Katherine Harbour's Blog, page 15

The Mirk and the Midnight Hour by Jane Nickerson

The Mirk and Midnight Hour

This story based on Tam Lin, a Scottish ballad about a girl rescuing her lover from the queen of the faeries, takes place during the Civil War. The tough and genteel heroine, Violet, has grown used to the horrors of war, and nurses the Confederate soldiers brought to town. One day, she finds a wounded Union soldier, a young writer named Thomas Lynn, who is being hidden in the wild by the mysterious Van Zeldts, a trio of young Africans who live with a strange white man who is both a witch doctor and a real physician...but he hides something sinister. Violet accidentally befriends the young Van Zeldt woman. But when Violet learns the otherworldly Van Zeldts plan to sacrifice Thomas to a strange god, she has to stand against their terrifying enchantments. This was such a new and compelling approach to an old theme, I felt I was reading a wholly original story. The Van Zeldts were fantastic creations, African faery folk.

RT Booklovers Convention

I'll be attending the RT Booklovers con in Las Vegas April 12-16. I'll be appearing at the YA Spooky Slumber Party, the Bling it On Event, the Giant Book Fair, and the Teen Day Party. My half hour meet and greet is at the RT Club at 10:30 on Tuesday. I'd love to meet anyone at these events if you're coming!

https://www.rtconvention.com/person/k...
https://www.facebook.com/RTTeenDay

Poison Princess by Kresley Cole

Poison Princess

Evie Green seems to have it all in her Louisiana home town. She's pretty, has interesting friends, a loving mother, and a gorgeous boyfriend. She also has a dark secret, one she's been struggling with most of her life: She thinks she can see the future, and it's not good.
When she meets sexy Cajun bad boy Jack Deveaux, and the chemistry between them smolders, Evie has found a distraction from her worries. Then the world ends.
This story is more than just a guide on How To Survive the Apocalypse. In the tense and terrifying days that follow, Evie learns she's one of several teens chosen for a battle of good against evil, its players receiving powers that make them extraordinary. Evie has the power of making plants grow and controlling them in a world gone to dust and fire. The relationship between Esme and Jack drove the story for me, as well as a hint of a fascinating villain in the future, and Evie's transformation from hothouse flower to dangerous enchantress.

Supervision by Alison Stine

Supervision
Esme lives in New York City with her domineering older sister. After a weird encounter in a subway tunnel, Esme is sent to live with her grandmother in the town of Wellstone. She's ignored by everyone, including her grandmother, until she meets an attractive boy named Tom and his sister Clara--they are ghosts, and Esme, after an accident in the subway tunnel--is caught between life and death. Esme is soon struggling to learn what happened to her and the tragedy that ended Tom's and Clara's lives as a sinister figure called the Stationmaster--a spirit who may be a serial killer--lurks around her grandmother's house. It's an eerie coming-of-age tale, about a girl who finds herself a family of ghosts. As for Esme and Tom's budding romance, it's bittersweet. An almost classical ghost story that reminded me of the ones I read as a teen.

Briar Queen Contest

Congrats to the winners of the 5 signed copies of Briar Queen! I'll be sending out your books this Friday.

As soon as Nettle King is out, I'll hold another giveaway for that. Also, end of April, beginning of May, look for an exclusive AUDIO giveaway of all three books on my blog, It's All About Story.

My blog: http://katherineharbour.blogspot.com/

My website: http://www.katherineharbour.com/

And anyone going to the RT Booklover's Con in Las Vegas, I'd love to meet you! See you there!

Thunderer by Felix Gilman

Thunderer
A steampunk fantasy set in an ever changing city, this is the story of a naive young man named Arjun who arrives to search for his lost god in a city full of gods. While a secretive war is waged against its citizens with an air ship called the Thunderer, and a Peter Pan-like boy named Jack leads a rebel band of lost girls and boys, Arjun becomes involved in a secret society of cartographers, intellectuals, and artists who want to create an atlas of the city of Ararat. This is illegal, and soon the wrath of the city's ruler, the Duchess, is turned on them. Then Arjun accidentally catches the attention of one of the lost gods, and soon people are falling victim to its drowning malice. Terrifying and surreal, with echoes of Dickens and Poe, this quest fantasy seemed different from others I've read, in a good way. Like Arjun I, too, became lost in the bizarre city of Ararat.

My Guest Posts

I keep meaning to put this up on my website. For now, I'm listing my past fav posts on other blogs here:

BiblioSanctum: 'Girls & Dragons'
http://bibliosanctum.com/2015/10/16/g...

SciFi Chick: 'Vintage '80's: Female Writers'
http://scifichick.com/2015/08/28/excl...

YA Bibliphile: 'Tam Lin'
http://yabibliophile.com/2015/07/gues...

Fantasy Book Critic: 'Betwixt & Between'
http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com...

Fresh Fiction: 'The Romance of Faery'
http://freshfiction.com/page.php?id=7198

The Qwillery: 'The Gothic'
http://qwillery.blogspot.com/2015/06/...

Supernatural Snark: 'Things with Teeth'
http://supernaturalsnark.blogspot.com...

The Qwillery: 'The Importance of Names--or not--in Fairy Tales
http://qwillery.blogspot.com/2014/07/...

Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson

Strands of Bronze and Gold
Based on the Bluebeard fairy tale, this story is set in a decadent mansion in Mississippi, in 1855. The very Bronte-esque heroine arrives at her godfather's estate, where the servants seem sinister and slavery continues. Friendless, leaving her family behind, Sophia is at first enchanted by the life offered her by the handsome monsieur Bernard de Cressac. Then she learns about his former wives. Three have died and one has run away, leaving him heartbroken. Sophia at first has a crush on M. de Cressac, until he begins to show more than a guardian's affection. Sophia is a passive character in the beginning, but she soon suspects de Cressac's three dead wives are haunting the mansion. When Sophia learns the horrifying truth, it's not a surprise, but it does ramp up the tension. None of the characters are stereotypes and Sophia's human allies aren't as reliable as her spirit ones. This fairy tale of the Gothic south is beautifully told.

Ignite the Shadows by Ingrid Seymour

Ignite the Shadows
Marci, the teen protagonist of this taut and scary YA SF thriller, is a motorcycle-riding hacker who learns her world is not as it seems, and that the threat of insanity she's been fighting most of her life is something much worse. This discovery leads her to a group of people led by a mysterious man named James. James and his allies are fighting what may be a longtime conspiracy, and Marci and her best friend, Xave, are pulled into this band of rebels--they barely survive a horrifying encounter one night. Then Marci discovers the twin brother who had been kidnapped at birth is actually a boy she's befriended, and things become much worse. As she fights the shadows threatening to eclipse her mind, she realizes the enemy is closer than she thinks. Marci is a tough, charismatic heroine. The pacing is tense. With its vividly drawn characters and a terrifying, hidden race, the world of Ignite the Shadows is one I absolutely look forward to visiting again.

Daughters Unto Devils by Amy Lukavics

Daughters Unto Devils
This book scared me. Which I didn't expect from YA. The guilt-ridden heroine, Amanda, exists during the time of the pioneers, but this is not Little House on the Prairie. Cabin fever, mental illness, family dynamics, and sexuality are a brew for bad things.
When Amanda and her family have to move, they find a blood-soaked cabin on a prairie rumored to be haunted. But they're desperate. Amanda has learned she's pregnant from a boy she's been seeing and her little sister, Hannah, who was born deaf and blind, takes all of their mother's time. Amanda's best friend is her sister Emily, who is soon smitten by the neighbor, Zeke, a mysterious boy who lives in the forest.
The consequences of living in that cabin are horrific. It's only Amanda who senses what's happening, because of an incident the previous winter. The atmosphere of creeping dread might be a metaphor for the harshness and uncertainty of pioneer life, but this is not a book you want to read at night.