Audiobook Review: Beauty by Robin McKinley

Beauty
Author: Robin McKinley
Narrator: Charlotte Perry
Publication: Recorded Books
Length: 7 hours and 5 minutes

Description: The New York Times–bestselling author of Rose Daughter reimagines the classic French fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast.

I was the youngest of three daughters. Our literal-minded mother named us Grace, Hope, and Honour... My father still likes to tell the story of how I acquired my odd nickname: I had come to him for further information when I first discovered that our names meant something besides you-come-here. He succeeded in explaining grace and hope, but he had some difficulty trying to make the concept of honour understandable to a five-year-old... I said: ‘Huh! I’d rather be Beauty.’

By the time it was evident that I was going to let the family down by being plain, I’d been called Beauty for over six years. I wasn’t really very fond of my given name, Honour, either as if ‘honourable’ were the best that could be said of me.

The sisters’ wealthy father loses all his money when his merchant fleet is drowned in a storm, and the family moves to a village far away. Then the old merchant hears what proves to be a false report that one of his ships had made it safe to harbor at last, and on his sad, disappointed way home again he becomes lost deep in the forest and has a terrifying encounter with a fierce Beast, who walks like a man and lives in a castle. The merchant’s life is forfeit, says the Beast, for trespass and the theft of a rose—but he will spare the old man’s life if he sends one of his daughters: “Your daughter would take no harm from me, nor from anything that lives in my lands.” When Beauty hears this story—for her father had picked the rose to bring to her—her sense of honor demands that she take up the Beast’s offer, for “cannot a Beast be tamed?”

This “splendid story” by the Newbery Medal–winning author of The Hero and the Crown has been named an ALA Notable Book and a Phoenix Award Honor Book (Publishers Weekly).

My Thoughts: BEAUTY is a wonderful fairy tale adaptation. It is told by Beauty who is the youngest of a merchant's three daughters. When the merchant who owns his own fleet of ships runs into bad luck - storms, lost ships, lost cargo - it becomes necessary to sell everything and move out of the city.

Among the losses is the man the eldest daughter Grace loves. But the blacksmith who has been working in her father's shipyard and who loves the middle sister Hope has a solution. He has a chance to go back to the village where he was raised to open up the blacksmith's forge and offers to take them all with him. 

They find the journey difficult and the new lifestyle without servants to be hard, but they do adapt with the help of the locals. Beauty misses her life of scholarship but adapts to being the one able to do the harder work along with Greatheart, the large horse a friend in the city gave her. 

Time passes...Hope marries her blacksmith, Grace seems to be recovering from her grief for her lost sailor, and then word comes that one of their father's ships has made it home. He travels to take care of things and finds he has but a little money when everything is wrapped up. He buys a horse to take him home to his daughters. When he is nearly home, there is a sudden blizzard, and he gets lost in the magical forest that is near their home. He stumbles upon a mysterious castle and spends the night. 

When he is ready to leave in the morning, he decides to take one rose from the garden since the only thing Beauty had asked him to bring back was seeds to grow roses. This theft angers the castle's owner, and he demands one of the man's daughters as payment. 

Beauty, who was christened Honour, decides that she will be the one to repay her father's debt and finds herself in a magical castle complete with invisible servants, a library with books not yet written, and a lonely Beast. 

I loved the lyrical language and the well-developed personalities of the characters. This is still one of my favorites by this author and one of my favorite fairy tale adaptations. 

I bought this one during an Audible sale in October 2021. There doesn't seem to be a current buy link at Amazon. However, the audiobook is available at Chirp. 

Book & Audio Review: A Scandal in Battersea by Mercedes Lackey

A Scandal in Battersea
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Narrator: Gemma Dawson
Series: Elemental Masters (Book 12)
Publication: Audible Studios (October 17, 2017); DAW (October 17, 2017)
Length: 11 hours and 40 minutes; 316 p.

Description: The twelfth novel in Mercedes Lackey's magical Elemental Masters series reimagines Sherlock Holmes in a richly-detailed alternate 20th-century England

Christmas is a very special time of year. It is special for Psychic Nan Killian and Medium Sarah Lyon-White and their ward Suki, who are determined to celebrate it properly. It is special for their friends, Doctor John Watson, and his wife Mary, both Elemental Masters, who have found great delight in the season seeing it through young Suki’s eyes.

It is also special to others...for very different reasons.

For Christmas Eve is also hallowed to dark forces, powers older than mankind, powers that come awake on this long, cold night. Powers best left alone. Powers that could shake the foundations of London and beyond.

It begins slowly.  Women disappearing in the dark of night, women only missed by those of their own kind. The whispers only begin when they start to reappear—because when they do, they are no longer sane. And when Nan and Sarah and the Watsons are called on to examine these victims, they discover that it was no ordinary horror of the streets that drove them mad.

But then, the shadows reach for other victims—girls of good, even exalted families, who vanish from concerts, lectures, and evening balls. And it will take the combined forces of Magic, Psychic Powers, and the world's greatest detective to stop the darkness before it can conquer all.

My Thoughts: The twelfth Elemental Masters books stars returning characters Nan Killian, Sarah Lyon-White, Sherlock Holmes, and Dr. John and Mary Watson. It is Christmas time and all are determined to make the occasion special for Nan and Sarah's ward Suki. But while they are attending the Panto and window shopping, Alexandre Harcourt is planning on calling on a dark power to get himself power.

Alexandre Harcourt hates the Christmas season but this year a new occult book he finds at his favorite bookstore gives him an idea for a way to increase his power and wealth. He is a resentful man who hates that his father left him under the supervision of his lawyers. He learns about an entity who will grant his wishes if he just follows the entity's instructions. The entity instructs him to find victims for him and sends Harcourt and his loyal man Alf out to find pure young people to feed to him. 

People go missing in London every day, but when a young woman from the prosperous middle class goes missing and is found wandering mindlessly, Sherlock Holmes is called in. Sherlock asks Nan to look at the young woman. Nan discovers that the girl is little more than an automaton. Her soul is missing!

When other girls go missing and are found in the same condition, and when a young women the Watsons, Nan and Sarah have rescued from an institution for the insane because of her visions sees a London in ruins, forces are gathered to try to find out what is happening and how the forces for good can stop it.

The story is richly detailed and filled with amazing images. It drifted a little bit more to horror than I am usually comfortable with, but the compelling storytelling kept me reading and listening. Gemma Dawson did a great job with the variety of accents and characters and also did an excellent job with the story's pacing. 

Favorite Quote:

"We can only do what's in our strenth, don't ye see? We just have to make sure we do what's in our stenth."

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

Book & Audio Review: Reserved for the Cat by Mercedes Lackey

Reserved for the Cat
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Narrator: Mirabai Galashan
Series: Elemental Masters (Book 5)
Publication: DAW; Reprint edition (October 7, 2008); Audible Studios (October 20, 2009)
Length: 388 p.; 10 hours and 41 minutes

Description: Mercedes Lackey's magical Elemental Masters series recasts familiar fairy tales in a richly-imagined alternate Victorian world

Ninette Dupond was a dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet. She had been very lucky—if she had not been pretty, and a natural dancer, she could only have become what her mother had been: a washerwoman.

But Ninette’s good luck ended the day that the lead dancer sprained her ankle and Ninette was chosen to dance her part at a matinee. Her reviews had been very good—too good. Shortly thereafter, Ninette had been fired in an attempt to soothe the wounded ego of the ballet’s primary soloist.

Alone, unemployed, and filled with despair, Ninette had returned to her apartment to find a thin, rangy, tabby-striped tomcat sitting on her windowsill. He seemed like just another stray, until abruptly he spoke to her, mind-to-mind.

Ninette though she was going mad, but the cat offered her an alternative to a life of destitution, albeit a very odd one. He proposed that she impersonate a renowned Russian ballerina, Nina Tchereslavsky, and go to work in a specific music hall in Blackpool, England. The cat also told her that he would take care of her in every way—he would somehow convey the English and Russian languages to her, supply her with money, and guide her every move. With no other option open to her, she place her life in his paws.

What Ninette didn’t know was that the cat was an Elemental Spirit sent to protect her, and that the music hall in Blackpool was owned by an Elemental Master. But she also didn’t know that the real Nina Tchereslavsky no longer existed. For the real Nina had been “absorbed” by an Elemental Spirit of the darkest kind that was now bent on Ninette’s destruction….

My Thoughts: This is the fifth book in the Elemental Masters series and veers away from the upper class Elemental Masters of the earlier books. It stars a young French ballet dancer named Ninette Dupond who had been raised by her washerwoman/artists' model mother after her English father disappeared. Ninette's mother didn't see any future for her pretty, talented daughter except to attract the attention of a wealthy man who would keep her. 

Ninette thought that finding said wealthy man would be her future until she filled in for the star one matinee and danced too well. Her fine reviews made the star jealous and led to Ninette losing her job. With only days left before the rent came due on her apartment and no other job offers, Ninette is disposed to listen when a cat comes to her window and speaks into her mind. 

The cat has a plan to get Ninette to Blackpool, England, where she could work in the theater owned by an Elemental Master. The plan requires that she pretend to be the Russian survivor of a shipwreck named Nina Tchereslavsky which will give her an edge up both with the impresario and with the public in Blackpool.

Unfortunately, the real Nina Tchereslavsky who is actually an evil Earth elemental hears about Ninette and is determined to have her revenge on the girl who has stolen her name. It will be up to her cat, her new friends from the theater, and her own strength and courage to win the day.

This was an engaging story with just enough magic to add luster. The setting of Blackpool in 1910 was well-developed. Ninette was an engaging character whose strong work ethic and kindness made her a favorite of all who met her. The narration by Mirabai Galashan was also excellent. 

Favorite Quote:

"I'm not used to failing."

Jonathan snorted. "Then you aren't trying things that are challenging enough."

To his surprise and Alan's obvious chagrin, Ninette nodded. "The more and harder things you attempt, the more you will fail. You are only guaranteed not to fail if you do not try. C'est las vie."

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

Book & Audio Review: Geekerella by Ashley Poston

Geekerella
Author: Ashley Poston
Narrator: Eileen Stevens & Tristan Morris
Series: Once Upon a Con (Book 1)
Publication: Quirk Books (April 4, 2017); Blackstone Audio (April 4, 2017)
Length: 337 p.; 10 hours and 32 minutes

Description: Cinderella goes to the con in this fandom-fueled twist on the classic fairy tale romance.

Part romance, part love letter to nerd culture, and all totally adorbs, Geekerella is a fairy tale for anyone who believes in the magic of fandom. Geek girl Elle Wittimer lives and breathes Starfield, the classic sci-fi series she grew up watching with her late father. So when she sees a cosplay contest for a new Starfield movie, she has to enter. The prize? An invitation to the ExcelsiCon Cosplay Ball, and a meet-and-greet with the actor slated to play Federation Prince Carmindor in the reboot. With savings from her gig at the Magic Pumpkin food truck (and her dad’s old costume), Elle’s determined to win…unless her stepsisters get there first.

Teen actor Darien Freeman used to live for cons—before he was famous. Now they’re nothing but autographs and awkward meet-and-greets. Playing Carmindor is all he’s ever wanted, but the Starfield  fandom has written him off as just another dumb heartthrob. As ExcelsiCon draws near, Darien feels more and more like a fake—until he meets a girl who shows him otherwise.

My Thoughts: GEEKERELLA wasn't what I was expecting from the title and the cover. I wasn't expecting a story that made me cry and made me smile and made me remember good fan experiences. It is the story of two lonely people who manage to find each other. 

Orphaned Elle Wittimer and actor Darien Freeman don't seem to have much in common at first glance. She's dealing with the loss of her father and the emotional abuse of her stepmother. Darien's also lost his father when his father became his agent and abandoned his role as a father. 

When she was younger, Elle and her father used to watch reruns of Starfield - a short-lived science fiction television series. Elle would write fan faction; her father would cosplay the main character Federation Prince Carmindor. After her father's death, her stepmother did her best to get rid of all the things her father loved including all his fan gear. Elle turned to blogging with a focus on Starfield.

Darien also had good memories of watching Starfield with his best friend and attending science fiction conventions before he became famous and his friend betrayed him. Now Darien has been cast as Carmindor in the remake of Starfield. Neither he nor Elle have much confidence in his successful portrayal of one of their childhood heroes. Elle pans his acting on her blog and her post goes viral. Darien has all sort of self-doubts. 

I liked the description of fandom from both Elle's and Darien's perspectives. I liked that they began their relationship through a series of anonymous texts. I liked that they could both be free to be themselves while texting. 

Both characters were well-developed. Both grew and changed through the story. I liked all the references to the Cinderella story from the pumpkin-painted food truck to the glass slipper. I liked that the stepsisters weren't both wicked - though one certainly was and the other was more of a wimp. I liked Elle's new friend who had the role of fairy godmother and fashion designer.

The narrators did an excellent job bringing the characters to life in chapters that alternately from Elle's to Darien's points of view. 

Favorite Quote:

"There's this cosplay competition in like two weeks at ExcelsiCon in Atlanta, and the prize is two tickets to the premiere of Starfield and some cash and...and it's a long story but I really want to win. I need to win. I mean, I probably won't but--but my dad said that the impossible is only impossible if you don't even try. So I want to try."

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

Book & Audio Review: Phoenix and Ashes by Mercedes Lackey

Phoenix and Ashes
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Narrator: Michelle Ford
Series: Elemental Masters (Book 3)
Publication: Audible Studios (October 20, 2009); DAW; 1st Printing edition (October 5, 2004)
Length: 15 hours and 18 minutes; 416 p.

Description: Mercedes Lackey's magical Elemental Masters series recasts familiar fairy tales in a richly-imagined alternate Victorian world

Eleanor Robinson’s life had shattered when Father volunteered for the Great War, leaving her alone with a woman he had just married. Then the letter came that told of her father’s death in the trenches and though Eleanor thought things couldn’t get any worse, her life took an even more bizarre turn.

Dragged to the hearth by her stepmother Alison, Eleanor was forced to endure a painful and frightening ritual during which the smallest finger of her left hand was severed and buried beneath a hearthstone. For her stepmother was an Elemental Master of Earth who practiced the darker blood-fueled arts. Alison had bound Eleanor to the hearth with a spell that prevented her from leaving home, caused her to fade from people’s memories, and made her into a virtual slave.

Months faded into years for Eleanor, and still the war raged. There were times she felt she was losing her mind—times she seemed to see faces in the hearth fire.

Reginald Fenyx was a pilot. He lived to fly, and whenever he returned home on break from Oxford, the youngsters of the town would turn out to see him lift his aeroplane—a frail ship of canvas and sticks—into the sky and soar through the clouds.

During the war, Reggie had become an acclaimed air ace, for he was an Elemental Master of Air. His Air Elementals had protected him until the fateful day when he had met another of his kind aloft, and nearly died. When he returned home, Reggie was a broken man plagued by shell shock, his Elemental powers vanished.

Eleanor and Reginald were two souls scourged by war and evil magic. Could they find the strength to help one another rise from the ashes of their destruction?

My Thoughts: This retelling of Cinderella is set in an alternate England with magic and with World War I raging. Eleanor Robinson was the daughter of a factory owner who was determined to go to Oxford even though women were not granted degrees. However, when her father remarries a woman with two daughters and then enlists in the army, things change.

Eleanor's new stepmother is an Earth Master who has chosen the dark path. She resents that she couldn't convince Eleanor's father to change his will before he enlisted. She is determined to use Eleanor's fortune and puts a spell on Eleanor which prevents her from leaving the house and also makes the people in the small town forget about her. To cast the spell, she chops off the smallest finger of her left hand and buries it under the hearth stone. Eleanor becomes an unpaid, over-worked drudge for her stepmother and stepsisters.

Reggie Fenyx is the son of the local gentry. He and Eleanor met when they were younger because she was as intrigued with flying as Reggie was. Reggie also enlisted in the new flying corps. But a plane crash and being buried alive while being tormented by Earth Elementals has caused severe shell shock. He also had many physical injuries including a very bad knee. He's been sent home to recover but is depressed and suicidal. 

When Eleanor, who is a nascent Fire Master, manages to tweak the spell binding her enough to venture to the field where Reggie used to keep his airplane, the two meet again. Reggie is one of the few who recognize her as Eleanor Robinson. The two rekindle their friendship and Eleanor's good sense helps him deal with some of his injuries.

Meanwhile, Eleanor's stepmother is determined to get Reggie to marry one or the other of her odious daughters and is willing to use her dark magic to accomplish her goals. It will take both Reggie and Eleanor to defeat her plans.

I loved the lyrical style of the writing, the details about the privations suffered both on the battlefield and at home during World War I, and the wonderful and richly drawn characters in this story. The narrator did an excellent job with the various characters.

Favorite Quote:

Eleanor looked up and lifted an eyebrow. "I think I see why you never married, Sarah," she replied, with irony.

Sarah laughed. "Well, and I reckon if I wanted something that'd come and go as he pleased, take me for granted, and ignore me when he chose, I'd get a cat. And if I wanted something I'd always have to be picking up after, getting into trouble, but slavishly devoted, I'd get a dog."

I bought and read the hardcover in 2004. The Kindle and audiobook are recent purchases. You can buy your copy here.

Book & Audio Review: The Gates of Sleep by Mercedes Lackey

The Gates of Sleep
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Narrator: Kayla Fell
Series: Elemental Masters (Book 2)
Publication: DAW; First Edition (April 1, 2002); Audible Studios (October 20, 2009)
Length: 389 p.; 14 hours and 32 minutes

Description: Mercedes Lackey's magical Elemental Masters series recasts familiar fairy tales in a richly-imagined alternate Victorian world

For seventeen years, Marina Roeswood had lived in an old, rambling farmhouse in rural Cornwall in the care of close friends of her wealthy, aristocratic parents. As the ward of bohemian artists in Victorian England, she had grown to be a free thinker in an environment of fertile creativity and cultural sophistication. But the real core of her education was far outside societal norms. For she and her foster parents were Elemental Masters of magic, and learning to control her growing powers was Marina’s primary focus.

But though Marina’s life seemed idyllic, her existence was riddled with mysteries. Why, for example, had she never seen her parents, or been to Oakhurst, her family’s ancestral manor? And why hadn’t her real parents, also Elemental Masters, trained her themselves? That there was a secret about all this she had known from the time she had begun to question the world around her. Yet try as she might, she could get no clues out of her guardians.

But Marina would have answers to her questions all too soon. For with the sudden death of her birth parents, Marina met her new guardian—her father’s eldest sister Arachne. Aunt Arachne exuded a dark magical aura unlike anything Marina had encountered, a stifling evil that seemed to threaten Marina’s very spirit.

Slowly Marina realized that her aunt was the embodiment of the danger her parents had been hiding her from in the backwoods of Cornwall. But could Marina unravel the secrets of her life in time to save herself from the evil that had been seeking her for nearly eighteen years?

My Thoughts: This retelling of Snow White is set in Edwardian England and the Elemental Masters world.

Infant Marina Roeswood was cursed by her father's older sister Arachne at her christening. To save her from the curse, the final godmother mitigated the curse but couldn't remove it. The only hope was to hide Marina from her Aunt Arachne until she turned eighteen and the curse rebounded to the aunt.

Marina was taken by three of her godparents to Cornwall where she grew up in an unconventional household made up of artists and Elemental mages. She only knew her parents through their letters to her and were sort of unreal to her. Marina's elemental gift was water which was different than the gifts of her aunt and uncles. So they called in another godmother who was a water mage to teach her. And just in time too....

When Marina turned seventeen, her parents died and her Aunt Arachne became her guardian. She removed Marina from everything that she had known and brought her back to her parents' home where she tried to turn her against her parents and encourage a marriage with her son Reggie. Arachne and Reggie were not elemental mages. They were much worse. They were Satanists who had developed a way to steal power from those with magical ability and use the power for evil. Arachne also wanted to find out what had happened to her curse and reinstate it before Marina's eighteenth birthday.

The worldbuilding was intriguing. I liked the combination of magic and the social issues of the day. Arachne owned pottery factories where she hired young women to be paintresses who decorated the pottery with lead paint which poisoned them over time. Since Arachne sought out young girls with magical ability, she was able to strip their magic from them while they were being poisoned.

The only problem I had with this one was that the romance seemed to happen too fast. Marina meets the Earth Master Dr. Andrew Pike when she rescues a young woman who has run from his new sanitarium. Dr. Pike has founded his sanitarium to help those with mental issues, mostly arising from the magical abilities, but gains most of his funds from wealthy families and wealthy women who mostly need a rest from the rigors of their busy social lives. 

When Marina learns that the young woman she found is a charity patient who is suffering from lead poisoning, she asks to work with Dr. Pike since her water magic would allow her to remove the lead from the young woman's body. The two grow closer as they work together.

When Arachne manages to trigger the curse by having Marina prick her finger on a loose nail is the cradle that was made for her as an infant, she transfers the girl to Dr. Pike's sanitarium to get her out of the way while she dies. Arachne doesn't know of the relationship between Dr. Pike and Marina and doesn't realize that he will be able to help her.

The story had great characters and was wonderfully written. 

Favorite Quote:

These were the books that Aunt Margherita, Uncle Thomas, and Uncle Sebastian had been taught from! And her parents, of course. If she closed her eyes and opened her mind and widened her shields enough to include the books, she could see them, younger, oh much younger than they were now, bent over desks, puzzled or triumphant or merely enjoying themselves, listening, learning. 

I bought this hardcover in 2002 and the audiobook recently. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: The Serpent's Shadow by Mercedes Lackey

The Serpent's Shadow
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Series: Elemental Masters (Book 1)
Publication: DAW Hardcover; First Edition (March 1, 2001)

Description: The first novel in Mercedes Lackey's magical Elemental Masters series reimagines the fairy tale Snow White in a richly-detailed alternate Edwardian England

Maya Witherspoon lived most of the first twenty-five years of her life in her native India. As the daughter of a prominent British physician and a Brahmin woman of the highest caste, she graduated from the University of Delhi as a Doctor of Medicine by the age of twenty-two.

But the science of medicine was not Maya’s only heritage. For Maya’s aristocratic mother Surya was a sorceress—a former priestess of the mystical magics fueled by the powerful and fearsome pantheon of Indian gods.

Though Maya felt the stirring of magic in her blood, her mother had repeatedly refused to train her. “I cannot,” she had said, her eyes dark with distress, whenever Maya asked. “Yours is the magic of your father’s blood, not mine....” Surya never had the chance to explain this enigmatic statement to her daughter before a mysterious illness claimed her life.

Yet it was Maya’s father’s death shortly thereafter that confirmed her darkest suspicions. For her father was killed by the bite of a krait, a tiny venomous snake, and in the last hours of her mother’s life, Surya had warned Maya to beware “the serpent’s shadow.” Maya knew she must flee the land of her birth or face the same fate as her parents.

In self-imposed exile in Edwardian London, Maya knew that she could not hide forever from the vindictive power that had murdered her parents. She knew in her heart that even a vast ocean couldn’t protect her from “the serpent’s shadow” that had so terrified her mother. Her only hope was to find a way to master her own magic: the magic of her father’s blood. But who would teach her? And could she learn enough to save her life by the time her relentless pursuers caught up with their prey?

My Thoughts: This was an engaging historical fantasy with echoes of the fairy tale Snow White. 

Dr. Maya Witherspoon was born and raised in India. Her father was a British doctor. Her mother a Brahmin who gave up her family and caste to marry him. She was also a practicing magician and assisted by aspects of Hindu gods. However, she didn't teach her daughter how to use magic saying that her daughter's magic came from her father's tradition. 

After her parents' deaths - her mother's from cholera and her father's from the bite of a krait - Maya gathered up her household and fled to London. It was 1909 and Maya had to deal with a variety of prejudices due to her desire to practice medicine and her mixed heritage. She finds a job in a hospital and a free clinic and also establishes a practice working with women from the theatrical world and demi-monde where she teaches birth control and specializes in "female complaints".

But her enemy - her mother's sister who practices dark magic - has followed her and wants to consume Maya's power and get revenge on the British who invaded her country. 

Maya's untutored magic has drawn the attention of the Elemental Masters in London and Paul Scott, former sea captain, current merchant, and Water Master, is sent to see if Maya is a danger. Despite the Master's prejudice against female Elemental Masters, Paul is determined to teach her what she needs to know about her magical abilities. 

With her aunt getting closer to finding her, Maya needs to get control of her Earth Master abilities. She also falls in love with Paul.

The worldbuilding here was excellent. I loved the combination of Western and Hindu magic. I also enjoyed the combination of 1909 women's suffrage and magic. The characters were fascinating and well-rounded. The writing is lyrical and descriptive.

This was a reread for me. I first read it near its publication date in 2001 when I was automatically buying and reading everything by Mercedes Lackey. It is also the first in a series that has grown to sixteen books, many of which are inspired by fairy tales.

Favorite Quote:

In India, real magic blossomed in sunlight and moonlight alike. Wonders happened in the full of day, and she had seen too many of them to ever doubt that what had happened by night would not be as real in the daylight. I am a physician, and English. But I am also Hindu, of Brahmin blood. I know that there are more things than can be observed in the lens of a microscope, weighed, and measured. I know that the world is not as we would have it, but as it is, and that is not always as an Englishman sees it.

I bought this one and read it when it was published in 2001. This is a reread for me. You can buy your copy here.

Book & Audio Review: Home from the Sea by Mercedes Lackey

Home from the Sea
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Narrator: Kate Reading
Series: Elemental Masters (Book 7)
Publication: DAW; 1st edition (June 5, 2012); Audible Studios (June 5, 2012)
Length: 319 p.; 12 hours and 11 minutes

Description: They came from the sea…

For as long as she could remember, Mari Prothero had seen  things—tiny manlike creatures that were mischievous and wore only seaweed, and beings that seemed to be made of water. Mari had grown up in a tiny Welsh fishing village where she lived alone with her father, Daffyd, a master fisherman—her mother and brother having drowned when she was a child.

On the morning of her eighteenth birthday, her father finally told her the great secret of the Prothero family. Her family had an ancient covenant with magical shape-shifters, the Selch. Her lost mother and brother were not truly dead, but neither were they human. Now Mari must abide by her family’s magical compact or face dire consequences.

But Mari is not without protectors. The tiny creatures she had seen her whole life counseled her to bargain with the Selch. While in faraway London, the head of the Elemental Masters had dispatched some very unique champions to come to Mari’s aid....

My Thoughts: Mari Prothero is a fisherman's daughter living in a small town on the coast of Wales. She lost her mother and brother when she was an infant when they were swept away by a rogue wave. Mari is able to see Elementals and other creatures but has given up talking about it since it made her father uncomfortable. They live outside the town and are more prosperous than most of the others who fish for a living. Mari finds out why when she turns eighteen.

Mari learns that the Prothero's have a long-standing deal with the Selch. They get prosperity and safety on the seas in exchange for children and relationships with Selch. Her mother didn't die, but tather took herself and her son back to live under the sea with the Selch. Now, Mari finds out that it is her turn to take a Selch lover and have children with him - one child to stay on the land and one to go under the sea.. Mari is appalled! However, some of her non-human friends have told her that she does have a right to bargain to get the best deal she can rather than just follow those plans.

So Mari demands a teacher to teach her about her abilities as a Water Master and an assortment of young men to be her suitors. 

Meanwhile in London, Nan and Sarah have returned from Africa and and wondering what they should do with their lives. They aren't elemental masters but do have paranormal abilities of their own. After deciding that teaching isn't the career they've been looking for, they appeal to the head of the Elemental Masters to find them some investigative work and are promptly dispatched to Wales to follow up rumors of a new Water Master. 

I liked the setting of this story. I liked the characters and the way magical elements were woven into Edwardian life. The writing was wonderfully descriptive and the narration was engaging. 

Favorite Quote:

As if the little creatures had read the thoughts in her mine, the second answered her. "Magic is a power like any other, Mari. Master it, and it becomes a tool in your hand, and when you have tools, you also have weapons." The water-girl looked about furtively, as if making sure she was not going to be overheard, and lowered her voice further. "Listen and remember. this is important. Because you have this gift of magic, even though you are untaught, you are valuable to us of the Water. And that alone gives you power. Remember. It is power to bargain. There will come a time, soon, when you are presented with something that appears to be no choice. But you can bargain within that. So think well on that day, demand your choice, and make your bargain."

I bought the hardcover in 2013 and the audiobook recently. You can buy your copy here.

YA Book Review: Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Spinning Silver
Author: Naomi Novik
Publication: Del Rey (July 10, 2018)

Description: With the Nebula Award–winning Uprooted, Naomi Novik opened a brilliant new chapter in an already acclaimed career, delving into the magic of fairy tales to craft a love story that was both timeless and utterly of the now. Spinning Silver draws readers deeper into this glittering realm of fantasy, where the boundary between wonder and terror is thinner than a breath, and safety can be stolen as quickly as a kiss.

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father’s inability to collect his debts has left his family on the edge of poverty—until Miryem takes matters into her own hands. Hardening her heart, the young woman sets out to claim what is owed and soon gains a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold. When an ill-advised boast draws the attention of the king of the Staryk—grim fey creatures who seem more ice than flesh—Miryem’s fate, and that of two kingdoms, will be forever altered. She will face an impossible challenge and, along with two unlikely allies, uncover a secret that threatens to consume the lands of humans and Staryk alike.

My Thoughts: SPINNING SILVER was a lush and lyrical fantasy filled with intriguing characters and moral dilemmas.

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders and a despised Jew in a society that would rather they weren't there. Her father is a terrible moneylender and this family is on the verge of poverty. Her mother is sick and to make her better, Miryem takes over her father's responsibilities for collecting the money and interest that is owed them. She finds that she has a talent for the work despite the coldness it requires of her.

Wanda is a peasant's daughter who is abused and not cherished by her father. When Miiryem comes to collect her father's debt which he mostly drank away, she convinces him to let Wanda work for her to retire the debt. Wanda sees the life and wants the life. In Miryem's house she is wanted and needed and respected. When Miryem has to visit her grandfather in the city, Wanda takes over the debt collecting for her and finally has a little money of her own that she keeps hidden from her father.

Miryem runs into trouble when her boasting that she can turn silver into gold catches the attention of the Staryk king who is making winter last too long in Miryem's world. He takes her to his kingdom in an ice mountain and she has to make his silver into gold for him.

Meanwhile, Irina is the neglected daughter of the duke's first wife. She has lived with only the care and love of her maid until she is given a silver ring, necklace, and crown make of the Staryk's silver and catches the attention of the Tsar. The main problem with that is that the Tsar is someone she doesn't like and who is possessed by a demon that wants to drain her life.

The story is mainly told from these three viewpoints but the Tsar and Wanda's youngest brother also have sections in their viewpoint.

The plot is to find a way to stop the Staryk king from making their land too cold to sustain life and to get rid of the Tsar's demon. Miryem and Irina come up with a plan that works but doesn't really solve all the problems and requires some adjusting.

I loved how the characters - even the villains - changed and grew through this story and became real people with needs and desires of their own. This book had a fairy tale feel but wasn't based on a fairy tale I was familiar with. There was a bit of Rumpelstiltskin and even Persephone's story woven into this intriguing and beguiling story.

Favorite Quote:

But the world I wanted wasn't the world I lived in, and if I would do nothing until I could repair every terrible thing at once, I would do nothing forever.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

YA Book Review: Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa

Shadow of the Fox
Author: Julie Kagawa
Series: Shadow of the Fox (Book 1)
Publication: Harlequin Teen; Original edition (October 2, 2018)

Description: One thousand years ago, the great Kami Dragon was summoned to grant a single terrible wish—and the land of Iwagoto was plunged into an age of darkness and chaos.

Now, for whoever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers, a new wish will be granted. A new age is about to dawn.

Raised by monks in the isolated Silent Winds temple, Yumeko has trained all her life to hide her yokai nature. Half kitsune, half human, her skill with illusion is matched only by her penchant for mischief. Until the day her home is burned to the ground, her adoptive family is brutally slain and she is forced to flee for her life with the temple’s greatest treasure—one part of the ancient scroll.

There are many who would claim the dragon’s wish for their own. Kage Tatsumi, a mysterious samurai of the Shadow Clan, is one such hunter, under orders to retrieve the scroll…at any cost. Fate brings Kage and Yumeko together. With a promise to lead him to the scroll, an uneasy alliance is formed, offering Yumeko her best hope for survival. But he seeks what she has hidden away, and her deception could ultimately tear them both apart.

With an army of demons at her heels and the unlikeliest of allies at her side, Yumeko’s secrets are more than a matter of life or death. They are the key to the fate of the world itself.

My Thoughts: SHADOW OF THE FOX begins an exciting new fantasy series with its roots in Japanese mythology. Yumeko has been raised in the isolation of the Silent Winds temple. She is half-kitsune and half-human. She has powerful kitsune magic which gives her skill with illusions. She has also inherited the kitsune magic of mischief.

When a ferocious oni attacks the temple, she is sent by Master Isao to take the temple's most prized possession - one part of the dragon scroll - to another temple which will be able to protect it. A time of change is coming. Anyone who can put all the pieces of the dragon scroll together can have a wish. Everyone with a wish for power is after all the pieces of the dragon scroll.

Kage Tatsumi of the Shadow Clan has been sent to get the piece from the Silent Winds temple. Tatsumi carries a cursed sword and had been raised and trained to be a weapon for his clan. He arrives at Silent Winds after the oni and meets Yumeko. She convinces him to help her find the next step on her journey to find the hidden temple. She neglects to mention that she is carrying a piece of the scroll and that she is half-kitsune.

Tatsumi and Yumeko have lots of adventures on their journey and face great dangers. But they also manage to gather a group of allies. I was especially fond of the ronin Hino Okame who has quite a gift for sarcasm.

The story was rich with all sorts of greater gods, lesser gods, and demons and other parts of Japanese mythology. I loved the magic and I loved Yumeko's innocent wonder at the new world she is seeing now that she is outside of the temple where she was raised. I love her kindness which is particularly surprising to Tatsumi who has never been shown any kindness in his life.

This first episode built the world and set up the quest. Further adventures will be needed, and are planned, to carry the quest through to its conclusion. I can't wait to read them.

Favorite Quote:

"It is very hard to be human, little fox. Even the humans themselves don't do a great job of it. The mortal world is full of hatred, betrayal, sadness and death."

I bought this one as a Kindle Daily Deal. I also downloaded and listened to the SYNC audiobook. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: Echo North by Joanna Ruth Meyer

Echo North
Author: Joanna Ruth Meyer
Publication: Page Street Kids (January 15, 2019)

Description: Echo Alkaev’s safe and carefully structured world falls apart when her father leaves for the city and mysteriously disappears. Believing he is lost forever, Echo is shocked to find him half-frozen in the winter forest six months later, guarded by a strange talking wolf—the same creature who attacked her as a child. The wolf presents Echo with an ultimatum: if she lives with him for one year, he will ensure her father makes it home safely. But there is more to the wolf than Echo realizes.

In his enchanted house beneath a mountain, each room must be sewn together to keep the home from unraveling, and something new and dark and strange lies behind every door. When centuries-old secrets unfold, Echo discovers a magical library full of books- turned-mirrors, and a young man named Hal who is trapped inside of them. As the year ticks by, the rooms begin to disappear and Echo must solve the mystery of the wolf’s enchantment before her time is up otherwise Echo, the wolf, and Hal will be lost forever.

My Thoughts: ECHO NORTH was a lyrical and imaginative fairy tale retelling. With elements from East of the Sun, West of the Moon and Tam Lin with lashings of Beauty and the Beast, Echo Alkaev goes to great lengths for her white wolf.

After a wolf attack when she was a child, she lived a quiet life in her father's bookshop since she was bullied and reviled whenever she went out in public. Her father meets a woman and decides to marry her but he hasn't picked a good woman. Her constant demand for things is pushing her father into bankruptcy and causes him to go off to sell his last items of value. He is gone for six months before Echo finds himself injured in the woods.

A white wolf offers to send him home if Echo will agree to spend a year with him at his home. Seeing no other way to save her father, Echo agrees and her adventure begins. She learns that the wolf is under a curse set by the Wolf Queen and Echo has to agree to let him spend the night with her every night but to never light a lamp and look at him. During the day, they explore the house and Echo learns to bind the rooms together.

Echo's favorite room in the library which is filled with mirror-books. She can jump into any story. She meets two other readers as she explores the stories. Mokosh is the one who tells her the rules of stories but it is Hal who intrigues her more and who she falls in love with. She learns that he is trapped in the mirror-books and has few memories of anything but the stories.

As the year comes near its end, rooms begin disappearing and her quest to find a way to help the wolf and free Hal from the mirror-books gets even more intense. She comes to know that Hal and the wolf are the same. Bad advice from Mokosh has her lighting a lamp and looking at the wolf turned Hal just hours before he would have been free.

Echo vows to find him and free him from the Wolf Queen which is where the resemblance to Tam Lin kicks in. She needs to journey to a magical land and is lucky to have a storyteller/guide who was once the North Wind but gave up his powers because he fell in love.

This was a beautiful story filled with wonderful images and lyrical prose. I enjoyed it very much.

Favorite Quote:

I held him like the world had spun away beneath me, and I was left to dance with the stars, not mortal any longer but a creature made of moonlight and magic. 

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

YA ARC Review: Sherwood by Meagan Spooner

Sherwood
Author: Meagan Spooner
Publication: HarperTeen (March 19, 2019)

Description: Fans of Danielle Paige, Marissa Meyer, and Alex Flinn will devour New York Times bestselling author Meagan Spooner’s next fierce fairy tale-inspired story, which Illuminae author Amie Kaufman calls “a kick-ass, gender-flipped feminist retelling.”

Robin of Locksley is dead.

Maid Marian doesn’t know how she’ll go on, but the people of Locksley town, persecuted by the Sheriff of Nottingham, need a protector. And the dreadful Guy of Gisborne, the Sheriff’s right hand, wishes to step into Robin’s shoes as Lord of Locksley and Marian’s fiancé.

Who is there to stop them?

Marian never meant to tread in Robin’s footsteps—never intended to stand as a beacon of hope to those awaiting his triumphant return. But with a sweep of his green cloak and the flash of her sword, Marian makes the choice to become her own hero: Robin Hood.

My Thoughts: SHERWOOD was a wonderful re-imagining of the legend of Robin Hood. This time the star is Lady Marian. She grew up with Robin of Locksley. Together they learned to fight, and wrestle, and shoot bow and arrow. Marian was always a little faster to learn and a better shot. She was also taller. With Robin, she could be who she wanted to be. He didn't try to imprison her in the usual role for women of her time.

Things change immensely when news returns to England that Robin has died in the Holy Land in service to his king. First comes the overwhelming grief which lingers for a long time. Then her maid Elena's brother Will Scarlet is arrested by the Sheriff's men and scheduled for hanging. Marian becomes aware of the injustices perpetrated by the Sheriff and determines to do something. She finds Robin's signature cloak, the sword and bow he had made for her, and sets out to rescue Will.

Her adversary is Guy of Gisborne who is the Sheriff's man and the man who wants to take Robin's place both at Locksley and as Marian's new husband. She never intended to impersonate Robin but she wasn't quick to deny it either. Not once she saw how much hope Robin's reappearance engendered in the people of Nottingham.

She gathers a crew - Little John, Alan-a-Dale, Will Scarlet, her maid Elena, and her stableman Midge, among them - and sets out to right some wrongs. She feels that she is being guided by Robin's memory until she does something unforgivable and Robin's voice in her head goes away.

I loved the characters in this story. Marian was so well-drawn and well-rounded. And Guy was no cardboard villain. Even Robin, who dies at the beginning of the book, is lifelife. I loved the interludes that went into the past and were from Robin's point of view about how he came to love Marian and how they grew up together.

The writing style pulled me right into the story and didn't let me go until the last page was turned.

Favorite Quote:

Grief, thought Marian, was not the melancholy mourning of a loss, not the land and dwindling ache that ballads sand of. It was forgetting, and remembering, again and again, an endless series of slashes, each as violent and sharp as the last. It was execution by a thousand different wounds, it was bleeding to death so slowly that you are certain it will never end, that you will suffer this torture for eternity, long after your natural life has ended. You are Prometheus, and instead of your liver, the eagle is tearing out your heart.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from Edelweiss. You can buy your copy here.

YA ARC Review: The Blood Spell by C. J. Redwine

The Blood Spell
Author: C. J. Redwine
Series: Ravenspire (Book 4)
Publication: Balzer + Bray (February 12, 2019)

Description: A dark and romantic epic fantasy retelling of the Cinderella story, about a girl who must team up with the prince she despises to defeat an evil creature threatening their kingdom. The fourth standalone novel in the New York Times bestselling Ravenspire series by C. J. Redwine.

Blue de la Cour has her life planned: hide the magic in her blood and continue trying to turn metal into gold so she can help her city’s homeless. But when her father is murdered and a cruel but powerful woman claims custody of Blue and her property, one wrong move could expose her—and doom her once and for all. The only one who can help? The boy she’s loathed since childhood: Prince Kellan.

Kellan Renard, crown prince of Balavata, is walking a thin line between political success and devastating violence. Newly returned from boarding school, he must find a bride among the kingdom’s head families and announce his betrothal—but escalating violence among the families makes the search nearly impossible. He’s surprised to discover that the one person who makes him feel like he can breathe is Blue, the girl who once ruined all his best adventures.

When mysterious forces lead to disappearances throughout Balavata, Blue and Kellan must work together to find the truth. What they discover will lead them to the darkest reaches of the kingdom, and to the most painful moments of their pasts.

When romance is forbidden and evil is rising, can Blue save those she loves, even if it costs her everything?

My Thoughts: This was a wonderful retelling of the Cinderella story. Blue de la Cour lives with her father and works as an alchemist hiding the magic in her. Magic was made illegal in this kingdom after a witch who turned into a wraith terrorized the kingdom until it was imprisoned in an enchanted wood. But children are disappearing and it is feared that another evil witch is rising.

Kellan Renard is turning eighteen and finished with his education. Now it is time for him to choose a bride from one of the nine high families in the kingdom and become king himself. Choosing just one girl is a dangerous political balancing act. Marriage with him will bring her family greater power.

Kellan and Blue have known each other since they were children. Her father was his father's tutor. The families spent a lot of time together before Kellan's father died saving Kellan from drowning. Since then, Kellan's guilt has led him to make many reckless choices and Blue has done her best to keep his choices from killing him. She thinks he's reckless; he thinks she's the world's biggest party pooper. They have been frenemies since childhood.

But when Blue's father is murdered, Kellan is the only one who understands and comforts her. When she's put under the guardianship of Dinah Chaveau who's head of one of the nine families, Kellan tries to make things easier for her.

Dinah is scrambling to put one of her daughters on the throne. She'll have to work fast since her husband signed away all the property and one of his daughter's hands in marriage to get out from under his gambling debts but was murdered anyway. Dinah had forged his signature to get control of all the property and now new forgeries have taken it away from her.

Forgery apparently being a common thing, Dinah forges guardianship papers to gain control of Blue. She believes Blue knows how to free the wraith from imprisonment and Dinah needs the wraith to get the revenge she has been waiting for sixteen years to claim.

This was a great romance. Kellan and Blue are deeply in love but divided by the laws that say he has to marry a girl from one of the nine families. She is not only common but hiding her gift of magic too.

Fans of romantic fantasy and Cinderella stories will enjoy this wonderful story.

Favorite Quote:

"Do you think this is a a good idea?"

Ugh. Look who she was asking. The boy who got in street fights and jumped off a cliff into a stormy sea just to feel alive. The gap between his definition of a good idea and hers was an entire canyon.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from Edelweiss. You can buy your copy here.

YA Book Review: A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer

A Curse So Dark and Lonely
Author: Brigid Kemmerer
Publication: Bloomsbury YA (January 29, 2019)

Description: In a lush, contemporary fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Brigid Kemmerer gives readers another compulsively readable romance perfect for fans of Marissa Meyer.

Fall in love, break the curse.

It once seemed so easy to Prince Rhen, the heir to Emberfall. Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year over and over, he knew he could be saved if a girl fell for him. But that was before he learned that at the end of each autumn, he would turn into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. That was before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope.

Nothing has ever been easy for Harper. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother barely holding their family together while constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, she learned to be tough enough to survive. But when she tries to save someone else on the streets of Washington, DC, she's instead somehow sucked into Rhen's cursed world.

Break the curse, save the kingdom.

A prince? A monster? A curse? Harper doesn't know where she is or what to believe. But as she spends time with Rhen in this enchanted land, she begins to understand what's at stake. And as Rhen realizes Harper is not just another girl to charm, his hope comes flooding back. But powerful forces are standing against Emberfall . . . and it will take more than a broken curse to save Harper, Rhen, and his people from utter ruin.

My Thoughts: First, I need to say that BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is my favorite fairy tale. Second, I need to say that this riff on the tale is an amazing story with wonderful characters. It is filled with emotion, well-developed characters, and a complex plot.

Harper lives in DC. Her mother is dying of cancer. Her older brother is working for a loan shark since their father borrowed a bunch of money before disappearing on the family. She has cerebral palsy. One night while keeping watch for her brother as he intimidates someone who owes his boss money, she sees a guy kidnapping a drunk girl. She charges in with a rusty tire iron in hand and finds herself the one kidnapped. She wakes up in a fairy tale world called Emberfall.

Rhen is the prince who is forced to relive the autumn he turned 18 again and again until he manages to find a girl who will fall in love with him. If he fails - and he has failed almost 300 times, he turns into a monster who attacks the people around him. The monster has caused the death of all of his family, all of his guards, and many of his citizens. Now he is alone except for his Royal Guard Grey who has sworn loyalty to him and who refuses to leave him. Rhen has long since given up hope. He's tried to kill himself many times and in many ways but each attempt results in him beginning the autumn again.

Harper isn't going to fall in love with him. Her only wish is to get home to protect her brother and spend time with her dying mother. However, Harper isn't willing to let him wallow in pity. She is brave and determined to help the people in his country. She is smart and kind and manages to get him out of his castle where he sees what is happening in his country.

Besides an invading army from a nearby country, the enchantress who cursed Rhen makes frequent visits to torture Rhen and keep him in a state of hopelessness. She is beautiful and evil. She is also jealous of the relationship that Rhen and Harper are building. She had expected Rhen to fall in love with her and break the curse at the very beginning.

Fans of fantasies based on fairy tales will be adding this one to their keeper shelves. I certainly intend to add it to mine.

Favorite Quote:

When she eventually speaks, it's not a question I'm expecting. "Did you get naked with these hundreds of women, too?"

She's so direct that she'd be intimidating under other circumstances. "Such questions you ask."

She rolls her eyes. "Well, that's sure not a no."

"It is, in fact." I hesitate, wondering how honest to be. "I lured them all into my life. I abhor the idea of luring them into my bed--and I certainly would not force them. In truth, there is not greater crime in Emberfall."

"Murder?"

"In murder, the crime ends."

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from the publisher. You can buy your copy here.