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Crown of Books

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When you select books for kids all day, the titles can sometimes start to blur together. For example, I can’t even begin to track the number of titles I purchase that all begin with “The Girl on” or “The Girl in” or “The Girl of” or some similar variation (a trend adult books are running with too). The latest, though, is crowns. I’m loving all this high fantasy being published lately in YA, and it seems a huge percentage of it focuses on crowns: what they’re made of, what their personalities are like, what color they are, who they belong to, how many there are. And let me tell you: if you read the word “crown” enough, it starts to sound like it’s not a real word. Here’s a round-up of the crown-y books from the last five years, plus a couple forthcoming. Descriptions are from WorldCat.

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The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson (Sept. 2012)

Hero. Foreigner. Queen. Elisa, at the age of seventeen, is all three. And all three draw enemies. Faced with assassins, court politics, and the threat of civil war, Elisa despairs of being the ruler her people need. Her only hope is the Godstone. She must master its power once and for all. She finds clues hidden in a long forgotten–and forbidden–scripture. Accompanied by a one-eyed warrior, an enemy defector, and the man she is falling in love with, Elisa takes a leap of faith and crosses an ocean in search of the ultimate source of the Godstone’s power.

The Crimson Crown by Cinda Williams Chima (Oct. 2012)

In the fourth and final novel in the Seven Realms series, Queen Raisa ‘ana Marianna and Han Alister join forces to right a thousand-year-old wrong.

Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas (Aug. 2013)

As the royal assassin to an evil king, eighteen-year-old Celaena Sardothien must decide what she will fight for–survival, love, or the future of a kingdom.

2

The Ring and the Crown by Melissa de la Cruz (Apr. 2014)

In an alternative past where the Franco-British Empire controls the world’s only source of magic, Princess Marie-Victoria, heir to the throne, and Aelwyn Myrddyn, a bastard mage, rekindle their childhood friendship as they plot to save Marie from a loveless, political marriage.

The Opal Crown by Jenny Lundquist (Oct. 2014)

When the king of Galandria dies and Wilha’s younger brother, Andrei, claims the throne, he reveals that Elara, Wilha’s secret twin sister, has been masquerading as Wilha, and both girls must fight for their lives when declared traitors to their country.

The Shepherd’s Crown by Terry Pratchett (Sept. 2015)

Tiffany must gather all the witches to prepare for a fairy invasion.

3

Cruel Crown by Victoria Aveyard (Jan. 2016, novella)

In two revealing prequels to Red Queen, Queen Coriane recounts her heady courtship with the crown prince, the birth of a new prince, Cal, and the potentially deadly challenges that lay ahead for her in royal life. Meanwhile, Captain Farley exchanges coded transmissions with the resistance–and stumbles upon a connection that may prove to be the key to an attack on the Nortan capital: Mare Barrow.

Broken Crowns by Lauren DeStefano (Mar. 2016)

With their floating city utopia threatened by the war on the ground and the greed of two kings, Morgan and the others from Internment must find a way to save the city from falling out of the sky or being obliterated altogether.

The Crown’s Game by Evelyn Skye (May 2016)

Vika Andreyeva can summon the snow and turn ash into gold. Nikolai Karimov can see through walls and conjure bridges out of thin air. They are enchanters — the only two in Russia — and with the Ottoman Empire and the Kazakhs threatening, the Tsar needs a powerful enchanter by his side. And so he initiates the Crown’s Game, an ancient duel of magical skill — the greatest test an enchanter will ever know. The victor becomes the Imperial Enchanter and the Tsar’s most respected adviser. The defeated is sentenced to death.

4

The Crown by Kiera Cass (May 2016)

Events at the palace force Eadlyn to make an important–and impossible–choice, knowing that her Selection might not lead her to the fairytale ending her parents found.

Crystal Crowned by Elisa Kova (Jul. 2016)

One bloodthirsty ruler has been overthrown by another, casting the shadow of death over the Solaris Empire. Vhalla Yarl stands upon the stage of fate, prepared to do battle one final time. Fragile alliances will be tested and new bonds will be formed as the world is reshaped. She fights as the champion of peace, but when the night is darkest will she be able to pay the price of a new dawn?

Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake (Sept. 2016)

Every generation on the island of Fennbirn, a set of triplets is born: three queens, all equal heirs to the crown and each possessor of a coveted magic. But becoming the Queen Crowned isn’t solely a matter of royal birth. Each sister has to fight for it. And it’s not just a game of win or lose … it’s life or death. The night the sisters turn sixteen, the battle begins. The last queen standing gets the crown. If only it was that simple. With alliances being formed, betrayals taking shape, and ruthless revenge haunting the queens’ every move, one thing is certain: the last queen standing might not be the strongest … but she may be the darkest.

5

The Goblin Crown by Robert Hewitt Wolfe (Nov. 2016)

Socially awkward Billy, beautiful Lexi, and star quarterback Kurt mysteriously enter an underworld of goblins, animal hybrids, and powerful magic, where one may be destined to become Goblin King.

A Crown of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi (Mar. 2017)

The new novel follows Gauri, the younger sister of the titular Star-Touched Queen, on her harrowing quest for freedom.

The Crown’s Fate by Evelyn Skye (May 2017)

Sequel to The Crown’s Game.

 

Grab Bag

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My reading has been a bit eclectic lately, so this post is a grab bag of brief reviews of a few recent reads: an adult romance novel, a YA fantasy, and an adult nonfiction book.

grab-bag-crop

Cold-Hearted Rake by Lisa Kleypas

Any romance reader worth her salt knows Lisa Kleypas. For the past several years she’s been writing contemporary romances (which I’ve just started getting into), but she started in historicals, and Cold-Hearted Rake marks her very welcome return to them. Like her many other fans, I was highly anticipating this one; unfortunately, I felt a little disappointed by it. Kleypas works with a few common historical romance tropes: the heroine is a young widow whose husband died in an accident, leaving the estate to his cousin; the hero is this cousin who wants nothing to do with the estate, its tenants, or the widow and her three sisters-in-law who occupy it; they fall in love after overcoming their initial mutual dislike. Kleypas is normally very good at using these tropes to create characters whose relationships with each other are complex and believable, but I feel like she fell a bit short here. I never believed that the two leads should have ever truly liked each other, much less loved each other, and the secondary storyline (which is a lead-in for this book’s sequel, Marrying Winterborne) featuring one of the sisters was pretty repellent to me – the hero seems awful and a bad kisser to boot. So not only was I not in love with this book, I don’t really have a desire to pick up the second one. Too bad. Still, it’s a Kleypas book, and even her mediocre ones are often worth checking out. Your mileage may vary.

Riverkeep by Martin Stewart

I think this title will be very hit or miss with readers. It was mostly a miss for me, though the concept is intriguing. Wulliam is 16 years old and about to inherit the job of Riverkeep from his father, which entails making sure the Danek River is free of ice and other debris, keeping the lamps lit so travelers can see at night, and fishing the occasional dead body out. It can be very challenging, lonely, and macabre, so Wull is not thrilled about it. Then one day his father falls out of the boat and is possessed by a creature from the river that can only be removed with something found in the body of a mormorach, a Moby Dick-like beast at the other end of the river. So Wull sets off to kill it, picking up a few acquaintances with their own motives along the way. Stewart’s world-building is strong in parts (the job of the Riverkeep in particular is interesting), but it often relies on lazy ideas: names of people and words for invented animals are very similar to our own names and words, just with a letter or two changed. And the characters and their adventures are really strange, like later Wizard of Oz novels to the eleventh degree, with a generous dose of gross. It felt a little like weirdness for the sake of weirdness, not for the story and its characters. It’s slowly paced and includes a lot of made-up dialect, which can be off-putting for some readers and a draw for others. What I wrote on Goodreads is a good summation for this book: “Extreme weirdness punctuated every so often by sex jokes.” More than a little incongruous and just not for me.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

I am over two decades late to this, but it’s riveting pseudo-nonfiction and I can see why it was such a sensation. The main thrust of the story is the murder of a young man (rumored to be a prostitute) in Savannah, Georgia, and the (closeted gay) man accused of it, who was tried four different times before finally being acquitted. But Berendt also focuses much of his story on everyone else who lived in Savannah in the mid-90s, including most famously the Lady Chablis, a drag queen who became famous after the book was published and played herself in the movie version (she recently passed away just last month). There’s a scene where she crashes a debutante party and carefully and deliberately makes everyone there uncomfortable, including Berendt; with her actions, she completely indicts the area’s racism, homophobia/transphobia, and classism. All aspects of this book – the murder, the trials, the social and racial politics of Savannah, the odd people you’d love to meet (Chablis) and the odd people you’d run from (the man who was rumored to be planning to poison the water supply) – are fascinating. I call this pseudo-nonfiction because in Berendt’s author’s note, he acknowledges that he moved around the order of some events, placing himself in Savannah before the murder, when in fact he didn’t decide to visit the town until it had already happened and was making news. He also admits that he inserted himself into some scenes that were actually just described to him by others, making it seem like he was a part of certain conversations that he wasn’t. So the complete veracity of the dialogue and specific actions are suspect, but the book itself is fascinating, both for true crime lovers and general nonfiction readers.

Nemesis by Anna Banks

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nemesisOne of the interesting things about reading a review copy months before its publication date is there are no professional reviews out yet. I’ve mentioned before that I’m a big review reader and use both professional and Goodreads reviews to help me select my next book. I deviated from my normal routine with Nemesis by Anna Banks, which I picked up simply because it sounded interesting and I was in the mood for some high fantasy with magic. I really enjoyed it, and I’m kind of surprised the professional reviews, which are out now, are pretty wishy washy about it. I wonder if the cover, which I really dislike and doesn’t make much sense in context, is influencing opinion.

Princess Sepora of Serubel is a Forger, which means she can produce a substance called spectorium from the palms of her hands. It’s an energy source in demand by all countries in the region, but it can also be weaponized. Her father, the king of Serubel, keeps Sepora’s abilities a secret, as she is the only remaining Forger and no one in any of the surrounding countries knows how spectorium is made. When Sepora learns that her father plans to use the spectorium to wage war on the mostly peaceful neighboring countries, she escapes to Theoria to prevent him from doing so. There, she finagles her way into the royal court as a servant where she meets the newly crowned teenage king, who is struggling himself with the waning supply of spectorium (used to power almost everything in the country) and a disease called the Quiet Plague that killed his father. To complicate matters, it’s possible that spectorium may be part of the cure for the Quiet Plague, but Sepora knows she cannot reveal her secret – can she?

I loved two main things about this story: the genuine human conflict and the world-building. Sepora fears that if she reveals she is a Forger, she’ll be used as a weapon by Theoria (a very real possibility), or returned to her father and used as a weapon by him, or kept captive to be a producer for the cure – essentially, she wouldn’t be free, and in the worst case scenario, she’d feel responsible for a war that would cause mass suffering and death. But if she doesn’t reveal it, people will continue to die from the Quiet Plague. There are some interesting subplots that provide additional conflict, too: Sepora’s attempts to forge an alliance with the vicious mermaid-like people who live in the nearby river and eat humans; her burgeoning romantic feelings for Tarik, the king of Theoria; Tarik’s need to use the remaining spectorium to defend his country from a potentially aggressive Serubel versus his need to use it to create a cure for the Quiet Plague. The perspective shifts almost evenly between Sepora and Tarik, so we get a good idea for Tarik’s own struggles as well.

But it’s the worldbuilding that really delighted me. Theoria has an Ancient Egyptian feel to it in the people’s clothing and the pyramids they build to house their dead, though they use spectorium to power the pyramids and preserve the bodies within rather than mummification. There are non-human creatures, both sentient and non, like the mermaid-like people in the river (this whole subplot is just really cool and imaginative) and the dragon-like creature Sepora rides to escape from Serubel. The idea of the spectorium is interesting, too – Sepora is the last person who can produce it (as far as anyone knows), but she must periodically excise it from her body or it builds up and weakens her, which can make it difficult to hide her ability. It’s clear that Banks put a lot of thought into her world, and it’s fascinating to read about. There is the love story referenced in the title, too – Sepora and Tarik fall for each other, when they are supposed to be each others’ nemeses – which should satisfy romance lovers but shouldn’t bother non-romance readers too much, as it’s not the entirety of the plot.

I’d recommend this to fans of high fantasy who really enjoy diving headlong into a new world. This is the first in a duology, and the second book, Ally, will be out sometime next year. Nemesis just hit shelves yesterday. An advance review copy was provided to me by the publisher.

Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies by Lindsay Ribar

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rocks-fall-everyone-dies-ribarAspen Quick is a terrible person. He, along with many members of his family, has the ability to steal things from people – their memories, their feelings, anything tangible or intangible – with a power they call “reaching.” The first time we see Aspen using this power, he is stealing a girl’s love for his friend, her boyfriend, so that she would have the room/freedom/ability to fall in love with him instead.

See? He’s a terrible person. He’s no serial killer, but he doesn’t see anything wrong with what he does – until he realizes that it’s been done to him, too. Even then, he doesn’t magically transform, which is part of the reason I enjoyed this book so much. But let me back up a little.

The Quicks don’t just have this power for fun. They use it to give offerings to a cliff at the edge of town, a cliff that would otherwise collapse and kill everyone, hence the title Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies. On his grandmother’s orders, Aspen uses his power to reach inside items left at a tree (part of a town ritual), steal things from the leavers of those items, and then give those things (secrets, feelings, whatever) to the cliff. As a result, the townspeople aren’t crushed to death and the Quicks feel like saviors, and therefore many of them feel like they deserve whatever they take. If this sounds a little suspect to you, it should. Aspen isn’t nearly suspicious enough of this ritual, but he soon learns, as do we.

This premise makes the storyline naturally twisty. Because memories can be stolen and because Aspen usually tries to portray himself in a positive light (he fails), we can never entirely rely on his narration. He doesn’t know what’s really going on, even when he’s being honest. There was a lot that happened in this book that I didn’t see coming, but Ribar crafts the plot in such a way that it really does all come together in the end.

Ribar tackles a lot in her story. I think Aspen’s casual awfulness, which he always tries to justify, should really make a lot of teens think hard about what they themselves would do with a power like his. And because most fantasy can be read as metaphor, it should make teens think hard about what they would do with power of the non-magical kind, too. Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies is also about the danger of believing things at face value, of trusting those closest to you simply because what they say aligns with what you want to believe. It’s about how even the master manipulators can be manipulated themselves. It’s about what it takes to change for the better – and whether certain people are strong enough to make that change and stick to it.

I was really impressed with this book. It’s undoubtedly weird, but not in a trying-too-hard way that I think a lot of odder fiction falls prey to. Aspen is a lot like many teens (and adults!) of any gender – taking what you want is so alluring, and if no one will ever find out, and if you’re backed up by a history that says it’s your right to do so, why not? Humans have used this excuse to justify anything and everything.

Teens who dig contemporary supernatural fiction will find a lot to like here. Aspen’s head is fascinating to be in, though I’d never want to meet him in real life. The story is well-plotted, well-paced, with a series of revelations placed at strategic parts of the book for maximum impact. Highly recommended for those looking for something a bit different.

 

Audiobook Roundup

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I’ve been going through audiobooks super fast. Here are a few recent ones.

audiobook roundup

Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver

I really enjoy Oliver’s writing, so even when a storyline doesn’t especially appeal to me, like this one, I figure I’ll mostly enjoy it anyway. Sisters Dara and Nicole (Nick) were close when they were young, but as they’ve grown into teenagers, their differing personalities (Dara is very outgoing, a bit of a rebel, while Nick is more reserved, the “good daughter”) cause friction. And then a terrible accident occurs, and Dara and Nick’s relationship is forever altered. Dara’s and Nick’s stories are told in alternating points of view, and that main plotline overlaps with another subplot about a younger girl who has vanished. There are a number of secrets each girl hides, and Oliver teases them out slowly, knowing just how to manipulate her readers’ emotions in skilled ways. There’s a major twist that I saw coming pretty early on in the book, but it was fun to listen and see just how Oliver made it work. Her writing is above average as always, and the audiobook narration is solid.

The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury

The concept of this book is so interesting: Twylla is the embodiment of a goddess and as such, she is able to eat poison every day and then kill with a single touch. She’s used by the Queen to execute traitors to the crown, a job Twylla despises. She’s engaged to the prince and while she feels trapped, she knows that her role as the goddess embodied is important. Then she gets a new guard, and he starts to make her question everything she’s been told. There is a bit of a typical love triangle here and the story isn’t especially fast-moving, but there are enough surprises and emotional reveals to keep a reader’s interest. So while I found the execution a little lacking, I wasn’t disappointed I invested time in it. The narration is good, at times it sounded like Emma Watson was reading the story (she was not).

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

I have meaning to read this book in print form pretty much since it was published, but every time I picked it up, I just wasn’t in the  mood for a long book. But I was almost 100% sure I would enjoy it, so I went the audio route. I’m glad I did: the narration is excellent (it’s told from two perspectives, one male and one female) and the story, while familiar, is engrossing. Laia belongs to the Scholar culture, a group of people who have been conquered by the Martials, and many of the Scholars are now slaves. When her brother is taken prisoner, accused of treason, she knows she must rescue him. She goes to the Scholar resistance, who agree to help break him out of the Martial prison if she will do something for them in return: go undercover as a slave, serving the cruel leader of the military academy where the other protagonist, Elias, currently trains unwillingly. Elias has his own story, and it soon converges with Laia’s. What sets this book apart are the setting and the quality of the writing. Laia’s and Elias’ world is based partly on ancient Rome, but there are also magical elements borrowed from Arabic culture. Many of the characters are non-white (such as Laia) and the world they inhabit lives and breathes, with interesting cultures and complicated politics. The story is always riveting, danger lurking around ever corner, and I was constantly rooting for both leads, even though their goals were often at odds. Highly recommended for fantasy fans.