Irene Winters makes her reappearance in this followup to her stay in a chaos-ridden Venice and the stakes are even higher. The malevolent Alberich is Irene Winters makes her reappearance in this followup to her stay in a chaos-ridden Venice and the stakes are even higher. The malevolent Alberich is back and his plan is more terrifying than ever.
New faces, new enemies and shifting loyalties means that Irene is forced to rely on the very few people she knows—and one of them may be a traitor.
Peregrine Vale is also on the scene. His amorous interest in Irene is reciprocated but he’s reluctant to let her become involved with a man as broken as he. His addiction to morphine nearly breaks him and his unasked-for incursion into a high-chaos world in the previous volume may be worsening his condition.
Irene has hard choices to make. She’s constantly rejecting the offer by the dragon king to work for him (that would compromise the neutrality of the Library), in spite of Kai’s wearying pitches. She must deal with Kai’s PTSD after being kidnapped and held prisoner in a world inimical to his very being. The pesky Fae Silver isn’t much in evidence but another Fae is, much to her annoyance.
Ms. Cogman has a gift for writing action scenes. They practically spring off the page. The tension gets wound ever tighter with each chapter. It’s not merely chase scenes and negotiations, however; Irene is battling for the very existence of the Library itself. Time and time again, I wondered when she gets a chance to sleep. She’s only in her 30s but she can’t keep up this pace for much longer. (If I have any complaints about this novel, it’s that Kai and Peregrine once again come to her rescue, even after she forbids them to do so. If they’re always going to be popping up like dei ex machina, I’m going to be very disappointed.)
The action builds to a climactic and terrifying finish but with the promise of more to come. You can only hope that Irene gets to have a nice quiet lie-in, after a fortifying cup of brandy....more
Based off Romance of The Three Kingdoms, this bold retelling imagines a world where people fall into the roles to whWelcome to the Kingdom of Miracles
Based off Romance of The Three Kingdoms, this bold retelling imagines a world where people fall into the roles to which they are suited and that includes women. Indeed, the story revolves mainly around several characters of the distaff gender.
But what if your life isn’t your own? What if everything you do is written through some mandate of omnipotent but invisible gods?
Our heroine doesn’t really believe in gods (an attitude that is deeply ironic, considering what happens to her later). So she operates as if gods aren’t real. In spite of her beauty (illustrated in the front of the book along with images of Xin Ren, Lotus and Cloud), it is her myriad other talents that she brings to bear. She possesses a watchful eye that notes everything and everyone around her and comes to insightful conclusions reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes. She’s intellectually brilliant, a talented zither player, a cunning strategist and a skilled negotiator. Her ability to determine what people are like and manipulate them is absolutely absorbing to read.
But other characters are not lacking. The story is filled with complicated characters, terrifying images of warfare, a sweeping vista of a foreign land (albeit one imagined by the writer) and tangled politics that require close and careful perusal on the reader’s part. The story centers around several powerful females: Xin Ren, a woman devoted to the child Empress (much spoken of but never actually glimpse on the page); Cloud, one of her swornsisters; Lotus, a simple brawler and another swornsister; Pan Qilin herself (aka the Rising Zephyr); Miasma, a rebel marauder; Cicada, the young girl barely holding on to power in the midst of a council composed of hesitant and fearful old men and Ku, Pan Qilin’s younger sister who developed a strange antipathy to her older sister.
It’s a terrific story of derring do, cool negotiation in the face of danger and, above all, the passionate ties between women. It’s one of the most riveting reads I’ve tackled this year and I highly recommend it for women and young girls. If there’s any book this year that happily speculates on the notion of what women can do when they’re free and unfettered by societal pressures, this book is it. ...more
The Sleeping Beauty tale is extremely polarizing. Some women love it. With its symbolism of a female who goes to sleep a girl and awakens as a woman, The Sleeping Beauty tale is extremely polarizing. Some women love it. With its symbolism of a female who goes to sleep a girl and awakens as a woman, a female who must adjust to a world that has changed drastically since her cursed slumber and the men who impale themselves on thorns in vain attempts to rescue her (from what, exactly?), she is a field rich for the mining.
Others just hate it. If they’ve come to it through Disney, they find a generically pretty girl with Barbie blond hair and blue eyes, wasp thin waist and only 18 lines in her own film. She’s nothing special. Cinderella learns to perform household chores; Mulan fights to save her father; Snow White goes from being pampered princess to helper to seven little men; Belle sacrifices herself to rescue her father from a murderous beast; Tiana works hard to open her own restaurant. What does Aurora do except hang out in a forest with her woodland friends, prick her finger and fall asleep?
Having been afflicted with a deadly disease that kills its victims before their 22nd birthday, Zinnia Gray is determined not to wallow. But she sees her death written in her parents’s tight expressions, who have run through every option to save their daughter and are now determined to put a brave face on things. Everyone she meets in school is aware of her condition and she hates the look that states “there’s the dying girl”, as if there’s nothing else to her life except her impending death.
The one bright shining note is her best friend (okay, only friend) Charmaine Baldwin. Charm’s the kind of acerbic character a girl like Zinnia needs. She’s got a tattoo, is learned in chemistry and she refuses to let Zinnia wallow. Charm snaps at Zinnia when depression catches her off guard and stages a terrific party for her on her 21st birthday. She’s as vivid a character as Zinnia and a perfect foil.
Zinnia Gray’s sideways fall into a fairy tale world, complete with anachronistic touches, is delightfully skewed. She’s always adored the Sleeping Beauty story but not because of its doomed heroine. She saw a Sleeping Beauty tale with an illustration that showed the girl awake with blazing, defiant eyes and it struck a chord. This was one princess determined not to go gently into that good night.
What if the sleeper didn’t want to awake into the arms of an unknown prince who presumptuously claimed her as his own? What if the curse wasn’t actually a curse? What if villains aren’t so clear cut or in plain sight?
This is a feminist take on a very old story. Who else but women condemned to smothering in comas could understand what it means to be severed from their best possible selves? So we understand when Zinnia boldly calls upon other women to help her.
The author packs a lot into this slim novel and it’s rendered even more enticing by stylish, bizarre black, white and gray illustrations. Figures with displaced heads dance across the page, foliage sprawls from above, below, left and right and odd-looking beasts pop up unexpectedly. The text winds itself around these images, like thorns winding themselves up the walls of a castle.
This is an exquisite jewel box of a story and you root for Zinnia along every step of her journey....more
Irene returns in this nail-biting sequel to The Invisible Library. This time it’s not a book she has to retrieve.
Irene isn’t sent on a mission here. SIrene returns in this nail-biting sequel to The Invisible Library. This time it’s not a book she has to retrieve.
Irene isn’t sent on a mission here. She goes without Library authorization or reliable backup to retrieve a kidnapped dragon. The stakes are high—nothing less than the fate of her chosen world as Librarian-in-Residence is riding on her shoulders.
Irene is no shrinking virgin; she’s had her share of lovers. She has admired Kai’s muscular sleek form and casually toyed with the idea of bedding him. He’s also made the offer to her, on more than one occasion.
However, the novels have so far eschewed romance. For one thing, Kai is her subordinate not someone she’s admired from afar. She’s not the type to go dallying with someone working for her as a junior underling. She’s also claimed that he’s not her type. Bluntly put, she prefers bad boys, the brooding, dangerous type of loner you find in far too many YA novels. As I’ve stated, the books have steered clear of romance, especially that kind, and I’m heartily glad for it.
What Kai and Irene share, however, is better than a typical good girl/bad boy much-trodden trope. Theirs is a relationship built on trust, shared danger and mutual admiration. He’s proven himself more than capable of holding his own in a fight, lending aid when needed or giving advice. For her part, she feels responsible for him and that is what initially fuels her to go seeking help. After meeting Kai’s formidable uncle, however, the stakes get considerably higher.
The plot becomes fraught with knuckle-whitening terror as Irene must battle against an ever-amassing bunch of foes, old and new, who would cow her with their magical power and influence. The scenes in which she turns the tables on armed assailants, negotiates with storm-summoning dragons or brokers perilous deals with eldritch creatures are electrifying to read. (You think “This would make a terrific film” and wonder what Guillermo del Toro would make of a Horse that takes the form of a speeding train.)
While the first novel turned on the acquisition of a strange Grimm book of märchen, this one makes active use of the storytelling form. According to the rules of chaos worlds, the elves in them draw power by forcing humans to submit to the power of stories. The Fae assume the roles of villains, rogues, heroes, mages, bards, etc., and the humans around them are bent to take their place as background characters in whatever plotlines the Fae concoct.
In one stunning scene, Irene uses this rule to weave a tale that binds her to a grave magical contract, a last-ditch effort to save herself and the imprisoned Kai. It’s rousing stuff and makes you fall for Irene all over again.
Our redoubtable heroine has proven herself the match for magical steeds, cunning elven lords, Venetian assassins and world-destroying dragons. She’s the kind of strong female protagonist that is as old as story and new as modern fantasy fiction. If you’ve read the first novel and haven’t read this one, run out and get your hands on a copy. This is storytelling at its absolute best....more
Louise is in for another trip. She’s giddy to be taken on the annual school journey to France. But straitened circumstances at home destroy her chanceLouise is in for another trip. She’s giddy to be taken on the annual school journey to France. But straitened circumstances at home destroy her chance.
Louise’s immaturity is on full display when she whines to her parents about her aborted trip to France. She understands in an abstract way that money is tight but she’s got a lawyer father and a mother who insists on wearing makeup and formal dress for dinner. She’s never really known hardship or privation. So she doesn’t react well when her plans are curtailed.
She’s got what I call First World Problems. Like a lot of privileged white girls, she doesn’t see much past the end of her own nose. In spite of her time spent on “The Titanic” (or perhaps because of it), she still yearns for a grand lifestyle and going to Paris was meant to be part of that. (Boo hoo, she can’t go to France. Big deal; there are children out there who can’t attend decent schools or have access to clean drinking water.)
Given the random jolts back in time Louise takes, where she’s often treated as an adult in high society, it can be hard to remember that she’s only twelve years old. She’s thrust into past times when women were expected to grow up quickly—especially a certain French queen who was forced to marry when she was only 14 years of age.
Louise’s trip to 18th-century Versailles is radiant with glorious dresses, bejeweled accessories and enough sweets to turn anybody diabetic. While the royals, nobles and aristocracy live the glamorous life, the peasants are starving and revolution is simmering.
Poor Louise! She knows vaguely that she may be in danger of losing her head but, thanks to her lack of attention in history class (again), she doesn’t quite remember when the revolution is supposed to occur. But she’s anxious to save Marie Antoinette as well as herself.
The story swings us through a decadent lifestyle, one that is rather startling for the young girl she is. Louise is exposed to a life of crazed excess and we wince with her as wine spills across tablecloths, pastries are crushed underfoot into the floor and grease stains the luxurious garments worn by the ladies. Men and women gamble with cards and dice and mistresses flirt with married men in full view of the court. This slice of high society is in stark contrast to the poverty, grime, stench and degradation that lies outside the castle and Louise is forced to the realization that some people have it far worse than she.
This sequel, like the previous one, is filled with gorgeous color spreads, mainly of women in fine dresses, with a two-page spread of the exterior of Versailles itself as a jaw-dropping entry. They are an absolute feast for the eye, especially the pale blue number that Louise first dons during the vintage sale. It is accentuated with what appear to be blue and white sparkles on the page, as if the dress itself were giving off aerations of light. You might not be keen on vintage fashion but it’s hard to deny how much like a princess she looks in that gown.
Her trip back to the present struck me as rather abrupt and jarring, with nothing really resolved. However, she and this reader came in for delightful shocks and raised issues I hope to encounter in the next book. I don’t usually care for book series. But I’m keen to learn just what happens next. ...more
This blood-soaked and riveting version Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is set in ancient Norse times, when men were judged by how well they wielded their weThis blood-soaked and riveting version Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is set in ancient Norse times, when men were judged by how well they wielded their weapons. Bow, axe, sword or shield—you weren’t a man if you couldn’t lift one. Yet it’s a world of contradictions, where peace is signified by a male god and war by a female one. It’s a world ruled by female ministers of peace and the kings lean on them for support and wisdom. Pirates and kings alike wouldn’t make it without slaves performing dirty deeds no one else will touch.
Yarvi, born with only one good hand, is considered a disappointment. But he’s been trained to hone his keen mind to a knife’s edge. Pithy sayings run through Yarvi’s mind as he uses the few gifts life has afforded him: his sharp intellect, vast learning and an unlikely band of former slaves who have banded to his service. How he employs his wits, cunning and intelligence in horrible circumstances, through betrayal, poverty, starvation, vicious elements and even more vicious taskmasters is riveting to read. The author paints us through landscape and seascape of such detail, we burn as Yarvi stumbles through volcanic ground that burns to the touch, shiver as he struggles through icy terrain with little that burns for fire or yields edible food and shake under the lash while he grips an oar with his useless hand.
The story is bone-chilling, horrific and unflinching in its examination of what it takes to survive in such a severe world where death is an even more palpable presence than in any Terry Pratchett novel. This is a grand saga writ large and small. It’s as if George R. R. Martin took notes from William Shakespeare, then sat down with Sun Tzu and crafted a novel. If that description piques your interest, drink down this bitter brew....more
Celie is back again and this time the Castle has a BIG surprise in store.
The story of how Celie nurtures and raises a baby griffin is highly amusing. Celie is back again and this time the Castle has a BIG surprise in store.
The story of how Celie nurtures and raises a baby griffin is highly amusing. She has to keep it a secret but, unlike many children stories of this nature, she doesn’t want to keep it hidden. Right from the start, the baby griffin is a handful. It chews up clothing, claws the furniture, reduces her sister’s shoes to tatters and steals bright and shiny things. It makes loud noises and has learned to undo latches, so she has to search frantically for it when it gets out of its hiding place. Rearing a baby is exhausting, especially one that requires raw meat and dry corn.
Celie isn’t foolishly stubborn, by any means. She knows she’s in way over her head. Celie dearly would like to let her parents know so that some of this burden is off her hands. But the Castle won’t let her. So she staggers onwards, going on little more than adrenaline and too little sleep.
However, the appearance of the baby Rufus is part of a larger mystery and the author takes us through the twists and turns of this enigma as we and Celia explore the ever-changing Castle. She makes an atlas of its contours, which seems like an exercise in futility. The Castle is constantly creating new corridors and new rooms; what’s the point of making a map of its interior when that could change at any moment?
At times, I wondered why Celie and her family never seemed to leave the Castle but stayed cooped up in it like the isolated weirdoes in Gormenghast. Maybe the Castle doesn’t let them leave.
Such a sinister connotation seems to be borne out when the inhabitants begin to wonder about the Castle itself. They realize they know nothing of how it was built or the personal lives of the royals who lived there. Tapestries, stories and poems about griffins start cropping up but there aren’t any griffins about the Castle environs. The mystery is compounded when the grim figure of Wizard Arkwright appears. There’s something not quite right about him and he clearly knows more than he’s telling.
The ending doesn’t truly solve the puzzle but it does lead the way for another exciting sequel. Celie may be young but she’s being forced to grow up fast…just like griffin Rufus....more
The author has taken a new viewpoint on autism in this fantasy novel. People who had autism, in early years when it wasn’t understood, may have been cThe author has taken a new viewpoint on autism in this fantasy novel. People who had autism, in early years when it wasn’t understood, may have been considered to be changelings, the babies fairies left in cradles when they snatched away human children.
It’s a bold premise and Ms. Housman has given us a redoubtable heroine to pull off her interpretation. Indeed, Iselia (or Seelie, as her sister calls her) doesn’t initially seem to be the “wrong” twin. Yes, she’s cautious, uneasy in the swirling crowds that contain mortals and the fair folk (both of whom pose unique dangers) and worried about her sister’s latest scheme. But it’s Isolde who comes off as being the dangerous one. She’s criminalistic, amoral in her intent to pilfer from others and willing to shrug off Iselia’s very real concerns about pulling off a feebly planned heist.
Matters go awry and the twins are pulled into orbit of another pair of troublesome thieves. The action picks up quickly as the quartet dodge pursuers, enchanters, scavenging humans and race after a sentient runaway cart. Iselia has trouble with new people and Raze and Olani’s initial antagonism rubs her raw.
Iselia isn’t without feeling. On the contrary, she feels so deeply, it causes her latent magical abilities to flare out of control. In fact, Iselia isn’t like the cold, superior and haughty autistic types that I’ve encountered in other fiction. If she remains aloof from others, it’s because her changeling nature has roused suspicion in a society that has been taught to hate and fear them and has caused her no end of grief from the threatening ways of strangers. Her constant peregrinations on the road and their shared life of crime have tied her fiercely to her sister, the only other person who’s been there for her for the last four years. Her distance from other people therefore is wholly justified. We can side with her since all she wants is to return home to her comfortable living and her absent foster parents, both of whom she misses fiercely.
Even entry into the world of fairy, from which Iselia supposedly came, isn’t without its perils. With her foot in the human and fey world, Iselia seems to belong to neither.
It’s a grand story. My only complaint is with the ending; it indicates that this volume is to be the first in a series. Yikes! That wasn’t indicated in the title. If it had been, I might have eschewed reading it. My life is too short and my tsundoku too large to embark on book series.
However, people looking for a new slant on a condition that’s popping up in fiction and non-fiction alike will appreciate Unseelie....more
This is a story for book lovers but not necessarily about book lovers. Irene (not her real name) spends most of her time traveling from one reality (oThis is a story for book lovers but not necessarily about book lovers. Irene (not her real name) spends most of her time traveling from one reality (or alternates, as they’re named here), stealing books for a shadowy Library. It is the Library, one that collects all works in as many alternates as it can find and forms a connection among worlds as well.
Irene would like to spend time sitting and reading books but her assignments keep her very busy. In fact, she doesn’t seem to read much at all. At one point, she manages to get her hands on a much sought-after book, one with the possibility to change worlds. Yet she barely gets to scan a line or two before the book is slammed shut. We’re meant to believe that she’s an avid reader. But how are we to believe that she’s a rabid bibliophile when we don’t get to see her actually read except once or twice in the storyline?
This niggling inconsistency aside, we are given instead a book of high adventure. Chase scenes, encounters with cyborg creations, eldritch horrors, conniving Fae and spells that open locked doors and animate stuffed animals are only some of the many intense scenes that are contained within these covers. Irene is a Librarian of many years’s experience. Watching her talk, fight and spell her way out of tight corners is fascinating to watch. She is a heroine of admirable cunning, intelligence and savvy.
However, even she occasionally finds herself in over her head. So she acquires allies and they are as strange and colorful as any reader could wish. While Irene strives to make herself unobtrusive, as befits a proper spy and thief, her allies are of a different breed. The story takes off with Irene alone but it truly soars when she walks hand-in-hand with Kai Strongrock and Lord Vale, an earl with a suspicious resemblance to a well-known fictional detective.
This book has its own in-world rules about magic and technology. Both are on display and are used to noteworthy effect. At one point, the story brings us face to face to Lovecraftian horror, the kind that is inexplicable, what H.P. termed the unnameable. It takes a writer of superb skill to delineate such a thing on the page so that the reader almost grasps the mind-twisting monstrosity that is presented. Alberich is a villain to be feared, one that is taken so far from humanity that he can only mimic its outer corners. Like Irene, we wonder what kind of bargains with what kinds of things Alberich had to make in order to achieve his warped version of immortality. This novel doesn’t give us the answer. But I’m certain future sequels may provide them.
It turns out to be a terrific book that also points out the advantages and disadvantages of hewing too closely to stories. I recommend it for all fantasy-loving readers....more
Starting off with the The Hiketeia (a graphic that I’ve reviewed elsewhere), this anthology explores Wonder Woman’s efforts as a diplomat. She has pubStarting off with the The Hiketeia (a graphic that I’ve reviewed elsewhere), this anthology explores Wonder Woman’s efforts as a diplomat. She has published a book of essays and it immediately raises a storm of controversy.
Fundamentalist right-wingers are eager to paint Wonder Woman as a pagan, leading their children astray. (It’s always about the children, isn’t it?) But lurking behind all of them, pulling the strings, is Veronica Cale. She’s one of the most dangerous people Diana has ever faced. Bolstered by wealth and an army of lawyers, keeping her image in the public eye squeaky clean, she’s not an enemy Diana can punch or incarcerate. She is to Wonder Woman what the Kingpin is to Daredevil and Lex Luthor to Superman—a human archnemesis with the brilliant cunning that keeps them out of the clutches of the law.
In other graphic novels, Ms. Cale’s vendetta against Wonder Woman is entirely personal. After years of trying to free her daughter from the curse cast by Ares’s two sons, Phobos and Deimos, she witnessed her daughter snatched away from her to live with the Amazons.
Being reared as an Amazon on a paradisiacal island is wonderful fortune but that Veronica didn’t see it that way. She only saw her child, whom she’d spent years trying to cure, get released from her divine malediction only to be taken away at the same instant. She hated the Amazons in general for that and Diana in particular.
For this Veronica Cale, however, it’s more of a sociological issue. She scratched and clawed her way out of poverty, straitened circumstances, a sordid birth and the ignominy of bastardry to become a powerful, wealthy woman. She sees Wonder Woman’s “easy” ascent to public stardom and acclaim as an affront to all women who struggle to make it in contemporary society. Diana is naturally super strong, fast, able to fly and has an invisible jet and magic lasso. She’s literally superhuman; she can’t inspire women to be like her any more than the Harry Potter novels can make ordinary human beings into wizards.
She has a point. Yet her annoyance at Wonder Woman doesn’t entirely explain the time, massive effort and major expense she expends to ruin the Amazonian princess. At one point, she braves death at gunpoint from a murderous South American warlord to acquire one of Diana’s old nemeses. This requires an enormous outlay of money on her part. In another instance, she murders someone who betrayed her. All this because she’s bitter about Wonder Woman’s meteoric rise to the top?
It doesn’t track. The other Cale’s reasons were better. When someone hates so intensely, it’s almost always for personal reasons.
Flimsy though her motivations are, the other personages in this collection are considerably stronger. Veronica Cale’s attempts to shatter Wonder Woman’s reputation initially fail but she’s got other plots up her well-tailored sleeves. Diana has her allies, some of them quite a colorful bunch. Yet she also has her enemies, seen and unseen, amassing against her. This is a fantastic collection, engrossing as supervillains, gods, chthonic immortals, assassins and wealthy entrepreneurs scheme in front of and behind the scenes.
This collection beats with the passionate heart of the Amazonian princess who is determined to work for mankind even when they are working against her....more
Louise Lambert is not your typical adolescent. She dreams of a world long gone: when fashion was stylish, when it made women who wore it glamorous, beLouise Lambert is not your typical adolescent. She dreams of a world long gone: when fashion was stylish, when it made women who wore it glamorous, beautiful, mysterious—a time when what you wore mattered.
This isn’t nostalgia. She was never part of that time but she thinks it was splendid, especially compared with her drab life where she hardly gets any mail or any attention except for her best friend and the awkward stammering boy whose idea of a prom invitation is that they carpool to save the environment.
Louise wants to be part of that time period. She gets her wish but then needs to find a way out of it. She’s learned what so many desperate, yearning people do—be careful what you wish for. There’s the hint of romance but that’s quickly squelched when she realizes that dapper looks and exquisite manners do not a gentleman make. Being onboard a cruise ship is delightful unless you get mal de mer.
This is more than your typical YA book. Louise is a teenager but she tries to keep a level head while she sorts out just what’s happened to her. This is an opportunity for Louise, one promising growth, friendship, excitement and the possibility of heroism. The author takes us along Louise’s side as we witness her yearning, joy, giddy glee and sudden horror. It’s a splendid journey. I really enjoyed it, especially since Louise finds herself trying to avoid using the colloquial idiom of the 21st century, a bane that has made me grit my teeth when I encounter it in other YA books.
This book is also enhanced by gorgeous color illustrations, watercolors showing women and occasionally men in period clothing. Some are two-page spreads that provide sudden bursts of vibrant color. Others almost resemble paintings of women in artful poses. The pictures look elaborate but display a simplicity of line and pattern when you look at them closely. They raise this novel above its deceptive young adult genre and make it like a coffee table book.
I think this book can be enjoyed across the age spectrum. Both adolescents and adults can enjoy this fictional romp into a bygone era....more
This charming poem tells of a prince with an unusual choice of bride. It starts with the first endsheet and flyleaf, displaying the prince and knight This charming poem tells of a prince with an unusual choice of bride. It starts with the first endsheet and flyleaf, displaying the prince and knight separated from each other and surrounded by princesses and ends with the last flyleaf and endsheet showing the two united and holding hands.
The images are colorful and the story is a familiar one: the prince must choose a bride but none of them are quite right. Then somebody has to be saved from a dragon! It’s a sweet romance with the two titular characters bringing unexpected strengths to bear as they protect each other from a lizardly menace. As you might guess, there is a happy ending as everybody congratulates the united pair.
There are panoply of children’s books coming out that celebrate queer romance. This is a captivating one to give your little boy or girl....more
Generic, boring title aside, this novel is one of surprises. The cover itself is unusual, showing a woman dressed in the Regency style holding a bow aGeneric, boring title aside, this novel is one of surprises. The cover itself is unusual, showing a woman dressed in the Regency style holding a bow and arrow. She’s looking over her shoulder at an almost bare-chested man. While his expression can be described as smoldering, hers is slightly playful as if she wishes to tease him about something. Why is she holding weapons reminiscent of the goddess Artemis? Well, that would be telling, dear reader.
The heroine is a duke’s daughter but her bloodline and lineage are more than a little convoluted. It turns out her mother married three times, giving Lady Gwyn a fair share of half-siblings. She’s no unknowing virgin although she’s managed to hide her non-virginal state from her brother—rather surprising, considering he’s her twin.
The gentleman is a groundskeeper wounded in the Marines and with very progressive ideas about affairs between men and women. However, Joshua refuses to teach Gwyn how to shoot, insisting that it’s a man’s place to take care of a woman and protect her. (That stuck in my craw a bit, since the men are usually protecting the women from other men.) He’s also related to Gwyn, being the son of one of her mother’s brothers-in-law from her third marriage. That makes him a cousin, albeit not by blood. (I told you it was convoluted.)
The power dynamic is a bit remarkable for a romance novel. While her wealth is considerably greater than his, that’s not necessarily the obstacle standing in the way of their happiness. Both Gwyn and Joshua are cherishing wounds, spiritual and physical, and their love affair is doomed if they can’t get past their individual shames about their injuries. They’re also holding on to secrets that could tear apart their fledgling amour.
Throw in a sordid past love affair, a blackmailer, plots to sell state plans to the French, attempted kidnapping and matchmaking relatives and you’ve got a truly corking good romance, one that has its share of twists and turns. The stubbornness of the two romantic protagonists only lends spice to the plot. ...more
This is a different version of the Fantastic Four origin tale. Rather than getting bombarded with rays while in space, Reed Richards tries an experimeThis is a different version of the Fantastic Four origin tale. Rather than getting bombarded with rays while in space, Reed Richards tries an experiment to get into another dimension. Years of long, hard work have led nowhere except to peek into the other realm and talk with its inhabitants. Yet, when it seems like there’ll be a breakthrough, matters don’t go as planned.
The graphics are stellar, with action-packed sequences ranging from above-ground fights against a kaiju to underground battles against mole men. We see the group initially split apart after the experiment, then coming back together as they struggle to control their newfound abilities.
Benjamin Grimm is a football star who inexplicably befriends the bullied Reed Richards. Reed is a quiet, passionate genius who suffers silently under an abusive father. Sue and Johnny are the happy children of a brilliant father. Victor is an antisocial genius who barely speaks. They all teleport to various places on the globe when the experiment goes awry.
I’ve never been a fan of the Fantastic Four, so I might be forgiven for not realizing that their powers correspond to the form elements. Sue Storm = Air, Johnny Storm = Fire, Benjamin Grimm = Earth and Reed Richards…Water? That’s what threw me. I associated him with rubber not water but, now that I think about it, I see the correlation. Silly me.
Fantastic Four films have never done well. But this comic makes you wonder why that is. They’re such a colorful and amazing bunch....more
It can be truly startling to see foreigners interpreting and re-inventing our own popular culture. Peter Parker is now a boy avenging his sensei’s deaIt can be truly startling to see foreigners interpreting and re-inventing our own popular culture. Peter Parker is now a boy avenging his sensei’s death by a rival clan while Venom is a ronin assassin. Doctor Strange is a bespectacled blonde who can levitate his enemy into outer space in order to avoid a battle that will harm civilians. (Good for him. Why don’t more of them do that?!) The Some women bear the usual midriff-bearing outfits with boob windows. But the boobs are truly spectacular, with teasing near-nudity that will make your eyes pop out of your skull.
Surprisingly short on gore, the stories often tip over into sly humor, such as when a son of Satan bears his chest to his brother, who averts his eyes and tells him to cover up. The Hulk becomes a kaiju who you realize is butt naked! A were-tiger is seriously turned on by a Black Panther who resembles an Egyptian god. Dormammu is both frightening and disturbing at the same time.
For those who like their Marvel mania manga style, try this volume on for size. ...more
Tor, short for Victoria, is our stand-in for Victor Frankenstein. Like the titular doctor from Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, there is a certain moral iciTor, short for Victoria, is our stand-in for Victor Frankenstein. Like the titular doctor from Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, there is a certain moral iciness at her center. Victor Frankenstein displayed a horror for his resurrected creation, then shameful negligence as he abandoned the stitched together newborn. Foolishly determined to forget the daemon, as he called it, he let it careen all over the countryside burning houses, murdering his young brother, his best friend and his new bride.
The modern iteration starts out with Tor recounting her latest scientific failure to raise a rat from the dead. What is her motivation for this dubious act? Is she doing this to help mankind bring back their lost loved ones? Is she trying to promote scientific knowledge? No, we can’t infer that from the text. She’s annoyed by this failure and all the previous ones since failure is not going to win her the coveted Nobel prize. So we have a teenage genius slavering to gain a prize that will also net her a considerable monetary gain.
Tor isn’t squeamish about cutting into carcasses, risking her life (and that of her friend/assistant/sidekick Owen) by generating electricity while standing on a damp floor or bringing back an unfortunate car accident victim from the dead.
As an accident victim suffers from the impact, we see something of human decency from Tor at last. The author ably describes her shock, misery, guilt and horror as she contemplates the unknown dying from the collision she has caused. But all that empathy swiftly vanishes as she sees the accident as opportunity.
She’s contemptuous to her assistant Owen, alternately chiding him for nausea, dismissing him when he doesn’t follow her thoughts or using him when she needs his services. She constantly lies to her mother. She allows her creation Adam to date a girl as an experiment to expand his emotional spectrum while she observes his interactions with the living. She is determined to see Adam as being innocent of heinous crimes because he’s HERS not because she believes his innate nature to be good. She shows pride in Adam’s achievements but only as they reflect on her. She’s the one who brought him back from the dead, after all. She’s the only reason he’s still alive so why shouldn’t she take pride in his accomplishments?
Tor is brilliant and often sees others as being stupider than she. Like many brilliant people, she wonders why others aren’t as sane as she is or don’t see things her way. She is arrogant, lacking in compassion, short on social graces, a sloppy dresser because she sees no reason to dress up (For what? School? Her drunken mother? Her best friend Owen?) and barely tolerates others who drift into her social circle.
Matters go from bad to worse as Tor must dodge Adam’s increasingly erratic behavior, her only friend’s growing horror and disgust and the very real possibility that Adam is a killer…and there’s someone out there who knows what she’s done. All this plus the horror of high school.
There’s something unsettling and slightly giddy about it all. It’s a dive deep into the viscous end of the bloody pool as Victoria navigates around sudden unwelcome popularity, the possibility of date rape and a psycho on the loose. It’s like a 1980s horror flick, with adolescents winding up dead and mutilated while a hatchet/machete/knife-wielding maniac is on the loose. (I guessed the identity of the murderer by chapter 18, by the way. There were just too many clues pointing to him to ignore.)
You wonder who has the poorer social skills: Victoria or her resurrected dead boy. You wonder if Victoria would be better off without the kind of fair-weather friends she makes after Adam proves to be a football prodigy. You worry for the fictional future world as Victoria stubbornly refuses to admit defeat. Fear the genius with ice where their blood should be. ...more
The Kings Row lads head to France. Frankly, you don’t know whom to feel sorrier for, the Americans or the French. The Camp Menton boys and girls show The Kings Row lads head to France. Frankly, you don’t know whom to feel sorrier for, the Americans or the French. The Camp Menton boys and girls show the typical French disdain for the Americans, hidden under polite banter, comparisons of Old World fencing compared to the relatively new and therefore lackluster New World schools. And there are challenges to fencing, with certain scholarship boys getting their butts handed to them.
Seiji Katayama, Nicholas Cox, Aiden Kane and Harvard Lee are the primary players in this boy’s love drama. But others are starting fledgling romances as well. The main romantic tension comes from Harvard’s processing of his feelings for Aiden while Aiden continues on his relentless quest to bed every boy that crosses his path. (Frankly, I don’t find mean boys to be any more attractive than mean girls and I’d like just one person to turn up his nose at Aiden and declare they’ve got better things to do with their time.)
Nicholas wins points for this. Of most of the boys around, he just doesn’t get what the big deal about Aiden is. Aiden has a certain blondness and louche charm. But Nicholas is more focused on fencing and dealing with Seiji’s struggles to fit in and bond with other people.
However, in France, we see that Seiji is in his element. Totally dedicated to fencing (and with the laser focus you get from people with Asperger’s), he meets up with French students who are just as dedicated to the artform, if not more so. He has no trouble talking to them, mingling with them and socializing, much to Nicholas’s dismay. If Seiji can’t understand why he’s so concerned with Nicholas’s welfare, Nicholas is equally slow at parsing out his own feelings.
This novel brims with emotional tension, simmering resentments, international rivalry and burgeoning romance. On or off the piste, the boys have their work cut out for them....more
I’m of two minds about this novel. On the one hand, it’s full of the jovial humor that Ms. Quinn is known for in her romances. (The name Hermione WatsI’m of two minds about this novel. On the one hand, it’s full of the jovial humor that Ms. Quinn is known for in her romances. (The name Hermione Watson is obviously a combination of the names of Hermione Granger and the actress who played her in the Harry Potter films, Emma Watson, e.g.) Gregory Bridgerton spars playfully with Lady Lucinda Abernathy—that is, when he’s not mooning over her radiant friend Hermione.
However, I was horrified by a passage in which Lucinda is manhandled by her future father-in-law while her intended (not Gregory) stands by and does nothing. Lord Haselby isn’t a bad man by any means. He’s quiet, well mannered and amiable; Lucinda would be perfectly content with him. However, this indifference on the part of a future husband makes him look rather shabby.
That’s nothing compared to Gregory’s behavior when he decides he’s in love with Lucinda and pursues her without regard to her own stated feelings or obvious behavior. He sneaks into her bedroom (not just once but twice) and then decides to leave her tied up in a water closet, in spite of her protests about the latter situation. Of course, the latter situation turns out badly but all’s well that ends well. I suppose that’s to be expected when you read an earlier passage in which he yanks her bodily into a room, locks them inside it and pockets the key. He couldn’t have asked her for a walk and talked to her outdoors like the gentlemen he purports to be?
About the ending...I have a few choice words about that. Once Lucinda is married, she proceeds to shoot out one baby after another. We’re informed that childbirth gets easier after the first child but I still don’t see why any woman would decide to birth a litter. She even beats Violet Bridgerton’s record and that’s saying something!
Lucinda is one of those romantic heroines who occasionally cherishes the thought of travelling. Alas, like the rest of the Bridgerton ladies, whether by blood or marriage, she really doesn’t go anywhere. The ton drift between town and country but only the men ever leave England.
So we have a HEA with the usual business of husband, wife and children. Oh boy, are there children. When all the kids are awake, the noise must be deafening.
I returned to m/f romances set in the Regency period because at least I could get conversation before settling down to the passionate sex. Now, I’m thinking about turning back to modern romances. At least with those, there is a chance of reading about female characters who think about something other than becoming breeding cows....more