Review: The Impostor Queen

Title: The Impostor Queen

Author: Sarah Fine

Rating: ★★★★

Provided Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old Elli was a small child when the Elders of Kupari chose her to succeed the Valtia, the queen who wields infinitely powerful ice and fire magic. Since then, Elli has lived in the temple, surrounded by luxury and tutored by magical priests, as she prepares for the day when the Valtia perishes and the magic finds a new home in her. Elli is destined to be the most powerful Valtia to ever rule.

But when the queen dies defending the kingdom from invading warriors, the magic doesn’t enter Elli. It’s nowhere to be found.

Disgraced, Elli flees to the outlands, the home of banished criminals—some who would love to see the temple burn with all its priests inside. As she finds her footing in this new world, Elli uncovers devastating new information about the Kupari magic, those who wield it, and the prophecy that foretold her destiny. Torn between the love she has for her people and her growing loyalty to the banished, Elli struggles to understand the true role she was meant to play. But as war looms, she must align with the right side—before the kingdom and its magic are completely destroyed.

Review: The only reason this is receiving four stars rather than five is because in the end this story wound up being a novel-length prequel to the true fight to come. But do not allow that to deter you from reading The Impostor Queen because this is an incredibly engaging fantasy story that did so many things well.

Elli, when the reader first meets her, holds the title of the Saadella, meaning that she is in a way the crown princess who will become queen upon the death of her Valtia. In the land of Kupari, the Valtia is the wielder of fire and ice magic, making her incredibly powerful and the chosen ruler because of the balance she is able to maintain while she uses both mediums. When a Valtia dies, the magic passes on to her Saadella, to make her the new Valtia and to create a new Saadella so the cycle might continue forever and protect the Kupari people.

But when Elli’s Valtia dies, the power does not come to her. With her life now in danger she retreats to the outer rims of society, where she learns about her power, prophecies, the different natures of fire and ice magic, and the responsibility she feels towards her people. The pace in this story could fluctuate between the high and the low, though I always managed to feel invested in the story and the mysteries about the Valtia and the Kupari magic. Elli was a main character that is easily able to align with as she pursues this journey. This story did a lot of set-up on the relationships between her and the people who will go on to become players in the next novel. And the magic – I thought it was so interesting, and to me it felt like it offered a fresh take on fire and ice magic within the fantasy genre realm.

In the end, I would highly recommend this book. The fantasy elements are strong, the dynamics between characters are interesting (and the romance made me feeeeeel!), and I can promise you that you will want to see how the prophecy will play out as the story moves forward.

Review: Uprooted

Title: Uprooted 

Author: Naomi Novik

Rating: ★★★★

Provided Synopsis: “Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.

But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.

Review: Laced within Uprooted is something akin to a nostalgic blanket I was able to wrap around myself. By this I mean the story felt warm, and familiar, and like something I could easily envision being passed down from generation to generation: in essence, it captured the magic of a fairy tale.

From the very first page this book had my attention, as it introduced the world and the circumstances surrounding the sacrifice to the Dragon, and the threat of the Wood. Despite years of believing it will be her best friend who is chosen by the Dragon, it is Agnieszka who is taken to his tower and who becomes involved in the fight against corruption and the Wood. I believe the synopsis leaves things vague on purpose so you can go on the journey with these characters, so I will do the same.

Where this book failed me, however, and why I have given it four stars rather than five, is the middle section when the setting moves from the valley and the shadow of the Wood to the capital kingdom and the court. It was here that things felt as if they began to drag, and I began to rush through the words rather than savor the tale as I had done before. The ending, thankfully, led the story back to the same tone as the beginning, as I began to ease back into the tale and the struggle along with these characters. I feel immensely satisfied with the ending, and even left wishing there was a little more. If you are in the search of a read that feels like a story that has been passed down and is filled with the type of fantasy and magical elements, and in the end: a lesson, that could be told to you as a young child, in a village in the shadow of the woods, then I would recommend this wholeheartedly.

Review: The Heart of Betrayal

Review: The Heart of the Betrayal (The Remnant Chronicles #2)

Author: Mary E. Pearson

Rating: ★★★

Provided Synopsis: Held captive in the barbarian kingdom of Venda, Lia and Rafe have little chance of escape. Desperate to save her life, Lia’s erstwhile assassin, Kaden, has told the Vendan Komizar that she has the gift, and the Komizar’s interest in Lia is greater than anyone could have foreseen.

Meanwhile, nothing is straightforward: there’s Rafe, who lied to Lia, but has sacrificed his freedom to protect her; Kaden, who meant to assassinate her but has now saved her life; and the Vendans, whom Lia always believed to be barbarians. Now that she lives amongst them, however, she realizes that may be far from the truth. Wrestling with her upbringing, her gift, and her sense of self, Lia must make powerful choices that will affect her country… and her own destiny.

Review: After the promising level of suspense delivered at the end of The Kiss of Deception, I was eager to read its sequel now that I assumed the troublesome aspects of the storyline had been left behind. Lia, Rafe, and Kaden are now in the Kingdom of Venda, and two of them must fight for their survival with deception always on the tip of their tongues. This barbarian kingdom is lead by one man, a Komizar, who is calculating in his quest for power and a keeper of the hand he has yet to play in the game of politics. The love triangle is resolved, for Lia had made her pick. This was what I expected; this, in some ways, is what I received. So why is it that I am still almost as ambivalent towards this book as I was for the majority of its predecessor?

With a three star rating, The Heart of Betrayal is an improvement to the series, but the problems I had with the first book remained, particularly in the area of pacing. This book is long, and it tends to meander along rather than be urgent. These characters are in difficult situations, therefore I had expected the book to reflect their danger and be on the edge of suspense. Instead, Lia is embraced by the people she had thought of as “barbarians” through the role she is forced to take in their lives. As a prisoner to the Komizar she is forced into a visible public role to suit his plans, but I never managed to feel the danger from him either. Was it pacing? Could this book have been more to my tastes if the perils of deception were evident in the pacing and heartbeat of the story? Possibly.

As for the love triangle: Lia had made a choice, but that in no way means that the spare boy is out of the picture. He continues to be blindsided by her actions, and because of her tenuous status she must play with his heart. I felt nothing between these two, but even more problematic was that I did not feel much of anything between Lia and the boy she loves either, for they were barely given time together. I left book one clearly favoring the same boy as Lia; I leave this book not really caring because I felt distant from her interactions with both of them.

Once again, my hope for the next book in the series is for Lia to join again with someone who can help her better understand and work with “the gift” of sight, as well as help her decipher the texts of the Ancients. I believe these areas are when the book shines, and are the key to the discovery of the political betrayals Lia uncovered while in Venda. If you liked the first book, then I think you will enjoy this one as well, because you most likely did not have issues with the things I have mentioned in both reviews. If you were on the fence after The Kiss, then you might continue to hover there with me, for while this book set-up interesting politics, the overwhelming problems lingered.

Review: The Witch Hunter

Title: The Witch Hunter (The Witch Hunter #1) 

Author: Virginia Boecker

Rating: ★★★1/2

Provided Synopsis: Your greatest enemy isn’t what you fight, but what you fear.

Elizabeth Grey is one of the king’s best witch hunters, devoted to rooting out witchcraft and doling out justice. But when she’s accused of being a witch herself, Elizabeth is arrested and sentenced to burn at the stake.

Salvation comes from a man she thought was her enemy. Nicholas Perevil, the most powerful and dangerous wizard in the kingdom, offers her a deal: he will save her from execution if she can break the deadly curse that’s been laid upon him.

But Nicholas and his followers know nothing of Elizabeth’s witch hunting past–if they find out, the stake will be the least of her worries. And as she’s thrust into the magical world of witches, ghosts, pirates, and one all-too-handsome healer, Elizabeth is forced to redefine her ideas of right and wrong, of friends and enemies, and of love and hate.

Review: When Elizabeth is falsely accused of witchcraft, thrown into prison, and sentenced to death, she finds herself on the other side of the status quo. As a witch hunter, it is usually Elizabeth who is responsible for the discovery of a witch or wizard and their subsequent capture. Now that her life is in the balance she must rely on the only one available to give her help: who also happens to be the most sought-after wizard in the country for his rebellion against the anti-witchcraft laws.

A prophecy is told, a quest must be undertaken, and the result of this book was something that I found to be fun, fast-paced, and easy to follow. The Witch Hunter is by no means at the Game of Thrones level mentioned by the marketing department, but it is something with its own charm that is sure to appeal to certain readers. I believe what made this book work for me is that I liked the deciphering of the prophecy, and revelations about a prominent character, and how the line between good and evil has been established at the onset of what is sure to be war.

If you are interested in a YA book with a fantasy-lite tone, then I would recommend this one. There is magic, adventure, and even some romance, although I will admit the later was weakly established, making me thankful it serves no headlining role in the story.

Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses

Title: A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1)

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Rating: ★★★

Provided Synopsis: When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

Review: I knew I was in for a Beauty and the Beast retelling, but I in no way anticipated also receiving Twilight vibes and what I began to refer to in status updates on Goodreads as That Katniss Everdeen Flow. Curious as what I mean by this? Read on…

When we first meet Feyre, she is in the woods in search of a meal to feed her starving family. Her weapon of choice is a bow and arrow. Her family consists of two sisters, and a father, who is pretty much rendered useless. To protect those she loves, Feyre shoots and kills a wolf she recognizes to hold traits of faeries; she goes on to skin the wolf and sell the fur for money to hopefully keep her family fed and supplied for a few weeks.

Unknowingly to Feyre, there is a law in place in the treaty between humans and faeries which details that if a human is to kill a faerie their life is forfeit to either immediate death or to live out the remainder of their mortal years in the magical realm. At the urge of her father, Feyre chooses the second option, and is whisked away by Tamlin to live in his home or on his lands until the life-debt is paid.

Tamlin is immortal; he is beautiful. He is a hunter; he is tortured. He can bite Feyre in a rage of feral lust; her scent can drive him mad. He is a musician. His kind want to harm her. Sound familiar yet? Get why I am frustrated yet? I went into this book expecting the Beauty and the Beast aspect, and I must say that I did appreciate the nods to that story as they took their own forms to include when the wolves attack Belle, or the library moment. As for the rest of what I just mapped out for you? It left me reeling in the vast sea of disappointment. I had already read those stories and characters with those traits and circumstances.

And the love story? I felt nothing. To me, there was no chemistry, and even the sex scene did nothing to ignite some sparks. I have never read a Sarah J. Maas book before, but I have heard so much praise for her first book series and this book in particular that I think I was led astray by The Hype Monster. I expected more than I was given, and that is why I am laying out my woes with this book so readers can lower their expectations if they overlap with mine.

So I’m sure you’re wondering: If A Court of Thorns and Roses gave you so much disappointment, why are you still giving it three stars? Well, for that I contribute entirely to the final third of the book, where the beast’s curse is finally revealed and Feyre is forced into action. Sarah J. Maas writes engaging action scenes, and I enjoyed reading the trials Feyre must face in front of a live audience (That Katniss Everdeen Flow…). There were aspects to the time spent in The Court Under the Mountain that dragged on, but for the most part those shortcomings could be ignored thanks to Rhysand, whom I found to be infinitely more engaging than Tamlin. The conclusion of this book also flicked my interest as well, since I look forward to visiting The Night Court and due to my hope the faerie world can be explored further in the next installment along with some good action.

Review: Howl’s Moving Castle

Title: Howl’s Moving Castle (Howl’s Moving Castle #2)

Author: Diana Wynne Jones

Rating: ★★★

Provided Synopsis: Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the ever-moving castle in the hills: the Wizard Howl’s castle. To untangle the enchantment, Sophie must handle the heartless Howl, strike a bargain with a fire demon, and meet the Witch of the Waste head-on. Along the way, she discovers that there’s far more to Howl—and herself—than first meets the eye.

Review: Howl’s Moving Castle presented me with the dilemma of liking a book, but not loving it. For one, the writing was difficult for me to engage with. I struggled with the flow of the words because the structure differed so much from the way my mind wanted to construct the sentences. It is an odd occurrence, but I find that it sometimes happens…

In terms of characters I consider Howl to be the most interesting and the most infuriating. Throughout the story he presented an enigmatic front in combination with temper tantrums more suited to a young child than a man. The romance between he and Sophie had absolutely no build-up, much to my dismay; the reader can tell it is going to happen yet there was nothing palpable to give credence to the emotions presented at the end. I think the best thing I can say about all of the characters in Howl’s is that they all have snappy and witty dialogue to keep the reader entertained.

Further entertainment also comes from the quirky creation of the world the story inhabits. Howl lives in a moving castle controlled by a fire demon he is linked with. The castle has a door that can lead to different locations, and there is magic involved since Howl is a wizard and so are many others. If you are a fan of quirky fantasy stories then I can see this as being a good option for you. My advice would be to not expect a sweeping adventure from the story because you are not going to get it.

Review: Princess of Thorns

Title: Princess of Thorns

Author: Stacey Jay

Rating: ★★★1/2

Provided Synopsis: Game of Thrones meets the Grimm’s fairy tales in this twisted, fast-paced romantic fantasy-adventure about Sleeping Beauty’s daughter, a warrior princess who must fight to reclaim her throne.

Though she looks like a mere mortal, Princess Aurora is a fairy blessed with enhanced strength, bravery, and mercy yet cursed to destroy the free will of any male who kisses her. Disguised as a boy, she enlists the help of the handsome but also cursed Prince Niklaas to fight legions of evil and free her brother from the ogre queen who stole Aurora’s throne ten years ago.

Will Aurora triumph over evil and reach her brother before it’s too late? Can Aurora and Niklaas break the curses that will otherwise forever keep them from finding their one true love?

Review: Ten years after she and her brother were forced to flee their father’s kingdom, Princess Aurora must step into the destiny she was meant to follow in order to rescue her brother. The ogre queen has captured Prince Jor to fulfill a prophecy requiring a briar-born child — if she is to rescue him then Aurora must learn to trust the fairy-blessed gifts her mother offered to her. The mission to find an army to march on her kingdom leads Aurora to masquerade as Prince Jor and come into the company of the prince of a neighboring kingdom, Niklaas. Both of these individuals strive to reach their own goals, but eventually they find that they need, respect, and love the other more than either could have imagined was possible.

In some ways I would advise to think of this book as the continuation of the tale of Sleeping Beauty, in the sense that Aurora’s mother is Sleeping Beauty and the family has a connection to the fairies. Other than that the author brought in many other aspects of the fantasy genre to create a story that kept me engaged throughout. I have always been a lover of adventure tales, and this one did not disappoint me, especially because I enjoyed the dynamic between the two main characters so much. Their trials and tribulations bring them to states of loathing, annoyance, friendship and respect, mistrust, confusion, and love. Niklaas in particular had some opinions of women that were troublesome, yet his growth due to Aurora brought him to a place where I believed they were worthy of one another. This is a book in which the heroine disguises herself as a boy, but the romance is handled in a masterful way.

My biggest qualm with Princess of Thorns — and the most significant reason as to why it is not rated higher — is the conflict with the ogres. The dispersed sections of the book written through the eyes of the ogre queen were not enough to reconcile me with the ending. In fact, I am not even sure the ending can be considered to be conclusive since it jumps so rapidly to the conflict between Aurora and Niklaas once again. Things would have tied together much better had the queen been given just that one more chapter told in her point of view to show how matters could end as they did.

Review: Winterspell

Title: Winterspell 

Author: Claire Legrand

Rating: ★★

Provided Synopsis: The clock chimes midnight, a curse breaks, and a girl meets a prince . . . but what follows is not all sweetness and sugarplums.

New York City, 1899. Clara Stole, the mayor’s ever-proper daughter, leads a double life. Since her mother’s murder, she has secretly trained in self-defense with the mysterious Drosselmeyer.

Then, on Christmas Eve, disaster strikes.

Her home is destroyed, her father abducted–by beings distinctly not human. To find him, Clara journeys to the war-ravaged land of Cane. Her only companion is the dethroned prince Nicholas, bound by a wicked curse. If they’re to survive, Clara has no choice but to trust him, but his haunted eyes burn with secrets–and a need she can’t define. With the dangerous, seductive faery queen Anise hunting them, Clara soon realizes she won’t leave Cane unscathed–if she leaves at all.

Inspired by The Nutcracker, Winterspell is a dark, timeless fairy tale about love and war, longing and loneliness, and a girl who must learn to live without fear.

Review: As a former ballet dancer, Winterspell was one of my most anticipated reads of the year. I was incredibly interested to see how Claire Legrand would use her imagination to expand upon the world of the Nutcracker Prince’s kingdom with the Sugar Plum Fairy as the villain. It was this imagination, along with the descriptions of the setting and magic that were the components of this book that worked best for me. Otherwise, I have very mixed opinions on the rest of the book.

For example, the pacing traveled from action-packed to long spells of inactivity. The beginning of the story, as Clara goes through the motions of her life at home (and what a weird life she lived, with people doing nothing about the doctor sexually harassing her), was stale enough to require days for me to trudge through the pages. I did not understand Clara’s character due to her way of blaming herself for everything, nor did I understand the world she lived in. Other than that, I also did not comprehend the sexual fascination she held for the statue (who turns out to be the prince) in her godfather’s shop. The sensual tones (and the way they were described) throughout this book did nothing for me.

Rather than have a Rat King be the villain, a faery named Anise is the antagonist of this story, and she surprisingly has what I believe is now considered to be “steampunk” elements to the magic she controls. As someone who has never been able to get into the steampunk thing that has become popular I could only do my best to try to grin and bear it. If you like to read steampunk then I imagine this element of the story will suit you quite fine.

Nevertheless, even with all of the problems I had with the story, I still wanted to know what happened next. It is a weird position to be in: I had wanted to read this book because it was a re-telling of The Nutcracker, yet it was the end of the book and the possibilities it opened to an entirely new adventure that intrigued me the most.

(Note: This book is not one of a series; it is a stand-alone).

Review: Alias Hook

Title: Alias Hook 

Author: Lisa Jensen

Rating: ★★★

Provided Synopsis: “Every child knows how the story ends. The wicked pirate captain is flung overboard, caught in the jaws of the monster crocodile who drags him down to a watery grave. But it was not yet my time to die. It’s my fate to be trapped here forever, in a nightmare of childhood fancy, with that infernal, eternal boy.”

Meet Captain James Benjamin Hook, a witty, educated Restoration-era privateer cursed to play villain to a pack of malicious little boys in a pointless war that never ends. But everything changes when Stella Parrish, a forbidden grown woman, dreams her way to the Neverland in defiance of Pan’s rules. From the glamour of the Fairy Revels, to the secret ceremonies of the First Tribes, to the mysterious underwater temple beneath the Mermaid Lagoon, the magical forces of the Neverland open up for Stella as they never have for Hook. And in the pirate captain himself, she begins to see someone far more complex than the storybook villain.

With Stella’s knowledge of folk and fairy tales, she might be Hook’s last chance for redemption and release if they can break his curse before Pan and his warrior boys hunt her down and drag Hook back to their neverending game. Alias Hook by Lisa Jensen is a beautifully and romantically written adult fairy tale.

Review: After he insults a voodoo witch, James Benjamin Hookbridge, his ship, and his crew find themselves marooned on an island named Neverland. There, they are unwillingly conscripted to play the role of the villains to Peter Pan and his Lost Boys for over two centuries. Neverland exists as a place for children of the world to dream of, and the battle Pan continuously wages against Hook and the grown-up world the pirate represents is necessary to maintain the balance of thing. But what happens when the man destined to be a villain realizes that he wants more? What happens when he comes to understand kindness, sacrifice, love, happiness, humility, and forgiveness? In Alias Hook there is much more behind the façade of a fabled villain, and I really enjoyed reading about the growth Lisa Jensen arranged for this man.

However, what I think bothered me most about this book were the children involved. Pan and his Lost Boys are clearly the instigators of every skirmish detailed in this book, yet all the other inhabitants of the island give them a pass because they are children. The mermaids, the Indians, and the fairies agree that Hook can be fought against if he raises a hand against the children because children do not know any better. Yet I find that hard to believe. These boys were killing people and bloodthirsty; the excuse given for their actions as being the work of “boys” was not justifiable.

Other than that qualm I would recommend this book to many readers in search of a fairytale re-telling with more of an adult tone. Hook must learn to put aside the mentality that was so like Pan and the Lost Boys to become a man. And he is able to do this when Stella, the first grown woman to ever come to Neverland, shows him that there is another way and that he can become more than the puppet of the story.

Review: Outlander

Title: Outlander (Outlander #1) 

Author: Diana Gabaldon

Rating: ★★★1/2

Provided Synopsis: The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon—when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding Highland clans in the year of Our Lord…1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into intrigues and dangers that may threaten her life…and shatter her heart. For here she meets James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, and becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire…and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

Review: Outlander had been a member of my TBR pile for quite some time, and it was the imminent arrival of the television show that finally prompted me to give this lengthy book some time. As for what I thought of it? Here we go…

In terms of historical fiction, I thought these elements of the story were particularly strong. I can in no way claim to be heavily educated on the Scottish Highlands of the eighteenth century, but I certainly feel that I have learned a great deal about this time and place. I became acquainted with Scottish clans and how they lived, what they would fight for, and what they esteemed above all else. For Scottish characters, their dialogue would be written precisely as it would be spoken. At first this manner of speech caught me off guard, but once I became familiar with the cadence of the words a new dimension was added to the characters. All of the characters in this book came to have distinct voices in my head due to this, especially Jamie.

Gabaldon’s prose is also very good in terms of description. I could easily envision the numerous characters and settings, along with the senses that accumulate to form the complete picture of where Claire and Jamie would travel to and whom they would meet. As a lover of historical fiction, these elements were my favorite part of this book, particularly in the case of a witch trial that is held about midway through. The trial presented so much action, emotion, and detail to sweep me away.

Not everything in this book was capable of securing my interests, however. While there were numerous scenes to pull me in there were also plenty of scenes to bore me to frustration. I understand that every book requires highs and lulls, but when this book dove into those lulls of space then it became difficult to reconcile myself with the length of this story. Could this book have done with a hefty bit of editing? Yes, I think so.

Overall, I would consider Outlander to be an enjoyable read. But please keep in mind that it does require patience. Those with an interest in the historical fiction genre (and fantasy, since Claire does time jump) might take a quicker liking to it, yet I feel as if it could also be a book to grow on any reader as it unravels its tale.