Bewitching by Alex Flinn

Bewitching
by Alex Flinn
February 2012
HarperTeen

Once, I put a curse on a beastly and arrogant high school boy.  That one turned out all right.  Others didn't.

Everyone knows the story of Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and The Little Mermaid.  But we rarely get to hear these tales from the Fairy Godmother, or in this case the witch's point of view.  Enter Kendra, the teen witch from Beastly, who discovered her powers in England in 1666 while everyone she loved was dying from the plague.  Kendra has tried her best over the last three hundred and fifty years to only use her magic to help people.  But despite her best efforts mermaids turn to sea foam, and she's constantly banished from kingdoms and countries.  So when she runs across Emma, and her Cinderella-like tale, Kendra hesitates to help.  But Emma might just need a little magic to get her happily-ever-after.

Sadly I didn't enjoy the parts of this book that were written from Kendra's point of view, but I loved Emma's story!  This was such a unique retelling of Cinderella with a wonderful twist!  I found myself sympathizing with all the characters, as there were no villains or heroes here.  Just a lot of misguided people making bad decisions, just like we all do.  Even though I loved Emma's tale I can't put a star on this book, simply because Kendra's stories bored me a bit and I found myself skimming and then skipping over them completely.  But if fairy tales make your heart sing, I wouldn't pass this one up!

For more fairy tale goodness, check out this list of retellings!  I also highly recommend The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey if you're looking for a similar, more adult read.

The Kendra Chronicles
Beastly
Bewitching

The Stolen One by Suzanne Crowley ★

The Stolen One
by Suzanne Crowley
June 2009
Greenwillow Books

No one wanted you.  But I did.

I'm not normally a fan of historical fiction, so it's surprising to me that not only have I reviewed two of them this week, but that both garnered stars and a "favorites" label.  I actually began this book very grudgingly.  One night I flung myself onto my bed and sighed loudly "I'm bored and have absolutely NOTHING to read!"  My husband glanced at my towering pile of books waiting to be read and (thankfully) didn't say anything.  He simply walked over and began to go through them.  After a few minutes he selected this one from my pile and said "Here, read this.  If you're not happy in fifteen minutes we'll go watch a movie or something."  Fifteen minutes later I shooed him away because I was completely engrossed in Kat's story.

Kat doesn't know who she is.  Abandoned as a baby, she and her "sister" Anna have been raised by Grace in their tiny village outside Sudeley Castle.  After Grace's death, Kat declines her childhood friend's marriage proposal and runs away to London in order to discover the truth about her parentage.  Through her talent with a needle and a few small twists of fate, Kat soon finds herself a member of Queen Elizabeth's entourage.  Graced with the constant presence of a Queen she's always loved and respected, and surrounded by many flirtatious men at court, Kat has everything she's ever wanted.  But as the mystery of her birth unravels, Kat may learn more than she wants to know, and sacrifice more than she knew she had to lose.

This book does an excellent job with the mystery surrounding Mary Seymour's disappearance from all records after the year 1550.  I cannot believe it has so few reviews on Amazon as it has nothing less than a four star rating for a reason!  My library doesn't own it, and chances are yours doesn't either.  But if you're a fan of historical fiction or "love dodecahedrons" then find this book and read it!  I promise you won't be disappointed.

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers ★

Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin, Book 1)
by Robin LaFevers
April 2012
Houghton Mifflin Books for Children

Why be the sheep when you can be the wolf?

Okay, first of all, who doesn't want to read a series called His Fair Assassin?!  Sqeeee!  So cool!  No?  Not your thing?  Alright then, how about killer nuns in medieval Europe?  Ahh yes, that got you, didn't it?

Ismae was only fourteen when the man she knew as her father promised her to a lecherous, old man in an arranged marriage.  Through the help of a secret order, she managed to escape her husband and find refuge in the convent of St. Mortain, the God of Death.  Now, at seventeen, Ismae is a trained assassin, using whatever means necessary to kill those whom her blessed Saint has marked for death.  With St. Mortain for a father, Ismae has never questioned her abilities, nor her destiny.  Which is why she eagerly embarks on a dangerous assignment where all of Brittany is at stake.  Her mission: to watch the mysterious Gavriel Duval at court and look for opportunities to dispatch him.  But what's an assassin to do when she finds herself falling for her mark?

Rich in history, romance, and political intrigue, Grave Mercy is an adventure not to be missed!

His Fair Assassin
Grave Mercy
Dark Triumph (TBR 2013)
Dark Hope (TBR 2014)

Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Just Ella
by Margaret Peterson Haddix
September 1999
Simon & Schuster

I was cold.  I was lonely.  I was engaged to be married in two short months to the most handsome man I'd ever seen - the prince of the land, the heir to the throne.  But I had never felt so alone in all my life, not even shivering in rags in my garret the day they came to say my father was dead.  This was happiness?

Most people know the story of Cinderella, but we seldom get past "and they lived happily ever after."  Well what if she didn't live happily ever after?  What if promising to marry a prince was only the beginning of her problems?  For Ella, it is.  She may be living comfortably in the palace, waiting to marry the local stud muffin, but her days are filled with endless lessons on manners and propriety, and absurd restrictions.  Is this what she wanted?  Is Ella doomed to live happily never after?

I love that this story continues a tale that we almost never hear more about.  The premise of the book was definitely interesting as the love at first sight story that we all know has always seemed a bit silly to me.  The awkwardness of that encounter can definitely be felt throughout this book as Ella and the Prince rarely have anything to say to one another except "Boy, you are SMOKIN' hot!"  But the book also got a little ridiculous at times with the insane restrictions placed upon Ella and the other ladies at court.  I'm no historian (and yes, I know we're in fairy tale land here) but the world is definitely more strict than is traditional.

*SPOILER*  The book also gets a little darker at the end, when Ella faces the possibility of being raped and murdered.  But the number one thing that bothered me happened near the end.  Ella has been imprisoned in a cell until she can come to her senses about actually going through with the wedding to the prince.  Happily, her servant friend brings her a shovel, with which she is able to dig her way to freedom through the crap hole in her cell.  That's all fine and plausible, but what did she do with the dirt?!  Surely someone would have noticed all the dirt piling up in the cell, so she can't have put it there.  Did she hide it under the bed?  Fill her empty food dishes with it?  I don't know!  Perhaps Ella really did have a fairy godmother who magicked it all away.  In any case, this question of what happened to the dirt bothered me so much I was nearly incapable of enjoying the rest of the story.  *SPOILER END*

If you're a fairy tale fanatic like me then this book (which only takes a few hours to read) is definitely worth your time.  Or, try these other fairy tale retellings!

The Lorien Legacies by Pittacus Lore ★

I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, Book 1)
by Pittacus Lore
August 2010
Harper

Three are dead.  I am number four.

I knew when they were making this movie that I was going to have to read the book first.  What I cannot believe is how long I had to wait for it to be available from the library.  This has been a seriously popular series in my town!  Happily, having to wait forever for book one meant I got to read the first TWO books in the series and I only have to wait a few more months for book three.  See?  Bet you wish you'd waited to read these too.  (I'm under no delusions.  There can't possibly be anyone else out there who hasn't read these who wanted to.)  But for those who saw the movie and loved it, or have never heard of this series, get ready for an extraterrestrial action/romance/suspense that kept me so entertained I never stopped to question the logistics.  (Unlike other alien reads . . . )  But let us not speak of unpleasant things.

Number four was marooned on earth with eight other children when their home planet, Lorien, was destroyed by Mogadarians.  Luckily the Loriens look completely human (again, this really didn't bother me) and they have spent years hiding on earth, developing their special talents and abilities in preparation for the day when they can strike back at those who took their home.  But the Mogadarians know they are coming, and have begun hunting the children, who are now in their teens.  A spell that was cast on them makes it so that they must be killed in order of their numbers, or they will not die.  Number four has three scars on his leg that tell him the first three are dead.  Which can only mean one thing . . . number four is next.

I highly recommend these books for reluctant readers, and anyone looking for a different kind of paranormal series.  The Lorien Legacies are among the few books out there that successfully deal with aliens;  a subject which secretly fascinates us all.

The Lorien Legacies
I Am Number Four
The Power of Six
The Rise of Nine (TBR August 2012)

The House at Tyneford by Natasha Solomons ★

The House at Tyneford
by Natasha Solomons
December 2011
Plume

Please treat the church and houses with care; we have given up our homes where many of us lived for generations to help win the war to keep men free.  We shall return one day and thank you for treating the village kindly.  ~ Notice pinned to the door of Tyneford Church by departing villagers, Christmas Eve, 1941

It has been a long time since I last read a book that brought me this much joy while simultaneously causing me to sob uncontrollably upon finishing it.  A friend recommended this one and I started it thinking "I'll just read it slowly in between my other more exciting young adult fantasy books."  Well within about ten pages it was the only book I was reading, as fast as I could, desperate to completely immerse myself in the beautiful English countryside and the stately house at Tyneford.

It is 1938 and nineteen-year-old Jewish Elise Landau can no longer stay in the glittering city of Vienna.  But visas are extremely hard to come by, and Elise is forced to find work as a housemaid in an English home in order to escape Austria.  Now, rather than attending glamorous parties with her friends, Elise is serving drinks.  When she would have once donned beautiful gowns, she is now hemming them.  Instead of meeting new and exciting young men, Elise is, erm, still meeting new and exciting young men.  The young master of the house to be exact.  (nudge nudge wink wink)  But no place is truly safe, and war is coming to Tyneford.

I don't want to give much more away.  Yes, the characters are a little cliche.  Almost to the point that I was using characters from Downton Abbey as points of reference.  But that was perfectly forgivable seeing as how I love Downton Abbey and don't currently have any new episodes to watch.  The story itself wasn't groundbreakingly original either, but the background story that deals with a novel in a viola was powerful and mysterious.  Elise endured so much in order to love not just once, but twice in her life (I have to admit to being a little disgruntled about the love story, but never mind that).  The House at Tyneford is a beautiful, romantic tragedy set against the backdrop of Jane Austen's English countryside, right before it disappeared forever.

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking, Book 1)
by Patrick Ness
September 2008
Candlewick

"If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence."  ~George Eliot, Middlemarch

I recently read an article that outlined fifteen young adult books that could be the next big movie (that teens would willingly do chores to go see).  The Knife of Never Letting Go (which has an impressive collection of awards) was one of the books listed that I had never heard of.  This offended me on a very personal level.  How dare anyone consider making a book into an enterprise without me knowing about it?!  To correct this gross affront, I read the book.  (Whew!  Crisis adverted.)

From the very first sentence of this book I was completely engrossed in the strange new world where Todd lives.  A world where Todd's parents and their friends settled after leaving their homes on a former planet that was dying.  A world where you can hear everyone else's thoughts and the endless stream of internal chatter that accompanies it.  It's never quiet.  You always know what people think of you.  They will always know what you think of them.  And it is all but impossible to escape their plans for you.  How do you run from someone that knows your every move?

I'm surprised this book was listed in this article, as it is nothing like most of the other titles.  No one falls in love with any paranormal creatures (aliens included).  There is no love triangle.  (There go all the "team" t-shirt businesses.)  Have I mentioned the absence of romance?  That's not to say there isn't some potential for a cute romance in the future (there are three books, after all) but for the most part the relationships in this book are based on friendship and a mutual fear of the insane murderer who is chasing them.

Even without a "so hot it's practically flammable" love story, this book is thought-provoking and disturbing in a way that keeps you turning the pages.  There are no black and white characters here.  Everyone makes decisions in shades of gray.  But it is these choices that will ultimately shape the destiny of their new home on this alien planet.  Lionsgate has already purchased the rights to make the Chaos Walking Trilogy into a film series.  To claim full bragging rights, be sure to read these books now so you can snottily turn to your friends in a year or so and say "Oh that old thing?  Yeah, I read it before it was a movie."

If totally messed up societies are your thing, give these other books a try.

Chaos Walking
The Knife of Never Letting Go
The Ask and the Answer
Monsters of Men