Category Archives: Fantasy

Review: A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, , , ,
A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty

A Corner of White (The Colours of Madeleine #1)
Jaclyn Moriarty
Arthur A Levine Books/Scholastic, Inc.
Published April 1, 2013

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About A Corner of White

In real-world London, Madeleine and her mother are runaways. Together they escaped from a previous life in which they were rich and lived all over the world. At first Madeleine thought their leaving was a lark. The truth is something she may never be ready to accept.

Elliot, resident of the land of Cello, prepares for his next trip away. He’s been searching for his father, who went missing the night his uncle died. Rumors say a purple murdered his uncle and dragged his father and a local woman to its cave as prisoners. If Elliot can catch the right spell, he can find them and bring them home.

When a letter from Cello asking for help turns up in a parking meter in London, Madeleine answers it, believing it’s probably a prank of some kind. As she corresponds with Elliot, who receives her letters in Cello, she begins to wonder if what he says could be real. Could there really be another world, one connected only by a crack the size of a folded note?

As problems swell around both Madeleine and Elliot, they look to each other for confidence as they struggle to sort things out. Madeleine takes refuge in knowledge. Elliot must guard the “Butterfly Child,” a tiny girl who may be able to save his town from ruin.

My Review

Madeleine and Elliot’s journeys are wildly imaginative and fun. From the color attacks that plague the people of cello to the vivid characters of Madeleine’s friends and teachers, the story stays interesting as the conflict grows.

As Elliot explains where he lives and what it’s like, Madeleine responds with criticism for the lack of creativity in the names of the locations and the strangeness of his world. It’s kind of funny because it’s the sort of criticism a reader might give a writer, but within the story, Cello is a real place. I enjoyed that bit of paradox.

I thought I knew where the story was headed, and in part I was right. There were some elements that emerged, though, that I really didn’t see coming. They made for a great set-up leading into the sequel to the story, THE CRACKS IN THE KINGDOM, which came out in March of 2014.

Content Notes

Profanity/Crude Language
Moderate profanity used very infrequently.

Sexual Content
Brief kissing. Vague references to Elliot’s romantic history as a heartbreaker.

Spiritual Content
One of Madeleine’s friends believes in astrological signs and the other believes in reading auras. Both have some minor significance in the plot. In Cello, spells can be captured from a magical lake.

Violence
In Elliot’s world, waves of color attack people with varied levels of intensity. His uncle died from an attack by a purple the night his father disappeared. Elliot was the one who found his body (described briefly.)

Drug Content
None.

Great Summer Read: Torn by Avery Hastings

Book Review and Content, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Romance, Sci-Fi, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

Torn
Avery Hastings
St. Martin’s Griffin

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

A grim diagnosis sends Davis to a corrupt recovery facility called TOR-N. There she meets Mercer, a fellow patient and determined optimist. Together they craft a plan to escape the facility and expose the truth about the crumbling facility and poor patient treatment. Davis embraces Mercer’s enthusiasm, but even his charms aren’t enough to make her forget Cole.

After faking his death to spare his family from government retribution, Cole is in hiding. Only his best friend knows he’s still alive. Day by day he develops a plan to get out of the slums and earn enough money to build a life for him and Davis. Then he’ll rescue her from TOR-N and they’ll live happily ever after. That is, if he can manage to keep his identity hidden and beat the genetically enhanced Prior contestants in the Olympiads.

The story begins after Davis’s diagnosis and transfer to TOR-N and after Cole’s faked death and funeral. From page one, tensions run high. Not only are both characters already in pretty dire straits, but they’re separated, and Davis believes Cole is dead, so she’s wrestling with grief on top of everything else. Davis has been diagnosed with Narxis, a plague that’s been ravaging her people – the Priors, those genetically enhanced to excel.

Unfortunately, it’s the genetic manipulation that’s made the Priors vulnerable to disease. Cole’s friend claims to be close to a cure, but his experiments may be too costly to complete. Intriguing moral issues make this story difficult to put down. Genetic improvements make people vulnerable to a new disease (are the enhancements really enhancements then?) Potentially life-saving experiments can only be completed at a high moral cost. Is the sacrifice worth it? What if the test subjects aren’t fully informed of the risks?

The conclusion unfolds rapidly, maintaining the high tension that began on page one, but also speeding past some moments that warranted a little more time in scene. I wanted to know more about Davis’s relationship with her father and why she felt so compelled to seek her estranged mother. There were definitely scenes that included information about those things, and they were nicely tied into the story, but it definitely left me wanting more. Torn is the second book in The Feuds series. Some of the moments I crave are probably waiting for me in the first book in this series. I’ve already purchased the first book in the series and added it to my reading list so I can find out.

At the beginning of Torn, I wasn’t sure I’d like Cole’s character. He’s a bit immature and not the sharpest when it comes to relationships with others. He grows quite a bit and really earned my respect. By the end, I could definitely see what Davis saw in him. As with Davis’s story, Cole’s speeds through some final scenes. I wanted to see more of the Olympiad games. I suspect all that would have made a lot more sense to me if I’d been more familiar with the series. I definitely recommend reading the first book before starting Torn, but it’s not essential to do so. I was able to follow the story without knowing the first book, but I think I would have gotten more out of it if I’d read them in order.

Hastings has done a great job setting up this really complex story world with a lot of big moral conflicts. Fans of Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner (These Broken Stars) or Scott Westerfeld (Uglies) will enjoy the moral issues over advanced technology highlighted in Torn. Readers looking for an action-packed drama with sweet romance will definitely want to add this one to their to-be-read lists.

Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency.

Sexual Content
References to a night spent together (Davis and Cole) on top of a hospital. Kissing is mentioned, but nothing further.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
Cole attacks a researcher when he discovers a mistreated patient. Cole battles other contestants in the Olympiad, a high stakes, physically competitive game.

Drug Content
Cole is offered a supplement that Priors use to enhance senses during his Olympiad trial. It’s clear that without these advantages, he doesn’t stand a chance against his opponents.

Avery Hastings is an author and former book editor from New York City. Avery grew up in Ohio, graduated in 2006 from the University of Notre Dame and earned her MFA from the New School in 2008. When she’s not reading or writing, Avery can usually be spotted lying around in the park with her affable dog. Like her protagonists, she knows how to throw a powerful right hook and once dreamed of becoming a ballerina. In addition to New York, Avery has recently lived in Mumbai and Paris, but is happy to call Brooklyn home (for now).

Review: The Elite by Kiera Cass

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

The Elite by Kiera Cass
HarperCollins

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The pool of potential brides for Prince Maxon has been narrowed from its initial thirty-five to the final six. America Singer, one of the remaining six is under more pressure than ever to choose the man she will spend her life with: the kind-hearted future ruler, Prince Maxon or her first love, the charming castle guard Aspen.

As America vies for more time and desperately scrambles to sort her feelings for the two boys, the country faces a graver threat. Rebels continue to attack the castle, bringing death and destruction to any who oppose them. A chance encounter with rebels leaves America wondering whether they are all really evil and whether the caste system is really fair. If she were to choose Maxon, she might have an opportunity to make a real difference in her homeland, but to do so means she’d have to give up Aspen forever.

I’m not much for reality TV shows like The Bachelor, but something about this story definitely makes me want to find out whom Maxon and America choose. Because while Maxon is definitely running The Selection and narrowing down his options for a potential bride, America is definitely running her own smaller version of the game as she tries to choose between Maxon and Aspen.

Sometimes America drove me nuts. She’d fall into Aspen’s arms and realize she loves him and could never give him up, etc, smooch, smooch, and then launch into fits of jealousy at Maxon for taking the other Selection girls on dates.

While America does have a couple of lucid moments where she recognizes she isn’t being fair, she continually holds Maxon to a very different standard than the one to which she holds herself. She expects total honesty from him, but never considers telling him about her relationship with Aspen. She even allows Aspen to risk everything by continuing to see her in secret. It was hard for me to get over the deep selfishness motivating some of her choices. I’m hoping that there’s a huge reckoning coming for her in the next book where she has to own up for her behavior. Which might sound silly – I’m already planning to read the next book, but I had some real issues with this one. I can’t help it. I guess really I’m rooting for Maxon and hoping that he gets to give America a pretty sizable set-down. He’s good for it.

Beyond that, a lot of the story is written in passive voice. “I was walking down the hall,” rather than “I walked down the hall,” etc. It really keeps the reader at a distance, almost like we’re watching the story unfold through a field of mist or listening to America describe a fading dream she once had. I wanted to be right there, in the middle of the action. Not sitting back reading about it.

What I liked about the series is that it maintains a high level of romantic tension without really bringing it down into a lot of lusty sexual tension. There is some kissing, but I’d call the series pretty clean, and there aren’t a lot of teen romance novels that can make such a claim. So from that standpoint, it’s a great one to read and recommend.

I also liked that Cass brought in a little bit about the political situation in the kingdom. There’s a bit more about the whole rebel situation, definitely enough to keep us guessing and kind of raising the bar for the future queen – she’s going to walk into a big scary situation. I feel like America has the chops to face whatever the kingdom throws at her, so I’m anxious to see if she decides to agree.

Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Sexual Content
America and Aspen cultivate a secret romance, exchanging kisses and promises. No clothes are removed during these interludes, but the scenes are steamy nonetheless. America and Maxon share kisses and one another’s arms as well. At one point America leads Maxon to her bed, thinking that’s what he wishes. It’s unclear whether she means as a place to sit or that she’s offering to have sex with him. They do not have sex. America catches Maxon kissing and making out with the other girls. Since she’s made no promise to be his bride, he is keeping his options open.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
Rebels infiltrate the castle, some killing or wounding guards and destroying property.

Drug Content
America is offered wine at a state event. She drinks and worries about how it affects her ability to make decisions after that.

Review: Untamed by Madeline Dyer

Book Review and Content, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , ,

Untamed
Madeline Dyer
Ineja Press
Available January 9, 2017

Amazon | Goodreads | Author Interview

Seven’s mother is gone. Rahn claims she’s left the Untamed settlement and become a member of the Enhanced. Seven wants to mount a rescue mission to go after her, even though she knows it never works. Once a person has a taste of the augmenters the Enhanced use for supernatural strength and speed, she never comes back willingly. The augmenters are too addicting.

Shortly after her mother’s disappearance, Seven learns that she holds the key to an ancient power that will mean the survival or doom of her people. When the Enhanced begin to target her, she must depend on her friends to prevent her capture. But the greatest enemy she must face may come not from an outside attack, but from within herself.

The fast-paced action of Untamed really drew me into the story. Disaster seemed constantly imminent, and it was difficult to tell who Seven could really trust as friends and allies. The threats of betrayal from within and the feeling that her enemy was closing in around her from the outside really kept the pages turning and me wanting to find out what happened next.

One thing I really struggled with though was the lack of story world development. There are some great elements present (the Gods, the spirits that swarm during these purple sky moments) but they remained undeveloped. Where did the lore come from? What Gods? Do their names somehow tie the story to a futuristic earth or is this a completely different fantasy land? I wanted more information, more weaving in through the events of the story. I loved that the spirits played a role, but I still felt like I didn’t understand how they got there to begin with or what their story was.

Seven has a dog with her for much of the story. A dog without a name. She talks about wanting to give the dog a name but not settling on anything and instead refers to her as “my dog” or “the terrier” for the whole story. I didn’t really have a clear picture in my head of what the dog looked like. But more than that, I feel like she would have called the dog something. A nickname or something at the very least. Terri? Good Dog? Something. But that’s really a minor point in the larger scope of the story.

I wanted more of a sense of how the Untamed and Enhanced fit into the larger story world. I wanted to better understand why the Enhanced were evil. Some things were obvious, but it felt like a whole world existing moment to moment, without a larger scope or goal. I think the conflict between the two groups was easy to understand, but it lacked that epic feel that I think would have come from having larger leaders with world-changing goals.

Other than the issues with story world, I enjoyed reading Untamed. I found it easy to root for Seven as a character and really wanted her and Corin to get together! I liked that she was flawed but still strong and smart enough to work some things out on her own. Readers who enjoy dystopian novels would enjoy this book.

Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Sexual Content
Brief kissing.

Spiritual Content
Vague references to the Gods and spirits. At one point it seems that there’s a way to control the spirits. Everything stays very vague.

Violence
The Enhanced leaders torture captured members of the Untamed. Untamed steal from Enhanced cities to survive and kill Enhanced members if necessary. The Enhanced claim to be nonviolent, but they also try to kill the members of Untamed groups.

Drug Content
The Enhanced use vials of liquid with specific purposes, to calm them or enhance speed, etc. The solutions are extremely addictive.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Review: The Ring and the Crown by Melissa de la Cruz

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

The Ring and the Crown by Melissa de la Cruz
Disney-Hyperion

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Two girls, best friends. One is heir to the Lily throne. The other is the daughter of the most powerful mage in the empire.

Princess Marie-Victoria has always been a sick and weak child. As the time comes for her to inherit the throne, her mother and the Mage of England seek an alliance with the powerful, savvy crown prince of Prussia. But Marie-Victoria has other plans for her life.

Aelwyn, the bastard daughter of the Mage of England, has to make her own choice: return to Avalon and live as a magician in exile, or take her vows and join the order who serve the Franco-British Empire. Aelwyn has never desired to serve. In her heart, she has always envied the princess’ life and privileges. When Marie-Victoria approaches her with a plan for the future, Aelwyn’s heart thrums at the possibility and quakes in terror at what her friend is asking of her.

Together the girls have the opportunity to shape the future of the world. Only first they must decide which future to choose.

I was a little nervous beginning this story because I’d read one of her Gates of Paradise books and really struggled with the story and characters. I found myself really fascinated with the set-up of this story. If Merlin were real and his power continued beyond King Arthur’s day, how would that shape the world? In The Ring and the Crown, this means England conquers France. The Revolutionary War? Not so much. The American colonies still belong to the English – er, the Franco-British – Empire. These guys can’t be beat.

I liked the way de la Cruz wove in some French cultural references into the politics and traditions surrounding the royal family. It added an authenticity to the story world in a really subtle way. As strange as the concept sounds, the story world felt totally believable. I loved the idea and it read like the author really thought through a lot of the lore about Merlin and the period of European history.

The characters were fantastic. Each had really distinct personality and voice. It was easy to root for them. I liked that the romance was a bit unpredictable. Several times I thought I knew what would happen and was surprised at the real outcome.

All in all this was a really entertaining read. I would definitely consider following this series, which isn’t something I normally do. The ending really set a great hook for the next story, though, so I’m finding it hard to resist!

Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Sexual Content
Leo is a bit of a cad and appears to frequently take ladies to bed with him. He coerces Isabelle into having sex with him. Isabelle’s guardian has been sexually abusing her since she was a girl. Very few real details about it. Her description is more of a flickering memory, so we don’t experience him doing anything in scene, other than kissing her. Aelwyn recalls a love affair with another resident of Avalon. She briefly recollects having sex with him and the heartbreak that followed when the relationship ended. No details describing the sex, just a brief reference to waking up together, etc. There are no rules regarding same-sex relationships, and two very eligible bachelors have chosen one another as lovers. No description of the physical affection between them.

Spiritual Content
Merlin’s order has pretty much taken the place of the church in England. The order appears to operate much like a monastery, and the head rules alongside the queen of the empire. A Pandora’s box is the only weapon that can stand against the power of the magic held by the English.

Violence
Brief references to battle. A young prince takes out frustrations in the boxing ring. A young man defends the honor of his love in a duel to the death.

Drug Content
References to drinking wine.

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Review: Fairest by Marissa Meyer

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

Fairest by Marissa Meyer
Feiwel and Friends

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When Princess Levana’s parents are brutally murdered by an assassin, the empire falls to her cruel elder sister Channery to rule. But Channery isn’t interested in the politics of ruling her kingdom. She’s more interested in ridiculing her younger sister, berating her for her unrequieted love and the ugly scars Levana hides behind a glamour. As Levana steps forward to manage the country’s affairs, she finds she has a talent for being in charge. When Channery’s sudden death leaves Levana to rule as regent, her thirst for power only intensifies. If only she didn’t have to step aside when Channery’s daughter Seline came of age…

Fans of Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles will not want to miss this look into what turned a shy, intelligent young girl into the ruthless queen intent on ruling the earth. The plot chugs forward, building momentum and gaining more and more complexity and intensity as it grows. While Levana isn’t the most sympathetic protagonist, we can’t help identifying with her resentment toward her self-centered parents and the terror she feels toward her sister. But it’s not just Levana’s younger self that readers see in Fairest. Many Lunar characters who make an appearance in The Lunar Chronicles are featured in this story. Readers will recognize the Thaumaterge who kept Cress captive on the satellite and the pilot who helped her escape. We also get a sneak peek at Winter, the heroine in the next book in the series.

If you’re new to this series, I would definitely not start with this book, even though it comes first chronologically. I’d definitely start with Cinder so that you understand the significance of events in Fairest. Series fans should definitely give this one a go. I have a feeling even more things from this story will feel significant when reading Winter.

Language Content
No profanity.

Sexual Content
Levana uses her Lunar gift to seduce a man. There’s a brief reference to him waking in her bed and seeing blood on the sheets and being horrified at what he’s done. That’s about the only reference to them having had sex. She later briefly thinks about having a baby with her husband.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
Levana bears scars from a vicious attack in which her sister pushes her into a fire. Later, she tries to murder a political rival by having her burned alive. Her parents were murdered by an assassin with a knife. Some brief details – less about the murder and more about the condition of the room afterward. Levana approves some pretty controversial policies allowing experimentation on certain citizens. Not a lot of details given there. Brief reference to torture being used to extract information from a prisoner. No details about any methods used. An assassin shoots a man in the chest. He is shot as well.

Drug Content
None.