Category Archives: Romance

Review: Unenchanted, an Unfortunate Fairy Tale by Chanda Hahn

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

unenchantedUnenchanted
Chanda Hahn
Published by Chanda Hahn

Mina Grime has the worst luck ever. Just about everywhere she goes, bizarre misfortunes follow her: a bakery harpy, a stampede of nursery rhyme animals in the street. Mina soon finds out this isn’t a simple matter of luck, however. Her family has lived under a curse for generations. Now the curse has come after her, and if she doesn’t defeat it, her younger brother will have to face it. Mina sets out to complete all the fairy tales penned by the Grimm brothers.

The best thing about this book is its clever premise. The way Hahn recreates the familiar fairy tales in a contemporary setting is smart and cute. Those made for the best parts of the story, though in this first book in the series, much of the story is devoted to setting up the premise. Later books may focus more on the fairy tales, which would be, if I judge based on those included in this first book, very entertaining.

The characters are simple, not deeply layered and a bit cliché. The boy is handsome, thoughtful and perfect. The girl is insecure and fiercely independent. Her best friend is peppy and loyal. This didn’t ruin the story for me, but it didn’t make it stand out as one I can’t wait to tell all my friends about, either.

I listened to this story as an audiobook (largely because I adore the narration by Khristine Hvam) so I can’t speak to how well the book was edited for grammar and punctuation. As I browsed other reviews, I noticed several claimed there are some errors in the e-book version. If you’re considering purchasing the e-book, I’d recommend reading the sample pages first.

Language Content
None.

Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Mina’s family lives under a terrible curse. In order to undo the curse, she has to complete each of the fairy tales penned by her ancestors, the Grimm brothers. She encounters creatures from a fairy world (a fairy and a werewolf type creature, for instance.)

Violence
Brief battle scenes.

Drug Content
None.

When Wings Don’t Mean Freedom: Review of Nightbird by Alice Hoffman

Book Review and Content, Middle Grade 8-12, Paranormal, Romance, , ,

Nightbird
Alice Hoffman
Random House Children’s

Twig Fowler and her family return to her mother’s hometown after a childhood spent in the city. Her mother insists that she keep no friends and remains alone, holed up on an apple orchard baking pies and other goods to be sold in town. Twig’s brother James also chafes at the isolation. He only comes out at night, when no one will see the long wings sprouting from his back.

When rumors of a monster stir up the townsfolk, Twig begins to panic. If a search is called for, her brother might be discovered. It might be easy to stay hidden if it weren’t for Twig’s new neighbors, a family with two girls near her age. One late night Twig spots James and Agate, the older sister of the neighboring family, alone in the forest. But before James can be free to love and live as a normal person, they have to find a way to undo the family curse. Twig might be just the person to solve that problem.

There were a lot of great elements to this story: the mystery surrounding the curse, Twig’s mother’s sadness and her absent father, a boy with wings who falls in love. As I read, I kept comparing it to The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, which I think is a mistake, because Nightbird isn’t trying to be that kind of story. The similarities between the two really end beyond containing an important character with wings and a small-town setting.

I’m not sure if it’s my tendency for that comparison that left me feeling a little underwhelmed with the story. Everything resolves very neatly – and maybe that’s more appropriate for a younger audience. I found myself wishing for a little more of the complexity that filled the story’s opening pages to grace the story’s end. All in all, however, it was an enjoyable read.

This is more of a middle grade story than a YA novel. Readers aged nine to twelve would probably enjoy the story most.

Language Content
None.

Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
A long time ago, a witch placed a horrible curse on the men in the Fowler family. The curse makes them grow wings.

Violence
None.

Drug Content
None.

A Wow-worthy Sequel: Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman

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

Shadow Scale
Rachel Hartman
Random House Children’s
Pubished March 10, 2015

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

With war between dragons and humans exploding across Seraphina’s once-peaceful home, she vows to find the other gifted half-dragons and use their power to end the conflict. One of Seraphina’s would-be allies seems to have other loyalties. And unstoppable power.

Seraphina works to bring the isolated and fearful half-dragons out of hiding and teach them to operate as a team. Time is running out, however, as an army of dragons threatens to rain destruction down on Seraphina’s homeland. Alliances begin to unravel. A new, unpredictable saint dazzles the people, distracting them from the conflict at hand. In order to pull her own army together, Seraphina will have to understand and unleash the power she has buried inside herself.

The book begins with a clever note from a Goreddi historian summarizing the novel Seraphina, which precedes Shadow Scale. It’s a nice touch and brings readers up to speed nicely. Of course, since Seraphina is a whopping 499 pages, there are a lot of things that get left out. I read Seraphina just a few weeks ago, and I approached Shadow Scale wondering if I’d be able to enjoy it without the background of the first story. I think it could be done, but the second story is so much richer for having read both of them.

As her readers have come to expect, Hartman fills the pages of her tale with well-developed landscapes rich with history, culture and religion. I loved that the stories about the saints played a part in the grander plot. Though Seraphina is the main character, many other characters play important roles. They are well-developed and intriguing.

Readers who enjoyed Seraphina are very likely to enjoy this second book as well. Those who haven’t read Seraphina yet can still enjoy Shadow Scale, but I’d recommend reading Seraphina first. You’ll get a lot more out of the experience.

Profanity Content
none

Sexual Content
There’s a pretty intense kissing moment which seems like it could go further but the characters stop themselves, not wanting to be impulsive. There is a very brief girl-on-girl kiss. One culture uses a large number of pronouns to address its citizens, including a category for “emergent feminine.” It could be that Hartman means this as a way for transgender individuals to be more accurately addressed. It’s not deeply explored.

A dragon briefly discusses his hopes of being mated with another dragon in a conversation with Seraphina.

Spiritual Content
Citizens of Goredd worship a large collection of saints. The story often references various writings by different saints. In Porphyry, the people worship a god of chance and goddess of necessity.

Violence
Brief references to torture (no details.) In several scenes, dragons battle one another.

Drug Content
None.

Review: Graceling by Kristin Cashore

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

Graceling
Kristin Cashore
HMH Books for Young Readers

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Katsa’s gift makes her beloved of a cruel king and feared by his people. She is Graced with the ability to fight beyond ordinary human strength and skill. Forced to serve her ruthless king, Katsa spends her days dealing punishment on behalf of the Middluns king. Unbeknownst to the king, she forms the Council, a neutral organization without loyalty to any one crown. The Council deals swift justice to those who would prey upon the weak. As part of a Council mission, Katsa rescues a kidnapped prince and stumbles upon a greater plot and a king whose evil far outmatches any other. Katsa and her ally Prince Po race across mountains toward the home of the evil king. They must stop him before he destroys anyone else.

For the most part, I enjoyed Katsa and Po’s characters. Po was definitely my favorite though I think his name is silly. Most of the other characters are a bit under-developed and one-dimensional. Bitterblue, a ten year-old girl had really bizarre dialogue for her age. I wanted to like her, and I did, and then she’d open her mouth and I’d be confused. It just didn’t fit a character her age.

Since I recently read Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, I think it would have been difficult for any fantasy story to impress me with world building, as Hartman sets that bar really high. In this area, Graceling definitely left me wanting. There were a few strong elements – the idea that humans would be Graced with different gifts and how that could change lives for good or ill. The Leinid people had some interesting traditions. I liked that a lot. Many things are left really vague or over-simplified. The relationships between kings are rocky – why? Because they’re all vapid annoying guys. End of story.

The romance took center-stage a lot more than I expected from the book description. While I liked both characters and even liked the relationship they had, I tripped over some of the reasons behind it. Katsa maintains through the whole book that she intends never to marry. Okay, that’s cool. A few times other characters would straight-up ask, “Are you going to marry him?” in a context that didn’t seem believable to me – that instead felt more like a staged opportunity for Katsa to judge everyone for being marriage-obsessed.

I’ve read some reviews complaining about this book having a “feminist agenda.” Honestly, other than the few times it came up in dialogue, it wasn’t a big thread in the story. Obviously, though, this may not be the message some families want to send to their young girls – that being lovers is a superior alternative to marriage. So that’s worth evaluating and/or discussing.

Language Content
None.

Sexual Content
Kissing and references to sex. Katsa takes a lover and makes it very clear that she will not marry him, but is willing to live as his lover until either of them decide to part ways. Their sexual exhanges are not graphic, but they are obvious and not brief.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
Katsa has a reputation for carrying out punishment and torture on those who’ve displeased the king. Brief references to the things she’s done – breaking bones, etc. She does not like to kill anyone even though she is capable of doing so easily. In one scene, an archer shoots a woman in the back. In another, a man suffers a serious shoulder wound. Not too gory, but there are bits of violence throughout the story.

Drug Content
Po acts silly and Katsa accuses him of being drunk.

Review: Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , ,

Seraphina
Rachel Hartman
Random House
Published in 2013

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Seraphina has lived a carefully unnoticed life. Even as a talented musician, she’s always avoided the spotlight in order to protect a terrible secret that, if discovered, will threaten her life and that of her family.

When a prince of Goredd is murdered, rumors circulate that a dragon is the culprit. These rumors threaten the uneasy peace between humans and dragons. Drawn into the murder investigation, Seraphina helps the handsome captain of the guard, Prince Lucien, to bring the killer to justice.

Seraphina’s quick thinking and easy lying has always protected her in the past. Now her friendship with the betrothed prince threatens to out her. When the investigation reveals a terrible plot jeopardizing the entire kingdom, Seraphina is forced to choose between her secrecy and the survival of all she loves.

Political intrigue. Murder. Fantasy. Romance. This story has it all. Unforgettable characters march across each chapter. Dragon culture is well-developed and very different from other dragon stories. Hartman does a great job throwing the human and dragon characters in situations in which the cultures clash, sometimes in humorous ways. The murder investigation keeps the tension high. This is one book you won’t want to put down until the last page.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
No profanity.

Sexual Content
Brief suggestive comments.

Spiritual Content
Seraphina discovers she can use her mind to communicate with others. She also meets several others with varied unusual abilities.

It seems that the human population worship a large collection of revered saints at various shrines. One of the clever ways Hartman incorporates this into the story is through the use of colloquialisms based on different saints. “St. Daan in a pan!” someone might shout.

Violence
A prince’s body is found. He has been beheaded. No gory details.

Brief battles between human and dragon or dragon and dragon.

Drug Content
Seraphina consumes too much wine and nearly gives away her secret.

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Review: These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Book Review and Content, Romance, Sci-Fi, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

These Broken Stars
Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Disney-Hyperion
Published December 10, 2013

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. A product of the greatest engineering minds, the Icarus luxury spaceliner unexpectedly drops out of hyperspace. Wealthy passengers and military personnel race to escape. Lilac LaRoux, daughter of the wealthiest man in the universe finds herself trapped aboard an escape pod with Major Tarver Merendson, a charity case who clawed his way up military ranks the old-fashioned way. When the pod crash lands on the planet, Tarver is determined to keep himself and the helpless Lilac alive. As they face the unforgiving challenges of survival together, they will need to trust one another and depend on each other’s strengths to stay alive long enough to be rescued.

My favorite thing about this book was that both Tarver and Lilac had skills to contribute to the success of their survival. It wasn’t another retelling of the cliché old tale about the man knowing all about surviving and the helpless lady kind of tagging along at his mercy. Lilac is smart and knows things about the ship’s operation because of growing up around it. Tarver has had a lot of experience surviving on a hostile planet. Together, they make a formidable team.

The romance is definitely more of a clichéd element. The rich aloof girl and the hero who comes from nothing. She blows him off to save face. He takes her at face value. She thinks he hates her. He thinks she despises him. But she secretly likes him and he secretly likes her, etc. I felt like that 180 degree turn happened kind of fast. It was definitely intense, though.

The story took a bit of a weird turn as Tarver and Lilac investigate some strange life forms they find on the planet. It definitely reminded me of an old Star Trek episode – in a good way.

The ending was a bit abrupt for me. Through the whole book they’ve been wondering how to solve this big problem, and it’s going to be so terrible if they can’t do something. Then Lilac basically has a stern conversation with the head of her problem and it’s all fixed, no worries at all. I had hoped for a little more complexity there.

Over all, I did enjoy the story of the romance and especially Tarver’s memories of his family. I loved that they had this equal partnership where they both had skills essential to one another. Each chapter begins with these snippets of debrief interviews between Tarver and (we assume) a superior officer. Brilliant. Definitely added suspense and intrigue to the story.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Moderate profanity used with moderate frequency.

Sexual Content
Brief scenes leading up to and referencing intercourse. While the acts aren’t graphically described beyond brief references to nudity, the reader is left in no doubt of what happens.

Spiritual Content
Lilac and Tarver encounter strange beings at first mistaken for ghosts or hallucinations. It appears that these other beings have powers far beyond human abilities and can change the way things appear.

Violence
There is some description of the ship coming apart and being destroyed and some mayhem and injury which result from that. On the surface of the planet, Tarver and Lilac find the remains of the ship. A few descriptions of what they find are pretty icky.

Drug Content
None.

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