Review: Followed by Frost

By Charlie N. Holmberg
Available now from 47North (Amazon Publishing)
Review copy

Charlie N. Holmberg's Paper Magician trilogy had an inventive magic.  It was enough to get me to give her new book a glance, which sounded right up my alley.  Beautiful and spoiled Smitha was cursed to be as cold as her heart by a man she rejected.  Now she lives in a permanent blizzard; her only companion is Death.  He wants her to come with him, but Smitha clings to life, even lonely.

I thought FOLLOWED BY FROST was a beautiful book.  I like that Holmberg and the novel acknowledge that Mordan was wrong to pursue Smitha when she made her disinterest clear.  At the same time, Smitha went above and beyond to be cruel in her rejection, both standing him up and then going on a nasty tirade.  No one deserves to be cursed as she was, but she does come to realize that she could've handled the situation better.

The descriptions of how thorough the curse is are wonderful.  Smitha's clothes freeze on her body, and tears can stick her eyes shut.  She has to gulp down boiling food lest it freeze in her mouth.  As Death points out to her, few people would survive.  I thought Death's tête-à-tête's with Smitha were wonderfully tense, but I enjoyed when the world expanded to include more people.  FOLLOWED BY FROST really does use Smitha's curse quite fully.  As the book continues it starts to shift into a romance, which is unsurprising in a book revolving around a curse about a cold heart.

Smitha does get the most development of anyone in the book, as she should.  But I thought the hero was a good fit for her.  Smitha is stubborn and impulsive, but also kind and passionate about books and languages.  She's an interesting person who needs someone equally intriguing in her life to truly be happy.

FOLLOWED BY FROST is a terrific romance with a fairytale feel.  It has YA appeal, and does start when Smitha is seventeen, but most of the book is set in her early to mid-twenties.  If this sounds like your kind of thing, then give FOLLOWED BY FROST a chance to burrow under your skin and into your heart.

Review: A Whole New World

A Twisted Tale
By Liz Braswell
Available now from Disney-Hyperion
Review copy

The premise of the Twisted Tales series strikes me as brilliant: Disney allowing their versions of classic stories to be retold as dark YA novels.  The heroes and heroines of Disney stories are teens, and there is often room for things to go horribly awry.  In A WHOLE NEW WORLD, Jafar gets the lamp as soon as Aladdin steals it, leading to the rise of a dark rule in Agrabah.

Unfortunately, A WHOLE NEW WORLD is not good.  The first 22% is a retelling of the movie events written in a competent but not particularly engrossing style.  When things finally start to diverge, the tone just doesn't work.  The beginning was basically the light cartoonish style of the movie, so the darkness also begins strangely cartoonish.

There's also the fact that nothing in A WHOLE NEW WORLD really evokes the movie.  When Jasmine and Aladdin talk, I can't hear their voices in my head.  The fate of Agrabah is at stake, and yet I can't get a feel for the city even with Liz Braswell expanding it and diving deeper into the underworld of the Street Rats.  Everything feels vaguely modern and American, down to details like Jasmine mentioning a dog as a common pet.  I was bland, as if a few details pasted in from the movie were enough to make the setting work.

A WHOLE NEW WORLD isn't completely irredeemable.  Braswell makes Jasmine an equal protagonist who earns the right to rule and works hard to rescue herself and her city.  I appreciated that she leaned in to the feminist potential of Jasmine refusing to be forced into marriage.  That's about the best compliment I can offer this novel.

For such an amazing premise, A WHOLE NEW WORLD came off as ill-conceived and hastily done.  It's not a very good book.

Review: Valiant

By Sarah McGuire
Available now from EgmontUSA (Lerner)
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VALIANT is exactly what I look for in my fairytales retold.  Young Saville's father has a stroke, meaning that she has to disguise herself as a boy to keep up the family business.  (She's a tailor, and no man would let his measurements be taken by a woman.)  When the young boy she takes in is threatened, she faces down two giants and ends up becoming the country's hero.

This take on "The Brave Little Tailor" features a heroine who is intelligent and unsurprisingly valiant.  She might not be a physical match for an army of giants led by a mad duke, but she's not going to roll over and let the people she loves be annihilated.   I also liked the complications in her life, from a father who loves fabric more than his daughter to a man who appreciates her but already has a fiancee. 

This modern update keeps a strong traditional feel amid all the progressiveness.  I think it will be a big hit with fans of Gail Carson Levine and Shannon Hale.  Like those authors, Sarah McGuire serves up an inventively adventurous heroine, an age-appropriate romance, and a lovingly crafted world.  Even the giants aren't mere flat monsters but an entire society with a variety of personalities.

This middle-grade debut is a charmer.  I hope it doesn't get lost as one of the books on Egmont's last list, thankfully being distributed by Lerner.

Review: Spelled

First in a series
By Betsy Schow
Available now from Sourcebooks Fire
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Read an excerpt

When you see the cover, you might think SPELLED is a Cinderella story; however, it is a fractured fairytale version of The Wizard of Oz.  It draws from both the original novel and the movie adaptation, down to Dorthea wearing a pair of ruby and silver heels.  She's a rather spoiled princess who makes an unwise wish that banishes her parents and starts unraveling the magic of her land.  Together with the prince she's been betrothed to against her will and a servant girl, she must defeat the evil witch and restore the land's magic.

Oz fans will enjoy seeing familiar situations twisted into something new, particularly when it comes to the ways water might defeat someone.  I did feel that Betsy Schow never came up with something quite as twisted for her telling as L. Frank Baum.  For all their whimsy, the original Oz books were chock-full of the stuff from nightmares.

I liked how Dorthea, Kato, and Rexi grew throughout the story.  All three of them rise to the challenges they face (often from the sidelines for the practical Rexi).  I also liked that SPELLED didn't make it all about Dorthea needing to be less spoiled and Kato and Rexi's first impression being right.  Dorthea is definitely spoiled, but she also has good instincts and cares about people.  She's not someone who writes others off as collateral damage.  Nor is she someone who kills easily, even when given reason and power to do so.  It was fun to watch her grow into more of the best person she could be.

SPELLED is a fast-paced book with one adventure happening after another.  True to the source, that.  It reaches a mostly satisfying conclusion, until you read the epilogue setting up the next book.  They've still got a long way to go to save the world, and I look forward to seeing how this rag-tag trio does it.

SPELLED will appeal to fans of modern fairytale retellings and other modern takes on classic literature like the Splintered series by A.G. Howard.  It's a book with a nice balance of plot, character development, and romance.  Schow's debut young adult novel is a good 'un.

Review: Uprooted

By Naomi Novik
Available now from Del Rey (Penguin Random House)
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Naomi Novik has created a lovely fantasy rooted in a strong female friendship.  UPROOTED feels both traditional and fresh, with roots in folklore but a strong perspective of its own.  Agnieszka is a teenage girl in a village where one girl is taken by the Dragon once every ten years.  The girls are released, but always go on to leave the village.  To her surprise, Agnieszka is chosen instead of her lovely best friend Kasia.  (By the way, Agnieszka is the Polish version of Agnes, if you're confused about how to say it.)

Agnieszka's early days with the Dragon are miserable: he is rude and belittling.  But she soon discovers that she was picked because she has magic, and the Dragon must train her.  Unfortunately, Agnieszka is a lackadaisical student.  The Dragon is fastidious and fussy, and clashes strongly with Agnieszka's casual-to-slovenly manner.  Yet when Agnieszka's village and Kasia turn out to be in grave danger, she suddenly has a reason to pay attention to her magic and develop her gift.

UPROOTED is wonderfully creepy.  The antagonist is the Wood, a strange place that has been there as long as anyone can remember.  It is trying to overtake human settlements; being corrupted by the Wood is a horrible fate.  It requires constant vigilance by the strongest magicians to keep the Wood at bay.  It is a canny force indeed.  The horror of the wood contrasts with the warmth of Agnieszka's personality.

Magicians are long lived, and few of the ones living have many ties to other people left.  Agnieszka still cares, still has the optimism that she can save people and make a lasting difference.  She especially has her tie to Kasia, the childhood friend she loved and envied so long.  I love how complicated their relationship is.  Novik doesn't make it all sweet.  She develops the ways the girls resent each other, the secret frictions that happen between even the best of friends.

I don't have much to say about the romance between Agnieszka and the Dragon, which seems a rather obligatory hook up between the hero and heroine.  (It left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth, how awful he was to her in the beginning.  I was also disappointed he wasn't actually a dragon.)  I will say that I love how much relationships between women propel the plot.  UPROOTED is a great novel for female heroes and villains.

If you enjoy fantasy novels with a fairytale feel and a genuinely scary adversary, then read UPROOTED.  It is a novel sure to delight fans of Robin McKinley and Patricia C. Wrede.  While an adult novel, it has a lot of young adult appeal too.

Review: A Wicked Thing

First in a series
By Rhiannon Thomas
Available now from HarperTeen (HarperCollins)
Review copy

Why oh why is this the first in a series?  I was grooving along with A WICKED THING when it just ended with the vaguest of resolutions.  Aurora (that is, Sleeping Beauty) had a wonderful amount of character development, but that was about it.

A WICKED THING takes the Sleeping Beauty tale and focuses on what happens after.  Aurora wakes up a little over a hundred years after she went to sleep.  Everyone she knows is dead, and she's being forced to marry the prince who woke her up to help prop up an unpopular regime (since she's the destined queen to bring magic back to the land).  Aurora thinks he's a nice enough boy, but she chafes at the restrictions placed upon her and thinks the prophecy is bunk, even if she wanted magic back (given that her personal experiences with it are sleeping for one hundred years).

Aurora is an oddly passive heroine, as many characters point out.  She talks a big game, but takes a long time to take any action.  Now, I partially believe it is because she is so disoriented, but debut author Rhiannon Thomas does little to actually show Aurora being a woman out of time.  Aurora mentions the fashions being different (many times) and technology advancing (once).  She appears to have no difficulty to communicating; slang hasn't moved on?  Have the social expectations of women changed?  Just what technology is different?  I couldn't pin down any specifics, which made it little more than a somewhat sad window dressing.

A WICKED THING skips straight over the love triangle to the love rectangle.  I did like that one of the relationships lives and dies a natural death.  Sometimes you do fall fast for someone and then end up breaking up for reasons.  I do wish the prince were more developed, since there are hints that the destined true love is real. 

At the same time, I did quite enjoy A WICKED THING.  Some of it is my passion for fairy-tale retellings, I know.  But I sympathized with Aurora's inability to do anything because she doesn't have good options, nor the resources to evaluate her options and decide which is least bad.  All of them will end up with at least some people dying, which is a tough position to be in.  I think Thomas has Aurora's voice down pat, and I hope the other aspects of the story rise to meet that standard in the sequel.

Review: Things I'll Never Say: Stories About Our Secret Selves

Edited by Ann Angel
Stories by Ann Angel, Kerry Cohen, Louise Hawes, Varian Johnson, erica l. kaufman, Ron Koertge, E. M. Kokie, Chris Lynch, Kekla Magoon, Zoë Marriott, Katy Moran, J. L. Powers, Mary Ann Rodman, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Ellen Wittlinger
Available now from Candlewick
Review copy

Ann Angel's first outing editing an anthology is an impressive venture.  She's gathered a wonderful mix of authors, from established award winners like Chris Lynch and Ellen Wittlinger to talented up to a debut author.  The authors aren't just diverse in their name recognition either.  THINGS I'LL NEVER SAY: STORIES ABOUT OUR SECRET SELVES dwells in those experiences that are hard to talk about, that people like to never think about.

It's fitting that it is a very diverse anthology, not only the authors, but also the main characters, who are black and white and Asian and gay and bisexual and transgender and suffering from mental illness.  Although not all of the stories are realistic, they do strive for a realism about the teen experience, and the multiplicity of points of view represented help support that anthology-wide tone.

I'll admit that the anthology started a little slow for me.  The usually reliable Ellen Wittlinger didn't knock it out of the park with "The We-Are-Like-Everybody-Else Game," the story of a girl with a mom who hoards and a friend who might not deserve the title (but one who does).  "Cupid's Beaux" by Cynthia Leitich Smith is charming, and a definite delight to me as a fan of her Tantalize series.  Will anthology readers who haven't read that series be a little lost?

"When We Were Wild" by Louise Hawes and "Call Me!" by Ron Koertge are both delightfully loose stories, slightly naughty and shaggy with narrators who struggle with their knowledge of their own cruelty.  Of the sadder stories, I think I liked "Easter" by Mary Ann Rodman best, for the way it captured loss and teenage confusion and dashed hopes.

"Quick Change" by E.M. Kokie is a little gem about a con artist in a family of con artists, and I want an entire novel about what happens next.  (Short stories have been made into novels before!  I can hope!)  "Storm Clouds Fleeing From the Wind" by Zoë Marriott is the standout of the collection.  It's an achingly lovely story set in a kingdom that isn't, about a dancer who cannot be matched, especially when furious.  Her bio in the back of THINGS I'LL NEVER SAY says that it is related to her novel SHADOWS ON THE MOON, which is now a must-read for me.

Honestly, I could tell you good things about almost all of the stories in the collection.  There were a handful that I didn't care for, but there were also two excellent stories and more than half of the stories were good-to-great.  I think that's a good ratio for an anthology.  With THINGS I'LL NEVER SAY, Ann Angel shows great promise as an anthologist as well as an author.

Review: The Cottage in the Woods

By Katherine Coville
Available now from Knopf BFYR (Penguin Random House)
Review copy

I love fairytale retellings, and was familiar with Katherine Coville's art from the work she did on her husband Bruce Coville's novels.  I was quite curious to see what she would do with the story of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears."  It turns out that she would marry it to Victorian romance and social issues in an engrossing pastiche.

Ursula travels to the Vaughn home to be a governess to Teddy, an unusually well-behaved child.  She soon discovers that the house holds a secret, a young blonde human.  Meanwhile, she finds herself drawn to Mr. Bentley, a fellow employee of the house, despite a disastrous first meeting.  She also finds herself involved in local politics, as the Enchanted of the town work to live with the humans as equals, not lessers. 

I loved how the fairytale story weaved together with a Pride-and-Prejudice-esque plotline for Ursula and the tensions between the Anthropological Society and the men's choir (as the pro-humans and equality factions are known).  What I'm not so sure is that the middle grade audience will enjoy it.  It's a long story, and the style is somewhat old fashioned.  I think it's a treat, but would a ten year old?

I think it is worth a try for any fan of fairytales.  The twists on Goldilocks are clever, as are the references to other stories such as "The Musicians of Bremen."  At the very least, it might make a good read-aloud book.  But I think the main audience is older, the sort who enjoy classic literature as well as a bit of whimsy.

Review: Beastkeeper

By Cat Hellisen
Available now from Henry Holt & Co. (Macmillan)
Review copy

I was instantly drawn to BEASTKEEPER by the beautiful cover.  The stark silhouettes were foreboding, but the peachy glow invited me in.  This short modern fable is a multi-generational "Beauty and the Beast" that explores the consequences of the revenge and just how difficult it is to achieve unconditional love.

The beginning of the story starts when Sarah's mom leaves.  Her mom has never liked the winter, and leaves her husband and daughter when the winter catches up with her for the last time.  Her father sinks into depression, leaving Sarah to explore the tiny patch of "woods" by their house and meet a strange boy.  When he realizes he can no longer parent Sarah himself, he takes her to live with her grandmother, deep in an actual, wild wood.

I loved Sarah's optimism, the sort of faith that only a younger child has that they can make things right if they cross their t's, dot their i's, and just try hard enough.  She also has a young, happy child's ease of bestowing trust, even though lately her life has gone quite awry.  And I loved that it wasn't enough.  Decades of hatred are not undone simply, nor painlessly.

Everything in BEASTKEEPER ties together rather neatly, each layer of the story unfolding to explain how disparate things slot together in unexpected ways.  It's a tightly structured novel, which helps it get away with the fairytale logic that fuels the plot.  Cat Hellisen's writing is lush but not purple, perfect for a harsh fairytale atmosphere.

It did not take me long to devour BEASTKEEPER; this is a true bite-sized delight for the adult reader.  It's the perfect length for the middle grade audience, particularly those who are looking for another darker book to read after finishing CORALINE.

Review: Tear You Apart

Companion novel to Kill Me Softly
By Sarah Cross
Available now from EgmontUSA
Review copy

EgmontUSA may be shutting down, but at least they're releasing their 2015 slate. The first one I just had to read is TEAR YOU APART, the companion to KILL ME SOFTLY.  The first book introduced Beau Rivage, the town where descendants of faerie-human unions are forced to live out curses, curses worse than living in Mississippi for the rest of your life.

One of the big differences between TEAR YOU APART and KILL ME SOFTLY is that Viv grew up in Beau Rivage.  She knows exactly what story she's living, and she fears it.  She is Snow White, which means the Huntsman Henley will either kill or save her.  If he saves her, her stepmother Regina will keep trying.  Once Viv loved both Regina and Henley.  But when Regina betrayed her true colors and Henley was cursed, Viv decided she couldn't trust anyone.  She can't keep herself from Henley, but she can't bring herself to trust him again either.

TEAR YOU APART weaves together "Snow White," "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," and "Rumpelstiltskin" in a darkly romantic tale.  Viv can be an utter spoiled brat, but getting out of her comfort zone and talking to people really forces her to take measure of her life.  And even when she's in spoiled brat mode, I admire her dedication to her own survival.  I liked the romance between her and Henley, but liked that she takes a chance when her prince Jasper shows up.  Even more, I like that she grows into being her own rescuer (as much as she can).

TEAR YOU APART will satisfy fans of fairytales who aren't afraid of some rather large liberties and some of the darker endings remaining in place.  Fans of KILL ME SOFTLY will enjoy that the cast of that novel makes cameo appearances.  Also nice: a reoccurring character is confirmed as a lesbian and there is a princess and princess couple that no one remarks upon.  Little details like that help the updated fairytale concept really work.

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In other news, today is Multicultural Children's Book Day.  The sponsors are holding a virtual book drive to support First Book.

Review: Princess of Thorns

By Stacey Jay
Available now from Delacorte Press (Penguin Random House)
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PRINCESS OF THORNS takes the Sleeping Beauty story and runs with it.  Aurora and her brother are the twin children of the Sleeping Beauty of legend, whose fate went awry when she was awakened early.  Aurora is key to stopping the trolls, including her evil stepmother, from taking over.  But she must face the trolls because they're holding her brother hostage.

PRINCESS OF THORNS involves so many things I like.  It has a character in disguise (Aurora pretending to be her brother), a romance that blooms slowly, and an emphasis on redemption over revenge.  Aurora's companion on her quest is Niklaas, a prince from a neighboring kingdom who is desperate to marry her (which is awkward, since he thinks she's her brother).  He's living out the story of the seven swans, and only has a short time left as a human.  However, he's not willing to just give up his secrets, which makes his life more difficult.  Niklaas and Aurora deserve each other's stubbornness.

What amazes me about PRINCESS OF THORNS is that Stacey Jay made me enjoy a villain point of view.  I often find villain points of view useless, telling the reader too much and wallowing perversely in murder, torture, and other such delights.  Yet Jay uses the stepmother's point of view to flesh out troll culture and further the themes of the novel.  She manages to make the stepmother a sympathetic character despite her hateful actions at the beginning of the story.

PRINCESS OF THORNS is a compelling read for any fairytale fan.  It stitches several together (including Little Red Riding Hood) while still managing to do its own thing.  Jay isn't so devoted to nodding to tales that she forgets the story she wants to tell.  It helps that her characters are not the half-sketched things of fairytales.  Aurora, Niklaas, and the Ogre Queen are all forceful characters.

I devoured this book (and possibly spent a bit longer out at lunch than I should have) because I had so much fun reading it.  I definitely need to read that Jay book I bought last year but never got around to!

Review: Stitching Snow

By R.C. Lewis
Available now from Disney-Hyperion
Review copy

It will be of little surprise to anyone that I jumped on the chance to read a sci-fi retelling of Snow White.  STITCHING SNOW opens on the remote mining planet of Thanda, where young Essie makes her living as a mechanic and cage fighter.  It's definitely not the traditional Snow White beginning.

I really enjoyed getting to see the rhythm of Essie's life.  She's clever, tough, and resilient.  She's managed to keep herself safe (and profitable) in a place with few women, much less single women.  Then, a spaceship crashes and brings Dane into her life.  I'm of mixed feelings about Dane.  Essie did need someone to remind her that there was a world beyond Thanda, and I found their relationship built believably, and even included some natural setbacks.  But the opening goes to such lengths to establish Essie as a tough, worthy opponent when fighting.  Yet, of course, Dane is infinitely better than her and she has to learn from him.

After Essie repairs Dane's ship, events lead them to travel to the planets of the galaxy.  I was fascinated by the different economies, politics, and ways of life, but felt that there wasn't enough time to devote to each.  It definitely meant that the climax was rushed and mostly devoid of emotional turmoil.  There was one particularly nasty late-game reveal that had little impact because there were no previous signs of it.  I liked Essie and Dane, but by the end they felt flat, just going through the predictable motions.

I think STITCHING SNOW had a fascinating setup and a good sense of humor.  Essie's droids, which take the place of the dwarves, are real highlights.  But somewhere everything takes a turn for the generic.  This is a find tale for fairytale fans, but nothing truly exciting.  It is a good choice for readers waiting for the next book in the Lunar Chronicles.

Review: (Don't You) Forget About Me

By Kate Karyus Quinn
Available now from HarperTeen (HarperCollins)
Review copy

Kate Karyus Quinn's sophomore novel is an unsettling fable about a town called Gardnerville, where no one dies of illness but strange things happen, getting worse every fourth year.  Last fourth year, Skylar's older sister Piper killed sixteen other teenagers in revenge for getting dumped.  Now, it is a fourth year again.

Skylar is one of the last of the Gardners, the founding family.  Her greatest pursuit is the forget-me-nots, a drug that leaves her forgetful.  But Skylar needs to remember if she's going to prevent this year's tragedy.  She needs to remember her sister, who no one else in the town wants to remember.  She needs to remember her family's shadowy history.  She needs to remember who she can trust.

(DON'T YOU) FORGET ABOUT ME is an interesting beast.  Every other chapter is a tape from Skylar's childhood, recording her memories with Piper from various points in their lives.  The present chapters cut in and out, sometimes coming back to a Skylar who doesn't remember what happened last chapter -- or even what happened between chapters.  And the story just gets stranger the more Gardnerville reveals its secrets.

I liked the romance between Skylar and Foote, who has is own secrets.  It's very subtle, which is what saves it from its predictability.  The rest of the novel is too surreal for a rote romance.

If you're looking for a disorienting read that requires you to put together the pieces, I suggest giving (DON'T YOU) FORGET ABOUT ME a try.  It's a little bit fairy tale, a little bit magical realism, and a lot bizarre.  It's certainly a memorable reading experience.

Review: Damsel Distressed

By Kelsey Macke
Available now from Spencer Hill Contemporary
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Imogen Keegan knows she's the ugly stepsister.  Heck, her stepsister is named Ella Cinder.  But her stepsister moving in is just another thing going wrong in her life.  There's her mother's death, her weight gain, her hopeless crush on her best friend, and her depression.

Imogen is not an easy heroine to like.  She's unhappy with herself, and tends to think badly of others in return.  She has very little empathy.  Debut author Kelsey Macke, however, understands that her heroine is no angel.  Throughout the book, people tell Imogen when she goes to far, or she eventually realizes that for herself.  Often, she judged people harshly before they could judge her, and she learns that maybe she should get to know people a bit more before making such decisions.  Macke also maintains a careful balance with Imogen's depression.  It colors how Imogen sees the world and her struggle is very sympathetic, but it is also not a free pass to treat other people badly.

DAMSEL DISTRESSED will appeal strongly to artsy YA fans.  Imogen is in charge of the sound booth for the school musical, Once Upon a Mattress.  All of her close friends are involved in the crew in some way.  There is art before each chapter, and Macke recorded an album with her duo (Wedding Day Rain) to accompany the book.  It adds some nice layers to the whole package.

DAMSEL DISTRESSED also has a lot of appeal for fans of contemporary YA retellings and books that deal with serious issues with humor.  Imogen's difficulties are definitely lightened by her own humor and that of her closest friends.  The Cinderella angle is a nice hook, but DAMSEL DISTRESSED diverges quite a bit to be its own story.  There is a Prince Charming, but he's no distant, half drawn figure.  In addition to depression, bullying figures prominently, as does Imogen's acceptance of her weight.  There's quite a bit going on, but it all gels.

Review: Cruel Beauty

By Rosamund Hodge
Available now from Balzer + Bray (HarperCollins)
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CRUEL BEAUTY blends fairytales and Greek mythology together to create a unique romance featuring an unconventional heroine and hero.  Nyx Triskelion has been raised to murder her future husband, Ignifex, known as the Gentle Lord.  She has been raised knowing that she will die killing him.  Oh how she resents her younger sister, who has been left ignorant and innocent of the darker parts of Nyx.

Nyx does not save the beast through her virtuousness.  She's is angry, vicious, and can be as cruel as her husband.  You see, Ignifex grants wishes, but they always go wrong.  But isn't part of the fault the wisher who knows that his wish is doomed?  Ignifex is no angel, but as Nyx comes to know him, she understands that there's more to him than cruelty.  But then there's Shade, Ignifex's shadow servant, who is human by night.  He could be Nyx's ally in destroying Ignifex.

CRUEL BEAUTY is a thrilling read in which love is complicated, and communication even more so.  There's a wonderful sense of lurking danger, something even more sinister than Ignifex and Shade waiting in the shadows.  The story's mythology is complicated, and goes far beyond the classical sources that spawned it.  The setting sells the romance.  There's something Gothic about it all, the manor, the secrets, the isolation.  Nyx and Ignifex would not work in any sort of contemporary setting.

That is not to say that CRUEL BEAUTY is perfect.  For one, it could use far more of Nyx's sister.  Some of the book's most important action hangs on their relationship, but it doesn't have much force since the sister appears briefly in the beginning, then disappears until the climax.  The reader has to take it on faith that the sisters love each other even as they hate and resent it each other.  It could be a complicated relationship to rival that of Ignifex and Nyx, but it's just not there on the page.

I think CRUEL BEAUTY is a stunning, romantic debut.  I enjoyed it, and I thoroughly enjoyed the nastiness of Nyx and Ignifex.  Rarely do protagonists get to revel in being bad people.  (But for all that, they aren't that bad.)   I look forward to whatever Rosamund Hodge writes next.

Review: Thorn Jack

The First Night and Nothing novel
By Katherine Harbour
Available now from Harper Voyager (HarperCollins)
Review copy

Finn Sullivan and her father move to the small town where he grew up in the wake of her older sister's suicide.  There, Finn attends college and makes two good friends, Sylvie and Christie.  She's finding the rhythm of life again.  Then she meets gorgeous Jack Fata at a concert.  The Fatas are beautiful, strange, and scary - soon Finn, Sylvie, and Christie are in over their heads.  They must be clever to save themselves.  But Finn doesn't just want to save herself; she wants to save Jack as well.

I felt that THORN JACK started slowly.  For one thing, the college sounds nothing like a college and it really bothered me.  It's called HallowHeart.  What kind of name is that?  It's even a college with a phys ed requirement.  Plus, Finn and her friends all live at home and generally seem more like high schoolers than college students.  I don't think it would've changed the story to put them in high school, and several little things would've made more sense.

I did enjoy being slowly pulled into the mythology of the Night and Nothing series.  It's fairly traditional, as THORN JACK is based on the Tam Lin ballad.  But it incorporates a few non-Celtic traditions and has its own spin on things.  I also liked that the danger to the main characters felt very real.  They mostly survive because the Fatas have plans for them, although they do a little better once they learn how to protect themselves and to fight (with poetry).

Katherine Harbour is a debut novelist, but she has strong control over her language.  THORN JACK is very lush and lovely, although she repeats some of her best images until they become almost meaningless.  Generally, however, the beautiful imagery enhances the horror elements. 

If you're familiar with Tam Lin, you know where everything is headed in THORN JACK.  But Harbour makes the story worth reading.  Finn is a heroine who is somewhat foolhardy, but also loyal, determined, and inventive.  Jack may be dangerous, but he's protective of Finn.  (For a moment, it did look like THORN JACK was headed for the TWILIGHT mode.)  Finn's best friends are great additions to the story.  I am eager to read the next two books in the Night and Nothing series and to learn more about the wolf-eyed man.

48HBC Review: Feather Bound

By Sarah Raughley
Available now from Strange Chemistry (Angry Robot)
Review copy

I was excited about FEATHER BOUND, a YA debut based on the Hagoromo/Crane Wife legend.  After seeing several negative reviews, my excitement dimmed and it moved down in my TBR pile.  But 48HBC, with its focus on diversity, pushed it back up toward the top.

The story begins with Deanna attending the funeral of an old family friend.  She's mostly there out of obligation, but she does mourn the man's son, her best friend who died when he was ten.  Cue the reveal that in Deanna's world some people are "swans" - they have feathers, which if stolen make them the slave of the one who takes them.  And that old family friend enslaved his wife.  Cue the second reveal that Hyde is still alive, taking over his father's company, and making some big changes to it as well.

Sarah Raughley's writing is fine and there are lots of good ideas in FEATHER BOUND.  Through the metaphor of swans, Raughley addresses human trafficking, coming out, and several other issues.  At the same time, that means those issues only get addressed shallowly.  Deanna is only interested in keeping herself and those she loves free; she's not interested in ending slavery or campaigning for stricter protections or ending the stigma against being a swan.  Much like a fairy tale, there is no explanation for the magical.  Swans just are.  FEATHER BOUND really requires the reader to buy in to the metaphor.  I did, but I wished Raughley had the time to go deeper.

Deanna was a frustrating heroine.  She's the type, as her sister points out, to refuse any help offered and then complain that she's all alone.  Thus, Deanna tries to go at it alone in a desperate situation while ignoring people who could and would help.  At the same time, it's easy to see why a confused, scared teenager would withdraw from the world as Deanna does.

I think fans of traditional fairy tale retellings will enjoy FEATHER BOUND.  The world's rules serve the characters journey.  It's not appropriate for most readers younger than twelve due to the sexual slavery angle, but it doesn't really have any other elements that play up the darkness of the premise.  (Okay, I am now remembering that there is another strange sexual bit that is not for younger readers.)  I did like that Deanna found her inner strength at the end.

Review: The Feral Child

By Che Golden
Available now from Quercus
Review copy

THE FERAL CHILD is a story of imagination, loyalty, and bravery inspired by Irish folklore.  Orphan Maddy lives with her grandparents, and has been acting out some (understandably).  When she first encounters a strange boy in the woods, she doesn't know what's happening.  But when he kidnaps Stephen, the toddler next door, she sees him for what he is: a faery.

Maddy sets out to save Stephen accompanied only by her dog and her Grandpa's stories, but her cousins join her.  (They're a bit over their heads, as they meant to keep her from getting into trouble, not getting involved with actual, existing faeries.)  The adults won't do anything, because they think Stephen has been found due to a changeling left in his place.

There is nothing particularly new done with the mythology, but Maddy's journey is still captivating.  She has a lot of inner turmoil that needs to heal.  The adventures are fun in and of themselves, too.  Watching the children try to outwit the clever and devious faeries is a treat - especially because Maddy isn't always the one who has the good ideas.  Her cousin Roisin, in particular, becomes integral to the quest's success.

The ending felt a touch rushed to me.  The opening of THE FERAL CHILD takes its time setting up Maddy's life in Ireland, the woods, the strange encounter that becomes stranger.  There is no time at the end, however, for wrapping up the plot about Maddy's overbearing aunt who wants to take custody.  There is lots of sequel bait, so perhaps that is saved as an ongoing plot.

THE FERAL CHILD will appeal to young fans of fairytales and folklore.

Review: Gorgeous

By Paul Rudnick
Available now from Scholastic Press
Review copy

I feel in love with GORGEOUS's hardcover jacket, but I might like the look of the paperback even better.  (Plus, the white/black/red color scheme is ever so slightly more plot relevant than the black/red/blue color scheme.)  GORGEOUS is the young adult debut of Paul Rudnick, a writer known for his plays and humor pieces in The New Yorker.

In this modern-day Cinderella story, Becky Randle is left adrift when her beloved mother dies.  Then she finds a phone number in her mother's things, with instructions to call it.  She reaches reclusive fashion designer Tom Kelly, who promises her three dresses that will make her the most beautiful woman in the world.  The catch?  She must fall in love and marry within the year.

I enjoyed Becky's identity struggle.  She enjoys being confident, intimidating Rebecca, but can't quite forget that she's just nice, middle-of-the-road Becky.  Being Rebecca opens her up to a world of new experiences, and the potential to use her fame for good, but everyone warns her that there will be a cost to that fame.  And she's not entirely clueless that there's something sinister about the magic Kelly has worked upon her.

I do feel like GORGEOUS tried to bite off a bit too much.  There isn't really room for both Becky's coming of age and her true, magical romance.  I never quite bought the depth of her feelings because she didn't spend much time with the guy.  I did buy her relationship with her best friend Rocher, which is one of the highlights of the book.  Rocher is happy for Rebecca, and Rebecca sticks by her oldest friend.  There's no question that their relationship has changed, but both girls fight for each other.

In the end, GORGEOUS was a bit uneven and the internal logic doesn't always hang together, but it is fun and positive.  I loved seeing Becky's growth throughout the novel and cheered for her to get a fairytale ending, even when it looked impossible.  I think GORGEOUS would definitely liven up an airplane ride - you could imagine you were traveling Rebecca-style.

Fans of fairytales might want to check out Fairy Tale Fortnight, hosted by The Book Rat.

Review: Boy, Snow, Bird

By Helen Oyeyemi
Available now from Riverhead (Penguin Random House
Review copy

I've heard quite a bit of praise for British novelist Helen Oyeyemi, who is known for combining mythology and other traditional stories with more commonplace matter.  BOY, SNOW, BIRD is her fifth novel and the first one I've read.  I'm having difficultly untangling my feelings about it.

BOY, SNOW, BIRD is inspired by Snow White and American history.  (It's set in the fifties.)  Boy, the narrator of the first and the last section, is a young woman who runs away from home when it becomes clear that her father might kill her one day.  She makes a new life for herself in a small town, friendships, dates, a job, the works.  But her new life has unexpected complications, including the other two eponymous characters.  Bird narrates the second part, and Snow doesn't narrate at all.  I want Snow's point of view, but it makes sense, given that so much of the book is about how people perceive Snow and whether their perception is right.

One thing I truly enjoyed is how my perception of BOY, SNOW, BIRD changed as I was reading it.  It wasn't the story I - or Boy - expected.  There are, for instance, little seeds of what will become major plot points in the first half, but it's easy to overlook them as just bits of set dressing.  BOY, SNOW, BIRD is a novel that tackles complex subjects while keeping the focus on people and their actions.  The Snow White theme provides structure, but BOY, SNOW, BIRD has no easily digestible moral.

My issue is that I felt adrift at the end of the novel.  I was thoroughly engrossed, and then it ended.  There's a small catharsis at the end, but very small.  I felt like the characters' journeys weren't through.  I don't think there was much story left, but there was something.  I was fascinated by BOY, SNOW, BIRD and thought it was full of wonderful ideas wonderfully expressed.  But in the end, I'm not sure that it went anywhere or that anything really happened.  It is perhaps too quiet and subtle.

BOY, SNOW, BIRD blends literary fiction quite beautifully with just a hit of fairytale sensibility.  I loved Boy, and her complicated relationships with the people she loves.  Bird and Snow were likewise interesting, compelling characters.  Halfway through BOY, SNOW, BIRD, I thought it was going to be a favorite.  But I don't love it, although I do think it was a good reading experience.  I am eager to read more of Oyeyemi's work.