Series: Yes; Book 1 in the Lunar Chronicles
Genre(s): Teen/Young Adult, Science Fiction, Fairytale Retelling
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Available Formats: Hardcover, Ebook
Description: Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, [...]]]> Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Series: Yes; Book 1 in the Lunar Chronicles
Genre(s): Teen/Young Adult, Science Fiction, Fairytale Retelling
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Available Formats: Hardcover, Ebook
Description: Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

This review is based on a copy I bought myself.

TDF Pamela’s Review:

Holy amazing book, Batman. I absolutely loved Cinder. It’s a science-fictiony retooling of Cinderella, complete with a downtrodden cyborg, a terrible plague, a handsome prince, and an evil queen from the Moon.

I mean, how could this story not be awesome with a description like that?

The best fairy tale retellings are the ones that take the heart of the old story and mold it into something entirely new and exciting. You can see obvious threads of Cinderella in Cinder’s story, but Meyer has woven those threads into a much larger, socially-aware tapestry than the usual “poor girl falls in love with prince” retelling. Cinder deals with social prejudice, racism, classism, totalitarian threats, and the fear of epidemic, a nice backdrop for the story of a girl who is just trying to get along in the face of her adoptive mother’s near-irrational hatred of her.

Cinder is a very likable character. She’s pragmatic and intelligent, and unlike the original Cinderella, who meekly did what she was told, Cinder gets angry at the injustices thrust upon her, and she’s not afraid to let people know. Her snarky retorts to her adoptive mother and older sister had me doing internal fist pumps. Cinder knows she has to do all of the menial crap her family dumps in her lap, but she’s not going to let them think that she’s doing it happily.

I also like her strong devotion to doing what she thinks is the right thing. After finding out some very shocking news about herself and her history, she could have easily just melted into anonymity, escaping New Beijing and starting a new life elsewhere. Her sense of morality prevents her from abandoning the people who, even though they are unaware of it, depend on her to do the right thing. Way to go, Cinder.

I liked the supporting cast of characters, too, and it was especially nice that none of them really felt like stock characters. Her adoptive family, despite their pretensions and prejudices, all had something that you could sympathize with. Dr Erland is nicely complicated; I could never quite figure out his motives, and I’m still not sure if I trust those motives even after he explains them. Prince Kai is kinda perfect–he’s my kind of dreamy YA love interest–but at the same time, he has a very realistic reluctance to take over rule of his father’s empire. He’s gorgeous and charming, but he also has very human fears and anxieties.

The story itself is very exciting. It dug in its claws pretty much on the first page, and I was hooked the rest of the way through. There are occasional moments in the prose that are a bit stilted or unclear, but it didn’t get in the way of my enjoying the story. There is some predictability and heavy-handed foreshadowing, but for me, the intriguing setting and entertaining story overrode any complaints I would have had. My only real complaint is that it ends on one heck of a cliffhanger, and I’m a very impatient reader. I want book 2 now!

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The Book Smugglers
Rhapsody in Books
Novel Novice
Wondrous Reads

Series: Book 2 in the Demon series
Genre(s): Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Release Date: 1 January 2012
Available Formats: Paperback, Ebook
Description: Bestselling author Linda Wisdom, with 13 million category romances sold, is working to build her single title audience with [...]]]> A Demon Does It Better by Linda Wisdom

Series: Book 2 in the Demon series
Genre(s): Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Release Date: 1 January 2012
Available Formats: Paperback, Ebook
Description: Bestselling author Linda Wisdom, with 13 million category romances sold, is working to build her single title audience with the hottest new area of the romance category– sexy demon heroes.

Lovely witch Lili Carter takes a job at a paranormal hospital where patients have been disappearing. There she encounters Jared, a dangerously sexy demon on a mission that gets Lili into a world of trouble. Lili can’t avoid Jared for long and soon they find themselves creating a whole new kind of magick…

This review is based on a copy received from NetGalley.

TDF Pamela’s Review:

I’m kind of thinking that I just wasn’t in the right mood for this book. Other reviews for it are glowing, but I absolutely could not get into the story. At all. I felt no emotional connection to the characters, the prose was clunky and off-putting, and by page 100, I still had no idea what the main plot thread would be. Let’s break this down into things that annoyed me:

The Characters
I just wasn’t interested in the protagonist, Lili, at all. There wasn’t any kind of emotional connection between me as the reader and Lili as the main character. I know I was supposed to feel bad for her that her mother died and her best friend is missing, but I didn’t. In fact, I really didn’t get any kind of emotion off of Lili when she mentioned those two big life events. I was told she was feeling sad and worried, but I never got a sense of it. She was just… there, and I could never get a feel for her.

The love interest, demonic Jared, was the same. He’s described as sexy and mysterious, but I just couldn’t ever muster enough interest in him to care who he is, why he’s locked in the magical hospital’s psych ward, or what the amazing chemistry is between Jared and Lili. Even that felt perfunctory: there will be a romance between these two characters, therefore they are suddenly and inexplicably attracted to each other. Meh.

The majority of the supporting characters were cardboard cutouts: the bitchy head nurse, the creepy old doctor, the sweet and supportive best friends, the sexually adventurous new friend. The only supporting character with real potential is Cleo, Lili’s cat friend who used to be Cleopatra, queen of Egypt. I like the idea of Cleo, but the execution was lacking. To me, Cleo is that stock sassy friend character who says, “GURL!” a lot to the protagonist and nudges her into the romance.

The Prose
Infodumps, ahoy! I’m wondering how I would feel about the infodumps if I had read the first book in this series (nothing on the Amazon page indicates that it’s book 2, so I went in flying blind). As someone without any background in the universe, I was annoyed that I was dropped into a world and had little, incongruous nuggets of information dropped on me randomly. If I were familiar with the world, I might not need those nuggets of information, but I still think that they really do nothing to enhance my enjoyment of the world.

The Plot
There are just too many plot threads brought up haphazardly. Lili has started her new job at the magical hospital. She sees the sexy demon dude. She’s feeling regret over her mother’s death. Okay. By this point, I’m not sure where the story is going (other than that Lili and Jared are eventually going to hook up), but I’m willing to stick around and see. At around page 70, Lili suddenly thinks about her best friend who used to work at the magical hospital but mysteriously quit her job and disappeared. Huh. It seems like that’s something that Lili would have thought of sooner, since she’s in the hospital all day. You’d think that would bring up memories of her friend or something. At page 100, yet another new character, the bitchy headmistress of Lili’s old witch school, suddenly shows up to chat.

And I still have no idea where the plot’s going. I try to be a forgiving reader; I’ll often give a book way more time than I should to draw me in. But with this one, I just couldn’t go on. If within the first hundred pages, I haven’t been given an inkling of what the main plot thread is going to be, I have to give up.

Buy It Now:

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Bitten by Books
Peeking Between the Pages

I first read A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle’s classic book, when I was eight or nine years old. I’ve always been a fan of fantasy and science fiction, thanks to my parents raising [...]]]> I’m very proud to be a part of the A Wrinkle In Time: 50 Years, 50 Days, 50 Blogs Tour!

I first read A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle’s classic book, when I was eight or nine years old. I’ve always been a fan of fantasy and science fiction, thanks to my parents raising me on a steady diet of Star Wars and Star Trek, so it only made sense that I would dive head-first into speculative literature.

For me, A Wrinkle in Time isn’t just a fantastic story. It was probably one of the most influential books I’ve ever read. It taught me to love learning, to value independence, and to always, always think for myself. Maybe it even contributed to my being a stubborn kid, heh. But as I followed along with the adventures of Meg and Charles Wallace and Calvin, I felt swept away by my own ability to think and form opinions on my own instead of just blindly following what other people tell me I should think.

As an adult, the story still captivates me. If I ever have kids, I very much look forward to reading A Wrinkle in Time with them. I hope it opens their minds as much as it opened mine.

Leave a comment and tell me which book has influenced you the most! Was it A Wrinkle in Time or something else?

The 50th Anniversary Commemorative edition features:

• Frontispiece photo*†
• Photo scrapbook with approximately 10 photos*†
• Manuscript pages*†
• Letter from 1963 Caldecott winner, Ezra Jack Keats*†
• New introduction by Katherine Paterson, US National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature †
• New afterword by Madeleine L’Engle’s granddaughter Charlotte Voiklis including six never-before-seen photos †
• Murry-O’Keefe family tree with new artwork †
• Madeleine L’Engle’s Newbery acceptance speech

* Unique to this edition † never previously published

Pre-order A Wrinkle in Time: 50th Anniversary Commemorative Edition (Madeleine L’Engle’s Time Quintet) on Amazon

Keep up with the A Wrinkle in Time news on Facebook!

Late Eclipses and One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire

It’s [...]]]> 2011 has come and gone, and now that it’s 2012, the fangirls here at TDF are feeling nostalgic. This week, a few of us will be talking about what we think was the best that 2011 had to offer. First up? Books!

TDF Pamela’s Picks

Late Eclipses and One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire

Late Eclipses & One Salt Sea

Buy Late Eclipses and One Salt Sea at Amazon

Naamah’s Blessing by Jacqueline Carey

Naamah's Blessing

Buy Naamah’s Blessing at Amazon

Runners Up

Deadline by Mira Grant (Newsflesh #2)
Broken by Susan Jane Bigelow (reviewed here)
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente (reviewed here)

Jess’s Picks

(Say hello to our newest reviewer, Jess! -Ed.)

Best Release of 2011: Deadline by Mira Grant

Deadline by Mira Grant

Buy Deadline (Newsflesh, Book 2) at Amazon

Best Debut Novel of 2011: Blood Red Road by Moira Young

Blood Red Road by Moira Young

Buy Blood Red Road at Amazon

Amanda’s Pick

I am J by Cris Beam

This is the first book that I’ve read that deals with trans issues. Beam’s writing style is engaging as well as informative – the reader learns as J learns about the process of transitioning his body from female to male. At the heart of this story is the idea of being true to yourself and loving yourself, which is something that any reader can appreciate. Other issues, such as first relationships, cultural differences (J comes from a Jewish-Hispanic background), self-harm, and just the pain in the ass that is being a teenager, are also addressed in this book. It’s a very engaging read and has a cast of realistic and sympathetic characters that bring life to the story. I would highly recommend it to any teen who may be in the same situation, who knows someone who is trans, or simply who does not understand what it means to be transgender.

Buy I Am J at Amazon

—

Now we want to know, what were your favorite books from 2011? Tell us in the comments. :)

Even in the future, the story begins with Once Upon a Time…. Humans and androids crowd the [...]]]> It’s book trailer time! Cinder: Book One in the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer came out today, and it looks like a pretty cool novel. (Click the link to check it out on Amazon.) Here’s a synopsis:

Even in the future, the story begins with Once Upon a Time…. Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . . Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

A science fictiony retelling of Cinderella? Count me in!

Series: First book in a series, though no sequels have been announced yet
Genre(s): Contemporary Fantasy
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Release Date: 27 December 2011
Available Formats: Trade Paperback, Ebook
Description:
I gasped, or tried to. My mouth opened, but I couldn’t draw breath. [...]]]> The Demon Lover by Juliet Dark

Series: First book in a series, though no sequels have been announced yet
Genre(s): Contemporary Fantasy
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Release Date: 27 December 2011
Available Formats: Trade Paperback, Ebook
Description:
I gasped, or tried to. My mouth opened, but I couldn’t draw breath. His lips, pearly wet, parted and he blew into my mouth. My lungs expanded beneath his weight. When I exhaled he sucked my breath in and his weight turned from cold marble into warm living flesh.

Since accepting a teaching position at remote Fairwick College in upstate New York, Callie McFay has experienced the same disturbingly erotic dream every night: A mist enters her bedroom, then takes the shape of a virile, seductive stranger who proceeds to ravish her in the most toe-curling, wholly satisfying ways possible. Perhaps these dreams are the result of her having written the bestselling book The Sex Lives of Demon Lovers. Callie’s lifelong passion is the intersection of lurid fairy tales and Gothic literature—which is why she’s found herself at Fairwick’s renowned folklore department, living in a once-stately Victorian house that, at first sight, seemed to call her name.

But Callie soon realizes that her dreams are alarmingly real. She has a demon lover—an incubus—and he will seduce her, pleasure her, and eventually suck the very life from her. Then Callie makes another startling discovery: Her incubus is not the only mythical creature in Fairwick. As the tenured witches of the college and the resident fairies in the surrounding woods prepare to cast out the demon, Callie must accomplish something infinitely more difficult—banishing this supernatural lover from her heart.

This review is based on a copy received from the publisher.

TDF Pamela’s Review:

This is a difficult review to write because even a few days after finishing this book, I’m not quite sure what I think about it. The concept is interesting, and I like the setting, but the plot is uneven and heavy-handed and there are almost too many characters to really get a feel for any of them. I would read a bit, get bored, then read a bit more and find myself really interested, but within the next chapter or two, I was bored again. Overall, it was just a very uneven read.

Also, it looks like Amazon is marketing this book as a paranormal romance. It’s not. It’s a contemporary fantasy with erotic content, but please do not go into this book expecting the happily-ever-after that you would expect from paranormal romance. That’s definitely not the genre of this book, and the lack of the HEA is not a flaw. It’s just not what the author was doing here.

The descriptions, particularly of Honeysuckle House and the Gothic university campus, are atmospheric and very creepy. I also like how the author has co-opted various mythologies and blended them into this new world. It’s hard to discuss the concept and setting without spoilers, so I’ll have to be vague. I like books that deal with hidden magic in our world, and this one handles that pretty nicely, with the magic right under the protagonist’s oblivious nose, which actually leads me to one of my biggest issues with this book.

The set up for the big surprise is so obvious that I was left feeling like the protagonist, Dr. Cailleach “Callie” McFay, was either completely blind or just kind of dumb. I had the feeling that her demon lover was supposed to be suffused with mystery, and that I as the reader wasn’t supposed to be able to see exactly what was going on. However, I figured out exactly what the shadowy dream figure is very early on, and as soon as the other characters started dropping enormous hints in the form of paintings and myths, I spent the next however many pages before Callie figured it out rolling my eyes and feeling impatient that this supposedly smart character didn’t catch the hints.

I’m not usually the best sleuth; I like being surprised by the final reveal and anyway, I’m just not a great reading detective. I’d figured out who was what mysterious creature and who was responsible for draining the life out of students WAY before the end of the book. I was a little surprised by one small plot twist at the very end, but overall, I felt like the mystery’s clues were way too heavy-handed.

I still don’t know if I like Callie or not. She’s in her mid-twenties with a PhD in Folklore and a bestselling nonfiction book about the sex lives of various demon lovers. Universities are courting her to teach folklore. I have a Master’s in English, and just from my own experience, folklore isn’t a subject with a lot of job opportunities, especially not at large universities. It makes sense that a small college like Fairwick, where Callie ends up working, would jump to hire her, but the idea that she has multiple offers to teach exactly what she wants to teach just isn’t believable. Sorry, I don’t buy into the idea that universities are desperate to have someone teach vampire literature. I also don’t buy the idea that she could make a crapton of money in an advance for a nonfiction book about the folklore of vampires and incubi. It’s a popular subject, yeah, but… Callie as a character reads more like an English major’s wet dream than a believable character.

On the other hand, aside from her professional life, Callie’s personality is believable to the point of being uncomfortable. She’s a city girl, raised by a wealthy grandmother, and she’s… well, kind of a snob. I definitely bought into that aspect of her personality, what with her snobby reactions and first-person narration about Christian Louboutin shoes and dresses from high-class stores. It’s not that I completely disliked Callie–she did have her moments–but at the same time, she came off cold to me. I wasn’t terribly sympathetic to her because she’s the kind of person I would probably actively dislike in real life.

There will obviously be more books after this one, since it ends with major hints of upcoming problems for Callie. I may pick up the next book in the series, but I have to admit, I don’t know if I’m emotionally invested enough in the characters to care.

Preorder It Now:

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Dark Side of the Covers
.bibliophile. .anonymous.
Book Savvy Babe

Series: Possibly, but no future books have been announced yet.
Genre(s): Young Adult, Fantasy, Mystery
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Release Date: 26 July 2011
Available Formats: Hardcover, E-book
Description: Oona Crate was born to be the Wizard’s apprentice, but [...]]]> The Wizard of Dark Street (An Oona Crate Mystery) by Shawn Thomas Odyssey

Series: Possibly, but no future books have been announced yet.
Genre(s): Young Adult, Fantasy, Mystery
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Release Date: 26 July 2011
Available Formats: Hardcover, E-book
Description: Oona Crate was born to be the Wizard’s apprentice, but she has another destiny in mind.

Despite possessing the rare gift of natural magic, Oona wants to be a detective. Eager for a case to prove herself, she wants to show her uncle—the Wizard of Dark Street—that logic is as powerful as magic. But when someone attacks the Wizard, Oona must delve even deeper into the world of magic to discover who wanted her uncle dead.

Full of magic, odd characters, evil henchmen, and a street where nothing is normal, The Wizard of Dark Street will have you guessing until the very end.

This review is based on a copy received from the publisher.

TDF Pamela’s Review:

I really have a thing for fantasies set in worlds that lay alongside ours. The blurring of the edges between what we think of as reality and those magical worlds fascinates me, which is probably why I love the Harry Potter series so much (and why I’m working on a couple of stories with those kinds of worlds myself). The Wizard of Dark Street takes place on Dark Street (oddly enough), a little neighborhood that’s linked to New York City, but is actually a bridge between the normal world and the Land of Faerie. It’s a highly entertaining blend of Harry Potter-esque magic and Holmesian detective work.

Oona Crate is the Dark Street Wizard’s apprentice and niece, but Oona doesn’t want to be the Wizard. She doesn’t even want to use magic anymore, not after the horrid accident. So she and her magical talking raven, Deacon (who’s more of a flying encyclopedia than a regular old bird), snoop around Dark Street, trying to solve mysteries. When a very big mystery involving stolen dresses, missing cobblestones, and her uncle’s apparent murder falls into her lap, Oona hopes she’s not in over her head. She must use all of her detective’s cunning to solve this mystery before she loses her uncle forever, and before the very fabric of Dark Street falls apart.

It’s easy to compare magical young adult literature to Harry Potter, but The Wizard of Dark Street mimics the feel of Rowling’s series, for lack of a more precise term. Odyssey’s way of describing the setting and the characters is very visual and whimsical, and I had no trouble at all picturing the strange world of Dark Street. I particularly like the Victorian setting, and that some of the denizens of Dark Street seem to be far ahead of their time when it comes to fashion (I’m looking at you, Samuligan the faerie who wears a cowboy hat).

Oona herself is a fine young heroine, full of confidence but also realistic enough to be taken down a notch when a snobby girl insults her. Her interactions with Deacon are fun, and I liked seeing her poke and prod her way into places where she’s not supposed to go. Her tenacity in trying to save her uncle and solve the mystery makes her into a really great young protagonist. She runs into many people who are trying to stop her from finding out the truth, but her quick wits and her pet encyclopedia raven help her along the way. I liked Oona immensely, and I really hope that Odyssey writes more books about this awesome young detective.

The other characters are quirky and fun, if not quite as well-rounded as Oona, but hopefully there will be future books that flesh out the others a little bit more. The mystery itself has enough twists and turns to keep you guessing until the end, and a few red herrings are thrown in to keep you on your toes. I had figured out part of the mystery by the end, but I was nicely surprised by one of the final twists.

Overall, The Wizard of Dark Street is a fun, creatively imagined young adult book that has a lot going for it. I enjoyed it as an adult reader, and I can definitely see how kids would dig it, too.

Buy It Now:

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Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog
Slatebreakers

Series: Yes; book 1 of a trilogy
Genre(s): Fantasy
Publisher: Spectra
Release Date: 4 October 2011
Available Formats: Trade Paperback, Ebook
Description: Here’s the beginning of a lush, epic, wholly original new trilogy that shines with magic, mystery, and captivating drama.

On the Veiled [...]]]> The Traitor’s Daughter by Paula Brandon

Series: Yes; book 1 of a trilogy
Genre(s): Fantasy
Publisher: Spectra
Release Date: 4 October 2011
Available Formats: Trade Paperback, Ebook
Description: Here’s the beginning of a lush, epic, wholly original new trilogy that shines with magic, mystery, and captivating drama.

On the Veiled Isles, ominous signs are apparent to those with the talent to read them. The polarity of magic is wavering at its source, heralding a vast upheaval poised to alter the very balance of nature. Blissfully unaware of the cataclysmic events to come, Jianna Belandor, the beautiful, privileged daughter of a powerful Faerlonnish overlord, has only one concern: the journey to meet her prospective husband. But revolution is stirring as her own conquered people rise up against their oppressors, and Jianna is kidnapped and held captive at a rebel stronghold, insurance against what are perceived as her father’s crimes.

The resistance movement opens Jianna’s eyes―and her heart. Despite her belief in her father’s innocence, she is fascinated by the bold and charming nomadic physician and rebel sympathizer, Falaste Rione—who offers Jianna her only sanctuary in a cold and calculating web of intrigue. As plague and chaos grip the land, Jianna is pushed to the limits of her courage and resourcefulness, while virulent enemies discover that alliance is their only hope to save the human race.

This review is based on a copy received from the publisher.

TDF Pamela’s Review:

The Traitor’s Daughter is built upon an interesting concept, but it has some unfortunate flaws that make it difficult for me to really like it. It felt far too long and, for the majority of the book, had a disappointing lack of likable characters. Overall, this book feels like an overly long setup for the next book in the series.

There are many plot threads in this book, and while they’re not that difficult to follow, I feel like a few of them could have been cut much, much shorter to make for a more enjoyable read. The book starts with Grix Orlazzu and his automaton, and this plot thread introduces the idea that the arcane powers threaded through the Veiled Isles is about to change drastically. And then Orlazzu disappears for a full half of the book. He only shows up twice more, in the middle and at the very end, and I was left scratching my head.

The majority of the book is devoted to Jianna Belandor, the daughter of Magnifico Aureste Belandor. Aureste is a lord, the leader of one of the occupied Faerlonnish families, but he is also a collaborator with the Taerleezi, who invaded the Faerlonnish home island years before. His daughter is kidnapped by someone with a bone to pick with Aureste, and most of the book deals with Jianna’s trials and Aureste’s plans to get his daughter back.

There is also a plot thread having to do with Aureste’s enemy, Vinz Corvestri, but it doesn’t have much page time either, like Orlazzu’s story. However, by the end of the book I could see that all of these threads are coming together to form a more cohesive whole. Unfortunately, that cohesive whole started to become apparent in the last fifty pages of the book. After reading the whole thing, I was left feeling like The Traitor’s Daughter has enough plot for maybe 200 pages, but it’s been stretched to fill over 400. It’s a very long setup for the next book in the series.

For the majority of the book, I found myself sympathizing with very few characters. Jianna Belandor is a spoiled young woman, and though she slowly learns that she can’t get her way by throwing around her father’s name, I spent most of the book wishing she would snap out of it. Aureste is not a good man, as his daughter believes, and the reader knows that from the very beginning. His only redeeming feature is his devotion to his daughter and his disabled brother, Innesq, but otherwise he is a conniving boot-licker devoted to benefitting himself at the expense of others.

I get the feeling we are supposed to feel sympathy for Jianna’s captors given their history, but they are written in such a way that you absolutely hate them. On one hand, I actually applaud the author for making her characters all inhabit a moral grey area. No one is all good and no one is all evil; each character has some sort of redeeming quality, but even the good ones have major flaws. It’s nice that there is no black and white.

On the other hand, it’s a little hard to get into a story when you want to slap all of the characters, or maybe even murder them in their sleep.

There are a few characters who are basically all good, like Falaste Rione, a young doctor who helps the Faerlonnish resistance. But after seeing so many shades of grey before he shows up in the story, I was left feeling like he was almost unrealistically good.

There is also a race of amphibious beings called the Sishmendri who appear as servants for the human characters. They felt important, and I get the feeling that they’re going to play a bigger role in the next book, but from this book alone, they feel incidental, like set dressing for a strange world.

The story definitely picks up in the last third of the book, and by the end, I was much, much more interested in it than I was during the first two-thirds. It’s just very unfortunate that I had to slog through so many pages devoted to very little plot.

Buy It Now:

Series: No
Genre(s): Teen/Young Adult, Paranormal
Publisher: Point
Release Date: 1 August 2011
Available Formats: Hardcover, Ebook
Description: Welcome to York, England.

Mist lingers in the streets.

Narrow buildings cast long shadows.

This is the most haunted city in the world. . . .

Miranda [...]]]> Dark Souls by Paula Morris

Series: No
Genre(s): Teen/Young Adult, Paranormal
Publisher: Point
Release Date: 1 August 2011
Available Formats: Hardcover, Ebook
Description: Welcome to York, England.

Mist lingers in the streets.

Narrow buildings cast long shadows.

This is the most haunted city in the world. . . .

Miranda Tennant arrives in York with a terrible, tragic secret. She is eager to lose herself amid the quaint cobblestones, hoping she won’t run into the countless ghosts who supposedly roam the city. . . .

Then she meets Nick, an intense, dark-eyed boy who knows all of York’s hidden places and histories. Miranda wonders if Nick is falling for her, but she is distracted by another boy — one even more handsome and mysterious than Nick. He lives in the house across from Miranda and seems desperate to send her some sort of message. Could this boy be one of York’s haunted souls?

Soon, Miranda realizes that something dangerous — and deadly — is being planned. And she may have to face the darkest part of herself in order to unravel the mystery — and find redemption.

This review is based on a copy received from the publisher.

TDF Pamela’s Review:

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Dark Souls. The book’s summary makes it sound like a ghostly paranormal teen romance, but it’s really not that at all. It’s more of a straight ghost story with little hints of romance, full of believable characters, macabre history, and gorgeous prose.

Miranda and her brother Rob were in a terrible car accident six months before the start of the story, and Miranda’s best friend Jenna was killed. That was when Miranda first saw a ghost; Jenna smiled her goodbyes and walked off into the cornfields. Ever since then, Miranda has seen ghosts. So it’s an interesting twist of fate that her family ends up going on a vacation to York, England, which is one very haunted city.

In York, Miranda meets Nick, a mysterious young man who can also see ghosts. And across the street from her family’s rented apartment, she sees someone else: a handsome ghost with a ghastly wound on his neck. As Miranda slowly gets to know Nick and starts to come to terms with her ability, she finds that they are all wrapped up in a darker plot that could hurt everyone she cares about.

I’ve never read anything by Paula Morris before, but I think I’m going to have to look up her back catalog. I absolutely love her writing style, which effortlessly moves between describing the rich setting of York and establishing Miranda as a completely believable teenage character. I sometimes get irritated with teen protagonists because of their unerring belief that they are right and no one else knows anything, therefore they will dive right into absolutely stupid situations. It was refreshing to read about Miranda, who is sensible even when doing things that are potentially dangerous, like meeting a strange boy at dusk in a foreign city. Despite the trauma of the accident and her ability to see ghosts, Miranda is rational and intelligent, and I really liked her as a character. I bought into her relationships with her parents and her brother, and I could completely understand why she is drawn to Nick. She’s a great character.

I’ve never read much about York, so I can’t comment on the accuracy of the history and ghost stories that are woven together to form the background of Dark Souls, but after reading this novel, I’m going to hit the library to learn more. I love history, and I think it’s great the way Morris uses both the actual history of the city as well as the enhanced versions told to tourists. The wintry York described in Dark Souls is a wonderful setting, full of dark history juxtaposed with bright Christmas lights and happy tourists.

The ghost story is nicely creepy, and I would definitely recommend this book as a Halloween read. It’s a great read, full of macabre history, spooky ghosts, and good characters. I’m very glad I read this one.

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