Wild Magic

by Cat Weatherill

I bought this book on a whim last weekend because the title intrigued me, the cover was pretty and the description was interesting. Sometimes despite all that promise, a book has still failed to deliver, but thankfully Wild Magic was mostly a pleasant surprise.

This book is a retelling of the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. After the piper successfully rid the town of their rat infestation and is refused payment, he plays his pipe again and leads the children of Hamelin away with him. Our main character, Mari is one of the children to be lead away, while her crippled brother Jakob is barely left behind. The Piper leads the children into the world of Elvendale where they soon learn that he is looking for one child in particular - a child with unknown magical powers who will help him lift an ancient curse.

The book is split into 3 different narratives that alternate back and forth. Mari and Jakob serve as two of the narrators, with the Piper as the third. It is interesting to read the story from both the perspectives of the "heroes" and the "villain".

The story is inventive and interesting. The ending was mostly satisfying. Despite a few "too-neat" aspects, and a couple unanswered questions, I enjoyed this take on the Pied Piper.

Sisters Red

by Jackson Pearce

Was this book well written? Definitely. Was it fun? Not really. And therein lies my main problem with Sisters Red. I read Pearce's previous book and enjoyed it's fun style. This book is almost it's exact opposite.

Sisters Red is the tale of two sisters, Scarlett and Rosie, who narrowly survive a werewolf attack that killed their beloved grandmother. Scarlett is severely scarred in her efforts to protect Rosie and from then on harbors a desire to hunt down these werewolves, Fenris as they are called in the book. Rosie feels indebted to her sister, and therefore fights along with her, even though she secretly wishes for something more. To complicate things more, Scarlett's hunting partner, and only friend Silas is back, and he's falling for Rosie.

This book is dark, and there's not much relief from that throughout the book. Hope is lacking. The Fenris are evil, lurking creatures who are a danger to everyone. Scarlett's pain over her grandmother's death, feeling of obligation to kill the wolves, and despair at her ruined face consume half of the narrative. The rest is taken up by Rosie's narration, and her desire over wanting to do something else but hunt warring with her sense of debt to her sister. Never mind that she finds herself having feelings for Silas and worrying about if she should acknowledge them.

Pearce is a talented author to make you feel so terrible about the sisters' predicament. However, there was very little resolution at the end. There are countless wolves, and despite the group's efforts, it all seems very futile. Did they even make a difference? Is there a hope for relief for these traumatized girls? At of the end of this book it doesn't seem like there's much. However, this does appear to be a series - perhaps hope will be more evident in the next entry.

Little Miss Red

by Robin Palmer

I love a good fairy tale retelling, and they're actually seeming to pop up more and more lately. However, this book is based on one of the lesser common stories - Red Riding Hood.

Sophie is a good girl, but she's tired of everyone thinking they know everything about her. For example, she loves that red cowboy hat she spotted in a store window, even if all her friends tell her that it's "not her". When Sophie has to go visit her grandmother during her spring break, she's not exactly thrilled about it. However, on the plane ride to Florida she meets a mysterious, romantic stranger (just like Dante from her beloved Devon Devoreaux books) who invites her to take a walk on the wild side.

Sophie is a funny character to read about, although sometimes being inside her head is cringe-inducing. In nearly every instance of her life Sophie compares it to some occurrence in one of the many books about Devon Devoreaux. It's not as annoying as you'd think, mostly it just gives you a better understanding of Sophie's "head-in-the-clouds" state of mind. Plus it was amusing to read the many many titles and summaries of these books.

I was close to giving this book 5 stars, however the ending wasn't as great as I thought it was going to be. The wrong people were villains, the right people were not, and the hero just wasn't quite heroic enough for my taste. I was hoping for something a little more dramatic and a little less ordinary - after all this IS a book. :)

A Kiss in Time

by Alex Flinn

Much like Alex Flinn's other fairytale retelling, Beastly, this book is another fun, modern-day take on a well-known and loved fairy tale. A Kiss in Time is the story of Sleeping Beauty. However, unlike the traditional tale which ends shortly after the climactic awakening kiss, this story only begins there.

Oddly, one of the most enjoyable aspects of this version is that the princess and her "one true love" really can't stand each other at the beginning. Talia the princess is spoiled and selfish and expects everyone to adore her and cater to her every whim; her rescuer Jack just wants to get out of Europe, get back his girlfriend, and have fun partying the summer away. Needless to say after their first kiss the two do a lot of butting heads.

Soon both are forced to start to think about someone besides themselves. And as if that isn't difficult enough, the witch Malvolia, who put Talia under the spell in the first place is convinced Jack was not supposed to break the curse, and she is looking to bring Talia back and enforce her curse once and for all.

This is a sweet, funny book, whose characters really start to grow on you. If you're looking for light, but engrossing fairy tale retelling, this book fits the ticket.

Beastly

by Alex Flinn

This book is a cute, funny, modern-day retelling of Beauty and the Beast told from the perspective of the Beast.

Kyle Kingsbury is a vain, cruel sophomore at a prestigious school in New York City. On the night of the big dance, Kyle puts his mean-spirited plan into action, however things don't go quite according to plan. A few days prior, Kyle convinced a unpopular girl that he wanted to take her to the dance. He asked her what kind of flower she wanted and asked her to meet him there. Kyle however, already has a date to the dance - the most beautiful, popular girl in school. The pair takes great joy in seeing Kyle's fake date show up and be humiliated in front of everyone. Kyle's victim though, has a few tricks up her sleeves.

She appears in Kyle's room later that night and proclaims that she has seen the cruelness in Kyle's heart, and because she is actually a witch, she proceeds to teach Kyle a lesson in the best way she knows how: by turning him into a hideous beast. There is a glimmer of hope: if Kyle kind find someone to love, and love him in return within 2 years, the curse will be lifted. If not, Kyle will remain a beast forever.

Pretty much the standard Beauty and the Beast pattern, but what makes this book interesting is that the Beast is the one telling us his story. At the beginning he's obnoxious, but as time goes on we see Kyle becoming more caring and thoughtful, and when he has a chance at maybe breaking the curse, you are really rooting for him to succeed. A fun book for anyone who loves a good fairy tale retelling.

A Curse Dark As Gold

by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Sometime in my browsing of books online I came across this title. Billed as a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, I was immediately intrigued. I enjoy reading fairytale retellings.

So I had high hopes for this book. In ways, it worked, and in some, it fell short.

To start, the book begins very slowly. For the first 100 pages or so I was only half-heartedly interested. I was almost to the point of abandoning the book when it finally started to get interesting.

I think part of the reason I had trouble was that so much of the beginning chapters of the book focus on the workings of the mill. The author tells us about looms, spinning wheels, spindles, water wheels, and tenterhooks were virtually no explanation as to what these things do or what they look like. It was very hard to have a vivid picture in my mind of what was going on.

Things I liked: the way the author tells the story is very lyrical, almost flowing from one page to the next. Also, the magic in the tale is very different from standard YA fantasy novels. However...

There are many rituals and instances of magic that are never fully explained. Why is the character doing this? How did they know to do it?

The main character, Charlotte, is stubborn and independent, but too much so. She confided in no one; insisted upon handling all problems that arose on her own. Even her husband, she pushes away despite his urging for her to let him help.

Lastly, I was mildly disappointed that our mysterious man's name didn't end up to be Rumpelstiltskin, and the name that he did have, wasn't that important. The biggest aspect of the original Rumpelstiltskin, to me, is that the miller's daughter is forced to discover this man's name in order to save her child. However, in this story, the things she needed to break his curse were much different.

All in all, it was interesting, but there were too many confusing parts to it for me to whole-heartedly recommended it to a friend.

The Amaranth Enchantment

by Julie Berry

I checked this book out from the library a few months ago, but didn't get around to reading it before I had to return it. But it still seemed interesting to me, so I decided to give it another try.

I did get around to reading it this time. However, I'm kind of wishing I hadn't bothered. This book wasn't the most terrible thing I've read, but I really didn't like it much. The characters were either flat or just uninteresting. All the good plots were unexplored and the ones that made up the bulk of the book were silly and frustrating.

Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers galore to follow! Read on at your own risk!

When Lucinda was a young child her parents left for a royal ball and never came back. After their deaths she was forced to move in with her aunt and uncle. While her uncle genuinely cares for her, her aunt seems to harbor an unexplained hatred toward her. On one particularly eventful day her uncle's jewelry shop gets a visit from the "dreaded Amaranth witch", the crown prince and a common street thief all of whom play a part in the events of the rest of the story. However, things in Lucinda's life go from bad to worse when Lucinda's uncle dies and her aunt kicks her out onto the streets. She has no choice but to seek help from the Amaranth witch.

Now doesn't that sound like a great villain? The Amaranth Witch. In fact, we are even told on the flap and in the text of the novel that she is "dreaded". I was SO disappointed when it turned out that this witch was not the teeniest bit scary. Not evil, not fierce, not even self-confident. She is little more than a whining, crying middle-aged lady. Why in the world do people dread her when she isn't even the slightest bit intimidating to a 15-year old homeless girl?

Secondly, Lucinda is STUPID! Through the whole book she was doing things that she really shouldn't have, and then, of course getting caught and in BIG TROUBLE. First, she lets the thief Peter stay in her house the night he bangs on her window (he steals from her). Then, she decides the best way to get the witch's (Beryl's) stone back is to pay Peter to teach her how to STEAL it from the prince (she gets caught, thrown in prison and nearly executed). Next, she decides to go see the prince after she escapes prison (she gets lucky on that one). But then, when the prince pardons her and asks her NOT to come to the royal ball, what does she do? You guessed it! She goes to the ball. With Peter. They cause a commotion, she has to run away in fear, the fact that there were only 50 pages left in the book is probably the sole reason that incident ended up working out all right in the end.

Oh, and by the way, Beryl's not the villain. We knew that pretty early on. The real villain is not revealed until at least two-thirds of the way through the book. And then when he is, he's supposed to be this great scary menacing thing. We just learned his name! That's not the way to create fear of a character! Big ol' meany's catching up to Lucinda and I'm thinking, "Meh, she'll be fine." He's setting fire to her house and I'm wondering when the goat's going to take him down. Seriously, he's not scary.

And then, to top it off - the back and forth of Beryl. She's not from our world but she can never get back to hers (sniff). But wait, then all of a sudden she did get back to her world! Lucinda is noble and tells her to stay. "I'll just go back to face my big bad villain, and oh, thanks, I'll take your stone that you gave me even though we both know that's what big baddy is after!" Why didn't she just leave it?! It's because she's stupid. So is Beryl. Ugh!

But then, of course, Lucinda's in trouble - "Beryl, help me!" So Beryl comes back. (Nice of you to figure this out after all those years Beryl.) How to get rid of baddy? Can't kill him. Why not? Because he's not from this world either. The only way to get rid of him is to send him down a magic well. Yup. But somebody has to go with him - sacrifice himself or herself to make sure he goes. Can you guess who? I bet you can.

There was one slightly redeeming plot point at the end of the book that I found interesting. It wasn't ever explored properly though to make up for all the things that annoyed me. Disappointing book.

My Fair Godmother

by Janette Rallison

Fun little book - I hesitate to use the word "romp" because it is used far too often.

Just when Savannah thinks her life couldn't get any worse (her boyfriend dumps her to go out with her sister, she already spent $350 on a prom dress and now has no one to go with her, and a kind-of dorky guy embarrasses her by announcing to nearly the entire school that her swimsuit top came undone when she jumped off the diving board) she gets a fairy - actually just a "fair" - godmother. Chrysanthemum Everstar isn't actually a fairy godmother yet because she hasn't passed all her tests...and she hasn't done that well in godmother school. She's simply done "fair". So when Chrissy comes to grant poor Savannah three wishes she doesn't really take the time to get things right. Savannah doesn't think her wishes through before saying them out loud and before she knows it, she's stuck in the middle ages! It will take all of her brains and willpower to escape the mess she's thrown herself and her friends into, but maybe, just maybe, she might learn something about herself, and what she really wishes for along the way.

This book is a quick read, with believable and likable characters, and witty banter all around. It was just the right mix of fairy-tale romance, adventure, problem-solving, and humor to be added to my ever-growing list of favorites.

Impossible

by Nancy Werlin

Impossible is a very unique book with a mostly satisfying ending, although I thought it lacked a little grandeur.

Impossible is the story of a 17-year-old girl who learns that the females of her family are cursed to become pregnant at 17, and then upon having the baby, go insane. It has happened generation after generation and now Lucy Scarborough finds herself pregnant and facing three impossible tasks that, if she can complete them, might just save her from this ancient curse.

The tasks that she must complete are found in a family version of the song "Scarborough Fair" - Lucy must make a shirt without needle or seam, find an acre of land "between the salt water and sea strand", and then plow the land with a goat's horn and "sow it all over with one grain of corn".

Lucy has the advantage of lots of people on her side - her adoptive parents and her childhood friend Zach - who turn their lives upside down to help Lucy break the curse.

So, I did like this book, it was interesting and different and I didn't completely know what to expect. But I was a little underwhelmed by the ending. I was hoping for more earth-shattering results either when the curse was broken or it took effect on Lucy, but it was very anti-climactic.

Also, this is really minor, but I still don't like the title very much. It just doesn't give you much of a sense of what the book is about, or even what kind of book it is. I think it would have been better titled Scarborough Fair or The Elfin Knight (the other title of the song/poem), but that's just me I guess.

Cindy Ella

by Robin Palmer

Well this is totally different from what I've been reading lately! No magic, no mythical creatures, no ghost or mysterious happenings or anything. Just a girl who's kind of a social outcast, her two equally un-hip friends, and a letter to the editor of the school paper disparaging the annual tradition of prom.

This book was funny, predictable, and a pretty quick read. The main character, Cindy Ella Gold is our narrator, and she provides many laughs throughout her documentation of the weeks preceding prom at her posh LA high school (Castle Heights - isn't that just hilare?). The "surprise" at the end was anything but surprising to me - I saw it coming from nearly the first page - but it was still enjoyable.

Thornspell

by Helen Lowe

You know those signs some factories have that say, "57 safe work days" or something of the sort? I've always thought it must be kinda pitiful the day they have to change it to "0 safe work days" since somebody got hurt the day before. Now I need a sign that says something like, "89 days since a dud book". Unfortunately, today is the day mine reads "0 days" because this book was a dud!

I picked up Thornspell by Helen Lowe at the library. I found it online and read some reviews (all positive) and i just thought it looked fun! So I put it on hold and was able to pick it up and get started on it this week. And that's were the fun ended.

I think the concept for this book is really cool. It's a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, told from the perspective of the prince. I thought the prince really lacked personality though, and I found it very hard to be interested in his story at all. Plus, he has a horrible name - Sigismund. I found myself just glossing over it as I read, or reading it as "Sigmund" or "Sigsimund" instead. Granted "Sigsimund" would be weird as well, but it does seem to flow better.

Another thing I didn't like was the magical element of the story. Now I love magic in books, but in this book it just didn't make sense! She talked about currents and paths of energy or power, and alternate universes, and it all just seemed like a jumbled mess. There was no explanation as to what kinds of magic they used and how it worked so I felt like almost out of the loop the whole time.

Now when I got to around page 200, it seemed that things were going to finally get interesting. But once again the story just fizzled out. It seemed like the author was trying to write this grand epic conflict of good and evil, and it was all just a bit contrived. The villain wasn't that villainous, the hero not that heroic, and everyone else was just sort of there with no obvious purpose. And then there was the big reveal of the mystery girl who we met at the beginning - too bad I'd seen that twist coming a mile away.

Sigh. I hate being disappointed by books. Hopefully I will enjoy my next selection more!

Seeing Redd

by Frank Beddor

This book took me a long time to finish! After getting to the end of The Hunger Games I started a whole bunch of projects and Seeing Redd progressed slowly. It also went slowly because it just wasn't as interesting as I'd hoped!

This is the second book in Frank Beddor's The Looking Glass Wars trilogy. I liked the first book - thought it was unique and interesting. I was looking forward to the second one and seeing what happened with Redd and the The Cat as well as the relationship between Dodge and Alyss. I was disappointed on both accounts.

First off, Redd and The Cat appear on Earth in a very odd way. I found myself more perplexed by it than interested. And the situation with Dodge and Alyss was just FRUSTRATING! Yes, I know, this isn't a romance book, but still, authors should not tease me so! Do not drop such heavy-handed hints in the first book for a romance between two characters and then not deliver! I was about half-way through the book before Dodge and Alyss so much as have a conversation. And then there's one chapter where I finally think the author's going to let us know that yes, they still like each other, and right when things are starting to get good a bunch of other characters barge into the room and interrupt!

I felt that the whole book was bogged down by too many plot lines running at once and narrative's constant hopping between them, as well as much too much detail on AD-52s, razor cards, glass eyes, chessmen, card soldiers and various other weapons and fighters. The novelty of these started to wear off and I found myself thinking, "Oh my gosh, I don't CARE about what kind of weapon he's using and who he's battling! Get to the point!" Then, things are finally starting to get going in one direction with the stories converging on each other and all that good stuff, and I turned the page - and that's the end!! The end?! I mean, I knew there would be one more book but it was just so abrupt!

That being said, I really didn't hate it as much as it sounds, I just didn't love it. And I will read the next book simply because I MUST find out what happens!

I think perhaps this book suffered in my opinion of it partially because it had to follow The Hunger Games. Poor thing.