Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier is truly a delve into the fantastic through beautiful prose and detailed imagery.  I was wandering around my local library and saw this book.  I started reading page one and couldn’t put it down.  This book was inspired by the 12 dancing princesses fairy tale.

For me that brought back the memories of grade school, when Nickelodeon still had a program called special delivery, where they showed an animated fairy tale every afternoon.  That was the first time I heard the story of the 12 dancing princesses.  So this book held me captivate not just by the story but by the nostalgia of childhood.

The story is of sisters, not 12 of them, and takes place in I believe Transylvania or that area of the world.  The girls are left on their own as their father goes away for winter due to his health.  They fall under the tyranny of their cousin.  The tale is powerful.  It is of the repressed struggling for freedom, about family ties, power, corruption, and romance.  It’s a book that gives you sensory image without boring you or overloading you.  If you are a fan of fantasy, then this book is a treat.

To find out more about the author, check out her website.

http://www.julietmarillier.com/author.html#

The River by Mary Jane Beaufrand caught my attention for several reasons.  The first was the cover.  The second was that it takes place in Oregon on the Santiam river.  The third reason is that it involved solving a murder and I was in the mood for some suspense.  The book delivers on the promise of suspense  that keeps you turning the pages.  The main character is like-able though she seems a bit naive.  There were a few plot points where I questioned the character’s  believability, but it was not enough to make me put down the book.  Plus I was already hooked, I had to find out what the end result would be.

The nice thing about this book is that it is a good read while also being relevant to today’s society as it addresses the problem of crystal meth.  I’d recommend it for a quick read.

I recently read Captivate by Carrie Jones.  This is the sequel to Need.  We see familiar characters and learn about new fairies as well as Valkyries.  There are new faerie kings that are invading, her faerie father ends up dying, and the main character makes a drastic choice at the end.  The story is engaging with some unexpected twists and, much to my frustration, has a bit of a cliffhanger ending.  Overall, we see some character development as well as new plot points.  I would suggest reading Need before your read Captivate.

I am currently reading The Mortal Instruments Trilogy. The City of Bones, the City of Ashes, and the City of Glass by Cassandra Claire.  I’ve finished the first two and am about halfway through the third.

Page one hooked me, maybe it was page two, but I’m pretty sure it was page one.  That’s always a promising start to any book.  What’s interesting is that I’ve been reading a lot of books and even watched a t.v. series featuring the concept of Nephilim.  In everything else that I’ve read they are generally presented in a negative to evil manner.  So it was refreshing to see someone take a different approach.

In these books, the Nephilim, aka shadowhunters hunt demons and/or other paranormal creatures depending on if they are “law abiding” or not and part of the agreement between, underworlders and the Nephilim.  Interesting enough, the primary villain is another Nephilim.  A rogue who is using demons to do his bidding and trying to destroy the current nephilim order of things.

Our main character doesn’t know she’s a shadow hunter and therefore has not been properly trained, but she suddenly starts seeing demons and other nephilim, which is how she gets sucked into their world.  The books are packed full of action, magic, runes, plot twists, and yes some romance.  These are very good young adult books that are entertaining and engaging.  I don’t want to give too much away of the plot but suffice it to say, you will not be bored.

To learn more about the books, go to:

http://www.mortalinstruments.com/

To learn more about the author, go to:

http://www.cassandraclare.com/

Well, I finally did get this book from the library (there was a waiting list) and promptly devoured it.  This is on my “to buy” list.

Before you read The Desert Spear by Peter V Brett, be sure and read its prequel, The Warded Man.  Essentially The Desert Spear picks up where The Warded Man leaves off.  However, it quickly backtracks, which confused me at first but then I realized that we were flipping back and forth, time wise, and then it all made sense.

In The Warded Man, we see Arlen and company grow up.  We learn who they are and what makes them tick.

In the Desert Spear, we see Ahmann Jardir grow up and come to power.  Now, in my mind he is a “villian” from the first book, but as we learn more about him in this book he becomes more sympathetic.  The first third or so of the book concentrates on Jardir and Abban and the ways of Krasia.

It’s around page 190/200 are that we return to Arlen, Leesha, and Rojer.  It’s about this point that the time line of the story stays linear and quits jumping into the past.

Eventually, Jardir meets Leesha and Rojer but has not seen the “warded man” yet.  He doesn’t know or think that it’s Arlen, since he thinks Arlen is dead.

One plot point I hated/liked all at the same time involved Ranna, Arlen’s former betrothed.  I don’t want to spoil it so that’s all I’m going to say.

This book is a lot darker that the first one and I wouldn’t let a very young audience read it.  I felt that it was more of an adult than young adult book.

I”ve read other reviews that state they didn’t like the beginning of the Warded Man and/or they didn’t like the POV change in The Desert Spear.  Well, the beginning of the Warded Man is a bit slow.  Something my husband commented on (which shocked me consider his usual authors), but it does pick up if you stick with it, and quickly becomes very engrossing.  Granted, I read very quickly and prefer really thick books so that probably influences my definition of “quickly.” However,  I do feel the set up is necessary to really understand the culture and world that the characters are living in.

As for The Desert Spear, I was thrown at first to not start with Arlen, but as you recall the last pages from The Warded Man, then the beginning of the Desert Spear makes sense.  Also again, having that understanding of culture that the characters are functioning in, is generally vital to a story.  Essentially there are two vastly different cultures in the same world, not so unlike our actual world that is filled with a variety of people and beliefs.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and think it’s a good sequel.  I really wanted to be able to pick up the next one after reading the last page, but cliffhangers are good in the business of writing even though they frustrate readers.

To learn more about the books and the author go to his website:

http://www.petervbrett.com/

So, I happily discovered a new book series I am ravenously devouring.  This would be the demon hunting soccer mom series by Julie Kenner.  The first two books, which I’ve read, are Carpe Demon & California Demon.  I really enjoyed both of them and have the remaining three waiting to be picked up at the library.  The only thing that really annoyed me in the first book is the overuse of specific brand names.  I don’t care if you are debating between kashi or cocoa puffs cereal.  The first few chapters were littered with brands, but the use of brand names quickly lessened and the plot became more apparent. The characters do develop and the plot thickens so to speak with book two and the use of brands is significantly less in book two.

The pitch line for these books that I read on my library’s website was, what if Buffy the Vampire Slayer got married and had kids. Well, being an avid Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan for the show’s running, that had me intrigued.  It was an incredibly good pitch line I must say.

I really liked that this was a supernatural series, featuring a demon hunter who is also juggling a family.  I like that there’s no hackneyed heroine/hero love story.  Instead it deals with the very real challenges of making a marriage strong around the chaos of kids and work and random obligations.  Kate’s obligations happen to deal with saving the world.

Overall, a good read.  I’m looking forward to see the characters develop, learn more about the character David Long, and find out if Kate will tell her daughter (though after book tow I don’t think she has much of a choice) and eventually her husband.  Plus her husband Stuart is campaigning for county attorney.  Oh and you can’t forget the best friend and psudeo grandfather.  There’s a lot going on and the author does a good job of juggling it.

To learn more about the author, check out her website.

http://www.juliekenner.com/

This is the story of a group of teenage girls whose job is to round of supernatural nasties at the direction of their coven, oh and the girls are witches.  The Revealers by Amanda Marrone has a unique plot with some intriguing twists.  The main characters are betrayed by their coven, which includes their own mothers.  They ban together to overcome what appears to be an inescapable fate, overcoming personal obstacles along the way.  It’s definitely worth picking up and I enjoyed it, cover to cover.  One of the things I enjoyed most is that it’s a solid one story novel, with a complete ending.  It was a nice change from reading series with cliffhangers, which I’ve been doing a lot of.

To learn more about the author, check out her website:

http://www.amandamarrone.com/

Awhile ago, I did a review of the first book in The Sweep Series by Cate Tiernan.  Since then I’ve read up through book 10.  I’m waiting on the remaining 5 books, which I’ve requested from the library.  Needless to say I’ve enjoyed the books. They each have an element of mystery, betrayal, and romance that most readers would like.  Books 1-9 are told from Morgan’s point of view while book 10 is told from Hunter’s point of view.  I was happy to see that while it is a struggle at times Morgan and her parents come to an understanding, after definite turmoil and surprises.  The series develops well and each books leaves you wanting the next one.  If you like supernatural books, especially those that revolve around witches, then give the series a read.  This is a series aimed at young adults.