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YA Fantasy

Book Review Entwined By Heather Dixon

January 31, 2012      4 Comments

Synopsis: Azalea is trapped. Just when she should feel that everything is before her . . . beautiful gowns, dashing suitors, balls filled with dancing . . . it’s taken away. All of it.


The Keeper understands. He’s trapped, too, held for centuries within the walls of the palace. And so he extends an invitation.

Every night, Azalea and her eleven sisters may step through the enchanted passage in their room to dance in his silver forest.


But there is a cost Azalea may not realize how tangled she is in [the] web until it is too late…

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Book Review : White Cat, Curse Workers Book 1

January 5, 2012      Leave a Comment

“Marks forget that whenever something’s too good to be true, that’s because it’s a con.” 

– White Cat, Holly Black

Synopsis: Cassel comes from a family of curse workers — people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they’re all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn’t got the magic touch, so he’s an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. . .Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. 



I first came across Holly Black while reading Cassandra Clare. Clare and Black are often on tour together and even edit each other’s work. Plus characters from Black’s Valiant series appear in The Mortal Instruments and Jace Wayland is even mentioned in this book.

So, when I picked up White Cat in audiobook form I expected to find something similar to the Mortal Instruments–White Cat was anything but that. Instead, it is a high-octane fantasy heist novel sprinkled with family drama.

Cassel Sharpe comes from a family of curseworkers, individuals who have the special ability to “curse” others in things such as luck and death. In a world where curse working and crime go hand-in-hand, dark family secrets rise to the surface and Cassel’s life is turned on its head. Soon he finds himself caught up in the biggest con-game of his life, all because of one white cat.

Black does an amazing job of crafting the world in which Cassel lives. She creates a slight alternative history that does not overbear the plot or force itself into the setting of the novel, it flowed so naturally, it makes you think it could have actually happened. She allows the characters to speak and define themselves. We get to know them for what they do and say not because of shimmering eyes or perfect hair.

The novel does follow a few cliches associated with con jobs, which includes trying to misdirect the audience to give an exciting pay-off. While this might work on TV it made the end of the novel confusing and a caused a few plot holes to stick out.

The novel does go a bit dark and there were a few nightmare fueledmoments, but you can usually catch them in time to glance over it.

I really liked the audiobook for this, it’s a short one with only 6 discs, but Jesse Eisenberg gives a great performance. I would definitely recommend it for someone who wants to get into audio books.



If you are a fan of heist dramedys like Leverage, Ocean’s Thirteen or The Italian job I think you will enjoy this book. I also found this book to be very similar to All These Things I’ve Done with the mention of crime families, alternate history and family drama.

 For all you Holly Black fans, is there some inside joke about coffee in Holly Black novels ? Because she mentions coffee in atleast every chapter and there is a picture of coffee on her website? Anyone?

Curse Workers 2, Red Glove is out now, but this story could certainly stand on its own.

Amazon.com | Indiebound | Barnes and Noble

Book Review : Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

December 8, 2011      4 Comments

“Sometimes the only choice is between acceptance and madness.” 

 _ Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel

“Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry.” 

― Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel

 

I thought Clockwork Angel was excellent and as much as I didn’t want to compare it to The Mortal Instruments…I did.

But, let’s answer the banner question: Do I need to read The Mortal Instruments to understand Clockwork Angel? No. In fact, unless you just want to read them, I would skip TMI. You just can’t have the “Hey! It the thing/person/place from the thing !” moments. Don’t worry, in my opinion, it’s a fair trade.

…

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Book Review : City of Ashes

October 10, 2011      2 Comments

“Everyone has choices to make; no one has the right to take those choices away from us. Not even out of love.”

–Cassandra Clare, City of Ashes 

 Synopsis :  Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what’s normal when you’re a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries?. . .Clary’s only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine. . . To complicate matters, someone in New York City is murdering Downworlder children. 

Ahh, The Mortal Instruments  Series . . . we meet again. As I have already said, I am not the biggest fan of this series. The plot isn’t terrible, but some of the writing drives me up the wall. Still, I keep reading them because I hate stopping in the middle of things and I did get City of Glass signedso I might as well stick around.

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Book Review : Uglies

September 24, 2011      2 Comments

  “What you do, the way you think, makes you beautiful.”

– Scott Westerfeld Uglies

Synopsis:  Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can’t wait. Not for her license — for turning pretty. In Tally’s world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there. . . But Tally’s new friend Shay isn’t sure she wants to be pretty. . . When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world — and it isn’t very pretty. 

Scott Westerfeld’s  Uglies is the first in a series of novels that asks the question; What is the cost of beauty? This dystopian novel takes place in a world were everyone is made to believe they are “ugly” until their sixteenth birthday, when the are tuned pretty via extensive plastic surgery.

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Book Review : City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

September 20, 2011      3 Comments

 “Sarcasm is the last refuge of the imaginatively bankrupt.”

                                           ― City of Bones

 

Synopsis : When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder — much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Clary knows she should call the police, but it’s hard to explain a murder when the body disappears into thin air and the murderers are invisible to everyone but Clary.
Equally startled by her ability to see them, the murderers explain themselves as Shadowhunters: a secret tribe of warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. Within twenty-four hours, Clary’s mother disappears and Clary herself is almost killed by a grotesque demon.


But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know….

I first heard about City of Bones via the drama concerning author Cassandra Clare. I’ve heard everything from rave reviews of this book to people claiming it was downright laughable. I’ve also heard this series is pretty much like Twilight. When I found out the series was being picked up for a film, I finally decided to read it.

What did I think ?

…

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