Pearson’s latest, a high fantasy kick-off to a series set in a pseudo-medieval world, is a big departure from her previous novels. She’s mostly known for the futuristic SF Jenna Fox Chronicles and a number of standalone realistic contemporaries. The Kiss of Deception proves her ability to write beautifully in any of these genres, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this series – called the Remnant Chronicles – surpasses her previous titles in popularity and acclaim.

Lia is a princess, the first daughter born to the king and queen of her country, which means she should have the sight (the ability to see or predict future events). She doesn’t. Her parents are sure it will appear, so they arrange a marriage between her and the prince of a neighboring country, based in part on her nonexistent ability. The two countries’ relations are tense, and this marriage would go a long way toward smoothing things over. But Lia knows her parents are manufacturing a deception, and she’s sure it will end in disaster, not to mention the fact she’s never met this man she’s supposed to marry. So she flees, along with her maid and friend Pauline.

They travel to a distant town, where Pauline has a relative who will set them up with jobs at her inn. Lia and Pauline are no longer princess and maid; they’re two common girls working honest jobs. Unbeknownst to Lia, the two young men who show up in the same town soon afterward are not who they appear either – one is the prince whom Lia jilted, and the other is an assassin sent to kill her. Lia must navigate her new life as well as the attentions of these two young men/boys – attentions which may appear friendly or romantic, but are potentially anything but. As a reader, I was right there alongside Lia, knowing just a touch more than her, but having to figure out most of it as she does.

It sounds a bit generic, and that’s a fair claim to make, actually. The basic plot is one you’ve likely read before, if you read much high fantasy at all (princess runs away from home to escape arranged marriage, encounters adventure). But the way the book is crafted – how the story unfolds – is what makes it special. Pearson juggles multiple narrators (Lia, the prince, and the assassin), all of them unreliable to some degree, revealing just enough at certain points to keep us reading further. When readers finally learn a big truth late in the story, it will send them flipping the pages back to spot the clues Pearson dropped for them – and they’re all there.

Writing a book with a “twist” (though I hesitate to call it that here, since it implies trickery) can be tough. Some readers love the feeling of surprise, while others may feel deliberately misled or lied to – manipulated, in other words. I suppose all fiction writing can be called manipulation, but it didn’t feel like that in Kiss of Deception. Rather, I felt that Pearson was challenging my assumptions, both as a reader and simply as a person who regularly interacts with other humans. Specifically, she’s telling her readers not to make assumptions about the people we come across – for good or ill. I also think it equally likely that many readers will not be fooled by the red herrings along the way and will easily see the truth from the outset, which is part of what makes the crafting of the story so good. These readers may even be surprised to learn that others were fooled into thinking something entirely different.

The Kiss of Deception is great not only because of this particular plot point. For much of the story, the pace is slow, leisurely, but it’s far from boring. It’s a bit of a world-building lovers’ dream: we see Lia settling into her life at the inn, learning her job and how to interact with people on their own level rather than as a royal. It’s a cultural shock of sorts, but Lia’s up to it. Sometimes she falters; sometimes she triumphs. She grows and comes into her own as a young woman. It’s interesting and quite literally builds character (just not in the way your mom tells you scrubbing the toilet will). By the time the plot really gets rolling a bit later on, I felt like I knew Lia well and saw things clearly through her eyes.

There’s romance here, and it’s lovely, but this is also a story about friendship. While Lia is clearly the protagonist, Pauline gets quite a lot of page time. She’s the best friend, yes, but she’s also a person in her own right, with her own dreams and disappointments. As her former maid, Pauline’s relationship with Lia could have suffered mightily once they started relating to each other in a different capacity. Instead, their friendship deepens. They continue to trust one another, comfort one another, and help each other past the rocky times, even if they do sometimes disagree. I was so glad Pearson didn’t manufacture jealousy and spite to end their friendship, as I’ve seen done in other similar stories before.

I read a lot of YA that feels a bit unfinished or just not as good as it could have been. Maybe the novel is the author’s debut, or the editing is a bit poor, or ideas are hazy or the writing a bit sloppy. That’s not the case here. It’s a beautifully crafted, sophisticated novel with fully-fleshed characters and an original way of telling the story. It’s perfect for any high fantasy fan, but especially good for those who loved Graceling and other fantasy novels that tackle the idea that your life should be your own to make, not anyone else’s.

Review copy provided by the publisher. The Kiss of Deception will be available July 8.

Have you ever read a book that you know intellectually isn’t very good, but you rather enjoy it anyway? That’s how The Ring and the Crown was for me. I don’t mean it’s not good in terms of content – often I’ll hear people say that romances or chicklit are their guilty pleasures, and that’s not what I mean at all. I mean the writing just isn’t great. It’s 90% exposition, full of telling, all of the fun stuff happens off the page, the pacing is poor. We’re told what characters are like instead of reading it in their words and actions. There’s a lot that’s not done well.

And yet, I was mostly entertained by it. Here’s the gist: It’s the early 20th century (in an alternate world where magic exists), and Marie-Victoria, princess and heir to the throne of England, has just been told by her mother, Queen Eleanor, that she is to wed Leopold, the prince and heir to the throne of Prussia. This royal marriage will put an end to the war that’s raged between the two countries for the past several years. Marie-Victoria is none too thrilled about it, as she’s in love with a soldier named Gill and rather detests Leopold, whom she finds spoiled and mean.

Marie-Victoria is probably what I would consider the main protagonist, but she’s actually only one of five points of view in the story. The others are: Aelwyn, the daughter of the Merlin (a title rather than a name), a magician who serves (and controls) the crown; Ronan, an American whose once-wealthy family now depends on her finding a rich husband in London in order to save them from insolvency; Wolfgang, the younger brother of Leopold; and Isabelle, Leopold’s former French fiancée. Each of the characters schemes about something, and their relationships with each other become increasingly entangled as the book progresses. Magic is present, but it’s more of a background feature.
 
Despite its problems, the book held my interest, and I may even read a sequel (if there is one). I think its success in that regard has a lot to do with the frequent POV shifts. Just as I thought I might be tiring of this particular character’s post-party reflections of a certain event (an event which happened off the page, of course), de la Cruz would switch to a different character, and my interest would re-engage. There are some faint hints that some things are not as they seem, as well, so I was interested to see what exactly would shake out by the end. Things do shake out eventually, but it happens all in a rush, and it’s a long time coming. It makes the first 90% of the book seem like set-up. There are very few people who relish reading a book that’s almost entirely exposition.

Readers looking for action-heavy historical fantasy more along the lines of The Burning Sky would do better to look elsewhere. There’s almost no action here, and what little there is takes place off the page. I don’t require action, but I do require stuff to happen, and I want to see it happening rather than be told about it after the fact. Even the climax is told instead of shown – one character tells another what he did rather than experiencing it for the reader. Too bad. In those few times when de la Cruz does show us things, rather than tell us about them as a sort of afterthought, the book verges on exciting.

Still, this will certainly hold appeal for some readers, perhaps those who have enjoyed the Downton Abbey-esque Cinders & Sapphires. There’s a large cast of aristocratic characters with their own POVs, relationships are messy, and much of the plot focuses on fancy society and its peculiar brand of rules and manners. Plus, it’s set during the Downton Abbey time frame. Alternate history junkies may also get a kick out of how de la Cruz’s world with magic differs from our own (the United States lost the Revolutionary War, for instance).


Finished copy received from the publisher. The Ring and the Crown is available now.

I’ve had this book for a while, but it took me a long time to actually get around to reading it. It’s not because I didn’t think I’d enjoy it. On the contrary, I enjoyed it quite a lot. I just loved the first book so much, and it ended so painfully for its characters, I knew the second installment would do cruel things to my heart. Despite my love for dystopias, I don’t have a huge capacity for reading about awful things happening to fictional people. Often I’ll have to repeat in my head over and over “These people are not real. This did not really happen.”

Needless to say, I had to tell myself that often while reading Days of Blood and Starlight.

It feels like a “middle of the series” book. Often that’s a negative thing, but Taylor’s writing is so good, I doubt many readers will mind. There’s not a whole lot of plot movement initially. Much of the novel focuses on Karou and Akiva coming to terms with what happened in Daughter of Smoke and Bone – namely, the rekindling of the war between the chimaera and the angels. The chimaera have been defeated, for all intents and purposes, but they’ve mounted a small resistance that is growing, thanks to the efforts of Thiago, the brutal son of the legendary chimaera warlord, and Karou, the chimaera’s new resurrectionist. Meanwhile, Akiva tries to (secretly) mitigate the effects of the angels’ actions upon chimaera civilians, to mixed results. They act separately and independently with very little knowledge of the other, but when they do meet on rare occasions, it’s painful – and I mean that in a good way.

So there’s a lot of misery going on here. Taylor does bring a bit of lightness with the arrival of Zuzana and Mik, who get to interact with a whole host of chimaera. Their presence is dangerous but funny at the same time. Their visit doesn’t serve much purpose other than bringing some levity to the story, but the levity is much needed and prevents the story from seeming to wallow in misery. Things do really start to move in the second half, where we go beyond the (admittedly well-written) scenes of skirmishes and slaughters. The ending sets up the third book nicely, setting the stage for a potentially much larger conflict, which is exciting to think about.

Days of Blood and Starlight focuses a lot on the awfulness of war, which isn’t exactly revelatory. But it goes beyond that rather obvious theme to ruminate on questions like: How do two groups who don’t even remember why they started fighting end the violence? What is justice and what is revenge, and does the distinction matter? Is forgiving people who have done awful things possible? How much can a person compromise herself to achieve a good end before the ends are not good anymore?

Where the first book was a story about transformation and discovering one’s true self, this book is a full-on war novel. Sometimes it’s exhausting, but it’s always well-executed.

I actually finally hunkered down and read this book since Laini Taylor was visiting my area. I wanted to have the book done so I could get it signed and attend the event without worrying about someone spilling the beans about its contents. Again, I find myself holding off on reading the third book because I know Taylor will put her characters through even more misery. I need to be in a particular mood to read a book that will devastate me. Don’t worry – I’ll be sure and review it many months after everyone else has already read it, just like this one.

Personal copy.

Laini Taylor and I are having a Very Important Discussion. Also, bonus top of Margaret Stohl’s head.

I’m a sucker for beautiful books, and In the Shadows is nothing if not beautiful. The cover tells you that the text story is by Kiersten White and the art story by Jim Di Bartolo, letting you know right away that the art is not just a series of pretty illustrations – they tell a story that intertwines with the text in important ways, if inscrutable at first.

The story is set (mostly) in Maine, in 1900, in a boardinghouse run by a widowed woman, Mrs. Johnson. She has two teenage daughters, Cora and Minnie. Arthur, a rather brooding teenager, has been sent to stay at the boardinghouse for mysterious reasons; ditto for teen brothers Charles and Thomas. Charles, the elder brother, is dying from an unspecified disease. Together, the five teens become caught up in a dark conspiracy that goes back many years. I won’t share much more (that would ruin some of the fun of discovery), but I will say that the conspiracy is supernatural in origin.

Reading this book was a bit like playing the computer game Myst. Those of you who have played it, or any of its sequels, will know that there’s a storyline, often featuring strange secrets and faraway places, that the player must discover along the way. There are the stunning graphics that tell part of the story, but then there’s also journals, letters, and voiceover – text, really – that tells the rest. Figuring out how everything goes together is the main puzzle of Myst, and I felt like this book was a similar sort of puzzle. The book alternates between art chapters and text chapters. The art chapters have no captions and no dialogue. There are a few letters to characters, but they’re partly obscured so you can’t make out them entirely. They’re clues. The fun, the discovery, is learning how the art story and text story coalesce. It’s not readily apparent at first; stick with it. The rewards are worth it.

I loved Jim Di Bartolo’s work on Lips Touch: Three Times, so it’s unsurprising that I loved it here as well. Here, his art is equal in significance to the text, inviting multiple re-reads and long moments spent poring over the panels. His work is very moody, fitting the tone of the story. His colors are bold, and he uses a liberal amount of black, often casting his characters in shadow. I encourage you to check out a few samples at his website. His art is entirely my style.

White’s no slouch here either. She chooses to tell her part of the story by varying the points of view, though everything remains third person. I think she does a fine job of developing the characters in this way. She doesn’t get a whole lot of space to do it, considering the book is 384 pages and many of those pages belong to the art. At first I had a hard time remembering who was whom (which one is the sick one? Which ones are related?), but this didn’t last long. She gets across quite nicely Charles’ cheerfulness as well as his desperation, Thom’s feelings of helplessness, Cora’s fear, Minnie’s desire to help Cora past that fear – often in unwise ways. The only other book of hers I’ve read is Mind Games, and I think the writing of In the Shadows is much stronger.

Even these text pages are works of art – everything is on glossy paper with lovely, subdued splashes of color around the borders. The whole book has the weight of a graphic novel. In many ways, the stories told by the text and art are not completely original, but the way they’re told is, and that’s what makes this book stand out.

This is a book that needs to be read twice. The first time, read it straight through as presented; the second, go back and re-read just the art. You’ll pick up on more details, and most of your lingering questions will be answered. In the Shadows is unique among current YA offerings (though I’m not wild about its generic title) and will satisfy fantasy readers looking for something different.

Review copy provided by the publisher at TLA. In the Shadows will be published April 29.