Book Review: The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman

The Grimm Legacy

Polly Shulman

Publication Date: July 8th 2010

Publisher: Putnam Juvenile

Pages: 325

Genre:  Fairytale, Urban-Fantasy, Contemporary

Elizabeth has a new job at an unusual library— a lending library of objects, not books. In a secret room in the basement lies the Grimm Collection. That's where the librarians lock away powerful items straight out of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales: seven-league boots, a table that produces a feast at the blink of an eye, Snow White's stepmother's sinister mirror that talks in riddles.

When the magical objects start to disappear, Elizabeth embarks on a dangerous quest to catch the thief before she can be accused of the crime—or captured by the thief.

Polly Shulman has created a contemporary fantasy with a fascinating setting and premise, starring an ordinary girl whose after-school job is far from ordinary— and leads to a world of excitement, romance and magical intrigue.

I love, love, love loved the idea of this book. It reminded me a lot of the Syfy Channel show "Warehouse 13" yet all fairytale related and full of interesting characters and a very interesting idea.

Elizabeth ends up with a part time job at a place that is sorta like a library, but instead of just books, it is a variety of items that one can check out and study or even borrow for a few days. At first it seems pretty ordinary but she keeps hearing about the Basement which includes the very mysterious Grimm Collection.

What if the things that happened in fairytales had been real? What if the items that had inspired them, like the tattered slippers of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, still existed? That's the idea that this book explores.

Of course such items are just so awesome they are hard to resist.

Schulman weaves an adventure tale in which the teenagers working at the Repository have to take care of the danger themselves. They don't get along, there are issues galore, but they know they must prevail. I enjoyed the style of writing a lot, it was very engaging. The characters were somewhat simple, but also enjoyable, and I did like the romance.

As soon as he tried to get the box from Elizabeth, I knew that that man was the villain (ah yes my memory of names is fantastic, isn't it?). I did love the whole mystery aspect that was going on. SOMETHING is happening, but what we are not so sure.

On top of that I really liked the extra fact that Marc and Anjali were really descended from royalty and thus targets of the crazy patron who enjoys collecting royalty in the form of dolls, which brings me to the fact that I kind of adored the villains, they were both ridiculous and scary at the same time. When the man I cannot remember the name of tried turning the kids into gingerbread men, yet so obviously cursed about this in front of the when it didn't work, I couldn't help but giggle, even though I knew he was really dangerous. On the other hand with the woman and her matter of factly talk of not wanting Elizabeth or Aaron because they were most certainly not royalty also amused me greatly.

The Grimm Legacy is a great take on fairytales that isn't set in a fantastical kingdom or anything of that vibe. I really hope that more books are to come in this world, because it really is ripe for more adventures.

4 Bookmarks

Book Review: White Cat by Holly Black

White Cat (Curse Workers #1)

Holly Black

Publication Date: May 4th 2010

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry

Pages: 310

Genre:  Urban-Fantasy, Young Adult

The first in a trilogy, this gritty, fast-paced fantasy is rife with the unexpected. Cassel comes from a shady, magical family of con artists and grifters. He doesn’t fit in at home or at school, so he’s used to feeling like an outsider. He’s also used to feeling guilty—he killed his best friend, Lila, years ago.

But when Cassel begins to have strange dreams about a white cat, and people around him are losing their memories, he starts to wonder what really happened to Lila. In his search for answers, he discovers a wicked plot for power that seems certain to succeed. But Cassel has other ideas—and a plan to con the conmen.

Having read some of Holly Black's faerie books, I was incredibly surprised by her growth in writing that showed in White Cat. Before I had always seen Black as an excellent character writer, but a bit too heavy in her writing for my personal tastes. White Cat blows that thought out of the water. The prose in this book is light and flows smooth. The pacing is fast, but not overpowering.

As always, Black's characters are fascinating. Cassel is very much his own person and a joy to read. His way of looking at the world is different than most, yet it didn't feel forced. At the same time he was so layered and complicated that I feel like there's more to him we will learn about in the next books.

Then there is the world building in this novel, which I absolutely adore. This world-building where magic is just a normal part of the history of Earth and all its nations is a type of world building that I have become very fond of. Both Patricia C. Wrede's Frontier Magic series and Karen Kincy's Other series have a similar way of going around it. In this way being paranormal doesn't make you special different and oh my god it can't exist type of way. In fact it gets rid of the now annoying step of making one's character accept impossible things. It also allows for the author to imagine how society would react to having such powers among them and how that may have evolved, in this case due to being illegal, giving rise to Crime Syndication of Curse Workers.

There's also a mystery and danger feel to this book due to the feeling of "why" "whodunit" an the fact that Cassel belongs to a family deeply integrated into the mob.

The fact that Cassel was secretly a transformation worker without realizing was spectacular and at the same time horrifying. I couldn't believe that his older brothers would have used him the way they had and taking his memories so he wouldn't know. It was people like Barron who gave reason for heebeejeebie assault to be very illegal. It sickened me, what he did.

Finding Lila alive as a cat was also pretty exciting, I also cannot wait to see her as a character in the next book because she seems like such a firecracker, so out there, so strong and so unique for YA heroines.

Though I am just as upset about Cassel's mother's "present" because it will hinder us learning about her character more and Cassel may never know what Lila's actual feelings were.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to see paranormal in a completely unique light, to anyone who loves unique and spunky characters. And finally I recommend this to anyone who wants to see a unique approach to a mobster story.

4 Bookmarks

Book Review: The Calling by Kelley Armstrong

The Calling (Darkness Rising #2)

Kelley Armstrong

Review of The Gathering (Darkness Rising #1)

Publication Date: April 10th 2012

Publisher: HarperCollins

Pages: 326

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult

Maya and her friends--all of whom have supernatural powers--have been kidnapped after fleeing from a forest fire they suspect was deliberately set, and after a terrifying helicopter crash they find themselves pursued by evildoers in the Vancouver Island wilderness.

Compared to all the other Kelley Armstrong books I read, The Calling feels incredibly unique in the way they are finding themselves in the wilderness having to survive on top of the normal secret organization trying to find them trope. We are stuck with a small cast of characters this time around and we are surrounded by so many mysteries: What is going on? Who can they trust? What are they? Unlike the other half of this supernatural creature equation, these kids do not know what they are at all. Maya knows what she is, and Daniel soon comes to terms with what he is, and it's starting to become apparent that the others are something as well, but the other two terms they come across xana and sileni are foreign to them and they have no idea, other than one must be good at singing and swimming.

Rafe is lost pretty early in the book, which made me wonder about Daniel in this second book, but I really liked how Armstrong didn't do the obvious ploy of having Daniel move on in, trying to get Maya's heart, thus creating the obvious YA Supernatural Love Triangle. It's obvious to us as the readers and the others with them that Daniel likes Maya more than just friends, but Maya is oblivious and Daniel is content right now for her to stay that way, especially since it's quite obvious her heart is Rafe's. Of course she will have the opportunity for things to come out next book.

One other thing I really liked about this plot is the slight horror element to it (anyone who keeps up with my reviews knows I love YA horror) with the kids being picked off one by one, leading up the the major "attack" at the end. As the cast of characters gets smaller and smaller, we can only wonder how this will play out, and if maybe things can truly be brought down.

I also have realized that I should really go read that final book in Kelley's necromancer books, as now it's very obvious these books take place in the exact same world and there may be some crossover coming up.

I admit it, I held out hope that Rafe was still alive for the whole book, so I was just filled with happy when he appears out of pretty much no where to rejoin Maya, and I really liked how you can tell Maya's feelings for him have not changed (Sorry Daniel, but I like Rafe x Maya).

I also loved how Maya came into her shapeshifting, and the fact that just because some man is her bio-dad doesn't mean anything to her, because he isn't the one who raised her. I also really wonder how her adoptive parents are going to come into play, because I am also of the mind that they don't know anything about the organizations and were just sucked into all of this as well.

I really do think Armstrong is steadily improving as a writer, things were definitely less dramatic this time around in a good way, and more interesting as well. The world building is grabbing me even more as well, especially since she isn't using the normal everyday known paranormal types in this half of the series. If you enjoyed the first book, I highly recommend taking this one a whirl, and if you enjoyed her Necromancer series, I recommend picking up this as well as it is a continuation in the world.

4 Bookmarks

Book Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

The Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Laini Taylor

Publication Date: September 27th 2011

Publisher: Little, Brown & Company

Pages: 417

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war. 

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

This book has been teasing me for a while, so I finally picked it up and was sucked into this world immediately. Taylor has a style of prose that is hard to resist and Karou is a character who is unique and independent, although lonely. I love how it starts out with her feeling a bit at her lowest, and I love how all the characters are introduced.

The world and out of the ordinary characters are introduced first as being just sketches, but then we start to realize, that what Karou is drawing is one-hundred percent real to her. We then slip into her two worlds that seem part fairytale and part fantastical and all intriguing. The first third of the book is setting this world and this heroine up, and then the middle is where everything pretty much goes wrong, while sucking me in and not letting me put the book down, the end however is where Taylor's writing abilities truly shine. She fills in all the holes in such a poetic way that it feels like a puzzle coming together. It had been far from what I expected, but truly helps to make things feel a little less insta-love for the main two.

The only complaint I have, is that I wish we had had more of Karou in her everyday life, before things start going to hell, because reading that was possibly the most entertaining part of the book.

As you all probably know by now I am a sucker for amazing world building, and the way the two worlds fit together and the fight between the Seraphim and Chimaera are so perfectly a representation of angels versus devils. Yet everything is not clear cut good vs evil, I tend to agree with Karou that it seems as if the Chimaera are the one who got the short end of the stick in the war, but I can't disagree that Thiago isn't a war war-loving brute.

It really feels like things might be able to change, though, and that will keep me coming back for the next book when it comes out.

I do think, however, that there it was slightly overdramatic at the end and bumpy with the instant feeling of betrayal right after she declared everlasting love for Akiva. I also like the character of Karou much more than the character of Madrigal, who appears very flat in comparison. Seriously Karou is incredibly kickass, while Madrigal is just "meh".

This a unique book I'd recommend to many people, especially if they like out of the ordinary fantasy novels and quirky main characters. The prose is also very excellent, so I recommend because of that as well.

4.5 Bookmarks

Book Review: The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong

The Gathering

Kelley Armstrong

Publication Date: April 5th 2011

Publisher: HarperCollins

Pages: 359

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult

Sixteen-year-old Maya is just an ordinary teen in an ordinary town. Sure, she doesn't know much about her background - the only thing she really has to cling to is an odd paw-print birthmark on her hip - but she never really put much thought into who her parents were or how she ended up with her adopted parents in this tiny medical-research community onVancouver Island.

Until now.

Strange things have been happening in this claustrophobic town - from the mountain lions that have been approaching Maya to her best friend's hidden talent for "feeling" out people and situations, to the sexy new bad boy who makes Maya feel . . . . different. Combine that with a few unexplained deaths and a mystery involving Maya's biological parents and it's easy to suspect that this town might have more than its share of skeletons in its closet.

Now I have read Armstrong's earlier paranormal series and although I remember liking it a lot I never read past the second book and I couldn't remember why. I remember now, Armstrong is a fantastic writer and creates very unique paranormal romance approaches, but she tends towards the dramatic, and drama like that has just never been my thing. No fault of Armstrong, just a personal preference.

Now with that out of the way (explaining why this book may not be rated as high as it might deserve), I can start saying what Armstrong did to impress me. Although the book follows a very formulatic approach to Paranormal Romance, where man others do it with Vampires, Werewolves, Faeries or Mermaids, she, as she did with her earlier series, when and found something completely unusual and almost never written about. The Gathering deals with the idea of skinwalkers, a Native American belief, and she even puts her own twist on it on top of following the legends that existed already.

On top of that she goes a step even further and placed this supernatural world building inside the world building of a small town that has a pretty unusual creation and reason for being. There are mysteries popping up everywhere, and yet nothing is solved in this opening book, including the one which some might consider to be one of the most important.

The characters are interesting, especially the point of view character, though as of now the main love interest feels flat in comparison to even some minor characters whom I feel are carrying a lot more secrets that I'd love to get into (luckily I have the second book on me). I do think that Armstrong has increased in writing ability, because I feel a lot more drive to read the next book than I had ever in her Necromancer series.

I really like the way that paranormal and scifi seems to intersect in this series. It's part the supernatural/paranormal abilities and legends of the skin-walkers, and part the intervention of medical corporations doing tests and babies and then possibly the kids of the town. And of course Armstrong cannot resist a conspiracy being involved, but I love how this first book ends us wondering which conspiracies are connected and which are not, or even possibly don't exist.

Of course the romance is utterly too dramatic with Rafe being hurt and leaving Maya at the end, but I can forgive that since everything else in the story, especially the complicated world building, impressed me a lot.

If you like the Paranormal Romance formula, but tired of the same-old, same-old, this is a book you just must pick up and read. If you want to read some very original world building, and don't mind dramatic romances than I also highly recommend this book.

4 Bookmarks

Book Review: Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough

Once a Witch

Carolyn MacCullough

Publication Date: September 14th 2009

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books

Pages: 292

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult

Tamsin Greene comes from a long line of witches, and she was supposed to be one of the most Talented among them. But Tamsin's magic never showed up. Now seventeen, Tamsin attends boarding school in Manhattan, far from her family. But when a handsome young professor mistakes her for her very Talented sister, Tamsin agrees to find a lost family heirloom for him. The search—and the stranger—will prove to be more sinister than they first appeared, ultimately sending Tamsin on a treasure hunt through time that will unlock the secret of her true identity, unearth the sins of her family, and unleash a power so vengeful that it could destroy them all. This is a spellbinding display of storytelling that will exhilarate, enthrall, and thoroughly enchant.

Once a Witch is a book I picked up on a lark at the library. I was there picking up some holds and swung around to see the featured genre case for the month, and it was apparently time traveling. When I read the blurb to this book I didn't see a focus on time traveling, instead I saw it was an urban fantasy about a girl born into a family of witches and finds herself without any powers, and I will admit I'm quite a sucker for tales like that. I grew up feeling like that kind of girl so I get a selfish pleasure out of reading such characters triumphing.

As I begun reading this book, I was sucked into the urban fantasy world immediately. I wanted to be a part of Tamsin's family, where everyone has a "talent" that shows itself before they turn eight years old. Tamsin is obviously upset being around her family for good reason, she was supposed to have this talent as well, and now every time she she's her family using it, it sears through her.

The storytelling is deceptively simple, but as you continue, you realize there are hints and foreshadowing all across the plot. Everything happened for a reason and I found that very delightful. A book which seems to be a book about a sullen teenager feeling out of place, turned out to be so much more.

Which brings me to the time traveling, which is so well done. Whenever time travel is involved I always like to see how the author interprets it. In MacCullough's world, every little thing you do in the past affects the future. What we don't realize is that everything that has affected Tamsin's life, including her name, is an affect of the trips to the past she took. It is why her grandmother proclaims her to be the greatest witch. It is why she has a crazy great aunt going on about losing things. It is why Tamsin's power is known to everyone and her everyone takes precautions to keep her from learning two million talents.

And honestly it is that interconnected-ness that really made me like this book a lot.

I recommend this book to people who like urban fantasies about witches, especially when done nicely well, like this one. Who likes epic eternal rivalries and excellent foreshadowing.

4 Bookmarks

Book Review: Other by Karen Kincy

Other (Other #1)

Karen Kincy

Publication Date: July 1st 2010

Publisher: Flux

Pages: 336

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Young Adult

Gwen Williams has been hiding a strange and fantastic secret: she's a shapeshifter. Although society may tolerate vampires, centaurs, and "Others" like Gwen, there are plenty of folks in her small Washington town who don't care for her kind.

When a new werewolf pack moves into the area, tensions rise—and Others start showing up dead, including someone close to Gwen. Despite the methodical murders, the police are ignoring evidence that suggests a serial killer. In the midst of terrible loss and danger, Gwen—along with a mysterious and sexy guy who happens to be a Japanese fox spirit—risks her life to find the murderer. But Gwen is already the killer's next target . . .

Other was a book I devoured in one day. This was due to the fact that I could not put it down and it is somewhat short. Now Other has the potential to be a long series, and usually I have a hard time getting into long series (Four books is around my limit and then I usually lose interest, exceptions being the books of my childhood such as Nancy Drew), but Karen Kincy has created a very unique and interesting world in a very diluted genre. She includes not just Vampires and Werewolves, but also Pookas, Kitsune, Dryads and Leprechauns. The world is not quite our world as these things are known to everyone and is even put on Licenses for identification purposes.

What ends up happening is that this world ends up being a twist on bigotry and racism. Gwen keeps quiet about her half Pooka heritage and is afraid of people finding out. Her history includes lynching of Others (the name for those who are not human) and a society/cult that has a history of killing Others just for being what they are. At the same time it deals with a girl growing up and issues that girls her age do deal with (such as sex) and death.

All in all I was pleasantly surprised by how thought out this setting was.

One thing that did bother me is a total personal issue and has nothing to do with the writing and that is the use of e-mails and IM. For some reason my brain creates a lag in books, they must not include the most modern of technologies or I get the willies for some reason. Maybe it would feel less awkward to me if the IMing was done in dialogue format as opposed to looking like straight copy and paste from an IM browser.

Also I thought all the hints about Tavian were a bit too opaque. From the description in the back we know he's a Kitsune from moment one, just because most people make the Japanese connection, but then on top of that all the fox puns and pictures that the writer connects with him and the shadow of a tail.

I did not guess that Ben was the major villain until near the end, so applause to Kincy for completely blindsiding me! I thought the whole thing was dealt with quite well and I enjoyed hearing the way his brain worked. It also falls very much into the fact that many serial killers are very charming people.

Also, I really liked how Zack and Gwen's relationship was handled. Zack's reaction, although heartbreaking, at the same time seemed quite realistic for the situation he was raised in. It shows a lot of unconscious prejudices that may be in the back of people's minds even if they don't want them there. Since he found out, Gwen has become "different" yet we all know she is the same person that she had been when she had been with him the entire time. It's frustrating.

But he's not a bad guy, and that's quite readily revealed at the end when he confronts his brother and helps to save Gwen. It is an unconscious prejudice, he doesn't want to think that way and because Gwen is someone he cares about he goes ahead and thinks a lot about it, which I commend.

I have already put the second book in this series on hold, because I am truly excited to explore this world a bit more. The book focuses on different characters but this world is what I've fallen in love with the most from the book. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the recent boom in urban-fantasy/paranormal, and especially to those who enjoyed the boom but became very tired of the same old, same old. This is unique and that's what I like most about it.

4 Bookmarks

Book Review: Jinx by Meg Cabot

Jinx

Meg Cabot

Synopsis

It's not easy being Jinx. 

Jean Honeychurch hates her boring name (not Jean Marie, or Jeanette, just . . . Jean). What's worse? Her all-too-appropriate nickname, Jinx. Misfortune seems to follow her everywhere she goes even to New York City, where Jinx has moved to get away from the huge mess she caused in her small hometown. Her aunt and uncle welcome her to their Manhattan town house, but her beautiful cousin Tory isn't so thrilled. . . . 

In fact, Tory is hiding a dangerous secret one that could put them all in danger. Soon Jinx realizes it isn't just bad luck she's been running from . . . and that the curse she has lived under since the day she was born may be the only thing that can save her life.

Review

Meg Cabot and I… I have an interesting thought process whenever I see a Meg Cabot book, part of me wants to read it so bad and the other part wants me to avoid it at all costs. I cannot really explain it, but it might something to do with the fact that she usually tends to lean towards plots I have no interest in reading and plots that I find insanely interesting. Also I'm a huge fan of the Mediator series. So on a whim at the library (a thing that happens quite often) I went: Okay Sam pick it off the shelf, sounds interesting maybe you'll like it. I do that a lot, you'll hear the story about me giving a book a chance because it's a library book.

This book was both enjoyable and confusing. I found the plot enjoyable and the environment and whole idea. I also found the prose enjoyable. The confusing part was Jinx herself. Other than something that happens in the beginning and that it is her nickname she never felt especially "Jinx-y". I also could never figure out her motivation and it would miff me that she seemed to no nothing at some points and know everything at other points.

It is a good fluff read, however, and I personally adore the villain of Tory and her drive.

In Depth Spoiler Review

I have to admit I enjoyed the ending/climax a lot. I enjoyed that Tory what batshit crazy and was ready go sacrifice and drink Jinx's blood and whatever. I do wish that I enjoyed this book more, though. Jinx denying she had magic and then having it felt like a betrayal to me as a reader, why didn't Jinx trust the reader to know this about her, screw hints I trusted her.

I do adore, adore the "prophecy" that either Tory or Jinx would have magic and how that set everything in motion, it really was a cool idea.

Overview

Some things I loved, some things I didn't like so much. As a Meg Cabot book it's pretty average her, so if you love Meg Cabot and you love her heroines this is a book you will enjoy. If you also want yourself a fluff YA urban fantasy romance, I'd go ahead and pick this up as well.

3.5 Bookmarks