Cursed, by Thomas Wheeler, Illustrated by Frank Miller ~ 3.0 Stars

Tags

Arthurian Legends, Historical Fantasy, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

416 Pages

Release Date: October 1st, 2019

Synopsis: The Lady of the Lake is the true hero in this cinematic twist on the tale of King Arthur created by Thomas Wheeler and legendary artist, producer and, director Frank Miller (300, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City). Featuring 8 full color and 30 black-and-white pieces of original artwork by Frank Miller.

Whosoever wields The Sword of Power shall be the one true King.

But, what if the Sword has chosen a Queen?

Nimue grew up an outcast. Her connection to dark magic made her something to be feared in her Druid village, and that made her desperate to leave…

That is, until her entire village is slaughtered by Red Paladins, and Nimue’s fate is forever altered. Charged by her dying mother to reunite an ancient sword with a legendary sorcerer, Nimue is now her people’s only hope. Her mission leaves little room for revenge, but the growing power within her can think of little else.

Nimue teams up with a charming mercenary named Arthur and refugee Fey Folk from across England. She wields a sword meant for the one true king, battling paladins and the armies of a corrupt king. She struggles to unite her people, avenge her family, and discover the truth about her destiny.

But perhaps the one thing that can change Destiny itself is found at the edge of a blade.

Cursed has been one of my most anticipated reads of 2019, especially as it’s also going to be a Netflix series in 2020. I love Arthurian legends, and having Nimue take the lead role is long overdue. Alas, this has turned into one of my most frustrating reads in recent memory. There is just so much potential here, but it falls short in quite a few ways.

While I liked the way Thomas Wheeler depicted some of the already known Arthurian characters in some creative and unique ways, Nimue herself is just way too derivative of other female main characters in fantasy, namely Celaena from The Throne of Glass series, by Sarah Maas. There’s virtually nothing distinguishable between the two characters except that Celaena is more intelligent. I did find the secondary characters more interesting, particularly Lancelot, Morgan, and Iris. Except for a few tweaks, Arthur remains pretty true to previous depictions by other authors, but there’s the possibility for some further development with his character in the next book.

I actually liked the storyline, especially near the beginning, but then the narrative winds up being split between the povs of several characters and it’s a bit incohesive with everyone wandering around doing their own thing, marking time until the big climax. Speaking of which, the cliffhanger ending I found anti-climatic and deeply disappointing.

As far as the artwork goes, I don’t think this is Frank Miller’s best work and it really did nothing for the story. To be honest, I think it’s distracting at times.

Overall, while I didn’t hate Cursed, it’s definitely a disappointment. Thomas Wheeler needed to flesh out both the story and its characters to make it stand out from the crowded field of Arthurian novels. That said, I do see potential here and I will definitely give the next installment a try. I will also be binging on the series when it drops on Netflix, especially as it stars Katherine Langford from 13 Reasons Why, and Devon Terrell who excellently played a young Barack Obama in Barry.

 

Lost Crow Conspiracy (Blood Rose Rebellion #2), by Rosalyn Eves ~ 3.5 Stars

Tags

Historical Fantasy, Political Intrigue, Romance, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Books for Young Readers for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: March 27th, 2018

464 Pages

Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old Anna Arden was once a magically barren girl from an elite Luminate family. Now she has broken the Binding—-and Praetheria, the creatures held captive by the spell, wreak havoc across Europe. Lower-class citizens have access to magic for the first time, while other Luminate lose theirs forever. Austria and Hungary are at odds once more.

Anna Arden did not know breaking the Binding would break the world.

Anna thought the Praetheria were on her side, content and grateful to be free of the Binding. She thought her cousin Matyas’s bloom sacrifice to the disarm the spell would bring peace, equality, justice. She thought her future looked like a society that would let her love a Romani boy, Gabor.

But with the Monarchy breathing down her neck and the Praetheria intimidating her at every turn, it seems like the conspiracies have only just begun.

As threat of war sweeps the region, Anna quickly discovers she can’t solve everything on her own. Now there’s only one other person who might be able to save the country before war breaks out. The one person Anna was sure she’d never see again. A bandit. A fellow outlaw. A man known as the King of Crows. Matyas.

At the end of Blood Rose Rebellion, I had mixed feelings regarding it, but there were enough positives that I thought I’d take a chance on the sequel, Lost Crow Conspiracy, and I’m glad I did. The book begins not long after where the previous one ended. Anna is facing more danger than ever and the only one she can trust is Gabor. I felt much more sympathy for her this time around, because she truly is caught in the middle both politically and personally.

Matayas is equally important to this story and the chapters alternate between him and Anna. Yet for some reason I found Anna’s perspective far more interesting and couldn’t stop myself from skimming through some of his chapters. Eventually though, his and Anna’s stories begin to link and this ceased to be an issue for me.

Although the pacing was a bit slow in the beginning, it picked up well before the halfway mark. And, I’m happy to say that while the other issues I had with Blood Rose Rebellion, concerning character development and world-building, weren’t fully resolved, they were appreciably better. One other positive I must mention is that the author truly has a beautiful writing style which helps keep your attention to the story even during the slower moments.

Overall, I’m quite happy with where Rosalyn Eves took her characters and story in Lost Crow Conspiracy, and I’ll definitely be reading the third book and final book. If you enjoy complex YA fantasy with loads of political intrigue I recommend checking this out.

 

The Tombs, by Deborah Schaumberg ~ 4.5 Stars

Tags

Adventure, Historical Fantasy, Mystery, New York City, Suspense

Thanks to Edelweiss and HarperTeen for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Available Now 

448 Pages

Synopsis: New York, 1882. A dark forbidding city, and no place for a girl with unexplainable powers.

Sixteen-year-old Avery Kohl pines for the life she had before her mother was taken. She fears the mysterious men in crow masks who locked her mother in the Tombs asylum for being able to see what others couldn’t. Avery denies the signs in herself, focusing instead on her shifts at the ironworks factory and keeping her inventor father out of trouble. Other than secondhand tales of adventure from her best friend, Khan, an ex-slave, and caring for her falcon Seraphine, Avery spends her days struggling to survive.

Like her mother’s, Abery’s powers refuse to be contained. When she causes a bizarre explosion at the factory, she has no choice but to run from her lies, straight into the darkest corners of the city. Avery must embrace her abilities and learn to wield their power—-or join her mother in the cavernous horrors of the Tombs. And the Tombs has secrets of its own: strange experiments are being performed on “patients”…and no one knows why.

I hope you all don’t mind, but this is going to be a shorter than usual review. I’m still battling health stuff, but I wanted to share how much I loved The Tombs. First, how gorgeous is that cover? C’mon. Aren’t your hands reaching for it just looking at it? I’m also thrilled to say that the story is just about as wonderful as the cover. It’s a perfect blend of history and fantasy, and Deborah Schaumberg does a fantastic job at bring gritty 1882 New York City to vividly to life. Almost everything works here, from the well-rounded, relatable characters to the marvelous world-building. The only reason why I’m not giving this a perfect 5 Stars is because toward the middle of the book the pace seemed to slow down a bit for a few chapters. Overall though, The Tombs is an absolutely stellar historical fantasy that I unhesitatingly recommend to fans of this genre. There’d better be a sequel in the works because that ending definitely left me wanting more!

 

The Wendy (Tales of the Wendy #1), by Erin Michelle Sky and Steven Brown ~ 5.0 Stars

Tags

Fantasy Retellings, Historical Fantasy, Humor, Misogyny, YA Fiction

Thanks to the authors for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Available Now

288 Pages

Synopsis: 

London. 1783. Wendy Darling is an orphan, living in an overcrowded almshouse, ridiculed for believing in a future she can never have. More than anything in the world, she wants to be the captain of a ship. But that’s impossible. Isn’t it?

By 1789, she’s sixteen, old enough to be sold into service as a dressmaker or a servant. When she learns the Home Office is accepting a handful of women into its ranks, she jumps at the chance, joining the flight against the most formidable threat England has ever faced. Magic.

But the secret service isn’t exactly what she had hoped. Accompanied by a reimagined cast of the original Peter Pan, Wendy soon discovers that her dreams are as far away as ever, that choosing sides isn’t as simple as she thought, and that the only man who isn’t blinded by her gender…might be her nation’s greatest enemy.

A couple of weeks ago, I took part in the blog tour for The Wendy. I was very excited as I loved the cover and the excerpt that was provided. Well, after finishing the book last night, I’m thrilled to say it exceeded my expectations.

The Wendy is more than a simple retelling, despite having the familiar characters of Wendy, John, Michael, Nana, Peter Pan, Captain James Hook, and Tinkerbell. Set in Jane Austen’s England when misogyny was rife, Wendy is a diviner with the British Home Office and Clandestine Services. Women and dogs (which is where Nana comes in) are the only ones able to sense magic. Unfortunately, despite this ability, women are still judged solely by their gender, something Wendy is determined to overcome. I absolutely LOVED her! Her intellect is a sharp as a rapier and I was in stitches over the way the males in the book are so often left completely nonplussed by her. I’m not going to go into details, but even her eyebrow hysterically takes on a personality of it’s own! I know this sounds odd, but you’ll just have to trust me on this. Not only a learned scholar, she also is a better fighter than most of the men she serves with, including John and Michael. Her steely determination to realize her dream is such a positive message and readers won’t be able to stop themselves from cheering for her.

Peter is the leader of the everlost—winged beings with pointy fangs. He’s just as cocky as the original Pan, yet there’s a sweet innocence about him. The scene where he and Wendy first meet, is my favorite. At first he completely underestimates her because she’s a woman, yet he quickly comes to admire and respect her and their banter is just as much fun as the sword fight. An underlying romance starts to develop between the two, and I can’t wait to see how their relationship develops in the next book. 

I’m going to stop at describing everyone else, because I don’t want to be any more spoilerish than I already have been. I’m just going to say that EVERYONE is simply perfect; from the ever loyal John, Michael, and Nana; to Hook who is villainous yet endearing at the same time. Each character, while based on the original is so unique and imaginative that I fully fell in love with them.

And if the wonderful characters aren’t enough, there’s the creative and exciting plot. In addition to Barrie’s classic, I’ve read five or six retellings of this story and I didn’t think I could be surprised anymore. Well, the authors managed to not only keep me enthralled, but also to surprise me by the direction their story took.

The Wendy isn’t simply another YA fantasy book. This is a gorgeously told tale that all adult fans of historical fantasy should experience, especially if you have fond memories of the original Peter Pan. With a heroine whose fierce determination and wit leap off the page, it’s most welcome as current events have shown that misogyny is sadly alive and well even now. My one disappointment is that I have no idea when the second book will be coming out. I realize it’s only January, but I already know The Wendy is going to be one of my favorite books of 2018 and I’m going to be re-reading it multiple times in the future. If you love fantasy and you’re looking for a perfect escape from the winter doldrums, politics, or you need a break from the world in general—please, PLEASE treat yourself and pick up this book. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

 

Glass Town, by Steven Savile ~ 2.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Mystery, Urban Fantasy

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas Dunne Books for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Available Now

336 Pages

Synopsis: In 1926, two brothers both loved Eleanor Raines, a promising young actress from the East End of London. But, along with Seth Lockwood, she disappeared, near to be seen again. Isaiah, Seth’s younger brother, refused to accept that she was just gone.

It has been seventy years since and the brothers are long dead. But now their dark, twisted secret threatens to tear the city apart. Seth made a bargain with Camilla, an illusionist, to make a life size version of his most famous trick, and hide away part of London to act as a prison out of sync with our time, where one year passes as one hundred. That illusion is Glass Town. And now its walls are falling.

I have such mixed feelings about Glass Town after finishing it last night. It has an awesome premise which had me very excited going into it, but the pacing was surprisingly slow and I found myself struggling to finish it. 

Adding to my difficulties was my inability to connect with any of the characters. Seth is your stereotypical evil villain, but there’s no real reasons provided for his actions. Josh is likewise two dimensional and Eleanor is portrayed as a distant, too perfect figure. Their voices were also too similar and there were several times that I got confused as to who was speaking.

The world building and central mystery fair better, and I thought the author did a marvelous job blending the history of the 1920s with 1990s London. It’s very atmospheric and noirish. Another element that Savile adds is Alfred Hitchcock’s unfinished silent movie, Number 13. This was by far my favorite part of the entire story. The writing though is very dense and slowed down the pace. There’s also several sexual scenes, violence and language that based on the premise I wasn’t expecting and at timest, just seemed to be just thrown in there rather awkwardly.

Overall, Glass Town had some moments of creative brilliance, but in the end wound up being a bit of a disappointment for me. It’s not a horrible book, but given the pedigree of Steven Savile who has been a writer on shows like Dr. Who, Stargate, and Torchwood, I was expecting more. However, there are many reviewers who loved it, so I recommend you check it out for yourself, especially if you enjoy gritty historical urban fantasy and authors like Clive Barker.  

A Shadow Bright And Burning (Kingdom On Fire #1) ~ By Jessica Cluess – 3.0 Stars

Tags

Historical Fantasy, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Books For Young Readers for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

416 Pages

Synopsis: I am Henrietta Howel. The first female sorcerer. The prophesied one. Or am I?

Henrietta Howell can burst into flames. When she is brought to London to train with her Majesty’s sorcerers, she meets her fellow sorcerer trainees, young men eager to test her powers and her her heart. One will challenge her. One will fight for her. One will betray her. As Henrietta discovers the secrets hiding behind the glamour of sorcerer life, she begins to doubt that she’s the true prophesied one. With battle looming, how much will she risk to save the city–and the one she loves?

There are some things about this book that I loved, beginning with Jessica Cluess turning the Chosen One trope upside down. That’s not to say Henrietta isn’t the much ballyhooed “prophesied one”. To be honest, by the end of the book I was still undecided. I did feel the beginning of the story is a bit rushed with things coming together a little too fortuitously, but once Henrietta arrives in London to begin training with her fellow sorcerers, the frenetic pace slows to that of a more steady one. Henrietta herself is a complicated character. I liked her self-assuredness and determination, but there are times that she also comes across as self-absorbed. There are seven young men training with her which makes the romance, er, interesting. Because it could have gone into the almost always  annoying love triangle, quadrangle territory, this could have taken away from the story, but I actually didn’t mind it because it wound up taking a backseat to the story itself. This was also fortunate because I’m hoping the author spends some more time developing her characters. None of them really stood out from any from previous books in similar genres. Don’t get me wrong. They’re likable enough. They’re just not very original. I love books set in Victorian London which is another reason why this book called out to me. While I thought Cluess did a good job creating the setting, she did very little in the way of actual world-building. She never fully goes into the history and the magic that is the foundation of the story and in the end I was left wanting more. So, I think what I want to say is that despite the flaws in this first book, I still think this series has a lot of potential, and because of this I will definitely try the next book. I’d recommend this to fans of the The Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare, as it’s somewhat similar in tone and setting.

Julia Vanishes (Witch’s Child #1) ~ By Catherine Egan – 4.0

Tags

Adventure, Historical Fantasy, Mystery, YA Fiction

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf Books for Young Readers for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: Julia has the unusual ability to be…unseen. Not invisible, exactly. Just beyond most people’s senses.

It’s a dangerous trait in a city that has banned all forms of magic and drowns witches in public Cleansings. But it’s a useful trait for a thief and a spy. And Julia has learned–crime pays.

Her latest job is paying very well indeed. Julia is posing as a housemaid in the grand house of Mrs. Och, where an ord assortment of characters live and work: A disgraced professor who sends her to fetch parcels containing bullets, spiders, and poison. An aristocratic houseguest who is locked in the basement each night. And a mysterious young woman who is clearly in hiding–though from what or whom?

Worse, Julia suspects that there’s a connection between these people and the killer leaving a trail of bodies across the frozen city.

The more she learns, the more she wants to be done with this unnatural job. To go back to the safety of her friends and fellow thieves. But Julia is entangled in a struggle between forces more powerful than she’d ever imagined. Escape will come at a terrible price.

Julia Vanishes is a historical fantasy in a Victorian England type world, where magic is real and suspected witches are publicly executed by way of drowning. What I found really different about this book is the magic itself. Spells are cast through the use of pen and paper rather than verbally. Because of this, any women found with writing implements are immediately suspect. Julia herself isn’t a witch (although her mother was), yet she has this unique talent of disappearing. As the synopsis says, it’s not like turning invisible. It’s, well…you’re just going to have to read this to find out. In this first book of what looks to be a trilogy, there’s not much in the way explanation as to why she has this ability. It’ll be interesting how it’s explored in the next story. Julia is a complicated character. She’s got plenty of courage, and loyalty to those she cares about, but she’s also greedy and selfish. Some of her actions are pretty immoral. However, when you take into consideration that she’s sixteen-years-old, as well as her circumstances, this is both understandable and believable. The way in which the author develops her in both maturity and morality is extremely well done. The secondary characters are also quite interesting. There’s one particular villain who at the beginning I thought was going to play a much larger role, but wound up being a small part of what happens to Julia and her family/friends. I have a feeling he’s going to be front and center in the other stories though, and I’m looking forward to any future interactions between him and Julia. I was also disappointed that her brother Dek, wasn’t more fully developed. Hopefully he’ll feature more prominently in the next story. The world-building is the best part of the book and it had me completely enthralled. I did find it slightly slow to start, but it didn’t take long for my attention to be captured. The ending isn’t quite a cliffhanger, but it nicely sets things up for the next book. Overall, Catherine Egan has written a solid introduction to her Witch’s Child trilogy and I’m eagerly anticipating the next book.