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Review: A Crown of Embers by Rae Carson

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A Crown of Embers by Rae CarsonA Crown of Embers
Rae Carson
Greenwillow Books
Published on September 8, 2012

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About A Crown of Embers
She does not know what awaits her at the enemy’s gate.

Elisa is a hero.

She led her people to victory over a terrifying, sorcerous army. Her place as the country’s ruler should be secure. But it isn’t.

Her enemies come at her like ghosts in a dream, from foreign realms and even from within her own court. And her destiny as the chosen one has not yet been fulfilled.

To conquer the power she bears, once and for all, Elisa must follow a trial of long-forgotten—and forbidden—clues, from the deep, hidden catacombs of her own city to the treacherous seas. With her go a one-eyed spy, a traitor, and the man whom—despite everything—she is falling in love with.

If she’s lucky, she will return from this journey. But there will be a cost.

My Review
I sometimes forget how refreshing and wonderful it can be to read about a really smart girl. I like that Elisa cares about people around her and that her faith is a deep part of her life. One of my favorite things in A Crown of Embers had to be watching the relationship between her and Storm develop. They started as unlikely allies, but seemed to really grow to respect each other, and I liked that a lot.

Court politics plays a large role in the plot of A Crown of Embers. Elisa struggles to balance what she wants with what her country needs and on top of that has to navigate around people who would use her for their own gain. It also becomes pretty clear pretty quickly that someone wants her dead, and it might be someone within her court.

I was a fan of Hector from Girl of Fire and Thorns, so I definitely wasn’t sorry to see him have a more significant role in A Crown of Embers. I also loved the little prince Rosario and Elisa’s attendants. Each of the characters has a really specific voice and some of them really kept a spark in the story with their dialogue or banter.

I enjoyed the first book in the series, and I loved A Crown of Embers, too. I’m looking forward to reading the third book—definitely eager to see what happens to Elisa and her kingdom.

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
Elisa has paler skin and black hair, but her people have brown skin and dark hair. The enemy sorcerers are very fair-skinned with blond hair. Two men (both minor characters) are discovered to be lovers.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Elisa asks her handmaiden about love (sex) and she shares that she’s had lovers before. She and Elisa take an herb that is meant to prevent pregnancy, each hoping to have sex soon. Elisa considers whether she’d take a lover as many monarchs do. She’s tempted by her feelings for a man she believes she would never be allowed to marry.
Intense kissing between a man and woman. Elisa discovers two men embracing.

Spiritual Content
Elisa bears a gem in her navel which marks her as God’s chosen one. She prays often and recites scriptures which resemble Christian scriptures. Some rituals and ideas, like the quoted scriptures, resemble Christian faith and others are less connected (like the stone in her navel, which changes temperature when she’s in danger or God’s presence is with her.).

Carrying the stone means Elisa will have to perform some great act of service, so Elisa is always on the lookout to understand what she’s called to do.

Violent Content
Some situations of peril and assassination attempts. At one point, a man shouts threats at her and then lights himself on fire. Another assassin attacks an unarmed woman, leaving her for dead. A soldier is beheaded as a traitor. Elisa witnesses the executioner’s arm raise but can’t see more because of the crowd. A man begins vomiting after ingesting poison. Servants are flogged for negligence. A man holds a woman at knife-point.

Drug Content
Wine is served with dinners.

Review: Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor

Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,

Muse of Nightmares
Laini Taylor
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published on October 2, 2018

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About Muse of Nightmares
In the wake of tragedy, neither Lazlo nor Sarai are who they were before. One a god, the other a ghost, they struggle to grasp the new boundaries of their selves as dark-minded Minya holds them hostage, intent on vengeance against Weep.

Lazlo faces an unthinkable choice—save the woman he loves, or everyone else?—while Sarai feels more helpless than ever. But is she? Sometimes, only the direst need can teach us our own depths, and Sarai, the muse of nightmares, has not yet discovered what she’s capable of.

As humans and godspawn reel in the aftermath of the citadel’s near fall, a new foe shatters their fragile hopes, and the mysteries of the Mesarthim are resurrected: Where did the gods come from, and why? What was done with thousands of children born in the citadel nursery? And most important of all, as forgotten doors are opened and new worlds revealed: Must heroes always slay monsters, or is it possible to save them instead?

Love and hate, revenge and redemption, destruction and salvation all clash in this gorgeous sequel to the New York Times bestseller, Strange the Dreamer.

My Review
My favorite thing about Muse of Nightmares was watching the way all the side stories and history of what seemed like peripheral characters came together. I loved the redemptive moments especially. No spoilers! Just know that there are several characters who have great moments where they rise above their emotional baggage and they’re all fantastic.

I’m a huge fan of sister stories, so I loved that Muse of Nightmares begins with a sister story. It took me a really long time to figure out the way Kora connected to Lazlo and Sarai’s stories, but once I did, I felt like I couldn’t read fast enough. So much emotion and such high stakes! I loved it.

Like Strange the Dreamer, this book has a more mature tone that makes it feel less like a young adult novel. Lazlo and Sarai are both young (okay, I think Lazlo is twenty maybe?) but their issues and their behavior make them feel much more like adults than teens. Still, I really enjoyed the story and the rich story world.


Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Cultural Elements
Since this is a fantasy, there are made up races and ethnicities. The story begins in a more temperate climate with a brown-skinned people and progresses to a desert climate of brown-skinned people. A separate race of gods have blue skin. A couple of characters have blond hair and pale skin and are from a cold (think Scandinavian) place.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Some very sensual scenes showing kissing and touching between girl and boy. Two female characters also have a relationship and share sleeping space. Two male characters begin to feel some attraction toward one another. One culture views gay relationships as wrong, but the other (the culture where the story takes place) accepts all different kinds of relationships. There are some references to sex and some nudity. No descriptions of sex itself, but some descriptions of activities leading up to it.
In the past, the gods took human slaves and used them to bear their children. No descriptions of rape, but obviously the survivors bear some trauma from the experience, and there are some references to what happened, like a man overhearing his wife screaming.

Spiritual Content
A blue race of humans have magical abilities (one specific ability each) and call themselves gods. Muse of Nightmares explores the history of the gods – where they came from and how they came to be in Lazlo’s world.
Ghosts remain in the world while they’re under the control of a powerful goddess.

Violent Content
Ghosts attack a group of humans.
Sarai relives some old memories, including one in which she steps over the dead bodies of two women and sees a lot of blood on them and on an ally’s hands.

Drug Content
Some references to drinking alcohol.


Review: Borrowed by Lucia DiStefano

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

Borrowed
Lucia DiStefano
Elephant Rock Books
Published on November 1, 2018

Amazon | Goodreads

About Borrowed

Love, mystery, and danger collide in this new literary thriller with the dark heart of a Gillian Flynn novel and the lyrical prose of Jandy Nelson’s I’ll Give You the Sun.

A triumph of authenticity, grace, and nail-biting suspense, Lucia DiStefano’s ingenious debut is an unflinching, genre-bending page-turner.

As seventeen-year-old Linnea celebrates the first anniversary of her heart transplant, she can’t escape the feeling that the wires have been crossed. After a series of unsettling dreams, inked messages mysteriously appear on her body, and she starts to wonder if this new heart belongs to her at all.

In another Austin neighborhood, Maxine braces for a heartbreaking anniversary: her sister Harper’s death. Between raising her brothers and parenting her grief-stricken mother, Max is unable to ignore her guilty crush on Harper’s old flame or shake her lingering suspicion that her sister’s drowning wasn’t really an accident. With Harper as the sole connection, Linnea and Maxine are soon brought together in fantastic and terrifying ways as the shocking truth behind Harper’s death comes to light.

My Review
I would describe Borrowed as Return to Me (as in the movie starring Minnie Driver and David Duchovny) meets The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.

The premise totally fascinated me. What if this girl who received a heart transplant started getting messages from the new heart inside her? I loved this idea. And I loved Max and Linnea. Both are pretty unusual teens—Linnea because she’s a transplant recipient, so for much of her life, she’d been sick and waiting for the transplant. She doesn’t go to school (though she’s supposed to get her GED), and she works full time as a pastry chef. So not an entry level thing. This makes her seem a lot more like an adult than a teen.

Max manages the care of the rest of her family and clearly wrestles with survivor’s guilt after her sister’s death. So she, too, feels more adult than teen.

But both situations seemed understandable and worked in the story. Max’s care for her siblings and the hard calls she has to make with her mom definitely won me over. Linnea had me with her spirit and her creativity.

Somewhere around the three-quarter point, the story takes kind of a dark turn. I’m not good with stories like this—ones that show sexual trauma, even if the details aren’t outright explicit, so I struggled with this part of the book. I definitely think it could trigger sensitive readers.

I liked that each girl handled the situation very differently, fighting in their own ways. But it was too intense for me. I finished reading it—didn’t want to stop in the dark part. For readers who like this kind of intense, dark story, Borrowed really hits those notes and packs some interesting characters as well. I’d say it’s a good fit for fans of The Lovely Bones.

Recommended for Ages 17 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are white or not physically described. One of Linnea’s best friends is Latina.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used fairly frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing, references to sex. For instance, Max uses sex with her boyfriend as a way to escape the pressures in her life for a while. The last part of the story contains some scenes with some intense content including rape and assault. There’s not a play-by-play description of the event, but we’re in the mind of the victim and see a great deal of the emotional trauma and some of the physical trauma she endures. Definitely not for sensitive readers. Honestly, this was probably a bit too much even for me to read.

Spiritual Content
Some references to God and a brief “Thank you, Jesus”… more cultural references than spiritual ones, if that makes sense? At one point Chris gives Max a cross he carved from wood as a sort of good luck charm or symbol. It’s clear neither of them mean it as a spiritual symbol.

One character believes fervently that he is called by God to do some horrible things and uses scripture references to defend some awful treatment of others.

Violent Content
See notes in sexual content. Some brief memories and descriptions of someone attacking a girl.

Drug Content
Harper smoked weed and drank with a boy before she died. Teens smoke cigarettes. Max and her boyfriend get drunk together.

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

About Lucia DiStefano

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

A former high school English teacher, Lucia DiStefano currently works as an editor, ghostwriter, and writing coach. First-generation Sicilian-American and daughter of an olive farmer, she admits to having recurring pasta dreams. Hailing from central Connecticut, Lucia lives near Austin, Texas with her husband and an old bloodhound named Waffle.

Follow the Blog Tour for More

August 1: Cover reveal at YA Interrobang

September 4: Review at Alice Reeds

September 10: Author interview at Alice Reeds

September 24: Cover reveal at BubblersRead

October 8: Review at Liz Loves Books  

October 9-15: Giveaway at Miss Print

October 15: Review at BubblersRead

October 17: Guest post at Liz Loves Books

October 22: Excerpt at YA Interrobang

October 25: Author interview at YA Outside the Lines  

October 31: Author interview at Katya de Becerra: The Last Day of Normal

November 1: Giveaway and guest post at Carina’s Books

November 5: Author interview at BubblersRead

November 12: Author guest post at BubblersRead

November 14: Author interview at Cynsations

November 19: First impressions video with YouTuber BookRatMisty

November 20: First impressions on The Book Rat

November 20: Author interview at The Story Sanctuary

December 3: Review at The Story Sanctuary – you are here!

December 5: Podcast Interview at The Writing Barn

Like Elephant Rock on Facebook and follow them on Twitter @ElephantRockBks for book and blog tour news and updates!

 

Review: Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

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

Strange the Dreamer
Laini Taylor
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published on March 28, 2017

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About Strange the Dreamer
The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around—and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was five years old he’s been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the person of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance or lose his dream forever.

What happened in Weep two hundred years ago to cut it off from the rest of the world? What exactly did the Godslayer slay that went by the name of god? And what is the mysterious problem he now seeks help in solving?

The answers await in Weep, but so do more mysteries—including the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo’s dreams. How did he dream her before he knew she existed? And if all the gods are dead, why does she seem so real?

My Review
It took me a long time to read Strange the Dreamer because I loved Daughter of Smoke and Bone so much that I worried Strange wouldn’t measure up or would make me miss the other series too much. I know. I always do this to myself! And then usually, it’s all good, and I enjoy the new book or series anyway. And, surprise! I enjoyed this book, too.

I love the way Taylor creates broad, deep story worlds and draws readers into cultural conflicts and explores values where they come from. Both Lazlo and Sarai pretty much had me at hello. I loved them both, but especially Lazlo for his enthusiasm and his desire to help others. Of course the tragic Godslayer had me at his first appearance, too.
The only thing that really made me stumble is the omniscient point-of-view in which the story is told. It’s consistent and adds a lot to the novel, so I totally get why Strange the Dreamer is written this way, but omniscient isn’t my favorite. So whenever there would be those zoom-out moments where we get a god’s-eye view of what’s happening in all the heads of all the people, I kind of had to blink a few times and re-settle into the story. Totally worth it, though.

Strange the Dreamer is a bit more of an adult story than I remember Daughter of Smoke and Bone being. It feels heavier and definitely more adult in the way the characters romantic relationships progress. I guess I felt like Karou in Daughter of Smoke and Bone really feels young, and that anchored the story in the young adult genre for me. Again, not sorry I read the book, but thought that needed brief noting.

So that’s it! Check the content below and happy reading!

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Cultural Elements
Since this is a fantasy, there are made up races and ethnicities. The story begins in a more temperate climate with a brown-skinned people and progresses to a desert climate of brown-skinned people. A separate race of gods have blue skin.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Some very sensual scenes showing kissing between girl and boy. Two female characters also have a relationship and share sleeping space. There are some references to sex but no descriptions of it directly.
The gods took human slaves and used them to bear their children. No descriptions of this, but obviously the survivors bear some trauma from the experience.

Spiritual Content
A blue race of humans have magical abilities (one specific ability each) and call themselves gods.

Violent Content
The story begins and ends with a young woman’s death. She falls and is impaled on a gate. Before the story begins, a man brutally kills the gods, even their small children and babies. No descriptions other than that they babies screamed and suddenly went silent.
See romance content about the gods and their treatment of human slaves.
In one scene, ghosts attack a group of humans.

Drug Content
Some references to drinking alcohol.


Review: Common by Laurie Lucking

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Common
Laurie Lucking
Love2ReadLove2Write Publishing
Published on February 14, 2018

Amazon | Goodreads

About Common
One person knows of the plot against the royal family
and cares enough to try to stop it — the servant girl they banished.

Leah spends her days scrubbing floors, polishing silver, and meekly curtsying to nobility. Nothing distinguishes her from the other commoners serving at the palace, except her red hair.

And her secret friendship with Rafe, the Crown Prince of Imperia.

But Leah’s safe, ordinary world begins to splinter. Unexpected feelings for Rafe surface just as his parents announce his betrothal to a foreign princess. Then she unearths a plot to overthrow the royal family. Her life shatters completely when the queen banishes her for treason.

Harbored by a mysterious group of nuns, Leah must secure Rafe’s safety before it’s too late. But her quest reveals a villain far more sinister than an ambitious nobleman with his eye on the throne.

My Review
Common was a really fun book to read. I enjoyed Leah’s take on things, and especially her relationships with the other female characters, like her friend Gretchen, her Ma, and of course, the awesome mystic nuns. More on them in a minute, though.

I kind of wanted more from Rafe, and I can’t decide if I’m being unfair in that or not. I mean, he taught Leah to read, and he pays attention to her needs in specific instances, but he seems a bit clueless as to what her life as a servant is actually like. That made me question her affection for him a little bit. He does come across like a super honorable guy, though, so I feel like maybe that should be enough, if that makes sense.

]Don’t get me wrong – I was really enjoying reading the story and then once I got to Leah’s banishment, I was super hooked. Then came the mystic nuns and I was like wow, this book is going all kinds of places I did not expect. I loved that! And the nuns were incredible. Deep and wise but also frank and sometimes kind of funny.

The romance element of the story remains sweet and simple—very Cinderella-esque, if Cinderella saved the kingdom instead of finding a dress to wear to the ball. Ha! It reminded me a little bit of The Selection by Kiera Cass or Everless by Sara Holland. I think fans of Traitor’s Masque by Kenley Davidson would also really enjoy this book, and I definitely recommend it.

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are white or not physically described.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing between a boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Leah and other characters reference a deity called the Luminate. She meets mystic nuns who live secluded lives devoted to serving the Luminate.

Some characters possess special abilities given either by the Luminate or a dark power.

Violent Content
Leah overhears someone plotting to kill members of the royal family.

Drug Content
None.

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

Q&A with Author Laurie Lucking

Author Interview, News and Fun, , , , ,

If you’re a fan of The Selection by Kiera Cass or Everless by Sara Holland like I am, you’ll really enjoy the servant-girl-must-save-the-kingdom story of Common by Laurie Lucking. Today I’m sharing the questions and answers session I had with Laurie where she talks more about what inspired her to write her book.

Q&A with Author Laurie Lucking

I find that a story was often inspired by a question. Was there a question that inspired you to write Common?

It was more like a series of questions 🙂 I wanted to write a friendship that turns into romance, but because I love fairy tales, I started thinking things like “What if he was a prince and she was a maid?” “What if his parents arranged his engagement to someone else?” “What if the maid uncovered a plot against the royal family and had to save the day?” From there, my story was off and running!

Who is your favorite character? Were there things about him/her which couldn’t be included in the novel?

I think my favorite character has to be the protagonist, Leah, because there are so many aspects of her that remind me of my own teenage self and I love that she’s a quiet, understated heroine. In my original draft, the opening chapters took place during Leah’s childhood as she meets and becomes friends with the prince. Sadly, those chapters had to be cut. The opening is much stronger for it, but I do think those scenes were a fun look at Leah as a young girl, working hard at the palace and in search of a quiet refuge from her boisterous fellow servants.

Is there a scene or moment in your novel that really sticks with you? Can you tell us a little bit about it?

One scene that comes to mind is when Leah has retreated to her broom closet hideout and is crying after being teased by the stable hands. Prince Raphael finds her there and comforts her.

This scene stands out to me first because it’s a rare moment of vulnerability for Leah. She tries so hard to be strong and logical, and this is one occasion where she lets her guard down. I also love this scene because it’s one of the first times where hints of romance creep into Leah’s friendship with the prince. One of my favorite aspects of friendship-turned-romance relationships are those key moments where the characters start to view each other in a different light, and the hug they share in this scene is definitely one of those turning points.

Where did your ideas for your antagonist come from?

My antagonist started out as a very murky concept because he stays behind-the-scenes for the majority of the book. But once he finally made an appearance, I drew a lot of inspiration from Rasputin in the 1997 film Anastasia and Jafar from Disney’s Aladdin. He’s a power-hungry, somewhat deranged yet oddly charismatic man who has been waiting a long time for revenge and has a twisted concept of justice.

What do you most hope that readers take away from your novel?

I hope readers first of all realize that no one, no matter how ordinary they may seem, is “common.” We are all UNcommon and capable of extraordinary things! I also hope readers take away the reminder that often the darkest, most challenging parts of our journey are preparing us for something much greater.

What is one question about your novel you are often asked by readers?

I’m often asked about my inspiration for the mystics, the group of unusual nuns my protagonist encounters in the second half of Common. The concept derived from the mystics of the early Christian church—holy men and women who lived in seclusion to achieve a greater union with God and would occasionally receive visions from God. I used my license as a fantasy writer to expand on that idea and ended up with a group of ladies who are in equal parts devout and powerful.

What have you read recently that you loved, or what’s one book on your reading list that you’re super excited about finally getting to read?

I’m in the middle of my advance review copy of A Dance of Shadows by Erica Marie Hogan, and it’s fantastic! I loved the first book in the series, Winter Queen, so I couldn’t wait to get started with this one! Her writing style is so lyrical, and her characters and fantasy world are increasingly deep and complex. I would highly recommend it for fans of Christian fantasy!

About Laurie Lucking

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

An avid reader practically since birth, Laurie Lucking discovered her passion for writing after leaving her career as an attorney to become a stay-at-home mom. When she gets a break from playing superheroes and driving windup cars, she writes young adult fantasy with a strong thread of fairy tale romance. Her debut novel, Common, released in February from Love2ReadLove2Write Publishing, and her short story, “Threshold,” was published in a Fellowship of Fantasy anthology titled Mythical Doorways. Laurie is the Secretary of her local ACFW chapter and a co-founder of Lands Uncharted, a blog for fans of clean young adult speculative fiction. A Midwestern girl through and through, she currently lives in Minnesota with her husband and two young sons. Find out more by visiting www.laurielucking.com.

 

About Common by Laurie Lucking

Amazon |  Goodreads

Only one person knows of the plot against the royal family and cares enough to try to stop it—the servant girl they banished.

Leah spends her days scrubbing floors, polishing silver, and meekly curtsying to nobility. Nothing distinguishes her from the other commoners serving at the palace, except her red hair.

And her secret friendship with Rafe, the Crown Prince of Imperia.

But Leah’s safe, ordinary world begins to splinter. Rafe’s parents announce his betrothal to a foreign princess, and she unearths a plot to overthrow the royal family. When she reports it without proof, her life shatters completely when the queen banishes her for treason.

Harbored by an unusual group of nuns, Leah must secure Rafe’s safety before it’s too late. But her quest reveals a villain far more sinister than an ambitious nobleman with his eye on the throne.

Can a common maidservant summon the courage to fight for her dearest friend?