Showing posts with label Fantasy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fantasy. Show all posts
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Review: Beautiful Darkness (Caster Chronicles #2) by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Release Date: October 12, 2010
Publisher: Penguin
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 516
Source: Penguin Australia
Blurb (from Penguin Australia
One night in the rain, Ethan Wate opened his eyes and fell in love with Lena Duchannes. His life would never be the same.
And as her seventeenth birthday approaches Lena and Ethan face even greater danger. A Caster and a Mortal can never truly be together.
Every kiss is a curse.
Ethan's next heartbeat could be his last.
It is their curse now . . .
Ethan's next heartbeat could be his last.
It is their curse now . . .
The Quickie Review
Lena, Ethan, Link (my personal favourite) and Ridley are all back and getting themselves into trouble once again. With even more intrigue and mystery as we learn more secrets about both Lena’s and Ethan’s families as well as the magical world Lena is apart of, Beautiful Darkness will not disappoint fans of Beautiful Creatures, the first book in the Caster Chronicle series.
The Full Blown Review
*Slight spoilers are mentioned in my review so if you haven’t read the first book in the series, Beautiful Creatures, I wouldn’t suggest reading on, well unless your desperate to read this review that is*
Poor old Ethan, Lena his Caster girlfriend is blaming her uncle’s death on herself and is pulling away from everyone apart from her Siren cousin, Ridley. She’s also hanging around a strange guy who’s not what he seems. Suddenly Ethan finds himself having to imagine a future without the love of his life unless he can get through to her which is hard when the darkness is pulling Lena in, what’s a boy to do?
First off I’m going to strongly recommend to all of those who cannot remember what happened in Beautiful Creatures all that well, which was me, to re-read it (or even skim it) as it will be very helpful when reading Beautiful Darkness because I found the start to be a tad confusing due to my inability to recall what happened at the end of Beautiful Creatures.
Once again I am amazed how both Garcia and Stohl can write with such fluidity, you simply cannot tell that two people wrote the book as it all blends so well. It shows to me that these two really understand each others writing and they are on the same page regarding what they want to convey to the reader which isn’t as easy as it sounds I’m sure. Without this deep understanding I don’t think the book would read as well as it does, nothing is worse (for me anyway) than reading a book written by two authors where the reader can tell which author wrote what.
At first I was a tad worried about where this book was going, I was finding it pretty slow going and because of that I took my sweet time reading it which definitely disappointed me because I was chafing at the bit to read this as I loved Beautiful Creatures. However fear not my readers because I continued to read on and then out of the blue the action picked up and didn’t stop until the end, suddenly I couldn’t read the book fast enough. Once the action picked up we were also given information galore on the supernatural world that lives below Gatlin plus more info on both Lena and Ethan’s families’ (one particular bit of info really had me going holy cow I wasn’t expecting that all all!). So I guess what I’m trying to say not very eloquently is that if your finding it a bit slow going keep reading because it will pick up and then all of a sudden you’ll find yourself at the end which will leave you wanting to read the next book in the series and soon as whilst it did answer some questions it left so many more unanswered questions which need answers especially what’s going to happen to my favourite wannabe musician Link?
What I loved about the first book was the very gothic southern setting and how Garcia and Stohl described the small town politics, gossiping and thinly veiled politeness (this is the South after all) Ethan and Lena had to endure. Both Garcia and Stohl captured the setting so well I could envision myself sitting on Ethan’s porch or lying down in the Greenbrier garden. Thankfully, once again in Beautiful Darkness we are reintroduced to the beautiful American South setting via Garcia and Stohl’s beautiful descriptive writing.
I feel that whilst the first book had a dark tone to it, Beautiful Darkness has an even darker tone to it (duh Romy it is called Beautiful Darkness after all!). Lena’s in a bad place, her Uncle who she loved so dearly has died and she blames herself consequently throughout most of the book Lena’s emotional state is all over the place and she appears to be in a dark state of mind. Lena cuts herself off from her own family and even Ethan, the only people she can talk to are Ridley, her cousin, and John Breed, a very interesting new character we are introduced to. Meanwhile, poor Ethan doesn’t understand why Lena is doing this to herself, he knows it’s not her fault for Macon Lena particularly why she pulled away from him. During Lena ’s absence from his life Ethan befriends Liv, a feisty new character who works at the local library with Marian. Whilst Ethan spends more time with Liv and it’s clear to both the readers and Ethan that being with Liv definitely would be easier, Ethan never gives up on Lena, it will always be Lena for Ethan, she is the love of his life, which is very sweet.
Whilst Beautiful Darkness is a solid sequel that kept me intrigued, I found that I preferred the first book in the series more simply due to the fact that I found the start of Beautiful Darkness to be very slow and frankly a bit boring, that said however once the pace picked up and the revelations started coming I was hooked!
Rating
4 out of 5
There’s Another Book?!?
Yes there are at least two more books (according to the Caster Chronicles Website). The third book in the series will be released during the Fall of 2011, the fourth book will follow releasing in the Fall of 2012.
Goodies
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Tyger Tyger (Goblin Wars #1) by Kersten Hamilton
Release Date: November 15, 2010
Publisher: Clarion Books
Genre: Fantasy, Goblins
Age Group: Young Adult, 12+
Pages: 322
Source: NetGalley
Blurb (taken from Goodreads)
Teagan Wylltson’s best friend, Abby, dreams that horrifying creatures–goblins, shape-shifters, and beings of unearthly beauty but terrible cruelty–are hunting Teagan. Abby is always coming up with crazy stuff, though, so Teagan isn’t worried. Her life isn’t in danger. In fact, it’s perfect. She’s on track for a college scholarship. She has a great job. She’s focused on school, work, and her future. No boys, no heartaches, no problems.
Until Finn Mac Cumhaill arrives. Finn’s a bit on the unearthly beautiful side himself. He has a killer accent and a knee-weakening smile. And either he’s crazy or he’s been haunting Abby’s dreams, because he’s talking about goblins, too . . . and about being The Mac Cumhaill, born to fight all goblin-kind. Finn knows a thing or two about fighting. Which is a very good thing, because this time, Abby’s right. The goblins are coming.
The Quickie Review
Tyger Tyger is an intriguing fantasy read with a novel concept, well for me anyway I’ve never read anything with goblins before. Kersten Hamilton crafts a world that is both beautiful and dark, whist flawlessly weaving traditional Celtic lore throughout the story. Kersten is a masterful storyteller who managed to take her story in directions I was not expecting at all. If you’re looking for an action packed fantasy novel then this book is definitely for you.
The Full Blown Review
Teagan has what seems like the perfect life, a loving family, a caring if not a tad nutty best friend and a great after school job, however things change when Finn comes into her life. Teagan’s life is altered irrevocably, suddenly Teagan and her brother Aiden are thrust into a world they never even knew existed, a world Teagan thought was crafted in their mother’s imagination via her paintings and books, oh how wrong she was. Now Finn, a self confessed Goblin hunter, must take Teagan and Aiden into the goblins world to save a loved one where nothing is as what is seems and not everyone can be trusted.
At first I found Tyger Tyger to be a bit slow but I’m glad I persisted because the pace soon picked up and boy the action did not stop. The only real issue I had was when there was a fairly large time jump with no warning. Said jump was just after a pivotal moment for all the characters in the book, especially Teagan. I would have loved for Kersten to have elaborated more after the event so we could have gotten into Teagan’s head to see and understand how she and her family coped in the aftermath of the event instead of jumping ahead of time.
Let me just say the goblins in this book are scary evil creatures, they gave me the heebie-jeebies. Come to think of it a lot of the creatures Kersten created were scary or just plain weird. But don’t let that put you off, goblins aren’t the only mythical creatures that are in Tyger Tyger, and they’re not all evil.
All the characters were memorable, I admired Teagan’s strength and intelligence, and Aiden was so adorable, what a cutie! And then there’s Finn, I mean who doesn’t love an Irish rogue? I have to admit the blurb seemed to indicate to me that Abby, Teagan’s best friend, was a central character in the story but she wasn’t. From what we did see of Abby in the book she was hilarious, a great comic relief in parts and I would have liked to see more of her in the book. I particularly liked her and Finns barbs at each other, they were gold. I’m hoping that there will be more Abby in the coming books. As I’m a romantic at heart I would have also liked more on the developing romance between Finn and Teagan, but I’m sure this will be further developed in the next book.
Throughout the book Kersten weaved traditional Celtic lore into the story which I just loved. I was amazed at the detail Kersten went into and found myself rereading passages so I took it all in.
Kersten is a masterful storyteller who managed to take her story in directions I was not expecting at all, I had several ‘OMG’ moments, I don’t want to give too much away but one such moment involves Teagan and Aiden’s mothers’ lineage, that’s all I’m saying you’ll have to read the book if you want to find out!
After reading the ending of Tyger Tyger I can’t wait to read the next installment in the series, I mean what an ending!
The Good
* The Celtic lore weaved throughout the story, I love when authors include real folklore in their stories.
* The characters, Finn, Teagan and Aiden.
* Teagan, a female protagonist who is strong and intelligent, plus it helps she loves animals!
The Not So Good
* Jumping months ahead without any warning, I was like what’s going on here?
* Not enough romance! What can I say I love a good romance.
Rating
4 out of 5
Cover Notes
I love the cover, especially the colours used. Plus the cover relates to the book, once I finished the book I was like ‘oh, I get it!’
There’s Another Book?!?
Yes indeed there are another two books in the series. Kersten has said in previous interviews that there are currently three books in the series but she has left open the possibility for more.
Forests of the Night (Goblin Wars #2) – Fall 2011
Fearful Symmetry (Goblin Wars #3) – 2012
Goodies
Kris @ Voracious YAppetite has a great interview with Kersten up on her blog
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
+tours.jpg)
