Disclosure: I received Larkspur in exchange for a review from Shut Up & Read.
This was a hit and miss novel with me. I feel like it has a ...moreDisclosure: I received Larkspur in exchange for a review from Shut Up & Read.
This was a hit and miss novel with me. I feel like it has a lot of potential, with some editing and revising, to actually be picked up by a bigger publisher. It felt, for lack of a better word, inconsistent. There was a lot of attention to detail, which worked well in some places, not so well in others. There wasn't an overwhelming number of characters, which was good, but the writing style made it difficult for each character to come alive and find a "voice," at least for me. The storyline was well developed and unique, even for a PNR, which is hard to find. Even with that, it still had the universal PNR elements—the love at first sight instant attraction thing, the unique abilities, etc. It was "clean," with no cursing and just one sex scene, BUT that one sex scene… well. I'll get to that.
This novel starts with a bang. Our plucky heroine, Alexandra, has fallen into a cistern and is screaming in the (vain) hope that someone hears her. She was searching for the grave of an ancestor, a Teater Higgins, a distant grandfather. While in the cistern, she finds a rock that is warm to the touch, and after she picks it up, she finds a way out. The rock tattoos her. Later, she and a friend go to find the owners of the property and ask for permission to explore the family cemetery, where they finally find Teater's grave, and she finds her instant attraction for someone to whom she is speaking, Jediah. There is a scene with an orb, and Jediah leads her to a lawyer in town, who tells her that Teater has left her a significant amount of property. She goes back home to finish her degree, then decides to build a house on the property. Meanwhile, she's learned that she's a Sensate, which basically means that she has heightened sensory perception and a few additional abilities as well. The thing with the orb is one of Jediah's talents. Alexandra can travel distances in the blink of an eye, as well as a few other things. She learns from Jediah's mother, Nancy Jane, that she's something called an Ultra Sensate and that there is someone after Nancy Jane's powers, but that Nancy Jane had decided to give all of her power to Alexandra back when her grandfather was alive. This will kill Nancy Jane. Alexandra is kidnapped, then found, and then comes home with no memory of how long she has been gone or who took her. After a while, there's a wedding.
I'm being vague on purpose, because I don't like hiding reviews because of spoilers.
While we're on the subject of spoilers, I don't appreciate being spoiled for other novels or storylines I might be reading, either. Let me tell you all a fun little story: I've been reading Karen Moning's Fever series. I finished Dreamfever (book 4 of 5) recently, but was waiting for February to roll around so Shadowfever (book 5 of 5) would count toward a challenge. I was actually going to start Shadowfever earlier, but I put it off so I could focus on this book.
And this book has spoilers for that series in it. Specifically, character death. As you can imagine, this did NOT make me a happy camper. (I actually marched around my workplace ranting about how only I could pick up a book that spoiled a completely unrelated book that I really wanted to read.) Ironically enough, the most emotion I felt while reading this novel was that anger at having Shadowfever ruined for me (and I don't care how irrational I sound right now; I don't even want to pick up the book and will probably have to force myself through it this weekend. Edit: I started Shadowfever and there is no enjoyment there. None.) and then overwhelming relief when Alexandra moved on to Eragon, which I have not read, and have no desire to read.
It was really one of those times where the attention to detail didn't work in this book's favor—and it doesn't matter how minor that spoiler turns out to be.
Two other instances I marked as a little needless as far as detail goes: there was a scene at one point where Alexandra had just gotten out of the shower, and there is this long interjection about her socks—their color, shape, how worn out they are, how she always matches them to her outfit—and by the time she actually got dressed and the storyline picked up again, I couldn't remember why she was getting dressed in the first place. Secondly, the scene where Alexandra gets kidnapped, and Jediah, Cassie, and John are in her bungalow discussing strategy to find her. Jediah goes into her bedroom, and then he spends quite a bit of time thinking about which earrings she is wearing. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it never comes up again.
The dialogue wasn't the easiest to follow—there were very rarely any indications about who was speaking to whom, and all of the characters sounded kind of the same (we all have distinct speech patterns in real life, and characters in books tend to have that, as well), and at least half of the dialogue was just repeating what we'd already heard anyway. Example: Alexandra decides to build a house. She speaks with an attorney about this, who refers her to an architect. She researches house styles, and as she is researching, we as the reader get to hear as she works this out in her head. The next morning, she meets with the architect and all of their dialogue is repetition of what we've already been told. The architect refers her to someone else, and they go over the same information.
Basically every conversation in the book is like this, and it could have been a lot shorter and a lot easier to get through by the end.
I've mentioned that Alexandra is kidnapped. She is missing for six weeks, I think, and eventually rescued by someone who is supposed to be—or has been presented up to this point, anyway—as the "bad guy." She's been drugged, starved, and beaten for the majority of these six weeks. The "bad guy" saves her life, takes off her clothes, bathes her, and puts her in his bed before leaving in a completely gentlemanly fashion (which isn't my issue here; I'll get to this part in a bit). Her first reaction upon waking up goes something like this: "Good heavens! What a headache!" followed by "Ouch, that really hurts!" She's so weak that it takes a whole day to take a shower and get herself home (one of her abilities, remember), and overall that makes this reaction seem just a little… well, mild.
She's rescued 60% into the novel and after that, it seemed like it could have ended rather quickly; I wondered how there could have been almost half a book left when the main conflict was mostly over. It was all more or less dénouement after that point—Alexandra remembering what had happened to her, and there's a bit of checking in about her house; she learns a few details about the heritage of the Sensates; there's a very quick engagement—three days! This, coincidentally, also feels pretty unrealistic to me. When I was ten I wanted a wedding in three days, but then I had to be in a couple and realized that there's almost no way you could get everything in line that quickly.
There's also one sex scene at the very end that was a little more awkward than anything, and it wasn't because it didn't use vulgar words. To be honest, that part wasn't so bad. But there were these floating blue light things and all I could imagine were jellyfish. And then there was a "power surge," and that horrified me a little. (If Wolverine had a power surge when he was having sex, I think he'd be celibate.)
Now, on to what I enjoyed. I thought the beginning of the novel was great; I had no trouble imagining the setting and the characters; I was having a good time getting to know Alexandra and her friends and curiosity drove me to keep reading. I was glad to see her out of the cistern, I was intrigued by the rock that she found and the tattoo that mysteriously appeared (the rock was hardly mentioned after a while—I'm wondering if it comes back later?) And the book as a whole, despite my complaints, wasn't bad. Like I said earlier, with some revision, this would be really great.
This novel has to be one of the most unique paranormal romances I've ever read, and that's saying something, because in this genre there are a lot of clichés. There were no vampires, werewolves or other shifters. There were no casual references to sex and no dirty language whatsoever, which would make this a good book for a younger person to read. These stand out to me because I read a lot of this genre, and it's something that I've come to expect. Realizing that it was missing stuck with me, and realizing that it didn't hurt the storyline stuck with me even more. Even when the clichés came into play, they weren't overwhelming. There was the "you are the one special person who holds the fate of the whole world in your hands" prophecy, but I kind of forgot about it until it was mentioned again. There was the fated romance thing, but at least there was a reasonable amount of time for the lovers to get to know each other.
There is one more thing I wanted to address before I end this rather lengthy review. Ryeth. Ryeth is presented as the bad guy, and then redeems himself later on. Afterward, he's not shown to have pulled a complete 180, but there is some confusion there, and there is also a bit of blame to be placed on the Sensates as well for their treatment of him. The grey area was very well done, and I wasn't expecting it, and of EVERYTHING in this novel (with the exception of the spoilers) this is what's stuck with me the longest.
So overall, I thought that this was enjoyable in the beginning, but less so closer to the end. There were parts I enjoyed and parts I didn't. It was by far not the worst thing I've read all year and it's probably one of the most originals. For an indie novel it was pleasant. When I stand it next to books from major publishers, it fell a little short, but that's to be expected. I gave 3 stars because I enjoyed the originality, the potential, and the characters; I detracted stars for the clutter and the redundancy.(less)
It really, really bugs me to read a series out of order, but I started with this one because it seemed to not heavily feature the characters in the fi...moreIt really, really bugs me to read a series out of order, but I started with this one because it seemed to not heavily feature the characters in the first two books. I may revise this opinion later, when I catch up.
I liked most of this story; I thought it was enjoyable, well-written and an easy read. I really enjoyed the world-building aspect, which is something I don't usually comment on in a review but I feel like it was so well done that I have to make an exception. I am not sure it even counts as world building since it's supposed to be a secret society type thing hidden in our society, but I had no problem coming into it, which I think is a good sign since I'm coming into the middle (or late beginning, anyway) of the series.
I docked the star because I didn't like Paige. She was too dumb to live half the time and annoying the other half and Savannah was kind of bratty too so that's pretty much my whole reasoning for docking the star. If she'd just been a little less obnoxious, I could have felt justified giving it the full five stars.(less)
This is a coming of age story about a werewolf girl who's fallen in love with a normal person boy.
When it comes down to it, this is basic...moreThis is a coming of age story about a werewolf girl who's fallen in love with a normal person boy.
When it comes down to it, this is basically what this book is about and I'm not sure how to put it any more or less bluntly than this. It kind of drops you right into the middle of the story, with a fire that the protagonist's father dies in.
I enjoyed the story well enough. I read it one sitting. The characters were well rounded and believable.
I had a hard time feeling... well, anything... for the main character. I didn't hate her. I didn't love her. I didn't feel bad for her. I literally felt nothing for this person.
I am giving a more generous rating than the review implies because I have literally had the worst headache all day and I don't know. Maybe I didn't feel anything because my head was freaking broken.
I am really disappointed in this one. It sounds so good, and it was free, and I was excited to read it. Unfortunately I only got to 40% before it came...moreI am really disappointed in this one. It sounds so good, and it was free, and I was excited to read it. Unfortunately I only got to 40% before it came down to either giving it up as abandoned or clawing my eyes out because I tried to read another word and… well, I like having eyes.
The mortal enemy of this novel, and this storyline (which still has potential) was apparently time. It was rushed. It was all rushed. The 40% I read all took place within a few hours. A few hours. And it was painfully obvious that the only editor this novel ever saw was a quick run-through with spell check. The editing alone was painful. The rushed storyline made it worse. The slang made it unbearable.
This novel is about a girl named Rae, who lives in a post-war society where very few humans still live on the planet. There was a war at some point in the distant past between "demons" (which are all vampires, were-creatures, goblins, fairies, and witches—and I’m not sure how witches aren't human, but it's the not my classification) and humans. The humans all live in a big city protected by Clerics, which is what Rae is in training to become. There's something around the wall called a klaxon, which may or may not be an alarm of some sort—it was never explained before I stopped reading. And right before I stopped, there was the slam-in-the-face sort of foreshadowing that "hinted" that maybe this version of history is all wrong, anyway.
Our plucky heroine, Rae, is an orphan. The only tie she has to her past is a mysterious amulet that has never left her neck. She wears it to remind herself that she has no one. She is super fast, can heal super quickly, and has a compulsive punching problem—evidently when people touch her, she hates it so much that she just wants to lay them out. And I don't mean she's getting groped between the two classes she actually visited. I mean she wants to punch people when they accidentally brush against her in the hallways. She can also make a hole in the wall so she can get out without disturbing the klaxon, so she can go Outside.
And this is where our story starts. Rae is dressing, and it's not even one percent into the book and I've highlighted the first proofreading error that I just can't get past: "Stood in my fraying bra and panties, I groggily scratched at my knee, trying to pull myself together." Every time I have to stop myself and say "what?" it means that I'm pulled out of the story.
She is going for her morning run and happens to find two of her teachers murdering a fairy. The first thought that occurs to her is how horrible this is. And I'm not going to argue with that, it is horrible. But she's spent her whole life believing that these beings are subhuman and that there's nothing wrong with hunting them. She is in training to hunt them.
This upsets her so badly that she punches one teacher and runs from another, and she somehow breaks into a run which is super fast even for her. "Taken by shock, I planted my feet and slammed to still." As she stops, she sees a boy watching her. This boy is, to no one's surprise, a fairy. His name is Breanden. She is instantly attracted to him.
Instantly.
"Without thinking, I reached to touch his jaw and it felt like strength." What does strength feel like? If I reach out to pet the glistening, rock hard six pack abs of a weight lifter, am I feeling strength? Or is it just feeling up a stranger?
Also, Breanden is apparently a toddler. One of the first things he says to her? "Since I saw you first you have to be mine."
Anyway, after his little territorial display of dominance, he tells Rae that she too is a demon/fairy and that she has been hidden in the human city by a glamour that is now going to fade because breaking into a run means she's discovered her true nature. Despite all this, and despite the fact that she's punched her teacher and the other teacher saw her do this, and she's fully convinced they're going to kill her (which is, I guess, what happens to people who disobey) Breanden takes her back to the city. On her way to her first class of the day, she gets waylaid by a vampire named Tomas, and hides him in her closet to talk to him after the day is over.
We're treated to a bit of unnecessary description about school uniforms, and a bit of that slang I was mentioning earlier. The clothing object in question is a green blazer, and "the girls rocked them shorn at the elbow or tied around the waist to show off their tattoos." I went from "compulsive punching problem" to "teenage mutant ninja turtle" at this point.
Oh, and Rae is apparently a Mary Sue: "I was pretty much good at everything I tried and took eight classes instead of the six most Disciples preferred; Martial Arts, Explosives, Subterfuge, Entomology, Demon Theory, Equestrianism and Alchemy." I am… not entirely sure what the point in listing her class schedule was, considering that I was almost halfway through the book and she only went to Demon Theory long enough to argue with the teacher (the one who chased her in the forest that morning, and incidentally blow her cover in that whole fiasco) and skip Alchemy to sit in the library.
She also takes the time to worry about Breanden (who, in case you've forgotten, she only met about an hour ago): "The thought of him being discovered was making me feel slightly sick. I even threw up in my mouth a little."
I threw up in my mouth a little too, Rae.
Her friends are annoying: "Ro saw all the questions on my face and winked at me. 'We talk all about it later and I say hai proper,' he said."
So, really, I got no resolution. It's roughly halfway through a book, she's met some fairies, apparently fallen in love with the king of the toddler fairies, there's a vampire in her closet, and she's discovered she's a demon and tried (unsuccessfully) to stick it to the man, and she hasn't even had lunch yet. I don't know what the demons did, whether there are humans outside the wall or why I should give a damn.
I will leave you with one parting shot: "Our dietary staples were caffeine, sugar and bread."
Raised as an orphan in Texas, Anna St. Thais takes a road trip, supposedly to New Orleans (good times: she never makes it) and en...more4.5 stars
Raised as an orphan in Texas, Anna St. Thais takes a road trip, supposedly to New Orleans (good times: she never makes it) and ends up, in the beginning of the novel, kidnapped by some crazy trucker that is going to do something vaguely connected to Shreveport, Barbie dolls, and freezers. I'm being vague on purpose. Anyway, Anna is clairvoyant, kind of; she hears this guy sometimes that she thinks is a figment of her imagination but he's not so much since he turns up with his sister to rescue her from Crazy Trucker Guy and whisk her away for a romance filled with not having a lot of sex and having a lot of thoughts that aren't your own somewhere in Louisiana. By a lake she's dreamed of her whole life. And Goujon, the giant mythical catfish god.
The one thing I didn't like about this book was the "action" scenes, such as they were, were just a wee bit drawn out too far. Probably the point of view alternating between Anna and Gabriel, so it was like getting the same scene over and over and over and over.
That being said, I loved nearly all of the characters in this book--even the "bad" ones--they were all very real in a way that very few characters in books really are; they were flawed, and gorgeous, and they had problems and they didn't break character at all. Crush on Gabriel, too, by the way. HUGE crush on Gabriel, thanks friend.
This book is rich in history and it's awesome, but it's frustrating too because you don't ever really figure out WHO the Lake People are or how they got that way or hell, how exactly does this whole thing not just collapse in on itself? Despite that, excellent book. And the romance aspect was not overly done and believable and I liked that. (less)
Glimmerglass: the first young adult novel EVER to make me feel more pity for the alcoholic mom than our plucky young herone.
Our main chara...moreGlimmerglass: the first young adult novel EVER to make me feel more pity for the alcoholic mom than our plucky young herone.
Our main character, Dana, is sixteen years old and has moved several times due to her mother trying to keep her under the radar of her Fae father. She is at a recital (she has a naturally beautiful voice because she's half Fae, and it is the only naturally beautiful thing about her, I swear) when her falling down drunk mother shows up, having driven herself to the recital, and embarrasses the ever living crap out of her. She decides the best course of action to combat this embarrassment is to run away to Avalon and live with her father, who has no idea she even exists. She finds out she has all these spectacular powers that make everyone want her. There is a big bad, and the master plan is LITERALLY “you will do what I want and I will be Queen forever!”
Apparently in this world, the Fae exist and everyone knows about them, and though they live in Faerie and not on our world, but the independent nation of Avalon is the place where Fae and humans can coexist. They're off the coast of Great Britain, and it is apparently a mountain. I'm not sure if it's the King Arthur Avalon or not, but I'd assume that's the case.
There isn't a love triangle in this book! It is a crush fourgy. I'll get into the crush fourgy later.
In case you've missed it thus far, there are enough plot holes in this novel to build an interstate. I could put the plot holes in the order of what pissed me off the most, but I'm not sure I can even accomplish that. It's that bad.
For starters—okay, what kind of teacher sees that her underage student has a mother who clearly can't care for her and will most likely put her in danger by sticking her in a car and driving home drunk, and then says “oh that's too bad?” Why was social services not called right then? More importantly, why wasn't ANYONE called at any point? Why is it that Dana never once tried to get someone to talk to her mother, or any of the teachers, guidance counselors, or principals who probably looked at her transcripts and saw that they moved a million and two times didn't ask what was going on?
Well, the answer to this question is probably “so Dana had one more thing to bitch about.” Seriously, this girl. She was the biggest BRAT. She doesn't like being the adult all the time so she RUNS AWAY. And spends the better part of the novel reminding the reader that she's the adult and how bad it is to never be able to have friends because she has to move so often. She gets kidnapped and bitches about how hard the bed is. She gets kidnapped from the kidnappers and whines because she's put on a sofa. She befriends the kidnappers and is moved to the female's (Kimber's) dorm room. She can't stay with Ethan because he is hawt and a bad boy/player and there is instant attraction. But the couch in Kimber's dorm room is too hard. She moves to a safe house that has a cot. She FINALLY gets to her father's house and what's the first thing she notices? She has to sleep on a futon. Boo freaking hoo.
I just think that if someone's going to talk about their unfortunate circumstances and how hard it is and how broke they are, they're probably not going to bitch all the time when people are trying to help them out. Okay, so the kidnappers, maybe not so much. But if she's grown to like the kidnappers, then is there really a point in talking about how shitty their hospitality is when she could have been sleeping on the floor? I would have put her on the floor. Kimber gives her clothes to wear so she can wash hers and how does she refer to them? “Kimber's cast offs.”
And then the whole romance aspect goes something like this: Ethan, kidnapper number 2 (along with Kimber), is hot, so she feels attracted to him. But he's a player and he uses her, so she runs away. He catches up with her and offers to hide her somewhere else because the political climate is dangerous, and she's the only person in 75 years who can coexist in Faerie and the human world. And there is some election going on for some kind of political position, and whoever controls her will probably win, so she's wanted by three people: her aunt Grace (the first kidnapper), her father (Seamus. What kind of name is Seamus for a fairy anyway?) and Alistair, who is Ethan and Kimber's father. Upon learning that she's a Faeriewalker and that all of these super powerful people are after her and, at this point, having NO reason to be distrustful of the people who have put her up and let her mooch off of them, asks if she can't have a hotel room. When Ethan agrees, albeit reluctantly, the only thing she really thinks about it is how small it is.
Anyway, the romance. So there's Ethan, whom she really does not get to know in any way, and when she runs away from him, there's Finn, who is her bodyguard who's been hired by her father. By the way, her father? Actually not a bad dude. Finally gives her the parental guidance that she claims she wants, and she ends up running away when her mom comes to Avalon to find her. It kind of negates the whole novel, since she ran away because she doesn't want to be the adult to her mother anymore. And then Finn the bodyguard has a son named Keane and he's got the instant attraction thing going on too. Nothing really happens between her and any of these people, except one kiss with Ethan before he's conveniently plucked from the storyline for a while, so after reading the whole novel, I can't even say if I'd rather her eventually end up with Ethan or Keane. I won't say Finn since he's way older than her and she can't really be serious about having a crush on the son and the father. Gross.
So in summary: she runs away, gets kidnapped, gets kidnapped from the kidnappers, befriends the second set of kidnappers, runs away, meets her father, runs away from him, almost gets her mother killed, gets pissed off because she gets grounded for running away. And complains because she's not staying at the Ritz. Or the Hilton, really... the Avalon Hilton. Where her mom stays.
Oh yeah. And “I will be Queen forever!”? Actual quote. (less)
Halfway to the Grave is the first in a series of novels about a half-human, half-vampire hunter named Cat. She is the product of a rape and carries he...moreHalfway to the Grave is the first in a series of novels about a half-human, half-vampire hunter named Cat. She is the product of a rape and carries her mother’s vendetta against all things vampire, and she became a hunter so that she could eventually find her father and kill him, but she doesn’t mind killing every vampire she comes in contact with along the way.
Initially, I’m not sure what rating to give this novel. I enjoyed it. I’m glad I read it. I will leisurely make my way through the rest of the series.
If I just rated based on my overall feeling at the end of the book, I’d give it four stars, maybe even five. But if I take into account my initial feelings, that’s way too generous, and I’d give it a solid three stars.
It didn’t suck (no pun intended). In fact, the beginning had a good “hook,” and immediately I wanted to keep reading. I love it when a book just kind of drops you into the action, and I wanted to get into that. It was well written and well edited, so I can’t complain about that.
My problems in the beginning were more to do with the characters than anything. That being said, one of the things that I loved the most about reading this was being able to watch Cat and Bones both grow and develop as characters. That is good writing. I wasn’t told, I was shown, subtly and over the course of the entire novel, the changes that made the characters go from “tolerable” to actual likeable people, and it wasn’t crammed in my face.
I know that basically everyone that’s ever read this series drowns in puddles of their own drool over Bones, and I’m going to be frank here, I don’t get the appeal. Even after reading the whole book, I don’t get the appeal. But hey, to each their own. Initially, I couldn’t get past the Spike similarities to even give him much of a chance. And, okay, it might be because I read too many comics, but I really have a problem with authors that try to “write” an accent. I can pretty well imagine what it sounds like without having to hurt my brain to figure out what the hell a character’s saying. One of the things that made Bones grow on me through the book was the fact that the author stopped writing his accent and trusted that I could remember it on my own.
Catherine, to be blunt… was a brat. To some extent, I could understand. But sometimes it just rubbed me the wrong way. There’s nothing I hate more than reading about someone who thinks they’re the end-all in maturity when they’re really like a child. Like I said, this wasn’t entirely her fault—I get that she was just following what she had been taught, and to some extent, I pitied her because her mother just couldn’t accept what she was. On the other hand, I found myself wishing that she’d started having a few thoughts of her own before the book started, just so I wouldn’t have to grind my teeth while she grew up.
All that being said, by the end of the book, Cat had really grown into a heroine I liked, but not in a way that felt unnatural. You know that perfect wife making machine in The Stepford Wives? Sometimes I feel like there’s a special model just for making you like a heroine that’s a little too obnoxious. I do think that Jeaniene Frost managed to avoid using the perfect heroine making machine, and I find myself respecting the characters a little more than usual.
I really do hope that the future books in this series drive the plot by something a little more profound than flirting. It was fine for this one. And it’s paranormal romance, I get it. But this book seemed to me, if I’m looking at it as part of a series anyway, that its primary purpose was to establish the relationship between the characters more than anything. That’s been accomplished, so now I’d like to see some actual conflict (not just throwing Francesca and Timmie in when there’s absolutely no tension there whatsoever) and a little less… I don’t know, does this count as erotica?(less)
Years ago, the evil (?) Winter Queen entered into a game with her son, the Summer King. He was to find his Queen by courting mortal girls until he fou...moreYears ago, the evil (?) Winter Queen entered into a game with her son, the Summer King. He was to find his Queen by courting mortal girls until he found one brave enough to lift the Winter Queen’s staff (stick, not servants) and not be magically turned into the Winter Girl, who was a mortal once that tried and failed and now she is bound by fairy oath to try her best to convince the next consort of the Summer King that he isn’t worth it.
Aislinn is a seventeen year old human girl who can see the fae. She was raised under the apparently quasi-militant hand of her grandmother, who also has the Sight, because her mother (who could also see fairies) died in childbirth. She goes to high school. She has a couple of friends, specifically, this one guy named Seth that I don’t really remember much about, except that he apparently loved piercings and was older than she was and lived in a train, and he was the main love interest.
I think by now it’s pretty obvious that this isn’t one of my favorites so far. In fact I probably wouldn’t have read it except that 1) I bought it, 2) was obsessed with reading this like I didn’t have a choice in the matter, and 3) I am a fully grown adult with the deep, dark secret: I’m reading everything I can on fairies and I don’t have the first clue why.
Anyway, this was basically this book. There was very little conflict, just a “will Aislinn tell Keenan to stick it where the sun doesn’t shine” (evidently this is impossible since he literally radiates sunshine), or “will Aislinn actually grow a personality” or my personal favorite, “will Seth JUST FREAKING DIE?”
Let me just stop right here. I don’t have anything against Seth as a character except… well, IS he a character? His whole existence in the book was to revolve around Aislinn. He talked to maybe two other people, but he only talked about Aislinn. He spent most of the book reminding Aislinn that he hasn’t had a one-nighter in seven months because he’s in love with her. His only other purpose in the entire story seemed to be to help Aislinn research. Oh, and maybe so there would be a pierced guy in the story, because that was mentioned so many times. I seriously began to think that maybe his ear piercings (and lip piercings, and nipple piercings, and innuendo about tongue rings) would serve some purpose in the story, like making him immune to the harpies “Summer Girls” because he could literally just wear iron even when he was naked. But no, apparently the sole purpose of mentioning the piercings every other page was because Aislinn thought they were hot.
And Aislinn… well, I’ve already mentioned her lack of personality. Things I know about Aislinn: she doesn’t like being homeschooled, she can see the fae, she is playing pool at the beginning of the book, she can see the fae, she started hanging out with Seth because he lives in a train, and since she can see the fae (I don’t think that has been mentioned) it’s something of a refuge to her.
Oh and as a whole aside to this train thing. I’m sure that if anyone’s reading this they might think I’m kidding, but I’m not. In the beginning of the novel it is explained that Seth’s parents took off (or are otherwise out of the picture) and Aislinn was all proud because he “didn’t blow the money like some kids would,” he just bought a train and remodeled it so it’d be his house. Yeah.
But anyway, back to the story. So Aislinn is the new girl that Keenan (the Summer King) has dreamed about, so she now has no choice but to slowly become a faery. She is dismayed to see the “court faery” stalking her, but basically says nothing to anyone (except Seth) and does nothing to counteract this. Meanwhile, the Winter Queen is scared of her, making it glaringly obvious that Aislinn is the Summer Queen, and threatens Donia, the Winter Girl, because she wants Donia to kill Aislinn. But Donia is still in love with Keenan, and thinks that Aislinn is The One (capital letters necessary) and… well, that’s the conflict.
Are you confused yet? It gets worse, because later on in the end or at least second half of the book, there start to be vague references to the “dark fae” and the “high court” which are, presumably, just mentioned to tie in some later books in the series but don’t do anything now.
Anyway, a recap: Beira, the Winter Queen, doesn’t want Keenan, the Summer King, to find his Queen (Aislinn) because he will come into his full power and defeat her. Donia, the Winter Girl, is there mostly to pine after Keenan and to convince Aislinn that Keenan isn’t worth the trouble, even though she obviously thinks he is, because she is the only girl in a Very Long Time to love him enough to see if she is the fabled Queen. (Spoilers: she wasn’t.) If they aren’t strong enough to lift the staff (stick, not servants) they become Summer Girls, who are apparently fae staff (servants, not stick) who are there to, uh, pleasure the Summer Court.
Long story short, I’m not sure about the motivation here. I’d be willing to accept that Beira was evil if she had some motivation for being so. She hates summer, okay, I get that. But isn’t summer kind of a necessary thing if you want winter as well? Because otherwise there’s just one very long solstice, and there isn’t a Solstice Court. So what was her point? She’s one of those villains that just wants to cackle evilly and not quite realize that destroying the world means herself as well?
So overall? I didn’t hate it. I finished it. And my one star ratings are reserved for books I can’t get through. But no one really gave anything up. No one really cared. Nothing really happened. And hey, maybe I’m spoiled and other people might really like this book. I just like conflict in my stories. I like to come to the end and only have to say “what, that’s it?” if I didn’t want the book to end.(less)
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