Review: The Fate of the Tearling

Book three of the Queen of the Tearling trilogy
By Erika Johansen
Available now from Harper (HarperCollins)
Review copy

I am happy I began this trilogy when all three books were out, since this is the sort of series best read at a breathless clip, eager to find out what happens next. I'm certainly happy that I didn't have to stop at THE INVASION OF THE TEARLING, with Kelsea a prisoner.

The first book set up a fascinating world filled with danger in every corner, and the odd reminder every once in awhile that it was not a fantasy world, but a far future version of our world. The second book delved deeper into this by having Kelsea relive memories of Lily, a woman living at the time of the Crossing, the end of a dystopic period that gave rise to the country of the Tearling. I wasn't a fan of this method of revealing secrets of the Tearling's past, because I prefer fantasy to dystopian fiction, and there was a strong theme of reincarnation, which I've also never been a fan of.

THE FATE OF THE TEARLING, unfortunately, takes this thread up and runs with it, introducing even more past characters to reveal the secrets of Kelsea's sapphires, the Fetch, and the man in the fire. I admire how thoroughly Erika Johansen seeded her surreal twist in the story. THE QUEEN OF THE TEARLING never hides that it is supposed to be our world, and the mystery of why it had to be set in our world when it didn't seem to fit was one I wanted answered. I simply preferred the more fantastical setting and the characters from the contemporary period of the novel, so I was sad to see the focus shift away from them.

In THE INVASION OF THE TEARLING, Kelsea was teetering on the brink of her worst instincts, her temper and the burgeoning war giving her a chance to indulge in cruelty instead of being the purely altruistic ruler she wanted to be. I found her corruption interesting, and felt that her arc was not entirely satisfying. For a series that focused much on the consequences of the characters' actions, Kelsea gets to sidestep the consequences of her own worst decision. I'm glad that things ended happily, against all hope, but the solution felt more like cheating than the hard-earned triumph Kelsea deserved.

While the ending didn't bring it home for me, I thought this trilogy was an incredibly fun read and it was full of characters I fell in love with. Lazarus, Kelsea's chosen regent and her most trusted man, was a personal favorite. He's a tough, hard-bitten man who couldn't be more obvious about how much he was searching for hope and someone to believe in. And I loved Father Tyler, an old priest who has a good heart and loves books and becomes the possessor of an important MacGuffin in THE FATE OF THE TEARLING.

I can see the populace of the Tearling having lives beyond where they intersect with Kelsea's journey, because Johansen wrote them with such nuance. Even the evil Red Queen, who has had her sympathetic moments from book one, gets to be more than evil even as she's moved into the position of the taunting captor.

I'm excited about whatever Johansen's next venture might be, especially if she decides to go for pure high fantasy. I can appreciate how she experimented with genre, even if the end effect wasn't for me.

Review: The Devourers

By Indra Das
Available now from Del Rey (Penguin Random House)
Review copy

I was drawn to THE DEVOURERS by the beautiful traditional illustration on the cover.  Chris Panatier did the front and back cover illustration with ink and watercolor on board, and the full piece can be seen on his Deviantart. The lush, claustrophobic illustration pairs perfectly with the way the beauty of the story envelops you.

I found the opening of THE DEVOURERS somewhat disappointing. It seemed to be devoted to being overly edgy, with the narrator Alok meeting a man with a strange story of being a half-werewolf. Alok agrees to transcribe a set of scrolls for him, and starts with the story of Fenrir, a werewolf who rapes a human woman. Luckily, the novel brought up the exact objection I had and takes a turn into the story of Cyrah, the woman pregnant by a werewolf and determined to confront him with the beast of Gevaudan by her side.

I found Cyrah's tale the most compelling part of THE DEVOURERS. She makes tough decisions for complex reasons, and manages to have true empathy for her traveling companion.  I enjoyed the way that she was able to suss out more of the werewolf culture and find a place for herself bargaining with Fenrir's transgression.  She's a clever, determined woman who is allowed to be angry.

I found that the edginess of THE DEVOURERS evened out as I read. Gender and sexuality are explored through both the nature of these nonhuman creatures and the way they interact with humans. The gore is delightfully horrific, both repulsive and drawing on the human love of the macabre. There's also a lot to enjoy if you like explorations of different cultures, as both historical and modern non-Western human cultures come into play and each tribe of werewolves have their own cultures that shape the characters' behavior.

At first I thought THE DEVOURERS was going to disappoint me, another literary book with a faint layer of the supernatural as an excuse to be shocking. But the book grew on me and I fell under its lovely spell, to find out what happened to Cyrah, Gevaudan, her son, and Alok. And to be sure that Fenrir wasn't forgiven or redeemed.

Indra Das does use a very poetic style that might alienate some (as might the content), but it worked well for me. I also found that there was just enough difference in language between the narrators to make them clearly different people but not disrupt the tone. I certainly look forward to Das' next novel.

Review: The Inquisition

Book two of The Summoner trilogy
By Taran Matharu
Available now from Feiwel & Friends (Macmillan)
Review copy

THE NOVICE ended with Fletcher, the protagonist, for his actions protecting himself from the local bully before he left his hometown to train as a summoner.  I expected his trial to take up most of the novel, based on the title THE INQUISITION.  However, the trial is over rather quickly.  A more accurate (if blander) title might be THE QUEST.

Fletcher, his friends, his enemies, and some new characters are put into teams to destroy a genetics experiment by the orcs, rescue a noblewoman, and prove that humans, elves, and dwarves can work together.  Small goals.

Taran Matharu's sophomore novel shares the weaknesses of the first.  It's fairly predictable, and Fletcher is a bit too much.  THE INQUISITION discusses how relationships among the races are severely discouraged, yet almost every girl in the story is openly crushing on Fletcher even when it could get them exiled from their communities.  I also was disappointed by confirmation that Fletcher is not so common.  I liked that THE NOVICE made it clear nobility wasn't everything.

At the same time, THE INQUISITION is just as readable as THE NOVICE.  This is prime popcorn reading, with a dangerous mission on enemy soil and backstabbing galore.  I especially appreciated that Fletcher's habit of overlooking people who aren't his friends came back to bite him.  The politics between the various allied groups continue to add a nice bit of depth and tension.  I also liked that THE INQUISITION gives more insight into the orcs and their culture and possibly more advanced magic.

I'm looking forward to the third and final novel of the Summoner trilogy.  I would like to see Matharu grow more as a writer, but he's already quite good at getting me to turn the pages.

Review: Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories

Edited by Stephanie Perkins
Stories by Leigh Bardugo, Francesca Lia Block, Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, Brandy Colbert, Tim Federle, Lev Grossman, Nina LaCour, Stephanie Perkins, Veronica Roth, Jon Skovron, Jennifer E. Smith
Available now from
Review copy

Stephanie Perkins' follow-up anthology to MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME is another set of twelve strong stories by popular and up-and-coming authors, including adult author Lev Grossman.  The only repeated author is Perkins herself (who writes a sequel to her story from the first anthology).  The theme of summer is a little looser than the theme of winter holidays, and the stories range wider in tone and style as well.  There's contemporary, fantasy, science fiction, and historical stories.  The protagonists are diverse too, both in skin color and sexuality.

In fact, not all of the stories end happily.  "Sick Pleasure" by Francesca Lia Block tells of a doomed summer romance.  "Souvenirs" by Tim Federle tells of two boys who know they have to break up because one of them is going to college.  "Souvenirs" is one of my favorite stories in the collection, for how it gets lots of messy emotions into so few pages, including those little things that make you love someone even when you know they aren't the best person.

Of the speculative stories, my favorite might have been "The Map of Tiny Perfect Things" by Lev Grossman, a groundhog-day tale of a boy and a girl who are trapped in a loop and manage to find shocking beauty in a single mundane (but tragic) day.  Close behind is "Head, Scales, Tongue, Tail" by Leigh Bardugo, which taps into my love of mythological sea creatures.  The inventive ending gets my approval.  Okay, I loved "Last Stand at the Cinegore" by Libba Bray, too.  It's a trippy meta tale about a horror film coming to life and the apathetic cinema workers who are the only ones that can stop it.

The more mundane stories were a bit more uneven to me.  "The End of Love" by Nina LaCour is an adorable story about two girls finding their way to each other while one of them goes through a difficult time. "Love is the Last Resort" by Jon Skovron is a farce about multiple couples who need a few tricks to get them to take that leap of faith and ask each other out.

This made for a very fun read on my plane ride home from California.  (Can you get more summer than that?)  There was only one story I didn't think fit the anthology.  "Inertia" by Veronica Roth was a nifty sci-fi romance, but I'm not sure what it had to do with summer.  Overall, this was a strong set of stories, although not quite as strong as MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME.  I hope for fall and spring sequels!

Review: Emperor of the Eight Islands

Book one of the Tale of Shikanoko
By Lian Hearn
Available now from FSG Originals (Macmillan)
Review copy

Have you ever been absolutely loving a book, when suddenly the ending splashes a bucket of cold water on you?  That was my experience with EMPEROR OF THE EIGHT ISLANDS.

EMPEROR OF THE EIGHT ISLANDS is the first book in The Tale of Shikanoko, the new series from Lian Hearn.  There are four books, all to be published before July from Farrar, Straus and Giroux's (fairly new) digital imprint.  I still intend to read the second book, AUTUMN PRINCESS, DRAGON CHILD, but it is going to have to work to earn back my goodwill.  The ending of EMPEROR OF EIGHT ISLANDS soured me quite a bit on Shikanoko, the hero.

Shikanoko means the deer's child, and was not the name he was born with.  He was once the heir to an estate, but his uncle arranged to have him killed.  Instead, he was forcibly turned into a sorcerer, albeit one who doesn't know much about his powers.  His life intersects with that of Kiyoyori, a young lord; Aki, a shrine maiden; and Yoshi, the rightful emperor.  Their stories weave together to tell a bloody tale of betrayal, courage, and strange magic.

Hearn uses an episodic structure, which suits the nature of the story.  EMPEROR OF THE EIGHT ISLANDS is an epic about legendary heroes, and each adventure leads into the next.  It also has strong characterization.  Even characters who could be flat-out villains, like the jealous Lady Tama, are understandable from their point of view.  She's motivated by love for her children, even if it turns out poorly.

Don't expect a feel good read.  EMPEROR OF THE EIGHT ISLANDS had me turning the pages, but it isn't the lightest of reading.  Many bad things happen to good people, and even more bad things lurk on the horizon.  At the same time, I have hope that good will triumph in the final novel of the series, THE TENGU'S GAME OF GO.

Review: Shadows of Sherwood

The first Robyn Hoodlum book
By Kekla Magoon
Available now from Bloomsbury
Review copy

I love the concept of a futuristic Robin Hood story, with many of the main roles being women instead of men.  Robyn Loxley is a girl living in the rich sector of Nott City when her parents are disappeared by the Sheriff (also female in this story).  She barely manages to escape, and has to figure out how to live life on the margins with the help of some others who have been managing: Laurel, Scarlet, and Key.

It's right up my alley, but SHADOWS OF SHERWOOD never quite gelled for me.  Robyn's parents apparently followed a moon lore, an old religion that seems like magic.  It's a good way to add a folklore tie to the story, but I felt like the dystopia and fantasy elements didn't mesh very neatly.  The moon lore mostly seemed like a way for convenient things to happen.

There's also use of villainous point of view, which I find is difficult to pull off well.  The Sheriff's passages give some hints about Governor Crown's dastardly deeds but otherwise add little to the story.  Since this is a Robin Hood retelling it is particularly egregious, because everyone knows where the story is going.  Even younger readers can be assumed to know at least one version of the story, if only the Disney movie.

I think the class conflicts were done well, which is important since they are a central part of the legend.  Robyn has been part of the upper class and is now learning how bad everyone else in the city had it.  Rescuing her parents is a top priority, but she's learning that innocent bystanders could get hurt in her activities against the Sheriff - which leads her to question how she can help.

SHADOWS OF SHERWOOD has some nice heist scenes and an appealing cast, but it left me cold.  I'm just not sure the biggest departures from the traditional story worked for me.  It felt like a separate story welded on that didn't quite fit.  Does Robin Hood need a prophecy?  No, not really.

Review: A Thousand Nights

By E.K. Johnston
Available now from Disney-Hyperion
Review copy

I've read two YA retellings of A Thousand and One Nights this year, and A THOUSAND NIGHTS is my favorite.  E.K. Johnston wowed me with The Story of Owen duology, and she continues to impress me here.  The tone and rhythm of this story aren't similar at all, but the control of them is.

Lo-Melkhiin has been marrying and killing his wives.  It has reached the tribes have instituted a policy that he has to rotate between them, to help keep one tribe from suffering too much.  When the heroine's tribe must offer a bride, she makes herself as beautiful as she can with flashy clothes and makeup.  For one day she outshines her sister and is picked instead.  In return, her sister starts worshiping her immediately until waiting for news of her death, that she has joined their ancestors.

That love between the sisters might be enough to save all of their people.

I liked the focus in A THOUSAND NIGHTS on women who are fed up and what they're doing about it.  Lo-Melkhiin has kept peace ever since he came back from the desert a changed man, but it is the women who pay the price.  The heroine and her sister are tired of that, and so are many other women living in fear of their lives.

The worldbuilding is also superb.  Johnston imparts the reader with a sense of how families are structured and how their religious traditions work.  We're shown the reasons the people would not rebel against a leader who slaughters so many of his people.  Then, there's the bits of strangeness around the edges.  There's a wig made out of a lion's mane made by Lo-Melkhiin for his mother.  There's a man compelled to make beautiful sculptures, even though it pains him.  There's a sense of the wrongness in the court beyond the deaths.

Then there is the battle of wits and wills between Lo-Melkhiin and his bride.  She may not fear as he wants her to, but that doesn't mean she isn't afraid.  There's wonderful interplay between them, as Lo-Melkhiin tries to find out why she can withstand him and she tries to figure out how she can solves the problem of Lo-Melkhiin before she's just another dead wife.

A THOUSAND NIGHTS is a story of terror and love in a desert that never was.  It's a book that kept me turning the pages, and I hope it will do the same for you.

Review: An Apprentice to Elves

Book three of the Iskryne trilogy
By Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear
Available now from Tor (Macmillan)
Review copy

AN APPRENTICE TO ELVES is being billed as the conclusion of the Iskryne trilogy.  I'd hoped for more books in this series, but this is a good note to go out on.  The Iskryne books are inspired by Viking history, with elves, trolls, and companion wolves thrown in.  The first book detailed the world and the battle with the trolls, and the second book bought in a new human threat - the Rheans, who are basically Romans.

Once more, the book is told by new narrators.  AN APPRENTICE TO ELVES alternates between Alfgyfa (the daughter of the first narrator, Isolfr), Otter  (a former slave rescued in the second book), Fargrimr (a sworn son who is the jarl of the heall closest to the Rhean invasion), and Tin (an elf smith who brokered the alliance between humans and elves with Isolfr).  This helps expand the world and showcase more lifestyles of the people within it.  It is the first book with female narrators, so many of the points of view were much needed.  I did feel like the Rheans delaying their invasion for more than a decade was mostly so that Alfgyfa could become old enough to narrate.

But overall, I enjoy the way the Iskryne trilogy has grown and changed since the first book.  The first book, A COMPANION TO WOLVES, felt like a commentary on Pern and how the dragon relationships worked.  Over THE TEMPERING OF MEN and AN APPRENTICE TO ELVES, it has become its own series, with complex relations between and within species.  I loved that this book was not all war, but also an examination of how the two groups of elves broke apart and a fierce drive to bind men and elves closer together before their alliance crumbles without an external threat.

AN APPRENTICE TO ELVES is not a fast-paced novel.  It ends with several big battles, a thrilling finish that had me racing to the conclusion.  But that is not the pace of most of the novel.  This is a series interested in ferreting out details of the characters and their place.  As I said, I'm sad that this will only be a trilogy because I feel like there is so much of the Iskryne to explore.  If this is where it ends, though, I'll be satisfied.

I think you can read AN APPRENTICE TO ELVES on its own, but you'll miss many worldbuilding details and some of the characters' histories if you do.  

Review: The Aeronaut's Windlass

First book in the Cinder Spires series
By Jim Butcher
Available now from Roc (Penguin Random House)
Review copy

Jim Butcher, author of the popular urban fantasy series The Dresden Files, takes on steampunk fantasy in the first book of the Cinder Spires.  I find the cover for this one somewhat misleading.  It's clearly taking cues from the covers of his most famous series, with one man in a long dark jacket filling the cover.  But THE AERONAUT'S WINDLASS is truly an ensemble novel.  Even some of the antagonists get sympathetic passages through their point of view.  More than that, the novel's two most prominent narrators are female.  There's also a cat (who speaks Cat, which some humans can understand) who is probably very insulted that he is not the focus of the cover.

The AMS Predator is a small privateer ship that was recently severely damaged.  Captain Grimm finds a way to get the repairs he needs, but it involves working for the Spirearch (the ruler of Spire Albion, the novel's setting) on a rather ill-defined mission.  With him are two mad etherealists (think wizard) and three soldiers.  Two of those soldiers are Gwen and Bridget, and the third is Gwen's cousin Benedict.  Gwen is from one of the Spire's greatest families and thus arrogant and somewhat naive, but she's also aces at getting the job done.  Bridget is also from a great family, but of the sort that has fallen into genteel poverty.  Both girls are brand-new recruits, but still have skills to offer the mission.

It's hard to pick out what my favorite parts of THE AERONAUT'S WINDLASS are.  I loved everything about Rowl (the cat), even though I'm not a cat person.  I found the villains suitably terrifying, but liked that many of the Auroans (that is, the people of the opposing Spire) where essentially honorable people trying to carry out their duty and minimize the impact of the actually evil antagonists.  I loved Gwen, and Bridget, and Folly, and admired how much Butcher has grown in the way he writes women since the first Dresden Files books.

THE AERONAUT'S WINDLASS presents a rather complicated world, in which the surface is uninhabitable and covered with monsters and thus people live in Spires and sail through the air in ships.  But it is delightfully inventive and it is fun to see how it all works together.  It is definitely more fantasy with a steampunk aesthetic than an alt history type series, at least for now.

The book is well paced, with plenty of action amid the worldbuilding.  There was one long battle that I couldn't believe wasn't the climatic battle until the story kept going and I realized that of course that was the battle Butcher was building up to.  It was very neatly done and gave THE AERONAUT'S WINDLASS a nice sense of closure despite the many threads left dangling for future books in the series.  I'm eager for the second book, to see how those threads get picked up.

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 History of Glitter and Blood

By Hannah Moskowitz
Available now from Chronicle Books
Review copy

A HISTORY OF GLITTER AND BLOOD is an aptly named novel.  Half of it is a disco teenage fever dream and the other half is haunting violence and mutilated bodies.  It is a strange novel and I absolutely loved every second of it.

The narrator of A HISTORY OF GLITTER AND BLOOD is an unreliable fellow.  He centers the story around Beckan, although he isn't her and cannot know the minutiae of her days and thoughts.  (She points this out to him, even.)  He also admits frequently that he's making stuff up, or eliding a nasty bit of the story, or doubles back on himself because he's not telling it well.  It takes a bit to get into the rhythm of the story, but I thought the way it was told in fits and starts suited the subject matter.

Beckan and three other faerie teenagers were the only faeries who survived the war.  (Except not really, because Cricket is dead.  Not dead-dead, because faeries are immortal.  But he's been rendered into pieces so small, conscious somewhere, that his friends can't find them.)  Beckan, Cricket, and Cricket's brother supported the household through prostitution.  Of course, the main people they could sell themselves too were the trolls, who eat faeries.  It's taken a toll on them, both because they were all too young to handle any of it and they feel a mix of blame and shame and not regretting it at all because they survived.

There is such horror in A HISTORY OF GLITTER AND BLOOD.  There are images in this book that haunt me.  And the characters, faerie and troll and other, wormed their way under my skin.  The worldbuilding is both deft and dreamlike.  It is a tale of an impossible place, yet all the pieces fit together.  I loved the complicated situation between the races and the lengthy exploration of what happens after trauma and disaster.

I've been meaning to read Hannah Moskowitz's novels forever, and A HISTORY OF GLITTER AND BLOOD definitely convinced me that I need to give her backlist my full attention as soon as I get a chance.  This book shoved it's way into my heart like sudden violence following on the heels of laughter.

Review: Fool's Quest

Book two of the Fitz and the Fool trilogy
By Robin Hobb
Available now from Del Rey (Penguin Random House)
Review copy
Read more reviews of Robin Hobb novels

When Robin Hobb has a new trilogy coming out, I always get excited when it is time to buy the new book.  You can double that when it is a book about Fitz.  (This is the eighth book starring Fitz and the fifteenth set in this world.)  FOOL'S ASSASSIN, the first book in this new trilogy, made some choices I wasn't so sure about.  I'm still not sure about some of them - the new narrator speaks much less in FOOL'S QUEST and I'm not sure her separate point of view is actually needed.  Others are swiftly corrected, teaching me to trust again that Hobb has a plan.

FOOL'S QUEST ends with our heroes once more in peril, so I know I'll be on tenterhooks for the third and final book in the trilogy.  Those who were worried about the characters at the end of book one can look forward to long, soothing passages of recovery.  (Well, recovery for some characters anyway ...)  There's also some delicious, long-awaited vindication.  There were so many moments in FOOL'S QUEST that I've been waiting for as a fan of these characters.

And then Fitz does something else to prove he's too stubborn to learn easy.

As a fan, I continue to think that this trilogy is a delight.  I'm not sure it has much to offer newcomers, because it is more uneven than the previous two trilogies and generally expects the reader to be familiar with a large number of events and characters.  But seriously, it's worth starting at the beginning and working through these bricks.

Review: Half a War

Third book of the Shattered Sea trilogy
By Joe Abercrombie
Available now from Del Rey (Penguin Random House)
Review copy
Read my reviews of Half a King and Half the World

I was excited to finish the Shattered Sea trilogy since I enjoyed both of the first two books.  There's something so satisfying about finishing a series.

Each of the books shifts focus to a different narrator.  The main narrator of HALF A WAR is Skara, a princess who sees her family slaughtered.  She's traumatized and in exile, but she's also a queen now.  She must figure out how to be more than a figurehead and rescue her country from war.  Half a war is political shenanigans, and I love political shenanigans.  (What I didn't love is how many times characters express that sentiment.  Half a war, it's the title, we get it.)

The protagonists of the previous two books do appear.  Yarvi is used very well.  He's changed from who he was at the beginning of HALF A KING, and do many of the characters' points of view he's one of the villains.  Even though we only got a third of his journey through his eyes, it's been an intriguing one to watch.  I didn't think Thorn and Brand, from HALF THE WORLD, were used as well.  In fact, I rather disliked how they were treated in this book.

The Shattered Sea trilogy is composed of three very different coming-of-age stories.  Skara's story is probably my favorite of the three.  I admired the balance between her inexperience and her ability to learn quickly, listen wisely, and act decisively.  The co-protagonist, Raith, didn't impress me as much.  He's a brutal fighter annoyed at being traded to Skara like a thing, but he does think she's hot.  His character development felt inorganic, especially when Skara's was right there being done smoothly and neatly.

I thought HALF A WAR was a strong ending to the series.  The main storylines come to satisfying conclusions, but not completely neat ones that are false to what comes before.  The previous stories are built on, although too many elements from HALF THE WORLD fall to the wayside.  And Skara is the strongest protagonist of the series, which definitely gives the story a boost.  I think HALF A WAR will definitely satisfy fans of the Shattered Sea trilogy.

Review: Love is Red

Book on of the Night Song trilogy
By Sophie Jaff
Available now from Harper (HarperCollins)
Review copy

The comparisons to NIGHT FILM and THE SHINING GIRLS drew me in.  Both were creepy literary gems, and if LOVE IS RED was half as good I was sure to love it.  I'm not sure that I do.

LOVE IS RED opens with a rape scene, which was not the best first impression.  Half the novel (maybe a little over half) is told through the killer's point of view using the second person.  The second person point of view was an interesting choice of literary technique and I thought it worked well to add a bit of tension to his sections, that such a killer could be watching you.  However, his sections were hard for me to read.  I liked that he focused on his victims' emotions over his bodies, but that aspect was still there.  And unlike THE SHINING GIRLS, I never really felt we got to see the victims as people in their own right.  They remain the archetypes the killer has marked them as.

The other narrator is Katherine Emerson, a young woman living with a roommate and her roommate's son.  She's recently met and started dating David, a perfectly nice man, but she's also started sleeping with his best friend Sael after a sexually charged encounter where they didn't realize they had any acquaintances in common.  LOVE IS RED does not hide that one of these men is the killer and that Katherine is his ultimate planned victim.  I thought which was the killer was obvious, which does mean Sophie Jaff was good at characterizing them clearly.  At the same time, it meant the book was jumping through some unnecessary hoops.

The fantastic elements of LOVE IS RED are rather quiet at first.  The killer describes emotions in synesthetic ways and believes he is reliving a grand purpose, but it takes awhile for the narrative to start showing that he isn't just delusional.  Ghosts start to show up, and more of the past is revealed (mostly through the device of excerpts from a manuscript between chapters).  I definitely felt like a lot of the worldbuilding was left for future books in the Night Song trilogy.  I had an idea of the concepts that were in play, but not specifics.  I'm unsure what the stakes of the story were, beyond Katherine's life.  If you're going to hint at a battle through the centuries, then I at least need some idea of what will happen if either side wins.

I did like that LOVE IS RED wrapped up the serial killer plot and left the romance at a reasonable ending point.  There are a lot of threads left dangling for the next book, but this one can stand alone.  I also liked the way the theme of motherhood became increasingly important through the story.  It is seeded at the beginning, so it doesn't feel unnatural when it takes a larger part in LOVE IS RED. 

Jaff's writing is often lovely, but it left me dry.  LOVE IS RED approaches feminist themes, the way women are discarded in particular, but never seems to have a coherent point of view to express about them.  The serial killer passages actively turned me off most of the time, and Katherine wasn't a much more compelling narrator.  The first moment between her and Sael is incredibly charged, but their chemistry throughout the book leans to hard on that single interaction to carry it all.  The relationship with David never has a moment half as magnetic.  Her job as a critic might as well never have been mentioned.  Her relationship with Lucas, her roommate's son, is cute.

But I kept waiting for Katherine to seize control of her narrative and stop being a victim in waiting and waffling between two not particularly compelling dudes.  I'm not sure that ever quite happened.

Review: Spelled

First in a series
By Betsy Schow
Available now from Sourcebooks Fire
Review copy
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: The Eternity Key

Book two of Into the Dark
By Bree Despain
Available now from Egmont USA
Review copy
Read my review of The Shadow Prince and my interview with Bree

I enjoyed THE SHADOW PRINCE, so it's no surprise that I would pick up THE ETERNITY KEY.  I appreciated that there was some recapping of events since it had been awhile since I read the first book.  I think that will also be a boon to readers who leap ahead and skip book one for whatever reason.

THE ETERNITY KEY continues to switch between Daphne and Haden's POVs, and adds Tobin's POV to the mix.  I'm not entirely sure Tobin's POV added that much to the story, aside from reminders that they do need to find Abbie/CeCe.  (Okay, his romance with Lexie is cute.)  The main plot of the story is trying to figure out where the Compass and Key are so that Haden and friends can get into the Underworld and kill the Keres, while not letting anyone else get the Key and prompting more undesirable outcomes.  (If that sentence was gibberish, read book one.)

I liked the way the romance between Daphne and Haden developed at first in THE ETERNITY KEY.  Haden is working up the courage to say the words, and Daphne is working to prove to Haden that they can be equals (instead of her being the damsel in distress).  And then Daphne rebuffs Haden for a reason that barely made sense.  I sure hope the third book has a better explanation, like magical interference.

THE ETERNITY KEY ends with all three narrators in peril.  Bree Despain is a cruel author, torturing her readers like that.  I hope Lerner acquiring titles from Egmont USA means that book three won't be delayed, because I need the conclusion to this trilogy.

Review: The Winner's Crime

Book two of The Winner's Trilogy
By Marie Rutkoski
Available now from Farrar, Straus and Giroux BFYR (Macmillan)
Review copy
Read my review of The Winner's Crime

 Marie Rutkoski knows how to keep you on your toes.  THE WINNER'S CRIME is a tale of entwining intrigues that ends in a cliffhanger that will make you wish you had THE WINNER'S KISS on hand.  (People reading this review at least a year in the future, I envy you for your ability to do just that.)

Kestrel is promised to marry Prince Verex and become the next empress, even though she loves Arin.  Arin is now the governor of Herran, but that doesn't mean his country is instantly set back to rights.  His country has been looted and stripped of much of his resources, yet they must still tithe the emperor.  Arin is reeling from the knowledge that Kestrel betrayed him and never loved him, whereas Kestrel is reeling from all she gave up is order to keep everyone she loved alive.

I normally don't like it when miscommunication propels the plot of a novel, particularly one with romantic elements, but it works here.  Rutkoski has created a situation where it isn't safe for the characters to just say the truth.  There are spies everywhere, and one wrong word will get both Arin and Kestrel killed (and more people along with them).  I also think it worked for me because they need some time where neither of them are the other's slave.

I enjoyed that the romance took a backseat to the politics.  The court is complicated, and Herran isn't the only source of conflict.  The country to the east is still fighting back, unconquered.  Their biggest weakness is the queen's sister, a hostage at the capital.  I cannot wait to see how that plot develops further in THE WINNER'S KISS.

Now, THE WINNER'S CRIME is a second book.  There's lots of establishing a new status quo and setting up all the exciting things to happen in the final book of the trilogy.  But it still works on its own, particularly a wrenching confrontation towards the middle of the book.  It's an exciting book to read and a rough one, because the characters keep making mistakes that are so them.  I can only hope that they get it right by the end.

Review: Uprooted

By Naomi Novik
Available now from Del Rey (Penguin Random House)
Review copy

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: The Novice

The Summoner Trilogy, Book One
By Taran Matharu
Available now from Feiwel & Friends (Macmillan)
Review copy

Taran Matharu's THE NOVICE, the first book in the Summoner trilogy, was a hit on Wattpad.  Between that and the generic cover - it looks rather like a Sarah J. Maas book - I didn't have high hopes for anything but a reasonably entertaining fantasy read.

To my surprise, I really liked THE NOVICE.  Protagonist Fletcher is an orphan raised by a blacksmith.  He defends himself against a deadly attack, but goes on the run because it is his word against a rich boy's.  He ends up in the school for summoners because he has the talent to bond himself to demons.  THE NOVICE is great for anyone who loves magic school stories, because there is lots of detail about how a person's magic works, how a demon's works, and what they know of where the demons live.  I also appreciated that Fletcher wasn't ridiculously gifted.  He's got more natural skill than some of the others, but he has to study hard and think fast to keep up.

Probably why I really loved it is all the fantasy politics.  I love some good fantasy politics.  There are four main races in the story: humans, dwarves, elves, and orcs.  Dwarves live peacefully with the humans, but are denied many of their rights.  Many desire to rebel again.  The elven front is where old warriors go to retire; it is naught but a cold war.  However, negotiations are opening for peace.  Meanwhile, a bitter war is being fought (and lost) against the orcs (who can also use magic).  Humans don't think much of the dwarves or elves, but they're being allowed to learn summoning because the army needs all the mages it can get.  The summoners are also divided between those of noble blood and those who are commoners.

THE NOVICE dives deeper into the dwarf culture than the elf culture.  Matharu bases much of it on South and Middle Eastern customs rather than Western customs.  It is a refreshing change, and done with much sympathy.  Fletcher is a bit too good at times, so much less racist than all the other humans despite not having exposure to any of the sympathetic political movements growing up.  But he does have his blind spots, including attaching himself to the more talented commoner students while ignoring the others.

I'm not going to pretend THE NOVICE isn't derivative or that it isn't predictable.  But it uses those standard trappings well.  The themes of class and racial inequality run deep, and the politics plot adds more interest and action to the school story.  I'm not even that mad about the cliffhanger ending. 

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.