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Mar 16, 2013
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Daughter Of Smoke & Bone

daughter-of-smoke-and-boneAuthor: Laini Taylor
First Published: September 2011
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Series: Daughter of Smoke & Bone #1
391 pages (eBook)

I’ve been meaning to read this book for a while. When it was first released and the reviews started pouring out on blogs and Goodreads, the overwhelming majority that I read were very positive reviews. Needless to say, this book piqued my interest but I didn’t get around to reading it until now (an excuse I use for almost every book I read — “I didn’t get around to reading it …” Hah). I tried not to have my opinion of the book subconsciously swayed by the hype, though when it feels like EVERYONE loves this book, I feel pressure to love it too. Anyway, I definitely think this book is amazing, fun and creative, and I enjoyed it very much. I can totally understand why everyone loves it. I don’t think I love it quite as much as some other readers too, but I do think it is a very good book.

The story is about a young girl named Karou (pronounced ka-roo), who lives in Prague, alone in her own apartment, and attends an art school. She loves to draw and her friends love seeing the monsters she creates in her sketchbook. Little do her friends know, these monsters aren’t figments of Karou’s imagination; they are real. They are the monsters who raised Karou and Karou loves them as her own family.

Her “father figure” is Brimstone, who appears to be the leader of the four monsters. His life’s work is to collect teeth. All kinds of teeth, from humans to animals and even other fantastical creatures. Karou has no idea what Brimstone does with these bags and bags of teeth, she’s not allowed to ask. However, she runs errands for Brimstone and in return, he gives him small beads that allow her to make minor wishes, such as changing her hair colour to a natural blue, or giving her enemy caterpillar-bushy eyebrows.

When black handprints start appearing on doorways all over the world — the doorways to the world where the monsters reside — Karou’s world starts to change drastically. Suddenly, she loses all contact with Brimstone and the others and worse, she is being hunted by a beautiful but dangerous male angel named Akiva. However, little does Karou know, Akiva knows all about Karou’s true identity and how she is connected to him. Before she knows it, she and Akiva are embroiled in a forbidden love.

Before I say anything else, I want to make it clear that I did, indeed, fall in love with this book. I haven’t read a book this creative or imaginative since … well, it feels like a very long time. The best part of the creativity, for me, was the use of the teeth and wishes. I’m not going to spoil what Brimstone was using the teeth for, for those of you who don’t know, but I really liked that twist. Teeth! So simple, but so genius at the same time.

At its core, it’s still a pretty ‘common’ story. I would say the core of this novel is similar to the basic plot of Romeo & Juliet: two starcrossed lovers who cannot be together due to their affiliations. But in Daughter of Smoke & Bone, I feel Laini Taylor took that common story and re-imagined it on an epic grand scale, with angels and demons and an eternal war. The chronology of the story is also a bit different as well, telling the end first (although as the reader, you do not know it is the end) and then explaining the beginning, with how Karou and Akiva originally met and so on.

I really enjoyed the beginning of the book (or the ‘end’ of the story). I was totally loving being in Karou’s world, her art classes, her secret visits to Brimstone and her monster family, her annoying ex-boyfriend doing stupid stunts to try to win her back and all the little, and sometimes petty, wishes she made. Where the book began to falter, for me, was when the story shifted and began to tell the tale of how Karou and Akiva originally met. It was very removed from the setting I was already used to, and I was really not expecting that at all. I went from being on a slightly magical/paranormal Earth to a completely different world altogether, one where angels and monsters fought a war on a daily basis. New city names, new geography, new culture to know. The problem wasn’t the newness, it was just such a sudden shift for me that it almost felt like a disconnect between the first half of the book to the second half. The more I read, the more far away I felt from everything I read prior. It almost felt like a completely different story I was reading.

I wasn’t too crazy about was Karou and Akiva’s relationship either. It’s very sweet, but as I mentioned earlier, it is at its core, a Romeo & Juliet kind of story. Even though I praise the author for being so imaginative with it, the relationship is still as simplistic as what you think a Romeo & Juliet story would have. Their relationship is powerful, deep and passionate — and also quite instant. Even though Karou and Akiva started off as enemies, they very, very quickly put that all aside and, well, fell in love. I know, I know — you are thinking, “Uh, did you not READ the book? There is a reason!” I’m perfectly aware but I think even when Karou and Akiva met originally in Karou’s past life, it was still a lot of, “Wow, he’s so beautiful” and “Wow, she’s so beautiful”, with some “I saved your life” mixed in. I’m afraid I just didn’t feel the same fiery passion that these two character felt whenever they were with one another.

Now, with all that said, I did love reading this book a lot though. It was very fun and I became victim to the “just one more chapter” syndrome that all good books seem to be able to inflict on its readers. I liked Karou’s character a lot — not so much her “alter ego” (or rather, her original form) because that personality seemed way too Mary Sue for my liking. But I liked Karou and how she interacted with her human friends and her monster family. I loved the idea of a monster hidden in a little shop collecting teeth — don’t ask my why, but I’m very attached to that idea and this book did a very good job driving me crazy with wanting to know what the heck Brimstone was using the teeth for! You do get to find out in the end, no worries. The book also did a good job driving me crazy with who Karou was in her other life, but that one became somewhat predictable and therefore, less mysterious once Akiva entered the story and you see how they’re interacting.

I certainly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys YA novels, I do think this is one of the better YA novels I’ve read in the last little while. I eagerly look forward to book two: Days Of Blood & Starlight!

My Rating:

Posted:
Mar 11, 2013
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The Tudor Secret

the-tudor-secretAuthor: C. W. Gortner
First Published: February 2011 (2004, under different title)
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Series: The Spymaster Chronicles #1
352 pages (hardcover)

Before I talk about what I thought about this book, there’s two things that you might like to know. The first is that this book was originally published under a completely different title – The Secret Lion — in 2004. As far as I know, that is the exact same book as The Tudor Secret. Secondly, the last page of the story (excluding author’s notes, reading group discussion questions and that stuff) is approximately 324 pages. HOWEVER, if you go to page 280 of this edition, you will notice the page jumps from 280 to 313! The story flows normally, just the page numbers are messed up! This doesn’t really have any impact on the novel, I just wanted to point out this book is not as long as it seems.

This book was a gift given to me by my sister. She knows I like reading royal fiction which is why she got me this. However, I usually am not that interested in reading royal fiction with a fictional main character … if that makes any sense. I like my historical fiction to have all the real historical figures and the real story in a fictionalized format.

Anyway, I bring this up because this book has a fictional main character — Brendan Prescott. He is a foundling, or an orphan, found and reared by the powerful Dudley household, during the reign of King Edward VI of England. Brendan, now 20, is sent to court to squire for Robert Dudley. As soon as he arrives, Brendan finds himself whisked deep into the secrets of the court. He finds himself working as a secret spy for William Cecil, who in turn appears to work for the Lady Elizabeth. As Brendan attempts to play double agent, his own life is at risk: someone wants him out of the picture because they know who he really is and how his birth is related to the Tudors.

I actually really liked the book even though initially I was a little put off by the completely fictional character. With totally fictional characters come totally fictional events, and there were lots in this book, but you know what? After reading so many Tudor novels, it was actually a breath of fresh air to read about the Tudors (yet again) in a new light. Brendan’s character highlighted the secrets of the court and how the court operated. Brendan is an outsider to everything, and not brought up as a noble, which brings a different perspective to the oh-so-familiar story of Edward’s death and Elizabeth and Mary’s ascensions to the throne. I surprised myself — I actually ended up really enjoying the creativity and exciting new drama that a fictional character can bring to an accustomed story.

Also compared to other Tudor novels I have read, this one focuses a lot more on spying and counter-spying. Fast paced espionage! This is probably the first Tudor novel I’ve read which can be described as action-packed. It is thrilling and hard to put down at times.

My only complaints is that some of the fictional events in this book begged my imagination to stretch a little further than I was okay with. These fictional events definitely felt more “Hollywood” than historical.  However, this is a much more fictionalized story than usual, so I tried to frame my mind differently while reading this book. My other complaint is that the characterization was a bit lackluster. I think some of the character could have been given more depth. Brendan was okay though, in my opinion, if only because he was presented in first-person so I got to know all his thoughts.

I’m happy I read this book. Even though it is different from what I am used to regarding Tudor novels, it was a refreshing new take! I look forward to reading more about Brendan in book two!

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Posted:
Feb 21, 2013
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Royal Harlot

Author: Susan Holloway Scott
First Published: 2007
Publisher: New American Library
358 pages (trade paperback)

This is a novel about Barbara Palmer, the Countess of Castlemaine, who was one of the main mistresses of King Charles II, during the period of Restoration England. Historically, she was known to have been a great influence on King Charles, so much so that people would call her the Uncrowned Queen. She was known to be promiscuous and extravagant, leading her to have left a rather negative view of herself throughout the centuries.

Royal Harlot is not a novel that seeks to bring “another side” to the story of Barbara Palmer (at least, I did not get that impression). She is presented just as negatively, I think, in this novel as in history. It is a straightforward story about Barbara’s life as King Charles II’s mistress, beginning from when Oliver Cromwell’s government was still in power. 15 year old Barbara is stunningly gorgeous, but is not the “proper lady” that her mother would have liked her to be. Barbara is spirited and cheerful, but also self centered, calculating and very good at stringing men along by their noses. She’s terribly unfaithful to her husband, Roger, and has all sorts of sexual relations with men. Her biggest catch of all is, of course, the king himself.

Barbara and Charles begin a not-so-secret relationship. Barbara is pleased to be the center of Charles’ life and enjoys being at court, throwing parties, showing off, and accepting lavish gifts from all sorts of people hoping she can wave some of her influence over the king. Barbara has the most power over Charles and she knows it. She is perfectly happy to use her relationship with Charles to her advantage.

If liking the main character, who is in a first person voice, is very important to you, then you may struggle a bit with Royal Harlot. Barbara is not easily likeable in this book. As mentioned earlier, she is self centered and enjoys playing the role of a poor little victimized woman. She remembers all the slights and insults people have done to her and is perfectly willing to wait patiently, even for years, to get her revenge. Even her moments of generosity seemed fake to me; to me, every time she was nice, she did it just to look nice. Barbara was every bit the vixen in this novel. I don’t even think she truly loved the king — certainly she liked him and thought he was attractive and had a great personality. However, from what I can tell from this book, Barbara was more attracted to the fact that he was king and had all this wealth and power. She also didn’t seem to care that he had other mistresses as long as she didn’t have to run into them, and she wasn’t above taking other lovers as well.

Normally such a petty character would annoy me, but I think because Barbara was the first person narrator, it was tolerable. She explained her rationale and reasoning for why she did certain things, so that it made some sort of sense, rather than leaving the reader to conclude that she’s being a bitch “just because she can”. No, I didn’t agree with everything she did, sometimes it was downright childish. For example, there was a scene where she decided to basically brag to Charles’ queen how Charles always visits her in the night and they have all these lovely children, while the queen hasn’t been able to give Charles a single baby. I remember thinking, “Oh come on … she’s the queen and Charles’ wife! Stop being so immature!” (Though I do have to admit, one could argue that the queen is the “other woman” since Charles and Barbara met and hooked up way before he even married his queen).

Even though Barbara is not a very nice character in this book and all that, I was still engrossed in the story. Partly, this has to do with the fact that I haven’t read very many (if any … can’t remember) books having to do with the Stuarts of Britain, so all these stories regarding this part of British royalty history is new to me. With a character like Barbara, you can surely expect lots of court drama. I never felt a dull moment in this book! So yes, I did actually enjoy reading this book a lot, even if I wasn’t particularly crazy about Barbara, heh. The strange thing is, this book made me feel incredible pity for Charles’ queen, Catherine, even though she was mostly a peripheral character, and now I want to read more about her!

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Posted:
Jan 4, 2013
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The Second Empress

Author: Michelle Moran
First Published: August 14, 2012
Publisher: Crown
312 pages (hardcover) 

My first book read in 2013!

I received The Second Empress as a Christmas present from my sister, because I was interested in branching out from historical royalty novels based on England. I was very excited to read this! I don’t know anything about Napoleon’s time period, and I did not know anything about his second wife, Marie-Louise either, so I was eager to read all about them. There’s certainly a sort of wonder in reading a historical novel without actually knowing the history behind it.

The Second Empress encompasses the last six years of Emperor Napoleon’s reign of the first French Empire. The point-of-view alternates between three characters: Marie-Lousie is an Austrian princess who grew up hating the French Empire. Unfortunately, she is in no position to turn down Napoleon’s marriage proposal as he would invade Austria otherwise and likely win. The second character is Princess Pauline, Napoleon’s sister. She has many, many lovers and suffers from some STDs which she takes mercury for. Of course, we know mercury actually will slowly poison you and impair your mental abilities. Pauline is absolutely infatuated with her brother and wants to rule the empire with him as his queen, like the Egyptians did as brother and sister two thousand years ago. The third character is Paul, a half-French half-Haitian man who traveled to France with Pauline after Napoleon took over Haiti. He is in love with Pauline and is waiting for her to fulfill her promise of going back to Haiti with him to live out the rest of their days.

Of course, lastly, we have Napoleon. He does not have his own point-of-view chapters, but he is certainly a major character in this story. Napoleon is at the peak of his power at the start of the novel and in need of an heir for his empire. Although he loves his wife, Josephine, despite her unfaithfulness, she cannot give him children so he feels compelled to divorce her and find someone who can. Also, he feels a strong need to associate himself with “true” royalty (he is, after all, from more humble origins), and thus, sets his gaze on Princess Marie-Louise.

I lament the fact that this book is quite short as I had a wonderful time reading it and didn’t want it to end so soon. I can’t vouch on how historically accurate it is because, as I mentioned earlier, I haven’t a clue as to what real history entailed during this period, but it seems to be very well researched, and it is certainly well written. I had absolutely no troubles reading it, it was so easy to slip into the time period and put myself at Napoleon’s court and be immersed in the lives of the characters and their lavish and difficult lives.

Even though the title character is Marie Louise, I felt Pauline and Napoleon are the characters that stuck out the most to me. The author does a great job creating the charismatic personalities of the Bonaparte siblings, even though they were also cruel and unlikable at the same time. I like how the book portrayed Napoleon even if he was kind of unlikable  but I could tell there was something about him that guided him from being a commoner to the emperor of a vast empire. As for Pauline, I never heard of Pauline prior to this book and this novel showed how much influence she wielded over her brother. You know what, I actually would have loved this book even more if the book focused only on the two of them, because they were such interesting characters. They were hugely ambitious, passionate and selfish. Not always positive traits, but somehow entrancing at the same time.

As for the title character, Marie-Louise, she was okay. Just okay. She’s likable and all that, but her character did not shine as bright as one would hope. She was an obedient wife who did not want to anger Napoleon for fear of him invading her home country. Napoleon was a little cruel to her at times, but did care for her greatly overall. So, sad to say, she wasn’t actually that interesting. And the last point-of-view character Paul was also just okay to me too. He seemed to be a pretty intelligent fellow but he couldn’t tear himself away from Pauline, who was so obviously toxic. Actually, I didn’t really understand why he had a point-of-view in the novel, he didn’t seem like a particularly important character. Even in the afterword, all he got was two sentences whereas everyone else got entire paragraphs.

I enjoyed this book a lot and definitely would recommend to others to read. I actually have another Michelle Moran book – Nefertiti — that I bought ages ago and has been just sitting idly on my bookshelf; think I’ll go and read that one soon! This book has inspired me to look more into the Napoleonic time period, it was such a wonderful read.

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Posted:
Dec 28, 2012
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Clockwork Prince

Author: Cassandra Clare
First Published: December 2011
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Series: The Infernal Devices #2
502 pages (hardcover)

Huh, I didn’t expect myself to pick up book two so soon after I finished the first one. I actually tried to read a different, unrelated novel after I finished Clockwork Angel, but found myself gravitating back towards this series. I know I made a number of complaints about the last book, and they still exist for me in this book, but overall, I do really like the story world so I guess I didn’t want to disconnect myself from it so soon.

Clockwork Prince focuses on the London Institute trying to find Mortmain, our villain who got away in the previous book. To raise the stakes even higher, they are given a deadline of merely two weeks to locate the bad guy, no thanks to Benedict Lightwood, who helped propose this condition. Benedict Lightwood wants to run the London Institute badly, as he has always felt Charlotte (our current head of the Institute) does not deserve the position. With the recent events that took place, Benedict challenges Charlotte’s competency and thus, imposes this harsh condition.

As they research and look into Mortmain’s history, Tessa (our main character), finds herself caught in a love triangle between Will and Jem. The two boys are also best of friends and sworn brothers to one another, making the situation kind of awkward for Tessa. Tessa loves both boys dearly, but as Will seems intent on pushing Tessa away and Jem puts his heart out on his sleeve for Tessa, the choice seems obvious.

For me, personally, I felt this entire book was focused on the love triangle between Tessa, Will and Jem. Finding Mortmain felt more like a secondary plot, which is totally okay with me. I didn’t find that aspect of the book particularly interesting anyway. In terms of the Mortmain portion of the plot, Clockwork Prince is the bridge that simply connects Clockwork Angel to the third book to be released, Clockwork Princess. (And on that note, what is with the titles?? They never really make sense with what the book’s plot is about. Clockwork Angel was ambiguous at best, while in this book, the so-called Clockwork Prince is supposed to be Mortmain, and it was only mentioned once. And like I said, Mortmain was not a big part of this second book, he wasn’t even actually in it, only mentioned).

Onto Tessa, Will and Jem. I loved the love triangle between them, I really do. I should also say it now — I’m a Jem fangirl. This book made me very happy because Jem got to experience a lot of happiness in his relationship with Tessa. HOWEVER, I also have a feeling of doom because it’s so obvious that Tessa will end up with Will in the very end, and Jem will either end up dead, alone forever, or given some random girl to fall in love with at the last minute (really hope it’s not the third. That would be just plain stupid).

(Warning: fangirl rant incoming): I mean, I really, really hope I’m wrong and that Tessa will realize that she truly loves Jem in the end. However, this isn’t my first rodeo with love triangles. I’ve read quite a number of teenage story love triangles and the more extroverted guy always gets the girl. In my experience so far, that has always been the case. Besides that, there’s tons of hints in the book that show Tessa and Will are the couple to be: they both have a geeky love for poetry and literature (Jem does not); Tessa can’t stop thinking about Will even when she’s with Jem (big hint there); Tessa and Will are clearly the main female and male leads in the book (main characters usually end up with one another). I really hope I’m wrong though. I mean, I don’t even understand why Tessa and Will love one another, and so deeply! Will has been nothing but a cheeky asshole to Tessa, how she ends up loving him is beyond me. In my own experience, you do not end up falling in deep love with a guy who’s a cheeky asshole even if he’s drop dead gorgeous. Jem, on the other hand, has been very kind to her. They’ve had outings together (like touring London) and had opportunities to grow close. And he is just as good looking! I guess what makes me such a big Jem fangirl is also the fact that I feel Tessa and Jem’s relationship developed more naturally, whereas Will’s and Tessa’s was too Insta-Love ish for my liking.

Ack. My point is, this love triangle is awfully predictable, and yet, addicting. I still hope I’m wrong though. Also, I hope Tessa becomes more likeable. She’s such a player, haha. It’s hard to like her when I feel like she’s playing Jem.

Clockwork Prince has a slower paced plot because it focuses more on the budding relationships between Tessa, Will and Jem. Love the relationship between the three of them, even if I’m totally biased in Jem’s favor. A lot of my previous complaints from book one still stand, but I do feel this second book was significantly better than the first and I am very excited to read book three, Clockwork Princess, when it is released.

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Posted:
Dec 9, 2012
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Tigers In Red Weather

Author: Liza Klaussman
First Published: July 2012
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
269 pages (eBook)

I’m not really sure what caused me to pick up this novel to read. I first saw it at the bookstore, and quite liked the cover. Reminded me a bit of The Great Gatsby. The title was also quite intriguing — tigers in red weather? What could that mean?  Anyway, I eventually got the novel and read it. While at first I was kind of “meh” about it, the story really grew on me and I ended up really liking it. I have been ruminating on the story ever since I finished it — so much betrayal, guilt, love and lust. Everyone’s hiding something, from someone else or from themselves. It starts off rather light hearted but snowballs into an intense drama.

Tigers In Red Weather is a story set in the mid 40′s to late 50′s time period. It spans two decades, give or take, and follows five main characters. The novel is split into five parts, one for each of them. Nick (who is a woman — that threw me off in the beginning, when I didn’t realize she was a woman) and Helena are cousins and best friends. They enjoy spending their summers at Tiger House, a family-owned estate. Their life seems perfect, what with the ending of World War II approaching: Nick’s husband, Hughes, is coming back from war and Helena is soon to marry her own husband and move to glamorous Hollywood.

However, life is not as wonderful and perfect as it seems. Hughes has come back a changed man and Helena’s husband, Avery, is a sly and untrustworthy figure. A decade later, the cousins reunite at Tiger House, now each with their own child: Daisy (Nick’s) and Ed (Helena’s). They throw a party, not knowing that that night, everything in their lives was going to change. A murder happens, the victim being the maid of a neighbour’s, and everyone’s secrets and guilts begin to leak out, spanning another decade.

The story does not move forward in time in a straightforward manner. It generally moves in one direction, but also hops backwards into the past and then back into the present, and occasionally into the future. This created a very suspenseful atmosphere in the book, although at first I didn’t realize there was a ‘mystery’ involved so I didn’t understand why we were jumping around time so much. Besides suspense, there is also an element of horror although I would not go so far to classify it as horror. More of a “something is not quite right” element, really. It’s not evident at first. It kind of creeps up on you. At first you don’t think anything is off, just a little odd. Then you have a sense something is not quite right, which slowly but surely makes you feel kind of chilled, until at last the truth comes out. Perhaps sharper readers would have caught on earlier to the truth/secret, but I did not see it coming and when it was all revealed, I was quite surprised because when I first started the book, I had no idea it would head in such a dramatic direction!

I liked this book because I felt it struck a good balance between character development and plot, not too much or too little of either. The characters in particular were lovely. Each one was flawed in their own unique way, fighting their own demons. It’s definitely a grim story despite the summery-looking book cover. The characters are all miserable but hiding behind lies they’ve told themselves (or things they have convinced themselves of being the truth).  It’s just all very well done in my opinion, the characters all captured my interest one hundred percent. In particular, Ed was fascinating and what compelled me to keep reading because he seemed to be the biggest mystery of all. He was the last perspective introduced in the story so you don’t get to find out his thoughts and feelings until the end, so for the longest time, I was just guessing as to why Ed was the way he was, and what really happened that midsummer night with the maid’s murder.

Tigers In Red Weather is a fascinating read and if the plot synopsis sounds interesting to you, I’d definitely recommend you check it out.

My Rating: