of exposition and not a lot happening.  I just wasn't that interested.  There was nothing new or exciting being done with the world of fairies.  Callie and Jack are clearly set up to have a romantic relationship somewhere down the line in the series, but they don't have very much chemistry and it just wasn't all that interesting.

Don't really have much else to say about it.  It was fine.  No need to dash out and get it.

Let's talk about the cover.  Callie's father is a black man.  Callie describes her skin as being "cream-colored" but gets darker when she's out in the sun (which she is the whole book).  There's mention of her hair being "coarse."  There's the suggestion that Callie can "pass" for white, but the longer she's on the road, the more she begins to look like her father.  She requires glamours to conceal herself and make her look like a white girl so she can get into places.  I'm not sure this cover is a great representation of Callie. Thoughts?