Kotone Reviews

A book is like a garden carried in the pocket. — Chinese Proverb

[kotonemaki]

The Shadow of Black Wings (Year of the Dragon #1) - James Calbraith

My Rating: 3/5 (***) Published: 2012 Genre: Fantasy, Steampunk

Synopsis: The divination clock is broken. The Year of the Dragon is coming.

In the midst of 19th century the world trembles before the might of the Dragon Throne’s ironclad navy and the dreaded Dragon Corps. A young dragon raider Bran joins a regiment of the Royal Marines, led by his estranged father, on a journey to the war-torn Orient.

In the lands of Yamato, sealed behind the Divine Winds, conspiracy to overthrow its military dictator grows stronger. A timid shrine apprentice Nagomi is haunted by the visions of dark future. Her only friend Sato, a tomboy samurai, strives for the right to learn and teach the art of western magic.

When Bran survives the sea disaster and gets separated from his bound-to–go- feral dragon, the paths of the East and West will cross in a way noone yet suspects.."

The first half of The Shadow of Black Wings was a bit hard to read. It's not that it was boring, or anything. I just had to spend a lot of time trying to figure out how all of the names were pronounced - I'm terrible with Celtic names. Things got much easier in the second half of the book, which took place in future/not-quite-past Japan. I find it a bit sad that I had better luck figuring out the Japanese names than I did the Celtic and Norse ones.

The story itself is part fantasy, part alternate history, and part steampunk. It takes place in the future of a past where the Roman Empire never fell. Which is only really mentioned once or twice, and then the focus of the story moves away from that aspect entirely.

It was an okay read. I didn't really start getting interested until the second half of the book.

The ending leaves you with a bit of a cliffhanger, and doesn't answer very many questions. The one I couldn't stop thinking about though was, "Why don't more people turn into weredragons?" It's mentioned that one time, and then never gets brought up again. Is it a special power that only certain people can use, or can anyone turn into a dragon monster? It seems to me that fighting giant wars would be easier if you had dragon monsters on your side. It just doesn't seem fair to introduce a power like that if you're not going to utilize it.

Seriously, though.

I couldn't put the book down towards the end. I'll definitely be checking out the rest of the series.

[kotonemaki]

Beneath the Willow (Jesse & Sarah #2) - Jeremy Asher

My Rating: 3/5 (***) Published: 2012 Genre: Romance, Fiction

Synopsis: "Jesse and Sarah’s journey continues in Beneath the Willow, the sequel to the heartfelt novel, Across the Creek.

For Jesse Malone, an architect in Chicago, life has been anything but easy. After losing the love of his life six years earlier, he is determined not to let love slip through his grasp once again. Sarah Ramsey, a business owner in the Windy City, is struggling to keep everything together through a difficult divorce. Her husband, a once brilliant attorney, is about to lose his career along with his marriage and is set on making Sarah’s life just as miserable as his.

When Jesse and his fiancée, Kate, walk into a local floral shop to pick out the flowers for their upcoming wedding, Jesse runs into the only other woman he has ever loved, Sarah. Their brief encounter sets off a series of catastrophic events as Sarah reveals a secret that will test the foundations of their lives, leaving them with one certainty…life will never be the same for either of them."

I found this book for free on Amazon, but didn't realize until after I'd already gotten it that it was a sequel. It was a little confusing, going through it without knowing what happened in the first book, but there's enough back story given to kind of fill you in on Jesse and Sarah's history.

I was surprised by how much I liked this book - I expected it to be just another romance story, but there was more to it than just the romantic relationships. Each character meant something different to each other, and each one was an important part of the story. While the book followed the perspective of three different characters (Jesse, Sarah, and Robbie), each change contributed something towards the final outcome.

The ending caught me completely off-guard. There's sort of a fake-out in the middle of the book, where you think that the story could go ahead and end, but two chapters later it's basically right back where it left off. And then it continues to a point of absolute insanity and despair. And then it gets better.

Having read this one, I can only imagine how frustrating the ending of the first book must have been!

[kotonemaki]

Failing Test (The Shadow Series #1) - J.M. Pierce

My Rating: 3/5 (***) Published: 2010 Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal Romance

Synopsis: “You know him, but you can’t remember his name. He is the one that is always there, in the background, all but invisible to those roaming the hallways. What if he had a secret? What if it was a secret that even he didn’t know?

Test Davis has always been a blur to those around him. He’s a shadow like a million other kids–not smart enough for the academic team, not beast enough for the football team, not extroverted enough for the drama crowd. In all things Test is just…not, which is why no one ever notices him.

But what happens when someone does notice him– Nicole Paxton, a cheerleader, no less? What happens on the night that Test finds out there’s nothing average about him and that a powerful gift has been hidden within, secretly waiting to be set free and alter his life forever? The question is, will that power save him and those he loves or tear them apart?“

I didn’t like Failing Test as much as I thought I would, based on the synopsis. It definitely had its moments, but overall I just wasn’t very impressed with the book.

The biggest problem I had with the book was the reaction of the law enforcement when they hear about Test’s powers. For instance, he accidentally reveals his powers to a bunch of his classmates when he defends his girlfriend from some of her old friends, who weren’t happy about her leaving their clique to date Test. He smashes up a car, and levitates two jocks, then melts a fiery log into a puddle of goo. He runs off, and naturally, the classmates call the police to report the attack.

Here’s my problem – a bunch of incredibly drunk teenagers call the police and report that one of their classmates has magical superpowers that he used to attack them…and the police don’t think twice about it. Their reaction isn’t to laugh at how ridiculous the story is. They don’t stop to question the source at all. The very next day, the front page declares Test a national threat who definitely has magical powers. And when the police see Test for the first time, they open fire on him immediately, without even waiting for him to prove if he has the alleged powers or not. So drunken teenagers are a completely credible source in this world. I’d hate to deal with their legal system.

And that’s another thing. Why did Test keep using his powers against the police? If he had never used them to attack the police, he could have just looked at the police and said, “Really? A bunch of drunk kids told you I had superpowers?” He laments that if he’d taken a bat to the kid’s car instead of mind-crushing it, he wouldn’t be in trouble. Then why not tell the police that that was what happened, then? He could have saved himself and everyone else a lot of trouble.

But, I suppose the book would have been a lot shorter if that had happened. Suspension of disbelief is one thing, but there’s only so far you can suspend that disbelief in what is supposed to be such a realistic world.

Another problem I had was how Heather and Chad acted. People don’t act like that. Popular cliques are one thing, but Heather and Chad were completely hostile. They had to “protect their Alpha status”. Really? It just felt like the book tried way too hard to make them the villains. Once more, it might not be such an issue if the book wasn’t going for normalcy.

Finally, Nicole’s reaction to the whole glowing thing was confusing. Her boyfriend can levitate things, destroy cars, and fly? No problem. His hands start glowing? GOOD LORD, IT’S TOO HORRIFYING! She faints because his hands glow. Flying is not an issue, but his hands lighting up like a lite brite is faint-worthy?

I think Cliff was my favorite part of the book. He was definitely a fun character.

[kotonemaki]

Lark's Quest: The Choice (Deeds of the Ariane #3) - Barbara Cool Lee

My Rating: 4/5 (****) Published: 2012 Genre: Fantasy

Synopsis: “In this, the third novella in the ongoing Deeds of the Ariane series, Lark and Raven face their greatest challenges, and must decide where their loyalties lie. “The Choice” concludes the first section of the Deeds of the Ariane, with the fourth novella, “Lark’s Exile: Kestrel,” beginning a year after the end of this volume.”

The Choice had a much faster pace than either The Search or The Secret did. The plot zoomed by, and closed everything up pretty well, with the exception of the romance, though I’m pretty sure that the next series will work more on that. The romance in this half of the series took a back seat to the action, and Raven’s return to the throne, which is what it was supposed to do. That was always the main focus of the story.

I felt smart as I neared the end, though. It wasn’t until I was halfway done with this book that I realized that everybody was named after an animal, or something else in nature. Raven, Lark, Fawn, Willow, Lotus, Wolf, Kestrel, Mouse, Oxen…I probably should have realized that sooner, but for some reason it didn’t even cross my mind until this book. I think the only exception was Raven’s mother, the Queen, who was named Melody.

The book definitely gets credit for the conflict. I didn’t see that one coming at all…although I’ve already admitted to how observant I was while I was reading, so that statement should probably be taken with a grain of salt.

I enjoyed reading the first half of this series, and hope that the next three books are just as well done. I was pleased that the books were actually edited properly – I think there was only one typo I found, and even that wasn’t a terrible one.

[kotonemaki]

Lark's Quest: The Secret (Deeds of the Ariane #2) - Barbara Cool Lee

My Rating: 4/5 (****) Published: 2012 Genre: Fantasy

Synopsis: “Lark’s Quest: The Secret is the second in the continuing series of novellas chronicling the fate of the Silver Isle.

In part two, Lark has found Raven yr Griffon, the young prince who escaped the massacre of the royal family fifteen years ago.

But this is only the beginning of the story. For Raven has no intention of returning to the throne, and Lark will have to make decisions that will affect the future of the Silver Isle in ways she never imagined.

Meanwhile, Raven’s friends Oxen and little Mouse are not going to give up so easily. They make plans to protect their beloved friend from Lark’s plot at any cost.”

The Secret wasn’t quite as good as The Quest in my opinion. The story ventured from the Lark/Raven perspective that was the set up of the first book, so now the story is following four characters instead of just the two. I think it might have been a bit stronger if it had stuck to Raven and Lark, but it was a break that was needed to set up more exposition. So, I can forgive it that.

You get to learn more about the royal family and the Ariane in this novella, which was interesting. Nearly the entire book was focused on politics: between the kingdom and the Var, between Raven and the people, and between Lark and the other Ariane.

I was surprised by what Raven ended up deciding, although I suppose I really shouldn’t have been surprised. It makes sense. I hate the cliffhanger that it ended on, though!

And now, I’m starting on the third one…after which I’ll have to wait for the second half of the series to be published.

[kotonemaki]

The Fox's Quest (Kitsune Trilogy #2) - Anna Frost

My Rating: 5/5 (*****) Published: 2013 Genre: Fantasy

Synopsis: “In trying to save his clan’s shapeshifting powers, Akakiba might just lose his own.

The Fox clan is on the verge of extinction, their magic all but gone, but all hope is not lost. Akakiba and Yuki have found a mysterious object that seems to be draining magic from the world. If they can destroy this object, it might return strength to the clan.

The problem is, they don’t know who created this object or what those mysterious individuals might do to get it back.”

This book was more focused on Sanae than it did on Akakiba and Yuki. That was a bit disappointing. However, this book provided a lot more action and plot progression than the first one did. So, I guess it all sort of evened out.

It took most of two books, but by the end of Fox’s Quest, you finally find out what the major conflict of the series is. I have to admit, that was pretty cool. But then, once again…kitsune fangirl. I’m totally prejudiced.

I really would have enjoyed if the book had focused on Akakiba and Yuki more. They spent a lot of the book misunderstanding each other, or just not talking to each other. By the time they finally talk out their differences, and their relationship mends, the book is practically over. I was pleased that that whole situation redeemed itself (to me, at least) in this book.

It was left to Sanae to be the comic relief, and I will admit that some of those scenes were funny. Her campaign of terror against the shinobi was just priceless.

This book, unlike the first one, ended on a cliffhanger.

I do have to wonder why all of the fighting was necessary. The Fox Clan was attacked in the first book because the person in charge wasn’t sure if they were in league with the actual villains. Okay…why not try asking them, or confronting them about it? Instead, they attempt complete genocide against the foxes without knowing which side they were on. The clan is famous for demon-slaying – it might have been a good idea to ask if they would help before trying to completely wipe them out. Not the best way to make friends, or find a champion for your cause.

I hope I won’t have to wait till next year for the last book. I want resolution – to Akakiba and Yuki’s relationship, to the conflict, to everything.

[kotonemaki]

The Fox's Mask (Kitsune Trilogy #1) - Anna Frost

My Rating: 5/5 (*****) Published: 2012 Genre: Fantasy

Synopsis: “Demon hunter Akakiba keeps many secrets from his human companion. The fact he’s a werefox isn’t the worst one.

In feudal Japan, magic is dying. As a demon hunter, Akakiba finds this problematic. The evil he’s been trained to destroy is disappearing and, along with it, the shape-shifting abilities of the clan he left behind. With his only companion, a determined young human named Yuki, Akakiba traverses the country slaying demons and performing odd jobs.

But when an army of demon possessed humans masses to exterminate his clan, Akakiba must put aside old feuds and protect his family–all while hiding an important secret from Yuki. Will they find a way to defeat the demon possessed before it’s too late? With magic dwindling, will it matter either way?”

The Fox’s Mask is set in a mythical world based on Japanese culture and folklore. Parts of it felt like I was reading the light novel version of a manga, but eventually I was drawn into the story and stopped thinking about the book like that. I’m always a huge fan of anything kitsune, but this book was enjoyable, even without the influence of magical fox people.

Though ninjas vs kitsune battles – I’m just sayin’. It’s hard to deny the awesomeness of that combination. Oh, and there were demons, too. I swear, it’s like this book was written just for me.

The story is told from the…not so much point of view of various characters, but…it was all written omniscient third person, but each chapter would be about what a certain character was doing. There were five characters the book followed, in total: Akakiba, Yuki, Sanae, Jien, and one of the shinobi. I forget his name. It started with an “m”. Each chapter announced whose story was being followed. I’d have loved to just follow Yuki and Akakiba, but I see why all five of those characters were included in the rotation. Each holds a piece of the overall story.

I really enjoyed the carefully balanced relationship between Akakiba and Yuki. It was very well-written, and done fairy tastefully. It also wasn’t a story where the relationship happens instantly, love at first sight, you know they’re going to be together by the end of the book sort of thing. I was a bit irked at the cop-out at the end, but it made sense based on what you were told about the Fox clan’s traditions, dialogue between Akakiba and his mother, and the fact that kitsune are shape shifters. It’s just…would it have been so terrible to leave that relationship alone?

The Japanese names were fun. It added to the immersion of the story. Sakura and Yuki, though…really?

I loved the folklore behind the story. It was all heavily based on Japanese/Chinese stories, of course, but there were little twists thrown in that helped make the world unique.

There’s not much resolution by the end of the book. It doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, but not much actually gets done. However, I just noticed that the second book came out on March 1st. So if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go back to my kitsune now.

Favorite Quote: “‘If I were a dragon, I’d be a demon-hunting dragon,’ Taro said. ‘With a sword. A small sword, because dragons are small.’

Akakiba opened his mouth to reply, then decided against it. He drank his tea. This was why he didn’t want children: they were annoying and borderline insane.”

[kotonemaki]

Evan Burl and the Falling (Evan Burl #1) - Justin Blaney

My Rating: 5/5 (*****) Published: 2012 Genre: Fantasy

Synopsis: "My father abandoned me when I was an infant.

My friends have turned against me.

My uncle beats me.

The most powerful people in the world want me dead.

They all have one thing in common.

They think I’m turning into a monster.

I’m starting to worry they’re right."

Evan Burl and the Falling felt like a cross between the Resurrection of Magic trilogy, and the Monster Blood Tattoo trilogy.

When I started this book, I didn't have a lot of information to go on. I didn't know what the plot was. I didn't know anything about the characters. All I knew was that people were saying good things about it.

After finishing the book, I can officially say...holy crap, that was awesome!

I can't go into the whole reason behind the awesomeness of sapience...not without spoiling the ending. It made for some wonderfully disturbing and creepy scenes near the end, though. Like the thing with Ani and the kitten. If you've read it, you know the scene I'm talking about. Good lord, that scene was creepy! Very few books manage to legitimately bother me, but that entire scene made me shiver.

The plot is a bit confusing early on, but as the story progresses it becomes easier to put together what's going on. There's also a lot of jumping between characters, but each character change is marked at the beginning of the chapter. I didn't think it was too hard to keep up with who was doing what, and when. It was a little obnoxious how slowly information was given out, but I can forgive the story that, as the mystery behind sapience helped make for some really great scenes.

When I started the book, there were lots of grammatical errors. I swear, every single time "it's" was used, it was used backwards. "It's" is a contraction for "it is". "Its" is the possessive of it, like "his" or "her" are the possessive forms of him and her. Possessive nouns are used to denote ownership. If you're talking about the quality of a book's cover, you would say, "its cover". Not "it's cover".

There was also a case or two of "to" being used improperly. However, when I was about halfway through, Amazon sent an updated copy of the book that fixed a lot of the grammatical errors. I didn't go back to where all of the "it's" were, but I know that from where I was till the end, I didn't see any more mistakes. I was glad for the quick update.

I wanted to scream at the ending - as far as cliffhangers go, it was especially frustrating. And the next book isn't supposed to come out until 2014...I think I'm going to go curl up in a corner and cry now.

Favorite Quote: "I always thought I would learn to fly if I was falling, but I didn't. I was just an orphan, and orphans can't fly."

[kotonemaki]

Clockwise (Clockwise #1) - Elle Strauss

My Rating: 3/5 (***) Published: 2011 Genre: Paranormal Romance, Sci-fi

Synopsis: “Casey Donovan has issues: hair, height and uncontrollable trips to the 19th century! And now this—she’s accidentally taken Nate Mackenzie, the cutest boy in the school, back in time. Awkward.

Protocol pressures her to tell their 1860 hosts that he is her brother and when Casey finds she has a handsome, wealthy (and unwanted) suitor, something changes in Nate. Are those romantic sparks or is it just “brotherly” protectiveness?

When they return to the present, things go back to the way they were before: Casey parked on the bottom of the rung of the social ladder and Nate perched high on the very the top. Except this time her heart is broken. Plus, her best friend is mad, her parents are split up, and her younger brother gets escorted home by the police. The only thing that could make life worse is if, by some strange twist of fate, she took Nate back to the past again.

Which of course, she does.”

Clockwise was a fun book to read. Casey was a fairly amusing character, and the various twists and turns the story took kept things interesting. I loved the ending! I did not see that one coming at all.

The writing was very nice (no typos!), and the plot was interesting. It’s definitely a book more targeted at girls, though. And Casey’s legendary fights with her hair got a bit annoying after a while. There are only so many times you can use the “it takes this much hair product to keep my hair manageable!” line before people start wanting to bludgeon your character.

Casey and Nate were…okay as a couple. I’m not sure “I started getting interested in you when I found out you uncontrollably travel through time” is a pick-up line that should make a girl proud, but if it works for Casey…good for her? They went through a lot together, sure, but it should be a bit insulting when your time travel powers are the thing that makes someone fall in love with you. Who needs personality or looks when you can randomly jump back in time?

I wonder what became of Robert…

It was nice to see that Casey wasn’t alone in her strange power, but I’d liked to have read more about Samuel and Adeline. The third book in the series is about Adeline, so perhaps their stories will get told.

Favorite Quote: “The thing is, I would be fine with rag mop hair, truly, if only I didn’t have this other issue: uncontrolled time travel to the nineteenth century.”

[kotonemaki]

Wilde's Fire (Darkness Falls #1) - Krystal Wade

My Rating: 3/5 (***)

Synopsis: “There is no pain in this death, only peace, knowing I am going to die with the one I love the most. —Katriona Wilde.

Katriona Wilde has never wondered what it would feel like to have everything she’s ever known and loved ripped away, but she is about to find out. When she inadvertently leads her sister and best friend through a portal into a world she’s dreamed of for six years, she finds herself faced with more than just the frightening creatures in front of her.

Kate’s forced to accept a new truth: her entire life has been a lie, and those closest to her have betrayed her. What’s worse, she has no control over her new future, and it’s full of magic and horrors from which nightmares are made.

Will Kate discover and learn to control who she really is in time to save the ones she loves, or will all be lost?”

I couldn’t decide if I liked this book, or if it annoyed me. I think it might be a combination of the two. The world, the war, and the gods are fascinating – but the drawn out drama with Brad was frustrating every step of the way. Yes, I understand why it was set up like it was, but the “love triangle” was dragged out far beyond what it should have been. Especially considering there wasn’t really a love triangle. More like a couple with a crazy stalker.

Brad did surprise me, though. At first, I was trying to figure out why he was even put into the story…I was prepared to crack jokes about how effective he was as a character. But then, you find out why he’s in the story. It takes a good portion of the book to get to that point, but it’s well worth it when you finally do!

I would also like to point out that this book has the chattiest gods I’ve ever seen in a fantasy story. I’m pretty sure they told Kate everything she needed to know to do her job right. That was impressive.

The romance between Kate and Arland seemed a bit too easy. I get that there’s this whole prophecy thing behind it, and Kate has had dreams of him for years before they met, so she technically knew him…but the entire thing felt rushed. Kate even jokes about it in the book, that they’ve only known each other for a few weeks but they’re already madly in love. They barely know each other. Not much time was spent developing the bond between the two of them. One second, Arland was trying to be professional and detached, the next, they’re making out by a river. Their relationship might have felt a bit more…real…if more time had been spent letting the readers see them interacting with each other. They’re together for all of a week, and then the book jumps to three weeks later, and the main conflict of the story kicks in. Slow down there, book!

As far as plot goes, this book is nothing new – it was at least interesting, though. The book leaves you wanting to read more, but answers enough questions so that you’re not frustrated by the time you’re done reading. I appreciated that.

So, aside from a few minor problems I had with Wilde’s Fire, it was a pretty fun read. Definitely more of a chick book.

[kotonemaki]

Killing with the Edge of the Moon - A.A. Attanasio

My Rating: 3/5 (***)

Synopsis: "Mama’s boy Chester Hubert drums up the courage to ask a witch’s granddaughter to the school dance – and finds himself hurtling through a modern, demonic fairy tale.

Quiet, elfin Flannery is not like other kids. She has caught the attention of the faerie, beautiful evil creatures from a mysterious Otherworld. They seduce their victims at midnight raves, then feed them to a dragon. For sport, they hunt souls with a black dog of prodigious evil. And they have taken Flannery for one of their own.

She won’t be going to the school dance with Chester — not unless he fetches her from the Otherworld.

This modern fairy tale weaves an intricate Celtic knot of myth, moon magic, and romance. Thrust together in the Otherworld’s dark enchantment, Flannery and Chester discover they know each other better than they know their own hearts ... but can they sort things out before the black dog finds them?

And what was that about a dragon?"

Witches out to teach people a lesson? Check. Fairies trying to lure people into their realm? Check. World dragon? Check. Strong basis in Celtic mythology and folklore? Definitely. Now that's an Attanasio book!

I liked this book a lot more than I liked the Conjure Book. It felt more like what I was used to from Attanasio. The story was very poetic...not necessarily the way it was written, but the plot itself: girl gets taken by the fairies, her love has to win her back. It's a story of love and redemption. And writers always get bonus points with me for writing fairies properly. Go to hell, Tink - real fairies are terrifying.

I also noticed that Attanasio writes dragons well - both in this book, and The Dragon and the Unicorn. It's an interesting mythology, that the world is a dragon.

Another part I enjoyed about this book was how contained this story was. There's really only five essential characters that the book focuses on, and each of them has time to develop. All of the other background characters stay just there - in the background. The book doesn't stop to go into details about why Chester's family is vegetarian. That information isn't important to the plot, so there's no lengthy sidetracking to go into detail about it. I loved how focused the book was on the story.

The characters, while not the most likeable cast, were interesting enough. Really, it was the Daoine Siddhe that kept me reading.

[kotonemaki]

Lark's Quest: The Search (Deeds of the Ariane #1) - Barbara Cool Lee

My Rating: 4/5 (****)

Synopsis: "A tale of silk, sorcery, and romance....

Fifteen years ago she was Lark, the tiny slave girl who witnessed the massacre of the royal family.

Now she is Lark y Ariane, the most powerful—and hated—of the Silver Isle's magical warrior women, whose skill with sword and sorcery make her unbeatable in battle.

Fifteen years ago he was Raven yr Griffon, the idealistic prince who became a hero to the poor when he championed their secret religion of equality and peace over the nobles' faith in wealth and power.

Now he is Raven the Innkeeper, a bitter and crippled man who believes in nothing, and wants only to be left alone.

When they meet, they—and the Silver Isle—will be changed forever.

Lark's Quest: The Search is the first in the continuing series of novellas chronicling the fate of the Silver Isle."

For being so short, The Search is a very well set-up novella. In just a few chapters, the plot and the main characters are set up, their motivations explained, and a back story is given for everyone who matters. The world is described, not in depth, but enough so that you understand the lay of the land, as it were. This is a world at war, and the one person who has some hope of setting things straight is convinced that he doesn't deserve the role.

It was nice to read a story that tells you exactly what's going on, instead of explaining only part of the problem before you have to go out and buy the next book.

I thought the conflicts were very well done - both the struggle of the kingdom to survive without a king, and Raven's internal struggle between his past and the possibility that he's made everything worse by hiding for all of his life. He's a wonderful character, dealing with difficult choices. Lark seems a little dull in comparison, but she's not a bad character either.

I also had to giggle, because I occasionally use the name Lark (or some variant thereof) - it's what made me decide to pick this book up in the first place. As if that weren't enough, my husband's name is Raven. It was awesome.

To my knowledge, there are five more books in this series. The first one is available for free. Part of the proceeds of the rest of the series go to a charity the author chose - the Second Harvest Food Bank, in the case of the Deeds of the Ariane series.

I just wish the story was longer. I've got to wait to get the next two, which are already out.

[kotonemaki]

The Cracked Slipper - Stephanie Alexander

My Rating: 3/5 (***)

Synopsis: “When Eleanor Brice unexpectedly wins the heart of Gregory Desmarais, Crown Prince of Cartheigh, she’s sure she’s found her happily-ever-after. Unfortunately, Prince Charming has a loose grip on his temper, a looser grip on his marriage vows, and a tight grip on the bottle.

Eight years of mistreatment, isolation and clandestine book learning hardly prepare Eleanor for life at Eclatant Palace, where women are seen, not heard. According to Eleanor’s eavesdropping parrot, no one at court appreciates her unladylike tendency to voice her opinion. To make matter worse, her royal fiancee spends his last night of bachelorhood on a drunken whoring spree. Before the ink dries on her marriage proclamation Eleanor realizes that she loves her husband’s best friend, former soldier Dorian Finley.

Eleanor can’t resist Dorian’s honesty, or his unusual admiration for her intelligence, and soon both are caught in a dangerous obsession. She drowns her confusion in charitable endeavors, but the people’s love can’t protect her from her feelings. When a magical crime endangers the bond between unicorns, dragons, and the royal family, a falsely accused Eleanor must clear her own name to save her life. The road toward vindication will force a choice between hard-won security and an impossible love.

The Cracked Slipper is a book club friendly fairytale retelling in the vein of Gregory Maguire, with a dash of romance. Set in a pseudo-renaissance, corset-and-petticoats enchanted kingdom, The Cracked Slipper brings a magical twist to women’s fiction.”

The Cracked Slipper is the story of Cinderella after “happily ever after” has worn off, and real life has set in.

Despite being based on Cinderella, this book breaks away from the fairy tale, and becomes its own story. Starting with the ending of the original story, Cracked Slipper tells the tale of Eleanor realizing that “love at first sight” probably isn’t a good basis for a stable relationship.

This book is 80% Eleanor falling out of love with Prince Charming or attending parties, and only 20% action. The main conflict of the story didn’t happen until the last few chapters. Well, I suppose you could argue that the whole Dorian thing was the main conflict of the story, but even that doesn’t get wrapped up until nearly the end of the book. I was expecting the action to start somewhere around the middle of the story – three fourths of the way through the book, I was starting to worry that I’d never get to it. It felt a bit late to be introducing the conflict, and the entire thing was wrapped up quickly as well. To be honest, it almost felt like the action was just tacked on at the last minute to make the book appeal to a wider audience. I did enjoy the resolution; it just felt like there should have been more of a build-up than, “Oh no! The horn that we haven’t mentioned in 10 chapters is suddenly missing!”

I liked how the world was set up. All of the animals talk, all of the nobles have pet birds to assist them (suddenly singing birds doing chores doesn’t sound so far-fetched), and unicorns help the kingdom mine a stone found exclusively in places where dragons live. Instead of fairy godmothers, magic is worked by wizards and witches. All the changes take Cracked Slipper from being a rewritten fairy tale to being a full-fledged fantasy story.

There were a few grammatical errors, but none so distracting that it interrupted the story.

Also, is it just me, or is it hard not to picture Chou sounding like Gilbert Gottfried? >_>

[kotonemaki]

Nathan Miller & the Binding Birch - J.G. Hewitt

My Rating: 3/5 (***)

Synopsis: “For eleven-year old Nathan Miller, school is a house of horrors: bullies, fist fights, cruel teachers, stupid rules and an ogre for a Principal. As if that weren’t enough, having been abandoned at birth, Nate is both exceptionally unpopular and unlovable. Convinced his life cannot be any more miserable Nate is expelled from school for fighting, unraveling a series of events that places him in mortal peril. Unbeknownst to Nate, he has been hunted his entire life and the hunters are finally closing in on their prey.

For Nate’s twin sister, Thalia, learning is a joy. School is sculpted entirely out of ice, lessons are taught by Mages who can breathe fire and frost, create clouds, move water just by thinking about it. Welcome to Cascadia.

On the run from a marauding pack of bloodthirsty hunters, Nate finds his way to his ancestral home of Cascadia where he discovers his family locked in a generations old battle against a dark Outcast whose power is rising; who is a master spy that can transform himself into shadow; and who is counseled by a ghost trapped in a lake who speaks with her hair. The Outcast believes Nate possesses the key to his demise, which is why Nate was hidden at birth and why the Outcast wants Nate dead. To survive, Nate is schooled by the Mages in the old ways as he prepares to battle the powerful Outcast in a duel to the death.

WARNING: Should you wish to read this story, you will discover an extraordinary adventure with new best friends who will put a smile on your face, joy in your heart and keep you up way past your bedtime.”

Nathan Miller & the Binding Birch wants to be the next childhood epic fantasy. It tries. It tries very hard. But it doesn’t quite reach “Harry Potter meets Narnia” levels of epic, like it intended.

It was a good book – don’t get me wrong, I had trouble putting it down once I started reading it. It’s a good story. It’s just…

The book is littered with typos. Not just spelling errors, or grammar mistakes, but random punctuation and words thrown in where they shouldn’t be – like a sentence had been changed at the last minute, but not all of the words from the old sentence were erased. It constantly broke up the reading experience, since I had to keep backtracking to figure out what the sentence was supposed to say. And this is not a rough draft – this is a finished book.

Another problem was the fact that the book tries too hard to be an epic fantasy. I understand wanting to make your story big, but when the story involves eighteen main characters that all need to be developed…and that’s me being generous. There’s actually more main characters than that. I settled on only counting the fourteen main children (FOURTEEN), Caul, Caetis, and those two Ulfa wolves. Though you could argue that Karsh was a main character, and Broch, and Hazel…

That’s the problem. The book tries to focus on Nathan as the “main” main character, but it doesn’t even do that! The story is told from the perspective of Nathan, Thalia, AND Ruby, and it constantly jumps from one character to the next. It might work if the chapters were split up into clear categories of whose point of view the story is being told from at the moment, but it doesn’t do that. It just jumps from one character to the next, sometimes in just under a paragraph. It’ll describe what Ruby is feeling one second, and then suddenly we’re back to Nathan.

Those were the biggest problems I had with the book.

Otherwise, the mythology behind the world is wonderful, and done in such great detail. I love how Cascadia’s stories and myths feel like they could easily be a part of our own world. A lot of this book was setting up Cascadia, so there were a lot more of these stories than actual action, but I didn’t mind. I found myself as anxious as the children to learn more about the history of the world.

Caetis is an awesome villain. I wish more of the book had focused on him. His story is tragic, and he’s really nothing more than the fulfillment of the birch scroll prophecy. If things had worked out differently, he might not have been a such a bad guy. And the fact that he’s only evil because of how things worked out makes you feel a bit sympathetic for him. His tribe left him to be murdered by wolves, when he was just a year old – why wouldn’t he be angry? Caetis has a legitimate reason to want to attack the others. It makes him a more realistic character. Villains are stronger characters when they’re not just doing evil for evil’s sake…or for money, or power.

All this book really needs is a bit more focus. Clean up the typos, maybe choose one or two characters to focus the story on, and it would be even better. We’ll see how things go in the sequel.

[kotonemaki]

The Unsuspecting Mage (Morcyth Saga #1) - Brian S. Pratt

I learned two things from reading this book: first, that “transcript of my D&D game” is apparently a genre and second, that if your story is essentially a transcript of a D&D game, nine times out of ten your main character is going to be a mage. It’s much easier to explain how a person can suddenly use magic than to explain how they suddenly know how to pick locks, or wield a sword. It’s the path of least resistance.

The entire book is written…weird. It’s written in omniscient third person (which is normal in most books), but in the present tense. The style definitely makes the book harder to read. The book ended up sounding like someone was telling the author a story, and it was just written down word for word. “And then, the main character hears some wolves, so he climbs a tree for the night to avoid them!”

That’s another thing. James is terrified of fighting some wolves, and because he doesn’t do anything, Seth, a kid he knows from school, dies. Yet just a few scenes later, James badly burns some bandits to save the life of a man he just met. And I’m sorry. I just can’t bring myself to feel sorry for Seth’s death. He had already been missing for a few days before James showed up…did Seth not once stop to realize that he’d be safer in a tree than on the ground at night?

I just realized that after that initial fight with the wolves, James never had problems camping in the open throughout the rest of the book. Maybe Seth was just unlucky in encountering the wolves.

The plot/progression of events felt like it would have been more at home in a video game than in a book. Every single encounter James has directly helps him move forward on his quest. He meets a bard who he later has to save. The bard just happens to know the man in charge of the royal library, which just happens to be where James needs to go to research a symbol. The librarian, in turn, gives James a book and letter to deliver to the librarian in a city under attack, and it’s only because he has that book that he’s allowed into the city. I’ve seen video games with subtler plot hints than this.

And then, there’s the magic. Why make your magic run on rhyme and meter if you character is terrible at putting together rhyme and meter? Why not just use the whole “word of power” idea? That bothers me in the best of books, but it’s made worse in this one by the fact that about halfway through, James realizes he doesn’t have to use rhymes to create spells. If he never had to put together rhymes to make magic, why would you subject us to that? Why? [I'll admit he's a better poet than the chick from Prophecy of the Flame, at least.]

There’s also a…trope, I suppose you would call it…that’s recently started getting on my nerves. For lack of a better term, let’s call it the “Wide-Eyed Factor”. This is where a character gets brought in to a magical world from current day Earth – the character will try to explain something simple (like a flashlight) to a normal citizen of the magic world, and the citizen’s response is to stare at the main character, “wide-eyed”. Because clearly the world in which magic is a common-day occurence is FAR inferior to our own world.

I wouldn’t harp on this so much in this book if it didn’t happen ALL THE TIME. Every chapter after he meets Miko, James blows Miko’s mind by telling him about things like “forensic science” or “how tornadoes work”…or, my favorite, “meteors are not magic, except that one might be”.

For all of my complaints, I didn’t hate this book. It’s one of the better D&D style books I’ve read. I just had trouble getting over the above-mentioned points.

[kotonemaki]

Steele Wolf (Iron Butterfly #2) - Chanda Hahn

Steele Wolf was so much better than the first book in the series. It only took me two hours to read, I devoured it so fast!

There was much more characterization put into this book. I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized that. Even characters that aren't around for the entire story (Thalia's father, the rest of their clan, the people in Skyfell) are described more than any of the main characters were in the first book. It was nice to see improvement there.

We were also finally allowed to see the main characters' histories. Thalia regains her memory, we learn more about Kael, and we find out that Joss actually has a family. There's also finally an explanation of who the villains are, what they're are doing to the people they kidnap, and why Kael seems to be stalking Thalia.

Skyfell was a fun city. I loved the fun descriptions of the city and its transportation.

Now, if only that obnoxious love triangle would end! (I may be a bit biased in this case, though. I'm totally rooting for Kael.)

I'm very much looking forward to the next book! Now, I just have to wait for it to actually come out...

[kotonemaki]

Cat's Paw - L.A. Taylor

I've changed my mind. Mirandia is officially the most oblivious character I've ever seen. I knew from the very first sentence what the "twist" in this book was. Though I suppose one can hardly call it a twist, when everybody but the main character knows what happened. Now I'm not sure if it was ever meant to be a twist...

Despite wanting to scream in frustration every time she lamented her husband's disappearance, I really enjoyed this book. The book was very well written. There are no big action scenes. There are no epic battles. It's just the story of a woman trying to find out what happened to her husband. Yet I could not set the book down.

I loved the world the book is set in. It could easily have taken place in the real world, a few centuries ago. The way the world is set up made me think very much of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell...just not on as grand of a scale.

The characters were written well. I never had to stop to figure out why a certain character acted a certain way - everybody was developed enough, and had clear enough personalities, despite not being mentioned for more than a paragraph or two. Even the side characters had clear motivations. It was nice to read a book where everything was put in place for a reason, and all plots get tied up.

The only problem I had with this book was the whole Miranda not figuring out what happened bit. For as smart as she was, she really should have caught on sooner...or if not caught on, she should have at least started questioning things. Every time something new got pointed out, I just wanted to scream when she didn't think twice about her observations. But, aside from that, this was a very enjoyable read.

[Though I do question that...semi-bestiality? Near the end. After reading descriptions of the change...why? Just...just why?]